Courtesy Schwab Family(KANSAS CITY, Kan.) -- The co-owner of a Kansas water park is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday to face criminal charges stemming from the 2016 death of a 10-year-old boy on the Verruckt waterslide, the world's tallest.



Prosecutors allege that Jeffrey Henry, 62, co-owner of the Schlitterbahn Waterpark in Kansas City, designed the waterslide without any certifiable expertise and had rapidly built it in violation of "nearly all aspects" of industry safety standards.



Henry was arrested Monday near Las Padre Island, Texas, where he owns another waterpark. He was jailed on charges of murder, aggravated battery and aggravated child endangerment.



Prosecutors charged that Henry and other employees of the waterpark attempted to hide from investigators documents detailing injuries to at least 14 people on the 168-foot-tall Verruckt waterslide leading up to Caleb Schwab's death on Aug. 7, 2016. The injuries included whiplash, jaw bone fractures, slipped spinal disks and broken bones.



The waterslide, which was certified in 2014 by the Guinness Book of World Records as the tallest in the world, was only in operation for six months.



Experts in the field of amusement ride design and safety noted that "Verruckt's design violated nearly all aspects of the longstanding industry safety standards," according to an indictment unsealed last week in the case.



Henry was taken into custody by U.S. marshals just days after Schlitterbahn park's former operations director, Tyler Austin Miles, was arrested and charged with 20 felony counts, including involuntary manslaughter, in connection Caleb's death.



Caleb was decapitated on the Verruckt waterslide that Henry designed despite being a high-school dropout with no technical or engineering credentials, prosecutors said. Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said the indictment also named the Schletterbahn Waterpark as a defendant in the case.



"While we as a family continue to mourn and heal from Calebs passing, we wanted to again thank the community of Kansas City for its continued prayers and support," Caleb's family said in a statement. "Clearly the issues with Schlitterbahn go far beyond Calebs incident, and we know the Attorney General will take appropriate steps in the interest of public safety."



Corporate emails, memos, blueprints, videos, photos and statements from witnesses showed that "this child's death and the rapidly growing list of injuries were foreseeable and expected outcomes," according to the indictment.



But Schlitterbahn Waterpark disputed the accusation in a statement.



"The allegation that we operated, and failed to maintain, a ride that could foreseeably cause such a tragic accident is beyond the pale of speculation," the statement said.



"The accusation that we withheld information or altered evidence is completely false. We have operated with integrity from day one at the waterpark -- as we do throughout our waterparks and resorts. We put our guests and employees safety first; and safety and maintenance are at the top of our list of priorities," the statement continued.



Henry, according to the indictment, was the driving force behind the construction of the waterslide and investigators discovered emails indicating he wanted to "rush the timeline" for building the ride, leading to "fundamental steps in the design process" being skipped over.



It took just 36 days from the time Henry first conceived the idea for the waterslide to when it was completed, according to the court papers.



"In place of mathematical and physics calculations, they rushed forward relying almost entirely on crude trial-and-error methods," the indictment said.



Investigators, according to the indictment, found that Henry allegedly rushed the project to impress producers of the Travel Channel's "Xtreme Waterparks" series and in an eagerness to achieve bragging rights over rival waterparks.



"Henry openly admitted that one of his principal motivations in building Verruckt was to flaunt his achievements in the face of the other waterpark owners," according to the indictment.



Investigators also found that Henry considered restricting the slide to customers over the age of 14, but changed his mind on the eve of the slide's grand opening and had workers cover up the age requirement listed on signs with stickers, according to the indictment.



Henry's own words indicate that he was well aware of the dangers posed by the waterslide: "I could die going down this ride," Henry once said, according to the court papers.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
iStock/Thinkstock(BEIJING) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited China in his first foreign trip since he came to power in 2011.



Kim traveled to the country with his wife, Ri Sol Ju, according to Chinese state media organization Xinhua. He spent Sunday through Wednesday there.



China's President Xi Jinping held a banquet for Kim and his wife upon their arrival, Xinhua reported.



Xi welcomed Kim warmly, according to Xinhua, and Kim replied that he "enjoyed the support" of China and its people.



The visit was an "unofficial" one, Xinhua reported, adding that Kim told Xi that he came to personally update him on the developments on the Korean peninsula out of comradeship and moral responsibility.



Kim said that relations on the Korean peninsula are starting to improve thanks to what Xinhua reported he called North Korea's taking "the initiative to ease tensions and put forward proposals for peace talks."



In addition, Kim expressed a willingness for communication with the United States, according to Xinhua.



Kim said North Korea is willing to have dialogue with the United States and hold a summit of the two countries, according to Xinhua.



"The issue of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula can be resolved, if South Korea and the United States respond to our efforts with goodwill, create an atmosphere of peace and stability while taking progressive and synchronous measures for the realization of peace," said Kim, Xinhua reported.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
State-owned Hindustan Aeronautics made a lacklustre debut on BSE and NSE today. The HAL offer was subscribed 99 percent during its IPO on March 16-20, 2018. The stock listed at 5% percent discount on bourses. HAL began trading at 1169 on BSE, 5 percent lower to its issue price of Rs 1240 per share. The stock which opened at Rs 1,169 fell to an intra day low of 1150 and a high of 1184 level. At 10:34 am, the stock was trading at 1175 level down 3.23% or 39.25 points than its issue price.

The market capitalisation of HAL stock stood at Rs 39,290 crore. The Rs 4,229-crore initial public offer of state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics was subscribed 99 percent during March 16-20, 2018, supported by qualified institutional buyers (QIBs).

The IPO managed to sail through on the last day of the offer after state-owned LIC came to the rescue by putting in bids worth Rs 3,000 crore. The IPO was subscribed nearly 50% on the third day till LIC pumped in funds at the end of the offer. The state-owned firm's IPO was of 34,107,525 shares.

SBI Capital Markets and Axis Capital managed HALs initial share sale offer. The Rs 4,230-crore initial public offer of state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) managed to sail through on the final day yesterday, thanks to state insurer LIC coming to its rescue. According to reports, LIC's Rs 3,000 crore bid on the last day saved the day for the defence firm's 10.20 per cent stake sale.

The IPO was subscribed nearly 50% on the third day till LIC pumped in funds at the end of the offer. Analysts said high price of the issue amid volatile market conditions was a concern after the Narendra Modi government presented its last full-fledged Budget before the 2019 polls on February 1.

The IPO was subscribed 0.99 times or 99 percent on third day with demand mainly coming from qualified institutional buyers segment. The category reserved for qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) was subscribed 1.7 times and retail investors 0.4 times. The retail investors were given a discount of Rs 25 per share.

The firm received bids for 3.31 crore shares against the total issue size of 3. 41 crore shares, data showed on the third day of the offer.

Interestingly, foreign institutional investors did not bid for the IPO.

The Navratna company clocked a profit of Rs 3,580 crore in fiscal 2017 on a revenue of over Rs 18,600 crore. HAL has an order book of over Rs 68,000 crore, which covers the next three years. The issue was managed by SBI Caps and Axis Capital.

The IPO was subscribed 24 per cent on the first day of bidding. On the second day, the initial public offer was subscribed 45 per cent.

Bengaluru-based HAL is primarily involved in the operations of the aerospace industry. These include manufacturing and assembly of aircraft, navigation and related communication equipment and airports operation.

HAL designs, develops, manufactures, sells, repairs, and overhauls aircraft and related systems in India.

It offers helicopters and power plants; aerospace structures, tanks, and cryogenic engines; and materials, including castings, general forgings, precision forgings, powder metallurgy products, rubber products, composites, and rolled rings. The company also exports its products. It serves space, defence, and civil markets.
NEW HAVEN  A defendant who was shot during a struggle with another man but also shot his assailant was sentenced Wednesday to serve 45 months in prison for a weapons violation.

The state nolled charges of first-degree assault and attempted robbery against Labian McKnight, 32, of New Haven, because of the problems prosecutors would have faced proving those counts to a jury.

The other man involved in the altercation, Akeem Whitely, originally faced charges similar to those lodged against McKnight. Last September he was sentenced to an unconditional discharge for tampering with physical evidence.

The encounter occurred at about 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 24, 2016, at or around the Hess Gas Station, 1331 State St., on the corner of Ferry Street.

When police responded to the scene, they found Whitely, then 25, lying on the ground outside his car. He had gunshot wounds to his leg and stomach. The vehicle had been involved in a crash on the bridge on Ferry Street.

Officers also found McKnight suffering from gunshot wounds inside the rear door of the gas station booth. Both men were taken to Yale New Haven Hospital.

Police recovered two guns. One of them was found on the bridges guardrail and the other, covered with paper towels, was located inside a mop bucket in the bathroom of the gas station booth.

According to the warrant for McKnight, when police interviewed Whitely at the hospital, he was angry and said he was trying to buy some marijuana when he allegedly was attacked.

Whitely said a man later identified as McKnight got into Whitelys vehicle at the gas station. When Whitely reached into his pocket for some money for the marijuana, he said, McKnight pulled out a handgun and told him to run it. This is street talk for announcing a robbery.

Whitely said he tried to grab McKnights gun and they struggled over the weapon. Whitely told police he saw the muzzle flash from the gun but did not immediately realize he had been shot.

According to Whitely, after the gun was dropped, McKnight pulled out a second handgun and they struggled over that one, too. Whitely said he heard a clicking sound but no shots were fired. He believed the gun had jammed.

Whitely said he drove his car out of the gas station lot and turned onto Ferry Street but struck a truck and then a van. McKnight got out and ran off, Whitely asserted.

Police were unable to interview McKnight at the hospital that night because he was in critical condition, with life threatening injuries to his back and chest.

Four days later, McKnight spoke with police in his hospital room. He told police that after he got into Whitelys car, Whitely immediately attacked him, grabbing for the gold chain around his neck and then shooting him. McKnight denied he had a gun that night.

Police said they were able to corroborate some of Whitelys statement by viewing video surveillance tapes from the gas station. In addition, DNA swabs taken from the gun found in the bathroom matched McKnights DNA profile and swabs taken from the gun found on the bridge matched Whitelys DNA profile.

McKnight, who has been held in lieu of $250,000 bail since his arrest in November 2016, was brought into court Wednesday morning wearing gray prison sweatpants and a gray sweatshirt.

Superior Court Judge Patrick J. Clifford noted McKnight had previously pleaded guilty to criminal possession of a firearm in this case as well as admitting he violated his conditional discharge on two occasions.

Clifford also noted McKnight and his attorney, Walter Bansley IV, had reached an agreement with Assistant States Attorney Laura DeLeo that McKnight would receive a sentence of eight years, to be suspended after serving 45 months, with three years of probation.

Clifford pointed out that both McKnight and Whitely had been shot and both of them had been arrested. Clifford said Whitely had not provided a victim impact statement for McKnights sentencing and was not in the courtroom.

Recalling the accounts of that night given by McKnight and Whitely, Clifford said, They tell totally different stories. Which version is more believable? It would be very difficult to prove exactly what occurred to a jury, except that they both had their hands on a gun at one point.

McKnight declined to make a statement during the hearing.

In addition to the sentence for the weapons charge, Clifford imposed sentences of 20 months each for the conditional discharge violations. But he made those concurrent with the weapons sentence.

After he left the courtroom, Bansley said, Our claim was always self-defense, that it was McKnight who had been attacked.

Bansley said that because McKnight has been incarcerated since November 2016, he will probably be released at some point this summer.
WEST HAVEN  State Rep. Michael DiMassa, D-West Haven, announced plans Wednesday to seek re-election in November for a second term representing the 116th District in Allingtown and the north end of the city.

DiMassa, who works in the City Council office in City Hall, made the announcement in a news release and was expected to follow-up with a verbal announcement at 6 p.m. Wednesday on the Allingtown Green.

The best way to serve my constituency is to be present in Harford and work diligently in my committees and with my fellow state representatives and senators to address, head on, the issues of the State, DiMassa said in the release.

I will continue to reach out to the residents I represent to ensure that I am bringing their issues with me as we work through this next session, he said.

DiMassa was on the factional side that lost control of the Democratic Town Committee in a March 6 primary to allies of Mayor Nancy Rossi. DiMassa, former Mayor Ed OBrien and former Democratic Town Chairman Jim Morrissey were among those who lost their town committee seats in the race.

He faces a challenge for the Democratic Partys nomination from at least one fellow Democrat in Shawn Brown, who announced plans earlier this month to run for the seat.

DiMassa won the 116th District seat in part by defeating former longtime state Rep. Louis P. Esposito in a 2016 primary. Esposito is now Rossis executive assistant.

New Democratic Town Chairman Michael Last said the 116th District convention will take place May 16  and that the fact DiMassa ran on an opposing slate in the primary doesnt preclude him from getting the endorsement.

We ran on a platform that we were going to be all-inclusive, Last said. We want the best and most qualified candidate.

I expected Michael to announce, since hes the incumbent and seems to have done a pretty good job, Last said. There may be additional candidates to announce.

While the expected Democratic primary for the 116th District race is not until August 14, DiMassa said he plans to hit the ground running with his campaign.

DiMassa began his second year as a state representative when the current legislative session opened on Feb. 7. He is a member of the Appropriations, Public Safety and Executive Nominations committees and is vice chairman of the latter.

He said he had a perfect attendance record and did not miss a vote during the last legislative session.

DiMassa said in the release that he is eager to get back to work to develop legislation that will help not only the 116th District, but Connecticut as a whole.

So far, he said, he has secured $1.5 million in funding for important Allingtown work, including a sewer issue that held up construction of a major mixed-use apartment and retail project on Route 1.

DiMassa also drew attention during last years budget battle by refusing to take his salary, beginning last September, until a budget was worked out during the last extended session.
The Fortis Healthcare stock closed 13.37 percent lower after the firm said it would sell its hospital business to Manipal Hospitals and TPG Capital, creating the largest provider of healthcare services in India by revenue. At 11:37 am, the stock was trading 7.48 percent or 10 points lower at 131.80 on BSE. The stock which opened at 138 level fell to an intra day low of 128.25.

The stock closed at 123 level, down 13.37 percent on BSE.

The market capitalisation for the Fortis healthcare stock stood at Rs 6,400 crore level on BSE. The announcement was made Tuesday evening. According to the deal, for every 100 shares of Fortis held, a shareholder will receive 10.83 shares in Manipal Hospitals. The Fortis board also cleared the sale of a 20 percent stake in diagnostics chain SRL Ltd to Manipal Hospitals in a Rs 3,900-crore deal.

Dr Ranjan Pai and US-based private equity firm TPG Capital, a shareholder in Manipal Hospitals since 2015, will invest Rs 3900 crore in Manipal Hospitals, to finance the acquisition of 50.9 percent stake in SRL Ltd.

Manipal Hospitals, part of Manipal Education and Medical Group (MEMG), is owned by Dr Ranjan Pai and has been backed by TPG, a leading global alternative asset firm and experienced healthcare investor since 2015.

The sale of Fortis to Manipal-TPG combined comes at a time when the promoters, Singh brothers are facing intense pressure over alleged financial irregularities at Fortis and Religare, which the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) has been reported to be initiating.
After todays Senate debate on whether to confirm the nomination of Andrew McDonald as chief justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court, I made a resolution: I intend to contribute to, and work for, any candidate who seeks to replace Sen. Len Fasano, R-North Haven.

Fasano, Republican Senate president, led the charge against McDonald, standing in the well of the Senate and parsing recent Supreme Court decisions in high-profile cases. He urged his fellow Senators to oppose McDonalds confirmation because he didnt like some of the decisions McDonald, and fellow members of the court, made. His colleagues obliged. McDonald was not confirmed.

Fasano is entitled to his opinions, of course. We all are. But if you cherish an independent judiciary, the sight of Fasano playing eighth justice (there are seven justices on the Connecticut Supreme Court) was terrifying.

Judicial independence is important. Thats why federal judges are given lifetime tenure. We want judges to decide cases according to law. We leave passion to the polling place.

But Connecticut does not appoint judges for life. Every eight years, each and every judge must sit for a retention hearing, and be confirmed for another term. Ive heard judges suggest in the privacy of their chambers that they are well aware of retention hearings. Bold minds grow cautious before these hearings.

Why is this a bad thing?

Law is not mathematics or quantitative science. It takes years to learn and to master the laws doctrines and core concepts. Learning to apply them takes even more time. A fair-minded judge must try to do his or her best to apply legal doctrines to factual disputes in circumstances that are often tense and uncertain. The best judge is a judge focused solely on the task at hand, and dedicated to nothing other than the desire to get the decision right.

Aristotle once wisely observed that it is the mark of an educated man to look for precision in each class of things just so far as the nature of the subject admits; it is evidently equally foolish to accept probable judgments from a mathematician and to demand from a rhetorician scientific proofs. Those educated and experienced in the law learn to respect its ambiguities.

Politicians, especially politicians steeped in overheated partisanship, eschew subtlety.

Because the laws building blocks are imprecise, there is often room for honest disagreement about what getting it right means. Thats why Appellate and Supreme Court decisions are often accompanied by dissenting opinions. Theres nothing wrong with that.

What is wrong is bullying judges with the threat of punishment if you disagree with their decision. It takes a wise lawmaker to learn to respect a judge whose decision outrages him.

Sen. Fasano is not a wise lawmaker.

He talked from the floor of the Senate today about his disagreement with the Supreme Courts decision releasing Richard Lapointe from prison decades after Lapointe was sentenced to prison for murder. Yes, the Lapointe decision was controversial: the Supreme Court recognized a new rule permitting it to make credibility determinations about experts, a role reviewing courts almost never embrace.

But what, beyond that, does the senator really know about the case other than that he did not like the outcome? My office took Lapointes direct appeal to the Supreme Court many, many years ago. The senator did not attend arguments. He never called to ask about the case. I doubt he ever read the briefs, or that he ever read more than a briefing paper on the Lapointe case.

Playing eighth justice from the Senate floor was a disgraceful performance.

Fasano also talked about the Supreme Courts decision in the Michael Skakel case. He rebuked justices for writing about the possibility that someone other than Mr. Skakel committed the crime. Justices cant do that, he decried, calling it TV justice.

This demeans the Senate and sheds a dark light on the senator.

Is he truly ignorant of the legal doctrine known as third-party culpability? Did he read the record of the habeas corpus proceeding that resulted in freedom for Skakel? The justices in the Skakel case read the record, listened to legal argument, and decided the case according to law.

The senator merely brayed.

Sure, senator, it plays well with constituents to strut tough on crime. But the courts are supposed to stand between a mobs demand for rough justice and an accused. The tawdry example you set from the Senate floor today sends a message to sitting judges: The rights of the accused ought not to tip the scales of justice when the public demands a pound of flesh.

Ive met Sen. Fasano. I know him to be a kind, affable man. Its no wonder he knows electoral success. He is a crowd pleaser.

But pleasing the crowd isnt what judges do. Judging is solitary, often lonely work. The work of a judge is to take the condensed wisdom of centuries of legal scholarship and apply it to the crises and controversies of the day. Judges are entitled to do their work in peace; they ought not to be rousted by rabble-rousers.

Shame on you, Sen. Fasano. Your extemporaneous commentary on the law and simple-minded exegesis of difficult legal decisions discredits the Senate, and sets a new low mark in the states confirmation proceedings.

Suddenly, the ethos of raw partisanship has crept from Washington, D.C., to Connecticut. Were no better for it. I blame Sen. Fasano in large measure. He could have behaved like a Solon today, giving wise counsel and respecting a process that has served this state well for generations.

Instead, he declared war on an independent judiciary.

I will never be a judge. I dont have the temperament for it. But I am a trial lawyer. My clients and I depend on an independent judiciary in conflicts that are often desperate and life-altering. You undermined the judiciary today, Senator.

Sen. Fasano is now on a list I hitherto had not created: Ill call it Lawmakers Who Ought Not To Serve Another Term.
Connecticuts vibrant restaurant scene is getting a few new spots to try this spring. Our friends at Connecticut Magazine selected nine restaurants that are already creating a buzz among food and drink lovers all across the state.

Next month, James Beard nominated Chef Tyler Anderson will reveal his new restaurant Porron & Pina, one of the most anticipated openings this year. Check out below what else is cooking in Connecticut.





This long-awaited brewery and restaurant recently opened in Bethel, according to the Facebook page for the business. Broken Symmetry brings together the culinary talents of Lisa Tassone, owner of Bethels La Zingara, and Paul Mannion, owner of the Green Grunion food truck. Mannions popular San Diego-style burritos, frequently praised in the pages of Connecticut Magazine, will be offered alongside a variety of craft brews that were equally eager to try. The gastro brewery is located in downtown Bethel within a former train station at 5 Depot Place.

Another beloved food truck business-turned-brick-and-mortar store, LobsterCraft celebrated its grand opening at 1891 Post Road earlier this month. The first LobsterCraft truck started serving food in 2012, followed a few years later by a second truck. The specialties are a variety of hot buttered lobster rolls, from classic versions of the Connecticut sandwich to new takes such as the L.B.L.T. (lobster, bacon, lettuce and tomato) and the sushi-inspired California roll featuring lobster, cucumber, Wasabi-infused soy sauce, all topped with avocado.

Scheduled for a soft opening soon and officially opening at some point near the end of the month, Bridgestreet Libation + Temptations at 2 Bridge St. will feature an ever-changing menu of various food styles. Owner and chef James Casey is a veteran of kitchens such as The Mill at 2T in Simsbury. He told The Register Citizen that the care and creativity of the kitchen will carry over to the bar, where craft cocktails will be offered.

The king has returned. After being sold and closing for two months, the legendary pizza establishment reopened in late February. The Wooster Street restaurant, which is celebrating its 80th anniversary, was bought by Lineage Hospitality, an investment group that plans to open more Sallys across the country, but the leadership staff at the original New Haven location remain the same, with Bobby Consiglio and his brother, Rick Consiglio, the sons of original owners, still at the helm of the restaurant, though no longer its owners.

Opened in February, this high-end sandwich spot offers a variety of panini and other sandwiches. The sleek eatery is the sister shop of Melt Sandwich Shop in White Plains, New York. It also features sides such as fries and macaroni and cheese, as well as a full bar with wine, cocktails and local beers. It is owned by husband and wife Bill and Kristin Hall.

Opened in February in Stamfords Harbor Point, Mexicue serves Mexican barbecue and has a full bar. The restaurants origins are as a New York City food truck, which evolved into several New York restaurants. This is the first Connecticut location for the small chain. The menu includes items such as the burnt ends sloppy joe and avocado chicken. There are also tacos, pulled pork and brisket.

Opened at the end of February, this former food truck now occupies a space on Capitol Avenue between Little River Restoratives and Story and Soil Coffee. As the name implies, banh mi sandwiches are the specialty. Also offered are pho noodles, as well as an assortment of Vietnamese food items and drinks including Vietnamese coffee.

This new Stamford restaurant specializes in Australian cuisine. No, thats not a misprint. There is also a Flinders Lane in New York City and the website for both locations describes the cuisine as taking inspiration from the cuisines of nearby Southeast Asia and subtle influence from the food of British settlers mixed with that of Greek and Italian immigrants. This is all combined with lots of seafood, year-round fruits and vegetables and the Australian attitude: No fussing, no over thinking.

The remodeled Goodwin Hotel will soon host a new restaurant run by chef Tyler Anderson and business partner A.J. Aurrichio. The restaurant, slated to open April 19, will offer Spanish-inspired cuisine made with New England ingredients, and will feature, among other things, a ham bar where guests will be able to assemble platters of hams, charcuteries and cheeses. Aurrichio and Anderson own Millwrights in Simsbury and The Cook and The Bear in Hartford. Anderson is one of Connecticuts best-known chefs and competed on Bravos Top Chef last season.

Know of a new Connecticut restaurant? Email Erik Ofgang at eofgang@connecticutmag.com.
The government has invited bids for the disinvestment process of the state-owned national carrier Air India. In the preliminary information memorandum about the divestment process, government has invited Expressions of Interest for sale of 76 per cent stake in Air India as well as the transfer of management control.

The Civil Aviation Ministry has asked for Expression of Interest (EoI) for selling its shares in the debt-laden carrier and two of its subsidiaries. The memorandum also invited bids for sale of 50 percent shares India holds in Air India SATS Airport Services. It is a joint venture between the debt-laden Indian carrier and Singapore Airport Terminal Services. The divestment process will also include Air India Express, the completely-owned international arm of Air India. Interested bidders could furnish expressions of interest by May 14.

Professional services firm Ernst & Young LLP India has been appointed as transaction adviser for the strategic disinvestment process. As per the memorandum, Air India management or employees can either participate directly in the bidding process or form a consortium to do so. The disinvestment process will be completed by competitive bidding, which is expected to be over by December this year.

The national carrier is staying afloat on taxpayers' money under the bailout package approved by the previous UPA government in 2012. As of now, Air India has a total debt of Rs 52,000 crore to its name, out of which, Rs 33,000 crore is due to working capital loans. This figure is expected to rise by another Rs 3,500 crore by the end of this financial year.

The entity that acquires Air India will bear less than half out of the total debt borne by Air India. All non-core assets, like offices, furniture and the kind, will become part of the special purpose vehicle instead of being sold.

The government has stipulated that entities planning to participate in the Air India disinvestment process should have a minimum aggregate net worth of Rs 5,000 crore. Domestic airlines with zero or negative net worth can participate in the bidding process by forming consortiums which fulfill the prescribed criteria. The minimum net criteria for companies and consortiums has been laid down to keep non-serious and fly-by-night operators away from the bidding process.

In June 2017, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) gave in-principle nod to the strategic disinvestment of the airline, which has a debt burden of over Rs 50,000 crore. Subsequent to the decision, the Air India Specific Alternative Mechanism (AISAM), headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, was set up to decide on specific issues.

Tata Group, which once owned Air India, could reportedly go with Singapore Airlines to bid for Air India. Singapore Airlines in partnership with the salt-to-steel conglomerate operates Vistara Airlines. Talking to Business Today recently, Singapore Airlines' India general manager David Lim said that they are keeping an open mind on the deal. Jet Airways may also go with Air France-KLM to participate in the Air India disinvestment.
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President Trump says the nation must "get tough" with drug dealers, which includes utilizing the death penalty against some pushers of opioids. Trump unveiled his plan to combat the nation's deadly opioid addiction in New Hampshire.
In the Rs 13,700 crore PNB Fraud case, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) made its first arrest and 19th in the scam. On Tuesday, the ED team arrested Shyam Sunder Wadhwa, vice president (finance), Firestar Group and close confidante of main accused Nirav Modi, under Section 19 of Prevention Of Money Laundering Act, 2002. As per ED sources, Wadhwa assisted Modi in the offence of money laundering and is punishable under the money laundering act.



During the investigation and interrogation with Wadhwa, he confessed before the agency that he had done the paper work pertaining to the formation of shell companies named Sino Traders and Aura Gems and floated it abroad. Wadhwa also made Kartik Doshi and two others as dummy directors and shareholders of these bogus companies by getting them to sign on relevant papers.

ALSO READ : I-T Department traces a 'secret' bank account of Nirav Modi in London

According to ED, Wadhwa was in close touch with Modi and "he is also involved in money laundering on behest of and in the aid of Modi". ED believes, Wadhwa is also privy to various confidential information which would help in unravelling the truth behind this mega-scam.

In its remand copy, ED has said that during interrogation, Wadhwa has not thrown any light on the functioning or financials of the company even in the most general way. "He tried to mislead the investigation by initially stating that he has not interacted with anyone of the dummy directors where the proceeds of crime has been siphoned off", the remand copy stated.



When confronted, Wadhwa stated that on instruction if Nirav Modi, he made Kartik Doshi, Divyesh Gandhi and Sonu Mehta - the bogus directors and owners of these shell companies.



As per the records, substantial amount of around USD 34.6 million and USD 56.5 million was paid to Sino Traders and Aura Gems company Ltd from the LoUs fraudulently issued by PNB for the Modi group of companies (Solar Exports, Stellar Diamonds and Diamonds R US). On Tuesday, ED conducted searches on Wadhwa's residence and later, in the evening, he was arrested.


Many credit the recent explosion of the regional market in part to Art Basels arrival in Hong Kong. Today, it is still regarded as the premier regional art fair. Without the fairs, nobody would know the Asian galleries because we are too far away from the Western world, said Lorenz Helbling, founder of ShanghART Gallery, with locations in China and Singapore.

But there are signs this year of a backlash among some local dealers who are concerned that while the pie may be bigger, not everyone is getting a chance to partake. For mid-tier and emerging galleries in Asia, the costs of participating in Art Basel  upward of $100,000 for many, including booth rental, shipping, and staffing  are huge.

Theres definitely pressure, said Jasdeep Sandhu, founder of Gajah Gallery in Singapore, one of the 248 galleries taking part in this years fair. Being an Asian gallery, our prices in general are still very affordable compared to the Western artists so put that alongside the cost of a fair like Basel and you really feel the pressure.

As a result, Asia-based galleries are beginning to re-evaluate how they approach international art fairs like Art Basel.

While being selected for the Hong Kong edition continues to be a badge of prestige and a vital selling point for a gallerys reputation, the fair is increasingly being seen by many local galleries not as a profit-making opportunity but rather as a necessary marketing cost  and an expensive one at that.

The big galleries are only getting bigger so its getting harder to compete, said Anthony Tao, director of Gallery EXIT in Hong Kong. But at the end of the day, Basel is Basel. We need the exposure.
Some people might consider that to be just another constructors trick, but if you notice it when you first start solving, its almost like an amuse-bouche for the puzzle. Weve seen stunts like this before, but they usually make the clues sound stilted; in Mr. Gordons puzzle, the clues are so well written that the trick is barely noticeable, and its delicious when you discover it.

Not to worry if you almost missed it, however. The revealer is tucked away at the very end at 59D, where Mr. Gordon or perhaps the editors had to stretch to make the clue end the way it was supposed to: End of each word in 17-, 27-, 43- and 54-Across  as well as every clue (and thats a fact!) is the word TEE.

Tricky Clues

Most of the clues are straightforward because of the constraint of having to end in a T, but there are a few that play with words today:

64A: Were not supposed to be thinking about reading a magazine both backward and forward, but there is a magazine title that is a palindrome. That would be ELLE magazine.

1D: I was surprised to find that the entry NOTORIOUS R.B.G. for the Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had not been in The New York Times Crossword yet, but I welcome her initial debut clued to the titular best seller, Notorious R.B.G.

44D: Gets the lead out? is a great clue for ERASES. More than 670 people did just that this weekend at the 2018 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.
On Tuesday, Mr. Llakatura, 38, was sentenced to 14 years and 3 months in prison.

The defendants crimes  committed by a man entrusted with a badge, a gun and a solemn duty to protect and serve the community  are nothing short of shocking, prosecutors wrote.

The sentencing, in Federal District Court in Brooklyn, brought an end to the brief but brutal reign of terror that Mr. Dervishaj and his henchmen  who, like Mr. Llakatura, were largely Albanian immigrants  inflicted on Astorias residents and businesses. Mr. Llakatura was originally charged in the case in 2013 and pleaded guilty in December 2015. Last March, following a two-week federal trial, Mr. Dervishaj was sentenced to 57 years in prison. A few months later, another member of his crew, Denis Nikolla, was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

Mr. Dervishaj was a notorious criminal known for wreaking havoc in and around New York Citys Albanian community. In 2007, he was shot while demanding $20,000 from a contractor in Queens, the authorities said. Five years later, he was accused of stabbing a man to death with a butcher knife at a bachelor party on Staten Island, though a grand jury declined to charge him in that case.

According to his lawyers, Mr. Llakatura, who was fired from the police force after he entered his guilty plea, made a big mistake by teaming up with Mr. Dervishaj, a gangland figure whose brother, Plaurent Dervishaj, is an international fugitive wanted by Interpol and by American authorities. He involved himself with the wrong people, Mr. Llakaturas lawyers wrote, and did not think of the potential consequences.

Even after Mr. Llakatura was arrested in December 2013, he continued to pursue his victims, prosecutors said. According to an informant he met at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, Mr. Llakatura sent members of his own family to find the owner of the seafood restaurant in a failed attempt to retaliate against him for cooperating with the government.
Delores Taylor, whose empathy for Native Americans informed the 1971 surprise action-film hit Billy Jack, which she wrote and starred in with her husband, Tom Laughlin, died on Friday in Woodland Hills, Calif. She was 85.

Her daughter, Teresa Laughlin, who announced the death on Monday night, said her mother had dementia.

In the film, which he directed, Mr. Laughlin played the title role, a tightly wound, half-Native American Vietnam veteran and martial artist who defends a progressive school on an Arizona reservation against local bigots.

Ms. Taylor, who made her film debut as Jean Roberts, the head of the school, was the strongest thing about the film, the critic Howard Thompson wrote in The New York Times.
Mr. Rosss decision was based on the disingenuous argument that the Department of Justice needs to know the citizenship status of residents in each census tract so it can better protect the rights of minority voters under the Voting Rights Act. Even putting aside the laughable notion that this administration cares about minority voting rights, this argument is bunkum  the Justice Department has been enforcing that law without access to such data for decades. The last census that asked people to report their citizenship status was conducted in 1950, 15 years before the Voting Rights Act became law. Whats more, the Justice Department already has access to citizenship data through the American Community Survey, which is conducted every year.

The timing of this change is highly suspect. It comes too late to be included in a field test of the 2020 census the government is conducting right now with 275,000 households in Providence County, R.I. In his memo, Mr. Ross sought to play down concerns that the citizenship question would reduce response rates by claiming there was no empirical evidence to back up that argument. Yet, by seeking to insert the question so late in the process, he has prevented officials from empirically testing how people will react to it.

The evidence that does exist shows that concerns that the citizenship question would curb participation are legitimate. The Census Bureau reported in a September memo that its surveyors were encountering significant resistance from immigrants about providing personal information because they feared it would not be kept confidential. The immigrant is not going to trust the census employee when they are continuously hearing a contradicting message from the media every day threatening to deport immigrants, one Arabic-speaking respondent told the bureau.

Even Mr. Ross acknowledged in an October House hearing that adding questions to the census reduced response rates because the more things you ask in those forms, the less likely you are to get them in.

This is not the first time the Trump administration has sought to compromise the integrity of the census. Last year, the bureau limited its field test to Rhode Island because, it said, it didnt have the money for tests in Washington State and West Virginia. In his budget request to Congress, the president asked for a modest increase in census funds, far less than what most experts say is needed. (Last week, lawmakers increased the bureaus budget by $1.34 billion, about twice what he had sought.) The administration has also undermined the bureau by failing to nominate a leader since the agencys last permanent director left in June. And, until recently, the administration was considering as deputy director a political-science professor who has argued for partisan gerrymandering and against competitive elections.
FRONT PAGE

Because of an editing error, an article on Tuesday about the European Unions response to the recent poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter misstated when a chemical agent was last used on European soil. The poisoning marked the first use of a chemical agent on European soil since  not before  the Second World War.

THE ARTS

A theater review on Monday about the new production of Angels in America misstates the year that Ethel Rosenberg was executed as a Communist spy. It was 1953, not 1951.



A review on Monday about a double bill of two Pygmalion operas by Donizetti and Rameau misstated the surname of the conductor of the Rameau production. He is Gil Rose, not Gil French.



An article on Monday about the television series Silicon Valley included a quotation from Mike Judge that misstated Googles Gmail ad policy. Google stopped scanning its consumer, or free, email accounts for the purpose of targeted ads in 2017.
SAN FRANCISCO  Uber says it is not renewing its permit to test self-driving vehicles in California until the police and regulators wrap up an investigation into how one of its autonomous vehicles struck and killed a woman in Arizona last week.

The company decided to withdraw its renewal application late last week. The move came to light in a letter that Californias Department of Motor Vehicles sent to Uber on Tuesday.

The letter informed Uber that its testing permit will expire on Saturday and that it will have to address any follow-up analysis or investigations from the recent crash in Arizona if it applies for a new permit in the future.

The loss of the permit, reported earlier by The San Francisco Chronicle, is the latest roadblock for Uber as the company weighs the future of its self-driving car program.
Detectives in Los Angeles searching for an actress who disappeared last month from her Hollywood apartment found a body they believe is hers on Tuesday nearly 400 miles north, buried in a Northern California wildlife area, the police said.

The woman, Adea Shabani, 25, had been missing since the afternoon of Feb. 23, when a security camera in her apartment building captured her taking luggage onto an elevator with her boyfriend. Her friends and family never heard from her again, prompting the police to start what became an expansive investigation that spread out from Los Angeles to the foothills of the Sierra Mountains to Colorado.

The search ended on Tuesday. Along a creek in the Spenceville Wildlife Area, detectives recovered a persons remains in a shallow grave in a vast nature reserve in Nevada County, about 20 miles northeast of Sacramento. While the coroners office has yet to identify the body, the police believe the remains belong to Ms. Shabani, Capt. William P. Hayes of the Los Angeles Police Department said at a news conference on Tuesday afternoon.

Shortly after her friends officially reported her missing on Feb. 25, the police focused on her boyfriend, Christopher Spotz, who was seen leaving the apartment with her. According to the police, Mr. Spotz, 33, who was engaged to another woman, told detectives that on Feb. 23, they stopped for coffee in Hollywood and then headed north for his fathers home in a town outside Sacramento.
The connections between Palantir and Cambridge Analytica were thrust into the spotlight by Mr. Wylies testimony on Tuesday. Both companies are linked to tech-driven billionaires who backed Mr. Trumps campaign: Cambridge is chiefly owned by Robert Mercer, the computer scientist and hedge fund magnate, while Palantir was co-founded in 2003 by Mr. Thiel, who was an initial investor in Facebook.

The Palantir employee, Alfredas Chmieliauskas, works on business development for the company, according to his LinkedIn page. In an initial statement, Palantir said it had never had a relationship with Cambridge Analytica, nor have we ever worked on any Cambridge Analytica data. Later on Tuesday, Palantir revised its account, saying that Mr. Chmieliauskas was not acting on the companys behalf when he advised Mr. Wylie on the Facebook data.

We learned today that an employee, in 2013-2014, engaged in an entirely personal capacity with people associated with Cambridge Analytica, the company said. We are looking into this and will take the appropriate action.

The company said it was continuing to investigate but knew of no other employees who took part in the effort. Mr. Wylie told lawmakers that multiple Palantir employees played a role.

Image Alfredas Chmieliauskas, a Palantir employee, suggested Cambridge Analytica scientists create an app to scrape Facebook data.

Documents and interviews indicate that starting in 2013, Mr. Chmieliauskas began corresponding with Mr. Wylie and a colleague from his Gmail account. At the time, Mr. Wylie and the colleague worked for the British defense and intelligence contractor SCL Group, which formed Cambridge Analytica with Mr. Mercer the next year. The three shared Google documents to brainstorm ideas about using big data to create sophisticated behavioral profiles, a product code-named Big Daddy.

A former intern at SCL  Sophie Schmidt, the daughter of Eric Schmidt, then Googles executive chairman  urged the company to link up with Palantir, according to Mr. Wylies testimony and a June 2013 email viewed by The Times.
Atlanta officials have disclosed few details about the episode or how it happened. They have urged vigilance and tried to reassure employees and residents that their personal information was not believed to have been compromised.

Dell SecureWorks and Cisco Security, which are still working to restore the citys systems, declined to comment on the attacks, citing client confidentiality.

Ms. Bottoms, the mayor, has not said whether the city would pay the ransom.

The SamSam group has been one of the more successful ransomware rings, experts said. It is believed to have extorted more than $1 million from some 30 target organizations in 2018 alone.

It is not ideal to pay up, but in most cases, SamSams victims have said that they can more easily afford the $50,000 or so in ransom than the time and cost of restoring their locked data and compromised systems. In the past year, the group has taken to attacking hospitals, police departments and universities  targets with money but without the luxury of going off-line for days or weeks for restoration work.

Investigators are not certain who the SamSam hackers are. Judging from the poor English in the groups ransom notes, security researchers believe they are probably not native English speakers. But they cannot say for sure whether SamSam is a single group of cybercriminals or a loose hacking collective.

Ransomware emerged in Eastern Europe in 2009, when cybercriminals started using malicious code to lock up unsuspecting users machines and then demanding 100 euros or similar sums to unlock them again. Over the past decade, dozens of online cybercriminal outfits  and even some nation states, including North Korea and Russia  have taken up similar tactics on a larger scale, inflicting digital paralysis on victims and demanding increasing amounts of money.

Cybersecurity experts estimate that criminals made more than $1 billion from ransomware in 2016, according to the F.B.I. Then, last May, came the largest ransomware assault recorded so far: North Korean hackers went after tens of thousands of victims in more than 70 countries around the world, forcing Britains public health system to reject patients, paralyzing computers at Russias Interior Ministry, at FedEx in the United States, and at shipping lines and telecommunications companies across Europe.
IDBI Bank Ltd said on Tuesday fraudulent loans of over Rs 773 crore were issued from five of its branches in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, sending its shares lower on Wednesday.

Some of the loans, which were issued during fiscal years 2009-2013 for fish farming businesses, were obtained against fake lease documents of non-existent fish ponds and by inflating the value of collateral, the company said.

The company found major lapses in processing and disbursing the loans by two of its officials. The lender dismissed one of the officials, while the other official had already retired, it said.

The Central Bureau of Investigation has registered cases for two of the five complaints relating to branches at Basheerbagh and Guntur, the company said.

The bank said earlier on Tuesday it initiated a quality assurance audit, expected to be completed by April.

IDBI shares fell as much as 3.5 per cent to 73.6 rupees, while the index for public sector lenders Nifty PSU Bank index dropped as much as 1.8 per cent.
WASHINGTON  President Trump kept a relatively low profile and did not make any public appearances on Tuesday, but emerged for a rare evening trip outside the White House to meet with deep-pocketed donors at a real estate developers home in Virginia.

Mr. Trump, who usually prefers a steak served at his own hotel if he leaves the confines of the White House at night, traveled to the McLean, Va., home of Giuseppe Cecchi, according to a person with knowledge of the presidents plans. Mr. Cecchi is a loyalist who previously hosted Mr. Trump for a $10,000-a-couple fund-raising dinner in the final weeks of the 2016 presidential campaign.

Since arriving back in Washington on Sunday from his Florida estate, Mr. Trumps schedule showed no public appearances and he kept his usual tweeting to a minimum.

He has opted instead to leave it to his aides to field questions about a continuing investigation into his campaigns contact with Russia, allegations by a pornographic actress that his lawyer paid her to stay silent about an affair, a move to expel 60 Russian diplomats and his administrations support for adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census.
Update: The United States and South Korea formally announced the trade agreement in a joint statement on Wednesday, and said that it represents important progress in improving U.S.-Korea trade and economic relations.

WASHINGTON  President Trump scored his first significant trade deal this week, securing a pact with South Korea that represents the type of one-on-one agreement that Mr. Trump says makes the best sense for American companies and workers.

The deal, which is expected to be formally announced on Wednesday, opens the Souths market to American autos by lifting existing limits on manufacturers like Ford Motor and General Motors, extends tariffs for South Korean truck exports and restricts, by nearly a third, the amount of steel that the South can export to the United States. Mr. Trump used his threat of stiff steel and aluminum tariffs as a cudgel to extract the concessions he wanted, helping produce an agreement that had stalled amid disagreements this year.

But winning the deal may have had more to do with the geopolitical realities confronting the United States and South Korea as America embarks on tricky nuclear discussions with North Korea. The United States cannot afford a protracted trade standoff at a moment when it needs the South as an ally.
SACRAMENTO  Hundreds of protesters temporarily took over the main foyer at Sacramento City Hall on Tuesday evening to protest the death of Stephon Clark, who was fatally shot by two Sacramento police officers last week in his grandmothers backyard while they investigated a vandalism complaint.

The City Council held a special meeting Tuesday evening to hear public comments about the shooting; it was a night of tears for many, and a night of rage for others. As black community leaders explained their frustrations to the citys leadership within the councils public chamber  which proceeded largely uninterrupted  about 300 protesters outside in the foyer chanted raucously, while police officers clad in riot gear looked on.

You shoot us down, we shut you down! they shouted.

At the top of the meeting, Mayor Darrell Steinberg spoke emphatically about the anger and grief in the community and promised to press the Police Department for answers about the protocols and policies that led to Mr. Clarks death.
BEIJING  North Koreas enigmatic young leader, Kim Jong-un, made an unannounced visit to Beijing, meeting with President Xi Jinping weeks before planned summit meetings with American and South Korean leaders, Chinese and North Korean state news media reported on Wednesday.

The visit amounted to Mr. Kims international debut: It was the 34-year-old leaders first trip outside North Korea since he took power in 2011, and his first meeting with another head of state. The surprise discussions added another layer of complexity to the rush of global diplomacy around North Koreas nuclear weapons program.

Mr. Kim told the Chinese leader that he was open to dialogue with the United States, including a potential summit meeting with President Trump, and was committed to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, according to an account published by Chinas news agency Xinhua.

If South Korea and the United States respond with good will to our efforts and create an atmosphere of peace and stability, and take phased, synchronized measures to achieve peace, the issue of the denuclearization of the peninsula can reach resolution, Mr. Kim said, according to Xinhuas summary of his meeting with Mr. Xi.
That scene, some say, is the unraveling of democracy. In a report issued in March, a German research group, Bertelsmann Stiftung, said Hungary was nearing the threshold of autocracy.

In Budapest, government officials describe their societal revamp as a mainly technocratic reform effort, rather than an ideological campaign, one validated by Mr. Orbans success at the ballot box.

The government is using its democratic legitimacy not only to reform the state but to reform the society, said Professor Andras Patyi, the head of a new university formed by Fidesz to train the public officials of the future. He said the current president of France, Emmanuel Macron, was doing the same thing. This is common in democratic societies, he said.

But Mr. Orban has recognized the political power to be gained by harnessing culture, history and civil society. He usually spends Thursdays reading books, essays and polling data, while meeting with writers and thinkers, two of his longtime associates said. The goal is not pleasure but power, said Zoltan Illes, a former Fidesz minister.

He wants to see what the new developments are and adapt them to his politics, to increase the life span of his governance, Mr. Illes said.

Authors with a sweeping vision of human nature and society seem to fascinate him. Last April, for example, he met with Philip Zimbardo, the psychologist who created the Stanford Prison Experiment, the 1971 study of authoritarianism, which explored how ordinary people would respond when placed in positions of power.

The two men spent more than two hours talking alone in Mr. Orbans office, surrounded by paintings of Hungarian history. Mr. Orban seemed uninterested in the Stanford experiment, Mr. Zimbardo said, but was keen to understand his theory about how to energize frustrated young men who feel left behind by modern society.
Ms. Cohen, who is her in her 50s, and her husband, James Cohen, 59, the owner and chief executive of Hudson News Distributors, began collecting art seriously around 2009, shortly before they purchased this pied-a-terre condominium (their main residence is a Tudor-style home in New Jersey). Collecting art became a pastime for Ms. Cohen, then blossomed into a lifestyle.

She began traveling the world to educate herself on the contemporary market. She bought blue-chip artists at auctions and art fairs with an eye toward investment, gaining confidence with each big purchase.

Any art fair I could get myself invited to, I would go, she said. I would go to Paris to FIAC, to Frieze in London, where I bought the George Condo. Of course, Art Basel. I saw the phenomenon of this whole life of traveling and going to these art fairs, seeing the same people on one continent, and a few months later, seeing them on another.

That experience led her and her husband to create the glossy magazine Galerie in 2016. Now published by Sandow, it explores the intersection of art and design. For Ms. Cohen, Galeries editorial director, the globe-trotting and art-buying hasnt slowed. She recently returned from Zona Maco, a leading art fair in Mexico City.

If you see my Instagram it says, Travel the world to discover art,  she said. Its a constant journey.
The story the museum tells stirs emotions but leaves them unresolved. In many ways the experience, whether intended or not, is in sync with the political atmosphere of the country today. Uplift feels anachronistic; progress is cut off; the future left unimagined.

Dr. King may have shared similar feelings. In our journey through the museum, he has been our Virgil, our calm, sage guide through the hell and heaven of postwar racial history. In Room 306, he becomes our frustrated, anxious contemporary.

When he checked into the Lorraine on April 3, he was in a dark mood, not just from the first, failed march, but from a political environment that had turned unpredictable. His speech that night was a sonorous movement pep talk. But there was regret in it. It was mortality-tinged:

Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But Im not concerned about that now. I just want to do Gods will. And Hes allowed me to go up to the mountain. And Ive looked over. And Ive seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land.
Stephanie Wiles, an expert in old masters drawings and a museum leader at Cornell University, will be the next director of the Yale University Art Gallery, the university announced on Wednesday.

She will succeed Jock Reynolds, who has run the gallery since 1998 but announced last year that he would step down at the end of this June. Ms. Wiles will take up her new post on July 1.

Stephanie shares my vision for integrating the arts into so much of what we do at Yale, Peter Salovey, Yales president, said in a statement. She is a respected leader and gifted communicator who understands that the arts can contribute to every aspect of teaching and learning on our campus.

In a phone interview, Mr. Salovey said that the transition from Mr. Reynoldss tenure to that of Ms. Wiles will be a smooth one because Stephanie is very much an admirer of what Jock has accomplished  the two know each other and are admirers of each other  and Stephanie has been a leader now in a university and college art museum setting.
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.

Hired in Spite of the Mustache

Trevor Noah is not impressed by John R. Bolton, President Trumps new pick for national security adviser. Bolton is known for his hard-line right-wing views, and hes one of the few prominent members of the foreign-policy intelligentsia who still vociferously defend the United States 2003 invasion of Iraq.

In 2015, Bolton criticized President Barack Obamas nuclear deal with Iran in an opinion article for The New York Times suggesting that the United States should launch pre-emptive strikes against Iran. On The Daily Show on Tuesday, Noah quoted from an interview Bolton gave to Fox News shortly after writing that article.
Geoff Dyer writes books that are easy to enjoy but hard to pin down. Early on in his new volume about the photography of Garry Winogrand, he offers a characteristic bit of self-reflection. In my notes, for reasons I can no longer fathom, I kept reminding myself that this should not be a book about photography, he writes. Well it is about photography, obviously, but I hope its about more than photography.

This refusal to be hemmed in (not to mention the cheerful indifference to his own best-laid plans) is what makes Dyer the ideal partner for Winogrand, who hated the term street photography even as his name became synonymous with it. I photograph to find out what something will look like photographed, Winogrand once said. But even that (minimal) explanation puts too much emphasis on the end result, when what he seemed to love most was the process that got him there: being on the street, looking through his viewfinder and releasing the shutter. Anyone who can print can print my pictures was another thing he liked to say, and upon his death in 1984, as if to prove his point, he left behind 2,500 rolls of undeveloped film.

Image Credit... Alessandra Montalto/The New York Times

At first glance, The Street Philosophy of Garry Winogrand looks like yet another monograph on the artists work (including 18 color photographs previously unpublished): physically imposing and visually sumptuous, with a hefty list price to match. But since this is a Dyer book too, it cant just be about the subject at hand.
 Confident, reasonable  willing to bargain.

Thats how North Koreas leader, Kim Jong-un, came across in his debut as a global statesman  and he did so with a dash of mystery. Heres how the Chinese and North Korean news media portrayed the meeting with President Xi Jinping.

Mr. Kims two-day visit  his first trip abroad since taking power  was a reminder of how much he has set the agenda in the North Korean nuclear crisis and, our correspondent writes, what a strong hand he has going into negotiations.

President Trump was quick to chime in. He posted on Twitter that Mr. Xi told him that the meeting went very well and that Mr. Kim looks forward to his meeting with me.
1. Confident, reasonable, and willing to bargain.

Our correspondent says thats the image North Koreas young leader, Kim Jong-un, left, sought to project during a visit with President Xi Jinping in Beijing.

It was Mr. Kims first known trip abroad since taking power  and it could strengthen his hand going into talks with the U.S. Heres how the Chinese and North Korean news media covered the meeting.

President Trump was quick to chime in. He posted on Twitter that Mr. Xi told him that the meeting went very well and that Mr. Kim looks forward to his meeting with me.
Consider a part-time worker with an average of 16 shifts per month. At stores that attempted to make the changes, nearly 10 of those shifts were scheduled for a consistent time of day. At stores that had not done so, about nine of the shifts were consistent.

The explanation for how such modest changes could lead to such unusually large increases in sales may be that managers focused disproportionately on more experienced employees when it came to stabilizing the number of hours worked from week to week. That, in turn, appears to have lowered turnover among experienced workers, who helped their stores perform better.

It looks like managers did the rational thing  they had to improve stability, and so they picked the more experienced people, said Saravanan Kesavan, another author, who teaches business at the University of North Carolina. Now you have more experienced people in the store, and the productivity youre seeing increased, leading to higher sales.

Mr. Kesavan suggested that Gap could reap still greater financial benefits by making schedules even more stable and reducing turnover beyond what the experiment achieved. The attrition rate is still high, he said. (Susan Lambert of the University of Chicago was the third author.)

The researchers chose the 28 stores in the study, then randomly selected the 19 where the new policies would take effect for just under a year. Although the managers in those stores had previously agreed to take part, the researchers could not be certain that they carried out all the new policies. The managers were simply urged to do so with the companys blessing, an approach known as randomized encouragement design.

Marshall L. Fisher, a professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania who is an expert on retailing and was not involved in the project, said the study provided compelling evidence that if you treat people decently, you get better results.
As environmental concerns drive power companies away from using coal, natural gas has emerged as the nations No. 1 power source. Plentiful and relatively inexpensive as a result of the nations fracking boom, it has been portrayed as a bridge to an era in which alternative energy would take primacy.

But technology and economics have carved a different, shorter pathway that has bypassed the broad need for some fossil-fuel plants. And that has put proponents of natural gas on the defensive.

Some utility companies have scrapped plans for new natural-gas plants in favor of wind and solar sources that have become cheaper and easier to install. Existing gas plants are being shut because their economics are no longer attractive. And regulators are increasingly challenging the plans of companies determined to move forward with new natural-gas plants.

Its a very different world that were arriving at very quickly, said Robert McCullough, an energy consultant in Portland, Ore. That wind farm can literally be put on a train and brought online within a year. It is moving so fast that even critics of the old path like myself have been taken by surprise.
The magazine, which will still be available for purchase on periodical racks on Walmart stores, has been a focus of the nonprofit group for years. In 2015, the organization started a campaign to get stores to shield Cosmopolitans headlines and covers behind blinders or wraps similar to those that frequently cover pornographic material.

At that time, it worked with Victoria Hearst, the granddaughter of William Randolph Hearst, who founded Cosmopolitans publisher, the Hearst Group. The joint effort appeared to be successful.

Ms. Hearst, who now runs a Cosmo Hurts Kids campaign aimed at stopping the sale of the magazine to children under 18, was not involved in the centers current push, according to according to Haley Halverson, the organizations vice president for advocacy and outreach.

The group, which was founded in 1962 and was previously known as Morality in Media, has continued to focus on Cosmopolitan in part, Ms. Halverson said, because the magazine was targeting young girls with its messaging.

A young teenager who first picks up Cosmo is going to be attracted to the bubble gum pink cover and to stories about Selena Gomez and One Direction, Ms. Halverson said. But within the covers, Cosmo is filled with extremely explicit articles that detail things like sexting, pornography, group sex, public sex and other forms of risky sex that actually a lot of young girls today are being pressured to do before theyre ready.

Ms. Halverson also said the group viewed its efforts as especially important in the midst of the continuing conversation around sexual harassment that was sparked by the #MeToo movement.

Cosmopolitan really likes to wrap itself up in its faux feminist mystique where theyre claiming that because theyre talking about sex, its liberating to women, she said. But its time to raise the level of discourse and say, Well, are they talking about sex in an actually empowering or productive way?
But there is just as much information that does not have to be disclosed  and that means that people with checkered histories can continue to thrive in the industry.

On Finras website, each brokers history is displayed in a vertical timeline, with red dots marking the date of each trouble spot.

There are five red dots on Mr. Greenbergs timeline. They represent a 1984 charge, eventually dismissed, of theft by check; a 2001 charge of criminal mischief in the first degree, also dismissed; two disputes with clients; and a regulatory penalty.

But that record does not reveal Mr. Greenbergs other run-ins with law enforcement and the judicial system, which are not required to be disclosed to Finra.

In 2000, Mr. Greenberg admitted in an arbitration proceeding that he had phoned someone who did a lot of business with a colleague and told him, inaccurately, that the colleague was known for shady business practices, according to a record of the proceeding. Mr. Greenberg was not punished for what the three-person arbitration panel deemed was defamation because the statute of limitations had expired, the panel said in its decision.

In December 2006, Mr. Greenberg was charged with harassment and criminal mischief, according to court papers and a police blotter item in The Lake Oswego Review. He had violated a restraining order taken out by his ex-girlfriend, the second woman to ask for protection against him, according to the court papers. Mr. Greenberg eventually pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of criminal trespass and agreed to limitations on his movements, according to a plea deal reviewed by The Times.
Investment restrictions would be the second stage, following tariffs, in a sweeping trade measure that aims to penalize China for what the United States deems unfair trade practices.

The administration is particularly concerned about investments in the United States made by Chinese state-controlled enterprises that take intellectual property from American companies and export it to China.

A 2017 report from the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a group created by Congress to monitor relations between the countries, said Chinese investment in the United States had been strategically focused on information and communications technology, agriculture and biotechnology. This presents potential risks to American national and economic security, said the report, which noted that American companies lacked reciprocal treatment in China and that they had to disclose valuable technological information to gain access to the Chinese market.

This would expand the current concept of what counts as national security, linking of national security and economic security, said John P. Kabealo, a lawyer who specializes in foreign investment matters. It could very fundamentally change how international transactions are conducted.

The Trump administrations trade threats have rocked relations and business ties between the worlds two largest economies. Farmers, retailers and other industries that depend on trade with China have protested, saying the measures could damage their businesses and American jobs.

Chinese and American officials have quietly begun talks since President Trump announced the trade measures last week. But it remains unclear what kind of compromise the Chinese could offer to avoid sanctions, and whether Beijing would be willing to pay such a price.

So far, Chinas response to the potential trade action has been relatively muted, as it waits for the Trump administration to finalize its plans. The country did respond sharply to Mr. Trumps earlier tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. China released a $3 billion list of goods it said it might charge with higher tariffs, including a 25 percent tariff on pork and aluminum scrap, as well as a 15 percent tariff on steel pipes, wine and ethanol.
Behold, the banana. Whod have thought it would be one of the most contentious fruits of the 1990s? It could be a spin doctors nightmare on either side of the Atlantic if a row about selling bananas sparks a multibillion-dollar trade war. Nobody with any sense wants a tit-for-tat trade war. That is a blind alley if ever I heard of one. Its a tale of how trade restrictions can trigger geopolitical feuds when countries use things like tariffs to protect their own industries. What became known as the banana wars started like this. European companies were importing fruit tax free from former colonies in places like the Caribbean, Africa and the Pacific to help support their developing economies. Meanwhile, Europe had tariffs and quotas that restricted the fruit that American companies were shipping to Europe from Latin America. And that limited their access to the worlds biggest market for bananas. The U.S., together with several Latin American countries, repeatedly turned to the World Trade Organization to mediate the dispute. This case has been lost four times. But before the W.T.O. ruled that it could strike back, the U.S. announced a plan to put tariffs on European luxury goods. And that got the Europeans mad. What the Americans have done this last week is clearly unacceptable. Its illegal and its outside the system. Tensions ran high. Each side accused the others of breaking the rules. The European Union is the largest member of the W.T.O. And if you allow them to get away with not abiding by the rules, you start to chip away at that system and saying, is the W.T.O. reliable? Can we count on it? In 2009, Europe agreed to cut back its restrictions on Latin American bananas. But even disputes with a clear-cut resolution can seem to be part of a larger story. For example, what could be called the chicken wars is just one of many disputes between the U.S. and China. The Obama administration will once again take action to hold China accountable. Back in 2010, the Chinese accused the U.S. of dumping underpriced chicken onto its market. So China punished the U.S. with antidumping tariffs. The Americans went to the W.T.O. And they won. Years later, just a month after China lifted the chicken tariffs, President Trump started 2018 with a protectionist bang, widely thought to be aimed at China. He put tariffs on washing machines and solar panels, and made other threats too. It will be 25 percent for steel. It will be 10 percent for aluminum. Threats of retaliation poured in within days. We are discussing different U.S. products from which import tariffs can be imposed. Two weeks later, the president stoked growing fears that a trade war with China could be looming. He announced tariffs on consumer goods to punish China for stealing intellectual property from American companies. This is the first of many. The Chinese immediately responded with threats to retaliate against American products. These unilateral moves could test the strength of the global system for resolving trade disputes. Whether the product is technology, cheap chickens or, yes, even bananas.
The folks coming in are certainly much less interested in seeing a carbon tax or a gas tax or a Paris Agreement, said Thomas J. Pyle, president of the Institute for Energy Research, a think tank that supports fossil fuels. It lets us all breathe a sigh of relief.

He said that assurance reduced the likelihood that the energy industry would push the administration to leave the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the underlying 1992 treaty that governs climate change negotiations.

Climate change activists, on the other hand, voiced worry. All the brakes are coming off the system in terms of anyone who can try to constrain the presidents worst instincts, said Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Mr. Bolton, a Fox News analyst and a former ambassador to the United Nations, has offered mixed views on climate science. Earlier in his career, he questioned the research showing that warming is caused by human activity. More recently, he has accepted that science.

However, his opinion on multilateral agreements like the Paris accord is consistent: Theyre bad for America. He has called the Paris Agreement a self-licking ice cream cone, an utterly meaningless document and part of an attempt by the United Nations to enact a one-world government.

Mr. Kudlow, the incoming head of the National Economic Council, also cheered Mr. Trumps call for a withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, telling a New York radio station, the U.S. is not going to be a patsy. Mr. Pompeo called the agreement a costly burden to the country.

Climate change activists said the best they could hope for was that the Trump administration would ignore the international negotiations, particularly since no major decisions are on the horizon. The United States cannot formally withdraw from the agreement until 2020.
But blaming Mr. Walker alone  as gratifying as that might be  would miss a larger point.

Like many political reporters, Ive spent months reflecting on the arc of 2016, pondering where my coverage might have missed the mark and why.

Many of the conventional explanations have been shallow and unsatisfying. Its not the case, for instance, that the news media didnt cover President Trumps supporters or listen to their voices, or that reporters failed to visit the middle of the country. Scores of reporters have the datelines and airline receipts to prove it.

For me at least, the real problem of 2016 was a failure of imagination.

Much of campaign reporting is an exercise in imagination, informed by experience. You travel the country and talk to voters and activists and local officials, and you form a theory of what the electorate wants. You study public opinion and recent history to gauge which outcomes are possible and which are not. You meet candidates and size them up, on and off the record, assessing how knowledgeable, intellectually agile, and comfortable with criticism and combat they are.

And you ask yourself: Can I imagine this person scrapping their way through a debate? Or negotiating with hardheaded legislators? Or empathizing with constituents who dont look like them?

Sometimes you misread a person. In the winter after President Barack Obamas first election, I crossed paths with a member of the Republican National Committee who was fiercely supporting Michael Steeles bid for chairman. Over breakfast, he came across as a blunt, unsmiling party foot soldier. There was nothing, at the time, that suggested Mike Pompeo, the man sipping coffee, could be nominated for secretary of state inside of a decade.
I have spent plenty of time over the past few years talking with Black Lives Matter activists about their work. The conversations are usually about things like systems and policies, strategies for winning change and the path forward. In these moments, just as when we see them taking to the streets in protest, activists come off as strong and resolute, unflappable and resilient.

But there is a quieter reality of activism: the mental and emotional hardship of the work, and the resulting stress and depression that sometimes make it difficult to even get out of bed.

Though this is not often talked about in the open, it is evident to anyone paying close attention. Over the past two years at least five prominent activists have died. Two of them were suicides. One was from a heart attack at age 27. The other two were homicides, which speaks to the pressures of activism, too  the work they do often antagonizes the police, and so many are wary of turning to the state for protection.

We decided to explore this topic after Muhiyidin Moye, an activist in Charleston, was fatally shot in New Orleans last month. What led activists to die young and how were those deaths affecting people in the movement?
Why are they rote-learning poems about mice and lice? Are they just celebrating Burns for the sake of celebration itself? What skills are they actually learning and developing that they can relate to and build upon?

Well, over 200 years since Burnss death, the rich Scots language that he used can be pretty intimidating to decipher. A lot of pupils can indeed recite whole chunks from his Greatest Hits  To a Mouse, Tam o Shanter, Auld Lang Syne  but I doubt they could tell you what all the words actually mean. What is a syne anyway? I wanted to try and do something a little more relatable with my class, to try and teach them a few things that they might be able to put to use in future lessons or in later life.

To do this I needed a stimulus, and this fabulous piece of travel writing from 2014 was perfect: In Scotland, Guts, Glory and Haggis.

It focuses on one of Burnss most celebrated topics  the mysterious and elusive haggis  and gives pupils a modern insight, written in an engaging style. I used this article as the launch pad and inspiration for these lessons.

To simply read, memorize and recite Burnss poems felt pretty one-dimensional to me. I thought it was far more useful for students to play about with the language that he used, and the structure of his poetry, but also to write in their own register  which could be described as a pretty standard form of English with a smattering of regional colloquialisms.

Why write exclusively in the language of Burns when students have their own evolving, intricate modern Scots instead? I wanted to make use of both, and to do this I provided a glossary of 10 fabulously expressive Scots words used today (bauchle, blether, dreich, fankle, gallus, mooch, pockle, slitter, wabbit, wheescht), but also spoke to the class about how they spoke and what regional phrases they had in their armory.

Below, the lesson sequence. Notes to students are in italics, followed by my own notes on what happened in class.
The Second Amendment to the Constitution reads:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

The Library of Congress writes, The meaning of this sentence is not self-evident, and has given rise to much commentary but relatively few Supreme Court decisions.

What do you think the words of the Second Amendment mean? What relevance should they have for the national debate about gun laws?

Then read these four excerpts from Opinion pieces published this month in The Times  or follow the links to read the complete Op-Ed  and decide: What do you think lawmakers should do about guns and gun violence?

Excerpt 1: In John Paul Stevens: Repeal the Second Amendment, John Paul Stevens, a retired associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, writes:

Rarely in my lifetime have I seen the type of civic engagement schoolchildren and their supporters demonstrated in Washington and other major cities throughout the country this past Saturday. These demonstrations demand our respect. They reveal the broad public support for legislation to minimize the risk of mass killings of schoolchildren and others in our society. That support is a clear sign to lawmakers to enact legislation prohibiting civilian ownership of semiautomatic weapons, increasing the minimum age to buy a gun from 18 to 21 years old, and establishing more comprehensive background checks on all purchasers of firearms. But the demonstrators should seek more effective and more lasting reform. They should demand a repeal of the Second Amendment.

_________

Excerpt 2: In After the March, Follow This Gun Reform Battle Plan, Steve Israel, a Democratic representative from Long Island from 2001 to 2017, writes:

It has been 38 days since the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.; 174 days since the shooting at a concert in Las Vegas; 1,011 days since the killings at a church in Charleston, S.C.; and 1,926 since the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Ten days ago, students organized a nationwide school walkout to demonstrate their outrage about these and other shootings. On Saturday they plan to amass in Washington to pressure a Congress that has done nothing meaningful to protect American children in classrooms, movie theaters, churches, malls  because, thanks to the National Rifle Association, many of their elected representatives are too busy protecting their re-election. My advice to the students? When you finish marching on the mall, march into the specific congressional districts where you can actually make a difference.

He continues:

You can stage marches and school walkouts, but then walk into the swing congressional districts that matter. In the end its not about standing up to be heard. Its about changing who sits in Congress.

_________

Excerpt 3: In Stop Shielding Gun Makers, Brad S. Karp, the chairman of the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, and H. Christopher Boehning, a partner there, write:

Senator Charles Schumer has proposed three measures to reduce gun violence: expanded background checks, protective orders to disarm individuals at risk of violence or self-harm, and an assault weapons ban. These proposals are critically important. But there is another effective response that has been largely ignored: repeal of a law that prevents suits against the gun industry. A bedrock principle of the American legal system is accountability for wrongdoing. Businesses that cause harm may be held legally responsible in a court of law. Through the imposition of financial liability, our legal system encourages businesses to reduce harm to consumers by making their products safer and disclosing the risks associated with their use. Thanks in part to the accountability imposed by lawsuits, society knows more about the dangers of smoking, and tobacco companies market their products more responsibly. Automakers continually develop and install new safety features, and these innovations deliver results: From 1975 to 2016, the rate of motor vehicle deaths decreased by nearly half. While motor vehicle deaths have declined over the last two decades, firearm deaths have not: According to the most recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more people now die from firearms than motor vehicle accidents.

_________

Excerpt 4: In Why Gun Culture Is So Strong in Rural America, Robert Leonard, the news director for the radio stations KNIA and KRLS, writes:

Its been many years since I hunted squirrels and rabbits with my Grandpa Leonard. I grew up around guns and remember the pride I had when I completed my N.R.A.-sponsored gun safety training in Boy Scouts, back when the N.R.A. was a group primarily known for teaching gun appreciation and safety rather than lobbying. I have come to understand and appreciate arguments for more gun control. But guns are important to the culture in my conservative community in Iowa, and people around here reject most gun control legislation. So I do my best to understand where they are coming from. One morning after the mass shootings in Parkland, Fla., I spoke about them with a police-officer friend. He has led active-shooter trainings in our schools. He believes that better background checks might help prevent some gun violence, and that people need to do a better job securing their firearms (especially from suicidal teenagers). But he doesnt believe that significant gun control measures will ever meet approval in rural America, including a ban on AR-15-style semiautomatic rifles. He confided that many conservative police officers do not want more gun control and that other officers have told him that should they ever have to start taking guns away from people, they will quit their jobs. Like most rural conservatives, he truly believes that taking guns away from law-abiding citizens will never solve Americas gun problems, including mass shootings. He says gun control has never stopped criminals from getting guns, and never will.

_________



Students: After reading the four excerpts above, tell us:

 Why does this topic interest you? How have your own experiences shaped your opinions? What questions or concerns does this topic raise for you?

 Do you believe the government is currently striking the right balance between public safety and protecting peoples individual rights? Why or why not?

 Would you rather the government err on the side of protecting an individuals right to own a gun, or on the publics health and safety? Or do you feel this is a false choice? Why?

 After mass shootings or renewed fears that the government will ban gun ownership, many people go out to buy guns  perhaps to feel safer in times of insecurity. Americans now own more than 300 million guns. Do you think people buying more guns will prevent gun deaths?

 How should we try to reduce the number of gun deaths and injuries in the United States? Do you think lawmakers should pursue any of the options discussed in the Opinion pieces above? If so, which ones, and why?

 What other options or possible solutions exist, in your view, and why?
RE: RECOVERY

Leslie Jamison wrote about her recovery from alcoholism and its effect on her creativity.

The wisdom of Leslie Jamisons essay is found in its rare glimpse into the heart of addiction recovery. She asks the question Does recovery kill great writing? At its core, the question for all recovering people is Who am I without drugs and alcohol? The pursuit of recovery is the pursuit of your true narrative, a self-awareness journey without which recovery is, at best, abstinence, which frequently cannot be maintained.

As our country faces a terrible opioid-addiction crisis, frequently absent from the discussion of the necessary emergency lifesaving medication is this question: Then what? The answer frequently emerges for recovering people through the process Jamison describes. It is a process of baring ourselves to our peers by telling our stories, listening to their stories and holding each other to the truth, the truth of who we are. These are 12-step principles, as Jamison describes her experience in the rooms, and the process is available for everyone.
His character  referred to as Tigrero aloud and Loco in the subtitles  is a whispering sociopath and a symbol of the Darwinian brutality that governs Snow Hill. The actual governor wants to bring the area under the rule of law, and dispatches a bumbling, decent sheriff (Frank Wolff) to bring Tigrero and the rest of the bounty killers into line. The lawmans earnest efforts are a sideshow to the main drama, though, which pits Tigrero and his minions against a solitary avenger known as Silenzio.

Played by the great Jean-Louis Trintignant, Silenzio is a tragic, poetic variation on Clint Eastwoods taciturn Man With No Name. Silenzio is not a man of few words, but a survivor of horrific violence. When he was a child, the bounty hunters who murdered his parents severed his vocal cords to keep him from talking. He has grown up into Tigreros double and opposite, meting out justice for money and following a strict code of ethics. He will never draw his gun first, but he will always shoot faster than his adversary.

Silenzios services are solicited by Pauline (Vonetta McGee), the widow of one of Tigreros victims. The fact that she and her husband are black is at once a casual detail and a sign of the films anti-authoritarian, democratic ideology. The couple seems to have been welcomed by the other good people of Snow Hill, but their race is a big issue for the bad guys.

The plot takes a twist or two, but serves mainly as a thread linking shootouts and glowering confrontations, with a brief respite for love. The mood is sometimes jaunty, but The Great Silence is no joke, and the fatalism of its ending serves as an implicit critique of the sentimental optimism of many Hollywood westerns. Power speaks louder than silence.
On Wednesday, the New York Immigration Coalition, an activist group, announced its New York Counts 2020 campaign alongside congressional and local elected officials. The effort has three prongs: to fight the question; to pressure the United States Census Bureau to protect the information of all New Yorkers; and to reassure residents that they can safely respond.

At the news conference, Nydia Velazquez, a Democrat representing Queens, Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan, said she is co-sponsoring legislation in the House of Representatives that will require the Commerce Department to provide advance notice to Congress before changing questions on the census. Representative Grace Meng, a Democrat from Queens who sits on the committee that funds the census bureau, said she and her colleagues are considering withholding funds for 2019 unless the question is removed.

In a public hearing last week before the question was added, Ms. Meng confronted the Secretary of Commerce, Wilbur Ross, whose department oversees the U.S. Census Bureau. I told him directly that this is about accuracy; this is mandated by the Constitution to count every living person.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said that he would join the multistate lawsuit brought by the states attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, against the Trump administration, to try to block the question from being included.

In the last census count, in 2010, the citys response rate was 62 percent, but some heavily immigrant communities, like Washington Heights and the South Bronx, exceeded that, with more than 70 percent of residents answering the census questionnaires.

Adriano Espaillat, a Democrat who in 2010 was representing Washington Heights and Harlem in the State Assembly, said that was in part because of a robust effort by volunteers to convince residents their participation counted. Mr. Espaillat, who is now in Congress, said he could not yet encourage undocumented residents to take part.

I want to fight this question back, first, he said. If not in Congress, then in the courts. If at the end of this the question remains, then were going to have to come together to decide the messaging.
Enter the governor.

Mr. Cuomo, who has practically made a second career of flying to disaster areas and aiding stranded vehicles, headed to a police station adjacent to the Capitol to apparently plead for Mr. Lovetts release, winning it quickly. And then he emerged to a barrage of questions from the Capitols reporters, who had not seen the governor since before the conviction of Joseph Percoco, one of his closest friends and aides, of federal corruption charges on March 13.

And so it was that Mr. Cuomo  amid the nearby clamor of a free band concert and a profane, screaming constituent  gave an update on the budget. He pressed again for more money for the New York City Housing Authority, another front in his seemingly endless political war with Mayor Bill de Blasio. And he stressed that he wanted more money for the citys subways from the city itself, but said he would not support a reported request for assistance for a struggling upstate casino.
At the end of a recent Sunday service, the congregants at the Fourth Universalist Society on Central Park West placed their hands on the shoulders of a woman who stood in the center of the church. Then other members reached forward to touch those peoples shoulders, until the entire congregation was linked by touch like a radiating star.

It was a symbol of their commitment to put the woman, Aura Hernandez, 37, an undocumented Guatemalan immigrant, at the center of their churchs life for what may be months or even years to come. Two weeks ago, Ms. Hernandez moved into a worn former office at the historic Upper West Side church with her 15-month-old daughter, Camila, to avoid deportation to Guatemala. In doing so, she joins about 40 other immigrants around the nation who are being publicly shielded by houses of worship. She vows to remain there, without going outside, until her immigration status changes.

I dont intend to stand here with my arms crossed, and do nothing, Ms. Hernandez said in Spanish at the church on Tuesday, about her goal in seeking sanctuary. I have to stand up and raise my voice because an injustice is being committed to me and to us. I think Im here for a reason.
Across the nation, a backlash to the Trump agenda is underway, especially among angry suburban voters like Dr. Mutnick. The latest example surfaced earlier this month in a Pennsylvania congressional special election, where Conor Lamb, a Democrat, defeated his Republican opponent in a district outside Pittsburgh that Mr. Trump had won by 20 percentage points.

In New York, Democrats are mostly focused on unseating six Republican members of the congressional delegation. But for some, merely targeting Republicans is not enough; Mr. Kleins group, the Independent Democratic Conference, is now fair game because it is viewed as an enabler to Republican rule  helping them control the State Senate even though Democrats hold a numerical majority.

The rising antipathy toward the I.D.C. has led to a tentative agreement to have the renegade group eventually return to the Democratic fold. The condition-laden deal has the blessing of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a Democrat who has been criticized by some  most recently by his new primary opponent, Cynthia Nixon  for not using his influence to force a truce years earlier.

Nonetheless, residual anger over Mr. Trumps victory, combined with the Democrats hopes of flipping Congress in the midterm elections this fall, have invigorated efforts to drive the I.D.C. senators out of office.

A coalition of 60 anti-Trump groups has endorsed five Democratic challengers who will run against members of the I.D.C. in the September primary. The Working Families Party, which often cross-endorses Democratic candidates, has come out in support of seven challengers.
This is the man that we need in this fight, said Mr. Booker, whose 10-minute introduction reached such a crescendo that his voice grew hoarse. This is the man who will help us to stand against the storm, this is the man that is ready to continue to defend the State of New Jersey.

Nearly the entire 2,800-student population of Union City High School, excused from four periods of classes, filled the gymnasium, waving campaign fliers and bopping to the music of Marc Anthony and Luis Fonsi.

Mr. Menendez focused much of his speech on the youth in the crowd, recalling the nationwide protests for stronger gun laws and how the students at the School had their own protest. It was the youth, he said, that motivated him to run again.

While some of you are not old enough to vote, I am not here to ask for your vote, I am here because I am your vote in the United States Senate, he said.

Mr. Menendezs path to the Democratic nomination is fairly clear. If successful, his likely Republican opponent in the general election will be Bob Hugin, a former pharmaceutical executive with ties to former Gov. Chris Christie. Mr. Hugins ability to tap his fortune to finance his campaign could make the contest expensive and possibly more competitive than expected.

The race could also turn nasty. At the rally, members of the state Republican Party handed out Monopoly-like cards with Mr. Menendezs face on a cartoon prisoner and a photo of Mr. Menendez and Mr. Melgen vacationing together.
From Greg Swank, 12-4-2 You are about to read a list of 45 goals that found their way down the halls of our great Capitol back in 1963. As...
Arnold R. Hirsch, a historian whose landmark study of Chicago documented the role of government policy in creating highly segregated African-American ghettos during the mid-20th century, died on March 19 in Oak Park, Ill. He was 69.

The cause was complications of Parkinsons disease and Lewy body disease, according to his son Adam.

Professor Hirschs best-known book, Making the Second Ghetto: Race and Housing in Chicago, 1940-1960, published in 1983, began as an inquiry into the causes of the urban riots that racked American cities in the late 1960s, including the disturbances that followed the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Unlike the Kerner Commission and other bodies that focused on the proximate causes of the civil unrest, Professor Hirsch focused on the period immediately after the Great Depression and, in particular, the two decades following World War II. In that period, millions of African-Americans moved from the South to the North in a second Great Migration as transformative as the earlier one, which lasted from 1890 to 1930.
Yet the students do learn, here in one of the poorest countries in the world: They spoke French with me, and some were doing real geometry when I happened to drop in. One student, Doria Seleyanca, 13, said that his father had been killed in the warfare that has engulfed Central African Republic for 14 years, and his family doesnt have much. I eat one meal a day, he explained stoically.

Doria said he wanted to grow up to be a teacher  and he knew that an education was the only ticket to a better life.

Im on my annual win-a-trip journey, in which I take a university student with me on a reporting trip. My winner, Tyler Pager of Northwestern and Oxford Universities, has been visiting schools with me here in the Central African Republic  and they underscore the need for a new global focus on schooling.

Tragically, aid to education has been falling since 2010, says Julia Gillard, a former Australian prime minister who now leads the Global Partnership for Education, an international effort to support schooling in poor countries.

The United States talks a good game about global education, but it has never made a huge commitment. President Barack Obama promised as a candidate to start a $2 billion global education fund, but nothing more was heard about it. As for President Trump, he actually wants to slash aid, although Congress boosted support for the Global Partnership.
The identity and motive of Ms. Francos killers remain unknown, but its clear that the crime was premeditated: The assassins waited for her to leave the event and then followed her in two cars for a few miles. Then they engaged in a carefully targeted shooting and quickly left the scene without taking anything. According to investigators, the bullets came from police ammunition stocks. (The public security minister, Raul Jungmann, said he believed that they had been stolen from a post office.)

Brazil is one of the deadliest countries for human rights defenders in the world, alongside Colombia, Mexico and the Philippines. According to a report issued by Front Line Defenders, 67 activists were killed in Brazil last year. Of all the cases tracked by Front Line Defenders, only 12 percent resulted in the arrest of suspects. This seems to prove the sinister efficacy of the killings.

Even when the murders of Brazilian human rights defenders do receive coverage in the news media, people here frequently create other narratives to explain the murders: The person was killed by a lover, or by drug traffickers or by the mob, or committed suicide. And worse: the person might have deserved it.

Its happening now with Ms. Franco. Soon after her killing, fake news began to circulate on social media. Some items said she was married to a drug trafficker, others that she was a member of a criminal organization. Some articles said she had smoked pot. Some articles claimed that she had a baby at 16. What a crime! (The truth: She had a baby at 19, a girl named Luyara. I cannot image how this is relevant to her assassination.)

A few weeks on, the narrative around Ms. Francos death is changing once again. Television newscasts play up the melodrama, focusing on the human tragedy; we can never get enough close-up shots of family members crying. Then they use this weeping momentum to put everything under the broader umbrella of Rios violence so that they can conclude by happily announcing that the federal government will liberate a couple of extra hundred million reals for the military intervention in Rio de Janeiro. Problem solved.

This is exactly the opposite of what Marielle Franco stood for.

She spent her days fighting inequality and injustice  not against an abstract notion of violence. So theres no point in bringing more terror and repression to favelas, killing more of the same people (black, young and poor). Diverting resources from areas such as health and education to fund more bullets and tanks will only aggravate the violence. For that matter, Ms. Franco had advocated a new drug policy that didnt involve armed incursions into communities. She also supported more diversity in political representation, encouraging the participation and candidacy of women and L.G.B.T. and indigenous people. Her way was the democratic way  not the authoritarian way of military rule.

She saw herself and other women as a real threat to the status quo, as she wrote last year in a newspaper article. In her opinion, the government wanted to constrain democracy in Brazil. But we, black women from the poor neighborhoods, are going to affront this authoritarian nonsense, she said.

Her last words caught on tape were addressed to a crowd of young black women: Lets go together and occupy everything.
In an Op-Ed essay on Tuesday, the former Supreme Court justice John Paul Stevens called for the repeal of the Second Amendment. Readers debated it on social media and in the comments section of the piece. Below is a sample of some representative viewpoints, edited lightly for clarity. For more, read the essay and comments here.

Retired Justice Stevens confirms the need for conservative voices on the Supreme Court. He would change the second most important amendment based solely on his emotional lack of logic, not on history. The Second Amendment was created to guarantee the eternal freedom of the citizenry from an overreaching federal government. The same argument applies today, as history proves that one of the first steps for authoritarian governments is to remove firearms from their future serfs. Then comes free speech and religion. The founding fathers were much more wise than Stevens.  Jon Galt, Tex.

Frankly, in the wake of District of Columbia v. Heller, I dont see how any meaningful gun control could be enacted without a repeal of the Second Amendment. Heller elevated the right to own a gun to such a high level, it is right up there with freedom of speech and the right to due process. Even the most mild, seemingly sensible gun control measures can now be challenged on constitutional grounds, with a high probability of success. Heller created such an impregnable shield around the Second Amendment that tearing it out root and branch seems like the only way.  Dennis Fritz

Right-wing talking points aside, the Second Amendment was never written to guarantee the eternal freedom of the citizenry from an overreaching federal government. It was written  long before we had a standing army  to guarantee a well-regulated militia to defend the country from being attacked. It is a relic we tolerate to maintain consensus and something resembling unity in this country.  Eric Beyer, New York
Ricky Gervais, the British comedian, does not care what you say about him on Twitter. He does not care if you are offended. He does not care if you hate the latest joke he told about rape, or the Bible, or Caitlyn Jenner, or Hitler or your childs fatal peanut allergy. And just to make sure youre crystal clear on all of the tweets he does not remotely care about, he has built his new Netflix stand-up special, Ricky Gervais: Humanity, around them  these negligible tweets, the droning of gnats, several years of which he appears to have accidentally screen-grabbed and saved to his phone. (Ricky Gervais: Butterfingers!)

Similarly, I dont care about Formula One racing, which is why Im working on a tight 75-minute act about the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Gervais seems to care quite intensely, of course, which is natural. It would be grotesque, inhuman, not to care. Absorbing critique on a scale as vast as Gervaiss Twitter feed (13.1 million followers), whether the specific critiques are warranted or not, is objectively grueling. Stand-up comedy is vulnerable and hard. Twitter is awful. Devoid of context, Gervaiss bravado might be sympathetic, a relatable if tedious coping mechanism. As Gervais himself helpfully points out in Humanity, however, nothing can truly be divorced from context.

So heres some context for you: Last week, the secretary of housing and urban development, Ben Carson, testified in front of a House subcommittee that trans women in homeless shelters make cisgender women not comfortable. According to a 2016 survey by the National Center for Transgender Equality, 20 percent of trans people report having been homeless at some point because of their gender identity, 55 percent report being harassed by homeless shelter residents and staff, and 29 percent have been turned away from shelters for being trans. Meanwhile, on Netflix, Gervais graphically speculated about Caitlyn Jenners gender confirmation surgery, repeatedly referred to her as a big strong man, relentlessly called her by her pre-transition name and compared gender dysphoria to a human choosing to identify as a chimpanzee.
I dont want to wring my hands about this attitudes corrosive effect on our politics, because it seems to me that once conservatism surrendered to Donald Trump, arguments about corrosion became a bit irrelevant. Rubio shouldnt be in politics if he cant handle vehement attacks, and the president that the Florida senator endorsed is as consistently ad hominem as the young school shooting survivors with rather less excuse.

But there are things that you can risk or lose when you fight the way Rubios critics seem to want to fight. For instance, one reason that the Dreamer amnesty was an executive decision that Donald Trump could simply reverse, landing us in our current immigration stalemate, was that the Obama White House deliberately chose to make it one, pre-empting an effort by, yes, Marco Rubio to craft bipartisan legislation. That was a good example of smash-mouth liberalism, albeit substantive in that case rather than just rhetorical and driven by fear of Rubio rather than the current spirit of contempt: Dont let a Republican politician make nice with Latino voters, dont let Republicans disguise their anti-immigrant views with modest bipartisan maneuvers, create a clear contrast so that voters will reward you even if doing so requires pushing certain constitutional limits on your power.

And it didnt work out particularly well. Indeed if anything Obamas executive action contributed to Trumps victory by helping to radicalize conservative voters, and now several years later the Dreamer cohort is back in limbo because the executive move lacked bipartisan support and legislative form. Maybe in the longer run the whole debate will help smash the G.O.P. as liberals believe it deserves to be smashed  but not just yet.

Or another example, this one in the Trump era itself: During the debate over the Republican tax bill it was, again, Marco Rubio who made an extended effort to move the bill in a more middle-class-friendly direction by adding and then enlarging a child tax credit. The push was opposed by many of his Republican colleagues, but for a time Rubio thought that he could get an amendment in with Senate Democrat support. But in the end, presumably on the grounds that modestly improving a Republican bill makes it harder to attack it later, only nine Senate Democrats voted for the Rubio proposal, and it went down to an easy defeat.

Again, maybe this was an example of tough liberals brilliantly playing hardball: Dont let Rubio have any kind of victory for his slightly more popular flavor of Republicanism, so that he and his party will be easier to crush in 2018 and beyond. But in the interim it meant that Senate Democrats gave up a chance to move real world public policy in a direction many of them support, in order to pursue an as-yet-hypothetical larger victory that may not, like the Hillary Clinton presidency before it, actually materialize.

Its too soon to say whether this dynamic will repeat itself with the post-Parkland gun control debate. Again, the activists anti-Rubio zeal might actually help the progress of legislation, by holding him to his newfound promises. Or there might be no point in making a deal unless hes willing to accept something closer to the full list of activist demands. Or no bargain of any sort might be possible so long as Republicans hold the Senate, or even so long as they hold seats in states like Florida  in which case the hate for the senator is just a necessary path to his eventual retirement.
SINGAPORE  Days before winning the election in 2016, Donald Trump stood on a stage and directed an accusation at a tiny country halfway across the world: Singapore, he said, was stealing American jobs.

Singapore is now on the tip of Mr. Trumps tongue again  but this time, hes expressing admiration for its death penalty for drug trafficking. He has reportedly invited government representatives to brief the White House on their approach to drug trafficking, including their use of capital punishment. Mr. Trump seems to believe he can learn a thing or two from Singapore.

This is convenient for the Singapore government, which has been using the global opioid crisis as an argument for the retention of capital punishment. While the American media reported Mr. Trumps praise for Singapores zero tolerance stance, the country hanged a 39-year-old Ghanaian named Billy Agbozo on March 9, and a 56-year-old Singaporean, Hishamrudin bin Mohd, on March 16. Both had been convicted of drug trafficking. These are the first two executions of 2018, as far as we know; information about imminent executions is not made available, and the prison service announces the number of hangings only in its annual report.

But the borrowing of ideas hasnt been a one-way street: the government here has taken a page out of Mr. Trumps book. The new Select Committee on Deliberate Online Falsehoods is holding public hearings to explore measures for tackling fake news. The committee is meant to examine a range of options, but there are strong hints that new restrictions on the media are on the way, not least because the law minister, who is also a member of the committee, has already said that legislation is a no-brainer.
Transgender Americans first secured the right to defend their nation as equals in 2016, under President Barack Obama, who made gender identity a protected category in the Pentagons equal opportunity policy. Mr. Trumps announcement last summer was an attempt to reverse that Obama-era policy  and a clear effort to pander to Vice President Mike Pence, other right-wing zealots and regressive generals. The United States will not accept or allow transgender people in the military in any capacity, Mr. Trump tweeted at the time. The president, who avoided fighting in the Vietnam War by getting five deferments, also suggested that transgender enlistees are unfit to serve, tweeting that the military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory.

In October, after a federal judge in Washington, D.C., temporarily blocked the move and said the ban was probably unconstitutional, Mr. Trump directed the Pentagon to find a way to carry out a version of the ban, and in February, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis provided a recommendation. Mr. Mattis, a former Marine general, said that there were substantial risks related to transgender people who serve in the military and that allowing some of them to serve would amount to an exemption from certain mental, physical and sex-based standards, potentially undermining troops readiness and disrupting unit cohesion.

Although Mr. Mattis is considered Mr. Trumps most responsible foreign policy adviser, his handling of this matter has been disappointing. His report to Mr. Trump dismissed a RAND Corporation study that found that allowing transgender people to serve would have minimal impact on Pentagon readiness and health care costs.

It also seemed at odds with the comments of Gen. Joseph Dunford Jr. of the Marines, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who told the Senate Armed Services Committee last fall that transgender troops have served with honor  not to mention research predicting there would be little to no impact on unit cohesion, operational effectiveness or readiness if transgender people were allowed to serve. Two senior Republican senators, John McCain of Arizona, who is a former P.O.W., and Orrin Hatch of Utah, as well as a group of 56 retired generals and admirals, have voiced similar views.

The number of affected troops is small; an estimated 2,000 to 11,000 identify as transgender, out of a total military force of 1.3 million active-duty members. But Mr. Trumps discriminatory and inhumane order adds immeasurably to the suffering of this minority population yearning to come out of the shadows, be treated as human beings, feel respected and be permitted to serve their country.
Soon after taking office, Kennedy began escalating American military involvement in Vietnam. In June 1961, following the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, he told James Reston of The New York Times that we have a problem in making our power credible and Vietnam is the place. By November 1963, Kennedy had dispatched 16,300 military advisers to South Vietnam. As late as the morning of Nov. 22, he said, Without the United States, South Vietnam would collapse overnight.

Assuming the presidency when Kennedy was assassinated a few hours later, Lyndon B. Johnson felt bound to continue his predecessors course. Less confident about Vietnam than he was about domestic matters, Johnson regularly asked the foreign policy advisers he inherited from Kennedy  chiefly Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara, and his national security adviser, McGeorge Bundy  what Kennedy would have done, and then he did it. Their confident recommendation was that the American commitment to victory in Vietnam must be maintained.

After Johnson was elected in 1964 to a term in his own right, hawkish pressures from the administrations Kennedy alumni intensified. In February 1965 Bundy returned from South Vietnam and said that the war was lost unless the United States launched a sustained bombing campaign against the North. Johnson quickly approved Operation Rolling Thunder, which lasted, with brief pauses, for three years, the largest sustained air campaign in the history of warfare. With repeated reassurance from his advisers that eventually a crossover point would be reached at which the Communists decided they couldnt win, Johnson steadily increased the American troop presence in Vietnam, which rose above a half-million.

To raise the manpower needed, Johnson saw conscription as a less politically risky approach than calling up the reserves or National Guard, which would have forced many married, middle-class men to leave their jobs and families. College students, whose numbers had swelled to 7.5 million from 2.1 million in 1952, became increasingly alarmed that the draft soon would extend to them. The draft was the best organizing tool we had, said the antiwar activist Sam Brown. Not just male students but also their sisters and girlfriends joined protests against the war on campuses and in Washington.

Demonstrations were not the only manifestation of the growing opposition to the war. Senator Eugene McCarthy and  after seeing how vulnerable Johnson was to an intraparty challenge when McCarthy nearly won the March 12 New Hampshire primary  Senator Robert F. Kennedy entered the race for the Democratic nomination. Days afterward, Johnsons wise men, 14 high-ranking foreign policy officials from recent administrations who previously had endorsed his conduct of the war, told the president that we must take steps to disengage. Johnson withdrew from the election at the end of the month.
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In the legendary words of JM, until one attains the height of leadership, they are not qualified to even critique a leader. How wrong he was!



Criticism, however, must be constructive and devoid of pettiness and mischief. The supreme objective of ones criticisms must be to build up and not to destroy.



This is the spirit guiding my train of thought in this piece. For, Im not the fountain of knowledge; neither do I claim to be the repository of wisdom. I might not even be fit to question the wisdom of the President regarding his choice of Ministers, Deputies and CEOs. But one thing evidently clear to all and sundry is that, this President is a listening President.



My intention in writing this piece is to among other things, afford His Excellency the President, a rare opportunity to read, hear and see for himself what the overwhelming majority of his subjects think of some of his appointees.



What he, the President chooses to do with that priceless information afterwards is not my business except to say; it may only shape his legacy for future generations. And sometimes, the future comes in four year cycles.



The overwhelming majority of the Ghanaian people who voted this Government into power did so because they were of the impression that President Akufo-Addo would be a no-nonsense, action oriented leader. As things stand now, they keep questioning themselves, eyeing each other and murmuring; when is our President going to strike?



Our gutters continue to choke with filth, our street lights work only at day. The pot-holes on our roads graduate to man-holes whiles our 110 Ministers transition from i10s to Land cruisers and Pathfinders. From whence cometh our help? Achebe said, For how long must feverish birds tremble in silence before the very eyes of their silent keeper.



Sir, your timely and bold decision to appoint Martin A.B.K. Amidu even amidst strong internal apprehension sent the entire (almost) nation into celebration mood.



The indications are clear on the wall; the Ghanaian people voted for a drastic change not a marginal one. You represent our best chance of tracing our steps back to prosperity. We need you to be hard and uncompromising. We need you to crack the whip lest you spoil our Ministers and CEOs.



Sir, without your hardness, you are just like any other President and that includes the immediate past one. If that does not scare you, then our problems are bigger than we know. Respectfully Mr. President, let some heads roll. Most of your appointees will surely not survive a week in Kagames Kigali. No way!



My dear reader, please be civil and decorous in your submissions. Mention the names of the ten (10) least efficient appointees of the President, i.e. Ministers, Deputies or CEOs who deserve the sack and support your claims with cogent reasons where possible. Your President is listening.



Welcome home from Abidjan. Abidjan declaration, I salute.



God bless our homeland Ghana and God bless our President.

Source: Michael Nana Sasu/ Research Fellow Danquah Institute









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.

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Contradictions and debates abound over which groups governments list as terrorist and which they dont. Some examples: The United States main partner against the Islamic State in Syria is a Kurdish militia listed as terrorist by a critical NATO ally, Turkey. Hezbollah, which is listed as a terrorist group by the United States government, is also a political party represented in Lebanons Parliament. And some groups argue that when a government deliberately bombs civilians, that too should be called terrorism.

It strikes me that in media coverage in general, terrorism is often used as if it were a synonym for Islamist extremist violence. That grates on me: Terrorism  whatever your working definition is  is a method, not an ideology. Its a method that could be used, and has been used in history, to further a wide spectrum of different ideologies.

For these reasons, I try to avoid using the terms terrorist and terrorism at all, unless they are inside quotation marks or refer to a governments decision to place a group on its designated terrorist list.

During all these years of wrestling with how to cover violence, I have found it more precise and informative to simply describe exactly what the attack was  how it was done, how many people it killed, whether there is a known or suspected motive  rather than label it terrorist or not. Whats most important is what crime was committed and what its impact was.

Calling a Black Child a Man

Why do you (and other outlets) keep referring to Draylen Mason as a man? He was a 17-year-old boy or teen. Calling him a man somehow feels like an effort to desensitize people to his loss.  Anne, Spokane, Wash.

Marc Lacey, National Editor: I agree with you that, at the age of 17, Draylen Mason was a child, a teenager, one who had a promising future as a musician, as we noted here. There were two instances in which we referred to him as a man. Both were later updated. I appreciate your raising this issue.

Treatment of White Suspects

He is not the victim! When a POC is the victim they are treated far worse than this godly boy whom we are lucky didnt kill more people with his bombs. Imagine if he was Muslim.  Tyrone Dockery When its a white kid, we are quick to throw out the misguided or severely disturbed or whatever linkage to their mental state  TBunkNasty Why are you bending over backwards to try and concoct an image of this evil, hateful killer? Asking neighbors, friends, family for their biased, inaccurate, or revisionist opinions of the killer and his motives does nothing except insult the good people he KILLED.  Bruce, Seattle

Marc Lacey, National Editor: I agree with readers on this point  that the only victims in this story are the ones Mark Conditt killed and injured. He is not a victim.

After such events, we journalists write profiles of the perpetrators of such attacks as we try to understand their backgrounds and what may have motivated them. Heres one such piece we did on Omar Mateen and another on Dylann Roof.
Arctic foxes are endangered in Sweden, Norway and Finland, scattered in isolated populations that can fall victim to severe inbreeding, further threatening their survival.

Thats what happened to a group descended from six white foxes that settled in the early 2000s on Helagsfjallet, the highest mountain in southern Sweden.

But in 2010, a local ranger noticed something different: slate-colored or blue Arctic foxes, which had to be newcomers. The immigrants presented a rare opportunity for scientists to study what happens when new genetic material flows into a small, isolated population threatened with extinction.

In a study published Wednesday in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, scientists from Sweden and Norway reported that just three new males dramatically reduced inbreeding and produced a generation of more robust offspring in the Helagsfjallet arctic fox population.
The researchers in this study were able to observe how sex or age influenced interactions while traveling, looking at who stayed close to whom and which animals started movements and which copied. They discovered, for example, that calves rely on social cues and stay close to others, but mature bulls were more autonomous.

If you want to understand the full picture you have to consider the social context, because in this group of moving species, the interactions between individuals can be just as important as the traits of individuals themselves, said Dr. Berdahl.

[READ: Hunting Moose in Canada to Save Caribou From Wolves]

He thinks that when these caribou come together, they can better sense and respond to the perilous ice they cross. Its called collective sensing.

Whats interesting is that they can achieve collective behavior  migrating together  without any individual deciding thats what they need to do or making any global assessments, said Deborah Gordon, who studies collective behavior in ants at Stanford University and was not involved in this study. Thats how nature works at many scales  from the cells in our bodies to herds of caribou.

Understanding such collective behavior is important as the environments migratory animals live in change with the climate and human activity. And these new technologies can contribute to ongoing caribou conservation efforts said Kim Poole, a wildlife biologist at Aurora Wildlife Research in British Columbia who has studied island caribou sea ice crossings.

[READ: Americas Gray Ghosts: The Disappearing Caribou]

In the future, combining drone footage of behavior with high resolution maps of terrain may offer clues to how these animals and others deal with danger.
The Wing, the members-only association for women that calls itself a coven not a sorority, has presented its clubhouses as impeccably designed safe spaces for women to work, network, nosh, primp and talk politics.

[Update: Audrey Gelman steps down as CEO of the Wing.]

Now, a year and a half after first opening in the Flatiron district of Manhattan, the company is also the subject of an investigation by the New York City Commission on Human Rights for possible discrimination violations, said Seth Hoy, a spokesman for the commission.

[Read More: The Wing is a womens utopia. Unless you work there.]

According to the commissions website, its purpose is to enforce the New York City Human Rights Law, which prohibits discrimination in New York City. The areas covered by the Human Rights Law include employment, housing and public accommodations.

We are investigating the Wing after receiving a tip from the public and reading media coverage of their policies, Mr. Hoy said. The news was first reported by Jezebel.
If you look at the delete Facebook hashtag, people are really angry. And I think theyre sort of becoming aware of the extent to which theyre being watched and tracked. This feels like its a turning point for many of the people who use Facebook and arent happy about how their data is being used. And the more they find out, the less happy they are. I think people underestimate how hard it is to untangle ourselves from a social network like Facebook. So before you delete your Facebook account, just remember that its not just Facebook that youll be losing access to. Its also all of the third-party apps that you use Facebook to log in to or that are connected or plugged into your Facebook account. So its important before you make this choice to go through those apps, see which ones you still need access to, and if there are any, to switch your login from Facebook to something else. So you can still access it even after youve deleted your Facebook account. And there are just some apps that you wont have access to if you delete your Facebook account. Facebook has a lot of ways to track your activity even if youre not logged in or if you delete your account entirely, and it uses what it calls the social graph to track the activity of people across the internet beyond just Facebook.com. This accounts for everyone who uses the internet, and you dont have to have a Facebook profile to be tracked by Facebook. For example, if your friends have Facebook accounts or Facebook Messenger accounts and if theyve uploaded their contacts to Facebook and if youre one of their contacts, then Facebook knows your name and your phone number and can track you. When you deactivate or delete your Facebook profile, your profile disappears and people cant see what you posted or search for you. But all of the data that you gave over to third-party app developers is still out there. And those developers are not required to delete it or do anything with it. They can use it however they want. For as long as they want. Theres a whole list of ways that Facebook will track you outside of Facebook.com. To do the full cleanse, you would have to actually manually block a list of URLs that they use to track you. These are the lengths youd have to go to if you truly wanted to get off of Facebooks grid.
SAN FRANCISCO  One of the founders of Otto, a self-driving truck company founded by former Google employees and acquired by Uber, has left the ride-hailing service.

Lior Ron  who along with Anthony Levandowski sold Otto to Uber in 2016, six months after leaving Google  was in charge of Uber Freight, a truck shipment booking service. Most of Uber Freights business does not involve the companys autonomous trucks.

The departure followed a fatal crash involving an Uber self-driving car in Tempe, Ariz. The police said the car, driving in autonomous mode, had failed to slow down before it struck and killed a woman who was walking her bicycle across a street.

Uber has stopped testing of its autonomous vehicles in Arizona, California, Pittsburgh and Toronto while investigators look into the accident. A week after Uber halted testing, Arizonas governor ordered the companys self-driving cars off state roads. Uber also pulled an application to renew its permit for testing autonomous vehicles in California.
In an email in November, a top HUD official relayed the news that the head of the Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity division, Anna Maria Farias, had ordered a hold on about a half-dozen fair housing investigations given the highest priority under Mr. Carsons most recent predecessor, Julian Castro. The freeze would be in effect until further notice, the official wrote.

The investigations, known as secretary-initiated cases to indicate their importance, had been used in the past to set precedent and to put other localities and developers on notice.

One of the delayed investigations looked at an ordinance in Hesperia, Calif., that prevented the siting of neighborhood group homes for parolees and former offenders throughout the citys neighborhoods. HUD investigators saw the case as an important test of the federal resolve to rehabilitate low-level offenders, who often face housing and job discrimination when they are released, leaving them in need of government assistance.

Other cases that were held up involved questions about the accessibility to the disabled of new dwellings built by a pair of large residential construction companies, Toll Brothers and Epcon Communities, in New York City and Ohio, according to a department official.

One high-profile case never made it to that stage.

HUD had opened a case in late 2016 in response to a ProPublica article that said Facebook gives advertisers the ability to exclude specific groups it calls ethnic affinities from seeing their ads when their social media habits identified them as black, Hispanic or Asian-American.
The catastrophic failure of a storage tank this month at an Ohio fertility clinic caused the apparent loss of more than 4,000 frozen embryos and eggs, the clinic said this week.

About 950 patients were affected by the failure, in which the tanks temperature rose and an alarm did not go off, the University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, which oversees the clinic, said in a letter that was sent to patients on Monday and posted on its website.

We are heartbroken to tell you that its unlikely any are viable, the letter said.

The letter was an update to an announcement on March 8 that the tissue storage bank where eggs and embryos are stored in liquid nitrogen had experienced an unexpected temperature fluctuation the previous weekend. At the time, the hospital said it did not know whether the eggs and embryos were still viable.

In its letter this week, the organization said that the 4,000 specimens affected were at least twice as many as it had originally estimated.
Nancy McFadden, a lawyer and political adviser who spent years in Washington working in the Clinton administration and later became the most important aide to Gov. Jerry Brown of California, died last Thursday at her home in Sacramento. She was 59.

The cause was ovarian cancer, the governor said in a statement.

In January, Ms. McFadden announced that she would step away from her daily duties in the governors office to receive medical treatment. She learned she had ovarian cancer in 2002, while she was working for a previous California governor, Gray Davis.

Ms. McFaddens title, executive secretary, masked her importance in California. Governor Brown called her the best chief of staff a governor could ever ask for.

She understood government and politics, she could manage, she was a diplomat, and she was fearless, he said.
WASHINGTON  In the final months of the Obama administration, the Justice Department announced a new approach to preparing prisoners for life beyond their cells. Officials created a prison school system, pledged money for technology training and promised to help prevent former inmates from returning to prison.

Almost immediately after taking office, Trump administration officials began undoing their work. Budgets were slashed, the school system was scrapped and studies were shelved as Attorney General Jeff Sessions brought to bear his tough-on-crime philosophy and deep skepticism of Obama-era crime-fighting policies.

Now, nearly a year and a half later, the White House has declared that reducing recidivism and improving prisoner education is a top priority  echoing some of the very policies it helped dismantle.

This whiplash approach to federal prison policy reflects the tension between Jared Kushner, the presidents reform-minded son-in-law and senior adviser, and Mr. Sessions, a hard-liner whose views on criminal justice were forged at the height of the drug war. It has left both Democratic and Republican lawmakers confused and has contributed to skepticism that the Trump administration is serious about its own proposals.
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La luz que nos guia



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Feudalismo ayer y hoy



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Los ricos protestan, los pobres celebran



MARICORI Y OBAMA



Cuantas muertes este ano?



USA TODAY



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USA HOY (1)



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Chavez Cuanto te queremos!



Por culpa de Chavez



Cerveza Polar







Algun dia Colombia volvera a la ideologia de Bolivar







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LOS REVOLUCIONARIOS NO TOMAN CACA-COLA No se trata solamente de un capricho, sino de una sana actitud en todos los sentidos. Desde la solidaridad con el pueblo colombiano donde la empresa Caca-Cola ha cometido los mas grandes abusos contra sus trabajadores incluyendo el presunto secuestro y asesinato de los dirigentes del sindicato, hasta la proteccion de la salud de nuestros hijos, enviciados por ese jarabe de cola y azucar, que les produce obesidad prematura. Pensemos tambien los revolucionarios, que ese dinero que gastamos en los refrescos es utilizado por esas empresas para financiar el terrorismo en nuestro pais. Es cierto, no se trata solo de la Caca-Cola, sino tambien de la cerveza, de los cigarrillos y todos esos articulos innecesarios y mas que eso, daninos para nuestra salud. Podriamos incluso pensar en un dia de parada para cada uno de ellos. Es cuestion de irnos organizando. Pero para empezar, que tal si dejamos de comprar Caca-Cola y sus similares?



























Cuando lo extraordinario se vuelve cotidiano...



Discurso del Acto de Grado en Barinas en 12 de Febrero del 2005 Queridos Graduandos:



Mas que un discurso, quiero dirigirles algunas palabras que escribi anoche, despues de visitar en las clinicas, a los estudiantes heridos, a consecuencia de los enfrentamientos con la policia de hace apenas dos dias.



Me ha tocado por razones del destino, ser la persona que les otorgue el titulo que bien merecieron con sus estudios. Y me siento sumamente orgulloso de serlo. Me consta que la Universidad de Los Llanos Occidentales Ezequiel Zamora, a pesar de lo dicho por los enemigos de esta universidad, es una universidad de primera.



No tendremos la mejor planta fisica, en los salones hace calor. En el comedor hace calor. Pero no es en lo material que las cosas deben valorarse. El mayor capital es el ser humano. Y en eso, nuestra UNELLEZ, lo digo con conocimiento de causa, esta sobrada. Los llaneros venezolanos son nobles, valientes, de coraje.



En la UNELLEZ hacen vida, en este momento, aproximadamente 67000 personas. El 97% de ellas son estudiantes. Jovenes que, como Ustedes hasta el dia de hoy, buscan ese titulo, que constata los anos de dedicacion y de estudio.



Los jovenes son el rio de la vida, ustedes graduados deben ser los capitanes de esos barcos que naveguen por el rio de la vida.



Nuestra Patria atraviesa momentos muy dificiles porque decidio dejar de ser esa matrona de edad vetusta y complaciente, para ser joven, rebelde y altanera. Nuestra imagen ya no es la de una acaudalada ricachona mayamera. En nuestro rostro brilla ahora la sonrisa del Che Guevara, con su diente delantero torcido, su pelo largo y su boina con la estrella.



Entender esto, a mi me ha tomado practicamente toda la vida. Tengo 53 anos, y ya perdi mi oportunidad de derramar sangre joven a causa de un ideal.



Ustedes son jovenes, estan en la flor de la vida. No cometan por favor el error de renunciar a su instinto de rebelion. El Che Guevara fue Ministro de a Economia en Cuba. Los billetes y las monedas se adornaban con su rostro. Nada de eso le importo. Primero fue a Angola donde paso un penoso ano de combate. Despues se fue a Bolivia, donde encontro la muerte. El Che era el ultimo que comia, el que cargaba la mochila mas pesada. Siempre se sacrificaba por los demas en un estoicismo que mas parecia fervor religioso que ideologia marxista.



Si quieren un modelo de vida. Ahi lo tienen.



Dije hace unos momentos que el 97% de la poblacion de la UNELLEZ es estudiante. Se imaginan Ustedes la Universidad que podriamos tener si todos los estudiantes tuvieran la abnegacion, la combatividad del Che?



Los momentos que se avecinan van a requerir de una gran unidad del pueblo venezolano. La alternativa de continuar siendo libres o regresar a la pobreza se nos planteara en los proximos dias de forma enmascarada, o quizas peor, desenmascarada, vestida con uniforme de soldado del Imperio.



Por nuestra parte podemos esperar lo mejor. La macroeconomia no podria ir mejor, la justicia social ha mejorado notablemente. Las misiones ocupan un papel muy importante en el pago de dicha justicia social. Aqui en Barinas ya hemos cumplido con dos de las misiones, la mision Robinson y la mision Sucre. No hay analfabetismo y no hay exclusion en la educacion superior, en estas tierras de Zamora.



Pero ay malhaya! Son precisamente estos exitos los que nos hacen mas antipaticos al Imperio. Para ellos, somos inclusive un mal ejemplo que se esta contagiando al resto del continente y cuidado sino al resto del mundo.



Nunca venceremos al Imperio. Estara siempre ahi, acechando. Por lo menos hasta que el mismo no se autodestruya. Porque, sepanlo senores, el neoliberalismo es canibal. Cuando le ataque el hambre, se devorara a si mismo.



Ustedes, queridos graduandos, a partir de hoy pasan a conformar la elite profesional que debe sostener este pais en los proximos cuarenta o cincuenta anos. Anos decisivos para el logro de nuestra libertad y del rescate de nuestra Soberania.



No se dejen comprar. No se dejen corromper. No se dejen gritar. No se dejen pisar. Que nadie les diga que comer, o que vestirse, o que leer. Sean siempre autenticos, rebeldes, contestatarios. Pero eso si, profundamente patriotas, dignos de ser hijos de Bolivar.



Muchas gracias y que Dios los bendiga.





Alguna duda?



Medio siglo de Holocausto Palestino



Oscar Zanartu Nacio en Caracas en 1960. Ha realizado exposiciones individuales en las galerias Minotauro, Clave y San Francisco, y en salas de Coro, estado Falcon, y Puerto Ordaz, estado Bolivar. En Paris su obra ha sido exhibida en el Centro Cultural Tanagra, en la Exposicion Cite Internationale des Arts, en las galerias De Mars y Arver Space, al igual que en la Galeria Municipal Levallois, en Levallois Perret (Francia). En muestras colectivas, su obra se ha expuesto en Belgica, Francia, Estados Unidos y Venezuela; en Caracas intervino en la exposicion "Del genesis a la memoria", 1995, organizada por la Fundacion La Previsora. En 1982 obtuvo el Premio Nacional Critven y en 1990 la Mencion de Honor Jose Antonio Paez, en la Embajada de Venezuela en Paris. En 1991 se le concedio el primer premio de Pintura Itinerante, en Levallois Perret, Francia.



OZ1



OZ2



OZ3



OZ4



Homenaje a Jason Galarraga



La Victoria de Samotracia



Odalisca



Mas fotos de la nevada del pasado agosto 2008



























La Sierra Nevada de Merida



Nuestro precioso Churum Meru



Homenaje a Picasso



Autoretrato



Sabes lo que bebes en una Coca-Cola?

La formula de la Pepsi tiene una diferencia basica con la de la Coca-Cola y es intencional, para evitar el proceso judicial. La diferencia es a proposito, pero suficientemente parecida como para atraer a los consumidores de Coca-Cola que prefieren un gusto diferente con menos sal y azucar.

Mi profesion?

Tuve que aprender quimica, entender todo sobre componentes de gaseosas, conservantes, sales, acidos, cafeina, enlatado, produccion, permisos, aprobaciones y muchas otras cosas. Monte mi propio mini-laboratorio de analisis de productos.

Sal en la Coca Cola?

A patadas. El Cloruro de Sodio no solo refresca sino da mas sed, como para pedir otra gaseosa. Y no resulta desagradable porque la sal mata literalmente la sensibilidad al dulce... del que por cierto tambien tiene mucho: 39 gramos de azucar.

De los 350 gramos de producto liquido, mas del 10% es azucar, o sea que en una lata de Coca-Cola mas de un centimetro y medio es puro azucar en polvo. Aproximadamente tres cucharadas soperas llenas de azucar por lata!!La formula de la Coca Cola es muy sencilla:

Concentrado de azucar quemado caramelo- para dar color oscuro y gusto

Acido fosforito (para darle el sabor acido)

azucar (HFCS-jarabe de maiz de alta fructosa)

Extracto de hojas de la planta de Coca (Africa e India) y otros pocos aromatizantes naturales de otras plantas

Mucha Cafeina

Conservante que puede ser Benzoato de Sodio o Potasio

Dioxido de Carbono en cantidad para sentir freir la lengua cuando se bebe

Sal para dar la sensacion de refrigeracion

El uso del acido fosforito y no del acido citrico como en todas las demas gaseosas, es para dar la sensacion de dientes y boca limpia al beber. El acido fosforito literalmente frie todo y dana el esmalte de los dientes, cosa que el acido citrico lo hace en menor grado.Trate de comprar acido fosforito para ver las mil recomendaciones de seguridad que te dan para su manipulacion (quema el cristalino del ojo, quema la piel, etc...). Esta prohibido usar el acido fosforito en cualquier otra gaseosa; solo la Coca Cola tiene permiso. Porque claro, sin el acido fosforico, la Coca Cola sabria a jabon.El extracto de coca y otras hojas casi no cambia en nada el sabor. Es mas bien un efecto cosmetico. El extracto forma parte de la Coca-Cola porque legalmente tiene que ser asi. Pero sin el, no se nota ninguna diferencia en el gusto, que esta dado basicamente por las cantidades diferentes de azucar, azucar quemada, sales, acidos y conservantes.Sabor a que...? ja, ja, ja.

Aqui en Bartow, sur de Orlando, hay una empresa quimica que produce aromatizantes y esencias para zumos. Envian diariamente camionadas de sales concentradas y esencias para las fabricas de helados, gaseosas, jugos, enlatados y comida colorida y aromatizada.Cuando visite por primera vez la fabrica, pedi ver el deposito de concentrados de frutas, que deberia ser inmenso, especialmente los de naranja, pina, fresa y tantos otros. El encargado me miro, se rio y me llevo a visitar los depositos inmensos... pero de colorantes y componentes quimicos.

Las gaseosa de naranja no contiene naranja.

En los zumos dizque de fresa, hasta los puntitos que quedan en suspension estan hechos de goma (una liga quimica que envuelve un semi-polimero).

Pina, es un popurri de acidos y goma.

La esencia para helado de aguacate usa peroxido de hidrogeno (agua oxigenada) para dar la sensacion espumosa tipica del aguacate.

Bebidas Light?

Quieres saber la cantidad de basura que tiene un refresco 'light'? Yo ni siquiera los uso para destapar mi lavaplatos pues temo que danen los tubos de PVC. Los productos endulzantes 'ligth' tienen una vida media muy corta. Por ejemplo el

Despues de toda mi experiencia con la produccion de bebidas embasadas, puedo afirmar sin dudar un segundo: la mejor bebida es el agua, como tambien los jugos exprimidos de naranja o limon. Nada mas, cero azucar y cero sal.



Publicado por loretahur



En realidad, la formula secreta de la Coca-Cola se puede detallar en 18 segundos en cualquier espectrometro optico, y basicamente la conocen hasta los perros. Lo que ocurre es que no se puede fabricar igual, a no ser que uno disponga de unos cuantos millones de dolares para ganarle la demanda que te metera la Coca-Cola ante la justicia (ellos no perderian).La formula de la Pepsi tiene una diferencia basica con la de la Coca-Cola y es intencional, para evitar el proceso judicial. La diferencia es a proposito, pero suficientemente parecida como para atraer a los consumidores de Coca-Cola que prefieren un gusto diferente con menos sal y azucar.Tuve que aprender quimica, entender todo sobre componentes de gaseosas, conservantes, sales, acidos, cafeina, enlatado, produccion, permisos, aprobaciones y muchas otras cosas. Monte mi propio mini-laboratorio de analisis de productos.A patadas. El Cloruro de Sodio no solo refresca sino da mas sed, como para pedir otra gaseosa. Y no resulta desagradable porque la sal mata literalmente la sensibilidad al dulce... del que por cierto tambien tiene mucho: 39 gramos de azucar.De los 350 gramos de producto liquido, mas del 10% es azucar, o sea que en una lata de Coca-Cola mas de un centimetro y medio es puro azucar en polvo. Aproximadamente tres cucharadas soperas llenas de azucar por lata!!La formula de la Coca Cola es muy sencilla:Concentrado de azucar quemado caramelo- para dar color oscuro y gustoAcido fosforito (para darle el sabor acido)azucar (HFCS-jarabe de maiz de alta fructosa)Extracto de hojas de la planta de Coca (Africa e India) y otros pocos aromatizantes naturales de otras plantasMucha CafeinaConservante que puede ser Benzoato de Sodio o PotasioDioxido de Carbono en cantidad para sentir freir la lengua cuando se bebeSal para dar la sensacion de refrigeracionEl uso del acido fosforito y no del acido citrico como en todas las demas gaseosas, es para dar la sensacion de dientes y boca limpia al beber. El acido fosforito literalmente frie todo y dana el esmalte de los dientes, cosa que el acido citrico lo hace en menor grado.Trate de comprar acido fosforito para ver las mil recomendaciones de seguridad que te dan para su manipulacion (quema el cristalino del ojo, quema la piel, etc...). Esta prohibido usar el acido fosforito en cualquier otra gaseosa; solo la Coca Cola tiene permiso. Porque claro, sin el acido fosforico, la Coca Cola sabria a jabon.El extracto de coca y otras hojas casi no cambia en nada el sabor. Es mas bien un efecto cosmetico. El extracto forma parte de la Coca-Cola porque legalmente tiene que ser asi. Pero sin el, no se nota ninguna diferencia en el gusto, que esta dado basicamente por las cantidades diferentes de azucar, azucar quemada, sales, acidos y conservantes.Sabor a que...? ja, ja, ja.Aqui en Bartow, sur de Orlando, hay una empresa quimica que produce aromatizantes y esencias para zumos. Envian diariamente camionadas de sales concentradas y esencias para las fabricas de helados, gaseosas, jugos, enlatados y comida colorida y aromatizada.Cuando visite por primera vez la fabrica, pedi ver el deposito de concentrados de frutas, que deberia ser inmenso, especialmente los de naranja, pina, fresa y tantos otros. El encargado me miro, se rio y me llevo a visitar los depositos inmensos... pero de colorantes y componentes quimicos.Las gaseosa de naranja no contiene naranja.En los zumos dizque de fresa, hasta los puntitos que quedan en suspension estan hechos de goma (una liga quimica que envuelve un semi-polimero).Pina, es un popurri de acidos y goma.La esencia para helado de aguacate usa peroxido de hidrogeno (agua oxigenada) para dar la sensacion espumosa tipica del aguacate.Quieres saber la cantidad de basura que tiene un refresco 'light'? Yo ni siquiera los uso para destapar mi lavaplatos pues temo que danen los tubos de PVC. Los productos endulzantes 'ligth' tienen una vida media muy corta. Por ejemplo el aspartamo , despues de tres semanas mojado, pasa a tener gusto de trapo viejo sucio.Para evitar eso, se agregan una infinidad de otros productos quimicos, uno para alargar la vida del aspartamo, otro para neutralizar el color, otro para mantener el tercer quimico en suspension porque sino el fondo de la gaseosa quedaria oscuro, otro para evitar la cristalizacion del aspartamo, otro para realzar el sabor, dar mas intensidad al acido citrico o fosforito que perderia su sabor por el efecto de los cuatro productos quimicos iniciales... y asi sucesivamente.Un consejo final !!Despues de toda mi experiencia con la produccion de bebidas embasadas, puedo afirmar sin dudar un segundo: la mejor bebida es el agua, como tambien los jugos exprimidos de naranja o limon. Nada mas, cero azucar y cero sal.Publicado por loretahur

MARGARINA o MANTEQUILLA La margarina fue producida originalmente para engordar a los pavos; cuandolo que hizo en realidad fue matarlos.Las personas que habian puesto el dinero para la investigacion quisieronrecobrarlo asi que empezaron a pensar en una forma de hacerlo.Tenian una sustancia blanca, que no tenia ningun atractivo como comestible,asi que le anadieron el color amarillo, para venderselo a lagente en lugar de la mantequilla.Que tal esa?... Ahora han sacado algunos nuevos sabores para vender mas alos incautos como usted y yo.CONOCE USTED la diferencia entre la margarina y la mantequilla?Siga leyendo hasta el final... porque se pone bastante interesante!Comparacion entre mantequilla y margarina:

1.- Ambas tienen la misma cantidad de calorias.

2.- La mantequilla es ligeramente mas alta en grasas saturadas: 8 gramos,comparada con los 5 gramos que tiene la margarina.

3.- Comer margarina en vez de mantequilla puede aumentar en 53% el riesgo deenfermedades coronarias en las mujeres, de acuerdo con un estudiomedico reciente de la Universidad de Harvard.

4.- Comer mantequilla aumenta la absorcion de gran cantidad de nutrientesque se encuentran en otros alimentos.

5.- La mantequilla provee beneficios nutricionales propios mientras lamargarina tiene solo los que le hayan sido anadidos al fabricarla.

6.- La mantequilla sabe mucho mejor que la margarina y mejora el sabor deotros alimentos.7.- La mantequilla ha existido durante siglos mientras que la margarinatiene menos de 100 anos.

Ahora... sobre la margarina:

1.- Es muy alta en acidos grasos trans. (Si, esos que recien ahora loscientificos descubrieron que son malisimos y los gobiernoscomenzaron a prohibirlos) .

2.- Triple riesgo de enfermedades coronarias.

3.- Aumenta el colesterol total y el LDL (el colesterol malo) y disminuye elHDL (el colesterol bueno).

4.- Aumenta en cinco veces el riesgo de cancer.

5.- Disminuye la calidad de la leche materna.

6.- Disminuye la reaccion inmunologica del organismo.

7.- Disminuye la reaccion a la insulina.

Y he aqui el factor mas inquietante (AQUI ESTA LA PARTE MAS INTERESANTE! ):A la margarina le falta UNA MOLECULA para ser PLASTICO...!!Solo este hecho es suficiente para evitar el uso de la margarina de porvida, y de cualquier otra cosa que sea hidrogenada (esto significaque se le anade hidrogeno, lo cual cambia la estructura molecular de lassubstancias).Usted puede ensayar lo siguiente:Compre un poco de margarina y dejela en el garaje o en un sitio sombreado.Dentro de unos dias notara dos cosas:

* No habra moscas; ni siquiera esos molestos bichos se le acercaran (esto yale debe decir a usted algo).

* No se pudre ni huele mal o diferente porque no tiene valor nutritivo; nadacrece en ella. Ni siquiera los diminutos microorganismos puedencrecer en ella.Por que? Porque es casi plastico!!



No a la guerra, Si a la Paz



Misterios de la ciencia...



Los costos de la guerra



medicos y capitalismo...



Capitalismo...



medicos (2)



Quien educa a nuestros hijos?



Los Medios...



Sin Palabras...



Chistes feministas

- Cual es el problema, Eva?

- Se que me has creado, que me has dado este hermoso jardin, todos estos maravillosos animales y esa serpiente con la que me muero de risa... pero no soy del todo feliz...

- Como es eso, Eva? - replico Dios desde las alturas.

- Me encuentro sola, y ademas estoy harta de comer manzanas...

- Bueno Eva, en tal caso, tengo una solucion... creare un hombre para ti.

- Que es un hombre?

- Un hombre sera una criatura imperfecta, con muchas artimanas. Mentira, hara trampas, sera engreido... vamos, que te va a dar problemas... Pero, va a ser mas fuerte y rapido que tu y le gustara cazar y matar cosas... Tendra un aspecto simple, pero como te estas quejando, le creare de tal forma que satisfaga tus... eh... necesidades fisicas... Y tampoco sera muy listo, y destacara en cosas infantiles como pegarse o dar patadas a un balon... Necesitara tu consejo siempre para actuar cuerdamente.

- Suena bien - dijo Eva, mientras levantaba la ceja ironicamente.

- Cual es el truco?.

- Pues... que lo tendras con una condicion.

- Cual?

- Como te decia, sera chulo, arrogante y muy narcisista... asi que le tendras que hacer creer que le hice a el primero... recuerda... es nuestro secreto... de mujer a mujer.





Por que a los hombres no les puede dar la enfermedad de las vacas locas?  Porque todos son unos cerdos

Un dia, en el Paraiso, Eva llamo a Dios: Tengo un problema.- Cual es el problema, Eva?- Se que me has creado, que me has dado este hermoso jardin, todos estos maravillosos animales y esa serpiente con la que me muero de risa... pero no soy del todo feliz... - Como es eso, Eva? - replico Dios desde las alturas.- Me encuentro sola, y ademas estoy harta de comer manzanas...- Bueno Eva, en tal caso, tengo una solucion... creare un hombre para ti.- Que es un hombre?- Un hombre sera una criatura imperfecta, con muchas artimanas. Mentira, hara trampas, sera engreido... vamos, que te va a dar problemas... Pero, va a ser mas fuerte y rapido que tu y le gustara cazar y matar cosas... Tendra un aspecto simple, pero como te estas quejando, le creare de tal forma que satisfaga tus... eh... necesidades fisicas... Y tampoco sera muy listo, y destacara en cosas infantiles como pegarse o dar patadas a un balon... Necesitara tu consejo siempre para actuar cuerdamente.- Suena bien - dijo Eva, mientras levantaba la ceja ironicamente.- Cual es el truco?.- Pues... que lo tendras con una condicion.- Cual?- Como te decia, sera chulo, arrogante y muy narcisista... asi que le tendras que hacer creer que le hice a el primero... recuerda... es nuestro secreto... de mujer a mujer.Por que a los hombres no les puede dar la enfermedad de las vacas locas?  Porque todos son unos cerdos

Ellas...



Ellas (2)...



Tres venganzas femeninas VENGANZA NUMERO 1

Hoy mi hija cumple 21 anos y estoy muy contento porque es el ultimo pago de pension alimenticia que le doy, asi que llame a mi hijita para que viniera a mi casa y cuando llego le dije:

-Hijita, quiero que lleves este cheque a casa de tu mama y que le digas que: Este es el ultimo maldito cheque que va recibir de mi en todo lo que le queda de su puta vida!!! Quiero que me digas la expresion que pone en su rostro.

Asi que mi hija fue a entregar el cheque. Yo estaba ansioso por saber lo que la bruja tenia que decir y que cara pondria.

Cuando mi hijita entro, le pregunte inmediatamente: -Que fue lo que te dijo tu madre?

-Me dijo que justamente estaba esperando este dia para decirte que no eres mi papa!



VENGANZA NUMERO 2

Un hombre que siempre molestaba a su mujer, paso un dia por la casa de unos amigos para que lo acompanaran al aeropuerto a dejar a su esposa que viajaba a Paris.

A la salida de inmigracion, frente a todo el mundo, el le desea buen viaje y en tono burlon le grita:

- Amor, no te olvides de traerme una hermosa francesita Ja ja ja!!

Ella bajo la cabeza y se embarco muy molesta.

La mujer paso quince dias en Francia.

El marido otra vez pidio a sus amigos que lo acompanasen al aeropuerto a recibirla.

Al verla llegar, lo primero que le grita a toda voz es:

- Y amor me trajiste mi francesita??

- Hice todo lo posible, - contesta ella - ahora solo tenemos que rezar para que nazca nina.



VENGANZA NUMERO 3

El marido, en su lecho de muerte, llama a su mujer. Con voz ronca y ya debil, le dice: - Muy bien, llego mi hora, pero antes quiero hacerte una confesion.

- No, no, tranquilo, tu no debes hacer ningun esfuerzo.

- Pero, mujer, es preciso - insiste el marido - Es preciso morir en paz.

Te quiero confesar algo.

- Esta bien, esta bien. Habla!

- He tenido relaciones con tu hermana, tu mama y tu mejor amiga.

- Lo se, lo se Por eso te envenene, hijo de puta!!!



machismo y cibernetica



Chiste machista La NASA ha enviado al espacio una mision experimental tripulada por dos monos y una mujer.Apenas abandona la atmosfera, se establece comunicacion con Houston.

-Atencion, simio 1, verifique sistemas hidraulicos, controle adecuada presion de los propulsores de arranque. A 60.000 pies disminuya un 25% la velocidad.

El simio hace la sena de OK.

-Atencion, simio 2, nivele al cruzar la estratosfera y active sistemas anticongelantes. No olvide monitorear sistemas de comunicacion e indicadores de presion. Comprendido?.

El simio hace la sena de OK.

-Atencion, Houston llamando a mujer: no se olvide.

-Mujer: Si, si, ya se! -interrumpe enojada- que no me olvide darles de comer a estos monos de mierda y que no se me vaya a ocurrir tocar nada!.



.Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti.

Un abogado mantiene un romance con su secretaria.Al poco tiempo, esta queda embarazada y el abogado, que no quiere que su esposa se entere, le da a la secretaria una buena suma de dinero y le pide que se vaya a parir a Italia.Esta pregunta: Y como voy a hacerte saber cuando nazca el bebe ? El abogado responde: Para que mi mujer no se entere, tan solo enviame una postal y escribe por detras: Spaghetti. Y no te preocupes mas, que yo me encargare de todos los gastos.

Pasan los meses y una manana la esposa del abogado lo llama al bufete, algo exaltada: Querido, acabo de recibir el correo y hay una postal muy extrana viene desde Italia. La verdad, no entiendo que significa.El abogado, tratando de ocultar sus nervios, contesta:Espera a que llegue a casa, a ver si yo entiendoCuando el hombre llega a casa y lee la postal, cae al suelo fulminado por un infarto.Llega una ambulancia y se lo lleva. Ya en el hospital, el jefe de cardiologia se queda consolando a la esposa y le pregunta cual ha sido el evento que precipito tan masivo ataque cardiaco.

Entonces la esposa saca la postal y se la muestra diciendole: No me explico, doctor; el solamente leyo esta postal. Vea usted mismo lo que trae escrito.Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti."Tres con salchicha y albondigas y dos con almejas



Gol !!!!



Chistes de Borrachos Entra un borracho a su casa todo manchado con lapiz labial por todos lados hecho un desastre, y la mujer le pregunta:-Hombre que te paso?Y el borracho le responde:-No me vas a creer, me pelee con un payaso!



Este es un borracho que entra en un bar y le dice al camarero:-Me da cinco copas de whisky?Al rato:-Me da cuatro?Al rato:-Me da tres copas?Despues:-Me da dos copas?Luego le dice:-Me da una copa?Y le dice al camarero:-Ves? Cuanto menos bebo, mas borracho estoy!


WASHINGTON  The Trump administrations latest effort at banning transgender individuals from serving in the military amounts to what legal experts said is essentially a reprise of an all-too-familiar directive at the Pentagon: the 1994 dont ask, dont tell policy.

A slew of medical and legal professionals have already lined up against the newest White House order, issued late Friday night, which experts said may survive only if it is backed by the Supreme Court.

That order is based on recommendations outlined by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis in a Feb. 22 memo on the circumstances under which transgender people would be allowed to join or remain in the military.

The memo by Mr. Mattis disqualified all people who require or have undergone gender transition.

But he also recommended that, going forward, transgender persons without a history or diagnosis of gender dysphoria, who are otherwise qualified for service, may serve, like all service members, in their biological sex. Gender dysphoria is the psychological condition of a persons discomfort with their biological gender.
Mr. Manafort has told associates that he does not believe that Mr. Kilimnik has ties to Russian intelligence, but the document released on Tuesday shows that Mr. Gates told others of his history in the intelligence services. That history was widely discussed for years among people who worked with Mr. Manafort and Mr. Gates in Ukraine.

At the time of the calls, Mr. Gates was the Trump campaigns liaison to the Republican National Committee and, before that, he was the campaigns deputy chairman. Mr. Manafort served as the campaign chairman until August 2016, when he resigned amid the growing controversy about his work in Ukraine.

Both Mr. Manafort and Mr. Gates were indicted last year for money laundering and other financial crimes committed while, the charges said, they tried to hide the money they received for their Ukraine work. Last month, Mr. Gates pleaded guilty to financial fraud and lying to investigators and has agreed to cooperate with Mr. Muellers investigation.

Mr. Manafort has vowed to fight the charges. In February 2017, he told The New York Times he had never knowingly spoken to Russian intelligence officers, and I have never been involved with anything to do with the Russian government of the Putin administration or any other issues under investigation today.
The Supreme Court has never struck down a voting district as an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander. A ruling allowing such challenges could revolutionize American politics.

Wednesdays arguments provided little information about whether the justices are prepared to take that step. Indeed, if arguments in October in the earlier case, a Democratic challenge of a Republican map from Wisconsin, had heartened opponents of extreme partisan gerrymandering, Wednesdays arguments in the Maryland case only served to confuse them.



Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who probably holds the crucial vote in both cases, returned to a theme he had pursued in the arguments in the Wisconsin case, asking whether a law that required partisan gerrymandering in so many words would violate the Constitution.

Steven M. Sullivan, Marylands solicitor general, said it would.

Justice Kennedy asked, How is this case different? Mr. Sullivan said the redistricting law did not expressly call for a partisan advantage.

Justice Kennedy was not satisfied. So if you hide the evidence of what youre doing, then youre going to prevail? he asked.

The courts surprise announcement in December that it would hear the second partisan gerrymandering case, Benisek v. Lamone, No. 17-333, led to much speculation about what the move meant for the challengers in the Wisconsin case, Gill v. Whitford, No. 16-1161. But Wednesdays argument did almost nothing to clear up the mystery of why the justices decided to hear a second case.

If there was a hint about where the court was headed in the Wisconsin case, it came from Justice Breyer, who suggested that the court schedule a new round of arguments in both cases, along with one from North Carolina, in the term that will start in October. His question suggested that at least some of the challengers could not demonstrate that they had suffered the sort of direct injury that gave them standing to sue.
WASHINGTON  A lawyer for President Trump broached the idea of Mr. Trumps pardoning two of his former top advisers, Michael T. Flynn and Paul Manafort, with their lawyers last year, according to three people with knowledge of the discussions.

The discussions came as the special counsel was building cases against both men, and they raise questions about whether the lawyer, John Dowd, who resigned last week, was offering pardons to influence their decisions about whether to plead guilty and cooperate in the investigation.

The talks suggest that Mr. Trumps lawyers were concerned about what Mr. Flynn and Mr. Manafort might reveal were they to cut a deal with the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, in exchange for leniency. Mr. Muellers team could investigate the prospect that Mr. Dowd made pardon offers to thwart the inquiry, although legal experts are divided about whether such offers might constitute obstruction of justice.

Mr. Dowds conversation with Mr. Flynns lawyer, Robert K. Kelner, occurred sometime after Mr. Dowd took over last summer as the presidents personal lawyer, at a time when a grand jury was hearing evidence against Mr. Flynn on a range of potential crimes. Mr. Flynn, who served as Mr. Trumps first national security adviser, agreed in late November to cooperate with the special counsels investigation. He pleaded guilty in December to lying to the F.B.I. about his conversations with the Russian ambassador and received favorable sentencing terms.
Mr. Stevens retired from the Supreme Court in 2010. He wrote a major dissent about the Second Amendment in one of the courts hardest-fought decisions. Mr. Stevens argued that the amendment does not protect an individuals right to own firearms.

That decision  which I remain convinced was wrong and certainly was debatable  has provided the N.R.A. with a propaganda weapon of immense power, Mr. Stevens wrote on Tuesday, referring to the National Rifle Association, the powerful gun lobbying group. Overturning that decision via a constitutional amendment to get rid of the Second Amendment would be simple and would do more to weaken the N.R.A.s ability to stymie legislative debate and block constructive gun control legislation than any other available option.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, indicated the administration was not considering a repeal of the Second Amendment.

The president and the administration still fully support the Second Amendment, Ms. Sanders said on Tuesday in response to a question about Mr. Stevenss Op-Ed. We think that the focus has to remain on removing weapons from dangerous individuals, not on blocking all Americans from their constitutional rights.

In his tweet, Mr. Trump also said that Democrats support repealing the Second Amendment, but that has not been the case in Congress, which is only considering modest policy changes on guns. In the 1990s, a Democratic congressman from New York introduced legislation for a repeal, but it did not get any traction. Mr. Trumps opponent in the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton, did not campaign to repeal the Second Amendment.

We can uphold Second Amendment rights while preventing senseless gun violence, Mrs. Clinton tweeted in May 2016.

Mr. Trump had the support of the N.R.A. early in his campaign for president and has said he is the biggest fan of the Second Amendment. After the deadly mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., last month, Mr. Trump proposed stricter controls on access to guns, particularly raising the age to purchase an assault weapon to 21 from 18. After a meeting with the N.R.A., Mr. Trump no longer advocated for an age increase.
Saba Mahmood, a professor, theorist and author from Pakistan whose work focused on the intersection of Islam and feminist theory, died on March 10 at her home in Berkeley, Calif. She was 57.

The cause was pancreatic cancer, her husband, Charles Hirschkind, said.

In her studies, Professor Mahmood, a scholar of modern Egypt who specialized in sociocultural anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley, also challenged entrenched notions about secularism and religion, particularly in Muslim societies. She had been brought up as a Muslim.

In her book Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject (2004), Professor Mahmood explored a grass-roots womens movement focused on moral reform in Cairo in the 1990s.

The movement  one face of a broader Mideast effort to revive Muslim ethical practices  was unique in that these women came to understand that the rebuilding of a pious Islamic community could not be left to men alone, said Professor Hirschkind, a fellow scholar of sociocultural anthropology at Berkeley who had sometimes collaborated with his wife.
Besides the continuing criminal inquiry into Russias influence over the presidential election, an actress in pornographic films, a former Playboy model and a onetime contestant on The Apprentice have filed civil lawsuits over their alleged relationships with Mr. Trump before he became president.

The emoluments case raises basic questions that have never been litigated. Even the specific definition of an emolument is unclear. During a January court hearing, Judge Messitte seemed to acknowledge that the case would ultimately be decided by a higher court than his.

Although the presidents critics are hoping that the judge will allow the plaintiffs to scrutinize the Trump Organizations financial records, perhaps even including the presidents tax returns, it was not clear from Wednesdays opinion whether the judge would permit such discovery. The next stage of the case is expected to involve arguments about what constitutes an emolument.

Nonetheless, for the plaintiffs, the ruling that they have legal standing to challenge the presidents actions is an important first step in their quest to show that Mr. Trump crossed a constitutional line. We look forward now to proceeding to address the constitutional issues and demonstrate that the emoluments clauses forbid the things of value that are flowing into the presidents pockets from governments foreign and domestic, said Norman L. Eisen, the chairman of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, who is serving as a co-counsel in the case.

The judge limited the scope of the suit to the Trump International Hotel, down the street from the White House, and businesses related to it that are owned by the Trump Organization. The presidents other business interests  such as the Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida  are not at issue, he found, because they have no clear effect on the plaintiffs.
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia  Ethiopias governing coalition named a new leader late Tuesday night, paving the way for a peaceful transition of power in a country rocked in recent years by violent protests.

Abiy Ahmed, who is expected to become the countrys next prime minister, would be the first member of the Oromo ethnic group, which makes up a third of Ethiopias population, to lead the government. The group, which has suffered political and economic repression, has been at the center of protests demanding more economic opportunities and greater freedom of expression.

The country has been in a state of emergency since the former prime ministers resignation in February.

The choice of Mr. Abiy was widely seen as a move to maintain stability in Ethiopia, which has East Africas largest economy and is a critical player in the regional fight against terrorism.
This year, Mr. Trump was said to have referred to some nations in Africa in an insulting manner. The remarks prompted outrage across the continent. President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana reacted strongly to the disparaging remarks, saying at the time, on Twitter, that Ghana will not accept such insults, even from a leader of a friendly country, no matter how powerful.

A trip to several African nations to make amends by Rex W. Tillerson, then the secretary of state, was cut short, and Mr. Tillerson was fired on his way home.

On Wednesday, some of the protesters spoke about Mr. Trump in their outrage at the military deal.

We are saying that President Akufo-Addo should listen to the people of this country, said Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, a member of Parliament who took part in the demonstrations. He is not co-president with President Trump of the U.S.A. He is the president of Ghana.

He and other opposition lawmakers had boycotted the parliamentary vote on the deal, saying in a statement that it was a betrayal of the Ghanaian people by surrendering our sovereignty and threatening the peace and stability of Ghana.

This week, Koku Anyidoho, the deputy general secretary of the opposition party, the National Democratic Congress, was charged with treason for suggesting that the protests could be the start of a process that culminates in civil revolt and the ouster of the president.

Officials in the American Embassy in Accra, played down the terms of the agreement, saying it would include no more than a small storage structure and several shipping containers, and the site would be used as a staging area for military exercises and storage.

They emphasized that there were no plans to create a base in Ghana or to permanently station American troops in the country, one of the continents most stable democracies.
An American military drone strike over the weekend in southern Libya killed a top recruiter and logistics specialist for Al Qaedas branch in northwest Africa, the Pentagon said on Wednesday, and a senior military official warned of more attacks on extremists there.

The militarys Africa Command said in a statement that the attack killed two militants, one of whom was identified as Musa Abu Dawud, a high-ranking official in Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, known as AQIM.

Mr. Dawud trained Qaeda recruits in Libya for strike operations in the region, and provided logistics, money and weapons that enabled the group to threaten and attack American and Western interests, the military statement said.

Until now, the Pentagon had focused its counterterrorism strikes in Libya  eight since President Trump took office  almost exclusively on Islamic State fighters and operatives farther north. Over several months in 2016, the military conducted nearly 500 airstrikes in the coastal city of Surt to destroy the Islamic States stronghold there.
with Andrew McKay

Candidate for Congressman of District 1 of Florida, Cris Dosev, joins the show to discuss his campaign in the primary against current Congressman, Matt Gaetz.
BUENOS AIRES  When Dalal Abd de Massad went to the Darwin cemetery in the Falkland Islands this week it was the first time that she had hugged the gravestone with her sons name.

I was finally able to cry at his grave, Ms. Abd said of her son, Daniel. I talked to him, told him everything that happened in these years. I hugged that white cross as if I was hugging him.

Ms. Abd and her husband, Osvaldo Said Massad, were part of a delegation of 250, mostly family members of fallen soldiers, who traveled to the disputed islands for a ceremony to mark the identification of 90 Argentine service members who died in a 1982 war with Britain and had been buried as unknown soldiers.

For 36 years, the plaque on Daniel Massads grave said, Argentine soldier known only to God. Now, thanks to the work of forensic scientists, families have finally learned where their loved ones are buried.
Few cultural stereotypes are more pervasive than the surly French waiter.

In the 1985 movie European Vacation, Chevy Chase and his family meet a Parisian garcon who, after insulting the brood, offers them dishwater to drink.

And who can forget the scene from Monty Pythons The Meaning of Life when a French waiter, faced with his unfulfilling existence, swears at the camera then turns for home?

Well, in Canada recently, Guillaume Rey, a waiter at Milestones Bar + Grill in Vancouver, British Columbia, filed a complaint against the restaurants parent company, Cara Operations, after he was fired for being combative, aggressive and something of a bully. His defense? Hes not rude, he contends. Instead, hes French and his former bosses are discriminating against his culture and heritage.

The argument is a novel one, but with enough traction that one member of the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal who reviewed the complaint agreed that Mr. Rey deserves a hearing. Devyn Cousineau wrote in her March 7 decision that Mr. Rey would have to provide evidence about what exactly the stereotype is with respect to people from France.
The authorities are trying to keep out of the public eye during Easter week an underground Chinese bishop at the center of a controversial deal between Beijing and the Vatican, according to people working in his office.

A Rome-based news agency has reported that Guo Xijin was briefly detained on Monday because he refused to celebrate the upcoming Easter Mass with the government-approved bishop, but people working in his parish office said the aim was to keep him out of the spotlight during the days around Easter, which is celebrated this coming Sunday.

Bishop Guo, 59, of the Mindong diocese in central-eastern China, was taken to the city of Xiamen. He was allowed to return home on Wednesday for family reasons, but members of his staff said he was expected to resume his forced vacation later this week.

He had been asked by Rome to step aside in favor of a Communist Party-approved bishop in the region. This was meant to be a key plank in Romes efforts to heal a decades-long rift in the Roman Catholic Church in China, which is divided between underground worshipers, priests and bishops loyal to Rome and Beijing-approved churches that some worshipers consider to be illegitimate.
BEIJING  With a dose of mystery and the flair of a showman, North Koreas young leader, Kim Jong-un, used his debut as an international statesman on Wednesday to present himself as confident, reasonable  and willing to bargain.

Mr. Kims surprise two-day visit to Beijing, his first known trip abroad since taking power, was effectively a reminder of how much he has set the agenda in the crisis over his nations nuclear arsenal  and of what a strong hand he has going into talks, first with President Moon Jae-in of South Korea next month and later with President Trump.

Mr. Kim has yet to say what concessions he is willing to make, or what he may demand from the United States in return. But he continued to dominate the diplomatic process, reaffirming his willingness to meet with Mr. Trump and repeating his vague commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in talks with President Xi Jinping of China, according to Xinhua, the Chinese state news agency.

During Mr. Trumps first year in office, Mr. Kim raced ahead with breakthrough tests of missiles capable of hitting the United States mainland and what he claimed was a missile-ready hydrogen bomb. Then he abruptly changed course and used the Winter Olympics to seize the initiative, surprising the world with a rapprochement with the South and then an offer to meet with Mr. Trump.
NEW DELHI  An Indian publisher has removed from its online store a childrens book that included Hitler on a list of world leaders who devoted their lives for the betterment of their country and people.

The book, titled Leaders but previously listed on the publishers website as Great Leaders, spotlights 11 world figures who will inspire you. On its cover, Hitler is featured alongside Barack Obama, Nelson Mandela and Mohandas K. Gandhi, among others.

Published by the Pegasus imprint of B. Jain Publishing Group of India, the book came under fire this month after the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a global human rights organization researching the Holocaust and hate in historical and contemporary contexts, called the decision to include Hitler an abomination.
MANDALAY, Myanmar  A longtime loyalist to Myanmars civilian leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, was chosen on Wednesday to be the countrys new president, a largely ceremonial role in which he is expected to be the official conduit for her authority.

The new president, U Win Myint, will succeed U Htin Kyaw, 71, who resigned last week after two years on the job. Mr. Htin Kyaw was widely regarded as an honest but powerless functionary who did the bidding of Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace laureate who has been condemned globally for her acquiescence to the militarys ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims.

Mr. Win Myint, a 66-year-old lawyer, is expected to perform in a similar fashion. As president, he will be constrained by both the military-drafted Constitution and the strong hand of Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi.

Parliament chose him from a field of three candidates during a two-hour session in which his character and qualifications for the job were not mentioned.
Mao Zedong once said China and North Korea, longtime Communist allies, were as close as lips and teeth.

But relations between the two countries have been strained in recent decades. However, there was no hint of that tension in the coverage of Mr. Kims visit this week.

The Chinese and the North Korean news media portrayed the two countries as ideological comrades. Mr. Kim was welcomed in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, as a military band played. News reports said he and Mr. Xi watched an art performance together, joined by their wives.

Orville Schell, director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at Asia Society in New York, described the pageantry as a renaissance of the old socialist-style, big-leader rituals.

They certainly didnt just sneak him in the back door, he said of Mr. Kim. It looked like he got pretty close to the full monty.
MELBOURNE, Australia  The contentious committal hearing of Cardinal George Pell, the Catholic Churchs third highest-ranking priest, adjourned on Thursday, as a magistrate prepared to decide whether the case will go to trial.

The cardinal, the Vaticans de facto finance chief, has been charged with committing historical sexual offenses. He is the most senior member of the Catholic Church ever to face such allegations, and the outcome of the hearing will mark a significant moment for the Vatican as it grapples with the problem of clerical sex abuse.

The magistrate, Belinda Wallington, is expected to announce in mid-April whether the cardinal will be tried.

While Cardinal Pell has been accused of decades-old sexual offenses, further details of the charges have not been made public for legal reasons. Australias contempt standards, among other restrictions, prohibit journalists from reporting details of some criminal proceedings.
Jivas search for a flat had ended here in a suburb of Sydney, one the most expensive cities in the world  thats also one of the worlds most multicultural urban areas.

As the incense burned and prayers were chanted, Jiva threw flower petals in offering to the goddess.

Looking around the room I was struck by the eclectic mix of people, a reflection of Jivas history as well as Australias.

For one thing, a lot of us had been refugees from civil wars who resettled here, back in the days when the countrys refugee policy was not so hard-line: Iraq, Bosnia, Sri Lanka  where Jiva and his family hailed from  and Vietnam, in my familys case.

The rest were different kinds of migrants, like Anglo-Australians a few generations in and people like Sonal from the United Kingdom  though her Gujarati family had fled Uganda under Idi Amin.
MONTREAL  A former university student who killed six men at a mosque in Quebec City early last year pleaded guilty to first-degree murder on Wednesday, hastening the conclusion of a case that shocked Canadians and underscored the presence of Islamophobia in multicultural Canada.

Ive thought about this a long time. In my heart, this is the decision Ive made, the gunman, Alexandre Bissonnette, 28, told a Quebec City courtroom, after previously pleading not guilty.

Several of the victims family members sobbed openly in court after the judge read out the names of the six men killed in the attack, in which five others were seriously wounded, according to Mohamed Labidi, the president of the mosque, the Islamic Cultural Center of Quebec, who attended the proceedings.

Among those in attendance was Aymen Derbali, who was left paralyzed after being shot seven times when he tried to distract Mr. Bissonnette by staring directly at him so he would stop shooting others. The gunmans parents were also in court as their son read out his guilty plea.
Douglas V. Gibbs is a proud member of the American Authors Association

Douglas V. Gibbs is a proud member of the Military Writers Society of America.
PARIS  Officers of the French Republican Guard, riding motorcycles and wearing blue uniforms and white helmets, formed the honor guard escorting the simple dark car carrying the body of Col. Arnaud Beltrame to the Invalides in Paris for a heros memorial on Wednesday.

President Emmanuel Macron gave a eulogy for Colonel Beltrame, and the gendarme was honored with a full military ceremony for his act of courage in voluntarily exchanging himself for a female hostage during a terrorist attack last week in the town of Trebes, in southwest France, an act that saved the woman and possibly others, but that cost the gendarme his life.
Ecuadors government said Wednesday that it had suspended internet access for Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder who since 2012 has lived in Ecuadors Embassy in London, out of concern that he was harming its relationships with Britain and other European nations.

The decision set off a furious reaction from some Assange supporters. One of them, Kim Dotcom, an online renegade who founded a file-sharing site, urged supporters to gather outside the embassy in protest. The filmmaker Oliver Stone wrote on Twitter: Free Julian Assange! Restore his internet connection!

Ecuadors government granted Mr. Assange citizenship in January, the latest step in a longstanding diplomatic standoff. But it said it had suspended Mr. Assanges online communications on Tuesday because he had imperiled the good relations that the country maintains with the United Kingdom, with the rest of the states of the European Union, and other nations through his social-media messages.

The government did not provide specifics, but some speculated that the decision might have been related to the Western nations coordinated actions against Russia after the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain. In a series of Twitter posts this week, Mr. Assange was critical of Western nations expulsions of Russian diplomats.
About a decade ago, the governing party of Macedonia at the time came up with an idea for a citywide building and renovation project as a way to claim ownership of its history and draw in tourists.

Hundreds of new sculptures were put up across the city, and many new buildings erected in the center of town. Dozens of false facades were added to Communist-era buildings, while scores of plaques appeared, attesting to events with varying degrees of historical accuracy.

The project cost hundreds of millions of dollars more than public projections and has been roundly derided by urban planners and architects, who say it was rushed into reality at the cost of structural integrity and functionality. It was a central issue in the protests in 2015 that led to the defeat of the governing party.

Nikola Strezovski, a 37-year-old architect, has watched the project  called Skopje 2014 because it was supposed to be completed in 2014  with a mixture of disgust, anger and confusion.
PARIS  Every morning, in a part of the 11th Arrondissement of Paris that has not yet gentrified, Mireille Knoll would sit at home watching television as she waited for her personal care aide.

The aide, Leila Dessante, would clean the small second-floor apartment, cook lunch and keep company with Ms. Knoll, a 85-year-old grandmother and Holocaust survivor. She would take my face in between her hands and always ask, How are you doing today, sweetheart? Ms. Dessante recalled on Wednesday.

Ms. Knolls gentle routine was brutally interrupted last week when she was killed in her apartment. The attack shocked her neighbors, Frances Jewish community and the country as a whole. Two suspects, men in their 20s, have been placed under formal investigation on charges of murder with an anti-Semitic motive.

The killing has raised questions about a persistent strain of anti-Semitism in France, an anti-Semitism that remains, that transforms, that reappears, that mutates, according to Edouard Philippe, the prime minister.
LONDON  The British authorities said on Wednesday that Sergei V. Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, the poison victims at the epicenter of a diplomatic crisis between Russia and the West, had been sickened with a nerve agent on the front door of Mr. Skripals house.

The announcement narrows the many possibilities of how the Skripals came into contact with the poison.

Detectives will focus their efforts now on Mr. Skripals house in the cathedral town of Salisbury, England, said Dean Haydon, senior national coordinator for counterterrorism policing, in a news release.

They will also, presumably, search for a person who could have delivered the poison.

Mr. Skripal, a former Russian double agent, and his daughter, who had been visiting him from Russia, were found unresponsive on a bench in a Salisbury park on March 4.
LONDON  Theres an ugly truth about the rubber duck, the popular bathroom toy that children put in their mouths and use to squeeze bath water into their siblings faces.

Something yucky is likely to be inside, scientists say: potentially pathogenic bacteria that can cause eye, ear and stomach infections.

A study by American and Swiss researchers found that toy ducks appeared to be a breeding ground for microbes. The murky water released from four out of every five ducks tested included Legionella along with Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria, often associated with infections acquired in hospitals, the authors of the study said.

The study, conducted by the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, ETH Zurich and the University of Illinois, was published on Tuesday in the journal N.P.J. Biofilms and Microbiomes.
MOSCOW  Flags on government buildings flew at half-staff. Newspaper fronts were colorless. TV stations suspended commercials. Lawmakers observed a minute of silence.

Russia was in an official state of mourning on Wednesday as funerals began for the 64 victims of a fire that swept through a mall in the Siberian city of Kemerovo on Sunday. The tragedy that has led to public outrage over a perceived lack of transparency and accountability.

Funeral ceremonies were held at three churches in Kemerovo, 2,000 miles east of Moscow, local news outlets reported. In the morning, the caskets bearing the remains of two children and one adult were brought to a cemetery following services at Holy Trinity Church, the TASS news agency reported.

This tragedy is made even worse by the fact that children became victims of the blaze, said a priest at another service in an Orthodox church, Reuters reported. Great grief is upon all of us and there are no words that would express our common pain.
LONDON  If Vicki Momberg had only unleashed a high-volume tirade at the South African police officers, video of it would have been of mere passing interest. But her repeated use of a racial slur  unfamiliar to most Americans, but explosive in South Africa  made her notorious, and led to demands to make her an example.

On Wednesday, Ms. Momberg, a white woman, became the first person in South Africa to be sent to prison for using racist language against someone, according to prosecutors and legal experts. Specifically, she hurled the term kaffir, considered the most offensive racial slur in South Africa  so radioactive socially that it is often referred to as the k-word.

The 2016 viral video of her outburst at police officers who responded to her report of thieves breaking into her car set off a national furor, and made Ms. Momberg a symbol of the racism that persists a generation after the collapse of apartheid.

Partly because of that video, viewed repeatedly on social media and news sites, the parliament may take up a bill that would make prosecution for hate speech more common.
TEL AVIV  The Israeli government has hailed Air Indias new nonstop service from New Delhi to Tel Aviv as a historic breakthrough  the Indian carrier is the first commercial airline to take a geopolitical shortcut through Saudi Arabian airspace.

But Israels national airline, El Al, still has to take the long way and fears that it will suffer serious financial damage from what it views as aerial discrimination.

So in a first of its own, El Al petitioned Israels Supreme Court on Wednesday, filing suit against the government; the Civil Aviation Authority; Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; the transportation minister, Yisrael Katz; and Air India.

Flying in a straight line cuts more than two hours off the usual flight time, and allows Air India to lower its ticket price. Even though Saudi Arabia granted permission for the route, El Al is asking the Israeli court to prevent Air India from taking the shorter path unless the Israeli carrier receives a similar permit.
As per reports, the incident took place last week at the JFK airport in NY.

However Pakistan-based Geo News has suggested that he voluntarily followed the security procedures. Abbasi was in the USA last week on a private trip to visit his ailing sister but he also met vice-president Mike Pence in an unscheduled engagement at which he was bluntly told Pakistani has to do more to address concerns about its nurturing of terrorist groups.

According to the footage that went viral, Pakistan PM Abbasi was seen pulling his luggage with one hand and carrying his coat on the other. After the Pakistani PM was put under routine security checks at the U.S. airport, the Pakistani media seem to have become furious.

Kevin Love out for second half against Miami with concussion-like symptoms

A post-injury, open-mouthed photo of Love immediately went viral on Twitter, and he was taken out of the game. Much worse, Mickey's elbow blasted Love in the face and knocked loose one of Love's front teeth.

England U21s 2-1 Ukraine U21s: Young Lions roar to victory

The game was too open for England's liking though and they paid the price with eight minutes left when Shaparenko headed in. Oleksandr Pikhalonok guided a early effort wide before Calvert-Lewin saw his header gathered by Andriy Lunin .

BSNL to invest Rs 4300 crore for network expansion in 2018-19

Shrivastava also claimed that government would be investing on large connectivity projects, where private players are not going.

The relations between the U.S. and Pakistan are undoubtedly strained, but adding insult upon injury, Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, on a "personal" visit to the USA was forced to undergo a routine security check at the United States airport, a video of which has since then gone viral.

The US has imposed sanctions on seven Pakistani companies over alleged links to the nuclear trade, worsening ties that have been frayed in recent years over Pakistan's suspected support for militants waging war in Afghanistan, something Pakistani officials deny.

Pakistan suffered a massive blow of embarrassment as the country's prime minister, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was frisked at an American airport, as a part of a routine security check, as reported on Wednesday. After meeting his ailing sister, Abbasi also met Mike Pence in an unscheduled engagement. The US has told Pakistan that the country needs to do more to tackle terrorism from its soil.
Farmers mount pressure on political parties and the government

India

oi-Shreya

The All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC) has stepped up its pressure on political parties and the government, by organising a roundtable on its two Kisan Mukti Bills in the Capital on Wednesday (28th March 2018).

AIKSCC, a large platform of more than 190 farmer organisations from around the country, has finalised two Bills to be submitted as Private Members' Bills in both Houses of the Parliament.

In November 2017, in a massive gathering at its Kisan Mukti Sansad on Parliament Street and in a special women farmers' parliament, AIKSCC had 'tabled' two inter-related Bills that it had created on its two main demands: freedom from debt and guaranteed remunerative prices. Subsequent to that, from December 2017 to mid-March 2018, in widespread processes of a consultation organised in more than 200 locations across the country, AIKSCC collected feedback from stakeholders and experts and has now finalised its two Bills. These Bills are titled: "The Farmers' Freedom from Indebtedness Bill 2018" and "The Farmers' Right to Guaranteed Remunerative Minimum Support Prices for Agricultural Commodities Bill 2018".

V M Singh, Convenor of AIKSCC and National President of Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Sanghatan said, "The government has been mentioning time and again about mitigating farmers' distress. While they did not attempt to create any statutes that will confer legal rights on farmers related to their pressing problems, we have made these Bills from the farmers' movements. Now, the government should at least accept these Bills and enact them. It is high time that everyone respects and acts on the sentiments of our farmers - the nation owes it to them".

Leaders of various political parties have been invited by AIKSCC to the Wednesday meeting to extend support to the Bills. Parties invited include INC, NCP, TDP, CPI, CPI(M), YSRCP, TRS, DMK, Shiv Sena, RJD, J&K NC, AIADMK, BSP, AAP, JD (S), AIUDF, BTP, Kerala Congress (M), CPI-ML, SUCI etc.

"These are Bills made by farmers of this country. I am only submitting them to the Parliament on behalf of the farmers of this country. It is important to note that this is the very first time that farmers' movements have come up with statutory frameworks that will confer them legal rights on two very crucial issues which have become life-and-death issues for the farmers: freedom from indebtedness and guaranteed remunerative prices", said Raju Shetti of Swabhimani Paksha, and sitting MP of Lok Sabha.

"Lack of remunerative prices and debt burden are two crucial issues that are affecting farmers. By conferring legal rights that protect farmers on these two matters, India would be able to reduce farm suicides and the current distress substantially", said KK Ragesh of All India Kisan Sabha, and sitting MP, Rajya Sabha.

"At the centre of these two Bills is a recognition that building up of the debt burden, lack of remunerative markets and frequent natural disasters without any effective support and relief mechanisms are inter-connected, and at the core of the acute distress being faced by farmers all over the country. This inter-connectedness is embedded in the way these two Bills have been created and finalised", said AIKSCC in a statement.

All Working Group members of AIKSCC are expected to participate in the meeting with political party representatives at Constitution Club, New Delhi. Subsequent to this process, the two AIKSCC Bills are to be submitted as Private Members' Bills by Shri Raju Shetti and Shri KK Ragesh in the Lower and Upper Houses of the Parliament respectively.

OneIndia News
Vaccinated? Now get 10% discount on Indigo air ticket: How to avail it?

IndiGo aircraft skids on runway during landing at Vijaywada airport

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

An IndiGo airlines aircraft skidded on the runway at the Vijayawada airport during landing on Wednesday. The IndiGo flight 6E-7204 was arriving at Vijayawada from Bengaluru and no one was injured in the incident.

"IndiGo flight 6E-7204, VGA ATR 72-600, from Bangalore to Vijayawada experienced a skid during landing. A skid on tail bumper is acceptable under ATR operational envelop. No maintenance was required and aircraft was cleared for operations after inspection," an IndiGo statement said.

On March 26, a technical problem forced a Spicejet flight to return to Visakhapatnam airport 30 minutes after taking off.

On February 9, a Chennai to Delhi SpiceJet flight had suffered a tyre burst at Chennai International Airport. After the tyre burst, the crew decided to turn back and the flight landed safely at Chennai.

In August last year, a Spicejet flight with more than 60 passengers onboard skidded off the runway in Calicut airport. While landing at the Calicut airport, the aircraft skidded off towards the left of the runway that was battered by continuous rains. The incident led to panic among those on the flight as well as airport authorities. Within seconds, the pilot was able to bring the flight under control and managed to halt it.

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Story first published: Wednesday, March 28, 2018, 20:02 [IST]
Masarat Alam will remain a non-starter in J&K thanks to Centres zero tolerance towards separatism

ISI created TRF to give itself, Lashkar plausible deniability for attacks in J&K

J&K: 4 terrorists gunned down in Sunderbani

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

Four terrorists were gunned down by security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri area on Wednesday. In the gun battle, which took place in Rajouri's Sunderbani, terrorists who had infiltrated across the LoC (Line of Control) recently were killed.

"Four terrorists were killed in a joint operation in Sunderbani Rajouri. It was a group recently infiltrated from LOC," news agency ANI quoted SP Vaid, DGP, Jammu and Kashmir, as saying.

We have killed 4 terrorists, it was a joint operation by Police, Army & BSF. Arms & ammunition have also been recovered: SSP Rajouri on Sunderbani encounter #JammuAndKashmir pic.twitter.com/NPiFA1RhuQ  ANI (@ANI) March 28, 2018

On March 25, one terrorist was killed in an encounter with security forces in Arizal village of Budgam district in Jammu and Kashmir.

On March 24, two terrorists were gunned down in an encounter between security personnel and terrorists in Anantnag's Dooru area.

Jammu and Kashmir police had on March 24 said all the four terrorists killed in the Kupwara encounter last week were of foreign origin, supected to be of Lashkar-e-taiba (LeT).

OneIndia News
Karnataka Assembly Elections: 2 Amits and their gaffes to prove costly for BJP?

India

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Oneindia Staff

Bengaluru, March 28: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has bestowed a great deal of power on two Amits--president Amit Shah and IT cell head Amit Malviya. While the senior Amit with his sheer willpower, political shrewdness and hard work is winning elections after elections across the country for the BJP, the younger Amit has built a robust empire for the saffron party online. This is what political experts opine. Because of the two Amits, Prime Minister Narendra Modi without any "tension" is managing the country so well, according to a BJP leader in Karnataka, who didn't want to be identified.

Unfortunately, on Tuesday, when the Election Commission (EC) announced the date for the most important poll of the year--Karnataka Assembly elections 2018--both the Amits "slipped" and with them, the BJP too "fell", at least figuratively. First, reports stated that an "overzealous" junior Amit tweeted the polling and counting dates for the southern state at least 15 minutes before Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) OP Rawat announced the same at a press meet in the national capital. The tweet was immediately spotted by Delhi journalists who asked the EC officials at the press briefing about the "date leak" before the actual announcement.

The poll panel called the leak as a "very serious issue" that merited a probe and "stringent action". The only relief for the EC in the entire controversy was that junior Amit got the counting date for the Karnataka elections wrong. The EC announced that the elections to the 224-member Karnataka Assembly will take place on May 12. The counting of votes will take place on May 15. While in Malviya's tweet, which has been deleted after the uproar, the counting date was mentioned as May 18. Along with Malviya, Karnataka Congress social media in-charge, Srivatsa B, too tweeted about the polling and counting dates before the official announcement. Both in their defence said that their tweets were based on television reports.

Nonetheless, the damage was done as once again the credibility of the poll panel came under the scanner. Malviya, who is, of course, more well-known than Srivatsa, had to bear the brunt of all the accusations and trolling on social media. The Congress, perhaps oblivious to Srivatsa's blunder, attacked Malviya and the BJP over the vexed tweet and once again alleged that the saffron party in power at the Centre is controlling the poll panel.

Attacking the BJP, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala called the saffron party a "Super Election Commission" for almost rightly guessing the dates. Surjewala also raised doubts over the credibility of the EC.

BJP becomes the Super Election Commission as they announce poll dates for Karnataka even before the EC.



Credibility of EC is on test.

Will EC now issue notice to BJP President, Amit Shah & register an FIR against BJP IT Head for leaking ECs confidential information? pic.twitter.com/i3vU2iJpjH  Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) March 27, 2018

Defending his party colleague's tweet, Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said, "Amit Malviya's tweet was based on a TV channel's source. It had no intention to undermine the stature of EC. A Karnataka Congress leader had also tweeted the same thing. We agree that he (Malviya) shouldn't have tweeted it."

Malviya also retweeted a tweet by the BJP which mentioned about the letter he had submitted to the EC pertaining to the controversial tweet.

Letter submitted to the Election Commission by Shri @malviyamit, National In-charge, Information and Technology, BJP regarding a tweet pertaining to the election dates in Karnataka. https://t.co/0mDUFzOKCH pic.twitter.com/CziIhciO2B  BJP (@BJP4India) March 27, 2018

If you thought your daily dose of controversy got over, then wait a minute. Tuesday offered more to news junkies. What left everyone's jaws opened was a statement by senior Amit when he called the previous government headed by his party's state unit president BS Yeddyurappa as the most corrupt in the history of Karnataka. Of course, it was a slip of the tongue which was immediately corrected by Yeddyurappa and one more BJP colleague of Shah sitting beside him at a press conference in Davangere, Karnataka. Actually, Shah wanted to attack incumbent Congress chief minister Siddaramaiah but committed a faux pas.

"The government headed by Mr Yeddyurappa was the most corrupt in the history of Karnataka," said Shah. But again, the damage had been done which left the BJP embarrassed. The biggest casualty in the entire episode, which to a layman was also hilarious as Shah himself admitted the "truth", was none other than Yeddyurappa, the party's chief ministerial candidate in the state.

In his earlier stint as the state CM, the 75-year-old BJP leader was forced to step down in August 2011 after a report by the Karnataka's then Lokayukta Santosh Hedge found him guilty of corruption. The Congress, on its part, 'gleefully' tweeted the video of Shah from the press briefing. "The #ShahOfLies finally speaks truth. Thank you @AmitShah," tweeted Siddaramaiah.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi too tweeted against the BJP.

Now that the BJP IT cell has announced Karnataka elections, time for a sneak preview of our top secret campaign video!



Gifted to us by the BJP President, our campaign in Karnataka is off to a fabulous start. He says Yeddyurappa ran the most corrupt Govt ever...



True. pic.twitter.com/UYqGDZuKyR  Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) March 27, 2018

Amid all these fuss over "blunders" by two Amits, the BJP is hoping the "anti-incumbency wave" against the Congress will finally help the party to grab power in the southern state ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Karnataka Assembly Election dates Date of notification April 17 Last date to file nominations April 24 Last date to withdraw nominations April 27 Date of polling May 12 Date of counting May 15

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Kerala: Onlookers pass by as woman lies 'motionless' on road after hit by bike

India

oi-Madhuri

In a shocking video revealing the apathy of onlookers, a 65-year-old woman, the victim of a hit-and-run, kept lying for several minutes in the middle of a busy road in Thiruvananthapuram district of Kerala before a police van came to her rescue.

The incident happened in Kerala's Kadakkavoor town which was caught on security cameras. The CCTV footage shows several bikers, cars - including the official vehicle of a civic body - and buses passing her after the woman falls to the road. People can be seen walking around her as mute spectators. Later, a passing police car stops and takes her to the hospital.

#WATCH Kadakkavoor:A 65-year-old woman hit by a vehicle kept lying injured on a busy road for several minutes, was later taken to hospital in a Police car. The accused driver has been arrested #Kerala (video source: unverified) pic.twitter.com/WAr719Wr7P  ANI (@ANI) March 28, 2018

The injured woman was immediately rushed to Thiruvananthapuram Medical College by the police.

Meanwhile, the police have arrested a 20-year-old man who was riding the two-wheeler, with two other pillion riders in connection with the incident. All three of them were not wearing helmets.

OneIndia News
Kudos to the spirit of Meghalaya farmers for turning the hill state into green paradise

India

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Oneindia Staff

Shillong, March 28: At a time when several parts of the country are staring at an agrarian crisis, in the hill state of Meghalaya the farmers have succeeded in ushering a "green revolution". The small state with "little available" land has harvested record produce in 2015-16. The credit for the agricultural feat goes to the farmers of the state, which forms the bulk of the population.

Impressed by their achievement, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his latest monthly radio broadcast, Mann Ki Baat, on Sunday profusely praised the farmers of the northeastern state. "One thing that impressed me the most was Meghalaya and the hard work of the farmers of the state. This state has a small area but it has attained a grand success," the PM said.

Recently, the PM came to know about the farming feat achieved by Meghalaya when he met farmers and scientists from across the country at the Krishi Unnati Mela--a farmers' meet-- held in New Delhi.

"The farmers of Meghalaya merit the attention and applause of the entire nation. Here is why. #MannKiBaat," tweeted Modi.

The farmers of Meghalaya merit the attention and applause of the entire nation. Here is why. #MannKiBaat https://t.co/a9URkgNK5K  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 25, 2018

He added that in the year 2015-16, Meghalaya's farmers achieved record production compared to the last five years. "They have showed that once the targets are set, spirits are high and with a strong resolve, the set targets can most certainly be attained. Today, the farmers have technology to help them while they work hard in their fields. This has provided a big boost to our agro- producers," Modi said.

At the Mela in Delhi on March 17, the hill state won an award from Modi for its efforts to promote agricultural production. While presenting his first budget as the chief minister of Meghalaya, Conrad K Sangma, recently said that more than 70 per cent of the state's population is still dependent on agriculture for livelihood. Agriculture alone forms 22 per cent of the state's gross domestic product (GDP), added the CM. Conrad said that his government is aiming to double the farmers' income by focusing on increasing production of food grains.

OneIndia News
Mamata Banerjee meets Sonia Gandhi, says Congress should help regional parties

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday met Congress' Sonia Gandhi and both leaders held discussions on plans to stop the BJP in 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Banerjee, who is in Delhi since yesterday, said that the Congress should help the 'anti-BJP' front which the regional parties are trying to forge.

Hectic parleys are underway and Mamata Banerjee seems to be at the center of a grand plan to stitch an 'anti-BJP' front ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Banerjee is leaving no stone unturned to galvanise the opposition parties for a united fight against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

"Whenever I come here I meet her, we share a good relation. I enquired about her health, also had political discussion, I said that the country wants it to be one-is-to-one in 2019, jo party jahan strong hai wahan usko ladna chahiye," Banerjee told the media after meeting Sonia.

"We want Congress to help the regional parties' front that is being talked about, so as to facilitate a one-is-to-one fight. This one-is-to-one fight will eliminate BJP politically," she added.

On Tuesday (March 27), the TMC supremo visited Parliament and met leaders of several opposition parties, including Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena parliamentarian Sanjay Raut.

Last week, TRS chief and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao called on Banerjee in Kolkata and both stressed on the need for a front comprising of regional parties to stop the BJP. KCR had earlier called for a non-BJP and non-Congress front.

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Story first published: Wednesday, March 28, 2018, 20:22 [IST]
Man arrested for allegedly molesting cabin crew of Air Vistara Lucknow-Delhi flight

India

oi-Madhuri

A cabin crew of Tata Vistara airline was allegedly molested by a passenger on board a flight between Lucknow to Delhi. The incident took place when the flight UK997 from Lucknow landed in Delhi and was preparing for deplaning. The accused has been arrested.

Releasing a statement in this regard, Air Vistara said, "A cabin crew member on Lucknow-Delhi flight on 24th March reported incident of sexual harassment by a passenger. Vistara does not tolerate abusive or unruly behaviour by passengers that puts safety of its staff and other customers at risk, or compromises their dignity."

This isn't the first time, last year, Vikas Sachdev, a Mumbai-based businessman, was booked under Section 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) of the IPC, and relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) after actor Zaira Wasim accused Sachdev of molesting her.

Both of them were on board Delhi-Mumbai flight. The airline had apologised to Wasim for the incident and said it was carrying out a probe into it while asserting that it has "zero tolerance" for such behaviour. The actress had narrated her ordeal on Instagram through a live video.

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Drug case: Actor Gaurav Dixit granted bail by Mumbai Court on surety of Rs 50,000

Pilot injured in Coast Guard chopper crash dies

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

A Coast Guard Assistant Commandant, who was injured in the hard landing of a coast guard chopper near Mumbai, passed away on Tuesday evening.

Captain Penny Chaudhary was admitted to INHS Asvini hospital after suffering a head injury post hard landing of a coast guard chopper. Chaudhary, the co-pilot died after battling for life for 17 days.

"She died last night," Coast Guard PRO (west) Commandant Avinandan Mitra told PTI. Capt. Chaudhary had suffered internal bleeding after the rotor of the helicopter struck her head.

Early this month, an Indian Coast Guard helicopter crash-landed near Murud's Nandgaon in Raigad district. Four officers were onboard. Captain Penny Chaudhary was injured in the crash-landing. The chopper crashed 160 kms south of Mumbai at 1440 hours.

(With agency inputs)
PM Modi expresses unhappiness over CBSE paper leak issue

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

Prime Minister Narendra Modi reportedly spoke to HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar and conveyed his unhappiness over the paper leak issue and asked for strict action.

HRD Minister addressed a press conference in Delhi about the paper leak. Javadekar said, "Some parts of the paper were leaked on WhatsApp and we have made Police complaint regarding it. Investigation is underway and strict action will be taken. We have also decided to tighten security for the time when papers are being distributed."

Panic gripped students of class 12 following claims on social media that the economics paper was leaked today ahead of the exam even as the board denied there was any slip-up. Reports of the question paper being leaked circulated through social media and WhatsApp several hours before the paper commenced.

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), however, denied any leak and urged students and parents not to panic. "We have checked with all examination centres and the paper was not leaked. The source of the circulation of this information is not known yet. We want to urge the students and parents to not panic and assure them that the board is doing its best to ensure sanctity of the examination," a senior CBSE official said.

(With agency inputs)
SSC CGL Tier-III results 2019 on July 9: Read full notice on cut off marks here

Police arrests 4 people for SSC exam paper leak

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

Police arrested four people in connection with the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) exam paper leak on Wednesday. The culprits were arrested in a joint operation by Delhi and Uttar Pradesh Police.

DCP North Delhi Jatin Narwal says 'Rs 51,83700 in cash, 3 laptops, 10 mobile phones, pen drives and hard disks recovered.'

As per NDTV reports, they had allegedly hacked the data entry operator exam held by the Staff Selection Commission. They hired around 150 people to hack the systems, access the question papers and solve them, police said. They allegedly charged Rs 10 lakh to Rs 15 lakh for helping each candidate.

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Story first published: Wednesday, March 28, 2018, 16:35 [IST]
Vijay Mallya has applied for another route to stay in the UK, says lawyer

Vijay Mallya set to marry former Kingfisher Airlines air-hostess Pinky Lalwani

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

Fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya is all to tie the knot with former Kingfisher Airlines air-hostess Pinky Lalwani, said reports. This would be Mallya's third marriage.

Who is Pinky Lalwani? the woman Vijay Mallya set to marry for the third time

Mallya and Lalwani were recently spotted together celebrating their anniversary in mid-March. The duo started dating in 2011 when Mallya offered Lalwani a job as a flight attendant. They were frequently spotted together after that, reported Business Today.

Mallya, who had fled to the UK in March 2016, is wanted in India for Kingfisher Airlines' default on loans worth nearly Rs 9,000 crore and some other matters.

Mallya was previously married to Sameera Tyabjee from 1986-87 and to Rekha Mallya from 1993. In 1986, Mallya married Sameera Tyabjee, an air hostess of Air India. They have one son, Siddharth Mallya. In June 1993, Mallya married Rekha, whom he had known since childhood, and together they have two daughters, Leanna and Tanya.

Mallya is wanted in India on charges of Rs 9,000-crore fraud and is currently in London. He escaped from India days before banks approached the courts to stop him from leaving the country. Mallya had fled the country in March 2016 and owes close to Rs 9,000 crores to the banks.

OneIndia News
China news site advises India to safeguard 'internet sovereignty'

International

oi-Shubham

By Shubham

China's Global Times is known for expressing its mind on burning issues, even if that involves regional rivals India. On Tuesday, March 27, yet another article in the publication spoke about India advising it to rethink the privacy aspect in the wake of the recent data leak allegations - be it in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's official app or the country's mega identification scheme Aadhaar.

Titled 'Privacy on India's fast-growing internet needs rethink in terms of sovereignty', the article said with the penetration of internet, leaks of personal information occur more frequently in India, citing the recent controversies over Aadhaar and other apps. It said online privacy is a common problem in emerging economies like China and India need to work faster and harder to address the issue. The Global Times article had a mention about the ongoing Facebook data scandal which has rocked the world, especially the democratic nations, we well.

The article also raised a question over the government's ideal role in securing privacy.

"The question is not a result of economic nationalism or opposition to government procurement, but an issue regarding the government's obligation when it comes to online privacy issues," it said.

The article although conceded that supervision of a fast-growing internet is not easy but also added that the government shouldn't use it as an excuse to evade its responsibilities. It stressed the importance of internet governance and the technical design of certain apps.

Linking information security with national sovereignty, the Global Times article said the developing economies can take a cue from the developed countries on how to protect privacy but it should be aware about its own national safety. It said the Indian legal system has descended from the British system since they had once colonised India and it led to a western practice in dealing with issues like right to privacy. Can the same be applied to uphold internet sovereignty, it asked.

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Collapse of Kabul will go down as one of the greatest defeats in American history: Donald Trump

'US administration divided over tackling Pakistan', says Foreign Policy report

International

oi-Shubham

By Shubham

Even as US President Donald Trump bashed Pakistan time and again, accusing it of doing little to curb terrorism despite receiving massive aids, the White House in the Trump era is divided over how to tackle Pakistan, a Foreign Policy magazine story 'Is Trump Ready to Dump Pakistan?' reported.

While a section of the officials sought a hardline approach on Islamabad, others cautioned that unfriending a nuclear power which is strategically important, could be dangerous.

As per the report, the divide in the Trump administration on how to handle Pakistan was recently reflected in statements made by the US officials who requested Pakistan to put more efforts in eliminating terrorism but also acknowledged that Pakistan has indeed taken some right steps.

On the other hand, the hardliners were of the opinion that providing Islamabad with all kinds of aid virtually did not give anything in return and the wisdom now lies in taking strong actions against it.

It is also believed that the punitive action that the Trump administration took against Pakistan in terms of suspension of aid had a positive impact on Islamabad and the officials have been urged to maintain the pressure on one of the most trusted allies of the US in history.

Pakistan had served as a trusted ally of the US in its fight against the erstwhile Soviet Union. It helped the Americans to consolidate the fight against the Soviet occupiers of Afghanistan besides helping them to bridge the gap with China. However, in the post-Cold War era and especially in the wake of the 9/11 attacks on the US, the equation changed drastically.

The national interests of the US and Pakistan started clashing over Taliban in Afghanistan. While the US found a permanent enemy in the Taliban and vowed to free Afghanistan from them, Pakistan found in them a trusted ally to disrupt India's plans to play a big role in Afghanistan and create challenges at Pakistan's western borders.

The Haqqani Network in Afghanistan became a headache for the US but yet it could not push Pakistan to take steps against it. The US had Pakistan with it as an ally in the war on terrorism but the latter's changed priorities made it difficult to align it with the American interests.

This has left the US frustrated and it is planning to bring India into the Afghan picture to corner Pakistan but at the same time, the country's strategic significance and proximity to China have made Washington apprehensive about dumping it completely.

The arrival of two hawkish officials in Trump administration could have an impact

However, the appointment of two hawkish officials - Mike Pompeo and John Bolton -- as the secretary of state and national security adviser, respectively, could see the hardliners gain prominence in deciding the US's policy on Pakistan.

The Trump administration is considering a permanent halt to the annual flow of military aid to Pakistan this year, said the Foreign Policy article, leaving a serious impact on Islamabad's defence budget and also deny it useful American military hardware.

The report also said that the US is even thinking of imposing drastic measures like visa bans and other punitive measures against members of the government of Pakistan, its military, the Inter-Services Intelligence who are suspected of helping the Taliban and Haqqani Network operators to function from inside Pakistan.

Pakistan in the past took the advantage of the US administration's apprehension that it could ruin the Afghanistan peace process if alienated. But according to the Foreign Policy article, the US has gradually run out of patience and this could translate into a severe backlash against Islamabad.

Hard policies on Pakistan would not be decisive even today for countries like China and Russia would come to its full aid but at least, the US would eventually show its tough face in dealing with Islamabad.

OneIndia News
Its exactly a year before Brexit happens: Is EU in chaos or united?

International

oi-Shubham

By Shubham

It all started in June 23, 2016, when Britain's political leadership was gobbled up by the gene it had unleashed as the country voted in favour of an exit from the European Union (EU) by a wafer thin majority.

On March 29, 2018, the pro-Brexit campaigners of Britain will wait for the last 365 days of the country's official exit from the European Union (EU). The Brexit is officially going to take place at midnight on March 29, 2019, and it will be the biggest event in life of Europe in the post-Second World War integration days.

The general belief is that Brexit would leave the EU in a chaos and especially at a time when President Donald Trump's US has not shown much affection for his country's age-old Europe links, the departure of the UK, the internal problems in NATO and the growing assertion of powers like Russia would open more challenges for the EU.

But to the surprise of many, Brexit has proved to be a unifying force and the reason for that is its chaos witnessed so far, according to a piece in Guardian.

Take for example, Alexander Stubb, a former prime minister of Finland. According to Guardian, Stubb said he did not see the bloc so united and attributed it to the Brexit vote and the election of Trump across the Atlantic. He told Guardian that the European leadership has understood in the wake of these two incidents that they could not afford to bash EU as they have been doing.

Stubb, a EU veteran, said it was unlikely that the UK would split the unity in the EU. "What will keep a lot of the member states at bay from having bilateral type of arrangements is the fear the UK will be better off outside the European Union," the Guardian quoted him as saying.

The turmoil which has come with Brexit has made the European leadership apprehensive and there is a clear tendency to get closer to each other and not invite more such radical shake-ups.

Luuk van Middelaar, former adviser to former European Council president Herman Van Rompuy told Guardian that Brexit is a forgettable experience both for the EU and UK which violated the image of Europe as a club of all-European countries.

However, the Guardian article said that the challenges for EU still remain and that is visible from the fact that while 70 per cent Europeans favoured the EU in 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed, the number came down to only 40 per cent in 2017, suggesting that the common people were less supportive of the EU than those in power.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Wednesday, March 28, 2018, 18:05 [IST]
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
Will review comprehensive global strategic partnership with Biden says PM Modi ahead of US visit

Man arrested in connection with suspicious packages sent to US govt addresses

International

oi-Shubham

By Shubham

A man in his 40s was arrested on Monday, March 26, on charges for sending more than a dozen suspicious packages to the government's addresses in Washington DC, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said on Tuesday, March 27.

Identified as Tranh Cong Phan, the man was arrested at his residence in the Seattle area and was scheduled to appear in the court on Tuesday.

Phan is believed to have despatched 12 packages to the US's government and military addresses in the Washington metro area, NBC News cited the officials as saying.

The suspicious packages were seen at the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CIA) mail-sorting facility in suburban Washington besides a navy facility at Dahlgren and two facilities at Fort Belvoir, both in Virginia, said the report.

FBI sleuths discovered the packages to be containing potential destructive devices and appeared to have been sent by the same person. The officials also described the letters that some packages included as disturbing.

The authorities did not confirm the motive behind the act and it was believed to have been done more for causing fear than a real devastation.

US Defence Secretary James Mattis later told the media that all the packages that were sent to the defence department addresses were taken over by the FBI authorities.

The package incident happened less than a week after a man suspected in serial bombings in Austin killed himself. The bomber sent explosive packages to Austin in Texas earlier this month, killing a couple of persons.

The timing of these strange mailings is definitely eerie, coming less than a week after the suspect in serial bombings in Austin blew himself up. The bomber sent explosive packages to areas in Texas's capital in March, which left two people dead.

OneIndia News
Pakistan PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi frisked during security check at US airport

International

oi-Madhuri

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi frisked during security procedure at John F. Kennedy International airport in New York, according to Pakistan media.

A footage obtained by television and YouTube channels shows how Abbasi, dressed in informal, walking with his coat on one arm and pulling his suitcase with the other hand.

The Pakistani PM was in the United States last week to meet his ailing sister. During a brief visit to the country, Abbasi also met Vice-President Mike Pence where he was told that Pakistan will have to do more to address issues relating to terrorism. While he was being asked to put in more efforts to discourage its nurturing of the terrorist groups, at home, he was being slammed for shaming and humiliating the country.

Pakistan's PM being put through security checks at a time when the US has been considering imposing visa bans and other sanctions on individuals in the Pakistani government has left the country furious.

OneIndia News
US-South Korea trade deal happens while China embraces Kim Jong-un: A symbolic coincidence

International

oi-Shubham

By Shubham

The United States on Tuesday, March 27, greeted the successful renegotiation of its free trade agreement with South Korea, saying it would expand its access to the South Korean auto market even as putting a limit on the imports of steel and aluminium from its ally in East Asia.

The White House, besides hailing the development, also said that talks were in progress to reach a side agreement stopping both the nations from competitively devaluing their respective currencies to make trade gains.

The agreement was reached this week in principle to update the deal of 2012 which President Donald Trump had described as horrible. The updating happened as the culmination of talks that started last summer.

Last year, the US saw a trade deficit worth $10.3 billion in goods and services with South Korea.

A US official on the condition of anonymity praised Trump to undertake a renegotiation of the deal, saying he succeeded in making it a better agreement which would help the US workers' and business heads' interests.

For the Koreans, the renegotiation helped them avoid 25 per cent tariff on steel Trump had announced in March against all countries - friends or foes - raising the danger of a global trade war.

US-S Korea trade deal done at a time when Kim Jong-un visits China

While the US and South Korea reworked their economic relations, China and North Korea - the reverse camp allies - also took initiatives in the same period to improve their political bonding. The timing of the two developments might be coincidental but they are symbolic.

The US and its allies in East Asia have over the years grown an economic dimension of their relations and even if Trump's US has prioritised its own interests over the rest today, it hasn't meant a deep divorce between Washington and its allies like Seoul and Tokyo. This is because their geopolitics is closely related to their geo-economics.

In case of China and North Korea, on the other hand, the sole emphasis on the political aspect has seen a rowdy Pyongyang drifting away from Beijing and that President Xi Jinping has to take a soft stand on a weak neighbour to tame its temperamental leadership to serve Beijing's own security interests.

Had there been an equal economic relationship between the two countries, North Korea would have been easier to handle for Beijing leading to a more stable relationship between the two and a balance of power equation in East Asia.

OneIndia News
Our views not reflected in draft: India abstains from voting on UNGA resolution on Myanmar

Who is Win Myint, the just elected president of Myanmar?

International

oi-Shubham

By Shubham

The Myanmar parliament on Wednesday, March 28, elected U Win Myint as the new president of the country. The former speaker of the country's House of Representatives, Win Myint became the 10th incumbent succeeding U Htin Kyaw who stepped down a week earlier citing health reasons. First Vice President U Myint Swe served as the acting president in the interim period.

Win Myint won the election with a massive majority, securing 403 votes of 636. Myint Swe won 211 votes while Vice President Henry Van Thio got 18. Four members abstained from voting.

Sixty-six year old Win Myint is likely to be expected this week.

Win Myint was born in Danubyu on the western bank of the Irrawaddy River in Ayeyarwady Region in 1951 to Tun Kyin and Daw Than. He graduated with a geology degree from the University of Yangon and later studied law in the 1980s.

Win Myint became a court advocate in 1985 and was jailed for anti-government protests in 1988. He was released two years later and ran successfully in the election in Danubyu but the ruling military junta refused to acknowledge his success. He was jailed many times for his role in the opposition movement against the military junta.

The veteran leader faced the tragedy of his life when the military officers agreed to allow him to see his ailing son only if he renounced politics but he refused to do so. He returned to politics in 2012 during a local by-election and after he won the 2015 election as well, he was promoted as the speaker of the lower house. He served in that post before becoming the president.

Win Myint is known to be close to Aung san Suu Kyi

Win Myint, a long-serving member of National League for Democracy, is known to be close to State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and is respected for his decisive role as the speaker of the lower house of the Myanmarese parliament.

He has never compromised in maintaining discipline in the house even if that called for strict action against influential lawmakers. The man has also spoken in favour of farmers' rights and also ordered revelation of government officials' assets in 2012.

Win Myint's election as the president has received a positive feedback in Myanmar with people expecting him to carry out his duties in the new role with same intensity.

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Story first published: Wednesday, March 28, 2018, 16:48 [IST]
Xi Jinpings 4 soft proposals to N Korea: Is China wary of Trump-Kim talks?

International

oi-Shubham

By Shubham

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un paid an unofficial visit to China between March 25 and 28 after being invited by Chinese President Xi Jinping and the two had significant talks during this period. It was Kim's first visit to a foreign country since he took over the reins in 2011.

On the occasion, Xi said development in China-North Korea relations is a "strategic choice" and the "only right choice" the two sides have made "based on history and reality, international and regional structure and the general situation of China-DPRK ties". He said this reality would not change by an event at a particular time.

It can be said here that Kim is expected to meet US President Donald Trump in May after the latter accepted a proposal from a South Korean envoy to meet Kim. Though it was expected that the talks would focus on the North Korean nuclear programme, the details were yet to be finalised. Did Xi indicate that the Trump-Kim talks were unlikely to change China's equations with North Korea, its closest ally in East Asia?

Xi Jinping's 4 proposals to bring N Korea out of isolation

Xi, while stressing Beijing's willingness to cooperate with North Korea to jointly progress and make people of both the countries content and strive towards regional peace and development, presented four principles in connection with the bilateral terms, China's Global Times said.

First, continue to prioritise high-level exchanges that help in guiding and promoting development in China-North Korea relations. Xi said he was eager to see a regular exchange of high-profile visits between Beijing and Pyongyang.

Secondly, to give emphasis on strategic communication between the two countries. He said China and North Korea should frequently exchange opinions on major issues as well as exchanges at party levels and other areas. This would make their mutual trust and communication stronger.

Thirdly, to work towards peaceful development. He said both the Chinese and North Korean brands of socialism have shown signs of change and progress, ushering in new times and they should make joint efforts to make things better for their own people and regional peace and stability.

Fourthly and finally, to encourage people-to-people exchanges and strengthen the foundation of popular will for improving friendly relations and carry forward the tradition of friendship.

China's soft take on North Korea ahead of Trump-Kim talks

China's ploy could be to improve its own relationship with North Korea, something which deteriorated in the wake of the latter's ambitious nuclear programme and especially in the run-up to the Trump-Kim talks.

doesn't want to lose North Korea as an ally and thus was found working on the basics to demolish the invisible wall that had come up between the two sides of late. North Korea is virtually no match for China in terms of stature and strength but yet Xi showed to the world that by welcoming Kim and making his four proposals, he was willing to treat it as an equal partner and trying to bring it out of isolation.

OneIndia News
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DMFX Financials Announces Blockchain "Mini Conference" in London in June

Published March 28, 2018 by Ivan P

The "Mini Conference" in London should gather more than 150 attendees and many cryptocurrency and blockchain experts eager to share their knowledge and insights.

DMFX Financials, a company specializing in organizing events geared towards creating a better understanding of blockchain technology, ICO's, and other aspects related to cryptocurrencies has announced another "Mini Conference," scheduled to take place on June 15 at London's BMA House.

Events for Everyone

These mini conferences aren't meant just for people already heavily involved with cryptocurrency trading and ICO's but for everyone looking to invest in cryptocurrencies even if they don't have much previous knowledge on the topic. Small in size, usually hosting only up to 300 visitors, DMFX conferences are an excellent opportunity for the participants to get answers to any and all questions they might have.

The events focus on several important aspects, such as the latest blockchain innovations, understanding the hype cycle and knowing when not to ignore it, the impact or regulators and various other auditors in different countries around the globe, as well as ways of protecting and keeping your cryptocurrency safe at all times.

The London conference should host more than 150 visitors and cryptocurrency and blockchain experts from all over the globe. In their speeches and discussions, these experts will address many of the hottest cryptocurrenices on the market, such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ripple, and Ethereum, and talk about the most convenient ways to raise funds for cryptocurrencies in today's climate.

Blockchain Technology to the World

DMFX Financials has a vision to bring blockchain closer to everyone through the series of smaller events that will take place throughout the year. Additionally, these events should serve as a meeting place for different ICO's, trading platforms, startups, investors, etc.

The company is also planning a large conference that should take place in Switzerland at the end of the year, which should gather a much bigger number of attendees and blockchain experts in one place. For more info, visit the companys website.
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From Smirking Chimp



John Bolton - Every Problem Looks Like a Nail

(Image by flickr.com) Details DMCA



Let's not mince words: John Bolton is a war-monger and his appointment to be Donald Trump's National Security Adviser is a threat to global security. Bolton advocates a foreign policy that exaggerates threats, belittles diplomacy, shows contempt for international institutions and is quick to use violence. The National Security Adviser position does not need Senate confirmation, so starting April 9, the hawk of all hawks will be perched at the White House.

Need specifics on why we should oppose Bolton? Here are some. Add your own.

1. Bolton wants to shred the Iran nuclear deal...and bomb Iran. Bolton hates the nuclear deal that was signed under Obama's watch not only by the U.S. and Iran, but also by Britain, France, Germany, China, Russia, and the EU. Although the deal is working and even Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said it is in our national interest, Bolton calls the Iran deal a massive strategic blunder. On May 12, when Trump is required to re-certify that Iran has been complying with the deal, Bolton makes it more likely that the US will pull out of the deal, triggering a major international crisis. Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council, says, "People, let this be very clear: The appointment of Bolton is essentially a declaration of war with Iran."

2. Bolton is in bed with an Iranian terrorist organization called MEK, a fringe group that was listed as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the United States until 2012 and is still considered a terrorist organization inside Iran. Bolton routinely meets with and accepts payments from the group, which has been responsible for the murder of American soldiers, the attempted kidnapping of a U.S. Ambassador, and many violent attacks inside Iran. Bolton considers the MEK a "viable opposition" that he wants to use to overthrow the Iranian government. With Bolton in power, one of the most detested Iranian cults will be treated by the US government as legitimate representatives of the Iranian people.

3. Bolton will jeopardize talks with North Korea. The world breathed a sigh of relief at the announcement that Presidents Trump and Kim Jung-un would meet in May. But with Bolton, that meeting may never take place, or could be disastrous. Bolton says, "Talking to North Korea is worse than a mere waste of time. Negotiations legitimize the dictatorship, affording it more time to enhance its nuclear and ballistic-missile capabilities." Instead of talks, Bolton has called for the United States to launch a preemptive strike against North Korea, a strike that could spark a nuclear war.

4. Bolton hates the United Nations and international law. When George Bush nominated Bolton to be UN ambassador in 2005, he proved so controversial to even the Republican-controlled Senate that Bush had to sneak him in as a "recess appointment" when Congress was not in session. It is one thing to be critical of the UN but Bolton opposes its very existence. "There is no such thing as the United Nations," he once said, adding, "If the U.N. Secretariat building in New York lost 10 stories, it wouldn't make a lot of difference." More than that, he is hostile to the concept of international law, having once declared, "It is a big mistake for us to grant any validity to international law even when it may seem in our short-term interest to do so--because over the long term, the goal of those who think that international law really means anything are those who want to constrain the United States."

5. Bolton was a key instigator of the Iraq war and has no regrets. He was a major figure (along with Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld) pushing for the invasion of Iraq. During the Bush presidency, when he was Under-Secretary of State for Arms Control, he helped fabricate evidence about weapons of mass destruction that led to the March 2003 invasion. And he is one of the few original advocates for that war who still insist it was a good idea.

6. Bolton provided false information about Cuba. As Undersecretary of State, Bolton claimed that Havana was attempting to develop biological weapons and sell them to rogue regimes. Then he tried to fire two intelligence analysts who challenged his erroneous allegations. Bolton has also urged that stronger sanctions be imposed on Cuba, and put Cuba on his "axis of evil" list.

7. He is no friend of the Palestinians. When he was at the United Nations, he constantly protected Israel by vetoing all UN resolutions targeting Israel. Bolton praised Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, breaking with decades of international consensus that the disputed city's status must be negotiated between the two sides. He opposes a Palestinian state, saying, "I don't think there are institutions on the Palestinian side that can live up to the commitments of a treaty with Israel...or could resist takeover by terrorist elements." His solution? Get rid of Palestinians by merging Gaza with Egypt and the West Bank with Jordan.

8. Bolton will create new problems with China. He has been an ardent supporter of diplomatic recognition of Taiwan, and was paid by the Taiwanese government. He advised the Trump administration to reconsider the "One China" policy, an agreement made in 1972 that requires countries to choose between diplomatic relations with China or diplomatic relations with Taiwan. His antagonistic stance toward China could have a negative impact on issues ranging from North Korea and the South China Sea to cyberspace and trade.

9. He hangs out with Islamophobes. Bolton has a decade-long history of associating with anti-Islam activist Pamela Geller, appearing on her internet radio program "Atlas on the Air" and on her video blog. Geller is well-known for her inflammatory public comments about Muslims and the idea that they are trying to impose Sharia law in the US. Bolton wrote the foreword to the book she co-wrote with fellow anti-Islamist Robert Spencer called "The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America."

10. His white walrus mustache should immediately disqualify him. According to former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, president-elect Trump passed on nominating John Bolton to a senior Cabinet position because he didn't like Bolton's signature mustache. With his hairy upper lip, Bolton just didn't "look the part." We agree. Trump should immediately rescind the offer in favor of someone with less facial hair.

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From RT

Since US President Donald Trump announced John Bolton as his new top national security adviser last week, the world has been reeling from multiple predictions of wars breaking out.

The following is not meant to sound complacent, but the inclusion of arch war-hawk Bolton in Trump's inner circle may actually turn out to be a good thing. For it will hasten America's reckless foreign policies and its decline as a world power.

Admittedly, such an outlook is proffered against a very grim background.

John Bolton has been described not so much as "America First" as "Military First." He is credited as being the chief architect of the Iraq War under the GW Bush administration. He remains bumptiously unapologetic about promoting that war, which was based on lies and resulted in as many as one million deaths.

Bolton relishes in open contempt for the United Nations and international law, viewing both as hampering the United States from using military force whenever and wherever it wants, in pursuit of its geopolitical objectives.

He has stridently called for US military attacks on North Korea and Iran, to instigate regime change.

So, for "mad hatter" Bolton to have the ear of the president in matters of international security is indeed a cause for a foreboding apprehension. Especially given also that President Trump already seems riven with a confused foreign policy and a worrying impetuousness in dealing with the rest of the world.

It says a lot whenever US media are rattled by the bellicose prospect of John Bolton guiding Trump on precarious issues.

"The return of John Bolton paves the way for more war," warned the Washington Post.

The New York Times cautioned: "The whole world should be concerned."

Both news outlets had previously acted as cheerleaders for the overseas wars which Bolton promulgated when he was serving in the Bush State Department some 15 years ago. Evidently, the return of war-hawk Bolton to White House policy-making is just too much to bear.

As already noted, Bolton is gung-ho for regime-change wars against North Korea and Iran. He is also hawkish towards China and what he views as the latter's military expansion in the Asia-Pacific region. Bolton has accused Russia of "an act of war" by allegedly meddling in US politics. He also berated Trump last year for not being tougher towards President Vladimir Putin when the two leaders met at the G20 summit in Hamburg. Bolton claimed Putin blatantly lied to Trump when he assured him that Russia had not interfered in US elections.

On any number of international tensions, the Trump administration is liable to take an even more aggressive turn with John Bolton in the wheelhouse of foreign policy. With more aggression, the odds are significantly shortened on the danger of an armed confrontation erupting.

Nevertheless, there are also sound reasons why war will not break out. Far from portending a more dominant United States, the Trump administration is leading the presumptuous "uni-power" into greater international isolation.

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Areopagitica is a 1644 prose polemic by the English poet, scholar, and polemical author John Milton opposing licensing and censorship. Areopagitica is among history's most influential and impassioned philosophical defenses of the principle of a right to freedom of speech and expression. Many of its expressed principles have formed the basis for modern justifications.

The previous year, Parliament's had passed an Ordinance for the Regulating of Printing, requiring authors to have a license approved by the government before their work could be published. Milton speaks most respectfully to the MPs, and appeals to their better reason. He appeals to the Bible and references ancient Athens as well.

And though all the windes of doctrin were let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously by licencing and prohibiting to misdoubt her strength. Let her and Falshood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the wors, in a free and open encounter.

Note: I have only recently discovered Milton, because the subject matter of Paradise Lost never was part of my reality. When I listened to Thomas Copeland's reading of PL last fall, I was enchanted by Milton's mastery of language. -- JJM

Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely

according to conscience, above all liberties. -- John Milton

Postscript: Milton's Areopagitica didn't have the desired effect on Parliament, and the licensing provision remained in force. However, in the longer course of history, his essay has had a powerful influence establishing the central importance of freedom of speech in a democratic society.
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From Smirking Chimp

The explosion in the pay of corporate CEOs is well documented. While the heads of major corporations were always well paid, we saw their pay go from 20- to 30-times the pay of ordinary workers in the 1960s and 1970s to 200- or 300-times the pay of ordinary workers in recent years. Paychecks of more than $20 million a year are now standard, and it's not uncommon to see a top executive haul in more than $40 or $50 million in a single year.

Soaring CEO pay is an important part of the story of the rise in inequality over the last four decades. These people are all in the top 0.01 percent or even 0.001 percent of the income distribution.

The high pay of CEOs lifts the pay for other top executives. If the CEO is getting $25 million a year, it is likely that people directly under her are making salaries of $3 to $5 million, and quite possibly considerably more. If CEOs were earning $2 million, most likely the next tier of workers would be earning in the neighborhood of $1 million. And, it's just straight logic that higher pay at the top means less for everyone else.

In addition, the high pay at the top of the corporate ladder gets transmitted to other sectors. It is now common to see university presidents and heads of charities and other nonprofits get pay in excess of $1 million or even $2 million a year. They can truthfully say that they would get far higher pay if they ran comparably sized organizations in the corporate sector.

There is an ongoing debate in the economics profession over the reason for the jump in CEO pay. Many economists argue that higher pay reflects the growing importance of CEO performance to the company. Their argument is that a good CEO, who can skillfully steer a company through a rapidly changing market environment, can add billions of dollars to shareholder value. In this context, the shareholders can still come out way ahead even if they are paying out $40 or $50 million a year to their CEOs.

The contrasting position is that CEOs often walk away with massive paychecks even when they have done little or nothing to add value for shareholders. (It is assumed that CEOs are being rewarded for helping shareholders, not for benefitting employees or society as a whole.) The CEOs of major oil companies got huge pay raises as a result of the rise in world oil prices in the last decade, a factor that was pretty much out of their control. This implies that high pay is a result of the failure of corporate governance, where shareholders lack the ability to effectively control CEO pay.

In a new paper, Jessica Schieder of the Economic Policy Institute and I examined the impact of a cap in the deductibility of CEO pay. A provision in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) prevented health insurers from deducting more than $500,000 of CEO pay from their taxes. This meant that a dollar of CEO pay went from costing companies 65 cents in after-tax dollars to costing them a full dollar, an increase of more than 50 percent.

If CEO pay was closely related to the returns the CEOs provided to shareholders, this provision should have led to a fall in the pay of CEOs at health insurers, relative to other companies. We tested the impact of this ACA provision, controlling for profits, revenues, stock prices and other factors expected to affect CEO pay. We could find zero evidence that the provision had any effect whatsoever in lowering the pay of CEOs in the insurance industry.

The fact that making CEO pay more costly to the company had no effect on their compensation supports the broken corporate governance view. CEOs don't get paid the big bucks because they are so valuable to their companies. They get paid the big bucks because the boards of directors, who most immediately determine their pay, are their friends.

The directors are appointed through a process that is dominated by top management. Being a director is a very cushy job, typically paying in the hundreds of thousands of dollars for perhaps a 150 hours of work annually. As long as directors have the support of management, it is almost impossible for them to be removed. Over 99 percent are reelected. In this context, directors have no incentive to ask questions like "can we pay our CEO less?"

It is possible to change the incentive structure. A provision in the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill requires a triannual "say on pay" vote by shareholders. This is a nonbinding vote in which shareholders vote yes or no on a CEO pay package. Less than 3 percent of packages are voted down. Interest is generally low because there is little consequence from a no vote.

But the law could be changed to have more consequence. Suppose directors sacrificed their pay if the shareholders voted no. This would give them a real incentive to ask whether they could pay their CEO less.

This, and other changes to corporate governance could rein in CEO pay and help to reduce inequality. It will require more thought and much struggle to determine the best set of reforms. However, there is one thing on which we feel confident, based on this new research: Limiting tax deductibility of CEO pay is not the answer.
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From Down With Tyranny

An interesting vote will be coming up in the Senate, the confirmation vote on Trump nominee Gina Haspel as Director of the CIA. Make no mistake; this will be a torture vote, a yes or no to confirm the CIA's role in systematic torture of our "enemies" abroad (see below for details).



The last time a pro-torture Trump nominee came to the Senate -- Mike Pompeo for the same job in January 2017 -- the Senate confirmed him 66-32-2. The motion to bring his nomination to the floor, called the "motion to proceed" (MTP), passed by an overwhelming 89-8-3. (For what it's worth, Bernie Sanders was one of the few No votes on that motion.)



Democratic Party votes to confirm Pompeo included "progressives" Sheldon Whitehouse (RI), Amy Klobuchar (MN), and Brian Schatz (HI). In all, 16 Democrats said yes to pro-torture Mike Pompeo, after which one of them, Whitehouse, got an earful at a town hall.





"In May 2013, the Washington Post's Greg Miller reported that the head of the CIA's clandestine service was being shifted out of that position as a result of 'a management shake-up' by then-Director John Brennan. As Miller documented, this official -- whom the paper did not name because she was a covert agent at the time -- was centrally involved in the worst abuses of the CIA's Bush-era torture regime.



"As Miller put it, she was 'directly involved in its controversial interrogation program' and had an 'extensive role' in torturing detainees. Even more troubling, she 'had run a secret prison in Thailand' -- part of the CIA's network of "black sites" -- 'where two detainees were subjected to waterboarding and other harsh techniques.' The Senate Intelligence Committee's report on torture also detailed the central role she played in the particularly gruesome torture of detainee Abu Zubaydah.





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Donald Trump has undertaken a dramatic initiative to put Putin in his place before it's too late. The tipping point was Russia's alleged nerve agent poisoning of ex-Russian citizen Sergei Skripal in London.

In response Trump's kicked out 60 Russian diplomats from the US and shut down that country's consulate in Seattle.

There have been two divergent reactions to that. Some are pleased that Trump has finally put Putin in his place. But others are concerned that he has set the US on a course that risks nuclear conflict with Russia.

I think there are good reasons to question the genuineness of Trump's motives.

Consider this:

First, Trump has long said he wants to get along with Putin, not alienate him. This goes way back to his campaign rhetoric. He recently reaffirmed that position.

Second, nobody, absolutely nobody, has produced any believable proof that Russia is to blame in the Skripal case. Maybe yes, maybe no. At this point nobody knows. The investigation has barely gotten underway. But yet there has been an irrational rush to judgment. Why the hurry?

Third, Trump's departure from his well-established policy to get along with Putin follows on the tail of a very bad week he's had. There's the interminably long Mueller probe into Trump's alleged collusion with Putin to beat Hillary Clinton in the presidential election. Then there were two prominent national TV interviews. They were with women alleging hushed-up sexual affairs with Trump from years back.

Trump may have felt that things were closing in on him. Those salacious interviews may have been the straw that broke the camel's back. His attack on Putin came right on the heels of the latest compromising interview.

Think about it. Trump had a strong motivation to divert public attention away from his alleged misdeeds. His political opponents are using them to delegitimize his presidency, win control of the House of Representatives this year, and then impeach Trump.

But look what he's done in response.

He has become a conspirator in the UK Prime Minister Theresa May's illegal assault upon the Russian state. Here is a list of her and her country's transgressions.

--The UK has violated the spirit of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. That has involved:

--Expelling Russian diplomats explicitly based on allegations for which there is yet no substantiation.

--Indicting in the media both Russia and its president for the attempted murder of Skripal before any reasonable investigation could have been concluded.

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For many decades the US has been fortunate in not having foreign powers actually invade our lands. That has changed in the past few years. The US has been invaded, and it appears that the White House, congress and the traditional defenders of the nation have done little about it. The mainstream media report episodes as business as usual hacks. But they are far worse.

Today there is news from the NYTimes, with the headline, A Cyberattack Hobbles Atlanta, and Security Experts Shudder.

A few days ago there was a report that our energy infrastructure is a huge risk from hacker attacks. An energy infrastructure hack could massively disrupt vast swathes of people and businesses, hospitals and schools.

Of course we also now know that elections were hacked in multiple ways.

These are all attacks within the United States, within our borders, that the organizations that are supposed to protect the US have abjectly failed to prevent.

While Trump and the bipartisan collection of war machine shills owned by the military industrial complex in congress add tens of billions to fund archaic weapons systems, boats and machines, they fail to demand accountability from a military and intelligence community that has failed miserably.

This failure has allowed digital attackers to reach within the United States to successfully make attacks within our shores. This failure, which is not something new, reveals the profound incompetence of the military, Homeland Security and the intelligence agencies.

My point in this article is that the mainstream media is not making it clear that though the attacks are not troops or bombs, they ARE successful attacks within our shores, within our borders. It is a big deal and not just another hack.

Instead of spending billions on hardware for out of date military units it is time to invest in actually doing the job of protecting America from the new technologies which will be used in modern warfare.

And let's start by considering how internet security has been privatized. Imagine if the government told us that we had to hire our own security to deal with terrorists, or if Miami was told to hire private troops to defend invaders. Or imagine if Atlanta was informed that it was at fault because it had not hired effective defenders of their digital security. Oh. Wait. That's pretty much what they are being told.

This is where corporatization of the commons, including defense of the commons, takes us. We have been betrayed by the failure of competence combined with the collusion to corporatize and privatize all aspects of government. It's not an economic philosophy. It's an outright sellout.
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Last year, President Obama granted her clemency in one of his final acts in office. She had written to the president requesting what she described as a "first chance at life." Since her release, Manning has emerged as a leading activist for trans rights and greater transparency. She has been featured in the pages of Vogue, where she was photographed by Annie Leibovitz, and was named 2017 Newsmaker of the Year by Out magazine. In January, she announced her bid for the U.S. Senate in Maryland, challenging Democratic Senator Ben Cardin, who is seeking a third term.

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Fifteen years ago this month, the U.S. invasion of Iraq began. Today we spend the hour with the war's most famous whistleblower, Chelsea Manning, in her first live television interview. Manning served as an intelligence analyst in the U.S. Army, based in Iraq. In 2010, while on leave in the United States, Chelsea Manning, then known as Bradley, made a decision that would change her life and the public's understanding of the U.S. War in Iraq.

After first approaching The New York Times and The Washington Post, Manning decided to leak a trove of documents about the Iraq War to WikiLeaks. She also leaked diplomatic cables, as well as information on Guanta'namo and the U.S. War in Afghanistan. It would become the largest leak of classified data in U.S. history. Over the next year, WikiLeaks would team up with major news organizations to break countless stories based on Manning's leaks. The documents exposed how U.S.-backed forces were involved in torture, summary executions and war crimes in Iraq.

But Manning was soon caught. On May 27, 2010, Manning was arrested at Forward Operating Base Hammer, outside Baghdad. She was initially held in a cage in Kuwait. Then she was moved to the Marine Corps base at Quantico in Virginia, where she was held in a tiny cell in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day. The United Nations said her prison conditions violated the U.N. Convention Against Torture. On August 21st, 2013, Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison -- the longest sentence ever given to a whistleblower in the United States.

AMY GOODMAN: The next day, Manning issued a statement through her lawyer announcing she was transgender. She said, quote, "As I transition into this next phase of my life, I want everyone to know the real me. I am Chelsea Manning. I am a female."

Manning would battle with military officials for years in an attempt to receive the proper healthcare, including hormone therapy. She would stage hunger strikes and twice attempted suicide.

Then, in 2017, a shocking development occurred. President Obama granted her clemency, in one of his final acts in office. She had written to the president requesting what she described as a, quote, "first chance at life." Chelsea Manning was finally released from Fort Leavenworth in Kansas on May 17th last year.

Since then, she's emerged as a leading activist for trans rights and greater transparency. She has been featured in the pages of Vogue magazine, where she was photographed by Annie Leibovitz, and was named 2017 Newsmaker of the Year by Out magazine. In January, she announced her bid for the U.S. Senate in Maryland, challenging Democratic Senator Ben Cardin, who's seeking a third term. And today she joins us here on Democracy Now! for her first live television interview.

Chelsea Manning, welcome to Democracy Now!

CHELSEA MANNING: Thanks for having me.

AMY GOODMAN: So, it has been 10 months, but how does it feel to be free?

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It was a deeply disappointing decision made by NBC last month to hire former CIA director John Brennan to serve as a national security and intelligence analyst.

It appears that either NBC overlooked a number of the very controversial and distressing aspects of Brennan's career, or they just didn't care.

In hiring Brennan, NBC is taking on board an individual who has been implicated in what many consider to have been illegal programs carried out by the Bush and Obama administrations in prosecuting the war on terror ---- namely the use of alleged torture techniques in interrogating terror suspects and the use of drone missiles to carry out "extra-judicial assassinations" of suspected terror leaders around the world.

Brennan is also someone whose honesty has come into question during investigations by Congress about the counterterror programs and, more recently, about the controversial and much criticized "Russian dossier." That document, prepared by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele, helped trigger the Special Counsel probe into possible collusion between the presidential election campaign of Donald Trump and the Russian government prior to the 2016 election, which Trump won. The investigation, depending on its findings, could lead to Trump's impeachment.

During the administration of George W. Bush, Brennan was a top counterterrorism official and senior official at the CIA. Critics charge that he endorsed the CIA use of "enhanced terror interrogation" techniques in questioning terrorism suspects --- including waterboarding and other brutal practices. Waterboarding is considered torture, which is banned under international law.

It was also reported that Brennan had many suspects picked up and taken through the "extroardinary rendition" program to "black sites" --- countries such as Egypt and Syria, where security officials in those countries would carry out torture to extract information for the U.S.

Administration legal officials put out memos saying that the interrogation techniques carried out by the CIA fell within the law and denied torture was taking place. For his part, Brennan said that while he was aware of the harsh interrogation tactics, he was not the one who suggested them in the first place and in some cases opposed the practices.

In 2014 the Senate intelligence committee did a major investigation of Bush-era interrogation methods and produced a scathing 6,000 page report criticizing the CIA's program. In the words of the New York Times story on the report, "the CIA's interrogation techniques were more brutal and employed more extensively than the agency portrayed;" that the interrogation program was "mismanaged and not subject to adequate oversight;" and that the CIA "misled members of Congress and the White House about the effectiveness and extent of the brutal interrogation techniques."

At the time that the Senate was investigating the CIA for its possible role in torture, Brennan had risen to director of the agency, following his nomination by Obama and confirmation by Congress. According to former CIA analyst and writer Ray McGovern, Brennan was furious over the Senate investigation and worked actively to stop the report from being released. At Brennan's behest, agency personnel spied on the Senate committee that was doing the investigation and hacked into staff computers to find out what was being found.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-CA, chairwoman of the committee, was so angered by the CIA tactics that she took to the floor of the Senate to blast the agency and its director.

Although President Obama tried to block release of the report, eventually the report was made public, due to the determined efforts of former Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo.

As CIA director, Brennan developed the targeted assassination program, in which terror suspects are killed by drone missiles. Brennan worked closely with Obama to draw up kill-lists of people who needed to be taken out. Thousands of people have been killed in drone strikes, which have hit Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Iraq.

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The data are clear: When people come together in acts of civil non-violence, governments are forced to change. This is true in dictatorships as well as democracies. 3.5% is enough. Every time 3.5% of a population has joined a non-violent protest movement, a government has fallen. (Sometimes they have been successful with even smaller numbers.) That's just 12 million Americans. Those people are already in our camp, already taking action. All we need is coordination.

Nonviolent movements have been twice as successful as violent wars over 100 years.

We know that violence is wrong, but we fear that nonviolence will always be squashed by those who are more ruthless. Chenoweth has demonstrated that, historically, this fear is groundless.

David Swanson destroys war in 2 minutes
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From Our Future

Peter G. "Pete" Peterson, the billionaire businessman and anti-government crusader, died last week at the age of 91. He leaves behind family and friends who will miss him, and a vast coterie of consultants and politicians who may miss his checks even more. They can take comfort from the words of Percy Bysshe Shelley: "He doth not sleep/he hath awakened from the dream of life ..."

Peterson will be mourned by those who loved him. But that's no reason to forget the harm he has done, especially since his family vows to continue his work. His son, speaking on behalf of the foundation Peterson created, says that "we will carry on his legacy with passion and pride."

That legacy is marked by Pete Peterson's long war against Social Security and Medicare, his austerity economics, and the false aura of objectivity Peterson used to promote his ideology.

Behind his carefully stage-managed veneer of bipartisanship (his team once tried to get me suspended from a publication for calling him right-wing), Peterson engaged in a decades-long war on the social contract. Programs like Social Security and Medicare were his immediate targets, but his ultimate goal was even broader: He wanted to extinguish the ideal of public goods, and put an end to the notion that certain social programs should be universal.

Peterson took conservative ideas and gave them an undeserved air of truth and neutrality. Politicians who embraced them were more likely to receive a steady flow of high-dollar contributions and gaining entree to the right salons and alliances.

Thanks to Peterson, prominent journalists can make outlandish and inaccurate statements about "entitlement" programs, while still laying claim to journalistic objectivity. That's no mean feat on Peterson's part -- although it becomes easier when you can spend nearly half a billion dollars in four years to promote your agenda, as Peterson did. (Peterson engaged in his crusade for decades; his total spending isn't known.)

Peterson may be gone, but his ideology still holds sway in the corridors of political and media power.

Peterson was a corporate success at a young age, and then joined Richard Nixon's Cabinet. But he became a billionaire as co-founder of the Blackstone Group, one of four firms that exemplify what The Economist calls "the barbarian establishment." As that (hardly left-wing) publication writes:

"The standard operating procedures of private equity -- purchasing businesses, adding debt, minimizing taxes, cutting costs (and facilities and employment), extracting large fees -- are just the sort of things to aggravate popular anger about finance. "Peterson promptly put his billions to work on a new mission: Cutting government programs, especially Medicare and Social Security, and reducing government deficits. (The fact that these moves would reduce the political incentive to tax billionaires is never mentioned in Peterson's work.)"

Peterson's sleight-of-hand trick, and it was a brilliant one, was to present his opinions as neutral and objective truth. As the New York Times reported in 2011:

"If some consider him Cassandra and others Chicken Little, Mr. Peterson considers himself, in self-deprecating (and self-interested) terms, as a data-driven businessman who 'simply did the math.'"

Here's some real math: Medicare saves lives, and "greater spending per beneficiary is associated with significantly lower mortality rates." So does Medicaid. Social Security lifts 22 million Americans out of poverty, including children and non-elderly adults.

The Peterson team claims that its proposals would exclude the poor, but cuts are a slippery slope. Social Security benefits are already meager, and any reductions -- including cuts to cost-of-living increases and increases in the eligibility age -- will lead to added poverty.

And poverty kills.

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From Telesur

The Palestinian leaders continue to be lonely warriors in a political illusion that has been abandoned even by its own masters.

The "deal of the century" is a farce. We suspected that, of course, but, upon his return from Washington, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed in more detail why the long-anticipated plan of the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has no basis in reality.

Netanyahu told his cabinet that there are "no concrete details" to report on the U.S. peace plan. One has to suspect that the "plan" was, all along, the U.S. disavowal of the so-called peace process and the dropping of the "honest peace broker" act.

In fact, that much has been achieved, especially with the U.S. decision last December to accept Israel's illegal annexation of Occupied East Jerusalem and agreement to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Since then, Israel has initiated a clear strategy to annexing the West Bank. Its top officials are contending that the "two-state solution" is not even deserving of a conversation.

"We are done with that," said Israel's Education Minister, in recent remarks to students in New York. "They have a Palestinian state in Gaza."

The Palestinian Authority (PA) of Mahmoud Abbas was thus left with the inviable position. It is lashing out left and right, convulsing like a wounded animal.

It is hard to imagine that, at the moment, Abbas is orbiting within a grand strategy of any kind. Random statements, attacks on his Palestinian rivals, the Israelis and the Americans -- mostly for betraying him -- is all that seems to keep his name in the news.

"May God demolish his home," was one of the statements attributed to the Palestinian leader, in response to Trump's decision regarding Jerusalem.

That was on January 14. A few days ago, Abbas referred to David Friedman, the ardently rightwing and pro-Israel U.S. Ambassador to Israel, as "son of a b*tch."

Friedman is an avid supporter of the illegal Jewish settlements, but name calling is not a promising sign of a constructive Palestinian strategy.

Abbas feels beleaguered, disowned by Washington and a victim of an elaborate U.S.-Israeli plot that has cost Palestinians precious time and much land, while leaving Abbas with nothing but an embarrassing political legacy.

Abbas is not necessarily angry because the U.S. has betrayed its role in the "peace process." He is angry because he has, for years, perceived himself as a member in the American camp of "moderates" in the Middle East. Now, however, he matters not. The U.S. government is notorious for betraying its allies.

The U.S., now run by the most pro-Israel administration in years, has no role for Abbas to play. in Palestine that only serves the interests of Israel.

A recent meeting, chaired by leading pro-Israel officials in Washington, including Jared Kushner, was dubbed as a "brainstorming session" on how to solve the Gaza crisis. No Palestinian was involved in the conference.

Since Abbas has hung all his hopes on Washington, he is left with no plan B. The Europeans neither have the will, desire nor political clout to replace the United States. They have often served as lackeys to U.S. foreign policy, and it would not be easy, if at all possible, for any European government to replace the U.S. as the new "honest peace broker."

Abbas' popularity -- and that of his Authority -- among Palestinians is negligible. In fact, 70 percent of Palestinians want him to step down immediately. That was according to a poll conducted last December. Yet, at 83 and suffering from ill health, Abbas is still holding on tightly to his chair.

It may appear that, during this time of political uncertainty and isolation, it would be advantageous for Abbas to reach out to other Palestinian factions. However, the opposite is true. Abbas is accusing his main rival, Hamas, of an assassination attempt targeting PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah.

After a promising agreement, signed in Cairo between Fatah -- Abbas' party -- and Hamas, all hopes have been dashed once more. In a joint conference with visiting Bulgarian President, Rumen Radey, in Ramallah, Abbas proclaimed "The Gaza Strip has been hijacked by Hamas. They must immediately hand over everything, first and foremost security, to the Palestinian national consensus government," he said.

What "national consensus government" is Abbas referring to, anyway? There have been no general elections since Hamas won the parliamentary majority in 2006. Abbas himself rules on an expired mandate. As of January 9, 2009, Abbas lost his democratic legitimacy.

Oddly, it is the conflict between him and Hamas that is allowing both sides to impose themselves on the Palestinian public -- which is left disenchanted, practically leaderless and facing the brunt of Occupation and apartheid on its own.

Instead of mending fences with the Palestinian people, Abbas continues with his political one-man show, encouraged by his enablers in the PA, who are equally responsible for the havoc wreaked by the U.S. and Israeli governments.

Still, the Palestinian leadership (whether in the PA or the PLO) continues with its desperate attempts to resuscitate the "peace process," lonely warriors in a political illusion that has been abandoned even by its own masters.

For Abbas and the PA, participating in the U.S.-led project was the last bridge they wished not to burn. Trump's decision to relocate his country's embassy signaled that the last bridge was, indeed, up in flames, but Abbas is yet to be convinced of this obvious reality.

From American and Israeli viewpoints, the "peace process" could be considered a success. It allowed the U.S. to define the political agenda in the Middle East and for Israel to shape the physical reality of the Occupied Territories in any way it found suitable.

The Palestinian leadership has emerged as the biggest loser. It first sat at the "negotiation table" to talk of borders, refugees, water, territories and Jerusalem, only to be left with nothing at the end.

It has lost both credibility and legitimacy. The space in which it was permitted to negotiate withered year after year.
The Peace Movement is Coming Back

The Peace Movement is coming back, and there still may be time to save the world and the planet. We don't have to be discouraged. Love and compassion will find the way. Everyone has to be an activist because everyone has a message that the world needs to hear. The revolution is starting now with high school Millennials. Vote For Kids and Not the NRA!

I thought the Baby Boomers, my generation, were unique, but the Millennials are now giving me more hope with the March For Our Lives events last weekend . I thought the Baby Boomers would ring in peace and love, but though it hasn't happened yet, it can still happen because of the power of love and unity that comes with our awakening--when we understand what is going on and why.

Baby Boomers must unite with the Millennials to continue organizing ongoing large marches on Washington, but we will need to use more buses and less cars for future larger events to run even more smoothly.

As a citizen's movement, we can also choose to reduce the number of cars on our roads in our daily lives by driving cars less or not at all--for our peace and sanity. If everybody starts using more buses and trains, it will reduce the need for more cars. We could even make public transportation free and private use more costly if it becomes a priority.

We have to be the change we want to see in the world. Too many cars on our roads and highways is one of things making the world more crazy, especially in the large cities. We need to have major rallies on Washington once a week, and one of them can be the Rally for Public Transit.




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From Alon Ben-Meir Website



(Image by Artwork by Michael Anderson and Sam Ben-Meir) Details DMCA



The prospective meeting between President Trump and North Korea's Chairman Kim Jong Un would be historic, and regardless of the outcome it will have major implications for years to come. The conflict over North Korea's nuclear arsenals and ballistic missiles is complex. It is driven by a mindset seething with mutual suspicions and profound distrust between the US and North Korea, which dates back nearly seven decades and has profoundly prejudiced their ultimate intentions. North Korea has violated several agreements with successive American administrations to end its nuclear program, while the US maintained open hostility and made no secret of its desire to effect regime change. What has dramatically changed the dynamic of the conflict, however, is the convergence of four major developments which made it possible for Kim to invite Trump to negotiate an end to the conflict.

First, North Korea has succeeded in becoming a nuclear power, with a stockpile of such weapons large enough to deter any enemy, including the US, from using force to depose the North Korean dynasty with impunity. It has mastered the technology of intercontinental missiles, which provides it with a delivery system for nuclear warheads, and has concluded that it can no longer improve its position by prolonging the conflict. Having reached such a milestone, North Korea has changed the dynamic of the conflict, making it possible for Kim to negotiate from a position of strength.

Second, although the sanctions and international isolation have certainly played a role, they were not as decisive as the Trump administration is trying to project. Indeed, North Korea has suffered from the sanctions for many years, but has come to the negotiating table in the past for tactical reasons, seeking temporary relief from the sanctions only to resume the development of its nuclear and missile technology. Now, however, having become a recognized nuclear power, Kim is seeking a strategic change that would permanently lift sanctions to alleviate the economic hardship on his people and provide them with their basic and urgent needs, while demonstrating that the regime is delivering on its promises.

Third, by meeting President Trump for face-to-face talks, Kim would also be accorded the legitimacy he has been craving while ensuring that North Korea is treated with respect as an independent state among the community of nations. North Korea's participation in the Winter Olympics provided the initial thaw between North and South Korea, and created the opportunity for South Korea's President Moon Jae-in (whose country would be most affected under the conditions of war or peace) to broker a face-to-face meeting between Trump and Kim, to which the latter was already disposed to accept. Although the North Korean delegation (led by Kim, which is most unusual) traveled to China to keep Beijing abreast of developments regarding the pending summit and ensure its support, it is also indicative of Kim's seriousness about reaching an agreement with the Trump administration.

Finally, as odd as it may seem, in the mutual public acrimony between Trump and Kim -- the name calling, the insults, the threats and counter-threats coupled with their crude audacity and bluster -- the two have found their match. Defiant, daring, and detested by the international community with overblown egos, both wanted to demonstrate that they can go against the political current and diplomatic niceties to achieve what their predecessors have failed to realize.

Pyongyang, however, will come to the negotiating table with a set of demands, including: the assurance that the US will recognize the North Korean regime as the legitimate government and not seek regime change; lift all sanctions without linking them to human rights; end military exercises with South Korea; substantially reduce and ultimately remove its military forces in South Korea; and sign a peace treaty once a comprehensive agreement is reached.

The main demands of the US are the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, which the Trump administration views as central to any agreement; that North Korea freezes further testing of ballistic missiles; immediately ends the development of miniaturized nuclear warheads that could be mounted on intercontinental missiles; and finally, re-joins the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and accepts the most unfettered monitoring regime by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Regardless of how well-intentioned both leaders may be to end the conflict, given the time constraints and the inability of either leader to deal with technological intricacies coupled with an environment completely lacking in trust, the prospective summit cannot and will not resolve these complex issues. Thus, neither side should have any high expectations to reach an agreement in short order. For North Korea and the US, the stakes are high, and the premature collapse of the negotiations could make matters worse, which both sides must avoid. At best, they can pave the way for substantive negotiations that would follow.

Secretary of State Designate and former CIA Director Mike Pompeo is certainly knowledgeable of Kim's position and the nature of relations he wants to forge with South Korea and other states in the area. Although Pompeo is a hard-liner and extremely suspicious of the North Korean leader, he must seize this historic opportunity to forge a lasting agreement.

The wild card here is the appointment of John Bolton as National Security Adviser, who is known for his extreme views. He has advocated the abrogation of the Iran deal and the bombing of North Korea to destroy its nuclear arsenals, which could precipitate a horrific war and cause the death of hundreds of thousands of North and South Koreans, Japanese, and Americans, and potentially lead to a much wider regional war.

Pompeo, with the support of Secretary of Defense Mattis, who deeply believes in a diplomatic solution and enjoys Trump's confidence, must disabuse Bolton and persuade Trump that force against North Korea will invite disaster. Pompeo must, however, be realistic about what can initially be achieved, and build on it to reach a lasting agreement. For this reason, he must come to the negotiating table with the understanding that a transitional period of five to seven years will be necessary, during which both sides undertake confidence-building measures to nurture trust and reach interim agreements that deal with various aspects of the conflict, which will eventually lead to denuclearization.

Any initial agreement must meet both sides' initial demands: for North Korea, the lifting of sanctions, albeit gradually, is a central issue, without which it will have no reason to enter any negotiation. For the US, the immediate cessation of any nuclear testing and freezing further development of its intercontinental missiles is the prerequisite to the continuation of the negotiating process.

The talk of war against North Korea, as Bolton has been advocating, must be removed from the lexicon because it is beyond insanity. The solution lies with diplomacy and diplomacy alone, which must be pursued especially now that the conditions to reach an agreement are more favorable than any time before.

The changing dynamic of the conflict in favor of Kim, and Trump's aspiration to reach an agreement that his predecessor failed to achieve, offer an historic opportunity to end a 70-year-old conflict that neither leader can afford to squander.
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Frankly, I am awed, amazed and even embarrassed. I was born in Switzerland, lived most of my life there, I also visited most of Europe, and I lived in the USA for over 20 years. Yet in my worst nightmares I could not have imagined the West sinking as low as it does now. I mean, yes, I know about the false flags, the corruption, the colonial wars, the NATO lies, the abject subservience of East Europeans, etc. I wrote about all that many times. But imperfect as they were, and that is putting it mildly, I remember Helmut Schmidt, Maggie Thatcher, Reagan, Mitterrand, even Chirac! And I remember what the Canard Enchaine' used to be, or even the BBC. During the Cold War the West was hardly a knight in white shining armor, but still -- rule of law did matter, as did at least some degree of critical thinking.

I am now deeply embarrassed for the West. And very, very afraid.

All I see today is a submissive herd lead by true, bona fide, psychopaths (in a clinical sense of the word)

And that is not the worst thing.

The worst thing is the deafening silence, the way everybody just looks away, pretends like "ain't my business" or, worse, actually takes all this grotesque spectacle seriously. What the f*ck is wrong with you people?! Have you all been turned into zombies?! WAKE UP!!!!!!!

Let me carefully measure my words here and tell you the blunt truth.

Since the Neocon coup against Trump the West is now on exactly the same course as Nazi Germany was in, roughly, the mid 1930s.

Oh sure, the ideology is different, the designated scapegoat also. But the mindset is *exactly* the same.

Same causes produce the same effects. But this time around, there are weapons on both sides which make the Dresden Holocaust looks like a minor spark.

So now we have this touching display of "western solidarity" not with UK or the British people, but with the City of London. Now ain't that touching?!

Let me ask you this: what has been the central feature of Britain's policies towards Europe, oh, let's say since the Middle-Ages?

That's right: starting wars in Europe.

And this time around you think it's different?

Does: "the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior" somehow not apply to the UK?!

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Oil Water Separator Industry: Share, Trend, Segmentation and Growth, Future Prospects & Competitive Analysis, Forecast to 2023

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http://www.reportsweb.com/asia-pacific-oil-water-separator-market-analysis-2012-2017-and-forecast-2018-2023

Oil Water Separator is a device designed to separate oil from the wastewater effluents. In the report, we mainly count the Oil Water Separator used in industrial applications.The Asia-Pacific Oil Water Separator market will reach xxx Million USD in 2018 and CAGR xx% 2018-2023. The report begins from overview of Industry Chain structure, and describes industry environment, then analyses market size and forecast of Oil Water Separator by product, region and application, in addition, this report introduces market competition situation among the vendors and company profile, besides, market price analysis and value chain features are covered in this report.Product Type Coverage (Market Size & Forecast, Major Company of Product Type etc.):Gravity OWSCentrifugal OWSOthersSample Copy is Available @Company Coverage (Sales Revenue, Price, Gross Margin, Main Products etc.):Compass Water SolutionsClarcorParker-HannifinAlfa LavalDonaldsonAndritzGEAWartsilaFiltrationContainment SolutionsRecovered EnergyGet Inquire before Buying @Application Coverage (Market Size & Forecast, Different Demand Market by Region, Main Consumer Profile etc.):General IndustryWater TreatmentOil & GasOthersRegion Coverage (Regional Production, Demand & Forecast by Regions etc.):ChinaJapan & KoreaIndiaSoutheast AsiaOceaniaComplete Report is Available @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
WaterMicronWorld,Ltd the worlds leading supplier of Atmospheric Water Generators Technology, shall be signing an Exclusive Master Distribution Agreement with Switch Applications (Pty) Ltd,.

"Every Drop Counts"

An assembly plant shall be set up in South Africa late 2018 for a pioneering sustainable water generation system which has been designed as a practical and economical solution to the global problem of water scarcity.The two companies believe the partnership will introduce the next billion dollar industry to Africa, and other regions facing the worlds most serious water shortage problems.WaterMicronWorld technology is expected to change the face of water generation worldwide. Customers for the plants will be national water authorities for whom the prospect of an effective, economical and sustainable water solution will be priceless.This is a breakthrough in the search for sustainable solutions to water shortage globally as a result of shrinking ice caps and lakes due to global warming, and increasing demands, said Robert RainmanIt has the capacity to generate water in any part of the world, irrespective of the climate. From a business perspective, we believe we are at the forefront of the next billion dollar industry.WMW water generation plants have major advantages over methods such as desalination or reverse osmosis which use existing water sources to clean water. They require a vast capital outlay and cause their own environmental problems. Dumping salt produced in desalination back into the sea affects ecology of marine life.WaterMicronWorld technology brings an ecologically friendly and new source of pure drinking water to industry, businesses and home users alike.WaterMicronWorld provide truly affordable, state-of-the-art technology that is easy to operate and maintain. Our technology taps into a water source that does not place more demands on Mother Earth--Pure water from the air we breathe!We expect Africa to be a lucrative market for us, said Robert Rainman.Every Drop CountsThe solution is to extract water from a new source, one that is plentiful, renewable and accessible to most people around the world.WaterMicronWorld is committed to provide pure drinking water around the world to all those people that need it most and to provide critical emergency pure drinking water to first responders, relief agencies and government institutions.WaterMicronWorld Atmospheric Water Generators units can generate from 15, 30, 60, 100 , 160, 200, 250, 500, 1,000, 1200, 1500, 3000, 5000 liters of pure drinking water per day. Our unique compact systems are ideal for Hotels, Schools, Office buildings, Housing developments, Hospitals, Marine and small Municipal applications.WaterMicronWorld.Ltd41/183 Rimklongchonprathan PrachuabkhirikhanThailand 7710Contact: Robert RainmanPhone: +66810167702
Global Wind Energy Market Research and Forecast, 2018-2023

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Global wind energy market, Size, Share, Market Intelligence, Company Profiles, Market Trends, Strategy, Analysis, Forecast 2018-2023WIND ENERGY MARKET INSIGHTS:Global Wind Energy Market is expected to grow at CAGR of 12.8% from 2018 to 2023. A variety of factors such as environmental concern, unstable crude, and need of alternative energy source are driving the wind energy market. Increased carbon emission due to the fossil fuel is a reason behind the growth of energy market. Government subsidy and encouragement is another motivating factor in various geographies. Energy sector became less popular investment destination due to unstable crude prices, therefore, the growth rate is expected to decline in near future.The wind energy equipment market segmented into four major categories which are turbine blade, electricity generator, and tower and control equipment. The wind power market is also categorized on the basis of end-user markets such as industrial, household and commercial. The market also segmented on the basis of geographies. North America (U.S.A. and Canada), Europe (the UK, Germany, Spain, Italy, France and rest of Europe), APAC (India, china, and japan) are major geographies which included in this report. North America is the largest market for the wind power, however, APAC is the fastest growing market of wind power with CAGR of xx% from 2018 to 2023.For full Reports:Key companies profiled in the report are Aegis Wind LLC, Ainscough Wind Energy Services LTD, Areva Wind GmbH, Aris Wind LLC, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, Broadwind Energy INC., Clipper Windpower INC., GE Wind Energy LLC, Inox Wind LTD, Leitwind AG, Magenn Power INC., Mapna Group, QED Wind Power LTD, Quantum Windpower Manufacturing, Sinovel Wind Group CO., LTD, Superwind GmbH, Suzlon Energy LTD., and Total Wind A/S.Market Segmentation:Global wind energy market is segmented on the basis of wind energy equipment, end user and regional outlook.Global Wind Energy Market Research and Analysis, By wind energy equipmentGlobal Wind Energy Market Research and Analysis, By end userGlobal wind Energy Market Research and Analysis, By RegionTHE REPORT COVERS:Comprehensive research methodology of Global energy market.This report also includes detailed and extensive market overview with key analyst insights.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 energy market.Insights about market determinants which are stimulating the Global wind energy market.Detailed and extensive market segments with regional distribution of forecasted revenues.Extensive profiles and recent developments of market players.Orion Market Research (OMR) is an Indian research company known for its crisp and concise reports.The company is equipped with an experienced team and young brigade of analysts. The company provides quality syndicated research reports, customized research reports, company profiling, consulting and other research-based services. OMR provide global and regional market reports of various domains such as healthcare, energy, IT, chemicals, and automobiles. The company provides a 360-degree view of the market with parametric analysis, key market insights, key findings, statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, extensive segmentation, key trends, strategic recommendations and detailed company profiles.CORPORATE OFFICE:Orion Market Research Pvt Ltd116, Shagun ArcadeVijay Nagar SquareIndore, Madhya Pradesh  India- 452010Email: info@omrglobal.com, support@omrglobal.comIndia: +91-780-304-0404Global: +1-646-755-7667
Survey: LPG Cylinder Market Forecast 2018-2025 Worthington Industries, Sahamitr Pressure Container, Mauria Udyog, Manchester Tank

LPG Cylinder Market

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https://www.globeinforesearch.com/report/global-lpg-cylinder-market-999

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LPG Cylinder Market Research 2018Globel Info Research Recently added detailed market study on the "Global LPG Cylinder Market" Research Report 2018-2025 which provides an outlook of current market value of LPG Cylinder Market as well as the expected forecast of Rate on Investment (ROI) with growing CAGR of XX% in LPG Cylinder Market by the end of 2025. The report on the global LPG Cylinder market uses the top-down and bottom-up approaches to define, analyze, and describe the LPG Cylinder market 2018 trends for the next five years up to 2025.Globel Info Research added latest industry research report LPG Cylinder Market Outlook" focuses on Industry News, Size, Share, Growth Rate, Strategies, Market Position, Trends Across The World. This report on the Global LPG Cylinder Market 2018 provides extremely useful and in-depth perception of the worldwide industry and it covers all the aspects which are highly important in deciding the future of LPG Cylinder industry. This report is an accurate research of the Global LPG Cylinder 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.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global LPG Cylinder Market 2018 : Huanri, Amtrol-Alfa, Hebei Baigong, Worthington Industries, Sahamitr Pressure Container, Mauria Udyog, Manchester Tank, Aygaz, Jiangsu Minsheng, Butagaz, Bhiwadi Cylinders, EVAS, Hexagon Ragasco, Faber Industrie, Gaz Liquid Industrie (GLI), MetalMate, OthersLPG Cylinder Market : By Type LPG Steel Cylinders, LPG Composite CylindersLPG Cylinder Market : By Application Kitchen and Domestic Use, Automotive Use, OthersThe Global LPG Cylinder Market Provides comprehensive understanding of the market with the help of LPG Cylinder market outlook, opportunities, challenges, trends, LPG Cylinder Market size, share and growth, competitive analysis, major competitors and Porter analysis. LPG Cylinder market report further provides production, capacity, LPG Cylinder market price per region, gross margin for all major regions and countries listed in LPG Cylinder report.The report is very much made with charts, graphs, and practical figures which show the status of the particular LPG Cylinder industry on the global and regional stage. The execution and features of the LPG Cylinder market are assessed in view of the quantitative and qualitative techniques to give a clear picture of the present and future forecast trend.Browse Full Report:Finally, LPG Cylinder market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About US:"GlobeInfoResearch.com" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USAWeb:Email: sales@globeinforesearch.com
Industrial Wire Line Networking Market estimated to Accelerate the Growth over 2025

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https://www.tmrresearch.com/industrial-wire-line-networking-market

Global Industrial Wire Line Networking Market: OverviewThe rising need for information technology for every industrial vertical in order to ensure effective functioning and growth is one of the major factors projected to augment the growth of the global industrial wire line networking market over the next few years. With networking, industries are expected to experience effective management and integrated security, which is likely to help them in effective functioning. The growing awareness regarding the benefits of industrial wire line networking is estimated to accelerate the growth of the overall market in the coming years.Among the key product types, namely wire line networking and wireless networking, the latter is considered as comparatively expensive, owing to which the global industrial wire line networking market is estimated to witness strong growth in the near future. A substantial rise in the number of broadband service providers and advancements in technology are the key factors that are likely to enhance the overall development of the market in the coming years. Furthermore, with the adoption of industrial wire line networking, the cost of managing the network is reduced significantly, which is likely to act as a major factor escalating the growth of the market.Request Sample Copy of the Report @The presence of a large number of players in developed economies such as Europe and North America is estimated to witness high growth in the near future. In addition, the availability of advanced IT infrastructure and the increasing level of competition among the leading players are projected to stimulate the growth of the global market in the next few years.Global Industrial Wire Line Networking Market: SnapshotInformation technology is essential for nearly every industry for their proper functioning and prosperity. Industrial wire line networking refers to IT networks designed to handle heavy loads of inter-connectivity across enterprises and industrial equipment. Basically of two type, wireless and wire line, these networks enable better manageability and integrated security and are able to handle huge volume of data, although they cannot function without a support of reliable and robust wire line network. Since wire line networking are fairly easier to implement as opposed to wireless networking and also meet the industrial networking demands in an efficient way, the global market for the same is projected for a robust growth rate during the forecast period of 2017 to 2025.Request TOC of the Report @This report on global industrial wire line networking market is a comprehensive study of the current scenario and offers a figurative estimations of the opportunities based on several factors that are expected to influence the demand in near future. This market can be segmented into interconnect products, network management software, and networking components. The interconnect products can be further sub-segmented into connectors, testing devices, printed circuit test points, battery contacts, and jumpers, while networking components can be divided into electrical networks, optical networks, and combined networks. The market can also be segmented on the basis of end-user industries, which includes food and beverage, automotive, oil and gas, refining and wastewater, and petrochemical.Global Industrial Wire Line Networking Market: Trends and ProspectsOwing to fact that installation of fiber optic cables is considerably less expensive in comparison to copper cables, and rapid increment in broadband service providers, the demand in global industrial wire line networking has escalated. These interconnections assists decision makers in providing real time data and information for taking strategic decisions, thereby contributing to the growth of this market. Another factor favoring the growth rate is the reduced cost of managing the networks while it connects different systems, machinery, equipment, and devices within the industrial operations. The rising use of Ethernet which enhances interoperability among the industrial systems at lowered costs is also contributing to the growth of this market. Rapid innovations in the field of wire line networks to expand their use and accommodate increasing traffic are also driving the growth of global industrial networking market. However, compatibility with the existing systems in an organization and the ongoing costs incurred to accommodate increasing traffic are some of the major barriers affecting the growth of industrial wire line networking market.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Global Industrial Wire Line Networking Market: Regional OutlookGeographically, the report segments the global market into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and rest of the world. Currently, North America serves the maximum demand due to the robust budget of the organizations. However, several emerging economies in Asia Pacific, such as China, India, Japan, and Malaysia, are aggressively investing in improving their IT infrastructure and several multi-national companies have set up their organizations in these countries. This will lead to increased demand coming from Asia Pacific during the forecast period.Some of the major players in this line of business include Alcatel-Lucent, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., Cisco Systems, Inc., Ericsson, Juniper Networks Inc., Nortel Networks Corporation, Hewlett-Packard Company, and ZTE Corporation.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
Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) Market New Era Foreseen over 2025

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https://www.tmrresearch.com/internet-protocol-television-market

Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) Market: OverviewInternet protocol television is considered as an effective technology that offers several television services through a packet-switched network although remaining within a large number of internet protocol suites. With the tremendous rise in the online traffic, the need for internet protocol television is expected to rise substantially, thus encouraging the overall development of the market. Moreover, the growth in the internet video advertising is expected to accelerate the growth of the global internet protocol television market over the next few years.Furthermore, the emergence of new technology and advanced products are estimated to generate promising growth opportunities for the leading players operating in the internet protocol television market in the near future. The lack of verification of effective locations for servers and the lack of proper accounting are estimated to curtail the growth of the market in the coming years. In addition, the rising need to meet the customer preference is considered to act as a major barrier for the development of the market.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Nonetheless, the growing need of consumers for high-quality and reliable online experience is likely to offer growth opportunities in the near future. Moreover, the rise in the use of internet and the advent of mobile CDN is estimated to accelerate the markets growth in the near future. The developed economies across the globe are expected to offer lucrative benefits for the market players, whereas the rising population in developing economies is likely to fuel the development of the global internet protocol television market over the next few years.Global IPTV Market: SnapshotIPTV stands for Internet protocol television, a technology that delivers television services over a packet-switched network while remaining within the Internet protocol suites. With IPTV, smaller batches of media can now be streamed directly on customers devices in smaller batches. As per the International Telecommunication Union, IPTV functions over an IP-based network that enable high level of security, quality of service, reliability, and interactivity. With the widespread outreach of the Internet and direct to home (DTH) services, and technological advancements in interactive television, the global market for IPTV is projected for a robust growth rate during the forecast period of 2017 to 2025.Request TOC of the Report @Broadly, there are three types of services offered by IPTV: live television, time-shifted television, and video on-demand (VOD). Live television is streaming of current events broadcast on television while time shifted services allows used to replay the content after delays. VOD refers to services wherein customers select a video of choice from a catalog of videos offered by the service providers. Major components involved to deliver IPTV services include TV head-end, interactive portal, VOD platform, home gateway, delivery network, and set-top box. The two basic types of architectures used for delivering IPTV are distributed architecture and centralized architecture. IPTV is implemented using several protocols such as H.263 for video compression, modified discrete cosine transform (MDCT) for audio compression, and Real-time Protocol (RTP) for live streaming and VOD.Global IPTV Market: Trends and ProspectsDTH services have gain immense popularity in the recent past, which is clearly reflecting on increased demand for VOD services. Additionally, IPTV offer value added services such as e-mail, voicemail and others, which is further fueling the market. Moreover, several telecommunication services have entered the IPTV market recently, including Verizon, Vodafone, and British Telecom. These new entrants with strong financial background are expected to escalate the level of competition, which will eventually lead to reduced cost to the consumers and thereby increase the demand in the global IPTV market. However, for the proper functioning of IPTV, minimum bandwidth required is around 10 mbps of high speed Internet connectivity, which is not available all across the globe. This is the solitary restraint over the growth rate of the global IPTV market, although the effect of this factor is expected to reduce over the duration of forecast period as several next-generation spectrums are being launched by several governments.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Global IPTV Market: Segment AnalysisIPTV market can be segmented on the basis of end-users and geography. Corporate consumers and individual consumers comprise end-users. Currently, corporate consumers serve the maximum demand but, with improving network infrastructure, the segment of individual consumers will also escalate significantly during the forecast period. Geographically, the report studies the lucrativeness of the regional markets of North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and rest of the world. Though the developed countries in North America and Europe are currently serving the maximum demand, vast population base in Asia Pacific is expected to surge ahead in terms of demand towards the end of the forecast period.AT&T, Cablevision, China Telecom, Comcast, Bharti Airtel Limited, Reliance Communications Limited, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, British Telecom, Deutsche Telecom, Etisalat, France Telecom, Telecom Malaysia, NTT DOCOMO, Telenor, Verizon, and Vodafone are some of the key players currently operational in global IPTV 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
Ceramide 2018 Global Industry Key Players - Evonik , Sederma , Swiss Legend Group , Kao Chemicals , Ashland Market Analysis And Forecast To 2023

World Ceramide Market

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/2935073-world-ceramide-market-research-report-2022-covering-usa-europe-south

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/2935073-world-ceramide-market-research-report-2022-covering-usa-europe-south

World Ceramide MarketExecutive SummaryCeramide market research report provides the newest industry data and industry future trends, allowing you to identify the products and end users driving revenue growth and profitability.The industry report lists the leading competitors and provides the insights strategic industry analysis of the key factors influencing the market.The report includes the forecasts, analysis and discussion of important industry trends, market size, market share estimates and profiles of the leading industry players.Market Research states that the world Ceramide market held an opportunity worth US$511 Million in 2017.The market is expected to expand at 9.36% CAGR over the period between 2017 and 2022.Request a Sample Report @The players mentioned in our reportEvonikSedermaSwiss Legend GroupKao ChemicalsAshlandLIPOToyoboArkemaHAOHUA INDUSTRYUnitikaBIOCARWUHAN SAIGUANGACROBJPioneer BiotechGlobal Ceramide Market: Product Segment AnalysisFermentationPlant ExtractGlobal Ceramide Market: Application Segment AnalysisCosmeticsHealth foodMedicineGlobal Ceramide Market: Regional Segment AnalysisUSAEuropeSouth East AsiaChinaIndiaTable of Content-Key Points CoveredChapter 1 About the Ceramide Industry1.1 Industry Definition1.1.1 Types of Ceramide industry1.2.1.1 Fermentation1.2.1.2 Plant Extract1.2 Main Market Activities1.3 Similar Industries1.4 Industry at a GlanceChapter 2 World Market Competition Landscape2.1 Ceramide Markets by regions2.1.1 USAMarket Revenue and Growth Rate 2012-2017Market overviewMajor players Revenue in 20172.1.2 EuropeMarket Revenue and Growth Rate 2012-2017Market overviewMajor players Revenue in 20172.1.3 ChinaMarket Revenue and Growth Rate 2012-2017Market overviewMajor players Revenue in 20172.1.4 IndiaMarket Revenue and Growth Rate 2012-2017Market overviewMajor players Revenue in 20172.1.5 South East AsiaMarket Revenue and Growth Rate 2012-2017Market overviewMajor players Revenue in 20172.2 World Ceramide Market by typesFermentationPlant Extract2.3 World Ceramide Market by ApplicationsCosmeticsHealth foodMedicineChapter 3 World Ceramide Market share3.1 Major players Market share by production3.2 Major players Market share by Revenue3.3 Major Regions Market share by Production in 2017, Through 20223.4 Major Regions Market share By Revenue in 2017, Through 2022Chapter 4 Supply Chain4.1 Industry Supply chain Analysis4.2 Raw material Market analysis4.2.1 Raw material Prices analysis 2012-20174.2.2 Raw material Supply Market analysis4.2 Manufacturing Equipment Suppliers Analysis4.3 Production Process Analysis4.4 Production Cost Structure Benchmarks4.5 End users Market AnalysisContinued.Complete Report Details @Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt LtdOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India
Medical Membranes Market Forecasting CAGR of 9.8% From 2018 to 2025 By Chemical, Technology, Application, End Users, Key Vendors and Geography

"Medical Membranes Market"

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http://databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-healthcare-it-market/

Medical Membranes Market Report 2018 added by Data Bridge Market Research explores Global Medical Membranes Market size, share, key companys analysis and growth with forecast to 2025.Global Medical Membranes Market is expected to reach USD 11.63 Billion by 2025, from USD 5.5 Billion in 2017 growing at a CAGR of 9.8% during the forecast period of 2018 to 2025. The upcoming market report contains data for historic years 2017, the base year of calculation is 2017 and the forecast period is 2018 to 2025.Global Medical Membranes Market, By Chemical (Modified Acrylics, Polyethylene, Others), By Technology (Reverse Osmosis, Ultrafiltration, Nanofiltration, Microfiltration), By Application (Hemodialysis, Drug Delivery, Pharmaceutical Filtration, Others), By End Users (Hospitals, Ambulatory Centers, Clinics, Community Healthcare, Others), By Geography (North America, South America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East And Africa) and Forecast to 2025.Get Free Sample Report @Major Market competitors/players:Some of the major players operating in the global medical membrane market are Nipro Corporation.GE corporate, EMD Millipore, Koch Membrane Systems Inc, Sartorius, 3M company, Abbott, Aethlon medical Inc, Agilent Technologies, Genbio, Siemens Inc, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc, Pall Corporation, Medtronic, Kimberly clark corporation, Johnson & Johnson, F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, W. L. Gore & Associates Inc, Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA, Cantel Medical, B. Braun Melsungen AG, Becton, Dickinson and Company, Baxter International Inc, Asahi Kasei co. Ltd, Maquet Company, Amniox Medical Inc, Sorin Group.Competitive Analysis:The global medical membrane is highly fragmented and the major players have used various strategies such as new product launches, expansions, agreements, joint ventures, partnerships, acquisitions, and others to increase their footprints in this market. The report includes market shares of medical membrane market for global, Europe, North America, Asia Pacific and South America.This report consists of below pages: No of pages: 350 No of Figures: 60 No of Tables: 220Have Any Query? Ask Ours Expert @Market Definition:This market report defines the market trends and forecast the upcoming opportunities and threats of the medical membrane market in the next 8 years. Medical membrane is mainly used in the drug delivery procedures. Devices used for diagnosis and purification are mainly made up of organic polymers and sometimes also from inorganic substances like glasses and ceramic. They are widely used in pharmaceutical and biotechnology sector. On the basis of their properties they are used in the different applications like microfiltration, dialysis, cell separation, water- filtration and many others. In December 2016, FDA approved Maci (autologous cultured chondrocyteson porcine collagen membrane) for the repair of symptomatic, full thickness cartilage defects of the knee in adult patients.Major Market Drivers and Restraints: New technology is expected to drive the market in the forecast period Production of new drugs based on peptides. Rising diabetic patients population Increased investment in research and development of membrane devices Downward pricing pressure owing to its commodity natureScope of the Report:The global medical membrane market is segmented based on the basis of chemical, technology, application, end users and geography.Based on chemical type, the global medical membrane market can be segmented into modified acrylics, polyethylene, polytetrafluroethylene, polyvinylidene fluoride, and polysulfone.Based on the technology, the global medical membrane market can be segmented into in reverse osmosis, microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, and microfiltration.Based on the application, the global medical membrane market is segmented into hemodialysis, drug delivery, pharmaceutical filtration, intravenous infusion filters and sterile filtration, water filtration in medical industry, protein purification and cell separation, blood micro filters.On the basis of end users, the global medical membrane market is segmented into hospitals, ambulatory centers, clinics, community healthcare. Based on distribution channel the market is segmented into retail and direct tenders.Based on geography, the global medical membrane market report covers data points for 28 countries across multiple geographies namely North America & South America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and, Middle East & Africa. Some of the major countries covered in this report are U.S., Canada, Germany, France, U.K., Netherlands, Switzerland, Turkey, Russia, China, India, South Korea, Japan, Australia, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and, Brazil among others.Read more news about the Global Medical Membranes Market Visit @Related ReportGlobal Healthcare IT Market  Trends and Forecast to 2024Global Healthcare IT Market, By Product (EHR, RIS, PACS, VNA, CPOE, MHealth, Telehealth, Healthcare Analytics, Supply Chain Management, Revenue Cycle Management, CRM, Claims Management, Fraud Management), By End User (Providers (Hospitals, ASCs, Home Healthcare, Diagnostic Centers, Pharmacies), Payers (Private, Public)), By Geography (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Rest of the World)  Trends and Forecast to 2024Report Access:About Data Bridge Market Research:Data Bridge Market Research set forth itself as an unconventional and neoteric Market research and consulting firm with unparalleled level of resilience and integrated approaches. We are determined to unearth the best market opportunities and foster efficient information for your business to thrive in the market. Data Bridge endeavors to provide appropriate solutions to the complex business challenges and initiates an effortless decision-making process.Contact:Vishal DixitData Bridge Market ResearchTel: +1-888-387-2818Email: sopan.gedam@databridgemarketresearch.com
Electric Vehicles Battery 2018 Global Market Key Players  Panasonic, AESC, BYD and Forecast to 2022

Electric Vehicles Battery Market

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Description:Electric Vehicles Battery-Global Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 offers a comprehensive analysis on Electric Vehicles Battery industry, standing on the readers perspective, delivering detailed market data and penetrating insights. No matter the client is industry insider, potential entrant or investor, the report will provides useful data and information. Key questions answered by this report include:Worldwide and Regional Market Size of Electric Vehicles Battery 2013-2017, and development forecast 2018-2023Main manufacturers/suppliers of Electric Vehicles Battery worldwide, with company and product introduction, position in the Electric Vehicles Battery marketMarket status and development trend of Electric Vehicles Battery by types and applicationsCost and profit status of Electric Vehicles Battery, and marketing statusMarket growth drivers and challengesRequest For Sample Report @The report segments the global Electric Vehicles Battery market as:Global Electric Vehicles Battery Market: Regional Segment Analysis (Regional Production Volume, Consumption Volume, Revenue and Growth Rate 2013-2023):North AmericaEuropeChinaJapanRest APACLatin AmericaGlobal Electric Vehicles Battery Market: Type Segment Analysis (Consumption Volume, Average Price, Revenue, Market Share and Trend 2013-2023):Lead-AcidNickel metal hydrideZebraLithium ionOthersGlobal Electric Vehicles Battery Market: Application Segment Analysis (Consumption Volume and Market Share 2013-2023; Downstream Customers and Market Analysis)Compact CarSUVOff-Road VehicleMotorcycleOthersGlobal Electric Vehicles Battery Market: Manufacturers Segment Analysis (Company and Product introduction, Electric Vehicles Battery Sales Volume, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin):PanasonicAESCBYDMitsubishi/GS YuasaLG ChemSamsungWanxiangBeijing Pride Power (BPP)TiannengSB LiMotiveAllCell TechnologiesBaknorBeckett Energy SystemsBloomyBS&B Safety SystemsCincinnati Sub-ZeroCLAL Vista MetalsEmerging Power IncFujian Nebula Electronics Co., Ltd.,GrenzebachComplete Report Details @Table of ContentsChapter 1 Overview of Electric Vehicles Battery1.1 Definition of Electric Vehicles Battery in This Report1.2 Commercial Types of Electric Vehicles Battery1.2.1 Lead-Acid1.2.2 Nickel metal hydride1.2.3 Zebra1.2.4 Lithium ion1.2.5 Others1.3 Downstream Application of Electric Vehicles Battery1.3.1 Compact Car1.3.2 SUV1.3.3 Off-Road Vehicle1.3.4 Motorcycle1.3.5 Others1.4 Development History of Electric Vehicles Battery1.5 Market Status and Trend of Electric Vehicles Battery 2013-20231.5.1 Global Electric Vehicles Battery Market Status and Trend 2013-20231.5.2 Regional Electric Vehicles Battery Market Status and Trend 2013-2023Chapter 2 Global Market Status and Forecast by Regions2.1 Market Development of Electric Vehicles Battery 2013-20172.2 Production Market of Electric Vehicles Battery by Regions2.2.1 Production Volume of Electric Vehicles Battery by Regions2.2.2 Production Value of Electric Vehicles Battery by Regions2.3 Demand Market of Electric Vehicles Battery by Regions2.4 Production and Demand Status of Electric Vehicles Battery by Regions2.4.1 Production and Demand Status of Electric Vehicles Battery by Regions 2013-20172.4.2 Import and Export Status of Electric Vehicles Battery by Regions 2013-2017Chapter 3 Global Market Status and Forecast by Types3.1 Production Volume of Electric Vehicles Battery by Types3.2 Production Value of Electric Vehicles Battery by Types3.3 Market Forecast of Electric Vehicles Battery by TypesChapter 4 Global Market Status and Forecast by Downstream Industry4.1 Demand Volume of Electric Vehicles Battery by Downstream Industry4.2 Market Forecast of Electric Vehicles Battery by Downstream IndustryChapter 5 Market Driving Factor Analysis of Electric Vehicles Battery5.1 Global Economy Situation and Trend Overview5.2 Electric Vehicles Battery Downstream Industry Situation and Trend OverviewChapter 6 Electric Vehicles Battery Market Competition Status by Major Manufacturers6.1 Production Volume of Electric Vehicles Battery by Major Manufacturers6.2 Production Value of Electric Vehicles Battery by Major Manufacturers6.3 Basic Information of Electric Vehicles Battery by Major Manufacturers6.3.1 Headquarters Location and Established Time of Electric Vehicles Battery Major Manufacturer6.3.2 Employees and Revenue Level of Electric Vehicles Battery Major Manufacturer6.4 Market Competition News and Trend6.4.1 Merger, Consolidation or Acquisition News6.4.2 Investment or Disinvestment News6.4.3 New Product Development and LaunchChapter 7 Electric Vehicles Battery Major Manufacturers Introduction and Market Data7.1 Panasonic7.1.1 Company profile7.1.2 Representative Electric Vehicles Battery Product7.1.3 Electric Vehicles Battery Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of Panasonic7.2 AESC7.2.1 Company profile7.2.2 Representative Electric Vehicles Battery Product7.2.3 Electric Vehicles Battery Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of AESC7.3 BYD7.3.1 Company profile7.3.2 Representative Electric Vehicles Battery Product7.3.3 Electric Vehicles Battery Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of BYD7.4 Mitsubishi/GS Yuasa7.4.1 Company profile7.4.2 Representative Electric Vehicles Battery Product7.4.3 Electric Vehicles Battery Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of Mitsubishi/GS Yuasa7.5 LG Chem7.5.1 Company profile7.5.2 Representative Electric Vehicles Battery Product7.5.3 Electric Vehicles Battery Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of LG ChemContinuedWise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.Office No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028
Smart Grid Cyber Security Market expected to Bolster the progress over 2025

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Global Smart Grid Cyber Security Market: SnapshotSmart grids, considered next-generation power system, combine sophisticated computing and communication technologies to better efficiency and reliability of power systems. Emergence of renewable energy in response to rising demand for electricity, has particularly stoked their uptake. On account of their salient features which consists of millions of interconnected electronic devices across power facilities heavily reliant on communication networks, cyber security emerges to be a critical issue for smart grids.This has spawned the market for smart grid cybersecurity, which tackles both deliberate attacks from terrorists, business enemies, and disgruntled employees and inadvertent ones resulting from equipment failures, errors by users, and natural disasters. The primary benefit of smart grid security is its ability to counter any contingency brought about by power failure of any crucial component of the power system by facilitating a reliable and stable power system. A challenge facing the market currently is the lack of standard reference architecture for the smart grid and the dearth of release mechanisms.Request Sample Copy of the Report @From a geographical standpoint, North America and Europe generate maximum demand in the global market for smart grids cybersecurity. On account of a slew of guidelines and policies pertaining to data security and privacy in countries of Germany, the Netherlands, and the U.K., the market in Europe is slated to see good growth in the upcoming years. Asia Pacific, powered by China, will also likely emerge as a key market in the next couple of years.Siemens AG, VeriSign, Lockheed Martin Corp., ViaSat Inc., Industrial Defender Inc., IOActive Inc., and IBM Corp are some of the main providers of smart grid cybersecurity.Global Smart Grid Cyber Security Market: Inclusive InsightCyber security comprises checking damage, illegal usage, and misuse of communication systems, electronic information, and the information contained therein to ensure availability, integrity and confidentiality. It also includes restoration of electronic information and communication systems in case of natural disaster or deliberate attack. The components within smart grid that are prone to cyber-attacks include operational technologies, IT systems, and end access points. The operational technologies which are exposed to cyber threats are power line communication devices, supervisory control, intelligent electronic devices, and data acquisition (SCADA) and energy management systems.Request TOC of the Report @This industry research report is a brief review of the growth trail in terms of existing, past, and future scenarios of the global smart grid cyber security market. It deals with the evaluation of the aspects that are expected to influence the development of the market and the primary trends have also been specified in the research study. The research study also offers a broad lookout on the vendor landscape of the market through Porters five forces analysis. The research report offers references of the research and development activities, mergers and acquisitions, and specifics on licensing and collaborations. The report probes into the strategies related to publicity, shares, and product range of the key participants in the global smart grid cyber security market.Global Smart Grid Cyber Security Market: Drivers and InhibitorsThe growing demand for power along with growing global mandate for smart grid technologies is expected to bolster the progress of the global smart grid cyber security market. A smart grid provides a network of electricity for consumers and suppliers to regulate the demand for energy and flow of information through the high-end devices. The communication layer is the backbone of the smart grid and is susceptible to cyber-attacks. The smart grid is envisioned to decrease the vulnerability of the electricity systems and improve emergency response. Smart grid security is an important parameter to maintain reliable and stable power system during the contingency situation due to power failure of any critical power system component.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @The chief driver of growth of the global smart grid cyber security market is the increasing occurrence of cyber threats owing to rising interconnection and integration. Furthermore, the new two way communication systems and growing risk to operations are expected to boost the demand for smart grid cyber security technologies globally. Nevertheless, the dearth of standard reference architecture for the smart grid and the lack of release mechanisms is expected to hamper the growth of the market.Global Smart Grid Cyber Security Market: Regional OutlookCurrently, North America and Europe account for the peak demand of cyber security. In European nations such as the UK, German and the Netherlands, there are several of guidelines and policies for data security and privacy. The market for smart grid cyber security in Europe is estimated to rise progressively in the near future. In Asia Pacific, China is expected to drive the growth of the smart grid cyber security market mostly driven by methods to reinforce the smart grid systems.Global Smart Grid Cyber Security Market: Competitive LandscapeThe key market players operating in the market are VeriSign, ViaSat Inc., Siemens AG, Industrial Defender Inc., Lockheed Martin Corp., IOActive Inc., IBM Corp, and BAE Systems PLC among others.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Third Party Banking Software Market Region-wise Outlook by 2025

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Global Third Party Banking Software Market: SnapshotBanking has undergone a paradigm shift over the years on account the gigantic strides made in technology. From credit cards and ATMs to the latest chatbots, they are known to have leaned on technology heavily to improve operations, better serve customers, and thereby increase their profit margins. An emergent trend in that direction is leveraging third party banking software.A third party banking software helps them to reduce operational costs and hence enhance profits. It also helps them to better understand a customers changing demands and facilitate flexible operations. Commercial banks go for installation of third party software solutions to connect to a desired interbank network as well as to other modular software. Trading banks and retail banks, for example, use it to streamline their operations.Request Sample Copy of the Report @A third party banking software can serve as a core banking software, multi-channel banking software, business intelligence software solution, and private wealth management software. Increasing demand for standardized activities by the banking sector is the primary growth driver of the market for third party banking software worldwide. This is because of the rising complexity of even the basic banking activities. Besides, demand for sophisticated software solutions to manage various financial stuff using a very flexible process is also resulting in increased uptake of the software.From a geographical standpoint, Europe and North America are dominant regions in the global market for third party banking software. This is because of the amount of demand they generate and also because of being home to a copious number of important players.Global Third Party Banking Software Market: OverviewThird party banking software finds a massive scope of use for the automated and manual managing of nearly all bank functions to enhance the throughput and cut down on service time for its customers. The intention of implementing third party banking software solutions is to allow generally the commercial banks to connect to a desired interbank network as well as to other modular software. Based on functions, the global third party banking software market can be segmented into core banking software, business intelligence software solution, multi-channel banking software, and private wealth management software. Third party banking software is commonly used by trading banks and retail banks to streamline their operation.Request TOC of the Report @Global Third Party Banking Software Market: Top Trends and ProspectsThe global third party banking software market is currently being driven by factors such as the growing demand for standardized activities in the banking sector. There has been a sea of change in banking operations over the recent years and the growing complexity even basic banking activities has necessitated for efficient and competent banking software solutions. Banks today want advanced solutions in software which can help them handle all their financial needs through a highly flexible process. The economic crisis of the past decade has made a lot of large banking firms reevaluate their business and expansion strategies. A lot of them are progressing with the intention of adopting advanced risk management and information management systems, as long as they fall within the limitations set by the concerned national regulatory framework.However, the global third party banking software market is currently being stifled by the reluctance of several key banks due to the high costs of moving from legacy systems to the new automated systems. The task of upgrading existing systems is also a very crucial activity that involves the creation of complex system networks, therefore requiring a lot of skilled labor which is unfortunately in short supply currently.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Recent trends in the global third party banking software market show an increase in the implementation of online banking and mobile banking by customers. The users are showing a high level of inclination towards accessing their account details and perform financial actions and make transactions by using their smartphones, laptops, tablets and other handheld devices. this presents a vast scope of new opportunities for players in the global third party banking software market, especially in developing economies where the above trends have only just started to pick up pace.Global Third Party Banking Software Market: Region-wise OutlookNorth America and Europe have so far been the leaders of the global third party banking software market in terms of both demand volume and prominence of players. Both regions are expected to witness very high growth rates over the coming years. The growth rate of both regions is owed to a growth in the use of banking software solutions in various business activities as well as the large presence of globally leading financial institutes here. Asia Pacific, on the other hand, with its rapidly growing banking sectors and flourishing economies, is a promising market and is expected to show a substantial growth in this market.Global Third Party Banking Software Market: Key Companies Mentioned in the ReportSome of the leading players operating in the global third party banking software market include Sungard Ambit., Sopra Banking Software, Polaris Financial Technology, Path Solutions, Nucleus Software, Misys Plc., Jack Henry & Associates, Infosys Ltd., Fiserv Inc., FIS Group, Diasoft Software Solutions, Datapro Inc., Temenos Group AG., Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., SAP AG, and Oracle Corp.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
Security Cameras Market - Improve Public Safety and Security by Application, Deployment Mode, Industry Vertical and Industry Forecast, 2017-2027

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A security camera is used to provide protection for private as well as commercial and industrial places. A security camera is powerful devices against burglars and thus helps individual to track the details live or happened in the past. The significant use of security cameras is for surveillance which delivers substantial evidence in the time of need for investigation purposes. The security camera market is growing at faster pace owing to increase of thefts across the globe.Get an exclusive brochure of this report @Although this is the prime reason for the security camera market to grow, another key aspect which is helping the security camera manufacturers to generate high sales revenues is the increasing demand for security cameras from home individuals to feel secured.Obtain Report Details @As security camera in residential places aids in detecting the suspicious behavior of intruder, keeping a close check on kids or pets when away from home. In commercial or industrial entities, security cameras are of great help to check on the staff or workers.Purchase the report @Nowadays security cameras are installed almost at every place with an objective to reduce the crime or suppress the fear of offence, to improve public safety and security. These are the prime targets taken into account which drives the global security cameras (IR illuminator) market. The growing urbanization, infrastructural developments, expansion of business across the globe has a positive impact on the security cameras market.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:
Touch Screen Panels Market will continue to Rise over 2025

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Global Touch Screen Panels Market:OverviewDeepening penetration of smartphones and tablet PCs has majorly boosted the demand for touch screen panels. This has led to the rise of many new manufacturers of touch screens, which has driven up the competition in the market, which in turn has literally precipitated a price war.The different touch-sensing technologies are projected capacitive, in-cell, resistive, and on-cell. Besides finding application in smartphones and tablet PCs, touch screens also are used in portable media players (PMPs), portable gaming devices, notebooks, personal navigation devices (PNDs), personal digital assistant (PDA), camcorders, e-book readers, digital signage, automotive, medical devices, wearable devices, and other consumer medical devices.Request Sample Copy of the Report @A challenge facing the market for touch screen panels is problems associated with technical compatibilities of the touch screen panels when it comes to refresh rate, response time, and the consumption of power. To be able to refresh fast in a large screen, the touch screen panel has to cover a substantial surface area and collect data from all the intersections before processing it. The power consumption of a touch screen panel is another factor restricting faster fresh rates.From a geographical perspective, Asia Pacific is the most attractive market that is poised to grow at a healthy clip in the near future. This is because of the nations of China and India accounting for a substantial sale of smartphones and also because of the numerous electronics manufacturing plants in Taiwan, China, and South Korea. Europe, North America, and Latin America are other key markets witnessing a steady uptick in demand.Global Touch Screen Panels Market: SnapshotWith the escalating demand for smartphones and tablet PCs, the market for touch panels, especially capacitive touch panels, has gained significant growth. The industry is experiencing entry of several new players leading to a price war and this represents a concern for market participants. Further, with the introduction of Windows 8, there has been an increased focus on providing touch functionality on laptops and PCs and this represents an opportunity for growth in touch panels market. Various application segments of touch panels include smartphones, tablet PCs, portable gaming devices, personal navigation devices (PNDs), portable media players (PMPs), personal digital assistant (PDA), notebooks, e-book readers, digital signage, camcorders, automotive, medical devices and other consumer medical devices.Request TOC of the Report @Various touch-sensing technologies include projected capacitive, resistive, in-cell, and on-cell. Depending upon the position of sensing layer, different categories of capacitive touch panels include cover window integrated touch, display integrated touch and add-ons. The end-users come from a wide range of industries such as consumer electronics, banking, automotive, healthcare, retail, industrial, and many others.The global market for touch screen panels is projected for robust growth rate during the forecast period of 2017 to 2025. This report is a comprehensive analysis of the market in its current scenario and presents figurate estimations of the opportunities available over the course of next nine years. The report also profiles some of the key vendors currently operation, presenting their market share, product portfolio, and strategic developments.Global Touch Screen Panels Market: Trends and ProspectsAccording to a February 2016 report by Cisco, since the first camera mobile phone was introduced in 2000, the number of mobile users has escalated exponentially, and the figure is estimated to reach 5.5 billion by 2020, accounting for 70% of the global population. The demand from this vast population is the primary driver in the global touch screen panels market. The increasing application of touchscreens in wearable devices and automobiles is another factor positively favoring the market. In addition to it, another considerable opportunity in the future for the touch screen panels is the growing trends of touch screens in the educational and banking sectors as well as the Internet of Things (IoT).Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Conversely, issues pertaining to technical compatibilities of the touch screen panels with regard to refresh rate, response time, and the power consumption is expected to hinder the growth rate. In order to maintain fast refresh rates in a large screens, the touch screen panel needs to sweep greater surface area and collect data from all the intersections before processing it. The power consumption of a touch screen panel is another factor restricting faster fresh rates.Global Touch Screen Panels Market: Geographical OutlookAsia Pacific is currently the most lucrative and rapidly growing market driven by significantly high growth in smartphone sales and quick expansion of electronics manufacturing sector, especially in the regions including China, Taiwan and South Korea. North America, Europe and Latin America are also experiencing significant growth in demand.Key Players in the global touch screen panels market include AU Optronics Corp., Cando Corp., Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd., DMC Co., Ltd., JTOUCH Corporation, Cermate Technologies, Inc., SPK Electronics Co., Ltd., Top-Touch Electronics Co., Ltd., Innolux Corporation, Shantou Goworld Display Co. Ltd., HannsTouch Solution Incorporated, and LG Innotek, Ltd. among others.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Ostomy Drainage Bags Market Insights, Opportunities, Analysis, Growth Potential and Forecast To 2022

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The increasing prevalence of various diseases such as urinary tract cancer, colorectal, and bladder is the foremost growth promoting factor that is fuelling the progress of the world Ostomy Drainage Bags Market. The expanding pool of geriatric population across the world is also fuelling the market as aged people are more considered to be vulnerable to different types of cancers. In addition to this, the growing incidence of various lifestyle-related disorders is further bolstering the demand for ostomy drainage bags. Furthermore, the market participants and governments are also coming up with ostomy programs so as to educate people and generate awareness about ostomy procedures and ostomy. Such moves are giving the said market a substantial boost.Read Report Overview:In accordance with a market research report by Transparency Market Research (TMR), the world market for ostomy drainage bags is foreseen to expand at a growth rate of 4.70% CAGR in between the time period that extends from the year 2014 to 2022, attaining a market valuation of around US$ 2.75 bn by the year 2022. However, the upward growth of the said market is restrained by the medical risks that pertain to the utilization of ostomy bags. Despite all of the above-mentioned factors, fast technological advancements are quite likely to lessen these medical risks, thereby determining the future of the market.Request to View Sample of Report -Europe to Lead with Regional Supremacy throughout the Forecast PeriodFrom the point of view of geography, the market research report segregates the world market for ostomy drainage bags into the major geographies of North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World (RoW). Europe is expected to retain its regional supremacy so as to be at the forefront of market growth until the year 2022. The regional market growth is encouraged by high disposable income of the common people leading to the greater affordability so as to undergo pricey procedure of ostomy. In addition to that, the existence of favorable reimbursements policies by the government reimbursement is also steering the growth of this regional market.On the other hand, the region of Asia Pacific is poised to expand at a very high rate of CAGR. The progress of the said region can be linked with the rising prevalence of colorectal cancer in various emerging countries like Indonesia, Turkey, the Philippines, and South Korea. The increased investments in the sector of medical devices and existence of various favorable policies of reimbursement in many of the developed nations like Australia and Japan are further stimulating the progress of the market for ostomy drainage bags market in the region of APAC.Download PDF Brochure of Report:Stringent Government Measures to Impact Market PositivelyIn accordance with this market intelligence report, various growth promoting elements drive the international market for ostomy drainage bags. Factors such as rapidly expanding geriatric population coupled with the rising prevalence of colorectal cancer, Crohns disease, bladder cancer, IBD, and ulcerative colitis are spurring the growth of the said market.Those prosthetic medical devices that are utilized for the purpose of gathering of various bodily wastes which get excreted following an ostomy procedure are known as ostomy draining bags. In ostomy procedure, these bodily wastes are made to divert from various biological systems like the colon, ileum, and bladder to a manually made abdominal stoma.Request For Discount On This Report:In addition to that, augmented consciousness about the procedure of ostomy is another major factor that is estimated to fuel the requirement for ostomy drainage bags. Great many of various medical cases such as Crohns disease and IBD (inflammatory bowel disease) are steering the world market for ostomy drainage bags towards growth.A few of the prominent market players that are operating in this world market are Pelcin Healthcare Ltd., Welland Medical Ltd., B. Braun Melsungen AG Flexicare Medical Limited, ALCARE Co. Ltd., and Salts Healthcare Ltd.About us:Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a U.S.-based provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Colocation Market Lucrative Opportunities for Players by 2025

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Global Colocation Market: SnapshotJust about every business sector and geographical region is envisaged to be advantaged by better data management solutions such as colocation. Players operating in the global colocation market are not only advised to tap into newer geographies but also untapped industries. In the foreseeable future, the global colocation market could gain a large impetus on the back of a perpetual growth triggered by a diverse range of industries, including IT, power, energy, government agency, and healthcare. It is not just North America that is envisioned to bring in lucrative opportunities for players, Europe could also step into the action and draw a heavy demand on account of the rising growth in cities such as Amsterdam, Paris, and London.In terms of type of service, vendors of wholesale services could clinch some profit-making business deals in the global colocation market while riding on economical rates and lower space and power consumer requirements. As a result, wholesale services are prophesied to be highly adopted among business enterprises.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Interxion had partnered with Microsoft in May 2015 for deploying the Microsoft cloud at its colocation data center with the help of Azure ExpressRoute solutions. Colocation facilities are not just online, physical structures located close to vital power hubs could function to maintain data centers. One of the reasons for physical colocation facilities to be placed near power hubs is prognosticated to hold a strong relation with accessible connectivity. Colocation centers could also help consumers with bandwidth, cooling, and power security.Global Colocation Market: OverviewWith the growing data production, companies across the world are increasingly searching for creative and cost effective data center services. Colocation solutions are being increasingly acknowledged as an effective way of managing files across small, mid-sized, and even large organizations. These solutions aid in enhancing business potential by cutting down in house IT maintenance and operational expenditures and maximizing the ability to focus on the core business. The major end-user verticals of the market are banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), telecomm and IT, government, utilities, and healthcare and life sciences.Request TOC of the Report @The research report serves as a reliable source of analysis and information regarding various vital parameters of the global colocation market including its dynamics, geographical segmentation, and vendor landscape. It profiles prominent companies operating in the market along with their latest developments, business strategies, and contact information.Global Colocation Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe non-availability of strategic location for the data centers is translating into the greater adoption of cloud computing. The increasing implementation of cloud technologies is leading to the introduction of the concept of hybrid platform, which is an amalgamation of traditional and cloud colocation that eases the storage and management of data. This, in turn, is augmenting the market. Moreover, the increasing emphasis on improving business continuity and disaster recovery capabilities is creating a staggering volume of demand for colocation services. However, the high cost of initial start-up and the growing skepticism regarding the loss of direct control over the servers is limiting the global colocation market from realizing its utmost potential.Global Colocation Market: Geographical SegmentationThe regions methodically examined in the report are North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Rest of the World. North America is expected to account for a substantial share in the colocation market throughout the forecast period. The early adoption of cloud computing provides the region an edge over other regions. Rapid technological advancements and robust IT infrastructure are contributing to the growth of the region.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Asia Pacific is expected to progress at a brisk pace during the same period. The paradigm shift towards cloud technologies along with the overall increase in data production is providing a fillip to the growth of the region. Furthermore, the emergence of the region as a dynamic hub for e-trading is attracting global players to invest in the region. Countries such as Japan, India, China, and Taiwan will be the major contributors in the Asia Pacific market.Global Colocation Market: Vendor LandscapePlayers in the global colocation market are focusing towards offering products with unique scalability, data security, and cost-effectiveness in order to stay relevant. Key companies are investing large amounts in the research and development of new ways of securing and controlling data to stay ahead in the market. Some of the key players in the global colocation market are AT&T, Colt, Coresite, Digital Realty Trust, Dupont Fabros Technology, Equinix, IBM, Internap, Navisite, Verizon Terremark, and NTT CommunicationAbout 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
9 Rules Every Men Should Know Before Selecting His Jewellery

Kurta Buttons

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We have decided and laid down few dos and don'ts in regards to jewellery for men.1) Keep It MinimalThe ground rule to ace any look is never to over-do things. A lot of cooks spoil the broth, do they not? Similarly, in the event that you clutter jewellery, there are numerous chances so it will backfire. So, choose a minimum amount of accessories with regards to the occasion.2) Stud It UpProbably the most underrated men's jewellery is really a stud. This single piece could add to your masculine try a greater way than some other jewellery. Use it in a single ear or as a pair. Will have studs manufactured in pure gold or silver which promises longevity.3) Match Your Watch and BraceletThis can be a common mistake that men make. Your wrist is one of many first things people notice within a handshake. Hence, be sure that your watch and bracelet come in sync with regards to colour and metal. A dark leather belt for the watch is an evident choice if you intend to experiment along with your bracelet. It is most beneficial in the event that you stick to gold or silver bracelets which also reduces the likelihood of getting a rash.4) Swear By A Silver or Gold RingsRings may be your very best accessory if chosen well. An engagement rings for men may be coupled with an additional ring without the concern with overdoing it. Similar to the bracelets, it is advised to go keep these things customised in pure gold or silver. Big rings certainly are a huge turn-off, which suits women the best.5) The Chains Is A Good ChangeA simple sleek gold chain can be your companion for the day. Avoid heavy looped chain which looks utterly in-your-face. Going back again to the initial point, choose a humble chain to wear on your own shirt or even a T-shirt.6) Say Yes To Tradition JewelleryYou won't trade your sherwanis and mojaris for anything, can you? Our traditional attire makes certain we have some of the finest designs and styles inside our wardrobes. You can find certain accessories which put in a charm to traditional clothing. For example, a kurta looks much more ethnic if in conjunction with matching kurta buttons.7) Formals and Men Are BFFsYou can find no two ways about the fact a person wins brownie points if he is observed carrying a crisp shirt and an ironed pant. Formals aren't only comfortable but in addition, develop a good impression. Wear a tie to check your shirt alongside a couple of cufflinks in order to complete the look.8) Don't Shy Away From Gemstone JewelleryIt's flawed logic that gemstones should really be on women. Men love diamond rings exactly like we do. Complement your wedding ring by wearing a band with an alternative gemstone. Similarly, a gemstone bracelet can be quite a smart add-on to your look. Today, gemstone jewellery for men is the really a topic of immense interest for jewellers taking into consideration the increasing demand of the same.9) Be ConfidentEverything you wear does make an impression. However, how you carry yourself is the greatest test to see when you can take the cake or not. The minute you're comfortable in your skin layer, there's nothing that could stop you. So, wear your jewellery confidently and right away you will soon be sweeping them off their feet.Having a mastery of the fashion domain requires one to be together with things. Adhere to this simple guideline and you won't have anything to be concerned about! Meanwhile, search for men's jewellery from Rockrush which provides home trials on products alongside assured purity in gold and silver jewellery.Source -RockRush is an Online Jewellery Shopping Store in India. Browse through the Latest Designs and Shop from our Gold and Diamond Jewellery Collection Online today! COD Home Trial.Rockrush Online Private LimitedAddress: 1 Unity House, 3rd Floor. 8, Mama Parmanand Marg,, Opera House, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400004Phone: 022 4942 9999
Global Aluminum Pigments Market Top Key Drivers: BASF, GEOTECH, Carlfors Bruk, Silberline

QYResearchReports

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https://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/global-aluminum-pigments-market-research-report-2018.htm/toc

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report Aluminum Pigments to its huge collection of research reports.The report on the global Aluminum Pigments market is extremely comprehensive and comprises of tables, charts, statistics, maps, and graphics so as to give the readers a clear understanding in an easy manner regarding the growth prospects of the market. It offers an unbiased View regarding the markets future and gives both the promising opportunities that lie ahead within the market as well as the various factors which are expected to obstruct or challenge the growth of this Market.The market is segmented on the basis of key criteria. The report there for studies each of the segments as well as a sub segments. Information including leading segment, declining segment, fastest growing segment has been given in the report. The report studies the global Aluminum Pigments market from a Global Perspective as well as Regional perspective. Regionally this Market has been segmented for the purpose of study into Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East and Africa. The reported then goes on to declare which regional market will emerge is the most lucrative one during the forecast period, as well as which regional market will witness a sluggish growth and therefore advice potential investors against investing in that particular region so as to avoid loss.For more info, get sample report for FREE here:Global Aluminum Pigments market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingBASFGEOTECHCarlfors BrukECKART Effect PigmentsSilberlineCarl SchlenkToyalAlba AluminiuArasan Aluminium IndustriesAsahi KaseiTable of ContentsGlobal Aluminum Pigments Market Research Report 20181 Aluminum Pigments Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Aluminum Pigments1.2 Aluminum Pigments Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Aluminum Pigments Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Aluminum Pigments Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 Floating Aluminum Pigment1.2.4 Non-floating Aluminum Pigment1.3 Global Aluminum Pigments Segment by Application1.3.1 Aluminum Pigments Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2013-2025)1.3.2 Paints & Coatings1.3.3 Printing Inks1.3.4 PlasticsRead Complete Table of Content of the Report at:1.3.5 Personal Care Products1.4 Global Aluminum Pigments Market by Region (2013-2025)1.4.1 Global Aluminum Pigments Market Size (Value) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Region (2013-2025)1.4.2 North America Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.4 China Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.5 Japan Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.6 Southeast Asia Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.7 India Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Aluminum Pigments (2013-2025)1.5.1 Global Aluminum Pigments Revenue Status and Outlook (2013-2025)1.5.2 Global Aluminum Pigments Capacity, Production Status and Outlook (2013-2025)2 Global Aluminum Pigments Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Aluminum Pigments Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.1 Global Aluminum Pigments Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.2 Global Aluminum Pigments Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.2 Global Aluminum Pigments Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.3 Global Aluminum Pigments Average Price by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.4 Manufacturers Aluminum Pigments Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type2.5 Aluminum Pigments Market Competitive Situation and Trends2.5.1 Aluminum Pigments Market Concentration Rate2.5.2 Aluminum Pigments Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Manufacturers2.5.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion3 Global Aluminum Pigments Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2013-2018)3.1 Global Aluminum Pigments Capacity and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.2 Global Aluminum Pigments Production and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.3 Global Aluminum Pigments Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)...About QYResearchReports.comQyresearchreports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from Qyresearchreports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact US:Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-618-1030Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Automotive Windshield Washer Fluid 2018 Global Market Key Players - ITW, 3M SPLASH, and Forecast to 2023

Automotive Windshield Washer Fluid Market

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Description:Global Market Insight of Automotive Windshield Washer Fluid 2018 offers a comprehensive analysis on Automotive Windshield Washer Fluid industry, standing on the readers perspective, delivering detailed market data and penetrating insights. No matter the client is industry insider, potential entrant or investor, the report will provides useful data and information. Key questions answered by this report include:This report studies Automotive Windshield Washer Fluid market in Global and major regions from 2012 to 2023, focuses on sales, price, revenue and gross margin of top players, consumption and consumption value of major regions.Request For Sample Report @Market segment by RegionNorth America (United States and Canada)Europe (Germany, UK, France, Italy, Spain, Russia, etc.)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India, Southeast Asia, Australia, etc.)Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, etc.)Middle East, Africa and Rest (South Africa, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, etc.)Market segment by TypesReady to Use FluidConcentrated FluidMarket segment by ApplicationsPassenger VehicleCommercial VehicleMarket segment by PlayerITW3MSPLASHReccochemACDelcoPrestoneSoft 99BluestarSonaxTurtle WaxCamcoChiefPEAKBotnyTEECJapan ChemicalTetrosylProstaffComplete Report Details @Table of Contents1 Automotive Windshield Washer Fluid Product Overview1.1 Product Introduction1.2 Industrial Chain Analysis1.2.1 Upstream Raw Materials Analysis1.2.2 Major Product Comparison Analysis1.2.3 Downstream Users Analysis2 Global Market Analysis of Automotive Windshield Washer Fluid2.1 Global Market Profile of Automotive Windshield Washer Fluid2.2 Global Consumption Analysis of Automotive Windshield Washer Fluid by Regions 2012-20172.3 Global Consumption Forecast of Automotive Windshield Washer Fluid by Regions 2018-20232.4 Global Consumption Value Analysis of Automotive Windshield Washer Fluid by Regions 2012-20172.5 Global Consumption Value Forecast of Automotive Windshield Washer Fluid by Regions 2018-20233 North America Market Analysis of Automotive Windshield Washer Fluid3.1 North America Market Profile of Automotive Windshield Washer Fluid3.2 North America Consumption Analysis of Automotive Windshield Washer Fluid by Country 2012-20173.3 North America Consumption Forecast of Automotive Windshield Washer Fluid by Country 2018-20233.4 North America Consumption Value Analysis of Automotive Windshield Washer Fluid by Country 2012-20173.5 North America Consumption Value Forecast of Automotive Windshield Washer Fluid by Country 2018-20234 Europe Market Analysis of Automotive Windshield Washer Fluid4.1 Europe Market Profile of Automotive Windshield Washer Fluid4.2 Europe Consumption Analysis of Automotive Windshield Washer Fluid by Country 2012-20174.3 Europe Consumption Forecast of Automotive Windshield Washer Fluid by Country 2018-20234.4 Europe Consumption Value Analysis of Automotive Windshield Washer Fluid by Country 2012-20174.5 Europe Consumption Value Forecast of Automotive Windshield Washer Fluid by Country 2018-20235 Asia-Pacific Market Analysis of Automotive Windshield Washer Fluid5.1 Asia-Pacific Market Profile of Automotive Windshield Washer Fluid5.2 Asia-Pacific Consumption Analysis of Automotive Windshield Washer Fluid by Country 2012-20175.3 Asia-Pacific Consumption Forecast of Automotive Windshield Washer Fluid by Country 2018-20235.4 Asia-Pacific Consumption Value Analysis of Automotive Windshield Washer Fluid by Country 2012-20175.5 Asia-Pacific Consumption Value Forecast of Automotive Windshield Washer Fluid by Country 2018-20236 Latin America Market Analysis of Automotive Windshield Washer Fluid6.1 Latin America Market Profile of Automotive Windshield Washer Fluid6.2 Latin America Consumption Analysis of Automotive Windshield Washer Fluid by Country 2012-20176.3 Latin America Consumption Forecast of Automotive Windshield Washer Fluid by Country 2018-20236.4 Latin America Consumption Value Analysis of Automotive Windshield Washer Fluid by Country 2012-20176.5 Latin America Consumption Value Forecast of Automotive Windshield Washer Fluid by Country 2018-20237 Middle East, Africa and Rest Market Analysis of Automotive Windshield Washer Fluid7.1 Middle East, Africa and Rest Market Profile of Automotive Windshield Washer Fluid7.2 Middle East, Africa and Rest Consumption Analysis of Automotive Windshield Washer Fluid by Country 2012-20177.3 Middle East, Africa and Rest Consumption Forecast of Automotive Windshield Washer Fluid by Country 2018-20237.4 Middle East, Africa and Rest Consumption Value Analysis of Automotive Windshield Washer Fluid by Country 2012-20177.5 Middle East, Africa and Rest Consumption Value Forecast of Automotive Windshield Washer Fluid by Country 2018-2023Continued.CONTACT US:NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.Office No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028
Market Insights: Global Marketing Cloud Platform Market to grow at a CAGR of 9.03% 2017-2021

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https://www.researchmoz.us/global-marketing-cloud-platform-market-2017-2021-report.html/toc

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The marketing cloud platform provides features such as e-mail marketing, campaign creation and management, data collection and storage, and data analysis and reporting. The marketing cloud platform connects different marketing channels, such as social media, e-mail, and content marketing, to collect and analyze data. It assists organizations to generate more revenue and a better ROI. It also helps store customer-specific data used in customer segmentation and targeting, categorize customers based on common interests and behaviors, develop appropriate marketing patterns, and integrate marketing channels to deliver better customer experience.The global marketing cloud platform market to grow at a CAGR of 9.03% during the period 2017-2021. The report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global marketing cloud platform market for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers the revenue generated from the sales of marketing cloud platform.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:- Americas- Europe- APACClick to get Sample PDF:Technavio's report, Global Marketing Cloud Platform Market 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendors- Adobe Systems- Oracle- Salesforce- IBMOther prominent vendors- Act-On Software- Cision- eTrigue- GreenRope- Hatchbuck- HubSpot- Infusionsoft- LeadSquared- Salesfusion- SAPMarket driver- Rise in use of content marketing- For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challenge- Data privacy and security concerns- For a full, detailed list, view our reportView Complete TOC with Tables and Figures at:Key questions answered in this report- What will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be?- What are the key market trends?- What is driving this market?- What are the challenges to market growth?- Who are the key vendors in this market space?- What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors?- What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?ResearchMoz is the 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:
Service Laboratory Market Forecasted to Grow at Steady Pace During 2016-2026

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-1158

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-1158

With widespread use in bioscience, material science, electronics, and industrial science, service laboratories are witnessing decent demand all over the globe. According to FMIs research, the service laboratory market is likely to grow at a steady pace throughout the forecast period 2016-2026.Each high quality reliability maintenance programme requires a service laboratory not only for assessment of products but for resolution of the key manufacturing issues as well. Service laboratories typically serve as organisational units, which execute innovation management, and play a key role in quality processing and provide valuable insights into hidden failure mechanisms responsible for curtailed productivity.Manufacturers, through their service laboratories, can identify the root cause of products mechanism failure, design correction plans, and improve next generation versions of their products. The ultimate aim is to maximise the productivity and efficiently cater to consumer demands.Request For Report Sample@Key Drivers: Global Service Laboratory MarketMaterial science is the top vertical currently driving the service laboratory market, since immense developments in oil and gas sectors.Growing use of equipment such as SEM and TEM, and procedures such as secondary ion mass spectroscopy is the key factor driving the demand for service laboratory. SEM, TEM, dual beam systems, and FIB are identified as the key revenue generation points of the global service laboratory market.Moreover, increasing number of machinery and tools in metallurgy sector is also fuelling the growth of service laboratory market.The complexity of innovative functionality of circuitry and allied component packages is rising since the past few years, which is propelling the requirement for service laboratories.Increasing number of research labs in the bio science field is also an important factor positively influencing the demand for service laboratory equipment.Evolving semiconductor technology and rising trend of miniaturization of semiconductor, electronic, and mechanical chips is expected to escalate the demand for service laboratory during the forecast period.However, high end medical devices and equipment have to undergo high custom duty and excise duty. These key macroeconomic factors are anticipated to restrict the market growth to a certain extent.Current Market TrendsThe service laboratory market is witnessing significant push from emerging economies, providing attractive opportunities to manufacturers from the key market regions across the globe.Life science research is currently trending with novel applications of super-resolution fluorescence microscopy techniques. Various biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, life science universities and colleges, and forensic laboratories are thus estimated to fuel the demand for service laboratory.The applications of nanotechnology in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, aerospace engineering, electronics, chemical manufacturing, and textiles are burgeoning with the advent of research technology. This will also bolster the market of service laboratory.Another highly influencing trend, especially for material science, includes the growing research interests in nano-crystalline solids.Global Service Laboratory Market: SegmentationFMIs research offers a 10-year forecast for the global service laboratory market, segmenting it on the basis of product, application, and geography.Based on product, the market is segmented into SEM and TEM systems.In terms of application, the market is segmented into material science sector, bioscience sector, industrial sector, and electronics sector. While material science attracts the highest revenues to market, bio science remains the second largest segment that boosts the demand for service laboratory in research labs.Geographically, North America is currently a major market for service laboratory. While Asia Pacific forms one of the largest markets, Europe also accounts for significant revenue shares in the total global market revenues.Visit For TOC@Global Service Laboratory Market: Key PlayersThe prominent players in the global service laboratory market include Carl Zeiss SMT GmbH (Germany), Moody Labs (U.S.), FEI Company (U.S.), Hitachi High-Technologies (Japan), JEOL Ltd. (Japan), Tescan (Czech Republic), Direct Electron (U.S.), Nanolab Technologies (U.S.), EAG Inc. (U.S.), and Intertek Group PLC (U.K.).While the key players are already well established in the global market, their strategic office locations, strong distribution channels, diverse product portfolios, and state-of-the-art technologies are estimated to strengthen their market presence over the forecast period and drive the market growth globally.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.CONTACTFuture Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: http.futuremarketinsights.com
Electric Heat Tracing Market - Unseen Growth And Vital Changes 20172025

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https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=2750

https://www.tmrresearch.com/electric-heat-tracing-market

Global Electric Heat Tracing Market: OverviewA number of countries and regions encounter temperatures beneath the point of solidification consistently. Consequently, work easily, ventures in these regions must keep up an ideal temperature inside the funneling systems and also amid the assembling forms. Since water and numerous different liquids/chemicals solidify underneath zero degree Celsius. Nations with thriving compound ventures should unintentionally keep up an ideal temperature as the failure to do as such would prompt fluids solidifying in pipelines, in this manner influencing the entire procedure. This, thus, can hamper the production and general efficiency if the ideal temperature isn't kept up.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Electric heat tracing system is utilized to adjust heat and to direct or increment the temperature of vessels and channels. Heat tracing links can be introduced on water, sewer lines and at particular areas which are inclined to solidifying, for example, fire hydrants, street intersections, and shallow cover areas among others. The interest for heat tracing systems varies over businesses in light of the parameters specic to every application. The main players are fabricating an extensive variety of electric heating links and control systems to oblige the developing needs of industry.Global Electric Heat Tracing Market: Drivers and RestraintsElectric heat tracing systems are for the most part used to keep up the temperature of the liquids in many process businesses. Petrochemical industry section is foreseen to witness a huge development over the figure time frame. Developing computerization and industrialization over the globe is foreseen to drive for the development of electrical heat tracing market over the coming years.Request TOC of the Report @Furthermore, the expanding necessity for perpetual heating systems combined with expanded concentrate on limiting operational cost is probably going to supplant the conventional heating systems crosswise over enterprises. This is a factor that is predicted to affect the market growth decidedly over the coming years.Global Electric Heat Tracing Market: Market PotentialRecently, to counter the cold and maintain ambient temperatures within travel, a popular public transport enterprise, the Coast Mountain Bus Company of Canada took some drastic measures. Along with tire socks and de-icing products, their TransLink buses and SkyTrains are being installed with electric heat tracing systems. In February 2017, some heavy ice buildup led to severe disruption of trains, and TransLink are ensuring that the incident does not repeat itself. Such instances demonstrate the potential of the market for electric heat tracing.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Global Electric Heat Tracing Market: Regional AnalysisNorth America is relied upon to hold the dominant share of the electric heat tracing market over the coming years. North American nations are receiving electric heat tracing systems for different applications, for instance, solidifying process due to low temperature of pipelines. The US is predicted to be the significant supporter of the electric heat tracing market in North America. The vicinity of significant players in the US is relied upon to drive the electric heat tracing market in this region. The oil and gas is a noteworthy industry in the US, which is adding to the economy of North America. North America has different snow covered countries, and the low temperature requires heat tracing systems for pipelines conveying oil and gas, chemicals, or some other liquids to keep from solidifying. Hence, the interest for electric heat tracing market in North America is predicted to steadily increment in the coming years.Global Electric Heat Tracing Market: Vendor LandscapeSome of the leading vendors of the global electric heat tracing market are Thermon, Chromalox, Emerson, Urecon, eltherm, Supermec and Anhui Huanrui Heating Manufacturing Co among others.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Solar PV Inverters Market Key Players 2018  TMEIC Corporation, Urbasolar, Valhalla Energy, Valorem SAS, Wendel SA

Solar PV Inverters

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https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/3079976-solar-pv-inverters-update-2018-global-market-size

Solar PV InvertersOverview"Solar PV Inverters, Update 2018 - Global Market Size, Competitive Landscape, Key Country Analysis, and Forecast to 2022", offers comprehensive information and understanding of the solar PV inverters market. The report analyzes the current trend and future potential of solar PV inverters market at global, regional (Americas, Asia-Pacific, and, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and key countries (the US, Canada, Chile, China, India, Japan, the UK, Germany, France, Italy) level.The report analyzes the solar PV inverters market in terms of volume and value, classified by end-user segments for the period 2012-2022. The solar PV inverters end-user segments covered in the report include residential, commercial, and utility solar PV market segments. The report provides insight into the drivers and restraints affecting the solar PV market, competitive landscape, policies and initiatives, recent market deals, top company profiles, and key upcoming solar PV projects.Click here for sample report @Major Companies mentioned7C Solarparken AG8minutenergy Renewables LLCABB LtdACME Solar Energy Private LimitedTMEIC CorporationUrbasolarValhalla EnergyValorem SASWendel SASolar PV Inverters Major OutlookAnalysis of the growth of solar PV inverters market in global and regional level including Asia-Pacific, Americas, and EMEA.- The report provides solar PV inverters market analysis for key countries including the US, Canada, Chile, China, India, Japan, the UK, Germany, France, and Italy.- The report offers country level solar PV inverters market volume and value by end-user segment for the period 2012-2022.- Qualitative analysis of key market drivers and restraints, and analysis of their impacts on solar PV inverters market are discussed.- The report provides competitive landscape at country level for the year 2017. It also covers key policies and initiatives, key deals, and key upcoming projects.Solar PV Inverters - Competitive AnalysisKey players are making innovative developments in Solar PV Inverters. 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
Schistosomiasis Industry Anticipated To Witness Noteworthy Growth In The Coming Years

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https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/2319072-schistosomiasis-pipeline-review-h2-2017

OverviewSchistosomiasis is a type of infection caused by parasites that live in fresh water, such as rivers or lakes. Symptoms include a high temperature, headache, cough, a dark red, blotchy, raised skin rash, pain in the abdomen and joint and muscle pain.Click here for sample report @Report HighlightsThe Pharmaceutical and Healthcare latest pipeline guide Schistosomiasis - Pipeline Review, H2 2017, provides comprehensive information on the therapeutics under development for Schistosomiasis (Infectious Disease), complete with analysis by stage of development, drug target, mechanism of action (MoA), route of administration (RoA) and molecule type. The guide covers the descriptive pharmacological action of the therapeutics, its complete research and development history and latest news and press releases.The Schistosomiasis (Infectious Disease) pipeline guide also reviews of key players involved in therapeutic development for Schistosomiasis and features dormant and discontinued projects. The guide covers therapeutics under Development by Companies /Universities /Institutes, the molecules developed by Companies in Phase II, Preclinical and Discovery stages are 2, 5 and 2 respectively. Similarly, the Universities portfolio in Phase II and Phase I stages comprises 1 and 1 molecules, respectively.Major Scope of the report:- The pipeline guide provides a snapshot of the global therapeutic landscape of Schistosomiasis (Infectious Disease).- The pipeline guide reviews pipeline therapeutics for Schistosomiasis (Infectious Disease) by companies and universities/research institutes based on information derived from company and industry-specific sources.- The pipeline guide covers pipeline products based on several stages of development ranging from pre-registration till discovery and undisclosed stages.- The pipeline guide features descriptive drug profiles for the pipeline products which comprise, product description, descriptive licensing and collaboration details, R&D brief, MoA & other developmental activities.- The pipeline guide reviews key companies involved in Schistosomiasis (Infectious Disease) therapeutics and enlists all their major and minor projects.Table of ContentsList of FiguresIntroductionGlobal Markets Direct Report CoverageSchistosomiasis - OverviewSchistosomiasis - Therapeutics DevelopmentPipeline OverviewPipeline by CompaniesPipeline by Universities/InstitutesProducts under Development by CompaniesProducts under Development by Universities/InstitutesSchistosomiasis - Therapeutics AssessmentAssessment by TargetAssessment by Route of AdministrationAssessment by Molecule TypeSchistosomiasis - Companies Involved in Therapeutics DevelopmentKancera ABKnight Therapeutics IncLondonPharma Ltd.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
Wood Adhesives 2018 Global Market Key Players - Nihon Tokushu Toryo,3m ,Beijing Shengmai,Shenzhen Baolise ,Gt Sound Control ,Soundproof Cow, Fat Mat Sound Control Analysis And Forecast To 2023

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/2873055-global-wood-adhesives-market-size-and-forecast-to-2021

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Global Wood Adhesives Market Size and Forecast to 2023Wiseguyreports.Com Adds Wood Adhesives Market -Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities, Manufacturers, Analysis of Top Key Players and Forecast to 2022 To Its Research Database.Description:Wood Adhesives Report by Material, Application, and Geography  Global Forecast to 2021 is a professional and comprehensive 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).In this report, the global Wood Adhesives market is valued at USD XX million in 2017 and is projected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2021, growing at a CAGR of XX% during the period 2017 to 2021.The report firstly introduced the Wood Adhesives basics: definitions, classifications, applications and market overview; product specifications; manufacturing processes; cost structures, raw materials and so on. Then it analyzed the world's main region market conditions, including the product price, profit, capacity, production, supply, demand and market growth rate and forecast etc. In the end, the report introduced new project SWOT analysis, investment feasibility analysis, and investment return analysis.Request for Sample Report@The major players profiled in this report include:Pidilite IndustriesJubilant IndustriesH.B. FullerAshlandHenkelSika A.G.The end users/applications and product categories analysis:On the basis of product, this report displays the sales volume, revenue (Million USD), product price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into-Natural Wood AdhesivesSynthetic Wood AdhesivesOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, sales volume, market share and growth rate of Wood Adhesives for each application, including-FurniturePlywoodOthersComplete Detail @Table of ContentsPart I Wood Adhesives Industry OverviewChapter One Wood Adhesives Industry Overview1.1 Wood Adhesives Definition1.2 Wood Adhesives Classification and Prodcut Type AnalysisNatural Wood AdhesivesSynthetic Wood Adhesives1.3 Wood Adhesives Application and Down Stream Market AnalysisFurniturePlywoodOthers1.4 Wood Adhesives Industry Chain Structure Analysis1.5 Wood Adhesives Industry Development Overview1.6 Wood Adhesives Global Market Comparison Analysis1.6.1 Wood Adhesives Global Import Market Analysis1.6.2 Wood Adhesives Global Export Market Analysis1.6.3 Wood Adhesives Global Main Region Market Analysis1.6.4 Wood Adhesives Global Market Comparison Analysis1.6.5 Wood Adhesives Global Market Development Trend AnalysisChapter Six North American Wood Adhesives Key Manufacturers Analysis6.1 H.B. Fuller6.1.1 Product Picture and Specification6.1.2 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value Analysis6.1.3 Contact Information6.2 Ashland6.2.1 Product Picture and Specification6.2.2 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value Analysis6.2.3 Contact Information...Chapter Nine Europe Wood Adhesives Key Manufacturers Analysis9.1 Henkel9.1.1 Product Picture and Specification9.1.2 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value Analysis9.1.3 Contact Information9.2 Sika A.G.9.2.1 Product Picture and Specification9.2.2 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value Analysis9.2.3 Contact InformationContinued..Contact US:NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Addres:: Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt Ltd: Pune  411028: Maharashtra, Global: Ph: +91 841 198 5042
Nitrobenzene Market - Professional Survey and Future Industry Trends : 2024

Nitrobenzene Market

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Nitrobenzene is an aromatic compound which is vastly used in the production of aniline and in the manufacturing of numerous derivatives in the agriculture, cosmetics, and other different types of industrial applications where nitrobenzene acts as a precursor. As a chemical, nitrobenzene is also employed in the process of manufacturing synthetic rubber, pesticides, and lubrication oil. The market is expanding day by day due to its core applications and end-user industry. Robust development in the agricultural industry and the developing economies are few of the core drivers for the nitrobenzene market growth. The chemical has been considered as a core compound in the manufacturing of polyurethane foam which is used in the construction industries. By using the products present in the market, the consumers aid in the market growth.The nitrobenzene market has been influenced by a number of factors such as the increasing demand for rubber in the automotive industry, the expansion of the construction industry across many core regions, the rising demand for fertilizers in the agricultural industry, and urbanization in developing countries. The market is further driven by the constant demand for nitrobenzene which can replace bio-based chemicals such as volatile organic compounds and help in decreasing its emission. Increasing development in pharmaceuticals, dyes, chemical, and pesticide industries are responsible for the enormous market growth in the near future. A few factors might be responsible for obstructing the market growth such as strict environment regulations and the increasing demand for bio-based chemicals. North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, MEA and Latin America are taking steps for expanding the market size and these regions have been considered as the core regions for the manufacturing of nitrobenzene where continuous uplifting of the market has also been noticed.Browse Research Report With Complete TOC @Nitrobenzene is a kind of organic compound which is used in the manufacturing of aniline and acts as a predecessor for the production of chemicals and numerous derivatives in cosmetics, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, and other types of industrial applications. It is also used as a chemical to manufacture pesticides, synthetic rubber, and lubrication oil. Rising demand for rubber in the automotive industry is likely to fuel the growth of the nitrobenzene market over the forecast period. Expansion of the construction industry is one of the key factors likely to drive the nitrobenzene market over the forecast period. Rapid urbanization in developing economies such as China and India among others has led to the growth of the construction industry, which has been one of the dominant factors driving the nitrobenzene market. Growth of the agriculture industry coupled with the mounting demand for fertilizers is driving the nitrobenzene market globally. Rise in the demand for bio-based chemicals and strict environment regulations are restraining the nitrobenzene market from expansion. Availability of cheap labor and low cost of raw materials in China is expected to drive the nitrobenzene market in this region.The nitrobenzene market has been segmented on the basis of application and end-user. On the basis of application, the nitrobenzene market is segregated into pesticides, lubricating oil, aniline production, and synthetic rubber. Aniline production was the most dominant segment in 2015 and it is expected to remain so over the forecast period. On the basis of end-user, the market is segregated into pharmaceuticals, agriculture, and industrial applications. Agriculture registered the most dominant share in the nitrobenzene market in 2015 and is likely to retain its position over the years to come.Geographically, the nitrobenzene market is segmented by North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, and Latin America. Asia-Pacific accounted for the largest market share in 2015 and it is expected to remain so over the forecast period. Rapid pace of urbanization in developing countries such as China, India, and Bangladesh is a key driver of the nitrobenzene market in this region. Growth of agricultural industry in this region has fuelled the growth of the nitrobenzene market. North America accounts for a considerable share in the nitrobenzene market. Growth of the pharmaceutical industry is driving the market for nitrobenzene in this region. The European Commission has proposed reduction in the level of volatile organic compounds (VOC) emissions which has resulted in the demand for bio-based chemicals which is likely to enhance the growth of the nitrobenzene market growth. Asia Pacific has an increasing demand for nitrobenzene owing to developments in agriculture. China accounts for majority share of the nitrobenzene market in Asia Pacific.Growth in the construction industry and rapid pace of urbanization is one of the major drivers for the nitrobenzene market in Asia Pacific. Increasing development in the dyes, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and chemical industry among others in the developing nations has been one of the key drivers for the nitrobenzene market. Middle East & Africa has an emerging nitrobenzene market owing to increase in the demand for bio based chemicals and strict environmental regulations. Latin America occupies a considerable share in the nitrobenzene market. Brazil is one of the large markets for nitrobenzene in this region.Request a PDF Brochure with Research Report Analysis @The major players in the nitrobenzene market are BASF SE, Aromsyn Co., Ltd., Bann Quimica Ltda. and Finetech Industry Limited. Some of the other key vendors in the market are China National Petroleum Corporation, Huntsman Corporation, Shandong Jinling Chemical Co., The Chemours Company, Total S.A., The Dow Chemical Company, and Yantai Wanhua Polyurethane Co. Ltd. among others.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. 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:
Non - Metallic Minerals Market : Comprehensive Analysis of World Markets & Trade, 2024

Non - Metallic Minerals Market

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Non-metallic minerals, also known as industrial materials have no metallic luster, break easily and are non-malleable. Some such non-metallic minerals are limestone, magnesite, silica sand, dolomite, talc, quartz, phosphorite, gemstones, clay, mica, and decorative and dimension stones.The global market for non-metallic minerals is characterized by the presence of numerous small and large manufacturers and suppliers, making the competitive landscape highly fragmented. Competition in intense among the different players in the market, with most bigwigs outsmarting smaller regional rivals with better products and robust distribution network. Another common trend in the market is vendors leveraging pricing, product differentiation, customization, and maintenance services to grow their market share. Developed markets in North America and Europe have higher degree of competition. Going forward, competition in the market is slated to increase further with more players entering the fray.A report by Transparency Market Research studies the global market for non-metallic minerals in-depth and presents a qualitative analysis of the different growth drivers and restraints in it. It sheds light on the size of the market and predicts its future trajectory. It also leverages market-leading analytical tools to uncover the opportunities and threats awaiting players in the market in the near future.Browse Research Report With Complete TOC @Global Non-Metallic Minerals Market: Drivers and RestraintsA lot of factors are helping to bring about growth in the non-metallic minerals market. One of them is the burgeoning real estate sector and growing interest in people in home decoration. Besides, manufacturers focusing on improving their market share through decorative glass and glass based products to cater to demand from residential end-users is also bolstering the market. This demand for decorative glass and glass based products is primarily a result of rising GDP and the consequent rising disposable incomes across developing economies in the world.Other factors stoking the growth in the global market for non-metallic minerals are rising awareness about the product and higher demand for efficient products such as solar control glass. In addition, automotive manufacturers are also responsible for driving up demand on account of growing adoption of smart glass in production of automobiles.The different types of non-metallic minerals available in the market are glass and glass-based products, clay-based building materials, porcelain and ceramic products, stone-based products, and refractory products. Among them, the glass and glass-based products have been pulling in maximum revenue and in the near future too would continue doing so, predict experts.Global Non-Metallic Minerals Market: Geographical SegmentationGeographically, the key segments of the global non-metallic minerals market are North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, and Latin America. North America, of them, is a key region on the back of a robust commercial and residential use of non-metallic minerals in different sectors. At the forefront of driving growth in North America is the U.S due to the high concentration of different industries in the country. Further, North America market for non-metallic minerals is primarily driven by better technological infrastructure and higher uptake of innovative non-metallic mineral products.Request a PDF Brochure with Research Report Analysis @Global Non-Metallic Minerals Market: Competitive LandscapeTo assess the competition prevailing in the global non-metallic minerals market, the report profiles key market participants such as BTC Glass Design, Helios Bricks, Carmeuse Holding, Devnya Cement, Frigoglass, Yioula Glassworks, KAI Group, Pilkington, Tremag, Phoenix Stoneworks, Guardian, Rovese, Saint-Gobain, Sanex, Schott, Siceram, TE-MA Romania, ATS-Stone, Ceramic factory Mirkovo, Drujba Glassworks, Ognyanovo-K, Roca Bulgaria, Stonex, Trakya Glass Bulgaria, Wienerberger, and Xella Bulgaria.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:
Medical Mattress 2018 Global Market Key Players - Thomashilfen, TEKVOR CARE, Blue Chip Medical and Forecast to 2023

Medical Mattress Market

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Description:Medical Mattress-Global Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 offers a comprehensive analysis on Medical Mattress industry, standing on the readers perspective, delivering detailed market data and penetrating insights. No matter the client is industry insider, potential entrant or investor, the report will provides useful data and information. Key questions answered by this report include:Worldwide and Regional Market Size of Medical Mattress 2013-2017, and development forecast 2018-2023Main manufacturers/suppliers of Medical Mattress worldwide, with company and product introduction, position in the Medical Mattress marketMarket status and development trend of Medical Mattress by types and applicationsCost and profit status of Medical Mattress, and marketing statusMarket growth drivers and challengesRequest For Sample Report @The report segments the global Medical Mattress market as:Global Medical Mattress Market: Regional Segment Analysis (Regional Production Volume, Consumption Volume, Revenue and Growth Rate 2013-2023):North AmericaEuropeChinaJapanRest APACLatin AmericaGlobal Medical Mattress Market: Type Segment Analysis (Consumption Volume, Average Price, Revenue, Market Share and Trend 2013-2023):DisposablePermanentOtherGlobal Medical Mattress Market: Application Segment Analysis (Consumption Volume and Market Share 2013-2023; Downstream Customers and Market Analysis)HospitalClinicHome CareGlobal Medical Mattress Market: Manufacturers Segment Analysis (Company and Product introduction, Medical Mattress Sales Volume, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin):ThomashilfenTEKVOR CAREBlue Chip MedicalRevolution SanteFormedShvabe-ZurichNovamed ChinaComplete Report Details @Table of ContentsChapter 1 Overview of Medical Mattress1.1 Definition of Medical Mattress in This Report1.2 Commercial Types of Medical Mattress1.2.1 Disposable1.2.2 Permanent1.2.3 Other1.3 Downstream Application of Medical Mattress1.3.1 Hospital1.3.2 Clinic1.3.3 Home Care1.4 Development History of Medical Mattress1.5 Market Status and Trend of Medical Mattress 2013-20231.5.1 Global Medical Mattress Market Status and Trend 2013-20231.5.2 Regional Medical Mattress Market Status and Trend 2013-2023Chapter 2 Global Market Status and Forecast by Regions2.1 Market Development of Medical Mattress 2013-20172.2 Production Market of Medical Mattress by Regions2.2.1 Production Volume of Medical Mattress by Regions2.2.2 Production Value of Medical Mattress by Regions2.3 Demand Market of Medical Mattress by Regions2.4 Production and Demand Status of Medical Mattress by Regions2.4.1 Production and Demand Status of Medical Mattress by Regions 2013-20172.4.2 Import and Export Status of Medical Mattress by Regions 2013-2017Chapter 3 Global Market Status and Forecast by Types3.1 Production Volume of Medical Mattress by Types3.2 Production Value of Medical Mattress by Types3.3 Market Forecast of Medical Mattress by TypesChapter 4 Global Market Status and Forecast by Downstream Industry4.1 Demand Volume of Medical Mattress by Downstream Industry4.2 Market Forecast of Medical Mattress by Downstream IndustryChapter 5 Market Driving Factor Analysis of Medical Mattress5.1 Global Economy Situation and Trend Overview5.2 Medical Mattress Downstream Industry Situation and Trend OverviewChapter 6 Medical Mattress Market Competition Status by Major Manufacturers6.1 Production Volume of Medical Mattress by Major Manufacturers6.2 Production Value of Medical Mattress by Major Manufacturers6.3 Basic Information of Medical Mattress by Major Manufacturers6.3.1 Headquarters Location and Established Time of Medical Mattress Major Manufacturer6.3.2 Employees and Revenue Level of Medical Mattress Major Manufacturer6.4 Market Competition News and Trend6.4.1 Merger, Consolidation or Acquisition News6.4.2 Investment or Disinvestment News6.4.3 New Product Development and LaunchChapter 7 Medical Mattress Major Manufacturers Introduction and Market Data7.1 Thomashilfen7.1.1 Company profile7.1.2 Representative Medical Mattress Product7.1.3 Medical Mattress Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of Thomashilfen7.2 TEKVOR CARE7.2.1 Company profile7.2.2 Representative Medical Mattress Product7.2.3 Medical Mattress Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of TEKVOR CARE7.3 Blue Chip Medical7.3.1 Company profile7.3.2 Representative Medical Mattress Product7.3.3 Medical Mattress Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of Blue Chip Medical7.4 Revolution Sante7.4.1 Company profile7.4.2 Representative Medical Mattress Product7.4.3 Medical Mattress Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of Revolution Sante7.5 Formed7.5.1 Company profile7.5.2 Representative Medical Mattress Product7.5.3 Medical Mattress Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of FormedContinued.Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.Office No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028
Automotive Cyber Security Market 2018 Global Analysis By key Players  Arilou technologies, Cisco systems, Harman, Argus, Intel Corporation

Automotive Cyber Security Market

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Automotive Cyber Security Market 2018Wiseguyreports.Com adds Automotive Cyber Security Market Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities, Analysis of Top Key Players and Forecast to 2025 To Its Research Database.Report Details:This report provides in depth study of Automotive Cyber Security Market using SWOT analysis i.e. Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threat to the organization. The Automotive Cyber Security Market report also provides an in-depth survey of key players in the market which is based on the various objectives of an organization such as profiling, the product outline, the quantity of production, required raw material, and the financial health of the organization.This report offers an overview of the market trends, drivers, and barriers with respect to the Automotive Cyber Security market. It also provides a detailed overview of the market of different regions across United States, Europe, China, Japan, India, Southeast Asia and Others. The report categorizes Automotive Cyber Security market by by Automotive Cyber Security Type, and application. Detailed analysis of key players, along with key growth strategies adopted by them is also covered in this report on Automotive Cyber Security market.This report focuses Global market, it covers details as following:Key PlayersArilou technologiesCisco systemsHarman (TowerSec)SBD Automotive & Ncc GroupArgusBT SecurityIntel CorporationESCRYPT Embedded SystemsNXP SemiconductorsTrilliumSecunet AGSecurity InnovationSymphony Teleca & GuardtimeUtimaco GmbHRequest a Sample Report @Key RegionsNorth AmericaUnited StatesCanadaLatin AmericaMexicoBrazilArgentinaOthersEuropeGermanyUnited KingdomFranceItalySpainRussiaNetherlandOthersAsia & PacificChinaJapanIndiaKoreaAustraliaSoutheast AsiaIndonesiaThailandPhilippinesVietnamSingaporeMalaysiaOthersAfrica & Middle EastSouth AfricaEgyptTurkeySaudi ArabiaIranOthersMain types of productsAutomotive Cyber Security Market, by Automotive Cyber Security TypSoftware-basedHardware-basedNetwork & CloudSecurity Services & FrameworksAutomotive Cyber Security Market, byAutomotive Cyber Security Market, by Key ConsumerPassenger CarsCommercial VehiclesIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Complete Report Details@Major Key Points in Table of Content:Global Automotive Cyber Security Market Research Report 2017-2022 by Players, Regions, Product Types & ApplicationsChapter One Methodology and Data Source1.1 Methodology/Research Approach1.1.1 Research Programs/Design1.1.2 Market Size Estimation1.1.3 Market Breakdown and Data Triangulation1.2 Data Source1.2.1 Secondary Sources1.2.2 Primary Sources1.3 DisclaimerChapter Two Automotive Cyber Security Market Overview2.1 Market Coverage2.2 Global Automotive Cyber Security Market Sales Volume Revenue and Price 2012-2017Chapter Three Automotive Cyber Security by Key Players 2013-20183.1 Global Automotive Cyber Security Sales Volume Market Share by Key Players 2013-20183.2 Global Automotive Cyber Security Revenue Share by Key Players 2013-20183.3 Global Key Players Automotive Cyber Security Key Product Model and Market Performance3.4 Global Key Players Automotive Cyber Security Key Target Consumers and Market Performance.Chapter Six Global Key Players Profile6.1 Arilou technologies6.1.1 Arilou technologies Company Details and Competitors6.1.2 Arilou technologies Key Automotive Cyber Security Models and Performance6.1.3 Arilou technologies Automotive Cyber Security Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast6.1.4 Arilou technologies Automotive Cyber Security Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin6.2 Cisco systems6.2.1 Cisco systems Company Details and Competitors6.2.2 Cisco systems Key Automotive Cyber Security Models and Performance6.2.3 Cisco systems Automotive Cyber Security Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast6.2.4 Cisco systems Automotive Cyber Security Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin6.3 Harman (TowerSec)6.3.1 Harman (TowerSec) Company Details and Competitors6.3.2 Harman (TowerSec) Key Automotive Cyber Security Models and Performance6.3.3 Harman (TowerSec) Automotive Cyber Security Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast6.3.4 Harman (TowerSec) Automotive Cyber Security Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin6.4 SBD Automotive & Ncc Group6.4.1 SBD Automotive & Ncc Group Company Details and Competitors6.4.2 SBD Automotive & Ncc Group Key Automotive Cyber Security Models and Performance6.4.3 SBD Automotive & Ncc Group Automotive Cyber Security Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast6.4.4 SBD Automotive & Ncc Group Automotive Cyber Security Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin6.5 Argus6.5.1 Argus Company Details and Competitors6.5.2 Argus Key Automotive Cyber Security Models and Performance6.5.3 Argus Automotive Cyber Security Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast6.5.4 Argus Automotive Cyber Security Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin6.6 BT Security6.6.1 BT Security Company Details and Competitors6.6.2 BT Security Key Automotive Cyber Security Models and Performance6.6.3 BT Security Automotive Cyber Security Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast6.6.4 BT Security Automotive Cyber Security Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin6.7 Intel Corporation6.7.1 Intel Corporation Company Details and Competitors6.7.2 Intel Corporation Key Automotive Cyber Security Models and Performance6.7.3 Intel Corporation Automotive Cyber Security Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast6.7.4 Intel Corporation Automotive Cyber Security Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin6.8 ESCRYPT Embedded Systems6.8.1 ESCRYPT Embedded Systems Company Details and Competitors6.8.2 ESCRYPT Embedded Systems Key Automotive Cyber Security Models and Performance6.8.3 ESCRYPT Embedded Systems Automotive Cyber Security Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast6.8.4 ESCRYPT Embedded Systems Automotive Cyber Security Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin6.9 NXP Semiconductors6.9.1 NXP Semiconductors Company Details and Competitors6.9.2 NXP Semiconductors Key Automotive Cyber Security Models and Performance6.9.3 NXP Semiconductors Automotive Cyber Security Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast6.9.4 NXP Semiconductors Automotive Cyber Security Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin6.10 Trillium6.10.1 Trillium Company Details and Competitors6.10.2 Trillium Key Automotive Cyber Security Models and Performance6.10.3 Trillium Automotive Cyber Security Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast6.10.4 Trillium Automotive Cyber Security Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross MarginContinued.Contact Us:NORAH TRENTPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Sales@Wiseguyreports.ComPh: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)ABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.ADDRES:WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India
EC-Council Launches Worlds First Online ECSA v10 Batch!

EC-Council is launching its first online batch of EC-Council Security Analyst V10 (ECSA V10), exclusively for corporate profession

http://www.eccouncil.org

Online.28th March 2018.Certified Ethical Hackers have a reason to rejoice! While ethical hackers have sufficient knowledge and an arsenal of hacking tools and are also proficient in writing custom hacking code., is that enough? Does it ensure that they'll become an industry recognized security professional? Will organizations trust them to help them protect their systems? Do CEH's have any knowledge in applying a suitable methodology to conduct a penetration test for an enterprise client?As EC-Council announced their new product offerings to an audience of roughly 12,000 cybersecurity professionals and aspirants worldwide, on the 14th of March, it became clear that cybersecurity education had reached a new benchmark. EC-Council unveiled Certified Ethical Hacker V10, Certified Ethical Hacker (Practical), EC-Council Security Analyst V10, EC-Council Security Analyst (Practical) and Advanced Penetration Testing Program a new benchmark of quality education was set in the industry.Exactly 14 days later, on the 28th of March, EC-Council is launching its first online batch of EC-Council Security Analyst V10 (ECSA V10), exclusively for corporate professionals around the world. The batch will happen in the iWeek format of EC-Council training, which means that the participating candidates can participate in a live, online manner. An EC-Council certified trainer will host the training in a webinar format, ensuring that the candidates dont have to leave the comfort of their homes and gain from the expertise of studying with a live trainer wholl guide them through the contents of the training program. The iWeek format ensures that the candidates get the best of both worlds viz online training and a live classroom session.The enhanced ECSA v10 program, Includes a new comprehensive step-by-step penetration testing methodology that improves upon the best from ISO 27001, OSSTMM, and NIST Standards This program is 100% compliant to the new NICE 2.0 framework and CREST framework, bringing tangible benefits to employers including:1) helping them assess their cybersecurity workforce,2) identify critical gaps in cybersecurity staffing,3) help their cyber workforce explore tasks and work roles, and4) assist with understanding the KSAs that are recognized by employers for in-demand cybersecurity roles The program includes a new comprehensive social engineering penetration testing methodology and has increased its focus on methodology for perimeter devices (IDS/Firewall), database, wireless, and cloud penetration testing, using both manual and automated penetration testing approaches, along with many other major improvements.Since the new and improved ECSA V10 program deals with addressing the issues faced by corporates, the inaugural training batch saw prompt corporate participation from huge global brands like Microfocus, Wipro, Cirrus, Fujitsu and Accenture. International candidates for this batch, hail from UK, India, Costa Rica and Lebanon. With representation from almost every major continent in the world, the inaugural batch has become a truly international batch. EC-Council certified trainer Shruti Gupta, whos adept at training CEH, ECSA, CND, CSCU, CHFI and Comptia Security+ will be training this batch.To maintain an ideal candidate to trainer ratio, the intake for the batch has been restricted to 20 candidates only.About EC-Council:EC-Council has been the worlds leading information security certification body since the launch of their flagship program, Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH), which created the ethical hacking industry in 2002. Since the launch of CEH, EC-Council has added industry-leading programs to their portfolio to cover all aspects of information security including EC-Council Certified Security Analyst (ECSA), Computer Hacking Forensics Investigator (CHFI), Certified Chief Information Security Officer (CCISO), among others. EC-Council Foundation, the non-profit branch of EC-Council, created Global CyberLympics, the worlds first global hacking competition. EC-Council Foundation also hosts a suite of conferences across the U.S. and around the world including Hacker Halted, Global CISO Forum, TakeDownCon, and CISO Summit.For more information about EC-Council, please seeEC-Council New Mexico101C Sun Ave NEAlbuquerque, NM 87109505-341-3228
Wi-Fi Analytics Market: Growth Opportunities and forecast 2025

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Introduction to Wi-Fi AnalyticsWi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) is a technology that uses radio waves to provide network connectivity. Wi-Fi offers flexibility, mobility, and fast speed for devices. Wi-Fi is a highly cost effective technology with low power consumptions and high bandwidth. It is extensively used in Wi-Fi enabled devices such as computers, laptops, notebooks, mobile and others. Wi-Fi analytics provides demographics of users such as gender, age, location, and length of internet.Market Drivers for Wi-Fi AnalyticsThe driving factor for the global Wi-Fi analytics market is penetration of smartphone devices. Moreover, the increase in smart city initiatives by governments is expected to boost the market growth. More services are being accessed and provided online with Wi-Fi analytics. Wi-Fi analytics provide secure connectivity for IoT (internet of things) applications such as smart homes, smart city, waste management etc. Increase in significance of data analytics in business is a key factor driving the Wi-Fi analytics market.Browse the Report to Know Comprehensive Evaluation Of The Market Via In-Depth Qualitative Insights @Furthermore, government regulations and policies are restraining the growth of the market. Opportunities for the global Wi-Fi analytics market include adoption of IoT (Internet of things) across organizations.Wi-Fi Analytics Market: SegmentationThe global Wi-Fi analytics market is segmented on the basis of component, application, deployment type, end use vertical, location type, and geography.By componentBased on component, the market is categorized into services and solutions. The service component segment is estimated to expand at a higher rate during the forecast period. This is due to growing impact of customer analytics in retail businesses.Request Sample to Know Advanced Technologies & Growth Opportunities in Global Industry @ApplicationsOn the basis of application the Wi-Fi analytics market is segmented into customer loyalty management, footfall analytics, customer engagement, and customer analytics. On the basis of deployment type, the market is be segmented into cloud based deployment and on premise.End UsersIn terms of end use vertical, the global Wi-Fi analytics market is sectioned into hospitality, transportation, healthcare, retail, government, education and others. It is expected that the retail segment will grow at a rapid rate due to the rise in usage of online marketing analytics to monitor customer navigation data. The global Wi-Fi analytics market is divided on the basis of location type into indoor location and outdoor location.Get TOC of This Report @Regional OutlookGeographically, the global Wi-Fi analytics market is segmented into North America, Middle East & Africa, Asia Pacific, Europe, and South America.North America and Europe occupy the largest market share for Wi-Fi analytics. This is due to rapid adoption of emerging trends in internet connectivity. Additionally, countries in Asia Pacific such as Australia, China, and India see substantial growth in the global Wi-Fi analytics market owing to the presence of several industries, which are adopting Wi-Fi analytics solutions.Key PlayersThe market for Wi-Fi analytics is highly competitive in nature. The key players who offer Wi-Fi analytics services and solutions across the globe are Zebra Technologies, Ruckus Wireless, Inc., Skyfii Limited, Cloud4wi, Fortinet, Cisco Systems, Inc., Purple Wi-Fi, Euclid, Yelp, Walkbase, Aptilo Networks, July Systems Inc. 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:
Global Respiratory Disposable Devices Market 2018 - Ambu, Fisher & Paykel, BD, Teleflex, Smiths Medical

Global Respiratory Disposable Devices Market

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Apex Market Reports, recently published a detailed market research study focused on the Respiratory Disposable Devices Market across the global, regional and country level. The report provides 360 analysis of Respiratory Disposable Devices Market from view of manufacturers, regions, product types and end industries. The research report analyses and provides the historical data along with current performance of the global PP Pipe industry, and estimates the future trend of Respiratory Disposable Devices on the basis of this detailed study. The study shares Respiratory Disposable Devices performance both in terms of volume and revenue.The market research report explores the Respiratory Disposable Devices Market across the globe along with major regions and countries. The research report provides a detailed study on each and every aspect of Respiratory Disposable Devices 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 Respiratory Disposable Devices Market based on major product types, application and end users industries of Respiratory Disposable Devices. Besides, the report also covers geographical segmentation for Respiratory Disposable Devices Market. The report further provides production, capacity, price per region, gross margin, production cost, for all major regions and countries listed in report.Get Free Sample Copy of Report Here:Top Manufacturers Analysis of This ReportResMedPhilips RespironicsAmbuFisher & PaykelBDTeleflexSmiths MedicalArmstrong MedicalDrive MedicalDynarexViomedexFlexicare MedicalHamilton MedicalBesmedThe competitive landscape of the global market for Respiratory Disposable Devices is determined by assessing the major industry participants, production capacity, production capacity utilization rate, Respiratory Disposable Devices Markets production chain, pricing by each manufacturer and the revenue generated by each manufacturer in the Respiratory Disposable Devices Market globally.Inquire Before Buying @The Global Respiratory Disposable Devices Market 2018 is further analyzed on the basis of product pricing, Respiratory Disposable Devices production volume, data pertaining to demand and Respiratory Disposable Devices supply, and the revenue garnered by the product. The report provides upstream and downstream analysis covering major raw material used in manufacturing of Respiratory Disposable Devices 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 Respiratory Disposable Devices 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 -
United States Airborne Telemetry Systems Market Report 2018

United States Airborne Telemetry Systems Market Report 2018

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The United States Airborne Telemetry Systems Market Report 2018 is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the Airborne Telemetry Systems industry.Firstly, the report provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The Airborne Telemetry Systems Industry analysis is provided for the international market including development history, competitive landscape analysis, and major regions development status.Secondly, development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures. This report also states import/export, supply and consumption figures as well as cost, price, revenue and gross margin by regions (United States, EU, China and Japan), and other regions can be added.Then, the report focuses on global major leading industry players with information such as company profiles, product picture and specification, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. Upstream raw materials, equipment and downstream consumers analysis is also carried out. Whats more, the Airborne Telemetry Systems industry development trends and marketing channels are analyzed.Finally, the feasibility of new investment projects is assessed, and overall research conclusions are offered.In a word, the report provides major statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market.If you are interested in our report or have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want. Email: tinaning@qyresearch.com.In this report, the United States Airborne Telemetry Systems 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 splits the United States market into seven regions: The West Southwest, The Middle Atlantic, New England, The South, The Midwest.with sales (volume), revenue (value), market share and growth rate of Airborne Telemetry Systems in these regions, from 2013 to 2025 (forecast).United States Airborne Telemetry Systems market competition by top manufacturers/players(we can add the manufacturers/players as you want), with Airborne Telemetry Systems sales volume, price, revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingBAE SystemsRockwell CollinsHoneywell InternationalL-3 Communications HoldingsCobham PLCORBIT TechnologiesZodiac Aerospace...On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoWiredWirelessOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, sales volume, market share and growth rate for each application, includingLandAirNavalGet a complete report sample:Table of contents:Chapter 1 - Airborne Telemetry Systems OverviewChapter 2 - United States Airborne Telemetry Systems Market Competition by Players/SuppliersChapter 3 - United States Airborne Telemetry Systems Sales (Volume) and Revenue (Value) by Region (2013-2018)Chapter 4 - United States Airborne Telemetry Systems Sales (Volume) and Revenue (Value) by Type (Product Category) (2013-2018)Chapter 5 - United States Airborne Telemetry Systems Sales (Volume) by Application (2013-2018)Chapter 6 - United States Airborne Telemetry Systems Players/Suppliers Profiles and Sales DataChapter 7 - Airborne Telemetry Systems Manufacturing Cost AnalysisChapter 8 - Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream BuyersChapter 9 - Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/TradersChapter 10 - Market Effect Factors AnalysisChapter 11- United States Airborne Telemetry Systems Market Size (Value and Volume) Forecast (2018-2025)Chapter 12 - Research Findings and ConclusionChapter 13 - AppendixRelated Reports:Europe Airborne Telemetry Systems Market Report 2018China Airborne Telemetry Systems Market Report 2018India Airborne Telemetry Systems Market Report 2018Korea Airborne Telemetry Systems Market Report 2018Global Airborne Telemetry Systems Market Report 2018Japan Airborne Telemetry Systems Market Report 2018Contact Details:Company Name: QYResearch CO.,LIMITED | focus on Market Survey and ResearchTina| Sales ManagersTel: 0086-20-22093278(CN)Email: sales@qyresearcheurope.com or tinaning@qyresearch.comWeb:QYResearch, established in 2007, focuses on custom research, management consulting, IPO consulting, industry chain research, and data base &seminar services. The company owns large basic databases (such as National Bureau of Statistics Database, Customs Import and Export Database, Industry Association Database, etc.), expert resources (including industry experts who own more than 10 years experiences on marketing or R&D in industries of energy, automotive, chemicals, medical ICT consumer goods, etc.), professional survey team (the team members obtained more than 3 years market survey experience and more than 2 years deep expert interview experience), and excellent data analysis team (SPSS statistics and PPT graphics process team).Room 2901 VILI International Building No.167 Linhe West Road
Global Food Synthetic Amino Acid Market 2018 - Kyowa Hakko Kirin Group, Sigma-Aldrich, Co. LLC, Prinova Group LLC, Daesang Corporation

Global Food Synthetic Amino Acid Market

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Apex Market Reports, recently published a detailed market research study focused on the Food Synthetic Amino Acid Market across the global, regional and country level. The report provides 360 analysis of Food Synthetic Amino Acid Market from view of manufacturers, regions, product types and end industries. The research report analyses and provides the historical data along with current performance of the global PP Pipe industry, and estimates the future trend of Food Synthetic Amino Acid on the basis of this detailed study. The study shares Food Synthetic Amino Acid performance both in terms of volume and revenue.The market research report explores the Food Synthetic Amino Acid Market across the globe along with major regions and countries. The research report provides a detailed study on each and every aspect of Food Synthetic Amino Acid 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 Food Synthetic Amino Acid Market based on major product types, application and end users industries of Food Synthetic Amino Acid. Besides, the report also covers geographical segmentation for Food Synthetic Amino Acid Market. The report further provides production, capacity, price per region, gross margin, production cost, for all major regions and countries listed in report.Get Free Sample Copy of Report Here:Top Manufacturers Analysis of This ReportAjinomoto Inc. (Japan)Kyowa Hakko Kirin Group (Japan)Sigma-Aldrich, Co. LLC (U.S.)Prinova Group LLC (U.S.)Daesang Corporation (Korea)The competitive landscape of the global market for Food Synthetic Amino Acid is determined by assessing the major industry participants, production capacity, production capacity utilization rate, Food Synthetic Amino Acid Markets production chain, pricing by each manufacturer and the revenue generated by each manufacturer in the Food Synthetic Amino Acid Market globally.Inquire Before Buying @The Global Food Synthetic Amino Acid Market 2018 is further analyzed on the basis of product pricing, Food Synthetic Amino Acid production volume, data pertaining to demand and Food Synthetic Amino Acid supply, and the revenue garnered by the product. The report provides upstream and downstream analysis covering major raw material used in manufacturing of Food Synthetic Amino Acid 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 Food Synthetic Amino Acid 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 -
Micronized Copper Azole Global Market Top Key Players  Koppers , LONZA , Aljoma Lumber and Forecast to 2025

Micronized Copper Azole Market

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Global Micronized Copper Azole MarketWiseGuyRerports.com Presents Global Micronized Copper Azole Market Research Report 2018 New Document to its Studies Database. The Report Contain 2900 Pages With Detailed Analysis.DescriptionGlobal Micronized Copper Azole market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingKoppersLONZAAljoma LumberGet sample Report @Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), market share and growth rate of Micronized Copper Azole in these regions, from 2013 to 2025 (forecast), coveringNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoMCA-BMCA-COn the basis of the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate for each application, includingWood TreatingOtherComplete Report Details @Table of Contents -Major Key PointsGlobal Micronized Copper Azole Market Research Report 20181 Micronized Copper Azole Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Micronized Copper Azole1.2 Micronized Copper Azole Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Micronized Copper Azole Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Micronized Copper Azole Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 MCA-B1.2.4 MCA-C1.3 Global Micronized Copper Azole Segment by Application1.3.1 Micronized Copper Azole Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2013-2025)1.3.2 Wood Treating1.3.3 Other1.4 Global Micronized Copper Azole Market by Region (2013-2025)1.4.1 Global Micronized Copper Azole Market Size (Value) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Region (2013-2025)1.4.2 North America Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.4 China Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.5 Japan Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.6 Southeast Asia Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.7 India Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Micronized Copper Azole (2013-2025)1.5.1 Global Micronized Copper Azole Revenue Status and Outlook (2013-2025)1.5.2 Global Micronized Copper Azole Capacity, Production Status and Outlook (2013-2025).7 Global Micronized Copper Azole Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis7.1 Koppers7.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.1.2 Micronized Copper Azole Product Category, Application and Specification7.1.2.1 Product A7.1.2.2 Product B7.1.3 Koppers Micronized Copper Azole Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.2 LONZA7.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.2.2 Micronized Copper Azole Product Category, Application and Specification7.2.2.1 Product A7.2.2.2 Product B7.2.3 LONZA Micronized Copper Azole Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.2.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.3 Aljoma Lumber7.3.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.3.2 Micronized Copper Azole Product Category, Application and Specification7.3.2.1 Product A7.3.2.2 Product B7.3.3 Aljoma Lumber Micronized Copper Azole Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.3.4 Main Business/Business Overview..CONTINUEDAbout UsWise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, Industry research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports understand how essential statistical surveying information is for your organization or association. Therefore, we have associated with the top publishers and research firms all specialized in specific domains, ensuring you will receive the most reliable and up to date research data available.NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)
Global Autonomous Farm Equipment Market to Raise at a CAGR of 13.6% from 2017-2026

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Agriculture is one amongst the most overbearing industry since the beginning of human civilization. Constant growth in population, increasing need for food, fuel and feed is anticipated to influence trifold of the present-day cultivation. For this purpose, strategies such as initiation of autonomous farming and mechanization are adopted on a larger basis for yielding more from the constrained arable land.Increasing labor shortage and changing trends for the use of autonomous equipment are driving the demand for autonomous farm equipment. Development of IoT along with GPS systems application has transformed the agriculture industry.High cost essential for the improvement of the equipment performance is likely to affect the product penetration. However, industry players are working towards reducing the total cost by making it affordable, which ultimately will increase the product penetration. M&A are amongst the foremost stratagems executed by the manufactures, in order to form exceptional foot hold in farm equipment industry.Request to sample report @Moreover, the equipment provides less downtime and can be utilized even during night as well as extreme fog condition. Autonomous farm equipment provides with outstanding fuel efficiency, compared to standard counterparts and has less chances for errors. Variable climatic conditions and challenges like water shortage are dealt with the help of these equipment.The report indicates that revenues from the global autonomous farm equipment market will increase at an impressive 13.6% CAGR during the forecast period, 2017-2026. The report further projects global sales of autonomous farm equipment to account for revenues worth nearly US$ 170,000Mn by 2026-end.31100 HP Output Power of Farm Tractors to Gain Traction during the Forecast PeriodU.S., India and China are amongst the topmost countries witnessing maximum sales of farm tractors. 31100 HP output power of farm tractors holds nearly 34.5% of the global market for autonomous farm equipment throughout 2026. Canada and U.S. contribute largely towards the growth of the segment. Factors such as low cost in comparison to restricted agricultural land for each farmer and superior horsepower farm tractors will drive fuel the market for medium and small range farm tractors in North America and APEJ.APEJs Autonomous Farm Equipment Market to Hold the Lions Share in Global Market by Expanding at Exceptional 14.1% CAGRThe market size of APEJs autonomous farm equipment is expected to reach a value of US$ 65165.8Mn throughout 2026, due to strong existence of well-known industry competitors in the region. High revenue production can be credited to rolling demand of products like tractors, harvesters and UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle), installed with auto steering operations.North Americas market for autonomous farm equipment is likely to depict momentous growth through 2026. Increasing product use in the region provides better fuel proficiency and higher productivity, which will drive the growth of industry players. Varying trend with regards to smart devices due to expansion of agrarian economies like India, will positively impact the product penetration in APEJ region.Request Report for TOC @In terms of revenues, partially autonomous equipment contribute significantly to the global market for autonomous farm equipment, subject to their extensive commercialization & competitive pricing. Tractors are expected to lead the market for autonomous farm equipment, in terms of revenue share, contributing nearly 30% sales by 2026. Availability of equipment at competitive price together with exclusive features such as finest path selection and prevention from overlapping paths will positively impact the product penetration.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated re-search, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Con-sumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.com
Smart Bombs Market: Latest Trends and Forecast Analysis up to 2025

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A smart bomb is a precision guided munitions designed and developed to achieve smaller circular error portability. The smart bombs reduces the risk of air crews, ordnance spend and collateral damages and increases the damage effectiveness as they can be guided to a particular target and the lethality of these smart bombs against the targets are much more than the unguided bombs.The mechanism of these smart bombs are very different from the conventional bombs as these smart bombs have a triggering device with a time delay systems and a proximity sensor or an impact sensor. As the smart bomb approaches the target, the trigger goes off automatically, initiating the fuse to ignite the explosives resulting in explosion.Browse the Report to Know Granular View of The Market from Various End-Use Segments @The major boosting factor for the smart bombs market is the surging demand for precision munitions or precision bombs. The precision munitions can be guided as per the target and the damaged caused by these munitions or bombs are much more than the unguided. This advantage is increasing the interest among the defense forces across the globe to adopt the smart bombs in order to combat the enemy.Moreover, smart bombs reduces the logistics burden of the military forces as one smart bomb can damage thrice an unguided bomb. The costs involved in logistics of unguided bombs is much higher than that of smart bombs, which is an attractive factor for the defense forces. The reduction in logistic burden with smart bombs is fuelling the market for smart bombs.Request Sample to Know Quantitative Market Analysis, Current and Future Trends @The major factor hindering the market for smart bombs is the bomb integration challenge. The smart bombs cannot be fitted to the traditional bomb launchers as they have mechanism for guiding the bomb to the targets. The aircrafts, naval ships, bomb launchers need to be specifically designed to launch the smart bomb so that malfunction of sensors, cameras and other integrated technologies are not hindered. This procedure requires huge investments, which is limiting the developing countrys defense forces to adopt smart bombs.The smart bombs market possess a potential growth opportunities in future as the demand for smart bombs is increasing in the developing countries. Countries such as India, South Korea, Vietnam, Australia, Turkey, Israel, and Brazil among others are demanding for smart bombs in order to fight the enemy. Owing to the fact that, the defense expenditure is growing in the developed as well as developing countries, the standardization of weapons and munitions are being carried out heavily. The standardization of weapons includes replacing old munitions with precision munitions, which is expected to drive the market for smart bombs in future.Get TOC of This Report @Geographically, the smart bombs market is categorized as North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa and Latin America. The smart bombs market was dominated by North America, followed by Europe. Asia Pacific is the fastest growing region across the globe in the market for smart bombs.The manufacturers of smart bombs across the globe are Lockheed Martin Corporation (U.S.), Raytheon Company (U.S.), Bharat Electronics Limited (India), The General Atomics Corporations (U.S.), L-3 Communications Holding Inc. (U.S.), Textron Inc. (U.S.), General Dynamics Corporation (U.S.), Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. (Israel).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:
Storage Software Market 2018 Find The Opportunities In Growing Industry With Key Players Competitive Analysis by 2025

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Description:In our aim to provide our erudite clients with the best research material with absolute in-depth information of the market, our new report on Global Storage Software Market is confident in meeting their needs and expectations. The 2018 market research report on Global Storage Software Market is an in-depth study and analysis of the market by our industry experts with unparalleled domain knowledge. The report will shed light on many critical points and trends of the industry which are useful for our esteemed clients. The report covers a vast expanse of information including an overview, comprehensive analysis, definitions and classifications, applications, and expert opinions, among others. With the extent of information filled in the report, the presentation and style of the Global Storage Software Market report is a noteworthy.Global Storage Software market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingIBMNetAppHuawei TechnologiesHewlett-PackardDellHitachiSymantecCA TechnologiesOracle CorporationEMCGet a PDF Sample of this Report @The Global Storage Software Industry report provides key information about the industry, including invaluable facts and figures, expert opinions, and the latest developments across the globe. Not only does the report cover a holistic view of the industry from a global standpoint, but it also covers individual regions and their development. The Global Storage Software Industry report showcases the latest trends in the global and regional markets on all critical parameters which include technology, supplies, capacity, production, profit, price, and competition. The key players covered in the report provide a detailed analysis of the competition and their developments in the Global Storage Software Industry. Accurate forecasts and expert opinion from credible sources, and the recent R&D development in the industry is also a mainstay of the Storage Software Market report.The report also focuses on the significance of industry chain analysis and all variables, both upstream and downstream. These include equipment and raw materials, client surveys, marketing channels, and industry trends and proposals. Other significant information covering consumption, key regions and distributors, and raw material suppliers are also a covered in this report.Access the complete report with TOC & List of Tables @On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoCloudOn-premisesOn the basis of the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate for each application, includingTelecom and ITGovernmentBFSIHealthcareManufacturingRetailFinally, the Storage Software Market report ends with a detailed SWOT analysis of the market, investment feasibility and returns, and development trends and forecasts. As with every report on Orbis Research, the Storage Software Industry is the holy grail of information which serious knowledge seekers can benefit from. The report which is the result of ultimate dedication of pedigree professionals has a wealth of information which can benefit anyone, irrespective of their commercial or academic interest.Enquiry before buying report @Some Point from TOC:Chapter One: Storage Software Market OverviewChapter Two: Global Storage Software Market Competition by ManufacturersChapter Three: Global Storage Software Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2013-2018)Chapter Four: Global Storage Software Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2013-2018)Chapter Five: Global Storage Software Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by TypeChapter Six: Global Storage Software Market Analysis by Application.ContinuedAbout Us:Orbis Research (orbisresearch.com) is a single point aid for all your market research requirements. We have vast database of reports from the leading publishers and authors across the globe. We specialize in delivering customized reports as per the requirements of our clients. We have complete information about our publishers and hence are sure about the accuracy of the industries and verticals of their specialization. This helps our clients to map their needs and we produce the perfect required market research study for our clients.Contact Us:Hector CostelloSenior Manager  Client Engagements4144N Central Expressway,Suite 600, Dallas,Texas - 75204, U.S.A.Phone No.: +1 (214) 884-6817; +912064101019Email id: sales@orbisresearch.com
Mining Equipments Market Key Insights and Regional Overview by Supply (Production) , Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2012-2018)

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The market for Global mining equipments market professional survey report 2018 has been undergoing a transitional phase over the recent past. The continual advancements in technologies and the swift increase in infrastructural development projects have influenced the demand for Global mining equipments market professional survey report 2018 substantially over the past few years. The swift rise in urbanization and the significant increase in the disposable income of people are likely to maintain the demand pace of Global mining equipments market professional survey report 2018 in the near future. The augmenting interest of investors, government funding, and the rising trend of automation are also projected to reflect positively on this market in the years to come.This report studies Mining Equipments in Global market, especially in North America, China, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan and India, with production, revenue, consumption, import and export in these regions, from 2013 to 2018, and forecast to 2025.This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, covering Caterpillar, Komatsu, AB Volvo, Hitachi Construction, Joy Global (P&H), Sandvik, Atlas Copco, Metso, Thyssenkrupp, Liebherr, Terex Mining, Kawasaki, Zhengzhou Coal Mining Machinery, Weir Group, FLSmidth, Tenova TAKRAF, Doosan, SANYI, NHI and Furukawa.For More Information About This Report atOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoSurface Mining MachineryUnderground Mining MachineryMining Drills and BreakersCrushing, Pulverizing and Screening EquipmentBy Application, the market can be split intoMetal MiningMineral MiningCoal MiningBy Regions, this report covers (we can add the regions/countries as you want)North AmericaChinaEuropeSoutheast AsiaJapanIndiaRequest For Free Sample Copy atReport ScopeIn this research report, the prominent trends, driving factors, restraints, opportunities, and challenges have been taken into consideration in order to identify the market's future. It also discusses the production cost structure of Global mining equipments market professional survey report 2018. As per the research study, raw material and equipment are two major components of the Global mining equipments market professional survey report 2018 manufacturing process. Here, researchers have studied the costs of raw materials and equipment with a special mention to their suppliers. Furthermore, the labor and other operational costs experienced in the production of Global mining equipments market professional survey report 2018 have also been discussed at length in this market report.Key Points from Table of Content1 Mining Equipments Market Overview2 Global Mining Equipments Market Competition by Manufacturers3 Global Mining Equipments Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2012-2018)4 Global Mining Equipments Supply (Production) , Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2012-2018)5 Global Mining Equipments Production, Revenue (Value) , Price Trend by TypeAsk for Discount at6 Global Mining Equipments Market Analysis by Application7 Global Mining Equipments Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis8 Mining Equipments Manufacturing Cost Analysis9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders11 Market Effect Factors Analysis12 Global Mining Equipments Market Forecast (2018-2025)13 Research Findings and ConclusionPurchase Complete Report at(Note: If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.)Contact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@reportsweb.comReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.533, 5th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
United States Adhesives and Sealants Market Report 2018

United States Adhesives and Sealants Market Report 2018

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The United States Adhesives and Sealants Market Report 2018 is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the Adhesives and Sealants industry.Firstly, the report provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The Adhesives and Sealants Industry analysis is provided for the international market including development history, competitive landscape analysis, and major regions development status.Secondly, development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures. This report also states import/export, supply and consumption figures as well as cost, price, revenue and gross margin by regions (United States, EU, China and Japan), and other regions can be added.Then, the report focuses on global major leading industry players with information such as company profiles, product picture and specification, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. Upstream raw materials, equipment and downstream consumers analysis is also carried out. Whats more, the Adhesives and Sealants industry development trends and marketing channels are analyzed.Finally, the feasibility of new investment projects is assessed, and overall research conclusions are offered.In a word, the report provides major statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market.If you are interested in our report or have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want. Email: tinaning@qyresearch.com.In this report, the United States Adhesives and Sealants 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 splits the United States market into seven regions: The West Southwest, The Middle Atlantic, New England, The South, The Midwest.with sales (volume), revenue (value), market share and growth rate of Adhesives and Sealants in these regions, from 2013 to 2025 (forecast).United States Adhesives and Sealants market competition by top manufacturers/players(we can add the manufacturers/players as you want), with Adhesives and Sealants sales volume, price, revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingHenkel AG & CompanyH.B. FullerBostik SASika AG3M CompanyIllinois Tool Works CorporationAvery Dennison CorporationDAP ProductsRoyal Adhesives & Sealants, LLCFranklin InternationalOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoWater-Based Adhesives and SealantsSolvent-Based Adhesives and SealantsHot-Melt Adhesives and SealantsOtherOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, sales volume, market share and growth rate for each application, includingPaper & PackagingBuilding & ConstructionWoodworking & JoineryLeather & FootwearOtherGet a complete report sample:Table of contents:Chapter 1 - Adhesives and Sealants OverviewChapter 2 - United States Adhesives and Sealants Market Competition by Players/SuppliersChapter 3 - United States Adhesives and Sealants Sales (Volume) and Revenue (Value) by Region (2013-2018)Chapter 4 - United States Adhesives and Sealants Sales (Volume) and Revenue (Value) by Type (Product Category) (2013-2018)Chapter 5 - United States Adhesives and Sealants Sales (Volume) by Application (2013-2018)Chapter 6 - United States Adhesives and Sealants Players/Suppliers Profiles and Sales DataChapter 7 - Adhesives and Sealants Manufacturing Cost AnalysisChapter 8 - Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream BuyersChapter 9 - Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/TradersChapter 10 - Market Effect Factors AnalysisChapter 11- United States Adhesives and Sealants Market Size (Value and Volume) Forecast (2018-2025)Chapter 12 - Research Findings and ConclusionChapter 13 - AppendixRelated Reports:Europe Adhesives and Sealants Market Report 2018China Adhesives and Sealants Market Report 2018India Adhesives and Sealants Market Report 2018Korea Adhesives and Sealants Market Report 2018Global Adhesives and Sealants Market Report 2018Japan Adhesives and Sealants Market Report 2018Contact Details:Company Name: QYResearch CO.,LIMITED | focus on Market Survey and ResearchTina| Sales ManagersTel: 0086-20-22093278(CN)Email: sales@qyresearcheurope.com or tinaning@qyresearch.comWeb:QYResearch, established in 2007, focuses on custom research, management consulting, IPO consulting, industry chain research, and data base &seminar services. The company owns large basic databases (such as National Bureau of Statistics Database, Customs Import and Export Database, Industry Association Database, etc.), expert resources (including industry experts who own more than 10 years experiences on marketing or R&D in industries of energy, automotive, chemicals, medical ICT consumer goods, etc.), professional survey team (the team members obtained more than 3 years market survey experience and more than 2 years deep expert interview experience), and excellent data analysis team (SPSS statistics and PPT graphics process team).Room 2901 VILI International Building No.167 Linhe West Road
Global Laser Technology Market by Analysis and Forecasts by Types, Application and End-User Vertical to 2025

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A laser is a coherent and focused beam of photons; coherent, in this context, means that it is all one wavelength, unlike ordinary light which showers on us in many wavelengths. Laser technology is used for an extensive range of professional field measurement applications which includes measuring a distance, height or elevation value to verifying an angular direction or remote position with GPS and so on.Browse Complete Report with TOC:The report aims to provide an overview of global laser technology market with detailed market segmentation by product types, application, and geography. Being much matured market, global laser technology market is expected to witness sluggish growth. Factors such as drop in price of laser, especially for fiber and diode lasers will affect the market in coming year. Fiber lasers are replacing other types of lasers, such as diode lasers in multiple application areas. Also Chinese lasers are slowly entering the market.The objectives of this report is as follows:- To provide overview of the global laser technology market- To analyze and forecast the global laser technology market on the basis of product type and application- To provide market size and forecast till 2025 for overall laser technology 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- To evaluate market dynamics effecting the market during the forecast period i.e., drivers, restraints, opportunities, and future trendRequest a Sample copy of Report:- To provide exhaustive PEST analysis for all five regions- To profiles key laser technology players influencing the market along with their SWOT analysis and market strategiesSome of the leading players in laser technology market are Coherent, Inc., Corning Inc., Cymer Inc., Frankfurt Laser, IPG Photonics Corporation, JDS Uniphase Corporation, Newport Corporation, ROFIN-SINAR Technologies Inc., Schott Glass Technologies, and TRUMPF.Inquire for Discount on this Report:About 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.Contact Us:The Insight partners,Phone: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@theinsightpartners.comWebsite:
ASEAN Cosmetic Chemicals Market will be Massively Influenced by Macroeconomic Factors 2014 - 2020

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The growing beauty products market has been increasing the demand for value-enriched cosmetics. The market is flooded with various cosmetic chemicals. Cosmetic chemicals are the basic ingredients found in cosmetic products including soap, shampoo, lipstick, mascara, deodorants and other beauty products (excluding the products listed under therapeutic goods). At present, various cosmetic business enterprises use more than 5000 different chemical compositions to offer selected cosmetic products. Based on its end use applications, cosmetic chemical have been further divided into surfactants, emollients, conditioning polymers, and UV absorbers. These chemical-based products contain preservatives which hinder microbial growth and thereby offer longer shell life to the cosmetics. In addition, these chemicals contain a variety of vitamins, antioxidants, minerals, herbs, hormones, and fragrances. This vast range of cosmetic chemicals allows business cosmetics to deliver different types of cosmetics in the market, thereby offering a vibrant market to cosmetic industries.Their use is widely found in personal care products. A wide range of applications ranging from anti-ageing cream to shampoo is driving the cosmetic chemical market to its zenith. Companies these days are focusing on organic grade cosmetic chemicals as they are considered to be a healthier option when compared to commodity surfactants and petroleum oils. The cosmetic chemicals market has been segmented into skin care products, make up products, hair care products and fragrance products. Among all its market segments, cleaning agents and foaming agents are the enduse applications that account for the largest percentage of the market. Skin care products accounted for 31% of global cosmetic market in year 2013. Though cosmetic chemicals offer many options to formulate cosmetics depending on different skin types, the market is shifting towards natural surfactants primarily because of the rising safety concerns of sulfate-based surfactants.Request Report Sample@Globally, North America is the largest market for cosmetic product consumption. It accounted for 21.2% of global market share in 2012. USA with US$ 54.89 billion in 2012 is the biggest cosmetic market. However, with the rising dominance of non-western beauty culture in Eastern region, the market share is set to shift towards ASEAN region. Ethnic and cultural diversity in APAC, and particularly in ASEAN region,are driving the cosmetics market vertically upwards. Growing consumer class in ASEAN region from 67 million population to 125 million population by 2025 will offer a lucrative market for various business cosmetic business channels. A large consumer base, ample natural resources, availability of cheap labor and easing of policies such as FDI by government, are the main driving factors for the cosmetic chemicals market in ASEAN markets.In the ASEAN region, the cosmetic market has been witnessing a double digit growth every 5 years. GDP at the constant price shows a vertically upwards trend in these regions. The rise in the middle class population in Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Philippines is the major driving factor for the growth of this sector, while in Malaysia and Singapore, wealthy segments contribute largely to it. Skin care products are set to witness exponential growth in the ASEAN market, thereby offering lucrative business opportunities in the cosmetic chemicals market.Visit For TOC@There is a flood of suppliers in cosmetic chemicals which results in a fragmented market. However, the demand for premium personal care products has led to consolidation of the market, thus leading to high competitiveness among the dominant players in this market. The prominent players of cosmetic chemicals market include Dow Chemical Company, BASF SE, Bayer AG, Givaudan SA, Merck KGaA, Shell Chemical and Berkshire Hathaway Inc.With the new emerging markets such as ASEAN, BRIC, and MEA, the future seems optimistic for cosmetic chemicals companies. Together, these regions offer a large market owing to the high population of youth in the age group of 15-39 years. Though the market seems promising in the long run, companies have to spend lump sum amounts on R&D to comply with the governments regulatory demands.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:
Biohacking Market Worldwide Players Analysis 2018: Apple (U.S.), Synbiota (Canada), THE ODIN (U.S.), HVMN, Inc. (U.S.), Thync Global Inc., U.S.A. (U.S.), Moodmetric (U.S.), and Others

Biohacking Market

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The Global Biohacking Market is segmented on the basis of type, product, application, and end user. On the basis of type, the market is segmented into outside biohacking and inside biohacking. On the basis of product, the market is segmented into smart drugs, sensors, strains, and others. On the basis of application, the market is segmented into synthetic biology, genetic engineering, forensic science, diagnosis & treatment, drug testing, and others.On the basis of end user, the market is segmented into pharmaceutical & biotechnology companies, forensic laboratories, and others. The Worldwide Biohacking Market is mainly driven by rising awareness about Biohacking, increasing prevalence of chronic diseases, and extensive demand smart devices and drugs across the globe. Furthermore, presence of prominent market players also influences the growth of the market. However, the market growth of the market is restrained by lack of cyber security practices. The International Biohacking Market is segmented into four regions namely Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East and Africa.Browse Complete Premium 157 Pages Report @Key players in Biohacking Market:Key players are now focusing on new product development and expansion strategies in the European market. For instance, Apple Watch is one the most popular products in continuously health monitoring and tracking devices. watchOS 4 launched by Apple featured G5 Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) which become popular among the iPhone users across the globe.Some of the key players in the global market are Fitbit, Inc. (U.S.), Apple (U.S.), Synbiota (Canada), THE ODIN (U.S.), HVMN, Inc. (U.S.), Thync Global Inc., U.S.A. (U.S.), Moodmetric (U.S.) and others.Regional Analysis of the Global Biohacking Market:Geographically, the global biohacking market is segmented into four regions namely Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East and Africa.Americas hold the significant market share in biohacking owing the presence of large number of biotechnology and synthetic biology companies engaged in the product of innovative products. Large number of conferences are organized by a number of biohacking groups and organizations encouraging the youth to do research in the field of biotechnology.Europe is regarded as the second largest market for biohacking. In Europe, the market for biohacking is found to be growing steadily. The major restrain for the growth of this market in the Europe is strict regulations governing biohacking. For instance, European groups need to obtain license from the government to carry out genetic engineering experiments.Get Exclusive Sample Copy @Major TOC of Biohacking Market Research Report - Global forecast till 2023:1 REPORT PROLOGUE2 MARKET INTRODUCTIONS2.1 Introduction2.2 Scope Of Study2.3 Research Objective2.4 Assumptions & Limitations2.4.1 Assumptions2.4.2 Limitations2.5 Market Structure3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES3.1.1 Primary Research Methodology3.1.2 Secondary Research Methodology3.1.3 Market Share Analysis3.1.4 Trade Analysis3.2 Forecast Model4 MARKET DYNAMICS4.1 Introduction4.2 Drivers4.2.1 Rising Prevalence Of Chronic Disease4.2.2 Growing Awareness About Biohacking4.2.3 Increasing Demand For Innovative Medical Devices And Sensors4.3 RestraintsTOC Continued!Ask Questions to Expertise @About US:Market Research Future (MRFR), enable customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Contact Us:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone: +1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Intraoral Scanners Market Comprehensive Review of its Top Companies, Investment trend, and Growth Opportunities

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The growth in the intraoral scanners market will be led by increasing prevalence of dental problems, growing geriatric population, and improving accuracy and workflow of intraoral scanners.Access Detailed Report Summary:The end users in intraoral scanners market include hospitals and dental clinics. The demand for intraoral scanners in dental clinics is expected to witness fastest growth, at a CAGR of 10.5% during the forecast period, attributable to the increase in number of dental clinics as well as dentists doing private practice, globally.Request to Get the Sample Pages at:The APAC intraoral scanners industry is expected to witness the fastest growth in demand, at a CAGR of 11.2% during the forecast period, due to higher prevalence of dental problems, and aging population in the region. The growth of the APAC market is supported by rise in healthcare expenditure, strengthening economic condition, and growing pool of dental clinics and practitioners in various APAC countries such as China, Japan, and India. Further, rising awareness among general population about dental problems and the importance of their treatment is another a key factor supporting the market demand in the region.Make Enquiry Before Buying the Report:Globally, key players in the intraoral scanners industry are developing and launching products that are equipped with latest advanced technology and offer various benefits such as enhanced functionality and portability to gain a larger market share. For instance, in March 2017, 3Shape A/S launched the TRIOS 3 Wireless  a wireless version of its TRIOS intraoral scanner. The 3Shape TRIOS 3 Wireless could connect cordlessly to laptops and the TRIOS cart and has three rechargeable batteries.Some of the other key players operating in the intraoral scanners market include Dentsply Sirona Inc., Align Technology Inc., Carestream Health Inc., 3DISC, Densys3D Ltd., The Straumann Group, Planmeca Oy, and Guangdong Launca Medical Device Technology Co. Ltd.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:
Sheep Milk Market: Global Industry Analysis by Top Players, Types, Key Regions and Applications to 2016-2021

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Description:The Global Sheep Milk Market was worth USD xx billion in 2017 and estimated to be growing at a CAGR of xx%, to reach USD xx billion by 2022. Sheep milk is the milk produced by the domestic sheep that is commonly used to make dairy products like butter, cheese, yoghurt and other products. Sheep milk is the most delicious milk that is a good alternative to cow milk with low cholesterol levels and stimulate growth and development. Humans are relying on the sheep milk from thousands of years which is superior than cow, buffalo, and goat milk in many aspects and has a unique flavour that has become staple food in many regions.Request a Sample Report! Download a PDF sample copy@The dairy breeds of the sheep that are generally used for the dairy production are Lacaune, Chios, Sarda, East Friesian, Awassi, Zwartbles and British Milk Sheep. Mostly, sheep milk is used in the production of famous cheeses, namely feta and roquefort, and various kinds of yoghurts. Sheep milk products are comparitively more expensive and harder to find due to the limited time of the year that most sheep produce milk. Female sheep do not produce milk as consistent as the male sheep, rather they produce more milk in the 85-100 days after lambing.Factors like growing people awareness about the health benefits of the sheep milk like presence of essential minerals such as zinc, magnesium and calcium, boosting immunity, resistance against cancer cells, prevents birth defects and lowering blood pressure, growing demand for the dairy products of sheep milk, rise in disposable income, changing lifestyles, favourable government policies in the dairy industry, growth in sheep population, rising demand for sheep farms and high investments by the companies in this market are driving the Global Sheep milk market. However, high cost compared to cow milk and stringent regulations for the product approval are hindering the growth of the market.To Make an Enquiry on Sheep Milk Market Report@The Global Sheep Milk Market is segmented on the basis of product type, application and region. On the basis of product type, the market is segmented into cheese, yogurt, ice cream, liquid milk, milk powder, butter and others. Based on the application, the market is segmented into children, adult and the aged. In 2017, the sheep cheese is accounted to have the largest share in terms of product and revenue due to the demand for the sheep cheese and the growing people awareness about the advantages of the cheese. Meanwhile, Liquid milk is projected to have the fastest growing rate with highest CAGR in the global market.The market has also been geographically segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Middle-East & Africa. Asia-Pacific region accounted to have the largest revenue owing to the highest population of the sheep in the Asia-Pacific countries, growth in the sheep farms market, high demand due to the rising population, growing demographics and emerging Economies like China and India. However, North America is projected to have the highest CAGR due to the favourable government reimbursements for the dairy industry, increase in per capita income and the presence of market leaders in this region.Major players in the Global Sheep Milk Market are Sheep Milk Company Ltd., Haverton Hill Creamery, Spring Sheep, Velvet Cloud, Alimenta, Origin Earth, Maui Milk Ltd., New Zealand Sheep Milk Company and Roquefort Vernieres.Check Discount@Some Point from Table of Content:1. Introduction1.1 Market Definition1.2 Study Deliverables1.3 Base Currency, Base Year and Forecast Periods1.4 General Study Assumptions2. Research Methodology2.1 Introduction2.2 Research Phases2.2.1 Secondary Research2.2.2 Primary Research2.2.3 Econometric Modelling2.2.4 Expert Validation2.3 Analysis Design2.4 Study Timeline3. Overview3.1 Executive Summary3.2 Key Inferences3.3 EpidemologyRead more...Browse Detailed TOC, Tables, Figures, Charts and Companies Mentioned in Sheep Milk Market Research Report@About Us:Orbis Research (orbisresearch.com) is a single point aid for all your market research requirements. We have vast database of reports from the leading publishers and authors across the globe. We specialize in delivering customized reports as per the requirements of our clients. We have complete information about our publishers and hence are sure about the accuracy of the industries and verticals of their specialization. This helps our clients to map their needs and we produce the perfect required market research study for our clients.Contact Us:Hector CostelloSenior Manager  Client Engagements4144N Central Expressway,Suite 600, Dallas,Texas - 75204, U.S.A.Phone No: +1 (214) 884-6817; +912064101019Email ID: sales@orbisresearch.com
Global Pico Projectors Market 2018 Top Manufacturers : Philips, Lenovo, Celluon, MicroVision

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Global Pico Projectors Market Professional Survey Report 2018" to its huge collection of research reports.This report studies Pico Projectors 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 report "Global Pico Projectors Market Professional Survey Report 2018" Market recently added to QYResearchReports.com covers growth dynamics of the global Pico Projectors market in a detailed manner in the present times as well as over the review period. The report studies the global Pico Projectors market from the perspective of the industry chain structure and examines the downstream and upstream components of the market. An analysis of the key factors associated with the growth prospects of the market, various policies and regulations affecting the growth of the market, and the trends that define consumer preferences has been included in the report.For free sample on this report, fill the form @The report also includes a comprehensive assessment of the overall growth prospects of the market with the help of segmenting the market on the basis of key criteria such as application, end-use, and geography. The report also studies the distribution of leading vendors on a global scale, the availability of manufacturing plants in the global Pico Projectors market and analyzes their commercial production capacity in recent years. Examining the industry chain of the Pico Projectors market, the report compiles information about the key suppliers across the market such as manufacturing equipment suppliers, leading raw material suppliers, and key consumers.This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market,with production,price,revenue and market share for each manufacturer,coveringAaxa TechnologiesLG ElectronicsPhilipsSony CorporationLenovoRIF6CremotechCelluonTexas InstrumentsMicroVisionThe report further examines the development trends in the industry and analyzes the supply chain relationship. A detailed analytical assessment of the vendor landscape of the global Pico Projectors market is also included in the report wherein the report covers details pertaining to aspects such as the recent developments in the market, product portfolios of leading companies, and market share of leading vendors, recently launched products. Detailed business profiles of some of the leading companies in the market are also included to help readers get a clear understanding of the level of competition that the market displays.Table of Contents1 Industry Overview of Pico Projectors1.1 Definition and Specifications of Pico Projectors1.1.1 Definition of Pico Projectors1.1.2 Specifications of Pico Projectors1.2 Classification of Pico Projectors1.2.1 Digital Light Processing (DLP)1.2.2 Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCoS)1.2.3 Laser Beam Steering (LBS)1.3 Applications of Pico Projectors1.4 Market Segment by Regions2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Pico Projectors2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Pico Projectors2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Pico Projectors2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Pico ProjectorsClick here to avail discount on this reports @3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Pico Projectors3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Pico Projectors Major Manufacturers in 20163.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Pico Projectors Major Manufacturers in 20163.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Pico Projectors Major Manufacturers in 20163.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Pico Projectors Major Manufacturers in 20164 Global Pico Projectors Overall Market Overview4.1 2012-2017E Overall Market Analysis4.2 Capacity Analysis4.2.1 2012-2017E Global Pico Projectors Capacity and Growth Rate Analysis4.2.2 2016 Pico Projectors Capacity Analysis (Company Segment)4.3 Sales Analysis4.3.1 2012-2017E Global Pico Projectors Sales and Growth Rate Analysis4.3.2 2016 Pico Projectors Sales Analysis (Company Segment)4.4 Sales Price Analysis4.4.1 2012-2017E Global Pico Projectors Sales Price4.4.2 2016 Pico Projectors Sales Price Analysis (Company Segment)List of Tables and FiguresFigure Picture of Pico ProjectorsTable Product Specifications of Pico ProjectorsTable Classification of Pico ProjectorsFigure Global Production Market Share of Pico Projectors by Type in 2016Figure Global Consumption Volume Market Share of Pico Projectors by Application in 2016Table Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Pico Projectors Major Manufacturers in 2016Table Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Pico Projectors Major Manufacturers in 2016Table R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Pico Projectors Major Manufacturers in 2016Table Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Pico Projectors Major Manufacturers in 2016Table Global Capacity,Sales ,Price,Cost,Sales Revenue (M USD) and Gross Margin of Pico Projectors 2012-2017Figure Global 2012-2017E Pico Projectors Market Size (Volume) and Growth RateAbout Us:QYResearchReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYResearchReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact Us:1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Calcium Hypochlorite Market Growth Forecast by 2023: Lonza, Axiall, Barchemicals, Nippon Soda, Tosoh, Nankai Chemical, Sree Rayalaseema Hi-Strength Hypo, Weilite

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Calcium Hypochlorite Market report 2023 focuses on the major Types and Applications for the key players. Calcium Hypochlorite market research report also provides analysis of the market share, segmentation, revenue forecasts and geographic regions of the market. The Calcium Hypochlorite market research report is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of Calcium Hypochlorite Industry.Calcium hypochlorite is an inorganic compound with formula Ca(ClO)2. It is sold as a white, solid concentrate in granular, tablet or briquette form with a distinct chlorine odor. Calcium hypochlorite is widely used as a disinfectant and bleaching agent. It is considered more stable and has greater available chlorine than sodium hypochlorite (liquid bleach).Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Calcium Hypochlorite Market, especially in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, types and applications.Request for a Sample Copy of Calcium Hypochlorite Market Report @Calcium Hypochlorite Market Segment by Top Manufacturers Including:Lonza, Axiall, Barchemicals, Nippon Soda, Tosoh, Nankai Chemical, Sree Rayalaseema Hi-Strength Hypo, Weilite, Salt & Chemical Complex, Nanke, Yufeng, Kaifeng, Jiansheng, Xinze, Huanghua Kaifeng and Ruifuxin.An inherent sub-vertical of the Chemicals and Advanced Materials Industry space, Calcium Hypochlorite market stands to gain remarkable proceeds over 2018-2023, as per a recently compiled report Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis covers:North America (United States, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Table of Contents:Global Calcium Hypochlorite Market OverviewGlobal Calcium Hypochlorite Market Manufacturers ProfilesGlobal Calcium Hypochlorite Market Competition, by ManufacturerGlobal Calcium Hypochlorite Market Analysis by RegionsGlobal Calcium Hypochlorite by CountriesGlobal Calcium Hypochlorite Market Segment by TypeGlobal Calcium Hypochlorite Market Segment by ApplicationCalcium Hypochlorite Market Forecast (2018-2023)Sales Channel, Distributors, Traders and DealersResearch Findings and ConclusionMarket Segment by Type, coversCalcium Process and Sodium ProcessMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided into:Water Treating Agent, Bleach and OthersThere are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Calcium Hypochlorite market.Chapter 1, to describe Calcium Hypochlorite Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Calcium Hypochlorite, with sales, revenue, and price of Calcium Hypochlorite, 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 Calcium Hypochlorite, 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, Calcium Hypochlorite market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2018 to 2023;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Calcium Hypochlorite sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceQualitative Analysis covers:Industry Status and TrendsManufacturer/Company profiles, manufacturing base distribution, sales areas, product introduction, main business, market position and their competitors.Product Development, Technology, Price, Cost, Manufacturing Process and TrendsMarket segment by regions, types, applications and forecastMarket opportunities, potential, government policies and influence factors.For more information on this report, Please visit at:Related Reports: -United States Calcium Hypochlorite Market Report 2018In this report, the United States Calcium Hypochlorite 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.More Report @Marketstudyreport.com allows you to manage and control all corporate research purchases to consolidate billing and vendor management. You can eliminate duplicate purchases and customize your content and license management.Market Study ReportThe Green Suite #4594,Dover, DE 19901United StatesPhone: 1-201-355-0868US Toll Free: 1-866-764-2150Email:sales@marketstudyreport.comWebsite:News:More Report at:
Global E-Paper Module Market 2018 Key Players : Qualcomm, Liquavistar, LG Display, ITRI, Plastic Logic

QYResearchReports

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https://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/global-e-paper-module-sales-market-report-2018.htm/toc

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Global E-Paper Module Sales Market Report 2018" to its huge collection of research reports.In this report, the global E-Paper Module 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.The global market for E-Paper Module has been thoroughly studied with every detail in the market intelligence study with increased emphasis on various important factors such as restraints, market opportunities, and growth drivers. Each of the elements that pertain to the shaping of the market dynamics that has been analyzed and studied in detail by the research analysts, so as to offer the best and most evaluative and exhaustive study to the buyers of the report. The overview or the executive summary that has been provided in the market intelligence study has been designed in such a way so as to give a quick overview of the market for receiving information on the go. This could help readers with hands-on data needed to make quick decisions anytime during their growth journey in the market.Have Any Query? Ask Our Expert @Global E-Paper Module market competition by top manufacturers/players, with E-Paper Module sales volume, Price (USD/Unit), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingE InkOEDQualcommLiquavistarPlastic LogicPervisive DisplaysLG DisplayGamma DynamicsITRIThe study of market segmentations that has been offered with the publication that explores some of the most significant categories of the world E-Paper Module market is deemed significant for the growth of industry participants. All of the segments that have been studied elaborately in the said publication have been deeply evaluated with assistance from best of the research techniques. The analysts have dissected each of the segments and have shed light on vital factors that influence the growth of the various segments. Using this crucial information, market players could rightly shape their business plans in favor of the betterment of their growth in the global market. Segments that have been analyzed in the publication could be related to product, end use, application, and geography.A group of experienced analysts who have prepared the said report delves deep into the various factors that hinder or fuel the global market for E-Paper Module. It also discovers and mentions the important trends that are emerging in the said market. Cashing in on all of these market data and statistics that have been garnered so far, it has come up with the best course of action for all the stake holders of the market.Table of Contents1 E-Paper Module Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of E-Paper Module1.2 Classification of E-Paper Module by Product Category1.2.1 Global E-Paper Module Market Size (Sales) Comparison by Type (2013-2025)1.2.2 Global E-Paper Module Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.3 Global E-Paper Module Market by Application/End Users1.4 Global E-Paper Module Market by Region1.5 Global Market Size (Value and Volume) of E-Paper Module (2013-2025)View TOC (table of content) of the Report:2 Global E-Paper Module Competition by Players/Suppliers, Type and Application2.1 Global E-Paper Module Market Competition by Players/Suppliers2.1.1 Global E-Paper Module Sales and Market Share of Key Players/Suppliers (2013-2018)2.1.2 Global E-Paper Module Revenue and Share by Players/Suppliers (2013-2018)2.2 Global E-Paper Module (Volume and Value) by Type2.2.1 Global E-Paper Module Sales and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)2.2.2 Global E-Paper Module Revenue and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)2.3 Global E-Paper Module (Volume and Value) by Region2.4 Global E-Paper Module (Volume) by Application3 United States E-Paper Module (Volume, Value and Sales Price)3.1 United States E-Paper Module Sales and Value (2013-2018)3.1.1 United States E-Paper Module Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018)3.1.2 United States E-Paper Module Revenue and Growth Rate (2013-2018)3.1.3 United States E-Paper Module Sales Price Trend (2013-2018)3.2 United States E-Paper Module Sales Volume and Market Share by Players (2013-2018)3.3 United States E-Paper Module Sales Volume and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)3.4 United States E-Paper Module Sales Volume and Market Share by Application (2013-2018)Click here to avail discount on this reports @List of Tables and FiguresFigure Product Picture of E-Paper ModuleFigure Global E-Paper Module Sales Volume Comparison (K Units) by Type (2013-2025)Figure Global E-Paper Module Sales Volume Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 2017Figure Global E-Paper Module Sales Comparison (K Units) by Application (2013-2025)Figure Global Sales Market Share of E-Paper Module by Application in 2017Figure Global E-Paper Module Market Size (Million USD) by Regions (2013-2025)Figure United States E-Paper Module Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2025)Figure China E-Paper Module Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2025)Figure Europe E-Paper Module Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2025)Figure Japan E-Paper Module Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2025)Figure Southeast Asia E-Paper Module Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2025)About Us:QYResearchReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYResearchReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact Us:1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Medical Aesthetics Market Comprehensive Review of its Applications Growth Opportunities

https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/medical-aesthetics-market

https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/medical-aesthetics-market/report-sample

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Advancement in laser technology, growing awareness among consumers, and health benefits of medical aesthetics procedures have been driving the global medical aesthetics market.Access Detailed Report Summary at:The market is further expected to gain revenue due to shift in the preference from surgical to non-surgical procedures. There has been a significant growth in non-surgical medical spa procedures in the recent years, resulting from better technologies, such as intense pulsed light and advanced laser based aesthetics equipment.Download Report Sample at:The medical aesthetics market has witnessed number of mergers and acquisitions and strategic alliances recently. In December 2016, Allergan Plc. acquired LifeCell, a medicine company of Acelity L.P. Inc., for a cash consideration of $2.9 billion. The acquisition is expected to combine LifeCells business of regenerative medicines with Allergans medical aesthetics business. Allergan aims to strengthen its presence in regenerative medicine business with this acquisition. In April 2016, the company also acquired Topokine Therapeutics, a private company developing topical medicines for fat reduction, for a total consideration of $85.0 million. Topokine Therapeutics XAF5 is in late-stage development for the treatment of steatoblepharon.Make Enquiry Before Buying the Report:Some of the other key players in the market include Allergan Plc, Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc., ZELTIQ Aesthetics, Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Cutera Inc., Alma Lasers Ltd., Merz GmbH & Co. KGaA, Galderma S.A., Syneron Medical Ltd., Cynosure, Inc., Photomedex, Inc. and Lumenis Ltd.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:
Rapid Shape Rolls Out the New Generation of 3D Printers for the Hearing Aid Industry

Rapid Shape - New Generation of 3D Printers for the hearing aid industry

https://www.rapidshape.de/products/hearing.html

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1rdeuNtbjczQaLBZYlFjQj1T_oAU4bMhm

https://www.rapidshape.de/

The new Rapid Shape product family achieves outstanding times and high manufacturing capacity through the use of innovative technology at low acquisition cost.Heimsheim, 20.03.2018 With the second generation of the Studio-Line, Rapid Shape underlines its leading position in the professional use of 3D printers in hearing aid laboratories and shops. The automatic platform changer complements the high-speed, industrial-scale HA90 speed series and enables robust, automated processes at lowest unit costs. Optional remote maintenance contracts significantly reduce maintenance costs and ensure with medical device law compliant manufacturing processes.Rapid Shape, a leading global and innovative manufacturer of professional and customized 3D printers, today reveals its new generation of 3D printers for the hearing aid industry. With the new Studio-Line HA20 II, HA30 II and HA40 II Rapid Shape will shape the market for hearing acoustics shops and labs through innovative, patented technology. The Heavy-Duty-Line offers with the HA90 speed series and the automatic platform changer PFC a highly economical combination for the industrial continuous use.While the open system allows all printers flexible use of different materials, the Studio-Line is focused by low acquisition costs on beginners and shops up to medium-sized producers with fast turnaround times. The HA20 II creates several ear pieces in as little as 30 minutes, and thus enables a shop production. The HA30 II and HA40 II offer high productivity capacity. Feature of the HA30 II is the compact device dimension, while the HA40 II with a slightly larger building platform (150 x 85 mm) and additional technical functions can already be used by larger laboratories and producers.The 3D printers of the studio-line are offered with optional remote maintenance that ensure an annual renewal of the Biocompatibility Certificate according to the Medical Devices Directive. Modern remote technology ensures effective and professional service while maintenance cost is significantly reduced."The new Hearing printers make it quicker and easier than ever to produce professional and biocompatible hearing aid parts. Rapid Shape has worked closely with our customers and material partners to develop the new generation of 3D printers that meet and exceed current needs," says CEO Andreas Schultheiss. "Our optional remote maintenance is a win-win for customer, material partner and system manufacturer. The total costs could be reduced by up to 50% while preserving medical device directive compliant processes."The new models will be presented for the first time from 23rd to 25th March 2018 at the Congres des audioprothesistes, in Paris (France), a trade fair specialized in hearing acoustics.Digital images in high-resolution are available to illustrate this press release. They may only be used for editorial purposes.Download of Press Kit:About Rapid ShapeRapid Shape is a south Germany technology company in the field of generative rapid prototyping and rapid manufacturing systems, also called 3D printers. The company was founded by Andreas Schultheiss in 2011. Rapid Shape brings a new and patented generative technology to the market that is setting a new benchmark in speed and accuracy in the field of 3D manufacturing.Rapid Shape GmbHRoemerstrasse 2171296 HeimsheimSarah FaussMarketing+49 (0) 7033-309 878-24sarah.fauss@rapidshape.de
Semi-permanent Makeup Supplies at Quality Beauty Store

https://www.qualitybeautystore.com/product-category/spmu-micro-pigments/

Micropigmentation, also known as semi-permanent makeup is cosmetic tattooing, with coloured micro pigments being implanted into the upper the skin epidermis for the cosmetic or corrective purposes. It gives the appearance of makeup or a natural correction of missing hair, shape or pigment. Although this is an ancient technique, it is only recently that it has become a new trend in a makeup industry. Micropigmentation is well recommended for clients with sensitive skin. If for some reason, you have lost some of the facial features due to age, illness or any other negative influences, we would recommend micropigmentation to you. All semi permanent makeup supplies offered by Quality Beauty Store are of high standards and carefully tested.Semi permanent makeup supplies offered by Quality Beauty Store are currently as follows: Lip Micropigmentation  it is considered that ideal lips should not only be symmetrical but also enhancing as well as proportional. A new professional line of Luanes semi-permanent cosmetics allows client to build a beautiful shape of lips. A unique formulation of Luanes products provides safe pigmentation and long-lasting unchangeable colours. Eyebrow Micropigmentation  we are told that eyebrows are the most expressive part of our face. Likewise, as with lips, beautiful eyebrows must be symmetrical and proportional which will result in harmonically facial expression. Here at Quality Beauty Store, we offer Eyebrow Pigments in 12 colours of 10ml bottles.For your convenience we also have a loyalty scheme called QBS Rewards to thank our customers for their loyalty and build long-term relationships. If you spend 1 on our website you start earning points immediately. Earn 1 point per every 1 you spend in our store and redeem them on your future purchases at any time. Earn your first FREE 100 points by simply creating account with us!All the eyelash extensions products are used and acknowledged by leading masters and salons all over the world and are recommended for professional use only. If you need an advice on choosing the right eyelash extension dont hesitate to contact us and we will get in touch with you at the soonest possible time. For more information, please, visitQuality Beauty Store is an online store with accessories and products for eyelash extensions.Quality Beauty Store80 Sandringham Crescent, Leeds, LS17 8DF, UK+447780870708info@qualitybeautystore.comMihail
Global Donepezil Market Growth Forecast by 2023: Cipla, Eisai, Pfizer, Teva, Sandoz, Apotex, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Sun Pharmaceutical, Hansoh Pharma

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https://www.marketstudyreport.com/reports/global-donepezil-market-by-manufacturers-countries-type-and-application-forecast-to-2023/?utm_source=OPR-SP

https://www.marketstudyreport.com/reports/global-donepezil-market-research-report-2017/?utm_source=RR-SP

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The Donepezil Market Research Report Forecast 2018-2023 is a valuable source of insightful data for business strategists. It provides the Donepezil industry overview with growth analysis and historical & futuristic cost, revenue, demand and supply data (as applicable). The research analysts provide an elaborate description of the value chain and its distributor analysis.Donepezil is a medication used in the palliative treatment of Alzheimer's disease. Donepezil is used to improve cognition and behavior of people with Alzheimer's, but does not slow the progression of or cure the disease.Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Donepezil Market, especially in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, types and applications.Request for a Sample Copy of Donepezil Market Report @Donepezil Market Segment by Top Manufacturers Including:Eisai, Pfizer, Teva, Sandoz, Apotex, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Sun Pharmaceutical, Hansoh Pharma, Cipla, ARK PHA.LTD, Jishengtang Pharma and Luoxin.An inherent sub-vertical of the Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare Industry space, Donepezil market stands to gain remarkable proceeds over 2018-2023, as per a recently compiled report Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis covers:North America (United States, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Table of Contents:Global Donepezil Market OverviewGlobal Donepezil Market Manufacturers ProfilesGlobal Donepezil Market Competition, by ManufacturerGlobal Donepezil Market Analysis by RegionsGlobal Donepezil by CountriesGlobal Donepezil Market Segment by TypeGlobal Donepezil Market Segment by ApplicationDonepezil Market Forecast (2018-2023)Sales Channel, Distributors, Traders and DealersResearch Findings and ConclusionMarket Segment by Type, covers5mg, 10mg and 23mgMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided into:Hospitals, Clinics and DrugstoreThere are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Donepezil market.Chapter 1, to describe Donepezil Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Donepezil, with sales, revenue, and price of Donepezil, 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 Donepezil, 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, Donepezil market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2018 to 2023;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Donepezil sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceFor more information on this report, Please visit at:Related Reports: -Global Donepezil Market Research Report 2017In this report, the global Donepezil market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.More Report @Marketstudyreport.com allows you to manage and control all corporate research purchases to consolidate billing and vendor management. You can eliminate duplicate purchases and customize your content and license management.Market Study ReportThe Green Suite #4594,Dover, DE 19901United StatesPhone: 1-201-355-0868US Toll Free: 1-866-764-2150Email:sales@marketstudyreport.comWebsite:News:More Report at:
Global Aerospace Materials Market Composite Materials Are Expected to be the Major Driver for Aerospace Materials

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https://www.futuregenicreports.com/Reports/Aerospace-Materials-Market

"This report studies the Aerospace Materials market, Aerospace materials are materials, frequently metal alloys, that have either been developed for, or have come to prominence through, their use for aerospace purposes.Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Aerospace Materials 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.Industry HighlightsThe market for aerospace materials is anticipated to witness robust expansion due to the increment in passenger transportation. Increased passenger transport is estimated to boost the demand for aircraft. This, in turn, is projected to inadvertently augment the expansion of the aerospace materials market during the forecast period. In terms of material type, aluminum alloys segment held a prominent share of the market in 2017. The segment is projected to witness robust expansion in the near future due to its exceptional fatigue resistance and strength.However, the evolution of composite materials and their increasingdemand can act as a restraint for the expansion of the aluminum alloys segment of aerospace materials in the near future. In terms of aircraft type, the commercial aircraft segment held a significant share of the market in 2017. Increase in passenger transport is a key factor boosting the expansion of the commercial aircraft segment. Increasing air traffic is fueling the demand for commercial aircraft, which in turn is likely to propel the expansion of the aerospace materials market during the forecast period.Request Sample Report @Composite materials are the most preferred type of aerospace materials. Composite materials are the most extensively used type segment of the aerospace materials after aluminum. Composite materials are formed by combining two or more distinct materials to achieve superior properties, of which one is a binding material, known as the matrix and the other is a reinforcement material, generally a fiber. The wide use of composites in aerospace materials offer several advantages over traditional materials, such as low weight, increased manufacturing productivity (processing speeds), lower VOC emissions, and better corrosion resistance, among others. Increasing applications in new generation aircraft and rising environmental concerns offer significant growth opportunities for composites in the aircraft manufacturing industry.Top Industry PlayersAlcoa, Rio Tinto Alcan, Kaiser Aluminum, Aleris,Rusal, Constellium, AMI Metals, Arcelor Mittal, Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal, Nucor Corporation, Baosteel Group, Thyssenkrupp Aerospace, Kobe Steel, Materion, VSMPO-AVISMA, Toho Titanium, BaoTi, Precision Castparts Corporation, Aperam, VDM, Carpenter, AMG, ATI Metals, Toray Industries, Cytec Solvay Group, Teijin Limited, Hexcel,TenCateMarket SegmentsMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis covers North America (United States, Canada and Mexico) Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy) Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia) South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia) Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, coversAluminum Alloys, Steel Alloys, Titanium Alloys, Super Alloys, CompositeMaterials, OthersMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoCommercial Aircraft, Military AircraftFor More Information @There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Aerospace Materials market. Chapter 1, to describe Aerospace Materials Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force; Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Aerospace Materials, with sales, revenue, and price of Aerospace Materials, in 2016 and 2017; Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017; Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Aerospace Materials, 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, Aerospace Materials market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2018 to 2023; Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Aerospace Materials sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source"About UsFuture Generic Reports is a market research and consulting organization, offering premium collection of market research reports, custom research and consulting services to corporations, no-profit organizations and government institutions across the globe.The wide range of information is presented by a team of well-trained researchers of specific sectors through exhaustive research. We deliver premier market research services that cover all industry verticals, including chemicals and material, automotive, healthcare, electronics & semiconductor, food and beverage, pharmaceuticals and technology and media.We believe in building an eternal bond with our clients through offering them inclusive research study meeting their specific requirements. 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 UsFuture Genic ReportsUSA Office244, Madison AvenueNew York City, NY - 10016United StatesToll Free +1- 844-445-2861Email: sales@futuregenicreports.com
Scar Industry - Granular Market Report and Review, H2 2017

http://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/1773619-scar-pipeline-review-h2-2017

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/1773619-scar-pipeline-review-h2-2017

OverviewA scar is a permanent patch of skin that grows over a wound. Scars occur at the site of tissue damage and appear as firm red to purple fibrous tissue that over time usually becomes flatter and lighter in color.Click here for sample report @Report HighlightsThe Pharmaceutical and Healthcare latest pipeline guide Scar - Pipeline Review, H2 2017, provides comprehensive information on the therapeutics under development for Scar (Dermatology), complete with analysis by stage of development, drug target, mechanism of action (MoA), route of administration (RoA) and molecule type. The guide covers the descriptive pharmacological action of the therapeutics, its complete research and development history and latest news and press releases.The Scar (Dermatology) pipeline guide also reviews of key players involved in therapeutic development for Scar and features dormant and discontinued projects. The guide covers therapeutics under Development by Companies /Universities /Institutes, the molecules developed by Companies in Phase II, Phase I, Preclinical and Discovery stages are 5, 2, 13 and 1 respectively. Similarly, the Universities portfolio in Preclinical stages comprises 3 molecules, respectively.Major Scope of the report:- The pipeline guide provides a snapshot of the global therapeutic landscape of Scar (Dermatology).- The pipeline guide reviews pipeline therapeutics for Scar (Dermatology) by companies and universities/research institutes based on information derived from company and industry-specific sources.- The pipeline guide covers pipeline products based on several stages of development ranging from pre-registration till discovery and undisclosed stages.- The pipeline guide features descriptive drug profiles for the pipeline products which comprise, product description, descriptive licensing and collaboration details, R&D brief, MoA & other developmental activities.- The pipeline guide reviews key companies involved in Scar (Dermatology) therapeutics and enlists all their major and minor projects.- The pipeline guide evaluates Scar (Dermatology) therapeutics based on mechanism of action (MoA), drug target, route of administration (RoA) and molecule type.Table of ContentsList of TablesList of FiguresIntroductionGlobal Markets Direct Report CoverageScar - OverviewScar - Therapeutics DevelopmentPipeline OverviewPipeline by CompaniesPipeline by Universities/InstitutesProducts under Development by CompaniesProducts under Development by Universities/InstitutesScar - Therapeutics AssessmentAssessment by TargetAssessment by Mechanism of ActionAssessment by Route of AdministrationAssessment by Molecule TypeScar - Companies Involved in Therapeutics DevelopmentAbzena PlcAlbireo Pharma IncAltacor LtdBeech Tree Labs IncBirchBioMed IncBLR Bio LLCClanotech ABEscape Therapeutics Inc.ContinuedFor Detailed Reading Please visit @Wise Guy Reports understand how essential statistical surveying information is for your organization or association. Therefore, we have associated with the top publishers and research firms all specialized in specific domains, ensuring you will receive the most reliable and up to date research data available. We also provide COTS (Commercial off the Shelf) business sector reports as custom exploration agreeing your particular needs.WISEGUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, India
Global Document Imaging Market, Demand, Sales Revenue, Industry Growth, Market Size, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025

MRRSE

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https://www.mrrse.com/document-imaging-market

https://www.mrrse.com/

https://www.industrynewsanalysis.com/

Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) has been acting as an impressive data source when it comes to evaluating various industrial verticals. The research report titled Document Imaging Market offers a clear insight about the "IT" assessed over the global platform. This analysis proves beneficial for readers & new investors who are aiming to enter the market for IT in the near future.Get Free Sample Report @Document imaging solutions use tools such as scanners, printers, software, and camerato digitize a document. It is a key feature for any business entity as the document imaging process is used for better speed and agility in work stations. Improved and advanced efficiencies lead to a competitive improvement and better customer satisfaction.The document imaging market is gaining popularity due to several benefits to organizations such as cost effectiveness, increasing efficiency, risk reduction of losing documents in transit.The document imaging market is segmented on the bases of three categories: by service, component, and end use. In terms of service, the market for document imaging is segmented into cloud and on-premises. By component, the market is segmented into software and hardware. Hardware component segment can be further bifurcated into scanners, printers, microfilm, readers and others. In terms of end use, the document imaging market is segmented into government organizations, law firms, physician practice, and educational institutions among others.The installation of document imaging has dramatically changed due to the rising installation of cloud based document imaging solutions. Cloud deployment is becoming a critical and flexible part of an organization, for storing data and to expedite workflows. Information technology departments are expanding their cloud budgets for its numerous benefits. Quality document-management systems are available on the cloud since the last few years. Almost every business entity has started installing cloud as the most modern deployment solution to store important data. Organizations are always very careful about storing critical documents in a cloud environment, and recently increasing importance of cloud deployment is fueling growth of the document imaging market which is expected to see significant growth during the forecast period.The impact of this driver is medium in recent times and is expected to be high during the forecast period. However, Core printing companies are looking for diversification for higher profit generation. Many dealers are trying to expand their business by offering new products and services. In addition, rising competition in the MPS (managed printing service) industry is encouraging dealers to diversify or invest in other business entities. Although, cost cutting and decreasing price trends are attracting existing dealers and new entities to invest in this industry. Therefore, demand for documents imaging is expected to be high during the forecast period.The impact of this restraint is medium in the current phase and is expected to be high during the forecast period.Additionally, considering the growth in population and rapid urbanization in several emerging economies, there is an increased demand for digitalized documents. The growth of document imaging is strongly correlated to urbanization, which is compelling government organization, law firms, educational institutions and industries to emphasize on this technology.Such demand for document imaging can be expected to offer good growth opportunities for this market. In addition, there are various research initiatives undertaken by different companies worldwide to develop document imaging into more versatile products. More advanced products and awareness among target customers are expected to drive future opportunities in the document imaging market both in developed and developing nations. Hence, the customer base is expected to grow, creating a larger market for future businesses.Currently, people are more focused on print and less on digitalized paper. Paper work or printing work is more time consuming; therefore, most SMBs (small medium business) pay interest on digitalized paper scanning technology. Growing trend of document scanning or photocopying in recent times is predicted to be an opportunity for the document imaging market.The global market of document imaging report provides company market share analysis of the various key participants. Key players have also been profiled on the basis of company overview. Global key participants of the document imaging market include Fujitsu Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan), Hewlett-Packard Company (California, U.S.), Canon Inc. (Tokyo, Japan), Kodak Alaris (Hemel Hempstead, U.K.), Xerox Corporation (Connecticut, U.S.), Qorus Software (Pty) Ltd (Cape Town, South Africa), CBSL Group (Delhi, India), Epson America (California, U.S.), Aramex (Dubai, U.A.E) and Newgen Software Technologies Ltd (Delhi, India) among others.Outlook Complete Report with TOC @Global Smart Grid Security market can be segmented as follows;-Global Document Imaging Market, by ServiceCloudOn-PremisesGlobal Document Imaging Market, by ComponentSoftwareHardwareScanningPrintingMicrofilm ReadersOthersGlobal Document Imaging Market, by End UseGovernment OrganizationLaw FirmsPhysician PracticesEducational InstitutionOthersGlobal Document Imaging Market, by Geography: The market is broadly segmented on the basis of geography into:North AmericaU.S.Rest of North AmericaEuropeU.KGermanyFranceItalyRest of EuropeAsia PacificChinaIndiaJapanRest of APACMiddle East and AfricaSouth AfricaRest of Middle East & AfricaLatin AmericaBrazilRest of Latin AmericaAbout Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE)Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Market Research Reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.Contact UsState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United States Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:Read More Industry News At:
Global Wound Care Product Market 2018- Expected To Reach a Value of $21.79 Billion at a CAGR of Around 5.9% Over Four-Year Period

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Market HighlightsThe products available in the market for global wound care are designed to treat mostly complex wounds. Surgical wound care products are used to heal the surgical wounds, mainly the infectious ones contracted in the hospital. The advanced wound care products are used to treat both acute and chronic wounds. The global wound care market is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 5.9% over four-year period to reach a value of $21.79 billion by Forecast 2022.The average incidence of chronic wounds is 0.78% of the population with the prevalence range being 0.18% to 0.32%. Region-wise, North America constitutes the highest share of the wound healing products market worldwide.There are various divisions within the wound care market, but the advanced wound care market is the fastest-growing segment globally. It is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.3% between FY 2017 and FY 2022.Request Sample Report @Wound Care Product Market Key Growth FactorsThe wound care market is predicted to witness a high growth rate owing to the rise in the geriatric population, surge in lifestyle diseases, advancement of new technology, developments in the wound care research area for advanced wound care products and the rising awareness about these products among consumers.Factors such as a rise in disposable income, better access to improved healthcare and an increasing awareness about affordable advanced wound therapies are expected to support the growth of advanced wound dressing market globally. Additionally, by the end user division, home healthcare is the fastest growing segment due to the significant rise in the aged population.Threats and key playersSome of the major players in the wound care industry are Smith & Nephew, Acelity L. P. Inc., Molnlycke Health Care AB, 3M, ConvaTec Group Plc, Coloplast Group, etc.Although the global wound care market is expected to experience progressive growth, the high cost of the wound care products, especially the advanced ones, hinders the growth of the market. There is also a lack of experts or trained healthcare professionals who can use these new advanced technologies.Additionally, the average price of the wound care products is expensive. Certain markets are price sensitive, and hence the acceptance of such products is comparatively less. The complex regulatory process also restricts the wound care penetration.For More Information @Whats covered in the report? Overview of the Global Wound Care Market Historical, current and forecasted market size data for Surgical Wound Care, Advanced Wound Care, Traditional Wound Care, Chronic Wound Care, Acute Wound Care, Hospital & Specialty Wound Care Clinics, Long Term Care Facilities and Home Healthcare Historical, current and forecasted regional (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Middle East & Africa) market size data for Surgical Wound Care, Advanced Wound Care, Traditional Wound Care, Chronic Wound Care, Acute Wound Care, Hospital & Specialty Wound Care Clinics, Long Term Care Facilities and Home Healthcare Value Chain Analysis for the Wound Care Market Qualitative analysis of the major drivers and challenges affecting the Surgical Wound Care, Advanced Wound Care, Traditional Wound Care, Chronic Wound Care, Acute Wound Care, Hospital & Specialty Wound Care Clinics, Long Term Care Facilities and Home Healthcare Analysis of the competitive landscape and profiles of major players operating in the market Key recent developments in the Surgical Wound Care, Advanced Wound Care, Traditional Wound Care, Chronic Wound Care, Acute Wound Care, Hospital & Specialty Wound Care Clinics, Long Term Care Facilities and Home Healthcare Market Trends in Surgical Wound Care, Advanced Wound Care, Traditional Wound Care, Chronic Wound Care, Acute Wound Care, Hospital & Specialty Wound Care Clinics, Long Term Care Facilities and Home HealthcareAbout UsFuture Generic Reports is a market research and consulting organization, offering premium collection of market research reports, custom research and consulting services to corporations, no-profit organizations and government institutions across the globe.The wide range of information is presented by a team of well-trained researchers of specific sectors through exhaustive research. We deliver premier market research services that cover all industry verticals, including chemicals and material, automotive, healthcare, electronics & semiconductor, food and beverage, pharmaceuticals and technology and media.We believe in building an eternal bond with our clients through offering them inclusive research study meeting their specific requirements. 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 UsFuture Genic ReportsUSA Office244, Madison AvenueNew York City, NY - 10016United StatesToll Free +1- 844-445-2861Email: sales@futuregenicreports.com
Global Floating Production Systems Market - Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Revenue Growth, Trends and Forecast to 2019

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Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) has been acting as an impressive data source when it comes to evaluating various industrial verticals. The research report titled Floating Production Systems Market offers a clear insight about the "Transportation" assessed over the global platform. This analysis proves beneficial for readers & new investors who are aiming to enter the market for Transportation in the near future.Get Free Sample Copy of Report @A new market research report published titled Floating Production Systems Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast, 2013 - 2019, presents a detailed overview of the floating production systems market, its growth drivers and restraints, as well as its segmentation. Analyzing the market for developmental trends of the past, the report also presents a forecast of the markets state over the years between 2013 and 2019. As per the report, the global floating production systems market, which was valued in 2012 at US$12.6 bn, is expected to expand and reach a value of US$38.7 bn by 2019.As per the report, deep water discoveries and increase in subsea drilling activities in the oil and gas industry in the Asia Pacific and Rest of the World have boosted the market for floating production systems. As per the statistics mentioned in the report, the Rest of the World market led the global floating production systems market in 2012, with the highest contribution in revenue. Additionally, Rest of the World has the highest demand for floating production systems, and will continue to dominate the market in the forecast period. However, factors such as tedious maintenance of these systems and the high installation costs of the systems could curb the growth of the floating production systems market.There are primarily four types of products marketed under floating production systems: FSO, SPAR, TLP, and FPSO, out of which FPSO is expected to rule the market for floating production systems, since several companies use FPSO to extract crude oil or for offshore drilling activities. Since multiple tasks can be performed by FPSOs, it is the most preferred choice for the offshore drilling sector. Both FSO and FPSO help in reducing the operational costs by eliminating the need for pipeline infrastructure to transport the crude oil from one place to another.TLP and SPAR are used in case the drilling site experiences high waves, causing huge vibrations, thus proving to be a hindrance in drilling operations. The use of SPAR and TLP helps eliminate these kind of vibrations, making the drilling operation smoother and efficient for a long time. Major utilization of TLP and SPAR is done in Africa and Brazil, due to the large number of drilling activities carried out in these regions. Moreover, the report forecasts that over 80 offshore drilling projects will be carried out in these regions in the coming years, thus propelling the market for SPAR and TLP.Since a large number of oil reserves in Europe are located in offshore regions such as the Norwegian Sea and the Barents Sea, steady growth of the floating production systems market is expected in these regions. Due to the growing population and heavy industrialization, Asia Pacific and North America are anticipated to witness growth of the market for floating production systems.Some of the major companies listed in the report are Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. Ltd, Bumi Armada Berhad, Malaysia Marine and Heavy Engineering Berhad, Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd, SBM Offshore N.V., Samsung Heavy Industries Co. Ltd, Teekay Corporation, Technip S.A., and Worley Parsons Limited.Download Complete Report with TOC @The report segments the floating production systems market as:Floating Production Systems Market: End-user AnalysisFPSOTLPSPARFSOFloating Production Systems Market: Regional AnalysisNorth AmericaEuropeAsia PacificRest of the World (RoW)About Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE)Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Market Research Reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.Contact UsState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United States Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:Read More Industry News At:
Abrasive Wheels Industry Growing at a CAGR of 6.1% to 2025 Featuring 3M, Saint-Gobain, SuperAbrasives, DSA Products, Andre Abrasive Articles, DEERFOS

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The market for abrasive wheels is at its growing phase in many developing countries owing to its applications in wide range of industries. The market is further expected to flourish in North America and Europe with the growing demand and production of automotive in this regions. Global abrasive wheels market is expected to grow from US$ 10,280.8 million in 2017 to US$ 16,400.0 million by 2025 growing at a CAGR of 6.1% from 2018 to 2025. One of the key factor propelling the market growth for abrasive wheels is the rapid growth in automotive industry and increase in the demand for higher finished parts. Further, increase in research & development activities is fostering the growth of the market.FREE | Request Sample Copy is Available atThe report focuses on in-depth segmentation of this market based by product, material type, and regions. 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 (SA). The regional market has been further bifurcated by respective countries. By product, bonded abrasive wheels accounted for the largest share of the abrasive wheels market in 2017, whereas Europe region is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period.The report aims to provide an overview of global abrasive wheels market with detailed market segmentation. Also, it analyzes the current abrasive wheels 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 along with the SWOT analysis for all company profiled in the report.Inquire for Detail Facts and Figures atAsia-Pacific is one of the prominent regions in abrasive wheels market which is contributing highest revenue globally due to rapid growth in industrial sector, increase in urbanization, and availability of economical labor. Substantial growth in vehicle production in Europe and presence of wide range of companies is also propelling the market for abrasive wheels market. Also, Europe region is expected to grow with highest CAGR during the forecast period, with Germany contributing the major share,Some of the major players operating in the market include 3M Company, Saint-Gobain, Super Abrasives, Noritake, Klingspor Abrasives, DSA Products Ltd., Andre Abrasive Articles, Deerfos, Camel Grinding Wheels, and Tyrolit Group.Access Complete Report With TOC and Company Profiles 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,Amanora Township, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccines Market 2018: Merck, GSK, Walvax

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report Global Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccines Market Research Report 2018 to its huge collection of research reports.The global Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccines market is carefully examined in the report compiled with the use of latest research methodologies and up-to-date data. The researchers who have penned this report are experts in the subject and possess sound knowledge about the market. Moreover, they have immense experience in market research and analysis. The report is divided into different parts such as overview, research methodology, market dynamics (drivers, restraints, trends, and opportunities), regional segmentation, and competitive landscape. With the help of this report, readers could gain strong understanding about how the market could progress in the near future.Download Free exclusive Sample of this report:Each significant region of the global Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccines market is extensively evaluated by the report authors with a view to help readers know about lucrative prospects available in different parts of the world. All of the regions studied in the report are compared based on their revenue earning and market share on year-on-year (Y-o-Y) basis. This may help players to focus on important regions of the market and change or improve their business strategies accordingly. The report is considered to be a broad study of the market where players could learn about various aspects of the competitive landscape and how they could cement their position in the industry.The researchers profile some of the prominent names in the industry that the global Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccines market belongs to. Company profiles include recent developments, market shares, revenue, and other vital factors of the players assessed in the report. The analysts have also evaluated the nature of the competitive landscape so that readers could adjust their strategies for future competition in the market.Table of ContentsGlobal Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccines Market Research Report 20181 Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccines Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccines1.2 Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccines Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccines Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccines Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 2-Valent Vaccine1.2.4 4-Valent Vaccine1.3 Global Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccines Segment by Application1.3.1 Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccines Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2013-2025)1.3.2 Research & Academic Laboratories1.3.3 Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology Companies1.3.4 Others2 Global Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccines Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccines Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.1 Global Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccines Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.2 Global Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccines Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.2 Global Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccines Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.3 Global Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccines Average Price by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.4 Manufacturers Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccines Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type3 Global Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccines Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2013-2018)4 Global Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccines Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2013-2018)5 Global Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccines Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type5.1 Global Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccines Production and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)5.2 Global Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccines Revenue and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)5.3 Global Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccines Price by Type (2013-2018)5.4 Global Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccines Production Growth by Type (2013-2018)6 Global Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccines Market Analysis by Application6.1 Global Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccines Consumption and Market Share by Application (2013-2018)6.2 Global Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccines Consumption Growth Rate by Application (2013-2018)6.3 Market Drivers and Opportunities6.3.1 Potential Applications6.3.2 Emerging Markets/CountriesRead Complete Table of Content @List of Tables and FiguresFigure Picture of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) VaccinesFigure Global Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccines Production (K Units) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Types (Product Category) (2013-2025)Figure Global Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccines Production Market Share by Types (Product Category) in 2017Figure Product Picture of 2-Valent VaccineTable Major Manufacturers of 2-Valent VaccineFigure Product Picture of 4-Valent VaccineTable Major Manufacturers of 4-Valent VaccineFigure Global Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccines Consumption (K Units) by Applications (2013-2025)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
Atopic Dermatitis Industry Professional Survey And Pipeline Review H2 2017

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https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/1773621-seborrhea-pipeline-review-h2-2017

OverviewSeborrhea is form of skin eczema that mainly affects scalp, ears, face, chest, and folds of skin. Symptoms include skin flakes, red skin, itching and skin lesions. Risk factors include stress or fatigue, skin acne and obesity. Treatment includes antifungal medications.Click here for sample report @Report HighlightsThe Pharmaceutical and Healthcare latest pipeline guide Seborrhea - Pipeline Review, H2 2017, provides comprehensive information on the therapeutics under development for Seborrhea (Dermatology), complete with analysis by stage of development, drug target, mechanism of action (MoA), route of administration (RoA) and molecule type. The guide covers the descriptive pharmacological action of the therapeutics, its complete research and development history and latest news and press releases.The Seborrhea (Dermatology) pipeline guide also reviews of key players involved in therapeutic development for Seborrhea and features dormant and discontinued projects. The guide covers therapeutics under Development by Companies /Universities /Institutes, the molecules developed by Companies in Pre-Registration, Phase II, Preclinical and Discovery stages are 1, 2, 1 and 2 respectively.Major Scope of the report:- The pipeline guide provides a snapshot of the global therapeutic landscape of Seborrhea (Dermatology).- The pipeline guide reviews pipeline therapeutics for Seborrhea (Dermatology) by companies and universities/research institutes based on information derived from company and industry-specific sources.- The pipeline guide covers pipeline products based on several stages of development ranging from pre-registration till discovery and undisclosed stages.- The pipeline guide features descriptive drug profiles for the pipeline products which comprise, product description, descriptive licensing and collaboration details, R&D brief, MoA & other developmental activities.- The pipeline guide reviews key companies involved in Seborrhea (Dermatology) therapeutics and enlists all their major and minor projects.- The pipeline guide evaluates Seborrhea (Dermatology) therapeutics based on mechanism of action (MoA), drug target, route of administration (RoA) and molecule type.Table of ContentsList of TablesList of FiguresIntroductionGlobal Markets Direct Report CoverageSeborrhea - OverviewSeborrhea - Therapeutics DevelopmentPipeline OverviewPipeline by CompaniesProducts under Development by CompaniesSeborrhea - Therapeutics AssessmentAssessment by TargetAssessment by Mechanism of ActionAssessment by Route of AdministrationAssessment by Molecule TypeSeborrhea - Companies Involved in Therapeutics DevelopmentAclaris Therapeutics IncAmorepacific CorpBiomar Microbial TechnologiesEpiPharm AGVyome Biosciences Pvt LtdSeborrhea - Drug Profilesartemether - Drug ProfileProduct Description.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
Footwear 2018 Global Market Analysis by Manufacturers, Trends, Segmentation and Opportunities Forecast to 2022

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SummaryGlobal Footwear 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.SynopsisEssential resource for top-line data and analysis covering the global footwear market. Includes market size and segmentation data, textual and graphical analysis of market growth trends and leading companies.GET SAMPLE REPORT @Key Highlights- The footwear market consists of the total revenues generated through the sale of all types of men's, women's and children's shoes. It includes all footwear categories for men, women, boys and girls, but excludes sports-specific footwear.- The market is valued at retail selling price with any currency conversions calculated using constant annual average 2016 exchange rates.- The global footwear market is expected to generate total revenues of $314,649.9m in 2017, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.5% between 2013 and 2017.- Italy has the second largest footwear market in Europe after Germany, which is largely thanks to the countrys tradition of producing fashionable footwear.- As one of the more mature markets globally, the US footwear market has not and is unlikely to witness strong growth on par with levels seen in some Asia-Pacific countries, such as China or India. However, the market has been positively impacted by improving macroeconomic conditions, including falling unemployment levels and rising wages.Scope- Save time carrying out entry-level research by identifying the size, growth, major segments, and leading players in the global footwear market- Use the Five Forces analysis to determine the competitive intensity and therefore attractiveness of the global footwear market- Leading company profiles reveal details of key footwear market players global operations and financial performance- Add weight to presentations and pitches by understanding the future growth prospects of the global footwear market with five year forecastsReasons to buy- What was the size of the global footwear market by value in 2017?- What will be the size of the global footwear market in 2022?- What factors are affecting the strength of competition in the global footwear market?- How has the market performed over the last five years?- What are the main segments that make up the global footwear market?Table of Content: Key PointsEXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2Market value 2Market value forecast 2Category segmentation 2Geography segmentation 2Introduction 33What is this report about? 33Who is the target reader? 33How to use this report 33Definitions 33Global Footwear 34Market Overview 34Market Data 35Market Segmentation 36Market outlook 39Five forces analysis 40Footwear in Asia-Pacific 48Market Overview 48Market Data 49Market Segmentation 50Market outlook 53Five forces analysis 54Footwear in Europe 61Market Overview 61Market Data 62Market Segmentation 63Market outlook 66Five forces analysis 67Footwear in France 75Market Overview 75ContinuedACCESS REPORT @Get in touch:LinkedIn:Twitter:Facebook: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.WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, India
Antimicrobial Packaging Market 2018 -2022 Major Key Players BASF SE., The Dow Chemical Company, Mondi Plc, PolyOne Corporation, Biocote Limited

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Uflex has developed flexible packaging material with anti-microbial properties. The special properties of the FDA approved packaging material keep the pouch active by scavenging microbial growth thereby enhancing the shelf life of the cooked food packed inside are some of the prominent players profiled in MRFR Analysis and are at the forefront of competition in the Global Antimicrobial Packaging Market.Global Antimicrobial Packaging Market - OverviewThe antimicrobial packaging is the largest segment in the packaging industry. The antimicrobial packaging solutions offer benefits such as maintaining the quality of the products, increasing the shelf-life of the commodity, and keeping them fresh. The Global Antimicrobial Packaging Market is growing with the rapid pace; mainly due to the growth in packaged food industries. Increase in consumer income in countries such as China, India, and Brazil, have led to growth in demand for good-quality packaged food.Request Report Sample @According to a recent study report published by the Market Research Future, The global market of Antimicrobial Packaging is booming and expected to gain prominence over the forecast period. The global Antimicrobial Packaging market is forecasted to demonstrate an exponential growth by 2023, surpassing its previous growth records in terms of value with a whooping, CAGR of during the estimated period (2017  2023).Currently, rising awareness regarding consumer health and longer shelf life of products has resulted in increased usage for antimicrobial packaging products. Increasing demand for baked & confectionery products among consumers in developing regions are also expected to aid the market growth for antimicrobial packaging. However, fluctuating prices of raw materials is the factor may hamper the growth of the market.Global Antimicrobial Packaging Market - Competitive AnalysisGlobal Antimicrobial Packaging 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.Manufacturers operating in the market strive to deliver innovative solutions that improve the design and manufacturing processes of business around the world. Focusing upon the competitive edge, Antimicrobial Packaging manufacturers strive to develop products that can deliver optimal efficient, convenience and reliability. Utilizing their international and regional presence, these manufacturers assure their customers with the consistency in product & service quality. Manufacturers strive to develop their product portfolio with a wide range of Antimicrobial Packaging for every application.Industry NewsLINPAC Packaging, the leading food packaging company, which caters for the bakery, fresh produce, fast food and meat, fish and poultry sectors, has been working in partnership with several supplier companies to develop a range of antimicrobial tray and film solutions, which reduce spoilage and increase the shelf life of food by inhibiting the growth of bacteria, moulds and yeast.Uflex has developed flexible packaging material with anti-microbial properties. The special properties of the FDA approved packaging material keep the pouch active by scavenging microbial growth thereby enhancing the shelf life of the cooked food packed inside.Early Buyers Can Get This Report at Discount @Antimicrobial Packaging Market - SegmentationGlobal Antimicrobial Packaging Market is segmented in to three key dynamics for an easy grasp and enhanced understanding.Segmentation:On the basis of materials, the market has been segmented as Plastic, Paper & Paperboard and others. Plastic dominates the material segment of the market. Plastic is one of the most widely used material used for packaging across various end-use industries. Plastic in the form of PVC, PE, PP, PET, and others are used extensively in packaging segment. The material offers high barrier, cost efficient, temperature resistance and durable packaging options. paper & paperboard is also the major material. Paper-based packaging is a versatile and cost-efficient method to transport, protect and preserve a wide array of itemsBased on types, the market has been segmented into Bags, Pouches, Carton packages and others. Pouches is expected to be the fastest-growing type in the antimicrobial packaging market as it can be used to pack various types of products belonging to different industries. Pouches are available in different types such as stand-up pouches, retort pouches, and pillow pouches.On the basis of application, the market has been segmented into Food & beverages, Healthcare, Personal Care, and others. Food and beverages are the major applications of the market. Demand for ready-to-eat and on-the-go foods and drinks continues to grow. With increase in the consumption of processed food will increase the demand of the market. Personal Care is also is also the major application of the market.Segmentation by Regions: Comprises Geographical regions - North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Rest of the World.Global Antimicrobial Packaging Market - Regional AnalysisEurope dominates the global Antimicrobial Packaging market. The U.K., Germany and France dominate the Antimicrobial Packaging market in Europe. Growing demand for consumer goods and packaged foods is expected to spur market growth.Asia Pacific region expected to grow at the fastest pace during the forecast period. Increasing number of working women, migration of people from urban to rural areas, and rise in disposable income in emerging economies, are the factors that fuel the demand of packaged food. In Asia-Pacific region, China, India, Malaysia, and Indonesia are major markets for antimicrobial Packaging. China accounted for the largest share in Asia pacific region mainly due to strong economic growth.Brief Toc:1. Executive Summary2. Research Methodology3. Market Dynamics4. Global Market, By Packaging Type5. Global Market, By Technology6. Global Market, By Application7. Global Market, By End-user8. Regional Market Analysis9. Competitive Analysis10. Conclusion11. List Of Tables12. List Of FiguresAsk for your specific company profile and country level customization on reports.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.ContactMarket Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Scintillators Industry to Grow at a CAGR of 6.5% to 2025 - Values Business at Over US$ 609.4 Mn

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The scintillators market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 6.5% during the forecast period from 2018 to 2025. The market for scintillators is estimated to reach US$ 609.4 Mn by 2025. The market for scintillators is witnessing a healthy growth rate over the period currently, and is foreseen to soar in the coming years.The scintillators are chemical composition of organic or inorganic substances that exhibit luminescence when excited by any ionized radiation. In the recent years, the demand for scintillators and scintillation detectors are significantly growing among various industries such as medical & healthcare, oil & gas, nuclear power plants, research labs & general engineering industries, homeland security, high energy physics labs and others. Some of the key factors for the upsurge of scintillators across industries in the developed countries and developing countries include constant innovation of advanced technologies, governmental initiatives in various countries, rising funding for research & development among private organizations, and development of technologically enriched products at a low cost. Moreover, the established and emerging companies operating in the field of scintillators are investing substantial amounts and time to research and innovate advanced scintillator & detectors in order to offer the end users with robust products.Get Sample Copy of this Report atIn our study, we have segmented the scintillators market by material composition, industries, end products and geography. The two types of material compositions considered in this research study includes organic scintillators and inorganic scintillators. The organic scintillators segment is further segmented into single crystal scintillators, liquid scintillators, and plastic scintillators. Both the organic and inorganic scintillators have wide range of applications in research & industrial, medical & healthcare, oil & gas, nuclear power plants and others. The various types of end products include fixed end products and portable end products. Geographically, the market for scintillators is categorized as North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APC), Middle East and Africa (MEA) and South America (SAM).The scintillators market consists of well-established players and tier 2 & tier 3 companies across the globe. In the recent years, these companies have been investing huge amounts in research and development to provide the customers with high end technology and to meet their demands. Several companies in the market are looking forward to expand their business location or distribution channel for better business growth. Formulation of such approaches gives companies to compete in the market, as the market is highly competitive with of large number of players. Most of the companies are focusing on strategic planning to expand its footprints and to cope with the demand generated by their clients.Get Complete Report atThe scintillators market is well developed market in North America region, especially in the US and Canada. This is due to continuous investments by governments & various private organizations to innovate and develop enhanced scintillators. The increasing environmental monitoring concerns and border security are other prominent factors propelling the scintillator manufacturers to research and develop robust scintillating detectors. The advanced scintillators or scintillating detectors facilitate in easy detection, monitoring & measurement of radioactive rays, thus helping to maintain a sustainable environment.The major players operating in the field of scintillators includes Radiation Monitoring Devices Inc., Canberra Industries, Hamamatsu Photonics K.K., Hitachi Metals Inc., Ladlum Measurements Inc., Rexon Components and TDL Systems Inc., Scintacor Ltd., Zecotek Photonics Inc., Detect and Epic Crystals among others. In addition, various other companies are researching on different technologies to improve the scintillators in order to provide high end radiation detection technologies to various industries.Inquire about this 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,Amanora Township, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
PET Packaging Market : USD 75.4 Billion at CAGR of 5.6% - Forecast to 2022

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Market Research Future published a half Cooked research report on Global PET Packaging Market Research Report - Forecast to 2023  Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2023Amcor Limited, Berry Plastic Group Inc., Graham Packaging, CCL Industries Inc., E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company Smurfit Kappa Group PLC, Gerresheimer AG, Huhtamaki Group, KG Resilux NV, Klockner Pentaplast Company and, GTX Hanex Plastic Sp. z o.o are some of the prominent players profiled in MRFR Analysis and are at the forefront of competition in the Global PET Packaging Market.PET Packaging Market OverviewPET packaging market is driven by various factors such as its increase in demand from food & beverage and pharmaceutical industry. The increase in government policies regarding the food safety regulations is also driving the growth of the market. Food & Beverage industry has adopted PET packaging extensively across the world due to the some additional functionalities such as retention of integrity of a product and prevent food spoilage, enhance product attributes such as look, taste, and aroma, along with increased shelf life.Request Report Sample @The growth of pharmaceutical industry on a global level has induced the demand of PET packaging. The rise in the income especially for the lower income level, along with the government commitments for providing basic health facilities, is expected to drive the pharmaceutical market growth and increase the investment on PET packaging.The market for PET packaging is growing due to rise in demand of sustainable & recyclable packaging. The emerging economies such as India, South Africa, and Brazil offer great potential for the PET packaging market.PET packaging provides a wide range of benefits as compared to other forms of packaging which includes highest tensile strength of packaging polymers, good moisture and gas barrier and clear & translucent among others.PET Packaging Market Competitive AnalysisKey players adopted various strategies to retain and/or expand their market share. Key strategies followed by most companies within the global PET packaging market were new product developments. Extensive research in this market has brought to light that new product development and entering into strategic partnerships and collaboration are the key strategies adopted by the major players in the global PET packaging market. This strategy has been adopted to cater to the technological requirements of the PET packaging market for both rigid and flexible packaging segment. The market is highly technology driven across all applications and thus demands regular product innovation and increased investment in R&D. Furthermore the partnerships with other players across the supply chain ensures the expanding client base as well as the market share for the companies.Industry/ Innovation/ Related News:April 2017- Amcor Limited invested USD 7 million to open a bottle manufacturing plant in Paris, Texas. With this new manufacturing plant it is expected that the company will produce approximately 50 million hot-fillable PET bottles a year.February 2017- Gerresheimers first eco-friendly plastic containers for pharmaceutical and cosmetic applications is branded BioPack. It makes an excellent substitute for traditional PE and PET because it has the same properties, yet it is completely recyclable.October 2016- Polish plastic packaging manufacturer Plast-Box acquired local plastic packaging maker GTX Hanex Plastic sp. z o.o. from Luxembourg-based PET Packaging s.a.r.l.2016- Klockner Pentaplast Introduced New PET-Based Technology for Yogurt Packaging. clikPET embodies full polystyrene functionality, complemented by excellent gas and water vapor barrier properties, superior transport shock-resistance and the ability to bend and click. This achieves increased shelf-life up to 10 days, avoids cup breakage during distribution, helps the customers to reduce costs in a competitive environment.June 2014- Graham Packaging has been collaborating with Vandemoortele on a PET bottle for the new Reddy product range oils for cooking and baking. The bottle will be produced in 500ml and 800ml content.Early Buyers Can Get This Report at Discount @PET Packaging Market SegmentationThe PET Packaging Market can be segmented in to 3 key dynamics for the convenience of the report and enhanced understanding;Segmentation by Type - Rigid and FlexibleSegmentation by Product - Bottles & jars, Bags & pouches, Lids/caps & closures, Trays, and othersSegmentation by Application - Food & Beverage, Pharmaceuticals, Consumer goods, Personal care, and othersSegmentation by Regions: North America, Europe, APAC and Rest of the World.PET Packaging Market Regional AnalysisNorth America region is expected to dominate the Global PET packaging market. The region has witnessed increased investment in the R&D and product innovation as far as PET packaging is concerned. Furthermore, the stringent food safety policies in the countries of the U.S. and Canada drives the demand of PET packaging in the food & beverage sector.Europe region is expected to grow with the highest CAGR during the forecast period, owing to factors such as increased investment by the companies in the packaging of healthcare and pharmaceutical products. The region has witnessed tremendous growth in the medical sector. This has opened doors for PET packaging in the healthcare sector.Brief Toc:1. Executive Summary2. Research Methodology3. Market Dynamics4. Global Market, By Packaging Type5. Global Market, By Technology6. Global Market, By Application7. Global Market, By End-user8. Regional Market Analysis9. Competitive Analysis10. Conclusion11. List Of Tables12. List Of FiguresAsk for your specific company profile and country level customization on reports.More Information Available @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.ContactMarket Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Organic Electronics Materials 2018 Global Market Key Players - Sony, Sumitomo, BASF Forecast to 2023

Organic Electronics Materials Markets

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Description:Organic Electronics Materials-Global Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 offers a comprehensive analysis on Organic Electronics Materials industry, standing on the readers perspective, delivering detailed market data and penetrating insights. No matter the client is industry insider, potential entrant or investor, the report will provides useful data and information. Key questions answered by this report include:Worldwide and Regional Market Size of Organic Electronics Materials 2013-2017, and development forecast 2018-2023Main manufacturers/suppliers of Organic Electronics Materials worldwide, with company and product introduction, position in the Organic Electronics Materials marketMarket status and development trend of Organic Electronics Materials by types and applicationsCost and profit status of Organic Electronics Materials, and marketing statusMarket growth drivers and challengesRequest For Sample Report @The report segments the global Organic Electronics Materials market as:Global Organic Electronics Materials Market: Regional Segment Analysis (Regional Production Volume, Consumption Volume, Revenue and Growth Rate 2013-2023):North AmericaEuropeChinaJapanRest APACLatin AmericaGlobal Organic Electronics Materials Market: Type Segment Analysis (Consumption Volume, Average Price, Revenue, Market Share and Trend 2013-2023):Semiconductor MaterialsConductive MaterialsDielectric MaterialsSubstrate MaterialsOtherGlobal Organic Electronics Materials Market: Application Segment Analysis (Consumption Volume and Market Share 2013-2023; Downstream Customers and Market Analysis)DisplayOLED LightingOrganic PhotovoltaicSystem ComponentsOtherGlobal Organic Electronics Materials Market: Manufacturers Segment Analysis (Company and Product introduction, Organic Electronics Materials Sales Volume, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin):AU OptronicsSonySumitomoBASFMerckDuPontKoninklijke PhilipsBayer MaterialScienceH.C. STARCKLG DisplayAGC Seimi ChemicalHeliatekEvonikNovaledSamsung DisplayUniversal DisplayComplete Report Details @Table of ContentsChapter 1 Overview of Organic Electronics Materials1.1 Definition of Organic Electronics Materials in This Report1.2 Commercial Types of Organic Electronics Materials1.2.1 Semiconductor Materials1.2.2 Conductive Materials1.2.3 Dielectric Materials1.2.4 Substrate Materials1.2.5 Other1.3 Downstream Application of Organic Electronics Materials1.3.1 Display1.3.2 OLED Lighting1.3.3 Organic Photovoltaic1.3.4 System Components1.3.5 Other1.4 Development History of Organic Electronics Materials1.5 Market Status and Trend of Organic Electronics Materials 2013-20231.5.1 Global Organic Electronics Materials Market Status and Trend 2013-20231.5.2 Regional Organic Electronics Materials Market Status and Trend 2013-2023Chapter 2 Global Market Status and Forecast by Regions2.1 Market Development of Organic Electronics Materials 2013-20172.2 Production Market of Organic Electronics Materials by Regions2.2.1 Production Volume of Organic Electronics Materials by Regions2.2.2 Production Value of Organic Electronics Materials by Regions2.3 Demand Market of Organic Electronics Materials by Regions2.4 Production and Demand Status of Organic Electronics Materials by Regions2.4.1 Production and Demand Status of Organic Electronics Materials by Regions 2013-20172.4.2 Import and Export Status of Organic Electronics Materials by Regions 2013-2017Chapter 3 Global Market Status and Forecast by Types3.1 Production Volume of Organic Electronics Materials by Types3.2 Production Value of Organic Electronics Materials by Types3.3 Market Forecast of Organic Electronics Materials by TypesChapter 4 Global Market Status and Forecast by Downstream Industry4.1 Demand Volume of Organic Electronics Materials by Downstream Industry4.2 Market Forecast of Organic Electronics Materials by Downstream IndustryChapter 5 Market Driving Factor Analysis of Organic Electronics Materials5.1 Global Economy Situation and Trend Overview5.2 Organic Electronics Materials Downstream Industry Situation and Trend OverviewChapter 6 Organic Electronics Materials Market Competition Status by Major Manufacturers6.1 Production Volume of Organic Electronics Materials by Major Manufacturers6.2 Production Value of Organic Electronics Materials by Major Manufacturers6.3 Basic Information of Organic Electronics Materials by Major Manufacturers6.3.1 Headquarters Location and Established Time of Organic Electronics Materials Major Manufacturer6.3.2 Employees and Revenue Level of Organic Electronics Materials Major Manufacturer6.4 Market Competition News and Trend6.4.1 Merger, Consolidation or Acquisition News6.4.2 Investment or Disinvestment News6.4.3 New Product Development and LaunchChapter 7 Organic Electronics Materials Major Manufacturers Introduction and Market Data7.1 AU Optronics7.1.1 Company profile7.1.2 Representative Organic Electronics Materials Product7.1.3 Organic Electronics Materials Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of AU Optronics7.2 Sony7.2.1 Company profile7.2.2 Representative Organic Electronics Materials Product7.2.3 Organic Electronics Materials Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of Sony7.3 Sumitomo7.3.1 Company profile7.3.2 Representative Organic Electronics Materials Product7.3.3 Organic Electronics Materials Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of Sumitomo7.4 BASF7.4.1 Company profile7.4.2 Representative Organic Electronics Materials Product7.4.3 Organic Electronics Materials Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of BASF7.5 Merck7.5.1 Company profile7.5.2 Representative Organic Electronics Materials Product7.5.3 Organic Electronics Materials Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of MerckContinued.Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.Office No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028
Crop Sprayer Market 2018-2023 Global Key Players: Chafer Machinery Ltd, Zhejiang Ousen Machinery Co., Ltd, CNH Industrial, Bucher Industries

Crop Sprayer Market 2018

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Crop sprayer Market Share, Size, Trends, And Business Opportunity Analysis Report 2018 include historic data, with forecast data to 2022. Crop sprayer Market report is helpful for future strategy development, and to know about Market Drivers, Restraints, Opportunities, And Global market size, share, Growth, Trends, key players forecast to 2022Global Crop sprayer Market Information Report by Product (Fuel-based, Electric, and Hand-held), By Capacity (Ultra Low Volume Sprayers, Low Volume Sprayers, and High Volume Sprayers) and By Region - Forecast To 2022For More Business Insights on Crop sprayer Market @Chafer Machinery Ltd (U.K), Zhejiang Ousen Machinery Co., Ltd. (China), CNH Industrial (U.K), Bucher Industries (Switzerland), Deere & Company (U.S.), Taizhou Sunny Agricultural Machinery Co., Ltd. (China), Exel Industries (France), STIHL Holding AG & Co. KG (Germany), Hymatic Agro Equipment Pvt. Ltd (India) and ASPEE Group (India) are some of the prominent players profiled in MRFR Analysis and are at the forefront of competition in the Global Crop Sprayer Market.Crop Sprayer Market  OverviewSprayers are generally used for spraying insecticides and pesticides on crops and plants so as to control the diseases and pests. They are used in agriculture sector. Also they are used to spray in herbicides so as to control the micronutrients and weed for the crop growth.The market is driven by various factors such as growth in agriculture sector, farm mechanization and government initiatives. The increase in the productivity in the agriculture sector results in an increased use of crop sprayers. The government of U.S. has taken various initiatives so as to increase the production of the agriculture and prevent the crop from harmful pest and disease such as plant pest and disease programs. Farmers are moving from traditional technologies to new technologies in farming. The modernization in agriculture increases the productivity and per capita income. By adopting modern technology, farmers intend to use mechanized equipment. This will directly increase the crop sprayer market.The crop sprayer has various constraints that hinder the market such as non-repayment of loans and relative lack of awareness.Based on product, the market has been segmented as Fuel-based, electric, and Hand-held. Amongst these, the fuel based segment is expected to grow the highest. The fuel based crop sprayers run by use of conventional fuel such as diesel, gasoline and petrol. The sprayer consist of an integrated or external spray tank, a high pressure piston pump usually powered by petrol engine, a pressure regulating valve and a hose. The fuel based crop sprayers require expensive fuel and exhausts carbon dioxide as a pollutant that is harmful for the environment.Crop Sprayer Market  Competitive AnalysisThe key players adopted various strategies to retain and/or expand their market share. The key strategy followed by most companies within the global crop sprayer market is that of new product development. This strategy is widely adopted to strengthen their product portfolio and serve the customer better. In addition to this, merger & acquisition is another strategy adopted, extensively by the players to increase the market share and their client base.Some major players also adopted expansion as there key strategy. For instance, CNH Industrial extended Miller Nitro Sprayer distribution to Case IH. The expansion establishes a new distribution channel to serve customers and capitalizes on market share, as well as to help CNH Industrial in the art of product offering.Industry/ Innovation/ Related News:Dec 2016- New Holland Agriculture has introduced three new intelligent technology offerings across multiple product lines. This new innovative sprayer nozzle technology provides unmatched product delivery. This technology has significantly less product spray drift than conventional spray systems.March 2016- Deere & Company has entered a joint venture with Hagie Manufacturing, the U.S. market leader in high-clearance sprayers. Deere acquired majority ownership of Hagie Manufacturing, which will continue producing sprayers in its current Clarion, Iowa location.2014- New Holland (U.S.) had completed the acquisition of the Miller-St. Nazianz, Inc. for expanding crop production capability. This builds a successful manufacturing and distribution partnership between New Holland and Miller. This acquisition helps the company expand their footprint and strengthen their presence in attractive end markets.Crop Sprayer Market  SegmentationThe Crop Sprayer Market can be segmented in to two key dynamics for the convenience of the report and enhanced understanding;Segmentation by Product - Fuel-based, Electric, and Hand-heldSegmentation by Capacity - Ultra Low Volume Sprayers, Low Volume Sprayers, and High Volume SprayersSegmentation by Regions: North America, Europe, APAC and Rest of the World.Crop Sprayer Market  Regional AnalysisAsia Pacific region is expected to dominate the growth of the global crop sprayer market. Countries such as India, China, and Indonesia majorly promote agricultural production in the Asia-Pacific region. India has farming land that is bisected. Therefore, the demand for low volume sprayers is more for farming in small plots. China is constantly upgrading and modernizing their farming processes with the objective of increasing their farm income, boosting the economic growth, and meeting the ever-increasing demand for crops and products. The rapid increase in the interest among customers for increasing the productivity of their farms, has increased the penetration of sprayers in China.The growth would be followed by the North America region. North America is the major producer of wheat, corn and soybean, which require the use of agricultural equipment such as crop sprayer, thereby driving the growth of the market.Browse Full Report on Crop sprayer 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.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.CONTACT US:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Industrial Gases Market by Product Types Hydrogen, Oxygen, Carbon Dioxide, Nitrogen, Helium, Argon, Acetylene Growth and Demand Forecast to 2022

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The global industrial gases market was valued at $47,200.0 million in 2015, and it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.2% during 2016 - 2022. The factors driving the growth of the global market include rapid industrialization and increasing population. In addition, the advancement in industrial gas production technology, and huge demand in emerging economies, such as India and China are driving the growth of the global industrial gases market. Petroleum is the primary end user for industrial gases. The secondary end-user industries include chemical manufacturing, food processing, pharmaceutical, and metal processing. The global mergers and acquisitions in the chemical industry are expected to increase the demand for industrial gases in the market. Food processing is a vast industry comprising several verticals.To Browse Full Report Visit Here:These verticals are increasing at high pace, due to increasing population and growing disposable income. The nuclear power and space exploration industries are also among the end users of industrial gases for their operations. However, the demand for industrial gases in these sectors is largely dependent on political decisions.Among the various applications, the petroleum refinery segment held the largest share in the global industrial gases market. Over the last few years, the demand for hydrogen in petroleum refining has increased significantly, owing to stricter environmental legislations imposed by various governments. For instance, the Chinese government is focusing more on strengthening environmental standards in China through the promotion of eco-friendly fuel cell vehicles in the country. The stricter environmental norms in China are anticipated to help reduce CO2 levels in the region. In 2011, in its Twelfth Five Year Plan, the Chinese government allocated USD 15.8 million for the construction of a hydrogen highway to meet the growing demand for hydrogen and fuel cells in the country. In refineries, hydrogen is used to remove sulphur from crude oil.Among the various product types, the hydrogen segment held the largest share in the global industrial gases market. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the global crude oil production increased from 77,980 thousand barrels per day in 2014 to 80,071 thousand barrels per day in 2015. This in turn, is anticipated to increase demand for hydrogen in oil refineries. The increasing per capita vehicle ownership in developing nations is fuelling demand for hydrogen.Request For Sample Pages:Asia-Pacific held the largest share in the global industrial gases market with 38.9% share. The industrial gases market in the region is anticipated to witness the highest growth at a CAGR of 6.6% during the forecast period. The major reasons behind the growth of the industrial gases market in the region include increasing refinery output particularly in countries, such as China and India. China was the largest market for industrial gases in the region in 2015; however, India is expected to witness highest growth in the near future. The increasing demand for environment-friendly energy carriers is further driving the growth of the industrial gases market in the region. Moreover, economic growth along with industrialization has increased the disposable incomes in Asia-Pacific, which in turn, has led to increase in vehicle ownership in countries such as India, Japan, and China. This in turn, drives the growth of the market in the region.Some of the major players operating in the global industrial gases market include Praxair Inc., Air Products and Chemicals Inc., Linde AG, Air Products and Chemicals Inc., Air Liquide, Airgas Inc., and Taiyo Nippon Sanso Corporation.About P&S Market ResearchP&S Market Research is a market research company, which offers market research and consulting services for various geographies around the globe. We provide market research reports, industry forecasting reports, business intelligence, and research based consulting services across different industry/business verticals.As one of the top growing market research agency, were keen upon providing market landscape and accurate forecasting. Our analysts and consultants are proficient with business intelligence and market analysis, through their interaction with leading companies of the concerned domain. We help our clients with B2B market research and assist them in identifying various windows of opportunity, and framing informed and customized business expansion strategies 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:
Tea Bag Market Size, Share, Key Drivers, Growth Opportunities Research Report With Demand Forecasting Up to 2024

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Tea Bag Market is a small, porous, sealed bag containing dried plant material, which is immersed in boiling water to make a hot drink. Classically these tea leaves, but the term is also used for herbal teas (tisanes) made of herbs or spices. Tea bags are commonly made of filter paper Or food-grade plastic, or occasionally of silk. The bag contains the tea leaves while the tea is steeped, making it easier to dispose of the leaves, and performs the same function as tea infuser. Some tea bags have an attached piece of string with a paper label at the top that assists in removing the bag while also displaying the brand or variety of tea.Tea Bag Market Research Report describes the development of the industry by upstream & downstream, industry overall and development, key companies, as well as type segment & market application and so on, and makes a scientific prediction for the development industry prospects on the basis of analysis, finally, analyzes opportunities for investment in the industry at the end of the report.Order Free Sample Report@Industry Chain: Raw Materials Cost Technology Consumer PreferenceIndustry Overall: History Development & Trend Market Competition Trade Overview PolicyRegion (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East, Africa): Regional Market Production Development Sales Regional Trade Regional ForecastCompany (Harney & Sons, Twinings, Celestial Seasonings, Tazo, Bigelow, Bigelow, Tetley, Yogi Tea, The Republic of Tea, Yorkshire Tea, Lipton, Mighty Leaf Tea, Stash Tea, Teavana, Luzianne, Numi Tea, Red Rose etc.): Company Profile Product & Service Business Operation Data Market ShareInvestment Analysis: Market Features Investment Opportunity Investment CalculationWant to Buy report! Click@Table of Content:Part 1 Industry Overview1.1 Tea Bag Industry1.1.1 Definition1.1.2 Industry Trend1.2 Industry Chain1.2.1 Upstream1.2.2 Technology1.2.3 Cost StructurePart 2 Industry Overall2.1 Industry History2.2 Development Prospect2.3 Competition StructurePart 3 Tea Bag Market by Product3.1 Products List of Major Companies3.2 Market Size3.3 Market ForecastPart 4 Key Companies List4.1 Harney & Sons (Company Overview, Sales Data etc.)4.1.1 Company Overview4.1.2 Products and Services4.1.3 Business Analysis4.2 Twinings (Company Overview, Sales Data etc.)4.3 Celestial Seasonings (Company Overview, Sales Data etc.)4.4 Tazo (Company Overview, Sales Data etc.)4.5 Bigelow (Company Overview, Sales Data etc.)Part 5 Market Competition5.1 Companies Competition5.2 Industry Competition Structure AnalysisPart 6 Market Demand by Segment6.1 Demand Situation6.1.1 Industry Application Status6.1.2 Industry SWOT Analysis6.2 Major Customer Survey6.3 Demand ForecastPart 7 Region Operation7.1 Regional Market7.2 Production and Sales by Region7.3 Regional ForecastPart 8 Market Investment8.1 Market Features8.2 Investment Opportunity8.3 Investment CalculationPart 9 ConclusionCONTINUE.Study More About Report@About Us: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 Us:Mr. A NaiduRESEARCH FOR MARKETSEmail: alan.naidu@researchformarkets.comDirect Contact: +44 8000-4182-37 (UK)
Global Automotive Turbocharger Market Outlook and Growth Scenario: Forecast Study by Fact.MR

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FACT.MR has been actively involved in offering comprehensive research data concerning various topics which are associated to industrial reference and investor utility. This particular research report titled Automotive Turbocharger Market Forecast, Trend Analysis & Competition Tracking: Global Review 2017 to 2022 has been added to the wide online database of FACT.MR which discusses the present as well as future market scenario. Readers can access knowledge related to market volume, regional expanse as well as competitive landscape prevailing in the global automotive turbocharger market. In order to study development patterns, this smart assessment also focuses on market dynamics, which talks about drivers, restraints and opportunities estimated to influence the concerned market during the period until 2017 to 2022.Request For Sample Report-Major Keyt Insights below will indicate the reports forecast on global automotive turbochargers market during 2017-2022 period.1- The report predicts that four out of every ten automotive turbochargers manufactured are installed in diesel engines. Gasoline engines, on the other hand, are dominating the global automotive turbochargers revenues, and are anticipated to bring in more than US$ 10 Bn by the end of 2022.2- Through 2022, over half of the global automotive turbochargers market value will be attained by global sales of turbochargers in low price range.3- With close to two-third share, passenger cars will be dominating global automotive turbochargers revenues in 2017.4- The report reveals the aftermarkets will be largest sales outlets for automotive turbochargers in the world. In 2017, the global sales of automotive turbochargers through aftermarkets is anticipated to procure heavy revenues.5- In 2017, automotive turbochargers sold across the US and Canada raked revenues worth over US$ 5 Bn. It is pegged that North America will continue to be a lucrative region for growth of the automotive turbocharger market, and will reach a sizeable value by the end of 2022.6- The report predicts that Europes automotive turbochargers market will grow steadily, reflecting a moderate CAGR through 2022.7- In 2017 and beyond, more than 20% of global automotive turbochargers market value will attributed by the Asia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) region, alone. The APEJ automotive turbochargers market will dominate the global market, primarily due to presence of automobile manufacturing hubs such as South Korea, China and India.8- According to the report, companies such as IHI Corporation, Robert Bosch Limited, Continental AG, Honeywell International Inc., BorgWarner Inc., Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., Turbo Energy Private Limited, Eaton Corporation PLC., THE TURBO ENGINEERS GmbH, Turbonetics Inc., Rotomaster International, and Precision Turbo & Engine Inc. are observed as key players in the global automotive turbochargers market.Browse Full Report With TOC-Table of ContentChapter 5. Global Automotive Turbocharger Market Analysis and Forecast By Vehicle Type. 505.1. Global Automotive Turbocharger Market Size and Forecast By Vehicle Type, 2012-2022. 505.1.1. Passenger car Automotive Turbocharger Market Size and Forecast, 2012-2022. 505.1.1.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region. 505.1.1.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region. 515.1.1.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By Region. 525.1.2. LCV Automotive Turbocharger Market Size and Forecast, 2012-2022. 535.1.2.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region. 535.1.2.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region. 545.1.2.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By Region. 555.1.3. HCV Automotive Turbocharger Market Size and Forecast, 2012-2022. 565.1.3.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region. 565.1.3.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region. 575.1.3.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By Region. 58Chapter 6. Global Automotive Turbocharger Market Analysis and Forecast By Sales Channel. 596.1. Global Automotive Turbocharger Market Size and Forecast By Sales Channel , 2012-2022. 596.1.1. Aftermarket Automotive Turbocharger Market Size and Forecast, 2012-2022. 596.1.1.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region. 596.1.1.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region. 606.1.1.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By Region. 616.1.2. OEM Automotive Turbocharger Market Size and Forecast, 2012-2022. 616.1.2.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region. 616.1.2.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region. 636.1.2.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By Region. 64Continued@@@...Check 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:
Cancer Anorexia-Cachexia Syndrome Global Key Players - Aphios Corp, Energenesis Biomedical Co Ltd, Fountain Biopharma Inc, and Incyte Corp Market Analysis & Forecast 2018 to 2021

Cancer Anorexia-Cachexia Syndrome

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Cancer Anorexia-Cachexia SyndromeOverviewCancer anorexia-cachexia syndrome or cancer cachexia is wasting of both adipose tissue and skeletal muscle in response to a malignant growth. Cachexia is present in the early stages of tumor growth before any signs or symptoms of malignancy. Symptoms include skeletal muscle wasting, weight loss and loss of appetite. Treatment includes appetite stimulants and change in life style.Click here for sample report @Top Companies mentionedAphios CorpEnergenesis Biomedical Co LtdFountain Biopharma IncIncyte CorpLakewood-Amedex IncNGM Biopharmaceuticals IncCancer Anorexia-Cachexia Syndrome Industry Major OutlookPharmaceutical and Healthcare latest pipeline guide Cancer Anorexia-Cachexia Syndrome - Pipeline Review, H1 2018, provides comprehensive information on the therapeutics under development for Cancer Anorexia-Cachexia Syndrome , complete with analysis by stage of development, drug target, mechanism of action (MoA), route of administration (RoA) and molecule type. The guide covers the descriptive pharmacological action of the therapeutics, its complete research and development history and latest news and press releases.The Cancer Anorexia-Cachexia Syndrome (Oncology) pipeline guide also reviews of key players involved in therapeutic development for Cancer Anorexia-Cachexia Syndrome and features dormant and discontinued projects. The guide covers therapeutics under Development by Companies /Universities /Institutes, the molecules developed by Companies in Filing rejected/Withdrawn, Phase II, Phase I, Preclinical and Discovery stages are 1, 4, 4, 12 and 3 respectively. Similarly, the Universities portfolio in Phase I and Preclinical stages comprises 1 and 3 molecules, respectively.Cancer Anorexia-Cachexia Syndrome pipeline guide helps in identifying and tracking emerging players in the market and their portfolios, enhances decision making capabilities and helps to create effective counter strategies to gain competitive advantage.Cancer Anorexia-Cachexia Syndrome - Competitive AnalysisKey players are making innovative developments in Cancer Anorexia-Cachexia Syndrome industry. The same will help in improving the market performance. Heavy investments are made by major players in the R&D sectorScopeThe pipeline guide provides a snapshot of the global therapeutic landscape of Cancer Anorexia-Cachexia Syndrome.The pipeline guide reviews pipeline therapeutics for Cancer Anorexia-Cachexia Syndrome by companies and universities/research institutes based on information derived from company and industry-specific sources.The pipeline guide covers pipeline products based on several stages of development ranging from pre-registration till discovery and undisclosed stages.The pipeline guide features descriptive drug profiles for the pipeline products which comprise, product description, descriptive licensing and collaboration details, R&D brief, MoA & other developmental activities.The pipeline guide reviews key companies involved in Cancer Anorexia-Cachexia Syndrome therapeutics and enlists all their major and minor projects.The pipeline guide evaluates Cancer Anorexia-Cachexia Syndrome therapeutics based on mechanism of action (MoA), drug target, route of administration (RoA) and molecule type.The pipeline guide encapsulates all the dormant and discontinued pipeline projects.The pipeline guide reviews latest news related to pipeline therapeutics for Cancer Anorexia-Cachexia Syndrome..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
Optical Network Hardware Market 2018 Global Leaders: Huawei Technologies, Ciena Corporation, Alcatel Lucent, Infinera, Cisco systems, ADTRAN, ADVA Optical Networking, Ericsson, and ZTE

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Market Research Future published a research report on Optical Network Hardware Market Research Report- Forecast 2023  Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2023.Market ScenarioGlobal Optical Network Hardware market was valued at USD 14 Billion in 2017. The market is projected to reach market value of USD 32 Billion by 2023, expanding at a CAGR of 13.85% over the forecast period. The growth in cloud services, increasing use of connected virtual devices, and proliferation of mobile services of Wi-Fi, and 3G or 4G technology are some of the major factors driving the growth of optical networking. However, lack of Infrastructure in developing and under-developed countries and higher cost of transition and maintenance from existing cable are some factors hindering the market growth.Optical networking is a technique which carries digital information via light waves over fiber optic cables. Advent of WDM supports in transmitting data using multiple wavelengths of light using different frequencies over a single optical fiber. According to MRFR analysis, the growth in cloud services, increasing demand of high bandwidth services, and rising IoT has driven the demand for optical transport networking systems. The increasing usage of internet for personal and commercial purpose by consumers has increased the network traffic. To address this issue, consumers are deploying additional systems to existing optical networks. Today, many applications have transformed from function specific dedicated hardware platforms to virtualized services deployed within cloud datacenters.Get Sample of Report @By Equipment segment, Wavelength-Division Multiplexing is most commonly used technology that helps in multiplexing of number of optical fiber carrier signals into a single fiber optic cable by using different wavelengths of light. The biggest advantage WDM provides is that it can carry multiple wavelengths in a single fiber cable. For enterprises, it provide various advantages or benefits such as full duplex transmission, similar optical network hardware components are used, and provides high security. The multiplexing provides an additional benefit of higher bandwidth which is helpful in achieving the high speed internet across the optical fiber channel.Key Players:The prominent players in Optical network hardware Market are  Huawei Technologies, Ciena Corporation, Alcatel Lucent, Infinera, Cisco systems, ADTRAN, ADVA Optical Networking, Ericsson, and ZTE Corporation.Key Findings: The global Optical Network Hardware Market has valued at USD 13 billion in 2016 and is expected to reach USD 32 billion by 2023 growing with 13.85% CAGR. By Equipment segment, Wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) has generated highest revenue of USD 10 billion in 2017 and is expected to grow with 15% CAGR. By application, broadband infrastructure is leading the optical hardware market and is expected to grow with 14% CAGR. Followed by fiber optic network. Whereas, Datacenter application is projected to grow with 15% CAGR. Geographically, North America region is dominating the market and has generated highest revenue of USD 8 billion in 2017 and is expected to grow with 13% CAGR. Asia Pacific is projected to be the fastest growing market for optical network hardware and is witnessed to grow with 16% CAGR.SegmentsOptical network hardware Market is segmented by equipment and application.Based on equipment, Optical network hardware market is bifurcated into WDM and SONET/SDH. And on the basis of application, the market is segmented into broadband infrastructure, datacenter, fiber optic network and smart cities. The global market for broadband is increasing with the growing rate of internet and smartphone penetration. Broadband infrastructure comprise of wired technologies and wireless technologies, out of which FTTP (Fiber to the Premise) accounts for nearly 7% of global broadband subscriptions, thereby increasing the growth opportunity for optical network hardware market.Regional AnalysisOptical network hardware market is categorized based on region and is comprised of North-America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Middle-East & Africa.North American region is dominating the market in the year 2017 and is expected to remain the leading region over the forecast period growing with 13% CAGR. The U.S. and Canada are expected to be the prominent regions of the North- America. Additionally, Asia-Pacific region is expected to be the fastest growing region mounting with 16.75% CAGR over the forecast period. The increasing investment by Asian government in building high capacity network, increasing trend of broadband network, and emerging datacenter market are some of the factors driving the growth of optical network in the region. Whereas, high installation cost of optical network is expected to hamper the market growth in Asia Pacific during forecast period 2017-2023.Get Complete Report @Intended Audience Raw material providers Component manufacturers Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) Integrated device manufacturers (IDMs) Original design manufacturers (ODMs) Assembly, testing, and packaging vendors Suppliers and distributors Government Technology investors Research institutesAbout 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
Global Liquid Handling Systems Market Size, Share, Growth Analysis Forecast To 2023

Side-by-Side Refrigerators Market Forecast

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Wiseguyreports.Com Adds Liquid Handling Systems Market 2018: Global Analysis, Industry Size, Share, Trends, Application Analysis and Growth Opportunities Forecast to 2023 To Its Research DatabaseThe global liquid handling systems market is anticipated to grow with the CAGR of 8.2%during the period 2017-2022. The major factors that are driving the growth of the liquid handling systems market are estimated to be the assay miniaturization in drug discovery and inclusion of automation in medical institutions and research centers. Additionally, increasing R&D investment in the biotechnology, advancements in the next generation sequencing and increasing requirement for accuracy in laboratory analysis are also contributing significantly towards the growth of the market. However, there are certain factors that are hindering the growth of the market. High set up cost and complexities in operations of liquid handling systems and lack of research initiative in the developing countries such as Brazil, India are estimated to be the major constraints in the growth of the market. Further, emergence of the robotics in the liquid handling systems market and development of the liquid handling systems for the microfluidic studies and single cell analysis are developing numerous expansion opportunities for the growth of the liquid handling market during the forecast period.The global liquid handling systems market is analyzed on the basis of the applications and equipments. On the basis of the applications, liquid handling market is segmented into serial dilution, titration, biological sample handling, cell based assays, next generation sequencing, polymerase chain reaction, high throughput screening and others. Further, on the basis of the equipments, our market is bifurcated into automated pipetting systems, manual pipettes, electronic pipettes, pipette tips, dispensers and others. Automated pipetting systems are estimated to be the fastest growing segment during the forecast period owing to its various benefits over other liquid handling systems such as reduced errors, improves throughput, reduce sample volumes and also reducing manual labor in laboratories.Request a sample copy @Geography InsightsGlobal liquid handling systems market is further analyzed on the basis of the geographical regions that are contributing significantly towards the growth of the market. On the basis of the geography, our market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Rest of the World. North America is estimated to be the leading region in the global liquid handling market. Superior lab facilities and early adoption of the automation in the laboratories and medical research centers are estimated to back the growth of the market in the region. Moreover, high adoption of the liquid technology systems in the end-user industry such as pharmaceuticals and chemical industries are estimated to drive the growth of the market in the region. Furthermore, Asia Pacific is estimated to be the fastest growing region due to increasing R&D activities in the region. Increasing number of the laboratories and increasing pharmaceuticals and biotechnology market in the region are also estimated to augment the demand of the liquid handling systems market in the region.Competitive InsightsSome of the prominent vendors of the global liquid handling systems market across the globe are Agilent Technologies, Analytik Jena AG, Aurora Biomed Inc., Beckman Coulter, Inc., BioTek Instruments, Inc., Corning Life Sciences, Douglas Scientific, Eppendorf AG, FluidX Ltd., Formulatrix, Inc., Gilson, Inc., Hamilton Company, Hudson Robotics, Inc., Labcyte Inc., Mettler-Toledo International Inc., PerkinElmer Inc., Sartorius AG, Sias AG, Tecan Trading AG, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc and so on. To sustain in the competitive market these players adopt various strategies such as merger, acquisitions, product launch, and geographical expansion to get edge over competitive rivals. For example:Market Segmentation1.GLOBAL LIQUID HANDLING SYSTEMS MARKET BY INSTRUMENTS1.1. AUTOMATED PIPETTING SYSTEMS1.2. MANUAL PIPETTES1.3. ELECTRONIC PIPETTES1.4. PIPETTE TIPS1.5. DISPENSERS1.6. BURETTES1.7. OTHERS2.GLOBAL LIQUID HANDLING SYSTEMS MARKET BY APPLICATIONS2.1. SERIAL DILUTION2.2. TITRATION2.3. BIOLOGICAL SAMPLE HANDLING2.4. CELL BASED ASSAYS2.5. NEXT GENERATION SEQUENCING2.6. PCR2.7. PROTEIN CRYSTALLIZATION2.8. HIGH THROUGHPUT SCREENING2.9. OTHERSOMR Report covers:Comprehensive research methodology of Global Liquid Handling Systems 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 Liquid Handling Systems Market.Insights about market determinants which are stimulating the Global Liquid Handling Systems Market.Detailed and extensive market segments with regional distribution of forecasted revenues.Extensive profiles and recent developments of market players.Table of ContentREPORT SUMMARYMARKET OVERVIEW AND INSIGHTSMARKET DETERMINANTMARKET SEGMENTATIONCOMPETITIVE LANDSCAPEREGIONAL ANALYSISCOMPANY PROFILESBrowse full 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.Contact Us:Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt LtdSales@Wiseguyreports.ComPh: +1-646-845-9349 (Us)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (Uk)Maharashtra, Pune  411028
Child Resistant Packaging Market 2018 Key Players Amcor Limited (Australia), Bemis Company, Inc. (U.S.), Ecobliss B.V. (Netherlands), Sun Grown Packaging (U.S.), O.Berk Company, LLC (U.S.)

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Market Research Future published a research report on Child Resistance Packaging Market Research Report- Forecast 2023  Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2023.Global Child Resistance Packaging Market Information by Type (Reclosable Packaging, Non-reclosable Packaging, Special Blister Packaging), By End-Use (Personal Care, Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals) and By Region  Forecast to 2023Market Synopsis of Child Resistance Packaging Market:Child resistance packaging is the type of packaging, which is difficult for a child younger than 52 months to open within a reasonable period. The objective of child resistance packaging is to keep children away from harmful products.The major factors driving the growth of child resistance packaging market are rising urbanization and the rising awareness among the customers towards the use of better packaging, especially in the pharmaceutical industry. The introduction of stringent policies regarding the packaging of toxic items and certain household items such as medicines, spray products for pharmaceuticals, chemicals, & cleaning products, is further expected to drive child resistance packaging market.The child resistance packaging market is expected to grow with 4% CAGR during the forecast period.Get Sample of Report @The global child resistance packaging market is majorly driven by the rise in information among the consumers and the increase in demand for the efficient packaging of drugs in the pharmaceutical industry. The introduction and implementation of government regulatory procedures such as those by the Food and Drug Administration, in many nations, is also leading to the growth of the industry. Child resistance packaging has also led to the reduced child mortality rate caused by the accidental intake of oral prescription drugs, thereby, leading to the growth of the child resistance packaging market.Geographically, child resistance packaging market has been segmented as North America, Asia-Pacific, Europe and Rest of the world. Europe region is dominating the market due to existence of a large number of pharmaceutical companies in the region. The European Union is also imposing stringent rules and regulations for adoption of child resistance packaging to prevent harm to children from various harmful drugs and chemicals. The Asia-Pacific region is expected to grow significantly during to forecast period, with the boom in the pharmaceutical industry here. In North America region, child resistance packaging market is expected to grow, owing to the regulations passed by the government such as the Poison Prevention Packaging Act. The purpose of this act is to reduce the chances for children to access substances resulting in accidental poisoning.Key PlayersThe key players of global Child resistance packaging market include  Sun Grown Packaging (U.S.) O.Berk Company LLC (U.S.) MJS Packaging Inc (U.S.) Kaufman Container (U.S.) Mold-Rite Plastics LLC (U.S.) Amcor Limited (Australia) Bemis Company Inc. (U.S.) Ecobliss B.V. (Netherlands) Global Closure System (France) WestRock Company (U.S.) .Early Buyers Can Get This Report at Discount @The report for Global Child Resistance Packaging market of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different market segments and regions.Study Objectives of Child Resistance Packaging Market: To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 6 years of various segments and sub-segments of the global child resistance packaging market To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth To analyze the global child resistance packaging market based on various tools such as Price Analysis, Supply Chain Analysis, and Porters Five Force Analysis To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to four main geographies, North America, Europe, APAC, and Rest of the World (ROW) and their countries To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospective To provide country level analysis of the market for segment by type, end-use and regions To provide strategic profiling of the key players in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market To track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the global child resistance packaging marketAbout Us:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for , regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Pharmaceutical Labeling 2018 Global Market Key Players - CCL, King Label, Win Lable Printing, Forecast to 2023

Pharmaceutical Labeling Market

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Description:Pharmaceutical Labeling-Global Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 offers a comprehensive analysis on Pharmaceutical Labeling industry, standing on the readers perspective, delivering detailed market data and penetrating insights. No matter the client is industry insider, potential entrant or investor, the report will provides useful data and information. Key questions answered by this report include:Worldwide and Regional Market Size of Pharmaceutical Labeling 2013-2017, and development forecast 2018-2023Main manufacturers/suppliers of Pharmaceutical Labeling worldwide, with company and product introduction, position in the Pharmaceutical Labeling marketMarket status and development trend of Pharmaceutical Labeling by types and applicationsCost and profit status of Pharmaceutical Labeling, and marketing statusMarket growth drivers and challengesRequest For Sample Report @The report segments the global Pharmaceutical Labeling market as:Global Pharmaceutical Labeling Market: Regional Segment Analysis (Regional Production Volume, Consumption Volume, Revenue and Growth Rate 2013-2023):North AmericaEuropeChinaJapanRest APACLatin AmericaGlobal Pharmaceutical Labeling Market: Type Segment Analysis (Consumption Volume, Average Price, Revenue, Market Share and Trend 2013-2023):Paper TypePlastic Film TypeGlobal Pharmaceutical Labeling Market: Application Segment Analysis (Consumption Volume and Market Share 2013-2023; Downstream Customers and Market Analysis)HospitalClinicOtherGlobal Pharmaceutical Labeling Market: Manufacturers Segment Analysis (Company and Product introduction, Pharmaceutical Labeling Sales Volume, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin):McCourt Label CompanyCCLKing LabelWin Lable PrintingPharmaceutic Litho & Label CompanyNice LabelComplete Report Details @Table of ContentsChapter 1 Overview of Pharmaceutical Labeling1.1 Definition of Pharmaceutical Labeling in This Report1.2 Commercial Types of Pharmaceutical Labeling1.2.1 Paper Type1.2.2 Plastic Film Type1.3 Downstream Application of Pharmaceutical Labeling1.3.1 Hospital1.3.2 Clinic1.3.3 Other1.4 Development History of Pharmaceutical Labeling1.5 Market Status and Trend of Pharmaceutical Labeling 2013-20231.5.1 Global Pharmaceutical Labeling Market Status and Trend 2013-20231.5.2 Regional Pharmaceutical Labeling Market Status and Trend 2013-2023Chapter 2 Global Market Status and Forecast by Regions2.1 Market Development of Pharmaceutical Labeling 2013-20172.2 Production Market of Pharmaceutical Labeling by Regions2.2.1 Production Volume of Pharmaceutical Labeling by Regions2.2.2 Production Value of Pharmaceutical Labeling by Regions2.3 Demand Market of Pharmaceutical Labeling by Regions2.4 Production and Demand Status of Pharmaceutical Labeling by Regions2.4.1 Production and Demand Status of Pharmaceutical Labeling by Regions 2013-20172.4.2 Import and Export Status of Pharmaceutical Labeling by Regions 2013-2017Chapter 3 Global Market Status and Forecast by Types3.1 Production Volume of Pharmaceutical Labeling by Types3.2 Production Value of Pharmaceutical Labeling by Types3.3 Market Forecast of Pharmaceutical Labeling by TypesChapter 4 Global Market Status and Forecast by Downstream Industry4.1 Demand Volume of Pharmaceutical Labeling by Downstream Industry4.2 Market Forecast of Pharmaceutical Labeling by Downstream IndustryChapter 5 Market Driving Factor Analysis of Pharmaceutical Labeling5.1 Global Economy Situation and Trend Overview5.2 Pharmaceutical Labeling Downstream Industry Situation and Trend OverviewChapter 6 Pharmaceutical Labeling Market Competition Status by Major Manufacturers6.1 Production Volume of Pharmaceutical Labeling by Major Manufacturers6.2 Production Value of Pharmaceutical Labeling by Major Manufacturers6.3 Basic Information of Pharmaceutical Labeling by Major Manufacturers6.3.1 Headquarters Location and Established Time of Pharmaceutical Labeling Major Manufacturer6.3.2 Employees and Revenue Level of Pharmaceutical Labeling Major Manufacturer6.4 Market Competition News and Trend6.4.1 Merger, Consolidation or Acquisition News6.4.2 Investment or Disinvestment News6.4.3 New Product Development and LaunchChapter 7 Pharmaceutical Labeling Major Manufacturers Introduction and Market Data7.1 McCourt Label Company7.1.1 Company profile7.1.2 Representative Pharmaceutical Labeling Product7.1.3 Pharmaceutical Labeling Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of McCourt Label Company7.2 CCL7.2.1 Company profile7.2.2 Representative Pharmaceutical Labeling Product7.2.3 Pharmaceutical Labeling Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of CCL7.3 King Label7.3.1 Company profile7.3.2 Representative Pharmaceutical Labeling Product7.3.3 Pharmaceutical Labeling Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of King Label7.4 Win Lable Printing7.4.1 Company profile7.4.2 Representative Pharmaceutical Labeling Product7.4.3 Pharmaceutical Labeling Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of Win Lable Printing7.5 Pharmaceutic Litho & Label Company7.5.1 Company profile7.5.2 Representative Pharmaceutical Labeling Product7.5.3 Pharmaceutical Labeling Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of Pharmaceutic Litho & Label CompanyContinuedWise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.Office No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028
IoT in Consumer Electronics Market 2018 by Global Leaders: Intel, IBM, Gainspan, Libelium Comunicaciones, Qualcomm Technologies, Silicon Laboratories, Lantronix, ARM Holdings, Symantec, STMicroelectronics

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Market Research Future published a research report on IoT in Consumer Electronics Market Research Report- Global Forecast to 2023  Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2023.Market ScenarioInternet of Things is changing user lives, with its widespread of applications in day to day activities. Consumer IoT refers to Internet of Things with respect to consumer applications and devices. Consumer electronics are considered as a key area in the Internet of Things which is gaining momentum every day.For consumer electronics manufacturers, IoT is enabling new revenue opportunities by providing new products to the customers which helps in cross functioning with other devices. Home appliances connected to the internet are capable of reducing workload for humans. The data regarding daily usage of applications can be recorded and stored on data server and can run analysis on the internet which can detect patterns and can schedule run on their own.The rise of cloud computing, increase in usage of smartphones and tablets for controlling IoT devices and developments in IoT security are the key factors driving the market for global IoT in consumer electronics.Get Sample of Report @On the basis of connectivity the segment is further classified into NFC, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Zwave, ZigBee and others. Wi-Fi is used to replace existing Ethernet-based communication in order to provide easy access and provide short-range wireless connectivity. By connecting the devices such as kitchen appliances, refrigerator and other devices to the common group over Wi-Fi, monitoring and operating the connected devices can be made easy. It helps in reducing the spectrum connectivity cost and is easy to deploy. IBM Corporation, an American Multinational Technology company is offering open source IoT platform known as Kaa. Kaa is a middleware platform capable of managing, collecting and analyzing every aspect of connected devices. Kaa is compatible with smart TVs, smart home appliances, wearable and other computer chips and allows cross-device collaboration, remote monitoring and many other added features.The global Iot In Consumer Electronics Market is estimated to grow up to USD 124 Billion at CAGR 24.16% through the forecast period 2017 to 2023Key Players:Some of the key players in the global IoT in consumer electronics market are Intel Corporation (U.S.), IBM Corporation (U.S.), Gainspan (U.S.), Apple Inc. (U.S.) Particle.io (U.S.), Libelium Comunicaciones (Spain), Qualcomm Technologies (U.S.), Silicon Laboratories (U.S.), Lantronix, Inc. (U.S.), ARM Holdings Plc., (U.K), Symantec (U.S.), PTC (U.S.), Texas Instruments (U.S.), Hewlett Packard Enterprise (U.S.), STMicroelectronics (Switzerland), Cisco Systems (U.S.), Amazon Web Services (U.S.), Ayla Networks (U.S.), Losant IoT (U.S.), Notion (U.S.), Pepper (U.S.) among others.SegmentationThe market for global IoT in consumer electronics is segmented on the basis of product, deployment, connectivity and region. On the basis of product the segment is further classified into smart TV, smartphones, wearable devices, kitchen appliances, laptops, printers, washing machine, dishwashers and many more. On the basis of deployment the segment is further classified into on-premise and on-cloud. On the basis of connectivity the segment is further classified into NFC, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Zwave, zigbee and others.Key Findings Tuya Smart, Chinese IoT platform is stepping into U.S market with the developments in connected devices market. Tuya provides smart Wi-Fi modules and cloud connectivity devices. Qualcomm Telecommunications is expanding their footprint in audio devices market by launching smart audio devices capable of IoT.Regional AnalysisThe global IoT in consumer electronics studied in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World. The early adoption of IoT products in this region and being technically advanced region are the factors that are driving the growth in this region. Asia Pacific region is anticipated to show high growth rate during the forecast period. The penetration of internet across enterprises, industries and residents, and huge investments by companies to develop IoT are the major driving factors for the market in this region.Get Complete Report @Intended Audience Distributors and retailers Research organizations Technology standard organizations, forums, alliances, and associations Technology investors Operating system (OS) vendors Content providers Software providersAbout 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
Global Malignant Melanoma Drug Market, Dosage, Price and Clinical Pipeline Outlook 2024

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For Report Sample Contact: neeraj@kuickresearch.com or +91-11-47067990Download Report:Report Table of Contents1. Malignant Melanoma - Common Cancer with High Mortality1.1 Prologue to Malignant Melanoma1.2 Risk Factors Associated with Melanoma1.3 Overview of Melanoma Diagnosis and Therapy2. Analysis Regarding the Global Prevalence of Melanoma2.1 Prevalence in the US2.2 Prevalence in Europe and Rest of the World3. Melanoma Market Analysis by Diagnosis and Screening3.1 Stages of melanoma Diagnosis and Treatment Options3.2 Cost Analysis of Melanoma Screening4. Malignant Melanoma Therapy and Cost Analysis by Stage4.1 Stage 04.2 Stage I4.3 Stage II Melanoma4.4 Stage III Melanoma4.5 Stage IV Melanoma4.6 Recurrent Melanoma5. Malignant Melanoma Management and Therapy - Cost Analysis by Treatment Modality5.1 Surgery5.2 Radiation Therapy5.3 Chemotherapy5.3.1 Decarbazine5.3.2 Temozolomide5.3.3 Taxol (Paclitaxel and Carboplatin)5.4 Biological Therapy/Targeted Therapies5.4.1 T-VEC (Imlygic)5.4.2 Nivolumab (Opdivo)5.4.3 Ipilimumab (Yervoy)5.4.4 Pembrolizumab (Keytruda)5.4.5 Peginterferon alpha 2-b (Sylatron)5.4.6 Interleukin-2 (IL-2; Proleukin)5.5 Inhibitors in Malignant Melanoma Treatment5.5.1 Vemurafenib (Zelboraf) + Cobimetinib (Cotellic)5.5.2 Dabrafenib (Tafinlar) + Trametinib (Mekinist)5.5.3 Vemurafenib (Zelboraf)6. Sales Analysis of Global Melanoma Therapeutics6.1 Global- Melanoma Chemotherapy Drug Sales6.2 Melanoma Targeted Therapy Sales Analysis7. Malignant Melanoma Therapy andndash; Market Trend and Scope Analysis7.1 Overview - Screening and Traditional Therapy Market7.2 Modern Melanoma Therapeutics Market8. Global Malignant Melanoma Drug Clinical Pipeline Overview9. Regional Analysis of the Melanoma Drug Market9.1 North America9.1.1 US9.1.2 Canada9.2 Europe9.3 Asia Pacific9.3.1 Japan9.3.2 China9.3.3 Australia9.4 Middle East and Africa (MEA)10. Global Melanoma Drug Market Dynamics10.1 Driving Factors of the Malignant Melanoma Drug Market10.2 Restraining Factors of the Melanoma Drug Market11. Future Forecast Regarding the Malignant Melanoma Drug Market12. Global Malignant Melanoma Drug Clinical Pipeline by Company and Phase12.1 Unknown12.2 Research12.3 Preclinical12.4 Clinical12.5 Phase-I12.6 Phase-I/II12.7 Phase-II12.8 Phase-II/III12.9 Phase-III12.10 Preregistration12.11 Registered13. Marketed Malignant Melanoma Drug Clinical Insight14. Competitive Analysis14.1 AVAX Technologies14.2 Biogen Idec14.3 BioVex14.4 Bristol-Myers Squibb14.5 Chiron14.6 Enzon Pharmaceuticals14.7 GlaxoSmithKline14.8 Lorus Therapeutics14.9 Medarex14.10 Merck14.11 Ono Pharmaceutical14.12 Plexxikon14.13 Reliance Life Sciences14.14 RocheFigure 1-1: Historical Timeline of MelanomaFigure 1-2: Malignant Melanoma - Risk FactorsFigure 1-3: Difference between Normal Skin Lesions and MelanomaFigure 1-4: Melanoma Development in ActionFigure 1-5: Melanoma- Biopsy TypesFigure 1-6: Biopsy Techniques used for the Diagnosis of melanomaFigure 2-1: US - Melanoma Prevalence by Gender (Number of patients), 2018Figure 2-2: 5 Year Survival Rate- by Stage of Therapy (%)Figure 2-3: Europe - Regional Mortality by Melanoma (number of Deaths per 100,000 patients), 2012-2016Figure 2-4: Global- Melanoma Prevalence (per 100,000 Individuals), 2016Figure 3-1: Cost Analysis - Melanoma Screening Cost (US$), 2018Figure 3-2: Australia - Melanoma Management and Therapy Cost Analysis (US$/Patient), 2018Figure 4-1: Comparative Price Analysis- by Body Part affected by Melanoma, 2018Figure 4-2: Melanoma Stage 0 - Estimated Treatment Cost (US$), 2018Figure 4-3: Stage I - Estimated Treatment Cost (US$), 2018Figure 4-4: Melanoma Treatment Efficacy (Stage II) by Treatment Modality (%), 2018Figure 4-5: Stage II -Estimated Cost Analysis by Technique (US$), 2018Figure 4-6: Stage III/IV Treatment Modality ApproachFigure 5-1: Surgery-Average Cost Analysis Range by Stage (US$/Patient), 2018Figure 5-2: Surgery - Average Cost Analysis (US$), 2016Figure 5-3: Radiation Therapy - Average Cost Analysis by Melanoma Location (US$), 2018Figure 5-4: Dosage Analysis - Decarbazine and Temozolomide(mg/kg)Figure 5-5: Price Analysis - Decarbazine and Temozolomide(US$/100mg), 2018Figure 5-6: Temozolomide - Price Analysis (US$), 2018Figure 5-7: Temozolomide - Price Analysis (US$/mg), 2018Figure 5-8: Cost Analysis - Melanoma Targeted Therapy (US$/Month), 2018Figure 5-9: T-VEC: Mechanism of ActionFigure 5-10:T-VEC- Dosage Analysis(ml/ Plaque Forming Unit*)Figure 5-11: Imlygic - Vial and Therapy Cost Analysis (US$), 2018Figure 5-12: Nivolumab + Iplimumab-Dosage Analysis (mg)Figure 5-13: Yervoy- Mechanism of Action in Melanoma TherapyFigure 5-14: Nivolumab and Ipilimumab- Drug Price Analysis (US$/mg), 2018Figure 5-15: Keytruda -Dosage Analysis (mg/kg)Figure 5-16: Sylatron - Dosage Analysis (mcg/kg body weight/week)Figure 5-17: Interleukin-2 Action MechanismFigure 5-18: Zelboraf and Cobimetinib - Dosage Analysis (mg)Figure 5-19: Zelboraf and Cotellic - Price Analysis (US$/Month), 2018Figure 5-20: Tafinlar- Dosage Analysis (mg Twice Daily)Figure 5-21: Mekinist - Dosage Analysis (mg once daily)Figure 6-1: Global - Melanoma Chemotherapeutics Sales (US$ Million), 2014-2016Figure 6-2: Global - Melanoma Biological Therapeutics Sales (US$ Million), 2015-2016Figure 7-1: Global - Melanoma Market Segmentation by Diagnosis and Therapy (%), 2018Figure 7-2: Global- Melanoma Diagnosis Market Forecast (US$ Billion), 2016-2024Figure 7-3: Global - Melanoma Chemotherapy Drug Sales Forecast (US$ Billion), 2018-2024Figure 7-4: Global - Melanoma Surgery Market Forecast (US$ Million), 2018-2024Figure 7-5: Global- Radiation Melanoma Therapy Forecast (US$ Million), 2018-2024Figure 7-6: Global - Melanoma Targeted Therapy Market Forecast, 2016-2024Figure 8-1: Global - Malignant Melanoma Pipeline by Phase (%), 2018 till 2024Figure 8-2: Global - Malignant Melanoma Pipeline by Phase (Number), 2018 till 2024Figure 8-3: Global - Malignant Melanoma Pipeline by Phase (%),2018 till 2024Figure 8-4: Global - Malignant Melanoma Pipeline by Phase (Number), 2018 till 2024Figure 9-1: US - Melanoma Therapeutics Market Forecast (US$ Billion), 2016-2024Figure 9-2: Canada- Melanoma Therapeutics Market Forecast (US$ Million), 2016-2024Figure 9-3: Europe - Treatment Modality Used in Melanoma Therapy, 2016-2017Figure 10-1: Driving Factors of the Global Melanoma Drug MarketFigure 10-2: Melanoma Drug Market - Growth Restraining FactorsTable 3-1: Melanoma Stage, Description and Available Treatment OptionsKuick 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
Carbon Nanotubes Market Analysis Including Key Players Arkema SA, CNano Technology Limited, Carbon Solutions, Inc., Hanwha Nanotech Corporation, Showa Denko K.K and Forecast 2023

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Carbon Nanotubes (Single-wall Carbon Nanotubes and Multi-wall Carbon Nanotubes) Market for Polymers, Energy, Electrical & Electronics, and Other Applications - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2015 - 2023" to its huge collection of research reports.The report analyzes and forecasts the carbon nanotubes market on the global and regional level. The study provides historical data of 2014 along with forecast from 2015 to 2023 based on volume (tons) and revenue (US$ Mn). The study includes drivers and restraints for the carbon nanotubes market along with their impact on demand during the forecast period. The report also analyzes opportunities in the carbon nanotubes market on the global and regional level. Drivers, restraints, and opportunities mentioned in the report are justified through quantitative and qualitative data. These have been verified through primary and secondary resources.Get PDF for more Professional and Technical insights @We have included a detailed analysis of the value chain to provide a comprehensive view of the carbon nanotubes market. Value chain analysis provides details such as integration in the market, distribution channels, product segments, and end-users. Analysis of Porters Five Forces model has also been included to help understand the competitive landscape of the carbon nanotubes market. The study encompasses market attractiveness analysis, wherein application segments of the market are benchmarked based on market size, compound annual growth rate (CAGR), general attractiveness, and company market share. We have also incorporated company market share analysis to provide detailed analysis of the market.The study provides a decisive view of the carbon nanotubes market by segmenting it on the basis of products and applications. Product and application segments have been analyzed based on current and future trends, and the market has been estimated from 2015 to 2023 in terms of volume (kilo tons) and revenue (US$ Mn). Regional segmentation includes current and forecast demand in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. It also includes demand for individual products and applications in major countries in the respective regions.View Complete TOC with tables & Figures @The report provides detailed competitive outlook that includes profiles of key players operating in the global carbon nanotubes market. Key players profiled in the report include Arkema SA, CNano Technology Limited, Carbon Solutions, Inc., Hanwha Nanotech Corporation, Showa Denko K.K., Future Carbon GmbH, CNT Co., Ltd., Continental Carbon Nanotechnologies, Inc., Klean Commodities, Raymor Industries Inc., Hyperion Catalysis International Inc., Nanothinx S.A., Korea Kumho Petrochemical Company Ltd., Nano-C Inc., Nanocyl S.A., Nanoshel LLC, Southwest Nanotechnologies Inc., and Thomas Swan & Co. Ltd. Company profiles include attributes such as company overview, brand/product portfolio, financial overview, business strategy, and key/recent developments related to the market.Constant currency rates have been considered while forecasting the market. Prices of carbon nanotubes by products and applications vary in each region; hence, a similar volume-to-revenue ratio does not follow for each individual region. Regional average price has been considered while breaking down the market by product segment and application in each region. Models and estimates have been used to produce comprehensive data sets when hard data was not available. We have used the bottom-up approach by considering individual product and application segments and integrating them to arrive at the global market. Product segments and applications have been further divided using the top-down approach to derive the consumption of products in the regional market.Browse Report @In order to compile the research report, we conducted in-depth interviews and discussions with a wide range of key industry participants and opinion leaders. Primary research represented the bulk of research efforts, supplemented by an extensive secondary research. We reviewed key players product literature, annual reports, press releases, and relevant documents for competitive analysis and market understanding. Secondary research includes a search of recent trade, technical writing, Internet sources, and statistical data from government websites, trade associations, and agencies. This has proven to be the most reliable, effective, and successful approach for obtaining precise market data, capturing industry participants insights, and recognizing business opportunities.Carbon Nanotubes Market  Product Segment AnalysisSingle-wall Carbon NanotubesMulti-wall Carbon NanotubesCarbon Nanotubes Market  Application Segment AnalysisPolymersEnergyElectricals & ElectronicsOthers (Medical, Chemical, Optical Devices, etc.)About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.For More Information Kindly Contact :ResearchMozMr. Nachiket Ghumare,Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn @
QSFP Module Market Globally Grow at a CAGR of 9.27% by Revenue During the Forecast Period 2017-2021

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global QSFP Module Market 2017-2021" to its huge collection of research reports.About QSFP Module MarketQSFP is an optical transceiver module used in optical fiber communication systems. The main function of this module is photoelectric conversion. In an optical fiber communication system, the information is sent in the form of light pulses, which is then converted into electrical signals in order to be utilized by an electronic device.Technavios analysts forecast the Global QSFP Module Market to grow at a CAGR of 9.27% during the period 2017-2021.Get PDF for more Professional and Technical insights @Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global QSFP module market for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report includes the sales of QSFP modules in data communication and telecommunication segments only.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:AmericasEMEAAPACTechnavio's report, Global QSFP Module Market 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendorsFinisarInnoLight TechnologyLumentum OperationsNeoPhotonics CorporationOclaroOplink CommunicationsSource PhotonicsSumitomo Electric IndustriesView Complete TOC with tables & Figures @Market driverStrategic collaboration among supply chain membersFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challengeHigh cost of QSFP transceiver modulesFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trendMigration to 40 Gbps and 100 Gbps data centerFor a full, detailed list, view our reportBrowse Report @Key questions answered in this reportWhat will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be?What are the key market trends?What is driving this market?What are the challenges to market growth?Who are the key vendors in this market space?What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors?What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?Table of ContentsPART 01: Executive summaryPART 02: Scope of the reportPART 03: Research MethodologyPART 04: IntroductionKey market highlightsCFPQSFP/QSFP+SFP/SFP+PART 05: Summary of key figuresPART 06: Market landscapeAbout 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 @
Turbidimeter Market To Make Great Impact In Near Future by 2025

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The quality of products is of prime importance in the food, beverage and chemical industries. The correct ratio of various constituents, their appearance, texture, etc. are considered as deciding parameters as well as standards of purity. One sample of any liquid may contain a large number of contaminants and micro particles that tend to make it unfit for consumption or utilization. Particles with particle size above 100 micron are visible with naked eyes but those with less than the size cannot be seen and solution will appear clear.Turbidity and total suspended solids are important indicators of purity and quality monitoring. A turbidimeter is an equipment used to determine the amount of cloudiness in a solution. This cloudiness caused by the presence of finely divided suspended particles scatter light when a beam is passed. Depending upon the shape, size and composition of the solid, the incident light scatters in different directions, which is then collected through different detectors placed at different orientation.Request Report for TOC @Heavier and relatively larger particles dont allow incident light to pass through and scatter less radiation as opposed to smaller particles. Measuring this fluctuation of light intensity in terms of Nephelometric Turbidity Units (NTU) of incident radiation is used to study various quantitative and qualitative analysis of the solution.Global Turbidimeter Market: Drivers & RestraintsWith prime utilization in quality testing, the turbidimeter market is expected to witness a significant growth owing to increasing consumption of turbidimeter for water treatment and sewage. Stringent environmental regulations regarding mandatory monitoring of turbidity and water quality to ensure safe product for public consumption is another driving factor.In addition, apart from regulatory compliances, turbidity monitoring market is also expanding owing to increasing demand from chemical, paints and pharmaceutical manufacturers to assess and analyse filter performance and detect filter breakthrough. Likewise, the thriving food and beverage industry is expected to create a sustainable demand for turbidimeter market owing to significant dependence to check for purity and proportion. However, owing to the functional limitations and presence of alternate automated integrated solutions in the industry, the turbidimeter market is restrained to some extent.Among different markets, North America and Western Europe turbidimeter market account for major contribution in terms of revenue during the forecast period. The forecasted consumption and demand growth of turbidimeter sales for these regions are expected to be relatively mature. However, the U.S. turbidimeter market is expected to witness significant growth owing to the escalating sales of portable turbidimeter for pharmaceutical and sewage treatment application.The thriving chemical manufacturing and food & beverage ecosystem is propelling sales of turbidimeter market in the APEJ region, with turbidimeter market spearheaded by India, China and ASEAN countries. Moderate sales of turbidimeter in Japan is expected to create relatively moderate revenue opportunities, with demand for clinical and laboratory uses of turbidimeter driving the sales growth during the forecast period. With effective investment in public health and infrastructure, Eastern Europe and Middle East & Africa turbidimeter market are expected to witness relatively higher unit sales. Latin America turbidimeter market is expected to witness a relatively higher value and volume growth owing to thriving paper and pulp production in the region.Request to Sample Report @Turbidimeter Market: Market ParticipantsExamples of some of the market participants identified across the global turbidimeter market include Thermo Fisher Scientific, Turner Designs, LaMotte Company, HF scientific, Watts Water Technologies, Inc, Hanna Instruments, Inc., Tintometer GmbH, GF Piping Systems, VELP Scientifica, Merck KGaA, Emerson and Palintest (Halma plc) among others.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Global Intelligent Emergency Response Systems Market: In-depth Study, Latest Technology, Projections & Estimations, Forecast 2018 to 2025

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Orbis Research has published new report on "Global Intelligent Emergency Response Systems Sales Market". The report provides information on Industry Trends, Demand, Top Manufacturers, Countries, Material and Application.Orbis Research always aims to bring their clients the best research material and in-depth analysis of the information for any market. This new report Global Intelligent Emergency Response Systems Sales Market for 2018 aims to fulfill the needs of the clients looking for a fresh outlook towards the Global Intelligent Emergency Response Systems Sales Market, or fill in the knowledge gaps with the data available in the report. The well-presented and curated report is compiled by seasoned and professional research experts and subject matter experts in the field. The clients will find the report complete in all aspects as it covers all key components with valuable statistics and expert opinions in all regards.Request a sample of this report @Key Players: Honeywell Siemens Cooper Safeguard Communications UK LTD ATI Systems (Acoustic Technology, Inc.) Everbridge Inc Criticall Ltd Mircom Technologies Ltd Spectrarep, LLC Vocal Technologies United Technologies Corporation Phoenix It GroupThe Global Intelligent Emergency Response Systems Sales Industry report contains a complete product overview and its scope in the market to define the key terms and provide the clients a holistic idea of the market and its tendencies. This is followed by the classification, applications, and the regional analysis of the market to ensure the clients are well informed about each section. The report also contains key values and facts of the Global Intelligent Emergency Response Systems Sales market in terms of value and volume, sales and its growth rate, and revenue and its growth rate.One of the major mainstays of the Global Intelligent Emergency Response Systems Sales Industry report is the coverage on the competition. The report covers all key parameters such as market share, revenue generation, new products or marketing strategies of the competition, latest R&D, and market expert comments, along with the contact information. Key market trends, expert opinions, and a well curated forecast are all included in Global Intelligent Emergency Response Systems Sales Market report.Browse the complete report @Also, some key information such as the cost analysis, industrial chain, sourcing strategy, distributors, marketing strategy, and factor analysis of the Intelligent Emergency Response Systems Sales Market are all a part of the report. The report concludes with the customary SWOT analysis and the analysis on investment feasibility and returns.On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into Signage Broadcasting Systems Communication Systems Video Surveillance Systems Back-up Power Generators OtherOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, sales volume, market share and growth rate for each application, including Government and Defense Industry Application Healthcare Education Residential OtherAs always has been the aim at Orbis Research with every report put up, the information on offer is complete and true knowledge seekers will benefit from it. Irrespective of the interest, academic or commercial, the Intelligent Emergency Response Systems Sales Industry report curated and compiled by domain experts will definitely shed light on key information which the clients require.Place a purchase order of this report @Some Points from Table of Content:Chapter One: Intelligent Emergency Response Systems Market Overview1.1. Product Overview and Scope of Intelligent Emergency Response Systems1.2. Classification of Intelligent Emergency Response Systems by Product Category1.2.1. Global Intelligent Emergency Response Systems Market Size (Sales) Comparison by Type (2013-2025)1.2.2. Global Intelligent Emergency Response Systems Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3. Signage1.2.4. Broadcasting Systems1.2.5. Communication Systems1.2.6. Video Surveillance Systems1.2.7. Back-up Power Generators1.2.8. Other1.3. Global Intelligent Emergency Response Systems Market by Application/End Users1.3.1. Global Intelligent Emergency Response Systems Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Application (2013-2025)1.3.2. Government and Defense1.3.3. Industry Application1.3.4. Healthcare1.3.5. Education1.3.6. Residential1.3.7. Other1.4. Global Intelligent Emergency Response Systems Market by Region1.4.1. Global Intelligent Emergency Response Systems Market Size (Value) Comparison by Region (2013-2025)1.4.2. United States Intelligent Emergency Response Systems Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.3. China Intelligent Emergency Response Systems Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.4. Europe Intelligent Emergency Response Systems Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.5. Japan Intelligent Emergency Response Systems Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.6. Southeast Asia Intelligent Emergency Response Systems Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.7. India Intelligent Emergency Response Systems Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.5. Global Market Size (Value and Volume) of Intelligent Emergency Response Systems (2013-2025)1.5.1. Global Intelligent Emergency Response Systems Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2025)1.5.2. Global Intelligent Emergency Response Systems Revenue and Growth Rate (2013-2025)Contact sales@orbisresearch.com for more information.About Us:Orbis Research (orbisresearch.com) is a single point aid for all your market research requirements. We have vast database of reports from the leading publishers and authors across the globe. We specialize in delivering customized reports as per the requirements of our clients. We have complete information about our publishers and hence are sure about the accuracy of the industries and verticals of their specialization. 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Innovations to Drive Demand for Augmented Reality Products in Healthcare by 2023 | Arizton

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The use of technology in medicine and healthcare is a combination of technological development and data boom. The data has been there for years with doctors, and paper format has been changed to electronic health records (EHR). AR technology has brought the solution for seamless information flow and accessibility to information at any point of time. Such benefits of using this technology will propel the demand in the augmented reality market in healthcare. The AR screens used in the healthcare industry will not only provide information about the patients medical status but also the performance of vital organs. The augmented reality market in healthcare is expected to reach revenues of more than $1.5 billion by 2023, growing at a CAGR of approximately 30% during 2018-2023.Read: Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) Market in Healthcare  Global Outlook and Forecast 2018-2023Augmented Reality assisted SurgeryAugmented reality market in healthcare helps to perform complex surgeries without any geographical barriers and presence of experts at the operation table. AR has connected all the gaps and provided a seamless and smooth functioning of surgical procedures. Companies are developing innovative software that helps doctors to perform such surgeries. The surgeon in an operation theater can stream the video of the patient from any connected device such as smartphones and tablets to a subject matter expert in any part of the world. While in real time, the expert can guide the surgeon during the operations of the proceedings. The introduction of applications that offer surgery simulations with the help of AR will revolutionize the augmented reality market in healthcare.Read: Top Segments in the AR and VR Market in HealthcareAR assisted RehabilitationAR helps in neuro-rehabilitation and makes the treatment more accessible and effective for patients suffering from strokes, phantom limb pains, and other forms of chronic limb pains. Rehabilitation is one of the major therapies for the patients with neurological disorders and the rise of neurological disorders and long-term disability in the aging population. Such rehabilitation services offer easy access to patients and are provided majorly at medical institutes with the help of development in the augmented reality market in healthcare. AR helps by providing real-time feedback using multiple projection surfaces to provide active visualizations without the therapist. Such efforts will revolutionize the healthcare industry. The leading companies in the augmented reality market in healthcare are developing effective solutions that provide patients effective rehabilitation that is supported by three major concepts such as repetition, feedback, and motivation.Read: Virtual Reality in Healthcare to Revolutionize the Medical Industry by 2023AR assisted Training and Medical EducationVendors in the augmented reality market in healthcare are developing solutions used in training and educating students and medical professionals. With the help of AR technology, students can stream live operations performed by experts in another city, country, or the continent. The advanced AR technology developed companies in the global market are used by experts that can augment back the live pictures with notes, textbook references, and diagrams. AR is helping medical students and young practitioners in gaining in-depth knowledge and practical experience rather than watching in the operation theater. AR will provide complete know-how of the process with relevant information in the form of references, guidelines, and notes in real time. These benefits of using AR technology will drive the growth of augmented reality market in healthcare.The leading vendors in the augmented reality market in healthcare are Orca Health, Brain Power LLC, Medsight Tech, Accuvein, EchoPixel Inc, Augmedix, Atheer Inc, Aira, Proximie, and Kinosis Ltd.Order a report :About Arizton Advisory & IntelligenceArizton  Advisory and Intelligence is an innovation and quality-driven firm, which offers cutting-edge research solutions to clients across the world. We excel in providing comprehensive market intelligence reports and advisory and consulting services.Arizton has gained a paramount standpoint in the market research arena as it offers top of the line solutions to clients to assess market landscape and to finalize foolproof business strategies. We are committed to provide inclusive market research reports and consulting services to clients from diversified industries including Consumer Goods & Retail Technology, Automotive and Mobility, Smart Tech, Healthcare and Lifesciences, Industrial Machinery, Chemicals and Materials, IT and Media, Logistics and PackagingArizton comprises a team of exuberant and well-experienced analysts who have mastered in generating incisive reports. Our specialist analysts possess exemplary skills in market research. We train our team in advanced research practices, techniques, and ethics to outperform in fabricating impregnable research reports.Arizton Advisory & IntelligenceChicago, Illinois, 60605Mail: enquiry@arizton.comCall: +1-312-465-7864
Force Sensor Market - Capacitive Force Sensor Technology Segment Projected to be the Most Attractive Segment Global Market

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The capacitive force sensor segment is projected to be the most attractive segment in the APEJ force sensor market during the forecast period. In terms of value, the piezo-electric force sensor segment is predicted to be the most attractive segment in the North America and Western Europe force sensor markets during 2017  2027. This segment is also anticipated to register high Y-o-Y growth throughout the forecast period in North America and Western Europe.Request for Free Sample Copy of Report @Piezo-electric force sensor segment by technology is anticipated to increase 2.4X between 2017 and 2027In terms of value, the capacitive force sensor technology segment is projected to be the most attractive segment in the global force sensor market during the forecast period. However, the piezo-electric force sensor segment is expected to register high Y-o-Y growth rates throughout the forecast period. In terms of value, this segment is expected to expand at a CAGR of 8.3% during the forecast period. On the other hand, the piezo-resistive force sensor segment is expected to witness steady growth in terms of revenue throughout the forecast period. By 2027 end, revenue generated from the magneto-elastic force sensor segment is estimated to exceed US$ 900 Mn, increasing at a CAGR of 4.9% during the forecast period.Increasing number of sensors per vehicle and rising adoption of the Internet of Things technology likely to boost the technology segment of the global force sensor marketIncreasing adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) technology is driving the growth of the global force sensor market. Force sensors are utilised to measure a change in physical parameters, which describes the functionality and performance capabilities of various Internet of Things (IoT) applications such as consumer electronics, building automation, healthcare & life science, home automation, transportation, industrial, environment, security & public safety and retail & logistics. Hence, an increasing demand for consumer electronics, home automation, etc. is anticipated to positively impact the growth of the technology segment.Browse Full Report With TOC @Force sensors are used to measure static and dynamic forces across various industrial automation processes; for example, they are used in an assembly of two parts with a sequence of static and dynamic programmable force fields. Automation in businesses across the global industrial landscape is expected to boost the efficiency of manufacturing in a relatively lesser time. Companies in the manufacturing sector across the globe are focussing on transforming existing facilities from single or partial automated cells to fully automated and integrated facilities to boost productivity, speed and quality. This, in turn, is fuelling market demand for technology in the manufacturing sector.Focus on deploying touch interfaces across a variety of applications ranging from consumer devices to commercial applications in retail, gaming and signage has been increasing since the past few years. Touch panels require precision in position sensing, rapid response to input and durability, which force sensors offer. Thus, increasing demand for touchscreen applications is expected to support the growth of the global force sensor market. Also, increasing number of industrial applications with a human  machine interface fuels demand for force sensor based touchscreens. These factors are expected to drive the growth of the global force sensor market.Sensors are essential components of various automotive electronic control systems including tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS), oil pressure sensing (OPS) and engine management systems (MAP/BAP). Demand for sensors per vehicle is increasing due to changing government regulations pertaining to emissions monitoring. Rising fuel efficiency standards and increasing focus on deploying advanced sensing solutions to enhance the user experience by passenger car manufacturers are other factors likely to accelerate demand in the technology segment across the globe. "Enquire about this Report @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:
Global Bone Growth Stimulator Market Outlook and Growth Scenario: Forecast Study by Fact.MR

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FACT.MR has been actively involved in offering comprehensive research data concerning various topics which are associated to industrial reference and investor utility. This particular research report titled Bone Growth St imulator Market Forecast, Trend Analysis & Competition Tracking: Global Review 2017 to 2022 has been added to the wide online database of FACT.MR which discusses the present as well as future market scenario. Readers can access knowledge related to market volume, regional expanse as well as competitive landscape prevailing in the global bone growth stimulator market. In order to study development patterns, this smart assessment also focuses on market dynamics, which talks about drivers, restraints and opportunities estimated to influence the concerned market during the period until 2017 to 2022.Request For Sample Report-Major Key Forecast Highlights1- According to the report, bone growth stimulation devices will account for nearly 56% share on global bone growth stimulator revenues in 2017. Platelet-rich plasmas, on the other hand, will be observed as promising product segment, revenues from which are expected to showcase robust growth at 6.2% CAGR. By the end of 2022, a little over US$ 450 Mn worth of platelet-rich plasmas will be sold in the global market for bone growth stimulators.2- In the view of poor road infrastructure and inferior healthcare facilities existing in the Asia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) region, the demand for bone growth stimulators is expected to gain grounds. These factors are boosting the incidence of spinal fractures in this region, compelling doctors towards adoption of bone growth simulation therapy. Moreover, manufacturers of bone growth stimulators are expected to benefit from low wage costs and high resource availability by setting up their manufacturing units across APEJ region. By the end of 2022, over US$ 225 Mn worth of bone growth stimulators will be sold across the APEJ market.3- North America is expected to remain the largest market for bone growth stimulator. The report predicts that high healthcare spending implemented in Canada and the US will urge manufacturers towards developing advanced bone growth stimulators. Meanwhile, revenues amassed from sales of bone growth stimulators in Europe will contribute US$ 600 Mn in revenues by the end of 2022. Towards the end of forecast period, North Americas bone growth stimulator market is likely to soar at a CAGR of 6.2%.4- Application of bone growth stimulators in delayed union & non-union bone fracture treatments is expected to gain traction, reflecting a revenue growth at 5.7% CAGR. Spinal fusion surgeries will account for nearly 25% of the global bone growth stimulator sales in 2017, while their application in oral and maxillofacial surgeries will procure around US$ 250 Mn in global revenues.5- Hospitals and clinics are expected to remain largest end-users of bone growth stimulator throughout the forecast period. With more than 43% share, over US$ 800 Mn worth of bone growth stimulators will be sold in hospitals & clinics across the globe by 2022-end. Home care end-use of bone growth stimulator, on the other hand, is expected to create an incremental opportunity of more than US$ 100 Mn by 2022 over 2017.6- The report has also profiled leading players in the global bone growth stimulator market, which include companies such as Orthofix International N.V., Medtronic plc, Zimmer Biomet Holdings, Inc., Bioventus Inc., Stryker Corporation, Johnson & Johnson, Arthrex, Inc., DJO Global Inc., Elizur Corporation, and Ossatec Benelux B.V.Browse Full Report With TOC-Table of ContentChapter 5. Global Bone Growth Stimulator Market Analysis and Forecast By Application. 405.1. Global Bone Growth Stimulator Market Size and Forecast By Application, 2012-2022. 405.1.1. Delayed Union & Nonunion Bone Fractures Bone Growth Stimulator Market Size and Forecast, 2012-2022. 405.1.1.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region. 405.1.1.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region. 425.1.1.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By Region. 425.1.2. Spinal Fusion Surgeries Bone Growth Stimulator Market Size and Forecast, 2012-2022. 435.1.2.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region. 435.1.2.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region. 455.1.2.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By Region. 455.1.3. Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeries Bone Growth Stimulator Market Size and Forecast, 2012-2022. 465.1.3.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region. 465.1.3.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region. 485.1.3.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By Region. 495.1.4. Other Applications Bone Growth Stimulator Market Size and Forecast, 2012-2022. 495.1.4.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region. 495.1.4.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region. 515.1.4.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By Region. 52Chapter 6. Global Bone Growth Stimulator Market Analysis and Forecast By Region. 536.1. Global Bone Growth Stimulator Market Size and Forecast, 2012-2022. 536.1.1. North America Bone Growth Stimulator Market Size and Forecast, 2012-2022. 536.1.1.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Product. 536.1.1.2. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By End-User. 546.1.1.3. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Application. 566.1.2. Latin America Bone Growth Stimulator Market Size and Forecast, 2012-2022. 586.1.2.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Product. 586.1.2.2. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By End-User. 596.1.2.3. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Application. 616.1.3. Europe Bone Growth Stimulator Market Size and Forecast, 2012-2022. 626.1.3.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Product. 626.1.3.2. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By End-User. 646.1.3.3. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Application. 666.1.4. Japan Bone Growth Stimulator Market Size and Forecast, 2012-2022. 676.1.4.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Product. 676.1.4.2. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By End-User. 696.1.4.3. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Application. 716.1.5. APEJ Bone Growth Stimulator Market Size and Forecast, 2012-2022. 736.1.5.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Product. 736.1.5.2. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By End-User. 746.1.5.3. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Application. 766.1.6. MEA Bone Growth Stimulator Market Size and Forecast, 2012-2022. 776.1.6.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Product. 776.1.6.2. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By End-User. 796.1.6.3. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Application. 81Continued@@@...Check 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:
Specialty Fertilizers Market Analysis, Key Players, Segments, Development and Opportunities by Forecast to 2025 - Yara International ASA, Agrium Inc., The Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Inc

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Specialty Fertilizers Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 2017 - 2025" to its huge collection of research reports.Global Specialty Fertilizers Market: OverviewThis report analyzes and forecasts the market for specialty fertilizers at the global and regional level. The market has been forecast based on revenue (US$ Mn) and volume (Kilo Tons) from 2017 to 2025. The study includes drivers and restraints of the global specialty fertilizers market. It also covers the impact of these drivers and restraints on demand for specialty fertilizers during the forecast period. The report also highlights opportunities in the specialty fertilizers market at the global and regional level.Get PDF for more Professional and Technical insights @The report comprises a detailed value chain analysis, which provides a comprehensive view of the global specialty fertilizers market. Porters Five Forces model for the specialty fertilizers market has also been included to help understand the competitive landscape in the market. The study encompasses market attractiveness analysis, wherein applications are benchmarked based on their market size, growth rate, and general attractiveness.Global Specialty Fertilizers Market: Scope of StudyThe report provides the estimated market size of specialty fertilizers for 2016 and forecast for the next eight years. The global market size of specialty fertilizers has been provided in terms of revenue and volume. Market numbers have been estimated based on type, crop type and compound segments of specialty fertilizers market. Market size and forecast for each major type, crop type and compound have been provided in terms of global and regional markets.Global Specialty Fertilizers Market: Research MethodologyIn order to compile the research report, we conducted in-depth interviews and discussions with a number of key industry participants and opinion leaders. Primary research represents the bulk of research efforts, supplemented by extensive secondary research. We reviewed key players product literature, annual reports, press releases, and relevant documents for competitive analysis and market understanding. Secondary research also includes a search of recent trade, technical writing, internet sources, and statistical data from government websites, trade associations, and agencies. This has proven to be the most reliable, effective, and successful approach for obtaining precise market data, capturing industry participants insights, and recognizing business opportunities.View Complete TOC with tables & Figures @Secondary research sources that are typically referred to include, but are not limited to company websites, annual reports, financial reports, broker reports, investor presentations, and SEC filings, internal and external proprietary databases, and relevant patent and regulatory databases, national government documents, statistical databases, and market reports, news articles, press releases, webcasts specific to companies operating in the market, American Chemical Society, International Council of Chemical Associations, 4m Associations, and European Union.Primary research involves e-mail interactions, telephonic interviews, and face-to-face interviews for each market, type, and applications across geographies. We conduct primary interviews on an ongoing basis with industry participants and commentators in order to validate the data and analysis. Primary interviews provide firsthand information on market size, market trends, growth trends, competitive landscape, and outlook, etc. These help validate and strengthen secondary research findings. These also help develop the analysis teams expertise and market understanding.Global Specialty Fertilizers Market: Market SegmentationThe study provides a decisive view of the global specialty fertilizers market by segmenting it in terms of type, crop type, and compound. These segments have been analyzed based on present and future trends. Regional segmentation includes the current and forecast demand for specialty fertilizers in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. The report also covers demand for individual type, crop type, and compounds in all the regions.Browse Report @Global Specialty Fertilizers Market: Competitive LandscapeThe study includes profiles of major companies operating in the global specialty fertilizers market. Key players in the specialty fertilizers market include Yara International ASA, Agrium Inc., The Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Inc., Israel Chemical Limited, Sociedad Quimica Y Minera S.A., Haifa Chemicals Limited, Coromandel International Limited, among others. Market players have been profiled in terms of attributes such as company overview, overall revenue, business strategies, and recent developments.Specialty fertilizers Market: Type AnalysisSlow Release FertilizersControlled Release FertilizersNutrition and Urease InhibitorsMicro nutrient FertilizersSpecialty fertilizers Market: Crop Type AnalysisCereals & OilseedsTurf & OrnamentalsFruits & VegetablesAbout 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 @
Global Digital Door Lock Sales Market Report 2018: Assa Abloy Group, Cisco Systems, United Technologies, Siemens,

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Digital Door Lock Sales Market Report 2018" to its huge collection of research reports.In this report, the global Digital Door Lock market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Geographically, this report split global into several key Regions, with sales (K Units), revenue (Million USD), market share and growth rate of Digital Door Lock for these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringUnited StatesChinaEuropeJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaTo Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Global Digital Door Lock market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Digital Door Lock sales volume, Price (USD/Unit), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingHoneywellGodrej & Boyce Manufacturing CompanyAssa Abloy GroupCisco SystemsUnited TechnologiesSiemensPanasonicNestwell TechnologiesVivintHanman InternationalHitachiTyco InternationalOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoKeypad LocksBiological Recognition LocksOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, sales volume, market share and growth rate for each application, includingResidentialCommercialGovernmentTable of ContentsGlobal Digital Door Lock Sales Market Report 20171 Digital Door Lock Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Digital Door Lock1.2 Classification of Digital Door Lock by Product Category1.2.1 Global Digital Door Lock Market Size (Sales) Comparison by Type (2012-2022)1.2.2 Global Digital Door Lock Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Keypad Locks1.2.4 Biological Recognition Locks1.3 Global Digital Door Lock Market by Application/End Users1.3.1 Global Digital Door Lock Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Application (2012-2022)1.3.2 Residential1.3.3 Commercial1.3.4 Government1.4 Global Digital Door Lock Market by Region1.4.1 Global Digital Door Lock Market Size (Value) Comparison by Region (2012-2022)1.4.2 United States Digital Door Lock Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 China Digital Door Lock Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 Europe Digital Door Lock Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Japan Digital Door Lock Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.6 Southeast Asia Digital Door Lock Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.7 India Digital Door Lock Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Global Market Size (Value and Volume) of Digital Door Lock (2012-2022)1.5.1 Global Digital Door Lock Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2022)1.5.2 Global Digital Door Lock Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2022)2 Global Digital Door Lock Competition by Players/Suppliers, Type and Application2.1 Global Digital Door Lock Market Competition by Players/Suppliers2.1.1 Global Digital Door Lock Sales and Market Share of Key Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Global Digital Door Lock Revenue and Share by Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)2.2 Global Digital Door Lock (Volume and Value) by Type2.2.1 Global Digital Door Lock Sales and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.2.2 Global Digital Door Lock Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.3 Global Digital Door Lock (Volume and Value) by Region2.3.1 Global Digital Door Lock Sales and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)2.3.2 Global Digital Door Lock Revenue and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)2.4 Global Digital Door Lock (Volume) by Application3 United States Digital Door Lock (Volume, Value and Sales Price)3.1 United States Digital Door Lock Sales and Value (2012-2017)3.1.1 United States Digital Door Lock Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.1.2 United States Digital Door Lock Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.1.3 United States Digital Door Lock Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)3.2 United States Digital Door Lock Sales Volume and Market Share by Players3.3 United States Digital Door Lock Sales Volume and Market Share by Type3.4 United States Digital Door Lock Sales Volume and Market Share by ApplicationGet Complete TOC With Tables and Figures @4 China Digital Door Lock (Volume, Value and Sales Price)4.1 China Digital Door Lock Sales and Value (2012-2017)4.1.1 China Digital Door Lock Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.1.2 China Digital Door Lock Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.1.3 China Digital Door Lock Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)4.2 China Digital Door Lock Sales Volume and Market Share by Players4.3 China Digital Door Lock Sales Volume and Market Share by Type4.4 China Digital Door Lock Sales Volume and Market Share by Application5 Europe Digital Door Lock (Volume, Value and Sales Price)5.1 Europe Digital Door Lock Sales and Value (2012-2017)5.1.1 Europe Digital Door Lock Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)5.1.2 Europe Digital Door Lock Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)5.1.3 Europe Digital Door Lock Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)5.2 Europe Digital Door Lock Sales Volume and Market Share by Players5.3 Europe Digital Door Lock Sales Volume and Market Share by Type5.4 Europe Digital Door Lock Sales Volume and Market Share by ApplicationContinue...About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.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 @Follow me on @
Neuromicroscopy Market Is Estimated to Increase to 5.5% CAGR During 2017-2026

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Global Neuromicroscopy Market: SnapshotCompanies are integrating latest technologies to provide devices at affordable cost. Moreover, increase in the number of neurosurgeries, the rise in the customized microscopy solutions and the increase in funds by government in various countries for healthcare sector are also contributing towards the growth of the global market for neuromicroscopy. Manufacturers are also designing new neurosurgical microscopes with video technology, thereby providing an option to view and record procedures. High-resolution images along with the high-speed autofocus are also being provided by manufacturers. Meanwhile, integration of Virtual Reality (VR) technology in microscope imaging system is also gaining traction in the global market for neuromicroscopy. Also, the rise in geriatric population is fueling the demand for better treatment.However, increased cost of advanced microscopes and heavy custom and excise duty imposed by government in various countries are negatively impacting the growth of the market.As per the latest study by Transparency Market Research (TMR), the global market for neuromicroscopy is anticipated to experience steady growth. The market is estimated to increase to 5.5% CAGR during 2017-2026, reaching US$ 99.7 million revenue towards 2026 end.Request to View Sample of Report -Devices- Top-Selling ProductDevices are likely to be one of the top-selling products in the global market for neuromicroscopy. By 2026 end, devices are estimated to reach nearly US$ 80 million revenue. Meanwhile, softwares are also anticipated to witness strong growth during 2017-2026. With the rise in the various neurological disorders, manufacturers are producing advanced devices that can help in diagnoses as well as assist in surgical procedures.Hospitals to Emerge as the Largest End Users in the Global Market for NeuromicroscopyCompared to the various end users, hospitals are likely to gain more than half of the revenue share towards 2017 end. Hospitals are estimated to reach nearly US$ 60 million revenue towards 2026 end. Meanwhile, specialty clinics are also likely to witness growth between 2017 and 2026.Standalone Devices to Gain Maximum Revenue ShareStandalone devices are likely to account for more than half of the revenue share by 2017 end. Standalone devices are also estimated to exceed US$ 70 million revenue by 2026 end.Request to View Brochure of Report -Europe to Remain Dominant in the Global Neuromicroscopy Market during 2017-2026Europe is anticipated to emerge as the most attractive region in the global market for neuromicroscopy. The region is also likely to witness robust growth between 2017 and 2026. Medical tourism initiatives are being taken up, especially to treat critical diseases such as cancer. Moreover, various universities and institutions in the region are also conducting research in the field of neuroscience to come up with the devices that can help in the treatment of various neurological disorders.On the other hand, North America is also anticipated to witness growth in the neuromicroscopy market between 2017 and 2026. Government is taking an initiative to support on-going research in the field of neuroscience and also the presence of major market players are some of the factors driving the growth of neuromicroscopy market. Asia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ) also presents an opportunity for market players, owing to the increase in healthcare expenditure in countries such as India and China.Report Overview @Competition TrackingMajor participants in the global market for neuromicroscopy market include Hitachi Ltd, GE Healthcare Inc., Siemens AG, Carl Zeiss Meditec AG, Koninklijke Philips N.V., Danaher Corporation, Pridex Medicare Pvt. Ltd., Synaptive Medical Inc., and Haag-Streit AG. Major market players are trying to gain competitive advantage by focusing on innovative technologies.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:
Global Market Study on Home Theater Audio Systems - Bluetooth Segment by Technology Projected to Increase 1.48X in Terms of Value

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In our new publication titled, Home Theater Audio Systems Market: Global Industry Trend Analysis 2012  2016 and Forecast 2017  2025, we have tried to give a crystal clear picture of the global home theater audio systems market to our clients. Our expert team of analysts have examined this market in detail and have offered exclusive recommendations to the key players operating in the global home theater audio systems market. Based on our recommendations, home theater audio systems manufacturers can focus on expanding their business across several countries where there is rapid urbanization and population growth. Change in the lifestyle of consumers can create opportunities in the global home theater audio systems market. It is to be noted that there are huge market opportunities for the providers of electronic devices in untapped rural markets.Request for Free Sample Copy of Report @The main factor supporting these opportunities is that Asia and Africa have a large portion of rural population and the rural markets in these regions have huge potential, which is establishing the bottom of the pyramid for two major economies of the world. According to our expert team of analysts, in order to target these markets, consumer electronics manufacturers can lower the prices of products such as smartphones, feature phones and TVs, thereby expanding their customer base.Another factor that we have noted while studying this market is that wireless technology constitutes Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and NFC. The market is steadily growing towards wireless interconnectivity. Consumers prefer wireless technology over wired technology that allows flexibility in placement. Long-term contracts with business partners help increase business revenue and new innovation strategies enabling quality and after sales service in new potential markets. Establishment of strong sales channels and in-house manufacturing of the devices is likely to remain as the key strategy of manufacturers to facilitate their sales growth.We have thoroughly analyzed the various market opportunities for home theater audio systems manufacturersMulti-room streaming is one of the key opportunities for home theater audio systems manufactures. Multi-room audio systems allow customers to play different songs through different applications installed on smartphones without disturbing the sound quality. Multi-room audio systems allow users to connect with audio systems either using Wi-Fi Airplay or using Bluetooth. This technology provides a huge opportunity for manufacturers to improve in the near future. Another technology such as integrating home audio devices with wearable devices enable manufacturers to develop smart and networked speakers. Software configuration on wearable devices allows OEMs to create truly optimized smart speakers across various product tiers and categories. The integrated platform brings together a unique combination of processing capabilities, connectivity options, voice user interfaces, and premium audio technologies to help meet increasing consumer demand for comprehensively featured, highly intuitive smart speakers.Browse Full Report With TOC @The market is segmented as follows:By Channel Type 1 Channel 1 Channel 1 Channel 1 and AboveBy Technology NFC Bluetooth Wi-FiBy Sales Channel Organized Retail Stores Unorganized Retail Stores Online/e-CommerceBy End User Premium (more than US$ 10,000) Mid-range (US$ 1000  US$ 10,000) Low range (less than US$ 1000)By Region North America Latin America Europe Asia Pacific Middle East & AfricaReport Structure and Research MethodologyMacro-economic indicators such as GDP, wholesale & retail trade, merchandise trade, and prices have been considered to arrive at the indicated market numbers. Top-down approach has been used to assess market numbers for each category, while bottom-up approach has been used to counter-validate the market numbers. Economic fluctuations have been considered while forecasting market numbers. To understand this market well, our analysts have conducted interviews with industry experts, industry players, distributors, and retailers for data collection and verification. In-depth secondary research is used to determine top industry players, products, applications, overall market size, industry connotations, distributors and software developers.Enquire about this Report @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:
Malt Ingredients Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2016 - 2024

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Malt Ingredients Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2016 - 2024" to its huge collection of research reports.Malting is the procedure of converting cereal grains such as barley and wheat into malt, which may be utilized in applications such as brewing, distilling, and in manufacturing foods. The cereal grains are germinated by soaking them in water and consequently allowing them to sprout. Following this, they are dried with warm air. During the malting process, grain starches are transformed in simple sugars including glucose and fructose. Malt components are utilized by leading food and beverage enterprises in the form of food additives, which impart a palatable taste and color to the end product. The use of this ingredient also facilitates the modification or stabilization of the texture of various F&B products. The rising number of new food products launched on the market, especially those containing organic and herbal ingredients, as well as the growing demand for completely natural foods is creating new possibilities in the malt ingredient marketplace.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Global Malt Ingredients Market: SegmentationThe malt ingredients market can be segmented basis source into the following: wheat, barley, and others (such as rye). Barley is commonly used as a base ingredient in the malting process. Likewise, wheat grains are also used for malting as they feature more proteins. The malt ingredients market can also be segmented on the premise of grade into special grade and standard grade malts (which as are also referred to as base malts). Of these two types of malts, it is the base malts that have diastatic power, which helps them convert their naturally occurring starches. On the other hand, specialty malts have very little diastatic power  this makes them integral to the flavor and color of the end product.Based on type of malt ingredients, the market can be segmented into: flour, liquid malt, dry malt, and others (such as flakes). Dry malt powder is widely used in numerous powder premixes and bakery products. The use of liquid malts is commonly made in syrups and toppings used on ice creams. Furthermore, flakes are typically sprinkled on bakery products as toppings. The market for malt ingredients can also be segmented on the basis of end use applications into the following: bakery and confectionary products, food products, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, dairy and frozen products, and others (such as animal feed and pharmaceuticals).Malt Ingredients Market: Region-wise OutlookSegmented on the basis of region, the global malt ingredients market can be divided into: North America, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Asia Pacific excluding Japan, Western Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Japan. The global malt ingredients market has been projected to display vigorous growth all through 2025 on account of the rising demand for different packaged foods and ready-to-eat products. With an increase in the amount of packaged food consumed and an upswing in the sales of non-alcoholic beer, the market for malt ingredients worldwide is predicted to follow a steady growth trajectory. Europe, especially, is expected to perform well and dominate the global market through the forecast period. The markets of Asia-Pacific and the Middle East and Africa (MEA) will also register robust growth thanks largely to the mounting demand for non-alcoholic and alcoholic drinks. New products under development in the dairy premixes and the soaring popularity of malt-based drinks formulated for kids will stimulate the malt ingredient markets growth.Global Malt Ingredients Market: DriversThe exploding population across the globe has positively impacted the demand for food, thus having a cascading effect on the demand for various ingredients used in the F&B sector. There is a spike in the number of health conscious consumers, too. This is helping the growth of the market.An uptick in the sales of malt beer and other dairy products that are malt-based will substantially drive the malt ingredients market, it is expected.Get Complete TOC With Tables and Figures @Malt Ingredients Market: Key PlayersThe top companies that have gained a foothold in the malt ingredients market are: Cargill Incorporated, Axereal, Global Malt GmbH & Co. Kg, Crisp Malting Group, Ireks GmbH, Muntons PLC, Malteurop Group, and Simpsons Malt Ltd.About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.For More Information Kindly Contact:ResearchMozMr. Nachiket Ghumare,Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn @Follow me on @
North America Real Time Health Monitoring Devices Market is Estimated to Grow at a CAGR of 14.36 % - Forecast From 2018 To 2022

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North America real time health monitoring devices market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 14.36 % during the forecasted period 2016-2022. US commands the largest market share of 71.96 % of North America real time health monitoring devices market. The market for US was valued at USD 8,585.0 million in 2016 and expected to reach at USD 19,017.0 million by 2022.If You Have Any Query Ask Here:North America real time health monitoring devices market is increasing at a significant rate due to increasing prevalence of chronic diseases and increasing aging population. Real time health monitoring devices provide real time analysis of the patients health parameters. Patients are sharing their healthcare information in real time with their caregivers through these devices for flexible health monitoring and management. Internet of medical things is vastly improving the healthcare conditions of patients. Tracking patient monitoring and drug management has become possible because of the usage of the above Internet of Things (IOT) medical devices in the healthcare sector. Increasing ageing population, surging healthcare expenses and an increase in the occurrence of chronic diseases is driving healthcare stakeholders to follow remote health management and patient monitoring seriously. Increasing use of smartphones and wearable devices in healthcare and an increase in the occurrence of chronic diseases is major driving factor for North America real time health monitoring devices market.North America real time health monitoring devices market has been segmented on the basis of type which comprises of home health medical devices and wearable devices. Home health medical devices are sub segmented into blood pressure monitors, glucometers, pulse oximeters and others. Wearable devices are further sub segmented into fitness bands, smart watch, smart clothing, headbands and other. On the basis of end user they are segmented as hospitals, clinics, ambulatory centers and homecare settings. And on the basis of region North America real time health monitoring devices market is segmented into US and Canada.Wearable Devices accounted for the largest market share of real time health monitoring devices market on the basis of type registering USD 7,145.2 million in 2016 and expected to reach at USD 15,718.6 million by 2022. The market is growing at the CAGR of 14.04 % during the forecast period from 2016-2022.The market for real time health monitoring devices is growing rapidly. US accounted for the largest market share in 2016 which is expected to reach USD 19,017.0 million by 2022 from USD 8,585.0 million in 2016. Canada is the fastest growing region, which is growing at the fastest CAGR of 14.82 % during the forecast period from 2016-2022.Key Questions Answered In This Report:What will the market size and what will the growth rate be?What is driving this market?What are the key market trends?What are the challenges to market growth?You Can Purchase This Report @ $299 Here:North America real time health monitoring devices market statistical report published by Market Research future contains a brief overview of North America real time health monitoring devices market. US commands the largest share and is expected to grow continuously during the forecasted period of 2016-2022. The report analyzed the North America real time health monitoring devices market and presents systematic data of market share on the basis of country, type, and industry and its growth rate for 2015 to 2016, along with forecast till 2022.Market Research future through this report aims to provide understanding of the North America real time health monitoring devices market on the basis of country, type, and industry and also assists identification of ongoing trends along with anticipated growth during the forecasted period. For this report, extensive primary research was conducted to gain a deeper insight of the market performance. Various industry experts and Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) were contacted and interviewed to get an idea of North America real time health monitoring devices 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), Statistical Report, 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 Us:Market Research Future Office No. 528,Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar, Pune  411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone: +1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Human Growth Hormone Market Is Estimated To Increase to 6.2% CAGR

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Human growth hormone is responsible for growth and regeneration among humans and also stimulates cell reproduction. However, deficiency of growth hormone is constantly on the rise. Advancements in technology including development of recombinant human growth hormone by the major players is boosting the market growth. Also, the leading companies are focusing on increasing their production capacity in order to increase supply in the rural areas.As per the latest report by Transparency Market Research (TMR), the global market for human growth hormone is likely to see strong growth in the coming years. The market is estimated to increase to 6.2% CAGR. The global market for human growth hormone is also estimated to generate US$ 5,261.5 million revenue by 2026 end.Request to View Sample of Report -Subcutaneous as Route of Administration is likely to Witness Substantial GrowthAmong various route of administration, subcutaneous as the route of administration is likely to witness substantial growth between 2017 and 2026. Subcutaneous as the route of administration is estimated to surpass US$ 1,600 million revenue by 2026 end. The preference for the subcutaneous method is increasing as it leads to the significant rise in growth rates and low incidence of antibody development. Moreover, subcutaneous route is highly preferred for chronic growth hormone therapy.Hospital Pharmacy to be the Largest Distribution Channel in the Global Market for Human Growth HormoneCompared to the various distribution channels, hospital pharmacy is likely to emerge as one of the largest distribution channels. By the end of the forecast period, hospital pharmacy is projected to bring in close to US$ 2,200 million revenue. Owing to the high cost of human growth hormone drugs, a lot of hospital pharmacies are distributing drugs. Also, high investment for development of advanced healthcare centers and hospitals by governments in various countries is also driving the distribution of growth hormone drugs through hospital pharmacy.Request to View Brochure of Report -Growth Hormone Deficiency to Witness Highest Growth based on IndicationGrowth hormone deficiency is likely to account for the largest market share in terms of value. Towards the end of 2026, growth hormone deficiency is estimated to create an incremental opportunity of more than US$ 1,100 million between 2017 and 2026. Pituitary tumors, metabolic abnormalities, and skeletal abnormalities are some of the factors resulting in the rise of growth hormone deficiency. Adults with growth hormone deficiency are also increasingly taking growth hormone injections as it protects them from increased muscle mass, fractures, and also reduces the risk of heart diseases.North America to Emerge as the Largest Region in the Global Market for Human Growth HormoneNorth America is likely to emerge as the largest region between 2017 and 2026. Presence of the major market players and commercialization of growth hormone by the U.S. Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) are driving the market growth. Meanwhile, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ) is also expected to witness the fastest growth in the coming years. India, China, and Australia are contributing towards the growth in the region. Moreover, increasing number of people suffering from growth hormone deficiency also presents an opportunity for the leading companies in APEJ region.Report Overview @Key Competitors in the Global Market for Human Growth HormoneMerck KGaA, Pfizer Inc., Eli Lilly and Company, Novartis AG, Novo Nordisk A/S, Anhui Anke Biotechnology (Group) Co., Ltd, Biopartners GmbH, Ipsen S.A, GeneScience Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd., and Roche Holdings, Inc., are some of the major companies operating in the global market for human growth hormone.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:
Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) Market Analysis 2018 To 2023: Global Industry Size, Share, Trends, Manufacturers, and Regional Outlook

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Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) Market Research Report 2018 of 111 pages expands comprehensive information on Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) Market by Component (Electronic Control Units, Fuel Injectors, Fuel Pumps, Sensors), By Vehicle (Passenger Vehicle and Commercial Vehicle), by support technology (Gasoline Turbocharger and GPF) and by Regions with Global Forecast To 2023. Report studies Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) Market key players, providing a six-year annual trend analysis that highlights market size, volume, sales, growth, and share for North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC) and Rest of the World (ROW).Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) Market Overview:The global market for automotive fuel injection has been witnessing significant growth in recent times. The growing vehicle production across the globe has been driving the market. Rapidly rising demand for high fuel efficiency and stringent government regulations, govern the automotive industry. They contribute in the growth of the Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) market along with the rising implementation of environmental regulations, and increasing adoption of advanced automotive technologies.Inquire For Complete Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) Market Research Report - Forecast to 2023 report at:Bosch (Germany), Continental (Germany), Delphi(U.K.), Denso(Japan), Magneti Marelli(Italy), Hitachi(Japan), Stanadyne(U.S.), MSR-Jebsen Technologies(China), Eaton Corporation(IRELAND), Mitsubishi Electric Corp.(Japan), and Bajaj Auto (India) are some of the prominent players profiled in Analysis and are at the forefront of competition in the Global Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) Market.The market for Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) 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 the United States. With the increase in demand of commercial vehicles there is an increase in demand for Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) systems. Major demand for fuel efficient vehicles in this region, coupled with heavy investment in the technological development is expected to drive the demand in the Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) 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 both, passenger and commercial vehicles. Owing to all these factors, the growth of the regions is expected to grow at a rapid pace.Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) Market Segmentation: by Component (Electronic Control Units, Fuel Injectors, Fuel Pumps, Sensors), By Vehicle (Passenger Vehicle and Commercial Vehicle), by support technology (Gasoline Turbocharger and GPF) and by Regions.Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) Market Regional Analysis:Due to the presence of most populous countries such as China and India, the dominance of Asia Pacific becomes evident in the global Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) systems market value. Aggressive growth of the automotive market in Asia, is expected to boost the demand in the Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) market in this region. The market has been experiencing rapid growth due to the rising sales of passenger cars, and the emerging economies where the global players are shifting. Technological advancements are also giving a much needed thrust to the Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) systems market. Rampant rise in vehicle production in the Asia Pacific region is also expected to be contributing majorly in the growth of the Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) market.Get More Report Details @The report for Global Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) Market of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different market segments and regions.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
Intrauterine Pressure Catheters Market Size, Trends, Analysis, Leading Players & Future Forecast by 2025

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Intrauterine pressure catheters are used during labour induction to measure the uterine contractions. Intrauterine pressure catheters measures uterine contraction by measuring intrauterine pressure and contraction frequency, duration, and strength. These catheters mainly used by obstetrician or midwife to determine the amount of oxytocin to use. Intrauterine pressure catheters measures the uterine pressure in Montevideo units. These catheters are largely accepted by healthcare professionals because it provides measurable, quantitative and reliable uterine activity. Intrauterine pressure catheters work by directly measuring pressure within the amniotic space using pressure transducer. Intrauterine pressure catheters helps in titrating the oxytocin dose during induction or labor.Request Report for Table of Contents @Intrauterine pressure catheters market is mainly driven by the advantages associated with these catheters over physical palpitation which requires physical presence of clinician to perform examination, and does not reduce in patients undergoing external foetal heart rate monitoring. Apart from aforementioned factors, increasing government organization initiatives to create awareness about reproductive health, growing female population, and strong supply chain in developed economies expected to fuel the revenue growth of intrauterine pressure catheters market over the forecast period. In addition, rising labour procedures and decrease in maternal deaths are expected to boost the revenue growth of intrauterine pressure catheters market over the forecast period. However, routine use of intrauterine pressure catheters does not to improve foetal or maternal outcomes while increases the cost, complexity, and complications which are expected to impact the intrauterine pressure catheters market revenue growth negatively over the forecast period. In addition, cost associated with the procedure and invasive nature of the procedure may impact market revenue growth negatively over the forecast period.Intrauterine pressure catheters market is oligopolistic in nature with few players are operating in the market. Players in the market imparting training to the caregivers to better create demand and retain customers for companys products. Players in the market coming with innovative products and adopting geographic expansion strategies by to increase geographic footprint in global intrauterine pressure catheters market.Geographically, Intrauterine Pressure Catheters market is segmented into regions viz. North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Japan, Middle East and Africa. North America and Europe regions are expected to garner larger market revenue share in intrauterine pressure catheters market over the forecast period owing to presence of key players in the regions and availability of advanced healthcare infrastructure which are expected to propel the demand for intrauterine pressure catheters during the forecast period in the above mentioned region. Asia Pacific region is expected to witness significant growth owing growing healthcare infrastructure, rising out of pocket healthcare expenditure in the region.Request a Sample Brochure of the Report @The players in Intrauterine Pressure Catheters market include Clinical Innovations, LLC., Koninklijke Philips N.V., Medtronic, Utah Medical Products, Inc., Becton, Dickinson and Company, to name a few.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,Telephone - +1-646-568-7751USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Urea Cycle Disorders (UCD) Treatment Market Expected to Rise Steadily throughout 2017 to 2025

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According to national urea cycle disorders foundation of USA, a urea cycle disorder is a genetic disorder caused by a mutation that results in a deficiency of one of the six enzymes in the urea cycle. These enzymes are responsible for removing ammonia from the blood stream. The urea cycle involves a series of biochemical steps in which nitrogen, a waste product of protein metabolism, is removed from the blood and converted to a compound called urea in the blood. Normally, the urea is transferred into the urine and removed from the body. In urea cycle disorders, the nitrogen accumulates in the form of ammonia, a highly toxic substance, resulting in hyperammonemia (elevated blood ammonia). Ammonia then reaches the brain through the blood, where it can cause irreversible brain damage, coma and/or death.Request Report for Table of Contents @The estimated incidence of urea cycle disorders is 1 in 8500 births. Because many cases of urea cycle disorders remain undiagnosed and/or infants born with the disorders die without a definitive diagnosis, the exact incidence of these cases is unknown and underestimated. It is believed that up to 20% of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) cases may be attributed to an undiagnosed inborn error of metabolism such a urea cycle disorder which are expected to drive the urea cycle disorders treatment market for over the forecast period. However, lack of definitive treatment options & diagnostic procedures, dearth of diseases prognosis data are expected to impact the urea cycle disorders treatment market revenue growth negatively over the forecast period.Urea cycle disorders treatment market is less competitive as few molecules and players are operating in the market place. Players in the market working to create awareness regarding disease among healthcare professionals, family members. For instance, in March 2017, Horizon Pharma plc. launched UCD in Common, an initiative for people impacted by a urea cycle disorder (UCD) in collaboration with people living with a UCD, their families, caregivers and healthcare professionals to offer supportive, educational and interactive resources.Geographically, urea cycle disorders treatment market is segmented into regions viz. North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Japan, Middle East and Africa. North America and Europe regions are expected to garner larger market revenue share over the forecast period owing to presence of key players in the regions and rising awareness among key stakeholders which are expected to propel the demand for urea cycle disorders treatment during the forecast period in the above mentioned region.Request a Sample Brochure of the Report @The players in urea cycle disorders (UCD) Treatment market include Horizon Pharma plc. Lucane Pharma, Recordati Rare Diseases Inc., and Synlogic. to name a few.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,Telephone - +1-646-568-7751USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Castleman's Disease Treatment Market Trends Research and Projections for 2017 - 2025

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Castlemans disease is a rare disorder related to the lymphatic system in which the bodys disease-fighting network get affected. In the Castlemans disease, the bodys lymph cells became overgrow. The Castlemans disease is also known as angiofollicular lymph node hyperplasia and giant lymph node hyperplasia. Sometimes the Castlemans disease is associated with the HIV infection which can be life threatening. The Castlemans disease also associated with the other diseases such as cancer of the lymphatic system, POEMS syndrome and cell proliferation disorders. The actual cause of the disease is unknown, but when the immune system of the body gets weaker due to other diseases, leads to the chances of Castlemans disease. The Castlemans disease is of two types: Localized (unicentric) and widespread (multicentric) disease. The treatment of the Castlemans disease depends on the type of the disease such as surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy and drugs. The unicentric type of Castlemans disease is a common type and generally cured by the surgery. Whether the multicentric disease is treated by the combination of drugs and surgery.Request Report for Table of Contents @The advancement to the diagnosis of rare diseases such as Castlemans Disease boosted the diagnosis rate and expected to grow the treatment market of Castlemans Disease over the forecast period.The global Castlemans disease treatment market is expected to register a significant CAGR over a forecast period. The increasing availability of advanced diagnosis and treatment facilities for the rare diseases such as Castlemans disease is the major factor, which anticipated to boost the growth of the global Castlemans disease treatment market. The developing medical infrastructure and diagnostics facilities in the emerging markets such as China and India, also propel the growth of the global Castlemans disease treatment market. The increasing research and development activities to bring the new and combination treatment technologies and up-gradation of existing one, also expected to drives the global Castlemans disease treatment market over a forecast period.However, the higher cost of Castlemans disease treatment due to high cost of reagents and devices may hamper the growth of the global Castlemans disease treatment market.On the basis of regional presence, the global Castlemans disease treatment market is segmented into five key regions: North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Middle East & Africa.The North America is dominating and contributed the leading shares to the global Castlemans disease treatment market in terms of revenue and expected to register a significant growth over a forecast period due to the developed medical infrastructure and availability of treatment facilities in the region. The Europe has also contributed the moderate shares and registered a healthy growth rate to the global Castlemans disease treatment market followed by North America. The APEJ has become the lucrative market for Castlemans disease treatment and anticipated to register significant shares over the forecast period due to the increasing research and development activities along with the growing medical tourism in the region. The Latin America and MEA are at a nascent stage to the global Castlemans disease treatment market and expected to show a moderate growth over a forecast period.Request a Sample Brochure of the Report @Some of the market players in Castlemans disease treatment Market globally include Janssen Biotech, Novartis AG, NPS Pharmaceuticals, Inc, Octapharma AG, Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, Relypsa, Inc., Bayer AG, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, AbbVie Inc. and Amgen Inc.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,Telephone - +1-646-568-7751USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Latin America Data Center Market - Industry Analysis, Trends, Drivers and Forecast 2023

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The data center market size in Latin America is expected to reach around $1 billion by 2023, growing at an impressive CAGR of more than 11% 20182023.According to a recent market research report by Arizton, the Latin America data center market is driven by the improving broadband and network connectivity in the region. The increasing investments by leading cloud hosting service providers such as AWS, Microsoft, Google, Oracle, and IBM will propel the development of the Latin America data center market during the forecast period. The market research report provides in-depth market analysis and segmental analysis of the Latin America data center market by product, distribution channel, material, and geography.Order a report now:Latin America Data Center Market - OverviewThe construction of more than 20 new projects, covering more than 800,000 thousand square feet of area, and consuming around 125 MW of power capacity is driving the growth of the of Latin America data center market. The growing digitalization efforts by the government agencies in Latin America and the increasing investment by top enterprises to improve the economy will transform the market in this region. The availability of strong fiber connectivity, reliability in power supply, and high demand for innovative technological solutions from various industries will boost the construction of new facilities in the Latin American market. The design guidelines by the Uptime Institute tier standards and the International Computer Room Experts Association (ICREA) will create a new opportunity for operators to deploy facilities with innovative designs in the Latin American market. The increasing investments by telecommunication operators such as Entel, Antel, Telefonica (Vivo), Americatel, Telecarrier, and Embratel (America Movil) will result in improved network connectivity and initiation of submarine cable projects in the market in this region. Furthermore, development of new projects by local and global colocation providers such as Ascenty, Equinix, Odata, Angola Cable, TigoUne, and Axtel is expected to grow in the Latin America data center market over the next few years.Latin America Data Center Market - DynamicsThe increasing tax incentives and low-cost land for new facilities construction offered by the government bodies will attribute to the growth of the Latin America data center market. The increasing investment in data center deployment will improve the local, state, and country economy in the Latin American market. The government in Brazil offers incentives on the purchase of infrastructure that aids in improving broadband connectivity in the country through the Regime Especial de Tributacao do Programa Nacional de Banda Larga (REPNBL) program. Colombian government offers free trade zones for construction of new facilities in the region. Bogota Free Trade Zone (Bogota Zona Franca) and West Free Trade Zone (Occidente Zona Franca) are two of zones in Colombia. Other major countries such as Chile, Mexico, and rest of Latin America is expected to continue to offer tax incentives to operators to boost the deployment of new facilities in the Latin America data center market.Latin America Data Center Market - SegmentationThis market research report includes a detailed segmentation of the market by electrical infrastructure, mechanical infrastructure, general construction, and geography.Major Vendors in the Latin America Data Center MarketInfrastructure ProviderABBEatonGERittalSchneider ElectricSTULZVertivGeneral Construction ContractorsAECOMKKR Investment Group (Aceco TI S.A.)Flex EnclosureZFB GroupData Center InvestorsEquinixAscentyOdata (Patria Investments)TigoUne (UNE EPM)AxtelProminent Players in the Latin America data center marketInfrastructure ProviderActive Power (Piller Power Systems)AIRSYSAlfa LavalCaterpillarCumminsCyber Power SystemsDaikin Applied (Daikin Industries)Delta GroupGenerac Power SystemsGeist GlobalLegrandMitsubishi Electric CorporationMuntersNortek Humidity (Condair Group)ToshibaPentairConstruction ContractorsAfonso Franco EngineeringFluor Corp.Jacobs Engineering GroupHolder ConstructionMortenson ConstructionData Center InvestorsHostDimeTelefonicaEntelAntelOrder a report now for detailed information:Market Segmentation by Electrical InfrastructureUPS systemsGeneratorsTransfer Switch and SwitchgearRack PDUOther Electrical InfrastructureMarket Segmentation by Mechanical InfrastructureCooling SystemsRackOther Mechanical InfrastructureMarket Segmentation by Cooling SystemsCRAC & CRAH SystemsChillersCooling Towers & Dry CoolersEconomizer & Evaporative CoolersOther Cooling UnitsMarket Segmentation by Cooling TechniqueAir-based Cooling TechniqueWater-based Cooling TechniqueMarket Segmentation by General ConstructionBuilding DevelopmentInstallation & CommissioningBuilding DesignPhysical SecurityDCIMMarket Segmentation by GeographyBrazilColombiaChileRest of Latin AmericaView report details:About Arizton Advisory & IntelligenceArizton  Advisory and Intelligence is an innovation and quality-driven firm, which offers cutting-edge research solutions to clients across the world. We excel in providing comprehensive market intelligence reports and advisory and consulting services.Arizton has gained a paramount standpoint in the market research arena as it offers top of the line solutions to clients to assess market landscape and to finalize foolproof business strategies. We are committed to provide inclusive market research reports and consulting services to clients from diversified industries including Consumer Goods & Retail Technology, Automotive and Mobility, Smart Tech, Healthcare and Lifesciences, Industrial Machinery, Chemicals and Materials, IT and Media, Logistics and PackagingArizton comprises a team of exuberant and well-experienced analysts who have mastered in generating incisive reports. Our specialist analysts possess exemplary skills in market research. We train our team in advanced research practices, techniques, and ethics to outperform in fabricating impregnable research reports.Arizton Advisory & IntelligenceChicago, Illinois, 60605Mail: enquiry@arizton.comCall: +1-312-465-7864
Bariatric Surgery Market 2018 | Advanced Players: Apollo Endosurgery Inc., Johnson & Johnson Services Inc., Olympus Corporation, ALLERGAN, TransEnterix Surgical, Inc., Cousin Biotech, EndoGastric Solutions, Inc., ReShape Lifesciences

Global Bariatric surgery Market

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MarketResearchFuture.com adds Bariatric Surgery Market - 2018 Global Analysis, Growth, Trends and Opportunities Research Report forecasting to 2023 reports to its database.You can get easy access to samples from the report here:Global Bariatric Surgery Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.5% during the forecast period.The recent market developments has necessitated a see through approach so as to avoid the slippery slope generated by the changing paradigms resulting from the powerful forces of economy, business models, competition and others. Market Research future presents its latest report titled World Bariatric Surgery Market forecast till 2023 to help clear the blur resulting from these developments and to give the reader a clear picture of the possibilities and nuisances lying ahead!Synopsis of the Global Bariatric Surgery Market:Bariatric surgery or weight loss surgery is used as one of the major treatment procedures for obesity. During this procedure, the size of the stomach is reduced by removing some part of the stomach or using a gastric band. Gastric bypass, sleeve gastrectomy, adjustable gastric band, and biliopancreatic diversion with a duodenal switch are most widely used equipment in bariatric procedures. Body Mass Index (BMI) plays an important role in determining whether a person is obese. Bariatric surgery is mostly recommended for the people with BMI above 40. It can be used to improve the health of the patients with obesity thereby reducing the risk of life-threatening diseases.Obesity is one of the major health problems have increased the demand for gastric bypass across the globe. Diabetes and cardiovascular disease are the major diseases found to be prevalent among the obese population. The emergence of new technologies in bariatric surgery, increasing number of patients and growing demand for minimally invasive surgical procedures are the key drivers for the market growth during the forecast period.Rising prevalence of obesity and increasing demand for weight loss procedures are the major factors, which drive the growth of the market. Furthermore, the popularity of bariatric surgery for weight loss is found to be increasing in the developing nations across the globe, boosting the market growth.Key Players in the Global Bariatric Surgery Market:Some of the key players in this market are Apollo Endosurgery Inc., Johnson & Johnson Services Inc., Olympus Corporation, ALLERGAN, TransEnterix Surgical, Inc., Cousin Biotech, EndoGastric Solutions, Inc., ReShape Lifesciences, Inc., Medtronic, Intuitive Surgical, Aspire Bariatrics, Mediflex Surgical Products and others.Any query or specific requirement? Ask to our industry expert:What makes our report unique?1) An extensive research study on the Global Bariatric Surgery market, and its entire ecosystem, describes the market trends, drivers, restraints and opportunities of the Bariatric Surgery market.2) We provide you the longest possible market segmentation based on type of products, procedures and geography and describe the market share region wise.3) The report gives a bird eyes view on the competitive landscape which includes mergers and acquisitions, collaborations, market strategies, and new product launches.Regional Analysis of the Global Bariatric surgery Market:America is the largest market for bariatric surgery and is driven by the availability of large number of surgical centers, growing awareness about obesity and its risk factors and technological advancement in laparoscopic bariatric surgery. North America market for bariatric surgery is the largest market followed by South America. Furthermore, obesity is one of the major health issues among the population in the U.S. thereby increasing the demand for surgical procedures. In South America, growth of healthcare sector and increasing use of medical devices for various surgical procedures boost the market growth. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that in 2014, more than one-third of the U.S. adults had obesity.Europe Bariatric surgery market is driven by increasing number of surgical device manufacturers and distributors, the high prevalence of diabetes, and huge government funding available for research. Germany holds the largest market share followed by France and U.K. Factors contributing to the market growth in Germany are a concentration of key players in the market and focus on diabetes and obesity management.In Asia Pacific, diabetes is one of the major chronic diseases creating an economic burden on the developing economies such as China and India. Availability of skilled healthcare professionals, i.e., surgeons, rising patient awareness regarding obesity, and growing geriatric population are the key factors contributing to the growth of the market. In India and China, increasing influence of western lifestyle, lack of physical activities and sedentary lifestyle of the working population are the major risk factors for obesity, thereby accelerating the market growth. Additionally, the prevalence of obesity is also found to be increasing in Asia Pacific which influences the regional markets.The bariatric surgery market in the Middle East & Africa demonstrates steady progress with Saudi Arabia and Unites Arab Emirates (UAE) being the largest contributors to the market growth. The growth of surgical device market and increasing focus on healthcare sector are the major drivers for the market growth. The African market shows positive growth with demand for technologically advanced healthcare services.Segments:The global bariatric surgery market is segmented on the basis of device, type, and end user.On the basis of the device, the market is segmented into surgical stapler gastric bands, gastric balloons, gastric emptying systems, electrical stimulation systems, and others.On the basis of the type, the market is segmented into gastric bypass, sleeve gastrectomy, adjustable gastric band, biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch, and others.On the basis of the end user, the market is segmented into hospital & clinics, surgical centers, and others.CONTINUED FOR TOCFeel free to get in touch for discounts and customized details:About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Contact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune  411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
CBRN Defense Market 2018 Worldwide Key Industry Segments, Emerging Audience, Growth Opportunities, Key Driven Factors, Market Scenario Forecast to 2021

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CBRN Defense Market - Overview:The technological innovations in the fields of biotechnology, nuclear energy, and life sciences give positive impact on humanity. However such advancement is also a threat that can further lead to CBRN terrorism.Demilitarization initiatives such as reduction of CBRN weapons stockpile and growing investments in the CBRN resistance technologies are on rise and at the same time the vendors are expected to devise advanced CBRN security products with enhanced effectiveness, detection capabilities, and rapid decontamination functions. The increasing use of nuclear energy and the integration of CBRN training are some key drivers of the market.The ongoing anti-CBRN programs have been severely affected by budget cuts and sequestration in the U.S. since 2011. This has had an adverse impact on the development and procurement of the CBRND systems. Major programs were put on hold, and most of them were canceled, which in turn affected the industries margins and profitability. The increasing threats of extremist attacks and proliferation of CBRN weapons are some major challenges faced by the market.The introduction of the CBRN reconnaissance vehicle is the latest trend in the market. The vehicle helps in the long-range detection of CBRNE threats. They are also equipped with services such as light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation (LASER), real-time monitoring and georeferencing of chemical compounds, which aid in efficient detection and identification of CBRN threats. The development of polymer nanofibers and increased COTS procurement are the latest trends in the market.Request a Sample Report @Key PlayersAlfred Karcher GmbH & Co. KG(Germany), Bruker(U.S.), Cherming group(U.K.), Smiths Detection(U.K.), America Corporation(U.S.), Battelle(U.S.), Bioquell(U.K.), Rheinmetall AG(Germany) and Thales Group(France), Elbit Systems(Israel) are the key companies in the market. Their focus is primarily on the implementation of lightweight materials, more of electric technologies, and robust systems.The global CBRN market is expected to grow at a CAGR of nearly 5% during 2017-2023.Regional AnalysisThe nuclear attack in Japan (Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August, 1945) during the World War II and the nuclear test explosions (in the Soviet Union in 1949, U.K. in 1952, France in 1960, and China in 1964), had fatal impact. Thus, International Court of Justice declared the use of nuclear weapons as illegal and contrary to international law, in 1996. In the same year, the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) was signed at the United Nations (UN), by the U.S., Russia, China, France, and the U.K., which concluded on banning the nuclear test explosions.The upgrades planned in North America and Europe and threats of terrorism from hostile neighboring regions such as Middle East and Asia Pacific are driving the global CBRN defense market and are expected to grow during the forecast period.Construction of 60 reactors are carried out over 13 countries, which includes China, Bangladesh, India, Poland, Russia, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, and the UAE.U.S, in particular, makes the largest investments in its nuclear warheads, globally. In 2015, the U.S. Army is estimated to have over 7,100 nuclear warheads, with more than 4,700 warheads assigned for use in military vehicles.Both Washington and Moscow signed the chemical weapons convention (CWC) of the 1990s, which forbid the use, production, and stockpiling of chemical weapons. The process of safe disposal of the chemicals and munitions took over 20 years.Browse Complete Report @There are still more than 3,000 tons of chemical weapons left in the U.S., stored at two remaining facilities at Pueblo in Colorado, and Bluegrass in Kentucky. In 2015, the officials plan to destroy the major store in Pueblo, which has 2,600 tons of mustard blister chemicals stored in liquid and projectile form. The process is expected to be completed in four years. Additionally, 523 tons of mustard agent, VX, and sarin nerve agents are stored in the Bluegrass plant in Kentucky. Officials predict that destroying that arsenal, which is slated to start in 2020, will be completed in 2023.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
Metabolomics Market will expand at a healthy CAGR of 17.10% by 2024

https://globenewswire.com/news-release/2018/02/05/1332887/0/en/Metabolomics-Market-will-expand-at-a-healthy-CAGR-of-17-10-by-2024-globally-Transparency-Market-Research.html

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http://globenewswire.com/news-release/2017/10/16/1147892/0/en/Cellular-Health-Screening-Market-to-Reach-US-3-1-Billion-by-2022-Globally-Transparency-Market-Research.html

http://globenewswire.com/news-release/2017/10/18/1149031/0/en/Hair-Removal-Market-to-Gain-a-Value-of-US-1-35-Billion-by-the-End-of-2022-Globally-Transparency-Market-Research.html

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In a recently published report titled Metabolomics Market (Gas Chromatography, Capillary Electrophoresis, High Performance Liquid Chromatography, Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy, Mass Spectrometry, Drug Assessment, Biomarker Discovery, Nutrigenomics, Clinical Toxicology) - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2016  2024, Transparency Market Research has attempted to understand the prospects of the market by studying it from different perspectives. With a surge in demand for personalized medicines all over the globe, the metalobomics market is has received a good deal of impetus.According to TMRs estimations, the global market metabolomics will expand at a healthy CAGR of 17.10% during the period from 2016 to 2024 and reach a value of US$2.49 bn by the end of the forecast period. Drug assessment, nutrigenomics, biomarker discovery, and clinical toxicology have emerged as the key application areas for metabolomics across the world, states the report.View Report Overview -The global metabolomics market is divided into several segments based on application, technique, and geography. According to our experts, the market can be split into separation and detection techniques which can be further divided into several other sub-segments. Good precision and generating good data output has made the high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) the leading segment in the market under the separation techniques criteria. Other sub-segments under the by separations techniques criteria are: gas chromatography (GC), capillary electrophoresis (CE), High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography (UPLC). The detection techniques category is further divided into a couple of sub-segments: nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) and mass spectrometry. By application the global metalobomic market comprise the following segments: Introduction, drug assessment, biomarker discovery, nutrigenomics, clinical toxicology, and others.Request to View Sample of Report -The global metabolmics market is divided into five prominent regional segments, based on a geography:North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific. Due to a strong presence top competitors in North America and Europe, these regions dominate the market and also contribute significantly to its growthThere has been a significant rise in the demand for personalized medicines, mainly in Europe and North America in the recent past. Higher utilization of these medicines is one of the most prominent factors that has contributed towards the growth of the global metabolomics market. Several governments from different countries have undertaken numerous research initiatives along with encouraging funding for companies in this market. Such helpful actions have also positively contributed towards better market sales. There has been a rising need for toxicology labs, equipment, associated technologies for conducting quality research and develop metabolomics-based activities, in both pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors. This need has proven to be a significant propellant for the global metabolomics market.Enquiry for discount on this report -Countering the growth in the global market for metabolomics, are a few minor hiccups. For example, a reduced uptake of advanced technologies has been noticed along with less data analysis and data processing, in few regions. This is mainly due to the workers handing the job in a conventional manner, coupled with lack of skilled professionals. However, with biomarker discovery set to revolutionize the market, more growth avenues will open up for the market.Businesses operating in the market are resorting to product innovation and strategic alliances to progress. New regulations are being openheartedly accepted by the market players, thus making them develop their products according to the industrial standards. Some of the main companies present in this market are Biocrates Life Sciences, Bruker, Bio-Rad Laboratories, Agilent Technologies, Thermo Fisher, Human Metabolome Technologies, LECO, and Metabolon.More Trending Reports by Transparency Market Research Cellular Health Screening Market -Hair Removal Market -About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Military Aircraft Digital Glass Cockpit Systems Market To Accrue Exponentially At A ~3% of A CAGR;

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Military Aircraft Digital Glass Cockpit Market  OverviewDigital glass cockpit systems have become an effective means for defense authorities to enhance the capabilities of their aircraft. The digital glass cockpit system reduces the aircraft weight and information management workload, enables power saving and allow easier interaction with the air traffic control (ATC), avoids accidents, and result in faster training for new pilots. Also, it improves functionality and accuracy with enhanced safety and situational awareness for both the pilot and aircraft. In addition, the concept of advanced touchscreen display technologies is gaining popularity in military aircraft market, currently.The digital glass cockpit display systems comprise multi-function displays (MFDs), engine indications and crew alerting system (EICAS), and primary flight displays (PFDs) that enable replacement of clusters of mechanical flight instrument gauges with the graphical representations of information from on-board/external sensors and navigation systems.Modern digital glass cockpit systems use liquid crystal display (LCD) screens to display critical flight information, replacing the older, obsolete, and bulkier cathode ray tube (CRT) monitors. They are known by a variety of acronyms, such as electronic flight information systems (EFIS) and cockpit display system (CDS).Major Key PlayersThe market players leading the global Military Aircraft Digital Glass Cockpit Systems market primarily include Barco Inc., Astronautics Corporation of America, Elbit Systems, Finmeccanica Group, Esterline Technologies Corp, Garmin Ltd, Honeywell Aerospace, Rockwell Collins, L-3 Communications Holdings and Thales. Profiling them in its analysis, MRFR finds out their business strategies that are placing them at the front in the market.Request a Sample Report @In 2010, 5,516 glass cockpit and 2,848 conventionally equipped US general aviation aircraft experienced 266 accidents, where the glass cockpit aircraft experienced a lower accident rate compared to conventional aircraft. Based on this observation, US NTSB made recommendations to the FAA on glass cockpits, in the same year.In addition, the glass cockpits have been certified by FAA at low cost, and the organization encourages the development and installation of the glass cockpits in aircraft, to enhance safety. As a result, the vendors invest in creating digital glass cockpits that are installed in a variety of aircraft without unnecessary certifications bearing high costs.The global military aircraft digital glass cockpit systems market is expected to grow at approximately 4% CAGR, during the forecast period.Regional AnalysisEurope is one of the major markets for military aircraft digital glass cockpit systems. Countries such as Russia, France, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and the UK are a few of the major countries with a large fleet of military aircraft in operation. Many of these aircraft are in operation since decades. The European Union (EU) member countries and Russia have allocated billions of dollars for major military modernization programs. As a result, the military aircraft fleet have also been upgraded with modern and digital glass cockpit systems.Similarly, in Asia, the emerging nations such as China and India are driving the market with their increasing defense budgets to strengthen national security. China, in particular, has the largest military power in the region, followed by India. China has undergone significant military modernization and restructuring to deal with potential threats and enhance its defense capabilities. The country's military spending increased by 175% between 2003 and 2012, the largest increase for the period among the top 15 countries, worldwide.Access Report Details @Intended Audience Distributer & Supplier companies End Users Consultants and Investment bankers Government as well as Independent Regulatory AuthoritiesAbout 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
Titanium Products Market Competitive Landscape by 2020

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Titanium is sliver grey, colored transition metal found in abundance among all minerals. Titanium has high melting point and offers very good corrosion resistant property, heat properties and strength to weight ratio. Titanium is extracted from ores of rutile and ilmenite. Aerospace & aviation industry is the major end user of the titanium product. Titanium is used in production of super light high speed aircrafts, satellites and spacecrafts, and ships. Apart from aerospace & aviation, some other major end user industries of titanium products include paper, plastic, and paints & coatings.Request to View TOC @Titanium products are also popular in various healthcare applications such as pacemakers, and defibrillators due to chemical properties of titanium such as inertness to UV rays and self-cleaning properties. Based on the different product type, the global titanium products market can be broadly categorized as titanium concentrate, titanium tetrachloride, titanium sponge, ferrotitanium, titanium pigment and other. Based on the various applications of the titanium product, the market can be segmented in seven broad categories namely, aerospace & marine, industrial, medical, energy, pigments, additives & coatings, and others.Rising demand of titanium products in aircraft carriers, defense equipments and various other chemical processing industries such as oil and gas is driving the global titanium product market. Moreover, the recent development in cost effective manufacturing technology coupled with superior weight-to strength ratio compare to some of the other traditional product such as steel is expected to boost the market in upcoming years.Unavailability of raw material, fluctuating price of input materials, and high cost of titanium product are some of the major challenge for the titanium product market.North America is the largest market of titanium product followed by the Europe and Asia pacific. Asia Pacific is the fasted growing market. The major end user industry such as healthcare, power, automotive and aerospace industries of the titanium product is growing which in turns helping the titanium product market in this region.Request Sample Report@Some of the major companies operating in global titanium products market include, Huntsman International, DuPont, Ineos, Iluka Resources Ltd., Sumitomo Corporation VSMPO-AVISMA Corporation., Toho Titanium Co., Ltd., RTI International Metals, Allegheny Technologies Incorporated, Titanium Metal Corporation., Tronox Limited (U.S)., Indian Rare Earths Limited (India)., and Sierra Rutile Limited (U.K)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:
Automotive Wiring Harness Market to reach US$ 91.53 Bn by 2025

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Future Market Insights (FMI) recently announced the release of its report titled Automotive Wiring Harness Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment 2015-2025. According to the report, the global automotive wiring harness market was valued at US$ 36.82 Bn in 2014 and is anticipated to reach US$ 91.53 Bn by 2025, expanding at a CAGR of 8.7% throughout the forecast period.The global automobile industry registered an annual growth rate of over 5.5% from 2010 to 2015, and is estimated to be valued at US$ 5.1 trillion by end of 2015. Consistent growth in the parent industry is expected to fuel demand for automotive wiring harness in the near future.Currently, increasing fuel costs and stringent government regulations regarding CO2 emissions are boosting demand for electric vehicles in regions such as North America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe and Asia Pacific.Governments across various geographies have mandated use of certain electronic safety features such as Anti-Lock Braking System (ABS), Electronic Stability Program (ESP) and other features in both passenger and commercial vehicles. Furthermore, rise in demand for high-end electronics and safety features in vehicles, particularly passenger cars, along with cost reduction and enhanced reliability is leading to increase in global demand for automotive wiring harnesses.To Get Sample Copy of Report please visit @Use of automotive Ethernet by automotive OEMs represents a new trend in the external as well as internal electronics devices connectivity in an automobile. These automotive Ethernets minimise the use of complex wiring harness structures to a great extent and, thereby, may act as a restraint for growth of the global automotive wiring harness market in the coming years.Rise in technological developments is expected to create favourable growth opportunities in the market in the near future. Growing demand for connectivity and car digitisation, which not only helps establish connectivity within the integral parts of a vehicle but also enables communication with other vehicles through improved and intelligent roadway infrastructure, is an emerging trend in the market.Region-wise, APEJ (Asia Pacific Excluding Japan) dominated the global automotive wiring harness market in 2014, accounting for 38.3% value share of the overall market. Furthermore, APEJ is foreseen to expand at a relatively high CAGR of 10.4% during the forecast period and is expected to maintain its revenue share dominance till 2025 end. Risein automotive production and sustained economic growth are some of the factors driving the APEJ automotive wiring harness market currently.North America and Western Europe are expected to register high Y-o-Y growth during the forecast period, owing to increasing demand for e-vehicles and e-bikes in these regions. Growth of the connected car market has resulted in risein demand for multiple electronic devices in vehicles in North America and Western Europe.Request Report Methodology@Japan is currently witnessing moderate growth in demand for e-bikes, and the trend is expected to continue during the forecast period as well. The Japan automotive wiring harness market is expected to register a sluggish CAGR of 4.0% during the forecast period, due to the matured automotive industry in the country.On the basis of vehicle type, the passenger vehicles segment dominated the global automotive wiring harness market in 2014 in terms of revenue, and is foreseen to expand at a CAGR of 8.6% during the forecast period. In terms of revenue, the hybrid vehicles and electric vehicles segments are expected to register significant CAGR between 2015 and 2025, in view of the stringent government regulations and growing fuel prices globally.On the basis of application type, the chassis & safety segment dominated the global automotive wiring harness market in 2014 in terms of revenue, accounting for 40.8% share of the overall market. This segment is expected to lose its market share to the HVAC segment, which is projected to expand at a significant CAGR of 10.1% during the forecast period. Furthermore, HVAC manufacturers are designing new eco-friendly devices in order to follow the environment standards along with introducing new innovating designs.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:
Bluetooth Beacons Market Analysis including key players - Blue Sense Networks, Bluvision, Inc., Kontakt.io, Onyx Beacon Ltd., Radius Networks, Inc., Glimworm Beacons, Gimbal, Inc.

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https://www.infiniumglobalresearch.com/ict_semiconductor/global_bluetooth_beacons_market

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The report on global bluetooth beacons market is an in depth analysis of the segments and sub-segments in the bluetooth beacons market. The report provides analysis for the global as well as regional markets over the period of 2015 to 2023. According to report the global bluetooth beacons market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 96% over the forecast period of 2017  2023.Get Sample Copy of this Report:Segments CoveredThe report on global bluetooth beacons market covers segments such as technology, and end-Use. The technology segments include Ibeacon, and eddystone. On the basis of end-use the global bluetooth beacons market is categorized into retail, travel & tourism, healthcare, and financial institutions.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 2015  2023. 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, European region covers countries such as Germany, UK, France, Spain, and rest of Europe. 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 2017 - 2023.Companies Profiled:The report provides profiles of the companies in the global bluetooth beacons market such as, Blue Sense Networks, Bluvision, Inc., Kontakt.io, Onyx Beacon Ltd., Radius Networks, Inc., Glimworm Beacons, Gimbal, Inc., Estimote, Inc., BlueCats, and Accent Advanced Systems, SLU.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 bluetooth beacons 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 Porters five forces analysis and DRO analysis of bluetooth beacons market.Moreover, the study highlights current market trends and provides forecast from 2017 to 2023. We also have highlighted future trends in the bluetooth beacons 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. Additionally, the analysis highlights rise and fall in the market shares of the key players in the market. This report will help manufacturers, suppliers and distributors of the bluetooth beacons market to understand the present and future trends in this market and formulate their strategies accordingly.Table of Content1. Preface1.1 Report Description1.2 Research Methods1.3 Research Approaches2. Executive Summary3. Global Bluetooth Beacons Market Overview3.1 Introduction3.2 Market Dynamics3.2.1 Drivers3.2.2 Restraints3.2.3 Opportunities3.3 Porters Five Forces Analysis3.4 IGR  Growth Matrix Analysis3.5 Competitive Landscape in the Global Bluetooth Beacons Market4. Global Bluetooth Beacons Market by Technology 2017 - 20234.1 iBeacon4.2 Eddystone5. Global Bluetooth Beacons Market by End-Use 2017 - 20235.1 Retail5.2 Travel & tourism5.3 Healthcare5.4 Financial institutions6. Global Bluetooth Beacons Market by Regions 2017 - 20236.1 North America6.1.1 North America Bluetooth Beacons Market by Technology6.1.2 North America Bluetooth Beacons Market by End-Use6.1.3 North America Bluetooth Beacons Market by Country6.2 Europe6.2.1 Europe Bluetooth Beacons Market by Technology6.2.2 Europe Bluetooth Beacons Market by End-Use6.2.3 Europe Bluetooth Beacons Market by Country6.3 Asia-Pacific6.3.1 Asia-Pacific Bluetooth Beacons Market by Technology6.3.2 Asia-Pacific Bluetooth Beacons Market by End-Use6.3.3 Asia-Pacific Bluetooth Beacons Market by Country6.4 RoW6.4.1 RoW Bluetooth Beacons Market by Technology6.4.2 RoW Bluetooth Beacons Market by End-Use6.4.3 RoW Bluetooth Beacons Market by Sub-region7. Companies Covered7.1 Blue Sense Networks7.2 Bluvision, Inc.7.3 Kontakt.io7.4 Onyx Beacon Ltd.7.5 Radius Networks, Inc.7.6 Glimworm Beacons7.7 Gimbal, Inc.7.8 Estimote, Inc.7.9 BlueCats7.10 Accent Advanced Systems, SLUComplete report at: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
Enteral Nutrition Market Analysis including key players - Abbott Laboratories, Nestle S.A., B.Braun Melsungen S.A., Danone S.A., Fresenius Kabi AG, Hormel Foods Corporation, Mead Johnson Nutrition Company

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https://www.infiniumglobalresearch.com/healthcare_medical_devices/global_enteral_nutrition_market

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A recent report published by Infinium Global Research on enteral nutrition market provides in depth analysis of segments and sub-segments in global as well as regional enteral nutrition market. The study also highlights the impact of drivers, restraints and macro indicators on the global and regional enteral nutrition market over the short term as well as long term. The report is a comprehensive presentation of trends, forecast and dollar values of global enteral nutrition market. According to report the global enteral nutrition market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 6.05% over the forecast period of 2017-2023.Get Sample Copy of this Report:Segment CoveredThe report on global enteral nutrition market covers segments such as, product, application and end user. On the basis of product the global enteral nutrition market is categorized into standard formula and nutrition for chronic illness. On the basis of application the global enteral nutrition market is categorized into oncology, neurology, diabetes, critical care and other. On the basis of end user the global enteral nutrition market is categorized into adults and pediatric.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 2015 - 2023.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.Companies Profiled:The report provides profiles of the companies in the global enteral nutrition market such as, Abbott Laboratories, Nestle S.A., B.Braun Melsungen S.A., Danone S.A., Fresenius Kabi AG, Hormel Foods Corporation, Mead Johnson Nutrition Company, Meiji Holding and Co., Baxter International, Inc. and Other companies.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 enteral nutrition 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 enteral nutrition market.Moreover, the study highlights current market trends and provides forecast from 2017 to 2023. We also have highlighted future trends in the enteral nutrition 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 enteral nutrition market to understand the present and future trends in this market and formulate their strategies accordingly.Complete report at: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
Drug Addiction Industry Analysis, Study And Pipeline Review H2 2017

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OverviewDrug addiction, also called substance dependence or chemical dependency, is a disease that is characterized by a destructive pattern of drug abuse that leads to significant problems involving tolerance to or withdrawal from the substance. Drug addiction symptoms or behaviors include recurrent drug use that results in a lack of meeting important obligations at work, school, or home, inability to sleep, awake at unusual times, unusual laziness, loss of or increased in appetite, changes in eating habits, cold, sweaty palms; shaking hands., red, watery eyes; pupils larger or smaller than usual and unusual smells on breath, body or clothes.Click here for sample report @Report HighlightsThe Pharmaceutical and Healthcare latest pipeline guide Drug Addiction - Pipeline Review, H2 2017, provides comprehensive information on the therapeutics under development for Drug Addiction (Central Nervous System), complete with analysis by stage of development, drug target, mechanism of action (MoA), route of administration (RoA) and molecule type. The guide covers the descriptive pharmacological action of the therapeutics, its complete research and development history and latest news and press releases.The Drug Addiction (Central Nervous System) pipeline guide also reviews of key players involved in therapeutic development for Drug Addiction and features dormant and discontinued projects. The guide covers therapeutics under Development by Companies /Universities /Institutes, the molecules developed by Companies in Filing rejected/Withdrawn, Phase III, Phase II, Phase I, IND/CTA Filed, Preclinical, Discovery and Unknown stages are 1, 1, 7, 7, 1, 29, 3 and 1 respectively. Similarly, the Universities portfolio in Phase II, Preclinical and Discovery stages comprises 1, 12 and 5 molecules, respectively.Major Scope of the report:- The pipeline guide provides a snapshot of the global therapeutic landscape of Drug Addiction (Central Nervous System).- The pipeline guide reviews pipeline therapeutics for Drug Addiction (Central Nervous System) by companies and universities/research institutes based on information derived from company and industry-specific sources.- The pipeline guide covers pipeline products based on several stages of development ranging from pre-registration till discovery and undisclosed stages.- The pipeline guide features descriptive drug profiles for the pipeline products which comprise, product description, descriptive licensing and collaboration details, R&D brief, MoA & other developmental activities.- The pipeline guide reviews key companies involved in Drug Addiction (Central Nervous System) therapeutics and enlists all their major and minor projects.Table of ContentsTable of Contents 2List of Tables 4List of Figures 5Introduction 6Global Markets Direct Report Coverage 6Drug Addiction - Overview 7Drug Addiction - Therapeutics Development 8Pipeline Overview 8Pipeline by Companies 9Pipeline by Universities/Institutes 13Products under Development by Companies 14Products under Development by Universities/Institutes 17Drug Addiction - Therapeutics Assessment 18Assessment by Target 18Assessment by Mechanism of Action 21Assessment by Route of Administration 24Assessment by Molecule Type 26Drug Addiction - Companies Involved in Therapeutics Development 28Addex Therapeutics Ltd 28Aelis Farma SAS 28Aphios Corp 29BioCorRx Inc 29Cerecor Inc 30Chiesi Farmaceutici SpA 30.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
Aircraft Tire Market 2018-2022 Global Key Players: Tires & Treads, LLC, Bridgestone Corporation, Compagnie Generale Des Etablissements Michelin Sca, Desser Tire & Rubber Co

Aircraft Tire Market 2018

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This report provides in depth study of Aircraft Tire Market using SWOT analysis i.e. Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threat to the organization. The Licorice Candy Market report also provides an in-depth survey of key players in the market which is based on the various objectives of an organization such as profiling, the product outline, the quantity of production, required raw material, and the financial health of the organization.Aircraft Tire Market Information Report by product type (radial and bias), by application (commercial and defense), and by Region - Global Forecast to 2022Get Samle Report of Aircraft Tire Market 2018 @Aircraft Tire Global Market  OverviewThe Global Aircraft Tire Market is growing with the rapid pace. According to a recent study report published by the Market Research Future, The global market of Aircraft Tire will grow at a rapid pace over the forecast period. The market is forecasted to witness slow but steady growth by 2027, which will be a surplus growth at a moderate CAGR during the projected period (2016 -2027).As of 2016, there were more than 22,000 active commercial wide body and narrow body aircraft across the globe. These existing commercial fleets are expected to be replaced by more than 40,000 new aircraft, over the next 20 years, and the global fleet is likely to reach 45,000 aircraft by 2036. Moreover, the high demand for air travel in the emerging regions, such as Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East, leads to an increase in the number of aircraft in these regions. As a result, approximately 22,000 commercial aircraft are expected to be delivered to these regions in the next 20 years. On the other hand, it is expected that over 15,000 commercial aircraft would be delivered in developed regions such as North America and Europe, by 2036.Moreover, the global military aircraft fleet, as of 2016, was over 53,000, with the US having the largest share (26%) of the military planes, followed by Russia (7%), China (6%), and India (4%). With the increasing defence budgets of a number of countries, there have been high development and procurement of military aircraft, in the recent years.The expansion of the existing commercial and military aircraft fleets along with the launch of new airlines would result in increased demand in the aircraft tire market in the forthcoming years. Hence, it is expected that the rapid fleet expansion would eventually drive the Aircraft Tire market.In 2014, the average retirement age of a widebody aircraft, in particular, was around 24 to 25 years. Moreover, in 2012 and 2013, there were around 44 premature retirements of old aircraft, which accounted for more than 4% of the total retirements of widebody planes. At the end of the forecast period, it is anticipated that the aircraft retirements may reach up to 200 a year, primarily due to the growing fuel prices.For example, the Boeing 747-400 is a maintenance-intensive aircraft. The retirements of such planes will have a huge impact on the Aircraft Tire market. The continued retirements of such aircraft will lead to an expected negatively influence the overall aircraft tire market. These aircraft have low maintenance and repair requirements, which would inhibit the Aircraft Tire market eventually.In automotive industry, consumer preferences are continuously changing. Across the world, the demand for various factors such as high performance, high efficiency, increased safety, and security are increasing for different automotive applications. At the same time, when it comes to the actual purchase of a vehicle, consumers prefer a model having all of the above mentioned parameters but preferably at a lower cost (price). Due to changing consumer needs across global markets, rapid technological advancements are taking place in Aircraft Tire industry to introduce differentiate products. While considering the above improvements, product pricing (low cost) is given a prominent weightage during initial development phase. This is a big challenge for the manufacturers as a lot of research and development (R&D) activities go into the new product development phase, which requires huge investments.Industry/ Innovation/ Related News:June, 2017 - Private equity firm Liberty Hall Capital Partners L.P. acquired Dunlop Aircraft Tyres Ltd. for $135 million from AAC Capital Partners and other shareholders. AAC Capital Partners has been the Birmingham, England-based tire maker's majority owner since 2007.December, 2016 Bridgestone Corporation announced planned to construct two new manufacturing plants in Thailand. One plant will produce new aircraft tires, while the second plant will produce retread aircraft tires. The total investment will be approximately JPY15.0 billion (USD 150 million*2) and both new plants are scheduled to start production in December 2019. The Bridgestone Group has been operating in Thailand for roughly half a century, and the establishment of new plants in this country is expected to further contribute to its economic and industrial development.December, 2015 - The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company was selected by The Boeing Company to provide nose and main landing gear tires for its new 777X aircraft, which is scheduled for delivery in 2020. Building on the success of the Boeing 777 and 787 Dreamliner, the Boeing 777X will be the largest and most efficient twin-engine jet in the world, unmatched in every aspect of performance, according to Boeing officialsJune, 2015 - Intralogistics automation specialist, Cimcorp, secured the biggest order in its history from Chinese tire manufacturer, Qingdao Sentury Tire Co Ltd, for a turnkey material handling solution at its new factory in Thailand. The order, valued at nearly 30 million euros, is for a fully automated handling system based on Cimcorp's Dream Factory solution and will cover the handling of PCR (passenger car radial) green tires from the tire-building machines to the curing presses, as well as finished tire sorting, palletizing, warehousing and shipping.Aircraft Tire Market  SegmentationThe Global Aircraft Tire Market is segmented in to 3 key dynamics for the convenience of the report and enhanced understanding;Segmentation by Product Type : Comprises radial and bias.Segmentation by Application : Comprises Commercial and DefenseSegmentation by Regions : Comprises Geographical regions - North America, Europe, APAC and Rest of the World.Aircraft Tire Market: Regional AnalysisAsia-Pacific region has witness a high growth during the forecast period due to the increasing demand by the commercial airlines segment which indirectly will boost the aircraft tires market. Government spending for infrastructure development, liberalization and GDP growth in these region have resulted in the growth of Asia-Pacific.Send an Enquiry Before Buying@About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Big Data Security Market Analysis, Market Size, Regional Outlook, Competitive Strategies and Forecasts, 2018 To 2023

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Big Data Security Market reports provide detailed insight into the granular infrastructure, technology, deployment model, size of the organization, industry vertical and local global markets. Each of these markets is further segmented and analyzed based on current market trends and future market scenarios. Because the various software solutions form a strong line of defense against a variety of data threats to the digital assets of all organizations, the software segment in the market by component is expected to maintain its maximum market share throughout the forecast period. Security intelligence software solutions are expected to be the fastest growing market during the forecast period, as they quickly assess and prioritize vulnerabilities and eliminate network security weaknesses.Big Data Security Market projected to grow at CAGR of +17% from 2018 to 2023Top Key Vendors in Market: IBM (US), Microsoft (US), Oracle (US), Amazon Web Services (US), HPE (US), Gemalto (Netherlands), Cloudera (US), Informatica (US), DataVisor, Inc. (US), Hortonworks (US), Symantec (US), Pivotal (US), Zettaset (US), McAfee (US)Download Sample Copy@In this Big Data Security Market research report, the important driving factors of this market were acknowledged and the business partners & end users were extended. The structure of the business division, examples and difficulties influencing the market universally are likewise a piece of this broad investigation. Different gatherings and talks were led by the recognizable pioneers of this industry to get ardent and refreshed insights worried to the market.This Big Data Security Market statistical surveying report emphases on the key vendors in this market everywhere throughout the world. This section of the report comprises the organization layouts, determination, and product pictures, generation, capacity, contact data, cost, and income. Similarly, mechanical assembly and upstream unrefined materials and downstream request investigation are moreover overseen.The second section of the report comprises analytics on the Global Big Data Security Market based on its size in terms of value and volume. This section additionally comprises specific information related to the given segments in terms of regions, types, chief businesses, and applications. The report also contains particulars on the market size of the global market in the regions of North America, Europe, Japan, China, Southeast Asia, and India. The report uses categorizations of types, applications, and key players, all of which are additionally isolated under volume and value, and the trade pricings.Get 30% discount on this premium report @On the basis of geographical regions, the Global Big Data Security Market is segmented broadly into Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific. The global market is still in its exploratory stage in most of the regions but it holds the promising potential to flourish steadily in coming years. The major companies investing in this market are situated in Canada, U.K., and the US, India, China and some more countries of Asia Pacific region. Consequently, Asia Pacific, North America, and Western Europe are estimated to hold more than half of the market shares, collectively in coming years.In the last sections of the report, the manufacturers responsible for increasing the sales in the Big Data Security Market have been presented. These manufacturers have been analyzed in terms of their manufacturing base, basic information, and competitors. In addition, the technology and product type introduced by each of these manufacturers also form a key part of this section of the report.Table of Content:Global Big Data Security Market Research Report 2018-2023Chapter 1 Big Data Security Market OverviewChapter 2 Global Economic ImpactChapter 3 Competition by ManufacturerChapter 4 Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2018-2023)Chapter 5 Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2018-2023)Chapter 6 Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by TypeChapter 7 Analysis by ApplicationChapter 8 Manufacturing Cost AnalysisChapter 9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream BuyersChapter 10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/TradersChapter 11 Market Effect Factors AnalysisChapter 12 Market Forecast (2018-2023)Chapter 13 AppendixResearch 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. We're 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 Asia-Pacific competition. Since we excel at business research to help businesses grow, we also offer to consult as an extended arm of 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.(Research N Reports)10916, Gold Point Dr, Houston, TX, Pin - 77064,Sunny Denis(Sales Manager),+1-8886316977,sales@researchnreports.com ,
Assisted Reproductive Technology Market to be Worth US$ 37,789.6 Million by the End of 2025

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According to Transparency Market Research, the global assisted reproductive technology market is expected to be worth US$37,789.6 mn by the end of 2025 from US$22,100.0 mn in 2016. Between the forecast years of 2017 and 2025, the global market is expected to rise at a CAGR of 6.3%. The fresh non donor segment accounted for a leading share in the global assisted reproductive technology market in 2016 and is likely to remain similarly dominant in the coming years. Geographically, Asia Pacific is the leading contributor to the global assisted reproductive technology market and is likely to retain a leading share in the global market in the coming years.Request for Sample Copy of Report @By technology, the global assisted reproductive technology market is divided into artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization, surrogacy, and others. In vitro fertilization is by far the dominant contributor to the global assisted reproductive technology market at present and is likely to retain the position in the coming years due to the growing awareness about the efficacy of in vitro fertilization and the increasing awareness among citizens about the same. The in vitro fertilization segment accounted for a majority share of more than 62% in the global assisted reproductive technology market in 2016 and is likely to extend its dominance further by the end of the 2017-2025 forecast period.Surrogacy is also likely to receive increasing demand in the coming years, due in part to the growing demand for assisted reproductive technology from same-sex couples. While many parents now prefer the benefit of having their own genetic imprint in their baby through in vitro fertilization, surrogacy is likely to receive sustained demand in the coming years. This is borne out by the figures of the global assisted reproductive technology market by procedure, wherein fresh non donor contributions were the preferred choice for most consumers.Enquiry for discount on this report @Developing economies in Asia Pacific are likely to be vital to the global assisted reproductive technology market in the coming years. While the predominant social values in these regions tended to dissuade constructive growth of the assisted reproductive technology market, the gradual relaxation in social norms in these regions has resulted in a promising environment for the market. The growing prevalence of reproductive problems in Asia Pacific countries such as India and China is thus crucial to the global assisted reproductive technology market.The growing investment in the healthcare sector in developing countries is also likely to provide a major boost to the global assisted reproductive technology market in the coming years. This will help increase the frequency of fertility clinics in underdeveloped regions, where sophisticated medical facilities may still be absent.Report Overview @The steady development of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is a key driver for the global assisted reproductive technology market. PGD helps physicians diagnose genetic disorders likely to manifest in the baby before it is implanted, making the technology vital for parents looking to avoid complicated births and lifestyles. The rapid development of the scientific database regarding genetic diseases is further likely to remain a key boost for the global assisted reproductive technology market.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Oral Vaccines Market - Growth Factors, Revenue, Manufacturers, Regional Analysis, Applications and Forecasts By 2025

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Transparency Market Research (TMR) announces a new report on the global oral vaccines market. The report provides readers with thorough forecasts regarding various aspects of the global oral vaccines market based on solid analysis of the markets present and historical figures. The report examines the segmentation of the global oral vaccines market in order to present a granular picture of the market, while profiles of leading players in the oral vaccines market help present a clear picture of the competitive dynamics of the market. The report is titled Oral Vaccines Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2025.Request a Brochure of the Report @Oral vaccines have replaced conventional parenteral vaccines in several applications due to their greater comfort to the user due to the absence of needles. The inconvenience associated with needles is the key driver for the global oral vaccines market. The safety of oral vaccines has become a key factor for patient demographics and is likely to remain an important driver for the global oral vaccines market in the coming years.By disease, the global oral vaccines market is segmented into HIV, influenza, rabies, polio, cholera, rotavirus, and others. Of these, HIV and influenza vaccines are likely to be the key product segments of the global oral vaccines market in the coming years due to the growing prevalence of HIV in developing regions and the annual risk of influenza outbreaks. Tuberculosis vaccines are also likely to remain an important segment of the global oral vaccines market, mainly due to the rising prevalence of the disease in underdeveloped regions such as Africa.Request TOC @By vaccine type, the global oral vaccines market is segmented into attenuated, inactive, recombinant, and other vaccines. Of these, inactive vaccines are likely to remain the key revenue generator for the global oral vaccines market due to them being safer than live (attenuated) vaccines. The rising adoption of inactive vaccines in national immunization programs, due to their promising cost-effectiveness, is thus likely to remain a key driver for the global oral vaccines market in the coming years.Accordingly, government vaccination programs accounted for a dominant share in the global oral vaccines market and are likely to continue as a major revenue generator for the market. Clinics are also a dominant end user segment of the global oral vaccines market and are likely to benefit from the increasing number of users with high awareness about the importance of vaccination.View This Report:North America is the regional leader in the global oral vaccines market due to the high disposable income of citizens in the region. The rising opposition to the use of needles in vaccines is likely to drive the North America oral vaccines market in the coming years. Steady government involvement in immunization drives in countries such as the U.S. and Canada is also vital for the North America oral vaccines market. However, the growing anti-vaccine movement in the U.S. could hamper the oral vaccines markets growth in North America in the coming years.Leading players in the global oral vaccines market include GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Aventis, Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd., Swiss Serum and Vaccine Institute Berne, PaxVax Corporation, Merck & Co. Inc., Janssen Pharmaceuticals, VALNEVA Canada Inc., and Shanghai BravoBio Co. 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.Contact UsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Global Digital Map Software Market 2021 Analysis by Top Players, Regions, Types & Application, Focusing on top key players - Apple Inc., Google Inc, HERE, Micello, Inc., TomTom International BV and others

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This market research report delves deep into the global Digital Map Software market. It highlights the recent market scenario, growth in the past few years, and opportunities for manufacturers in the future. The research methods and tools used in the completion of this study are both primary and secondary research. The study further presents details on the investments initiated by several organizations, institutions, government, and non-government bodies.The study presents an evaluation of the factors that are expected to inhibit or boost the progress of the global Digital Map Software market. The global Digital Map Software market has been examined thoroughly on the basis of key criteria such as end user, application, product, technology, and region. An analysis has been provided in the report of the key geographical segments and their share and position in the market. The estimated revenue and volume growth of the global Digital Map Software market has also been offered in the report.Key Vendors:Apple Inc., Google Inc, HERE, Micello, Inc., TomTom International BV, MiTAC International Corporation, ARC Aerial Imaging Limited, Esri, Nearmap Ltd., MAPQUESTFor Sample Copy of this report:The regions which have been examined thoroughly are North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa and Latin America. This helps achieve better idea about the blowout of this specific market in particular regions. A list of leading industrialists have been given major value to ensure their approaches are understood in this specific market.This report presents a 360-degree overview of the competitive scenario of the Global Digital Map Software market. The report includes massive data relating to the recent product and technological developments observed in the market, complete with an analysis of the impact of these advancements on the markets future development. The research report analyzes the global Digital Map Software market in a detailed manner by explaining the key aspects of the market that are expected to have a quantifiable influence on its developmental prospects over the forecast period.Avail 30% Discount on this Report:The various factors supporting the markets growth and those posing threat are studied in detail in this report. Additionally, the market study segments the Global Digital Map Software Market based on end-users, verticals, and size. In these sections, it shields various factors impelling the markets trajectory across the segments. Furthermore, it recognizes the most lucrative of them all to help investors take the well-informed decisionThe future potentials of this market are analyzed and the prevalent trends are been looked upon with utmost detailing. The growth in all the major geographic regions are been studied in detail in this particular report. With exact data on the top most regions for this market and the reason they hold that position is studied and elaborated.Moving forward, a competitive landscape of Digital Map Software market is presented for understanding the market importance. This section gives the prime strategies, weaknesses and strengths and the major contributed of the growth have been highlighted. Gross, revenues, product overview, contact information and many such points are explained for Digital Map Software market in depth.Get Complete Report@:About USWe at IT Intelligence Markets conduct intensive market research and generate detailed reports about the products and services offered in the IT domain. Our team is devoted to providing custom reports that are taylor-made to suit the customers requirements. We make sure to keep our customers updated with the latest market dynamics as IT industry is undergoing sea change intrinsically & extrinsically by forces such as regulatory fluctuations, rapidly evolving consumer preferences, and newer technologies. Not only do our market research analysts scrutinize market requirements but also track competitors relentlessly for obtaining the most updated scenario of the market.Vijay TannaContact No: +91 705-760-0700sales@itintelligencemarkets.com
Food Processing Equipment in France Market - Leading Growth Drivers, Emerging Technologies and Analysis Segmented by Applications, Future Trends and Growth Prospects to 2023

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The report on France Food Processing Equipment Market is a customer intelligence and competitive study of the France market. Moreover, the report provides deep insights on demand forecasts, market trends, and macro indicators in France market. Also, factors that are driving are restraining the Food Processing Equipment Market are highlighted in the study. This is an in-depth business intelligence report based on qualitative and quantitative parameters of the market. Additionally, this report provides readers with market insights and detailed analysis of market segments to possible micro levels. The companies featured in the France Food Processing Equipment Market, include Asp, Steritech Sa, Gallois, Mcm Emballages Bocaux Et Sterilisateurs Autoclaves, And Food Processing Equipment.Get Sample Copy of this Report:Segments CoveredThe report on Food Processing Equipment Market provides detailed analysis of segments in the market based on Application, End-Product Form and Type.Segmentation based on Application Dairy Alcoholic beverages Non-alcoholic beverages Bakery & confectionery Non-alcoholic beverages OthersSegmentation based on End-Product Form Liquid Semi-solid SolidSegmentation based on Type Cutting & peeling equipment Extraction equipment Thermal equipment Mixer, blender & homogenizer OthersFor More Enquiry on This Report:Highlights of the reportReport provides detailed insights into1) Demand and supply conditions of Food Processing Equipment Market2) Factor affecting the Food Processing Equipment Market in the short run and the long run3) The dynamics including drivers, restraints, opportunities, political, socio economic factors, and technological factors4) Key trends and future prospects5) Leading companies operating in Food Processing Equipment Market and their competitive position in the France.6)The dealers/distributors profiles provide basic information of top 10 dealers & distributors operating in (France) Food Processing Equipment Market7) IGR Matrix: to position the product types8) Market estimates up to 2023.Table of Content1. Report Overview1.1 Report Description1.2 Research Methods1.3 Research Approaches2. Executive Summary3. Overview3.1 Introduction3.2 Market Dynamics3.2.1 Drivers3.2.2 Restraints3.2.3 Opportunities3.2.4 Challenges3.3 PEST-Analysis3.4 Porter's Diamond Model for France Food Processing Equipment Market3.5 IGR  Growth Matrix Analysis3.6 Competitive Landscape in France Food Processing Equipment Market3.7 Import-Export data matrix4. France Food Processing Equipment Market by Application4.1 Introduction4.2 Dairy4.3 Alcoholic beverages4.4 Non-alcoholic beverages4.5 Bakery & confectionery4.6 Non-alcoholic beverages4.7 Others5. France Food Processing Equipment Market by End-Product Form5.1 Introduction5.2 Solid5.3 Liquid5.4 Semi-solid6. France Food Processing Equipment Market by Type6.1 Introduction6.2 Cutting & peeling equipment6.3 Extraction equipment6.4 Thermal equipment6.5 Mixer, blender & homogenizer6.6 Others7. Company Profiles7.1 Manufacturer's & Suppliers7.1.1 Asp7.1.2 Steritech Sa7.1.3 Gallois7.1.4 Mcm Emballages Bocaux Et Sterilisateurs Autoclaves7.1.5 Food Processing Equipment7.2 Dealer's / Distributor's Profile7.2.1 Dealer's / Distributor's 17.2.2 Dealer's / Distributor's 27.2.3 Dealer's / Distributor's 37.2.4 Dealer's / Distributor's 47.2.5 Dealer's / Distributor's 57.2.6 Dealer's / Distributor's 67.2.7 Dealer's / Distributor's 77.2.8 Dealer's / Distributor's 87.2.9 Dealer's / Distributor's 97.2.10 Dealer's / Distributor's 10Complete report at: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
Long Term Care Market: Development Factors, Key Players, Regional Analysis, Business Structure, Vendors, Applications and Forecasts By 2023

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The report on global long term care market is an in depth analysis of the segments and sub-segments in the long term care market. The report provides analysis for the global as well as regional markets over the period of 2015 to 2023. According to report the global long term care market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.5% over the forecast period of 2017 - 2023.Get Sample Copy of this Report:Segments CoveredThe report on global long term care market covers segments such as Service. The Service segments include home healthcare, hospice, nursing care and assisted living facilities.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 2015  2023.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, The European region covers countries such as, Germany, UK, France, Spain and Rest of Europe. 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.Companies Profiled:The report provides profiles of the companies in the global long term care market such as, Home Instead Senior Care, Inc., Genesis Healthcare Corp., Kindred Healthcare, Inc., Senior Care Centers of America, Gentiva Health Services, Inc., Extendicare, Inc., Atria Senior Living Group, Emeritus Corporation, Sunrise Senior Living, Inc., and Brookdale Senior Living, Inc.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 long term care 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 Porters five forces analysis and DRO analysis of long term care market. Moreover, the study highlights current market trends and provides forecast from 2017 to 2023. We also have highlighted future trends in the long term care 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. Additionally, the analysis highlights rise and fall in the market shares of the key players in the market.This report will help manufacturers, suppliers and distributors of the long term care market to understand the present and future trends in this market and formulate their strategies accordingly.Table of Content1. Preface1.1 Report Description1.2 Research Methods1.3 Research Approaches2. Executive Summary3. Global Long Term Care Market Overview3.1 Introduction3.2 Market Dynamics3.2.1 Drivers3.2.2 Restraints3.2.3 Opportunities3.3 Porters Five Forces Analysis3.4 IGR  Growth Matrix Analysis3.5 Competitive Landscape in the global Long Term Care Market4. Global Long Term Care Market by Service 2017 - 20234.1 Home Healthcare4.2 Hospice4.3 Nursing Care4.4 Assisted Living Facilities5. Global Long Term Care Market by Regions 2017 - 20235.1 North America5.1.1 North America Long Term Care Market by Service5.1.2 North America Long Term Care Market by Country5.2 Europe5.2.1 Europe Long Term Care Market by Service5.2.2 Europe Long Term Care Market by Country5.3 Asia-Pacific5.3.1 Asia-Pacific Long Term Care Market by Service5.3.2 Asia-Pacific Long Term Care Market by Country5.4 RoW5.4.1 RoW Long Term Care Market by Service5.4.2 RoW Long Term Care Market by Sub-region6. Companies Covered6.1 Home Instead Senior Care, Inc.6.2 Genesis Healthcare Corp.6.3 Kindred Healthcare, Inc.6.4 Senior Care Centers of America6.5 Gentiva Health Services, Inc.6.6 Extendicare, Inc.6.7 Atria Senior Living Group6.8 Emeritus Corporation6.9 Sunrise Senior Living, Inc.6.10 Brookdale Senior Living, Inc.Complete report at: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 Dos/DDos Attack Solution Market Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017  2022, top key players - Applicure, eSecurity Planet, Cisco, Radware, Microsoft Azure and others

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The research report of global Dos/DDos Attack Solution market examines the current and futuristic development estimate of the market. This report offers a complete detail about the Dos/DDos Attack Solution market which is extremely thrusting in the present market situation. The driving key factors and restraint are given which are capable for its progress and slow down of the market too. The research study is an accumulation of primary and secondary research, which enables the players to have a robust understanding of the overall market.The study presents an evaluation of the factors that are expected to inhibit or boost the progress of the global Dos/DDos Attack Solution market. The global Dos/DDos Attack Solution market has been examined thoroughly on the basis of key criteria such as end user, application, product, technology, and region. An analysis has been provided in the report of the key geographical segments and their share and position in the market. The estimated revenue and volume growth of the global Dos/DDos Attack Solution market has also been offered in the report.Key Vendors:Applicure, eSecurity Planet, Cisco, Radware, Microsoft Azure, Akamai, Citrix, AT&T, Cloudflare, Incapsula, Arbor Networks, F5, SiteLock, Check Point Software, Fortinet, Verisign, DOSarrest, SucuriFor Sample Copy of this report:The regions which have been examined thoroughly are North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa and Latin America. This helps achieve better idea about the blowout of this specific market in particular regions. A list of leading industrialists have been given major value to ensure their approaches are understood in this specific market.This report presents a 360-degree overview of the competitive scenario of the Global Dos/DDos Attack Solution market. The report includes massive data relating to the recent product and technological developments observed in the market, complete with an analysis of the impact of these advancements on the markets future development. The research report analyzes the global Dos/DDos Attack Solution market in a detailed manner by explaining the key aspects of the market that are expected to have a quantifiable influence on its developmental prospects over the forecast period.Avail 30% Discount on this Report:The various factors supporting the markets growth and those posing threat are studied in detail in this report. Additionally, the market study segments the Global Dos/DDos Attack Solution Market based on end-users, verticals, and size. In these sections, it shields various factors impelling the markets trajectory across the segments. Furthermore, it recognizes the most lucrative of them all to help investors take the well-informed decision.The future potentials of this market are analyzed and the prevalent trends are been looked upon with utmost detailing. The growth in all the major geographic regions are been studied in detail in this particular report. With exact data on the top most regions for this market and the reason they hold that position is studied and elaborated.Moving forward, a competitive landscape of Dos/DDos Attack Solution market is presented for understanding the market importance. This section gives the prime strategies, weaknesses and strengths and the major contributed of the growth have been highlighted. Gross, revenues, product overview, contact information and many such points are explained for Dos/DDos Attack Solution market in depth.Get Complete Report@:About USWe at IT Intelligence Markets conduct intensive market research and generate detailed reports about the products and services offered in the IT domain. Our team is devoted to providing custom reports that are taylor-made to suit the customers requirements. We make sure to keep our customers updated with the latest market dynamics as IT industry is undergoing sea change intrinsically & extrinsically by forces such as regulatory fluctuations, rapidly evolving consumer preferences, and newer technologies. Not only do our market research analysts scrutinize market requirements but also track competitors relentlessly for obtaining the most updated scenario of the market.Vijay TannaContact No: +91 705-760-0700sales@itintelligencemarkets.com
Motion Control Market 2016-2022 Key Players by ABB Group, Rockwell Automation, Parker Hannifin Corporation, Siemens AG, STMicroelectronics N.V., Motion Control, Trio Motion

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Market Scenario:Motion control is an industrial process which is also defined as servo control or robotics, used in the movement of specific load from one place to another in the controlled fashion. This process is equipped with various hardware equipments such as motors, sensors, drives, control units and a software. Growing industrialization and high adoption of automation in the industrial process is driving the market of motion control whereas the high deployment cost and lack of availability of professionals are some of the major restraints of the market.The global market of Motion Control Market is expected to grow at CAGR of 6% during the forecast year and expected to reach at market size of US $22 billion by the end of forecast period.Request a Sample Report@Key Players : ABB Group (Switzerland), Rockwell Automation, Inc. (U.S.), Parker Hannifin Corporation (U.S.), Siemens AG (Germany), STMicroelectronics N.V. (Switzerland), Motion Control Corporation (U.S.), Schneider Electric (France), Trio Motion (U.S.), Emerson Electric (U.S.), AMETEK, Inc. (U.S.), Aerotech Inc. (U.S.).Segments:The Global Motion Control Market has been segmented on the basis of technology, components, application and industry. By Technology, market includes- Pneumatic, Hydraulic, and Electromechanical Actuation. By Components, the market has been derived as- Controller, Drives, Motors, and Software among others. Application of motion control includes- Inspection, Material handling, Packaging among others whereas the industry includes- Manufacturing, Healthcare, Automotive, Aerospace & Defense, Oil & Gas, and Robotics among others.Regional Analysis:Asia-Pacific is dominating the market of Motion Control due to the strong presence of manufacturing companies in China, Japan and South Korea. Growing economy of Asian countries are also playing major role in the development of motion control market. Europe stands as second biggest followed by North America. North America motion control market is majorly driven by the factors such as high consumption of electronic equipment and rich presence of healthcare industry.Access Report Details@Intended Audience: OEMs Automation Service Providers Motion Control Distributors Technology Provides Sensor Manufacturers Connectivity ProvidersTABLE OF CONTENTS1 MARKET INTRODUCTION1.1 INTRODUCTION1.2 SCOPE OF STUDY1.2.1 RESEARCH OBJECTIVE1.2.2 ASSUMPTIONS1.2.3 LIMITATIONS1.3 MARKET STRUCTURE:1.3.1 GLOBAL MOTION CONTROL MARKET: BY TECHNOLOGY1.3.2 GLOBAL MOTION CONTROL MARKET: BY COMPONENTS1.3.3 GLOBAL MOTION CONTROL MARKET: BY APPLICATION1.3.4 GLOBAL MOTION CONTROL MARKET: BY INDUSTRY2 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 ESTIMATION2.4.3 MARKET CRACKDOWN & DATA TRIANGULATION3 GLOBAL MOTION CONTROL MARKET: OVERVIEW3.1 INTRODUCTION3.1.1 DEFINITION3.1.2 MARKET SEGMENTATION OF MOTION CONTROL MARKETContinues...LIST OF TABLESTABLE 1 GLOBAL MOTION CONTROL MARKET, BY TECHNOLOGYTABLE 2 GLOBAL MOTION CONTROL MARKET, BY COMPONENTSTABLE 3 GLOBAL MOTION CONTROL MARKET, BY APPLICATIONTABLE 4 GLOBAL MOTION CONTROL MARKET, BY INDUSTRYTABLE 5 GLOBAL MOTION CONTROL MARKET, BY REGIONSContinues...LIST OF FIGURESFIGURE 1 RESEARCH TYPEFIGURE 2 GLOBAL MOTION CONTROL MARKET: BY TECHNOLOGY (%)FIGURE 3 GLOBAL MOTION CONTROL MARKET: BY COMPONENTS (%)FIGURE 4 GLOBAL MOTION CONTROL MARKET: BY APPLICATION (%)FIGURE 5 GLOBAL MOTION CONTROL MARKET: BY INDUSTRY (%)Continues...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
Global Food Ingredients Market: North America will Remain Fastest Expanding Market for Food Ingredients till 2022

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An extensive forecast study, titled Global Market Study on Food Ingredients: North America will Remain Fastest Expanding Market for Food Ingredients during 2017 - 2022 has been broadcasted to the online repository of Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE). This 170-page precise study encapsulates valuable details about the market current scenario as well as its future projections on a global and regional level. It further intensely aims to provide major insights into the markets growth throughout the above-mentioned forecast period in terms of volume and revenue (in US$ Mn). Moreover, the research also investigates market expansion in some of the prime regions such as North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, South America, and Middle East & Africa (MEA).Request Sample Report @Food ingredients are additives for performing various functions in food, such as maintaining or improving freshness & safety, nutritional value, taste, texture and appearance. Various types of food ingredients include starches, vegetable oils & fats, natural sweeteners, enzymes & antioxidants, natural flavorings & colors, and functional ingredients.Growing Demand for Ready-to-Eat Foods & Convenience FoodsGlobalization is making the world a smaller place to thrive in, with increasing trade activities across various sectors, which does not exclude the food & beverage industry. This has resulted into a rampant rise in export & import of food ingredients globally, for maintaining the quality and enhancing the shelf-life of food products. Rapid urbanisation, and soaring population density with their increasing purchasing power has led towards rapid adoption of convenience food, thereby leading towards demand for various food ingredients. With the rise in food borne diseases, the consumers are becoming more health conscious and demanding for natural food ingredients. The number of women workforce has witnessed a tremendous surge over the past decade, which in turn has propelled demand for ready-to-eat foods.Leading manufacturers in the global food ingredients market are focusing on new product development. However, stringent government regulations, coupled with the time consuming process of approval prior to the commercial launch of products are pressurizing manufacturers in obtaining approvals before distribution process.In its recent research report, Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) has projected the global food ingredients market to register an impressive expansion throughout the forecast period, 2017 to 2022. The global food ingredients market is estimated to exceed US$ 400,000 Mn in revenues by 2022-end.Global Food Ingredients Market to Register Fastest Expansion in North AmericaThe food ingredients market is projected to exhibit the fastest expansion in North America, followed Asia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ), through 2022. Growth of the food ingredients market in Japan will remain steady through 2022. The market in Japan will exceed US$ 13,500 Mn in revenues by 2022-end. The market in Europe will register a lower CAGR than that in Japan, however it will account for comparatively larger revenues by 2022-end. Middle East and Africa (MEA) will register a relatively slower expansion in the global food ingredients market through 2022.Browse Full Report with TOC @In terms of revenues, starches will continue to dominate the global food ingredients market, based on product type. However, sales of functional ingredients, enzymes & antioxidants, and natural flavorings & colors are projected to register a relatively faster expansion in the market through 2022. Vegetable oils & fats will also remain a lucrative product segment in the global food ingredients market, with sales estimated to exceed US$ 100,000 Mn in revenues by 2022-end.Sales of Food Ingredients in Functional Foods to Register Highest CAGR through 2022On the basis of application, although sales of food ingredients in functional foods will account for the smallest revenue share of the market, their sales are projected to register the highest CAGR through 2022. In contrast, sales of food ingredients in frozen foods will exhibit the lowest CAGR in the market through 2022. In addition, sales of food ingredients in ready-to-eat foods and meat will reflect nearly similar CAGRs through 2022. However, revenues from ready-to-eat foods segment will remain comparatively higher than that of meat during the forecast period.Based on function, stabilizers, thickeners, binders, & texturizers, and emulsifiers segments are projected to exhibit similar CAGRs through 2022. Nutrients are anticipated to emerge as the fastest expanding function of food ingredients over the forecast period. This growth of nutrients is mainly because of increasing demand for nutrient-rich food products from health-conscious consumers across the globe. Although sweeteners will account for the largest market revenue share, sales of food ingredients in nutrients will witness a sluggish expansion through 2022.Company ProfilesMarket Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) has included key players contributing to the market expansion, which include AngelYeast Co., Ltd., Archer Daniels Midland Company, Arla Foods amba, Associated Milk Producers, Inc., Bunge Limited, Cargill, Inc., Fonterra Co-operative Group Limited, Givaudan SA, Glanbia Plc, Ingredion Incorporated, Kerry Group Plc, and Koninklijke DSM N.V.Enquire about this Report @About Market Research Reports Search EngineMarket Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Market Research Reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.Contact UsState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United States Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:Read More Industry News At:
IV Equipment Market: Global Market Estimation, Dynamics, Regional Share, Trends, Competitor Analysis 2012 to 2016 and Forecast 2017 to 2023

IV Equipment Market

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IV Equipment Market: By Product Type (Infusion Sets, IV Catheters, Check Valves and Stop Cocks, Needless Connectors, Securement Devices, Drip Chambers, Others), By End User (Hospitals, Clinics, Ambulatory Surgical centers, Homecare), and Geography  Market Estimation, Dynamics, Regional Share, Trends, Competitor Analysis 2012-2016 and Forecast 2017-2023Market Outline: IV Equipment MarketIV equipment are the medical devices used in the intravenous therapy to deliver the liquid substances into the body through the intravenous system. The IV equipment are used to administer the injections and infusions by using the syringes and infusion pumps. These equipment must be sterile before administering into the vein. Intravenous therapy is the fastest route to deliver the medications into the body because the medication directly enter into the circulation through intravenous route.A sample of this report is available upon request @Market Dynamics: IV Equipment MarketIncrease in geriatric population, growing prevalence of chronic diseases, increase in a number of surgical procedures, various advantages of intravenous therapy, availability of fixed IV equipment such as IV cannulas for multiple drug administration are anticipated to fuel the IV equipment market over the forecast period. However, stringent regulatory policies for newer products approval, rise in the incidence of medication errors, and patient safety risks are anticipated to hamper the growth of IV equipment market over the forecast years.Market Scope: IV Equipment MarketIV equipment market segmented based on product type, end user, and regionBased on the product type, the market segmented into the following:Infusion SetsIV CathetersCheck Valves and Stop CocksNeedless ConnectorsSecurement DevicesDrip ChambersOthersBased on the end user, the market segmented into the following:HospitalsClinicsAmbulatory Surgical CentersHome careBased on region, the market is segmented into the following:North AmericaEuropeAsia PacificLatin AmericaMiddle East and AfricaTo view TOC of this report is available upon request @Market Summary: IV Equipment MarketMarket players are actively involved in the development of newer IV equipment which is most convenient to the patient drug administration. Moreover, the rise in prevalence of chronic diseases that require long-term treatment, the rise in a number of surgical procedures, and rise in demand for ambulatory infusion pumps owing to rise in the home care market are anticipated to fuel the IV equipment market over the forecast years. Furthermore, acquisitions and mergers, collaborations, and product launchings are the strategies adopted by the market players for generating the revenue in IV equipment market. For instance, in April 2017, ICU Medical Inc. acquired Hospira infusion systems for expanding the product portfolio including IV equipment.Need more information about this report @Regional Analysis: IV Equipment MarketGeographically, global IV equipment market segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East and Africa. North America IV equipment market expected to exhibit significant growth owing to increase in the prevalence of chronic diseases such as cancer, adoption of homecare IV equipment devices, an increase in healthcare expenditure in the region. Europe IV equipment marketaccounted for significant share owing to the adoption of newer IV equipment, the rise in prevalence of chronic diseases due to change in lifestyle, and advanced healthcare infrastructure in the region. Asia Pacific IV equipment market is driven by rising in medical tourism in Asia Pacific countries, the presence of a large patient pool, rise in utilization of advance IV equipment in the region. Latin America IV equipment market growing at significant rate owing to economic growth, increase in healthcare expenditure, and increase in the number of surgical procedures in the region. Middle East and Africa IV equipment market is poised to grow due to rise in adoption of technologically advanced IV equipment, and government initiations for protecting the public health middle east countries.Competition Assessment: IV Equipment MarketSome of the players in the global IV equipment market include:Becton, Dickinson and Company (U.S.)Terumo Corporation (Japan.)Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA (Germany)Braun Melsungen AG (Germany)AngioDynamics, Inc. (U.S.)R. Bard, Inc. (U.S.)ICU Medical, Inc. (U.S.)Baxter International Inc. (U.S.)Moog, Inc. (U.S.)Smiths Medical (U.K.)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 @
Multiple Award Winning Author Dr Nicole Announces All 8 Children's Books In The Felix And Booboo Series Have Received 5 Stars Readers Favorite Reviews And Are Available In French And English

Children's book author Dr. Nicole

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Multi-award winning children's book author Dr. Nicole has announced eight new children's books in the Felix and Booboo series. The full series of books is available in both French and English. All of the books in the series can be used by educators and medical professionals to help kids understand that some medical conditions are normal and are not to be feared or avoided. All of them received 5 stars review from Readers Favorite.The eight English books in the Felix and Booboo series include:Amy Has A Rash - ChickenpoxLea Does Not Feel Well - GastroenteritisMaya Visits Her Doctor - VaccinationsMaya's Head Is Itching - LiceSpecial Food For Sam - AllergiesFelix Is Curious About His Body - The Human BodyLucas Has An Earache - OtitisCharles Hurt Himself Playing - Broken Arm"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. I am very proud to receive the highest review from Readers Favorite for my books. Next month, Publisher's Weekly will publish a Q and A on my work."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 a large number of international awards. A full listing of the awards can be found on her website.All of Felix and Boobo books have received highly favorable reviews. In a recent review for one of the books, Vernita Naylor, a reviewer for Readers' Favorite stated, "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." Mamta Madhavan added: "Dr. Nicole Audets Felix and BooBoo series is a must-have in all homes and school libraries as the author discusses falling sick and visiting the doctor in a fun way, and her characters in these books make the stories interactive for young readers."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
Pulse Flours Market - Sales Revenue, Historical Analysis, Opportunities, Competitive Landscape, Future Trends and Industry Segments Poised For Strong Growth In Future 2023

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The report on global pulse flours market is an in depth analysis of the segments and sub-segments in the pulse flours market. The report provides analysis for the global as well as regional markets over the period of 2015 to 2023. According to report the global pulse flours market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 11.5% over the forecast period of 2017 - 2023.Get Sample Copy of this Report:Segments CoveredThe report on global pulse flours market covers segments such as type, and application. The type segments include chickpea, bean, lentil and pea. On the basis of application, the global pulse flours market is categorized into feed, food, nutraceuticals, personal care and other industrial applications.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 2015  2023.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, the European region covers countries such as, Germany, UK, France, Spain and Rest of Europe. 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.Companies Profiled:The report provides profiles of the companies in the global pulse flours market such as, Bean Growers Australia, Best Cooking Pulses, Great Western Grain, Blue Ribbon, Diefenbaker Spice & Pulse, Batory Foods, EHL Limited, Anchor Ingredients, Sunopta, and The Scoular Company.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 pulse flours 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 Porters five forces analysis and DRO analysis of pulse flours market. Moreover, the study highlights current market trends and provides forecast from 2017 to 2023. We also have highlighted future trends in the pulse flours 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. Additionally, the analysis highlights rise and fall in the market shares of the key players in the market.This report will help manufacturers, suppliers and distributors of the pulse flours market to understand the present and future trends in this market and formulate their strategies accordingly.Table of Content1. Preface1.1 Report Description1.2 Research Methods1.3 Research Approaches2. Executive Summary3. Global Pulse Flours Market Overview3.1 Introduction3.2 Market Dynamics3.2.1 Drivers3.2.2 Restraints3.2.3 Opportunities3.2.4 Challenges3.3 Porters Five Forces Analysis3.4 IGR  Growth Matrix Analysis3.5 Competitive Landscape in the global pulse flours market4. Global Pulse Flours Market by Type 2017 - 20234.1 Chickpea4.2 Bean4.3 Lentil4.4 Pea5. Global Pulse Flours Market by Application 2017 - 20235.1 Feed5.2 Food5.3 Nutraceuticals5.4 Personal Care5.5 Other industrial applications6. Global Pulse Flours Market by Regions 2017 - 20236.1 North America6.1.1 North America Pulse Flours Market by Type6.1.2 North America Pulse Flours Market by Application6.1.3 North America Pulse Flours Market by Country6.2 Europe6.2.1 Europe Pulse Flours Market by Type6.2.2 Europe Pulse Flours Market by Application6.2.3 Europe Pulse Flours Market by Country6.3 Asia-Pacific6.3.1 Asia-Pacific Pulse Flours Market by Type6.3.2 Asia-Pacific Pulse Flours Market by Application6.3.3 Asia-Pacific Pulse Flours Market by Country6.4 RoW6.4.1 RoW Pulse Flours Market by Type6.4.2 RoW Pulse Flours Market by Application6.4.3 RoW Pulse Flours Market by Sub-region7. Companies Covered7.1 Bean Growers Australia7.2 Best Cooking Pulses7.3 Great Western Grain7.4 Blue Ribbon7.5 Diefenbaker Spice & Pulse7.6 Batory Foods7.7 EHL Limited7.8 Anchor Ingredients7.9 Sunopta7.10 The Scoular CompanyComplete report at: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
Full-Stack Team for eCommerce Projects

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Do you want to know how and where to find a Team of Magento Experts and eCommerce specialists? We know how to help you! MageDirect is a Team of customer-oriented developers. that know how to solve your business issues. We provide services for eCommerce and for IT companies. Do you want to manage our team of Dedicated Magento Developers, or just want to let us do all the tasks for your project? We have both of this options, visit our website for more detailed information:MageDirect is a Team of experts which provides clients with full-stack eCommerce development services. Our main expertise - Magento eCommerce development. We have been working with this eCommerce platform since first releases!Our Team consists of experienced Magento developers and eCommerce consultants. We provide our expertise for IT companies and for eCommerce businesses around the world.MageDirect works with clients to fully understand their needs and offer them customized solutions whether its a supplement of your team with a specialized expert for a certain period of time or outsourcing a turn-key project to the team of programmers.1A Sportyvna square,Business center Regus Gulliver, 17 floorKiev, Ukraine01601
Global Ginger Market Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Opportunities till 2022

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An extensive forecast study, titled Ginger Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017  2022has been broadcasted to the online repository of Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE). This 170-page precise study encapsulates valuable details about the market current scenario as well as its future projections on a global and regional level. It further intensely aims to provide major insights into the markets growth throughout the above-mentioned forecast period in terms of volume and revenue (in US$ Mn). Moreover, the research also investigates market expansion in some of the prime regions such as North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, South America, and Middle East & Africa (MEA).Request Sample Report @In the recent times, the global market for ginger has observed a strong surge in its valuation, thanks to the increasing popularity of ginger as a spice and as a flavoring agent across the world. The rising awareness about the medical benefits of ginger is also attracting consumers substantially, and this factor is expected to act as a long-term promoter of this market, leading it to high growth over the next few years.In addition to this, the widening application base of ginger, from medicines to alcoholic beverages, is anticipated to boost the global ginger market in the years to come. The market is projected to gain US$3.06 bn by 2017 in revenues. The opportunities in this market is predicted to proliferate at a CAGR of 6.50% between 2017 and 2022, reaching a value of US$4.18 bn by the end of 2022.APEJ to Retain Leadership in Global Ginger MarketNorth America, the Middle East and Africa (MEA), Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ), Europe, Latin America, and Japan have emerged as the key regional markets for ginger across the world. Of these, the APEJ region has surfaced as the most attractive regional market for ginger and acquired the leading position in the global market. Progressing at a CAGR of 7.10% during the period from 2017 to 2022, the APEJ market for ginger is predicted to experience a high rise over the near future, thereby retaining its leadership on the overall market.The tremendous rise in medical tourism in Asian countries, such as India and China, has influenced the production of medicinal spices, of which ginger is a significant segment and, consequently, the market for ginger in APEJ is being heavily boosted. Researchers anticipate the scenario to remain the same over the next few years.Amongst other regional markets for ginger, the Middle East and Africa, Europe, and North America are expected to register a steady rise in their respective ginger markets over the forthcoming years. While the Middle East and Africa market will gain from the increasing production of spices; the North America and Europe markets will benefit from the rising awareness of the medicinal qualities of ginger among consumers, together with augmenting preference for organic and bio-based remedies for ailments.Browse Full Report with TOC @Fresh Ginger Enjoys Greater Demand than Other FormsCommonly, ginger is found in fresh, dried, pickled, preserved, crystallized, and powdered forms across the world. The demand for fresh ginger is much higher than its other forms. Expanding at a CAGR of 7.30% between 2017 and 2022, this segment is anticipated to remain the most prominent one in the years to come.Ginger finds extensive application in culinary, snacks and convenience food, soups and sauces, bakery products, non-alcoholic beverages, alcoholic beverages, and chocolate and confectionery. The culinary segment has surfaced as the main application area of ginger and is projected to remain so over the next few years. Traditional grocery retail, modern grocery retail, and non-grocery retail are the prime distribution channels of ginger across the world.At the forefront of the global market for ginger are Archer-Daniels-Midland Co., Yummy Food Industrial Group, Monterey Bay Spice Co. Inc., Sun Impex International Foods L.L.C., Indian Organic Farmers Producer Co. Ltd., Sino-Nature International Co. Ltd., Atmiya International, Buderim Group Ltd., Food Market Management Inc., and SA Rawther Spices Pvt. Ltd.Enquire about this Report @About Market Research Reports Search EngineMarket Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Market Research Reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.Contact UsState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United States Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:Read More Industry News At:
Temperature Probe Market is Driven by Increased Adoption Rate of Surveillance and Checkup Devices

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Temperature probes are used to measure the amount of coldness and heat energy, generated by a system. These sensors help in detecting physical change to the temperature producing digital output. Furthermore, temperature sensors are mainly used in sectors including healthcare, food & beverage, automotive and consumer electronics, defense industry.Temperature sensors are used in various industrial applications, which need process control with high accuracy. These probes are mainly used for sensitive processes, which need controlled process environments for example in chemical mixing, monitoring. Industrial processes which frequently requires to test and measure equipments temperature and volume, also use temperature probes on large scale. For example, clinical research processes have highly controlled manufacturing environments.Download Report Brochure @These probes play important role in manufacturing, handling, storing of medical equipment and drugs, as they maintain basic overall performance by monitoring temperature. The current developments in healthcare sensing probes are responsible for increase in the trend of continuous patient monitoring. As a result it can reduce overall healthcare costs and help to improve treatment outcomes. These medical sensors are capable of monitoring of vital signs, for example patients temperature and blood pressure that are directly recorded in the electronic format. It also reduces sloppy management of patient records and providing the user with the latest information. Currently consumer healthcare is amongst the major fields which holds a promising future for sensors with a fastest growth rate than all other applications.The escalating burden of chronic disorders as well as, the worldwide, surging population count has consequently propelled the demand for these equipments. Chronically ill patients and the large elderly population subset form the target population for the sensor-based devices as it is imperative for them to undergo routine checkups; thus, facilitating remote and point-of-care patient monitoring.Besides this, increased adoption rate of surveillance and checkup devices are further driving the temperature sensors market. In addition, factors such as strict government guidelines to ensure environmental safety and ongoing demand for electronic products and computing peripherals have kept the prospects of the market high.The raw material used for manufacturing plays a crucial role in sensor efficiency and durability. Use of new raw materials such as lithium-niobate and langasite has increased the measurement ranges of temperature sensors. However, silicon based sensors are primarily used owing to their availability and low cost as they are produced in bulk. Multisensors are increasingly used for mass applications owing to their stability which, is expected to drive overall temperature sensors market growth.Technical developments and advent of Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) are likely to create greater opportunities.The home healthcare category such as pregnancy kits and glucose monitoring kits is anticipated to witness lucrative growth over the years. The cost of diagnosis in hospitals and other healthcare units is high; hence, the preference of home healthcare equipments, such as diagnostic kits, over hospitals is observed to be rising. The high-unmet needs of the huge target population are expected to further open avenues for the market players in the industry.Request for TOC @However, dominance of legacy technologies and awareness of end-users have hampered the market growth. Quality, accuracy of temperature probes and raw material used for manufacturing has hampered the market.The Global Market of Temperature Probe is segmented on basis of product type, application, end user, and geography. The market by product type includes fiber optic, temperature sensors IC, bimetallic, resistance temperature detector, IR temperature sensor, thermistor, and thermocouple. Based on applications, the market is segmented as surgical, diagnostic, therapeutic and monitoring. The end user of temperature probes include hospitals, physician offices, nursing homes, home healthcare facilities and others.Geographically, the market is segmented into six major regions: North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Middle East and Rest of the World (RoW). In terms of geography, North America followed by Europe account for the largest market share for because of availability of sophisticated primary, secondary, and tertiary-care healthcare settings supported the market. Moreover, the well-established reimbursement network, suitable government funding, and the increasing health awareness further facilitates the incorporation of the sensors in the medical devices.The Asia Pacific region is anticipated to witness a remunerative growth over the next few years. This can be attributed to the heightened number of individuals suffering from chronic disorders, such as diabetes, hypertension, and respiratory problems.Obtain Report Details @The key market players active in the temperature sensor market are Analog Devices Inc., Maxim Integrated, Measurement Specialties Inc., Microchip Technology Inc., Honeywell International Inc., NXP Semiconductors, STMicroelectronics, Panasonic Corporation, Texas Instruments and Siemens AG.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Contact UsTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Near Vision Devices Market is Driven by Increasing Geriatric Population Prone to Ophthalmic Disease

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Near vision devices are implantable devices used for near vision correction in patients who didnt had cataract surgery. The device blocks unfocused light rays from entering the eye to improve patients near vision. These devices resemble the contact lenses and are made from hydrogel material. The device is implanted on a cornea of one eye to improve near vision in patients with presbyopia.Many of the surgeons use a laser to make a lappet on a cornea in order to implant near vision device. Presbyopia occurs in people aged between 40 to 50 years that results in difficulty with near vision. The growing prevalence of presbyopia has propelled the use of near vision devices owing to the ease of usage and effectiveness compared to cataract surgery. According to Medscape, around 14% of people of 80 million presbyopia patients develops from emmetropic presbyopia.Download Report Brochure @Currently, there are only two near vision devices are approved by FDA i.e. Raindrop Near Vision Inlay and KAMRA inlay. AcuFocus manufactured Kamra Inlay was the first implantable near vision device approved by FDA in April 2015. Now the devices are commercially available in around 50 countries across the globe. Similar, ReVision Optics manufactured Raindrop Near Vision Inlay was approved in June 2016 and is commercially available in the U.S.Apart from these two; there are many vision care products manufacturers looking forward to develop implantable near vision devices. For example, Presbia PLC, an Ireland-based manufacturer has designed innovative corneal inlay i.e. flexivue microlens for the correction of presbyopia. The specialty of this devices is that it can be removed and replaced with a higher or lower power according to requirement. The devices did not receive FDA approval; however, it received CE mark for commercialization in European countries.The growth of the global near vision devices market is driven by increasing geriatric population prone to ophthalmic disease, growing prevalence of presbyopia and technological advancement in the healthcare industry. Similarly, sedentary lifestyle and increased usage of computer, television viewing would contribute towards the growth of near vision devices globally.Request for TOC @Moreover, with the increase in the disposable income levels and health consciousness among the general population, the adoption of near vision device is expected the boost in the near future. Despite several advantages, the devices have few drawback such as, it cannot be used by patients with severe dry eye and active eye infection, the use of devices can lead to a risk of eye infection and inflammation, and can cause a decrease in distance vision.Geographically, North America occupies the substantially larger market share, which is followed by Europe. The high attentiveness level in this region will lead the increasing adoption of implantable near vision devices. According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, one of 5 American use reading glasses, which depicts the huge need for implantable near vision devices in North America.Moreover, it has been estimated that around 2.1 billion people are expected to suffer from an eye disease known as presbyopic by 2020. However, in the case of emerging economies, affordability has become a restraining factor for implantable near vision devices in, Asia Pacific and Latin America. Similarly, increase in disposable income, rising aging population, and growing awareness level are some of the key factors driving the global implantable near vision devices market.Obtain Report Details @The Asian market is expected to witness entry of the higher number of new players compared to those in developed regions. Some of the top players in the global near vision devices market are AcuFocus, Presbia PLC, ReVision Optics, etc.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Contact UsTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Global Snacks Market Overview, Industry Top Competitors, Market Shares, Industry Growth Analysis & Forecast: 2022

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The market for snacks is growing with the expansion of this Industry Sector Worldwide. Fact.MR has added a new report titled Snacks Market Forecast, Trend Analysis & Competition Tracking - Global Review 2017 to 2026 which offer details about the current trends as well as scope for the snacks market in the near future. This research study also covers information about the production and market share based on different active regions. Furthermore, an anticipated growth at a double-digit CAGR for the concerned sector is highlighted in the report which indicates a prosperous future.Request for Sample Report -Key Estimations by Fact.MRs Report for the Global Snacks Market1- North America is expected to remain dominant in the global snacks market, in terms of revenues. The market in this region is projected to register the highest CAGR through 2022.2- The market in Europe is expected to create an absolute $ opportunity of US$ 4,979.2 Mn between 2017 and 2022.3- Biscuits will continue to be sought-after among products, with sales estimated to account for the largest revenues by 2022-end. Sales of biscuits are expected to account for more than half share of the market during the forecast period.4- Sales of bars are estimated to register the fastest expansion through 2022, and will remain the second most lucrative product in the global snacks market.5- Supermarkets/hypermarkets will remain the largest distribution channels for snacks.6- Convenience stores will stick to their position of being the second most lucrative distribution channels for snacks during the forecast period.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.Target Independent Retailers and Convenience Stores in Snacks MarketIt would make sense to focus on convenience stores and independent retailers as supermarkets are already fairly well-entrenched in the snacks market. Convenience stores are likely to witness steady growth in terms of revenues. Independent retailers have a lower revenue share, but this segment will continue to offer growth opportunities to manufacturers. North America contributes approx. 1/3rd of the snacks market in the case of both independent retailers as well as convenience stores, making it imperative for snack companies to focus on these distribution channels in the snacks market.Browse Full Report with TOC -Table of Contents:Chapter 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. 26Continued..Check Discount on this Report -About Fact.MRFact.MR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized market research reports. We believe transformative intelligence can educate and inspire businesses to make smarter decisions. We know the limitations of the one-size-fits-all approach; that's why we publish multi-industry global, regional, and country-specific research reports.Contact UsFact.MRSuite 988427 Upper Pembroke Street,Dublin 2, IrelandTelephone: +353-1-6111-593Email: sales@factmr.com/Web:
Kinase Targeted Therapeutics Market with Current Trends Analysis 2016 - 2024

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Kinase is a class of enzyme that helps to transfer phosphate groups to the targeted substrate from molecules with high energy such as adenosine triphosphate (ADP). Disrupted or inappropriate kinase activity has been associated with several chronic diseases such as diabetes, neurological disorders, cancer, and cardiovascular disorders.The rising prevalence of chronic diseases such as cancer and diabetes is one of the primary factors driving the global kinase-targeted therapeutics market. The World Diabetes Foundation (WDF) estimates the number of people suffering from diabetes to reach 438 million by 2030. Similarly, the World Cancer Research Fund International projects the count of people suffering from cancer across the world to reach 21 million by the same year. Kinases vary on the basis of molecules on which they act. Some of them are lipid kinase, protein kinase, and carbohydrate kinase.Download Report Brochure @The report serves as a reliable source of analysis and data regarding various important aspects of the global kinase-targeted therapeutics market. It presents a comprehensive account of the market dynamics including trends and opportunities. It offers invaluable insights into the competitive landscape of the market. It profiles the key companies operating in the market along with their business strategies, market shares, cost and revenue structure, contact information, and latest developments. For a coherent understanding, the report categorizes the global kinase-targeted therapeutics market on the basis of various criteria including geography, and target molecules.The continuous research and development activities in the field of life science are providing a fillip to the global kinase-targeted therapeutics market. Governments worldwide are allocating substantial budgets for medical advancements. Moreover, the improving healthcare facilities in developing countries coupled with increasing healthcare spending are augmenting the market. Since aged people are more susceptible to chronic diseases and age-related deformities, the growing geriatric population is working in favor of the market.On the other hand, the increasing awareness regarding the side-effects of kinase-targeted therapeutics drugs is restraining the growth of the market. These drugs are hazardous to the normal functioning of the liver and critical organs such as lungs and kidneys.Request for TOC @The key segments analyzed in the report based on geography are North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Rest of the World. North America will account for a substantial share in the market throughout the review period owing to the presence of a large base of geriatric population. The domicile of large manufacturers of kinase-targeted therapeutic drugs is providing an edge to the region over other regions. In addition, the continuous research and development activities in the field are supporting the growth of the market in the region.Asia Pacific is expected to exhibit significant growth during the same period. The growth of the region can be attributed to the expanding base of patients suffering from chronic diseases. The improving healthcare infrastructure along with the rising expenditure of the populace on healthcare is propelling the growth of the region.Obtain Report Details @A large number of pharmaceutical giants are investing in the area of kinase modulation, and are among the leading players in the market. Several companies operating in the global kinase-targeted therapeutics market are keen on designing and launching improved agents that target diverse combinations of kinases. They are focusing towards business development and pipeline enrichment through mergers and acquisitions. Some of the prominent manufacturers of kinase-targeted therapeutic drugs are Eli Lilly and Company, Abbott Laboratories, Avila Therapeutics Inc., Array BioPharma Inc., and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Contact UsTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Global Patient Positioning Market Report 2017: Surgical Tables Have the Largest Revenue Share Contribution

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FACT.MR has been actively involved in offering comprehensive research data concerning various topics which are associated to industrial reference and investor utility. This particular research report titled Patient Market Forecast, Trend Analysis & Competition Tracking: Global Review 2017 to 2022 has been added to the wide online database of FACT.MR which discusses the present as well as future market scenario. Readers can access knowledge related to market volume, regional expanse as well as competitive landscape prevailing in the global patient positioning market. In order to study development patterns, this smart assessment also focuses on market dynamics, which talks about drivers, restraints and opportunities estimated to influence the concerned market during the period until 2022.Request for Sample Report -The Fact.MR forecast report on global patient positioning market projects that the market will reach US$ 1.4 Bn value by the end of 2017. With improving healthcare infrastructures and adoption of ergonomic designs, manufacturers of patient positioning products are likely to boost their capacity in the years to come. Towards the end of 2022, the global market for patient positioning will have expanded steadily at 6.1% CAGR, raking revenues worth slightly over US$ 1.9 Bn.Key Forecast Highlights1- According to the report, tables will account for nearly 20% share on global patient positioning revenues in 2017. Surgical tables, on the other hand, will be observed as top-selling products in the global patient positioning market. By the end of 2022, nearly US$ 500 Mn worth of revenues will be procured from sales of patient positioning surgical tables around the world.2- Increasing emphasis on improving the healthcare infrastructure has propelled the adoption of patient positioning solutions in developing regions. Manufacturers of patient positioning are also viewing regions such as the Asia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) region lucrative for setting up manufacturing units. High resource availability, low wage costs, coupled with dense population that translates into maximum end-use, are driving the growth of patient positioning market in the APEJ region. The report projects that the APEJ patient positioning market will soar vigorously at 7.2% CAGR, bringing in revenues worth over US$ 238 Mn by the end of 2022.3- North America is expected to remain the largest market for patient positioning. The report predicts that high healthcare spending in the US and Canada will prompt manufacturers in providing top-of-line products in the field of patient positioning. While revenues amassed from sales of patient positioning products in Europe will contribute to 30% of global market value, it is estimated North Americas patient positioning market will procure nearly US$ 480 Mn revenue towards the end of 2017.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.Browse Full Report with TOC -Table of Contents:Chapter 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. 383.1.3. Radiolucent Imaging Tables Patient Positioning Systems Market Size and Forecast, 2012-2022. 393.1.3.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region. 393.1.3.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region. 413.1.3.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By Region. 413.1.4. Examination Tables Patient Positioning Systems Market Size and Forecast, 2012-2022. 423.1.4.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region. 423.1.4.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region. 443.1.4.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By Region. 443.1.5. Accessories Patient Positioning Systems Market Size and Forecast, 2012-2022. 453.1.5.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region. 453.1.5.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region. 473.1.5.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By Region. 473.1.6. Other Patient Positioning Systems Patient Positioning Systems Market Size and Forecast, 2012-2022. 48ContinuedCheck Discount on this Report -About Fact.MRFact.MR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized market research reports. We believe transformative intelligence can educate and inspire businesses to make smarter decisions. We know the limitations of the one-size-fits-all approach; that's why we publish multi-industry global, regional, and country-specific research reports.Contact UsFact.MRSuite 988427 Upper Pembroke Street,Dublin 2, IrelandTelephone: +353-1-6111-593Email: sales@factmr.com/Web:
Industrial Boilers Market 2017: Industry Current Scenario, Growth Analysis, Demand, analysis and Global Research 2024

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The Global Industrial Boilers Market 2017 Market Research Report is an expert and top to bottom investigation measure, share, development, development, viewpoint and conjecture to 2024 on the ebb and flow condition of the Industrial Boilers industry. The report gives a fundamental review of the business including definitions, orders, applications and industry chain structure.The Global Industrial Boilers Market accounted for USD 12.32 billion in 2016 and projected to grow at a CAGR of 6.1% during the forecast period of 2017 to 2024. The upcoming market report contains data for historic years 2014, 2015, the base year of calculation is 2016 and the forecast period is 2017 to 2024.Request for Free Sample Report @Global Industrial Boilers Market By Fuel Type (Natural Gas & Biomass, Coal, Oil); Type (Water Tube, Fire Tube); Boiler Horse Power (10BHP-150BHP, 151BHP-300BHP, 301BHP-600BHP); End-Use Industry (Food, Chemical, Refineries, Primary Metal); Geography (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Europe, South America, Middle East and Africa)  Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024Complete report on Global Industrial Boilers Market Research Report 2017-2024 spread across 350 Pages, profiling Top companies and supports with tables and figuresKey Questions Answered in Global Industrial Boilers Market Report:-Our Report offers:- What will the market growth rate, Overview and Analysis by Type of Global Industrial Boilers Market in 2024? What are the key factors driving, Analysis by Applications and Countries Global Industrial Boilers Market? What are Dynamics, This Overview Includes Analysis of Scope, and price analysis of top Vendors Profiles of Global Industrial Boilers Market? Who are Opportunities, Risk and Driving Force of Global Industrial Boilers Market? Who are the opportunities and threats faced by the vendors in Global Industrial Boilers Market? Business Overview by Type, Applications, Gross Margin and Market Share What are the Global Industrial Boilers Market opportunities, market risk and market overview of the Market?Market Definition: Global Industrial Boilers MarketIndustrial boilers are an indispensable part of process plants where steam is used to supply heat to various processes being carried out. A lot of discussion happens around the attributes of a good industrial boiler. This article highlights ten features of industrial boilers which promise a good performance. It has its wide application in food, chemical, refineries, primary metal, and others. Increasing demand for clean and renewable energy sources and increasing natural gas usage may act as the major driver in the growth of Industrial boilers market. Strict emission standards may hamper the market.Request for Detaild TOC:Top Key Players: John Wood Group plc Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises, Inc. DEC GENERAL ELECTRIC Siemens AG Sofinter S.p.a BHEL Harbin Electric Corporation IHI Corporation Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, Ltd. Thermax Global AB&CO ALFA LAVAL ANDRITZ Suzhou Hailu Heavy Industry Co., Ltd. Robey-Wellman Boilers & Furnaces Ltd. Taiyuan Boiler Group Co., Ltd. Superior Boiler Works, Inc. Vapor Power Bryan Steam Hurst Boiler & Welding Co, Inc. and others.Avail 10% Instant Discount on Purchase of this report Mail us on: sopan.gedam@databridgemarketresearch.comMajor Market Drivers and Restraints: Increasing demand for clean and renewable energy sources Increasing natural gas usage High cost of installation Strict emission standardsFor more insightful information visit @Customize report of "Global Industrial Boilers Market" as per customers requirement also available.Market Segmentations:Global Industrial Boilers Market is segmented on the basis of Fuel Type Type Boiler Horse Power End-Use Industry GeographyMarket Segmentations in Details:On the basis of Fuel Type into natural gas & biomass, coal, oil, and others.On the basis of Type, the global industrial boilers market is segmented into lay-up, pultrusion, resin transfer molding, injection molding, filament winding, compression molding, and others.On the basis of Boiler Horse Power, the global industrial boilers market is segmented into 10BHP-150BHP, 151BHP-300BHP, and 301BHP-600BHPOn the basis of End-Use Industry, the global industrial boilers market is segmented into food, chemical, refineries, primary metal, and others.On the basis of geography North America South America Europe Asia-Pacific Middle East & AfricaCompetitive Landscape: Global Industrial Boilers MarketThe global industrial boilers market is consolidated due to the presence of limited number of players concentrated in few countries. These major players have adopted various organic as well as inorganic growth strategies such as mergers & acquisitions, new product launches, expansions, agreements, joint ventures, partnerships, and others to strengthen their position in this market.Speak to Author of the Report@Other ReportGlobal Ransom Ware Protection Market  Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024Global Ransom ware protection Market, By Geography, Solution (Standalone Anti-Ransom Ware Software, Secure Web Gateways, Application Control, IDS/IPS, Web Filtering, Threat Intelligence), Service (Managed Services, Professional Services), Application, Deployment Mode, Organization Size, Vertical- Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024Report Access:About Data Bridge Market ResearchData Bridge Market Research set forth itself as an unconventional and neoteric Market research and consulting firm with unparalleled level of resilience and integrated approaches. We are determined to unearth the best market opportunities and foster efficient information for your business to thrive in the market. Data Bridge endeavors to provide appropriate solutions to the complex business challenges and initiates an effortless decision-making process.Contact:Data Bridge Market ResearchTel: +1-888-387-2818Email: sopan.gedam@databridgemarketresearch.com
Human Biobanking Ownership Market Size, Analysis, and Forecast Report 2016 - 2024

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Biobanks are kind of repositories which store the biological samples for research and educational purpose. The samples are collected form general public based on various factors such as ethnicity, age, gender, lifestyle and geography. Biobanks collect the samples in various forms such as tissues, saliva, blood, etc. A purified genomic database is maintained in these biobanks, this data is significant in research and study purpose for understanding the environmental impacts and mutations, and diseases and disorders derived from them.The samples are stored in groups of specific traits to ease their application in research purposes. The samples are collected from donors after their consensus and most of the biobanks follow the practice of donors ownership and his consensus on use of his/her sample for any further research purpose by private entity or public organization. Biobanks play a vital role in research and development is healthcare industry.Download Report Brochure @The genetic and other biological data repository maintained by biobanks help researchers to understand the human trait associated diseases and disorders, and also the impact of environment and genetic variations on cell lines and human health. These biobanks provide extensive data based on these factors and on the basis of other demographical traits, which is expected to grow the human biobanking ownership market. The biobanks offer database of cross border population which makes its users time saving and effective resource, which is expected to increase uptake for biobanking services across the globe.However, high cost associated with human biobanks, as the genome sequencing is costly and tedious process, the human biobanking ownership market is expected to restrain the growth across the globe. Also stringent laws and regulations in biobanking and concern over the security and privacy of human biobanks across globe is another factor expected to bolster the growth for human biobanking ownership market. In the near future, the global human biobanking ownership market is expected to be governed by laws to protect the privacy of gene donors and establish their rights.For example, in Estonia, the Human Genes Research Act passed in 1999 provides donors full authority over who can access their data and establishes anonymity in clinical research. Such laws will help in the growth of the global human biobanking ownership market.Request for TOC @Based on the operator of the biobank, the human biobanks can be segmented in to academic & research Institutes, pharmaceutical and biotech industry, hospitals, and stand-alone biobanks. These biobanks serve various purposes such as diagnostics, forensic, organ transplantation, research, and others. By the ownership type the biobanks can be privately funded and operated, publically funded and operated, and public-private partnership funded and operated. Some of the Government agencies promote biobanks, so as to create database of population to support in strengthening the healthcare infrastructure.Geographically, global human biobanking ownership market is segmented in four major regions such as North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Rest of the World. Asia Pacific has been driving the global market growth owing to the rapid growth of the private biobanks and clinical research organizations in the region. Demand witnessed in North America and Europe is also significantly aiding the growth of the market.In Europe, countries such as Estonia are focusing on collecting the DNA of every citizen in order to enrich their national biobank. In Estonia, the national biobank program started in 2000 by collecting DNA samples from a quarter of the countrys population. While these DNA samples are mostly used for clinical research, the government is planning to use this data to build a robust health care infrastructure by offering personalized care. The Government of Estonia has already started developing a system to make this genetic data available to citizens and doctors.Obtain Report Details @The major players operating in the market include ProMedDx, Affymetrix Inc., Abbott Laboratories, Acorda Therapeutics, Alpha Cord Inc., Autogen Inc., Biobank Ireland Trust, BioCision, Biokryo GmbH, BioLife Solutions Inc., Biomatrica Inc., BioStorage Technologies Inc., Cells4Life Ltd., Cesca Therapeutics Inc., China Cord Blood Corporation, Core Dynamics Inc., Cryo Bio System, and Sanford Health among others.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Contact UsTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Worldwide IoT Sensors Market Is Relied Upon To Extend At An Extraordinary CAGR 24.5% From 2015 To 2023 To Touch A Valuation Of US$34.75 Bn

IoT Sensors Market

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "IoT Sensors Market (By Type - Accelerometers, Gyroscopes, Magnetometers, Pressure Sensors, Temperature Sensors, Light Sensors, Others, By Application - Consumer Electronics, Healthcare, Automotive, Industrial, Building Automation, Retail and Others) - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2015 - 2023" to its huge collection of research reports.Internet of Things (IoT) is a network that is embedded with sensors, electronics, network connectivity, and software enabling physical objects to gather and exchange data. As IoT rises into dominance, sensors are playing a pivotal role for measuring the physical quality of objects and enumerating it into a value, which can be read by another device or user. IoT devices are equipped with sensors which are capable of registering changes in pressure, temperature, motion, light, and sound. In the physical world, more and more objects can now communicate with each other through embedded IoT sensors, actuators, and tags. The global IoT sensors market has been segmented on the basis of types, application and geography. In addition, an exhaustive cross sectional analysis of the global IoT sensors market across four broad regions has been covered under the scope of the study.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @A surge in demand for IoT sensors in the automotive industry and the booming Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) market are strongly driving the growth of the IoT sensors market. Furthermore, increase in demand for consumer electronics and growing demand for smart devices is boosting the market growth. Smart devices account for a considerable portion of consumer electronics. Thus, increasing global sales of consumer electronics is fueling growth of the IoT sensors market. While smartphones and related products are already used to a large extent, smart electricity, gas and water meters are expected to witness rising demand over the next few years. The conjoint effect of all these trends and drivers is thus set to bolster the growth of the global IoT sensors market during the forecast period.Stringent government regulations and policies across the globe are encouraging the development of smart cities and this is offering a potential growth opportunity to the global IoT sensors market. IoT sensors would be used in smart cities in smart meters, smart grids, intelligent traffic management systems, and smart parking among others. Further, technological advancements in the medical industry are set to offer a substantial opportunity for the growth of the IoT sensors market. The deployment of healthcare devices using IoT sensors could transform the healthcare industry by focusing on better patient care, lowering costs, and increasing efficiency. The IoT sensors market has huge opportunity and scope in the emerging markets of Asia Pacific and Rest of the world (RoW). Emergence of new players in the developing markets such as China, Japan, India, Australia, Russia, and Brazil coupled with the adoption of better and advanced technologies has led to the increase in competitiveness in the market.Get Complete TOC With Tables and Figures @The competitive profiling of the key players in the global IoT sensors market across four broad geographic regions is included in the study. These include different business strategies adopted by the leading players and their recent developments as in the field of IoT sensors. The market attractive analysis of the major application areas has been provided in the report, in order to offer a deep insight of global IoT sensors market.A comprehensive analysis of the market dynamics that is inclusive of market drivers, restraints and opportunities is included in the purview of the report. Market dynamics are the distinctive factors which impact the market growth, thereby helping to understand the ongoing trends of the global market. Therefore, the report provides the forecast of the global market for the period from 2015 to 2023, along with offering an inclusive study of the IoT sensors market.Some of the major players in the IoT sensors market are: Infineon Technologies (Germany), STMicroelectronics N.V. (Switzerland), IBM (U.S.), Robert Bosch GmbH (Germany), Honeywell International Inc. (U.S.), Ericsson (Sweden), InvenSense Inc. (U.S.), Libelium (Spain), ARM Holdings Plc. (U.K.) and Digi International Inc. (U.S.) among others.The global IoT Sensors market has been segmented into:Global Sensors Market, by Types- Accelerometers- Gyroscopes- Magnetometers- Pressure Sensors- Temperature Sensors- Light Sensors- OthersGlobal IoT Sensors Market, by End-Use Industry:- Consumer Electronics- Healthcare- Automotive- Industrial- Building Automation- Retail- OthersMake an Enquiry of this report @Global IoT Sensors Market, by Geography: The market is broadly segmented on the basis of geography into:- North America- U.S.- Canada- Mexico- Europe- U.K.- Germany- France- Italy- Rest of Europe- Asia Pacific- China- India- Japan- Rest of APAC- Rest of the World- Latin America- Middle East- AfricaAbout ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMozState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Mosaic NetworX Partners With Connected2Fiber to Leverage the Connected World SAAS Platform

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BOSTON, March 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Connected2Fiber, a leading SaaS platform to manage and transform connectivity market data, has partnered with Mosaic NetworX, a leader in SD-WAN as-a-service. This partnership will simplify and shorten the sales process, and time-to-market for multi-carrier circuit provisioning.Mosaic NetworX"Supporting the SD-WAN supply chain requires close attention to details, with many moving parts. Partnering with Connected2fiber gives us another important back office 'arrow in our quiver.' Our SD-WAN services are carrier neutral, and the Connected2Fiber platform enables us to help our agent partners shorten their sales cycle for multi-carrier circuit quoting, pricing and provisioning," states Brian Erickson, President of Mosaic NetworX."One of the many SD-WAN supply chain services we provide is delivering the best WAN connectivity options based on proximity, price, deployment time, and service quality. The Connected2Fiber platform assists us in automating this process, accelerating access and decision-making on multi-carrier location information. This enables our channel partners to deliver faster quotes to their customers, and ultimately sell more Mosaic SOFTWAVE SD-WAN as-a-service," says Erickson.Through implementation of The Connected World platform, Mosaic SOFTWAVE SD-WAN as-a-service can use real-time location intelligence to more effectively design, execute and deliver competitively-priced global SD-WAN services with its agent partners. Mosaic NetworX partners are able to get faster, more accurate multi-carrier quotes to customers, and select the best circuit options, and best pricing for every location."The internal processes behind Mosaic NetworX, streamline and simplify the logistics of managing the entire SD-WAN supply chain, and is a critical part of their unique value proposition," states Ben Edmond, CEO and Founder of Connected2Fiber. "Incorporating our platform into their cloud-based ecosystem, tools and automated processes, enables them to better serve their agent partners that are selling Mosaic SOFTWAVETM SD-WAN as-a-service.""In addition to their existing systems and tools for streamlining and simplifying SD-WAN infrastructure, Connected2Fiber enables Mosaic NetworX to remove the difficult and labor-intensive processes, and error-prone tasks involved with quoting multiple carriers, in multiple locations," says Edmond.About Mosaic NetworXMosaic NetworX is a solution integrator for global SD-WAN as-a-service. We provide fully managed, turnkey SD-WAN solutions that move business forward. Mosaic NetworX eliminates the network as an obstacle, and empowers the WAN to be a conduit for business enablement. A single point of contact for all SD-WAN and carrier network services, Mosaic reliably delivers apps - anywhere.To learn more, visitor call 800-688-3770.PR Contact : PRinquiries@mosaicnetworx.comAbout Connected2FiberConnected2Fiber empowers network operators to create, standardize, enhance and share location serviceability, accelerating leads through the funnel, and unleashing growth. Connected2Fiber's visual interface allows sales teams and B2B marketers to target the best locations with the full perspective of serviceability, demand and competitive dynamics. Seamlessly integrated with the rest of their sales and marketing technology stack, B2B marketers gain critical insights to better allocate their marketing resources and increase participation with their prospects in The Connected World. Visit Connected2Fiber on the web atfollow us on Twitter @connected2fiber.PR Contact:Antoinette Poirier192384@email4pr.com508-202-1807SOURCEConnected2FiberRelated Links
Nanoparticles Market Challenges  Huge Capital Investment needed in Research and Development

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Particles between 1 and 100 nanometers (nm) in size known as nanoparticles. An individual nanoparticle molecule behaves as a complete unit in terms of its property and transportation. Rapidly increasing public awareness for nanotechnology and introduction of new technologies will have many beneficial consequences. Moreover, increasing applications of nanotechnology in drug development and stringent guidelines for developing improved medical products are some of the prime factors which is expected to witness significant growth over the forecasted period. Furthermore, huge capital investment and high cost of nanoparticle analysis instrument is one of the key restraint for the growth of nanoparticle market. Due to its wide applications in healthcare, biomedical, electronics and among others the nanoparticle is currently a new area of research among many scientist. Rising government spending on pharmaceuticals and bio technology research and development and increasing focus on nanotechnology research also expected to experience significant growth. North America dominated the global nanoparticles market due to increasing chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular and cancer. Moreover, Europe is expected to witness the highest growth during the forecasted period, due to rapid research and development for nanoparticles. However, due to rampant economic growth of China and India, Asia Pacific is also expected to witness decent growth during the forecasted period. Furthermore, India is also an emerging hub for pharmaceuticals research and development.Get The Holistic SAMPLE With Research Methodology:Nanoparticles Market TaxonomyOn the basis of technology, the global market is classified into:LiposomesNanotubesPolymeric nanoparticlesPolymer conjugated drugsDendrimersInorganic nanoparticlesOthersOn the basis of end user, the global market is classified into:Pharmaceuticals industryBiochemical industryResearch institutionsothersNanoparticles Market Outlook  Surge in Drug Development in Pharmaceuticals Industry Augmenting Market GrowthExpansion of medical diagnostic industry and wide application of nanotechnology in healthcare sector such as neurology, cardiology and anti-infective is estimated to have a decent growth for nanoparticles market in the forecast period. Depending upon preparation methods nanoparticles, nanocapsules or nanospheres can be obtained. A long circulating particle made up of Biodegradable polymeric nanoparticles with hydrophilic polymer coating of poly ethylene glycol (PEG), used as a powerful drug delivery device. Due to its ability to deliver peptides, proteins and genes, it is also used as a DNA carrier in gene therapy. Numerous advantages for nanoparticles in drug delivery system is expected to Spector enormous growth during the forecasted period. Moreover, growing public awareness, improved technology and increase in chronic diseases escalate the global nanoparticles industry in North America. Emerging economy of Asia Pacific, such as China and India is expected to witness significant growth over the forecasted period.Nanoparticles Market Challenges  Huge Capital Investment needed in Research and DevelopmentHuge capital investment for research and development of new product and technology. Moreover, high cost of nanoparticles analysis instruments is expected to be one of the key restraints for global nanoparticles market.Nanoparticles Market  Regulatory Scenario:August, 2015, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), issued guidance to address various issues related to the use of nanotechnology in food ingredients intended for use in food for animals.June, 2014, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), issued three guidelines related to the use of nanotechnology in regulated products, including cosmetics and food substances.Some of the key players in the market includes Abraxis Biosciences, Inc., Novartis International AG, Gilead Sciences, Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Sigma-Tau Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Amgen, Inc., and Nano Interface Technology, Inc., Malvern Instruments Ltd., Horiba Ltd., Beckman Coulter, Shimadzu Corporation, Agilent Technology Inc, Hitachi Ltd., Wyatt Technology, among others.Get Table Of Content:About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr.ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email:sales@coherentmarketinsights.comVisit our news Website:
Global Trans septal Access Systems Market Growth, Trends, Share, & Forecast till 2025

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An extensive forecast study, titled Global Market Study on Transseptal Access Systems: Transseptal Access Sheath Product Type to Lead the Global Market in Terms of Value Share has been broadcasted to the online repository of Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE). This 191-page precise study encapsulates valuable details about the market current scenario as well as its future projections on a global and regional level. It further intensely aims to provide major insights into the markets growth throughout the above-mentioned forecast period in terms of volume and revenue (in US$ Mn). Moreover, the research also investigates market expansion in some of the prime regions such as North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, South America, and Middle East & Africa (MEA).Request Sample Report @Atrial fibrillation (AF) patients in North America have an increased risk of stroke that is fivefold more than the normal population. This is one of the most common reasons for death among the population of North America. The standard treatment to avoid stroke in patients who are suffering from atrial fibrillation is oral anticoagulation with Vitamin K antagonists such as coumadin or warfarin. The introduction of innovative technologies such as left trialWatchman are the two devices that are approved in North America and are used for LLA therapy. However, a major constraint in using the Watchmen device is the stringent reimbursement policy that does not reimburse the Watchmen device. According to the research, AF affects more than 3 million people in the region and the number of AF cases are projected to increase between 6 and 12 million by the end of 2050. This could lead to an increasing number of LLA procedures and thus heavily cost the U.S healthcare system.Transseptal access sheath segment is anticipated to witness highest attractiveness index over the forecast periodTransseptal access sheath dominated the global transseptal access systems market in revenue terms in 2016 and is projected to continue to do so throughout the forecast period. Transseptal access sheath segment is the most attractive segment, with an attractiveness index of 1.7 over the forecast period. The transseptal access sheath segment is projected to account for more than 85% value share of the global market by 2025 end. The transseptal access needle segment is expected to be the second most lucrative segment in the global transseptal access systems market. This segment is projected to account for around 14% value share of the global market by 2025 end.Browse Full Report with TOC @Key factors fueling the growth in revenue of the global market for transseptal access systemsPrivate and government healthcare insurance providers facilitate the reimbursement for disease diagnosis and treatment. Reimbursement of cardiac procedures is covered by various service providers and this is expected to fuel the growth in revenue of the transseptal access systems market. In addition, the continuously evolving reimbursement scenario in the global market coupled with the availability of a mix of payers is also driving the markets growth northward. Along with this, certain other factors such as an increased intake of tobacco and alcohol and a changing lifestyle of the people leading to a hectic life are common risk issues that can cause atrial fibrillation, which is eventually increasing the number of patients across the globe.The global transseptal access systems market is highly consolidatedPersistence Market Research analysis reveals that the top six companies operating in the global transseptal access systems market held around 88.8% of the global market share in 2016, while the remaining players accounted for just over 11% market share in the same year. Companies active in the global market are focusing on a robust product acquisition strategy to increase their market share and venture into new markets in emerging economies. Also, strengthening of the product portfolio by launching new products with improved characteristics through enhanced product development is a key strategy adopted by some of the leading manufacturers operating in the North America transseptal access systems market.Enquire about this Report @About Market Research Reports Search EngineMarket Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Market Research Reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.Contact UsState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United States Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:Read More Industry News At:
Quartz Crucible Market show exponential growth by 2024

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Quartz crucible is a bowl shaped vessel or receptacle made from high purity quartz glass through the arc fusion method. Quartz crucible can withstand high temperature; therefore, it is used in high heat processes for melting or calcining metals, glass, and pigments. Quartz crucible offers excellent thermal insulation; thus, it is widely employed in the semiconductor and solar industries. The standard size of quartz crucible varies between 10 inches and 36 inches.View Report Preview:Being the prime source of silica, quartz is used in various applications such as manufacture of glass, ceramics, and refractory materials. The semiconductor industry has enacted stringent regulations regarding the purity of quartz. Therefore, there is need of high purity quartz ware such as quartz crucible in single crystal silicon growth via the Czochralski process for the handling and processing of wafers. VLSI (very large scale integrated) and semiconductor device circuits require high-purity single crystal semiconductors due to the difficulty faced in controlling amorphous or poly-crystal properties. Silicon wafers obtained from highly pure single crystal silicon ingots are free from crystalline defects. Thus, rise in demand for high purity quartz in advanced high-tech semiconductor applications is likely to boost the demand for quartz crucibles in the next few years.Modern communication technologies such as microprocessors and mobile phones are based on monocrystalline semiconductors made from silicon. Thus, rise in demand for smartphones, tablets, and flash memory cards coupled with the increase in application in consumer electronics has propelled the demand for single crystal silicon ingots. This, in turn, has accelerated the development of new technologies in silicon wafers. Furthermore, increase in demand for new silicon material to replace polycrystalline silicon due to the presence of impurity is augmenting the demand for quartz crucible for providing dislocation-free and low impurity single crystal silicon ingot.Quartz crucibles cannot be reused due to the risk of impurities. Furthermore, quartz crucibles get attacked by molten silicon during the solidification process of silicon ingot. Therefore, using it again for single crystal growth may affect the ingot yield. Quartz and silicon possess different thermal expansion coefficient. Therefore, reusing it may result in significant mechanical stress. This would further cause crystalline defects and lead to crucible cracking. Hence, reusability of quartz crucible is one of the major challenges for manufacturers. This is estimated to restrain the growth of quartz crucibles in the semiconductor market.The quartz crucible market can be segmented based on product type, application, and process. In terms of product type, the market can be divided into 18 inch, 20 inch, 22 inch, 24 inch, and others. Based on application, the quartz crucible market can be segregated into photovoltaic cell, electronic semiconductor, solar industry, and others. Quartz crucible is the preferred choice in semiconductor and solar industries due to its heat resistance property. Quartz crucibles are used in the production of single crystal silicon ingots through the CZ method. Single crystal silicon ingots are further processed into silicon wafers for the semiconductor market. Single crystal silicon ingots are widely used in integrated circuits for the manufacture of microchips and low power devices. The outside diameter of single crystal ingot produced through the CZ method varies between 150mm and 450mm, while the length ranges from 1m to 2m.In terms of process, the quartz crucible market can be bifurcated into gel-casting process and Czochralski process. These methods are deployed to generate quartzes of high purity. The Czochralski process can be used to manufacture silicon crystals fused with quartz.Based on geography, the global quartz crucible market can be segmented into North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Middle East & Africa. Asia Pacific is one of the key regions of the global quartz crucible market. China and India hold major market share in Asia Pacific. China has been dominating the demand for quartz crucibles since the last few years. East China is expected to be one of the major producers of quartz crucibles, followed by North China, during the forecast period. The semiconductor market in the country has been expanding; it accounted for 29% of the global market share in 2015. Rise in demand for consumer electronics, increase in disposable income, and growth in consumption of semiconductor materials in data processing and communication application sectors are anticipated to propel the semiconductor market. This, in turn, is estimated to boost the quartz crucible market for single crystal silicon in the near future.China is a rapidly expanding market for 200mm silicon wafers. However, rising demand for 300-400mm silicon wafer, process improvement, productivity, and yield is expected to boost the demand for large diameter quartz crucibles during the forecast period. 300mm silicon wafer has high surface area compared to the 200m wafer. Therefore, the manufacturing cost of large silicon substrates is approximately 30% less than that of 200mm wafer. Low labor cost coupled with comparatively low land & utilities cost in China and need for large diameter wafers such as 300-400mm have led to wide diversity in the production of technologies for single crystal silicon ingot and wafer fabrication. Thus, need for high capacity of large diameter wafers and cost saving operations is anticipated to propel the quartz crucible market.Key players operating in the global quartz crucible market include Lianyungang Sunlight, Solar Cera Co., Ltd., Saint-Gobain, Ferrotec Solutions, Jinglong, Huaer, Lianyungang Sunlight, Ningbo Boost, Quartz Scientific, Inc., The Quartz Corp, Advalue Tech, Vesuvius, Huaer, and ZhonghuanRequest 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:
3D Printing Market Strategic Focus Report Growth by Top Global Leader-Stratasys, 3DSystems Corporation, MaterialiseNV, EOSGmbH, TheExone and Others

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3D Printing Market Analysis to 2023 is a specialized and in-depth study of the 3D Printing industry with a focus on the global market trend. The report aims to provide an overview of global 3D Printing market with detailed market segmentation by product/application and geography. The global 3D Printing market is expected to witness high growth during the forecast period. The report provides key statistics on the market status of the 3D Printing players and offers key trends and opportunities in the market.Publisher projects that the 3D Printing market size will grow from USD 8.55 Billion in 2017 to USD 31.68 Billion by 2023, at an estimated CAGR of 24.38%. The base year considered for the study is 2017, and the market size is projected from 2018 to 2023.The 3D printing market is expected to grow substantially due to the factors such as the ease of development of customized products, reduction in overall manufacturing costs, rising government investments in the 3D printing projects, upbringing of new and innovative printing materials, and rising interest from certain big companies such as GE (US), Liebherr Group (Switzerland), Diehl Aerosystems Holding GmbH (Germany), and BAE Systems (UK). The 3D printing market based on offering has been subsegmented into offering, which is further sub-segmented into printer (desktop and industrial), material (type: metal, plastic, ceramic, and other materials; and form: powder, liquid, and filament); service (custom design and manufacturing, and after-sales services); and software (design, inspection, scanning, and printing). On the basis of process, the market is segmented into powder bed fusion, material extrusion, vat polymerization, material jetting, binder jetting, directed energy deposition, and sheet lamination. Segmentation on the basis of application includes prototyping, tooling, and functional part manufacturing. The verticals considered for segmentation of the market include aerospace and defense, engineering, healthcare, consumer products, automotive, jewelry, education, energy, architecture and construction, printed electronics, food and culinary, and others. The 3D printer market for desktop segment is expected to grow at a higher rate owing to reduction in printer prices along with technological advancements, leading to their growing deployment across the education, consumer products, food and culinary, and printed electronics verticals.Request a Sample Report at3D Printing Market Players: Stratasys Ltd. 3D Systems Corporation Materialise NV EOS GmbH The Exone Company Voxeljet AG Arcam Group SLM Solutions Group AG. Envisiontec GmbH Proto Labs, Inc. MCOR Technologies Ltd. Optomec Inc. Concept Laser GmbH Groupe Gorge Ultimaker BV Renishaw PLC. Beijing Tiertime Technology Co. Xyzprinting ARC Group Worldwide Hoganas ABBy 3D Printing MaterialPlastic, Metal, Ceramic, Other Materials,By FormFilament, Powder, Liquid,By SoftwareDesign, Inspection, Printing, Scanning,By ProcessBinder Jetting, Direct Energy Deposition, Material Extrusion, Material Jetting, Powder Bed FusionThe report provides a detailed overview of the industry including both qualitative and quantitative information. It provides overview and forecast of the global 3D Printing market based on product and application. It also provides market size and forecast till 2023 for overall 3D Printing 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 3D Printing 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 3D Printing 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
Chemical Milling Market Strategies and Key Opportunities | 2025

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Chemical milling can be defined as a subtractive manufacturing process, wherein chemicals are used rather than cutting tools, to manipulate the characteristics of metals. It is considered an economical option for the manufacture of small size metal parts. The difference between chemical etching and chemical milling is that the former is used to manufacture metal parts, while the latter is used to alter the characteristics of those parts. The process of chemical milling was developed during the renaissance of engraving on the metal parts. Chemical milling is used for the removal of surface-related materials of parts after which chemical etching is performed. At the start of the process, a CAD file is used for the creation of a visual of the final metal part along with the top and bottom patterns that are supposed to be milled. This technique is necessary for the application of photoresist, a layer used to transfer the pattern by UV light on metal parts. Chemical milling generally involves a series of five steps: cleaning, masking, scribing, etching, and demasking. It is useful for creating parts such as haptics, sinks, and filters. The process of chemical milling is ideally suited for metals such as titanium, niobium, and copper, but can be used for wide range of metals such as copper and aluminum.View Report Preview:Based on type, the market for chemical milling can be segmented into steel chemical etched part, brass chemical etched part, aluminum chemical etched part, and copper chemical etched part. In terms of application, the market for chemical milling can be segregated into aerospace, medical, automotive, electronics, and others.The market for chemical milling is anticipated to witness moderate growth owing to the expansion of end-user industries. The electronics application segment held significant share of the market in 2016 due to the wide usage of chemical milling in the manufacture of integrated circuits and microelectromechanical systems. The electronics industry commonly uses plasma etching over standard liquid based etching for the production of components. The aerospace segment of the chemical milling market accounted for key share in 2016. The segment is anticipated to witness strong growth during the forecast period. Chemical milling is used to remove shallow layers of materials from extruded parts of airframes, large aircraft components, and missile skin panels, among others. Based on type, the steel chemical etched part segment constituted prominent share of the market in 2016. It was followed by the aluminum chemical etched part and copper chemical etched part segments in the year. Presence of other efficient and economic technologies such as electroforming, laser cutting, and photo etching is likely to hamper the chemical milling market during the forecast period.Geographically, North America held major share of the global chemical milling market in 2016. The market in the region is estimated to witness strong growth during the forecast period, led by the high investments in the aerospace sector. Presence of robust electronics manufacturing industry is a key factor driving the chemical milling market in Asia Pacific. Increase in production and sales of automotive in emerging economies of Asia Pacific such as India and China is projected to propel the market for chemical milling in the near future. Significant investments in research & development activities in the medical sector in Europe is the key factor boosting the chemical milling market.Key players operating in the chemical milling market are Lancaster Metals Science Co., Great Lakes Engineering, Tech-Etch, Tech Met, United Western Enterprises, Orbel, VACCO Industries, and Wist Europe.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:
Cellular IoT: Market Strategic Focus Report Growth by Top Global Leader-Qualcomm Incorporated, Sierra Wireless, Gemalto NV, Telit Communications PLC, U-Blox Holding AG and Others

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Cellular IoT Market Analysis to 2023 is a specialized and in-depth study of the Cellular IoT industry with a focus on the global market trend. The report aims to provide an overview of global Cellular IoT market with detailed market segmentation by product/application and geography. The global Cellular IoT market is expected to witness high growth during the forecast period. The report provides key statistics on the market status of the Cellular IoT players and offers key trends and opportunities in the market.The recent report from Publisher on the Global Cellular IoT Market Research has the complete assessment of the latest trends of the Cellular IoT marketThe report focuses on the manufacturing challenges that are being faced and provides the solutions and the strategies that have been implemented to overcome the problemsDeep researches and analysis were done during the preparation of the reportThe information and the data that was collected was checked and validated by the industry expertsThe readers will find this report very helpful in understanding the Cellular IoT market in depthThe prime objective of this report is to help the user understand the Cellular IoT market in terms of its definition, segmentation, market potential, influential trends, and the challenges that the market is facingThe data and the information regarding the market are taken from reliable sources such as websites, annual reports of the companies, journals, and othersThe facts and data are represented in the report using diagrams, graphs, pie charts, and other pictorial representationsThis enhances the visual representation and also helps in understanding the facts much betterThe attributes that are explained in the report are the technological advancements that are made in the Cellular IoT market, the sales made in the global market, the annual production, the profit made by the industry, the investments made by the manufacturers and the initiatives that are taken by the government to boost the growth of the marketRequest a Sample Report atCellular IoT Market Players: Qualcomm Incorporated Sierra Wireless Gemalto NV Telit Communications PLC U-Blox Holding AG Texas Instruments ZTE Corporation Sequans Communication Mistbase Communication System Mediatek IncMajor applications are as follows: Agriculture Envoirnment Monitoring Automotive & TransportationMajor regions are as follows: United States Europe China Japan IndiaThe report provides a detailed overview of the industry including both qualitative and quantitative information. It provides overview and forecast of the global Cellular IoT market based on product and application. It also provides market size and forecast till 2023 for overall Cellular IoT 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 Cellular IoT 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 Cellular IoT 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
New Report on Enterprise Synthetic Application Monitoring Market Trends, Marketing Strategy Analysis, Market Effect Factors Analysis, Competitive Landscape profiling on companies

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The Enterprise Synthetic Application Monitoring Market to Grow steadily at a CAGR of +19% during the forecast period.The critical need for pro-active monitoring and management of increasing complex applications and rising importance of DevOps and Software as a Service (SaaS) application adoption are driving the need for enhanced enterprise synthetic application monitoring solutions. However, factors such as lack of end user awareness and using the traditional approach of monitoring and managing application performance are restraining the growth of the enterprise synthetic application monitoring market.The objective of the report is to gather important market data and offer insights about the trends and opportunities of the global market to the readers. The report categorizes the market in a detailed manner to offer thorough insights about the facets responsible for augmenting as well as restraining the market growth. The research report on global market also inspects the indicators in the market that are vital to represent the revenue forecast of the market over the given forecast period.Get a sample for this Report @:Companies Profiled in this report includes, AppDynamics Inc., AppNeta, BMC Software Inc., CA Technologies Inc, BMC Software Inc, IBM Corporation, Dell Technologies, Inc, Dynatrace, Microsoft Corporation, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, AppDynamics, Inc, New Relic, Inc, Riverbed Technology, and Splunk.Region Covered:North America, US, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Germany, France, Italy, UK , Spain , Rest of Europe , Asia Pacific, Japan , China , India , Australia , New Zealand , Rest of Asia Pacific , Rest of the World, Middle East, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, Egypt.The scope of this report covers the enterprise synthetic application monitoring market by component, service, deployment type, organization size, vertical, and region. The business consulting services segment is expected to dominate the market, at the highest CAGR during the forecast period as it deals with the transformation of ideas into solutions and infrastructure by providing advanced monitoring and management solutions to enterprise applications. Most of the synthetic application monitoring and management service providers offer business consulting services to identify the risks and vulnerabilities in the current system infrastructure, monitor the entire system performance, and help in effectively troubleshooting them.The report provides information on the diverse factors impacting the sales of the global Enterprise Synthetic Application Monitoring market. These includes the trends, drivers, and restraints. The significant growth opportunities in the market are also been studied and the ways these opportunities will raise the market growth have also been encapsulated.Get discount on this Report @:A competitive study of the global market for Enterprise Synthetic Application Monitoring has also been delivered in this intelligence study, in which the profiles of the prominent market players have been revised exhaustively to determine the markets hierarchy. As per the research study, the market is highly fragmented and competitive due to the presence of a number of contestants.This research study is aimed at presenting a clear picture of the global market to the readers in order to help them is gaining a better understanding of this market. The reports conclusion reveals the overall scope of the Global Enterprise Synthetic Application Monitoring Market in terms of the viability of investments in the various segments of the market, along with an eloquent passage that outlines the viability of new projects that might succeed in the global market in the near future.For More Information:Table of ContentsGlobal Enterprise Synthetic Application Monitoring Market Research ReportChapter 1 Global Enterprise Synthetic Application Monitoring Market OverviewChapter 2 Global Economic Impact on IndustryChapter 3 Global Market Competition by ManufacturersChapter 4 Global Production, Revenue (Value) by RegionChapter 5 Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by RegionsChapter 6 Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by TypeChapter 7 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 Market ForecastABOUT USAt IT Intelligence Markets, we model all our work on our core philosophy that believes in customer satisfaction. We serve a global clientele by supplying market intelligence research reports after conducting exhaustive research. Our reports are replete with productive insights & recent market dynamics as the healthcare industry is constantly undergoing changes like ever-changing consumer preferences, supply channels and latest technologies. Our market research analysts not only investigate the market for drivers, restraints & challenges but also gauge the overall progress of the market by comparing chief market players. Our report forms a crucial piece of intelligence using which our clients can unleash their potential & tap their capacity to harness the correct technologies & surpass their competitors.Vijay TannaIt Intelligence Markets+91 705-760-0700sales@itintelligencemarkets.com
Global Research on Building and Construction Tapes Market Forecast 2018-2025 American Biltrite, Adchem, 3M Company

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A market study "Global Building and Construction Tapes Market" examines the performance of the Building and Construction Tapes market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Building and Construction Tapes market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Building and Construction Tapes market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Building and Construction Tapes Market 2018 report includes Building and Construction Tapes market Revenue, market Share, Building and Construction Tapes industry volume, market Trends, Building and Construction Tapes Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report. It shows manufacturing capacity, Building and Construction Tapes Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Building and Construction Tapes Market 2018 :L&L Products Inc.tesa SEDOW3M CompanyPPG IndustriesAmerican Biltrite Inc.Adchem CorporationAvery Dennison CorporationSaint GobainBerry PlasticsLintecJonson Tapes LimitedScapaShurtape Technologies LLCHenkel AGBuilding and Construction Tapes Market : By ApplicationResidentialIndustrialCommercialBuilding and Construction Tapes Market : By TypeDouble SidedMaskingDuctOthersFirstly, the report covers the top Building and Construction Tapes manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Building and Construction Tapes report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Building and Construction Tapes industry, Building and Construction Tapes industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Building and Construction Tapes Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Building and Construction Tapes 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 Building and Construction Tapes market revenue worldwide.Finally, Building and Construction Tapes market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us"QY Research Store" is a leading market intelligence team which 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 Research on Pouch Laminators Market Forecast 2018-2025 Cyklos, 3M, USI, GBC, GMP, Royal Sovereign

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A market study "Global Pouch Laminators Market" examines the performance of the Pouch Laminators market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Pouch Laminators market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Pouch Laminators market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Pouch Laminators Market 2018 report includes Pouch Laminators market Revenue, market Share, Pouch Laminators industry volume, market Trends, Pouch Laminators Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report. It shows manufacturing capacity, Pouch Laminators Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Pouch Laminators Market 2018 :USI3MG B Tech IndiaGBCRoyal SovereignGMPCyklosPouch Laminators Market : By ApplicationPrinting FactoryPrinting ShopOtherPouch Laminators Market : By TypeAutomatic Lamination MachineManual Lamination MachineFirstly, the report covers the top Pouch Laminators manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Pouch Laminators report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Pouch Laminators industry, Pouch Laminators industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Pouch Laminators Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Pouch Laminators 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 Pouch Laminators market revenue worldwide.Finally, Pouch Laminators market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us"QY Research Store" is a leading market intelligence team which 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 Research on Stencil Duplicator Market Forecast 2018-2025 Dell, Aleratec, Sony, Cyklos, Canon, Epson

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Global Research on Steam Heat Exchanger Market Forecast 2018-2025 Thrush, Schlumberger, Taco, Airpac Bukom, PURE Humidifier

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It will be March of 2019 before tenants move back into the Green Hill apartment building in Midland, according to the latest estimates.

That is several months later than what was estimated last fall. On July 31, 2017, the building was damaged by a fire on the eighth floor. Green Hill is the high rise located across the street from Midland High School on Eastlawn Drive.

Demolition of the areas damaged by the fire, smoke, and water is currently underway. An application for a permit to renovate the space has not yet been submitted to the city.

The fire forced residents to evacuate that afternoon with many staying at local motels. About 170 residents lived at Green Hill. Many have moved to other apartment complexes in the area and don't plan to return to Green Hill.

Jan Lampman, the executive director of the ARC of Midland, which is directly a guardian or payee of 30 residents of Green Hill, said, "Lots (of the residents) have given up and found other places to live."

The ARC serves people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Lampman said only two of the residents they assist plan to return. Cleveland Manor and Washington Woods are two of the complexes that residents moved to since the fire. Some residents are still staying with family or friends. Altman Management, the manager of Green Hill, worked with the ARC and other agencies mobilized to help residents find housing and other assistance. At a September meeting with tenants, Altman estimated that residents would be able to move back to Green Hill in the fall of 2018.

Altman did not respond to specific questions about the project and process. Instead, a two-sentence statement was released by a public relations firm representing Altman: "We have been in contact with our residents and let them know that we expect to re-open the community in approximately a year. We are excited about the planned renovations and look forward to welcoming everyone back as soon as we can."

Tenants received a letter in February from Andrea Stanton, the regional vice-president of the Midwest Division for Altman. In it, Stanton wrote, "We are pushing every moving part of this process down the road as fast as possible as we understand how anxious all of our residents are to return home."

In the letter, Stanton noted that Altman is working with its insurance company to return the building to a "safe and habitable condition." She added the process has involved many inspections, meetings, and conference calls.

Green Hill first opened in 1980. It provides subsidized housing to senior citizens and persons with disabilities who meet income eligibility requirements. Their rents are subsidized by HUD, the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. Instead of property tax, Green Hill pays a PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) to the City of Midland. Altman Management operates 14 facilities in Michigan including Charter Square and Forest Glen in Midland and three complexes in Saginaw. It manages more than 25,500 multi-family units in six states.

The cause of the fire was never determined because the damage was extensive in the apartment where the fire originated.
The following list includes recent reports from the Midland County Sheriffs Office and the Midland Police Department. Compiled by reporter Kelly Dame.

Monday, March 26

11:31 a.m.  A Holly man, 29, was arrested in Warren Township for driving while his license was revoked. The man was given a warning for defective equipment.

12:03 p.m.  Property was stolen from the 1100 block of Sugnet Road.

12:35 p.m.  A Sanford man, 34, was arrested for marijuana possession after he was stopped for speeding on West Saginaw Road near North Castor Road in Jerome Township.

2:30 p.m.  Police investigated a case of fraud in the 900 block of West Wackerly Street.

4:34 p.m.  A Jerome Township woman, 18, reported she lost $1,950 to an online scam.

6:26 p.m.  A deputy was sent to Lincoln Township for a report of people riding dirt bikes on a roadway. The dirt bikes were not found.

8:14 p.m.  A deputy was sent to Warren Township for a report of quads tearing up a roadway. A 16-year-old boy admitted to riding in the roadway and made repairs.

10:10 p.m.  A deputy came upon a 16-year-old girl carry a suitcase while walking along a Jerome Township road. The girl had left her mothers home because she was angry. She was returned to family members.

10:27 p.m.  An Edenville Township man, 60, reported someone tried to break into his vehicle. A deputy found the vehicle had not been broken into and nothing was stolen.

Sunday, March 25

12:31 a.m.  A motorist was arrested at Currie Parkway and Mary Street for drunken driving.

3:03 a.m.  A deputy was sent to Jerome Township for a report of a loud person.

3:56 a.m.  A Flint man, 25, was arrested in Lee Township for driving while his license was suspended. He was cited for no proof of insurance.

4:55 p.m.  A Sanford woman, 41, was arrested in the Village of Sanford on a warrant.

7:22 p.m.  Officers were sent to a felonious assault at South Saginaw Road and Eastlawn Drive.

7:52 p.m.  Deputies and Hope Township firefighters were sent to an illegal burn in that township.

8:35 p.m.  Police investigated a bond violation in the 1500 block of Jefferson Avenue.

8:472 p.m.  A Lee Township resident reported a double pane window was broken, possibly due to a gunshot. Damage is set at $200. The case is being investigated and the damage is not believed to be intentional.

9:16 p.m.  Deputies were called to a domestic assault at a Greendale Township home. A report is being sent to the prosecutors office.

Saturday, March 24

3:59 a.m.  Officers responded to a be on the lookout report and made an arrest for driving while license suspended at West Wackerly Street and Eastman Avenue.

11:01 a.m.  A 45-year-old Edenville Township woman met a deputy at the Midland Law Enforcement Center to turn over a firearm that belonged to her. The woman no longer felt the need for having the firearm and wished to have it destroyed.

12:05 p.m.  Police were called to the 900 block of Joe Mann Boulevard for a report of a retail fraud.

2:09 p.m.  A Greendale Township man, 19, reported finding a backpack, which appeared to contain the ingredients to make methamphetamine, near the edge of a roadway in that township. A deputy turned over the bag to the Bay Area Narcotics Enforcement Team.

4:22 p.m.  A Midland County man, 48, was arrested in Lee Township for driving while license suspended. He was given a warning for an equipment violation.

6:42 p.m.  A Lincoln Township home was broken into, and nothing was stolen.

8:12 p.m.  A license plate was stolen from a vehicle in Lee Township.

9:48 p.m.  A Mills Township man, 49, was arrested in Edenville Township on two warrants. The man was a passenger in a vehicle stopped for an equipment violation.

11:23 p.m.  A deputy was sent to Homer Township for a report of a car being driven carelessly. The driver, a Lee Township man, age 31, was sober and was having steering problems.

11:51 p.m.  A Sanford man, 48, was arrested in Midland for driving while license suspended and on a warrant.

Friday, March 23

4:28 a.m.  A Saginaw man, 67, was arrested in Greendale Township for driving while license suspended.

10:52 a.m.  Deputies were sent to Midland Township to check the well being of a 64-year-old man. The man said he was fine.

1:50 p.m.  Officers made a warrant arrest in the 4000 block of Wellness Drive.

3 p.m.  Property was stolen from the 3200 block of Fernside Street.

4:44 p.m.  A deputy was called to check the well being of a 60-year-old man in Edenville Township. The man was not home and it was determined he was missing due to information from the mans 17-year-old son. After a search in the nearby area by deputies and the Department of Natural Resources, the man was found in Midland.

8:43 p.m.  Property in the 5100 block of Tucker Street was damaged.

9:08 p.m.  Police investigated a case of fraud in the 6200 block of Siebert Street.

9:12 p.m.  A Mount Haley Township man, 40, reported he and his daughter, age 19, were receiving unwanted messages over Facebook. A deputy explained they should not accept friend requests from people they do not know and how to block people they did not want messages from.

9:24 p.m.  A deputy was sent to the parking lot of an Edenville Township business for a report of a driver that might be intoxicated. The driver left before the deputy arrived.

10 p.m.  Officers responded to a be on the lookout report and made an arrest for drunken driving at Eastman Avenue and North Saginaw Road.
A text message intercepted by a young girls mother has led to a list of sex assault charges against a 36-year-old Midland man.

Joshua Michael Doty is charged with two counts of accosting children for immoral purposes, two counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct, assault with intent to commit second-degree criminal sexual conduct, and using the Internet or a computer to communicate with another to commit a crime.

The case was investigated by Midland Police after the mother of a girl reported intercepting a text message from an adult man that was sent to her daughter, asking for photos of her body, according to an affidavit filed in court. The girl, listed in court papers as being 11 years old, later told her mother about the suspect touching her, as well as seeing him touching another girl while playing hide and seek in his homes basement.

The second victim is under the age of 13 years, court papers state.

Doty was arraigned on the charges, levied by the Midland County Prosecutors Office in two cases, in January. Bond was initially set at $500,000 cash or surety, and Midland County District Court Judge Michael D. Carpenter granted a bond reduction to $100,000 personal recognizance. Bond conditions include a GPS tether and no contact with the victim. Doty is allowed to leave the state for work.

The cases were bound over to Midland County Circuit Court in February.

The charges are all felonies  second-degree criminal sexual conduct is punishable by up to 15 years in prison; using the Internet or a computer to communicate with another to commit a crime is punishable by up to 10 years in prison; assault with intent to commit second-degree criminal sexual conduct is punishable by up to five years; and accosting children for immoral purposes is punishable by up to four years.

The case is set for a Cobbs hearing on May 7 before Circuit Judge Michael J. Beale.

During a Cobbs hearing, which is not open to the public, the judge uses the information at hand to inform the defendant of the likely sentence in a case, and the defendant can then use that information in deciding whether to enter a plea. The defendant can withdraw the plea if the judge does not deliver the expected sentence.

Doty is being represented by attorney Heather M. Warren of Ithaca.
Vladimir Putin famously said that there are no former intelligence officers, and that is likely the case here. Before we get to informed speculation, lets lay out the hard facts. Robert Muellers special counsel filed new court documents last night in United States v. Alex Van Der Zwaan. Van der Zwaan is the son-in-law of a prominent Russian Ukranian banker, and he practices law in London. Van der Zwaan pleaded guilty last month to lying about his September 2016 contacts with Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Manaforts deputy, Rick Gates, and someone simply referred to as Person A.

Per the filing:

Fourth, the lies and withholding of documents were material to the Special Counsels Offices investigation. That Gates and Person A were directly communicating in September and October 2016 was pertinent to the investigation. Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agents assisting the Special Counsels Office assess that Person A has ties to a Russian intelligence service and had such ties in 2016. During his first interview with the Special Counsels Office, van der Zwaan admitted that he knew of that connection, stating that Gates told him Person A was a former Russian Intelligence Officer with the GRU.

Anyone who has followed this Russia investigation in detail immediately had one name spring to mind after reading this charge by Mueller: Konstantin Kilimnik. Manafort spokesman Jason Maloni has called Kilimnik a longtime business associate. Politico summarized Kilimniks backstory in a report about Manafort associates being concerned about his Man in Kiev during the 2016 campaign.

A Russian Army-trained linguist who has told a previous employer of a background with Russian intelligence, Kilimnik started working for Manafort in 2005 when Manafort was representing Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, a gig that morphed into a long-term contract with Viktor Yanukovych, the Kremlin-aligned hard-liner who became president of Ukraine.

Kilimnik eventually became Manaforts Manafort in Kiev, and he continued to lead Manaforts office there after Yanukovych fled the country for Russia in 2014, according to Ukrainian business records and interviews with several political operatives who have worked in Ukraines capital. Kilimnik and Manafort then teamed up to help promote Opposition Bloc, which rose from the ashes of Yanukovychs regime. The party is funded by oligarchs who previously backed Yanukovych, including at least one who the Ukrainian operatives say is close to both Kilimnik and Manafort.

Politico spoke to Kilimniks contemporaries and found that it was an open secret that Manaforts man handling his affairs in Ukraine was trained by the Kremlin.

Kilimnik did not hide his military past from his new employer. In fact, when he was asked how he learned to speak such fluent English, he responded Russian military intelligence, according to one IRI official, who quipped, I never called [the Russian military intelligence agency] GRU headquarters for a reference.

It soon became an article of faith in IRI circles that Kilimnik had been in the intelligence service, according to five people who worked in and around the group in Moscow, who said Kilimnik never sought to correct that impression.

It was like Kostya, the guy from the GRU  thats how we talked about him, said a political operative who worked in Moscow at the time. The institute was informed that he was GRU, but it didnt matter at the time because they werent doing anything sensitive.

The Atlantic obtained e-mails exchanged during the campaign between Manafort and Kilimnik. They spoke about OVD, which is short for Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch whom Manafort had worked closely with for years on a $10 million annual contract (Deripaska also requested immunity from Congressional investigators to testify about Russian meddling in the 2016 election).

In 2005, Manafort wrote a memo to Deripaska, pitching his plan: We are now of the belief that this model can greatly benefit the Putin Government if employed at the correct levels with the appropriate commitment to success. Manafort asserted that the effort he proposed will be offering a great service that can re-focus, both internally and externally, the policies of the Putin government.

So fast-forward to April 11, 2016two weeks after Manafort was named Trumps campaign managerand leaked e-mails published by The Atlantic indicate that Manafort was still very much working for his former boss.

I assume you have shown our friends my media coverage, right? Manafort wrote.

Absolutely, Kilimnik responded a few hours later from Kiev. Every article.

How do we use to get whole, Manafort asks. Has OVD operation seen?

The get whole reference seems to be asking about resolving debts, which may be linked to Deripaskas 2009 lawsuit against Manafort, alleging that the future Trump campaign manager stole $19 million from him. The Washington Post also reported that Kilimnik and Manafort discussed the DNC hack in August 2016. Theres enough smoke here for a ten-alarm fire. Not to mention, Manafort isnt the only high-level member of the Trump camp connected to Russian military intelligence this week. Roger Stone admitted that he spoke to Guccifer 2.0 during the 2016 campaign, and the Twitter account was just revealed to be a front for the Kremlin.

Again, theres no confirmation in this document that Person A is Konstantin Kilimnik, but we knew before this court filing that one of Manaforts most trusted men was openly known as a GRU spook. If Person A isnt Kilimnik, then Manafort may be in bigger trouble than it already seems. At minimum, Manafort leaned on a Russian military intelligence veteran to manage his deals which were financed by a Putin ally in a country invaded by Russia, and continued that relationship while he sat atop the Trump campaign. This is the context to which he entered Trumps universe.

Jacob Weindling is a staff writer for Paste politics. Follow him on Twitter at @Jakeweindling.
Emails from prosecutors in a court case involving the wife of the Pulse nightclub shooter revealed that the FBI had used the shooters father, Seddique Mateen, as an informant periodically between 2005 and June 2016. The attack on the Orlando nightclub, which claimed 49 lives  at the time the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history  took place in June 2016.

This raises a natural question: Did Seddique Mateen lie to the FBI to protect his son?

If youre insane, this leads to another question: Was there a Comey-Mueller-Clinton conspiracy here? This theory, dumb as it is, has been making its rounds in conservative media in an effort to somehow discredit or incriminate the investigation into Donald Trumps connections to Russia. Thats how frightened the right wing is of Mueller.

But this isnt all to say that the FBI should be let off the hook for how it handled the Orlando shooter. So lets have a serious look at what the FBI did here, why they did it, and what they might have done wrong. Only then will we look at how completely insane it is to connect this in any way to the Trump-Russia investigation.

The news came out during a criminal case against the Pulse shooters wife, Noor Salman, who is accused of knowing her husband had planned to carry out the attack. (Salmans defense attorneys claim she is intellectually unfit to be implicated in the crime.) An email from prosecutors said the shooters father was an FBI informant at various points between January 2005 and June 2016. The father, born in Afghanistan, said in the days following the shooting that he was not aware his son was a terrorist, but acknowledged the mass shooting itself was an act of terror. This is the worst thing that can happen for a father to see a son act like this, he said.

The shooter himself had been assessed twice by the FBI, in 2013, for connections to terrorism. According to reports from the subsequent investigation into the shooting, FBI agents told an unidentified confidential informant they were investigating the man who would become the shooter. That informant reportedly became very upset that the FBI was looking into this person. Eventually the FBI closed its inquiry. No one has confirmed that the anonymous informant was the shooters father, but Salmans lawyers said they can reasonably conclude that Seddique Mateen played a significant role in the FBIs decision to close the inquiry into his son when they did.

Here we should note that FBI had looked into the shooter twice, and the unidentified informant has so far been connected only to the first inquiry. (It never reached the stages of a full-blown investigation, but was a lower-level inquiry the FBI calls an assessment. Assessments have a smaller scope and fewer investigative tools.) The FBI opened a second assessment into the man who would become the shooter, but the informant hasnt been connected to that inquiry. After the shooting, according to then-director James Comey, the FBI had connected the shooter with a confidential source, obtained recorded conversations, and monitored some of his communications. The agent overseeing that inquiry testified that theyd gotten one of the shooters co-workers to record his conversations with the suspect, who reportedly had told co-workers about sympathies to terrorist organizations and violent tactics.The FBI interviewed the shooter twice in 2013 before closing the inquiry. because the shooter never repeated the remarks.

Two months later, though, a man who attended the same mosque as the shooter carried out a suicide bombing in Syria on behalf of the al-Nusra Front, an affiliate of al Qaeda. The FBI took another look into the man who would become the shooter, but still found no substantial connection.

Add to this the fact that the FBI was using the shooters father as an informant at the time, and things start to seem weird. How badly did the FBI screw this up?

The FBI has a huge Counterterrorism Division, comprising an unknown but obviously enormous number of agents. It has four branches: Operations I; Operations II; Analysis; and Operational Support. The agency must filter thousands of tips and look into thousands and thousands of possible connections. As Comey put it, theyre not just looking for a needle in a haystack, but pieces of hay that will become needles. Its unimaginably difficult, and the surveillance tools available to them are limited by federal law and the U.S. Constitution.

Thankfully.

The Fourth Amendment says that American citizens cant be arrested without breaking the law. That is, no pre-crime. However, if the person agrees to carry out an attack or plot, or to travel or support a terrorist group. they can be arrested for providing material support to terrorists.

As a result, the FBI tries to use informants and undercover agents to lure suspects into tipping their hand.

But we know the shooter lied to the FBI in his initial interview, and thanks to Trump-Russia, we all are now well aware that lying to the FBI is a crime. But the FBI only charges someone with lying if theres an underlying crime. The FBI said they had no underlying crime here, just the lie itself. You can imagine the kinds of abuse this power would lead to if there were no limits: Lie about anything to the FBI and you get arrested? Sounds Orwellian. They could arrest pretty much anyone they ever spoke with.

I mean, the FBI can already pretty much surveil anyone they want to. Further, FBI guidelines say the agency must shut down such preliminary investigations if they turn up no evidence of a crime after six months. (This should worry Trump defenders.) And yes: we need these limits on police power. Imagine the FBI investigating you for the rest of your life because someone told them they thought you might be up to something suspicious.

Still, the FBI took the case seriously, and even had the shooters boss wear a wire. The agency also got an extension on that initial assessment, but closed it after ten months. Its sure hard to reconcile these efforts with any conspiracy to allow the shooting to happen.

Then, get this: After the Orlando attack, the FBI opened an investigation into the elder Mateen for making money transfers to Turkey and Afghanistan that year. The investigation arose from evidence the FBI discovered in Mateens home after his sons attack. Reportedly one of the transfers happened weeks before the shooting, so puff on that one, conspiracy theorists.

It seems there was a massive failure here. Comey, in testimony just after the shooting, dug in his heels to defend his agents. In a sentence that resonates with his assessment of his decision to go public with the second Clinton investigation, Comey said, Were going to look hard at our own work to see whether there is something we should have done differently, but so far, the honest answer is, I dont think so. I dont see anything, in reviewing our work, that our agents should have done differently.

In hindsight, this seems ridiculous. But maybe its not quite so bad. Most if not all the things the FBI could have done differently in its assessment of the shooter are things I wouldnt want it to have the blanket power to do to anyone it wants. Charging anyone with lying, for instance. Or setting up wire taps on American citizens just because someone tells the FBI they heard a co-worker say something suspicious. We might soon learn what the shooters father knew about his son, but if he withheld that knowledge or his suspicions, it seems that wouldnt be the FBIs fault. Theres a trade-off between freedom and safety. In hindsight, if the FBI had narrowly applied marginally legal or even unconstitutional powers to stop this shooting, it would have been worth it. But this is a specific instant, and we wouldnt want the FBI to have the power to violate the constitution whenever it wants. As weve seen just in this case alone, they arent perfect, and I dont want to live in a police state.

But did they make a mistake, orconsidering Mateen was an informant for over a decadeis there something more sinister afoot here?

The narrative basically goes like this: Father doesnt tell FBI about son, so theres a conspiracy between Mueller, Comey, and Clinton to do something. This is, in fact, really out there in right-wing nutjob publications such as Gateway Pundit, as well as on the tweets:

Self-identifying journalist Laura Loomer wrote:

James #Comey knew about the #Orlando Pulse terrorist before the attack.



He also said an FBI informant told @FBI Omar Mateen wasn't radicalized anymore.



Today we found out Mateen's father was an @FBI informant.



Is he the same informant who misled the FBI?https://t.co/PtU7ZSfeLe  Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) March 26, 2018

And John Cardillo added:

Let's be clear.



The dad of the Orlando Muslim terrorist who killed 50 people was on #Mueller and @Comey's FBI payroll, most likely being run or ultimately supervised by #McCabe.



Those three, and this entire thing, get dirtier by the minute https://t.co/t41XMHnc83  John Cardillo (@johncardillo) March 26, 2018

And the always-reliable unreliable Jack Posobiec:

Gotta love that scandal-free Obama Administration! https://t.co/7oqUudsISL  Jack Posobiec ???????? (@JackPosobiec) March 26, 2018

And sure, it seems like the FBI messed up. But its unclear whether, as Ms. Loomer says, James Comey himself ever knew about the father-son connection, and given the size of the FBIs counterterrorism program, its almost impossible that he did. And Mr. Cardillo says this thing is getting dirtier by the minute because its connected to Mueller, Comey, and McCabe in an abstract way. Im not sure how its dirty, as opposed to a tragic investigative error. As for Posobiec, is this an Obama scandal? What about the other times the FBI missed leads on criminals or terrorist plots? Scandals?

Or is it because there are connections to Mueller, Comey, and Clinton here, and the right wing is exploiting this error, and dozens of deaths, in a desperate attempt to discredit the unrelated Trump-Russia investigation?

Wait, Clinton? Yep. Mateen was spotted at a Clinton rally in 2016, standing behind her at the podium. Mateen also said he was a Democrat. Uh oh! He also said he wanted stricter gun laws and that Clinton would be better than Trump for that. Well no shit: The rally was held two months after his son used a semi-automatic rifle to kill 49 innocent people.

A Clinton aide told CNN the event was a 3,000-person, open-door event for the public. This individual wasnt invited as a guest and the campaign was unaware of his attendance until after the event. Another spokesperson issued a statement saying, Hillary Clinton disagrees with his views and disavows his support.

Its unclear what such a connection would constitute, or what these people might have been trying to achieve. The FBI investigated the shooter twice, but his father knowingly misled the FBI? Or the FBI, under Mueller first, knew the father was lying to them and had an agreement with him to allow his son to murder fifty people? And this was done with the help or knowledge of the Clinton campaign in a conspiracy to defeat Trump by giving her an opportunity to push for gun control?

Anyone who connects this horrific attack to Robert Muellers investigation of Donald Trump knows that this investigation is going to end very badly for Trump. So take heart in that. As for the FBIs cover-up of its failure to stop this horrible attack, its likely out of its own chagrin, and in defense of its agents who, though imperfect, have a massive task in front of them. But its still a cover-up. Though the FBI promised to investigate where it had failed, it hasnt made public the results of its internal investigation. When the Intercept asked the FBI about this a year after the shooting, the FBI said, We have no comment.
Bitrix24 does a good job offering basic customer relationship management (CRM) and lead management capabilities to small and midsized businesses (SMBs) or even startups. But Bitrix24, which is free for up to 12 users and priced at $99 per month for unlimited users, also throws in some surprising software automation features, file sharing and even solid email marketing integration, too.

With its dizzying array of functions, Bitrix24 CRM has the ability to centralize all communications and collaboration for an organization of any size. Our main concern with this service is that its massive array of functions can be overwhelming. An option to add and remove features would be a big improvement, since you can add and remove features with Editors' Choices Apptivo CRM, Salesforce Sales Cloud Lightning Professional, and Zoho CRM.

Bitrix24 CRM Pricing

Bitrix24 CRM offers a free 30-day trial of its paid Professional plan ($99 per month for unlimited users), and you will need all 30 days to explore all the functionality this service offers. There's also a free plan including support for 12 users, 5 GB of cloud storage, and access to core CRM, task management, and document management capabilities. Communications tools, on the other hand, are completely free for unlimited users. All communication and collaboration tools within Bitrix24 CRMactivity stream, workgroups, instant message (IM) and group chats, email, telephony, mobile, employee directory, and the company structure directoryare available for free to unlimited users.

The Plus tier ($39 per month for up to 24 users) includes 24 GB of storage and includes features such as CRM record conversions, change history, and access logs, and a list view exceeding 500 records. The Standard plan ($99 per month) supports unlimited employees and external users, 100 GB of storage, and the use of your own logo. The Professional plan ($199 per month) provides unlimited online storage, work reports, time management functions, meetings and briefings, records management, and the ability to use your own domain name. $99 and $199 sounds like a lot, but those plans are for unlimited users. CRM services that cost $12 and $15 per month per employee can very quickly add up to far more.

When you sign up with Bitrix24 CRM, you give your intranet a name and immediately see your Activity Stream. This stream feels very much like Facebook, and even gives you the option at the top of the page to create a message to display to the rest of your network. You can also upload files, events, processes, and more to share with your coworkers. Creating new users in your intranet is simple. Just look under the Company subhead, click Employees, and then click Invite User. You'll be able to designate which departments and groups each employee can access.

There is a lot to look at and learn in your new Bitrix24 CRM intranet. Before you even start to dig in, you will find a pop-up window full of introductory videos to help you acclimate to this powerful networking and CRM tool. You can watch all of these videos or you can take part in an online training course course (often provided by third-party companies such as Intreface). While the user interface (UI) feels as familiar as your Facebook page, this site can do much more than social media.

If you need to create a lead, invoice, deal, or any other record, then look to the left under the CRM subhead in the navigation panel. These links take you to pages where you can sort records by person responsible, date created, deal stage, and many other customizable filters. You can also create users, tasks, events, conversations, groups, and upload files and photos via the Create button at the top left-hand corner of the page. The variety of filters available is similar to the options offered by Zoho CRM.

Once you've created your record, it shows up in the Activity Stream of any users who have been granted access. This is where Bitrix24 CRM's collaboration functionality really kicks into high gear. From the Activity Stream, collaborators can comment on your activity, like and unfollow specific records, add favorites, or attach recipients and links. When you like a record, your co-workers get alerts that you've seen the activity. If someone interacts with a record that you created or have opted to follow, then a notification will pop up, alerting you to any new activity and letting you know if you need to take action. For example, if you've enabled time tracking for certain projects, then an administrator will have to sign off on users' timesheets.

Bitrix24 CRM offers several workflow processes as well as the ability to create your own. There are also separate spaces in your intranet for tracking deals, leads, and your sales funnel. You name it, Bitrix24 CRM can probably do it. But the number of capabilities makes for an overwhelming interface; Zoho CRM has an easier UI to get used to.

Lead Management

The newest feature additions to contact management and lead management in Bitrix24 CRM are web-based, lead-capture forms. To create a web form, you can edit an existing CRM form by using the new web form designer, to which you can add fields such as leads, deals, contacts, company, quote, or invoice to the drag-and-drop designer. You can then name the form, give it a background color and text color, and you've built the simple form. The forms are then accessible and editable from the Bitrix24 CRM Activity stream.

The company just released this feature, and will soon be rolling out five pre-designed form templates and a queue feature listing the users responsible for web form results distribution. The web forms can also be connected to Google Analytics by adding your Google Analytics ID inside the form designer. If there's a product catalog available within the company's CRM, then specific products can also be associated with the form, which can then be embedded on a web page or as a pop-up window.

When you are initially setting up, you can choose either a "Simple CRM," which is recommended for small businesses and sales departments and which moves all inbound info directly to the deals or contacts listings. Or you can choose a "Classic CRM," which starts inbound inquiries as leads (along with a separately listing) and then lets sales staff convert them to deals or contacts.

Leads are listed by company. You have a choice of either a traditional list view or a Kanban view (letting you easily move entries along your pipeline). Either can be easily filtered on a number of factors, including source and status. When you click on an entry, the company page offers first the usual contact information. Further down, you're given a series of tabs that let you either access additional data (such as activities or products) or services that you can apply to that entry, including automatically triggered rules or actions (workflow automation is available in the Standard $99 plan).

The user interface for creating automated rules or actions is very simple to understand and a number of pre-coded automations are included. For example, users who respond to a Facebook advertisement can be automatically pulled into the list of leads (Citrix can currently pull leads from Facebook and Twitter, and plan to add WhatsApp when that company releases its API). The users can also be sent an email and then be sent a follow-up in three days if there is no response. The status of the lead can also be changed automatically (or, of course, manually). And, since your company structure can be set up within Bitrix24 CRM, permissions can be instituted so that, for example, a lead cannot be converted without it being approved by a supervisor.

Bitrix24 CRM gives you choices all the way through. For example, when a lead converts, you can create a new deal along with company and contact listings. Just create it as a new deal or create a new contact listing; there are several other choices as well.

It also makes sure that planned activities, tasks, or other actions don't fall through the cracks. When you sign in, reminders pop up, and you are invited to clock in. At this point, you can see a list of your tasks and events. Leads with outstanding activities, such as follow-up calls, are also flagged. New activities can be easily added, and a Status line indicates changes. You can also indicate when you are taking a break or clocking out, which can be useful for admins who need to track staff hours.

Reporting and Third-Party Integration

Bitrix24 CRM integrates with many popular tools, such as Basecamp, MailChimp ($10.00 at Mail Chimp) , Zoho CRM. You can choose to connect the software with your Gmail account so that you'll be notified within Bitrix24 CRM when you receive an email. However, when you click to open the email, a new window opens in your Gmail inbox. If you want to work with email directly in the portal, then sign up for a Bitrix24.com email address or you can connect your own domain.

If you need to follow up over the phone, then you can purchase credits with a credit card or PayPal to take advantage of the built-in telephony function, which feels much like Skype ($2.00 at Microsoft365 for Business) . When your credit balance is low, it will automatically refill with the credit card or PayPal account on file. Another handy telephony feature is that you can set phone calls to automatically be recorded and saved to the company drive. No more taking copious notes by hand while you're on the phone.

Bitrix24 CRM doesn't offer quite as many integrations as other CRM software such as Insightly CRM ($29.00 Per Month Per User at Insightly) or Pipedrive CRM (Visit Site at PipeDrive) , though the company did recently add a feature called Open Channels to enable native social media integration with Facebook, Telegram, Skype, Viber, and Russian social network VKontakte. The platform is still missing integrations with a number of other popular social networks, including Twitter and Instagram. However, Bitrix24 CRM performs most of the tasks natively that other software relies on integrations to handle, such as invoicing, telephony, and timesheets. This software really doesn't need any help from the outside. Even so, if you need custom reports, you would do well to consider Salesforce instead.

Bitrix24 CRM's offers Android and iPhone apps as well. The mobile apps offer access to just about everything in your intranet, including the company drive, workflow, tasks, and even the instant messenger (IM). It's as useful as the web version and it actually feels far less intimidating.

If you find you need help wading through Bitrix24 CRM's many features (and you probably will), then you can click Support at the top of any page to access FAQs, trending topics, and a search box that will scour the knowledge base for helpful articles. If you can't find your answer there, then you can click the Contact Bitrix24 Care Support Team button at the bottom of the page to submit a support ticket. You should expect a response within 16 hours unless you subscribe to the free plan, in which case it may take up to 32 hours. The website also offers free webinars, partner assistance, and a user forum. There is no Help phone line listed on the website.

Functionality for Any Business

Bitrix24 CRM is an incredibly powerful CRM tool. Compared to other software in this space, Bitrix24 CRM is similar to Editors' Choice Apptivo in scope of functionality. It's cheaper than our other Editors' Choices Salesforce Sales Cloud Lightning Professional and Zoho CRM, though its features are just as extensive, if a bit more-intimidatingly presented.

Bitrix24 CRM falls short of the customization options that make the other tools more flexible. Chances are, smaller businesses won't use every tool in Bitrix24 CRM's arsenal, and many will do just fine on the free plan. For companies that need more users and storage, the Standard and Professional plans are still very affordable for what they offer. Bitrix24 CRM is a well-thought-out CRM service that can handle just about anything you throw at it.

Bitrix24 CRM 4.0 Check Price Pros Offers choice of using separate leads listing or going direct to contact.

Kanban user interface available.

Constant notification of opportunities, tasks, and activities. Cons Complex user interface.

Social networking limitations. The Bottom Line Bitrix24 CRM has a wide variety of lead management tools along with some handy automation features that combine to make it an excellent SMB value, though it still has a way to go in terms of software simplicity.
In several ways, Samsung Pay has been more innovative than the payment app competition from Apple and Google. It was the first to offer a rewards program, and remains the only app that lets you pay at non-NFC magnetic credit card terminalsthought that's far less of an issue these days. The newest addition to the app is Samsung Money by SoFi, a no-fee, interest-bearing cash management account. Samsung Pay also offers NFC payments, loyalty plans, and Visa Checkout online. It's a decent option if you own a recent Samsung smartphone, but it lacks person-to-person paying, a web interface, and cross-platform support.

Setting Up Samsung Pay

The app and service work on most recent Samsung phone models, dating back to the Galaxy S6. In fact, it's preinstalled on many Samsung phones. I set it up on a Galaxy Note 8, which involved creating a Samsung account and PIN. Adding a credit or debit card starts with simply framing the card in the camera rectangle that appears when you choose to add a card and then entering the expiration date, CVV number, and ZIP code. Next, you agree to the usual verbose terms of service. I also had to call my bank to authorize the setup, but that varies depending on how your bank's security is set up; some simply require a text message or email verification.

The first payment card you add automatically becomes a Favorite Card, but if you have multiple cards entered, you need to choose a Favorite Card. One other thing to note is that after setting up Samsung Pay, you can't use Google Pay for NFC payments without changing phone settings to switch the default tap-to-pay app.

Samsung Pay's design is a bit more cluttered than that of most payment apps I've tested, with lots of tabs and sections for deals and buttons across the bottom, but that's not much of an issue when you go to pay at a store or restaurant.

Paying With Samsung Pay

To test Samsung Pay, I headed over to my favorite local premium coffee shop, which uses a Square point of sale device attached to an iPad for payments. The device only accepts magnetic stripe credit cards and cash, so no other mobile payment option works there. After holding my phone up to the card reader for 15 seconds, nothing happened, until I tapped the Pay with Samsung Pay PIN button at the bottom of the screen. I had previously set up the app to use my irises for payments, but that didn't kick in. A second try, after setting up Pay to use my fingerprint, also didn't take effect until I entered my PIN. Once I had entered my PIN, the payments went through immediately.

I also set up Samsung Pay on a Samsung watch, which offers a potentially more convenient way to pay. The watch has its own LTE connectivity, so you don't need to have your phone nearby and paired. And in fact, you don't need any connectivity at all to use Samsung payjust as you don't need connectivity on a magnetic stripe credit card, though Samsung limits you to five transactions, the count being reset each time you make a wireless connection. You do need to set up a PIN on the watch, and for some reason, I had to enter my credit card info again, even though I'd already done so on my Galaxy test phone.

Using my watch to pay was, in fact, a much more frictionless experience than using the phone. You simply long-press the top button, your card image appears, and you accept the payment. My cashier at the local Chinese restaurant was impressed, this being her first time seeing someone pay with a smartwatch.

One inconvenience with Samsung Pay on the watch is that if you take the watch off your wrist, you must enter your PIN to start using it again. This makes sense as a security protection: You wouldn't want someone to be able to take the watch off your wrist and start paying without that protection. Another security measure (also used by Apple Pay and others) is the use of tokenized codes rather than your actual credit card number. The service is protected by Samsung Knox, which monitors the devices for suspicious behavior.

Samsung Money by SoFi

Previously Samsung Pay relied entirely on linked debit cards for the actual monetary transactions. With Samsung Money by SoFi, you can now use Samsung Pay as your bank, and the service even pays interest. The service has no fee, and Samsung teamed up with MasterCard and SoFi to provide it. Another perk of the service is that you get employee pricing on Samsung products30 percent off, which adds up if you're buying a Galaxy Z Fold 2, a 98-inch QLED 8K TV (which lists for a cool $60K), or even a major home appliance.

To get started with Samsung Money by SoFi, you first must agree to the privacy terms, which are not especially comforting: You agree to share any and all information collected from your use of the service with Samsung, its parents, subsidiaries, and affiliates, including application info, transaction data, and other personal information. The SoFi privacy policy also states that they share your information with "nonaffiliates" (that is, third-party companies) to market to you. It says you can limit this sharing, but it's not clear how. In fact, there are nine documents you must agree to, though an Agree to All button lets you fast-track the process.

If you decide to throw caution to the wind and sign up for Samsung Money, you must enter your name and DOB, address, citizenship, and SSN. You're informed that your SSN is protected and encrypted and that signing up doesn't affect your credit score. Then it needs your phone number for a text verification. After your account is set up, you're sent a card in the mail that you can use at ATMs, which you can find using the app. You can still use the account to pay in all the ways discussed above, approving actions with biometrics such as your thumbprint. You also earn percent interest on money parked in the account; if you maintain a Balance of $500, you receive a rate of 0.2 percent APY, below that gets you a measly 0.01 percent. The average for interest-bearing checking accounts is 0.06 percent, according to valuepenguin.com.

Extras, Shopping, Loyalty Programs, and Rewards

Whenever you use Samsung Pay, you get 5 Samsung Rewards points. For 2,000 points, you can get a $5 reward card, so it's an understatement to say that you need to use the service a lot to get anything worthwhile from it. Still, I haven't seen this perk in other payment apps, and if your linked card earns you points, you're pretty much double-dipping with Samsung Pay. I still think it would make more sense to award points as a percentage of the transaction's dollar amount rather than a flat five points per transaction.

The app includes a Store section where you can buy gift cards for shops and restaurants, and a Deals section offering coupons you can print out. You can also add gift cards and membership cards in the app's Wallet section. Memberships you can add include things like airline frequent flier programs, store loyalty cards, and even regular gym memberships. Finally, for payments on websites and in apps, Samsung Pay can be used with Visa Checkout for over 350,000 merchants.

Samsung Pay works not only in the US, but also in 17 other countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Puerto Rico, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom. That's better than Venmo, which works only in the US, but it can't match PayPal's more than 200 supported countries.

What You Don't Get With Samsung Pay

Unlike most of the other payment services I've tested (aside from Google Pay), Samsung Pay doesn't let you send money to friends and contacts. You can do that with Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, Square Cash, or Venmo.

Samsung Pay is only about purchases made with mobile devices. The service doesn't have any presence on the web at all. By comparison, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, Venmo, and Square Cash, all let you pay from a web browser. With Samsung Pay, you can't even see your account online, let alone make any payments to people or other websites without your phone in hand.

The Best Way to Pay?

Apple Pay and Google Pay only work with point of sale devices equipped with NFC technology, while Samsung Pay works at magnetic card readers as well. That said, paying with it isn't as smooth as with Apple Pay or Google Pay, and magnetic stripe card readers are no longer the norm. You can't pay friends with Samsung Pay as you can with most payment apps, but you can enroll in lots of merchant loyalty programs, add gift cards, and earn Samsung reward points. The new Samsung Money account may interest those who like interest checking, but it doesn't offer better rates than online banks. As with Apple Pay, you're limited to one hardware company. For a service that does more and works on all platforms, look to our Editors' Choice, Google Pay.
Health official: Data 'reinforces need to continue to take measures'

Daily new COVID-19 cases and test positivity rates within the Health Department of Northwest Michigan's four-county jurisdiction continues to see an unfortunate upward trend.
Russias President Vladimir Putin told the relatives of victims of the Kemerovo mall fire to trust the official information rather than the social networks.

Putin met with the group of relatives of victims at the Kemerovo Bureau of Criminal Forensics on March 27.

We need information. Gossip spreads, because of the absence of information,  a grieving man told the president.

Social networks, as you know, are a turbid source, regrettably. Therefore, one must rely on the results of the real investigation, Putin answered.

A woman then asked, Do you understand that right now people do not trust the authorities?

Russias Investigative Committee  the federal government agency appointed by Vladimir Putin to investigate the March 25 blaze in the Siberian city mall  reports of 53 confirmed deaths and 38 reported as missing. [At the time of this publication]

The investigation confirmed several facts previously labeled by authorities as social media rumors. For instance, it has established that the doors of the movie theaters were locked with people inside, the fire alarm system was malfunctioning, and the entire building was constructed using highly flammable materials.

The Russian media reports of 64 deaths, 41 of them children.

There is wide disagreement on the number killed in the mall fire among relatives, first responders and social media.

About 4,000 people participated in a spontaneous rally in Kemerovo, demanding the authorities release the true numbers of the victims.

Social media videos show first responders claiming they have transported about 300 bodies of victims to morgues from the site of the disaster.

In one of the videos, a man speaking to the rally in Kemerovo identifies himself as a doctor, one of the first responders, who says more than 70 per cent of the 300 bodies reported on social media were children. The report is unverified.

Relatives of the victims formed a group that is conducting its own investigation, announcing Tuesday it found 64 dead bodies in the Bureau of Criminal Forensics, matching media reports.

However, the news agency Interfax reports the group also said the number of missing is greater than the government acknowledges  the relatives claiming among the 85 names of the missing, about 70 per cent are children aged 10 to 13.

Relatives and social media followers only learned the fate of Class 5A of Treschevsky middle school from the students posts amid the chaos of the fire. The class was watching a movie in the Kemerovo mall theater, with all doors locked and their teacher out shopping. The teacher survived while her students died. One of them, Maria Moroz, posted on social media four short messages in the period of 1 minute. They read,

We are burning.

I love you.

All .

Possibly good bye.

Marias name later appeared in the list of the victims.

There has been no official comment regarding the fate of the class 5A.

The Investigative Committee confirmed on March 27 information officials earlier labeled social networks gossip  that the parents of the dead children were forced to sign non-disclosure agreements before being allowed to enter the morgue to identify the bodies.

It is done for their own good, the Investigative Committee said in a statement, without providing any details or explanation.

Distrust of official Russian government pronouncements in past disasters dates back to the drowning of the crew of the submarine Kursk in 2000, and the governments delayed response.

In the hostage crisis in Moscow Dubrovka Theater in 2002, where many of the 130 died succumbed to sleeping gas, the Russian security service had pumped into the hall.

In the Beslan school hostage crisis in September 2004, Russian state media and authorities initially concealed the number of hostages, announcing fewer than 200 when the actual total was 1,128, of which 777 were children. At least 385 died during the three day siege, most of them in the government rescue operation.

Tuesday, March 27, the parents and survivors of the Beslan school disaster gathered in solidarity inside the school gym where hundreds of their loved ones died and placed burning candles on the floor forming words Kemerovo and We are grieving.

The vice-governor of the Kuzbass region, Sergey Tsivilev, speaking at the rally in Kemerovo on March 27, said to the relative of shopping center victims, Are you advertising yourself on this tragedy?

Tsivilev later knelt down to apologize after the man, Igor Vostrikov, told him that he has lost his entire family in the fire, including his wife, his three children and his sister. Vostrikov accused the authorities of lies and misconduct.
While This Way is the latest track from Icelands Arstiir. The deeply meditative and emotionally powerful tune is culled from the groups upcoming LP, Nivalis, due out 22 June via Season of Mist. The song appeals to fans of the progressive rock stylings of Steven Wilson, the Flower Kings, and classic rock acts such as Pink Floyd with its tightly woven vocal harmonies and smart, understated arrangement. Walking a fine line between the comforting and the disquieting, While This Way seems poised to introduce a new range of fans to the veteran group.

Formed in 2008 when Daniel Auunsson (guitar, vocals) Gunnar Mar Jakobsson (baritone guitar, vocals) and Ragnar Olafsson (piano, vocals) stumbled upon a shared love of vocal harmonies, Arstiir (meaning seasons) initially focused on acoustic cover songs, eventually absorbing classical, folk rock and minimalist soundscapes into its artistic vision. Less than five years after its formation, the group had won Germanys coveted Eiserner Eversteiner European Folk Music Award and garnered further attention when a spontaneous performance of a storied Icelandic hymn in a train station became a top-viewed YouTube video.

By 2016, the group had collaborated with Anneke Van Giersbergen (ex-the Gathering) via the LP

Verloren Verleden, on which they reimagined traditional and classical pieces.

Of While This Way, the lead single from

Nivalis, the band says, This song was in the works for over a year before it came to be what youre hearing now. If you managed to catch us on the Solstafir tour at the end of 2017, it might sound familiar. We kind of tested this song out on you, the audience, every night and fine-tuned it to exactly the point where we wanted it to be. We hope that you love it as much as we do!

Nivalis is out 22 June and may be ordered here.
Decorated with intricate interlacings of viola and guitar, the groundwork of Lydia Luces new single emerge from her musical roots. Starting as a classically-trained violist, Luce later adopted guitar and joined her mothers orchestra by age 13. Yet, the songs that she writes and records now are carefully composed without the sort of pomp that we some may have come to expect from classically-trained performers from musical families. Luce forgoes the usual pageantry for something organic and unique that comes from the heart.

This much is evident on her newest single, Sausalito. From her forthcoming album, Luce uses her fiddling and guitar work to evoke a sweeping landscape looking back on her first trip to California. At the tail-end of her trek, she returns to Sausalito, reflecting on a past relationship, realizing that she wants to be with that someone while also acknowledging that shes just not ready for it. A wholly relatable piece of beautifully composed music, the Nashville songstress very clearly has another wonderful album incoming following the release of her wonderful The Tides in 2015.

On the song, Luce says, I wrote this song shortly after moving to Nashville from Los Angeles. I was digging into memories, missing the west coast and longing for the people I left behind.
Can you spot an auteur at 20 paces? In the world of cinema, a true auteur is a filmmaker whose personal style or themes can be traced through even the most diverse and unlikely work. At least thats how Andrew Sarris explained it in his classic book, The American Cinema (Da Capo, 1968).

In that work, he classified a little-known and often dismissed director named Gerd Oswald under the category Expressive Esoterica. In Oswalds sparse output of features, Sarris observed that a fluency of camera movement is controlled by sliding turns and harsh stops befitting a cinema of bitter ambiguityThere are paranoiac overtones in all his films, and the anti-Nazi symbolism is never too hard to detect.

Oswald is not only expressive but Expressionist in the German sense. He came to it honestly by working with his father, a German director named Richard Oswald who began in the silent era. Gerd Oswald is currently best known for a handful of films, including A Kiss Before Dying (1956), The Brass Legend (1956) and Screaming Mimi (1958). Even this small output hasnt been sufficiently available for exploration. For example, where is his 1960 German film Brainwashed, based on Stefan Zweigs Chess Novella?

Oswald spent most of his career in American television and particularly flowered in series that allowed him to indulge his imagination and his taste for baroque, insistent visual style, including The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, and Star Trek. The fact that Oswald stands out as a director can be demonstrated easily in the handful of Perry Mason episodes that bear his name. Although this show favored a flat, frank, unfussy TV style, Oswalds efforts fairly burst with odd flourishes and graceful panache.

Lets put his auteurism to the test by examining a film that would seem an outlier in his career, the neglected and inconsequential Bob Hope vehicle, Paris Holiday (1958). In every way a star project dominated by its star, who also produced the picture and essentially wrote it, this project sounds unpromising as a Gerd Oswald joint.

Paris Holiday falls into Hopes tradition of sending his wisecracking persona through spoofy spy, detective and adventure tropes. The humor lies in his reactions to getting shot at or trapped in brakeless cars or nearly falling down elevator shafts. With its bright widescreen colors and self-conscious opening gags, in which the four main characters introduce themselves via voiceover, it seems to have more in common with the cartoony films of Frank Tashlin than with Oswalds melodramas.

The first part of the action takes place on a transatlantic liner, where Bob Hope and French comedy star Fernandel play thinly undisguised versions of themselves: famous comedy stars named Bob Hunter and Fernydel. Martha Hyer plays a level-headed lovely who works for the U.S. Embassy in Paris, while Anita Ekberg plays an even more glamorous vamp in the pay of bad guys, but she eventually switches sides because shes so beautiful.

During Ekbergs opening voiceover, the blast of the ships engine drowns out her revelation of her characters nefarious plans. This postmodern play on cinematic conventions, which is a common feature of Hope vehicles, foreshadows a similar joke in the opening of Jean-Luc Godards Weekend (1967), when the background music sometimes drowns out the couples expository dialogue.

In France, Bob meets briefly with a famous French writer named Serge Vitry, whose name and reputation for brilliant comedies is reminiscent of Sacha Guitry. This too-briefly-seen character is played by the great Preston Sturges near the end of his life, reminding me of Sarris observation that what French audiences dont grasp in Sturges is what Americans dont grasp in Guitry: the scintillating play of language in high and low vernacular. Alas, this film seems even less like Sturges than like Oswald.

After a lot of running around, the film climaxes in a helicopter stunt with Bobs double hanging from a rope ladder that sweeps across the tops of buildings and other looming obstacles. Bob is doubled by legendary French stuntman/driver Gil Delamare, who receives a screen credit while another stuntman is credited with flying the copter. Delamare, who died in a 1966 stunt, is a legend in French cinema.

Just as you might think this film is an aberrant and atypical entry in Oswalds filmography, perhaps the work of a hired hack dominated by boss Hope, were confronted by the revelation that the villains are a secret neo-Nazi group infiltrating the French government with counterfeit money, and there are even discreet references to the Holocaust in a scene that comes dangerously close to feeling out of place and needlessly heavy  except for in an Oswald movie. Its exactly as Sarris called it.

The most paranoid material arrives in the lengthy sequence where Bob is detained in a lunatic asylum for ambiguous reasons. Its all very comic and ironic, with attempted escapes and whatnot, but its also got a genuinely sinister and frustrating edge regarding institutions and bureaucracy. Bobs hero becomes a helpless pawn, trying to prove his sanity to a committee of judges, as his own friends in the U.S. Embassy conspire to keep him locked up while being unable to explain their cross-purposes. He only knows that even his allies and partners are suddenly against him, and from his point of view the situation has turned into a nightmare.

Unless I imagine it, this is the part of the film where the director feels the most committed (no pun intended) and which he handles with an adroit, discomfiting mix of comedy and paranoia. So here you have the paranoiac overtones noticed by Sarris, even though he didnt single out Paris Holiday as worthy of attention.

Yes, this is Gerd Oswald, the auteur that nobody sees except when hes at his most flashy and stylized. Under the expressionism is somebody scarred by his and his fathers brush with the Nazi experience in their home country, someone mistrustful of authority figures, someone whose heroes struggle against conformity, and someone who, when the budget allows, likes to bring the razzle-dazzle. This remains true whether hes working for Bob Hope or exploring The Outer Limits, and thus we recognize a personal filmmaker.

Ladies and gentleman: Gerd Oswald. In our next class, we must begin examining his episodes of Bonanza, Daniel Boone and Gentle Ben. Who knows what we might find once we start looking?
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Abigail Darlington is a local government reporter focusing primarily on the City of Charleston. She previously covered local arts & entertainment, technology, innovation, tourism and retail for the Post and Courier.
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The airman who was found dead inside Andersen Air Force Base Tuesday morning had been stabbed, said Guam Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Aurelio Espinola on Wednesday morning, but hours later, he said he wasn't sure if that information is true.

Espinola earlier Wednesday confirmed to The Guam Daily Post he was contacted by Air Force representatives and told  at the time  the airman who was found dead on base quarters was stabbed.

On Wednesday afternoon, he said, "I'm not sure whether it's true or not," referring to the information about the stabbing, because he hasn't seen the body and he won't be conducting the autopsy.

Espinola said he has not seen any records related to the death.

Forensic pathologist

He said he was advised by the Air Force that the autopsy would be conducted Friday at Naval Hospital Guam by an Air Force forensic pathologist, who was en route to Guam from a U.S. Air Force base in Japan.

On Tuesday, Andersen Air Force Base command released a statement confirming that the airman was pronounced dead around 3 a.m. Tuesday. No details about the circumstances of the death were released by Andersen.

The base Public Affairs Office didn't respond to an emailed request for an update. In a phone call from the Post, base Public Affairs took a Post staffer's contact information to be passed on to an Air Force Office of Special Investigations.

There was no word from the OSI as of press time.

'Deeply saddened'

"This is a terrible tragedy, and we are all deeply saddened by the loss of this airman," Brig. Gen. Douglas Cox, 36th Wing commander, said in a written statement Tuesday.

"Losing a member of our team is the most difficult thing we face, and ... we have lost a member of our Air Force family," he said.
PR-Inside.com: 2018-03-28 08:00:16

FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Anglo Pacific Group PLC--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---London England (FSCWire) - Anglo Pacific Group PLC (LSE:APF). has issued a press release with the following headline:Full Year ResultsTo 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 Anglo Pacific Group PLC, 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/Anglo Pacific Group PLCSource: Anglo Pacific Group PLC (LSE: APF, TSX: APY, OTC Bulletin Board: AGPIF, FWB: HGR, WKN: 871733)Date: March 28, 2018Time: 2:00 AM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Anglo Pacific Group PLC 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: 2018-03-28 08:05:03

SAN DIEGO, March 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Crown Bioscience, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Crown Bioscience International (TWSE:6554) and a global drug discovery and development services company providing translational platforms to advance oncology, inflammation, cardiovascular and metabolic disease research, announces that it has been chosen by Glycotope GmbH as a partner to accelerate their immuno-oncology drug discovery pipeline.

CrownBio offers the world's largest collection of patient derived xenograft (PDX) models and is a leading provider of humanized solutions for immuno-oncology drug development. Leveraging these exclusive capabilities, CrownBio will engraft cell line-derived cancer models as well as PDX models selected by Glycotope into CD34+ humanized mouse models. These customized, humanized models will be used to accelerate Glycotope's innovative immuno-oncology drug discovery pipeline.

"Glycotope recognizes the value of CrownBio's extensive PDX and CDX collection and their expertise in implementing innovative humanization strategies," said Anika Jakel, Director of Glycotope's Preclinical Pharmacology & Cancer Immunology group. "We have chosen them as our partner for these reasons and look forward to what we are confident will be a successful alliance."

"We are very pleased that Glycotope has selected us as a trusted partner to advance their cutting-edge immuno-oncology pipeline," said Laurie Heilmann, CrownBio's Chief Business Officer. "Our unique capabilities will enable Glycotope to continue providing new and improved therapies for the treatment of cancer."

About Crown Bioscience Inc.

CrownBio is a global drug discovery and development solutions company providing translational platforms to advance oncology, inflammation, cardiovascular and metabolic disease research. With an extensive portfolio of relevant models and predictive tools, CrownBio enables clients to deliver superior clinical candidates.

About Glycotope GmbH

Glycotope, founded in 2000 in Berlin, focuses on the development of innovative immuno-oncological products for the treatment of various cancer types using their GlycoBody and GlycoExpress technologies. Glycotope has currently one product in clinical development. The Company's additional pipeline includes preclinical antibody biopharmaceuticals for various oncological indications.

Glycotope's GlycoExpress (GEX) platform allows glyco-optimization and high yield production of a variety of fully human glycosylated biopharmaceuticals such as antibodies, glycoprotein hormones and cytokines by using a toolbox of glyco-engineered proprietary human cell lines that allow for optimization of a whole series of different relevant sugars. In addition, the GEX platform can be used for in process glycosylation control. Visit http://www.glycotope.com/.

Media Enquiries:

Jody Barbeau

Crown Bioscience Inc.

marketing@crownbio.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: Crown Bioscience Inc. via Globenewswire


Shigella Vaccines Market

PR-Inside.com: 2018-03-28 12:45:31

Press Information

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The New Research Trial Drives The Shigella Vaccines MarketThe University Of Maryland School Of Medicine (UM SOM) in August 2017 received US$ 2.47 Million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to develop vaccine against Shigella and Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) for the treatment of diarrheal disease. The researchers in the UM SOMs Center for Vaccine Development (CVD) have developed Shigella-ETEC prototype vaccine, which has been tested in animals successfully. Moreover, the latest funding helps to translate prototype to a human vaccine for Phase 1 clinical trials.The key players present in the global shigella vaccines market include MSD Wellcome Trust Hilleman Laboratories Pvt. Ltd., Novartis (Novartis Vaccines Institute for Global Health), and GlaxoSmithKline plc.According to World Health Organization (WHO), nearly one million people die from Shigella infection annually. Moreover, the high incidence rate is seen among children less than five years age, travelers, and military personnel from industrialized economies. Shigella species have been identified from centuries and it represents a major threat to public health, due to non-availability of licensed vaccine and thus affecting overall Shigella vaccines market.Request For Sample Copy@Developing vaccine against Shigella infections is difficult, due to the diversity of Shigella species and their serotypes. Shigella genome is continuously modified by deletion and acquisition of genes mediated by the mobile genetic elements, such as plasmids, insertion sequences, and integrons. These modifications are the major foundation for the generation of novel antibiotic resistant strains and it also leads to the formation of novel Shigella serotype variants. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in April 2017, warned the physicians and public health officials in the U.S. by stating that the recent strains of Shigella bacteria shows the reduced susceptibility to ciprofloxacin, which is one of the main antibiotics recommended by WHO for the treatment of shigellosis.Geographically, S. flexneri is the most frequent species occurred worldwide accounting for most cases in emerging economies. Whereas, the S. sonnei is prevalent in Brazil, China, Vietnam, and Bangladesh, due to rapid industrialization of these economies. The primary prevention of Shigella is based on the universal provision of portable sanitation and water methods along with personal and food hygiene. However, a low cost and effective vaccine would accelerate disease reduction across the globe.Joint ventures and collaborations of major players to develop and commercializes the vaccine are expected to propel the Shigella vaccines market in near futureJoint ventures and partnership of the players to develop and commercialize Shigella vaccine is expected to provide momentum to the Shigella vaccines market. For instance, in March 2017, Hilleman Laboratories, a non-profit organization established with joint venture partnership between Merck & Co., and Wellcome Trust has entered into an agreement with National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Disease (NICED) for the development and commercialization of vaccines against Shigella by 2024. Besides, in June 2016, Immuron- an Australian biopharmaceutical company entered into an agreement to produce Shigella vaccine with the U.S Armys biomedical research lab-Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR).Prokarium and Probiomed in January 2017, collaborated to manufacture orally-administrated vaccine to prevent diarrhea. The new vaccine is expected to be manufactured as a part of two-year collaboration having thermostable capabilities for a longer period. The new vaccine is expected to be delivered to the people living in the remote areas. Thermostable vaccine, which is manufactured approximately one third of the price of the conventional injectable vaccines helps to facilities the growth of Shigella vaccines market.Get Table Of Content:About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Coherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email:sales@ coherentmarketinsights.com Visit our news Website: http://www.coherentchronicle.com
PR-Inside.com: 2018-03-28 08:32:02

Nokia Corporation

Stock Exchange Release

March 28, 2018 at 9:30 (CET +1)





Notice of the Annual General Meeting of Nokia Corporation

Notice is given to the shareholders of Nokia Corporation (the "Company") of the Annual General Meeting to be held on Wednesday, May 30, 2018 at 2:00 p.m. at Helsinki Messukeskus, Messuaukio 1, Helsinki, Finland. The reception of persons who have registered for the Meeting will commence at 12:30 p.m.

A. Matters on the agenda of the Annual General Meeting

At the Annual General Meeting, the following matters will be considered:

1. Opening of the Meeting

2. Matters of order for the Meeting

3. Election of a person to confirm the minutes and a person to verify the counting of votes

4. Recording the legal convening of the Meeting and quorum

5. Recording the attendance at the Meeting and adoption of the list of votes

6. Presentation of the Annual Accounts, the review by the Board of Directors and the auditor's report for the year 2017

- Review by the President and CEO

7. Adoption of the Annual Accounts

8. Resolution on the use of the profit shown on the balance sheet and the payment of dividend

The Board proposes to the Annual General Meeting that an ordinary dividend of EUR 0.19 per share be paid for the fiscal year 2017. The dividend would be paid to shareholders registered in the Register of Shareholders of the Company on the record date of the dividend payment, June 1, 2018. The Board proposes that the dividend will be paid on or about June 13, 2018. The actual dividend pay date outside Finland will be determined by the practices of the intermediary banks transferring the dividend payments.

9. Resolution on the discharge of the members of the Board of Directors and the President and CEO from liability

10. Resolution on the remuneration to the members of the Board of Directors

The Board's Corporate Governance and Nomination Committee proposes to the Annual General Meeting that the annual fee payable to the Board members elected at the same meeting for a term ending at the close of the Annual General Meeting in 2019 remains at current level: EUR 440 000 for the Chair of the Board, EUR 185 000 for the Vice Chair of the Board and EUR 160 000 for each Board member. In addition, the Committee proposes that the Chair of the Audit Committee and the Chair of the Personnel Committee will each receive an additional annual fee of EUR 30 000 and other members of the Audit Committee an additional annual fee of EUR 15 000 each. In addition, the Board has informed the Corporate Governance and Nomination Committee that it is planning to establish a Technology Committee following the Annual General Meeting. Accordingly, the Corporate Governance and Nomination Committee proposes to the Annual General Meeting that EUR 20 000 is payable to the Chair of the Technology Committee as an additional annual fee subject to the Board establishing the Committee. The fee is payable from the establishment of the Committee until the close of the Annual General Meeting in 2019.

The Committee also proposes that a meeting fee for Board and Committee meetings be paid to all the other Board members, except the Chair of the Board, based on travel required between the Board member's home location and the location of a meeting. The meeting fee would be paid for a maximum of seven meetings per term and remain on the following levels: EUR 5 000 per meeting requiring intercontinental travel and EUR 2 000 per meeting requiring continental travel. Furthermore, the Committee also proposes that members of the Board of Directors shall be compensated for travel and accommodation expenses as well as other costs directly related to Board and Committee work.

The Corporate Governance and Nomination Committee proposes that approximately 40 per cent of the annual fee be paid in Nokia shares purchased from the market, or alternatively by using treasury shares held by the Company. The meeting fee would be paid in cash. In line with the current Nokia policy, the directors shall retain until the end of their directorship such number of shares that corresponds to the number of shares they have received as Board remuneration during their first three years of service in the Board (the net amount received after deducting those shares needed to offset any costs relating to the acquisition of the shares, including taxes).

11. Resolution on the number of members of the Board of Directors

The Board's Corporate Governance and Nomination Committee proposes to the Annual General Meeting that the number of Board members be ten (10).

12. Election of members of the Board of Directors

Jean C. Monty has informed that he will no longer be available to serve on the Nokia Board of Directors after the Annual General Meeting. Accordingly, the Board's Corporate Governance and Nomination Committee proposes to the Annual General Meeting that the following current Nokia Board members be re-elected as members of the Board for a term ending at the close of the Annual General Meeting in 2019: Bruce Brown, Jeanette Horan, Louis R. Hughes, Edward Kozel, Elizabeth Nelson, Olivier Piou, Risto Siilasmaa, Carla Smits-Nusteling and Kari Stadigh. In addition, the Committee proposes that Sari Baldauf, who is a non-executive director, be elected as a member of the Board of Directors for the same term.

13. Resolution on the remuneration of the Auditor

The Board's Audit Committee proposes to the Annual General Meeting that the auditor to be elected at the Annual General Meeting be reimbursed based on the invoice of the auditor and in compliance with the purchase policy approved by the Audit Committee.

14. Election of Auditor

The Board's Audit Committee proposes to the Annual General Meeting that PricewaterhouseCoopers Oy be re-elected as the auditor of the Company for the fiscal year 2018.

15. Authorization to the Board of Directors to resolve to repurchase the Company's own shares

The Board proposes that the Annual General Meeting authorize the Board to resolve to repurchase a maximum of 550 million Nokia shares by using funds in the unrestricted equity. Repurchases will reduce funds available for distribution of profits. The shares may be repurchased in order to optimize the capital structure of the Company and are expected to be cancelled. In addition, shares may be repurchased in order to meet obligations arising from debt financial instruments that are exchangeable into equity instruments, to settle equity-based incentive plans for employees of Nokia Group or of its associated companies, or to be transferred for other purposes such as financing or carrying out acquisitions.

The shares may be repurchased either through a tender offer made to all the shareholders on equal terms or in another proportion than that of the shares held by current shareholders (directed repurchase).

It is proposed that the authorization be effective until November 30, 2019 and terminate the corresponding authorization granted by the Annual General Meeting on May 23, 2017.

16. Authorization to the Board of Directors to resolve to issue shares and special rights entitling to shares

The Board proposes that the Annual General Meeting authorize the Board to resolve to issue a maximum of 550 million shares through issuance of shares or special rights entitling to shares under Chapter 10, Section 1 of the Finnish Limited Liability Companies Act in one or more issues during the effective period of the authorization. The Board may issue either new shares or treasury shares held by the Company.

The Board proposes that the authorization may be used to develop the Company's capital structure, diversify the shareholder base, finance or carry out acquisitions or other arrangements, settle the Company's equity-based incentive plans, or for other purposes resolved by the Board.

It is proposed that the authorization includes the right for the Board to resolve on all the terms and conditions of the issuance of shares and such special rights, including to whom shares or special rights may be issued as well as the consideration to be paid. The authorization thereby includes the right to deviate from the shareholders' pre-emptive rights within the limits set by law.

It is proposed that the authorization be effective until November 30, 2019 and terminate the corresponding authorization granted by the Annual General Meeting on May 23, 2017. The authorization does not terminate the authorization by the Extraordinary General Meeting held on December 2, 2015 granted to the Board for issuance of shares in order to implement the combination of Nokia and Alcatel Lucent.

17. Closing of the Meeting

B. Documents of the Annual General Meeting

The proposals of the Board of Directors and its Committees relating to the agenda of the Annual General Meeting as well as this notice are available on the Company's website at www.nokia.com/agm. The "Nokia in 2017" annual report, which includes the Company's Annual Accounts, the review by the Board of Directors and the auditor's report, is available on the above-mentioned website. The proposals and the annual report will also be available at the Meeting. Copies of these documents and of this notice will be sent to shareholders upon request.

C. Instructions for the participants in the Annual General Meeting

1. The right to participate and registration

Each shareholder, who on May 18, 2018 is registered in the Register of Shareholders of the Company, has the right to participate in the Annual General Meeting. A shareholder, whose shares are registered on his/her Finnish book-entry account, is automatically registered in the Register of Shareholders of the Company. If you do not have a Finnish book-entry account see section 4. Holders of Nominee registered shares.

A shareholder, with a Finnish book-entry account, who wishes to participate in the Annual General Meeting, must register for the Meeting by giving prior notice of attendance no later than on May 23, 2018 at 4:00 p.m. (Finnish time) by which time the registration needs to be received by the Company. Such notice can be given:

a) through the Company's website at www.nokia.com/agm;

b) by telephone to +358 20 770 6870 from Monday to Friday at 09:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. (Finnish time); or

c) by letter to the Register of Shareholders, Nokia Corporation, P.O. Box 226, Fl-00045 NOKIA GROUP.

In connection with the registration, a shareholder is required to notify his/her name, personal identification number, address, telephone number, the name of a possible assistant and the name and the personal identification number of a possible proxy representative.

2. Advance voting service

A shareholder, who has a Finnish book-entry account, may vote in advance on certain items on the agenda of the Annual General Meeting through the Company's website from March 28, 2018 until 4:00 p.m. (Finnish time) on May 23, 2018. Unless a shareholder voting in advance will be present in person or by proxy in the Meeting, he/she may not be able to exercise his/her right under the Finnish Limited Liability Companies Act to request information or a vote in the Meeting and if decision proposals regarding certain agenda item have changed after the beginning of the advance voting period, his/her possibility to vote on such item may be restricted. The conditions and other instructions relating to the electronic advance voting may be found on the Company's website www.nokia.com/agm.

The Finnish book-entry account number of the shareholder is needed for voting in advance.

3. Proxy representatives and powers of attorney

A shareholder may participate in the Annual General Meeting and exercise his/her rights at the Meeting by proxy. A proxy representative shall produce a dated proxy document or otherwise in a reliable manner demonstrate his/her right to represent the shareholder at the Annual General Meeting. Should a shareholder participate in the Meeting by means of several proxy representatives representing the shareholder with shares in different book-entry accounts, the shares by which each proxy representative represents the shareholder shall be identified in connection with the registration for the Annual General Meeting. Powers of attorney should be delivered in original to Nokia's Register of Shareholders at the above-mentioned address or via email to agm@nokia.com before the last date for registration.

4. Holders of nominee registered shares

A holder of nominee registered shares is advised without delay to request from his/her custodian bank the necessary instructions regarding registration in the Register of Shareholders of the Company, issuing of proxy documents and registration for the Annual General Meeting. The account management organization of the custodian bank shall register a holder of nominee registered shares, who wants to participate in the Annual General Meeting, to be entered in the temporary Register of Shareholder of the Company at the latest on May 25, 2018 at 4:00 p.m. (Finnish time). Further information on these matters can also be found on the Company's website www.nokia.com/agm.

5. Other instructions and information

On the date of this notice of the Annual General Meeting the total number of shares in Nokia Corporation and votes represented by such shares is 5 631 506 659.

Doors of the meeting venue will open at 12:30 p.m. The shareholders, their representatives and possible assistants are required to prove their identity at the entrance. Coffee will be served before the Meeting. The Meeting will be conducted primarily in Finnish, and simultaneous translation will be available into Swedish and English, and as necessary, into Finnish.

Pursuant to Chapter 5, Section 25 of the Finnish Limited Liability Companies Act, a shareholder who has given prior notice of attendance and is present at the Annual General Meeting has the right to request information with respect to the matters to be considered at the Meeting.

March 26, 2018

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

About Nokia

We create the technology to connect the world. Powered by the research and innovation of Nokia Bell Labs, we serve communications service providers, governments, large enterprises and consumers, with the industry's most complete, end-to-end portfolio of products, services and licensing.

Nokia is enabling the infrastructure for 5G and the Internet of Things, and shaping the future of technology to transform the human experience. www.nokia.com

Media Inquiries:

Nokia

Communications

Tel. +358 (0) 10 448 4900

Email: press.services@nokia.com

Minna Aila, Vice President, Corporate Affairs

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

It should be noted that Nokia and its businesses are exposed to various risks and uncertainties and certain statements herein that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, those regarding: A) our ability to integrate acquired businesses into our operations and achieve the targeted business plans and benefits, including targeted benefits, synergies, cost savings and efficiencies; B) expectations, plans or benefits related to our strategies and growth management; C) expectations, plans or benefits related to future performance of our businesses; D) expectations, plans or benefits related to changes in organizational and operational structure; E) expectations regarding market developments, general economic conditions and structural changes; F) expectations and targets regarding financial performance, results, operating expenses, taxes, currency exchange rates, hedging, cost savings and competitiveness, as well as results of operations including targeted synergies and those related to market share, prices, net sales, income and margins; G) expectations, plans or benefits related to any future collaboration or to business collaboration agreements or patent license agreements or arbitration awards, including income to be received under any collaboration or partnership, agreement or award; H) timing of the deliveries of our products and services; I) expectations and targets regarding collaboration and partnering arrangements, joint ventures or the creation of joint ventures, and the related administrative, legal, regulatory and other conditions, as well as our expected customer reach; J) outcome of pending and threatened litigation, arbitration, disputes, regulatory proceedings or investigations by authorities; K) expectations regarding restructurings, investments, capital structure optimization efforts, uses of proceeds from transactions, acquisitions and divestments and our ability to achieve the financial and operational targets set in connection with any such restructurings, investments, capital structure optimization efforts, divestments and acquisitions; and L) statements preceded by or including "believe", "expect", "anticipate", "foresee", "sees", "target", "estimate", "designed", "aim", "plans", "intends", "focus", "continue", "project", "should", "is to", "will" or similar expressions. These statements are based on management's best assumptions and beliefs in light of the information currently available to it. Because they involve risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from the results that we currently expect. Factors, including risks and uncertainties that could cause these differences include, but are not limited to: 1) our strategy is subject to various risks and uncertainties and we may be unable to successfully implement our strategic plans, sustain or improve the operational and financial performance of our business groups, correctly identify or successfully pursue business opportunities or otherwise grow our business; 2) general economic and market conditions and other developments in the economies where we operate; 3) uncertainty related to the amount of dividends and equity return we are able to distribute to shareholders for each financial period, as well as the risk factors specified on pages 71 to 89 of our 2017 annual report on Form 20-F published on March 22, 2018 under "Operating and financial review and prospects-Risk factors" and in our other filings or documents furnished with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Other unknown or unpredictable factors or underlying assumptions subsequently proven to be incorrect could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. We do not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent legally required.

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: NOKIA via Globenewswire


PR-Inside.com: 2018-03-28 11:14:02

Obuv Rossii Invests More Than RUB 40 Mln In Its IT-Infrastructure And Creates Data Center In Moscow

Obuv Rossii Group

Natalia Pauli, 0073832808026

n.pauli@obuvrus.ru

Obuv Rossii Group, ranked among top two Russian footwear retailers1, will launch its own data center in Moscow implementing the program of regional data processing centers launching. The Group started to carry out the project in early March. All works connected with purchasing, installation and testing of the equipment for the data center will be completed within several months. The new data processing center will reach its full capacity by the autumn-winter season of 2018. The Company will also increase the capacity of the central DPC in Novosibirsk and of the regional DPC in Khabarovsk (the Far East). The total investments in the project, including the data center in Moscow, will exceed RUB 40 mln.

In October 2017, Obuv Rossii held an IPO on Moscow Exchange and has been actively developing its retail chain implementing its investment program: in 2017 it grew by 83 stores. The Company intends to maintain further high chain growth rates: in 2018, it plans to open 100 stores. The Company is already well presented in Siberia, in the Urals region and in the Far East, having plans to expand its chain presence in the western part of Russia.

Our stores operate in all time zones; we are developing omni-channel sales and the line of additional services for customers, which requires a high level of IT system integration and ensuring their 24-hour service capability, says Dmitry Karpenko, IT director of Obuv Rossii Group. Three DPC located in different regions (Moscow-Novosibirsk-Khabarovsk) will enable the Group to provide uninterruptible 24/7/365 online operating mode independently of time zones, enhance our IT system flexibility, mobility, scalability and failure tolerance and, as a result, business efficiency.

About OBUV ROSSII (http://obuvrus.ru/en/)

Obuv Rossii Group is a federal retail shoe chain ranked among top two Russian footwear retailers. The Group is the leader of the mid-price segment of the shoe market. Obuv Rossii was established in 2003, it is headquartered in Novosibirsk with a representative office in Moscow.

1 In terms of the number of stores in 2017, according to Discovery Research Group

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180328005

Obuv Rossii Invests More Than RUB 40 Mln In Its IT-Infrastructure And Creates Data Center In Moscow
PR-Inside.com: 2018-03-28 17:06:04

Momentum, the new venture launched by MobileBridge, announces acclaimed futurist and high-profile blockchain advocate, Professor Youngsook Park, as Momentum Token Korea Director

Professor Youngsook Park, South Koreas Leading Futurist, Joins MobileBridge Momentum as Momentum Token Korea Director

Company Media Contact:

Molly Winik, +972 58-4433219 (Cell)

Blonde 2.0 for Momentum

molly@blonde20.com

International leader in mobile engagement, MobileBridge (https://mobilebridge.com/), announces that Youngsook Park, one of South Koreas leading futurists and blockchain advocates has joined as Korea Director for the companys blockchain-based platform, Momentum (https://momentumtoken.io/). Professor Park specializes in the combination of artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain, and assesses the impact the technologies will have on our futures. MobileBridges Momentum platform offers brands an innovative and more efficient way of enhancing brand-customer relationships, and enables businesses to better manage their feedback, incentive, and rewards processes in order to strengthen customer loyalty and business development.

The marketing industry has not only experienced financial growth, advances in technology have prompted innovation in the space and placed a focus on consumer experience and feedback. Momentums loyalty-driven marketing platform allows brands to reward customers in exchange for their attention, business, brand advocacy, and feedback, while giving the consumer full control over their personal data and a real monetary value for the support theyve provided to the brand.

Professor Youngsook Parks experience in various global blockchain initiatives, such as her position as Co-Chair of the Global Blockchain AI Council and Global Women in Blockchain, will further strengthen Momentums position to lead the marketing industry into a new digital era.

Eyal Oster, President and Co-Founder of MobileBridge Momentum, recently spoke at the Korean Chamber of Commerce alongside Professor Youngsook Park and other blockchain experts on blockchain, innovation, legislation and how to build competitive advantage using blockchain technology. Professor Park currently serves as Chair of the Millennium Korea Node and represents various global future research organisations such as TechCast Global and the DaVinci Institute.

I am excited to join as the Korea Director of Momentum and strengthen an already very strong team of leaders, says Professor Youngsook Park, The reception of Momentum in Korea has been great and I see Momentum repressing a new class of Blockchain infrastructure which not only drives ethical business, it connects brands, consumers and suppliers around the world and allows for sustainability and creation of jobs.

I am very excited to have Professor Park join our team as she is a true visionary who can contribute strongly to our team with her experience as well as with her strong leaderships skills, says Eyal Oster, President and Co-Founder of MobileBridge Momentum, Professor Park is a perfect fit for Momentum.

About Momentum:

MobileBridges Momentum platform is the first cryptocurrency-based, loyalty-driven marketing platform. MobileBridge has collaborated with brands such as Burger King, Volkswagen, Dansk, and Pirelli. MobileBridges Momentum platform offers brands the opportunity to launch their own branded cryptocurrency - an innovative, more efficient way of enhancing brand-customer relationships.

# # #

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180328005
PR-Inside.com: 2018-03-28 15:08:15

FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Supreme Metals Corp.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Sudbury, ON (FSCWire) - Supreme Metals Corp. (CSE:ABJ). has issued a press release with the following headline:Supreme Metals Corp. Closes $1.2 Million First Tranche of Non-Brokered 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 Supreme 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/Supreme Metals Corp.Source: Supreme Metals Corp. (CSE: ABJ, FWB: A68, WKN: A2DJZE, ISIN: CA8686271005)Date: March 28, 2018Time: 9:07 AM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Supreme 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.)
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The House of Representatives is working at amending the Act establishing the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), the Chairman of the House Committee on Banking and Currency, Jones Onyereri, has said.

He said the proposed amendment would further empower and embolden AMCON to go after its debtors, especially those who hitherto think they can ride on some loopholes in the Act and perpetually engage AMCON in court.

Mr. Onyereri made the disclosure in Abuja at a one-day technical session with stakeholders such as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN); Nigeria Insurance Deposit Corporation (NDIC) and members of the House Committee on Banking and Currency; AMCON management among others, where the challenges inhibiting AMCON from recovering were extensively discussed.

The committee also used the occasion to listen to presentations from the representatives of the CBN, NDIC and legal luminaries among others on how AMCON could function optimally as well as meet its mandate.

Speaking at the forum, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of AMCON, Ahmed Kuru, described his assignment at AMCON as very difficult,.

He said there was need to change the recovery approach at the Corporation with the backing of the National Assembly especially since the remaining crop of AMCON debtors are defiant, recalcitrant and business heavyweights who have the financial wherewithal to repay their debts but have refused to pay by going to court to tie AMCON up.

We have been doing this for the past seven years and we have realised that what we need now at this time in the life of AMCON is legislative help that would make it possible to recover these debts effectively and efficiently.

At AMCON, we believe that the Act establishing the Corporation can be amended as many times as possible by the National Assembly as long as they think it is appropriate to do so in the interest of the Nigerian economy. Given the difficulties we are facing presently, we are of the opinion that the Act establishing AMCON should be amended to reflect our sunset period, he explained.

He said the Corporation has realised that some of its obligors have since established another lifestyle that are different from what brought them to AMCON so the best we can do as a law abiding agency of the government is take them to court.

The National Assembly, which in the first place created AMCON in 2010, must do everything within its constitutional powers to protect the Corporation and pay more attention to AMCON sunset to enable AMCON fully recover the debts from the hard-core obligors who would stop at nothing to frustrate both AMCON, the National Assembly and the Nigerian populace, Mr. Kuru said.

Hon. Onyereri who chaired the technical session however reassured that the National Assembly has also been monitoring the behaviour of AMCON obligors. He said he was sad to state that some of the obligors are not just enemies of the state but those who do not mean well for both the economic efforts of the present administration and that of the Nigerian nation as a whole.
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Ethiopias ruling coalition has elected a new leader, Abiy Ahmed, who is expected to be sworn in as Prime Minister soon.

Ahmed was voted chairperson of the ruling Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), state-owned media reported.

The appointment comes six weeks after former prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn resigned amid widespread anti-government demonstrations.

Prominent opposition politician Merera Gudina told dpa that Ahmeds appointment could be a new dawn for Ethiopia and might put an end to months of protests.

Ahmed, who holds degrees in peace and security studies, computer engineering and transformational leadership, previously served as science and information minister and co-founded Ethiopias intelligence and security service.

The outspoken politician is widely regarded as a reformer who could bring new ideas to Ethiopias conservative political leadership.

If appointed prime minister, the 41-year-old Ahmed will be the first head of state from the ethnic Oromo group since the EPRDF came to power in 1991.

Ethiopias restive Oromia and Amhara regions have been engulfed by violent protests over political and ethnic marginalisation in recent years.

Almost 700 people have been killed in the violence since August 2016, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said in 2017. (dpa/NAN)
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The Zambian government said on Wednesday that it will soon introduce a bill in parliament aimed at controlling alcohol consumption in the country.

The Minister of Religious Affairs and Guidance, Godfridah Sumaili, said the bill will act as a control measure against the increased levels of alcohol consumption in the country.

The government, she said, was concerned about the abuse of alcohol especially by young people, adding that high levels of alcohol consumption has not only destroyed families but retarded national development.

According to her, the government will work closely with other stakeholders on the contents of the bill, adding that the proposed law was in line with address by President Edgar Lungu where he called for the need to promote values and morals in the country.

In spite of having laws such as age-limit for drinking alcohol and restricted hours for drinking places to start selling alcohol, Zambia has been battling with the problem of alcohol for years.

According to the WHO, 76 per cent of men and 23 per cent of women in Zambia consume alcohol.

According to medical experts, alcoholism was reported to be a major cause of mental disorders in the country, with about 80 per cent of people admitted to Chainama Hills Hospital, which deals with mental patients suffering from mental disorder caused by alcohol misuse and drug abuse.

(Xinhua/NAN)
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The Sierra Leones National Electoral Commission (NEC) has assured the voters in the country that the countrys run-off presidential election would hold on March 31 as scheduled.

The commission gave the assurance in a statement issued by NEC Chairman, Mohamed Conteh, on Wednesday in Freetown.

Mr Conteh said that the commission continued to prepare for the elections; guided by constitution of Sierra Leone, 1991; and the countrys Public Elections Act, 2012.

NEC is proceeding with enhancement of the electoral process, following decisions with the two remaining candidates and their parties, mediated by African former Heads- of-State on Monday in Freetown.

In a separate statement, Mr Conteh said the commission had reversed its earlier announced councillorship result for Ward 92 Kono District, Eastern District.

The general public is informed that the declaration of result for Ward 9, Kono District that earlier declared Mohamed Keyed, candidate for the Coalition for Change, as winner has been reversed.

The National Electoral Commission hereby declares Mattu Sumana candidate of the All Peoples Congress (APC), who having polled 1669 the highest number of valid votes cast, duly elected Councillor of Ward 92, Kono District.

Any inconvenience is regretted. (NAN)
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Japanese authorities have asked China to provide them with the details of North Korean leader Kim Jong Uns unofficial visit to Beijing, local media reported on Wednesday.

Kim and his wife Ri Sol Ju paid an unofficial visit to China at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping from March 25 to March 27.

Meanwhile the visit was not officially announced.

The Japanese Foreign Ministry is now arranging a meeting with Chinese diplomats to hear about the developments that led to the meeting between the North Korean and Chinese leaders and details of their discussion, it reported.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Wednesday that Tokyo would gather and analyse the information related to Kims visit.

According to Abe, it was revealed that Pyongyang had asked Beijing for dialogue prior to an inter-Korean summit, planned for April, and a meeting between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump, expected to take place before the end of May.

Meanwhile, South Korean media reported earlier in the day citing a presidential spokesperson that Beijing had informed Seoul about Kims visit to China in advance.

Similarly, the White House said it was briefed by China about the meeting on Tuesday.

Kims visit to China was his first foreign trip since he came to power in 2011. (Sputnik/NAN)
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The President, Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Mike Ogirima, on Wednesday called on the members of the association to join active politics ahead of 2019 general elections.

Mr Ogirima made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

He said the need for them to engage in active politics became necessary to enable them make enhanced contribution to the health sector.

We have found out that we have few medical workers in politics and bills concerning the health welfare are not receiving adequate attention, he said.

The president, who noted that not many health workers were involved in active politics, said the development was disturbing and raised serious concern for them association and the health sector.

If you dont blow your trumpet, nobody will do it for you and if you dont look for your welfare, nobody will do it for you.

That is why we are encouraging our members to participate in partisan politics.

The president said that there was need for advice and guidance before certain bills regarding the health sectors are being passed.

Mr Ogirima said though not all members might be interested in active politics, but a sizable part of NMA members should get involve in partisan politics.
A prosecution witness, Tosin Owobo, an investigator with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Tuesday told Justice M.B. Idris of the Federal High Court, Ikoyi, Lagos that N2.4 billion, $115 million, 12 properties and bullet-proof cars were recovered from a former Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Adeola Amosu(retd.).

Mr Amosu is standing trial alongside two serving senior Air Force officers: an Air Vice Marshal, Jacob Adigun, and an Air Commodore, Gbadebo Olugbenga, a former Director of Finance and Budget.

Also charged with the accused are seven companies namely Delfina Oil and Gas limited, McAllan Oil and Gas limited, Hebron Housing and Properties Company Limited, Trapezites BDC, Fonds and Pricey Limited, Deegee Oil and Gas Limited, Timsegg Investment Limited and Solomon Health Care Limited.

At the resumed hearing on Tuesday, Mr Owobo told the court that his team members, in the course of investigation, visited the properties, including St. Solomon Health Care, a residential building in Yaba and another residential building in Badagry, that were recovered from Mr Amosu by the commission.

He said though the commission also recovered landed properties and buildings from the second and third defendants, no money was recovered from the second defendant.

Mr Owobo, who is the second prosecution witness, PW2, also stated that N383 million was recovered from the wife of the first defendant through a bank draft in favour of the federal government.

He also told the court that the third defendant made a draft of N100 million to the federal government through the commissions recovery account.

Led in evidence by the prosecution counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, Mr Owobo also stated that the commission had secured interim forfeiture order on all the properties seized from Mr Amosu and others.

After securing the interim forfeiture order, the commission visited, marked, sealed and restricted all the properties to show the general public that the said properties are under investigations by the EFCC, he said.

However, the defence team led by Bolaji Ayorinde objected the evidence of the prosecution witness, saying that any evidence of the interim order not before the court or in the proof of evidence was irrelevant to the proceedings.

He further argued that the witness cannot allude until the documents are put before your Lordship either in the proof or additional proof of evidence.

The witness cannot give evidence on the content of the interim forfeiture order because the court and the defence team have not sighted the documents.

The evidence given by the witness is not captured in Section 379 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA). 

Mr Ayorinde also told the court that the evidence by the witness did not form part of the court records and that the interim forfeiture order had not been tendered before the court.

He, therefore, prayed the court to expunge the evidence given by the witness.

In his response, Mr Oyedepo told the court that the submission of the defence was immature, adding that My Lord, the witness confirmed to the court that the interim forfeiture order of the court was sought and obtained by the EFCC.

The order contains the list of properties seized from Amosu and others. 

My Lord, the evidence cannot be said to be inadmissible

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Mr Oyedepo, who also told the court that Section 379 of the ACJA does not govern the receiving of evidence, further urged the court to allow the witness give evidence on what he knows about the matter.

In his short ruling, Justice Idris ruled in favour of the prosecution and asked the witness to continue his evidence.

After the court ruling, Mr Oyedepo asked for an adjournment to enable him prepare for another criminal trial involving the wife of former President Goodluck Jonathan, Patience Jonathan.

Consequently, the court adjourned the case to April 18, 2018 for continuation of trial.
A former vice-president for sub-Saharan Africa at Royal Dutch Shell, Peter Robinson, has been referred to the Dutch authorities over alleged crimes related to an asset sale in Nigeria, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.

The report says investigations by Shell revealed that accounts in Switzerland and a company in the Seychelles in Mr. Robinsons name were used to take kickbacks from the sale of a block called OML 42.

The leads came from the companys investigation of charges related to a criminal trial of the company in Milan over another alleged bribery scheme related to the separate purchase of a Nigerian oil block called OPL 245, infamously dubbed the Malabu scandal.

The controversial deal has been a subject of litigations, with Shell denying any wrongdoing in the case.

On Wednesday , Bloomberg reported that Shell admitted that a crime might have been committed in the new OML 42 deal.

Based on what we know now from an internal investigation, we suspect a crime may have been committed by our former employee, Shell said in an emailed statement.

We were stunned and disappointed when we learned about this.

Mr. Robinson worked in Nigeria for Shell from 2008 to 2011 as vice president for commercial in the sub-Saharan Africa region, part of a more-than-30-year tenure with the company.

His lawyer in the Milan case, Chiara Padovani, had last week said that her client denied accusations of corruption made by Italian prosecutors. On Wednesday, she was not available for comment.

The controversial Oil block OML 42 is located in the Niger Delta and was sold by Shell in 2011. It produces about 100,000 barrels a day according to Neconde Energy Ltd., now the operator of the block.

Details of the deal came into focus after prosecutors in Milan alleged that in the same year Shell and Italian oil company, Eni SpA, paid more than $1 billion for OPL 245, knowing that much of the money would go to pay bribes to Nigerian officials.

The criminal trial in Milan also involves Shells former upstream director, Malcolm Brinded and Enis current Chief Executive Officer, Claudio Descalzi.

The criminal referral against Mr. Robinson was filed last week, a source told Bloomberg, adding that the former Shell boss might have acted alone and taken strong measures to avoid detection within Shell. According to the source, he failed to report companies and accounts registered in his name that fell outside the companys protocols on eliminating conflicts of interest, adding that some of the emails Shell is scrutinising are encrypted.

As part of their investigations into whether part of Shell and Enis payment to the Nigerian government for OPL 245 was funneled to other individuals, prosecutors have been looking at links between Mr Robinson and a Seychelles-based company called Energy Venture Partners Ltd., court documents show.

A bank account linked to Mr. Robinson had earlier been frozen by the Attorney-General in Switzerland after requests for legal assistance from the Dutch and Italian authorities. Reports said several hundred million Swiss francs were in the account.

But a source told Bloomberg that Shells own investigation has concluded those accounts were not linked to the OPL 245 transaction, but instead may have been used for kickbacks from the sale of OML 42.

The scandal over the OPL 245 Malabu oil block began in 2011 when the Goodluck Jonathan administration approved its purchase by Shell and Agip-Eni from Malabu Oil and Gas Ltd., a suspected briefcase firm with ties to Dan Etete, a convicted criminal who was Nigerias petroleum minister from 1995 to 1998.

Jonathan administration officials, who participated in the negotiation preceding the controversial sale of the massive oil block included Mohammed Bello Adoke, Attorney-General at the time; and Diezani Alison-Madueke, who was the petroleum minister.

Mr. Jonathan himself was named by investigators as being involved in the alleged fraud, but the former president strongly denies the charges.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has been pursuing fraud and criminal conspiracy charges against Messrs Adoke and Etete and their alleged accomplices since 2016. Messrs Adoke and Etete are believed to be at large, and the anti-graft agency had repeatedly sought to fish them out.

Last October, during a meeting on assets recovery in Abuja, Nigerias Attorney-General, Abubakar Malami, announced that the Nigerian government had successfully repatriated $85 million from the Malabu funds from the UK.

But in a letter to Mr Buhari, the same official in a dramatic turn advocated for the government to drop the charges against the chief suspects, including his predecessor, Mr Adoke, former petroleum ministers, Diezani Alison-Madueke and Mr Etete, in the alleged bribery scandal.

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In the letter, Mr. Malami had argued that his examination of the case file showed that there was no significant evidence to prove sharp practices by the accused persons.

Curiously, another top government functionary and Nigerias oil minister, Ibe Kachikwu, also advised the president to cede the oil block to Eni and Shell but a counter-memo by EFCC chair, Ibrahim Magu, made the president overrule Mr Malami and order the anti-graft agency to continue the prosecution.

In February, a group of anti-corruption organisations asked the Attorney-General of the Federation, to explain the inconsistencies between his letter to President Muhammadu Buhari asking him to call off the prosecution of the main suspects in the Malabu oil deal, and the federal governments application to a United Kingdom court that led to the repatriation of $85 million from the proceeds of OPL 245 frozen by the court.

Earlier in March, an Italian court postponed the trial of Eni and Shell from March 5 to May 14 as the Nigerian government dramatically presented two lawyers in court.
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The Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria has urged the Nigerian government to intensify efforts towards immediate and safe release of abducted Dapchi student, Leah Sharibu.

Miss Sharibu was one of the 110 students abducted by the Boko Haram terror group from their school in Dapchi on February 19.

One Hundred and four of the abducted students were later released, with five of them murdered by the group while 15 year old Miss Sharibu was reportedly denied freedom on the grounds of her refusal to renounce her Christian faith.

In a statement by the Secretary General of the CSN, Ralph Madu, on Wednesday, the church described the continued detention of Miss Sharibu as an evidence of the high level of persecution against Christians around the world and especially in Nigeria.

As recently stated by Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah of Sokoto: As it is with the history of our faith, these are no easy times to be a Christian anywhere in the world especially here in Nigeria. There is staggering but also verifiable evidence that Christians are today the most persecuted set of people anywhere in the world. Today, Christians are still faced with the challenges of proclaiming their Gospel in an environment that remains quite hostile to the Christian Message. Yet, as St. Paul said to Timothy: We must preach the Gospel, welcome or unwelcome (2 Tim. 4:2).

The 15-year old Leah has indeed become a symbol of the sufferings, persecutions, challenges and intimidation Christians face daily in Nigeria for expressing their faith especially in public.

We use this medium to appeal to the Federal Government to go the extra miles in re-negotiating the unconditional release of Leah without further delay. We must remember that this is a secular country and the government has the responsibility of ensuring the safety of every Nigerian irrespective of religious, political and ethnic differences, the CJN said in its statement.

The CSN described the actions of Miss Sharibu as a remarkable demonstration of courage and commended her parents for raising a child truly loyal to her faith.

Leah must be commended for her heroism and courageous act exhibited before her abductors. At no time is the beauty and essence of Christianity better manifested than in this exemplary life of faith. For refusing to succumb to the intimation of Boko-haram abductors, Leah has followed the example of Jesus, the Messiah and Saviour, whose passion, death and resurrection we celebrate this period of Easter.

We equally thank the parents of Leah for bringing up their daughter in a truly Christian way with love and fear of God over the fear of man; and commend their fortitude in bearing the present predicament of their daughter. This exemplary family life should be a lesson worthy of emulation by all Nigerian families and communities irrespective of religious affinity.

The CSN urged Nigerians regardless of religious affiliations to follow the example of Miss Sharibu by demonstrating true faith in their religion as well as the fear of God, above the fear of man.

The Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN had earlier made a similar request and urged the National Assembly to organise a public hearing on the matter.

CAN in its statement on March 23, which was signed by the media assistant to the associations President, Adebayo Oladeji, condemned the federal government for its inability to ensure the release of Miss Sharibu along with the other abducted girls.

It also asked the federal government to conduct a thorough investigation into the matter and publish the details of findings from the investigation.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has recommended prosecution and sanctions for INEC officials, police, some individuals and some staff of local government areas for their roles in alleged electoral fraud in the 2015 general elections.

The Acting Executive Secretary of the commission, Oti Ovrawah, made the call on Wednesday in Abuja at a public presentation of phase two of the End Electoral Impunity project report.

I am glad to inform you of completion of the project having considered the 2015 election cycle in Nigeria. In the first phase of the project, 2007 and 2011 election cycles were considered.

She noted that there were several misconceptions about the project, as reflected in litigations against the commission arising from the report of the first phase.

According to her, we will clarify the methodology and essence of this intervention by the commission as this is necessary in view of the wrong perception that the commission reviewed judgments of court in the project.

The commission does not have such powers neither has it exercised such.

What the commission has done in this study is to extract verbatim, statements used by either the Election Petition Tribunal or the Court of Appeal in relation to the election petitions before them.

These statements by the courts, where they indict either persons or institutions, were put together by the commission for onward transmission to the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) as well as the Attorneys-General of respective states.

This, she said was with the aim that they would consider with a view to further investigate or prosecute.

The NHRC boss noted that with the finalisation of the report in the second phase, a follow up list of indicted persons or institutions would be transmitted to the AGF and the respective state attorneys-general for further necessary action.

In a brief presentation of the project report which was supported by the Ford Foundation, Nsongurua Udombana, the Project Chairman, noted the need for the courts to stand up to their responsibilities in curbing electoral impunity.

He said this was by referring established cases of crimes committed during elections to the appropriate authorities as enshrined in Section 149 of the Electoral Act, 2010.

In the majority of the cases reviewed, the election petition tribunals fail to exercise the powers given them in the electoral act, which is to direct the appropriate authorities to investigate and prosecute alleged electoral infractions.

In a goodwill message, Abdul Kafarati, the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, noted that electoral impunity was against the tenets of democracy.

Kafarati who was represented by Justice John Tsoho said that since elections were a key component of a democracy, all must be done to eschew electoral impunity in order to enjoy a thriving democracy.

He assured that the Federal High Court would play its role sufficiently to ensure that Justice was served to electoral offenders.

Also speaking at the event, Sarah Jibril, Chairperson, Justice must Prevail Party noted the need for all politicians to go into politics with what she referred to as autonomous morality.

Autonomous morality is willingly policing oneself without being policed by the authorities, she said.

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The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that others indicted in the report for their role in the 2015 election include some INEC staff, ward collation officers, returning officers among others, totaling 35 indictments.

In the first phase, there were 118 indictments including Maurice Iwu, a former INEC chairman.

Others were the former governor of Delta, Emmanuel Uduaghan along with electoral commissioners as well as members of the Election Petition Tribunals in Ekiti, Sokoto State and Ebonyi in the 2007 polls.

(NAN)
African and European diplomats on Wednesday lauded Nigerias agriculture sector for its role in pulling the country out of recession.

They gave their commendations at the ongoing 4th International Agro-Food Fair, taking place in Lagos.

According to Ibi Ikpoki, representing the EU trade delegation, the Nigeria agriculture sector played a huge role in the countrys exit from recession.

The Nigerian agricultural sector has also played a crucial role in job creation, women and youth empowerment and contributed immensely to poverty alleviation.

Therefore, I am delighted today that agriculture in Nigeria is gradually evolving from being seen as a mere activity to a business, moving primary production to value addition.

This is why this annual exhibition continues to be relevant for the development of the agri-business and packaging sectors among others.

Mr Ikpoki also congratulated the Nigerian government for the improvement in the ease of doing business in the country.

Citing figures from the EU Trade Desk, he said that total EU trade in Nigeria increased by 27 per cent from 19.9 billion Euros in 2016 to 25.3 billion Euros in 2017.

This trade increase mirrors the improvements in Nigerias external trade as a country that exited recession in 2017.

Permit me to use this opportunity to congratulate the Nigerian authorities for some notable feats experienced in 2017, including the improvement in ease of doing business.

On ranking, we saw Nigeria jump 24 places from 169 to 145 and also emerged one of the topmost improved 10 countries.

Mr Ikpoki also spoke on the EUs increasing investments in Nigeria, in spite of the bureaucratic bottlenecks in doing business in the West African country.

The Netherlands Ambassador to Nigeria, Robert Petri, said also that the innovation Dutch companies were exhibiting at the fair would help boost agriculture processes in Nigeria.

The Netherlands has innovative solutions for agriculture and for tackling high population growth and climate change such as in Nigeria.

Also speaking, the French Consul, Laurent Polonceaux, said his countrys partnership with Nigeria on agriculture had resulted in the participation of 50 French companies at the fair.

The Commercial Counsellor to the Austrian Embassy in Nigeria, Nella Hengstler, commended the organisers of the fair, noting that Africa was the new hub for Agro-food fairs.

So, despite the visa wahala (challenge) and all the travel issues, I think it makes sense to come here and exhibit our products in Africa.

Similarly, the Acting High Commissioner of South Africa to Nigeria, Bobby Moroe, said that the fair offered great opportunities to Africa and Nigeria.

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Its a great opportunity for Africa and Nigeria. You realise the statement made by the president that Nigeria will not have oil forever.

The Agro-food fair is being held for the fourth time in Nigeria with countries like China, Turkey and some Nigerian agriculture entrepreneurs exhibiting their produce at the fair.

Correspondents of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at the fair reported that over 80 exhibitors and about 1,000 participants were attending the fair.
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For allegedly kidnapping a two-year-old baby, three men are to cool their heels in prison for the next 52 days, an Osogbo Magistrates Court ruled on Wednesday.

Magistrate Olusegun Ayilara, who gave the order, said the accused should remain behind bars at Ilesa Prisons pending their bail applications.

The accused  Joy Osu, 26; Sidney Onwuka, 28; and Agubata Maxwell, 39  are facing a two-count charge of kidnapping and child theft.

They, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges.

But the Police Prosecutor, Muyiwa Ogunleye, told the court that the accused committed the offences on February 18 at 8.00 p.m. at Matanmije area of Oke-Baale in Osogbo.

Mr Ogunleye said the trio stole the baby with the intention of selling him.

It took the intervention of the police to rescue the boy from the kidnappers den.

The offences contravened Sections 364(2), 371 and 516 of the Criminal Law of Osun, 2003.

Counsel to the accused, Dr Victor Ezeji, urged the court to grant them bail on liberal terms.

The case has been adjourned until May 18 for hearing of the bail application.

(NAN)
The Senate has directed its Committee on Education (Basic and Secondary) to interact with the Minister of Education to identify the causes of the recurring failure in the WAEC results with a view to finding remedies.

The resolution followed the adoption of a motion sponsored by Umaru Kurfi (Katsina Central), who described the recurring mass failure of West African Examination Council (WAEC) results in the country since 2009 as embarrassing.

The senator expressed worry that the rate of failure remains high, saying it was prejudicial to the interest of Nigerian secondary school students and their parents.

According to him, in both 2009 and 2010 WAEC, only 25.99 and 24.94 per cent respectively passed with five credits including Mathematics and English, while the remaining others constituting 70 per cent failed.

In 2011 May/June WAEC, only 86,612 out of the 1,540,250 candidates that participated in the examinations got credit in mathematics and English language.

Also in 2011 May/June WAEC, only 86,612 out of 1,540,250 candidates that participated in the examinations got credits in Mathematics and English Language.

In 2012 May/June WAEC, only 649,159 out of 1,672,224 candidates that wrote the examinations which represents just 38.81 per cent got 5 credits and above including in the core subjects of Mathematics and English language.

In 2013 WAEC, only 29.17 per cent candidates actually passed the Nov/Dec WAEC examinations while 70 per cent failed.

In both 2017 and 2018 recent January/February private examinations, only 26.01 per cent and 17.13 per cent candidates have passed with 5 credits including Mathematics and English language respectively, while the remaining over 70 per cent candidates failed, he said.

Mr Kurfi regretted that the future of the country would continue to be bleak if urgent action were not taken to address the situation.

Contributing, Barau Jibrin said urgent steps must be taken to find reasons for the failure and remedies.

Emmanuel Paulker said the situation called for a grave concern, attributing the development to the problem from poor quality of education received at the primary school level.

And it is this same crop of students that will move to the secondary school. Some of them can hardly write or read; without a foundation, there is no way a house can stand.

Those formulating our school curriculum must sit up, if not, we have our future doomed, Paulker said.

On her part, Biodun Olujimi emphasised the need to evaluate the entire value chain in the education sector, saying, There is need for revaluation to understand where the missing link is.

There is also the need to look at teacher education because we have some teachers who are not properly trained, who dont do research and cannot read or write.

So, how can they teach our children well, Ms. Olujimi said.

In his remark, the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki stressed the need to increase the value of human resources to promote quality education in the country.

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I am sure the committee will work assiduously to get to the bottom of this matter and see that it is addressed.

Indeed the education sector need some reforms, Mr Saraki said. (NAN)
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Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to reconsider his stance and sign the Africa Continental Free Trade Area agreement before it is too late.

The former president expressed disappointment that Nigeria was not among the 44 member countries of the African Union that endorsed the agreement.

That President Buhari didnt sign the free trade agreement in Kigali is disappointing; I hope he signs it before it is too late,Mr. Obasanjo was quoted as saying.

Egypt started the discussion on the formation of the Organisation of African Unity but didnt conclude it and Nigeria took over. Nigeria was also central to the discussion of the free trade agreement, but I am surprised that the country withdrew from signing.

The agreement was signed during the 18th Extraordinary Session of the Assembly of (AU) Heads of State and Governments on March 21 in Kigali, Rwanda.

Nigeria and South Africa were two of Africas biggest economies that withheld their assent to the agreement meant to establish a common protocol to allow free movement of goods and services among member nations of the AU. South Africa later signed.

Seven other countries, including Burundi, Guinea Bissau and Eritrea also did not sign the agreement.

Although the Federal Executive Council had given consent for Nigeria to sign the agreement, Mr. Buhari canceled his schedule to attend the AU meeting at the last minute.

Prominent interest groups like the Nigeria Labour Congress and Manufacturers Association of Nigeria kicked against the treaty, saying aspects of the agreement would hurt Nigerias interest.

Consequently, the decision to sign the agreement was postponed to allow for adequate consultation and inputs from interest group, particularly with the NLC, which called the treaty a renewed, extremely dangerous and radioactive neo-liberal policy initiative.

But, Mr. Obasanjo, who was named on Friday as chair of the Advisory Council for Intra-African Trade Fair organised by African Export-Import Bank in conjunction with the Egyptian government for December 2018, said he was surprised Nigeria refused to sign the trade agreement.

He recalled the leading role Nigeria played in founding the free trade agreement initiative, saying apart from Egypt, which started the discussion on the formation of the Organisation of African Unity, Nigeria was central to all discussions on the agreement.

The AfCFTA treaty is one of the flagship projects of the AU Agenda 2063 to create a single continental market for goods and services, with free movement of business persons, investments and a single currency.

Signatories to the agreement so far included Niger, Rwanda, Angola, C.A.R., Chad, Comoros, Congo, Djibouti, The Gambia, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritania, Mozambique, Cote DIvoire, Seychelles, Algeria and Equatorial Guinea.

Others include Morocco, Swaziland, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, South Sudan, Uganda, Egypt, Ethiopia, Sao Tome and Principle, Togo and Tunisia.
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The Nigerian House of Representatives has denied a report by the Daily Sun newspaper that some of its members had taken bribe to change position on the process to amend the Electoral Act.

Moving a point of order on Wednesday, Danburam Nuhu (Kano-APC) called the attention of his colleagues to the report alleging that some of the lawmakers collected $30,000 each.

The newspaper had reported on Sunday that members of the executive spearheading strategies for President Muhammadu Buharis re-election in 2019 were moving to stop the National Assembly from overriding the presidents veto of the Electoral Act (amendment) Bill which main feature is reordering of the sequence of elections.

The newspaper further reported senators and House of Representatives members were collecting $50,000 and $30,000 respectively to sway them against the move to amend the Act.

According to the newspaper, pro-Executive senators and members of the House of Representatives were to receive $50,000 and $30,000, respectively, while anti-executive lawmakers, who have cases with anti-corruption agencies, will be threatened with prosecution.

The Kano lawmaker said these report breached the privileges of the lawmakers and was part of attempts to drag the image of the House of Representatives into the mud.

Personally, I felt very concerned and worried  reading it  in the sense that my constituents are beginning to question my integrity, Mr Nuhu said.

In my entire life where I have been through hardship, I have tried as much as possible to remain a credible person and I will not allow somebody to come on the pages of newspaper and allege we have received bribe to change the sequence of elections.

Tajudeen Yusuf, from Kogi, said the report was filled with fallacies and lies.

We all know the truth, that there is no such transactions in this house. We all know that consistently, there is always an attempt to paint the parliament black and question the integrity of whatever that comes out of the parliament, he said.

Similarly, Hassan Saleh from Benue, said the house must begin to sensitise the public that we are not what we are perceived as.

If after investigations and we are not found wanting, I think it is high time for this institution to also begin to sue. Maybe that will also give us a better image, he added.

While most of the lawmakers suggested that the matter be referred to the committee on ethics and privileges, some said the House should sue the media organisation that carried the report.

Femi Gbajabiamila, leader of the house, said you cannot send this to the ethics committee because members of the committee have also been indicted by the allegations.

Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila. [Photo credit: Concise News]

Let me make it abundantly clear that bribery and corruption is a criminal offence and is punishable by imprisonment, he said.

This is a matter that is ripe for investigations, and we should sue for defamation. The only defence in this case is the truth. You dont speculate on a matter that is injurious to someones character.

After the debate, Speaker Yakubu Dogara referred the matter to the ethics committee to advise the house on the best step to take; how we will go about it in court if they advise us to do so.
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The Federal High Court in Abuja has asked the prosecution to issue an enrolled order for the appearance before it of three sureties in the trial of leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu.

Mr. Kanu, who is facing trial for alleged treason, was required to be produced in court by his sureties. He has not been seen since September 2017.

Justice Binta Nyako had asked the sureties to either explain why their N100 million bond should not be forfeited, produce the defendant or be remanded in prison.

Although the court repeatedly made the order, the prosecution was yet to serve the defence counsel with the court summons on the matter.

Mrs. Nyako adjourned the case for the sureties to respond to the demand by the court.

At the resumption of the matter, however, a counsel for the sureties, Chukwuma_Machukwu Umeh, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, said his client had not been served with court papers relating to the order made by the judge.

He therefore made a fresh application for an order of court demanding that the prosecution serves the sureties with copies of the order, as made by the court.

Mr. Umeh argued that responding to the verbal order could render the entire process legally defective.

The other lawyers in the defence team aligned themselves with Mr. Umehs application.

In his response, the prosecution counsel, Shaibu Labaran, urged the court to resist sacrificing the demand for justice on the altar of technicalities.

Mr. Labaran disagreed with the submission of the defence that an enrolled order was necessary to ensure compliance to the instructions made in court.

He described the fresh application as a conspiracy to set back the matter before the court and demanded its dismissal.

In a reaction to comments made by the prosecution, Mr. Umeh demanded the withdrawal of the word: conspiracy, used by Mr Labaran and urged the court to uphold his application.

The judge granted the request by the defense, but noted that the application was an evidence of their lack of readiness to proceed with the matter.

What is clear is that you are not ready, said Mrs Nyako.

The sureties are to be served with the order of this court: to show cause why they should not forfeit their bond or to produce the defendant in the next adjourned date, with the alternative to go to prison, she added.

Mr. Kanus sureties are a senator, Eyinnaya Abaribe, a Jewish priest, Immanuu-El Shalom, and an accountant resident in Abuja, Tochukwu Uchendu.
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The Senate President, Bukola Saraki, has told the federal government to let the implementation of the 2017 budget run till the end of May 2018.

His comment, which was directed at the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, followed a point of order raised by Atai Aidoko (PDP, Kogi East).

Mr Aidoko brought the attention of the senate to a circular issued to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), which states that 2017 budget funds will be mopped up by March 31.

He said it contravenes the provisions of section 3(1) of the constitution, adding that the section mandates that the budget runs for 12 months after the presidential assent.

The senator explained that the directive is causing panic in the system, citing the MDAs like the SDG that just got money for special projects only last week, some contracts have not even been awarded, so how can they award contracts and these contracts, the monies must utilised before the end of 31st of March?

President Muhammadu Buhari assented to the 2017 budget in May 2017. On Tuesday, the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation, Mustapha Dawaki, disclosed that the National Assembly had written to the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation on the need to continue funding for the 2017 budget till May 31.

Reacting to the point of order, Mr Saraki directed the Ministry of Finance to rescind the circular, adding that it does not have the powers to do so.

He mandated the chairpersons of the Senate Committees on Appropriations and Finance to communicate to the Minister of Finance and MDAs that the budget should run for 12 months.

The budget runs for 12 months and it goes through May. Chairman of Appropriations is not here. Chairmen of Finance, both of you are here, hence, you will need to communicate to the Minister of Finance and all agencies that the budget was passed to run 12 months, and it must run for 12 months, he said.

He added that rounding off the budget before its legally stipulated date was not acceptable, as it had to be included in an appropriation act which needed to be compiled and sent to the National Assembly.
The UN says it has allocated $11 million (about N4 billion) to help 60,000 internally displaced people in Borno and other humanitarian operations in North-east Nigeria.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said $9 billion (about N3.2 billion) would be used to provide life-saving aid for some 60,000 people displaced by ongoing Boko Haram crisis in Borno.

The UN relief agency explained that the money was an allocation from the UN-managed country-based humanitarian assistance fund.

The UN quoted Edward Kallon, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, as saying: The crisis continues to displace thousands of vulnerable women, children and men every week.

Many have gone through unspeakable hardship and the UN and its partners remain committed to help alleviate their suffering.

Set up through the Nigeria Humanitarian Fund (NHF), the assistance includes two million dollars (about N720 million) in support to the UN Humanitarian Air Service for frontline responders in the region.

This UN fund gives us the flexibility to prioritise those who are most in need of aid and act swiftly for the good of the people of North-east Nigeria, Mr Kallon said.

The UN said the North-east regions humanitarian crisis, sparked mainly by Boko Harams years-long insurgency, remained one of the most severe globally.

In the worst-affected states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, at least 7.7 million people are in need this year, with about 80 per cent, or 6.1 million, targeted for humanitarian assistance.

The nine million dollars allocation will help fund 15 projects supporting humanitarian rapid response in areas affected by large-scale conflict-related displacements, particularly in the northern parts of Borno, along the Maiduguri-Monguno axis.

In just three months, the close to 30,000 people who have fled violence in hard-to-reach areas are in dire need of food, water, shelter, clothes and medical services.

Additionally, the funds will help scale up the response near the border with Cameroon in eastern Borno  Gwoza, Bama, Dikwa, Kala-Balge, Monguno, Askira/Uba  and northern Adamawa  Madagali  where approximately another 30,000 have arrived following military operations.

Finally, the funds will also help maintain UN Humanitarian Air Service operations, crucial to reach and deliver aid in remote areas of the North-east, especially where roads are unusable, the UN said.

It explained that under the leadership of Kallon, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, the NHF is managed by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

This is to provide flexible and timely funds for basic life-saving support, the UN said, adding to date it has raised $48 million (over N17 billion) in contributions and pledges.

The NHF is one of 18 country-based pooled funds and was launched during the Oslo Humanitarian Conference for Nigeria and the Lake Chad Region in February 2017.

The contributions and pledges were realised through the generous support of Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, Norway, Ireland, Switzerland, the Republic of Korea, Canada, Spain, Luxembourg, the Arab Gulf Program for Development, Malta, Azerbaijan and Sri Lanka.

Of that $48 million, $33 million (about N12 billion), including this latest N3.2 billion allocation  has now been allocated to various organisations in support of the humanitarian response in North-east Nigeria.

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Crimes against women are on the rise in Adamawa and other North-east states, Chief Medical Director of Yola Specialist Hospital, Bala Saidu, has said.

Speaking during the commissioning of a Sexual Assault Referral Centre, (Adamawa Hope Centre) in Yola on Tuesday, the official said the major crimes against women include rape, kidnapping, torture, molestation, sexual harassment and trafficking among others.

At Yola specialist hospital only, we record at least two cases of rape in a week and crimes against women are on the increase in this part of the country, he said.

He said crimes against women have increased despite punitive regulations getting stricter.

It is so disheartening that culprits are left unpunished and unfortunately poorer sections of society and minors are prime targets of rape, all hands must be on deck to fight it, we are all stakeholders, Mr Saidu said.

While commissioning the centre, the wife of Adamawa State Governor, Maryam Jibrilla, decried the increasing incidences of rapes especially among teenagers.

Mrs Jibrilla advised parents to be careful over their female children as according to her, female children have become more vulnerable and exposed to sexual assault.

Also speaking, Mohammed Tabiu, the National Programme Manager of the Managing Conflicts in Nigeria (MCN) said one of the areas his agency covers is addressing the rising incidences of sexual and gender based violence in target states.

Adamawa Hope Centre is expected to address the huge gap in support services for victims of sexual assault by providing free and immediate emergency medical treatment, trauma counseling as well as legal advice where necessary.

The programme is also to enhance state and community level conflict management capacity into violence in the targeted states through free inter-related areas of work. MCN Programme is partnering with the Adamawa State ministries of Health, Justice and Women Affairs to provide care for the survivors and help them cope with the trauma, he said.

Mr Tabiu explained that the operations of the centre will not only be based on a victim-focused and non-judgemental approach which is critical for recovery of survivors but will also provide forensic medication examination service by trained doctors and nurses.

Meanwhile, the Attorney-General and Commissioner of Justice, Silas Sanga, said the centre is a one-stop facility to deal with all sexual abuses. He said the concept started with the state ministry of justice but there was no collaboration for effective implementation.

Mr Sanga advocated the punishment of a minimum of 21 years and a maximum of life imprisonment for offenders in rapes cases to serve as deterrent to others

The Commissioner of Health, Fatima Atiku, said the programme had come at a right time when rape cases are becoming rampant. She promised to assist the centre when called upon to do so.
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The State Security Service (SSS) said on Tuesday some notorious kidnapping and terrorism suspects were arrested in separate operations across the country last week.

The first amongst those taken into custody was Lawal Mohammed (a.k.a.: Buba) who had been a major financial and armourer of a suspected kidnapping syndicate in Kogi State. He was arrested on March 23 in Japama, Obajana Local Government Area (LGA).

The SSS said the Basalube gang had been involved in several abductions in Rivers, Edo, Delta, Kebbi, Zamfara, Kaduna, Kogi and even the Federal Capital Territory for years.

Three mobile phones and 25 bottles of drugs were recovered from the suspects, the SSS said in a statement circulated by PRNigeria, a public relations firm for security agencies.

The operation, which was carried out jointly with the military, also led to the arrest of two other suspected members of the Basalube syndicate, it said. They were identified as Mohammed Tukur and Abubakar Ibrahim.

Mr. Tukur was identified as the coordinator of surveillance operations in the syndicates areas of operation.

The SSS also said a suspected reconnaissance operative for the Boko Haram was arrested on March 24 outskirts of Wudil in Wudil LGA, Kano State.

The agency said Sanusi Bello, believed to be carrying out surveillance activities for the extremist group in the area, was arrested with several handsets, multiple identity cards including those of a police constable and neighbourhood vigilante member and N37,857.

On March 23, in Lower Afesere, Ughelli North LGA, Delta State, another suspected kidnapper and senior member of the Basalube, Ali Abubakar was also arrested as he was perfecting plans to carry out kidnap operations in Obajana, Kogi State, the SSS said.

The secret police said a follow-up operation ended with the arrest of Abubakareem Idrisa, Bshir Uban Dawaki Tsoho, Sanusi Abubakar, Nuhu Muhammad and Abubakar Abdulhameed.

In Niger State, the SSS arrested Abubakar Danlansu in Dikko community. He was named as a weapon courier for Basalube. The suspect was arrested en-route Edo State on March 26 while conveying weapons to Obajana, Kogi State for the gangs planned kidnap operations, the SSS said.

On March 23 at Skippers Fast Food, along Sani Abacha Expressway, Yenagoa, the SSS arrested Mathew Ekam for alleged complicity in the kidnap of Obianuju Onyema. The victim was abducted on March 12, 2018 and later released on March 18, the SSS said.

Mr. Ekam, 39, is a native of Ogoja, Cross River State and a driver of a heavy duty truck operating between Bayelsa and Rivers States, SSS said.

The agency said the arrests of these suspects hold major significance for law and order and safety of persons.

It is instructive to note that the activities of kidnappers and armed robbers on the Lokoja-Okene and Abuja-Kaduna corridors have relatively reduced as a result of sustained counter operations of the Service and sister security agencies, it said.

The SSS said the smashing and disruption of Basalube syndicate will ostensibly result in the complete elimination of violent and other allied crimes in those regions.

It appeals to citizens to continue to cooperate by providing information on suspicious activities anywhere theyre observed.
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Security operatives on Wednesday re-arrested Abdullahi Adamu, alias Dan-China, after a Jos Federal High Court granted him interim bail along with 15 Chinese nationals and eight others in a case of alleged illegal mining.

The federal government had arrested Dan-China and 24 others and charged them before the judge, Musa Kurya, on a four-count offence of illegal mining at Zurak in Wase Local Government Area of Plateau State

The government alleged that the accused persons had sometimes between 2015 and 2017, made some illegal mining activities and disposing of the minerals, thereby committing offences punishable under Miscellaneous Offences Act of Nigeria 2004.

The offences also punishable under the Nigeria Minerals and Mining Act, 2007.

When the case came up for mention on Wednesday before Mr Kurya, the prosecuting counsel, Ali Alilu, asked the court to read the charges for the accused to take their pleas.

When the charges were read to them, they all pleaded not guilty.

Mr Alilu and the lead defence counsel, Paul Erokoro, had argued over bail for the accused, quoting from different authorities to buttress their claims before the judge.

Justice Kurya, however, granted them interim bail in own recognizance of Mr Erokoro, whom he directed to produce them on the next adjourned date.

The first accused must deposit his international passports with the court as pre-condition for the interim bail since the international passport of the Chinese nationals are with the police.

The learned SAN is expected to produce all the accused persons in court on the next adjourned date. Failure to do so this case will not go on.

This interim bail is to enable this court to study the arguments proffered and documents of both counsel for me to rule on the bail application made by the defence counsel,  Kurya said.

The judge then adjourned the case to May 16 for ruling on the bail application.

But shortly after the judge rose and the bail conditions were met, heavily armed security operatives swooped on Dan-China and whisked him away, accompanied by three Hilux vans.

Addressing journalists shortly after the re-arrest, Mr Erokoro said the exercise was very crude and unfortunate in a democratic government.

(NAN)
A prosecution witness, Bassey Ekeng, on Wednesday narrated how series of debit transactions were made from the account of the Abia Government House in 2002.

The witness, who was subpoenaed for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), gave the evidence in the ongoing trial of Orji Kalu, former Abia governor before a Federal High Court in Lagos.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the EFCC had on October 31, 2016 preferred a 34-count charge bordering on N3.2 billion fraud against Mr Kalu and his former Commissioner for Finance, Ude Udeogo.

Also charged along with them is Mr Kalus company, Slok Nigeria Ltd.

The accused had pleaded not guilty to the charges and were granted bails.

When the trial resumed on Wednesday, the prosecutor, Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), called on the 13th witness, Omamurieme Ekeng, an Assistant Manager at Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC).

In his lead evidence, the witness told the court that he worked as a member of Claims Resolution in the NDIC, especially where banks are liquidated and their licences were withdrawn by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

When prompted by the prosecutor on whether he remembered the name, Hallmark Bank the witness told the court that he remembered it in liquidation.

Mr Jacobs: You were subpoena to produce documents before this court, can you list them?

Witness: I was subpoenaed to produce the statement of account of the Government House of Abia domiciled with the defunct Hallmark Bank.

He explained that it was the duty of the NDIC, as a liquidation outlet, for banks whose licences were withdrawn to get all details in relation to such banks and keep them in a warehouse.

On the manner of its operations, the witness told the court that the corporation employs the use of a database in a large computer that provides storage for the information.

He said the NDIC was able to extract information relating to Hallmark Bank, warehoused in its server.

According to him, on request from the EFCC, he called up details of the bank, printed the statement of account, and made same available to the commission.

Demonstrating evidence on the debit transactions from the said account, the witness told the court that on February 6, 2002, there were three debit transactions by one M. A. Udoh to the tune of N12.7 million, N3 million and N2.9 million respectively.

He said that on the same day, there was another debit transaction by Mr Udoh and U.D. Udeogo in the sums of N5.7 million and N6.9 million respectively.

He added that Mr Udoh also made a debit transaction of N40.3million on March 5, 2002.

The witness further told the court that on April 2, 2002, there was a debit transaction by Udoh to the tune of N41 million, while on April 3 and April 16, 2002, Udeogo made debit transactions of N16.3 million and N14.6 million respectively.

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According to him, on May 1, May 3, and May 30, 2002, there were also debit transactions by Udeogo for N7.7 million, N600,000 and N12.5 million respectively.

In the charge, the accused were alleged to have committed the offences between August 2001 and October 2005.

Mr Kalu was alleged to have utilised his company, Slok Nigeri Ltd, to retain in the account of a First Inland Bank, now FCMB, containing N200 million.

The sum is alleged to be part of funds illegally derived from the coffers of the Abia Government.

Slok and one Emeka Abone, who is said to be at large, were also alleged to have retained in the companys account on behalf of Kalu.

They were alleged to have utilised Manny Bank, Spring Bank Plc, the defunct Standard Trust Bank and Finland Bank.

Also, the accused allegedly retained about N2.5 billion in different accounts belonging to the Abia Government.

Cumulatively, in all the counts, the accused were alleged to have diverted over N3.2 billion from the state governments treasury during Kalus tenure as governor.

The offences contravened the provisions of sections 15(6), 16, and 21 of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2005, Money Laundering Act of 1995 as amended by the amendment Act No.9 of 2002 and Section 477 of the Criminal Code Act, Laws of the Federation, 1990.

Justice Muhammed Idris adjourned the case until March 29 for continuation of trial.

(NAN)
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The Enugu state police command has arrested a man, Tochukwu Chianugo, for allegedly killing and beheading a woman, Sussana Enejere.

The victim hailed from Ugbene Ajima in Uzouwani Local Government Area of Enugu state.

She had reportedly gone to farm on Tuesday but did not return home prompting neighbours to start a search for her.

They later reported the matter to the police which launched an investigation.

Police spokesman, Ebere Amaraizu, confirmed the incident.

He said the police after a painstaking investigation arrested Mr. Chianugo who reportedly confessed to killing the woman.

According to the spokesman, the suspect who hails from Ugwuoda village Nimbo was promptly nabbed in connection with the alleged incident.

Following his arrest, he took the operatives to the place where he had beheaded the victim, Mr. Amaraizu added.

Mr. Amaraizu said the headless body, together with the severed head have been recovered and deposited in a nearby mortuary.
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The Chief Judge of Lagos State, Opeyemi Oke, on Wednesday inaugurated a criminal justice sector committee to promote greater cooperation among major stakeholders towards a speedy delivery of Criminal Justice in the state.

The committee comprising stakeholders in the judiciary, Nigerian Police Force, Ministry of Justice, law enforcement agencies, and the Nigerian prison authorities would meet quarterly to review findings and recommendations from several smaller sub committees that are expected to meet monthly to deliberate on their various agendas.

I understand the committee has finalised the sentencing guidelines which will be signed today as practice directions for use by all courts in the state, Mrs. Oke said.

The guidelines will facilitate uniformity, equity and objectivity in sentencing in Lagos State.

The move came two days after the Corruption and Financial Crimes Cases Trial Monitoring Committee, set up by the National Judicial Council, met with 11 judges handling corruption cases at the Federal High Court in Lagos.

According to Mrs. Oke, the administration of criminal justice system cannot be achieved without the collaboration and cooperation of all stakeholders, particularly members of the committee.

Let me also inform you that a committee has been set up to proffer practice directions for the use of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law of Lagos State for the purpose of making the law more explicit for judges, magistrates, and the prosecutors, she continued.

The committee is enjoined to, in addition to interventions already in the pipeline, to evaluate initiatives such as adopting Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanism in criminal trials, increased use of plea bargaining to drastically reduce the number of inmates awaiting trial, front loading of evidence and restorative justice.

Each and every stakeholder here represented is critical to the achievement of a robust, efficient, and responsive criminal justice sector founded on integrity and upholding the rule of law.
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday in Abuja approved N20.8 billion for the rehabilitation of Ikorodu  Shagamu road and N4.2 billion for the procurement of aviation firefighting equipment.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, made the disclosure when he briefed State House correspondents alongside the Minister of State, Aviation, Hadi Sirika and Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, on the outcome of the councils meeting.

The meeting held at the Council Chamber of the Presidential Villa, was presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Mr Mohammed stated that the rehabilitation of the Ikorodu  Shagamu road when completed would reduce travel time and operating cost for transporters and commuters, enhance the movement of petroleum and agricultural products and also facilitate other commercial activities.

On behalf of Minister of Power, Works and Housing, l will also brief you that FEC approved the rehabilitation of Ikorodu  Shagamu road in Lagos State at the sum of N20, 845,336. 214.

The significance of the award of this contract is that it will reduce road accidents and loss of lives.

Of course, it will reduce travel time and operating cost for transporters and commuters, and more importantly, it will enhance the movement of petroleum and agricultural products and also facilitate other commercial activities.

If you remember, Mosinmi, the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) depot is along that line.

The Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika, said the aviation firefighting equipment would be installed at the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, Zaria, saying the equipment was critical for the aviation industry.

He explained that due to the absence of the equipment, Nigeria had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to train its personnel in neighbouring African countries.

Today, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) considered a memo from Ministry of Transportation (Aviation) and the purpose of that memo was to award contract for the design, manufacture and installation of fully automated Fire and Smoke Aircraft Training Simulator in Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, Zaria

The total contract sum is 4,233, 756,074.85 and the council graciously considered and approved the request.

This firefighting equipment is extremely very important because when we came into government in 2015 I found myself approving several hundreds of thousands of dollars for our firefighters to go into Cameroun and get train or get their proficiency training to come back and serve, he said.

The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, disclosed that the council equally approved the construction of the Faculty of Law structure at the University of Uyo in Akwa Ibom at N873 million.

The Ministry of Education today just presented a memo on the building of faculty of law structure in University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom and it has been approved. It will enable the university to house the faculty of law on it main campus and then provide office spaces.

Similarly the Ministry of State for Labour and Employment, Steven Ocheni, who presented the ministrys scorecard since November 2015 before the council, said thousands of youth have been trained by the National Directorate of Employment.

According to him, the ministry also succeeded in resolving numerous industrial actions in the period under review.

At the Council today, the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment presented its status report on the activities of the Ministry from 2015 to date.

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We looked at different regulations that have been put in place by this administration.

(We) now looked at the Employee Compensation Act, this is a committee that is ongoing and of course under a different regulation particularly the driving at work regulation jobs of up to about 15,000 unemployed Nigerians or graduates that likely to be employed if this regulation comes into effect.

The committee that works in the employee compensation act is about to round off and in a very short while the report of this committee will be made public.

Then we have the youth employment scheme under the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, this is anchored by the National Directorate of Employment where unemployed graduates are taught how to be self-sustaining not all about looking for white collar jobs.

For instance, each state of the federation is given an opportunity to have up to minimum of 2000 employment for unemployed graduates, he added.

(NAN)
End

--The Piano School of NYC is honored to announce their new partnership with The Co-op School in Brooklyn, NY. For the last 17 years, The Piano School has developed a reputation for offering excellence in music education to thousands of students in the greater New York area. This new agreement continues PSNYC's tradition of equipping students with not only music knowledge, but also life skills.The partnership between the Piano School of NYC and The Co-op School started on January 19, 2018. Two classes are held on Fridays from 4-5 P.M. as part of an after- school enrichment program at The Co-op School. Students are provided an excellent introduction to piano, while also having the unique experience to learn as a group.Erick Eiser, Brooklyn Manager for the Piano School of NYC states, "I think it's an amazing thing to be able to introduce music and more specifically the piano to young students. Music is such an integral part of happiness for so many people, to be able to play a role in teaching children how to create something that affects people so deeply is very rewarding."Amanda Rodriguez, program director for The Co-op School, mentions the benefits of partnering with the Piano School of NYC. "Having the Piano School of New York at our school has allowed our students the chance to establish a solid foundation in music theory. This musical introduction not only helps students learn to play the piano, but it also assists with their critical thinking, math, fine motor and listening skills. The small group setting has allowed our students to have one-on-one learning with the instructors as well as the experience of performing in front of a group. Overall, the PSNY classes have given our students the chance to learn and express themselves all while having fun!"The Piano School of NYC offers several group class programs to schools and organizations all over the Greater New York area. If you are interested in providing a small group piano class, please contact Vera Anselmo at vera@pianoschoolofnyc.org. The Piano School of NYC customizes its programming to fit the needs of individual organizations.
Jordan Wolff

Contact

Amy Maier

***@ffwpr.com Amy Maier

End

-- Kolesar & Leatham, one of Nevada's largest independent law firms, announces Jordan Wolff has joined the firm as a shareholder focusing on corporate law and commercial litigation.Wolff joins Kolesar & Leatham with more than eleven years of experience practicing law in New York and California as a corporate attorney and litigator in a variety of areas, including finance, intellectual property, compliance and employment law.With expertise representing clients in the financial services industry and large public companies in securities litigation, nationally and around the world, Wolff will support Kolesar & Leatham's corporate, regulatory and litigation groups."Jordan has a distinguished career and record of success as a corporate litigator, especially in financial matters," said Bob Kolesar, managing partner of Kolesar & Leatham. "He will be a valuable addition to our firm as we continue to provide our business clients with dedicated and experienced counsel."Wolff began his career as an associate in the New York office of Shearman & Sterling LLP, where his caseload included commercial litigation, internal investigations, and counseling clients on compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. He went on to serve as in-house counsel for a Fortune 100 company before returning to private practice in New York at Ellenoff Grossman & Schole LLP where he refocused his practice on the representation of private equity funds and their investors.Immediately prior to joining Kolesar & Leatham, Wolff was an attorney at one the most well-known boutique law firms in Sonoma County, California. At Geary, Shea, O'Donnell, Gratton & Mitchell, P.C., he developed the firm's employment law practice and handled a variety of civil litigation and corporate matters.Committed to public service, Wolff has assisted numerous pro bono organizations, including the Urban Justice Center in New York City, Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, and inMotion.He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in math from Washington & Lee University and his Juris Doctorate degree from the University of North Carolina School of Law."I am very excited to join such a prestigious firm with a deep connection to the local community," said Wolff. "I look forward to providing top quality legal representation to individuals and business in my new hometown of Las Vegas."Founded in 1986, Kolesar & Leatham ( http://www.klnevada.com/ ) is a full-service, business-based law firm practicing in the areas of banking, bankruptcy, real property, administrative law, business and corporate law, commercial litigation, gaming, construction law, civil litigation, insurance defense, environmental law, professional liability, government affairs, tax law and tax litigation, and trust, estate and fiduciary litigation. One of the largest independent law firms in Nevada, Kolesar & Leatham represents a variety of clients with business and corporate interests around the world at the local, national and international levels. For information, call 702-362-7800 or visit www.klnevada.com.
Boston-based Womenswear Line Launches Indiegogo Campaign to Create Sustainability in Haiti

By: I Am Kreyol

Contact

Quintessential Media

***@qmedia-pr.com Quintessential Media

End

-- High fashion womenswear label,(http://www.iamkreyol.com/), recently launched a crowdfunding campaign that embodies its core purposecreating a movement and giving back. Utilizing(https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/fashion-empowering-women-via-design-production-clothing?secret_perk_token=8613c779#/), the brand looks to raise $30,000 to not only produce the collection it recently showcased in London but to also start creating economic stability and sustainability in Haiti. Kreyol looks to begin production in April.Founded by, I Am Kreyol is a fashion brand dedicated to ALL WOMEN that was inspired by the Haitian cultural ideals of freedom, resilience and strength. The brand seeks to empower not only the women who wear the beautiful designs but also the women who help produce it. "My mother,, and I left a beautiful life in Haiti in the midst of political unrest in the late 80s when her fashion boutique was burned down. She lost everything and had to begin again," said Fontaine. "Over these past few years, we have been creating, with a goal to maximize and grow the I Am Kreyol fashion brand. Our mission is simple. We seek to empower women to change their narrative and create the life they envision. Our garments are made to enhance our customer's inner beauty and sense of confidence while impacting the lives of women back home. We are seeking to produce our garments in Haiti to work with skilled artisans to provide the opportunity for sustainable income and creativity in the workforce."I Am Kreyol has received recognition from top tier press includingas well as features on the 'Best of Boston' lists for(2016) and(2017).Kreyol is looking to produce Lotus, the capsule collection it showcased during London Fashion Week. Inspired by the beautiful flower with the penchant for growing in some of the harshest of environments, the Lotus collection illustrates a woman's tenacity to be strong, resilient and powerful even in the midst of adversity. The spring/summer collection features vibrant colors and distinct prints made of luxurious fabrics. Kreyol will be hosting a collection preview at the style-centric fashion boutique,, in New York's trendy SoHo neighborhood on April 7th. Brooklyn based Haitian songstressis slated to perform. To RSVP to the event, visit: https://goo.gl/ jdc3Uw To support the I Am Kreyol campaign and to see key pieces from the Lotus collection, visit their Indiegogo page at: https://goo.gl/ itik6a . To view and shop past collections, visit www.iamkreyol.com.I Am Kreyol is a woman's high fashion brand that represents ALL WOMEN: their Freedom, Resilience & Strength. We empower through beautiful designs that makes one feel unique, like a piece of art & through economic stability & sustainability for artisans in our homeland of Haiti. We believe that we are our sister's keeper & that through garment production, we can provide opportunity & exposure for skilled women workers to be able to live the life they desire. Kreyol has been featured in, andas well as on the 2017clothing designer 2016Best of Boston lists. To learn more about the fashion line, visit: www.iamkreyol.com.
TAMPA, Fla., March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ -- Join us for this exciting FREE COMMUNITY event the Cuban Sandwich Festival and contest, hosted by Latin Times Media, to find THE BEST CUBAN SANDWICHES IN THE WORLD!

Join us as we attempt to make "THE BIGGEST CUBAN SANDWICH IN THE WORLD!" this Saturday, March 31st 2018.

Enjoy beautiful Art Exhibits and LIVE cultural music on Stage featuring LIVE Music with award winning Orchestra INFINIDAD & Dance Performances featuring over 80 food, cultural and business vendors and exhibitors! We are also hosting the 2nd Annual Kids Cuban Showdown, in partnership with Junior Chefs of America, chefs between the ages of 5-17 compete to see WHO makes the BEST Cuban Sandwich!

Details: Saturday, March 31st, 2018

@ HCC  Ybor City: 1320 E. Palm, Tampa, FL (Across the street from the Cuban Club on Palm)

11 AM to 6 PM. Free to general public.

VIP Tickets: http://www.thecubansandwichfestival.com/vip-tickets.html

Watch World's Biggest Cuban Sandwich

https://youtu.be/Y21eta76URI?list=PLRcDndSqkD0VL5qlYQdOzOGpCu_SbTQVl

Event Flyer!

Kids Cuban Sandwich SHOWDOWN!

Listen Cuban Sandwich Theme Song: https://youtu.be/mIgWijaB2m0?list=PLRcDndSqkD0VL5qlYQdOzOGpCu_SbTQVl

Event Flyer:

The 7th Annual National Cuban Sandwich Festival is a weekend filled event!

Day 1 is: Saturday, March 31 st , 2018: HCC Ybor Campus  The Biggest Cuban Sandwich in the World!

, 2018: HCC Ybor Campus  The Biggest Cuban Sandwich in the World! Day 2 is: Sunday, April 1 st, 2018: "The BIG DAY" City2City Smackdown Ybor City + Cubanito Easter Egg Hunt

Event Sponsored by: Latin Times Media, Inc., HCC, FMCRC, City of Tampa, YCDC, Telemundo Tampa and more see our website more.

Want to Participate? Email [email protected] or call (813) 407-6866 / (813) 407-7191 or register online at: www.TheCubanSandwichFestival.com

This event also serves as a fund raiser: Each year, Latin Times Media, Inc., through its Cuban Sandwich Festival series of events feeds 400-800 homeless people throughout Florida by donating its Biggest Cuban Sandwiches in the world to homeless shelters.

Causes: Emberlynn Padilla: a 7 year-old miracle born with congenital diaphragmatic hernia.

New Beginnings of Tampa: Emergency Shelters and transitional living for homeless and vets.

SOURCE Latin Times Media

Related Links

http://www.latin-times.com


Abacode is one of the fastest growing full-service cybersecurity firms in the Americas and Europe. As a pure-play Managed Security Services Provider (MSSP), Abacode is very unique in that they truly deliver a one-stop-shop offering to small and mid-market businesses (SMBs). Organizations today cannot afford to take a fragmented approach to security and Abacode affords their clients a consolidated source for all of their cybersecurity purchasing needs. The firm provides organizations with a way to finally take control of their cybersecurity spend, and meet regulatory and compliance needs, all under one roof.

"We couldn't be happier about our partnership with AlienVault," commented Rolando Torres, Abacode co-founder and COO. "The AlienVault solution is absolutely best-in-class and their entire team feels like an extension of our own organization. The combination of AlienVault USM with our Abacode - Cyber Lorica Managed Threat solution is a key reason why our clients are having so much success," said Mr. Torres.

The AlienVault Partner Program enables leading VARs, system integrators, MSSPs and corporate resellers to sell and support AlienVault solutions and deliver compelling services powered by AlienVault USM in the global marketplace. With a strong focus on partner enablement, it is designed to help partners create new opportunities for business growth, expansion and profitability. "Our dynamic and rapidly expanding partner community is a critical part of our success as a company and AlienVault is committed to enabling and supporting the growth of our partners, based on their individual goals and objectives," said Mike LaPeters, vice president of global channels at AlienVault. "We are thrilled to be able to recognize the success achieved by Abacode  our 2017 Global Growth Partner of the Year."

About Abacode

Abacode is a Managed Security Services Provider (MSSP), solely focused on cybersecurity solutions for small and mid-market businesses. The firm helps clients address critical aspects of their cybersecurity strategy such as compliance, cost-controls and ongoing effectiveness of all cybersecurity initiatives. Abacode offers a full-suite of managed products and services and is one of the fastest growing cybersecurity firms in the Americas and Europe.

Abacode executives, including partner and white-hat ethical hacker Jeremy Rasmussen, regularly lead panel discussions and speak at global events such as Black Hat, DefCon, the International Economic Forum of the Americas and QubeWorld (an MRI company) in London.

Abacode is committed to helping their clients finally take control of their overall cybersecurity strategy and spend. The firm delivers its methodology through their compliance-focused core set of services aptly named Cyber S.M.A.R.T.; Self-Governance, Managed Threat Detection, Advanced Threat Response, Real-time Optimization and Training.

Abacode is headquartered in Tampa, Florida with offices in the Americas and Europe (London). Visit http://www.abacode.com, @Abacode_Cyber (Twitter), or contact us at [email protected].

About AlienVault

AlienVault has simplified the way organizations detect and respond to today's ever evolving threat landscape. Our unique and award-winning approach, trusted by thousands of customers, combines the essential security controls of our all-in-one platform, AlienVault Unified Security Management, with the power of AlienVault's Open Threat Exchange, the world's largest crowd-sourced threat intelligence community, making effective and affordable threat detection attainable for resource-constrained IT teams. AlienVault is a privately held company headquartered in Silicon Valley and backed by Trident Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Institutional Venture Partners, GGV Capital, Intel Capital, Jackson Square Ventures, Adara Venture Partners, Top Tier Capital and Correlation Ventures.

AlienVault, AlienApp, AlienApps, AlienVault OSSIM, Open Threat Exchange, OTX, Unified Security Management, USM, USM Anywhere, USM Appliance, and USM Central, are trademarks of AlienVault and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

CONTACT: Rolando Torres, [email protected]

SOURCE Abacode Cybersecurity

Related Links

http://www.abacode.com


NEW YORK, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- ALM Intelligence  Consulting division, previously known as Kennedy Consulting, has released its 2018 ratings of Strategic Risk consulting providers. Five firms were identified as leaders in the consulting industry: Crowe Horwath, Deloitte, KPMG, McKinsey & Company, and PwC.

"The challenge in risk management is not a lack of information, but instead getting the right data, and employing analytics capabilities and presenting it in a manner that draws out meaning from that data," said Naima Hoque Essing, Senior Research Analyst at ALM Intelligence. "Leading consultants use the process of aggregating risk data to improve, streamline and automate risk reporting by eliminating duplication, introducing the best technology and analytical solutions while embedding a standard taxonomy."

Providers that moved up to challenger status include: Accenture, EY, The Boston Consulting Group, Oliver Wyman, and Promontory. Other firms that were rated include: A.T. Kearney, Alvarez & Marsel, Bain & Company, Capgemini, FTI Consulting, Grant Thornton, IBM, Marsh Risk, Milliman, and RSM.

ALM's Vanguard research series assesses firms in terms of their relative ability to create impact for their clients. In addition to its overall rating assessments of consulting providers' depth and breadth of capabilities and best-in-class provider designations, this series includes detailed capability evaluations for each covered provider as well as a qualitative analysis of their consulting organization, approach, and service delivery model.

For more information or to obtain the full version of The ALM Vanguard: Strategic Risk Consulting, visit the ALM Intelligence website: www.alm.com/intelligence/consulting-industry

About ALM Intelligence

ALM Intelligence, a division of ALM Media LLC, supports legal, consulting, and benefits decision-makers seeking guidance on critical business challenges. Our proprietary market reports and analysis, rating guides, prospecting tools, surveys, and rankings, inform and empower business leaders to meet business challenges with confidence. Please visit www.alm.com/intelligence for more information.

Contact Information:

Rachael Wolensky

[email protected]

SOURCE ALM Intelligence
ROHNERT PARK, Calif., March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- While recovery since the recession has made significant strides in some areas of the economy, wages for many workers have made only modest gains. A recent Bloomberg article details how wages, especially for young adults who are newer in the workplace, lag far behind growing student debt. While this larger issue of wage growth remains, a stop-gap measure for federal student loan borrowers could lie in repayment options like income-driven repayment. Ameritech Financial, a document preparation company that specializes in aligning student loan borrowers with federal programs that may lower their loan payments and applying for such programs, encourages borrowers to explore repayment options.

"If wages are falling behind the cost of college, and subsequently the amount of student debt, it's easy to see how student loan repayment can become a huge issue for borrowers," said Tom Knickerbocker, Executive Vice President of Ameritech Financial.

Because of lower wages, data shows that student loan borrowers who graduated between 2012 and 2017 are spending around 15 percent of their income every month on their student loan payments. Meanwhile, income-driven repayment plans available to federal student loan borrowers usually set monthly payments between 10 and 20 percent of a borrower's discretionary income, which is the difference between one's annual income and 150 percent of the poverty guideline for the borrower's family size and state of residence.

Income-driven repayment plans require an application to enter into a plan and yearly recertification if a borrower wants to stay. Ameritech Financial is a private, independent company which assists borrowers to choose an appropriate plan, apply for the plan, and recertify it when necessary. Ameritech's service might be useful to federal student loan borrowers who are struggling with their student loan payments and don't know how to move forward in applying for a change in their repayment plan.

"Ameritech Financial takes the guesswork out of the applications for these repayment plans that are so helpful to so many borrowers," said Knickerbocker. "No matter which route they go, we encourage borrowers whose income is being stretched to cover student loan payments to seek out their options so that every month isn't a scramble."

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


ROHNERT PARK, Calif., March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Some recent statistics about the prevalence of defaulting on federal student loans makes it sound quick and easy. However, borrowers may confuse delinquency and default. Delinquency means that a borrower is even just one day late on a payment. Federal loans are not considered to be in default until payments have not been made for at least 270 days  that's roughly nine months. Ameritech Financial, a document preparation company that assists with federal repayment plan applications, urges borrowers to take action if they are on track to default on their federal student loans.

"Falling behind on payments for federal student loans can impact credit in ways that can prevent borrowers from taking out credit for things like a car or a house," said Tom Knickerbocker, executive vice president of Ameritech Financial. "But when payments are unmanageable, borrowers may feel that default is inevitable. I'm here to remind them that it is not."

Recent reports have described that default has more to do with institutions and student characteristics than levels of debt. For example, students who attended for-profit institutions and those who are black are more likely to default on their loans than their peers. Additionally, the report predicted that default rates will worsen as repayment progresses: for the 2004 entry cohort, it is expected that nearly 40 percent will default by the year 2023.

However, even for those who may be at risk of defaulting, whether they represent the groups that default at higher rates or not, there are federal options geared towards preventing default. Short-term solutions may be to enter into deferment or forbearance. However, borrowers considering these options should know that interest may still accrue during those delays and once the loans re-enter repayment, that interest will capitalize and may increase the monthly payments.

Long-term solutions for those who cannot afford their payments include the various income-driven repayment plans (IDRs). Such programs calculate payments as a percentage of discretionary income, which uses income and family size, and may end in forgiveness after 20 to 25 years, as long as the borrower remains in the program for the full term. Borrowers should be aware that whenever they switch to a different repayment plan, any accrued interest will capitalize. Ameritech Financial helps borrowers understand and apply for such plans by helping clients gather documents and fill out the appropriate paperwork to send to their loan servicer.

Federal borrowers who have already defaulted must take action to get out of default before they can take advantage of the aforementioned options for managing their loans. They can either pursue a default rehab program through the Department of Education or take a consolidation route. Each option has its own pros and cons and should be thoroughly considered before choosing one.

"Delinquency and default are bad, but they are not inevitable and they are not unmanageable," said Knickerbocker. "At Ameritech Financial, we speak to borrowers who are in varying degrees of delinquency and help them get on a path to successful repayment through IDRs."

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
ANA, ANA HOLDINGS' flagship carrier and largest airline in Japan, which currently operates about 260 commercial airplanes throughout the world, will introduce current business jet users and its commercial flight customers to the HondaJet by maximizing the utilization of the aircraft. ANA will use the HondaJet for its charter and feeder flights connecting them to the existing broad network at major travel hubs in North America and Europe.

Honda Aircraft will support various aspects of ANA's feeder and charter flights, including working with global charter operators to provide exceptional coverage for ANA's customers and establishing a framework for ground support functions at a variety of ANA's transit locations.

"I am delighted that ANA has chosen the HondaJet to support their arranged feeder and charter flight operations," said Honda Aircraft President and CEO Michimasa Fujino. "I am confident the HondaJet will meet and exceed their customers' expectations with its unrivaled speed, efficiency, luxurious features and comfort. I'm looking forward to expanding the business jet market through the use of the HondaJet by ANA."

ANA HOLDINGS INC. President and CEO, Shinya Katanozaka commented, "Through this strategic partnership and use of the HondaJet, ANA will create new demand to utilize business jets, in particular for travelers of various Japanese entities who value convenience and privacy in their overseas travel."

Honda Aircraft has established a worldwide dealer and authorized sales network to provide unsurpassed service and support for HondaJet customers. The HondaJet authorized network spans territories in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia.

ANA will continue to create premium value by introducing products and services that provide world class experiences to its valued customers.

About ANA

Following the "Inspiration of Japan" high quality of service, ANA has been awarded the respected 5-Star rating from SKYTRAX for six consecutive years starting in 2013. Additionally, ANA has been recognized by Air Transport World as "Airline of the Year" three times in the past 10 years - 2007, 2013 and 2018, becoming one of the few airlines winning this prestigious award for multiple times.

ANA was founded in 1952 with two helicopters and has become the largest airline in Japan, as well as one of the most significant airlines in Asia, operating 85 international routes and 116 domestic routes. ANA offers a unique dual hub model which enables passengers to travel to Tokyo and connect through the two airports in the metropolitan Tokyo, NARITA and HANEDA, to various destinations throughout Japan, and also offers same day connections between various North American, Asian and Chinese cities.

ANA has been a member of Star Alliance since 1999 and has joint venture partnerships with United Airlines, Lufthansa German Airlines, Swiss International Airlines and Austrian Airlines.

Besides the full service and award winner carrier ANA, the ANA Group has two LCCs as consolidated subsidiaries, Vanilla Air Inc. and Peach Aviation Limited. The ANA Group carried 52.1 million passengers in FY2016, has approximately 39,000 employees and a fleet of 260 aircraft. ANA is a proud launch customer and the biggest operator of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

About HondaJet

The HondaJet is the fastest, highest-flying, quietest, and most fuel-efficient jet in its class. The HondaJet incorporates many technological innovations in aviation design, including the unique Over-The-Wing Engine Mount (OTWEM) configuration that dramatically improves performance and fuel efficiency by reducing aerodynamic drag. The OTWEM design also reduces cabin noise, minimizes ground-detected noise, and allows for the roomiest cabin in its class, the largest baggage capacity, and a fully serviceable private aft lavatory. The HondaJet is equipped with the most sophisticated glass flight deck available in any light business jet, a Honda-customized Garmin G3000. The HondaJet is Honda's first commercial aircraft and lives up to the company's reputation for superior performance, efficiency, quality and value.

About Honda Aircraft Company

Honda Aircraft Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of American Honda Motor Co., Inc. Founded in 2006, Honda Aircraft's world headquarters is located in North Carolina, the birthplace of aviation. The challenging spirit upon which Mr. Soichiro Honda founded Honda Motor Co., Ltd. is alive today as Honda Aircraft fulfills one of Honda's longstanding dreams to advance human mobility skyward.

CONTACT: http://www.hondajet.com

SOURCE Honda Aircraft Company

Related Links

http://www.hondajet.com


SACRAMENTO, Calif., March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Riskalyze today announced the agenda and speakers for the company's 2018 Fearless Investing Summit, taking place October 17 through 19 at the San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter in San Antonio, Texas. Now in its second year, the three-day event will bring together more than 500 attendees, feature 41 keynote speakers covering timely industry topics, and new this year, continuing education credits will be available for advisors.

Industry leaders will share insights and knowledge on current industry movements, lessons learned about entrepreneurship and investing, marketing in today's digital environment, and financial advisor trends. This year's featured keynote speakers include:

Anthony Scaramucci , American financier, entrepreneur, and political figure. Perhaps best-known for his tenure as White House Communications Director, Scaramucci will lead an honest session on the lessons learned from his years at the top of the global financial industry, how he applies those lessons to investing and entrepreneurship, and what he plans to do next.

, American financier, entrepreneur, and political figure. Perhaps best-known for his tenure as White House Communications Director, Scaramucci will lead an honest session on the lessons learned from his years at the top of the global financial industry, how he applies those lessons to investing and entrepreneurship, and what he plans to do next. Dick Vitale , one of America's most beloved sports personalities and college basketball's top analyst and ambassador, will share his secrets for tackling the problems of life head-on, and particularly how to achieve individual and organizational goals by applying lessons from the sports world.

, one of America's most beloved sports personalities and college basketball's top analyst and ambassador, will share his secrets for tackling the problems of life head-on, and particularly how to achieve individual and organizational goals by applying lessons from the sports world. Josh Brown , author, media personality, and CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management, Brown will focus his discussion on helping people invest and managing portfolios, along the backdrop interesting on the history of Wall Street noting current industry trends and investment methodology.

, author, media personality, and CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management, Brown will focus his discussion on helping people invest and managing portfolios, along the backdrop interesting on the history of Wall Street noting current industry trends and investment methodology. Megan Carpenter , co-founder and CEO of FiComm Partners, will discuss how her entire professional career has been driven by her deep and sincere passion for the independent financial advisory space. Megan will provide advisors on how to best utilize marketing and public relations tactics for their firm.

, co-founder and CEO of FiComm Partners, will discuss how her entire professional career has been driven by her deep and sincere passion for the independent financial advisory space. Megan will provide advisors on how to best utilize marketing and public relations tactics for their firm. Dr. Daniel Crosby , a 2017 Summit favorite and back by popular demand, Dr. Crosby will be speaking from his upcoming book, The Behavioral Investor , and discussing how advisors can continue to utilize behavioral finance with clients.

, a 2017 Summit favorite and back by popular demand, Dr. Crosby will be speaking from his upcoming book, , and discussing how advisors can continue to utilize behavioral finance with clients. Jim Bowen , another 2017 Summit favorite, CEO of First Trust Portfolios L.P. and its affiliate, First Trust Advisors L.P., Bowen will focus on the truth behind the spin and the advancements being brought about by entrepreneurs and risk takers around the globe.

"We are thrilled to welcome such a high caliber cohort of speakers this year. Their entrepreneurial spirit and industry knowledge make this an incredible learning and networking opportunity for all attendees," said Aaron Klein, CEO and co-founder of Riskalyze. "Each presenter will bring so much value to the attendees, and Riskalyze is incredibly honored to connect such a talented and accomplished group of people  they truly set the bar for our industry."

In addition to the speakers, Riskalyze again will feature premier events for attendees to network and unwind after a full day of sessions. This year's events include the following:

The Redtail & Riskalyze Rodeo: Redtail Technology and Riskalyze have partnered to reserve a 1000-acre ranch for the opening night reception in the Texas hill country. Featuring a professional rodeo, armadillo races, fireworks show, and a southern BBQ dinner prepared by regional chefs.

Redtail Technology and Riskalyze have partnered to reserve a 1000-acre ranch for the opening night reception in the hill country. Featuring a professional rodeo, armadillo races, fireworks show, and a southern BBQ dinner prepared by regional chefs. A Night of Comedy with Nate Bargatze : As seen on Netflix, The Tonight Show, and Comedy Central, Nate Bargatze will perform his standup routine during the final evening of the Summit.

As a preview of what to expect, Riskalyze has released the official Fearless Investing Summit 2018 trailer which can be viewed here: https://bit.ly/2GcUE2o. Additional information and registration is available online now by visiting fi2018.com.

About Riskalyze

Riskalyze is the company that invented the Risk Number, which powers the world's first Risk Alignment Platform, empowers advisors to automate client accounts with Autopilot, delivers the first risk-centric 401K experience with Riskalyze Retirement Solutions, and enables enterprises to develop real-time visibility, increase revenue, spot issues and navigate changing fiduciary rules with Compliance Cloud. Advisors, broker-dealers, RIAs, asset managers, custodians and clearing firms use the Riskalyze platform to empower the world to invest fearlessly. To learn more, visit riskalyze.com.

SOURCE Riskalyze

Related Links

http://www.riskalyze.com


The DE3450 series features fanless media players that are easy to manage and monitor from anywhere - reducing operating costs and boosting efficiency for enterprise end users. While its Watchdog Timer detects and recovers from any malfunctions, its shock-proof capabilities effectively resist environmental stresses - offering security, reliability, and durability. Built on the Intel Apollo Lake Quad Core CPU, with Intel Graphics HD500, the DE3450 series powers interactive self-service kiosk solutions, as well as single-screen and multi-screen display applications. The series supports M.2 SSD, and both products feature four USB 3.0 ports, one HDMI 2.0 port, and one RS232 port; it also continues to distinguish AOPEN with auto power recovery (APAR) and support for Microsoft Windows 7/8.1/10 and Linux.

The DE3450s is a cost-effective, reliable UHD media player built to play 24/7. With an ultra slim design that can be integrated into small spaces, the DE3450s is the affordable choice for digital signage, kiosk, and enterprise solutions.

The DE3450 features an additional 10-GbE port, remote diagnostic capabilities, and TPM security. It supports VP9 video playback and can run a 1080p display @60fps and a 4K display @30fps. With the device control feature, the SuperRTC tool enables users to set advanced content schedules for different times of day, while the EDID Emulator prevents resolution issues and black screens. Additional features include:

System data record.

HDMI signal detection.

An optional IR remote controller

Hardware-based control and recovery

Peripheral support

"AOPEN works closely with its partners and customers to stay ahead of market needs," says Aaron Pompey, AOPEN America General Manager, "Our customers rely on AOPEN as the leading provider of commercial-grade, cross-platform products. With this next-gen DE3450 series, AOPEN introduces advanced capabilities into its expanding, innovative portfolio."

Founded in 1996, AOPEN is a major global electronics manufacturer and thought leader in digital signage, specializing in cross-platform, ultra-small form factor computing in both Windows and Chrome devices. AOPEN works with a wide range of partners - from hardware to software and services. Through these partnerships, AOPEN creates advanced digital display solutions for many of the world's top brands. Part of the ACER group, AOPEN has a presence in over 100 countries.

SOURCE AOPEN

Related Links

http://www.aopen.com


For all this, Thorne will be awarded the 2018 Lewis Thomas Prize for Writing about Science, which honors scientists as inspirational authors. He will receive the award Tuesday, April 17, 2018, at a free, public event on The Rockefeller University campus. A reception will begin at 5:30 p.m., followed by the prize presentation and a lecture at 6:30 p.m.

In his 1994 book, Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy, Thorne introduces an array of bizarre relativistic concepts, including wormholes, which are theorized to connect distant regions of the universe, and black holes, with such strong gravitational effects that not even light can escape them. By interspersing tales of scientists in their historical context with intuitively challenging concepts, he keeps readers engaged and explains how researchers uncover knowledge and how ideas change.

As scientific advisor for the 2014 movie Interstellar, Thorne shared aspects of Einstein's cosmos with tens of millions of people. He and the filmmakers committed themselves to honoring the real mathematics of general relativity in their work, weaving physical theories into the story in an emotionally and intellectually compelling way. Thorne's follow-up book, The Science of Interstellar, explains the incredible laws of the universe that informed their filmmaking.

"The Lewis Thomas Prize honors the 'scientist as poet,' and there is something viscerally poetic in all of Thorne's workwhether sharing the sounds of black holes colliding for the first time or searching the curvature of spacetime," says Jesse Ausubel, chair of the selection committee, which includes both scientists and writers. Thorne was selected for the Lewis Thomas Prize before being awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics for proving the presence of gravitational waves through the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory project.

Born in Logan, Utah, Thorne made a fateful visit to a bookstore when he was 13 years old. There, he found George Gamow's science book for the general public, One, Two, ThreeInfinity. Thorne read it repeatedly. After the third time, he decided to become a physicistattending California Institute of Technology as an undergraduate and Princeton for his Ph.D. Thorne is currently the Feynman Professor Emeritus of Theoretical Physics at the California Institute of Technology.

Recent recipients of the Lewis Thomas Prize include oceanographer Sylvia Earle, physiologist Frances Ashcroft, surgeon Atul Gawande, mathematicians Steven Strogatz and Ian Stewart, and evolutionary biologist Sean B. Carroll.

Those interested in registering to attend this year's event can visit https://www.rockefeller.edu/lewis-thomas-prize/.

About The Rockefeller University

The Rockefeller University is the world's leading biomedical research university and is dedicated to conducting innovative, high-quality research to improve the understanding of life for the benefit of humanity. Our 82 laboratories conduct research in neuroscience, immunology, biochemistry, genomics, and many other areas, and a community of 1,800 faculty, students, postdocs, technicians, clinicians, and administrative personnel work on our 14-acre Manhattan campus. Our unique approach to science has led to some of the world's most revolutionary and transformative contributions to biology and medicine. During Rockefeller's 117-year history, 25 of our scientists have won Nobel Prizes, 22 have won Albert Lasker Medical Research Awards, and 20 have garnered the National Medal of Science, the highest science award given by the United States.

Media contact

Katherine Fenz, Media Relations Manager

212-327-7913

[email protected]

SOURCE The Rockefeller University

Related Links

http://www.rockefeller.edu


Now in 15 locations across the U.S. and in the United Kingdom, Friends of the Children's innovative social change model has gained national recognition and is quickly expanding across the country. The organization pairs children facing the highest risks with a salaried, professional mentor, called a Friend, from kindergarten through high school graduation12  years, no matter what.

"This is the rarest of stories," Waterston says as he introduces Friends of the Children in the documentary, which was selected from hundreds of applicants. "On the surface it seems so simple. And then there is a twist. A little change of perspective. Then it hits you. This could change the world."

Filmed in Portland, Ore. and Seattle, the episode takes viewers through the founding of the organization 25 years ago to current day and features stories of Portland and Seattle program graduates whose life trajectories changed significantly because of their Friend. Friends of the Children will host a Facebook LIVE watch party of the episode on Wednesday, April 11 followed by a Q&A with Friends President Terri Sorensen.

Friends Founder Duncan Campbell, a successful Oregon timberland investor, entrepreneur and social innovator, launched Friends of the Children 25 years ago with the premise that he wanted to give other youth a happier and safer childhood than he had.

"When I was living here, I was neglected and left alone," Campbell recalls in the documentary as he drives through his old neighborhood in inner Northeast Portland. "The name 'Friends of the Children' goes back to my childhood. I didn't have family support. I was always over at my friends' houses and it was my friends' parents who nurtured me."

Counteracting childhood trauma

Friends of the Children's evidence-based model has been hailed as an innovative early intervention and prevention solution that moves families, and particularly youth in foster care, out of poverty, and counteracts the long-term, devastating effects of childhood trauma, also referred to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs).

The combination of the long-term commitment, the salaried, professional mentor approach, and 25 years of evidence-based outcomes has set the organization apart from other more traditional mentoring organizations and programs. Evaluations on youth who complete the Friends of the Children program show that:

83% graduate from high school, although 60% had parents who did not graduate high school

93% avoid the juvenile justice system, although 50% had parents who were incarcerated

98% avoid early parenting, although 85% were born to a teen parent

"We know that the longer the commitment, the stronger the relationship and the larger the impact on a child," says David Shapiro, Friends of the Children board member and CEO of MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership, who is also featured in the documentary. "Friends has captured the importance of a mentoring model that is specifically designed in direct proportion to the level of risk for the child."

25 cities by 2025

In the past year, Friends of the Children has gained nationwide recognition with the ambitious goal of expanding to 25 cities by 2025. Currently in 15 locations across the U.S. and the United Kingdom, Friends launched six new sites in the last 18 months. They are also planning to launch four chapters in the next year in Cincinnati, Detroit, Washington, D.C., and Vancouver, Wash.

Their work in the social innovation space has caught the attention of corporate, nonprofit, and foundation leaders across the country, including Ballmer Group, King Philanthropies, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, AT&T, Stand Together, Cambia Health Foundation and Results for America.

"We feel a special kinship with Friends because our company CEO Mark Ganz, like Duncan Campbell, is a visionary. Cambia Health Foundation supports Friends of the Children because we've seen firsthand how powerful the work to transform lives has been in Portland and we want more children across the country to have this support to improve the overall health and well-being of communities," said Peggy Maguire, immediate past national board chair of Friends of the Children and president of the Cambia Health Foundation, which generously supported the documentary.

Viewers interested in watching The Visionaries online or on TV can go to friendsofthechildren.org/visionaries. Distributed through an ACCESS Offer through National Educational Telecommunications Association, The Visionaries is airing on PBS stations across the country beginning March 24, 2018. PBS affiliate WGBY in Springfield, MA, is the presenting station.

MEDIA RESOURCES

Media toolkit: friendsofthechildren.org/visionaries

The Visionaries media player: http://www.visionaries.org/fotc.html

Chronicle of Social Change: Paid Mentors, Big Plans

Governing Magazine: This may be the key to graduating at-risk youth

FOX Sports: Russell Wilson and Ciara visit Friends of the Children

CONTACT

Ariane Le Chevallier

[email protected]

971.201.1214

SOURCE Friends of the Children

Related Links

https://www.friendsofthechildren.org


NEW YORK, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Blis, the global pioneer in advanced location data technology, today announced the launch of new research and an informative report entitled Unlocking the New Consumer Hierarchy of Needs. The research, conducted in February 2018, identifies a new, post-recession 'Conscious Consumer' and shares data-informed insights and recommendations about how to build loyalty with them.

Characterized by a no-nonsense relationship with brands, the 'Conscious Consumer' has a sophisticated understanding of their value to the brands with which they engage and take a more active role as a result. Over half (55%) report a 'one strike and you're out' rule and almost three quarters (69%) can be swayed by a well-timed price drop, personal coupon or product ad all the way to the checkout. Quick to judge and slow to forgive, they are motivated by the rational over the emotional when making purchasing decisions - a third of consumers will switch to a cheaper product if it's of comparable quality, regardless of brand loyalty.

"The retail landscape over the past decade has been turned on its head and the retailers who are thriving have adapted to these changes quickly. They understand that what was true of pre-2008 consumers is no longer so and have thrown out the old retail playbook," says Gil Larsen, VP Americas at Blis. "Our study examines consumer research married with our own location-based data to construct a new framework for retail brands who aren't clear on how best to foster a relationship with this new Conscious Consumer."

The Conscious Consumer has a much clearer sense of their value to brands -- from personal data and peer influence to financial import--with 65% willing to share data only if it provides them tangible benefits such as money saving or exclusive access. Combined with the wealth of information they are now used to having at their fingertips, the conclusion is that brands have to work much harder not just to earn their attention, but also to keep and convert it into sales.

"For those able to navigate the new rules, there are a number of positive takeaways," says Larsen. "Not least the fact that, while they research and compare on larger financial investments, these new consumers are spontaneous when it comes to lower cost, in-the-moment buys. Almost three quarters (83%) spend up to $50 per week this way, while the remaining 17% admit to spending $50+ on ad hoc items. This represents a significant amount of revenue on the table for brands that get it right."

With brands still coming to terms with the new retail landscape--as seen by the multitude of store closures--the research paper provides clarity for what these new Conscious Consumers want and offer guidance on how brands can best interact with them, especially through the use of location insights.



Visit blis.com for more information on location-based tactics, or download New Consumer Hierarchy of Needs here to learn about the new playbook for retail marketers to navigate the rise of the 'Conscious Consumer.'

*Blis conducted market research through AYTM, surveying 2000 consumers across the United States at every socio-economic level, to uncover shopper preferences and how they like to best interact with brands, creating a new hierarchy of needs for brands to address.

About Blis

Blis is the global pioneer in location data. Our proprietary technology and platform helps agencies and brands use location data to better understand consumer behavior, allowing for effective targeted advertising to drive business outcomes. We believe that where you go defines who you are, and advertisers must capitalize on these insights for meaningful marketing experiences across devices. Our technology filters and scales location data, giving advertisers access to the most accurate location events, location data, and unique devices. The data is then applied across the apps that matter most to their consumers for targeting based on rich insights. Clients are supported by our location experts or can work in an agnostic service model of their choice. Since creating the world's first location data technology platform in 2004, Blis has grown to be a global company with 17 offices across 5 continents. Blis' clients include all major holding companies as well as leading brands in top verticals including Samsung, McDonald's, HSBC, Mercedes Benz and Peugeot.



Contact information

Jamie Crespi

VP Marketing, Blis

[email protected]

SOURCE Blis

Related Links

http://www.blis.com


ARLINGTON, Va., March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Bloomberg Tax and Grant Thornton LLP today announced that they are cohosting an executive-level workshop  Future Ready Business: Operating in a Changing Landscape  that will bring together business leaders to examine the most pressing tax issues impacting the Atlanta economy. The event takes place from 4 to 6 p.m. on Tuesday, April 17 at Atlanta's Mandarin Oriental hotel. For additional event information and to request an invitation, please visit https://www.bna.com/atlantaexecutiveworkshop.

Raphael Bostic, president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, will provide an outlook on the current of state of the economy and key indicators to gauge the region's business climate. The workshop will also feature Atlanta business and finance leaders discussing the implications of the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act of 2017 for corporations and how the current economic climate will impact Atlanta's real estate and jobs markets.

"Atlanta's top business executives and policy experts will provide attendees insights and analysis surrounding the issues that will shape Atlanta's economy in the year ahead," said Darren McKewen, president, Bloomberg Tax. "Corporations that don't want to get caught off guard as Capitol Hill and the administration usher in a slew of new laws and regulations affecting business will find this workshop to be of tremendous value."

"The new tax legislation has transformed almost everything about business operations and tax planning. Companies are racing to calculate the tax impact of these changes for their financial statements," said Jim Brady, chief operating officer of Grant Thornton. "This workshop will provide Atlanta-based executives insight into opportunities created by tax reform."

Confirmed workshop speakers include:

Art Beattie , executive vice president and chief financial officer, Southern Company

, executive vice president and chief financial officer, Southern Company Raphael Bostic , president and chief executive officer, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta

, president and chief executive officer, Federal Reserve Bank of Jim Brady , chief operating officer, Grant Thornton

, chief operating officer, Thomas J. Cunningham , chief economist, Metro Atlanta Chamber

, chief economist, Metro Atlanta Chamber Christopher Marinac , director of Research, FIG Partners

, director of Research, FIG Partners David Sites , partner, International Tax Services, Grant Thornton

, partner, International Tax Services, Mark Vitner , managing director and senior economist, Wells Fargo

The workshop is part of Future Ready Business: Washington Impact, a programming series presented by Bloomberg Tax and Grant Thornton to help organizations understand and prepare for sweeping tax and regulatory policy changes. With hundreds of reporters and editors tracking the Washington policy process, Bloomberg Tax covers every detail that matters to your business and provides the in-depth analysis that helps you understand the implications. And with nearly 100 years of business advice, Grant Thornton LLP is your partner for converting insights into strategy and advantage.

About Bloomberg Tax

Bloomberg Tax provides comprehensive global research, news and technology services enabling tax professionals to get the timely, accurate, and in-depth information they need to plan and comply with confidence. Our flagship Bloomberg Tax platform combines the proven expertise and perspectives of leading tax practitioners in our renowned Tax Management PortfoliosTM with integrated news from the industry-leading Daily Tax Report, authoritative analysis and insights, primary sources, and time-saving practice tools. Bloomberg Tax technology solutions on our proprietary Advantage platform help practitioners simplify complex processes to better control risk and maximize profitability. For more information, visit https://www.bna.com/tax/.

About Grant Thornton LLP

Founded in Chicago in 1924, Grant Thornton LLP (Grant Thornton) is the U.S. member firm of Grant Thornton International Ltd, one of the world's leading organizations of independent audit, tax and advisory firms. Grant Thornton, which has revenues in excess of $1.7 billion and operates 59 offices, works with a broad range of dynamic publicly and privately held companies, government agencies, financial institutions, and civic and religious organizations.

"Grant Thornton" refers to Grant Thornton LLP, the U.S. member firm of Grant Thornton International Ltd (GTIL). GTIL and the member firms are not a worldwide partnership. Services are delivered by the member firms. GTIL and its member firms are not agents of, and do not obligate, one another and are not liable for one another's acts or omissions. Please see grantthornton.com for further details.

SOURCE Bloomberg Tax; Grant Thornton LLP

Related Links

https://www.bna.com/tax/


FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- With Broward Health facing a growing demand for experienced nurses and top healthcare system managers, the Broward Health Board of Commissioners today took multiple steps to attract and retain top talent based upon fair market valuations.

The Board reviewed wages and bonuses paid by competitive healthcare systems. According to a report by Aon, a risk, retirement and health consulting firm, 88 percent of healthcare organizations with greater than $1 billion net revenue have annual incentive plans for leaders.

The Board also took into consideration the strong economy in Broward County, making acquisition of top talent more challenging. As a result, the Board determined an investment in the workforce through new pay structures and benefits would increase employee satisfaction and loyalty while further enabling recruitment and retention of desirable candidates.

Nurses Salaries Adjusted to Align with Industry Standard

At the Human Resources Committee and Board meetings held today, Commissioners solidified plans to increase salaries for 950 registered nurses. The Board voted to increase hourly pay rates by an average of five percent, depending on the length of service. The increase brings Broward Health salaries in line with those paid by major public healthcare systems in other parts of South Florida.

"Our research shows it costs Broward Health nearly $70,000 to find and train replacements for departing nurses in some areas of specialization," said Peter Nyamora, executive vice president and chief human resources officer. "Broward Health must pay competitive salaries to minimize these hefty replacement and training costs."

Annual Incentive Plan Instituted for Broward Health Managers

Citing a compensation study by Sullivan, Cotter & Associates Sullivan  an independent consulting firm specializing in executive, physician and employee compensation in the healthcare industry  that shows 83 percent of healthcare organizations with annual incentive plans for executives and/or managers use performance triggers to incentivize performance and determine payout, the Broward Health Board of Commissioners also voted today to institute an annual incentive plan. The plan will affect nearly 300 managers at Broward Health, 30 percent of whom are nurse leaders. This is similar to a plan that has existed at Broward Health since 2004.

Gain share amounts will be determined by supervisors based on a manager's contributions to Broward Health's quality of care, patient safety, people and service, incentivizing leadership to further improve the patient experience. System-wide budget achievements will determine eligibility.

Calling the incentive plan "a market standard," Broward Health Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Alan Goldsmith said, "Broward Health budget surpluses are to be reinvested back into the system to reduce the burden on taxpayers while improving Broward Health infrastructure, which includes recruitment and retention of talented management crucial to Broward Health's mission and success."

Goldsmith also said the interim incentive plan capped at 17.5 percent may result in gain shares paid to executives and managers at the end of the current fiscal year.

President/CEO Compensation Set

Commissioners also formalized the salary and bonus plan for Broward Health President/CEO Beverly Capasso, who was named the organization's permanent President/CEO at the January Board meeting. Capasso will be paid $750,000 and be eligible for a 30 percent bonus if the system hits measurable targets and budget achievements. An additional 20 percent bonus will be part of the compensation package based on adherence to a Corporate Integrity Agreement between Broward Health and the U.S. Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services.

This compensation package was based on a remuneration review by Aon of health systems across the U.S. with revenues at approximately $1.2 billion. Capasso's salary fell slightly above the market 25th percentile.

By comparison, in 2015 and 2016, Jackson Health CEO Carlos Migoya was paid a combination of salary and bonuses totaling $1.05 million, according to a Miami Herald report based on information provided by a Jackson Health System spokesperson. Memorial Healthcare System CEO Aurelio Fernandez is paid $790,760 annually and is eligible for bonuses of up to 50 percent, according to a Sun-Sentinel article based on approval of Fernandez' contract by the Memorial Healthcare System Board.

In acknowledging the positive impact of Capasso, Broward Health Vice Chairman and interim Chair Christopher Ure said, "The sun is rising here (at Broward Health) and it is in large part due to your leadership."

About Broward Health

Broward Health, providing service for more than 80 years, is a nationally recognized system in South Florida that offers world-class healthcare to all. The Broward Health system includes the statutory teaching hospital Broward Health Medical Center, Broward Health North, Broward Health Imperial Point, Broward Health Coral Springs, Salah Foundation Children's Hospital, Broward Health Weston, Broward Health Community Health Services, Broward Health Physician Group, Broward Health Urgent Care, Broward Health International, and Broward Health Foundation. For more information, visit BrowardHealth.org.

Media Contact:

Jennifer Smith, Director of Corporate Communications

954.504.7895

[email protected]

SOURCE Broward Health

Related Links

http://BrowardHealth.org


LOVINGTON, N.M., March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- C. Barry Crutchfield is recognized by Continental Who's Who as Top Attorney 2018 in the field of Law in recognition of his role as an Attorney at Templeman & Crutchfield, P.C.

Established since 1976, Templeman & Crutchfield, P.C. is a local law firm that has served the Lovington, New Mexico area for decades. Dedicated to offering quality legal services, the attorneys are equipped in handling their client's legal matters with integrity and in a timely manner.

Amassing over forty years of experience in the field of Law, Crutchfield has served as a managing partner of the firm since 1977. Highly regarded for his work inside the courtroom, Crutchfield has successfully argued his clients' cases to judges and juries, leading to best scenario outcomes. Throughout his career, Crutchfield has utilized his legal experience as well as his background in the Federal and Military sectors to aid him in his development. Driving by his passion for achieving justice, Crutchfield had attained expertise within the areas of personal injury and criminal law.

In addition to his work in law firms, Crutchfield has served as Deputy Counsel for the Governor of Texas, as well as a Military Judge for the United States Marine Corps in Camp Pendleton, California. Prior to joining the firm of Templeman and Crutchfield, he handled briefings and trials of civil and criminal matters at the Law Office of Warren Reynolds in Hobbs, New Mexico.



Throughout the course of his education and training, Crutchfield attained his Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting and History from Eastern New Mexico University in 1968. Thereafter, Crutchfield went on to complete his Juris Doctor from the University of Texas at Austin in 1971.

To further his professional development, Crutchfield is an affiliate of several organizations including the New Mexico State Bar Association, serving as the Chairman of the New Mexico Board of Bar Examiners from 1991-1993. He is also a member of the Lea County Bar Association, the State Bar of Texas, the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the American Board of Trial Advocates and the Phi Delta Phi Board of Visitors.

In recognition of his professional accolades, Crutchfield was named one of the Top 100 Trial Lawyers by the New Mexico State Bar, which also honored him on two occasions with an Outstanding Contribution Award. He has also been recognized by Marquis Who's Who, Who's Who in America, Who's Who in American Law and Who's Who in the World.

For more information, visit www.cbarrycrutchfield.com.

Contact: Katherine Green, 516-825-5634, [email protected]

SOURCE Continental Who's Who

Related Links

http://www.continentalwhoswho.com


The day-long C3 program on Wednesday, March 28 at the company's Ridgeland headquarters will feature teams of up to four students each from up to 30 high schools across the state competing for scholarships and other tech-related prizes. Two previous competitions last year featured teams from 43 high schools representing 12 counties and over 200 students.

Students and an adviser from each school will use critical thinking and problem-solving skills to solve a fresh computer coding challenge during the day-long competition. C Spire has assigned employees with IT backgrounds and experience to help each team. Members of the top three teams will receive college scholarships.

Pepper, a four-foot tall humanoid robot from Softbank Robotics America with a tablet for a chest, also will be on hand interacting with students and other guests participating in the competition. 2018 has been designated as National S.T.E.M. Year by the National Science Foundation and Code.org to emphasize science, technology, engineering and math education in the U.S.

"Building on our highly successful earlier events, we're planning a fun, entertaining and educational day for all of the students who participate in the program," said Carla Lewis, chief information officer for C Spire. "Hopefully, we can inspire and encourage them to seriously consider IT and computer science as an academic and career path."

Workers with a background in computer science are in high demand and short supply in Mississippi. Employers currently have over 1,200 unfilled job openings due to the serious shortage of trained, qualified IT workers, Lewis said. The average salary for qualified IT workers is nearly $69,000 a year, almost double the statewide average.

Nationwide, research estimates that there will be a shortage of over 1 million software developers in the U.S. by 2020. "For all we know, the inventor of the next big thing or innovative app or software may be sitting in a Mississippi classroom waiting to be inspired and encouraged to become a leader in the digital economy," Lewis said.

The C3 program can serve as an important first step to increase interest in computer science, according to Lewis. In 2016, only 16 students in the state took the AP computer science exam, but last year the number of students successfully completing the test grew to 105, according to Code.org, a computer science education advocacy group.

Lewis said the company-sponsored coding challenges and support for other public and private programs like the Base Camp Coding Academy and a recent partnership with the Microsoft-supported Technology Education and Literacy in Schools (TEALS) program are designed to help C Spire deliver on its promise to help create and retain a 21st century technology workforce.

C3 is part of a broader C Spire Tech Movement initiative designed to leverage the company's technology leadership and investments to help transform its service areas. Other elements of the program include creation of a state-of-the-art digital customer care platform for customers and team members, massive deployment of broadband internet for homes and businesses and other leadership initiatives to drive innovation and development of a 21st century technology workforce.

"We live in a software-defined world where coding and the internet strongly influence just about every aspect of our lives," Lewis said. "Computer science drives innovation and creates thousands of jobs throughout our economy, but we need to do more to encourage schools to offer courses and for young people to pursue IT and computer science as viable career choices."

About C Spire

C Spire is a leading technology company committed to transforming Mississippi through the C Spire Tech Movement, which includes the massive deployment of broadband internet to homes and small businesses, a state-of-the-art digital experience for its customers and team members, technology innovation leadership and the creation and retention of a 21st century technology workforce in its region. The company provides world-class, customer-inspired wireless communications, 1 Gigabit consumer Internet access as well as a full suite of dedicated Internet, wireless, IP Voice, data and cloud services for businesses. This news release and other announcements are available at www.cspire.com/news. For more information about C Spire, visit www.cspire.com or follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/cspire or Twitter at www.twitter.com/cspire.

SOURCE C Spire

Related Links

http://www.cspire.com


NEW YORK, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

NetworkNewsWire Editorial Coverage

With legal recreational cannabis coming to Canada later this year, companies are making the most of the last few months to prepare for the challenge of a new and largely brand-free market. Choom Holdings, Inc. (CSE: CHOO) (OTC: CHOOF) (CHOOF Profile) is building a brand upon retail outlets and a slice of cannabis history, hoping to get the attention of existing and new curious consumers. Medical cannabis company OrganiGram Holdings, Inc. (TSX-V: OGI) (OTC: OGRMF) is expanding its operations, using larger growing rooms and more staff to ensure supplies when the law changes. Aphria, Inc. (TSX: APH) (OTC: APHQF) is also pursuing a growth strategy, using targeted investment and collaborations to reach a larger consumer base. Hydropothecary Corp. (TSX-V: THCX) is using the expertise of specialist companies, including Segra's tissue culture propagation technique and Shopify's expertise in building ecommerce sites. Meanwhile, The Supreme Cannabis Company, Inc. (TSX-V: FIRE) (OTC: SPRWF) is looking beyond Canada, with an investment deal to bring in cannabis oils from Lesotho.



Branding for a New Market

Despite potential delays in the Senate, Canada's Cannabis Act is on its way toward becoming law. When the legislation arrives this summer, it will turn Canada into the first G7 nation to fully legalize the sale and use of cannabis for recreational purposes. It's a change which will vastly expand the Canadian cannabis industry, which is currently limited to the medical market. It may also become a test bed for other nations, as attitudes towards drugs shift around the globe.



One of the biggest challenges for the companies looking to enter this new market is branding. For obvious reasons, there are no established big-name brands in this sector. The closest things that exist are medical cannabis brands, and the marketing of pharmaceuticals is hugely different from the marketing of recreational consumables. Following an extensive consultation, Health Canada has released draft rules on cannabis packaging, rules which set strict limits on how the product is marketed. With plain packaging, health warnings, and space for only a small logo, companies will be limited in how they can use the packaging to sell their brand appeal. Tight restrictions on advertising will add to the challenge.



So how will companies make their mark with such strict limits and a cold start?



Branding with History

One of the companies looking to compete in this new market, Choom Holdings, Inc. (CSE: CHOO) (OTCQB: CHOOF) has found a way to build its brand through an established part of cannabis culture.



The word "choom" was originally Hawaiian slang for smoking cannabis. During the 1970s, when the cultivation and use of cannabis proliferated on the island, a group of students formed a group calling themselves the Choom Gang. Like so many groups of young people, their story would have disappeared without attention, it not for the later fame of one member of the group - Barrack Obama.



Obama's rise to the office of president of the United States brought attention to his past. Inevitably, stories about his youthful behavior surfaced, as opponents looked for dirt to use against him. Obama dealt with them with the grace and political cool that won him such global popularity.



Off the back of Obama's presidency, the Choom Gang became known around the world. Their story, and the relaxed Hawaiian ethos they were associated with, has become well known among cannabis consumers. By building a brand that connects to that existing story, Choom Holdings is creating a brand with history and a reputation behind it.



A Relaxed Style

The brand Choom is building is a perfect fit for the recreational cannabis market. It's all about fun and relaxation. Images of Hawaiian beaches combine with a mellow color pallet to evoke an atmosphere that's far away from the clinical style taken by pharmaceutical cannabis brands.



The company's website and marketing materials emphasize the story behind the brand and, by implication, the bigger history of cannabis use in American and Canadian culture. Choom is showing an awareness of the decades of recreational smoking that have come before, that it understands that most customers aren't just taking up the habit now, and that they have a whole culture built around shared interests and values. Through its branding, Choom is selling itself as part of an ongoing history of people relaxing and enjoying cannabis.



It might seem like a lot of effort to go to for a single product, but there's a lot of money at stake. Cannabis already has a huge market in Canada, and with the change in the law, the profits from that market will shift from criminals to legitimate businesses. It's estimated that the cannabis industry will quickly be worth $10 billion by 2023, according to a recent Research report by Pacific International Securities, more than the spirits and wine markets respectively. That's not counting ancillary products and services such as security, testing, tourism, and paraphernalia. By making a new brand feel established, Choom is marking out a strong place within that large market.



Beyond Packaging

With the limits on packaging, cannabis companies will need other ways to mark their brands upon the public consciousness. As in so much about cannabis branding, Choom is already a step ahead on this.



The company's business plan includes a complete supply chain, from production through to sales. As part of this, it has developed a design for distinct Choom branded dispensaries to sell its products. Sitting on Canadian high streets, these will provide a welcoming place for consumers to buy their cannabis. The style of the shops combines elements of the relaxed, choom gang aesthetic with others drawn from high impact modern brands. Comfortable sofas and wood panels sit alongside clean white shelves full of neatly ordered products. There are even touches of Hawaiian greenery to evoke the great outdoors.



These shops will let Choom establish its brand identity despite the limits on packaging and advertising. It's a smart approach to branding that should help it take a leading place in the new cannabis market.



The Substance Behind the Sizzle

This isn't to say that Choom is nothing more than a collection of flashy branding techniques. Far from it.



The company has been working for several years to establish two licensed facilities to grow cannabis, making use of the existing medical regulations. The buildings at Vernon and Chemainus are both undergoing a refit to bring them into prime condition. Between them, they will be able to grow $11.1 million worth of cannabis each year. Phase two of their development, scheduled to be complete early next year, will more than double this capacity to $24 million.



Choom continues to expand its portfolio of late-stage ACMPR applicants to include brands that are strategically focused on cultivating a consumer cannabis experience. The company has obtained substantial funding to support it through establishing its presence. With its growing facilities in place, its shops designed, and capital ready for a first big push, Choom looks set to become an important brand.



Companies Getting into Cannabis

Of course, Choom isn't the only company preparing to take a share of the recreational cannabis market.



Medical cannabis company OrganiGram Holdings (TSX-V: OGI) (OTCQB: OGRMF) is going through a period of expansion. The company is looking not just to cater to the existing medical market but to add recreational users to its consumer base. The company has received approval from the Canadian government to expand its existing growing rooms, increasing not only its capacity but also the efficiency of its operations. Automated systems in its second phase of growing rooms will save costs and increase crop yields. At the same time, the company is expanding its staff, with a recruitment fair to find new employees for posts across the business.



Aphria (TSX: APH) (OTCQB: APHQF), another medical cultivator, is also pursuing a growth strategy. Targeted investment and collaboration with other companies have given it more resources and opportunities, including a route into the American medical cannabis market. Having recently acquired Broken Coast Cannabis, and with a distribution deal in place with Shoppers Drug Mart, the company is taking a larger place in the medical market, strengthening its position to reach recreational smokers.



Hydropothecary (TSX-V: THCX) is also using collaborations with other companies to develop its processes. It recently announced an agreement with Segra International Corp. to incorporate plant tissue culture propagation into the cannabis plant production process. By using Segra's tissue culture technique, Hydropothecary aims to increase its yield to serve both the medical and the recreational cannabis markets. To better reach those markets, it has struck a deal with online commerce company Shopify. Shopify will build a bilingual ecommerce platform serving Hydropothecary's customers in both English and French speaking Canada. Like Choom's chain of dispensaries, this will give Hydropothecary a complete supply chain from production to retail, for vertically integrated cannabis production and sales.



The Supreme Cannabis Company (TSX-V: FIRE) (OTC: SPRWF) is developing its 7ACRES subsidiary as a cultivator of premium cannabis, ready to expand beyond the medical market and reach recreational users. Its supply chain has been further assured through a $3 million investment in BlissCo, a company about to complete its application for a cannabis license. But Supreme is not just concerned with Canada - it is looking at the global cannabis market. A $10 million investment in Medigrow Lesotho gives the company a position within that country's medical cannabis industry, which will support the export of cannabis oils and so let Supreme start building a global supply chain and brand.



With legal recreational cannabis on the way to Canada, companies are finding many ways to prepare for the change. Strong brands backed by efficient production facilities will surely shape the future of the Canadian market.



For more information about Choom Holdings, visit Choom Holdings, Inc. (CSE: CHOO) (OTCQB: CHOOF)



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MAYAGUEZ, Puerto Rico and BALTIMORE, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- A newly published article in Nature Methods describes CDI Laboratories' participation in the NIH Protein Capture Reagents Program (PCRP). CDI's patented method of antibody development (FastMAb) features the use of CDI's HuProt microarray (containing 81% of the human proteome) to ensure that the antibodies produced are truly mono-specific.

The paper gives a detailed description of the collaborative effort between CDI Laboratories and the Labs of Dr. Seth Blackshaw, Dr. Heng Zhu and Dr. Jef Boeke, as well as many others (see http://rdcu.be/JnJI ).

A number of recent articles and commentaries published in high impact journals detail the problems with antibody cross-reactivity, which impacts data relevancy and results in a significant amount of time and money wasted on poor antibodies. In addition, there is growing demand from the NIH regarding the need for antibody standardization, to ensure that reagents used in publications are actually detecting their intended targets. Antibodies are among the most commonly employed biological research reagents, valued as tools used primarily to identify and/or isolate molecules of interest. It is also becoming clear that they are the cause of many problems regarding data interpretation, and may hinder researchers' abilities to reach unambiguous conclusions (Baker M. (2015) Reproducibility crisis: Blame it on the Antibodies. Nature 521: 274-276). CDI's patented method helps to alleviate this reproducibility problem by producing antibodies that are truly specific to its intended target. By first testing the candidate antibodies against most of the human proteome, only antibodies proven to be specific are then released through CDI's pipeline.

"CDI is very proud of its collaboration between all the great labs featured in this current Nature Methods paper," said Scott Paschke, CDI Vice President. "The fact that many antibodies used in life science research are less than monospecific is a huge problem. CDI has developed a very robust monoclonal antibody pipeline, using its protein microarray expertise, to help alleviate the problem of non-specific antibody binding."

About CDI - A privately-owned biotechnology corporation, CDI Labs focuses on protein/antibody microarray design, production, and custom assay services. CDI's flagship - HuProt - is the most comprehensive human proteome microarray in the industry, allowing thousands of protein interactions to be profiled in parallel. HuProt enables R&D of future therapeutic and diagnostic tools to proceed more rapidly and cost-effectively. The HuProt arrays are available for purchase by labs with in-house microarray scanning capability. Alternatively, CDI's Discovery Services division offers contract assay design, research, bioinformatics and custom-configured microarray production on a per-project basis. CDI's FastMAb hybridoma development service addresses the urgent need for monoclonal antibodies with unprecedented specificity, for detecting research, diagnostic or therapeutic targets. FastMAb antibodies are evaluated for specificity on HuProt arrays. The Company exports products worldwide and is actively expanding its clientele base and academic and industrial collaborations.

For more information, visit cdi-lab.com

Media Contact:

Scott Paschke, Vice President

CDI Laboratories Inc

518-534-2881 (direct)

[email protected]

SOURCE CDI Laboratories
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/792302 )

Browse 75 market data Tables and 27 Figures spread through 114 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Cell Dissociation Market"

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/cell-dissociation-market-97548003.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report

Factors driving the growth of this market include rising R&D investment in the pharmaceutical & biotechnological companies, increasing number of cell culture studies in research institutes and rising government & non-profit organizations focus on chronic diseases research.

Enzymatic dissociation products are estimated to account for the largest share of the Cell Dissociation Market in 2017.

The products in the Cell Dissociation Market include enzymatic dissociation products, non-enzymatic dissociation products and instruments & accessories. In 2018, the enzymatic dissociation products segment is expected to hold the largest share of the market. Increasing demand for enzymatic dissociation products in the pharmaceutical & biotechnological companies is the major driving factor of this segment.

Ask for PDF Brochure @ https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownload.asp?id=97548003

The pharmaceutical & biotechnology companies segment is estimated to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period.

The end user segment is further segmented into pharmaceutical & biotechnology companies, research & academic institutes, and other end users. The pharmaceutical & biotechnology segment is estimated to register highest growth rate during the forecast period. This is mainly due to rising R&D investments in order to introduce new drugs into the market.

North America is expected to command the largest share of the market during the forecast period.

Based on region, the Cell Dissociation Market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Rest of the World (RoW). North America dominated the Cell Dissociation Market in 2017. This is mainly due to factors such as the rising government funding for cancer research, increasing research on infectious diseases in the research institutes, rising R&D investments in the life sciences industry and presence of all key players in the region.

Key players in the Cell Dissociation Market include Thermo Fisher Scientific (US), Merck KGaA (Germany), Roche (Switzerland), Miltenyi Biotec (Germany), HiMedia Laboratories (India), STEMCELL Technologies (Canada), BD (US), ATCC (US), PAN-Biotech (Germany), and GE Healthcare (US).

Know more about the Cell Dissociation Market:

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/cell-dissociation-market-97548003.html

About MarketsandMarkets

MarketsandMarkets provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies' revenues. Currently servicing 5000 customers worldwide including 80% of global Fortune 1000 companies as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across eight industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets for their painpoints around revenues decisions.

Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve.

MarketsandMarkets's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "RT" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets.

Contact:

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MarketsandMarkets INC.

630 Dundee Road

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Connect with us on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsandmarkets

SOURCE MarketsandMarkets
CULVER CITY, Calif., March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Culver-City-based Century Housing was named among the Top 25 Affordable Lenders of 2017 by Affordable Housing Finance (AHF) Magazine. The list includes the most productive financial institutions supporting the development of affordable homes throughout the nation.

"It is extraordinary that Century, as a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) limited in scope to just California, is able to compete against conventional banks doing business nationally," said Ron Griffith, President & CEO of Century Housing. "This is a testament to the tremendous effort of California's multifamily housing developers in trying to meet the critical need for affordable homes in California, and of Century's ability to respond to their financing needs."

"As we enter another year of uncertainty for the affordable housing industry, we feel fortunate to be able to continue providing reliable financing, to help fill the gaps left behind by tax reform and reductions to housing programs," said Alan Hoffman, Senior Vice President of Century Housing Corporation.

Century provided more than $145 million in financing to support affordable development in 2017, which included acquisition, bridge, and permanent loans. These transactions will lead to approximately 3,361 new and preserved homes and 3,383 construction jobs throughout California.

About Century:

Century Housing Corporation is a mission-driven Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) supporting quality affordable home development throughout California. With offices in Culver City, Long Beach and San Francisco, Century provides innovative end-to-end financing from predevelopment to permanent loans.

Century's work has resulted in more than $1 billion in financing for over 27,000 new affordable homes.

To read the full AHF article, which includes expert forecasts for 2018, at http://www.housingfinance.com/finance/lenders-persevere-through-market-disruptions_o.

SOURCE Century Housing

Related Links

http://www.centuryhousing.org


LOS ANGELES, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Cetera Financial Group ("Cetera")*, a leading network of independent firms supporting the delivery of professional retail financial advice, and Cetera network firm First Allied Securities today congratulated independent financial advisor Kevin VanDyke, Founder and President of Bloomfield Hills Financial, on his recognition in Forbes magazine's Best-in-State Wealth Advisors List for 2018.

Bloomfield Hills Financial, founded in 1999 and based in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, offers independent financial planning and wealth management advisory services through First Allied. First Allied advisors affiliated with Bloomfield Hills Financial have approximately $1.5 billion in advisory and brokerage assets as of December 31, 2017.

Robert J. Moore, CEO of Cetera Financial Group, said, "We are very proud of Kevin VanDyke, and we extend our warmest congratulations to him on his well-deserved recognition in the Forbes Best-in-State Wealth Advisors list for 2018. Kevin is a shining example of the difference a highly dedicated, caring and client-focused advisor can make in the lives of his clients and the strength of his community. We are honored to support Kevin and the many Cetera and First Allied advisors like him across the country who are working to bring our vision of the Advice-Centric Experience to life by consistently delivering the personal, highly-customized guidance they need in order to pursue their goals."

Forbes' Best-in-State Wealth Advisors list for 2018 was developed by SHOOK Research through an extensive due diligence process that included in-person and telephone interviews to assess advisors according to qualitative criteria. SHOOK Research also relied on an algorithm that factors in client retention, industry experience, compliance history, firm nominations and quantitative criteria including assets under management and revenue generated for their firms.

First Allied advisors affiliated with Bloomfield Hills Financial specialize in customized investment management and asset allocation, retirement planning, insurance, education planning, and estate planning for retirees and pre-retirees. Through its consistent focus on organic growth driven by exceptional client service and selective strategic acquisitions, the firm has expanded to include locations in Arizona, California, Colorado, Texas and Massachusetts, in addition to three offices in Michigan.

Kevin VanDyke, Founder and President of Bloomfield Hills Financial, said, "I am deeply honored to be included in Forbes' list of Best-in-State Wealth Advisors for 2018. This recognition is a tribute to my team, the clients we are honored to serve, and the trust they place in us to deliver clear, valuable financial guidance to help them progress toward their goals. Being named to the Forbes list will provide us with even greater motivation to go the extra mile in our efforts to serve our clients. I am also grateful to Cetera Financial Group and First Allied Securities for their unwavering support, and for the exceptional combination of personalized service and industry-leading resources they provide us."

About Cetera Financial Group

Cetera Financial Group ("Cetera") is a leading network of independent firms empowering the delivery of professional financial advice to individuals, families and company retirement plans across the country through trusted financial advisors and financial institutions. Cetera is the second-largest independent financial advisor network in the nation by number of advisors, as well as a leading provider of retail services to the investment programs of banks and credit unions.

Through its multiple distinct firms, Cetera offers independent and institutions-based advisors the benefits of a large, established broker-dealer and registered investment adviser, while serving advisors and institutions in a way that is customized to their needs and aspirations. Advisor support resources offered through Cetera include award-winning wealth management and advisory platforms, comprehensive broker-dealer and registered investment adviser services, practice management support and innovative technology. For more information, visit cetera.com .

* "Cetera Financial Group" refers to the network of independent retail firms encompassing, among others, Cetera Advisors, Cetera Advisor Networks, Cetera Investment Services (marketed as Cetera Financial Institutions), Cetera Financial Specialists, First Allied Securities and Summit Brokerage Services. All firms are members FINRA/SIPC.

Media Contacts:

Chris Clemens

Haven Tower Group

424.652.6520 ext. 102

[email protected]

Joseph Kuo

Haven Tower Group

424.652.6520 ext. 101

[email protected]

SOURCE Cetera Financial Group

Related Links

https://www.cetera.com


NORTH OLMSTED, Ohio, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- CommutAir, a United Express carrier, announces its Rotor Transition Program (RTP) to assist military and civilian helicopter pilots transition to fixed wing aircraft at CommutAir, United Airlines' fastest growing regional airline partner.

Military veteran rotor pilots already meet the 750-hour restricted Air Transport Pilot (ATP) requirements, but many fall short of the 250 Pilot-in-Command hours required in a fixed wing aircraft. CommutAir will financially assist pilots with up to $22,100 to complete fixed wing certificate requirements.

The key differentiator of CommutAir's RTP program is that an RTP participant can make their own flying arrangements at their local flight school or flying club and not require to relocate to some far-away "pre-approved" flight school. Another distinguishing feature of the CommutAir RTP is that it is also available to civilian helicopter pilots seeking an airline job.

"We designed these family and finance-friendly features after consulting with the rotor pilot community. Continuing to work, keeping family together, starting in the RTP even before leaving service, making flexible and local flying arrangements, welcoming civilian pilots  these were some of the enhancements to the program after the feedback sessions," said Subodh Karnik, President & CEO.

For details of this program, visit www.flycommutair.com/rotor-transition-program/

Careers

Through 2019, CommutAir will triple in size to an all-jet fleet of 61 aircraft and actively hire in all areas. CommutAir's industry-leading Pilot benefits include:

Guaranteed Captain Pay after Year 1

Quarterly Captain Retention Bonuses

Rapid upgrades

Top-Tier pay and benefits  including the industry's first and best Commuter policy

About CommutAir

Founded in 1989, CommutAir operates as United Express and is majority-owned by Champlain Enterprises, Inc. and 40% owned by United Airlines, Inc. CommutAir operates ~900 weekly flights to 30+ destinations, using the Embraer ERJ145 aircraft, from bases in Newark, NJ, and Washington-Dulles. CommutAir's 900+ employees are well-known in the industry for fostering a family culture and a friendly work environment.

www.flycommutair.com

[email protected]

(440) 779-4588 Ext. 384

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn

SOURCE CommutAir

Related Links

http://www.flycommutair.com


BOSTON, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- HYCU, a pioneering enterprise software company specializing in data backup, recovery and monitoring for hyperconverged infrastructures (HCI), today announced a global rebranding initiative that represents the Company's new operational independence and recent global expansion. Simon Taylor, who previously served as the president of Comtrade Software and the chief strategy officer of Comtrade Group, will lead HYCU's worldwide initiatives from the company's Boston headquarters as HYCU's CEO.

"Our name change reflects the operational independence we enjoy as we begin to operate autonomously of Comtrade Group, expand our software offerings and grow our business worldwide," said Taylor. "Today's news represents exciting new changes at HYCU, including the expansion of our Boston Corporate HQ. We're also on schedule to deliver several significant updates to our backup and recovery platform for Nutanix and I'm pleased to announce those today as well. These updates further our integration with Nutanix and keep pace with their product and innovation roadmap."

Taylor has more than 18 years of industry experience. He developed and launched Comtrade Software, the software division within Comtrade Group, and spearheaded Comtrade's branded data protection and software solutions. In 2016, he architected and led the sale of Comtrade's virtualization monitoring business to Citrix.

Comtrade Group, an IT company with more than $400 million in annual revenue, will continue to be the primary shareholder in HYCU. Comtrade Group's CEO Alexis Lope-Bello will join HYCU's Board of Advisors to support the growth of HYCU and its flagship HYCU backup product for Nutanix. "Simon has been instrumental in making HYCU what it is today," said Lope-Bello. "His leadership has been key in expanding the Company's global footprint, particularly in the areas of go-to-market strategy and channel and sales management. Simon's clear vision for where the industry is headed, and how best to leverage HYCU's strengths, is an essential part of the Company's growth strategy."

With continued acceptance from customers and with solutions that monitor and protect their mission-critical applications, HYCU is the first purpose-built application aware backup and recovery solutions for Nutanix customers and partners. According to the inaugural Gartner Magic Quadrant for Hyperconverged Infrastructure published on February 6, 2018, "By 2020, 20% of business-critical applications currently deployed on three-tier IT infrastructure will transition to hyperconverged infrastructure."

"We pride ourselves on delivering IT monitoring and data protection software solutions that provide enterprise-class application performance and reliability, added Taylor. "HYCU will continue on its path of delivering purpose-built software solutions that its growing base of customers can deploy in minutes, while gaining a significant ROI within days versus the months typically associated with legacy software providers."

About Simon Taylor

Taylor, (38,) is the chief executive officer of HYCU. For more than 18 years, he has worked tirelessly to drive innovation and accelerate growth in all his ventures. He developed and launched Comtrade Software, the software division within Comtrade Group. Serving as president and chief strategy officer, he spearheaded the Company's branded data protection and software solutions. Prior to joining Comtrade, Taylor held executive positions at Putnam Investments, Omgeo and Forrester Research. He shares his entrepreneurial spirit in his board-level appointments, including on the board of directors of College Bound Dorchester, a non-profit that offers at-risk youth an alternative to street violence with a return to education and the chance at a brighter future. An active member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) in Boston, he is a Boston Business Journal 40 Under 40 honoree and was recently awarded the Most Social Partner for Nutanix, one of the technology industry's fastest-growing cloud and virtualization companies. He received his MBA in international business from IE (Instituto de Empresa) Business School and his undergraduate degree in operations technology from Northeastern University.

About HYCU

HYCU is a pioneering enterprise software company specializing in data backup, recovery and monitoring for hyperconverged infrastructures (HCI). HYCU harnesses 25 years of sophisticated IT outsourcing, insights from over one million users, and work experience with more than 25,000 customers, more than 10 ISVs and 350 employees to create a deep and unrivaled well of industry expertise. The result is unsurpassed build alignment with industry leaders and a formidable competitive advantage in the HCI space. HYCU's flagship product, a purpose-built backup and recovery solution for Nutanix, is acclaimed in the industry and features performance and value that are unmatched. Headquartered in Boston, HYCU makes it easy for customers to thrive in a hyperconverged world.

To learn more about HYCU, visit hycusoftware.com, follow @hycuinc and connect with us on LinkedIn.

SOURCE HYCU
BOSTON, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- CyberX, the IIoT and industrial control system (ICS) security company, today announced that it is sponsoring an educational SANS webinar about the TRITON cyberattack on a petrochemical facility in Saudi Arabia. As recently described in The New York Times, "The attack was not designed to simply destroy data or shut down the plant  It was meant to sabotage the firm's operations and trigger an explosion."

CyberX Sponsors SANS Webcast on "Anatomy of the TRITON ICS Cyberattack"

Featuring Justin Searle, senior SANS instructor, and Phil Neray, VP of Industrial Cybersecurity at CyberX, the technical webinar will be held on Friday, March 30 at 1pm EDT (17:00:00 UTC). Those interested in attending can register here.

Demonstrating Stuxnet-like sophistication, the adversaries exhibited a high-level of planning and resources consistent with past nation-state attacks on critical infrastructure. In particular, they exploited a zero-day vulnerability and developed ICS-tailored malware to communicate directly with a specific type of industrial controller using its native ICS protocol.

According to the Times, TRITON may be connected to a string of other cyberattacks on Saudi Arabian petrochemical plants during 2017  including one aimed at a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and Dow Chemical. Experts also say that TRITON was far more sophisticated than any previous attack originating from Iran, but they speculate that Iran may have worked with Russia or North Korea to improve its hacking abilities.

In this technical webinar, we'll describe:

The technical architecture of the TRITON malware

of the TRITON malware Threat models showing how the attackers may have compromised the plant's OT network and controllers

showing how the attackers may have compromised the plant's OT network and controllers How to defend against similar attacks in the future via a multi-layered active defense model incorporating continuous monitoring, vulnerability management, threat intelligence, and automated threat modeling

For more information about TRITON, CyberX's ICS threat intelligence team has reverse-engineered the TRITON malware and described its findings in a detailed blog post.

About Justin Searle, Senior SANS Instructor and Director of ICS Security at InGuardians

Mr. Searle is Senior Instructor for the SANS Institute, having taught core ICS security courses including "ICS/SCADA Security Essentials" and "Assessing and Exploiting Control Systems." He is also Director of ICS Security at InGuardians, an independent information security consulting company. Justin led the Smart Grid Security Architecture group in the creation of NIST Interagency Report 7628 and played key roles in the Advanced Security Acceleration Project for the Smart Grid (ASAP-SG). He currently leads the testing group at the National Electric Sector Cybersecurity Organization Resources (NESCOR).

About Phil Neray, VP of Industrial Cybersecurity, CyberX (Twitter: @rdecker99)

Phil began his career as a Schlumberger engineer on oil rigs in South America and as an engineer with Hydro-Quebec. He has a BSEE from McGill University, is certified in cloud security (CCSK), and has a 1st Degree Black Belt in American Jiu Jitsu. Prior to CyberX, Phil held executive roles at enterprise security leaders including IBM Security/Q1 Labs, Veracode, and Symantec.

About CyberX (Twitter: @CyberX_Labs)

Founded by military cyber-experts with nation-state expertise defending critical infrastructure, CyberX provides the most widely-deployed platform for continuously reducing ICS and IIoT risk. CyberX's proprietary self-learning engine delivers accurate insights about ICS assets, targeted attacks, malware, vulnerabilities, and attack vectors  in less than an hour  without relying on rules or signatures, specialized skills, or prior knowledge of the environment.

CyberX is a member of the IBM Security App Exchange Community and has partnered with premier solution providers worldwide including Optiv Security and Deutsche-Telekom/T-Systems. The company's groundbreaking ICS threat intelligence research was recently featured in the popular McGraw-Hill book series, "ICS Hacking Exposed." For more information visit CyberX-Labs.com.

Media Contact

Deb Montner, Principal

Montner Tech PR

203-984-7861

[email protected]

SOURCE CyberX

Related Links

https://cyberx-labs.com/en


MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Lacework, the industry's first solution to bring automation, speed and scale to cloud security, today announced the appointment of David Hatfield to join its board of directors. Hatfield is currently President at Pure Storage and has more than 25 years of experience building high performance teams at innovative software and cloud infrastructure companies including Akamai Technologies, VERITAS Software, Symantec, Limelight Networks and others, excelling at hyper-growth and profitability. As a board member, Hatfield offers his expertise for future growth and direction of the organization to position itself as a market leader in cloud security.

"David is a highly respected and successful tech executive, with a proven track record of building fast growth organizations and amazing customer experiences that drive loyalty and satisfaction," said Stefan Dyckerhoff, CEO and President of Lacework. "I am thrilled to welcome David to our board of directors. His experience will benefit Lacework across a number of areas as we continue to extend our reach as the industry's leading, and most trusted, cloud security platform."

Hatfield has participated in 3 successful IPO's and one of the largest enterprise software mergers in history, as well as being an investor in many next generation technology companies. At Lacework, he will play an important role to position the company for continued leadership in the cloud security market with his experienced management skills and extensive expertise in advising high-growth companies. Lacework is building a platform that delivers security capabilities specifically designed for the cloud, including speed, scale and automation, while allowing customers to leverage some of the security tools that they are familiar with and still relevant in the cloud.

"As enterprises move more data into the cloud, there is an inherent need for a new security platform that addresses the gaps where conventional security fails," said Hatfield.

"Lacework has a major opportunity to scale and create an expanded footprint to address the increasing demand for a new security model that keeps data and applications safe in the cloud. I am thrilled to join this rapidly growing company with a strong reputation for innovative cloud security products."

To learn more about Lacework and the benefits of its cloud security Platform, please visit www.lacework.com and follow the company on Twitter and LinkedIn.

About Lacework

Lacework is the industry's first solution to bring automation, speed, and scale to cloud security enabling enterprises to safely innovate fast in the cloud. Unlike conventional security tools built for static datacenters, Lacework is designed to self-adapt to the cloud ever-changing configuration and workloads. Just like DevOps automates code deployment, Lacework automates cloud security, empowering IT to continuously keep cloud environments secure and compliant. Based in Mountain View, California, Lacework is a privately held company funded by Sutter Hill Ventures. Find out more at www.lacework.com.

Media Contact

John Kreuzer

Lumina Communications on behalf of Lacework

(408) 896-3307

[email protected]

SOURCE Lacework

Related Links

http://www.lacework.com


BOSTON, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Digilant, a global provider of programmatic ad buying solutions and services, announced it has hired Raquel Rosenthal as Chief Executive Officer of US Operations. Rosenthal will lead client and agency strategy, as well as expand the company's capabilities and service offerings.

I'm thrilled to be back at Digilant, and couldn't be more enthusiastic about the opportunities that the company is poised to capitalize upon. The company's current client roster and programmatic solutions are among the best in the business, and it's a rock-solid foundation from which to build the next phase of development of the company.

"The addition of Raquel to the Digilant executive team is an important step for our company, and a signal of our ongoing commitment to recruit the best and brightest professionals to the organization," said David Rodes, CEO of ispDigital, the parent company of Digilant. "Her wealth of experience will help us to continue to deliver world-class digital media services and solutions to our clients, and she will also play vital roles in providing mentorship to staff, and growing product and data portfolio."

An accomplished digital marketing industry executive, Rosenthal rejoins Digilant following a two-year stint at DataXu, a leading software provider for marketing professionals, where she served as Enterprise Sales Director. Between 2011 and 2016, Rosenthal held a variety of business development roles at Digilant, culminating in the Senior Vice President of Sales position.

Previously, she held senior jobs at AudienceScience, Belo Interactive Media, VNU Business Media, and DoubleClick. Rosenthal is a graduate of Ithaca College in Ithaca, NY, where she earned a Bachelor of Applied Science (B.A.Sc.) in Communications and Media Studies.

"I'm thrilled to be back at Digilant, and couldn't be more enthusiastic about the opportunities that the company is poised to capitalize upon," says Rosenthal. "The company's current client roster and programmatic solutions are among the best in the business, and it's a rock-solid foundation from which to build the next phase of development of the company."

About Digilant

Digilant offers programmatic buying solutions and services designed for independent agencies and brands that are increasing their programmatic spending. Using data science to unlock 'new' automated buying strategies, Digilant enables brands to uncover proprietary and complex audience data that gives them the actionable intelligence they need to compete across every important media channel.

Digilant is an ispDigital Group Company. For more information, visit us at www.digilant.com, read our blog or follow us on Twitter @Digilant_US.

Related Links

https://www.digilant.com

https://www.digilant.com/about-us/#aboutus_leadershipteam

https://www.linkedin.com/in/raquelmrosenthal/

SOURCE Digilant
Elixirgen Scientific's proprietary technology (Quick-Tissue) makes highly efficient differentiation of hPSCs, such as induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and embryonic stem cells (ESCs), possible in under 10 days, the fastest speed in the world for all cell types. Their catalog includes vascular endothelial cells, GABAergic neurons, dopaminergic neurons, cholinergic neurons, skeletal muscle cells, and hepatocytes, with more cell types in continuous development. The products are currently offered both as a reagent kit for researchers and companies, and as a service - customers can send in their iPSCs or ESCs, and have them returned, differentiated into the tissue type of their choice, in one week.

The CIRM hPSC repository features 1,600 cell lines derived from patients with diseases and conditions that are areas of active research, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), cardiomyopathy, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, autism spectrum disorder, hepatitis C, fatty liver disease, cerebral palsy, diabetic retinopathy, and more. The cell lines have detailed, anonymized demographic clinical data and have matched controls, making them very suitable for research into those diseases.

When applied to CIRM's hPSC bank, Elixirgen Scientific's Quick-Tissue differentiation technology will be able to provide relevant tissues for any of the 1,600 cell lines. This means that scientists will be able to receive a variety of in vitro differentiated cells such as neurons, vascular endothelial cells, skeletal muscles, and hepatocytes derived from patients with AD, autism, cerebral palsy, fatty liver disease, and other diseases - all with a one-week turnaround time. These differentiated cells are available in the form of frozen cells, live cells in a cell culture flask, live cells in microplates, and live cells on microscopic slides. Elixirgen Scientific hopes to provide researchers in academia and pharmaceutical companies around the world with much needed cell-based human disease models for drug screening, toxicity testing, and other biomedical applications, thereby accelerating discovery of a cure for many diseases.

Further information as well as an order form are now available at https://ElixirgenScientific.com/cells.

Elixirgen Scientific, launched in 2016, is a Baltimore-based biotechnology company focused on stem cell related technology. The company's mission is to make stem cell innovation available to everyone. The company is located in the Science + Technology Park at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, a research environment that allows Elixirgen Scientific's scientists to conduct research at state-of-the-art facilities.

Contact:

[email protected]

(443) 869-5420

SOURCE Elixirgen Scientific

Related Links

http://www.elixirgenscientific.com


"Wine is a wonderfully complex and diverse beverage, and that can be intimidating for a casual wine drinker," said Suzanne Denevan-Brown, Publisher of Wine Dialogues by E. & J. Gallo Winery. "However, you don't have to be a wine expert to enjoy wine or even talk about it. With 'The Wine Down,' we wanted to create something that would show people you can have as much fun talking about wine as drinking it."

Each episode, Ben sits down with a wine expert and a guest comedian to talk, taste and break down all things wine. Each week, Ben and his guests pick the brains of different winemakers to discuss impressive topics like the effects of barrel-aging or the implications of terroir and climate. They also had a little fun along the way, including learning what wine pairs best with waffles and creating a harvest call. "The Wine Down by Wine Dialogues" explores all the questions you've had, didn't even know you have, or may be afraid to ask.

"Taping this podcast was a blast. It was just me and my buddies sitting around, having wine and silly conversations, but also learning something along the way," said Schwartz. "I've always loved wine, but now I can sound like I know a little something about it."

The series premiere titled, "Can I Ask You a Question, Sweet Winemaker?" is available now with new episodes released each Wednesday. To listen to "The Wine Down by Wine Dialogues," subscribe or download wherever you find your favorite podcasts.

"The Wine Down by Wine Dialogues" is the first original wine podcast created in association with William Hill Estate Winery, created and produced by IMG Original Content. Endeavor Global Marketing, the cultural marketing agency within the Endeavor network, represented Wine Dialogues on the project.

See below for the full list of episodes in Season 1:

March 28: "Can I Ask You A Question, Sweet Winemaker?"

Winemaker Mark Williams from William Hill Estate Winery and guest Scott Aukerman join the episode to chat about the best places to drink wine and the legacy of California and New Zealand wine regions. Featured wines include Whitehaven Sauvignon Blanc, William Hill Estate North Coast Sauvignon Blanc and William Hill Estate Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc.

April 4: "Ratings, Experts and a Home-Schooled Chipmunk"

Winemaker Michael Eddy of Louis Martini Winery joins Ben and his guests Jake Hurwitz and Amir Blumenfeld to explain what wine ratings mean and what they say about your wine preferences. Featured wines include Frei Brothers Russian River Valley Chardonnay, J Vineyards & Winery Black Label Pinot Noir and Louis M. Martini Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon.

April 11: "Que Queche Bubbly"

E. & J. Gallo Winery's Lauren "LC" Castelluzzo and guest Kate Berlant join the episode for elaborate toasts and to talk about the history of bubbles, why we love it for special occasions and how bubbles have changed. Featured wines include La Marca Prosecco and Barefoot Bubbly.

April 18: "The Grapes Talk Back"

Winemaker Dave Coventry of Talbott Vineyards joins guest Eugene Cordero this episode to talk about the best places to "raise grapes" and how it affects wine flavors. Featured wines include MacMurray Central Coast Pinot Noir, Talbott Sleepy Hollow Vineyard Chardonnay and Talbott Sleepy Hollow Vineyard Pinot Noir.

April 25: "Good Day Rose"

Winemaker Beth Liston from Dark Horse Wines and guest Laura Moses join the episode to talk all things Rose and how our obsession with the varietal started. Featured wines include Fleur de Mer Rose, Apothic Rose and Dark Horse Rose.

May 2: "Straight from the Barrel in Napa"

Winemaker Michael Eddy from Louis Martini Winery returns with guests Jake Hurwitz and Amir Blumenfeld to walk through the vines with Ben and talk about what makes Napa wines so special. The featured wine is Louis M. Martini Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.

May 9: "Tasting Menus, Pairings and Best Friends"

E. & J. Gallo Winery's Scott Kozel guides Ben and his guest Jake Hurwitz and Amir Blumenfeld through a wine and food pairing to highlight the best of California cuisine and wine. The featured wine is William Hill Estate Napa Valley Chardonnay.

ABOUT E. & J. GALLO WINERY

Founded by brothers Ernest and Julio Gallo in 1933 in Modesto, California, E. & J. Gallo Winery is the world's largest family-owned winery and the acclaimed producer of award-winning wines and spirits featured in more than 90 countries around the globe. A pioneer in the art of grape growing, winemaking, sustainable practices, marketing and worldwide distribution, Gallo crafts and imports wines and spirits to suit a diverse range of tastes and occasions, from everyday offerings to boutique, luxury bottlings.

The Gallo portfolio is comprised of more than 90 unique brands, including Barefoot Cellars, Dark Horse, and Gallo Family Vineyards, as well as premium box wines The Naked Grape and Vin Vault. Premium offerings include Apothic, Chateau Souverain, Carnivor, Columbia Winery, Ecco Domani, Edna Valley Vineyard, J Vineyards & Winery, Louis M. Martini, MacMurray Estate Vineyards, Mirassou, Orin Swift, Talbott Vineyards, and William Hill Estate, along with highly acclaimed imports, such as Alamos, Brancaia, La Marca, Las Rocas, Martin Codax, Whitehaven, and LUX Wines, importers of Allegrini, Argiano, Jermann, Pieropan and Renato Ratti. Gallo Spirits offers New Amsterdam Vodka and Gin and E&J Brandy, in addition to imported Scotch whiskies from Whyte & Mackay, including The Dalmore, Jura Single Malt and John Barr Blended.

Contact:

Alice Hennessy

Endeavor Global Marketing

[email protected]

Colleen Dourney

E. & J. Gallo Winery

[email protected]

SOURCE Wine Dialogues by E. & J. Gallo Winery
Epson Introduces LightScene - a New Category of Laser Projection for Digital Art, Spatial Design and Signage

LightScene EV-100 and EV-105 Laser Projectors Combine Lighting and Display Technology to Create Immersive Experiences
To support the studies, Exactis Innovation expects to receive up to 2,000 samples annually through its Personalize My Treatment (PMT) program, whereby consenting participants allow access to their clinical data, as well as tumor and blood samples through its network of 12 academic cancer centers throughout Canada. Five clinical NGS hubs, located in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Alberta, will perform the sequencing studies and collect data derived from solid tumors, liquid biopsies and immuno-oncology analyses.

"Standardizing and harmonizing protocols within the network is critical to effectively and efficiently profile patient tumors to match them with the right clinical trial. The Ion GeneStudio S5 platform supports those goals," said Dajan O'Donnell, Chief Scientific Officer for Exactis Innovation. "Equally important is our need to remain flexible in our profiling approaches and to stay on the cutting edge, which the extensive menu of Oncomine assays enables us to do. We have chosen to partner with Thermo Fisher because of their innovative platforms and proven background in enabling national precision medicine programs like NCI-MATCH with demonstrated concordance across multiple sequencing centers."

Exactis Innovation will complement its solid tumor NGS capabilities with Thermo Fisher's Oncomine Pan-Cancer Cell-Free, Oncomine Tumor Mutation Load and Oncomine Immune Response Research assays to drive more comprehensive analyses of samples in support of drug development programs. The ability to offer such a broad arsenal of NGS-based tools is expected to also help Exactis Innovation expand its academic cancer center network and further entrench its position as a longitudinal, biopsy-led registry for matching patients.

"Our ability to look at immune genes, for example, is an attractor for some of the translational science that can be brought into the network and maintain interest with key immuno-oncology players who are already part of it," said Richard Fajzel, Chief Executive Officer of Exactis Innovation. "These areas are quickly gaining traction with clinical researchers and pharma companies in particular who believe they will accelerate trial enrollments and success rates. This is why we feel our collaboration with Thermo Fisher is pivotal to Exactis' success."

Thermo Fisher's NGS systems and Oncomine assays continue to serve as foundational platforms for several national studies focused on advancing precision medicine initiatives. In 2014, it collaborated with Saudi Arabia to launch the Saudi Human Genome Program, before announcing that a standardized NGS protocol on the company's NGS and Oncomine technology would be implemented at five independent sites to analyze tumor samples for the NCI-MATCH adult and pediatric trials.

Most recently, the company's Oncomine assays and sequencers, which are designed for versatility and able to accommodate multiple runs per day with very low sample requirements, have been instrumental in driving LC-SCRUM Japan, a national genomic screening program designed to establish precision medicine in that country.

"As we have seen with other national programs enabled by Thermo Fisher's NGS technology, standardizing on a common platform provides clear benefits to large-scale studies," said Joydeep Goswami, President, Clinical Next Generation Sequencing and Oncology for Thermo Fisher Scientific. "The ability to consistently generate high-quality genomic data from very limited patient samples is foundational to successful trials. We are pleased that Exactis Innovation has chosen our platforms for its important endeavor across Canada and applaud their approach to comprehensively profile tumors with solid tumor, liquid biopsy and immune profiling."

About Thermo Fisher Scientific

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is the world leader in serving science, with revenues of more than $20 billion and approximately 70,000 employees globally. Our mission is to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. We help our customers accelerate life sciences research, solve complex analytical challenges, improve patient diagnostics, deliver medicines to market and increase laboratory productivity. Through our premier brands  Thermo Scientific, Applied Biosystems, Invitrogen, Fisher Scientific and Unity Lab Services  we offer an unmatched combination of innovative technologies, purchasing convenience and comprehensive services. For more information, please visit www.thermofisher.com.

About Exactis Innovation

Exactis Innovation (Exactis) is a Canadian, not-for-profit organization created in 2014 with funds from a public/private sector collaboration, including the Canadian Government Business-Led Networks of Centers of Excellence, and several pharmaceutical, biotech, not-for-profit and research organizations. Exactis is building an integrated, agile research network to improve cancer care for Canadians by addressing the challenge of recruiting and matching cancer patients to clinical studies for targeted therapies that could benefit them. At the heart of the network is a first-of-its-kind patient registry  Personalize My Treatment (PMT)  where patients are recruited by their cancer care institution and agree to have detailed molecular data about their cancer stored in a digital bio-bank and also agree to be contacted if they are considered suitable for future clinical studies that match their cancer characteristics. For more information, please visit www.exactis.ca

Media Contact Information:

Mauricio Minotta

Thermo Fisher Scientific

+1 760 929 2456

[email protected]

SOURCE Thermo Fisher Scientific

Related Links

http://www.thermofisher.com


CHERRY HILL, N.J. and NEW YORK, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Estate planners and advisors have a surprising second job: family therapist. In fact, 44 percent of planning professionals identified family conflict as the biggest threat to estate planning this year, followed by tax reform (25 percent), and market volatility (12 percent), according to the latest survey by TD Wealth. Additionally, over half (53 percent) shared that guardian and beneficiary designations are the most difficult document for clients to tackle when building an estate plan; with Current Will (17 percent) and Power of Attorney (16 percent) vying for second.

"Losing loved ones can be difficult, and talking about what happens when a loved one is gone can be even tougher. We encourage families to start the dialogue early, and make sure they have the right people around the table from the beginning. That includes financial advisors, tax advisors, lawyers, accountants, and family members," said Ray Radigan, Head of Private Trust at TD Wealth.

Nothing Certain, even Death and Taxes

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is getting mixed reactions from estate planners. Nearly half (49.5 percent) believe tax reform will help clients, while 34 percent aren't sure and 16 percent anticipate a negative impact.

"The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act brings about the biggest tax reform change we've seen in years, and for those planning an estate, it may introduce an opportunity to potentially reduce future transfer taxes," continued Radigan. "While uncertainty may continue in the near-term, it's important to review your trust and estates plans with your financial advisor and tax advisor sooner rather than later, to ensure you and your family are prepared when the time comes."

Gearing up for the Generational Wealth Transfer

Despite the uncertainty, nearly three-quarters of estate planners agreed that clients will benefit most from wealth transfer tax changes  including estate, generation-skipping, and gift taxes.

Thirty-six (36 percent) of those surveyed believe clients will see the biggest benefit from new estate tax laws, followed closely by generation-skipping tax (28 percent), and gift tax (13 percent) updates. Planners also expect certain clients to potentially benefit from other elements of the reform, including:

State transfer tax (11 percent)

Corporate pass through tax (7 percent)

"The final legislation temporarily doubles the exemption for estate tax, leading some to assume estate planning may no longer be necessary. That couldn't be farther from the truth," said Radigan. "With such significant changes to wealth transfer taxes, it's more important than ever that individuals and their families come together to develop a cross-generational financial plan."

Survey Methodology

The total sample includes 109 survey respondents who attended the 52nd Annual Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning, including attorneys, trust officers, accountants, charitable giving professionals, insurance advisors, elder law specialists, wealth management professionals, educators and non-profit advisors. The survey was fielded January 24-25, 2018.

About TD Wealth

TD Wealth is not a tax or legal advisor. You must consult with your own tax and legal advisors for specific advice pertaining to your estate planning needs. Through TD Bank N.A.,TD Wealth's Private Client Group and its affiliates work with mass affluent and high net worth individuals and institutions to help build, preserve and transition wealth. TD Wealth is committed to helping personal investors, institutional and non-profit organizations gather and potentially grow their assets by building long-lasting relationships, and is affiliated with one of the 10 largest financial institutions in the U.S., TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank. From private banking, securities, investment advisory services, private trust, and estate planning, to institutional trust, including retirement planning, captive insurance and trustee services, TD Wealth creates and delivers customized and integrated wealth management solutions. TD Wealth is a service mark of The Toronto-Dominion Bank. For more information, visit http://www.tdbank.com/investments .

About TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank

TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank, is one of the 10 largest banks in the U.S., providing more than 9 million customers with a full range of retail, small business and commercial banking products and services at more than 1,200 convenient locations throughout the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Metro D.C., the Carolinas and Florida. In addition, TD Bank and its subsidiaries offer customized private banking and wealth management services through TD Wealth, and vehicle financing and dealer commercial services through TD Auto Finance. TD Bank is headquartered in Cherry Hill, N.J. To learn more, visit www.tdbank.com. Find TD Bank on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TDBank and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/TDBank_US.

TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank, is a member of TD Bank Group and a subsidiary of The Toronto-Dominion Bank of Toronto, Canada, a top 10 financial services company in North America. The Toronto-Dominion Bank trades on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges under the ticker symbol "TD". To learn more, visit www.td.com.

SOURCE TD Wealth
WASHINGTON, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The family of Carmen Schentrup, who was killed in the February mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., has established the Carmen Schentrup ALS Research Fund to support research into a cure for ALS. Any donations made to the fund will go directly to ALS research through The ALS Association.

Schentrup, a National Merit Finalist who was accepted into the University of Florida Honors Program and as a University of Washington Purple and Gold Scholar, planned to begin college in the fall.

"Carmen wanted to make the world a better place. She was determined to become a leading medical researcher and discover a cure for ALS. We truly believe that Carmen was going to change the world," said April Schentrup, Carmen's mother.

"Please join Carmen in her quest to find a cure for ALS," she added.

The family established the Carmen Schentrup ALS Research Fund with an initial gift of $5,628.84  Carmen's entire life savings.

"We mourn the loss of all the victims of this senseless tragedy and extend our deepest sympathies to their families and loved ones. Carmen dreamed of a world that was free of ALS, a vision we share at The ALS Association. It is with heavy hearts that we join her family in fighting to make Carmen's dream come true," said Calaneet Balas, president and CEO of The ALS Association.

The ALS Association is committed to helping grow the Carmen Schentrup ALS Research Fund to more than $50,000, a tenfold increase from Carmen's life savings. Donations can be made here.

About ALS

ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Eventually, people with ALS lose the ability to initiate and control muscle movement, which often leads to total paralysis and death within two to five years of diagnosis. For unknown reasons, veterans are twice as likely to develop ALS as the general population.

About The ALS Association

The ALS Association is the only national non-profit organization fighting Lou Gehrig's Disease on every front. By leading the way in global research, providing assistance for people with ALS through a nationwide network of chapters, coordinating multidisciplinary care through certified clinical care centers, and fostering government partnerships, The ALS Association builds hope and enhances quality of life while aggressively searching for new treatments and a cure. For more information about The ALS Association, visit our website at www.alsa.org.

SOURCE The ALS Association

Related Links

http://www.alsa.org


FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- FMC GlobalSat Holdings, Inc. has appointed Edward M. Stern, President/CEO of PowerBridge LLC, to join the company as independent director of the Board.

"With his vast project development and management experience in transmission, hydropower, biomass, solar and offshore and onshore wind projects, Ed Stern has a deep understanding of market, regulatory and communication requirements when it comes to the renewable energy sector," says Emmanuel Cotrel, chief executive officer at FMC GlobalSat. "We are confident he will provide valuable perspectives as we execute our strategy, drive profitability and enhance value for our shareholders."

PowerBridge is the leading developer of non-utility, privately financed, electric transmission systems in the U.S. The company has developed, financed and constructed more than 1.3 GW of transmission capacity, with a total investment in excess of $1.5 billion.

Stern has more than 30 years of experience leading the successful development, financing, construction, operation and ownership of major energy and infrastructure projects, including developing and building the Neptune Regional Transmission System, completed in 2007, and the Hudson Transmission Project, completed in 2013. Both projects were completed on budget and ahead of schedule.

From 1991 through 2004, Stern was employed by Enel North America, Inc.  the North American subsidiary of the Italian electric utility Enel SpA. At Enel, Stern served as general counsel and, commencing in 1999, as president, director and chief executive officer.

Stern currently serves on the boards of Deepwater Wind Holdings, LLC, a developer of offshore wind projects and CAN Capital, Inc., a financial services company. He also serves on the advisory board of Starwood Energy Group Global, LLC, a private equity firm specializing in energy and infrastructure investments.



About FMC GlobalSat

FMC GlobalSat, a leading provider of global connectivity, provides best-in-class satellite and wireless solutions to markets and industries that requires long term visibility into cost, and demand strict adherence to regulatory requirements.

FMC GlobalSat provides satellite communications solutions to the renewable energy industry including Kymeta communication solutions. The company configures, integrates and deploys Kymeta solutions to support the renewable energy market with reliable, high-throughput satellites leveraging 53 satellites, 8 teleports, 20,000 miles of fiber optic, 24/7 enterprise grade technical support with 56 points of presence in 37 cities around the world.

FMC GlobalSat also offers 3G, and 4G cellular solutions across CDMA, GSM, and LTE networks in more than 190 countries, and more than 550 underlying carriers, all delivered on a single platform. FMC GlobalSat and its carrier partners' networks provide 99.995% reliability, unmatched in the IoT/M2M communications industry.

www.fmcglobalsat.com



For Press Inquiries:

Mark Del Franco

Director of Communications

FMC GlobalSat

(954) 678-0697

SOURCE FMC GlobalSat

Related Links

fmcglobalsat.com


The Red Dot Design Award, which is internationally recognized as one of the world's top industrial design awards, was founded by the German Design Council with over 60 years of history and is called one of the three major design awards in the world with the German "iF award" and the American "IDEA award." The four awarded products of MINISO are: the U-Fan (U-shape mini fan), the CirXquare Mini Fan (with portable power source), the Collapsible Neck Pillow and the Wave Book. Good design can improve the added value of products and interesting ideas can make daily life full of surprise. MINISO certainly achieves these characteristics, which makes daily used products equipped with vitality.

The U-Fan which won the Red Dot Design Award:

The fan has a unique u-shaped bracket, which is different from the traditional hand-held fan design. The U-shaped fan is easy to use, and the u-shaped handle has multi-functions, which can be used as a hook. When folded at 45 degrees, the U-fan can be placed on a desktop to meet various users' needs.

The CirXquare mini fan which won the Red Dot Design Award:

The CirXquare is an innovative portable hand-held mini fan that combines the functions of a mini fan and a power bank. A circular miniature fan is fused with a rectangular mobile power supply, and the asymmetrical appearance adds a sense of future design. The built-in large-capacity battery greatly extends the operating time of the fan, with the charge interface being at the bottom of the fan.

In terms of the overall design style, MINISO has always adhered to minimalism and tried to carry out the brand proposition of "returning to nature and restoring the essence of products." It hopes to lead consumers to build a sound consumption outlook through MINISO's simple but lively aesthetics of design and advocate a sustainable development attitude towards life at the same time. In the process of turning creativity into reality, it is the details that determine success or failure. The four awarded products are not only simple in appearance but also eye-catching, and it is more importantly that they successfully identify and solve users' problems.

The Collapsible Neck Pillow which won the Red Dot Design Award:

The Collapsible Neck Pillow is designed for frequent travelers. The product is ergonomically designed and can be used in a variety of places, such as aircrafts and trains. Its soft packing has a memory function, which can solve the problems of head and neck discomfort and muscle pain during long distance travel. When folded, the product size is reduced by 50%, which does not increase storage space, and is the ideal companion for travel.

While sticking to the core principle of "high quality but low-price," MINISO also pays high attention to the appearance of products. Good-looking products must come from good design. Mr. Ye Guofu, the global co-founder and CEO of MINISO always says that the design cost of MINISO is over RMB 100 million per year, and this number is increasing year by year. Good product must come from good designers. On one hand, MINISO has fostered many outstanding designers to expand its designer team and to unify its design style; on the other hand, it has enlisted top designers from different countries such as Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Japan, South Korea and China. In addition, considering the target consumers of MINISO are mainly the 15-35 year old young people, such as college students and white-collar workers, MINISO carried out cooperation with colleges and universities, such as the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. Among the winners of the Red Dot Design Award, some of them are from Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts.

The cover of this notebook is an undulating wave design, with visual and tactile unique experience and high recognition. The undulating waves can also provide a suitable placement for pens when writing.

So far, MINISO has opened more than 2600 stores in 62 countries and regions, with USD 1.8 billion revenue in 2017. With the expansion to the world, MINISO has explored the automatic product design mechanism since last year. By building a designers sharing platform, individual designers become the designers of MINISO. Factories (production), designers (design) and stores (channels) eventually form an industrial chain closed loop. Only in this way can MINISO continuously introduce more good-looking products to consumers and let them enjoy the pleasant experience of design.

SOURCE MINISO Japan
NEW YORK, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Once again, the French Bulldog took San Francisco's top spot in the American Kennel Club's (AKC) 2017 ranking of the most popular AKC-recognized dog breeds in the U.S.

The French Bulldog was also recognized as the #1 pup in New York City and West Palm Beach.

Dachshunds moved back up into the top 10 in 2017, going from 14th to 10th, while Cavalier King Charles Spaniels moved out of the top 10, slipping from 7th to 11th.

"San Francisco shows its love for the French Bulldog for the third year in a row," said AKC Executive Secretary Gina DiNardo. "The nation's love for this playful, smart breed is evident in the Bay Area."

San Francisco's top 5 breeds for 2017:

San Francisco's Most Popular Breeds 2017 1. French Bulldog 2. Golden Retriever 3. Labrador Retriever 4. Pembroke Welsh Corgi 5. Poodle

* Registration data pulled from San Francisco zip codes as specified by U.S. Postal Service

The French Bulldog was also a notable favorite among the city's distinct neighborhoods:

Soma: French Bulldog

French Bulldog Castro: French Bulldog

French Bulldog Portrero: French Bulldog

French Bulldog Pacific Heights: Golden Retriever

Golden Retriever Nopa: Golden Retriever

Golden Retriever Nob Hill: French Bulldog

French Bulldog The Mission: French Bulldog

The AKC also announced its nationwide rankings today in a press conference at its New York City headquarters. The intelligent, family friendly Labrador Retriever firmly holds on to the number one spot on the most popular list for a record-breaking 27th consecutive year.

While the Labrador Retriever remains a constant at the top of the charts, the big mover and shaker in 2017 was the French Bulldog. The easygoing, playful, adaptable Frenchie not only jumped two spots to number four, it knocked the Beagle out of the top five for the first time since 1998.

Most Popular Breeds Nationwide 2017 1. Labrador Retriever 2. German Shepherd Dog 3. Golden Retriever 4. French Bulldog 5. Bulldog

Get social with the AKC! Join us on Facebook and Twitter.

The American Kennel Club, founded in 1884, is a not-for-profit organization which maintains the largest registry of purebred dogs in the world and oversees the sport of purebred dogs in the United States. The AKC is dedicated to upholding the integrity of its registry, promoting the sport of purebred dogs and breeding for type and function. Along with its nearly 5,000 licensed and member clubs and its affiliated organizations, the AKC advocates for the purebred dog as a family companion, advances canine health and well-being, works to protect the rights of all dog owners and promotes responsible dog ownership. More than 20,000 competitions for AKC-registered purebred dogs are held under AKC rules and regulations each year including conformation, agility, obedience, rally, tracking, herding, lure coursing, coonhound events, hunt tests, field and earthdog tests. Affiliate AKC organizations include the AKC Humane Fund, AKC Canine Health Foundation, AKC Companion Animal Recovery and the AKC Museum of the Dog. For more information, visit www.akc.org.

AKC, American Kennel Club, the American Kennel Club seal and design, and all associated marks and logos are trademarks, registered trademarks and service marks of The American Kennel Club, Inc.



To become a fan of the AKC on Facebook, go to http://www.facebook.com/americankennelclub. To follow the AKC on Twitter, go to http://www.twitter.com/akcdoglovers.

SOURCE American Kennel Club

Related Links

http://www.akc.org


NEW YORK, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- This year, the French Bulldog took Los Angeles' top spot in the American Kennel Club's (AKC) 2017 ranking of the most popular AKC-recognized dog breeds in the U.S.

The French Bulldog was also recognized as the #1 pup in New York City and Honolulu.

After landing in L.A.'s top five in 2016, the Yorkshire Terrier fell to ninth in 2017. In addition, German Shepherd Dogs fell one spot to number five.

"The French Bulldog has taken the country by storm," said AKC Executive Secretary Gina DiNardo. "The Frenchie has unseated its English cousin the Bulldog as the number one most popular in Los Angeles, a spot it has held for many years."

L.A.'s top 5 breeds for 2017:

L.A.'s Most Popular Breeds 2017 1. French Bulldog 2. Bulldog 3. Labrador Retriever 4. Golden Retriever 5. German Shepherd Dog

* Registration data pulled from Los Angeles zip codes as specified by U.S. Postal Service

The AKC also announced its nationwide rankings today in a press conference at its New York City headquarters. The intelligent, family friendly Labrador Retriever firmly holds on to the number one spot on the most popular list for a record-breaking 27th consecutive year.

While the Labrador Retriever remains a constant at the top of the charts, the big mover and shaker in 2017 was the French Bulldog. The easygoing, playful, adaptable Frenchie not only jumped two spots to number four, it knocked the Beagle out of the top five for the first time since 1998.

Most Popular Breeds Nationwide 2017 1. Labrador Retriever 2. German Shepherd Dog 3. Golden Retriever 4. French Bulldog 5. Bulldog

Get social with the AKC! Join us on Facebook and Twitter.

The American Kennel Club, founded in 1884, is a not-for-profit organization which maintains the largest registry of purebred dogs in the world and oversees the sport of purebred dogs in the United States. The AKC is dedicated to upholding the integrity of its registry, promoting the sport of purebred dogs and breeding for type and function. Along with its nearly 5,000 licensed and member clubs and its affiliated organizations, the AKC advocates for the purebred dog as a family companion, advances canine health and well-being, works to protect the rights of all dog owners and promotes responsible dog ownership. More than 20,000 competitions for AKC-registered purebred dogs are held under AKC rules and regulations each year including conformation, agility, obedience, rally, tracking, herding, lure coursing, coonhound events, hunt tests, field and earthdog tests. Affiliate AKC organizations include the AKC Humane Fund, AKC Canine Health Foundation, AKC Companion Animal Recovery and the AKC Museum of the Dog. For more information, visit www.akc.org.

AKC, American Kennel Club, the American Kennel Club seal and design, and all associated marks and logos are trademarks, registered trademarks and service marks of The American Kennel Club, Inc.

To become a fan of the AKC on Facebook, go to http://www.facebook.com/americankennelclub. To follow the AKC on Twitter, go to http://www.twitter.com/akcdoglovers.

SOURCE American Kennel Club

Related Links

http://www.akc.org/


EDINA, Minnesota, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

According to a new market intelligence report by BIS Research, titled "Global Big Data in Healthcare Market- Analysis and Forecast, 2017-2025", the big data in healthcare was estimated $14.25 billion in 2017, and is estimated to grow over $68.75 billion by the end of 2025. With the unprecedented growth in healthcare data, organizations are employing analytical tools, artificial intelligence, and machine learning techniques to derive data-driven insights in order to reduce healthcare costs, enhance revenue streams, develop personalized medicine, and manage proactive patient care.

(Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/495163/BIS_Research_Logo.jpg )



Browse 53 market Data Tables and 180 Figures spread through 303 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Global Big Data in Healthcare Market"

BIS Research Report: https://bisresearch.com/industry-report/global-big-data-in-healthcare-market-2025.html

Healthcare data is growing at rampant rates and is projected to exceed 2,314 exabytes by 2020, driven by falling storage costs. Moreover, the emergence of cloud-based services and subscription models has reduced the up-front investment and infrastructure development required for managing the big data. The increase in the adoption rate of wearable devices, mHealth, and eHealth services has further boosted the amount of patient data available for research. The booming supply of medical information from various sources has the potential to transform the healthcare delivery system, reduce costs, improve patient outcomes and help in the provision of value-based care.

According to Shazlie Khan, an analyst at BIS Research, "The big data in healthcare market is going to be driven by an urgent need to control rising healthcare costs and to improve patient outcomes and resource management. Among components and services, analytics services contributed the lion's share of $5.80 billion in 2017. Clinical analytics will be an investment priority for most of the hospitals due to regulatory requirements to make 'meaningful use' of healthcare data, the need to reduce medical errors, and to enhance population health management. North America was the largest market for big data in health in 2017, with 55% market share, and is expected to remain the largest revenue generating region throughout the forecast period. Big data in healthcare market in the APAC region will grow at the fastest rate due to increasing adoption of data management infrastructure in the region."

Research Highlights:

 Among different big data components and services, analytics services dominated the market with $5.80 billion revenue generation in 2017 and are expected to grow at a CAGR of 22.3% during the forecast period 2017-2025.

 Financial analytics was the most popular application of analytics services in the healthcare, with revenue generation of $2.90 billion in 2017. However, clinical analytics is expected to grow at the fastest CAGR of 23.77% through the forecast period.

 Geographically, North America is the largest market for the big data in healthcare and is expected to reach $31.12 billion by 2025. Within North America, the U.S. is the largest market contributing to 91% of the overall North America market in 2017.

Request for Sample Report: https://bisresearch.com/requestsample?id=505&type=download

This market intelligence report provides a multidimensional view of the global big data in healthcare market in terms of market size and growth potential. The research report aims at answering various aspects of the big data in healthcare market with the help of key factors driving the market, threats that can possibly inhibit the overall market growth, and the current growth opportunities that are going to shape the future trajectory of the market expansion. The study considers the growth-share matrix model for a comprehensive study of the market and assesses the factors governing the same.

Furthermore, the competitive landscape chapter in the report explicates the competitive nature of the global market and enables the reader to get acquainted with the recent market activities, such as product launches, regulatory clearance and certifications, partnerships, collaborations, as well as mergers and acquisitions. The research report provides a comprehensive analysis of various big data software, hardware components and analytics services and trend analysis by segments and demand, and by geographical regions.

This report is a meticulous compilation of research on more than 150 players in the market ecosystem and draws upon insights from the in-depth interviews with the key opinion leaders of more than 60 leading companies, market participants, and vendors. The report also profiles 21 companies including several key players, such as McKesson Corporation, Optum, Epic Systems, Allscripts, IBM, Tableau, SAP and SAS among others.

Key questions answered in the report:

How has the big data in healthcare market evolved in the past, and what is its scope in the future?

What are the major market drivers, challenges, and opportunities in the market?

How will the market for big data hardware, software and services grow during the forecast period, and what will be the revenue generated by each segment by the end of 2025?

What are the adoption rates of different healthcare information systems across the regions?

What are the key developmental strategies implemented by the key players to stand out in this market?

What are the most prominent applications of big data analytics and why? How will the demand for different applications evolve during the forecast period?

What are the demands for big data in healthcare components and analytics services in different geographical regions? Which application will witness the fastest growth in each country?

Related Reports:

Global Medical Image Analytics Market - Analysis and Forecast (2017-2025)

Global Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS) Market, Analysis and Forecast, (2017-2025)

Global Precision Medicine Market -Analysis and Forecast (2017-2026)

About BIS Research:

BIS Research is a global B2B market intelligence and advisory firm which focuses on those emerging trends in technology which are likely to disrupt the dynamics of the market.

With over 150 market research reports published annually, BIS Research focuses on Healthcare, Automotive, Aerospace and Agriculture and other key industries that are seeing rapid technological disruption.

Our in-depth market intelligence reports focus on the market estimations, technology analysis, emerging high-growth applications, deeply segmented granular country-level market data and other important market parameters useful in the strategic decision making for senior management.

Contact:

Bhavya Banga

Email: [email protected]

BIS Research

7400 Metro Blvd

Suite 390 Edina

MN 55439



Visit our Blog @ http://bisresearch.com/blog/

Connect with us on LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/company/3720474

Connect with us on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/BISResearch

SOURCE BIS Research
DUBLIN, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

The "Chemical Tankers Market by Product Type (Organic Chemicals, Inorganic Chemicals, Vegetable Oils & Fats), Fleet Type (IMO 1, IMO 2, IMO 3), Fleet Material (Stainless Steel, Coated), Fleet Size, and Region - Global Forecast to 2022" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The chemical tankers market is projected to grow from USD 26.63 Billion in 2017 to USD 33.11 Billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 4.5% between 2017 and 2022.

The flourishing chemical industry and increasing capacities of chemical manufacturers are driving the demand for chemical tankers across the globe. Moreover, the increasing demand for vegetable oils & fats is also expected to fuel the growth of the chemical tankers market during the forecast period.



The Asia Pacific region is estimated to be the largest market for chemical tankers during the forecast period. The Asia Pacific chemical tankers market is also projected to grow at the highest CAGR, in terms of value and volume during the forecast period. China is projected to lead the Asia Pacific chemical tankers market during the forecast period. The China chemical tankers market is also projected to grow at the highest CAGR, in terms of value and volume during the forecast period.



Slow growth in the production of crude oil and formulation and implementation of regulations related to oil bunkering act as restraints to the growth of the chemical tankers market. Low international prices of crude oil and reduced capital investments for its exploration over the past few years have led to the slow production of crude oil. Moreover, low investments for exploring and producing crude oil between 2013 and 2015 in the US have impacted the production of shale oil in the country. The oil production has decreased in China as well, owing to the low oil price environment in the country.



The major players operating in the chemical tankers market are Bahri (Saudi Arabia), Stolt-Nielsen (UK), Odfjell (Norway), Navig8 (UK), MOL Chemical Tankers (Singapore), Nordic Tankers (Denmark), Wilmar International (Singapore), MISC Berhad (Malaysia), Team Tankers (Bermuda), and Iino Kaiun Kaisha (Japan).



These leading players have adopted the strategy of agreements to increase their shares in the chemical tankers market and cater to the increasing demand for tankers used for shipping chemicals and chemical products. For instance, Odfjell (Norway) signed an agreement with Sinochem Shipping (Singapore) in November 2017.

According to this agreement, Odfjell (Norway) is expected to take four new orders from Sinochem Shipping (Singapore) to manufacture 840,900 DWT chemical tankers. This agreement aims at enabling Odfjell (Norway) to serve the growing demand for chemical tankers, which are used to ship chemicals and chemical products.



The leading players operating in the market have also adopted the strategies of expansions, joint ventures, agreements, and acquisitions to increase their shares in the chemical tankers market between 2014 and 2017.

Key Topics Covered:



1 Introduction



2 Research Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Premium Insights

4.1 Attractive Opportunities for the Chemical Tankers Market

4.2 APAC: Chemical Tankers Market, By Product Type and Country

4.3 Chemical Tankers Market, By Fleet Type

4.4 Chemical Tankers Market, By Fleet Size

4.5 Chemical Tankers Market, By Fleet Material



5 Market Overview

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Market Dynamics

5.2.1 Drivers

5.2.1.1 Growth of the Chemical Industry

5.2.1.2 Increasing Demand for Oilseeds/Vegetable Oils & Fats

5.2.2 Restraints

5.2.2.1 Slow Growth in Crude Oil Production

5.2.2.2 Oil Bunkering Regulations

5.2.3 Opportunities

5.2.3.1 Increasing Production of Chemicals in APAC

5.2.3.2 Oversupply in the Chemical Tankers Industry

5.2.4 Challenges

5.2.4.1 Political Unrest in the Middle East & North Africa

5.3 Porter's Five Forces Analysis

5.4 Macroeconomic Indicators

5.4.1 GDP Growth Rate Forecast of Major Economies

5.4.2 Chemicals and Vegetable Oils Statistics



6 Chemical Tankers Market, By Product Type

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Organic Chemicals

6.3 Inorganic Chemicals

6.4 Vegetable Oils & Fats

6.5 Others



7 Chemical Tankers Market, By Fleet Type

7.1 Introduction

7.2 IMO Type 1

7.3 IMO Type 2

7.4 IMO Type 3



8 Chemical Tankers Market, By Fleet Size

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Inland

8.3 Coastal

8.4 Deep Sea



9 Chemical Tankers Market, By Fleet Material

9.1 Introduction

9.2 Stainless Steel

9.3 Coated



10 Chemical Tankers Market, By Region



11 Competitive Landscape



12 Company Profiles



Aurora Tankers Management Pte. Ltd.

Bahri

Champion Tankers

Chembulk

Iino Kaiun Kaisha, Ltd.

Laurine Maritime

MISC Berhad

Maersk Tankers

Mol Chemical Tankers Pte. Ltd.

Navig8

Nordic Tankers A/S

Odfjell

Southern Chemical Corporation

Stena Bulk

Stolt-Nielsen

Team Tankers International Ltd.

Waterfront Shipping

Wilmar International Ltd.

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/48lp8z/global_chemical?w=5





Media Contact:

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com


CHEYENNE, Wyo., March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Goalz Restaurant Group, recently formed franchise operator for three brands: Captain D's, Church's Chicken, and Dog Haus, announced today the appointment of Steve Piascik as partner and chief financial officer. In his new role, Piascik will be responsible for creating and establishing yearly financial objectives that align with the company's plans for growth and expansion. He will also work to maintain relationships with vendors and business partners while providing recommendations on new investment opportunities.

As the newest addition to the Goalz executive team, Piascik brings more than 28 years of financial expertise with a focus in complex accounting and tax consulting. Steve founded PIASCIK, a boutique tax and financial firm, where he provides expert financial advice regarding high-level issues to an array of clients including restaurants, financial institutions, real estate, publicly traded, and international companies. Prior to founding his firm, Steve served as a senior tax manager for international accounting firm KPMG LLP, where he managed finances for technology and emerging growth companies. Piascik earned a bachelor's in business administration from Bloomsburg University and a master's in taxation from Virginia Commonwealth University.

"Goalz is thrilled to welcome the newest addition to our executive team," said Shawn Eby, chief executive officer of Goalz Restaurant Group. "With Steve's impressive portfolio of financial expertise across a variety of industries and clients, we are certain he will play a vital role in our organization's overall success."

Goalz recently opened their newest Dog Haus restaurant in Decatur, Illinois in January. The celebrated craft casual concept known for its gourmet hot dogs, sausages, burgers and one-of-a-kind creations, entered the Illinois market with their first location Rockford at the end of 2017. In line with their company-wide mission to be able to show the difference each Goalz Restaurant has made in their respective communities, they aim to partner with local organizations to conduct food drives and host fundraisers.

Goalz Restaurant Group plans to open and operate more than 250 restaurants over the next five years across ten states, with a goal to help employees become owners in their own restaurant or franchise and be known as the company that always goes an extra degree when it comes to food quality, guest service, friendly staff and restaurant cleanliness. For more information on Goalz Restaurant Group and career opportunities, visit http://www.goalzllc.com/.

ABOUT GOALZ RESTAURANT GROUP

Goalz Restaurant Group is a multi-unit restaurant operator that was formed by four restaurant industry veterans who had a goal to start and develop their own company focused around helping others. Goalz Restaurant Group is currently scheduled to open 265 restaurants over the next few years across ten states, (NC, SC, GA, FL, LA, OH, CO, WY, KY, IL) and has additional plans to grow further.

Contact:

Kerry Hylton

Fish Consulting

954-893-9150

[email protected]

SOURCE Goalz Restaurant Group

Related Links

http://www.goalzllc.com


BOSTON, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Boston-area dental patients can smile a little brighter knowing they are also bringing a smile to the face of a child in need. The 20th annual Smiles For Life Campaign began this month, which means dental patients can brighten a child's future just by visiting dentists at Great Hill Dental. With offices in Boston, Somerville, Braintree, Peabody, and Chelmsford, there's a convenient Great Hill dentist in your area to both whiten your teeth and give to this wonderful children's charity. Your donation is the discounted cost of the whitening.

The campaign runs from March 1 until June 30th. The foundation uses donations from the community to help fund worthy children's charities and humanitarian work, both locally and around the world.

Local Charitable Connection

Great Hill Dental has gone even further, with each of their five offices partnering with local charities that benefit children and families directly tied to the greater Boston area. 50% off all donated proceeds goes to the Smiles for Life National charity, the remaining 50% are donated to these local-based charities:

The Boston office has partnered with Home for Little Wanderers. They serve the community with individual, group and family therapy, child and family skills development, help with adoption and foster care, and social, vocational and daily living supports, and more.





office has partnered with Home for Little Wanderers. They serve the community with individual, group and family therapy, child and family skills development, help with adoption and foster care, and social, vocational and daily living supports, and more. The Somerville office has partnered with The Somerville Homeless Coalition. The mission of the Somerville Homeless Coalition is to provide homeless and near homeless individuals and families with supportive services and affordable housing solutions.





office has partnered with The Somerville Homeless Coalition. The mission of the Somerville Homeless Coalition is to provide homeless and near homeless individuals and families with supportive services and affordable housing solutions. The Braintree office has partnered with the Marge Crispin Center, a non-profit operated by Braintree Holiday/Friends, Inc. that supports residents of Braintree in need of food and emergency aid, as well as adult day care services to seniors, holiday food and adopt-a-family programs.





office has partnered with the Marge Crispin Center, a non-profit operated by Braintree Holiday/Friends, Inc. that supports residents of in need of food and emergency aid, as well as adult day care services to seniors, holiday food and adopt-a-family programs. The Peabody office has partnered with The Boston Children's Hospital. Boston Children's Hospital is a 404-bed comprehensive center for pediatric health care, offering a complete range of health care services for children from birth through 21 years of age.





office has partnered with The Boston Children's Hospital. Boston Children's Hospital is a 404-bed comprehensive center for pediatric health care, offering a complete range of health care services for children from birth through 21 years of age. The Chelmsford office has partnered with Catie's Closet. Catie's Closet improves school attendance and removes social stigma by providing an in-school resource of clothing and basic necessities to students living below the poverty line.

"Our doctors and teams donate their time and expertise. You receive a brighter smile and, best of all, help provide children with a brighter future", said Michael Scialabba, CEO at Great Hill Dental Partners. "We feel it's important to be active and involved in the communities we serve, and we're proud to be participating in the Smiles For Life charity again this year."

About Smiles for Life (Crown Council):

The Crown Council is an alliance of driven, dedicated dentists who are committed to excellence in their practice, improving their patients' oral health and bettering the communities around them. By creating the Smiles For Life Foundation in 1998, the Crown Council has been able to provide a way for dentists to serve others through charitable work.

http://crowncouncil.com/

About Great Hill Dental Partners, LLC

Great Hill Dental Partners, LLC provides restorative dentistry, implant therapy, oral surgery, root canal therapy, periodontics, orthodontics, Invisalign, pediatric dentistry, and prosthodontics, all within a multi-specialty, multi-site practice.

Among the first to offer "Whole Health Dentistry" in the Boston area, Great Hill Dental focuses on the medically proven connection between a patient's oral health and their overall health, with customized treatment designed for the individual based upon their unique needs and goals.

Great Hill Dental Partners Contact:

For all Great Hill Dental Partners media inquiries, contact Matt Simko, Marketing Manager at email [email protected], or call (781) 790-0511.

SOURCE Great Hill Dental Partners, LLC
SAN FRANCISCO, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Hyperledger, an open source collaborative effort created to advance cross-industry blockchain technologies, announced today that 14 new organizations have joined the project. With these new members, the Hyperledger community has grown to 231 organizations in more than 25 countries.

Hyperledger has gained significant traction as a multi-project, multi-stakeholder effort and now includes 10 business blockchain and distributed ledger technologies. Building on the momentum from the Hyperledger Sawtooth 1.0 release at the end of January, the Hyperledger Technical Steering Committee recently accepted Hyperledger Caliper, a blockchain performance benchmarking tool, into incubation. Additionally, Hyperledger Fabric version 1.1.0 was released just last week.

"The accelerating pace of growth and adoption of Hyperledger across industries and geographies underscores the power of our community and the technologies it is building," said Brian Behlendorf, Executive Director, Hyperledger. "It also reflects a global awakening to the impact of blockchain for business. Every day, we hear from organizations with new ideas and new applications for our frameworks. Our growing and diverse membership is key to turning that energy and innovation into the building blocks for increasingly business critical deployments."

Hyperledger aims to enable organizations to build robust, industry-specific applications, platforms and hardware systems to support their individual business transactions by creating enterprise-grade, open source distributed ledger frameworks and code bases. It is a global collaboration of leaders in finance, banking, IoT, supply chain, manufacturing and technology. The latest general members to join are: Beijing Truth Technology, Blockchain Technology Partners, CULedger, Greenstream Technology, KompiTech, MATRIX Foundation, REMME, Ripple, Shenzhen Rongxun Technology, Spin Systems, Versia and Xiilab Co.

Hyperledger supports an open community that values contributions and participation from various entities. As such, pre-approved non-profits, open source projects and government entities can join Hyperledger at no cost as associate members. Associate members joining this month include: Cambridge Centre For Alternative Finance (University of Cambridge) and Kerala Blockchain Academy.

New member quotes:

Beijing Truth Technology

"Truth Tech views the adoption of blockchain technology as a powerful tool for helping us accelerate our mission of developing a universal legal blockchain underlying infrastructure," said Rokken Shek, Founder, Beijing Truth Technology Co., Ltd. "We are actively aggregating the leading technology and resources of Hyperledger and collaborating with the community on our industrial blockchain  a unified, legally trustworthy cloud computing platform designed to eliminate isolated information islands, ensure data security, promote the valuable flow of data and enhance the government authority and service level of judiciary in public data service. Additionally, we are actively constructing the 'Legaltech Blockchain Alliance,' called legalXchain, by using Hyperledger Fabric as the framework to serve intelligent judiciary, Internet nomocracy, Internet governance transparency, copyright protection and digital assets trading."

Blockchain Technology Partners

"After being an active member of the Hyperledger community for the past two years at my previous company, Cloudsoft, engaging with the community at BTP was a priority," said Duncan Johnston-Watt, CEO of Blockchain Technology Partners. "BTP is committed to both consuming and contributing to open source. We provide a production ready blockchain platform built using Hyperledger Sawtooth, and we partner with businesses to deliver blockchain-based solutions that we then operate on their behalf using Apache Brooklyn. Our first customer is The Scotcoin Project, which is the community interest company behind Scotcoin, Scotland's digital currency."

CULedger

"Until now, CULedger's involvement in Hyperledger has been through our valued partners," said Julie Esser, Chief Engagement Officer of CULedger. "We are excited and honored to have this direct relationship with Hyperledger to help advance our global self-sovereign digital identity strategy for the more than 230 million credit union members worldwide."

Greenstream Technology

"We are honoured to become members of Hyperledger and the Linux Foundation," said Manu Varghese, Chief Product Officer of Greenstream. "We strongly believe that this association will support Greenstream as we achieve our vision of developing a secure, compliant & trusted enterprise grade blockchain solution for the emerging legal Cannabis industry in Canada. The collaboration through Hyperledger will provide us the resources, tools and relationships to ramp up our development of the Greenstream platform. We are excited to actively participate in the community and to drive the development of a leading-edge blockchain solution for the Canadian market."

KompiTech

"It has been really exciting working with Hyperledger in recent months, and KompiTech is delighted to join the Hyperledger family," said Greg Erhahon, CEO, KompiTech. "As a Swiss company dedicated to the delivery of quality services, we recognize the impact blockchain technology can have in optimizing our processes and helping our customers to get things done in the real world. With the power of blockchain, our platform of IT Service Providers has the potential to vastly reduce cost and complexity of delivering IT Services to customers globally."

MATRIX Foundation

"It is our great honor to join the Hyperledger community," said Steve Deng, MATRIX Chief AI Scientist. "Following the spirit of openness and global collaboration, Hyperledger has done a great job in promoting scalable and safe blockchain technologies, which are coincident with MATRIX's pursuit to build a faster, safer and easier-to-use platform running AI-empowered smart contracts. We look forward to working with other members of Hyperledger to make contributions for a human society with an unprecedented level of freedom and trust."

REMME

"The REMME PKI (d) protocol we're building makes use of Hyperledger Sawtooth, so joining the project came naturally," said Alex Momot, Founder and CEO, REMME. "We're big admirers, not only of this blockchain technology, but of the people behind it. While we're currently focused on building out the alpha release of the REMME Core protocol, we anticipate collaborating directly with other members of Hyperledger in future. By doing so, we hope to further adoption and understanding of blockchains and the many ways in which they can benefit business across all industries."

Ripple

"Through our partnership with Hyperledger, developers worldwide will be able to access Interledger Protocol (ILP) in Java for enterprise use," Stefan Thomas, Ripple CTO. "The Hyperledger Quilt project connects Hyperledger blockchains with other ILP-capable payment systems such as XRP Ledger, Ethereum, Bitcoin (Lightning), Litecoin, Mojaloop and RippleNet, helping us to deliver on our vision for an Internet of Value - where money moves as information does today."

Shenzhen Rongxun Technology

"The core potential of blockchain is the characteristics of the distributed database and how it helps transparency, security, and efficiency," said Qian Zheng, Rongxun Technology Blockchain Leader. "Rongxun Technology is delighted to join Hyperledger, as it is an important step in blockchain for us. We look forward to working with various Hyperledger communities and business partners to promote the development of blockchain technology."

Spin Systems, Inc.

"We are excited to work alongside our customers and partners to develop blockchain solutions for the financial, legal and healthcare industries," said Mr. Wael Ali, CEO, Spin Systems Inc. "We see a clear opportunity for innovative technology companies to address the cost, interoperability, and data security challenges across these organizations. Our partnership with The Linux Foundation and Hyperledger reinforces our commitment to using open standards and platforms for building highly scalable blockchain applications."

Versia

"At Versia, we are excited to be part of the evolution of Blockchain," said Manu Mosteiro, Founder and CEO, Versia. "Innovation is in our DNA and we want to share it with the Hyperledger community and collaborate in the development of this technology that will change the way we do business and surely other areas of social behaviour."

Xiilab

"Xiilab is excited to join Hyperledger and looks forward to collaborating on our goal to deliver our solution," said Wooyung Lee, CEO, Xiilab. "Our solution is to provide Data Trading for any creative Digital Assets with a fast, fair and transparent environment. We look forward to working with our members, business partners, clients and the diverse Hyperledger community to bring a comprehensive and, yet, crucial solution to the Digital Trading market."

About Hyperledger

Hyperledger is an open source collaborative effort created to advance cross-industry blockchain technologies. It is a global collaboration including leaders in finance, banking, Internet of Things, supply chains, manufacturing and Technology. The Linux Foundation hosts Hyperledger under the foundation. To learn more, visit: https://www.hyperledger.org/.

Contact:

Jessica Rampen

The Linux Foundation/Hyperledger

[email protected]

650.787.3548

SOURCE Hyperledger

Related Links

http://www.hyperledger.org


TORONTO, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - IAMGOLD Corporation ("IAMGOLD" or the "Company") today announced the first mineral resource estimate in accordance with the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum ("CIM") Definition Standards incorporated by reference in National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101") for the Monster Lake joint venture project (IAMGOLD Corporation: 50%, TomaGold Corporation: 45%, and Quinto Resources Inc.: 5% on the Monster Lake claims block), located 50 kilometres southwest of Chibougamau, Quebec, Canada.

The resource estimate comprises 1,109,700 tonnes of inferred resources averaging 12.14 grams of gold per tonne for 433,300 ounces of contained gold. This resource is contained in four discrete mineralized zones where geological and grade continuities have been demonstrated and has been estimated assuming an underground mining scenario. The most significant zone is the 325-Megane Zone which is characterized by its high grade and remains open down plunge at depth. The potential for adding additional resources along the identified shear structures is considered favourable and remains the focus of ongoing exploration programs.

Craig MacDougall, Senior Vice President, Exploration for IAMGOLD, stated, "This initial resource estimate reported for the Monster Lake project is an important milestone as we continue to evaluate the full potential of the Monster Lake area and I congratulate the exploration team for their success to date. The structural setting suggests potential for additional mineralized zones along the major structural corridor identified on the project, and the presence of parallel mineralized structures with similar high grade veins to the 325-Megane lens is encouraging, making them compelling exploration targets."

The mineral resource estimate for the Monster Lake project incorporates assay results from 105 diamond drill holes variably spaced from 50 to 200 metres apart and totaling nearly 39,000 metres. The drill hole data base comprises both historic and recent drill holes completed by the joint venture partners. The estimate was prepared using a block model constrained with 3D wireframes of the four mineralized solids constructed by InnovExplo Inc. Values for gold were interpolated into blocks using a 2-pass inverse distance squared (ID2) interpolation method. This mineral resource estimate incorporates mining assumptions relating to an underground mining extraction method to support the CIM requirement that Mineral Resources have 'reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction'. Only mineralization contained within the four mineralized wireframes has been included in the resource estimate. The effective date of this resource estimate is February 26, 2018.

A supporting NI 43-101 Technical Report will be filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com within 45 days of this release.

MINERAL RESOURCE STATEMENT  MONSTER LAKE PROJECT

Effective February 26, 2018

Classification Tonnage (000s) Gold Grade (g/t Au) Contained Ounces (Au) (000s) Inferred 1,109.7 12.14 433.3



Notes: CIM definitions were followed for classification of Mineral Resources.

Mineral Resources are not Mineral Reserves and have not demonstrated economic viability.

Results are presented in situ and undiluted.

Mineral resources are reported at a cut-off grade of 3.5 g/t Au, using a gold price of US$1,300/ounce and a Canadian$/U.S.$ exchange rate of 1.28.

Density data (g/cm 3 ) was established on a per zone basis and ranges from 2.86 to 2.88 g/cm 3 .

) was established on a per zone basis and ranges from 2.86 to 2.88 g/cm . A minimum true thickness of 2.5 m was applied, using the grade of the adjacent material when assayed or a value of zero when not assayed.

High-grade capping (g/t Au) was done on raw assay data and ranges from 20 to 150 g/t Au, based on the statistical analysis of each mineralized zone.

Resources were estimated from 1.5m drill hole composites, using a 2-pass ID2 interpolation method in a block model (block size = 3 m x 3 m x 3 m).

The number of metric tons and ounces was rounded to the nearest hundred.

About the Monster Lake Project

The Monster Lake project is underlain by Archean volcanic rocks of the Obatogamau Formation and is traversed by an important deformation corridor and associated gold-bearing mineralized structures. Historical drilling and exploration by TomaGold Corporation ("TomaGold') have identified a four-kilometre long structural corridor, along which most of the known gold occurrences discovered to date on the property are associated, including the 325-Megane Zone.

The Monster Lake Project is held under an earn-in option to joint venture agreement with TomaGold. The Company holds an undivided 50% interest in the property, and holds an option to earn a further 25% undivided interest, for a total 75% undivided interest in the Project, should it spend a total of C$10.0 million on the Project within a seven year period, beginning January 1, 2015. Should a development decision be made by the joint venture, or should the joint venture declare commercial production, TomaGold would be entitled to a further C$1.0 million payment for each of these events.

On August 14, 2017, IAMGOLD subscribed for 27.7 million common shares of TomaGold from treasury representing 19.98% of the outstanding common shares of TomaGold. The common shares were purchased at a price of C$0.09 per common share, for an aggregate purchase price of C$2.5 million. Prior to the acquisition, IAMGOLD did not hold any common shares of TomaGold.

Next Steps

IAMGOLD has initiated its 2018 exploration program which includes approximately 7,500 metres of diamond drilling. The objectives of the drilling program include: definition drilling targeting the upper part of the 325-Megane zone; testing for extensions along strike and at depth; and evaluation of newly discovered areas of mineralization adjacent to the 325-Megane zone along the Monster Lake structural corridor and in the Lower Shear zone. The program is designed to improve confidence in the continuity of the mineralization and to extend the known mineralized zones.

Forward Looking Statement

This news release contains forward-looking statements. All statements, other than of historical fact, that address activities, events or developments that the Company believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future (including, without limitation, statements regarding expected, estimated or planned gold production, all-in sustaining costs and other cost estimates, capital expenditures and exploration expenditures and statements regarding the estimation of mineral resources and mineral reserves, exploration results, life-of-mine estimates and potential mineral resources and mineral reserves) are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by use of the words "may", "will", "should", "continue", "expect", "anticipate", "estimate", "believe", "prospective", "significant", "significant potential", "substantial", transformative", "intend", "plan" or "project" or the negative of these words or other variations on these words or comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's ability to control or predict, that may cause the actual results of the Company to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things, without limitation, failure to meet expected, estimated or planned gold production, unexpected increases in all-in sustaining costs or other costs, unexpected increases in capital expenditures and exploration expenditures, variation in the mineral content within the material identified as mineral resources and mineral reserves from that predicted, changes in development or mining plans due to changes in logistical, technical or other factors, the possibility that future exploration results will not be consistent with the Company's expectations, changes in world gold markets and other risks disclosed in IAMGOLD's most recent Form 40-F/Annual Information Form on file with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and Canadian securities regulatory authorities. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement.

Qualified Persons and Technical Information

The mineral resource estimate, including verification of the data disclosed, has been completed by InnovExplo Inc. ("InnovExplo") and reported in accordance with NI 43-101 requirements and CIM Estimation Best Practice Guidelines. The resource estimate was prepared by Karine Brousseau, Eng., and Charlotte Athurion P.Geo., both of InnovExplo, under the supervision of Alain Carrier P.Geo., of InnovExplo.

Karine Brousseau, Eng. who is an independent qualified person under NI 43-101, has reviewed and approved the contents of this release. The information in this news release was reviewed and approved by Marie-France Bugnon, P. Geo., General Manager Exploration for IAMGOLD, who is considered a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

Notes to Investors Regarding the Use of Resources

Cautionary Note to Investors Concerning Estimates of Inferred Resources

This news release uses the term "inferred resources". We advise investors that while this term is recognized and required by Canadian regulations, the SEC does not recognize it. "Inferred resources" have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence, and great uncertainty as to their economic and legal feasibility. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of an inferred mineral resource will ever be upgraded to a higher category. Under Canadian rules, estimates of inferred mineral resources may not form the basis of feasibility or pre-feasibility studies, except in rare cases. Investors are cautioned not to assume that part or all of an inferred resource exists, or is economically or legally mineable.

Scientific and Technical Disclosure

IAMGOLD is reporting mineral resource estimates in accordance with the CIM guidelines for the estimation, classification and reporting of resources.

Cautionary Note to U.S. Investors

The SEC limits disclosure for U.S. reporting purposes to mineral deposits that a company can economically and legally extract or produce. IAMGOLD uses certain terms in this news release, such as "measured," "indicated," or "inferred," which may not be consistent with the resource definitions established by the SEC. U.S. investors are urged to consider closely the disclosure in the IAMGOLD Annual Reports on Forms 40-F. You can review and obtain copies of these filings from the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml or by contacting the Investor Relations department.

The Canadian Securities Administrators' NI 43-101 requires mining companies to disclose reserves and resources using the subcategories of "proven" reserves, "probable" reserves, "measured" resources, "indicated" resources and "inferred" resources. Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not demonstrate economic viability.

A mineral resource is a concentration or occurrence of natural, solid, inorganic material, or natural, solid fossilized organic material including base and precious metals in or on the Earth's crust in such form and quantity and of such a grade or quality that it has reasonable prospects for economic extraction. The location, quantity, grade, geological characteristics and continuity of a mineral resource are known, estimated or interpreted from specific geological evidence and knowledge. A measured mineral resource is that part of a mineral resource for which quantity, grade or quality, densities, shape and physical characteristics are so well established that they can be estimated with confidence sufficient to allow the appropriate application of technical and economic parameters, to support production planning and evaluation of the economic viability of the deposit. The estimate is based on detailed and reliable exploration, sampling and testing information gathered through appropriate techniques from locations such as outcrops, trenches, pits, workings and drill holes that are spaced closely enough to confirm both geological and grade continuity. An indicated mineral resource is that part of a mineral resource for which quantity, grade or quality, densities, shape and physical characteristics can be estimated with a level of confidence sufficient to allow the appropriate application of technical and economic parameters, to support mine planning and evaluation of the economic viability of the deposit. The estimate is based on detailed and reliable exploration and testing information gathered through appropriate techniques from locations such as outcrops, trenches, pits, workings and drill holes that are spaced closely enough for geological and grade continuity to be reasonably assumed. An inferred mineral resource is that part of a mineral resource for which quantity and grade or quality can be estimated on the basis of geological evidence and limited sampling and reasonably assumed, but not verified, geological and grade continuity. The estimate is based on limited information and sampling gathered through appropriate techniques from locations such as outcrops, trenches, pits, workings and drill holes. Mineral resources which are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.

Investors are cautioned not to assume that part or all of an inferred resource exists, or is economically or legally mineable.

A feasibility study is a comprehensive technical and economic study of the selected development option for a mineral project that includes appropriately detailed assessments of realistically assumed mining, processing, metallurgical, economic, marketing, legal, environmental, social and governmental considerations together with any other relevant operational factors and detailed financial analysis, that are necessary to demonstrate at the time of reporting that extraction is reasonably justified (economically mineable). The results of the study may reasonably serve as the basis for a final decision by a proponent or financial institution to proceed with, or finance, the development of the project. The confidence level of the study will be higher than that of a Pre-Feasibility Study.

A Pre-Feasibility Study is a comprehensive study of a range of options for the technical and economic viability of a mineral project that has advanced to a stage where a preferred mining method, in the case of underground mining, or the pit configuration, in the case of an open pit, is established and an effective method of mineral processing is determined. It includes a financial analysis based on reasonable assumptions on mining, processing, metallurgical, economic, marketing, legal, environmental, social and governmental considerations and the evaluation of any other relevant factors which are sufficient for a qualified person, acting reasonably, to determine if all or part of the Mineral Resource may be classified as a Mineral Reserve.

About IAMGOLD

IAMGOLD ( www.iamgold.com ) is a mid-tier mining company with four operating gold mines on three continents. A solid base of strategic assets in North and South America and West Africa is complemented by development and exploration projects and continued assessment of accretive acquisition opportunities. IAMGOLD is in a strong financial position with extensive management and operational expertise.

For further information please contact :

Ken Chernin, VP Investor Relations, IAMGOLD Corporation

Tel: (416) 360-4743 Mobile: (416) 388-6883

Laura Young, Director, Investor Relations, IAMGOLD Corporation

Tel: (416) 933-4952 Mobile: (416) 670-3815

Martin Dumont, Senior Analyst Investor Relations, IAMGOLD Corporation

Tel: (416) 933-5783 Mobile: (647) 967-9942

Toll-free: 1-888-464-9999 [email protected]

Please note:

This entire news release may be accessed via fax, e-mail, IAMGOLD's website at www.iamgold.com and through CNW Group's website at www.newswire.ca. All material information on IAMGOLD can be found at www.sedar.com or at www.sec.gov.

Si vous desirez obtenir la version francaise de ce communique, veuillez consulter le http://www.iamgold.com/French/accueil/default.aspx.

SOURCE IAMGOLD Corporation

Related Links

http://www.iamgold.com


"Jonathan is a dynamic leader and a strategic thinker who brings years of senior healthcare administration experience to Broward Health Imperial Point," said Broward Health President/CEO Beverly Capasso. "We are thrilled that he's joining our leadership team and I'm confident that he will lead BHIP's continued success."

With more than 10 years of combined healthcare administration and general management experience, Watkins most recently served as chief operating officer at Kaiser Foundation Hospitals & Health Plan in California's Central Valley area, where he facilitated, directed and coordinated operational activities and programs related to the day-to-day operations of three hospitals. Prior to that, he served as vice president of clinical operations/chief operating officer of Medical North Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., where he was responsible for leading, developing and executing key business strategies, as well as directing and administering day-to-day operations.

Watkins holds a master's degree in public administration with a certification in health administration, as well as a bachelor's degree in healthcare administration and planning from Tennessee State University. He is also a certified Six Sigma Black Belt and board certified in healthcare management as a Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives (FACHE). He was named the 2013 National Association of Health Services Executives Young Healthcare Executive of the Year and is past president of the Memphis chapter of the National Association of Health Service Executives.

About Broward Health

Broward Health, providing service for more than 80 years, is a nationally recognized system in South Florida that offers world-class healthcare to all. The Broward Health system includes the statutory teaching hospital Broward Health Medical Center, Broward Health North, Broward Health Imperial Point, Broward Health Coral Springs, Salah Foundation Children's Hospital, Broward Health Weston, Broward Health Community Health Services, Broward Health Physician Group, Broward Health Urgent Care, Broward Health International, and Broward Health Foundation. For more information, visit BrowardHealth.org.

Media Contact:

Jennifer Smith, Director of Corporate Communications

954.473.7055

[email protected]

SOURCE Broward Health
HOUSTON, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- KBR, Inc. (NYSE: KBR) announced today that it has been awarded an ammonia plant contract by Toyo Engineering Corporation (TOYO) for the Hindustan Urvarak and Rasayan Ltd (HURL) greenfield urea project in Gorakhpur, India. Under the terms of the contract, KBR will provide licensing and basic engineering design (LBED) services for the project.

HURL is a joint venture of three of the most prestigious Indian public sector companies  Coal India Limited (CIL), NTPC Limited (NTPC) and Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL)  in cooperation with Fertilizer Corporation of India Limited (FCIL) and Hindustan Fertilizer Corporation Limited (HFCL).

HURL's Gorakhpur plant is an important milestone for the Government of India towards making India self-sufficient in urea production and is the first initiative of its kind by the Indian Government since the last set of plants were built over 10 years ago. The foundation stone of the project was laid by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in July 2016.

"We are pleased that KBR's ammonia technology has been selected for the first greenfield urea plant being set-up by HURL as part of this initiative by the Government of India," said John Derbyshire, President, KBR Technology & Consulting. "This project will be an important milestone for India to meet its urea demand and KBR is honored and proud to be a part of this project."

"HURL project at Gorakhpur shows the commitment and support of Government of India, Niti Aayog, Department of Fertilizer under Indian Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers and promoter companies, towards the Indian Fertilizer sector," said Mr. Arun Kumar Gupta, Managing Director, HURL. "We believe that with best technologies and project management practices, this project will fulfill our vision of growth, efficiency and building national self-sufficiency."

KBR is a leader in ammonia technology and has been involved in the licensing, design, engineering, and/or construction of more than 230 grass roots ammonia plants and over 100 revamp ammonia projects globally.

About KBR, Inc.

KBR is a global provider of differentiated professional services and technologies across the asset and program life cycle within the Government Services and Hydrocarbons sectors. KBR employs approximately 34,000 people worldwide (including our joint ventures), with customers in more than 75 countries, and operations in 40 countries, across three synergistic global businesses:

Government Services, serving government customers globally, including capabilities that cover the full life-cycle of defense, space, aviation and other government programs and missions from research and development, through systems engineering, test and evaluation, program management, to operations, maintenance, and field logistics

Technology & Consulting, including proprietary technology focused on the monetization of hydrocarbons (especially natural gas and natural gas liquids) in ethylene and petrochemicals; ammonia, nitric acid and fertilizers; oil refining; gasification; oil and gas consulting; integrity management; naval architecture and proprietary hulls; and downstream consulting

Engineering & Construction, including onshore oil and gas; LNG (liquefaction and regasification)/GTL; oil refining; petrochemicals; chemicals; fertilizers; differentiated EPC; maintenance services (Brown & Root Industrial Services); offshore oil and gas (shallow-water, deep-water, subsea); floating solutions (FPU, FPSO, FLNG & FSRU) and program management

KBR is proud to work with its customers across the globe to provide technology, value-added services, integrated EPC delivery and long term operations and maintenance services to ensure consistent delivery with predictable results. At KBR, We Deliver.

Visit www.kbr.com

Forward Looking Statement

The statements in this press release that are not historical statements, including statements regarding future financial performance, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the company's control that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results expressed or implied by the statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: the outcome of and the publicity surrounding audits and investigations by domestic and foreign government agencies and legislative bodies; potential adverse proceedings by such agencies and potential adverse results and consequences from such proceedings; the scope and enforceability of the company's indemnities from its former parent; changes in capital spending by the company's customers; the company's ability to obtain contracts from existing and new customers and perform under those contracts; structural changes in the industries in which the company operates; escalating costs associated with and the performance of fixed-fee projects and the company's ability to control its cost under its contracts; claims negotiations and contract disputes with the company's customers; changes in the demand for or price of oil and/or natural gas; protection of intellectual property rights; compliance with environmental laws; changes in government regulations and regulatory requirements; compliance with laws related to income taxes; unsettled political conditions, war and the effects of terrorism; foreign operations and foreign exchange rates and controls; the development and installation of financial systems; increased competition for employees; the ability to successfully complete and integrate acquisitions; and operations of joint ventures, including joint ventures that are not controlled by the company.

KBR's most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K, any subsequent Form 10-Qs and 8-Ks, and other Securities and Exchange Commission filings discuss some of the important risk factors that KBR has identified that may affect the business, results of operations and financial condition. Except as required by law, KBR undertakes no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason.

SOURCE KBR, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.kbr.com


SAN FRANCISCO, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Attorney Advertising -- Keller Grover LLP is investigating recent reports that Bronson Laboratories may have been the victim of a malware attack involving customers' payment card information, including cardholder name and address, payment card number, security code and expiration date.

According to a letter sent to potentially affected customers, Bronson Laboratories fell victim to a malware attack around May 15, 2017. Customers who made purchases online and by telephone between May 15, 2017 and January 30, 2018 may have been affected.

"Credit card information, especially the card number and CRV security code, is highly confidential, and customers count on merchants to protect that information from disclosure," says Keller Grover LLP attorney Eric Grover. "For that reason, merchants are required to give customers timely notice of data breaches."

Similar data breaches involving the failure to properly safeguard credit card information, W-2 tax information, and medical data have led to class action lawsuits. In 2016, for example, St. Joseph Health Systems finalized a multi-million dollar class action lawsuit settlement in California involving St. Joseph's alleged failure to properly secure its network, allowing patient information to become publicly accessible on the internet.

If you have any information about the Bronson Laboratories data breach, or if you are a California resident who has been affected by a data breach and you have questions, contact Keller Grover's attorneys at 888-535-5291 or by email at [email protected].

Keller Grover LLP is a leader in the field of privacy litigation and has represented clients in numerous data breach class action cases, including lawsuits against Seagate, St. Joseph Health Systems, Stanford Hospitals and Clinics, Health Net, 21st Century Oncology, Yahoo, Sunrun, and eHealth. Keller Grover will not charge you for reviewing your information, and all information that you provide to Keller Grover in the process of seeking legal advice will be held strictly confidential.

SOURCE Keller Grover LLP
SANTA ANA, Calif., March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Kush Bottles, Inc. (OTCQB: KSHB), a leading provider of packaging, supplies, vaporizers, accessories and branding solutions for the regulated cannabis industry, announced today it will issue its second quarter of fiscal 2018 results in a press release on April 11, 2018 before U.S. markets close.

The company will also host a conference call on Wednesday, April 11, 2018 at 4:30 PM Eastern Time.

Participant Dial-In Numbers:

Toll-Free: 1-888-394-8218

Toll / International: 1-323-701-0225

*Participants should request the Kush Bottles Earnings Call or provide confirmation code 8956868

Investors are also invited to listen via webcast on the Kush Bottles investor section of the Company website at http://ir.kushbottles.com. Please visit the website at least 15 minutes prior to the call to register, download, and install any necessary audio software. A replay of the call will be available on the Kush Bottles investor website approximately two hours after the conference call has ended.

Nick Kovacevich, CEO & Chairman of Kush Bottles, and Jim McCormick, CFO & COO, will be answering shareholder questions at the end of the call. Should you have questions during or prior to the conference call please send an email to [email protected] with "KUSH Question" in the subject line. Mr. Kovacevich and Mr. McCormick will answer as many questions as time will allow.

To be added to the distribution list please email [email protected] with "Kush" in the subject line.

About Kush Bottles, Inc.

Kush Bottles, Inc. (OTCQB: KSHB) is a dynamic sales platform that provides unique products and services for both businesses and consumers in the cannabis industry. Founded in 2010 as a packaging and supplies company for dispensaries and growers, Kush Bottles has sold more than 100 million units and now regularly services more than 5,000 legally operated medical and adult-use dispensaries, growers, and producers across North America, South America, and Europe. The Company has facilities in the three largest U.S. cannabis markets and a local sales presence in every major U.S. cannabis market.

Kush Bottles aims to be the gold standard for responsible and compliant products and services in the cannabis industry. Kush Bottles has no direct involvement with the cannabis plant or any products that contain THC.

The Company has been featured in media nationwide, including CNBC, Los Angeles Times, TheStreet.com, Entrepreneur, and business magazine Inc.

For more information, visit www.kushbottles.com or call (888)-920-5874.

Forward-Looking Statements:

This press release may include predictions, estimates or other information that might be considered forward-looking within the meaning of applicable securities laws. While these forward-looking statements represent our current judgments, they are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which reflect our opinions only as of the date of this release. Please keep in mind that we are not obligating ourselves to revise or publicly release the results of any revision to these forward-looking statements in light of new information or future events. When used herein, words such as: "potential," "look forward," "believe," "dedicated," "building," or variations of such words and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in any forward-looking statements made by us herein are often discussed in filings we make with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), available at: www.sec.gov, and on our website, at: www.kushbottles.com.

Investor Contact:

Elizabeth Barker / Phil Carlson

KCSA Strategic Communications

212-896-1203 / 212-896-1233

[email protected]

PR Contact:

Anne Donohoe

KCSA Strategic Communications

212-896-1265

[email protected]

SOURCE Kush Bottles, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.kushbottles.com


Leonovus plans for FIPS 140-2 compliance certification in Q4 2018

OTTAWA, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Leonovus Inc. ("Leonovus") (TSXV: LTV) announces that Electronic Warfare Associates Inc. ("EWA") of Ottawa, Ontario and Herndon, Virginia, is under contract to advise and coordinate the Leonovus submission to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Washington, DC for the company to obtain FIPS 140-2 certification. Leonovus would become one of the first companies in the world with embedded blockchain technology to receive FIPS 140-2 certification.

NIST created the FIPS 140-2 standard to coordinate the requirements and standards for cryptography modules. Protection of a cryptographic module within a security system is necessary to maintain the confidentiality and integrity of the information protected by the module. This standard specifies the security requirements that will be satisfied by such a module. The standard provides increasing, qualitative levels of security intended to cover a wide range of potential applications and environments. The security requirements cover areas related to the secure design and implementation of the cryptography. These areas include cryptographic module specification; cryptographic module ports and interfaces; roles, services, and authentication; key management; operational environment; finite state model; self-tests; design assurance; and mitigation of other attacks.

The FIPS 140-2 certification will enable Leonovus to sell its blockchain hardened software-defined storage solution into Canadian, U.S. governments and other regulated industries (such as financial and health-care institutions) that collect, store, transfer, share and disseminate sensitive but unclassified (SBU) information.

"Over the past nine months, Leonovus has maintained an internal audit cadence to meet the FIPS 140-2 certification standards. We are pleased to report that the company believes that it has achieved the requirements, based on internal testing. EWA will help manage the whole certification process for the company and is confident that our software will be certified later in the year. Many government agencies in the USA, Canada and around the world, require the FIPS 140-2 certification. Moreover, because of the robust requirements to meet the standard, enterprise customers also benefit. Our early sales traction with police and security agencies is accelerated because of our design and development to this standard", said Michael Gaffney, Chair and CEO.

About Leonovus

Leonovus is a software solutions provider that offers the leading blockchain hardened software-defined object storage solution (SDOSS) and governance, risk management and compliance ('GRC') solution for the modern enterprise. Designed with the IT manager in mind, Leonovus' patented algorithms virtualize, transform, slice and disperse data across a network of on-premises, hybrid or multi-cloud storage nodes  allowing for the most secure yet internally accessible form of object-based data storage that provides governance, risk-management, and compliance across the entire solution. The advanced geo-distributed architecture minimizes latency, optimizes geo-availability, reduces remote backup costs and meets data sovereignty requirements. With its software and hardware agnostic design, Leonovus provides Petabyte scalability and allows the enterprise to utilize its existing idle storage resources, extend the useable lifespan of depreciated resources and improve the enterprise's overall ROI. To learn more, please visit www.leonovus.com.

This press release may contain forward-looking statements and information, which may involve risks and uncertainties. The results or events predicted in these statements may differ materially from actual results or events. Factors that might cause a difference include, but are not limited to, competitive developments, risks associated with Leonovus' growth, the state of the financial markets, regulatory risks and other factors. There can be no assurance or guarantees that any statements of forward-looking information contained in this release will prove to be accurate. Actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. These and all subsequent written and oral statements containing forward-looking information are based on the estimates and opinions of management on the dates they are made and expressly qualified in their entirety by this notice. Unless otherwise required by applicable securities laws, Leonovus disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Readers should not place undue reliance on any statements of forward-looking information that speak only as of the date of this release. Further information on Leonovus' public filings, including its most recent audited consolidated financial statements, are available at www.sedar.com.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE Leonovus Inc.

Related Links

www.leonovus.com


Lincoln International acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Solvay, working closely with shareholders and management throughout the sale process. This included providing advisory expertise and managing the preparatory, marketing, negotiation and due diligence phases of the transaction.

For more information on Lincoln's Global Chemicals & Materials sector, please visit http://www.lincolninternational.com/industries/chemicals/.

About Solvay SA

Solvay is a multi-specialty chemical company, committed to developing chemistry that addresses key societal challenges. Solvay innovates and partners with customers in diverse global end markets. Its products and solutions are used in planes, cars, smart and medical devices, batteries, in mineral and oil extraction, among many other applications promoting sustainability. Its lightweighting materials enhance cleaner mobility, its formulations optimize the use of resources and its performance chemicals improve air and water quality. Solvay is headquartered in Brussels with around 27,000 employees in 58 countries.

About Lincoln International

Lincoln International specializes in merger and acquisition advisory services, debt advisory services, private capital raising and restructuring advice on mid-market transactions. Lincoln International also provides fairness opinions, valuations and pension advisory services on a wide range of transaction sizes. With eighteen offices in the Americas, Asia and Europe, Lincoln International has strong local knowledge and contacts in key global economies. The firm provides clients with senior-level attention, in-depth industry expertise and integrated resources. By being focused and independent, Lincoln International serves its clients without conflicts of interest.

More information about Lincoln International can be obtained at www.lincolninternational.com.

Media Contact: Heidi Becker

+1 (312) 506-2739

[email protected]

SOURCE Lincoln International LLC

Related Links

http://www.lincolninternational.com


WARSAW, Poland, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Today U.S. and Polish officials formalized an agreement for Poland to purchase Lockheed Martin's (NYSE: LMT) Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) missiles and related support equipment. With today's announcement, Poland becomes the fifth international customer to sign an agreement to procure PAC-3 MSE.

"We're honored to partner with Poland in support of the WISA Air and Missile Defense system to protect and defend their armed forces, citizens and infrastructure. We also look forward to working with the Polish Armaments Group consortium of companies in support of the agreed to WISA technology transfer," said Tim Cahill, vice president of Integrated Air and Missile Defense at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. "Today's global security environment demands reliable Hit-to-Kill technology and innovative solutions. We expect PAC-3 MSE interceptors to continue serving as an integral layer of defense."

Poland now joins the United States, Qatar, Japan, Romania, and the United Arab Emirates in signing an agreement to procure PAC-3 MSE. Several other nations have also expressed an interest in enhancing their missile defense capabilities with the PAC-3 MSE as part of the Patriot system.

Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor on the PAC-3 MSE upgrade to the Patriot air defense system. The PAC-3 MSE expands the battlespace with a dual-pulse solid rocket motor, providing increased performance in altitude and range. PAC-3 MSE is a high-velocity interceptor that defends against incoming threats, including tactical ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and aircraft. The PAC-3 MSE missile uses Hit-to-Kill technology, intercepting threats through kinetic energy via body-to-body contact.

As a world leader in systems integration and development of air and missile defense systems and technologies, Lockheed Martin delivers high-quality missile defense solutions that protect citizens, critical assets and deployed forces from current and future threats. The company's experience spans missile design and production, infrared seekers, command and control/battle management, and communications, precision pointing and tracking optics, radar and signal processing, as well as threat-representative targets for missile defense tests.

About Lockheed Martin

Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs approximately 100,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services.

SOURCE Lockheed Martin

Related Links

http://www.lockheedmartin.com


TAMPA, Fla., March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Lumina is proud to welcome three new additions to its team  Erica Houseman, Madison Taylor and Vicky Liao. Houseman, Taylor and Liao join the team as Senior Intelligence Analysts, all bringing a diverse array of expertise and experience to Lumina.

Ms. Taylor joins Lumina having completed her Master's in International Relations and Politics with a focus on International Security at the University of Cambridge & her Bachelor of Arts in Cognitive Neuroscience at Harvard University. "My time at Lumina so far has been an incredible experience. This company has brought together some of the brightest minds across a diverse set of fields to work on solving the world's most important issues, and I am honored to be part of the exciting work we do each day," says Ms. Taylor. "I am glad to work for a company that not only values creativity and hard work, but that has already given me the opportunity and autonomy to innovate and apply my background towards important, meaningful projects. I look forward to being part of Lumina's growth into the future."

Ms. Houseman holds a Masters of Business Administration from University of South Florida St. Petersburg where she specialized in International Business. "Lumina creates impactful solutions for the most pressing issues the world faces today," says Ms. Houseman. "Lumina offers meaningful challenges and opportunities on a daily basis. I feel honored to work with such a talented group of people and am excited to help Lumina continue to succeed."

Ms. Liao joins Lumina with experience in statistical analysis, most recently as Biostatistics Research Assistant at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Ms. Liao graduated from the University of Florida with a B.S. in Statistics and from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston with an M.S. in Biostatistics. "It is an honor to be able to work with such an inspiring team at Lumina. Using our innovative ideas and advanced technology, we will continue to challenge ourselves in solving some of the most complex problems in our society" says Ms. Liao.

"It is with great excitement that we welcome Erica, Madi, and Vicky to the Lumina team," says Kris Smeage, Senior Vice President. "Each embodies Lumina's commitment to solving the world's most pressing problems and possesses unique abilities that are critical to the firm's continued success."

About Lumina Analytics. Lumina is a Tampa based, risk sensing intelligence firm. The company provides data aggregation and analytics services to corporate and government clients throughout the United States. Its focus is on the aggregation of external, publicly available data for risk sensing intelligence. Lumina uses proprietary machine learning algorithms to address certain risks within healthcare, financial services, defense, corporate and national security. The company was founded by serial entrepreneurs Dr. Morten Middelfart (Lumina's Chief Data Scientist) and Allan Martin (Lumina's CEO).

CONTACT: Candace Cole, [email protected]

SOURCE Lumina Analytics
NEW YORK and LONDON, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Innovative service offers real-time machine executable regulations and instant legal traceability

Goldman Sachs Asset Management becomes first client of Adept MiFID II service for institutional investment firms

Six major global banks have adopted the first fully-digitized MiFID II trade compliance engine for the financial markets. The ground-breaking service from Droit Financial Technologies ("Droit") was launched in January ahead of the MiFID II deadline, and instantly expands the ability of financial institutions to comply with the thousands of pages of MiFID II regulations. Goldman Sachs Asset Management has also gone live as the first buy-side client.

The new platform, whose clients include BNP Paribas, CACIB, Goldman Sachs (including both its broker/dealer and GSAM entities), and UBS, is an extension of Droit's award-winning ADEPT (the Operating System for Regulation). It provides the current and complete digitized machine-readable MiFID II rule text and machine-executable implementation, enabling complete verification and auditability of every trading decision, including traceability to the letter of the law.

"Droit's ADEPT product is a central part of our eligibility architecture for MiFID II for both our broker/dealer and GSAM businesses, across a range of obligations. Droit's innovative approach to the digitisation of regulation and eligibility, and the evolution of their ADEPT product fits well with our overall strategy," said Jo Hannaford, Managing Director, Technology Division, Goldman Sachs.

"Droit has successfully implemented an innovative and exciting platform which helps us strategically respond to industry and regulatory changes, like MiFID II, in the interest of better serving our clients. It is a core part of our digital strategy to work with leading providers like Droit to complement our in-house expertise to stay at the cutting edge of digital global markets," said Cyril Cottu, Global Head of eCommerce and Digital, BNP Paribas Global Markets.

"The speed and ease with which we can implement new regulatory rule sets coupled with the flexibility of the core product integration means Droit is well placed to be the strategic regulatory eligibility platform for the Investment bank," said Simon Herbert, MiFID II Programme Lead at UBS Investment Bank.

"Digitization is much more than an exercise in tagging data; it's the complete analytic structuring of one of the financial markets' largest ever pieces of legislation. Droit provides the full stack, starting with digitising the actual legal texts into an open, standard, machine-readable format through to standard executable implementations within real-time systems," said Satya Pemmaraju, CEO of Droit. "As regulations live and breathe, so our clients' implementations and legal sources evolve in synchronicity."

Transactional compliance requires the knowledge, maintenance and automation of highly complex global rule systems. Droit's Adept platform responds to this need by generating the full global cross-regulatory implications and obligations of a trade in real-time along with unprecedented per-enquiry audit capabilities.

The corpus of digitized machine-readable legislation is represented using the open Akoma Ntoso* XML standard that is now used by numerous regulatory and legislative bodies. The machine-executable implementation is called from with trading and operational systems.

MiFID II is the latest in the range of global regulations implemented in ADEPT which has been in live production since March 2014, and which now encompasses derivatives and securities across all asset classes, all G20 aligned regulatory regimes, global CCPs and execution platforms. ADEPT supports eligibility and scope of obligation determination for 14 critical MiFID II/MiFIR mandates.

*Akoma Ntoso ("linked hearts" in Akan language of West Africa) defines a set of simple, technology-neutral electronic representations of parliamentary, legislative and judiciary documents for e-services in a worldwide context and provides an enabling framework for the effective exchange of "machine readable" parliamentary, legislative and judiciary documents such as legislation, debate record, minutes, judgements, etc.

ABOUT DROIT

Droit automates global regulations and market micro-structure within real-time trading systems, creating intelligence platforms merging finance and computational law. In December 2016, Droit announced a $16 million Series A investment from Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, DRW Trading and Pivot Investment Partners. Droit is part of the "In-Residence" program at J.P. Morgan.

The firm was founded in 2012 by a team of veteran derivative traders, quants, ecommerce specialists and technologists with front-line experience and expertise with products, markets, regulations and systems.

Droit has offices in New York City and London. For more visit www.droitfintech.com. To schedule a demo or obtain more information about Droit's products, please contact us using [email protected].

SOURCE Droit

Related Links

http://www.droitfintech.com


KELOWNA, BC, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Marapharm Ventures, Inc. (CSE: MDM) (OTCQX: MRPHF) (FSE: 2M0) ("Marapharm,", "Company") has been granted both Adult-Use (Recreational) and Medicinal temporary retail licenses, for its retail dispensary operation in Desert Hot Springs, California.

At this time, the State of California has only issued temporary licenses while they develop permanent regulations. The Company will apply, with all other temporary license holders in the State of California, for permanent licenses within the next three months.

The temporary licenses allow our dispensary retail operation to remain compliant with both local and state regulations. With over 200 SKU's (Stock Keeping Units) previously offered at the dispensary under Medical, these licenses now provide us access to a larger supply chain network, in which other compliant vendors are operating.

The dispensary continues to exceed our revenue projections since taking ownership on February 13, 2018. The grant of these Adult-Use (Recreational) licenses will dramatically expand our current SKU's, increasing consumers to the store as we can now offer a greater selection of products from a larger number of vendors, specifically tailored to any recreational consumers over the age of 21.

"These licenses are another crucial piece for our continued operational success in the US Cannabis market. California will be one of the largest markets in the world and having a retail location along with our cultivation facilities provides the vertical integration we seek to achieve." Corey Klassen, VP of Corporate Development

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 OTCQX, and in Europe, ticker symbol 2M0 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 OTCQX has approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release. Neither the CSE, the FSE nor the OTCQX accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

MARIJUANA INDUSTRY INVOLVEMENT:

Canadian listings (CSE) will remain in good standing as long as they provide the disclosure that is rightly required by regulators and complying with applicable licensing requirements and the regulatory framework enacted by the applicable state in which they operate.

Marapharm owns marijuana licenses in California and Nevada. Marijuana is legal in each state however marijuana remains illegal under US federal law and the approach to enforcement of US federal law against marijuana is subject to change. Shareholders and investors need to be aware that adverse enforcement actions could affect their investments and that Marapharm's ability to access private and public capital could be affected and or could not be available to support continuing operations. Marapharm's business is conducted in a manner consistent with state law and is in compliance with licensing requirements.

Copies of licenses are posted on Marapharm's website. Marapharm has internal compliance procedures in place and has compliance focused attorneys engaged in jurisdictions to monitor changes in laws for compliance with US federal and state law on an ongoing basis. These law firms inform any necessary changes to our policies and procedures for compliance in Canada and the US.

FORWARD - LOOKING STATEMENTS:

Certain statements contained in this news release constitute forward looking statements. The use of any of the words "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "expect", 'may", "will", "project", "should", 'believe", and similar expressions are intended to identify forward- looking statements. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward- looking statements are based on reasonable assumption but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and the forward-looking statements included in this news release should not be unduly relied upon.

SOURCE Marapharm Ventures Inc.

Related Links

www.marapharm.com


NEW YORK, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Mazda Motor Corporation today introduced its updated, refined Mazda CX-3. Additionally, the Mazda KAI concept and SKYACTIV-X engine made their North American auto show debuts, highlighting Mazda's design and engineering prowess as it moves toward its next-generation of vehicles.

Mazda Introduces Updated 2019 CX-3 at 2018 New York International Auto Show

In his speech today, Mazda Motor Corporation Global Chief Marketing Officer and Mazda North American Operations CEO Masahiro Moro discussed Mazda's commitment to the U.S. with Mazda Toyota Manufacturing, U.S.A., Inc., the new plant scheduled to go online in 2021. He also introduced the updated Mazda CX-3 subcompact crossover SUV before journalists at the New York International Auto Show, held at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.

The new CX-3's interior has undergone significant improvements, most notably the adoption of an electronic parking brake that frees up space and allows for a significant increase in storage space. Additional improvements include a smoother, more efficient and more refined SKYACTIV-G 2.0 gasoline engine, available full-leather seating surfaces, improved NVH characteristics and redesigned seats that support a more comfortable position. Yet, Mazda CX-3 continues to possess uncommonly good driving dynamics and keenly updated design elements that complement what is already a compelling package.

Finally, Mazda displayed the Mazda KAI concept and SKYACTIV-X engine. KAI, which means "pioneer" in Japanese, portend Mazda's KODOSoul of Motion design direction, eschewing rhythm motion of the design language for cleaner lines, surface-based reflections and a "less-is-more" approach to creating a simultaneous sense of excitement and elegance. It is joined by the SKYACTIV-X engine, the world's first commercially available gasoline compression-ignition engine. The KAI and SKYACTIV-X signal Mazda's future design and technology directions.

Called Sustainable Zoom-Zoom 2030, in which Mazda is aiming to reduce its CO2 emissions by 50 percent from 2010 levels by 2030. SKYACTIV-X will serve as a building block in that strategy, with it expected to be 20- to 30-percent more efficient than today's SKYACTIV-G engines. It will be available in Mazda vehicles starting in 2019.

SKYACTIV-X is part of a greater initiative in line with Mazda's "Sustainable Zoom-Zoom 2030" long-term vision for technology development. Mazda aims to use the fundamental appeal of the automobile - driving pleasure - to inspire people, enrich society and help bring about a beautiful earth. By offering an experience of car ownership that celebrates driving, the company hopes to enrich lives and build a strong bond with customers.

List of exhibits at the New York International Motor Show Models scheduled

for sale New Mazda CX-3 (World premiere) Currently available models Mazda3, Mazda6, Mazda CX-5, Mazda CX-9,

Mazda MX-5, Mazda MX-5 RF Reference exhibits Mazda KAI Concept (North American premiere)

Mazda MX-5 Global Cup Racecar Technology exhibits SKYACTIV-X next-generation gasoline engine

Mazda North American Operations is headquartered in Irvine, California, and oversees the sales, marketing, parts and customer service support of Mazda vehicles in the United States and Mexico through nearly 600 dealers. Operations in Mexico are managed by Mazda Motor de Mexico in Mexico City. For more information on Mazda vehicles, including photography and B-roll, please visit the online Mazda media center at InsideMazda.MazdaUSA.com/Newsroom.

Follow MNAO's social media channels through Twitter and Instagram at @MazdaUSA and Facebook at Facebook.com/MazdaUSA.

SOURCE Mazda Motor Corporation
NEW YORK, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Beyond the beautiful beaches, turquoise waters and stunning coral reefs of Mexico lies a whole array of fun, fascinating and enriching experiences for travelers to enjoy, according to the experts at Vacation, the content rich website powered by Travel Leaders Group.

"Mexico is a top vacation destination that draws people from around the world who want to pull up a beach chair, take in the gorgeous vistas and relax," said Vacation's Brian Hegarty. "However, there are so many additional things to see and do in Mexico that allow you to experience the country's incredibly rich history, culture and surroundings."

The travel experts from Vacation share their top 10:

Ancient Mayan temples - The ancient Maya civilization is known for its unique hieroglyphics, art, mathematics, sophisticated calendar system and astronomy, among many others, but none more so than their extraordinary temples. Some of the most popular sites include Chichen Itza, Palenque , Tulum and Uxmal . Museum-hopping in Mexico City  The Mexican capital is home to more than 150 art galleries and museums, including the famous Palacio de Bellas Artes (fine art museum) and Museo Nacional de Antropologia (National Anthropology Museum). There is also the modern Museo Soumaya and niche galleries featuring individual artists, such as Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera . The Malecon in Puerto Vallarta  The mile-long Malecon boardwalk in Puerto Vallarta spans 12 blocks and features beautiful ocean views along with local artisans, charming shops and a variety of fun bars and delicious dining spots. Dia de los Muertos  The Day of the Dead is an annual public holiday in Mexico that occurs on November 1 and is an occasion for Mexicans to gather and celebrate the lives of deceased loved ones. The day is marked by community events with picnics, parades and musical performances in and around cemeteries and town squares across Mexico . Salsa dancing  Salsa originated in the Caribbean but is an extremely popular dance in Mexico , as well. Many clubs host classes earlier in the day before their doors open to the evening crowd. Salsa is a great way to enjoy the local culture and meet new friends. Xcaret Eco Park  Located near Playa del Carmen, Xcaret is a stunning cultural heritage park that offers everything from a Mayan village and archaeological remains to snorkeling, underground rivers, a butterfly pavilion and a performance area where more than 300 artists lead an interpretive journey through the history of Mexico . The Tequila Trail in Guadalajara  Just outside Guadalajara is a cluster of picturesque neighboring towns that make up the tequila region of Mexico , recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Train tours carve through the scenic countryside visiting both boutique and big-name tequila producers, such as Jose Cuervo , Sauza and La Cofradia . Paseo de Montejo in Merida  Located in the capital of Mexico's Yucatan state, the Paseo de Montejo is a picturesque tree-lined boulevard in the town of Merida featuring dozens of elegant 19th century mansions, along with museums, historical monuments and charming cafes. Cooking classes  Food is a highlight of any trip to Mexico and a local cooking class is a great opportunity to learn the culture, traditions and history of popular Mexican dishes. Live performances in Mazatlan  The Angela Peralta Theatre in Mazatlan is an elegant pink colonial building in the heart of town that features opera, symphony and ballet performances. Afterwards, the charming Plaza Machado is a great spot to grab dinner and watch street performers on the square.

"There is no better way to fully appreciate Mexico than to immerse yourself in the country's history, culture and unique experiences," said Hegarty. "Our travel experts at Vacation can assist in planning an unforgettable Mexico experience and create a customized journey based on each traveler's individual interests and preferences."

Vacation is a celebration of why people travel and its six categoriesincluding Play (Adventures + Events), Unwind (Resorts + Spas), Bond (Families + Groups), Celebrate (Weddings + Honeymoons), Savor (Food + Wine), and Explore (Destinations + Cultures)are filled with rich content. The articles, online quizzes, videos, infographics, and podcasts are designed to help modern travelers plan a vacay they're going to love. In fact, it will be Love at First Travel. #LoveUrVacay

Vacation inspires, informs and guides travelers throughout their planning process, making every stepfrom researching a destination to connecting with the ideal travel expertas rewarding as possible. The content-rich website is powered by Travel Leaders Group (www.travelleadersgroup.com), which is home to more than 52,000 travel agents in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom. Check out Vacation at www.vacation.com or on social media at #LoveUrVacay.

Contact: Jennifer de la Cruz

703.740.4264

[email protected]

SOURCE Vacation

Related Links

http://www.vacation.com


When Friedemir Poggenpohl (1859-1924) founded the company in Bielefeld back in 1892, he did so under the motto "We want to improve the kitchen." In 1897, the company relocated to Herford, where it still has its head office today. Innovation became the kitchen manufacturer's maxim. From the beginning, however, people have formed the benchmark for its actions.

1928

Poggenpohl presented the Reform kitchen, consisting of connected units with functional internal equipment, a separate shoe cabinet as well as a sink, table and chair.

1930

Known as Zehner Schleiflack (10-layer polished lacquer), the Reform kitchen's new surface material gained a reputation that extended well beyond Germany's borders and established Poggenpohl's lacquer expertise.

1950

Poggenpohl presented the first mass-produced fitted kitchen, the form 1000. In 1952, the fitted kitchen was introduced. Export to neighboring countries began at the end of the decade.

1962

Poggenpohl presented the "form 2000" as a formal and technical further development of the fitted kitchen in a 13-cm front grid system. The front grid system was a pioneering development for subsequent kitchen generations.

1968

Poggenpohl launched the first solid wood kitchen, thereby guiding the trend towards wooden kitchens.

1970

Poggenpohl presented the futuristic study of a round kitchen, which was considered a pioneering model for the year 2000. Experiment 70 emerged in conjunction with Luigi Colani and the Institute for Environmental Physiology.

1982

The innovative, patented +DIMENSION75 was launched, a midway range which optimized the use of space between wall and base units.

1995

Poggenpohl created a new milestone in ergonomic engineering with the +MAXMORE large cabinet system.

2000

Poggenpohl entered the new millennium with a design highlight: +SEGMENTO, the "weightless" kitchen, emphasized the horizontal line.

2004

Poggenpohl presented +INTEGRATION and initiated the trend towards open kitchen architecture. The extended living concept and intelligent networking make a perfectly planned kitchen with an innovative front design.

2005

+MODO is the name of the innovative kitchen architecture created for Poggenpohl by the renowned Spanish designer Jorge Pensi. A characteristic feature of +MODO is the novel interplay between open and closed areas. Pull-out trays are directly positioned under the 13-cm-thick worktop. This creates a high degree of transparency and, with emphasis on horizontal lines, an unmistakable kitchen design.

2007

Together with Porsche Design (PLH), Poggenpohl presented the kitchen P'7340 Design by Studio F. A. Porsche. This striking kitchen is based on frames of different sizes with illuminated aluminum profiles within which cabinet elements can be positioned as desired. Aluminum, glass and wood combined with precision engineering lend a technical flair to this kitchen.

2010

Poggenpohl presented the design concept +ARTESIO, which was developed in collaboration with the Hamburg architect Hadi Teherani. +ARTESIO offers an integrated spatial concept in which furniture design, wall, floor and ceiling are combined.

2014

Porsche Design (PLH) and Poggenpohl continued their successful cooperation with the launch of P7350 Design by Studio F. A. Porsche. The result is a kitchen architecture that departs from the horizontal lines of conventional kitchens with a completely new interpretation. High quality materials and fine craftsmanship details make this kitchen unparalleled in value.

2016

Poggenpohl developed the innovative +STAGE theme units that can be tailored to different functions, focusing on modern living and concentrating on all that is essential within home life.

About Poggenpohl

Poggenpohl has been planning and producing luxury kitchens at the Herford, Germany production plant for 125 years, making it the world's longest-established and most renowned kitchen brand. Custom fitted kitchens delivered to more than 70 countries are produced in a manufacturing area of 54,000 m2. A global network of 450 Poggenpohl studios with experienced designers translate customers' dreams into reality. Poggenpohl employs around 500 staff worldwide. Since February 2017, Poggenpohl has been part of the ADCURAM Group AG based in Munich, Germany.

www.poggenpohl.com

www.125years.poggenpohl.com

To download additional historic images and for more information:

http://bit.ly/PoggenpohlPressKit2018



SOURCE Poggenpohl

Related Links

http://www.poggenpohl.com


International Student Support Program extended to nearly 20,000 international students across the United States

CHICAGO, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Morneau Shepell, a leading organization in international student support, and LewerMark Student Insurance, an innovative health insurance company, announced a partnership to extend support to more than 100 U.S. colleges and universities. Beginning in the fall 2018 academic year, Morneau Shepell's International Student Support Program will be included as an important feature of LewerMark's insurance offering for international students.

"We know international students are more likely to experience stigma associated with mental health and, as a result, are less likely to reach out for support," said Matthew McEvoy, Senior Director, Morneau Shepell. "With a significant number of students choosing to study outside of their home country, this offering is increasingly important for schools to extend to their students. By encouraging international students to seek support in times of need, together we can decrease the stigma and enhance the overall student experience."

The International Student Support Program provides students with 24/7 access to support that will enhance international student success. The platform, which integrates with existing campus resources, connects students to professionals and counselors who speak their native languages and understand the unique cultural challenges faced by students living abroad. Immediate support is available in six core languages, and ongoing support is provided in more than 60 languages via app, chat, web, telephone and video.

"It was a natural fit for us to partner with Morneau Shepell to meet the needs of international and study abroad students," said Mike Lewer, President and CEO of LewerMark. "Our focus to protect international students with meaningful insurance coverage and high-quality service, combined with Morneau Shepell's focus on preventative support to foster student wellbeing, makes this a perfect fit. We are pleased to provide this robust offering to our student population and continue to improve the lives of students studying at our partner institutions."

Campus administrators who are interested in learning more about the International Student Support Program and other features of LewerMark's international student insurance plan can contact: Jeff Foot, Ed.D, Executive Director of LewerMark, 800.821.7715, ext. 112 or via email at [email protected].

About LewerMark

LewerMark is a division of The Lewer Agency, a national Managing General Agent, Managing General Underwriter, and Third-Party Administrator dedicated to providing custom-designed health insurance solutions for international and study abroad students as well as employee benefits plan solutions to business owners of all sizes. Family owned and operated on the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, Missouri, Lewer has more than 60 years' experience designing health insurance, retirement and estate planning, as well as comprehensive group benefits solutions tailored for the specific needs of each individual customer. For more information, please visit www.lewermark.com.

About Morneau Shepell

Morneau Shepell is a leading North American human resources consulting and technology company with global reach, delivering solutions that integrate both the needs of organizations and their people in employee assistance, health and wellness, benefits and retirement planning and pension administration. The Company is a leading provider of employee assistance programs and administrator of retirement and benefits plans, and has a growing presence in the North American market for absence and disability management solutions. Through strategic HR consulting, innovative plan design and comprehensive technology solutions, the Company is powering positive change in progressive organizations by helping clients solve complex workforce problems, increase employee productivity, reduce costs and improve their competitive position. Established in 1966, Morneau Shepell serves approximately 20,000 clients, ranging from small businesses to some of the largest corporations and associations. With more than 4,000 employees in offices across North America, Morneau Shepell provides services to organizations across North America and around the globe. For more information, visit morneaushepell.com.

SOURCE Morneau Shepell US
VANCOUVER, CANADA, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Avigilon Corporation ("Avigilon") (TSX: AVO) announced today that Motorola Solutions, Inc. (NYSE: MSI) has completed the previously announced acquisition of all issued and outstanding common shares of Avigilon.

Motorola Solutions through its wholly owned subsidiary, Motorola Solutions Canada Holdings Inc., acquired 44,617,813 Avigilon shares for cash consideration of CAD$27.00 per share. This, together with net debt, represents a total enterprise value of approximately USD$1.0 billion.

The Avigilon shares are expected to be delisted from the Toronto Stock Exchange effective as of the close of trading on or about April 2, 2018, and Avigilon will apply to cease to be a reporting issuer in all provinces of Canada.

A copy of Motorola Solutions' early warning report will appear on Avigilon's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and may also be obtained by contacting Chris Kutsor, Motorola Solutions, at +1 847-538-7367. Motorola Solutions is located at 500 W. Monroe St., Chicago, Illinois 60661.

Avigilon is located at 555 Robson Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6B 1A6.

About Avigilon

Avigilon Corporation provides trusted security solutions to the global market. Avigilon designs, develops, and manufactures video analytics, network video management software and hardware, surveillance cameras, and access control solutions. To learn more about Avigilon, visit avigilon.com.

Keep current on Avigilon

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and view Avigilon videos on YouTube.

For further information:

Media Contact:

Amy Day

Senior Manager, Global Communications

T: (604) 629-5182 x2625

[email protected]

Investor Contact:

Avigilon Investor Relations

T: (604) 629-5182

[email protected]

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain information and statements in this news release contain and constitute forward-looking information or forward-looking statements as defined under applicable securities laws (collectively, "forward-looking statements"). Forward-looking statements normally contain words like 'believe', 'expect', 'anticipate', 'plan', 'intend', 'continue', 'estimate', 'may', 'will', 'should', 'ongoing' and similar expressions, and within this news release include, without limitation, statements (express or implied) respecting: the expected delisting date of the Avigilon shares and the application of Avigilon to cease to be a reporting issuer.

Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, actions or developments and are based on expectations, assumptions and other factors that Avigilon's management currently believes are relevant, reasonable and appropriate in the circumstances.

Although Avigilon's management believes that the forward-looking statements are reasonable, actual results could be substantially different due to the risks and uncertainties associated with and inherent to Avigilon's business, as more particularly described in the "Risk Factors" sections of Avigilon's Management Information Circular dated February 21, 2018 and Avigilon's Annual Information Form dated March 6, 2018, each of which is available under Avigilon's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Although Avigilon has attempted to identify factors that may cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those disclosed in the forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, predicted, estimated or intended. Also, many of the factors are beyond the control of Avigilon. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

Avigilon undertakes no obligation to reissue or update any forward-looking statements as a result of new information or events after the date hereof except as may be required by law. All forward-looking statements contained in this news release are qualified by this cautionary statement.

SOURCE Avigilon Corporation

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VANCOUVER, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Nevsun Resources Ltd. (TSX:NSU) (NYSE AMERICAN: NSU) (Nevsun or the Company) today announced the results of a pre-feasibility study ("PFS") for the Timok Upper Zone copper-gold project in Serbia ("Timok Project" or "Project"), one of the world's best development stage copper projects. All economic values within this release are in US dollars unless indicated otherwise.

Nevsun CEO Peter Kukielski commented, "The PFS confirms the extraordinary value of our wholly-owned Timok Upper Zone project. This is a high-grade, high return, fully executable copper project in a supportive jurisdiction. The PFS is an important advance over our October 2017 Preliminary Economic Assessment and further de-risks the Project by improving confidence in the engineering details, metallurgical understanding, timeline to production and capital assumptions.

As we drive toward a feasibility study in mid-2019, I am confident that we have the right team in place to bring the Timok Project into production. Between our management and the Board, we collectively have decades of development experience through the building of multiple projects and tens of billions of direct over sight of deployment of capital."

Timok Upper Zone Project PFS Highlights

Initial Probable Mineral Reserve of 27 million tonnes at 3.3% copper and 2.1 grams per tonne gold using a price of $3.00 per pound copper and $1300 per ounce gold

per pound copper and per ounce gold Pre-production capital cost of $574 million , excluding $114 million to be spent to reach a construction decision

, excluding to be spent to reach a construction decision After-tax NAV8% of $1.82 billion and IRR of 80% at $3.15 per pound copper valued at start of construction ( July 2020 )

and IRR of 80% at per pound copper valued at start of construction ( ) After-tax NAV8% of $1.45 billion and IRR of 55% at $3.15 per pound copper, including pre-construction capital and valued at June 30, 2018

and IRR of 55% at per pound copper, including pre-construction capital and valued at Initial production targeted for 2022

Ten-year mine life producing over 1.7 billion pounds of payable copper, excluding inferred resources

Life of Mine average annual payable production of 86 thousand tonnes per year at an average C1 cash cost of $0.92 per copper pound

per copper pound Average annual payable copper production of 143 thousand tonnes at an average C1 cash cost of $0.54 per copper pound over the first three full years of production

per copper pound over the first three full years of production Strong front-end cash flow and quick payback period of less than 1 year supports a wide range of financing opportunities and alternatives

Scoping level work suggests potential to decrease initial capital by up to $100 million through a staged ramp up from 1.6 to 3.2 million tonnes per annum while maintaining strong Project economics

through a staged ramp up from 1.6 to 3.2 million tonnes per annum while maintaining strong Project economics Significant exploration potential exists through the future conversion of inferred resources and greenfield exploration

Nevsun CEO Peter Kukielski continued, "The Project lies in an established mining jurisdiction with a supportive and collaborative government. The Republic of Serbia recently granted an exploration decline permit for the Project, advancing our timeline to production. The decline permit is a testament to the strong working relationship that we have built with the government of Serbia. We are grateful for their continued support as we begin initial construction of the decline in Q2 2018, advancing the Timok Upper Zone Project for the benefit of both local stakeholders and our shareholders."

Serbia's Minister of Mining and Energy, Aleksandar Antic commented, "The Timok Project is very important to Serbia. I, and my Ministry, are committed to supporting Nevsun along the journey to production."

Mr. Kukielski added, "We are very excited about the potential upside from additional high-grade Upper Zone type deposits. Based on our recently disclosed exploration results, we are confident there are more discoveries to be made, which could eventually increase the production profile and extend mine life."

Ryan MacWilliam, Nevsun CFO, said, "The Timok Upper Zone remains a low capital intensity project which the Company is in a strong position to finance, considering our strong cash position, debt-free balance sheet, Bisha cash flow and the robust front-end cash flow from Timok. We have initiated discussions with several potential project finance providers, including traditional banks, development banks and precious metals streaming companies and potential strategic partners. These discussions have confirmed that we have multiple viable options for financing the Project which will now be advanced in parallel with the feasibility study. As we move to feasibility, we will closely examine further de-risking the Project via a ramp-up scenario starting with initial production at 1.6 million tonnes per annum ramping up to 3.25 million tonnes per annum. Recent scoping level studies suggest that this approach has the potential to deliver a capital savings of up to $100 million while maintaining strong economics."

This PFS was compiled and project managed by Hatch (Toronto) with input from SRK (Vancouver), Knight Piesold (Vancouver), and Bluequest (Zug).

A NI43-101 Technical Report that summarizes the results of the PFS and incorporates an initial reserve statement for the Timok Upper Zone, will be filed within 45 days on SEDAR and on the Company's website.

Further work during the feasibility study ("FS"), expected to be released in mid-2019, will continue to refine the Project and optimize costs for the construction and operation phases of the Project.

Detailed PFS Summary and Economic Analysis Compared to October 2017 PEA

Table 1: Economic and Operational Summary

M = million

Metal Price Assumptions PFS

Life of Mine ("LOM") PEA

Life of Mine ("LOM") Copper Price $ per pound $3.15 $3.00 Gold Price $ per ounce $1,300 $1,300 Capital Requirements



Initial Capital Requirement $574 M

(excluding pre-

construction decision

capital of $114m) $630 M

(including pre-construction

decision capital) Life of Mine Sustaining Capital $239 M $342 M Closure Costs $48 M $58 M Operating Costs



Mining $19.41 per tonne $18.57 per tonne Processing, Waste & Water Management $11.10 per tonne $10.06 per tonne G&A $1.91 per tonne $2.37 per tonne Total Site Costs $32.42 per tonne $31.00 per tonne C1 Cash Cost $0.92 per pound $1.02 per pound Production Summary



Initial Production 2022a 2021 Total Mill Feed 27.1 M tonne 42.1 M tonne Diluted Copper Feed Grade 3.26 % 2.6 % Diluted Gold Grade 2.07 gram per tonne 1.7 gram per tonne Diluted Arsenic Grade 0.17 % 0.13 % Annual Mine Production 3.25 M tonne per annum 3.25 M tonne per annum Life of Mine ("LOM") 10 yearsb 15 years LOM Copper Recovery 93 % 92 % LOM Gold Recovery 32 % 31 % LOM Copper Concentrate Grade 26 % 22.5% LOM Gold Concentrate Grade 5.7 gram per tonne 4.8 gram per tonne LOM Arsenic Concentrate Grade 1.4% 1.1% Payable Copper 1,747 M pounds 2,105 M pounds Payable Gold 516,000 ounces 569,000 ounces Project Economics  After Tax



Valuation Date July 2020 December 2017 After-Tax NPV (8% Discount Rate) $1,816 Mc $1,473 M Internal Rate of Return 80% 50% Payback (from start of processing) 0.9 years 1.4 Years Cumulative Cash Flow $2,740 M $2,810 M

a) 2022 is managements target for production. See detailed explanation below for more details. b) PEA included inferred resources. Drilling from underground will be required to potentially convert any of this material to reserve. c) After-tax NPV calculated at start of construction, using a flat copper price of $3.15 per pound and gold price of $1,300 per ounce.

Permitting and Timeline

Management is targeting a timeline to initial production in 2022. This decision is based on a greater understanding of the Project schedule and a delay in commencement of Exploration Decline construction from Q4 2017 to Q2 2018. The Company recently received the final authorization (road use permit) to commence construction and will award the construction contract imminently. Exploration decline construction will take approximately two years to reach the top of the orebody, allowing underground mine development to begin in 2020. Mine development will run concurrently with construction of above ground infrastructure (including the plant).

After working through the procedures required to secure the exploration decline permit, the Company feels more confident in their understanding of the requirements and time that will be required to secure all future permits. To achieve management's timeline above and start underground mine development and above ground infrastructure, the Company requires Mine Construction and Civil Works Construction Permits to be in place prior to a construction decision in Q3 2020. Should receipt of these permits be delayed, so too will the commencement of initial production. A schedule with the maximum allowable time for each stage of permitting estimates first production in 2023. Nevsun is working closely with the Republic of Serbia to receive these permits in a timely manner to achieve the 2022 target.

Milestone permits required prior to start of operations include:

Exploitation Field Permit (or, Mining License) expected in H2/2019

Construction permit expected in H2/2020

Mine Use Permit / Start of Operations in 2022

Valuation Date

The NPV valuation date used in the Timok Upper Zone PEA was December 31, 2017 and included future study costs and all expenses incurred prior to a construction decision. After careful consideration, Nevsun has decided to value the Project at the time a decision is made to begin construction. At that point, Nevsun expects to have acquired all required permits and received Board and financing approval to commence construction of the mine, surface facilities and infrastructure to proceed to completion without constraint. A start of construction date has been assumed of Q3 2020. This approach avoids NPV and IRR increasing as the Project moves closer to a construction decision. This is a consistent approach with our industry peers and will allow the PFS and FS economic evaluation of the Project to be compared on a like-for-like basis. Table 2 shows the impact on NPV and IRR of this change. Pre-construction decision costs total $114 million. A breakdown of these costs by year is provided in Table 5.

Table 2: Valuation Methodology Comparison



PEA PFS Using PEA

Valuation Inputs* PFS After-Tax NPV8% $1,473 M $1,311 M $1,816 M IRR 50% 52% 80%

*As of December 31, 2017, at $3.00 per pound copper

Resources and Reserves

An initial Probable Mineral Reserve of 27 million tonnes at 3.3% copper and 2.1 grams per tonne gold was declared along with these PFS results. There remain 13.9 million tonnes of inferred resources at 1.6% copper and 0.9 gram per tonne gold that require additional drilling from underground with the objective to bring into reserve.

Ramp Up Scenario

The Company and its consultants examined, at a scoping study level, various throughput scenarios for the Timok Project during the PFS stage. During this scoping level assessment, a ramp-up scenario starting at an initial 1.6 million tonnes per annum and ramping up to 3.25 million tonnes per annum ("Ramp-Up Case") presented compelling economics and risk mitigation, especially through the deferral of initial capital expenditures of up to $100 million. While this news release and the associated technical report examine the Base Case flat 3.25 million tonne per annum scenario, it is likely that management and the Board may take the Ramp-Up case forward to feasibility. Management expects there are opportunities to optimize the economics from this case through additional study. This scenario lowers Project risk on many fronts; reduces the up-front capital while maintaining strong cash flows supporting Project financing, lowers the arsenic content of the ore in early years and provides lower execution risk given a staged ramp-up.

Table 3: Total LOM Revenue, Costs and Cash Flows

Project Parameter PFS LOM Total (M) Total Gross Revenue $6,174 Transportation, Refining & Penalties ($1,414) Net Smelter Return ("NSR") $4,761 Royalties ($238) Site Operating Costs ($879) Capital Costs (pre-production, sustaining & closure) ($861) Project Cash Flow (Pre-Tax) $2,782

Note: totals may not match sum of individual items due to rounding

The corporate income tax rate in Serbia is 15%. The Project is expected to benefit from a 10-year tax holiday provided in the current Corporate Income Tax Law in Serbia and applicable to major investments in the country. The Republic of Serbia receives a 5% net smelter return ("NSR") royalty and various payroll and other taxes to generate revenue.

The Project capital excludes three staged payments due to Freeport-McMoRan ("Freeport"): $45M anticipated to be paid on an Upper Zone build decision, $50M to be paid upon achievement of commercial production and up to $12.5 million to be paid out of Project cash flow.

Project economics are most sensitive to metal prices as demonstrated in the sensitivity analysis below.

Table 4: PFS After-Tax NPV and IRR Sensitivity to Copper Price



-15% -5% PFS Base Case +5% +15% Cu Price per pound $2.68 $2.99 $3.15 $3.30 $3.62 After-Tax NPV8% (M) $1,299 $1,644 $1,816 $1,989 $2,334 IRR (%) 65% 75% 80% 84% 93% Payback (Years) 1.1 1.0 0.9 0.9 0.8

Initial and Sustaining Capital Estimate

Pre-construction capital expenditures are estimated at $574 million. Capital spend prior to a construction decision is estimated at $114 million and includes underground development of the Exploration Decline ($43 million) as well as Owner's project development costs ($71 million), which includes land acquisition.

Expenditures after a construction decision are estimated at $574 million and consist of underground and surface infrastructure and facilities required prior to the start of operations. Approximately 28% of the total initial capital is associated with underground development and underground infrastructure, which includes the ventilation raises, over 22 kilometers of initial underground development, the first primary crusher, material conveyor system and purchase of underground mining equipment. Another 34% of the total initial capital is associated with the surface facilities and infrastructure, which include the construction of the processing plant, water management system, initial phase of the Tailings Storage Facility ("TSF") and other supporting and ancillary surface infrastructure typically required at a mine site. The remaining 38% of the total initial capital is associated with Owner costs, as well as indirect costs and total Project contingency.

Sustaining capital is estimated at $287 million and includes $48 million in closure costs. This total includes $119 million for mine development and underground infrastructure spending that includes installation of a second lower underground crusher and conveyor as the mine deepens. It also includes $89 million required to sustain the process plant, power supply facilities, TSF expansions and other site infrastructure sustaining costs and $31 million contingency.

Table 5: Initial Pre-Production Capital and Sustaining Capital Breakdown

Capital Cost Summary Initial

Capital (M) Sustaining

Capital (M) Closure Cost

(M) Total

Capital (M) Underground ("UG") Mine Development $100 $91

$191 Underground Mine Infrastructure $59 $28

$87 Site Development $49 -

$49 Process Plant $99 $30

$129 Waste Management/TSF $47 $59

$106 Indirect Costs $106



$106 Contingency $96 $31

$127 Capitalized Operating Cost $17 -

$17 Closure -

$48 $48 Total Capex $574 $239 $48 $861 Owner Costs prior to start of construction $71 -

$71 Decline costs prior to start of construction $43 -

$43 Total Pre-Construction Decision $114



$114

Note: totals do not match sum of individual items due to rounding

Table 6: Pre-Production Capital and Sustaining Capital Schedule

Year Initial Capital (M) Sustaining

Capital

(M) Closure

Cost

(M) H2/2018 $24 -

2019 $57 -

2020 $33 -

Pre-Construction Start Total $114



2020 $111 -

2021 $366 -

2022 $96 $21

2023 - $32

2024 - $30

2025 - $37

2026 - $29

2027 - $47

2028 - $17

2029 - $7

2030 - $15

2031 - $5

2032 - - $48 LOM Total $574 $239 $48

Operating Cost Estimate

Onsite operating costs are expected to average $32.42 per tonne milled with offsite operating costs estimated to average $60.90 per tonne milled for the LOM.

Table 7: LOM Operating Costs

Operating Cost ("Opex") Total

(M) $ per tonne Milled Mining $526 $19.41 Processing Water & TSF $301 $11.10 G&A $52 $1.91 Subtotal Onsite Opex $879 $32.42 TC, RC, Penalties & Transport & Transport $1,414 $52.12 Royalties $238 $8.78 Subtotal Offsite Opex $1,652 $60.90 All-in Opex $2,531 $93.32

Note: totals may not match sum of individual items due to rounding

Mining Design Details

The PFS is based on a Sub Level Cave ("SLC") mining method. SLC is applicable through a wide range of geotechnical conditions and is typically used in massive, steeply-dipping orebodies with considerable strike length as at the Timok Project. An added benefit is that the variable high grades near the top of the deposit are blended through the caving process.

The PFS mine design is based only on Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources. Inferred Mineral Resources were not used to design the updated mine design and production profile. Total LOM mine development consists of 24 kilometers of lateral development, inclusive of declines, 3 kilometers of vertical development and 40 kilometers of operating development.

Table 8: LOM Mined Material Feed to Mill

Year Material Mined to Milled (Mt) Cu (%) Au

(g/t) As

(%) Contained Metal Cu

(kt) Au

(koz) 2022 0.77 8.7 5.8 0.22 67 143 2023 3.08 6.2 4.0 0.22 191 391 2024 3.25 4.5 2.7 0.21 147 280 2025 3.25 4.1 2.9 0.19 133 298 2026 3.25 2.9 2.0 0.19 94 207 2027 3.25 2.6 1.7 0.15 84 178 2028 3.25 2.0 1.2 0.15 64 127 2029 3.25 1.7 1.0 0.14 54 103 2030 2.62 1.4 0.7 0.14 37 55 2031 1.15 1.3 0.5 0.13 15 20 LOM Total 27.12 3.3 2.1 0.17 886 1,802

Note: totals may not match sum of individual items due to rounding

The SLC dilution over the LOM averages 27%. During the FS process, a further review of the SLC draw strategy to decrease dilution will be undertaken.

As per the PEA, the underground mine will be developed in three phases:

The Exploration Decline consists of twin 5 meter by 5 meter ramps which will be driven straight for approximately 2,800 meters to 400 meters below the surface. This Exploration Decline will serve as the main access, egress and material haulage ramp for the mine. The permit for the Exploration Decline has been granted by the Serbian government and the Exploration Decline construction will commence development in Q2 this year. Mine infrastructure and development, including the first underground primary jaw crusher approximately half way down the orebody, will support production for the first 5 years. This Phase will begin upon receipt of the Construction Permit from the bottom of the Exploration Decline. Sustaining mine infrastructure development which provides access to lower production levels and a second jaw crusher at the bottom of the orebody which will be utilized for the final years of the mine life.

LOM material will be transported to surface by a staged underground conveyor system connecting to an overland conveyor to the process plant.

Primary ventilation consists of a push/pull system with a fresh air raise and a return air raise (RAR). Both raises will be installed using raise bore techniques from access off the Exploration Decline.

The mining cost estimates were generated using first principles development costs and associated support for the forecast ground conditions. Labour and development costs were benchmarked on operating mines within Eastern Europe. Development Productivities and Costs were updated (from the PEA) based on the Geotechnical model to better reflect the variable ground conditions.

Initial Timok Upper Zone Mineral Reserve Statement

The Initial Mineral Reserve estimate is based on the Mineral Resource Statement dated April 24, 2017 (see news release dated October 26, 2017 and associated Technical Report filed on SEDAR December 6, 2017). The Mineral Resources are inclusive of Mineral Reserves. Mineral Reserves are based on $3.00/lb copper and $1,300/oz gold. This differs from the copper price of $3.15 per pound used for the PFS economic analysis.

The initial Timok Mineral Reserve Statement is outlined in Table 9.

Table 9: Initial Timok Upper Zone Mineral Reserve Statement  as at March 8, 2018)

Category (all domains) Tonnes Grade Contained Metal M % Cu g/t Au % As Cu, M

tonnes Au, M

ounces Proven











Probable 27.1 3.3 2.1 0.17 0.89 1.80 Total Proven and Probable 27.1 3.3 2.1 0.17 0.89 1.80

1) The Mineral Reserves and Resources in this news release were estimated using the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM), CIM Standards on Mineral Resources and Reserves, Definitions and Guidelines prepared by the CIM Standing Committee on Reserve Definitions and adopted by CIM Council. 2) Metal prices used include US$3.00/lb Cu and US$1,300/oz Au. 3) A Reserve NSR cut-off of US$35/tonne was used to optimize the SLC Ring layout. 4) Contained metal figures and totals may differ due to rounding of figures.

Metallurgical Test Work

Recent metallurgical test work conducted at XPS, Sudbury, Ontario, was aimed at confirming the bulk concentrate flotation results previously achieved by SGS-Lakefield. XPS performed rougher and cleaner flotation tests, locked cycle tests, and supporting mineralogical evaluation. The work generally confirmed the predicted performance of the bulk flotation procedure and demonstrated that the mass of concentrate can be reduced to increase copper grades together with a proportionate increase in arsenic levels in the concentrate. Optimization of concentrate mass-pulls and arsenic levels will continue with direction from Nevsun marketing staff and advisors.

Additional test work is also continuing to examine the opportunity to produce two concentrates; production of a clean copper concentrate with a low level of arsenic and a complex copper concentrate with a relatively higher level of arsenic.

Table 10  Recovery To Bulk Copper Concentrate and Concentrate Grade



LOM

Avg. 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 2031 % Cu Recovery 93% 96% 95% 94% 94% 92% 92% 91% 91% 91% 91% % Au Recovery 31% 61% 37% 29% 28% 25% 26% 24% 22% 22% 22% % As Recovery 92% 92% 90% 90% 90% 94% 94% 95% 94% 94% 94% % Cu in Concentrate 26.7% 19.0% 30.3% 34.1% 33.6% 24.6% 25.1% 21.9% 21.2% 21.2% 21.2%

Processing Design Details

The copper mineralogy consists primarily of covellite and enargite. The mineralization also contains significant amounts of pyrite, accounting for approximately 45% of total tonnage. The process plant design is based on key inputs from the metallurgical test work programs, the mine production plan, and industry best practices, including benchmarking of similar copper-gold concentrators.

The process plant design was reviewed and updated by Hatch. The most significant change was the removal of the pyrite circuit as production of the pyrite concentrate was found to be uneconomic. The process plant has been designed to treat an average of 8,900 tonnes per day, equivalent to 3.25M tonnes per annum.

The processing flowsheet is considered conventional and consists of primary underground crushing; underground conveyors; overland conveying to the processing plant; coarse material storage bins; SAG and ball mill comminution circuit; copper flotation comprising of rougher flotation, regrind, and three stages of cleaning; copper concentrate thickening and filtration. Other supporting systems to the process plant and site are included and generally consist of reagents storage and distribution; effluent treatment; water services which include fresh, fire, service, and process water systems; compressed air services; concentrate storage and handling; grinding media storage and addition; and plant controls.

Though the basis of this PFS is production of a single bulk concentrate, the robust flowsheet is flexible and allows the option to produce two copper concentrate products, instead of a single concentrate, with relatively minor reconfigurations of flotation equipment. In the two concentrates scenario, a clean concentrate with less than 0.5% arsenic and a complex concentrate with greater than 0.5% arsenic would be produced. Which concentrate is produced will be subject to the market conditions for complex concentrate at that time, but the flexibility is key to managing off-site realization costs.

Tailings Storage Facility Details

Knight Piesold Ltd. Vancouver ("KP") developed a long-term tailings storage strategy, including initial starter dam construction and future expansion stages for tailings deposition and water management based on the proposed mine development plan.

The PFS design of the Tailings Storage Facility ("TSF"), includes a single cell storage arrangement that was updated from the two-cell storage approach considered in the PEA. The single cell TSF approach provides for lower initial capital costs and generally simplified tailings delivery, reclaim and associated water management requirements.

Waste rock storage is included adjacent to the fully lined TSF basin.

PFS level cost estimates were developed for construction and closure of the TSF and water management structures using generated material quantities, unit costs and productivity data from similar facilities in comparable jurisdictions.

Environmental, Permitting and Reclamation Details

The Project has contracted Dvoper Ltd, the Belgrade based subsidiary of a Croatian environmental permitting consulting firm, to support permitting and ERM, a global environmental consulting company, to perform environmental impact assessment work. ERM has subcontracted part of that work to Envico, a Belgrade based environmental and permitting consultant ("ERM/Envico"). ERM/Envico are also supporting environmental permitting.

The Project permitting process is on two separate and parallel tracks. The first permitting track involved obtaining a permit for the development of the Exploration Decline and the associated surface based supporting infrastructure at the portal site. This permit has now been received and Exploration Decline construction will start in Q2 2018. The other permitting effort focuses on those permits required to develop and operate the balance of the Project facilities, including the remainder of the underground mine development, the mineral processing facilities, TSF and other supporting infrastructure.

Land Acquisition

The Company is rapidly advancing land acquisition. As of March 28, 2018, the Company has acquired the necessary property rights to proceed with the exploration decline construction. Additionally, 53% of the required private land for the anticipated construction and operational footprint of the Project has been acquired.

Product Marketing

The Project will produce a single stream of copper concentrate with an average life of mine grade of 26.2% copper, 5.7 gram per tonne gold and 1.4% arsenic. The Project's treatment and refining charges have been adjusted upwards and arsenic penalties have been added to compensate prospective buyers for the concentrates arsenic content, particularly later in the mine life. Arsenic levels will be lower in the early years of production allowing for a more diverse customer profile and ease of product placement. Apart from elevated levels of arsenic, the Project's concentrate will have low to negligible levels of other deleterious elements.

The Company has held preliminary discussions with two potential groups of customers - European and Asian-based smelting companies and concentrate trading companies with blending capabilities. Both of these groups have expressed interest in procuring the Project's concentrate via long term contracts. The realization costs in the PFS are based on these discussions, on the Company's experience with the copper concentrate market, and on a detailed marketing report prepared by Bluequest Resources AG, a specialist in marketing copper concentrates with elevated arsenic. The Company's marketing assumptions were also reviewed by Ocean Partners, the Company's marketing advisor for its Bisha concentrates. Discussions with potential off takers will advance in parallel with the feasibility study.

The Company's marketing strategy allocates concentrate to multiple smelters and traders. In the event of unforeseen capacity constraints at one of these smelters, other smelters have been identified as suitable locations for the Company's production. In determining the treatment and refining charges and associated penalties, the Company has assumed no changes from the current benchmark treatment and refining charges. Total treatment, refining and penalties over the life of the Project are $966M, or $306 per tonne. Transport costs of $141 per tonne reflect the cost of transport from the mine to smelter, associated materials handling costs, weighing, sampling, and assay fees.

Table 11: LOM Realization Costs

LOM Realization Cost Assumptions $ Amount Total Treatment & Refining Charges, and Arsenic Penalties $306 per dry metric tonne of concentrate Transport and Other Selling Costs $141 per dry metric tonne of concentrate Total Realization Costs $447 per dry metric tonne of concentrate TC, RC, Penalties, Transport & Selling Costs & Transport $1,414 M

Ongoing metallurgical and marketing trade-off studies are evaluating whether producing two streams of concentrate will result in lower realization costs than producing a single stream of concentrate.

Copper Concentrate Market

The copper concentrate market is expected to move into deficit over the next few years as the Project is developed. According to the ICSG, China is continuing to expand its smelting capacity, albeit at a slower pace than before. China's copper smelting capacity more than quintupled in the period from 2000 to 2016, and is expected to increase by a further 20% until 2020, accounting for 80% of the forecast world growth in smelting capacity. Outside of China, smelting capacity could potentially be added in countries such as India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Mexico and Mongolia. With yearly copper production projected to lag the growth in smelter capacity, the Project will be well placed to take advantage of this supply/demand imbalance. A tightening of the market would benefit the Project both through reduced benchmark treatment charges and the reduction in penalties for complex concentrates as these concentrates are easier to move in an undersupplied market. The realization costs assumed in the Project's economics do not include the potential cost savings that could occur if the market tightens.

Additionally, the majority of new copper mining projects are expected to produce clean concentrates. This contrasts with recently commissioned copper projects, such as Toromocho and Ministro Hales, which resulted in a step change in the level of complex concentrate production. Traders reacted to this increase by developing concentrate blending facilities and smelters reacted by investing in technologies to increase their ability to process complex concentrates. Traders and smelters are now looking for complex material to allow them to utilize these new capabilities and realize additional revenues from arsenic penalties. The relative reduction in supply of complex concentrates to fill these facilities may result in compressed arsenic penalties, from which the Project would benefit. These potential benefits are not currently assumed in the Project's economics. Lastly, any future relaxation of arsenic import limits on copper concentrates into China, which are currently limited to 0.5%, would materially improve commercial terms relative to those assumed in the Project's economics.

Project Logistics

The Project site is favorably situated with easy access to road, rail, and river transportation options. The PFS assumes the concentrate will be shipped in sealed half-height shipping containers ("Rotainers"). This is the current method of transport used at the Company's Bisha mine. The Rotainers will be used to store and transport the concentrate from the mine site to the port of Burgas, using a combination of truck and rail. The use of Rotainers will also minimize material handling losses. The rail spur is approximately 10km from the mine and the rail line is approximately 741 km from the port of Burgas. The port of Burgas is a modern port which handles bulk cargos and containerized deliveries.

The ports of Constanta (Romania), Varna (Bulgaria), Thessaloniki (Greece), and Bar (Montenegro) are also available as options to the Project. Further studies are underway to optimize the transport of the concentrate to inland smelters and port terminals for overseas shipments.

Project Finance Update

Following the release of the PEA, the Company has held initial discussions with potential suppliers of capital, which, together with internal cash flows from Bisha and the Company's existing cash, will be used to fund the Project. These discussions have included traditional project finance banks, development finance institutions, potential strategic partners, equipment suppliers, and precious metals streamers and have confirmed that the Company has multiple viable options for funding the Project. The Company will select the most attractive combination of these options during the FS in order to achieve a funding package with the lowest cost of capital and execution risk.

Project finance banks are attracted to the high, front-end loaded operating margins of the Project and the resulting payback period of less than a year. The Company expects these banks, together with the potential involvement of development finance institutions and equipment suppliers, to fund 50% to 60% of the Project's capital. The Company will also consider strategic partnerships which can provide project funding, highlight the underlying value of the assets and de-risk the Project. The potential partner could bring either technical capability to aid in the development of the Project, have the desire to off take complex concentrates or have existing interests in the regions where the Company operates. Additional capital may be raised from precious metals streamers given that 11% of the Project's gross revenues are from gold.

Most importantly for financing, Bisha's improved operating performance in 2018 and strong zinc prices will enable the mine to be a strong cash flow generator for the Company. This step change in operating performance has been a result of improved zinc and copper recoveries following trials of new reagents and consistent supply of primary ore feed to the mill in 2018. The resulting increase in metal sales has resulted in Nevsun's cash balance increasing from $125 million at 2017 year-end to $146 million as of 26 March 2018.

Technical Report

Further information about the PFS and the Mineral Reserve Statement referenced in this news release, including data verification, key assumptions, parameters, risks and other factors, will be provided in the NI 43-101 technical report on the Timok Project that the Company will file on SEDAR under the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com within 45 days of this Press Release.

Conference Call and Webcast

The Company will hold a conference call and webcast on Thursday, March 29th, at 8AM Vancouver / 11AM Toronto, New York / 4PM London, to discuss the Timok Upper Zone PFS results.

Conference Call:

Please call in at least five minutes prior to the conference call start time to ensure prompt access to the conference. Dial in details are as follows:

North America: 1 888-390-0546 / +1 416-764-8688 / +1 778-383-7413

UK: 0800 652 2435 (toll free)

Other International: +1 416-764-8688 / +1 778-383-7413

The conference call will be available for replay by phone until Thursday, April 5th, 2018, by calling 1 888-390-0541 / +1 416-764-8677 and entering passcode 076716 #.

Webcast:

A live audio webcast of the conference call will be available on the Company's website www.nevsun.com or by clicking on this link: https://event.on24.com/wcc/r/1634919/FC0DF34A8D3A953FF92957A1055A6018

About Nevsun Resources Ltd.

Nevsun Resources Ltd. is the 100% owner of the high-grade copper-gold Timok Upper Zone and 60.4% owner of the Timok Lower Zone in Serbia. The Timok Lower Zone is a partnership with Freeport-McMoRan Exploration Corporation ("Freeport") which currently owns 39.6% and upon completion of any feasibility study (on the Upper or Lower Zone), Nevsun Resources Ltd. will own 46% and Freeport will own 54%. Nevsun generates cash flow from its 60% owned copper-zinc Bisha Mine in Eritrea. Nevsun is well positioned with a strong debt-free balance sheet to grow shareholder value through advancing Timok to production.

Qualified Persons Statement

The technical content of this press release has been reviewed by the associated Qualified Persons ("QPs") listed below for specific aspects of the report as defined by the National Instrument 43-101.

Mining & Mineral Reserves Jarek Jakubec SRK Vancouver

Mineral Processing  Mick Bunyard - Hatch

TSF  Mihajlo Samoukovic, Knight Piesold Vancouver

Infrastructure, Capital & Operating Costs- Mark Sucharda, Hatch

Economic Evaluation  Robert Duinker, Hatch

Gary MacSporran, P.Eng, is Nevsun's designated Qualified Person and has reviewed and approved the overall contents of this press release.

Each of the individuals listed above are independent QPs for the purposes of NI 43-101. All scientific and technical information in this press release in respect of the Timok Project or the PFS is based upon information prepared by or under the supervision of those individuals.

Forward Looking Statements

The above contains certain forward-looking information and forward-looking statements as defined in applicable securities laws (collectively referred to herein as "forward-looking statements"). These forward-looking statements relate to future events or the Company's future plans and performance including anticipated developments in the Company's continuing and future operations, the adequacy of the Company's financial resources and financial projections and its intentions for its Timok Project in Serbia. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are frequently, but not always, identified by words such as "expects," "anticipates," "believes," "intends," "estimates," "potential," "possible," "budget" and similar expressions, or statements that events, conditions or results "will," "may," "could" or "should" occur or be achieved. In addition, this news release and the PFS contains forward-looking statements related to the Timok Property. Readers are cautioned that the scientific and technical information contained herein and in the PFS may change and caution should be used by readers in relying upon such forward looking information.

Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements. This is particularly the case with respect to forward-looking statements contained herein and in the PFS.

Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements concerning:

the business, prospects, and future activities of, and developments related to the Timok Project and the PFS;

forecasts or outlook and guidance related to the Timok Project, project economics, construction, exploration drilling programs and activities, production timelines and targets, timetables;

the timing of the filing of the NI43-101 Technical Report that summarizes the results of the PFS;

the timing of the FS on the Timok Project;

estimates of capital and operating costs, estimates of initial and sustaining capital estimates and mining cost estimates;

adequacy of mining and process plan design and mining method, predicted performance of operating plants and equipment based on test work and other key inputs;

the estimation of mineral reserves and resources, methodologies and models used to prepare resource and reserve estimates;

estimates of the quantity, quality and the realization of mineral reserves and resources, the conversion of mineral properties to reserves and resources;

interpretation of drill results as such information constitutes a prediction of what mineralization might be found to be present if and when a project is actually developed;

statements based on certain assumptions that a mineral deposit can or may be economically exploited;

dividends, goals, strategies, future growth;

taxation rates in Serbia and the Company's expectation to benefit from a 10-year tax holiday;

the adequacy of financial resources and the ability of the Company to raise additional capital;

the potential to expand resources, reserves and mine life;

future exploration budgets, plans, work programs and capital expenditures;

anticipated timing of grant of permits, licenses, land acquisition, construction, mining and development plans and mining activities;

in-situ and ore feed grades, estimated processing rates and cash flows;

the future state of the copper concentrate market;

product marketing and the ability to market complex concentrates;

project logistics to transport concentrates;

environmental risks; and

other events or conditions that may occur in the future.

Forward-looking statements are statements about the future and are inherently uncertain, and actual achievements of the Company or other future events or conditions may differ materially from those reflected in the forward-looking statements due to a variety of risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors, including, without limitation, the risks more fully described in the Company's Annual Information Form ("AIF") and the Company's management's discussion and analysis for the year ended December 31, 2017 ("MD&A").

Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that could cause actual results to differ from what is anticipated, estimated or intended. The Company's forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, expectations and opinions of management on the date the statements are made and the Company assumes no obligation to update such forward-looking statements in the future, except as required by law. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. For the reasons set forth above, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

The Company's forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, expectations and opinions of management on the date the statements are made and the Company assumes no obligation to update such forward-looking statements in the future, except as required by law. For the reasons set forth above, investors should not place undue reliance on the Company's forward-looking statements.

Further information concerning risks and uncertainties associated with these forward-looking statements and our business can be found in our AIF for the year ended December 31, 2017, which is available on the Company's website (www.nevsun.com), filed under our profile on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) and on EDGAR (www.sec.gov) under cover of Form 40-F.

NEVSUN RESOURCES LTD.

"Peter G.J. Kukielski"

Peter G.J. Kukielski

President & Chief Executive Officer

SOURCE Nevsun Resources Ltd.
SAN FRANCISCO, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- A global leader in corporate and consumer foreign exchange solutions, OANDA now offers its OANDA Exchange API application to all Microsoft Dynamics 365 customers. The new app allows customers to easily integrate the OANDA Exchange Rates API with their Microsoft Dynamics 365 instance, giving access to daily average exchange rates for 38,000+ currency pairs, over 200 currencies, commodities, and precious metals, as well as exchange rates sourced from 25 central banks, and historical currency data back to 1990.

"We are excited to offer our Exchange Rate API application on Microsoft AppSource for Dynamics 365, Enterprise customers who can now automatically source accurate and reliable FX data," said Mateo Graziosi, Head of FX Data Services at OANDA. "This API allows users to utilize our rates for financial reconciliation, accounting, and auditing directly through Dynamics 365, saving companies time and reducing the risk of manual error."

Muhammad Alam, General Manager, Microsoft Dynamics 365 at Microsoft Corporation added, "The OANDA Exchange API app brings key functionality and adds valuable data for our Dynamics 365 applications for finance and operations, providing global companies accurate and reliable foreign exchange data on demand in an efficient manner."

Trusted for accuracy and reliability by top audit firms, accounting teams and thousands of corporations globally, OANDA Rates are acknowledged by several tax authorities and governmental agencies and are widely considered the gold standard in exchange rates data. The company leverages its access to a full range of interbank liquidity, proprietary trading technology and pricing algorithms to calculate accurate exchange rates based on actual forex transactions, giving users a true reflection of the forex market.

About OANDA

A global leader in online multi-asset trading services, OANDA combines award-winning technology and institutional-grade execution across a wide range of asset classes, enabling clients to trade global market indices, commodities, treasuries, precious metals and currencies on one of the world's fastest platforms. The company also offers OANDA Rates, a set of corporate solutions that help the world's leading audit firms, taxation authorities and MNCs mitigate currency risk, improve efficiencies and optimise working capital. Established in 1996, OANDA has offices in New York, San Francisco, London, Singapore, Tokyo, Toronto and Sydney and is fully regulated by six major authorities. For more information, please visit oanda.com or follow us on Twitter, Facebook or YouTube.

SOURCE OANDA Corporation
Seven Reserve Africa Blend coffee is available at participating 7-Eleven stores and is offered at the same low price as all other hot beverages.

"This isn't just a new coffee flavor for 7-Eleven, it's an entirely new segment of our business, in which we will be introducing coffees originating from exotic locales specifically known for producing the finest coffees," said Shawn Barnes, 7-Eleven senior category manager for hot beverages.

"Seven Reserve targets serious coffee-drinkers who are looking for a richer, more intense coffee flavor, but that's just part of the equation," he added. "We know our customers also care about coffee crops that are responsibly grown and sourced directly from small farms."

Africa Blend is 7-Eleven stores' first duo-Arabica coffee to carry the Rainforest Alliance Certified seal. Since 2016, 7-Eleven has introduced four Rainforest Alliance Certified coffees  Nicaragua, Mexico, Peruvian and Colombian, all responsibly grown. Single-origin 100 percent Colombian Rainforest Alliance Certified coffee is now a permanent offering and top-seller on the hot beverage bar.

The Rainforest Alliance is an international nonprofit organization that seeks to conserve biodiversity and ensure sustainable livelihoods. Carrying the Rainforest Alliance Certified seal with the little green frog means the 100 percent Arabica beans are sourced from coffee-growers whose farms are required to meet strict standards designed to protect the environment, conserve wildlife and promote the well-being of local communities.

"Industrywide, there is a strong push to make coffee the world's first sustainable agricultural commodity. 7-Eleven's commitment to responsible sourcing is helping to advance that goal," said Laura Donnelly, senior associate of Markets Transformation at Rainforest Alliance. "By working with smallholder farmers, 7-Eleven is also helping to transform farmer livelihoods, ensuring a quality coffee supply into the future."

Grown in the Yirgacheffe area of Ethiopia, these select, hand-picked coffee beans are considered by many to be among the world's finest, with a full-bodied, intense flavor highlighted by citrus tones. The East African country is the birthplace of coffee, and Yirgacheffe is one of its oldest cultivated areas.

The Rwandan coffee is cultivated in the Nyamagabe district and named for the Nyarusiza and Remera coffee-washing station. Its sweet, chocolatey undertones, finished by vanilla caramel notes, complement the Ethiopian beans' fruity acidity.

A medium roast was selected to develop the right balance of each coffee's best characteristics while not overwhelming or masking their inherent flavors with a dark roast.

According to the annual National Coffee Association coffee-drinking trends study, six in 10 of all cups of coffee consumed are classified as specialty coffee. Specialty, or gourmet, coffee consumption has shown dramatic growth every year since 2001 and is defined as coffee and coffee drinks made using premium whole beans or ground varieties.

7-Eleven is working with Conservation International (CI) to set measurable corporate social responsibility (CSR) goals to reduce its environmental footprint. 7-Eleven's CSR mission has three focus areas  planet, products and people. Using 2015 as a baseline, 7-Eleven set objectives to reduce its carbon footprint and increase community engagement in the U.S. and Canada.

The retailer is a member of CI's Business and Sustainability Council, a forum for corporate leaders taking positive environmental actions in their businesses, to explore mutually beneficial ways to further reduce its environmental impact.

As part of its CSR objectives, 7-Eleven will continue to seek out responsibly sourced coffees and other products and packaging with less environmental impact. Future Seven Reserve coffees will include both exotic blends and single-origin brews from top growing areas around the world.

"7-Eleven coffee-drinkers recognize great quality and taste, and the RFA-certified premium coffees have become some of our best-selling hot beverages," Barnes said. "We will continue to work with our importers to identify unique blends and the highest quality beans for the Seven Reserve brand."

7-Eleven is the No. 1 foodservice purveyor of total coffee servings in the U.S. convenience store channel. Source: The NPD Group/CREST, year ending January 2018.

About 7Eleven, Inc.

7Eleven, Inc. is the premier name and largest chain in the convenience-retailing industry. Based in Irving, Texas, 7Eleven operates, franchises and/or licenses more than 65,000 stores in 18 countries, including 11,600 in North America. Known for its iconic brands such as Slurpee, Big Bite and Big Gulp, 7Eleven has expanded into high-quality salads, side dishes, cut fruit and protein boxes, as well as pizza, chicken wings, cheeseburgers and hot chicken sandwiches. 7Eleven offers customers industry-leading private-brand products under the 7-Select brand including healthy options, decadent treats and everyday favorites at an outstanding value. Customers also count on 7Eleven for bill payments, self-service lockers and other convenient services. Find out more online at www.7-Eleven.com, via the 7Rewards customer-loyalty platform on the 7Eleven mobile app, or on social media at Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

About the Rainforest Alliance

The Rainforest Alliance is an international nonprofit organization working to build a future in which nature is protected and biodiversity flourishes, where farmers, workers, and communities prosper, and where sustainable land use and responsible business practices are the norm. We envision a world where people and nature thrive in harmony. In January 2018, the Rainforest Alliance merged with UTZ, a global program and label for sustainable farming. Our head offices are in Amsterdam and New York, with regional offices around the world.

SOURCE 7-Eleven, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.7-eleven.com


CHICAGO, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Outcome Health, a technology company that provides health education at the moment of care to improve patient outcomes, today announced a partnership with the Colorectal Cancer Alliance (the Alliance) to make patients aware of the signs and symptoms of colorectal cancer. Through this partnership, Outcome Health and the Alliance will deliver actionable healthcare intelligence to patients via digital devices  specifically exam room wallboards  in physician practices across the country.

"Young people, in the prime of their lives, are being diagnosed with colorectal cancer more often and at a later stage than any other age group," says Sara Geist, Director of Marketing and Communications at the Alliance. "Through our partnership with Outcome Health, we can reach a wider audience and increase awareness to the under fifty community."

Colorectal cancer is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death in men and women combined in the United States. According to the American Cancer Society, this year, roughly 95,520 people will be diagnosed with colon cancer, 39,910 will be diagnosed with rectal cancer, and 50,260 will die from this disease. Last year, the Alliance surveyed 1,500 young onset colorectal cancer survivors and found that 82% were initially misdiagnosed and 67% saw at least two doctors before being correctly diagnosed with colorectal cancer.

"The Colorectal Cancer Alliance is tirelessly working to raise awareness of and fund critical research for colorectal cancer," said Anil Harjani, Vice President of Product Management and Strategic Partnerships at Outcome Health. "We are proud to work with the Alliance to provide support for patients, caregivers and survivors."

In recognition of Colorectal Cancer Awareness month in March, Outcome Health and the Alliance will focus on deploying resources to educate patients and providers about the signs and symptoms of colorectal cancer. Outcome Health will deliver this information to all primary care and gastrointestinal providers across its nationwide network.

Outcome Health's platform includes technologies such as the Waiting Room TV, which can promote specialty-specific content and deliver lifestyle management videos to patients' pre-consultation. It also includes the Exam Room Wallboard, which offers access to 3D anatomical renderings for use during the consultation. Physicians can zoom, rotate and annotate body systems and disease states to give patients a personalized visual of their health.

About the Colorectal Cancer Alliance

The Colorectal Cancer Alliance is a national nonprofit committed to ending colorectal cancer. Working with our nation of passionate allies, we diligently support the needs of patients and families, caregivers, and survivors, eagerly raise awareness of preventative screening, and continually strive to fund critical research. As allies in the struggle, we are fiercely determined to end colorectal cancer within our lifetime. For more information, visit ccalliance.org.

About Outcome Health

Outcome Health's mission is to activate the best health outcome possible for every person in the world through technologies that change behavior to positively shape the human condition. Founded in 2006, Outcome Health serves health information and health intelligence during critical moments of care to enable patients and physicians to make the best healthcare decision possible. Across the country, Outcome Health has over 150,000 digital devices and a presence in over 40,000 physician offices and health systems in its BPA certified network.

Contact:

Outcome Health Press Office

[email protected]

SOURCE Outcome Health
SAN FRANCISCO, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Pacific Union International, Inc. is expanding its leadership team to welcome highly respected commercial real estate industry leader Stephen Pugh. As president of Pacific Union's Commercial Real Estate division, Pugh will direct the brokerage's commercial business in the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California.

Pacific Union International, Inc. is expanding its leadership team to welcome highly respected commercial real estate industry leader Stephen Pugh as president of Pacific Union Commercial Real Estate.

"I began my career at Pacific Union in 1989 as a commercial real estate professional," Pugh says. "It is amazing to come home to the brokerage that gave me my start. The incredible dynamics and future growth of this brokerage with projected sales volume in 2018 of $18 billion is phenomenal."

"We are very happy to welcome Steve back at Pacific Union," Pacific Union President Patrick V. Barber says. "Steve is a proven leader in commercial real estate with more than 25 years of experience. His drive and talent in building effective teams has led to billions in sales volume in multifamily and commercial properties in the Bay Area."

Pugh comes to Pacific Union from his position as president and CEO of Paragon Commercial Brokerage. Pugh's leadership created what was claimed to be San Francisco's largest independently held commercial real estate firm. Pacific Union CEO Mark A. McLaughlin expects the Pacific Union Commercial group under Pugh's leadership to close more than $2 billion in investment trades in the upcoming year.

In 2008 prior to joining Paragon Commercial Brokerage, Pugh was managing director, for Alain Pinel Investment Group. Under his leadership, the office was ranked as San Francisco's No. 1 multifamily brokerage based on total volume of multifamily sales between 2009 and 2013.

For the past 24 years Pugh has served as president of the Income Property Marketing Group, the Bay Area's largest networking organization that promotes the sale of commercial and investment properties. He resides with his family in Sausalito.

About Pacific Union International

Founded in San Francisco in 1975, Pacific Union International, Inc. is the West Coast's premier luxury real estate brand, with 2017 sales volume of $14.1 billion. In 2018, real estate industry leaders RISMedia ranked Pacific Union as the fifth-largest brokerage in the U.S.

Through its 2015 acquisition of The Mark Company, the nation's leading sales and marketing firm for new urban luxury developments, Pacific Union expanded its brand to development projects from San Diego to Seattle.

In 2016, Pacific Union merged with Los Angeles-based brokerage John Aaroe Group, followed in 2017 with mergers with Partners Trust and Gibson International also based in Los Angeles, and Empire Realty Associates, extending the Pacific Union brand to become the preeminent leader and ultimate California real estate company. The strategic alliance of these five powerhouses supports 1,700 elite real estate professionals in more than 50 offices throughout the West Coast. Northern California markets include San Francisco, Marin, Contra Costa, Alameda, Napa, and Sonoma counties; Silicon Valley; and the Lake Tahoe region. Greater Los Angeles markets include Beverly Hills, Malibu, Downtown, Northeast L.A., the Westside, as well as the San Fernando and San Gabriel Valleys.

To extend Pacific Union's international reach, the brokerage established an award-winning, Beijing-based China Concierge program in 2013 that fully supports its Chinese investors on the mainland. Additionally, Pacific Union offers a full range of personal and commercial real estate services, including buying, selling and relocation, in addition to operating joint-venture businesses that provide rental and commercial property management and insurance services. Locally owned, Pacific Union executes with a vision for the future, an entrepreneurial mindset and an unwavering commitment to deliver exceptional service and expertise. For more information, visit: www.pacificunion.com.

SOURCE Pacific Union International, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.pacificunion.com


"Poland joins the now 15 nation strong group of countries which trust Patriot to defend their citizens, military and sovereignty," said Wes Kremer, President of Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems. "Poland's procurement of Patriot strengthens Trans-Atlantic partnership and security by enabling a common approach to Integrated Air and Missile Defense, and creating jobs in the US and Poland."

Patriot is the backbone of NATO and Europe's defense against ballistic and cruise missiles, advanced aircraft and drones.

NATO Nations with Patriot: The US, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, and Spain currently have Patriot. On Nov. 29th, Romania signed an LOA for Patriot, making it the 6th NATO member state to procure Patriot. Additionally, a Congressional notification regarding a potential Patriot sale to Sweden has been completed.

Patriot in Poland: Prior to signing the LOA, Poland agreed to an industrial-participation proposal offered by Raytheon and its industry partners. To facilitate Poland's self-sufficiency, which is required by Polish law, Raytheon will transfer technology to the extent permitted by US law and regulations.

This LOA is for Phase I of "WISLA," Poland's two-phase medium-range Integrated Air and Missile Defense procurement. Under Phase II, Poland has stated it intends to acquire additional Patriot fire units, Gallium-Nitride-based 360-degree Active Electronically Scanning Array Radar, and SkyCeptor, a low-cost interceptor missile.

About Raytheon

Raytheon Company, with 2017 sales of $25 billion and 64,000 employees, is a technology and innovation leader specializing in defense, civil government and cybersecurity solutions. With a history of innovation spanning 96 years, Raytheon provides state-of-the-art electronics, mission systems integration, C5ITM products and services, sensing, effects, and mission support for customers in more than 80 countries. Raytheon is headquartered in Waltham, Mass. Follow us on Twitter.

Note to Editors

The 15 Patriot Nations are:

United States of America

The Netherlands

Germany

Japan

Israel

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Kuwait

Taiwan

Greece

Spain

Republic of Korea

United Arab Emirates

Qatar

Romania

Poland

Media Contact

Mike Nachshen

+ 1.520.269.5697

[email protected]

Official DoD photos of U.S. Army Soldiers familiarizing Polish Soldiers with Raytheon's Patriot Integrated Air and Missile Defense System may be downloaded here: https://www.dvidshub.net/image/285888/patriots, https://www.dvidshub.net/image/285156/patriots-poland, https://www.dvidshub.net/image/285147/patriots-poland

SOURCE Raytheon Company

Related Links

http://www.raytheon.com


NEW YORK, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Below are experts from the ProfNet network who are available to discuss timely issues in your coverage area.

You can also submit a query to the hundreds of thousands of experts in our network  it's easy and free. Just fill out the query form to get started: http://prn.to/queryform

EXPERT ALERTS

Miami Pedestrian Bridge Collapse

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Miami Pedestrian Bridge Collapse

Dennis Buchanan

Division Head, Structural Integrity

University of Dayton Research Institute

By bringing in a team of experts, investigators will be able to look at the remnants of the pedestrian bridge that collapsed in Miami on March 15 and identify the source of the failure that brought down the structure, said Buchanan, but the process is complicated and could take months. In the interim, Buchanan said, "It's important not to jump to conclusions about the cause of the collapse while investigators work to provide answers." In a voicemail message released by the Florida Department of Transportation Friday, an engineer with FIGG Bridge Group -- which designed the bridge near Florida International University -- reported "some cracking" on the north end of the span, adding that the cracking did not appear to present a safety concern. The National Transportation Safety Board, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Federal Highway Administration are investigating. Buchanan said experts in materials, structures, engineering and other related areas will work to assess whether the cracks were related to the cause of failure: "Those experts should be able to examine the remnants of the bridge and determine exactly what the root cause of the failure was, whether it was a material or structural flaw, an issue with manufacturing or something else. Investigators will be able to identify where the failure started, what type of material and structure was at that location, and the sequence of events leading up to failure." Tests might involve materials examination, strength testing and more.

Buchanan has published a number of articles on failure analysis in peer-reviewed publications. He is based in Dayton, Ohio.

Website: www.udri.udayton.edu

Contact: Pamela Gregg, [email protected]

****************

MEDIA JOBS:

Following are links to job listings for staff and freelance writers, editors and producers. You can view these and more job listings on our Job Board: https://prnmedia.prnewswire.com/community/jobs/

Senior Video Producer/Head of Output, North America  APTV (DC)

 APTV (DC) Deputy Editor  AccountingWeb.com (NY)

Senior Writer/Editor, Autos  Consumer Reports (CT)

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OTHER NEWS & RESOURCES:

Following are links to other news and resources we think you might find useful. If you have an item you think other reporters would be interested in and would like us to include in a future alert, please drop us a line at [email protected]

5 QUESTIONS WITH THE NEW FOOD ECONOMY. Investigations are making a comeback. With confidence shrinking in public institutions, journalists appear to be doubling down on investigative efforts. Major newspapers are bringing back investigative units to mine for new stories. A slew of independent news sites are cropping up, too -- spotlighting undertold stories to promote a more informed citizenry, while also spurring reform. Enter The New Food Economy, the award-winning nonprofit newsroom that focuses on the underreported stories of our food system. The company's founder and publisher, Jeffrey Kittay , and editor Kate Cox gave us a glimpse into their incisive brand of food journalism: http://bit.ly/2G6lSDC

, and editor gave us a glimpse into their incisive brand of food journalism: http://bit.ly/2G6lSDC 5 ACCESSORIES THAT WILL BOOST YOUR SMARTPHONE'S PHOTO AND VIDEO CAPABILITIES. Journalists use their smartphones in a variety of ways while on assignment, including taking still photographs and videos. Bloggers, of course, do the same as they work to increase online presence. The good news is, many of the same accessories made available for DSLR cameras also are available for your phone. Here's a look at five smartphone accessories that will help boost your mobile photography and videography: http://bit.ly/2ILWXa8

BLOG PROFILES: WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP BLOGS. Each week, PR Newswire's Audience Relations team selects an industry/subject and profiles a handful of sites that do a good job with promoting and contributing to the conversation. This week, they look at a few women's leadership blogs: http://bit.ly/2pzlKGv

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PROFNET is an exclusive service of PR Newswire.

To contact ProfNet: [email protected] or 800-776-3638, ext. 1

SOURCE ProfNet

Related Links

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LONDON, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Canvas by Instructure (NYSE:INST), has announced that it has been selected by Queen's University Belfast to provide its innovative and scalable open online virtual learning environment (VLE).

The VLE will play a central role in helping the institution meet its strategic ambition to deliver a Digital Learning pathway. By 2020, the Russell Group University  which is already in the top one percent of institutions worldwide  aims to offer an online learning element in all of its programmes. Canvas will help to meet this vision, providing a blended learning experience where students and teachers will be able to collaborate better, interact more with course material and track and measure progress in a dynamic and actionable way.

Olivia Roberts, Head of Student Services and Systems at Queen's University Belfast, said, "It is not an exaggeration to say that Canvas has the potential to fundamentally change how we deliver teaching and learning. We will improve how our students access materials, the kinds of assessments available, the types of lesson materials and multimedia we use and really give our students ownership in the process. And, of course, this is instrumental in helping deliver on our greater strategic goals as an institution."

"Even though we are in the early stages of project implementation the collaborative relationship offered by Instructure has shown the team to be a true partner through this journey. We also opted to invest in Canvas tier 1 support, which means that all of our students and staff can get round the clock help, training and support, leaving our lecturers to put their energy into creating and delivering great classes supported by the VLE."

Kenny Nicholl, VP EMEA for Canvas, said; "Following a rigorous review and user testing process, we are delighted that Queen's University Belfast has chosen Canvas as their institution-wide VLE, and that it promises to make such an impact on their digital learning strategies."

ABOUT INSTRUCTURE

Instructure, Inc. is the software-as-a-service (SaaS) technology company that makes software that makes people smarter. With a vision to help maximise the potential of people through technology, Instructure created Canvas, Arc and Bridge to enable organisations everywhere to easily develop, deliver, and manage engaging face-to-face and online learning experiences. To date, Instructure has connected millions of instructors and learners at more than 3,000 educational institutions and corporations throughout the world. Learn more about the Canvas Virtual Learning Environment at www.Instructure.com and http://www.CanvasVLE.co.uk.

CONTACTS:

Rachel Matthews

Instructure

[email protected]

Dan Thompson / Emily Goodbrand-Dillon

Third City

[email protected] / [email protected]

S: 020 3657 9773

All rights reserved  2018 Instructure, Inc. Instructure, Canvas and Bridge logos are registered trademarks or trademarks of Instructure, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Other brands and names may be claimed as the property of others.

SOURCE Canvas

Related Links

http://www.CanvasVLE.co.uk


CHICAGO, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The iconic little red wagon has brought joy to millions of children over the last 100 years, inspiring warm memories of outdoor play and childhood. Wagons have been used to carry stuffed animals, toys, books, friends and more for countless hours of playtime. They've also been used by children and adults alike to lift the spirits of others  and Radio Flyer is celebrating these acts of kindness in honor of National Little Red Wagon Day.

Roger Leggett stands next to customized Radio Flyer wagons with affixed IV poles that were donated to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta on behalf of his nonprofit organization, Chad's Bracket.

Makenna Breading-Goodrich began collecting coats at the age of nine. She knocked on doors in her neighborhood piling donations in her little red wagon, and wheeled the coats to a local homeless shelter each week. Five years later, Phoenix homeless shelters have received more than 1,000 coats thanks to Makenna's Coats for a Cause.

Roger Leggett's granddaughter Felicity was diagnosed with a brain tumor at the age of four. During visits to see her, Roger and his son Chad discovered that many pediatric patients were transported in Radio Flyer wagons, with their IV poles trailing behind the wagon. They knew there had to be an easier and safer way to affix the IV pole to the wagon, and when Chad tragically passed away, Roger honored Chad's legacy by creating Chad's Bracket. To this day, Chad's Bracket continues to help families and make a difference in people's lives.

There are thousands more people like Makenna and Roger who have used wagons to make a positive impact. Radio Flyer wants to hear your stories and celebrate these acts of kindness. Enter the 'Wagons for Good' sweepstakes and share your story. The winner will receive a donation of 100 wagons to the organization of your choice.

The sweepstakes launches today in celebration of National Little Red Wagon Day and will accept entries through April 18. The winner will be announced on April 25.

Radio Flyer is dedicated to giving back to the community and helping those in need. The brand has donated more than 13,000 wagons to the Starlight Children's Foundation over the years, planted one tree for every toy purchased on radioflyer.com with the Arbor Foundation and built eight playgrounds around Radio Flyer's hometown in Chicago with KaBOOM!

For more information about Radio Flyer and to enter the Wagons for Good Sweepstakes, visit https://www.radioflyer.com/content/featured-stories.

About Radio Flyer

Radio Flyer, Inc., maker of the famous and beloved Little Red Wagon is the world's leading producer of wagons, tricycles, pre-school scooters and other ride-ons. Radio Flyer has more than 100 award-winning products available in 25 countries. Since 1917, the family-owned company has created icons of childhood, building a legacy of high quality, timeless and innovative toys that spark the imagination and inspire outdoor, active play. Radio Flyer wheels have carried, hauled and fueled more kids' play and adventures than any other ride on toy. Radio Flyer has received numerous awards, including "Best Places to Work" by Fortune, "Top Small Workplaces," by The Wall Street Journal and "5000 Fastest Growing Companies in America," by Inc. For more, information visit www.radioflyer.com.

Media Contact:

Erin Gordon

(312) 929-0514

[email protected]

SOURCE Radio Flyer

Related Links

http://www.radioflyer.com


"After a full year of collecting and analyzing Firebox Feed data, we can clearly see that cyber criminals are continuing to leverage sophisticated, evasive attacks and resourceful malware delivery schemes to steal valuable data," said Corey Nachreiner, chief technology officer at WatchGuard Technologies. "Although these criminal tactics may vary over time, we can be certain that this broad trend will persist, so the risks have never been greater for small and midsize organizations with less IT and security resources. We encourage businesses of all sizes to proactively mitigate these threats with layered security services, advanced malware protection, and employee education and training in security best practices."

WatchGuard's Internet Security Report provides a quarterly update on the most ubiquitous security threats targeting businesses today, as well key strategies they can use to protect employees, customers and stakeholders from data theft. The top takeaways from the Q4 2017 report include:

Cyber criminals leveraged malicious Office documents to trick victims. Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) attacks cracked WatchGuard's top ten malware list in Q4, as hackers increasingly exploited issues within this Microsoft Office standard to execute code. Also called "macro-less malware," these malicious documents often use PowerShell and obfuscated script to get past network defenses. Additionally, two of the top-ten network attacks in Q4 involved Microsoft Office exploits, further emphasizing the growing trend of malicious document attacks.

Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) attacks cracked WatchGuard's top ten malware list in Q4, as hackers increasingly exploited issues within this Microsoft Office standard to execute code. Also called "macro-less malware," these malicious documents often use PowerShell and obfuscated script to get past network defenses. Additionally, two of the top-ten network attacks in Q4 involved Microsoft Office exploits, further emphasizing the growing trend of malicious document attacks. Overall malware attacks grew significantly, while zero day malware variants jumped 167 percent. WatchGuard Fireboxes blocked over 30 million total malware variants in Q4, which was a 33 percent increase over the previous quarter. Out of the total threats prevented in Q4, the subset of new or "zero day" malware instances rose steeply by 167 percent compared to Q3. These increases can likely be attributed to heightened criminal activity during the holiday season.

WatchGuard Fireboxes blocked over 30 million total malware variants in Q4, which was a 33 percent increase over the previous quarter. Out of the total threats prevented in Q4, the subset of new or "zero day" malware instances rose steeply by 167 percent compared to Q3. These increases can likely be attributed to heightened criminal activity during the holiday season. Nearly half of all malware eluded basic antivirus (AV) solutions. WatchGuard Fireboxes block malware using both legacy signature-based detection techniques and the modern, proactive behavioral detection solution  APT Blocker. When APT Blocker catches a malware variant, it means the legacy AV signatures missed it. This zero day malware accounted for 46 percent of all malware in Q4. That level of growth suggests criminals are using more sophisticated evasion techniques capable of slipping attacks past traditional AV services, which further underscores the importance of behavior-based defenses.

WatchGuard Fireboxes block malware using both legacy signature-based detection techniques and the modern, proactive behavioral detection solution  APT Blocker. When APT Blocker catches a malware variant, it means the legacy AV signatures missed it. This zero day malware accounted for 46 percent of all malware in Q4. That level of growth suggests criminals are using more sophisticated evasion techniques capable of slipping attacks past traditional AV services, which further underscores the importance of behavior-based defenses. Scripting attacks account for 48 percent of top malware. Script-based attacks caught by signatures for JavaScript and Visual Basic Script threats, such as downloaders and droppers, accounted for the majority of malware detected in Q4. Users should take note of the continued popularity of these attacks and watch out for malicious script in web pages and email attachments of any kind.

The full Internet Security Report features evaluations of the quarter's most pervasive malware and network attacks, recommendations for useful defensive strategies in today's threat landscape, and a detailed breakdown of "the Krack Attack"  one of the top information security issues in 2017.

Additionally, the report includes a new research project from the WatchGuard Threat Lab, which analyzes a database of more than 1 billion stolen password records to stress just how often users choose weak passwords and re-use credentials across multiple accounts. This quarter's conclusions are based on anonymized Firebox Feed data from nearly 40,000 active WatchGuard Fireboxes worldwide, which blocked more than 30 million malware variants (783 per device) and 6.9 million network attacks (178 per device) in Q4 2017.

New Threat Landscape Data Visualization Tool

WatchGuard's new Threat Landscape data visualization tool offers daily security insights regarding the top malware and network attacks around the globe. The Threat Landscape page enables users to search Firebox Feed data a by type of attack, region or country, and targeted date ranges, with interactive graphics that are updated instantly and easy to read.

For more information, download the full report here. To access live, real-time threat insights by type, region and date, visit WatchGuard's Threat Landscape page today.

About WatchGuard Technologies, Inc.

WatchGuard Technologies, Inc. is a global leader in network security, secure Wi-Fi, and network intelligence products and services to more than 80,000 customers worldwide. The company's mission is to make enterprise-grade security accessible to companies of all types and sizes through simplicity, making WatchGuard an ideal solution for distributed enterprises and SMBs. WatchGuard is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, with offices throughout North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Latin America. To learn more, visit WatchGuard.com.

For additional information, promotions and updates, follow WatchGuard on Twitter, @WatchGuard on Facebook, or on the LinkedIn Company page. Also, visit our InfoSec blog, Secplicity, for real-time information about the latest threats and how to cope with them at www.secplicity.org.

Media Contacts:

Chris Warfield

WatchGuard Technologies

206.876.8380

[email protected]

Anthony Cogswell

Voxus PR

253.444.5980

[email protected]

SOURCE WatchGuard Technologies, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.watchguard.com


Cleo has served as the J3/Chief Operations Officer for the Joint Force Headquarters  Department of Defense Information Network (JFHQ-DoDIN) and Commander of the White House Communications Agency, where he provided operational support to President Obama and the White House staff. A former Brigade Commander for the 516th Signal Brigade, Cleo was responsible for the Army's largest operational cyber network, covering more than 9,000 miles and 16 time zones.

"Cyber impacts multiple facets of all federal agencies  strategy, security, finances, operations and compliance," said Mike Herrinton, Partner and US Government & Public Sector Federal Leader at Ernst & Young LLP. "Cleo's experience will be crucial in helping our clients drive change and deliver on cybersecurity initiatives. We are thrilled that he has chosen to join EY in this essential area of focus for our organization."

Cleo has supported foreign governments and established partnerships with multiple organizations, helping everyone remain focused on meeting operational requirements.

"EY is focused on solving complex problems in the most demanding cybersecurity environments," said Cleo. "I am excited to be a member of a very professional team."

Cleo is a War College graduate from the National Defense University, Dwight D. Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy, in Washington DC, with a Master of Science degree in National Resource Strategy. He is also a distinguished graduate of Tuskegee University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering.

About EY's Global Government & Public Sector Services practice

Around the world, governments and not-for-profit organizations are continually seeking innovative answers to complex challenges. They are striving to provide better services at lower costs and to create sustainable economic development, a safe environment, more transparency and increased accountability. EY combines private sector leading practices with an understanding of the public sector's diverse needs, focusing on building organizations' capabilities to deliver improved public services. Drawing on many years of experience, we can work with you to help strengthen your organization and achieve lasting improvements. Our Global Government & Public Sector brings together teams of highly skilled professionals from our assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services. We are inspired by a deep commitment to help you meet your goals and enhance public value, for today and tomorrow.

About EY

EY is a global leader in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services. The insights and quality services we deliver help build trust and confidence in the capital markets and in economies the world over. We develop outstanding leaders who team to deliver on our promises to all of our stakeholders. In so doing, we play a critical role in building a better working world for our people, for our clients and for our communities.

EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to one or more of the member firms, of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients. For more information about our organization, please visit ey.com.

This news release has been issued by Ernst & Young LLP, a member of the global EY organization that provides services to clients in the US.

SOURCE Ernst & Young LLP
The wiring diagram of the cortex determines how information is processed across dozens of cortical areas. "If we don't know how information is combined even at the earliest stages, then we have essentially no shot of figuring out how the brain works." says Justus Kebschull, now a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University who was instrumental in developing MAPseq as a graduate student in Zador's lab.

In a MAPseq experiment, hundreds or thousands of neurons are labeled uniquely with random RNA sequences ("barcodes") via a single injection made in the brain. The barcodes are transported into the branching axons of each labeled neuron, where they can later be read out by high-throughput barcode sequencing after the brain is dissected. This process allows researchers to identify every brain area that each barcoded neuron makes contact with.

The Zador lab has begun utilizing MAPseq to compare the brains of a mouse autism model with healthy mouse brains to see if mis-wiring occurs during development at the single-neuron level that might explain the disorder's symptoms  just one of many potential applications of the method.

In the experiments, the team first verified the relatively new technology by comparing its results with the gold-standard mapping method, called single-neuron tracing. They used the latter method to trace 31 mouse neurons in the primary visual cortex to up to seven different cortical locations. These experiments took 3 years to complete. It then took them only 3 weeks to use MAPseq to map the projections within the cortex arising from 591 primary visual cortex neurons.

"Our finding signals a shift away from the rather convenient idea of every neuron projecting to just one cortical area," says Kebschull. "That thinking ignores the underlying structure of the brain, and in the future, the way people do their experiments is going to change drastically."

Funding: U.S. National Institutes of Health; Brain Research Foundation; IARPA (MICrONS); Simons Foundation; Paul Allen Distinguished Investigator Award; Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds; Genentech Foundation; European Research Council; Swiss National Science Foundation.

About Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

Founded in 1890, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has shaped contemporary biomedical research and education with programs in cancer, neuroscience, plant biology and quantitative biology. Home to eight Nobel Prize winners, the private, not-for-profit Laboratory employs 1,100 people including 600 scientists, students and technicians. For more information, visit www.cshl.edu.

SOURCE Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

Related Links

http://www.cshl.edu


NEW YORK and SAN FRANCISCO, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- DonorsChoose.org announced today that Ripple, provider of enterprise blockchain solutions, and its executives have donated $29 million to fund every classroom project request on the nonprofit's website. The donation fulfilled 35,647 requests from 28,210 public school teachers in every state. Teachers at 16,561 public schools  or 1in 6 of all the public schools in America  will receive books, school supplies, technology, field trips, and other resources vital for learning.

"At Ripple, we care about giving back to our community and we collectively value the importance of quality education in developing the next generation of leaders," said Monica Long, SVP of Marketing at Ripple. "DonorsChoose.org's track record speaks for itself  they are highly effective at improving the quality of education and the experience of teachers and students across America. We're proud to work with them to support classroom needs across the country."

The gift represents the largest donation received by DonorsChoose.org in its 18-year history, and likely represents the largest ever donation of a digital asset to a single charity. Ripple and its executives contributed the donation in XRP, which was converted to U.S. dollars and used to purchase the classroom materials.

"We are awestruck by the generosity of the Ripple team. Their gift will provide learning materials and experiences to more than a million students, overwhelmingly in low-income communities," said Charles Best, founder of DonorsChoose.org. "I doubt that there has ever been a day when more classroom dreams came true."

The Ripple team's donation provides the ultimate culmination of #BestSchoolDay, a campaign launched in March 2016 when 58 athletes, artists, entrepreneurs, and philanthropists funded classroom requests in cities and states covering just under half of the country. For a limited time, as teachers generate new classroom project requests on the site, DonorsChoose.org will offer donors the option of giving to the #BestSchoolDay Fund, which will be used to support projects from teachers creating their first requests on the site. DonorsChoose.org estimates that teachers will submit at least another 135,000 classroom project requests between now and the start of the next school year.

About Ripple

Ripple provides one frictionless experience to send money globally using the power of blockchain. By joining Ripple's growing, global network, financial institutions can process their customers' payments anywhere in the world instantly, reliably and cost-effectively. Banks and payment providers can use the digital asset XRP to further reduce their costs and access new markets. With offices in San Francisco, New York, London, Luxembourg, Mumbai, Singapore and Sydney, Ripple has more than 100 customers around the world.

About DonorsChoose.org

DonorsChoose.org is the leading platform for giving to public schools. Teachers across America use the site to create projects requesting resources their students need, and donors give to the projects that inspire them. Since its founding by a Bronx teacher in 2000, 3 million people and partners have given over $650 million to projects reaching 27 million students. Unique among education funding platforms, the DonorsChoose.org team vets each project request and ships resources directly to the school. Every donor receives photos of their project in action, thank-yous from the classroom, and a cost report showing how every dollar was spent. DonorsChoose.org was the first charity to make the top 10 on Fast Company's list of the Most Innovative Companies in the World. Visit www.donorschoose.org to learn more.

SOURCE DonorsChoose.org

Related Links

http://DonorsChoose.org


Diane Walder Dermatology is one of the leading cosmetic dermatology practices in the United States, renowned for its cutting edge and innovative treatments. As board-certified dermatologists with many years of experience, Dr. Walder and her team's reputation as experts in the field of dermatology has grown alongside a distinguished clientele that includes heads of state, industry leaders, entertainers, and athletes. Dr. Walder and her team are often consulted as expert resources for national publications and broadcast media outlets, quoted on a regular basis in magazines that include Vogue, Allure, Cosmopolitan, and Glamour.

"This alignment allows our practice and physicians to focus on what we do best, providing excellent clinical care and patient experience. Our patients will always be the most important part of our practice," said Diane Walder, M.D.

"I am thrilled to have the opportunity to expand our presence in South Florida. Dr. Walder, along with Drs. Stacy Chimento and Lucy Chen, have built a phenomenal and successful practice. Their passion for healthy and beautiful skin has helped them establish an excellent reputation in the community. I am honored to partner with Diane Walder Dermatology to continue our commitment to treating our patients with the highest quality care, as if they were family," said Andrew T. Jaffe, MD, FAAD, Founder and Chief Medical Officer of Riverchase Dermatology and Cosmetic Surgery.

As part of their dedication to providing quality patient care in Florida, Riverchase Dermatology and Cosmetic Surgery continues to expand its service area in order to reach a greater number of those in need of dermatology services at a convenient location. With the addition of these new office locations, Riverchase now offers a total of 37 convenient dermatology and cosmetic surgery locations with 72 providers throughout the state of Florida.

Visit www.RiverchaseDermatology.com to learn more or to request an appointment.

About Riverchase Dermatology and Cosmetic Surgery

Riverchase Dermatology and Cosmetic Surgery is one of Florida's largest, fastest growing and most comprehensive skin centers. Founded in Naples, Florida in 2000 by Andrew T. Jaffe, MD, FAAD Riverchase has maintained its initial vision of providing the most comprehensive skin cancer, dermatology and cosmetic surgery services for over a decade. The caring and skilled providers at Riverchase use the latest techniques and equipment to diagnose and treat a wide range of skin disorders and cosmetic concerns. Riverchase has many convenient locations throughout Florida. For more information, visit www.RiverchaseDermatology.com.

CONTACT

Monica Canino

Senior Marketing and Business Development Manager

(516)305-7539

[email protected]

SOURCE Riverchase Dermatology and Cosmetic Surgery

Related Links

http://www.RiverchaseDermatology.com


DENVER, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- SambaSafety, the market leader of cloud-based driver risk management solutions, announced today it surpassed one million subscribers on its driver risk intelligence platform, Driver Risk Management (DRM). SambaSafety now provides data insights and monitoring to over 40 million unique drivers annually for employers and insurers, while proactively monitoring drivers in all 50 states.

In the last three years alone, SambaSafety has assessed risk on over 100 million unique drivers across its various software solutions, serving the regulated, non-regulated, grey fleet, employer, background screener and insurance sectors. SambaSafety pioneered the driver risk intelligence concept and today affirms its market leadership.

"We are proud to have reached the one millionth subscriber milestone on DRM," says Allison Guidette, Chief Executive Officer. "Our focus on creating the best driver risk management solution for our customers has propelled SambaSafety's success over the past 20 years. We are now excitedly pursuing the next goal with continued innovation on our platform to meet our customers' evolving driver risk intelligence needs."

This milestone represents a significant step toward SambaSafety's mission of making our communities safer, one driver at a time. "The trust our customers have placed in us will continue to fuel the development of innovative solutions that help our customers reduce risk and improve safety," says Rich Lacey, Executive Vice President, Product & Engineering. "Five years ago, at 175,000 regional DRM subscribers, we asked the team to imagine our business at a million national DRM subscribers. We invested for the long term to build the business and ecosystem to achieve those numbers. It's very satisfying to deliver on that promise."

About SambaSafety

Since 1998, SambaSafety has been the pioneer and leading North American provider of cloud-based driver risk management software solutions for organizations with commercial and non-commercial drivers. Through the collection, correlation and analysis of driver information, SambaSafety helps employers identify high-risk drivers and enforce safety policies; insurers to make informed decisions; and background screeners perform accurate, efficient pre-hire checks. Learn more at www.sambasafety.com

Media contact:

Chris Thompson

SambaSafety

Vice President, Marketing and Corporate Communications

505-359-6826

[email protected]

SOURCE SambaSafety

Related Links

http://www.sambasafety.com


Brand Village

One of these innovations is Brand Village, a venue that enables leading companies to capture the attention of a prominent audience with their latest works. Going beyond the concept of a brand as "a slogan, logo and colour scheme," Brand Village integrates new branding and product series, innovative materials and technologies, trendy and leading concepts, and inspiring business models.

"Branding has evolved over the years as communities and consumer values have shifted," said Teddy Tan, Event Manager - China Jewellery Fairs. "Through Brand Village, we aim to deliver the whole package to enable the industry to tap advanced opportunities and cultivate valuable business relationships in today's market."

The elegantly appointed Brand Village offers the perfect environment for doing business. With leading brands such as CHOW TAI FOOK T MARK, Swarovski Professional, Shanghai Laomiao Jewelry Co., Ltd., CMOY JADE, KING KAI FOOK JEWELLERY and more, visitors could  in ultimate comfort  establish partnerships, look for new brands and products, learn about leading technologies and handcrafts, witness creative design, and more importantly, get insights on trending strategic business models of the jewellery retail terminal.

"We have redesigned our exhibition spaces to cater to the visitors' growing need for convenience. Our visitors have come to expect more than just a space to appreciate displays but also a space to make business decisions," said Mr. Tan.

Designer Pavilion

Shenzhen's position as a jewellery-manufacturing hub makes the city a rich source of established and emerging talent. The Designer Pavilion showcases this expertise in cooperation with the Shenzhen Jewellery Designers Association. "This partnership has allowed us to promote individual designers in a way we could not do alone," says Mr. Tan. "This is a valuable opportunity for visitors to communicate with individual designers in Shenzhen and witness the debut of their great works and ideas."

For visitors whose mission is to discover cool, local designers, the Designer Pavilion is a must-visit affair. More than a destination, the pavilion is style event that provides an introduction to homegrown, new and new-to-you brands and concepts that one likely won't find elsewhere.

Among the prominent designers who are confirmed to participate so far are Mr. Du Ban, Mr. Hu Hui, Mr. Jaye Chan, Ms. Jiang Jingjing, Mr. Li Wei, Mr. Liu Boshuo, Ms. Tan Shasha, Ms. Wang Yuqi, Mr. Xiao Mingguo and Mr. Yang Wei.

Self-service shopping space

At the fair, doing business in the jewellery industry just got easier thanks to a jewellery self-service shopping space. Inspired by the rise of online shopping, Shenzhen Jewellery Fair is retooling the jewellery shopping experience by introducing a jewellery self-service shopping space at this year's edition. The smart shopping experience innovatively integrates technology and jewellery sales, enabling consumers to try and buy pieces of jewellery in an unmanned space. All a buyer needs to do is scan a QR code to open the door to the unmanned booth, and once inside, she can inspect or even try on the jewellery, select the product she wants and scan the QR code again to pay. The door will open after payment is done.

"Retooling the supply chain or enhancing customer shopping experience is what brands and manufacturers need to do in today's marketplace. It is what consumers now expect, and we, as fair organisers, are cognizant of that and help businesses succeed in this new environment," says Mr. Tan.

Factory visit tour

A special event for factory visit will be launched during the fair, encouraging overseas traders to know more about China's jewellery industry. There are two extraordinary factories, and visiting them would allow participants to learn more about information management, intelligent operation and advanced technology. These two factories not only cover diamond trade, design and processing, but also output customised service and create high-end franchisees and speciality stores.

More than just enhancing customer experiencing through its latest features, the Shenzhen Jewellery Fair creates the perfect forum for exchanging information and industry trends through educational workshops and networking socials. The fair runs from 19 to 22 April 2018 at the Shenzhen Convention & Exhibition Center. Don't miss out and pre-register at http://exhibitions.jewellerynetasia.com/szj/en-us/visiting/visitorregistration before 31 March 2018 to get your visitors badge in advance.

UBM Global Jewellery Events Calendar 2018

Exhibitions Dates Venue Mainland China China International Gold,

Jewellery & Gem Fair 

Shenzhen 19  22 April 2018 Shenzhen Convention &

Exhibition Center China International Gold,

Jewellery & Gem Fair 

Shanghai 7  10 December 2018 Shanghai World Expo

Exhibition & Convention Center Hong Kong region



June Hong Kong

Jewellery & Gem Fair 21  24 June 2018 Hong Kong Convention &

Exhibition Centre Asia's Fashion Jewellery &

Accessories Fair  September

Edition 12  15 September 2018 AsiaWorld-Expo  Hong Kong September Hong Kong

Jewellery & Gem Fair 12  16 September 2018 14  18 September 2018 AsiaWorld-Expo  Hong Kong Hong Kong Convention &

Exhibition Centre Asia's Fashion Jewellery &

Accessories Fair  March

Edition 27 February  2 March 2019 AsiaWorld-Expo  Hong Kong Taiwan region Taiwan Jewellery & Gem Fair 2  5 November 2018 Taipei World Trade Center Japan Japan Jewellery Fair 28  30 August 2018 Tokyo Big Sight Exhibition

Center India Kolkata Jewellery & Gem Fair 7  9 April 2018 Milan Mela Complex  Kolkata Hyderabad Jewellery, Pearl &

Gem Fair 22  24 June 2018 HICC, Novotel  Hyderabad Delhi Jewellery & Gem Fair 29 September  1 October 2018 Pragati Maidan  Delhi Gem & Jewellery India

International Exhibition 8  10 March 2019 Chennai Trade Centre Singapore Singapore Jewellery & Gem

Fair 26  29 October 2018 Marina Bay Sands Middle East Jewellery Arabia Bahrain 20  24 November 2018 The Bahrain International

Exhibition and Convention

Centre Turkey Istanbul Jewelry Show II 11  14 October 2018 CNR Expo Center  Istanbul Istanbul Jewelry Show I 21  24 March 2019 CNR Expo Center  Istanbul Russian Federation JUNWEX New Russian Style 23  27 May 2018 All-Russian Exhibition Centre 

Moscow JUNWEX Moscow, JUNWEX

Watch 26  30 September 2018 All-Russian Exhibition Centre 

Moscow JUNWEX St. Petersburg 30 January  3 February 2019 EXPOFORUM  St. Petersburg

For exhibiting details, please contact: Sales Department, Jewellery Fairs, UBM China (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd. Tel: (86) 20 8666 0158 Fax: (86) 20 8667 7120 E-mail: [email protected] For visiting details, please contact: Visitor Promotion Department, Jewellery Fairs, UBM China (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd. Tel: (86) 20 8667 2808 Fax: (86) 20 8667 7120 E-mail: [email protected] www.JewelleryNetAsia.com



About UBM Asia's jewellery fairs (www.jewellerynetasia.com)

UBM Asia, organiser of the most professional international jewellery fairs globally, offers opportunities to the world's jewellery trade. UBM Asia's jewellery fairs attract over 100,000 trade buyers and over 10,000 exhibitors from around the world. The September Hong Kong Jewellery & Gem Fair, with over 3,690 exhibitors and around 59,000 visitors, is the world's number one fine jewellery event. The June Fair is Asia's biggest mid-year international jewellery fair. UBM Asia also organises jewellery fairs in Shenzhen and Shanghai in mainland China; Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Kolkata in India; Japan; Turkey; Singapore; the Taiwan region; Bahrain in the Middle East and in Moscow and St Petersburg in the Russian Federation.

About UBM Asia (http://www.ubm.com/)



Owned by UBM plc listed on the London Stock Exchange, UBM Asia is the largest events organiser in Asia, India and SE Asia. We are also the leading commercial organiser in China. Established with its headquarters in Hong Kong and subsidiary companies across Asia and in the US, UBM Asia has a strong global presence in 25 major cities with 31 offices and over 1,600 employee.

With a track record spanning over 30 years, UBM Asia operates in 11 market sectors with over 290 events, 28 targeted trade publications, 18 round-the-clock online products for over 2,000,000 quality exhibitors, visitors, conference delegates, advertisers and subscribers from all over the world. We provide a one-stop diversified global service for high-value business matching, quality market news and online trading networks.

SOURCE UBM China (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd

Related Links

http://www.jewellerynetasia.com


CHENGDU, China, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- On March 27th, Chengdu Hi-Tech Zone, Silicon Valley city clusters (Dublin, Mountain View, and Menlo Park), and Him Group, a management consulting company in Silicon Valley, signed a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperating to set up the "Chengdu-Silicon Valley Technology & Finance Centers" both in Chengdu Hi-tech Zone and Silicon Valley, aiming at promoting the realization of the global development of SMEs.

"Chengdu-Silicon Valley technology & finance Center" consists of three major business sectors, namely setting up the "Chengdu-Silicon Valley Technology Transfer Center" and "Chengdu-Silicon Valley Financing Service Center" in Chengdu and "Chengdu-Silicon Valley Free Trade Window" in Silicon Valley.

Now, as a node city of the "Belt and Road", Chengdu has gained more and more attention from the world. Mayor David Haubert of Dublin said that the decision of mutually setting up "technology & finance Center" was wise. He firmly believed that Chengdu would win more development opportunities from Silicon Valley.

Chengdu Hi-Tech Zone is one of the famous state-level hi-tech development zones in China, and was honored as the Silicon Valley in Western China. It has attracted a large number of well-known global companies including Intel, GlobalFoundries, IBM, Philips, Maersk, and Siemens to settle down, and introduced hi-end talents including 5 Nobel Prize winners to make innovation and start business. So far, it has set up 20 overseas talent offshore innovation and startup bases, 9 in U.S. and 3 in Canada.

SOURCE Chengdu High-tech Industrial Development Zone
TOKYO, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Recently, Unisun Japan, a subsidiary of Unisun Energy Group, has obtained the O&M qualification issued by the most influential and authoritative national certification body in Japan, JET (Japan Electrical & Environment Technology Laboratory). With more than five years of experience in the development and construction of new energy projects in Japan, Unisun announced the expansion of its business in Japan from solar project development, construction and O&M to intelligent O&M, biomass power generation and other specialties.

Yisha He, Chairwoman of Unisun, stated that Unisun Japan will rely on the efficient and convenient photovoltaic power station O&M platform independently developed by Unisun, and combine PV O&M technology with other cutting-edge technologies to enable intelligent O&M, thus raising power generation efficiency, reducing O&M costs, and providing the greatest possible range of professional services

In addition to the O&M field, Unisun Japan will also carry out technical cooperation on biomass with established companies in Japan. The head of Unisun Japan revealed that after two years of in-depth research and technical analysis, Unisun Japan has laid a solid foundation in the field of biomass. Moreover, concerning the fuel supply of biomass power generation, apart from establishing partnerships with local agricultural associations, Unisun Japan will also commence negotiations with internationally renowned fuel suppliers thanks to the Group's international resources. Precise business positioning and superior international resources will secure stable fuel supply and strong technical support for Unisun Japan's biomass power generation projects.

Japan is the world leader in the field of new energy applications, with a relatively high clean energy utilization rate. According to the 2018 FIT scheme for renewable energy recently released by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan, the FIT rate for PV has been revised down as expected. After a long period of development, Japan's PV power generation market is now approaching saturation, with government subsidies declining year after year. The projects developed in early stages have basically entered construction or O&M phase. On the other hand, Unisun Japan's innovative business model focuses on EPC, O&M, and biomass to seek further development in the Japanese market, proactively promoting the multi-utilization of clean energy.

As the largest distributed PV investor in China, Unisun is actively expanding its business overseas while enhancing its position in the Chinese market. As early as the beginning of 2013, Unisun established a branch in Tokyo and officially entered the new energy market in Japan. According to statistics, so far Unisun has developed projects with a total capacity exceeding 100MW in Japan. In 2014, it attained the EPC qualification issued by the governor of Tokyo, successfully delivering more than 20MW EPC projects; its 22.68MW complete EPM project in Iwaki, Fukushima is also expected to be completed by the end of July 2018.

SOURCE Unisun
IRVINE, Calif., March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Spireon, the vehicle intelligence company, has appointed Rashid Ismail as senior vice president of customer success, joining the company's executive leadership team. Tapping into an extensive background in operations and customer experience, Ismail will be responsible for customer lifecycle management, bringing even greater strength to Spireon's award-winning customer service program.

"Rashid has a proven track record of aligning operations, technology, business needs and customer requirements to drive customer success, operational efficiency and revenue growth," said Kevin Weiss, CEO at Spireon. "With a deep understanding of the importance of customer experience and satisfaction, he will be an integral part in making sure we deliver higher expertise that helps our clients improve how they run their businesses."

Ismail joins Spireon with nearly 20 years of experience, most recently at CoreLogic, a leading provider of property data and analytics, where he served as senior vice president of operations with a focus on improving customer retention, productivity and processes and achieved significant results. Prior to that, he was a vice president, head of broker dealer and retail customer experience, at MetLife insurance.

"I'm delighted to join Spireon, a company that already has an extraordinary commitment to customer focus, as evidenced by multiple service awards and outstanding Net Promoter Scores across the business," said Ismail. "I look forward to expanding upon the work that has been done to successfully launch and support more than 20,000 existing customers with refined processes and approaches that will nurture customer relationships for years to come."

About Spireon

Spireon, Inc. is North America's leading connected vehicle intelligence company, providing businesses and consumers with powerful insights to track, manage and protect their most valuable mobile assets. The award-winning Spireon NSpire platform supports nearly 4 million active subscribers across the company's growing suite of products for new and used car dealers, lenders and financial institutions, rental car agencies, commercial and local fleet operators, and consumers. Learn more at www.spireon.com

For more information, contact

Emily Lynn Ashley

Havas Formula for Spireon

[email protected]

619-234-0345

SOURCE Spireon, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.spireon.com


AUSTIN, Texas, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- SpyCloud, the leader in account takeover (ATO) prevention, announced today it has closed a $5 million Series A funding round from existing investors Silverton Partners and March Capital Partners.

SpyCloud prevents ATO from being perpetrated by the most sophisticated cybercriminals. SpyCloud's platform proactively identifies exposed employee and customer accounts at the earliest possible juncture, empowering businesses to protect those accounts before criminals can act.

SpyCloud security researchers have used proprietary collection techniques to amass the industry's largest and highest quality repository of exposed accounts, leaked passwords and personally identifiable information (PII), with more than 32 billion current assets and billions of new assets being added every month. Last year, Verizon reported that 81 percent of hacking-related breaches leveraged either stolen or weak passwords.1 And in July 2017, Forrester estimated that ATO would cause at least $6.5 billion to $7 billion in annual financial losses across industries.2

Enterprises use SpyCloud's data and fully-automated tools to detect exposures and remediate employee accounts that have been impacted, by forcing password changes before those accounts can be used in nefarious ways and surfacing compromised devices that are infected with keyloggers or malware. Service providers take similar advantage of SpyCloud's data repository to detect and prevent their online customer accounts from ATO and resulting fraud or PII theft, making use of SpyCloud's developer-friendly API. Enterprise security teams also tap into SpyCloud's data for fraud investigation purposes.

Through a unique approach to underground data collection and an exact match prevention solution, SpyCloud identifies exposed accounts that would typically fall through the cracks with other solutions and does so before accounts and passwords are posted on criminal forums and dark markets. Furthermore, SpyCloud provides protection of employees' personal credentials, keeping them safe at home as well as at work.

"There isn't a company in the world that doesn't run the constant risk of having its employee or customer accounts exposed, and that leads to a host of other issues," said Ted Ross, CEO and co-founder of SpyCloud. "The only chance businesses stand against these increasingly-proficient criminals is to know as soon as possible which accounts have been exposed and to take preventative measures well before credentials make it onto the dark web."

Since emerging from stealth mode in June 2017, SpyCloud has already protected tens of millions of employee and customer accounts for notable companies across the finance, retail, healthcare and technology industries.

SpyCloud will use the new infusion of funding to rapidly grow by accelerating product development, conducting deeper security research, continuing to expand its database of assets, and hiring additional team members.

"The continued customer traction and growth SpyCloud has achieved is a testament to both the immediate demand for its technology and the unparalleled collective experience of the team," said Kip McClanahan, general partner of Silverton Partners. "We look forward to helping them capitalize on those strengths to make ATO prevention universal table stakes in the enterprise."

"SpyCloud's arrival has filled a devastating gap in the enterprise security realm," said Jim Armstrong, partner and co-founder of March Capital Partners. "When millions of accounts and billions of dollars are at risk and under attack daily, companies can't afford to sit idle. They need to arm themselves with every piece of technology, expertise, and data that can keep their assets safe."

Following its founding in 2016, SpyCloud raised a $2.5 million seed funding round from Silverton Partners and March Capital Partners. In 2017, the company won the NATO Communications and Information (NCI) Agency Defence Innovation Challenge and Best of Show at FinovateFall 2017.

For more information and to check your company's ATO exposure, visit https://spycloud.com/.

About SpyCloud

SpyCloud is the leader in account takeover (ATO) prevention. We strive to help businesses of all sizes mitigate account takeover by proactively remediating account exposures in an automated way. We accomplish this through our award-winning early warning breach detection service powered by a world-class team of security researchers. For more information, please visit https://spycloud.com/.

About Silverton Partners

Silverton Partners is an early stage venture capital firm based in Austin, Texas. Silverton collaborates with exceptional entrepreneurs who are committed to attacking growth markets with proprietary products or services. The principals of Silverton Partners have over five decades of venture experience, having been the start-up investors in Tivoli Systems (IPO), Silicon Labs (IPO), Motive Communications (IPO), Waveset (acquired by Sun Microsystems) and BlackLocus (acquired by The Home Depot). More information on Silverton Partners can be found at www.silvertonpartners.com.

About March Capital Partners

March Capital Partners is a Santa Monica-based venture capital firm with one of the largest global funds in Southern California. Founded by industry veterans with over 50 years of investing experience, March Capital actively invests in both early and late-stage companies in mobile, enterprise, infrastructure, gaming and other growth industries, with targeted positions in innovative global organizations. For more information, see www.marchcp.com.

SOURCE SpyCloud

Related Links

https://spycloud.com


Throughout his career in government service and consulting, Mr. Klemencic has worked closely with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), providing expert services and support to both law firms and transactional parties in all stages of the CFIUS review process. As a trusted CFIUS advisor and national security expert, Mr. Klemencic augments Ankura's unique combination of risk, intelligence, international trade, government contracting, cyber and data security, compliance, monitoring, and other experts who work together seamlessly to provide clients with the range of necessary services to facilitate the various phases of CFIUS review and clearance mandates.

As a senior analyst at the National Intelligence Council, Mr. Klemencic led the development and implementation of the threat assessment review process that is currently used to evaluate each foreign acquirer involved in a CFIUS transaction. Mr. Klemencic has also provided advisory services on complex and diverse national security issues pertaining to transaction planning for US and foreign parties, and served as the compliance auditor on several foreign investment transactions. Additionally, he brings to Ankura extensive experience developing and leading supply chain due diligence assessments and has provided business and cybersecurity threat assessments to various technology and healthcare companies. Mr. Klemencic previously served 21 years in the US Navy, retiring as a Commander.

Marc-Philip Ferzan, Ankura Senior Managing Director, stated, "With continuing robust interest in foreign direct investment in the United States at a time when our Country's national security focus is so pronounced, strategies and solutions to address the various phases of CFIUS review have become increasingly more critical. There is a new reality for cross-border M&A in the US and Steve's deep CFIUS and national security expertise, coupled with his compliance, forensic technology, and threat assessment acumen, compliments Ankura's unique ability to provide holistic and tailored approaches for both its domestic and foreign clients."

"I am excited to be joining Ankura as we work with a broad range of foreign and domestic interests confronting multifaceted CFIUS reviews and considerations. It is a critical time to provide companies and investors with expert analysis and advisory services as CFIUS' role in evaluating the national security interests of the United States continues to expand," said Mr. Klemencic. "Ankura's integrated capabilities are unique in that they seamlessly tap into diverse expertise to bring our clients distinctive and robust insights that inform effective and efficient decision-making. I look forward to integrating my expertise and working collaboratively across the Ankura platform to assist our clients as they work through complex situations to achieve their goals."

Additionally, Mona Banerji has joined Ankura as a Director and will work closely with Steve Klemencic and Ankura's other professionals to support the firm's CFIUS advisory and independent oversight offerings. With more than 15 years of combined experience as a practicing attorney and as a consultant, Mona has overseen international forensic investigations and managed large scale complex litigation cases. She will leverage her focus on foreign investment and transactional advisory, specifically transactions involving CFIUS, to advise clients in preparation for and during cross-border transactions.

About Ankura

Ankura is an expert services firm defined by HOW we solve challenges. Whether a client is facing an immediate business challenge, trying to increase the value of their company or protect against future risks, Ankura designs, develops, and executes tailored solutions by assembling the right combination of expertise. We build on this experience with every case, client, and situation, collaborating to create innovative, customized solutions, and strategies designed for today's ever-changing business environment. This gives our clients unparalleled insight and experience across a wide range of economic, governance, and regulatory challenges. At Ankura, we know that collaboration drives results. For more information, please visit: www.ankura.com.

SOURCE Ankura
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Tahoe Resources Inc. ("Tahoe") (TSX: THO;NYSE: TAHO) plans to release its first quarter 2018 financial and operating results on Wednesday, May 2, 2018 after the market close. On Thursday, May 3, 2018 at 10:00am ET, Tahoe will hold a conference call and audio webcast to discuss the results.

Q1 2018 Results Conference Call and Webcast:

Date: Thursday, May 3, 2018 Time: 10:00 am ET (7:00 am PT) Dial-in numbers: 1-800-319-4610 (toll free in Canada and the U.S.)

+1-604-638-5340 (international participants)

About Tahoe Resources Inc.

Tahoe's strategy is to responsibly operate mines to world standards and to develop high quality precious metals assets in the Americas. Tahoe is a member of the S&P/TSX Composite and TSX Global Mining indices and the GDX and Russell 3000 on the NYSE. The Company is listed on the TSX as THO and on the NYSE as TAHO.

For further information, please contact:

Tahoe Resources Inc.

Alexandra Barrows, Vice President Investor Relations

[email protected]

Tel: +1 775-448-5812

SOURCE Tahoe Resources Inc.

Related Links

http://www.tahoeresources.com


GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo., March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Tengasco, Inc. (NYSE American: TGC) announced today that it has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017.

The Company reported net loss from continuing operations of $(574,000) or $(0.06) per share in 2017 compared to $(4.2) million or $(0.69) per share in 2016. Included in the 2016 net loss was a $2.8 million non-cash impairment of the Company's oil and gas properties and equipment inventory. Net loss before effect of the impairment was $(1.4) million or $(0.23) per share in 2016 (a non-GAAP financial measure  see GAAP to Non-GAAP Reconciliation at the end of this press release).

The non-cash impairment of oil and gas properties resulted from ceiling test failures during the quarters ended March 31, 2016, June 30, 2016, and September 30, 2016. However, there was no additional oil and gas property impairment taken during the quarter ended December 31, 2016 nor during the year ended December 31, 2017. These ceiling test failures were primarily a result of low oil prices experienced since late 2014.

The Company realized revenues of approximately $5.3 million in 2017 compared to $4.7 million in 2016. During 2017, revenues increased approximately $591,000 of which $809,000 of this increase related to a $7.90 per barrel increase in the average oil price received from $37.53 per barrel received in 2016 to $45.43 per barrel received in 2017. This was partially offset by a $223,000 decrease related to decreases in oil sales volumes from 108.3 MBbl in 2016 to 102.4 MBbl in 2017. The more significant production declines were experienced in the Albers, Albers A, Howard A, Lewis, Liebenau, McElhaney A, Schneller, and Veverka B leases. These decreases were primarily due to natural declines.

The Company reported total proved oil reserves at December 31, 2017 of approximately 870,000 barrels, valued at $8.2 million on a discounted future net cash flows basis before effect of income taxes, up from approximately 730,000 barrels valued at $5.8 million at December 31, 2016. The increases in proved reserves volume and value result primarily from increased pricing that enabled us to consider certain properties as being economic, or remaining economic longer, and to thereby be placed into, or remain longer in, a category of proved reserves eligible for inclusion in the Company's proved reserves.

Michael J. Rugen, CEO, said, "Calendar year 2017 provided some modest improvement in oil prices, and ushered in what we hope to be the conclusion of noncash reserves writedowns caused by the extended periods of low prices. We also experienced about an $8 per barrel increase in our average oil price received in 2017 over the prior year's average price. As a result, the results of operations in 2017 show marked improvement over those in 2016, although not yet enough to offset the effects of naturally decreasing production volumes from existing wells and return us to profitability. The increase in oil pricing also resulted in an increase in volume and value of the Company's proved reserves year over year. We continue to await oil pricing improvement sufficient to justify increased drilling activity. Higher oil prices helped support an increase in our borrowing base with our senior lender, Prosperity Bank. Our borrowing base now stands at $2.0 million and our current borrowings still remain at zero. With our available borrowing capability and the $2.65 million received from the sale of our Tennessee methane facility assets completed in January 2018 the Company plans to drill additional wells during 2018. In addition, the Company will continue to evaluate other corporate opportunities, acquisitions, or joint ventures that may add value to the Company going forward."

The statements contained in this release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. The Company's actual results could differ materially from the forward-looking statements.

GAAP to Non-GAAP Reconciliation ($ millions, except per share data)



Year Ended Year Ended

December 31, 2017 December 31, 2016





Net loss (US GAAP) $ (0.6) $ (4.2) Impairment

$ 2.8 Net income from continuing operations before effect

of impairment $ (0.6) $ (1.4)





Net loss per share  basic and diluted (US GAAP) $ (0.06) $ (0.69) Impairment  basic and diluted

$ 0.46 Net income per share before effect of impairment 

basic and diluted $ (0.06) $ (0.23)

SOURCE Tengasco, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.tengasco.com


BROOKLYN, N.Y., March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- In July of 2017, The Allure Group announced that it would be the first and only network of skilled nursing facilities in Brooklyn, NY, to implement EarlySense. Six months after the contact-free patient monitoring system's installation, their investment has been validated: the sensors, placed under beds to track vital signs and movement, have reduced transfer rates, falls, and other adverse events.

EarlySense's patented sensors and advanced algorithms monitor and analyze cardiac, respiratory, and motion parameters, assisting clinicians in early detection of patient deterioration. Statistics have demonstrated a correlation between EarlySense implementation and a 45% reduction in patient falls, a 60% reduction in bedsores, and an 80% reduction in code blue events.

Since implementation, case studies at Allure's Bedford Center have shown patients with various issues aided due to early detection and intervention. EarlySense's exit alerts, for instance, helped prevent high-risk patients from falling, while its respiratory alerts helped detect and treat pain in several case studies.

EarlySense adoption, began at Allure's Bedford Center and has gradually expanded. "Investment in EarlySense technology represents The Allure Group's ongoing commitment to provide the highest quality of care for more than 1,436 resident patients throughout our network," said Melissa Powell, Chief Operating Officer. "Through improved patient monitoring and data collection," medical staff are alerted "before serious problems occur and can respond to patients' specific needs swiftly and effectively. This is another step forward in our evolution of advanced care."

Reduction of adverse events is beneficial to facilities (which incur financial penalties when patients are readmitted) and to patients whose safety and health are improved. Above all, EarlySense allows for efficient and personalized assistance.

"EarlySense alerts are customizable to individual patients," said Rekha Bhandari, Chief Medical Officer at Allure, "allowing our medical staff to provide personalized care tailored to each resident's needs. The technology has also been shown to cut down on false alarms, improving response times by enabling us to focus care where it's most critically needed."

Founded on the principles of compassion, respect and clinical excellence, The Allure Group offers innovative rehabilitation programs and sub-acute nursing care in New York City, with facilities in Bay Ridge, East New York, Williamsburg, Bensonhurst, Crown Heights, and Harlem. Said EarlySense Inc President Tim O'Malley of their relationship, "We are very pleased to be able to call The Allure Group a customer."

SOURCE The Allure Group

Related Links

https://www.allurecare.com


LONDON, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5360526







The global halal food market is expected to reach USD 739.59 billion by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The global halal food industry is expected to witness significant growth over the forecast period owing to increasing Muslim population and their substantially increasing expenditure on food & non-beverages, which is considered as the main driving force of this market. The total Islamic population is expected to increase from 23% in the present situation to around 30% of the total world population by 2030.



World over initiatives has been seen escalating since the last few years with the advent of few events in Asia Pacific and the Middle East & African region, which are the top two regions contributing to the growth of the global market. A major bilateral initiative to mention would be the cooperation between Abu Dhabi and South Korea, which allowed South Korea to gain further access to the global halal food market.



Governments of the Islamic as well as the non-Islamic nations and the manufacturers of halal-certified food products have been taking various initiatives in terms of marketing & educating consumers about these products. The confidence of consumers in halal brands has been the most influential factor in the actual purchase of these products.



Meat and alternatives were the largest product segment in 2016 with a net market worth of over USD 590 billion globally.Halal meat has always been a remarkable business segment.



The formation of Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has been well placed to take the initiative of setting an international standard for these food items. Owing to the formation of these types of organizational figures the industry participants have been successful to a great extent in building consumer trust and pushing penetration of the product category to even higher levels.



Further key findings from the report suggest:

 The global halal foods industry was valued at USD 436.8 billion in 2016 and is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 6.1% over the next eight years

 Milk & milk products such as processed milk, cheese, and yogurt are expected to be one of the another primary product segment driving growth for the global industry

 Beverages such as carbonated drinks, packaged juice, and sweeteners with halal certification are expected to witness substantial demand over the forecast period. The segment is estimated to grow at a CAGR of over 4.9% in Turkey.

 Asia Pacific was the leading consumer in 2016. Around 63% of the global Muslim population resides in this region, which is the main driving factor in the region. Indonesia and Malaysia together accounted for over 55% of the regional demand in 2016.

 Major companies actively operating in the global halal food industry include Nestle, Glanbia Cheese Ltd, Guenther Bakeries UK Ltd, Kellogg's

 Companies have been trying to strengthen consumer trust with several marketing campaigns trying to be transparent about their production process of packed halal foods



Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5360526



About Reportbuyer

Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers



For more information:

Sarah Smith

Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +1 (718) 213 4904

Website: www.reportbuyer.com

SOURCE ReportBuyer

Related Links

http://www.reportbuyer.com


PLEASANTON, Calif., March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- U.S. Senate candidate Kevin de Leon received the endorsement of the Northern California and Southern California District Council of Laborers and its respective affiliated local unions today.

"Kevin de Leon's leadership, as California State Senate President pro Tempore, had significant impacts on the lives of every single Californian, especially in our hardworking communities," said Rocco Davis, Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA) Vice President and Pacific Southwest Regional Manager. "He focuses on building California's economy, creating new and good-paying jobs and protecting workers' right to unionize. At a time when a vote in the Supreme Court threatens to destabilize unions nationwide, we need a leader in the U.S. Senate who will fight tirelessly to defend working families. I am confident Kevin de Leon is the right leader for this job."



"I am grateful for the endorsement of the Laborers' Union," Kevin de Leon said. "Together we will continue to grow our economy, create new jobs and make sure hardworking men and women can retire with dignity. We will not allow corporations to divide workers from their co-workers, muffle their voices, or wrestle away their power. Workers are sticking together no matter what, and I'll be right there with them every step of the way."

"Kevin de Leon is committed to making sure every hardworking Californian has a voice in the U.S. Senate," said Oscar De La Torre, LIUNA Vice President-at-large and Northern California District Council of Laborers' Business Manager. "Kevin has a track record of making sure our working class is treated with integrity and respect, and he has demonstrated his commitment to pursuing social and economic justice here in California."

"Californians deserve a leader in Washington, D.C. who pays attention to our working-class communities," said Jon P. Preciado, Southern California District Council of Laborers' Business Manager. "Kevin de Leon has consistently dedicated himself to protecting the right of hardworking men and women to unionize, while keeping predatory employers at bay by cracking down on wage theft. He stood by us as a leader in the California State Senate and will continue to create good-paying jobs and grow an economy that works for all Californians in the U.S. Senate."

In 2017, Senate President pro Tempore Emeritus Kevin de Leon shouldered legislation to make historic investments to rebuild California's infrastructure. As a result, the state will invest $5 billion per year into revitalizing its roads, highways, and bridges - creating new jobs in the process. De Leon also championed landmark worker's compensation reforms in the Assembly, and in 2016 passed a law boosting California's minimum wage to $15 an hour.

SOURCE Northern California District Council of Laborers
BOSTON, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Tufin, the market-leading provider of Network Security Policy Orchestration solutions, has recently signed on to The Boston 100% Talent Compact, a first-in-the-nation, business community-driven effort to level the playing field for working women. By signing the 100% Talent Compact, Tufin joins forces with the Boston Women's Workforce Council, a public-private partnership between the City of Boston and Boston University, as well as more than 220 other Boston-area employers who are working to close the gender wage gap.

Earlier this month, Tufin held an office opening event for its first U.S. headquarters at 2 Oliver Street in downtown Boston. The company, which expanded from its global headquarters in Tel Aviv, Israel, was drawn to Boston's growing community of Israeli-founded cybersecurity companies, as well as its emergence as a global hub for technology talent.

"Tufin considers diversity and inclusion as two of its most important principles," said Ruvi Kitov, CEO, Tufin. "By signing the 100% Talent Compact, we pledge to bring these values to our new location by raising awareness of the need for fair pay and increasing the number of equal opportunities in the workforce for all of Boston's women."

According to the Boston Women's Workforce Council's 2016 report, women who work in Greater Boston earn significantly less than their male colleagues, while women are the majority of both Boston's residents and workforce. Tufin recognizes that this pay discrepancy poses consequences on the company's talent pool and that women are one of Boston's assets: when women thrive, companies and communities thrive.

"We are pleased to have Tufin as a signer of the 100% Talent Compact," said Cathy Minehan and Evelyn Murphy, Co-chairs, Boston Women's Workforce Council. "The Boston Women's Workforce Council welcomes a company who shares our dedication to addressing the barriers to gender equity in the workplace. We look forward to working with leaders like Ruvi to create workplace culture changes that are crucial to making real progress."

The Council's mission is to work with the businesses in the Greater Boston area in a private-public endeavor to eliminate the gender wage gap, remove the visible and invisible barriers to women's advancement and ensure that 100 percent of the talent pool is used to make Boston the best area in the country for working women. As a signer of the 100% Talent Compact, Tufin will work with the Council to take concrete, measurable steps to eliminate the wage gap within its own company and to report progress anonymously every two years.

For more information or to join the 100% Talent Compact, please visit: www.bostonwomensworkforcecouncil.com.

About Tufin

Tufin is the leader in Network Security Policy Orchestration for enterprise cybersecurity. More than half of the top 50 companies in the Forbes Global 2000 turn to Tufin to simplify management of some of the largest, most complex networks in the world, consisting of thousands of firewall and network devices and emerging hybrid cloud infrastructures. Enterprises select the company's award-winning Tufin Orchestration Suite to increase agility in the face of ever-changing business demands while maintaining a robust security posture. The Suite reduces the attack surface and meets the need for greater visibility into secure and reliable application connectivity. Its network security automation enables enterprises to implement changes in minutes with proactive risk analysis and continuous policy compliance. Tufin serves over 2,000 customers spanning all industries and geographies; its products and technologies are patent-protected in the U.S. and other countries. Find out more at www.tufin.com, follow Tufin on Twitter at @TufinTech and read more on Tufin's blog, Suite Talk.

Contact:

McKenna Bloomquist

fama PR for Tufin

(617) 986-5016

[email protected]

SOURCE Tufin

Related Links

http://www.tufin.com


DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The URS Labs team has returned to the United Arab Emirates this week, after being selected to participate in a weeklong boot camp at the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) Innovation Accelerator. The boot camp culminated in a live pitch night at the Google offices in Munich, Germany where URS labs outlined how they plan to help solve hunger using the Made in the UAE unmanned logistics solutions.

URS Labs Team gathered to pitch their unmanned ground vehicle logistics at Google offices in Munich this month. From left to right, Mr. Urs Eiselin, COO & Co-Founder, URS Labs, Mr. Matthew Cochran, CEO & Co-Founder, URS Labs and Mohammad Al-Shamsi, Head of Robotics at URS Labs. URS Labs was selected to participate in a weeklong boot camp at the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) Innovation Accelerator. The boot camp culminated in a live pitch night at the Google offices in Munich, Germany where URS Labs outlined how they plan to help solve hunger using the Made in the UAE unmanned logistics solutions.

Mr. Bernhard Kowatsch, Head of WFP's Innovation Accelerator, thanked URS Laboratories for their participation in the recent Innovation boot camp. "It was great to have URS Labs participate in our innovation boot camp and pitch their tech solution to a wide range of investors and partners in the social impact spacer. We look forward to exploring avenues of collaboration for the future."

The URS Labs CEO, Mr. Matthew Cochran, will be briefing UAE Government partners in Dubai and Abu Dhabi this week to discuss his company's participation and experience with both WFP and Google Developers Launchpad and what comes next for URS unmanned logistics initiatives globally. Mr. Cochran has been very positive about his company's participation at the boot camp by stating, "URS Labs is honored to have been selected to be a part of this important project and we are very thankful to Mr. Bernhard Kowatsch, the Head of Innovation Accelerator at United Nations World Food Program and his amazing WFP team."

UN World Food Program (WFP) Innovation Boot Camps are often the first stop on the journey for many projects and start-ups. Over the course of five days, innovation and humanitarian experts help teams deep dive challenges, ideate solutions and refine project plans. Boot Camps combine innovation techniques such as human centered design with WFP's deep field knowledge and operational excellence.

URS Labs pitched to an audience of donors, partners and Accelerator management at the Google offices in Munich on March 8th. Mr. Cochran said, "URS is committed to continuing to work with both the WFP and Google Developers Launchpad mentor teams we have meet in Munich this month to secure funding, hands-on support and access to WFP's extensive field operations to provide URS unmanned logistics to achieve the zero hunger campaign WFP has targeted."

About URS Laboratories

The URS Laboratories Limited SXM Series is both a manned and semi-autonomous unmanned ground vehicle (UGV), which is proven rugged and reliable by operators globally. URS Labs SXM is built with open source robotics and AI to maximize flexibility to governments and government approved third parties humanitarian unmanned logistics worldwide. For more information, visit www.urslaboratories.com.

About the WFP Innovation Accelerator

WFP's Innovation Accelerator identifies, nurtures and scales bold solutions to end hunger globally. We support WFP entrepreneurs, external start-ups and companies from our base in Munich, Germany, through funding, hands-on entrepreneurial support and a global presence, as well as access to expert networks. WFP believes that innovation is key to achieving a world without hunger by 2030. By applying innovation best practice such as lean start-up and human-centered design, the Accelerator helps entrepreneurs find out what works and what doesn't in addressing hunger. It is a place where we can be bold, and fail as well as succeed. For more information on the WFP Innovation Accelerator, visit innovation.wfp.org or email [email protected].

Media contact:

Barbara Figueroa

[email protected]

+41 (44) 586 89 88

SOURCE URS Laboratories

Related Links

https://www.urslaboratories.com


"Today is a truly meaningful day as we celebrate the roll-out of ROKAF's first F-35A, the world's best fighter jet, which will secure the sovereign airspace of the Republic of Korea," the Republic of Korea's Minister of Defense Song Young-moo said in a previously recorded message. "The deployment of the F-35 will serve as momentum to enhance the combined operations of the ROK-U.S. Air Forces, and advance ROKAF's support capabilities for ground operations."

The ceremony was attended by more than 450 guests, including five members of the Republic of Korea National Assembly Defense Committee, as well as Suh, Choo-suk, vice minister of National Defense; and Lt. Gen. Lee, Seong-yong, vice chief of staff of the ROKAF.

"This is a major step forward for our F-35 Enterprise and our ROKAF partners as we deliver Korea's first F-35, the first of six F-35 aircraft that will be delivered this year," said Vice Adm. Mat Winter, F-35 Program Executive Officer. "The F-35A is a game-changing capability that will enable the South Korean Forces to operate side-by-side with our U.S. Forces in protecting your nation's homeland. I extend my personal congratulations to the combined government and industry team in achieving this milestone."

U.S. officials in attendance included Ellen Lord, undersecretary of defense for Acquisition and Sustainment; Heidi Grant, deputy undersecretary of the Air Force for International Affairs; Vice Adm. Mat Winter, F-35 Program Executive Officer; U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, and U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey.

"We are proud to support the Republic of Korea with the unrivalled 5th Generation F-35," said Marillyn Hewson, Lockheed Martin chairman, president and CEO. "We know that it will be a symbol of strength reminding us all that when we partner together, our nations are safer, our people are more secure, and our future is brighter."

The Republic of Korea's F-35 program of record calls for 40 F-35A aircraft acquired through the U.S. government's Foreign Military Sales program and to be built at Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth, Texas. The first aircraft will be delivered to Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, where ROKAF pilots and maintainers will begin training. F-35s will arrive in country in 2019 to the Republic of Korea's main operational base at Cheongju.

The F-35 is the most advanced, survivable and connected fighter aircraft in the world. The F-35's ability to collect, analyze and share data is a powerful force multiplier enhancing all airborne, surface and ground-based assets in the battlespace and enabling men and women in uniform to execute their mission and come home safe. To date, Lockheed Martin has delivered more than 280 F-35s, trained more than 580 pilots and 5,600 maintainers, and the F-35 fleet has surpassed more than 130,000 cumulative flight hours.

The ceremony replay can be viewed, here: https://youtu.be/wxyEmeP9zMk

For additional information about the F-35 program, visit our website: www.f35.com.

About Lockheed Martin

Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs approximately 100,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services.

SOURCE Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company

Related Links

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PITTSBURGH, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The United Steelworkers (USW) released the following statement today on the agreement in principle reached in the renegotiation of the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement (KORUS).

"Ambassador Lighthizer's renegotiation of KORUS should help to save jobs," said USW International President Leo W. Gerard. "KORUS was a bad trade agreement right from the start. The United States has racked up billions of dollars in new trade deficits and lost tens of thousands of jobs because of that agreement. In the steel sector, Korea's predatory trade practices have been devastating. The quotas that the USTR has obtained should provide meaningful and lasting relief."

"Korea's trade practices have been especially harmful to U.S. producers of pipe and tube product," said Tom Conway, USW International Vice President. "Oil Country Tubular Goods (OCTG) is a high-value, high-margin product. U.S. production has been decimated by Korean unfairly traded imports. Korea targeted the U.S. market and is also a transit point for Chinese products. By South Korea agreeing to cap its steel exports to the United States at 70 percent of the average export volume between 2015 and 2017, the specific reductions in this agreement will help restore market-based prices and contribute to renewed production and jobs here in the United States. Many of these products are essential to our energy independence and our national security."

"We certainly would have liked to see other improvements in the deal as well," said Conway. "For example, the rule of origin for vehicles in the original KORUS required only 35 percent of a vehicle to be produced with U.S. or Korean parts. That's absurd. To put it another way, almost two-thirds of a car could be made up of Chinese parts and still get preferential treatment under the trade deal. That's certainly not in our interest."

"The Administration's 232 decision helped accelerate this agreement and gave the USTR the leverage to somewhat improve KORUS," said Gerard. "The original KORUS is a deal that never should have been signed. The Administration decided not to abandon an ally but fought to better promote the interests of U.S. producers and workers. It's time to review, reform and, where necessary, reject past trade agreements. We can't afford to continue on the current path."

The USW represents 850,000 workers in North America employed in many industries that include metals, rubber, chemicals, paper, oil refining and the service and public sectors. For more information: www.usw.org.

CONTACT:

Holly Hart (202) 778-4384

[email protected]

SOURCE United Steelworkers (USW)

Related Links

http://www.usw.org


DALLAS, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Venture X Dallas, a professional coworking office space that is part of a network of locations offering move-in-ready private offices, open desks, conference rooms, and business lounges is celebrating its grand opening on Thurs., Apr. 5, 2018. This officially marks the first Dallas facility and third Texas location for the brand, which is known for its high-end design, fully outfitted technology capabilities, and month-to-month flexibility. Venture X Dallas is located at 5301 Alpha Rd., Suite E80.

"Office sharing is not a new concept, but Venture X has definitely raised the bar for co-working spaces. We are excited to introduce Venture X to the heart of Dallas/Fort Worth," said Nadim Ahmed, Franchisee for Venture X Dallas. "We are proud to be a part of this fast-growing franchise which is answering an unmet demand in the marketplace. Our modern, high-quality spaces offer reasonable rates and flexible terms for busy entrepreneurs, firms with virtual offices, satellite locations of larger corporate businesses, consultants and freelancers, and businesspeople who travel often but also require a home base of operations."

The Dallas Venture X grand opening will feature a ribbon-cutting ceremony hosted by the North Dallas, Farmers Branch, and Metrocrest Chambers of Commerce on Thurs., Apr. 5 at 5:00 p.m. The celebration will feature opportunities to network with other business individuals while touring the new facility, along with music and refreshments. In addition, the first 15 members to join the facility will win one free month of community membership!

The Venture X model also delivers fully designed and furnished spaces inspired by the luxury boutique hospitality industry. Their modern workspaces encourage collaboration among members, and serve as platforms which build strong local business communities. In addition to the workspaces, each location features a front desk greeting service, meeting rooms equipped with the latest technology, conference rooms with video conferencing capabilities, top-of-the-line office furniture, ultra-high-speed wifi, printing and scanning, and concierge-style services tailored to the needs of members. Other key services and amenities include 24/7 keycard access, networking events, and a cafe & lounge. Membership plans start from $40/month and vary based on needs.

Additional details on workspace options and services are available at www.venturex.com/plans. For more information about the Dallas Venture X, visit online at https://www.venturex.com/locations/texas/galleria/, or visit them on LinkedIn.

The brand is expected to grow to more than 30 domestic locations by the end of 2018. Venture X recently opened its first international location in Canada, and is projected to expand in Australia in the near future.

ABOUT VENTURE X

Venture X is a shared workspace and community that is a blend of boutique hotel and modern office styles with a high level of design that feels professional and welcoming. We are designing beautiful spaces and developing an environment and community that people love coming to work to every day. For more information, visit Venturex.com.

MEDIA CONTACTS :

Jessica Chacoff

305.631.2283

[email protected]

SOURCE Venture X

Related Links

https://venturex.com


The Enhanced HAN communications profile is an interoperable, reliable and scalable low power wireless standard for Home Area Networks and supports communication between a Home Energy Management System (HEMS) and HAN devices.

What is Enhanced HAN?

The Enhanced HAN profile is an enhanced version of the original Wi-SUN HAN profile. The basic HAN profile defined a single-hop architecture and supported "N : 1 communication". Enhanced HAN, on the other hand, provides multi-hop capability with relay as well as support for sleeping devices, which can enter a very low power state when not communicating. This allows for extended battery life in sleeping devices.

The certification program for Enhanced HAN is scheduled to open in April 2018.

According to Dr. Hiroshi Harada, Kyoto University/NICT and chairman of the Wi-SUN Alliance HAN working group, "The Wi-SUN Enhanced HAN communication specification is defined for all application models which are necessary to complete HAN. Robust HEMS provided with stable throughput will be built by utilizing this specification."

Mr. Terumi Sata of ROHM Co., Ltd., chairman of Japan Marketing Sub-Committee stated, "This certification program is the most suitable choice for wireless devices that are highly reliable and are interoperable with home appliances based on ECHONET Lite. Vendors can now develop high performance HEMS products with a simple structure with devices that have obtained both certifications for HAN and B-route."

About Wi-SUN Alliance

The Wi-SUN Alliance is a global non-profit member-based association comprised of industry leading companies. Its mission is to drive the global proliferation of interoperable wireless solutions for use in smart cities, smart grids and other Internet of Things (IoT) applications using open global standards from international standards organizations, such as IEEE802, IETF, TIA, TTC and ETSI. With more than 170 members worldwide, membership of the Wi-SUN Alliance is open to all industry stakeholders and includes silicon vendors, product vendors, services providers, utilities, universities, enterprises and municipalities and local government organisations.

For more information, please visit: www.wi-sun.org.

Free Adopter Membership

Wi-SUN Alliance Adopter Membership is free of charge providing access to all approved technical profile specifications.

SOURCE Wi-SUN Alliance

Related Links

http://www.wi-sun.org


ZHONGSHAN, China, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- On March 28, the 2018 Zhongshan Trade, Investment and Top Talent Fair and the Fifth Top Talent Networking Zhongshan kicked off under the theme of "Innovation Spearheads Development and Collective Wisdom Shapes Bay Area", drawing 1,000 participants from more than 10 countries and regions.

The accumulating innovative elements and collective wisdom have enabled Zhongshan to further contribute to the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, with its competitiveness in geographical location, industries, innovation and living environment.

This year, investment attracting was more aligned with the city's core objective -- to steer the economy towards high-quality development driven by innovation. The opening ceremony of the Fair saw the signing of a cluster of projects, including Tianhe Super-computing Pattern Recognition and AI Team, 3D Bio-printing Center for Precision Medicine, Siasun Intelligent Manufacturing Research Institution and HKUST-Zhongshan Joint Innovation Center, signaling new drivers of growth in gathering innovative resources, transforming and upgrading in industrial sectors, and deepening cooperation within the Greater Bay Area.

According to Lei Yuelong, vice mayor of Zhongshan, the city aims to build itself into a world-class base for advanced manufacturing, regional transportation hub, industrial innovation center and notable historic and

cultural city. The Fair, sticking to those goals, helps bring in teams specializing in technological innovation, carriers for research and development, inspection and testing platforms, and projects of premium productive services and cultural tourism from overseas.

The Fair consisted of 20 themed sessions, including Partnering Forum on Zhongshan Intelligent Manufacturing and International Industrial Cooperation, Seminar on Overseas Talent and Technological Project Cooperation, etc., to help increase connectivity among industries, technologies, projects, talents and professional teams.

Over recent years, Zhongshan has yielded fruitful results in drawing talents through the signature event of Top Talent Networking Zhongshan and introduction of 18 new talent-oriented policies. Statistics show that the past four talent networking events, with 47 special sessions, drew 23 academicians, 100 figures from China's Recruitment Program of Global Experts and 136,000 global talents. Up to 220 talent cooperation projects were signed, some involving bringing in teams of academicians.

By the end of 2017, Zhongshan had been home to a national entrepreneurship park for overseas students, 26 business incubators at city and township levels, 43 working platforms for post-doctorate fellows and 88 cooperation platforms for colleges and universities outside Zhongshan. Beyond that, there are two overseas talent workstations (in Boston and Silicon Valley), ten national innovation platforms and their branches, ten academician workstations and 29 master technician workrooms. Statistics relating to drawing professionals have all hit record highs, demonstrating the city's strong network of high-caliber personnel in its sustained economic and social development.





SOURCE The Organizing Committee of the Zhongshan Trade, Investment and Top Talent Fair
Lone Star has appointed Eastdil and Credit Suisse as advisors to explore options for Wembley developer Quintain including a sale of the business, which could be worth 3bn (c. 3.4bn). This move comes only two and a half years after the US private equity firm bought Quintain for about 1bn

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GUEST OBSERVER

One worrying takeaway from the first week of the Financial Services Royal Commission is how many elderly people are being adversely affected by irresponsible lending.

Such lending is often the result of an agreement with a family member, for example an adult child, to help that person financially by entering into a joint loan. These loans are secured against the older persons home, which is a huge risk if the loan defaults and the older person cannot service the debt.

To ensure that older people contemplating joint loans are aware of the downside of transactions, there needs to be greater access to legal and financial advice prior to the transaction and better training for bank employees and loan officers about responsible lending obligations and the potential unsuitabilty of such loans.

Consideration should also be given to larger penalties for banks that provide unsuitable loans to older people.

Other examples we have seen this week include an elderly woman who has been paying off the same A$1,000 since the 1990s, and a 72-year-old nurse who was permitted to borrow more than A$3 million to buy 11 investment properties.

On the face of it, there are laws that should safeguard elderly consumers from getting in over their head.

When a consumer applies for credit, the National Consumer Credit Protection Act obliges a credit provider to make reasonable inquiries about the consumers financial situation and their requirements and objectives.

In so doing, the credit provider must take reasonable steps to verify the consumers financial situation. This means that payments must be able to be made without substantial hardship to the consumer.

However, the Consumer Action Law Centre says that it is common that these steps are not adequately followed by lenders.

Even if these steps are followed, the legislation does not define substantial hardship. There is a presumption that if a consumer must sell their principal residence to pay back a loan, this demonstrates substantial hardship.

Emotional lending

Of particular concern is when an older person is persuaded to enter into a joint loan with a third party, such as their son or daughter. These loans are invariably secured by the older persons property, with the younger person agreeing to pay off the debt.

If the adult child does not pay off the debt, the older person  who is often asset-rich but income-poor  may be unable to service the loan. The older persons property will be repossessed by the lender, forcing them to relocate, enter the rental market, or even become homeless.

The loans may arise simply because the older person wants to help their adult child through a difficult financial period. It is understandable that a parent would want to help if a business is failing or a child is at risk of losing their house.

But such loans often arise within an atmosphere of crisis (real or exaggerated), in which the adult child pressures the older person into entering into the loan.

In extreme cases, older people have been told that they will be unable to see their grandchildren if they do not enter into loans.

It is not always that the older person is vulnerable per se, but that they are situationally vulnerable because of concern for the well-being of a child, or the desire to maintain relationships.

The reality is that it is often difficult for the older person to refuse.

Karen Cox of the Financial Rights Legal Centre noted at the Royal Commission that these loans are: "outright exploitative  elderly persons [are] left in dire circumstances as a result of a loan for which theyve seen absolutely no benefit."

Similar comments apply to other financial transactions made for the benefit of a third party such as entering into a reverse mortgage. This is where the older person takes out a loan against the equity built up in a home (or other asset), with the money given to a child to buy a house or prop up their business.

What could be done?

Advocates are rightly concerned about the financial consequences for older people who enter into such loans. However, the property does belong to the older person and they are entitled to make whatever decisions they want, including risky ones.

Elderly people should be fully informed of their obligations and the potential consequences, should a transaction goes wrong. Banks could lead the way with this.

One initiative would be for the banks to contribute to legal and financial advice for older people, or subsidise the provision of such advice at community legal centres.

Loan assessors and brokers must also be made aware of the risks of such transactions.

The Australian Bankers Association is introducing enhanced measures to address elder financial abuse and the risks associated with such loans should be emphasised.

Finally, the government should consider tougher penalties against credit providers who disregard responsible lending obligations. Presently, if a bank is found to have lent irresponsibly they will simply compensate the consumer for the loss. Meaningful penalties that deter reckless lending should be considered.

Eileen Webb, Professor, Curtin Law School, Curtin University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
A private investor has snapped up Morningside Plaza Shopping Centre, in Brisbanes inner east at a record yield of 5.1 percent.

The figure matches the lowest ever recorded yield for a neighbourhood centre sale in Queensland.

The off market transaction was brokered by Peter Tyson & Jon Tyson of Savills for $23.8 million on behalf of Melbourne based veteran shopping centre developer and investor Lascorp Development Group.

The Coles anchored property is located in Morningside, around five kilometres east of the Brisbane CBD with frontage to Junction Road.

The 4,431 sqm enclosed mall is anchored by a 3,000 sqm Coles Supermarket with nine specialty shops and car parking for 233 vehicles.

Savills, Peter Tyson said that whilst Morningside Plaza was not for sale, we received an aggressively priced offer from a private investor to purchase the asset.

The buyer was seeking a suitable metro asset and was attracted to the long lease security from Coles the inner Brisbane location Peter Tyson said.

Savills also negotiated the sale of the centre to Lascorp in 2013.

Lascorp then undertook an extensive refurbishment and repositioning of the centre, significantly improving parking, traffic and shopper foot flow through improved vertical transport, mall upgrade works and tenant remixing.

Metropolitan centres anchored by Coles or Woolworths in the sub $30 million price point are typically tightly held and have become an increasingly rare commodity in the marketplace, Peter Tyson said.

We expect yields for quality neighbourhood assets to remain firm throughout 2018, reflective of this strong ongoing demand and tight supply.
GUEST OBSERVER

Governments can encourage more affordable housing by targeting first home buyer subsidies to specific locations and housing types, a new report finds. It also suggests incentivising developers and builders to create smaller houses with more cost-efficient designs.

The report is based on the housing market in Perth, Western Australia, and shows that historically building single houses as opposed to units or town houses is a more effective way of delivering affordable housing on the city fringes.

The report examined housing affordability through individual transaction records over a six year sample period. It compared prices between established and new housing, showing that new land and building developments play important roles in supplying affordable housing options.

New dwellings comprise 13% of single house transactions and 33% for dwellings such as apartment or townhouses. Although new dwellings like apartments provided some affordable housing options, in general they are selling at a premium over existing houses.

Australias largest cities, like Perth, are stretched to the limit of land supply and infrastructure for affordable housing. The most infrastructure exists in city centres where houses are expensive.

Over the past two decades Perth has grown rapidly. Between 2001 and 2016 the population increased by 46.7%, the largest proportional increase of any Australian capital city. The make-up of the housing market is similar to other capitals: 68% of the housing stock is single houses, 20% other dwellings and 11% vacant.

Levels of home ownership are generally consistent with the national pattern: 62% of housing is owned outright or mortgaged, and 24% rented.

House prices have grown rapidly. From 1999 to 2016 house prices grew at an average annual rate of 8.4%; other dwellings grew 9%. Both sectors report the highest annual increases for all Australian capital cities over this period.

How can governments help?

The challenge in Australias housing market is supplying an adequate range of affordable new dwelling types within a range of suitable locations  both inner city and outer suburban choices.

Clusters of cheaper housing on the urban fringe and more expensive inner-city development suggest new building activity is confined to specific locations. These are defined by the price the constructor or buyer is willing to pay.

Housing policy in Australia has relied on market outcomes to determine aesthetic and economic characteristics of housing in our cities. Government intervention has mainly been through zoning, predominantly at local levels. More recently theres also been stimulus at state and federal levels for first home buyers through various deposit subsidy schemes.

Subsidy schemes have been important in helping first home buyers bridge the deposit gap. Incentives have included cash payments and stamp duty relief.

In some states additional payments have been made for new building and for purchases in specific locations. But the Perth study indicates that some of these subsidies are becoming ineffective.

Standard one type fits all subsidies are limiting first home buyers choices of location and housing type.

The solution to this problem is to make subsidy schemes more flexible to nudge first home buyers towards affordable locations. This would even out the supply of affordable houses from areas where housing is densely clustered in certain locations.

Policy would also need to take into account the needs of different demographics in certain locations. Housing requirements of young singles are obviously different than for young families.

Effective policy would also need to take into account the types of housing finance available for first home buyers. One example is the WA governments Keystart loans which help eligible people to buy their own homes through low deposit loans and shared equity schemes.

These types of schemes include shared ownership with the government owned housing authorities and include existing and newly built homes in a variety of locations.

But its not all up to state governments. The problems of lack of land supply and infrastructure are the same in all Australian capital cities. The federal government could play a more prominent role through infrastructure grant funding in changing the location choice of buyers and variation of affordable housing types at a national level.

Greg Costello, Associate Professor, Curtin University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
GUEST OBSERVER

A key goal of the City of Sydney, one of Australias wealthiest local governments, is to deliver a range of affordable and social housing options that reects the diversity of ages, family relationships, socio-economic backgrounds and employment elds in the local population. Our research includes in-depth analysis of the experiences of local governments with housing, among them the City of Sydney. This article examines what the city council is doing to provide more affordable housing and the obstacles, which include federal and state government policies, to achieving its targets.

The city council has committed to ensuring that by 2030, of all housing in the [Local Government Area] 7.5% will be social housing and 7.5% will be affordable housing delivered by not-for-prot or other providers. In absolute numbers this translates to 10,500 social housing units and 10,500 affordable homes.

The major challenge is providing affordable rental housing. It is projected that by 2030 there will be at least 138,000 dwellings in the inner-city area administered by the City of Sydney. Thats an increase of nearly 40,000 from 98,012 dwellings in 2014. To achieve the 7.5% affordable housing target, another 9,700 affordable rental homes need to be built by 2030.

Despite the city councils best intentions, the affordable and social housing stock has hardly grown over the last decade. The social housing stock has increased from 9,397 in 2007 to 9,561 dwellings in June 2017. Affordable rental housing has gone from 447 to 835 dwellings.

The council recognises the constraints of the policy environment in which it is working. Its documents often refer to how federal and state government policies limit the local governments capacity to improve housing affordability. The city clearly realises that: "The Commonwealth government and the state governments  control the macro-economic and taxation policies that most affect the cost of housing."

Another document emphasises: "State planning laws affect the ways that local governments can supply housing."

The City of Sydney uses the following overlapping mechanisms to increase the affordable housing supply: levies on developers; voluntary planning agreements; and selling land at a subsidy.

Developer levies

Developer levies are the key mechanism the council uses to increase the number of affordable homes.

State law enables the use of an affordable housing levy. The city notes that Section 94F of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 allows for the collection of contributions for affordable housing. The provisions allow for either land or monetary contributions for affordable housing.

To date, the state government has allowed the city to levy developers in only three localities  Green Square, Ultimo-Pyrmont and southern employment lands. Over time it is expected the levies in these three areas will yield 2,300 affordable homes.

The levy rate in Green Square and the southern employment lands is set at 3% of total residential floor space and 1% of non-residential floor space. For Pyrmont-Ultimo it is 0.8% of residential floor space and 1.1% of non-residential floor space.

Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore has urged the state government to extend the developer levy. She has argued that not allowing the levy city-wide was a tremendous missed opportunity.

Moore has advocated for a 30% affordable housing target for public land and 15% for developments on private land. It is evident that restricting the developer levy to just a few locations and to 3% makes this target impossible to attain.

Voluntary planning agreements

A voluntary planning agreement (VPA) is an agreement entered into by a planning authority and a developer. Under this agreement a developer can agree to fund affordable housing. This can be done through the dedication of land, monetary contributions, construction of infrastructure [and] provision of materials for public benefit and/or use.

The City of Sydney uses such planning agreements to negotiate affordable housing provision through major developments.

For example, a VPA for a A$1.1 billion development, 1,250 units in Forest Lodge, involved the developer agreeing to supply land for affordable rental apartments for low and moderate income earners. The city then sold the land to City West Housing, a community housing provider, at a discounted price. City West plans to build 76 affordable housing units on this land.

The money from the land sale goes into a city fund dedicated to delivering more affordable developments across the local area.

Discounted land sales to community housing providers

Selling land at a subsidised price to community housing providers is a key strategy. The City of Sydney sells the land on the proviso that it is used solely for affordable housing in perpetuity.

Alan Morris, Author provided

In 2014, a disused hospital site was sold to City West Housing. City West built just over 100 affordable housing units there. The development was completed in 2016.

More recently, the City sold 8,900 square metres of land in Alexandria, an inner-city suburb, to community housing providers. The major buyer, City West Housing, plans to build 200 homes there.

A major barrier to affordable housing supply in the inner city has been the state governments reluctance to agree that affordable housing should be a sizeable proportion of the housing to be built on state owned or controlled land that is being renewed.

UrbanGrowth NSW, the states primary urban transformation agency, is redeveloping significant tracts of state land in the Sydney City area. However, almost all of the envisaged new housing on UrbanGrowth sites at this stage appear to be geared towards middle-class households. A highest-return-for-the-land motif is driving planning decisions.

The conclusion is clear: if local government is to create a sizeable affordable housing sector it is vital that the state and federal governments play a major role. Local governments, however powerful and well resourced, cannot do it by themselves.

Alan Morris, Research Professor, University of Technology Sydney

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
A buoyant Canberra housing market is leading to healthy long-term investment options for savvy home buyers, according to RiskWise Property Research.

While the Sydney market goes flat, many Sydney-based investors and buyers agents are looking to Canberra as a solid long-term property market that delivers both capital growth and solid rental return.

Less than 300 kilometres south-west of Sydney, Canberra has enjoyed solid capital growth of 23% over the past five years and 10% in the past 12 months.

RiskWise Property Research CEO Doron Peleg believes it is a trend which is set to continue, particularly for houses.

"This will be driven by ongoing population growth due to the strength of the local labour market and its growing status as a city of choice for a growing number of Australians, Peleg said.

"Canberra is a rapidly expanding city with a stable property market that offers relatively affordable housing (in house-to-income terms). In addition, ongoing infrastructure projects, such as the Canberra Light Rail Network, will bring significant benefits to the area.

RiskWise assessed the risks and opportunities in the ACT property market to help investors and professionals better understand it.

Peleg said while housing in the ACT was enjoying healthy capital growth, the same could not be said for off-the-plan units which carried a higher degree of risk in the short-term.

However, he said, the impact of the additional supply was likely to be reduced in the medium and long-term which showed capital growth of 4% in the past five years and 5% in the past 12 months.

Detailed report on the property market for both houses and units:

Canberra Property Market Under the Microscope - Strong labour market and population growth the major growth drivers

Employment

The ACT has a strong labour market. The unemployment rate of 3.9% is low - even below the NSW average. This is unsurprising given the strength of its labour market and that the Federal Government is a major direct and indirect employer. This is also supported by the relatively low underemployment and the low effective unemployment rate across the ACT.

Population growth

The ACT enjoys consistently strong population growth, particularly over the past six years. It also recorded a population growth rate of 1.7%, the second highest rate growth across the country according the latest ABS data. The attractiveness of the local labour market has been a key driver force behind this population increase and this growth trajectory is likely to continue.

Capital growth  houses v units

While both houses and units enjoy good demand, the demand for houses is very strong and houses enjoy, consistently solid capital growth of 23% in the past 5 years and 10% in the past 12 months. That has significantly exceeded the capital growth of units that delivered 4% in the past 5 years and 5% in the past 12 months.

Median rental return

The rental return for houses and units are 4.2% and 5.1%, respectively - these rates of returns are significantly higher than the rental return in Sydney.

Units in the pipeline  short term risk

The number of units in the pipeline for the next 24 months is 5290, being an addition of 8.1% to the current stock.

Investors who purchase off-the-plan properties are exposed to risk of poor capital growth and lower rental returns than expected in the short to medium-term as the area adjusts to the additional supply level. However, general high demand for units across the area is likely to reduce the impact of the supply increase in the medium and long-term. This is primarily driven by the strong labour market and population growth in the ACT.

In conclusion, the ACT delivered strong property price growth over the past few years and is likely to deliver strong growth, particularly for houses.

This will be driven by ongoing population growth due to the strength of the local labour market and its growing status as a city of choice for a growing number of Australians. While off-the-plan units carry a higher degree of risk in the short term, the impact of the additional supply is likely to be reduced in the medium and long term.
While there may not have been a single book that agents and scouts were buzzing about in the rights center at this years Bologna Book Fair, insiders were not at a loss when it came to identifying trends in the marketplace. Among the more notable takeaways were the fact that middle grade fiction remains hot, and the political upheaval in the United Statesfrom movements like #MeToo to #BlackLivesMatteris reverberating around the globe, and driving interest in titles, both fiction and nonfiction, that speak to this tumultuous moment.

Rachel Hecht, who runs an eponymous childrens scouting firm, said shed been noticing an uptick in nonfiction titles addressing things like feminism and activism. Acknowledging that the hunger for these books is likely being driven by current events, Hecht said publishers are also reacting to the bestseller lists and whats working in the market. Citing breakout successes like Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls and Angie Thomass The Hate U Give, Hecht said publishers around the globe are looking for books that address and grapple with diversity in myriad ways.

A film scout who specializes in childrens literature said that, on the screen side, there were a number of titles circulating (or just sold) drawing comparison to Netflixs breakout series, Stranger Things. One such buzzed-about project is Rena Barron's middle grade fantasy series Maya and the Rising Dark, which had just sold to Emilia Rhodes at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in a three-book preempt for world English rights.

Barron is represented by Suzie Townsend at New Leaf Literary & Media, and made headlines last year when her manuscript, The Last Witch Doctor, became one of the most sought after titles to come up through the PitchWars contest (which offers authors an opportunity to showcase an un-published project).

Maya and the Rising Dark, New Leaf said, is a West African inspired tale. The middle grade series (which is unrelated to The Last Witchdoctor), is, per the scout, like Stranger Things "if the kids had magical powers." It follows the titular heroine who, along with her friends, is on a quest to save her father. When Maya discovers that her missing parent is "the keeper of the gateway between our world and The Dark," she and her friends must "unlock their powers" and venture into the Dark to "face mythological creatures set on starting a war."

A representative from New Leaf explained that The Last Witchdoctor has evolved into a YA fantasy series and sold in a separate deal, which has not yet been announced. Details about the sale of The Last Witchdoctor will be released during the forthcoming London Book Fair, with the first title in that series set to become Barron's debut. New Leaf noted that TLWD also features "West African inspired mythology and magic."

The surge in content featuring Stranger Things-esque elements was something agent Fiona Kenshole at the Canada-based Transatlantic Literary Agency was also noticing. SF is having its moment, she said. Kenshole felt the appeal of such content was thanks to the Netflix series, in which a quartet of friends fight demonic creatures that exist in another dimension which can be accessed through various portals in their Midwestern town. (The alternate dimension in Stranger Things is, as in Barron's MG series, called "The Dark.")

U.K. scout John McLay noted that YA titles seemed to largely be traveling one way, [from] the U.S. to the U.K. Middle grade is, he felt, quite strong in his native U.K. [The Americans] do YA the best, and I think we do middle grade quite well.

One recent trend, largely created by the international success of One of Us Is Lying by Karen McManus, is the emerging popularity of the YA thriller. Agent Rosemary Stimola, who reps McManus and sold One of Us Is Lying into 37 languages, was showing the author's second book, Two Can Keep a Secret, which Delacorte will publish in January 2019, to foreign publishers for the first time here. "Option publishers have the first look, of course," she said, noting that by Wednesday morning she had "already sold seven." She said the book has shown publishers around the world that "there is an established market for the YA thriller."

For the Bent Agencys Molly Ker Hawn, the first priority of the day was the international interest she was fielding in a YA novel called All of This Is True, which just so happens to cite One of Us Is Lying as its main comp title. (Bloomsbury will be publishing the book in the U.K. on May 15; in the U.S. it will be released by Harper, on May 30.) The novel, by Lygia Day Penaflor, is told through interview transcripts and diary entries, and follows four teenage friends whose attempt to befriend their favorite author winds up yielding dire results. Hawn, who had just closed a new deal for the book with a Czech publisher, said she felt All of This Is True was speaking to an interesting and recent cultural moment, in which young readers have unprecedented access to beloved writers.

Aside from All of This Is True, Hawn said that she was also seeing an intense interest in middle grade titles. And, echoing some of her colleagues, she noted that co-agents she works with in the U.K. have been spending a lot of money on the books in the category.

For Jennifer Weltz at the Jean V. Naggar Agency, the fair season has brought an unexpected but welcome interest in backlist titles. With some of that interest being driven by film adaptations, Weltz said she was also seeing a rise in demand for classic childrens books.

Weltz, who oversees the estates of such childrens book authors as Alvin Tresselt and Roger Duvoisin, said that, in the past, Europe had not been a market for backlist picture books. No longer. Whats being called the vintage book market is growing, she said, noting that European publishers are recognizing the fact that young parents, who grew up with certain classic picture books, are now interested in reading those same titles to their children.

On other fronts, Weltz noted that a wider embrace of diverse titles was opening doors for other kinds of backlist books. Emily Danforths 2012 novel The Miseducation of Cameron Post, which is the basis of a film that premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival, is an example. A coming-of-age tale about a young Montana girl discovering her homosexuality, the novel was not something Weltz was able to sell to a wide swath of international publishers when it was first released.

Now it's a different story. Although Weltz admitted that interest in Miseducation is being driven in large part by its film adaptation, the book is also benefiting from a cultural shift around the continent. With younger editors in various European countries hungry for diverse titles, LGBT-themed content can travel across more borders, Weltz explained, making a book that was virtually unsaleable in large parts of Europe just a few years ago, a hot commodity today.

CORRECTIONS: This article initially stated that Transatlantic Literary Agency is based in the U.K.; it is based in Canada. Additionally, this article initially included a misspelling of the title The Last Witchdoctor.
At the opening ceremony of the Bologna Childrens Book Fair Monday, a large number of dignitaries and officials gathered to launch the events 55th edition. This years guest of honor, China, was represented by Li Ruiyu, the Chinese ambassador to Italy; Zhao Haiyun, deputy director general of the State Adminstration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television; and Li Xueqian, co-organizer of the China Pavilion and president of China Childrens Press & Publication Group (as well as the president of the Chinese section of the International Board on Books for Young People). Other speakers included the general manager of the Bologna Book Fair and the mayor of Bologna.

All major Chinese childrens publishers attended the opening ceremony. Bologna Book Fair is the biggest global platform where authors, illustrators, publishers, and promoters of childrens books meet and communicate with one another, says Bai Bing, editor-in-chief of Jieli Publishing, and a renowned Chinese childrens author. So there is no betteror more appropriateplatform than Bologna to showcase the best of Chinese works and content creators, especially at this moment in time when the Chinese childrens book market is booming.

Li Xueqian hopes that the key events organized by China as the guest country at this years Bologna Childrens Book Fair will deepen global understanding on Chinese childrens book publishing, and create more opportunities for win-win collaboration between Chinese and international professionals engaged in the childrens books publishing industry.

In total, there are 1,390 exhibitors from 77 countries at this years fair, a 8.3% increase over 2017. There is also a special illustration exhibition featuring 150 selected pieces from 30 Chinese artists.
For the second year running, the Bologna Childrens Book Fair offered a new fellowship for young international publishers to attend the fair. This years fellows are Benas Berantas, a literary agent from Vilnius, Lithuania, and Crenguta Mihaila Podolan, an assistant rights manager with Editura Rao in Bucharest, Romania.

As part of the program, the fellows visited the publishing houses Franco Cosimo Panini in Modena and Corraini Edizione in Mantua, and are participating in various conferences this year at the fair.

Berantas, 28, launched his agency last year after five years working as a rights manager and acquisitions editor at Nieko Ritmo. He says that his goal now is to promote new Lithuanian childrens writers abroad and create opportunities for this to reach the world. We have a lot of talent from smaller publishers who have not before been represented, I hope to give them a chance to expand their audience and build their careers even further. He has attracted 30 clients so far and has more than 60 titles available in his rights catalog.

Podolan, 31, is attending her first book fair, having come to the publishing business through her previous career working in human rights. She says she made the transition because publishing really gives you the opportunity to do many jobs and once, and she knows the right book at the right time can really change a life.

Both say they are grateful for the opportunity Bologna has offered them. Its a great way to get an overview of the fair and see it from a different perspective than sitting behind a table negotiating a deal the whole time, Berantas says. For her part, Podolan is content to absorb as much about the industry as she can. To many people publishing is something of a mystery, which lends it a kind of glamour, but being here a fellow here at the fair is really letting me get behind the scenes, get into some deep conversations about the industry, and really explore how things work, she says, adding, I express how grateful I am for the opportunity to be here and to get a bigger picture. Its just wonderful.
Online video platform technology provider Harmonic has thrown its hat into the Phoenix Model Market Initiative, the single-market effort to implement ATSC 3.0 in the US.





Led by Pearl TV and local US TV broadcast stations owned by EW Scripps Company, Fox Television Stations, Meredith Local Media Group, Nexstar Media Group, TEGNA, Telemundo Station Group and Univision, the initiative will test advanced business models enabled by the next-generation broadcast television standard.As part of the comprehensive ecosystem with technology partners, Harmonic will provide participating stations in Phoenix with its Electra X ATSC 3.0 media processor, which integrates its encoding solution and statistical multiplexing technology, and a DASH packager.This unique initiative is the first time that a single market will test the ATSC 3.0 standard and provide a framework to the industry, said Anne Schelle, managing director of Pearl TV . Partnering with forward-thinking technology providers like Harmonic, Pearl TV can validate ground-breaking improvements for over-the-air broadcasting and experiment with innovative use cases that ATSC 3.0 enables. All of that is possible in a real-life broadcast environment.Having a software-based solution for ATSC 3.0 is critical for broadcasters as they enter a new era of television with the post-auction repack and ATSC 3.0, added Tim Warren, senior vice president and CTO for the video business at Harmonic . Harmonics software-centric approach to video delivery is flexible, cost-effective and future-proof. Our software-based solutions, combined with deployment experience in OTT and cloud, makes it easy for broadcasters to comply with the next-generation broadcast standard, as well as ATSC 1.0 in the short term. We are excited to be part of this ground-breaking initiative and power the delivery of new broadcast services.
Civil-military relations scholars were aflutter after the national conventions of the two major parties in 2016, in which each side deployed a recently-retired general officer to demonstrate  Credibility? Expertise? Patriotism? It was not entirely clear. The buzz picked up again concerning the number of recently-retired or still active senior general officers/flag officers (GOFOs) that Donald Trump had tapped for his administration  retired general James Mattis for defense secretary, retired general John Kelly for secretary of homeland security and then White House chief of staff, and first retired general Michael Flynn and then active-duty three-star general, H.R. McMaster, for national security advisor (who will soon leave his position). There has been further chatter about Trump's own avoidance of military service, juxtaposed with an almost excessive admiration of all things military (Could he have tanks for his inaugural parade? Can we have a military parade for Veterans' Day?). Others have reacted with concern about his administration's military personnel initiatives  including how to deal with transgender servicemembers and whether the Marine Corps will be allowed to keep the combat ban on women  as well as about Trump's own tendency to push both decision-making and ultimate responsibility down to field-level commanders. Take, for example, when he said that the generals  lost [the Navy SEAL killed in Yemen]. More recently, the apparent ramping-up of the U.S. military presence in Syria, Afghanistan, and parts of Africa has continued apace, while lacking a clear and consistent strategic narrative about what this is supposed to accomplish. There is no shortage of things for observers and scholars to worry about when it comes to civil-military relations.
When news first emerged that four American special operators and five Nigeriens had been killed in a deadly ambush on the 4th of October 2017, it catapulted the hitherto, little-known United States Africa Command (USAFRICOM) presence in Niger into the limelight. Almost immediately, Senators were poring back over the documents they had been briefed on concerning United States (U.S.) combat operations in the region. Many of them admitted they had not been aware of the scale or nature of the US presence in Niger. Some commentators suggested they should have been paying more attention. Lora Lumpe and Jacob Marx of the Open Society Foundation stated, Either the Pentagon has not been informing Congress, or it is sending updates...but nobody is reading them.

A United States Marine adviser speaks with the leaders of an African special forces unit during a training exercise. (Master Sgt. Jeremiah Erickson/U.S. Air Force Photo)

The release of a public incident report is imminent, which will see the Trump administration and USAFRICOM asked to account for the decisions made in the run-up to the operation, as well as broader special forces operations in West Africa. The report may also contain lessons for British troops and commanders. The United Kingdom (U.K.), alongside the U.S., has been increasingly relying on its special forces to provide boots, eyes, and ears on the ground against groups such as the Islamic Statis in Iraq and Syria, al-Shabaab, al-Qaeda, and Boko Haram.

However, as U.S. decision-makers assessand, importantly, learn fromthe mistakes of the past, it is worth reflecting on the fact that the rigid no-comment policy that surrounds Britains own use of special forces means that similar learning processes are impossible on this side of the Atlantic. Contrary to practice in the U.S., parliamentarians are not briefed on the activities of the U.K.s special forces or the broader strategy for their use as part of British defence and security policy.

THE U.K. SYSTEM

The stock response to any question about British special forces is that the MODs [the Ministry of Defence] long-held policy is not to comment on special forces. Former chair of the U.K. Foreign Affairs Select Committee Crispin Blunt noted that while this makes sense for sharply in, and sharply out activities, where special forces are deployed on one specific mission, such as a strike against a key individual, and could be imperiled by operational disclosures. However, Blunt argues that if [operations] are part of a strategy you would expect that strategy to be overseen.

As in the U.S., the role of U.K. special forces is far broader than sharply in, and sharply out activities, and the post-9/11 environment has seen them deployed across the world to counter threats to the U.K. Not only does this require special forces to be deployed for much longer periods of time, butin some areas of the worlda reluctance to deploy regular troops after the experiences of Iraq and Afghanistan means that special forces can be the only British boots on the ground.

In light of this, at a House of Commons Defence Committee hearing the Chair of the Defence Committee, Members of Parliament Julian Lewis asked Sir Michael Fallon, then-U.K. Secretary of State for Defence, whether it would be sensible for Parliament to fill what is apparently a scrutiny gap over the activities of U.K. special forces. As Lewis noted, the U.K. is increasingly isolated in its rigid no comment policy in comparison with, for example, the U.S., who, as was seen above, appear to recognise the advantages that opening up their special forces deployments to greater scrutiny presents. Unfortunately, Fallon responded: We simply dont comment on special forces activities.

THE NIGER CASE

U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis (Reuters)

In response to criticisms of the deadly ambush, which took place near the Nigerien village of Tongo Tongo, the Trump administration began an inquiry into the attack. While the incident report has not yet been released, there have already been a number of statements and leaks indicating some of its findings. U.S. Secretary of Defense, James Mattis, said, [The Department of Defense] is looking at all aspects, not just to this specific incident but to the broader circumstances surrounding that incident, so you get a holistic view. It also appears that the report has been relatively frank about the mistakes that were made. The New York Times claims that the report describes a string of errors and bad decision-making and will call for the Pentagon to scale back the number of ground missions in West Africa, and to strip commanders in the field of some authority to send troops on potentially high-risk patrols.

The Trump administration has faced a lot of criticism in the wake of the ambushnot least because of his very public argument with the widow of one of the soldiers killed on the operation. Many link Trumps efforts to loosen Obama-era restrictions and give the military more decision-making authority to move faster on raids, airstrikes and bombing missions with the mistakes made. However, once again, the mechanisms which allow U.S. policy-makers to ask important strategic questions about military engagement abroad should provide food for thought for the U.K., whose no-comment policy over the deployment of special forces undermines the ability to have this same level of debate.

U.K. OPACITY IN THE FACE OF ALLIED TRANSPARENCY

The U.S. is not an isolated case. In November 2015, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gave a press conference in which he discussed increasing Canadas contingent of special forces in Iraq, where it has been confirmed that they are operating under a mandate that allows them to accompany Kurdish forces up to and across front lines, and into battle.

Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and former President Barack Obama in 2014 (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

In the same month, then-Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced that 200 special forces members had been cleared to deploy to Iraq, to advise and assist local security forces in the fight against the Islamic State. In April 2016, the Australian Defence Inspector General announced the beginning of an investigation into the internal culture of the special forces following a period of high-intensity deployments in the post-9/11 period.

French officials have traditionally echoed their British counterparts and insisted that we never go into details about anything to do with special forces. However, this is starting to change. For example, in December 2017 the head of the French special forces approached the Assemblee Nationale to speak in depth about their resourcing, recruitment, and recent operations. He responded to questions about equipment, overstretch, and the evolving strategy of Frances enemies.

While not every deployment of special forces is announced by Britains allies, there is nevertheless the expectation that the public should be kept as informed as possible, and that debate on special forces activities abroad should not be unreasonably restricted. This does not appear to be impeding their operational effectivenessthe U.S. and France in particular continue to use their special forces to great effect. Instead, it provides their legislatures and wider publics with an important opportunity to question government strategy and debate the implications of their involvement in conflicts overseas.

THE DANGERS OF THE NO-COMMENT POLICY

The Niger incident demonstrates that even elite and special operators are not immune to making mistakes. It also looks likely that the incident report will highlight shortfalls in strategic decision-making. This demonstrates the importance of reviewing past mistakes in a way that maintains operational security but allows for key lessons to be learned.

In 2016, the U.K. Foreign Affairs Committee warned that the lack of such system in the U.K. increases the danger that [special forces] operations can become detached from political objectives. There is also a risk that government expectations of secrecy become detached from the realities of the world in which its special forces operate, to the detriment of their effectiveness.

Former British Prime Minister David Cameron (Tom Evans/Wikimedia) As the U.K.s 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review stated, The growth of communications technology will increase our enemies ability to influence, not only all those on the battlefield, but also our own society directly. We must therefore win the battle for information, as well as the battle on the ground. The British governments unwillingness to engage in debates around its deployment of special forces is increasingly unhelpful in an era of smartphones and growing access to the internet across the globe. This effectively surrenders the narrative about where and why U.K. forces are deployed to those posting their pictures online. For example, in 2015 former Prime Minister David Cameron promised Parliament that the U.K. would not deploy ground troops to Syria. However, in June 2016 reports began to emerge that U.K. special forces were on the front lines of the fight against the Islamic State. Minimizing the disclosure of these operations may also serve to exacerbate constraints on military action, especially in a climate of risk aversion and skepticism over entanglements abroad. One major scandal could result in huge restrictions being placed on U.K. military intervention, as could a steady drip of media information that raises suspicions and fuels accusations of government deception. CONCLUSION The U.K. government should look closely at the Niger incident report. The U.S. looks set to engage in a frank discussion about what went wrong, and more generally raise a number of concerns about the deployment of U.S. special forces to West Africa. It is indicative of a recognition within the U.S., as among many of the U.K.s allies, that greater openness is not inherently incompatible with the operational security or utility of special forces. Instead, it is seen as a learning opportunity, and a vital mechanism for improving overall strategy. As the U.S. Senate debates the Niger incident and the lessons for future deployments, the U.K. government should consider its own options. Its no-comment policy is not risk free and presents a number of dangers to the effectiveness of U.K. military engagement abroad. The U.S. made mistakes that led to the Niger incident, but looks set to learn lessons in its aftermaththe U.K. must ensure it can do the same.

Abigail Watson is a research officer at the Oxford Research Groups Remote Warfare Programme. She researches and presents on the military, legal, and political implications of light-footprint warfare. She can be found on Twitter at @remote_warfare.

This article appeared originally at Strategy Bridge.
An armoured train carrying North Korean leader Kim Jong-un pulled into Beijing on Monday, with a summit with Chinas Xi Jinping confirmed Wednesday morning by Xinhua. Perhaps Kim came to reassure China that he wont upend regional geopolitics by making a dramatic deal with Washington.

More likely, he explained what Pyongyang is prepared to give up and what they would like in return following talks with the United States. Almost certainly, he discussed what to do if an agreement with the US doesnt go well.

On this, the Trump administration should be worried. There is a real risk that President Donald Trump will end up being seen as the bad-faith actor, isolating his country while the two Koreas and China look to find a way out of the current iteration of the nuclear crisis.

In recent weeks, much analysis has been devoted to the potential summit between Trump and Kim Jong-un. There has been some hand-wringing among American pundits about whether Trump will forfeit the alliance with South Korea or agree to withdraw troops in a way that would harm US interests in the region.

Both scenarios are unlikely given the conservative advice reaching Trump and South Koreas firm commitment to the alliance. Perhaps of more pressing concern is something both more probable and more mundane than these big-picture issues: what happens if Trump promises something he cant deliver?

Trump likes to make big, dramatic decisions and then work out the details later. In early January, he boldly stated he would sign any agreement on the Dreamers that came out of Congress. Within the week, that promise seemed like it had never been made, following Trumps consultations with administration hardliners on immigration and the now-infamous shithole countries meeting.

More recently, in the wake of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, Trump said he was in favour of tightening universal background checks and making it easier to confiscate guns from potentially dangerous individuals. Two days later, following a meeting with the NRA, the White House was distancing itself from that idea.

This propensity to walk away from promises will hang over the talks with Kim Jong-un, for two reasons.

First, the North Koreans dont trust the US, and another broken agreement will freeze relations in an extremely bad place for some time to come. As much as Washington worries that the North Koreans wont negotiate in good faith, the North Koreans think the same of the US. And that idea is not without justification. The US struggled to fulfil its promises to finance nuclear reactors (that couldnt produce material for weapons) following a 1994 agreement which froze Pyongyangs nuclear program.

Compounding that problem, the substitute fuel the US agreed to send to North Korea while the reactors were being built was first delayed and then had a high sulfur content, making it corrosive and ultimately damaging some of the Norths power stations. The Americans said this was a bureaucratic error; the result of a non-technical government purchaser buying the cheapest fuel.

The North Koreans didnt believe it. They assumed the worst of their old enemy. And even if some did accept the explanation, the North Koreans still walked away thinking the US couldnt be trusted to meet the terms of an agreement.

This had tragic consequences; 1994 was really the first attempt at compromise between the US and North Korea, and it went badly. The North Koreans contributed, too, of course: they had a secret uranium program that the Bush administration found out about and made public in 2002. Talks later in the 2000s also broke down amid mutual recriminations.

This moment is Washingtons chance to sort out its side of the equation and show it can be trusted to make a difficult deal with its old adversary. If the opportunity is missed, were set for years and years of further hostility and torpor in this most difficult relationship.

The thorny issue remains of whether North Korea will fulfil any obligations to which it agrees. It would be naive to assume Pyongyang will declare and surrender everything it has. But this is something the US and international community can be vigilant and clear-eyed about, and is not sufficient reason to avoid a deal.

Regardless, the US needs to be seen to be following through on its side of any agreement, because a broken promise from the US would have a second, more immediate consequence for Washington. If a deal is struck and Pyongyang is seen as carrying out its responsibilities while the US is not, it would probably spell the end of the sanctions coalition Trump has forged.

The President currently has more cooperation from China on sanctions than any previous US administration, although the spectre of a trade war may be undermining that to some extent. American diplomats have also had some success in pressuring North Korean partners elsewhere to cut ties with the regime.

The North Koreans will want US sanctions to be removed, but this will be tricky: there are multiple stakeholders in Congress and the activist community will oppose it. Trumps newest, closest foreign policy advisers are hawkish. If Trump appears to have promised something on sanctions removal and then comes home to face opposition in Congress or elsewhere, Kim Jong-un could realistically turn to his neighbours and say, Look, we tried; what more can we do?

North Korea is also being sanctioned multilaterally by the UN Security Council. If Washington does not honour its promises, it will be much easier for Pyongyang to make the case to Beijing, Moscow, and perhaps even Seoul that it deserves some sanctions relief. Indeed, one imagines that that this is high on the agenda for whatever talks are taking place in Beijing this week.

Much of the world is already deeply suspicious of Donald Trump. Making a deal and then failing to follow through would give Pyongyang the moral high ground and isolate the US.

Nonetheless, a TrumpKim summit is still an incredible opportunity. Trump has put himself in a position to do something no other American leader has managed: to make and deliver a major agreement with North Korea. Lets hope he can do it.

Andray Abrahamian is a WSD-Handa Fellow at Pacific Forum CSIS and an Adjunct Fellow at Griffith Asia Institute.

This article appeared originally at Lowy Institute's the interpreter.
In its 60 Minutes interview with porn star Stormy Daniels, CBS presented to 20 million Americans a narrative that has been pushed almost nonstop in recent weeks on cable news: that the Stormy scandal must somehow, some way, lead to the impeachment of President Trump.

In short, its Monica 2.0, and its even uglier this time around. These agitators see in the Stormy Daniels tale a salacious rehash of Monica Lewinsky, replete with adultery, payoffs, and  most importantly  a special prosecutor. In the case of Bill Clinton, the Democrats constant defense was Its just about sex. That was never quite true. In the Lewinsky scandal, a sitting president lied under oath, which is why he was disbarred and heavily fined. Now, according to the liberal zeitgeist, Its not at all about sex, but instead is about supposed violations of arcane campaign finance rules.

I get why the media loves stories about sex. Such scandals are much, well, sexier than Russia when, thus far, most of the Russian news has come from the partisan food fights in the House Intelligence Committee. The special counsel, Robert Mueller, is supposed to be investigating Russian interference in our 2016 election. But, like Kenneth Starr of days gone by, I suspect his voyeuristic inquest will now expand its purview into matters of the bedroom.

But the media has it backward 20 years later when it comes to the special prosecutor. It appears Mueller has found no evidence of actual collusion between Trump and Russia, and so the dearth of Russia-related information compels the need for another angle to remove President Trump from office. And the willing airwaves salivate over the salaciousness of it all.

But Bob Mueller doesnt have the same job as Ken Starr. Starr was independent counsel, authorized under a now-defunct law that was left to die because Republicans and Democrats both learned over the years that a prosecutor with no oversight was invariably over-intrusive. Mueller has not been removed from the chain of command. For all intents and purposes, he works for the president himself. Starrs investigators led him to Monica. The media, in contrast, led Mueller to Stormy  Monica 2.0.

Perhaps knowing they are on shaky ground, the anchors and pundits prattling on about the Meaning of Stormy rarely mention impeachment. But that is the unmistakable subtext here. According to the opposition narrative, the real scandal lies not in some possible tawdry affair between the business mogul and a young woman over a decade ago, but rather in a campaign finance violation, or hush money, or respect for women, or whatever  any old fig leaf will do when the presumed Democratic Party-controlled House takes over in 2019 and promptly begins impeachment proceedings.

But the country needs better. No one but the media will win with the advent of Monica 2.0. Americans will undoubtedly lose, and so it must not happen. If the Congress, a co-equal branch of government, wishes to wade into these issues, have at it. But the president cannot, under any circumstances, submit to interrogation by his own underling Mueller. More importantly, should Mueller, at the behest of the media, dive headlong into the putrid muddy waters of an affair -- which allegedly commenced a decade before Trump even entered politics  from an investigation that was chartered to probe Russian interference in our 2016 election, then Mueller must be summarily fired.

Donald Trump can stand on his accomplishments in office, which, in case you havent noticed, the media hardly allows airtime to be discussed. For those who viscerally oppose Trump, detailing a romp and hush-up is preferable to detailing the massive recent rise in consumer confidence, small business optimism, or the steady declines in food stamp recipients and minority unemployed.

Instead, the medias single-minded focus on trashing Trump would only be simplified during a sex-inspired impeachment. Although Monica 2.0 is a media-driven loser, Trumps record calls for Trump 2.0, which would begin in January 2021 after his re-election.
U.S. President Donald Trumps no-nonsense approach to North Korea -- and to its enabler and protector, China -- has caught the attention of the two anxious Communist allies. While the hardest part lies ahead, the president may have moved the world a bit closer to the ultimate goal: peaceful elimination of North Koreas nuclear weapons.

During the campaign, after his election, and as president, Trump has been consistent on the basics:

(1) What was tried for almost three decades by administrations of both parties has not worked;

(2) He would pursue new options, including both personal diplomacy and credible threats of force to protect American and allied security interests;

(3) China must use its unique leverage to compel North Koreas denuclearization or itself pay a significant political, economic, and diplomatic price.

The burgeoning confrontation with North Korea has evoked memories of the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. President John F. Kennedy, after months of ignoring warnings that the Soviet Union was building offensive missile capabilities in Cuba, finally confronted Moscow with a blockade of the island -- a so-called quarantine.

The crisis ended when Kennedy agreed to pull U.S. missiles out of Turkey and Italy in exchange for a withdrawal of Soviet missiles from Cuba, and assured Nikita Khrushchev and Fidel Castro that Washington would no longer pursue regime change in Havana.

Pyongyang and Beijing want a similar deal now for North Korea. But Washington already unilaterally pulled its tactical nuclear weapons out of South Korea two decades ago in the cause of a denuclearized Korean Peninsula. So the Communist powers are now demanding an end to the U.S.-ROK alliance, or at least of all joint exercises once U.S.-North Korea negotiations are done.

As for the security guarantees Pyongyang demands, Rex Tillerson, while he was secretary of state, addressed those with his Six Nots: We do not seek a regime change. We do not seek the collapse of the regime. We do not seek an accelerated reunification of the peninsula. We do not seek an excuse to send our military north of the 38th parallel. We are not your enemy. We are not your threat.

The president publicly criticized Tillerson for wasting his time trying to negotiate with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. But clearly Trump was not objecting to negotiations per se. It is more plausible that he did not like the quid the Secretary was offering for Pyongyangs quo -- a guarantee of regime security in exchange for denuclearization.

It seems the president has something much larger in mind -- that is, that the regime must change its behavior not only toward the outside world but also toward its own people. That conclusion is supported by his intensified attention to the deplorable human rights situation in North Korea.

He first suggested that thinking in seemingly off-hand comments and tweets. Last September he said the North Korean leader doesn't mind starving or killing his people. The issue soon graduated from the realm of informal comments on social media to the level of official, carefully prepared administration policy.

North Koreas human rights atrocities were the focus of the presidents address to the United Nations; his speech before South Korea's National Assembly; his State of the Union Address; and at a special, extended public meeting with North Korean escapees in the Oval Office. Vice President Mike Pence reinforced the message in his remarks at the Winter Olympics.

CIA Director Mike Pompeo, now named to replace Tillerson, has carried the argument to its logical conclusion by questioning the continued existence of the Kim regime. He said last July, I am hopeful we will find a way to separate that regime from this systemThe North Korean people, I'm sure, are lovely people and would love to see him go.

The following month, the director stated: [F]or a rogue leader like Kim Jong Un to have the capacity of a ballistic missile with a warhead . . . to hold America and the world at risk. . .[the President] finds . . . unacceptable, and he is simply not going to permit it to happen.

But the question arises: When the nuclear missile threat is gone, will the rogue leader be allowed to stay? Or will he confront the same fate as Saddam Hussein and Moammar Gadhafi? Pyongyang, Beijing, and Moscow argue that regime change is what the nuclear program is designed to deter -- this even though North Koreas nuclear program was underway years before the events in Iraq and Libya.

As Tillerson saw it, the administrations choice came down to regime change and the likelihood of nuclear war, or regime security and denuclearization. Tillerson was willing to resolve the strategic and moral dilemma by opting for the latter and leaving the fate of the North Korean people to the indeterminate future.

With a new secretary who is in sync with the presidents high-profile emphasis on North Koreas human rights abuses, it will be difficult for the administration simply to back off and adopt Tillersons live-and-let-live approach. A denuclearized but still cruelly despotic regime in Pyongyang will continue to rankle.

It seems highly likely that the president and his new foreign policy advisor will demand more from Pyongyang. What that will mean can be discerned from the words of a North Korean escapee the President quoted in his speech to the South Korean National Assembly. The woman said: When I think about it now, I was not a human being. I was more like an animal. Only after leaving North Korea did I realize what life was supposed to be.

The treatment of the North Korean people by three generations of the Kim regime can be fully expressed in one word: dehumanization. Beyond denuclearization, then, the Trump administration will demand, if not regime change, at least changed regime behavior. The rehumanization of the North Korean people will require a minimal level of decent treatment and respect for their basic human rights, even if it initially falls short of the standards set down in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The Pyongyang regime, as well as its Chinese and Russian supporters, will recognize the risk in such a reform move: they will see a slippery slope with ever-expanding demands for political participation which, if granted, could spell the eventual end of the Kim family dynasty.

The Trump administration is likely to offer cooperation with China to ease the long-term transition to a semblance of governing normalcy. Whether Xi Jinping will go along with such a liberalizing process remains to be seen. U.S. officials used to say they could live with a North Korea that is more like China. Unfortunately, Xis expanding power and his control over communications, and even thought, is paving the way to make China look more like North Korea.
At the Epps Bridge Cook Out, the traditional menu has been tinkered with ever so slightly. Will Rowe, a manager at the restaurant, said that t
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Teuta Kokona did not know her boyfriend of eight years, Jurgen Basho, planned to propose on their dream trip to San Francisco this week.

Kokona discovered her partner's plans just one hour into their visit. She did not find the engagement ring  a 1.3-carat oval diamond stunner  in Basho's luggage because someone else found it first. A thief smashed their car rental's window and pilfered the bag that held the ring.

The couple, from St. Clair Shores, Mich., landed at Oakland International Airport on Monday morning. Their first stop was In-N-Out.

"Obviously I wanted to try In-N-Out for the first time," Kokona told KTVU.

RELATED: His $6,000 in violins were stolen from car in Alamo Square. Here's how he got them back.

While waiting in line to order, near the Oakland Coliseum off Interstate 880, Basho watched the break-in happen before his eyes. A man busted their rental car's window, reached an arm into vehicle and pulled out a backpack. Then he moved on to the next vehicle.

Inside the stolen backpack was the ring, which Basho planned to present to his girlfriend on the Golden Gate Bridge later in the week.

After the couple called 911, an Oakland police officer arrived at the scene and told them to file an online report. A sign posted outside the restaurant warns drivers not to leave "valuables visible" in their vehicles.

RELATED: How to prevent car break-ins? Signs suggest 'angry bees'

"I don't think they care or care enough to make a big deal out of it because they know it happens all the time," Kokona told KTVU.

Kokona told KTVU she had tried on an engagement ring weeks ago, but had no idea Basho planned to propose. Plus, the stolen ring was bigger than the one she liked.

The couple are determined to make the most out of their trip. They'll spend a few nights in Yosemite before celebrating their anniversary in San Francisco. On Saturday, they fly home.

The Michigan pair's story is an all-too-familiar one in the Bay Area, where tourist-targeted smash-and-grabs are rampant. In San Francisco, car break-ins occur at an average rate of three per hour. Despite police efforts, break-ins skyrocketed by 26 percent in the city over the past year.

Michelle Robertson is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at mrobertson@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @mrobertsonsf.
A whistle-blower is accusing some key financial regulators of allowing sensitive broker information to become readily accessible, even as industry watchdogs emphasized the need for companies to protect client data.

According to a complaint lodged with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, personal data such as brokerage account numbers provided to an industry-funded regulator have long been easily accessible online. Separately, Social Security numbers and other information meant to be kept private also was made publicly accessible by state regulators for years up until 2015, according to the complaint, which was reviewed by Bloomberg News.

At issue is material on brokers and their firms gathered by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and other regulators to help clients keep tabs on the people handling their money. To spot potential red flags, the SEC encourages investors to search the data that's housed in the sprawling Central Registration Depository of more than 3,700 broker-dealers and hundreds of thousands of people authorized to work in the securities industry.

Some of that information, which is used in Finra's BrokerCheck online portal and passed on to state authorities, has been mishandled, said the whistle-blower who asked not to be identified in discussing the allegations for fear of reprisals.

While both Finra and the North American Securities Administrators Association acknowledged past problems in a response to questions from Bloomberg News, they dispute any contention that they've been negligent in efforts to clean up the disclosures.

The issues shed light on the massive back-office systems maintained by regulators and the difficulty of keeping the sensitive information in them private. There is so much data that Finra has a team of more than 30 people who review filings and runs hundreds of automated queries to look for information that shouldn't be made public.

"They're sitting on top of an even larger amount of private data than the firms they regulate," said Donald Langevoort, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington. "There is an immense amount of cynicism about the ability of any institution public or private to do a good job at safeguarding privacy."

Concern over financial regulators' ability to safeguard data led to congressional hearings last year after the SEC revealed that hackers broke into its corporate filing system and accessed two people's names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers. That disclosure followed a massive breach at Equifax Inc. that may have led to the theft of personal data on about 150 million Americans.

Finra notes that unlike the Equifax and SEC intrusions, there's no indication that the posting of broker data resulted from a hack.

"There has been no unauthorized access, hack or breach of BrokerCheck or the registration systems on which it is based," Finra Spokesman Ray Pellecchia said in a statement. The organization "is constantly enhancing our controls to better prevent or more rapidly address the isolated incidents where sensitive information is inadvertently entered by a non-Finra filer."

Regulators said the problem stemmed from some firms and brokers including more information than they should have on registration forms. Some sensitive material reached the web because Finra's filters failed to catch it.

As recently as January, dozens of profiles available on websites run by Finra included account numbers and other sensitive data, including in one online portal on the SEC's website that lets people look up their investment advisers.

SEC spokesman Chris Carofine declined to comment.

Finra said it sent financial firms and professionals a reminder to enter only requested information, after Bloomberg News asked about the issue. The regulator also said it has stepped up reviews of data available through its BrokerCheck system.

The moves appear to have had an impact. Almost all of the sensitive information available in files on brokers and advisers reviewed by Bloomberg since November have been scrubbed.

Some examples of data that were until recently available include: the name, address and account information of a Wisconsin church where a Scottrade broker was acting as treasurer; the account number for a trust on which a Morgan Stanley money manager was supposed to be serving; and the account information, name and address of the widowed mother-in-law of a Prudential Financial Inc. investment adviser.

While only a small fraction of the hundreds of thousands of registered professionals appear to have been affected, there's no easy way to fully search the data available in BrokerCheck. Information available on the web portals is also gathered by the states where brokers and investment advisers are licensed.

Joseph Brady, executive director of the North American Securities Administrators Association, urged filers to include private information only when it's requested.

"We are concerned to hear of current and isolated instances in which some potentially sensitive information, such as account numbers, may be disclosed inadvertently," he said. "NASAA continues its long-standing commitment with Finra and the SEC on efforts to mitigate any such instances."

In a separate problem, state regulators inadvertently made hundreds of people's Social Security Numbers available for multiple years until 2015, according to the whistle-blower.

Finra alerted NASAA after learning that the information was made publicly available.

"State securities regulators worked diligently to identify the individuals whose information may have been disclosed inadvertently and sent notification letters to these individuals,'' NASAA's Brady said. "The purpose of this outreach was to encourage the associations to reach out to firms about the importance of reviewing registration forms, to be mindful of how they disclose personal information, and especially not to add unsolicited personal or sensitive information on the forms when it is not required.''

Judging by the personal data that was recently available in online profiles, it appears more than two years later some brokers and firms still haven't gotten the message.
As anxiety and depression among college students soars, universities in Connecticut and nationally are expanding their mental health counseling, even offering courses that address mental well-being.

A new national report from the Center for Collegiate Mental Health at Penn State found anxiety and depression were the top concerns of students seeking counseling services, and self-harm behaviors have risen for the seventh year in a row. In another survey, 57 percent of directors of college counseling services said the severity of student mental health concerns increased between 2015 and 2016. And according to a National College Health Assessment survey, 9.1 percent of college students reported being diagnosed in the last year with a psychiatric condition.

We have seen an increase this fall compared to last fall of almost 30 percent in students requesting to be seen by our counseling service, said Kerry Patton, director of health and wellness at Quinnipiac University. Over the last few years, anxiety has surpassed depression as the most common reason students at Quinnipiac are seeking counseling services.

At the University of Connecticut, the number of students who have visited counseling services nearly doubled in the last year, jumping from 1,563 in the 2015-2016 term to 2,831 in the 2016-2017 term. We are a very popular office, said Elizabeth J. Cracco, Ph.D., the director of counseling and mental health services at UConn.

Mental illness can be especially challenging for college students, who are suddenly on their own and often far away from their support system of family and friends. It can affect not only their well-being and social life, but their academics. According to the NCHA study, 24 percent of students reported that anxiety affected their academic performance, leading to a lower grade on an exam or project or for the entire course, or receiving an incomplete or dropping the course completely.

Mental health experts have pointed to a number of factors that may be causing the uptick in mental health issues, with social media use and overprotective parenting high on the list.

There is a theory that the amount of time students are spending with technology and reduced amount of time with peers hanging out has increased the amount of anxiety theyre experiencing, said Cracco. Social anxiety is the top type of anxiety UConn students report.

Social media has become another way of being excluded, said Peter Chlebogiannis, a student at Quinnipiac, who formed a National Alliance of Mental Illness club on campus.

Students struggle because they feel socially obligated to go out and post pictures of themselves on Instagram, and that pressure can be intense, he said.

During her first semester at the University of Connecticut, Kate Sanders, 21, of Farmington, barely left her dorm room. Though she had suffered from anxiety and depression in high school, it had been under control. But the transition to a large college knocked her off her feet.

I basically had a resurgence of horrible anxiety and depression. I didnt have my high school friendships to fall back on, and it was hard for me to form new relationships, she said.

Her depression and anxiety began to lift second semester, with the help of an on-campus job, which forced her to leave her dorm room, and accommodations from her professors.

Social media also exacerbated Sanders loneliness. I think a lot of people make it look like theyre never lonely on social media, she said. That made her wonder why she was the only one not adjusting well.

Experts are also finding that in general students are less resilient than past generations. They are less able to cope with disappointments, manage stressors like the workload, or cope with change. Compounding that problem are the increasing academic pressures.

Theres a lot of pressure at the university level to perform at their best, to compete in an environment where so many other kids are perceived as being smarter or having greater opportunities than them, said Marc Brackett, Ph.D., director, Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence.

The juxtaposition of the pressure to succeed, which seems to be greater and greater, coupled with being socially isolated because of technology, is hurting students, he said.

That led Yale psychology professor Laurie Santos to create a course called Psychology and the Good Life, which this fall had 1,200 students or nearly one-quarter of Yale undergrads enrolled.

As a professor and head of college here, I learned that college students are often more stressed out and anxious than people think, said Santos. I wanted to develop a course that could teach students concrete strategies on how to be a little happier and less stressed.

The course, called The Science of Well Being, will be available online at Coursera beginning this month, Yale announced.

Getting help

In fact, many students suffering from mental health issues dont get the help they need. A 2014 study of Yale Law School students found only 50 percent of students who considered seeking clinical treatment for mental health issues followed through. Common reasons for not seeking treatment were distrust of Yale Healths quality of service, excessive wait times, confidentiality policies, as well as general distrust of the value of therapy.

Cultural and family values can also make students hesitate to seek help. I know students who worry about disappointing their parents or convince themselves that theyre being dramatic, said Chlebogiannis.

For students who do seek help, many colleges do not have enough resources to handle the caseload. About 42 percent of college counseling center directors say they increased the number of full-time staff between 2015 and 2016. Still many centers dont offer psychiatric services on campus. According to the survey, only 64 percent said they did, up from 55 percent the year before. The majority of directors said their number of psychiatric hours available for students did not meet the needs of students.

Were always able to address emergencies, but sometimes that could cause wait lists for non-emergencies, says Quinnipiacs Patton. Wait time could be up to two weeks.

At Fairfield University, there are six full-time mental health clinicians, three part-time clinicians and two part-time psychiatrists for a student population of 4,000. We want to make sure students can make an appointment and not have a long wait time, says Karen Donoghue, dean of students at Fairfield.

UConn is working on creative ways to reach more students with less staff, including group counseling that focuses on mindfulness and teaching skills for coping with anxiety.

We need to do a better job preparing students adequately for college, said Yales Brackett. When kids get their acceptance letter, they think, Im going to be the happiest person in the world. Theyre not thinking of the reality, having a new roommate, the social pressures, the academics, he said.

Laurie Tarkan is a Conn. Health I-Team writer. This story was reported under a partnership with the Connecticut Health I-Team (c-hit.org).
Journal Register Co.

TORRINGTON  The Board of Education met Tuesday for discussion concerning the employment of a central office administrator, and voted, after an executive session, to approve the proposed draft agreement concerning the employment of a central officer administrator.

The rationale for the evenings discussion and proposed agreement was left unclear, and the name of the employee was never spoken aloud.
Being a 911 dispatcher might be harrowing most of the time, but it also provides moments of levity.

Especially on Thanksgiving.

In a recent Reddit thread asking 911 dispatchers for "some of the dumbest calls you've gotten," one user related the classic "emergency" call they always get on turkey day.

"Every Thanksgiving you'll always get the person who calls because they don't know how long to cook a turkey," they replied. "Never fails."

The user also added that "someone always puts a frozen turkey in a deep fryer," causing a house fire.

MORE: Redditors who went on reality TV shows reveal how real (or fake) they were

FYI for the confused cooks out there: There's another place to call for turkey problems. Butterball's turkey hotline, in operation since 1981, is the appropriate place to direct your queries.

ALSO: In-N-Out worker shares cult burger chain's secrets, tips

But fowl mishaps are the least of 911 dispatchers' strange stories: Click through the gallery above to read the weird and funny calls dispatchers have received over the years. (Note: Some stories have been edited for punctuation and grammar.)




Guwahati, March 28 : Assam police has arrested five more government officers in connection with Cash-for-Job scam of Assam Public Service Commission (APSC).





According to the reports, the Dibrugarh police investigated the case had arrested four government officers from different parts of the state on Tuesday night and one officer on Wednesday morning.





Among the arrested government officers one is Assam Civil Service (ACS officer and one is Assam Police Service (APS) officer.





Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) of Dibrugarh district Surajit Sing Panesar said that, the investigating team had arrested the government officers for their alleged involvement in the scam.





The arrested officers are  Rituraj Gogoi (Circle officer, Dhakuakhana), Kaushik Kalita (Deputy Superintendent of Police, 26 IR Battalion, Salmara), Abhishek Borbora (Excise Inspector, Rongia), Satyajit Sarkar (Assistant Employment Officer, Majuli) and Barnali Devi (Tax Inspector, Nalbari).





Meanwhile, police has interrogated them at Assam Police Special Branch headquarter at Kahilipara in Guwahati.





Earlier, the Dibrugarh police had arrested 27 government officers in connection with the scam.





In this month, the Assam government had suspended ACS officer Avisika Baruah, who served as circle officer in Nazira in Sivsagar district in connection with the scam.





The government order said that, perused the report submitted by the Superintendent of Police, Dibrugarh vide letter No.RB/1147 on March 14, 2018 in connection with the Dibrugarh Police Station case no 936/16, it is reported that, Avisika Baruah has become approver in the case and her statement has been recorded U/S 161 CrPC.





In her statement Avisika Baruah has made disclosure of her inculpatory and exculpatory acts. This prima facie shows her involvement in a criminal conspiracy, said in the government order.





Earlier, Assam government had suspended 24 officers of Assam Civil Service (ACS), Assam Police Service (APS) and other allied services and sacked 3 other ACS officers, who were arrested by the Dibrugarh police in connection with the cash-for-job scam.





On February 7 last, Dibrugarh police had grilled nine more government officials of Assam Civil Service (ACS), Assam Police Service (APS) and other allied service in conection with the scam of Assam Public Service Commission (APSC) in Guwahati.





The investigating team of Dibrugarh Police had interrogated the government officers at Assam Police Special Branch (SB) headquarter at Kahilipara in Guwahati for several hours.





All nine government officers were asked to write up paragraphs in different subjects and the investigating team had taken signature samples of the officers.





The government officials who were appeared before the investigating team are  Avisikha Baruah (ACS), Rituraj Gogoi (ACS), Joydev Mahanta (ACS), Kaushik Kalita (APS), Sanjan Phukan (ACS), Debabrata Dey (APS), Satyajit Sarkar (Assistant Employment Officer) and Abhishek Borbora (Inspector of Excise).





We have already identified few more officials after receiving the forensic report and would likely to be asked them to appear before the investigating team, the top police official said.





The top official of Assam police said that, apart from it, police had also identified at least 12 middlemen for their involvement in the cash-for-job scam.





Sacked chairman of APSC Rakesh Pauls brother Rajib Paul, Sudip Das, Mrigen Saikia and Mofidul Islam are among the middlemen, who are presently absconding.





The entire scam has been came to light after, Dibrugarh police had arrested an engineer named Naba Kanta Patir from Upper Assams Dibrugarh district after they caught him red handed while accepting a bribe of Rs 10 lakh from a lady doctor to provide a secured government job on October 27 in 2016.





Following the incident, Dibrugarh police had registered a case and arrested then chairman of APSC Rakesh Paul from Guwahati and later arrested few more persons including former members of APSC Samedur Rahman, Basanta Doley, Pabitra Kaiborta, Musharaf Hussain, Mabud Ali Choudhury, three ACS officers Bhaskarjyoti Dev Sharma, Bhaskar Dutta and Amit Sharma.





On August 31 last year, the Gauhati High Court had granted bail to 10 accused persons including three Assam Civil Service (ACS) officials, who were arrested in connection with the cash-for-job scam of Assam Public Service Commission (APSC).




A recent unofficial visit to China by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, in which he met with President Xi Jinping, was a diplomatic coup for the isolated Stalinist state ahead of a planned meeting between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump, Chinese experts told RFA.



Chinese state news agency Xinhua devoted thousands of words to the meeting between the two heads of state, while reporting it as an "unofficial" visit.



"Xi Jinping held talks with Kim Jong Un at the Great Hall of the People ... [President Xi] and his wife Peng Liyuan held a welcome banquet for Chairman Kim Jong Un and his wife Ri Sol Ju, and they jointly watched a cultural performance," Xinhua reported.



The events were also attended by premier Li Keqiang, Xi's right-hand man Wang Qishan and Politburo standing committee member Wang Huning, it said.



Kim told Xi that he had come to offer "a timely, face-to-face briefing" on events on the Korean Peninsula, which he said were "moving forward rapidly and seeing many major changes," Xinhua reported.



Xi told Kim that his visit to China came "at a special time and carries major significance," placing great importance on the bilateral relationship, the agency said.



He said the special relationship between the two long-time allies was "the only correct choice, and it should not and will not change temporarily as a result of a single incident," without elaborating.



Xi said he would be willing to keep up the relationship by exchanging visits, special envoys, and letters, and deploy the "traditional magic weapon of strategic communication."



"I hope to have the opportunity to meet with the Comrade General Secretary often in the future," Kim reportedly replied, saying he hoped to take bilateral ties "to a new level."



A diplomatic victory



A political commentator with expertise on Beijing-Pyongyang ties said the ruling Chinese Communist Party rarely welcomes North Korean leaders with such public fanfare.



"China actually invited him over, which is a diplomatic victory [for North Korea]," the analyst, who gave only his surname Xiao, told RFA.



He compared the visit to that of Kim's father Kim Jong Il to China in May 2011, who also used a special train to travel to Beijing via Dandong.



During that visit, he met with then-President Hu Jintao, premier Wen Jiabao, and Xi, who was vice president at the time, Xiao said.



"When Kim's father used to visit China, it was never reported in such a way," he said. "Kim Jong Il went to a few places in China, including Shenzhen and the northeast, but there was never this much ceremony involved," he said. "It was never accorded such a high-level protocol."



Beijing-based political commentator Zha Jianguo said talks between Xi and Kim would likely have revolved around the question of North Korea's nuclear weapons program and other strategic issues.



"The core issue would be the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, while two strategic issues might be military disarmament and strategic talks about the three main sides that are involved," Zha said.



"The three sides are North Korea, with the U.S. and Japan on one side and China and Russia on the other," he said. "China and Russia appear to take a neutral stance, but in fact they are slightly more on the side of North Korea."



Looking for support



Zha said North Korea is highly unlikely to respond to U.S. demands that it end its nuclear weapons program.



"If Kim Jong Un is visiting China, it probably means that he is looking for support from Beijing," Zha said. "Kim is under huge pressure, now that he has extended this olive branch of talks [with U.S. president Donald Trump]."



"He has two goals: one is to put pressure on the alliance between the U.S. and South Korea, and the other is to play for time until his nuclear missiles have been fully developed," Zha said. "I think he came to China to try to accomplish those goals."



Hong Kong-based North Korea expert Steve Chung said Pyongyang now needs Beijing's support more than ever.



"Right now there isn't a single country that takes the same view as Pyongyang, and is willing to protect its interests," Chung said.



"Kim Jong Un's visit to China will at the very least ensure that he has heard Beijing's opinion, and wins their tacit support [ahead of his meeting with Trump.]"



'A pretty farce'



But a Guizhou-based political analyst surnamed Zhao said the meeting between Xi and Kim was largely a political performance, and might not mean much in terms of substance.



"It was nothing but a petty farce," Zhao said. "The wolf will walk 1,000 miles to eat meat, while a dog will go 1,000 miles to eat dung."



"They are putting on a show for the outside world, but both parties think they embody the purest form of socialism and communism. Really we're looking at two leaders who have been isolated meeting together," he said.



"The whole world knows what they're really all about."



President Trump has agreed to meet with Kim Jong Un in what would mark the first summit between the two countries heads of state since the end of the Korean War nearly 65 years ago.



The decision to hold talks with Kim was announced by the White House on March 9, 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.



Trump said he would meet Kim by May, "to achieve permanent denuclearization" of the Korean Peninsula. A time and place for the talks have yet to be determined, however.



Reported by Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by Wen Yuqing for the Cantonese Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
A court in Myanmars former capital Yangon today handed a former child soldier a prison term of two years at hard labor following his conviction for describing his abduction and forced military service in an interview last year with RFAs Myanmar Service.



Aung Ko Htway, 27, who spent nearly a decade as a child soldier, was sentenced under Section 505(b) of the countrys Penal Code, pertaining to making, publishing, or circulating information that may cause public fear or alarm and incite people to commit offenses against the state or disturb public tranquility.



Speaking to reporters outside the court following his sentencing, Aung Ko Htway assailed his conviction.



My rights have been violated. We have no rule of law in this country, he said as he was taken away in shackles by police.



A new charge against Aung Ko Htway alleging desecration of Myanmars Union Seal has now been filed following an act of protest in which the former child soldier stepped on a copy of Myanmars military-drafted 2008 Constitution during a previous court hearing.



Questioned by reporters after the trial, Police Major Maung Maung of the Dagon Seikkan township police station, who filed the additional charge, struck a female reporter and the defendants sister and ran away, sources said.



We didnt understand this further charge against my brother, and asked for an explanation from the judge, who told us to direct our questions to Police Major Maung Maung, Aung Ko Htways sister Aye Zar Win said.



But not only did [Maung Maung] refuse to answer us, he also hit me, and I fell down, Aye Zar Win said, adding, I am going to sue him.



Aung Zaw Oo, a supporter of the defendant and also present at the scene, confirmed the womans account.



When reporters tried to interview the police major, he aggressively tried to avoid the interview and ran away after hitting a female reporter and Aung Ko Htways sister. I saw this with my own eyes, he said.



Abducted at 14



Aung Ko Htway was abducted by a Myanmar army sergeant in 2005 when he was 14 years old and later imprisoned after he and two others escaped and robbed the owner of a motorcycle. One of the other boys choked the man to death, though Aung Ko Htway later said he did not participate in the murder.



Aung Ko Htway served seven months at a prison camp in Lashio, the largest town in Myanmars northern Shan state, where he was shackled and fed a mixture of rice and sand until he agreed to sign a confession.



Originally sentenced to death, Aung Ko Htway later had his sentence reduced twice under presidential amnesties. He was finally released on July 15, 2017, and returned home where he started a

business with his sisters help selling cotton clothing in Kalawae village in Yangon regions Thanlyin township.



Interviewed about his experiences by RFA in August 2017, he was arrested about a week after his story aired.



The Myanmar army has discharged 849 children and young people from its ranks since 2012, when the country signed an agreement with the United Nations to stop recruiting children under 18.



The U.N., however, continues to list the Myanmar military and seven ethnic armed groups on its blacklist of organizations around the world that recruit and use child soldiers.



Reported by Wai Mar Tun for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Richard Finney.
Myanmar's State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi (R) and Vice President Win Myint (L) attend a parliamentary session in Naypyidaw where lawmakers elected Win Myint as the country's next president, March 28, 2018.

Myanmar lawmakers on Wednesday elected close Aung San Suu Kyi ally and former parliamentary speaker Win Myint as the countrys tenth president since it gained independence in 1948, and the second to serve under the current National League for Democracy government.

Win Myint won 403 of 636 votes, more than former President Htin Kyaw who received 360 of 652 votes in 2016. Htin Kyaw stepped down on March 21 to "take a rest" from politics.

The two current vice presidents  Myint Swe, a former lieutenant general and acting president, and Henry Van Thio, an ethnic Chin  received 211 and 18 votes, respectively, during the balloting which was observed by State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and several government ministers.

Win Myint, who was tipped for the largely ceremonial position, will be sworn in on Friday, the second anniversary of the coming to power of the NLD, whose lawmakers hold 387 seats in parliament.

He was elected one of three vice presidents on March 23, putting him in a position to become the second president of the countrys nearly two-year-old civilian government.

Some observers believe that Win Myint, a political prisoner under a previous junta-led regime, will be more assertive and exercise more power than his predecessor, who was seen as a proxy president for State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Nobel laureate, who also serves as foreign affairs minister and oversees Myanmars stalled peace process, will continue to retain control over the countrys political affairs, however.

Though Aung San Suu Kyis NLD party won general elections in November 2015 by a landslide, the constitution barred her from becoming president, because her late husband was a foreign national, as are her two sons. Instead, she stepped into the newly created position of state counselor so she could be above the president.

Nyo Lwin Oo, a deputy judge from Maungdaw district in western Myanmars Rakhine state, cited Win Myints experience as speaker of the lower house, as a positive factor in bringing about change.

I hope he can lead the country well as he has had experience as an MP and former lower house speaker, he told RFAs Myanmar Service. I hope he can do more to improve the judicial system and rule of law because he has a legal background.

I welcome his election with the expectation that we will have a better situation in the country when he serves as president, he said.

Tun Myint, the Yangon region health director at Myanmars Ministry of Health, echoed Nyo Lwin Oos opinion of Win Myint, who was known for his hard-working and strict demeanor as house speaker.

I believe that our countrys democratic development and federal process will move faster than before when Win Myint serves as president, he said. Because he has been talking about corruption in parliament, he will work arduously on anti-corruption efforts. I also hope our health sector will get better when he becomes president.



He can lead the country

Aung Aung Min, deputy director general of the Department of Higher Education under the Ministry of Education, praised Win Myints performance as lower house speaker.

Whenever he needed to, he clearly instructed his MPs and carried out tasks according to the rules and the law in parliament, he said. The cooperation between parliament and the Ministry of Education has been good [since the NLD government came to power].

We will have a better relationship between the government and the Ministry of Education when he serves as president, Aung Aung Min said.

Poet Maung Lin Yeik noted Win Myints leadership abilities.

He has been working with the NLD as a politician since the 1990 election, he said. He was elected president because the MPs believe he can lead the country. I believe it as well.

Win Myint, 66, was born in in Nyaung Chaung village in Ayeyarwady regions Danubyu township. He was educated as a lawyer and served as an advocate in Myanmars High Court.

He was briefly imprisoned by the military junta during the 1988 pro-democracy uprising which led to the formation of the NLD, but went on to win a parliamentary seat in the 1990 elections, though the results were nullified by the military regime.

Win Myint became a member of the NLDs Central Executive Committee in 2010 and won a parliamentary seat in by-elections in 2012.

He also won elections in 2015 as an MP representing Yangon's Tamwe township and was appointed speaker of the lower house in February 2016.

Reported by Win Ko Ko Latt and Khet Mar for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.




Guwahati : The troops of Assam Rifles had apprehended six Naga militants including five belonging to NSCN-IM in Nagaland on Monday (March 26) evening, officials said on Tuesday.





According to the reports, the Jalukie battalion of Assam Rifles under the aegis of HQ IGAR North) conducted an operation based on the specific information regarding of presence of armed militants at Itangki area near Athibung.





During the operation, troops of Assam Rifles had apprehended five armed NSCN-IM militants in illegal possession of weapons.





A top official of Assam Rifles said that the movement of armed militant is in violation of agreed Ceasefire Ground Rules.





The apprehendees were identified as Self Styled Maj Hanger Walling, SS Capt Nito Chishi, SS Lt Isak Sumi, Wishing Awoishinh and Kheka Sumi of NSCN-IM.





Security personnel had recovered two 12 Bore Rifles, one point 22 mm Rifle, 16 live roubds of 12 Bore Rifle, 37 live rounds of point 22 mm Rifle and six detonators.





The Apprehendees alongwith recovered items were handed over to Athibung Police Station for further investigation.





On the other hand, the Tuensang battalion of Assam Rifles had established mobile vehicle check post based on specific inputs about the movement of NSCN-K militant on Tuensang  Kuthur road.





During the search of a suspected TATA 407 vehicle , one individual was apprehended alongwith one point 22 pistol with magazine, 14 live rounds and 31 SP capsule.





The apprehended individual was identified as Self Styled Lt Kiu Khum of NSCN-K.





The apprehendee alongwith the recovered items was handed over to Police Station, Tuensang for further investigation.




Well, here's a little something that slipped below the radar while most of our attention was focused on the dramatic transatlantic mass expulsions of Russian diplomats this week.

Germany's maritime authority yesterday gave the final go-ahead for the portion of the Nord Stream-2 pipeline that passes through that country's territorial waters.

The juxtaposition is revealing.

On one hand, we just saw 24 countries expel more than 100 Russian diplomats, an act the pro-Kremlin daily Izvestia denounced as a "flash mob."

And on the other, we have one of those countries -- a pretty important one at that -- taking a business-as-usual approach when it comes to a lucrative energy deal like Nord Stream.

Sure, the expulsions in retaliation for the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in the U.K. were attention-grabbing and headline-grabbing.

And sure, the coordinated transatlantic approach made for strong messaging.

But as former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Michael Carpenter said on the BBC yesterday, "Russia will continue with its aggressive behavior until it feels that the consequences and the costs are strong and exceed the benefits, and so far that's not been the case."

And making the costs outweigh the benefits, Carpenter added, would require stronger financial sanctions, stronger defense-sector sanctions, and, yes, stronger energy sanctions.

So the West essentially sent two messages to the Kremlin this week.

It sent one message saying that poisoning a U.K. citizen with a nerve agent on U.K. territory is unacceptable.

And it sent another message saying that despite this being unacceptable, we can continue to do business together.

Keep telling me what you think on The Power Vertical's Twitter feed and on our Facebook page.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps has rejected Saudi Arabia's accusation that it supplied missiles to Yemen's Huthi rebels that were used in attacks on the kingdom.

"The aim of such claims by Saudi Arabia is to divert public opinion from the atrocities [they] are committing in Yemen," Yadollah Javani, a political officer for the guards, was quoted as saying by Iran's Tasnim news agency on March 27.

A Saudi-led coalition that backs the Yemeni government in its civil war against the Huthis on March 26 accused Tehran of supplying seven missiles that struck the kingdom over the weekend, killing one man in Riyadh and injuring three others.

A coalition spokesman said that "we reserve the right to respond against Iran at the right time and right place" over the missile strikes.

"The Saudis have committed large-scale atrocities and attacked the oppressed nation of Yemen during the last two and three years with the help of Americans, the Zionists, and some regional reactionary states," Javani said.

"Therefore...they raise claims, including accusing Iran of sending weapons to the nation of Yemen," he said.

Javani maintained it was impossible to send weapons to Yemen due to a blockade imposed by the Saudi-led coalition on Yemeni ports since last year.

"The reality is that the nation of Yemen is standing up to Saudi aggression and has managed to build defense tools by relying on its own capabilities, including missile power, and this is the very thing Saudi Arabia never imagined," Javani said.

Based on reporting by AFP and Reuters
Russia's poisoning of a former spy in Britain is part of a Kremlin strategy to divide the West by conducting covert operations and then fomenting doubt and disagreement over who's responsible, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has said.

A day after more than two dozen governments around the world announced the explusion of 144 diplomats over the poisoning, Mattis told reporters in Washington on March 27 that Russian President Vladimir Putin's denials of responsibility for what he called the "attempted murder" of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury cannot be taken seriously.

Mattis said the Salisbury incident involved the "pretty obvious" use of a "weapon of mass destruction," which the British government has identified as the military-grade nerve agent Novichok, developed by Russia during the Cold War.

It was part of a pattern seen in Russia's actions, Mattis said, starting in Ukraine in 2014, where he said Moscow sent armed men without insignias into Crimea and has provided fighters and weapons under cover to Ukrainian separatists.

Mattis said Russia's subterfuge continued through covert efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

"They take the insignia off soldiers' uniforms and they go into Crimea. They say they have nothing to do with what's going on with the separatists in eastern Ukraine," Mattis added.

"I'm not sure how they can say that with a straight face," he said, but "they're doing things that they believe are deniable."

"And so they're trying to break the unity of the Western alliance, NATO," he said, by promoting doubt and disputes over who is responsible.

NATO joined more than two dozen governments in putting up a united front to reject the Russian tactics on March 27. The total of 144 in announced expulsions of Russian staff from embassies and missions worlwide dwarfed similar measures taken during Cold War spying disputes.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the expulsions would send a message to Russia that there are "costs and consequences for their unacceptable pattern of behavior."

British leaders hailed the sweeping moves as a potential "turning point," while Russia asserted that it was the result of "colossal" pressure by the United States and vowed to respond.

"Never before have so many countries come together to expel Russian diplomats," British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson wrote in The Times, calling it "a "blow from which Russian intelligence will need many years to recover."

"The Western alliance took decisive action...against the Kremlin's reckless ambitions," and its tactics of disinformation and denial, he wrote.

"There was a time when this tactic of sowing doubt might have been effective, but no one is fooled any more. I believe yesterday was a moment when the cynicism of the propaganda machine was exposed for all to see," Johnson said.

Stoltenberg said NATO would remain "open to dialogue" with Russia and Mattis said Russia still "has the potential to be a partner with Europe."

But the Pentagon chief added that Moscow instead "has chosen to be a strategic competitor, even to the point of reckless activity."

With reporting by AP, AFP, Reuters, dpa, and The Times
Gunmen riding on a motorcycle have shot and killed a transgender woman and her friend in Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar, police say.

The two were targeted as they traveled in a rickshaw late on March 27 and the motive for the killing was unknown, police officer Mohammad Tahir said.

Dozens of transgender people have been killed in recent years, mainly in the conservative Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, of which Peshawar is the capital.

The Trans Action Alliance, a local rights group, says 55 have been killed there over the past three years.

No one has claimed the killings, but Islamic extremists who associate transgender people with prostitution are active in the region.

Based on reporting by AP and Dawn
The head of a regional office of one of Russia's biggest human rights group has been beaten up in an attack condemned by Amnesty International and that the group, Memorial, said was linked to his work.

In a statement, Memorial said Sirazhutdin Datsiyev, who manages its office in Daghestan, had been struck hard on the back of the head with an unidentified object by an attacker shortly after leaving his home in the city of Makhachkala on March 28.

It quoted a witness as saying his attacker had jumped out of a car with tinted windows.

"We consider that the attack on Sirazhutdin Datsiyev was linked to his professional activity, Memorial said, adding the police were looking into the incident.

Amnesty International said it was just the latest in a string of attacks targeting individuals associated with the human rights group.

"This ferocious attack continues the string of assaults on the staff and property of Human Rights Center Memorial in the North Caucasus. The frequency and severity of these assaults, and the total impunity for those who commit them, point to the Russian authorities negligence and begs the question of their possible complicity," said Denis Krivosheyev, deputy director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia at Amnesty International.

The attack took place two months after a car belonging to Memorial's Daghestan office was torched by unknown attackers.

Moscow-based Memorial called that "an arson attack" and part of a "terror" campaign to chase the respected rights group out of the North Caucasus following the arrest of Oyub Titiyev, the chief of Memorial's office in another North Caucasus region, Chechnya

Titiyev was detained on January 9 by police who said they found marijuana in his car. Titiyev and Memorial said the drugs were planted.

Eight days after Titiyev's arrest, Memorial's office in the neighboring Ingushetia region was torched by unknown assailants.

Oleg Orlov, a leading member of Memorial, called the attacks targeting his group in Chechnya, Ingushetia, and Daghestan "parts of the same chain," adding that the organizers of the attacks "must be sought in the Chechen Republic."

Western governments and international organizations have voiced concern about Titiyev's case and called for his release.

The Kremlin-backed leader of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, called Titiyev a "drug addict" and branded all human rights defenders "people without kinship, ethnicity, and religion."
British police said they believe former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter likely first came into contact with a military-grade nerve agent at their front door.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Dean Haydon said in a statement late on March 28 thatpolice are now focusing their investigation in and around Skripal's home.

London's Metropolitan Police said on March 28 that they have "identified the highest concentration of the nerve agent, to-date, as being on the front door of the address."

It's the first time British police have suggested where the Skripals could have been poisoned. Police have also searched a variety of sites around the southern English city of Salisbury, including a pub, a restaurant and a cemetery.

Ties between London and Moscow are badly strained by the poisoning of Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, who remain in critical condition after being exposed to a powerful nerve toxin in Salisbury on March 4.

Britain blames Russia for the poisoning, triggering a diplomatic dispute between Moscow and Western countries.

Russia has called on Britain to prove it did not poison Skripal, saying that unless it sees proof it will consider the incident an attempt on the lives of Russian citizens.

"An analysis of all the circumstances...leads us to think of the possible involvement of the British intelligence services," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on March 28.

"If convincing evidence to the contrary is not presented to the Russian side, we will consider that we are dealing with an attempt on the lives of our fellow citizens as the result of a massive political provocation."



The statement came as more than two dozen governments around the world and the NATO military alliance are expelling Russian diplomats in response to the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal.

The expulsion of more than 150 Russians by 28 countries -- including Britain, the United States, and most members of the European Union -- dwarfs similar measures taken during Cold War spying disputes.

Montenegro on March 28 became the latest country to announce the expulsion of a Russian diplomat over the poisoning.

The government of Montenegro, which is NATO's newest member and also aspires to join the EU, said the decision was made in line with steps undertaken by its "allies and partners, the EU and NATO," and in solidarity with Britain.

Montenegro also revoked its consent for Russia's honorary consul.

Britain a day earlier hailed the mass expulsions as a "turning point," while Russia asserted that it was the result of "colossal" pressure by the United States and vowed to respond to the move.

Valentina Matviyenko, the speaker of Russia's Federation Council -- the upper house of parliament -- said on March 28 that Moscow will respond to the expulsions in kind.

"Without a doubt, Russia, as is diplomatic practice, will respond symmetrically and observe parity when it comes to the number of diplomats," she told reporters.



Asked about a response to the U.S. expulsions in particular, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that "all options are on the table."

"We should analyze the entire situation in totality, assess the degree of hostility demonstrated by the policies of Washington and London," and choose an appropriate response, Ryabkov said.

Britain ordered the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats suspected to be spies on March 14, after Moscow ignored Prime Minister Theresa May's demand for an explanation of how a military-grade nerve agent developed in the Soviet Union came to be used in England. May said at the time that there is "no alternative conclusion, other than that the Russian state was culpable for the attempted murder" of Sergei and Yulia Skripal "and for threatening the lives of other British citizens in Salisbury.

Other countries followed suit, with Washington ordering out 60 Russian diplomats suspected of being spies less than a week after President Donald Trump congratulated Putin on his reelection. Germany, France, and Poland each expelled four diplomats; the Czech Republic and Lithuania each expelled three; Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Italy each expelled two; and Belgium, Hungary, Ireland, Sweden, Croatia, Romania, Finland, Latvia, and Estonia announced they were expelling one Russian diplomat each.

Outside the EU, Canada, Australia, Ukraine, Macedonia, Moldova, and Norway also announced expulsions.



Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence officer imprisoned by Moscow after being convicted of passing on information about Russian agents in various European countries, came to Britain in a 2010 spy swap. He and his daughter were found slumped on a bench in Salisbury on March 4, a day after she arrived from Moscow to visit her father.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, the Guardian, and RIA


British police said they believe former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter likely first came into contact with a military-grade nerve agent at their front door.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Dean Haydon said in a statement late on March 28 that police are now focusing their investigation in and around Skripal's home.

London's Metropolitan Police said they have "identified the highest concentration of the nerve agent, to-date, as being on the front door of the address."

It's the first time British police have suggested where the Skripals could have been poisoned. Police have also searched a variety of sites around the southern English city of Salisbury, including a pub, a restaurant and a cemetery.

Ties between London and Moscow are badly strained by the poisoning of Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, who remain in critical condition after being exposed to a powerful nerve toxin in Salisbury on March 4.

British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson said late on March 28 that Russia had underestimated the international response.

Johnson told an audience of ambassadors in London that 27 countries had now moved to expel Russian diplomats over Moscow's suspected involvement - which Russia denies.

"These expulsions represent a moment when a feeling has suddenly crystallised, when years of vexation and provocation have worn the collective patience to breaking point, and when across the world  across three continents  there are countries who are willing to say enough is enough," Johnson said.

Earlier, Russia called on Britain to prove that it was not in fact behind the poisoning of Skripal, saying that unless it sees proof it will consider the incident an attempt on the lives of Russian citizens.

"An analysis of all the circumstances...leads us to think of the possible involvement of the British intelligence services," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on March 28.

"If convincing evidence to the contrary is not presented to the Russian side, we will consider that we are dealing with an attempt on the lives of our fellow citizens as the result of a massive political provocation."



The statement came as more than two dozen governments around the world and the NATO military alliance are expelling Russian diplomats in response to the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal.

The expulsion of more than 150 Russians by 28 countries -- including Britain, the United States, and most members of the European Union -- dwarfs similar measures taken during Cold War spying disputes.

Montenegro on March 28 became the latest country to announce the expulsion of a Russian diplomat over the poisoning.

The government of Montenegro, which is NATO's newest member and also aspires to join the EU, said the decision was made in line with steps undertaken by its "allies and partners, the EU and NATO," and in solidarity with Britain.

Montenegro also revoked its consent for Russia's honorary consul.

Britain a day earlier hailed the mass expulsions as a "turning point," while Russia asserted that it was the result of "colossal" pressure by the United States and vowed to respond to the move.

Valentina Matviyenko, the speaker of Russia's Federation Council -- the upper house of parliament -- said on March 28 that Moscow will respond to the expulsions in kind.

"Without a doubt, Russia, as is diplomatic practice, will respond symmetrically and observe parity when it comes to the number of diplomats," she told reporters.



Asked about a response to the U.S. expulsions in particular, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that "all options are on the table."

"We should analyze the entire situation in totality, assess the degree of hostility demonstrated by the policies of Washington and London," and choose an appropriate response, Ryabkov said.

Britain ordered the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats suspected to be spies on March 14, after Moscow ignored Prime Minister Theresa May's demand for an explanation of how a military-grade nerve agent developed in the Soviet Union came to be used in England.

May said at the time that there is "no alternative conclusion, other than that the Russian state was culpable for the attempted murder" of Sergei and Yulia Skripal "and for threatening the lives of other British citizens in Salisbury.

Other countries followed suit, with Washington ordering out 60 Russian diplomats suspected of being spies less than a week after President Donald Trump congratulated Putin on his reelection.

Germany, France, and Poland each expelled four diplomats; the Czech Republic and Lithuania each expelled three; Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Italy each expelled two; and Belgium, Hungary, Ireland, Sweden, Croatia, Romania, Finland, Latvia, and Estonia announced they were expelling one Russian diplomat each.

Outside the EU, Canada, Australia, Ukraine, Macedonia, Moldova, and Norway also announced expulsions.



Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence officer imprisoned by Moscow after being convicted of passing on information about Russian agents in various European countries, came to Britain in a 2010 spy swap. He and his daughter were found slumped on a bench in Salisbury on March 4, a day after she arrived from Moscow to visit her father.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, the Guardian, and RIA
Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to hold a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump despite the expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats from the United States in response to the poisoning of a former spy in Britain, Putin's spokesman says.

"The Russian side remains open, of course," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in response to a question on March 28. He said that it "all depends on our American colleagues."

"Putin is ready and the Russian side is ready to develop mutually beneficial and mutually trusting relations with all countries, including the United States, to the extent that our opponents or partners are ready for this," Peskov said.

He said that in the wake of the White House announcement of the expulsions, the Kremlin has "no information" about whether Trump is prepared to meet with Putin.

The United States is among nearly 30 countries that ordered Russian diplomats out in response to the March 4 poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury with a nerve toxin.

Britain and other Western countries have blamed Russia, which denies involvement and has called on London to present more evidence.

Meanwhile, Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May in a phone call on March 28 discussed the need to dismantle spying networks and prevent other illegal activities by Russia in their two countries, the White House said in a statement.

"Both leaders agreed on the importance of dismantling Russia's spy networks in the United Kingdom and the United States to curtail Russian clandestine activities and prevent future chemical weapons attacks on either country's soil," it said.

After a March 20 phone call in which he congratulated Putin on his reelection, Trump told reporters that he hoped the two could meet in the "not-too-distant future" to discuss several crises around the world.

The Kremlin said in a statement following the call that "special attention was paid to working out the issue of holding a possible summit meeting."

Many of the diplomats who have been ordered out of Western countries are alleged to have been spying.

Russia responded to Britain's expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats earlier in March by ordering the same number of British diplomats to leave Russia, but has not yet taken visible measures in response to the U.S. and other expulsions.

Peskov sought to play down the coordinated expulsions by Western countries and NATO of some 150 diplomats, which dwarfed similar measures taken during Cold War espionage disputes.

"Twenty or 30 countries are just a part of the global community and it is much bigger and varied and includes many more countries," Peskov said.

With reporting by Interfax, AFP, and Reuters
A senior regional official in Siberia has doubled down on suggestions that a demonstration over a deadly shopping-mall fire that killed dozens of children was a political provocation aimed at undermining authorities.

The remarks made by Vladimir Chernov, first deputy governor of Russias Kemerovo region, on March 28 came a day after thousands of demonstrators gathered in the city of Kemerovo to demand answers and accountability for the March 25 fire there that killed 64 people, including dozens of children.

"We are concluding that this was a clearly orchestrated event aimed at discrediting authorities," Chernov, the Kemerovo region's first deputy governor, told Russian news agencies.

He added that there were "a lot of intoxicated" youth at the demonstration and that the crowd included people "who had no idea what they were doing there."

The regional administration, led by Kemerovo Governor Aman Tuleyev, has come under fierce public pressure over the tragedy and its response.

Demonstrators at the March 27 gathering called for the regional leadership to be fired, an unusual display of public frustration with authorities in a region where President Vladimir Putin secured 85 percent of the vote in his reelection less than two weeks ago.

During the demonstration, Kemerovo Deputy Governor Sergei Tsivilyov suggested that a man who lost his sister, wife, and three children in the fire was engaging in self-promotion.

Tuleyev was widely scorned for telling Putin during a meeting the same day that the demonstrators "are not relatives of the dead, but constant troublemakers," and that only around 200 demonstrators had gathered in Kemerovo.

He told a stone-faced Putin, who has tightened restrictions on public gatherings in what critics call an effort to stymie dissent, that "opposition forces" were stoking tensions for political gain.

Chernov, who attended the demonstration, told reporters on March 28 that around 25 to 30 percent of the crowd was made up of people "who came to offer their sympathy," the Interfax news agency reported.

He also appeared to contradict Tuleyev's claim to Putin that only 200 demonstrators showed up. Chernov said that when the crowd was asked who among them were relatives of victims, "nearly 500 people raised their hands. That tells you something," Interfax reported.

The press office of the Kemerovo regional government did not respond to an e-mailed inquiry on Chernovs remarks, including who might have "orchestrated" the demonstration in an alleged effort to "discredit" authorities.

A spokeswoman for the administration, Svetlana Kharitonova, told RFE/RL by telephone that she could not comment because the interview Chernov gave to Russian media was not organized by the regional governments press office.

Tuleyev, meanwhile, released a video address on March 28 in which he accuses "certain forces" of trying to stoke tensions in the aftermath of the fire -- a nebulous phrase Putin himself has previously used to refer to those purportedly seeking to harm Russias interests:

Tuleyev cited incidents of alleged false bomb threats called into mining facilities in the region, and the case of a Ukrainian man who posted a YouTube video claiming -- without evidence -- that 300 people were killed in the fire. Russian investigators have opened a hate-speech case against the man.



Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on March 28 declined to comment on the public remarks by Tuleyev and his deputies in the days following the deadly fire.

"Im not going to do that," Peskov was quoted by Russian media outlets as saying.

Putin has long resisted making personnel moves in response to grassroots pressure, says Tatyana Stanovaya, head of the Paris-based think tank R.Politik. "He never concedes," she notes.

But even before the fire, Russian media reports had suggested that the Kremlin was planning to replace Tuleyev, 73, who has suffered problems with his health over the past year.

One person who had been cited as a possible successor was Tsivilyov, the deputy governor who suggested the man who lost his sister, wife, and children in the fire was engaging in self-promotion.

Tuleyev had also faced criticism for saying during his March 27 meeting with Putin that he "personally" apologizes to the Russian president, while many felt he should have first apologized to the victims of the fire and their relatives.

A senior Russian lawmaker also drew condemnation for remarks on a Russian political talk show broadcast on March 27 in which she offered her "condolences" and "support to our leader," saying the Kemerovo fire was a "stab in the back" for Putin.

The lawmaker, Yelena Mizulina, also told Kemerovo residents and all Russians during the program that they can "prove that you're all on one team" and urged them not to "give into provocations" or discuss "rumors and all kinds of nasty things."




Guwahati, March 28 : Just three days after as arrested three Nagaland government officials in connection with illegally tax collection on behalf of several insurgent groups specially for banned outfit NSCN-K, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has issued a fresh notice to former Nagaland Chief Minister TR Zeliang and asked him to appear before the headquarter of the investigating agency in New Delhi on March 31.





The investigating agency has also served notice to his then personal secretary K Francis Zeliang and also asked him to appear before the NIA headquarter on same day for funding insurgent groups from state exchequer.





The NIA asked TR Zeliang and his then personal secretary K Francis Zeliang to appear before the investigating team in New Delhi at 10 am on March 31 next without fail.





Earlier, on March 25, the investigating agency had arrested three Nagaland government officers in connection with illegally tax collection for the banned outfit group.





The arrested government officers are - G Ikuto Zhimomi (Director, Directorate of Agriculture, Kohima), Ketouzo Peseyie (executive engineer in state rural development department) and Sangtemchuba (divisional accounts office in Nagalands urban development department).





Earlier, TR Zeliang was summoned by NIA to Delhi but, Zeliang had personally written for deferment of the date because of the ongoing Nagaland Legislative Assembly session, which ended on March 26.





Just before the Nagaland assembly polls held in February last, the investigating agency had summoned three officials of Chief Ministers office.





NIA is probing the case since August 2016.





The National Investigation Agency had arrested 10 Nagaland government officials so far in connection with the extortions and illegal tax collections.




ON MY MIND

In a piece featured below, former Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov makes the case that Moscow needs to mend its relations with the West.

Ivanov is one of the sharper foreign-policy minds in Moscow. But even he repeats one of the falsehoods that even most Russian foreign-policy liberals seem to believe.

"Russia's numerous opponents and adversaries," Ivanov writes. "want to lock the country up in a geopolitical ghetto and, isolate it as much as possible from the rest of the world."

Ivanov acts as if the Western sanctions he is referring to simply came out of the blue and were not related to Russia's behavior -- the annexation of Crimea, the war in the Donbas, the downing of Flight MH17, and the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal with a nerve agent in the U.K.

And even given all these things, the West remains eager to engage Russia, as I note on today's Daily Vertical.

Ivanov is right. Russia does need to rethink its foreign policy. But this would also require a rethink of Russia's international behavior.

And that is highly unlikely under the current regime.

IN THE NEWS

Russia is holding a national day of mourning for the victims of a fire at a busy shopping center in the Siberian city of Kemerovo, as the first funeral ceremonies began for some of those killed in the blaze are set to be held.

Russia's poisoning of a former spy in Britain is part of a Kremlin strategy to divide the West by conducting covert operations and then fomenting doubt and disagreement over who's responsible, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has said.

Paul Ryan, the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, has called on Czech authorities to extradite an alleged Russian hacker to the United States amid claims that the Czech president wants to return the man to Moscow.

More than 1,000 people have been evacuated in the Siberian region of Altai Krai after melting snow caused severe flooding.

Spanish authorities have broken up a cybercrime syndicate of Ukrainian and Russian nationals that allegedly stole more than 1 billion euros ($1.24 billion) from bank accounts over more than four years.

Russian historian and activist Yury Dmitriyev, who is being tried on child-pornography charges, says he maintained his innocence in his final statement to the court ahead of a verdict.

NATO has joined more than two dozen governments around the world in expelling Russian diplomats in response to the poisoning of a former Russian double agent in Britain.

Ukrainian journalist Roman Sushchenko, whom Russia has charged with espionage in a case seen by rights activists as politically motivated, has entered a not guilty plea as his trial began in Moscow.

The European security organization responsible for monitoring the deadly conflict between government forces and Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine will reintroduce its long-range drone program more than a year and a half after it was dropped due to repeated shoot-downs.

WHAT I'M READING

More Reax To Kemerovo Tragedy

What, if anything, will change after the shopping-mall fire in the Siberian city of Kemerovo? In his column for Republic.ru, opposition journalist and political commentator Oleg Kashin weighs in.

And in his column for Bloomberg, emigre Russian political commentator Leonid Bershidsky takes a critical look at Putin's response to the tragedy.

Poisoned Relations

In Republic.ru, Moscow-based political commentator Vladimir Frolov looks at the fallout from the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and the mass expulsions of Russian diplomats from Western countries.

And in Foreign Policy, Mark Galeotti of the Institute of International Relations in Prague takes a critical look at the U.K. response to the Skripal poisoning.

The Putin Generation

In an op-ed for The New York Times, Ivan Krastev looks at what he calls Generation Putin, the mid-level cadre of elites that rose under his rule.

Imagining Another Russian Foreign Policy

Former Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov has an op-ed in The Moscow Times on "what Russia's foreign policy should look like."

Deterrence And Resilience

Veteran Kremlin-watcher Edward Lucas has a piece on the website of the Center for European Policy Analysis arguing that in confronting the Kremlin, the West needs to strike a balance between deterrence and resilience.
U.S. President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May in a phone call discussed the need to dismantle spying networks and prevent other illegal activities by Russia in their two countries, the White House says.

"Both leaders agreed on the importance of dismantling Russia's spy networks in the United Kingdom and the United States to curtail Russian clandestine activities and prevent future chemical weapons attacks on either country's soil," a White House statement said on March 28.

The comments come as rhetoric between the West and Moscow heightened in the face of major expulsions of Russian diplomats from the United States, Britain, and other European countries in response to the poisoning of a Russian ex-spy in England.

Britain has accused Moscow of being behind the March 4 nerve-agent attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the city of Salisbury that left both hospitalized in extremely critical condition.

Russia has denied it was behind the attack and has called on Britain to prove it did not itself poison the former double agent and his daughter.

Aleksandr Lukashevich, the Russian envoy at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), on March 28 said the expulsion of the 150 Russian diplomats by more than 20 nations created "a dangerous precedent of a collective punishment of a nation whose guilt hasn't been proven."

In televised remarks, Lukashevich dismissed the British claim as a "large-scale provocation."

Still, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency that Moscow is in "no rush" to retaliate to the wave of expulsions.

Russia is "thoughtfully and thoroughly" considering its response, he said.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AP


KYIV -- Amphibious armored-personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles, off-road transport trucks, tanker trucks, and trailers were among some 200 objects that have been seized by Ukrainian police after being offered for sale online.

Vyacheslav Pechenenko, regional police chief of the Zhytomyr region, said on March 27 that the vehicles were discovered by police while investigating an oil pipeline leak in the town of Novohrad-Volynskiy some two weeks ago.

They were seized this week during raids by his officers and local military prosecutors.

Police said the vehicles were for sale on the Internet.

Pechenenko said that as of now, the origin of the hardware is being looked into, including when it was registered at military units.

Novohrad-Volynskiy is the headquarters for several Ukrainian military units subordinate to Operational Command North, including the 30th Mechanized Brigade, the 12th Operative Support Regiment, and the 54th Scout Battalion, the Kyiv Post reported.

The seizure of the military vehicles and equipment has sparked a scandal in Ukrainian defense circles and shone a light on a murky online marketplace where equipment made for the battlefields of eastern Ukraine is being offered for sale to civilians.

It is still unclear if any of the seized military equipment came from any of those units. Police did not say where the military items had been advertised.

An online search by RFE/RL revealed several listings for similar military materiel in Ukraine. Most were found on the OLX website, a popular online marketplace that revealed dozens of military vehicles and equipment for sale.

Ukraine has spent much time and money in the past four years revamping its once decimated military. Any suggestion that it may be involved in corruption or that technology or equipment has leaked from its depots is embarrassing.

The former presidential spokesman for the military operation in eastern Ukraine, Andriy Lysenko, who is now a spokesman for the Prosecutor-Generals Office, claimed the police information was untrue and said the equipment had been demilitarized.

In fact, the equipment in question is not combat and is not military at all, Lysenko wrote on Facebook.

The news filled presidential adviser Yuriy Biriukov with indignation. In a rambling post on Facebook, Biriukov called the reports fake news and their authors common liars, who rejoice in fake news, together with those who destroyed our army. Punctuating his post, he added that they were worse than the enemy.

Rather than having been stolen, Biriukov suggested the vehicles were more likely to have been military surplus bought by civilians under a government decree signed in 2008 by then-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, now the leading political opponent of President Petro Poroshenko.

He claimed that none of those vehicles specifically had been recorded as ever having been used by the military in the past 10 years.

Zhytomyr police said they were working to track down the origin of the equipment. They are treating the case as one possibly involving official embezzlement and abuse of power, the punishment for which can be between three and eight years imprisonment.
The speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives says he expects Czech authorities to extradite an alleged Russian hacker to the United States rather than Russia.

Yevgeny Nikulin is accused of hacking big Internet companies including LinkedIn and Dropbox in 2012 and 2013. In the United States, he faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted on charges that include computer intrusion and identity theft.

But his case became an international tug-of-war when Russia made a rival extradition request shortly after the United States put forward its request. In Russia, Nikulin is wanted for alleged involvement in an online theft of about $2,000 in 2009.

During a visit to the Czech Republic, U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan said on March 27 that "we have every reason to believe and expect that Mr. Nikulin will be extradited to America."

"The United States has the case to prevail on having him extradited, whether it's the severity of the crime, which is clearly on the side of U.S., or the timing of the request for the extradition," he told reporters.

In an interview with RFE/RL in Prague on March 26, Ryan said that the "case for extraditing [Nikulin] to America versus Russia is extremely clear."

Ryan, who met with Prime Minister Andrej Babis and other Czech officials during his visit, told RFE/RL that he would raise the issue in those talks.

"He did violate our laws, he did hack these companies.... So the extradition claim is very legitimate," he said. "And I just expect that the Czech system will go through its process, and at the end of that process, I am hopeful and expecting that hell be extradited."

The issue appears to have sparked a political battle in Prague.

Babis has said Nikulin should be extradited to the United States. But Justice Minister Robert Pelikan, who will make the decision on where to send Nikulin, has said that President Milos Zeman -- known for his relatively pro-Kremlin views -- has advocated handing the suspected hacker over to Russia.

Zeman's office has not commented on Pelikan's pubic remarks, and declined to comment to RFE/RL on the matter.

In the meantime, there has been tight security at a series of court hearings where Nikulin has been fighting his extradition to the United States. He recently made an appeal to the Constitutional Court.

Nikulin's lawyer said his client claimed the FBI is trying to link him to the hacking of the Democratic Party's servers during the 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign.

"We see here a political subtext to this case," attorney Martin Sadilek said.

Nikulin "is worried that because he was approached by an FBI agent with a certain offer, that they wanted him, he says, to confess to something he had not done. Hes worried that if he is extradited to the United States, they would want the same thing."

This case is not unique.

Spain has extradited two alleged Russian hackers to the United States this year, Stanislav Lisov and Pyotr Levashov.

Russia also made a counter-extradition request for Levashov.

Another Russian, Aleksandr Vinnik, is being held in Greece pending extradition requests from both Washington and Moscow.

The Russian Embassy in Prague declined to comment on the Nikulin case, referring RFE/RL instead to an interview with the ambassador, Aleksandr Zmeyevsky, that was published on its website.

In it, the ambassador says Russia has repeatedly rejected as "unacceptable...attempts to extend the jurisprudence of American law to the territory of third countries."

With reporting by Ray Furlong, Carl Schreck, and AP
Journalists and other critics of the government in Uzbekistan remain under pressure from legal restrictions, politically motivated prosecutions, and fear-induced self-censorship, Human Rights Watch (HRW) says in a new report.

Despite an improved landscape for open debate and critical reportingthese actions undermine President Shavkat Mirziyoevs stated reform goals," the New York-based rights group said in its report released on March 28.

HRW said its 37-page report -- titled You Cant See Them, But Theyre Always There: Censorship And Freedom Of The Media In Uzbekistan -- examined the environment for journalists, media outlets, and the exercise of free speech since Mirziyoev became president in September 2016.

Mirziyoev took over Uzbekistan after the death of authoritarian President Islam Karimov, who had ruled the predominantly Muslim country in Central Asia since the Soviet era. Mirziyoev has released political prisoners as part of an apparent policy of gradually reducing authoritarian control.

HRW said it found that despite some positive moves -- such as easing certain restrictions on free expression -- censorship remains a powerful barrier to free expression, and that journalists, writers, and citizens expressing critical views continue to face selective prosecution.



Meaningful and lasting reforms in Uzbekistan are only truly possible if the government fully embraces free speech for all citizens and shows that criticism has a protected place in society, said Steve Swerdlow, Central Asia researcher for HRW.

The way to put this into practice is to end censorship and the draconian prosecutions of journalists and support the growth of genuinely independent media.

Mirziyoev should demonstrate that central to his reform is not just toleration of peaceful criticism of government policies -- whether by journalists, rights activists, journalists, or religious believers -- but genuinely valuing it, he added.

Along with ending media censorship, HRW urged Uzbekistan to drop ongoing prosecutions of reporters and allow effective access to information, including online, as a means to decisively break with former leader Karimovs abusive legacy.

The report said interviews with 22 journalists, editors, and media owners from 17 government-registered, independent, and international news outlets did turn up some gains in Uzbekistan, a country of 32 million people bordering Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan.

"Many reported that media freedom had increased slightly and described a dynamic and competitive environment in which new Uzbek-language and Russian-language publications have appeared," it said.

Nevertheless, it added, "all still pointed to fear of repression by security services as a major factor in the way they work."

"The continuing widespread intimidation of journalists by security services and the police leads to self-censorship in the media. With few exceptions, journalists said they still feared the professional repercussions if they exceeded the -- as of now unclear -- limits of the governments tolerance," the report said.
Colombian company Volare Travels suspended for breaching Cancun trips

Cancun, Q.R.  The suspension of travel company Volare Travels has been ordered in light of numerous consumer complaints for breaching reservations for travelers heading to places such as Cancun.

The body, Superintendence of Industry and Commerce in Colombia, has ordered the suspension of the travel company Volare Travels who they say, has more than 200 consumer complaints filed against them.

On the occasion of more than 200 lawsuits in the Directorate of Jurisdictional Affairs of Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio, we initiated the investigation and found that it would presumably be systematically be breaching the services offered, said Maria Jose Lamus, Director of Research of the Delegation of Consumer Protection of Superindutria.

Superintendence of Industry and Commerce has also blocked bank accounts and frozen 100 percent of the resources deposited in those accounts.

In the imposed punishments, in addition to suspension includes the blocking of the bank accounts, the freezing of the resources deposited in them and the prohibition to carry out transactions on the monies in the bank accounts of Volare Travels and CTR Travel Holding, assured Lamus.

The body says that to date, the company Volare Travels has been given more than 20 penalties in excess of one billion peso. They have also been ordered to return or restore to consumer claimants the sums of money paid for tourist packages in destinations such as Cuba, Isla Margarita and Cancun, among others.

One of the most common travel irregularities of the company was its practice, a few days after starting the trip they would inform consumers that the dates of travel or destination needed to be modified due to problems with the tour operator.

According to the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce, only part of the service was provided, when you take into account that a package was contracted for two destinations, but only one was fulfilled.

For example, they were hired for Havana and Varadero, Cuba but they only took the clients to Havana. The consumers who booked their travel destination to the city of Havana found that upon arriving at the assigned hotel, they did not have lodging or food because Volare Travels had not even made the reservations or paid the hotel, leaving the clients without any lodging, said their report.

The Superintendence of Industry and Commerce announced the judicial and / or administrative sanctions against the agency Volare Travels and TR Travel Holding in excess of 130 judicial decisions and more than 200 verbal complaints or filed complaints by consumers.

As a precautionary measure, Superindustria ordered the suspension of the National Registry of Tourism for Volare Travels and TR Travel Holding, while it moves forward in its investigations.

Last year, the Superintendent delegate for consumer protection said in 2017, 79 sanctions were imposed for tourist fraud with companies originating out of Colombia, an increase of 192 percent compared to 2016. The highest increase were for travelers booking packages to Santa Marta, Cartagena and San Andres.
Contemporary Mexican art theme for new Oleo Cancun Playa Hotel

Cancun, Q.R.  An old hotel in the Cancun Hotel Zone has been revamped focusing on the use of contemporary Mexican art.

With an investment of more than 250 million pesos, the new Oleo Cancun Playa Hotel opened its doors in the same hotel space that was once the Yalmakan Hotel.

Oliver Reinhart, CEO of Atelier de Hoteles said he was pleased that they were able to renovate an old tourist complex.

This strategy goes hand in hand with one of our corporate objectives, which is to renovate tourist complexes, especially in Cancun, to increase the competitiveness of our tourist destination and support the one that continues to be one of the most successful national and international vacation sites, he said.

Atelier de Hoteles is a hotel chain created in 2015 that uses the concept of contemporary Mexican art throughout its hotels.

The strategy of Atelier de Hoteles is to celebrate and exalt the most valuable of Mexican contemporary art, offering the client a service that maximizes their experiences, turning them into memorable and unforgettable experiences, added Vicente Madrigal, Commercial Director of Atelier de Hoteles.

The remodeling of Oleo Cancun Playa is one of the concrete results of the first stage of the strategies of the development plan of Atelier de Hoteles, which 2018, will start three more hotels including Met Cancun, which will be located between Avenues Nader and Tulum. Another of their hotels is scheduled for the city center and the third will be Atelier and Estudio hotels at Playa Mujeres.

The new Oleo Cancun Playa Hotel at Kilometer 19.5 in the Cancun Hotel Zone and offers guests 168 rooms.
Ecuadors Foreign Relations Ministry said Wednesday that Mr.Assangehad violated a written agreement with Ecuador preventing him to give opinion in political affairs of other nations.The government of Ecuador warns that Assanges behavior, through his messages on social networks, put at risk the countrys good relations with the United Kingdom, the other states of the European Union, and other nations, a statement from the government says. As of January, Assange is officially a citizen of the South American country.



Some supporters of Assange at the Ecuadors Embassy in London

He was first offered asylum in the embassy by Ecuadors former President Rafael Correa. The WikiLeaks founder Is been hiding in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for the past six years. His Internet was also cut off during October of 2016 in the lead up to the US presidential election. Last month, a British court ruled that the warrant for his arrest was still valid despite the fact that Sweden had suspended its investigation into sexual assault charges against the WikiLeaks founder. Assange fears extradition to the United States. Its unclear how long Assange will have his internet cut off. The Executive also keeps open the way to the adoption of new measures in the face of breach of commitment by Assange, the Ecuadorian statement said. The president of Ecuador, Lenin Moreno, has previously called Assanges presence a nuisance and an inherited problem.
[NAIROBI] The lack of prioritisation of digital innovations in health systems could make it difficult for Africa to attain the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a forum has heard.

The 3rd Annual Aid and International Development Africa Summit held in Kenya last month (27-28 February) noted that Africa is slow in integrating digital innovations into health systems.

Good health and well-being, according to the forum, is the cornerstone for developing the continent but if not fully achieved, it will be difficult to attain the SDGs not related to health.

Drone technology implemented in Malawi is assisting the locals in the transportation of blood for early infant diagnosis of HIV. Matthias Boyen, UNICEF

The conference was attended by about 350 experts from various countries including Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, the UK and USA.

Matthias Boyen, drone focal point, HIV/AIDS project officer at United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, tells SciDev.Net that locally relevant innovations are needed.

Drone technology implemented in Malawi is assisting the locals in the transportation of blood for early infant diagnosis of HIV in hospitals in short period of time than before over a large distance or from areas where roads are impassable due to floods, Boyen explains.

He adds that drone technology could be used to get imagery data about an outbreak of diseases or any condition in remote areas to enable authorities to respond adequately to emergencies.

Karin Kallander, a senior research adviser at the UK-headquartered Malaria Consortium, says that there is a need to understand the value of digital strategy to strengthen health systems, and the use of data to generate real-time information from community health workers in isolated areas.

According to Kallander, Africa needs a health information database that is accessible through mobile phones to boost health education.

Githinji Gitahi, chief executive officer of the African Medical and Research Foundation (Amref) Health Africa, tells SciDev.Net that the continent should involve local people when designing digital health innovations to ensure that their needs are met.

Digital health innovations should be aligned with effective collaborations between private and public needs, explains Gitahi, adding that there is a need to build capacity of communities to collect data on diseases for early prevention and control.



This piece was produced by SciDev.Nets Sub-Saharan Africa English desk.
What if the odds of an event occurring were about one in ten billion? This is the case for the decay of a positively charged particle known as a kaon into another positively charged particle called a pion and a neutrino-antineutrino pair. Yet, such a rare event, which has never been observed with certainty, is something that particle physicists really want to get their hands on.

The reason? The Standard Model of Physics predicts such one-in-ten-billion odds with an uncertainty of less than ten percent. A deviation from this prediction, revealed by a precise measurement of the decay, could therefore be a clear indicator of physics beyond the Standard Model.

In a seminar taking place today (Tuesday 27th March, 2018) at CERN, the NA62 collaboration reports a candidate event of this ultra-rare kaon decay found using a new "in-flight decay" approach. The result was also presented earlier this month at the Rencontres de Moriond conference in Italy.

While this single event cannot be used to probe beyond-Standard-Model physics, it demonstrates that the approach works well and can be applied to catch more events in the next run of data-taking, which kicks off in mid-April.

Professor Cristina Lazzeroni, from the University of Birmingham's School of Physics and Astronomy, said: 'We are delighted to have played a leading role in the NA62 experiment. Today we have shown that we are indeed able to measure the ultra-rare decay K+ to pi+ nu nu. This comes after years of work on the detector and the data analysis. Scientists here at Birmingham have designed and built the detector and readout system that identifies the kaon particles in the beam which is mainly formed by pions with only 6% of kaons; this detector is therefore an essential element of the experiment, and has the best time resolution of all the components; we are very proud that it works brilliantly and has allowed this measurement to be made. With the additional data that we have and will keep collecting, we will be able to establish if this particular decay agrees or not with the very clear prediction from the Standard Model, and so we will be able to discover or constrain new physics scenarios.'

What is the NA62 experiment?

The NA62 experiment is a particle physics experiment at CERN using a 400 GeV proton beam from the SPS (Super Proton Synchrotron) accelerator. The experiment began taking data taking in 2016. The main aim of the NA62 experiment is to study rare kaon decays and to pin down possible effects of physics beyond the Standard Model that appear in short distance interactions involving quarks. Specifically, NA62 will measure the rate at which the charged kaon decays into a charged pion and a neutrino-antineutrino pair. This process is one of the rarest among meson decays, with a probability of happening of about 1 over 10,000,000,000, and it is extremely well predicted by the Standard Model.

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Several models of new physics make a different prediction for this decay. If the measurement of the rate deviates from the Standard Model prediction, it would indicate a new phenomenon for physics, beyond the Standard Model. If it turns out to be consistent with the Standard Model, it is further evidence of its accuracy and can be used to put stringent constraints on models of new physics.

How do you do such a thing?

First, you have to make a beam that contains kaons. Colliding high-energy protons from the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) into a stationary beryllium target creates a beam of secondary particles which contains and propagates almost one billion particles per second, about 6% of which are kaons.

Before entering a large vacuum tank, each particle in the beam has its momentum measured by a silicon-pixel detector. A detector called KTAG (kaon tagger) determines the types of particle in the beam from their Cherenkov radiation, and identifies which ones are kaons.

Further detectors inside the tank look for decay particles: a magnetic spectrometer measures the momentum of charged tracks from kaon decays, a ring imaging Cherenkov (RICH) detector tells the team the nature of decay particles, and electromagnetic and hadronic calorimeters measure their energy. A large system of photon, muon and charged particle detectors reject unwanted decays.

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When trying to measure very rare processes like this one, predicted to take place only once every 10,000-100,000 million events, the team has to be very careful not to apply selection criteria that might bias the result. For this reason, it is custom to perform a 'blind analysis', where physicists initially only look at the background to check that their understanding of the various sources is correct. Only once they are satisfied with that, they look at the region of the data where the signal is expected to be (the "opening of the blind box").

What was the UK involvement?

The University of Birmingham played a leading role in the detector construction for NA62, built the readout system for the KTAG (kaon tagger detector that identifies kaons in the beam line), designed and implemented the high-level (offline) trigger system of the experiment, and part of the (online) L0 trigger, designed and implemented the experiment control system (Run Control), and has given crucial contributions to the experiment commissioning and operation, to the calibration and data quality assurance systems.

The UK has also contributed to other aspects of the detector construction and to the MonteCarlo simulation.

The UK also has a leading role in data analysis and production of physics results, with Birmingham physicists driving all of the NA62 publications so far. UK physicists cover leadership positions in the data analysis, including the Physics Coordinator (Giuseppe Ruggiero, University of Lancaster) and the Lepton Flavour Working Group coordinator (Evgueni Goudzovski, University of Birmingham).

What's next for the NA62?

The team will continue to collect more data and refine the analysis technique using 2017 and 2018 data. This optimisation will allow the team to increase the number of signal events, and reach the sensitivity required to show to what extent this process agrees with the Standard Model prediction.
Narcissists aren't necessarily on the hunt for partners who are already in a relationship -- but that doesn't appear to stand in their way, either, new research suggests.

Researcher Amy Brunell of The Ohio State University wondered whether narcissists are particularly attracted to would-be partners who already have a significant other and set about answering that question in a four-part study.

"I thought it was possible that there might be something appealing about the 'game' of mate poaching that might appeal to narcissists, because they are known to play games," said Brunell, an associate professor of psychology at Ohio State's Mansfield campus.

But evidence of that type of pattern didn't emerge in the study, which appears online in the journal PLOS ONE.

Study participants with narcissistic traits reported that they have, with greater frequency than people who aren't narcissists, attempted to pursue relationships with someone who is in an existing relationship, Brunell said. But that wasn't necessarily because the person was taken.

"They seem to not discriminate between those in relationships and those who are single. It could be that they just go after whoever appeals to them without regard for relationship status," she said.

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Previous research has shown that people in general -- not just narcissists -- tend to perceive others who are in relationships as more desirable.

Combine that with the traits of narcissism, Brunell figured, and you might have a recipe for aggressive "mate poaching" -- the scientific term for making a play for someone already in a relationship.

Narcissism is marked by selfishness, arrogance, an inflated sense of self and extroversion. Furthermore, narcissists believe they're special, unique and entitled. They tend to take advantage of others and experience less guilt. And they also report more casual sex, more sexual partners and a greater desire for short-term relationships.

In the first study, Brunell and her collaborators surveyed 247 college students from introductory psychology courses and assessed them for narcissism through a commonly used 40-item test. The participants also completed a personality survey and a survey designed to assess the students' past experiences in mate poaching. Narcissism was linked with more frequent short-term and long-term attempts to connect sexually with people in other relationships.

In a second study designed to test the results of the first, though, only narcissistic women reported more frequent attempts at mate poaching, leading the researchers to conclude that it's possible that narcissistic women are more frequently guilty of the behavior.

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A third study that included 249 students were asked to assess potential romantic partners in a manner similar to popular dating services such as eHarmony.com or match.com. Next, the participants were shown a picture of a target individual and told that they had "similar interest" with the target. Some participants were told the target was single, and some were told the target was in a relationship. Then they were asked about their level of interest in the person.

The study found no evidence that narcissists were preferentially drawn to people in a relationship.

"It is likely people are simply interested in the target and not necessarily as concerned that the target is in a relationship," the researchers concluded.

In the last study, the researchers recruited 240 participants and again compared their narcissism scores and likelihood to mate poach a "target" individual. They found that narcissists had a greater likelihood of hooking up with the target for a short-term fling, but not for a relationship.

Taken as a whole, the studies point to a pattern: Narcissists are more likely to engage in mate poaching, but are not more interested in people who are already in a relationship -- with the exception of opportunities for a low-cost sexual encounter, such as a one-night stand, Brunell said.

"Understanding the behavior of narcissists is important because it helps us better understand the people who are in our lives -- and the types of people we don't necessarily want in our lives," Brunell said.
The Daily Star

Slowly but surely the world is coming to terms with the gruesome reality of Burmas genocide of the Rohingyas. As early as 2015 London Queen Mary Colleges State Crimes Initiative alerted the international community of the ongoing genocide in Arakan. Hardly anyone paid heed to that ominous warning. Eventually, as the situation in Arakan took a turn for the worse, taking a heavy toll on Rohingya lives, livelihood and liberty, the progressive elements among the international community acknowledged the unpalatable reality.

The Peoples Tribunal on State Crimes of Myanmar, in two subsequent sittings in March and September 2017 in London and Kuala Lumpur respectively, unequivocally termed the atrocities committed by the Burmese government as "genocide". The UN special rapporteur on human rights situation of the country has clearly stated that such actions bear the "hallmarks of genocide". Without mincing his words, the French President Macron has expressed his disgust of Myanmars genocide. Even the unpredictable British Foreign Secretary termed it as "industrial scale ethnic cleansing". The Holocaust Museum acknowledged it as a genocide and expressed solidarity with the victims. Nobel laureates Bishop Tutu and Amartya Sen have labelled it as "slow burning genocide" while the Rohingya diaspora moved the High Court of Australia demanding that visiting State Counsellor of Myanmar Suu Kyi be arrested for crimes against humanity.

Despite this growing trend guided by corporate, military-industrial and strategic interests, many powerful states vie with one another in placating the murderous Burmese authorities, shunning their obligations under international human rights law. Some among those attempt to draw a distinction between the erstwhile icon of freedom, State Counsellor Suu Kyi and the military; though over time actions and statements of the former have rendered such distinction increasingly untenable.

As horrendous narratives of survivors and images of Burmese genocide began to secure space in the global print and electronic media and in the reports of reputed institutions, the lies meted out by the Burmese authorities have been gradually exposed. Satellite imagery and uncovering of mass graves further vindicated the scale of their barbarity.

As an integral component of the genocidal act, the military governments of Burma over the last four decades have launched a campaign denying the ethnic Rohingya identity to the community. The policy is being pursued in full steam under State Counsellor Suu Kyis government. The central theme of the campaign has been to deny the legitimacy of the Rohingya claim as an ethnic community and to present the community members as recent illegal entrants from neighbouring densely populated Bangladesh, conveniently labelling them as Islamic terrorists.

The official narrative, though spuriously grounded, is being assiduously pushed forward by the Burmese government. Over the decades the Burmese political-military establishment has been largely successful in incorporating the revisionist history in the countrys academic curricula that celebrate the supremacy of Buddhist-Bhama nationalism and relegate other ethnic groups. In this specious discourse the Rohingya identity has been completely obliterated. Thus generations of Burmese have identified Rohingyas as undesirable Muslim foreigners in the pristine Buddhist land and had no problem in terming them as "kalars" or "Bangalis". In this official discourse Buddhist Rakhines are presented as indigenous, and Rohingyas as illegal aliens.

Over the last few months a storm has been brewing in the academic circles as the prestigious University of Oxford decided to appoint a French academic Jacques Leider to author a reference article on "Rohingya: Emergence and Vicissitudes of a Communal Muslim Identity in Myanmar" for Oxford University Presss (OUP) Oxford Research Encyclopedias: Asian History series. Dr Jacques Leider is a well-known adviser to the Burmese military including that of the Armed Forces Historical Museum in Naypyidaw and reputed for his denial of Rohingya identity, their unique history, and the crime of genocide the group has been subjected to for decades. Speaking on public events in Burma, including those sponsored by the Burmese military, Leider is on record reiterating his position that Rakhine identity is a areal ethnic identitya , whereas the Rohingya group identity is an ainvented political identitya , created by politically motivated Muslims in the 1950s, in spite of all historical and official records to the contrary.

The Rohingya community, particularly those in the disapora, was baffled at the selection of Leider as an aauthoritya on their community. For the Rohingya community, Leider writing the piece would constitute "a classic colonial act", a racist White Man disliked by the subject is commissioned to put together a piece about the subject people, despite the latters rejection of him as "an expert" on their affairs, including their identity and history. They find the decision of the Oxford University Press as "adding insult to their injury".

Eighty academics from different parts of the world, including two Emeritus Professors of Oxford University, Barbara Harriss-White and Barbara Harrell-Bond, Princeton University Professor Richard Falk, MIT Professor and linguist Noam Chomsky, Columbia Professor Gayatri Spivak, eminent peace scholar Johan Galtung, Queen Mary University of London Professor Penny Green, genocide scholar Gregory Stanton and founding editor of the journal The Holocaust in History and Memory Rainer Schulze, have called upon the Vice Chancellor of the University of Oxford to desist from commissioning Leider with the task. Their concern was a publication of the reputed university will inflict long-term damage as it will misinform a new generation of students of history and identity. As Rohingya scholar Maung Zarni cogently reminds, aA single racist choice of not recording Rohingyas in the colonial censuses has been used by the genocidal governments and apologists as the basis for exclusion and disenfranchisement of Rohingyas as a group. It was an arbitrary choice out of administrative expedience for taxation and population control on the part of the colonial administrators in Burma, but one with deep and dark consequencesa .

Further evidence of Leiders collusion with the Burmese establishment are his attempts to disparage and derail the Berlin Conference on Myanmar Genocide held last month by manipulating the sensitivity around Shoah (Nazi Genocide of the Jews). Leider portrayed Columbia University Professor Gayatri Spivak, the keynote speaker of the Conference and an ardent champion of the Rohingya cause, as aanti-Semitica . Spivak has been long known for her "boycott Israel" campaign.

In its much delayed response to another group of concerned East Oxford residents, the Oxford University Press noted that aThe history of the Rohingya is a complex and contentious area of research and, as always, the Presss goal is to represent this history with accuracy, balance, and sensitivity.a OUP defended its editorial boards decision saying that Dr Jacques Leider was selected for his "subject-matter expertise". It went to claim that the adecision on whether to accept his article for publication will be informed principally by the outcome of an external peer review exercise and the scholarly assessment of the Presss editorial board, which is composed of career historians of Asiaa .

The OUPs defence that its strict refereeing process would ensure fairness and accuracy is not acceptable. Critics have noted that the fact that only Rohingya communalism was made the focus of the article suggests that there is at least a tacit acceptance of the opposing Rakhine communitys claim of its own authenticity as an ethnic group. Quite justifiably a case can be made that for all fairness a similar piece examining Rakhine Buddhist communalism be commissioned and published simultaneously with the piece on the Rohingya. That call also went unheeded.

One surely has reason to feel disturbed at the OUPs selection of the expert who is still hooked on to the binary of areal ethnicitya and apolitical ethnicitya at a time when Benedict Andersons seminal work Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (1983) clearly posits that nations, national sentiments and national identities are all products of collective imaginations.

It is interesting to note that thus far OUP has not approached perhaps the most authoritative scholar on the subject matter, Michael Charney of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) to review Leiders submission. His University of Michigan doctoral thesis (1999) focused on religious communalism in Rakhine through the colonial period. Charney has sustained his engagement on the issue till this day, and drawing evidence from historical sources maintains that aNo group in Arakan would pass the test of indigenousa .

As the deadline for the publication of the volume looms large, there is little indication that Oxford University authorities have paid attention to the concerns expressed. It is unfortunate that an institution reputed for its academic excellence and deemed as a source of new knowledge "based on facts, accuracy and fairness" has remained adamant on its imprudent decision.

CR Abrar teaches international relations at the University of Dhaka and was a signatory of the letter to the Vice Chancellor of the University of Oxford. He would like to acknowledge the insights gained from discussions with Burmese dissident scholar Maung Zarni.

o o o

[ SEE ALSO:

Letter of Concern to Oxford University Press regarding Dr Jacques Leider and OUP Asian History Series

Is Oxford University complicit in Aung San Suu Kyis genocide denial?

Oxford University Press Editorial statement on the commissioning of Rohingya: The History of a Muslim Identity in Myanmar by Dr Jacques Leider ]
After a great mass extinction shook the world about 252 million years ago, animal life outside of the ocean began to take hold. The earliest mammals entered the scene, and reptiles -- including early dinosaurs -- lived on Pangea, the name given to the giant landmass in which all of the world's continents were joined as one.

A project spanning countries, years and institutions has attempted to reconstruct what the southern end of this world looked like during this period, known as the Triassic (252 to 199 million years ago). Led by paleontologists and geologists at the University of Washington, the team has uncovered new fossils in Zambia and Tanzania, examined previously collected fossils and analyzed specimens in museums around the world in an attempt to understand life in the Triassic across different geographic areas.

Findings from the past decade of fieldwork and analysis are reported in a publication of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, appearing online March 28. In total, 13 research papers detailing new fossils, geologic discoveries and ecological findings in the Triassic make up the society's 2018 special-edition volume, published once a year in a competitive submission process.

"Most of what we know about the major mass extinction is from the South African Karoo Basin. I was always interested in understanding, do we see the exact same pattern around the world, or do we not?" said co-editor Christian Sidor, a UW biology professor and curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture.

"The fossil record can be great to understand timing and sequence, but not always great at looking at things in a geographic context."

Since 2007, Sidor and his team of students, postdoctoral researchers, paleontologists and geologists have visited the Ruhuhu Basin of Tanzania five times and the Luangwa and mid-Zambezi basins of Zambia four times. They lived there for about a month at a time, often hiking for miles to find fossil sites and camping in villages and national parks. Once, they were even awakened by the stomping and calls of elephants only feet from their camp.

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Each site in Tanzania and Zambia contains its own collection of fossils from the Triassic and other periods, but the goal of this decade-long project was to look across locations hundreds and thousands of miles apart to find similarities in the fossil records. Two papers describe the regional patterns and similarities across much of what used to be Pangea.

"These papers highlight what a regional perspective we now have -- we have the same fossils from Tanzania, Antarctica, Namibia and more," Sidor said. "We're getting a much better Southern Hemisphere perspective of what's going on in the Triassic."

Most of the papers in the special edition discuss new fossil findings from the paleontological digs. One explains the discovery of a new species of lizard-like reptile called a procolophonid. Another details Teleocrater, an early dinosaur relative that walked on four crocodile-like legs. This finding was reported in Nature last year, but the new paper describes the animal's anatomy in fuller detail.

Most of the remaining papers describe other animals that were present in the Triassic besides the early dinosaurs.

"This was a time when dinosaurs were just stepping onto the stage, and they were not very big and not very remarkable animals then," Sidor said. "These papers really round out what dinosaurs were competing with before they became the dominant reptiles on land."

In addition to the 13 papers that make up the special edition, the team has published 24 peer-reviewed papers as part of this project in the past decade.

More than 2,200 fossils were collected across Tanzania and Zambia over the last decade of fieldwork. Of the special edition's 27 authors, many participated in fieldwork with Sidor since 2007, including co-editor Sterling Nesbitt, a former postdoctoral researcher at the UW and now an assistant professor at Virginia Tech.

Fossil hunting is an experience every member of Sidor's lab can have, from undergraduates through postdoctoral researchers. Sidor and a team are going again this August.

"This has been what my lab has done, and all of my students have been involved in some way," he said. Four of Sidor's students and two postdoctoral researchers are co-authors of papers in the new special edition.
Galaxies and dark matter go together like peanut butter and jelly. You typically don't find one without the other.

Therefore, researchers were surprised when they uncovered a galaxy that is missing most, if not all, of its dark matter. An invisible substance, dark matter is the underlying scaffolding upon which galaxies are built. It's the glue that holds the visible matter in galaxies -- stars and gas -- together.

"We thought that every galaxy had dark matter and that dark matter is how a galaxy begins," said Pieter van Dokkum of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, lead researcher of the Hubble observations. "This invisible, mysterious substance is the most dominant aspect of any galaxy. So finding a galaxy without it is unexpected. It challenges the standard ideas of how we think galaxies work, and it shows that dark matter is real: it has its own separate existence apart from other components of galaxies. This result also suggests that there may be more than one way to form a galaxy."

The unique galaxy, called NGC 1052-DF2, contains at most 1/400th the amount of dark matter that astronomers had expected. The galaxy is as large as our Milky Way, but it had escaped attention because it contains only 1/200th the number of stars. Given the object's large size and faint appearance, astronomers classify NGC 1052-DF2 as an ultra-diffuse galaxy. A 2015 survey of the Coma galaxy cluster showed these large, faint objects to be surprisingly common.

But none of the ultra-diffuse galaxies discovered so far have been found to be lacking in dark matter. So even among this unusual class of galaxy, NGC 1052-DF2 is an oddball.

Van Dokkum and his team spotted the galaxy with the Dragonfly Telephoto Array, a custom-built telescope in New Mexico they designed to find these ghostly galaxies. They then used the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii to measure the motions of 10 giant groupings of stars called globular clusters in the galaxy. Keck revealed that the globular clusters were moving at relatively low speeds, less than 23,000 miles per hour. Stars and clusters in the outskirts of galaxies containing dark matter move at least three times faster. From those measurements, the team calculated the galaxy's mass. "If there is any dark matter at all, it's very little," van Dokkum explained. "The stars in the galaxy can account for all the mass, and there doesn't seem to be any room for dark matter."

The researchers next used NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii to uncover more details about the unique galaxy. Gemini revealed that the galaxy does not show signs of an interaction with another galaxy. Hubble helped them better identify the globular clusters and measure an accurate distance to the galaxy.

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The Hubble images also revealed the galaxy's unusual appearance. "I spent an hour just staring at the Hubble image," van Dokkum recalled. "It's so rare, particularly these days after so many years of Hubble, that you get an image of something and you say, 'I've never seen that before.' This thing is astonishing: a gigantic blob that you can look through. It's so sparse that you see all of the galaxies behind it. It is literally a see-through galaxy."

The ghostly galaxy doesn't have a noticeable central region, or even spiral arms and a disk, typical features of a spiral galaxy. But it doesn't look like an elliptical galaxy, either. The galaxy also shows no evidence that it houses a central black hole. Based on the colors of its globular clusters, the galaxy is about 10 billion years old. Even the globular clusters are oddballs: they are twice as large as typical stellar groupings seen in other galaxies.

"It's like you take a galaxy and you only have the stellar halo and globular clusters, and it somehow forgot to make everything else," van Dokkum said. "There is no theory that predicted these types of galaxies. The galaxy is a complete mystery, as everything about it is strange. How you actually go about forming one of these things is completely unknown."

But the researchers do have some ideas. NGC 1052-DF2 resides about 65 million light-years away in a collection of galaxies that is dominated by the giant elliptical galaxy NGC 1052. Galaxy formation is turbulent and violent, and van Dokkum suggests that the growth of the fledgling massive galaxy billions of years ago perhaps played a role in NGC 1052-DF2's dark-matter deficiency.

Another idea is that gas moving toward the giant elliptical NGC 1052 may have fragmented and formed NGC 1052-DF2. The formation of NGC 1052-DF2 may have been helped by powerful winds emanating from the young black hole that was growing in the center of NGC 1052. These possibilities are speculative, however, and don't explain all of the characteristics of the observed galaxy, the researchers said.

The team is already hunting for more dark-matter deficient galaxies. They are analyzing Hubble images of 23 other diffuse galaxies. Three of them appear similar to NGC 1052-DF2.

"Every galaxy we knew about before has dark matter, and they all fall in familiar categories like spiral or elliptical galaxies," van Dokkum said. "But what would you get if there were no dark matter at all? Maybe this is what you would get."
Human footprints found off Canada's Pacific coast may be 13,000 years old, according to a study published March 28, 2018 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Duncan McLaren and colleagues from the Hakai Institute and University of Victoria, Canada.

Previous research suggests that, during the last ice age (which ended around 11,700 years ago), humans moved into the Americas from Asia across what was then a land bridge to North America, eventually reaching what is now the west coast of British Columbia, Canada as well as coastal regions to the south. Along the pacific coast of Canada, much of this shoreline is today covered by dense forest and only accessible by boat, making it difficult to look for the archaeological evidence which might support this hypothesis. In this study, the research team excavated intertidal beach sediments on the shoreline of Calvert Island, British Columbia, where the sea level was two to three meters lower than it is today at the end of the last ice age.

The researchers uncovered 29 human footprints of at least three different sizes in these sediments, which radiocarbon dating estimated to be around 13,000 years old. Measurements and digital photographic analyses revealed that the footprints probably belonged to two adults and a child, all barefoot. The findings suggest that humans were present on the west coast of British Columbia about 13,000 years ago, as it emerged from the most recent ice age.

This finding adds to the growing body of evidence supporting the hypothesis that humans used a coastal route to move from Asia to North America during the last ice age. The authors suggest that further excavations with more advanced methods are likely to uncover more human footprints in the area and would help to piece together the patterns of early human settlement on the coast of North America.

"This article details the discovery of footprints on the west coast of Canada with associated radiocarbon dates of 13,000 years before present," says Duncan McLaren, lead author of the study. "This finding provides evidence of the seafaring people who inhabited this area during the tail end of the last major ice age."
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On October 17, 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged mining company Rio Tinto and two former top executives with fraud for inflating the value of coal assets acquired for $3.7 billion and sold a few years later for $50 million.

The SEC's complaint, which was filed in federal court in Manhattan, alleges that Rio Tinto, its former CEO Thomas Albanese, and its former CFO Guy Elliott failed to follow accounting standards and company policies to accurately value and record its assets. Instead, as the project began to suffer one setback after another resulting in the rapid decline of the value of the coal assets, they sought to hide or delay disclosure of the nature and extent of the adverse developments from Rio Tinto's Board of Directors, Audit Committee, independent auditors, and investors.

Based on the complaint's allegations, Rio Tinto plc, Rio Tinto Limited, Albanese, and Elliott are charged with violating the antifraud, reporting, books and records and internal controls provisions of the federal securities laws. The SEC seeks permanent injunctions, return of allegedly ill-gotten gains plus interest, and civil penalties from all the defendants, and seeks to bar Albanese and Elliott from serving as public company officers or directors.

According to the SEC's complaint, in 2011, Rio Tinto acquired coal assets in Mozambique shortly after disclosing huge losses associated with its previous large-scale acquisition of Alcan. Both acquisitions took place under Albanese's leadership. The second acquisition was also unsuccessful as it was based on the incorrect assumption that Rio Tinto could inexpensively mine, transport, and sell large quantities of high-quality coal, chiefly using barges for shipping. The SEC's complaint alleges that the project suffered setbacks almost immediately, as Rio Tinto, Albanese, and Elliott learned that there was less coal and of lower quality than expected, and that Mozambique had rejected its barge application. The complaint alleges that the drop in quantity and quality of coal, coupled with the lack of infrastructure to transport it, significantly eroded the value of the acquisition.

The complaint alleges that after already impairing Alcan twice, Rio Tinto, Albanese, and Elliott knew that publicly disclosing its second failure and rapidly declining value would call into question their ability to pursue the core of Rio Tinto's business model to identify and develop long-term, low-cost, and highly-profitable mining assets. Instead, they concealed the adverse developments, allowing Rio Tinto to release misleading financial statements days before a series of U.S. debt offerings. Rio Tinto raised $5.5 billion from U.S. investors, approximately $3 billion of which was raised after May 2012, when executives at Rio Tinto Coal Mozambique had already told Albanese and Elliott that the subsidiary was likely worth negative $680 million. The complaint alleges Albanese then repeated and reinforced the false positive outlook for the project in public statements.

The alleged fraud continued until January 2013, when an executive in Rio Tinto's Technology & Innovation Group discovered that the coal assets were being carried at an inflated value on Rio Tinto's financial statements. After an internal review allegedly triggered by the executive's report to Rio Tinto's Chairman, Rio Tinto announced that Albanese had resigned and the company reduced the value of the coal assets by more than $3 billion, or more than 80 percent. After a second reduction, Rio Tinto sold the Mozambique subsidiary for $50 million, billions of dollars below the acquisition price.

The SEC's investigation was conducted by D. Mark Cave, Jeffrey Weiss, and George Spanos and supervised by Melissa Hodgman. The SEC's litigation will be conducted by Mr. Cave, Dean M. Conway, and Gregory Miller, and supervised by Bridget Fitzpatrick. The SEC greatly appreciates the assistance and collaboration of the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority and the Australian Securities & Investments Commission.
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A man was arrested Wednesday in San Francisco after a morning hit-and-run crash killed one person and injured four others in the Dogpatch neighborhood, police said.

But the circumstances of the case remained murky, with police saying that the driver struck five subjects with his vehicle after a dispute and fight in the street.

One man hit by the vehicle died from his injuries at noon, said Brent Andrew, a San Francisco General Hospital spokesman. Three of the injured were in serious condition and another in fair condition, Andrew said.

Police said the driver, who was not identified, barreled into the pedestrians at about 10:30 a.m. near Illinois and 24th streets.

Sources familiar with the investigation told The Chronicle that police are investigating whether the victims were hit after they tried to break into the drivers vehicle. But a man who witnessed the incident said the driver was clearly the aggressor.

The industrial area where the incident took place was listed as a hot spot for auto burglaries in a recent Chronicle investigation.

Officer Robert Rueca, a San Francisco police spokesman, confirmed the arrest but said he was not aware of an auto burglary being connected to the hit-and-run.

The vehicle was traveling north on Illinois when it hit the five people on the sidewalk, according to police radio communications. At one point during the incident, the driver reportedly got out of the vehicle carrying an ax.

There is a major incident going on at 24th and Illinois, a dispatcher said. Suspect with an ax, probably some people already dead.

Police officers converged on the scene and blocked off the roads.

A man who said he had been walking his dog 25 feet from the crash, and declined to be identified, said the driver yelled at the other men and repeatedly used a homophobic slur.

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.

They literally said, Hey, how you doing? the witness said. This guy (the driver) is crazy as can be. He goes off and just starts yelling.

The dog-walker said that after the driver took an ax out of the vehicle, the men fought him off by hitting him with a belt before taking the ax away and chasing him back to the van.

The group continued walking on the sidewalk, the witness said. The driver swore and angrily started the vehicle too quickly, he said, killing the engine. The five men laughed, the witness said.

He said the driver started the car again and made a three-point turn.

Guy goes full throttle and plows them down, the witness said. Totally brutal.
In the shadow of Apples glamorous new headquarters, a pitched battle for housing is playing out.

A developer, Sand Hill Property Co., has been trying for four years to build homes on one of the most attractive sites in Silicon Valley, a dying mall barely a mile from where thousands of Apple employees now work.

Its vision of lots of housing, plus office and retail space, encountered fierce opposition from an organized group of longtime residents who generally oppose the construction of dense housing and prefer that Cupertino stay largely as it has been since the 1980s  a low-density bedroom community with a local mall called Vallco.

On Tuesday, in a dramatic escalation, Sand Hill Property filed an application to build about 2,400 housing units at the mall  a move that would not need approval from the Cupertino City Council.

Every day the mall declines, and we have a huge hole in the middle of Cupertino, said Reed Moulds, Sand Hill Propertys managing director. Every day this housing crisis gets even more severe. ... Change needs to happen now.

But Cupertino resident Danessa Techmanski called Sand Hill Propertys move insane because the proposal, she fears, does not adequately address the increase in traffic from an influx of office employees and residents. Shes also worried that Cupertino has lost its chance at establishing a vibrant community gathering place in a central area.

She says she doesnt want to live in a place that just has wealthy engineers and buildings that look like shoe boxes.

Thats not what California is, she added.

Sand Hill Property, which also plans nearly 2 million square feet of office space at the site, is becoming one of the first developers to use a new state law designed to outmaneuver city governments and residents opposed to dense new housing developments. The law allows developers to avoid city-imposed limits on housing construction, and environmental scrutiny often used to block projects, if they agree to lease half of the new housing as affordable units.

Paul Chinn / The Chronicle

A Sand Hill Property executive says that the firm felt it had no other choice.

Under a state mandate to set goals for adding housing, Cupertino created an eight-year plan in 2014 to add 1,064 units  a goal that falls far short of satisfying the demand of the areas burgeoning job market. As of January, the city had approved three projects that would add roughly 800 units. The Sand Hill proposal would put Cupertino ahead of plan  but still short of regional housing needs.

Residents organized under the group Better Cupertino, which promotes sensible growth that is aligned with the needs and interests of a majority of residents, have been Sand Hills biggest opponent. The group, which includes Techmanski, says results of a survey it conducted show most respondents want a mall on the Vallco site. Better Cupertino said this month that many of its supporters would back 389 or fewer apartments at the site  the amount envisioned in the citys general plan  but it opposes an urban office and housing complex with thousands of housing units. Not all members are in agreement. Techmanski said she would support up to 1,800 housing units with no new office space.

The group said it believes adding office in any amount further exacerbates the regions housing crisis and could further displace residents including students and lower-wage workers. Some said nearby office growth has increased traffic.

We are actually grabbing all of the tech people from elsewhere in the United States, and that means that we are grabbing potential economic development from elsewhere, too, said Cupertino resident Liang Chao, adding that other cities could benefit from that growth. Isnt that selfish?

Chao, who supports Better Cupertino, moved to the city in 1998 and bought her home because she liked its backyard. When she sees the redwood trees nearby, its as if I am in Lake Tahoe, she said.

Tensions between some residents and pro-housing advocates have been heated at community meetings. At one recent forum organized by Better Cupertino, Laura Foote Clark, executive director of pro-housing group YIMBY Action, was heckled for saying she was a Bay Area resident at the speakers microphone, but not specifying what city. Can you show ID every time you speak? You have to be a Cupertino resident, one audience member exclaimed. The forum had no such requirement, and Better Cupertino includes members from nearby cities.

Clark and others spoke in favor of building housing and highlighted how challenging it has become for people to live near where they work, and how younger people who used to live in Cupertino cant afford it anymore.

They are creating walls and keeping people out, said Clark, who added that she lives in San Francisco.

Councilman Steven Scharf and other residents of Cupertino say they couldnt afford to live here either when they moved to the Bay Area.

No one owed me a house in Cupertino, Scharf said at a Better Cupertino forum, adding that his daughter lives in Oakland because Cupertino is too expensive. Thats all she can afford, he said. Thats the way it is.

Even some Apple employees struggle to live in Cupertino, where the average home value is $2.3 million, according to Zillow. I would live in Cupertino if I could afford it, said an Apple engineer who declined to say his name at a Better Cupertino forum. He drives to Apples headquarters from San Jose, where he rents a two-bedroom apartment for $3,200 a month. He said he would consider buying a home in Cupertino if prices were lower.

Sand Hills new plan, called Vallco Town Center, includes 2,402 housing units along with 1.8 million square feet of office  space that could be rented out by companies like Apple. Retail space has shrunk from Sand Hills original pitch to the community in 2015 to just 400,000 square feet.

State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, who authored SB 35, which allows projects to be approved without the full environmental review and planning commission process, says he expects that more developers will choose the path outlined by the law, which allows developers to move forward without city hall approval.

We need more housing now, and we spent 50 years erecting obstacle after obstacle to housing, Wiener said. We need to remove those obstacles.

The years-long fight over the Vallco mall has included failed ballot measures and, more recently, listening sessions for the community. Moulds said part of the concern about going through the traditional city process was the potential for another ballot measure opposing the project.

There is no question that NIMBYism is on the rise, said Frank Noto, president of GCA Strategies, a San Francisco firm that helps developers deal with opposition from residents who take a not in my backyard stance.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

In his state of the city address, Cupertino Mayor Darcy Paul said he didnt see the housing situation as dire. Last year he raised concerns about how SB35 could affect the amount of office space at Vallco.

Paul said Tuesday that he wants to hear what city staff workers have to say about Sand Hill Propertys application and consider how the city should move forward.

At the end of this, we need to have a fair and ongoing conversation, Paul said.

Sand Hill Property said the city could theoretically advance or approve an alternative project to Vallco Town Center. Sand Hill Property says that it will remain open-minded in the event that happens.

Apple, Cupertinos largest employer, hasnt said much on what it thinks should happen at Vallco. The company employs more than 25,000 people in the Bay Area, including thousands of people who work at Apple Park, located close to the mall.

The company did not comment on the Vallco proposal. But at a January Cupertino Rotary Club meeting, Dan Whisenhunt, then an Apple executive overseeing real estate, was asked whether Apple has thought about actively encouraging high density housing at Vallco so that Apple employees could just walk to work. Whisenhunt said Apple absolutely thinks about that, adding the company considers transportation and housing big issues.

If we dont fix those in this area collectively, were all in bad shape, Whisenhunt said.

Wendy Lee is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: wlee@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @thewendylee

Features of proposed Vallco Town Center

2,402 units of housing, half of which will be affordable

30-acre rooftop garden

1.8 million square feet of office space

AMC Theatres, bowling alley and ice-skating rink

400,000 square feet of retail
When Steve Jobs unveiled plans for Apples new Cupertino campus seven years ago, he touted its curved glass and futuristic spaceship look  and how 12,000 employees could finally occupy a single building.

Missing from his presentation was where those employees would live.

As workers begin to move into Apple Park, the absence of an accompanying residential building boom is stirring angst.

Apple, which reported record quarterly revenue of $88.3 billion Thursday, did not say how many of its employees live in Cupertino, a city of just over 60,000. But many do not, and residents fear out-of-control traffic is disrupting its small-town character and wonder where new recruits will live.

In 2016, the most recent year for which figures are available, Apple had 25,000 employees in the Bay Area. And it continues to grow. On Thursday, Apple had more than 2,000 local hardware and software engineering jobs listed on its website.

Silicon Valley technology giants are under increasing pressure by employees and officials alike to construct housing to offset their rapid hiring. From 2010 to 2015, the region added 367,064 jobs but only 57,094 housing units, according to a 2017 report by the Silicon Valley Leadership Group and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

Making housing the responsibility of employers may seem like a throwback to the age of company towns, which faded away in the 1920s as more workers got their own automobiles and didnt have to live near factories. Now its a new set of rules because of the emergency situation of our housing conditions, said Dowell Myers, a professor of policy planning and demography at University of Southern California.

In its agreement with Cupertino to develop Apple Park, the company paid $5.85 million into an affordable housing fund  double what was required by the city. It also invested $75 million to improve infrastructure and ease traffic in several nearby cities. But housing advocates say the company can do so much more, especially now that it is expected to bring back more than $200 billion in cash from overseas accounts, thanks to favorable treatment under the new federal tax law.

Mason Trinca / Special to The Chronicle 2018

It does stand out that they havent done as much as other companies here, said Kevin Zwick, CEO of Housing Trust Silicon Valley, which supports affordable housing projects.

Consider this: Apple sold $5.9 billion in iPads in the most recent quarter  1,000 times its local affordable-housing commitment.

No tech giant has provided more than a tiny fraction of employees with housing, but Google and Facebook have made more substantial gestures. Both have discussed building housing on campus. Facebook gave $20 million to a community partnership to support affordable housing.

Mountain View approved plans in December to add nearly 10,000 housing units near Google headquarters. A Google office project in San Jose would have housing nearby under current plans.

LinkedIn, headquartered in Sunnyvale, has invested $10 million in Housing Trust Silicon Valleys fund that gives loans to affordable housing developers.

Apple said its infrastructure investments benefit our neighbors.

Long before we even broke ground on Apple Park, we have been connecting with our neighbors and doing our best to address their concerns, the company said.

Some observers say there isnt much Apple can do in Cupertino. As elsewhere in the Bay Area, some residents oppose dense housing, an attitude often labeled NIMBY, for not in my backyard.

Responsibility for the housing shortfall lies, in the end, with the cities, which approve the development plans of companies such as Apple, said Matt Regan of the Bay Area Council, a business-sponsored public policy group, which counts Apple as a member.

You have to point fingers and blame at cities before pointing blame at the companies, Regan said.

Mason Trinca/Special to The Chronicle

Last year, construction began on just 135 apartments in Cupertino, according to CoStar Group, a firm that tracks real estate data. Mountain View, by contrast, had more than 1,000 units under construction last year for its population of more than 80,000, CoStar said.

Real estate development firm KT Urban faced criticism last year over its plans to redevelop a Cupertino shopping center  adding 270 housing units, as well as other amenities  after some residents questioned what it would do to traffic. The firm pulled the project from consideration last month.

Cupertino plans to add just 1,064 housing units by 2022. So far, it has approved only three projects on a list to meet that goal, which would add roughly 800 units.

When the city of Cupertino and Apple signed the Apple Park agreement, housing on site wasnt part of the deal.

Apple owns or leases about 68 percent of Cupertinos office space, according to CoStar. That dependency put the city in an awkward position  if it pushed Apple too hard, the company could have moved elsewhere.

Wed like to stay here and pay taxes, Apple co-founder Jobs said in 2011 at a Cupertino City Council meeting, where he pitched the Apple Park project shortly before his death. If we cant, wed have to go somewhere like Mountain View and wed take our current people with us, he warned. That wouldnt be good for Cupertino and not good for us, either.

Now that Jobs spaceship has been built, it doesnt seem like Apple is going anywhere. The gleaming ring has brought some benefits to Cupertino. A visitor center has drawn tourists eager to get a look at it . Hotels are planned nearby, to cater to workers and suppliers paying a visit to the mother ship.

Even so, Apple has announced plans for a second campus outside the Bay Area for tech support employees. That will ease the pressure on the local housing market  but it highlights that an expanding economic contribution from Apple isnt a sure thing.

For a glimpse of the problems Cupertino is facing because of the giant company that calls it home, just look at the schools, which have ranked high in academic performance tests. Hurt by rising housing costs, K-8 enrollment in the Cupertino Union School District expected to drop by more than 1,000 students in the next three years, according to a recent report produced for the school district. Workers with young families cant afford homes there.

Some residents in Sunnyvales Birdland neighborhood, which borders Apple Park, have hard feelings toward the company. IrisAnn Nelson said she heard heavy-duty noise of jackhammers, digging and trucks roaring by throughout the day during construction. Even with the project mostly finished, she recently heard a high-pitched whining, metallic noise almost like an appliance turned on high at 1 a.m., which she believes came from Apple Park.

Im just tired of being lied to that its wonderful, said Nelson, who decided to buy a Google Pixel 2 last year instead of upgrading her iPhone. Its not wonderful for people who have to put up with the inconvenience.

Other residents fear traffic will spread to side streets when employees finish moving into Apple Park.

Already, the number of cars on Homestead and Wolfe (roads) alone has gone up, said Charlin Yamamoto, 39.

Apple said it has worked with residents to address their issues.

David Brandt, Cupertinos city manager, said he hasnt seen much traffic impact from Apple Park. Roughly one-third of Apple employees commute to work through alternative means such as bikes and buses, according to a city document.

Councilman Barry Chang said the city should have pushed harder in negotiations to give the company more responsibility on transportation.

The problem is not Apple, the problem is the city, Chang said. The company is paying for a traffic impact study, but Chang said he would have liked to see it also support a flyover freeway ramp that would have helped direct traffic to the campus.

There are some glimmers of hope for building more homes near Apple Park. A community meeting Monday will discuss the future of the Vallco shopping mall, where housing is being considered.

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Myers of USC believes Apple should consider investing in the project. But will it?

The city cant make Apple do anything, he said.

Wendy Lee is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: wlee@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @thewendylee

By the numbers

$88.3 billion

Apples quarterly revenue,

September-December 2017

$5.85 million

Apples affordable-housing payments to Cupertino

for Apple Park

More than 25,000

Apple employees, Bay Area (estimated)

More than 2,000

Open engineering positions

at Apple

1,064

Cupertinos goal for housing units through 2022

Roughly 800

Housing units approved

135

Housing units under construction, 2017
A coalition of technology companies, including Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Apple, Netflix and Amazon, on Wednesday is releasing a new technology they say will give consumers a higher-quality video format for streaming 4K Ultra High Definition shows, movies and games.

The 3-year-old Alliance for Open Media said the new open-source, royalty-free format, named AV1, is designed to be a new foundation of online video streaming.

Past adoption of video formats, from VHS versus Betamax to Blu-Ray versus HD-DVD, has been slowed by costly marketing, licensing and intellectual property battles. Alliance members say the adoption of AV1 should be faster due to the range of companies that contributed technology to the effort.

Even the smallest companies were active on our weekly calls and making active contributions, said Matt Frost, Googles head of strategy and partnerships. Frost helped found the alliance with Gabe Frost (no relation), principal engineering manager for Microsofts operating systems group.

The Alliance, based in Wakefield, Mass., shortens its name to AOMedia. AV1, which stands for AOMedia Video Codec 1.0, is designed to succeed current streaming video formats VP9, developed by Google, and High Efficiency Video Coding, or HEVC, developed by the Moving Picture Experts Group.

AV1 can compress the data in 4K UHD video so that it can stream more efficiently to viewers. Its built with support for Chrome, Firefox and Edge browsers, and could be used on Web videos this year, according to Matt Frost and Gabe Frost.

The fact that many big-name tech companies are on board may not prevent another standards war, but it likely will make it shorter and less damaging to consumers, said Jon Peddie, president of Jon Peddie Research of Tiburon.

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However, the alliance will still have to persuade hardware makers to embed AV1 support in devices. This never happens as fast as one would like, and then when it does, it becomes part of the fabric of our systems and the utilization of them, Peddie said. Open standards always win.
Californias health insurance program for the poor, Medi-Cal, has seen a greater rise in spending on prescription drugs to treat opioid use disorders  and a bigger increase in the number of the drugs the program pays for  than almost any other state, according to data from the Urban Institute think tank.

From 2011 through 2017, the amount of Medi-Cal-covered drugs that treat opioid use disorders  buprenorphine, naloxone and naltrexone  rose 775 percent, from 583,000 units to a projected 5.1 million, according to an analysis released by the institute Tuesday. Only three states  Nevada, Oregon and Washington  saw more dramatic jumps.

During the same period, the number of drugs covered by Medicaid programs across the United States rose 183 percent, from 54 million units to 153 million units. (Units arent the same as a dose of medication, but studies like this use units as a measure of drug quantity because the amount of a drug used can vary per prescription, the studys authors noted.)

In California, this translated to a 483 percent rise in spending by Medi-Cal, Californias Medicaid program, on the opioid crisis. In 2011, Medi-Cal spent $4 million on these treatment drugs, compared with nearly $24 million in 2016, according to previously released data from the Urban Institute.

Only Colorado and Nevada saw greater increases in their Medicaid spending on the drugs. Compared with Californias 483 percent spending increase, Colorado and Nevada had spikes of 956 percent and 1,834 percent, respectively.

In California, a combination of new federal funding, state programs and recently loosened restrictions on prescribing medications to treat opioid addiction are driving the rise in buprenorphine and naloxone usage and costs.

Buprenorphine, which comes in a tablet, injection or a film placed under the tongue, is considered one of the most effective medication-assisted treatments for opioid use disorder. It has been shown to reduce cravings for opioids, and is included as part of a long-term therapy for chronic addiction. Naloxone is an emergency antidote, in an injectable or inhaleable form, that is administered in the event of an overdose. Bay Area public health officials recently began receiving shipments of naloxone in the first state-funded effort to get the antidote to local health departments across California.

Prior to 2015, Medi-Cal benefits for substance use disorders included inpatient and outpatient services. But a 2015 pilot program called the Drug Medi-Cal Organized Delivery System expanded the benefits to also cover medication-assisted treatment like buprenorphine. Separately, also in 2015, the state made it easier for physicians to prescribe buprenorphine by lifting some administrative requirements.

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California in 2017 also began receiving a two-year, $90 million federal grant to address the opioid epidemic through the 21st Century Cures Act, passed by Congress in 2016. This money is being used to implement the California Medication Assisted Treatment Expansion Project, which aims to improve addiction treatment, including buprenorphine, in rural regions and American Indian tribal communities that have historically struggled to access substance abuse therapies.

Local public health officials were encouraged by Medicaid beneficiaries gaining access to medication-assisted treatment.

This is a very positive sign were beginning to take the steps to reverse the opioid epidemic, said Dr. Matt Willis, public health officer for Marin County. Over a period of 15 years, we generated an entire cohort of people who were dependent on opioids. This is the treatment. We hope to continue to see more and more people getting the care they need.
WeWork, a shared-workspace renter, gobbled up even more space in San Francisco on Tuesday with the signing of its largest lease in the city  a nearly 250,000-square-foot deal that further solidified the companys presence as one of the citys biggest commercial tenants.

The company will transform the Union Bank Building, a mid-60s brutalist tower at 430 California St., into another of WeWorks signature trendy and amenity-heavy co-working spaces, its 13th in the city. The bank, which sold the building in 2016, has been moving employees out over the past 18 months and will completely vacate the tower ahead of WeWorks projected opening in February.

WeWork has grown ferociously in San Francisco over the past year, and it is now the citys fourth-largest tenant behind Wells Fargo, Salesforce and PG&E. This growth has accelerated over the past 12 months, as it roughly doubled its leased space in 2017, according to Robert Sammons, research director for Cushman & Wakefield. The California Street building will expand its footprint by another 33 percent.

Certainly in the last year they have become one of the fastest-growing tenants in San Francisco, Sammons said. If they can find space they will continue to grow, although its becoming harder and harder to find space in San Francisco.

The additional 247,000 square feet in the Financial District will give WeWork a total of 1.04 million square feet and 13 locations in the city. It is the largest lease signed in San Francisco in 2018  and not the last one that WeWork plans to sign in the city this year.

We are seeing in San Francisco, and lots of other markets in the West and the U.S., that we have more demand than supply, which is a good problem to have, said Jon Slavet, WeWorks managing director for U.S. and Canada West. Were constantly digging and searching and negotiating for more place.

In the past eight years, the New York City company has propelled itself from a scrappy startup with a few locations to a corporation valued in the tens of billions of dollars, with more than 200 locations around the world.

WeWork leases out shared work spaces in cities around the world to people who dont have traditional offices, like freelancers or entrepreneurs, and draws them in with amenities like gym membership discounts, free snacks and beer. (Amid concerns over permits, it shut the free-flowing beer in California locations, replacing it with kombucha.)

While startups remain its bread and butter, WeWork has also started doing deals with larger companies like Microsoft and Amazon, who house traveling employees or those working far from a traditional office.

This current deal is notable because WeWork will take over the entire high-rise, instead of just leasing out a floor or two, as it usually does.

When it opens, it will have familiar neighbors. There are already two other WeWork locations nearby, one at 600 California St. and another at 650 California St.

Slavet said this additional space will help the company accommodate demand. Many locations in San Francisco  including three floors in Salesforce Tower, an unfinished space that is still concrete and boxes  have a waiting list.

WeWorks $20 billion valuation, far higher than comparable space-leasing companies, has raised eyebrows. Other companies that rent work spaces, like Regus, arent as richly valued when compared to their annual revenues.

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Alexander Paci, a tech industry analyst at CB Insights, says he considers WeWork to be a real estate company with compelling technology aspects.

WeWork considers itself a tech company that acquires physical spaces to deliver its services. (Its like if you asked Time Warner Cable if they were in the business of fiber-optic cables, Slavet said.)

The debate over how to value WeWork hasnt stopped it from snapping up office space. In New York City, where it leases 2.9 million square feet in 50 buildings, it is the second largest tenant, behind JPMorgan Chase. Last year it bought the iconic Lord & Taylor building on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan to serve as its new headquarters.

In San Francisco, the transition of 430 California St. from financial services to tech-powered co-working space is the latest example of the citys shifting economy. Over the past decade, professional services companies that have long dominated the Financial District have been shrinking, with law firms, insurance companies and banks consolidating into smaller offices and in some cases moving back-office functions to cheaper markets.

And as WeWork continues to absorb more and more space in San Franciscos tight real estate market, commercial brokers and building owners are watching the company carefully, said Daniel Cressman, executive managing director with Newmark Knight Frank.

Its a new generation, a new era, he said. Clearly WeWork is delivering a product that has gotten tenants attention.
Nurse Vivian only ever once pulled an April Fools Day joke on me. She ran into my bedroom, threw open the curtain and said, Look, Kevin, theres a circus in town. There was no circus, never once in South Ozone Park, unless, of course, you consider Brother X and Brother Not X to be a clown act.

Were a little bit country, a little bit rock n roll in the outer, outer, outer Excelsior. Zane goes to public school, so he is off the week before this week, and Aidan goes to parochial school, so he is off the next week. This saves me from having to take the family on a spring-break vacation, but makes scheduling my husband Brians four jobs, and my two jobs, a little difficult.

What we do know is that all four of us will be off on Sunday, April 1, which is the first time that Easter has fallen on April Fools Day since 1956, which was before even I was born. Easter Fools Day. Someone should have thought of this a lot earlier, because its a great way to mix the sacred with the profane. The Fisher-Paulsons think of ourselves as being in the Roman branch of Christianity, but in truth we are secular Catholics: We go in for the culture and the singing, but generally skip the genuflecting parts.

Before Brian and I drove those seven Pekingeses across the country in our great escape from New Jersey, we had read Armistead Maupins Tales of the City. So when we got here, we found the Irish coffee at the Buena Vista Cafe, and we knew to pronounce the chocolate Gear-uh-deli, and I figured that round about the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox, I would get to the sunrise Easter service on Mount Davidson. Heres todays fun facts: The 103-foot cross on top of Mount Davidson was built specifically to host the Easter service. It was made out of concrete after one before it burned down.

Never did get to that service. This wasnt a crisis of faith as much as a crisis of caffeine. The notion of climbing to the highest point in San Francisco by 6:30 in the morning just seemed daunting. This will be the 93rd year of the service, and I still doubt I can make it up that mountain. More likely, we will go to Most Holy Redeemer in the Castro, where they have their Saturday night Easter Vigil at a respectable hour, and the next morning in the Bedlam Bungalow, I can throw a vegan ham into the oven, and get ready for Easter dinner with the SASBs.

Sigh. Brian, Zane and Aidan all hate lamb. Mordecai turned vegan for his midlife crisis. SASB is just about the only diner at the table easy to please (If it goes with wine, its good), so I might be serving raw carrots with Pinot Grigio. It is one of two days a year when Brian bakes bread, and that is just about all the holiday we need. That and family.

But well miss the 500 events in the rest of Fran Sancisco. Thats the problem with this city: too many damn things to do. Theres the flower show at Macys, this year called Once Upon a Springtime. Theres the Easter Egg Hunt at Fort Mason, on Easter Sunday from 10 to 11 a.m.

If youve got a bonnet, hop on down to the 27th Annual Union Street Spring Celebration, beginning at 2 p.m. Its the biggest little parade in San Francisco. There will be egg rolls, egg tosses, a bunny hop and a best-hat award.

And speaking of the sacred and the profane, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a fabulous order of queer nuns, are hosting their 39th Easter Celebration, this year at Golden Gate Park, in the West Hellman Hollow. The theme this year is Sacred Jesters and Wise Fools. Get the kids in early (10 a.m.-noon) for the egg hunt and face painting (mascara not included), stay for the Easter bonnet contest, then get the kids out, because after that comes the truly secular Catholic stuff: Hunky Jesus and Foxy Mary contest.

And for the not quite sacred and not quite profane, San Francisco will host its 40th Annual St. Stupids Day parade, on Sunday, April Fools Day, starting at the Transamerica Pyramid and meandering through the stations of the stupid over to Washington Square Park. Wear something silly, bring confetti and prepare to be dazzled by the 2-minute talent show.

The difference between South Ozone Park and Fran Sancisco? Here, theres always a circus in town.
Just as last year was all about the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love, 2018 is all about  well, everything that happened in 1968. It was the highest of highs, thanks to rock music and drugs, and the lowest of lows, due to assassinations, the debacle that was the Democratic convention in Chicago, and the ongoing Vietnam War.

It was the doomed war in Southeast Asia that made up the program for the Broadcast Legends spring luncheon. The war  and radios role.

The ranks of the Legends, a group of radio and television veterans in all phases of those industries, obviously includes Vietnam War vets, and four of them recalled those times.

Moderated by David F. Jackson, the panel comprsed Bay Area Radio Hall of Famers John Mack Flanagan and Dan Ethen, along with Michael Bennett and Steve Dini.

All four were drafted. Bennett was an MP (military policeman). Dini, whod been on KBAY in San Jose when Uncle Sam called, began as an MP, then worked in MARS (Military Affiliated Radio Systems). Ethen did a radio show from Pleiku and helped build a network of transmitter stations covering Vietnam. Flanagan, whod been in radio for two years, served as a radio operator in the I Corps, a major supply unit. They all faced constant danger, whether doing guard duty, like Flanagan, or riding in convoys, like Bennett. When Jackson asked the panel, Were you ever close to getting hit? Dini replied, Only every day.

The vets had little good to say about Good Morning Vietnam, the 1987 film with Robin Williams portraying an upbeat Armed Forces Radio DJ. I wanted to strangle him, said Bennett. The only thing good about it was that wed survived another night.

The bad memories did not end with their return home. They were vilified by antiwar protesters. Landing in Hawaii, Dini remembers, people at the airport called us baby-killers  and they were spitting on me.

Flanagan also was ostracized.

And I just did what my country told me to do.

As for Vietnam, none of the vets has visited.

I made it through there once, said Flanagan, and thats enough for me.

After his return, Flanagan got various radio jobs, beginning in Tucson, before landing in San Francisco at KFRC, becoming one of the stations most popular voices. Ethens former radio employer sent him to Las Vegas to help rebuild stations there. Bennett attended college and scored jobs at local stations and with Metro Traffic. Dini landed at stations in Santa Clara and San Jose.

It was an emotional hour for Flanagan, who received a U.S. Army Distinguished Service Award.

Its hard to believe, he said at the luncheon in South San Francisco. You sit here in South City and somewhere back in your head, its this place and the sounds, the deaths, the stuff you saw. You cant believe it, but it happened.

No recycled jokes: Maureen Langan, one of the brighter lights on KGOs weekend talk show schedule, is doing her stand-up thing this month at The Marsh, with a solo show, Daughter of a Garbageman. Langan, whos been on HBO and other networks, is funny but she notes: What may surprise people are the very personal moments and the level of emotion that they wont hear on radio or see on the stand-up stage. We do a lot of laughing and have a tad of eye-welling. Audiences tell me they see their own families in the show. I tell them Im sorry. She performs Fridays and Saturdays through April 28. Go to www.themarsh. org for showtimes and ticket info. Her KGO show, Hangin With Langan, airs Sundays, 7 to 10 p.m.

Sherwood: Voting is open for the Don Sherwood Awards, which the Bay Area Hall of Fame introduced last year, letting the public vote for favorite radio personalities, past and present. The winner in the Lifetime Achievement category (meaning she or he is no longer on the air) will be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Top vote-getters among active DJs and talk hosts will be honored, but not enshrined. Some 30 personalities are listed on the active ballot. Lifetime Achievement nominees are Scott Beach, Tom Campbell, Jack Carney, M. Dung, Chris Edwards, Buddy Hatton, Johnny Holliday and Ron Reynolds. Voting continues through June 1 at www.bayarearadio.org. The award is named for the legendary KSFO morning kingpin of the 60s and 70s.

They Will: It was Will & Willie time at The Marsh in the Mission the other week. Armed with a new radio affiliation (KSCO in Santa Cruz), comedian Will Durst and former Mayor (and Chronicle columnist) Willie Brown welcomed guest Heather Knight, another Chronicle columnist, but, as always, Brown dominated the show. At one point, Brown talked about shoppers buying shoes online and taking them to stores for refunds. You put some tape on the bottom of the shoes, you wear them, you take the tape off, you got new shoes. Asked Knight: Do you do that, Willie? Said Da Dapper Mayor: Not anymore!
Kristina Esfandiari has lived many lives in her 30 years.

For starters, she survived a spiritually overwhelming upbringing in a cultlike community near Sacramento.

(There was) manipulation through words and music, all done in the name of God, says Esfandiari, who moved to the Bay Area when she was 22.

Changing locale helped, as it was in San Francisco where she served as a vocalist for the shoegaze act Whirr before launching her own music career, which currently encompasses three musical projects. Theres the gloom pop of her solo effort Miserable, the rap and R&B roots of her Nghtcrwlr moniker, and her main gig: fronting the doom rock band King Woman.

Its the latter of the three that has gained Esfandiari the most attention, in part thanks to the raw, dark rage she channels on King Womans debut full-length Created in the Image of Suffering.

Released in 2017, the album is in part a reckoning for Esfandiari and her childhood, a period of her life where the discovery of self (was) something I wasnt allowed to explore. There is a palpable anger to be felt in the booming drums and distorted guitars that surround her on tracks like Hierophant, where her voice oscillates through the noise with a guttural fury. Nightmarish and ethereal, King Woman is the rare metal band to transcend its genre with a doomgaze sound that tempers the weight of Black Sabbath with the introspection of Mazzy Star.

The bands first shows took place at Bay Area venues like San Franciscos Hemlock Tavern and Oaklands Starline Social Club, making its upcoming show with Chicago post-metal trio Russian Circles on Thursday, March 29, at Great American Music Hall a much-welcomed homecoming for Esfandiari. While her bandmates continue to live locally, she moved in 2016 from Oakland to Brooklyn and now makes her home in Los Angeles.

When I left, it felt like a mom leaving her children in a way, she says. I was very invested in a lot of the younger musicians and people out there. I was watching them grow. It just felt like it was my time to move, and I had to go with that. It broke my heart, but at the same time I knew its what I had to do.

Following her intuition has always served Esfandiari well.

While King Woman began in 2009 as a solo endeavor, it soon morphed into a group effort. Esfandiari says the process of writing with bandmates Colin Gallagher, Joey Raygoza and Peter Arensdorf comes easy  although it often starts in a peculiar way.

I usually write around song titles or album titles, she explains, which sounds strange, but thats how the concepts and the songs come together for me.

In the case of Created in the Image of Suffering, the title was one on a list of options Esfandiari was considering. She remembers she had just finished tracking the albums final song, Hem, when the name of the record came to her out of the blue. My hand just started moving, and I wrote it down, she recalls. I underlined it and circled it. It just came to me and I thought, Yeah, this is the album title.

Its evident speaking with Esfandiari that music isnt simply a collection of notes and words, or even a career, for her; in many ways its a primal release of emotions that have nowhere else to go. As a genre, metal has never offered much opportunity for artists who arent willing to dig deep and scream loud. Fortunately, Esfandiari has no trouble doing that.

I think I struggled with processing my emotions growing up, she admits. I wasnt really free to express myself in a lot of ways. Sometimes I didnt have the words, because some of the emotions that we feel as humans are beyond words. Theyre feelings. They transcend that. Sometimes I would just turn my amp on and play my emotions out on my guitar. That helped me a lot.

The success of King Woman is the result of both a dogged persistence and the fact that Esfandiari doesnt feel she has any other choice. Writing songs is akin to breathing  she simply has to do it.

Currently the band is at work on a follow-up to Created in the Image of Suffering (an album that will feature an as-yet-unannounced title Esfandiari has been saving for four years), and new music from Miserable and Nghtcrwlr are on the horizon as well.

Im just always making music, she says. I dont know what the f else to do with myself.

Zack Ruskin is a freelance writer.

King Woman with Russian Circles: 8 p.m. Thursday, March 29. $21.50-$46.45. Great American Music Hall, 859 OFarrell St., S.F. www.slimspresents.com

To listen to Hierophant: https://youtu.be/GbqVHPR7A7Y
For courts considering the Trump administrations plan to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, the question will be whether this is a benign inquiry designed to produce information that protects voting rights, or a politically motivated effort to depress participation in the survey  and thus congressional representation and federal funding  in immigrant-rich states like California.

The answer is likely to determine whether the citizenship inquiry is found to be a constitutional addition to the once-per-decade census, where it last appeared in 1950. The state, in its lawsuit, offered a clue from a surprising source  a researcher from the Census Bureau itself.

In November, the researcher, Mikelyn Meyers, told a bureau advisory committee that immigrant households were already frightened of giving information to census-takers, despite a promise that their names would be strictly confidential.

One participant in a study last year feared the possibility that the census could give my information to internal security and immigration could come and arrest me, Meyers reported. She said another participant walked out of the home when an interviewer started asking about citizenship, and one Latino household began moving out of a mobile home after a Census Bureau interviewer left a note on their door.

This unprecedented groundswell in confidentiality and data-sharing concerns, particularly among immigrants or those who live with immigrants, may present a barrier to participation in the 2020 census, Meyers told the Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic and Other Populations.

Thats powerful evidence that the Census Bureau is well aware that adding the citizenship question will directly cause an undercount in the 2020 Census, state Attorney General Xavier Becerras office said in the lawsuit filed late Monday in federal court in San Francisco. New Yorks attorney general announced plans for a similar suit by multiple states.

Damian Dovarganes/Associated Press

Californias lawyers argued that the question, and its inevitable impact, would violate the governments constitutional duty to conduct an actual enumeration of the entire U.S. population, citizens and noncitizens, every 10 years.

The result, Becerra said, would be the loss of billions of dollars in federal aid to California and other states with large immigrant populations, and the likely loss of U.S. House seats, all based on census counts.

California, the lawsuit noted, has more than 10 million foreign-born residents and more than 5 million noncitizens among its population of nearly 40 million. The Legislatures fiscal analyst reported that an undercount in the 1990 census cost California $2 billion in federal funds over the next decade and an additional House seat.

But Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, whose department oversees the currently leaderless Census Bureau, said in announcing the new census question that citizenship information would help the government enforce the Voting Rights Acts protections for racial minorities.

One section of that law encourages creation of districts in which minorities would make up a majority of the eligible voters. The Justice Department, in a letter to Ross in December, said a citizenship count would aid in its enforcement by disclosing the number of potential voters in each district.

Although the Census Bureau expressed fears that the new question would discourage noncitizens from taking part in the census, no empirical data existed to justify those concerns, which were outweighed by the need for accurate citizenship data, Ross said.

The information is necessary for the Department of Justice to protect voters, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters.

She also asserted that a citizenship question had been included in every census since 1965, with the exception of 2010 when it was removed. In fact, the question was removed after the 1950 census, and transferred to a long-form questionnaire sent to 1 in 6 households each decade. In 2000 it was moved again to the American Community Survey, sent annually to about 3 million households.

The Census Bureau normally tests proposed new questions three years ahead of the decennial to determine their impact. A trial run of the next census in Rhode Island last year, however, did not include a citizenship question.

As a result, the proposed 2020 addition would be implemented blindly without any scientific evaluation, said Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Education Fund.

Vargas, also a member of the Census Bureaus advisory committee that heard Meyers report in November, said surveys are already reporting widespread and unprecedented fear of census-takers. He said he contacted Ross by phone recently and told the commerce secretary the addition of any new question would be costly and disastrous.

While surveyors promise household members that their information will be kept strictly confidential, Holly Cooper, co-director of the Immigration Law Clinic at UC Davis, said many immigrants would refuse to participate, out of fear it will be used as a registry for arrests and deportations.

The likely political impact would fall on states with majorities of Democrats, whose leaders denounced the plan.

Given President Trumps toxic rhetoric and aggressive policies toward immigrants, its clear his administration wants to include this question to discourage participation in immigrant communities, said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.

Adding a citizenship question will inject fear and distrust into vulnerable communities and cause traditionally undercounted communities to be even further underrepresented, financially excluded and left behind, said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco.

Other Democrats said the Trump administrations reliance on the Voting Rights Act rang hollow in view of the administrations support for voter ID laws and other measures that have reduced minority turnout.

An undercount will worsen underrepresentation of the very communities that law was meant to protect, state Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, and Sen. Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on the Census, said in a statement.

Weighing against the states lawsuit, however, is the Census Bureaus authority to determine census questions, and the deference courts usually give to the bureaus stated reasons.

The key question, said Hadar Aviram, a constitutional law professor at UC Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, is likely to be whether a citizenship question intrudes on the right of privacy, particularly in immigrant households.

Government lawyers will argue that were not asking about peoples intimate life, were asking about their status in the country, she said. On the other hand, Aviram said, anybody reading the news would know this an incredibly sensitive question, which conceivably would be jeopardizing the accuracy of the information.
The Orange County Sheriff's Department sought to sidestep a California law designed to limit law enforcement coordination with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, saying it would put the date an inmate will be released on its website.

"This action will enhance communication between the Sheriff's Department and our law enforcement partners to remove dangerous offenders from our community," the department said in a statement Tuesday, openly challenging California State Bill 54, otherwise known as the California Values Act, which restricts police communication with federal immigration authorities.

But critics say the measure will cast too wide a net and hand ICE information on the whereabouts of undocumented immigrants who may never be charged with a crime.

The move comes as California battles the federal government over how local authorities cooperate with federal immigration agencies. SB54 came into effect on Jan. 1, following intense criticism from the Trump administration over sanctuary policies shielding immigrants from increased risk of detention by ICE. On March 6, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against the state, alleging a trio of state laws, including SB54, violate the Constitution.

On Tuesday, Orange County's all-Republican Board of Supervisors voted to join the lawsuit, the Associated Press reported.

Inmate information is already publicly available in a database called "Who's in Jail" for Orange County, south of Los Angeles. But the new rule will populate those profiles with the date an inmate will be released from custody. It won't include their immigration status, Orange County Undersheriff Don Barnes told The Washington Post on Tuesday.

However, the information will be available for anyone released, "whether their sentence was served or charges were dropped," Carrie Braun, a department spokeswoman, told The Post.

This raises the possibility that people whose charges are dropped could nevertheless fall into ICE custody, critics say.

It would "give ICE the ability to basically net all the people who pass through our jails,'" Annie Lai, co-director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic at the University of California-Irvine, told The Post.

State Sen. Kevin de Leon, D, who authored SB54, disputed the assertion that the bill harms the ability of law enforcement to hand over dangerous undocumented immigrants to ICE.

"What it does do is prevent law enforcement from acting as ICE agents, hunting down and rounding up hard-working immigrants in our communities," he said in a statement to The Post.

The bill includes provisions to lift restrictions on coordinating with ICE if law enforcement encounters major criminals, like violent offenders or drug traffickers.

Barnes said the new rule will safeguard the community.

"Our focus is on criminals, not on the community," he said, and reiterated the policy does not mean they will pursue and detain people suspected to be in the country illegally.

If they are released and reoffend, it was a preventable crime, said Jessica Vaughan, director of policy at the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, which argues for more restrictive immigration policies across the United States.

"The only people [SB54] protects is criminal aliens who are deportable," she said, adding that lawmakers are "hellbent" on punishing law enforcement rather than criminals.

De Leon disagreed.

"The notion that the California legislature is looking to punish our local law enforcement is nonsense," he said. "California is not in the business of deporting people - that's ICE's job."

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.

A number of studies have concluded immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than U.S. citizens, though a 2009 study co-authored by Vaughan disputed those findings due to "contrary information" and a lack of reliable data.

The Orange County Sheriff's Department has been the beneficiary of tighter immigration enforcement.

The department estimates it generates $27 million in revenue annually from a contract with ICE to house detainees waiting for deportation proceedings, Braun said. The original contract in 2010 called for 838 beds. That increased last May by 120 beds, Braun said.

More detainees means more revenue, which is used to enrich the department's general fund, a spokesperson told SCPR last May.

Braun told The Post that the new department policies regarding public release dates were not affected by that contract or the revenue it brings. ICE did say how much it has provided to the department.

ICE, which has been critical of SB54, said the Sheriff's Department's new policy is encouraging, agency deputy director Tom Homan said in a statement.

Sheriff Sandra Hutchens and the department "have been a valued partner of ICE for many years," he said.
The Trump administration announced late on Monday that it would be adding a question on citizenship status to the 2020 census.

It did so despite contrary advice from experts within the Census Bureau, civil rights advocates, social scientists and good-government groups across the nation.

There has not been a question about citizenship on the full-form decennial census since the 1950s. Any claims to the contrary  such as the ones White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders made on Tuesday  are false.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the change was needed for accuracy. It comes in response to a December request from the Department of Justice, currently led by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Sessions, who is well known for a career spent in opposition to the expansion of voting rights for minorities, has claimed that a citizenship question will help prevent voting-rights violations.

It wont, but thats only part of the reason why the administrations announcement was immediately met with lawsuits from multiple states.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed a lawsuit on Monday night. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced on Tuesday that his state will lead a separate multistate lawsuit challenging the additional question. Other lawsuits, probably from voting-rights organizations, are sure to follow.

The best that can happen with a census that inquires into respondents citizenship status is that it undercounts the most vulnerable populations in this country, shortchanges diverse states on the funding they need to serve these populations and disproportionately shapes elections for the benefit of Republicans for the next decade.

Including a question on citizenship status will frighten noncitizens and immigrants, discouraging them from filling out the census forms and suppressing an accurate count of their population numbers.

The once-in-a-decade census numbers are widely used for matters of enormous national import. Theyre the basis for everything from the determination of congressional districts to federal spending. Major cities and diverse states  including California  suffer the most when immigrants are under-counted in the census.

Thats the best-case scenario.

The worst-case scenario is that the Trump administration uses information about where noncitizens live in the U.S. to further its draconian priorities around deportation, or ill-conceived crackdowns on unproved accusations of voter fraud. These possibilities are too inhumane to contemplate.

Theres no good reason for a citizenship question on the 2020 census, but there are plenty of reasons not to have one. If the Trump administration doesnt back down, California and other states should pursue their lawsuits until it does.

This commentary is from The Chronicles editorial board. We invite you to express your views in a letter to the editor. Please submit your letter via our online form: SFChronicle.com/letters.
Republicans as conservative as gubernatorial candidate Travis Allen are a fading breed in California and nearly extinct in San Francisco.

But Allen didnt pull any punches Tuesday during an appearance at the University of San Francisco. There, in the sanctuary city he ridicules on the campaign trail as a squalid den of petty crime and lawless liberals, few Democrats west of the Sierra were spared the wrath of the three-term assemblyman from Huntington Beach (Orange County) during a free-wheeling on-stage discussion at USF with Politicos Carla Marinucci.

Allen needs to do something to raise attention to his campaign. He is low on cash compared with his rivals, according to the most recent official fundraising reports, and trails Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom (28 percent of likely voters), Rancho Santa Fe GOP businessman John Cox (16 percent) and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (14 percent) with only 10 percent of the vote, according to a nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California survey released last week. Only two candidates will advance from the June 5 primary to the general election in November.

Allens path to the general election requires capturing the states supporters of President Trump. And, much like the president, Allen tries to woo them with bare-knuckled political attacks on his opponents.

Start with Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, who Allen said should be arrested for issuing a public warning of federal immigration raids last month. To Allen, that was felony aiding and abetting criminals.

He said Gov. Jerry Brown has done absolutely nothing in four terms as governor, except lie to Californians about promising not to raise taxes without voter approval. And he believes  like Trump  that there was rampant voter fraud in California, even though there has been no evidence of any. Allen said Brown and Secretary of State Alex Padilla swept (the evidence) under the rug  without being specific how they allegedly did so.

He mocked the absolute nonsense of Attorney General Xavier Becerras move to sue the federal government for its plan to include a question about citizenship status on the next federal census. Californians, Allen said, have a right to know who is living in their state. Allen also ripped Becerra  whom he refers to as the criminal attorney general  for his support of a state law that limits an employers cooperation with immigration authorities.

This is no different than a Mafia boss trying to intimidate witnesses not to talk to the feds, Allen said.

On the issues, its hard to get to the right of Allen. To him, the verdict is still out on climate change as it will take quite some time for the science to be settled on this. If elected, he promised to eliminate entire state departments like the California Air Resources Board, which he said has outlived its original mandate and kill Browns pet high-speed rail project.

Trump, on the other hand, can do little wrong. Not even Trumps alleged affair with a porn star  and the alleged $130,000 hush money payoff to her  could dampen Allens enthusiasm.

I dont think that anybody is perfect, Allen said. I have no idea what Donald Trump was doing on his personal time before he was president of the United States. This has no bearing on his ability to lead our country.
Northern California is rich with wildlife, and winter and early spring bring a stunning variety, from enormous whales to tiny butterflies. One of the great rewards of wildlife watching is it takes you to places you otherwise may not have visited. Here is a species-by-species list with the top spots for sightings. Bundle up and pack your binoculars.

Whales in Monterey Bay: While some humpback whales linger in Monterey Bay year around, gray whales are winters prime attraction. About 22,000 of the 40-ton mammals pass within 2 miles of the coast on their trip south from the Bering Sea. Look for them starting in mid-December. The show peaks at the end of January. Fast Raft Ocean Safaris in Monterey offers three- and four-hour tours starting at $140. (888) 635-9775. www.fastraft.com

Sea otters at Elkhorn Slough: Youll see harbor seals and sea lions along the jetty. Then, near the mouth of the jetty and harbor, you can float around and the otters often swim right up to you. Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, 1700 Elkhorn Road, Watsonville. (831) 728-2822. www.elkhornslough.org

Elephant seals at Ano Nuevo State Park: The beach, dunes and nearby island are home to the largest mainland breeding colony of elephant seals in the world. Winter is peak mating season, when 4,000-pound males spar for dominance. The birth of pups also attracts great white sharks. 1 New Years Creek Road, Pescadero. www.parks.ca.gov/anonuevo

John Kesselring

Tule elk at Point Reyes National Seashore: The largest land mammals native to California can be seen year round at along the rugged West Marin shoreline. By winter, the big bulls have shed their antlers. These magnificent creatures can weigh up to 800 pounds. They can often be seen near the parking lot at Pierce Ranch. Hikers can take the Tomales Point Trail, then when encountering a game trail on the right, trace it to a sub ridge, then slowly peer over the top to spot the herds. www.nps.gov/pore/planyourvisit/wildlife_viewing_tuleelk.htm

Eagles at Los Vaqueros Watershed, Livermore: Bald eagles and golden eagles are winter regulars at Los Vaqueros Reservoir. The best way to see them is to fish. Rent a boat and keep your binoculars ready. They can emerge at any time. www.ccwater.com/738

Sandhill cranes at Woodbridge Ecological Reserve, Lodi: The sandhill cranes arrive every fall to the Woodbridge Ecological Reserve. The evening fly-out can be spectacular, when these long, slender birds can look like something right out of Jurassic Park. See them up close on special sunset tours. www.wildlife.ca.gov/Regions/3/Crane-Tour

Monarch butterflies in Pacific Grove: The familiar orange-and-black flutterers start to arrive in October at the Pacific Grove Monarch Sanctuary, where thousands will stay through February. They take up shelter in the often foggy forest of Monterey pines, part of a city park near Point Pinos, some coming from as far away as British Columbia. Weather and volunteers permitting, museum docents will be on hand at the sanctuary from noon to 3 daily  the peak period for butterfly activity  through February. 50 Ridge Road (off Lighthouse Avenue), Pacific Grove. Sunrise to sunset daily. Free. www.pgmuseum.org/monarch-viewing

Bird banding in Bolinas

On the outskirts of Bolinas, in the southern section of Point Reyes National Seashore, the Palomarin Field Station has been banding birds and recording patterns in migration and other habits since 1966. Its the oldest banding station west of the Mississippi River. Just off the main road, its surrounded by trees and coastal scrub that protect it from the dramatic wind and waves of the Pacific. Here, visitors join the staff of Point Blue Conservation Science on a short, song-filled hike. A path that cuts through crooked oak trees and bushy ferns is lined with high, finely meshed netting that is nearly invisible from a short distance away. Once the birds hit the net, they become trapped in the folds. During winter, the nets are checked every 30 minutes from sunrise until noon Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday.

Back at the field station, netted birds are banded with a nine-digit ID number. If the bird is recaptured, this will help determine its life span. Tiny GPS and geo-locators pinpoint their migratory patterns and may help biologists and conservationists make sure they have a place to land and refuel.

Point Blue has been expanding to other hot spots along the Pacific Flyway, including Alaska. Birds are considered indicators of a healthy ecosystem, and Point Blue is increasingly focusing its research on climate change. The birds that visitors witness being banded might one day prove to be the canaries in the coal mine.

999 Mesa Road, Bolinas. Sunrise to noon Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday from Thanksgiving through May, and Tuesday-Sunday from June through Thanksgiving. Go early (between 8 and 11 a.m.) for the best chance of seeing birds. Nets are not open on rainy or windy days. Call the hotline, (415) 868-0655, Ext. 395, to check conditions. www.pointblue.org

 Maria Finn
The wine country, like just about every other kind of country, is best seen on a bike. And when you bike the wine country in Lodi, you stand a decent chance of not getting run over.

That other wine country, the Napa Valley one, is crowded. Its drivers, with all those tasted wines inside them, are often in scant condition to share a slender lane with a cyclist.

But Lodi is different. Its roads are empty and flat. Their shoulders are broader than a linebackers. When you park your bike at a winery, the person who owns the place often turns out to be the person pouring the samples. Most Lodi vintners are too busy selling their wines to visitors to sell their wineries to conglomerates.

Start at the Lodi Wine and Visitor Center on Turner Road, where the friendly folks behind the counter are giving away seven varieties of genuine Lodi dirt.

Weve got more growers and more acres and more grapes than Napa and Sonoma, said Josh Spears, an official tasting room greeter.

Sampling Lodi wine costs $8 for four sips, but sampling Lodi dirt is free. Lodi is proud of its dirt. The seven dirt varieties  Mokelumne River, Clements Hills, Jahant, Borden Ranch, Sloughhouse, Alta Mesa and Cosumnes River  sit on the visitor center counter in little jars, to be opened and felt and sniffed.

Borden Ranch is very fine and smooth, said Spears, speaking of the dirt, not the wine. But Alta Mesa is chunky.

If you ask politely, Spears will give you seven small packets of dirt in baggies to put in your saddlebag, along with a map to 59 wineries and the regions of dirt that they call home. Off you go.

Downtown, a cyclist passes beneath the historic Lodi arch and all the Lodi taverns that the fellow in the famous 1969 Creedence Clearwater Revival song said that, oh Lord, he was stuck in again. That tune, a municipally beloved cheap shot, is still the biggest thing ever to hit Lodi (John Fogerty, the fellow who wrote it, said he never visited Lodi but that the name of the town sounded like a place someone would get trapped). Keep pedaling, because none of the taverns, understandably, is laying claim to being the fateful, dead-end tavern.

Steve Rubenstein / The Chronicle

On Woodbridge Road, the Heritage Oak Winery is a great place to stop. Its got picnic tables, a restroom that you dont have to ask the key for, a cute black puppy that chases a blue ball if you throw it, and a grid of trails for hiking and bird-watching. Its also got 23 wines to try. This is a problem, said owner Tom Hoffman, because the $10 fee only entitles you to pick seven of them. But if you buy a bottle of wine, you get your $10 back. Plus, visitors may help themselves to free oranges and figs from the vineyard orange and fig trees.

According to the Heritage Oak guide, the Chardonnay tastes like pineapple, the Zinfandel tastes like jam, the Malbec tastes like plums, and the Charbono tastes like licorice and blueberries. In Lodi or anywhere else, the classier the wine, the more things besides wine it tastes like.

Hoffman, a former schoolteacher, inherited the family winery and figured he might as well see what all the fuss was about. He appreciates Lodi for not being Napa.

Napa brings in all the international tourists, he said. After they get tired of Napa, they come here.

Down the road, at the end of a grand driveway, is Berghold Vineyards, and its baronial, antique-stuffed tasting room where guide Bill Tancik will pour eight tastes for $10. Guests stand at a 28-foot-long hand-carved bar that, in previous lifetimes, saw duty at a speakeasy and a brothel. Tancik does not tell that part to everyone.

In the next room is a mechanical music contraption with a dozen different instruments that play by themselves when Tancik pushes a button. Theres not even a slot to drop a quarter in. The machine makes people smile, and people who smile are more likely to spend $38 for a bottle of thick wine that the Berghold people named Crankcase because, Tancik said, it resembles motor oil.

After you get hungry from lugging around all the free dirt, stop at the Lodi Airport Cafe to have lunch and watch the rookie skydivers at the airfield next door. The restaurant, decorated with antique airplane parts, is well known for its home-baked focaccia. Waitress Ashlie Baker says you better not have it before you go skydiving.

Or the focaccia might not stay with you, she said.

At the Parachute Center, it costs $100 to jump out of an airplane. That includes the parachute and also the services of the instructor whom you are strapped to. No reservations necessary.

One of the pilots said few newbies chicken out once theyre actually in the airplane.

Theres no refund if you dont jump, the pilot said. Besides, if youre someone whos going to totally, totally freak out, youre not going to come here to begin with.

If you weigh more than 200 pounds, its an extra $1 per pound service charge.

Thats standard in the world of parachuting. If youre offended, climb back on the bike, which is just the thing to help shed unwanted pounds and save extra parachute-jumping fees.

Armed with focaccia, free oranges and figs, a saddlebag full of dirt and a reasonably restrained number of wine tastes, a cyclist is in good shape to finish the 25-mile loop back to the visitor center. This being late winter, the grapes bound for vintage 2018 have yet to show themselves.

A barren vine in Lodi looks a lot like a barren vine in Napa, and with fewer people fussing over it.

Steve Rubenstein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: srubenstein@sfchronicle.com

IF YOU GO

Visit Lodi bike routes: www.visitlodi.com/things-to-do/bike-routes. Includes route guides to nine different area bike rides, most of them easy half-day loops through the vineyards. The various routes include visits to Lodi Lake, Cosumnes River Preserve, nearby towns and birdwatching sites. For the ambitious, there are turn-by-turn directions for an all-day ride from Lodi through the delta to Sacramento, with return to Lodi by Amtrak train.

Good to know: Bring water, a helmet, sunscreen and  if you get a flat tire  patience.
After years spent photographing a society of Turks living in the remote western frontier of China, Carolyn Drake had a portfolio honest enough for publication in a 2009 National Geographic.

But she wanted to push the portfolio beyond documentary and into art. So she took her printed images to the people in the pictures, along with colored pencils, scissors and glue, then asked her subjects to mark them up, cut them out, write messages over the images and re-create them any way they saw fit.

The resulting 32 photo collages form Carolyn Drake: Wild Pigeon, the inaugural exhibition in a gallery dedicated to recent acquisitions by the Department of Photography at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The gallery is conveniently located next to the museum coffee bar, and Wild Pigeon should be the first stop when freshly caffeinated.

Drakes study of the Uighur (pronounced Weegur) people is not something that can be appreciated in passing. The images take some effort on the part of the viewer because the point is to blur the line of who is in control of telling the story, says Drake, 46, a graduate of Brown University who recently settled in Vallejo.

The Uighurs are a Muslim civilization with their own language and culture that isolates them from the surrounding Chinese. Drake came upon them after spending a year in Ukraine on a Fulbright scholarship. She headed farther east by bus and crossed the border from Kyrgyzstan into China by foot.

I knew there would be Turkish people there, she says. What surprised me was to find a seemingly self-sustained agricultural community that felt vibrant. They were nonindustrialized.

Drake continued on to industrialized Istanbul, where she lived for six years while working as a freelance feature photographer. Whenever she got a break, she would make the six-hour flight to spend a month or so with the Uighurs. She made 10 trips, and was arrested and interrogated just once by national police. She got off by insisting she was just a tourist  though her images are not what a tourist might shoot.

Drake took a lot of care to ensure that her photos did not portray the Uighurs as medieval, and she was sensitive to issues of control inherent in documentary photography.

I wanted to resist making stereotype images that made these people look primitive, she says.

Her attempt to put the Uighur voice to her photos started with a tape recorder. But she did not get far with that. The Uighurs were afraid to talk. They were unafraid, however, to mark up the pictures. Drake exhibited these collaborative artworks at a photography fair in London two years ago. Curator Clement Cheroux saw them and purchased them after he got the job as senior curator of photography at SFMOMA.

This is the museum premiere of Wild Pigeon, and to fill the new gallery, the 32 collages are complemented by nine unaltered images. On the floor is a collage of hand-embroidered Turkish rugs that reference Wild Pigeon, a short story written by a Uighur that the show is titled after. People are invited to walk on this art, sit on it or lie on it, in order to discover words embroidered into the rugs.

By bringing these elements together, Im trying to create a kind of storytelling that is  like the world  tactile, puzzling and multifaceted, says Drake. Its an attempt to let go of some of my own control over the images and introduce voices of people who have been stereotyped and silenced by outsiders.

Sam Whiting is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: swhiting@sfchronicle.com Instagram: @sfchronicle_art

Carolyn Drake: Wild Pigeon: Through Sept. 23. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 151 Third St., S.F. www.sfmoma.org
A Google search for the Byron Hotel, an abandoned former resort on private property near Discovery Bay, yields a number of predictable results: ghost stories detailing a man in white rags, a child running around the grounds, or restless spirits of multiple casualties who died at the hotel following a horrific train accident nearby. If you ask some Bay Area locals, they might tell you about a deadly fire in an elevator and warn you not to go, lest you get yourself into trouble for trespassing.

Every town has a destination or two whose name is invoked in conversations about spooky local hotspots, and the Byron Hotel  once officially known as the Byron Hot Springs  is just that to young citizens of the deep East Bay.

It makes sense that kids would sensationalize the site. Opened in 1889 by Lewis Mead, the hotel was built around 57 sulphuric hot springs. It attracted some stars of Hollywood's silver screen, but was "largely patronized by rheumatics and those suffering from various other diseases," according to a San Francisco Chronicle article dated June 29, 1890.

There is some truth to the folk tales people tell about it today: In its early days it was indeed devastated by fires  twice. And then, during World War II, it became an interrogation camp of sorts called Camp Tracy, where Japanese and German prisoners of war were questioned with the help of the hot springs. It's been many things since then, but now it sits unoccupied and up for sale.

A history of fires and tragedy

The rumors that float around today are mostly not true. The major fires that ravaged the building in the early 20th century  one in 1901, and another in 1912  didn't take any lives, nor does it sound like they were very traumatic for the occupants. One guest, identified as Miss Rose Peterson, cheerily described the latter fire to the San Francisco Chronicle, commenting on the apparently humorous sight of everyone rushing around the building in their pajamas.

"It was funny," she said, "aside from the loss to (hotel owners) the Meads."

(Oddly enough, one guest had reportedly moved from the main hotel into an adjoining cottage the night before, due to a "presentiment that some calamity was going to happen to the place.")

Debunking the ghostly myths

Throughout its history, there have been four recorded deaths at Byron Hot Springs and Hotel. Three of them were likely due to natural causes.

Owner Lewis Mead (not to be confused with his son, Louis Mead) lost his wife Blanche Durant Mead on the day after Christmas in 1905, according to Byron Hot Springs historian Carol A. Jensen. Blanche Mead died in a residential home on the property, near the hotel.

"Today we'd call it a stroke," she tells SFGATE. "But at the time they called it 'brain fever.' She died at the Byron Hot Springs."

Then, in mid-January of 1906, Albert G. McElroy, a "wealthy and influential man of Philadelphia" died at the Hot Springs, and in July 1909, San Francisco Port Inspector P.C. Hynes died there, two weeks after he had had a stroke. Foul play was not suspected in either instance.

The fourth death, however, was caused by a tragic accident.

The Byron train disaster of 1902

On Dec. 20, 1902, a passenger train called the Owl was traveling from Oakland to Los Angeles when steam from the flue dripped into the fire box of the engine, extinguishing the fire needed to keep the train moving. The Owl halted. There was, by coincidence, another train 30 minutes behind, so two brakemen walked up the tracks with red lanterns to signal to the Stockton train, called the Flyer, to slow down.

The Flyer's engineer saw the Owl's lights, but not the brakesmen's lanterns, and mistakenly assumed the halted train was out of the way on an adjacent track. The Stockton Flyer rammed into the Owl, killing 11 people onboard almost instantly and injuring more than a dozen more. Eight of those who were evacuated alive were taken to a makeshift medical ward at the Byron Hotel to be cared for. The Hot Springs staffed a prominent doctor named Dr. Bird, and he made himself available to tend to the wounded. One young man, named Clarence Olufs, sadly died in the hotel's office a half hour after the wreck.

"Little knots of people gathered about the scene of the disaster some little distance down the track from the station at Byron or in the office of the Byron Hotel," reads the San Francisco Chronicle on Dec. 22, 1902, "where eight of the injured victims were cared for and one sufferer was mercifully relieved from the agony of his wounds."

As the Chronicle continued, the 22-year-old Olufs, who was a UC Berkeley student from Fresno, was conscious until the end.

"'Poor mamma. I was just going home to see her,' were his last words."

Byron Hot Springs becomes Camp Tracy

One less-tragic rumor is true: The hot springs were beloved by the glitterati. Joe DiMaggio, Charlie Chaplin, Fatty Arbuckle, Mae West, Jack London, Clark Gable, and "talkie" stars Marceline and Alice Day all visited the springs at some point during its time as a resort.

But by the beginning of WWII, the hotel, now owned by Lewis Mead's second wife Mae, closed.

In 1941, the land became Camp Tracy, a WWII Interrogation Camp where the U.S. military secretly questioned prisoners of war. But even as far as interrogation camps go, it was odd  the German and Japanese prisoners kept there were reportedly permitted to use the hot springs in hopes that it would encourage them to speak.

By pretty much all available accounts, officers at the camp treated prisoners "gently," with interrogators acting more like translators. Nisei were hired to speak with prisoners and serve home-cooked Japanese fare.

Army Maj. Alex Corbin, who researched Camp Tracy for his masters thesis (and eventually, a book), read through declassified documents to understand how prisoners of war were treated while there.

"Unlike the harsh coercive tactics used in Iraq," he said, "the work at Camp Tracy utilized kindness, friendliness and cultural understanding to glean important information about Japanese morale, ship armaments and military installations."

It was, apparently, rather effective, but there were some coercive tactics involved in getting information as well. Nisei workers sometimes posed as fellow prisoners to gain intel, and rooms were bugged to eavesdrop on conversations.

But there was never any brutality against prisoners, as a former officer, Al Nipkow, said in 2010. It just wasn't allowed.

"There was a German sailor who had severe appendicitis (when he arrived)," Jensen says. "It took a while to get him to get him to medical assistance but he didn't die. He was taken to a medical facility where he had his appendix removed. Then he stood trial. I've never heard anyone in that time who died."

The Byron Hotel in the modern era

After the war, the building changed hands several more times. It was owned by the Greek Orthodox Church at one point, and other various owners who wanted to restore the springs. It experienced another fire in 2005. But more recently, it was owned by David Fowler of East Bay Associates. Fowler, like many before him, wanted to bring it back to its original glory.

"Just look at this place," he said to the San Francisco Chronicle upon a 2008 visit. "It has history, beauty and romance. If I do a primo job, people will come."

Fowler had hoped to have the place refurbished and up and running by 2011, but the project was stalled.

"Politely put, there are issues with the county," says Jensen. The property was lost in foreclosure, and, now owned by an investment banking firm, it's up for sale again.

A history of hauntings?

If you ask Jensen, who has written a book about the Byron Hot Springs, she'll give you a few theories for why people believe the building is haunted  or "boogie boogie," as she says.

Chief among the tales is a true one: Back in the mid-1960s, a teenager named Kathy Armstrong Leighton took some friends from her high school to the top of the Byron Hotel. The local Brentwood paper reported on their party with some humor, writing that odd sounds were heard coming from the hotel before ending the article with, "By the way, happy birthday, Kathy."

Nowadays, some people who come (trespassing) through the abandoned, windowless building might report screams and darting shadows. But that's not due to a ghostly presence, as Jensen clarifies.

"It's a wild area," she says. "There are red-toed frogs, protected species, and a lot of owls in the area. The (owls) took up a nest in the upper floors of the hotel."

Those screams aren't from a person or a spirit, she says; they're from screech owls and barn owls.

"If you ever actually ever hear a screech owl screech, the hair on the back of your neck will stand up," she continues. "It will scare the bejesus out of you. There are also barn owls; they're quiet during the day, but when the barn owl takes off (it) will make you jump five feet."

So is the Byron Hotel haunted? We'll go with a "no."

And until the property is snapped up and efforts to revive it get going again, owners and neighbors will continue to try to keep the vandals and trespassers at bay  and that includes ghost-seekers.

Alyssa Pereira is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at apereira@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @alyspereira.


Delores Taylor, whose empathy for American Indians informed the 1971 surprise action-film hit Billy Jack, which she wrote and starred in with her husband, Tom Laughlin, died Friday in Woodland Hills (Los Angeles County). She was 85.

Her daughter, Teresa Laughlin, said her mother had dementia.

In the film, which he directed, Tom Laughlin played the title role, a tightly wound, half-American Indian Vietnam veteran and martial artist who defends a progressive school on an Arizona reservation against local bigots.

Taylor, who made her film debut as Jean Roberts, the head of the school, was the strongest thing about the film, the critic Howard Thompson wrote in The New York Times.

Thompson called her flat, singsong voice as penetrating as a lance.

The film, which was made for less than $1 million, grossed about $6 million in its initial release. But after Laughlin reacquired the rights, he mounted a major advertising campaign, and it reaped more than $80 million.

Two sequels followed  The Trial of Billy Jack (1974) and Billy Jack Goes to Washington (1977)  but a third, The Return of Billy Jack, was never completed because of an injury to Laughlin. He died at 82 in 2013.

Taylor reprised her role in the two sequels, collaborated with Laughlin on the screenplays, and was the executive producer.

Growing up in Winner, S.D., near the Rosebud Indian Reservation, Taylor recalled discrimination against the Sioux, like their being barred from her public school when she was in the third grade.

I decided, OK, if theyre not going to let them come in, Im not going to come in, too, she said in an interview for a family video.

Her father spoke to the school and it relented, she said. She then helped the frightened children acclimate to their new surroundings. But for her efforts, she believed, the schools principal forced her to repeat the third grade.

As a young adult, she said, she saw white men cut open bags of flour given by the state to needy Sioux, pour it on them and declare, Now youre white.

When she began dating Laughlin, he was shocked to see some residents of the reservation living in rusted cars in winter.

They both had a heightened sense of justice, Teresa Laughlin said in a telephone interview. Anything they saw profoundly affected them.

For their scripts, she said, Tom Laughlin wrote extensively in longhand on yellow legal pads, and together they formulated something cohesive.

Delores Judith Taylor was born in Winner on Sept. 27, 1932. Her father, Harry, was the local postmaster general; her mother, the former Ann Nelson, was a homemaker. A natural soprano, Delores won local contests for her singing and graduated from the University of South Dakota, Vermillion, where she met Laughlin.

She planned on a career in graphic arts while Laughlin acted on television and in films during the 1950s and 60s. When he started directing, Taylor helped pack lunches and find locations, she said in an interview with The Associated Press in 1971.

I became a kind of super-gofer, she said. But as Toms pictures became bigger, she added, I started doing more things. Its a job, and I like it.

She had a small role in The Born Losers (1967), in which the Billy Jack character first appeared. She was the films executive producer.

They became a really symbiotic match, Teresa Laughlin said. They were opposites in so many ways. My mother was this calm, ethereal force who glided through and never went off one end or the other. My father was volatile and explosive, in good and bad ways, with all this full-on passion all the time. She was his ballast  incredibly spiritual  and a tempering force on him.

She added: Had Billy Jack not been a coalescence of both their forces, it would have been far less interesting.

Taylor was nominated for a Golden Globe for most promising female newcomer in 1972 but rejected offers to work for filmmakers other than her husband.

As much as she loved acting, Teresa Laughlin said, she did it only because my father needed her.

Their collaboration extended to education: Unhappy with traditional educational methods, they opened a Montessori school in Santa Monica in 1959 or 1960, their daughter said, before selling it after several years.

The family liked to recall that Marlon Brando, whose son Christian had gone to the school, attended a screening of Billy Jack and praised Taylor for her performance in a scene after her character is raped, declaring it a yardstick to measure other actors by.

In addition to her daughter, Taylor is survived by a second daughter, Christina Harrington; a son, Frank; five grandchildren; and her sisters, Joan Wishart and Darlene Taylor.

Tom Laughlin, who had a passion for politics, was remembered for quixotically seeking the presidential nomination in several state primary races in 1992, 2004 and 2008.

I never saw her object, Teresa Laughlin said. She was amazing. She was forceful with her opinions privately, but once they decided to do something, she was all in. If thats what he wanted to do, she would be there for him.
Two Mexican citizens with families in the Bay Area who have been jailed in Richmond for more than six months sued the federal government Tuesday, arguing they have a right to bond hearings while pursuing asylum cases.

The ACLU and three law firms representing the immigrants say the pair are not alone. They are seeking class-action status on behalf of hundreds of others who may be in similar legal limbo.

Both of the men, Esteban Aleman Gonzalez and Jose Eduardo Gutierrez Sanchez, had re-entered the United States after being deported. That would usually give the government the ability to quickly re-deport them without judicial review.

But if  as in their cases  asylum officers with the Department of Homeland Security determine the immigrants in question have a reasonable fear of torture or persecution in their home country, the immigrants can pursue a withholding-only proceeding, seeking to stay in the United States and eventually get a work permit.

Aleman Gonzalez successfully argued that he would be a target of the Zetas drug cartel if he were returned to Mexico. And Gutierrez Sanchez, who is bisexual, showed that his orientation made him a target of organized crime. He was attacked and beaten in Mexico because of his sexual identity, according to the complaint.

Aleman Gonzalez first migrated to the United States in 2000 and was deported the same day. He returned later that year and has been living in the country ever since. His attorneys say he is the primary provider for his two daughters, ages 3 and 5, who are U.S. citizens. Despite having no criminal record, Aleman Gonzalez was arrested in August at his Antioch home, according to the complaint.

Gutierrez Sanchez came to the United States in 2009 and was deported a month later. After he was assaulted in Mexico, he tried to return but was re-deported. He re-entered the United States again in 2015 and had been residing in San Lorenzo before his arrest last year. He also has two young U.S. citizen daughters and a wife for whom he is the sole source of financial support, his attorneys said.

Esteban and Jose are really emblematic of how families suffer when people are detained, said one of their attorneys, Lisa Knox of Centro Legal de la Raza in Oakland. Its not just them thats suffering. Its their families and their communities.

Two immigration judges in San Francisco said they had no jurisdiction to give the men bond hearings at which they could make the case that they are not likely to flee or harm the community and thus should be released from the West County Detention Facility. The facilitys jail deputies have been accused of abuse and mistreatment of immigrant detainees.

Amalia Wille, one of the immigration attorneys who filed the case, said the judges were ignoring U.S. Ninth Circuit precedent that has found prolonged detention without a bond hearing  usually beyond six months  to be unconstitutional.

Whats happening here is that theyre being blanket denied even a right to a hearing, she said. Theyre being denied even the opportunity to show a judge that they are safe to be released from U.S. custody. ... Its devastating, obviously, for their families and children.

The complaint alleges violations of due process, the Administrative Procedure Act and the Immigration and Nationality Act. It names Attorney General Jeff Sessions and other administration officials. The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment.
A man was arrested Wednesday in San Francisco after a morning hit-and-run crash killed one person and injured four others in the Dogpatch neighborhood, police said.

But the circumstances of the case remained murky, with police saying that the driver struck five subjects with his vehicle after a dispute and fight in the street.

One man hit by the vehicle died from his injuries at noon, said Brent Andrew, a San Francisco General Hospital spokesman. Three of the injured were in serious condition and another in fair condition, Andrew said.

Police said the driver, who was not identified, barreled into the pedestrians at about 10:30 a.m. near Illinois and 24th streets.

Sources familiar with the investigation told The Chronicle that police are investigating whether the victims were hit after they tried to break into the drivers vehicle. But a man who witnessed the incident said the driver was clearly the aggressor.

The industrial area where the incident took place was listed as a hot spot for auto burglaries in a recent Chronicle investigation.

Officer Robert Rueca, a San Francisco police spokesman, confirmed the arrest but said he was not aware of an auto burglary being connected to the hit-and-run.

The vehicle was traveling north on Illinois when it hit the five people on the sidewalk, according to police radio communications. At one point during the incident, the driver reportedly got out of the vehicle carrying an ax.

There is a major incident going on at 24th and Illinois, a dispatcher said. Suspect with an ax, probably some people already dead.

Police officers converged on the scene and blocked off the roads.

A man who said he had been walking his dog 25 feet from the crash, and declined to be identified, said the driver yelled at the other men and repeatedly used a homophobic slur.

They literally said, Hey, how you doing? the witness said. This guy (the driver) is crazy as can be. He goes off and just starts yelling.

The dog-walker said that after the driver took an ax out of the vehicle, the men fought him off by hitting him with a belt before taking the ax away and chasing him back to the van.

The group continued walking on the sidewalk, the witness said. The driver swore and angrily started the vehicle too quickly, he said, killing the engine. The five men laughed, the witness said.

He said the driver started the car again and made a three-point turn.

Guy goes full throttle and plows them down, the witness said. Totally brutal.
David Hogg, the Florida student and Parkland shooting survivor who went on to help organize the massive March for Our Lives protest, says he was rejected by four University of California system schools: UCLA, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, and UC Irvine.

Some opposed to the March for Our Lives movement, like Fox News contributor Laura Ingraham, are using Hogg's comments to TMZ about his collegiate future as an opportunity for criticism.

"David Hogg Rejected By Four Colleges To Which He Applied and whines about it. (Dinged by UCLA with a 4.1 GPA...totally predictable given acceptance rates.)," she wrote on Twitter.

Another pundit, Bill Mitchell, commented on "the ego on this kid."

Applications for the UC schools were due in November, three months before the Parkland shooting and Hogg becoming a household name. By this month, when he received the rejection letters, he had appeared on the cover of TIME Magazine and received his own Wikipedia page. Hogg says he had a 4.2 GPA and an SAT score of 1270.

Speaking to TMZ, Hogg said he's "not surprised" that he's been rejected from some schools, but says "it is disappointing."

RELATED: Did the March for Life Awaken a Sleeping Giant Familiar with Protests?

Ultimately though, college isn't at the forefront of his mind anyway.

RELATED: The most poignant, witty, moving signs at the SF 'March for Our Lives'

"We're changing the world," he said. "At this point it's too hard to focus on (college)."

Hogg has so far been accepted to Cal Poly (although he didn't specify if that was San Luis Obispo or Pomona), Cal State San Marcos and Florida Atlantic University.

Alyssa Pereira is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at apereira@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @alyspereira.


Every Wednesday morning, SFGATE finds the biggest headlines in local (and sometimes national) beer. Check back here weekly for news, events, and information about special releases from your favorite local breweries.

SFGATE has launched a beer newsletter! Called the Taploid, it will contain some key stories from this column, as well as other, more nationally-spanning industry news. To sign up, head here, enter your email at the top, and check the box marked "Taploid."

After almost a year in the works, Ghost Town Brewing opened its West Oakland taproom at the corner of Adeline and 21st Streets. There will be taproom-only exclusives, beer deals, games and more.

HenHouse Brewing opened its "Palace of Barrels" tasting room in Petaluma last weekend, as they announced with "unbelievable stokitude" on their Instagram account. It's their second tasting room location (the first is in Santa Rosa), and it also serves as their barrel-aging facility.

Over in Oakland, Beer Baron is finally opening in the Rockridge space formerly occupied by Toast Bar + Kitchen. Per Eater SF, it will offer 25 beer options, in addition to 300 whiskeys and cocktail options. Seems like it should be called Whiskey Baron, no?

Marin Brewing is celebrating a major birthday on Sunday, April 1st: twenty-nine years! For the occasion, they'll be pouring $4 pints all day.

Woods Beer Co. is bringing back its cookie-beer pairing on Saturday, March 31, wherein they turn those popular seasonal cookies (which they legally can't name) into five different brews. Head to one of their five locations across San Francisco and Oakland to try them, beginning this weekend.

Faction has at last announced the lineup for the popular and philanthropic Brewbies Fest on April 21 at their Alameda brewhouse. The event, which benefits the Save A Breast foundation, will see some amazing beer producers, including local guests like Altamont, Humble Sea, and Sante Adairius as well as special guests Libertine, Noble Ale Works, Three Weavers, Alesong, Boneyard, Chapman Crafted, and Pizza Port. See the full lineup below:

Ale Industries in Oakland is throwing a big party on Friday, March 30 for the release of its Pink Boots collaboration amber ale. There will be a hot dog truck, music by Horrible/Adorable, and a big (cash only) night market. Head here for more details on the event.

Fort Point is also throwing a party on Friday, March 30 for its newest beer, the Mosaic Park. As they write in a Facebook post for the event at San Francisco's Thee Parkside, their "Park beer is transforming into a single-hop beer series" and first up is a focus on the fruity Mosaic hop. "Subtle, textured and introspective, Mosaic Park is a single hop pale ale with quiet depth," the post continues. "Our house yeast builds a distinctive, well-rounded base, which in turn helps accentuate Mosaic hops' full palette of flavors: berries, grass, grapes and papaya."

Temescal Brewing is cookin' up something special with Seven Stills  hint: it's whiskey  but there's no word yet on what beer they'll distill into the liquor. As the post says, "Look for something fun from us later this year."

Cellarmaker is working on an Other Half collab, though not much other info has been given other than that it's "hoppy." The Brooklyn crew also brewed with Alvarado Street.

Alyssa Pereira is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at apereira@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @alyspereira.


A federal appeals court has overturned a decision in a long-running legal battle over whether Google infringed on Oracles Java programming language to build its hugely popular mobile operating system, Android.

The court said Googles use of Java was not fair and sent the case back to trial to determine damages.

Oracle had originally sought $9 billion. The court said Android helped Google earn $42 billion in advertising revenue since the first Android phone went on sale in 2008.

Oracle hailed Tuesdays ruling, saying the opinion by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal District upholds fundamental principles of copyright law.

A Google spokesman said the ruling is disappointing and that it would make apps and online services more expensive. The company is considering its options.

Earnings

Restoration

tops estimates

Restoration Hardware Holdings reported fiscal fourth-quarter earnings that beat Wall Street expectations.

The Corte Madera company said its adjusted earnings were $261,000 ($1.69 per share).

Analysts had expected $1.56 per share.

The furniture and housewares company posted revenue of $670.3 million in the period, which did not meet the forecasts of analysts, who had expected $671.5 million.

For the year, the company reported profit of $2.2 million (7 cents) on revenue of $2.44 billion.

For the current quarter ending in May, Restoration Hardware expects earnings of 95 cents to $1.05 per share.

Restoration Hardware shares have fallen 12 percent since the beginning of the year. In the final minutes of trading on Tuesday, shares hit $75.63, more than doubling in the last 12 months.

Economy

Confidence

falls in March

Consumers confidence has slipped after reaching an 18-year high last month.

The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index fell to 127.7 in March. The 130 February reading was the highest level since November 2000.

Consumers were less optimistic in March as their assessment of business conditions declined. Their short-term expectations  including their outlook for the stock market  also declined, although overall expectations remain favorable.

Chronicle News Services
Dallas

Major U.S. airlines are hiring pilots at a rate not seen since before 9/11, and that is encouraging more young people to consider a career in the cockpit.

Hiring is likely to remain brisk for years. Smaller airlines in the U.S. are struggling with a shortage that will continue as they lose pilots to the bigger carriers, which in turn will need to replace thousands of retiring pilots over the next few years.

Aircraft maker Boeing predicts that the U.S. will need 117,000 new pilots by 2036. Just a decade ago thousands of pilots were furloughed and some abandoned the profession.

The shortage has been felt most keenly at regional carriers where many pilots start their airline careers.

Last summer, Alaska Airlines subsidiary Horizon Air canceled more than 300 flights over two months for lack of pilots. Republic Airways filed for bankruptcy protection in 2016, citing a pilot shortage that forced it to ground flights.

Many regional carriers fly smaller planes for American Eagle, Delta Connection and United Express. Signing bonuses and higher pay have helped them hire more than 17,000 pilots in the past four years, but that only replaced those who moved up to the major carriers, according to the Regional Airline Association.

Demand at the major airlines is expected to grow as thousands of pilots at American, Delta, United and Southwest hit the U.S. mandatory pilot-retirement age of 65 in the next several years.

American Airlines CEO Doug Parker believes the industry will cope.

"Economics is going to take care of this, and I think that's what is happening now," Parker says. "The (flight) schools are starting to fill up with people who realize, 'If I can get myself to 1,500 hours (the minimum flight hours needed to get an airline-pilot license), I can be assured of a career as a pilot.' That's not something people could convince themselves of from 9/11 on until now."

Pilot hiring nosedived after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks that led to a decline in travel, and again during the global financial crisis in 2008-2009. Major U.S. airlines hired only 30 pilots in 2009, according to Future & Active Pilot Advisors, a career-counseling business for pilots.

The job market didn't pick up significantly until around 2014. Last year 10 of the largest U.S. passenger and cargo airlines hired 4,988 pilots, the most since 2000 when they hired 5,105.

"It's the best sellers' market I have seen in the last 45 years of monitoring airline pilot hiring," says Louis Smith, a retired airline pilot who runs the pilot-counseling outfit.

Smith says forums for aspiring pilots that once drew a couple dozen people now sometimes attract more than 150. Some hope to make a mid-career change, which was rare just a few years ago.

Aaron Ludomirski is one of those career-changers. The 31-year-old from Asbury Park, New Jersey, says he always wanted to be a pilot but studied business instead because the bleak job opportunities for pilots in the years after 9/11 didn't justify the cost of school and flight training. After college he started an online marketing business.

"Year after year I found myself less and less satisfied with my work," he says. "I started thinking about what kind of career would really lead me to feeling fulfilled and accomplished, and I kept coming back to aviation."

Ludomirski did some fresh research and learned that pilots were back in demand  and more would be retiring in the next few years. He quit his job and went to flight school. Now he is working as a flight instructor to gain the required flying time for an airline pilot.

"I can interview for and even accept a conditional letter of employment and know I have my dream job lined up for me when I'm ready," he says.

Applications for commercial aviation majors at the University of North Dakota, a big aeronautical school, have more than doubled in the last three years, says Elizabeth Bjerke, an aviation professor and one of the authors of the university's forecast on pilot supply.

Some students graduate early to take advantage of the job market and the chance to move up the seniority list quickly because so many older pilots are retiring.

"Our graduates will fly at the regionals for a very short period," Bjerke said. "They are getting picked up by the major carriers in their mid-20s, which would have been just crazy to think of 15 or 20 years ago."
Dreams of otherworldly escape became reality for a group of seniors living in San Franciscos Tenderloin neighborhood this week. Pastries, coffee and French music set the mood at the Curry Center on Turk Street, as the seniors got their first taste of virtual reality with a 360-degree trip to Paris. Above: With his dog, Mister, on his lap, CJ Peoples tries a virtual reality headset for the first time. Once the initial novelty of the Seine and the Eiffel Tower began to wear off, the seniors started requesting other destinations, including Rome, Mesopotamia and even an underwater shark experience. The event was part of community outreach efforts by Zendesk, a San Francisco software company, in the Mid-Market area to engage seniors who might be at risk of becoming isolated.

 Ted Andersen
One of the best things about Alaska Airlines is its partnership program with with a diverse list of international carriers that allow Mileage Plan members to earn or burn miles at decent rates.

This week it picked up its 16th powerful partner, Ireland's Aer Lingus.

TravelSkills with Chris McGinnis sponsored by . See More Collapse

Late last year, Aer Lingus announced plans to start flying between Seattle and Dublin in the spring. And now it says it will link up with the Alaska Airlines network there.

The carriers said they have forged a partnership starting in April that will let customers book interline trips between the two via connections at Los Angeles and San Francisco, and beginning May 18 via Alaskas hub at Seattle when Aer Lingus starts flying there.

Starting at a later date, they said, Alaskas Mileage Plan members will be able to earn and burn miles on Aer Lingus, and vice-versa for the Irish carriers Aerclub members on Alaska.

Aer Lingus currently serves Dublin from 13 cities in North America, including from Alaska's gateway cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco and soon, Seattle.

Alaska customers who fly Aer Lingus to Dublin will be able to connect there to 24 cities in the U.K. and Europe.

See all Alaska Air Mileage Plan partners here.

Aer Lingus plans to use a two-class Airbus A330 on its new Dublin-Seattle service, which will operate four times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. The company has been on a transatlantic expansion binge in recent years; since 2015, it added new routes from Dublin to Los Angeles, Newark, Hartford, Miami and Philadelphia.

Click here for our review of Aer Lingus Business Class and here for Aer Lingus Economy Class.

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Chris McGinnis is the founder of TravelSkills.com. The author is solely responsible for the content above, and it is used here by permission. You can reach Chris at chris@travelskills.com or on Twitter @cjmcginnis.
Last Sunday, Hong Kong Airlines launched new nonstop flights between San Francisco and Hong Kong using a brand new Airbus A350-900.

To celebrate the new nonstops, the airline and airport threw a big party at the gate and allowed us onboard for a quick look at business and economy class cabins. Our first take? It's very red! Take a scroll through the slideshow above to see what we mean.

Hong Kong Airlines' new Airbus A350-900 holds 334 passengers in business and economy class only. There is no first class, and no premium economy. However, there are several rows of more- legroom economy at the front of the cabin. On its website, the airline says its economy seats offer three different pitches: 31, 32 and 34 inches. Seats are configured 3-3-3.

In business class, the BEST seats for single flyers are window seats on even numbered rows. For couples, the best seats are in the center of odd-numbered rows. Seats are configured 1-2-1 and all offer direct aisle access. To me, the BEST business class seats window seats in row 20. Find seatmaps on HK Airlines website here. Oddly, Seatguru and similar sites do not yet have this A350 listed.

Wi-fi is available on Hong Kong Airlines' A350s.

When checking in for the flight, at SFO's International Terminal A, gate agents were offering upgrades from economy class to business class for just $678. For a 12-14 hour flight, I think that would definitely be worth it! Current economy fares are running about $650 roundtrip. Business class is around $3,500 roundtrip- much cheaper than competing business class seats on United, Singapore and Cathay Pacific.

This shiny white bird with curly wingtips looked like it was right off the Airbus assembly line in Toulouse-- airline executives guessed that it was only one or two months old. And it sure looked like it!

Take a quick walk through business class and the first few rows of economy class on a Hong Kong Airlines A350-900 in this video:

Hong Kong Airlines first flight from SFO to Hong Kong was sold out. At the gate, all passengers shared a big strawberry cream "gate cake" along with other snacks and beverages free of charge. Passengers also listened to speeches and watched dignitaries break open giant fortune cookies. Hosts reminded passengers that the fortune cookie was invented in San Francisco, not China.

Be sure to see photos of the largest fortune cookies I've ever seen in the slideshow above.

From North America, Hong Kong Airlines flies nonstop from Los Angeles, Vancouver and San Francisco. It hopes to add New York-Hong Kong nonstops late this year.

Read all recent TravelSkills posts here

Get twice-per-week updates from TravelSkills via email! Sign up here

Chris McGinnis is the founder of TravelSkills.com. The author is solely responsible for the content above, and it is used here by permission. You can reach Chris at chris@travelskills.com or on Twitter @cjmcginnis.
The unlicensed driver who crashed into a drop-off area outside Oakland International Airport and injured four people was identified Wednesday as a 55-year-old Oakland resident.

Juan Pablo was arrested outside Terminal 1 at 6:14 p.m. Tuesday on suspicion of operating a vehicle without a license and felony reckless driving causing injury, according to the Alameda County Sheriffs Office.

Pablo reportedly accompanied a friend to the airport and got behind the wheel once his friend departed the SUV. He apparently did not know how to operate a vehicle and jumped the curb to hit four adult pedestrians and cause non-life-threatening injuries, said Sgt. Ray Kelly of the Alameda County Sheriffs Office.

Two pedestrians, one of whom was hit by flying debris, were treated at the scene and released. Two others, including a woman who hit her head, were transported to the hospital and are expected to make full recoveries, Kelly said.

Pablo told authorities that he was not familiar with driving, does not regularly drive and had not driven in a long time, officials said.

My understanding in the brief summary that we got from talking to the driver was that his foot at some point got stuck on the accelerator, Kelly said.

He then collided with another vehicle before ramming into a traffic light and jumping the curb.

It was unintentional, Kelly said. It was really just a recipe for disaster.

Pablo is scheduled to be arraigned 9 a.m. Thursday.
The family of a Vallejo man fatally shot by police last month filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday charging that the officere who killed Ronell Foster lied about a struggle before shooting the unarmed father of two multiple times in the back and the back of the head.

Police have said Foster, 32, was killed Feb. 13 after attempting to attack Officer Ryan McMahon with the officers flashlight after a struggle and brief pursuit through Vallejo streets.

On Wednesday, John Burris, a civil rights attorney representing Fosters family, disputed that account and accused police of fabricating a story to justify the shooting.

The complaint, filed Tuesday afternoon in Vallejo, charged that Foster was stalked by police for no reason and a witness never saw him struggle with McMahon before the latter opened fire. For this reason, Burris said, Vallejo police have refused to release body camera footage.

Now, Mr. Fosters son and daughter will have to grow up without their father because Officer McMahon decided to play judge, jury and executioner on the streets of Vallejo, Burris said in a statement.

According to the suit, Foster was riding his bike through downtown Vallejo on the evening of Feb. 13 when he stopped to hang out with some friends on the 400 block of Carolina Street. Shortly after he rode away, the complaint said, McMahon and an unidentified second officer began to follow Foster, who got off his bike and ran.

McMahon chased Foster into a residential alley and struck him on the head with a flashlight to cause a gash, according to court documents, before deploying his Taser. Foster again tried to flee, the complaint said, which is when the officer fatally shot Foster in the back and the back of the head.

Vallejo police have refused or ignored requests by Fosters family to review body-camera footage of the shooting, according to the lawsuit.

This only stokes the familys suspicion that Mr. Foster did not present any threat or harm to Officer McMahon when he opened fire, the complaint said.

Vallejo Police Chief Andrew Bidou slammed Burris in a statement Wednesday, saying the information he released in announcing the lawsuit has the power to undermine the true relationship between the Vallejo community and police.

Bidou also said that while the investigation continues, body-camera footage reveals a different story than Burris version of events. Police will begin working to meet with the Foster family to show them body cam footage, Bidou said, adding that on Wednesday, the department scheduled meetings with local media and Vallejos African American community so they can report the facts to the community.

McMahon has seven years of experience in law enforcement and previously worked at the Sausalito Police Department. He has since returned to duty, said Lt. Kenny Park, a spokesman for the Vallejo Police Department.

Tuesdays lawsuit offers a starkly different account of the events that led to Fosters death, beyond the fact that McMahon attempted to stop Foster while he was riding his bike.

Following a brief pursuit and a violent physical struggle, Park said, Foster took the officers flashlight and intended to attack him with it. In a statement, police said that the officer used his Taser on Foster, but it was ineffective, leaving McMahon no choice but to fire his weapon.

The subject managed to forcibly take away a metal flashlight from the officer and armed himself with it, presenting it in a threatening manner, Park said.

Burris called that narrative false.

Contrary to what the city claims, an independent eyewitness to the confrontation and subsequent shooting told my investigators that he never saw Mr. Foster present or strike at the officer with a flashlight, Burris said. If the city has nothing to hide, it will immediately make the officers body camera footage available to Mr. Fosters family and the community so that they can know the true facts as to how the young father of two met his death.
As you walk into the room at the University of California, Irvine, the first thing you notice are the fruit and vegetable baskets: apples, onions, broccoli. Theres a table of students chatting and eating, while one thumbs through a cookbook.

Its called the Basic Needs Hub  a space for anyone on campus who needs something to eat. It looks like a miniature gourmet grocery, but it is, effectively, a food pantry.

For the past six months, the doors to the hub have been wide open, and the pantry has doled out produce, meat and granola bars, among other goods. Students are not required to show any proof of income to receive the food, though they do receive a document stating that it is meant for those who cannot afford it on their own.

We are making it OK for students to say that they do need help, said Edgar Dormitorio, assistant vice chancellor of students affairs. We know there are students who do without meals rather ask for assistance. We want this to be as low barrier as possible.

A 2016 study found that roughly 4 in 10 students in the University of California system went hungry at least some of the time. At the Basic Needs Hub, students are asked for basic demographic information, like where they live and what year they are in college.

Our hope is we know the needs better and cater to those needs, he said.

The pantry is paid for in part by a $3 fee students approved in a campuswide vote last year, as well as money set aside from the office of the UC systems president.

For students, knowing there is somewhere to get your food and feel dignified doing that, it is an empowering thing, said Ernest Devin Rankin, 19, a sophomore in public health policy and educational science, who works at the pantry part time. We have frozen meat, eggs, bread, milk, cereal  all that goes quickly. Fruit, granola bars, that stuff goes out in a second, we cant stock it fast enough.
courtesy: Steven Restivo Event Services

On Easter Sunday, organizations across the Bay Area usher in the month of April with egg hunts, brunches and parades. And in San Francisco, the 27th annual Union Street parade is just one of several events planned around the city.

The Union Street Spring Celebration and Easter Parade invites families to enjoy the spring holiday with inflatable bounce houses, Easter bunnies, a petting zoo and musical performances.
When animal rights activists staged a demonstration outside Michael Hunter's restaurant, the Toronto chef countered their protest by butchering a chunk of bloody meat in front of them.

Hunter selected a deer leg to carve behind the window of Antler Kitchen & Bar, in front of which protesters held signs reading, "Murder" and "Animals are not ours to use." The Toronto restaurant specializes in "regional ingredients," like wild game, according to its website.
WASHINGTON  A top Trump campaign official had repeated communications during the final weeks of the 2016 presidential race with a business associate tied to Russian intelligence, according to a document released Tuesday by the special counsel investigating Russian interference in the election.

The campaign official, Rick Gates, had frequent phone calls in September and October 2016 with a person the FBI believes had active links to Russian spy services at the time, the document said. Gates also told an associate the person was a former Russian Intelligence Officer with the GRU, the Russian military intelligence agency.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating numerous contacts between President Trumps advisers and Russia-linked individuals and entities leading up to and after the November 2016 election. The document, filed in Muellers name, stated that the communications between Gates and the individual were pertinent to the investigation.

The individual is identified only as Person A, and the document describes him as someone who worked for Gates and Paul Manafort, Trumps campaign chairman, as part of their earlier representation of Russia-aligned parties and politicians in Ukraine, including the former president of Ukraine. A person with knowledge of the matter identified Person A as Konstantin Kilimnik, who for years was Manaforts right-hand man in Ukraine.

Manafort has told associates that he does not believe that Kilimnik has ties to Russian intelligence, but the document released Tuesday shows that Gates told others of his history in the intelligence services. That history was widely discussed for years among people who worked with Manafort and Gates in Ukraine.

At the time of the calls, Gates was the Trump campaigns liaison to the Republican National Committee and, before that, he was the campaigns deputy chairman. Manafort served as the campaign chairman until August 2016, when he resigned amid the growing controversy about his work in Ukraine.

Both Manafort and Gates were indicted last year for money laundering and other financial crimes committed while, the charges said, they tried to hide the money they received for their Ukraine work. Last month, Gates pleaded guilty to financial fraud and lying to investigators and has agreed to cooperate with Muellers investigation.

Manafort has vowed to fight the charges. In February 2017, he said he had never knowingly spoken to Russian intelligence officers, and I have never been involved with anything to do with the Russian government of the Putin administration or any other issues under investigation today.
WASHINGTON  A lawyer for President Trump broached the idea of Trump pardoning two of his former top advisers, Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort, with their lawyers last year, according to three people with knowledge of the discussions.

The discussions came as the special counsel was building cases against both men, and they raise questions about whether the lawyer, John Dowd, was offering pardons to influence their decisions about whether to plead guilty and cooperate in the investigation.

The talks suggest that Trumps lawyers were concerned about what Flynn and Manafort might reveal were they to cut a deal with the special counsel, Robert Mueller, in exchange for leniency. Muellers team could investigate the prospect that Dowd made pardon offers to thwart the inquiry, although legal experts are divided about whether such offers might constitute obstruction of justice.

Dowds conversation with Flynns lawyer, Robert Kelner, occurred sometime after Dowd took over last summer as the presidents personal lawyer, at a time when a grand jury was hearing evidence against Flynn on a range of potential crimes. Flynn, who served as Trumps first national security adviser, agreed in late November to cooperate with the special counsels investigation. He pleaded guilty in December to lying to the FBI about his conversations with the Russian ambassador and received favorable sentencing terms.

Dowd, who recently resigned from Trumps legal team, has said privately that he did not know why Flynn had accepted a plea, according to one of the people. He said he had told Kelner that the president had long believed that the case against Flynn was flimsy and was prepared to pardon him, the person said.

The pardon discussion with Manaforts attorney, Reginald Brown, came before his client was indicted in October on charges of money laundering and other financial crimes. Manafort, the former chairman of Trumps presidential campaign, has pleaded not guilty and has told others he is not interested in a pardon because he believes he has done nothing wrong and the government overstepped its authority. Brown is no longer his lawyer.

Dowd denied on Wednesday that he discussed pardons with lawyers for the presidents former advisers.
The term serial entrepreneur isnt very common in business circles, but I believe that some people are built for that kind of practice. A serial entrepreneur is an entrepreneur who continuously comes up with new ideas and starts new businesses. As opposed to a typical entrepreneur, who will often come up with a single idea, start the company, then see it through and play an important role in the day-to-day functioning of said company.

A serial entrepreneur will often come up with an idea and get things started, but then give responsibility to someone else and move on to a new idea and a new venture. This would have been a very bad practice in the days when the old cliche held sway, a Jack of all trades is master of none." In my opinion I think the 21st century has become "the century of the Jacks."

Related: 8 Proven Habits for Ultimate Success

As a serial entrepreneur myself, I know how challenging it is to leave the comfort of a thriving business and step out into the icy cold waters of starting a business again, much less in a different industry. However, in 2017, I decided to stop suppressing all my new and unique ideas and just get on with it. Here are a few indispensable tools to help anyone out there with the same tendencies.

1. Work with people and partners.

This is perhaps the most important piece of advice I will give to anyone who is intending to go into areas of business that excite them, but that they are not particularly gifted in. As a lawyer and entrepreneur, I started my jump into entrepreneurship by leaping into property management, which was vaguely related to my job as a lawyer, so I was safe and had sufficient knowledge to run the business.

Sometime last year, I began toying with the idea of starting a business in the food industry. I am not a very good cook, and I know nothing about baking or confectioneries. All I had was a keen interest in the vast potential of the business in my vicinity and a few ideas about how I could make money from it.

Since I had no practical knowledge, I partnered up with someone who was doing the same thing on a much smaller scale, and we launched a food line. I funded the business kickoff, and he started managing the business itself. A good entrepreneur will do well in any business once he has the right people around him, either as partners or employees. You hold on to your knowledge of business and work with people of skill in the areas of your interest.

2. Pay others and utilize platforms.

If you are like me and refuse to let go of the thriving business while moving into new territory, then you need this key to survive. The internet revolution has created a lot of ease within different industries. Platforms and freelancers are now fast becoming the norm, especially in areas like marketing and social media management.

Related: Is the Gig Economy Killing the 9-to-5 Job? No, But It's Giving It a Run for Its Money.

However, the proliferation of the internet has also severely digitalized business processes and few people are thinking of employing full time IT staff at the start of a new business.

A plethora of platforms run by companies and freelancers will help you position and market your business for a minimal fee. I found resources like Yelp especially useful for creating some positive social review that customers can refer and add to.

A few resources have also received positive reviews by business leaders. Resources like MOGUL offer you an amazing showcasing platform. Accounting platforms like Quickbooks and online firms like Pushdigits have a proven track record in the accounting and bookkeeping industry, while resources like Program Ace have had consistent success in utilizing iOT and AI to help businesses remain relevant in an increasingly digitalized business space.

Creating a Linkedin company page will significantly increase your reach with clients/customers. There is really no need for you to do everything yourself. The advantage is that starting a new business may not take as much attention away from your already existing business.

AI and social media marketing are all the rage these days. The time for excuses is gone, and the era of the serial entrepreneur is really here.

3. Prepare for surprises, and develop a thick skin.

Starting a new business can be draining, and I won't kid you into thinking it is easy. It implies getting into uncharted territory. I have learned that while asking questions and market surveys are very important, they will never reveal the full extent of the unique challenges that you are going to face.

I started my food venture by doing a market survey of business prospects. I asked questions and got a feel of how much it would cost me to launch the product, but no one told me that the ancillary costs would be almost as much as the substantive cost. No one told me how sluggish contracted professionals in that field could be and how much their sloppiness would cost me. I had to take it on the chin and keep going, business hazards and all.

4. Do different things or do things differently.

If you are going to start a new business, you need to make sure you make a statement. The thing with ideas is that no one really owns them. I remember walking into a store to introduce my product last year. I was so psyched that it was a unique product. Halfway into my conversation with the manager, she pointed to a product on display behind me and asked something like that?

Needless to say, I had to go back and work on the uniqueness of my product before introducing it to the market. Every serial entrepreneur has to deal with some level of divided focus; you need to make sure that it is over something worth it and not something too familiar.

Related: What This Entrepreneur Learned After Listening to Her Gut

5. Create firm structures to maintain focus.

I have always been a bit of a do-it-yourself person. I found it really difficult to employ a manager in my business, and so I found it hard to start a new business. I always wanted to be in control. However, one of the inevitable lessons every serial entrepreneur must learn is how to delegate.

Delegation is the number one strategy for success in serial entrepreneurship. Find people you trust, or learn to trust the people you have. Find people with similar values and drive, and give them a chance to flounder and learn.

You need to create systems that allow you time to develop new ideas and implementation strategies. It often means that a chunk of your profits go into salaries, but if serial entrepreneurship and building an empire is what you really want to do, then its a sacrifice you have to be willing to make.

The 21st century and technology has not just made serial entrepreneurship possible, it has made it appealing.

Related:

Why This Entrepreneur Stays on the 'Middle Path' in Life and Business

How the Drummer of Blues Traveler Created a Unique Experience for His Cannabis Customers

This Self-Taught Cook Shows More Than 2 Million Subscribers How to Make the Snacks and Meals You See on Screen



Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com


Adopted, abused as a child, woman returns to surprise biological mom

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Among the passengers flying to St Vincent and the Grenadines on the first direct flight from Canada in February 2017 was a woman who was returning to surprise her biological mother, after she had been adopted and raised in Canada.

Kamille Copeland, 30, used the opportunity of the Sunwing flight from Canada to escape the abuse she had endured in her adopted homeland and to learn more about her biological family and the country where she was born.

In an interview with SEARCHLIGHT earlier this month, Copeland described her story as aa sad one.a She said her biological mother gave her up for adoption in the hope that she would have a better life, but thatas not what happened.

She told SEARCHLIGHT that when she was nine years old, she was sexually molested by someone in her church, after initial verbal abuse by her adopted mother. According to Copeland, her mother was never at home.

aOur father raised us and he did the best that he could, but there was no female figure in the homeand when the abuse happened to me at a very early age, I obviously became angry and violenta

She said she had never been taught not to let anyone touch her body and if they did that she should tell her parents, so she kept it to herself. Copeland said she found an escape in books, which she read especially at night, usually after altercations with her mother. On one occasion, things took an unexpected turn.

aOne night, when I was 12 years old, they had turned the power to the light offso I waited for my mom and I ambushed her, because she came out with a flashlight and I wanted her flashlight so that I can read my book She had me charged and I went to jail. I was 12.a

Copeland said her adopted parents did not pay her bail, so she was sent to a detention centre for one month, after which she was sent to a foster home. She said although the government made many attempts to reunite her with her family, she kept running away.

aOne time I ran away with a girl and the girl sold me to a pimp. I was 13 or 14 years old when I was sold and I spent around a year in the sex tradeundercover cops had found me and took me out of the clubs, so I was safe.a

However, by then she was pregnant and facing the responsibility of becoming a teenage mother. She said she never had the chance to work through the pains of her abuse and had developed mental health issues.

Kamille said she never thought of finding her biological family in St Vincent until her hairstylist put her in contact with a Vincentian living in Canada who had an old telephone directory. After searching through the directory, she looked for the name Williams and was able to contact someone who was a former neighbour of her biological mother.

She left her contact number with the person and within 24 hours, she was speaking with her mother Deborah. This was in 2009. Mother and daughter spoke at least once a year, but Kamille maintained closer contact with her biological sister, Zonnel, through Facebook.

But it was not until the opening of the Argyle International Airport in February 14, 2017, that she came home.

aThat international airport made a huge difference. I had never flown before. We decided two weeks before the flightI was like, I have a little bit of money saved up, if you guys can pay the rest, I can come.

aWhen I came out the airport at first, I remember the trees and then we were coming down the path and I saw the ocean and I thought this was beautiful.a

Her visit was a surprise to her biological mother, planned by her and her sister Zonnel. She said although she had been in touch with her family since 2009, she had never told them of the abuse she suffered.

aI never had a family and when I came home last February and I got to spend that one week with my family, it was not enoughthey are all like meThe first morning I woke up in St Vincent and I opened up my eyes, and I looked out the window and I saw all the colours, houses, trees and the sun and the little lizard on my wall, it answered questions that I was looking for 30 years.a

She said she felt at home visiting the Rawacou Salt Pond, Vermont Nature Trail, Bequia and had also experienced her first sunburn.

Kamille said it is unlikely that she will be able to afford to return to St Vincent soon, but she plans to migrate here in the future.

She resides just outside Toronto with her two children and is working on improving her health.(CB)
MILWAUKEE  Therapists who try to change a minors sexual orientation will face fines in Milwaukee under a proposal approved Tuesday as a crowd of supporters of so-called conversion therapy yelled that the citys council members who voted on it were evil.

Mayor Tom Barrett has until April 7 to sign the ordinance and he plans to do so, his office said.

The proposal received little opposition when it was initially heard this month, but dozens of people packed one side of the common council chambers Tuesday, some quietly praying while others occasionally yelled evil! A smaller crowd of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer supporters gathered on the other side of the chambers, waving a rainbow-colored flag.

We know that the practice is harmful to a vulnerable population in our community, said Alderman Cavalier Johnson, the measures sponsor, citing studies showing that youth who go through conversion therapy are more likely to experience depression, shame and social withdrawal.

Nine states and several cities have banned conversion therapy but there is no statewide prohibition in Wisconsin. Laws barring conversion therapy have withstood legal challenges in California and New Jersey.

Johnson acknowledged conversion therapy is not extremely common in Milwaukee but said it is available in the citys suburbs, although he doesnt know to what extent. The ban wont apply in those jurisdictions, but Johnson said he wants to be proactive and hopes to start a trend.

Opponents are concerned the ban will infringe on religious-based counseling, but the prohibition applies only to practitioners who charge money. In those cases, therapists will be fined up to $1,000 for each violation.

Two of the 15 council members voted no on the ban, including Alderman Robert Donovan.

I certainly respect the passion on both sides of this issue, but I will say this. The testimony that we received previously simply did not make a case in my mind that this problem even exists, Donovan.

As the crowd filed out of the chambers after the vote, the atmosphere was still tense.
Ambassador Ger leaves SVG

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Ambassador Baushuan Ger of the Embassy of the Republic of China (Taiwan) will conclude his tour of duty in St Vincent and the Grenadines at the end of March, 2018.

A release from the Embassy said the Ambassador expresses his heartfelt appreciation for the genuine friendship and kind assistance rendered to him and all his colleagues at the Embassy during his tenure in St Vincent and the Grenadines. He considers this sojourn of three and a half years in this beautiful country the best part in his career and will cherish it forever.

The Ambassador is scheduled to return to Taiwan.

Ambassador designate of the Republic of China (Taiwan) to St Vincent and the Grenadines Calvin CH Ho will arrive and assume the position in early April, 2018.
VALLEJO (BCN)

The family of a man who was shot and killed by a Vallejo police officer earlier this year has filed a federal lawsuit against the city, its Police Department and is demanding the release of body-worn camera footage of the incident.

Civil rights attorney John Burris will be holding a news conference at Vallejo City Hall today at 1 p.m. announcing the suit on behalf of various members of Ronell Foster's family. The suit seeks an unclear amount of monetary damages and the release of the bodycam video.

"If the city has nothing to hide, it will immediately make the officer's body camera footage available to Mr. Foster's family and the community so that they can know the true facts as to how the young father of two met his death," Burris said in a statement.

Foster was shot and killed by Vallejo police on the night of Feb. 13, according to police.

Vallejo police Officer Ryan McMahon, who is also named in the suit, made an "investigative stop" of Foster, 33, who was riding a bicycle in an unsafe manner at Marin and Florida streets around 7:40 p.m. on Feb. 13, Lt. Kenny Park said in February.

Foster ran, McMahon chased him and the two became involved in a "violent physical altercation" in the 400 block of Carolina Street, Park said.

McMahon fired his Taser stun gun but it was ineffective, and Foster forcibly took away McMahon's metal flashlight and "presented" it in a threatening manner, Park said.

"The officer, fearing imminent and serious physical harm, discharged his duty firearm, striking the subject," Park said.

Burris counters the department's claims, saying an independent witness never saw Foster strike at McMahon in a threatening manner with a flashlight.

"Officer McMahon gunned this unarmed African-American father of two down, shooting him several times in the back and the head as he was turned away trying to flee the Vallejo police officer who had brutally bludgeoned him," Burris added in the statement.

"Now, Mr. Foster's son and daughter will have to grow up without their father because Officer McMahon decided to play judge, jury and executioner in the streets of Vallejo," he said.

Vallejo police have yet to comment on the lawsuit.

The suit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California in Sacramento.

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648-5291
SANTA ROSA (BCN)

Two families were displaced by a fire at a house in west Santa Rosa early this morning, a fire battalion chief said.

The single-story, wood frame house at 840 W. College Ave., a travel trailer and two vehicles were burning when firefighters arrived around 3:30 a.m., Santa Rosa Fire Battalion Chief Mark Basque said.

Two families comprised of six adults and four children evacuated safely before firefighters arrived. More than two dozen firefighters controlled the blaze within 40 minutes and kept flames away from another home 10 feet away, Basque said.

The cause of the fire is accidental and likely due to an overloaded electrical circuit in the garage, Basque said. Damage is estimated at $400,000.

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SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

A man accused of fatally stabbing a woman Sunday afternoon at a church in San Francisco's Ingleside Heights neighborhood remains in the hospital for injuries he suffered during the incident, one of his attorneys said today.

The arraignment scheduled for this afternoon for Wyn Leung, 41, was held over for Thursday morning. Leung has been charged with murder, elder abuse, violating a protective order, contempt, battery on an officer and resisting arrest, prosecutors said.

Today, Leung's attorney Deputy Public Defender Michelle Tong said although she hasn't been able to speak with Leung, the public defender's office has been in contact with his family.

Tong and Deputy Public Defender Chesa Boudin said Leung has been asking for legal counsel and has repeatedly been denied.

Tong said she didn't know how serious his injuries were but said that if Leung is not well enough by Thursday morning, he may be arraigned in the hospital.

Leung, a San Francisco resident, was arrested Sunday in the first block of Chester Avenue in Ingleside Heights after officers responded around 2:10 p.m. to a report of domestic violence, police said.

A 37-year-old woman at the scene was taken to a hospital, where she later died. Her name has not been released by the medical examiner's office as of this morning.

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BERKELEY (BCN)

A person who was riding a bike was struck and killed by a passenger train Tuesday night in Berkeley, according to Amtrak and the Alameda County Coroner.

An Amtrak spokesperson said train 719, a northbound San Joaquin train that originated in Bakersfield with a final stop in Oakland, struck a person at Gilman Street, not far from the Berkeley station underneath University Avenue. An exact time of when the collision occurred wasn't available.

An official with the coroner's office confirmed a person had been killed in a collision with a train in Berkeley, but the identity of the victim is being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

Amtrak said local authorities are investigating the collision. A spokesperson said 23 passengers were on board at the time of the collision. No passengers or crewmembers on board were injured.

No further information was immediately available.

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SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

A vehicle struck and seriously injured a pedestrian in San Francisco's Bernal Heights neighborhood this morning, fire officials said.

The collision was reported at 8:27 a.m. in the area of Bernal Heights Boulevard and Bradford Street.

The pedestrian, an adult, was taken to a hospital with serious injuries, fire officials said. An update on their condition was not immediately available.

San Francisco police were not immediately available to provide additional details on the collision.

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EAST PALO ALTO (BCN)

Police have released the name of a man who allegedly shot at two East Palo Alto residents at random, striking one, on Monday afternoon.

Oscar Alfredo Tapia Carmona, a 30-year-old East Palo Alto resident, was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, carrying a concealed weapon in a vehicle and driving with a suspended license.

Carmona was booked into the San Mateo County Jail.

East Palo Alto police said Carmona shot at a 35-year-old man, who said he was sitting in traffic at Scofield Street near Capitol Avenue when the suspect pointed a gun and shot at him. He was not hit by the gunfire.

The suspect, who was driving a silver SUV, fled from the scene but the victim started pursuing him in his vehicle, police said.

Minutes later, the suspect turned the gun on a 65-year-old woman who was walking home from a 7-Eleven and shot at her twice, striking her once in the arm with enough force to knock her into the bushes, according to police. The man who was initially shot at stopped chasing the suspect to help the woman.

Police said Carmona was located a short time later in the 400 block of Emerson Street, where he was arrested. His SUV was located in the 100 block of Hamilton Avenue.

Anyone with information on the case is asked to contact East Palo Alto police by calling or texting (650) 409-6792 or emailing epa@tipnow.org.

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PLEASANT HILL (BCN)

The State Bar of California has recommended that a Pleasant Hill lawyer be disbarred after he was arrested for child pornography violations.

James Kroetch, 67, was arrested in March 2013 for alleged child pornography possession and distribution. Authorities found 9,000 images and 3,000 videos at his residence, according to state bar records online.

Kroetch pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges for child pornography in January 2016, according to state bar records.

The group recommended that his license be revoked on March 5. He has not been able to practice law in California since his interim suspension on Oct. 9, 2017.

The California Supreme Court will make the final decision.

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NEMO launches early alert disaster mobile application

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This country now has a mobile application that can alert users of natural disasters.

The mobile application, called CAP, (common alerting protocol), was launched last Friday, March 23, at the National Emergency Management Organization (NEMO) conference room in Old Montrose.

CAP is attached to the SVG National Emergency Warning System and Early Warning Checklist. The occasion was also used to launch NEMOas early warning email option.

Deputy director (ag) at NEMO Houlda Peters described CAP as a mobile application being used by disaster officers in the region to alert the public of an impending hazard or threat. It was funded by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), with the support of the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO).

The application has the capacity for mass email notification and provides the capability to include graphics and maps, as well as alerts in multiple languages, while allowing incorporation of text and audio, better serving the needs of the hearing and visually impaired.

aThis is a historical moment, as we advance in the area of emergency warning systems, which is very important, as lives can be saved, as it now provides an alternate means of getting alerts to the public of an impending hazard or threat and this means the public can take action to save life and property,a said Peters.

She also noted that in 2017, NEMO upgraded its website, so that they could send out information via that website.

NEMO has also collaborated with the UNDP, the International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC) and the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), to review the national early warning system through the administering of a checklist, to identify gaps and ways of providing alerts at the national and community level.

Explaining the mobile application, NEMOas radio communication officer Jerwayne Laidlow said CAP is Internet-based and is a simple integrated platform, where you can have other systems integrated.

He noted CAP provides a format designed for every and all media and can be carried over television, radio, fax, emails and any digital forum.

aIf you subscribe for the emails, you will get the pop-ups by email on your computer screens through smartphone application and through the Broadcast Interrupt through radio or television,a explained Laidlow, who noted that there is also a platform for mass texting, but the telecommunications providers must come on board.

Currently, NBC Radio is the only station with the Broadcast Interrupt set-up and it will be tested soon, so that persons would be able to see how it works.

Noting one of the shortcomings of CAP, Laidlow said a person must have Internet or data to receive the notifications and while this is a limitation, they are trying to reach a mass population as quickly as possible. He said that there are other methods to disseminate information.

Persons wanting to download CAP can go to the Google Play Store and search for CAP.CAP. The app allows you to set it to the country you are in. While the app is also available for iPhone, Laidlow said they have encountered an issue with the iPhone app not receiving the information and when that issue is solved, an announcement will be made.

The app, in case of an emergency, will give you instructions to follow, contact information of NEMO or the MET office and a map showing the areas affected, based on the hazard.

As it relates to email notifications, persons wishing to receive emergency email notifications can go to nemo.gov.vc website and click on the CAP Link under home. This takes you to a short video (for persons who might need to see how itas done), then you must click on the CAP icon below the video, after which you click on subscribe and enter an active email address. Follow the instructions and then click subscribe and this will send a message to your email. Follow the instructions in the email to begin receiving notifications in times of emergencies. a

Also present at the launch was Marlon Clarke, technical coordinator in the Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reliance Unit at UNDP for Barbados and the OECS.

He said that UNDP will continue to invest in preparedness mechanisms and CAP-based early warning systems and making them better.
MOUNTAIN VIEW (BCN)

After the National Transportation Safety Board announced Tuesday that they have launched an investigation into a deadly crash involving a Tesla vehicle on U.S. Highway 101 in Mountain View on Friday, the carmaker issued a statement later in the day about what they know happened in the crash.

Tesla officials said on the company's website that they "proactively reached out to authorities to offer their assistance" in the investigation of the collision, which involved two other sedans on southbound Highway 101 around 9:30 a.m. Friday.

The blog post states that Tesla does not know what happened in the moments leading up to the crash or what caused it, but they do know that if San Mateo resident Wei Huang's Model X was running on their self-driving hardware, this incident was an outlier.

"Our data shows that Tesla owners have driven this same stretch of highway with Autopilot engaged roughly 20,000 times since the beginning of the year, and there has never been an accident that we know of," the company said. "There are over 200 successful Autopilot trips per day on this exact stretch of road."

Tesla is alleging that the crash was as severe as it was because a highway safety barrier designed to reduce impact before hitting a concrete lane divider, which Huang did ram into, was either removed or crushed in a prior accident and was not replaced.

Tesla placed a Google Street View image from Google Maps and a dash cam footage image from a witness of the accident "who commutes daily past this location" side by side for comparison.

"We have never seen this level of damage to a Model X in any other crash," the company said.

Tesla officials said that their battery packs are designed so that in "the rare circumstance" that a car does go up in flames, it spreads slowly to increase the chance of passenger survival.

The car manufacturer said that, to their understanding, there were no occupants still in the car "by the time the fire could have presented a risk."

"Serious crashes like this can result in fire regardless of the type of car, and Tesla's billions of miles of actual driving data shows that a gas car in the United States is five times more likely to experience a fire than a Tesla vehicle," Tesla officials said in their blog.

The federal government completed an independent review a year ago that found Autopilot reduces crash rates by 40 percent, Tesla said in the blog post. They did not specifically name the review.

On Tuesday, NTSB spokesman Keith Holloway said investigators responded to the scene of the fatal crash on the split between Highway 101 and state Highway 85.

The NTSB will be studying whether the Tesla had Autopilot active, as well as details of the post-crash fire and steps to make vehicle removals safe for those on scene, Holloway said.

It took approximately five hours to reopen the lanes where the crash took place Friday as Tesla engineers investigated the scene, making sure that loading the vehicles onto tow trucks would be safe.

###
SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

San Francisco police have announced they will hold a town hall meeting Thursday evening to discuss an officer-involved shooting in the Excelsior District last week that resulted in the death of a 21-year-old man and injured five others, including an officer and a juvenile.

The town hall will be held at 6 p.m. at Balboa High School located at 1000 Cayuga Ave., police said.

Police have revealed little information about the March 21 shootout, which killed Suisun City resident Jehad Eid.

According to police, the incident unfolded around 4:30 p.m. after officers responded to a report of a man with a gun near the 200 block of Amazon Avenue. Officers then confronted several people inside a business near the corner of Geneva Avenue and London Street and gunfire was exchanged.

The injured officer was taken to Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital where he was in fair condition.

Eid was also taken to the hospital, but despite life-saving efforts he died a short while later, police said.

The condition of the minor who was shot was not released.

The other three victims are all men. One suffered life-threatening injuries while the two others were in fair condition, according to police.

Eid's younger brother Tariq Eid described him on Twitter as a hardworking man whom he looked up to, saying he "would always give back to the community."

The shooting is being investigating by several agencies, including the Police Department's Homicide Detail, the District Attorney's Office Independent Investigations Bureau, the Department of Police Accountability, the police Internal Affairs Division and the city's medical examiner's office.

###
The Alameda County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 at the end of a contentious hearing Tuesday to fund the sheriff's office's controversial "Urban Shield" first-responder training exercise this year but not in future years in its current format.

The vast majority of the more than 100 public speakers at the four-hour hearing on the training exercise the sheriff's office has hosted every September since 2007 alleged that it is racist and xenophobic and has a negative impact on communities of color and immigrants.

The motion that was approved by four of the board's five members calls for the exercise format in 2019 and future years to focus more on training for natural disasters and less on terrorism and on weapons vendors.

Supervisor Keith Carson, who authored the motion, said, "The term 'urban shield' is volatile."

Carson said 2018 "is the last year for Urban Shield going forward" and "Urban Shield as we know it ends after this year."

Supervisor Scott Haggerty, who wanted the exercise to continue in its current format as long as Sheriff Gregory Ahern agreed to several reforms, was the lone board member to vote against Carson's motion.

The board's vote means that the county will accept $5.5 million in Urban Shield Area Security Initiative funds so the sheriff can host the training exercise again this September at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton.

Those funds originate from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Ahern said after the meeting that he hopes he can work with the board and the community to make changes so the exercise can continue in a similar format in future years.

Ahern said, "2019 is a long way away. We really don't know what 2019 will look like."

Ahern said he already has made many changes to Urban Shield based on community input, such as installing safeguards to make sure that it bans racial profiling, excludes vendors who display derogatory or racist messages and excludes the sale or transfer of assault weapons and firearms.

Sharif Zakout of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center and the Stop Urban Shield Coalition said, "After years of tireless organizing and raising widespread community opposition to police militarization and racism, we consider this a huge victory for our communities."

Zakout said, "Although we would have liked to see Urban Shield ended immediately, having an end to Urban Shield after this year reflects a significant shift in how the Bay Area can be better prepared for emergencies and disasters in ways that are not based on militarization."

Ahern said 30 law enforcement agencies from the Bay Area participate every year as well as two other agencies selected from other parts of the U.S. and another two agencies that are selected from foreign countries.

Some speakers at the meeting accused Ahern of being a racist.

But Carson said, "I don't think the sheriff is a racist. It bothered me to hear that."

After the public comment portion of the meeting concluded, Supervisor Nate Miley said, "Some people's opinions were a bit inflammatory."

Ahern said afterward that the meeting was "very emotional" and speakers brought up subjects Urban Shield has nothing to do with, such as income inequality, homelessness, the presidential election and the recent fatal shooting of an unarmed black man by two Sacramento police officers.

Supervisor Wilma Chan said the relationship between the community and law enforcement goes up and down over time and "the problem is a lot of stuff has happened" in recent years to make the community wary of law enforcement and shows of force.

A person who struck several people in a traffic collision at Oakland International Airport's traffic curb on Tuesday evening was arrested on suspicion of felony reckless driving causing injury and driving without a license, according to the Alameda County Sheriff's Office.

The collision, which occurred around 6:10 p.m. Tuesday at Terminal 1, injured three pedestrians according to sheriff's officials, who said it was not an act of terrorism and passengers at the airport are safe.

"Your loved ones are safe," sheriff's Sgt. Ray Kelly said.

Kelly said it appears the collision occurred when an unlicensed 54-year-old driver of a Mercedes-Benz SUV got his foot stuck on the accelerator. He has not been identified as of early this morning.

A fourth pedestrian was injured when some luggage went airborne and struck them. All of the pedestrians were adults.

Kelly said the driver of the SUV did not report any injuries.

Two of the four pedestrians were taken to hospitals with slight to moderate injuries.

After over seven hours of negotiation and the use of chemical agents and force, a Watsonville man was taken into custody Tuesday morning on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, criminal threats, child endangerment and resisting arrest, according to the city's police department.

On Monday at 5:24 p.m., Watsonville police were dispatched to a home on the 100 block of Maranatha Drive on a call of a woman being attacked by her son who is mentally ill and was armed, police said.

The man's mother was able to escape, along with a couple of small children who live in the home, with injuries not considered life threatening. However, her son, 29-year-old Raymond Matias, was allegedly still wielding a chain, a sledgehammer and a long wooden rod, she told police.

When officers made an attempt to contact Matias, he allegedly refused and barricaded himself inside the home by using furniture to block the doors, police said. He also allegedly started a small fire in the backyard, but Watsonville Fire Department put it out quickly.

The Police Department's crisis negotiators were among the first to arrive at the scene and worked to have a dialogue with Matias so that he could safely surrender, according to police. However, the attempts failed and police had to obtain an arrest warrant as well as a search warrant to end the standoff.

Special Response Team members were summoned to the scene and resorted to chemical agents in hopes of forcing Matias from the home, as verbal negotiations were unsuccessful, police said.

Matias remained inside the house despite the use of chemicals until the response team entered and took him into custody with the assistance of a police dog and a taser. They used those resources because Matias allegedly challenged officers with a chain in his hand, according to police.

Matias was finally arrested at 3:55 a.m. Tuesday and was treated by paramedics before being transported to a hospital for injuries he suffered as a result of his arrest.

Matias was booked into the Santa Cruz County Jail on three felony offenses and one misdemeanor offense, but police are asking the district attorney to charge Matias with attempted arson after officers located evidence that made it appear Matias tried to use the stove to set fire to the home.

An unspecified threat made over the phone to the San Francisco Hall of Justice Tuesday prompted an increased law enforcement presence at the building, sheriff's officials said.

The caller placed the threat for the building at 850 Bryant St., which houses the city's superior court, the district attorney's office and the jail.

Tuesday afternoon deputies along with a San Francisco Police Department K-9 unit swept the hall of justice but found nothing unusual, sheriff's spokeswoman Nancy Hayden Crowley said.

Santa Clara County sheriff's officials said Cupertino High School is safe after an emergency evacuation was prompted by a threatening phone call.

There is no danger to students or the surrounding community at this time, sheriff's officials wrote on Twitter at 2:37 p.m.

Sheriff's officials said shortly after 1:30 p.m. that a "robotic call" was made to the school threatening harm.

Deputies responded and did not find any indications of danger to the school at 10100 Finch Ave. or to the nearby community, according to the sheriff's office.

Videos on social media showed students running away from the campus after the emergency evacuation was announced.

Cupertino High School officials on the school's website advised students to check with their parents or guardians to give their locations and assure them of their safety. All classes and other activities at the school were canceled for the day.

A man has been charged with murder in connection with the fatal stabbing of a woman in San Francisco on Sunday afternoon, prosecutors announced Tuesday.

Wyn Leung, 41, is also being charged with elder abuse, violating a protective order, contempt, battery on an officer and resisting arrest, prosecutors said.

He's being held without bail, according to jail records.

Leung, a San Francisco resident, was reportedly arrested Sunday in the first block of Chester Avenue in the city's Ingleside Heights neighborhood after officers responded around 2:10 p.m. to a report of domestic violence, police said.

A 37-year-old woman at the scene was taken to a hospital, where she later died. Her name had not been released by the medical examiner's office as of Tuesday morning.

A man at the scene was also taken to the hospital for what appeared to be self-inflicted stab wounds, according to police. Police did not immediately clarify if the man hospitalized was Leung.

Leung will be arraigned at the Hall of Justice today.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents gained entry into Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office's jail facility and interviewed multiple inmates earlier this month, according to a sheriff's spokesman.

Sgt. Reginald Cooks said that ICE agents entered on the afternoon of March 7 and the morning of March 8 and interviewed four inmates in all. None were detained by the federal agency.

Agents again attempted to re-enter the facilities on March 14 and on Monday, requesting entry at two separate access points of the same facility on the second try and were turned away, Cooks said.

Sheriff Laurie Smith issued a statement, saying that the county has a policy of not cooperating with ICE operations and does not accept ICE holds.

ICE agents are not allowed in the county's custody facilities, but were "mistakenly permitted" entrance into the jail, Smith said.

However, the sheriff's office reevaluated and strengthened clearance procedures on how all law enforcement will be allowed into the facilities upon learning about the incidents, which led to ICE being denied access on March 14 and Monday.

"We value the trust and rapport we've earned with our local immigrant community and we will not break that trust," Smith said in a statement."

No further details on the cases were immediately available.

A hazmat situation in unincorporated Sonoma County that resulted in a shelter-in-place advisory to be issued for a period of time Tuesday night has been cleared, according to the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office.

Sheriff's officials said a situation with three 55-gallon barrels of an unknown substance precipitated the advisory just after 8:40 p.m. Tuesday. The advisory was issued in the vicinity of Eastman and Stadler lanes near Petaluma.

A sheriff's office dispatcher said early this morning that the advisory was lifted some time last night, but did not specify a time.

No information on what the substance was, nor further information on the advisory was immediately available.

The pilot of a small plane died when the plane crashed as it was taking off from the Marina Municipal Airport Monday morning, police said.

The pilot of a single-engine Mooney M20E took off from the airport at 781 Neeson Road at about 10 a.m.

Police said the plane caught fire when it hit the ground. The pilot was the only person on board.

Police said the cause of the crash is under investigation. The investigation will be handled by the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration.

Police did not release the name of the pilot.

Lawyers for two Bay Area asylum seekers who've been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for more than six months say the Department of Homeland Security has determined their clients have a reasonable fear of persecution and torture if deported.

However, a spokesperson for ICE said that due to privacy protections associated with asylum applications that claim couldn't be confirmed.

Esteban Aleman Gonzalez and Jose Gutierrez Sanchez have been in custody at the Contra Costa West County Detention Facility in Richmond since the fall of 2017, but their attorneys say that based on the determination by asylum officers, federal officials do not have the authority to deport them.

A series of legal entities are representing the plaintiffs, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the Law Offices of Matthew H. Green in Arizona, Centro Legal de la Raza and Van Der Hout, Brigagliano & Nightingale.

Officials with those firms said the federal government has declined to allow bond hearings for Aleman Gonzalez and Gutierrez Sanchez - a necessary step in securing their release.

"They are simply asking for the opportunity to show a judge that they should not be detained while they pursue their case," Centro Legal de la Raza senior staff attorney Alison Pennington said in a statement. "What the government is doing to them and to so many others should shock the conscience."

Pennington did not immediately respond to a request for more information about the legal grounds for her clients' claims, or the risks her clients face should they be deported.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in February that immigrants who can be detained for deportation proceedings can be held in custody indefinitely while their cases are resolved.

That decision countered a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision from 2013 that asylum seekers - as well as undocumented immigrants and legal permanent residents who've been convicted of a crime but have served their sentences - are entitled to a bond hearing every six months to evaluate whether the individual in question is a flight risk or a danger to public safety.

Attorneys for Aleman Gonzalez and Gutierrez Sanchez, however, say the recent Supreme Court ruling dealt with a different group of immigrants detained under different laws and that federal law requires a bond hearing for their clients as a matter of due process.

###
No bail for Lotto booth shooting accused as yet

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One of two victims in the Heritage Square lotto booth shooting is set to undergo surgery today, and therefore the fate

of his alleged shooter

likewise hangs in the balance.

Kishron Jackson first appeared at the Serious Offences Court last Monday, charged with two counts of attempted murder, after a shooting incident at a Lotto booth in Heritage Square left two hospitalized.

Those who were shot on Thursday, March 15 at Heritage Square, and Jacksonas alleged victims, are Veron Williams of Kingstown and Errol Hinson of Enhams.

The defendant was also charged with a third offence, in that he did agree with another on March 15 that aa course of conduct shall be pursued, which if the agreement was carried out in accordance with their intention, would involve the commission of the offence of robbery.a

As he did when he first came to court, when Jackson appeared in court this Monday he used crutches to enter the dock. However, the cast that had been on his right foot had been replaced with a simple bandage.

As he did when the defendant first appeared, prosecutor Adolphus Delplesche objected to his bail. While the reason for his first objection was that both victims were still in the hospital with gunshot wounds, this week the prosecutoras objection was solely centred around the male victim.

Delplesche informed the court that the female victim, Williams, had been discharged from the hospital. On the other hand, the male victim, Hinson, was still hospitalized, he stated, and is in fact scheduled to undergo surgery today. He described the condition of this victim as astill seriousa and until the court is sure of Hinsonas condition, Delplesche asked that Jackson be remanded for another week.

Therefore, Jackson will reappear for bail review next Tuesday, April 3.
People reading too much into Antigua PM joke  Dr Friday

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Leader of the Opposition Dr Godwin Friday has asserted that the conversation he had on the telephone with the prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Browne, was nothing outside of a normal congratulatory call.

Browne, who was re-elected last week when the Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party (ALP) won the elections on March 21, spoke on the Antiguan radio station PointeFM about a conversation he had with Friday.

Browne relayed the conversation by indicating to the radio announcer, aIall give you a joke. The Leader of the Opposition in St Vincent called me just after elections. So, he said, alook Gaston, Iave been watching, Iave been following the campaign for the Labour Party, I wanna tell you, I mean, your strategist is something else.aa

He continued by saying that Friday asked him if he had used a strategist from the United States or the United Kingdom, and that the Leader of the Opposition indicated that he needed to get on to the strategist because, awe have a problem down here, we need to win! I need to get on to your strategist, whatever he costs.a

Browne stated he had replied, aBoss, we donat run the foreign strategists, you know, Labour Party runs its own campaign.a

To laughter, he said that Friday then asked him aSo, who? Whoas the stra? Youare the strategist?a

SEARCHLIGHT contacted the Opposition Leader yesterday, who stated that the he does not recall the details of the conversation, with regard to the whether he asked about a foreign strategist and saying awe have a problem down here, we need to win.a

In giving his version of the conversation, Friday stated, aWhat the gist of the conversation was, again I donat have word for word, was that I called him to congratulate him on his success, and he told me about how he had made progress, and I noted that as well since the last electionathe issue of how he managed to campaign and so on, I asked him that and he said well, he did the campaign himself, and I think thatas what he was saying in that interview that he had on the radio, was by way of emphasizing that, that he actually did it himself and I congratulated him on that.a

The Leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP) indicated that the point that he believed Browne was trying to bring across, awhen I listen to the clip from the interview that he did, I think thatas the point that he was really making, and the conversation between us was by way of illustration of how impressed he thought I was by the way in which he managed his campaign.

aI think thatas the point that he was making, that I was impressed, which is true. I was impressed with the fact that he had increased his vote, his majority and in turn picked up a seat and could have seemed very close to picking up another one,a Friday stated.

In conclusion, he relayed, aThis is normal for us to do, you know, you call the winner of a campaign and you let them know that you appreciate the fact that theyave won, and congratulate them, and make some small talk and so on, depending on how well you know the person, and that was the spirit of the conversation that I had with Prime Minister Browne and I donat think that he would understand it any differently, and any sort of interpretation that tends to, seems to suggest otherwise, I think that is just people reading too much into it.a
Police investigating murder of Vincentian farmer in Antigua

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Police in Antigua and Barbuda are investigating the murder of Carlos Ollivierre, a Vincentian residing in that country.

Ollivierre, 51, is originally from La Croix, St Vincent and the Grenadines, but migrated to Antigua almost 30 years ago, where he lived in the Golden Grove area.

A farmer and businessman, Ollivierre was found dead on his farm on Jonas Road on the night of Thursday, March 22. Police say his body was found under a shed on the farm, with what appeared to be multiple stab wounds to the upper back and right forearm.

ABS Television reported that the discovery of Ollivierreas body was made about 9 p.m., after relatives became concerned about not having seen him since he left for the farm about 6 Thursday morning. Confirmation of his death came from a doctor shortly after 11 p.m.

Ollivierre, also known as aKung-Fua or aCaneman,a operated a produce stand at the side of the road adjacent to his farm. He was observed vending earlier in the day, as was customary, with residents and commuters reporting seeing him up to as late as 4 p.m. He planted cane, coconuts, potatoes, yams, dasheen, bananas, corn and tomatoes at his Jonas Road farm.

Lawmen believe that the carpenter turned farmer was killed during a robbery that went wrong.

Ollivierre is the brother of former general manager of NBC Radio Corletha Ollivierre. His other relatives include his wife, also a Vincentian, and two children.

ABS said no motive has been established for the killing and the police are asking anyone with information about this murder to contact the Criminal Investigations Department in Antigua and Barbuda at 462-3913 or 462-3914.
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 Texas completed fourth execution on 2018 | Main | "Recidivism Among Federal Offenders Receiving Retroactive Sentence Reductions: The 2011 Fair Sentencing Act Guideline Amendment" 

The New York Times has this lengthy new article under the headline "Sessions and Kushner Square Off, and Prisoners Hang in the Balance." It covers ground that will largely be familiar to regular readers, and here are a few excerpts:

In the final months of the Obama administration, the Justice Department announced a new approach to preparing prisoners for life beyond their cells. Officials created a prison school system, pledged money for technology training and promised to help prevent former inmates from returning to prison.

Almost immediately after taking office, Trump administration officials began undoing their work. Budgets were slashed, the school system was scrapped and studies were shelved as Attorney General Jeff Sessions brought to bear his tough-on-crime philosophy and deep skepticism of Obama-era crime-fighting policies.

Now, nearly a year and a half later, the White House has declared that reducing recidivism and improving prisoner education is a top priority  echoing some of the very policies it helped dismantle.

This whiplash approach to federal prison policy reflects the tension between Jared Kushner, the presidents reform-minded son-in-law and senior adviser, and Mr. Sessions, a hard-liner whose views on criminal justice were forged at the height of the drug war. It has left both Democratic and Republican lawmakers confused and has contributed to skepticism that the Trump administration is serious about its own proposals....

Mr. Kushner, administration officials say, supports such sweeping change. Mr. Sessions is adamantly opposed. The two men reached a compromise in recent months: Mr. Kushner could push for the prison changes, but Mr. Sessions would position the administration strongly against a broader overhaul.

I do believe that Jared Kushner is earnest in his desire for criminal justice reform, said Inimai M. Chettiar, of the liberal-leaning Brennan Center for Justice. But Jeff Sessions is still stuck in 1980. He hasnt moved along with everyone else, including top prosecutors and police chiefs, who realize that tough-on-crime doesnt work. Ms. Chettiar said she was not convinced that Mr. Kushners support was enough to get the administration behind real change  even in the narrow area of prisons.

The Justice Department said Mr. Sessions fully supported the White House principles and was committed to helping inmates develop the skills needed to return to society. But Mr. Sessions is not rushing to promote those efforts: Over two weeks, the Justice Department refused to make anyone available to discuss them and would not identify which prison education programs have been cut and which remain. Theyre not going to talk to you about this, said Joe Rojas, a teacher at the federal prison complex in Coleman, Fla. He said the Justice Department could not answer those questions without acknowledging that the Trump administration had cut more than 6,000 prison jobs. Staffing is so short that teachers around the country are regularly reassigned to cover routine guard duties, he said.

One of the White House priorities is to offer incentives to encourage inmates to enroll in programs to prepare them for life outside prison. Mr. Rojas and others are quick to note that incentives are not the problem: Educational programs are so popular that more than 15,000 federal inmates are on waiting lists for high school equivalency diploma and literacy programs, according to a 2016 Justice Department report. It sounds pretty on paper, said Mr. Rojas, who is the president of his American Federation of Government Employees union local. But when you cut staff, you cant do anything.

Mr. Grassley said that he while appreciated Mr. Kushners desire to get something done, he did not support any effort to try to address prisons without fixing what he saw as fundamental unfairness in sentencing laws. And he believes Mr. Kushner shares his views. But he sees a chance of getting half a loaf, and hes willing to settle for a half a loaf, Mr. Grassley said. Im not going to.

The White House argues that Mr. Grassleys argument is moot because the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, will not allow a vote on a broad criminal justice bill that divides Republicans. Mr. Grassley sees that as an excuse. If the president would start tweeting about it every other day like he tweets about everything else, McConnell would come along, he said.

Mr. Kushner believes that the White House can forge consensus around prison reform. He wants the federal government to look to states for proven ideas to reduce recidivism. The White House recently hired Brooke Rollins, a conservative lawyer who advocated such changes in Texas, a state that is often held up by both conservatives and liberals as a leader in reducing recidivism.

Amy Lopez, a former teacher in the Texas prison system, agreed that the federal government could learn from states. More data exists than ever before, she said, and it shows that education reduces the chance that a former inmate will be arrested again.

The Justice Department hired Ms. Lopez in 2016 to replace the patchwork prison education system with a centralized school district that offered diplomas, technology training and vocational education. It was interesting to have this focus at the federal level on education, she said. That was new.

Within months, she was fired, the school system axed. She took a job overseeing education in Washingtons city corrections system. Trump administration officials say that, as part of the new focus on prisons, if the school idea turns out to have been a good one, they can always reconsider it.
 "Recidivism Among Federal Offenders Receiving Retroactive Sentence Reductions: The 2011 Fair Sentencing Act Guideline Amendment" | Main | Judge Jed Rakoff sentences rapper DMX to one year in federal prison for tax fraud 

March 28, 2018

"What If Prosecutors Wanted to Keep People Out of Prison?"

The question in the title of this post is the headline of this lengthy New York Magazine article, which is primarily focused on Scott Colom, a 35-year-old district attorney in northeast Mississippi. But the article also covers how Colom is part of a new focus on prosecutors within efforts to reform criminal justice systems. Here are excerpts from a long article:

By mid-October, with the [2016] election a few weeks away, Colom knew he was gaining traction. Then a colleague sent him a text message complimenting his new TV commercial. I was like, What are you talking about? Television hadnt fit into his budget. Later in the week, his aunt managed to record the ad on her DVR, and he watched it at her house. A voice at the end said it was paid for by a group called Mississippi Safety & Justice. He looked it up online and discovered it was a PAC funded by liberal hedge-fund billionaire George Soros, who lives in Westchester County, New York. Bemused, Colom sought advice from consultants in Washington, D.C., whod been helping him with marketing. They advised Colom to post photos and videos on his website for the PAC to borrow for future ads but warned him not to reach out to the group. Campaign-finance laws forbid direct contact between candidates and independent funders. Colom followed the advice, then went back to knocking on doors.... In the end, Mississippi Safety & Justice had spent $716,000 on the election, dwarfing both the $49,000 Allgood had raised and the $150,000 Colom collected himself. Allgood groused that the money had created an uneven playing field, and Colom himself is defensive about it, even now. But whatever the donations impact on the race, it put Colom at the center of a national experiment to remake the criminal-justice system. For almost three decades, Soros has been quietly funding efforts to end the drug war and reduce the inmate population. Throughout the 90s and 2000s, he was behind almost every state ballot initiative to legalize marijuana and has given millions in grants for liberal legal scholarship. It was Coloms luck that in 2015 hed adopted a new strategy: backing progressives in local elections, specifically DAs, who every day make decisions about whom to charge, with how serious of a crime; whether to engage in plea negotiations; how much prison time, if any, to recommend. In other words, unlike legislators, government lawyers have the power to push down incarceration rates with the stroke of a pen, or a word to a judge. Colom was one of his first test cases.... By the end of his first year in office, Colom had doubled, to 218, the number of defendants in the alternative sentencing program, where if you stay clean and get a job or go to school your charges will eventually be cleared. The scope of the programs services has expanded too; the administrator, a former social worker, helps participants get into rehab, GED programs, and vocational training, and even arranges rides when necessary, since the area has no bus system. While alternative sentencing isnt revolutionary  there are similar programs across the country  its a scale model of what Colom has in mind when he dreams of a system built on different incentives. What weve got to do is deal with the addiction that causes people to use drugs, he says, musing that maybe prisons should be scored on how effectively they rehabilitate people, the way public schools are scored on student achievement. More immediately, Colom is strategizing with Tucker Carrington, a law professor who runs the University of Mississippis innocence project, to establish a conviction-review unit, as DAs in Brooklyn, Chicago, Dallas, and other metropolises have done.

March 28, 2018 at 01:13 PM | Permalink

Comments

I think the question is based on an erroneous assumption. Looking at my own state's statistics (from our sentencing commission), in a typical year, over 60% of offenders receive probation, and less than a quarter receive a prison sentence. If you limit yourself to first time offenders, around 10% receive a prison sentence. If you look at first time non-violent offenders, the number falls below 4%.

As to rehabilitation, the numbers show that those who receive probation (at least for first, second, and third-time offenders) are substantially less likely to re-offend than those who go to prison. That gap becomes smaller as the number of offenses increases. The numbers also show that -- regardless of disposition -- the likelihood of re-offending increases based on the number of prior offenses.

While the recidivism rates of those who go to prison is not good, there is always the problem of whether that statistic is the result of the decision of whom to send to prison. If you had a good method for predicting who was likely to re-offend, you would probably want to send those offenders to prison to protect the public from them. If you start with a pool of those who are least likely to be rehabilitated, it should not be surprising that many of them are not rehabilitated. Using a poor analogy, it's like having two calculus classes -- one composed of those who got A's and B's in pre-calculus and one composed of those who flunked pre-calculus. If, at the end of those year, the class composed of good students had most of the students score over 85% on the final exam and the class composed of the other students averaged 71% or 72% on the final exam, you would not claim that the difference in the student scores reflected the quality of the teacher (and, in fact, the teacher in the class that only averaged a 71% or 72% may have done a better job in helping the students who started out well behind to partially catch-up to the other class.)

Posted by: tmm | Mar 28, 2018 2:43:26 PM

I think the question should be why do so many return to prison? In our prison system 35% have been committed to prison two to ten times. In addition 22% were in prison because of a probation revocation and 18% were there because of a return from parole or work release.

It is hard to do a risk assessment on a youthful offender because they have not had enough time to create a criminal history and a very high percentage of the probation violators are under 25. The ones with a large number of commitment are obviously older and they tend commit offenses with short maximum penalties so the mean time between commitments is small.

Posted by: John Neff | Mar 28, 2018 8:27:54 PM

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When Salman Khan began posting videos on YouTube more than a decade ago, the Silicon Valley entrepreneur had no idea of the celebrity he would gain, nor the impact he would have.

His online tutorials in math, with their encouraging counsel informed by degrees from Harvard and MIT, were made for friends and family struggling in school. But his audience quickly grew. Before long, Khan had quit his day job in finance to carry out a goal of delivering free Internet instruction to the world. His educational website was called Khan Academy.

On Tuesday night, Khan, 41, was presented the fourth annual Visionary of the Year Award, an honor announced by The San Francisco Chronicle at a gala at the War Memorial Veterans Building.

The award recognizes individuals who use their business savvy and entrepreneurship for social benefit. It carries a $25,000 grant from The Chronicle that can be applied to the cause of Khans choice.

Khan Academy today has more than 62 million registered users in nearly 200 countries. His voice, which still narrates many of the tutorials, is widely recognized, and students and parents often stop him on the street to thank him for providing an assist at school or work.

As I tell everyone, this is just something I fell into, he said as he accepted the award and recounted helping his cousin Nadia with her school work years ago.

More for you Sal Khan creates online academy to educate anyone in world for...

Since its launch in 2008, Khan Academy has broadened its online course load to include nearly every school subject from science to art and from the kindergarten to college levels. It also veers into SAT instruction and personal finance.

Khans Mountain View nonprofit has grown from just him to more than 150 employees.

Perhaps most impressive is that the schooling has remained entirely free.

With the admirable mission of providing a world-class education to anyone anywhere, Khan has attracted financial support from well-heeled donors, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Google and Bank of America.

The reach of the academy has been buoyed by Khans many media appearances on such shows as 60 Minutes and the Colbert Report, and with publication of his book The One World Schoolhouse: Education Reimagined.

While some educators have remained leery about online learning, many have come to embrace Khans platform as a vital classroom aid.

I thought it was a dumb idea at first, he said during an interview after the award ceremony. YouTube videos were cats playing piano.

He added: Its a real honor to be here tonight.

About 150 people attended Tuesdays gala, including Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, former Secretary of State George Shultz, and his wife, Charlotte Shultz  all of whom were members of the nominating committee for the award.

Khan was among six finalists for the 2018 Visionary award. They include Sarahi Espinoza Salamanca, founder and CEO of DREAMers Road Map; Bishop William Swing, president and founder of United Religions Initiative; Dr. Laurie Green, founder of The MAVEN project; Naomi Fuchs, CEO of Santa Rosa Community Health Centers; and Premal Shah, president and co-founder of Kiva.

Previous winners were Evan Marwell, founder and chief executive of Education Superhighway, a nonprofit that upgrades Internet infrastructure in schools; Chase Adam, creator of Watsi, a crowd-funded platform that provides medical care to people who cant afford it; and Priscilla Chan, pediatrician and advocate for childrens health and education.

Kurtis Alexander is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kalexander@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kurtisalexander

How the 6 finalists were selected

The Chronicles annual Visionary of the Year award salutes leaders who strive to make the world a better place and drive social and economic change by employing innovative business models and practices. The six finalists for this years award were nominated by a distinguished committee that included Emmett Carson, president and CEO of Silicon Valley Community Foundation; Ron Conway, angel investor and philanthropist; John Diaz, editorial page editor of The Chronicle; Steve Malnight, senior vice president strategy & policy of Pacific Gas and Electric Co., a program sponsor; Ken McNeely, president of AT&T California, a program sponsor; Libby Schaaf, mayor of Oakland; Charlotte Shultz, chief of protocol for the city and county of San Francisco; and George Shultz, former U.S. secretary of state.

The winner, Sal Khan, was selected by Chronicle Publisher Jeff Johnson, Editor in Chief Audrey Cooper and Editorial Page Editor John Diaz.
A Michigan college student filled a pothole with an entire box of Lucky Charms, added a gallon of milk and lay down to enjoy his breakfast.

The 22-year-old Eastern Michigan University student, who wanted to be identified only as Andrew, scooped spoonfuls of marshmallow bits, toasted oat pieces and milk out of the hole in Trenton. Then, he posted video of the stunt on Twitter.
QUITO, Ecuador  The Ecuadoran government said Wednesday it had suspended WikiLeaks founder Julian Assanges communications with the outside, in a reference to its London Embassy, where the Australian national has been residing since 2012.

Ecuador said it suspended systems that allow Julian Assange to communicate with the outside due to his failure to honor a 2017 written agreement not to send messages involving interference in relation to other states.
BAGHDAD  On a desolate highway in northern Iraq last week, nine federal police officers packed into a large sport utility vehicle were stopped at a checkpoint they had never seen before. Behind them, a taxi carrying a handful of other officers lagged behind on the long drive from the northern city of Kirkuk back to the capital, Baghdad.

Men dressed as Shiite paramilitaries asked the policemen to hand over their IDs and weapons for inspection, and then took them hostage. When the taxi rolled up, the men at the checkpoint opened fire, causing it to turn around and speed off, according to one of the men in the vehicle.

Those who had been in the SUV would not be seen again until days later, when photos circulated on jihadi forums showed them being forced to kneel before being shot dead by their captors. The Islamic State group claimed the killings.

Iraq declared victory over the Islamic State group in December after driving the militants from the last territory under their control, but in recent months the group has resumed insurgent-style attacks in northern Iraq.

Iraqi security officials say between 150 and 200 members of the security forces have been killed in Islamic State attacks across the country in the past few months. The security officials, and the policeman in the taxi, spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to brief the media.

There are empty spaces between the federal forces and the peshmerga, said Kirkuk Gov. Rakan al-Jibouri, referring to the Kurdish forces who have been locked in a months-long standoff with Baghdad.

He said he has repeatedly asked the central government for additional forces to secure the area, but has been ignored. This issue is not taken sufficiently seriously despite the many incidents, he said.

Over the past week alone, Islamic State has claimed responsibility for six attacks at fake checkpoints, including one that destroyed oil tankers and another targeting Shiite pilgrims. Other attacks have included strikes on oil installations and convoys, with Islamic State claiming to have captured weapons and vehicles.

The attacks have focused on rural targets and have increased ahead of elections planned for May. They are in keeping with Islamic State documents uncovered by intelligence officials months ago that detailed plans for an insurgent campaign on the heels of the groups territorial defeat, according to one of the security officials, who works in the governments anti-terrorism intelligence department.

Over the course of a grueling three-year campaign, Iraqi forces backed by a U.S.-led coalition drove Islamic State from the vast swaths of territory it seized in the summer of 2014, and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared a final victory in December. But Iraqi and coalition officials have warned that the group remains capable of carrying out insurgent-style attacks.
BEIJING  With a dose of mystery and the flair of a showman, North Koreas young leader, Kim Jong Un, used his debut as an international statesman on Wednesday to present himself as confident, reasonable  and willing to bargain.

Kims surprise two-day visit to Beijing, his first known overseas trip since taking power, was effectively a reminder of how much he has set the agenda in the crisis over his nations nuclear arsenal  and of what a strong hand he has going into talks, first with President Moon Jae-in of South Korea next month and later with President Trump.

Kim has yet to say what concessions he is willing to make, or what he may demand from the United States in return. But he continued to dominate the diplomatic process, reaffirming his willingness to meet with Trump and repeating his vague commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in talks with President Xi Jinping of China, according to Xinhua, the Chinese state news agency.

During Trumps first year in office, Kim raced ahead with breakthrough tests of a hydrogen bomb and missiles capable of hitting the U.S. mainland. Then he abruptly changed course and used the Winter Olympics to seize the initiative, surprising the world with a rapprochement with the South and then an offer to meet with Trump.

Through it all, the Trump administration has been largely relegated to reacting and catching up to Kim. And so it was again this week, when Kim suddenly showed up in China on an armored train and was shown beaming next to Xi, whose cooperation has been critical to Trumps strategy of maximum pressure on the North. The state media in China and North Korea announced the meeting on Wednesday, after two days of secrecy.

In images and in words, Kim and Xi signaled that they had repaired the relationship between their countries, which had soured as Kim had accelerated his nuclear program and Xi had responded by endorsing  and enforcing  more punishing sanctions proposed by the United States.

It is too soon to say whether the meeting marks a softening of Chinas posture toward Kim Jong Un or of its commitment to international sanctions against North Korea. But the visit served to highlight Beijings unique leverage over North Korea, even as Trump is threatening China with a trade war.
Page Content

A proposed law in New York City would impose fines on employers in the city that require workers to connect electronically when they're off duty.

With some exceptions, the Right to Disconnect Bill would ban private employers with 10 or more employees from making workers respond to e-mails, texts and other electronic communications outside of scheduled work hours.

We've rounded up the latest news on how the proposed law might affect the workplace. Here are SHRM Online resources and news articles from other trusted media outlets.

No Need to Respond



The proposed law, which is sponsored by Councilman Rafael Espinal Jr., D-Brooklyn, wouldn't ban employers from sending afterhours messages to workers, nor would it prohibit workers from voluntarily responding. It would just give employees the right not to respond. "So many of us are glued to our smartphones and our computers, it's important to understand that we don't have to feel as if our work has to spill into our personal lives," Espinal said. Workers in the city already spend an average of almost 50 hours a week working or commuting, according to a 2015 report by the New York City comptroller, and that's before factoring in time spent answering e-mails at home.

(New York Times)

Penalties for Breach

If passed, businesses would face a $250 fine each time they require an employee to access electronic communications outside of standard working hours. Employers would pay a $500 fine, plus all lost wages and benefits when a worker is disciplinedbut not firedfor failing to access off-hours messages. When an employee is fired, the fine would rise to $2,500 and the worker could be eligible for reinstatement. Additional civil penalties may also be assessed. "If employees were given a legal 'right to disconnect' this may encourage more employers to moderate their expectations of employees and allow them to re-establish a boundary between home and work," Stephen Bevan, head of HR research development at the Institute for Employment Studies, told Newsweek.

(Newsweek)

Several Countries Have Similar Laws

If passed, New York City would be the first American jurisdiction to offer workers a right to disconnect, but countries, such as France, Germany, Italy and the Philippines, have already passed similar laws. The New York City Council, however, might not be ready for such a law. No co-sponsors have joined Espinal yet, and a similar bill for city employees that was proposed last year didn't make it out of committee.

(The Washington Post)



Voluntary Company Policies

Even before Germany and France had such laws, some companies created policies to curb afterhours work obligations. In 2011, Volkswagen stopped sending e-mails to company mobile phones between 6 p.m. and 7 a.m. Other German companies, such as Allianz and Daimler, had similar policies. France-based Kedge Business School issued an auto-response to anyone who sent an e-mail after 7 p.m. explaining that the e-mail was "out of schedule." In support of the New York City bill, however, Espinal said that the government should step in because it's not enough to hope that companies will create their own policies allowing employees to step away from electronic communications when they are off duty.

(Fast Company)

[SHRM members-only toolkit: Introduction to the Discipline of Human Resources Technology]

Shift in Thinking

A workaholic culture can lead to burnout and depression, but would a "right to disconnect" law cause a shift in American workers' relationship with technology? Critics of the French law say it has no teeth, and Espinal's bill may face similar criticism. Dr. Jabari Jones, a psychiatrist with Maimonedes Medical Center in New York, said he isn't sure that the bill can change company culture, particularly because employers could still reward employees who voluntarily respond to afterhours work communications.

(Motherboard)
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Billabong investors have surrendered to a lacklustre takeover bid from Quiksilver owners, Boardriders, after the suitor sweetened its offer ahead of the shareholder meeting on Wednesday morning.

Boardriders, which faced opposition from investors owning enough to derail the bid, lifted its $1 a share offer to $1.05 a share just as the meeting was due to convene at Billabong's Gold Coast headquarters.

Billabong received the 75 per cent-plus support needed from investors for the deal to succeed.

Investors were warned not to reject a takeover bid. Credit:Bloomberg

No one was pretending it was a particularly good deal for investors who were gathered at the surfwear groups headquarters to consider the least worst option for their investment: Sell out to a low-ball offer from Boardriders, or face the business going bust.
Online gambling company Lottoland says it will honour its lucrative sponsorship deal with the Manly Sea Eagles NRL club, despite the major threat of new federal government laws to banish lottery-betting from Australia.

The Turnbull government brought the new bill to parliament on Wednesday to outlaw so-called "synthetic lottery" services, including Lottoland's, which let Australians bet on the outcomes of foreign lotteries without having to buy a ticket in any draw.

Lottoland is a sponsor of the Manly Sea Eagles.

Lottoland is a prominent television advertiser and significant sponsor of the Manly Sea Eagles, which includes the naming rights to Brookvale Oval.

The company this week advised the NRL club it would not withdraw from the deal, which was struck last year.
The Other Side of Hope. Credit:Palace Films

THE OTHER SIDE OF HOPE 

(M) 100 minutes

Heres a guide for those who have never seen a film by Aki Kaurismaki. I heard him describe himself once as "the best filmmaker in the world but I make the worst films".

He is one of Finlands national treasures; he was once a prodigious drinker though he is said to have reformed; he and his brother Mika, also a director, established the Midnight Sun Film Festival in the Arctic Circle in mid-summer, showing films in a tent in a place where the sun never sets.

Kaurismaki makes films about down-and-out people. They have often hit rock bottom and are so downtrodden they dont know it. Then something happens and they find reserves, or love, or a small victory, or death.
Chad Johnson, a contestant on the US version of Bachelor in Paradise, soiled himself during a drunken meltdown. Credit:ABC A few minutes later, I realise what it is: her smile. On TV, Zimmer's characters (Janine in House of Cards, Claire in Boston Legal) favour wry smirks or malevolent grins. In real life, she laughs easily; her eyes crinkling at the corners. By the end of a typical day's filming on UnREAL, Zimmer is exhausted. "I'm really nothing like Quinn, so it's kind of a mind f---. I come home from work and have to decompress for a while." Love and hate: In UnREAL, Quinn (top) has a complex relationship with Rachel. Credit:Leo Williams Portraying strong women, she hastens to add, is immensely satisfying. "But sometimes, I'd give anything to go back to sitcoms. I used to play wacky, kooky characters that aren't very bright. I miss those girls! They're a lot easier on my brain."

When Zimmer was first offered the role of Quinn, she rejected the role outright. Creators Sarah Shapiro and Marti Noxon soon changed her mind. The debut Australian season of Bachelor in Paradise promises plenty of drama. Credit:TOM HOLLOW "They kept saying that UnREAL was going to be different; that we would do things the Lifetime network had never done," she recalls. Still, she was shocked by Quinn's viciousness when she read the script. "I saw the words that came out of her mouth and I thought, 'What have I signed on to?'" Now, she has no such qualms. Indeed, she's astonished at the fortuitous timing of recent storylines, which seem to reflect #MeToo. (In fact, they were shot well before the movement emerged.)

In the third season of UnREAL, long-running reality show Everlasting casts its first female "suitress", Serena (Caitlin FitzGerald). Quinn's ex-partner and nemesis, Chet (Craig Bierko) proclaims himself a freshly-minted feminist  quite a departure from his "men's rights" activism, and a transparent attempt to undermine Quinn. Meanwhile, Rachel (Shiri Appleby) struggles to reconcile her liberal feminism with the archaic gender roles required of Everlasting's contestants. Mercifully, UnREAL's brand of feminism goes beyond the "you go girl" sloganeering that proffers inspiring TV roles models as an all-purpose solution. Look closer, and you'll find an unsparing portrayal of modern workplaces: young people trapped in insecure jobs; long hours for low pay; and ethics sacrificed on the altar of profit. When Shapiro was at university, she participated in a feminist thought experiment: how much would it cost to sell her soul? "I'd always say, like, $50 million," she told The LA Times. "And you find out it's actually just a paycheck. The desperation of staying alive is intense." Shapiro was literally forced to work on the US version of The Bachelor. As a fledgling producer on a show called High School Reunion, she had signed a contract without reading it  and was shocked to discover a clause compelling her to work in reality TV "in perpetuity".

Of course, she kicked up a stink. "It was like asking a vegan activist to work at a slaughterhouse," Shapiro has said. In the end, she was released from The Bachelor after threatening to kill herself. Once you know this, it's hard to accuse UnREAL of exaggeration. This is something Zimmer is acutely aware of, having binge-watched an entire season of The Bachelor after being cast as Quinn. "It was horrifying," she says. "I was on the plane, watching with my mouth open, because I couldn't grasp what these people were doing." When reality TV became a pop culture force, in the late 1990s, viewers were shocked by rumours of behind-the-scenes manipulation. Now, we willingly suspend our disbelief to enjoy these shows.

"On The Bachelor, they showed a girl saying she was off-camera  even though she knew the camera was filming through the crack of the bathroom door. "But you know what? I get it. These shows allow you to turn your brain off and revel in other people's mistakes. We're not doing this to turn people away from reality TV. What were saying is, 'You want to see how the sausage is made? Then come into the factory'." *Stan is a joint venture between the Nine Network and Fairfax Media, owner of this masthead. Loading WHAT UnREAL
For decades, the Australian resort-wear scene has taken its inspiration from the spirit of the coastline and the desert  a rich tapestry of colour, pattern and texture. And then, in 2015, Albus Lumen came along.

Created by former stylist (and trained accountant) Marina Afonina, Albus Lumen ("white light" in Latin) stripped back Australian resort wear to something almost unimaginable, European even. Think structural shapes in natural fabrics that embody what she calls "deconstructed utility".

Marina Afonina (right) with a model wearing her Albus Lumen label, which has won the BT Emerging Designer Award. Credit:Louise Kennerley

"In terms of vision for the brand I knew exactly what I needed to do. I wasnt confused," Afonina, 38, says.

In her years working at Harper's Bazaar and as a freelance stylist for the likes of Elle Macpherson, Phoebe Tonkin and Lara Worthington, Afonina would go to the shows, always craving "a story, or what the collection is about". "The connection between each piece. It has to be connected, it can't just be random colours or styles," she says.
An Australian Defence Force Academy cadet accused of sexual assaulting a Canberra university student was acquitted on Wednesday of all charges against him.

Sebastian Crago Ellis, 22, faced an ACT Supreme Court trial accused of six sexual offences against the woman that were allegedly committed in June and July 2016.

Sebastian Crago Ellis leaves court on Wednesday after being acquitted of all charges.

Last week, he was acquitted of four of the charges, including rape and attempted rape.

And on Wednesday, the jury returned verdicts of not guilty on the final two counts, of unlawful assault and an an act of indecency.
A Mardi Gras reveller who claims he was the victim of police brutality following the parade five years ago has lost his legal battle against the NSW Government.

Bryn Simon Hutchinson, 37, sued the state for up to $290,000 over the 2013 incident, which began with him trying to cross Oxford Street with his boyfriend and sister in the aftermath of the March 2 celebration.

Bryn Hutchinson has lost his legal battle. Credit:Peter Rae

In Mr Hutchinson's version of the stoush, he was grabbed by a police officer but continued to negotiate crossing the road. He said he then "felt a big force grab his upper arms" and two police officers started to move him down the street when he lost his balance, wrapping his legs around one of the officers' legs to steady himself.

CCTV footage of his arrest was played to the NSW District Court in Sydney during the trial earlier this month. Mr Hutchinson can be seen being forcibly moved back across the road by two officers, before he falls to the ground, kicking out his leg and making contact with one of them.
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.

Cardinal George Pells lawyer has made an extraordinary request for the magistrate overseeing the hearing into allegations of historical sexual assault against the cardinal to disqualify herself from the matter, claiming she has a "biased view" of the evidence.

Robert Richter, QC, one of Australia's top defence barristers, accused magistrate Belinda Wallington of favouring the prosecution after interrupting his line of questioning, and he requested that she "disqualify herself" from the committal hearing.

Cardinal George Pell arrives at court on Wednesday. Credit:AAP

The request was refused by Ms Wallington, who also asked Mr Richter to stop shouting during the heated exchange.
Comancheros outlaw bikie boss Michael Murray has been jailed for contempt, after refusing to co-operate with Victorian authorities, saying "I'm not a dog".

The 40-year-old was hauled before Victoria's chief examiner to be quizzed about four serious alleged offences in March last year.

On Wednesday, Victorian Supreme Court Justice Peter Riordan jailed Murray for eight months for contempt, saying his refusal to be sworn and co-operate with authorities was "deliberate and flagrant".

"Your refusal to be sworn ... was blatant, and you have not sought to purge your contempt," he said.
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.

Victoria Police planned to arrest George Pell as soon as he had given evidence to a Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse, a court has heard.

But the cardinal, who lives at the Vatican, didn't return to Melbourne to give evidence in November 2015, after citing ill health.

Instead, he gave evidence to the child sex abuse inquiry in February 2016 via video link from a Rome hotel.
The site of The Sisters fire. Credit:Christine Ansorge

Electricity supplier PowerCor faces a class action over the St Patricks Day fires in south-west Victoria that destroyed 22 homes and killed thousands of cows and sheep.

The damage bill from the fires that ripped through the region on March 17 could reach $40 million, the lawyer leading the class action says.

Victoria Police arson squad investigators found the source of two major fires at Garvoc and Terang were a power pole and power lines respectively.

One fire started when a 50-year-old power pole in the middle of a paddock at The Sisters, near Garvoc, snapped in fierce winds, fell over and caught fire.
An electrical contractor who corruptly received work from the City of Perth worth almost $350,000 has been spared an immediate prison sentence.

Hervey Alan Harms, 73, pleaded guilty to aiding city employee Brett Edward Kenny to act corruptly between December 2012 and February 2014.

Harms was sentenced in the WA District Court on Tuesday to 21 months in jail, suspended for two years. Credit:Tanya Lake

At the time, Harms ran an electrical contracting business, while Kenny was a City of Perth "facilities manager" who was able to authorise contracts up the value of $5,000, according to the ABC.

The District Court was told the city's policy was for two other electrical contractors to be offered work ahead of Harms, but instead Kenny arranged for Harms's company to be awarded contracts.
Young Australian hotel workers who steal on the job do so for an adrenaline rush, to make up for their low pay and also for revenge, groundbreaking new research has found.

Researchers from Edith Cowan University in Perth helped carry out the study in conjunction with the Blue Mountains International Hotel Management School.

The study set out to investigate the underlying motivations of employee theft behaviour in the hotel industry.

Interviews were carried out with 29 hotel management undergraduate students, who were doing their internships as full-time hotel employees in various jobs from food and beverage, housekeeping to front office.

The most mentioned motivation by all the 29 respondents was the adrenaline rush feeling when committing theft.
Stand down Sean Spicer. There's a new prince of PR in town, and he's right here at the Russian embassy in Canberra.

Bald, expressive and increasingly Soviet-red in complexion, Russian ambassador to Australia Grigory Logvinov took journalists on an hour-long traversal of Cold War history and Russia's relations with the West that veered from euphemism to blatant denial and surreal obfuscation.

For political journalists used to short, sharp, stage-managed press conferences, Wednesday's offering turned into a game of brinkmanship. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

There was no evidence Moscow was responsible for poisoning a former Russian spy in Britain, Logvinov insisted, just as there was no proof Russia shot down MH17 over Ukraine. He denied the two Russian diplomats expelled by the Australian government were actually spies, and ridiculed a series of photographs in The Australian depicting activity at the embassy.

One of the people pictured was "very spy-ish looking", Logvinov conceded, but was actually the embassy's chauffeur. "You see three women, also very spy-ish," he said. "One of them is [our] chief account[ant], the second is wife of our embassy's chef, the cook, and the third I don't remember who [it] is."
Former police minister Matt Brown, who resigned just three days into the job over antics at a budget night party, is considering a comeback as the Labor MP for Kiama, senior party sources have confirmed.

Senior Labor figures have said Mr Brown, who was the member for Kiama from 1999 to 2011, has been seeking support for preselection for his former seat.

Mr Browns ministerial career came to an abrupt end in September 2008, just three days after Nathan Rees took over from Morris Iemma as premier.

Former state MP and now Kiama councillor Matt Brown. Credit:Kiama Independent

He was promoted from tourism minister to police minister in Mr Rees new cabinet but was forced to resign almost immediately after details emerged of a wild budget night party three months earlier.
It's a sign of a severe problem that Western Australia's usage figures for the drug ice are double the national average, Anne Aly says.

But the federal Labor MP says her home state is missing out when it comes to funding under the National Ice Action Plan that could turn those figures around.

WA's usage figures for the drug ice are double the national average, Anne Aly says. Credit:Sydney Morning Herald

WA has received $27 million under the four-year plan which started in 2016, compared to $74 million for NSW and $57 million for Queensland, she told parliament on Tuesday.

It uses 2011 census data, rural and regional population numbers, assessment of socio-economic disadvantage and proportion of indigenous population.
Jakarta: The man who lost the 2014 Indonesian presidential election to Joko "Jokowi" Widodo is expected to formally confirm he will contest the 2019 election in a matter of weeks.

And Prabowo Subianto will help ensure that nationalism, the role of Islam in the world's largest Muslim democracy and race will all feature prominently in the election.

Prabowo Subianto Prabowo Subianto at his home in Hambalang, West Java, last year. Credit:Jefri Tarigan

Speculation in the Jakarta press about Prabowo's candidacy is ramping up and well-connected figures in Gerindra, Prabowos political party, have confirmed to Fairfax Media the former general with a checkered human rights record is likely to announce his run in April.

Talk has also turned to who Prabowo's running mate will be, with Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan and former military chief Gatot Nurmantyo among the favourites.
Aid workers in the earthquake and tsunami ravaged Solomon Islands on Thursday said relief efforts were chaotic and warned of growing health risks for thousands left homeless in squalid camps.

The United Nations put the death toll from Monday's magnitude 8.0 quake and tsunami at 34. Solomons officials have previously said 28 deaths were confirmed, but more were expected.

Authorities have estimated the number of homeless at around 5,600. There has been no official tally of the missing.

"We are under-resourced, we need bigger vehicles," said disaster official Jonathan Taisia at the main Red Cross centre in hard-hit Gizo town, as a chartered helicopter landed with the latest load of tarps and food.

But much of the aid coming into Gizo wasn't being distributed beyond depots because of vehicle shortages, and a lack of workers to load trucks or clear debris that has severed road links to outlying villages, he said.
MAG Silver reports 2017 annual results

Posted by Publisher Internet

MAG Silver Corp. (TSX / NYSE American: MAG) (?MAG? or the ?Company?  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hukzFOVnnKo&t=2s) announces the Company?s audited consolidated financial results for the year ended December 31, 2017. For details of the consolidated financial statements, Management\-\-s Discussion and Analysis, Annual Information Form and Annual Report on Form 40-F for the year ended December 31, 2017, please see the Company?s filings on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) or on EDGAR (www.sec.gov).

All amounts herein are reported in $000s of United States dollars (?US$?) unless otherwise specified.

2017 HIGHLIGHTS

New expanded Juanicipio Resource Estimate and robust 2017 PEA announced November 7, 2017 with Base Case (1) highlights (100% basis) as follows:

Low life of mine (?LOM?) AISC of $5.02/ounce (?oz?) of silver over an initial 19 years of mine-life;

Process plant ramp up to a throughput rate of 1.4 million tonnes/year (4,000 tpd);

LOM payable production of 183 million oz of silver, and on a silver equivalent basis 352 million oz(1);

Base case pre-tax IRR 64.5%; after tax IRR 44.5%;

Base case pre-tax Net Present Value (?NPV?) at a 5% discount rate of $1.86 billion; after tax NPV of $1.14 billion;

Initial capital costs on 100 % basis as of January 1, 2018 of $360 million (?M?) (MAG?s 44% $158.4 M);

Accelerated early silver flow gives less than a 2-year payback from plant startup.

(1) Base Case metal prices of $17.90/oz for silver; $1250/oz for gold; $0.95/pound (?lb?) for lead and $1.00/lb for zinc. Projected Silver Equivalent calculated using the Base Case metal recoveries and Base Case metal prices.

Underground development intensified with additional contractors brought in to increase underground development rate.

Permitting based on an upgraded mine design submitted in 2017 and received subsequent to the year end according to the operator, Fresnillo.

Independent feasibility study by AMC expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2018, as required for a production decision under the Minera Juanicipio Shareholders? Agreement.

Formal Minera Juanicipio and respective Joint Venture partner Board approvals expected upon completion of the feasibility study.

20,000 metre exploration drill program in process to test new targets and to upgrade Inferred Mineral Resources in the Deep Zone to Indicated Mineral Resources (assays pending).

Directional drilling being utilized to infill and expand the Deep Zone.

Closed a non-brokered private placement offering for gross proceeds of $48,158

Company is well funded (cash and cash equivalents totaling $160,395 as at December 31, 2017).

George Paspalas, President and CEO, commented, ?we saw the 2017 PEA strongly validate the enhanced project scope, size and economics of the Juanicipio project. We look forward now to completing the feasibility study which will trigger the production decision and set us on the path forward with our partner Fresnillo. As we progress through 2018, the strategy to commence exploration on some of the greenfield targets on the Joint Venture ground should materialize?

Juanicipio Project Update

At site, the underground development continues at increased development rates, with emphasis on the ramp twinning and on three internal ramps at depth designed to provide zone access within the mine. Fresnillo, as operator, advised that permits submitted in 2017 based on the upgraded 4,000 tpd design were granted in the first quarter of 2018.

Exploration drilling continues under the 20,000 metre program approved in 2017, with currently five drill rigs on site, four drilling from surface and one from underground (all assays pending).

An independent feasibility study to be prepared by AMC, was commissioned by Minera Juanicipio in the second half of 2017, and is expected to be completed by the second quarter of 2018. This study is required by the Minera Juanicipio Shareholders? Agreement in order to make a formal production decision. Unlike the 2017 PEA, the feasibility study (by regulatory definition) cannot include Inferred Mineral Resources in the mine plan and is based on more detailed engineering which may result in changes in project?s scope. As a result, the feasibility study will model significantly fewer tonnes mined resulting in a shorter mine life than envisioned in the 2017 PEA, and the study is expected to contain an incremental increase in the estimated initial capital cost. With these and other possible scope changes stemming from the exclusion of Inferred Mineral Resources, the project?s modeled economics are expected to decrease as compared to those in the 2017 PEA. Upon completion of the feasibility study, Minera Juanicipio is expected to present the study to both its Board and the respective Joint Venture partner Boards for formal development approval. Although there is no certainty a production decision will be made, Fresnillo has publicly advised that it expects Minera Juanicipio to be in production by the first half of 2020, which is consistent with the timeline to production in the 2017 PEA.

FINANCIAL RESULTS ? YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2017

As at December 31, 2017, the Company had working capital of $159,906 (December 31, 2016: $139,141) including cash and cash equivalents of $160,395 (December 31, 2016: $138,347 cash and term deposits). The Company currently has no debt and believes it has sufficient working capital to maintain all of its properties and currently planned programs for a period in excess of the next year. The Company makes cash advances to Minera Juanicipio as \-\-cash called\-\- by the operator, Fresnillo, based on approved joint venture budgets. In the year ended December 31, 2017, the Company funded advances to Minera Juanicipio, which combined with MAG\-\-s Juanicipio expenditures on its own account, totaled $19,435 (December 31, 2016: $7,363).

The Company?s net loss for the year ended December 31, 2017 decreased to $6,497 (December 31, 2016: $55,846) or $0.08/share (December 31, 2016: $0.71/share) primarily because there were no exploration and evaluation impairments this year. In the comparative 2016, the Company recognized impairments on its Cinco de Mayo and Guigui projects totaling $53,893.

Management compensation and consulting fees of $2,521 for the year ended December 31, 2017 were comparable to the prior year (December 31, 2016: $2,397) as corporate staffing levels remained constant. Likewise, share based payment expense (a non-cash item) based on fair values of equity incentive grants (stock options, performance share units (?PSUs?), and deferred share units (?DSUs?)) also remained constant and amounted to $2,268 in the year (December 31, 2016: $2,263). In the year ended December 31, 2017, the Company granted 285,522 stock options (December 31, 2016: 227,773), 88,665 PSUs, (December 31, 2016: 69,085), and 66,325 DSUs (December 31, 2016: 63,287) under the Company?s equity compensation plans. An additional 13,109 DSUs (December 31, 2016: 9,477) were granted to directors who elected to receive their retainer and meeting fees for the period in DSUs rather than in cash.

In other income for the year ended December 31, 2017, the Company earned interest income on its cash and cash equivalents of $1,755 (December 31, 2016: $1,115).

Shareholders may receive, upon request and free of charge, a hard copy of the Company\-\-s Audited Financial Statements. The Company\-\-s 40-F has also been filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

ADVANCE NOTICE POLICY

MAG also announces the approval by its board of directors of certain housekeeping amendments to its advance notice policy (the \Policy\) first adopted on August 23, 2012 and amended effective March 23, 2018 which Policy, among other things, includes a provision that requires advance notice to the Company in circumstances where nominations of persons for election to the board of directors are made by shareholders of the Company other than pursuant to: (i) a \proposal\ made in accordance with Division 7 of the Business Corporations Act (British Columbia) (the \Act\); or (ii) a requisition of the shareholders made in accordance with section 167 of the Act. The amendments are designed to ensure that the Policy is aligned with recent governance recommendations with respect to best practices.

The full text of the Policy is available via SEDAR at www.sedar.com or upon request by contacting the Secretary of the Company at 604-630-1399 or by email at jharris@magsilver.com.

About MAG Silver Corp. (www.magsilver.com )

MAG Silver Corp. is a Canadian exploration and development company focused on becoming a top-tier primary silver mining company, by exploring and advancing high-grade, district scale, silver-dominant projects in the Americas. Our principal focus and asset is the Juanicipio Property (44%), being developed in partnership with Fresnillo Plc (56%) and is located in the Fresnillo Silver District in Mexico, the world?s premier silver mining camp. We are presently developing the underground infrastructure on the property, under the operational expertise of our joint venture partner, Fresnillo plc, to support an expected 4,000 tonnes per day mining operation. As well, we have an expanded exploration program in place investigating other highly prospective targets across the property. In addition, we continue to work on regaining surface access to our 100% owned Cinco de Mayo property in Mexico while we seek other high grade, district scale opportunities.

Neither the Toronto Stock Exchange nor the NYSE American have reviewed or accepted responsibility for the accuracy or adequacy of this press release, which has been prepared by management.

This News Release contains \forward-looking information\ and \forward looking statements\ within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities legislation. Statements contained herein that are not based on historical or current fact, including without limitation statements containing the words ?anticipates,? ?believes,? ?may,? ?continues,? ?estimates,? ?expects,? and ?will? and words of similar import, constitute ?forward-looking statements? within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking information may include, but is not limited to, expectations with respect to the filing of final base shelf prospectus and shelf registration statement on form F-10 or with respect to any future offerings by the Company; and information contained the preliminary base shelf prospectus relating to, among other things, the future price of silver, gold, lead and zinc, the estimation of mineral resources, preliminary economic estimates relating to the Juanicipio Project, estimates of the time and amount of future silver, gold, lead and zinc production for specific operations, estimated future exploration and development expenditures and other expenses for specific operations, permitting timelines, the Company?s expectations regarding impairments of mineral properties, the Company?s expectations regarding its negotiations with the Ejido to obtain surface access to the Cinco de Mayo Property; the anticipated timing of a formal ?production decision? at Minera Juanicipio; the Company?s expectations regarding the sufficiency of its capital resources and requirements for additional capital, litigation risks, currency fluctuations, environmental risks and reclamation cost, and changes to governmental laws and regulations. Any statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events of performance (often but not always using words or phrases such as ?anticipate?, ?believe?, ?estimate?, ?expect?, ?intend?, ?plan?, ?strategy?, ?goals?, ?objectives?, ?project?, ?potential? or variations thereof or stating that certain actions, events, or results ?may?, ?could?, ?would?, ?might? or ?will? be taken, occur, or be achieved, or the negative of any of these terms and similar expressions), as they relate to the Company or management, are intended to identify forward-looking statements and information. Such statements reflect the Company?s current views with respect to future events and are subject to certain known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions.

Many factors could cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements that may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and information, including, among others, the ability of the Company to successfully close a financing pursuant to the base shelf prospectus or shelf registration statement and those risks identified in MAG\-\-s preliminary base shelf prospectus dated December 28, 2017 filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com . Forward-looking information is based on the expectations and opinions of MAG\-\-s management on the date the statements are made. The assumptions used in the preparation of such statements, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise. We do not assume any obligation to update forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by applicable law. For the reasons set forth above, prospective investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Neither the TSX nor the NYSE American has approved or disapproved of the information contained herein.

Cautionary Note to Investors Concerning Estimates of Indicated Resources

This press release uses the term \Indicated Resources\. MAG advises investors that although this term is recognized and required by Canadian regulations (under National Instrument 43-101  Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects), the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission does not recognize this term. Investors are cautioned not to assume that any part or all of mineral deposits in this category will ever be converted into reserves.

Cautionary Note to Investors Concerning Estimates of Inferred Resources

This press release uses the term \Inferred Resources\. MAG advises investors that although this term is recognized and required by Canadian regulations (under National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects), the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission does not recognize this term. Investors are cautioned not to assume that any part or all of the mineral deposits in this category will ever be converted into reserves. In addition, \Inferred Resources\ have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence, and economic and legal feasibility. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of an Inferred Mineral Resource will ever be upgraded to a higher category. Under Canadian rules, estimates of Inferred Mineral Resources may not form the basis of feasibility or pre-feasibility studies, or economic studies except for Preliminary Assessment as defined under Canadian National Instrument 43-101. Investors are cautioned not to assume that part or all of an Inferred Resource exists, or is economically or legally mineable.

Please Note:

Investors are urged to consider closely the disclosures in MAG\-\-s annual and quarterly reports and other public filings, accessible through the Internet at www.sedar.com and

www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/companysearch.html.
Treasury Metals Reports Infill Drilling Results and Prepares to Mobilize NE Regional Exploration Program

Posted by Publisher Internet

Treasury Metals Inc. (TSX: TML) (?Treasury Metals? or the ?Company?  http://www.commodity-tv.net/c/search_adv/?v=298263 ) is pleased to announce initial assay results from its active 15,000-meter infill exploration drilling program at the Company?s flagship Goliath Gold Project located in northwestern Ontario. The Company is currently exploring and infill drilling in the Main Zone with two rigs. A drill hole location plan map and longitudinal section are presented at the end of this release.

?We are pleased with the drilling progress at Goliath for a number of reasons. The infill drill results have increased our confidence in the overall resource potential and further support our belief that gold continues at depth. In April, we will initiate a step-out exploration program to the north-east along strike to test for additional high-grade gold shoots. The company continues to push ahead on all development fronts including the Federal Environmental Assessment process, community and First Nations dialogue, and a Pre-Feasibility Study,? said Chris Stewart, Treasury?s President and Chief Executive Officer. ?We expect 2018 to benefit from our significant efforts over the past several years.?

In addition to the on-going infill program, the Company will commence an initial 5,000 meters of resource expansion/exploration drilling in April which is focused on Treasury Metals? high-priority East Resource Target area as follow-up to the successful near surface drilling program that was completed last summer. Gold mineralization was intersected in several drill holes approximately 80 to 350 meters from the proposed open pit both near surface and at depth (see press release dated October 2, 2017). The step out program will be expanded along strike east of the open pit with a second rig once the infill program is completed and as the program is further developed.

Today?s infill results are primarily in the lower extents (400-600 meters) of the central and eastern shoots of the Main Zone drilled from surface. The infill and expansion drilling is focused on the outer edges of the known high-grade shoots and are successfully converting inferred to indicated resources. The Main Zone central shoot remains open at depth, as demonstrated in TL17-460 and TL18-464, with the alteration and mineralized envelope intersected at this depth.

Drilling Highlights

East Area:?

 TL18-469: 5.04 g/t over 6 meters?

 TL18-468: 1.41 g/t over 11.6 meters

Central Area:

 TL18-467A: 6.60 g/t over 4.2 meters?

 TL17-422: 4.10 g/t over 5.0 meters including 18.20 g/t over 1.0 meters in the C Zone?

 TL 17-422: 3.67 g/t over 4.0 meters

 TL18-464: 5.77 g/t over 3.0 meters?

 TL17-460: 4.80 g/t over 3.0 meters

The company has not used a Gold Equivalent (AuEq) for the contained silver for this release but would expect the recovery of silver to increase the overall contained AuEq by a small amount in future studies.

The Company also completed surface geotechnical site investigation across the property in Q1/2018 to ensure adequate coverage for geotechnical and earthworks information that will be included in the upcoming Feasibility study. More than 40 holes were tested across the entire site including footprints for the Waste Rock Storage, Tailings Facility and Processing plant. The completion of this substantial program supports all design work and garnered sufficient data to support the engineering work through to completion of the Feasibility Study.

Figure 1: 2018 Infill Drill Program Collar Location Map (Click here to enlarge)

Figure 2: Main Zone Long Section (Click here to enlarge)

Qualified Persons

Technical information in this press release has been reviewed and approved by Adam Larsen, P. Geo, who is the qualified person under the definitions established by National Instrument 43-101. All results from the program will be available for viewing in the Complete Assay Table on the Company?s website. To view further details about the Goliath Gold Project, please visit the Company?s website at www.treasurymetals.com.

About Treasury Metals Inc.

Treasury Metals Inc. is a gold focused exploration and development company with assets in Canada and is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (?TSX?) under the symbol ?TML? and on the OTCQX? Best Market under the symbol TSRMF. Treasury Metals Inc.?s 100% owned Goliath Gold Project in northwestern Ontario is slated to become one of Canada?s next producing gold mines. With first-rate infrastructure currently in place and gold mineralization extending to surface, Treasury Metals plans on the initial development of an open pit gold mine to feed a 2,500 per day processing plant with subsequent underground operations in the latter years of the mine life.

QA/QC Program:

The Company has implemented a quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) program to ensure sampling and analysis of all exploration work is conducted in accordance with the CIM Exploration Best Practices Guidelines. The drill core is sawn in half with one-half of the core sample dispatched to Actlabs facility located in Dryden, Ontario. The other half of the core is retained for future assay verification and/or metallurgical testing. Other QA/QC procedures include the insertion of blanks and Canadian Reference Standards for every tenth sample in the sample stream. A quarter core duplicate is assayed every 20th sample. The laboratory has its own QA/QC protocols running standards and blanks with duplicate samples in each batch stream. Additional checks are routinely run on anomalous values including gravimetric analysis and pulp metallic screen fire assays. Gold analysis is conducted by lead collection, fire assay with atomic absorption and/or gravimetric finish on a 50 gram sample. Check assays are conducted at a secondary ISO certified laboratory (in this case AGAT Laboratories located in Mississauga, Ontario). Metallic screen fire assaying is now completed using a 2.0 kg sample and four 50 gm fire assays of the pass (-100 mesh) pulverized material.

Forward-looking Statements

This release includes certain statements that may be deemed to be ?forward-looking statements?. All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that management of the Company expect, are forward-looking statements. Actual results or developments may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Treasury Metals disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, save and except as may be required by applicable securities laws.

?
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Expanding red giant stars will swallow too-close planets. In the solar system, the sun will engulf Mercury and Venus, and may devour Earth, as well.

A red giant star is a dying star in the last stages of stellar evolution. In only a few billion years, our own sun will turn into a red giant star, expand and engulf the inner planets, possibly even Earth. What does the future hold for the light of our solar system and others like it?

Forming a giant

Most of the stars in the universe are main sequence stars  those converting hydrogen into helium via nuclear fusion. A main sequence star may have a mass between a third to eight times that of the sun and eventually burn through the hydrogen in its core. Over its life, the outward pressure of fusion has balanced against the inward pressure of gravity. Once the fusion stops, gravity takes the lead and compresses the star smaller and tighter.

Temperatures increase with the contraction, eventually reaching levels where helium is able to fuse into carbon. Depending on the mass of the star, the helium burning might be gradual or might begin with an explosive flash.

"Although fusion is no longer taking place in the core, the rise in temperature heats up the shell of hydrogen surrounding the core until it is hot enough to start hydrogen fusion, producing more energy than when it was a main sequence star," the Australia Telescope National Facility says on their website.

Red giant stars reach sizes of 100 million to 1 billion kilometers in diameter (62 million to 621 million miles), 100 to 1,000 times the size of the sun today. Because the energy is spread across a larger area, surface temperatures are actually cooler, reaching only 2,200 to 3,200 degrees Celsius (4,000 to 5,800 degrees Fahrenheit), a little over half as hot as the sun. This temperature change causes stars to shine in the redder part of the spectrum, leading to the name red giant, though they are often more orangish in appearance.

This picture of the dramatic nebula around the bright red supergiant star Betelgeuse was created from images taken with the VISIR infrared camera on ESOs Very Large Telescope (VLT). This structure, resembling flames emanating from the star, forms because the behemoth is shedding its material into space. (Image credit: ESO/P. Kervella)

In 2017, an international team of astronomers identified the surface of the red giant  Gruis in detail using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope. They found that the red giant's surface has just a few convective cells, or granules, that are each about 75 million miles (120 million kilometers) across. By comparison, the sun has about two million convective cells about 930 miles (1,500 km) across.

Stars spend approximately a few thousand to 1 billion years as a red giant. Eventually, the helium in the core runs out and fusion stops. The star shrinks again until a new helium shell reaches the core. When the helium ignites, the outer layers of the star are blown off in huge clouds of gas and dust known as planetary nebulae. These shells are much larger and fainter than their parent stars.

The core continues to collapse in on itself. Smaller stars such as the sun end their lives as compact white dwarfs. The material of larger, more massive stars fall inward until the star eventually becomes a supernova, blowing off gas and dust in a dramatic fiery death. [Amazing Photos of Supernova Explosions]

The future of the sun

In approximately 5 billion years, the sun will begin the helium-burning process, turning into a red giant star. When it expands, its outer layers will consume Mercury and Venus, and reach Earth. Scientists are still debating whether or not our planet will be engulfed, or whether it will orbit dangerously close to the dimmer star. Either way, life as we know it on Earth will cease to exist.

"A similar fate may await the inner planets in our solar system, when the sun becomes a red giant and expands all the way out to Earth's orbit some five billion years from now," astronomer Alex Wolszczan, an astronomer at Pennsylvania State University, said in a statement.

"The future of the Earth is to die with the sun boiling up the oceans, but the hot rock will survive," astrophysicist Don Kurtz, of the University of Lancashire, told Reuters.

The changing sun may provide hope to other planets, however. When stars morph into red giants, they change the habitable zones of their system. The habitable zone is the region where liquid water can exist, considered by most scientists to be the area ripe for life to evolve. Because a star remains a red giant for approximately a billion years, it may be possible for life to arise on bodies in the outer solar system, which will be closer to the sun.

"When a star ages and brightens, the habitable zone moves outward and you're basically giving a second wind to a planetary system," exoplanet scientist Ramses M. Ramirez, a researcher at Cornell's Carl Sagan Institute, said in a statement. "Currently objects in these outer regions are frozen in our own solar system, like Europa and Enceladus  moons orbiting Jupiter and Saturn."

The window of opportunity will only be open briefly, however. When the sun and other smaller stars shrinks back down to a white dwarf, the life-giving light will dissipate. And supernovae from larger stars could present other habitability issues.

Follow Nola Taylor Redd at @NolaTRedd, Facebook, or Google+. Follow us at @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+.
SpaceX's spectacular Falcon Heavy launch last month  which saw the most powerful rocket currently in operation lift off for the first time from Florida's Kennedy Space Center, with a Tesla Roadster on board  is just one herald of the new era of space exploration, argues the author of a new book.

Joe Pappalardo, author of the book "Spaceport Earth: The Reinvention of Spaceflight" (The Overlook Press, 2018), stood on Florida's coast to watch the launch Feb. 6 along with an estimated crowd of 100,000 people. He told Space.com that the launch was one of the most memorable ones he attended.

"One of the workers at the Cape  a retired fireman  had seen over 100 launches in his life," Pappalardo, who is also a contributing editor to the magazine Popular Mechanics, told Space.com. "The guy was giddy ... if this guy was doing backflips metaphorically, then I feel a lot better about my level of enthusiasm." [SpaceX's First Falcon Heavy Rocket Mission in Photos]

When NASA's space shuttle program retired in 2011, astronaut launches to the International Space Station moved exclusively to Baikonur, Kazakhstan. NASA's commercial crew program was in the works, but no spacecraft was ready to take Americans aloft from U.S. soil. To some observers, this era represented a loss of prestige  a time when the U.S. had to step back and let other countries take the lead on spaceflight.

Pappalardo argues that was never the case. It's easy to say now in 2018, with both SpaceX and Boeing perhaps a year or two from launching astronauts themselves. But over the past few years, Pappalardo embarked on a journey across America  and to select launchpads around the world  to chronicle how commercial players are turning spaceflight into an even more exciting enterprise.

Pappalardo's odyssey included a stop at Spaceport America near Mojave, New Mexico, in 2017, from where Virgin Galactic aims to bring tourists into space at a reasonable cost. In the book, Pappalardo noted that Virgin's first flight in space was stalled by technological hurdles and a fatal test flight on Oct. 31, 2014. But he also emphasized the important role Virgin played in spurring the spaceport's development. "Mojave is a great incubator for innovation," Pappalardo said in the interview.

A selection of other stops in the book include Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, where Pappalardo saw a Minuteman III missile launch; Texas State Technical College, where a dedicated team hopes to build a spaceport; Van Horn, Texas, where the private company Blue Origin tests its New Shepard spacecraft; and Kourou, French Guiana, where French Ariane 5 rockets regularly launch satellites.

At times, Pappalardo's book drifts from a chronicle of commercial space history to a simple travelogue of his adventures and the people he met. But the thrust of the book remains clear; it shows that the United States did not stop innovating after the space shuttle program ended. Nowhere is this clearer than near Titusville, Florida, where SpaceX's recent launch saw crowds approaching the size of those who saw the last shuttles fly in 2010 and 2011.

"A sea change happened," Pappalardo said. "To really understand it, you need to roll back the clock to the end of the shuttle and see how the area transformed after SpaceX," he added.

Pappalardo said that his main challenge in covering the emergence of commercial spaceflight is not having the benefit of hindsight. The benefit, however, is getting to talk to all the people affected by it, in real time  talking to people ranging from county officials, to farmers, to the high-paid executives running the companies.

He added that he is excited to see crewed commercial spaceflight, which he called the next step in the developments he chronicled. "I'll take a good look at that," Pappalardo said of his future journalistic coverage.

Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
As Tiangong-1 makes its last few orbits of Earth before burning up in the atmosphere in a few days, you can watch the Chinese space station live online through a robotically controlled telescope at The Virtual Telescope Project.

Live coverage of the event will start Wednesday (March 28) at 8 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT), but the organizers said the timing could change closer to the event. You can visit this page on The Virtual Telescope Project's website to see updates.

"The Tiangong-1 Chinese space station is re-entering our atmosphere soon," representatives for The Virtual Telescope Project wrote in a statement. "The Virtual Telescope Project and Tenagra Observatories offer you the unique chance to see it during one of its very last passages across the skies. You can join us online, via the internet, from the comfort of your home." [China's Space Station Crash: Everything You Need to Know]

Tiangong-1 is the first Chinese space station; it launched in 2011 and hosted two crews of Chinese astronauts, in 2012 and 2013. It remained operational until 2016, when contact with the space station was lost. The station is now falling toward Earth and is expected to burn up in the atmosphere over Easter weekend (March 30 to April 2).

The Chinese space lab Tiangong-1 will soon make its last few orbits of Earth before burning up in the atmosphere, and you can watch it live online. (Image credit: Gianluca Masi)

It's unclear how much of Tiangong-1 will survive the journey, but it's possible some pieces will fall to the ground. The station has an orbital inclination between 43 degrees north and 43 degrees south latitudes, so it could fall anywhere within those bands. But experts point out that Tiangong-1 is much smaller than the NASA Skylab space station, parts of which crashed into remote areas of Australia in 1979, so most of it may burn up during re-entry. Tiangong-1 weighs only 8.5 metric tons (9.4 tons), compared to Skylab's 100 tons.

China's Tiangong-1 space station is predicted to fall somewhere between the latitudes of 42.8 degrees north and 42.8 degrees south, the area shaded in yellow and green here. (Image credit: Aerospace Corporation)

The Virtual Telescope Project is managed by astronomer Gianluca Masi and includes several robotic telescopes that can be accessed in real time online. The project also hosts periodic public online observing events, which include live commentary.

Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
Humanity's brutal and bellicose past provides ample justification for pursuing settlements on the moon and Mars, Elon Musk says.

The billionaire entrepreneur has long stressed that he founded SpaceX in 2002 primarily to help make humanity a multiplanet species  a giant leap that would render us much less vulnerable to extinction.

Human civilization faces many grave threats over the long haul, from asteroid strikes and climate change to artificial intelligence run amok, Musk has said over the years. And he recently highlighted our well-documented inability to get along with each other as another frightening factor. [The BFR: SpaceX's Mars Colony Plan in Images]

"Last century, we had two massive world wars  three if you count the Cold War," Musk said earlier this month at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas. "I think it's unlikely that we'll never have another world war again."

He emphasized that he's not predicting an imminent global conflict, only that one is likely to occur at some point in the future, given humanity's track record. If and when that next big war occurs, Musk added, it could usher in a planet-wide "dark ages."

"Then we want to make sure that there's enough of a seed of human civilization somewhere else to bring civilization back and perhaps shorten the length of the dark ages," he said. "I think a moon base and a Mars base that could perhaps help regenerate life back here on Earth would be really important, and to get that done before a possible World War III."

A Mars base would be a sturdier civilization bulwark than a moon settlement because the Red Planet is farther from Earth, Musk added. But it's worth setting up shop on both worlds, as each outpost would thin our risk, he said.

Musk isn't all talk on this topic; SpaceX is developing a huge, reusable rocket-spaceship combo called the BFR, with the chief aim of making Mars colonization economically feasible. Musk unveiled the latest plans for this transportation system at a conference in Australia last September, and he gave a brief progress update at SXSW.

Musk has previously said that, if everything goes well with the BFR's development, the first crewed flights to Mars could lift off in the 2020s.

And getting back to existential threats: A global war and accompanying dark ages aren't at the top of Musk's list of concerns. At SXSW, he sounded the alarm once again about artificial intelligence (AI) and called for some form of public regulation of the rapidly advancing technology.

"The danger of AI is much greater than the danger of nuclear warheads, by a lot, and nobody would suggest that we allow anyone to just build nuclear warheads if they want. That would be insane," he said.

"If humanity collectively decides that creating digital superintelligence is the right move, then we should do so very, very carefully  very, very carefully," Musk added. "This is the most important thing that we can possibly do."

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
The crash is imminent: The Chinese experimental space station Tiangong-1 will fall uncontrolled to Earth on Sunday (April 1), give or take a day and a half.

With a weight of 9.4 tons (8.5 metric tons) at launch, which occurred in September 2011, the craft will be one of the heftiest chunks of space debris to re-enter our planets atmosphere, according to the European Space Agency (ESA). Does that mean youre in danger of being struck?

In two words? Not really.

"The odds of being hit are very small," Marco Langbroek, a consultant with the Space Security Center of the Royal Dutch Air Force and Leiden Observatory, told Space.com. [China's Tiangong-1 Space Lab in Pictures]

Langbroek, who tracks spy satellites and writes the blog SatTrackCam, has been posting re-entry predictions for Tiangong-1 since March 13, 2017. "We should not overdramatize the dangers," he said.

An artist's illustration of China's Tiangong-1 space lab in Earth orbit. The 9.4-ton spacecraft is scheduled to re-enter the atmosphere on April 1, 2018, plus or minus 36 hours. (Image credit: China Manned Space Engineering Office)

The risk is low for several reasons. First, although Tiangong-1 is about the size of a school bus, most of it will break apart and disintegrate as the friction of Earths atmosphere burns up the space lab. The surviving bits will likely scatter along a path projected to be about 1,240 miles long by 43 miles wide (2,000 by 70 kilometers), according to researchers with the Aerospace Corporation, a California-based company.

On a planet with a total surface area of about 197 million square miles (510 million square km), thats a pretty small strip.

And that strip will probably fall on the ocean, which covers 70 percent of Earth's surface. Combine that with the fact that most people live clumped together in cities, and the chances of getting whacked on the noggin from a falling piece of space debris are less than 1 in 1 trillion, according to an Aerospace Corp. Tiangong-1 re-entry fact sheet.

ESA researchers deem the odds to be even slimmer  1 in 300 trillion, or "about 10 million times smaller than the annual odds of being struck by lightning," they wrote in an FAQ on Tiangong-1s re-entry.

There are no guarantees, of course. In January 1997, Lottie Williams of Tulsa, Oklahoma, was struck in the shoulder by a hand-size piece of space junk, later determined to have come from a Delta II rocket. She was not hurt. And at least 166 pieces of space junk have been recovered over the last 55 years, according to ESA.

China's Tiangong-1 space station is predicted to fall somewhere between the latitudes of 42.8 degrees north and 42.8 degrees south, the area shaded in yellow and green here. (Image credit: Aerospace Corporation)

Tiangong-1's orbit dictates that it will come down somewhere between 43 degrees north latitude and 43 degrees south latitude  a huge portion of the globe that harbors most of the world's population. But that's about as specific as researchers can get right now, and perhaps that lack of details is why people are feeling skittish.

Attributes such as the crafts current mass and the exact atmospheric drag it's experiencing are unknown, Langbroek said. Thats because some of Tiangong-1's fuel was used before China lost contact with it in March 2016, and it might shed parts, such as its solar panels, as it falls, he added. The space lab is also tumbling in an unknown way, which varies the strength of the drag. In addition, solar outbursts that rile up Earths atmosphere can increase this drag, throwing off calculations, Langbroek said.

Finally, Tiangong-1 is moving incredibly fast, at about 15,660 mph (25,200 km/h).

"Even 10 minutes of uncertainty on either side of the nominal prediction corresponds to almost 8,500 kilometers [5,280 miles] of uncertainty in where it will come down," he said.

The real danger may not lie in people being struck by the debris, but rather in curious people inspecting it, said Langbroek. According to the Aerospace Corp. fact sheet, chunks of Tiangong-1 that survive re-entry may harbor hydrazine, a toxic and corrosive rocket fuel.

Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said that any hydrazine would most likely leak out and burn up high in the atmosphere. "But just to be cautious, dont handle the debris, keep people perhaps 100 yards away from it, and report it to local emergency services," he told Space.com.

If that piece fell in the United States, local police or firefighters should pass the information along to NASA or the U.S. Air Force, who, under the United Nations' Agreement on the Rescue of Astronauts, the Return of Astronauts and the Return of Objects Launched into Outer Space, must return the debris to China, McDowell said.

Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
An artist's illustration of the interstellar object known as 'Oumuamua, the first object ever to be discovered passing through our solar system from somewhere beyond.

An interstellar object that whizzed through our solar system last year is confounding astronomers trying to understand how planets, comets and asteroids form.

The object, called 'Oumuamua, has a composition that suggests it should have formed close to its parent star. But in a twist, astronomers said it's hard to imagine how the object left its parent solar system, because it's hard to eject an object orbiting so close to a star.

'Oumuamua (pronounced oh-MOO-ah-MOO-ah) was discovered on Oct. 19, 2017, using the NASA-funded Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) at the University of Hawaii. ['Oumuamua Explained: An Interstellar Visitor in Pictures]

After looking at 'Oumuamua's high speed and highly inclined path through the solar system, scientists at the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center concluded the object was interstellar. The discovery of 'Oumuamua marks the first time an interstellar object was confirmed in our solar system.

"This object was likely ejected from a distant star system," said Elisa Quintana, an astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, in a NASA statement.

"What's interesting is that just this one object flying by so quickly can help us constrain some of our planet-formation models," added Quintana, who is a co-author of a new paper in the journal the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. The paper, released today (March 27), describes what 'Oumuamua observations are revealing about the formation of planetesimals, which are small, rocky objects that could come together under gravity's pull to form planets.

Icy mystery

Observations of 'Oumuamua suggest that the object was probably pretty dry. Before its discovery, 'Oumuamua zoomed past the sun at about 196,000 mph (315,400 km/h). While the object was traveling fast enough to escape our solar system, its speed was somewhat similar to that of a comet passing by the sun, NASA said.

Comets are loose collections of ice and rock. As they draw near the sun, their surface warms, and this loosens gas and dust to escape into space. 'Oumuamua didn't leave behind such a trail.

Some scientists have suggested that in its own solar system, 'Oumuamua likely formed in a different region than comets formed in our own neighborhood. But the new paper has a counterargument.

Solar systems such as our sun and its planets form out of vast clouds of gas, dust and ice. Objects, such as comets, that form far away from their parent sun can remain icy. If the objects are close to the sun, it's too hot for ice to remain, so they coalesce into objects such as asteroids.

But if 'Oumuamua formed as close to its star as an asteroid, it's difficult to imagine how it was ejected away from that zone, the new paper suggests.

"The total real estate that's hot enough for that is almost zero," said lead author Sean Raymond, an astrophysicist at the French National Center for Scientific Research and the University of Bordeaux, in the same statement. "It's these tiny, little, circular regions around stars. It's harder for that stuff to get ejected, because it's more gravitationally bound to the star. It's hard to imagine how 'Oumuamua could have gotten kicked out of its system if it started off as an asteroid."

"If we understand planet formation correctly, ejected material like 'Oumuamua should be predominantly icy," added Thomas Barclay, an astrophysicist at Goddard and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. "If we see populations of these objects that are predominantly rocky, it tells us we've got something wrong in our models."

How 'Oumuamua's journey began

While researchers are further investigating where 'Oumuamua formed, they have come up with a plausible scenario for how it was ejected. Based on simulations from other work, they suggest a gas giant planet  something similar to a Jupiter  flung 'Oumuamua into interstellar exile.

As a gas giant plows by small objects such as asteroids, the planet exerts intense gravitational forces on the objects. In some cases, gravity breaks the objects apart. In the case of 'Oumuamua, the planet's gravity exerted pressure on the object, forcing it into the cigar-like shape observed today.

"The researchers calculated the number of interstellar objects we should see, based on estimates that a star system likely ejects a couple of Earth-masses of material during planet formation," NASA said. "They estimated that a few large planetesimals will hold most of that mass but will be outnumbered by smaller fragments like 'Oumuamua."

Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
University students pose in front of a Terrier Improved Malemute sounding rocket at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility. The March 25, 2018, rocket launch carried four university payloads on a suborbital flight into space.

Undergraduate students watched their spaceflight projects soar into the sky over the weekend, thanks to a two-year NASA program that turned classroom lessons into hands-on experience.

On Sunday (March 25) at 6:51 a.m. EDT (1051 GMT), a NASA sounding rocket from the space agency's Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia's eastern coast carried the projects of student teams from four universities up to an altitude of 107 miles (172 kilometers). The educational endeavor was led by the NASA Undergraduate Student Instrument Project (USIP), whose mission is to spur interest in STEM education and help students become more familiar with science-related careers.

The launch of the two-stage Terrier Improved Malemute sounding rocket happened on March 25 after being postponed several times due to rough sea conditions. [Drill! Students Mine for Simulated Martian Ice]

University of Nebraska students work on their spaceflight project in January 2018. (Image credit: NASA)

After the flight was complete, the engineering projects descended by parachute into the Atlantic Ocean and were recovered so they could be returned to the students, NASA officials said in a statement.

The students hail from the Florida Institute of Technology, Utah State University, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the University of Kentucky. Managers at Wallops Flight Facility acted as the technical advisers to these undergraduate teams on behalf of NASA's Office of Education and Science Mission Directorate.

"USIP gave students the opportunity to experience working in a research and development environment," in addition to learning about "different aspects of taking an engineering project from conceptual design through fabrication and testing," Amy Price, a senior mechanical engineering student and team leader for the University of Nebraska USIP team, said in the NASA statement.

The student teams weren't made up of only engineering majors, Price added. "There are math, physics, finance and economics majors on the team," she said, as well as engineering students who focus on chemical and biological systems in their formal education.

See more

By participating in the USIP, the students learned about logistics, and Price said she and her team "also honed [their] interpersonal and writing skills through design reviews, monthly status reports and required grant reporting."

Gabriel Myers, a senior mechanical engineering and physics major at the University of Kentucky, also commented on the USIP experience in the NASA statement. "Through cooperation with engineers at NASA Wallops and elsewhere, the group has been able to gain a degree of engineering intuition, aiding the students in drawing connections between their classes and applying that knowledge."

During the flight, students at the Florida Institute of Technology tested an insulation-repair material in a near-vacuum environment, while students at the University of Nebraska tested a retractable boom and solar blanket for applications on sounding rockets and small satellites. The University of Kentucky team deployed a small entry spacecraft during the flight to test a communications-and-thermal-protection system design, and students at Utah State University tested a thruster system with green propellant while looking for any harmful effects of plume contamination.

Follow Doris Elin Salazar on Twitter @salazar_elin. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
Spaceflight enthusiasts will soon be able to download the 321 Launch app to watch live rocket launches from the comfort of an office or living room, and to do so in an interactive way that goes beyond existing 2D feeds.

A new app called 321 Launch, coming out this week, promises to give spaceflight enthusiasts an interactive mobile-device experience during real-time rocket launches.

The interactive app comes out tomorrow (March 29) on the Google Play Store and on iOS, and its developers have designed it to give people a taste of what it feels like to be at a rocket launch in person, especially when Cape Canaveral in Florida is too great a distance to travel to.

"We've been developing the [augmented reality] experiences for four years and my role and my team's role is to evaluate new technologies and how we might be able to apply them to storytelling," Ray Soto told Space.com. Soto is the director of emerging technologies at USA Today, the flagship publication for the Gannett Co. [Blastoff! How to See a Rocket Launch In Person]

321 Launch is a new interactive app, developed by USA Today, that provides real-time data on live rocket launches and also models the stages of rocket assembly for educational purposes. (Image credit: USA Today)

Soto also gave Space.com a chance to try the app out. The smooth interface of 321 Launch tells users where in the sky a launch is happening, similar to what skywatching apps provide. The app also models the assembly of a Falcon 9 SpaceX rocket from start to finish, which users can watch in 3D when no launch is happening. Watching the launch, users see the scenes play out in miniature size against their surroundings.

Soto said that 321 Launch is designed to model SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets, but the team plans to demonstrate United Launch Alliance Atlas rockets in the future as well. 321 Launch is also set up to provide live information from space experts at Florida Today, another Gannett Co. publication.

The first live launch to appear on the app is the April 2 Falcon 9 flight.

During the rocket-assembly module, the screen prompts the viewer to drag or pull their finger along arrows on the screen to bring up the next sequence. The directions these arrows face are not just swipe prompts; they also teach the user a bit about the forces, motions, and assembly techniques that happen in real life.

As the rocket progresses through the launch, a user can select one of several menu buttons to tailor the experience to what interests them most. If a viewer wants to watch a live launch and see space-reporter commentary, a simple touch on the right side of the screen allows that user to see both views side by side. And if you join a few minutes too late, you can still start the app, and the rocket will take off and accelerate in time to catch up to where it is in real time, according to Soto. Since the visuals play out in miniature against your surroundings, you can remain connected to your physical location, another benefit of the app design.

The simulation model on the 321 app asks the user to designate a square block upon which to animate the assembly, launch and re-entry of a Falcon 9 SpaceX rocket. (Image credit: USA Today)

"We made several visits to Kennedy Space Center but I'll never forget the first time I went down. The rich history of the space program, having a private tour through the actual space center next to all the launch pads, the history, getting to see mission control, such an inspiring moment for us," Soto said about the visit to Cape Canaveral earlier this year that motivated his team to develop 321 Launch and all its features.

The team then watched a Falcon 9 rocket launch on site, and Soto recalled a colleague's reaction to the experience. "One of my developers, he was pretty taken aback by the whole moment, went back into the press box and proclaimed loudly, 'I'm into space now!'"

The 321 Launch app is available for download on March 29 at 2 p.m. EST on the Google Play Store, and between 12 and 4 p.m. on iOS.

Follow Doris Elin Salazar on Twitter @salazar_elin. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
A unique galaxy is making the case for dark matter, even though it has very little of the mysterious substance. Astronomers have determined that the galaxy NGC 1052-DF2, or DF2 for short, has 400 times less dark matter than expected for an object of its size.

In addition to providing insight into how galaxies form, the unusual galaxy is helping strengthen the argument for the existence of dark matter, researchers said.

According to the new paper's lead author, Pieter van Dokkum, a researcher from Yale University, the galactic find challenges the standard idea of how galaxies are born. While interactions between normal and dark matter have long been considered a key element in galaxy formation, the dearth of dark matter in this galaxy challenges that assumption.

"Dark matter is apparently not a requirement for forming a galaxy," van Dokkum told Space.com by email. [Gallery: 65 All-Time Great Galaxy Hits]

A Hubble Space Telescope image of the galaxy NGC 1052-DF2. Distant galaxies are visible through DF2 due to its lack of stars. (Image credit: P. van Dokkum/R. Abraham/STScI, Space Telescope Science Institute)

Dark matter deficiency

Dark matter is a form of matter whose presence is discernable only through its gravitational interactions with baryonic, or "normal," matter. The unseen matter seems to make up roughly 80 percent of the mass of the universe and is thought to play a key role in galactic evolution.

The mysterious material is considered the scaffolding of the universe. Small bits of dark matter clump together to create the bones of the scaffold, growing larger over time. This growth is accompanied by the formation of stars from the gas and dust of the galaxy. According to NASA, the interaction of stars and galaxies within the dark matter is thought to have produced the galaxies astronomers observe today.

But DF2 defies this idea. Van Dokkum and his colleagues were first drawn to the strange galaxy by a collection of 10 unusually bright compact objects orbiting around it. Using a combination of the light of the galaxy's stars and their color, the scientists measured how much normal mass could be found within the galaxy. They found that DF2 is about the size of the Milky Way but has about 200 times fewer stars.

The mass of the combined stars is about 200 million times the mass of Earth's sun, a unit known as a solar mass. The researchers then used the motion of the bright objects, classified as globular clusters, to calculate the total mass in the galaxy.

"For a galaxy with a stellar mass of about 200 million solar masses, we expect a dark matter mass of about 80,000 million solar masses," van Dokkum said. The total mass of the system, however, weighed in at no more than 300 million solar masses, significantly less than anticipated.

If dark matter is a key ingredient for galaxy formation, then how did DF2 form? The researchers suggested that DF2 could be an old tidal dwarf galaxy, formed from the gas cast out of other merging galaxies. DF2 lies not far from another elliptical galaxy that could have donated the material in a previous merge, the researchers said.

Another potential explanation is that winds blowing through the interstellar medium swept up enough gas to build the unusual galaxy, an explanation also strengthened by DF2's close neighbor. Material flowing in toward the neighboring galaxy could have fragmented as well, helping to form the unique object.

"We thought all galaxies were made up of stars, gas and dark matter mixed together, but with dark matter always dominating," Roberto Abraham, co-author on the study and a researcher at the University of Toronto, said in a statement. "Now, it seems that at least some galaxies exist with lots of stars and gas and hardly any dark matter. It is pretty bizarre."

The research was published online today (March 28) in the journal Nature.

Roberto Abraham (far left) from the University of Toronto, Pieter van Dokkum (far right) from Yale University, and their team of Toronto and Yale graduate students pose with half of the 48-lens Dragonfly Telephoto Array in New Mexico. (Image credit: University of Toronto)

A see-through galaxy

DF2 lies about 6.5 billion light-years from the Milky Way, one of several galaxies found within a galactic group. This galaxy is not a recent discovery, but its swarm of unusually bright globular clusters caught the eye of the researchers, who had been studying a class of galaxies known as ultra-diffuse galaxies. These faint galaxies, which include DF2, can be as large as the Milky Way but shine only 1 percent as brightly.

DF2 doesn't look much like other galaxies, according to the statement. Unlike spiral galaxies, it lacks a dense central region or the signature spiral arms. And unlike elliptical galaxies, it shows no sign of a central black hole. In fact, the ghostly, see-through galaxy is so sparse that the galaxies behind it are visible.

Globular clusters are spherical collections of stars orbiting their parent galaxies as satellites. They are fairly common for galaxies; more than 150 such objects orbit the Milky Way, while large galaxies like the nearby Andromeda may have more than 500.

Van Dokkum and Abraham have been investigating ultra-diffuse galaxies using the Dragonfly Telephoto Array, an instrument the pair designed to investigate faint astronomical objects. In 2015, the team used Dragonfly to spot an ultra-diffuse galaxy made up almost completely of dark matter. That's when the 10 unusually bright globular clusters orbiting the nebulous DF2 caught the researchers' eyes.

Stretching an average of 20 light-years across, the clusters shine far brighter than other similar objects, though they are about two times less dense than their fellow clusters. According to van Dokkum, "they are almost as bright as Omega Centauri, the brightest globular cluster in the Milky Way."

Despite that, their mass makes up a whopping 3 percent of the total mass of DF2, approximately 1,000 times more than globular clusters are expected to contribute.

A separate paper detailing the 10 globular clusters has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Van Dokkum and his colleagues said they intend to continue studying the bright collections in further detail to confirm their connection with DF2. They will also continue the hunt for other ultra-diffuse galaxies that might resemble the unusual dark-matter-free galaxy.

The researchers said they suspect that the galaxy's dark matter deficit, the strange bright clusters and the galaxy's startling size are connected.

"It makes sense to think these unusual aspects are all related," van Dokkum said. "At this point, we don't know how, though."

Making the case for dark matter

Studies of galaxies in the 1950s first indicated that the universe contained more matter than could be measured with the naked eye. Measurements of the motions of galaxies and globular clusters have long suggested that these objects are spinning more rapidly than can be accounted for based on measurements of visible matter.

Ironically, although it is deficient in dark matter, DF2 may help argue the case for the existence of the unseen material. While most researchers seem to agree that dark matter dominates the universe, alternative explanations do exist. Modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND) proposes a modification of Newton's laws to account for the observed discrepancies. Emergent gravity is another idea that suggests that space-time is made up of small elements whose collective motion produces the force of gravity. The pair are the most dominant of several scientific proposals arguing against dark matter.

"In those theories, dark matter is not real but an illusion, caused by our lack of knowledge of gravity on large scales," van Dokkum said. "If that's the case, every galaxy should show a dark matter signature  it's not something you can turn on or off in those models."

Until the discovery of DF2, that has been the case. But the very existence of a galaxy with virtually no dark matter makes the case that these non-dark-matter models are incorrect, he said.

"Paradoxically, the absence of dark matter in this galaxy is evidence for [dark matter's] existence," van Dokkum said.

Follow Nola Taylor Redd at @NolaTRedd, Facebook or Google+. Follow us at @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
Astronomers with the Virtual Telescope Project captured this view of Tiangong-1 on March 28, 2018, using the Tenagra III "Pearl" telescope at the Tenagra Observatories in Arizona. The image is a single, 2-second exposure captured at 8:35 a.m. EDT (1235 GMT).

With just a few days left before China's Tiangong-1 space station is expected to come crashing down on Earth, astronomers captured this incredible view of the derelict craft zooming through space.

The Virtual Telescope Project in Italy, together with the Tenagra Observatory in Arizona, used a robotically controlled telescope to provide live views of the space station during a webcast this morning (March 28). In this view from the webcast, Tiangong-1 is gleaming as the sun reflects off the spacecraft's surface and faint star trails streak across the background.

Capturing the out-of-control space station "was an extremely difficult task" due to the craft's speed, Gianluca Masi of the Virtual Telescope Project said in a statement. Tiangong-1 was moving at about 18 degrees per minute (for comparison, your clenched fist held at arm's length is about 10 degrees wide). According to the satellite-tracking website satview.org, the station's speed was approximately 17,400 mph (28,000 km/h). [China's Space Station Crash: Everything You Need to Know]

"Our telescope honestly did out-of-this world work to track such a target," Masi told Space.com in an email. Tracking an object that swift "is something which very few observatories can do," Masi said, but the telescopes available at the Virtual Telescope Project and Tenagra Observatory were equipped for the challenge. The Paramount ME robotic mount installed on these telescopes is "the best hardware of this kind available in the world," the Virtual Telescope Project's website states.

At the time the image was captured, Tiangong-1 was orbiting at an altitude of about 137 miles (220 kilometers). That's around half as high as the International Space Station, which flies at an average altitude of 248 miles (400 km) above the Earth.

Tiangong-1's orbit is slowly decaying, and the station is expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere sometime between March 31 and April 1, according to the European Space Agency (ESA). While most of the station will burn up in the atmosphere, some of its hardier components will likely survive the inferno and crash into Earth, experts predict. But there's no need to hunker down all weekend; ESA officials estimate that the odds of being stuck by a piece of Tiangong-1 are less than 1 in 300 trillion, and the station will most likely fall in the ocean.

Email Hanneke Weitering at hweitering@space.com, or follow her @hannekescience. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
THE CREW MEETS THE OWNER OF JACKPOT AIRLINES ON AN ALL-NEW "LA TO VEGAS" TUESDAY, APRIL 3, ON FOXDon Johnson ("Nash Bridges," "Miami Vice") Guest-StarsThe eccentric owner of Jackpot Airlines, Jack Silver (guest star Don Johnson), is on the flight to Vegas, but when he discovers he'll be arrested upon arrival, he tries to hijack the plane and reroute it to Mexico. Then, while competing to impress Jack, Ronnie and Bernard are caught on camera in a compromising position, and Colin agrees to a bet with Artem and Nichole that he thinks he cannot lose in the all-new "Jacked Up" episode of LA TO VEGAS airing Tuesday, April 3 (9:00-9:30 PM ET/PT) on FOX. (LAV-111) (TV-14 D, L)Cast: Dylan McDermott as Captain Dave; Kim Matula as Ronnie; Ed Weeks as Colin; Nathan Lee Graham as Bernard; Olivia Macklin as Nichole and Peter Stormare as ArtemGuest Cast: Don Johnson as Jack Silver; Amir Talai as Co-Pilot Alan




NCIS: New Orleans - Welcome to the Jungle - Review: New Agent?

4.18 - Treasure Hunt

Directed by James Whitmore Jr.

Written by Christopher Silber and Austin Badgett

Reviewed by Kelly Anne Blount



Welcome to the Jungle opens with a late night phone call. Pride picks up the phone and learns that a lieutenant commander was killed. Pride is instructed to leave for Belle Chasse immediately for transport to South America. He was personally requested, but its classified. Hes allowed to bring two of his team members with him. He needs to leave in 90 minutes. Pride calls Sebastian and asks him and Percy to join him. Pride is surprised when Gregorio shows up to the airport in Percys place. Gregorio says that Percy had a prior engagement for the next day and that she couldnt make it. She tells Pride that she cant tell him anything else. Hes not happy, but they dont have any time, so he, Sebastian, and Gregorio take off. While Im still disappointed that Percy is leaving the show, I love Gregorio and Sebastian together in the field! This is shaping up to be a great episode!





The team shows up to a top-secret base called The Triple Frontier. Per their guide, its a lawless and extremely dangerous place. They are hunting Sergio Rivera, a drug lord. He disappeared over two years ago when one of the people working for him staged a coup d'etat. Sergio only recently resurfaced in the frontier. The people working at the undercover military base were given instructions to bring him in, alive if possible. During the extraction, they were ambushed. Sergio was wounded and the unit leader was killed in action. Pride is confused as to why they are there. The deceased officer is Lieutenant Commander Daryl Watkins. It turns out that Pride and Watkins know each other a long time ago and before he died, Watkins recorded a tape asking Pride to investigate if anything happened to him.Percy show up late to HQ. She says, I had a meeting, it couldnt be helped. LaSalle wants to know more, but she isnt willing to share. Ugh. Why does she have to leave?Pride video chats the team. He shares that Watkins thought there was a mole in the operation. He also tells them that Sebastian found encrypted files on Watkins laptop. Pride tells them, time is of the essence, and, If there is a mole, the entire operation is at risk. He ends the call by telling Sonja that they are going to talk as soon as he gets back. Uh oh.Pride learns that Sergio had evidence against the cartel on a hard drive. That, as well as Watkins body, are still at the scene. They are keeping the cartel at bay for now, but they need to retrieve Watkins body as well as the hard drive. Unfortunately, they cant do that until they figure out who the mole is, otherwise they are as good as dead the moment they leave the base.Pride and his team want to question everyone involved. Sergio is in rough shape. Its unlikely that Pride will be able to speak to him anytime soon. Gregorio has more luck and interviews two of the men that were a part of the mission. The guys go over the details of the night with Gregorio. They share that they lost the ability to communicate and the drones went down. They tell her everything that could go wrong, went wrong. Sebastian and Gregorio move on to another solider who was part of the operation. He says, It seemed less like an attack and more like a hit. He also tells them to speak to Sargent Sydney Halliday, who somehow only ended up with a bullet wound to the arm. He thinks this is odd, as they were under a heavy gunfire.Sargent Halliday was the only person near Watkins at the time of his death. She is supposed to be in sick bay, but Pride reports the only person back there is Sergio.Pride, Sebastian, and Gregorio head outside to find Sargent Halliday in a sling and beating up, Benecio, a Navy Seal. Pride tells her to stand down. She finally complies and tells the team that the person she just attacked, killed Watkins. She thinks Benicio, who is a solider from South America, is working for the cartel, but she didnt see him pull the trigger. She found a cell phone in Benicios room and gives it to Pride. Pride tells her that he cant prove where she got that phone. He asks her to trust him.Gregorio and Sebastian interrogate Benicio. They want to know why the cell phone was hidden under his mattress. They also throw all of the info Halliday shared with them at Benicio. He says that shes wrong. Benicio tells Gregorio and Sebastian that he has the phone to stay in contact with his family, who are in hiding because of threats from the cartel.Looks like Benicio and the other two soldiers who were a part of the operation to retrieve Sergio have clean backgrounds. Halliday, who is one tough Green Beret, has served all over the world. She was personally requested by Watkins.Percy tells LaSalle that she feels restless. She says,  and then an opportunity came up. Turns out she went to a job interview for a position with the FBI International Operations. Isler recommended her. She admits that she hasnt told Pride, and besides LaSalle, the only other person that knows is Gregorio. LaSalle wants to know if she wants to leave. The question goes unanswered.Patton has information from the decrypted files on Watkins computer. Turns out he had orders to send Halliday home immediately. He also has an image of Halliday with Sergio.Gregorio and Pride are arguing about what to do next. Sebastian interrupts and tells them that Sergio just woke up. Uh oh! Gunfire rings out at the base. Pride rushes to his side as they are under intense fire. The cartel is attacking and they need to get to Sergio immediately.Oh my gosh! Halliday is standing over Sergios bloody body. Theres a knife on his chest. She says, If I move, he dies! Gregorio knocks her out of the way. Sergio is already dead.Gregorio and others think Halliday is the mole and that she killed Sergio. Pride doesnt believe the investigation is closed. The commander in charge of the base gives him until six oclock the following morning to figure it out.The team interrogates Halliday. She says that she was trying to save Sergio, not kill him. Gregorio shows Halliday the image of her with Sergio. Pride asks Gregorio to leave. Looks like its time for some good cop, bad cop.Pride tells Halliday that everything thinks shes guilty. Pride tells her about his backstory with Watkins. Turns out that Pride saved Watkins from being charged with a crime he didnt commit. It appears that Watkins knew the same thing would happen with Halliday, which is why he asked for Pride to investigate the case.Halliday admits that she talked to Sergio independently. She was going to give him safe passage to a US prison in exchange for information. Halliday reports that she broke regulations, which is why she was being transferred, but only after they brought Sergio in. Now, hes dead and so is Watkins.Gregorio and Pride get into it. Shes pissed that he isnt doing anything to stop Percy from leaving. Pride asks Sebastian if he feels the same way. He says, I dont have any idea of whats happening right now. Pride asks Sebastian to contact Loretta at the morgue to set up a virtual autopsy. Meanwhile, Pride tells Gregorio that the reason he wanted Percy on the mission was due to the fact that they could talk during the 13-hour plane ride to South America. Gregorio tells Pride that it might to be too late for talking.Loretta and Percy at the morgue. Sebastian is showing Loretta the wounds via the camera on his phone. Percy is spacing out. Loretta calls her out. Percy admits, I had a job interview for something really exciting, that I didnt even know I was interested in until it presents itself. Loretta tells Percy if shes offered the job, she needs to do whats best for her, not Pride or anyone else.Poor Sebastian! Loretta wants him to help look inside of Sergio. His reaction is pure perfection. I love Sebastian.Loretta video conferences Pride and Gregorio. Turns out that Halliday was telling the truth. She did not kill Sergio. Also, the image of Halliday and Sergio on Watkins computer was put there after Watkins was killed. Someone planted it. They are running out of time and they need to figure out who killed both Watkins and Sergio.Pride tells the commander in charge that he needs to see the scene of the crime. The commander doesnt want to let NCIS go because there is a war still raging. Pride tells him they have to go. He also adds that Benicio and Halliday need to come too, both are currently under arrest with the suspicion of murdering Watkins and Sergio, respectively.Patton has a drone set up to watch the mission. LaSalle is impressed. Patton wants to know how LaSalle is doing. LaSalle is wondering if Percy is leaving because of the complications they had over the past several months. Patton reassures him that they are family and family have complications. Percy is going to do whats best for her and it doesnt have anything to do with LaSalle.Sebastian, Pride, and Gregorio are on the way into the warzone. They are all geared up. Gregorio lets its slip that Percy had a job interview with the FBI. Pride tells her that he already knows. Isler gave him a heads up. Both of them should have spoken to one another about it before leaving. Sebastian misses the entire conversation. Poor guy, hes going to be devastated.On the ground, one of the soldiers in the group tries to take the intel (hard drive) from Watkins body. Pride stops him. Sebastian gets it instead and tells the team that they will upload the information directly to Patton at NCIS HQ in New Orleans. Connelly, the solider who isnt happy about this, is watching Sebastians every move.The team on the ground in South America is communicating via drone with team in NCIS HQ. Connelly is looking increasingly guilty with every passing moment. The cartel is closing in, but the information is conflicting. This is exactly what happened last time they were hit.Percy found something! The hard drive has data that shows payments to an information going back at least five years. They have a photo of the information, but it doesnt come through, due to a lost signal. At the same time, there are explosions at the scene of the crime.Connelly stands up and holds up a signal blocking device. He tells them not to move and points his gun at them. Looks like we finally know whos the mole.Connelly wants the hard drive. Pride asks him, Whats the end game? Connelly tells the team that he is going to use the info in exchange for a new start and presumably a lot of money, from his contact. He said that hes trained for years and knows how to disappear.Halliday pops up and breaks out of her handcuffs. She points her gun at Connelly. He shoots, but hits Benicio, who throws his body in front of Halliday. She returns fire and hits Connelly.Sebastian gets the signal back up. They are drawing heavy fire and they need a way out. Patton helps them escape with the help of the drone. The team makes it to the extraction point safely with Halliday in the lead.Pride approaches Halliday as Watkins casket is being prepared to return home. Pride is proud of Sargent Halliday. She tells Pride that shes being discharged. She tells Pride that she follows orders, even when she doesnt agree. Pride admits that he has the same problem.WAIT! She says that shes out of military and she doesnt know what shell do next. Pride mentions law enforcement. IS SHE TAKING PERCYS PLACE?Pride and Halliday have a touching moment before Pride takes off and Lieutenant Commander Daryl Watkins body is placed on a helicopter to come home.Back in the States, Percy meets Pride at the bar. She thinks everyone is going to be there, but they are coming later. Percy admits that she should have told Pride about the interview. He admits that he knows its complicated. She says, Im just trying to sort out where I belong. Pride says, As far as Im concerned, you belong here. Not just as an agent, but as a friend too. Percy admits that the FBI offered her the job. Pride is the first person shes telling. He asks her what shes going to do. The episode ends as she says, Honestly, I have no idea.
GENNA MARTIN / GENNA MARTIN, SEATTLEPI.COM

Virgin Atlantic Airways reportedly has completed the relocation of U.S. headquarters employees to Atlanta, with the United Kingdom-based company previously having offices in Norwalk.

The airline is using space in Deltas headquarters near Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport outside Atlanta, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which reported about a third of Virgin Atlantics 40 employees there were based previously in Norwalk. The company had established a small office at 75 N. Water St. after downsizing from its former U.S. headquarters at 747 Belden Ave., which has since been converted to apartments and a Yale-New Haven Health clinic.
STAMFORD  Only a handful of citizens took their allotted three minutes at a public hearing to tell elected leaders what they think about the proposed city budget.

But the concern that emerged from the annual meeting was different from the topics that usually come up  cutting money for schools, raising taxes and controlling traffic.

Citizens Tuesday night asked the members of the Board of Finance and the Board of Representatives, who now are deciding where to cut Mayor David Martins 2018-19 budget, to police the parks.

Were always told that the city has more important issues, said Patricia Liotta, who lives near Cummings Park in Shippan. But we just had a person found dead in one park, and a few years ago, a woman was raped in another park. At Cummings, I saw men exposing themselves twice in one week. I havent been back since.

Bonnie Kim Campbell said she was among the West Side residents who worked with police for years to wrest Carwin Park from drug dealers. Like Liotta, Campbell said she disagrees with Martins proposal to cut one of three existing positions for park police officers, who are armed, sworn members of the Stamford Police Department, and add $300,000 to the budget for an ambassador program.

Ambassadors cannot issue citations or make arrests. Their role is to remind people to obey park regulations and report the serious incidents to police.

The parks need police officers, Campbell said. I think $300,000 would not be well spent on bringing in men and women who are not police officers.

Richard Thomas stepped to the microphone at Westover Elementary School to tell board members how he took his granddaughter to Boccuzzi Park in his Waterside neighborhood and saw three young men smoking marijuana under the pavilion beside the playground.

I asked them to leave  and they did, Thomas said. The park is infested with drugs. You see glassine bags. You see alcohol bottles.

The joint meeting is the only chance citizens get to address the two boards  one that controls the money and the other that makes laws.

Many who spoke thanked the boards for the opportunity, but seats in the school auditorium were mostly empty.

Parent Regan Allan was among the about three dozen people who attended the meeting and said the school system does a good job, and the budget proposed by Superintendent Earl Kim is fair and should not be cut. She urged the boards to keep in the budget a raise for parent facilitators  part-time employees who now earn $17.65 an hour and help parents, mostly those who struggle with English, navigate the school system.

Cove resident Deborah Billington told board members, to audience applause, that the city doesnt provide the resources needed to enforce zoning regulations. The problem is underreported because many residents fear retaliation, Billington said.

For years, Ive seen my neighborhood decline because of illegal conversions and housing, she said. Its a concern in every neighborhood, some more serious than others.

Other residents took their three minutes to explain the importance of the Lathon Wider Community Center in the South End and the Boys & Girls Club on the West Side.

Parent Camera Dukes urged officials to return programming to Lathon Wider, and find ways to bring it back to life rather than sign its death certificate.

Boys & Girls Club Director Mike Cotela told officials to remember the 550 kids who attend programs there each day.

Barry Woods, director of the Yerwood Center night program at the club, explained the importance of city-supported services in the lives of young people, especially the in-between guys, 18 to 25 years old.

They get caught in limbo  they have to get themselves grounded, Woods said. They need real opportunity. We help them get jobs, we teach them about life and how to manage themselves.

There are a lot of choices to be made as the boards review Martins $569 million budget, a 2.4 percent increase over this year. The proposal would require a 2.5 percent tax increase.

Board of Representatives President Matthew Quinones said after Tuesdays meeting he was not surprised to hear so many citizens speak about parks.

It came up during a recent meeting when Martin sought input from representatives about his budget. That doesnt usually happen, because representatives arent asked their views while the budget is prepared.

Usually department heads submit their budget requests to the mayor, who considers them with members of his administration then prepares a proposal for the boards.

This year, Quinones and Martin devised a way for representatives to convey their ideas, which they presented to the mayor last month.

They were things board members heard from their constituents, as well as their own feelings, Quinones said. Parks was one of the main issues. So was zoning enforcement.

Martin responded with the ambassador proposal, saying the best way to provide security in parks is with a mix of park police, regular police, ambassadors, cameras, lighting and other measures. But many have disagreed, saying the money should be used to restore park police.

Board of Finance member Dudley Williams said after the meeting he hadnt realized the extent of feelings about parks. Its the reason to offer the public forum, he said.

We have to take in a lot of information about a variety of issues. It does affect me when I hear someone speak personally about an issue, Williams said. I always come out learning something.

The Board of Finance is set to vote on the budget April 19, and the Board of Representatives on May 1.
Contributed / Contributed photo

DARIEN  A homeless man found on the grounds of Middlesex Middle School during recess Tuesday morning was arrested and charged with breach of peace, police said.

Staff members who were monitoring recess noticed the man, later identified as Robert Houseworth, who they said they overheard hollering at the school children. School administration discontinued recess and the campus monitor confronted Houseworth, who left school grounds.
B ritains departure from the EU is just a year way but UK Plc still has much work to do, as our survey of the key sectors shows:

It's getting real now. A year tomorrow, at the stroke of 11pm, the curtain falls on more than 45 years of the UKs membership of the European Union. But while the referendum debate rages on amongst the political class 19 months after the vote  and Britain fights to get the best deal it can from Brussels  British businesses have been making frantic preparations in the face of a Whitehall fog. The Standards writers assess the work done so far  and the main tasks ahead.

Aerospace

The aerospace industry, populated by giants such as BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce and GKN, will avoid the tariff headache of many other industries because they are agreed under the auspices of the World Trade Organisation.

A bigger issue is resolving the UKs membership of the European Aviation Safety Aviation (Easa), which regulates most aerospace manufacturing. The European Councils recent negotiating guidelines have raised hopes the UK can stay in, but the battles not won yet.

Now the prime worry is the additional bureaucracy that could come shipping UK aerospace goods to the Continent. The Business Select Committee has said non-tariff barriers remain a concern because the UK aerospace manufacturers often have to deliver parts to Europe within hours, meaning border hold-ups could hurt UK suppliers.

It has urged the Government to ensure frictionless trade while ADS estimate new barriers could cost the industry up to 1.5 billion.

Financial services

In the immediate aftermath of the Brexit vote, if you asked a senior banker what he thought, you might hear panic. Would they be banned from trading overseas? Would they have to move wholesale to Brussels? Was the future of the City in serious doubt?

Lately, after recent breakthroughs in negotiations make an acceptable deal on financial services look increasingly likely, they are more sanguine. Or more annoyed by those other regulatory headaches; Mifid II and Solvency II.

For the purely domestic banks such as Lloyds, there isnt much to prepare for. Brexit will either be good for the economy, and therefore Lloyds, or it will be bad, or it wont make any difference. For the UK banks with an international focus, their strategy was to shift some staff to their EU subsidiaries; but while things are up in the air, its hard for the banks to make any moves.

Insurers have tried to mitigate the Brexit threat by setting up European hubs. Lloyds of London is opening a 40-strong office in Brussels in January 2019 while Luxembourg has attracted a spate of London-based insurers, including RSA, Hiscox and AIG.

Housebuilding

Skills are still the biggest bugbear for an industry reliant on overseas labour. Although a transition deal and assured rights for the existing EU workforce means the immediate threat has diminished, the question remains over what happens at the end of the transition, and whether incoming workers will be subject to visa requirements.

In London, the issue is acute. A Home Builders Federation (HBF) survey in December found that 49.5% of all workers in the capital are from the EU.

A spokesman says: Were making that message to Government and the Mayor to enable us to build more homes. People are likely to come for a short period but we need that continuity and certainty. Once one section goes home, we need to be able to replace them going forward. The HBF is about to embark on a huge recruitment campaign to draw in more home-grown workers.

Airlines

Bosses like Ryanairs Michael OLeary are fuming that there is, as yet, no sign of an aviation deal. Unless there is one, UK airlines will lose their community air carrier status, which allows them to operate between EU countries, without being based there. This also affects US flights  covered by an EU treaty  while there is no WTO framework to fall back on. Airlines are preparing for the worst.

EasyJet has set up a separate EU subsidiary in Vienna at a cost of about 10 million while Ryanair has applied for a British air operating licence. There are also huge safety and regulation issues. Like the aerospace industry, the airlines and Civil Aviation Authority want to remain in the European Aviation Safety Agency but that looks unlikely since the UK is leaving the single market.

Instead, Britain may need to set up a national regulator although the CAAs chief executive has already said this makes no sense. Air travel looks about to become harder and more expensive. All that the major players can do is cross their fingers.

Manufacturers

As an exporting sector, the EEF manufacturers association is wary of the currency impact of Brexit in the year ahead as well as any relocation of its major customers.

About 7% of companies are planning to move production to the EU and 6% to non-EU locations, according to the latest snapshot of EEF members.

A spokesman says that ensuring a smooth transition period is the key priority, as well as working with the Government to get the best approximation possible of the current arrangements.

Retail

Retailers, particularly non-food, will desperately want to avoid an intellectual property (IP) crisis. There are no safeguards in place yet to protect unique designs EU-wide and prevent rip-offs flooding the market once were out. Many patents could lapse after Brexit, too.

The Government recently said it was willing to offer cloned rights in the UK for European patents during the transition period. The IP laws are expected to change at home after the UK exits but details on how this will impact fashion brands, for example, which constantly come up with new designs, remains unclear.

There are also concerns that the UK IP office will struggle to cope with all the new rights needed to be put in place.

Property

The owners of Londons commercial properties are on tenterhooks about whether they can agree big leasing deals before Britain leaves the bloc. Many landlords have tenants in banking and insurance that could decide to move. As a result, a number of investors have agreed to shorter leases and additional rent free periods to make sure no space in their buildings is vacant.

Tony Parrack at agent Edward Charles & Partners thinks streamlining and simplifying leases will become more popular.

This year should see more investors agree deals with flexible office companies such as WeWork. In the property investment market, buyers now want bigger discounts.

Leisure

Pubs, restaurants and hotels face a toxic cocktail from our EU exit.

A potential exodus of non-British EU chefs, bar workers and other staff will combine with higher import costs to drive up overheads.

City Pub Group chairman Clive Watson says: Food prices in particular have gone up and if we fall out of the European supply chain, we will lose access to certain supplies.

Watson wants to see a strong trade deal covering wines and continental beers. He predicts some landlords could axe menus and concentrate on drinks again.

To cope with potential skills shortages, companies such as Fullers are helping European employees apply for permanent residency.
T he regeneration of White City got some Hollywood glamour on Wednesday, as a films investor inked a deal to expand and open a new office there.

Cutting Edge Group, which buys rights to soundtracks and has invested in films such as The Kings Speech and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, has agreed to take 2,000 square feet at the White City Place business district.

It will open the office next month.

The space is in addition to existing offices in Soho, New York and Los Angeles.

The lease will help allay concerns that Brexit could force businesses to scrap expansion plans.

Philip Moross, the boss of CEG, said the move "gives us the opportunity to collaborate with the most exciting companies, and to provide the best experience for staff".

CEG will join companies such as Yoox Net a Porter and ITV, which have agreed leases for new offices at White CIty Place. The buildings are being created by a consortium including property developer Stanhope.
D rugs giant Shire saw shares rocket on Wednesday after a Japanese suitor mounted a 35 billion-plus blockbuster takeover approach for the firm.

The FTSE 100 company, which makes drugs like Adderall, saw shares rose 26%  up to 3770.5p  after drugs group Takeda said it was considering making an approach for the company.

It is the third multi-billion-pound takeover story to hit the sector in the past week following GSKs 9.2 billion Novartis deal yesterday and the collapse of Pfizers 14 billion consumer healthcare auction last week.

Takeda, which has a strong presence in the US, said the offer was at a preliminary stage and it had not approached Shires board yet. The Japanese company also hailed the benefits of the deal, saying it would strengthen the firm in cancer and neuroscience research.

Takeda has hired Nomura and JP Morgan for the deal. Shire is yet to comment. The drugs maker was founded in the UK in 1984 but has around 60% of its workforce based in the US with 36% based in Europe.

Shire makes $15 billion of sales a year and sells its drugs across 100 countries. A firm offer must be made by April 25 under takeover rules. The company has been under constant speculation of a takeover amid a deal making frenzy in the US pharma sector.

Shares have risen in recent days on speculation Takeda could be the suitor for the group, which is led by chief executive Flemming Ornskov.

In 2014, Shire agreed a 32 billion takeover by US firm AbbVie, but the deal was abandoned after tax changes by the US Treasury Department curtailing a wave of so-called inversion deals in which US companies would target foreign bidders in order to redomicile overseas and take advantage of lower corporate tax rates in other countries.

Tokyo-headquartered Takeda is Japans largest drugmaker and was founded in 1781.

It is led by Christophe Weber, the firms first non-Japanese head, who last year said the company was hunting for partnerships and deals as part of plans to expand beyond the pharmacy shelves of its home market. The firm currently focuses its research and development in the US and Japan.
Damian Collins MP, Chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee has spoken about his views on Facebook and the technology industry on CNBC this morning.

He said the following: "The committee are looking at a further change to the law, which would give the Information Commissioner the power to go into big tech companies and actually take the data that they need to complete their investigations, and that there is parliamentary support for this.

"Were certainly moving into a new era in the UK of the potential for much larger fines to be levied against tech companies.

"A greater degree of transparency in election campaigning is needed so that people can see who is sending them that message and therefore they can be a better judge themselves of whether that's a message that they trust.

"The committee would be happy for Chris Cox the chief product officer of Facebook to come and give evidence.
T here is so much earnest discussion about the fate of capitalism  much of it frankly tedious  that it is a positive relief to find debate framed with wit as well as intellect. This is why Billions, which returns to Sky Atlantic tomorrow, is the best show on television. There, I said it.

Standing in a well-established genre of high-octane drama about the world of money  Wall Street (and its sequel), Boiler Room, Margin Call, The Wolf of Wall Street  it does not shy away from the glittering allure of its subject, or the testosterone-charged thrills of high finance and the conflict it spawns.

When I pull a deal off the table, I leave Nagasaki behind! growls Bobby Axelrod (Damian Lewis), the blue-collar Yonkers boy turned hedge-fund plutocrat. The Billions script team knows a T-shirt slogan when it writes one.

The pleasure of the show is that, having created this bubble of machismo, it invariably pops it.

Bobby and his staff at Axe Capital are heavily dependent upon their in-house shrink, Wendy (Maggie Siff)  inconveniently married to crusading US attorney Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti)  and positively encouraged to explore the psychological vulnerabilities that imperil their Darwinian ambitions. Their bellowed devotion to the rhetorical platitudes of the free market and to Ayn Rand drivel is immediately undercut by the moral squeamishness, sense of personal inadequacy and fear of burn-out that they reveal in these therapeutic sessions.

Giamattis Chuck is no less riddled with contradictions. Notionally on the side of the angels in his prosecutorial pursuit of Axelrod, he is a mess of a man: ready to cut any ethical corners he needs to in the name of justice; a puppet in his fathers dynastic political plans; and a morass of sexual hang-ups. Though he poses as the public-spirited matador confronting the fresh bull of unfettered greed, his limpid eyes are full of the heavy knowledge that his own motives are far from pure.

Matthew d'Ancona

Best of all is Taylor Mason, the wunderkind of Axe Capital, who also happens to be female non-gender binary. Taylor rises in the firm with prodigious speed precisely because, as Bobby recognises, their difference gives them an edge (yes, their/them: get the pronouns right). What could feel like toe-curling tokenism  lets have a trans character!  is executed with great deftness.

The elegance of Taylors character development in the show exemplifies its strength. It takes nerve-jangling contemporary issues and turns them into thoughtful, entertaining drama. Last seasons plot-line about the asset-stripping of an entire town, for instance, was both enthralling and terrifying.

Most of the dilemmas with which we now wrestle  the rise in the West of Right-wing populism, the trauma of Brexit  have their roots in the pathologies of globalisation and our collective confusion about what to do next. How to navigate this new world of pulverising forces? You could, of course, read 600 pages of Thomas Piketty. Or you could have fun and watch Billions.

At last theres an MP who gets tech shift

Hat-tip to Damian Collins, chair of the Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, which yesterday took evidence from Chris Wylie, the whistleblower at the heart of the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal. The Tory MP is a regular presence at tech conferences, immersing himself in the complexities of the digital revolution and its illimitable consequences.

What Collins grasps, unlike many politicians and pundits, is that this controversy is about much more than Brexit. Yes, it is of the highest importance if big data scraped off social media was improperly obtained and deployed by the pro-Leave campaigns; if, as Wylie claims, there could have been a different outcome had there not been, in my view, cheating. That is bad enough, though surely impossible to prove.

Much more significant, however  and the essence of Carole Cadwalladrs investigations at the Observer  is the extent to which democracies are not keeping pace with technology. Indeed, how could they? The Brexit vote, quite correctly, was overseen according to rules set out in the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000.

Yet Facebook itself was not launched until 2004. It follows that rule-makers are going to have to respond much more nimbly to these global agencies of disruption. Truth to tell, we are only in the foothills of the digital mountain range. Collins understands this. Do his colleagues?

* Im taking part this evening in a Diversity UK debate on Millennials and the Media at the University Womens Club in Mayfair. Im a great believer in generation gaps  how else does the world turn?  though I think they come along less often than we think. Id say the last great rupture was the rise of punk in the late Seventies.
T odays ruling that serial sex offender John Worboys should stay behind bars is a win for London and good sense in our justice system.

It is also a tribute to the courage and determination of his victims. They challenged the Parole Boards decision to free him  and have been proved right.

This morning, three High Court judges supported their appeal. In a landmark judgment, they ruled that the board had acted improperly.

The importance of this has been underlined by the dramatic  and unfortunately necessary  sacking of the boards chairman, Nick Hardwick. He has been told by the Justice Secretary that the boards errors in handling the case made his position untenable.

We have said from the start that Worboys was not safe to release. Londons Mayor, Sadiq Khan, has done so too.

Convicted of 19 offences, including one rape and several other sex attacks against 12 women, the former taxi driver is believed by police to have attacked many more women  perhaps more than 100.

It is absolutely right that this should form part of the Parole Boards assessment of whether he should be freed.

Now that looks likely to happen. He might still be released after a new hearing. But his time in prison must reflect the danger he poses to women.

There are other lessons we can learn from this distressing affair, too.

Worboys victims should have been informed about the terms of his proposed release. Too much weight was given to his arguments and too little to the safety and the feelings of those he attacked.

For now, after this welcome and important ruling, they feel safer.

The campaign has been vindicated.

Test for Tory campaign

Three Conservative candidates in the London Borough of Havering are campaigning for re-election on a platform that can only be described as thinly disguised racism.

The leaflets theyve circulated promises to prevent massive population increases, rule by Mayor Khan, our cherished Union Jack being taken down and Havering resembling boroughs like Hackney.

It has rightly been called disgraceful by one Tory MP, and really bad stuff by a Tory peer.

No doubt the councillors, and perhaps the local MP, Andrew Rosindell, will deny the racist charge on the grounds that the leaflet doesnt actually say: blacks and Asians go home.

But thats a bit like pretending the mural that Jeremy Corbyn tried to save in Tower Hamlets wasnt anti-Semitic because it didnt actually say stop the Jews.

There are two tests for the Conservative Party here.

First, new party chair Brandon Lewis should immediately suspend the three involved. Its an early test for him, and for a leadership that must do more to convince voters that the Conservatives are taking over Ukip and not the other way around.

Second, the many Tory MPs who (correctly) rush to condemn examples of anti-Semitism in Labour should today publicly denounce this racism parading under a Conservative label.

If they fail to, they will expose themselves to the charge that their recent fury with Mr Corbyn is less about principle than political convenience.

Final straw in sight

The tide is turning against plastic  and thats great news. Today McDonalds becomes the latest big business to announce it is cutting back on plastic straws, a win for our The Last Straw campaign to rid our city of the polluting menace.

From May, the company is going to try out paper straws instead, or encourage people not to use straws at all.

But as the Environment Secretary, Michael Gove, knows, government has a part to play in cutting down on plastic waste too.

Thats why we welcome his efforts to encourage everyone to recycle plastic bottles, not throw them away.

Hes just confirmed that he wants to bring in a deposit scheme on plastic, glass and metal drinks cans and bottles. It works in places such as Germany and Sweden  and it could help here.

Well need to see detailed plans. Making it work wont be easy.
I t was a strange moment at last years Cannes festival when a film about a computer-generated super pig was booed.

As Cannes controversies go, it was far from the most awkward (that prize goes to Lars von Triers comments to a press conference in 2011 that he was sympathetic towards Hitler), but the moment was revealing. The film itself, Okja, was not actually the problem. The problem was Netflix.

Okja was one of two films in competition for the Palme dOr that were funded by the streaming service and so did not get a traditional cinema release in France; instead they were released online. No one was booing because of anything in Okja (certainly not the jolly pig  really, could anyone be so heartless?) but certain film industry reactionaries lashed out at the mere sight of the Netflix logo at the start. Netflix is killing cinema, the purist argument goes, Cannes should not support it.

Fast forward to today and the artistic director of Cannes, Thierry Fremaux, has confirmed that Netflix films have been banned from competing at the festival.

The intransigence of their own model is now the opposite of ours, he said.

Okja

Intransigent it may be, but one has to wonder how long Cannes can hold out against the shifting film industry. The consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts that by 2020 the UK will spend 1.42 billion on streaming services, overtaking an estimated 1.41 billion per year on trips to the cinema.

I will always prefer the experience of cinema trips to streaming at home, but it is hard to deny the attractiveness of Netflixs accessibility. And for every straight-to-stream flop such as Bright or The Cloverfield Paradox, Netflix gives bold, brilliant projects  passed over by many traditional film studios as too risky  the opportunity to be seen by millions. Oscar-nominated Mudbound, starring Carey Mulligan, for example, or Alex Garlands sci-fi head-scratcher Annihilation, starring Natalie Portman.

No amount of huffing and puffing will change the fact that original Netflix films are here to stay.

Can Gangnam Style straddle Korea?

Remember Gangnam Style? The fad dance song by South Korean pop star Psy was inescapable in 2012 and its easy-to-replicate Im riding a horse dance moves were a guaranteed sight at every naff Christmas party that year.

Now Seoul is pushing for Psy to perform in Pyongyang next week as part of the first South Korean concert permitted by the oppressive communist regime since 2005, but North Korean officials are resisting because of provocative dance moves.

Seared in the memory: Ed Balls on Strictly Come Dancing / Getty Images

For many Brits, Gangnam Style is forever associated with the traumatic memory of Ed Balls straddling poor, brave Katya Jones on Strictly, but I enjoy the idea of North Korean citizens being allowed to try out Psys signature leg flailing for themselves for the first time. Perhaps the dance move could be permitted by the state if the pretend horse was replaced with a pretend unicorn, a creature recently discovered to be real by North Koreas top archaeologists. Pyongyang style!

A vision of Hillarys political non-future
L ast night was the leaving do for the outgoing general secretary of the Labour Party, Iain McNicol, at the HQ of trade union Unison. There was a huge turnout  MPs, peers, councillors, trade unionists, advisers and party staff past and present from across the country. Two of the grumpiest officials came all the way from Glasgow to raise a glass and pay their last respects to him and to the party as they know it.

As McNicol made his farewell speech to his friends and family under the watchful eyes of his successor Jennie Formby and Jeremy Corbyn, it was clear that this was no ordinary leaving do. It was the end of an era. A bitter-sweet evening, somewhere between a wedding and a wake.

Its been a rough few weeks for the Labour Party. Theresa May won plaudits for her handling of the Salisbury Russian spy poisoning. Labour got into a massive row with the BBC about a hat. The party was ripped apart over anti-Semitism and yesterday we learnt that, with important local elections on the horizon, Momentum activists in Wandsworth want to try to deselect the leader of the Labour group on the council. To be honest  I miss the hat.

The reaction to the revelations in yesterdays paper about a plot by Momentum members to oust Simon Hogg  the moderate opposition leader in Wandsworth  after the local elections was met with mixed emotions.

Many felt fury. The idea that these people are Labour is laughable, said one long-time member and activist who has campaigned in countless elections. Others were dismayed but much more cynical, especially after Claire Kober was ousted in Haringey.

Im not surprised at all, confessed an MP. We know these conversations are taking place in local Labour parties all over the country these morons have just been caught out this time.

Others pointed out the irony that many slavish followers of Corbyn had accused Jewish MPs and leading advocates for the Jewish community, including the Board of Deputies, of plotting to undermine his chances at the upcoming local elections  when it turns out they are the ones openly plotting against their own Labour councillors.

New order: Team Corbyn and the Left now control every part of the party machine (Anthony Devlin ) / Anthony Devlin

These revelations will come as a blow to all the hard-working councillors and local activists led by Hogg who have got a fighting chance of winning Wandsworth  which would be a historic and symbolic victory for the Labour Party.

However, Hogg, like any good solid leader, is not going to be distracted by the plot. He issued a statement saying that these people were a minority and that the rest of the local team was a broad church fighting for affordable housing, school budgets and cleaner air. The Momentum attacks will also galvanise Labour members from across the capital who support Hogg and his colleagues to hot foot it down to Wandsworth in solidarity and hit the doorstep  so there is still all to play for.

But what do this weeks rows about anti-Semitism and deselections tell us about the state of the Labour Party? Elections normally bring the party together, especially when the incumbent, unpopular government is struggling with a range of difficult issues from Brexit to stagnant wages to a crisis in the health service.

But something feels different. The two wings of the party have never felt so polarised although, to be fair, there is only one show in town when it comes to who runs the party and that is Team Corbyn. The Left now controls every part of the Labour machine from the National Executive Committee to the basic infrastructure. There is a new order in the Labour Party  a new establishment  and its masters are Corbyn, John McDonnell, Jon Lansman and Len McCluskey.

Moderate, centrist MPs are in a tricky place. It is now an open secret that Momentum is gunning for them and the threat of deselection looms large. Many still love being MPs, and have decided to keep their heads down and refuse to speak out against the leadership in acts of self-preservation rather than party loyalty. But the reaction to the row about the anti-Semitic mural provoked the strongest act of defiance witnessed in a long time and will have profound consequences, not just in the local elections: it has made many question the fundamental character of the party they once cherished.

When I watched my friend Luciana Berger bravely address the crowd at the rally at Parliament Square on Monday evening, then saw the abuse she and other MPs got for speaking up against anti-Semitism and the accusations of weaponising the issue to attack Corbyn, I wanted to weep. I thought of all the abuse she had shown me  images of gas chambers, her face Photoshopped onto rodents and other vile, violent imagery.

This is a young Jewish woman who faced so much anti-Semitic abuse that someone went to prison. She lived in permanent anxiety and fear  and now people on her own side accuse her of playing politics with that experience to smear Corbyn? How shameful.

This isnt about tribe, its about humanity. For many decent people in the Labour movement, a line has been crossed. But what next? Some have left. But the majority of people I spoke to last night, although depressed, are determined to stay and fight for the values they believe in.
W e get it: absinthe seems scary.

There are rumours of hallucinations, of blindness, and the sheer strength of the stuff is daunting.

Still, theres no real reason to fear the Green Fairy at all, especially when London has such a fine selection of it to try.

Ernest Hemingway, Oscar Wilde and Pablo Picasso swore by absinthe during its heyday and now, decades later, the spirit is making a comeback. Already well on its way to reclaiming the throne of Europes coolest drink, stay ahead of the curve by checking out these absinthe bars in London.

Bar Prague

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The Czech Republic is one of the most popular places in the world to try absinthe, so why not head over to Prague-inspired bar in Shoreditch for a few sips of the green stuff? Head to the bar for a glass of their imported absinthe before slumping into one of its worn, red leather couches to sip. The lounges exposed brick interior and, er, rather unusual artwork is about as authentically Czech as it gets, and the perfect setting to enjoy this spirit.

6 Kingsland Rd, E2 8DA, barprague.com

Baranis

Go green with envy: Bar Baranis boasts some of London's finest absinthe / Carla Romero

Spice up your absinthe experience by sipping on it while playing in the UKs only indoor petanque court, thanks to French cocktail bar Baranis. With a wide assortment of tasty French dishes and other cocktails to try, you may never want to leave this southern French hangout.

115 Chancery Lane, WC2A 1PP, baranis.co.uk

The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities

Even though (contrary to the popular myth) absinthe doesnt actually cause hallucinations, youll definitely feel a bit wonky if you choose to sip on it at the cocktail bar in the Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities in East London. Travel to Bethnal Green to explore this museums oddities and enjoy some of the quirkiest cocktails in London  all full of the fairy.

11 Mare St, E8 4RP, thelasttuesdaysociety.org

The best bars in London 1 /48 The best bars in London Scarfes Bar at Rosewood London 252 High Holborn, WC1V 7EN, rosewoodhotels.com/london

The Rosewood is doubly wonderful for drinkers, as theyve two fine spots. In the modern Dining Room, sit at the gin bar, which outstocks anywhere else in London, with more than 400 gins and 27 tonics. Trying to choose is impossible, but what a lovely impossibility to have. The bar staff clearly had one hell of a tasting session as they know the list perfectly. Across the way is Scarfes Bar, a brilliant, brilliant bar gladly shaken free from all the stuffiness usually found in hotel bars. The drinks are stunning, theyve often live music, it gets wonderfully busy and crackles with laughter. Go a little later and its busier, people drink more, everything is better. Bar Americain 20 Sherwood St, W1F 7ED, brasseriezedel.com

As the name suggests, this is a classic American bar, and done near perfectly. One can become very fond of Bar Americain and very quickly: passing through Piccadilly Circus, it acts as a magnet  a quick negroni becomes a temptation impossible to resist. Its a very beautiful place, calling to mind grand Parisian hotels of the 20s and 30s, bottles winking from the bar, staff floating through with their finery and litres of charm. Youre here to drink the classics: theyve a killer Clover Club and a straight-down-the-line Manhattan. But ask: the bartenders know their stuff and bring their A-game to any challenge  tell them what you like, and theyll bring you something new. They often have specials on, as well. Top marks for the attentive staff, bringing plenty of water and bowl after bowl of popcorn  both essential after a few here. Oriole Smithfield Markets, E Poultry Ave, EC1A 9LH, oriolebar.com

The team behind Nightjar took their winning formula, gave it a bit of a shake up and created Oriole. Theyve live music throughout the week  from Wednesday to Saturday, theres a charge per person, so watch out for that  which gives any night here a bit of zip. This is a strictly seated spot, so be sure to book: once inside, its a whirlwind tour of the world, with fine details from across the globe, both in the styling and the drinks and so much cheaper than booking a holiday. Drinks are excellent, whether youre into New Orleans style classics or something from the depths of Asia: explore the menu (split into Old World, New World and The Orient) and expect something unusual and faintly brilliant, with a touch of the Tiki. Put it this way: Oriole is ideal whether you prefer drinking from a crystal tumbler, a teacup or, er, a silver crocodile. Piano Works 113-117 Farringdon Road, Farringdon EC1R 3BX, pianoworks.bar

Full credit to this fun Farringdon spot: theyve worked hard to make the place better and better since opening, which is pretty good going for what was already a decent spot to begin with. The Piano Works sounds like a quiet jazz bar but instead is a hell-raising house of sound, splendidly raucous, where a house band take requests and belt out your favourite songs. The more you get involved, the more fun it is, and the place heats up the later it gets. Wine starts at 16, house cocktails are 8, but they've tons of terrific deals during the week  including cocktails for a fiver (!!) Drink lots, dance lots and leave in the early hours with someone you shouldnt do. Thats what we did. Hawksmoor, Spitalfields 157A Commercial St, E1 6BJ, thehawksmoor.com

Its hardly surprising the bar snacks are a highlight here  have the oxcheek nuggets with a side of chips, then call the waiter over to order them over again  given how good the steak upstairs is. The drinks and setting, though, match them pound for pound. The old tube tiles on the walls, the beautiful parquet floor, the copper tops and silvery black ceiling make the large space a place to settle in for the night no matter your seat, while the cocktails come with oodles of thought in each one: the new menu has homemade bitters, shrubs and syrups, and its bloody obvious everyone behind the bar is more than a little nerdy about building drinks. Shaky Petes Ginger Brew is the classic, so have it, but follow up with the Shadow Boxer, a mix of scotch, sherry and Fernet-Branca. Odd, oddly delicious. Its also a cracking place to sit for a bottle of wine. Andrew Edmunds 46 Lexington St, W1F 0LP, andrewedmunds.com

Perhaps better than its ever been, Andrew Edmunds recently won The Good Drinking prize in our Restaurant Awards, and for good reason. Its a small spot, cramped to the point that coming here on a first date feels like youre being very forward indeed , with the best tables upstairs and not much to look at  just settle for being distracted by someone beautiful. The food, French-ish/English-ish, is fine, but its the wine that's extraordinary. And youre here for wine: forget cocktails, they have. What a list, and so quietly marked up that youre getting a steal with almost every bottle  indeed, the more expensive the better the deal. Having been going 30 years, those who knew old Soho say its one of the last bastion of such things. Drink too much gorgeous wine and come back often. The Connaught Bar Connaught, Carlos Place, W1K 2AL, the-connaught.co.uk

A bar for the impossibly beautiful, a bar of high heels and glimmering lights, of perfume and leather. Aside from oddly thumping music, the Connaught is wonderfully detached from the world  a place of its own, cosy and winter warm when it needs to be, light and summer when desired. The drinks, naturally pricey, are well put together and while classic in tone, come with crackles of theatre: washes in perfume bottles, branches as garnishes, smoke, the lot. Still, the martini trolley is what theyre famed for, so its only right to indulge. Afterward, head to the Champagne Room: sadly the law stops it being the cigar haven it once was, but it's still gorgeous: romantic and charming with its fireplace, dramatic with its glass ceiling and sculpture swan diving. Treat yourself to the Ruinart blanc de blanc. Damned good olives, too. Milk & Honey 61 Poland St, W1F 7NU, mlkhny.com

You know a bar is good when local bartenders love it, and Milk & Honey has long been a Soho favourite for those in the know. Hidden in plain sight this terrific bar has been doing its thing for just shy of 15 years. The talent hasnt diminished, and neither has the care put into the drinks. Cocktails are strong and proper and happily, they're updating the list soon to freshen things up. At around 10 a drink, M&H is also a bargain for central London, and the quality outstrips the price. It functions as a members bar, but non-members can book up until 11pm  though going earlier in the week means youre more likely to score a table. Milk & Honey is civilised, without the crushing formality. Next door is the Blind Pig, another top 'hidden' spot. Mark's Bar HIX Soho, 66- 70 Brewer St, W1F 9UP, hixrestaurants.co.uk

The bad: you might not get in. If its busy, they dont squeeze people into this basement, so either be there early, or bamboozle them with charm, or dazzle them with your brilliant wit. Were kidding: just take someone hot. The good: pretty much everything else. Naturally, the bar snacks are distractingly tasty, but the drinks list is excellent, and unusual too, with a few historical recipes brought back to life. Attention to detail is everything here, so if youre not sharing one of the big old Chesterfields, head to the bar and sit and watch  theres something about it thats like seeing a cardmaster turn tricks. And have a Hix Fix, just to say you have. The Beaufort bar and the American Bar at The Savoy The Savoy, Strand, WC2R 0EU, fairmont.com

Glitz, glamour and lots of gold: both Savoy bars are wonderfully opulent. The world-famous American bar, recently revamped, is still up there as one of the best bars on our humble planet. The bartenders bible, Harry Craddocks The Savoy Cocktail Book, was written here, and the cocktails served today remain as finely tuned as they ever were. Whereas as other bars try to recreate the glamour of such places, The Savoy neednt pretend: everything is genuine. The palatial Beaufort is absurdly romantic, and drinks are extravagantly presented: it works for the most special of special occasions, and theres something undeniably grand about sipping away in the same place Frank Sinatra, Marlene Dietrich, Coco Chanel and Ernest Hemingway all did. If youre planning a few drinks, either be rich or take someone rich  seriously. Artesian 1C Portland Pl, W1B 1JA, artesian-bar.co.uk

Artesian won its accolades for its team, Alex Kratena and Simone Caporale, who ran the place for eight years and earned its reputation as the best bar in the world. Theyve sadly departed, but have left the place in capable hands, and the feel is much the same as it ever was, which is chic, glamorous, and not taking itself too seriously. While the beautiful and the rich rub shoulders, the bartenders are mixing up excellent but often slightly silly drinks  but its their mischievousness that makes them so winning. Seriously impressive. Les Compagnie Des Vins Surnaturels 8-10 Neal's Yard, WC2H 9DP, cvssevendials.com

Call it CVS and your night becomes considerably easier to pronounce. Sat in Neils Yard, it is one of Londons finest wine bars. Thoroughly French, of course: New World wines barely get a sideways glance, while even Italys finest is only begrudgingly given a little space on the considerable menu. This doesn't mean there is a lack of choice  to the contrary, it is almost overwhelming, though they have a short by-the-glass list, and the charming staff are both well informed and passionate about what to have. In the summer, sit outdoors, in the winter, cosy up by the bar. Wherever you are, try the mystery wine; if you guess it, youll win a bottle. Have food  small plates made to share, and terrifically good  and drink plenty, so the bill doesnt hit as hard. The Shrub & Shutter 336 Coldharbour Ln, SW9 8QH, theshrubandshutter.com

This Brixton bar felt new in the area, taking a little of east London and bringing it down south. Theyve a pleasingly patchwork approach to decor: there are jars and bottles and shakers everywhere, which gives the place a kitchen feel. The cocktails, lovely to drink on their own, are made better with the food, which is designed to match what youre drinking. The pairings initially sound a little gimmicky  crayfish with vodka, venison on the side of The Deerhunter (an old fashioned, basically)  but they work, so drop that sceptical streak for a moment. It gets busy, so book up, get in early, and stay late. Theyve a license until 3am, so itd be rude not to. Sky Pod at the Sky Garden 1 Sky Garden Walk, EC3M 8AF, skygarden.london

The truth of it is, you come for the view, but good God it's a great view, and 360-degrees at that. Up 35 floors, if you can think of a London icon, you can probably see it. When the weather's good, get outside for some fresh air. With completely free entry and minimal security fuss, its worth making a reservation, though if youre ok to queue, theyll have you in. Cocktails arent torturously expensive, at around 11.50, and are very enjoyable  the cognac-chocolate-caramel-port mix that is Black and Gold is particularly good so it doesn't feel like they're relying on the sights.

Theres a sense of special occasion, and all the more so with live music on Thursday, Friday and Saturdays. Theyre hoping for jazz on Wednesdays, too. If youre tempted to eat, Fenchurch and the Darwin Brasserie are well worth trying  Fenchurch is particularly good for veggies. The Gilbert Scott St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, Euston Rd, NW1 2AR, thegilbertscott.co.uk

Given the golden hue here, where luxury hangs in the air like perfume, its remarkable that wine starts at as little as 5 a glass. Wine is its strong point, and likeable head sommelier Joris Beijn is a man worth knowing: he is passionate about his list, knowledgeable and accommodating. The bar is flexible, in that it is by turns ideal for a date, or a catch up with old friends, or a pre/post dinner drinks. The room is a stunner: high painted ceilings, dramatic red walls, great big bells as art, marble bar top and crystal glasses catching the light. Cocktails come in at around 14, and err on the light side: lots of gin and floral concoctions. The restaurant, next door, isnt to be missed, either, just be prepared to get an Uber home: invariably, youll stretch and tease out the evening to stay just a little longer. Gerry's Club 52 Dean Street, W1D 5BJ, gerrysclub.com

A word of warning: this is technically a member's club, but you'll probably be fine if you flirt enough  and don't ask for Gerry, he's long since passed. Michael looks after this place now. We've only been once  very late, very drunk and with very good friends. Most old-school Soho drinking dens are dead, but this hub of actors and writers is what remains of 'Old Soho'. If you're boring, steer clear: it is a place to drink wine and beer and tell stories, to laugh uproariously and to give yourself a monumental hangover in a faintly discreet way. 68 and Boston 4-5 Greek St, Soho, W1D 4DD, 68andboston.com

Boston, the bar upstairs, looks like glamorous train carriage from the golden age of cocktails but plays it a little bit safe. Wine bar 68, downstairs, is the real gem, with a wonderful way of pricing: every bottle on the list is 20, so choose what you like, not what you can afford. Better yet, if you don't fancy a bottle, they're served by the carafe (14) or glass (5.50). Wines are well picked and Denise Medrano, wine blogger and lover found behind the bar, is always working to update the list  so go back to try something new. Youll probably end up getting drunk here: the pull of another bottle at just 20 is monumentally hard to resist, but hey, thats what Soho is for. If you fancy drinking something more upscale, ask  theyve a few hidden wines kept hidden away for those in the know. Thats you, now. The Pink Chihuahua at El Camion 25-27 Brewer St, W1F 0RR, elcamion.co.uk

Forget house infusions and drinks that take half an hour to make: sometimes a good night needs tequila and dancing. The Pink Chihuahua is built for it: theyre providing the tequila  more than 300 different types of it, in fact  youre there to drink it down and dance it up. Theyve all sorts of twists on Margaritas and Daiquiris, and, given youre downstairs from Mexican restaurant El Camion, plenty of bar food to indulge in too. Lots of fun, and if youre feeling more in the mood just to sit back and sip something slowly, ask about their choice of Mezcal. There's real talent here, but fun too. The Gibson 44 Old St, EC1V 9AQ, thegibsonbar.london

Given the dearth of decent cocktails in Farringdon, the tiny Gibson is a God-send. Its a parlour pitched somewhere between Edwardian and Art Deco, and drinks arent simply poured here, theyre tended to, built, thought about, adored. All unsurprising, really, given the team learnt their trade at the likes of Nightjar and The Connaught.

This place is doing more creatively to push bartending forward than any bar that's opened up in a while, so ask the team for recommendations and youll be presented with something magic. Youll need to ask, actually, as the menu is a novel and theres the risk of wasting the evening reading instead of drinking, and that simply wouldnt do at all. Peg+Patriot Patriot Square, E2 9NF, talentedmrfox.com

The Talented Mr Fox, Matt Whiley, offers is a nice blend of things here: while the menu takes a sophisticated trip around London, with each cocktail a column of flavour, some managing chameleonic taste all within the space of a sip, the actual bar is surprisingly spare and understated. The effect is such that while drinks are upmarket, one doesnt feel obliged to sit demurely to enjoy them. Relax, have a few  you might want to, as the serves arent huge. It should be said that these cocktails are among Londons most interesting, rather than Londons best: they are talking points, oddities, they put flavours together in a way that isnt available elsewhere. If youre big on trying new things, different experiences, seeing what a cocktail can do, come, its a must. If its just something reliably delicious you fancy, elsewhere may be better. Worship Street Whistling Shop 63 Worship St, EC2A 2DU, whistlingshop.com

One presumes the staff here have night vision, otherwise its a complete and utter mystery how they see customers, let alone their ingredients. Still, they must do, for the output is pretty much excellent through and through at this dark spot. Its Victorian-inspired, which sounds tired and not a little tacky, but the gang from Purl have done it properly. Drinks are busy  lots of fusions, blends, gasses and pressure and all sorts  so its appropriate they come out of a lab. Still, all this engineering seems to be worth it, as the drinks slip down easily, the alcohol often hidden away. Make sure to take a seat in the Dram Shop, and pop in to the Gin Closet too, which operates as an honesty bar. Kansas Smitty's 63-65 Broadway Market, E8 4PH, kansassmittys.com

Below bar Off Broadway  a long way off, its Mexican  sits this glorious den of jazz and juleps. It is a speakeasy for 2016: that is to say, it has none of the contrived mannerisms of bars which proclaim to be speakeasies, it just happens to actually be one: youll need to knock to get in, the music raves loud and hot, and the place is so crowded strangers become family after a drink or two. The house band, for which the place is named, have envy-inducing talent, and the bar has fairly recently overhauled its drinks list, and the results are good. Youll be absorbed by the music, and stay afterwards to ride the buzz of the crowd. GONG 52, Shangri-La Hotel, the Shard, SE1 9QU, .gong-shangri-la.com

Gong is in the Shard, so youre there for the view alone. View it certainly does: at 52 floors up, its by far Londons highest spot to drink: consequently, sipping on a martini, one feels a little like a Bond villain pondering all thats below. Its not a huge bar, but that somewhat adds to the sense of exclusivity. Prices are, naturally, sky high: expect to pay at least 18. The drinks have plenty about them to compete with the view: presentation is everything. Theyve not skipped on the spirits making the mix, either: expect the likes of Zacapa 23 rum (heavenly stuff), Talisker scotch and Tanqueray 10 for the gin. All top drawer stuff. If this all sounds a bit intimidating, bear in mind they operate a no reservations policy, so youve as good a chance of getting in as anyone else. Mr Fogg's Salon 58 St Martin's Lane, Theatreland, WC2N 4EA, mr-foggs.com

Downstairs is a pretty decent pub, busy from theatreland. Upstairs, the salon is quieter, but only a little. The walls are a glittering ballgown of 19th century curiosities, unsubtle nonsense winking away. Head to a chaise longues with a couple of friends or a date and take in something from each one of the five acts which split the menu. Drinks seem to smell especially good here, rich, relying heavily on the likes of rum, cognac and sherry. Gin lovers need not despair: theyve a room with 300 different types next door. Come elegantly dressed. Bar Termini 7 Old Compton St, W1D 5JE, bar-termini.com

Do Bar Termini right and youll love it: do it wrong, and you may be underwhelmed. Tony Conigliaro, cocktail chap par excellence, and coffee maestro Marco Arrigo have built a revolving-door of a place: dont come here to linger. Expect a night of cocktails and youll leave disappointed: instead, love it in the day for the 1 espressos, and swing by in the evening for a negroni (6). Theyre small, but some of the best in the capital. One swishes in and out here, and that way, it adds a touch of Italian glamour to any evening. Trisha's (New Evaristo Club) 57 Greek St, Soho, W1D 3DX



Drinks dont make a bar, and thank goodness, as the stuff served at Trishas  named for its owner  is uniformly pretty awful: red and white wine youd consider an insult if a friend served it at supper, prosecco wildly overpriced, terrible spirits ecetera ecetera. At more than 70, the club is Sohos oldest, and while nobody who goes there can ever remember anything changing  its often quite hard to recall much about Trishas in crystal detail, as it happens  nothing needs to. The bad wine and expensive mixers and paint stripper spirits are all part of the point: its a glorious drinking den, and marvellous, marvellous fun. There are characters here: the last time we were in, we sat being scared witless by an old East End gangster who said hes known the Krays. Tremendous. Long may this place live. The Fumoir Claridge's, 49 Brook St, W1K 4HR, claridges.co.uk

The Fumoir will confuse you, as youll be torn between shouting about it and keeping it all to yourself. This plush purple and leather spot, deco decadence with a touch of welcome pomp, is hidden away behind a secret door at Claridges. Tiny and glitzy enough to feel like a Hollywood dressing room from the Golden Age, its little surprise the likes of Christina Hendricks adore it. For such a small place, they squeeze an awful lot in: plenty of wines, classic cocktails given a stern shake up, buckets of gin, a lovely choice of armagnac and a magnificent scotch list, gleaming with rarities. 69 Colebrooke Row 69 Colebrooke Row, N1 8AA, 69colebrookerow.com

Once known as the bar with no name, henceforth they shall be called the bar with Bernards watch, as there is no other explanation for the speed with which their finely mixed cocktails arrive. Another bar from Tony Conigliaro, its earned its reputation for turning out hit after hit: the drinks list is endlessly tempting. The piano is a nice touch; that is gets played a much nicer one, and make sure to order the Prairie Oyster  fun to drink, and one even for those who cant eat seafood. Bear in mind its a small spot, so youre close to your neighbours, and if you dont like strong drinks where the booze kicks, this wont be for you. Happiness Forgets 8-9 Hoxton Square, N1 6NU, happinessforgets.com

Dont expect frills and fuss or the rest of it here: Happiness Forgets is cocktail bar distilled down to its very essence, and done very well  their tag High End Cocktails/Low End Rent sums it up best. The bartenders are all top drawer, and their creations impeccable. Unsurprisingly, this Hoxton space has its regulars, so the crowd is always good. Tables can be booked, but half are always kept for walk-ins: try your luck, its worth it. Dry Martini by Javier de las Muelas Melia White House Hotel, Albany Street, NW1 3UP, melia.com

Come to this one to brag: Dry Martini is known as Barcelonas best cocktail bar, and has been rated the fifth best bar in the world by the Worlds 50 Best Bars panel. Renowned bartender Javier de las Muelas has bought over his concept to us lucky Londoners, and with it, finely mixed and classic cocktails. No prizes for guessing that the Dry Martini is the house special  if you dont think you like them, heres a place to change your mind. With more than 80 gins on the list, you could easily lose a week here. Gordon's 47 Villiers St, WC2N 6NE, gordonswinebar.com

Gordons seems to get more and more crowded with each passing day, but perhaps rightly so: the beloved Embankment institution is made for knocking back bottles of wine in. Eat a few cold bites and chat into a long, unwinding evening. The wine list is good enough, but youre really here for the atmosphere: in summer, the terrace, buzzing, in winter, the caves indoors, crammed with noise, spilt wine, and joy. Social bar at City Social 25 Old Broad St, EC2N 1HQ, citysociallondon.com

Youd think youre at City Social, up 24 stories of Tower 42, to eat, but if you stop in the bar, theres a good chance you wont make it to your table. The drinks come as something of a surprise: theyre so much better than one expects from a restaurant bar, inventive, put together carefully but not staidly, retaining a sense of fun. And, crucially, damned tasty. Its a dark room, and full of city types, but perfect for a few late night cocktails soaking up the view, which is really quite wonderful. Bloody pricey, but thats part of it. Ladies and Gentlemen 2 Highgate Rd, NW5 1NR, twitter.com

William Borrells bolthole transcends its gimmick (which, if you hadnt guessed, is that its a converted public loo), with the help of some very handy bartenders, and its house-brewed gin, Highwayman, of which twelve bottles a day get distilled. Ladies & Gents manages well as a place for a quiet drink, or better yet, a place to quietly get roaringly drunk. Convenient indeed. The drinks are strong, very interesting, and theres plenty of odd sods on the wall to keep your conversation up. It maintains a veneer of being somewhere faintly upmarket, but youll probably end up reading from one of the books scattered around or trying to dance to the live music. Perfect for a date that gets out of hand. Bull In A China Shop 196 Shoreditch High Street, E1 6LG, bullinachinashop.london

Truth it, youll need to catch this place on a good night, as weve been in often enough to know it has its good nights and its meh nights. But when the place is on, its really cooking, and easily one of the best bars in town. The cocktail list is short, but thought through, and care is taken in even the small things: they even make sure the water glasses are chilled. The chamomile and charcoal Old-Fashioned is a must, and any whisky lovers should get chatting to the bar staff, as theyve bottles which arent available anywhere else in the capital. Sager + Wilde Arch, 250 Paradise Row, E2 9LE, sagerandwilde.com

Wine lovers rejoice, wine bores look elsewhere. Sager + Wilde admirably keep things unpretentious: the exposed brickwork sets the tone: theyre keeping things low key. The specials list changes regularly, and always with interesting choices introduced. Some of the wines are exclusive to this place, so youre all but guaranteed to try something new. Have a SHE + T (sherry with tonic, delicious), and absolutely do not leave without having the grilled cheese sandwich. 7 Tales at Sosharu 64 Turnmill St, EC1M 5RR, sosharulondon.com

Underneath Jason Athertons Sosharu is this sexy, seedy Japanese drinking den, where youll find the hazy, debauched glamour of Tokyo after dark. Unlike so many bars underneath restaurants, 7 Tales doesnt feel like a holding pen, and drinks are precision made, with flavours leaning beyond the usual  think rice-washed gin, sake, infusions of sesame, snacks like tempura. Bar snacks are an irresistible must. Callooh Callay 65 Rivington St, EC2A 3AY, calloohcallaybar.com

Eccentric doesnt seem to quite cover it: enter the surreal world of Callooh Callay through an old Victorian wardrobe, catch sight of a throne and order punch out of a gramophone from a menu thats more of a sticker book. It sounds a bit ridiculous, but the bartenders really know their stuff, so for all the quirks, drinks are fundamentally pretty excellent. On the weekends, its a party bar, and DJs spin music to match: youre here for a good time. Any detectives in your gang will find there are two extra rooms in Callooh Callay to explore  theyre hidden away, too, naturally. If youre good, you might even get an invite upstairs to the Jub Jub Room, where the 10-long cocktail list changes every three weeks. Fans should also head to their new offering in Angel, Little Bat. Dukes Bar Dukes Hotel, 35 St James's Pl, SW1A 1NY, dukeshotel.com

Dukes is known for one reason: martinis. The St Jamess hotel was a favourite haunt of James Bond author and (very) keen drinker, Ian Fleming, who supposedly came up with the shaken, not stirred line here. Their martinis are exceptionally strong, and very large: theres a reason they wont serve you more than two. But look, break the mould: theyre a classic hotel bar, they serve a fine range of classic cocktails. Theres also a cognac and cigar garden, if youre so inclined. NOLA 1st Floor, 68 Rivington Street, EC2A 3AY, nola-london.com

It would be too easy to miss this place, so do your homework and saunter in: its must more attractive than sweatily asking anyone if theyve seen the place. Drawing inspiration from the home of proper cocktails, New Orleans, the bar loves traditional drinks, builds them properly and serves them in a den of music and laughter. Unlike some places specialising in old school serves, NOLA is a place for fun: sure, it seems to say, you could have a quiet drink  but why would you want to? Theres a cracking cigar terrace too, small enough that everyone talks before heading back in for one hell of a Vieux Carre. Call Me Mr Lucky 11 Southwark St, SE1 1RQ, twitter.com

All the hidden bars at the Breakfast Clubs around the capital are popular, with perhaps The Mayor of Scaredy Cat Town being the best known. Call Me Mr Lucky, on Southwark Street, happens to be our favourite. Once youve flirted with the staff  ask to get lucky  youre taken through the restaurants kitchens to a lively bar decorated like some twisted take on a kids party. Have a go on the wheel of fortune, where youll really want to get lucky, and win a free shot, and then work your way through the cocktail list. Like any good-time bar worth its salt, this place is big on tequila, and the drinks are light-hearted fun, but  here we go getting lucky again  along with the quirks comes quality. By the of the evening, before youre porured back onto the street, youll swear tequila is your new favourite drink, and youll be singing the party hits they play all the way home. K Bar at The Kensington 109 - 113 Queen's Gate, SW7 5LP, townhousekensington.com

K bar feels majestic  and there is no other word for it  because drinking here is a little like being in the captains quarters of the Titanic, albeit without the sinking feeling. There is glamour here: a kind of place to be seduced in. Cocktails wise, bar manager Ben Manchester is the man to ask for, but theres a fine list to choose from. It avoids stuffiness, and just needs to be packed out to really get cooking. Nightjar 129 City Rd, EC1V 1JB, barnightjar.com

Nightjar has fame which means writing about it is redundant: people think it marvellously good, and theyve live music most of the week. Its seating only and worth booking: just be sure not to cancel, or theyll charge a steep 10 per person. They do the speakeasy theme, but well enough that it isnt too tired yet, and have plenty of old school style on the list. Pick up a pack of cards from the bar on your way out. Reverend J W Simpson 32 Goodge St, W1T 2QJ, revjwsimpson.com

Bourne and Hollingsworth run this rather lovely little bar, downstairs from a small doorway on Goodge St. Service is friendly and speedy, it's comfortable, and drinks more than hold their own  there's both obscure traditional mixes and modern serves made with fresh, seasonal ingredients. Luckily, with good drinks come good people, and it's a loud, happy place. Albertine 1 Wood Ln, W12 7DP, albertinewinebar.co.uk

Albertine hasnt changed much since the day East Enders was commissioned there. A wine bar through and through, youll struggle to get anything else (though there are a couple of ales on the menu.) Its a place with spirit, which draws a regular, devoted crowd. They sell everything they serve, and its well worth splashing out: the mark-up gets less and less as the bottles get more expensive, meaning you can get an absolute bargain at the top end of the list. Its also the kind of wine bar you go to to overindulge. First Aid Box 119 Dulwich Rd, SE24 0NG, firstaidbox2015.com

This place really is worth travelling to Herne Hill to, which must be saying something. The team behind Shrub & Shutter have thickly laid on the pharmacy theme here, with cure-all drinks. Its not an idea which sounds like it should work, and yet, how much better life would be if they were one of the emergency services. Expect saline drips, syringes, and the likes of plastic lungs  their take on thirst aid  but rest assured, flavours arent medicinal in the slightest. At 8 - 10 a drink, its reasonable for London, and wonderful to see a bar really trying something new. Bravo. Media Wisdom Photography - Giles Christopher Nam Long Le Shaker 159 Old Brompton Rd, SW5 0LJ, namlong.co.uk

It gained fame for its celebrity fans, which include Mick Jagger and Prince Harry, but Nam Long has held on longer than most A-list haunts: its been going 30 years, and recently was given an overhaul. Its quite possibly the most Chelsea place imaginable  there are literally MIC cast members floating about  and its a go-to spot to drink far too much and party. The upstairs area is bright, airy, and well looked after by the excellent bartenders, while downstairs  "the Opium Den"  is as it sounds (though there was no opium available when we asked... ) The drinks upstairs were made with more care, but downstairs is more intimate, opulent, and better for a small groups. Some of those Chelsea types who go really are the very worst, and the drinks are outrageously expensive, but hey, its a laugh. The Vault at Milroy's 3 Greek St, Soho, W1D 4NX, shop.milroys.co.uk

A bar through a bookcase: were sold. Better yet, its underneath one of Sohos finest whisky shops  with stiff competition from The Vintage House  so if youre taken with something downstairs, buy it on your way out. Its a simple little bar and the service is decidedly so-so, but its usually pretty busy, they play good music and have an excellent range of spirits. The menu is changed regularly, but its a good place to cram into with friends or on a date. You mightnt spend the entire night here, but for a couple of drinks on the way somewhere, or on the way back, it fits the bill perfectly. Bounce 241 Old St, EC1V 9EY, bouncepingpong.com

There are two Bounce bars, one on Old Street and one on Holborn. The Old Street spot is a little more fun, graffiti adorning the walls,the Holborn spot somewhat more upmarket. Still, they both deserve a mention, and for the simple reason theyre damned good fun. Drinks here are good, with a decent spirit selection at both (and a huge number of gins in Farringdon) and a respectable selection of beers. Food is fine, simple. Still, you come to play ping pong. Theyve tables everywhere. Theres little to fault with Bounce: its a laugh, and sometimes thats all somewhere needs to be.

The Green Bar at Hotel Cafe Royal

No need to have a room at this Soho hotel to be able to try their luxury bar. Although this bar prides themselves on their botanicals and gin, the staff at the Green Bar is readily prepared to walk you through your entire absinthe experience from start to finish, making this spot perfect for the absinthe virgin.

68 Regent St, Soho, W1B 4DY, hotelcaferoyal.com

Opium

While Chinatown might not be the first place you think of stopping at on your hunt, Opiums cocktail bar really has it all, including some of Londons best absinthe. Try the Snake cocktail from their Zodiac menu, a delightful concoction of absinthe, suze, spiced apple and more.
I ts hard to pinpoint the precise moment that Facebook turned from a community network into an ethically dubious organisation in the public eye.

The Cambridge Analytica scandal has of course been pivotal, prompting, at the time of going to press, shares to crash by 11 per cent, high-profile advertisers such as Mozilla and Commerzbank to withdraw support and Mark Zuckerberg to go to ground for four days before apologising on CNN after the hashtag #WheresZuck went viral to tell us that hes really sorry and feels really bad.

But some say the tide began to turn as recently as August 2016. Thats when Zuckerberg, under intense pressure from right-wing news organisations such as Breitbart, fired the supposedly biased humans who curated the sites Trending News section and replaced them with algorithms. Within days, the feed was dominated by fake news items about Hillary Clinton, pushed up the rankings by bots and trolls. We all know where that led.

Images by Vault 49

Or perhaps Facebook turned in 2014, when it published the results of an emotional contagion study it had secretly conducted on 689,000 users. Researchers wanted to find out if showing people more negative posts made them more negative. Their conclusion? Yes! Emotional states can be transferred to others via emotional contagion, leading people to experience the same emotions without their awareness.

Thats really important for advertisers, says Jonathan Taplin, author of Move Fast and Break Things: How Facebook, Google and Amazon Cornered Culture and Undermined Democracy. Youre feeling depressed. Some cool shoes pop up. Maybe theyll make you happy. And its particularly powerful when it comes to politics.

Others say Facebook turned in 2012, around the time of its initial public offering. The IPO is that mythical moment in a start-ups life when Wall Street investors buy shares and founders become billionaires. But shareholders want those impressive user numbers  Facebook had about one billion users at the time  turned into dollar signs and it isnt always clear how to do this.

Chris Wylie, former Research Director at Cambridge Analytica whistleblower / Channel4 News

However, Facebook figured out a way. It could take all of the information we share about our favourite Rihanna songs, and our postcode, and our feelings about Jeremy Corbyn, and our Ocado shop, and our ethnicity, and sell it to advertisers. Couple that information with the ability to track your location via your mobile and Facebook became, as John Lanchester put it in the London Review of Books, the biggest surveillance-based enterprise in the history of mankind. Its now up to 2.2 billion users, by the way  more than the combined populations of Europe and China.

Or you could point to any number of other decisions. The subtle changes to user terms and conditions in 2011 that potentially opened up their data to app developers. The decision in 2010 to allow the developers of games such as FarmVille to scrape your data and your friends data. Or perhaps the introduction of the Like button in 2009. Is it any coincidence that the race to the bottom in media  toward clickbait headlines, toward the vulgar and prurient and dumb, toward provocative but often exaggerated takes  has accelerated in lock-step with the development of new technologies for measuring engagement? wondered James Somers in The Atlantic recently.

Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and chief executive officer of Facebook Inc / Bloomberg

But there was something ugly in that code from 2004, when TheFacebook evolved out of FaceMash, a Harvard-based hot-or-not face comparison site, which turned social envy, comparison and judgement into a fun game. (An interesting fact about Zuckerberg is that he studied psychology alongside computer science.) When Zuckerberg asked 4,000 of his peers for information and photos to populate the new site, he bragged to his friends: People just submitted it I dont know why They trust me dumb f***s.

The #DeleteFacebook campaign is well underway, backed, notably, by Brian Acton, founder of WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook. It is time. #deletefacebook, he wrote on Twitter last week. But once you factor in the enormous reach of all social media into our intimate lives  Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, the lot of them  you might wonder how far this goes. And for those who are shocked that people have been using social media platforms to spy on our most intimate desires and reconfigure democracy  well, the signs have been there all along.

ES Social Media Editor @NatalieSalmon

To anyone who has been paying attention, the only surprising thing about the Cambridge Analytica scandal is that anyone is surprised. This is not an aberration, says Douglas Rushkoff, author of Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus and professor of media theory and digital economics at City University of New York. What were seeing is these platforms performing exactly as they were designed to do. People with a lot of money invest money in a platform that encourages people to share as many private details about themselves as they can. The platform sells that information to other people who want to change our behaviour: marketers, political agents, compliance professionals Thats the way these platforms advertise themselves to their customers.

And you must remember that you, Average Facebook User, are not the customer. You are the product, as the saying goes. Facebooks customers are the people it sells advertising to: household brands, media organisations, political parties and so on.

Cambridge Analytica's chief executive officer Alexander Nix / AFP/Getty Images

One of my graduate students asked me: What does it matter if they have my data?, says Rushkoff. Its not such a bad question. It doesnt hurt when your data is extracted. But its a question that only someone of great privilege can ask, he counters. People might be denied loans or apartments because of their data. In China, theyre being denied social benefits because of friends they have or things theyve liked on social media. The Chinese Communist Party is currently trialling a social credit system where citizens data will be used to provide the trustworthy with benefits and discipline the untrustworthy [so that] integrity becomes a widespread social value. Remember the talk about Zuckerberg running for President?

Even in liberal countries like our own, CVs are no longer the first port of call when looking at a new employee  its a name search on Google then a stealth stalk of the candidates social media profiles.

I think consumers and users of technology have more power than they think they have, says Kathryn Parsons, founder of Decoded, which aims to spread digital literacy. Im a believer in empowerment and education. Know how your data is being used. Understand the platform.

Kathryn Parsons / Getty Images for Advertising Wee

But some people understandably feel that its not clear where to turn. You might think, Oh well, at least Instagrams a bit more cheerful  but Facebook owns Instagram. Hmm, I guess I can keep in touch with my family on WhatsApp. Facebook owns WhatsApp too. Its not as if Twitter or Snapchat seem to be increasing the sum of human happiness either. Theyre all guilty. Theyre all part of the problem, says Taplin. All of them have consistently allowed bad actors to use their platforms. Within hours of the mass shooting in Florida, YouTube featured videos claiming [surviving] school kids werent real. Those were the most popular videos. These are sources of propaganda and lies. And theres an entire generation who get all their news from these platforms.

One of the most persistent arguments against social media is that it makes people unhappy. A 2017 paper entitled Association of Facebook Use with Compromised Well-Being: A Longitudinal Study found that Facebook interactions made people unhappier over time, while real-life interactions made them happier  but apart from that, the evidence for the psychological evils of social media isnt that conclusive. Amy Orben, an experimental psychologist specialising in social media at Oxford University, believes fears are overplayed. Weve been researching this day-in, day-out for years and I think the striking thing is simply the lack of solid evidence we have at the moment, she says. There seems to be a small negative effect on adolescent mental health  but its tiny. We can only actually predict about one per cent of someones wellbeing from social media. We need more nuanced evidence.

Is there anything we should be worried about?

Australia's Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull / AFP/Getty Images

The effect of filters on self esteem? Orben points out that passive consumption  simply scrolling down the news feed with no particular aim  does seem to make people depressed. Even Facebook warns about that. But thats very small. If youre directly interacting with people, its just another method of communicating.

Zuckerberg says he just wants to connect people. But as Zadie Smith (who was at Harvard when FaceMash emerged) once wrote of Facebook and Zuckerberg: The quality of that connection, the quality of the information that passes through it, the quality of the relationship that connection permits  none of this is important. That a lot of social networking software explicitly encourages people to make weak, superficial connections with each other and that this might not be an entirely positive thing, seems to never have occurred to him. Better connections are available, if you improve the code.

Maybe Zuckerberg could do it himself? Disentangle the controversial advertising model. He retains the controlling stake after all. He can do what he likes. Like turn it back into a social network where you can stay in touch with your friends. The sort of platform he claims hes always wanted to make. That would be brave and heroic, says Kathryn Parsons. Ready Player One eat your heart out  he should secure the movie rights.

Perhaps people shouldnt hold out much hope from his apology  or the response of his shareholders. Our main fear was that Zuckerberg would propose fundamental changes to the business, we are relatively relieved, said financial analysts at Macquarie last week. And of course increased regulation is the thing those who profit from social media sites fear the most.

Maybe we ought to put a little more faith in ourselves. The thing I always felt bad about was how little of our intuition we bring to these spaces, says Rushkoff. In the mid-Nineties, as the net began to turn from a research tool into a human manipulation space, Id always tell people: Keep ahold of how you feel on these platforms. Does it make you feel anxious? Stay in touch with your instincts. When you walk into a bar you do this: Is this a place Im likely to get beat up? Or scammed? You can feel it.

Reality may be catching up in any case. The EUs General Data Protection Regulations, arriving in May, will mean sites such as Facebook cant take your information without your explicit consent. And they cant throw you off if you say no. In addition, the Governments Data Protection Bill, currently making its way through Parliament, gives the commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, the right to fine social media platforms if they fail to play by the rules with users data.

Andrew Orlowski, executive editor of tech publication The Register, agrees that politicians are finally wising up. They have been in awe of them. But theres a huge lobbying operation as well. If you asked 100 people: Do you want less control over the photos you post on Facebook? Everyone would say no. People want more control. But Silicon Valley has pushed this amazing message that no one owns anything and copyright is evil and allowing people to have control would break the internet. Thankfully, that era seems to be slipping away now.

Hand Model, ES Social Media Editor @nataliesalmon
C CTV footage shows a 100,000 David Bowie statue being vandalised less than 48 hours after it was unveiled.

A surveillance camera installed above the statue caught the moment a vandal spray-painted the bronze figurine entitled Earthly Messenger and the surrounding area.

The vandal, who wore a face covering and black hat, painted the words Feed the homeless first on the ground in front of the new sculpture in Aylesburys Market Square, Buckinghamshire.

He also sprayed RIP DB on the wall behind the statue.

Bowie, who died in January 2016, made his rock star debut as Ziggy Stardust at Friars music club in the Buckinghamshire town.

The life-size statue is based on Bowies image in 2002 alongside his alter egos, with Ziggy at the front.

The work was funded through grants and a 100,000 crowdfunding campaign led by music promoter David Stopps.

Following the vandalism, one resident, Daniel Sage said: This weekend our town had a David Bowie statue installed. Bit of a tenuous link as he played here once, but whatever. Last night one of the residents let us know that Aylesbury should be focusing on other priorities.

Alex Laurent, who created the figure, has branded the vandalism stupid and ill-formed.

He told Bucks Herald: Lets see if they have the conviction to be convicted.

I am saddened and embarrassed by my fellow Brits actions, but accept this could happen easily elsewhere in the world.

Having worked for David Bowie for many years, I can say that he was not a person that would encourage a statue, but he was fiercely British and loved his country, he added.
A renowned mixologist who has worked at some of Londons top cocktail bars told today of his devastation after two masked raiders ransacked his office, stealing champagne and equipment worth thousands of pounds.

Lucio Marino, 31, who runs an events business, has released CCTV footage in an attempt to trace the pair who escaped with premium bottles along with computer equipment, cameras and business records.

Footage captured on his security camera at 9pm on Sunday shows a man in a tight red balaclava smash down a back door at the business centre in Kensal Green, north-west London.

He gestures to his accomplice to avoid the CCTV camera, but the warning is unheeded as the man walks past unmasked. The pair can then be heard attempting to wrestle goods from an upstairs storeroom, at one point saying one of the items is too big to steal.

Mixologist Lucio Marino at work / PR Handout

Mr Marino said: They stole security cameras and completely trashed upstairs. I was very angry but there is nothing I can do  I have to stay strong. Were lucky he took his mask off, it gives us a chance to get them caught before they do it to someone else.

Other people have come to me saying theyve been robbed by the same people and lost even more than I did.

Mr Marino has worked at Balls Brothers Mayfair Exchange, Dado 54 in Farringdon and Dirty Martini in Islington since moving to London from Italy. His events business serves molecular cocktails at corporate events with clients including Facebook, Twitter and Dragons Den tycoon Theo Paphitiss Retail Group.

Mr Marino added: They took all my computer equipment, invoices, everything. Im a small business and I do everything myself. They broke all the doors completely and I need to change the locks. It has hit me hard. This is a busy time where there are lots of bookings and it has made me very stressed.

A Met Police spokesman said: Police were called to the offices at 8.30am on Monday. No arrests have been made and inquiries continue.
P olice have urged Londoners to "lock, chain and cover" their scooters to stop them being stolen and used in crime by moped gangs.

The Mets new Be Safe campaign, launched after 14,000 stolen scooters and motorcycles were used to commit 23,500 crimes in London last year, has the strapline: LOCK, CHAIN AND COVER to make your scooter less visible to thieves.

The video shows a man bolting the wheel of his moped and throwing a cover over it, making it seem to disappear into thin air while a prowling moped gang rides past.

The advice asks scooter and motorcycle owners to:

Use a disc lock to help secure the front brake disc, or a grip lock to secure the brake and throttle controls

Use a chain lock through the back wheel (the front wheel can be removed). Secure your bike, with the lock taut to an immovable object such as a ground anchor

Cover the bike as it makes it less attractive and harder for thieves to steal.

As they released the shocking figures, police said stolen mopeds are being used in offences such as robberies and theft-snatches, but also in violent crime and to courier weapons and drugs.

In October, the Met introduced new techniques to clamp down on moped gangs, using scrambler bikes, automatic tyre deflation devices and DNA sprays.

They said that since summer 2017, scooter and motorcycle theft has dropped 52 per cent while moped-enabled crime has fallen 47 per cent.

But they hope that by urging Londoners to make their mopeds less visible, it could help clamp down further.
Dear Secretary of State We met this afternoon to consider the implications of the judgment in the Worboys case. I want to repeat my admiration for the courage and tenacity of the women who brought the judicial review. Their success will have consequences that go far beyond this individual case and will benefit victims and the administration of justice for years to come. I am very pleased that the court declared the Rule that prohibits the Parole Board from explaining its decisions should go and that the judgment recognised that this was something I had been calling for. I am pleased too that as a result of Dame Glenys Stacy's investigation into victim communication in the case, these processes will be improved in future and that she made no criticism of the Parole Board's actions in this matter. I am also confident that as a result of this case a much simpler system for reviewing Parole Board decisions will be established and, as I have already made clear in my submission to you, this is something I would very much welcome. Consistent with these principles, I have been clear throughout the legal processes that followed the decision in the Worboys case that I welcomed the scrutiny to which it was subject. I instructed that there should be no procedural moves to prevent such scrutiny, as the judgment indicated could have been made, and that our disclosure of material relating to the case should be as full as possible. I am as anxious as everyone else that the correct decision should be made. The court was critical of some aspects of the panel's decision-making processes although it did not overturn the panel's decisions on these grounds. It could not, no more than you or I, put itself in the place of the expert and experienced panel members who heard the evidence and made the decision. The court did however find that the panel's understanding that it could not go beyond the offences for which Worboys was convicted was mistaken in this "difficult, troubling case with many exceptional features". I shared the panel's misapprehension in this matter and this was supported by the advice I received. We were wrong. You told me that you thought my position was untenable. I had no role in the decision of the panel in the case and believe I am capable of leading the Parole Board through the changes, many of which I have advocated, that will now be necessary. I am sorry for the mistakes that were made in this case but I have always made it clear that I will support the members and staff of the Board in the very difficult individual decisions they make and I will accept accountability for the work of the Board. I will not pass the buck to those who work under me. In these circumstances I inform you of my decision to resign with immediate effect. In conclusion, I want to state my concern about the independence of the Board. I believe this matter raises very troubling questions about how the Board's independence can be safeguarded. I hope Parliament will consider what structural changes are necessary to ensure this independence is protected in future. Nick Hardwick Chairman, The Parole Board for England and Wales
J eremy Corbyns Momentum followers are pushing a local income tax and higher spending in a bid to tilt Labour councils to the far Left, a secret tape reveals today.

Members of the group in Tory-controlled Wandsworth, a key local elections battleground, are heard at a meeting planning a complete cultural overhaul to entrench radical ideas.

One man calls for more inspirational policies to form a Momentum-backed manifesto, saying: What is it we want Wandsworth council to do? Do we want to raise local income tax? Yes.

Shadow cabinet member Andrew Gwynne has already said he is looking at bringing in local income tax powers, to raise money on top of council tax charges.

Another member of Momentum criticises the borough Labour groups support for affordable housing, which many Left-wingers argue is still too expensive for poorer families, saying: Id like to see Wandsworth committed to building council houses.

Followers: Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is supported by far-Left members of the Momentum campaign group / PA

Others angrily attack Wandsworths Labour group leader Simon Hogg for failing to come up with an inspiring manifesto  and they discuss forcing his hand in internal votes. One says that dull policies make chatting to Labour supporters on the doorstep a complete nightmare, the brain goes dead.

Ruth Cashman, who chaired the Momentum meeting on March 15, tells the gathering that Wandsworth will have more lefties in positions on the council after the May elections.

We have a much better opportunity than most places in London do, by the lefties that we have standing, she said. Because of the desperation in Wandsworth, actually we have more Left-wing councillors who could be elected than most people do.

She described neighbouring Lambeth as the worst Labour-run council in the country, complaining: I spend my entire day, because Im a [Unison] branch secretary, fighting a Labour council, day in, day out. She then claims that moderate Mr Hogg is similar and should be told to spend more. What do you think the Labour group is going to do here thats going to be any different from what the Lambeth group have been doing? And what have they been doing? Theyve been cutting.

Another member accuses Mr Hogg, who hopes to become council leader after the May 3 elections, of resisting Left-wing policies. Momentum here has produced a whole raft of policies, and theyve been presented to Simon Hogg  where they went then no one knows. A Momentum member from Putney says the group is getting stronger and now has the casting vote on his branchs executive committee. A male activist says they have to politicise the local Labour parties more and urges complete cultural overhaul.

There is a discussion about flooding the area with Momentum activists from safe Labour boroughs on May 3, to help in wards where Left-wingers are standing. The same member advises ignoring local Labour members who object to their campaigning priorities, saying just do it over their heads.

Ms Cashman told the Standard: As a trade union activist I will always support campaigns to save services.
C onservative chairman Brandon Lewis tried to quell a racism row today by ordering Tories in Romford to apologise for a leaflet that accused Mayor Sadiq Khan of turning the town into an inner-city area.

Two senior Tories condemned the leaflet as really bad, with a former minister calling for disciplinary measures.

The leaflet sent out in Havering claimed that if Labour seized control of the town hall in May the borough would become increasingly like an inner-city area. It told voters that Havering could resemble boroughs like Hackney, Newham, Camden and Barking rather than a traditional part of Essex and to get ready for massive population increases from London.

Former minister Nicholas Boles, MP for Grantham and Stamford, tweeted: This leaflet is disgraceful. The individuals responsible should apologise, and withdraw it, or face disciplinary action. We cannot attack [Jeremy] Corbyn for indulging anti-Semitism in Labour and allow messages like this to go unchallenged. He ended with a challenge to the party chairman, saying: @Brandon Lewis over to you.

The leaflet circulated by Conservative councillors in Romford

But one of the three councillors who put the leaflet out, Damian White, said that it was approved by Conservative HQ before it went to the printers. He denied it was in any way racist, as did local Tory MP Andrew Rosindell, who said the critics should apologise for an unfounded allegation of racism.

A party spokesman said: Romford Conservatives intended to highlight local concerns ... They have apologised for any offence caused and the leaflet has been withdrawn.

Mr White, who did not write the leaflet, later called and made the same apology. However, Mr Rosindell said the leaflet could not be withdrawn as all the copies had been delivered.
T he niece of poisoned spy Sergei Skripal has said her uncle and cousin have a slim chance of survival.

Viktoria Skripal says the prognosis for the former Russian double agent and his daughter Yulia really isnt good.

The pair remain in a critical condition following the nerve agent attack in Salisbury, Wiltshire on March 4.

She told the BBC: "Out of 99% I have maybe 1% of hope. Whatever it was has given them a very small chance of survival.

Ms Skripal also said that Sergei Skripals mother has not been informed about the Novichok attack.

She added: "The first priority was to protect our granny so that she wouldn't hear or find out anything."

It comes as countries across the world have joined the UK in diplomatic action against Russia, which has been blamed for the attack.

Theresa May said the unprecedented series of expulsions of Russian diplomats sent a strong message to Moscow that it could not ignore international law.

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

24 countries have taken diplomatic action against Russia so far.

The country retaliated, ordering 23 British diplomats to leave Moscow.

The Russian Embassy in the UK has argued that the Prime Minister has still not presented evidence that the country is responsible for the poisonings.

A statement on its website said: "This only confirms the openness of the Russian society and the independence of Russian media, which Prime Minister May wrongly confuses with the Russian state.

"Given the lack of official information, every Russian, just like every Briton, is entitled to their own version of events.

"Let's also not forget that at least five different versions of the poisoning have been 'leaked' by the police to British media: the Skripals were either poisoned in a pub, or in a restaurant, or in their car, or by putting the chemical into Ms Skripal's suitcase, or by smearing their door handle.

"To see Russia being accused of spreading false rumours in this context is rather surprising."

Mr Skripal and his daughter ate garlic bread and risotto with a glass of white wine each at Zizzi in the town centre on March 4, according to reports. However, witnesses said the Russian was agitated and angry about the time it took for his meal to come.

Minutes after leaving the restaurant they were found slumped on a bench in the town centre, in a "catatonic" state.
S chools in London are among a number across the UK which have received threatening emails warning that children will be mowed down by a car.

Scotland Yard confirmed on Wednesday afternoon that schools in London are affected, while those in Durham, Cambridgeshire, Devon and Cornwall, the West Midlands and Northumbria have also received the messages.

Police said the emails are being treated as a hoax but it is believed that some schools are keeping children inside.

The email says that a car will drive into "as many students as possible" as they leave school at 3.15pm.

A screengrab of the message which has been sent to schools across the UK

It adds: If you try and evacuate them the driver will get out and shoot any student leaving.

"You have a choice here, you can ignore this email and risk the lives of the students you say you care for, or you can listen to what we are telling you.

"The only way out is to go out with a BANG.

Concerned parent Kerri Chamberlain wrote on Twitter: "Ive never really understood just how scary it is to get a message from your childs school saying they are evacuating due to a safety threat.

"Emails to schools saying that they are going to harm children is NEVER EVER ok! Hoax or not it doesnt matter!!!"

Another parent tweeted: "My son's school is on lockdown. What kind of sick individual threatens to mow down kids as they are leaving school & shoot them if leave school early.

I feel physically sick & I want my boy home safe. He's 6 years old & shouldn't be scared like this. What's the world coming too!

A spokesman for the Met Police said: We have received a number of reports relating to malicious communications sent to schools across London on Wednesday, 28 March.

These are currently being treated as hoaxes. There is no evidence to suggest that this is terror-related.

Cambridgeshire Police tweeted: We are aware of a series of malicious communications to schools across the country this morning.

Enquiries are being carried out to establish the facts and forces are working together, along with the National Crime Agency, to investigate who is responsible.

Durham Police said in a statement: "We have received a number of calls from schools in our region reporting that they have been sent threatening emails.

"Police forces across the country are also believed to have reported similar incidents.

"The emails inform the school that they will be targeted in an attack later today.

"Enquiries are continuing to establish the facts and forces are working together to investigate the threat and who is responsible."
T errified parents from across the country have told of their horror after an email was sent to schools warning that their children would be mown down by a car and shot.

Mothers, fathers and grandparents spoke out against the sick threats, which are believed to be a hoax, as they described racing to collect their kids on Wednesday.

One concerned grandmother usually picks up her grandsons from Burnopfield Primary School in County Durham at about 3pm.

However, today she received a panicked phone call from her daughter-in-law about an hour earlier telling her to head to school immediately.

UK and London schools on lockdown after being sent threatening emails warning children will be mowed down by car

Susannah Carr told the Standard: When I drove up to school I noticed a stream of parents arriving. Everyone was sort of half walking, running and had anxious faces.

I asked a girl at the gates if she had heard anything. Mothers were running past me by then and she said apparently there had been an email sent to the school warning of a threat to harm the children later that afternoon.

Well I just felt frantic and rushed round to get them I collected the boys and left as quickly as possible. It was horrible. In this day and age you can't ignore threats.

Kerri Chamberlain, from Evesham in Worcestershire, wrote on Twitter: Ive never really understood just how scary it is to get a message from your childs school saying they are evacuating due to a safety threat.

Emails to schools saying that they are going to harm children is NEVER EVER OK. Hoax or not it doesnt matter!!!

Another parent, from Plymouth, added: What kind of sick individual threatens to mow down kids as they are leaving school & shoot them if leave school early.

I feel physically sick and I want my boy home safe. He's 6 years old and shouldn't be scared like this. What's the world coming too!

Lee Maggs, from Sittingbourne, said: Never been so scared or worried in my whole life! Who calls in a hoax bomb threat at a primary school?

Police forces in London, Durham, Cambridgeshire, Devon and Cornwall, the West Midlands and Northumbria have all confirmed schools were affected by Wednesdays threat.

A spokesman for the Met Police said: We have received a number of reports relating to malicious communications sent to schools across London on Wednesday, 28 March.
A Canadian teenager has won the jackpot with her first lottery ticket bought to celebrate her 18th birthday.

Charlie Lagarde, from Quebec, bought the ticket along with a bottle of champagne to mark the milestone birthday on March 14.

She ended up winning the lottery and was offered the choice of either a $1m (550,000) lump sum or $1,000 (550) a week for the rest of her life.

Ms Lagarde took weeks to decide but opted for the weekly payment after speaking to a financial advisor, because it is not taxed.

She was joined by family and friends as she claimed her prize at Loto-Quebecs head office in Montreal.

"It's without taxes so it's equivalent to a salary of more than $100,000 a year, so it's a great start in life for that young lady," Patrice Lavoie, a spokesman for the lottery corporation, told the Canadian Press.

"That was her first lottery ticket ever and she fell upon a winning ticket."

Ms Lagarde said she wants to use the money to travel and put it towards her education.
A policeman who sacrificed himself to save a hostage in a terror attack in southern France was being honoured today in a nationwide ceremony led by the French President Emmanuel Macron.

The coffin of Lieutenant Colonel Arnaud Beltrame was carried in procession in the Wednesday morning drizzle from the Pantheon across Paris to the Hotel des Invalides, the final resting place of Napoleon.

The French president will deliver a public eulogy in front of colleagues and family of Mr Beltrame, who died of his wounds on Saturday morning, hours after swapping himself for a hostage during a siege in a supermarket.

During the ceremony, Mr Macron will posthumously award Mr Beltrame the Legion of Honour, France's highest award.

France in mourning for police officer Arnaud Beltrame 1 /12 France in mourning for police officer Arnaud Beltrame Officials of the French gendarmerie nationale hold a minute's silence for Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame AFP French gendarmes escort the coffin of the late Lieutenant Colonel Arnaud Beltrame transported by car during a funeral procession leaving the Pantheon (background) as part of a national tribute in Paris AFP/Getty Images Republican Guards, Gemdarmes and Cadets from the joint-army military school (Ecole Militaire Interarmes, EMIA) carry the coffin of Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame AFP/Getty Images Lieutenant Colonel Arnaud Beltrame offered himself up to an extremist gunman in exchange for a hostage has died of his injuries AP French President Emmanuel Macron (L) walks towards the coffin Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame, draped with the national flag, during a national ceremony AFP/Getty Images People and French gendarmes wait for the arrival of the body of Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame AFP/Getty Images French President Emmanuel Macron arrives for a national ceremony for Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame AFP/Getty Images French gendarmes escort the coffin of the late Lieutenant Colonel Arnaud Beltrame transported by car during a funeral procession leaving the Pantheon (background) as part of a national tribute in Paris AFP/Getty Images French gendarmes escort the coffin of the late Lieutenant Colonel Arnaud Beltrame transported by car during a funeral procession leaving the Pantheon (background) as part of a national tribute in Paris AFP/Getty Images The coffin of Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame stands draped with the national flag during a national ceremony in Paris AFP/Getty Images French police officers attend a ceremony for Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame AFP France today honoured the police officer who swapped places with a hostage in a terror attack in southern France AFP

Three former presidents, Francois Hollande, Nicolas Sarkozy and Valery Giscard d'Estaing, are also attending in a symbol of the political dimension this ceremony has taken.

French gendarmes escort the coffin of the late Lieutenant Colonel Arnaud Beltrame transported by car during a funeral procession leaving the Pantheon (background) as part of a national tribute in Paris / AFP/Getty Images

The national homage includes a minute's silence in French police stations and myriad events in schools that both honour Mr Beltrame's memory and provide a focal point for national grief after last Friday's killing spree.

French police officers attend a ceremony for Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame / AFP

It comes as questions are being raised about possible failures in French counter-terrorism tracking of the gunman, who was on a radicalisation watch list before he went on a rampage last Friday.

Lieutenant Colonel Arnaud Beltrame offered himself up to an extremist gunman in exchange for a hostage has died of his injuries / AP

Some 2,000 high school students and scores of police attended the Paris event that began as gendarmes sang the French revolutionary anthem the Marseillaise in the stone courtyard of the French Interior Ministry.

The ministry's boss, Gerard Collomb, maintained on Wednesday morning that there were no "dysfunctions" in tracking Mr Beltrame's killer, Redouane Lakdim, who also killed three other people before he was shot dead by police.

Police officers secure evidence during the police operation near Trebes / EPA

Speaking on France Inter, amid questions on possible failures in counter-terrorism tracking, Mr Collomb confirmed the security services were about to reduce the surveillance on Lakdim, who was on a radicalisation watch list.

He said "ultimately no one thought that there would be a hasty attack" by Lakdim, a Moroccan-born French resident with dual nationality.

Police at the scene of the attack last week

Questions have been also raised by authorities in Morocco.

The chief of a counter-terrorism agency, known as Morocco's FBI, said on Tuesday that France never alerted his country about Lakdim's radical behaviour - calling the absence of contact "a misunderstanding".

French gendarmes block an access to Trebes / AFP

Since the attack, the agency - created three years ago to consolidate counter-terrorism efforts - has been investigating Lakdim's family members in Morocco, Abdelhak Khiame told The Associated Press
S cientists in Australia are trialling a liquid umbrella that could help protect coral in the Great Barrier Reef from being damaged.

The team of researchers from the Australian Institute of Marine Science are using a biodegradable liquid spray that they believe could protect the fragile coral from bleaching.

The spray, which is 50,000 times thinner than a human hair, works by floating on the surface of water above and blocking coral from the suns UV rays.

Scientist Andrew Negri, who worked on the initial trial of the liquid, told The Sydney Morning Herald that the spray has been seen to reduced the amount of light reaching the coral by 20 per cent.

Breakthrough: The researchers are using a biodegradable spray they believe could protect the fragile coral / EPA

It is white so it reflects and scatters all the light which hits the ocean surface, he said.

The liquid spray is made from calcium carbonate  which is the ingredient corals use to form their skeleton and can be found in sediments.

In the laboratory it actually stays on the surface for...several weeks but in the ocean it could be broken up by wave action and moved around by the currents, he said.

Protection: the spray has been seen to reduced the amount of light reaching the coral by 20% / Getty Images

Some of it will sink to the bottom of the sea floor like sediment and some of it will just remain floating on the surface and...will eventually be degraded...quite rapidly.

Scientists believe it could be the answer to protecting parts of the reef  which is being damaged by polluted waters and bleaching.

Great Barrier Reef Foundation managing director Anna Marsden said: You could in the future, knowing there is going to be hot days ahead, spray this film on top of key reefs that are high value or highly productive or key tourism sites and this will act as a bit of a shield...almost like an umbrella, to protect these reefs underneath and the animals underneath.

Trial: it could be the answer to protecting parts of the reef / AFP/Getty Images

It is a really great example of a scientific community responding to the threats and disturbances hitting the Great Barrier Reef.

Its important to note that this is not intended to be a solution that can be applied over the whole 348,000 square kilometres of Great Barrier Reef, she added.
A US man who was cleared of murder after spending 45 years behind bars has said hes not a bitter man.

Richard Phillips, 71, had his conviction erased last year but has now been exonerated and will not face a second trial.

Mr Phillips, from Detroit, smiled as he said the criminal justice system "works - it just didn't work fast enough".

Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy said a new investigation by her office backed his claim that he had no role in a 1971 fatal shooting. She said a key witness lied at his 1972 trial.

"There's nothing I can say to bring back 40 years of his life," Ms Worthy said. "The system failed him. This is a true exoneration."

The case was reopened at the urging of the Innocence Clinic at University of Michigan law school after a co-defendant at the 1972 trial told the state parole board that Phillips was not involved in the slaying of Gregory Harris.

Richard Phillips hugs Det. Patricia Little in a courtroom / AP

Mr Phillips had been free on bond since December. He is likely to be eligible for more than 2 million US dollars under Michigan's wrongful conviction law.

No one in the US has served more years in prison before being exonerated than Phillips, said David Moran, director of the Innocence Clinic.

"I've never carried bitterness around, so I'm not a bitter man," Mr Phillips told reporters when asked about his decades in prison.

One of his goals is a reunion with two children who were aged two and four when he went to prison in 1972.

Despite publicity about his case, Mr Phillips said he has not heard from them and does not know their whereabouts.

"You have seen the worst and best of the criminal justice system," Judge Kevin Cox told him.
A merica will not tolerate Russia seeking to undermine the Wests security with attacks such as the Salisbury nerve agent poisoning, the US ambassador to London warned today.

Woody Johnson said the US had no better ally than the UK and this was shown by Washington expelling 60 Russian diplomats.

But Moscows ambassador to Australia, Grigory Logvinov, warned of the risk of a new Cold War after more than 20 countries united behind Britain and expelled more than 100 diplomats suspected of spying.

The niece of former double agent Sergei Skripal said he and his daughter Yulia had only a slim chance of surviving after being poisoned with nerve agent.

Viktoria Skripal said the prognosis really isnt good for the pair, who remain in a critical condition following the attack on March 4. British investigators identified the substance as Russian military-grade Novichok nerve agent.

Nations all over the world expel Russian diplomats in response to Salisbury attack

Out of 99 per cent I have maybe one per cent of hope, Ms Skripal told the BBC. Whatever it was has given them a very small chance of survival. But theyre going to be invalids for the rest of their lives. She also revealed that Mr Skripals mother had not been told of the incident: The first priority was to protect our granny so that she wouldnt hear or find out anything.

Ross Cassidy, who became friends with Mr Skripal when he moved next door to the Russian in Salisbury in 2010, said the pair were so critically ill they should be allowed to die. He told Sky News: Quite frankly, what future have they got? ... my guess is they are probably being kept alive by artificial means and what life will they have if they survive?

Weve already been told they will be severely mentally impaired and I dont think they would want that. I think death would probably be merciful.

At a reception last night to mark the opening of the new American Embassy in Nine Elms, attended by a string of Cabinet ministers, Ambassador Johnson said: The Salisbury attack was the latest in a long series of Russian efforts to undermine our security. America wont tolerate this, and the president as you saw on Monday acted extremely decisively. We are standing with you ... This is a new chapter of an old, old story.

Mr Trump, whose presidential election campaign is being investigated over alleged links to Russia, was originally seen to have taken a less strident approach over the Salisbury attack, stopping short of blaming the Kremlin.

Today Luxembourg announced it was recalling its ambassador to Russia for consultations and said it agreed with Britain that Moscow was very likely to have been responsible for the attack.

Britain has already expelled 23 Russians suspected of spying. Ukraine has ordered out 13 diplomats and other countries that have done so include Germany, France, Poland, Canada, Spain and Ireland.
E mily Blunt admits she is now really careful about what she says after she faced calls to leave America for making a quip about Donald Trump.

The actress, who was born in Roehampton, joked in a 2015 video interview that she feared she had made a terrible mistake by taking US citizenship after watching Mr Trump in a Republican primary debate.

The remark, which she later apologised for and described as an offhand joke, was criticised by a presenter on Right-wing TV show Fox And Friends, who said: Why dont you leave Hollywood, California, and let some American women take on the roles youre getting?

Blunt, 35, who now lives in Brooklyn with her husband, director and actor John Krasinski, and children Hazel, four, and Violet, one, told ES Magazine the incident had had a lasting effect. She said: It was a fairly innocuous joke because, you know, where Im from we poke fun at our public figures.

TODO: define component type brightcove

I think I wasnt quite American enough to be able to say that. I have to be really careful now. Certain subjects, I just cant. Because Im also someone who loathes getting in trouble. Ever since I was a kid, Ive loathed getting in trouble.

But Blunt, who is due to star as Mary Poppins in a sequel out later this year, did disclose that she is against Brexit  unlike her uncle, Tory MP Crispin Blunt, who backed the Leave campaign in 2016s referendum.

Cover star: Emily Blunt for ES Magazine Emily Blunt x ES Magazine

I think its really sad. Im really bummed about it, she says. I just think that, Globalisation is here guys, come on! It is an interesting time in the world because its fragile, because it feels unsafe. Its become this sort of each to their own mentality and you feel it. You feel people becoming more guarded, and more in the need to protect. Its sad. She said her next project, forthcoming horror film A Quiet Place, felt more personal than her previous roles, which have ranged from a soldier in Edge Of Tomorrow to a hard-nosed magazine assistant in The Devil Wears Prada.

Art imitates life: Emily Blunt and John Krasinski as a married couple on the run in A Quiet Place

Blunt and husband Krasinski, who also directs, play a married couple in a post-apocalyptic world where creatures hunt humans by sound  forcing people to live in silence.

She said: The idea of not being able to protect your kids from something  that is so real to me. This was more personal than anything else Id done and I was absolutely wiped out by it.

Loved up: John Krasinski and Emily Blunt / Dave Benett

I actually never approach emotional scenes like that. My process has never been to go, Well, Im gonna think about Hazel and Violet. But I think any mother would empathise so deeply because it would be your worst nightmare.
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Barack Obamas CIA chief, John Brennan, told the Annual Legislative Conference of the Congressional Black Caucus, on 15 September 2016, in Washington DC, that when he had applied in 1980 to join the CIA, he admitted to them that in the 1976 Presidential election, when Jimmy Carter was running against Gerald Ford, Brennan had voted instead for the candidate of the US Communist Party, Gus Hall, and that he was then greatly relieved to find that this information didnt cause rejection of his CIA-application. This had happened 11 years before the 1991 end of the Cold War (which ended actually only on the Russian side, but not also on the US-NATO side, where it continues without stop, and has accelerated since 2014, now finally being joined by both sides).

The Caucus made no mention of Brennans having spoken there, nor did the CIA include in its public archives any indication that he had spoken there, though, for example, they did include the complete transcript of Director Brennan Delivers Keynote at Miles College on 13 September 2016, in Birmingham Alabama, at which event he said nothing at all that was newsworthy. (The Miles College event was mentioned by CBS, in this brief video.)

Furthermore  though there is online a webpage devoted to, and covering each day of, the 2017 Annual Legislative Conference, on 20-24 September of last year  the webpage for the 2016 Conference, on September 14th-18th, mentions events only on September 14th and September 17th, as if Brennan hadnt even appeared there at all. The entire days events on September 15th are missing. So: both the Caucus, and the CIA, blacked-out his 15 September 2016 presentation, and the transcript of it isnt publicly available (nor is any video or audio of it available publicly).

However, a little coverage of Brennans remarkable statement did appear in the press, first, as a sparse and poorly written news-report on CNN that didnt even mention where Brennan had made the remark (nor in which year he had voted that way), and, then, finally a week later, in a professionally competent news-report, at Buzzfeed, titled Congress Doesn't Really Care That The CIA Chief Once Voted Communist, and reporting, on September 22nd, that, Brennan copped to the vote in little-noticed remarks last week [September 15th] at the Congressional Black Caucuss annual conference. The spy chief spoke of his stomach-turning fear while undergoing the vetting process to be employed at the CIA in 1980  strapped to a polygraph during the height of the Cold War, and Brennan said he came clean about the his 1976 ballot during the polygraph, expecting it to disqualify him from a clearance. But to the directors surprise, he was offered admission to the agency, and, nearly 40 years later, landed in the top office. Furthermore, when Buzzfeeds reporter, Ali Watkins, asked some US Senators what they thought about Obamas having selected to run the CIA a man who only a few years prior to joining the CIA had voted for the communist candidate, Gus Hall, none seemed to care. Whereas the war against communism had ended, the war against Russia still has not, and so Senators from both Parties didnt want to talk about the matter  didnt want to draw the publics attention to the clear fact now, that the ideological excuse for the Cold War had been merely a fake, a rationalization, all along, on the American-NATO side; that the Cold War was never really about communism at all, but about conquest, on the American side  that Soviet, and then Russian, leaders had been conned into thinking that abandonment of communism and ending the Warsaw Pact mirror to Americas NATO military alliance, would bring peace with The West. Increasingly since 1991, it has been made clear that Russian leaders had been swindled.

In 2013, when the Obama Administration was intensifying its efforts, in conjunction with the Sauds, to replace Russia-allied Syrias President Bashar al-Assad, the Wall Street Journal reported that "Mr. Brennan has been in periodic contact by phone with Prince Bandar, who until 9/11 had been personally financing at least two of the 15 Saudis who were among the 19 hijackers/pilots; and, moreover, Bandar and his brothers were the main funders of Al Qaeda throughout the period leading up to 9/11. And, furthermore, Bandar had worked with the US Government before Al Qaeda even existed, so as to help Osama bin Laden to set up Al Qaeda, originally against the Soviet Union. (And, now, Al Qaeda is Americas key organization leading Syrias jihadists to overthrow and replace Syrias Government.)

On 29 November 2015, Andrew Emett of Activist Post bannered Obama Accepted $1.3M In Gifts Last Year From A Country Who Beheads More People Than ISIS and he reported and documented that, Although the State Department listed several gifts to CIA Director John Brennan and multiple anonymous agency employees, the donors names have been redacted because such information could adversely affect United States intelligence sources or methods. Besides receiving a $10,000 Omega mens watch, Brennan was also given a $7,500 decorative rug. And, the Saudi king gave President Obama and his family roughly $1.35 million in gifts last year.

Then, on 28 September 2016, Eli Yokley at Morning Consult headlined "Congress Overrides Obamas Veto of 9/11 Bill and reported that:

"Congress on Wednesday forcibly voted to override President Obamas veto of legislation that would allow 9/11 victims families to sue the government of Saudi Arabia, despite Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennans warning of grave risks to American national security if it becomes law. Despite his late plea, the Senate voted 97-1 to override Obamas veto In the House, the override attempt passed in similar fashion, 348 to 77.

Those Senators and Representatives of the Sauds needed to display public support for the victims of 9/11, but Obama wasnt running again, so didnt need to worry. Anyway, the entire 9/11 case remains in legal limbo now under Trump.

Whereas the Sauds main strategic objective, in fulfillment of an agreement the royal Saud family had reached with the fundamentalist-Sunni Wahhab family in 1744, is to defeat Iran and Shia Muslims everywhere, and the Sauds secondary objective is ultimately to take over from Russia as being the main source of oil supplying the EU, which is the worlds largest energy-market; the US aristocracys main objective is simply to conquer Russia. (Conquering China would then be next, and would complete their plan.)

So, on many levels now, it is clear that for the American aristocracy (the people who control Americas Deep State), defeating communism, which had served as its ideological excuse for the Cold War, was just a cover-story. The reality, on Americas side, was always about conquest, which is why the CIA, even at the start, took in and protected so many Nazis.

FDR would turn over in his grave, if he knew what came after him.
Strange things happen in East and Central Europe that get little mention from media outlets. Two heads of state, the PMs of Slovenia and Slovakia, resigned almost simultaneously. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico was a victim of the scandal over the murder of Jan Kuciak, a journalist who was investigating government corruption. The PM had to step down amid mass street protests.

Mr. Fico was known for his support of a stronger Visegrad Group. He opposed Brussels on many issues. Its worth noting that he called for lifting sanctions and improving relations with Moscow. The PM was adamant that Russia was a reliable energy partner. Is it a coincidence that he was forced to resign amid the anti-Russia campaign triggered by the Skripal case and other obviously concocted stories used as false pretexts for incessant attacks on Moscow? Wasnt he a threat to the so-called unity of the EU against Russia? He definitely was.

The PM did not hide the fact that his decision was made under great pressure. The ouster was engineered by outside forces, including philanthropist billionaire George Soros. For instance, Slovak President Andrej Kiska had a private meeting with the billionaire in September, 2017. It was a one-on-one conversation. No Slovak diplomat was present there.

According to Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak, George Soros is a man who has had a major influence on the development in Eastern and Central Europe and beyond. That is a fact that cannot be questioned. PM Viktor Orban had this say about the event: George Soros and his network are making use of every possible opportunity to overthrow governments that are resisting immigration.

Slovenian PM Miro Cerar was attacked by Soros for his opposition to the EU policy on immigration. George Soros did not hide the fact that he was an ardent opponent of Miro Cerars stance. It is an obligation for Europe to receive migrants, the US financier lectured Europeans. Now the PM has to go, after the results of a referendum on a key economic project were annulled by the top court and the media attacks on his stance regarding asylum seekers intensified. With Cerar no longer at the helm, the opposition movement to Brusselss dictatorship has been weakened.

Whos next? Probably Hungary, which has become a target for Soross attacks. The American billionaire has invested more than $400 million into his native country since 1989. He has also announced his intention to influence the Hungarian election campaign and has employed 2,000 people for that purpose. The government wants its Stop Soros bills to become laws. No doubt Hungary will come under attack for opposing the financiers network.

Brussels will raise a hue and cry, criticizing the undemocratic regime ruling the country. The next parliamentary elections in Hungary will be held on April 8, 2018. Itll be a tough fight to preserve independence while fending off attempts to impose US pressure through Soros-backed NGOs and educational institutions.

Soross activities are also being resisted in the Czech Republic. Czech President Milos Zeman has accused the groups affiliated with Soros of meddling in his nations internal affairs. The financier is urging the EU to lean on Poland and compel it to preserve the rule of law.

Macedonia, is also resisting the billionaire-inspired subversive activities that have an eye toward regime change. The Soros network has great influence on the European Parliament and other institutions. The scandalous list of Soross allies includes 226 MEPs out of 751. Every third member  just think about that! If that isnt corruption then what is? The lawmakers being swayed from abroad dance to Soross tune. They do what they are told, which includes whipping up anti-Russia hysteria.

Moscow has its own history of dealing with the Soros network. In 2015, George Soros's Open Society Institute was kicked out of that country as an undesirable organization that was established to boost US influence.

It would be really naive to think that Soros acts on his own. Its an open secret that the US government flagrantly meddles in other countries internal affairs using the billionaire as a vehicle. Europe is an American competitor that needs to be weakened. USAID and the Soros network often team up in pursuit of common objectives. In March 2017, six US senators signed a letter asking the State Department to look into government funding of Soros-backed organizations. But those efforts went nowhere, Foggy Bottom is always on Soross side, whatever it is.

Many European countries are engaged in a fierce battle to protect their independence. The financiers empire is chomping at the bit to conquer Europe by means of bribes and subversive NGOs. These countries and Russia are resisting the same threat. Perhaps thats why the sanctions against Russia are so unpopular among many East European politicians.
South Korea continues to obtain export sales for its K9 Thunder 155mm self-propelled howitzers. At the end of 2017 Norway ordered 24 K9s. The $215 million order includes six K10 armored resupply vehicles, tech support, some spares and an option to buy 24 more K9s on the same terms. The first K9s will arrive in 2019 and will replace Cold War era U.S. M109A3 vehicles.

This is one of several recent K9 export sales. In 2017 Finland ordered 48 used (by South Korea) K9s and Estonia later ordered twelve. The largest recent K9 sale was to India, but that one came with a catch. In 2016 South Korea agreed to partner with an Indian firm (L&T) to build a hundred of its South Korean designed K9s for the Indian Army. The K9s will cost about $7 million each and half the work will be done in South Korea while the rest will be done in India by L&T. The Indian Army wanted 100-150 more K-9s but budget problems limit the current deal to 100. Egypt is currently testing the K9 and is inclined to order some in 2018. South Korea also made deals to provide major components of the K9 (mainly the chassis) to Poland and Turkey so they could build a local self-propelled howitzer around it. The Turkish deal included the South Korean turret and gun.

The k9 entered service in 1999 and the South Korean military has ordered over 1,100 K9s since then and is even replacing some of the earlier ones with newly manufactured ones. South Korea also bought 179 of the K10 ammunition resupply vehicles.

While superficially similar to the American M109 the K9 is a heaver (46 tons versus 28 for the M109), carries more ammo and has twice the range (up to 56 kilometers in part because of a barrel that is a third longer). There is more automation on the K9, so it has a crew of five versus six on the M-109. With the K9 South Korea joins Germany in their effort to build a suitable replacement for the elderly M109 design. The chief competitor for the Indian contract was Russia which offered its similar 42 ton 2S19. The K9 won on the basis of technical capabilities, field tests and a South Korean reputation for quality and reliability.

This is all the result of South Korea deciding to become a major weapons developer and exporter. This began in the 1990s after South Korea had become a major economic power and exporter. South Korea has been successful at this although the largest customer remains the South Korean military, which has to deal with the threat from North Korea.
In early 2018 Indian media reported cases of officers (one air force, one army) being arrested after getting caught stealing, or attempting to steal, classified documents for a girlfriend they met on the Internet (often Facebook). This is called a honey trap and usually involves a female spy befriending someone and seducing secrets out of him. But since Internet access via cell phones became so common in the last decade the virtual honey trap has become more popular in many parts of the world. By virtual is meant that military men, usually officers, are seduced by virtual women via social networks where the recruiters use photos and talk of eventual physical contact in exchange for digital photos of documents sent via encrypted apps like WhatsApp. After some initial success the Indian military cracked down by ordering military personnel, especially those with access to classified data, to not use their real names or indicate they are in the military while online, especially on social networks. In addition rules forbidding having cell phones in areas where classified documents or activities are were more strictly enforced. This forced recruiters to work harder to identify military people worth going after and develop more effective entrapment scripts and strategies. The most frequent known victims of these virtual honey traps are Indians but that is because, unlike China and Pakistan (two known users of this technique) India has a free press where the men recruited and caught usually become known. Not so in Pakistan and China, or at least not often. But one thing all three nations (and most nations in general) have in common is military personnel looking for love in all the wrong places for all the wrong reasons.

Since the 1990s Pakistan has quietly and extensively changed how it creates and manages spies inside India. For decades Pakistan mainly relied on agents recruited and trained in Pakistan to pass as Indians. After their training, which often took years, was completed these agents were sent to India where they often spent many more years working their way into jobs where they could obtain useful information. The Pakistani agents also sought Indians willing to gather information, usually for a price. India is a poor country and many low level, and poorly paid, government employees were willing to sell information if the price was right. All this was very expensive and the Pakistanis were always on the lookout for more efficient (and cheaper) techniques.

The use of virtual honey traps first became known when it was used against Indians by Pakistan and other nations (Taiwan, South Korea and Japan) by China. The most details are available about the use of these techniques by Pakistan against India. These details began to emerge after 2012. It all began when India became more effective at catching traditional Pakistani spies. Over the years India learned how to quickly detect, identify and arrest these spies as well as their Pakistani handlers. As a result Pakistan began switching from using agents inside India to recruiting and managing spies via the Internet. The highly trained Pakistani agents could remain safe in Pakistan and develop techniques to find and manage Indian spies via the Internet. India still catches these traditional spies, but has come to discover that there are a lot more of them. Since 2015 over a dozen have been arrested. This included four post office employees who were intercepting mail sent from one Indian base to another and looking for salable information. That was passed on to Pakistan, which paid well for this stuff. Often information was literally phoned in using hard-to-trace SIMS supplied by the Pakistanis.

Pakistan accepted the risk of these spies getting caught because the payoff was often considerable. For example in early 2015 Indian police arrested an employee (a cameraman) for the government defense research organization (DRDO) and accused him of spying for Pakistan. The suspect was accused of passing on information about missile research and tests and doing so for up to ten months. The suspect admitted that he had met with ISI (Pakistani intelligence) agents in India several times in 2014. Apparently this man was caught because Indian intelligence was monitoring ISI agents. Its unclear why the Indian man agreed to be a spy, although money appears to be the most likely motivator.

In addition to cash Pakistan has found that sex also works and is being used more frequently via the Internet. Thus in mid-2014 an Indian army warrant officer (Subedar) was arrested and charged with spying for Pakistan. The arrested man had been recruited in 2013 via Facebook by a woman who sent him software that he posted to his work server. This software enabled the Pakistanis to hack into the headquarters where the warrant officer worked. The Pakistani woman (or someone posing as a woman) convinced the warrant officer she was interested in him and asked him to help her with some work she was doing for the NGO she was employed by. The warrant officer fell for all this and enabled the Pakistanis to get a lot of information about the readiness and deployment of several Indian missile units. It is as yet unclear if the warrant officer knew he was being played or that he was really smitten by his new online girlfriend.

Such honey traps have been encountered in India for quite some time and were known to exist in antiquity. In 2011 an infantry lieutenant-colonel was prosecuted for spying for Pakistan. The officer was recruited in 2010 while in Bangladesh, where he was attending a course at a Bangladesh military school. The Pakistani ISI had a woman operative seduce the Indian officer, and the sexual activity was recorded on video. The officer was given a choice of the video being made public, or him becoming a Pakistani spy. The officer became a spy and was caught by Indian counterintelligence after a few months.

Honey traps are still less frequently encountered in South Asia and the most common method is still simply offering cash. An Indian army clerk was arrested earlier in 2014 for doing that. In early 2013 India police arrested four Indians and accused them of working for ISI and passing on information and documents for at least three years. That spy cell mainly operated near the Nepal border and cash was the main motivator.

Pakistan is constantly seeking Indian military personnel willing to spy for cash or sex. Even most Indian Moslems have no love for Pakistan and thus ISI concentrates on the greed, need or blackmail approach to recruiting Indian agents. India does the same in Pakistan, but India, with six times the population of Pakistan, is a far larger target and has more secrets Pakistan wants. The virtual honey pot, however, has turned out to be very effective and apparently cheaper than the traditional methods of offering cash and using physical contact (between foreign handler and local recruited agent). More effective forms of encrypted Internet communication also help as does the fact that so many of the people targeted have smart phones and regularly access the Internet via those devices.
Iraqi leaders admit that the October 2017 attack that drove Kurdish forces from Kirkuk province and other areas of the north (except in the autonomous, since the early 1990s, Kurdish provinces) has created less security in areas taken over by Iraqi forces. This admission comes as Iraqi and Kurdish forces have increasingly worked together to find and eliminate ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) forces now trying to use the formerly Kurdish territory as a base area. This is seen as a defeat for Iran, which saw to it that pro-Iran PMF (Popular Mobilization Force) led the October 2017 offensive and now dominate the occupation force in the north. The PMF are not as effective as the Kurds and ISIL quickly took advantage of that.

The reconciliation with the Kurds is another example of Iraq pushing back against Iranian efforts to dominate and control Iraq. Iran hoped to use many of the pro-Iran PMF militias to make this happen. There are now 120,000 armed men in the PMF and the government recently made them part of the armed forces in an effort to better control them and diminish Iranian influence. PMF militias were organized after mid-2014 because the Iraqi army fell apart under the ISIL offensive. Most PMF are pro-government but a large majority openly pledge allegiance to Iran and lead the calls for the expulsion of all American troops from Iraq. The pro-Iran PMF units are popular targets for ISIL attacks, especially those using suicide bombers.

Its not just the northern areas where the PMF are a problem. A similar situation has developed in Anbar Province (western Iraq) where some (usually pro-Iran) PMF militia leaders are reluctant to leave this largely Sunni area (as they had agreed to do after ISIL was defeated) because local tribal militias and Iraqi army troops have been unable to eliminate all ISIL activity. The government cannot bring Kurdish forces down here and in desperation are seeking more help from the United States. This is dependent on getting two missing M1 tanks back from pro-Iran PMF forces. Failure to retrieve those tanks means the Americans will reduce support for Iraqi forces, including tech and maintenance assistance in keeping Iraqi F-16s fighters, M1 tanks and other American gear operational. All this, plus the traditional Arab (Sunni and Shia) hostility to Iran, has caused the Iraqi government to decisively choose sides. Iran is not pleased and has few good options.

Iraqi officials also point out that the Americans are justified increasing security around their bases to deal with Iranian threats. These come in the form of continued calls by Iran-backed PMF militia leaders to drive all American forces out of Iraq using force if necessary. The problem is that most Iraqis want the Americans to stay because of the threat Turkish invasion and Iranian domination. Meanwhile the American government has confirmed that U.S. troops will remain in Syria and Iraq for as long as they are needed. At the moment that appears to be indefinitely and Iran does not agree with that at all. Meanwhile Iraqi leaders, including the current prime minister, are admitting that the withdrawal of all U.S. troops in 2011 was a mistake they do not want to repeat. While pro-Iranian PMF leaders are still calling for violence against American forces they agreed to hold off until after the May 12th national elections (which will indicated how much popular support the pro-Iran groups have.)

ISIL Resurgence

The government is facing continued ISIL activity with several dozen ISIL members a week killed or arrested during March. Those arrested often include senior officials, most recently that meant two men involved with finance and planning military operations. The perceived defeat of ISIL in Iraq and Syria by the end of 2017 made more Iraqis willing to share what they know with the security forces. The restoration of full cell phone service in areas formerly controlled by ISIL also made a big difference. In 2016 ISIL realized that cell phone service in occupied areas was dangerous for their forces. This became obvious after ISIL lost control of cities like Ramadi (by the end of 2015) and Hit (in early 2016). ISIL leaders noted that a key factor in the loss of these areas was the local civilians retaining some access to some Internet and cell phone service as well as the presence of many satellite TV receivers. ISIL (and other Islamic radicals) have long tried to control use of all three of these items but have been unable to completely eliminate them from populations they control. Once ISIL was driven out of an area the cell phone companies were eager to rebuild their cell phone and Internet service and as people in those became more confident that reporting on remaining ISIL activity would not get them killed the calls started coming. These phone calls have become more frequent and has led to the growing number of arrests or discovery of ISIL hideouts and the destruction of active ISIL terrorists. This has led to a decline in terror related deaths and more violent encounters between security forces and the many sleeper cells ISIL deliberately left behind when they lost control of an area.

This was first noted in 2016 when large areas of Anbar Province (thinly populated western Iraq) were cleared of ISIL forces. The sleepers became more of a problem in more densely populated northern Iraq (especially Mosul). These ISIL supporters were a minority of even the Sunni population and they had a hard time remaining hidden among a population with cell phone access and fear of ISIL violence (which tended to kill a lot of civilians even if the target was security forces or government officials). In Kirkuk province alone ISIL has carried out about 20 attacks (assassinations, bombings or ambushes) a month since December 2017 (when ISIL was declared defeated in Iraq). Kirkuk was particularly vulnerable because the government had driven out the Kurdish forces (who had controlled the province since 2014) in October 2016. ISIL took advantage of this.

Another thing ISIL has to worry about is that the United States continues to monitor ISIL activity in Iraq and the Iraqis appreciate that, especially the intelligence collection and analysis part because this keeps track of the continued presence of ISIL groups. The Americans believe there are thousands of armed ISIL members in the north and Anbar and reports of ISIL clashes with security forces in those areas confirms this. Even though the government killed nearly 20,000 ISIL members since 2014, and most of those were Iraqis, there are still lots of resentful Sunni Arabs who will die for ISIL. In addition there are still many ISIL supporters among the Sunni Arab Iraqis who assist by supplying (cash, weapons, information and recruits) and concealing the armed ISIL groups. The Iraqi government accepts that there is still some ISIL support among Iraqis and while the support is much reduced some of it still exists.

The ISIL gunmen generally operate at night and often wear army, police or PMF uniforms and pretend to be part of the security forces to stage ambushes and attacks on checkpoints or small bases. Kurdish intel officials believe ISIL is going to attempt a major offensive in Kirkuk province. Clashes with these ISIL gunmen occur several times a week in addition to instances where police or troops arrest actual or suspected ISIL members or discover ISIL facilities (storage sites, workshops, hideouts). The situation is nearly as bad in Anbar, where Sunni Islamic terrorists have long operated. The government did not release any casualty data for Anbar in January, even of civilian casualties. That is always a bad sign.

The Turkish Threat

Another bad sign is the increasing Turkish threat. Iran, theoretically an ally of Turkey in Syria, has been unable to stop the Turks from sending troops into northern Iraq and increasing the use of Turkish airstrikes to support those Turkish ground forces. This Turkish problem began in January when the Turks insist ed that they are going to control the Syrian side of the border from the Euphrates River west to the Mediterranean but . The Turks say they have a deal (an understanding not an agreement) with the Americans that will allow the SDF (Kurdish led secular rebel coalition) and U.S. forces to remain in northeastern Syria .

The Turks also made it clear that they intend to clear PKK (Turkish Kurdish separatists) and Islamic terrorist bases from all areas on the other side of their borders. That would include all of Syria and Iraq as well. The Iraqi government did not believe the Turks would act so aggressively against Iraq. Between the U.S. and Iran the Iraqi leaders see that the Americans are more likely to succeed in getting the Turks to back off. Another loss for Iran.

Meanwhile Turkish troops have advanced about ten kilometers into the northern Iraqi province of Nineveh (to the west is Dohuk province, one of the four autonomous Kurdish provinces in the north). Some parts of Dohuk are claimed by the Iraqi government. The Turks believe that a large (over a thousand armed men) force of pro-PKK Yazidis (who are generally considered Kurds) are seeking to establish a PKK base near Sinjar. This is a largely Yazidi area west of Mosul that became the scene of a major battle between ISIL and Kurdish forces who came from Dohuk to assist the Yazidis. The October 2017 offensive forced Kurdish forces back into Dohuk but local Yazidi forces remained and these contained many PKK supporters. Turkey considers all the Yazidis pro-PKK, something the Iraqi government and Iraqi Kurds disagree with. In response to the Turkish advances Iraq sent an army brigade to Sinjar and the PKK announced it was leaving Sinjar. The Turks are not so sure and insist that Iraq ensure there are no PKK bases in the north.

Sad Iraqis

It came as no surprise that the recent UN sponsored World Happiness Index put Syria at 150th place (out of 156 countries) but it was more shocking that neighboring Iraq was nearly as bad off, coming in at 117th place. This could have something to do with threats from Turkey, Iran and ISIL. What was more interesting was how other nations in the region scored. Israel came in at number 11. The top ten are all the usual suspects (Finland, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden and Australia) and then comes Israel, the happiest country in the Middle East as well as being the most powerful militarily and one of the least corrupt. The other Iraqi neighbors had rankings similar to the corruption survey. Turkey is at 74th, Jordan at 90, Lebanon at 88, Iran at 106, Palestinian Territories at 104, Egypt at 122, UAE at 2o, Saudi Arabia at 33, Kuwait at 45, Russia at 59, the U.S. at 18, Japan at 54, South Korea at 57, Libya at 70, China at 86, Pakistan at 75, Venezuela at 102, Somalia at 98, Bangladesh at 115, Burma at 130, India at 133, Afghanistan at 145, Yemen at 152, and at 156 (last place) Burundi. Communist dictatorships like North Korea and Cuba block access to data needed for the survey and were not rated.

March 27, 2018: Iraq and Saudi Arabia agreed to resume commercial flights between the two countries. These flights had been halted since Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. This is one many agreements to resume economic and other relationships between Iraq and the other Arab oil states in the region. Iran sees this sort of thing as a hostile act because Iran wants to turn Shia (and Arab) majority Iraq into an Iranian ally and foe of the Sunni Gulf Arabs. That isnt working out too well and never has in the past.

March 26, 2018: In the north (120 kilometers west of Mosul) an Iraqi Army brigade arrived to ensure the town of Sinjar and the surrounding area was free of PKK fighters. As a result the Turks said they would not send troops into Sinjar as long as the Iraqis kept PKK out. The Kurds withdrew from Sinjar in October 2017 when the Iraqi army advanced and pushed Kurdish forces out of Kirkuk province and nearby areas like Sinjar.

March 25, 2018: In the north (south of Mosul) security forces spent the last two days dealing with ISIL forces operation south of the city. The result was 18 ISIL dead (including two Chechens) and seven arrested. Two ISIL hideouts were found and many weapons and equipment were seized.

Elsewhere in the north (Kirkuk province) ISIL blew up a Sufi (a much less aggressive form of Islam) shrine. At first the locals thought Shia radicals in the Iraqi security forces had done it. But later ISIL took credit. Conservative Sunnis and Shia consider the Sufi somewhat heretical.

March 24, 2018: Turkey allowed commercial flights to resume from Turkey to Kurdish controlled northern Iraq. These flights had been suspended in late 2017 after the Kurds held an independence referendum. The Iraqi Kurds were eager to make peace with the Turks after seeing much that referendum hurt the Iraqi Kurds. The Turks have, since the 1990s, had a better relationship with the Iraqi Kurds than the Arab dominated Iraqi government.

March 23, 2018: In the north PKK said they would leave the town of Sinjar after the Turks threatened to send in troops to clear out the PKK from Sinjar.

March 22, 2018: In Baghdad police arrested Taha al Jubouri , a known Hamas bomb expert who had been deported from Turkey. Israel wants Jubouri.

March 20, 2018: In the north a Turkish airstrike killed ten PKK fighters but also killed four Iraqi civilians. Normally the Iraqi government does not protest these Turkish airstrikes against the PKK, but when Iraqi civilians are killed there is a protest.

In the north (Kirkuk province) ISIL attacked two families and killed 21 civilians, including children. Attacks like this are usually about intimidating local civilians to either support ISIL or at least not cooperate with government forces.

March 19, 2018: An Iraqi court sentenced 17 women, all wives of ISIL members, to death. Another six were sentenced to life in prison.

March 18, 2018: In the northeast Turkey threatened to send troops into the entered an area where the borders of Iraq, Iran and Turkey form a triangle. This area, especially the Quandil Mountains, has long been the site of PKK camps. The Turks want the Kurdish forces to deal with this or else.

March 15, 2018: The U.S. accused Iran of sending lots of cash to Iraq for use in efforts to influence upcoming (May) national elections. Its rather more dangerous for Iraqi politicians to point that out but a recent visit by the American Secretary of Defense made the accusations newsworthy in Iraq and a number of Iraqi politicians agreed (but often not openly).

March 13, 2018: In the north (between Samarra and Tikrit) a unit of the Presidential Guard clashed with a pro-Iran PMF unit, leaving a Presidential Guard commander dead and two of his troops wounded.

March 10, 2018: Turkey began a major offensive against PKK camps and hideouts in Kurdish controlled northern Iraq. This is nothing new and in the past the Turks would withdraw their ground forces (usually special operations troops) when the PKK activity in northern Iraq declined. But this time the Turks have sent more troops into Syria and eliminated a lot of PKK refuges there. That, plus growing pressure on PKK in eastern Turkey (where most Turkish Kurds live) has resulted in more PKK members seeking refuge in Iraq. This is part of a revived (in July 2015) war between PKK and Turkey. So far that has led to the deaths of over 1,200 Turks (security forces and civilians) and far more PKK personnel in Turkey, northern Syria and northern Iraq. By the end of March this latest effort in northern Iraq had led to 20-30 PKK members a week killed or captured. By using Turkish troops in addition to airstrikes it is possible to collect intel from dead or captured PKK members. This offensive also had much less opposition from the Iraqi government. That was because of an ill-advised Kurdish independence referendum last September. This was largely done because of internal Kurdish politics. The Kurds ignored the fact that the referendum would anger Turkey, Iran and the Iraqi government.

March 8, 2018: The PMF was officially made part of the Iraqi military.

March 7, 2018: Iran revealed that 2,100 Iranians had died since 2011 fighting in Syria and Iraq. The occasion for this admission that the 2,100 trees planted near a Shia religious shrine represented those deaths. This number was not a surprise as it was close to previous estimates based on reported funerals for Iranians who had become martyrs in that period while in Iraq or Syria.

March 1, 2018: In February 91 civilians died due to Islamic terrorist violence. Most (54 percent) of the deaths occurred in Baghdad. Terror related civilian deaths in Iraq were much higher in January (115 dead) and that does not include Anbar province, which has long been second to Baghdad when it comes to civilian casualties to terrorism. Most (78 percent) of the January deaths occurred in Baghdad. The increased casualties are disappointing because the deaths hit a new low (69) in December 2017. With 35 percent of the deaths in Baghdad an old pattern continued. In October when 114 civilians were killed. Most (63 percent) of this violence was equally split between Baghdad (long a Sunni Islamic terrorist target) and Anbar province. The government has still not resumed reporting casualties among the security forces (military and police). Civilian deaths were higher (at 196) in September and have been declining steadily for most of 2017. During the last three months most of the civilian deaths occurred because the victims were near an unexpected suicide bomber attack. Soldiers and police usually can spot and stop suicide bombers but this often means the suicide bomber will set off his explosives before he can he shot dead or captured alive. At that point the bomber is often near civilians who became the casualties instead of the security forces. The government says the January Anbar casualty data will be released once all the data can be collected. With the decline in Islamic terror related deaths other forms of violence are now getting more, long overdue, attention. At the top of the list is tribal feuds. Tribal politics has long been a major factor in Iraqi society, especially the largely Sunni tribes of Anbar and the six major Shia tribes of Basra (the southern province).
TICKERS: NM; PSPGF

Source: Maurice Jackson for Streetwise Reports (3/28/18)

Nevada has been a prized gold exploration jurisdiction, and Michael Allen, CEO of Northern Empire Minerals, sat down and spoke with Maurice Jackson of Proven & Probable about his company's exploration efforts on its permitted mine.



Maurice Jackson: Welcome to Proven & Probable, where we focus on metals, mining and more.

Today we will discuss a company that is expanding and discovering heap-leach gold deposits in Nevada. I'm speaking of Northern Empire Resources Corp. (NM:TSX.V;, PSPGF:USOTC ).

Joining us today is Michael Allen, the president, CEO, and Director of Northern Empire.

Mr. Allen, for someone new to the story, who is Northern Empire, and what is the thesis that you're attempting to prove?

Michael Allen: Northern Empire is a relatively new company in the Nevada space. We are a team of what we call businessmen that do mining. The company is focused on the Sterling Gold Project. It's about two hours northwest of Las Vegas. The thesis that we're testing is essentially high-grade gold mineralization in the southern part of the U.S. and a heap-leach operation that we're trying to establish down there.

Maurice Jackson: Please provide us with a historical narrative on the Sterling Gold project, and why Northern Empire decided to make this your flagship project.

Michael Allen: The Sterling Gold Project is essentially two past-producing operations that have been combined under the banner of Northern Empire. There's the Sterling Gold Mine, which was operated by Imperial Metals, and the Daisy Mine, and was our Crown Project in the northern part of the project.

Grossly speaking, the projects are 160 kilometers northwest of Las Vegas, located in the Walker Lane of Nevada. We're in the mountain range called the Bare Mountains. B-A-R-E as in not a bug, blade of grass, or plant. It's an excellent place to develop mines, and these are past producers that have been successful in past with excellent metallurgy, and in a great location.

Maurice Jackson: The timing to acquire the Sterling Gold Project couldn't have been better for Northern Empire. Please share with us your optionality success, and are there any reversionary interest on the Sterling Gold project?

Michael Allen: We were able to purchase a fully permitted gold mine from Imperial Metals. We were able to get 100% interest in the property. There are a few NSRs on it, depending on which part of the ground that you're on. There's a 2.25% NSR over the sterling mine itself. And as part of the transaction with Imperial, we gave a 2% NSR for anything that wasn't previously burdened with an NSR to Imperial. But we own 100%, and we've staked a lot more ground that is not burdened with an NSR.

Maurice Jackson: Would you please share with us your management's philosophy?

Michael Allen: The best way to describe our management philosophy is to go back to the statement: This is businessmen that do mining. We're looking for a couple of things out of the company, and it's all about liquidity. There's an option with the backbone of the permitted asset that is Sterling, of growing this into a company that is a large U.S.-based gold producer with a starter asset, the Sterling Gold Mine. Or there is an option that there are other large U.S.-based gold producers that are going to look at the sterling asset, the Sterling Project, and say, "That's something that we want," and create that liquidity that way.

So, it's a movement of shareholders in and out, but we're dominantly driven as shareholders ourselves, and to shepherd the capital in an effective manner to increase shareholder value.

Maurice Jackson: Now that we have a historical context of the Sterling Gold Project, which contains four deposits, let's discuss Northern Empire's main deposit, the Sterling Mine. What can you share with us?

Michael Allen: There are a lot of very interesting things about the Sterling Gold Mine. It's been around in various forms since the 1970s. It started as a private mine operated by some guys out of Nevada. It was swallowed into E&B, which ultimately became Imperial.

It was operated in the past as an underground heap-leach operation, quite high grade, with exceptional recoveries. Historical grades mined from the underground were 7.4 grams per ton. Recoveries were about 88%.

What happened in the past was Imperial realized that there was an opportunity to transition from the underground operation to an open-pit operation. It began the permitting exercize and did the engineering internally for Imperial to actually say, "Okay, there's an opportunity here to go in open pit." It went through the permitting process, and it had a gap. The permits were delayed before it got them, and the company didn't make the transition to the open pit itself. When that gap in permitting being in hand came in, was when the Mount Polley spill happened. And so, Imperial was capital constrained. Nothing could happen down at Sterling, as all its capital went to fix Mount Polley, so that created the opportunity for Northern Empire to make this acquisition.

Maurice Jackson: The Sterling Mine is permitted for restart, is that correct?

Michael Allen: Yes. .

Maurice Jackson: When will it restart, and what is the strategy in delaying the restart?

Michael Allen: I couldn't give you a hard date as to when we're going to restart the Sterling. But the strategy for delaying the restart is to really understand what we've got both at the Sterling and at the Crown Series of deposits in the north.

At the Sterling, with it being a high-grade underground operation in the past, there were several opportunities that were left untested. Nothing less than a 3.5 gram per ton intercept was thought to be significant for the Sterling because of the underground nature of it at the time. So, there were several shallow intercepts that needed to be followed up on, things like 22 meters of 2 grams per ton that need to be followed up on. We're going to be investigating those and making sure that we understand and are able to optimize value of the sterling before we restart.

And then also right now we're focusing on the Crown part of the project. What we call the northern part, and seeing what we can get for value for shareholders up there.

Maurice Jackson: Being that the Sterling mine was a previous producer, what can you share with us regarding metallurgy, existing infrastructure, and capital expenditures?

Michael Allen: Historical capital expenditures are probably the most difficult to quantify because it's been around for a long time. The metallurgy is excellent, but the commercial leach cycle was 88% recovery in a 30-day leach cycle using run of mines. So, you're looking at a very coarse material going on to the leach cut. It's about 24-inch minus.

Existing infrastructure on the site. The process plant is there, which is called ADR or carbon columns. That is sized actually for the permitted open-pit operation. So really, in terms of going forward capital, it's actually a fairly simple operation to turn on. There are generators there. There are offices there. There's manpower there. The well is already drilled, and that process plant is there, and actually it is operational. We're actually pumping solutions through it right now and recovering about three-quarters of an ounce per day.

Maurice Jackson: Moving on to the Crown Series of deposits, which consist of the Daisy, Secret Pass and SNA. What can you share with us regarding the Daisy deposit?

Michael Allen: The Daisy deposit is an exceptional high-grade deposit. It has all the signatures of a Carlin deposit, which is generally what you see as the larger deposits in the state of Nevada. Daisy is about 2.1 grams per ton. It's hosted in carbonate rocks. It's also a past producer. There's a small pit there, where Glamis and Rayrock exploited a part of the deposit in the past. Metallurgy there was excellent. That deposit supposedly historically received a 75% recovery run of mine. So, it's a very interesting deposit, and it's open up-dip, and there's a lot of exploration potential around it.

Maurice Jackson: How about Secret Pass?

Michael Allen: Secret Pass is further to the east from the Daisy. We actually just released a hole out of Secret Pass a couple of days ago. It was 70 meters of 1.7 grams per ton. It's an oxide deposit. It's epithermal, so slightly different. There's a big structure that goes through the valley, that links up Daisy, Secret Pass and SNA. Secret Pass is in the hanging wall of the structure, so it's slightly different. It's an epithermal deposit in volcanics.

Maurice Jackson: What can you share with us about SNA?

Michael Allen: SNA is probably the least known, or the least understood, of the Crown Series of the deposits. It's about 1.6 grams per ton. It hasn't been exploited. Secret Pass and Daisy were mined in the past; SNA has not been. It was discovered actually, drilling a water well for another operation in the area called the Mother Lode.

It's a shallow oxide deposit. We think that it's also a Carlin.

Maurice Jackson: Is the lithology consistent within the Crown Series of deposits?

Michael Allen: No, they are different. As I said, the Daisy and SNA appear to be Carlin type deposits. They have slightly different hosts, but they're carbonate-hosted, and Secret Pass is an epithermal, so it is different. It's a volcanic-hosted rock.

Maurice Jackson: What can you share with us regarding Northern Empire's conducting an aggressive campaign in the Crown Series of deposits?

Michael Allen: We are with rigs right now. We've got two RC rigs going. As I mentioned, we did just release a hole out of Secret Pass, 70 meters and 1.7 grams per ton. A few weeks before that, we had released a hole out of the Daisy deposit, which was 124 meters of 1.4 grams per ton, very high grade for the state of Nevada in this day and age. And we're going to be releasing more results as we go forward, and the rigs move their way through the property in a systematic fashion.

Maurice Jackson: Is the goal for Northern Empire to build a mine and go into production, or arbitrage?

Michael Allen: As with the management philosophy, it's about shareholder capital and increasing shareholder value and liquidity. So, there is a scenario of us turning it on, or there is a scenario of somebody else coming in and making an acquisition.

I think that both scenarios are there, and we think that we have the team, and the management, that can build a mine and make this into a company that is a mine operator.

Maurice Jackson: Speaking of teams, I learned from Rick Rule and Doug Casey that the people running the business are equally, if not more important, than the latent material in the ground.

Please introduce us to your Board of Directors, and what unique skillsets do they bring to Northern Empire.

Michael Allen: We like to say that our management team is businessmen that do mining. Grossly speaking, there are three groups on the board. You've got Doug Hurst and Ray Threlkeld, who were part of the Newmarket Gold team. Doug was a founder of that company, and Ray was the Chairman of the Board when that company was sold to Kirkland Lake Gold for a billion dollars. These are really businessmen.

Ray is a mine builder by nature. He's an ex Barrick guy, and I believe that the number that he's built for Barrick is about 80 million ounces worth of production, so really strong guy.

Second group on the board is what we'll call the Kaminak team. We've got two of the founders and directors there, John Robins and Jim Peterson. They were successfully involved with Kaminak from its being founded as an exploreco in the Yukon, and transitioning, and being sold to Goldcorp in 2016 for $520 million.

And then the third group is what I'll call the Underworld team. They are the guys that founded and managed Underworld Resources. It was sold to Kinross back in the day. It was the White gold discovery up in the Yukon. That's Adrian Fleming, Jeff Sundar, and Darryl Cardey.

It's a really good, experienced board. Management, businessmen, founders and successful sellers of companies that I've got on the board.

Maurice Jackson: Tell us about Michael Allen, and what makes him qualified for the task at hand.

Michael Allen: The hardest thing of all is to talk about myself. I'm a geologist by trade. I've been in the mining business for about 20 years. I describe myself as an advanced project guy. I like the projects that are more towards resources and development. I've been all over the Northwest Territories, Yukon, and Europe, looking at, evaluating, and running projects.

The last 10 years, I've been dominantly focused on Nevada. If you look at another article that Rick Rule has talked about is, you get a management team that is familiar with the jurisdiction. So I've been in Nevada for about the last 10 years. I'm familiar with the regulatory regime. I know the permitting people. I know the service providers. And so that's really where for me my niche is, to get a Nevada project, and get it across the line, in the way that is most cost-effective, and ultimately being efficient with shareholder capital.

Maurice Jackson: What can you share with us about the technical team?

Michael Allen: It's really a great team that we've got down there. There's the mine team, which is the mine manager from Sterling, and all the staff crossed over with us. So, the Sterling mine, being on care and maintenance, there's a few people that are there: the metallurgist, the process manager and the mine manager. They're seasoned professionals who have been doing this for a long time, and they are delighted that somebody like Northern Empire came in, saw the opportunity that they've been seeing for 20 years and hadn't been able to act on, and make it a focus, so they're really excited.

Then we've got the exploration team. We've got an experienced group of Nevada professionals that are running the exploration. These are guys who have worked with Barrick and various other companies throughout the United States, making discoveries, and putting mines into production, so I'm very proud of the team.

And then we also have a series of what I will call hungry, young kids. They're really interesting to watch because it's out-of-the-box thinking. They're out there mapping, sampling, enthusiastically working hard, and coming up with questions that need to be answered, and making new discoveries. It's a very exciting team to watch on the technical side.

Maurice Jackson: I'm hearing serially successful and Nevada centric when you're discussing your team.

Let's discuss some numbers here. How much cash or cash equivalents do you have?

Michael Allen: In Canadian terms, $16 million.

Maurice Jackson: Talk to us about your cash-flow distribution. What is the ratio between cash spent and tangible assets on the balance sheet?

Michael Allen: We spend most of our cash and put it into the ground. We're going to spend about $10 million in the Sterling asset this year. Then we also will be spending about $3 million in overhead, so we're going to exit the year with about $5 million in the till. We've already obviously spent some money, as we're in mid-March.

Maurice Jackson: How much debt do you have?

Michael Allen: We don't have any debt.

Maurice Jackson: Who are some of your institutional investors?

Michael Allen: Our single largest institutional investor, if you consider them, is Coeur Mining. It has 11.6% of the company. Following it is Donald Smith. Invesco is in there, McKenzie, RBC, a group called Zechner. That would probably round out the top five, top eight.

Maurice Jackson: What is the float?

Michael Allen: Retail shareholders is about 40% of the company. And in terms of institutional shareholders, actually management has a large chunk as well. We own about 8% of the company.

Maurice Jackson: What is your burn rate?

Michael Allen: This year, our total budget is about $13 million, and we started the year in January with just over $18 million, so we'll exit the year with about $5 million in the till.

Maurice Jackson: Are there any redundant assets, such as patented mining claims?

Michael Allen: Not particularly. We, as part of the transaction with Imperial, acquired all the assets of Sterling Gold Mining Corporation. That included some minor NSRs, and we've been gradually liquidating them as they've become of interest to people, but there's not a lot of redundant assets.

Maurice Jackson: Tell us about your share structure.

Michael Allen: It's a fairly tight share structure. Currently, we've got about 66.5 million out right now. Fully diluted with the options and warrants, we go to about 77 million.

Maurice Jackson: Are there any change of control fees, and if so, what are the terms?

Michael Allen: We have industry standard employment contracts for the senior management of the company. Myself, it's a three-year change of control clause. It's indexed off of the share price to motivate me to keep shareholder value up.

Maurice Jackson: What is the next unanswered question for Northern Empire? When should we expect results? And what will determine success?

Michael Allen: I think that the unanswered question is, What is the potential of the Crown Series of deposits in the northern part of the project? There's a lot of good geology that has yet to be tested. We're out there actively exploring right now.

In terms of results, as I said earlier, we've got two rigs up there, and they're moving their way through the project right now, so we're going to be releasing results, probably in a fairly steady stream between now and the end of summer.

And what will determine success? I think that ultimately success is an increase in shareholder value, and an interesting gold discovery in an underexplored part of Nevada.

Maurice Jackson: What keeps you up at night that we don't know about?

Michael Allen: That's an easy one. My seven-year-old son who's on spring break, and ready to do all sorts of fun things in his day off.

Maurice Jackson: Well, you have no mercy from me. I have seven-year-old twins and a nine-year-old, and grandchildren, but I digress.

Michael Allen: What keeps me up at night? Similar to what the Crown Series of deposits will be. We've got resources up there. We've got some interesting geology, but it is an early-stage exploration program, so you really have to temper expectations. We're putting out great results, but it is an early-stage exploration program. There are a lot of things that need to be thought of and discovered. But I like what we're doing. I like the team that we've got. I like the location. It's the best jurisdiction in the world for mining.

So, there's risk, obviously, because this is mining, but there is reward because we've done the best that we can in terms of picking an asset that gives a good shot for success.

Maurice Jackson: And finally, what did I forget to ask?

Michael Allen: People on the more technical side will ask questions about how confident we are in the metallurgy, particularly at the Sterling. That's a common question. I've been asked several times, how many columns, and how many bottle rolls, and are you sure that the sample is representative? The answer that I give to that is, "Well, it's been mined before." And these deposits have been mined before so that the metallurgy has largely been done on, not columns or bottle rolls; it's mine scale.

I think that the de-risking part has been done for a lot of these assets, deposits.

Maurice Jackson: For readers who want to get more information on Northern Empire, please share the contact details.

Michael Allen: The best thing for more information about the company is to have a look at our website, which is www.NorthernEMP.com. The TSX-V is NM, and on the OTC it's PSPGF.

Maurice Jackson: And for direct inquiries, please contact Dylan Berg. His phone number is 604-646-4522, and you may email him at [email protected].

And last but not least, please visit our website www.ProvenAndProbable.com, where we interview the most respected names in the natural resource space. You may reach us at [email protected].

Michael Allen of Northern Empire, thank you for joining us today on Proven & Probable.

Michael Allen: Thank you.

Maurice Jackson: As a reminder for our readers, Northern Empire is a sponsor of Proven & Probable.

Michael Allen is the president, CEO and director of Northern Empire Resources. He is a professional geologist with 20 years of experience in the mining industry. He has extensive experience in project evaluation, recently reviewing in excess of 400 gold projects worldwide. This effort led Allen to identify and negotiate the purchase of the Sterling Gold Project. Allen has a strong technical background having explored for gold in Nevada, the Arctic, British Columbia and Ontario. He has worked in both open-pit and underground mines, as well as managing the construction of new mines and exploration crews. For the last several years Allen has spent his time in Nevada where he was part of a team that advanced a gold project through permitting and a positive pre-feasibility study. Allen holds a Bachelor of Science degree in geology from the University of Alberta.

Maurice Jackson is the founder of Proven & Probable, a site that aims to enrich its subscribers through education in precious metals and junior mining companies that will enrich the world.

Want to read more Streetwise Reports articles like this? Sign up for our free e-newsletter, and you'll learn when new articles have been published. To see a list of recent articles and interviews with industry analysts and commentators, visit our Streetwise Interviews page.

Disclosure:

1) Michael Allen: I, or members of my immediate household or family, own shares of the following companies mentioned in this article: Northern Empire Resources. I personally am, or members of my immediate household or family are, paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: Northern Empire Resources. I determined which companies would be included in this article based on my research and understanding of the sector.

2) Maurice Jackson: I, or members of my immediate household or family, own shares of the following companies mentioned in this article: Northern Empire. I personally am, or members of my immediate household or family are, paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: None. My company has a financial relationship with the following companies mentioned in this article: Northern Empire is a sponsor of Proven & Probable. Proven & Probable disclosures are listed below.

3) The following companies mentioned in this article are billboard sponsors of Streetwise Reports: None. Click here for important disclosures about sponsor fees.

4) Statements and opinions expressed are the opinions of the author and not of Streetwise Reports or its officers. The author is wholly responsible for the validity of the statements. The author was not paid by Streetwise Reports for this article. Streetwise Reports was not paid by the author to publish or syndicate this article. The information provided above is for informational purposes only and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Streetwise Reports requires contributing authors to disclose any shareholdings in, or economic relationships with, companies that they write about. Streetwise Reports relies upon the authors to accurately provide this information and Streetwise Reports has no means of verifying its accuracy.

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Bayfair Shopping Centre had more electric vehicles than usual on site today when the #LeadingTheCharge road trip came to town.

The visit was part of a national tour of electric vehicles organised by the Better NZ Trust, which seeks to promote uptake of EVs among New Zealanders.

Better NZ Trust chairperson Kathryn Trounson says it is part of a wider push for New Zealand to embrace zero-carbon technology.

Driving an electric vehicle is one of the best things individuals can do to help the environment, she says.

The road trip began a fortnight ago in Invercargill, and will continue on to Auckland for the weekend, before the final leg of the trip to Northland on Tuesday.

In the past two weeks, Kathryn says 260 people have tried driving one of the electric vehicles taking part in the road trip, with many more taking rides as passengers.

SunLive took the BMW i3 for a spin around the side streets of Arataki, and found it to have excellent acceleration. However, unlike other automatics, theres no forward momentum for the i3 simply by being in drive  the car only moves with the foot on the accelerator. And the foot has to stay on the pedal the whole time  as soon as the driver lifts it, the car comes to a halt a few seconds later without the need for brakes (depending on the speed).

Its great for those who want a highly-sensitive, responsive vehicle, but would definitely require a change in driving style for those used to a petrol/manual combination.

Bayfair Shopping Centre manager Steve Ellingford says the shopping centre is all about embracing green initiatives.

A couple of years ago we decided to put in some EV charging stations for customers to use, he says. Its about being ahead of the curve  we know there will be growth in this market. When we installed the charging stations there were around 830 registered electric vehicles in the country. Now, there are 6884.

Bayfair has an electric vehicle charging station on the ground floor of their parking building, which is free to use and takes a couple of hours to charge. Steve says it is in use most weekends.

Powerco also has a charging station at the same location, which will charge vehicles much faster, but must be paid for.

The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority estimates that using a residential off-peak electricity rate means electric vehicle owners can charge their EV for the equivalent of 30 cents a litre.
Resident doctors at the Bay of Plenty District Health Board are unhappy with a new policy requiring all staff to wear badges with their first and last names.

BOPDHB chief executive Helen Mason says the new initiative is currently being rolled out, and will affect 3300 staff across several sites.

Patients told us that when coming into hospital, often an unfamiliar environment when they are at their most vulnerable, one of the things that makes a difference is knowing who is caring for them and who they are speaking to, says Helen.

They and their families and whanau want to know the names of the people who are helping them and what their jobs are.

She says staff have also said in surveys that they want to know the names of staff they are working alongside.

It is part of our CARE values (Compassion, All-one-team, Responsive and Excellence) that staff are easily identified. With 3300 staff, based at several sites, not all staff know each other, and not all staff are working alongside their own team members. Multi-disciplinary teams are formed, requiring different combinations of staff roles.

The badges are in addition to security/access swipe cards staff already have.

Helen says for staff who are concerned about having their surnames included on the badge, there is an exemption process they can apply for.

New Zealand Nurses Organisation Bay of Plenty DHB organiser Angela Neil says the NZNO has been involved in consultation with the DHB regarding the name badges, as well as the criteria around the exemption process to wearing them.

The Health and Disability Act is very clear that every health consumer is entitled to know the full name of the person providing their care or treatment, says Angela.

Where there is a concern, you can get an exemption, and there are some areas where it may not be appropriate. If people do have genuine concerns, we want to make sure they can be heard and receive an exemption. But they would still have to provide their ID regardless.

She says most of the NZNOs members affected by changes are on board with the new policy.

However, New Zealand Resident Doctors Association national secretary Deborah Powell says the staff represented by her union were not part of discussions around the introduction of the name badges.

It would appear there has been no consultation on the matter  people have just started receiving their name badges. Its utterly unacceptable. The staff are not happy, and theyre starting to report back to us and are refusing to wear the badges.

She says staff already know who they are working with, and already have a security card with their full name on it, which is usually worn around the waist or neck.

She says in some cases, wearing name badges with both first and last names could present a safety concern.

We do periodically have patients following up with staff outside of the workplace, so we prefer not to have our surnames that obvious and visible. That is the feeling of staff throughout New Zealand.

She put a call into the BOPDHB on Wednesday morning about the new policy, after receiving emails from unhappy NZRDA members.

The feeling of the staff is that this is a waste of money, because the badges wont be worn.

Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director Ian Powell, whose organisation represents senior doctors, says there has only been loose discussion with the DHB regarding the matter.

We have joint consultation committee meetings with the DHBs, and in June last year this issue was raised. But I dont believe our view has been sought on whether this should apply to senior doctors.

He says patients are entitled to know who is treating them, and they generally do as their doctor will introduce themselves.

I think there needs to be a proper discussion if they intend it to apply to senior doctors. What is the benefit of it, and what are the pros/cons? I think there would be some compelling reasons to exempt some senior doctors, and perhaps some others as well.

Those areas might include staff who work with mental health patients, as well as ED.

If you look at violence against staff, it is more likely to happen in mental health or emergency departments, says Ian.
Bay of Plenty

We are looking for a storeman with an OSH forklift license. You will need to be physically for as the job is about 70% forklift...



View or Apply on GoodWork.co.nz
EU Commission Told To Flesh Out Digital Tax Plans

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

28 March 2018

The EU's Regulatory Scrutiny Board has criticized the bloc's announcement of measures to tax the turnover of certain digital firms' activities, saying that the Commission has failed to fully flesh out its proposals, substantiate the need for them, or analyzed their potential impact.

The European Commission on March 21 released two proposed amendments to international tax rules to ensure digital business activities are taxed "fairly" and in a growth-friendly way in the European Union. The proposals are in response to calls from member states for a permanent and lasting solution, to ensure a "fair share" of tax revenues from online activities where digital firms derive revenue from users in their territory, which might otherwise go untaxed.

The EU has proposed two measures: an interim tax on the turnover of companies engaged in digital activities that would otherwise go untaxed, at a rate of three percent; and a longer-term solution, which the EU will seek to achieve international consensus on under the leadership of the OECD, which would establish new digital permanent establishment rules. It is proposed that a digital platform will be deemed to have a taxable "digital presence" or a virtual permanent establishment in a member state if it fulfills one of the following criteria:

It exceeds a threshold of EUR7m (USD8.58m) in annual revenues in a member state;

It has more than 100,000 users in a member state in a taxable year

Over 3,000 business contracts for digital services are created between the company and business users in a taxable year.

Meanwhile, the interim measure would be levied on revenues created from selling online advertising space; created from digital intermediary activities; and those created from the sale of data generated from user-provided information. Such would apply only to companies with total annual worldwide revenues of at least EUR750m and EU revenues of EUR50m.

In a March 23 opinion on the proposed measures, the Board said its overall opinion of the measures is "positive with reservations."

It said the proposals contain significant shortcomings that need to be addressed. For instance, it said, the Commission has failed to clearly explain the context of the initiative and the rationale for a two-pronged approach. Further, it has not explained the urgency for the EU to act, before global progress is achieved at an OECD/G20 level.

Further, it said that the projection of the implication of the baseline scenario is incomplete and the content of the options is insufficiently detailed. The panel called also for clarification on what would happen in the transition between the proposed short-term policy solution and the long-term solution.

Last, it said the analysis of the impacts is insufficiently developed, especially as regards the thresholds and compliance costs and therefore does not demonstrate the proposals are proportional.

The panel has said the Commission should report on the policy context, looking at global progress made on digital taxation and justify why the EU should act unilaterally in implementing an interim turnover tax on certain digital revenues. The Commission also recommended that it counterbalance its proposal for a temporary tax with an explanation of how unilateral actions from member states could have an impact on tax competition, market fragmentation, and tax avoidance. "It should stress that the aim of the initiative is clarity on the taxing right allocation and not ensuring a fair tax burden on digital versus non-digital companies," it said.

On the options being proposed, the Commission has been asked to flesh out what would happen in the transition between the measures. For instance, what would be taxed under the long-term solution and how; how the digital PE proposal would interact with double tax treaties; and how the measure ties in with the Commission's proposal for a common corporate tax base, which would enable unitary taxation of multinational companies in the EU, and the division of those revenues to member states based on substance under a formulary apportionment approach.

The panel has called on the report on the measures to be amended prior to being tabled for consideration before EU bodies and the member states.
Malaysian Firms Can Challenge Late GST Penalties Online

by Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong

28 March 2018

On March 26, 2018, Malaysia's tax agency announced that businesses can newly challenge late-payment penalties in respect of goods and services tax (GST) via the tax agency's online portal.

The Royal Malaysian Customs Department has released a guide with instructions on how to complete a request for remission of a late-payment penalty via the Taxpayer Access Point online platform under Section 62(2) of the GST Act.

Section 62(2) of the Act provides: "The Director General may remit the whole or any part of the penalty payable or surcharge accrued under this Act where it is just and equitable to do so."

Section 62(3) additionally states: "Where a person who has been granted remission under subsections (1) and (2) has paid any of the tax, surcharge or penalty to which the remission relates, he shall be entitled to a refund of the amount of tax, penalty or surcharge which had been remitted."
Scotland Urged To Simplify Proposals For First-Time Buyers' Tax Relief

by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

30 March 2018

The Chartered Institute of Taxation has warned the Scottish Government that its plans for Land and Buildings Transaction Tax relief for first-time buyers could be complex and difficult to enforce.

Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) replaced UK Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) in Scotland from April 1, 2015, and is administered by Scotland's own tax agency, Revenue Scotland. LBTT is a tax applied to residential and commercial land and buildings transactions (including commercial purchases and commercial leases) where a chargeable interest is acquired.

Responding to a Scottish government consultation on tax relief for first-time buyers, CIOT drew attention to HM Revenue and Customs's earlier research which found that the UK Government's first-time buyers' stamp duty relief had been ineffective. It found a negligible effect on the number of house purchases and the measure only pushed up house prices.

CIOT has said the Scottish plan to help first-time homebuyers by giving them a relief on property tax could be complex and difficult to enforce under current proposals. The Scottish Government proposals would see first-time buyers purchasing a home in Scotland eligible for a tax break of up to GBP600 (USD850) if they are buying a property for use as their main residence and have never owned a residential property before.

CIOT said: "The Government's proposals for determining whether a buyer plans to use their home as a main residence could be difficult to apply in practice due to the subjective nature of the test. There are also likely to be practical difficulties in establishing whether a buyer has previously owned property, since the conditions include not only residential property in Scotland, but equivalent interests in the rest of the UK and abroad." For instance, it added, "it could be difficult for Revenue Scotland to obtain the required information because not all countries will have registers detailing ownership of residential properties, making it more difficult to identify an equivalent interest abroad."

The Institute noted that existing Revenue Scotland guidance on determining a person's intent to use a property as their main residence  which the Government has said will be used to determine eligibility for the relief  was simplistic and the consultation silent on whether this would be developed further to ensure it is fit for purpose.

In addition, CIOT said that plans to create a new definition of "major interest in land," for the purposes of determining whether someone had previously owned property, would create confusion and complexity because a similar description exists elsewhere in LBTT legislation covering the wider operation of the tax. Consideration should be given to whether this new definition is actually required or whether different terminology could be used, CIOT said.

Moira Kelly, Chair of the CIOT Scottish Technical Committee, commented: "We are concerned that the Government's plans to introduce an LBTT relief for first-time buyers will not only create extra layers of complexity and confusion, but may also prove very difficult to operate in their current form. This will be to the detriment of the people that the legislation is intended to support. Targeted reliefs such as this will almost always introduce extra layers of bureaucracy and complexity but when this happens, these should be proportionate and support the overall objective of the policy to deliver tax relief for first-time buyers."

"To ensure that the objective can be reached, we think that further action will be needed beyond the measures contained in the consultation to ensure that homebuyers, their advisers, and Revenue Scotland have the information that they need to determine a person's eligibility for the relief and ensure they receive what they are entitled to."
Sweden Scraps Exit Tax Proposal

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

28 March 2018

The Swedish Government has announced that it will not proceed with a proposal to introduce an exit tax after hearing concerns about the measure's design.

Proposed as an anti-avoidance measure by the tax authority in November 2017, the exit tax would have replaced the existing "10-year rule," which the Government now intends to modify instead.

The Skatteverket's proposal would have taxed the unrealized capital gains of individuals emigrating from Sweden at a rate of 30 percent, provided that the person had lived in Sweden for at least five years in the preceding ten years.

Gains of less than SEK100,000 (USD8,600) would not have been subject to the tax, and those emigrating to European Economic Area countries would have been allowed to defer payment of the tax until the assets were divested.

The tax would have had wide scope and applied to most asset classes, as well as to cross-border inheritances.

The exit tax was intended to replace the 10-year rule, under which individuals previously resident in Sweden continue to incur capital gains tax liability when disposing of holdings in Swedish shares and certain other assets for a period of ten years after leaving the country.

A "debate article" by Finance Minister Magdalena Andersson and published on the finance ministry website on March 25 said that the exit tax idea was being scrapped after comments exposed "real problems with the design of the proposal."

Andersson wrote that the tax would have posed difficulties for Swedish companies when expanding abroad and damaged Sweden's competitiveness.

"Therefore, today we announce that the government will not proceed with the tax agency's proposal for [exit] taxation," she stated. "However, this means that the problems with the ten-year rule remain."

Andersson said that the Government would soon begin a "constructive dialogue" on reforms to the 10-year rule that will strike a balance between maintaining Sweden's competitiveness and securing its tax base.
Switzerland To Reform Tax On Married Couples

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

28 March 2018

The Swiss Federal Council has announced that it will reform individual income tax rules that are said to penalize married couples.

Under the current rules, married couples file a single tax return. Their incomes are combined, and they are taxed jointly. They do not each have separate access to a tax-free allowance.

Meanwhile, those cohabiting but who are not married may benefit from the same tax relief provisions as married couples but face more beneficial rules when calculating their tax burden.

Responding to a Federal Court ruling which said such treatment may breach the country's constitution, the Federal Council has confirmed that married couples will be able to be assessed under both systems and then pay tax under whichever is more favorable.
Volkswagen Wins ECJ Ruling On 'Time-Barred' VAT Refunds

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

28 March 2018

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled in favor of Volkswagen in a case concerning the company's right to claim a VAT refund for VAT not initially charged on the supplies it received, with VAT having been retrospectively charged to the company as much as seven years after it received the supplies.

The case concerned national legislation in Slovakia that time-limited the grant of a refund in such circumstances, despite no error by Volkswagen.

In Volkswagen AG v. Finance Directorate of the Slovak Republic (C-533/16), released March 21, 2018, the ECJ ruled EU law "precludes legislation of a member state under which, in circumstances such as those at issue in the main proceedings [...] the benefit of the right to claim a refund of VAT is denied on the grounds that the limitation period provided for by that legislation for the exercise of that right began to run from the date of supply and expired before the application for a refund was submitted."

The case concerned supplies between 2004 and 2010 by Hella Leuchten-Systeme GmbH, a company established in Germany, and two Hella companies based in Slovakia, to Volkswagen AG, the auto giant, established in Germany, of moulds for the manufacture of lights for motor vehicles.

During this time, the Hella companies did not include VAT on the invoices they issued, as they considered the transactions not as supplies of goods but of "financial compensation," which is exempt from VAT.

In 2010, the Hella companies realized that the transactions were not being carried out in accordance with Slovak law. They issued invoices charging the VAT due by Volkswagen for supply of the goods in question, and in accordance with Law No 222/2004, filed supplementary tax returns for all years from 2004 to 2010, and paid the relevant VAT to the Treasury.

On July 1, 2011, Volkswagen submitted to the Bratislava I Tax Office (Slovak Republic) an application for a refund of the VAT charged on the supplied goods.

On April 2012, the tax office upheld the request only partially, ordering a refund only for the tax periods from 2007 to 2010 and not for the three subsequent years to 2014. This was due to the expiry of the limitation period of five years provided for by Slovak law.

In this regard, it held that the entitlement to a refund of VAT arose on the date of delivery of the goods, namely the date the VAT had become due, with the result that the right to claim a refund for the period from 2004 to 2006 had expired by the time the application for a refund was submitted.

Volkswagen brought an action before the Regional Court, Bratislava, Slovak Republic, which dismissed the action. It then appealed that decision before the Slovak Supreme Court, which referred questions to the European Court of Justice.

In ruling against the local tax authority's decision to deny the VAT refund request partially, the ECJ said: "In the present case, it is apparent from the order for reference that, even though the supply of goods at issue was carried out during 2004 to 2010, the Hella companies did not make an adjustment of the VAT until 2010 when they drew up invoices including the VAT, sent supplementary tax returns to the competent national authority and paid the amount of VAT that was due to the state treasury. It is equally apparent that the risk of tax evasion or non-payment of VAT has been excluded. In these circumstances, it was objectively impossible for Volkswagen to exercise its right to a refund before this adjustment, as, prior to that, it had neither been in possession of the invoices nor aware that the VAT was due."

"Indeed, it was only following that adjustment that the substantive and formal conditions giving rise to a right to deduct VAT were met and that Volkswagen could therefore request to be relieved of the VAT burden due or paid, in accordance with [the EU VAT Directive] and the principle of fiscal neutrality. Accordingly, since Volkswagen did not demonstrate a lack of diligence, and in the absence of an abuse or fraudulent collusion with the Hella companies, a limitation period which began from the date of supply of the goods and which, for certain periods, expired before this adjustment, cannot validly deny Volkswagen the right to a refund of VAT."
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NASA on Tuesday said its James Webb Space Telescope will miss its planned 2019 launch window. The setback, not exactly unexpected, means the next-generation telescope wont leave Earth until approximately May 2020 at the earliest.

The telescope, described by acting NASA administrator Robert Lightfoot as the highest priority project for the agencys Science Mission Directorate and the largest international space science project in US history, was developed in coordination with the Canadian Space Agency and the European Space Agency.

Work on the JWST started in the mid-90s as the Next Generation Space Telescope (the observatory was renamed in September 2002 after former NASA administrator James Webb). The project has been plagued by budget overruns and delays spanning multiple decades. Construction was finally completed in late 2016 with a planned launch in October 2018 but again, delays got in the way

Lightfoot on Tuesday said all of the telescopes flight hardware is now complete but added that issues brought to light with the spacecraft elements are forcing them to delay launch.

Specifically, NASA said testing of the telescope element and spacecraft element demonstrated that each system individually meets their requirements. A review board recently determined, however, that more time is needed to test and integrate the components together. Once that is done, environmental testing will be conducted at Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems in Redondo Beach, California.
Following the fatal crash on March 18, Uber took all its self-driving cars off the roads in the four cities they operate. Now, its been revealed that the company wont be renewing its autonomous vehicle permit in California, which expires on March 31.

In a letter from the states Department of Motor Vehicles to Uber, DMV deputy director and chief counsel Brian Soublet wrote: Uber has indicated that it will not renew its current permit to test autonomous vehicles in California.

Ubers cars will no longer be able to operate on public roads in the state once the current permit expires next week. The company said it does not know when it will reapply for permission to test the vehicles.

We proactively suspended our self-driving operations, including in California, immediately following the Tempe incident, an Uber spokesperson said, in a statement. Given this, we decided not to reapply for California DMV permit with the understanding that our self-driving vehicles would not operate on public roads in the immediate future.

If Uber does apply for a new permit, it will need to address any follow-up analysis or investigations from the recent crash in Arizona and may also require a meeting with the department.

Tempe, Arizona, police released a video of the accident last week, in which 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg was struck by an autonomous Uber Volvo as she pushed her bicycle across the road. She later died in hospital, becoming the first person to be killed by a self-driving car. The clip, which includes interior and exterior views, appears to have raised more questions than it answered.

The accident has elicited responses from other self-driving companies. Intelthe owner of Mobileyesaid its software would have detected and classified Herzberg one second before impact.

Both Toyota and Nvidia have also decided to temporarily halt their autonomous driving tests on public roads, while Arizona has blocked Uber from testing the vehicles on roads within the state.

The accident was tragic. Its a reminder of how difficult SDC technology is and that it needs to be approached with extreme caution and the best safety technologies, a Nvidia spokesperson said. This tragedy is exactly why weve committed ourselves to perfecting this life-saving technology. Ultimately AVs will be far safer than human drivers, so this important work needs to continue. We are temporarily suspending the testing of our self-driving cars on public roads to learn from the Uber incident. Our global fleet of manually driven data collection vehicles continue to operate.
The Venezuelan negotiating team also includes diplomat Alex Saab, who remains detained in Cape Verde pending his extradition to the United States. | Read More
The controversial merger of the national construction and maritime unions into a new "super union" is now official after escaping a last-ditch effort to block it in the Senate.

Workplace Minister Craig Laundy said he "reached out to the crossbench" to get last-minute support for the government's Ensuring Integrity Bill which would have imposed a public interest test on the merger, potentially blocking it from going ahead.

"Unfortunately, we did not get the numbers to secure passage of this important legislation," Mr Laundy said.

This new super union will cover key Australian industries across the economy  mining, construction, shipping, energy, forestry and manufacturing  around 16 per cent of the economy.

"Ninety nine per cent of exports are transported by ship. To suggest this merger should not be covered by a public interest test is beyond me."
Australian mining companies and mining industry groups have welcomed the creation of a new resources industry taskforce that will be asked to find ways to cut red tape, attract more investment and build community support for the sector.

Unveiling the first review of Australia's mining industry in decades, Resources Minister Matthew Canavan said a key focus of the ''Resources 2030 Taskforce" would be to identify measures that would help secure the industry's competitiveness.

Mining has never been as important to the global economy as it is now. The modern world relies on a more diverse list of minerals for a greater range of products than at any other time, he said.

There are more than 25 minerals or metals that go into the construction of a mobile phone, and 18 of them are produced in Australia. There are 16 minerals and metals that go into the manufacture of a solar panel, Australia produces 10 of them."

Australia's top three iron ore producers, Rio Tinto, BHP and Fortescue Metals Group, all backed the establishment of the taskforce.
Seven West Media chief executive Tim Worner has sold the broadcaster's 50 per cent stake in Yahoo7 to joint-venture partner Oath Inc, so it can have control over its own digital assets.

This marks the end of Seven's involvement in the digital platform since it started a decade ago with initial joint-venture partner Yahoo. US telecommunications company Verizon acquired Yahoo in 2017 and created Oath as a subsidiary to manage its Yahoo and AOL content products.

Seven West Media has sold its share in Yahoo7. Credit:Vince Caligiuri

When Seven bought in to the joint venture in 2006, traditional television networks and media companies were grappling with building an online presence and turning to tech companies to help with their digital strategies. Yahoo!7, as it was then named, was expected to rival Nine Entertainment Co's Ninemsn, which it owned with Microsoft in a deal that ended in 2014.

The end of the Yahoo7 joint venture comes after months of speculation, with redundancies across the platform flagged in February, including technology roles and within its television verticals. Some of these staff members were moved to other parts of Seven.
Australian energy companies could face fines for sending their customers "grossly inaccurate" bills based on estimates rather than usage, under a proposal to be announced by Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg.

The federal government will ask the Australian Energy Market Commission to amend the National Energy Rules so that all customers can submit a photograph of their meter data.

Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg in Federal Parliament this week. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Some companies, including AGL, already allow customers to submit manual meter readings online or via an app in cases where their meter cannot be read in time for their next bill. This proposal would extend that opportunity to all energy providers, Mr Frydenberg said.
The quartet of technology stocks that has driven Wall Street indices to record highs in recent years may be breaking up, possibly undermining one of the best growth stories in a nine-year bull market.

Facebook and Google-parent Alphabet tumbled this week as the benchmark S&P 500 index fell back toward lows seen in February, when the index gave back more than 10 per cent in 10 days after reaching a record high in January.

Netflix and Amazon.com, which along with Facebook and Alphabet make up the so-called "FANG" stocks, did not do as badly as the S&P 500 index this week, falling 4 per cent, compared to the index's 6 per cent fall.

But growing concerns about potential government regulation in the US and Europe in response to privacy issues have investors assessing whether they may be forced to choose between those technology stocks leading the new economy.
Its hero is Meg Murry, a 12-year-old African American girl assisted by a trio of fairy godmothers, led by Oprah Winfrey. This teams special talents are all in the mind  and theres more science than usual in the storys sci-fi component. The power of love is also assigned a strong supporting role.

Disneys latest blockbuster, the adventure fantasy A Wrinkle in Time, is a timely corrective to the culture of super heroes and their fanboys. White super heroes, that is. Like Black Panther, this film is on the side of diversity.

Its a film with impeccable credentials. Its directed by Ava DuVernay (Selma) and co-written by Jennifer Lee (Frozen) from a 56-year-old childrens book by Madeleine LEngle, who is much admired for weaving her learnings from reading about quantum physics into the story.

In 1961, L'Engle's manuscript was rejected by a succession of publishers who couldnt decide if it was for children or adults  something which would probably be regarded as an advantage today. A chance meeting between LEngle and the head of publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux did the trick, and four more books followed.

Since then, LEngles Time Quintet, as its called, has never been out of print. And so to the obvious question: why hasnt franchise-hungry Hollywood tackled it before?

Queen of the fields: Oprah Winfrey, playing Mrs Which. Credit:Disney

Disney has tried. In 2003, it distributed a Canadian production  which flopped. Then, seven years later, it took another look on the urging of producer Catherine Hand  a friend of LEngles, who had inherited the screen rights. It would be nice to report that such perseverance has paid off handsomely but there are certain miracles that even Oprah cant perform.
BLOCKERS 

(MA) 102 minutes One of the most overworked jokes in American comedy involves parents (usually fathers) getting hot and bothered about the imagined sex lives of their teenage children (usually girls). Blockers, the directing debut of Pitch Perfect screenwriter Kay Cannon, is a feature-length version of that joke. Here the lead character is an anxious single mother, Lisa (Leslie Mann), who learns her daughter Julie (Kathryn Newton) has made a pact with her friends Kayla (Geraldine Viswanathan) and Sam (Gideon Adlon) to have sex for the first time on prom night. Panicked, she alerts Kayla and Sam's respective fathers (John Cena and Ike Barinholtz), launching this second trio on their own mission  involving a lot of driving, sneaking around and peering through windows  to stop the girls from taking the plunge.

Ike Barinholtz, Leslie Mann and John Cena in Blockers. Credit:Quantrell D. Colbert In a slightly preachy, self-conscious way, this is meant to be a "sex positive" comedy: while we're meant to sympathise with Lisa and her allies, the moral of the story is the need to let go. But the main impression the film leaves is one of noisy anxiety  cross-cutting frantically between separate groups of characters, and straining to generate shock value while avoiding anything that might cause genuine offence. Filling up the empty space is the kind of jumble now standard for broad Hollywood comedies: desperate gross-out gags, stabs at "sincere" emotion, and random plugs for other films from the same studio (in this case, Universal). The three adult leads function less as an ensemble than as competing variety performers: Mann the tightly-wound ditz, Cena the stern straight man, Barinholtz the goofy cut-up. Mann earns her star billing: she's easily the funniest of the three, as well as the most dramatically versatile. But it's hard to get invested in Lisa's relationship with her daughter, simply because Julie remains an utterly bland character. Of the younger cast members, the standout is Viswanathan, whose fast comic timing hopefully won't see her consigned to a decade of best friend roles.
So the race is on, with Wade and his fellow "gunters" (short for "egg hunters") clocking up the hours in virtual libraries in emulation of Halliday's godlike knowledge of retro trivia, then testing their skills in action sequences which might involve, say, driving the DeLorean from Back to the Future while fleeing from King Kong.

Also in pursuit of the big prize is wicked CEO Nolan Sorrento, played by Ben Mendelsohn, who plans to give the Oasis a soulless corporate makeover. While the conception of Nolan as the world's most boring man doesn't give Mendelsohn much to work with, he remains the closest thing the film has to a human presence: Wade and his friends appear just as generic in the "real world" sequences as they do as digitally animated avatars.

Similarly, the very nature of Wade's quest  a kind of glorified pub quiz  entails boiling our memories of cinema down to a collection of icons and brand names, often carrying little more emotional weight than the logo on the Pizza Hut box delivered by drone in the opening shot.

In some sense, this is the ultimate development of the fast, smooth, virtuosic style Spielberg has honed over the decades, which borrows heavily from advertising and depends on our instant recognition of fleeting visual cues.

For all the film's energy and invention, Spielberg's trademark sentimentality is even stickier here than usual. While he steers away from overt nods to his own past work, he blatantly identifies with Halliday as a guru looking to pass on his artistic legacy to the young.
Found objects and secret admirers made Bootikins. Six albums into a snakes-and-ladders career, any more deliberate plans are simply beyond Augie March. Songwriter Glenn Richards lives in Hobart and speaks only to cats. Even they are dismayed by his increasing degeneration into callous misanthropy.

That's one version of the backstory. As with every lyric that leaks off his pen, the degree of poetic license is open to investigation. But there's enough truth and beauty buried in there to make another fantastic chapter in a tale that won't stop turning.

Augie March: "No other band is as difficult as us." Credit:RPM

"I saw a rack-mount four-track [recorder] on Gumtree so I started doing some recording," Richards says of the first object that forced his hand. The machine was being flogged off cheap by Village Cinemas in Hobart  an apt coincidence, as he had spent much of his time since 2014's Havens Dumb making music for TV and films (Fancy Boy, 100 Bloody Acres, Scare Campaign).

The other key object was a sheaf of old poems he calls his Drunk Files. "I don't know where they came from or the period they were written in but I'd kept them because they're good, and I'd written them with a rhythmic sense so, 'You never know, that might be a song' "
Call the Midwife has taken on a barrage of contentious issues this season, from domestic violence to mental health, female genital mutilation, Thalidomide and more. The contraceptive pill is reserved for the finale, and it's a reminder that early in its development, this win for feminism was not without its risks. Happier storylines involve Barbara's wedding, which has been pushed forward so her father can officiate. When Shelagh (Laura Main) chooses Sister Julienne (Jenny Agutter) to help deliver her baby, Phyllis' (Linda Bassett) disappointment is palpable, but Barbara (Charlotte Ritchie) helps restore her pluck with a special request of her own.

Luke Nguyen's Food Trail

SBS, 8.05pm

A good measure of any cooking show is how hungry it makes you, irrespective of how full you are. Luke Nguyen's Food Trail succeeds on that count; if you've any taste at all for fresh, zesty Asian fare  and who doesn't?  what's on offer here is sure to get your tummy rumbling. Nguyen is branded as a friendly family man who uses Australian produce in his invigorated takes on traditional Asian dishes. In this way he also showcases local producers, like Les and Lyn Apps, of Fraser Isle Spanner Crabs, fishing for the crustaceans with Les and visiting the factory where the Apps have designed the "crab spinner", for extracting flesh from the shell and another instrument that squeezes the flesh from crab pincers in one smooth movement. The cooking is often cleverly brought back to Nguyen's own Fat Noodle restaurant in Brisbane, where he serves the simply dressed crab in its shell to stunning effect, debones and deep-fries a barramundi, rendering it a sculptural form that doubles as a salad bowl, and profiles one of his chefs, Sarah Ghim, who went home to learn more traditional cooking skills and returned to make Korean sizzling chicken of the utmost authenticity. These are healthy, accessible recipes that are easy enough to try at home, though you may well be tempted to make a reservation at Fat Noodle instead.

Annabel Ross

movie Queen of the Desert (2015)
The latest addition to the ever-expanding genre best described as "The Bad Mistakes of Queen Victoria's Grand-Children" is this British documentary series that traces the true love, terrible reign, and eventual murder of Russia's last czar, Nicholas II, and his wife Alexandra through their diaries and letters. Presented by historian Suzannah Lipscomb, who dashes around St Petersburg locales, the narrative reveals a couple whose teenage infatuation overcame the fact that they were second cousins and she was German, a no-no for Nicholas's father. The narrative is fast-moving and more than a little saucy: the quotes from their missives soon reveal their nicknames for each other's genitalia. Their luxurious life together after their marriage in 1894 darkened after they struggled to produce a male heir, and when they did the boy was stricken with haemophilia. Cue Rasputin, whose presence was a distraction as revolutionary tensions inexorably rose.

pay The Vatican and the Third Reich: An Unholy Alliance?

History, 8.30pm

This French documentary provides quite an indictment of Popes Pius XI and Pius XII for many of their actions and inactions during the rise of Hitler and, in the case of Pius XII, the Holocaust and its aftermath. At the same time, however, it portrays them as men who saw their primary responsibility as the protection of their own flock. Both men, it seems, saw Hitler as a bulwark against the spread of communism, and both had been especially keen to secure from the German state a concordat that would protect the rights of the church and its adherents in Germany. Historians and journalists from across Europe queue up to provide insights and perspectives, and the end product seems unlikely to please anyone  not those who want to see both popes damned as monsters, and certainly not those who want to see them lauded as heroes.

Brad Newsome

NCIS: Los Angeles
The Colonial Mutual building in Canberra's city has been sold to developers Bulum Group earlier this month. The 859 square metre block, located on 17-21 University Ave, City sold for $10 million from an off-market sale. The 1968 Colonial Mutual building sold for $10 million The 1968 building and its distinctive architectural feature windows has 3998-square-metres of floor space across seven levels. LJ Hooker Commercial Canberra's Mark Thompson said existing tenants would remain and vacant space would be advertised to attract new occupants.

Its current tenants include the Fair Work Commission and Aboriginal Legal Service. "I think probably and ultimately the site will get re-developed but our clients intention is to hold the building as an investment for the time being and then just look at redevelopment opportunities further down the track when the time is appropriate," Mr Thompson said. The site, listed as commercial land, is within the city west precinct and near the Law Courts, Australian National University, CBD retail facilities and the parliamentary triangle. Developer Nik Bulum said there were no definite plans for the site but that he wanted to make use of the "beautiful views". "I'd love to do something with all of that, but there are so many apartments in Canberra so we're trying to think of some different things to do there," Mr Bulum said.
A jury was warned on Wednesday that any opinions they held about Australia's refugee policies were irrelevant when it came to decide verdicts for seven protesters who superglued their hands to a balustrade in Parliament House.

Timothy Buchanan, Philip Evans, Hannah Grant, Samantha Hawker, Chamomilla Hill, Sally Hunter and Jason Ray have faced an ACT Supreme Court trial this week after each pleaded not guilty to a charge of intentionally damaging Commonwealth property.

The seven protesters superglued themselves to a leather balustrade in the House of Representatives. Credit:Alexandra Back

The court has heard that at about 2pm on November 30, 2016 a larger group began a protest in the southern gallery in the House of Representatives and forced Question Time to a halt.

Security staff removed most of the protesters one by one, eventually bringing in hand sanitiser to dissolve the superglue under the remaining protesters' hands.
Jeff Kennett: stepped down. Credit:Angela Wylie

Observing question time in our parliaments reasonably leads to the lament that our lawmakers are a bunch of dullard bullies. But, behind the closed doors of committee rooms, those same politicians collaborate to study evidence and generate policies for the common good. A fabulous example has just occurred in Victoria.

The cross-party law reform, road and community safety committee has released its Inquiry into drug law reform, one of the most comprehensive examinations of harm minimisation in Australian history. It is timely, coming amid surging realisation that the 50-year war on drugs is one of the most catastrophic policy failures in global history: prohibition does not protect people, it kills people. It merely creates a massive black market.

Protesters rallied in Victoria Street, Richmond, for a safe injecting clinic to be built. Credit:Paul Jeffers

Decriminalisation and regulation of personal recreational use of substances is the most effective way to reduce harm and to bring people with problems into the health system, rather than injecting them into the legal system. The committee has recognised this, and has included it among the 50 recommendations the government will consider in coming months, ahead of the state election. Another sensible suggestion is for back-of-house pill testing at music festivals and other events. This would allow organisers and health professionals to warn patrons of danger. It would save young lives. Our politicians have long known prohibition of arbitrarily defined illicit substances is dopey and dangerous. Thats why they have finally endorsed a trial of a safe-injecting centre for adults in Richmond, a no-brainer initiative championed by Reason Party founder Fiona Patten, who also pushed for, and participated in, the committee.
The report made five recommendations: that research be reviewed every two years; that an international meeting of health experts be convened; that a national approach be taken to the regulation of non-nicotine e-cigarettes; that the TGA continues to oversee the classification of nicotine; and that the government examine colourings and flavourings. With 2.4 million daily smokers, it acknowledged more needed to be done. One per cent of the population used e-cigarettes and 30 per cent had tried it at least once - much lower rates than in Britain where it's legally available. In an unusual move, the committee chairman Trent Zimmerman presented the dissenting report on e-cigarettes. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen It said public health groups and state governments generally agreed there was a lack of evidence that e-cigarettes were an effective smoking cessation tool and suggested more research was required. The committee remained conflicted on whether e-cigarettes was a "gateway" to smoking for young people - acknowledging concerns that a young person could become addicted to nicotine and then take up smoking, but also that smoking rates in Britain and the US were declining.

It acknowledged heavy metals and carcinogens found in e-liquids could harm the lungs, but said the health impacts were unclear and the potential risks of vaping needed to be weighed against the known impacts of smoking. Liberal MP Andrew Laming lodged a 10-word dissenting report, supporting the legalisation of e-cigarettes. "Some of the long-term health impacts of nicotine e-cigarettes may not be known for a decade or more but their impact on smoking rates should become clear much sooner," the report said. "If e-cigarettes can be shown to reduce the number of smokers, then the potential benefits this may bring could strengthen the case for the legalisation of e-cigarettes." War of words

Cancer Council Australia and the Heart Foundation commended the committee for upholding the integrity of the TGA and National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) instead of caving into lobbyists. Selling nicotine e-cigarettes is generally illegal in Australia. Credit:Justin McManus "Once we start circumventing [the TGA and NHMRC] and deferring to lobbyists, whether from industry, ideologues or individual advocates, cracks will appear in the system," Cancer Council's Paul Grogan said. But Australian Vaping Advocacy Trade and Research (AVATAR) said the recommendations were tantamount to "denying a life raft" to smokers wanting to quit. "Australia is set to fall further behind the rest of the world as the government fails to acknowledge the vital role that e-cigarettes can offer in creating a healthier society," said its chairman Savvas Dimitriou.

AVATAR received support from e-cigarette advocate Associate Professor Colin Mendelsohn, from the University of New South Wales, who accused the committee of cherry-picking evidence. Vaping is not entirely risk-free but is far less harmful than smoking to users and bystanders," he said. "This is not surprising as almost all the harm from smoking is from the tar, carbon monoxide and other chemicals from burning tobacco. But public health expert Emeritus Professor Simon Chapman from Sydney University said e-cigarettes could be a "benign or an evil genie", and "genies [were] notoriously difficult to put back in the bottle". "This is why sane public health policy should treat e-cigarettes with utmost regulatory caution," he said.

"All but failed states do this routinely with new pharmaceuticals: strict regulation at first, followed  if warranted by relaxed regulation down the track." Loading Professor Mike Daube from Curtin University said the next step was to re-focus on tobacco reduction programs, "especially mass media campaigns and regulations that stop underhanded tobacco industry product promotion. Public Health Association of Australia said it supported all five recommendations, saying common sense had prevailed. Now we can get on with the evidence-based measures that we know will reduce smoking," its CEO Michael Moore said.

The Australian Medical Association (AMA) said there was a lack of evidence to show e-cigarettes was an effective cessation aid and to disprove that e-cigarettes led young people to take up smoking. "We strongly support the assessment and research work of the TGA and the NHMRC," AMA president Michael Gannon said. Big tobacco speaks As Labor MP Steve Georganas helped deliver the report to the House of Representatives, he remarked it was "appalling" that tobacco companies - who have heavily invested in e-cigarettes - were given the opportunity to influence policy. "This alarmed some of the committee members and experts ... and should alarm the government," he said.
One of the conspirators who allegedly helped Salim Mehajer stage a car crash to avoid court last year was captured by a surveillance device saying Mehajer's lawyer told him to stage the smash, according to court documents.

Ahmed Jaghbir, 28, was arrested in January and charged with perverting the course of justice and conspiracy to cheat and defraud after he allegedly organised a woman to crash into Mehajer's car at a Lidcombe intersection on October 16, 2017.

Mehajer, who had been driving to a court hearing in Sydney's CBD to face charges of assaulting a taxi driver, had to be cut out of his car and taken to hospital.

Salim Mehajer and Ahmed Jaghbir face charges over a crash at a Lidcombe intersection in October last year. Credit:Instagram

Seven people including Mehajer have since been charged over the crash, with police alleging Mehajer's car had been insured at an inflated price nine days earlier and the crash served the dual purpose of avoiding court and defrauding an insurance company.
A corruption inquiry has been told board minutes of an Aboriginal land council appear to have been falsified to show it voted in favour of selling land to a company tied to disgraced former assistant tax commissioner Nick Petroulias.

It came as a Sydney developer told the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) he did not understand how a reference to the same company  Gows Heat Pty Ltd  ended up in documentation he prepared on the development of the land.

Nick Petroulias is a 'common feature' in four deals being investigated by the Independent Commission Against Corruption. Credit:Janie Barrett

The watchdogs Operation Skyline is investigating four deals to sell off land belonging to the Awabakal Local Aboriginal Land Council, based in Newcastle.

Mr Petroulias was a common feature in all of the deals and Gows Heat a shelf company he controlled, it has been alleged.
The gun used to murder solicitor Ho Ledinh in Sydney's west earlier this year is connected to an attempted double murder in Victoria three years ago, according to police.

Mr Ledinh, 65, was gunned down at Bankstown just after 3.35pm on January 23 as he sat with friends at the Happy Cup cafe, part of a busy shopping strip in Bankstown.

Bankstown lawyer Ho Ledinh. Credit:Facebook

Witnesses tried to perform CPR, but the solicitor died at the scene from three gunshot wounds delivered at close range.

Arthur Kelekolio, 38 - who is accused of pulling the trigger - was arrested on February 13 and charged with murder.
Two people are in a critical condition in hospital with major burns after fire engulfed a home in Sydney's north.

Emergency services were called to a home on Zanco Street, Marsfield, just after 4pm on Wednesday to reports of a house fire.

The fire at Zanco Street, Marsfield,. Credit:Channel 7

Four people inside the home managed to escape after the fire broke out. Three have been hospitalised with serious injuries.
Justice Carolyn Simpson, volunteer firefighter, former English teacher and one-time aspiring journalist, credits her long career in the law to a series of "strokes of good luck".

That is not how her judicial colleagues see it. At her farewell ceremony this week, NSW Chief Justice Tom Bathurst had just "one complaint": Simpson was "far too humble".

On Thursday, Simpson will retire from the Supreme Court after 24 years, including almost three years on the NSW Court of Appeal.

Left to right: Justices Carolyn Simpson, Margaret Beazley and Virginia Bell sitting as the Court of Criminal Appeal on Australia's first all-female bench in 1999. Credit:Brendan Esposito

She was the second woman appointed to the court in its 194-year history and boasts the distinction of being its longest-serving female judge.
Loading "Its hard to answer because we still feel the tragedy of it," former cop Stuart Forte said. Its had a huge impact on the family and everything and it's lovely to hear when these things are going to happen and everything. Because its a recognition of the sacrifice that he made and what sort of person he was and the heroic things that went on by the other officers there trying to save him. On May 29 last year, Gatton officer Senior Constable Barlow heard the message over the radio that officers Forte and Nielsen had spotted wanted criminal Ricky Maddisons ute and begun following him.

Immediately after the shooting, police believed Maddison had deliberately lured the officers back to his territory, after calling from a telephone box in Toowoomba and challenging officers to find him. The repeat offender had been convicted of assault and charged with torture at one point and had a grievance with the Toowoomba Tactical Crime Squad, according to police. By the time Maddison had driven down the hill from Toowoomba, the crew from Gatton and another from Helidon had joined in. He avoided road spikes before driving off the edge of the highway, eventually ending up on Wallers Road, where he seemed to lie in wait for the first car to come over the hill. Senior Constable Barlow heard the shots first, before the Helidon crew started reversing back over the rise and Senior Constable Nielsen shouted for help over the radio.

Confronted with such a heavily armed offender, Senior Constables Hill and Barlow and Constable Poulton knew their cars would be too large a target, so ran along a driveway up to the scrub and down the hill to rescue their colleagues. It was daunting, Senior Constable Barlow said. At first when we got out of the car, our training kicked in.   When we got to the actual scene, the police vehicle was on its side. The siren was blaring out. It was quite overwhelming but, as I say, we knew what we had to do.

All the while Senior Constable Nielsen was firing back at Maddison with nothing but her police service handgun. When the other three arrived, Constable Poulton laid down cover fire as officers Nielsen and Barlow kicked in the window to rescue their dying colleague. Despite the gunfire, Senior Constable Barlow started first aid, before Constable Poulton raced away from the area in a squad car with Senior Constable Forte on board, according to the bravery citation. We didnt know where he was but we could certainly hear machinegun fire, Senior Constable Barlow said. We didnt know whether he had us in his sights or what he was doing.

Realising they were outgunned, officers Barlow, Nielsen and Hill retreated once the car was safely away. Ten months on, the extended Forte family will gather in Narangba for Easter, where Stuart promises there will be a massive Easter egg hunt as Brett loved it last year. The 2018 awards will also recognise with the Star of Courage slain Lindt Cafe manager Tori Johnson for his role in calming the gunman in the December 2014 Sydney siege, and NSW man Antonio Rokov, who died saving the life of a 14-year-old boy in a skydiving accident. Also in Queensland, 65-year-old Norman Olsen will be posthumously awarded a Bravery Medal for freeing a woman from her partners assault in Toowoomba, on February 22, 2016. The woman was able to run from the scene, but Mr Olsen was punched in the head and fell backwards, fatally striking his head on the footpath.
A Victorian magistrate who failed to stop after sideswiping a parked ute must write a letter of apology and donate $650, but has been spared criminal punishment.

In his nine years on the bench Richard Pithouse has heard his share of driving offences, but on Wednesday he sat behind his lawyers as a NSW magistrate flown down to hear that case was told Mr Pithouse damaged a ute in a Spotswood street while driving a court-supplied Ford Territory on September 26 last year.

The ute had its tail light smashed, doors scratched and side mirror knocked off when Mr Pithouse hit it as he drove along The Avenue at 6.05pm. He later told police an oncoming car had its wheels over the middle white line, which forced him to swerve towards parked cars, prosecutor Jeremy McWilliams told Melbourne Magistrates Court.

Defence counsel Peter Morrissey, SC, said Mr Pithouse should have turned around but soon found himself on the West Gate Freeway, which made a return difficult.

Instead, he drove over the West Gate Bridge, went to his inner-city home and then to a local police station to report himself at 6.40pm. He told officers he was stunned and surprised after hitting the ute but didn't realise the damage he caused.
Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton. Credit:Justin McManus

Victorian police are set to be armed with military-style semi-automatic rifles as part of a contentious proposal designed to combat terrorism and the proliferation of gun-related crime.

The Age understands that police bosses are poised to give officers broader access to powerful long-arm guns to deal with high-risk incidents, such as sieges and terror events.

The weapons were likely to be stored in cars under lock and key, and some general duty police may have the authority to use the guns before Special Operations Group officers attended a scene.

Talk of the plan comes eight months before the Victorian election, where law-and-order will be a central battleground between the Andrews government and Matthew Guys Coalition.
The leader of a white supremacist group convicted over the murder of a Perth father has been charged with contempt of court after attempting to attack a former follower in the dock earlier this month.

Robert Edhouse was found guilty in the WA Supreme Court for the murder of Girrawheen man Alan Taylor on March 12.

Corey Dymock and Robert Edhouse.

Moments after the verdict was read out, Edhouse lashed out at former follower Corey Dymock and attempted to punch him as they were being led away.

The two had to be pulled apart by several security guards, and guards held Edhouse down on the ground in the dock as he shouted obscenities.
After the Joint Development Assessment Panel also rejected the proposal, the developer took their case to the State Administrative Tribunal, who asked JDAP to reconsider - and they did. Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage Director General Gail McGowan detailed just how the Development Assessment Panel (DAP) was able to make the back-flip. "Like local councils, DAPs can only make decisions in accordance with the applicable local planning scheme and policies," she said. Public consultation is undertaken by local governments - when required in the local planning scheme - for development applications submitted to a DAP. "Only one presentation against the Vera Street application was made at the original JDAP meeting.

However while the Vera Street development didn't have a huge amount of community opposition, it was in contention with local density codes set out by City of Bayswater officers, who knocked it back for this reason. But the city officers' objections didn't seem to matter, and the project was given the green light. And just months earlier, a private developer put forward the controversial "Meltham Station Precinct Structure Plan", which would see density up to six storeys high built within 800 metres of the local train station. The proposal was expected to bring in some 5000 new residents, and after five years of knockbacks by the council, an improved version of the plan was approved by the Western Australian Planning Commission. WAPC chair Eric Lumsden said it considered the proposal on its individual merits and in association with relevant planning policies.

The Commission considered the Meltham Station Precinct Structure Plan in October 2017, five years after the City of Bayswater identified the need for more detailed planning to occur around the station as part of its 2012 Local Housing Strategy," he said. The City of Bayswaters recommendations were considered as part of the Commissions overall deliberations. "The City also requested several modifications to the structure plan that were supported by the WAPC and contained in its schedule of modifications, including the identification of various sites for potential streetscape improvement. Extensive community consultation was undertaken as part of the planning process and the WAPC heard deputations from people who made submissions both for and against the proposal. An amendment to the City of Bayswaters Town Planning Scheme No. 24 is required before the structure plan can be implemented."

And if the WAPC is correct, more community consultation is on the way. Why even ask? But last year, City of Bayswater Mayor Dan Bull raised an issue - why are you asking if you don't want to know? Mr Bull lashed the WAPC at the end of last year in regards to the decision, saying he was concerned the authority had established itself a reputation for out-of-touch decision making. "We saw it with their decision to ignore council and allow significant development adjacent to the Eric Single Bird Sanctuary," he said.

"We also saw it with the recent decision on a town planning scheme amendment that the city proposed to control the proliferation of out of scale, lookalike apartments through the city's Character Protection Areas, and now we've seen it with the Meltham Station Precinct Structure Plan. "Why bother consulting with the community and with council if you're going to ignore the feedback you receive. "This matter needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency." And it's a crossover of both the SAT and the WAPC that appear to have concerned Bayswater locals who, according to their local MP and mayor, feel the big agencies and authorities aren't listening to them when it comes to developments in their own backyards. WA's planning authorities have now granted - or nudged along - approval to three City of Bayswater projects which had initially been knocked back by the council and the local community.

The Meltham Station structure plan. Credit:Engage Bayswater Councils are 'losing their teeth' When Perth residents hear about a controversial development springing up in their area, the attention, and often the blame, regularly turns to local councils. Councils are often in charge of reading developers the riot act before giving the green light or knocking back any projects put before them, but according to Labor parliamentary secretary and member for Morley Amber-Jade Sanderson, it's become clear in recent years local governments seem to be losing their teeth. Councils can offer recommendations, conditions and management plans - but as Ms Sanderson says, developers are becoming less and less concerned with abiding by local government regulation as they find ways around local planning laws.

Morley MP Amber-Jade Sanderson with Premier Mark McGowan. "The Crimea Reserve phone tower was not in keeping with the City of Bayswater's policy on telecommunications towers, and the proponent was well aware of that," she said. "Their other option was to go to the SAT. "Ultimately it was just built into their cost of doing business if you like - that they'll end up at the SAT and they'll get a more favourable decisions." Ms Sanderson was prompted to bring up the issue in WA Parliament last week after receiving a frustrated letter from the City of Bayswater expressing their concerns about the SAT, and the sheer number of projects currently in development in their area at odds with local planning laws and the feelings of the community.

"It's frustrating for the community to engage at local government level in the development of those policies and processes, when they just get overridden at the SAT level," she told WAtoday. Ms Sanderson said the SAT's recent decisions had opened the door for other non-compliant development applications because developers only see local councils and the JDAP as "a part of the process", and push through to the SAT for their desired outcome. 'Floods' of complaints about the SAT Ms Sanderson said she had witnessed the Attorney General receive a "flood" of complaints over recent years in regards to decisions made by the SAT, and said a bit of detective work was able to pinpoint where the issue had stemmed from. If you've had anything to do with development or planning in WA, the name Judge David Parry will have popped up once or twice.

He is an expert in the town planning area and was appointed to SAT in 2003 - then named the Town Planning Appeal Tribunal. He eventually became a deputy president of the SAT and sat as a District Judge for five years. Judge Parry focused mainly on planning matters until early 2016, when he was not reappointed to the position by the previous government. Ms Sanderson said this decision had dire consequences - and they were made the most evident in the City of Bayswater. "There was no planning expertise in relation to the decision-making," she said.

"That has created a whole range of issues, not just in the City of Bayswater. "The Attorney General [said he] received floods of complaints before we won the election and after, from a whole range of stakeholders that the SAT planning division was out of step because it was making decisions without planning legal expertise." So after years of fighting for control of their own neighbourhood, Ms Sanderson said Morley and Bayswater locals should be happy to hear Judge Parry was reappointed to his post by Attorney General John Quigley in September last year. In his address to parliament on the matter, Mr Quigley said it was one of the first steps he made as the new Attorney General, and initially removing Judge Parry from his post had been a serious mistake. "I hope all local governments can expect some better decisions out of the SAT planning decisions, - as well as the developers," Ms Sanderson said.

"[Hopefully there will be] more consistency, and decisions that are based around planning law and not around other areas of law that those people had expertise in. "Local governments don't always get it right and they don't always do the right thing in terms of keeping and updating their planning codes and their planning policies, but in this instance the city had done that." Current Education Minister Sue Ellery raised concerns about the failure to re-appoint Judge Parry when she was in the opposition. Credit:Hansard Too little, too late? Two projects set to alter the landscape and amenity of Bayswater - in both arguably good and bad ways - will enter either the development or construction phase in coming months, and it's seeming more and more likely the area will pay the ultimate price for a lack of expertise within the SAT in recent years.

In a statement to WAtoday, Mayor Bull said while the council welcomed any improvement to the current SAT's decision-making process, it was important to move swiftly considering the damage already inflicted on some of Bayswater's local landmarks. "The city strongly believes that SAT's decision making process needs to take account of the impact of planning and development applications on local communities and the amenity of the area," he said. "It also needs to more effectively take local government planning policies into account. "The community needs a voice and the perception at the moment is that the decision-making is unaccountable and made irrespective of the impact on local people. "That needs to be remedied and any initiative that helps to redress the balance is to be welcomed."
A 2017 Data Analysis Australia review of all the evidence found the CSIRO methods and reports were inadequate to claim the emissions safe for rock art. The WA government has acknowledged the DAA review and Professor Blacks concerns in its Draft Burrup Rock Art Strategy, released last September for public comment with the aim to address the limitations of the past monitoring and analysis program. The senators had to review such complex evidence it took them a year longer to complete their report than planned. The final report was so fraught with tension none of the factions represented could agree on one set of recommendations. The Greens recommended stringent controls on industry, including measures of existing emissions and for all industry on the Peninsula to comply with zero acid emissions within one year. A photograph of air pollution in the area taken by a Karratha resident.

They recommended the Yara Pilbara Technical Ammonium Nitrate Production Facility (TANPF) be relocated to Maitland Industrial Estate 20 kilometres away and no further industrial development approvals be issued for the Burrup itself. Labor recommended further industry be approved only under strict guidelines. Both recommended new programs to track emissions and air quality and more tourism spending to bring long-term employment and economic opportunity to the region. Both recommended giving equal funding and powers to the Murujuga Corporations indigenous rangers. They co-manage the national park with the Department of Biodiversity Conservation and Attractions, but, not being government staff, cannot enforce regulations around camping, fires and vandalism. The Coalition senators rejected the scientific evidence given by Professor Black and others and made no recommendations.

Throughout this inquiry, Coalition Senators have remained concerned over the committee's refusal to consider the weight of the evidence over the economic value the construction of the Yara Pilbara TANPF will bring to the Pilbara and Western Australia, and their continued support for a World Heritage listing of the Burrup Peninsula, its comments read. The Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation Ranger team. Credit:Jarrad Seng. But all parties agreed the engravings were of immense cultural and spiritual significance to Aboriginal people, and of equally immense national and international archaeological and heritage value... and should be protected and conserved for current and future generations. They all noted a lack of engagement with the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation in matters to do with the Burrup, and a lack of investment in tourism, as while concept designs and some funding are in place for a Murujuga Living Knowledge Centre at Conzinc Bay, more funding is needed to make the project a reality. They all also noted the community remained in the dark about the potential costs and benefits of a potential World Heritage nomination, and that the push to progress a nomination had been principally pushed by outside parties.

One was Friends of Australian Rock Art, of which Professor Black is a member. Professor Black said Coalition senators had ignored the basic chemical principles that acidity of the rock surfaces was dissolving the patina and destroying the rock art. He said industry development and permitted levels of emissions had been based on discredited CSIRO reports, now stated as superseded by CSIRO. "The acidity of rock surfaces has already increased 1000-fold and this is dissolving the rock patina now and destroying the art. We just do not have measurements as to how fast this is occurring," he said. Loading

This claim by the Coalition senators has now compromised the actions needed to save the petroglyphs for future generations." Murujugas Peter Jeffries said the traditional owners also believed the report did not go far enough. We are happy the report has come out and put the spotlight on the Burrup  its a good thing, he said. But a lot of people will be disappointed that there wasnt unity, or agreement on a way forward. He said the Corporation wanted increased powers for its park rangers and time for meaningful community consultation on a potential World Heritage nomination. There was internal support at the Corporation but the communitys concerns needed to be addressed.

The Corporation also wanted further industrial development confined to the Maitland Industrial Estate, and current emissions brought under control. We also agree with the clear recommendations that there needs to be a more rigid and structured monitoring process for emissions on the Burrup. We need the right information provided to industry, government, and all the people who have an interest, for a plan to look after the rock art for future generations, he said. We need a seat at the table and to share the opportunity to mould these plans, he said. We want to create a tourism precinct ... the opportunity to create a sustainable future. Environment Minister Stephen Dawson said the government was in the final stages of compiling responses to issues raised during consultation on the draft Burrup Rock Art Strategy.
Canberra based Girls Takeover Parliament co-founders have been named on Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2018 list, which recognises young innovators and leaders in the region.

In October last year, Ashleigh Streeter-Jones and Caitlin Figueiredo joined forces with 15 other local girls who shared their ambitions for high office in a "takeover" of Parliament House. The young women, aged between 17 and 30, each hijacked the seat of a federal MP.

Ashleigh Streeter (left) and Caitlin Figueredo Girls Takeover Parliament co-founders have been named on Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2018 list. Credit:Suppled

The pair were named "youthful visionaries" by Forbes for challenging conventional wisdom and rewriting the rules for the next generation of female leaders.

The "takeover" program, run in conjunction with Plan International Australia, made history by being the world's largest political takeover, Ms Streeter-Jones said.
Which is why the growing interest in new forms of public engagement ought to be encouraged, and scrutinised. Deliberative democracy is often touted, if misunderstood. A quote from Barak Obama might help: "(Our system of government is) designed to force us into a conversation, a 'deliberative democracy' in which all citizens are required to engage in a process of testing their ideas against an external reality, persuading others of their point of view, and building shifting alliances of consent."

Australia is home to world leading experts in deliberative democracy and the related, but not synonymous 'minipublics' such as Citizens' Juries. Nearly two decades ago there was little political appetite for this work, but in our research undertaken by the Centre for Deliberative Democracy we were encouraged by public participants who took their job as citizen jurors very seriously.

Ironically, one of our very first minipublics elicited the most memorable participant comment, that "it was wonderful to be involved in one of these processes, before the politicians get hold of them and stuff them up".

We hope she's wrong, but there is serious risk that genuine, inclusive, democratic innovation does not survive, let alone transform the way we do politics. Especially if media is cut out of the frame.

Minipublics, such Citizens' Juries, may be deliberative in terms of quality of debate, but their democratic potential is only achieved if they help deepen and slow down and democratise the wider political discourse beyond political management. That is only achieved to the extent they interface with the wider public, including via the media, allowing citizens to catch up and make their own judgements. Minipublics should not be used as a short cut or for political cover.
Larissa Petfield will never forget the moment her husband Ric pulled up at the house and started screaming: their daughter was injured.

The family had spent the day out on their remote 22,000 hectare station in south-west Queensland, mustering cattle. Larissa had come back to the house in the truck but Clare - just 18-months-old - wanted to ride back with Ric on the quad bike.

About 10 kilometres from home, disaster struck: one of the bike's tyres bit into a truck track and suddenly flipped on its side. As they fell, Ric did his best to shield Clare from injury but they both hit the ground hard.

Ric broke a rib; Clare landed on her head. Her face was cut and bleeding. She was dazed and soon started drifting in and out of consciousness.

Ric tried to call for help but couldn't raise anyone on the radio. So he flipped the bike back onto its wheels, bundled Clare into his arms and made for home. He talked to her the whole way in a bid to keep her awake.
Uber is about to test the willingness of Sydneysiders to walk further and wait longer for a ride  and to share their journey with a stranger.

The carrot for people to use UberPool  effectively the equivalent of UberPool Express in the US  is that the ride-sharing giant claims it will be up to half the cost of a typical UberX journey.

When it is launched in Sydney next Tuesday, UberPool will cover an area from Bondi in the east to Leichhardt in the west, and from Sydney Harbour in the north to Mascot in the south.

Uber has chosen this area because it is where it calculates the largest concentration of people in Sydney head in the same direction, at the same time of the day, such as from Bondi to the central business district in the morning, and in the opposite direction in the evening.
A fixated persons unit set up in the wake of Sydneys deadly Lindt Cafe siege has lead to charges against 17 people, some of whom were on the cusp of some pretty terrible things, New South Wales Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said on Wednesday.

More than 60 people have since been investigated by the unit, which was set up last year in line with recommendations from the NSW Coroner stemming from the December 2014 siege.

Lindt siege survivor Louisa Hope with NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller. Credit:AAP

Mr Fuller said 17 police offices attached to the unit were now working closely with health authorities to identify those at risk of committing extremist acts.

We talk about Lindt cafe, he said. Whats the best solution to Lindt? It wasnt long arms, it wasnt a new truck, it was how do you prevent it. The big push for me going forward is as much around prevention as it is around disruption and response.
It should be possible to forcibly stand down Queensland councillors charged with criminal offences, the state's crime watchdog boss says.

Crime and Corruption Commission chairman Alan MacSporran said if a serving councillor was charged with a criminal offence, the local government minister should have the powers to stand them down - with or without full pay - while their case was heard in court.

Crime and Corruption Commission chair Alan MacSporran says the local government minister should have more powers to stand down councillors charged with an offence. Credit:AAP

"Everyone is entitled to presumption of innocence, but fundamentally the first reason the minister should have that power in our view is to ensure that there's public confidence ongoing," he said.

Mr MacSporran's comments came a day after Logan mayor Luke Smith refused to stand down after being charged with official corruption and perjury arising from his appearance before the CCC's inquiry into four south-east Queensland councils last year.
London: The world is fed up with years of vexation and provocation from Russia and has decided to send the message enough, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said on Wednesday in a boisterous broadside aimed at the Kremlin.

Johnson used a speech to Londons diplomatic corps at the Lord Mayors Easter Banquet to thank the UKs allies  including Australia - who have joined in a mass global expulsion of Russian diplomats.

He also used it to chastise the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin for its disruptive and malign behaviour, saying the made-in-the-UK Star Wars movies had a better and more powerful influence on the world.

It marked a new level of angry rhetoric between Russia and Britain, coming after Russias Foreign Ministry directly accused British secret services of poisoning ex-spy Sergei Skripal as a political provocation.
Washington: A month before the 2016 presidential election, a campaign aide to Donald Trump directly communicated with a man he knew was a onetime Russian spy, according to a court filing by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Rick Gates, the campaign aide, told an attorney for a US law firm that a Russian national they worked with in Ukraine was a former military intelligence officer, according to the filing late Tuesday in Washington federal court.

Both Gates and the lawyer, Alex van der Zwaan, have pleaded guilty as part of Mueller's investigation of Russian meddling in the election. Gates spent a decade working for Paul Manafort, the indicted former Trump campaign chairman, as a political consultant in Ukraine.

Rick Gates, former deputy campaign manager for Donald Trump, exits Federal Court in Washington, DC. Credit:Bloomberg

The filing identifies the ex-spy only as Person A. The description of him by prosecutors as a person living in Moscow and Kiev who worked with Manafort and Gates in Ukraine matches that of Konstantin Kilimnik, their former colleague. Kilimnik has declined to comment on whether he was Person A.
Brasilia: At least two buses in the election campaign convoy of former Brazilian leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva were hit by gunfire on Tuesday, local time, according to his Worker's Party (PT).

The Secretariat of Public Security of Parana said in a statement that it was investigating the incident and that Lula was not on the bus at the time of the attack.

Brazil's former president Lula , centre, takes photos with supporters in Quedas do Iguacu, Parana on Tuesday. Credit:AP

In the attack in Laranjeiras do Sul, in the southern state of Parana where highly charged corruption legal cases are being heard, a bullet left a hole in a bus with a second hitting the glass of another vehicle. Nails had also been placed along the convoy's route, piercing the tires of one bus, the PT said. No one was injured.
Renowned poet and playwright Patrick Friesen will debut a new theatre production in Winnipeg this week he describes as a spiritual play or stage poem inspired by his great-grandmothers remarkable and misunderstood life.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 28/3/2018 (1276 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Renowned poet and playwright Patrick Friesen will debut a new theatre production in Winnipeg this week he describes as a "spiritual play" or "stage poem" inspired by his great-grandmothers remarkable and misunderstood life.

A Short History of Crazy Bone opens tonight at Theatre Cercle Moliere, with performances through Sunday, April 8.

Friesen, who was born and raised in Steinbach, said his plays often begin as poetry.

"That borderline is pretty thin for me," he said. "For years, Ive tried to write conversational poetry."

This time around, a brief poem contained in his 1999 book Carrying the Shadow provided inspiration after an actor friend suggested he flesh out its central character, Crazy Bone, into a stage monologue.

"My first instinct is always to work with poetic languageso I wrote a whole raft of poems about this character. When I had written about 50 short poems, I had a sense of who this character would be. And then I started writing the play," Friesen explained.

The 71-year-old, who has won a Manitoba Book Award and been shortlisted for the Governor Generals Literary Award for Poetry, is known for working collaboratively in a variety of artistic media.

"I work out some of my own thinking that way," he said. "I never think of it as keeping busy."

Directed by Andraea Sartison and choreographed by Tanja Woloshen, A Short History of Crazy Bone features a five-member cast that includes Steinbach actor Tracy Penner.

"Shes actually my second cousin," Friesen noted.

The plays titular character, played by Tracey Nepinak, was inspired by Friesens memories of his Mennonite great-grandmother, Anna Sawatzky, who immigrated to an Altona-area farm from Ukraine in 1874.

She died in 1956, after taking turns living with her grandchildren, including Friesens mother, Margaret.

SUBMITTED PHOTO Patrick Friesen, an award-winning playwright and poet who was born and raised in Steinbach, said he hopes the play leaves audiences pondering human diversity and meaning-making. The production fictionalizes the life of his Mennonite great-grandmother, Anna Sawatzky.

He recalled a generosity that suffused Sawatzkys personality.

"She had a big trunk, and shed open it and give everyone something," he said.

"Thats the kind of character she was. She just gave of herself but was considered a bit of an outsider."

Revealing her back story in bits and pieces, the play chronicles Crazy Bones psychological journey of redemption after fleeing a psychiatric institution.

"Some people think she was crazy, which is what we call people who dont fit in," Friesen said.

"But that story isnt the centre of the piece. Its more a revelation of this persons eccentric way of thinking."

Friesen said he hopes to leave audience members mulling the many ways that humans "try to redeem their lives" or "make sense of their lives."

The plays prairie backdrop is no coincidence.

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"Thats just the natural landscape in my mind," said Friesen, who resides in Victoria, B.C.

After more than 40 years of publishing, his Steinbach upbringing continues to inform his work.

"Its a lifetime of shaking off the things you dont want, other things you keep, and some things stick to you that you didnt know stuck to you," he said.

He called Steinbachs backyards and bicycle paths "permanently part of my imagination."

"I gravitate towards Manitoba. Its my home base in a funny way even though Ive been gone for 20 years," he said.

Tickets to A Short History of Crazy Bone range from $10 to $27 and are available online at theatreprojectsmanitoba.ca, or by calling 204-989-2400.
David Hogg, Steve King. Photo: Getty Images

This weekend, Iowa Republican representative Steve King posted a meme to his Facebook account mocking Florida school-shooting survivor Emma Gonzalez for wearing a Cuban flag. The meme used a photo of the Parkland student delivering a moving speech at Saturdays March for Our Lives rally in Washington.

Photo: Steve King/Facebook

(This isnt the first time King, known for his anti-immigrant stance, attacked a Latinx women on social media.)

Other survivors of the Florida school-shooting tragedy quickly defended Gonazalez. Monday, Parkland student and visible #NeverAgain leader David Hogg stood up for Gonzalez on Twitter. He also called on Cuban American Florida senator Marco Rubio to have a word with King. Fellow activists Cameron Kasky and Sofie Whitney joined Hogg with retweets.

She's a beautiful woman of Cuban descent and we love her. You would too if you ever got the chance to meet her. We need to love each other as Americans regaurdless of our descent, ethnicity or race. #LoveTrumpsHate https://t.co/yXdm0ISc7X  David Hogg (@davidhogg111) March 26, 2018

Also who's running against this guy  David Hogg (@davidhogg111) March 26, 2018

Hey @marcorubio @Emma4Change s family fled Cuba to escape totalitarianism and live in freedom just like your family could you please respond to @SteveKingIA  David Hogg (@davidhogg111) March 26, 2018

After receiving death threats, this group of outspoken teens isnt letting insults get in their way as they continue their fight against gun violence. Earlier this month, Hogg encouraged Maine residents to run against a representative who targeted discriminatory comments against himself and Gonzalez.
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Donald Trump. Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

On Sunday night, adult-film actress Stormy Daniels gave her highly anticipated 60 Minutes interview, in which she shared salacious details about her alleged 2006 affair with Donald Trump. And while the president may not have publicly responded to the interview yet (which, to him, means tweeting about it), he reportedly cant stop talking about it privately, according to the Washington Post.

The Post notes that Trump was one of the estimated 22 million Americans who watched Danielss 60 Minutes segment on Sunday night. Since then, the president has reportedly been telling people that her allegations are a hoax. A source told the Post that Trump doesnt think Daniels sounded credible in the interview. To prove his point, he apparently keeps telling people that he doesnt find Daniels attractive.

The president has been continually asking those around him whether the scandal is hurting his polling numbers, and he also talked about it at the Mar-a-Lago club this weekend with club members. Another source told the Post that Trump thinks the scandal will blow over.

But White House staffers dont appear to be so sure about that. Per the Post:

Inside the West Wing, senior officials believe Danielss account to be largely credible and consider it a serious news story that could deal real and lasting damage to the president, according to one of Trumps advisers.

Trump apparently thinks his supporters will stick by him  just like they did after his Access Hollywood tape  but some friends told the Post that the scandal is putting a strain on his marriage to Melania. On Monday, the First Ladys spokesperson responded to the interview with a request that the press keep their son, Barron, out of news stories about it. Melania also did not return to D.C. with her husband, instead deciding to stay at Mar-a-Lago for what is being called a previously scheduled spring break vacation.
Larry Nassar. Photo: Jeff Kowalsky/AFP/Getty Images

In January, former USA Gymnastics doctor and osteopathic physician at Michigan State University Larry Nassar was sentenced to up to 175 years in prison for sexually abusing over 140 women and girls. According to a new report from the Lansing State Journal, that same month, MSU paid a public-relations firm over $500,000 to monitor social-media activity surrounding Nassars case, including tracking the accounts of his victims and their families.

Weber Shandwick, the New Yorkbased firm hired by MSU, reportedly summarized news stories and kept track of how much attention certain social-media posts were getting online. They then emailed the information to MSUs outside attorneys working on the Nassar case, as well as thenMSU president Lou Anna Simon, the members of the board of trustees, and the universitys in-house attorneys. Per the State Journal:

As the first week of Nassars sentencing hearing wrapped up, the firm detailed to MSU communications staff some of the new development that were driving conversation, including victim impact statements by Raisman and fellow Olympic medalist Jordyn Wieber, the news that the Attorney Generals Office would open an investigation into the universitys handle of the Nassar matter and the MSU trustees affirmation of support for President Simon, which was largely met by disbelief and anger on social media.

That the university would hire a PR firm, and that a PR firm would monitor social medias reaction to the case is not surprising. It makes sense that a multi-million-dollar business would invest in some image repair. However, the amount of time and money MSU spent tracking victims statements during the trial stands in stark contrast to what little effort they apparently made to act on the allegations of Nassars sexual misconduct, which date back to the 90s.

MSU is currently being sued by dozens of Nassars former victims, and both the Department of Education and the Michigan attorney generals office have opened investigations into the university.
Photo: Susan Meiselas/Magnum Photos

Susan Meiselas, the acclaimed photojournalist known for her photographs of revolutionaries in Nicaragua and carnival workers in America, just released a retrospective, entitled Meditations. Broken into sections devoted to noteworthy eras in her decades-long career, the book reveals the making of a pioneer in documentary photography.

Born in Baltimore in 1948, Meiselas went on to study at Sarah Lawrence and Harvard. During the 70s, she traveled to conflict zones in Central America, where her photographs of the Sandinista revolution earned her international renown. Her career has been driven by a focus on the intersection of identity and human rights, with work that examines concepts of borders, nationality, and class division. Subsequent subjects include scenes of daily life in New York and a photographic history of Kurdistan, which she curated from archival materials. Meiselas is also celebrated for her intimate photographs of strippers at traveling circuses, showcasing her empathy and sense of character.

Photo: Susan Meiselas/Magnum Photos

Photo: Susan Meiselas/Magnum Photos

Meiselass work has been exhibited in Paris, Madrid, Amsterdam, London, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York. In 1992, she was named a MacArthur Fellow in communications and journalism. The release of Meditations coincides with retrospective exhibitions, of the same name, in Paris, Barcelona, and San Francisco. However, if you cant make it to see her genre-defining photographs in person, pick up the book and look behind the scenes of one of Americas photographic living legends.

Photo: Susan Meiselas/Magnum Photos

If you buy something through our links, New York may earn an affiliate commission.
Only California, Illinois, and New York have banned the use of restraints on pregnant women. Photo: Dina Rudick/Boston Globe via Getty Images

On Monday, North Carolinas Director of Prisons Kenneth Lassiter signed new policy that largely forbids the use of leg and waist restraints on pregnant inmates, The Guardian reports. The policy change comes after the Atlanta-based reproductive justice organization SisterSong raised concerns about reports that two prisoners had been restrained during childbirth at the North Carolina Correctional Institute for Women.

The new policy still allows for female inmates to be cuffed at the wrist while being transported, but maintains that the restraints, barring reasonable grounds to believe the offender presents an immediate, serious threat of hurting herself, staff or others or an immediate, credible risk of escape, should come off as soon as contractions begin and remain off during post-birth skin-to-skin bonding.

North Carolina joins 18 other states in addressing the issue, but six states  Utah, Nebraska, Kansas, Indiana, Georgia, and South Carolina  have no policies in effect banning or restricting the shackling of female inmates in labor.

Last summer, U.S. senators Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren introduced the Dignity for Incarcerated Women Act, which would ban the shackling of pregnant inmates at the federal level. The American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, among many other medical organizations, strongly object to the practice. According to the ACLU, about 12,000 (6 percent) of the 200,000 female inmates in U.S. prisons and jails are pregnant at the time they are incarcerated.
A woman talks on the phone at the Airbnb office headquarters in the SOMA district of San Francisco, California, U.S., in August 2016. (Reuters/Gabrielle Lurie)

Airbnb to Start Sharing Chinese Host Information With Government

BEIJINGU.S. short-term rental service Airbnb said it would start disclosing host information to Chinese government agencies starting on Friday, as the San Francisco-based company complies with regulations in China.

Chinas strict regulations on residency require citizens and tourists to register their addresses with the police when they arrive in the country or stay at a hotel, within 24 hours.

The changes come after Airbnb shuttered its service for a month in Beijing while the countrys annual parliament was in session, a time of increased surveillance targeting dissidents and migrants.

Airbnb China said in an email to hosts reviewed by Reuters that the decision is similar to other hospitality companies that do business in China, and users with concerns can deactivate their listings.

Airbnb China must comply with local laws and regulations, including privacy and information disclosure laws, it said.

Airbnb did not respond to a request for comment on the specific disclosures, but a spokesman said that it complies with Chinas laws.

In late 2016, Airbnb moved to store its data in China to meet the countrys requirements, sparking concern that user data would be compromised. It also launched a separate Chinese business to comply with the law.

China introduced a strict new cybersecurity law last year that requires foreign and local tech firms to store Chinese data locally and offer technical support to authorities who wish to access it.

Airbnb is expanding in China amid stiff competition from Chinese rivals Tujia.com and Xiaozhu.com, which also comply with the strict regulations and shutter their services during politically sensitive events.
Body Found in Shallow Grave in California Believed to Be Missing Actress Adea Shabani, Police Say

Los Angeles police have said they believe a body that was found decomposing in a shallow grave in northern California might belong to actress Adea Shabani who disappeared from Los Angeles last month.

The body was found on Monday, March 26, in Dry Creek in the Spenceville Wildlife Area about 50 miles north of Sacramento. An autopsy will be conducted on March 28 to determine the identity of the body and the cause of death.

#ICYMI: #LAPD Captain, William Hayes from Robbery Homicide Division (RHD) provided an update on the 25-year-old missing female, Adea Shabani. pic.twitter.com/dfV2r9vcp0  LAPD HQ (@LAPDHQ) March 28, 2018

At this point in time, we believe that those remains are the body of Ms. Adea Shabani, William Hayes, commanding officer of LAPDs Robbery Homicide Division, said at a press conference on March 27.

We cannot say that conclusively at this point in time because the condition of the remains prohibited positive identification.

We believe this to be a homicide, he added.

Shabani, 25, was reported missing by her family on Feb. 25 after they were unable to contact her for several days. Shabani had moved from Macedonia to Southern California two months before she disappeared, reported CBS News.

Police Double Down On Their Search Efforts For Missing Actress @AdeaShabani Following The Suicide Of Her Boyfriend ! On Thursday night, Adea Ex-boyfriend, shot himself to death, and the police are seeking out the missing Actress/Model who disappeared from Los Angeles last month. pic.twitter.com/29GjisUlX8  Rachid Enna (@LostRachid) March 24, 2018

Hayes said they believe Christopher Spotz, an actor who was believed to have been in a romantic relationship with Shabani, was somehow involved in her death even though he denied any wrongdoing before he shot and killed himself during a police standoff on March 22.

Police said Shabani was last seen on a security camera near her home around 1:15 p.m. on Feb. 23 when she left her residence in Hollywood with 33-year-old Spotz. The pair were traveling up to northern California, according to police.

Hayes said a lawyer for Spotz previously told investigators that the pair got into an argument on the same day while driving through Santa Clarita, reported NY Daily News. The lawyer said Spotz then dropped Shabani off on the side of the freeway in the area and has not seen her since. However, police said they currently do not have information to corroborate Spotzs statement.

Family and friends believe aspiring 25-year-old actress Adea Shabani is dead, and her boyfriend killed himself after last night's pursuit.https://t.co/iUW7BgIvnz pic.twitter.com/8Y0TIR1QgU  FOX 11 Los Angeles (@FOXLA) March 24, 2018

We dont believe that thats true, Hayes said during the press conference.

We have no corroborating information that supports his statements that he had an argument with her and put her out on the side of the freeway, he added.

Earlier in the investigation, police said they had traveled to the home of Spotzs parents in Northern California to gather more information. At that time, Spotz was spending time with his fiancee in Colorado.

Police then decided to placed a want on Spotzs vehicle  a 2015 Toyota Tacoma truck  in order to conduct further investigations.

Spotz and his car were eventually found by police on March 22 in the area of the 10 and 15 freeway, but when authorities tried to stop him, he fled the scene leading to a police chase. The chase ended at the Green River Road exit off of the 91 freeway in Riverside County where he then committed suicide in his pickup truck.

The California Highway Patrol said hed been driving a Toyota pickup truck that had a weapon that had possibly been used in a homicide which had occurred in Los Angeles County, reported the news station.

The police investigation is ongoing. No further details have been provided.

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Britains Corbyn Under Fire Over Russia, Anti-Semitism and Brexit

By Elizabeth Piper

LONDONBritish opposition leader Jeremy Corbyns path to the prime ministers residence at 10 Downing Street is not proving as smooth as the veteran socialist had hoped.

In June, with membership of his Labour Party on the rise, Prime Minister Theresa May bogged down in Brexit talks and her Conservative Party in chaos after an ill-judged snap election, Corbyn said he could be in office by Christmas.

Since then, Mays team has gained confidence thanks to a breakthrough in talks to leave the European Union and broad international support for her tough stance against Moscow over a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in Britain.

By contrast, the uneasy truce struck when May was on the ropes between Corbyns left-wing supporters and centrist Labour lawmakers at odds with his Socialist beliefs has broken.

In the space of a few weeks, rows over Russia, Europe and anti-Semitism, three divisive issues that have dogged Corbyn throughout his long career on the left of British politics, have erupted within Labour.

First, the 68-year-old veteran peace campaigner came under fire from some Labour lawmakers for not standing shoulder-to-shoulder with May in blaming Russia directly for the poisoning  instead saying Moscows culpability needed to be proven before rushing into a new Cold War.

Last week, Corbyn, instinctively wary of the EU which many leftists see as a capitalist club, was criticized by some prominent Labour lawmakers for sacking Owen Smith, a member of the partys shadow cabinet, which mirrors the government.

Smith had said there should be a second referendum on leaving the European Union as Brexit would damage the economy and could threaten peace in Northern Ireland.

This week, British Jewish groups protested against Corbyn outside parliament accusing the Labour leader, a vocal supporter of Palestinian rights and critic of Israel, of failing to tackle anti-Semitism within Labour ranks.

The question which is most alarming is the question of the Jewish protest against the Labour Party, Labour activist and Brexit campaigner Brendan Chilton told Reuters.

This is a big issue because if the Labour Party cant be seen to be standing up for minority groups  then you really have to ask what the Labour Party is for.

IN CONTROL

Corbyns supporters and even many of his critics do not believe the latest attacks spell the end of his term at the helm of Labour, a party he long criticized from within but few expected him to ever lead.

One source close to Corbyn said there was no reason for him to change his stance on Brexit or broader foreign policy issues.

Why would there be? the source said on condition of anonymity. This isnt a threat to Jeremys leadership.

Corbyn was unexpectedly elected leader in 2015, riding a wave of enthusiasm for change that has spread across Europe with voters flocking to anti-establishment movements that have emerged since the 2008 global financial crisis.

Since then, Corbyn has cemented his control over the partys structures, able to entrench his move to the left after leading Labour to a surprising success in Junes snap election by depriving Mays Conservatives of a parliamentary majority.

His anti-austerity agenda, with pledges to plow money into Britains stretched health service, schools, universities and social housing, struck a chord with voters jaded with the Conservative Partys rows over Brexit.

The left of the party is in the ascendancy still, I dont think it has peaked, said Chilton. In that respect, Jeremy Corbyn and the leaderships command  is still very much intact. It might be dented but it is still intact.

Corbyns team have long said centrists within the party, many of whose beliefs date back to when Labour was in power for more than a decade under Tony Blair, will seize on any opportunity to turn on their leader.

But the criticism of his stance over Russia and accusations of turning a blind eye to anti-Semitism have gone deeper than any previous attacks  trumping even the long-running debate within Labour over Britains departure from the EU.

Corbyn may have to come down on Labour members whose support for Palestinians can translate into anti-Jewish comments. He might even face pressure to expel some long-standing supporters such as former London mayor Ken Livingstone.

But Corbyn is unlikely to shift his position dramatically on Brexit, sources said.

One source close to his team of top policy advisers said Corbyn spends little time thinking about Brexit and had only agreed to move towards supporting a softer Brexit last month when aides convinced him it would fit with his world view.

Corbyns position on Russia over the nerve agent attack, however, has shifted.

We can therefore draw no other conclusion  than Russia has a direct or indirect responsibility, he said on Monday, as countries such as the United States, Germany and France expelled Russian diplomats in response to the poisoning.

His earlier prevarication over blaming Moscow has nevertheless spurred Conservative lawmakers to increase their criticism of a leader they say has, in the past, been too close to overseas organizations such as Palestinian group Hamas and Lebanons Hezbollah.

Corbyn says he now regrets describing members of those groups as friends. Hamas and the military wing of Hezbollah are both designated as terrorist organizations by Britain.

And some Conservatives now see a chink in his armor.

The historic fears the electorate have been warned about regarding Corbyns fitness for high office are now being brought by current events into sharp focus, said Conservative lawmaker Andrew Bridgen.

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Sukanya Pattersons $10 purchase of scratch-off tickets paid off in a big way. (Virginia Lottery)

College Students Wins Almost Half a Million With Scratch-Off Lottery Ticket

Radford University freshman Sukanya Patterson was heading home for spring break when she decided to buy a couple of lottery tickets. Now her education is paid forand more.

Patterson was headed back to Newport News, Virginia, when she stopped at a 7-Eleven next to the Radford campus. While checking out she decided to buy five Weekly Grand scratch-off tickets.

Weekly Grand refers to the possible top prize$1,000 per week for ten years.

The five tickets only cost $10, and odds were, she would at least win a free ticket.

She pocketed the tickets and went on her way. Later, she scratched off the paint to reveal the prizeand froze.

I didnt scream. I just froze, Patterson told ABC News.

What her scratching revealed was the grand prize$1,000 a week for a decade, or a single payout of $469,820.

According to the Virginia Lottery, the odds against winning are 4,222,800 to 1.

There were only four top-prize tickets out of the nearly 17 million Weekly Grand tickets printed, and Sukanya Patterson is the first person to find one.

Patterson, an interior design major at Radford University in Radford, Virginia, chose to get the lump-sum payout of $469,820. She said she plans to use the cash to fund her education.

Unless she is planning on grad school, she might find she has some money left overbut thats not a bad thing.

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President Donald Trump before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington en route to to Mar-a-Lago, Fla., on March 23, 2018. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

18 States Back Trump Admin Lawsuit Against California Sanctuary Laws

A coalition of 18 states filed a court brief on Monday to support the Trump administrations lawsuit against Californias sanctuary laws.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions sued California earlier this month, charging that its sanctuary policies are unconstitutional because they prohibit California state employees and officials from cooperating with federal authorities.

To support the lawsuit, attorneys general from states including Texas, Florida, Michigan, and Georgia filed a friend-of-the-court brief which points to legal arguments invalidating the California statutes and argues that neighboring states can be hurt by the influx of illegal immigrants from a sanctuary state.

Ive spent my career fighting to uphold the rule of law while Californias sanctuary cities policy thumbs its nose at the rule of law, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson said in a news release. States cannot be allowed to ignore federal laws they dont like, especially when doing so puts public safety at risk.

In the court filing, the attorneys general point to the Arizona v. Unites States Supreme Court decision which stated that Arizona could not preempt federal authority by seeking to increase immigration enforcement. Since Arizona couldnt preempt federal authority by increasing enforcement, California should be barred from decreasing it as well, they argue.

Under the rationale of Arizona, this is an even easier case as Californias laws designed to interfere with or block federal immigration enforcement must also [be] preempted, the court brief (PDF) states.

On the day after the attorneys general filed their brief, Californias Orange County defied its state sanctuary laws by voting to support the lawsuit as well. The Orange County Board of Supervisors voted in a closed-door session on Tuesday to join the Trump administrations legal battle against Californias sanctuary laws.

Last week, Los Alamitos, a small city in Orange County, was the first to vote to oppose Californias sanctuary laws. Since then, several other Orange County cities have signaled that they are considering similar actions. The Orange County Sheriffs Office also defied state law by publicly posting the dates that inmates would be released from custody.

The most common way sanctuary locales obstruct the work of federal immigration authorities is by refusing to honor requests by immigration enforcement officers to detain inmates after their release.

Sessions called such policies a radical, irrational idea that cannot be accepted, and that state laws cannot supersede federal statutes.

There is no nullification. There is no secession, Sessions said in California earlier this month. Federal law is the supreme law of the land. I would invite any doubters to go to Gettysburg, or to the tombstones of John C. Calhoun and Abraham Lincoln.

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NSW Supreme Court judge refused the bail of a 35-year-old father who is accused of murdering his 2-month-old daughter. (Screenshot via Google Maps)

Father Claims Cultural Reasons For Shaking, Biting 2-Month-Old Daughter

A father who is accused of murdering his 2-month-old daughter said he shook and bit the infant for cultural reasons.

The 35-year-old man from Sydney, who cannot be identified for legal reason, was refused bail at the New South Wales Supreme Court on Tuesday, March 27, after Justice Natalie Adams said that at the very least, the prosecutions case for manslaughter was strong, reported AAP.

The father was charged with murdering his daughter, who died of catastrophic brain injury on Nov. 13, 2015.

He pleaded not guilty to murder and domestic violence-related charges. The 35-year-old allegedly told police he had bitten and shaken the child for cultural reasons. He was on a bridging visa at the time of the incident.

The court heard the father kissed, bit and shook the baby in a misguided attempt to help the baby girl, according to the mans lawyer.

The father told the judge that he loved his daughter too much after the judge asked him about a friend who had noticed bruising on the girls cheek days before her death.

His response was not accepted by the prosecutor who said it was nonsense that kissing a child on the cheek could cause a bruise, reported the newswire.

On the day of the infants death, the mother said the baby was giggling and responsive but then she started crying. The father went to hold the baby girl while the mother went into the kitchen to prepare a bottle.

During that time she heard a loud scream and when she returned to the child, her husband allegedly looked shocked.

The 2-month-old child was taken to the hospital where she later died. The court heard that the infant had bruises on her body and marks that were consistent with bite marks. The cause of her death was a catastrophic head injury.

The child was also suffering from rib injuries that were apparently sustained when her father dropped her while putting her in the bath.

The mother said she had not seen the baby completely naked for some time as (the father) would not allow her to bath the victim, the judge said, according to AAP.

The father is currently in protection after being stabbed in jail as a result of being named in a media report. He is due to appear in court again on April 6.

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FCC Aims to Stop Foreign Spying Through the Technology Supply Chain

When most of us think of cyberattacks, we think of hackers breaching the networks of companies or governments, then proceeding to steal valuable data. In reality, many cyberattacks are more fundamentalexploiting vulnerabilities that work their way through the supply chain, in chips or devices that were already infected when they hit the market.

The issue of supply chain threats means that many devices are fundamentally breached through back doors and viruses installed on the inner parts of a device. Even if the user wiped the device, the vulnerability would remain. In past years, this was cited by many experts in the defense and cyber community as a threat not only for the customers and companies in the United States, but also for the military.

The problem is common in Chinese-made devices. Pre-installed spyware have been found in everything from Chinese smartphones to Chinese electric kettles. Chester Wisniewski, senior security adviser at cybersecurity company Sophos, told The Epoch Times in 2013: They could be in anything you plug in. Anything that gets power, this kind of thing can be hidden inside it.

This problem may soon be addressed, however. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai unveiled a proposal on March 26 to help resolve the threats to U.S. communications networks found in their supply chains.

Although the FCC alone cant safeguard the integrity of our communications supply chain, we must and will play our part in a government- and industry-wide effort to protect the security of our networks, Pai said in a statement

Threats to national security posed by certain communications equipment providers are a matter of bipartisan concern, he said. Hidden backdoors to our networks in routers, switchesand virtually any other type of telecommunications equipmentcan provide an avenue for hostile governments to inject viruses, launch denial-of-service attacks, steal data, and more.

Pai proposed in a draft notice that money from the FCCs Universal Service Fund should not be allowed to be spent on technology or services from companies that, according to the statement, pose a national security threat to United States communications networks or the communications supply chain.

While the statement does not name any companies or countries directly, many analysts noted it could have a direct impact on Chinese companiesespecially telecom companies Huawei and ZTE, which have in the past been listed as security threats.

Many other Chinese technology companies could also be affected by the policy, since many have been found in the past to have backdoors or other security threats in their products. Policies from the Chinese Communist Party could also impact tech firms, since Chinese companies are required to provide the regime with access to customer data.

Best Buy, the largest U.S. consumer electronics retailer, is allegedly cutting ties with Huawei, according to a source with knowledge of the matter. This follows a similar move from AT&T Inc. While Best Buy did not confirm the move, a company spokesman told Reuters, We make decisions to change what we sell for a variety of reasons.

Chinese chat and social media platform WeChat has also been recently accused of security threats. Indias defense ministry listed WeChat and close to 40 other Chinese apps as spyware in December 2017, and Russia blocked WeChat in May 2017 for violating laws on personal data.

In 2015, cybersecurity researchers found pre-installed spyware on smartphones from Chinese companies Lenovo, Huawei, and Xiaomi. Similar technology, which could allow spying on users through any function on the devices, has been found on many other forms of Chinese technology.

Pais proposal is meant to address these threats and others, and he called for a vote on it on April 17.

He said the proposal would prohibit the FCCs $8.5 billion Universal Service Fund from going to equipment from any company that poses a national security threat to the integrity of communications networks or their supply chains.

The money in the Universal Service Fund comes from fees paid by the American people, he said, and I believe that the FCC has the responsibility to ensure that this money is not spent on equipment or services that pose a threat to national security.
Florida Man in Suit, With Gun and Badge Claims to Be a Federal Marshal When Confronted by Police Officers

A man in Florida who was wearing a suit and had what appeared to be a gun on his hip drew attention after he entered a Best Buy last week.

The man also had a U.S. Marshals badge as he entered the Boynton Beach store on March 21, reported the Palm Beach Post.

Store employees recognized the man because hed been accused of stealing an iPhone X from the same location just a few days prior.

The police were called and officers approached the man, later identified as 61-year-old John OGrady.

OGrady told officers that he was a U.S. marshal, but he didnt have any identification that proved that nor could he refer the officers to a supervisor.

After he was pressed by officers, the man conceded he was not a marshal and said the firearm at his hip was actually a BB gun.



Officers arrested the suspect and he was charged with retail theft after they found the stolen iPhone in his vehicle.

Congratulations, you just impersonated a police officer, the officer said. Thats a federal offense.

OGrady was also charged with impersonating a police officer.

The interaction with the officers was captured on a body camera worn by one of them.

A representative for the Boynton Beach Police Department told CBS 12 that impersonating a police officer can lead to real confusion.

Members of the public dont know the difference and someones life could be at stake in that case, said Stephanie Slater, spokeswoman for the department.

Man impersonating a U.S. Marshal caught on video lying. https://t.co/gmTfq2hui1 pic.twitter.com/ZPs4EGiivN  WPEC CBS12 News (@CBS12) March 23, 2018

OGrady was released on bond and approached by the broadcaster.

Asked about his alleged crime of impersonation, he said, I didnt know it was illegal.

Part of the investigation seeks to find out how long OGrady was impersonating a U.S. marshal.

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Hero Pilot Dies Saving 2 Children From Drowning in the Gulf of Mexico

An American pilot who helped to save two children from drowning in the Gulf of Mexico has died, according to reports.

Michael Robidoux was visiting Navarre Beach in Florida on Saturday evening, March 24, when he spotted the children struggling to swim.

His wife, Laura, said he didnt hesitate to jump into the sea, WEAR-TV reported.

Authorities said Robidoux was swept away in the rough surf while attempting to rescue the two children.

His family and neighbors were shocked and saddened by the news, according to WEAR-TV, but said they werent surprised at what he did.

We lost a great military hero, a local hero and he wouldnt have it any other way, said his close friend, Dan Wood, to the broadcaster.

He died like he lived, serving people. He gave his life to save someone elses.

Michaels wife told WEAR-TV that Robidoux was most recently a pilot for Delta Airlines. He was previously an Eagle Scout, retired military pilot and a 23-year veteran in the Air Force.

According to Fox 10, the local sheriffs office tried to save Robidoux while two surfers nearby helped to pull the children to safety. After attempting CPR, Navarre deputies airlifted him to the hospital where he later died.

According to WEAR-TV, the two children were successfully rescued and are safe.

Speaking to the broadcaster, lifeguard Riley Tilghman said more lifeguards are needed on the beach to keep people safe.

Its definitely stressful, even simple tasks like going to the bathroom creates scenarios where we dont have [as] much coverage as we would like to have, Tilghman said.

They currently have nine lifeguards and are looking to hire six more, according to a Santa Rosa County spokesperson.

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Horse Found Dead in Oklahoma Believed to Have Been Killed in Gruesome Manner

A horse found dead in Oklahoma is believed to have been dragged to death, officials said.

Police in Shawnee were called around 5 a.m. on Sunday by someone who spotted the horse being dragged.

The officers went out there and seen that there was a bunch of blood and drag marks, Cpl. Vivian Lozano with the Shawnee Police Department told KFOR.

The trail of blood led about five miles to the town of Dale, where officers found a dead horse.

Lozano said the horse appeared to be dragged the whole way.

Thats what it looks like, Lozano said. Its still under investigation. We dont have very many details on it. But, yes, unfortunately.

WARNING: VIEWERS MAY FIND THE CONTENT OF THIS VIDEO DISTURBING



Police officers are asking any area residents who have information to contact them.

Lozano noted that it may have been animal abuse, or it may have been an accident.

He said if it was intentional, charges will be filed. A Facebook user said that it could have been intentional.

This is why you should always check your trailer floors! More than likely the horse fell through the trailer floor. Cant haul a 1500 pound horse on rotten wood. Poor, sweet animal, wrote Keely Merriman.



It could have been on accident [sic] without the owner knowing it fell through or out of the trailer Just a thought or someone is crazy and evil. But I would think someone would sell it before doing this. Even if its a lame horse people sell them to people that make dog food for a few hundred bucks. Hopefully, this was a tragic accident, another user added.

How could you drag a horse that fell off a trailer without noticing? I feel every bump and adjustment my horses make. Id like to hear more of this story. Someone has to know the farm it was left in front of, added another user.

One case of someone dragging a horse in the same state back in 2011 led to an arrest.

The man was charged with cruelty to animals and other charges after the horse had to be euthanized due to the severity of the injuries.

The man later pleaded not guilty, though its not clear what happened after that.

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Judge Gives Sentence to Illegal Immigrant Convicted of Killing Police Officer

The illegal immigrant convicted of killing a police officer in California was sentenced to death this week.

Luis Bracamontes showed no remorse after he said in court earlier this year that he wished he had killed more people.

I wish I had killed more of the [expletive], Bracamontes told the jury at the beginning of the trial. The only thing I [expletive] regret is I only killed two.

Bracamontes was convicted in February of murdering Sacramento County Sheriffs Deputy Danny Oliver and Placer County Sheriffs Detective Michael Davis Jr. in 2014.

The jury sentenced Bracamontes to death on Tuesday, reported the Sacramento Bee.

Family members of the victims believe that his profanity-laced outbursts were an act that was meant to help him avoid the death penalty. Defense attorneys had argued that Bracamontes was mentally ill and high on methamphetamine during the shootings, but a judge found him competent to stand trial and Bracamontes refused to plead not guilty by reason of insanity.

Family members said they smiled at Bracamontes after the verdict was read.

Hes a coward, said Olivers sister, Phyllis Sylvia.

We are very grateful for the jurys decision to sentence Luis Bracamontes to death for the murders of Det Michael Davis Jr. & Dep Danny Oliver. It is a just decision fitting for his crimes.  Placer Sheriff (@PlacerSheriff) March 27, 2018

I feel free to say it now, hes a despicable and evil human being and the death penalty is totally appropriate, added Placer Sheriff Devon Bell.

The Placer Sheriffs Department released a statement on Twitter after the verdict:

We are very grateful for the jurys decision to sentence Luis Bracamontes to death for the murders of Det Michael Davis Jr. & Dep Danny Oliver. It is a just decision fitting for his crimes.

Bracamontes was in the country illegally after having been deported twice, reported KCRA.

Juror Sam Wood said there was no other sentencing option.

The facts were laid out very well on both sides, but from the standpoint of the aggravating parts of this case, there was nothing we could find that justified, in any way, any other outcome than what we came up with, Wood said. We chose the verdict that for us matched the offenses that he committed.

Wood noted some jurors initially disagreed but all jurors ended in a unanimous decision.

The formal sentencing decision by the judge will come on April 25.

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Kim Jong Un Agrees to Denuclearize North Korea, China Says

North Korean communist dictator Kim Jong Un agreed to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Chinese state media announced on Wednesday.

Kim vowed to denuclearize in exchange for a pledge from Xi that China would remain North Koreas ally. The agreement took place during Kims four-day visit to Beijing, which was kept secret until China confirmed it on Tuesday night.

Kim had already agreed to discuss abandoning his nuclear weapons program at the planned meeting with President Donald Trump. Kims affirmation of that pledge is the latest confirmation that Trumps hard-nosed stance on North Korea is working. Kim signaled that he is looking to secure a peace deal in the upcoming summits with South Korea and the United States.

It is our consistent stand to be committed to denuclearization on the peninsula, in accordance with the will of late President Kim Il Sung and late General Secretary Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Un said, according to Xinhua, a Chinese state media.

The issue of denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula can be resolved, if South Korea and the United States respond to our efforts with goodwill, create an atmosphere of peace and stability while taking progressive and synchronous measures for the realization of peace, Kim added.

Chinese state media photos show Kim and his wife, Ri Sol Ju, meeting with Xi and his spouse, Peng Liyuan. The occasion marked the first foreign state visit for Kim since he took power. Kims father, Kim Jon Il, visited China in 2000.

Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan welcomed Kim Jong Un and his wife Ri Sol Ju at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing pic.twitter.com/qoK4nu12xF  People's Daily,China (@PDChina) March 28, 2018

Upon taking office last year, Trump was confronted with increasingly reckless behavior from North Korea. Kim tested several ballistic missiles and detonated what Pyongyang claimed to have been a hydrogen bomb.

Trump responded with threats of military action and backed up his rhetoric by sending several aircraft carrier groups to the Korean Peninsula. The president also spearheaded an international effort to sanction the communist regime.

Trumps efforts, though largely dismissed by mainstream media, have been lauded by world leaders. South Korean President Moon Jae-in credited Trump for bringing about the first talks between the two Koreas in years. That meeting led to North Koreas participation in the Winter Olympics, which resulted in a chain of events leading up to Wednesdays denuclearization announcement by Beijing.

For years and through many administrations, everyone said that peace and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula was not even a small possibility, Trump said in a Twitter message on Wednesday morning. Now there is a good chance that Kim Jong Un will do what is right for his people and for humanity. Look forward to our meeting!

Received message last night from XI JINPING of China that his meeting with KIM JONG UN went very well and that KIM looks forward to his meeting with me, Trump wrote in a follow-up tweet. In the meantime, and unfortunately, maximum sanctions and pressure must be maintained at all cost!

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Melee That Erupted Inside Wisconsin Walmart Caught on Camera

A brawl that erupted inside of a Walmart in Wisconsin was caught on camera.

The melee eventually spilled outside into the parking lot of the Walmart in Milwaukee near 103rd and Silver Spring, before police officers arrived.

The video was obtained by Fox 6, which noted that the fight started around 6:40 p.m. on March 26 near the checkout lanes.

As children watched, people began pushing, shoving, and even throwing punches.

The fight eventually spilled outside. Police officers arrived and intervened.

No arrests were made and its unclear what prompted the brawl.

Well, they should have. Somebody fighting where they have no business fightingthen they should have been given a citation, a customer said.

A Walmart representative told Fox 6 that the company is deeply concerned and referred additional questions to the Milwaukee Police Department.

Several other incidents broke out at other Walmarts this week.

Also in Wisconsin, two females were involved in an incident that prompted a police response. They were later arrested after leading police officers on a chase that reached speeds of up to 115 mph, reported Fox 6.

At a Walmart in New Hampshire, three people from Vermont were arrested on assault charges after one man apparently confronted another over the weekend over money allegedly owed to him, reported the Concord Monitor.

A woman later assaulted an off-duty police officer who had stepped in to try to break up the fight.

Crime often gets out of control at the discount chain, according to a report from Bloomberg. For example, more than 5,000 trips by police officers were made to just one Walmart in Oklahoma over the past five years, and its normal for the department to send a van over to transport everyone arrested there to jail.

Bloombergs review of police reports from dozens of stores suggested petty crimes committed on Walmart properties numbered in the hundreds of thousands in 2016.

But people dashing out the door with merchandise is the least troubling part of Walmarts crime problem. More than 200 violent crimes, including attempted kidnappings and multiple stabbings, shootings, and murders, have occurred at the nations 4,500 Walmarts this year, or about one a day, according to an analysis of media reports, the outlet stated.

Walmart is aware of the problem, Bloomberg noted and has launched a campaign to cut down on criminal acts committed inside the stores. The effort includes installing eye-level security cameras in high-theft areas and shifting employees from the storeroom and aisles to store exits, where they spot-check receipts.

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Missing 9-Year-Old Girl Finally Found After 2 Years

A 9-year-old girl who went missing for 2 years has recently been found, thanks to a tip generated by A&Es Live PDa police series.

Mariah Martinez was found safe on Monday night, March 26, in New Mexico. She was reported missing back in October 2016, FOX8 reported.

It was unclear where exactly she had been found.

#Missing child Mariah Martinez, 9, is SAFE thanks to #LivePD! After almost 2yrs, she was found last night in NM. Mariah was feat. on @OfficialLivePD Friday. We received a viewer tip & worked w/ @LubbockPolice & @NMSP to find her. Big TY for bringing home one of our @missingkids! pic.twitter.com/JCBE5TLYJ1  NCMEC (@MissingKids) March 27, 2018

Missing child Mariah Martinez, 9, is SAFE thanks to #LivePD! After almost 2yrs, she was found last night in NM. Mariah was feat. on @OfficialLivePD Friday. We received a viewer tip & worked w/ @LubbockPolice & @NMSP to find her, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) announced on social media.

The young girls mother, Amanda Martinez, disappeared with her three children in 2016 when she was about to lose custody of them. In January 2017, police found the women with two of her other children. But Mariah was not there, KBCD reported.

At this time, Mariahs mom is still in police custody, and we understand shes not cooperating at all, NCMEC spokeswoman Angeline Hartmann said on Live PD.

In 2016 an investigator with the Department of Family and Protective Services filed a missing person case on behalf of the three siblings. Mariah Martinez was 8, Jeremiah Martinez was 5, and Leimiah Martinez McGavok was 2 years old at the time, NBC affiliate WIS10 reported.

An affidavit obtained by KBCD reveals why police filed for the childrens emergency removal from their mother.

The report states that Child Protective Services talked to Jeremiah on Oct. 6, 2016. He told them that his mothers boyfriend, Issac Sanders, had punched him in the nose after a fight with her. He also said that Sanders had threatened to kill the whole family by driving into a pond.

On Oct. 17, teachers at Mariahs and Jeremiahs school reached out to Child Protective Services because the children had not been at school for a whole week, according to the report.

Meanwhile, on the same day, their mother, had tested positive for methamphetamine.

Child Protective Services then tried to contact the mother but by then she and all her children had vanished.

The mother was later arrested on felony charges after police received a call about their whereabouts by a family member, KBCD reported.

The Lubbock Police Department issued a statement on Tuesday thanking the NCMEC for its help.

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A motorcade believed to be carrying a North Korean delegation makes its way along Beijing's main east-west thoroughfare, Changan Avenue, in Beijing, China March 27, 2018. (Reuters/Damir Sagolj)

North Korean Leader Confirms Denuclearization Pledge During Beijing Visit

BEIJING/SEOULChina said on Wednesday it won a pledge from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to denuclearize the Korean peninsula after President Xi Jinping invited Kim to visit Beijing, according to Yonhap.

After two days of speculation, China announced on Wednesday that Kim had visited Beijing and met Xi during what the official Xinhua news agency called an unofficial visit from Sunday to Wednesday.

The trip was Kims first known journey abroad since he assumed power in 2011.

China has since briefed the United States on Kims Beijing visit, the White House said on Tuesday. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement, The Chinese government contacted the White House earlier on Tuesday to brief us on Kim Jong-uns visit to Beijing.

The briefing included a personal message from President Xi to (U.S. President Donald Trump), which has been conveyed to President Trump, Sanders said.

Sanders said that The White House sees this development as further evidence that our campaign of maximum pressure is creating the appropriate atmosphere for dialogue with North Korea.

Beijing has traditionally been the closest ally of secretive North Korea, but ties have been frayed by Chinas recent backing of tough U.N. sanctions as part of the maximum pressure campaign.

Xi told Kim on his visit that their traditional friendship should be passed on and developed better.

This is a strategic choice and the only right choice both sides have made based on history and reality, the international and regional structure and the general situation of China-North Korea ties. This should not and will not change because of any single event at a particular time, Xi said.

Xinhua published a photograph of Kim and Xi shaking hands in front of the flags of the two nations.

Speculation about a possible visit by Kim to Beijing was rife earlier this week after a train similar to the one used by Kims father was seen in the Chinese capital, along with heavy security and a large motorcade.

Kim was accompanied by his wife, Ri Sol Ju, Xinhua said.

Xi had accepted an invitation from Kim to visit North Korea, South Koreas Yonhap news agency said.

Improving ties between Kim and Xi could be a positive sign before planned summits involving the two Koreas and the United States, a senior South Korean official said on Tuesday.

Kim Jong Uns father, Kim Jong Il, met then-president Jiang Zemin in China in 2000 before a summit between the two Koreas in June that year. That visit was seen at the time as reaffirmation of close ties with Beijing.

By Ben Blanchard and Joyce Lee

Additional reporting by Melanie Sun

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Qatar Files Aviation Complaint Against Bahrain at U.N.

DUBAIQatar accused a Bahrain war plane of violating its airspace and has reported the breach to the U.N. Security Council, the state news agency QNA reported on Wednesday.

It did not provide any details about the incident which it said took place on Sunday, saying only that it was a serious breach that constitutes a serious and flagrant violation of international law.

On Monday, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain civil aviation authorities said two Qatari war planes had flown dangerously close to two civilian aircraft from the UAE while they were in Bahraini airspace, and that complaints would be lodged with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the United Nations aviation agency.

Qatar denied the claim in a statement by its civil aviation authority saying that the UAE was trying to cover up for its own violations of Qatari airspace.

The UAE, along with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt, imposed travel, diplomatic and trade sanctions on Qatar last June, accusing it of supporting regional foe Iran as well as Islamist extremists. Qatar has denied the charge and accused the four countries of trying to make it conform to their foreign policy positions.

Qatar in June 2017 asked the ICAO to intervene after its Gulf neighbors closed their airspace to Qatar flights as part of the sanctions.

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Remains Found in California Believed to Be Missing Actress

Police officers in California found a body in a shallow grave that they believe is missing actress and model Adea Shabani.

The 25-year-old was last seen in Hollywood on Feb. 23, having recently moved to the United States from Macedonia to pursue a modeling and acting career.

The Nevada County Sheriffs Office told CBS that detectives with the Los Angeles Police Department discovered the grave in Dry Creek in the Spenceville Wildlife Area.

The location is about 50 miles north of Sacramento.

An autopsy is planned on Wednesday to confirm the identity of the body.

At this point and time, we believe that those remains are the body of Ms. Adea Shabani, William Hayes, commanding officer of LAPDs Robbery Homicide Division, said at a press conference, reported the NY Daily News. We cannot say that conclusively at this point in time because the condition of the remains prohibited positive identification. We believe this to be a homicide.

A suspect in the case, 33-year-old Christopher Spotz, was killed himself during a standoff with law enforcement officials on March 22.

Body found in shallow grave believed to be remains of missing actress Adea Shabani https://t.co/i4s7g9qRDw  Entertainment Weekly (@EW) March 28, 2018

The chase and standoff started when San Bernardino County sheriffs deputies ran a license plate check and discovered Spotz was driving a stolen pickup truck that had been reported as having possibly been used in a homicide which had occurred in Los Angeles County, a California Highway Patrol statement obtained by the Mercury News said.

Spotz attended the same acting academy as Shabani and may have been her boyfriend.

After Shabani went missing last month, her family hired a detective and her mother flew in from Macedonia.

Family and friends believe aspiring 25-year-old actress Adea Shabani is dead, and her boyfriend killed himself after last night's pursuit.https://t.co/iUW7BgIvnz pic.twitter.com/8Y0TIR1QgU  FOX 11 Los Angeles (@FOXLA) March 24, 2018

Friends had urged anyone with information to come forward, noting that the woman, who was typically a prolific user of social media, hadnt posted anything online.

We tried calling her, messaging her, emailing her, Facebooking her, Instagramming herevery way, nothing, said Antonio Esocvar, a friend.

Shabani was described as 55 and weighing around 130 pounds, with blonde hair and blue eyes.

Anyone with information is urged to call the LAPD.

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Suitcase Killer Makes Seven-Minute Long Final Statement Before Being Executed

A Texas man convicted of killing two women was executed on Tuesday, March 27, after a seven-minute long statement in which he accused a district attorney of corruption.

Rosendo Rodriguez, 38, was convicted of raping and murdering 29-year-old Summer Baldwin in Lubbock in 2005.

Rodriguez had also confessed to killing a 16-year-old girl and stuffing her body into a suitcase before putting the suitcase in trash, reported CBS. He did the same to Baldwin.

A police investigation found that the suitcase was purchased and paid for by a debit card belonging to Rodriguez, reported Reuters. Baldwins blood was found in a hotel room where the suspect had stayed.

Before being executed, Rodriguez went on a seven-minute rant in which he accused Lubbock County District Attorney Matt Powell of covering up misconduct by the medical examiner.

The examiners testimony helped convict Rodriguez of the rape and murder.

He said there should be a civil rights investigation of Dr. Sridhar Natarajan, the medical examiner in Lubbock County, as well as Powell, reported the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.

Dozens if not hundreds of men and women were wrongly convicted due to illegal and wrongful actions of (Powell and Natarajan). They, too, need to be brought to justice, Rodriguez said.

The comments referred to a lawsuit against the examiner made by another party, reported the Houston Chronicle.

The convicted killer also said the death penalty should be abolished.

Texas executes 'suitcase killer' for murder of prostitute https://t.co/lNORk3zwPy pic.twitter.com/QClwzuZVFv  Reuters Top News (@Reuters) March 28, 2018

Stop the death penalty, he said. Do it to save my brothers in death row.

And he said that people should get to know those on death row.

I had the honor and privilege to know many prison guards and staff, he told onlookers. I want to thank all of them. I would like for everyone to write the people on death row as they are all good men and I am very happy I got to know them. All of their lives are worth knowing about.

Rodriguez received a lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital and was pronounced dead 22 minutes later.

The execution was the fourth this year in Texas and the seventh nationally, and came after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal to block the punishment.

Rodriguezs lawyers claimed that lower courts improperly turned down appeals that focused on the testimony of the medical examiner at the trial that ended in a murder conviction.

However, state lawyers said the appeal was nothing more than a last-ditch effort.

Texas has executed more inmates than any other state since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty back in 1976.

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Texas Homeowner Fatally Shoots Man Stealing Car From Driveway

A homeowner in Texas shot and killed a suspected robber late Tuesday, police said.

The situation took place around 11 p.m. in northeast Houston at a house in the 7400 block of Langley.

The homeowner said he heard a noise, prompting him to grab his gun and go outside.

The man said he saw another man trying to steal his pickup truck and started yelling at the man, reported Click2Houston.

HPD: Homeowner fatally shoots man stealing car in driveway https://t.co/e0XY6VJLiO  Houston Chronicle (@HoustonChron) March 28, 2018



An altercation occurred and the homeowner shot the suspected robber, Houston Police Department Lt. Larry Crowson told the Houston Chronicle.

The alleged robber was pronounced dead by responding officers.

No one else was injured at the scene.

Police officers said theyre waiting to see if charges will be filed or if the case will be referred by prosecutors to a grand jury.

According to the Texas Tribune, the state passed a law in 2007 that removed the duty for a person who is being attacked to retreat, provided the person has the right to be present at the location where the force is used.

Under the law, a persons use of deadly force will be presumed reasonable if someone enters, or attempts to enter, that persons occupied home, vehicle, or workplace unlawfully and with force,' the Tribune stated.

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Robert Lighthizer, U.S. trade representative, testifies during a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on March 22, 2018. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

Trump Announces His First Trade Win

Washington reaches a trade agreement with South Korea that reduces Korean steel exports and increases US auto exports

WASHINGTONThe Trump administrations tariffs on steel and aluminum imports seem to be bearing fruit.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and South Koreas Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong have reached a trade agreement in principle, according to the White House.

Once finalized, this would be the first renegotiation of a trade deal in U.S. history, said a senior administration official on March 27.

The agreement tackles currency manipulation, as well as many trade issues faced by U.S. exporters, mainly auto producers.

The United States already has a free trade deal with South Korea known as the U.S.Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS). It was initially negotiated in 2007 and went into effect in 2012 under the Obama administration. The trade deficit with South Korea roughly doubled after Obama signed the deal.

Hence, Trump called KORUS horrible and asked the U.S. trade representative to enter into talks with Korea to fix the agreement.

The administration has recently gained leverage by threatening South Korea with the Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs.

According to the new agreement, South Korea will be subject to a 10 percent tariff on aluminum. With respect to steel, however, it will be exempt from tariffs. Instead, the United States will impose a quota on Korean steel.

The quota will be product specific and equivalent to 70 percent of the average annual export volume based on the last three years average.

Through this deal, United States will be able to achieve a 30 percent reduction in steel imports by volume and value, said the senior administration official.

This is a huge win, as South Korea is one of the key exporters of steel, he added.

As part of the deal, the United States has also gained concessions for automotive exports. The current KORUS deal imposes many barriers to U.S. automotive producers and roughly 80 percent of the trade deficit in goods with Korea is in auto and auto parts, according to the White House.

According to the new agreement, the United States will maintain its 25 percent tariff on pickup truck imports from Korea for an additional 20 years, instead of three years under the existing trade deal. The tariff will now phase-out by 2041.

South Korea will also increase its annual cap for cars that meet U.S. safety standards but not Korean standards from 25,000 to 50,000 per manufacturer.

We have doubled the export opportunity for our producers and workers, said the official.

In addition, Korea has agreed to eliminate some regulatory barriers for U.S. auto exporters. For example, U.S. vehicles will not be subject to additional environmental testing. Koreans have agreed to align their environmental testing standards with the standards of the United States.

In addition, Koreans have agreed to level the playing field for American pharmaceutical exporters.

Koreans welcome the news that the negotiations have removed the uncertainty that had been brought by the U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs, said Eom Chi-sung, secretary general of the Federation of Korean Industries.

According to Chi-sung, the Korean steel and auto industries, in general, are not happy with the outcome of the deal.

In negotiations, we know that we cannot get everything we want, he said.

Korea had to make concessions to the U.S. auto industry, and in return it received something from the United States in steel and aluminum, even if it is not satisfactory, he added.

Besides the new trade deal, there will be a side agreement to tackle currency manipulation, which is a trade-distorting practice used by countries to boost exports.

Under this agreement, being negotiated by the Treasury Department and the South Korean finance ministry, South Korea would commit to new rules on transparency and accountability with respect to its monetary policy.

The currency agreement would not be part of the actual trade agreement, as it requires a lengthy legislative process. Hence the administration officials acknowledge that because it is not part of the actual trade agreement, there are no real means of enforcing it.

However, they believe it is an innovative addition to the deal and could be implemented in trade negotiations with other countries.

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Trump Stands in Solidarity With California County That Defied State Sanctuary Laws

President Donald Trump expressed his support for Californias Orange County on Wednesday on the heels of news that its board voted to join the Justice Departments lawsuit against the states sanctuary laws.

My Administration stands in solidarity with the brave citizens in Orange County defending their rights against Californias illegal and unconstitutional Sanctuary policies, the president wrote on Twitter. Californias Sanctuary laws release known dangerous criminals into communities across the State. All citizens have the right to be protected by Federal law and strong borders.

The Orange County Board of Supervisors voted 3-0 on Tuesday to join a lawsuit filed by the Justice Department earlier this month against Californias sanctuary policies. The vote came one day after attorneys general from 18 states filed a court brief in support of the lawsuit.

Los Alamitos, a small city in Orange County, made headlines last week when it voted to reject Californias sanctuary policies. The Los Alamitos vote triggered other cities to consider similar measures. The Orange County sheriff also moved to publicly defy the laws by publishing the release dates for inmates.

Sanctuary policies are enacted by town, city, and state officials in order to interfere with federal immigration enforcement authorities. The most common policy instructs local police and courts to not cooperate with requests by immigration officers to briefly detain inmates after their release so that officers can take them into custody.

This legislation prevents law enforcement from removing criminals from our community and is a threat to public safety, Orange County Supervisor Shawn Nelson said before the vote on Tuesday, according to Fox News.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has regularly lambasted sanctuary policies as unconstitutional. The 18 attorneys general who joined the Trump administrations lawsuit on Monday wrote in the court brief that Californias sanctuary laws are preempted by a Supreme Court decision.

In the case of Arizona v. United State Americas highest court ruled that Arizona could not supersede federal law and seek to increase immigration enforcement on a local level. The attorneys point out that if Arizona couldnt enact a law to increase enforcement of a federal law, California shouldnt be able to enact one that decreases enforcement.

Under the rationale of Arizona, this is an even easier case as Californias laws designed to interfere with or block federal immigration enforcement must also [be] preempted, the court brief (PDF) states.

Ive spent my career fighting to uphold the rule of law while Californias sanctuary cities policy thumbs its nose at the rule of law, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson said in a news release accompanying the brief. States cannot be allowed to ignore federal laws they dont like, especially when doing so puts public safety at risk.

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Woman With a Blotchy Skin Disease Embraces Her Condition and Goes Makeup-Free After 30 Years

A woman with a heart-shaped vitiligo patch on her face has told how she finally found the courage to go makeup-free after 30 years of wearing a mask.

Denise Chamberlain, 42, was ten when a white spot appeared on her finger after the suspected autoimmune disease caused that area of her skin to lose pigment.

Now, the majority of her body is covered with white splotches, including her face, which is adorned with a large marking in the shape of a heart.

Chamberlain, from Anderson, Indiana said she started to wear makeup in the fifth grade, and only stopped wearing it on her face two years ago, to encourage a young girl who has the same skin condition to embrace her differences.

Her confidence is a turnaround from a few years ago when she was driven to the depths of depression and had even considered suicide because she hated her looks so much.

I cant tell you how many people have come up to me and said about the heart on my facethe reaction I have got has been amazing.

I feel like God has given me a second chance at life, she said.

Feeling Ashamed

Chamberlain, who is mother to Dominique Wright, 24, Khalil Chamberlain, 19, and Kennedy Chamberlain, 13, and has one grandson, recalled, As a child, I remember I was at our community pool complex and I got up on the diving board and the guy behind me was like, What is wrong with your feet?'

I just dived off and it made me cry. From that point onfrom the age of 11I didnt go swimming.

She said she still struggled after having her first son.

I wouldnt go to teacher conferences or sporting events, which hurt me so bad. I would tell him I was sorry and he would see me cry, she said.

Going Make-up Free

Denises striking appearance has resulted in strangers stopping her in the street to pay her compliments.

But for three decadesfrom the ages of around ten to 40she masked her face and hands with a blanket of foundation and concealer, in a bid to hide her vitiligo.

Chamberlain estimates she spent around an hour a day applying makeup and splashed around $400-a-month on it over the 30 yearspotentially as much as $144,000 in total.

Since going au natural she feels happy and freeand eight months ago even started dating construction worker Robert McCoy, 35, who thinks she is beautiful.

Chamberlain first tried to go makeup-free around five years ago on a trip to Walmart but suffered a panic attack because she felt exposed and like everyone was staring.

The next time she tried was two years ago, after a young girl who she chatted to as part of a vitiligo support group told her she struggling with the condition.

Ever since, then she has gone makeup-free.

Vitiligo clenched me for so long and didnt let me prosper. Now Ive ditched my makeup I feel like a completely new person, she said.

Embracing Herself

Chamberlain is one of 100 women starring in Underneath We Are Women, a new project curated by Amy Herrmann which aims to celebrate diversity in a photo book.

Herrmann said, Denise speaks with so much passion about vitiligo and her experiences in living with it. She has the most wonderfully contagious energy about her.

Denise is doing some wonderful things to raise awareness for people living with vitiligonumber one being embracing herself.

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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (L) being broadcast on a large video screen in Tokyo as pedestrians walk past following a North Korean missile test that passed over Japan on September 15, 2017, and China's President Xi Jinping (C) at the Great Hall of People in Beijing on April 20, 2017. (FRED DUFOUR,TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty Images)

Xinhua Confirms North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un Met President Xi on Unofficial Visit

SHANGHAI/SEOULNorth Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited China from Sunday to Wednesday on an unofficial visit, Chinas state news agency Xinhua reported on Wednesday.

The visit was Kims first known journey abroad since he assumed power in 2011 and is believed by analysts to serve as preparation for upcoming summits with South Korea and the United States.

Beijing has traditionally been the closest ally of secretive and isolated North Korea, but ties have been frayed by Chinas recent backing of tough U.N. sanctions in response to North Koreas nuclear threats.

Xinhua published a photograph of Kim and Xi shaking hands in front of the flags of the two nations.

Speculation about a possible visit by Kim to Beijing was rife earlier this week after a train similar to the one used previously by Kims father to visit the Chinese capital, along with heavy security and a large motorcade.

South Koreas Yonhap news agency reported that Kim visited China from Sunday to Wednesday with his wife, Ri Sol Ju. It cited North Korea without elaborating.

Xi had accepted an invitation from Kim to visit North Korea, Yonhap said.

Discussions between North Korea and China could be a positive sign before planned summits involving the two Koreas and the United States, a senior South Korean official said on Tuesday.

Kim Jong Uns father, Kim Jong Il, met then-president Jiang Zemin in China in 2000 before a summit between the two Koreas in June that year. That visit was seen at the time as reaffirmation of close ties between the Kim regime and Jiang Zemins China.

North Korea would not exist as it does today without the technology transfers, diplomatic protection, and money that the People's Republic of China has given to the Kim dictatorship for decades. https://t.co/lD0raaHLI4  Marion Smith (@smithmarion) March 27, 2018

The excited press chatter surrounding #KimJongUn's "mysterious" visit to #Beijing belies a certain ignorance about the longstanding patronage of #NorthKorea by #China. https://t.co/zSfB3t7va9  Marion Smith (@smithmarion) March 27, 2018

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Southern Tide, a lifestyle apparel brand, is opening its first Connecticut retail location in Westport at 275 Post Road East.

In addition to the Westport store, the retailer will enter the New England market via outlets in four Massachusetts localities: Nantucket, Chatham, Lynnfield and Mashpee. Opening dates have been set between March and May for the new stores, which are part of the Greenville, South Carolina-based companys expansion strategy.

The retailer operates seven stores spread across Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina and Illinois.

The development of the Southern Tide signature stores and wider retail programs has allowed our brand to reach new consumers in areas that are important to us, company CEO Christopher Heyn said. Now more than ever, data is driving retail decisions, and content is a key factor in helping brands anticipate consumer needs. With these new stores and retail partnerships, we as a brand are advancing the Southern lifestyle that Southern Tide exudes every day.

Phi Hall is a reporter for the Fairfield County Business Journal. For more of his work and that of the journal, please visit westfaironline.com.
CLINTON  Hollywood will cast its light on the Shoreline Wednesday evening when Golden Globe and Emmy-nominated actress Chrissy Metz, star of NBCs hit show This Is Us, will visit with fans to share her new inspirational book, This Is Me.

Metz will speak before a sell-out audience at The Morgan School in an event sponsored by R.J. Julia Booksellers in Clinton.

Metz spoke in advance of the visit about This Is Me and the path she took to follow her dreams.

Asked what inspired her to write the book about her life, she said , Every time I would go to an event or speak to a stranger in the aisle at Target about our show, I was told that my character in particular had really moved people.

They always ask, How did I get here, how did I get to the place that I was? It really made me think, how did I get here? Flash-forward 13 years later, you forget about all the hardships and all the things youve overcome, and you just know that wow, here I am today.

I thought if Im going to tell my story I want it to be positive. ... I initially didnt think I had anything to say, and I ended up having a lot to say and a lot of stories to share, she said. When we speak our truth, not only is there freedom in that, but we help each other. Its a two-fold thing where you can only keep what you give away.

The award-winning This is Us follows the emotional story of the Pearson family. Metzs portrayal of daughter Kate Pearson, the pretty and funny, overweight young woman, has won her legions of fans, (including Oprah), who strongly relate to her characters hopes and struggles.

In turn, Metzs own path to success has become a testament for perseverance and self-confidence. Metz, 37, candidly shares her winding journey from a painful childhood to Hollywood stardom in a conversational memoir interspersed with valuable life lessons.

Growing up in a large family in Gainesville, Florida, Metz spent her early childhood in Japan with her Navy father and family. After her mother remarried, she suffered the torment of her stepfather only to find solace at friends homes, she writes.

As a youngster, Metz discovered the joys of storytelling and entertaining as a way to make others happy, performing with a local acting troupe after graduating from high school. She moved to Los Angeles, working alongside a talent agent hoping to find work as an actress, but barely found an audition.

Throughout This Is Me, Metz opens her heart and pays forward how she consistently showed up for herself in a voice that is both authentic and triumphant.

This is Me begins with a heartwarming letter from Metz that encourages readers to share their own stories in life.

What Ive learned from the show is that there are so many ways we can connect if we are willing to be vulnerable. Sharing the things that were afraid will make us appear less in others eyes makes us stronger. Because confidence is really trust in yourself, right? It has nothing to do with what someone else thinks of you; its what you think of you.

And as we collectively share our truths, I believe we are placing deposits into our own confidence bank. Not only does sharing your truth help other people, but then you feel good and come to realize your value. When you then build on that value and continue to be a positive person, you can be a light for others in getting out of their own way.

Metzs hope that in reading the book people will learn that theyre not alone in their struggle or journey.

I just hope that it brings people to understand that were on this (journey) together, she said. That no one is inferior or superior. ... We are all equal. We can truly have what we want if we work for it. I really believe that being kind is one of the most important things in life, if not the most important, and how we treat one another. I hope that the book can inspire the little girl whos not sure how shes going to get out of her small town whether its to be a CEO, an actor, or live in her dream place. Im no different than anybody else. I just have a different kind of job. I still have the same struggles, insecurities, and ups and downs that anybody else would have.

Metz said she kept showing up for herself whenever challenges or doubts surfaced throughout her life. When asked how this helped buoy her Hollywood dreams, she said , Every single time that I was about to just give up, the universe was like, Hold on, hold on, are you sure? My mom would say, You can be miserable in Los Angeles or Gainesville, your choice! I knew, I think intuitively, that I was destined for this journey. I believed that I was going to get here, I just didnt know how.

In This Is Me, Metz writes, This book isnt about getting taller, skinnier, richer, or more successful. Its about loving yourself and realizing the singular gifts we all have to offer each other. For me, I always had a love of storytelling. I wanted people to relate to me, so I started asking, How do I relate to them? Acting just happened to be the way I could connect to people. It took way more than a minute for me to achieve my dream, but I am glad I stayed around. Because there was some time when I didnt want to. I couldnt even get an audition most of the time. I got discouraged, but something told me to keep going. I showed up for myself. And it turned out to be acting.

Fans of This Is Us know all too well the unvarnished, emotional ups and downs of the show, and Metz admits that it is just as intense while on set.

Oh yeah, were in it, were committed, and were invested, she said. There are so many times when Im watching a scene, Im watching like the audience, and Im like, oh gosh right, Im supposed to be doing my part! These are human interest stories that are so real on so many levels that you cant help but sort of be changed or impacted by them and wanting to be on the journey with everyone. I do love to watch all of these other incredible human beings and performers.

Metz spoke excitedly about her future plans. Id love to do some music whether I write or produce, and a musical whether its film or on stage. Id also love to collaborate with my other actor, writer, or producer friends. Id love to have a nonprofit organization or charity for several different things like low-income kids. I taught preschool for some time. I love kids, and I have a big family. You know, just give back because Ive been given so much. To stay creative and stay true to who I am.

With the phenomenal success of This Is Us and the increased demands on her time, Metz definitely enjoys her downtime.

I love just relaxing, she said. Taking a bath, listening to music, or hanging out with friends. I like road trips. I also love to see movies, but I like to go to a matinee where I could potentially go in my pajamas! I love to do things on my own, too. You know, to have that quiet time.

Metz has also enjoyed many of the sartorial perks of stardom and devotes an entire chapter to many of her most photographed looks. She spoke about the reaction to one of her favorite red carpet choices, a red latex dress. Everyone went crazy about that latex dress! I guess that was a pretty big risk. I didnt think of it that way. I didnt do it for the dress to be sexualized or it to feel sexual. It was just like, oh, Im going to try something different, and its the MTV Movie and TV Awards!

She adds, I really like prints, I like color. So many people think that plus-size women should be in black and nonexistent. But for me, I want to dress like my personality. I feel like Im pretty bold, and Im gregarious. I spent a lot of time I think, hiding in the shadows  for what, for what? Thats not what I want to do.
Find your passion. Write about what you know. This is the great advice experts will give you when youre searching for a niche to start a blog. But, its not enough. The key to building a successful blog is finding a profitable niche.

Finding the right niche is the most important part of building a blog that often gets overlooked. If you pick a niche with too much competition, your blog will get beaten down by high authority websites. If you pick a smaller niche with no demand, your blog will barely make an impact. You need to find a niche thats in the middle and a niche that can also be monetized easily.

In this post, well give you a few practical tips on how to find a profitable niche that can generate traffic to your website and eventually turn into a successful income stream.

1. Pick a topic you enjoy talking about.

Starting a blog is a really fun process. Buying domains, setting up the website, customizing the design and writing your first article is certainly an exciting experience. But, most people give up blogging after a couple of months because they often lose interest in it. So, it's important that you pick a topic for your blog that you also like to learn and talk about.

Related: Here's the Trick to Writing Blog Posts People Genuinely Want to Read

It could be about a hobby, your work, or it could even be about a new RV youve just bought. You dont have to be an expert on this topic. It just has to be a topic that gets you excited when talking about it.

How do you make sure you pick an interesting topic to blog about? Heres a quick test to figure that out. Take a pen and paper. Write down 10 blog post ideas just off the top of your head that you can write about.This exercise should help ensure that you are passionate about the topic you picked.

2. Do market research.

The next step is to make sure that theres a profitable and big enough market for your topic. This can be done with a small market research. Heres how you can get started.

For example, lets say that rock climbing is one of your favorite hobbies, and you want to start a blog about it. Now, you want to see if this topic has a big enough audience and see how much competition it has.

Start the search with Google Trends. Type rock climbing to see if this topic has any interest and how many people are searching for it.



This step is important because this graph will show you whether the interest in your topic is stable, rising or declining over time. Avoid topics that are declining in interest to build a blog that lasts for a long time.

As you can see, rock climbing look like a great topic to blog about. Over the last 5 years, the interest for this topic has been stable, and its continuing to rise. This means youll have a big enough audience to drive traffic to your blog for many years ahead.

3. Pick a smaller niche.

Lets see what kind of competition you have for your topic. Search for your topic on Google and see how many search results appear for this topic.

Obviously, the topic rock climbing seems to be too broad of a term to target, and there are way too many websites competing for it. To avoid having to compete with big authority websites, you should pick a smaller niche.

If you scroll all the way down on the Google search results page, youll notice some of the other related search terms. Pick a search term and test to see how many people search for this specific term every month.

Head over to AdWords Keyword Planner to analyze the search term.

The term rock climbing for beginners appears to be a great niche for a blog. It receives around 1K to 10K average searches per month and it has low competition.

And, if you explore more keyword ideas, youll notice that there are plenty of other low competition keywords you can target on this topic. Which means youll have plenty of great keywords to target through your blog posts.

Related: How to Launch a Fast Growing Company

4. Make sure its profitable.

If youre planning on earning money from your blog, then you should make sure that your niche is profitable enough to monetize your blog and help you earn a good income.

An easy way to test this is to see if any brands or businesses are advertising for your keywords. If people are spending money on AdWords to advertise products targeting specific keywords related to your niche, then youve picked the right topic.

This means you can easily monetize your blog with AdSense ads. However, a better and a more profitable approach would be to sell affiliate products on your blog.





You can easily join Amazons affiliate program to promote its products. Whenever you send a buying customer to Amazon, youll earn around 10 percent commission on each product they buy.

You can write reviews about rock climbing gear and make lists of the best rock climbing shoes while linking to these Amazon affiliate products to turn your hard work into profit.

Related: Can Your Blog Make Money? Here's How to Predict Your Chances for Income.

Over to You

Once you find the right niche for your blog, start writing exceptional content that helps you to stand out from the crowd. Be consistent and keep blogging according to a schedule. It will take a while before you start seeing hundreds of visitors coming to your site and buying your affiliate products. So, be patient. Eventually, youll see the successful results of your hard work.

Related:

4 Tips for Finding Your Profitable Blogging Niche

Things I Would Do Differently if I Could Start My Career All Over Again

Multiply Your Marketing Using Facebook Live



Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com


NORWALK  When Tevyes daughter marries someone who is not Jewish in Fiddler on the Roof, he debates whether or not he can accept her and her husband.

Accept them? How can I accept them? Can I deny everything I believe in? he reflects in a barren field. On the other hand  can I deny my own daughter? In the end, he decides there is no other hand and cuts his daughter off from the family, rending the family in two.

But as times have changed, many have softened their stance on the issue. A Pew Research Center report from 2013 shows that 58 percent of all Jews who married this millennium married someone outside the faith. In fact, even the president of Congregation Beth-El Norwalk, who has been on the synagogues board since 1992, is married to someone who is not Jewish.

And when Sharon DeFala first took a close look at the congregations by-laws, she noticed several things that she called glaring evidence that they were out of date.

First of all, all references to the rabbi, president and other officers were male  although the current rabbi is female and DeFala is the fifth woman to serve as president of the congregation. Officer term limits were incorrect. And people who were not Jewish were not allowed to be full members of the congregation.

Initially, she reviewed the by-laws with a sense of resignation. I didnt know the first time I looked at them that our congregation would have the will to make the changes necessary to bring it into a new era, DeFala said.

But on March 22, after almost a year of conversations, the congregation voted on what the synagogue calls a historic change. Over three quarters of the congregation voted in favor of allowing non-Jews to become voting members, replacing male pronouns with gender-neutral language and changing husband and wife to spouse in order to include same-sex couples, among other changes.

Throughout the process of updating the bylaws, DeFala was moved by the support and inclusiveness of the congregation. Even people who arent intermarried themselves, meaning married to people who are not Jewish, do not have intermarried children, stood up and spoke passionately on behalf of our intermarried members. It was really beautiful, she said.

She believes the changes were possible because of the sense of community and inclusion at the congregation.

More News Judaism in the United States

For any one spouse or parent to feel that theres a wall between them and the rest of the congregation does not feel right, she said. And I think this was meant to say exactly that. Youre not different. We are all members of this vital organization that we love.
WILTON  The fate of a bill that would require all Connecticut high schools to include education about the Holocaust and other genocides from throughout history now lies in the hands of the state Senate.

The bill, which was proposed by state Sen. Toni Boucher, R-Wilton, moved forward after it was approved by the legislatures Education Committee on Monday, March 19. If passed, the bill would require all Connecticut high schools to include education about the Holocaust and other genocides from throughout history as part of the social studies curriculum.

The Holocaust survivors and children of survivors remind us that we are losing the eye witnesses to the atrocities that took place nearly 80 years ago. We cannot let the knowledge of this sad chapter in world history disappear with them, Boucher said

Boucher introduced the bill earlier this year after swastikas and other anti-Semitic graffiti appeared in Wilton as well as several communities last year. Statewide, twice as many anti-Semitic incidents were reported in late 2017 as in the same period the year before, according to Connecticuts chapter of the Anti-Defamation League.

Ridgefield, Redding and Wilton, all part of the district Boucher represents, have each reported instances of the hateful graffiti over the last year, much of it found in schools. Middlebrook School in Wilton saw three similar incidents last fall, when swastikas were found twice in the boys bathroom and a sixth-grader found a sticky note reading Jews will burn in her locker.

Since 2017, swastikas have been found across Ridgefield, from the towns high school and Ballard Park to the Aldrich Museum and Masonic Lodge. In Redding, a swastika was also found carved into a tree in Topstone Park in January.

Boucher hopes that legislation she plans to introduce in the next few weeks can help curb the trend.

Even in Connecticut, where we have a significant Jewish population, we have seen graffiti and the distribution of racist fliers, Boucher said. That alone tells us that too many young people are not learning about the attempted mass extinction of an entire race of people and other so-called undesirables during World War II.

The bill was co-sponsored by legislators on both sides of the aisle, and it also received support of the Jewish Federation of Connecticut.

Boucher said she was touched particularly by the testimony of the survivors and their relatives.

Jacob Liebowitz told the committee that his grandparents carried the tattoos of their time in Auschwitz, where they were degraded, humiliated, beaten, ostracized, and subjected to unfathomable horrors.

I was really blessed to have known my grandparents, who taught love and compassion and kindness, Liebowitz said. If they can teach that, after what they lived through, and we have teachers that can teach the lessons of the Holocaust and Genocide, then maybe we have a fighting chance.

By having all students learn the dark history behind the swastika, Boucher hopes to teach them to think twice about using it.

Steve Ginsburg, president of the states ADL chapter, said studying and teaching the Holocaust is a way to examine both basic morals and how name-calling or stereotyping can escalate to violence or genocide.

When done in the right way at the right time, Ginsburg said, teaching the history of the Holocaust can absolutely help prevent incidents of anti-Semitism, or at least help people address them when they occur.

[The bill] would send an important message to victims of genocide and targeted communities that Connecticut recognizes the unique intergenerational harm and historic significance of these atrocities, and acknowledges that those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. The ADL looks forward to providing the needed tools and resources to helping school boards, administrators and teachers engage with the curriculum make this a meaningful experience for them and the students, said Ginsburg.

After being passed by the state Education Committee, the bill was filed with the Legislative Commissioners Office on Thursday, March 22.

It is uncertain when the bill will be scheduled to come before the state Senate for approval.
For The Intelligencer

Randy Gori, founding partner of Gori Julian & Associates, P.C., was recently awarded the 2018 Friend of Labor Award. The award recognizes the community achievements of Gori by the Central Labor Council representing over 30,000 members of 80-plus unions, lodges and other affiliated organizations throughout Madison County and surrounding counties. This is the highest award given to a person who is not a member of a labor organization.

The mission of the GMCFL is to improve the lives of working families and also bring economic justice to the workplace as well as social justice to our state and the nation. The organization supports workers in Madison County and all over Southern Illinois helping to improve living conditions and workplaces and strengthen the voice of all working families in a changing global economy.
10 hours ago

Multiple Analysts are Calling These 3 Stocks a Buy

Investors have differing opinions about the value of sell-side research. Some swear by it, while others prefer to build their investment thesis around other tenants. There are certainly cases to be made for both positions. Whats less contentious is that Wall Street analysts are the best resource we have when it comes to humans that intimately know the inner workings of the companies they follow.

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Heineken pulled a Sometimes Lighter is Better commercial for its Heineken Light beer after some criticized it as being racist.

In the 30-second advertisement, a bartender slides a bottle of Heineken Light toward a woman. The beer passes several men and women of colour before reaching her and then the statement Sometimes Lighter is Better appears.

Among those criticizing the commercial: Chance the Rapper. The Grammy winner voiced his dismay about the commercial on Twitter calling it terribly racist. He also questioned whether brands are purposely creating racist advertising to get attention.

I think some companies are purposely putting out noticably racist ads so they can get more views, he tweeted, adding that Im just noticing how often it happens and I think they baiting consumers ... Like I didnt wanna tweet about it so bad ... but its like how can u not.

Heineken removed the commercial from TV and online, the company told BBC News, which was among the first to report on the ad.

For decades, Heineken has developed diverse marketing that shows theres more that unites us than divides us, a Heineken spokesperson told the site in a statement. While we feel the ad is referencing our Heineken Light beer, we missed the mark, are taking the feedback to heart and will use this to influence future campaigns.

While some online said people were reading too much into the ad, others considered the ad as at least subliminally racist.

Heineken gained quite a bit of acclaim for another ad, released last year, called Worlds Apart, which brought together pairs of strangers with differing political views.

But for most, this newer ad didnt attain that level of quality.

Heinekens commercial is just the latest brand cited for insensitivity. International retailer H&M lost celebrity endorser The Weeknd and rapper G-Easy  and faced online criticism from LeBron James and others  in January for an ad in the U.K. featuring a Black boy modelling a sweatshirt emblazoned with the words coolest monkey in the jungle.

In October 2017, Dove removed a three-second Facebook video showing a Black woman morphing into a white woman who then transitions to another woman of colour because some found it racially insensitive. The company apologized and said the ad aimed to celebrate diversity.

That month, Kelloggs was targeted with social media criticism after a racially insensitive drawing on its Corn Pops box depicted the sole brown Corn Pop as a janitor. The company apologized and said it would replace the artwork.
Brian Mulroney remembers one thing in particular about his time with Peter Munk in Buenos Aires, where they exchanged stories about their life and childhood: that yellow sweater.

It was the necessary travel accessory that came along as Canadas 18th prime minister and one of the countrys most influential business tycoons travelled the world together.

What a magnificent guy he was, said Mulroney, the most unforgettable person Ive ever met.

Mulroney shared the memory with the Star on Wednesday, the day Peter Munk, best known as the founder of Canadas largest mining company Barrick Gold, died in Toronto, at age 90.

His death is being mourned by politicians, the business community and recipients of his generosity across the country.

Munk was born in Budapest in 1927 and fled Hungary with his family in 1944 when Nazi Germany invaded. He arrived in Toronto in 1948 at age 20. He would later describe his first years in Canada as a kind of love affair. After the deprivation of postwar Europe, food was abundant and friends welcomed him into their homes with open fridges even though he arrived in this place not speaking the language, not knowing a dog.

He enrolled at the University of Toronto as a student of electrical engineering, despite being unable to speak English. He undertook a number of entrepreneurial business activities before founding Barrick.

This is a country that does not ask about your origins, but concerns itself with your destiny, Munk said in 2011. He spent his life repaying, in his words, the country that gave him all.

He started with Clairtonethe Toronto-manufactured luxury sound system of the 1950s and 60s, that was purchased by celebrities such as Frank Sinatra, Hugh Hefner and Oscar Peterson.

Mulroney discovered one last year and listened to Sinatra on it during a visit to Nova Scotia. He called Munk when he found it, and the two men talked for 15 minutes, enchanted with the coincidence.

But Munks first company collapsed in 1967, due to cost overruns, a too-early foray into colour television and an ill-fated shift of operations to Nova Scotia that contributed to steep losses in the late 1960s. Munk was ejected from management in 1968 and later sued for insider trading. His first big success was also his most humiliating failure, falling apart at the same time as his first marriage to Linda Gutterson.

In 1969 Gutterson moved to Switzerland with their children Nina and Anthony. Munk would later tell Nina he spent more money on Anthonys school tuition than he earned that year. In fact, Munks lifestyle changed little over the years: regardless of how business was doing, he always wore bespoke Italian suits, monogrammed Charvet shirts and Borsalino hats, Nina recalled, while priding himself on avoiding the decadence of the mega-rich.

We always lived well, Nina said. To my father, deals that went south, share prices that collapsed, companies that went bust were merely blips on the path to success. He never doubted he would make it all back, and then some. So why engage in belt-tightening? Nina recalled in her 2008 book about her fathers company, The Art of Clairtone.

In 1970, Munk decamped to London where he and business partner David Gilmour started their next venture, developing a 7,000-acre resort in Fiji and 50 hotels throughout the Pacific Basin.

In 1979, Munk returned returned to Canada and in 1981 he sold Southern Pacific Properties, walking away with about $100 million. A year earlier he had started Barrick Petroleum, an oil and gas exploration company, but soon shifted to gold. Renamed Barrick Resources, the company went public on the Toronto Stock Exchange in 1983, his baby, Mulroney recalled.

The Nevada gold mine Munk bought in 1983 became one of the worlds richest gold mines, and the main source of his wealth, which he invested in real-estate and philanthropy.

A foundation established with his second wife, Melanie Bosanquet, whom he married in 1973, serves a vehicle for the bulk of his philanthropy. Donations, encompassing personal ones by Munk, include more than $175 million to the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre and the University Health Network where it is housed; about $40 million to the University of Torontos Munk School of Global Affairs; and $43 million to the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.

Upon retiring in 2014 at age 86, Munk handed control to John Thornton and vowed to remain involved in the company. You can take maybe Munk out of Barrick, you cannot take Barrick out of Munk, he said at an annual shareholders meeting.

Hes left two things behind, said Randall Hansen, Interim Director of Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, a better Canada...and a more global Canada. The school will be fine without Munk, added Hansen. The country will be poor without him.

Dr. Barry Rubin, Medical Director of the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre, said that Munk dreamed of Canada having the leading heart centre in the world.

The ultimate goal is to be the biggest, Munk said at a May 2011 Bloomberg summit. Why wouldnt it be? Why would you be happy with halfway?

In September last year, Munk donated $100 million, said to be the largest contribution to a Canadian hospital in history, to the heart centre. In a long, impassioned speech, he extolled Canadian graciousness he experienced when he emigrated here in the late 1940s.

When you thank me for what Ive done for Toronto, and you thank me for what I can do for this community, it doesnt begin to express my immense gratitude for what this country has done for me and my family, he said. You opened the door. You gave us everything.

But it was the quiet moments that defined him, said Rubin, like when a patient walked up to Munk in a gown, an IV attached to him, and thanked him for saving his life.

Kelvin Dushnisky, president of Barrick, remembers sending Munk a pad of paper, a pen and a small piece of chocolate from a Swiss hotel where Munk had especially fond memories. After a ceremony at the University Health Network where Munk pledged $100 million, Dushnisky received a call from the Canadian businessman, thanking him.

I said to him, Peter, youre the only guy I know that on the same day you wrote a cheque for $100 million, you called me and thanked me for a pad of paper, pencil and piece of chocolate.

Munk leaves behind his wife, Melanie, his five children and his 14 grandchildren.

With files from Bloomberg

Read more:

10 things you might not know about Peter Munk

Peter Munk continues philanthropic legacy

Peter Munk says hes leaving Barrick Gold in good hands

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Daimler AG and BMW AG plan to merge their car-sharing operations as the worlds biggest luxury-vehicle makers team up to take on ride-hailing providers such as Uber Technologies Inc.

The companies will form a 50-50 joint venture to include Daimlers Car2Go and BMWs DriveNow businesses as well as services including smartphone apps for calling taxis, locating parking spots and recharging electric autos, they said in a joint statement. Both carmakers raised full-year profit forecasts, saying earnings are likely to increase slightly if they can complete the deal in 2018, versus earlier predictions of flat figures.

The merger would allow Daimler and BMW to share the risk of operating in a tech-focused industry that includes a growing suite of rivals in mobility services. Theyre entering a rapidly changing environment that in the past week alone included a market and share-swap deal between Uber and Southeast Asian rival Grab, the U.S. companys struggles with a fatal accident involving a self-driving car test, and Alphabet Inc.s Waymo unit agreeing to develop autonomous vehicles with Britains Jaguar Land Rover.

The German luxury-car manufacturers are addressing the challenges arising from urban mobility and changing customer wishes, they said. The companies pledged to continue competing in their main businesses of building vehicles.

Original partnerships

Car2Go and DriveNow were both originally started as ventures with established auto-rental companies, but Stuttgart, Germany-based Daimler and Munich-based BMW each bought out the other owners this year, setting the stage for a tie-up.

The combination is unlikely to pose antitrust issues, depending on how the market is classified, said Sven Diermeier, analyst at Independent Research GmbH.

The manufacturers are also joint investors in the HERE digital-mapping consortium, which includes Volkswagen AGs Audi luxury-car division as well as technology giant Intel Corp. and auto-parts suppliers Robert Bosch GmbH and Continental AG as partners.

The Daimler-BMW tie-up is going in the exactly right direction, because mobility services is developing into a large area, said Stefan Bratzel, director of the Center of Automotive Management at the University of Applied Sciences in Bergisch Gladbach, Germany. Right now, you cant earn money there, and there are a lot of infrastructure and overhead costs that can be combined.

Long road to profitability

BMW board member Peter Schwarzenbauer said the venture wont be profitable immediately.

We put this together to really grow now, to scale it. The first objective is to become a big player, then it can be profitable, he said in an interview with reporters at the New York auto show.

The companies are considering rebranding the shared entity with a new name, but wont announce anything until the deal is approved by regulators. Schwarzenbauer declined to say how much BMW is investing in the venture.

Car2Go offers rentals by the minute of models from Daimlers Smart city-car unit and smaller vehicles from its main Mercedes-Benz brand. DriveNows fleet is comprised of Mini cars and BMW-brand compacts, including the battery-powered i3.

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Walmart has decided to pull Cosmopolitan magazine from its checkout aisles at 5,000 stores across the United States after years of pressure from an activist group that accuses the publication of being hyper-sexualized and degrading.

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation, a Washington-based nonprofit formerly known as Morality in Media, said it had long singled out Cosmopolitan  as opposed to, say, the National Enquirer or other provocative content available in the checkout line  because the Hearst-owned magazine was targeting young girls with its advertisements.

Its on Snapchat. It has these brightly-colored pink covers, Haley Halverson, the centers vice president of advocacy and outreach, told The Washington Post on Wednesday. There are Disney stars that appear on it and [articles about] the Jonas Brothers and One Direction . . . but at the same time its promoting that its young readership engage in sexting, group sex.

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation, founded in 1962 to combat pornography and sex trafficking, has also recently pushed back on commercials and media content it has deemed sexually explicit. For years, the groups leaders tried to persuade Walmart and other retailers to remove Cosmopolitan from its checkout displays, where they say customers should not be forced to be exposed to this content.

The group credited the #MeToo movement for finally convincing Walmart officials to do so. We would say that any magazine should not be using sexual objectification to sell its magazine, but Cosmo also really wraps itself in this faux-feminist mystique, claiming that its actually liberating women by talking about sex, Halverson told The Post. But we need to raise the dialogue a little bit. . . . Just because were talking about sex in a magazine doesnt mean were talking about it in an empowering way.

When asked to provide examples of publications that were discussing sex in a manner the group felt was appropriate, Halverson declined. However, she compared Cosmopolitans messages about sexuality to that of Playboy because it reduces women to objects for males sexual entitlement.

Walmart confirmed the magazine would no longer be located in checkout aisles but would be available elsewhere in its stores. As with all products in our store, we continue to evaluate our assortment and make changes, Walmart spokeswoman Meggan Kring said in an email. While this was primarily a business decision, the concerns raised [by NCOSE] were heard.

New York-based Hearst Communications publishes more than a dozen magazine titles, including Esquire, House Beautiful, Marie Claire, Popular Mechanics and Runners World. A Hearst spokesperson declined to comment directly on Walmarts decision but said the company was proud of Cosmopolitan, one of the publishers flagship magazines, which bills itself as a bible for fun, fearless females.

Cosmopolitan is the most successful global media brand for young women, with award-winning content produced by leading female journalists, Hearst said in a statement. With our focus on empowerment, we are proud of all that the brand has achieved for women around the world in the areas of equality, health, relationships, career, politics and social issues.

Walmarts decision drew mixed reactions. Some supported the aggressive push by the nonprofit group, which celebrated the retailers move as an EXCITING victory! Others said that choosing to focus on bringing down Cosmopolitan was blatantly distorting the #MeToo movement, with some even threatening to boycott Walmart.

There can and should be discussions about how Cosmopolitan helps and hurts women, Kate Taylor wrote in a column for Business Insider. But to blame a publication primarily aimed at and created by women for the systematic harassment and assault many women endure  often at the hands of men  is an embarrassing repurposing of the #MeToo movement.

Many on Twitter pointed out that the magazine also covered substantive topics, including health, politics, relationships, as well as sex.

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation has for years tried to limit peoples exposure to Cosmopolitan. In 2015, Victoria Hearst  granddaughter of publisher William Randolph Hearst  partnered with the group to start a Cosmo Harms Minors campaign, calling for the magazine to be sold in opaque wrappers and that minors not be allowed to buy it.

That year, the campaign succeeded in convincing RiteAid drugstore chain and Delhaize America (owner of Hannaford Stores and Food Lion) to sell the magazine behind blinders that partially hid the cover pages.

On Wednesday, Halverson noted that Hearst is no longer involved with their group. Hearst, who used her inheritance to found Praise Him Ministries in Colorado, did not immediately respond to an interview request Wednesday morning.

Halverson said the group plans to ask Target and Walgreens and, really, all retailers to consider removing Cosmopolitan from their checkout displays.

I think that this is just kind of the latest drop in a cultural change around how we talk about sexually objectifying women, she said.

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CALGARYA Calgary police officer was in hospital Tuesday with his family by his side after being shot by a suspect in a residential neighbourhood in the citys northeast.

Police Chief Roger Chaffin, who saw and spoke with the injured male officer, said the five-year constable was listed in stable condition in Foothills Hospital.

Hes an officer like many of our front-line people. These are young men and women who go out to police, they have families and they go out to do everything they can to create safety in this city, Chaffin said. In this case, he was confronted with a very violent situation and was seriously injured because of it.

These are not superheroes. These are average people who are very brave, who do what they can on a day-to-day basis to make sure this city is safe.

A lone suspect was found dead, Chaffin said.

The call that led to the shooting started early Tuesday morning with a robbery at a convenience store, he said.

Following the robbery, brandishing a firearm, the suspect allegedly attempted to carjack a woman outside a home, Chaffin said. Our officers flooded the area and attempted to locate a suspect.

During that search, he said police received another report of an attempted break in and found a man matching the suspects description between two houses.

As officers entered the backyard, the suspect began firing shots, he said. Its our understanding that a member or members of our service returned fire. One officer was shot and was taken to hospital.

No details were provided on the extent of the officers injuries and his name was not released by police.

Chaffin said they were able to contain the area with the help of the tactical unit, which has a paramedic who attended to the wounded officer.

As the officer got help, he said others noticed smoke coming from a garage and called in the fire department.

The suspect  who also hasnt been identified  was found dead inside the garage once the fire was put out, said Chaffin.

A long line of police cars, including a large armoured SUV used by the tactical unit, rumbled out of the residential neighbourhood of Abbeydale earlier Tuesday afternoon.

I can tell you ... were very lucky today because he took two rifle rounds, but hes in stable condition, said Les Kaminski, president of the Calgary Police Association. So far, so good.

He said the shooting is a reminder of what police face on a daily basis.

This is what the work entails  dangerous people that we have to deal with that the rest of society dont want to deal with, said Kaminski.

The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team, which investigates police conduct, said it was reviewing the shooting.

Police initially called it an active situation involving a firearm and advised people in the neighbourhood to stay in their homes. That order was lifted later in the day.

Chaffin noted that Calgary hasnt had a police officer shot on the street in decades.

It was probably 25 or 26 years ago, he said. Its not something were conditioned to see a lot.

When it happens, we have to be able to stand tall to it and respond professionally and they did just that.

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OTTAWACongolese Archbishop Marcel Utembi couldnt help but notice where Canada just decided to send its small contingent of peacekeepers.

The decision to deploy 250 personnel and six helicopters to the West African country of Mali came just days before Utembi and a delegation of Congolese clerics arrived at Global Affairs headquarters in Ottawa to talk about potential new foreign aid investments.

Were not jealous. But we think Canada has the capacity to intervene also in other countries, such as Congo, said Utembi, who has been a leading figure in fighting for democratic freedoms in his conflict-riven country as the president of the Episcopal Conference of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Read more:

Canadas Mali mission will emphasize deployment of female peacekeepers

Canada to deploy helicopters to UN Mali mission

Diplomats frustrated with how Liberals handled announcement of Mali mission to Canadians

On Tuesday, the United Nations Security Council voted unanimously to extend the mandate of its 17,000 strong peacekeeping mission in the Congo, where a pivotal election is scheduled for the end of the year.

Some observers say that if Canada wants to win a temporary two-year seat on the Security Council in 2021, it will have to send more peacekeepers to Africa  actual soldiers, or boots on the ground. And Congo, along with its troubled neighbour, Central African Republic, is at the top of the list.

Utembi said Canadian troops would be welcome to help train his countrys military, which he said needs to do a better job protecting civilians, and whose leadership is linked to people who exploit Congos lucrative natural resources. Its a job the Americans, French and Belgians are currently doing in Congo.

We respect the strategy of each country. Mali expressed its needs to the Canadian government and maybe the Congo did not do it, says Utembi.

We have to train the Congolese army to respect human rights, to protect people, to protect civilians.

Stephen Lewis, who served as Canadas UN ambassador for the Progressive Conservative government under Brian Mulroney, said Canadas contribution to Mali is important, but the country needs to deploy more peacekeepers  including ground troops  if it wants to win the Security Council election.

All of this is related to the Security Council, said Lewis, who remains active in UN circles as the co-director of AIDS-Free World, an international advocacy organization.

I understand the value of what Canada is doing. I dont diminish (it), but I wish we were willing to show our presence on the ground, protecting our troops as fully as humanly possible.

Lewis said it might make more sense to deploy troops to Mali, because sending another mission to Congo, or Central African Republic, might be spreading resources too thin. But both countries have significant peacekeeping operations and Canada would be tremendously valued.

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan is to deliver a statement to the Security Council on Wednesday on the subject of Collective Action to Improve UN Peacekeeping.

Kyle Degraw, a Canadian with Save The Children who recently returned from Congo, said Tuesday the country is the scene of one of the worlds most overlooked crises with 4.5 million people forced to flee their homes because of armed violence.

A more stable security situation allows us to access more people, and given the nature of our work we need safe access into areas that we wont be able to reach, he said.

One of the Canadas main strengths is its ability to provide troops that can operate in French-speaking countries, so Mali, CAR and DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo) are about it, said peacekeeping expert Walter Dorn of the Canadian Forces College in Toronto

Just some helicopters is definitely not enough. To be re-engaging in peacekeeping, Im expecting to see boots on the ground as well as blades in the air. We need to have a substantive army contribution in peacekeeping.

Lewis said the Trudeau government committed 600 troops to UN operations, which means it has room to deploy another 350.

Gen. Jonathan Vance, the chief of the defence staff, told The Canadian Press in a recent interview that Canada is interested in doing more training.

We want to contribute to the improvement of tactical level performance, said Vance. Were still working on where in the UN we would contribute to that.

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OTTAWAConservative MPs are pressing Justin Trudeau to respond to the completely unethical actions of a Liberal politician who helped a business associate get access to high-profile events during the prime ministers recent trip to India.

Raj Grewal, the first-term MP for Brampton East, was in the cross-hairs of opposition politicians Wednesday after revelations he had helped Yusuf Yenilmez, president of Zgemi Inc., a Brampton construction company, get an invitation to a high-profile reception in New Delhi.

Grewal is paid to do legal work for the company, prompting charges from Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer that the Liberal MP was in a conflict of interest since he stood to benefit from any additional business the company could drum up from the India visit.

Read more:

Liberal MP who gets paid by a Brampton firm got the company president an invite to the PMs reception in India

Brampton MP caught political bug on basketball court

New business for the company means more money on the side for the Liberal MP, Scheer said in the Commons.

That is completely unethical, Scheer said, calling on Trudeau to refer the matter to the federal ethics commissioner.

The prime minister initially sidestepped the question, charging that the opposition didnt understand the importance of Canada-India business ties.

But the Conservative MPs continued to press the case. Lisa Raitt demanded to know whether Grewal had sought the advice of the ethics commissioner before he invited his boss to rub elbows with the prime minister and the ministers.

According to the prime ministers office, Grewal secured an invitation for Yenilmez to attend a reception and dinner hosted by Canadas high commission to India. Yenilmez told the Star that he signed up for the trip on his own looking to partner with Indian business who want to expand in Canada.

Conservative MP Stephanie Kusie noted that the ethics code for MPs cautions that a politicians cannot use their position to further their private interests or improperly further the private interests of another person.

The Liberal member for Brampton East has admitted that he helped his business affiliates gain high level access to the prime minister and other key cabinet ministers, Kusie said in question period.

Trudeau said such events abroad are meant to strengthen ties. Canada benefits when hundreds of community and business leaders are able to join us.

To make these events as accessible as possible, many MPs arrange invites for people who request them, Trudeau said.

Grewal, a lawyer, begin drawing employment income from Zgemi  a 400-person firm which builds and renovates residential, commercial and industrial buildings  after his election in 2015. He told the Star that he does occasional legal work for the firm but only private disputes and nothing involving the federal government.

Grewal said he had invited a diverse group of more than 30 supporters and stakeholders to participate in events around the India trip.

While he noted that Yenilmez is a local employer and supporter, Grewal said he included anyone who was interested in attending. Because Yenilmez was registered for the Canada-India Forum, he had access to the receptions with or without my invitation, Grewal said in his statement.

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Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson will formally apologize next month for past discrimination against residents of Chinese descent.

The apology will acknowledge the wrongdoings of past legislation, regulations and policies of previous city councils.

The historical wrongs of Vancouver City Council need to be addressed, particularly as the city is focused now on being a city of reconciliation and that extends beyond our First Nations to people of other cultures who faced racism and discrimination in the past, Robertson said in an interview Monday.

This is an important step to address that historic travesty and move forward.

Robertson will make the apology on April 22 as part of a larger Chinatown Culture Day event.

Former city councillors Bill Yee and Maggie Ip will also read it in Chinese languages.

Robertson said delivering the apology within the community at a public event rather than at a government building would help convey the citys intention to make sure that Chinese culture is supported and embraced.

Between 2016 and 2017, the city established an advisory group of Chinese and non-Chinese experts and community leaders to help guide the development of a formal apology, which was approved by council in November.

Their report said residents of Chinese descent werent allowed to vote when the city incorporated in 1886 until 1948, after veterans of the First and Second World Wars lobbied for voting rights. The City of Vancouver also advocated for discriminatory policies like the federal head tax and barred Chinese-Canadians from civic employment between 1890 and 1952.

City policies and practices also included various attempts at segregation in schools, public spaces like swimming pools, and other public areas including residential housing, hospitals, and even cemeteries. Because of restrictions at local cemeteries, Chinese residents had to be returned to China for burial, the report said.

The City of New Westminster became the first B.C. municipality to formally apologize to Chinese-Canadians for past discrimination in 2010.

In 2015, Chinese-Canadians received an apology from former premier Christy Clark on behalf of British Columbia for more than 100 racist laws, regulations and policies of past B.C. governments.

She pointed to Chinese immigrants contributions to building the national railway system, noting that one Chinese worker died for every mile of track between Vancouver and Calgary.

In 2006, the federal government offered an apology for the head tax imposed on Chinese immigrants and included $20,000 in compensation for families or surviving people who paid the tax.

Thousands of Chinese immigrants arrived in Canada starting in the 1880s to help build the countrys railway, but starting in 1885, the federal government imposed a head tax of $50, which rose to $500 by the early 1900s.

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Parkdale tenants are on a winning streak.

In one of Torontos rapidly gentrifying neighbourhoods, the consecutive successes of two major protests against landlords in the past year demonstrates the power tenants have when mobilizing around their demands, housing advocates say, but it also underscores the need for more regulation from the provincial government.

The latest victory came this week after tenants at a King St. W. highrise stopped paying rent for two months in response to a bid from their landlord, property management firm Nuspor Investments, to raise rents by more than double the amount recommended by the government. Nuspor Investments has since abandoned the bid, and tenants are slated to meet on Wednesday to discuss next steps.

Its a rare demonstration of the economic power that residential tenants have. We dont see it very often, but the reality is every month, residential tenants hand over more than a billion dollars to their landlords. Thats a lot of economic clout, said Kenneth Hale, legal director for the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario.

In August 2017, tenants also won several significant concessions from one of the citys largest landlords, MetCap Living Management Inc. Hundreds of tenants went on a rent strike for just over three months beginning in May, claiming that units in 12 Parkdale buildings were in urgent need of repairs. They also protested what they called repeated and unfair rent hikes intended to force out low-income tenants.

We look at tenants often as victims or as people without any power, said Hale. There is a lot of power there, but its difficult for people to organize, and it takes a lot of smarts and stamina to be able to work together to do something like this.

Last year, the government of Ontario extended rent control  which previously had applied only to units that came into use prior to November 1991  to all residential properties in the province, setting an annual cap, or guideline for rent increases tied to the Consumer Price Index. The cap for 2018 is 1.8 per cent.

But a longstanding policy in the Residential Tenancies Act allows property owners and managers to apply to the Landlord and Tenant Board for the right to raise rent beyond the guideline in order to recoup costs of certain capital expenditures or extraordinary increases in tax.

The Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario has been campaigning to have the government tighten regulations to double down on unfair above-guideline rent increases. An absence of enforcement from the government has resulted in tenants going outside of that system by means of protest to negotiate with their landlords, Hale said.

Rent strikes could be popping up more in Toronto, said Kerry Riordan, who helped to organize the protest at the King St. W. building shes called home for the last seven years.

I do think this is something that youll see more ofThis kind of thing does keep happening, not just in Parkdale but all over the city, Riordan said. If you organize and you stick to your message, and really support your neighboursyou can win these things.

Councillor Gord Perks (Ward 14 Parkdale-High Park), says rent strikes are a temporary solution.

Its good that this particular group of tenants and the previous group of tenants who participated in a rent strike have been able to win some concessions, he said, But I believe we need a larger structural solution because I can tell you for every one person whos succeeded in avoiding an above-guideline rent increase, Im hearing from 10 who havent.

Perks sits on the Affordable Housing Committee, and said that conflicts in this area are multiplying fantastically in Toronto. Its the issue he spends the most time on among his constituency, and he predicts that these conflicts will only increase until the government closes the loopholes that allow landlords to off-load maintenance costs onto tenants.

We have to decide whether were a city that everyone can live in, or whether were a city where only the wealthy can live in. The holes in the Rental Tenancy Act and the lack of real funding that can allow us to build deeply affordable rental housing is creating an unprecedented crisis.

With files from Emily Mathieu and the Canadian Press
An organized crime trial underway in Toronto has shed light onto a series of previously unsolved local underworld murders.

Dozens of conversations of former mobster Carmine Guido, 47, of York Region, were secretly recorded while he worked as a police agent between 2013 and 2015.

Often, the topic of conversation turned to murder.

At one point, Giuseppe (Pino) Ursino, 64, of Bradford, told Guido that revenge plots sometimes fester for decades before theyre acted upon.

These people (expletive), these people dont have nothing to do, Ursino said on Dec. 9, 2014. They have patience.

Recordings of those conversations have been played over the past week in the case against Ursino and Cosmin (Chris) Dracea, 41, of Toronto.

Ursino and Dracea each face two counts of cocaine trafficking for the benefit of criminal organization and one charge of conspiracy to commit an indictable offence.

The prosecution marks the first time in Canada that the Ndrangheta has been targeted as a organized crime group since the offence of criminal organization came into effect in 1997, senior federal prosecutor Tom Andreopoulos said in an interview.

There has been no mention in the trial of Ursino or Dracea committing or assisting in any murders. Ironically, the only person in court mentioned as having a connection to murder plots is Guido, who has been paid some $2.4 million as the Crowns star witness.

Guido earlier told the court that he was part of a plot to murder York Region resident Peter Scarcella in 2004. That murder plot was never carried out and Scarcella went to prison for another murder plot of his own.

Some of Guidos secretly recorded conversations that have been played in court over the past week offer insights on the local underworld slayings of Francesco Loiero, Domenic (Mico) Napoli, Antonio Oppedisano, Gaetano (Guy) Panepinto, Salvatore (Sam) Calautti and Carmine Verduci.

All of those murders remain unsolved.

Other conversations show that even mobsters are sometimes in a fog about what goes on in their world.

Ursino suspected Calautti, owner of a Dufferin Street restaurant , was behind the January 1996 murder of Francesco Loiero, a father of three and bakery owner who was found shot to death in a parking lot in Vaughan.

Ursino said in a recorded conversation that he warned Loiero that he might be in trouble with Calautti.

Ursino said that Loiero was upset because Calautti scammed one of Loieros in-laws out of $17,000.

So he got upset, you understand and he wanted the money back for his brother-in-law, Ursino said to Guido on Dec. 9, 2014 in a secretly recorded talk. So he put pressure on him, told him that if he would not give it back, he told him that, uh, he would kill him. Ca, he scared him.

I used to tell him, back then, to be careful, Ursino said. But he didnt... he would say, I know what Im doing. Be careful.

Guido and Ursino also talked of two recent arrivals from Italy, Ndrangheta member Domenic (Mico) Napoli and his associate Antonio Oppedisano. Napoli and Oppedisano disappeared and were believed murdered in early 2000.

Police investigated but couldnt prove the theory that they were murdered by someone working for Gaetano (Guy) Panepinto, who ran a discount casket shop on St. Clair Ave. W.

Panepinto was also murdered in October 2000.

Calauttis name reappeared in several of Guidos recorded conversations that have been played in court. Calautti was shot to death in the parking lot of a Woodbridge banquet hall in July 2013, along with his longtime associate, James Tusek, 35.

The Star has learned Calautti was investigated by police in the unsolved November 2010 murder of Mafia leader Nicolo Rizzuto Sr., who was shot dead by a sniper while standing with his wife in the kitchen of his Montreal mansion.

Guido asked Ursino on May 7, 2014 if Ontario Ndrangheta members might retaliate against the Montrealers if they suspected they were behind Calauttis murder.

Does it bother someone? Guido repeated, when Sam died?

Ursino gave an indirect answer, suggesting that many victims were responsible for their fates.

If you decide to travel on a road that I dont, ah...thats your responsibility, Ursino said.

Lets say it was Montreal, Guido said. Oh, Im not saying, lets pretend ... That it was Montreal, that he killed someone there... Mhmm.  they wouldnt get together to do something?

This time, instead of answering, Ursino offered another theory. He suggested perhaps Calautti was murdered as revenge for the murder of Loiero in York Region 17 years before.

Guido asked why it would take so long to avenge the murder of Loiero.

That was when Ursino said that killers let murder plots fester for years.

Yes, yes, but they dont care, Ursino said on Dec. 9, 2014. These people (expletive) these people dont have nothing to do. They have patience.

In court, Guido described Verduci as a local Ndrangheta boss. Verduci was slain in broad daylight in April 2014 outside a Woodbridge cafe.

Ursino was particularly vague when talking about the murder of Verduci.

Guido asked Ursino on May 7, 2014 if Verduci was on the board of directors for the local Ndrangheta, known also as the Camera di Controllo.

Yes, of course, Ursino replied.

Guido also asked if the board of control met after Verduci was killed.

So now when something like this happens, do they get together?, Guido asked Ursino on May 7, 2014.

It depends what happened, Ursino replied.

Hes dead, they killed him, Guido said.

You have to see what happen, why? Ursino said.

But they dont have to have a meeting? Guido asked.

Its interesting, Ursino replied.

Ursino hinted that Verduci was somehow responsible for his fate.

But then ... Verduci did something he was not supposed to do...something serious though, Ursino told Guido.

They also talked about a female murder victim, noting that a York Region resident named Nick Coluccio served prison time in Italy for killing a woman in his family because he disapproved of her lover, who was black.

This time, Ursino led the conversation.

And dont you think that he will carry this on his conscience for the rest of his life? Ursino asked on Dec. 3, 2014.

Yes, Guido replied.

Did the sister deserve to be killed? Ursino continued.

No, the police agent replied.
Ontarios housing minister is pledging to examine rental rules that could result in renovictions.

The promise follows a Toronto Star story of five tenants from 795 College St., who were forced to move out during renovations, then effectively displaced from their affordable homes because new people were installed in their place  paying three times the rent.

Those new tenants are entitled to protection under the law and cannot be evicted, based on a recent ruling at the Landlord and Tenant Board.

I am disturbed any time I hear of renovations being used as pretense for removing a tenant, said Minister Peter Milczyn, who promised to direct staff to examine situations where two tenants have competing claims on the same unit to see if changes need to be made to the Residential Tenancies Act.

Milczyn, in the written statement sent to the Star Tuesday, said the law is clear in that tenants are allowed to return when renovations are completed. He said he could not comment on the case involving the College St. building, because the ministrys Rental Housing Enforcement Unit is investigating and the tenants case is still being heard before the board.

The term renovictions is used to describe when a landlord uses rental housing law to push people out for renovations and counts on them not coming back so they can rent out the apartments at a much higher price. But tenants have the right to return  without a substantial increase in rent.

The former College St. tenants told the Star they had informed the building owner and property manager they intended to pursue the right of first refusal, and would move back in once work was done. They say the owner ignored their rights and then found new tenants, knowing the law would make it hard to get them out.

The property owner has declined to comment on the tenants complaints, because board hearings are ongoing, but had told the Star that at the time of purchase there were 46 outstanding work orders against the building.

Despite the scope of the work and resources required to return the building to good standing, we committed to the process, and remain convinced that preserving the building and preserving rental housing in the urban core were the right things to do, wrote spokesperson Danny Roth, with Brandon Communications Inc., in a previous statement.

City council had called on the province on Tuesday to tighten the rules.

When we pass a law there is an expectation that they are enforceable, said councillor Mike Layton, who put forward a motion asking the ministry to strengthen the language of the Residential Tenancies Act.

In this case it is quite clearly a violation of those tenants rights and there is absolutely no remedy, Layton told the Star. The motion was seconded by councillor Ana Bailao, the citys affordable housing advocate.

The building was purchased by 795 College Inc. for just over $1.5 million, in 2014. It was home to a community of artists, where the three-bedroom units went for about $1,240 a month. The renovated apartments cost at least $4,000, based on an advertisement submitted to the board.

The tenants were sent notices about the renovations in 2016. Five tenants told the Star they not only followed the law, but prior to their eviction tried on multiple occasions to convince the Landlord and Tenant Board that the owner was acting in bad faith, or intended to keep them out, but their concerns were effectively dismissed, they said.

The loss of our homes was never treated with any urgency, said former tenant Carolyn Taylor, 45.

Council also called for stronger tools for the board so adjudicators can get tenants back into their units if there is evidence a landlord has acted in bad faith or if there is proof they intended to keep them out. Aurora Browne, who lived in the building for 10 years, said what happened in their case was that laws designed to protect tenants ultimately resulted in the loss of their homes. It also opens a door for landlords looking to take advantage of both tenants and board rules, she said.

At the moment the only thing the landlord has to prove is their intent to do the renovations, said Browne.

Violations of the Residential Tenancies Act can result in fines for individuals of up to $25,000 per count and for corporations of up to $100,000 per count.
External investigators provided a closed-doors update on their probe of a cancelled Toronto Parking Authority land deal that has sparked investigations by both the citys auditor general and provincial police.

A senior team from Torys LLP of partners Linda Plumpton, Sheila Block and senior counsel Frank Iacobucci, a former Supreme Court judge, were on hand to speak to the parking authoritys interim board Tuesday.

The board for the public agency, now overseen by the citys most senior staff, met privately for more than an hour at city hall after a special meeting was called to discuss the report and direct staff on next steps. Staff cited solicitor-client privilege on advice related to identifiable city employees in holding the closed meeting.

The board voted to report to city council on the actions they have taken so far. Those actions were kept secret Tuesday.

A police investigation into the deal is ongoing, a spokesperson for the OPP confirmed Tuesday.

In June, a report from the auditor general found the parking authoritys board  then staffed by civilian appointees and city councillors  was poised to overpay for a plot of North York land by $2.63 million.

The five-acre (two hectare) piece of unused land at Finch Ave. West and Arrow Rd. near Hwy. 400 is located in Councillor Giorgio Mammolitis Ward 7 (York West). The auditor found Mammoliti, who was previously on the parking authority board, was involved with deliberations about the proposed $12.2-million sale.

The land is owned by Katpa Holdings Inc., a company directed by real estate broker Frank De Luca, according to public records.

Following the report, council put city manager Peter Wallace and other top bureaucrats in control of the board during an internal investigation, which Torys was hired to do.

That interim board suspended TPA president and CEO Lorne Persiko as well as vice-president of real estate, development and marketing Marie Casista. Both have been suspended with pay for more than eight months.

The salaries of the public employees continue to be kept secret, despite repeated questions from the Star and an official request under freedom of information legislation. The city provided base salary ranges of $246,500 to $333,500 for Persiko and $168,969 and $202,772 for Casista.

Reached at home, Casista said she had no comment on her current employment status.

Auditor general Beverly Romeo-Beehler spent 10 months investigating the land deal after Councillor John Filion, who was a member of the parking authority board, brought concerns about the deal being pushed through.

The deal, Romeo-Beehler concluded, resulted from a hairball of relationships and potential conflicts involving Mammoliti, the Emery Village BIA in his ward, a lobbyist hired by the BIA, a sign consultant and TPA executives.

Jennifer Pagliaro can be reached at 416-869-4556 or jpagliaro@thestar.ca
Bed bugs are crawling in the cracks and crevices of the dormitories of Trinity College at the University of Toronto, according to Amy Kim, a first year business student who lives there.

Kim says one of her floormates discovered bed bugs in early February, and more students, herself included, have found them in their beds and pillowcases, and have found bites on their bodies. She says Trinity College is aware of the problem, and has called in pest control multiple times, but Kim says the bug issue remains. She showed the Star images of her bed sheets on Tuesday, littered with squashed bugs.

A Trinity College spokesperson confirmed that bed bugs were found, and that pest control was brought in.

According to emails reviewed by the Star, Trinity College brought in pest control on February 8, February 22, and March 21. Kim said students were expected to stay in their infested rooms while waiting for pest control to treat the area. The bottom of each door on Kims floor is covered with a white dust, that she says is remnants from a solution meant to kill the bugs.

I just think its really wrong that we have to stay in a room thats infested with bugs. They know about it, and they want you to stay in there, she said.

A box of garbage bags sits in the dimly lit hallway for students to put their belongings in so that bed bugs dont infest them. As far as Kim knows, the problem only exists on her floor in the main building of Trinity College.

In February, the Office of the Dean of Students received reports of possible bedbugs in three residence rooms, said Young Um, a spokesperson for the College.

We are actively working with students on the ongoing treatment plan and with the Pest Control company. We recognize that the situation can be frustrating, stressful and disruptive for students.

According to Trinity Colleges residence agreement, in the case of pest outbreaks, residents will not be relocated to a new room to reduce the likelihood of spreading pests to unaffected areas. The agreement also says residents wont have fees refunded or reduced due to inconveniences.

Students living in university dorms are not protected by the Residential Tenancies Act.

People did move out specifically for bugs, almost half my floor is gone, said Kim, who says she pays $1,144 a month for her room. She moved out of residence on Monday, and will commute from her parents home in Oakville for the rest of the school year.

The College said one student has formally moved out of residence.

Thank the Lord I can go home and commute, but theres a few international students on my floor who really have no choice, she said.

Kim said some people who moved out are staying with friends nearby if they dont have family nearby.

Ive never felt so disregarded, Kim said. Were paying to live here, and were paying a lot of money.
Toronto police say a sonographer is facing a sexual assault charge after an alleged incident with a patient.

Police allege the technician sexually assaulted a 48-year-old woman on Nov. 21, 2017, when he was performing an ultrasound on her.

They say the alleged assault took place at BSA Diagnostics in the citys east end.

Police say 69-year-old Yury Romanov of Toronto was charged with one count of sexual assault.

He is scheduled to appear in a Toronto court May 20.

Investigators say there may be other victims.
A veteran of city planning has been tapped for the top job at city hall.

Gregg Lintern has been named the citys chief planner following the departure of Jennifer Keesmaat.

Lintern, who first worked as a planner in the pre-amalgamated Etobicoke starting in 1984, has been filling the chief role on an acting basis for the last six months after Keesmaat left in September.

As a community planner who has worked on the ground with development applications for more than three decades, Lintern is well-liked by his staff for knowledge of their role, attention to detail and his understanding of policy at a challenging time when the city is growing at an unprecedented rate.

Weve got to imagine a city where a substantially increased number of people are going to live here, perhaps double the number of people weve got in the downtown right now, Lintern said in November during a debate about building a 21-acre park over the downtown rail corridor. Weve got to think about the livability for those people.

Downtown Councillor Joe Cressy, whose Ward 20 (Trinity-Spadina) is one of the fastest growing in the city, said that beyond being a consummate professional who brings a wealth of experience, Lintern has an important vision for the city.

I think thats no more present than in the downtown where he led the TOcore initiative, Cressy said. At the crux of TOcore was the question: How much development can downtown handle and what infrastructure is needed to support that development?

Cressy said Linterns work overseeing the complex development at the former Honest Eds site at Bloor and Bathurst streets that includes a public market, park, hundreds of rental units and affordable housing, is a prime example of acting on that vision. Lintern, he said, focused on building a neighborhood at the marquee corner, rather than just focusing on how to build a number of appropriately-sized towers.

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Lintern has previously headed community planning for the Etobicoke York district as well as the busy Toronto and East York district.

In that time, he has helped oversee the plan for the downtown core, as well as a similar focus on livable neighbourhoods at the booming Yonge-Eglinton, and remaking the Port Lands.

In 2012, Lintern was also acting chief planner when then deputy mayor Doug Holyday said downtown was no place to raise children.

Lintern told Holyday on the council floor that it just makes for a healthier city to have families living downtown. Since then, the city has pursued several strategies to look at the needs of families living in vertical communities.

There are many challenges ahead.

With federal and provincial funding recently announced, the city will be moving forward with expanding its rapid transit network  a plan that includes a relief line subway and a controversial one-stop extension of the Bloor-Danforth line in Scarborough.

Gregg has the experience and depth of knowledge of this city to guide the planning of Torontos future, Mayor John Tory said in a release from the city.

Lintern also takes over at a time when the Ontario Municipal Board, a quasi-judicial, provincial body that has the final say in many planning matters, is being significantly overhauled.

The changes proposed by the bill will enable municipalities to focus on adopting planning principles, what we call proactive planning, to address growth and change, Lintern told a provincial committee he was asked to speak to last year.

The city release said Lintern will initially focus on the transit network expansion, affordable housing, improving the review of development applications, and OMB reforms. He starts April 9.

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The key prosecution witness in a GTA organized crime case told a trial Wednesday that he felt on the verge of a nervous breakdown after working undercover for two years secretly taping top members of the local Ndrangheta crime organization.

I couldnt go on much longer, Carmine Guido, 47, testified at the University Ave. courthouse.

I was under a lot of stress, said the former York Region mobster. I was starting to loose my mind.

Guido worked as a paid agent for the RCMP between 2013 and 2015, earning some $2.4-million as he secretly taped dozens of conversations with suspected Ndrangheta members.

He was testifying in the case against Giuseppe (Pino) Ursino, 64, of Bradford and Cosmin (Chris) Dracea, 41, of Toronto. They both face two counts of cocaine trafficking for the benefit of a criminal organization and one charge of conspiracy to commit an indictable offence.

The case marks the first prosecution targeting the Ndrangheta as a crime group in Canada since the offence of criminal organization came into effect in 1997, senior federal prosecutor Tom Andreopoulos said in an interview.

Guido said his nerves went bad after York Region resident Cosimo Commisso and Ursino both told him in May 2015 that they suspected he was talking with the police.

Guido described Commisso and Ursino as Ndrangheta bosses in the GTA.

Commisso threatened his family in May 2015 after accusing him of talking with police, Guido said.

It was very stressful, Guido said.

He said he couldnt take working as a paid police agent any longer.

(It was) just from everything, he said. The investigation. The threats. I just wanted to get it over with.

Ursino leaned back in his chair and stared at the witness as he was cross-examined by Ursinos lawyer, Dragi Zekavica.

Guido admitted he abused drugs and took part in frauds and debt collections, which a couple times involved bringing a firearm with him.

Guido dismissed a suggestion that he was behind a fire of a construction site where his carpentry company was working.

Zekavica asked if the massive fire was started as an insurance fraud.

That was unusual wouldnt you say? Zekavica asked of fire, which destroyed a row of townhouses under construction.

It happens, Guido said.

Guido described Ursino as a Ndrangheta boss, who also worked as a food distributor to restaurants.

Guido said that he was considered to be working illegally under the protection of Ursino in the local Ndrangheta.

While Ursino was a boss, he often was short on money, Guido said.

He had a gambling problem himself, Guido said. He used to bet on the horses all of the time. Thats why he lost a lot of respect.

Guido said that Ursino wasnt a particularly active boss.

Pino would sit back with his hand out and we would do all of the work, Guido said.

Court heard that once Guido snapped back at Ursino when asked for a loan of $100.

He asked me for money because he was always looking for handout because he was the boss, Guido said.

Guido said that Ursino collected money from a card game, despite doing no work on it.

He brought nothing to that game, Ursino said. Just his powers His part of the partnership was my protection.

Guido said he broke up with his longtime girlfriend when the police operation ended.

I didnt want her to leave her family and go on the run, Guido said. I didnt want to have her in any danger.

He dismissed the suggestion by Zekavica that he was motivated by money when he started working for the RCMP.

I didnt go into being an agent for money, Guido said.

He said he began working with police because he wanted out of his old life.

I needed a way out, Guido said.

I wanted out because I had no protection, Guido said. I wanted out because I didnt trust nobody no more.

I wanted out of the life.

He described a life in which he felt he was being squeezed by everyone and could trust no one.

Cosimo (Commisso) wanted me killed fives times and then he put his arm around me because I gave him $10,000, Guido said.

Guido said he left a 5,000 square-foot house on 10 acre lot in Kleinberg to go into the witness-protection program.

I asked for more but they (RCMP) agreed on $2.4-million, Guido said.  I needed money to survive.

Thats a lot of money, isnt it? Zekavica asked.

Is it? Guido replied. For a lifetime? Going on the run?

The trial continues.
A 23-year-old Ottawa man is facing dangerous driving and criminal negligence charges after a crash on the Gardiner Expressway in Etobicoke last week killed a man and injured three other people.

The crash happened on the westbound Gardiner Expressway just east of Royal York Rd on March 21. Emergency services were called to the scene at around 3:30 a.m.

The 23-year-old man was behind the wheel of a 2012 Hyundai Sonata when he tried re-entering the highway from the shoulder, Toronto police later said. A 32-year-old man driving a 2005 BMW collided with the Hyundai.

A 28-year-old man in the Hyundai was rushed to hospital with life-threatening injuries, where he died a day later.

Three other occupants of both cars were treated for non-life threatening injuries, police said.

The crash shut down a section of the Gardiners westbound lanes for several hours during the morning rush.

Bishar Mussa, 23, faces one count for each of the following offences: dangerous driving causing death, criminal negligence causing death, dangerous driving causing bodily harm, and criminal negiligence causing bodily harm.

He appeared in court on Wednesday.

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Given up for dead, Ontarios Liberals have given birth to a belatedly bold child care budget as they nurse dreams of an electoral renaissance.

Queens Park has delivered the most ambitious pre-election blueprint in recent memory, pushing the envelope on deficit spending to rewrite the rules for free daycare  while bankrolling expanded pharmacare, home care, hospital care and mental health care.

But there is a price to be paid for all this caring  sharing the burden with a seemingly bottomless bottom line: $6 billion-plus annual deficits in coming years, with more borrowings piled onto our accumulated debt of more than $325 billion.

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All to be paid off by future generations  notably those kids newly enrolled in child care.

But if we could ask the next generation, a couple of decades from now, if it was a wise investment  more precisely, if they were worth spending the money on  how would they answer?

Would they blame this budget for the debt overhang? Or credit it for investing in daycare that gave them an early start on childhood education, and allowed parents to get back on the job, while easing looming labour market shortages from a declining birth rate and those stay-at-home mothers?

Its a big bet. Now you see a balanced budget, now you dont.

Premier Kathleen Wynne and Finance Minister Charles Sousa have made their choice. Now voters get to decide whether this child care (and other-kinds-of-care) budget dies an early death after the June 7 election.

With the campaign kick-off just six weeks away, Ontarians will have their say: roll back daycare, pharmacare, home care if Doug Fords opposition Progressive Conservatives take power; or roll on with Wynnes Liberals, perhaps in concert with Andrea Horwaths New Democrats.

Before making that decision, voters will have to make sense of a 308-page bittersweet budget brimming with election sweeteners and weighed down with a bitter deficit aftertaste.

And since most people wont wade through the documents fine print, they will be heavily influenced by outsized rhetoric from politicians: Sousas spin, versus Fords fire-breathing rhetoric, while Horwath insists she can simultaneously fight taxes and foster denticare.

The first question might well be: Can we afford universal child care?

A better question might be: Can we afford not to have free daycare?

After all, the government doesnt make parents pay a daily user fee to send their kids to all-day kindergarten, so why create a deterrent for pre-K?

But the over-arching question is: Why now?

Annual budgets dont just take account of the economic cycle; they are also tailored to the electoral cycle. The intersection of these two cycles makes this a double-barrelled budget.

Sousa argued with a straight face that these are not election-cycle decisions we are making. But he could hardly claim the economic cycle forced his hand, given that Ontarios unemployment rate is at historic lows  5.5 per cent and holding  while economic growth has been remarkably robust in recent years.

To their credit, the Liberals understood that in good economic times, they could and should whittle down a deficit hangover of nearly $20 billion in the aftermath of the 2008-10 economic crisis, finally bringing the budget back to balance in the current fiscal year. So what prompted the fastest deficit U-turn in history for next years budget?

No, not an economic downturn, but an electoral downturn. It is an axiom of politics that voters are rarely rattled by deficit financing, because they are conditioned to getting something for nothing  albeit something enduring is preferable to something ephemeral (like tax cuts).

All three major parties have plunged the province into political  as opposed to economic  deficits while in government. Interestingly, the Tories were already planning a sizeable deficit in their election platform released last November so as to bankroll their promised tax cuts; that gap could grow given Fords vow, since becoming leader, to forego billions in carbon tax revenues.

If he wins on June 7, Ford could then claim to have shredded two election documents from two parties  first his own Tory platform, followed by the liberal budget. Just watch him.

In this budget, and the last couple, the Liberals have put forward the beginnings of bold policy prescriptions and smart social programs that were long overdue  free child care, free pharmacare, free tuition  but not all the borrowing adds up.

After launching pharmacare for young people (under age 25) in last years budget, this years budget expands free drugs to seniors by eliminating co-payments and deductibles. Is that the best use of hundreds of millions of dollars in government spending, given that todays seniors are in a better position to afford those (capped) fees than, say children who lack access to denticare? Of course not, but seniors are a powerful voting bloc, and they turn out on election day.

And dont forget last years decision to subsidize rising hydro bills (remortgaging rates through a longer amortization period). The borrowing was done off the governments books, on the backs of Ontario Power Generation, adding to the overall debt burden; the reduced rhetoric over hydro is proof of how politics prevails over economics.

Its all part of the good, the bad and the ugly of borrowing. And hedging budgetary bets in an election year.

Martin Regg Cohn is a columnist based in Toronto covering Ontario politics. Follow him on Twitter: @reggcohn

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WASHINGTONFacebook has signalled that CEO Mark Zuckerberg will testify before Congress by discussing the details of the appearance with lawmakers, according to a person familiar with the conversations.

Three congressional committees have invited Zuckerberg to testify, including the Senate judiciary committee at an April 10 meeting about data privacy. It is unclear how many hearings Zuckerberg will attend, and of which committees.

The congressional hearings were prompted by revelations that data consultancy Cambridge Analytica had wrongfully obtained personal information on at least 30 million American Facebook users.

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Zuckerberg stayed mum for nearly a week after the Cambridge Analytica controversy erupted, frustrating both lawmakers and Facebook employees. In an interview with CNN last Wednesday, he answered the question of whether he would testify by saying that he was happy to, if its the right thing to do.

He added that he felt it often made more sense to send subject matter experts. What I think weve found so far is that typically there are people whose whole job is focused on an area, but I would imagine at some point that there would be a topic where I am the sole authority on and that would make sense for me to do and Ill be happy to do it at that point.

Mark Zuckerberg took out full-page ads to apologize for the Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal. (The Canadian Press)

On Tuesday, Facebook opted not to make Zuckerberg available to testify before a key parliamentary committee in the United Kingdom investigating the same issue, which had asked him to appear. That panels leader, chairperson Damian Collins, previously accused Facebook of having understated the risk about the data it holds on its users  and whether it had been taken without consent.

Instead, Facebook said in a letter to Collins that it would send one of his deputies, chief technology officer Mike Schroepfer and chief product officer Chris Cox, in his place. Cox is now slated to appear at a hearing in the coming weeks.

In the United States, three congressional committees requested that Zuckerberg testify. One of the panels, the Senate judiciary committee, also asked the leaders of Google and Twitter to join him at a hearing in April focused broadly on Silicon Valleys data privacy practices. But lawmakers so far have not said if theyd take the rare step of issuing a subpoena, forcing Zuckerberg to appear.

Spokespeople for the three committees  including the House energy and commerce committee and Senate commerce committee  did not respond to emails seeking comment Tuesday.

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SEATTLEU.S. President Donald Trumps move last week to tweak his ban on transgender people joining the military might not save it from being struck down, a federal judge in Seattle suggested Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman was one of four federal judges around the country who late last year temporarily blocked the president from overturning an Obama-era directive allowing transgender troops to serve openly, finding the ban likely unlawful and discriminatory. The legal challenges have been brought by transgender troops, those who aspire to serve and a range of civil rights organizations.

Pechman scheduled a hearing Tuesday for arguments on whether to make her ruling permanent, but late Friday, Trump announced that he was rescinding his previous decision after a Pentagon review. Instead of barring transgender troops outright, he would allow them to serve in certain limited cases. Any who have transitioned to their preferred gender or who need medical treatment to do so would be presumed ineligible for service, though they could seek individual waivers allowing them to serve.

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The Justice Department immediately asked Pechman and other federal judges to dissolve their old orders as moot  something Pechman showed little interest in doing, noting that the late Friday filing left scant time for the plaintiffs to respond.

None of the other courts held hearings in cases challenging the transgender ban since the new policy came out Friday, though U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in Washington, D.C., scheduled a case conference for Wednesday morning. Cases are also pending in federal court in Baltimore and Riverside, California.

Pechman requested further briefing within a week about how the presidents new policy might affect the case, but she insisted Tuesday that both sides limit their arguments to the broader initial ban and suggested that her ruling might focus on that. The hearing was reminiscent of some of the legal challenges to Trumps travel ban, when he repeatedly changed his policies in light of unfavourable court rulings.

Pechman repeatedly asked Justice Department lawyer Ryan Parker for any evidence in the record that banning transgender people would further the militarys asserted goals of unit cohesion, morale, preparedness and cost savings: I cant find any factual underpinnings in what youve supplied to me, she said at one point.

Parker pointed her toward a report from Defence Secretary Jim Mattis, released in support of the presidents revised policy, but the judge dismissed it, saying the report wasnt properly before her because it was filed late.

Pechman also shrugged off the governments argument that the courts should give deference to the military as the entity best suited to determine what is required for national defence. The judge noted that the courts once gave such deference in allowing the military to segregate troops by race, ban women, ban women from combat, and ban gays  all of which have since been overturned.

In retrospect, all of that deference was in error, Pechman said.

She chastised Parker over other points as well, saying the government had evaded page limits by using a smaller font than allowed in its filings and that he failed to respond to arguments raised by the state of Washington, which intervened on the side of the plaintiffs.

Natalie Nardecchia, an attorney with Lambda Legal who represents the plaintiffs, argued that the governments new policy is irrelevant: Trump set out with a goal of banning transgender people from serving in any capacity, as he announced on Twitter, and then set about having the military come up with an after-the-fact rationale as to why it should be implemented.

When the government discriminates against a group of people, they have to have a reason; they cant say, well go study it and come up with a reason, Nardecchia said. Making slight changes in the policy in its final version does not render it constitutional.

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NAYPYITAW, BurmaBurmas parliament on Wednesday elected as the countrys new president a longtime loyalist of Aung San Suu Kyi who is expected to carry on his predecessors practice of deferring to her as her nations de facto leader.

The election of Win Myint comes as Suu Kyis civilian government has struggled to implement peace and national reconciliation, with the powerful military still embroiled in combat with ethnic rebels and under heavy international criticism for its brutal counterinsurgency campaign against the Muslim Rohingya minority.

Burmas military ruled the country for a half-century during which it was accused of widespread abuses before partially handing power to a civilian government in 2016. It remains in charge of security matters and still faces accusations of rights abuses.

Win Myint, the vice-president selected as presidential candidate by the lower house and backed by Suu Kyis ruling party, received 403 votes from the combined houses. Myint Swe, the vice-president with the militarys backing, had 211 votes and Henry Van Tio, the vice-president selected by the upper house, had 18.

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I will try my best to the greatest degree I have and carry out my civic duties as best I can, the newly elected president told reporters as he left parliament after the vote.

Like his predecessor, Htin Kyaw, who retired last week due to ill health, Win Myint, 66, is a longtime Suu Kyi loyalist and a stalwart member of her National League for Democracy party, an affiliation that earned him a brief spell as a political prisoner more than two decades ago under the previous military government.

When Suu Kyis government was installed in 2016, she explained that she would be above the president, a situation amenable to both the president and the public.

The job of state counsellor was created especially for Suu Kyi because she is constitutionally banned from the presidency. A clause in the 2008 military-drafted constitution bars anyone with a foreign spouse or child from holding the job. It clearly targeted Suu Kyi, whose two sons are British, as was her late husband.

Burmas president is elected by a joint sitting of the two houses of parliament from among the countrys three vice-presidents, representing the lower house, the upper house and the military. Under the constitution, the military holds special privileges in the countrys administration, including a 25 per cent share of parliamentary seats and the three security portfolios in the Cabinet.

The National League for Democracys landslide election victory in late 2015 gave it large majorities in both houses.

Having been both a member of the NLDs Central Executive Committee and speaker of the lower house for two years shows Win Myint holds the skills to be president, said Win Zaw, a lower house lawmaker from the party.

We hope that he will do great work as the president, and I am sure he will use his power to do the best he can for the country, he said.

Win Myint, who resigned as speaker of the lower house last week, was a successful parliamentary candidate in the 1990 general election, which was invalidated by the military, denying him his seat. He was elected in 2012 and again in 2015.

Born in the Irrawaddy Delta in 1951, Win Myint won his degree in geology in Yangon, only to become a lawyer in the 1980s. His involvement with the NLD began when it was established during the failed anti-military uprising of 1988, which led to his brief stint in prison. In 2010, he became a member of the Central Executive Committee of Suu Kyis party.

Win Myint was educated as a lawyer and has been loyal to the party as well, said Aung Shin, a close friend and colleague. More importantly, he has always worked together with Aung San Suu Kyi and they have mutual trust. I see him as a very reliable person who will be a great president for the country, and people are very optimistic about him.

Khin Zaw Win, director of the Tampadipa Institute, a policy advocacy group, questioned whether Win Myints fealty to Suu Kyi was an asset.

To those who are asking, he will be forever Aung San Suu Kyis henchman, he said. I dont expect much change in the presidency, unless Win Myint puts the countrys interests before Aung San Suu Kyis and that of the military.

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QUITO, EcuadorEcuadors government said Wednesday it has cut off WikiLeaks founder Julian Assanges internet connection at the nations London embassy after his recent activity on social media decrying the arrest of a Catalan separatist politician.

In a statement, officials said Assanges recent posts put at risk the good relations Ecuador maintains with nations throughout Europe and had decided as of Tuesday to suspend his internet access in order to prevent any potential harm.

Assange has since gone silent on social media.

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Ecuador granted Assange asylum in the South American nations London embassy in 2012, where he has remained cooped up ever since. Ecuador has repeatedly tried to find a solution that would allow Assange to leave without the threat of arrest, but with no success. He remains wanted in Britain for jumping bail and also fears a possible U.S. extradition request based on his leaking of classified State Department documents.

Relations between Assange and his host nation have often grown prickly.

Ecuador suspended his internet access in 2016 after a WikiLeaks dump targeting Hillary Clintons presidential campaign. And while former president Rafael Correa hailed Assanges work, the South American countrys current head of state has called him a hacker and warned him not to meddle in politics.

As part of an agreement allowing him to stay at Ecuadors embassy, Assange is forbidden from sending any messages that would interfere with the countrys diplomatic relations other nations.

He violated that agreement, said Maria Fernanda Espinosa, Ecuadors minister of foreign affairs.

She added that Ecuadors government would be sending of a group of diplomats to meet with Assanges legal team in London next week while also continuing a dialogue with British officials on how to resolve an inherited problem.

Assange frequently tweets more than a dozen times a day, sharing news stories and comments that often focus on global politics and digital security issues. In recent days, Assange had criticized Germanys detention of former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont. He wrote that the European arrest warrant system allows an abusive government to persecute its opponents across the whole of the EU.

He also chimed in a decision by the United States and more than a dozen European nations to kick out Russian diplomats on Monday following Moscows alleged poisoning of an ex-spy in Britain.

The manner of and timing of Russian diplomatic expulsions is poor diplomacy, he wrote.

Following Assanges remarks, a British minister called him a miserable little worm and said it was regretful that he remains in Ecuadors embassy.

Ecuador granted the Australian-born Assange citizenship in December as part of an effort to make him a member of its diplomatic team, which would grant him additional rights like special legal immunity. But Britains Foreign Office rejected the request to grant him diplomatic status in the U.K.

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MOSCOWThe Russian ex-spy and his daughter left critically ill in a nerve agent attack three weeks ago were probably poisoned at the front door of their home in southwestern England, British police said Wednesday.

It was the first time police have said where they thought Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia might have been poisoned.

The highest concentration of nerve agent found so far was on the Skripals front door in Salisbury, and detectives plan to focus their investigation in the surrounding area, Londons Metropolitan Police force said in a statement.

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At this point in our investigation, we believe the Skripals first came in contact with the nerve agent from their front door, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Dean Haydon said in the statement.

Police have also searched a variety of sites around Salisbury, including a pub, a restaurant and a cemetery.

Britain has blamed Russia for the attack, triggering the expulsion of about 150 Russian diplomats from the U.K., U.S. and their Western allies. Russia has vowed to respond, but a senior diplomat said Wednesday there is no hurry to retaliate.

Russia vehemently denies Britains accusation that it was behind the March 4 attack.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the RIA Novosti state news agency that Moscow is thoughtfully and thoroughly considering its response. Separately, he was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying the expulsions were directed by London and Washington, adding that other nations succumbed to their pressure. He added that all options are on the table regarding Russias response.

President Vladimir Putins spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters that Russias response will suit the interests of Russia.

U.S. President Donald Trump spoke with British Prime Minister Theresa May about the co-ordinated effort by Western allies to expel Russian intelligence operatives. The White House said the leaders agreed Wednesday that dismantling Russian spy rings is a priority to curtail Russian clandestine activities and prevent future chemical weapons attacks on either countrys soil.

Skripal was imprisoned in Russia after he sold secrets to British intelligence. He was released in a 2010 spy swap and moved to Britain.

Britain says the Skripals were poisoned with a nerve agent developed in Soviet times and that it must have come from Russia. Russian officials complain that Britain hasnt presented evidence to back up the accusation.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that British special services could have been behind the poisoning. British officials have previously rejected such Russian claims as nonsense.
WASHINGTONThe Trump administration is sounding upbeat about the chances of reaching a NAFTA agreement in the near future. The Trudeau government is sounding much less so.

Top U.S. and Canadian officials offered markedly different assessments of the state of the negotiations on Wednesday.

U.S. President Donald Trumps trade chief Robert Lighthizer, known for aggressive public criticism of Canada and Mexico, said on CNBC that he was optimistic that an agreement in principle is possible in the next little bit with some effort and compromise.

But Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus chief negotiator, Steve Verheul, said the U.S. has not yet made the compromises necessary. Significant gaps remain, he said, and Canada is not certain what the U.S. means by an agreement in principle.

An agreement in principle, to our understanding, means some sense of direction on the big issues, the important issues. Weve not seen that from the U.S. so far. Weve not seen any proposals in that regard, Verheul told reporters in Ottawa.

If were going to achieve that, we would fairly require some considerable flexibility in U.S. positions, Verheul said.

Jerry Dias, president of Canadas Unifor union, which represents autoworkers, was more blunt.

I dont know what Lighthizer is smoking, but he should stop it, Dias said in an interview. Dias said the three countries might be able to complete negotiations on some smaller issues by the end of April, but he said they remain so far apart on bigger issues.

Verheul also played down talk of a breakthrough on the auto manufacturing issue that has been a primary source of tension.

Lighthizer said last week that the countries were starting to converge on the issue. Canadas ambassador to the U.S., David MacNaughton, said the talks had taken a turn for the positive when the U.S. introduced a new auto proposal that would replace a previous proposal fiercely opposed by Canada and Mexico.

Verheul said the auto file was still not close to a resolution.

We welcome that signal, but ... we are still quite a distance away from any kind of agreement on the approach to auto rules of origin, he said.

The U.S. had previously proposed a new requirement that 50 per cent of a car be made in the U.S. in order to qualify for tariff-free treatment, plus an increase to 85 per cent, from the current 62.5 per cent, in the amount of a car that would have to be made in North America.

The publication Inside U.S. Trade reported Tuesday that the U.S. now says it is willing to drop the U.S. content proposal if Canada and Mexico agree to count autoworkers wages toward the North American content requirement.

In other words, auto companies could help themselves avoid tariffs by paying their Mexican workers more. The qualifying wage level in the new U.S. proposal is believed to be somewhere around $15 (U.S.) per hour, more than three times higher than the current Mexican average.

Horacio A. Lopez-Portillo, a trade lawyer at Vazquez Tercero & Zepeda in Mexico, said $15 is not workable.

There is no way its going to happen, Lopez-Portillo said in an interview. Can the Mexican government be pressured to increase wages in the auto industry higher than they currently are? Maybe. But it wont be much higher than where they actually stand.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on March 21 that he believes there is a certain momentum in the NAFTA negotiations. The U.S. confirmed there has been a breakthrough in the talks over a leading irritant involving the auto-sector. (The Canadian Press)

In Mexico, he said, There is very strong resistance to including this. Having said that, will it happen? Maybe. And I say maybe because were trying to reach common ground ... so Mexico might actually cede a little bit here. How much, I dont know.

While Trump has continued to vaguely threaten to terminate NAFTA, the tone from his administration has brightened in March. Trump officials appear to be scrambling to obtain a deal before political conditions get tougher in both Mexico and the U.S.

The Mexican presidential election is on July 1, and the front-runner is a left-wing NAFTA skeptic, Andres Manuel Lopes Obrador, who may be inclined to drive a tougher bargain than President Enrique Pena Nieto. In January, at least one chamber of Congress could be controlled by a Democratic caucus less supportive of free trade than the current Republican majorities.

Lighthizer was on CNBC to discuss the successful completion of U.S. trade negotiations with South Korea. The outcome of those talks could offer a model for NAFTA: modest changes that are nonetheless being touted by the administration as a major triumph for Trump and workers.

Inside U.S. Trade reported that Lighthizer wants a new NAFTA agreement by May 1. But the three countries have not yet even agreed on a calendar for the next round of negotiations, which are expected to take place in Washington in April.

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WASHINGTONThe FBI has found that a business associate of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort had ongoing ties to Russian intelligence, including during the 2016 campaign when Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates, were in touch with the associate, according to new court filings.

The documents, filed late Tuesday by prosecutors for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, also allege that Gates had said he knew the associate was a former officer with the Russian military intelligence service.

The allegations underscore Muellers interest in Manafort and Gates, who continued to interact with business associates in Ukraine even as they helped lead Donald Trumps presidential campaign.

Manafort, 68, has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy, money laundering and tax and bank fraud charges related to his lobbying work for a Russian-friendly political party in Ukraine and former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych.

Gates, 45, who was deputy campaign manager for Trump and had earlier worked with Manafort in Ukraine, pleaded guilty last month to conspiracy and lying to the FBI in a cooperation deal with Muellers probe.

Prosecutors made the allegation without naming the Manafort associate but described his role with Manafort in detail. The description matches the Russian manager of Manaforts lobbying office in Kiev, Konstantin Kilimnik.

Kilimnik, a White House spokesman and an attorney for Gates did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Kilimnik has previously denied intelligence ties, telling The Washington Post in a statement in June that he has no relation to the Russian or any other intelligence service.

A spokesman for Manafort, who is under a court gag order, declined to comment.

Read more:

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Trumps ex-campaign manager Paul Manafort pleads not guilty to tax and fraud charges

Manafort and Gates face decades in prison, millions in fines. Heres whats in their indictment

Manafort has acknowledged staying in frequent contact with Kilimnik during the time he worked for Trumps campaign, including meeting with him in person in May 2016 and again in August 2016, about two weeks before Manafort resigned as Trumps campaign chairman.

A Manafort spokesman expressed confidence in June that investigators would ultimately conclude that Manaforts interactions with Kilimnik were perfectly permissible and not in furtherance of some conspiracy.

The information about the FBIs assessment of the Manafort associate came in a court filing related to the upcoming sentencing of London attorney Alex van der Zwaan, whose firm worked with Manafort when he served a political consultant in Ukraine.

Van der Zwaan, 33, the son-in-law of a prominent Russian-Ukrainian banker, pleaded guilty last month to lying about his September 2016 contacts with Gates and the Manafort associate, identified in court documents only as Person A.

Prosecutors explained that van der Zwaan had lied and withheld documents about information that was pertinent to their investigation  that Gates had been in direct contact during the presidential campaign with a person who has ties to a Russian intelligence services and had such ties in 2016.

They said when van der Zwaan was interviewed by the FBI in November, he told investigators that Gates had informed him that Person A was a former GRU officer.

Kilimnik ran Manaforts office in Kiev during the 10 years he did consulting work there, The Post reported in 2017.

During his August 2016 meeting with Kilimnik, Manafort has said he and his longtime Kiev office manager discussed, among other topics, the ongoing campaign, including the hacking of Democratic National Committee emails. Stolen DNC emails had been released by WikiLeaks the previous month and the hack was widely suspected to be the work of Russia.

During Kilimniks time working for Manafort in Kiev, he had served as a liaison for Manafort to the Russian aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska, with whom Manafort had done business. Emails previously described to The Post show that Manafort asked Kilimnik during the campaign to offer Deripaska private briefings about Trumps effort. A Deripaska spokeswoman has said the billionaire, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was not offered and did not receive such briefings.

Kilimnik previously told The Post that he had served for a time in the early 1990s in the Russian army, but he denied intelligence ties.

Manafort has also denied knowingly communicating with Russian intelligence during the campaign. He told the New York Times last year, however, Its not like these people wear badges that say, Im a Russian intelligence officer.

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WASHINGTONA lawyer for President Donald Trump broached the idea of Trump pardoning two of his former top advisers, Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort, with their lawyers last year, according to three people with knowledge of the discussions.

The discussions came as the special counsel was building cases against both men, and they raise questions about whether the lawyer, John Dowd, was offering pardons to influence their decisions about whether to plead guilty and cooperate in the investigation.

The talks suggest that Trumps lawyers were concerned about what Flynn and Manafort might reveal were they to cut a deal with the special counsel, Robert Mueller, in exchange for leniency. Muellers team could investigate the prospect that Dowd made pardon offers to thwart the inquiry, although legal experts are divided about whether such offers might constitute obstruction of justice.

Dowds conversation with Flynns lawyer, Robert Kelner, occurred sometime after Dowd took over last summer as the presidents personal lawyer, at a time when a grand jury was hearing evidence against Flynn on a range of potential crimes. Flynn, who served as Trumps first national security adviser, agreed in late November to cooperate with the special counsels investigation. He pleaded guilty in December to lying to the FBI about his conversations with the Russian ambassador and received favorable sentencing terms.

Dowd has said privately that he did not know why Flynn had accepted a plea, according to one of the people. He said he had told Kelner that the president had long believed that the case against Flynn was flimsy and was prepared to pardon him, the person said.

The pardon discussion with Manaforts attorney, Reginald Brown, came before his client was indicted in October on charges of money laundering and other financial crimes. Manafort, the former chairman of Trumps presidential campaign, has pleaded not guilty and has told others he is not interested in a pardon because he believes he has done nothing wrong and the government overstepped its authority. Brown is no longer his lawyer.

It is unclear whether Dowd, who resigned last week as the head of the presidents legal team, discussed the pardons with Trump before bringing them up with the other lawyers.

Dowd, who was hired last year to defend the president during the Mueller inquiry, took the lead in dealing directly with Flynns and Manaforts lawyers, according to two people familiar with how the legal team operated.

He denied on Wednesday that he discussed pardons with lawyers for the presidents former advisers.

There were no discussions. Period, Dowd said. As far as I know, no discussions.

Read more:

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Manafort and Gates face decades in prison, millions in fines. Heres whats in their indictment

Contacted repeatedly over several weeks, the presidents lawyers representing him in the special counsels investigation maintained that they knew of no discussions of possible pardons.

Never during the course of my representation of the president have I had any discussions of pardons of any individual involved in this inquiry, Jay Sekulow, a lawyer for Trump, said Wednesday.

Ty Cobb, the White House lawyer dealing with the investigation, added, I have only been asked about pardons by the press and have routinely responded on the record that no pardons are under discussion or under consideration at the White House.

Kelner and Brown declined to comment.

During interviews with Muellers investigators in recent months, current and former administration officials have recounted conversations they had with the president about potential pardons for former aides under investigation by the special counsel, according to two people briefed on the interviews.

In one meeting with lawyers from the White House Counsels Office last year, Trump asked about the extent of his pardon power, according to a person briefed on the conversation. The lawyers explained that the presidents powers were broad, the person said.

Legal experts are divided about whether a pardon offer, even if given in exchange for continued loyalty, can be considered obstruction of justice. Presidents have constitutional authority to pardon people who face or were convicted of federal charges.

But even if a pardon were ultimately aimed at hindering an investigation, it might still pass legal muster, said Jack Goldsmith, a former assistant attorney general in the George W. Bush administration and a professor at Harvard Law School.

There are few powers in the Constitution as absolute as the pardon power  it is exclusively the presidents and cannot be burdened by the courts or the legislature, he said. It would be very difficult to look at the presidents motives in issuing a pardon to make an obstruction case.

The remedy for such interference would more likely be found in elections or impeachment than in prosecuting the president, Goldsmith added.

But pardon power is not unlimited, said Samuel Buell, a professor of law at Duke University.

The framers did not create the power to pardon as a way for the president to protect himself and his associates from being prosecuted for their own criminal behavior, he said.

Under Buells interpretation, Dowds efforts could be used against the president in an obstruction case if prosecutors want to demonstrate that it was part of larger conspiracy to impede the special counsel investigation.

Dowd is said to believe that the president has nearly unlimited pardon authority, but he and others have repeatedly insisted that no pardon offers have been made.

In July, amid reports that Trump was considering granting pardons to his associates under investigation, Dowd told BuzzFeed that there is nothing going on on pardons, research  nothing.

And about two weeks after Flynns guilty plea, Trump said that such talk was premature.

I dont want to talk about pardons for Michael Flynn yet, Trump told reporters on Dec. 15 on the South Lawn of the White House. Well see what happens. Lets see. I can say this: When you look at whats gone on with the FBI and with the Justice Department, people are very, very angry.

Trump has been preoccupied with the investigation into Flynn since at least early last year. In February 2017, alone in the Oval Office with the FBI director at the time, James B. Comey, the president asked him to end the investigation, Comey told lawmakers. After that episode became public, Mueller was appointed by the Justice Department to be the special counsel.

On the day after Flynn pleaded guilty, the president wrote in a Twitter post said to be composed by Dowd that he fired Flynn for, among other things, lying to the FBI. But Trump continued to publicly defendhis former national security adviser, saying two days later that he felt very badly for Flynn and that the FBI had destroyed his life.

It is not clear what Flynn has told the special counsel as part of his cooperation agreement. During interviews with other witnesses, Muellers investigators have focused on what Flynn told the president about his calls during the transition with the Russian ambassador to the United States at the time, Sergey Kislyak. The calls came soon after the Obama administration announced new sanctions on Russia for its role in disrupting the 2016 presidential campaign.

Manafort, who ran Trumps presidential campaign for several months, has been indicted on dozens of counts of money laundering and other financial crimes connected to his work as a lobbyist and former consultant for Viktor F. Yanukovych, who at the time was president of Ukraine. The charges are not connected to any work that Manafort did for Trump.

Rick Gates, who was Manaforts business partner for years and also served as deputy chairman of the Trump presidential campaign, pleaded guilty last month as part of a cooperation agreement with Muellers team. On the day the plea agreement was announced, Manafort vowed to continue to fight the charges against him.

In total, 19 people have been charged with crimes by Mueller. Five of them, including Flynn and two other Trump associates, have pleaded guilty and have agreed to cooperate.

In August, Trump pardoned Joe Arpaio, the former sheriff from Arizona who had been found guilty of federal criminal contempt for refusing to stop targeting Latinos in traffic stops and other law enforcement efforts. The pardon prompted an outcry because Arpaio, whose crackdown on illegal immigration made him a national symbol for both conservatives and liberals, had supported Trumps run for president.

Trumps only other pardon came this month, for a sailor who had pleaded guilty to unlawfully retaining national defense information and obstruction of justice after he took cellphone photos on a nuclear submarine and then destroyed the photos when he learned he was under investigation.

When announcing the pardon, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said that Trump appreciated the sailors service to the country.

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BEIJINGWith a dose of mystery and the flair of a showman, North Koreas young leader, Kim Jong Un, used his debut as an international statesman on Wednesday to present himself as confident, reasonable  and willing to bargain.

Kims surprise two-day visit to Beijing, his first known overseas trip since taking power, was effectively a reminder of how much he has set the agenda in the crisis over his nations nuclear arsenal  and of what a strong hand he has going into talks, first with President Moon Jae-in of South Korea next month and later with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Kim has yet to say what concessions he is willing to make, or what he may demand from the United States in return. But he continued to dominate the diplomatic process, reaffirming his willingness to meet with Trump and repeating his vague commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in talks with President Xi Jinping of China, according to Xinhua, the Chinese state news agency.

During Trumps first year in office, Kim raced ahead with breakthrough tests of a hydrogen bomb and missiles capable of hitting the U.S. mainland. Then he abruptly changed course and used the Winter Olympics to seize the initiative, surprising the world with a rapprochement with the South and then an offer to meet with Trump.

Through it all, the Trump administration has been largely relegated to reacting and catching up to Kim. And so it was again this week, when Kim suddenly showed up in China on an armoured train and was shown beaming next to Xi, whose co-operation has been critical to Trumps strategy of maximum pressure on the North. The state media in China and North Korea announced the meeting on Wednesday, after two days of secrecy.

In images and in words, Kim and Xi signalled that they had repaired the relationship between their countries, which had soured as Kim had accelerated his nuclear program and Xi had responded by endorsing  and enforcing  more punishing sanctions proposed by the United States.

The friendship between North Korea and China that was personally created and nurtured together by former generations of leaders from both our sides is unshakable, Kim told Xi, according to Xinhua. Xi went out of his way to recall the warm friendship between his father, a high-ranking Communist Party official from the Mao era, and Kims father, Kim Jong Il, the Norths previous leader.

It is too soon to say whether the meeting marks a softening of Chinas posture toward Kim Jong Un or of its commitment to international sanctions against North Korea. But the visit served to highlight Beijings unique leverage over North Korea, even as Trump is threatening China with a trade war.

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Trump can talk about maintaining maximum pressure on the North, but ultimately China  the Norths main trade partner  still decides what that means, because it can choose how strictly to enforce sanctions.

China is saying to the United States and the rest of the world: Anyone who wants a deal on anything on the future of the Korean Peninsula, and certainly something which deals with nukes, dont think you can walk around us, guys, Kevin Rudd, a former Australian prime minister who is on good terms with the Chinese leadership, said in Hong Kong on Wednesday.

The Chinese government said it had briefed the White House on Kims visit, adding that Xi had sent a personal message to Trump. On Wednesday morning, Trump expressed optimism on Twitter about the potential for diplomatic success, saying there was a good chance that Kim would do what is right for his people and for humanity.

But there was little in the public accounts of Xis discussions with Kim to support such a positive assessment. Though Xinhua quoted Kim as saying he was open to talks with Trump and committed to denuclearization, North Koreas own state media made no mention of either.

Xinhua also quoted Kim as proposing phased, synchronized measures by South Korea and the United States  a phrase that suggests a desire to negotiate a gradual drawdown of his arsenal, but which also echoes the Norths position in past talks that dragged on and ultimately failed. One major difference between then and now is that North Korea has a far more advanced nuclear arsenal.

Trumps incoming national security adviser, John R. Bolton, meanwhile, has expressed little patience for extended negotiations. He has said that North Korea should be asked to park its nuclear arsenal at the Oak Ridge nuclear facility in Tennessee.

If China decides to soften its stance on sanctions and act as North Koreas protector, Kim will enter the talks with Trump in a considerably stronger position than he otherwise would have.

It is very unlikely that Kim Jong Un consulted with the Chinese before offering to meet Trump, said Sergey Radchenko, a professor of international relations at Cardiff University in Wales. This in itself was a rebellious affront to the Chinese leadership. But by doing this, Kim immeasurably strengthened his negotiating position vis-a-vis the Chinese. He came to Beijing not as a supplicant but as an equal.

Many analysts said they believed China had initiated the visit, essentially telling Kim that he could no longer afford to be cavalier about his bigger, richer neighbour, and telegraphing to Trump that America could pay heavily for keeping China on the outside.

Beneath the new bonhomie in the official accounts of Kims trip, the edgy nature of the seven-decade-old China-North Korea relationship was still apparent.

No agreements between the two leaders were announced, even on basic issues. Xi, in his public comments, made no reference to Kims expected meeting with Trump, an omission that may have reflected Xis displeasure at being left on the sidelines.

There was also no public comment in Beijing about what Kim was planning to offer Trump or what role China would play as the talks approached, questions that are of the utmost importance to China.

While China supports the international effort to rid North Korea of its nuclear weapons, it has also been careful not to press the North hard enough to risk a collapse of the Kim regime, which could potentially lead to a united Korean Peninsula, under a U.S. security umbrella, on Chinas border.

China needs to know North Koreas calculations, said Da Wei, a professor at the University of International Relations in Beijing. Kim knows the negotiations cannot fully succeed without Chinas support. Chinas involvement will make any solution more viable.

Some analysts said Kim was repeating a pattern set by his father, who visited China shortly before his 2000 summit meeting with South Koreas then-president, Kim Dae-jung. Kim Jong Il was then about six years into his tenure as North Koreas leader, just as his son is now.

Now six years into his own reign, Kim III seeks to play the role of the proactive, peace-seeking statesman, said Lee Sung-yoon of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

He may hope to get Trump to settle for another faulty, open-ended, non-biting nuclear deal that would make it politically near-impossible for the U.S. to talk about, let alone implement, a pre-emptive strike, John Bolton at the head of the National Security Council notwithstanding, Lee said.

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Special counsel Robert Muellers investigation just drew what appears to be its most direct line to date between U.S. President Trumps 2016 campaign and Russia.

That line is drawn in a new court filing related to the upcoming sentencing of London attorney Alex van der Zwaan. Van der Zwaan has pleaded guilty to lying about his contacts with deputy Trump campaign manager Rick Gates and a person identified in the document only as Person A. Person A appears to be a former Ukraine-based aide to Gates and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort named Konstantin Kilimnik.

Heres the paragraph:

Fourth, the lies and withholding of documents were material to the Special Counsels Offices investigation. That Gates and Person A were directly communicating in September and October 2016 was pertinent to the investigation. Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agents assisting the Special Counsels Office assess that Person A has ties to Russian intelligence service and had such ties in 2016. During his first interview with the Special Counsels Office, van der Zwaan admitted that he knew of that connection, stating that Gates told him Person A was a former Russian Intelligence Officer with GRU.

Read more:

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Mueller probe witness aided U.A.E. agenda in Congress

That Person A has had ties to Russian intelligence is not terribly surprising. Kilimniks personal history has been examined extensively by the media, including The Washington Post. He has denied being involved in Russian intelligence, but he served in the Russian military and attended a Russian military foreign language university that is seen as a breeding ground for intelligence agents.

Whats particularly significant in the Mueller filing, though, are six words: and had such ties in 2016. Prosecutors have said previously that a longtime Manafort and Gates associate had ties to Russian intelligence, but they have never said those ties remained during the 2016 campaign. In December, they said this associate was a longtime Russian colleague . . . who is currently based in Russia and assessed to have ties to a Russian intelligence service. Why those six words were added in this filing when they didnt appear in the previous filing is the $64,000 question.

As the Post details here, this is hardly the first public indication of a link between the Trump campaign and Russia, but it is the closest connection Mueller has made in a filing to this point. Mueller hasnt weighed in on the alleged Kremlin ties of the Russian lawyer Donald Trump Jr. met with, for instance, nor has he filed anything involving Roger Stones contacts with hackers who have been linked to Russia.

The other new piece here is that Muellers team says Gates described Person A (again, apparently Kilimnik) as a former Russian Intelligence Officer with GRU. (GRU is Russias military intelligence organization.) So according to van der Zwaan, Gates talked openly about Person As ties to Russian intelligence. Kilimnik told The Post in June that he has no relation to the Russian or any other intelligence service. Mueller is now apparently directly disputing that using Gatess own words, via van der Zwaan.

Ever since his guilty plea last month, van der Zwaans relation to the case has been unclear. We know he is the son-in-law of a prominent Russian Ukrainian banker, but as with other figures in this case, we have no idea why he lied to investigators. Was it an honest mistake, or was he covering something up?

The new van der Zwaan filing doesnt shed a whole bunch of new light on that, but it does suggest that Mueller views Kilimnik as a possible link between the Trump campaign and Russia, and that he believes Kilimnik hasnt been forthcoming about his ties to Russian intelligence. We also know that Manafort had been in contact with Kilimnik during the 2016 campaign, meeting him at least twice and asking him to provide private briefings about the 2016 election to Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch who is closely tied to Vladimir Putin.

Whether thats pertinent to the broader collusion investigation is something well have to wait to find out. But those six words seem at least a little conspicuous.

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U.S. President Donald Trump has taught us all about so-called political discourse based on huge exaggerations and falsehoods.

As I write this, Trump is pushing the stock market into a vertical nose dive with trade-war threats that hardly tally with the business acumen he loves to boast about. Americans are paying a very steep price for voting for his slogan, Make America great again, instead of a platform grounded in down-to-earth reality.

None of this, of course, is new. But Trumps hyperbole and lies do provide a disquieting note of caution to Ontarians as they head toward the polls with new Conservative leader Doug Ford promising to use his own business perspicacity to weed out $6 billion in spending from the provinces books by eliminating inefficiencies without any loss of public-sector jobs.

That money is supposed to pay for Fords promises, including a decrease in hospital wait times, meaning that Ford certainly isnt going to find any savings in the health sector, which accounts for a whopping 42 per cent of program spending in the province. If anything, more money is needed for health.

Nor is there any real money lying around in the broad sector of education and training (another 27 per cent of the provincial program budget).

Investing in our future labour force is the only sure ticket to prosperity in the years ahead. But, what would it really mean if Ford were to look for his $6 billion in education. Either closing more than 1-in-5 elementary and secondary schools throughout the province and laying off about 66,000 teachers, or ripping out more than half of the budget for colleges, universities and skills development.

If Ford were to wipe out the entire justice system $4.7 billion  he still wouldnt have his $6 billion in savings.

He could get it from Childrens and Social Services ($16.9 billion), but that would mean slashing those vital services by roughly 35 per cent. Great if he believes that thousands of kids, abused women, disabled Ontarians and welfare recipients should join the already far too many homeless people now sleeping on the streets.

Or he could get his $6 billion by wiping out about 30 per cent of every other government program, including transit and transportation, agriculture, tourism, the environment, and municipal affairs.

Alternatively, if Ford thinks public servants are inefficient, he could generate his needed savings by firing all 60,000 of them. That would save nearly $6 billion but it would leave him to run the province all by himself.

Oh yes, slogans are appealing. If it didnt already belong to General Electric, the slogan Imagination at work could accurately describe Fords fiscal plan.

But dont take my word for it. Just consider Conservative estimates of how many jobs would have to be eliminated to generate savings of $6 billion. Back in 2014, then-Conservative leader Tim Hudak promised to eliminate 100,000 public-sector jobs in Ontario for savings that he estimated at $2 billion. When the reality of what those job losses would mean took hold in the minds of Ontarians, they sent Hudak packing.

And with Ford basing Ontarios future on $6 billion in fictitious efficiencies  a figure clearly picked out of thin air  a prudent election outcome is possible only if, and its an awfully big if, Ontarians wake up in time to what this huckster is selling.

Nathan Laurie is a former member of The Stars editorial board.

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OTTAWAWhen Jagmeet Singh stampeded to a first ballot win in the NDP leadership race last autumn, senior caucus members acknowledged they had anointed a high risk, high reward candidate.

Six months later, the party has been living the risk.

It is still waiting for the reward.

Any strategist will tell you its tough sledding getting an opposition leader known to voters between elections, but it appears to be exponentially tougher for this rookie leader.

Some of his problems have been above the surface.

His seeming hesitation to renounce violence and his tardiness in dealing with the Sikh separatist furor has been well-chronicled, but largely by, as his supporters charge, Canadian pundits with little knowledge of the issue.

But there are other problems with Singhs leadership below the surface as well.

There is open grumbling inside his caucus  some of which broke into the open Tuesday. He is not raising the money the party needs in advance of a 2019 campaign and the hiring transition period has been too long, leaving posts unfilled and leaving him challenged to get ahead of issues, join the national conversation and sense potential danger ahead.

The calculation that Singh not immediately seek a Commons seat seemed a sound strategy at the outset (and was endorsed in this space).

Singh didnt need the forced theatre of a daily question period as a third party leader stuck in a corner asking a couple of questions that would be parried by the government message track.

More importantly, without any safe NDP seats available, he didnt have to risk defeat and the setback that would bring to his leadership.

Better he use that well-known Singh charisma, speak to crowds across the country the way third party leader Justin Trudeau once did, and build a profile where the voters are.

But now there is a realization that Singh will have to spend more time in the capital. The House can break for the summer after seven more sitting weeks and when it returns, the 2019 vote is only a year away.

Polls at this point are not necessarily harbingers (good news for the Liberals) unless they show an unmistakable trend and there has been no upward NDP movement since he was elected; no Singh victory bump.

His problems with the caucus are becoming more public, with NDP leadership runner up Charlie Angus openly criticizing Singhs decision to discipline long-time MP David Christopherson.

Christopherson broke party ranks to vote with a Conservative motion that condemned the Liberal summer works program policy which tied funding to organizations with core mandates that support rights and freedoms, including abortion rights.

Christopherson, who is pro-choice, said he believed the policy stifled peoples right of dissent and freedom of conscience. Singh stripped him of his role as vice-chair of a parliamentary committee.

Late Tuesday Singh backed down and gave Christopherson his committee job back.

Singh has also left Saskatchewan MP Erin Weir twisting in the wind for two months after suspending him from party duties based on a vague email allegation by a fellow caucus member.

Christine Moore said she had heard harassment complaints against Weir, without citing any specifics, and Singh moved before informing Weir.

Last November, Singh had to quickly walk back a suggestion that bilingualism requirements for Supreme Court justices be waived to encourage Indigenous candidates.

That received immediate caucus pushback because the bilingualism requirement is party policy and of particular importance to his colleagues from Quebec, where Singh will face strong headwinds in 2019.

Part of the problem is Singhs lack of time spent with caucus. That has made it difficult to build any loyalty to the leader.

But there have been victories.

An appearance earlier this month on Quebecs Tout le monde en parle was deemed by my colleague Chantal Hebert to be Singhs best day of his leadership, from a Quebec perspective. His speech to a party convention was extremely well-received.

He has supporters who point out the partys fundraising arm and senior staff had ossified under the long Tom Mulcair lame-duck period and they remind that Singh is attracting large, enthusiastic crowds in areas that are not traditional NDP turf.

Others compare his learning curve to that of Jack Layton, another NDP leader without a Commons seat.

That is the worst argument of all.

It was a long learning curve for Layton, and it took four elections before he brought New Democrats to official opposition.

There is much more pressure on Singh.

This wasnt supposed to be a party that was prepared to invest four more elections to again find relevance.

Tim Harper is a former Star reporter who is a current freelance columnist based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @nutgraf1

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Are you thinking of leaving Facebook in light of the Cambridge Analytica scandal? Do you wish you had the will to leave but you know you cant because if you did youd feel socially unmoored and anxious? This is the abridged version of a question I posted to my personal Facebook page last week, after the social networks data mining controversy hit the news, a controversy made especially surreal by the fact that nobody, myself included, can seem to resist discussing it on the social network itself. The post garnered 26 likes, 1 love and 11 comments.

This week, the Angus Reid Institute released the results of an online survey indicating 38 per cent of Canadians say their opinion of the social media giant has worsened in the last month. Forty-one per cent said theyd keep using Facebook, but check and/or change privacy settings; 23 per cent said theyd use Facebook less in the future; and six per cent said theyd suspend their accounts or take a break from the site.

These results are about as revelatory as the reality that most people who smoke cigarettes would like to quit someday. Addicts, generally speaking, dont want to remain addicts forever. That doesnt mean they wont.

Ive checked Facebook three times already since I began writing this column, not for research purposes but because logging on to the site every time my eyes drift away from my work has become a habit that feels as involuntary as blinking.

Worse, when my eyes eventually drift away from whatever content appears before me on Facebook (most recently, a video called Woman eating candy floss is the best thing youll see today), I open a new tab and log on to the social network again, forgetting that I am already there. There should be a word for the empty feeling that overtakes a person when they try to escape their present reality by merely refreshing it. One probably already exists in German.

All this is to say that while it was a very nice gesture for Mark Zuckerberg to apologize to FB users in the press recently for his sites failure to prevent the data breach, it wasnt a necessary one.

You can relax, Mark.

We arent going anywhere.

We arent going anywhere because we are more addicted to being seen and heard online than we are protective of our privacy and our democracies. And many of us who actually do want to leave  not only Facebook, but social media more generally  are incapable of doing so because our jobs mandate that we remain plugged in.

This doesnt just go for journalists like me, but for small-business owners, and millions of millennial-aged office employees who do the social media grunt work their older employers wont. If I earned a like every time a friend told me they wished they could take a break from Facebook, Instagram and Twitter but dont dare because their boss would frown upon it, Id go viral. (Lisa, youre a millennial. You live on your phone. You dont mind making hourly updates to the company Facebook page and chatting with every disgruntled customer who wishes you dead, do you?)

This is perhaps one of the greatest ironies of the stereotypes surrounding the millennial demographic. The Gen X/Baby Boomer cohort that scolds us for our rampant smartphone use is a) partially responsible for it and b) benefits significantly from it.

I wont be surprised then, if the consequences of the Cambridge Analytica scandal differ greatly from generation to generation.

My prediction? If any group leaves Facebook en masse it will be boomers and older Gen Xers whose bonds to most social networks are more recent and thus weaker, and who can do their jobs successfully without being consistently plugged in. In other words, adults who have never been asked in a job interview how many Instagram followers they have, and how they would describe their personal brand.

Millennials meanwhile will probably stay on the site because our social roots there run deep and its far more difficult to shun popular technology when you have a lifetime of work in a hyper-digital world ahead of you.

I envy the grandparent who can so easily turn her back on Facebook and with it her 25 Facebook friends (one of them her teenage grandson, still pending) because the world of Cambridge Analytica, fake news and filter bubbles is a blip at the end of her life. Unfortunately, its our future.

Ill give the last word to a very smart Facebook friend of mine named Glynis MacLeod, a 29-year-old organic farmer I havent seen in the flesh in almost 10 years but whom I have kept up with  where else  on Facebook. She was the first person to answer the question posed at the top of this column, when I posted it to my Facebook page last week. Id love to boycott (Facebook), she wrote on the social network, but then am I just weakening the social bonds of my community and ceding the online world to those who are manipulating and easily manipulated?

We (millennials) have never experienced the divide of the private/public domain where advertising does not reach us in the private. Its part of our cultural inheritance to sift through the brainwashing and sharpen our critical eye.

Emma Teitel is a national affairs columnist.

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The latest tally is at least 16 cases against the social media giant.

The number of lawsuits against Facebook, Inc. (FB) - Get Facebook, Inc. Class A Report keeps growing.

Following the news that political data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica LLC harvested the data of as many as 50 million Facebook users without proper disclosures or permissions -- and now the data-scraping of call logs from Android users -- a growing number of shareholders and users are suing the giant social network.

This story was updated from March 28 with additional lawsuits that had been filed.

Facebook shares were rising 3.8% to $158.68 on Thursday, after plummeting 14% last week.

Here's a rundown of every suit related to the data privacy issues that have been filed against Facebook as of Wednesday, starting with the most recent.

1. O'Kelly v. Facebook Inc., et al

Facebook user Howard O'Kelly filed a class action lawsuit against Facebook and Cambridge Analytica on March 28, accusing the companies of breach of contract, fraudulent misrepresentation, breach of good faith or fair dealing and invasion of privacy. This case is a part of Price v. Facebook Inc., et al (No. 16 below).

2. Malskoff, et al, v. Facebook Inc., et al

Jay Malskoff and Kenneth Irvine filed a class action suit against Facebook, Cambridge Analytica, Robert Mercer and Aleksandr Kogan on March 27. The suit alleges that the defendants violated the Stored Communications Act. Malskoff and Irvine say that they were targeted with political advertisements while using Facebook during the 2016 election cycle. The court filing does not list a demand amount.

3. Zellmer v. Facebook, Inc.

Clayton Zellmer filed a class action lawsuit against Facebook on March 27, alleging that the company violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, which says that a private entity may not have a person's biometrics from things such as finger-scanning without a written release from the individual. Zellmer, who has never been a Facebook user, claims that Facebook's "face templates" that the company creates by extracting data from users' photos using facial recognition data violates BIPA.

4. Bennett v. Facebook, Inc., et al

Investor Ernestine Bennett filed a class action lawsuit against Facebook, CEO Mark Zuckerberg, CFO David Wehner and COO Sheryl Sandberg on March 27, alleging that the defendants violated federal securities laws. The filing does not list a demand amount.

5. Williams, et al, v. Facebook, Inc., et al

Anthony Williams, Tyoka Brumfield and Wendy Burnett filed a class action lawsuit against Facebook on March 27 for violation of privacy based on the company's mobile app. The plaintiffs are all Android users who download Facebook Messenger and Facebook Lite and allowed the apps to access their contact lists. The suit alleges that they did not understand that the apps would collect their call and text logs and would have not installed the apps or used them differently if they had. The filing does not list a demand amount.

6. Renken, et al, v. Facebook, Inc., et al

Facebook users Lisa Renken and Sean Mannion filed a class action lawsuit against Facebook on March 27 for invasion of privacy through "unauthorized recording of mobile device communications," or the data-scraping of Android phone users by Facebook Lite and Messenger. It is unclear whether Renken and Mannion are Android users. Renken and Mannion are asking for $500 million.

7. Ocegueda v. Zuckerberg, et al

Shareholder Natalie Oceguida filed a lawsuit against Facebook, Zuckerberg and Sandberg, as well as board members Marc Andreessen, Peter Thiel, Reed Hastings, Erskine Bowles, Susan Desmond-Hellman and Jan Koum on March 27 for violation of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 and for breach of fiduciary duty.The filing does not list a demand amount.

8. Gennock, et al, v. Facebook, et al

Facebook users Ashley Gennock and Randy Nunez filed a class action lawsuit against Facebook and Cambridge Analytica on March 27. The suit alleges that the companies violated the Stored Communications Act. Gennock joined Facebook in 2009 and Nunez joined Facebook in 2008. They are seeking $5 million.

9. Rubin v. Facebook, Inc., et al

Jonathan Rubin, a Facebook user, filed a class action suit against Facebook and Cambridge Analytica as well as SCL Group and Global Science Research Ltd on March 26. The lawsuit alleges that the defendants violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act California Customer Records Act and California's Unfair Competition Law. Rubin also accuses the defendants of intrusion of privacy and negligence, and is asking for $5,000,000.

10. Lodowski v. Facebook, Inc. et al

Facebook user Matthew Lodowski filed a class action suit against Facebook, Cambridge Analytica, Mercer, and Kogan on March 23, accusing the company of statutory violations of personal privacy, conspiracy and negligence. The court filing does not list a demand amount.

11. Martin v. Zuckerberg et al

Facebook shareholder Ronald Martin filed a lawsuit on March 23 related to the class action suit Price v. Facebook et al (No. 16 below). Martin is suing Facebook,Zuckerberg, Andreessen, Bowles, Desmond-Hellmann, Hastings, Koum, Sandberg and Thiel. The stockholder's suit accuses the defendants of breach of fiduciary duty and waste of corporate assets. The court filing does not list a demand amount.

12. Comforte et al v. Cambridge Analytica

Facebook users Victor James Comforte II and Brendan Michael Carr filed a class action lawsuit against Facebook, Zuckerberg, Cambridge Analytica and other John and Jane Doe defendants on March 22. The lawsuit alleges that the defendants violated the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986, which prohibits collecting or sharing electronic data without permission. The filing does not list a demand amount.

13. Robert Casey v. Facebook, Inc. et al

Facebook shareholder Robert Casey filed a class action lawsuit against Facebook on March 22, accusing the company of violating the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The filing does not list a demand amount.

14. Hallisey v. Zuckerberg et al

Stockholder Jeremiah F. Hallisey filed a lawsuit related to the class action suit Yuan v. Facebook, Inc. et al (No. 15 below) on March 22, accusing Zuckerberg of violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and of a breach of fiduciary duty. The filing does not list a demand amount.

15. Yuan v. Facebook, Inc. et al

Shareholder Fan Yuan filed a class action lawsuit against Facebook, Zuckerberg and CFO David Wehner on March 20, alleging that they violated federal securities laws. The suit does not list a demand amount.

16. Price v. Facebook, Inc. et al

Facebook user Lauren Price filed a class action lawsuit against Facebook and Cambridge Analytica on March 20. Price accuses the defendants of unlawful business practices concerning personal data use and distribution. The lawsuit is asking for $500 million.

Facebook is a holding in Jim Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS Charitable Trust Portfolio. Want to be alerted before Cramer and the AAP team buy or sell FB? Learn more now.
Much like its software ecosystem, the hardware support Nvidia claims for its server products is nothing to scoff at, as its latest announcements show.

As Nvidia (NVDA) - Get NVIDIA Corporation Report begins to see tougher competition in a booming AI training market that it has long dominated, the company is determined to make sure that the fight doesn't merely boil down to which chips have the best specs.

During a lengthy Tuesday keynote at Nvidia's annual GPU Technology Conference (GTC), CEO Jensen Huang unfurled a massive set of product and partnership announcements covering everything from servers to workstations to autonomous cars to robots/IoT devices.

They covered almost every major market that the company competes in save for PCs, where Nvidia, which maintains a high-end performance edge over AMD (AMD) - Get Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Report courtesy of products launched in early 2017 that are based on its Pascal GPU architecture, is taking its time to launch gaming GPUs based on a next-gen architecture.

Of all the announcements, the ones covering Nvidia's server GPU efforts are likely the most important for its top line in the short-to-intermediate term -- particularly the ones related to Nvidia's solutions for training AI/deep learning algorithms to do things such as understand voice commands, translate languages and detect objects within images.

With the help of large R&D investments and an unmatched developer ecosystem, as well as the architectural strengths GPUs claim for handling large numbers of small tasks in parallel, Nvidia's Tesla server GPU claims a giant share of the training market. Cloud giants such as Facebook (FB) - Get Facebook, Inc. Class A Report , Amazon.com (AMZN) - Get Amazon.com, Inc. Report and Alibaba (BABA) - Get Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Sponsored ADR Report are clients, as are numerous enterprises. In recent years, Nvidia has also launched a training server (the DGX-1) that packs eight high-end Tesla GPUs, along with an 8-GPU reference platform (the HGX-1) for third parties looking to design their own servers.

Thanks in part to strong training-related demand, Nvidia's Datacenter product segment saw its revenue rise 105% annually in the February quarter to $606 million. It now accounts for over a fifth of Nvidia's total sales, and is expected to account for about a third of them in a year's time.

Nvidia's Datacenter sales are also benefiting from strong Tesla shipments for virtual desktop and traditional high-performance computing (HPC), and from growing sales of GPUs used for inference -- the task of running AI algorithms against real-world data and content. Though a lot of inference work is still done using Intel (INTC) - Get Intel Corporation (INTC) Report server CPUs, and some is done using programmable chips (FPGAs) from Intel and Xilinx (XLNX) - Get Xilinx, Inc. (XLNX) Report , Nvidia has signaled its inference sales are growing strongly off a relatively small base, and has reported having over 1,200 clients.

On Tuesday, Nvidia strengthened its inference push by unveiling TensorRT 4, a next-gen inference optimizer and runtime for its GPUs that arrives just six months after its predecessor, and has been optimized for Alphabet (GOOGL) - Get Alphabet Inc. Class A Report Google's popular TensorFlow machine learning framework (among other things). And in a move that could help with larger inference deployments, Nvidia announced its GPUs will support Kubernetes, a popular software platform for orchestrating the deployment of app containers that can be quickly moved from one server (or one cloud) to another.

Meanwhile, for the training market, Nvidia unveiled the DGX-2, a next-gen AI training server that contains 16 of its Tesla V100 flagship GPUs (they're based on Nvidia's cutting-edge Volta architecture) along with a pair of Intel Xeon CPUs, and which will sell for a hefty $399,000. Notably, the DGX-2 contains 12 proprietary switching chips (known as NVSwitches) that combine to provide 2.4 terabytes per second of internal bandwidth for the GPUs. It also supports up to 30TB of flash memory and 1.5TB of RAM, both of which are large improvements relative to the DGX-1.

Nvidia also:

Doubled the Tesla V100's HBM2 graphics memory to 32GB. Samsung is Nvidia's main HBM2 supplier, but Micron and SK Hynix also have to be pleased this much graphics memory is being packed onto a server graphics card.

Teamed with flash storage system vendor Pure Storage to launch the AIRI -- a solution for AI researchers that pairs four DGX-1 systems with Pure's FlashBlade storage array and 100-gig Arista Networks Ethernet switches.

Saw its server partners unveil new modular V100-powered systems. Taiwan's Gigabyte, for example, launched the G190, a server that contains 4 Tesla V100 GPUs yet possesses a tiny 1U form factor (height of 1.75 inches).

All of these moves come as Intel, as well as startups such as Graphcore and KnuEdge, try to chip away at Nvidia's training dominance via processors that were built from the ground up to train deep learning algorithms. Intel's recently-launched Nervana Neural Network Processor (NNP) appears to be no slouch in terms of either processing power/efficiency or memory bandwidth, and has been working with Facebook to test and optimize the chip.

In addition to direct competition from other chipmakers, Nvidia has begun seeing some of its cloud clients take an interest in developing their own silicon for AI workloads. Last spring, Google unveiled its second-gen Tensor Processing Unit (TPU), which can handle both training and inference work involving TensorFlow. Google isn't directly selling the chip, believed to have been developed with Broadcom's (AVGO) - Get Broadcom Inc. Report help, but is using it for its own AI work and making it available through its cloud infrastructure platform.

Also: On Monday, Susquehanna's Chris Rolland reported another cloud giant "has designed and is in the process of manufacturing" a training chip that will enter full-scale production during the second half of 2018.

Against such a backdrop, Nvidia is partly relying on large chip engineering investments to keep rivals at bay -- the Tesla V100, it should be noted, is a monster of a chip that pairs 5,120 traditional GPU cores with 640 "Tensor cores" meant to handle deep learning operations. But it's also banking on the massive AI developer ecosystem it has enabled through its CUDA programming interfaces (APIs). And as Tuesday's announcements show, Nvidia is also betting that creating powerful system-level solutions -- both on its own and in partnership with OEMs -- will give it an edge against rivals who have merely developed a good chip and related accelerator card.

Together with Nvidia's other strengths, these hardware efforts leave the GPU giant well-positioned to hold onto a sizable chunk of the fast-growing AI training market. Even if Intel, Google and others are bound to gain some share.

Jim Cramer and the AAP team hold positions in Nvidia, Facebook, Amazon, Alphabet and Broadcom for their Action Alerts PLUS Charitable Trust Portfolio. Want to be alerted before Cramer buys or sells NVDA, FB, AMZN, GOOGL or AVGO? Learn more now.
Tesla shares have shed more than 11.5% so far this year, with investors growing increasingly concerned over safety and liquidity issues at the iconic clean-energy carmaker.

Tesla Inc. (TSLA) - Get Tesla Inc Report shares opened at a 13-month low Wednesday on news that a fatal crash of one of its Model X vehicles in California last week has prompted an investigation from the U.S. National Transportation Board and a warning on liquidity from Moody's Investors Service.

Tesla said it has been unable to determine the cause of the crash outside the city of Mountain View, which killed the 38-year old driver and involved two other vehicles, but is working with authorities to recover the car's log.

"We were deeply saddened to learn that the driver of a Model X vehicle involved in an accident last Friday passed away," the company said in a blogpost. "Safety is at the core of everything we do and every decision we make, so the loss of a life in an accident involving a Tesla vehicle is difficult for all of us. Earlier this week, Tesla proactively reached out to the authorities to offer our assistance in investigating."

Tesla shares were marked 4% at the opening bell and changing hands at $2697.95 each, the lowest since February 2017 and a move that takes its year-to-date decline to around 14%.

Chipmaker and Action Alerts Plus holding Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) - Get NVIDIA Corporation Report , which fell 7.76% yesterday after it said it suspended tests on self-driving cars following the death of a pedestrian in Arizona last week, was marked 0.16% to the upside at $225.88 each in pre-market trading.

Further pressure for Tesla came from Moody's Investors Service, which lowered its credit rating on the clean energy carmaker deeper into junk status and warned that it faces "liquidity pressures due to its large negative cash flow and the pending maturities of convertible bonds."

"Tesla's ratings reflect the significant shortfall in the production rate of the company's Model 3 electric vehicle," Moody's said. "Tesla's rating could be lowered further if there are shortfalls from its updated Model 3 production targets."

Moody's also pegged Tesla's Model 3 production rate at 2,500 per week for the quarter ending this month, a figure it sees rising to 5,000 per week by the end of June. Both tallies, however, fall far short of the company's forecast of 5,000 a week by the end of last year and 10,000 a week by the end of 2018.

TheStreet's Eric Johnsa wrote last week that Elon Musk's controversial $2.6 million pay deal could align the company's founder with the longer-term interests of the company's shareholders.

"If Tesla's top line, bottom line and stock price all see major improvements, then Musk will be richly rewarded. If they don't, then he gets nothing. But there are a few qualifiers. Perhaps the biggest one: Following the initial revenue and adjusted EBITDA milestones, EBITDA milestones appear much easier to achieve than revenue milestones," Johnsa wrote.

"With Tesla's 2018 revenue consensus standing at $19.3 billion and its adjusted EBITDA consensus at $1.7 billion, both revenue milestone #1 and EBITDA milestone #1 might be achieved by early 2019," he added. "But whereas analysts don't expect Tesla to reach revenue milestone #2 ($35 billion) until near the end of 2020 and revenue milestone #3 ($55 billion) until the end of 2022, EBITDA milestone #2 ($3 billion) is expected to be surpassed before the end of 2019, and EBITDA milestone #3 ($4.5 billion) before the end of 2020."
ALTON  To help connect Illinois residents with forgotten or lost property, the office of state Rep. Monica Bristow, D-Godfrey, will be partnering with the Illinois State Treasurers Office to host an I-Cash event on Monday, April 9.

Each I-Cash event that I have held has proven successful with constituents finding property or money that rightfully belongs to them, but might have been lost or forgotten about, said Bristow. Just in the last two years, the Illinois state Treasurers Office has paid out over $300 million in unclaimed assets, so it is always worth doing a search to find out if you or a family member might have unclaimed property.
JERSEYVILLE  A Jersey State Bank social media contest held earlier this month was music to some local high school bands ears.

The Jersey County bank held a contest from March 1-11 urging local communities to vote for their favorite high school band. The high school band with the most votes received $250, second place received $100 and third place received $50.

We believe our local bands keep school spirit alive and we wanted to give the community an opportunity to recognize them, said Laura Stemm, marketing manager at Jersey State Bank.

Jerseyville received 3,717 votes, coming in first place. Calhoun placed second, receiving 2,952 votes, and Brussels came in third place, receiving 2,004 votes.

Jersey State Bank has always strived to invest in the progress of our local schools and were proud to see that our local communities took the time to vote and recognize our local bands, said Stemm.

Jersey State Bank has two offices to serve its customers, in Jerseyville and Grafton.
WOOD RIVER  A Eureka, Illinois man is facing two charges of indecent solicitation of a child and and one charge of grooming after the intended victims father intervened and posed, on Facebook, as his 12-year-old daughter.

Charged is Derrick S. Sams, 53. He is accused of soliciting a child to engage in acts of sexual penetration and transmitting messages to lure a child into acts of sexual penetration. Bail was set at $500,000. Sams was out on parole on another crime when he allegedly solicited the Wood River girl.

The case dates to Feb. 9, but details of the case were made public Tuesday after police filed an affidavit in connection with a request for a search warrant for Sams cell phone.

The alleged crime was discovered when the child reported messages allegedly from Sams, a distant relative, about mutual interests. When Sams allegedly inquired about the girls address, the father intervened and took over the conversation, pretending to be his daughter.

He obtained messages from the suspect that allegedly showed he was aware the girl was only 12 and suggesting they meeting in secret to have sex. Sams allegedly discussed deleting the conversation and meeting at a motel.

He sent her a picture of himself and suggested she send him a picture, maybe a little sexy one.

Wood River police contacted Sams parole agent, who gave Wood River police the phone number used by Sams, who was arrested on Feb. 14. Sams allegedly told an officer that he was sexting a girl that he thought was of age, but it turned out that she was 12 or 13 years old.

Wood River police went to Galesburg, from where the messages were sent, to obtain the cell phone used in the alleged crime.

At the time of his arrest, Sams was out on parole after serving time on a burglary charge. After apparently violating parole, he was sent back to Pinckneyville Correctional Center, where he is currently being held.

Sams has a record dating to 1983 when he was convicted of robbery and sentenced to seven years in prison. He also has two prior convictions for burglary and one, for possession of burglary tools.

Reach reporter Sanford Schmidt at 618-208-6449.
EDWARDSVILLE  Southern Illinois University Edwardsville School of Pharmacy (SOP) Dean Gireesh Gupchup, PhD, will step down effective June 30, 2018 for family reasons. He will continue as an SOP faculty member to assist in the Schools continued success.

While the School of Pharmacy is in an extremely strong position, I have carefully reflected on my challenging personal circumstances and the demands of the deans position, and have made a career decision to provide more flexibility for my family, Gupchup said. It has truly been an honor to serve as dean since 2010, and to help the School achieve the accolades and prominence that it has rightfully garnered.
American citizenship is the most valuable status in the history of the world, worth more than even Roman citizenship was. It is elementary that a census of the people in our country should include in its questions whether someone is a citizen.

Yet asking for that basic information has created a massive firestorm among liberals who want to blur the distinction between those who are American citizens, and those who are not. No one can claim it is an invasion of anyones privacy to ask about citizenship, given that it should be a matter of public record.

The genteel industrialist who runs the obscure 115-year-old U.S. Department of Commerce appears to be an unlikely person to cause such controversy. Wilbur Ross, who will never light up a room or catch fire on social media while presiding over one of the grandest but least-visited buildings in Washington, holds a position that is considered a backwater in the presidents cabinet.

But Secretary Ross has become the most valuable player of the Trump administration. Not only has he provided critical support for the presidents America First trade agenda, but he has laid the groundwork for the presidents reelection by restoring the citizenship question to the census.

The importance of his decision is shown by the fact that Democrats in California immediately filed a lawsuit asking a federal judge to stop it. Federal judges appointed by Democratic presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and even Jimmy Carter have become the first stop in the resistance to President Trump carrying out the will of the American people who elected him in 2016.

The initial lawsuit against Wilbur Ross was filed by the attorney general of California, Xavier Becerra, who should have his hands full defending his states unconstitutional sanctuary laws against a federal lawsuit by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions. San Francisco is not only a sanctuary for illegal aliens, but it is also a popular venue for liberals seeking judicial supremacy to block Trump at every turn.

Another lawsuit against Ross is being threatened by Obamas disgraced attorney general Eric Holder, who was found in criminal contempt of Congress for his role in covering up the Fast and Furious scandal. That should have derailed Holders legal career, but instead its treated as a badge of honor by those who advocate the alleged rights of illegal aliens.

The Constitution requires the federal government to conduct an actual enumeration every 10 years primarily because, as the Constitution also says, Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective Numbers. This month is the deadline for finalizing plans for the next census that must be completed by April 1, 2020.

The census has always included all residents in its total enumeration, including both legal and illegal immigrants who are not U.S. citizens, and even slaves when slavery was legal. But how many residents are citizens has also been counted throughout U.S. history, as far back as the fourth decennial census in 1820.

Until 1950, all respondents were asked to report whether each person being counted was a U.S. citizen. From 1960 to 2000, the citizenship question was demoted to the long form census questionnaire that went to 1 in 6 households, and thereafter it was included in the American Community Survey which samples 3.5 million households per year.

As Secretary Ross explains in his decision, a sample of just 1 in 6 households is not accurate enough to determine how many citizens are living in small election districts. To obtain numbers accurate down to the level of small census blocks, which are required to enforce the federal Voting Rights Act, every person who is a U.S. citizen must be counted (in addition to every resident who is not a citizen).

Liberals claim that the citizenship question will discourage illegal residents from responding to the census, thereby undercounting them. Even worse, in the critics view, is how this might result in a reduction of taxpayer funding of agencies that dole out massive benefits to the illegal population.

The wily Wilbur Ross anticipated those objections, pointing out in his 8-page statement that no one provided evidence that reinstating a citizenship question would materially decrease response rates. On the contrary, theres plenty of evidence that the citizenship question has no effect on response rates, even among those who generally distrusted government and government information collection efforts, disliked the current administration, or feared law enforcement.

Perhaps opponents of Trump should take solace in how Trump is not ordering a census like the one used by the Roman Empire at the time of Christ. The Roman census required everyone to return to their home city to be counted, and today that rule would have the salutary effect of deporting at their own expense the many millions of illegal aliens.

John and Andy Schlafly are sons of Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016) whose 27th book, The Conservative Case for Trump, was published posthumously in 2016.
On March 27, during his vote of thanks to the governor's address in the Budget session of the state assembly, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh had to pause mid-speech. The interruption came from an MLA from Ludhiana who asked Singh to address the assembly in Punjabi instead of English. If somebody does not understand English, he can walk out. Wherever necessary, I will speak in Punjabi, retorted Singh. He is reported to have advised his MLAs to "learn a little bit of English."

Baba Alexander, an educator living in Delhi, will probably feel reassured at this support for the English language. He is on a mission to make Mavoor, situated in the Kozhikode district of Kerala, the country's first 100 per cent English-literate panchayat by September 2018. Founder of the 'One World: One Language movement' and 'master trainer' at an NGO called National Child Development Council, Alexander ardently believes that English is the most useful language for improving one's future prospects, guaranteed to give aspiring change-makers a leg-up in the competitive world. Alexander's pilot program of English training will help the entire Mavoor panchayat, with a population of around 30,000, converse and transact their business in English in six months, in the run up to Global Literacy Day observed on September 8.

To realise this, Alexander has devised and perfected a method called "Baby Easy English & Art of English". He says it's an innovative, hassle-free way to learn the language, where grammar is eschewed in favour of more informal tools. Some of the tenets of "Baby Easy English", unveiled at the launch of the project's logo at a press conference in Delhi, include: "Never teach grammar formally or informally"; "If we teach the writing, only after learning to speak, there is no need to teach meaning, spelling and pronunciation"; "correcting creates fear and conflicts in the learner"; "Any verbal knowledge or words without any visuals or music will not go into the subconscious mind".

While his faith in English as the sole arbiter of peace and prosperity is amusing, it is also symptomatic of an obsession with a language which has generated a caste system of its own.

India is believed the second-largest English-speaking country after the United States, as the language remains the official mode of communication in higher education, national media, bureaucracy, upper judiciary and the corporate echelons. English, unfortunately, still determines the socioeconomic status of an individual in a Indian society, and the most aspirational parents want their kids to attend English-medium schools, even though more and more educationists and linguists have opined that learning in one's mother tongue resulted in more positive outcomes. A UNESCO research report states that children who begin their education in their mother tongue make a better start, and continue to perform better, than those for whom school starts with a new language.

But try explaining this to Baba Alexander and he would laugh it off. For him, English is the dominant language.
Food giants Nestle, Kraft Heinz and Unilever are expected to bid for GlaxoSmithKline's Horlicks health nutrition business, which could fetch more than $4 billion, according to

people familiar with the matter. GSK has started a strategic review of Horlicksa malt-based drink brand popular in the country and some of its smaller products, after buying Novartis out of their consumer healthcare venture for $13 billion on Tuesday. The main asset on the block is GSK's 72.5 per cent stake in its Indian subsidiary GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare.

The sources said the stake was worth $3.1 billion at current market prices but GSK wanted a premium in any sale. They estimated the consumer health nutrition business, which

also has smaller operations in Nigeria and Bangladesh, could fetch more than $4 billion. Nestle, the world's biggest packaged food company, has previously told GSK privately of its interest in Horlicks on several occasions, the people said.

Nestle already owns the malt drink Milo, but it is not a big seller in India. The Swiss company declined to comment.

Unilever, the world's largest tea company, and Kraft Heinz, which sells the powdered drinks Crystal Light and Kool-Aid, also declined to comment. Horlicks is more than 140 years old with origins dating back to 1873, when two British-born men, James and William Horlick, first founded a company in Chicago to manufacture the drink. It was introduced to India by Indian soldiers who had fought with the British Army in the First World War. Associated British Foods, which owns the malt drink brand Ovaltine, could look at the business to scale up in a key emerging market, the sources said, although the size of the GSK business could be a deterrent.

An ABF spokesman declined to comment.

The Indian business has an enterprise value of about 29 times core earnings, said one of the sources, meaning any deal premium will value it well above what many packaged food and drink brands fetch. The valuation is inflated by the high growth rates seen in the Indian market.Nestle and Unilever could purchase the asset through their local Indian subsidiaries, Nestle India or Hindustan Unilever. Other potential suitors might include Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Suntory, Mondelez International and JAB, the coffee business owner that recently agreed to buy Dr Pepper Snapple, one of the sources said.
If anything happens to me, please tell my story. This was...
One of the much talked about Malayalam film S Durga is slated to release on April 6, says the director Sanal Kumar Sasidharan.

Since the film has gone through a lot of controversies earlier for its screening at the International Film Festival of Indian(IFFI) last year, asked about his feeling on the pan-India release of the film, Sanal said: "Feeling great. Now the controversy and hardships are over; it is time for people to watch the film and see what was the reason for the unwanted controversies."

"I request all the people who opposed and who really supported unconditionally to watch the film," he added.

The film has got huge international recognition at film festivals like 53rd Pesaro Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam 2017, International Film Festival of Valencia, Spain and also screened at the Jio MAMI Film Festival.
The Rajya Sabha witnessed tense moments on Wednesday as AIADMK MP Navaneethakrishnan claimed all AIADMK MPs would commit suicide if the Cauvery Management Board was not constituted immediately by the Centre.

Six weeks after the Supreme Court delivered its final verdict on the Cauvery issue, the Central government has decided to move a petition seeking clarification on the term Scheme in the judgement.

In the meantime, protests and voices against the Centre over it not fulfiling the Supreme Court's orders have reached a new height. While the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry governments are planning to file a contempt petition in the Supreme Courtas the six-week deadline set by the Supreme Court to form the Cauvery Management Board ends on ThursdayNavaneethakrishnan's threat in Parliament has added fuel to the burning Cauvery issue.

"All we AIADMK MPs will commit suicide if the CMB is not set up by the Central government as instructed by the Supreme Court," he said in the Parliament on Wednesday afternoon. However, other AIADMK MPs sought to distance themselves from Navaneethakrishnan's 'mass suicide' claims, saying those were his own words and not reflective of the party's stance.

Tamil Nadu, the lower riparian state, has been waiting for the Centre to constitute the CMB within the stipulated time of six weeks.

"There is one more day left for the Centre to set up the CMB. Let us wait. If the CMB is not set up before March 29, then we will decide on the next course of action," Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palanisamy told reporters on Wednesday.

In the meantime, the Centre will be filing its application seeking clarification by this weekend.

Officials of the Central ministry of water resources including Secretary U.P. Singh and Joint Secretary Sanjay Kundu held a high-profile meeting in Delhi on Wednesday morning, where, according to sources, the Cauvery issue and legal aspects were discussed. The Karnataka government submitted an eight-page report on its stance on the CMB, while the TN government submitted a two-page reply on the need for such a board.

Palanisamy will hold a meeting with ministers and officials at the Secretariat in Chennai on Thursday to discuss the future course of action.

Navaneethakrishnan's statement has fuelled emotions in Tamil Nadu, where the ruling AIADMK government is being pulled up for not exerting pressure on the Centre to set up the board.

The DMK has called for a meeting of its executive committee on March 30 to discuss the Cauvery issue.

On Tuesday, officials from Tamil Nadu met senior advocate Shekar Naphde in Delhi to discuss the future course of action on the issue.

TN's PWD Secretary S.K. Prabhakar and Tamil Nadu Cauvery Technical Cell Chairman R. Subramanian met Naphde.

However, amid all these developments, farmers in the Cauvery Delta region have expressed grief and displeasure with the Centre for disappointing the state always.

"BJP has once again ignored our rights. It's because of elections in Karnataka. The explanation given is that the Centre needs more clarity on the word 'scheme' in the Supreme Court order. It's right legally. But these are just delaying tactics to put Tamil Nadu in distress. Our ruling politicians are also for this," said farmers association leader Ilankeeran from Cuddalore.
Normal life in parts of the 'coal belt' of West Bengal remains paralysed since violence erupted during Ram Navami celebrations on Sunday. At least three people have died of injuries sustained in clashes, but their identities have not been disclosed, while three policemen have been injured. An IPS officer, Arindam Dutta, lost his right hand in a bomb attack on March 26.

As celebrations have continued for three consecutive days, sporadic clashes have also been reported on Tuesday and Wednesday. Buses and other forms of transport stopped services in Asansol and Raniganj and shops, schools and colleges have been closed. Life has come to a standstill in some areas as office goers chose to stay at home fearing violence.

Heavy deployment of police forces has been undertaken in Asansol and Raniganj townships, with Section 144 being imposed as anti-social elements, armed with sharp weapons, from two communities fought on the streets.

Police stations in Raniganj were attacked by groups of men, allegedly owing allegiance to the Trinamool Congress and BJP. The condition of Dutta, who is being treated at a private hospital in Durgapur, is reported to be very serious.

Babul Supriyo, local MP and Union minister of state for heavy industries, blamed cadres of the Trinamool Congress for the violence.

The chief minister is holding tea 'sessions' in Delhi while her state is burning. TMC cadres hurled bombs at the police officers. Many people have become homeless because of the torture of rowdies from Trinamool Congress against BJP cadres. I have sent a report to Home Minister Rajnath Singhji. I have sought Central forces to check the riots, said Supriyo.

The CPI(M) called for immediate restoration of peace and blamed both BJP and Trinamool Congress for the riots in Asansol and Raniganj.

State is burning because of competitive communalism by Trinamool and BJP. The people are facing the heat. We are not holding protest rallies because of many reasons but are asking the government to halt the menace going on in the areas, said CPI(M) state secretary Surya Kanta Mishra at a press conference.
Anna Hazare, who is on an indefinite hunger in New Delhi since March 23, indicated that the Centre's action plan may be submitted on Wednesday.

"A minister had met me on Monday and had said he would be back on Wednesday. However, I have been told by the government that the discussion on our demands was still underway at the PMO (Prime Minister's Office). They need more time. If it takes more time, the government will come to us tomorrow (Wednesday)," he said on Tuesday.

The Centre had on Monday reached out to Anna Hazare with its emissary and Maharashtra minister Girish Mahajana assuring the social activist that most of his "demands will be taken care of".

The minister said he was representing both the Centre as well as the state government.

Hazare has been pressing for setting up of the Lokpal at the Centre and Lokayuktas in the states, besides implementation of the Swaminathan Commission report, which has suggested ways to address the agrarian distress.

Hazare previously has accused the Union government of not appointing the Lokpal to investigate the cases of corruption, despite having a law in place.
Stressing on the importance to fast track the acquisition process of the fighter jets, several top officers from Indian Air Force, Navy and the Army, along with senior defence ministry bureaucrats, defence and industry experts have expressed grave concern over the fast depleting combat strength of the IAF. The IAF has been making repeated appeals to the government over its depleting strength of combat aircraft, especially to tackle two-front war scenario with China and Pakistan.

Debating the issue at a round table conference'Re-energising Indias Air Power'organised by Forum for Strategic Studies and Vayu Aerospace and Defence Review, they urged the government to expedite the process of finding a suitable fighter type that meets the requirements of the IAF in affordable numbers, and which would operate alongside the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), Rafale, Su-30 and some legacy combat aircraft.

They stressed that despite the sanctioned strength of 42 combat squadrons required by the IAF to face a two-front threat, the number has drastically come down to 31 at present, which would plummet further over the next decade despite the addition of 36 Rafale fighter jets from France and indigenous design and development Light Combat Aircraft Tejas.

The round table also felt that at this stage, a repeat of the MMRCA process would be infructuous and could even see some companies declining to participate in light of their earlier experiences.

Former deputy chief of IAF, Air Marshal Nirdosh Tyagi (Retd), who was directly involved with the MMRCA process during the critical run up to selection of a fighter for the Indian Air Force, was candid in his remarks that a re-run of virtually the same process would be infructuous at this juncture.

Reviewing the background which has led to the present situation, the Air Marshal stressed that life-cycle costs were then, and remain, a major factor.

"In view of the present situation where the IAFs combat aircraft strength continues to decline further, a decision on the acquisition of new fighters must be fast tracked even as the LCA programme continues at its own pace," Tyagi added.

According to Air Marshal Ajit Bhavnani (Retd), former vice chief of the Air Staff, To maintain strategic stability in our region, it is imperative that urgent steps are taken now to ensure that IAF combat force levels are built up as soon as possible. The next generation AMCA (advanced medium combat aircraft) should be the next major objective for Indias aerospace industry. We should learn lessons from the past and reduce timelines by having an experienced technology partner to support the project. As an example, the Chinese began development of their J-20 stealth fighter in the late 1990s and it has just entered service in 2017 after 20 years.

Projecting the IAF fixed wing combat force levels till 2032, Pushpindar Singh Chopra, of The Society for Aerospace Studies, pointed out that the IAF would soon see a precipitous depreciation in the remaining numbers of MiG-21 Bisons and MiG-27s, while the present legacy Mirage 2000s, MiG-29 and Jaguars would also be phased out by 2032 when the IAFs combat squadron numbers would come down to an unacceptable 23, a large proportion of them being the heavy Sukhoi Su-30, unless urgent decisions are taken on the selection and induction of a new medium multi-role combat aircraft type.

The round table conference took place against the backdrop of the compelling circumstances the IAF finds itself todaythe predicted depletion of combat squadrons taking place without credible replacements in the foreseeable future.

Presently, there is still only one squadron of Tejas LCAs, but still under formation and without final operational clearance.

Former chairman of HAL R.K. Tyagi expressed apprehension over the continued confusion as far as next variants of the LCA are concerned, which will further impact their availability. He felt that at this rate, it could take several decades to have enough LCAs to meet the IAFs needs.

In 2018, the number of IAF combat aircraft squadrons is down to 31 and this slide will continue unless urgent decisions are taken. It was reiterated at the workshop that while IAF force levels are being reduced to alarming lows, those of Pakistan and China are increasing, and modernising. The participants urged the government streamline the acquisition process, keeping in mind the countrys overall strategic environment and economic realities.

The conference was attended by several former service chiefs, including Air Chief Marshal S. Krishnaswamy and S.P. Tyagi, former chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Arun Prakash, Lt Gen Kamal Davar, Air Marshal Nirdosh Tyagi, Air Marshal Satish Inamdar, Air Marshal Ajit Bhavnani, Air Marshal Nirdosh Tyagi, Air Marshal P.K. Barbora, Air Marshal D.C. Kumaria, Air Vice Marshal Kapil Kak, Air Marshal V.K. Bhatia, Major General Ashok Mehta, Commodore Sujeet Samaddar, Vinod Mishra, former secretary (Defence Finance), R.K. Tyagi, former chairman of HAL, Air Marshal Anil Chopra, Air Marshal Bharat Kumar, Brigadier Dinesh Mathur and others.
Four militants were killed in a gunfight with the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district on Wednesday, police said.

The gunfight broke out in Sunderbani area of Rajouri in the morning when heavily-armed militants opened fire on troops of 16 Raj Rifles, 6 Jat Regiment, as well Border Security Force troopers and state police personnel sent to check the area after suspicious movements were reported from there, the officer said.

AK rifles, magazines, hand grenades and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were recovered from the possession of the slain militants, and the exact identity of the slain militants is being established, the officer said.

"Search operation is still going on in the area," police said.
The decision of the Madhya Pradesh government to regularise over 5,000 illegal colonies over the state has drawn flak from many quarters. People who consider themselves as honest taxpayers and those who believe in following rules and regulations are feeling cheated after the decision, which was announced by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

It is unfortunate that the chief minister is meddling with the system of planned urban development by promoting squatters and those who constructed houses without proper permissions and development plan, said Dhanesh Dixit of Bhopal Citizen Forum, a social organisation.

As the Assembly polls are drawing closer, Chouhan is announcing one decision after another to keep the electorate happy and keep voting for his party, says Akshaya Hunka of Vichar Madhya Pradesh, a non-political body.

The state government had recently announced that 5,197 unauthorised colonies located all over the state will be made regular by bringing them under rules and regulations.

The capital, Bhopal, alone has 450 illegal colonies, which came up during last 10 years. In 2013, just before the Assembly polls, Chouhan had declared that his government would regularise all the illegal colonies. His declaration had fuelled a huge growth of such settlements. The mushrooming of such illegal colonies after that statement was not limited only to big cities but it went across the 378 other towns governed by local bodies like municipal corporations and nagar panchayats.

According to official figures, Madhya Pradesh has 4,759 legal colonies, which are exceeded by the number of illegal colonies (5,197). Saurabh Raina of Fitness Forty Club said, These illegal colonies are a result of the failure of the state government in providing affordable plots on developed land. The policies of government are responsible where the law-abiding citizens have no incentive, while those who break laws are rewarded.

Prabhat Nema, a retired engineer, says, This decision will make ordinary law-abiding people feel cheated. There is no point buying costly property at a proper approved colony when government has made it a periodic practice to regularise illegal ones.

With the election approaching, the chief minister has also given an ultimatum to officials who do not comply with his diktat. He said all the 5,197 colonies will be regularised latest by August 15 this year.

The process will begin from April 7. Earlier, the state government had amended the MP Colonisers Rules, 1998, to regularise the illegal colonies before 2016. However, the house owners refused to pay the 10 to 40 per cent fee as development cost for regularisation. Now, the fees have been reduced drastically.

Speaking at a workshop held at the Administration Academy to discuss the details of regularising such colonies, Chouhan said, All the illegal colonies of the state should be legalised by August 15. I cannot entertain any lame excuse from officials that they cannot implement. I will myself monitor the implementation and execution of the plan.

Urban development department will legalise the illegal colonies by charging 20 per cent development charges for repairing sewage line and road and water supply from residents. The urban development department will have to pay 80 per cent share. Basic civic services like water, sanitation and electricity will be streamlined with the said amount, which will be charged in the name of development.
It is pre-poll bonanza time in Rajasthan, slated to go to elections by the end this year. From farmers to small businessmen to wannabe entrepreneurs, every section of voters is expected to be showered what seems like a gift.

In a bid to kill two birds with one stone, the state will get its first mega food park at Roopangarh village of Ajmer district soon. Union minister for food processing industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal is slated to inaugurate the park, targetted to benefit about 25,000 farmers in and around Ajmer. With the Ajmer Sharief Dargah there, the benefit may reach the minority community members living in the area.

The government hopes that the park, being set up at a cost of Rs 113.57 crore under the "Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana", will contribute to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's commitment to double farmers' income by 2020.

Only last month, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, in the course of the budget, announced a one-time loan waiver of upto Rs 50,000 for small and marginal farmers, costing the exchequer Rs 8,000 crore. To implement it, she also announced setting up of a Farmer Loan Relief Commission.

Other concessions announced a few months before the elections include free travel in state run buses for super-senior citizens over 80 years along with a companion who needs to pay half the fare.

The Congress, which has been winning all the by-elections in the state, did not protest over this appeasing of voters ahead of elections. On the contrary, the opposition party upped the ante and pressed for a full waiver to all farmers.

In the last few weeks, the chief minister has spoken on recruitments of 63,000 teachers and score-based free scooters to students.

Announcement of freebies and schemes to woo voters would earlier be heard just in time to beat the model code of conduct setting in. But with the BJP's ascendancy and competitive politics where states emulate the practice of the winning party in other state elections, such announcements are made almost for a whole year ahead of the polls.

The mega food parks will have modern infrastructure facilities for food processing along the value chain from farm to market with strong forward and backward linkages.

According to the government, it would lead to a turnover of about Rs 450-500 crore annually, and provide direct and indirect employment to 5,000 people. Besides farmers, growers, processors and consumers of Rajasthan and adjoining areas will benefit from this.
Savatri Bai Phule, an MP of the Bharatiya Janata Party from eastern Uttar Pradesh has launched an open revolt against the government led by her own party at the Centre and the state. Lashing out at the Union government, she accused a section of the senior leaders of the BJP of fiddling with the constitution'.

Savatri Bai Phule

Phule alleged that the BJP was trying to end reservation at the behest of some of its senior leaders, and announced a protest rally on April 1 under the banner of Namo Buddhai Jenseva Simiti. The rally will mainly focus on issues pertaining to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, OBCs and minorities.

The party, however, has maintained a studied silence over her accusations.

Phule unequivocally made it clear that in the fight for reservation, she will not hesitate to join hands with any political outfit or individual. She alleged that central governments policies have given a big jolt to the welfare and interests of SC/ ST and OBC people.

This is the second rebellion the BJP is facing in the state after Yogi Adityanath's cabinet minister Sukhdev Rajbhar had launched a front against the government just before the Rajya Sabha elections. He, too, had accused the government of neglecting the interests of the downtrodden in the society. However, Rabhar calmed down after his talks with BJP national president Amit Shah.

Phule has put forth demands like reservation promotion, introduction of reservation in private sector, prevention of atrocities against SC and ST, introduction of a quota in government departments and ensuring reservation for dalits and minorities in it.

She categorically made it clear until these demands are met, her fight against injustice of Union government will continue.
India and other G-4 nations have called for transparency in negotiations on UN Security Council reform, underlining that countries and groups making proposals, specifically on veto and regional representation, should be named in the documents framed for the discussions.

India's Permanent Representative to the UN Syed Akbaruddin, delivering a statement on behalf of the G-4 countries, said that at the informal meeting on intergovernmental negotiations on Security Council reform several proposals listed in the papers circulated for discussion are without any attribution of who made the suggestions.

He said there is a a need for utmost clarity and openness specifically in the sections of veto and

regional representation.

"Currently, we see several unattributed propositions. Serious proposals made with genuine intent are not orphans without support. Or is it that those who have initially suggested these no longer desire to be associated with them. If that is so, we need to know. If not, we should not be selective in attributing, Akbaruddin said on Tuesday as member states discussed the circulated paper on 'Revised Elements of Commonality and Issues for Further Consideration'.

He asked why countries and groups making a certain proposal are not named.

"Why are some the children of a lesser God? What possible harm can come if we reflect the names of countries/groups proposing a certain position? Can't all aspire to being equally treated?, he said in his statement on behalf of the G-4 nations.

"Attribution is not a luxury. It is a necessity, he said.

He expressed hope that the co-chairs of the process will treat all proposals pending consideration on par, calling for the need to "embrace and implement transparency".

Japan, India, Brazil and Germanycommonly known as G-4are seeking expansion of the permanent and non-permanent seats of the Security Council. They support each other's bids for permanent seats on the UN Security Council.

The G-4 also welcomed the induction in the paper, in its entirety, of the work done in the 70th session under Ambassador Sylvie Lucas in the clusters relating to 'Relationship of the General Assembly with the Security Council' and Size and Working Methods of the Council'.

Akbaruddin also pointed out that while the co-chairs have taken on board some suggestions made in the last meeting by several member states from the floor, there are other reasonable suggestions that await implementation.

One such suggestion made by the G4 was the grouping together in each cluster of all the issues in which there is an understanding, as being commonly agreed and following it with another section, grouping the issues that still need to be resolved in the same cluster.

He further said member states have heard many times how an agreement on principles can speed up the process.

"We had many times talked about abstract principles in previous sessions. Now, we need to transform these principles into concrete options for a modernised composition of the Security Council."

"All of us adhere and believe in the principles of democracy, transparency, accountability, representativeness and reforms that help making the Security Council more legitimate, more effective and more efficient," he said.
State media calls North Koreas nuclear weapons a treasured sword of justice.

Pyongyang has released commemorative stamps and built monuments in honor of its ballistic missile tests, while nuclear and rocket scientists have been named national heroes.

For Kim Jong Un, fully giving up nuclear weapons would mean a dramatic reversal for an authoritarian leader who has not only staked his security on his nuclear arsenal, but also spent years publicly celebrating such weapons as an integral part of his regimes legitimacy and power.

South Korean envoys who met Kim in Pyongyang early this month quoted Kim as saying he was committed to denuclearization, and that he expressed his eagerness to meet US President Donald Trump as soon as possible.

Chinese officials who met with Kim in Beijing this week also said he committed to denuclearization, but initial North Korean state media reports on the visit did not mention the nuclear issue.

Absent any public confirmation from Pyongyang, analysts are skeptical Kim will suddenly give up the nuclear arsenal he and his family have spent decades developing.

Instead, Kim is likely to seek a more nuanced and long-term approach that could allow him to emerge looking victorious in the minds of his people and domestic elites, they say.

Kim Jong Un does not need to sell anything to the North Korean population, particularly because denuclearization is a process that will take at least 10 years to realistically achieve, said Michael Madden, an expert on North Korea leadership at Johns Hopkins Universitys 38 North website.

Pyongyang most likely envisions ... a series of incremental agreements around this, rather than one or two large grand bargains.

CONCESSIONS NEEDED

Former South Korean officials who have negotiated with the North in the past say such a pivot could be difficult, but not impossible - if the United States makes major concessions Kim Jong Un can take back and parade to his people.

Kim Jong Un would seek to propagate the idea that he induced the U.S. and international communitys surrender by having mastered nuclear weapons, said Kim Hyung-suk, who served as the Souths vice unification minister between 2016 and 2017.

If talks go well, sanctions are eased and the economy grows. Then the people would understand Kims denuclearization decision and become strongly supportive of it.

That may not be the kind of deal Trump envisions as he plans to sit down with Kim sometime in May for an historic first summit between sitting leaders of the two countries.

Trumps new national security adviser, John Bolton, recently said Trump should insist any meeting he holds with Kim be focused squarely on how to eliminate that countrys nuclear weapons program as quickly as possible.

SILENCE IN PYONGYANG

The lack of comment from North Korean state media on the proposed talks between Kim and Trump was not unexpected, analysts said.

It might reflect an ongoing internal discussion about how to deal with public opinion, certainly, although I would characterize that as a broader discussion of how to proceed overall, said Christopher Green, a senior adviser with the International Crisis Group, which researches conflict.

Given the importance he has attached to the weapons, and the money poured into their development, Kim will have to tread carefully to ensure any talk of abandoning the nuclear program started by his grandfather and continued by his father wouldnt undermine his legitimacy at home, experts say.

To try to balance factions in his government, Kim Jong Un embraced a policy of byungjin, or simultaneous military and economic development, after he came to power in 2011.

Since 2013, the pro-military factions have been ascendant, but a Trump summit could lend heft to arguments by officials who prefer to prioritize economic development, Green said.

A number of military authorities and other senior elites might be less receptive to denuclearization.

For them, its unthinkable to ensure regime security with conventional forces alone, so they could object to Kims decision and continue to argue for keeping the bombs, said Kim Hyung-suk.

FOREBEARERS TEACHING

According to South Korean and Chinese officials, Kim Jong Un told them denuclearizing the Korean peninsula was forebearers teaching - a potential talking point if he does try to justify curtailing his much-vaunted nuclear program.

It is our consistent stand to be committed to denuclearization on the peninsula, in accordance with the will of late President Kim Il Sung and late General Secretary Kim Jong Il, Kim told Chinese President Xi Jinping during a visit this week, according to Chinese state media.

Kim Jong Uns father and grandfather both publicly promised not to pursue nuclear weapons, but secretly continued to develop the programs, culminating in the countrys first nuclear test in 2006 under Kim Jong Il.

Even after that test, Kim Jong Il insisted in a 2007 summit with his South Korean counterpart that he didnt have the intention to own nuclear weapons.

The history of failed negotiations with Pyongyang makes many observers, including former senior U.S. diplomat Evans Revere, skeptical the latest negotiations will be any different.

In past talks, North Korea had said it could consider giving up its arsenal if the United States removes its troops from South Korea and withdraws its so-called nuclear umbrella of deterrence from South Korea and Japan, a stance Washington has found unacceptable.

Those of us who have negotiated with the North Koreans know what they mean (by denuclearization), Revere said.

About the only thing that the North Korean leader might need to sell to his people - and particularly to the military - is the idea of a freeze on some elements of his program.

Reuters
British Prime Minister Theresa May called on Tuesday for a long-term response by the West to the security threat from Russia as NATO followed member states in expelling Russian diplomats over the poisoning of a double agent in England.

In the most sweeping such action against Moscow since the height of the Cold War, the United States and European Union members plan to expel scores of Russian diplomats in action against the Kremlin for the nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter which they have blamed on Russia.

Russia, which denies any part in the March 4 attack on the Skripals, says the Wests action is a provocative gesture and has said it will respond.

The coordinated action among Western allies is seen as a huge diplomatic coup for May whose country is preparing to exit the EU bloc and may have had doubts about how much support she could count on.

Speaking to senior cabinet members in London on Tuesday, May said countries had acted against Russia not just out of solidarity but because they recognised the threat it posed.

Yesterday was a significant moment in our response to this reckless act of aggression, but there is still more to be done as we work with international partners on a long-term response to the challenge posed by Russia, her spokesman reported May as saying.

The US-led NATO alliance followed suit announcing on Tuesday it was expelling seven diplomats from Russias mission at alliance headquarters in Brussels and blocking the appointment of three others, thus cutting the size of the mission to 20 people from 30.

It sends a very clear message to Russia that it has costs, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said.

EU member Ireland and Moldova on Tuesday joined the list of those countries expelling Russian diplomats over the Skripal poisoning.

The list includes 22 European countries including Britain itself which led the way by expelling 23 diplomats.

Expulsions

In the toughest action that President Donald Trump has taken against Russia since coming to office, the United States has said it will expel 60 Russians, including 12 intelligence officers from Russias mission to the UN headquarters in New York.

It is also closing the Russian consulate in Seattle.

Trump discussed Russia in separate phone calls on Tuesday with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The leaders endorsed the Western response to Russias chemical weapons attack in Britain, including the expulsion of Russian diplomatic personnel, the White House said.

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis hailed the diplomatic expulsions as a statement to those who doubted the unity of NATO.

Russia has the potential to be a partner with Europe ... (but) I think right now we have to recognize that they have chosen to seek a different relationship with the NATO nations, he told reporters.

In Prague, Paul Ryan, the Republican US House Speaker, on Tuesday commended unity shown over the affair. It is important that we work in solidarity with each other, free people in democracies to stop Russia and condemn Russia for this kind of belligerent activity, Ryan said.

Russia has not disclosed yet what retaliatory steps it will take. President Vladimir Putin was on Tuesday in the Siberian city of Kemerovo at the scene of a shopping mall fire which claimed many lives. He made no comment on the Skripal affair.

Skripals poisoning, which Britain says was caused by use of the Soviet-era military-grade nerve agent Novichok, is the first known offensive use of a nerve toxin in Europe since World War Two.

The attack on the 66-year-old Skripal and Yulia Skripal, his 33-year-old daughter, took place in the English cathedral city of Salisbury where he had been living since being swapped in a spy exchange deal in 2010.

They were found on March 4 unconscious on a public bench in the city and a British court says they may have suffered permanent brain damage in the attack.

The Kremlin has accused Britain of whipping up an anti-Russia campaign and sought to cast doubt on the British analysis that Moscow was responsible.

-Reuters
During the presidency of George W Bush, a strong cabal of neo-con hawks guided his foreign policy and got the president into all sorts of failures. Prominent among them were Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, John Bolton and others. Vice President Dick Cheney and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld were, however, the true leaders of a hard-line policy on Iraq in 2002-03.

A badly configured and unfinished war in Afghanistan, a foolish misadventure in Iraq, and an inability to control Pakistan in the so-called Global War on Terror, left the United States trying to fend off Iran, a regional power that was becoming strong enough to challenge American interests.

Later, as US Ambassador to the United Nations, Bolton would in October 2007, advocate a similar hardline policy against Iran.

Many now expect that President Trump's next National Security Advisor, Bolton, would pursue similar hardline policies against Iran and North Korea with greater determination and tenacity.

The underlying fear of course being that this could take Washington closer to war than ever before. This naturally depends on two factors - (1) Bolton's own life expectancy in the Trump uncertain order of things and (2) Trump's own attention span.

However, handling Afghanistan in Pakistan is an area where Bolton's hardline policies could bear better results without that risk of war involving American troops.

Some analysts assess that Bolton is not the kind who will spoil for a war in Iran for fear of destabilising the energy-rich West Asia at a time when it is already unstable and Russia and China now having a high profile there.

Nuclear unpredictability of the kind spread by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, would also be a dampener on Bolton's firebrand policies. Other analysts feel that Bolton is one man who could pressure Pakistan where the United States has no such risks and burnish his reputation as the ultimate hardliner.

If the United States really wants to see peace in Afghanistan, it must stop pursuing mindless dreams like asking religious leaders to pressure the Taliban to talk to the Afghan leaders. Instead, it must pursue where the battle really originates - in Pakistan. Ultimately, Bolton or whoever else will decide what they perceive to be in U.S. interests.

This will not be easy for an America that has usually threatened Pakistan only to deceive itself or promised India stern action only failed to deliver.

One can see differences, if not fissures in US policy. While the US president is all brimstone and fire, new nuclear sanctions have been imposed, the Pentagon is speaking in far more conciliatory terms. Establishments and advisers change in the U.S. in eight, if not four, years. In the present dispensation, this has been much more frequent. The very permanent mindset of GHQ Pakistan will exploit this to their maximum advantage.

The civil administration, politicians and pliable journalists will be let loose on Afghanistan and the US speaking the language of conciliation, peace and brotherhood of Islam. Meanwhile, ISI proxies, the Haqqani Terrorist Network, which is more than just an adjunct of the Taliban, will continue to be marauders in Afghanistan. India-specific terror groups - Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, will be kept well-heeled and deployed at will.

As long as the US soft pedals, Pakistan's assistance and support to groups like the Haqqani Network, will keep the latter's life support system intact and the Pakistan Army sees no incentive or urgency to change this.

Pakistan's rulers (i.e. the military) will make some cosmetic changes of incumbents handling crucial matters, rope in foreign ambassadors, diplomats, military attaches and foreign media based in Islamabad, to sell their sob stories of being victims of terror fighting America's war.

This is a worn out decades-old script churned out year after year, for president after president and administration after administration. This tactic is effective because there is no new thought in Washington DC Despite volumes of analytical reports and literature by experts that the solution to the problem lies in an appropriately hard stance in Pakistan rather than indulgence, the policy has not changed.

At the same time, the tactic would be to threaten the United States indirectly by hinting that the Russians are showing renewed interest in Afghanistan and wooing Pakistan.

The so-called Bajwa Doctrine, which his acolytes laud as new paths to Pakistan strategic thought, is essentially the same that Generals Ayub to Raheel Sharif have believed and practiced, except that Ayub and Musharraf were enlightened moderates and Zia was a useful Islamist.

Pakistan's military opinion of their politicians varies from condescension to contempt. It would want to restrict their power to dissolve assemblies instead of the president - a power acquired through the 18th Amendment. They want this rolled back. They disapprove of regional autonomy and prefer a strong centralised system. It took Admiral Mullen (considered one of the most influential Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff in history), some time to realise that General Kayani was stringing him along. This is something the Pakistan establishment has done to the Americans for decades.

Those who hope that Bolton will read the riot act to Pakistan may want to pause to see how he understands Pakistan tactics and how his policy evolves. It remains to be seen how much and how soon American policy makers get beguiled into assuming that the Bajwa Doctrine portrayed as being transformational in seeking peace with Afghanistan and Iran while being patient with what has been described as a "stubborn" Modi.

The Deep State has become audacious enough to try to mainstream Hafiz Saeed as a leader of an approved political party that can contest general elections scheduled for mid-year.

All is not well inside the Pashtun regions of Pakistan. Pakistan is seemingly vulnerable in its north-west with Pashtun awakening seeking an end to the decades-old Pakistani policies. The British had divided the Pashtun with the Durand Line, they further divided the Pashtun within what was at that time India, into FATA and NWFP, also within that into tribal and settled areas, and finally, merged southern Pashtun regions into British Balochistan.

Pakistan not only continued these imperial policies of inbuilt discrimination and hardship, but its policies since the Afghan jihad drove many Pashtun out of their traditional homes seeking shelter in alien. and at times, hostile Karachi or other parts of the Pakhtukhwa province. The Pashtun feel they have been exploited and used by the Pakistan establishment and are now seek redemption.

So far, the Pashtuns have been orderly and peaceful in their protests fended off the state's usual strong-arm tactics of coercion and trying to discredit the movement as anti-national or politicise it through amenable politicians along with media silence.

Enforced disappearances of journalists or open intimidation of those who want to cover the forbidden area of FATA or their contacts are the most common tactics. This is what autocratic or military regimes do - they feel secure once they have blindfolded or gagged their population. Voluntary silence may mean consent but enforced silence can only be sullen and rebellious.

The United States may want to take notice of this development and India must not only remain engaged in Afghanistan but also sharpen its profile there.

ANI

Views expressed in this article are personal
A missile attack this week on Riyadh has raised the risk of an escalation in the Yemen war in a region riven with interwoven conflicts, but a direct confrontation between arch-foes Saudi Arabia and Iran still appears unlikely. Saudi Arabia's powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, now touring the United States, must balance animosity towards Iran with the need for stability as he pitches the kingdom's economic transformation plan to foreign investors and drums up support for containing Iran's regional influence.

However, Iranian authorities - facing the prospect of a more hawkish US administration with Donald Trump's appointments last week of John Bolton and Mike Pompeo as national security adviser and secretary of state - might crank up pressure in the Yemen war as a form of deterrence, diplomats and analysts say.

Saudi Arabia sharpened its rhetoric against Tehran after Saudi forces shot down a flurry of missiles launched by the Iran-aligned Houthis on Saudi cities late on Sunday. One of the missiles caused the war's first casualties in the Saudi capital Riyadh when falling debris struck a home and killed an Egyptian man and injured two others. Saudi King Salman, in comments carried by state media, pledged on Tuesday to "firmly and decisively thwart any hostile attempts" targeting the kingdom's security and stability. A day earlier, the spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthi movement accused it of using Iranian-made missiles and said that Saudi Arabia reserved the right to respond to Iran when and how it deemed appropriate.

The coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 in a campaign to restore its internationally recognised government after it was driven into exile by Houthi forces. "Iran is the appendicitis in the body of the world and should fix itself or else the world will fix the Iranian situation," spokesman Colonel Turki al-Malki said.Iran has repeatedly denied giving missiles to the Houthis.

FEW MILITARY OPTIONS

Analysts said that in the short term, the Saudi leadership is unlikely to respond aggressively amid increased international scrutiny of the three-year-old Yemen conflict, which has given rise to the world's most urgent humanitarian crisis.

"Prince Mohammed would like to be viewed as a more restrained and composed leader" while touring his closest Western ally, the United States, according to Ehsan Khomen, MENA strategist at MUFG consultancy." (He) may leverage the recent Houthi missile attacks to strengthen his narrative that Iran's encroachment is undermining regional stability and that a more concerted international effort is needed to contain Iran. "The Yemen conflict pits a coalition of Western-friendly states led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates against the Houthis, who are sympathetic to Iran but deny being a pawn of its Shi'ite Muslim theocracy. Yemen's war fits into a broader decades-long struggle for supremacy between Middle East powerhouses Iran and Saudi Arabia, which fund and train proxy forces in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon and accuse each other of backing terrorism.

Military escalation in response to the latest rocket salvo could mean more coalition air strikes - which have been widely criticised for killing civilians - or mobilising the Saudi National Guard from a mostly static position along the border to undertake a concerted ground assault inside northern Yemen.

Diplomats and analysts say that the coalition has few other options short of direct action against an Iranian target, something that remains unlikely unless a Houthi rocket takes out a valuable Saudi asset.Last year, when the Houthis fired missiles at Riyadh that were intercepted, the coalition responded by shutting Yemen's airports and ports.

The United Nations said that blockade raised the danger of mass starvation, and it was partially lifted."They may make similar moves in order to be seen to be doing something, but it won't really change the dynamics of the conflict," said Jane Kinninmont, Middle East expert at Chatham House in London."My concern is that they could be tempted to take some action directly against some Iranian target, and that any such course of action could escalate further. "Consultancy Eurasia Group said that a successful Houthi strike on a prized Saudi target would probably prompt a firm military response from Riyadh to try to deter Iran. Analysts said that while a direct Saudi-Iranian showdown is unlikely, miscalculation remains a risk.

MEDIATION EFFORTS

Western countries have urged Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Arabc allies to protect civilians and find a quick end to Yemen's war. But they also support Riyadh's argument that it needs to defend itself from cross-border strikes and limit the spread of Iran's imprint in territory overlooking important trade routes.The United Nations says more than 10,000 people have died in the war, and 22.2 million Yemenis - three-quarters of the population - need relief aid. More than 1 million cholera cases have been reported, the worst outbreak in modern history.

Analysts said that while Saudi Arabia will probably double down on its military campaign in Yemen to oust the Houthis from the capital Sanaa and reinstate President Abd Rabbu Mansour al-Hadi, it may continue to support mediation efforts.However, the appointments of Bolton and Pompeo in Washington could encourage Iran to ramp up activities in Yemen to signal its ability and willingness to undermine the United States and its partners, Eurasia Group said.Economists have played down the impact of the Houthi attacks on the Saudi economy, which Prince Mohammed is trying to wean off oil exports with a slate of reforms that include cutting energy subsidies and expanding the private sector.

Investors may have already largely priced in risks from Houthi missile strikes. But an intensification of the Yemen conflict and certainly an escalation to direct conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia could scare off foreign investors.
A powerful Congressional committee has summoned the CEOs of the top three tech giantsFacebook, Twitter and Googleto testify next month about UK communications firm Cambridge Analytica's misuse of private data from up to 50 million user profiles.

Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Indian-American Sunder Pichai of Google and Jack Dorsey of Twitter have been invited to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee scheduled for April 10 by the Committee's Chairman Chuck Grassley.

In a statement, Grassley said yesterday that Zuckerberg had been invited to discuss the company's past and future policies regarding the protection and monitoring of consumer data.

"After repeated calls for him to do so, Mark Zuckerberg has decided he will testify before Congress," a media report said.

The pressure from lawmakers, the media and the public has become too intense to justify anything less, it said.

"The Facebook sources believe Zuckerberg's willingness to testify will also to put pressure on Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to do the same. Zuckerberg today turned down a request from British lawmakers to answer questions on the social network's privacy practices and will send two deputies instead," the report added. The hearing will broadly cover privacy standards for the collection, retention and dissemination of consumer data for commercial use.

"It will also examine how such data may be misused or improperly transferred and what steps companies like Facebook can take to better protect personal information of users and ensure more transparency in the process," a statement said.

Grassley also invited Pichai and Dorsey to discuss the future of data privacy in the social media industry and how to develop "rules of the road" that encourage companies to develop tailored approaches to privacy which satisfy consumer expectations while maintaining incentives for innovation.

Senator Mark Warner also sought answers from the tech companies on data protection.

"I celebrate the success of Facebook, Google and Twitter; but with their power comes responsibility that they must acknowledge. This isn't a Russia problem. If we value civic discourse and fair elections, they have to step up and answer to more than their shareholders," he said.

Senator Ed Markey said Facebook's failure to protect millions of Americans' private information in the Cambridge Analytica breach showed "why we cannot rely on corporations" to police themselves.

"We need laws that prevent corporations from abusing Americans privacy rights," said Markey.

Meanwhile, online news publication 'Intercept' reported that the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement used backend Facebook data to locate and track immigrants that it is working to round up.

Congressman Bobby L. Rush has introduced a legislation that would require the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to issue regulations requiring companies like Facebook that own or possess data containing personal information to establish specified security policies and procedures to treat and protect such information.

The FTC confirmed last week that it had opened an inquiry over the alleged misuse of data by the UK consulting group Cambridge Analytica, the scandal-hit communications firm at the heart of the Facebook data scandal.
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lu Kang's Regular Press Conference on March 28, 2018

2018/03/29

At the invitation of the government of the Republic of Korea (ROK), member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee Yang Jiechi will pay a visit to the ROK as the Special Representative of President Xi Jinping from March 29 to 30.

Q: At the invitation of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and Chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong-un paid an unofficial visit to China from March 25 to 28. General Secretary Xi Jinping held talks with Chairman Kim Jong-un. How does China think of the significance of this visit on China-DPRK relations? What influence will it have on the settlement of the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue and regional situation?

A: At the invitation of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and Chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong-un paid an unofficial visit to China from March 25 to 28. General Secretary Xi Jinping and Chairman Kim Jong-un held in-depth talks on China-DPRK relations and other issues of mutual interest.

Chairman Kim Jong-un's first visit to China and the talks between the top leaders of China and the DPRK have testified to the great importance that the two sides attach to the relations between the two parties and two countries. The China-DPRK traditional friendship is the precious wealth of both sides. During the talks, General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed that it is an unswerving policy of the CPC and the Chinese government to maintain, consolidate and develop good relations with the DPRK. We are willing to work with DPRK comrades to continue giving play to the guiding role of high-level exchanges, deepen strategic communication, expand exchanges and cooperation, promote peaceful development and cement the public opinion foundation for China-DPRK friendship. By doing so, we will advance the long-term, sound and steady development of China-DPRK relations, deliver benefits to the two countries and two peoples and make new contributions to the peace, stability and development of the region.

During the visit, the two leaders also had an in-depth exchange of views on the situation of the world and the Korean Peninsula. General Secretary Xi commended the important efforts made by the DPRK for those positive changes that took place on the Korean Peninsula since this year, reiterated China's relevant principled position and China's will to continue with its constructive role. Going forward, we stand ready to work with the DPRK and other parties to, in combination with China's dual-track approach and other parties' useful advice, strive for the denuclearization, peace and stability of the Peninsula and the long-term peace and stability of this region and the world at large.

Q: Now that Chairman Kim Jong-un has visited China and held talks with General Secretary Xi Jinping, relations between China and the DPRK have returned to a more steady and stable footing. Does this mean that China will consider relaxing the implementation of relevant UN Security Council resolutions?

A: China always attaches high importance to China-DPRK friendly and cooperative relationship. As we stressed many times, China always stays committed to the goal of denuclearization of the Peninsula, upholding peace and stability there and properly resolving the Korean Peninsula issue through dialogue and negotiation. We have been playing a positive and constructive role under this principle regarding the Korean Peninsula issue. As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China's will to fulfill its international obligations is beyond doubt.

Q: The Korean Central News Agency's reports on Chairman Kim Jong-un's visit to China mentioned that General Secretary Xi Jinping already accepted Chairman Kim's invitation and said he would visit the DPRK at appropriate time, but we didn't see this part in the readout of the Chinese side. Can you confirm that? Why is it not mentioned by China's readout?

A: China and the DPRK have the tradition of exchange of high-level visits. The high-level exchanges have played an important guiding and driving role in the development of China-DPRK relations all along. During the talks, General Secretary Xi Jinping explicitly pointed out that he is willing to keep frequent contacts with Chairman Kim Jong-un through various forms such as exchange of visits, sending special envoys and letters to each other under the new circumstances. We would like to work with the DPRK to firmly grasp the global development trend and bear in mind the overall picture of China-DPRK relations, strengthen our high-level exchanges, deepen our strategic communication, expand our exchanges and cooperation, and deliver benefits to the people of both countries and the people of all countries. You may need to read over the press release if you didn't take note of these contents.

Q: Can you tell us when the invitation was extended by General Secretary Xi Jinping to Chairman Kim Jong-un, when Chairman Kim Jong-un accepted it and what goal, from China's point of view, has the meeting achieved?

A: Regarding the timing and reason for this visit, I advise you to read over the press releases issued by both China and the DPRK, which have made that quite clear.

With regard to the goals achieved through this visit and the talks between the top leaders of China and the DPRK, just now I have elaborated on that. In terms of our traditional friendship and bilateral relations, both sides have confirmed that China-DPRK relations have been elevated to a new level in the new historical period. I have just said that the top leaders of the two parties and two countries had an in-depth exchange of views on the current international situation and the situation on the Korean Peninsula and reached many consensus. I advise you to read over the press release.

Q: First, according to our information, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi's visit to Russia was canceled. Can you confirm it? What was the reason? When will the visit take place again? Second, the White House announced that the Chinese government informed the US about the visit paid by Chairman Kim Jong-un, I wonder if the Chinese government informed the Russian side as well?

A: As to your first question, I may need to correct you that State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi's visit to Russia is postponed rather than canceled.

We said earlier that China and Russia agreed that President Xi Jinping's Special Envoy, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi would pay a working visit to Russia from March 27 to 28. But as we all know, on March 25, a massive fire at a shopping mall in Kemerovo caused major casualties and property losses. You may have learned that the Chinese leaders sent messages of condolences to the Russian leaders immediately. Considering the major adjustments in the agenda of Russian leaders, China and Russia have agreed to postpone State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi's visit.

As to your second question, China will surely inform relevant parties of the information about Chairman Kim's visit.



Q: During President Xi Jinping's Special Representative Yang Jiechi's visit to the ROK, will he brief the ROK side on Chairman Kim Jong-un's visit to China?

A: With regard to your first question, during his visit to the ROK, Special Representative Yang Jiechi will meet with ROK President Moon Jae-in and Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha and hold talks with ROK National Security Adviser Chung Eui-yong.

This visit mainly aims to have an in-depth exchange of views with the ROK side on promoting China-ROK relations and properly addressing the Korean Peninsula issue. I do not know whether you have noted that the ROK side has also issued the relevant information.

Q: According to reports, during the talks between the Chinese and DPRK top leaders, Chairman Kim Jong-un expressed the hope that the Six-Party Talks can be resumed. Can you confirm this?

A: Just now I have said that during the talks between the Chinese and DPRK top leaders, the two sides had an in-depth exchange of views on the situation on the Korean Peninsula and reached many consensus. The Six-Party Talks serves as an important platform for promoting the settlement of the Korean Peninsula issue and striving to resume it at an early date represents a direction that all relevant parties should work for. We hope that all relevant parties can follow the principles and spirit of the September 19 Joint Statement to address each other's legitimate concerns in a synchronized and reciprocal manner and make concerted efforts to politically resolve the Korean Peninsula issue and achieve long-lasting stability and security of the Peninsula.

Q: In February this year, the International Criminal Court (ICC) headquartered in the Hague announced a "preliminary probe" into human rights abuse in President Duterte's campaign against drug-related crimes, which the Philippines is unhappy about. Recently, the Philippine government officially notified the UN Secretary General of its decision to pull out of the ICC. What is China's comment on this?

A: We have said before that since he took office, President Rodrigo Duterte has firmly cracked down on drug-related crimes and improved public security, which creates the sound environment for the Philippines' economic development and its people's peaceful life and wins full approval and wide support at home. The international community should give more understanding and support to those efforts instead of pointing fingers and casting blames.

China always maintains that the ICC should respect the sovereignty of nations, act cautiously and avoid being used as a political tool. China believes that a sovereign country has the right to say no to political manipulation under the cloak of law.

Q: According to reports, on March 27, the high-level meeting on the Afghan issue was held in Tashkent. What is your comment?

A: The high-level meeting on the Afghan issue has been successfully held in Tashkent. On March 27, Vice Foreign Minister Li Baodong led the Chinese delegation to attend this important meeting. The attendees held discussions on such topics as the Afghan reconciliation process, jointly countering the threat posed by terrorism and promoting regional economic cooperation and inter-connectivity. They reached broad consensus and adopted the Tashkent Declaration.

At the meeting, Vice Foreign Minister Li Baodong expounded on China's policies and propositions on the Afghan issue and elaborated on the efforts made by China to support the peaceful reconstruction and reconciliation process in Afghanistan. He expressed the hope that the regional countries and international community could continue to step up their efforts to assist Afghanistan in advancing peaceful reconstruction and national reconciliation process and effectively countering the threats posed by terrorism and drug trafficking, support Afghanistan's efforts to actively integrate into regional cooperation, and jointly make relentless efforts to promote lasting peace and common prosperity of Afghanistan and the region.

Q: According to the Vietnamese media, a Chinese film was banned in Vietnam because some contents in it were related to the South China Sea. Are you aware of this?

A: China's position on the South China Sea issue is consistent and clear-cut. There is no need for me to restate it. The film mentioned by you is a work of art and the story is fictional. We hope that all relevant parties can refrain from making unnecessary connections and reading too much into it.

Q: According to reports, the Japanese Liberal Democratic Party adopted a draft proposal to revise the Constitution at a party convention recently, adding provisions on the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) to Article 9. The Liberal Democratic Party also listed the revision of Constitution as a goal in the guidelines of its activities in 2018. Shinzo Abe said that he would include the stipulation of the SDF in the Constitution and worked for the goal of constitutional revision. There are many different opinions about the LDP's attempt to revise Constitution in Japan. What's your comment?

A: Due to what happened in history, the issue of Japan's revision of the pacifist Constitution has been closely followed by the victimized countries of the Second World War. We hope that the Japanese side will draw lessons from history, take heed of the call for peace by people at home and abroad, adhere to the path of peaceful development and take concrete actions to win the trust of its Asian neighbors and the international community.

Q: According to reports, a Chinese delegation is expected to hold talks with officials from the Vatican in Rome this week. Can you confirm this information?

A: I have no information to offer to you. I would like to stress once again that China is always sincere in improving China-Vatican relations and has been making unremitting efforts to this end. We are willing to work with the Vatican to strive for the progress in our constructive dialogue and the improvement of our ties.

Q: According to reports, on Monday and Tuesday this week, Indian and Chinese officials met in Hangzhou for talks on an expert-level mechanism on trans-boundary rivers. Do you have more information? Would China agree to share hydrological data for both Brahmaputra and Sutlej rivers with India this year? The Indian government said that the data was not supplied last year.

A: We have taken questions raised by the Indian journalists on the flood reporting cooperation between China and India on this podium before and introduced the relevant situation on the ground. I believe that you are all aware of that. Just as you said, the 11th meeting of the China-India expert-level mechanism on trans-boundary rivers was held in Hangzhou from March 26 to 29. The two sides took stock of the previous meetings under the expert-level mechanism and the bilateral cooperation on flood reporting and emergency handling and agreed to continue with the cooperation on trans-boundary rivers in accordance with the relevant consensus. China stands ready to follow the humanitarian spirit and the goodwill of developing China-India ties to continue with the flood reporting cooperation with India through the existing channels.

Q: During Chairman Kim Jong-un's visit to China, has the Chinese side offered to host the upcoming summit between the DPRK and the US. If so, what was the DPRK's response?

A: Since the beginning of this year, we all noted that the situation on the Peninsula is improving and important steps have been taken in the right direction for the settlement of this issue. We have said many times on this podium that China is willing to support all the efforts, regardless of their form or arrangement, that are conducive to promoting the dialogue and reconciliation between relevant parties and further easing the situation on the Peninsula.

Q: Regarding the press release issued by China on Chairman Kim Jong-un's visit, can you offer us more details?

A: Isn't the press release issued by China detailed enough? The TV news coverage lasted about 14 minutes with a total of roughly 3,400 characters.

Q: Just now you said that China will continue flood reporting cooperation with the Indian side, can we infer that from this year onward that China will share the relevant hydrological data with India?

A: I have made myself clear just now. China has said that it will follow the humanitarian spirit and the goodwill of developing China-India ties to continue with the flood reporting cooperation with India through the existing channels.

Q: Firstly, according to the official media, Chairman Kim Jong-un paid an official visit to China from March 25 to 28. Today is March 28 and has his visit ended? Has Chairman Kim Jong-un returned to the DPRK? I think this is not clear enough. Secondly, some reports said that this is a "secret visit". Do you agree with that?

A: With regard to your first question, I have made it clear that Chairman Kim Jong-un's visit was from March 25 to 28. I believe that it cannot be more clear-cut.

As to your second question, if this were a "secret visit", we would not release the relevant information.

Q: Is there a timetable for General Secretary Xi Jinping' visit to the DPRK in return? Will that take place before the DPRK-US leaders' meeting?

A: As I said just now, the readouts released by both China and the DPRK have made it very clear. First, the exchange of high-level visits has been a very good tradition between China and the DPRK. Second, during the talks of the two top leaders, both General Secretary Xi Jinping and Chairman Kim Jong-un expressed their will to keep frequent contacts through various forms such as exchange of visits, sending special envoys and letters to each other. In particular, the two sides have agreed that the guiding role of high-level exchanges is very crucial to furthering the relations between the two parties and two countries.
The gravity of the existential threat we face from Islamic Jihad is truly of epic proportions. It is essentially a battle pitting free-civilized man against a totalitarian barbarian. What is at stake is the struggle for our very soul - namely who we are and what we represent. The lives that were sacrificed for individual rights and freedoms that we've come to cherish are being chiseled away from right under our noses by the stealth jihadists. And many of us are in denial and totally clueless.



The left's appeasement and pandering to evil is nothing new. What makes their utopian delusions so infuriating and unpardonable is that it is not only they who will have to pay the consequences, and deservedly, so, they are thwarting and undermining our best efforts at resistance and are thus dragging us down in the process as well.







By Peter Lancz,, the head of the Raoul Wallenberg World Campaign Against Racism.
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Ltd., Inter-Continental Hotels Corporation, Inter-Continental Hotels Corporation de Venezuela C.A., Inter-Continental Hotels of San Francisco Inc., Inter-Continental IOHC (Mauritius) Limited, Inter-Continental Management (Australia) Pty Limited, InterContinental (Branston) 1 Limited, InterContinental (PB) 1, InterContinental (PB) 2, InterContinental (PB) 3 Limited, InterContinental Berlin Service Company GmbH, InterContinental Brasil Administracao de Hoteis Ltda, InterContinental Gestion Hotelera S.L., InterContinental Hotel Berlin GmbH, InterContinental Hotel Dusseldorf GmbH (Germany), InterContinental Hotels (Puerto Rico) Inc., InterContinental Hotels Group (Asia Pacific) Pte Ltd, InterContinental Hotels Group (Australia) Pty Limited, InterContinental Hotels Group (Canada) Inc., InterContinental Hotels Group (Espana) SA, InterContinental Hotels Group (Greater China) Limited, InterContinental Hotels Group (India) Pvt. Ltd, InterContinental Hotels Group (Japan) Inc., InterContinental Hotels Group (New Zealand) Limited, InterContinental Hotels Group (Shanghai) Ltd., InterContinental Hotels Group Customer Services Ltd., InterContinental Hotels Group Healthcare Trustee Limited, InterContinental Hotels Group Operating Corp., InterContinental Hotels Group Resources Inc., InterContinental Hotels Group Services Company, InterContinental Hotels Group do Brasil Limitada, InterContinental Hotels Italia S.r.L., InterContinental Hotels Limited, InterContinental Hotels Management GmbH, InterContinental Hotels Nevada Corporation, InterContinental Management AM LLC, InterContinental Management Bulgaria EOOD, InterContinental Management France SAS, InterContinental Management Poland sp. z.o.o, InterContinental Overseas Holding Corporation, Intercontinental Hotels Corporation Limited, KG Benefits LLC, KG Gift Card Inc., KG Liability LLC, KG Technology LLC, KHP Washington Operator LLC, KHRG 11th Avenue Hotel LLC, KHRG 851 LLC, KHRG Aertson LLC, KHRG Alexandria LLC, KHRG Alexis LLC, KHRG Allegro LLC, KHRG Argyle LLC, KHRG Austin Beverage Company LLC, KHRG Baltimore LLC, KHRG Born LLC, KHRG Boston Hotel LLC, KHRG Canary LLC, KHRG Cayman Employer Ltd., KHRG Cayman LLC, KHRG DC 1731 LLC, KHRG DC 2505 LLC, KHRG Donovan LLC, KHRG Employer LLC, KHRG Goleta LLC, KHRG Gray LLC, KHRG Gray U2 LLC, KHRG Hillcrest LLC, KHRG Huntington Beach LLC, KHRG King Street LLC, KHRG La Peer LLC, KHRG Miami Beach LLC, KHRG Muse LLC, KHRG NPC LLC, KHRG Onyx LLC, KHRG Palladian LLC, KHRG Palomar Phoenix LLC, KHRG Philly Monaco LLC, KHRG Pittsburgh LLC, KHRG Reynolds LLC, KHRG Riverplace LLC, KHRG SFD LLC, KHRG Sacramento LLC, KHRG Savannah LLC, KHRG Schofield LLC, KHRG Sedona LLC, KHRG State Street LLC, KHRG Sutter LLC, KHRG Sutter Union LLC, KHRG Taconic LLC, KHRG Tariff LLC, KHRG Texas Hospitality LLC, KHRG Texas Operations LLC, KHRG Tryon LLC, KHRG VZ Austin LLC, KHRG Vero Beach LLC, KHRG Vintage Park LLC, KHRG WPB LLC, KHRG Wabash LLC, KHRG Westwood LLC, KHRG Wilshire LLC, KHRG Zamora LLC, Kimpton Hollywood Licenses LLC, Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group, Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group LLC, Kimpton Phoenix Licenses Holdings LLC, Kimpton Sedona Licenses LLC, Louisiana Acquisitions Corp., MH Lodging LLC, Mercer Fairview Holdings LLC, PML Services LLC, PT SC Hotels & Resorts Indonesia, Pollstrong Limited, Powell Pine Inc., Priscilla Holiday of Texas Inc., RM Lodging LLC, Regent Hotels and Resorts, Resort Services International (Cayo Largo) L.P., SBS Maryland Beverage Company LLC, SC Cellars Limited, SC Hotels International Services Inc., SC Leisure Group Limited, SC NAS 2 Limited, SC Quest Limited, SC Reservations (Philippines) Inc., SCH Insurance Company, SCIH Branston 3, SF MH Acquisition LLC, SPHC Group Pty Ltd., SPHC Management Ltd., Semiramis for training of Hotel Personnel and Hotel Management SAE, Six Continents Corporate Services, Six Continents Holdings Limited, Six Continents Hotels Inc., Six Continents Hotels International Limited, Six Continents Hotels de Colombia SA, Six Continents International Holdings B.V., Six Continents Investments Limited, Six Continents Limited, Six Continents Overseas Holdings Limited, Six Continents Restaurants Limited, SixCo North America Inc., Solamar Lodging LLC, Southern Pacific Hotel Corporation (BVI) Ltd., Southern Pacific Hotels Properties Limited, Universal de Hoteles SA, White Shield Insurance Company Limited, and World Trade Centre Montreal Hotel Corporation.
The following companies are subsidiares of TransDigm Group: ARA Deutschland GmbH, ARA Holding GmbH, Abbott Electronics Ltd., Acme Aerospace, Acme Aerospace Inc., Adams Rite Aerospace GmbH, Adams Rite Aerospace Inc., Advanced Inflatable Products Limited, Aero-Instruments, AeroControlex Group Inc., Aerosonic, Aerosonic LLC, Air-Sea Survival Equipment Trustee Limited, Airborne Acquisition Inc., Airborne Global Inc., Airborne Holdings Inc., Airborne Systems, Airborne Systems Canada Ltd., Airborne Systems Group Limited, Airborne Systems Holdings Limited, Airborne Systems Limited, Airborne Systems NA Inc., Airborne Systems North America Inc., Airborne Systems North America of CA Inc., Airborne Systems North America of NJ Inc., Airborne Systems Pension Trust Limited, Airborne UK Acquisition Limited, Airborne UK Parent Limited, Aircraft Materials Limited, AmSafe, AmSafe Aviation (Chongqing) Ltd., AmSafe Bridport (Kunshan) Co. Ltd., AmSafe Bridport (Private) Ltd., AmSafe Bridport Ltd., AmSafe Global Holdings Inc., AmSafe Global Services (Private) Limited, AmSafe Inc., Arkwin Industries, Arkwin Industries Inc., Aviation Technologies, Aviation Technologies Inc., Avionic Instruments, Avionics Instruments, Avionics Specialties Inc., AvtechTyee Inc., Beta Transformer Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Beta Transformer Technology Corporation, Beta Transformer Technology LLC, Breeze-Eastern Corporation, Breeze-Eastern LLC, Bridport Erie Aviation Inc., Bridport Holdings Inc., Bridport Ltd., Bridport-Air Carrier Inc., Bruce Aerospace Inc., Bruce Industries, CDA InterCorp, CEF Industries LLC, Champion Aerospace, Cobham, DDC Electronics K.K., DDC Electronics Ltd., DDC Electronics Private Limited, DDC Electronique S.A.R.L., DDC Elektronik GmbH, DDL195 Limited, Data Device Corp., Data Device Corporation, Dukes Aerospace Inc., Edlaw Limited, Electromech Technologies LLC, Elektro-Metall Export GmbH, Elektro-Metall Paks KFT, Esterline, Extant Components Group Holdings Inc., Extant Components Group Intermediate Inc., GQ Parachutes Limited, HARCO LLC, Harco, Hartwell Corporation, ILC Holdings Inc., Irvin Aerospace Limited, IrvinGQ France SAA, IrvinGQ Limited, Johnson Liverpool LLC, Kirkhill Elastomers, Kirkhill Inc., Kunshan Shield Restraint Systems Ltd., MarathonNorco Aerospace Inc., McKechnie Aerospace, McKechnie Aerospace (Europe) Ltd., McKechnie Aerospace DE Inc., McKechnie Aerospace DE LP, McKechnie Aerospace Holdings Inc., McKechnie Aerospace US LLC, Mecanismos de Matamoros S.A. de C.V., Militair Aviation Ltd., Norco, Nordisk Asia Pacific Limited, Nordisk Asia Pacific Pte Ltd, Nordisk Aviation Products (Kunshan) Ltd., Nordisk Aviation Products AS, North Hills Signal Processing Corp., North Hills Signal Processing Overseas Corp., Pascall Electronics Limited, Pemberton 123 Ltd., Pexco Aerospace, Pexco Aerospace Inc., PneuDraulics, PneuDraulics Inc., Rancho TransTechnology Corporation, Retainers Inc., SSP Industries, Schneller, Schneller Asia Pte. Ltd., Schneller S.A.R.L., Schroth Safety Products, Semco Instruments, Semco Instruments Inc., Shield Restraint Systems Inc., Shield Restraint Systems Ltd., Signal Processing Matamoros S.A. de C.V., Skandia, Skandia Inc., Skurka Aerospace, Skurka Aerospace Inc., Symetrics, Symetrics Industries LLC, Symetrics Technology Group LLC, TDG Germany GmbH, TEAC Aerospace Holdings Inc., TEAC Aerospace Technologies Inc., TTERUSA Inc., Tactair Fluid Controls Inc., Takata Protection Systems, Technical Airborne Components Industries SPRL, Telair International, Telair International AB, Telair International GmbH, Telair International LLC, Telair International Services PTE Ltd (JV 70.5%), Telair US LLC, Texas Rotronics Inc., TransDigm (Barbados) SRL, TransDigm European Holdings Limited, TransDigm Ireland Ltd., TransDigm Receivables LLC, TransDigm UK Holdings plc, Transicoil (Malaysia) Sendirian Berhad, Transicoil LLC, Whippany Actuation Systems, Whippany Actuation Systems LLC, XCEL Power Systems Ltd., Young & Franklin, and Young & Franklin Inc..
Arizona Mining Inc. acquires, explores for, and develops natural mineral resource properties in the United States and Canada. It explores for zinc, lead, silver, manganese manto oxide, copper, and gold deposits. The company holds 100% interest in the Hermosa property, which includes patented mining claims totaling an area of approximately 535 acres; and unpatented mining claims covering approximately 19,015 acres located to the southeast of Tucson, Arizona. It also holds interests in the Taylor Deposit and the Hermosa property. The company was formerly known as AZ Mining Inc. and changed its name to Arizona Mining Inc. in October 2015. Arizona Mining Inc. was incorporated in 1975 and is based in Vancouver, Canada.

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When the Pride Center opened the first in the nation playground at an LGBT center in 2015 no one realized they there might be a problem with an employee, who is a convicted sexual predator.

Its unclear how the issue just now arose but Executive Director of the Pride Center in Wilton Manors, Robert Boo, said the staff member has been terminated. That person worked at the center in some capacity since 2003 and was employed part-time since 2013.

The individual was an elderly janitor who decades prior, had one reported incident of inappropriate behavior toward a child. He had served his time and wanted to repay his debt to society. In his years of service at The Pride Center, he did not raise any red flags, Boo said. During his time with us, we ensured that the employee was not on-site during any events involving children.

Boo said he went above and beyond to make sure there were no were safety concerns.

When I assumed the position of CEO of The Pride Center, I personally called his former parole officer, even though at that point he was no longer under observation. I have received a handful of inquiries from parents, but once we spoke, they all felt fully comfortable with the situation, Boo said. He was an elderly man who had served his time and wanted to repay his debt to society. If any valid concerns or issues had been raised, we would have taken immediate action.

Boo said recently they learned about stipulations in place regarding playgrounds, which prompted the Centers reevaluation of the employee.

Florida law states If the victim was under age 18, a prohibition on working for pay or as a volunteer at any place where children regularly congregate, including, but not limited to, schools, child care facilities, parks, playgrounds, pet stores, libraries, zoos, theme parks, and malls.

Boo said going forward the Center will create a task force to review all practices, policies and procedures to ensure that we are in full compliance with all legal requirements and to ensure optimal safety of everyone who visits our center and utilizes our services.

The employee in question has been on the sex offender registry since he was found guilty in 1997 on two counts: sexual battery on a victim less than 12 years old and lewd and lascivious behavior on a child under 16.
Albany

The Capital District Black Chamber of Commerce and Capital District YMCA are joining forces to connect the Minority Women Business Enterprise and Capital District YMCA communities with a networking event.

The "Network & Mingle" will be held at Dawn's Victory Cafe in downtown Albany on Friday, starting at 5:30 pm.

To RSVP, contact Orville Abrahams at oabrahams@cdymca.org or Anthony Gaddy at gaddy@cdblackchamber.org.
Financial incentives dangled in a failed bid to attract Amazon's second headquarters to the Capital Region were left undefined, although the offer included promises to cut property taxes, sales taxes, construction expenses, income taxes on new Amazon workers, and slash rates for electricity, water and sewers.

Offers signed by the heads of the Albany and Rensselaer County Industrial Development Agencies also assured Amazon officials that the agencies had the power to "condemn (private) property" for any project, and also could exempt the project from local laws and rules.

Officials envisioned an 100-acre Amazon campus  "Amazon Promenade"  in downtown Albany and along Rensselaer's waterfront, noting new office space and mixed-use properties, mass transit options and walkability.

A copy of the 34-page pitch, prepared by CEG, was obtained by USA Today Network's Albany bureau through a Freedom of Information request. The copy includes bids made on behalf of the Capital Region, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Utica.

Only the pitch for New York City and the lower Hudson Valley survived after Seattle-based Amazon narrowed the list of candidate cities to 20.

The Capital Region's offer also promised that all costs of preparing the site for Amazon would be paid for by "city, county and state governments." It also touted a proposed gondola across the Hudson River between Albany and Rensselaer to serve the Amazon campus.

The incentive package was described as "conceptual" in a Oct. 18, 2017 letter signed by Albany IDA CEO Sarah Reginelli and Rensselaer County IDA CEO Robert Pasinella Jr.

The letter continued that "many important details are unknown, such as, but not limited to, the amounts in question, real property identification, and financial structure."

Overall, the letter to Amazon CEO Jeffrey Bezos pitched the region for its access to a skilled and diverse workforce, proximity to 31 educational institutions, and support packages that brought companies like GlobalFoundries.

"Tech Valley offers you the right physical spaces, the right labor force and a commitment for extraordinary partnership and support from us," Andrew Kennedy, president and CEO of the Center for Economic Growth, wrote in a letter to the company.

In the letter to Bezos, Kennedy noted that a $1.2 billion incentive package had supported the GlobalFoundries project in Saratoga County, representing "close to 40 percent of the value of that investment."

He added that "our experience is why we not put a single number on our incentives yet."

Other highlights from the Capital Region's pitch include:

Alternative Locations

They also offered two alternative sites: 27.5 acres at the Gov. W. Averell Harriman State Office Campus near the University at Albany and 150 acres at the Luther Forest Tech Campus in Saratoga County. The Harriman Campus site has been upgraded and is near the airport, and officials "would work with you to develop a pathway to site control," they wrote in the proposal. The 1,400-acre Luther Forest site is near GlobalFoundries. Both sites would include an Amazon shuttle service to Albany.

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Tax incentives

While the Capital Region's proposal doesn't include a specific amount in tax breaks. Rochester and Buffalo submitted a joint bid, offering more than $1.2 billion in total incentives, USA Today's Albany bureau reported.

Land for Amazon's HQ2 would be provided through a long-term lease or purchase, preparation costs would be covered by regional partners and improvements like road access would be supplied at no cost to Amazon, according to the Capital Region's bid. The company would receive a long-term tax abatement for construction, other costs and property taxes and set rates for subsidized electricity, water and waste water provisions. They were also offered a payroll tax abatement and a personal income tax reduction for Amazon workers.

Officials pledged expansion of the Capital District Transportation Authority and said Albany International Airport would add nonstop flights to meet demand.

To help Amazon find talent, officials said they would work with the company on "unique access" to job fairs, incentives for alumni at the region's educational institutions to stay in the area and relocation support for Amazon's employees.

Amazon High School

In a section about the Capital Region's training institutions and co-working spaces, the bid mentions the possibility of an Amazon High School.

"We will ensure that Amazon can shape local school and university curricula to meet your future workforce needs  starting with the University at Albany Engineering program and the potential for Amazon High School," officials wrote.

With the University at Albany "currently in the process of redeveloping its entire engineering program; Amazon would be given opportunity to influence the curriculum and training involved to ensure that graduates are most likely to match business needs," according to the proposal.
Ballston Spa

There's a new gym for children in Ballston Spa unlike any other in the Capital Region.

Called We Rock the Spectrum, the gym is stocked with special equipment designed to suit the needs of children with sensory processing disorders, a condition where the brain and nervous system have trouble processing or integrating stimuli. A diagnosis of autism often comes with a diagnosis of sensory processing disorder.

We Rock the Spectrum is a franchise founded in California in 2010 by a mom who had trouble finding the right fit for her son with autism.

More for you Colonie's Cook Park playground renovated to serve children of all abilities

Often, Dina Kimmel would take her son, Gabriel, to play somewhere, only to have him become overstimulated by the environment and have a meltdown. Kimmel found herself apologizing far too often to other parents for her son's behavior.

"Finally a place where I never have to say, 'I'm sorry,' " became Kimmel's motto as she founded We Rock the Spectrum. The idea spread, and 60 franchises have opened in 22 states since Kimmel launched the venture in 2013.

Eva Millard, who owns We Rock the Spectrum in Ballston Spa, doesn't have a child with a sensory disorder. Her 5-year-old daughter, Emilia, is neurotypical. But as an occupational therapist in a local school for children with autism, Millard often met with parents who couldn't find anywhere to bring their children to play.

If you go: We Rock the Spectrum Where: 1490 Saratoga Road, Ballston Spa Hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday; Sunday by appointment Contact: 518-288-3294 or info@werockthespectrumballstonspa.com Info: werockthespectrumballstonspa.com See More Collapse

"It was frustrating to hear from parents who didn't have opportunities outside of school, places where they wouldn't be asked to leave, be quiet or where they were judged," Millard said.

And, like Kimmel, Millard believes in inclusion  she is passionate about children learning from each other, whether they are neurotypical or have special needs. She started exploring options around the same time a We Rock the Spectrum opened in Buffalo. Millard checked it out and loved the equipment. Everything  the zip line and box, crash pit, Bolster swing, hammock swing, round swing, climbing structure  is related to an everyday, real life skill, whether it's sitting in a chair, which requires trunk stability, or getting dressed, which requires planning and fine motor skills, or having a dance party. The hammock and Lycra swing are therapeutic, because of the deep pressure they provide the children who cocoon themselves inside. It helps them to relax. There are typical toys at the gym too, including a train table and dress-up clothes.

Millard charges $12 for open play time. She also hosts yoga and meditation classes every Wednesday, and she will host birthday parties.

lhornbeck@timesunion.com  518-454-5352  @leighhornbeck
Megyn Kelly  the Today show host and Capital Region native  recounted Monday on NBC how she accidentally abandoned her dog in the wrong vacation home and had to go back to retrieve "the evidence."

Kelly, her husband, Doug Brunt, and their children recently traveled to Montana for a ski vacation and the family rented a home they'd only ever seen in photos.

"So we get there, give the address to the driver, pull up  it's beautiful. We take pictures. We walk in, like, 'Wow, this is a lot nicer than it looked online,'" Kelly said, before pausing for effect.

"Well, there is another family inside," she exclaimed.

"They're there, they're cooking, their music is playing," she recalled. "We're like, 'Oh my, oh my!' So we ran. We ran back inside the van, like, 'Oh my God, let's go. Let's go.'"

The driver apologized for transposing the numbers of the address and quickly took Kelly's family to the correct home, the news personality said.

The cringeworthy interaction didn't end there, though.

"Doug goes, 'Where's Basha?'" Kelly said. "Our dog, who had been with us  we had left her. Our evidence was at the first house."

The family drove back and when a confused woman answered the door, Kelly recalled her saying, "No, there is no dog here."

"And we were like, "Mmm.. Yes there is," Kelly said. "And there she was, like madame queen, in the middle of the living room. So we were busted."

Watch Kelly tell the story here:

And here's a photo of little Basha, for reference.

While recounting the spring break encounter to her audience on Monday, Kelly said, "I am really happy to be back with all of you  in the right studio."

Kelly graduated from Bethlehem High School in 1988 and Albany Law School in 1995. Click through the slideshow above to see other famous area alums.
Local jazz drummer/composer Joe Barna has a vivid memory of first meeting saxophonist Joel Frahm, who will join Barna and his group, Sketches of Influence, for a local performance on Saturday. It seems that, in 2014, Barna had a nonmusical gig helping around the bar at a jazz club in New York City that routinely hosted a late night jam session. One night, as Barna recalls, there was no drummer. He related the rest of the story via email: "One of the musicians said to me 'Aren't you a drummer?' I responded 'Yes.' He said 'Do you have your cymbals?' I said 'Of course...I never leave home without them.' So with the blessing of the bartender, who at that moment was my superior, I went and retrieved my cymbals bag. Little did I know what was about to ensue." Laying down a beat for a band that included Frahm among its three saxophonists, Barna says, ''We proceeded to play 'I Got Rhythm' at about 300 beats per minute for just about 25 minutes. Joel Frahm took the first solo. At the conclusion of Joel's solo he turns to me and says 'Yeah man ... Swingin'.' To me that's the highest compliment one can receive in jazz. For a legend such as Frahm to say you are swingin' means the world." Since that night, Barna says, he and Frahm, who is both a bandleader and sideman valued by top jazz artists, have been able to play periodically. Rounding out Saturday's lineup will be regulars Mark Kleinhaut on guitar and Otto Gardner on bass. Barna describes the show as "a special reuniting of friends and fellow musicians." Sounds like a nice event to be present at. (Frahm is also performing Thursday, March 29, and Friday at venues in Saratoga Springs. Check his website for details.)

 Joseph Stalvey
Albany

For years, numerous people with connections to NXIVM made troubling reports about the Colonie-based self-help group to a host of law enforcement agencies. They shared allegations of money laundering, tax evasion, immigration fraud, kidnapping plots and perjury.

Despite the litany of complaints, no criminal charge has ever been leveled against the secretive organization or its leader, Keith Raniere.

Rather, on several occasions, it is critics of NXIVM who have found themselves subject to investigation and damaging lawsuits.

But recent scrutiny by national media, including reports that some women loyal to NXIVM were secretly branded with Raniere's initials, may have changed the equation.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office has begun examining NXIVM's dealings, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. The new interest comes after multiple law enforcement agencies, including Schneiderman's office, had for years brushed aside the concerns from Raniere's critics and others about the murky inner workings of NXIVM, which one expert has characterized as an "extreme cult." A spokesman for Schneiderman did not respond to questions about the investigation.

The agencies that have fielded complaints but declined to pursue deep investigations of NXIVM also include the U.S. attorney's office in Albany, the New York State Police, the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Agency, the Internal Revenue Service and the FBI, according to interviews with law enforcement sources and people who said they provided information to those agencies.

Questions have also been raised about the response of state health officials to a complaint filed in August against a NXIVM-connected doctor who allegedly subjected multiple women to brain-activity studies that apparently did not follow standard research protocols. Gov. Andrew Cuomo last month ordered a review of the Health Department's handling of the complaint.

NXIVM officials and associates have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and dispute any allegation they are a cult. They did not return calls seeking comment for this article.

Aides to Schneiderman met this week with actress Catherine Oxenberg, who has been waging a high-profile battle to get her 26-year-old daughter, India, to leave NXIVM. Oxenberg said she suspects her daughter was one of those branded. She declined to discuss her meeting with officials from Schneiderman's office.

"I have one goal, which is to get attention from the authorities," Oxenberg said, in an interview with the Times Union. "It seems like things have slipped through the cracks. ... Nobody has taken responsibility."

Still, it's unclear what the governor's review or the renewed attention from the attorney general may mean for NXIVM, which has been a focus of concerns from its defectors dating back at least eight years.

In May 2009, Barbara J. Bouchey, a former NXIVM board member, and two of her attorneys met with federal authorities in Albany as she outlined questionable activities involving people associated with the group.

Bouchey, who had been a financial adviser to Clare Bronfman, one of NXIVM's largest financial supporters, had abruptly resigned from the organization a month earlier. Bouchey's departure came after she and eight other women met with Raniere, NXIVM's co-founder, to address their concerns about unethical practices and the alleged abuse of his leadership status to sexually manipulate women in the organization.

In her meeting that spring with federal prosecutors  a group that also included agents with the FBI, ICE and the IRS  Bouchey said she told them that after she left NXIVM she uncovered troubling emails and documents that were in her office computer system without her knowledge. She said they indicated there may have been irregularities in the organization's accounting office, which Bouchey said she was never allowed to enter.

Bouchey, who was with NXIVM for about a decade, also told the federal agents of her uneasiness when two Mexican citizens who were associated with NXIVM had suddenly married U.S. citizens. She said other Mexican immigrants associated with NXIVM also were apparently being paid cash for their work.

"I shared with them everything I knew, which at that time wasn't much," Bouchey said. "They were already investigating NXIVM, that's what they told me."

Bouchey's meeting that May would be one of multiple times that people who have separated from NXIVM would provide New York or federal law enforcement and regulatory agencies with information about the inner workings of NXIVM, which offers human growth and executive training programs to thousands of clients, including residents of Mexico and Canada.

In December 2014 and January 2015, Bouchey met again with members of the FBI and U.S. attorney's office in Albany. Officials in those offices declined comment on their meetings with Bouchey.

Those meetings, Bouchey said, were prompted by a September 2015 Times Union story which, citing court records, reported allegations that Bronfman, who has been described as NXIVM's operations director, paid a Canadian private investigative firm to examine the banking records of U.S. federal judges and others, including journalists.

The U.S. attorney's office did not fully investigate the allegations, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. The involvement of numerous agencies has raised questions about whether law enforcement should have dug deeper or whether they determined there were no issues worth pursuing.

"The question has always been, 'Why don't they want to deal with it?'" said Pamela Hayes, a Manhattan attorney who has represented Bouchey. Hayes sat in on six meetings last year that she set up between Bouchey and representatives of the state attorney general. "There have been so many people who just refuse to get involved, and look the other way," she said.

The 2016 meetings between Bouchey and the attorney general's office followed numerous other complaints to that office about NXIVM over the years.

Former NXIVM associates Susan Dones, Toni Foley and Joseph O'Hara all said that in 2011 they turned over records and information to investigators in Schneiderman's office. The information included banking records and internal emails attributed to NXIVM officials who were discussing issues ranging from property transfers to the use of a NXIVM-related charitable foundation, the Ethical Science Foundation, to help Mexican women gain access into the United States.

The documents that Foley and O'Hara gave to the attorney general included a May 2008 email attributed to Bronfman, who was a large financial contributor to the Ethical Science Foundation, that stated the nonprofit might be used as a mechanism "to bring in the nannies through a scientific endeavor and provide them with the necessary Visa's."

Foley and O'Hara provided the Times Union with copies of dozens of pages of documents they sent to Schneiderman's office that year. Foley, who had been Raniere's girlfriend before she left the organization in 1999, said that in November 2011, a prosecutor in the attorney general's securities fraud unit, Brian Whitehurst, abruptly asked them to stop sending the materials.

"We are getting bombarded with stuff and need to evaluate where we are at," Whitehurst said in an email that month. "I promise we will be in touch ASAP."

Foley and O'Hara said they never heard back from Whitehurst or anyone else in Schneiderman's office. A spokesman for Schneiderman's office declined to comment on Whitehurst's email.

"Each and every time someone says, 'Look at NXIVM,' they become the brunt of the investigation. It's happened to me four or five times," Foley said, referring in part to a computer-trespass charge filed against her and three others by State Police in 2012 based on allegations from NXIVM. The charges were later dismissed against Foley, O'Hara and Bouchey.

Dones is a former NXIVM trainer from Washington state who successfully defended herself against a NXIVM lawsuit that accused her of violating a confidentiality agreement after she and Bouchey left the organization. In 2011, Dones said, two officials with Schneiderman's office contacted her seeking information about NXIVM.

"Then they just said, 'Stop sending us stuff,'" Dones recalled of her dealings with Schneiderman's office.

Before founding NXIVM, Raniere had operated Consumers' Buyline Inc., a nationwide buying club that offered discounts to members who could recruit more members. In 1996, Raniere signed a consent order with the New York attorney general, in which he did not admit any illegal activities but agreed to be permanently barred from "promoting, offering or granting participation in a chain distribution scheme," according to a 2012 Times Union story. The agreement included a fine of $40,000 against Raniere and his business.

Many of the women who worked for Raniere at Consumers' Buyline stayed with him when he later co-founded NXIVM.

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Bouchey and others said that during their interaction with officials from the attorney general's office in 2011, the investigators' questions focused on whether Raniere may have violated the 1996 consent order that settled allegations his company operated like a pyramid scheme. Bouchey said they asked her about the structure of NXIVM and how it had been designed, including whether it was a multilevel marketing operation.

"Anybody who's ever spent any amount of time in NXIVM knows that Keith runs everything," Dones said.

In 2012, the Times Union reported that Dones and Bouchey had given sworn depositions in a federal court proceeding alleging that Raniere advised his close associates to avoid paying taxes. In a recent interview, Dones said that she told the investigators with the New York attorney general's office that she also had been scolded by another high-ranking NXIVM official for paying government taxes.

Dones said she told the attorney general's investigators about those conversations related to not paying taxes. Dones said that she also raised questions about whether NXIVM had paid taxes in the state of Washington during her personal bankruptcy case filed in U.S. District Court there in 2010. She filed for bankruptcy as a result of the financial fallout from her business dealings with NXIVM, records show.

Dones also reported to New York investigators that many of the Mexican immigrants who have been involved with NXIVM paid cash for their NXIVM-related training, and that there were large amounts of cash flowing across the U.S.-Mexican border related to NXIVM's work, echoing allegations in court filings.

In October 2015, the Times Union published a story highlighting allegations about the organization  some of which, if true, would be criminal offenses  that were made by Kristen M. Keeffe, a paralegal who was once part of the inner circle that ran NXIVM. The accusations by Keeffe, who left the group in 2014, were outlined in a March 2015 telephone conversation that was secretly recorded by Bouchey, and later filed in Albany County Court as part of Bouchey's defense against criminal trespass charges that were later dismissed.

The accusations were never fully investigated and did not result in any charges being filed.

Keeffe, according to a transcript and recording of the conversation, also alleged that undocumented cash tied to NXIVM's programs was flowing in from Mexico.

In addition, she alleged that the Ethical Science Foundation, which acquired tens of thousands of dollars in brain-monitoring and other medical equipment, was involved in the effort to help Mexican citizens gain legal status in the United States.

"Some people were just flat-out illegal ... some people were in the country on fraudulently obtained visas," Keeffe said during the conversation. "Clare was involved with every aspect of this. What they would do is, Clare's foundation, the Ethical Science Foundation, was obtaining visas for teachers in connection with an alleged scientific study about the language development in children. ... And the teachers were required, and had to be paid a certain amount of money in order to get the visa, and they had to kick back the money, they had to kick back a portion of the money, or they had to work it off. That was one level of fraud."

Keeffe, who for many years did paralegal work on behalf of NXIVM, also accused its top members of other activities, including using a Canadian private investigative firm to research U.S. judges and journalists. In the transcript filed in Albany County Court, Keeffe also alleged that Raniere and Emiliano Salinas, a high-ranking NXIVM official and son of a former Mexican president, had unsuccessfully plotted to lure Bouchey, Foley, Dones and another NXIVM defector to Mexico.

"The thing with Keith, Nancy, Emiliano, and Clare are the heart of the foundation, the money, and the operations," Keeffe told Bouchey, according to court records. "All three of them have done criminal acts, but none of them knew what the others had done. Clare did the stuff getting the financial records, Nancy hid the money and did the tax fraud, and Emiliano set up the scheme to get you and Toni thrown in a Mexican prison."

A U.S. Justice Department document obtained recently by the Times Union indicates the Internal Revenue Service has also investigated NXIVM, including gathering recordings of telephone calls that were made to the group's Capital Region headquarters in 2007. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Albany said they would not comment on their meetings with former NXIVM associates or any investigations they may have conducted of the organization.

Bouchey and Foley both said they have endured years of crippling litigation filed against them by NXIVM officials as well as criminal charges  later dismissed  accusing them of logging into the organization's servers without permission.

Two years ago, the Times Union reported that attorneys for NXIVM were heavily involved in the State Police investigation that resulted in criminal charges against four people accused of hacking into the organization's computer system.

Records from the two-year investigation showed the State Police's lead investigator in the case, Rodger Kirsopp, had contact dozens of times with NXIVM's attorneys, who pressured him to file criminal charges. The records, filed in the criminal cases in Albany County Court, indicated NXIVM officials, and their attorneys, also provided much of the evidence used by Kirsopp to build the unusual criminal case against the defendants, all of whom were considered adversaries of NXIVM.

By the time the investigation ended in March 2014, three attorneys from the Albany law firm of O'Connell & Aronowitz, whose attorneys had represented NXIVM for years, had contact with the investigator Kirsopp more than 30 times, including attending interviews he conducted with NXIVM employees and delivering documents and other evidence, including computer records, to the investigator's State Police barracks in Clifton Park.

Foley said she and Joseph O'Hara, another former NXIVM adversary who was charged in the criminal trespass case, are still fighting the State Police to return their computers that were seized more than five years ago.

"Nothing seems to happen to them," Foley said. "Every time a story comes out, one of us gets arrested."

blyons@timesunion.com  518-454-5547  @brendan_lyonstu
PETERSBURGH  Officers rescued an injured bald eagle found at a State Route 22 home earlier this month, the state Department of Environmental Conservation said Wednesday.

The homeowner called Environmental Conservation Officer Jason Curinga on March 6 to report that she'd spotted an injured bird in her backyard.

When Curinga arrived, he found the young eagle behind the home, secured it in his truck and made arrangements to meet North Country Wild Care staffers at a local emergency veterinarian's office, the DEC said.

At the vet's office, the bird was examined and turned over to the rehabilitators, who reported this week that the juvenile eagle is in good health and recovering well, the DEC said.

The 3-year-old bird was "barely responsive" when she first arrived at North Country Wild Care in Lake George, the group posted on their Facebook page.

"She was found near a road and we were concerned she had been hit," North Country Wild Care wrote online. X-rays showed no extensive trauma and a local veterinarian cared for the eagle during the first days of her recovery, the group said.

When she was transferred to North Country Wild Care, rehabilitators checked the bird's lead levels and began treating her for lead poisoning, as well as internal parasites.

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The young eagle has been named Atahladte, a native American name that means feather on head, according to North Country Wild Care.

The animal care group posted on March 22 that Atahladte had successfully finished her lead treatment and is eating several large rats and whole fish a day. She will be released this spring.

The center is fund raising money to continue her care in the meantime, as it costs $10 to $20 a day to rehabilitate an eagle. Visit northcountrywildcare.org to learn more.
When a group of people come together for a noble cause  such as helping those who are navigating the decades long and complex world of HIV  it might be hard to imagine an end that makes sense.

But the group Tuesdays Angels seem to have found that end, and its happening this year.

After a period of reflection and discussion the board of Tuesdays Angels has decided to dissolve as of November 30, 2018, the group said this month in a statement.

We feel like we achieved what the founders intended, added Tuesdays Angels president Mike Ross.

Lets do dinner

More than 30 years ago a group of gay men started meeting for dinner in Wilton Manors once a month on Tuesday to raise money to help those in crisis due to HIV. The dinners took place at Chardees Lounge, (later Bills Filling Station), located at 2440 Wilton Drive, where a hat was passed around the table for donations.

The men wanted to help in their own small way by collecting a little money to provide a variety of assistance to HIV-positive men.

Ross began attending the dinners in 1996, soon after moving to South Florida from New Jersey, a time, he said, when the dinners brought 100 to 150 men together.

A lot of people were affected by HIV in one way or another, Ross said. There was a real need.

Ross, who is HIV-negative, said he had many, many friends who had died of AIDS in their 30s and 40s.

It gave us a strong desire to do something. Presently all the board members are HIV-negative, but have either had a lover or friends who died. Were in that age category where we were surrounded by people dying of AIDS, he said. Things have improved enormously.

Mark Ketchum, executive director of Wilton Manors SunServe, has known about Tuesdays Angels for 20 years, has been to many of the dinners, and has supported the group for several years.

Ive been working with AIDS services since 1985, Ketchum said. In the beginning, we were just trying to put the fire out. For a client losing everything, and [Tuesdays Angels] could pay their electric bill without the bureaucracy  it gave people hope, he said.

Ketchum said the younger generation likely doesnt understand the extent of the AIDS crisis that he, and many of the longtime supporters of Tuesdays Angels, do.

All of our friends were dying and the government wouldnt do anything, Ketchum said. We remember when you got HIV and died in three months  those were the rules, he said.

A crisis, changed

Ross and members of Tuesdays Angels board say there have been many changes in the world of HIV. Those changes are part of why the group unanimously agreed to dissolve.

One change is that most people with HIV are now living longer lives with advances in medication.

There are also several HIV agencies providing services in Broward County, as well as programs for some housing and utility assistance, a statement from the board said. Over the past few years, Tuesdays Angels has been serving largely a chronically ill HIV population of low income individuals rather than critically ill people in crisis, the statement said.

Tuesdays Angels said it has spent fewer funds on rent and utilities in recent years, and more on eyeglasses and bus passes.

The number of clients helped has also decreased. While there is still a great need to serve those living with HIV who are struggling financially, the initial crisis has thankfully passed, the statement read.

Ross said as recently as three years ago Tuesdays Angels served 500 people with direct assistance, and now its 300.

Were here to help people in crisis. It might be a financial crises now, but not so much a health crises. A lot of people with HIV are able to work now or are on disability, Ross said.

Different time, face of HIV

Another significant reason for the decision has to do with the aging of the board, donors and volunteers of Tuesdays Angels. Ross said the younger generation hasnt shown a lot of interest in the organization, either.

Board members have been extremely loyal and longstanding, said Ross, who is 67, mentioning enduring board members like Chuck Nicholls as an example.

He said the average age of board members is about 75 and the average age of donors is about 80.

Whats happened with our dinners is were getting about 30 to 35. A lot of donors have died or are sick. Theres been a lot of attrition over the years, he said.

Ross was a screener for Tuesdays Angels  one of the volunteers who reviewed applications for assistance. He did the job for 14 years and saw a lot of changes over that time.

Initially [the applications were an] all-gay, all-white, male population, but thats changed dramatically. It has changed to include women, children, and a lot of straight people, Ross said.

Tuesdays Angels traditionally provided funds for cremations, food, rent, utilities and other needs, often in collaboration with other HIV-related agencies. But agencies have asked more so for eyeglasses and bus passes recently, than rent and electric assistance.

Ross said other demographics have changed, too. He said Tuesdays Angels has been primarily serving a poor (often homeless) and chronically ill population, more than people in an HIV-crisis situation.

Theres still a need, but its not so much a crisis need anymore, Ross said. Although people are still dying from AIDS, weve stopped giving money for cremation.

Like Ross, Ketchum also has seen the switch from what was primarily an overwhelming gay male population with the need for HIV services to a population including women, children, and those who are socio-economically disadvantaged.

However, Ross said its a mistake for people, especially young gay men, to be overconfident.

Dont be complacent just because there are medications. It doesnt mean they work 100 percent or dont have side effects. Its better to be safe than sorry, and I dont think [the younger generation] realize that. They see HIV men who look healthy and are in good shape. But unless you lived in an era where you would see people who were wasting away, it wouldnt have the same impact, he said.

Local reaction

While Ross and others on the board are humble about the groups impact over the years  calling Tuesdays Angels a very small organization that filled a niche  reaction from the leaders and workers at local agencies has been wide and heartfelt.

Stacy Hyde, the president and CEO of Broward House, was introduced to the group about 17 years ago.

I have been fortunate to see firsthand the lives Tuesdays Angels has changed through the generosity and care of those impacted by HIV, Hyde said. [Their] legacy of selfless giving and caring for many cast aside will continue through the actions of the thousands of individuals and care providers [theyve] impacted, she said.

Added Ketchum: Theyve been a very important part of us providing case management services for those living with HIV, he said. The money we receive four times a year for bus passes are like gold to our clients. Ketchum explains that the bus passes allow many of his clients to get to important doctors appointments.

We recognize the changing tides of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and how far we have come together, said Rafael Jimenez of Care Resource. Our hearts are bound by the love, care and remembrance of those in our lives, and how we can continue to engage the support of our communities in need, he said of Tuesdays Angels.

Ross is quick to credit a variety of individuals and organizations that supported Tuesdays Angels over the years. He said the group received generous support from foundations and other organizations. A few, he said, are the Quick Tricks Duplicate Bridge Club, A Celebration of Friends, the Drial Foundation and the Hollander Foundation. Ross also gives enormous credit to an annual bicycle ride that was a big money maker for us for 10 years that raised about $1 million.

Next steps

While Tuesdays Angels is ending the Tuesday night dinners  its assets will continue to provide support for the next 10 years, Ross said.

The board plans on placing its assets in what will be the Tuesdays Angels Donor Advised Fund at Our Fund of Wilton Manors.

The advisors will be several of the current board members who will ensure that the money will be spent to continue the mission of providing direct assistance to financially needy people with HIV in Broward County, the board members said in a statement.

They consider the fund to be Tuesdays Angels legacy.

The organization has never paid for offices or any administrative expenses (other than an accountant) ever since its founding. Its allowed 100 percent of donations to go directly to those in need, Ross said.

The last dinner is scheduled for April 10. To attend and receive a reservation, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . To make a donation, send a check or money order to: Tuesdays Angles, 1994 East Sunrise Blvd. PMD 139, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, 33304.

By the numbers

Tuesdays Angels has given out close to $3 million over its lifetime to individuals and organizations involved in the HIV crisis. Over just the past 12 years, Tuesdays Angels has provided the following, in addition to various grants:
ALBANY - An organization of attorneys who represent victims of child abuse released a report this week criticizing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany for not establishing a new compensation program for victims, as many other dioceses across New York have done.

Six other dioceses in the state established programs called Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Programs, an initiative announced by Cardinal Timothy Dolan in October 2016. But the Albany and Rochester dioceses have not established the same programs, said Jerry Kristal, an attorney with Weitz & Luxenberg in Manhattan.

"We're hoping Albany follows suit," Kristal said. "I'm not sure why they wouldn't."

The group formed by the attorneys  Lawyers Helping Survivors of Child Sex Abuse represent abuse victims and includes law firms in Minneapolis and Seattle.

In 2004, the Albany diocese announced it had set up an unprecedented $5 million mediation initiative that allowed those who were minors when they were abused by diocesan priests or other employees to request aid within a set time period. The Independent Mediation Assistance Program was intended to operate for a year but was extended several times, ending two years later after all the requests for assistance were addressed, the diocese said Wednesday.

A retired Court of Appeals judge determined settlements for more than 40 people and provided assistance totaling nearly $3 million, the diocese noted.

A support group for people abused by priests had criticized the Albany diocese's IMAP program at the time, contending it was not independent if it was funded and administered by the diocese. Critics of the program also estimated there have been many more victims of abuse in the Albany diocese than were identified through the IMAP program.

The diocese established the IMAP program after an expansive investigation into claims that former Bishop Howard Hubbard had engaged in sexual misconduct. The probe by a former federal prosecutor, who was paid $2.5 million, cleared the longtime church leader.

Kristal, whose group released its report with a list of 42 priests they said had been accused of abuse in the Albany diocese, said the IMAP program did not resolve all of the cases of abuse in diocese.

"Its been more than 10 years since the Albany Diocese closed its mediation program and there are plenty who were unaware or unable to participate in the previous program who are currently suffering and need support," he said "It is unacceptable to suggest that a program launched more than a decade ago is sufficient to address this ongoing, persistent problem."

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But in its statement Wednesday, the diocese said it "continues to urge victims and survivors to report allegations of sexual abuse to law enforcement agencies and, though the IMAP has concluded, continues to offer financial support, counseling and other assistance, based on the procedures and protocols IMAP established, to individuals who were sexually abused by a priest or employee of the Diocese."

The report from the attorneys' group was released a negotiations stalled this week between the state Senate and Gov. Andrew Cuomo over enactment of a law that would create a one-year period for alleged victims of sexual assault to file a lawsuit against their abusers or any organization that may have enabled the abuse.

The measure would also extend the five-year statute of limitations for prosecution of felony sexual abuse crimes that currently begins when the victim turns 18. The statute of limitations for civil cases would be extended to age 50.

Many religious and educational organizations that had long been criticized for covering up child sexual abuse cases decades ago have waged fierce opposition to the legislation, in part claiming that frivolous lawsuits could bankrupt them or overrun the court systems.

There has also been criticism of the proposal because public institutions in New York are shielded by statutes that require someone to file a notice of claim within a very short period of the injury or abuse; but undoing that requirement was not included in most versions of the draft legislation.
In the Democratic primary to take on Rep. John Faso of Kinderhook, for a seat that is one of the party's top targets this November, the candidates have made gun-control legislation a major issue in the wake of the Parkland school shooting.

Among the vocal candidates on the issue is Democrat Brian Flynn, a businessman who criticized Faso for saying his "prayers" were with the Parkland victims after the tragedy. Flynn is calling for "enhanced background checks" and policies making it much more difficult for civilians "to get their hands on these weapons of war."

In a 2004 essay written by Flynn in the Harvard Business Review, however, he states that while serving as president of a Manhattan-based public relations firm called RLM, he encouraged staff to try to sign the National Rifle Association (NRA) as a client. The NRA is an organization staunchly opposed by gun-control advocates due to the political power it exerts in stopping gun-control measures.

"When clients questioned RLM's political orientation, we told them: 'You hire us for our communications skills, not our politics, so our personal positions are of little consequence,'" Flynn wrote in the 2004 essay. "That said, we also worked hard to recruit clients from across the political spectrum. While our Washington, D.C., office was largely liberal, we had quite a few Republican employees and clients in Los Angeles, and I encouraged the staff to pursue a contract with the NRA to help balance our work with a gun-control group."

The general theme of Flynn's essay was that he liked to encourage office debate about politics, but that clients could be sensitive about such matters. In the essay, Flynn was responding to a hypothetical situation about politics in the workplace that had been raised by the Harvard Business Review.

In an email to the Times Union, Flynn said that his employees at RLM had never actually tried to sign the NRA as a client, and that the conversation with an employee about the situation was "hypothetical."

"At the time the company for whom I worked, RLM, had almost exclusively left leaning, liberal clients  including a gun control advocacy group called The Center to Prevent Youth Violence. An employee  who was both a Republican and a gun owner  came to me with concerns that the company's client portfolio was 'politically' imbalanced and too far to the left  a reflection of my own personal politics and that of many of our co-workers," Flynn said via email. "This was in direct contrast to the company's ethos as cited in the HBR article you referenced. When clients questioned RLM's political orientation, we told them: 'You hire us for our communications skills, not our politics, so our personal positions are of little consequence.'"

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"The employee went on to to hypothetically ask what would happen if he pursued an organization like the NRA as a client? My response to him was also cited in the same article, 'I encouraged [my] staff to pursue a contract with the NRA to help balance our work with a gun-control group.' This was simply my assurance that I was honoring RLM's policies and best practices referenced in the previous paragraph."

"For the record, we did not do business with the NRA or the gun lobby. To be clear, as a political candidate or representative, I would never take money from the NRA or any group that advocates against reasonable gun protections"

Seven Democrats including Flynn are running for the opportunity to take on Faso, who was first elected in 2016.

As of the end of last year, Flynn was among the money leaders in the Democratic primary, reporting $980,000 in cash on hand. Flynn's campaign has been buoyed by a $650,000 personal loan that he gave to his campaign.
A state attorney who filed 36 false timesheets has resigned and repaid more than $12,000 she illegally received.

Laura Cail, 48, of Troy also resigned her position as a senior attorney for the state Office of Children and Family Services and pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct, Inspector General Leahy Scott said Wednesday.
A driver who allegedly smashed his cars into police cruisers near the Canadian border is among the fugitives State Police say they are searching for as part of their Warrant Wednesday initiative.

Eric J. Sisto, 26, is wanted by State Police in Massena where he is accused of a variety of charges including criminal mischief and child endangerment for allegedly ramming a car into police cars in March 2013. Troopers said he was trying to flee a state trooper and an Akwesasne Mohawk tribal police patrol vehicle when he hit their vehicles. Police said a 15-month-old child was in his car at the time.

Jonathan D. Bulla, 19, is wanted by State Police in Lockport who say he faces a misdemeanor assault charge for attacking another person a year ago. The assault involved three other suspects and occurred behind the place where the victim worked, troopers said.

Eric J. Sisto, 26, is wanted by State Police in Massena where he is accused of a variety of charges including criminal mischief and child endangerment for allegedly ramming a car into police cars in March 2013. Troopers said he was trying to flee a state trooper and an Akwesasne Mohawk tribal police patrol vehicle when he hit their vehicles. Police said a 15-month-old child was in his car at the time.

Kyle L. Borland, 26, is wanted by State Police in Pulaski on a third-degree burglary charge for allegedly breaking into a camp in Orwell.

Sincere Kingsberry, 25, is wanted by State Police in Catskill on a charge of promoting prison contraband. Troopers said Kingsberry tried to bring marijuana into the Coxsackie Correctional Facility.

Thomas Dayson, 38, is wanted by State Police in Auburn on a charge of criminal possession of a controlled substance.

Toby L. Richardson, 40, is wanted by State Police at the state Capitol for alleged drug possession. A bench warrant was issued for his arrest in 2009 after he failed to appear in court. He was arrested on a weapons charge in Maryland in 2011 but did not return to Albany after he completed probation in 2013.

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Jennifer C. Voltz, 26, is wanted by State Police in Poughkeepsie on charges of petit larceny, misdemeanor drug possession and possession of a hypodermic instrument. Troopers said Voltz was arrested after she allegedly burglarized several homes. Troopers said she was caught with cocaine and heroin in May 2017.

Coriann M. Ratliff, 29, is wanted by State Police in Homer on a petty larceny charge that accused her of failing to appear in court after she was arrest for allegedly stealing several items from a Walmart in Cortlandville. Ratliff did not appear in court in January.

Erika R. Gomez, 37, is wanted by State Police in Tarrytown on a charge of driving while intoxicated. Gomez was charged with driving while intoxicated during a June 15, 2008 traffci stop on the Thruway.
Saturday morning May 12th will be another red letter day in the lives of thousands of Tipperary people who will walk/run in solidarity with Darkness into Light as part of the fundraiser for Pieta House.

The now annual event is a deeply moving one and has become one of the most significant such events in the country with 140 different locations hosting the walk and run in Ireland and a further 40 overseas. The aim this year is for 200,000 people to participate in the event and Tipperary, Nenagh, Cashel, Roscrea, Tipperary Town, Thurles and Ballina/Killalloe will reverberate to the sound of footsteps on the morning - each footstep representing a portion of the journey from darkness into light.

The launch, hosted by the Thurles committee, was attended by representatives from the other Tipperary groups as well as Kevin Ryan from Electric Ireland, who are the main sponsors, Martina Leamy from Pieta House in Roscrea, Brian Higgins and Johnny Toher, also from Pieta House, and Jonathan Gleeson of the Thurles organisation.

Jonathan, who is centrally involved with Thurles Rotary Club, one of the drivers of Darkness into Light in Thurles, explained that in the inaugural walk in the Cathedral Town, some 2,000 people participated and a whopping 35,000 was raised. He thanked all those who were involved last year and looked forward to people jumping on board again. The event will kick off from The Dome at Semple Stadium with the facilities having been placed at the disposal of the committee by David Morgan, who is delighted to be supporting the initiative.

Martina Leamy outlined the work of Pieta House, the supports offered to those feeling suicidal or in danger of self harming, as well as the services to the bereaved as a result of suicide. This was expanded upon by Brian Higgins who pointed out that 36,000 people have been aided by Pieta House, thanks to the funding raised through Darkness into Light. The aim is to replace thoughts of suicide with thoughts of hope, he said, and Darkness into Light helps replace the stigma of suicide and transforms it into acceptance. It is very important to use Darkness into Light as a tool for this, he said.

When people rise from their beds in the early hours of May 12th, they will do so in support of friends; perhaps in memory of others; but also for themselves.

They will take each step in the company of others; in solidarity; sometimes in silence; sometimes with laughter; but always with a sense of hope.

So mark the date in your diary. Saturday May 12th at 4:15am.
Tropics is dead. For real this time.

The promised resurrection of Tropics Piano Bar & Restaurant isnt happening. Paul Hugo, owner of EAT and The Manor, has leased the building on Wilton Drive where Tropics operated since 1992.

It will now be called The Grille and will serve steak and seafood. It will also feature live vocal performances and piano music.

Owners Alex Meyer and Godfrey Thompson told SFGN they planned to reopen the restaurant but the promised resurrection was taking longer than expected. SFGN confirmed the delay with the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. Several months later on Facebook, Meyer announced that they decided to lease the building to Hugo.

After Godfrey and I had some hard times cleaning up after Jackson [Padgett, the previous owner]. We still have some lawsuits ongoing, we thought what would be best for us to do. Naturally Godfrey's visit to the hospital was an important factor too. So, we decided to lease Tropics to Paul Hugo.

According to public records, Thompson and Meyer filed a writ of possession last year against Padgett and Tropics after they claimed he failed to make a monthly lease payment to them of $4,541.

Hugo deferred comment to Randy Abendschein, the general manager of EAT. Abendschein did not return a call to SFGN in time for publication but announced the opening of The Grille on Facebook.
Facebook isn't the only company that knows more about you than you do. Google is also in the business of tracking what you do to sell that data for ads. That means Google has details on where you've been, what you've searched for, what you've watched and much, much more.

Here's how to dive into Google's archives, edit what it knows about you and save a copy of it all for yourself.

MORE: The Quick and Dirty Facts About Facebook and Cambridge Analytica

Every step you take

You're not paranoid if they're actually tracking your locations, and that's the case with Google's Location History. When I opened my Location History map (click here for yours), it showed me what I already knew: that I've spent time primarily in New York and Las Vegas (for CES) over the past however many years.

To stop Google from geotracking you, visit this page and flip the switch for Location History to the off position. To remove entries from your list so that people can't show you the screen and ask "Why were you there at that time?", go back to the map and double-click on one of the red dots that signify where you've been.

That will show you the route you took, and you'll see a Trash Can icon for deleting the information.

Fortunately for iPhone users, Google doesn't collect as much data from non-Android devices. My map had travel points in three states (California, Las Vegas and New York), and one of those (a blip in Alameda, California, dated November 2017) wasn't even me. A colleague who's used only Android phones showed me his map, which looked like it was riddled with a rash.

Every search you make

Use Google to search? Google's got a record of every little thing you've asked of its search bar. Open this page and scroll to see the proof. To remove an item, click the three dots in the top right corner of an entry. There, you'll get the option to Delete.

Every word you say

Google wants to make voice recognition tools work well, so when you say "OK Google," it hears that trigger and your following command clearly. If you navigate to this page and turn off "Voice & Audio Activity," you'll put a stop to that. Click here to get the option to remove voice records.

Every tab you view

If you've relied on Google Chrome, and I sure do, Google also has a database of every web page you've viewed in the browser. Click here to see your list, and remove individual entries by clicking the three dots and clicking delete.

To stop Chrome from collecting your activity, open this page and turn off the switch next to Web & App Activity.

Every clip you watch

Since Google also owns YouTube, it's got a collection of every single video you've watched on that platform. Click here to see its records of your viewing history, and click the three dots and then Delete to remove entries.

Every app you use

You know how Cambridge Analytica harvested data from users of a Facebook app called ThisIsYourDigitalLife? Google also allows apps and services to connect to accounts, so it'd be good to check who's tied into your account. Click here to see which apps you've signed into with Google, and click on each entry to see what privileges each has.

Once you've clicked on an entry, you'll also see a Remove Access button so you can cut that company off from your Google account.

Every detail advertisers buy about you

Ever wonder why you see the ads you see? Click here to see the topics that Google tells advertisers that you like. Some of mine are accurate, such as Professional Wrestling and Mac OS. Others, such as Parenting and Classical Music, are laughably incorrect. Click X to remove an item from the list.

Scrolling down, you'll get the chance to define yourself by gender and age group, as advertisers want to serve ads to their target demographics. Feel free to fudge the details here, but if you do, expect to see less-relevant ads.

Also, visit this page to view and edit the name, nickname, email addresses, phone numbers and other settings that Google has attached to your account.

MORE: Your Privacy Is Gone. You Just Don't Know It Yet

Download all of it

If Google is storing a copy of your digital life, we're guessing you might want a copy of that database. Google will allow you to download your dossier and gives you options for which apps you'd rather not be included, as its records move across everything from Google Photos to Google Drive to Hangouts. To get it all, or just some of it (you can select which categories of data you want), simply go to the Google Takeout page.

So, yes, it's not just '80's one-hit wonder Rockwell who should be worried that somebody's watching them. Google has records on us all, and it's time to pay attention.
Lynk & Co. is making another statement with the launch of its latest vehicle, the eponymously named 02 crossover. Unveiled in Amsterdam, the 02  its pronounced as zero-two  is the latest creation from the off-the-cuff sub-brand that Chinese automaker Geely created in 2016. Despite its name, the 02 is actually the third model to come out of Lynk & Co., following in the footsteps already laid by the 01 SUV and the 03 saloon. The compact crossover is expected to spearhead the automakers plan to ingratiate itself to a younger market that embraces a shareable and ultra-connected lifestyle with plans to offer the model online or through a subscription service.

If Geelys millennial sub-brand hopes to make an impression, it did just that with the 02

The 02 is smaller than the 01: it sits on a shorter wheelbase and has a lower ride height

Forget about what you know about the auto industry because Lynk & Co. isnt interested in shaping itself to fit into the establishment. Its much more interested in shaking things up and, for what its worth, it could be well on its way to doing just that.

First, the details. The 02 is smaller than the 01. Link & Co. intended it to be that way to create some distinction between the two models. It sits on a shorter wheelbase and has a lower ride height. The design, however, is largely similar to the 03. The front end looks the same, though by virtue of its smaller size, the 02 benefits from more muscular wheel arches, giving it a more compact and confident stance. We lauded the automaker for its design of the 01 and 03. Its good to know that the 02 didnt fall too far out of the same tree.

The interior of the crossover also blends premium design with state-of-the-art technology, the latter of which well get to in a bit. The cabin should get its share of premium materials, joining the large central touchscreen display and advanced telematics systems as its defining features.

There are no details on performance, but dont be surprised if it uses the same powertrains that can be found on Volvo models

There are no details on performance, but dont be surprised if it uses the same powertrains that can be found on Volvo models, including the new 1.5-liter, three-cylinder engine found under the hood of the XC40. Thats not a certainty at the moment, but its likely that both Lynk & Co. and Volvo will be sharing powertrains that will come in different states of tune, hybrid optimization, and electrification. On that end, the companys senior VP, Alain Visser, made it clear at the cars launch that the 02 will not have any diesel or ICE-only options in Europe. Its all hybrids and electrics for this crossover.

Now, about those tech features. The Lynk & Co. 02 is dripping with them. Thats all part of the companys plan to turn the crossover into a connected and sharable car. It has the worlds first in-car sharing button, which allows people to have shared ownership or subscriptions of the car, all with the use of a smartphone app. Thats the world the company envisions the 02 to live in. Its not so much about buying the car from a traditional dealership and taking it home. Its more about giving the crossover a platform where it can be purchased online and paid for under the guise of monthly subscription fees that are not all that different from how we pay off our mobile phone service providers.

Link & Cos sales strategy also does not include brick-and-mortar dealerships

Link & Cos sales strategy also does not include brick-and-mortar dealerships. Thats too old-school for the company. Instead, the automaker plans to open boutique shops that prospective buyers can go to place orders for the car or sign up for a subscription service. The first of these urban brand boutiques will open in Amsterdam, though Lynk & Co. does have plans of having at least one of them in all relevant European cities.

If subscription-based ownership turns into a real thing in the auto industry, Lynk & Co is going to be at the forefront of that change. Thats good to know considering the backing it has from a Chinese automaker that has thrived in todays automotive industry.

References

Read more about the Lynk & Co 01.
Hello Audi A4 Cabrio, Goodbye Audi TT Roadster and A5 Cabrio

The A4 Cabriolets return could come at the expense of two models that have been around for some time
National Parks Conservation Association officials were in Wilton Manors March 20 for a public forum at The Pride Center. The goal was to videotape comments from those in attendance who had opinions and suggestions for the NPS. Public comment is open until April 30 online.

The National Park Service, which oversees Americas national monuments, has partnered with the nonprofit NPCA to get community feedback on the best way it can tell the story of Stonewall and the larger movement.

The main part of that story, of course, are the Stonewall Riots which took place June 28, 1969. The riots came as a reaction to a police raid that took place at the Stonewall Inn bar in the Greenwich Village neighborhood in New York Citys Manhattan. The event is considered one that accelerated the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for LGBT rights in America. Much happened leading up to Stonewall, and much happened after it.

The significance of Stonewall was not lost on former President Barack Obama. On June 24, 2016, just months before his administration would end, Obama designated the Stonewall National Monument to honor the broad LGBT equality movement.

The monument is a first of its kind  one that designates an area (as opposed to one statue or facade like the Lincoln Memorial or Mount Rushmore) that was important in telling an overall story. This story  the struggle for LGBT people to attain equality.

The monument encompasses (including the Stonewall Inn) about a five-block area where the uprising took place. It includes the adjacent Christopher Park and surrounding streets where protests took place.

The public comment process has included consultation with historians, community members and stakeholders who represent the LGBT community to ensure that the full Stonewall story is told accurately. 

South Florida joined Tacoma, Seattle and San Francisco on the list of sites where NPCA hosted public forums.

We chose South Florida as one of the locations because of the partnerships that we have and wanted to build upon, especially with the Stonewall National Museum & Archives, said John Adornato III, NPCAs deputy vice president for regional operations, based in Hollywood, Florida.

We also know that the LGBT community in South Florida is very active and engaged, as well as has tight connections to the New York area, given the amount of overlap of residents or past residents. We knew we would get a robust conversation from informed people  which is exactly what happened, Adornato said.

Adornato joined Cortney Worrall, senior regional director of NPCAs northeast regional office, and an NPS ranger at the event.

Several in the crowd of about 25 had personal stories of their connection to Stonewall and the larger movement of LGBT rights in America and internationally.

We were so pleased with the turnout. The stories that everyone shared, from the younger millennial generation to the retirees who served in the military as closeted enlistees, all diving deep into a discussion about the symbolism and meaning of the Stonewall riots and our continually evolving LGBT history, Adornato said.

For more:

Stonewall National Monument: nps.gov/ston.

To submit a public comment to the NPS before April 30: https://parkplanning.nps.gov/document.cfm?documentID=85194. (Read the draft significance statements, and then click on the comment now button).

To learn more about NPCA: npca.org.
The opening line of the 1966 Rolling Stones song Mothers Little Helper is What a drag it is getting old. So it goes. I am getting old, and a respiratory infection grounded me last weekend.

So, with hundreds of thousands of Americans and South Floridians marching against gun violence in Washington, DC, I was sitting on my spoiled ass watching it on a big screen 85 inch HD TV. But there is nothing like being there. Still, the living room is better than an emergency room.

As a student who joined in anti-Vietnam war marches in the Capitol in 1968, 50 years ago, I felt this event was equally historic. Over a half million young Americans were going to take a mass shooting and turn it around into a rally massing their generation in a noble cause. I wanted to be there.

These young men and women represent a movement that did not exist six weeks ago. But thanks to social media, now when you say, Enough is Enough and reach a vast Internet with those words, half the world can hear you in less than a day.

Our own group of students from the suburban, quiet communities of Parkland and Coral Springs have launched their own Arab Spring in less than thirty days, faster than it takes a veteran on Medicare to get an appointment with a local endocrinologist.

Ironically, as it applies to SFGN, wouldnt you just know that the boldest voice of this new movement turns out to be the president of the Gay Student Alliance at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

You did not know Emma Gonzalez existed three months ago. Today, she is on the cover of Time Magazine with more followers on Twitter and Facebook than the entire National Rifle Association. Three months ago, she did not even have a Twitter account.

Last Saturday, in Washington, DC, this young woman shared a stage with Congressman John Lewis, a man who shared a similar stage a half century ago with Dr. Martin Luther King. On April 3, 1968, 50 years ago next week, Dr. King was gunned down by a high-powered rifle too. Saturday, his own 9-year-old granddaughter spoke at the rally, preaching love and an end to the cycle of gun violence wreaking havoc from coast to coast.

The senseless slaughter must end, and if it is to do so, it will begin with this determined lot of students making their voices heard nationally. They were met in

DC by victims of senseless violence from across the country, from Columbine to Sandy Hook to Colorado theaters and Vegas concerts.

One of the walkers in New York was a man named Paul McCartn-ey. You may know him. He quietly put on an overcoat and took to the streets, and when asked by a reporter what motivated him, he simply looked at the journalist and replied: You may know that one of my close friends was once shot and killed by a gunman just a few blocks from here.

No, America has not forgotten what happened to John Lennon in December of 1980, 38 years ago. But what the students of Marjory Stoneham Douglas have done in 30 days since the massacre on their campus is galvanize a generation of citizens to say No More and Enough is Enough. Over 800 cities were so represented across the globe. And it has only been a month.

Who amongst us is not proud of what these young students have done to stir the conscience of our country? I mean, other than Ric Santorum whose mindless comments about kids learning CPR would be a better use of their time. No, Ric, you are so wrong. These kids have spent the last month moving the sands of time.

Most of the news coverage in South Florida last week would normally have been a hedonistic, self-indulgent music festival in Miami called Ultra. Not this year. Cause and conscience and community won out. Instead of flashing lights, we got a gun shooting survivor herself, Jennifer Hudson, to sing Bob Dylans

The Times They are a Changing on a national stage, a moment few will ever forget.

The kids are alright. Growing older means passing the torch to a new generation of leaders. For years, the answers have been wrong. Too many graves, too many lives silenced by too many bullets prove that. Lets listen to these strident students. We had our chance. We blew it.

Are Bill Nelson and Rick Scott really running against each other for United States Senate in Florida this year? Please. I would rather put both up in a space shuttle. I would rather vote for Cameron Kasky or Emma Gonzalez then either of those two.

One young high school speaker who had graduated Newton Elementary School reminded every adult over 45 that he had spent his life growing up in classrooms that had weekly mass shooter drills, I guess in between home room and Math. No, that was not my life five decades ago.

We had fire drills for sure, and when I was real young we would hide under our desk in case the Russians wanted to drop a nuclear bomb on us, but it was never a real threat that kept us from playing stickball in the schoolyard. We turned 15 without targets on our back. We were never scared daily.

My message to these students is to stay your course and keep the candle lit. Dont get sidetracked or dissuaded by disappointments or defeats. They are impostors you can beat back.

You and your movement are now more popular than the president or the NRA he has already caved into. You are fighting for life tomorrow while he is fighting hookers he screwed over yesterday. But you dont need him. You have each other.

Every generation has its calling, to end racism, fight for universal suffrage, equal rights, shut down a war, or save the environment. Nothing came easy, not even getting seat belts in cars or cigarettes out of airplanes.

You found your mark. It is to end the darkness and demons of gun violence, which has claimed too many lives too often for too long. Take back America for the rest of us. Shut down the violence. You can only do it while you are here, and those days are never certain.

You never know when your ticket is going to be pulled. So, while you have passage and passion, a voice and a vote, let it be heard. Let peace begin with you. The road is rocky. Thats life. Go out and build a new tomorrow today.
The Petroleum Company of Trinidad and Tobago will not be going to court to try to set aside the results of an arbitration with A&V Oil and Gas.
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Le Collectif Cheikh Yassine a organise un certain nombre dactivites et de festivites pour les enfants de Gaza sous le theme  La joie des enfants de Gaza pour lAid . Ces activites ont commence le premier jour de lAid et continue jusquau 4eme jour de lAid dans la bande de Gaza.



Plusieurs activites, ont ete organisees parmi lesquelles : des competitions recompensees par des prix, des jeux, des animations et des chants presentes par un groupe ainsi que des distributions de cadeaux et daides financieres.




Hi folk,

I will be travelling to malaysia and thailand from Royal Caribbean crusie, and have visa for Malaysia but not for thailand.

My doubt is

1. Which visa i should take Transit and Tourist visa or this.

2. i tried applying for thailand visa on embassy website but at the end we need to fill:

i:Proposed Address in Thailand

ii:Name and Address of Guarantor in Thailand

I dnt have any address and dont know any one so what should i enter here.

Regards,

Vanraj Dinesh Bohra
Ok, at that time of year, as Molllets says, it is wet season, so you are almost guaranteed afternoon thunderstorms, but these are usually a very welcome relief from the searing humidity. What is not welcome is the possible cyclone. (Se the news re current flooding in Cairns) Plenty of people visit at that time of yesr, but you do need to make this part of the trip flexible/cancel-able. There are also desdly stingers in the water then, so you can't swim off the beach. Reef tours will supply stinger suits. I woukd recommend three nights in Cairns tegion - possibly stsy in Port Douglas, especially if you are interested in the Daintree and Mossman Gorge.

The rest of the time, stsy on the Sunshine Coast and explore the region by car with day trips - you need to book this asap as this is our peak holiday season and we will all be at the coast too.

Cheers.
Hi, ShinYing...a lot depends on when youre traveling. Hotel prices fluctuate hugely here. A place thats under $100 in February might be more than $300 in May or September.

Airbnb is problematic here, especially if youre looking for an entire apartment (as opposed to a room in an apartment with the host present). Short-term rentals in buildings with more than 2 units are illegal, which rules out most of the housing stock in Manhattan. There are a fair number of legal Airbnbs in Brooklyn (and I think in Queens as well), but you have to do a lot of due diligence to find them.

As for the specific areas you suggested - the LES, LIC and Astoria would all be great fits with your interests. You might also want to look at hotels in Downtown Brooklyn and the Third and Fourth Avenue corridors that run through Boerum Hill, Gowanus and Park Slope. The first is extremely well-connected by transit, and close to good food/interesting neighborhoods and BAM. The latter is a bit dreary (especially Fourth Av - my nominee for ugliest street in NYC), but close (as in, 1-2 blocks) from some of the prettiest and liveliest parts of the borough.

If you post specific dates (or, if youre flexible, a date range) and the kind of room you need (one bed? 2 doubles? open to a shared bath?), there are people on the forum who know a lot about hotels and would be happy to make suggestions. Just know that if youre traveling at a popular time, you may have to bump up your budget to have more choices.
Absolutely agree with other posts; far too many places in a week. More time travelling than sightseeing and relaxing.

Stick to 2/3 places and one area. Travelling in Vietnam is slow and time-consuming. Allow a full day for travelling between places. Don't consider 1-night stays. Waste of time. I night-stay = 2 consecutive travel days.

I've been 3 times and 4th visit in December. Different area each time.

Last year was just the north, staying in 6 places over nearly 4 weeks. Just right for plenty of sightseeing and relaxing.
The app works nation wide. Last I checked you need an active contact number. So if you are using a data SIM, you'll have to figure out a way to be contacted by phone / SMS (VoIP, or a separate phone with an active SIM).

10 taxi companies are serving Kyoto under the app including Nihon-Kotsu and ForeignFriendlyTaxi . The full list can be viewed inside the app.
How do I get from the airport (JFK, LGA, or EWR) to Manhattan?

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Vacation Apartment Rentals Violate NYC Laws

Hotels: Kitchenettes and kitchens in 100+ Manhattan Hotels

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- Dennis Mwangeka accused Anerlisa of defamang him

- Mwangeka is baby daddy to KTN news anchor Linda Ogutu

- Anerlisa said she borrowed money from Dennis on behalf of an alleged ex-boyfriend

- She accused the two of trying to extort her

- The two plaintiffs suing Anerlisa are Mwananchi credit limited and Mwangeka

- The suit sought to have her restrained from publishing any further defamatory content

- It also requested for publications concerning the plaintiffs to be pulled down from her social media accounts

Dennis Mwangeka, baby daddy to KTN news anchor Linda Ogutu, has moved to court and sued Anerlisa Muigai for defamation.

This is after the Keroche heiress was forced to speak out after an embarrassing expose' threatened to kill her otherwise flawless reputation.

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TUKO.co.ke understands the sultry lass was languishing in debt of up to KSh 20 million acquired from a shylock.

According to court papers filed in High Court on March 21, seen by TUKO.co.ke, Dennis Mwangeka and Mwananchi credit limited sought general damages for defamation as a result of the story published by Muigai.

READ ALSO: Rais Uhuru alikosa kupokea simu ya Raila kuhusu mzozo wa Miguna? Pata uhondo

Anerlisa said she borrowed money from Dennis on behalf of an alleged ex-boyfriend. Photo: Anerlisa Muigai/Instagram

It further requested for Muigai to be immediately restrained from publishing, posting or broadcasting any statements, words and images further disparaging Mwangeka and Mwananchi credit limited.

"The defendant herein be restrained by way of a temporary injunction restraining her whether by herself, her servants or agents or otherwise publishing posting or broadcasting, or causing to be published posted or broadcasted any story, words and images defamatory of the plaintiff," the civil suit read.

READ ALSO: Kenya's richest daughter Anerlisa Muigai explains how she was conned into a KSh 20 million debt

The suite specifically sought to impede her from publishing any defamatory content through her Facebook and Instagram accounts via the Internet.

It claimed that Anerlisa was publishing words which were untrue, unjustified and derogatory of the Plaintiffs and calculated at injuring the reputation of the Plaintiffs business.

"Whereby the said stories and words of the Defendant is not restrained would adversely affect the Plaintiffs business by encouraging its customers to shy away from dealing with it," it stated.

According to the initial report, the Keroche heiress had borrowed from Mwangeka on behalf of an alleged ex-boyfriend Ben Kangangi.

According to the initial report, Anerlisa had borrowed the money from Dennis Mwangeka on behalf of an alleged ex-boyfriend Ben Kangangi. Photo: Anerlisa Muigai/Instagram

READ ALSO: One of Nairobis deadly criminals takes up lorry drivers job after ditching crime

Through his lawyers, Mwangeka also requested the courts to issue an order directing Anerlisa to pull down all her publications and posts that touched on him in anyway concerning the matter.

READ ALSO: Fans to pay between 3k and 10k to watch American rapper and entrepreneur Rick Ross performance

"This honourable court be pleased to issue mandatory injunction directed at the defendant, ordering her to pull down all her publications and posts that touch the Plaintiffs in whatsoever way," the civil suit stated.

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.

Miguna Miguna's return: Chaos at Jomo Kenyatta Int. Airport (JKIA) | Tuko TV - Kenya News

Source: Tuko.co.ke
- Judge Roselyn Aburili directed the government to free Miguna

- Aburili also ordered the NRM leader to be produced in court

- Miguna's lawyers went to JKIA with the order papers but did not find officials

- The lawyers were forced to pin the court orders on wall of JKIA

- The government still failed to release Miguna or present him in court

- Judge George Odunga issued another order for respondents to appear in court

- Again, the respondents failed to comply with the court directives

The Miguna Miguna citizenship saga escalated to a new level on Tuesday, March 27, after High Court ordered for his release and appearance in court.

TUKO.co.ke gathered Miguna's lawyers sued the government for allegedly violating the political activist's constitutional rights and being in contempt of court, and the court ruled in their favour.

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READ ALSO: Mjukuu wa Kibaki apongeza GSU kwa jinsi walivyomshugulikia Miguna, achochea hisia za Wakenya

Lawyer Miguna Miguna was locked up at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) after he refused to surrender his Canadian passport or fill citizenship forms upon his return.Photo: TUKO.

READ ALSO: Court orders immediate release of Miguna Miguna

Justice Roselyn Aburili issued orders directing the government to immediately free the NRM leader and also produce him in court on Wednesday, March 28, at 9.30 am.

Armed with the order papers, Miguna's lawyers, led by Senior Counsel James Orengo, rushed to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) to serve the authorities.

READ ALSO: I have not showered for three days - Miguna speaks from detention

Miguna with some of his lawyers who went to see him at Jom Kenyatta International Airport after Immigration officers refused to admit him.Photo:Nation/Twitter.

Interestingly, the lawyers did not find a single airport official to serve the orders, so they decided to pin them on the airport's wall, hoping the intended recipients would read and comply.

It is unfortunate that public officers are now afraid being served with court orders. Let's hope Miguna will be released as directed, Orengo told Citizen TV moments after serving the order papers.

READ ALSO: Judge orders CS Matiang'i to personally appear before him over Miguna detention

Miguna Miguna's lawyer James Orengo presenting him at Milimani Law Courts, Nairobi, on Wednesday, March 28, 2018. Photo:TUKO.

But despite the orders having been served, the government not only refused to free Miguna from detention at JKIA, where he was allegedly being held in a toilet, but also failed to produce the NRM leader in court.

His lawyers appeared at Milimani Law Courts, Nairobi, and this time before Judge George Odunga who issued fresh orders.

He directed the respondents including Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i and the Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinett to personally appear before him to explain why they should not be held in contempt of court over Miguna's detention.

READ ALSO: Raila phoned Uhuru over Miguna saga but failed to secure his release

Once again, the senior state officials ignored the court directives.

Miguna's legal team and other parties interested in the case pleaded with the court to take action against the public officers who disobeyed courts to send a strong message that the courts must be respected.

The lawyers also asked the court to have the state officials in contempt of court jailed and slapped with hefty fines to teach them a lesson.

Judge Odunga gave the respondents another chance to appear before him on Thursday, March 29, to defend themselves.

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.

Miguna Miguna's return: Chaos at Jomo Kenyatta Int. Airport (JKIA) - On Tuko TV

Source: Tuko
- The two alongside immigration boss have repeatedly ignored court orders to release Miguna and also appear in court

- The High Court in Nairobi expressed concern over the trio's continued disregard of crucial orders relating to Miguna's saga

- The court also ordered that Miguna be released unconditionally before Thursday 10am

- Matiang'i, Boinnet and Kihalangwa of immigration are thus guilty of contempt of court

- The penalty for contempt of court is six months in jail or a fine not exceeding KSh 200,000

- Miguna has been in detention for over 72 hours since landing on Monday, March 26 from Canada

- Immigration department insists he has refused to surrender his travel documents as it is procedure

- The lawyer however claims the cout ordered immigration department to issue him new travel documents

- He even dramatically resisted a second deportation even after being pushed onto a plane by police officers

Inspector-General of Police Joseph Boinnet, Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i and Immigration boss Gordon Kihalangwa will be sentenced on Thursday, March 29, after being found guilty for contempt of court.

High Court Judge George Odunga ruled that he would sentence the trio at 10am whether they appear in court or not as the showdown between the government and opposition politician Miguna Miguna got ugly.

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READ ALSO: Unamjua mkewe Miguna Miguna? Haya ndio maisha yake ya ndoa

Odunga said that court orders should be respected by everybody and ordered the trio to show up in court in person for sentencing, but added that he would still sentence them in their absence.

High Court judge George Odunga delivering his ruling on the Miguna Miguna saga. Photo: Edwin Okoth/TUKO

At the same time, he ordered police to immediately release Miguna from detention where he has been held for three days even without being allowed to take a shower since he landed in the country on Monday, March 26, at 2.30pm.

The judge further directed that Miguna should not be taken out of the court's jurisdiction, technically blocking the government from re-deporting him as was done in February when he was forcibly kicked out of the country.

Earlier, as separately reported by TUKO.co.ke, the government defied another court order seeking immediate release of the fiery opposition leader.

READ ALSO: This job is tough, I am almost giving up - Nairobi governor Mike Sonko

Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i shares a word with Uhuru Kenyatta as IG Joseph Boinnet follows proceeding at a pass out parade. Photo: PSCU

The three top governmnet officials should expect to be fined KSh 200,000 or less or be thrown in jail for six months, or be slapped with both, as per Kenyans laws.

However, they can be discharged or their punishment remitted if they apologise to the satisfaction of the court.

Miguna's troubles started on Tuesday, January 30, when he administered a controversial oath of office to Raila Odinga as the People's President.

READ ALSO: Wetangula lied to Raila IEBC chairman is his uncle, would help them beat Uhuru - Miguna

Lawyer John Khaminwa in court on behalf of detained Miguna Miguna. Photo: Edwin Okoth/TUKO

He later dared Matiang'i to arrest him as he urged National Super Alliance (NASA) supporters to collect and set ablaze all President Uhuru Kenyatta's portraits.

Police arrested him at his Runda home and detained him in various police stations and later deported even as the court ordered for his release and appearance in court.

According to the government through the Imiigration department, Miguna is not supposed to step on Kenyan soil as he is not a Kenyan citizen having renounced it and never renewed. Miguna disputes this.

A battery of lawyers led by John Khaminwa and Siaya Senator James Orengo have been working round the clock to ensure Miguna is released and allowed to operate freely in the country on grounds that he is Kenyan by birth.

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.

Miguna Miguna's return: Chaos at Jomo Kenyatta Int. Airport (JKIA) - on TUKO TV

Source: Tuko
- Uhuru will travel to Mozambique for an official visit amidst heightened drama involving Miguna

- He has remained silent over the stand-off as the government is accused of ignoring court orders

- It will not be the first time the president jets out amidst political tension in the country

- He was in South Africa when embattled Miguna swore-in Raila Odinga

President Uhuru Kenyatta will on Thursday, March 28, travel to Mozambique in an official state visit to enhance bilateral relations.

Uhurus trip coincidentally comes at the time self-declared NRM general Miguna Miguna has been detained at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.

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During his visit, Uhuru intends to focus on the blue economy which is a key aspect in manufacturing and considered one of the pillars in his Big Four agenda.

READ ALSO: Unamjua mkewe Miguna Miguna? Haya ndio maisha yake ya ndoa

Uhuru saluting GSU officers during a passing out parade. Photo: Uhuru Kenyatta/Facebook

The blue economy is the sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, enhancing livelihoods and creating employment aimed at improving the wellbeing of people from both countries.

Meanwhile, Miguna remains captive at JKIA and it will be fascinating to see whether Uhuru will pay him a courtesy call while at the airport before departing for Mozambique or not.

Uhuru continues to remain mum over Migunas plight more than 24 hours since the debacle erupted.

READ ALSO: Jubilee cannot be trusted - Raila's adviser speaks after Miguna debacle

Uhuru and first lady bid farewell prior to departing for Ethiopia earlier in the year. Photo: Uhuru Kenyatta/Facebook

However, this is not the first time Uhuru would be jetting out of the country in the midst of a political crisis.

As was previously reported by TUKO.co.ke, he was in South Africa in an official state visit when Miguna swore-in NASA leader Raila Odinga in a highly controversial ceremony held on January 30.

Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs and international trade Monica Juma said Kenya and Mozambique shared similar geographical features, both being sea-facing countries.

Uhuru during a previous adress at State House. Photo: Uhuru Kenyatta/Facebook

READ ALSO: Raila phoned Uhuru over Miguna saga but failed to secure his release

The two countries also happen to be members of the Indian Ocean Rim Association.

Mozambique is a sea-facing country as we are. There has been a growing interest in the Indian Ocean Rim, which both Kenya and Mozambique are members, Juma said

Interestingly, despite Mozambique being a Portuguese speaking country, its President Felipe Nyusi, also speaks Swahili.

READ ALSO: Uhuru receives rare symbolic welcome from KDF to show he is in charge moments after Raila's swearing-in

Uhurus trip coincidentally falls at the same time self-declared NRM general Miguna Miguna, has been detained at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. Photo: Miguna Miguna/Twitter

State House Spokesperson Manoah Esipisu highlighted Mozambique's wealth in terms of natural gas, offshore wealth, and said it had much to share with Kenya.

Discussions would focus on how to extract resources in a sustainably manner as part of empowering both our economies, Esipisu said.

On the bilateral front, the Presidents visit will seek to deepen already existing cordial and friendly relations between Kenya and Mozambique as well as enhancing people to people interactions.

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.

Miguna Miguna's return: Chaos at Jomo Kenyatta Int. Airport (JKIA) - on TUKO TV

Source: Tuko
Students of Forms four, five and six are given the all clear to resume classes but school pr
U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations Kurt Volker intends to make his seventh visit to Ukraine over the past eight months.

As Volker said in an interview with Voice of America, he will visit Ukraine, particularly the conflict zone in Donbas, where the security situation has escalated, in late April or early May.

"I will visit the eastern areas of the country to see the conflict zone from the Ukrainian side. I want to meet with my Ukrainian colleagues in Kyiv," he said.

I would like to hear a response from Russia in order to understand what we can talk about," Volker noted.

The U.S. Special Representative also told about preparations for a likely meeting of U.S. president Donald Trump with Russian president Vladimir Putin in the near future.

"We are already working on this issue. We are in constant contact with the White House on Ukraine. We have taken a very clear stance. We work very closely with our allies and friends in Europe, as well as with the Ukrainian government. We are really very disappointed with Russia's aggressive actions throughout the world: attacks in the UK with the use of poison, or in Syria, or continuation of ceasefire violations in Ukraine," Volker said.

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Austin brands trying to find footing in Dallas often struggleand ultimately shutterbecause they have trouble navigating the citys love-hate relationship with anything coming out of the state capital. People in Dallas love Austin and Austin things but also presume everything coming from there is trying to be too cool for school, something that Houndstooth Coffee learned almost immediately after opening its first outpost in the city, when a local magazine sandwiched a story dubbing it the Best Coffee Shop between two articles smearing it for being both too serious and too nice. We locals are complicated, petty, maybe a little jealous, but if you want to serve us coffee at our best, you have to deal with us at our worst.

With the opening of Houndstooths third location in Dallas, it is safe to say that the brand has successfully weathered our fickle tumultuousness and, in doing so, has acted as a sort of sherpa for other Austin companies looking to make the move 200 miles north. Houndstooths second Dallas shop sits adjacent to Taco Deli, its next-door neighbor at the original Austin cafe (which will also be a stones throw from the newest spot). And for the third location, Houndstooth teamed up with TreeHousean Austin-based home improvement store that focuses on sustainable, environmentally friendly homewaresto create Dallass first 100 percent solar-powered coffee shop.

Opened in Northeast Dallas last November, the new shop is Houndstooths first location to exist in a stand-alone building. But not just any stand-alone building, or even a single building at that. The new cafe is basically two separate tiny houses joined in the middle by a wooden backdrop with a giant lighted COFFEE sign. Each of the roughly 500-square-foot houses serves a distinct purpose; one acts as a standard bustling cafe, including seating for eight to ten people stopping in for a quick drink, and the other is a much quieter area with more open seating for those looking to stay a while or have an uninterrupted conversation with a friend.

More than just offering quaint partitioning, the tiny houses fall in line with the other environmentally responsible decisions that went into the design of the new Houndstooth. From the old-growth bamboo floors and fireclay tiles to the Tesla solar-powered station providing electricity for the entire building and shopping complexwide composting program soon to be rolled out, everything in the cafe is designed to be energy efficient, eco-friendly, and sustainable.

Houndstooth owner Sean Henry explains that the opportunity to team up with TreeHouse on the new shop serves as an eco-friendly jumping off point for the rest of his cafes: When we looked at growth and how we wanted to make our cafes more in line with our personal thoughts on sustainability, this opportunity was a great fit. Over the next year, were implementing several measures across all cafes to reduce our carbon footprint.

Inside the cafe side, the look and feel is different from other Houndstooth locations. Being in a stand-alone building allows big windows lining three walls of the cafe to pump in tons of natural light at almost any time of day, adding to the warmth of an already inviting space thanks to a variety of woods, textures, and rich, colored tiles behind the coffee bar. Its a bit of a departure from the clean whites more common in other Houndstooth locations; that aesthetic is reserved for the interior of the other tiny house.

For this location, Houndstooth also departed from its standard espresso machine setup: Dallas shops use Nuova Simonelli Black Eagles and Austin shops use Kees Van Der Westen (or Van Der Westendesigned La Marzocco) machines. For this shop, Henry opted to go with the Mavamthe newest contender for the under-counter espresso crownmaking Houndstooth the first shop in Texas to do so. Paired with the three espresso modules are three Nuova Simonelli Mythos One Clima Pro grinders, the standard espresso grinder at all the companys locations.

We love to break down the barriers between guest and barista, Henry says. Obviously, removing the espresso machine can open up the conversation even more, which is a good thing for our baristas. It is certainly a professionals machineeverything is highly visible. Weve focused even more on training our baristas to be conscious of every move. It has really helped us be specific.

Coffee shops and roasters are starting to focus on increasing sustainability efforts, implementing changes big and small to reduce their carbon footprint. The new Houndstooth represents a top-down approach, where everything is seen through an environmental lens from the very beginning. And once again, Houndstooth finds itself playing the canary in the coal mine, testing the viability of an eco-forward cafe in a not-always-eco-friendly city. Smart money is on Houndstooth succeeding because for one, its hot here; weve got the resources for solar power in spades, so why not use it? But more importantly, Henry and Houndstooth are good at what they do, which theyve proven time and again. A good cup of coffee may just make Dallas folks eco-acolytes yet.

Zac Cadwalader is the news editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
No Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or wounded in the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) area in eastern Ukraine over the past day.

Ukrainian Defense Ministry's Spokesman for ATO issues Dmytro Hutsuliak said this at a briefing on Wednesday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

No Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or wounded in enemy attacks over the past day, he said.

At the same time, Hutsuliak noted that over the past day Russian-backed militants launched 32 attacks on positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, including 30 targeted ones.

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From April 10 to 14, the exhibition of Belarusian producers "Made in Belarus" will take place at the Kyiv International Exhibition Center.

Ukrinform learnt this from the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Leading Belarusian companies will demonstrate their developments in the fields of engineering and petrochemistry, transport and logistics, agriculture and food, light industry and tourism.

"The Made in Belarus exhibition, which will be held in Kyiv from April 10 to 14, will be accompanied by a business program, including presentations of Belarusian enterprises. The key event of the business program will be the conference "Ukraine-Belarus: prospects for cooperation", which will be held on April 10. Representatives of the state departments of two countries, as well as the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, will take part in the event. The event is held with the support of the Embassy of the Republic of Belarus in Ukraine, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Ukraine, government organizations and business associations of two countries. The Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry organizes the exhibition. The exhibition unitary enterprise "Belinterexpo" is the operator of the exhibition," the report reads.

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Ukraine and Israel have reached the final stage of signing the agreement on a free trade area (FTA).

Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said this at a government meeting, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"In 2017, we intensively worked on the completion of the free trade area negotiations with the State of Israel. There will be a joint statement of the Governments and Ministries of Israel and Ukraine that the free trade area agreement between the two countries reached the final stage. We are opening new markets; it will positively influence our economy and the development of our competitiveness," the prime minister said.

He added that as of today, without the FTA agreement, the trade with Israel reached $800 million.

"We are forming clear conditions for economic growth. The growth is not rapid as we would like to have, but I am deeply convinced that the economy will grow and the Ukrainian product will win the markets of other countries. To do this, it is very important to introduce a free trade area with our partners," Groysman said.

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Ukraine and Israel have agreed on a plan for early signing and ratifying the free trade agreement.

Deputy Economic Development and Trade Minister of Ukraine Natalia Mykolska said this at a Cabinets meeting, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

According to her, last year Israel's imports reached $70 billion.

"It was important to sign the free trade agreement as Israel is a fairly closed market with high bound tariff rates within the WTO, in particular with respect to food products. This deal opens new opportunities and grants Ukrainian producers and exporters the competitive advantages in the Israeli market. For example, the agreement provides for the immediate opening of the Israeli market for 80% of industrial products," Mykolska added.

As the official noted, trade in industrial products will be gradually liberalized, noting that jewelry will be the only exception on both sides.

As reported, according to the State Statistics Service of Ukraine, the volume of trade in goods and services between Ukraine and Israel totaled $973.4 million in 2017.

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U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch has thanked the Ukrainian side for solidarity with democratic countries in the issue of expelling Russian diplomats as a response to Russian aggression in the world.

This was stated at a meeting between the ambassador and Head of Ukraine's Presidential Administration Ihor Rainin on Tuesday, March 27, the press service of the head of state reported.

"The U.S. ambassador thanked the Ukrainian side for its solidarity with the world's leading democracies regarding the expulsion of Russian diplomats in response to Russia's aggressive actions in the world," the statement reads.

In addition, the sides discussed ways of further interaction with the advancement of reforms in Ukraine, as well as relevant issues of cooperation as part of international organizations.

Over 20 countries have already announced the expulsion of Russian diplomats. These actions were introduced as a sign of solidarity with Britain after the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury with a Novichok nerve agent.

Ukraine also approved the decision to expel 13 Russian diplomats.

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Which states showed their teeth to Russia, and which states pretended that nothing had happened?

A total of 151 persons from 27 countries. This is an "indicator" of simultaneous expulsion of Russian diplomats by Western states. Although these numbers may still grow over the next few days, one can hardly expect significant changes. With this in mind, Ukrinform decided to look more closely at the "Skripal package," having figured out which states decided to show their teeth to Russia and which states tried to pretend that nothing had happened.

EU: ONE FOR ALL, BUT ARE ALL FOR ONE?

Although the reason for the expulsion of Russian diplomats was solidarity with Britain, on whose territory a chemical attack was carried out, far from all EU members have supported the United Kingdom. Of the 28 EU member states, nine refrained from reducing the size of the Russian diplomatic missions. Although each state had its own reasons for that, the absence of true unity among members of the European community is a matter of concern.

Austria's decision not to expel a single Russian diplomat was unexpected. Headed by one of the world's youngest state leaders, Sebastian Kurz (who has repeatedly been to Donbas and who received the title of a "friend" from Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin), Austria decided to remain neutral. "Austria is a neutral country and sees itself as a bridge-builder between East and West. We want to keep the channels of communication to Russia open," Kurz said. However, this is not so strange given that the ruling coalition in Austria includes the right-wing Freedom Party, which signed an agreement on cooperation with United Russia.

Unlike Vienna's behavior, the fact that Bulgaria will seek every opportunity not to worsen relations with Russia has not become a surprise. However, the reason Sofia referred to it looks quite ridiculous - the presidency of the EU as an occasion to preserve neutrality. This is despite the fact that more than 40 diplomats work at the Russian Embassy in Bulgaria, that is, the "choice" was quite broad.

A similar position was taken by Greece, which is traditionally friendly towards Russia. "We must always keep the channels of dialogue with Russia and complete the investigation by a respective international organization before making final conclusions," Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said, commenting on the Skripal case. He added that he did not want to adhere to the "Cold War logic" in foreign relations, but declined to explain how an attempt by Russian special services to kill a former Russian spy was different from similar actions by the Soviet Union in the last century.

No measures against Russia were also taken by the small states of Malta and Luxembourg, but their explanation seems more rational. Because of the very small size of the diplomatic missions of these EU members in Russia (Luxembourg has just two diplomats in Moscow), if Russia resorts to retaliatory measures, it will lead to the actual cessation of diplomatic relations, which no party seeks.

Slovakia and Slovenia, which simultaneously acceded to the EU in 2004, also simultaneously refused to expel Russian diplomats, although they joined the general wave of condemnation of the Kremlin's actions. Through words. "The development of the situation and Russia's response to the calls that the EU states, including Slovakia, have made, will influence the further steps that we are ready to consider regarding this issue," Slovakia's Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Peter Susko, said. Slovenia, in turn, said that the official investigation into the incident in Salisbury should first be completed and then conclusions should be made. However, according to the sad experience of Montenegro, which was close to becoming a victim of a Moscow-sponsored coup, "later" may be too late.

Cyprus and Portugal are also in the list of the EU member states that refused to support the United Kingdom. All is quite simple with Cyprus as its banking system is dependent on billions of Russian euros. Portugal, in turn, referred to the need to take concrete steps at the level of the whole of the EU, rather than individual members. "Portugal believes that the most effective instrument to respond to the gravity of the present situation is joint action with the European Union," the Portuguese Foreign Ministry said.

EU AND NATO UNITY

However, most EU countries have decided not to leave their ally Britain alone at a difficult moment and show solidarity with London. On Monday, March 26, 16 EU members announced their decision to expel employees of Russian diplomatic missions. In general, they kicked out 32 diplomats.

Belgium and Ireland joined them on Tuesday, March 27. They needed more time for internal political discussion, but eventually each of them declared one Russian diplomat persona non grata. Taking into account 23 diplomats expelled from the UK a few weeks ago, this brings the total number of Russian diplomats expelled from the EU to 56.

NATO, headquartered in Belgium, did not stay away from this. On Tuesday, March 27, the secretary general of the organization, Jens Stoltenberg, announced that he had withdrawn the accreditation of seven Russian diplomats at the Russian Mission to NATO and that he would deny the pending accreditation request for three others. From now on, the maximum composition of the Russian Mission to NATO will be limited to ten persons. "Russia has underestimated the unity of NATO Allies," Stoltenberg said.

Among NATO members, only Turkey has not joined new sanctions against Russia. This country has been moving somewhat differently from the rest of the bloc's countries for a long time. Even Iceland, which does not have its own armed forces, has frozen all high-level bilateral contacts with the Russian authorities. One Russian embassy employee was also expelled by Norway, which is not a member of the EU, but is a member of NATO.

EUROPEAN FRIENDSHIP

Along with the EU members, the candidate countries, such as Albania and Macedonia, also spoke out against Russia. One Russian diplomat was declared persona non grata by Skopje and two were declared personae non gratae by Tirana.

Despite the opposition of pro-Russian Moldovan President Igor Dodon, the country's Foreign Ministry expelled three Russian diplomats.

It is clear that Ukraine has also joined the "London-inspired provocative campaign" by expelling 13 diplomats from Russian diplomatic missions in Kyiv, Odesa, Kharkiv and Lviv. In addition, in terms of the number of Russian diplomats expelled, Ukraine is only behind Britain (23 persons) and the United States (60 people).

TRANSATLANTIC COMMUNITY

The tough U.S. response to the Salisbury poisoning case was one of the biggest surprises in the whole process. Sixty employees of the Russian diplomatic missions will soon leave the United States. Together with family members, their number is close to 200 people. In addition, the U.S. administration decided to close Russia's consulate in Seattle, which was used for intelligence purposes. Thus, President Donald Trump, who allegedly received serious support from Russia for his appointment, expelled more diplomats than all EU members combined.

Against this backdrop, Canada looks rather modest, as it declared four Russians personae non gratae and denied accreditation for three others. "The four have been identified as intelligence officers or individuals who have used their diplomatic status to undermine Canada's security or interfere in our democracy," Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said. It is noteworthy that the decision was also supported by the Canadian opposition, which called for continued pressure on Russia.

A sign of the unity of the international community in counteracting Russia is the fact that even Australia expelled two Russian spy diplomats. Similar steps should soon be announced by New Zealand. It seems that Russia "ended up badly" by trying to interfere everywhere in the world.

PATIENCE EXHAUSTED

"Today's extraordinary international response by our allies stands in history as the largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers ever and will help defend our shared security. Russia cannot break international rules with impunity," UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said.

He also explained that it was "the last drop" that filled the cup of patience of the Western powers and triggered decisive steps. According to him, so many other countries in the last ten years have now experienced, if not attempted assassination with the use of a nerve agent, provocations of one kind or another. He also mentioned Russia's interference in the election of many states, cyberattacks and other manifestations of "Russian aggression," or disrespect for international law. Joint and decisive action is needed to respond to this.

Maksym Nalyvaiko, Ottawa
Ukraines Interior Minister Arsen Avakov has discussed with Ambassador of Armenia to Ukraine Andranik Manukyan the issue of deepening bilateral cooperation in the civil security sector.

This was reported by the press service of the Interior Ministry of Ukraine.

"The parties discussed the issue of deepening bilateral cooperation in the civil security sector," the report reads.

According to Avakov, Ukraine and Armenia have a common past that is why it is necessary to unite efforts and work in the development of a safe environment of both states.

In his turn, Andranik Manukyan assured readiness for cooperation.

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Udovichenko is an ethnic Ukrainian, who speaks Ukrainian well.

Spokesman for the State Border Service of Ukraine Oleh Slobodyan has said a cadet of the Golitsyn Border Guard Institute of the FSB Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, Sergey Udovichenko, is seeking asylum in Ukraine.

"A few days ago, a Russian citizen, born in 1997, arrived at the Hoptivka checkpoint [Kharkiv region] to enter Ukraine. He said he was a serviceman of the Russian FSB and asked for recognition as a political refugee," he wrote on Facebook.

Read alsoSaakashvili not to seek political asylum in Poland

According to Slobodyan, after initial interviews and examination of documents it was established he was indeed a third-year student of the Golitsyn Border Guard Institute of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation.

"In the course of further communication, it turned out that the citizen of the Russian Federation, Sergey Udovichenko, is an ethnic Ukrainian, speaks Ukrainian well and, in his political views, condemns the current government in Russia. According to him, he repeatedly participated in opposition rallies and finally decided to leave for Ukraine after the presidential elections [in Russia]," Slobodyan said.

The Ukrainian authorities are considering Udovichenko's refugee status.
This will also affect EU security, Poland's Deputy FM says.

Condoning the occupation of Crimea will encourage Russia to further violations of international law and affect the security of the European Union, according to Deputy Foreign Minister of Poland Bartosz Cichocki.

"If we condone Russian occupation of Crimea, we will be encouraging further violations of international law in this state and others, we will be making the EU less secure," Cichocki told a conference in Kyiv, according to MFA Poland.

UNIAN memo. After the introduction of troops, Russia in March 2014 annexed the Ukrainian Crimea, setting up a sham "referendum" on self-determination.

Read alsoLate Polish leader warned against Russian attack on Ukraine: ex-NATO chiefSelf-proclaimed Crimean authorities claimed that 96.77% of the voters spoke in favor of Crimea acceding to Russia.

On March 18, 2014, the so-called "accession deal" was signed in the Kremlin as regards Crimea and Sevastopol.

Western powers did not recognize the annexation of Crimea and imposed sanctions against Russia.

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine officially declared February 20, 2014, the date of the beginning of the temporary occupation of Crimea.
The extension of such requirements to civil activists contradicts Ukraine's aspirations, according to the EU Commissioner.

European Commissioner on EU Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn says Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, has to as soon as possible lift the requirement to declare assets off of civil society activists, according to an UNIAN correspondent in Brussels citing Hahn's statement.

"On 1 April, the deadline for submission of the asset declarations for civil society activists will lapse. The Ukrainian authorities have not lived up to their commitment. The failure to repeal the extension of this obligation from public officials also to civic activists is contrary to Ukraine's European aspirations. It is contrary to the strong recommendations given by Ukraine's international partners, including the EU (also in the context of monitoring Ukraine's continued implementation of commitments in the visa liberalization process), the Venice Commission and the OSCE/ODIHR," the statement reads.

Read alsoVenice Commission criticizes Ukraine's bills on financial disclosure requirements for NGOs, activistsHe notes that civil society has been doing "an important and courageous work and must be able to play its proper role without undue obstacles and interference".

"The purpose of the asset declaration system is to help prevent corruption by public officials by exposing potentially unjustified wealth of public officials. Civil society members are not public officials and imposing asset declarations upon them only puts unacceptable and undue burden and pressure on them and will play into the hands of those keen to destroy Ukraines efforts to fight corruption effectively." Hahn says.

"The EU's relationship with Ukraine is based on common values. Both sides have agreed that respect for democratic principles, human rights and fundamental freedoms constitute the essential elements of the Association Agreement," reads the statement. "Ukraine has made remarkable progress over the past years. It is important not to create setbacks and undermine the progress that has been made. Ukraine's parliament should revert to the issue and lift asset declaration obligations on civil society activists and limit these to public officials as soon as possible. The EU stands ready to provide further support and advice."

As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on March 27, 2017, enacted the No. 6172 law on amendments to Article 3 of the Ukrainian Law on Prevention of Corruption, introducing e-declaration for non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

The law sparked harsh criticism on the part of civil society in Ukraine as well as the U.S. and EU. A number of foreign partners called it a "step back".

The Venice Commission stated that the requirements for the anti-corruption activists to submit e-declarations of assets should be completely removed from the relevant law or significantly narrowed.

On March 21, 2018, the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Prevention and Combating Corruption recommended that the parliament adopt bills proposing to postpone the provision of e-declarations by civil activists.

On March 22, the parliament refused to consider said bills.
The Dallas coffee scene is looking better than ever since Oodie Taliaferro of Cultivar Coffee teamed up with barista Briana Flores to found a new organization, Dallas Coffee Gxls. Founded in January of 2018, the organizations mission is to support, empower, and foster community for coffee professionals in the Dallas metroplex area, especially those who have historically been underrepresented in the coffee community: women, queer people, and people of color.

Inspired by grassroots coffee organizing across the country and frustrated by a lack of forward motion at the local level, Taliaferro and Flores decided that if they wanted to see change in their local community, they would have to be the ones to make it happen. Dallas coffee events are still cisgender/heterosexual/male dominated, said Taliaferro, even though, according to themTaliaferro uses they/them pronounsthe Dallas-Fort Worth area is very diverse. We want all people to feel like they have an organization that fights for them. Dallas coffee is growing, and with that needs to come growth of representation.

They also want to be clear about who they represent: Our group is by women, for everyone, said Taliaferro. Some events will be exclusively for gender-marginalized people, but most will be open to everyone. Taliaferro and Flores aim to push community-centered events past latte art throwdowns and other competitions, working towards collaborative events like social hours, meet and greets, cuppings, and volunteer-based education. They also want to support and encourage more gender-marginalized peoplea term for any gender group that experiences gender discrimination, including cisgender and transgender women, nonbinary people, and transgender mento attend, compete, and judge in the competition-based events that the area already enjoys. In working to accomplish these goals, they also plan to address access needs that keep certain community members from being able to attend, like making sure events are child-friendly.

The fledgeling group started off strong by releasing a thorough code of conduct and gathering names for a Slack community where they can collaborate despite the geographic sprawl of the Dallas region. Their inaugural event in January was a gender-marginalized meet and greet, followed by a celebratory throwdown. We discussed harassment and discrimination in the workplace and ways we can help each other combat it. Baristas and roasters alike shared their visions for what our industry can and should be here in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, said Taliaferro. The event spilled over into what was one of the most widely and diversely attended throwdowns the Dallas-Fort Worth area has seen in recent memory, with around 50 attendees. There was definitely a vibrancy in the air as soon as we started our discussion, said Flores. I dont remember the last time there was such a large turnout for a TNT in North Texas.

The organization has much more planned in the coming months. Were also planning to work with #CoffeeToo and Queer Coffee Events in the future, said Taliaferro. [Full disclosure: I am a co-founder at Queer Coffee Events.] Dallas has a huge coffee community and so many of those folks face racial or gender marginalization. We hope to be able to be a resource for everyone.

Down the line, Taliaferro and Flores intend to elect interregional representatives throughout Dallas-Fort Worth midpoints like Denton, Flower Mound, Coppell, and Highland Village to make sure that everyone within their large region feels represented and included. Were fortunate to live in one of the most progressive cities in Texas, where we can find the support to move forward, said Flores. We want to reach out as far as possible to educate, heal, and empower.

The group is excited to keep hearing and amplifying the voices of their local community and bring their shared vision to life. We want to provide hope, educational resources, child-friendly coffee events, but most of all, a safe place for marginalized individuals to speak, feel, create, be appreciated for their craft, said Flores. To stay up to date on Dallas Coffee Gxls, you can follow them on Facebook and Instagram; if you want to connect or are interested in donating, you can reach out to Dallas Coffee Gxls via email.

RJ Joseph (@RJ_Sproseph) is a Sprudge staff writer, publisher of Queer Cup, and coffee professional based in the Bay Area. Read more RJ Joseph on Sprudge Media Network.

Photos courtesy Dallas Coffee Gxls.
On his part, the president promises to sign a corresponding bill into law.

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko declares that the Verkhovna Rada should lift the obligation earlier imposed on civil activists to submit electronic declarations of assets.

"The head of state once again emphasizes that the introduction of electronic declaration [of assets] for activists, adopted last year, was a mistake. It is not irreversible, it can be fixed, and this should be done," reads a commentary by the presidential administration's press service provided to UNIAN.

Poroshenko emphasizes that "the Verkhovna Rada and all factions, without exception, must finally hear the arguments of the civil society, our partners, the head of state, and take a responsible decision to abolish the electronic declaration [of assets] for activists."

The presidential administration recalls that the president submitted the respective bill to parliament as early as last summer.

Read alsoEU's Hahn urges Rada to relieve civil activists from filing e-declarationsIt is noted that the head of state, on his part, will promptly sign the bill into law once it has been passed by the Rada.

On March 23, 2017, the Verkhovna Rada passed a law obliging members of anti-corruption civil organizations, experts and other individuals directly or indirectly receiving funding as part of the international technical assistance to file their declaration of assets before April 1, 2018.

The law has sparked harsh criticism both in Ukraine and beyond as a number of Ukraine's foreign partners called it a "step back".

On July 8, 2017, Ukrainian President Poroshenko submitted to the Verkhovna Rada draft laws providing for the cancellation of the said obligation imposed on anti-graft activists.

On February 6, Poroshenko said he expected the parliament to support the initiative.

On March 22, 2018, the Verkhovna Rada refused to consider the bills.
The ANP sets priorities for 2018 and medium-term goals to be achieved by 2020.

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko on Wednesday signed a decree "On approval of the Annual National Program under the auspices of the Ukraine-NATO Commission for 2018".

"The Annual National Program (ANP-2018) should ensure the fulfillment of priority tasks of Ukraine's cooperation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, as well as relevant decisions taken during the meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Commission at the level of heads of state and government held in Warsaw (Poland) July 9, 2016, and other important agreements with the NATO," the presidential administration reported on its website.

In this regard, it is noted that ANP-2018 is a systemic strategic document that defines priorities for 2018 and medium-term goals to be achieved by 2020.

Read alsoBlocking of NATO-Ukraine Commission by Hungary annoys both Kyiv and Alliance - PrystaikoThe document also envisages relevant practical measures to be taken in the framework of Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic integration policy as well as reform of the country's security and defense sector in line with the NATO's standards and recommendations.

"The program is aimed at attracting and employing the potential as well as practical, consultative and advisory assistance of NATO and member states with the aim of enhancing Ukraine's defense capability in the context of Russia's armed aggression, as well as the introduction of targeted and systemic measures to prepare the state for gaining NATO membership," the report said.

Coordination of efforts on the ANP implementation is entrusted to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.

As UNIAN reported, the Annual National Program 2018 contains 444 measures involving 58 ministries and departments, besides local authorities and other institutions and organizations.

Vice Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze noted that the ANP is the main strategic document for planning internal reforms in the context of Ukraine-NATO cooperation. The purpose of this cooperation is the country's preparation for NATO accession.

In November 2017, Head of Ukraine's Mission to NATO Vadym Pristaiko said that the Alliance was not satisfied with Ukraine's implementation of the Annual National Program. He noted that "we keep working, while the remarks have been heard. We intend to improve our next years program."
Ukrainians planning a trip to Oman may get an electronic visa by a simplified procedure.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has said the Sultanate of Oman has simplified travel procedures for Ukrainian citizens.

In particular, Ukrainians who plan a trip to Oman may get an electronic visa by a simplified procedure, using the service on the website of the Royal Police of the Sultanate of Oman (www.evisa.rop.gov.om).

Read alsoUkraine, Qatar sign visa-free deal, number of agreements on economic, trade cooperation, investment promotion

"To apply for a visa, one must fill in a form, upload a photo and a copy of foreign passport, and pay a visa fee by bank card. When entering the territory of Oman, the person must also have hotel booking confirmation and a return ticket," the Ukrainian ministry said.

The ministry says it continues to take measures for the liberalization of Ukrainians' travel abroad. The results of further steps will be made public.

Oman is a state in Southwest Asia, in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula.
Groysman also urges owners of public facilities to conduct self-inspection and do everything to ensure safety.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman has said the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine instructed the State Emergency Service of Ukraine (SESU) to conduct a large-scale inspection of shopping malls, cinemas and public places after a fatal fire in a shopping mall in the Russian city of Kemerovo.

Groysman recalled that the Cabinet had previously made a decision to allow the SESU to inspect schools, kindergartens and public places for safety.

Read alsoForty-one children killed in Kemerovo shopping mall fire  relatives

"But it is obvious that this work needs to be expanded, and today we give instructions from the government to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the SESU together with other agencies, local authorities to start a large-scale inspection of shopping malls, cinemas, schools, kindergartens, children's clubs," he said at a government meeting, according to an UNIAN correspondent.

Groysman also urged owners of such establishments to conduct self-inspection and do everything to ensure an appropriate level of fire safety.

"I call on everyone to promptly inspect, fix problems and eliminate them... I think we will disclose information on checks in a month. In addition, the SESU will be in charge of keeping a public register of compliance of establishments with safety measures," he said.

Groysman expressed his condolences to the families of victims of the Kemerovo tragedy, stressing the need for control so that this does not happen in any Ukrainian city.
The enemy used 82mm mortars, grenade launchers, heavy machine guns, and small arms.

Russia's hybrid military forces attacked Ukrainian army positions in Donbas 32 times in the past 24 hours.

Read alsoUkraine's intel: Ex-criminals recruited to Russian occupation forces in Donbas

"In the Luhansk sector, the aggressor fired 82mm mortars at the defenders of the village of Novoluhanske, as well as grenade launchers and heavy machine guns three times at the Ukrainian fortified positions near the village of Luhanske. In addition, the militants used heavy machine guns and small arms near the village of Zaitseve," the press center of the headquarters of Ukraine's military operations reported on Facebook on Wednesday morning.

In the Donetsk sector, the Ukrainian positions in the villages of Opytne, Novotroyitske, Lebedynske, Starohnativka, Hnutove, and the town of Maryinka came under fire from grenade launchers of various types. The occupiers also used heavy machine guns and small arms to attack the Ukrainian troops in the town of Avdiyivka, and the villages of Talakivka, Pavlopil and Vodiane, as well as cannons of infantry fighting vehicles against the Ukrainian fortified positions in the village of Pisky. Moreover, the enemy opened fire from small arms at the Ukrainian positions near the villages of Shyrokyne and Kamianka, and Butivka coal mine.

No Ukrainian soldiers were killed or wounded in action, it said.
North Korea is willing to talk with the United States and hold a summit between the two countries.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has pledged to denuclearize and meet U.S. officials, China said on Wednesday after an historic meeting with President Xi Jinping, who promised China would uphold its friendship with its isolated neighbor.

After two days of speculation, China and North Korea both confirmed that Kim had visited Beijing and met Xi during what China's Foreign Ministry called an unofficial visit to China from Sunday to Wednesday, as reported by Reuters.

The China visit was Kim's first known trip outside North Korea since he assumed power in 2011 and is believed by analysts to serve as preparation for upcoming summits with South Korea and the United States.

Read also'North Korean train' in Beijing fuels rumors of Kim Jong-un visit  BBC

North Korea's KCNA news agency made no mention of Kim's pledge to denuclearize, or his anticipated meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump that is planned for some time in May.

Beijing has traditionally been the closest ally of secretive North Korea, but ties have been frayed by Pyongyang's pursuit of nuclear weapons and China's backing of tough U.N. sanctions in response.

China's Foreign Ministry cited Kim in a lengthy statement as telling Xi that the situation on the Korean peninsula was starting to improve because North Korea had taken the initiative to ease tensions and put forward proposals for peace talks.

"It is our consistent stand to be committed to denuclearization on the peninsula, in accordance with the will of late President Kim Il Sung and late General Secretary Kim Jong Il," Kim Jong Un said, according to the statement.

North Korea is willing to talk with the United States and hold a summit between the two countries, he said.

"The issue of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula can be resolved, if South Korea and the United States respond to our efforts with goodwill, create an atmosphere of peace and stability while taking progressive and synchronous measures for the realization of peace," Kim said.
The United States says that if Russia wants to improve relations, it needs to first cease its recklessly aggressive behavior.

The U.S. Department of State has announced that 27 countries and NATO have decided to expel 151 Russian diplomats over the poisoning of the Russian double agent, Sergei Skripal, in Salisbury, the UK, earlier this month.

"Alongside our own announcement, you've seen the unprecedented wave of similar actions and expulsions taken by other governments, our global partners, and our allies," Spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State Heather Nauert said at a briefing in Washington, D.C., on March 27. "The United States, the United Kingdom, NATO, and now 25 other countries have so far announced the expulsions of 151 Russian personnel."

"To highlight for you  and I can provide you this list, and I'll just read a few of those countries who, in concert with the United States and the UK, of course, are working together on this: Ukraine deciding to expel 13; NATO, we learned this morning, 7; France, 4; Germany, 4; Poland, 4; Canada, 4; Lithuania, 8; the Czech Republic, 3; Moldova, 3, we just learned about that today; the Netherlands, 2; Denmark, 2; Albania, 2; Italy, 2; Spain, Australia, both 2; Romania, Estonia, 1 each; Latvia, Croatia, Sweden, Macedonia, Norway, Hungary, Finland, and Ireland, 1 each for those countries; and we've just most recently learned of Belgium deciding to kick out 1. The United Kingdom, of course, deciding to expel 23," she said.

Read alsoUkraine expels 13 Russian diplomats over Skripal poisoning  Poroshenko

According to her, together, these steps constitute the largest single expulsion of Russians ever ordered by the United States. "It is a mark of how seriously we take the threat that Russia poses, and an indication of our readiness to impose further costs to respond to this and other reckless and destabilizing actions," she said.

It is a "testimony of how seriously the world takes Russia's ongoing global campaign to undermine international peace and stability, to threaten the sovereignty and security of countries worldwide, and to subvert and discredit Western institutions."

Yet, she said, the door to dialogue with the Russian government remains open; but if Russia wants to improve relations, it needs to first acknowledge its responsibility for this attack and cease its recklessly aggressive behavior.

According to foreign media outlets, Skripal and his daughter were found unconscious on a bench near a shopping center in Salisbury, 120km southwest of Britain's capital, London, on March 4.

Skripal, an ex-military intelligence officer from Russia, was accused of spying for the UK, imprisoned in 2006 and then exchanged for Russian citizens accused of espionage in the United States.
Just yesterday, Asselborn made a statement that Luxembourg will not expel any Russian diplomats.

Jean Asselborn, the foreign affairs minister, has decided to recall Luxembourg's Moscow-based ambassador to Russia.

Asselborn officially marked his support for the United Kingdom following the attack in Salisbury that saw the poisoning of former Russian spy and his daughter, RTL Today reports.

Read alsoMoldova joins global response to spy poisoning, expels 3 Russian diplomats

In a press release, the minister called the attack a "serious challenge to our common security" and condemned "as firmly as possible the attack carried out."

More importantly, the government "agrees with the evaluation of the United Kingdom government that it is highly probable that the Russian Federation is responsible for this act and that there exists no other plausible explanation."

Following this statement, Asselborn has decided to recall Jean-Claude Knebeler, Luxembourg's ambassador to Russia from Moscow "for consultations".

Just yesterday, Asselborn made a statement that Luxembourg will not expel any Russian diplomats.
The diplomat should leave Montenegro within a week.

The Government of Montenegro has joined other countries in a move to expel Russian diplomats and declared one Russian diplomat persona non grata.

Read alsoLuxembourg's ambassador to Russia recalled  media

"The Government of Montenegro has made a decision to declare a diplomatic representative accredited to the Embassy of the Russian Federation persona non grata and to withdraw the consent of the honorary consul of the Russian Federation in Montenegro. The Embassy of the Russian Federation in Podgorica was informed of the measures with a seven-day deadline for the diplomatic representative to leave Montenegro," the Government of Montenegro said on its official website.

"Montenegro has taken this decision in coordination with our allies, in line with measures taken by EU and NATO members regarding the actions of Russia and the nerve-gas attack on the territory of the United Kingdom which have been immediately strongly condemned by the Government of Montenegro, in solidarity with our British partners," it said.
Prime Minister Theresa May has previously identified the issue as something that would be looked at.

Hundreds of wealthy Russians who moved to the UK promising to invest millions of pounds in businesses will have their visas reviewed under plans for a crackdown following the nerve agent attack on a former spy.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd said her officials will be trawling through the cases of 700 Russians who were given permission to come to the U.K. before 2015 under the investor visa scheme, in which they promise to invest GBP 2 million ($2.8 million) or more, according to Bloomberg.

The system has been tightened since it was introduced, but concerns have been raised that it was open to abuse and allowed corrupt individuals and illicit funds into the UK.

Read alsoU.S. Treasury 'working' on new sanctions against Russian oligarchs  mediaPrime Minister Theresa May has previously identified the issue as something that would be looked at.

May blamed Russia for the attack on former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, this month in Salisbury, England. She threw out 23 Russian spies she said were posing as diplomats, and won international support for similar expulsions from 25 countries including the U.S., Canada, and Germany.

"I have asked my officials to look at what reforms we might continue with and to take a look at previous ones over the past few years," Rudd told Parliaments home affairs committee on Wednesday.

May has said there's "no place" for corrupt Russian elites -- or their money -- in London, and suggested that police could target rich Russians and demand they account for their wealth.
Getter Queen Flush is coming off back-to-back solid efforts while joining forces with pilot Steve Wiseman for the first time, the most recent resulting in a head victory last weekend.

The six-year-old pacing daughter of JK Royal Flush is owned by trainer George Reider, Dave and Rob Haness and Richard Thomas. The mare lowered her lifetime mark to 1:53.1 at Cal Expo in February with Mooney Svendsen in the bike.

Two starts back, Getter Queen Flush ended up in a tough spot at the back of the pack early and found herself with too much to do in the lane. She eventually finished second, but had clear sailing during her race last week and prevailed as the 3-5 favourite.

As for Reider, hes became a real fan of his hard-knocking performer. There isnt anything I dont like about this mare, he noted. Shes a pleasure to be around and she tries hard every time.

Reider also noted that Getter Queen Flush didnt know what a carrot or an apple was when she came to his barn, But now shes a carrot and apple eating machine.

Shes also turned into quite a machine over the Cal Expo layout, as she has posed for snapshots following four of her 12 races this year.

Eastender Has Top Billing In Featured Pace

Eastender, who has been knocking heads with the top pacers at Cal Expo, will get some class relief for Friday nights main event.

Watch and Wager LLC will present 12 races, and first post is set for 6:10 p.m. There will also be a trio of California Sire Stakes for four-year-old pacers and trotters, which will be decided as non-betting events prior to the regular card.

A seven-year-old son of Cheyenne Rei out of the Abercrombie mare Eastside Becky, Eastender is owned by Maryann Plano and Nikki Hudson and is reined and trained by Luke Plano.

Eastender will be looking for his first win of the year in what will be his seventh trip to the post. He has been doing the majority of his work at the Open level while taking on the likes of division leaders Allymxsliventexas and Im An Athlete.

Eastender made nine trips to the winners circle last season, including a lifetime-best 1:52.2 score over Cal Expo, and should hit very hard in Fridays softer spot. He will do his work from Post 6 in the field of seven.

Gordie Graham will send out a solid pair in Bettor In The Bank and Prodigal, and they will both have a serious say in the outcome with their top miles.

Rounding out the cast will be Dontdoubthelakers, who takes his lessons from Lester Smith; the Lino Pacheco-conditioned Pancetta; Julerica, from the Richard Remillard shed row; and the Rene Goulet trained-and-driven Blue Star Maverick.

(With files from Cal Expo)
Commodity Index Closes At 3,336 Points 27 March 2018

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Pakistan Mercantile Exchange Limited's commodity index closed at 3,336 points, with traded value of metals, energy and COTS/FX recorded at Rs 5.813 billion.

KARACHI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Mar, 2018 ) :Pakistan Mercantile Exchange Limited's commodity index closed at 3,336 points, with traded value of metals, energy and COTS/FX recorded at Rs 5.813 billion.

The number of lots traded was 8,421, said PMEX release here on Tuesday. (The data is compiled and released after 24 hours). Major business was contributed by gold amounting to Rs 1.

656 billion followed by WTI crude oil Rs 1.622billion, currencies through COTS Rs 751.767 million, DJ Rs 618.409 million, NSDQ100 Rs 529.486 million, silver Rs 219.159 million, natural gas Rs 154.064 million, platinum Rs 144.177 million, Brent crude oil Rs 70.603 million, SP500 Rs 26.119 million and copper Rs 20.869 million.

In agricultural commodities, one lot of cotton amounting to Rs 0.475 million was traded.
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The doctors of King Edward Medical University (KEMU) organized the 12th All Pakistan Arts and Photography exhibition at the University auditorium here on Tuesday

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Mar, 2018 ) :The doctors of King Edward Medical University (KEMU) organized the 12th All Pakistan Arts and Photography exhibition at the University auditorium here on Tuesday.

Secretary Specialized Healthcare and Medical education (SH&ME) Najam Ahmad Shah inaugurated the exhibition. VC KEMU Prof. Amir Zaman Khan, Prof Kazi Saeed, Prof Irshad Hussain Qureshi and other faculty members were also present on the occasion.

After the inauguration, Secretary Health Najam Ahmad Shah witnessed all photographs, paintings & other articles displayed in the exhibition and appreciated the artistic abilities and aesthetic sense of the students.

On this occasion, Prof Amir Zaman Khan informed the Secretary that 30 educational institutions including King Edward Medical University had participated in the exhibition from all over the country and more than 15,000 pieces of arts had been displayed in the exhibition which were prepared by students.

Najam Ahmad Shah said that painting, photography, calligraphy and other types of art refine the mental capabilities of students.
UNITED NATIONS, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Mar, 2018 ) :More than 1,700 people have reportedly been killed in military operations and airstrikes on rebel-held Eastern Ghouta enclave in Syria since late February, the United Nations aid chief has said, describing the past few months of relentless bloodshed as "some of the worst yet" for civilians inside the war-torn country.

Mark Lowcock, who is the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, said attacks on critical civilian infrastructure like medical facilities continue to be reported with at least 28 reported attacks on health facilities since mid-February and more than 70 verified incidents since the beginning of this year.

"Tens of thousands of people have also been displaced from across the war-ravaged country and many are living in overcrowded, ill-equipped shelters. There is also a severe shortage of water, sanitation and hygiene facilities, as well as rising protection concerns," he said.

Lowcock told the 15-member Council that UN agencies and their partners are working as hard as conditions permit to provide support to people in need. Challenges range from physical security for aid workers, continued fighting, denial of access, and lack of resources.

"We are essentially just given crumbs "an occasional convoy here and there, often, coincidentally, shortly before our monthly briefings to you" UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock said.

"We are essentially just given crumbs "an occasional convoy here and there, often, coincidentally, shortly before our monthly briefings to you [the Security Council members]," said the senior relief official.

As such, he said: "5.6 million Syrians in acute need cannot live on crumbs." Lowcock called on all Council Members as well as the members of the International Syria Support Group Humanitarian Task Force "the UN-backed task force created two years ago to boost aid delivery to besieged towns and war-weary civilians" to exert their individual and collective influence over the parties.

He also reiterated the UN Secretary-General's call on all parties to fully respect international humanitarian and human rights law, to ensure immediate humanitarian access and guarantee the protection of civilians, including in relation to displacements and evacuations.

Concluding his briefing, the UN relief chief recalled Security Council resolution 2401 adopted last month "in which the Council demanded an immediate cease in hostilities and conditions that to enable humanitarian aid deliveries and medical evacuations of those in need" and called on the UN body to make the resolution a reality for the people of Syria.

"Whatever the difficulty, the United Nations and its partners, remain determined to follow through, for the sake of the Syrian people," Lowcock said. The seemingly unending conflict in Syria has surpassed World War II in terms of duration.

Since the conflict broke out in March 2011, more than 13 million Syrians remain dependent on humanitarian assistance, including 6.1 million internally displaced and over 5.5 million driven into refuge outside its borders.

Furthermore, a third of houses and residences across the country and about half of all health facilities are estimated to have been destroyed. More than 2.75 million children are out of school and about two-thirds of all Syrian children have lost a loved one, had their house damaged or suffered conflict-related injuries. APP/ift
UNITED NATIONS, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Mar, 2018 ) :Ahead of the international fundraising conference for Yemen, the United Nations has received nearly $1 billion contributions from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and urged other donors to follow suit and help tackle the world's worst humanitarian crisis there.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed his deep gratitude for the $930 million provided Tuesday evening by the two donor countries to the Yemen Humanitarian Fund. "I would like to take this occasion to appeal to all the other donors who will be meeting in Geneva next week to follow the same generosity" shown by the two countries, the UN chief told reporters at the world body's New York Headquarters, after meeting with Prince Mohamad Bin Salman Al Saud, Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince.

"These funds cover almost one-third of the $2.96 billion required to implement the 2018 Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan, which will enable the United Nations and its partners to help alleviate the suffering of millions of vulnerable people across Yemen," a statement issued by the secretary-general's office, following the signing of the memorandum on the voluntary contributions.

More than 22 million people in Yemen require humanitarian aid or protection assistance, including 2 million who are internally displaced due to the ongoing conflict between the Government and rebel forces.

On April 3, donors will meet in the humanitarian pledging conference in Geneva, Switzerland. In his meeting with the Crown Prince, who is also First Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister, Guterres said "to give to those in need is a central pillar of islam," noting that two-thirds of the refugees are Muslims and are received by Muslim countries.

The Secretary-General and the Crown Prince discussed the obligations of all parties to the conflict under international humanitarian law to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure, and the critical need for humanitarian access across the country and for all of Yemen's ports to remain open to both humanitarian and commercial movement.

They also discussed the need for the parties to the conflict to work towards a negotiated political settlement through inclusive intra-Yemeni dialogue. Guterres expressed the UN's readiness to work together with Saudi Arabia for these objectives.

The UN, through its envoy, has been engaged in helping Yemenis to find a peaceful solution. UN agencies and partners are also on the ground to deliver life-saving aid. APP/ift
BAHAWALPUR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Mar, 2018 ) :Bahawalpur police parties conducted raids in different areas of the district, arrested seven suspects and recovered illegal weapons from their possession.

A spokesman for Bahawalpur police said here on Wednesday evening that the police parties raided different areas and took seven suspects into custody.

Following tip-off, police parties conducted raids within jurisdiction of PS Ahmedpur, PS Dhor Kot, PS Yazman and PS Hasilpur and arrested four suspects, he said.

He added that police also arrested three other suspects during raids conducted within limits of PS Chani Goth, PS Uch Sharif and PS Anayati. He said that the police also recovered illegal weapons from the possession of the accused. FIRs have been lodged against the accused. Further probe was underway. APP/mas
BAHAWALPUR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Mar, 2018 ) :Bahawalpur police conducted mock exercise at Saint Dominic Catholic Church here on Wednesday in order to tackle with any act of terrorism and emergency like situation.

A spokesman for Bahawalpur police said here that joint teams of PS Cantt, Dolphin Force, Elite Force and Bomb Disposal Squad participated in the mock exercise.

As a part of the mock exercise, a fake terrorist attacked the church and the security guard switched on siren and made phone call to Emergency Police Service 15, he said.

He said that as a part of the mock exercise, the law enforcement showed their skills that how they would tackle an act of terrorism. He said that the security guards and other staff of the church were also briefed about the measures; they would have to take immediately if they face any act of terrorism or emergency like situation. APP/mas
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LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Mar, 2018 ) :A 10-day special campaign against the use of unauthorized and substandard CNG cylinders in wagons, buses and other vehicles concluded here on Tuesday.

During the campaign 8480 vehicles were challaned due to not in accordance with approved measures of OGRA and HDIP, while 373 owners/drivers of vehicles were booked and 851 vehicles were impounded. Likewise, 452 drivers were arrested and action was taken against them. APP/dab/zhr
It has been revealed that horseman Gerry Hudon has been forced to hang up his driving colours for good.

The doctors have told me I cannot withstand another concussion, Hudon has explained to Peter Watts. So, Ive decided for the good of myself and my family, Im going to find some other things to do to keep myself busy.

Hudon retires from driving with 2,084 wins from 11,913 starts. He steered his mounts to more than $13.2 million in purses over his 30-year career in the bike.

Ill train some horses and help Phil Giesbrecht, wholl be driving a lot of my stock, said Hudon, who will also be busy working with a racing panel that has been assembled to help the industry.

Im excited to be part of a committee of Standardbred Canada and the U.S. Trotting Association, said Hudon. Were looking at trying to create a standardized rulebook for the industry. Right now, its early stage. Were meeting by conference call about every two weeks. Itll be a long, complicated process, but I hope it will make for better understanding of the rules when were done and ensure that racing continues to be conducted fairly for everyone involved.

Two other trainer/drivers wont be around, either  at least for a while.

Veteran Bill Tainsh Jr. has taken a job near his offseason home in the Shuswap. His small stable, which features horses owned by Willie Wychopen and Wally Moroz, has been turned over to Daniel LeBlanc. Mike Hennessy has stepped away from the sport, at least for the time being. That likely means that his father, Rod, will have even more work to do.

A couple of familiar faces in the backstretch are expanding their roles. Kaitlin Haining has completed her work to become a full trainer and will be of even more help to her father, Harold. Marjorie Dumont is going to get her drivers license so that she can better assist husband, J-F Gagne.

Ive driven in amateur races for years, Marjorie explained. Ive trained horses at our home track. J-F has been pushing me to get my license. So, I decided with a good nanny for our two young children, I can do something Ive always wanted to do. Among other things, I need ten qualified drives to get my license. I got two of them in Saturdays qualifiers. For the time being, Ill just drive horses that J-F and I own. Well see how it goes.

(With files from the Alberta Standardbred Horse Association)
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QUETTA, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Mar, 2018 ) :Vice Chancellor University of Balochistan, Prof. Dr Javed Iqbal Wednesday said there exist good bilateral relations between Pakistan and Sudan, it is imperative that we exchange our experiences, information and academic research specialists, so that we can be able to achieve higher education with mutual collaboration.

He expressed these views during a meeting with Consul General Sudan Angud Johnson and a five-member Sudan delegation in his chamber at University of Balochistan (UOB) here. They discussed various matters including research activities and undertakings of the university, bilateral relations between the institutions including specialist's research exchange programmes, the educational system of the country and province.

Vice Chancellor UOB warmly welcomed the delegation and said that educational institutions played a vital role in establishing better relations between the countries.

Consul General Sudan honored the ongoing educational and research developments in the university and traditional customs of the Balochistan, said that potential steps are being taken by the government of Pakistan for promotion of tourism and advancement of higher education exchange programmes.

Later on, students of UOB presented special play on this occasion in UOB auditorium. Vice Chancellor and Consul General Sudan also attended this event, in which students played role of prominent women raising voices for rights of deprived women and struggling against injustice prevailing in today's society.

Consul General Sudan praised the students for highlighting positive role of women in their play. The Consul General and Vice Chancellor also presented Shields among all participants. APP/arj
ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Mar, 2018 ) :Minister for education, Professional Training Engr MuhammadBaligh Ur Rehman has said the country's development and prosperity were interlinked with the democracy.

The continuity of democratic system was essential to achieve milestone as second time in the history of country a democratic government was going to complete its constitutional tenure which was landmark, he said talking to a ptv programme.

The minister said dictator's regimes had badly damaged the integrity and economy of the country. He said there were rumors created by some political parties that the present government would not complete its constitutional tenure but we had not given importance to the statements of non-serious people.

He reiterated that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government would complete its constitutional tenure. He said Pakistan had powerful constitution and nobody could intervene in the system according to that.

He urged every individual to hold accountability and learn from the mistake of past. Replying to a question, Baligh Ur Rehman said Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf were leveling allegations of corruption in Senate elections against each other. He said PPP had signed National Reconciliation Ordinance with dictator Pervez Musharaf.
ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Mar, 2018 ) :The Accountability Court Wednesday granted two-day exemption from hearing to President of National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) Saeed Ahmed in a supplementary reference against former finance minister Ishaq Dar and co-accused regarding assets beyond known sources of income.

The court fixed March 30, date for indictment and directed all the nominated accused to ensure their attendance on next hearing. Judge Muhammad Bashir took up the reference against Ishaq Dar and co-accused for hearing filed by National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

During the course of proceeding, NAB prosecutor informed the court that Islamabad High Court (IHC) had already dismissed the petition of Saeed Ahmed seeking dismissal of supplementary reference.

He opposed the request to grant exemption to NBP president and said it was just an attempt to waste the court time.

He requested the court to indict other two accused who were already present, saying that several dates had been fixed for this purpose.

However, the counsel for NBP president, Hashmat Habib Advocate argued that his client had not received the IHC orders so far. They could move to Supreme Court after receiving orders, he added. Judge Muhammad Bashir asked Ahmed's counsel to submit the IHC orders before moving to the Supreme Court.

He directed Saeed Ahmed to submit surety bonds worth Rs one million to ensure his attendance on Friday. The judge remarked that there were clear directives of apex court to conclude the reference within three months. After granting the two days exemption to Ahmed, the court adjourned hearing of the case till March 30.
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President Mamnoon Hussain Wednesday said Pakistan desires to further enhance diplomatic and economic relations with all countries including those from Africa, South America and Europe

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Mar, 2018 ) :President Mamnoon Hussain Wednesday said Pakistan desires to further enhance diplomatic and economic relations with all countries including those from Africa, South America and Europe.

He was talking to envoys of Botswana, Ecuador and Finland who separately called on the him after presenting their credentials to the President in a ceremony held here at the Aiwan-e-Sadr, a press release said.

The President said Pakistan being a responsible member of International community was working in close collaboration with other countries at all multilateral and international forums. He said economic indicators of Pakistan have improved due to the policies of the incumbent government and have also been recognized by the international economic institutions.

The President said Pakistan today provides very conducive environment for investment and business opportunities and said the foreign investors need to avail these by investing in diverse areas.

The President felicitated the newly appointed Ambassadors to Pakistan and hoped they would work for further strengthening the existing ties of their respective countries with Pakistan.

The envoys who presented their credentials included Ambassador-designate of Botswana Mothusi Bruce Rabasha PALAI, Ambassador-designate of Ecuador German Alejandro Ortega Almeida and Ambassador-designate of Finland Harri Kamarainen.

Earlier as part of the long standing tradition, the envoy-designates arrived at the Aiwan-e-Sadr in a horse-driven carriage. National Anthem of Pakistan and their respective countries were played and they were presented a Guard of Honour.
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LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Mar, 2018 ) :On demand of Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI), Chief Executive Officer of Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) Mujahid Pervaiz Chattah on Wednesday announced to establish LESCO Help Desk at the LCCI.

He announced this in a meeting with business community at Lahore Chamber, where LCCI President Malik Tahir Javaid, Senior Vice President Khawaja Khawar Rashid, Vice President Zeshan Khalil and Executive Committee Members were also present.

The LESCO Chief also agreed with the LCCI President that mindset of LESCO staff should be changed that would resolve various problems automatically. "LESCO really needs change in mindset and I am doing a lot in this regard along with my dedicated team," he added.

To a question, LESCO chief said that depreciation ratio on transformers was five percent annually and it was policy of NEPRA and LESCO had approached for a reasonable change. He said that system for purchasing of meters had been changed after establishment of NEPRA, citing that earlier, LESCO was able to negotiate but now contract had to be given the lowest bidder.

He said action had been taken against the supplier of low quality meters and hopefully situation would be better in the days to come. About load shedding at commercial feeders, Mujahid Pervaiz Chattah said that all industrial feeders were being checked to avoid unscheduled load shedding, however, there were some problems due to load shifting.

He said that technical and commercial losses were the reasons of minor power cuts. "We have firm commitment to get rid of the over billing. We are controlling line losses and have also launched an effective campaign against electricity theft.

We have uncovered power theft at 15 tube-wells in a day at Ferozewala," LESCO chief told the house and added that that LESCO was working aggressively at technical side to control the flaws. He said that 17 new grid stations had been established and upgraded.

Two grid stations had also been made double source with the cost of Rs 1 billion. Earlier, LCCI President Malik Tahir Javaid said that cost of new transformers was borne by consumers but when these were replaced or removed, the LESCO team claimed the ownership.

Moreover, the depreciation of transformers was calculated at the rate of 10 percent per annum. In case, the industry remained closed for a year even then depreciation was applied. He said that in case, the load was increased and new transformer was purchased, the old transformer should be handed over to the consumer and be allowed to use that transformer somewhere else or LESCO should purchase it from the consumer to compensate his cost.

He said that if the consumer was responsible for a damaged meter then he should bear the cost of new meter. In case, a meter had got damaged or malfunctioned due to rain, loose connection or negligence of LESCO staff then the cost of replacing new meter should be borne by LESCO.

LCCI President said, "Our members are complaining about low quality of meters being installed by LESCO. Any malfunctioning in these meters, which has nothing to do with consumers, results in heavy penalties.

LESCO should arrange reliable and durable meters which meet all the quality standards." He said that the industry was exempted from load shedding even then there were some industrial feeders where at least two hours load shedding was being done.

The industry was already facing crisis situation and working hard to enhance the exports of country. It was suggested that load shedding should only be done after 8 p.m. so that 90 percent of industry which ran their operation in morning shift did not get suffered.

Malik Tahir Javaid said that LESCO made necessary adjustment in bills upon receiving income tax exemption certificates. However, in the bills of June which were due in July, the same taxes were included and as fiscal year ended in June, therefore, the exemption was applied on bills of June as well.

He said that there were still some issues of meter reading being faced by industry. It was suggested that only experienced and skilled staff members should be appointed in industrial areas for this job.

"If possible, we can introduce meter reading cards to be placed in factories to keep the record of meter reading," he offered. "Many problems can be curtailed if there is a specific timeline for addressing each issue.

In case of general complaint, meter replacement, transformer up-gradation, new connections, we must be able to track the status of our applications. You should ensure that SOPs must be followed to improve the performance of LESCO.

It is strongly suggested that there should be more focus on preventive maintenance of LESCO installations. By way of following the schedule of general maintenance, the issues like tripping and down-time can be reduced," the LCCI president added.

Malik Tahir Javaid said that LESCO also needed to launch electricity conservation campaign in Lahore to create awareness among the consumers about the use of energy. Consumers had to be educated for using particular energy efficient gadgets.

"We need to change the mindset of LESCO support staff. From Chief Engineers to meter readers, all the staff members should practice professionalism with full responsibility and customer care attitude," he concluded.

While, SVP KhawajaKhawar Rashid and Vice President Zeeshan Khalil said that complaint centers did not seriously respond to the complaints of customers. They said that LESCO should introduce Solar System at local level, asserting that electricity shut downs due to maintenance had also become a routine of LESCO but no maintenance work had been seen anywhere in the city.

Mian Muhammad Nawaz, Shahid Nazir Ch, Aziz ur Rehman Chan, Muhammad Arshad Chaudhry, Mian Abdul Razaq, Bao Bashir, Javed Iqbal Bhati, Khaliq Arshad and others were also present. APP/maa/zhr
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ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Mar, 2018 ) :Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) Distributors Association Pakistan and Founder LPG Industries Association of Pakistan, Irfan Khokar Wednesday felicitated Chairman Senate Sadiq Sanjrani, Deputy Chairman Saleem Mandviwala and Leader of the Opposition in Senate Ms Sherry Rehman on winning the elections of the coveted posts.

Speaking on the occasion, Irfan Khokar, who is also Chairman Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), Standing Committee on LPG industry 2018, assured his association's support to chairman, deputy chairman and leader of the opposition in Senate in separate meetings.

He said the association supports government's decision regarding the betterment of the LPG industry.

He thanked the government for making the LPG business safer. LPG industry would work in collaboration with the government besides ensuring no compromise on the safety and security of the people.

Meanwhile, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Junaid Enterprises, Junaid Khan Bangash, Chairman All Pakistan LPG Transport Association Irfan Nazir Khaloon and others also held separate meetings with Chairman Senate Sadiq Sanjrani, Deputy Chairman Senate Saleem Mandviwala and Leader of the Opposition in Senate Sherry Rehman here on Wednesday and felicitated them on assuming charge.
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The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Khyber Pakthunkhwa has arrested accused Jamal Khan Khattak, ex-Area Sales Manager Peshawar, Nestle Pakistan Limited, who is allegedly involved in cheating public at large

PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Mar, 2018 ) :The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Khyber Pakthunkhwa has arrested accused Jamal Khan Khattak, ex-Area Sales Manager Peshawar, Nestle Pakistan Limited, who is allegedly involved in cheating public at large.

The NAB KP press release here said NAB KP arrested accused Jamal Khan Khattak, ex-Area Sales Manager Peshawar, Nestle Pakistan Limited, involved in creating public at large and fraudulently collected Rs145 million from innocent people in the name of fake investments in Nestle Pakistan Limited.

As per details, the accused who was Area Sales Manager of Nestle Pakistan Limited Peshawar in connivance with other co-accused persons lured innocent people to give him their hard earned money for fake investments including vender services in Nestle' Pakistan limited.

The affectees deposited the money to account of the accused persons through bank drafts/cheques as well as paid them through different means. The accused initially paid abnormally high profits to investors.

Later on, he not only stopped paying profits but also disappeared from the scene without returning the principle amount to the effectees. The affectees when approached the company have found that the business of the accused had not affiliation with the company. The NAB KP has filed reference against the accused person in accountability courts.
ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Mar, 2018 ) :Former Governor, State Bank of Pakistan, Dr Ishrat Hussain, on Tuesday said that philanthropic organisations providing the basic facilities of life to the deprived people of the society.

He was addressing the First National Forum on Philanthropy in Pakistan hosted by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) jointly with Pakistan Centre for Philanthropy (PCP) and Global Donors Forum (GDF).

Dr Ishrat Hussain remarked that philanthropy in Pakistan has three supporting instruments including state, market and community. He said the state allocates resources to various sectors while performing the responsibility of ensuring equitable resource distribution.

He stressed the need for enabling the underprivileged segments of society to create their own assets. He said philanthropic organisations need to help out-of-school children acquire education. Investment in provision of skills including vocational and technical training makes a big difference, the underlined.

He urged the charity bodies to pay due attention to micro financing, as creating know-how of small businesses among the poor is a significant task. He also pointed out areas where philanthropic organisations need to invest.

Dr Ishrat Hussain urged the civil society and philanthropic organisations to assist small charity organisations to develop ethical standards of conduct, scale up their operations and ensure impact-oriented results of philanthropic activities.

He emphasised the importance of financial sustainability measures to maintain pace of philanthropic activities of an organisation. He also underscored the need for ensuring accountability and transparency in philanthropic services.

Earlier, in his opening remarks, Dr Mukhtar Ahmed, Chairman HEC stated HEC is honoured to be part of Pakistan's 1st National Forum on Philanthropy. He said the Government is extending remarkable financial support to higher education sector in the form of enhanced budget.

However, he added, philanthropists need to come forward to serve education, especially higher education, and health sectors. "Education and health sectors need proper attention of philanthropic organisations, be it in the form of individual contributions or corporate charity endeavours," he emphasised.

He assured that HEC will provide all-out assistance to philanthropic activities of donor organisations. He revealed that HEC has taken a number of measures based on hand-holding of the underprivileged.

He informed the audience that HEC will soon launch 'Change-Maker' concept, under which funds will be raised to work on various themes. "HEC believes in using the energy of youth in positive direction," he stated.

He added that HEC, with the help of Muslim countries like Turkey, Malaysia and Iran, is considering to provide scholarships to students of less developed countries. As many as 4000 scholarships will be awarded every year under this initiative, he pledged.

"Let's keep hope alive and work for humanity to make this world a heaven," the Chairman concluded. Speaking on the occasion, Tariq Mahmmod Pasha, Chairman, Federal board of Revenue admired PCP for providing certification facilities to non-government organisations and successfully institutionalising philanthropy in Pakistan.

He assured PCP of continuous technical support from FBR in connection with certification of philanthropic organisations. "PCP and FBR are in close coordination," he said, adding that enhanced coordination is needed to ensure transparency in certification process.

In his welcome address, Zaffar A. Khan said PCP works with a simple, but focused mission to provide a conducive environment to philanthropic organisations to deliver. He observed that Pakistani society is generous in giving charity, however there is a long way to go.

He highlighted the problems PCP faces in its operations due to resource limitation and massive growth of population. The forum deliberated on three key thematic areas including, 'Enabling Legal, Policy and Regulatory Environment for Institutional Philanthropy', 'Setting New Standards of Informed and Institutionalised Giving', and 'Corporate Philanthropy as Catalyst for Human Development'.

The speakers who expressed their view on the key topics included Dr. Sohail H. Naqvi, Vice Chancellor, Lahore University of Management Sciences; Dr. Tariq Hassan, Chairman, Audit Oversight Board; Ms.

Mehvish Mumtaz, Director Research, Centre for Asian Philanthropy and Soceity; Dr. Sania Nishtar, Founder, Heartfile; Dr. Farhan Bukhari, financial analyst; Malik Ahmad Jalal, CEO, Aman Foundation; Ms.

Ayesha Khan, CEO, Hashoo Foundation; Sardar Yasir Ilyas, CEO, Centaurus Group and other notables. At the end, Tariq Mahmood Pasha distributed shields among the winners of 11th Corporate Philanthropy Awards from both the public and private sectors.
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National Assembly's Standing Committee on Information, Broadcasting, National History and Literary Heritage Wednesday issued directives to the management of Pakistan National Council of Arts (PNCA) to hold internal investigation on the issue of missing artworks

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Mar, 2018 ) :National Assembly's Standing Committee on Information, Broadcasting, National History and Literary Heritage Wednesday issued directives to the management of Pakistan National Council of Arts (PNCA) to hold internal investigation on the issue of missing artworks.

The committee which met here under the chairmanship of MNA Pir Aslam Bodla, also asked Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to expedite the process of inquiry into the matter. Director General of PNCA Jamal Shah informed the committee that in 2015, the issue of missing paintings was taken up and two committees were formed.

He said the matter had been referred to the FIA which had been investigating and the PNCA was awaiting its result. He said since 1975 to 2015, 189 paintings were reported missing out of which 21 were gifted while some of the paintings sent abroad to various embassies for exhibitions but they did not return.

He also said there was need to also hold an exercise to check how many of paintings of PNCA were genuine and how many were fake. He also called for repatriation of the painting of Dancing Girl of Mohenjodaro.

The committee gave the observation that Jamal Shah himself being an artist, was the best person to hold inquiry into the missing paintings.

Jamal Shah said now record of the PNCA paintings had been computerized to ensure their safety.

During discussion on Shalimar Recording and Broadcasting Company (SRBC) airtime sale, Additional Secretary IBNH&LH Shafqat Jalil said steps had been taken to ensure transparency in auction of SRBC airtime.

He said soon advertisement of SRBC terrestrial transmitter airtime would be given to ensure protection of SRBC financial rights. The committee was also briefed over the steps being taken to bring improvements in Radio Pakistan performance and upgradation of its equipment and launch new FM radio stations.

Reading a fake news item about joining gob some PML-N MNAs another political party, the committee gave the observation that the media should first verify the news from the person concerned as it creates confusion among the voters.

The meeting was attended by MNAs Perveen Masood Bhatti, Dr Azhar Jadoon, Shakir Bashir Awan, Imran Leghari, Belum Hasnain, Muhammad Khan Daha,Chaudhry Tahir Iqbal, Amir Dogar, Zeb Jaffar and Naeema Kishwar.
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QUETTA, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Mar, 2018 ) :Balochistan Ombudsman Ali Abdul Ghani Khilji on Wednesday said that provision of basic facilities to citizens was prime responsibility of the government as it was their basic right.

While addressing the complainants at open court held at District Assembly Hall in Nasirabad district, he said that government employees were getting salaries from public taxes, so they should serve the citizens.

He said that because of increasing number of public issues, he was visiting all districts of the province, listening to the people, receiving their complaints and trying to resolve their problems on immediate basis.

Deputy Commissioner Nasirabad Mohammad Yasir Khan Bazai, SSP Nasirabad Mir Hussain Lehri, ADC Badal Khan Dashti, Assistant Commissioner Ghulam Hussein Bhangar and officers of all other government departments were also present on the occasion.

He said that the purpose of holding the open courts at district level was to solve people's problems at their doorsteps.

He said that every citizen should be aware of his rights and raise his voice against evil socials prevailing in the society, having negative impact on their future.

While talking to media at district jail, he said that there was a need to bring special reforms in the fields of education and health on the basis of which doctors, paramedics and teachers would be bound to ensure full attendance at district hospitals and schools.

Deputy Commissioner Nasirabad Dr. Yasir Khan Bazai while addressing the complainants said that resolving public issues in accordance with legal proceedings was the duty of government employees and a continuous public support and cooperation was needed in that regard.

He said masses could contact him and the SSP Nasirabad directly in case of any emergency. Both of them had been appointed to serve the people, he added. The ombudsman also visited the district jail, government girls and boys schools and district civil hospital. APP/arj
Judicial Watch Sues for Soros Documents  Files FOIA Lawsuits Against State Department and USAID for Records About Funding and Political Activities of George Soros' Open Society Foundations in Romania and Colombia

All records relating to any contracts, grants or other allocations/disbursements of funds by the State Department to the Open Society Foundation - Romania and/or its personnel and/or any OSFR subsidiary or affiliate.



All assessments, evaluations, reports or similar records relating to the work of Open Society Foundation - Romania and/or its subsidiaries or affiliated organizations.

The Soros Open Society Foundations of Colombia lawsuit was filed after State failed to respond to an October 23, 2017, FOIA request seeking among other records:

All records regarding any contracts, grants or other allocations/disbursements of funds by the State Department to the Open Society Foundation  Colombia and/or any OSF subsidiaries/affiliates, and/or OSF personnel operating in Columbia, as well as the following entities: Fundacion Ideas para la Paz; La Silla Vacia; DeJusticia; Corporacion Nuevo Arco Iris; Paz y Reconciliacion; Global Drug Policy Program; and news portal Las Dos Orillas.



All records of communication, whether by e-mails, text messages, or instant chats, between any officials, employees or representatives of the State Department in Columbia, including Ambassador Kevin Whitaker and any officials, employees or representatives of the Open Society Foundation, its subsidiaries/affiliates, and/or those entities identified in the first bullet.

As in other parts of the world, a number of Soros-funded entities and projects in Romania are also funded by the United States Government. The Romanian Center for Independent Journalism, which is supported by the Open Society Institute in New York, recently received $17,000 from the State Department.



In February 2017, Laura Silber of Open Society Foundations reportedly condemned "illiberal governments" in the Balkans, such as Macedonia, Albania and Romania, for working against the Soros NGOs. In Romania, in March 2017, the leader of the governing party reportedly charged that the Soros foundations "that he has funded since 1990 have financed evil."



Soros' NGOs in Colombia are reportedly receiving millions from USAID:
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ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Mar, 2018 ) :Supreme Court on Wednesday set deadline of one month for the government to bring former ambassador to the United States, Hussain Haqqani, back to Pakistan.

A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Mian Saqib Nisar remarked that "they would not tolerate further delay in Haqqani's return who was an accused in the Memogate scandal." During the course of proceedings, secretaries, interior and foreign affairs appeared before the court and informed the bench about the progress made in the case.

Meanwhile, Director General DG, Federal Investigation Authority (FIA) apprised the court that he would personally go to the United States for the case and if needed fit then he would file case in this regard.

He also submitted copies of FIR registered against former ambassador, and said judicial magistrate had issued warrants and now they would contact Interpol for issuance of the Red Warrant. The chief justice remarked that the decision of three high court chief justices was thrown to the garbage and the court would not bear any delay in this matter.

Moreover, the chief justice observed that media should not do any commentary on the sub judice cases, adding most of people pass comments without knowing law of the land. Subsequently, giving one month time to the federation, the apex court adjourned the further hearing till then.
The news regarding the meeting between Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar has been making rounds since yesterday

ISLAMABAD (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Mar, 2018 ) The news regarding the meeting between Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar has been making rounds since yesterday.

According to a news story published in a local newspaper on Wednesday, former prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) leader Nawaz Sharif was not in favor of the meeting but PMLN president and Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif convinced him over the matter.

Although the PMLN leadership had been targeting judiciary in its recent statements, it had also kept room for a meeting between the prime minister and the chief justice. Prime Minister Abbasi had expressed his wish for this meeting.

In an informal discussion with well informed leaders in PMLN, it was revealed that Nawaz was reluctant to accept the suggestion for such a meeting. However, younger brother Shehbaz played an important role in convincing him.

Nawaz had been giving a revengeful impression in his media talks outside the court after his hearing and in Punjab House. He was not agreed to any suggestion being given to ease off tensions between the judiciary and executive when, according to sources, PM Abbasi telephoned Shehbaz and pondered upon the possibilities to request a meeting with the chief justice.

According to sources, Shehbaz agreed to this suggestion and then talked to his elder brother to take him into confidence. After the final consent of Nawaz, the PM office contacted the office of the chief justice.

The request was approved and finally a meeting was held between the two at 7pm on Tuesday. The chief justice informed the media half hour prior to the meeting. Sources said that Shehbaz and Abbasi both had asked for a meeting but then the former had to leave for London.

There was no hurdle left for the meeting to take place after Nawazs consent while key PMLN leaders and PM office denied giving any statement over the meeting. However, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah, while talking to a local newspaper, said that this is nothing unusual.

When the heads of two state institutions meet, it is for the benefit of the nation, he said, and added, The rift between institutions is against the interest of the country. The minister said that he did not know the details of the meeting and can only say something after he has complete information.

A PMLN senator, on condition of anonymity, said that the meeting was held on the desire of Prime Minister Abbasi. However, he denied that the meeting was an effort on behalf of the Sharif family to get some relief in the ongoing trial in the Supreme and subordinate courts.

He was of the view that it would not be considered a reconciliatory measure and it would not have any effect on the trial. It is a mere impression that there is a clash between judiciary and executive and it is important to reject it, the senator added.
ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Mar, 2018 ) :Minister for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Sardar Muhammad Yousaf Wednesday stressed for increasing Pak-Turk collaboration in education and multiplying efforts for promoting religious harmony to countering terrorism.

Talking to Ambassador of Turkey Mustafa Yurdakul, the minister pointed out that Pakistan and Turkey will remain valuable strategic partners. Expressing satisfaction on existing collaboration between two countries, it was mutually agreed that scope exists for further enhancement in mutual cooperation as regular high level contacts provide impetus to exemplary bilateral relations.

The minister extended his best wishes to Ambassador on assuming his appointment in Pakistan.

The minister hoped that the Ambassador's tenure will prove to be productive in furthering the friendly relations between Pakistan and Turkey.

Ambassador Mustafa Yurdakul expressed his pleasure on assuming his assignment in Pakistan and said that he will use his position in promoting and strengthening the already close and cordial bilateral relationship between Turkey and Pakistan, taking it to ever new heights.

Federal Minister lauded the vision and efforts of President of Turkey Tayyib Erdogan for development of his country and raising voice for the Muslims.
Implementation of mutual agreements will help expand bilateral relations, Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said here after signing ceremony of 13 memoranda of understanding in the presence of the two countries' presidents on Tuesday

Ashgabat, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Mar, 2018 ) :Implementation of mutual agreements will help expand bilateral relations, Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said here after signing ceremony of 13 memoranda of understanding in the presence of the two countries' presidents on Tuesday.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani started his visit to Turkmenistan on March 27. He is to leave Ashgabat for Baku, Azerbaijan, following a short stay in the Turkmen city of Merv on Wednesday. About talks held in the Turkmen capital, President Berdymukhamedov said the high-level negotiations were held in a transparent, brotherly and friendly atmosphere under mutual respect.

The Turkmen president appreciated the efforts made by his Iranian counterpart to boost bilateral cooperation and said that mutual agreements and the joint statement are in line with interests of the two neighboring countries which will lead to further bilateral ties. Iranian president is scheduled to leave Baku for Tehran on Thursday.
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Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei has held a number of meetings during his trip to UK, BelTA learned from the Twitter account of the Belarusian embassy in United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

MINSK, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Mar, 2018 ) :Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei has held a number of meetings during his trip to UK, BelTA learned from the Twitter account of the Belarusian embassy in United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

According to the Embassy sources, the Belarusian minister of foreign affairs met with UK Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Boris Johnson and member of the British royal family Prince Michael of Kent.

Earlier, Vladimir Makei met with Greg Hands, Minister of State for International Trade in the UK government to discuss trade and economic cooperation and sign a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in this sphere between the Belarusian and British governments.

Apart from that, Vladimir Makei met with Vice President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development Pierre Heilbronn. As BelTA reported earlier, Vladimir Makei is in the UK on a scheduled working visit.

It had taken more than half a year to prepare the visit. The Belarusian minister of foreign affairs is expected to meet with representatives of the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the International Trade Department, the British parliament, and members of the royal family.

Minister of State for Europe and the Americas of UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office Alan Duncan visited Belarus in September 2017. Alan Duncan met with the head of state and held negotiations with the minister of foreign affairs.

The sides stated the constructive nature of the discussions, sketched out ways to further advance cooperation between Belarus and UK. The UK has been one of Belarus leading economic partners for the last few years. According to the Belarusian embassy in UK, for the last few years the country has been the third largest buyer of Belarusian products after Russia and Ukraine.
Yuri Ambrazevich, Belarusian permanent representative to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva, has been appointed the Coordinator of UN Conference on Disarmament, subsidiary body on new types of weapons of mass destruction and comprehensive program of disarmament and transparency in armaments, BelTA learned from the press service of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

MINSK, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Mar, 2018 ) :Yuri Ambrazevich, Belarusian permanent representative to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva, has been appointed the Coordinator of UN Conference on Disarmament, subsidiary body on new types of weapons of mass destruction and comprehensive program of disarmament and transparency in armaments, BelTA learned from the press service of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Permanent representatives of Indonesia, the Netherlands, Brazil, and Germany have been appointed coordinators of other CD subsidiary bodies. The subsidiary bodies are designed to intensify and resume the substantive work of the conference.

The appointment of the Belarusian representative once again proves Belarus to be an active and consistent supporter of a safer world, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasized.
Banjul, Gambia, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Mar, 2018 ) :Gambian police have arrested a top official in the state intelligence agency over the murder of political activist Solo Sandeng in April 2016, a spokesman said Monday.

Sandeng's death in custody sparked a political movement that eventually ousted former leader Yahya Jammeh, who ruled the tiny West African nation with an iron fist for 22 years. More than a dozen former agents of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) face charges or are already on trial for the United Democratic Party organiser's murder after his arrest at an opposition protest.

Police spokesman Superintendent David Kujabie said James Mendy, NIA head of security, was "in police custody and is being investigated in connection with the murder of Solo Sandeng".

A security source told AFP on condition of anonymity that Mendy was "one of the senior staff of the agency implicated in the murder".

Gambian prosecutors last week charged eight former spies with conspiracy to murder Sandeng while nine more, including its former chief Yankuba Badjie, are already on trial. Two other former agents agreed last week to become prosecution witnesses.

Jammeh seized power in a bloodless coup in 1994, and was accused of rampant corruption and human rights abuses. Sandeng's killing encouraged a weak and split political opposition to unite behind a single flagbearer, Adama Barrow, who went on to beat Jammeh in a December 2016 election.
PortauPrince, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 29th Mar, 2018 ) :More than 200 journalists and supporters marched in silence Wednesday in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince to demand answers over the disappearance two weeks ago of freelance photojournalist Vladjimir Legagneur, amid mounting fears he may have been killed.

"Where is Vladjimir?" read the banner carried by those leading the protest. Legagneur, 30, has not been seen since March 14, when he left his home for an assignment in Grand-Ravine, one of the poorest and roughest parts of the city that has been the scene in recent years of bloody gang wars.

Rumors he may have been assassinated have circulated in media circles and on social media, but his family and friends are still pressing the authorities for official news of his fate -- and action.

"We don't need expressions of solidarity from government ministries or officials. Society put them in office to act. We want to see action, concrete action," said journalist Lunie Joseph, reading a statement from press associations.

"We are here to express our anger and rage in the face of the laziness and lack of interest shown by police and justice officials about the disappearance" of Legagneur, the text says. The missing journalist's wife, Fleurette Guerrier, has been looking for her husband since the night of March 14.

After two days, she filed a report with Haitian authorities but they have yet to provide any concrete information. National police spokesman Frantz Lerebours said Monday: "In these kinds of cases, where there have been no demands for ransom, we fear a fatal outcome." Press advocacy group Reporters without Borders (RSF) has expressed its concern for his fate and urged police to conduct a thorough probe.

Guerrier filed a fresh complaint with prosecutors on Wednesday, hoping for news. "Today's turnout showed me that people are moved, that they too want results: the authorities must give me an answer about what happened to Vladjimir," Guerrier told AFP by phone.
Khartoum, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Mar, 2018 ) :A man attacked worshippers with a knife inside a mosque in Sudan's eastern state of Kasala on Tuesday, killing three people and wounding several others, a police officer told AFP.

Kasala police chief Yahi Sulayman said it took place when worshippers had gathered for evening prayers in a mosque in Kasala city which borders Eritrea. "Three people have been killed and several wounded," Sulayman said.

A medic at a hospital where the wounded were brought said they had been stabbed. Residents said the attacker had tried to address worshippers who refused to listen to him and then started stabbing them.

"People in the mosque then retaliated and killed the attacker," Sulayman said, adding that the identity of the attacker had not been established.

Since January Sudan has shut its eastern border with Eritrea, days after Khartoum declared an emergency in the state of Kasala.

Officials say the decision to declare emergency was part of a government campaign to collect illegal arms in the state. Hundreds of Sudanese soldiers have been deployed in Kasala in recent months, residents say.

Thousands of Eritreans, fleeing a repressive regime at home, cross into Sudan illegally through the border with Kasala every year and later make perilous voyages across the Mediterranean to Europe. Apart from Kasala, a state of emergency is in place in Sudan's war-torn regions of Darfur, Blue Nile, South Kordofan and North Kordofan.
ULAN BATOR, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Mar, 2018 ) :The inauguration ceremony of a project with a funding of 4.8 million Euros (5.95 million U.S. Dollars) from the European Union (EU) to promote Mongolia's trade was held here Wednesday.

The project aims to support the country's economic growth by increasing the exports of non-mining sectors, according to the Mongolian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "Under this project, the Mongolian government will support entrepreneurs by building a sound business environment and facilitating trade and exports," D.

Davaasuren, state secretary of the Mongolian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said at the ceremony.

Mongolia's main trade partners are China, accounting for 70 percent of its total trade volume, Russia, representing over 10 percent, and the EU, taking up 11 percent, said Davaasuren.

"Our country is capable of exporting 7,200 types of goods on favorable terms to the EU members, but till now its potential has not been fully tapped. We hope the project will help solve this issue," he said.

He said the products exported from Mongolia to the European countries are at present limited to only a few types of wool, cashmere and handicrafts and that therefore Mongolia is aiming to diversify its exports.
Australia Calls World to Pray & Fast for USA 30 April - 3 May 2018

Contact: James Condon, 61-478-301-468; Sue Tinworth 61-418-389-419; Warwick Marsh 61-418-225-212



UNANDERRA, Australia, March 28, 2018 /Standard Newswire/ -- For the sixth year in a row, Australia is calling the nations of the world to join with them to pray and fast for four days for the United States of America, from 30 April  3 May 2018.



May 3 is America's National Day of Prayer. The theme is "Pray for America - UNITY" Ephesians 4:3. www.nationaldayofprayer.org



April 30 is America's National Day of Repentance. www.dayofrepentance1.org



Promo YouTube Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=4B5nFcDBMOA



Facebook Video Here



Commissioner James Condon, a member of the National Day of Prayer & Fasting team, said, "God has done remarkable things in America since we began to pray and fast, but God can do greater things yet! We in Australia believe it is our turn to stand in the gap for the nation of America and pray for revival and transformation for the USA through prayer and fasting according to 2 Chronicles 7:14. Whilst America has a new administration, the need for a new National Awakening has never been more apparent.



"We in Australia are grateful for the protection that America gave Australia and the nations of the free world during World War II. The Battle of the Coral Sea, fought by USA in 1942, was the turning point in the Second World War for Australia. America continues to be a blessing to the world. Even to this day the USA is the largest contributor of foreign aid among all the countries of the world. Thank God for America!



"President Reagan renewed the call for a National Day of Prayer in 1982 and said, 'National prayer is deeply rooted in our American heritage The first National Day of Prayer was proclaimed in 1775 by the Second Continental Congress. As thousands gathered in prayer in places of worship and encampments throughout the new land, the dispersed colonists found a new spirit of UNITY and resolve in this remarkable expression of public faith.'"



Sue Tinworth, a member of the National Day of Prayer and Fasting team, talking about the history of prayer in the USA said, "President Abraham Lincoln, on 30 April 1863 called for a Day of 'Humiliation, Prayer and Fasting' at a time of great national crisis by Governmental decree which said, 'We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God It behooves us then, to humble ourselves to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.' Unfortunately, today America is again in a dangerous predicament because it has forgotten God. Sadly the situation in Australia is very similar. We in our nation have forgotten God and we are in danger of paying the price for our sin."



Warwick Marsh, also from the National Day of Prayer and Fasting team said, "We are thankful for America's strong Christian heritage, but this will not save America, only the blood of Christ can. America and Australia need revival and reformation, as does the whole world. We all need more of God. We invite you and the nations of the world to join with us in four days of prayer and fasting for the USA."



National Day of Prayer & Fasting. www.nationaldayofprayer.org.au



Facebook: www.facebook.com/nationaldayofprayerandfasting


Washington, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 29th Mar, 2018 ) :A senior Al-Qaeda operative and another jihadist were killed in a US air strike in Libya, the Pentagon confirmed Wednesday. The March 24 strike near Ubari in southern Libya killed "two Al-Qaeda terrorists, including Musa Abu Dawud, a high-ranking Al-Qaeda in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) official," the US military's Africa Command said in a statement.

Officials said the strike, the second by the US this year and the first targeting AQIM, had been coordinated with the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) of Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj.

As is the case in Somalia, the Pentagon has the authority to conduct plane and drone strikes in Libya, provided it has the support of the local government. "Dawud trained AQIM recruits in Libya for attack operations in the region," the Africom statement read.

"He provided critical logistics support, funding and weapons to AQIM, enabling the terrorist group to threaten and attack US and Western interests in the region.

" The US State Department said Dawud was a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in 2016.

He began engaging in terrorist activity as early as 1992, the State Department said at the time. "As a senior leader for AQIM, Dawud is responsible for multiple terrorist attacks, including the February 4-5, 2013, attack on the military barracks in Khenchela, Algeria, that injured multiple soldiers and a July 2013 attack on a Tunisian military patrol in the Mount Chaambi area that killed nine soldiers," officials said.

Libya has been gripped by chaos since a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011, with rival administrations and multiple militias vying for control of the oil-rich country. Jihadists and people-traffickers have taken advantage of the chaos to gain a foothold in the North African country.
(@FahadShabbir)

JUBA, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Mar, 2018 ) :South Sudan's telecom regulator has shut down mobile phone firm Vivacell's network, accusing the operator of not complying with the country's laws and regulations.

Ladu Kenyi, Director General of the National Communications Authority (NCA), effected the shutdown on Tuesday midnight following the expiration of a one-week ultimatum. "We are shutting down all the traffic of Vivacell because of non compliance.

We are tackling one company at a time. If we are finished with Vivacell, we shall come to others," Kenyi said in a statement broadcast on state radio Tuesday evening. The South Sudanese authorities had earlier suspended Vivacell's international traffic and ordered it to close within a week.

The company's local and international traffic services have all been disconnected.

Kenyi said Vivacell -- a joint venture between Lebanon's Fattouch Investment Group and South Sudanese traders -- has been operating without a license in disregard of the country's communications law.

The official said the government would ensure that Vivacell customers would get compensation for losses caused by the shutdown. "We are asking the public to bear with us and be patient because we are showing that this country is sovereign because no body will come here and play with our regulations," Kenyi said.

Vivecell is yet to respond to its closure. But last week, the telecom company said in a statement that it regretted the suspension order and said was working with authorities to settle the matter. Two operators, Kuwait's Zain and South Africa's MTN, remain operational in South Sudan


The metal-god myth himself Danzig will be joining the already-stacked lineup headed to the desert this August for Psycho Las Vegas.

Performing Danzig III: How the Gods Kill in its entirety, this appearance is another addition to Psychos history of hosting mind-blowing, head-banging headlining performances. This will be the only performance of this album in the US this year.

Seattle doom duo Bell Witch has also been added to the Paradise Pool Pre-Party (August 16), joining Wolves in the Throne Room, Elder, Dengue Fever, Fireball Ministry, and Toke. Following the release of their highly acclaimed, 84-minute single-track album Mirror Reaper last fall, a sludgy sunset poolside set is now anticipated on the horizon  tickets are limited!
China says North Korean leader Kim Jong Un confirmed during a secretive visit to Beijing his commitment to denuclearize the Korean peninsula and engage in talks with South Korea and the United States.

Nuclear commitment

China's official Xinhua news agency, which posted photos of the North Korean leader with Chinese President Xi Jinping, reported that Kim and his wife Ri Sol Ju paid an unofficial visit to Beijing from Sunday to Wednesday, and attended a banquet in the Great Hall of the People with Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan.

During their meeting the two leaders reiterated the importance of maintaining the close China-North Korea alliance that had grown tense over Pyongyangs defiant nuclear and ballistic missile tests. Xi supported increasingly harsh U.S. led sanctions to pressure Kim to reenter talks to end his threatening nuclear program in exchange for ending economic restrictions, increasing assistance, and providing security guarantees.

WATCH: Korea talks

In the last few months, Kim moderated his previous non-negotiable position that North Korea is now a nuclear weapons state. Instead he moved to reduce tensions by suspending further nuclear and missile tests, participating in the recent Olympics in South Korea, and offering to engage in nuclear talks with South Korean President Moon-Jae-in that is being planned for April, and with U.S. President Donald Trump that is expected to be held in May.

Kim told XI he is prepared to resolve "the issue of the denuclearization" as long as South Korea and the United States respond to our efforts with goodwill, create an atmosphere of peace and stability, while taking progressive and synchronous measures for the realization of peace," according to Xinhua.

The North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Wednesday reported on Kims visit to China, but did not mention his promise to denuclearize, or the upcoming summits.

Positive reactions

On Tuesday President Xi briefed President Trump on Kims visit to Beijing. Afterwards the White House released a statement saying, We see this development as further evidence that our campaign of maximum pressure is creating the appropriate atmosphere for dialogue with North Korea.



On Twitter Wednesday, Trump said Xi told him thet talks with Kim went well.

South Korean officials welcomed Kims pledge to denuclearize and Chinas efforts to facilitate the negotiation process.

"The improvement and development of the relations between North Korea and China will be helpful in solving the problem of the Korean peninsula such as denuclearization and the peace settlement," said Baik Tae-hyun, the spokesman for the Ministry of Unification.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said his government is monitoring the improving China-North Korea relationship with "extreme interest" but wants more than denuclearization promises before considering easing sanctions.

"Unless we see concrete action (from North Korea) we will not lift the embargo. Furthermore we will be working in full unity with the international community," said Abe.

Motivating factors

Analysts question whether the North Korean leader is actually committed to give up his nuclear and missile program after investing in intensive development tests to increase his nuclear arsenals capabilities and range, which include targeting the U.S. mainland with a long range nuclear missile.

Even if Pyongyang agrees to give up its nuclear arsenal, the process of outside verification and dismantlement could take a decade and it would not be difficult for the Kim government to conceal some of it nuclear weapons.

"Maybe our assessment is that he has 30 nuclear weapons and he agrees to declare 28. So there are two that he didnt declare and it is sort of out there. How do we verify that, we just dont know?" asked Frank Aum, the Senior Expert on North Korea at the United States Institute of Peace during a recent nuclear conference in Seoul.

Kim may be motivated in part to both engage in talks and to seek Chinese help to pursue relief from Trumps maximum pressure campaign that brought about international sanctions banning billions of dollars of North Korean coal, seafood and clothing.

"I think that these sanctions are beginning to bite and North Korea does want to have these sanctions lifted. China can play a role in that regard," said Bonnie Glaser, an Asia expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

President Moons proactive outreach may have also played a role in reassuring the leadership in Pyongyang that the South does not seek the collapse of the Kim government, but wants to increase cooperation and economic ties over time, once the issue of denuclearization is resolved.

On Thursday, a high-level North/South preparatory session for the inter-Korean summit will be held. Also on Thursday, Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi, will brief officials in Seoul, including President Moon, on Kims visit to Beijing.

Lee Yoon-jee in Seoul contributed to this report.
Amassing the Billy Graham Revivalists -- Massive Movement on the Brink to be Led by Multiple Influencers

Contact: AnnaMarie Cantrell, 864-504-5616, Anna@CaptiveInkMedia.com



MEDIA ADVISORY, March 28, 2018 /Standard Newswire/ -- The death of Billy Graham and the prophetic significance within the earth since his passing shows we are on the verge of the greatest outpouring of the Spirit that this generation has ever seen, according to Jan Teel-Nealis. "The Word of God states that a seed cannot go into the ground without reproducing after its kind. The earth has received back to itself one of the most impactful evangelists we have known and now we are waiting to see the multiplication," she said. She also shared her agreement with the host of It's Supernatural! Sid Roth when he told CBN, "I'm expecting the move of God this year to be the greatest glory the world has ever seen released just like in the second chapter of Acts, where God says, 'In the last days, I will pour out my glory on all flesh.'"



"I believe that we will see this great outpouring through the men and women of God who will rise up and take on the mantle and anointing of Billy Graham," said Teel-Nealis who mentioned several influential Christian leaders who she believes are already leading the way, including Heidi Baker, Bill Johnson, Lance Wallnau, Clarice Fluett and Shawn Bolz.



Billy Graham was lying in state at the Capitol rotunda in Washington, DC in February, where President Trump visited his casket, placing his hand upon it, and speaking a solemn prayer. "The significance of having a world leader such as President Trump acknowledge this sacred moment and stop to memorialize the passing of one who was known as 'America's Pastor' can't be overemphasized. This act of honor, as we transition into a new era in the Kingdom, will tremendously impact the move of God across the United States and the world," she said.



Teel-Nealis says that God has always spoken to her in numbers, which was the inspiration for her new book, "Grieving by the Numbers," which was released this month. She noted the symbolism in Graham's death and pointed out that his daughter, Anne Graham Lotz, said the timing of her father's death was "something very strategic from Heaven's point of view."



"The year 2018 is significant. The number 18 represents freedom from bondage, and the Hebrew picture for 2018 looks like the opening of a gate. Perhaps there is a gate being opened with the passing of this precious soul that will cause a new path to be forged for our nation into an era of spiritual awareness such as we have never known. In an age of such horrific acts as we have seen committed by a sniper from a Las Vegas hotel to a disgruntled teenager who gunned down his fellow students mercilessly, it is time for that gate to be opened. It is time for a generation of Billy Grahams to come forth in the earth," said Teel-Nealis.


NATO has joined the ranks of at least 25 countries expelling several Russian diplomats as part of a "broad, strong and coordinated" international response to the nerve agent attack on a former Russian double agent and his daughter in Britain. Russia denies responsibility for the poisoning, and has promised tough retaliation within a week. As VOA's Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from the State Department.
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More than 30 Russian media outlets have withdrawn their correspondents from the Russian Duma to protest a parliamentary panels dismissal of sexual harassment accusations by four journalists against a senior lawmaker. VOAs Jamie Dettmer has more from Moscow.
North Korean and Chinese state media confirmed Wednesday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited China this week. Reports say Kim and his wife Ri Sol Ju stayed in China from Sunday till Wednesday. It was Kim's first foreign trip since coming to power in 2011. The reports confirmed speculations that Kim made the visit after a special train from North Korea crossed into China. VOA's Zlatica Hoke reports.
Paro the furry seal cries softly while an elderly woman pets it. Pepper, a humanoid, waves while leading a group of senior citizens in exercises. The upright Tree guides a disabled man taking shaky steps, saying in a gentle feminine voice, "right, left, well done!"

Robots have the run of Tokyo's Shin-tomi nursing home, which uses 20 different models to care for its residents. The Japanese government hopes it will be a model for harnessing the country's robotics expertise to help cope with a swelling elderly population and dwindling workforce.

Allowing robots to help care for the elderly  a job typically seen as requiring a human touch  may be a jarring idea in the West. But many Japanese see them positively, largely because they are depicted in popular media as friendly and

helpful.

"These robots are wonderful," said 84-year-old Kazuko Yamada after the exercise session with SoftBank Robotics Corp.'s Pepper, which can carry on scripted dialogues. "More people live alone these days, and a robot can be a conversation partner for them. It will make life more fun."

Plenty of obstacles may hinder a rapid proliferation of elder care robots: high costs, safety issues and doubts about how useful  and user-friendly  they will be.

The Japanese government has been funding development of elder care robots to help fill a projected shortfall of 380,000 specialised workers by 2025.

Despite steps by Japan to allow foreign workers in for elder care, obstacles to employment in the sector, including exams in Japanese, remain. As of the end of 2017, only 18 foreigners held nursing care visas, a new category created in 2016.

But authorities and companies here are also eyeing a larger prize: a potentially lucrative export industry supplying robots to places such as Germany, China and Italy, which face similar demographic challenges now or in the near future.

"It's an opportunity for us," said Atsushi Yasuda, director of the robotic policy office at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry or METI. "Other countries will follow the same trend."

More than 100 foreign groups have visited Shin-tomi the past year from countries including China, South Korea and the Netherlands.

A few products are trickling out as exports: Panasonic Corp has started shipping its robotic bed, which transforms into a wheelchair, to Taiwan. Paro is used as a "therapy animal" in about 400 Danish senior homes.

Still tiny



The global market for nursing care and disabled aid robots, made up of mostly Japanese manufacturers, is still tiny: just $19.2 million in 2016, according to the International Federation of Robotics.

But METI estimates the domestic industry alone will grow to 400 billion yen ($3.8 billion) by 2035, when a third of Japan's population will be 65 or older.

"It's potentially a huge market," said George Leeson, director of the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing. "Everyone is waking up to their ageing populations. Clearly robotics is part of that package to address those needs."

To nurture the industry, the government is using a two-pronged approach. METI is promoting development, providing 4.7 billion yen ($45 million) in subsidies since 2015.

The Labor Ministry is spearheading the spread of robots, and spent 5.2 billion yen ($50 million) to introduce them into 5,000 facilities nationwide in the year that ended last March.

There is no government data about how many care facilities use robots.

Government officials stress that robots will not replace human caregivers.

"They can assist with power, mobility and monitoring. They can't replace humans, but they can save time and labor," said METI's Yasuda. "If workers have more time, they can do other tasks."

That's a robot?

Most of the devices look nothing like the popular image of a robot. By the government's definition, each has three components  sensors, a processor and a motor or apparatus.

Panasonic used government aid to develop Resyone, a bed that splits in two, with one half transforming into a wheelchair.

Cyberdyne Inc's HAL  short for Hybrid Assistive Limb  lumbar type is a powered back support that helps caregivers lift people.

Those needing walking rehabilitation can grab hold of Tree, made by unlisted Reif Co, which crawls along the ground, showing where to place the next step and offering balance support.

SoftBank's Pepper is used in about 500 Japanese elder care homes for games, exercise routines and rudimentary conversations.

But some workers find Pepper difficult to set up, said Shohei Fujiwara, a manager at SoftBank Robotics, a unit of Internet conglomerate SoftBank Group Corp. They'd like Pepper to respond to voice commands and move around independently - functions that SoftBank hopes to introduce this year, he said.

A costly solution

Cute, furry and responsive, Paro reacts to touch, speech and light by moving its head, blinking its eyes and playing recordings of Canadian harp seal cries.

"When I first petted it, it moved in such a cute way. It really seemed like it was alive," giggled 79-year-old Saki Sakamoto, a Shin-tomi resident. "Once I touched it, I couldn't let go."

Paro took more than 10 years to develop and received about $20 million in government support, said its inventor, Takanori Shibata, chief research scientist at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. About 5,000 are in use globally, including 3,000 in Japan.

But Paro, like most robots, is expensive: 400,000 yen ($3,800) in Japan and about 5,000 euros in Europe. Panasonic's Resyone bed costs 900,000 yen ($8,600) and Cyberdyne's HAL lumbar exoskeleton costs 100,000 yen ($950) a month to rent.

Most facilities using them, including Shin-tomi, have relied on local and central government subsidies to help cover the costs. Individuals can also use nursing care insurance to help cover approved products, but those numbers are tiny.

And so far, the robots have not reduced Shin-tomi's personnel costs or working hours.

"We haven't gotten that far yet," said Kimiya Ishikawa, president and CEO of Silverwing Social Welfare Corp, which runs Shin-tomi. "We brought them in mostly to improve the working environment, keep staffers from getting back injuries and make things safer."

What they have done, he said, is boost the morale of both staff and residents.

"That's brought a peace of mind among the staff and the residents feel supported," he said.
A Russian law enforcement committee is requesting Britain provide legal assistance in the case of the poisoning of Yulia Skirpal.

She and her father, former Russian double agent Sergei Skirpal, fell ill earlier this month after being poisoned with a nerve toxin in the British town of Salisbury. They remain in critical condition.

The Russian committee is asking British investigators to take a number of steps aimed at determining the circumstances of the poisoning and to provide copies of certain material from the probe.

British officials have blamed Russia for the attack, saying it involved the nerve agent Novichok that was first developed by the Soviet military.

Russia denies it was responsible and has alleged the attack was carried out by British intelligence services in order to make Russia look bad. Britain dismisses that allegation.

British police gave an update on the investigation Wednesday, saying that after forensic examinations detectives believe the Skirpals first made contact with the toxin at the front door of their home. They cautioned that those living in the neighborhood will see continued searches taking place but that the risk to the public remains low.

So far, police say they have looked through 5,000 security camera videos, examined more than 1,350 other exhibits and interviewed hundreds of witnesses.

In a phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump, British Prime Minister Theresa May praised the "very strong response" by the United States, which ordered the expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats after Moscow was blamed for the attack.

The White House said "both leaders agreed on the importance of dismantling Russias spy networks in the United Kingdom and the United States to curtail Russian clandestine activities and prevent future chemical weapons attacks on either countrys soil."

More than 20 other nations have joined the U.S. in ordering the expulsions of Russian diplomats. May said she welcomes "the breadth of international action in response to Russia's reckless and brazen behavior."

Russia has denied any involvement in the attack.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow would respond to the U.S.-led moves within a week. He described the expulsion of his countries' diplomats from Western countries as "boorish anti-Russian behavior" and said colossal blackmail "is now, unfortunately, the main tool of Washington on the international arena."

Russia's Ambassador to Australia Grigory Logvinov added Wednesday that if Western countries continue actions against Russia, then the world would be "deeply in a Cold War situation."
Chinese Air Force exercises over the contested South China Sea reflect opposition to recent U.S. naval maneuvers and an increasing wariness toward Taiwan, a self-ruled island that Beijing calls its own, scholars in Asia say. They warn of increasingly frequent drills by Beijing.

The Chinese Air Force said on its website Sunday it had conducted drills in the South China Sea and part of the East China Sea near Japans outlying islands. It sent bombers and fighters on the mission. An aircraft carrier group passed through the Taiwan Strait last week just west of Taiwan itself, the islands defense ministry said.

China is using the maneuvers to warn Washington, which disputes Beijings claim to sovereignty over the whole South China Sea and Taiwan according to Collin Koh, maritime security research fellow at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

China insists on eventual unification with Taiwan despite popular opposition to that goal on the democratically governed island. The exercises send a warning to Taiwan, too, said Andrew Yang, secretary-general of the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies, a Taipei-based think tank focusing on military affairs.

Chinese President Xi Jinping feels "more confident" in his military's performance at sea beyond immediate territorial waters, Koh said.

It is a whole confluence of ongoing events throughout the region, Koh said. "We cant also deny the fact that these activities (by other countries) could very easily be used as justification by Xi and his party to shed upon the need for more intensified PLA activity."

Friction with Washington, Taipei

Chinese officials called the live-fire exercises a routine part of the navys annual training, the state-run China Daily online reported.

But analysts link the exercises to the U.S. Navys passage in January of a ship near a shoal China disputes with the Philippines. Beijing said the naval ship had trespassed, but Washington says the 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea should be open to all. The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinsons port call in Vietnam earlier this month after a voyage through the sea put China on further alert.

The U.S. government does not claim the sea that extends south from Hong Kong to the island of Borneo. But Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam all claim parts that overlap waters that China calls its own -- about 90 percent of the whole sea. They value its fisheries and undersea reserves of oil and natural gas.

In November, U.S. and Japanese vessels held exercises near Okinawa, near the northern extent of Beijings recent air force drills. Japan contests nearby tracts of the sea with China, a source of tension since 2013.

In addition, analysts say, the U.S. governments Taiwan Travel Act bothers Beijing. The act, signed in mid-March, encourages more high-level visits between Taipei and Washington. China opposes those visits, seeing Taiwan as Chinese territory rather than a state.

China will try to isolate the Taiwan government and step up its hardline approach to warn it against declaring itself legally independent of China, Yang said.

Reactions muted

Taiwan and Japan sent military aircraft to track the Chinese fighter jets, but other governments that vie with China for maritime sovereignty had made little public comment as of Wednesday.

The Philippine and Chinese governments are setting aside sovereignty issues to discuss joint oil and gas exploration in the South China Sea, taking some attention away from the air force drills, said Maria Ela Atienza, political science professor at University of the Philippines Diliman. But some Filipinos noticed the Chinese exercises.

The concern of course is youre giving them too much room in areas that are supposed to be or at least being claimed by the Philippines, so there are people who are increasingly noticing the lack of stronger position when it comes to China, Atienza said.

Chinas island-building since 2010 has upset the Southeast Asian claimants, leading to a world court ruling against Beijing in 2016. Since the ruling came out, China has strengthened relations by offering economic aid and investment. Southeast Asian claimants desire to avoid public statement on China's military activity, Koh said.

More exercises?

The specter of more U.S. presence in the South China Sea, backed by Japan and possibly Australia in the future, is expected to raise the frequency of Chinese military exercises. China will regularize its military posture at sea and in the air, Yang said.

During the National Peoples Congress, a Chinese legislative session earlier in the month, Xis government announced an 8.1 percent military budget increase and called for more military-civilian integration to strengthen the armed forces.

Xi Jinping has made a very strong and hardline talk at the (National) Peoples Congress so I think that they have to show their resolve, he said. Obviously they have increased the momentum of military drills in the region.
The Ecuadorean government said Wednesday that it had cut off Julian Assange's ability to communicate outside its embassy in London, where the WikiLeaks founder has lived for more than five years.

The government said it stopped Assange from communicating with the outside world to prevent him from meddling in other countries' affairs.

The move came two days after Assange questioned, on Twitter, Britain's accusation that Russia was behind the March 4 poisoning of a Russian former double agent in Salisbury, England.

Assange was granted asylum in Ecuador's embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden to face questioning about allegations of sex crimes, which he has denied committing.

The Swedish investigation was closed almost one year ago, but Assange, who was on bail when he entered the embassy, faces arrest by British authorities for violating his bail terms if he steps outside.

A British judge refused to end legal proceedings against Assange last month for jumping bail. The judge said Assange "wants to impose his terms on the course of justice."
Voters cast ballots for a third and final day Wednesday in Egypt's presidential election. With incumbent President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi running largely unopposed, there was little drama during the polling. Among those supporting Sissi were older Egyptians who hope for stability after years of political turmoil in the Arab world's most populous country. Many young people  hungry for change and more freedom  were cynical and stayed away from the polls. Hamada Elrasam reports from Cairo.
While working for a big consulting firm in Lagos, Nigeria, Afua Osei repeatedly encountered women who wanted to advance professionally but didn't know how. They needed guidance and mentoring.

So, Osei and her colleague Yasmin Belo-Osagie started She Leads Africa, a digital media company offering advice, information, training and networking opportunities to help "young African women achieve their professional dreams," according to the website.

Launched in 2014, it now has an online community of over 300,000 in at least 35 countries in Africa and throughout the diaspora.

"I didn't plan to be an entrepreneur," Osei said this month at South by Southwest (SXSW), an annual festival of music, film and tech innovation.

Anyone can be an innovator, Osei said in an interview, after co-hosting a meetup on starting and investing in African businesses. "You don't have to look a certain way. It's not just for one type of person. Anybody can play a role, and there is so much work to be done."

Opportunities in Africa

The Ghana-born entrepreneur  who grew up in metropolitan Washington, D.C., and once worked for first lady Michelle Obama  has lived in Nigeria for roughly five years. From there, she sees "so many opportunities and potentials in Africa to innovate and help improve people's lives."

The continent has some fast-growing economies  including Nigeria, Ghana and Ethiopia  and the world's fastest-growing population. With more than 1.2 billion people, it's projected to top 2.2 billion by 2050. At least 26 African countries are likely to double their current populations by then, the United Nations reports.

Africa also holds challenges for entrepreneurs, from finding funding to untangling bureaucratic red tape, Osei acknowledged. "Dealing with polices and governments can be hard. Also, distributions: How can I get a product that I made in Lagos out here to Austin?"

But, Osei insisted, "Every single challenge and opportunity also presents a space for an innovator and entrepreneur to solve that problem."

Accelerator gives edge

She Leads Africa deals with problem-solving. In its first year, the company started the SLA Accelerator, a three-month development program to assist female-led startups in Nigeria. It gives entrepreneurs business training and opportunities to meet potential investors.

Entrepreneur Cherae Robinson won a spot in the accelerator program's first year  and $10,000 in seed money to start a specialty travel company. Now called Tastemakers Africa, it has a mobile app to help users "find and buy hip experiences on the continent."

The mentorship "provided a wealth of knowledge I did not have," said Robinson, a 33-year-old New York native living in Johannesburg, South Africa. "I was a few months into developing the model. She Leads Africa helped us not only refine the model, but it continues to be a source I can tap into. They continue to support the entrepreneurs in their network."

She Leads Africa recently began working with a New York-based Ghanaian-German designer and fashion blogger who goes by the single name Kukua. She started africaboutik, an online store of modern African designs.

"At Africa-themed events in NYC [New York City], I see a lot of so-called 'Made in Africa' items that are 100 percent made in Beijing," Kukua wrote in an Instagram post. With SLA's help, she's identifying new textiles and designers in Africa to change the fashion narrative.

Navigating rules, regulations

At several SXSW Africa-focused events, Osei was asked how entrepreneurs could navigate complicated government regulations and licensing requirements. She suggested finding key government personnel who understand technology and want to help new businesses.

"It is important for technology leaders to take the lead and be innovative in the way we communicate to government, because they [government staff] are learning as much as we are," Osei told VOA.

Osei and Belo-Osagie are learning through She Leads Africa, and their efforts have drawn recognition. Forbes magazine named them among "the 20 Youngest Power Women in Africa" in 2014.

They don't plan to slow down, Osei said, noting their goal is at least 1 million subscribers for their website. As the site says, it's for "the ladies who want to build million-dollar companies, lead corporate organizations and crush it as leaders."
Ethiopias ruling coalition has elected Abiy Ahmed as its chairman, according to the state-owned Fana Broadcasting Corporation. The move sets the stage for Ahmed to become the countrys third prime minister in 23 years.

The Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) announced its decision late Tuesday evening, after a series of delays and an election process that was largely hidden from public view.

Ahmed will replace Hailemariam Desalegn, who stepped down last month amid civil and political unrest across the country.

Ahmed, 41, has spent less than a decade in politics. Before joining the House of Representatives in 2010, he became a lieutenant colonel in the Ethiopian National Defense Force.

Founded Internet Security Agency

In 2007, Ahmed founded and later directed the Internet Security Agency, a group tasked with advancing Ethiopias technological capabilities, but also responsible, in part, for what human rights groups consider mass government surveillance to stifle dissent.

Ahmed studied in the U.S. and England before returning to Ethiopia to pursue a doctorate at Addis Ababa Universitys Institute for Peace and Security Studies. In 2015, he became Ethiopias minister for science and technology while a Ph.D. candidate in Peace and Security Studies.

Ahmed had been considered a front-runner since Desalegns surprise resignation on February 15. As the leader of the Oromo Peoples Democratic Organization, the EPRDF Party that represents the countrys largest ethnic group, Ahmed is considered an insider with a decades-long affiliation with the ruling coalition.

On March 1, former U.S. Ambassador Herman Cohen suggested on Twitter that the decision to elect Ahmed had already been made.

Ahmed speaks Amharic, Afan Oromo and Tigrigna, and he was born to a Christian mother and Muslim father, according to freelance journalist Mohammed Ademo.

Growing rifts

Ahmeds background as a member of Ethiopias Oromo ethnic group, a majority that has long felt marginalized, might help him bridge growing rifts across the country.

Ethiopia is currently under its second state of emergency in two years in the wake of unrelenting protests in the Oromia and Amhara regions. One of the protesters primary demands is equal representation in government.

Despite holding the most seats in the federal parliament, the OPDO, which represents the Oromo people, holds less power than the dominant Tigrayan Peoples Liberation Front, according to activists and human rights groups.

More recently, however, OPDO has gained its voice and expressed solidarity with the Oromo protesters, according to Rene Lefort, a journalist who has covered the region since the 1970s.

The main change is that, first of all, OPDO asserted itself more than ever, Lefort told VOA by phone in November.

The protests have put pressure on the government, resulting in the EPRDFs decisions to release prisoners and jockey over reforms. But the coalition has also backtracked on promises to allow space for a plurality of voices in the country.

Just this past Sunday, bloggers, journalists and members of opposition groups were rearrested for gathering at a colleagues home to celebrate their work.

Human Rights Watchs senior researcher for the Horn of Africa, Felix Horne, criticized the governments approach on Twitter.

How Ahmed plans to lead, and what steps the EPRDF will take to address growing turmoil, will now shape the countrys future.
A suspected arson fire at Joshua Tree National Park in California has damaged a historical landmark.

The fire that broke out late Monday damaged the Oasis of Mara, a site settled by Native Americans who planted the 29 palm trees that inspired the name of the nearby city Twentynine Palms, according to the National Park Service.

Strong winds stoked the rapid spread of the fire, which was contained at less than a square mile (2.58 square kilometers), said Eric Sherwin, a spokesman for the San Bernardino County Fire Department.

Photos show multiple trees ablaze as firefighters snuffed out the flames in less than an hour.

In the light of day Tuesday, at least half a dozen palms looked more like burnt matchsticks jutting out of the ground.

The fire is being investigated as arson, the National Park Service said. No arrests have been made.

Initial assessments show damage to vegetation and wildlife and potential impact on archaeological resources, the agency said.

The agency did not describe the extent of the damage, saying a full assessment still needed to be conducted.

Steve Raines, a longtime Twentynine Palms resident and a professional photographer, was in the area when a friend texted him that the Oasis of Mara was on fire.

Raines raced to the scene to take photos.

"It's significant damage," he said. "And it looks like it's going to be damaged for a long time."

The Serrano people settled the oasis, naming it Mara, "the place of little springs and much grass."

Located near Joshua Tree's headquarters and a bustling visitor's center, the oasis is among the first sites for the millions of people who visit the park every year.

Raines said it was tough to watch the oasis burning.

"It's a piece of history," he said. "It's always heartbreaking seeing something like that go up in flames."
France is holding a ceremony Wednesday to honor a police officer who was killed last week after offering to take the place of a hostage during an attack on a supermarket.

President Emmanuel Macron is addressing the ceremony in Paris for Lt. Col. Arnaud Beltrame. The president has said Beltrame died as a hero.

Earlier Wednesday, police stations across France paused for a minute of silence. That followed an observation of silence Tuesday by lawmakers in the National Assembly.

The gunmen in Friday's attack killed three other people. Authorities identified him as 25-year-old French-Moroccan Radouane Lakdim, and the Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility for the assault.

The attacker first hijacked a car Friday morning near Carcassonne, killing the passenger and wounding the driver. He then drove off in the car and shot into a group of police officers who had been jogging, wounding one of them.

Next, in Trebes, near Carcassonne, Lakdim walked into the Super U supermarket and killed two people. He held several hostages in the supermarket, where Beltrame volunteered to swap himself for the hostages.

The gunman agreed and Beltrame kept an open line on his phone so his fellow officers could hear what was going on. When the officers heard more gunshots, they stormed the market, killing the gunman.
Europe's bailout fund on Tuesday approved a 6.7 billion-euro ($8.32 billion) loan installment to Greece as part of its third international rescue program, with payment of the first 5.7 billion euros expected this week.

The European Stability Mechanism said the approval came after the Greek government completed a series of required reforms. The funds will be used to service public debt and clear domestic arrears.

"Today's decision ... acknowledges the hard work by the Greek government and Greek people in completing an extensive set of reforms,'' said ESM head Klaus Regling. The reforms were in tax policy, privatizations and the resolution of nonperforming loans, among others.

The ESM said the initial 5.7 billion euros were to be disbursed Wednesday. The remaining 1 billion euros, to be used for clearing arrears, may be disbursed after May 1 if the country "makes progress in reducing its stock of arrears.''

Greece has depended on billions of euros from international rescue loans since 2010, and its third bailout is due to end this summer. In exchange for the money, successive governments have had to implement often painful economic and structural reforms, including tax increases and severe cuts to pensions and public spending.

Regling said he was "confident that Greece is on track to successfully exit the ESM program in August 2018, provided that the remaining reforms are implemented by the Greek government.''

Greece's financial crisis has wiped out a quarter of the economy and led to persistently high unemployment, which continues to hover above 20 percent. The frequently unpopular reforms have also led to street protests.
The Israeli army will use live ammunition to disperse planned rallies Friday in the Gaza Strip, according to Israel's top general.

Israel has deployed more than 100 sharpshooters on the Gaza border, and the soldiers have permission to open fire on protesters "if Israeli security infrastructure comes under threat," Israeli army chief of staff Gadi Eizenkot told the Israeli daily Maariv on Wednesday.

"The instructions are to use a lot of force," he said. "In the event of mortal danger [to troops], there is authorization to open fire."

Organizers said they expected thousands, including entire families, to answer their call to gather in tent cities in five locations along the sensitive border starting Friday, in a six-week protest for a right of return of Palestinian refugees to what is now Israel.

The start of the demonstration was symbolically linked to what Palestinians call "Land Day," which commemorates the six Arab citizens of Israel killed by Israeli security forces in demonstrations in 1976 over land confiscation. The weeklong Jewish holiday of Passover, when Israel heightens security, also begins Friday.

The protest is due to end May 15, the day Palestinians call the "Nakba," or "Catastrophe," marking the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the conflict surrounding the creation of Israel in 1948.

Palestinians have long demanded that as many as 5 million of their people be allowed to return to the land from which they were displaced. Israel resists the suggestions, fearing that an Arab influx would end the Jewish majority in Israel.
U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Tuesday he had no reservations or concerns about President Donald Trump's incoming national security adviser, John Bolton, a hawk who has advocated using military force against North Korea and Iran.

Amid speculation the two men will clash on a host of major national issues, Mattis said he would meet Bolton for the first time later this week at the Pentagon with the goal of forging a partnership.

"We're going to sit down together [this week], and I look forward to working with him. No reservations. No concerns at all," Mattis told a group of reporters at an impromptu briefing.

"Last time I checked, he's an American and I can work with an American. OK? I'm not the least bit concerned with that sort of thing."

Trump has shaken up his core national security team in the past two weeks, replacing National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and firing Rex Tillerson as his secretary of state.

The moves within a small group of just a handful of advisers have raised questions about whether Mattis could find himself increasingly isolated in his views and outmaneuvered by Bolton, an inveterate bureaucratic infighter whose 2007 memoir is titled: Surrender Is Not an Option.

Mattis had forged a close relationship with both McMaster and Tillerson as he successfully advocated to keep U.S. troops in Afghanistan and strengthen ties with NATO, despite Trump's skepticism about both the 16-year-old war and the trans-Atlantic alliance supporting it.

Warning about the horrors of a war on the Korean peninsula, Mattis has also promoted a diplomatically-led strategy to pressure North Korea over its efforts to build a nuclear-tipped missile capable of striking the United States.

Cautious communicator

Mattis has also been a cautious communicator.

After Trump announced plans to talk with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Mattis was so concerned he might say something to upset the process that the defense secretary opted earlier this month to stop making any substantive public remarks about North Korea at all.

"Right now, every word is going to be nuanced and parsed apart across different cultures, at different times of the day, in different contexts," Mattis said at the time.

On the other hand, Bolton, a 69-year-old Fox News analyst and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, in the past has called for regime change in North Korea and has previously been rejected as a negotiating partner by Pyongyang.

In 2003, on the eve of six-nation talks over Pyongyang's nuclear program, he lambasted then-North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in a speech in Seoul, calling him a "tyrannical dictator."

North Korea responded by calling Bolton "human scum."

More recently, Bolton described Trump's plan to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as "diplomatic shock and awe" and said it would be an opportunity to deliver a threat of military action.

'Solemn responsibilities'

Bolton has been downplaying his aggressive rhetoric in his initial conversations with some current and former U.S. officials, and sought guidance on how to approach Mattis, sources familiar with those conversations told Reuters.

Barry Pavel, a U.S. national security expert at the Atlantic Council think-tank, said it was too soon to predict Bolton's style or draw conclusions about how he would run the National Security Council.

"When you're in a position like he's going into, it's a very, very solemn set of responsibilities ... and those have a restraining factor," Pavel said.

Asked by Reuters about the split between his world views and Bolton's, Mattis sought to dismiss concerns, suggesting lively debate would help ensure Trump has a wide array of options.

"Well, I hope that there's some different world views. That's the normal thing you want unless you want groupthink," Mattis said. "You know, don't worry about that. We'll be fine."
President Donald Trump's pick to be his new national security adviser, John Bolton, is known for his "hawkish" views on North Korea and Iran, but also has pushed for a tougher U.S. response to Russian aggression in the West and around the world.

Bolton has said the United States has been clear that it stands with its allies after the attack with Russian nerve gas on a former double agent and his daughter in Britain. Moscow denies responsibility for the poisoning.

"I think you saw a statement by the four leaders of Germany, France, the U.K. and the United States. I think that is a pretty good indication that the four countries see this the same way," Bolton told a Sky News reporter last week, when asked if the U.S. and its allies should be tougher on Russia.

And during a discussion in February, before he was chosen by Trump to be one of his top advisers, Bolton outlined how he thought the U.S. should respond to Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections.

"Whether [the Russians] were trying to collude with the Trump campaign or the Clinton campaign, their interference is unacceptable. It's really an attack on the United States Constitution," Bolton said at the Daniel Morgan Graduate School of National Security in Washington.

The former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations called for an "overwhelming" response to Moscow.

"Whatever they did in the 2016 election, I think we should respond to in cyberspace and elsewhere," Bolton said. "I don't think the response should be proportionate. I think it should be very disproportionate. Because deterrence works when you convince your adversary that they will pay an enormous cost for imposing a cost on you."

In an op-ed in the Daily Telegraph in July of last year, Bolton went even further, alleging that Russian President Vladimir Putin looked Trump in the eye and lied to him when he denied Russian government interference in the U.S. elections.

"It is in fact a casus belli, a true act of war, and one Washington will never tolerate. For Trump, it should be a highly salutary lesson about the character of Russia's leadership to watch Putin lie to him," Bolton wrote.

Putin has denied his government was behind the election attack, but has acknowledged individual Russians may have been involved.

'Russia's worst nightmare'

For his part, Trump repeatedly has downplayed Russian interference in the U.S. elections, noting results of the vote "were not impacted or changed by the Russians."

Trump also has repeatedly called the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into Russian election interference and possible coordination with the Trump campaign a "hoax" and a "witch-hunt."

"Every time he [Putin] sees me, he says, 'I didn't do that.' And I believe  I really believe that when he tells me that, he means it," Trump told reporters last November when asked about Putin's denial that Russia was behind the cyberattacks.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Alexander Vershbow tells VOA that Putin may need to adjust his expectations of a friendly relationship with Trump now that Bolton is joining the team.

"We now have John Bolton, who is very tough on Russia, coming into the White House next month, so hopefully Russia will draw some conclusions from this and look for ways to pursue a less confrontational policy with the West," said Vershbow, an Atlantic Council distinguished fellow.

Harry Kazianis, with The Center for National Interest, agrees, saying Moscow should brace for changes from Washington.

"I think John Bolton is Russia's worst nightmare. He has been a Russia hawk for all of his career, he has always advocated a tough stand on Moscow," Kazianis said. "I can see Bolton recommending to the president quite a few changes on policy, one being further arms sales to Ukraine."

'No reservations'

Bolton does not need to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate and is set to begin working in the White House on April 9.

At the Pentagon Tuesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters he had "no reservations" and "no concerns at all" about working with Bolton and any divergent world views.

"I hope that there's some different world views. That's the normal thing you want unless you want groupthink," Mattis said.
A Kenyan opposition leader remains detained at Nairobi airport, barred from entering the country despite a judge's order that authorities allow him to appear before the High Court Wednesday. The standoff has called into question the public reconciliation of Kenya's top political rivals earlier this month.

Opposition supporters on Wednesday blocked the main highway linking the cities of Kisumu and Kakamega, lighting bonfires. The protesters were demanding the release of high-ranking opposition leader Miguna Miguna.



Kenya's High Court on Tuesday ordered that Miguna be released and appear in court on Wednesday morning. But the government did not comply.



The court has ordered three senior government officials to appear in court Thursday to face sentencing for defying the court order.



Miguna's lawyer, Nelson Havi, said Miguna's detention at Nairobi airport is illegal and a violation of his rights.



"He is held up in a confined area, actually, in a washroom without sufficient space to even move around," said Havi.He has not been provided food. He has not been given access to us as his lawyers. We have been at the airport since yesterday morning. We were not able to see him."

Miguna was first arrested in January. His arrest was linked to his involvement with the so-called swearing-in of Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga as "the people's president."



Authorities deported Miguna to Canada, where he is a citizen.



He tried to return to Kenya on Monday. His lawyer and the government disagree what happened next.



Officials said Miguna refused to enter Kenya on a Canadian passport and refused to take up an offer of a six-month visa, insisting he was not a foreigner.



Mwenda Njokais the spokesman for the Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government. He said Miguna is making trouble for himself on purpose.



"He is just being asked to do what everybody does at the airport. You arrive, and you give the passport," Njoka said. "It's stamped, and you are allowed in. What is so difficult for him to do that?"



Havi said Miguna is a Kenyan citizen by birth and can enter the country as he pleases.



"The government has Miguna's passport. What they need to do is to reissue that passport, stamp the entry and Miguna  Kaboom  is inside the country," said Havi.



Havi told VOA he is asking the courts to order Miguna's immediate release and readmit him to the country.



The attorney said the governments acting in contempt of court orders and setting a dangerous precedent.



Njoka said the government is not violating any court orders.



"We gave him an opportunity. He just wants to be treated special," Njoka said. "Let me just summarize it this way  he is a drama queen who wants to be given special treatment, and he enjoys that kind of publicity."



Earlier this month, Odinga and President Uhuru Kenyatta announced that they will work together, an initiative both sides said was aimed at healing divisions caused by last year's presidential election.



Miguna was against the newfound unity and accused Odinga of betraying his millions of supporters.



During Miguna's detainment this week, Odinga was present for a couple of hours and could be seen trying to prevent his re-deportation by immigration officials.



Odinga has since remained silent on the matter.
Top diplomats from Turkey and the United States are working hard to bridge the deep gulf between the two NATO allies.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Tina Kaidanow is in Ankara for talks this week, while Turkey's top diplomat, Umit Yalcin, will visit Washington this weekend.

However, the effort may be complicated, as Ankara improves ties with neighboring Iran while America prepares a tougher approach to that nation.

Turkish analysts say U.S. President Donald Trump's nomination of CIA chief Mike Pompeo as secretary of state and John Bolton's appointment as national security adviser show that the administration is taking a hard-line view toward Iran.

Aydin Selcen, a former senior Turkish diplomat who served in Washington and Iraq, said Pompeo is already focused on Iran, and he noted that disagreements with Trump over Iran policy were a key reason Rex Tillerson was fired as secretary of state. Selcen said a hawkish new policy might force Ankara to choose between Iran and the United States.

Washington has been wondering about Turkey's commitment to Western allies since Ankara bought the powerful, long-range Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile system. The deal prompted calls in Congress for Turkish sanctions.

Fresh start

But a more confrontational approach by Washington toward Tehran offers the opportunity of a reset in Turkish-U.S. ties.

"I think the United States does not want to punish Turkey. I think the American establishment would love to befriend Turkey," said analyst Atilla Yesilada of GlobalSource Partners, a markets research and analysis firm. "But they need someone on the ground as insurance against Iranian expansion, and Turkey is simply not ready to assume that role. Until Ankara changes its view and decides to adopt a more robust or antagonistic approach to Tehran, Americans cannot consider Turkey a strategic ally, and I don't know if that change will come."

Observers point out that with Turkey bordering Iran and being a key Iranian trading partner, Ankara would be an important if not vital ally for Washington as it confronted Tehran.

Iran and Turkey have always competed for power and influence in the region but have tempered such competition with cooperation. Syria has become a focal point of this balancing act. Turkey's expanding military operation into Syria against a Kurdish militia is reportedly causing growing unease in Tehran. At the same time, the two countries are cooperating with Moscow to try to resolve the civil war, in what has been dubbed the Astana process.

"Ankara is not on the best of terms [with Iran] at the moment," said political columnist Semih Idiz of the Al Monitor website, "but they are trying to maintain this appearance of cohabitation within this Astana process relating to Syria. Turkey would want to tread very cautiously, in terms of whether to align itself with America against Iran."

Some Turkish analysts have suggested that Ankara's price for backing Washington against Tehran could be an end to U.S. support of the Syrian Kurdish militia, the YPG, in its war against Islamic State.

Ankara accuses the militia of being linked to the PKK, which has waged a decades-long insurgency inside Turkey. With the YPG controlling a large part of Syria, it is also widely seen as important to Washington's efforts to curtail Tehran's influence in Syria.

Tehran offers

But Tehran has also been courting Ankara with offers of expanding bilateral trade. The two countries also recently found common ground in opposing Iraqi Kurdish aspirations for independence.

Such cooperation also has raised hopes in Ankara of getting help against the PKK, which has its headquarters in the mountainous Iraqi Qandil region that borders Iran.

"Ankara thinks by befriending Iran, they can get PKK out of Qandil," Yesilada said. "Of course, there is the economic angle. Russia does the same thing to Turkey. They [Iran] dangle these massive economic projects or trade benefits, and Ankara gets fooled by those projects, even though Tehran hasn't done us any favors recently."

Ankara has in the past insisted it's bound to enforce only U.N. sanctions against Iran, not Western allies' measures against Iran.

Next month, Mehmet Hakan Atilla, a senior state Turkish banker, is due to be sentenced by a U.S. court for having violated U.S.-Iranian sanctions. The case continues to sour Turkish-U.S. relations, with Ankara calling the case politically motivated.

But Ankara could yet pay a far higher price for sitting on the sidelines in any future U.S. showdown with Iran.

Possible sanctions would give the United States "a very effective means to deter Turkey," Yesilada said. And "it's not just the Atilla case. There is the S-400, and the U.S. local consular employees under arrest."

The United States could "shame and blame Turkey" for any number of reasons, he said. "Given the Turkish lira is already extremely fragile, just the threat of imposing sanctions could have a serious impact."
Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in Kuala Lumpur Wednesday to protest a controversial electoral plan they say would benefit embattled Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak's ruling coalition ahead of an upcoming general election.

The protesters, clad in the yellow-color shirts that signify Malaysia's opposition forces, marched to the gates of Parliament before they were stopped by anti-riot police.

Opposition leaders say the plan will change electoral boundaries that will push opposition-leaning voters into larger constituencies, creating larger districts packed with more distinct ethnic majorities.

Prime Minister Najib will present the plan before lawmakers on Wednesday, where it is expected to easily pass in the 222-seat parliament.

Najib has been plagued by a multi-billion dollar financial scandal involving state-owned sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). Despite a strong challenge from Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia's 92-year-old former prime minister and Najib's one-time political mentor, Najib is expected to lead the ruling Barisan Nasional (National Front) coalition to yet another victory later this year. The BN has ruled Malaysia since gaining independence from Britain in 1957.
In Ernest Cline's novel "Ready Player One,'' the main character drives a DeLorean because of "Back to the Future,'' and uses a grail diary because of "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.'' The films of Steven Spielberg loom large in the story littered with pop culture references. That the legendary filmmaker then ended up being the one to take Cline's futuristic-nostalgic vision to the big screen is a small Spielbergian miracle.

"I hadn't read anything that had triggered my own imagination so vividly where I couldn't really shut it off,'' said Spielberg, who, with "Ready Player One,'' out Thursday, returns to the wide-eyed grand-scale blockbuster filmmaking that he made his name with.

The sci-fi spectacle with a reported $175 million production budget presents a near-future vision of a dystopian society that has all but abandoned the real world for an escapist virtual reality existence. In 2045, most people, including the teenage hero Wade (Tye Sheridan), spend their lives as avatars (Wade's is a cooler version of himself named "Parzival'') in the virtual world of the OASIS - a VR game created by an eccentric genius, James Halliday (Mark Rylance), who has promised his wealth to whomever wins and finds the "Easter egg.''

It's because of Halliday, who, like its author, came of age in the 1980s, that the OASIS is chalk full of 80s nostalgia from Atari to Buckaroo Banzai. It's also why Cline assumed that "Ready Player One'' would be impossible to adapt. How would anyone be able to secure all the rights?

That it ended up being Spielberg doing the asking helped a little, but producer Kristie Macosko Krieger is the one he credits for getting everything from Chucky to the Iron Giant in the film. She spent three years working with Warner Bros. to obtain all the necessary clearances from various studios. Some they didn't use, like the main "Star Wars'' icons (although you may spot an X-Wing or R2-D2 in a few frames), and some Spielberg just nixed himself, like the mothership from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind.'' He didn't want too many of his old movies in his new movie.

"There comes a point when I would have just had to defer to someone else who likes my movies and not make a movie about my movies,'' Spielberg said.

It meant co-screenwriter Zak Penn would have to lose a few of his Spielberg-inspired jokes and ideas that he'd written into the script before Spielberg signed on to direct, but he didn't mind.

"It would have taken you out of the narrative. He's too iconic a director,'' Penn said. "You'd be sitting there thinking, 'Oh, this is from a Spielberg film.'''

But everything was on the table, from the song Cline walked down the aisle to (the Hall & Oats song "You Make My Dreams,'' which plays during the credits) to a blink-and-you'll-miss-it nod to "Last Action Hero,'' Penn's first movie which he had wanted Spielberg to direct. Penn, for his part, had said "no'' to a proposed reference and was surprised when he saw one in the final cut. Cline had gone behind his back to persuade the folks at ILM to do it.

Most of the references amount to set-dressing, packing every frame in the OASIS with eggs that would take even the most eagle-eyed viewer multiple viewings to catch.

"My philosophy from the very beginning was, the story is out the front windshield and the pop culture references are out the side mirror,'' Spielberg said. "And it's your choice what you would like to look at.''

The production used cutting-edge technology to simulate the OASIS for the cast and crew with VR headsets that would give everyone a 360-degree view of what the virtual world looked like. And the film itself is a mash-up of past and present technologies, including motion capture, computer animation and even film stock, which Spielberg used to shoot the live-action sequences.

"It was just a small little touch because I'm trying to keep, you know film, meaning the chemical, the chemistry of film, relevant and I'm just trying, until they close the last lab and stop making raw stock, to shoot everything I can on film,'' Spielberg said. "It also gave the real world a more gritty flavor because when you shoot digitally, it's much more like acrylic. And film is more like oil. You get that blend between that world of oil and the texture that an oil painting has with the film and you get the very smooth, almost antiseptic clarity of what the digital world looks like.''

Lena Waithe, who plays the tech-savvy Aech, said, "I love that he did that. The movie really represents where cinema is going and where it all began, which is really beautiful.''

Cline's novel has already proved prophetic in the digital space. He says companies like Oculus and Google have copies on hand and, he's been told, give them to people who come through the offices. And he thinks the movie, which will play globally, will have a more significant impact.

"The best thing that could ever happen to a science fiction writer is to write something that helps inspire the people who make it into a reality,'' Cline said. "This movie could be a self-fulfilling prophecy.''

The OASIS, essentially, is not that distant of a reality. It's also something of a cautionary tale about the perils of VR, or as, Spielberg said how, "too much of a good thing is too much.''

Whether or not audiences will flock to theaters to soak up the nostalgia and the visionary tech is a big question. Waithe said the film is a feel-good escape, and Sheridan stresses that it's a, "great metaphor for the world that we live in in 2018 and the balancing act from your digital profile to your real world self.'' Early tracking pegs the film, which has received strong reviews, for a $45 million opening. Spielberg might not have lost his touch, but mass audiences might also be too distracted to notice.

As for Cline, he still can't believe his luck.

"I tell people I'm just prepared for it to all be downhill from here. What could ever top this? I'm so lucky, I got to work with one of my heroes on a story that he helped inspire,'' Cline said. "I'm just ready for the slow fade after this.''
For this ancient town on the southern edge of the Sahara, the flow of desperate migrants trying to reach Europe used to be a boon, not a burden.

Abdoul Ahmed, a 31-year-old mechanic in Agadez, measured the good years in customers. When arrivals in Europe peaked in 2015, dozens of cars came to his workshop each day to get their tires changed before setting off across the desert.

But since the European Union cracked down on migration a year later, his daily clientele has dropped to one or two. That earns him about $4, to be shared with five skinny teenage apprentices.

"Times are bad. There's no activity," he said, sitting along one of the few paved roads in Agadez, a mud-brick town where beat-up motorcycles outnumber cars.

For years, the old trading post in Niger has been a key stop for West Africans traveling north  mostly young men fleeing poverty in search of better opportunities abroad.

It is the place where migrants find smugglers to arrange their trip across the desert. Those ferrying the travelers earn hundreds of dollars for each person they cram into the back of a Toyota Hilux.

But smugglers have not been the only ones to benefit from the migrant boom, said Sadou Soloke, the governor of Agadez.

Cash from feeding, housing and transporting migrants fed thousands of people in the area and helped develop the impoverished region, he told Reuters.

That activity began to slow when Niger, under EU pressure, started arresting smugglers and posted soldiers across the desert in 2016. By late last year, the life had been sucked out of the once-bustling town, several residents said.

Now corners once crowded with merchants are quiet, and wide streets are empty even at midday. Men on motorcycles gather in patches of shade, waiting hours for someone to request a ride.

"We worry for the people who used to provide services to the migrants," Soloke told humanitarian workers last month. "Now they've been put in a risky situation too."

As more people move around the world  spurred by climate extremes, conflict and poverty  migration has developed an economy of its own, one many people rely on for an income.

That reality can make efforts to brake or shift migration harder  and riskier  to achieve, as they affect everything from powerful criminal networks to vulnerable people just trying to get by.

In Agadez, about 6,000 people who were directly employed in the migrant economy are now jobless, the governor said, while countless others  shopkeepers, phone sellers, mechanics  have also seen their earnings fall.

While aid agencies have swooped in to help migrants still stranded in the town, local people feel increasingly marginalized, said Ottilia Maunganidze, a migration analyst at the Africa-based Institute for Security Studies.

"The primary question they ask is ... why is the aid going to people who just got here, when in fact we are suffering just as much but we've chosen to remain at home?" she told Reuters.

Smugglers' earnings

Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world, ranking second to last in the latest U.N. Human Development Index.

Agadez used to survive on tourism, with Europeans flocking to see its 16th-century clay mosque and sultan's palace, until fears of terrorism scared them away, locals said.

Then the Libyan revolution that removed Moammar Gadhafi from power created a security vacuum between Niger and the Mediterranean, and migration surged.

Three years ago, 100 to 200 overloaded pickup trucks would leave Agadez in a convoy every Monday at sundown, kicking up dust as they sped down routes once traveled by salt traders in camel caravans.

Each trip to Libya could earn a smuggler about $5,000, said Giuseppe Loprete, country head of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Now smugglers charge even more, but overall earnings have plummeted since only a few vehicles make it past the checkpoints, he said.

"Communities are losing their main income," said Loprete, explaining that migration revenues sustained not only Agadez but other desert villages along the route as well.

His organization is running cash-for-work programs in the region, paying locals to help dig wells or install electricity.

Loprete said such efforts will "buy some time" until people are able to come up with more lasting solutions.

But nothing will replace the level of income they had, he said.

Eager to occupy people with something other than migrant smuggling, the EU is also funding alternative employment programs, offering to buy ex-smugglers equipment to start farms or carpentry shops, for example.

Niger is one of several West African countries where the EU has struck or is seeking deals to cut migration, offering development aid in exchange for tighter borders, and threatening trade consequences if there is a failure to cooperate.

Local government officials said they are counting on the jobs program, which has only just got under way.

Privately, aid workers laughed when asked if they thought it would work. Used to making thousands, smugglers are unlikely to settle for meager profits from a farm stand, several said.

"I think the EU is trying," said security analyst Maunganidze. "But the obvious challenge is that solutions have to be longer term."

Many former smugglers will likely take up other criminal activity, such as drug trafficking, to maintain their income, she said. Some may also be drawn to join violent extremist groups in the region, she added.

Niger is warding off violence on several fronts, with Boko Haram insurgents encroaching from the south, al-Qaida-linked groups operating to the west, and various militia fighting in Libya to the north.

Risk of unrest

Conflict has yet to break out between Agadez residents and migrants stuck there, but officials, aid workers and analysts say the risk of tensions is high.

The regional health department complained last month that three dozen local and international aid groups were providing health care to migrants, while none were supporting local people, according to one source who took part in the discussion.

Aid agencies said it was easier to access international funding by working with migrants.

"[NGOs] come with good intentions, but they shouldn't forget that locals are also in need," said Ali Bandiare, president of Niger's Red Cross.

Ignoring them "could create a situation that is unmanageable in terms of security," he warned.

Off one small street in Agadez, a family sat on a dirt floor in what appeared to serve as a jewelry workshop, convenience store and living room, all at once.

On the wall were faded pictures of the patriarch posing in his turban with smiling tourists, and a certificate received by a son last year for completing a course in traditional jewelry-making organized by the IOM, the U.N. migration agency.

Abdoul Afori, 20, found the course interesting, but said there was no one to buy his goods.

"No one has helped us," said his father, Mohamed.

Around the corner, car mechanic Ahmed scanned the dusty street as his apprentices slouched in boredom.

"With time, it will change again, God willing," he said.
U.S. President Donald Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, on Tuesday asked a federal judge in Virginia to dismiss an indictment brought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, saying the case falls outside the scope of Mueller's authority and is unrelated to Trump's 2016 election campaign.

Tuesday's motion to dismiss was similar to one filed this month in another federal court in Washington, where Manafort is facing a separate but related indictment also brought by Mueller.

In the Virginia case, which is scheduled to go to trial on July 10, Manafort is facing charges including bank fraud and filing false tax returns.

In the Washington, D.C. case, which has a September trial date, he is accused of conspiring against the United States, conspiring to launder money and failing to register as a foreign agent when he lobbied for the pro-Russia Ukrainian government.

None of the charges against him pertain to the 2016 presidential election or Russian interference.

Although Mueller is tasked with investigating whether Trump's campaign colluded with Russia  something Trump has denied  Mueller is also permitted to probe other matters that arise during the course of his investigation.

In Tuesday's filing in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Manafort's lawyers said the charges against their client should be dropped because they were not a direct result of Mueller's probe.

Rather, they said, the FBI already previously looked into the same underlying facts in 2014 before deciding not to pursue criminal charges.

In addition, they argued that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein exceeded his authority under Justice Department regulations when he drafted his order to appoint Mueller in May 2017 and that it gives Mueller too broad of an investigative mandate.

Manafort earlier this year also filed a civil lawsuit against the Justice Department, Mueller and Rosenstein making some of the same arguments and asking to have the indictment dropped.

U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson in the District of Columbia will hear arguments in the civil case at a hearing scheduled for April 4.

The two separate indictments against Manafort are seen as unusual. Normally such charges would be consolidated in one court, but Manafort has refused to allow this, which might be a legal tactic meant to make Mueller's case more difficult.
Peru's new president fell short of reaffirming that the Andean country will ban Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro from attending a regional summit Peru is hosting next month, saying on Tuesday that he would leave the matter to top diplomats.

Martin Vizcarra, who had been Peru's vice president, abruptly became president last week after Pedro Pablo Kuczynski resigned amid growing graft allegations.

A former Wall Street banker who once held U.S. citizenship, Kuczynski had been one of Maduro's most outspoken critics, deeming him a "dictator" and barring him from the Summit of the Americas that Peru will host on April 13-14.

Maduro vowed to attend the summit anyway, and his loyalists exulted over Kuczynski's downfall with a fireworks display last week.

But Vizcarra declined to weigh in on the dispute as he focuses on building support across Peru by promising to refocus the government's attention on domestic problems that had been neglected while Kuczynski struggled to remain in power.

After returning from a coastal region still reeling from severe floods last year, Vizcarra was asked at a news conference what he thought about Maduro's being banned from the summit.

"Our foreign policy is so delicate we must leave it in the hands of specialists," Vizcarra told journalists at the presidential palace. "The foreign affairs ministry is taking the corresponding decisions that we'll support."

The comment appeared to signal a more hands-off approach to foreign policy.

A spokesman in the foreign affairs ministry said its position of barring Maduro was unchanged, but noted that Vizcarra had not yet sat down to talk with top diplomatic officials.

Vizcarra promised a "completely new" Cabinet upon taking office on Friday, but has yet to name his foreign minister or other appointments. He said he would unveil his Cabinet next Monday.

Vizcarra said there would no changes to the agenda of the Summit of the Americas, which will celebrate "democratic governance against corruption" in a host country where three out of the four past presidents are subjects in graft probes.

U.S. President Donald Trump and other leaders in the Americas plan to attend the summit.

Vizcarra noted that various heads of state, starting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, had called him after he took office to reconfirm their attendance.

"We think the event in Peru is going to be a success," Vizcarra said.

The former governor of a small mining region, Vizcarra served as Peru's ambassador to Canada, as well as vice president, before he was called home to replace Kuczynski.
Russian former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a nerve toxin that had been left on the front door of their home in England, British counter-terrorism police said Wednesday.

After the first known use of a chemical weapon on European soil since World War Two, Britain blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for the attempted assassination and the West has expelled around 130 Russian diplomats.

Russia has denied any involvement in the attack and has said it suspects the British secret services of using the Novichok nerve agent, which was developed by the Soviet military, to frame Russia and stoke anti-Russian hysteria.

"We believe the Skripals first came into contact with the nerve agent from their front door," said Dean Haydon, Britain's' senior national coordinator for counter terrorism policing. "Specialists have identified the highest concentration of the nerve agent, to-date, as being on the front door of the

address," Scotland Yard said in a statement.

Skripal, 66, and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia have been in a critical condition since being found unconscious on a public bench in the English city of Salisbury on March 4 and a British judge has said they may have suffered permanent brain damage.

The attempted murder of Skripal, a former colonel in Russia's GRU military intelligence who betrayed dozens of Russian agents to Britain's MI6 spy service, has plunged Moscow's relations with the West to a new post-Cold War low.

After Britain expelled 23 Russians it said were spies working under diplomatic cover, Russia followed by throwing out 23 British diplomats. The United States and other Western countries, including most member states of the European Union and NATO, expelled over 100 diplomats.

Putin, who has been dealing with a deadly shopping center fire in Siberia, has yet to respond, though Moscow has threatened to take retaliatory action.

"An analysis of all the circumstances ... leads us to think of the possible involvement in it [the poisoning] of the British intelligence services," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday before the announcement by British police. "If convincing evidence to the contrary is not presented to the Russian side we will consider that we are dealing with an attempt on the lives of our citizens as a result of a massive political provocation."

After the United States broke a Russian spy ring in 2010, Skripal was exchanged for the 10 Russian spies caught in the United States.

Since emerging from the John le Carre world of high espionage and betrayal, Skripal lived modestly in Salisbury and kept out of the spotlight until he was found unconscious on March 4.

His house in Salisbury was bought for 260,000 pounds ($360,000) in 2011. Skripal was listed at living there under his own name. In the years since he found refuge in Britain, Skripal lost both a wife and son.

British police said they would continue to focus their inquiries around Skripal's home address as the investigation continued.
An attorney for President Donald Trump raised the idea of Trump pardoning two of his former top advisers last year as Special Counsel Robert Mueller was building a case against them as part of his Russia probe, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.

John Dowd, who was Trump's lead lawyer in the special counsel investigation until he resigned last week, broached the issue in discussions with attorneys for former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former campaign manager Paul Manafort, the Times reported, citing three people with knowledge of the talks.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at a press briefing that White House counsel "Ty Cobb is the person that would be most directly involved in this and he's got a statement on the record saying that there's no discussion and there's no consideration of those at this time at the White House."

Dowd did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

According to the newspaper, the discussions about potential pardons raise questions about whether Dowd was using the issue to influence Flynn and Manafort's decisions about whether to plead guilty and cooperate with Mueller's investigation into possible Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election.

The paper said in its report, however, that it was unclear whether Dowd discussed the idea of the pardons with Trump before approaching the lawyers for Flynn and Manafort.

Flynn later pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia and is cooperating with Mueller's probe.

Robert Kelner, Flynn's lawyer, and Reginald Brown, Manafort attorney at the time, did not respond to requests for comment.

Manafort is facing charges in two separate indictments charging him with a variety of offenses, including conspiring to launder money, tax evasion and failing to register as a foreign agent of Ukraine's former pro-Russian government. He has denied wrongdoing and is preparing for trial.

The discussions between Dowd and lawyers for Manafort and Flynn indicated Trump's legal team was concerned about what the two former aides would reveal if they cut a deal with Mueller in exchange for leniency, according to the newspaper.

Dowd denied to the Times that he discussed pardons with lawyers for the president's former advisers.
Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens is calling for the Second Amendment to be repealed, citing the protests in response to the deadly school shooting in Parkland, Florida, as an impetus for the change.



In an op-ed in Tuesday's New York Times, the 97-year-old Stevens writes that a constitutional amendment "to get rid of" the Second Amendment "would do more to weaken the NRA's ability to stymie legislative debate and block constructive gun control legislation than any other available option."



Stevens was on the losing end of a 2008 ruling in which the high court held that the Second Amendment gives individuals the right to own a gun for self-defense. He says that ruling has provided the National Rifle Association the "with a propaganda weapon of immense power.''



Stevens retired from the court in 2010, after more than 35 years.



President Donald Trump responded Wednesday on Twitter, saying, "THE SECOND AMENDMENT WILL NEVER BE REPEALED!"



"As much as Democrats would like to see this happen, and despite the words yesterday of former Supreme Court Justice Stevens, NO WAY. We need more Republicans in 2018 and must ALWAYS hold the Supreme Court," Trump said.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the Trump administration is focused on removing guns from dangerous individuals, "not blocking all Americans on their constitutional rights."



Repealing the amendment would be extremely difficult. An amendment to the Constitution can only be proposed either by Congress with a two thirds vote in both houses or by a constitutional convention called for by two thirds of the state legislatures. The amendment then has to be approved by three quarters of the states.
It could soon be cheaper to operate a factory of robots in the United States than employing manual labor in Africa. Thats the stark conclusion of a report from a London-based research institute, which warns that automation could have a devastating effect on developing economies unless governments invest urgently in digitalization and skills training.

The rhythmic sounds of the factory floor. At this textile plant in Rwanda, hundreds of workers sit side-by-side at sewing machines, churning out clothes that will be sold in stores across the world.

Outsourcing production by using cheap labor in the developing world has been a hallmark of the global economy for decades. But technology could be about to turn that on its head.

Research from the Overseas Development Institute focused on the example of furniture manufacturing in Africa. Karishma Banga co-authored the report.

"In the next 15 to 20 years, robots in the U.S. are actually going to become much cheaper than Kenyan labor. Particularly in the furniture manufacturing industry. So this means that around 2033, American companies will find it much more profitable to reshore production back. Which means essentially get all the jobs and production back from the developing countries to the U.S. And that obviously can have very significantly negative effects for jobs in Africa."

As robots are getting cheaper, she says, people are getting more expensive.

"So the cost of a robot or the cost of a 3D printer, theyre declining at similar levels, around 6 percent annually. So thats a significant decline. Whereas wages in developing countries are rising."

Theres no doubting the challenges posed by automation to manual labor in developing countries  but some are fighting back.

The Funkidz furniture factory in Kenya breaks with the traditional mold of production. Automated saws cut perfect templates using computer-aided designs, overseen by skilled programmers and operators.

The investment is paying off, with rapid growth and expansion into Uganda and Rwanda. But Kenyan CEO Ciiru Waweru Waithaka says she cant find the right employees.

"We have machines that sit idle because we don't have skilled people. There are many people who need jobs, yes, we agree, but if they have no skills I would love to employ you, but you need a skill, otherwise you cannot operate our machines. So we are urging all institutions, government, please let us take this skills gap as a crisis."

That call is echoed by the ODI report authors  who urge African governments to use the current window of opportunity to build industrial capabilities and digital skills - before the jobs crunch hits.
Romanian lawmakers expressed support for reunification with neighboring Moldova in a symbolic vote Tuesday intended to highlight close historic ties, but the speaker of Moldova's own parliament said his country cherished its independence.

Romania's parliament was holding a special session to mark the 100th anniversary of Moldova's joining the then-kingdom of Romania after World War I.

Moldova was then annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940 and became an independent state in 1991.

The small, landlocked country is politically divided between supporters of closer ties with Moscow and those who want Moldova eventually to follow Romania, its much larger southern neighbor, into the European Union and NATO.

Most Moldovans speak Romanian and have close cultural ties with Romania but the country also has a large minority of Russian speakers.

"Romania's parliament ... considers as fully legitimate the desire of those citizens of the Republic of Moldova who support the unification of the two states," the resolution backed by lawmakers said.

"We underline that such an act would depend on their will and we declare that Romania and its citizens are, and will always be, ready to welcome any organic move to reunification by Moldovan citizens as an expression of their sovereign will."

Barely a fifth of Moldovans favor reunification with Romania, according to an opinion poll conducted in December by the Moldovan Institute for Public Policies, an independent think tank.

"The majority of citizens today want Moldova as an independent state," the speaker of Moldova's parliament, Andrian Candu, in Bucharest for the commemoration of the anniversary, told reporters after the vote.

"But I want to assure you that Romania is increasingly more present in Moldova through the projects supported by the government and political class."

Romania has energy projects in the country and supports its long-term process of trying to join the EU.

Moldova's government, which strongly backs closer ties with the EU and the United States, is often at loggerheads with the country's pro-Russian president, Igor Dodon, who wants it to join a Moscow-led customs union.

Candu, who sides with the government, said Moldova faced many challenges ahead of a planned parliamentary election in November, adding: "We must be very careful to keep the country whole and on the path to the European Union."
Tens of thousands of Saudi students studying abroad will each be receiving $2,000 from the government to support their education.

King Salman approved on Wednesday a recommendation made by his son and heir, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to grant students abroad on government scholarships and those studying at their own expense the financial boost.

The state-run Saudi Press Agency also reported that the king approved another recommendation to expand the country's overseas scholarship program to include Saudi students who meet certain requirements and are studying abroad at their own expense.

In 2016, the kingdom began restricting its generous multibillion-dollar overseas scholarship program in an effort to slash government spending.

Saudi media report there are currently 90,000 Saudis studying on government scholarships abroad, compared to more than 200,000 in 2014.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who campaigned against economic agreements he considered unfair to America has his first trade deal.

The United States and South Korea have agreed to revise their sweeping six-year-old trade pact which was completed during the administration of Trumps predecessor, Barack Obama.

The agreement will significantly strengthen the economic and national security relationships between the United States and South Korea, according to a senior administration official in Washington.

Trump had threatened to scrap the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA), calling it horrible. But officials of his administration on Tuesday confirmed key aspects of the agreement which officials in Seoul had announced the previous day.

When this is finalized it will be the first successful renegotiation of a trade agreement in U.S. history, according to a senior U.S. official.

The tentative agreement between the United States and its sixth largest trading partner and a critical security ally in Asia comes at a time of fast-moving developments on the Korean peninsula.

In exchange for terms more favorable to American automakers, South Korea  the third largest steel exporter to the United States  is being exempted for recently announced heavy tariffs on steel rolled out by Trump. South Korea will also limit to about 2.7 million tons per year shipments of steel to the United States.

This is a huge win, a senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters on a conference call Tuesday evening.

Trump last week also temporarily excluded other trade partners, including Canada, the European Union and Mexico from the announced import duties of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum, which came into effect on Friday.

Under the revisions to be made the KORUS FTA, South Korea is to allow American carmakers to double to 50,000 the number of vehicles that meet U.S. safety standards to Korea annually even though they do not comply with various local standards.

The revisions to the KORUS FTA benefit both countries as they addressed the United States' primary concern in autos trade, opening the South Korean market to additional exports of U.S. autos, Troy Stangarone, the senior director of congressional affairs and trade at the Korea Economic Institute in Washington, tells VOA. For South Korea, they addresses concerns in the dispute settlement process, while the overall revisions remained relatively narrow in scope. The agreement also takes a potentially contentious issue off of the table as the United States and South Korea prepare for critical talks with North Korea.

Vehicle emissions standards will also be eased for U.S. vehicles imported from 2021 to 2025.

The Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association immediately called on Seoul to also ease environmental and safety standards for domestic vehicle manufacturers to offer a level playing field."

The balance is heavily in favor of South Korea. According to U.S. government statistics, Americans bought $16 billion worth of passenger cars while such purchases made by South Koreans totaled just $1.5 billion.

The United States, under the revised deal, will also maintain tariffs on exports of South Korean pick-up trucks until 2041, an extension from the previously agreed 2021. However, no South Korean manufacturer is currently exporting such vehicles to the U.S. market.

U.S. officials also say that South Korea has agreed to recognize U.S. standards for auto parts.

They will reduce some of the burdensome labeling requirements when it comes to auto parts, a senior U.S. official told reporters.

The apparent settlement of the trade dispute comes before a planned meeting between the leaders of rival South and North Korea. Trump has also accepted an invitation relayed by the South from the Norths leader, Kim Jong Un, to meet with the U.S. president. The White House on Tuesday said planning for such a summit is still proceeding but no location or date has been decided. State Department official say they are unsure it will happen by May as previously announced.

The rival Koreas have no diplomatic relations and technically remain at war since a 1953 armistice signed by armies of China and North Korea with the United Nations Command, led by the United States.
U.S. President Donald Trump says there is "a good chance" North Korea leader Kim Jong Un will do "what is right for his people and for humanity" by moving to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.



In a Twitter post early Wednesday, Trump said he looks forward to his planned meeting with Kim but emphasized the need to keep up "maximum sanctions and pressure" in the meantime.

China said during Kim's secretive visit to Beijing, he confirmed his commitment to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula and engage in talks with the United States and South Korea.



According to China's official Xinhua news agency, Kim made the unofficial visit from Sunday through Wednesday and met with Chinese President Xi Jinping.



Trump said Xi sent him a message saying his meeting with Kim went well and that the North Korea leader looked forward to meeting with Trump.

In another post, Trump touted his approach toward North Korea.

Kim-Xi Meeting

In the wake of the Kim-Xi meeting, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Wednesday the White House is cautiously optimistic, and feels "things are moving in the right direction," adding the meeting between Kim and Xi is a "good indication the maximum pressure campaign has been working."



Sanders noted it was Kim's first trip abroad since becoming the leader of North Korea, and the White House consider that to be another "positive sign that the maximum pressure campaign is continuing to work."



Regarding whether the meeting is on track to take place in May, Sanders told reporters the White House wants to make sure "it is done as soon as we can," but "we also want to make sure it's done properly, and we're working towards that goal."

Kim's visit to China was shrouded in secrecy and confirmed by Chinese state media Xinhua News Agency only after Kim had left the country.



According Xinhua's report, the two leaders reiterated the importance of maintaining the close China-North Korea alliance.



Denuclearization

On the issue of denuclearization, Xi told Kim that China "sticks to the goal of denuclearization of the peninsula," according to Xinhua.

The agency said Kim replied that he is prepared to resolve "the issue of the denuclearization" as long as South Korea and the United States "respond to our efforts with goodwill, create an atmosphere of peace and stability, while taking progressive and synchronous measures for the realization of peace."

We have to understand very clearly what Kims phrase means, Richard C. Bush, Director of Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies of the Brookings Institution told VOA. "Based on how North Korea has elaborated on its conditions in the past, it probably means, at some point, the end of U.S.-R.O.K. alliance, the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Korean Peninsula, the end of the U.S. nuclear umbrella.



"None of these things are something American or South Korean government would contemplate," Bush said.

WATCH: White House Sees Kim Jong Un Visit to China as Positive Step





"It is not a bad thing North Korea is again talking about denuclearization, on the other hand, based on how we understand how they define that objective, the U.S. should be very careful," he added.



The North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Wednesday reported on Kim's visit to China, but did not mention a promise to denuclearize or the upcoming summits with the U.S. and South Korea.

China 'can't be left out'

Dennis Wilder, professor of Asian Studies at Georgetown University and former special assistant to the president and senior director for East Asian Affairs at the National Security Council, spoke with VOA following the announcement earlier this month of the possibility of a landmark meeting between Trump and Kim.

He said the Chinese may be "worried about being left out, that somehow the U.S. and North Korea might come to an agreement without consulting with them."

Through the Kim-Xi meeting, China is "making a big statement, that they are part of this process. They can't be left out of this process, and that the Americans and the South Koreans need to remember that," he added.



Earlier this month, Trump agreed to sit down with Kim, whom he once called "little rocket man," to discuss ending North Korea's nuclear program.



Outgoing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said a "dramatic" and surprising change of posture by the North Korean leader led Trump to agree to the meeting. Trump said while he consulted with others, he made this decision to meet with Kim by himself.

In the past two years, North Korea has launched numerous medium and long-range ballistic missiles and conducted two nuclear tests, in large part to develop an capability to target U.S. mainland cities with a nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missile.



In response, the Trump administration employed what it called a "maximum pressure strategy," and led international efforts to pressure Pyongyang to halt its nuclear program by imposing tough sanctions that ban billions of dollars worth of North Korean coal, iron ore, clothing products and seafood exports. The Trump administration has also said that, if necessary, it is prepared to use military force to eliminate the nuclear threat.



In the last few months, Kim made a dramatic shift from his nonnegotiable position that North Korea is now a nuclear weapons state. Instead, he suspended nuclear and missile tests, participated in the Pyeongchang Olympics in South Korea, and offered to engage in nuclear talks. He is expected to meet with South Korean President Moon Jae-in next month and with Trump by May.
U.S. authorities are beefing up enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the U.S. anti-foreign bribery law, bringing an ever larger number of corporate corruption cases in close coordination with foreign law enforcement agencies.

In the last two years, the U.S. Justice Department and U.S. the Securities and Exchange Commission, the two agencies responsible for implementing the law, working with foreign law enforcement agencies, have brought enforcement actions against eight multinational companies, more than the previous years combined, according to Justice Department officials.

The surge is part of a growing trend in the war on corporate graft. Prior to 2016, there had been only two such cases. But as more countries have adopted anti-foreign bribery laws in recent years and cooperation between international law enforcement authorities has increased, so too have coordinated prosecutions of corporate corruption.

"I think that speaks both to the level of cooperation that we're getting from other countries but also speaks to the engagement of foreign countries now," a Justice Department official said.

FCPA enacted

Congress enacted the FCPA in 1977 in response to disclosures that U.S. companies were paying millions of dollars in bribes to foreign officials to obtain business deals. The law was later amended, giving the Justice Department and the SEC broad jurisdiction over foreign companies that have subsidiaries in the United States or trade on U.S. stock exchanges.



Before he came to office, President Donald Trump was a harsh critic of FCPA, calling it a "horrible law" that made it difficult for U.S. companies to compete overseas. That led many to predict that anti-foreign bribery enforcement would take a back seat under his administration.



But the speculation has not been borne out. While enforcement actions slowed down during the first half of last year, they picked up during the second six months. In total, 11 companies paid nearly $2 billion last year to resolve corruption charges, according to the FCPA Blog.



"There has been no change in the way we approach" FCPA enforcement, with a dedicated Justice Department unit and three FBI corruption squads, another Justice Department official said



Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity.



Still, some critics worry that the Trump administration may try to go soft on Wall Street.



"We're following very, very closely whether or not the Trump administration is going to take steps to weaken FCPA enforcement," said Raymond Baker, president of Global Financial Integrity in Washington and an authority on corporate corruption.



Cross-border investigations and prosecutions of foreign bribery are not new but they've increased in recent years as a number of countries, under growing public pressure, have passed legislation to crack down on corporate crime: the U.K. in 2010, Brazil in 2014, the Netherlands in 2015, and France and Mexico in 2017.



"Certainly, there has been a big push by the U.S. (Justice Department) and the SEC to get foreign countries to engage in this foreign bribery fight and I think it's been met with a lot of success," the official said.



Major cases



The push resulted in four major multi-jurisdictional cases last year, brought by law enforcement agencies in six countries in cooperation with dozens of other nations.



In January, British engineering group Rolls-Royce agreed to pay $800 million in penalties to U.S., U.K. and Brazilian authorities to settle charges of bribing officials in a dozen countries in exchange for confidential information and securing lucrative business deals.

In September, Stockholm-based telecom firm Telia Company AB agreed to pay a record $965 million to U.S., Swedish and Dutch authorities resolve an investigation into bribing Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of Uzbekistan's late president, to win lucrative telecom contracts in the Central Asian nation.



In November, Dutch oil services company SBM Offshore N.V. agreed to pay $475 million to Dutch, Brazilian, and U.S. authorities to settle a case related to making illegal payments to officials in Angola, Brazil, Equatorial Guinea, Iraq and Kazakhstan.



And in December, Keppel Offshore and Marine Ltd, a Singapore-based operator of shipyards, agreed to pay more than $422 million to Singapore, U.S. and Brazilian authorities to resolve charges of paying millions of dollars in bribes to officials in Brazil.

In each case, authorities coordinated their investigations and enforcement actions. And in each case, authorities acknowledged receiving significant investigative assistance from their foreign counterparts. In the case of Telia, for example, U.S. and Dutch authorities named nearly a dozen countries that provided "valuable assistance" with the investigation.



The Telia case "demonstrates the Department's cooperative posture with its foreign counterparts to stamp out international corruption and to reach fair, appropriate and coordinated resolutions," Then Acting Assistant Attorney General Blanco said in announcing the settlement.



Over the past five years, foreign requests for evidence and information to support foreign bribery investigations have increased 147 percent while U.S. requests for foreign assistance have surged by 75 percent, then Acting Principal Assistant Attorney General Trevor McFadden said at an anti-corruption conference in Brazil last year.



"Increasingly, prosecutors around the world understand that investigating and prosecuting transnational crime necessitates transnational cooperation," McFadden said.



Sharing of information



Where formal information sharing mechanisms prove slow, investigators rely on personal relationships with their counterparts to share leads, witness identities, details from cooperating defendants, and other types of evidence, Patrick Stokes, a former head of the Justice Department's FCPA Unit, wrote in Law 360 last year.



For multinational companies, the escalating international drive to clamp down on corruption carries great risk. Not only can they face criminal charges for the same misconduct in multiple jurisdictions but they also have to pony up hefty penalties.



The fines, which often run in the hundreds of millions of dollars, have fueled criticism that FCPA enforcement has become a cash cow system lets companies off the hook in exchange for paying penalties.



The Justice Department's increased scrutiny of corporate corruption has also been criticized for punishing the shareholders of publicly traded companies while not holding corrupt executives to account.



In response, the Justice Department instituted a new policy three years ago to prioritize prosecuting executives in corporate corruption cases.



That policy has continued under the Trump administration. Last year, 21 individuals were convicted of or pleaded guilty to FCPA-related charges, more than any other year in the history of the law, according to Justice Department officials. In addition, seven others were charged, including five people in connection with the Rolls Royce bribery scheme.



"Effective deterrence of corporate corruption requires prosecution of culpable individuals," Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said at the 34th international conference on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in November. "We should not just announce large corporate fines and celebrate penalizing shareholders."
A high-ranking al-Qaida official was one of two terrorists killed in a joint U.S.-Libyan airstrike Saturday in southwestern Libya.

U.S officials had previously acknowledged the strike, near the town of Ubari, but had said only that two terrorists were killed.

U.S. Africa Command confirmed Wednesday that the strike, the first of its kind to target al-Qaida in Libya, killed Musa Abu Dawud, who trained members of the Libyan branch of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

AFRICOM also said Dawud provided AQIM with weapons and logistical and financial support, enabling the group to threaten and attack U.S. and Western interests in the region.

An al-Qaida-aligned jihadist also confirmed Wednesday the death of Dawud in a U.S. strike, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist threat alerts.

In May 2016, the United States named Dawud a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, a designation reserved for those who have committed, or are at risk of committing, terrorist acts against the U.S.

Previous U.S. airstrikes in Libya have focused on the Islamic State terror group, which at its peak numbered in the low thousands.

Still, U.S. defense and intelligence officials have long warned that despite its rapid rise, IS was always a smaller player in Libya, dwarfed by terror groups like AQIM, which have older ties to the region.

Al-Qaida has taken advantage of areas in Libya to establish sanctuaries for plotting, inspiring and directing terror attacks, a U.S. defense official said Wednesday.

Former AQIM operatives from Libya, acting under the banner of Al-Mourabitoun, were previously tied to the 2013 attack on the In Amenas gas plant in Algeria that left 67 people dead.

Defense officials also blame al-Qaida for the September 2012 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador Christopher Stephens and three other Americans.
Russian forces in Syria came close to clashing with the United States and U.S.-backed forces in the western part of the country but fell back following a phone call between a top Russian general and the top-ranking U.S. military officer.

The incident earlier this week, east of the Euphrates River in Syria's Deir al-Zor province, came to light Tuesday when U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis shared his concerns while talking with reporters.

These were forces moving into more advanced positions, too close, Mattis said, calling them Russian elements.

Discussions between the U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford, and his Russian counterpart, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, defused the situation.

Those (Russian) elements fell back, Mattis said. We have also drawn off slightly.

The close call between Russian and U.S. forces in the region follows a clash last month, when Syrian government forces, along with Russian mercenaries, attacked U.S. and U.S.-backed forces in the same region.

The U.S. responded by launching a barrage of airstrikes that killed as many as 300 troops, including some with CHVK Wagner, a Kremlin-linked private military company.

Both Washington and Moscow have sought to downplay the February incident, though the Pentagon said it still does not know why the Russian mercenary forces decided to attack.

I still cannot answer that question, Mattis said. Obviously, they paid a very heavy price for that.

Efforts at the time to use to a special hotline to defuse the situation failed, as the Russian officers who answered the phone said the mercenaries were not theirs.The U.S. military said while they have no reason to believe the Russian officers who answered the phone were acting in bad faith, it is now clear the mercenaries answer to Moscow.

We think that the potential for a clash there, thanks to the Russian direction to this group, has been reduced, Mattis said of the most recent incident.

The U.S. has about 2,000 troops in Syria, many working with the largely Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces in an effort to eradicate the Islamic State terror group.

Pockets of IS fighters remained holed up in parts of the Middle Euphrates River Valley, and U.S. officials say efforts to clear them out have stalled, due to Turkey's military incursion against other Kurdish forces in the Afrin area of northwestern Syria.

Turkish officials, who say they are targeting forces linked to the PKK terror group, have threatened to expand the operation to areas like Manbij, where U.S. troops are based. But Mattis said so far, that has not happened.

There has been no move against Manbij, he said. We continue our dialogue with the Turkish authorities about how do we sort this out.
Efforts to bolster Afghanistans armed forces, along with an increased use of American air power, seem to be doing little to change the countrys reputation as a magnet for foreign fighters and jihadists.

Afghan officials have been warning for months about the flow of 3,000 foreign fighters, many of whom had been coming from Pakistan and Uzbekistan to join the Islamic State terror groups Afghan affiliate, IS-Khorasan.

Now, officials are warning of a new surge of jihadists, many coming to Afghanistan from places like Iraq and Syria via routes that lead through Pakistan.

There has been a growth in the number of the foreign fighters in the country, Afghan National Security Adviser Mohammad Hanif Atmar said during a visit to Washington last week. Were talking about hundreds of them coming from the Middle East through Pakistan, and other regional groups.

Afghan and Western officials say that while precise numbers are hard to come by, unlike before, the fighters are not focused only on joining IS.

Many are flocking to other terror groups operating within Afghanistan's borders, including al-Qaida, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement, Lakshar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad.

Afghan officials worry this current influx is helping to create a changing dynamic in which these terror organizations are forging new ties with each other and the Taliban, allowing them to collectively benefit, even as they compete for people and resources.

They have a symbiotic relationship with the Taliban, and the Haqqani and the drug networks, Atmar said.

The foreign fighters need Taliban as their local host and protector, he added. And the Taliban need them for their knowledge, their expertise and their resources.

Pakistan's counterterror role

Atmar and other officials believe Pakistan could help reduce the problem if officials in Islamabad choose to help.

"There will be no foreign fighters without Taliban in Afghanistan and there will be no Taliban insurgency without sanctuaries in Pakistan," the Afghan national security adviser said. "So, we need to see some action."

Pakistan, though, has been pushing back.

[Nearly] half of the country is a safe haven, Pakistani Defense Minister Khurram Dastgir said of Afghanistan, in an exclusive interview with VOA this week.

You dont control 45 percent of Afghanistan and dont know what is going on there, who is there, who is moving in and out of that safe haven, but you keep blaming us, Dastigir said.

U.S. officials say Pakistan has been somewhat more helpful when it comes to terrorism since President Donald Trump unveiled his South Asia strategy, freezing nearly $2 billion in aid unless Islamabad took more decisive action against terrorists operating along the border with Afghanistan.

But U.S. officials say they are still looking for more to be done, especially when it comes to Islamic State-Khorasan.

These IS-K fighters are primarily Pakistani Pashtun, General John Nicholson, the commander of U.S. Forces-Afghanistan, said in a statement last week.

Fighters flocking to Jowzjan

One area of ongoing concern for U.S. military officials has been Afghanistan's northern Jowzjan province, a remote area where IS has been relocating fighters from Pakistan and from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.

IS fighters from places like Tajikistan and Chechnya, as well as some from as far away as France and Sudan, also have been flocking to the area despite U.S. efforts to disrupt the group's operations there.

According to Afghan security officials, at least 80 IS foreign fighters are in custody, with discussions underway about whether they should be kept in Afghanistan or returned to their countries of origin.

Making counterterrorism efforts much more difficult have been the deep ties many of the terror groups have forged with drug traffickers.

They are all drawing on the criminalized economy, said Afghanistans Atmar. The drug networks need them. They need the drug income.

According to U.S. military officials, the Taliban alone are bringing in an estimated $200 million a year from drugs.

Afghan officials also suspect terrorists may be getting help from countries in the region and beyond.

They accuse Russia, in particular, of trying to strengthen some terrorist groups in order to weaken others, while peddling false narratives  allegations Moscow denies.

We also get concerned when they [Russia] claim there are U.S., NATO, Afghan unmarked helicopters bringing so-called Daesh from the south or even the tribal areas of Pakistan to the north of the country, Atmar said, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

Ayaz Gul in Islamabad contributed to this report.
U.S. and South Korean leaders need to coordinate their now divergent approaches to North Korea before their summit meetings with Kim Jong Un, said experts on North Korea.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in is scheduled to hold a bilateral summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un late next month. U.S. President Donald Trump said he will meet Kim before the end of May. The U.S.-North Korea meeting has yet to be confirmed by Pyongyang.

Moon has been preparing for the upcoming talks as an opportunity to strike what analysts call "a grand bargain," while Trump intends to open the process of talks by first testing North Korea's seriousness about denuclearization as the summit opens, experts said.

"U.S. and [South Korean] interests overlap greatly but are not identical. There is a need to coordinate summit planning so that there are few surprises," said Robert Manning, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council.

Seoul and Washington need to agree on "bottom line" issues and setting "boundaries" and pursue the summit with "a common strategy" by reconciling differences in their approach toward the summit, according to Ken Gause, a director at CNA, a research organization in Arlington, Virginia. Gause is an expert on North Korea and its leadership.

"Seoul will be more willing to offer incentives up front in order to get North Korea to buy into a diplomatic process that will conclude in the future with denuclearization," Gause said. "The U.S., on the other hand, will need to see good faith from Pyongyang on the front end."

Getting the U.S. and South Korea aligned on approaches is only one of the summit challenges that could doom the talks. For example, the U.S. and North Korea need to reach common ground on the meaning of "denuclearization."

The "grand" goals and visions that Moon laid out at the second meeting of the Inter-Korea Summit Preparatory Committee held last Wednesday were "to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, institute permanent system of peace on the Korean Peninsula, normalize the U.S. and North Korean relations, improve inter-Korean relations, and perhaps economic cooperation among South Korea, North Korea, and the U.S."

Optimism, sincerity

Moon has voiced optimism about the summit, which Trump agreed to have with the North Korean leader by May.

"The U.S.-North Korea summit that will be held subsequent to the inter-Korea summit is a historical event,  it could be followed by a trilateral summit," Moon said at the committee meeting.

"Although this is an untrodden path, we have clear plans as well as clear goals and visions to reach an agreement through summits among South Korea, North Korea, and the U.S," Moon said.

"If such meetings were to go forward, I think it will only mark the opening of a process by which the U.S. and [North Korea] try to address denuclearization, and it's unlikely to be the close," Scott Snyder, director of the U.S.-Korea policy program at the Council on Foreign Relations told VOA Korean.

"[Trump] is going to test the sincerity of the North Korean leader," said Dennis Wilder, former senior director of National Security Council for East Asian affairs during the George W. Bush administration. "I think that's exactly why the president agreed to this meeting. He wants to test his sincerity,"

Any chance for further U.S.-North Korea talks seems to hinge on whether Trump believes North Korea's sincerity about denuclearization, experts say. Otherwise, the summit could end without a plan for future talks.

"If the president and his team believe that the North Korean leader is showing some sincerity, then things will move on from the summit. If not, then they may not move on," Wilder told VOA Korean.

Testing North Korea

John Bolton, the incoming national security adviser who is replacing H.R. McMaster, has stated his readiness to test North Korea's willingness to denuclearize.

"Let's have this conversation by May, or even before that, and let's see how serious North Korea really is.  I am skeptical that they're serious," said Bolton, who was ambassador to the United Nations during the George W. Bush administration.

"If they're not prepared to have that kind of serious discussion, it could actually be a very short meeting," he said.

Bolton's views largely reflect those of the administration. Earlier this month White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, "North Korea made several promises, and we hope that they would stick to those promises. And if so, the meeting will go on as planned."

On Monday, Kim Jong Un made a trip to Beijing, according to the state news agency Xinhua.

Ahead of the inter-Korea summit, South Korea will hold high-level talks agreed to by the North on March 29 at the Panmunjom, the truce village in their shared border, to discuss the agenda for the summit.

The prospect for the U.S.-North Korea summit opened up when Trump agreed to Kim's proposal, which South Korean envoys delivered after visiting him in Pyongyang in early March.
Prosecutors investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election say they have directly linked a former Moscow intelligence officer to a one-time top political aide to Donald Trump during his successful run for the White House.

In a court filing late Tuesday, Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation appeared to draw the closest connection yet between Trumps campaign and Russia. It said Trumps deputy campaign manager Rick Gates was "directly communicating" in September and October 2016, just before the November election, with an operative identified only as "Person A," whom it described as having "ties to [the] Russian intelligence" service GRU.

U.S. news accounts of Muellers court filing said the description of the former Russian intelligence official appeared to match that of Konstantin Kilimnik, a Ukrainian-based aide employed by Gates and Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort when they worked for years as consultants on behalf of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who was toppled in a popular uprising in 2014 before fleeing to exile in Russia.

Kilimnik has denied having ties to Russian intelligence services and both Trump and Russia have denied any collusion to help Trump win the election. But the U.S. intelligence community reached the conclusion more than a year ago that Russia was trying to help Trump defeat Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton.

Muellers prosecutors said the link between Gates and "Person A" was "pertinent to the investigation."

The disclosure came in a memorandum ahead of next weeks sentencing of a Dutch attorney, Alex van der Zwaan, who worked with Gates and Manafort, before pleading guilty last month to lying to investigators about his interactions with Gates and the unnamed person.

Gates has pleaded guilty to conspiracy and lying to the FBI on charges related to consulting work with pro-Russian political figures in Ukraine before joining the Trump campaign and is cooperating with Muellers investigators.

His mentor, Manafort, has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy, money laundering, and tax and bank fraud linked to his lobbying efforts for Ukraine that predate Trumps run for the U.S. presidency.
Uzbekistan offered on Tuesday to host peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban, a move that could make Tashkent a player in settling the decades-long conflict in the neighboring country.

The former Soviet republic is seeking to raise its international profile as part of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev's campaign to open up the nation of 32 million and attract foreign investment after decades of isolation and economic stagnation.

"We stand ready to create all necessary conditions, at any stage of the peace process, to arrange on the territory of Uzbekistan direct talks between the government of Afghanistan and the Taliban movement," Mirziyoyev told a conference in Tashkent attended by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.

European Union foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini and a number of foreign ministers including those of Russia and Turkey, also attended the conference, but there were no Taliban representatives.

Last month, Ghani offered recognition of the Taliban as a legitimate political group as part of a proposed political process. He repeated the offer on Tuesday, saying it would "let ballots replace bullets."

Meanwhile, Thomas Shannon, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, warned that if the Taliban rejected the offer, "they will leave us no choice but to oppose them."

Mirziyoyev took over the predominantly Muslim Uzbekistan after the death in 2016 of authoritarian President Islam Karimov, who had run the country since the Soviet era.

Tashkent's ties with the West were strained under Karimov who was often criticized over his government's human rights abuses.

Mirziyoyev has promised to liberalize the country and has launched a diplomatic campaign to bring in foreign investment and boost trade.
Current and former U.S. and British intelligence officers say the West's collective banishment this week of 115 Russian "diplomats" will be far less damaging to Russian espionage operations than British Prime Minister Theresa May and American officials have argued.

And they warn tit-for-tat expulsions the Kremlin is expected to order shortly will have much greater impact on Western intelligence missions in Russia.

They say the Cold War-era picture drawn by author John le Carre in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, with Russian espionage in the West depending mainly on spies based out of embassies under diplomatic cover, is anachronistic.

Western expulsions will have only a very marginal impact on ongoing Russian operations, given the fact the SVR [Russian foreign espionage] and the GRU [Russian military intelligence] run their best sources very well, and they will have back-up communications arrangements for their assets, a retired senior intelligence officer told VOA.

The officer, a 30-year CIA veteran in counter-espionage who was a member of the team that unmasked CIA employee Aldrich Ames as a KGB mole in 1994, says in the Internet era, with hard-to-breach encrypted communications, human contact is less crucial than in the past, adding "they will easily be able to use traveling illegals to make human contact, anyway when needed.

Uncertain effect



Speaking in the House of Commons Monday about the wave of expulsions being announced across Europe and by the United States, which ordered 60 diplomats  most of them presumed to be spies  to pack up, Britains Theresa May said the mass ejections, along with the 23 expulsions Britain announced last week, would in effect dismantle Russias spy network in the West.

She hailed the mass expulsions  a collective reprisal for what the British government claims was a Kremlin-approved effort on March 4 to poison on British soil the former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia. She added the banishments amounted to the largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers in history  and May vowed never to allow Russian leader Vladimir Putin to rebuild an espionage machine in the West.

Western expulsions have never crippled Russian intelligence collection, says John Sipher, who retired in 2014 after a 28-year career in the CIAs National Clandestine Service, which included a stint in Moscow and running the CIAs Russia operations.

Sipher told VOA: The British expulsion of intelligence officers under Maggie Thatcher came the closest to hurting Russian espionage operations. The large number of Russian spies in the United States and Western countries has insured that losing a few doesnt really do serious damage. If you have 150-200 intelligence officers in-country, losing 50 is painful, but hardly debilitating.

The expulsions by Margaret Thatcher in 1985 came at the height of the Cold War.

Angry at the revelations about the extent of Soviet espionage activities in Britain that were revealed by KGB defector Oleg Gordievsky, Britains Iron Lady ordered out more than 30 Russian diplomats in a wave of tit-for-tat expulsions that only ended when the then British ambassador to Moscow Bryan Cartledge pleaded with her to stop because of the damage it was doing to his embassy.

Never engage in a pissing match with a skunk, he possesses important natural advantages, Cartledge advised in a telegram to London.

Previous Western expulsions



Cartledges advice is echoed by retired and current intelligence officers. Sipher says he doubts the Wests mass expulsions will alter Putins policies. Im not aware that previous diplomatic expulsions changed behavior, he said.

Sipher worries the West will come off worse when it comes to the impact on intelligence gathering and espionage, saying that is how it has worked with like-for-like expulsions in the past.

I dont think expulsions are as important as in the past but I do think they hurt the West more than Russia. The Russians are consistent and tough, and quickly toss out as many U.S. diplomats and intelligence officers. Since our numbers are much smaller, it has a disproportionately bigger impact on us. We in the CIA often argued that it made no sense to throw out 50 [for example] Russian diplomats since it would impact a small percentage of their capability, but would devastate our collection ability, he says.

Russias SVR and GRU have great strength in depth outside Russian embassies, Western intelligence officers say, running far more sleeper agents and other spies under non-official cover than Western agencies, and using them to establish contacts with academics, industrialists, and policymakers to gain access to sensitive and classified information. They can also be used to run logistical errands for deep-cover moles.

The Russian illegals program is meant to be a strategic reserve in case they lose capability in their legal residencies. The Soviet Union created the illegals program when they were young and realized that countries could break diplomatic relations altogether. They wanted to maintain their espionage networks even if the embassies closed, Sipher says.

In 2010, the FBI broke up an illegals program in the United States of 10 Russian agents, among them Anna Chapman, whose flame-haired good looks immediately attracted intense Western media interest. The 10 sleepers were swapped by the U.S. for Sergei Skripal and three other Russian nationals, who had been spying for the West.

The 2010 arrest of illegals in the United States was probably a blow to the SVR. I dont know how successful they have been in rebuilding the capability, says Sipher. If the Russians havent, then the recent expulsions from the U.S. may be digging into bone a bit, he adds.

A serving FBI counter-espionage officer recently told VOA there are concerns about Russian sleeper agents and "illegals" buried in the computer and contracting firms known as "Beltway Bandits" in the Washington DC area, mostly in northern Virginia, which have large government contracts.

Many covers



Another edge the Russian espionage agencies have over their Western rivals, especially when it comes to their rivals in the United States, is they have less restrictions placed on them when it comes to using traveling businessmen, academics, non-profit workers and journalists for spying activities and intelligence collection, say Western intelligence professionals.

Britain and France, which expelled four Russian "diplomats" are exceptions to this general rule  famously British intelligence secured a job easily at the Observer newspaper for double-agent Kim Philby in the 1950s when his MI6 bosses were trying to work out finally whether he had been working for the KGB all along.

Given the minuscule numbers of U.S. intelligence officers in Russia compared to their presence in the United States, we always lose disproportionately in tit-for-tat, said the CIA veteran who worked on the Aldrich Ames case.

He believes, though, that the 60 expulsions announced by Washington Monday in the short term should have some impact on the Russians developmental operations as there simply will be fewer of them out there hustling Americans.
Uzbekistan on Tuesday hosted an international conference on Afghanistan and offered to host peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban in an effort to help end more than 16 years of war in the country.

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev told senior diplomats from regional as well as NATO member states that his county was ready to host direct talks with the Taliban.

We stand ready to create all necessary conditions, at any stage of the peace process, to arrange on the territory of Uzbekistan direct talks between the government of Afghanistan and the Taliban movement, Mirziyoyev said at the conference.

The Taskhkent conference comes almost a month after the Kabul Process Conference in which the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani offered unconditional peace talks with the Afghan Taliban and pledged to recognize the insurgent group as a legitimate political party if it agreed to give up violence.

The insurgents have yet to formally respond to the Afghan governments offer.

Experts offer different explanations to Talibans silence.

Rebecca Zimmerman, a policy researcher at the RAND Corporation, believes the apparent silence suggests there is some space for negotiations.

In the past, they [Taliban] havent been shy about publicly rejecting talks for failing to meet preconditions, even while they have been having private conversations. So in this case, I think keeping a low profile means there may be some negotiation space. Zimmerman said.

Zimmermans analysis of the situation is not too far from the calculation of some in the Afghan government.

Optimism inside government

Mohammad Akram Khpalwak, chief secretary of the High Peace Council, a government funded body tasked with talking to the insurgents, told reporters earlier this month that they are waiting on an official response from the Afghan Taliban and that their sources indicated that the peace offer has led to high level deliberations among insurgents about what to do with the offer.

Afghan National Security Advisor Mohammad Hanif Atmar told VOAs Afghanistan service last week that if the Taliban need more time than they would grant it.

They [Taliban] neither rejected nor accepted our offer yet, Atmar told VOA. If they [Taliban] need more time, they can have it. However, they [Taliban] should be aware that each day by choosing to fight, they cut a day from peace.

P.J. Crowley, former assistant secretary for Public Affairs and spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State during Obama administration said the Taliban taking time to respond is not unprecedented.

Going back to the process in the early stages of the Obama administration, there was months at a time where we had to determine if Taliban representation was authoritative, Crowley said.

The fact that there would be a conversation and then there would be a lengthy period before we got an indication that there was a response or that there were actions that led us to believe that Taliban were serious, those steps took a long time, Crowley added.

Informal response

The Taliban did respond to a letter published in The New Yorker magazine by Barnett Rubin, an Afghan expert and associate director at the Center on International Cooperation at New York University, in which Rubin urged the Afghan Taliban to accept ceasefire and talks with the Afghan government.

Without explicitly referring to the peace offer, the insurgent group offered a rather cold response arguing that Afghanistan was occupied and that the Kabul Process was seeking the surrender of the Taliban.

Speaking to VOA, Rubin said it is not about whether the Taliban want to talk or not, but rather about who they want to talk to and about what.

U.S. says talk to the Afghan government. Taliban say they [Afghan government] are not the decision makers. That is not who overthrew us. It is the Americans. We [Taliban] want to talk to the Americans. It is pointless to talk to other Afghans until we [Taliban] solve our problems with the Americans, Rubin said.

So it is not talks verses no talks. It is whom do they talk to and about what, Rubin added.

Thomas H. Johnson, author of the book "Taliban Narratives" and director of the cultural and conflict studies program at the Naval Post Graduate School echoes Rubins assessment that Taliban views Washington as the real power and wants to talk to the U.S.

This position also corresponds with their narrative they have suggested since the beginning of the conflict and also served as an explicit informational response to Trumps suggestion that the U.S. will not negotiate with the Taliban, Johnson said.

Taliban presently control more of Afghanistan since 2001 and their power and influence appear to be on the rise. It is reasonable to conclude that many Taliban including its leader Hibatullah Akhundzada believe they are winning and thus see no need for negotiation, Johnson added.

Waheed Muzhda, a Kabul-based analyst with sources inside the Taliban believes their position has not changed in regards to talk with the Afghan government.

I think they [Taliban] have time and again said that they do not want to talk to the Afghan government because it [government] does not have the real authority, Muzhda said.

The silence does not necessarily mean anything positive in terms of Taliban accepting the offer, as suggested by some in the High Peace Council, he added referencing to officials remarks who suggested that Taliban are mulling over their response.

US position

U.S. wants the Taliban to talk to the government of Afghanistan and welcomed the Afghan governments gesture to offer unconditional peace talks to the insurgents.

There is a path to peace and stability with dignity for those members of the Taliban who are prepared to reject violence, end their ties with terrorists, and to accept the constitution and its provisions for minorities and women, Alice Wells, deputy assistant secretary for South and Central Asia told VOAs Uzbek service last month.




Israel and Iran, with two of the most powerful militaries in the Middle East, appear on a collision course that some experts fear could ignite a regional war that might ultimately drag in the United States and Russia.

The tensions are centered in Israel's northern neighbor Syria, where both Russia and Iran have been emboldened by their success in shoring up the government of President Bashar al-Assad. The war has occasionally spilled across Israel's borders, causing alarm in the Jewish state.

If a Hezbollah missile or mortar shell hits a kindergarten or a school bus  a terror attack that causes major damage in terms of Israeli lives  this would be a tactical incident that entails a strategic price, predicts Lior Weintraub, a former Israeli diplomat and now a lecturer at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya.

That would be translated into a significant Israeli retaliation and from there you might see a slippery slope.

Christopher Kozak, a senior analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, also worries about an incident spinning out of control.

Thats why I am greatly concerned in the next several months we are going to get, if not a total regional conflagration, then at least a more direct Israel-Iran confrontation on a new third front, he told VOA.

Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Lebanese Hezbollah have stationed resources along the eastern Golan Heights and deployed key commanders to the area.

Jerusalems liberation is near, hardline Iranian cleric Ebrahim Raisi said in January during a tour of the Israel-Lebanon border, where he was flanked by Hezbollah commanders and Iranian officers.

Weintraub says Israel understands there is only one reason for Iran to entrench itself Syria, and that is to build a launching pad for an attack against Israel.

Some analysts worry that the situation will only get worse if the United States renounces the nuclear non-proliferation deal (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), between Iran and the international community.

Beyond allowing Iran to re-initiate a nuclear weapons program, our trashing of the deal would send a signal to Israel that Washington would countenance something as bold as an Israeli military strike on Iran, Ned Price, a National Security Council spokesman in the Obama administration tells VOA.

That could well be the spark that sets the region ablaze, with Hezbollah then potentially doing the bidding of Tehran in locales near and far, says Price, who spent a decade at the Central Intelligence Agency as a senior analyst and then spokesman.

Acknowledging that tension and that "fears have been developing around the worst-case scenario, Pierre Pahlavi, assistant professor of defense studies at the Royal Military College of Canada, says war is not inevitable.

In February, the Middle East appeared on the edge of a wider war after an Iranian drone was shot down in Israeli airspace and an Israeli fighter jet was hit by anti-aircraft fire from Syria when attacking an Iranian base. Israel retaliated by hitting a dozen more targets in Syria, including four additional purported Iranian military facilities.



Even before those incidents, the International Crisis Group had warned that a broader war could be only a miscalculation away.

Pahlavi asserts that "neither Israel nor Iran wants to start a clash that would spiral up.

In Israel, Weintraub concurs but warns if the sword would be on Israels neck, then Israel will act. And if Israel will act, therell be a price for it. But when you fight for your survival, you do what you have to do, and you take what you have to take.



Last week, Israel openly acknowledged for the first time that it bombed a suspected nuclear reactor in Syria in 2007 and suggested the air strike should be a reminder to Tehran it will never be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.

"The Iranians are absolutely aware that they have no capacity to confront the Israeli forces conventionally, says Pahlavi, whose great uncle was the last shah of Iran. "I do believe -- but maybe it's wishful thinking, the Iranians will do whatever they have to in order to keep things under control."

Russia has an effective coalition with Iran in the Middle East while it is also interested in managing its relationship with Israel. That has allowed Moscow generally to turn a blind eye to Israeli actions against Iran inside Syria.

If Russia has to choose between Jerusalem and Tehran, most analysts see Moscow more closely aligning with Iran.

Do they go all the way to shooting down an Israeli jet? I don't know if theyd go that far, says Kozak.

Israelis express confidence they would not need American forces to help fight Iran, but they also do not expect the Trump administration to try to restrain them.

Weintraub notes that it is very visible to all of the Middle East that the United States stands behind Israel. It means a lot, in terms of national security, for the lives of Israelis.  But Im not talking about moving one [additional] American soldier onto the soil of the Middle East.

The United States military intends to keep forces in Syria, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in January, not only for mopping up Islamic State and al-Qaida fighters, but also as a signal to the forces controlled by Damascus and Tehran.

However, analysts say, Washington has effectively outsourced to Moscow the job of enforcing several so-called de-escalation zones in Syria, giving it the upper hand at a time of rising tension between the two countries.

Should any of its forces be hit by U.S. strikes, such as those conducted to punish Syria for chemical attacks, Russias military has issued an unprecedented blunt threat.

If lives of the Russian officers are threatened, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation will retaliate against missile and launch systems, said Army General Valery Gerasimov, chief of the general staff of the Russian armed forces, earlier in March.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone last week. Trump told reporters they discussed the Syrian civil war  which is the worlds deadliest conflict in recent decades  and that the two leaders are looking to meet soon.

Arranging such a summit may prove difficult as the climate of U.S.-Russian relations plunges to its lowest temperature since the Cold War.

Moscow on Monday vowed retaliation after the United States  joined by numerous allies  expelled dozens of its diplomats it considers spies, in response to a nerve gas attack in Britain that is blamed by the West on Russia.


MDC Alliance presidential candidate, Nelson Chamisa, on Tuesday met with the Carter Centre pre-election observer team, which is currently in Zimbabwe ahead of the forthcoming general elections set to feature for the first time in 38 years a new presidential candidate representing the ruling Zanu PF party.

In a statement, the MDC-T said Chamisa expressed dissatisfaction over lack of comprehensive electoral reforms, including failure by the government to overhaul the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission that is accused of being aligned to the ruling Zanu PF.

He further questioned President Emmerson Mnangagwas recent remarks that Zimbabwe will this year hold a free, fair and credible election.

Mnangagwa, who toppled Mugabe in what the former president calls a coup, will feature in the presidential election instead of Mugabe who ruled Zimbabwe for 37 years.

The opposition has claimed that the elections are always allegedly rigged by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission in favour of the ruling party.

Zanu PF has dismissed such allegations as baseless and emanating from bitter losers.

Zimbabwe has not yet aligned some laws with the countrys constitution adopted in 2013.

They include the Electoral Act, the Public Order Security Act, Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act and thousands other laws.

The Cater Centers application to observe elections in Zimbabwe in 2013 was turned down by then President Robert Mugabes government.

Mnangagwa has invited several international organizations to observe the electoral process this year in Zimbabwes watershed elections.

The Carter Center, founded by former U.S. president Jimmy Carter, has observed over 94 elections in 37 countries. The Center conducts its election observation work in accordance with the Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation and Code of Conduct for International Observers, which provides guidelines for professional and impartial methods of international election observation.

The Carter Center's election observation missions are international in composition, including expert delegates from a range of countries. The Center assesses the entirety of an electoral process against a country's own legal framework and international commitments to uphold standards for democratic elections.
Metro Colosseo to close on 30 March ahead of papal ceremony.

The Colosseum and Roman Forum are expected to close for security reasons at lunchtime on Friday 30 March ahead of the traditional Good Friday Via Crucis ceremony, led by Pope Francis, beginning that evening at 21.15.

A number of street closures and bus detours are also expected in the Colosseum area on the afternoon of 30 March, with the Metro B Colosseo stop expected to close by early afternoon. None of the exact closing times have been announced yet but should be available soon on the city website.

Security has been raised in the centre of the capital over the Easter period, with particular attention on the Colosseum area as well as the Vatican.

On 29 March, Holy Thursday, Pope Francis celebrates Chrism Mass at 09.30 at St Peter's, and at 16.00 he will say Mass commemorating the Last Supper at Rome's Regina Coeli prison, during which he will wash the feet of 12 prisoners.

Via Crucis at the Colosseum

Good Friday's Via Crucis ceremony, also known as the Way of the Cross, commemorates the passion and death of Jesus Christ through the reading of prayers along a path of 14 stations. This year's meditations have been written by teenagers in honour of the Vatican's upcoming synod on "Young people, the faith and vocational discernment" scheduled in October.

Pope Francis celebrates the Easter Vigil at 20.30 on Saturday 31 March at St Peter's Basilica, followed at 10.00 the next morning in St Peter's Square with Easter Sunday Mass. The Easter ceremonies conclude at midday with the pope's traditional Urbi et Orbi blessing from the balcony of St Peter's.

For traffic updates see the city website and for the pope's full programme for Holy Week see Vatican website. For English-language Easter religious services in Rome's churches check the Wanted in Rome guide.

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United flight 808 from Beijing to Washington Dulles returned to the airport shortly after takeoff due to a maintenance issue in the cockpit, United said in a statement. We are booking customers on a flight tomorrow and providing them with hotel rooms. We apologize to our passengers for any inconvenience caused by this delay in their travels.
Manassas city area, March 10. A woman reported that she was contacted on Instagram with an offer of $500 in exchange for use of her account for a promotional advertisement. The person said that to collect payment she would need to provide her bank account information. She did. The woman was later notified by her bank that three fraudulent checks had been deposited into her account.
The man authorities say was driving the truck, Brandon Figures-Mormon, has been charged with two counts of assault with intent to kill, along with other offenses, and is scheduled to go on trial May 6. The incident occurred about 9 p.m. in the 2400 block of 18th Street NW.
This week, the Canadian market internals are messy at best. We have so many things that are sliding so we should be leading off with the banks. They set the Canadian tempo currently.

The bear flag on the Canadian banks suggests more moves to the downside.

The Tech stocks north and south of the border are struggling. Canada's tech sector has rolled over as well.

Here is the Healthcare chart with a big influence from medical marijuana. Parabolic surges don't end well. This chart looks in jeopardy.

The $TSX looks firmly broken. This monthly chart needs an explosive move to stop the PPO cross. Look at the meaningful market responses to long term rollovers in the PPO. Look at the price action for the last 18 months in the zoom box. Failed breakout in January, huge thrust down in February. But March continues to make a lower close. We'll need a 200 point gain later this week to get back to unchanged. That's possible, but it won't eliminate the turn on the PPO.

StockCharts.com Bookstore has lots of copies of the new book.

Continuing on with the market review, the internal breadth measures continue to disappoint. The percentage of stocks on a buy signal continues to diminish. We are now at 55%.

The Net New Highs for both Canada ($TOHL) and the USA are still too weak to start creating another run at the highs. Notice how they can not rise back into bull market mode.

The $NYHL can't push above 80. Notice the comparison to 2015.

Here is a link to the video for the Canadian market. There is a lot of information packed in there this week.

I will have a lot more on the Thursday edition of Commodities Countdown Video. As well I will be co-hosting the MarketWatchers Live show all next week with Erin Heim. We'll kick that show off with Chip Anderson joining us on the air for some major announcements. It's a don't miss week for video at StockCharts.com. This is more exciting than Sergio defending at the Masters!

It's after market close on Wednesday and I have put out an important article on the US Dollar on the Commodities Countdown blog. Vicious Reversal In The US Dollar. That's a short must read!

Good trading,

Greg Schnell, CMT, MFTA.
Ohlman, who has now been sober for more than four years, said many drug users hit the same point, when the disease and the pursuit of illegal drugs crushes their will to live. Ohlman is among at least 40 percent of active drug users who wrestle with depression, anxiety or another mental health issue that increases the risk of suicide.
Due to the nature of this investigation, the extremely high emotions, anger and hurt in our city, I felt it was the best interest of our entire community, including the members of our police department, to ask the attorney general to be an independent part of this investigation, Hahn said.
More recently, the New York Times reported that Trump has grown frustrated with the Pentagons failure to provide him with military options for North Korea. According to the Times, Pentagon officials are worried that the White House is moving too hastily toward military action on the Korean Peninsula that could escalate catastrophically. Giving the president too many options, the officials said, could increase the odds that he will act. Sorry, thats not how it works in our democracy. We have civilian control of the military, and the president is commander in chief. If he wants military options, it is the Pentagons job to deliver them. That some in the Pentagon dont understand that is a greater threat to our democracy than Trumps temperament.
I'm not alone when I say that I've never been through anything like this and didn't see it coming. I had no way of imagin...
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In addition to throwing the EPAs doors wide open for corporate polluters, Pruitt has wasted taxpayer dollars. The extent of Pruitts excess is still coming to light, but we do know that Pruitt spent $43,000 on a soundproof phone booth, which the Government Accountability Office is investigating, and almost $9,000 to install biometric locks in his office and to have it swept for listening devices. He also tried to spend $120,000 to hire a Republican political consulting firm to track press coverage of the EPA, but that deal failed after it was revealed that one of the firms lawyers worked to monitor EPA employees critical of Pruitt or President Trump.
Gloria Allred, the womens rights attorney who represents Zervos, declined to comment on Avenattis move to depose Trump and Cohen. Allred told The Washington Post last fall that Zervoss case was not filed in order to take his deposition. Still, she said, her team intended to depose Trump if the case did proceed, and Allred noted that lying knowingly about a material fact is perjury, which can lead to impeachment proceedings. In our search for the truth, we certainly would want to take his deposition, she said in an interview at the time. And I always expect everyone to tell the truth when theyre under oath.
He said it took about a week for them to finally make the decision to move forward. In that time, we came out several times to scope out the area, and the more we scouted around, the more we loved the area, and what Stanley Martin was doing with the property.
There was dancing last night in the town. People were dancing in the streets and congratulating each other, said Andu Selam, an engineering student in the town of Mettu in the Oromia region. People have hope now that things will be different  if someone else had been selected, [the demonstrations] would not have stopped.
A disagreement emerged between Rai and Nix, he said, over where Indians data should be stored. We said the server should be hosted in India only. [Nix] wanted that India data should be hosted on his server. So it would be in their full control, he said. Alexander Nix never did any work in any election in India as far as I know.
A year before Knolls slaying, Sarah Halimi, a retired Orthodox doctor and kindergarten teacher, was killed in her Paris apartment, her body then hurled out a window. In 2012, three children and a teacher were murdered in an attack on a Jewish school in Toulouse. In 2006, Ilan Halimi, a 23-year-old cellphone salesman, was tortured by gang members who assumed his middle-class parents could pay a hefty ransom because they were Jewish. Halimis charred body was found by the side of a road three weeks after his abduction.
A GOP memo released last month alleged the Justice Department had misled the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to obtain the warrant by not making clear that one source of information  former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele  was ultimately funded by the Clinton campaign. Steele is author of the infamous dossier of damaging allegations about Donald Trump. He was employed to research Trump by the opposition research firm Fusion GPS, which had been hired by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee. President Trump has seized on the GOP findings to allege abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
Immigrants and their families facing a short-term crisis could have to forgo help to avoid jeopardizing their U.S. residency status. The proposal would also require more immigrants to post cash bonds if they have a higher probability of needing or accepting public benefits. The minimum amount would be $10,000, according to the DHS proposal, but it could be set higher if an applicant is deemed at greater risk of neediness.
HARTFORD  Less than 24 hours after Senate Republicans and one Democrat voted to prevent state Supreme Court Justice Andrew J. McDonald from becoming chief justice, Democrats asked the naysayers to reconsider Wednesday.

Citing an uproar among leading Connecticut lawyers and newspaper editorial pages, Democrats led by Senate President Pro Tempore Martin M. Looney and Majority Leader Bob Duff admitted its a last ditch effort to persuade someone among the 19 who voted to reject McDonald to possibly change their votes.

Republican Senate Leader Len Fasano tersely swatted away the request.

This is an extraordinary and historic action, admitted Looney, D-New Haven, during a news conference in the Capitol. However, in order to preserve the independence of Connecticuts judicial system and ensure that petty partisan politics does not infect the judiciary, the senate should reconsider Justice McDonalds nomination.

Under General Assembly rules, a lawmaker who votes on the prevailing side of an issue may ask for legislation to be reconsidered. It is a rare parliamentary tactic.

Duff, D-Norwalk, called arguments against McDonalds nomination unfounded. He emphasized that deans of the Yale, UConn and Quinnipiac law schools, the Connecticut Bar Association and dozens of other lawyers have vouched for McDonalds character and qualifications. Duff and Looney cited newspaper editorials critical of McDonalds opposition.

The Senate voted 19 to 16 on Tuesday against McDonald, a five-year member of the high court who would have become the first openly gay chief justice in the nation. Democrat Sen. Joan Hartley of Waterbury crossed party lines to vote with the entire 18-member Senate Republican caucus. At the start of the four-hour debate Sen. Gayle Slossberg, D-Milford, recused herself, because of a 2012 conflict with McDonald.

Democrats said they would contact all the Senate opponents about possibly changing their votes, Looney said. Fasano was certain the maneuver wont work.

Both Republicans and Democrats voted against the governors nominee, Fasano, R-North Haven, said in a statement. The vote is done. I look forward to learning who Gov. Malloy will nominate next.

Under state law, Malloy has five business days to name another nominee. With the Good Friday state holiday this week, the governors deadline is Wednesday, April 4.

Meanwhile, lawyers from throughout the state were stunned at the defeat of Malloys nominee.

Norm Pattis, a nationally known criminal and civil-rights lawyer who had warned that Republicans were threatening the independent judiciary with party politics, on Wednesday targeted Fasano, promising to work to defeat his re-election effort.

Fasano led the charge against McDonald, standing in the well of the Senate and parsing recent Supreme Court decisions in high-profile cases, Pattis wrote in his weblog. Fasanos entitled to his opinions, of course. We all are. But if you cherish an independent judiciary, the sight of Fasano playing eighth justice (there are seven justices on the Connecticut Supreme Court) was terrifying. Playing eighth justice from the Senate floor was a disgraceful performance.

Pattis pointed out that two major cases cited by Fasano in his criticism of McDonald were misinterpreted by the Republican leader, who is also a lawyer.

Ed Gavin, a Bridgeport defense lawyer who has represented other high-profile clients, said he is concerned about the new obstacles that are likely to interfere with the Judiciary.

I am embarrassed to be a citizen of Connecticut after the way Andrew was treated, Gavin said Wednesday. Do jurists have to get the green light from the legislature to make the tough calls they are trained to make? Is this a sign that judges have to make politically correct decisions, satisfying the agenda of whatever party has the majority, to get reappointed? A dark day for the people of Connecticut.
HARTFORD  The Republican caucus in the state Senate flexed its partisan muscle on Tuesday, shooting down Supreme Court Justice Andrew J. McDonalds bid to lead the court by a nearly partyline 19-16 vote.

The chambers 18 Republicans were joined by Sen. Joan Hartley, D-Waterbury, is a major blow to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who is not seeking re-election in the fall.

McDonald, who would have been the first openly gay chief justice in the nation, issued a statement after the vote that spoke directly to the identity issue.

To the LGBT community, particularly its youth who I know have been closely watching this process, I want you to understand that every minority group in history has faced setbacks, McDonald said. In the fullness of time, those setbacks usually end up becoming a source of strength.

Republicans said McDonalds sexual orientation had nothing to do with their vote, which was guided more by what they described as McDonalds liberal bias.

Without naming her, McDonald singled out Rep. Livvy Floren, of Greenwich for being the only Republican to support him. She sided with Democrats in the recent 75-74 House vote.

The debate started before noon  when Sen. Gayle S. Slossberg, D-Milford, left the Senate chamber, recusing herself from the debate and vote because of a 2012 conflict with McDonald.

Senate Republican Leader Len Fasano, who warned Monday that his entire caucus vote against the nomination, reiterated what has become a national Republican talking point about judicial overreach.

The issue is, as chief justice, what does he see as the role of the Supreme Court? Fasano said. If you dont limit that power, the court of last resort can take over the judicial system.

Much criticism of McDonald, 52, centered on a few key cases, including the 2015 high-court decision that extended the repeal of capital punishment for those on Death Row.

As Tuesdays debate entered its fourth hour, Malloy put the rejection into historical context. He blamed Fasano for attacking a legislative tradition that dates back to the 17th century.

During that long history, no legislative leader, let alone a member of the Connecticut bar, has nitpicked, parsed, and deconstructed the decisions of a sitting judge more than Senator Fasano did today, Malloy said. I join legal scholars and respected attorneys - both Republicans and Democrats - in condemning this outrageous spectacle.

McDonalds rejection bodes ominously for future judicial nominees, and the whole legislative vetting system, Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk said.

The process has gone down a p[ath we have never traveled before and once we cross the bridge, I fear we can never turn around. Duff said.

Sen. Paul Doyle, D-Wethersfield, co-chairman of the Judiciary Committee, which McDonald led for eight years as a state senator from Stamford, said that McDonald fulfills all the requirements for a chief justice, including his five years of experience on the high bench after being named by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy in 2013.

McDonald is a graduate of Cornell University and the UConn School of Law, served on the Stamford Board of Representatives, the citys Board of Finance and was city attorney under Malloy when he was mayor, then left the Senate in early 2011 to become Malloys Capitol lawyer.

Sen. Carlo Leone, D-Stamford, lamented what has become a familiar attack on expertise.

I dont know when experience became something not to be proud of, Leone said. It doesnt hold weight for me. We can argue about how he may rule. But he interpreted the law just like any other justice would. That is what the Judiciary and the Supreme Court is for.

Once the death penalty was repealed in 2012, Sen. Gary Winfield, D-New Haven, said, the writing was on the wall for the eventual declaration that it would have to include Death Row inmates.

I havent heard anything to this point that says to me that Andrew McDonald shouldnt be the chief justice, Winfield said.

Republicans said that McDonalds sexual orientation had nothing to do with their vote.

Sen. John Kissel, R-Enfield, co-chairman of the Judiciary committee, addressed claims that there is some degree of opposition to McDonald because he is openly gay.

This is not about Justice McDonalds personal views on how he wants to run his personal life, Kissel said. The story is about a handful of judicial cases. We dont want an activist chief justice driving this branch of government. Its a dyed-in-the-wool Democratic background that Justice McDonald has.
Kind and caring Breda was always thinking of others
In 2016, Winnipeg-based actress Tracey Nepinak worked on a double-drama for Theatre Projects Manitoba titled Reservations. In the second of two short plays, Nepinak had to recite an entire lecture on philosopher Martin Heidegger that might have challenged the memorization skills of even the most accomplished of actors. Bear in mind: most plays offer the benefit of give-and-take with fellow actors to break up the text and provide cues to the next lines.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 27/3/2018 (1276 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In 2016, Winnipeg-based actress Tracey Nepinak worked on a double-drama for Theatre Projects Manitoba titled Reservations. In the second of two short plays, Nepinak had to recite an entire lecture on philosopher Martin Heidegger that might have challenged the memorization skills of even the most accomplished of actors. Bear in mind: most plays offer the benefit of give-and-take with fellow actors to break up the text and provide cues to the next lines.

In her new play for TPM, Nepinak has all the lines, playing the title role of a Mennonite woman who is driven to the edges of her community because of a refusal to play by its rules.

"This is 10 times (the amount of text), or maybe 20," says Nepinak. "But I love the challenge. Its terrifying but its satisfying too."

Nepinak is not alone on the rectangular stage, a flat expanse interrupted by a rude bump at one end. Four other performers, actors and dancers, silently share the space, acting as chorus, or townsfolk or human props.

"Its a beautiful journey and its fun and exciting working with the dancers," Nepinak says, adding that the character of Crazy Bone is a compelling enigma.

"Shes an outsider," Nepinak says. "Shes a part of the community, but different.

"Shes kind of quirky. As you go through the play, you ask: Is she crazy or just different?

"She is just passionate and not able to fit into the structure expected of a 1950s-era housewife," Nepinak says. "Shes expected to play and she cant do it.

"I guess thats her struggle, coming to terms with just being who she is, and people not allowing her to be who she is."

Supplied Patrick Friesen was born in Steinbach, but these days calls Victoria home.

Playwright Patrick Friesen admits the character of Crazy Bone is based on his own great-grandmother.

"She was an inspiration," Friesen says. "I wouldnt say she resembles her exactly, but my great-grandmother has always been an inspiration in my life. She died when I was 10."

Friesen, 71, was born in Steinbach and lived in Winnipeg before his teaching career took him to his current home in Victoria, B.C. A Short History of Crazy Bone, which started life as poem, was as much a product of his Mennonite background as his celebrated other plays, which include The Shunning and The Raft, which were both produced at Prairie Theatre Exchange.

This drama, directed by Andraea Sartison, offers a poetic portrait of a misfit.

"She had been born in Ukraine, and came over as a four year old and had a rather dramatic life," Friesen says. "By the time I was born, she was quite old and staying with her grandchildren. Shed stay with us for a month and then stay with another grandchild."

Those month-long visits left Friesen with some vivid childhood memories.

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"Somehow, I absorbed something from her," he says. "I remember sitting beside her in the backyard shelling peas, with her old working hands into a bowl, in an old-fashioned dress from Ukraine.

"She was a trickster. I did observe that," Friesen says. "She had a twinkle in her eye and she would make people do odd things and they didnt know theyd been manipulated into a joke.

"Around a table, she would start an argument and then back away, and half an hour later, people would say: How did this start? And shed be sitting there smiling.

"I think I connected with her through all that stuff, as a teenager," he says. "She was a maverick, a rogue, and I latched onto that as a kid.

"I always wanted to write about her because I think, by her existence, she gave me permission to be a writer," Friesen says. "I grew up in a community where that wasnt the first thing you did."

randall.king@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @FreepKing
Apple is going head-to-head with Google in education, a market the iPhone maker helped pioneer but has let languish.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 28/3/2018 (1276 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Apple is going head-to-head with Google in education, a market the iPhone maker helped pioneer but has let languish.

For the first time in several years, Apple released hardware specific to education: a new iPad that squares up against Googles inexpensive Chromebook laptops, which have become popular in schools. Apple also introduced an education service called Schoolwork, which will compete with Googles Classroom software.

The new iPad has a 9.7-inch screen and costs US$299 for students and schools and US$329 for other users. It supports the Apple Pencil accessory, a first for a non-Pro iPad model. New versions of its iWork productivity apps will work with the stylus, which costs US$89 for students, US$10 below the regular price.

Apple executive Greg Joswiak called the new iPad "faster than virtually any Chromebook" during an event at a Chicago school on Tuesday. This was the first time Apple held a product launch geared toward education since 2012 when it unveiled a tool for designing e-books for the iPad.

On Monday, ahead of Apples announcement, Google and partner AsusTek Computer Inc. announced a US$329 tablet powered by the same Chrome operating system that runs Chromebooks. Most non-Apple tablets run Googles Android mobile operating system.

Apple accounted for 17 per cent of mobile computing shipments to American students in kindergarten through high school, according to data from the third quarter of 2017 published by Futuresource Consulting. Devices running Googles operating systems held 60 per cent of the market and Windows PCs had 22 per cent. While Macs and iPads make up less than 20 per cent of Apples sales combined, students and teachers are a key market to drive future purchases.

Marketing executive Susan Prescott announced a new app called Schoolwork for iPads that helps teachers assign work and monitor student progress.

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The iPhone maker also unveiled a new service called ClassKit, which allows developers to write apps that integrate with the Schoolwork service. This will let teachers send students to specific parts of apps to conduct classwork or access material. The new apps will be available in June, Apple said.

The company also said Apple student accounts through schools will get 200 gigabytes of iCloud storage for free, compared to the regular five gigabytes. Googles G Suite for Education service offers unlimited cloud storage, and new Chromebooks come with 100 gigabytes of free storage for two years.

With the cheaper iPad and new education platform, Apple is banking on changing its foothold in education, but the lower-cost tablet could also help buoy iPad sales more widely.

The new iPad still includes the Touch ID fingerprint scanner, versus Face ID 3D sensor system on the iPhone X.

But the tablet adds a new A10 Fusion chip which was first released in the iPhone 7 in 2016, up from the A9 in the previous low-cost iPad.

 Bloomberg News
Mike Mager, the longtime president of CAA Manitoba, has left the organization he has been with for 32 years.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 28/3/2018 (1276 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Mike Mager left CAA Manitoba.

Mike Mager, the longtime president of CAA Manitoba, has left the organization he has been with for 32 years.

Neither Mager, 60, nor the organization would say anything more than that it was a mutual decision for Mager and CAA to part company.

CAA Manitoba is a week into the organizations annual survey seeking public input to name the worst roads in Manitoba. Mager, who knows a thing or two about potholes, now may have hit a metaphorical one.

Tim Scott, the current vice-president customer experience and an eight-year CAA executive, is taking over as president.

In June 2016, CAA Manitoba members voted to merge with CAA South Central Ontario, which covers the Greater Toronto Area, to form what is now called CAA Club Group. CAA Manitoba retained its own board of directors after the merger.

In a lengthy interview with the Free Press in September, Mager spoke enthusiastically about how the merger would benefit Manitoba members and the operation of the non-profit auto club. For instance, road-side support dispatch call centres in Winnipeg and Toronto would be able to support each other and achieve reduced wait times shortly after combining the two call centres.

At that time, Mager announced reduced rates for members in a number of different categories and spoke about increased employment in Manitoba in the aftermath of the merger.

"Going forward, I dont anticipate we will ever have another fee increase unless something dramatic happens," Mager said in September. "This is only the first year (of the merger). We have not even recognized the maximum potential."

Liz Kulyk, CAA Manitobas corporate manager of government and community relations, said no other changes are being announced.

One recent former staffer said Magers sudden departure on Monday was a shock to everyone.

"Lots of employees are scared about their jobs now," said the former staffer, who requested that her name not be used. "Mike would always say we did not have to worry about our jobs (after the merger with South Central Ontario)."

Kulyk stressed that no other job losses are to occur.

Mager has long been a high-profile figure advocating for public policy and protection of the driving public. A week ago, he spoke publicly about new provincial legislation designed to crack down on distracted drivers who use handheld devices, which Mager thought was "a little soft."

Neither Winnipeg or Toronto officials from CAA Club Group would say the merger had anything to do with Magers departure.

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The merger took place to achieve economies of scale for both organizations, including spreading out the cost of new computer systems that South Central was investing in already and that was also to be installed in Manitoba.

Among other things, the combination of the GTA and Manitoba operations caused an increase in staffing levels at the Winnipeg call centre.

In September, Mager said CAA Manitobas staff would be increasing from 300 to 350.

CAA Manitoba has annual revenue of close to $50 million and was in good financial shape.

But with 200,000 members in a small jurisdiction, its membership was not likely to grow that much.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 28/3/2018 (1276 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NEAR SANFORD  Two years ago, the Vermillion Hutterite Colony near Sanford faced a decision.

The coal it used to heat its 100,0000-square-foot chicken barn was being phased out by government decree due to its high greenhouse gas emissions.

So the colony could either have natural gas installed, or look for an alternative energy source.

It was quoted $450,000 for a natural gas furnace, plus a cost of $100,000 a year for the natural gas.

But behind Door No. 2 was a lesser-known technology fuelled by biomass. The generator would cost $600,000, with the colony constructing the building to house it. But the annual energy cost would be much less.

'I'm incredibly inspired and enthused about what I saw today. We certainly do think this is a way of the future'  Manitoba Sustainable Development Minister Rochelle Squires

How much less? The cost has been $15,000 to $20,000 per year the first two years.

"Its already paid for itself," said Shawn Gross, the colony supervisor of the heating system.

Sustainable Development Minister Rochelle Squires toured the colonys system on Tuesday and liked what she saw, especially considering the colony was burning dirty coal just two years ago. The province is looking to meet with innovative entrepreneurs and promote greener technology.

"Im incredibly inspired and enthused about what I saw today," said Squires. "We certainly do think this is a way of the future."

The generator currently burns wood chips provided by South-East Pallet and Wood Products out of Blumenort. The wood chips would normally be waste material that rots and releases methane gas. Instead, the company mulches the waste wood and sells it for energy production, said company general manager Sjoerd Huese.

That makes the biomass system carbon-neutral. Power using biomass still releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere but those ill effects are neutralized by the elimination of methane gas the waste wood would have released.

The generators can produce energy out of corn, cattails, chicken manure and other vegetative waste materials. One colony is using cattail for some of its biomass energy.

Gross said his colony could use chicken manure from its barn to produce energy, but its more cost-effective to spread it on fields as fertilizer and buy the wood chips.

The biomass generators are made by SCW (Sturgeon Creek Welding) Manufacturing, a Hutterite business on the Sturgeon Creek colony just outside Headingley. A representative of the company could not be present for Tuesdays tour.

However, promotion of the companys biomass-generation systems is run by Triple Green Energy, headed by Ray Dueck, who spent years developing biomass technology when he owned Vidir Machine Inc. in Morris.

Dueck said about 20 of the generators have been sold in Manitoba, and 120 across North America.

Most of the generators in Manitoba have been sold to Hutterite colonies, and six more are lined up to have systems installed. However, generators using biomass have also been installed at Vanderveens Greenhouse in Carman, which has four of the generators, and Providence College in Otterburne. Strawboard manufacturer Louisiana Pacific in Swan River also uses wood chips in heat generation but with another system, Triple Green officials said.

Dueck said biomass could power other large farms, first nations, and public buildings like schools. Prairie Rose School Division is putting in a tender for one of the biomass units to heat the school in Ste. Eustache, and could put it into more schools, said Triple Green spokesman Ian Bank.

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Dueck maintained biomass could be used to power both heat and power for Headingley Correctional Centre. The extra cost for a generator is typically recouped within three to five years from lower energy costs, the company said. A screening system filters out 95 per cent of the particulate. In fact, no visible smoke is released from the Vermillion colonys furnace.

Shawn Gross, who is in charge of the biomass generator on the Vermillion colony, said the colony goes through about 25 tonnes of wood chips a week during peak winter temperatures. The colony only heats its barn with biomass currently. Its homes are heated with a geothermal system.

Gross said carbon credits would make the technology even more attractive to users.

Squires said the government is still putting together its system of credits.

"We are at the very early stages of setting up our system of performance credits and trading credits. So this was a really good opportunity to learn a little bit about this system," she said.

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca
Federal funding for round-the-clock services for at-risk Indigenous youth in Winnipeg is a dream come true, Thelma Favel says.

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This article was published 27/3/2018 (1276 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Federal funding for round-the-clock services for at-risk Indigenous youth in Winnipeg is a dream come true, Thelma Favel says.

"It was Tina's dream to work with children," Tina Fontaine's great-aunt said at the funding announcement Tuesday at Ndinawe Youth Resource Centre in the city's North End. "And that's why we decided that Safe Haven would be good, in her honour. She always said that children were our future."

Federal Indigenous Services Minister Jane Philpott announced nearly $350,000 in 2018 funding for Ndinawe and its Safe Haven program in Tina's memory. The funding secures stability for the agency's after-hours program and allows it to stay open 24/7 for youth at risk on Winnipeg's streets.

An additional estimated $280,000 is earmarked for the program next year.

Tina, 15, spent some time at Ndinawes temporary youth shelter during the summer of 2014. Shed arrived in Winnipeg for a weeklong visit with her mother, Valentina Duck, but decided not to return home to Sagkeeng First Nation.

Favel had asked Child and Family Services for help, and Tina was brought into CFS care. Tina showed up at Ndinawe on July 23, 2014, and filled out an intake form for a bed there. Staff at the shelter reported her missing twice less than a month before her body was pulled from the Red River on Aug. 17.

Tina's death, and the outrage it generated, reignited calls for the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls now taking place.

"Tina's story is familiar to most Canadians," said Philpott. "This story is one of the most profound examples of the shame of Canada. It's in many ways a sign of the neglect that's taken place for generations in Canada."

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Jane Philpott, Minister of Indigenous Services, announces funding to support Ndinawe Youth Resource Centre expansion in memory of Tina Fontaine in Winnipeg.

On Tuesday, Thelma Favel and her husband, Joseph, sat with the dignitaries in the youth centre's main meeting room.

Her voice quivered as she recalled her grand-niece, who she raised on Sagkeeng, 145 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg.

"I am just so grateful," Favel said. "I know Tina is here with us right now. I always feel her when things like this are happening."

At a place of honour by the podium stood a metal monument depicting a single standing rose in full bloom. The piece of art stands more than a metre tall, wrought from metal. It was a gift from R.B. Russell High School students Joseph Ginter, 16, and Trinity Harry, 17, who, with help of a teacher, created it in Tina's memory.

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The students said they had planned to give it to the Favels to take home to Sagkeeng. But in the wake of the February verdict that acquitted the man charged with second-degree murder in Tina's death, and Ottawa funding Ndinawe's after-hours program, the rose was given to Ndinawe to honour Tina's memory.

"This day has been a long time coming," centre executive director Tammy Christensen said.

Ndinawe first opened 24 years ago as a community resource centre for youth on Winnipeg streets.

"Over the years we've been able to open on weekends and holidays, but the funding's never really been secure. We are incredibly honoured we will actually have a true 24/7 place for our young people to go, so they don't have to try and find safety on park benches or behind the garbage bins in the backlanes," Christensen said.

-- with files from Katie May

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca
OTTAWA  Manitobas northern First Nations are moving ahead with plans to ultimately take over federal dollars and responsibility for on-reserve health care, forging a deal without the provincial government, after months of urging it to take part.

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This article was published 28/3/2018 (1276 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA  Manitobas northern First Nations are moving ahead with plans to ultimately take over federal dollars and responsibility for on-reserve health care, forging a deal without the provincial government, after months of urging it to take part.

This morning, the Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak will sign a memorandum of understanding with federal Indigenous Services Minister Jane Philpott on "health transformation." But unlike a similar MOU signed last July with an Ontario group, the province wont be at the table.

"Theres been some movement, but ultimately it doesnt seem like the province wants to work with First Nations on reserves," said MKO Grand Chief Sheila North, adding previous NDP governments also seemed reluctant to work on the issue. "That has caused a lot of unnecessary grief for our people."

The federal government pays for virtually all on-reserve health care, often through nurses that give basic treatments. Local leaders can run prevention programs, but have to navigate federal bureaucrats and programming that changes under the government of the day.

The current system also leads to jurisdictional squabbles over funding, when federally paid nurses work alongside band-funded crisis workers, and fly patients to province-funded hospitals.

The federal Liberals say theyre focused on giving Indigenous leaders more autonomy over health care. They argue local solutions often lead to better outcomes.

North has made health transformation one of MKOs key priorities over the past year, and Ottawa has offered funds for MKO to survey its communities and undergo pilot projects, such as a fly-in team focused on suicide prevention. But Tuesdays move escalates that process, for example, by tasking public servants with regular followups.

"It brings us to the table to talk seriously and meaningfully to move towards those changes," North said.

Months ago, MKO presented a draft tripartite agreement to Ottawa and the provincial government, but never heard back from Manitoba Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen. His office confirmed Tuesday receiving MKOs proposal in February; its unclear why the minister did not respond.

North raised the idea in a meeting with Premier Brian Pallister last July, saying it could fit into the governments sweeping health-care reform. Since then, neither Pallister, Goertzen nor health department staff have outlined any movement on the file.

"There seems to be hesitation, and only they can answer the reasons why," she said.

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North said the previous NDP government had only limited enthusiasm for health devolution, and she was encouraged Manitoba technicians will meet next month with MKO staff, something Goertzens office confirmed.

"Departmental officials from Manitoba Health, Seniors and Active Living will be meeting with representatives from the MKO next month to discuss the organizations clinical care proposal in greater detail," spokesman Kevin Engstrom wrote.

North said the MOU could ultimately mean more First Nations employed in health-care jobs, oversight bodies lead by First Nations people and tribal leaders deciding how to prioritize health dollars, instead of the current piecemeal process that goes through federal bureaucrats.

"We want to be able to have the ability to bring the accountability to the First Nations, rather than just to Ottawa," she said.

"We dont have a choice; otherwise our people will get sicker, theyll die faster and sooner and theyll be suffering needlessly if we dont do this. Its our responsibility to take back the health of our people."

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca
OTTAWA  The federal and provincial governments spent more than $400,000 to subsidize food flown to Churchill last year  roughly $450 per resident  as the town enters its tenth month without its railway lifeline.

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This article was published 28/3/2018 (1275 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA  The federal and provincial governments spent more than $400,000 to subsidize food flown to Churchill last year  roughly $450 per resident  as the town enters its tenth month without its railway lifeline.

This week, Ottawa extended its Nutrition North Canada subsidy, continuing a temporary measure it had put in place last July with the original intention of ending this month.

The Free Press has learned both levels of government spent a total of $400,256 last year to subsidize food flown into town, as well as some barge shipments before last falls freeze-up.

On May 23, 2017, flooding washed out sections of the Hudson Bay Railway between Gillam and Churchill. That started a standoff between the railways American owner Omnitrax and the federal government, which continues to drag through Manitoba court and a federal regulator probe.

The province has subsidized fresh food in Churchill through its AFFIRM program since October 2015. Last July, the provincial government increased the subsidy to deal with the rail disruption.

The federal NNC program tops up the provincial AFFIRM subsidy.

"Together, the subsidies will help to lower the high cost of perishable, nutritious food for residents of Churchill until the rail line is operational," wrote Martine Stevens, spokesperson for the department of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs.

Churchills NNC subsidy also includes non-food items such as drugs and toiletries, she said.

"The community will be eligible for Nutrition North Canada until the rail service is operational since it meets the program criteria for isolation."

Ottawa says it paid about $174,000 to subsidize food to the town between July and December, 2017. The provincial health department says it spent $226,256 in AFFIRM subsidies for Churchill in 2017.

The 2016 census counted 899 people in the town, which means the 2017 subsidies amount to $445.23 per person, though the amount spent per person is likely higher because some families have moved south since the rail disruption last May.

Churchill Mayor Mike Spence welcomed Ottawas NNC extension, but said he was focused on talks aimed at transferring the railway and port to a local consortium he is helping lead.

"The town has, since Day 1, known the best solution is an immediate repair of the rail line, not only to avoid additional costs and hardship, but to maximize economic development opportunities," Spence wrote Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the ongoing Canadian Transport Agency probe against Omnitrax is continuing, with support from Canadas largest trade union.

In an application to the regulator, Unifors head office has asked the CTA to find the company had failed to follow the proper procedure for discontinuing rail service. The CTA is still reviewing how much Omnitrax must present to the regulator, before ruling on the matter.

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Unifor represents six workers on the Hudson Bay Railway who have effectively been laid off, plus four Via Rail workers who have had job changes due to the rail disruption.

"While there was initial outrage, we seem to have forgotten the people of Churchill and the plight they're in right now," said Paul McKie, Prairies director for Unifor. "Its seemed to go on the back burner."

Rail workers across Canada have been distraught at what they see as a lack of progress to getting the railway running again, he said. It was a grassroots group of rail workers in New Brunswick that pushed the national union to respond, he noted.

"They were really mad that a railway just stopped access to a community," McKie said.

Unifor is considering additional actions to respond to Churchills railway woes, which could range from protests to lobbying to providing financial aid to affected workers and residents, he said.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca
OTTAWA  Manitoba is still lacking a central policy to assess how climate change will impact the provinces roads, power supply and agriculture, the provinces auditor general said Tuesday, four months after he flagged the problem.

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This article was published 28/3/2018 (1276 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA  Manitoba is still lacking a central policy to assess how climate change will impact the provinces roads, power supply and agriculture, the provinces auditor general said Tuesday, four months after he flagged the problem.

"In Manitoba, its not that good," Norm Ricard said, as his colleagues at the federal, provincial and territorial levels released a historic report comparing climate-change plans.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Manitoba Auditor General Norman Ricard

The report found in almost every jurisdiction, government departments have "high-level goals, with little guidance on how to implement actions," and "most governments in Canada were not on track to meet their commitments to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and were not ready for the impacts of a changing climate."

The national report pulled from recent audits taken at various times. For Manitoba, that report came out last fall, and assessed spring 2010 to mid-2017. Ricards provincial report came a year after the Pallister government was elected, but before it unveiled its climate and green plan last October.

That report found both NDP and Tory governments had failed to set emission targets for 2020 or 2030, and hadnt even done risk assessments needed to come up with a climate-change adaptation plan.

Federal environment commissioner Julie Gelfand said the Manitoba audit found a previous NDP plan to reduce emissions from agriculture and waste was among the most difficult to assess. "They had no details: who was going to do what, when; how much was it going to cost."

Ricard said he will audit the provinces plan, and told the Free Press hes considering bumping up his probe, which is currently planned for September 2019 but may take place a year earlier.

He said its clear even today that the province still has no central co-ordination among departments over how to assess potential impacts of climate change.

That means "an ad-hoc process" where departments are at different stages of analyzing risks and preventing floods, storms and droughts, but no ones prioritizing the biggest risks to Manitobans or checking whether departments might be unintentionally contradicting each other.

"There needs to be some leadership to make sure its done consistently," Richard said. "I know its not been done."

The issue has come up across the country, but "its probably worse in Manitoba," Ricard said. "They really have not done much."

A spokeswoman for Manitoba Environment Minister Rochelle Squires said recent legislation will co-ordinate carbon reduction, but could not immediately elaborate when asked Tuesday what measures would be in place to assess risks caused by climate change.

"The previous government indeed lacked co-ordination in addressing climate change risks. Our government is taking action," Tamara King wrote.

"Less than two weeks ago, on March 15, we introduced our Climate and Green Plan Implementation Act bill, which includes a Low Carbon Government Office to help co-ordinate governments carbon-reduction efforts."

Meanwhile, Neepawa-area Tory MP Robert Sopuck is raising alarms over the Liberals evasiveness around how much their carbon tax is expected to cut emissions.

Manitobas flat, $25-per-tonne carbon levy falls short of an escalating federal plan, which requires all provinces to charge $50 by 2022.

Sopuck pressed federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna last Thursday on how many tonnes the levy will cut, which she did not answer in her 52-second response. The Conservative party has since posted a short video of that exchange on Twitter.

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Testifying at a committee Tuesday, Gelfand told Sopuck multiple provinces dont know how many tonnes of carbon their plans will cut, and she might probe Ottawas lack of a clear answer.

Green party Leader Elizabeth May said the Liberals will have difficulty getting Canadians on board with carbon taxes if they dont explain their projected impact.

"You should be able to track: this policy instrument will have this impact in reducing emissions and will have this cost, and this benefit," she said. "I have yet to see any transparency around the breakdown."

May said a "patchwork" of provincial plans need tighter co-ordination, while the federal government could step up incentives, such as rebates on fuel-efficient cars and east-west power grid connections that could see Manitobas hydro cut down coal use elsewhere in the Prairies.

"We need to get our act together on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, while we still have a hope of ensuring our kids have a liveable world. The stakes couldnt be higher, and the actions are still mediocre."

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca
The Manitoba Metis Federation has denounced a call for an investigation into its nixed $67.5-million deal with Manitoba Hydro as a political stunt, saying the landowners group behind the move is being spurred on by the dog-whistle politics of Premier Brian Pallister.

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This article was published 28/3/2018 (1275 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Manitoba Metis Federation has denounced a call for an investigation into its nixed $67.5-million deal with Manitoba Hydro as a political stunt, saying the landowners group behind the move is being spurred on by the dog-whistle politics of Premier Brian Pallister.

The comments came Wednesday in response to news the Southeast Stakeholders Coalition was trying to delay upcoming federal hearings on the Manitoba-Minnesota Transmission Project set for June, pending an investigation into the Hydro-MMF agreement.

The coalitions motion, filed Tuesday, echoes comments made by Pallister the compensation deal was effectively "hush money."

The coalition is comprised of landowners opposed to  and set to be affected by  the transmission line project. They contend the Crown corporation misused public funds when agreeing to compensate the MMF in an effort to quiet opposition to the project.

Jason Madden, legal counsel for the MMF, said the coalition's motion regurgitates misinformation spread by Pallister, calling it a political "stunt" and "deeply offensive to Metis people."

"This is the spillover from inappropriate comments and misinformation put out there by (the premier). And, of course, groups like this will now try to use the sorts of statements he made, like hush money or persuasion payments, to paint these agreements in a certain light," Madden said.

"The reality is these types of agreements are negotiated across the country with Indigenous groups. There are thousands of them. They exist in every province and territory," he said. "This is a (coalition) group that largely does not understand the law, in relation to Indigenous rights, generally, and Metis rights, specifically. I think this is fallout from the premiers comments."

Madden's comments came shortly after the MMF announced it was suing the provincial government for spiking its deal with the electrical utility. The MMF contends the 2017 deal is legally binding and is seeking to have it upheld.

Madden said various landowners set to be affected by the transmission line have also struck compensation deals with Hydro, but no one has called it a misuse of public funds. Only when Metis people strike a similar deal, does anyone seem to have a problem, the lawyer said.

"Its not just Indigenous peoples being compensated, but other landowners as well. The idea that the landowners should be compensated, but Indigenous peoples should not be, is offensive. It really shows the bias of this group," he said.

Kevin Toyne, legal counsel for the Southeast Stakeholders Coalition, said the group has been opposed from the project from the get-go. The landowners that comprise the coalition either want the proposed transmission line route changed, or the project stopped all together.

However, Toyne said those are separate concerns from the ones that led the group to file the motion Tuesday.

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"There are some serious unanswered questions here, and Manitobans deserve to know what Hydro was doing on this project and if public money was used inappropriately. Until that is settled, we dont think the hearings should go forward," he said.

"Given everything thats going on right now between Manitoba Hydro, the provincial government and the MMF, its not even clear whether Hydro can, or will, go ahead with the project."

The proposed Manitoba-Minnesota electrical link has been at the centre of the ongoing controversy between the province, the MMF and the former board of Manitoba Hydro. Last week, nine of 10 Tory-appointed members of the Crown corporation's board resigned, citing Pallisters refusal  for more than a year -- to meet with them to discuss critical issues on the file.

Pallister countered the unprecedented mass resignation had nothing to do with a lack of communication between him and the board, but rather the boards "hush money" deal with the MMF.

ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @rk_thorpe
Premier Brian Pallister is using a mass email centred on his ongoing dispute with Manitoba Hydro and the Manitoba Metis Federation to make a fundraising appeal.

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This article was published 27/3/2018 (1276 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Premier Brian Pallister is using a mass email centred on his ongoing dispute with Manitoba Hydro and the Manitoba Metis Federation to make a fundraising appeal.

The email message to party members is entitled, "Our duty is to the best interests of Manitobans." At the end is a large green dollar sign within a blue border, and the word "donate" -- click on it, and up pops an extensive webpage from the party, explaining how vital it is to donate to help fund the 2020 election campaign.

It is identical to an article written by Pallister and published in Saturdays Free Press, with the exception the premier has highlighted some passages using boldface and italics.

"The premier recently penned an op-ed that was published in Manitobas most widely-circulated newspapers," Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba chief executive officer Keith Stewart said Tuesday. "Our party believes in open communication with our members and supporters, and we regularly share this type of content with them to ensure they are well-informed.

"This particular e-mail was sent to party members, as well as those who have previously indicated support for our party or have signed up to receive PC party e-mails."

The email further outraged the Manitoba Metis Federation -- which plans to reveal details Wednesday of legal action it will take against the province, following the government nixing a proposed $67.5-million agreement between Hydro and the MMF, under which the Metis people would agree not to oppose the proposed $453-million transmission line project to Minnesota.

MMF president David Chartrand said Pallisters op-ed piece "included a number of fallacies and downright lies."

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"I cannot believe that the premier would stoop this low," Chartrand said Tuesday of the mass email/donation drive, accusing Pallister of using Metis citizens and the recent Hydro board resignations for his own political gain.

Nine of 10 Tory-appointed member of the Manitoba Hydro board resigned last week, citing Pallisters refusal for more than a year to meet to discuss critical financial issues.

Chartrand said the MMF will sue the province to achieve the terms of the proposed Hydro-MMF agreement.

Meanwhile, a coalition of southern Manitoba landowners opposed to the Minnesota transmission line filed a lengthy appeal Tuesday to the National Energy Board, said coalition lawyer Kevin Toyne.

Calling the current situation a scandal, and charging the various sides with releasing misleading information, the coalition is asking the NEB to postpone a hearing expected by early summer on the project, until the MMF legal action is settled and the new Hydro board decides if the project can still go ahead.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca
Donald Trumps opponents have long been waiting for some sort of scandal to bring him down, and they may think they have finally found it in pornographic film star Stormy Daniels.

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This article was published 28/3/2018 (1276 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

Donald Trumps opponents have long been waiting for some sort of scandal to bring him down, and they may think they have finally found it in pornographic film star Stormy Daniels.

Daniels alleges she had an extramarital affair with Donald Trump in 2006 and was subsequently paid off by a Trump lawyer to stay silent during the presidential election. These types of charges, if proven true, have felled many politicians in the past.

But Trumps opponents probably shouldnt get their hopes up.

While political science research has shown that politicians are generally hurt by political scandals like extramarital affairs, the context is key.

A study I conducted with political scientists Doug Schwartz and Sebastian Vallejo explored how scandals can affect a politicians popularity. We did find that a politicians image and ability to attract votes can suffer in the wake of an extramarital affair. However, the harm is significantly greater when a politician who has campaigned on morality gets caught having an affair.

In other words, its the hypocrisy that matters. Our study found that a scandal can reduce support for a generic candidate, but a scandal accompanied by hypocrisy is where the damage is really done, reducing support by 67 percentage points.

A porn star alleging an affair with a politician and receiving hush money may have seemed inconceivable just a few years ago. But Trump has made it much less remarkable. If anything, it fits with the image many have of him.

Trump was in the public eye long before he entered politics, and allegations of infidelity have dogged him for decades. Long before his presidential run, many Americans knew about his infamous, public divorce battle with his first wife, Ivana Trump, who accused Trump of cheating on her with the woman who would soon be his second wife, Marla Maples. Since then, allegations of extramarital affairs and sexual misconduct have only piled up.

Sixty-five per cent of Americans in a recent CNN poll view Stormy Daniels charges as definitely or probably true. At the same time, few Americans believe Trump holds the same moral values as they do.

According to a Quinnipiac poll from November 2015, 62 per cent of Americans said Trump didnt share their values, and only 38 per cent said Trump was honest. These numbers havent shifted during the course of his campaign and presidency. A January 2018 Quinnipiac poll asking the same questions registered pretty much the same responses: 60 per cent of adults said he didnt share their values, while 34 per cent said he was honest.

In other words, Trump was elected as a man of questionable moral character, and these judgments persist. At the same time, they inure him  at least partially  from charges of moral hypocrisy.

Our findings on hypocrisy and scandal help explain not only Trumps continued ability to withstand scandal, but also the downfalls of other politicians.

An obvious contrast to Trump is Tim Murphy, a vocally pro-life Republican congressman from Pennsylvania who, in late 2017, resigned from office. Not only did news emerge that he had been having an affair, but his girlfriend also revealed that Murphy had pressured her to seek an abortion when she became pregnant.

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Reaching back further, in 2008, New York Governor Elliot Spitzer was drummed out of office for hiring prostitutes. As New Yorks attorney general, he had been nicknamed "Mr. Clean," and was famous for prosecuting and proselytizing about the ills of prostitution.

In each case, the hypocrisy only added fuel to the public and political backlash. If politicians preach morality only to violate it themselves, it can be a career-ender.

While the Daniels affair could easily fell a typical political candidate or officeholder, Trump is no average politician. For his entire adult life, he has been prone to salacious revelations about his personal life.

Trump may be insulated from scandal precisely because hes always been mired in it.

Monika L. McDermott is a professor of political science at Fordham University.

This article was first published at The Conversation Canada: theconversation.com/ca.
About me I'm Avi Green

From Jerusalem, Israel

I was born in Pennsylvania in 1974, and moved to Israel in 1983. I also enjoyed reading a lot of comics when I was young, the first being Fantastic Four. I maintain a strong belief in the public's right to knowledge and accuracy in facts. I like to think of myself as a conservative-style version of Clark Kent. I don't expect to be perfect at the job, but I do my best. My profile

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The most affecting moment from last weekends March for Our Lives rally in Washington, D.C., did not come from a speech. It came from silence.

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This article was published 28/3/2018 (1276 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Editorial

The most affecting moment from last weekends March for Our Lives rally in Washington, D.C., did not come from a speech. It came from silence.

Parkland, Fla., shooting survivor Emma Gonzalez spoke for two minutes. Then, just the sound of her breathing. In and out, in and out, for four minutes. The weight of her silence fell over the crowd. She fixed her gaze straight ahead, and let her tears fall. It was an incredible act of strength and vulnerability.

Six minutes is how long it took for a gunman to kill 17 of her classmates at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Just five weeks later, Ms. Gonzalez and thousands of other young people had organized a massive national protest against gun violence. As one placard read, "We are the future. Dont gun us down."

March for Our Lives is part of an anti-gun-violence movement led by young people  the same people who are often dismissed as apathetic, distracted and entitled.

What have the adults been doing over the past five weeks? Well, some have been doctoring photos of Ms. Gonzalez, trying to convince other adults that she ripped up the U.S. Constitution. Elected adults are mostly shrugging, saying no law could prevent such a massacre. Other adults say these kids are only protesting to get out of math class.

What these young people are asking for  chiefly, the right to get an education without worrying if theyll survive the school day  is eminently reasonable. They are not asking for a repeal of the Second Amendment. What do they want? Sensible gun control. When do they want it? Now.

Black Lives Matter, the Womens March on Washington, #MeToo, #TimesUp and, now, March for Our Lives  theres a through line that connects all of these movements. They are composed of people rising up and saying, "Weve had enough."

Change  real, concrete change  does not happen overnight. It requires slow, hard work that offers little in the way of instant gratification. The Womens March on Washington was not a failure because Donald Trump is still in office; the March for Our Lives is not a failure because gun control was not enacted by Monday. The #MeToo movement feels swift because it has gained momentum, but any working woman of a certain age can tell you that #MeToo has been decades in the making.

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But things are changing.

After the Parkland shooting, several major U.S. companies severed ties with the National Rifle Association.

Sometimes, change happens so slowly that it feels as though no change is happening at all. Injustice still exists. Sexism and racism still exist. Hate still exists. Angry young men are still walking into their schools with assault weapons and killing their classmates. People are still posting their thoughts and prayers on Facebook, resigned to the fact that theres just nothing else that can be done.

The next generation is, to paraphrase Ms. Gonzalez, calling BS on that. They believe theres lots we can do. They believe change  however slow, however frustrating  is possible. So they are doing the work. They are calling their elected representatives. They are organizing in the streets.

And hopefully, they will head to the polls. In November 2020, many of the young people who rallied together in Washington, D.C., will be of voting age. Some will already be eligible to vote in Novembers U.S. midterm elections.

Theyve made it clear they are not going anywhere. Perhaps, this time, its #TimesUp for the NRA.
Wall Street analysts have given (JHA) 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 (JHA) wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

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Wall Street analysts have given Engie a "Buy" 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 Engie wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.
The following companies are subsidiares of Xylem: Aanderaa Data Instruments AS, Beijing United Gas Meters Co. Ltd., Bellingham & Stanley Ltd., Bombas Flygt de Venezuela S.A., CMS Research Corporation, EmNet LLC, FARADYNE Motors LLC, Faradyne Motors (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Flow Control LLC, Flowtronex PSI LLC, Fluid Handling LLC, Godwin Holdings Ltd., Goulds Water Technology Philippines Inc, Grindex AB, Grindex Pumps LLC, HYPACK Inc, Heartland Pump Rental & Sales Inc., IMT b.v., Jabsco Marine Italia s.r.l., Jabsco S. de R.L. De C.V., Lowara UK Ltd, Lowara Vogel Polska SP ZOO, Lowara s.r.l., MJK Automation ApS, MultiTrode Inc., Multitrode Pty Ltd, Nova Analytics Europe LLC, O.I. Corporation, PCI Membrane Systems Inc., Pension Trustee Management Ltd, Pims Pumps, Portacel Inc., Pure Technologies, SELC Electronics Ltd, SELC Group Ltd., SELC Ireland Ltd, Safe Sea Services FZC, Sensus, Sensus (UK Holdings) Ltd., Sensus Australia Pty Ltd, Sensus Canada Inc., Sensus Chile SA, Sensus Espana SA, Sensus France Holdings SAS, Sensus France SAS, Sensus GmbH Hannover, Sensus GmbH Ludwigshafen, Sensus Italia SRL, Sensus Japan Kabushiki Kaisha, Sensus Manufacturing (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Sensus Maroc S.A.., Sensus Metering Systems (Fuzhou) Co. Ltd., Sensus Metering Systems (LuxCo 1) S.A R.L., Sensus Metering Systems (LuxCo 2) S.A R.L., Sensus Metering Systems (LuxCo 3) S.A R.L., Sensus Metering Systems (LuxCo 4) S.A R.L., Sensus Metering Systems (LuxCo 5) S.A R.L, Sensus Metering Systems IP Holdings Inc., Sensus Polska sp. zoo, Sensus Precision Die Casting (Yangzhou) Co. Ltd., Sensus SPA, Sensus Services Deutschland GmbH, Sensus Slovensko a.s., Sensus South Africa (Proprietary) Ltd., Sensus Spectrum LLC, Sensus UK Systems Limited, Sensus USA Inc., Sensus de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Sensus metrologicke sluzby s.r.o._Slovakia, Sensus Ceska republika spol. s r.o., Sentec Limited, Smith-Blair Inc., Texas Turbine LLC, Tideland Signal Corporation, Tideland Signal EMEA B.V., Tideland Signal LLC, Tideland Signal Limited, Tirinstal Investments Ltd, UGI Global Limited, Valor Water Analytics, Visenti Pte. Ltd, Water Asset Management Inc., Water Process Limited, Watercompany, Xylem (China) Company Limited, Xylem (Hong Kong) Limited, Xylem (Nanjing) Co. Ltd, Xylem Analytics (Beijing) Co. Ltd, Xylem Analytics Australia Pty Ltd., Xylem Analytics France S.A.S., Xylem Analytics Germany GmbH, Xylem Analytics IP Management GmbH, Xylem Analytics IP Management SCS, Xylem Analytics LLC, Xylem Analytics UK LTD, Xylem Australia Holdings PTY LTD, Xylem Brasil Solucoes para Agua Ltda, Xylem Canada Company, Xylem Delaware Inc., Xylem Denmark Holdings ApS, Xylem Dewatering Solutions Inc., Xylem Dewatering Solutions UK Ltd, Xylem Europe GmbH, Xylem Financing S.a.r.l, Xylem Germany GmbH, Xylem Global S.a.r.l, Xylem Holdings S.a.r.l., Xylem IP Holdings LLC, Xylem IP Management S.a.r.l, Xylem IP UK S.a.r.l., Xylem Industriebeteiligungen GmbH, Xylem Industries S.a.r.l., Xylem International S.a.r.l., Xylem Lowara Limited, Xylem Luxembourg S.a r.l., Xylem Management GmbH, Xylem Manufacturing Austria GmbH, Xylem Manufacturing Middle East Region FZCO, Xylem Middle East Water Equipment Trading & Rental LLC, Xylem Russia LLC, Xylem Saudi Arabia Limited, Xylem Service Hungary Kft, Xylem Service Italia Srl, Xylem Services Austria GmbH, Xylem Services GmbH, Xylem Shared Services Sp. Z.o.o., Xylem Technologies & Partners S.C.S, Xylem Technologies GmbH, Xylem Water Holdings Limited, Xylem Water Limited, Xylem Water Services Limited, Xylem Water Solutions (Hong Kong) Limited, Xylem Water Solutions Argentina S.R.L., Xylem Water Solutions Australia Limited, Xylem Water Solutions Austria GmbH, Xylem Water Solutions Belgium, Xylem Water Solutions Chile S.A., Xylem Water Solutions Colombia SAS, Xylem Water Solutions Denmark ApS, Xylem Water Solutions Deutschland GmbH, Xylem Water Solutions Espana S.A., Xylem Water Solutions Florida LLC, Xylem Water Solutions France SAS, Xylem Water Solutions Global Services AB, Xylem Water Solutions Herford GmbH, Xylem Water Solutions Holdings France SAS, Xylem Water Solutions India Private Limited, Xylem Water Solutions Ireland Ltd., Xylem Water Solutions Italia S.R.L, Xylem Water Solutions Korea Co. Ltd., Xylem Water Solutions Magyarorszag KRT, Xylem Water Solutions Malaysia SDN. BHD., Xylem Water Solutions Manufacturing AB, Xylem Water Solutions Metz SAS, Xylem Water Solutions Mexico S.de R.L. de C.V., Xylem Water Solutions Middle East Region FZCO, Xylem Water Solutions Muscat LLC, Xylem Water Solutions Nederland BV, Xylem Water Solutions New Zealand Limited, Xylem Water Solutions Norge AS, Xylem Water Solutions Panama s.r.l., Xylem Water Solutions Peru S.A., Xylem Water Solutions Polska Sp.z.o.o., Xylem Water Solutions Portugal Unipessoal Lda., Xylem Water Solutions Rugby Limited, Xylem Water Solutions Singapore PTE Ltd., Xylem Water Solutions South Africa (Pty) Ltd., Xylem Water Solutions South Africa Holdings LLC, Xylem Water Solutions Suomi Oy, Xylem Water Solutions Sweden AB, Xylem Water Solutions U.S.A. Inc., Xylem Water Solutions UK Holdings Limited, Xylem Water Solutions UK Limited, Xylem Water Solutions Zelienople LLC, Xylem Water Solutions(Shenyang) CO. Ltd, Xylem Water Systems (California) Inc., Xylem Water Systems Hungary KFT, Xylem Water Systems International Inc., Xylem Water Systems Japan Corporation, Xylem Water Systems Philippines Holding Inc., Xylem Water Systems Texas Holdings LLC, Xylem Water Systems U.S.A. LLC, YSI (China) Ltd., YSI (Hong Kong) Ltd., YSI (UK) Ltd., YSI Incorporated, YSI Instrumentos E Servicos Ambientais Ltda., YSI International Inc., YSI Nanotech Limited, and ylem Analytics Germany Sales GmbH& Co. KG.
Steelcase Inc. manufactures and sells integrated furniture settings, user-centered technologies, and interior architectural products. It operates through Americas, EMEA, and Other Category segments. The firm's furniture portfolio includes panel, fence and beam-based furniture systems, storage products, fixed and height-adjustable desks, benches, and tables, as well as complementary products, including work tools and screens. Its seating products comprise ergonomic task chairs; seating for collaborative or casual settings; and specialty seating for specific vertical markets, such as healthcare and education. The firm's interior architectural products include full and partial height walls and architectural pods. It also provides textiles, wall coverings, and surface imaging solutions for architects and designers; and ceramic steel surfaces for use in various applications, including static whiteboards and chalkboards through third party fabricators and distributors, as well as workplace strategy consulting, data-driven space measurement, lease origination, furniture and asset management, and hosted event services. The company markets and sells its products to corporate, government

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First BanCorp (Puerto Rico) is a holding company, which engages in the provision of personal, commercial, and corporate banking services through its subsidiaries. It operates through the following segments: Commercial and Corporate Banking, Consumer (Retail) Banking, Mortgage Banking, Treasury and Investments, United States Operations, and Virgin Islands Operations. The Commercial and Corporate Banking segment consists of the company's lending and other services for large customers represented by specialized and middle-market clients and the public sector. The Consumer (Retail) Banking segment includes consumer lending and deposit-taking activities conducted mainly through FirstBank's branch network in Puerto Rico. The Mortgage Banking segment focuses on the origination, sale, and servicing of a variety of residential mortgage loan products and related hedging activities. The Treasury and Investments segment deals with treasury and investment management functions. The United States Operations segment represents all banking activities conducted by FirstBank on the United States mainland. The Virgin Islands Operations segment includes all banking activities conducted by FirstBank in

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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.

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The following companies are subsidiares of Tesco: Adminstore Limited, Adsega Limited, Alfred Preedy & Sons (Trustees) Limited, Alfred Preedy & Sons Limited, Anthony Heagney Limited, Arena (Jersey) Management Limited, Armitage Finance Unlimited, Armitage Luxembourg s.? r.l., BLT Holdings 2010 Limited, Bath Upper Bristol Road Management, Bedminster Estates Limited, Beehythe Estates limited, Berry Lane Management Company Limited, Blinkbox Books Limited, BlinxBox, Booker Group, Brian Fords Discount Store Limited, Broadfields Management Limited, Brookmaker (GP) Limited, Broughton Retail Park Nominee 1 Limited, Broughton Retail Park Nominee 2 Limited, Broughton Retail Park Nominee 3 Limited, Broughton Retail Park Nominee 4 Limited, Buckingham Road (Bletchley) Management Company Limited, Bugden Ltd, Buttoncable Limited, Buttoncase Limited, Canterbury Road Management Limited, Cardiff Cathays Terrace Management Company Limited, Careneed News Limited, Cheshunt Finance Unlimited, Cheshunt Holdings Guernsey Limited, Cheshunt Hungary Servicing Limited Liability Company, Cheshunt Luxembourg S.? r.l., Cheshunt Overseas LLP, China Property Holdings (HK) Limited, Chirac Limited, Cirrus Finance (2009) Limited, Cirrus Finance Limited, Cirrus Luxembourg s.? r.l., Clarepharm Limited, Clondalkin Properties Limited, Comar Limited, Commercial Investments Limited, Crazy Prices, Crest Ostrava a.s, Cullens Holdings Limited, Cullens Stores Limited, Daily Wrap Produce Limited, Day And Nite Stores Limited, Delamare Cards Holdco Limited, Delamare Cards MTN Issuer plc, Delamare Finance PLC, Delamare Group Holdings Limited, Delamare Holdings BV Netherlands, Delamare Luxembourg s.? r.l. Luxembourg, Delamare One Limited, Dunnhumby Ventures LLC, ELH Insurance Limited, Edinburgh Butterfly Farm Limited, Edson Investments Limited, Edson Properties Limited, Ek-Chai Distribution System Co. Ltd., Euphorium (London) Limited, Euphorium (North London) Limited, Euphorium Group Limited, Euphorium IP Limited, Europa Foods Limited, Faraday Properties Limited, Flitwick Pharmacies Limited, Food & Wine Lovers Limited, Forum Liberec s.r.o, Freds Food Construction Limited, Freehold and Leasehold Property Fund, Gain Land Limited, Genesis sp. z o.o., Gibbs News Limited, Gibbs Newsagents Limited, Gida Sanayi A.S., Giraffe, Giraffe Cafe Limited, Giraffe Concepts Limited, Golden Island Management Services Limited, HIT hypermarket Sp. z o. o., Halesworth SPV Limited, Harris and Hoole Holdings Limited, Harris and Hoole Limited, Harris and Hoole Nominees Limited, Homeplus, Hymall Co. Ltd., J E Properties Holdings Limited, Jasper Sp. z o. o. Poland, KSS Retail Limited, Kabaty Investments Tesco (Polska) Sp. z o. o. Sp.k, Kingsway Fresh Foods Ltd, Koxka Hungary Refrigeration LLC, Launchgrain Limited, Launchtable Limited, Laws Stores Limited, Lazada Group S.A., Lee (Southern) Limited, Lek?ren? Tesco Bansk? Bystrica k.s. Slovakia Limited Partnership, Lek?ren? Tesco Dunajsk? Streda k.s. Slovakia Limited Partnership, Lek?ren? Tesco Ko?ice k.s. Slovakia Limited Partnership, Lek?ren? Tesco Lama k.s. Slovakia Limited Partnership, Lek?ren? Tesco Nitra k.s. Slovakia Limited Partnership, Lek?ren? Tesco Petr?alka k.s. Slovakia Limited Partnership, Lek?ren? Tesco Pie?tany k.s. Slovakia Limited Partnership, Lek?ren? Tesco Pre?ov Vukov k.s. Slovakia Limited Partnership, Lek?ren? Tesco Senec k.s. Slovakia Limited Partnership, Lek?ren? Tesco Spi?sk? Nov? Ves k.s. Slovakia Limited Partnership, Lek?ren? Tesco Trenc??n s.r.o. Slovakia Limited Partnership, Lek?ren? Tesco Zlat? Piesky k.s. Slovakia Limited Partnership, Lek?ren? Tesco Zvolen k.s. Slovakia Limited Partnership, Linebush III Holdings Limited, Linebush III Limited, Linebush IV Limited, Linebush Limited, Linebush V Limited, London and Home Counties Superstores Limited, Lowfoods Limited, M & W Limited, Merrion Shopping Centre Ltd, Mills (East Midlands) Limited, Mills (West Midlands) Limited, Mills Group Holdings Limited, Mills Group Limited, Mobcast Services, Monread Developments Limited, Morgam Holdings Limited, Morgam News Limited, Motorcause Limited, NPL (Hardgate) Limited, Nabola Development Limited, NutriCentre Limited, OC FORUM Liberec Ltd., Oakwood Distribution Limited, Obchodn? dom Bratislava s.ro, Obchodn? dom Ko?ice s.ro., Obchodn? dom Nitra s.ro., Obchodn? dom Pre?ov s.ro., Old FEHC Inc., Old FEPC LLC, One Stop Community Stores Ltd, One Stop Convenience Stores Limited, One Stop Stores Limited, One Stop Stores Trustee Services Limited, Orpingford, Orpington (Station Road) Limited, Oxford Fox and Hounds Management Company Limited, PEJ Property Developments Limited, Paper Chain (East Anglia) Limited, Pharaway Properties Limited, Power Supermarkets Limited, Premier Garage (Worthing) Limited, Pulford Foods Limited, R.J.D. Holdings, Retail Property Co. Ltd, S Bottomley & Bros Limited, Sanders Supermarkets Limited, Sandtable Limited, Sarcon (No. 239) Limited, Seacroft Green Nominee 1 Limited, Seacroft Green Nominee 2 Limited, Shire Park Limited, Shuke Advertising (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, Snowman Retail 1 Limited, Snowman Retail 2 Limited, Sociomantic AB, Sociomantic Labs B.V, Sociomantic Labs Inc, Sociomantic Labs Internet Hizmetleri Limited ?ireketi, Sociomantic Labs LLC, Sociomantic Labs Limited, Sociomantic Labs Private Limited, Sociomantic Labs Pte Ltd, Sociomantic Labs S.r.l, Sociomantic Labs SARL, Sociomantic Labs Servicos Web Ltda, Sociomantic Labs Sp.z.o.o., Sociomantic Labs s.r.o., Sociomantic S.L.U., Sociomantic labs GmbH, Spen Hill Developments (Holdings) Ltd, Spen Hill Developments (Portishead) Ltd, Spen Hill Developments (Tonbridge) Limited, Spen Hill Developments Limited, Spen Hill Management Limited, Spen Hill Properties (Holdings) plc, Spen Hill Properties (Southend) Limited, Spen Hill Regeneration Limited, Spen Hill Residential No 1 Limited, Spen Hill Residential No 2 Limited, Station House Welling Management Limited, Statusfloat Limited, Stewarts Supermarkets Limited, Streatham Management Company Limited, T & S Management Services Limited, T & S Properties Limited, T & S Stores Limited, TESCO (POLSKA) sp. z o.o., TESCO Akad?mia K?pz?si ?s Fejleszt?si Kor?tolt Felelss?g T?rsas?g, TESCO MOBILE POLSKA SP. Z O.O., TESCO STORES SR a.s., Tapesilver Limited, Teesport (GP) Limited, Teesport (Nominee) Limited, Telegraph Properties (Kirkby) Limited, Tesco (Foxtrot 1) Limited, Tesco (Foxtrot 2) Limited, Tesco (Fujian) Industry Limited, Tesco (Jersey) Limited, Tesco (Overseas) Ltd, Tesco (Yorkshire) Limited, Tesco Aqua (1LP) Limited, Tesco Aqua (3LP) Limited, Tesco Aqua (FinCo1) Limited, Tesco Aqua (FinCo2) Limited, Tesco Aqua (GP) Limited, Tesco Aqua (Nominee 1) Limited, Tesco Aqua (Nominee 2) Limited, Tesco Aqua (Nominee Holdco) Limited, Tesco Atrato (1LP) Limited, Tesco Atrato (GP) Limited, Tesco Barbers Wood Limited, Tesco Bengaluru Private Limited, Tesco Blue (1LP) Limited, Tesco Blue (FinCo2) Limited, Tesco Blue (GP) Limited, Tesco Blue (Nominee 1) Limited, Tesco Blue (Nominee 2) Limited, Tesco Blue (Nominee Holdco) Limited, Tesco Capital No. 1 Limited, Tesco Capital No. 2 Limited, Tesco Card Services Limited, Tesco Card Services Limited, Tesco Card Services Ltd., Tesco Chile Sourcing Limitada, Tesco Coral (GP) Limited, Tesco Corporate Treasury Services PLC, Tesco Depot Propco Limited, Tesco Distribution Holdings Limited, Tesco Distribution Limited, Tesco Dorney (1LP) Limited, Tesco Dorney (GP) Limited, Tesco Dystrybucja Sp. z.o.o., Tesco EU IT Services s.r.o., Tesco Employees Share Scheme Trustees Limited, Tesco Estates Limited, Tesco Europe B.V. Netherlands, Tesco Family Dining Limited, Tesco Food Sourcing Brazil Representa??o De Servi?os Ltda., Tesco Food Sourcing Limited, Tesco Foundation (Nadacia Tesco), Tesco Freetime Limited, Tesco Fuchsia (1LP) Limited, Tesco Fuel Limited, Tesco Global Employment Company Limited, Tesco Guangdong (HK) Co. Limited, Tesco High Beech Limited, Tesco Holdings BV, Tesco Holdings Limited, Tesco Home Shopping Limited, Tesco Hungary (Holdings) Limited, Tesco International Franchising s.r.o., Tesco International Internet Retailing Limited, Tesco International Services Limited, Tesco International Sourcing Limited, Tesco Ireland Holdings Limited, Tesco Ireland Limited, Tesco Ireland Pension Trustees Limited, Tesco Jade (GP) Limited, Tesco Joint Buying Service (Shanghai) Co Limited, Tesco Kipa Kitle Pazarlama Ticaret Lojistik ve, Tesco Kirkby (General Partner) Limited, Tesco Kirkby (LP) Limited, Tesco Kirkby (Nominee 1) Limited, Tesco Kirkby (Nominee 2) Limited, Tesco Kirkby (Nominee Holdco) Limited, Tesco Kirkby (Unitholder 1) Limited, Tesco Kirkby (Unitholder2) Limited, Tesco Lagoon GP Limited, Tesco Licences Limited, Tesco Lotus Retail Growth, Tesco Lotus Retail Growth Freehold and Leasehold Property Fund, Tesco Maintenance Limited, Tesco Mauritius Holdings Limited, Tesco Mobile (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Tesco Mobile CR s.r.o., Tesco Mobile Communications Limited, Tesco Mobile Ireland Limited, Tesco Mobile Ireland Limited, Tesco Mobile Limited, Tesco Mobile Services Limited, Tesco Mobile Slovakia s.r.o, Tesco Mobile Slovakia s.r.o., Tesco Mobile CR, Tesco Nanjing Zhongshan, Tesco Nanjing Zhongshan (HK) Co. Limited, Tesco Navona (1LP) Limited, Tesco Navona (GP) Limited, Tesco Navona (Nominee 1) Limited, Tesco Navona (Nominee 2) Limited, Tesco Navona (Nominee Holdco) Limited, Tesco Navona PL Propco Limited, Tesco Opticians Limited, Tesco Overseas (Holdings) Limited, Tesco Overseas Investments Limited, Tesco Overseas ULC, Tesco Passaic (1LP) Limited, Tesco Passaic (GP) Limited, Tesco Passaic (Nominee 1) Limited, Tesco Passaic (Nominee 2) Limited, Tesco Passaic (Nominee Holdco) Limited, Tesco Passaic PL Propco Limited, Tesco Pension (Jade) Limited, Tesco Pension Investment Limited, Tesco Pension Trustees Limited, Tesco Personal Finance, Tesco Personal Finance Compare Limited, Tesco Personal Finance Group Limited, Tesco Property (No.1) Limited, Tesco Property (Nominees) (No.1) Limited, Tesco Property (Nominees) (No.2) Limited, Tesco Property (Nominees) Limited, Tesco Property A.S., Tesco Property Finance 1 Holdco Limited, Tesco Property Finance 1 PLC, Tesco Property Holdings (No. 2) Limited, Tesco Property Holdings Limited, Tesco Property Limited, Tesco Property Nominees (No.5) Limited, Tesco Property Nominees (No.6) Limited, Tesco Property Partner (GP No.2) Limited, Tesco Property Partner (GP) Limited, Tesco Property Partner (No.1) Limited, Tesco Property Partner (No.2) Limited, Tesco Red (1LP) Limited, Tesco Red (GP) Limited, Tesco Red (Nominee 2) Limited, Tesco Red (Nominee Holdco) Limited, Tesco Sarum (1LP) Limited, Tesco Sarum (GP) Limited, Tesco Seacroft Limited, Tesco Secretaries Limited, Tesco Services Limited, Tesco Sourcing India Private Limited, Tesco Stores (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Tesco Stores (Thailand) Ltd, Tesco Stores CR a.s., Tesco Stores Limited, Tesco Technology Services HK Limited, Tesco Treasury Services PLC, Tesco Trustee Company of Ireland Limited, Tesco Underwriting Limited, Tesco Vin Plus SA, Tesco Worldwide Limited, Tesco for Thais Foundation, Tesco-Global Stores Privately Held Co. Ltd, Tesco.Com Limited, The Brookmaker Limited Partnership, The Teesport Limited Partnership Limited Partnership, The Tesco Aqua Limited Partnership Limited Partnership, The Tesco Atrato Limited Partnership, The Tesco Blue Limited Partnership Limited Partnership, The Tesco Coral Limited Partnership, The Tesco Dorney Limited Partnership, The Tesco Kirkby Limited Partnership Limited Partnership, The Tesco Navona Limited Partnership Limited Partnership, The Tesco Passaic Limited Partnership Limited Partnership, The Tesco Property (No.2) Limited Partnership, The Tesco Red Limited Partnership, The Tesco Sarum Limited Partnership, Trent Hypermarket Private Limited, Trigger Retail Ltd, Valiant Insurance Company DAC, Value House Properties Limited, Variable Preference, Ventnor High Street Management Company Limited, Verulam Properties (2001) Limited, Verulam Properties Limited, Victoria BB Sp z.o.o., WE7, WSC Properties Limited, Wanze Properties (Dundalk) Limited, Weymouth Avenue (Dorchester) Limited, Whitecastle Properties Limited, Wm. Low Supermarkets Limited, Woolwich Central Residents Management Company Limited, Worple Road Plc, Xiamen Firste Property Limited, Xiamen Firste Property Limited, aAcklam Management Company Limited, dunnhumby (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, dunnhumby (Thailand) Limited, dunnhumby Canada Limited, dunnhumby Consulting Services India Private Limited, dunnhumby Czech s.r.o., dunnhumby Employment Company Limited, dunnhumby Holding Limited, dunnhumby Hungary Kft, dunnhumby IT Services India Private Limited, dunnhumby Inc, dunnhumby International Limited, dunnhumby Ireland Limited, dunnhumby Italia Srl., dunnhumby Limited, dunnhumby Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., dunnhumby Netherlands B.V., dunnhumby Norge A.S., dunnhumby Overseas Limited, dunnhumby Poland Sp z.o.o, dunnhumby Slovakia s.r.o., dunnhumby South Africa (Pty) Ltd, dunnhumby Trustees Limited, and dunnuhumby.
The following companies are subsidiares of BlackRock: Acero Cooperatief U.A., Acero Holdings I B.V., Amethyst Merger Sub LLC, AnalytX Hosting LLC, AnalytX LLC, AnalytX Software LLC, Aperio, Aperio, Aquila Heywood, Asia-Pacific Private Credit Opportunities Fund I (GenPar) Ltd., BAA Holdings LLC, BFM Holdco LLC, BLK (Gallatin) Holdings LLC, BLK SMI LLC, BR Acquisition Mexico S.A. de C.V., BR Jersey International Holdings L.P., Beijing eFront Software Company Limited, BlackRock (Barbados) Finco 1 SRL, BlackRock (Channel Islands) Limited, BlackRock (Luxembourg) S.A., BlackRock (Netherlands) B.V., BlackRock (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., BlackRock (Singapore) Holdco II Pte. Ltd., BlackRock (Singapore) Holdco Pte. Limited, BlackRock (Singapore) Limited, BlackRock AP Investment Holdco LLC, BlackRock Advisors (UK) Limited, BlackRock Advisors LLC, BlackRock Advisors Singapore Pte. Limited, BlackRock Alternative Advisors GP Holdings LLC, BlackRock Alternatives Management LLC, BlackRock Argentina Asesorias Ltda., BlackRock Asset Management Canada Limited, BlackRock Asset Management Deutschland AG, BlackRock Asset Management International Inc., BlackRock Asset Management Investor Services Limited, BlackRock Asset Management Ireland Limited, BlackRock Asset Management North Asia Limited, BlackRock Asset Management Schweiz AG, BlackRock Asset Management UK Limited, BlackRock Australia Holdco Pty. Ltd., BlackRock Brasil Gestora de Investimentos Ltda., BlackRock Cal 1 Investor LLC, BlackRock Canada Holdings LP, BlackRock Canada Holdings ULC, BlackRock Capital Holdings Inc., BlackRock Capital Investment Advisors LLC, BlackRock Capital Management Inc., BlackRock Cayco Limited, BlackRock Cayman 1 LP, BlackRock Cayman Capital Holdings Limited, BlackRock Cayman Finco 2 Limited, BlackRock Cayman Finco 3 Limited, BlackRock Cayman Finco Limited, BlackRock Cayman West Bay Finco Limited, BlackRock Cayman West Bay IV Limited, BlackRock Cayman Z Limited, BlackRock Channel Islands Holdco Limited, BlackRock Chile Asesorias Limitada, BlackRock Colombia Holdco LLC, BlackRock Colombia Infraestructura S.A.S., BlackRock Colombia SAS, BlackRock Company Secretarial Services (UK) Limited, BlackRock Corporation US Inc., BlackRock Delaware Holdings Inc., BlackRock Enterprise Management Services (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., BlackRock Europe Development Management Limited, BlackRock Execution Services, BlackRock Finance Europe Limited, BlackRock Financial Management Inc., BlackRock Finco LLC, BlackRock Finco UK Ltd., BlackRock First Partner Limited, BlackRock France SAS, BlackRock Fund Advisors, BlackRock Fund Management Company S.A., BlackRock Fund Managers Limited, BlackRock Funding International Ltd., BlackRock Funds Services Group LLC, BlackRock Germany GmBH, BlackRock Group Limited, BlackRock HK Holdco Limited, BlackRock Holdco 2 Inc., BlackRock Holdco 3 LLC, BlackRock Holdco 4 LLC, BlackRock Holdco 5 LLC, BlackRock Holdco 6 LLC, BlackRock Hungary Kft, BlackRock Index Services LLC, BlackRock Infrastructure Management I LLC, BlackRock Institutional Services Inc., BlackRock Institutional Trust Company National Association, BlackRock International Holdings Inc., BlackRock International Limited, BlackRock Investment Management (Australia) Limited, BlackRock Investment Management (Dublin) Limited, BlackRock Investment Management (Korea) Limited, BlackRock Investment Management (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., BlackRock Investment Management (Taiwan) Limited, BlackRock Investment Management (UK) Limited, BlackRock Investment Management Ireland Holdings Limited, BlackRock Investment Management LLC, BlackRock Investments LLC, BlackRock Japan Co. Ltd., BlackRock Japan Holdings GK, BlackRock Jersey Finco 2 Limited, BlackRock Latin America Holdco LLC, BlackRock Latin American Holdings B.V., BlackRock Life Limited, BlackRock Lux Finco S.a r.l., BlackRock Luxembourg Holdco S.a r.l., BlackRock Mexican Holdco B.V., BlackRock Mexico Infraestructura I S. de R.L. de C.V., BlackRock Mexico Infraestructura II S. de R.L. de C.V., BlackRock Mexico Infraestructura III S. de R.L. de C.V., BlackRock Mexico Manager II S. de R.L. de C.V., BlackRock Mexico Manager III S. de R.L. de C.V., BlackRock Mexico Manager S de R.L. de C.V., BlackRock Mexico Operadora S.A. de C.V. Sociedad Operadora de Fondos de Inversion, BlackRock Mortgage Ventures LLC, BlackRock Niagara LLC, BlackRock Operations (Luxembourg) S.a r.l., BlackRock Overseas Investment Fund Management (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., BlackRock PC Holdings LLC, BlackRock Pensions Limited, BlackRock Peru Asesorias S.A., BlackRock Property Consulting (Beijing) Co. Ltd., BlackRock Property France S.a.r.l., BlackRock Property Lux S.a.r.l., BlackRock Property Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., BlackRock Realty Advisors Inc., BlackRock Saudi Arabia, BlackRock Scale Holdings LLC, BlackRock Services India Private Limited, BlackRock Singapore III Pte. Ltd., BlackRock Slovakia s.r.o., BlackRock Strategic Investors GP LLC, BlackRock Strategic Investors LP, BlackRock Trident Holding Company Limited, BlackRock UK (Alpha) Limited, BlackRock UK (Beta) Limited, BlackRock UK (Delta) LP, BlackRock UK (Gamma) Limited, BlackRock UK (Sigma) Limited, BlackRock UK 2 LLP, BlackRock UK 3 LLP, BlackRock UK 4 LLP, BlackRock UK A LLP, BlackRock UK Holdco 2 Limited, BlackRock UK Holdco Limited, Blackhawk Investment Holding LLC, CIE Automotive, Cachematrix Holdings, Cachematrix Holdings LLC, Cachematrix Integrations Private Limited, Cachematrix Software Solutions LLC, Cachematrix UK Limited, FutureAdvisor Inc., Glass Mountain Pipeline, Global Energy & Power Infrastructure Advisors LLC, Global Energy & Power Infrastructure II Advisors LLC, Grosvenor Alternate Partner Limited, Grosvenor Ventures Limited, HLX Financial Holdings LLC, MGPA (Bermuda) Limited, MGPA (Exec) Limited, MGPA Limited, Mercury Carry Company Ltd., Mercury Private Equity MUST 3 (Jersey) Limited, Object Capital Technology Inc., Phoenix Acquisition B.V., Phoenix Acquisitions Holdings LLC, Portfolio Administration & Management Ltd., Prestadora de Servicios Integrales BlackRock Mexico S.A. de C.V., SVOF/MM LLC, St. Albans House Nominees (Jersey) Ltd., State Street Research & Management, Tennenbaum Capital Partners LLC, Tennenbaum Capital Partners LLC, Tlali Acero S.A. de C.V. SOFOM ENR, Trident Merger LLC, eFront, eFront, eFront (Jersey) Limited, eFront DMLT Holdings LLC, eFront DMLT Holdings S.R.L, eFront DR S.R.L, eFront Do Brasil Solucoes Informaticas Para Sistemas Financeiros Ltda., eFront FZ-LLC, eFront Financial Solutions Inc., eFront GmbH, eFront Holding II SAS, eFront Holdings SAS, eFront Hong Kong Limited, eFront II SAS, eFront Kabushiki Kaisha, eFront Ltd, eFront SAS, eFront Singapore Pte. Ltd, eFront Software Luxembourg S.a r.l., eFront Solutions Financeieres Inc., eFront d.o.o. Beograd, iShares (DE) I Investmentaktiengesellschaft mit Teilgesellschaftsvermogen, and iShares Delaware Trust Sponsor LLC.
The Hong Kong and China Gas Company Limited, together with its subsidiaries, produces, distributes, and markets gas in Hong Kong and Mainland China. It is involved in the provision of liquefied natural gas, methanol, and coal and other chemicals; conversion and utilization of biomass, and industrial and agricultural waste; and operation of natural gas refilling stations, piped city-gas projects, upstream and midstream developments, water and wastewater treatment projects, energy exploration and utilization ventures, and aviation fuel facilities. The company supplies town gas to approximately 1.9 million customers. It also provides network connectivity, and data center and cloud computing services; and engages in the software development, solution implementation, and systems integration activities. In addition, the company offers consultancy and engineering contractor services, including utilities installation, infrastructure construction, and civil and building services engineering for public and private projects; and designs and manufactures gas meters and metering systems. Further, it is involved in water supply and wastewater treatment serving 2.4 million customers. Additionally, the company manufactures polyethylene piping and fittings; and engages in the customers center, cafA, restaurant, retail sale, automatic meter reading system development, laboratory testing, payment gateway and related, project management, landfill gas project, financing, logistics, oil, research and development, property development, and securities investment activities. The Hong Kong and China Gas Company Limited was founded in 1862 and is headquartered in North Point, Hong Kong.

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The following companies are subsidiares of CVS Health: @Credentials Inc., ACS ACQCO CORP., ADMINCO Inc., AE Fourteen Incorporated, AHP Holdings Inc., AMC - Tennessee LLC, APS Acquisition LLC, ASCO HealthCare LLC, ASI Wings LLC, AUSHC Holdings Inc., Accendo Insurance Company, Accordant Health Services L.L.C., Active Health Management Inc., Administrative Enterprises Inc., AdvancePCS SpecialtyRx LLC, AdvanceRx.com L.L.C., Advanced Care Scripts Inc., Aetna, Aetna (Beijing) Enterprise Management Services Co. Ltd., Aetna (Shanghai) Enterprise Services Co. Ltd., Aetna ACO Holdings Inc., Aetna Asset Advisors LLC, Aetna Behavioral Health LLC, Aetna Better Health Inc., Aetna Better Health Inc., Aetna Better Health of California Inc., Aetna Better Health of Florida Inc., Aetna Better Health of Kansas Inc., Aetna Better Health of Michigan Inc., Aetna Better Health of Missouri LLC, Aetna Better Health of Nevada Inc., Aetna Better Health of North Carolina Inc., Aetna Better Health of Oklahoma Inc., Aetna Better Health of Texas Inc., Aetna Better Health of Washington Inc., Aetna Capital Management LLC, Aetna Card Solutions LLC, Aetna Corporate Services LLC, Aetna Dental Inc., Aetna Dental of California Inc., Aetna Financial Holdings LLC, Aetna Florida Inc., Aetna Global Benefits (Asia Pacific) Limited, Aetna Global Benefits (Bahamas) Limited, Aetna Global Benefits (Bermuda) Limited, Aetna Global Benefits (Europe) Limited, Aetna Global Benefits (Middle East) LLC, Aetna Global Benefits (Singapore) PTE. LTD., Aetna Global Benefits (UK) Limited, Aetna Global Benefits Limited (DIFC UAE), Aetna Global Holdings Limited, Aetna Health Holdings LLC, Aetna Health Inc., Aetna Health Insurance (Thailand) Public Company Limited, Aetna Health Insurance Company, Aetna Health Insurance Company of Europe DAC, Aetna Health Management LLC, Aetna Health and Life Insurance Company, Aetna Health of California Inc., Aetna Health of Iowa Inc., Aetna Health of Michigan Inc., Aetna Health of Ohio Inc., Aetna Health of Utah Inc., Aetna HealthAssurance Pennsylvania Inc., Aetna Holdco (UK) Limited, Aetna Holdings (Thailand) Limited, Aetna Inc., Aetna Insurance (Hong Kong) Limite, Aetna Insurance (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Aetna Insurance Company Limited, Aetna Integrated Informatics Inc., Aetna International Inc., Aetna Ireland Inc., Aetna Korea Ltd., Aetna Life & Casualty (Bermuda) Ltd., Aetna Life Assignment Company, Aetna Life Insurance Company, Aetna Medicaid Administrators LLC, Aetna Multi-Strategy 1099 Fund LLC, Aetna Network Services LLC, Aetna Partners Diversified Fund LLC, Aetna Pharmacy Management Services LLC, Aetna Resources LLC, Aetna Risk Assurance Company of Connecticut Inc., Aetna Rx Home Delivery LLC, Aetna Services (Thailand) Limited, Aetna Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Aetna Student Health Agency Inc., Aetna Ventures LLC, Aetna Workers Comp Access LLC, Alabama CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Alaska CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Allina Health and Aetna Insurance Company, Allina Health and Aetna Insurance Holding Company LLC, American Continental Insurance Company, American Drug Stores Delaware L.L.C., American Health Holding Inc., Arbor Drugs, Arizona CVS Stores L.L.C., Arkansas CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Badger Acquisition LLC, Badger Acquisition of Kentucky LLC, Badger Acquisition of Minnesota LLC, Badger Acquisition of Ohio LLC, Banner Health and Aetna Health Insurance Company, Banner Health and Aetna Health Insurance Holding Company LLC, Banner Health and Aetna Health Plan Inc., Beauty Holdings L.L.C., Best Care LTC Acquisition Company LLC, Busse CVS L.L.C., CCI Foreign S.a R.L. (R.C.S. Luxembourg), CCRx Holdings LLC, CCRx of North Carolina LLC, CHP Acquisition LLC, CP Acquisition LLC, CVS 2948 Henderson L.L.C., CVS 3268 Gilbert L.L.C., CVS 3745 Peoria L.L.C., CVS AL Distribution L.L.C., CVS AOC Corporation, CVS AOC Services L.L.C., CVS Albany L.L.C., CVS Bellmore Avenue L.L.C., CVS Care Concierge LLC, CVS Caremark Advanced Technology Pharmacy L.L.C., CVS Caremark Indemnity Ltd., CVS Caremark Part D Services L.L.C., CVS Caremark TN SUTA LLC, CVS Foreign Inc., CVS Gilbert 3272 L.L.C., CVS Health Solutions LLC, CVS Indiana L.L.C., CVS International L.L.C., CVS Kidney Care Advanced Technologies LLC, CVS Kidney Care Health Services LLC, CVS Kidney Care Home Dialysis LLC, CVS Kidney Care LLC, CVS Manchester NH L.L.C., CVS Media Exchange LLC, CVS Michigan L.L.C., CVS Orlando FL Distribution L.L.C., CVS PA Distribution L.L.C., CVS PR Center Inc., CVS Pharmacy Inc., CVS RS Arizona L.L.C., CVS Rx Services Inc., CVS SC Distribution L.L.C., CVS State Capital L.L.C., CVS TN Distribution L.L.C., CVS Transportation L.L.C., CVS Vero FL Distribution L.L.C., Campos Medical Pharmacy LLC, Canal Place LLC, Care Pharmaceutical Services LP, CareCenter Pharmacy L.L.C., Carefree Insurance Services Inc., Caremark Arizona Mail Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Arizona Specialty Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark California Specialty Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Florida Mail Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Florida Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Hawaii Mail Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Hawaii Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark IPA L.L.C., Caremark Illinois Mail Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Illinois Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Irving Resource Center LLC, Caremark Kansas Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark L.L.C., Caremark Logistics LLC, Caremark Louisiana Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Maryland Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Massachusetts Specialty Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Michigan Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Minnesota Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark New Jersey Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark North Carolina Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Ohio Specialty Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Pennsylvania Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark PhC L.L.C., Caremark Puerto Rico L.L.C., Caremark Puerto Rico Specialty Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Redlands Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Repack LLC, Caremark Rx L.L.C., Caremark Tennessee Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Texas Mail Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Texas Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Ulysses Holding Corp., Caremark Washington Specialty Pharmacy LLC, CaremarkPCS Alabama Mail Pharmacy LLC, CaremarkPCS Health L.L.C., CaremarkPCS L.L.C., Central Rx Services LLC, Claims Administration Corp., Cofinity Inc., Compscript LLC, Connecticut CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Continental Life Insurance Company of Brentwood Tennessee, Continuing Care Rx LLC, Coram Alternate Site Services Inc., Coram Clinical Trials Inc., Coram Healthcare Corporation of Alabama, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Florida, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Greater D.C., Coram Healthcare Corporation of Greater New York, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Indiana, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Massachusetts, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Mississippi, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Nevada, Coram Healthcare Corporation of North Texas, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Northern California, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Southern California, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Southern Florida, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Utah, Coram LLC, Coram Rx LLC, Coram Specialty Infusion, Coram Specialty Infusion Services L.L.C., Coventry Consumer Advantage Inc., Coventry Health Care National Accounts Inc., Coventry Health Care National Network Inc., Coventry Health Care Workers Compensation Inc., Coventry Health Care of Illinois Inc., Coventry Health Care of Kansas Inc., Coventry Health Care of Missouri Inc., Coventry Health Care of Nebraska Inc., Coventry Health Care of Virginia Inc., Coventry Health Care of West Virginia Inc., Coventry Health Plan of Florida Inc., Coventry Health and Life Insurance Company, Coventry HealthCare Management Corporation, Coventry Prescription Management Services Inc., Coventry Rehabilitation Services Inc., Coventry Transplant Network Inc., D & R Pharmaceutical Services LLC, D.A.W. LLC, Delaware CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Delaware Physicians Care Incorporated, Digital eHealth LLC, District of Columbia CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., E.T.B. INC., Echo Merger Sub Inc., Eckerd Corporation of Florida Inc., Employee Assistance Services LLC, Enloe Drugs LLC, Enterprise Patient Safety Organization LLC, EntrustRX, Evergreen Pharmaceutical LLC, Evergreen Pharmaceutical of California Inc., Express Pharmacy Services of PA L.L.C., FOCUS HealthCare Management Inc., First Health Group Corp., First Health Life & Health Insurance Company, First Script Network Services Inc., Florida Health Plan Administrators LLC, Garfield Beach CVS L.L.C., Generation Health L.L.C., Geneva Woods Health Services LLC, Geneva Woods LTC Pharmacy LLC, Geneva Woods Management LLC, Geneva Woods Pharmacy Alaska LLC, Geneva Woods Pharmacy LLC, Geneva Woods Pharmacy Washington LLC, Geneva Woods Pharmacy Wyoming LLC, Geneva Woods Retail Pharmacy LLC, Georgia CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., German Dobson CVS L.L.C., Goodhealth Worldwide (Asia) Limited, Goodhealth Worldwide (Global) Limited, Goodyear CVS L.L.C., Grand St. Paul CVS L.L.C., Grandview Pharmacy LLC, Group Dental Service Inc., Group Dental Service of Maryland Inc., Health Care Management Co. Ltd., Health Data & Management Solutions Inc., Health Re Inc., Health and Human Resource Center Inc., HealthAssuance Pennsylvania Inc., Healthagen LLC, Highland Park CVS L.L.C., Holiday CVS L.L.C., Home Care Pharmacy LLC, Home Pharmacy Services LLC, Hook-SupeRx L.L.C., Horizon Behavioral Services LLC, Idaho CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., IlliniCare Health, Indian Health Organisation Private Limited, Innovation Health Holdings LLC, Innovation Health Insurance Company, Innovation Health Plan Inc., Interlock Pharmacy Systems LLC, Iowa CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., JHC Acquisition LLC, Kansas CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Kentucky CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., LCPS Acquisition LLC, Langsam Health Services LLC, Lo-Med Prescription Services LLC, Lobos Acquisition LLC, Longs Drug Stores, Longs Drug Stores California L.L.C., Louisiana CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., MHHP Acquisition Company LLC, MHNet Life and Health Insurance Company, MHNet Specialty Services LLC, MHNet of Florida Inc., Managed Care Coordinators Inc., Managed Healthcare LLC, Martin Health Services LLC, Maryland CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Med World Acquisition Corp., Medical Arts Health Care LLC, Medical Examinations of New York P.C., Melville Realty Company Inc., MemberHealth LLC, Mental Health Associates Inc., Mental Health Network of New York IPA Inc., Meritain Health Inc., Merwin Long Term Care LLC, MetraComp Inc., Minor Health Enterprise Co Ltd., MinuteClinic, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Alabama L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Arizona LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Florida LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Georgia LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Hawaii L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Illinois LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Kentucky L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Louisiana L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Maine L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Maryland LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Massachusetts LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Nebraska L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of New Hampshire L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of New Mexico L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Ohio LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Oklahoma LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Oregon LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Pennsylvania LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Rhode Island LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of South Carolina L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Texas LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Utah L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Virginia LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Washington LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Wisconsin L.L.C., MinuteClinic L.L.C., MinuteClinic Online Diagnostic Services LLC, MinuteClinic Physician Practice of Texas, MinuteClinic Telehealth Services LLC, Mississippi CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Missouri CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Montana CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., NCS Healthcare LLC, NCS Healthcare of Illinois LLC, NCS Healthcare of Iowa LLC, NCS Healthcare of Kansas LLC, NCS Healthcare of Kentucky Inc. (Oh, NCS Healthcare of Montana LLC, NCS Healthcare of New Mexico LLC, NCS Healthcare of Ohio LLC, NCS Healthcare of South Carolina LLC, NCS Healthcare of Tennessee LLC, NCS Healthcare of Wisconsin LLC, NIV Acquisition LLC, Navarro Discount Pharmacy, Nebraska CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., NeighborCare Holdings Inc., NeighborCare Inc., NeighborCare Pharmacy Services Inc., NeighborCare Services Corporation, NeighborCare of Indiana LLC, NeighborCare of Virginia LLC, New Jersey CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Niagara Re Inc., North Carolina CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., North Shore Pharmacy Services LLC, NovoLogix LLC, OCR Services LLC, Ocean Acquisition Sub L.L.C., Ohio CVS Stores L.L.C., Oklahoma CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Omnicare, Omnicare Holding Company, Omnicare Inc., Omnicare Indiana Partnership Holding Company LLC, Omnicare Pharmacies of Pennsylvania East LLC, Omnicare Pharmacies of Pennsylvania West LLC, Omnicare Pharmacies of the Great Plains Holding LLC, Omnicare Pharmacy and Supply Services LLC, Omnicare Pharmacy of Tennessee LLC, Omnicare Pharmacy of the Midwest LLC, Omnicare Property Management LLC, Omnicare of Nebraska LLC, Omnicare of Nevada LLC, Omnicare of New York LLC, Oregon CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., PE Holdings LLC, PHPSNE Parent Corporation, PP Acquisition Company LLC, PRN Pharmaceutical Services LP, PT Aetna Management Consulting, Pamplona Saude e Beleza LTDA, Part D Holding Company L.L.C., PayFlex Holdings Inc., PayFlex Systems USA Inc., Pennsylvania CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Performax Inc., Pharmacy Associates of Glenn Falls LLC, Pharmacy Consultants LLC, Phoenix Data Solutions LLC, Precision Benefit Services Inc., Prime Net Inc., ProCare Pharmacy Direct L.L.C., ProCare Pharmacy L.L.C., Prodigy Health Group Inc., Professional Risk Management Inc., Pt. Aetna Global Benefits Indonesia, Puerto Rico CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Red Oak Sourcing LLC, Resources for Living LLC, Rhode Island CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Roeschens Healthcare LLC, RxAmerica, Schaller Anderson Medical Administrators Incorporated, Scrip World LLC, Sheffield Avenue CVS L.L.C., Shore Pharmaceutical Providers LLC, Silverscript Insurance Company, Soma Intimates, South Carolina CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., South Wabash CVS L.L.C., Specialized Pharmacy Services LLC, Spinnaker Bidco Limited, Spinnaker Topco Limited, Stadtlander Drug Company, Stadtlander Pharmacy, Sterling Healthcare Services LLC, Superior Care Pharmacy LLC, Sutter Health and Aetna Administrative Services LLC, Sutter Health and Aetna Insurance Company, Sutter Health and Aetna Insurance Holding Company LLC, T2 Medical Inc., TCPI Acquisition LLC, TargetPharmacy, Tennessee CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Texas Health + Aetna Health Insurance Company, Texas Health + Aetna Health Insurance Holding Company LLC, Texas Health + Aetna Health Plan Inc., The Vasquez Group Inc., Thomas Phoenix CVS L.L.C., Three Forks Apothecary LLC, U.S Healthcare Holdings LLC, U.S. Healthcare Properties Inc., UAC Holding Inc., UC Acquisition LLC, UNI-Care Health Services of Maine LLC, Universal American - Medicare Part D Business, Utah CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., VAPS Acquisition Company LLC, Value Health Care Services LLC, Vermont CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Virginia CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Virtual Home Healthcare L.L.C., Warm Springs Road CVS L.L.C., Washington CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Washington Lamb CVS L.L.C., Weber Medical Systems LLC, Wellpartner LLC, West Virginia CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Westhaven Services Co LLC, Williamson Drug Company LLC, Wisconsin CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Woodward Detroit CVS L.L.C., Work and Family Benefits Inc., ZS Acquisition Company LLC, Zinc Health Services LLC, Zinc Health Ventures LLC, bSwift LLC, and iTriage LLC.
Marvel and FX dont typically disappoint their fans. But last weekend, pop culture received some of the years most disheartening news with the announcement that the Deadpool animated series that was in development with Donald Glover and his brother Stephen would no longer go forward with Marvel Television. And this was right after the latest trailer for Deadpool 2 had hit the internet!

The brothers Glover, whose show Atlanta has been a success for FX, were set to write, executive produce and serve as showrunners for an adult-oriented series for the companys comedy-focused channel FXX. But apparently, the Glovers and Marvel couldnt settle on the right direction for the show. A statement from FX alluded to creative differences:

Due to creative differences, FX, Donald Glover, Stephen Glover and Marvel Television have agreed to part ways on Marvels Deadpool animated series. FX will no longer be involved with the project. FX and Marvel have an ongoing relationship through our partnership on Legion, which will continue.

The statement mentioning that FX and Marvel were still collaborating on Legion, the second season of which debuts next week (April 3), seemed to imply that the relationship between those two companies was copacetic. As Deadlines Nellie Andreeva reported, there was indeed creative conflict between the Glover brothers and Marvel, which didnt like the scripts that had been written. (Also, when we say Marvel, we mean Marvel Television, which is a separate division from the movie-making Marvel Studios.)

FX didnt want to take sides in the matter, since they already work with the Glovers on Atlanta, so decided to pull out of the project. Without a network home, there wasnt much of a future for the show, which had received a straight-to-series order for 10 episodes. If there is going to be a Deadpool animated series with the violent action and bawdy tone of the movies and comic books, it will be with another network (though FXX seemed perfect for it) and a new creative team will be involved.

Apparently, however, there had been some rumblings that the reason the Deadpool series failed was because Donald Glover was too busy with other projects. Never mind that filming on Solo: A Star Wars Story, in which he plays Lando Calrissian, has already been completed  or is at least damn close with a May 25 theatrical release. Season 2 of Atlanta wrapped filming last December. And yes, hes playing Simba in the live-action remake of The Lion King, but its a voice role.

Glover took to Twitter Wednesday morning to dispute any notion that he was too busy to work on Deadpool, thus implying that the project fell through because he didnt devote his full creative attention to it.

He then tweeted out pages from what will surely be the last Deadpool script he ever writes, a 15-page finale in which the Merc With a Mouth goes to Africa to protect the worlds last male northern white rhinoceros, Sudan. Along the way, there are plenty of shots taken at Marvel that allude to why Glover thinks the project was cancelled.

We wont post all 15 pages  which you can read in Glovers Twitter thread  but here are some of the notable lines of dialogue written in the meta, fourth wall-breaking style that has made Deadpool so popular.

The reference to Beyonce being bitten and the joke that it was actress Sanaa Lathan who bit her shows that Glover wrote this script very recently, possibly even Tuesday night.

With that, Glover gets the last word on the matter (until Marvel revives the Deadpool animated series elsewhere) and in highly entertaining fashion. He provided some content for fans to enjoy, demonstrated how talented a writer he is (if that wasnt already known), and gave a glimpse at what wouldve been had this series gone forward at FX. This is all well likely ever get to see of it, which makes Glovers effort a bittersweetly funny one.

But if Marvel (Television) didnt know before, it surely knows now. Dont mess with Donald Glover.
Red Hat, Inc. provides open source software solutions to develop and offer operating system, virtualization, management, middleware, cloud, mobile, and storage technologies to various enterprises worldwide. It offers infrastructure-related solutions, such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux, an operating system platform that runs on hardware for use in hybrid cloud environments; Red Hat Satellite, a system management offering that helps to deploy, scale, and manage in hybrid cloud environments; and Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization, a software solution that allows customers to utilize and manage a common hardware infrastructure to run multiple operating systems and applications. The company offers application development-related and other technology solutions, such as Red Hat JBoss Middleware, a solution for developing, deploying, and managing applications; integrating applications, data, and devices; and automating business processes in hybrid cloud environments; The company's application development-related and other technology solutions also includes Red Hat cloud offerings, a software solution that enables customers to build and manage various cloud computing environments; Red Hat Mobile, a software development platform that enables customers to develop, integrate, deploy, and manage mobile applications for enterprises; and Red Hat Storage, a software solution that enables customers to manage large, unstructured, or semi-structured data in hybrid cloud environments. It also provides consulting, support, and training services; and realtime operating system, distributed computing, directory services, and user authentication. Red Hat, Inc. has collaboration with Juniper Networks Expand to provide a unified solution for enterprises designed to manage and run applications and services. The company was formerly known as Red Hat Software, Inc. and changed its name to Red Hat, Inc. in June 1999. Red Hat, Inc. was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina.

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The following companies are subsidiares of Lloyds Banking Group: A G Finance Ltd, A.C.L. Ltd, ACL Autolease Holdings Ltd, ADF No.1 Pty Ltd, Addison Social Housing Holdings Ltd, Alex Lawrie Factors Ltd, Alex. Lawrie Receivables Financing Ltd, Amberdate Ltd, Anglo Scottish Utilities Partnership 1, Aquilus Ltd, Automobile Association Personal Finance Ltd, BOS (Ireland) Property Services 2 Ltd, BOS (Ireland) Property Services Ltd, BOS (Shared Appreciation Mortgages (Scotland) No. 2) Ltd, BOS (Shared Appreciation Mortgages (Scotland) No. 3) Ltd, BOS (Shared Appreciation Mortgages (Scotland)) Ltd, BOS (Shared Appreciation Mortgages) No. 1 plc, BOS (Shared Appreciation Mortgages) No. 2 plc, BOS (Shared Appreciation Mortgages) No. 3 plc, BOS (Shared Appreciation Mortgages) No. 4 plc, BOS (Shared Appreciation Mortgages) No. 5 plc, BOS (Shared Appreciation Mortgages) No. 6 plc, BOS (USA) Fund Investments Inc., BOS (USA) Inc., BOS Edinburgh No 1 Ltd, BOS Mistral Ltd, BOS Personal Lending Ltd, BOSSAF Rail Ltd, Bank of Scotland (B G S) Nominees Ltd, Bank of Scotland (Stanlife) London Nominees Ltd, Bank of Scotland Branch Nominees Ltd, Bank of Scotland Central Nominees Ltd, Bank of Scotland Edinburgh Nominees Ltd, Bank of Scotland Equipment Finance Ltd, Bank of Scotland Foundation, Bank of Scotland LNG Leasing (No 1) Ltd, Bank of Scotland London Nominees Ltd, Bank of Scotland Nominees (Unit Trusts) Ltd, Bank of Scotland P.E.P. Nominees Ltd, Bank of Scotland Structured Asset Finance Ltd, Bank of Scotland Transport Finance 1 Ltd, Bank of Scotland plc, Bank of Wales Ltd, Barents Leasing Ltd, Barnwood Mortgages Ltd, Birchcrown Finance Ltd, Birmingham Midshires Financial Services Ltd, Birmingham Midshires Land Development Ltd, Birmingham Midshires Mortgage Services Ltd, Black Horse (TRF) Ltd, Black Horse Executive Mortgages Ltd, Black Horse Finance Holdings Ltd, Black Horse Finance Management Ltd, Black Horse Group Ltd, Black Horse Ltd, Black Horse Offshore Ltd, Black Horse Property Services Ltd, Boltro Nominees Ltd, British Linen Leasing (London) Ltd, British Linen Leasing Ltd, British Linen Shipping Ltd, C.T.S.B. Leasing Ltd, CBRail S.A.R.L., CF Asset Finance Ltd, CF1 Ltd, CM Venture Investments Ltd, Cancara Asset Securitisation Ltd, Capital 1945 Ltd, Capital Bank Leasing 12 Ltd, Capital Bank Leasing 3 Ltd, Capital Bank Leasing 5 Ltd, Capital Bank Leasing 9 Ltd, Capital Bank Property Investments (3) Ltd, Capital Personal Finance Ltd, Cardiff Auto Receivables Securitisation 2018-1 Plc, Cardiff Auto Receivables Securitisation 2019-1 Plc, Cardiff Auto Receivables Securitisation Holdings Ltd, Cardnet Merchant Services Ltd, Cashfriday Ltd, Cashpoint Ltd, Caveminster Ltd, Cedar Holdings Ltd, Celsius European Lux 2 S.A.R.L., Central Mortgage Finance Ltd, Chariot Finance Ltd, Cheltenham & Gloucester plc, Cheltenham II Securities 2020 DAC, Cheltenham Securities 2017 Ltd, Chepstow Blue Holdings Ltd, Chepstow Blue plc, Chester Asset Options No.2 Ltd, Chester Asset Options No.3 Ltd, Chester Asset Receivables Dealings Issuer Ltd, Chester Asset Securitisation Holdings Ltd, Chester Asset Securitisation Holdings No.2 Ltd, Chiswell Stockbrokers Ltd, Clerical Medical Finance plc, Clerical Medical Financial Services Ltd, Clerical Medical International Holdings B.V., Clerical Medical Investment Fund Managers Ltd, Clerical Medical Managed Funds Ltd, Clerical Medical Non Sterling Guadalix Hold Co BV, Clerical Medical Non Sterling Guadalix Spanish Prop Co SL, Clerical Medical Non Sterling Megapark Hold Co BV, Clerical Medical Non Sterling Megapark Prop Co SA, Clerical Medical Non Sterling Property Company S.A.R.L., Cloak Lane Funding S.A.R.L., Cloak Lane Investments S.A.R.L., Conquest Securities Ltd, Corbiere Asset Investments Ltd, Create Services Ltd, Credit Card Securitisation Europe Ltd, Dalkeith Corporation, Deva Financing Holdings Ltd, Deva Financing plc, Deva One Ltd, Deva Three Ltd, Deva Two Ltd, Dunstan Investments (UK) Ltd, Edgbaston RMBS 2010-1 plc, Edgbaston RMBS Holdings Ltd, Elland RMBS 2018 plc, Elland RMBS Holdings Ltd, Eurolead Services Holdings Ltd, First Retail Finance (Chester) Ltd, Fontwell Securities 2016 Ltd, Forthright Finance Ltd, France Industrial Premises Holding Company, General Leasing (No. 12) Ltd, General Reversionary and Investment Company, Gresham Nominee 1 Ltd, Gresham Nominee 2 Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 1) Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 10) Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 11) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 12) Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 13) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 14) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 15) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 16) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 19) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 20) Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 21) Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 22) Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 23) Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 24) Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 25) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 26) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 27) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 28) Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 29) Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 3) Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 30) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 31) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 32) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 33) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 34) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 35) Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 36) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 37) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 38) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 39) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 40) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 41) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 44) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 45) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 46) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 47) UK Ltd, Gresham Receivables (No. 48) UK Ltd, Guildhall Asset Purchasing Company (No 3) Ltd, Guildhall Asset Purchasing Company (No.11) UK Ltd, HBOS Covered Bonds LLP, HBOS Final Salary Trust Ltd, HBOS Financial Services Ltd, HBOS Insurance & Investment Group Ltd, HBOS International Financial Services Holdings Ltd, HBOS Investment Fund Managers Ltd, HBOS Social Housing Covered Bonds LLP, HBOS UK Ltd, HBOS plc, HSDL Nominees Ltd, HVF Ltd, Halifax Credit Card Ltd, Halifax Financial Brokers Ltd, Halifax Financial Services (Holdings) Ltd, Halifax Financial Services Ltd, Halifax General Insurance Services Ltd, Halifax Group Ltd, Halifax Investment Services Ltd, Halifax Leasing (June) Ltd, Halifax Leasing (March No.2) Ltd, Halifax Leasing (September) Ltd, Halifax Life Ltd, Halifax Loans Ltd, Halifax Ltd, Halifax Mortgage Services Ltd, Halifax Nominees Ltd, Halifax Pension Nominees Ltd, Halifax Premises Ltd, Halifax Share Dealing Ltd, Halifax Vehicle Leasing (1998) Ltd, Heidi Finance Holdings (UK) Ltd, Hill Samuel Bank Ltd, Hill Samuel Finance Ltd, Hill Samuel Leasing Co. Ltd, Home Shopping Personal Finance Ltd, Horizon Capital 2000 Ltd, Housing Association Risk Transfer 2019 DAC, Housing Growth Partnership GP LLP, Housing Growth Partnership LP, Housing Growth Partnership Ltd, Housing Growth Partnership Manager Ltd, Hyundai Car Finance Ltd, IBOS Finance Ltd, ICC Enterprise Partners Ltd, ICC Equity Partners Ltd, ICC Holdings Unlimited Company, Inchcape Financial Services Ltd, Intelligent Finance Financial Services Ltd, Intelligent Finance Software Ltd, International Motors Finance Ltd, Kanaalstraat Funding C.V., Katrine Leasing Ltd, LB Healthcare Trustee Ltd, LB Motorent Ltd, LB Quest Ltd, LB Share Schemes Trustees Ltd, LBCF Ltd, LBG Brasil Administracao LTDA, LBG Capital Holdings Ltd, LBG Equity Investments Ltd, LBI Leasing Ltd, LDC (General Partner) Ltd, LDC (Managers) Ltd, LDC (Nominees) Ltd, LDC GP LLP, LDC I LP, LDC II LP, LDC III LP, LDC IV LP, LDC Parallel (Nominees) Ltd, LDC V LP, LDC VI LP, LDC VII LP, LDC VIII LP, LTGP Limited Partnership Incorporated, Legacy Renewal Company Ltd, Leicester Securities 2014 Ltd, Lex Autolease (CH) Ltd, Lex Autolease (VC) Ltd, Lex Autolease Carselect Ltd, Lex Autolease Ltd, Lex Vehicle Finance 2 Ltd, Lex Vehicle Leasing (Holdings) Ltd, Lex Vehicle Leasing Ltd, Lime Street (Funding) Ltd, Lingfield 2014 I Holdings Ltd, Lingfield 2014 I plc, Lloyds (Gresham) Ltd, Lloyds (Gresham) No. 1 Ltd, Lloyds (Nimrod) Specialist Finance Ltd, Lloyds America Securities Corporation1, Lloyds Asset Leasing Ltd, Lloyds Bank (Branches) Nominees Ltd, Lloyds Bank (Colonial & Foreign) Nominees Ltd, Lloyds Bank (Fountainbridge 1) Ltd, Lloyds Bank (Fountainbridge 2) Ltd, Lloyds Bank (I.D.) Nominees Ltd, Lloyds Bank (International Services) Ltd, Lloyds Bank (Stock Exchange Branch) Nominees Ltd, Lloyds Bank Asset Finance Ltd, Lloyds Bank Commercial Finance Ltd, Lloyds Bank Commercial Finance Scotland Ltd, Lloyds Bank Corporate Asset Finance (HP) Ltd, Lloyds Bank Corporate Asset Finance (No.1) Ltd, Lloyds Bank Corporate Asset Finance (No.2) Ltd, Lloyds Bank Corporate Asset Finance (No.3) Ltd, Lloyds Bank Corporate Asset Finance (No.4) Ltd, Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets Wertpapierhandelsbank GmbH, Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets plc, Lloyds Bank Covered Bonds (Holdings) Ltd, Lloyds Bank Covered Bonds (LM) Ltd, Lloyds Bank Covered Bonds LLP, Lloyds Bank Equipment Leasing (No. 1) Ltd, Lloyds Bank Equipment Leasing (No. 7) Ltd, Lloyds Bank Equipment Leasing (No. 9) Ltd, Lloyds Bank Financial Services (Holdings) Ltd, Lloyds Bank Foundation for England & Wales, Lloyds Bank Foundation for the Channel Islands, Lloyds Bank General Insurance Holdings Ltd, Lloyds Bank General Insurance Ltd, Lloyds Bank General Leasing (No. 11) Ltd, Lloyds Bank General Leasing (No. 17) Ltd, Lloyds Bank General Leasing (No. 20) Ltd, Lloyds Bank General Leasing (No. 3) Ltd, Lloyds Bank General Leasing (No. 5) Ltd, Lloyds Bank GmbH, Lloyds Bank Hill Samuel Holding Company Ltd, Lloyds Bank Insurance Services Ltd, Lloyds Bank International Ltd, Lloyds Bank Leasing (No. 6) Ltd, Lloyds Bank Leasing (No. 8) Ltd, Lloyds Bank Leasing Ltd, Lloyds Bank MTCH Ltd, Lloyds Bank Maritime Leasing (No. 10) Ltd, Lloyds Bank Maritime Leasing (No. 13) Ltd, Lloyds Bank Maritime Leasing (No. 17) Ltd, Lloyds Bank Maritime Leasing (No.16) Ltd, Lloyds Bank Nominees Ltd, Lloyds Bank Offshore Pension Trust Ltd, Lloyds Bank Pension ABCS (No. 1) LLP, Lloyds Bank Pension ABCS (No. 2) LLP, Lloyds Bank Pension Trust (No. 1) Ltd, Lloyds Bank Pension Trust (No. 2) Ltd, Lloyds Bank Pensions Property (Guernsey) Ltd, Lloyds Bank Properties Ltd, Lloyds Bank Property Company Ltd, Lloyds Bank S.F. Nominees Ltd, Lloyds Bank Subsidiaries Ltd, Lloyds Bank Trustee Services Ltd, Lloyds Bank plc, Lloyds Banking Group Pensions Trustees Ltd, Lloyds Capital GP Ltd, Lloyds Commercial Leasing Ltd, Lloyds Commercial Properties Ltd, Lloyds Commercial Property Investments Ltd, Lloyds Corporate Services (Jersey) Ltd, Lloyds Development Capital (Holdings) Ltd, Lloyds Engine Capital (No.1) U.S LLC, Lloyds Far East S.A.R.L., Lloyds General Leasing Ltd, Lloyds Group Holdings (Jersey) Ltd, Lloyds Holdings (Jersey) Ltd, Lloyds Hypotheken B.V., Lloyds Industrial Leasing Ltd, Lloyds International Pty Ltd, Lloyds Investment Bonds Ltd, Lloyds Investment Fund Managers Ltd, Lloyds Investment Securities No.5 Ltd, Lloyds Leasing (North Sea Transport) Ltd1, Lloyds Leasing Developments Ltd, Lloyds Nominees (Guernsey) Ltd, Lloyds Offshore Global Services Private Ltd, Lloyds Plant Leasing Ltd, Lloyds Portfolio Leasing Ltd, Lloyds Premises Investments Ltd, Lloyds Project Leasing Ltd, Lloyds Property Investment Company No. 3 Ltd, Lloyds Property Investment Company No. 4 Ltd, Lloyds Property Investment Company No.5 Ltd, Lloyds Secretaries Ltd, Lloyds Securities Inc., Lloyds TSB Pacific Ltd, Lloyds UDT Asset Leasing Ltd, Lloyds UDT Asset Rentals Ltd, Lloyds UDT Hiring Ltd, Lloyds UDT Leasing Ltd, Lloyds UDT Ltd, Lloyds Your Tomorrow Trustee Ltd, Loans.co.uk Ltd, London Taxi Finance Ltd, London Uberior (L.A.S. Group) Nominees Ltd, Lotus Finance Ltd, MBNA, MBNA Direct Ltd, MBNA Europe Finance Ltd, MBNA Europe Holdings Ltd, MBNA General Foundation, MBNA Global Services Ltd, MBNA Indian Services Private Ltd, MBNA Ltd, MBNA R & L S.A.R.L., MBNA Receivables Ltd, Mainsearch Company Ltd, Maritime Leasing (No. 19) Ltd, Membership Services Finance Ltd, Mitre Street Funding S.A.R.L., Molineux RMBS 2016-1 plc, Molineux RMBS Holdings Ltd, Moor Lane Holdings Ltd, NFU Mutual Finance Ltd, NWS Trust Ltd, Nominees (Jersey) Ltd, Nordic Leasing Ltd, Ocean Leasing (July) Ltd, Oystercatcher Nominees Ltd, Oystercatcher Residential Ltd, PIPS Asset Investments Ltd, Pacific Leasing Ltd, Penarth Asset Securitisation Holdings Ltd, Penarth Funding 1 Ltd, Penarth Funding 2 Ltd, Penarth Master Issuer plc, Penarth Receivables Trustee Ltd, Pensions Management (S.W.F.) Ltd, Peony Eastern Leasing Ltd, Peony Leasing Ltd, Peony Western Leasing Ltd, Permanent Funding (No. 1) Ltd, Permanent Funding (No. 2) Ltd, Permanent Holdings Ltd, Permanent Master Issuer plc, Permanent Mortgages Trustee Ltd, Permanent PECOH Holdings Ltd, Permanent PECOH Ltd, Perry Nominees Ltd, Prestonfield Investments Ltd, Proton Finance Ltd, R.F. Spencer And Company Ltd, Ranelagh Nominees Ltd, Retail Revival (Burgess Hill) Investments Ltd, SARL Coliseum, SARL Hiram, SAS Compagnie Fonciere De France, SCI Astoria Invest, SCI De LHorloge, SCI Equinoxe, SCI Rambuteau CFF, SW Funding plc, SW No.1 Ltd, SWAMF (GP) Ltd, SWAMF Nominee (1) Ltd, SWAMF Nominee (2) Ltd, Saint Michel Holding Company No1, Saint Michel Investment Property, Saint Witz 2 Holding Company No1, Saint Witz 2 Investment Property, Salisbury II Securities 2016 Ltd, Salisbury II-A Securities 2017 Ltd, Salisbury III Securities 2019 DAC, Salisbury Securities 2015 Ltd, Sandown 2012-2 Holdings Ltd, Sandown 2012-2 plc, Sandown Gold 2012-1 Holdings Ltd, Sandown Gold 2012-1 plc, Savban Leasing Ltd, Scotland International Finance B.V., Scottish Widows Administration Services (Nominees) Ltd, Scottish Widows Administration Services Ltd, Scottish Widows Annuities Ltd, Scottish Widows Auto Enrolment Services Ltd, Scottish Widows Europe, Scottish Widows Financial Services Holdings, Scottish Widows Group Ltd, Scottish Widows Industrial Properties Europe B.V., Scottish Widows Ltd, Scottish Widows Pension Trustees Ltd, Scottish Widows Property Management Ltd, Scottish Widows Schroder Personal Wealth (ACD) Ltd, Scottish Widows Schroder Personal Wealth Ltd, Scottish Widows Schroder Wealth Holdings Ltd, Scottish Widows Services Ltd, Scottish Widows Trustees Ltd, Scottish Widows Unit Funds Ltd, Scottish Widows Unit Trust Managers Ltd, Scottish Widows Fund and Life Assurance Society, Seabreeze Leasing Ltd, Seaspirit Leasing Ltd, Share Dealing Nominees Ltd, Shogun Finance Ltd, Silentdale Ltd, St Andrews Group Ltd, St Andrews Insurance plc, St Andrews Life Assurance plc, St. Marys Court Investments, Standard Property Investment (1987) Ltd, Standard Property Investment Ltd, Sussex County Homes Ltd, Suzuki Financial Services Ltd, Swan Funding 2 Ltd, Syon Securities 2019 DAC, The Agricultural Mortgage Corporation Plc, The British Linen Company Ltd, The Halifax Foundation for Northern Ireland, The Mortgage Business plc, Thistle Financing Holdings Ltd, Thistle Investments (AMC) Ltd, Thistle Investments (ERM) Ltd, Thistle Leasing, Three Copthall Avenue Ltd, Tower Hill Property Investments (10) Ltd, Tower Hill Property Investments (7) Ltd, Tranquility Leasing Ltd, Trinity Financing plc, UDT Budget Leasing Ltd, UDT Sales Finance Ltd, Uberior (Moorfield) Ltd, Uberior Co-Investments Ltd, Uberior ENA Ltd, Uberior Equity Ltd, Uberior Europe Ltd, Uberior Fund Investments Ltd, Uberior Infrastructure Investments (No.2) Ltd, Uberior Infrastructure Investments Ltd, Uberior Investments Ltd, Uberior Nominees Ltd, Uberior Trading Ltd, Uberior Trustees Ltd, Uberior Ventures Australia Pty Ltd, Uberior Ventures Ltd, United Dominions Leasing Ltd, United Dominions Trust Ltd, Universe The CMI Global Network Fund, Upsaala Ltd, Vine Street IX LP, WCS Ltd, Ward Nominees (Abingdon) Ltd, Ward Nominees (Birmingham) Ltd 1, Ward Nominees (Bristol) Ltd 1, Ward Nominees Ltd 1, Waverley  Fund II Investor LLC, Waverley  Fund III Investor LLC, Waymark Asset Investments Ltd, West Craigs Ltd, Wetherby II Securities 2018 DAC, Wetherby III Securities 2019 DAC, Wetherby Securities 2017 Ltd, Wood Street Leasing Ltd, and Zurich Insurance Group - UK Workplace Pensions and Savings Business.
The following companies are subsidiares of The Allstate: AIMCO Private Fund I Holding LLC, AIMCO Private Fund I LLC, AIMCO Private Fund II LLC, ALIC Reinsurance Company, ALINV Mosaic LLC, ANIHI Newco LLC, AP Real Estate LLC, AP Riverway Plaza LLC, AP Timber LLC, Allstate Assignment Company, Allstate Assurance Company, Allstate County Mutual Insurance Company, Allstate Digital Ventures LLC, Allstate Distributors L.L.C., Allstate Enterprises LLC, Allstate Exchange Services LLC, Allstate Finance Company Agency Loans LLC, Allstate Finance Company LLC, Allstate Financial Advisors LLC, Allstate Financial Corporation, Allstate Financial Insurance Holdings Corporation, Allstate Financial LLC, Allstate Financial Services LLC (1), Allstate Fire and Casualty Insurance Company, Allstate Global Holdings Limited, Allstate Indemnity Company, Allstate Insurance Company, Allstate Insurance Company of Canada, Allstate Insurance Holdings LLC, Allstate International Assignments Ltd., Allstate International Holdings Inc., Allstate Investment Management Company, Allstate Investments LLC, Allstate Life Insurance Company (2), Allstate Life Insurance Company of Canada, Allstate Life Insurance Company of New York, Allstate Motor Club Inc., Allstate New Jersey Insurance Company, Allstate New Jersey Property and Casualty Insurance Company, Allstate Non-Insurance Holdings Inc., Allstate North American Insurance Company, Allstate Northbrook Indemnity Company, Allstate Northern Ireland Limited, Allstate Property and Casualty Insurance Company, Allstate Settlement Corporation, Allstate Short Term Pool LLC, Allstate Solutions Private Limited, Allstate Texas Lloyds, Allstate Texas Lloyds Inc., Allstate Vehicle and Property Insurance Company, American Heritage Life Insurance Company, American Heritage Service Company, Answer Financial Inc., Answer Marketplace LLC, Arity 875 LLC, Arity International Limited, Arity LLC, Arity Services LLC, CE Care Plan Corp, Castle Key Indemnity Company, Castle Key Insurance Company, Complete Product Care Corp, Current Creek Investments LLC, E.R.J. Insurance Group Inc. (3), Encompass Floridian Indemnity Company, Encompass Floridian Insurance Company, Encompass Home and Auto Insurance Company, Encompass Indemnity Company, Encompass Independent Insurance Company, Encompass Insurance Company, Encompass Insurance Company of America, Encompass Insurance Company of Massachusetts, Encompass Insurance Company of New Jersey, Encompass Insurance Holdings LLC, Encompass Property and Casualty Company, Encompass Property and Casualty Insurance Company of New Jersey, Esurance Holdings Inc., Esurance Insurance Company, Esurance Insurance Company of Canada, Esurance Insurance Company of New Jersey, Esurance Insurance Services Company of Canada, Esurance Insurance Services Inc. (4), Esurance Property and Casualty Insurance Company, First Colonial Insurance Company, Identity Protection Strategic Solutions LLC, InfoArmor Aggra Inc., InfoArmor Inc., Insurance Answer Center LLC (5), Intramerica Life Insurance Company, Ivantage Insurance Brokers Inc., Ivantage Select Agency Inc., Kennett Capital Inc., NBInv AF1 LLC, NBInv AF2 LLC, NBInv AF3 LLC, NBInv AF4 LLC, NBInv AF5 LLC, NBInv AF6 LLC, NBInv AP1 LLC, NBInv AP2 LLC, NBInv AP3 LLC, NBInv AP4 LLC, NBInv AP5 LLC, NBInv AP6 LLC, NBInv AP7 LLC, NBInv AP8 LLC, NBInv APAF1 LLC, NBInv Riverside Cars1 LLC, NBInv Riverside Management LLC, North Light Specialty Insurance Company, Northeast Agencies Inc. (6), Pablo Creek Services Inc., Pafco Insurance Company, Pembridge Insurance Company, PlumChoice Business Services Inc., PlumChoice Inc., Protection Plan Group Inc., Right Answer Insurance Agency LLC, Road Bay Investments LLC, ST Product Care Corp, Signature Agency Inc., Signature Motor Club Inc., Signature Motor Club of California Inc., Signature Nationwide Auto Club of California Inc., Signatures Nationwide Auto Club Inc., SquareTrade Australia Pty Ltd, SquareTrade Canada Inc., SquareTrade Europe Limited, SquareTrade Holding Company Inc., SquareTrade Inc. (7), SquareTrade Insurance Services Inc., SquareTrade Limited, SquareTrade Protection Solutions Inc., SquareTradeGo Inc., Tech-Cor LLC, and West Plaza RE Holdings LLC.
UniCredit S.p.A. operates as a commercial bank. The company operates through Commercial Banking Italy, Commercial Banking Germany, Commercial Banking Austria, Corporate & Investment Banking, and Central Eastern Europe segments. It offers retail, corporate, and private banking services; investment services; leasing and factoring services; transactional, investment, and credit products and services; insurance solutions; and structured financing, hedging, and treasury solutions. The company also provides equity and debt capital market, corporate finance and advisory, syndication, and leverage buy-out services; and project and commodity, real estate, structured trade and export, and acquisition finance services, as well as wealth management services. In addition, it is involved in the structuring of products, such as FX, rates, equities, and credit products; and provision of cash management, e-banking, supply chain finance, global securities, and mobile banking services, as well as trade finance products. The company operates in Italy, Other European countries, America, Asia, and internationally. The company was formerly known as Unicredito Italiano S.p.A and changed its name to UniCredit S.p.A. UniCredit S.p.A. was founded in 1870 and is headquartered in Milan, Italy.

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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.

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Over the weekend, US Africa Command (AFRICOM) conducted its first ever drone strike against Al-Qaeda militants in southern Libya, killing two in the southern village of Ubari. The attack marks a new stage in the expansion of the American military offensive in Libya and northern Africa since the Trump administration took office. Notably, the strike was not accompanied by a public acknowledgement from AFRICOM.

While officials did not disclose the drones base of operations, AFRICOM has been preparing for a massive escalation of armed drone flights conducted across the African continent from its recently constructed base in neighboring Niger, at Agadez.

The strike occurred in an extremely remote region of Libya, located some 435 miles south of Tripoli and about 250 miles from the border with Algeria. The region is known as a haven for Islamist militants who have spilled into Libya and south into the Sahel since the 2011 US-NATO bombardment of the country.

Geographically, the area around Ubari is roughly equidistant to the borders of the neighboring countries of Algeria, Chad, and Niger, and has long functioned as a thoroughfare for the smuggling of weapons, drugs, and immigrants traversing the lawless, vast expanse of desert of the Sahara comprising the countries of Libya, Niger, Chad, Algeria, and flowing through to Mali.

Following the international outcry provoked by the killing of four Green Berets in an ambush last October in Niger, which exposed the advanced nature of American military operations in West Africa, AFRICOM has sought to keep secret subsequent operations, and did not provide a press release for the strike.

Only after Libyan media reported that the strike targeted a house frequented by foreigners, and published pictures taken in the aftermath of the strike which showed a mutilated corpse laying in the rubble of a house, with shrapnel-ridden vehicles nearby, did the deadly operation come to the attention of Western media.

When requested by the New York Times to provide a statement on the strike, AFRICOM gave a terse and brief reply, declaring that the strike targeted militants with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Mahgreb (AQIM), and had been conducted in coordination with the US-backed Unity government in Tripoli, and that two militants were killed. At this time, we assess no civilians were killed in this strike, Robyn Mack, a spokesperson for AFRICOM, told the Times.

Speaking to the stakes at play in the US drone strike, Deborah K. Jones, the US Ambassador to Libya for the 2013-2015 period under the Obama administration, told the New York Times that the attack essentially constitutes an escalation of the US militarys offensive, This appears to be the continuation of expanding AFRICOM activity in Libyas ungoverned areas.

Luke Hartig, a former senior director for counter-terrorism at the National Security Council during the Obama administration, told the Times, Beginning a concerted strike campaign against AQIM or other AQ elements in the Sahel, akin to what we are doing in Yemen and Somalia, would mark a significant expansion of our counter-terrorism efforts.

The strike marks the first time the US has openly targeted the Al-Qaeda-affiliated militants in Libya, which were armed and backed by the Obama administration during the US-NATO bombardment in 2011 that culminated in the removal and assassination of Libyas leader Muammar Gaddafi.

In 2016, the US conducted over 500 air strikes against ISIS militants in the coastal city of Sirte, an area which comprises Libyas oil crescent along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, where much of the countrys oil infrastructure is located.

Taking advantage of the chaos brought to the country after the US-backed NATO offensive that destroyed much of Libya, ISIS militants had taken control of the Gaddafi-era state-owned oil company, leaving the militia with full command of the terminals overseeing the transport of oil to Europe.

The escalation of the AFRICOM offensive in the country comes amid the complete destruction of Libyan society after the 2011 regime change operation left the country an apocalyptic wasteland split between competing armed factions. Much of the countrys critical infrastructure was destroyed by US and NATO airstrikes, with entire cities reduced to rubble. Vital services such as water, sewage treatment and electricity have not yet been fully restored in many areas.

Libya is home to the worlds largest oil deposits, from which the majority of Libyans see no economic benefit. According to World Bank figures, 40 per cent of the population of 6.4 million lives below the poverty line, but the figure is certainly vastly understated, as an accurate accounting cannot be conducted due to ongoing conflict in the country.

Last year it was revealed by Amnesty International that the European Union was behind the development and funding of a vast network of prison camps in Libya, seeking to halt the flow of refugees fleeing to Europe.

The report documented that nearly 500,000 refugees from various countries in Africa languish in these camps. The detainees conditions in these camps are utterly barbaric, and refugees have experienced torture, rape, beatings, and even being sold into slavery.

In overseeing the upending of Libyan society, Washington under the Trump administration is escalating the American military offensive in the region in a desperate attempt to reestablish its dominance over a region with vast oil wealth.

The latest drone strike comes amid a broader US military offensive in West Africa, for which the Trump administration issued new rules of engagement last year, which essentially constitute the granting of broad authority to US forces in conducting open-ended warfare on the continent.

The expansion of the conflict in Libya coincides with the escalated US offensives conducted in Somalia, with a vast increase in drone strikes in the country over previous years, as well as the offensive role US special forces have taken in Niger, where AFRICOM has dropped all pretense to its claimed role of merely providing training and logistics to Nigerien troops, and now lead their Nigerien counterparts in waging all-out war.
Sri Lankas economic growth rate fell to 3.1 percent last year, from 4.4 percent in 2016, the worst result in 16 years. This slide points to serious economic problems facing the government, amid a worsening debt burden.

The Statistics Department said the services sector, which contributes close to 56 percent of output, grew last year only by 3.2 percent, a significant drop from the previous years 4.7 percent result.

The agricultural sector, which accounts for close to 8 percent of the economy, declined by 0.8 percent, mainly due to weather calamities. The industrial sector, which makes up around 27 percent of the economy, grew by only 3.9 percent, a marked fall from the previous years 5.8 percent.

The growth statistics appeared on the departments web site on March 15 but were withdrawn the next day. The departments head said it received the data at the last minute and wanted full data calculations. Whatever the reason, the withdrawal embarrassed the crisis-ridden government.

The Sri Lankan stock exchange last week reported its lowest share prices in more than eight weeks. The market is moving sideways as investors are on the sidelines due to concerns over lower growth, First Capital Holdings PLC senior research analyst Atchuthan Srirangan said.

In January, Central Bank Governor Indrajit Coomaraswamy predicted a lower economic growth rate for 2017. Together with floods and droughts, he blamed the tight monetary stance of the Central Bank as well as the relatively tight fiscal policy stance of the government, which partly affected public and private investment spending.

These Central Bank and government policies are the direct result of the International Monetary Funds (IMF) austerity program. In return for bailout loans, the IMF insisted that the fiscal deficit be cut to 3.5 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) by 2020, half the 2014 deficit.

The Troikathe European Union (EU), European Central Bank (ECB) and IMFprescribed similar policies to debt-ridden Greece. The IMFs so-called economic recovery prescription has nothing to do with improving the conditions of workers and the poor. It is seeking a recovery of capitalism, but the impact of the 2008 global financial collapse is continuing.

The IMFs concern is to impose the burden on working people by cutting subsidies, raising taxes and commercialising and privatising state-owned enterprises. The latest IMF staff report on Sri Lanka highlighted its vulnerability given the still sizable public debt and low external buffers. For sustained growth, the reform momentum needs to continue, it insisted.

Accordingly, major attacks on workers jobs and living and social conditions are underway.

From April 1, the government will open tax files for every citizen above 18 years. Direct taxes are to be imposed on almost all sections of society, including small businesses, self-employed persons, professionals, workers and pensioners.

The commercialisation of state-owned banks, the Electricity Board, Petroleum Corporation, Water Board and Ports is on the agenda. Sri Lanka Survey Department employees have been on strike for more than a week, opposing its planned privatisation and transfer of its functions to a US-based company.

This month the government is to implement a so-called price formula to increase electricity and fuel prices to international levels. The Indian Oil Company raised the price of petrol by nearly 8 percent and diesel by 5 percent last week, blaming the government for its failure to introduce the price formula. The state-owned petroleum company will soon match the increases.

The government is allowing other consumer goods prices to rise on the pretext of increased costs. On March 26, the government permitted milk powder prices to increase by 80 rupees a kilogram, a 10 percent hike.

The government is taking these measures as its debt repayment problems worsen. The debt service payment for this year is $US2.9 billion, rising to $4.2 billion in 2019 and continuing at $3.6 billion for each year from 2020 to 2022, according to the Central Bank.

There is much media debate about how the government will save money this year to pay next years massive $4.2 billion bill. A Sunday Times economics columnist declared on March 25: It is vital for the countrys balance of payments to achieve a higher surplus than last years $2 billion to reduce foreign borrowing for debt repayment.

The article noted that international tensions and the slowdown in the Middle East were reducing remittances from Sri Lankans working overseas, which covered around 70 percent of the trade deficit. It argued that one alternative was to limit imports, which will only prompt further price rises.

At the same time, the government is seeking more borrowing, increasing the debt burden. On March 23, the parliament passed the governments active liability management bill to allow it to take out more loans overseas to improve public debt management. However, this means the government could exceed the borrowing limit approved by the budget bill for specific purposes like debt servicing.

President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe came to power in 2015 promising to improve living and social conditions. They exploited the anger among working people to oust former President Mahinda Rajapakse. However, the conditions of working people have further deteriorated.

A Colombo-based DailyFT columnist, W. A. Wijewardena, noted the erosion of living standards in an article on March 26. Per capita income (PCI) slightly increased to $4,065 in 2017 from $3,842 in 2015. However, when adjusted for price increases, the PCI declined markedly from $3,032 in 2015 to $2,780 in 2017. The latter data, which revealed the real living conditions and well-being of the people, was disastrous, Wijewarda wrote.

The declining conditions have intensified public anger. As a result, the ruling coalition of Sirisena and Wickremesinghe suffered heavy defeats in the local government elections on February 10. In the ruling class there are ongoing concerns over the governments fragility as Sirisena and Wickremesinghe blame each other for the election debacle. There are also fears that the government will pursue populist measures that undercut the austerity program.

However, the governments ruthless attitude toward the working class has been shown by its refusal to meet the demands of nearly 16,000 university non-academic workers for a wage increase, and a medical and pension scheme. The government has bluntly told the workers it has no money to grant their demands.

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Amid continuing crisis, Sri Lankan government leaders continue fragile coalition

[27 February 2018]
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has just completed a two-day visit to Beijing, during which he met Chinese President Xi Jinping. It was Kims first foreign trip since becoming leader in 2011. Facing mounting threats from the Trump administration, both governments are under pressure to mend what has become an increasingly frosty relationship.

The secrecy surrounding the arrival in Beijing of an armoured train from North Korea is evidence of the sensitivity of the North Korean leaders trip. The trainwith similar markings used by former leader and Kims father, Kim Jong-ilwas apparently spotted by locals crossing the border from North Korea into China.

The Australian reported: The special train crossed the Yalu River that divides the countries at the Friendship Bridge at the centre of Chinas border city of Dandongwhere hotels told guests they were unable to take rooms facing the railway line. A security fence was erected alongside the line and Dandong station was surrounded with banners that prevented passers-by looking in.

The Financial Times noted: While China did not announce their guest in advance, it did not hide the fact that an important dignitary was in Beijing by providing Mr Kim with a high-profile motorcade normally reserved for only the most important visitors. The special guest was housed at Diaoyutai, the state guesthouse, where North Korean leaders have stayed before, and reportedly left by train yesterday.

Chinese officials only today confirmed that Kim did travel to Beijing and meet with Xi. According to the Xinhua news agency, Xi noted that the visit came at a special time and was of great significance as it fully embodies the great importance that the North Korean leadership placed on relations between the two countries.

North Korea and China have been formal allies since 1961, in the wake of the 1950-53 Korean War, in which the two countries fought together against the US-led military intervention.

China has been caught in a bind by the North Korean regimes determination to build nuclear missiles. On the one hand, Beijing has opposed Pyongyangs nuclear program, which provides a pretext for the US to maintain and extend its military forces in North East Asiain preparation for war with China. It also fears that Japan and South Korea will exploit North Koreas limited nuclear arsenal to build nuclear weapons on their own.

On the other hand, China has reluctantly agreed to US demands for increasingly savage sanctions on North Koreaone of the most economically and diplomatically isolated countries in the world. Beijing is deeply concerned that Washington will exploit a political implosion in Pyongyang to install a puppet regime that is hostile to China, or to launch a war of aggression on Chinas doorstep.

For its part, the North Korean regime is seeking to ward off American military attacks and, at the same time, to use its nuclear arsenal as a bargaining chip to end the isolation imposed by the US following the Korean War. It is also rightly suspicious of negotiations with the US, given that Washington, not Pyongyang, effectively broke agreements reached in 1994 and 2007 to end North Koreas nuclear weapons programs.

Tensions between China and North Korea have only sharpened over the past year as the Trump administration has issued bellicose military threats against Pyongyang and pressed China to mount an economic blockade of North Korea.

The North Korean regime bitterly criticised its ally on several occasions last year for bowing to US pressure to tighten UN sanctions. A commentary in May by the countrys official news agency accused Beijing of insincerity and betrayal and warned of the grave consequences entailed by its reckless act of chopping down the pillar of the DPRK [North Korea]-China relations.

Kim Jong-uns trip to China followed Trumps announcement earlier this month that he would be willing to meet the North Korean leader. The offer came after a trip by senior South Korean officials to holds talks with Kim, who indicated he would freeze nuclear and missile testing and was willing to discuss the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.

North Korean officials have since travelled to Sweden, which handles US diplomatic matters with Pyongyang, to begin making arrangement for a Trump-Kim summit in May. Second tier talks on denuclearisation followed in Finland involving North Korean, South Korean and US officials. South Korea also is proceeding with plans for a summit in April between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

The talks between the US and North Korea are unlikely to lead to a negotiated end to the present dangerous confrontation. Trumps recent nominations of Mike Pompeo as US Secretary of State and John Bolton as national security adviser can only lead Pyongyang and Beijing to conclude that Washington is preparing for war, not peace.

Both Bolton and Pompeo are well known for their belligerent, militarist stance toward North Korea, as well as their hostility to the 2015 nuclear agreement struck with Iran. If Trump does finally meet Kim in May, it will be to issue an ultimatum to North Korea to abandon its nuclear arsenal and to exploit any hesitation or refusal as a pretext for military strikes.

It is hardly surprising therefore that North Korea and China would want to repair their fraught relationship. The Chinese leadership agreed to impose extra sanctions on North Korea in part because Trump indicated he would be prepared to make concessions on trade, if Beijing did so. Having agreed to crippling sanctions on Pyongyang, Beijing now finds that Trump has reneged on his pledge and is ramping up trade war measures against China in particular.

The North Korean regime faces the imminent threat of a US-led war. Speaking in January when he was CIA chief, Pompeo declared that North Korea was just a handful of months away from having a nuclear-armed missile capable of reaching continental America. While arms experts have strongly questioned this unsubstantiated claim, it is the red-line that Trump has declared North Korea will not be permitted to cross.
Teachers in Arizona are converging on the state capitol today to demand higher wages and increased school funding. Educators and public employees in Oklahoma are preparing a strike April 2 after state legislators refused to meet their pay and funding demands in a state that has carried out one of the deepest cuts in per-pupil spending in the nation.

The movement of teachers, which erupted with the nine-day walkout in West Virginia last month, has also spread to Kentucky, Colorado, New Jersey and other states, plus the US territory of Puerto Rico.

The experience of the last two months has raised vital political and strategic issues, which must be discussed and debated to take this struggle forward.

It is first of all necessary for teachers to clearly understand the role and function of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA), which are working not to organize a struggle, but to suppress and isolate opposition wherever it emerges.

In all the struggles that have developed, the role of these organizations is the same. In West Virginia, a series of one-day wildcat strikes forced the unions to call a limited statewide walkout in late February and then extend it. The unions then suddenly announced that they had reached a deal with the states billionaire governor and ordered teachers back to work on March 1. Rank-and-file teachers defied their efforts at blackmail, however, and voted to continue their fight.

Lacking the independent organization necessary to sustain the fight, however, teachers were later sent back to work with essentially the same deal, which ignored their main demand to end soaring health care costs. To add insult to injury, the meager 5 percent raise will not be paid for by increasing taxes on the states mining and gas industries, but by cutting other essential services.

In Jersey City, facing an upsurge of anger inspired by West Virginia teachers, the unions called a half-day strike, then immediately sent teachers back to work without any resolution to their essential demands.

The AFT and NEA are now trying to sabotage the struggles in Oklahoma, Arizona and other states. They are seeking to corral and co-opt campaigns that have developed outside of the unions, reviving the same threats that statewide strikes will result in punishing fines and the loss of public support.

The Socialist Equality Party calls on teachers and school employees to form rank-and-file committees in every city and state to take the conduct of the struggle out of the hands of the strikebreakers and corporate stooges in the AFT and NEA. These committees should coordinate the struggles of teachers, using social media and other means, and reach out to every section of the working class, which faces the same basic issue.

Workers in every industry must be mobilized to support the developing movement among teachers. This requires the formation of independent, rank-and-file factory committees in all plants and workplaces. All the pro-capitalist organizationsthe United Auto Workers, the United Steelworkers, the Teamsters, the SEIU, etc.play the same role in suppressing class struggle as do the teachers unions.

Instead of one-day strikes or limited protests, which the unions seek to turn into lobby campaigns to bought-and-paid-for governors and state legislators, preparation should be made now for an unlimited, nationwide general strike that will combine the fight for a vast expansion of funding for public education with the demands for the eradication of poverty, hunger, homelessness and other social ills afflicting tens of millions of working-class children.

A particular appeal should be made to student youth. The protests over school violence this past week expressed a deep anger among young people, and many demanded increased funding for schools and other social programs. While the Democrats and media are seeking to prevent the struggles of youth from connecting to those of the working class, by limiting opposition to calls for gun control and electing Democrats, millions of young people are determined to fight for a future free from poverty, inequality and war.

Teachers are engaged in a political fight against both the Democrats and Republicans. The unions promote the lie that the Democrats are friends of teachers. The eight years of the Obama administration, however, saw the destruction of the jobs of hundreds of thousands of teachers and educators, the closure of thousands of public schools and a sharp expansion of for-profit charter businesses. In New Jersey, the Democratic-controlled board of education obtained an injunction to threaten striking teachers in Jersey City with fines and possible jail terms.

The main opposition of the Democrats to Trump is not over savage budget cutting, corporate tax cuts or mass deportations, but over the presidents alleged softness on Russia.

Teachers must formulate demands not based on what the ruling class and its political representatives say they can afford, but what teachers and the entire working class need. This includes the right to a good-paying and secure job, health care and a pension. Trillions of dollars must be invested to rebuild the countrys social infrastructure, repair and build new schools, and hire millions of trained teachers, specialists, school aides and other support staff. Vast resources also must be poured into programs to eradicate poverty and address the opioid epidemic.

The corporate-controlled politicians will all say there is no money. This only shows what class interests they represent. Three billionaires in the US have more wealth than the bottom half of the population, 150 million people. The Democrats and Republicans just passed a federal budget that squanders $700 billion on the military to continue imperialist wars.

The struggle by teachers in the US is part of a growing international battle. As teachers were striking in West Virginia and receiving messages of international solidarity from teachers in Ghana and Australia, tens of thousands of their counterparts were walking out in Argentina. Since then there have been a series of teacher and public employee strikes in the UK, Jamaica, Niger, Kenya, France, Holland, Slovenia, Brazil, India, Sri Lanka and many other countries.

Workers in every country face the same problems and the same enemiesthe globally organized banks and giant corporations that want to loot societys resources and reduce the working class to the status of ignorant slaves.

A stand by teachers will win enormous support and become a pole of attraction for billions of workers everywhere who want to fight against inequality, against capitalism, and for society based on human needs, not private profit.

The Socialist Equality Party is fighting to unite every battleagainst budget cutting, the privatization of public services, police violence, the attack on democratic rights and the threat of warinto a single, unified struggle of the working class to fight for political power and socialism.
Toplumsal Esitlik strongly opposes and denounces the police raids and arrest of left-wing anti-war students at Bogazici University in Istanbul, following the barely concealed order of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The wave of crackdowns took place after some 25 left-wing, anti-war students organised a peaceful march in protest against a small group of Islamists, who celebrated the victory of the Turkish army and its proxy force, the so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA), in the Syrian province of Afrin, on the university campus on Monday, March 19.

Following the anti-war protest under the banner There is nothing to celebrate about war and occupation, pro-government Islamist and nationalist forces launched a witch-hunt against left-wing students in the social and mass media. Meanwhile, the university rector, one of Erdogans henchmen, denounced the anti-war activists as terrorists, while defending the freedom of expression of the Islamist students.

According to media, some 14 students have been arrested and 10 of them released, with 4 remaining in custody, and the police are seeking to detain another 8 students. Most of the activists arrested so far are from Marksist Fikir Topluluklar (Communities for Marxist Ideas, MFT) and the Sosyalist Emekciler Partisi (Socialist Laborers Party, SEP).

Toplumsal Esitlik has unbridgeable and documented political differences with these tendencies. Nevertheless, these differences do not lessen our opposition to these police raids and arrests against their members or sympathisers, which are motivated by the most reactionary objectives and are directed against essential democratic rights.

The ongoing crackdown against Bogazici University students is part of broader repression against the working class and the youth by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has escalated under the state of emergency declared after the failed coup attempt of July 15, 2016.

Erdogan has personally denounced the arrested students. Speaking at a provincial congress of his AKP, in Samsun on Saturday, Erdogan tried to distort the facts, presenting the Islamist students as victims of an attack by communist, traitor-to-the-nation youth who attempted to break up the stall. He also vowed to expel left-wing students from the university, saying, We will not allow them the right to study. Universities cannot raise terrorist youths. The Turkish president has repeatedly declared that Bogazici University, one of the few liberal universities in the country, does not reflect Turkish values.

In Turkey, political activity in schools and universities has long been strictly banned for socialists and punishable with dismissal, if not with imprisonment, while pro-government Islamist and Turkish nationalist fascistic forces have a free hand.

Turkeys working class and youth must recognise the police crackdown and arrest of the Bogazici University students as another sign of a new wave of oppression, prepared by the AKP government, against the backdrop of an ever-deepening economic crisis and its reactionary war in Syria.

To defeat the drive to war and dictatorship of the Turkish ruling class, politically personified by Erdogan, and enthusiastically supported by Islamist and nationalist fascistic forces, workers must take the lead in defending democratic rights and demand the immediate release of the arrested students.

The struggle against the drive to war and dictatorship can only be successful if it is based on an internationalist socialist, revolutionary programme historically defended and developed by the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI).

We strongly condemn the police raids and arrest of the Bogazici University students and demand their immediate release, and call on all workers and youth to organise workplace and school committees to fight against the drive to war and dictatorial forms of rule, as a fundamental component of struggle for international socialism.
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WB project for municipalities doing well with 8.82 lakh beneficiaries

Business Desk :

The World Bank (WB) supported Municipal Governance and Services Project (MGSP) is performing well with the total number of its direct beneficiaries reaching 8.82 lakh by February 20.

This was revealed at a mid-term review of the project carried out by the World Bank. The project is expected to be completed by June 2020.

The WB review said, "The project is making progress towards achieving its objectives."

Under the improved service delivery objective, as of December 15, 2017, about 670,000 people have been estimated as benefited directly from completed Year 1, 2 and 3 sub-projects.

The number of beneficiaries is expected to increase substantially in the next two years, when the larger infrastructure sub-projects will be implemented.

The number of direct project beneficiaries is now 8,82,000 (till February 20, this year) while the final target of raising the project beneficiaries is at 34,30,000.

The target of female project beneficiaries has already exceeded the target of 45 percent and currently rose to 49.30 percent.

Under the project, so far some 440 kilometers of roads were constructed or rehabilitated by February 20, this year while the ultimate target of constructing or rehabilitating roads is 640 kilometers.

Besides, some 112.89 kilometers of drainage was constructed or rehabilitated by February 20, this year against the completion target of 300 kilometers. During this period, some 22 revenue generating facilities were constructed or rehabilitated while the project end target is 70. As of February 25, 2018, MGSP disbursement was at 34 percent. The project was effective on April 6, 2014 and will close on June 30, 2020.

Out of the overall financing of $410 million, the World Bank has so far disbursed 34 percent of the overall financing amounting $129.61 million while $252.84 million remains undisbursed.
President Abdul Hamid taking salute while inspecting parade at the reunion of fifth EME Corp at Saidpur Cantonment in Nilphamari on Wednesday. Press Wing, Bangabhaban photo
This Week's Deals With Gold Include Call of Duty: WWII, Destroy All Humans! and DOOM
Rosamund Pike wrote to director Rob Marshall to play Mary Poppins in sequel

Actor Rosamund Pike said she wanted to play Mary Poppins in the franchise reboot and also reached out to director Rob Marshall to show her interest. The 39-year-old actor said she thought writing to the filmmaker to let him know she was interested in playing the magical nanny in "Mary Poppins Returns" would help her land the role, which later went to Emily Blunt.

"(I wrote to him) 'Just so you know, I would really love to be Mary Poppins'. It's worth putting your hat in the ring for things sometimes," Pike told Total Film magazine. The actor will be next seen playing a German terrorist in Jose Padilha's "Entebbe". She said she wishes to work with the directors who are passionate about their work.

"I really want to know the director has to make the film. It's not just a job. I felt that very strongly with Jose for 'Entebbe'. You want to know, does this person have a strong take? Is it in their blood?"

Pike added working on "Hostiles" was "traumatic" experience for her.

The actor, who played a mother who lost her family in a violent attack in the film, said, "I've had to live in a very, very dark place for a while. It was really traumatic. "It felt very real. When I re-watch that, I feel it was something I lived, rather than something I acted in," she said.
Ever wondered why you might need a $600-plus performance suitcase? If that question has been weighing heavily on your mind, youre in luck: Luggage brand Tumi has just released an epic, five-minute commercial starring Alexander Skarsgard (True Blood, Big Little Lies) that will have you ready to justify that purchase in no time flat.

That is, if youre able to make sense of the commercial. Its touting Tumis newest premium, hard-shell solution, the Tumi Latitude, which according to a press release is built to handle any journey with the utmost class.

Skarsgard silently (really, he doesnt utter a word throughout) exhibits this by wielding his trusty case through a variety of adventurous locations, including Hungary, Lake Como (no, he doesnt visit the Clooneys, unfortunately), the Pacific Northwest, and Mongolia. Along the way, the case receives some wear and tear but remains functional and stylish.

Alexander Skarsgard lounging on the job. (Photo: Courtesy of Tumi)

All well and good? Ready to plunk down your credit card? Well, not so fast. There are so many unanswered questions about this inscrutable ad that we are almost worried about the overall credibility of the product and whether this mysterious, classy suitcase will actually do all that it is touted to do.

The first question is: What is this, besides a pleasant extended video of Skarsgard looking hot? It might not actually be an ad at all. Could it be a James Bond audition in disguise?



Then theres the simple matter of logistics. Does he really need to have his case with him at all times? Why would anyone deliberately dip a piece of luggage costing more than $600 into the water? And if the case never leaves his side, and hes not afraid of getting it wet, where did the case go during that steamy make-out moment in the lake?

YouTube/Tumi

And theres more! Why is he using the case as a pillow in a barn, when theres a much more comfortable-looking bale of hay available? What is it about this case?

And, aside from the case, how does Skarsgard manage to keep that nice light-colored suit looking so clean and crisp during the entire journey through remote locales?

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One has to wonder: Is it the case itself, or the adventure that makes it all so sexy and worth the money? Is a suitcase on wheels actually sexy? Will the suitcase still be as glamorous of a chick-magnet if the only place it travels to is ones parents house in the Midwest, or is this seductive attractiveness potent only in scenic locations?

And  the biggest unsolved mystery of all: WHAT IS IN THE CASE?

We may never know. But you can, indeed, buy the piece and see for yourself if it works out as well for you as it did for the Emmy-winning actor. Let us know how it goes.

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:
A forensic team is searching a stolen truck for evidence in the mysterious case of a missing aspiring actress, PEOPLE has confirmed.

Adea Shabani moved from Macedonia to Hollywood hoping to begin a career in movies or television. The 25-year-old landed a small role in an independent film and was looking for her big break.

But last month, she vanished. Shabani was last seen in Hollywood on Feb. 23, according to an Los Angeles Police Department news release obtained by PEOPLE. Her friends told local TV station KABC that they became worried for Shabani when she stopped responding to their text messages.

While Shabani has not yet been found, a man authorities identified as her boyfriend fatally shot himself in California Thursday night in a stand-off with police  and authorities believe the vehicle he was driving may contain clues to Shabanis disappearance.

Adea Shabani

Christopher Spotz, 33, was driving a stolen Toyota Tacoma authorities believe had possibly been used in a homicide which had occurred in Los Angeles County, California Highway Patrol Public Information Officer Dan Olivas said in a statement. (The identity of the possible homicide victim was not immediately clear.)

A car chase ensued, and Spotz eventually used a handgun to shoot himself in the head. In addition to Spotz, there was an unnamed passenger in the car.

PEOPLE confirms that investigators have impounded the Tacoma and a crime scene unit has been combing it for forensic evidence related to the Shabani case.

According to NBC-4 Los Angeles, days after Shabani disappeared, her friends went to the LAPD saying they had received an anonymous phone call from someone claiming to have seen Shabani placed in the bed of a truck by Spotz. She appeared to be drugged and in danger, the caller claimed.

Shabanis Reported Boyfriend Also Had a Fiancee

A public information officer for the LAPD tells PEOPLE that, despite the search of the vehicle, Shabanis disappearance is still being investigated as a missing persons case, not a homicide.

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 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.

Law enforcement officials allege that Spotz was in a relationship with Shabani. They also say he had just returned to Southern California from Colorado where he was with his fiancee.

After Shabanis disappearance, her mother flew from Macedonia to help with the search, putting up fliers in the area, KABC reports. Her family has also hired a private investigator.

We have no evidence that she is a runaway. Shes not [voluntarily] missing. We dont have any evidence that she wanted to harm herself, private investigator Jayden Brant told the KABC.

 For more compelling True Crime coverage, follow our Crime magazine on Flipboard

Shabani is described as a white female with blonde hair, blue eyes, 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighing approximately 130 lbs., according to police.

She was last seen near the 1700 block of Wilcox Avenue in L.A.

Treat it as if it were your own family member, some of your own friends, because believe me if you met this girl, if you knew this girl, she would be a great friend to everybody that knows her, friend Lisjen Jovanovski told KABC.

Anyone with information is urged to contact the LAPDs Missing Persons Unit at 213-996-1800 or 1-877-LAPD-24-7 (during off-hours) or call the L.A. Regional Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.
Last week, President Trump reluctantly signed a $1.3 trillion federal spending bill that allocated a paltry $1.6 billion in border security funding, which will barely begin to cover the partially transparent, possibly solar-powered Mexican border wall he repeatedly promised on the campaign trail. According to the Washington Post, Trump is now hoping the U.S. military

By Maggie Serota

Last week, President Trump reluctantly signed a $1.3 trillion federal spending bill that allocated a paltry $1.6 billion in border security funding, which will barely begin to cover the partially transparent, possibly solar-powered Mexican border wall he repeatedly promised on the campaign trail. According to the Washington Post, Trump is now hoping the U.S. military will foot the bill for his signature campaign promise on the grounds that every moment were forced to live without a Southern border wall poses a national security risk.

Last year, Senate Democrats issued a report claiming that the proposed border wall would cost $70 billion to build and $150 million per year to maintain, counter to the Trump Homeland Security departments $21.6 billion estimate. However, the price shouldnt matter given how many times Trump stated that Mexico was going to pick up the tab.

At a 2015 GOP debate, then-candidate Trump told Wolf Blitzer that Mexico would, under no uncertain circumstances, be paying for the large-scale construction project though he couldnt explain how he would make that happen.

Heres a flashback to a 2016 campaign rally where the then-candidate led a build that wall chant and then asked the crowd whos going to pay for the wall? After the crowd emphatically responded Mexico, Trump agreed, adding 100 percent.

In 2017, President Trump reiterated that Mexico will absolutely fund the wall while sitting next to Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto at a G20 meeting.

In February, 2018, Pena Nieto canceled a trip to the White House after Trump reportedly refused to publicly abandon the claim that Mexico would bankroll the border wall.

After failing to receive the money for his pet project from Mexico and the omnibus spending bill, Trump is said to be quietly petitioning, by way of the Pentagon, for taxpayer money. Unfortunately for him, reallocating the money from the approximately $700 billion in defense spending into the border wall project would require Congressional votes that the president doesnt have. From Washington Post:

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After floating the notion to several advisers last week, he told Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) that the military should pay for the wall in a meeting last Wednesday in the White House residence, according to three people familiar with the meeting. Ryan offered little reaction to the notion, these people said, but senior Capitol Hill officials later said it was an unlikely prospect.

On Sunday, President Deals tweeted Build Wall through M! White House sources confirmed to the Post that M stands for military.

Because of the $700 & $716 Billion Dollars gotten to rebuild our Military, many jobs are created and our Military is again rich. Building a great Border Wall, with drugs (poison) and enemy combatants pouring into our Country, is all about National Defense. Build WALL through M!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 25, 2018

In January, reports surfaced that chief of staff John Kelly told a group of Congressional Democrats that the president was uninformed regarding his border wall campaign promise.

Certain things are said during the campaign that are uninformed, Kelly reportedly said during the meeting. One thing is to campaign, another thing is to govern. Its really hard.

Kelly also reportedly said what we already figured out: that there wouldnt be a wall that Mexico will pay for.

In a statement to the Post, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer criticized the presidents proposal to build the wall with funding from the defense budget.

First Mexico was supposed to pay for it, then U.S. taxpayers, and now our men and women in uniform? This would be a blatant misuse of military funds and tied up in court for years, Schumer said. Secretary Mattis ought not bother and instead use the money to help our troops, rather than advance the presidents political fantasies.

It sounds unlikely that the president will make any real progress on his border wall during his current term.

This post Now Trump Wants the U.S. Military to Pay for the Wall first appeared on SPIN.
An Oregon woman faces charges after she allegedly killed her pet Chihuahua by cooking it in an oven, PEOPLE confirms.

Noelle Georgia Moor, 28, has been charged with first-degree animal abuse, according to Clatsop County Jail records.

Clatsop County District Attorney Joshua Marquis tells PEOPLE that on March 19, police were called to Moors residence at least twice concerning a dispute at the home.

When officers arrived and found the dog in the oven, they realized something was very wrong, Marquis says.

 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.

Moor was initially detained at Columbia Memorial Hospital, where she told police she put the 7-year-old dog in the oven because she thought her ex-boyfriend was inside the animal, court records obtained by The Oregonian state.

Marquis tells PEOPLE his office is awaiting a mental health investigation before deciding whether to pursue the case as a criminal matter or a mental health one, but he says at this point, its likely going to be handled as a criminal case.

A lot of people who do very bizarre things also have mental health issues, he adds.

 For more compelling true crime coverage, follow our Crime magazine on Flipboard.

Moor is currently in the Clatsop County Jail and will appear for arraignment Tuesday, when she is expected to enter a plea, says Marquis.

PEOPLE phone calls and emails to Moors court-appointed attorney Macon Benoit were not immediately returned.

According to KATU, the dogs body was taken to Clatsop County Animal Control for investigation.
President Trump got advocates of gun-law reform heated up this week with one strong early-morning tweet. The president is not in favor of touching the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which confers on U.S. citizens the right to keep and bear arms.

THE SECOND AMENDMENT WILL NEVER BE REPEALED! As much as Democrats would like to see this happen, and despite the words yesterday of former Supreme Court Justice Stevens, NO WAY. We need more Republicans in 2018 and must ALWAYS hold the Supreme Court!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 28, 2018

In his statement, Trump referred to an op-ed in the New York Times titled John Paul Stevens: Repeal the Second Amendment. The retired conservative Supreme Court Justice explained why he thought the Constitution should be changed to include more gun restrictions in America.

This clearly did not sit well with the president, and Trumps response equally rubbed supporters of gun-law reform the wrong way. In response, several of the Parkland shooting victims tweeted back at the president, trolling his gun stance.

Maybe if @realDonaldTrump actually came to Parkland to have a conversation with us he would understand that WE DO NOT WANT TO REPEAL THE SECOND AMENDMENT. Man, and they say millennials like to complain. #NeverAgain #MarchForOurLives https://t.co/QkWB3DQOqM  Lauren Hogg (@lauren_hoggs) March 28, 2018

#WednesdayWisdom Trump really really really goofed. Like, he has no idea how hard he goofed by pretending the millions of Americans who demanded change wanted a repeal of the second amendment. Hes hiding, scared, and fragile. Well show him were boss in the midterms.  Cameron Kasky (@cameron_kasky) March 28, 2018

To clarify, #MarchForOurLives is not for the repeal of the Second Amendment. https://t.co/0ybz9JEB8y  Jaclyn Corin (@JaclynCorin) March 28, 2018

Of course, there were many who agreed with Trumps tweet. They too voiced their opinions on the gun-control debate on Twitter. Among them were the NRA, which applauded the presidents strong stance.

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In response to the former Supreme Court Justice's outlandish op-ed yesterday, @realDonaldTrump vowed that The Second Amendment Will Never Be Repealed https://t.co/mOXkuy43da  NRA (@NRA) March 28, 2018

This morning President Trump was very clear that despite calls by Democrats to repeal the Second Amendment, it will NEVER happen! pic.twitter.com/BZlGyHMJgv  Stump for Trump (@Stump_for_Trump) March 28, 2018

Gun control lobby this morning: 1) Armed guards are not a deterrent to further loss of life 2) We want to repeal the Second Amendment  Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) March 28, 2018

If you value your Second Amendment, you had better get on board supporting Donald Trump. He must be elected in 2020! And must appoint another Supreme Court Justice in his term. @realDonaldTrump  Lori Hendry (@Lrihendry) March 28, 2018

As with any good argument, there were also more moderate voices insisting that America can have its cake and eat it too: gun reform without repealing the Second Amendment.

Fun fact about me: I support the second amendment.

But I also support gun regulation.

Surprise folks, its possible to do both.  Sam Fuentes (@funkpuncher) March 28, 2018

We dont want to repeal the second amendment. Let me say it one more time: we dont want to repeal the second amendment. I dont understand why gun control always equates to a total gun ban. It stops the conversation about this issue. https://t.co/uNCzda17H1  Aly Sheehy (@Aly_Sheehy) March 28, 2018

No one ever said they want the second amendment to be repealed. More than just democrats agree with gun control legislation, because this is about stopping people from being murdered. You constantly change your agenda and your views. You're a bad joke of a president https://t.co/3Om2c32Zx7  Carly Novell (@car_nove) March 28, 2018

Watch: Fans are torn over Roseannes pro-Trump stance

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After asking where her tax dollars are going, Cardi B is ready to run for office. And were not talking about a seat on the city council.

The 25-year-old Bodak Yellow rapper declared in an Instagram Live post on Tuesday that shes pondering a run for the highest office in the land  which really doesnt seem so far-fetched when the former host of The Apprentice, Donald Trump, is sitting in the Oval Office right now. Or when theres serious talk about Oprah  and maybe even Kanye West  making a run for the presidency one day.

I really feel like I should run for president, Cardi B told her 20.3 million followers in a five-minute clip. Maybe not in 2020, but maybe in 2024. I really feel like I should run for president because I have a lot of ideas that I feel like it would encourage a lot of young people, a lot of single mothers.  motivate them to go to school and motivate them to get a job. You know what Im saying? I also have a lot of ideas for taxpayers to not be so hurt on paying taxes, because were always going to have to pay taxes. The conclusion is that were always gonna have to pay tax, right?

Rapper Cardi B is thinking ahead  way ahead. (Photo: Kevin Mazur/WireImage)

Ah, taxes  a subject the Bronx-born star addressed last week in a video asking the government to provide a breakdown of where tax dollars are being spent.

In the new video, Cardi B also spoke about the welfare system.

I feel like a lot of people get welfare, get food stamps, live in projects, and a lot of people dont have jobs, and a lot of people dont want to get  dont want to look for  jobs, she said. I know its hard to get a job, but I feel like theres a lot of people that dont even try to get a job. And I feel like its about that time that we make people try and get a job. You know what Im saying?

She later pointed to a girl she knows who purposely had a lot of kids, so she could purposely get a lot of food stamp money.

In fact, she added, I feel like America wants the poor people to keep being poor because they make it easy to stay poor.

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The former Borough of Manhattan Community College student mentioned some of the challenges that she faced as a student.

You know, going to college sometimes is very  sometimes the motivation leaves because, its like, for example, I had to pay for my own transportation, she said. When it was time to eat food during my break and s***, I had no money to buy food. So I would like to help college students to motivate them to keep going to school.

Despite Cardi Bs ideas, she wont have the chance to run for president in 2024, unless the Constitution changes. She was born on Oct. 11, 1992, which means shell only be 32 in 2024  a few years short of the required age of 35.

Then again, she obviously didnt worry about the age rule when she made a mock campaign announcement on VH1s Love & Hip Hop in 2016 to run in that years election.

She was running as a member of the Keep It Real Party.

Cardi B 2028?

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:
In the fall of 1998, at age 49, Ann Romney was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. I couldnt go to the grocery store, I couldnt cook dinner, I couldnt get out of bed, I couldnt take care of myself, hardly, she tells Yahoo Lifestyle.

Romney remembers visiting her doctor at the time, who told her: Come back when youre much worse, and well treat you with steroids. Those are the big guns we save for when youre really bad. She remembers thinking with fear and worry, Im really bad right now.

Ann Romney also remembers thinking that her life was over.

Multiple sclerosis is a nervous system disease that can cause a host of issues, from pain and numbness to loss of vision and loss of bodily or motor functions, and this can all happen on a sliding scale of severity. When she was diagnosed, Romneys husband, Mitt, was by her side. He cried, she remembers. And then he held me and he said: I dont care if you get in a wheelchair, I dont care if you make another dinner, were gonna be fine. And were in this together.'

Romney recalls going through a period of depression after her diagnosis, sometimes thinking Im worthless; Im a burden, until she came to a point when she realized she had to stop grieving and start living.

After a long hiatus, the lifelong horse lover began riding horses again. She also joined her politician husband on the campaign trail as he ran for governor of Massachusetts and later president of the United States. She figured she couldnt wallow in her sadness and pain any longer; she had to get up and move.

Mitt Romney announces his run for the presidency on June 2, 2011. (Photo: David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images/Courtesy of Ann Romney)

The dearest, most tender moments of campaigning were when people would come with neurologic diseases, a lot of them with multiple sclerosis, because they sympathized with me, Romney says. They had so much emotion that they would literally collapse. I was grateful. They gave me energy. They gave me another reason to keep going.

Photo: Courtesy of Ann Romney

A few years after her diagnosis, Romney was referred to Howard Weiner, MD, a neurologist and the director of the multiple sclerosis program at Brigham and Womens Hospital. During her time as his patient, the two came up with the idea for the Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases. The thriving research center is now co-led by Romney, Weiner, and Dennis Selkoe, MD. It is home to a team of 250 researchers who are working to find cures, prevention, and treatments for MS, Alzheimers disease, ALS, Parkinsons disease, and brain tumors.

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Photo: Courtesy of Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases at Brigham and Womens Hospital

One of the biggest misconceptions [about MS] is that when you are diagnosed, you are going to die, Romney says. That is not the case anymore.

Reflecting on her own journey, she adds, Im now strong. I was weak. I found answers, and I fought my way through. Now I call it my gift, she says of MS and her ability to assist in the push to find a cure.

I know what its like to be desperate, Romney shares. I know what its like to have no hope. And I dont want people to feel that way anymore. I am going to give people hope.

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

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The victims of social taboo?

Md Joynal Abedin Khan :

Some guardians bound their offspring for immoral activities with strangers for money in their residences and other places that is consider as the key reason for destruction of normal lives of the victims.

The family members misconduct with the victims by taking money such as ways for few years and they also forcibly exile them in the name of social dignity, Farida Yeasmin, Deputy Commissioner and Chief of Women Support and Investigation Department (WSID) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, told The New Nation on Tuesday evening.

Most of the relatives do not want to back the victims mainly physically challenged girls by denoting them as dishonest and burden of families, said the WSID chief quoting victims and general diaries with police stations.

They firmly reject their sexually harassed girls, drug addict and physically challenged children from law enforcing agencies and NGOs on account of money crisis and loss of family dignity, the DC said.

The guardians also claimed the cops personnel that victims have lost the normal chance of marriage for their so called bad activities (illegal sexual relations), the police official said.

The law enforcers could not give back more than half of the total victims to their family members parliamentary elections will be held in time," Obaidul Quader said. after recovery, the DC said.

If police bring the parents and siblings of the victims at the center to back their daughters then they (guardians) refuge to return them in the residences due to incapability of cost of nursing, said the WSID chief.

A good number of teen aged-girls at victim center claimed the police that their parents maintain their families' expenditure from their bad income (illegal physical relations), she said.

Consequently, they hand over the victims to the government support centers and 10 NGOs, including Bangladesh Mohila Parishad, Ahsania Mission, Ain O Salish Kendra, BLUST and Apraje Bangla, the police official said. A dozen of victims claimed that the police, their parents and family members forced them to leave homes, the WSID chief said. Even sometimes we handed the victims through local police stations and local representatives, she added.

DMP sought the address of four challenged girls and published their photos on its news portal on Wednesday.

They urged the address of the girls to hand over to their families, it quoted. They will hand over the four victims to the DMP's victim support center in Tejgaon, it mentioned.

The victims are Joynab, , 8, daughter of Mohammad and Sufia Begum, Roksana, 18, Naznin, 13, daughter of Qayyum Sheikh and Kulsum, from Pirojpur, Mst Shahinur, 8, daughter of Shah Alam and Nurjahan. All the victims, were found in the capital in March this year, said Farihs Yasmin, Sub-Inspector of Tejgaon victim center.

A victim seeking anonymity, hailing from a southern district, said, "Her mother forced her to sex with some selected people for more than seven years. When the scandal spread out in the local area and failed to arrange marriage, the family members ousted her forcibly."

A father of a police victim center from a northern district, told our local correspondent on Wednesday, "I have no chance to take back my daughter from the victim center by considering the social dignity."

A sister of such a victim confessed to The New Nation, "If I get back my parentless addicted sister, then I will face punish in the local arbitration." A local chairman said that he took a girl from the victim center and sent her in an unknown address as their parents rejected her.

Educationist Rasheda K Chowdhury said, "There is a common belief among parents that educational institutions will make their children good human beings after committing the offenses."

Ishtiaq Mannan, Deputy Country Director of Save the Children Bangladesh, said, "Sometimes guardians found unaware of their children that may cause of the adverse effects on children."
Of the untold number of stupid things that have come out of Donald Trumps mouth, making a strong case for the stupidest was his claim, as he announced his candidacy for president, that he would build a wall on the southern border of the country and make the criminals and rapists in Mexico pay for it. So dumb was this declaration that even Trump eventually realized he would have to tweak it, probably around the time that Mexicos president, Enrique Pena Nieto, said there was no way in hell he would fund the project. From there, Mr. Art of the Deal changed his story to taxpayers will put up the money initially, but Mexico will pay us back; which later became Mexico will pay for the wall through import tariffs; which quickly changed to Mexico will pay for the wall indirectly through NAFTA, which morphed, earlier this month, into the wall will pay for itself. And now, the president has landed on a new idea: make the military pay for it.

Trump has privately been making the case that the Pentagon should use some of the $700 billion it received as part of last weeks spending bill to fund his vanity project, The Washington Post reported Tuesday. After mentioning it to several advisers last week, Trump reportedly floated the idea by House Speaker Paul Ryan in a meeting on Wednesday at the White House, to which Ryan offered little reaction. During another meeting, this one with senior aides, Trump apparently whined about how much money the Department of Defense was getting, noting that surely the Pentagon could afford to part with a few (or, say, 67) billion dollars. According to reporters Josh Dawsey and Mike DeBonis, President Temper Tantrum has had a hard time watching TV latelyheretofore his only solace in this cruel worlddue to criticism of the spending deal he signed last week, and the fear that his base could sour on him without any wall progress. (The fact that he allegedly had an affair with a porn star, whom he subsequently paid off to stay quiet, is obviously a plus for them.) Currently, just $641 million is earmarked for new fencing, and it can only be used on operationally effective designs that were already deployed last May, meaning that unless something changes, the prototypes Trump recently visited in California will be just for show.

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Of course, as everyone but the president seems to understand, its highly unlikely that the Pentagon would divert funds from the military to finance the wall, which experts say wont actually stop the flow of illegal immigration at all, and which would require Congressional votes that Trump obviously doesnt have. Not only will Democrats take a hard pass military spending paying for his fence, but Pentagon officials, per White House advisers, may also blanch at the possibility. In a statement to the Post, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer made his feelings pretty clear. First Mexico was supposed to pay for it, then U.S. taxpayers, and now our men and women in uniform? This would be a blatant misuse of military funds and tied up in court for years. Secretary [James] Mattis ought not bother and instead use the money to help our troops, rather than advance the presidents political fantasies, he said.

That virtually no one is going for the idea hasnt stopped Trump from floating it in his preferred venue of choice. Over the weekend he suggested on Twitter that the military should scrounge up the money for national security reasons:

The national security argument might hold a bit more water if the Trump administration hadnt targeted traditional border security measures for for cuts or delays in funding that experts say [pose] a serious threat to border security. (Those experts also say that the The Wall will largely useless unless its 35,000 feet high.) Meanwhile, at the White House, good soldier Sarah Sanders on Tuesday told reporters that the administration still has plans to look for potential ways for Mexico to pay for the wall.

Anyway, stay tuned for next week when Trump privately presses for the Department of Veterans Affairs to quit being so stingy and pony up the dough. How much money do they really need to treat PTSD?

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Team Trump has a special treat in store for the bank industry

Its the appointment of Jelena McWilliams at the F.D.I.C., which will result in a trifecta of deregulation-happy officials atop the nations banking regulators, per The Wall Street Journal:

When that happens, the F.D.I.C., the Federal Reserve and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency will be able to move ahead on a number of the Trump administrations policy priorities, such as adjusting capital and liquidity requirements, easing restrictions on short-term consumer loans and relaxing the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial laws proprietary trading ban, the Volcker rule.

Ms. McWilliams arrival likely will coincide with the completion of a bill in Congress aimed at easing crisis-era banking regulations, another catalyst for changes to the financial rule book.

Isaac Boltansky, the policy research director at Compass Point Research & Trading LLC, told W.S.J. that, With Congress likely to pass the only financial deregulatory bill for the near future, it will be the alphabet soup of new regulators who decide the tone and tenor of the new deregulatory agenda. #MAGA!

Wilbur Ross does the G.O.P. a solid

Overriding the advice of career officials who warned that adding a question to the 2020 census about citizenship will lead to fewer responses from people worried about deportation, Ross decided on Monday to just go for it, writing in a memo he had determined that reinstatement of a citizenship question on the 2020 decennial census questionnaire is necessary to provide complete and accurate census block level data (the last time the citizenship question was on the census was in 1950). Thats an interesting argument, given that the very reason census officials didnt want to reinstate the question is a fear that it will lead to lower response rates. Which may be all part of the plan:

Critics of the change and experts in the Census Bureau itself have said that, amid a fiery immigration debate, the inclusion of a citizenship question could prompt immigrants who are in the country illegally not to respond. That would result in a severe undercount of the populationand, in turn, faulty data for government agencies and outside groups that rely on the census. The effects would also bleed into the redistricting of the House and state legislatures in the next decade.

Others argued that an undercount in regions with high immigrant populations would lead not only to unreliable data but also to unfair redistricting, to the benefit of Republicans.

In response to the decision by Ross, the human equivalent of a smoking jacket and cigar, the states of California and New York have sued the Trump administration.

Trump takes full responsibility for stock-market sell-off

Just kidding, of course. The president, who took the time out of his busy day on Monday to pat himself on the back for yesterdays rally, was suddenly too busy to tweet about todays drop.

Elsewhere!

At least 50 people on Wall Street think Billions characters are based on them (Business Insider)

Ross says market is realizing the tariffs are bargaining chips for better trade deals (CNBC)

Zuckerberg Expected to Testify Before Congress on Cambridge Analytica Scandal (Wired)

The Billionaire Whisperer Who United Bezos, Buffett, and Dimon (Bloomberg)

The White-Collar Wives Club (N.Y.T.)

Trump claimed the tax bill would lead to a huge boost in business spendingbut theres no sign of it yet (Business Insider)

Deutsche Bank Examines Potential Successors to C.E.O. John Cryan (W.S.J.)

Manafort Asks Virginia Judge to Dismiss Tax, Bank-Fraud Case (Bloomberg)

Mulvaney nears victory in struggle with Mnuchin on tax rules (Politico)

Ring-bearing owl causes chaos at British wedding (UPI)
Beni (DR Congo) (AFP) - Ten civilians and a Ugandan militant died when Congolese troops clashed with rebels in the flashpoint town of Beni in Democratic Republic of Congo's troubled east, an army spokesman said Wednesday.

The violence took place on Tuesday evening when rebels attacked military positions around Beni in North Kivu, Captain Mak Hazukay told AFP.

"We listed 10 dead civilians so far," he said.

A rebel from Uganda's Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) militia was also killed, he said, adding that fighting was ongoing.

Michel Kakule, the lead physician at Beni hospital, told AFP some of the victims "had gunshot wounds while others had been attacked with machetes."

It sparked an angry backlash among locals "who blocked off several main roads in the town in protest over the murder of 10 civilians," said Gilbert Kambale, who works for a civil society organisation.

Since January, Congolese troops have been engaged in a major military operation against the ADF but it has not managed to stop the bloodshed in and around Beni.

The ADF "is now conducting an asymmetrical war -- when we attack them in one area, they get around it by attacking elsewhere," said Hazukay.

The ADF is one of a number of armed groups that hold territory in the eastern DR Congo that are battling for control of the region's rich mineral resources.

The militia group, which was created by Muslim radicals to oppose the rule of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, has been present in the North Kivu area since 1995 where it stands accused of killing several hundred civilians in the past three-and-a-half years.

It has also been accused of killing 15 UN peacekeepers from Tanzania in a deadly attack in the Beni area last December.

- Army issues Ituri ultimatum -

Meanwhile, Congolese troops operating in Ituri, a neighbouring province which has also been hit by violence, on Wednesday issued an ultimatum to armed groups responsible for a series of bloody attacks on civilians.

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Since December, scores of people have been killed in clashes involving the Hema and Lendu communities, cattle herders and farmers who have a long history of violence over access to land.

The bloodshed has so far claimed at least 130 lives, according to an unofficial toll compiled by AFP, with around 40 people killed in mid-March in an attack on the Djugu by assailants using guns, machetes and arrows.

Addressing those behind the attacks, army spokesman Lieutenant Jules Ngongo said they had "48 hours" to lay down their arms or face "a blistering attack" by the army.

He said 10 soldiers and 28 "attackers" had been killed in Ituri since the start of February when Congolese troops began a crackdown aimed at halting the bloodshed.

The violence has forced thousands of people to flee their homes in the past two months, with the UN putting the figure at around 57,000 while locals put the figure closer to 300,000.

Last week, Kinshasa announced plans to hold a peace conference in Ituri to discuss the violence and those displaced by it, but without saying when it would take place.

The government has said there will be a peace conference in Ituri, and there are also plans for President Joseph Kabila to visit the area.

- UN mission renewed -

DR Congo's restive east has been wracked by violence for the past 20 years.

On Tuesday, the UN Security Council renewed the mandate of its huge MONUSCO peacekeeping mission for another year, tasking it with helping prepare for December elections aimed at ending the rule of President Joseph Kabila.

With more than 16,000 troops on the ground, it is the UN's biggest peacekeeping mission and has been present in the country since 1999.

But the DRC's ambassador to the UN, Ignace Gata Mavita, said the mission's focus should be fighting rebel groups rather than supporting elections.

Its role should be "to combat armed groups to protect civilians and restore peace and security in the east of our country," he said

The ambassador also renewed calls for MONUSCO's exit from the DRC. The origins of the UN peacekeeping mission go back nearly 20 years.
(BARTOW, Fla.)  A 13-year-old Florida boy has been involuntarily hospitalized for a second time after telling deputies he wanted to be the next school shooter.

Polk County Sheriffs deputies said they found the teen passed out on a sidewalk early Saturday. He told them he drank an entire bottle stolen from his parents liquor cabinet and took a bunch of happy pills, according to a news release sent Tuesday.

The boy also told investigators that he wanted to kill a lot of kids in retaliation for being expelled last month from Westside K-8 School in nearby Osceola County, allegedly for threatening to kill specific classmates in the wake of the shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Osceola County authorities hospitalized him against his will for psychiatric evaluations under Floridas Baker Act, which allows authorities to temporarily hold someone who has been deemed a threat to himself or others. Now hes been involuntarily hospitalized again in Polk County, and hes also charged with aggravated stalking, a third-degree felony, for a series of alleged threats.

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said he hopes the boy gets the help he needs.

We cannot allow anyone of any age to get away with criminal threats to kill, especially when they are aimed toward school children, said Judd, an outspoken sheriff in central Florida who has advocated for arming school personnel.

Investigators searched the boys PlayStation at his home in Davenport, which is between Orlando and Tampa, and said they found pictures of the suspected Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz as well as images of the Columbine High School shooting in Colorado.

They said the boy also made troubling statements  including that he wanted to die and see God, and that he wanted to kill students who had snitched on him before he was expelled. He also said he had buried a handgun in a neighbors backyard to keep his mother from finding it. The Polk Sheriffs statement said a gun was not found, but they did learn that the boy had made similar statements in Osceola County, where deputies accused him in an affidavit of making written threats to kill.




Anna Fariss frank comments about marriage have rubbed some fans the wrong way.

The actress, who divorced first husband Ben Indra in 2008 and announced her separation from Chris Pratt last year, spoke on Dax Shepards Armchair Expert podcast Monday of her ambivalence about matrimony.

The Mom star, who has a 5-year-old son with Pratt, admitted that she wasnt sure if shed consider marriage again as shes trying to figure out what the purpose is of legalizing relationships.

Is it safety for your children? she mused. Is it convention? Is it so other people respect your relationship more? For me, Im just not quite sure where it fits.

Thats not to say that she has given up on love.

I am a romantic, she said. I believe in a partnership, I believe in companionship. I just dont know if I believe in a ceremony of a wedding. Youd think that having successfully married parents would increase your odds [of it working out]. But how weve justified it is trying to make something work when we werent sort of picking up the clues. For me, it was sort of checking it off the list.

Faris and Pratt were wed in 2009 and announced their separation last fall. (Photo: Michael Buckner/Getty Images for CinemaCon)

It was an honest discussion, but Fariss expression of nontraditional views has been met with some backlash.

One follower argued that marriage was important from an economic standpoint, prompting Shepard himself to chime in with a tweet noting that being raised by a single parent didnt affect his ability to earn money.

isn't educational background of the individualit's not the sex of the individualit's not the race. It's whether or not they live in a single parent household. I'm NOT saying single parents are bad people. It's just that combined resources are imperative for most families.  ThenAtlasSpoke (@ThenAtlasSpoke) March 27, 2018

I was raised by a single parent. I don't live in poverty. So it's not informed by what I make today, but how I grew up. I didn't forget my upbringing when someone handed me a paycheck. That's not how it works.  dax shepard (@daxshepard1) March 27, 2018

Others were more stinging in their criticism, blaming Faris for not working harder to save her marriage and trolling the twice-wed actress over her relationship history.

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She dumped her first husband for Chris Pratt. Seems as though karma has come around.  Debbie! (@debbiebologa) March 27, 2018

Not working on your marriage, is not reason to not believe. Try harder next time, sweetie.  Maria (@NehoNana) March 26, 2018

Most people know what marriage is, except for Hollywood celebrities who have cheapened and sullied it  Nathan Schneider (@Schneider4House) March 26, 2018

She probably should. Sounds like shes pretty bad at it  Roger Podacter (@PodacterRoger) March 26, 2018

Maybe it's not marriage, maybe it's just you.  Hailey (@haileydubs) March 26, 2018

Might be she actually has to work at a marriage,something she looks like shes not willing to do. After 2 failures,she might look at the person in the mirror to find fault.  Joe Johnson (@joejohnson291) March 27, 2018

No u believe in competition in marriage, a Facebook commenter shot back. U didnt mind when u were the bigger star & Chris wasnt as well known. Now that Chris is on the rise, u hated it. U believe that ur husband shldnt be ur best friend.

Guess everyones a critic  and a relationship expert.

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

4 reasons to date someone whos been divorced

Women are giving guys man-gagement rings

These women had their wedding at the Walmart where they work

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Semi-automatic AR-15's are for sale at Good Guys Guns & Range in Orem, Utah. An AR-15 was used in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida: Getty

President Donald Trump has been quick to show his disdain over a suggestion from a former Supreme Court justice that the Second Amendment of the US Constitution  the right to keep and bear arms  should be repealed.

Retired Justice John Paul Stevens has become the latest prominent figure to call for the repeal of the amendment, citing the sweeping movement started by student survivors of the Parkland, Florida school shooting on Valentine's Day in which 17 people were killed. Justice Stevens argues that the time is now to push on beyond the gun controls being sought and get rid of the whole amendment.

In response, Mr Trump said that the right to bear arms would "never" be repealed, using the method of a capital letter-laden tweet and even some students from Parkland's Marjory Douglas Stoneman Douglas have said they are after an end to gun violence, not an end to gun ownership.

Beyond Mr Trump's political bluster, the reality is that it would also be "almost impossible" to get rid of the amendment, according to constitutional law experts.

Gregory Magarian, who clerked for Justice Stevens and is now a law professor at Washington University in St Louis, said the 97-year-olds proposal makes a compelling historical and legal case for amending the Constitution to repeal the Second Amendment, but any proposed amendment would face tough challenges.

I think he does believe that we should do this, Mr Magarian said of Justice Stevens call to repeal the Second Amendment. But I think were inclined to think a little less boldly.

In an opinion piece in the New York Times, Justice Stevens said the amendment had been warped by gun lobbying groups such as the National Rifle Association (NRA) to extend beyond its original intent. He pointed out that the amendment was adopted out of concern that a national standing army might pose a threat to the security of the separate states.

Today that concern is a relic of the 18th century, wrote Justice Stevens, a Republican, even though he is widely considered to have been on the liberal side of the high court at the time of his retirement in 2010.

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He added that a constitutional amendment to get rid of the Second Amendment would do more to weaken the NRAs ability to stymie legislative debate and block constructive gun control legislation than any other available option.

Donald Trump in turn defended the Second Amendment, saying it WILL NEVER BE REPEALED!

As much as Democrats would like to see this happen, and despite the words yesterday of former Supreme Court Justice Stevens, NO WAY he wrote on Twitter. We need more Republicans in 2018 and must ALWAYS hold the Supreme Court!

Of Justice Stevens op-ed, Mr Magarian said there is value in kind of disturbing the narrative that the Second Amendment is a sacred cow, adding that it could help activists focus their attention on what they want to accomplish when it comes to gun control.

But stoking a movement to repeal the Second Amendment may not be the best area to place efforts, he suggested.

Gerald Treece of the South Texas College of Law in Houston told The Independent that a more practical strategy for creating change would be for Congress to pass gun control laws, such as raising the age limit to buy guns. And if there are legal challenges to those laws, the Supreme Court may take the opportunity to reevaluate what the amendment means, he said. Justice Stevens was one of four dissenters in 2008, when the Supreme Court ruled in the case of District of Columbia v Heller that there is an individual right to bear arms.

Making any change to the US Constitution can be achieved in two ways.

In the first method, which has been used to ratify all 27 amendments, two-thirds of both the Senate and House of Representatives must approve of the proposal and send it to the states for a vote. Then, three-fourths of the states must affirm the proposed amendment. The other method for passing an amendment requires two-thirds of state legislatures to call a constitutional convention. Amendments proposed at the convention must be approved by three-fourths of the states.

The most recent push to ratify an amendment was in the 1970s. The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which would have prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex, was sent to the states in 1972 after having been passed by both the House and Senate. But the ERA never received the 38 state ratifications it needed.

If an amendment regarding sex equality could not be ratified  when there was probably sufficient agreement on the substance of the amendment to get it done, Mr Magarian said  its even more unlikely that one related to the divisive issue of guns could.
An Arizona mother whose two children were found dead Monday evening strapped into their car seats in her vehicle has been charged with two counts of murder, PEOPLE confirms.

According to a statement from the Pinal County Sheriffs Office, authorities received a call at about 11:15 p.m. on Monday after two children, a 2-year-old boy and a 10-month-old girl, were found deceased in a vehicle.

The statement adds that both children were found in the vehicle strapped in their car seats.

 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.

Investigators allegedly found evidence at the scene that indicated foul play, the statement reads, though it did not specify the evidence.

Brittany Velasquez, 20, the mother of the two children, has been charged.

The names of her children have not been released.

Autopsies will be conducted to determine the childrens cause of death.

Velasquez is being held on an unspecified amount of bail, and PEOPLE was unable to determine if she had retained legal counsel who could comment on her behalf.
As Syrian President Bashar al-Assads government claws back control over the rebel-held Eastern Ghouta enclave near Damascus, the images are sadly familiar: Pillars of smoke rise over broken concrete and desperate civilians run for safety. Yet violence isnt the whole story behind Assads victory. No less important are the internal rivalries, secret talks, and links across the front line that have for years shaped Syrias conflict in ways that outsiders hardly notice and even Syrians struggle to follow.

To be sure, Eastern Ghoutas final battle has been brutal. More than 95,000 civilians have been displaced so far, with more expected in the coming days, according to Rachel Sider, an advisor with the Norwegian Refugee Council based in Amman, Jordan. Human rights groups accuse Assads air force of targeting civilians and hospitals, and opposition authorities have counted 2,000 dead in just over a month of fighting. Though at a far less lethal scale, rebels have also shelled civilian areas of Damascus, recently killing at least 35 Syrians at a market.

The governments victory is in large part the result of brute force and a choking five-year siege, but more sophisticated tactics have also played an important role. Loyalist commanders have cleverly exploited the social and economic ties linking Damascus and Eastern Ghouta, while working to divide the opposition  which is not a difficult job.

Eastern Ghoutas politics are complex, but the main armed groups there have been at one anothers throats with pathological persistence, often fighting over smuggling profits. Before the current offensive, the enclave had suffered a three-way split. To the north, Jaysh al-Islam ruled Douma, the largest city in the area. Its rival, Faylaq al-Rahman, dominated the Damascus suburbs farther south alongside a smattering of jihadis, while a smaller town, Harasta, was run by the Islamists of Ahrar al-Sham.

Assad has made good use of these divisions. When his government launched its attack in February, it went straight for the soft tissue between rebel lines, slicing Eastern Ghouta into three small pieces. Halfway into the offensive, loyalist media began to broadcast video clips of protests in Ghouta neighborhoods such as Mesraba, Kafr Batna, and Hammouriyeh, where civilians waved Assad posters and Syrian flags. Locals have long been frustrated with Eastern Ghoutas rebel factions, which stand accused of profiteering and authoritarian rule, but this was unprecedented.

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Though seemingly staged for the cameras, the protests were significant for showing that loyalists now felt safe enough to come out of hiding and that the government still had strings to pull inside the enclave  a tentacular network of spies, sympathizers, and exploitable relationships that have mostly escaped the attention of Western analysts. In a typical example, pro-Assad tribal leaders were wheeled out once the offensive got going to plead with civilians and fighters from their home region, Marj, to abandon the rebels.

Then there was Mesraba. A strategically located hub between the three rebel regions, this small village had also long enjoyed a special status in Eastern Ghoutas war economy. In 2014, the Syrian military handed the Mesraba businessman Mohiyeddine Manfoush an informal monopoly on trade with the besieged enclave. Working with both rebel and regime commanders, he quickly emerged as a pivotal figure in the areas political economy, moving regularly across the frontlines to manage his dairy factory in Mesraba while also cultivating patronage networks, given his role as the sole source of food imports to the hunger-ridden enclave. When the offensive began, Manfoush brokered a deal to let his hometown (and factory) escape the fighting, which allowed the army to seize Mesraba and cut Ghouta into first two, then three pieces.

Next to go was the frontline suburb of Harasta. Fighters there belonged to Ahrar al-Sham, a Turkish-backed militia that holds ground in northwestern Syria. Judging by the rhetoric of its deeply religious leadership, Ahrar al-Sham would be hard to sway  but a good number of its Ghouta fighters only flew the groups flag for convenience. Most were local Harasta boys linked to a network of smugglers who had previously marketed themselves as Free Syrian Army fighters, pious Sufis, hardline jihadis, or whatever else was opportune. They now wanted to make a deal.

On March 22, those in Harasta who wouldnt or couldnt join the loyalist side began boarding buses for evacuation to northern Syria. Immediately after they left, pro-Assad gunmen swooped in to loot the now-undefended area, ignoring the pleas of government-appointed negotiators who had promised rebels that no such thing would come to pass.

Then came the Damascus suburbs farther south, which were being targeted with unprecedented ferocity by the Syrian and Russian air forces. Russia is killing everyone, women and children in the basements before the men, said Mohammed Lahham, a Faylaq al-Rahman leader, in a message to me earlier this month. The rebel meltdown in the southern suburbs wasnt just due to bombing, but also the result of a pro-Assad insurrection orchestrated by Bassam Difdaa, a Sufi preacher working in the Kafr Batna neighborhood.

Difdaa is a sheikh from the al-Fath Institute, explains Thomas Pierret, a leading expert on Syrias Islamic movements. Al-Fath has long been a pillar of the state-backed Sunni religious establishment, though many junior scholars hailing from Eastern Ghouta joined the rebels after 2011. Difdaa seems to have followed the same trajectory. In 2007, he ran unsuccessfully for a parliamentary seat, and this record of working within the system helps make sense of his return to the motherlands bosom today, Pierret says.

Reports from 2011 claimed Difdaa had joined the opposition, and some say he worked with Faylaq al-Rahmans Kafr Batna wing, but his conversion to the rebel cause seems to have been superficial. He leaned toward the regime from the start of the revolution, an opposition source inside Eastern Ghouta told me earlier this month.

By the time the final offensive began, Difdaa began calling for rebel capitulation and set up peace talks through the offices of Assads electricity minister, Mohammad Zuhair Kharboutli, whose family hails from Kafr Batna. Outraged, Faylaq al-Rahman leader Abdel-Nasser Shmeir vowed to respond to any attempt at negotiations outside his purview with an iron fist. Difdaa reacted by organizing his students and supporters in Kafr Batna into an armed guard, with firearms being easily available to anyone with money in Eastern Ghouta  and apparently, Difdaa now had money.

You could say that there were sleeper cells that tried to take over several areas of Kafr Batna, an anonymous source in Eastern Ghouta explained to me. Two hours after they began to deploy, regime forces assaulted from two directions at once. At the head of a force reportedly numbering hundreds of local youth and side-switching rebels, Difdaa linked up with the army as it pressed into the Damascus suburbs.

Within a week, Faylaq al-Rahman and its allies had been defeated, and on March 25, rebels began to board buses for northern Syria along with their families. All in all, some 13,000 people had reportedly left for Idlib by Tuesday.

The government takeover of Harasta and the suburbs leaves only Douma, the last but also the largest and best-defended rebel city in Eastern Ghouta. Four Douma-based sources, including Jaysh al-Islam leaders, tell me Russian-brokered peace talks have begun there, too, but all stressed that the group has rejected the idea of evacuating to northern Syria.

We know it will be a difficult and unequal battle, but this is our land and our homes and we wont leave them to the Russian and Iranian occupiers, said Jaysh al-Islams Mohammed Bayraqdar on Tuesday, while adding that the group had always kept the door to negotiations open in order to spare civilian blood. The Salafi scholar Osama Hawwa also says Jaysh al-Islam continues to seek a deal, which, he insists, should offer an acceptable form for individual members to stay in the city.

So far, however, talks remain stalled, and government sources warned of a renewed offensive on Douma this week. Although the citys surrender may take longer than that of Harasta and the suburbs, it seems certain that Douma, too, will eventually revert to Assads control.

And yet, even as this last patch of rebel territory teeters on the brink of defeat, the rebel infighting continues, with both Jaysh al-Islam and Faylaq al-Rahman accusing each other of betraying Eastern Ghouta.

The oppositions endless rivalries have turned out to be Assads trump card, allowing him to shut down rebel regions one by one while using his regimes considerable social and economic leverage to split and undermine his enemies in ways only intermittently visible to the outside world.

From afar, Syrias war may seem an irrational whirlpool of violence. But behind all the chaotic death and destruction, local leaders tend to operate according to their own subtle logic of informal grassroots relations, creating an unseen layer of politics understood only by the people most intimately involved in it  namely Syrians themselves, the masters and prisoners of their own unfolding tragedy.
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Andrew Ekonomou

Andrew Ekonomou, May 7, 2012. (Photo: Rebecca Breyer)[/caption] An Atlanta attorney's stock on President Donald Trump's legal team appears to be rising, even as several high-powered Washington, D.C., lawyers have passed on joining the president's lineup. Andrew Ekonomou, a former prosecutor now working in private practice, will take on a more prominent role in Trump's representation, Trump attorney Jay Sekulow told Reuters late Tuesday. Ekonomou has worked as a senior counsel at Sekulow's American Center for Law and Justice. Ekonomou is one of several attorneys with ties to Sekulow's ACLJ who are working on the president's behalf in relation to special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe. Sekulow has previously said Trump's private lawyers were being paid through Sekulow's private firm, the Constitutional Litigation and Advocacy Group. In 2016, Ekonomou and Sekulow worked together as special assistant prosecutors for Brunswick District Attorney Jackie Johnson in a Georgia Supreme Court case, beating back a First Amendment challenge to a state law banning sexually explicit online contact with minors. A 1974 Emory University law graduate, Ekonomou prosecuted securities cases for the Georgia attorney general, then served in the U.S. Attorneys Office in Atlanta, where he headed the white-collar fraud division, ran the criminal divisions and served a stint as interim U.S. attorney. In 1983 he went into private practice and became well-known for work as a receiver. One judge appointed him in 1994 to take over an infamous nude dancing establishment, the Gold Club, and run the company while it was being sold. Georgia U.S. Sen. Max Cleland, a Democrat, recommended Ekonomou to President Bill Clinton for a federal judgeship in Atlanta in 1997. He was predicted to have an easy confirmation, and Ekonomou said then that the position would be a jewel in the crown of his career. But Clinton never nominated Ekonomou, who withdrew his name from consideration after 15 months in limbo. Ekonomou's reported ascension to a more central role on the president's legal legal lineup comes as the team has openly struggled to find attorneys who are willing and able to work for Trump. The president took to Twitter on Sunday to explain the challenges, and insisted, "I am very happy with my existing team." But the changes just keep coming. Attorneys Joseph diGenova and his wife Victoria Toensing appeared to have signed onto Trump's private legal team last week but then cited conflicts preventing them from doing so. The tumult reached a new pitch following the departure of John Dowd, Trump's top lawyer in the Mueller investigation, last week. After Dowd exited, speculation that White House counsel Don McGahn wanted to leave government to return to Jones Day abounded too. Several lawyers and Big Law firms have publicly rejected working for the president. Earlier this week, Winston & Strawn co-chair Dan Webb and D.C.-based partner Tom Buchanan also cited conflicts in publicly rebuffing the president, and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher's Theodore Olson appeared on cable television to explain his decision to avoid the "chaos" swirling around Trump. Ekonomou is no stranger to upheaval himself. Several years ago he and his law partner, Michael Lambros, were at the center of a controversy over their role as specially appointed prosecutors overseeing criminal and civil actions against the owners and operators of businesses accused of allowing illegal gambling on coin-operated machines. The lawyers were hired by several Middle and South Georgia district attorneys who netted millions of dollars in forfeited money and property. The practice came under scrutiny when defense lawyers protested that the lawyers were effectively acting as contingency fee prosecutors, whose forfeitures were incentivized to rake in as much as possible. In 2012 the Georgia Legislature made contingency fee prosecutions illegal, mandating that special prosecutors be paid on an hourly rate instead. But a challenge to the use of civil forfeiture to go after landlords and store managers through civil forfeiture was upheld by the Georgia Supreme Court that year following Ekonomous successful argument before the justices.
Why Khaleda`s jail term should not be enhanced

Staff Reporter :

The High Court (HC) on Wednesday issued a rule asking BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia and the government to explain as to why the Khaleda's jail term in the Zia Orphanage Trust case should not be enhanced?

The HC bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Shahidul Karim passed the order after hearing a revision petition filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) seeking enhancement of Khaleda Zia's jail sentence.

The court said, the rule will be heard along with the appeal petition filed by Khaleda Zia challenging the lower court verdict that convicted and sentenced her to five years imprisonment in this case.

The ACC on Tuesday filed the revision petition with the HC challenging the trial court verdict on Khaleda Zia in this case saying it was an inadequate sentence handed by the lower court.

The commission said in the petition that the five other accused were convicted and sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment.

But the lower court sentenced Khaleda Zia, who is the prime accused in the case, to five years' imprisonment, which is inadequate, the ACC said in the petition.

The commission prayed to the HC to enhance the sentence of Khaleda in the case.

On February 8, Khaleda Zia was jailed for five years in Zia Orphanage case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission in 2008. Judge of the Special Court-5 of Dhaka also sentenced Khaleda Zia's eldest son and BNP Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman, and four others to 10 years' rigorous imprisonment and slapped a fine of Tk 2.10 crore each.

On March 12, the High Court bench comprising Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Shahidul Karim granted bail to BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia for four months in the case. The Anti-Corruption Commission and the government filed two separate appeal petitions against the HC order to stay the bail on the following day.

On March 14, the Supreme Court stayed the High Court order that granted bail to BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia till March 18. The SC also directed both the parties to file leave to appeal petitions by this time.

The both parties filed leave to appeal petitions on March 15 and the SC heard those petitions on March 18. After concluding hearing the SC stayed the bail till May 8.


Rep. Mimi Walters, R-Calif. (Photo: Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

LOS ANGELES  At first glance, Rep. Mimi Walters doesnt seem like the sort of Republican whos about to lose her job.

A former investment banker who climbed the Republican ladder in ritzy Laguna Niguel, Calif., before heading to Washington, D.C., Walters has always felt like a good fit for Californias 45th Congressional District  a conservative-leaning, business-oriented patch of suburban Orange County, itself a traditional GOP stronghold. In 2014, voters there first elected Walters to Congress by 30 percentage points; two years later she won reelection by 17 points, even as Donald Trump lost the district to Hillary Clinton by 5.

Clintons win was unprecedented  no Democratic presidential candidate had ever captured CA-45 before  and thanks to demographic changes and local anti-Trump sentiment, the former secretary of state also flipped the rest of Orange County. Yet while Walterss fellow O.C. Republicans have suddenly found themselves in the hot seat as a result  Reps. Darrell Issa and Ed Royce decided to retire, setting off fierce succession fights, and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher faces several strong Democratic and Republican opponents  Walters has largely flown under the radar, the assumption being that shes the safest of the lot.

But what if the very factors that make Walters seem less vulnerable than her GOP neighbors are same factors that could make her reelection campaign 2018s best bellwether: the race to watch for signs not just of a Democratic win, but of a Democratic wave?

To regain control of the House, Democrats need to net 24 seats. That seems increasingly doable: The party is performing better than Republicans in generic ballot polls  surveys in which people are asked which party they would support in a congressional election  and President Trumps approval rating is historically low. Swings of 24 or more seats arent historically uncommon, either; theyve happened in half the midterm elections since 1994.

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A wave election, however, would be something else: A transcontinental tide more akin to 2010, when the GOPs tea party momentum was so strong that it didnt really matter how solid a particular incumbent was, or how salient some local issue. The Republican Party flipped 63 seats, and the House, and there wasnt much any individual Democrat could do about it.

Which is where Walters comes in.

In three key ways, her reelection fight is typical of 2018 as a whole  and thats why it could be telling.

The first factor is Walters herself. Unlike Issa or Rohrabacher  or any Republican running in a Trump-era special election, over which Democrats have obsessed and in which they have overperformed  Walters has not been the focus of national controversy or the target of national Democratic hostility. Issa was an aggressive antagonist of Barack Obama; Rohrabacher has been called Vladimir Putins favorite congressman. Walters, in contrast, is not a name politician; she is not a left-wing bete noire. She is, instead, a perfectly ordinary, mostly overlooked Republican incumbent, with views that mirror the party consensus. If Walters were to lose in November, it wouldnt be because she is exceptional in some way; the same would be true if she were to win. She is the opposite of an outlier.

Rep. Mimi Walters at a press conference with House Speaker Paul Ryan. (Photo: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

Even Walterss relationship to Trump is typical. Like most of the rest of the Republican Party, she has wagered that it will benefit her more to stick with the president than to strike out against him, despite his many deviations from conservative orthodoxy and decorum.

Initially Walters supported Jeb Bush for president, then Marco Rubio; she only came around to Trump after her preferred candidates tanked. But when Trumps Access Hollywood tape surfaced shortly before the 2016 election, Walters refused to rescind her endorsement, or to comment in any way. And since the start of his administration she has compiled one of the most pro-Trump records in the House, voting in line with the presidents position 98.6 percent of the time, according to FiveThirtyEight  including votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act and pass Trumps tax plan, both decisions that were broadly unpopular in California, where many voters rely on the states version of Obamacare and will lose valuable deductions under the new tax law.

In short, if the 2018 midterms are a referendum on the president, as most midterms are, Walters hasnt given voters inclined to vote against Trump any particular reason to vote for her. Their agendas are identical.

The second typical factor at work in CA-45 is Walterss Democratic opposition. Ever since Conor Lamb, a somewhat moderate 33-year-old Marine and former federal prosecutor, defeated his Republican rival, Rick Saccone, earlier this month in PA-18, a district that Trump won by 20 percentage points, politicos have argued over whether Lamb was a political unicorn  an impossibly perfect one-off candidate whose victory had more to do with his own performance than any underlying trend. The same went for newly minted Sen. Doug Jones, the Democrat who last year defeated accused pedophile Roy Moore in deep-red Alabama. Democrats cant possibly hope to run such idiosyncratically well-suited challengers nationwide, the thinking goes  and therefore they cant possibly hope to keep scoring such big upsets.

This is unlikely to be an issue in Walterss district. There are four Democrats angling to unseat the two-term congresswoman, and none of them are obvious unicorns. Instead, they make up a remarkably representative cross-section of the Democratic Partys class of 2018, which is defined by its abundance of rookie candidates, many of them women and/or minorities, who have decided to run for office in order to resist Trumps agenda. Theres Katie Porter, 43, a Harvard-educated consumer protection attorney and law professor at the University of California, Irvine, who has worked with Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Sen. Kamala Harris. Theres Dave Min, 42, another Harvard-educated UC-Irvine law professor and a former economic aide to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Theres Brian Forde, 37, a former tech adviser in the Obama White House. And theres Kia Hamadanchy, 32, the son of Iranian immigrants and a former adviser to Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown.

Katie Porter, Dave Min, Brian Forde and Kia Hamadanchy, Democratic candidates in CA-45. (Photos: Rachel Murray/Getty Images, davemin.com, forde.com, Thomas McKinless/CQ Roll Call)

Unlike Walters, who was a city councilwoman, mayor, state assemblywoman and state senator before running for Congress, none of her Democratic challengers has ever campaigned for elected office before. None is personally wealthy (like, say, entrepreneur Harley Rouda, who is running to replace Rohrabacher in CA-48). None has been touted as a top Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee recruit (like, say, stem-cell pioneer Hans Keirstead, who is also competing in CA-48). And none has benefited from a surge in out-of-state attention and donations (like, say, prosecutor Andrew Janz, who has become a progressive cause celebre because he is battling controversial Trump loyalist Devin Nunes in CA-22). In terms of experience, fundraising, connections, national interest and raw political talent, each CA-45 challenger is close to the 2018 Democratic mean. They are your quintessential resistance candidates.

Their primary clash has been typical as well. (In Californias nonpartisan primary system, the top two finishers proceed to the general election regardless of whether theyre Democrats, Republicans or independents; with Walters a lock for first, the fight for second place basically amounts to a Democratic primary contest.) No clear frontrunner has emerged, and the two most prominent candidates, Porter and Min, have been staging a small-scale version of the argument dividing the Democratic Party as a whole: Should Dems run as proud progressives and hope the base turns out in 2018? Or should they try to convert disillusioned Trump voters by burnishing their centrist credentials?

Porter has chosen the first path, touting her endorsements from left-wing icons Warren and Harris and pushing for single-payer health care; Min has hewed a little closer to the center, opposing Medicare for All as a tremendous tax increase that wouldnt play well in such a conservative district, according to his campaign manager. (Dave is not the candidate who is furthest to the left, she added.) The race has been very close, with Min just barely clinching the state partys endorsement at last months convention  his slim margin triggered a bitter floor fight  and Porter leading in some recent polls.

Whatever happens in Californias June 5 primary, the surviving Democrat is likely to have survived because his or her campaign was more in tune with the mood of the party. And if a Democrat defeats Walters in November, individual attributes probably wont be the biggest reason, either. Walters has enough advantages  money, incumbency, local political infrastructure  that her Democratic challenger will almost certainly need to ride a national wave to win.

Which brings us to the last typical aspect of the CA-45 contest: the district itself. Even though Clinton won there by more than 5 points  and even though Republicans have an 8-point registration advantage  its partisan lean, according to FiveThirtyEight, is actually tiny: just 1 or 2 percentage points in the GOPs favor. This means that in presidential elections, with presidential-level turnout, the results in CA-45 almost exactly mirror the national results. The district has become a bellwether of sorts.

Rep. Mimi Walters at the Capitol. (Photo: Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

Of course, midterm elections arent presidential elections, and a lot of voters  especially Democratic voters  tend to skip them. But demographics could play a part here as well, as Clare Malone of FiveThirtyEight has also pointed out. CA-45 is much more diverse than it was in Ronald Reagans day, with a population that is 18 percent Latino and 22 percent Asian; its also far more educated than the country at large, with 79.3 percent of residents having completed some college or more, versus 59 percent overall. In 2016, Trump underperformed among white college graduates, and even lost college-educated women to Clinton by 7 percentage points. Combine that weakness with Trumps widespread unpopularity among Latinos and other minorities, and you start to see why CA-45 (and the rest of Orange County) flipped to Clinton: Trump was a particularly bad fit for its evolving electorate.

And so, if any voting groups are going to fuel an anti-Trump tsunami in 2018, its these two: white suburban college grads and minorities. Both have been telling pollsters they disapprove of the presidents job performance in record numbers. Both have been propelling Democrats to victory in special elections. And CA-45 has both in droves, making it a perfect testing ground for the larger proposition.

Is Mimi Walters the most endangered GOP incumbent of 2018? Far from it. But due to the demographics of her district, the nature of her Democratic challengers and her own low-profile, pro-Trump orthodoxy, she may be the most typical  and telling. If youre searching for signs of a Democratic wave, watch Walters. It could start sweeping through her corner of California first.

Read more from Yahoo News:
Damascus (AFP) - The largest convoy yet of evacuated Syrian rebel fighters and civilians began leaving a devastated pocket of Eastern Ghouta overnight, state media said on Tuesday.

One hundred buses carrying 6,749 people -- around a quarter of them fighters -- left a part of the enclave controlled by the Faylaq al-Rahman rebel faction, the SANA state news agency said.

The departure was part of a deal reached last week between the Islamist group and Russia, which is helping its Syrian ally negotiate such deals to clear the last rebels out of Ghouta.

Russian-backed Syrian troops and allied militia have waged a brutal offensive since February 18 in which they have recaptured more than 90 percent of Ghouta, a onetime rebel bastion on the edge of Damascus.

Moscow has negotiated two evacuation deals so far for Ghouta.

One, implemented last week, saw hardline Islamist rebels from Ahrar al-Sham leave the battered town of Harasta in the west of the enclave.

The agreement with Faylaq al-Rahman was announced on Friday and its implementation started the following morning.

Nearly 1,000 people -- including rebels, their relatives and other civilians -- were evacuated on Saturday, followed by 5,435 people on Sunday.

President Bashar al-Assad has used such agreements to recover swathes of territory since the uprising against him began seven years ago this month.
Curitiba (Brazil) (AFP) - Brazil's former leftist leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Wednesday denounced violent protesters during his presidential campaign tour and vowed he'd return to power anyway.

In a day that laid bare the raw divisions in Brazil ahead of October presidential elections, Lula angrily told a crowd of several thousand in the southern city of Curitiba that all along his 10-day bus tour of the region he had been dogged by anti-democratic opponents.

Late Tuesday, his convoy was shot at, he said, with three bullets hitting two buses, although no one was injured. Earlier, people had thrown stones and eggs at his buses and while he was on stage.

"I only know that they're not democrats. They're more fascists and Nazis than anything else," he said.

Even as Lula spoke to his red-shirted supporters, opponents positioned in buildings overlooking the square tried to drown him out by banging pots and letting off fireworks. Large numbers of police stood by, separating the rally from a smaller counter-protest held by a right-wing group.

Lula -- who easily leads in the polls despite fighting to avoid having to serve a 12-year prison sentence for corruption -- was defiant.

"Save your rockets for January 1, when I am sworn in," he said.

Hours earlier, his closest rival, right-wing former army captain Jair Bolsonaro, met nearby with several hundred cheering supporters in Curitiba.

Denouncing Lula as a "scoundrel," Bolsonaro told the crowd: "We can't accept elections without Lula being locked up."

Bolsonaro, who has praised torture and Brazil's two-decade-long military dictatorship, didn't mention Tuesday's shooting incident.

Instead he repeated his campaign promise to loosen gun laws and get tough on crime. "I want a... police that shoots to kill," he said.

However, many other major politicians denounced the apparent attack on Lula.

Center-right President Michel Temer expressed "regret" and said: "We need to reunite Brazilians. We need to pacify the country. This wave of violence, this climate of 'us against them,' cannot continue."

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For 27-year-old university professor Leticia Mreuz, who turned out in Curitiba to hear Lula speak, the harassment during his campaign swing spelled trouble.

"I think Lula is the victim of political persecution. This is a time of fear," she said.

- Divisive Lula -

When Lula left office after two terms at the start of 2011, he was Brazil's most popular president on record, having presided over a commodities-fueled economic boom and winning plaudits for his social policies.

However, he inspires equally passionate opposition and is blamed by the right and many in the center for Brazil's slide into the mammoth "Car Wash" corruption scandal that has shaken the country over the last four years.

Although dozens of other top politicians, including Temer, have also been charged or convicted, right-wing opponents see Lula as the graft scandal's biggest culprit. On the left, Lula is seen as the victim of politicized judges.

On Monday, a court rejected his latest appeal against a 12-year-and-one-month prison sentence for taking a luxury apartment as a bribe.

That left him depending on a Supreme Court decision expected on April 4 if he is to remain free, let alone be allowed on the presidential ballot. Even then, he faces another six corruption cases.

Despite the daunting legal situation, Lula is a runaway favorite in opinion polls, with around 35 percent of voter intentions, followed by Bolsonaro with around 17 percent.

A veteran right-wing congressman, Bolsonaro is running as an anti-politician, often taking a leaf out of US President Donald Trump's book.

He has frequently lauded the dictatorship that ended in 1985, insulted gays and even told a fellow politician she wasn't "worth raping." The more extreme Bolsonaro gets, the more it seems he thrills his supporters.
Curitiba (Brazil) (AFP) - Brazil's fiery leftist former leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his right-wing rival planned dueling presidential campaign rallies Wednesday, hours after Lula's party said shots were fired at his bus convoy.

Lula's 10-day campaign tour through southern Brazil has already been targeted by opponents throwing stones and raw eggs at the buses -- and at the two-term former president while he spoke on stage.

The apparent gunshots late Tuesday further ramped up tension ahead of the tour's culminating rally in the city of Curitiba.

"Our convoy is being targeted by fascist groups," Lula tweeted after bullets allegedly hit two buses. No one was hurt in the incident.

Gleisi Hoffmann, leader of the Workers' Party, which Lula founded, said the incident should be investigated as a possible assassination attempt.

"We hope we will have security, that the national and state police, as well as the intelligence services, do their jobs so that we can rally in a peaceful and democratic way," she told AFP.

Adding to the fevered atmosphere around Lula -- who leads in polls for the October 7 election, despite having been sentenced to 12 years in prison for corruption -- his closest rival was also due to appear in Curitiba on Wednesday.

Jair Bolsonaro, a former army captain who praises Brazil's two-decade-long military dictatorship, was due to arrive in Curitiba by plane, with supporters expected to meet him at the airport.

Bolsonaro taunted Lula, whom he called a "bandit," saying they'd see "who can get the most people out on to the streets without paying them."

Another right-wing group, the Movement for a Free Brazil, was planning its own anti-Lula rally in the city, just a short distance from where Lula and his Workers' Party faithful were due to gather.

- Turbulent week -

The red-shirted Lula is no stranger to political drama, but even by his standards these are tempestuous times.

Story continues

When Lula left office at the start of 2011, he was Brazil's most popular president on record, having presided over a commodities-fueled economic boom and won plaudits for his social policies.

However, he also has high rejection ratings and is blamed by the right and many in the center for Brazil's slide into the mammoth "Car Wash" corruption scandal that has shaken the country over the last four years.

Although dozens of other top politicians, including current center-right President Michel Temer, have also been charged or convicted, right-wing opponents see Lula as the graft scandal's biggest culprit. On the left, Lula is seen as the victim of politicized judges.

On Monday, a court rejected Lula's latest appeal against a conviction that he took a luxury apartment as a bribe.

That leaves him depending on a Supreme Court decision expected on April 4 if he is to avoid being ordered to start his 12-year prison sentence, let alone run for president.

Even then, he faces another six corruption cases.

Despite the daunting legal situation, Lula is a runaway favorite in opinion polls, with around 35 percent of voter intentions, followed by Bolsonaro with around 17 percent.

A veteran right-wing congressman, Bolsonaro is running as an anti-politician, often taking a leaf out of US President Donald Trump's book.

He has praised torture under Brazil's military dictatorship, insulted gays and even told a fellow politician she wasn't "worth raping."

The more extreme Bolsonaro gets, the more it seems he thrills his angry supporters.

Analysts say Brazil should brace for the worst tempered, most unpredictable election since the end of the dictatorship in 1985.

"If the official campaign hasn't even begun and we're already at the stage of throwing eggs and stones, the risk is that the election will get out of control," wrote Eliane Cantanhede, a columnist with the Estado de S.Paulo newspaper, before the shooting report.
LONDON (Reuters) - Irish officials have been told to expect new proposals imminently from Britain on how it plans to avoid a post-Brexit hard border, The Times newspaper reported on Wednesday, citing unidentified sources. Irish officials were promised concrete details on what alternative plans the British government has beyond the so-called backstop plan that, if implemented, could effectively isolate the Northern Ireland economy from mainland Britain. Both Britain and the European Union say they do not want to go back to border checks between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. (Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; editing by Kate Holton)
By Elizabeth Piper LONDON (Reuters) - British opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn's path to the prime minister's residence at 10 Downing Street is not proving as smooth as the veteran socialist had hoped. In June, with membership of his Labour Party on the rise, Prime Minister Theresa May bogged down in Brexit talks and her Conservative Party in chaos after an ill-judged snap election, Corbyn said he could be in office by Christmas. Since then, May's team has gained confidence thanks to a breakthrough in talks to leave the European Union and broad international support for her tough stance against Moscow over a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in Britain. By contrast, the uneasy truce struck when May was on the ropes between Corbyn's left-wing supporters and centrist Labour lawmakers at odds with his Socialist beliefs has broken. In the space of a few weeks, rows over Russia, Europe and anti-Semitism, three divisive issues that have dogged Corbyn throughout his long career on the left of British politics, have erupted within Labour. First, the 68-year-old veteran peace campaigner came under fire from some Labour lawmakers for not standing shoulder-to-shoulder with May in blaming Russia directly for the poisoning - instead saying Moscow's culpability needed to be proven before rushing into a new Cold War. Last week, Corbyn, instinctively wary of the EU which many leftists see as a capitalist club, was criticized by some prominent Labour lawmakers for sacking Owen Smith, a member of the party's "shadow cabinet", which mirrors the government. Smith had said there should be a second referendum on leaving the European Union as Brexit would damage the economy and could threaten peace in Northern Ireland. This week, British Jewish groups protested against Corbyn outside parliament accusing the Labour leader, a vocal supporter of Palestinian rights and critic of Israel, of failing to tackle anti-Semitism within Labour ranks. "The question which is most alarming is the question of the Jewish protest against the Labour Party," Labour activist and Brexit campaigner Brendan Chilton told Reuters. "This is a big issue because if the Labour Party can't be seen to be standing up for minority groups ... then you really have to ask what the Labour Party is for." IN CONTROL Corbyn's supporters and even many of his critics do not believe the latest attacks spell the end of his term at the helm of Labour, a party he long criticized from within but few expected him to ever lead. One source close to Corbyn said there was no reason for him to change his stance on Brexit or broader foreign policy issues. "Why would there be?" the source said on condition of anonymity. "This isn't a threat to Jeremy's leadership." Corbyn was unexpectedly elected leader in 2015, riding a wave of enthusiasm for change that has spread across Europe with voters flocking to anti-establishment movements that have emerged since the 2008 global financial crisis. Since then, Corbyn has cemented his control over the party's structures, able to entrench his move to the left after leading Labour to a surprising success in June's snap election by depriving May's Conservatives of a parliamentary majority. His anti-austerity agenda, with pledges to plow money into Britain's stretched health service, schools, universities and social housing, struck a chord with voters jaded with the Conservative Party's rows over Brexit. "The left of the party is in the ascendancy still, I don't think it has peaked," said Chilton. "In that respect, Jeremy Corbyn and the leadership's command ... is still very much intact. It might be dented but it is still intact." Corbyn's team have long said centrists within the party, many of whose beliefs date back to when Labour was in power for more than a decade under Tony Blair, will seize on any opportunity to turn on their leader. But the criticism of his stance over Russia and accusations of turning a blind eye to anti-Semitism have gone deeper than any previous attacks - trumping even the long-running debate within Labour over Britain's departure from the EU. Corbyn may have to come down on Labour members whose support for Palestinians can translate into anti-Jewish comments. He might even face pressure to expel some long-standing supporters such as former London mayor Ken Livingstone. But Corbyn is unlikely to shift his position dramatically on Brexit, sources said. One source close to his team of top policy advisers said Corbyn spends little time thinking about Brexit and had only agreed to move towards supporting a softer Brexit last month when aides convinced him it would "fit with his world view". Corbyn's position on Russia over the nerve agent attack, however, has shifted. "We can therefore draw no other conclusion ... than Russia has a direct or indirect responsibility," he said on Monday, as countries such as the United States, Germany and France expelled Russian diplomats in response to the poisoning. His earlier prevarication over blaming Moscow has nevertheless spurred Conservative lawmakers to increase their criticism of a leader they say has, in the past, been too close to overseas organizations such as Palestinian group Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah. Corbyn says he now regrets describing members of those groups as friends. Hamas and the military wing of Hezbollah are both designated as terrorist organizations by Britain. And some Conservatives now see a chink in his armor. "The historic fears the electorate have been warned about regarding Corbyn's fitness for high office are now being brought by current events into sharp focus," said Conservative lawmaker Andrew Bridgen. (Reporting by Elizabeth Piper; editing by David Clarke)
London (Reuters) - Britain's foreign minister, Boris Johnson, said on Wednesday Russia had underestimated the international response to the nerve agent attack on a Russian spy in England which London blames on Moscow. Johnson told an audience of ambassadors in London that 27 countries had now moved to expel Russian diplomats over Moscow's suspected involvement - which Russia denies. "These expulsions represent a moment when a feeling has suddenly crystallized, when years of vexation and provocation have worn the collective patience to breaking point, and when across the world  across three continents  there are countries who are willing to say enough is enough," Johnson said. "If they (Russia) believed that we had become so morally weakened, so dependent on hydrocarbons, so chronically risk averse and so fearful of Russia that we would not dare to respond, then this is their answer," he added. Russia denies any involvement in the attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter, who have been in a critical condition in hospital since they were found unconscious on March 4 on a bench in the southern English city of Salisbury. (Reporting by Andrew MacAskill; Writing by Andrew Heavens; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
By William James LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May called on Tuesday for a "long-term response" by the West to the security threat from Russia as NATO followed member states in expelling Russian diplomats over the poisoning of a double agent in England. In the most sweeping such action against Moscow since the height of the Cold War, the United States and European Union members plan to expel scores of Russian diplomats in action against the Kremlin for the nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter which they have blamed on Russia. Russia, which denies any part in the March 4 attack on the Skripals, says the West's action is a "provocative gesture" and has said it will respond. The coordinated action among Western allies is seen as a huge diplomatic coup for May whose country is preparing to exit the EU bloc and may have had doubts about how much support she could count on. Speaking to senior cabinet members in London on Tuesday, May said countries had acted against Russia not just out of solidarity but because they recognized the threat it posed. "Yesterday was a significant moment in our response to this reckless act of aggression, but there is still more to be done as we work with international partners on a long-term response to the challenge posed by Russia," her spokesman reported May as saying. The U.S.-led NATO alliance followed suit announcing on Tuesday it was expelling seven diplomats from Russia's mission at alliance headquarters in Brussels and blocking the appointment of three others, thus cutting the size of the mission to 20 people from 30. "It sends a very clear message to Russia that it has costs," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said. EU member Ireland and Moldova on Tuesday joined the list of those countries expelling Russian diplomats over the Skripal poisoning. The list includes 22 European countries including Britain itself which led the way by expelling 23 diplomats. EXPULSIONS In the toughest action that President Donald Trump has taken against Russia since coming to office, the United States has said it will expel 60 Russians, including 12 intelligence officers from Russia's mission to the U.N. headquarters in New York. It is also closing the Russian consulate in Seattle. Trump discussed Russia in separate phone calls on Tuesday with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The leaders endorsed the Western response to Russia's chemical weapons attack in Britain, including the expulsion of Russian diplomatic personnel, the White House said. U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis hailed the diplomatic expulsions as a statement to those who doubted the unity of NATO. "Russia has the potential to be a partner with Europe ... (but) I think right now we have to recognize that they have chosen to seek a different relationship with the NATO nations," he told reporters. In Prague, Paul Ryan, the Republican U.S. House Speaker, on Tuesday commended unity shown over the affair. "It is important that we work in solidarity with each other, free people in democracies to stop Russia and condemn Russia for this kind of belligerent activity," Ryan said. Russia has not disclosed yet what retaliatory steps it will take. President Vladimir Putin was on Tuesday in the Siberian city of Kemerovo at the scene of a shopping mall fire which claimed many lives. He made no comment on the Skripal affair. Skripal's poisoning, which Britain says was caused by use of the Soviet-era military-grade nerve agent Novichok, is the first known offensive use of a nerve toxin in Europe since World War Two. The attack on the 66-year-old Skripal and Yulia Skripal, his 33-year-old daughter, took place in the English cathedral city of Salisbury where he had been living since being swapped in a spy exchange deal in 2010. They were found on March 4 unconscious on a public bench in the city and a British court says they may have suffered permanent brain damage in the attack. The Kremlin has accused Britain of whipping up an anti-Russia campaign and sought to cast doubt on the British analysis that Moscow was responsible. (Additional reporting by Idrees Ali, Phil Stewart and David Alexander in Washington, Robin Emmott in Brussels and Padraic Halpin in Dublin, Matthias Williams and Natalia Zinets in Kiev; Writing By Richard Balmforth; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
By Estelle Shirbon LONDON (Reuters) - British Jewish groups held a street protest outside parliament on Monday against opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, accusing him of failing to tackle anti-Semitism in party ranks because of a far-left world view hostile to Jews. Since unexpectedly becoming Labour leader in 2015 after decades spent on the left-wing fringes of the party, Corbyn has repeatedly faced accusations of turning a blind eye to anti-Semitic comments in the party and among groups he supports. "He is repeatedly found alongside people with blatantly anti-Semitic views, but claims never to hear or read them. Again and again, Jeremy Corbyn has sided with anti-Semites rather than Jews," the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council said in an open letter late on Sunday. Around a couple of thousand protesters packed out the green opposite parliament, carrying signs and singing, according to a Reuters photographer at the event. One of the placards read "For the many, not the Jew" - a play on Labour's "For the many, not the few" campaign slogan. Corbyn responded on Monday with an open letter to both groups in which he recognized that anti-Semitism had surfaced within his party, apologized for the pain this had caused, and pledged to redouble his efforts to stamp it out. He offered to meet both groups' leaders urgently to discuss their concerns. The issue had flared up again last week after it came to light that in 2012 Corbyn questioned a decision by London local authorities to remove a street mural depicting men in suits with big noses playing Monopoly on the backs of naked people. "The idea of Jewish bankers and capitalists exploiting the workers of the world is an old anti-Semitic conspiracy theory," Corbyn wrote in his open letter on Monday. "I am sorry for not having studied the content of the mural more closely before wrongly questioning its removal in 2012." Several Labour members of parliament said they would join the protest on Monday, exposing internal divisions within Labour that had been papered over after Corbyn led the party to a stronger-than-expected showing in a general election last June. "While Jeremy is not himself anti-Semitic, he has allowed himself to become the poster boy of anti-Semites everywhere," said veteran Labour lawmaker Margaret Hodge, the daughter of Jewish refugees from Germany and Austria, in a statement. In their open letter, the Jewish groups denounced what they described as the far left's "obsessive hatred of Zionism, Zionists and Israel" and gave examples of how that often translated into overtly anti-Semitic language. They said Corbyn's "empty statements" condemning anti-Semitism had got nowhere near dealing with the problem. In his response, Corbyn, a vocal supporter of Palestinian rights and critic of Israel for several decades, acknowledged that anti-Semitism had sometimes been woven into criticism of Israel. "Comparing Israel or the actions of Israeli governments to the Nazis, attributing criticisms of Israel to Jewish characteristics or to Jewish people in general and using abusive phraseology about supporters of Israel such as 'Zio' all constitute aspects of contemporary anti-Semitism," he wrote. (Reporting by Estelle Shirbon and Henry Nicholls, additional reporting by Andy Bruce; Editing by Richard Balmforth and Catherine Evans)
London (AFP) - British Prime Minister Theresa May will mark the one-year countdown to Brexit on Thursday with a fast-paced national tour, aiming to unite the UK's four nations.

She will take in Scotland, England, Northern Ireland and Wales during her day-long tour, aiming to rally support ahead of Britain's EU departure on 29 March, 2019.

"Today, one year until the UK leaves the EU and begins to chart a new course in the world, I am visiting all four nations of the Union to hear from people across our country what Brexit means to them," May said ahead of her trip.

After visiting a textile factory in Ayrshire, western Scotland, May will travel to Newcastle in north-east England to meet a parent and toddler group.

Northern Ireland will be her next stop, for lunch with farmers near Belfast before a meeting with Welsh business owners in Barry, returning to London in time for tea with a group of Polish people.

"I am determined that as we leave the EU, and in the years ahead, we will strengthen the bonds that unite us," May said.

While Britain overall voted by 52 percent to leave the European Union, pro-Brexit voters in England and Wales outnumbered those in Scotland and Northern Ireland who wanted to remain in the bloc.

There have been tensions between the devolved governments and London over May's handling of the Brexit negotiations so far, with Scotland and Wales last week backing bills to ensure that powers brought back from Brussels go to their capitals"

But ahead of her tour, May vowed that the devolved administrations "will see an increase in their decision-making powers" as a result of Brexit.

A further point of contention has arisen over the future of the Irish border after Britain leaves the European single market and customs union, with all sides in Brexit talks wanting to avoid imposing checks at the frontier.

May has agreed to Brussels' plan to keep Northern Ireland in the customs union if no better solution is found -- a proposition deemed unacceptable by the nation's DUP party which props up the prime minister's majority in parliament.

May said she has a responsibility to ensure "no new barriers are created within our common domestic market", although the prime minister stopped short of detailing how the government will resolve the border issue.
SC asks BGMEA to modify undertaking

Staff Reporter :

The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday deferred till Monday for passing its order on a petition filed by Bangladesh Garments Manufacturing Export Association (BGMEA) seeking one year more time to relocate their multi-storied building constructed illegally at Begunbari and Hatirjheel Lake in Dhaka.

The apex court ordered the BGMEA to modify its undertaking and submit it to the court on April 2 next specifying who will be liable if the BGMEA building is not relocated in the next one year.

Earlier in the day, the BGMEA submitted an undertaking to the apex court saying that it will not seek extension of time if it gets one more year to relocate the building. It also said, BGMEA's current Board of Directors will remain liable if the building is not relocated by this time.

The four-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain returned the undertaking to the BGMEA saying that the current Board of Directors of BGMEA may not remain in the office after one year. The BGMEA will remain liable if the order is not complied with, the court said.

The top court also asked the BGMEA to modify the undertaking saying that BGMEA must comply with the Supreme Court order that directed it to relocate the illegal building, Advocate Manzill Murshid, an amicus curiae (friend of court) of this case, told the journalists.

Advocate Quamrul Haque Siddiqui appeared for BGMEA.

Expressing serious discontent over its repeated pleas for time extension, the apex court on Tuesday asked BGMEA to submit an undertaking within Wednesday to get a further one-year extension of the deadline for relocating its building.

Earlier on June 2, 2016, the SC upheld a 2011 High Court verdict that ordered demolition of the BGMEA building.

The HC ordered the BGMEA authorities to demolish the building within three months, saying it was built on a land acquired through forgery, and that a part of the Begunbari canal was illegally filled with earth for constructing it.

On March 5 in 2018, the leaders of the BGMEA appealed for the third time with the SC to extend more time to relocate the building. The Appellate Division on Sunday heard that prayer and fixed Tuesday to pass order on it. But on Tuesday the SC asked the BGMEA to submit an undertaking. The BGMEA submitted it but the SC asked them to modify the undertaking.

On April 3 in 2011, the HC bench of Justice A H M Shamsuddin Chowdhury and Justice Sheikh Md Zakir Hossain declared construction of the BGMEA building illegal.

The HC released the full text of its verdict on March 19 in 2013. The BGMEA authorities filed leave to appeal petition on May 21 in 2013. After hearing, a four-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by the then Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha rejected the appeal petition filed by the BGMEA on June 2, 2016.

On December, 2016, President of the BGMEA filed a petition seeking review of the Supreme Court judgment. The Supreme Court on March 5, 2017 dismissed the petition seeking review of its judgment that upheld the High Court verdict for demolishing the BGMEA complex.

A three-member bench of the Appellate Division of the SC headed by the then Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha passed the order after two days' hearing.

Then the SC asked the BGMEA authorities to submit a petition seeking time to relocate the building. Following this SC order, BGMEA filed an application with the SC seeking three years time.

After hearing the petition, the SC on March 12 in 2017 granted six months time to the BGMEA. The time limit expired on September 12 in 2017.

The SC extended this time on October 8 in 2017 for another seven months after hearing a petition filed on August 23 in 2017.

Then the apex court said that it was the last chance for BGMEA. The court will not extend the deadline for relocating the BGMEA building after six months.

A five-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by the then Acting Chief Justice Md Abdul Wahhab Miah passed the order.

This time limit will expire on April 12 in 2018. Meanwhile, the BGMEA authorities filed another time-prayer to the SC seeking one year more time on March 5 in 2018. Hearing on that prayer is now continuing.

The SC said in its full verdict that although both--- site clearance certificate and environment clearance certificates--- were required for the commercial building, the "petitioner failed/did not care to obtain" those.

No commercial establishment can be set up without the environment clearance from the Department of Environment as stated in Section 12 of the Environment Conservation Act 1995 and Rule 7(4) of the Environment Conservation Rules 1997, it said.

Since the water bodies "never belonged to the petitioner, at any point of time", the construction violates "Section 5 of the "Joladhar Ain, 2000" as well as Sections "6(Uma)" and 12 of the Environment Conservation Act 1995", it observed.

It said the two natural water bodies, mentioned in Dhaka Metropolitan Development Plan, Vol-II (urban area plan of 1995-2005), drain one-third of Dhaka city's storm and waste water and retain some rainwater for recreational opportunities.

Any commercial building changing the water bodies' nature and character in violation of "Joladhar Ain, 2000" is unlawful and violates Environment Conservation Act 1995, it said. Also, the Export Promotion Bureau has no right to allot the property, it added.

The construction violates "section 3 of the Building Construction Act 1952" other rules under it, reads the verdict.

Moreover, the HC order was "well reasoned and based on proper appreciation of facts and circumstances as well as the law", it said.
California has sued the Trump administration over its decision to ask about citizenship status on the 2020 census, warning it would cut into California's political clout by diminishing responses by immigrants.

It is not merely an academic question. Because the census count is used for critical political decisions like apportionment of Congressional seats and allocation of federal dollars, the move to ask about citizenship has proved deeply contentious and generated significant pushback.

In the latest of a barrage of legal challenges against the administration, California attorney general Xavier Becerra said the change to ask respondents about their legal status would skew the data, disproportionately depriving California of representation and resources given its large foreign-born population.

Undercounting the sizeable number of California non-citizens and their citizen relatives will imperil the States fair share of congressional seats and Electoral College electors and will cost the State billions of dollars in federal funding over the next decade, a complaint filed by Mr Becerra said.

Echoing that critique, Senator Barbara Feinstein said a question designed to depress participation in certain communities is an assault on the foundations of this country.

Asked about the change, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders inaccurately told reporters that the citizenship question had been included on every census but one in recent decades and said the data would help the government comply with the Voting Rights Act.

Given President Trumps toxic rhetoric and aggressive policies toward immigrants, its clear his administration wants to include this question to discourage participation in immigrant communities, Ms Feinstein said in a statement. Individuals living in mixed-status households may be afraid to participate, fearing their responses would be used to target them or their families.

Story continues

The Department of Justice, led by immigration hardliner Jeff Sessions, asked the Census Bureau last year to reinstate a citizenship status question that has not been put to respondents since 1950.

In a memorandum explaining the decision to reintroduce the question, commerce secretary Wilbur Ross said asking about citizenship would bolster the governments ability to enforce voting laws and said there was insufficient evidence that it would curb response rates.

I find that the need for accurate citizenship data and the limited burden that the reinstatement of the citizenship question would impose outweigh fears about a potentially lower response rate, Mr Ross said.

A Commerce Department spokesman declined to comment on the California lawsuit's specifics but said in a statement that this case is without merit.

We look forward to prevailing in court and continuing to work with the Census Bureau to conduct a complete and accurate 2020 census, the spokesman said.
This article originally appeared on Just Security.

On March 17, the Observer of London and New York Times broke the story of Cambridge Analyticas use of private information from the Facebook profiles of more than 50 million users without their permission. The more information that comes out about Cambridge Analytica, the more suspect the companys methods appear. But those methods appear to have gone far beyond suspect and all the way to illegal when it comes to the laws governing the financing of our elections. That is why Common Cause today filed complaints with the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging violations of U.S. campaign finance law that the companys own lawyer warned them about.

The New York Times reported, based on documents reviewed and former employees interviewed, that Cambridge Analytica was effectively a shell and any contracts for U.S. election work won by Cambridge Analytica were serviced by a London-based firm called SCL Group. These documents and former employees made clear that such work was overseen by Alexander Nix, a British citizen who was the chief executive of Cambridge Analytica (suspended last week) and also a director of SCL Group. Most of SCL Groups employees and contractors were Canadian, like now-famous whistleblower Christopher Wylie, or European.

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Cambridge Analytica HQ

REUTERS/Henry Nicholls

U.S. federal campaign finance law prohibits any foreign national from directly or indirectly making a contribution, donation, expenditure, independent expenditure, or disbursement for an electioneering communication in connection with any U.S. election. 52 U.S.C.  30121(a)(1).

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For decades, the FEC has interpreted the directly or indirectly language in this statutory ban broadly to include participation by foreign nationals in decisions involving election-related activities. Specifically, FEC regulation provides that a foreign national shall not directly or indirectly participate in the decision-making process of any political committee with regard to the committees election-related activities, such as decisions concerning the making of expenditures or disbursements in connection with U.S. elections. 11 C.F.R.  110.20(i).

Back in the early 1980s, the FEC issued advisory opinions permitting two corporations formed in Delaware, but wholly owned by foreign national individuals and corporations, to establish political committees (i.e., corporate PACs)on the basis of a representation by the corporations that those who would exercise decision-making authority for the PACs activities would not be foreign nationals. FEC Ad. Ops. 1980-100 and 1982-10.

And in 1989, the FEC codified these advisory opinions into its regulations, to clarify that foreign nationals may not participate in the election-related activities of others, including decisions regarding contributions or expenditures by political committees, corporations, labor organizations or other persons.

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In 2002, the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act expanded the statutory foreign national ban in several ways and left intact the FECs longstanding interpretation that the ban prohibits foreign nationals from participating in decision-making regarding contributions and expenditures.

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REUTERS/Robert Galbraith

And in 2004, the FEC told a member of Congress via an advisory opinion that his foreign national fiancee was prohibited from participating in the congressmans decisions regarding his campaign activities and that his fiancee must also refrain from managing or participating in the decisions of the congressmans political committees. FEC Ad. Op. 2004-26.

Cambridge Analytica and its executives knew all of thisthey knew that their foreign national staff could not participate in decision-making regarding political expenditures by the U.S. clientsbecause their lawyer explained it all to them in a 2014 memo. In the memo, obtained and published last week by NBC News, Cambridge Analyticas lawyer, Mr. Laurence Levy, made clear that Alexander Nix would have to be recused from substantive management of any clients engaged in U.S. elections activities. Mr. Levy further advised Cambridge Analytica to ensure that only US citizens are making decisions about US election activity, managing the work and decision making functions, relative to campaign messaging and expenditures, and doing the final analysis and conveyance data to U.S. clients.

Reporting by NBC News and other outlets over the past week make clear that Cambridge Analytica ignored its lawyers advice. Former Canadian employee Christopher Wylie told NBC News that many foreign nationals worked on the campaigns in 2014, and many were embedded in the campaigns around the U.S. It was not just me, he said. Like 20 other people were. We had Canadians, British, Eastern Europeans, Lithuanians, Germans, Romanians, Greeks. We werent just working on messaging. We were instructing campaigns on which messages go where and to who. A second former senior Cambridge Analytica staffer corroborated Wylies statement.

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Similarly, the Washington Post reported that two former Cambridge Analytica workers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of fear that they may have violated U.S. law in their campaign work, said concerns about the legality of Cambridge Analyticas work in the United States were a regular subject of employee conversations at the company, especially after the 2014 vote. And Cambridge Analyticas employment of foreign nationals to work for U.S. political committees seemingly continued through the 2016 U.S. elections.

The Washington Post also previewed a likely defense argument from the Cruz and Trump campaigns: that the foreign nationals were managed by U.S. nationals. But this wouldnt prevent violations. Cambridge Analyticas own lawyer concluded his legal memo with the admonition: Remember, it is the ability to influence the expenditure of campaign dollars, at the federal, state or local level that is prohibited. A foreign national need not be the final decision-maker in order to violate the ban on participating in the decision-making.

Legal liability isnt limited to the foreign nationals who worked on U.S. campaigns. As Common Cause explains in its DOJ complaint, U.S. nationals running Cambridge Analytica and its political committee clients may have aided and abetted foreign nationals in violating U.S. laws, and may be liable for conspiracy or attempted conspiracy to violate U.S. lawsall of which are crimes under U.S. law.

As a federal court stated in a 2011 decision upholding the foreign national prohibition statute and regulationa decision affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court: It is fundamental to the definition of our national political community that foreign citizens do not have a constitutional right to participate in, and thus may be excluded from, activities of democratic self-government.

Common Cause is committed to holding Cambridge Analytica accountable for its violation of U.S. law. So weve filed complaints alleging that foreign national staff of Cambridge Analytica and SCL Group illegally participated in the decision-making of U.S. political committees regarding expenditures for political advertising, research, data analytics, polling, focus groups, message development and more. Now its time for the DOJ and FEC to do their jobs and investigate.

The violations seem fairly clear cut, the reporting by news outlets has been thorough and the job of investigators should be aided by it. But if these alleged violations are verified then the penalties must be sufficient to ensure these laws are not routinely violated by scofflaws who would see small fines as simply the cost of doing business. The integrity of our elections is at stake.

Paul Seamus Ryan, Vice President of Policy & Litigation at Common Cause Follow him on Twitter (@ThePaulSRyan).

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from Newsweek
By Kevin Dougherty QUEBEC CITY (Reuters) - A former Canadian university student has pleaded guilty to killing six men who were praying in a Quebec City mosque in January 2017, a court said on Wednesday, averting a trial in one of the countrys rare mass shootings. Alexandre Bissonnette, 28, handcuffed and wearing leg irons as he entered the Quebec City courtroom, had asked on Monday to change his previous plea of not guilty. Quebec Superior Court Justice Francois Huot accepted the new plea on Wednesday after taking steps to ensure Bissonnette understood the consequences of professing his guilt. Speaking to the courtroom, which included members of the mosque, the Centre Culturel Islamique de Quebec, Bissonnette asked the victims' families for forgiveness and said he decided to plead guilty to spare them the hardship of a trial. I would like to ask forgiveness for all that I have done," he said. If at least by pleading guilty I can do a little good in all this, that would be something." Bissonnette did not explain why he had targeted the mosque but said he had held "suicidal thoughts" and an "obsession" with death. I am not a terrorist, nor an Islamophobe," he said. The judge declared him guilty on six counts of first-degree murder and six counts of attempted murder. Congregants gathered at the courthouse said they were relieved to avoid a lengthy trial, but that it would be difficult for families to forgive Bissonnette. Our people are still in a state of shock. The sentence has to be pronounced. A lot of things have to happen, outgoing mosque president Mohamed Labadi told reporters. There is still a deep sadness, even though he has admitted his guilt. The slightly built, dark-haired Bissonnette looked down and at times wiped away tears as the judge read out the names of the mosque shooting victims. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau initially described the shooting as a terrorist attack, although prosecutors did not charge Bissonnette with terrorism. Police have described him as a lone wolf attacker. Mass shootings are rare in Canada, where gun control laws are stricter than in the United States. Sentencing arguments begin on April 10. Bissonnette faces at least 25 years in prison, and could receive concurrent sentences totaling more than 100 years. (Reporting by Kevin Dougherty in Quebec City. Writing by Allison Lampert in Montreal; Editing by David Gregorio and Tom Brown)
Quebec City (AFP) - A Canadian man known for his far-right, nationalist sympathies pleaded guilty Wednesday to the killing last year of six worshippers at a Quebec mosque -- a surprising turn of events in a case that shocked the nation.

The rampage on January 29, 2017, which also left more than 30 injured, was one of the worst attacks on an Islamic place of worship in the West.

Described in the immediate aftermath by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as a "terrorist attack," the shooting spree was a brutal blow to Canada's multicultural society, and to a nation that welcomes tens of thousands of refugees each year.

Alexandre Bissonnette, 28, opened fire on a cold, snowy night at the end of Sunday prayers at Quebec City's Islamic Cultural Center, a mosque located in a normally quiet neighborhood.

He had initially pleaded not guilty at the start of the trial on Monday on the advice of his lawyers, but apparently had a change of heart.

"I've decided to plead guilty to all of the charges ... in order to prevent the families of the victims from having to relive" the horrors of the attack, said Bissonnette, who also faced six counts of attempted murder.

Sobs erupted in the courtroom as Judge Francois Huot accepted Bissonnette's guilty plea, following a court-ordered psychiatric assessment.

"I find you guilty of these murders," he said.

Bissonnette, who was a university student at the time of the shooting, could now face a life sentence, or a minimum of 25 years in prison.

In court, Bissonnette -- who police say called an emergency line and confessed shortly after the shooting, sobbing over the phone -- read aloud from a crumpled piece of paper, saying: "I bitterly regret what I did, the lives that I destroyed.

"I am neither a terrorist, nor an Islamophobe," he said.

"I do not know why I did a foolish thing like that, and still today I'm having a hard time believing it."

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- 'Unforgivable' -

Introverted and educated, Bissonnette had been described after his arrest as a white supremacist opposed to Muslim immigration, but not affiliated with any group.

He told the court on Wednesday how he had been "swept away by fear and by horrible despair that had brought on thoughts of suicide."

Turning to the families and friends of the victims and survivors packed into the courtroom, he offered an apology but added, "I know my actions are unforgivable."

The six victims -- Ibrahima Barry, Mamadou Tanou Barry, Khaled Belkacemi, Abdelkrim Hassane, Azzeddine Soufiane and Aboubaker Thabti -- were Canadian dual nationals born in Algeria (two), Guinea (two), Morocco and Tunisia, and who had long ago resettled in Quebec.

They were a scholar, a butcher, a daycare operator, a food industry worker, a public servant and a computer programmer -- all connected by faith.

The president of the mosque, Boufeldja Benabdallah, expressed relief.

"We are satisfied with the verdict," he said outside the courtroom.

"The evil is done," he added. "It will be up to the families to decide whether to forgive him."

The attack at once prompted marches of solidarity with the Muslim community, but also emboldened nationalist and right-wing extremists who became more vocal against immigration and "radical Islam," despite distancing themselves from the young attacker seemingly inspired by their rhetoric.
Edinburgh (AFP) - Former Catalan minister Clara Ponsati, who is wanted by Spain for her role in last year's independence bid, surrendered to Scottish police Wednesday to face arrest under a European warrant.

Ponsati was later released after being granted bail, but was ordered to surrender her passport during a preliminary extradition hearing at a packed Edinburgh Sheriff Court, pending a full hearing.

Lawyers for Ponsati, a professor at the University of St Andrews, said they will "robustly" reject charges of violent rebellion and misappropriation of public funds for helping to organise last year's independence referendum in Catalonia, which the government in Madrid deemed illegal.

Supporters outside the court when she was released waved Catalan separatist flags and help up a banner reading: "We are with you".

She has received support from members of the Scottish National Party (SNP), which runs the devolved government in Edinburgh, which has condemned arrest warrants issued for the Catalan politicians.

However, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has insisted she cannot intervene in an independent legal extradition process.

- 'True friend' -

An online campaign to raise funds for Ponsati's extradition battle was launched earlier on Wednesday, and within three hours had raised more than 90,000 (102,000 euros, $127,000).

"My legal team is instructed to robustly defend Clara as she views these charges as 'political persecution' and a systematic attempt to crush the spirit of the Catalan people and their desire for freedom," her lawyer Aamer Anwar said in a statement.

"She does not believe that the Spanish courts can guarantee independence, human rights or justice. Clara remains defiant, resolute and is determined to fight back."

On her behalf, he thanked the staff at the university, the "many hundreds of thousands of ordinary people" who had backed her, as well as Sturgeon and the Scottish government.

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"Scotland has been a true friend to Catalonia in her darkest hours," the lawyer said.

"However, it is absolutely right that the independence of the judiciary in Scotland is respected and that no government should ever interfere in that process. Clara accepts her fate now lies in the hands of the Scottish justice system."

A Spanish judge last week issued international and European arrest warrants for Ponsati and other separatist leaders, including former regional president Carles Puigdemont.

Puigdemont was arrested by German police on Sunday.

Spain's Supreme Court said it would prosecute 13 key separatists including Puigdemont and Ponsati for "rebellion", a crime which carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in jail.

Ponsati was a minister in the Catalan government when it declared independence from the rest of Spain following a referendum in October.

She fled later that month with Puigdemont and three other former ministers to Brussels, after Spain dismissed the Catalan executive and imposed direct rule.

Ponsati then returned to the University of St Andrews, northeast of Edinburgh, where she had formerly worked and is a professor in the school of economics and finance.
Tiangong-1, or Heavenly Palace-1, space lab module in orbit - REX/Shutterstock

An out-of-control Chinese space station moving at 17,000mph is set to plummet to Earth over the Easter weekend, leaving space experts scrambling to guess where.

Tiangong-1, or "The Heavenly Palace," could re-enter the atmosphere over a major city and scientists will not know until a few hours before it happens.

China's first space station, which weighs eight tonnes, was supposed to have a "controlled re-entry" splashing down in the Pacific Ocean thousands of miles from civilisation.

But in March 2016 communication with it was lost and Chinese scientists were no longer able to fire up its engines.

It has since been orbiting in an ever-descending death spiral. On Tuesday it was at an altitude of 130 miles and falling faster than ever before.

The space station was expected to re-enter the atmosphere between March 31 and April 4.

Potential crash area for the 8 tonne space module Tiangong-1

China claimed it would burn up on re-entry but space experts said, for an object of that size, between 10 per cent and 40 per cent of it could survive the fireball, with pieces reaching land or the ocean.

A spokesman for the European Space Agency said: "It can be surmised that Tiangong-1 will break up during its atmospheric re-entry, and that some parts will survive the process and reach the surface of Earth."

The station went into orbit in September 2011 and was designed for testing technologies related to docking in orbit.

China has released little information apart from its altitude and without more details of its design European scientists and Nasa have had little information on which to base their predictions for the landing area.

The spacecraft is due to come down to Earth over Easter weekend Credit: CMSE

Advancing China's space programme is a priority for President Xi Jinping, who has called for Beijing to become a global space power with both advanced civilian space flight and capabilities that strengthen national security.

Tiangong-1 was originally planned to be decommissioned in 2013 but China has repeatedly extended the length of its mission.

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It is currently tumbling over about once every three minutes as it orbits the Earth 16 times a day.

Some experts played down the risk of being hit.

The time frame of the spacecraft is "highly variable" Credit: Xinhua/Wang Sijiang

They advised those who were concerned not to change their daily behaviour, and to worry more about crossing the street than looking to the sky to see if they were about to be struck by space debris.

Stijn Lemmens, an ESA space debris expert based in Germany, said: "Over the past 60 years of space flight, we are nearing the mark of 6,000 uncontrolled re-entries of large objects, mostly satellites and upper rocket stages.

"Only one event actually produced a fragment which hit a person, and it did not result in injury."

He said the odds of being hit were one in 1.2 trillion, or 10 million times less likely than getting hit by lightning.

The only person known to have been hit by space debris was Lottie Williams, in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

In 1997 she was struck on the shoulder by a six-inch piece of metal from a Delta 2 rocket
China's decommissioned Tiangong-1 space station is heading back to Earth.

Hour by hour, Tiangong-1  whose name translates to "Heavenly Palace"  gets closer and closer to re-entering Earth's atmosphere, and mostly burning up in the process.

SEE ALSO: We may know when China's space station will fall to Earth, but we still don't know where

Trackers have been following the space station's descent over the course of a number of weeks, gathering radar images and coming up with estimates for when it'll come down.

The European Space Agency (ESA) is now predicting that the space station will fall to Earth sometime over Easter weekend, between March 31 and April 2.

World exlcusive higly topical radar image video of #Tiangong1 based on data recorded today! Altitude: 200,5 km perigee, Rotation speed has increased, now 2,2/s -> 2:23 min per one turn #reentry #radar #Tiangong #spacedebris pic.twitter.com/BaszrMz4mH  Fraunhofer FHR engl. (@Fraunhofer_FHRe) March 27, 2018

As the days have passed, the ESA has been coming out with new date ranges for the descent. The most recent range marks the most precise prediction for re-entry so far.

That said, we still don't know where Tiangong-1 will end up coming down.

The space station  which launched to orbit in 2011  will circle the Earth dozens of times over the course of the weekend, before the station is expected to re-enter. Because of that, it's nearly impossible to pinpoint where the station will come down.

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However, this uncertainty shouldn't be cause for concern.

First of all, the space station should mostly burn up harmlessly in Earth's atmosphere, but even if parts of the station do make it all the way to the planet's surface, the likelihood that they would land in a populated area is exceedingly small.

According to astronomer Jonathan McDowell, trackers won't be able to rule out Tiangong-1 landing in certain areas until the window is down to around 12 hours.

It's kind of a funny thing that this particular bit of space junk falling to Earth has captured the imagination of people around the world.

Bits of junk like Tiangong-1 do fall to Earth on a pretty regular basis.

"A similar size object reentered over Peru in January (the Zenit rocket stage from the Angosat-1 launch) and a few pressurized tank pieces were found on the ground, but pretty much no-one paid attention," McDowell said via email earlier this month.

Tiangong-1 was visited by taikonauts  Chinese astronauts  twice over the course of its life. The station was replaced with the Tiangong-2 station in 2016.

Both stations are precursors to the larger space station China is expected to build sometime in the coming decade.
Israeli Defense Force-Air Force F-15I Ra'am aircraft.

Zachary Keck

Security, Middle East

According reports, members of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC) believe that a missile attack is the greatest danger to the reactors today.

Why Is Israel Simulating Attacks on Its Own Nuclear Reactors?

Israels nuclear establishment has been conducting drills simulating attacks against the countrys two nuclear reactors.

The Israel Atomic Energy Commission has been taking numerous steps to protect the nuclear reactors in Dimona and Nahal Sorek in light of assessments that Iran and Hezbollah see the reactors as preferred targets for missile attacks, the left-leaning Israeli daily, Haaretz, reported on June 28.

The Nahal Sorek reactor is a small research reactor America supplied to Israel as part of the Atoms of Peace program. The Dimona reactor is a much larger reactor that Israel used to produce plutonium for its nuclear weapons program. The Dimona reactor is still operating, although its unclear if it is making plutonium. It is widely believed that Israel uses Dimona to produce tritium for boosted atomic weapons.

According to the Haaretz article, members of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC) believe that a missile attack is the greatest danger to the reactors today.

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The report added that recently the IAEC held a large training exercise that simulated a missile attack on one of the reactors, and included the evacuation of employees and actions to prevent a leak of radioactive materials.

This threat is hardly imaginary, as Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has repeatedly threatened to attack Israels nuclear reactors as well as its chemical supplies.

I call on Israel not only to empty the ammonia tank in Haifa, but also to dismantle the nuclear reactor in Dimona. Our military capabilities will strike Israel and its settlements, Nasrallah said in February of last year.

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He added: In Israel, they know that Hezbollah has the possibility of reaching the nuclear reactor, which is antiquated, and it doesnt require major force to hit.

In 2016, Nasrallah called for targeting the ammonia stockpiles in Haifa Hezbollahs nuclear bomb option.

IAEC members downplayed the actual dangers of an attack on one of Israels reactors. According to Haaretz, the IAEC believes that even if a missile hit one of the reactors the employees inside would be safe.

What the commission does fear is that the attack would be extremely useful for propaganda purposes. Indeed, Dimona has long served as a potent symbol of Israeli power ever since Israels founding father David Ben-Gurion purchased it from France.

The IAEC is also concerned that an attack against Israels reactors would spark panic among the Israeli public, similar to how some observers worry that the use of a dirty bomb in a crowded city would be a weapon of mass disruption.

The IAECs assessment might be overly optimistic, however. As Haartezs notes, last year four Israeli scientists including Irad Brandys, an engineer at the Dimona reactorpublished an article estimating the damage caused by a Scud missile attack on a nuclear reactor similar to the ones that Israel operates.

They concluded that the monitor and control equipment can resist the in-structure shock both in the horizontal and vertical directions when the missile explodes beyond 35 m.

However, missiles that landed closer to the reactor could cause various types of damage, including (in Haaretzs description) a breach of the reactors protective envelope, which could lead to a leak of radioactive gas, as well as a disruption to critical systems, most importantly the reactors cooling system. The loss of electricity powering the cooling systems of some of Japans reactors was at the heart of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.

Of course, most missiles are not anywhere near accurate enough to hit a target within 35 meters, at least with any sort of consistency.

Arguably Irans most advanced missile is the Emad, which has a maneuverable re-entry vehicle (MaRV). MaRVs allow the missiles warhead to maneuver late in flight both to evade missile defenses and achieve pinpoint accuracy.

But Irans Emad missile is believed to have an accuracy (technically a circular error probable) of five hundred meters. That means that fifty percent of the time it would land within five hundred meters of the target. Thus, even if Iran gave Emad missiles to Hezbollah, the Lebanese group would have to get extremely lucky to have one of them land within thirty-five meters of one of Israels reactors.

Still, the IAECs concerns highlight an underappreciated cost of nuclear reactorsthe need to protect them, not just from terrorist groups but also from nation states. Of course, Israel itself has illustrated this challenge in the past when it bombed both an Iraqi and Syrian reactor before they were operational. This concern is especially warranted as more countries in the region begin building nuclear reactors.

Israel has also worried about the vulnerability of its Dimona reactor before. In fact, according to Avner Cohenwho has written extensively about the Israeli nuclear programconcerns that Egypt was preparing to attack Israels nuclear reactor was one factor that prompted the Jewish state to launch a preemptive attack in the Six Day War.

Dimona was on the minds of Israeli leaders, especially Prime Minister [Levi] Eshkol, almost from the beginning of the crisis, Cohen stated in his book Israel and the Bomb.

Egyptian President Gamal Abdul Nasser had threatened to attack Dimona a number of times during the 1960s. Then, Egyptian aircraft made a number of reconnaissance flights over Dimona in the days leading up to the war. And, as Cohen writes, After the war it was discovered that the two Israeli nuclear research centers, at Dimona and Nachal Soreq, were high-priority targets in Egyptian war plans.

Fears about the vulnerability of Israel and other countries nuclear reactors are likely to grow in the coming years and decades. Although Irans missiles cannot realistically threaten Israels nuclear reactors at the moment, the real question is how long will that continue to be the case? It wasnt long ago that a country like China didnt have guided missiles. Now, it is believed that Beijing has missiles that can threaten moving targets like U.S. aircraft carriers at long distances. And history has consistently shown that technologyincluding missilesinevitably spreads.

Zachary Keck (@ZacharyKeck) is the Wohlstetter Public Affairs Fellow at the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center.

Read full article
The two countries lobbied to cut funding for human rights monitors and for a senior post dedicated to human rights work

The UN Human Rights Up Front initiative was established in 2014, after a series of UN failures in preventing or sounding the alarm over atrocities. Photograph: Xinhua/Rex/Shutterstock

China and Russia are leading a stealthy and increasingly successful effort at the United Nations to weaken UN efforts to protect human rights around the world, according to diplomats and activists.



The two countries have used the UN budget panel, known as the fifth committee, to cut funding for human rights monitors and for a senior post in the secretary generals office which is supposed to ensure that human rights  one of three pillars of the UNs function  are not forgotten in its day-to-day work.

The UN Human Rights Up Front initiative was established in 2014, after a series of UN failures in preventing or sounding the alarm over atrocities, culminating in mass killings in Sri Lanka in 2009.

A senior official in the secretary generals office was appointed to ensure that progress was made on the issue throughout the organisation, but funding for that post has been cut this year by the fifth committee, as a result of lobbying by China and Russia. The cut, first reported in Foreign Policy, means that the human rights work that was the responsibility of that official will be spread around other posts with other priorities.

The funding of the office of the high commissioner for human rights in Geneva has also been cut. The current high commissioner, Zeid Raad Hussein, has announced that he will be stepping down this year and not seeking another term in the post, explaining to his staff that the lack of global support for protecting human rights made his job untenable.

Last week, Zeid was due to address the UN security council on plight of civilians in Syria but before he began, Russia called a procedural vote to stop him speaking on the grounds that the council was not the proper forum for discussing human rights.

The fifth committee has become a battleground for human rights, Louis Charbonneau, the UN director for Human Rights Watch, said. Russia and China and others have launched a war on things that have human rights in their name.



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You can get a mandate for human rights work in the security council, but then Russia and China go behind the scenes to defund it, Charbonneau said. And the countries that pay lip service to human rights are not pushing back. But the question is are we going to let them win?

China has real political momentum at the UN now, Richard Gowan, a UN expert at the European Council for Foreign Relations, said. It is now the second biggest contributor the UN budget after the US, and is increasingly confident in its efforts to roll back UN human rights activities. It is also pushing its own agenda  with an emphasis on harmony rather than individual rights in UN forums. And a lot of countries like what they hear.



A western diplomat at the UN conceded that human rights were losing ground at the UN, in part because China had become a more assertive voice, prepared to lead lobbying campaigns, and because Beijing is increasingly leveraging its vast and growing investments in the developing world to win votes for its agenda at the UN.

The fifth committee is a very important battleground, the diplomat said. Our team is fighting in the trenches very hard on this. We want to get the best value for the taxpayer, but also to make sure that something as important and central as human rights in the work of the UN is not defunded.
Bogota (AFP) - Dissident Colombian rebels are believed to be holding hostage two Ecuadoran journalists and their driver who were abducted this week, the head of Ecuador's armed forces said Wednesday.

General Alberto Mejia told RCN radio that "the head of this group is the terrorist known as 'Gaucho,' and he is without doubt the person responsible ... for the kidnapping."

The reporter, photographer and driver, all working for the prominent Ecuadoran newspaper El Comercio, were seized early Monday in the village of Mataje, in Esmeraldas province, according to officials.

The area where the abduction happened has seen increased Ecuadoran military activity in a crackdown against armed insurgents who have split from Colombia's former rebel group FARC, which has laid down arms and become a political party under a 2016 peace deal.

Although Ecuadoran Interior Minister Cesar Nevas said Tuesday the abducted trio were thought to be over the border in Colombia, Mejia said there was "no information" supporting that.

The journalists' kidnapping has alarmed and unsettled Ecuador, with media saying it was the first such abduction in the country in three decades.

"Gaucho" was identified by Ecuadoran military as Walter Artizala, an Ecuadoran in his 30s who had served as a rebel in the FARC for 15 years, specializing in explosives, drug smuggling and financing.

He was suspected of being behind a blast on Monday that cut power to 200,000 inhabitants of a Colombia border town.

The dissident rebel group he leads is thought to number 70 to 80 people, who move across the Ecuador-Colombia border through jungle and engage in drug trafficking.

A week ago, three Ecuadoran soldiers were killed and 11 were wounded by a bomb as they patrolled Mataje. Other attacks in the Esmeraldas province have wounded 32 soldiers and civilians.

The governments of Ecuador and Colombia have stepped up cooperation to tackle what they term "transnational crime" across their common border.
Rohingyas need more donor supports: WHO

Monsoon to aggravate crisis

Visiting Regional Director of WHO-SEARO Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh visited the Rohingya Camp in Jamtali in Cox\'s Bazar on Wednesday.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has appealed for more donor supports for Rohingyas ahead of monsoon, fearing the tropical season to expose the forcibly displaced Myanmar population in Bangladesh to intensified health risks.

"For us it (monsoon) is a great worry," WHO's Regional Director for South-East Asia Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh told BSS in an interview, a day after she visited the improvised and crowded Rohingya camps in Cox's Bazar bordering Myanmar's Rakhine State, their homeland.

She said WHO launched a second appeal for expanded international help for the Rohingyas ahead of the rainy season while it simultaneously planned to start a fourth round of vaccination to prevent the possible outbreak of cholera epidemics in Rohingya camps.

The WHO regional chief particularly expressed concerns about the poor sanitation system at the camp scene saying "for now, it is manageable, but when rain starts sanitation will be a big challenge".

"Help is coming, sentiment of help is there in Geneva," she said referring to the prospects of donor response to the appeal analyzed in WHO headquarters in the Swiss city.

The regional chief of World Health Organisaiton for the region (WHO-SEARO) is in Bangladesh on a four-day visit to witness the crisis involving the Myanmar's ethnic population who fled their home to evade military atrocities.

The UN called the Myanmar military actions "a textbook example of ethnic cleansing" and rights groups described as genocide.

Earlier yesterday Khetrapal Singh called on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and held a meeting with representatives of donor agencies in Dhaka on resource mobilization as part of health care preparation on the face of impending dangers to be faced by the Rohingyas.

Currently, she said, WHO was spending US$1million every month to extend health care supports to Rhingyas but the global health body was prepared to enhance the amount if the situation deserved.

Khetrapal Singh said three rounds of diphtheria, measles and cholera vaccines were administered in Rohingya camps as "this (vaccination), I thought is very useful, because the greatest worry is of course monsoon".

"We will go for another round of vaccination after the fourth one and we have enough stock of vaccine at the camps . . . WHO has assessed the risk and procured the vaccine," she said.

The WHO official, however, expressed concerns about continued Rohingya influx saying "they are still coming. It has not stopped, it's still going on". Khetrapal Singh said the situation prompted her organisation to go for repeated rounds of vaccination so no one of them was left out and exposed to breakout of water born diseases.

Currently, she said WHO was giving highest level priority under its World Health Emergency (WHE) programme to address the Rohingyas health concerns.

The WHO regional chief, however, said during the every rounds of vaccination they covered the host community in the neighbourhood and "whenever we will go for vaccination next time we will cover the entire area as well". She highly lauded Bangladesh government role in handling the crisis offering refuge to over one million Rohingyas on humanitarian grounds.

"Bangladesh government is doing a lot, it's not easy. There are over a million people (Rohingya) . . . its like (the entire population of) another country," the WHO official said.

Asked for comments about Bangladesh's repeated call seeking sustained international pressure on Myanmar to stop atrocities and return the Rohingyas, she said the WHO generally "doesn't intervene internal or regional politics". But, she said, if required, WHO could join the campaign from the UN platform along with other agencies. The Rohingya issue required Bangladesh to engage, among other resources, some 28,000 manpower to work round-the-clock for their management and services.

Khetrapal Singh, an Indian national, became the first woman to assume the office of WHO Regional Director for South-East Asia on 1 February 2014.
London (AFP) - Deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi is being detained in conditions that fail to meet international standards and could lead to his premature death, according to a report released Wednesday by three British lawmakers.

Morsi, who has a history of ill-health including diabetes, liver and kidney disease, is not receiving the adequate medical care required, the Members of Parliament found.

The parliamentarians -- who formed an Independent Detention Review Panel -- also highlighted that 66-year-old Morsi is kept in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day, with just one hour for him to exercise alone.

That could be classified as torture by the UN special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, the panel noted.

"Our conclusions are stark," said panel chair Crispin Blunt MP, presenting the findings in London.

"On his health, the denial of basic medical treatment to which he is entitled could lead to his premature death.

"The whole overseeing chain of command up to the current President would have responsibility for this."

The panel requested to visit Morsi in prison to review detention and health conditions, but said it received no response from Egyptian authorities.

The report was compiled using "all available testimonies", including witness statements, reports by NGOs and evidence submitted independently, it added.

Abdullah Morsi, Morsi's son, who told the panel he has been denied access to the deposed president along with other relatives and his legal team, was quoted as saying in the statement that their "fears and concerns have been confirmed by the findings".

He called on the international community to condemn his father's treatment and "push the Egyptian Government to allow his family to visit, and for him to receive medical care".

"We do not want him to die in prison," he added.

Morsi was Egypt's first democratically elected civilian president following the 2011 overthrow of longtime leader Hosni Mubarak during the Arab Spring uprisings.

But his year in power proved deeply divisive and he was ousted by current President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, then the army chief, amid mass protests in 2013.
Corey Feldman says he was attacked and stabbed in Los Angeles Tuesday night, though there now seem to be differing opinions.

The 46-year-old child actor turned musician shared photos from his hospital bed on Wednesday morning. He said that while he was in his car with security at a red light in L.A., three men approached the car and distracted the security guard, and one of the men stabbed him. Feldman, who is unsure what he was stabbed with, asked for prayers but said he was OK. His wife, Courtney, was by his side.

IM IN THE HOSPITAL! I WAS ATTACKED 2NITE! A MAN OPENED MY CAR DOOR & STABBED ME W SOMETHING! PLEASE SAY PRAYERS 4 US! THANK GOD IT WAS ONLY MYSELF & MY SECURITY IN THE CAR, WHEN 3 MEN APPROACHED! WHILE SECURITY WAS DISTRACTED, W A GUY A CAR PULLED UP & ATTACKED! IM OK! pic.twitter.com/TZ0ppZeEWN  Corey Feldman (@Corey_Feldman) March 28, 2018

He tweeted that the alleged attack is being investigated as an attempted homicide and referenced a so-called wolfpack that is out to get him. Feldman, who has claimed that he knows who raped his best friend, the late Corey Haim, at the age of 11, has said hes been the target of death threats because hes working to expose pedophiles in Hollywood. That includes a near-death experience in October, when he said two trucks tried to run him over. Feldman tweeted that he sees a correlation between him speaking out sex abuse in Hollywood and Tuesday nights alleged attack.

@LAPD R CURRENTLY INVESTIGATING THE CASE AS AN ATTEMPTED HOMICIDE! I HAVE HAD MOUNTING THREATS ON ALL SM PLATFORMS BY THIS VILE WOLFPACK & THIS IM SURE IS A RESULT OF THOSE NEGATIVE ACTIONS! I HAVE REASON 2 BELIEVE ITS ALL CONNECTED! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! HOW SICK R THESE PPL?!?  Corey Feldman (@Corey_Feldman) March 28, 2018

He later shared another update, calling it a murder attempt.

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STILL MORE DETAILS, BUT NOTHING FROM THE POLICE YET, THERE WERE 3 MEN, BUT ONLY 1 ATTACKED: Corey Feldman rushed to hospital after being stabbed by three men in 'murder attempt' https://t.co/mcdUIlNoqh  Corey Feldman (@Corey_Feldman) March 28, 2018

However, the story became murkier by late Wednesday morning. A spokesperson for the LAPD told Deadline that while someone allegedly opened the car door and made a stabbing motion with an unknown object, Feldman was not actually stabbed and had no lacerations. They said he drove himself to the hospital and was in good condition. The LAPD rep added that it does not have a suspect description, nor has it determined what weapon was used in the alleged attack.

Corey Feldman speaks in support of the Child Victims Act at the New York State Capitol in Albany, N.Y., on March 14, 2018. (Photo: Brett Carlsen/Getty Images)

Yahoo has not yet heard back from an LAPD spokesperson. A rep for Feldman would not comment at this time but said that when there is more information, it will be provided.

The Goonies and Lost Boys actor has long been outspoken about pedophilia in Hollywood and has written about the sexual abuse he says he endured in his 2013 memoir, Coreyography. In October, as the #MeToo movement exploded, he announced an online fundraiser campaign to raise money to tell his story in a feature film  with the money he raised going to 24 hr armed security because he feared for his life.

Feldman later named two of his alleged sexual abusers on The Dr. Oz Show. Although he went to the Los Angeles police with names, they announced that they wouldnt prosecute. Earlier this month, he was in Albany, N.Y., urging state lawmakers to pass the Child Victims Act, which would loosen restrictions on when survivors of childhood sex abuse can file charges.

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:
Bruxelles (AFP) - EU lawmakers on Wednesday criticised the "coup-like" promotion of European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker's top aide and said it could damage the reputation of the whole union.

The blistering verdict of MEPs came ahead of a vote in mid-April on the sudden elevation of Juncker's German enforcer Martin Selmayr to the top civil service post in the 30,000-person commission last month.

But they stopped short of demanding for the promotion to be reversed, calling only for the commission, the executive arm of the European Union, to change its promotion procedures in future.

The "nomination of the Secretary General constitutes a coup-like action which stretched and possibly even overstretched the limits of the law," said a draft resolution by the European Parliament's budget committee.

It also "regrets" that the promotion of the 47-year-old Selmayr "was conducted in a manner which aroused widespread irritation and disapproval in public opinion" and EU officials.

The draft resolution adds that "the result of this procedure constitutes a reputational risk not only for the European Commission but for all the European Union institutions".

The row centres on what critics say was effectively an instantaneous double promotion for Selmayr, Juncker's former chief of staff, on February 21.

During a meeting of commissioners on that day, Selmayr was made first deputy secretary general and then just minutes later secretary general when the incumbent, Alexander Italianer, suddenly announced his retirement.

The European Commission -- the executive arm of the EU which is charged with upholding its founding treaties -- says Juncker had known of Italianer's plan to retire as early as 2015 and had told Selmayr about it.

But it rejected claims that Juncker and Selmayr had cooked up a plan in November last year to bounce the German into the secretary general role.

Budget commissioner Guenther Oettinger told MEPs on Monday that the "rules were totally respected" but that it was also a "political" appointment to ensure Juncker had trusted people around him.
A Louisiana couple has taken gender reveal parties to a whole new level by enlisting a real-live alligator to assist with their baby announcement.

In a video shared on Facebook on Sunday by the babys grandmother, Melody Kliebert, a man can be seen holding the alligators mouth shut before dropping what appears to be a small watermelon into its waiting jaws. The gator then snaps its mouth shut, causing a gooey blue liquid to explode out of the fruit as everyone gathered for the ceremony cheers for the new baby boy.

Just found out my grand baby is a,,,,,,gotta love it!! Melody captioned the clip. And I do!! No matter the results!!

According to WGNO, the man handling the deadly reptile is not only the babys father but also Ponchatoula-based alligator wrangler, trainer and tour guide Mike Klieberta.k.a. T-Mike, the Gator King.

Heres a photo of Kliebert and his family bonding with the gator following the reveal.

Watch the full video below.
By Sarah Marsh HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba's Communist Party admitted a slowdown and errors in its implementation of Raul Castro's market-style reforms, just weeks before he steps down from the presidency, but vowed to continue updating the Soviet-style command economy. The party central committee held a plenary session to discuss the state of reforms undertaken during Castro's 10-year presidential mandate to open up the ailing economy and give the private sector and foreign investment greater roles. Castro, who steps down as president on April 19, presided over the plenary which took place this week. The 86-year old will remain head of the party, the country's guiding political force, until 2021. "Despite the errors and insufficiencies recognized in this plenary, the situation is more favorable than a few years ago," Castro, 86, was quoted as saying by party newspaper Granma. Reforms were implemented swiftly in the first three years since being agreed in 2011, the head of the party's reform commission Marino Murillo was cited as saying. The number of self-employed workers in the Caribbean island nation of 11.2 million residents has more than tripled to around 580,000 workers. But implementation has slowed in the last two years due to the complexity of the process, mistakes in oversight, a lack of financial backing and low engagement of the bureaucracy, Murillo said. The party was also deliberately implementing reforms slowly to ensure they would not marginalize anyone. The government last year froze the issuance of licenses for an important set of private sector activities as it sought to root out malpractices such as purchases on the black market and to improve regulation. The 142-member central committee discussed the lack of a fiscal culture and accountancy tools to make a serious economic analysis in Cuba as well as difficulties communicating the complex process. Many Cubans, whose expectations were raised by Castro's reforms, have felt frustrated by the slowdown that they believe means Havana is not truly committed to updating the economy. The government said late last year, for example, it would limit licenses to one per person going forwards - a move that could limit Cubans' entrepreneurial ambitions. Yet it did not address key private sector concerns like the lack of a wholesale market or ability to import or export. Havana has also backtracked on reforms in the key agricultural sector over the last few years, once more assigning resources, setting prices and controlling most distribution. (Additional reporting by Nelson Acosta)
On Tuesday, the Department of Commerce announced that a question on citizenship would be added to the 2020 census, which that agency oversees. While that choice might seem bureaucratic on the surface, its causing an uproar, as many other questions about census data have before it.

The Trump Administration says the question  which was last asked on the census in 1950  will be used to better enforce voting rights laws, but critics have argued that it will lead to lower response rates, because some immigrants fear the information could end up in the hands of law enforcement. Filing a lawsuit over the move, the California attorney general described it as an attempt to bully immigrant communities.

Tensions have swirled around the census since it began in 1790. Whatever the hot-button issue of the time is, says University of WisconsinMilwaukee history professor Margo Anderson, gets tangled up in the census. Thats because the regular counting of the population has never been an academic exercise, she says. The census is a basis for deciding how to apportion political power, as well as how to dole out billions in federal funds. Every 10 years we shuffle the deck, Anderson says, and take power away from areas of the country that are not growing as fast as others.

Some fights about the census are about how and what information is collected. Other snafus are focused on how that information is used once its in the U.S. Census Bureaus filing cabinets. There is dignity in being counted and officially acknowledged by the government, especially for historically marginalized communities, but there is also exposure. People want to be identified, their characteristics captured and reported, Anderson says, but they also dont want to be targeted.

Here are five examples of past moments, many highlighted by Anderson, that show how incendiary a survey can be.

The census launched with the three-fifths compromise

The main purpose of the census is collecting data that will determine how many seats each state gets in the U.S. House of Representatives. One of the concerns about the new citizenship question, for example, is that if immigrants avoid declaring themselves en masse, that could lead to states losing or gaining seats based on an inaccurate population count. (A dozen seats shifted between states following the census in 2010.)

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This is also why, in 1787, there was debate among the framers of the Constitution about whether enslaved people should be counted on the census. Southern states, hoping for more representation in Congress, wanted them to be tallied. Northern states did not, with some arguing that if slaveholders insisted slaves were property, not people, it followed that they shouldnt be counted alongside constituents. This led to the notorious compromise that each slave would be counted as three-fifths of a person  a dehumanizing decision undone by the passage of the 13th Amendment.

Census data was used to track Japanese-Americans

Anderson was one of the researchers who discovered evidence that the U.S. Census Bureau gave the U.S. Secret Service information about the whereabouts of some Japanese-Americans during World War II, at a time when many such individuals were being rounded up and put in internment camps. Normally, the bureau is forbidden from releasing data about specific individuals, but legislation passed during wartime suspended those rules. (More information on the Bureaus actions during this time is available on Andersons website.)

In 1988, the surviving internees received an official apology and the promise of reparations from the government. But when it came to the role of the census, a similar controversy would nevertheless arise again. In the years following 9/11, the Census Bureau gave the Department of Homeland Security less detailed information about the places where Arab Americans live, compiling data about how many Iraqis and Egyptians live in certain ZIP codes. Even though names and addresses werent revealed and security officials said the information would not be used for law enforcement, advocacy groups balked and outcry ensued.

Women werent allowed to be heads of households

When the first census was taken, the government wasnt concerned with counting everyone equally. While enslaved people counted as three-fifths of a person, American Indians werent counted at all. (This fascinating chart shows how racial categories have evolved over the centuries.) Among those who did have a box were free white females. Yet while some women got some recognition at the beginning, critics have still accused the survey of being chauvinist.

As the second wave of feminism took off, women challenged the Census Bureaus practice of asking who the head of each household is. The notion that every family must have a head is a patriarchal one, they suggested, and the census-takers long presumed that this role would be held by a man.

Married women who lived with their husbands were essentially disqualified in early years, scholars say. And as late as 1970, forms had a box for wife of head, yet no option for husband of head. As criticism mounted, officials decided to drop the concept from the census in 1980, Anderson explains. They replaced it with a more objective question about the household member who had their name on the lease or the mortgage.

Democrats and Republicans clashed over the undercount

The Supreme Court weighed in on a census controversy in 1999 that Anderson expects to be on peoples minds as the arguments over the citizenship question continue.

The count of the census is never perfect, and it was discovered that some 4 million people had not been counted in the 1990 survey, according to the New York Times. Many of these individuals were members of racial minorities living in urban centers  who tend to vote Democratic  and Democrats argued that in order to get a more accurate count, the Census Bureau should use a statistical sampling method rather than trying to enumerate every individual.

Republicans argued that this amounted to a statistical scheme and a traditional head count must be used when deciding how many seats each state should be apportioned in the House. And the Court agreed, saying that federal law barred the use of sampling in that arena, though the justices suggested sampling could be used for other census-related activities like redistricting at the state level.

Questions about sexual orientation and gender identity are out

As it stands, the 2020 census will not be asking questions about peoples sexual orientations and gender identities, despite calls from advocates to treat those demographics just like race and income.

Some have argued that asking such questions is a matter of respect and making it clear, through data, that lawmakers have LGBT constituents they must attend to, at a time when states are debating issues such as bathroom access. For decades our struggle has been to stop being invisible, former San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener told TIME in a previous interview on this topic. When you dont have data about a community, at times it can seem like the community doesnt exist. Actor Laverne Cox has said she feels that the act of counting is a matter of life and death.

Others have argued that census data is critical to understanding disparities among populations and can help certain areas win grants and subsidies they need, whether aimed at addressing health issues or economic inequality. Democratic lawmakers have attempted to mandate the collection of LGBT data in the census, though experts say that getting accurate answers comes with practical hurdles. The Bureau has responded by suggesting there is no legislative mandate to do so.
By Russell Cheyne and Inmaculada Sanz EDINBURGH/MADRID (Reuters) - Catalan academic Clara Ponsati, accused by Spain of rebellion for her role in Catalonia's independence campaign, was granted bail by a Scottish court on Wednesday as she battles extradition, saying she was the object of political persecution. Ponsati, a former Catalan education minister who is currently a professor at Scotland's University of St Andrews, is one of the Catalan leaders being sought by the Spanish courts for organising a referendum on independence in October last year that was deemed illegal under Spanish law. Also among them is the former head of the regional government, Carles Puigdemont, who has been detained in Germany. In a symbolic gesture of support, Catalonia's parliament on Wednesday said it backed his right to again lead the region. As Ponsati handed herself in at a Scottish police station to face charges which also include one of misuse of public funds over the banned independence vote, her lawyer said Ponsati believed she would not get a fair trial in Spain. "Clara remains defiant, resolute and is determined to fight back," her lawyer Aamer Anwar said. "She does not believe that the Spanish courts can guarantee independence, human rights or justice." NO GUARANTEE He read a statement which also thanked Scotland's first minister Nicola Sturgeon, herself a supporter of independence for Scotland from the United Kingdom, saying Scotland had been "a true friend to Catalonia in her darkest hours". Ponsati was later freed on bail at Edinburgh Sheriff Court, leaving to cheers from a throng of supporters outside waving the "estelada" Catalan independence flag. "Clara wishes for me to state that these charges are politically motivated and a grotesque distortion of the truth. She cannot believe that she is being held responsible for the violence that took place on the day of the referendum," Anwar said outside court. "She believes ... the only people that should be held responsible for the brutal violence (are) the Spanish police and the 6,000 state security forces who attacked the Catalan people on behalf of the Spanish government." Ponsati's next hearing was set for April 12. A crowdfunding page set up to pay her legal costs has already raised 165,000 pounds ($232,600). The Spanish government denies it is prosecuting the Catalan separatists for their political beliefs and says their actions violated the Spanish constitution. A Spanish justice ministry official was not available to comment on the latest development. Those facing charges of rebellion could be jailed for up to 25 years if convicted. Following the banned referendum in October and a subsequent declaration of independence by the Catalan parliament, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy dismissed the assembly and took direct control of the rich northwestern region. The political crisis is one of Spain's most serious since the country returned to democracy in the 1970s. Puigdemont, who has been living in self-imposed exile in Belgium, was arrested in Germany on Sunday, sparking protests on Barcelona's streets. He is being held in prison pending an extradition hearing in a German court. Wolfgang Schomburg, a German attorney representing Puigdemont, urged the Berlin German government to immediately make clear it would not under any circumstances approve his extradition. He told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung that the Spanish arrest warrant for Puigdemont was imprecise and superficial and it was unclear whether it was a European or international warrant. He said the charges of violence and corruption mentioned in the warrant were unsupported. Spanish national police said on Wednesday that two Catalan regional officers who were travelling with him had also been arrested. The detentions formed part of an investigation into a crime of concealment, police said on Twitter. Despite his detention, the separatist-controlled Catalan parliament on Wednesday defended Puigdemont's right to be a candidate again to head the regional government. The declaration had the support of separatist parties Junts per Catalunya, Esquerra Republicana and the CUP, who together won a slim majority of votes in a December regional election. Spain's Constitutional Court has said that Puigdemont or any other candidate could only become regional leader if he was physically present in parliament and had a judge's permission to attend. "The Spanish justice system's interference has forced him (Puigdemont) to provisionally renounce his candidacy but we will not give up," Gemma Geis, regional parliament member of Junts per Catalunya, said. ($1 = 0.7094 pounds) (Additional reporting by Emma Pinedo and Jesus Aguado in Madrid and Andrea Shalal in Berlin; Writing by Elisabeth O'Leary and Michael Holden; Editing by Catherine Evans and Richard Balmforth)
By Josh Smith SEOUL (Reuters) - "Denuclearization" is a word dominating the headlines as U.S. President Donald Trump leads an effort to pressure North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program. First South Korean, then Chinese officials have in recent weeks reported North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has told them he is "committed to denuclearization" on the Korean peninsula. Kim's declared commitment to denuclearization, however, is neither new, nor likely in line with Washington's expectations. North Korea has long said it is open to eventually giving up its nuclear arsenal if the United States withdraws its troops from South Korea and ends its "nuclear umbrella" security alliance with Seoul, among other conditions. The United States, meanwhile, has insisted on complete, verifiable, and irreversible dismantling of North Korea's nuclear weapons and the facilities needed to build those weapons as soon as possible. The differing interpretations threaten to scuttle potential talks between North Korea and the United States before they begin. "As we approach the summits, conceptions of denuclearization seem to be diverging rather than converging," said Adam Mount, a senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists. CONDITIONS AND CAVEATS At the heart of the gulf between what Kim has said and what American and allied leaders may expect are the many caveats and conditions attached. "The issue of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula can be resolved, if South Korea and the United States respond to our efforts with goodwill," Kim told Chinese officials during a visit this week, according to Chinese state media outlet Xinhua. Previous North Korean leaders have vowed to end their nuclear programs through negotiations, and according to South Korean officials, Kim said he would be open to giving up his nuclear weapons if he has adequate security guarantees. Washington is unlikely to be able to credibly provide such assurances in the wake of its interventions in Iraq and Libya, said Vipin Narang, an associate professor at MIT's Security Studies Program. "If thats what the North wants for denuclearisation...Not a chance its going to happen," he said. North Korea is more likely to offer something that might limit or cap its nuclear program, without immediately eliminating it, analysts say. "STEPS ALONG THE WAY" China and North Korea share a similar definition of denuclearization, according to Zhao Tong, a North Korea expert at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Centre in Beijing. "China is not really demanding or requiring that it dismantle its weapons, but wants to make sure that a nuclear free Korean peninsula is the ultimate goal," he said. South Korea's official line is that it shares the United State's goal of complete nuclear disarmament, but President Moon Jae-in has told lawmakers he recognizes that may not happen right away and he is open to exploring "other steps along the way," according to a parliamentary official. Analysts believe the most likely compromise could be North Korea agreeing to freeze weapons and missile tests and possibly cap its weapons development in return for sanctions relief and a reduction or freezing of joint U.S.-South Korean military drills. Trump himself has sent mixed messages on North Korea, issuing threats of military action and calling talks a waste of time, while also accepting Kim's invitation to meet. In the wake of that invitation, which was conveyed by a South Korean delegation that met with Kim earlier this month, Trump tweeted "Kim Jong Un talked about denuclearization with the South Korean Representatives, not just a freeze." Trump's new national security adviser, John Bolton, recently said the president should use any summit with Kim to "make the point that hes not there to waste time and that we expect real denuclearization, not talks about talks about denuclearization." If Trump shares that view and Kim refuses to give ground, then any talks could go nowhere, Mount said. "If Trump rejects a phased approach, he will be seen as unreasonable and departing from expectations," he said. "If that happens, we could see the other players cut Washington out of the process and go it alone." (Additional reporting by Christian Shepherd in BEIJING and Christine Kim in SEOUL; Editing by Lincoln Feast)
(Reuters) - A driver plowed a vehicle into five people in San Francisco on Wednesday, killing one, before fleeing the scene, officials said. The five people were taken to Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, where one person died and one was in critical condition, said hospital spokesman Brent Andrew. The three others were in serious or fair condition. "We do not believe the general public is at risk," San Francisco police spokesman Robert Rueca said at a news conference, calling it an isolated incident. The driver was later arrested, the San Francisco Chronicle reported, citing unnamed sources. The newspaper, based on sources familiar with the investigation, also reported the people who were hit had been trying to steal the driver's vehicle. Police declined to immediately provide details on what might have led to the incident or confirm that a suspect had been arrested. They initially said the driver plowed into the five people after a physical altercation. In video from the San Francisco affiliate of NBC, paramedics and police could be seen attending to a person lying on the sidewalk after the incident in San Francisco's Dogpatch neighborhood, also known as the Central Waterfront. Paul Lim, who works at a business in the area, told the San Francisco Chronicle he saw the aftermath of the incident. "I saw two lifeless people from across the street," Lim told the newspaper. "Another one was being consoled by a friend screaming for help. And another one was moving very slowly." (Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles and Gina Cherelus in New York; Editing by Tom Brown and Grant McCool)
A 13-year-old Florida boy was arrested Saturday after he reportedly told Polk County deputies that he wanted to be the next school shooter.

The Kissimmee resident was found passed out drunk on a sidewalk near the intersection of Briargrove Road and Ronald Reagan Parkway in Davenport, the Polk County Sheriffs Office said. The said he drank an entire bottle of liquor from his parents liquor cabinet and took some happy pills.

GettyImages-918323700

Michele Eve Sandberg/AFP/Getty Images

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The teenager allegedly told deputies that he wanted to shoot up Westside K-8 School in Osceola County to become the next school shooter. He added that he wanted to kill many students and claimed he had buried a handgun in his neighbors yard so his mother would not find out he had one.

Deputies said no gun was found in the neighbors yard. However, detectives did find pictures of alleged Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz and a photo of the Columbine High School shooting on the boys PlayStation.

According to WESH-TV, the teen was expelled, brought in for psychiatric evaluation and charged with threatening a Westside K-8 School student because the student tried him. Detectives spoke to other teens during the investigation and learned the boy had threatened to bring a knife to school and kill a teenager from Polk County.

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The boy was expelled from Westside in February for making threatening comments, The Associated Press reported.

"All Osceola County schools, including Westside K-8, take the safety and security of students and staff very seriously and are in constant communication with law enforcement regarding any threat made," Dana Schafer, Osceola School District's public information officer, said in an emailed statement to Newsweek.

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"We will maintain a law enforcement presence at our schools to ensure the safety of our students and staff. We will continue to remain vigilant and follow all safety precautions outlined in district safety protocols," the statement continued. "We ask that students and parents also remain vigilant and let us know of anything suspicious or that may need our attention."

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In a statement, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said the "teen is clearly in trouble" and noted affidavits filed in Osceola County for threatening to kill students.

We hope he receives the treatment he needs to deal with his desires to hurt himself and others, but we have also placed him under arrest for felony aggravated stalking," the sheriff said. "We cannot allow anyone of any age to get away with criminal threats to kill, especially when they are aimed towards schoolchildren.

The boy was charged with felony aggravated stalking and was hospitalized against his will for psychiatric evaluation.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from Newsweek
Triple threat hinders economic growth

Unemployment, bad governance, banking crisis

Special Correspondent :

Bangladesh economy is facing triple threat of growing unemployment, banking crisis and bad governance, economists said.

They said the economy has been growing consistently over 6.0 percent in the last one decade, but the past economic performance may not be sustained in the long run if the challenges are not addressed properly.

"The short-term economic outlook remains steady and favourable. But the rising unemployment, banking crisis and bad governance has already posed a serious threat on Bangladesh's long-term economic prosperity," economist Dr AB Mirza Azizul Islam told The New Nation yesterday.

He said the growth of gross domestic product (GDP) of Bangladesh is expected to remain above 7.1 percent in 2018 and 7.2 percent in 2019

"Rising unemployment would have severe impact on nation's productivity, banking crisis to act as failing investment and bad government to undermine reforms, and their outcome would negatively affect the GDP growth," said Mirza Azizul Islam.

He also said that thousands of people in our country are without job, which has become a great concern. The prevalent dilemma of employability has created social and economic imbalances. The problem should be addressed at any cost to ensure sustainable economic growth.

According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics' (BBS) latest labour force survey, around 4.82 crore of the 10.91 crore-strong labour force of Bangladesh were unemployed.

"Investment remains particularly low (30 per cent of the GDP) to support the job creation. We need to raise the investment up to 40 percent to sustain job growth and absorb new entrance who are coming in the job market every year," he noted.

Mirza Azizul Islam also said that the current banking crisis has made the financial sector vulnerable and it is also lowering the investment.

"The economy is facing triple threat, and this is expected to have a domino effect on growth," economist Dr Ahsan M Monsur told The New Nation.

He said the government expected the economic growth at 7.2 per cent this fiscal. But the prevailing economic situation could bring down the growth as expected by the government.

"The current banking crisis has posed a serious threat to the economy when many commercial banks plunged into liquidity crisis. This has made borrowing difficult for the private sector affecting the business and investment," said Dr Ahsan M Monsur.

He said the country's banking sector is now under deep crisis owing to bad governance and swelling non-performing loans. Rising bad debts have already sent many banks near to collapse.

"Not only banks, governance problem also remains in most public institutions. They are failing to deliver expected services to the entrepreneurs and investors and consequently hindering economic growth," said Dr Ahsan M Mansur.

He also said that rising unemployment is taking its toll on Bangladesh economy and making the current pattern of development unsustainable.

"We're maintaining over six per cent GDP growth right now. But which is not reflecting on the large population of the country due to improper distribution of wealth and income. Income inequality is widening among the rich and poor segment of the people in the society undermining the growth sustainability. No economic gain will be sustained if the disparity is not come down to a tolerable level."

When asked, Dr Ahsan Mansur said many mega projects are rolling to show the government's effort to accelerate the growth. But, we're missing out the economic gain from the projects because of their time and cost overruns.


NAIROBI (Reuters) - The East African bloc IGAD has said South Sudanese rebel leader Riek Machar should be released from house arrest in South Africa as soon as possible on condition he renounces violence, amid signs of mounting diplomatic pressure on the Juba government. Machar, who has been held in South Africa since late 2016, should "be allowed to relocate to any country outside the region and not neighboring South Sudan", read a statement issued after a meeting on Monday of officials from the eight countries in the bloc. IGAD said it had designated officials to decide on a third country. It was unclear why a third country that does not border South Sudan would be preferable to South Africa. There was no immediate comment from South Africa's foreign ministry. South Sudan government spokesman Michael Makuei Lueth said Juba had no problem with the bloc's decision, but that Machar should not be allowed to take part in peace talks in Addis Ababa. A spokesman for Machar's SPLM-IO rebel group said it was reviewing IGAD's statement and would respond later. Civil war broke out in oil-rich South Sudan in 2013, when troops loyal to President Salva Kiir clashed with forces loyal to Machar, then the vice president. Tens of thousands have been killed since. Oil production has been slashed. About a third of the population of 12 million have been forced from their homes. The warring parties signed a ceasefire in December in the Ethiopian capital, but it was violated within hours. A new round of talks is scheduled for late next month. The bloc also announced that it wanted to impose targeted sanctions on individuals violating the latest peace deal or otherwise disrupting it, but referred the matter to the African Union. Last month, the head of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, said it was open to imposing sanctions on leaders violating the ceasefire in South Sudan. His comments followed a chorus of other calls for action against those stoking the conflict. The United States imposed a unilateral arms embargo last month but has been unable to convince the 15-member U.N. Security Council to impose one. (Reporting by Denis Dumo in Juba, Maggie Fick in Nairobi and Ed Cropley in Johannesburg; Writing by Maggie Fick; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
QUITO (Reuters) - Ecuador has suspended WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's communication system after he discussed on social media issues that could damage the country's diplomatic relations, the government said on Wednesday. Assange has been living in Ecuador's London embassy since June 2012, when he entered the building to avoid extradition to Sweden to face questioning about allegations of sex crimes, which he has always denied. He recently spoke on social media about a diplomatic crisis between London and Moscow as well as about Catalonian separatism, despite warnings by Ecuador to avoid controversial political subjects. "The measure was adopted in the face of Assange's failure to comply with a written commitment he assumed with the government at the end of 2017, under which he was obliged not to issue messages that would interfere with other states," Ecuador's government said in a statement. The statement did not say which communication system it had suspended. In 2016, Ecuador restricted Assange's internet access for commenting on U.S. internal affairs. But a source close to WikiLeaks said that the Ecuadorean government had "placed electronic jammers inside the embassy on Tuesday night to prevent Mr. Assange from tweeting, and communicating over phone and internet generally." The source said that the Ecuadorean government had also instructed embassy officials to refuse to allow visitors seeking to meet Assange to enter the embassy. The source said that the Ecuadorean government had informed a lawyer for Assange that the WikiLeaks founder must stop tweeting about Catalonia and must erase a specific tweet Assange posted on the subject. But Assange refused to delete the tweet, the source added. Ecuador's President Lenin Moreno has described Assange as "a stone in our shoe" inherited from his predecessor and the government has said the situation is "unsustainable." In December, Ecuador granted Assange citizenship. The Swedish investigation was dropped last May, but Assange, who was free on bail at the time when he walked into the embassy, faces arrest by the British authorities for breaching his bail terms should he step outside the embassy grounds. Assange says the real reason for his legal troubles is the fact that WikiLeaks published U.S. diplomatic and military secrets, and he fears that if he leaves, he risks being extradited to the United States. British Foreign Office Minister Alan Duncan described Assange on Tuesday as a "miserable little worm," who should leave the embassy and give himself up to British justice. (Reporting by Alexandra Valencia in Quito; additional reporting by Mark Hosenball in Washington, writing by Girish Gupta; editing by Susan Thomas and G Crosse)
Quito (AFP) - Ecuador on Wednesday said it has stopped Julian Assange's ability to communicate to the outside world from its London embassy, where the WikiLeaks founder has been holed up since 2012.

The decision was taken because the Australian had broken a 2017 promise to not interfere in other countries' affairs while in the mission, an Ecuadoran government statement said without elaborating.

Under that deal, Assange had pledged "to not send messages that could be seen as interference in relations with other countries," the statement said, adding that it could take other, unspecified measures if he persisted.

The move to cut off Assange came after he used Twitter on Monday to challenge Britain's accusation that Russia was responsible for the March 4 nerve agent poisoning of a Russian former double agent in the English city of Salisbury.

Assange also questioned the decision by Britain and more than 20 countries to retaliate against the poisoning by expelling Russian diplomats deemed spies.

The comments prompted a British Foreign Office minister, Alan Duncan, to brand Assange a "miserable little worm" who should leave the embassy to turn himself over to British authorities.

In another tweetstorm on Tuesday, Assange attacked the arrest in Germany of former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont under an EU warrant issued by Spain over Puigdemont's failed bid last year to declare independence for his Spanish region.

Assange's "behavior, with his messages on social networks, puts at risk our good relations" with Britain and the European Union, the Ecuadoran government text said.

- Online activity -

Assange, 46, has spent much of his time in his small room in the embassy tweeting and at times contributing to RT, a Russian state-owned television channel that broadcasts Kremlin messaging, as well as taking part in media conferences via video link.

In 2016, Ecuador briefly suspended his internet connection for posting documents online that were seen as having an impact on the US presidential election from which Donald Trump emerged the victor.

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In May 2017, Ecuadoran President Lenin Moreno asked Assange to refrain from commenting on the separatist crisis in Spain's Catalonia region, after he tweeted that Madrid was guilty of "repression."

An analyst, Michel Levi of the Simon Bolivar Andean University, said he believed the decision to render Assange incommunicado "isn't a change of policy in terms of his asylum, but rather to keep him to his conditions" of staying in the embassy.

- Extradition fear -

Assange took refuge in the diplomatic mission in 2012 after a British judge ruled he should be extradited to Sweden to face allegations of sexual assault there.

Assange claims the accusations were politically motivated and could lead to him being extradited to the United States to face imprisonment over WikiLeaks' publication of secret US military documents and diplomatic cables in 2010.

Sweden dropped its investigation last year, but British authorities say they still want to arrest him for breaching his bail conditions.

Ecuador in December made Assange an Ecuadoran citizen and unsuccessfully tried to register him as a diplomat with immunity as part of its efforts to have the WikiLeaks founder leave the embassy without risk of being detained.

Ecuador's foreign minister, Maria Fernanda Espinosa, said Wednesday that a delegation would meet with Assange's lawyers in London next week "to explore what alternatives" existed to have Assange be able to leave the embassy.

"We continue to hold dialogue with the United Kingdom to seek a definitive and durable solution to this situation," she added.
Cairo (AFP) - Egyptians voted Wednesday on the third day of a presidential election guaranteed to hand a second term to Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, leaving turnout as the only contest.

The election commission announced that voting was being extended by an hour to 2000 GMT after warning people who do not vote they would be fined 500 pounds ($30).

Voters had trickled into polling stations with the authorities encouraging them to show up in high numbers.

The commission said not voting "serves the interests of people who hate the country", state television reported.

After polling stations closed there was no official figure for the turnout. Full results are not expected before April 2 but partial estimates should be released in the coming hours by local media.

Sisi won his first term in 2014, a year after the former army chief ousted his Islamist predecessor Mohamed Morsi following mass protests against him.

He won that election with 96.9 percent of the vote, against a left-wing candidate.

This time, his serious rivals withdrew citing restrictions, were sidelined or arrested.

His sole rival is the little-known Moussa Mostafa Moussa, himself a Sisi supporter.

Prime Minister Sherif Ismail urged voters to participate, saying on Tuesday it "is a national duty for all citizens".

State television showed voters at different polling stations and played patriotic music.

At some polling stations, voters were granted free meals. AFP was unable to verify the source of the donations.

At a news conference, an election commission official, Mahmud al-Sherif, said there had been no violations of Egypt's election law.

Some 60 million people in Egypt, the most populated Arab country, were registered to vote on March 26, 27, and 28.

In 2014, about 37 percent of voters participated in the two-day election, prompting authorities to add a third day to obtain a final participation rate of 47.5 percent.

- Opposition urged boycott -

Opposition groups had called for a boycott of this week's election which they labelled a facade.

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There were no presidential debates and Sisi himself did not appear at any official campaign events, although he spoke at a number of ceremonies.

In an interview days ahead of the vote, Sisi said he had wished there were more candidates, denying any role in sidelining them.

At a speech before the vote he also called for a high turnout.

"I need you because the journey is not over," Sisi told a mostly female audience. "I need every lady and mother and sister, please, I need the entire world to see us in the street" voting.

Morsi's removal had ushered in a deadly crackdown that killed and jailed hundreds of Islamists.

A jihadist insurgency since has killed hundreds of policemen and civilians.

The Islamic State group's Egyptian affiliate, which has carried out a number of deadly attacks, has threatened to target election infrastructure.

On Saturday, two policemen were killed in a car bomb targeting the provincial head of security for the northern Alexandria governorate. The security chief was unharmed.

Egyptian cities, especially Cairo, have been flooded with banners showing Sisi and messages of support from business owners. Posters vowing support for Moussa, 65, are rarely seen.

While still popular, Sisi has embarked on tough economic reforms that have been welcomed by foreign investors but dented his popularity at home.
By Robin Emmott and John Irish BRUSSELS/PARIS (Reuters) - France, Britain and Germany sought on Wednesday to persuade their EU partners to back new sanctions on Iran to preserve a nuclear deal with Tehran that U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to pull out of in May, diplomats said. The new measures proposed by London, Paris and Berlin were discussed by the EU's 28 ambassadors and could include members of Iran's most powerful security force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), diplomats said. Trump has given the European signatories a May 12 deadline to "fix the terrible flaws" of the 2015 nuclear deal, which was agreed under his predecessor Barack Obama, or he will refuse to extend U.S. sanctions relief on Iran. The European Union rejects those criticisms. But Britain, France and Germany hope their steps could encourage Trump to issue new waivers preventing U.S. sanctions lifted under the deal from being reimposed next month. In Brussels at the closed-door meeting, the three pushed for agreement on possible travel bans and asset freezes before a foreign ministers' meeting next month, four diplomats told Reuters. Some EU capitals said they need more time, and discussions are expected to continue next week. A total of 15 Iranian individuals and companies are on a list circulated to EU governments, but there was no direct discussion of names at Wednesday's meeting, one diplomat said. Britain, France and Germany have proposed the extra EU sanctions over Iran's ballistic missile programmes and its role in the war in Syria, according to a document seen by Reuters. Diplomats pointed to the next EU foreign ministers' meeting in Luxembourg on April 16, the last formal gathering on the EU agenda before Trump's May deadline, although governments can always convene other sessions. "The idea is to have a final decision on Iran sanctions by or at the April Foreign Affairs Council," the diplomat said. But another diplomat said: "It will be complicated because this will need time to convince the member states." The sanctions would not involve measures that were lifted under the nuclear deal but would instead target individual Iranians that the EU believes are behind Iran's ballistic weapons and its support for the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which is also subject to sanctions. Any Iranians targeted would be subject to asset freezes and bans on travelling to the EU or doing business with companies based in the bloc. SOME EU NATIONS WARY EU envoys discussed possible sanctions on the basis of last week's meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels, who agreed that Iran needed to be held to account for its role in Syria's seven-year war, even while upholding the Iran nuclear accord. At that meeting, France also urged the EU to consider new sanctions on Iran, citing publicly the "proliferation of ballistic missiles and (Tehran's) very questionable role in the near- and Middle East." But countries ranging from Sweden and Ireland to Iran's closest European allies Italy and Greece still need to be convinced. Austria is also wary, one diplomat said. Given strong EU support for the nuclear deal, signed by the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France, Germany, the European Union and Iran, many governments are wary of doing anything that might jeopardise it. Any EU-wide measures would be the first significant punitive steps since the bloc lifted broad economic sanctions on Iran last year following the accord to curb Tehran's nuclear ambitions for at least a decade. Ballistic missiles fired by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi militia killed a man in Riyadh on Sunday. Iran says its missiles are purely defensive weapons. It has given no indication that it would walk away from the nuclear deal due to the proposed new sanctions, which are minor compared with the broad sanctions lifted as part of the deal. (Additional reporting Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by David Stamp and Hugh Lawson)
By Sarah N. Lynch

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, on Tuesday asked a federal judge in Virginia to dismiss an indictment brought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, saying the case falls outside the scope of Mueller's authority and is unrelated to Trump's 2016 election campaign.

Tuesday's motion to dismiss was similar to one filed this month in another federal court in Washington, where Manafort is facing a separate but related indictment also brought by Mueller.

In the Virginia case, which is scheduled to go to trial on July 10, Manafort is facing charges including bank fraud and filing false tax returns.

In the Washington, D.C. case, which has a September trial date, he is accused of conspiring against the United States, conspiring to launder money and failing to register as a foreign agent when he lobbied for the pro-Russia Ukrainian government.

None of the charges against him pertain to the 2016 presidential election or Russian interference.

Although Mueller is tasked with investigating whether Trump's campaign colluded with Russia - something Trump has denied - Mueller is also permitted to probe other matters that arise during the course of his investigation.

In Tuesday's filing in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Manafort's lawyers said the charges against their client should be dropped because they were not a direct result of Mueller's probe.

Rather, they said, the FBI already previously looked into the same underlying facts in 2014 before deciding not to pursue criminal charges.

In addition, they argued that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein exceeded his authority under Justice Department regulations when he drafted his order to appoint Mueller in May 2017 and that it gives Mueller too broad of an investigative mandate.

Manafort earlier this year also filed a civil lawsuit against the Justice Department, Mueller and Rosenstein making some of the same arguments and asking to have the indictment dropped.

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U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson in the District of Columbia will hear arguments in the civil case at a hearing scheduled for April 4.

The two separate indictments against Manafort are seen as unusual. Normally such charges would be consolidated in one court, but Manafort has refused to allow this, which might be a legal tactic meant to make Mueller's case more difficult.

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Cynthia Osterman)
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As the cost of U.S. elections have risen in recent years, the Federal Election Commissions view of its own enforcement role has grown sharply divided along ideological lines. In this context, the question of whether long-time Trump attorney Michael Cohens $130,000 hush money payment to adult actress Stormy Daniels was an illegal campaign contribution is unlikely to be settled soon, or smoothly.

It was very different when I was there, Larry Noble, who served as the commissions general counsel from 1987 to 2000, told Newsweek. There were always partisan differences. But they would try to reach a compromise. Now splits are ideological. Republicans vote against enforcing anybody. Democrats vote to enforce against everybody.

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Congress formed the FEC after the Watergate scandal to regulate campaign finance. Lawmakers ensured it would remain a bipartisan referee by mandating that neither party could control more than three of the six seats. Four votes are required to take action, including opening investigations and assessing civil penalties.

But there are only four commissioners left after Republican Lee Goodman departed from the Commission last month, and all of them are serving long after their six-year terms expired. The office hasnt had a permanent general counsel in over four years. And current and former Republican and Democratic commissioners have engaged in public sniping in recent years, creating an atmosphere of distrust.

As an enforcement agency, it doesnt work, said Noble, who is now general counsel for the non-partisan Campaign Legal Center.

Now, the internal issues of the FEC have been brought to the forefront by the non-disclosure agreement signed by Daniels (given name: Stephanie Clifford).

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In January, independent government watchdog Common Cause filed a complaint with the Justice Department and the FEC alleging Cohens payment to Daniels, which occurred in the final days of the 2016 presidential campaign, was an undisclosed campaign contribution because it was made to influence the election. (Common Cause also filed a similar complaint about a $150,000 payment to former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal in February). The FEC is expected still working through old cases and is expected to take a year or longer to decide on Common Causes complaint, NBC News reported.

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If the Daniels payment is considered a contribution, Cohen could face fines from the FEC and potentially criminal charges since the size of the payment is far above the $2,700 limit on federal campaign contributions. It could also spell trouble for Trump, since his campaign didnt disclose the payment as a contribution.

Although it does have subpoena power, the FEC cannot file criminal charges. But the Justice Department can  and it indicted former North Carolina senator and vice presidential candidate John Edwards in 2011 for breaking campaign finance law in an analogous situation. Prosecutors said payments to Edwards mistress counted as campaign contributions because they were made to keep his his affair secret and his 2008 presidential bid afloat. A federal jury declined to find Edwards guilty. The FEC never took any enforcement action in the case.

The current makeup of the FEC, however, means it is unlikely to recommend any action on the Daniels case.

In recent years, deadlocked 3-3 votes on enforcement matters have increased, according to an analysis released last year by outgoing Democratic FEC commissioner Ann Ravel. In 2006, the commission deadlocked on just 2.9 percent of substantive enforcement votes, but in 2016 that figure increased to 30 percent. Ravels analysis found that fines assessed by the Commission dropped over the same period dropped from $5.5 million to $595,425. A 2016 NBC analysis of more than a year worth of commission votes found that Republicans almost always voted as a block, and that the Democrats and the one Independent on the commission werent far behind.

But Caroline Hunter, a Republican who serves as the current SEC chair, told Newsweek Democrats complaints of a broken commission stem from their inability to advance their pro-regulatory agenda.

Weve been working on the enforcement docket diligently this year and moving along at a good clip, Hunter said. We agree on the vast majority of enforcement cases. There are some places where we have ideological differences on interpreting the law. The Republicans have generally been reluctant to read the law too broadly, and the Democrats, generally speaking, are more regulatory. Thats just a difference of opinion.

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Under the current makeup of the FEC  two Republicans, a Democrat and an Independent  any action on the Daniels case would require a unanimous vote. Common Cause attorney Paul S. Ryan, who brought the Cohen complaint to the FEC, says its a slam dunk that the Commission should open an investigation based on the available evidence, but acknowledged the FEC has not always worked as it should.

Were talking about an agency that has a pretty poor track record in recent years of doing its job and enforcing the law, Ryan told Newsweek. I would be embarrassed if I was an FEC commissioner who voted against the very low bar of opening an investigation.

Others see a more complicated legal question.

It looks like Trump has made these kinds of payments to people before unrelated to his campaign or as a candidate, former Republican FEC chairman Bradley Smith, who is the founder and chair of the Institute for Free Speech, a non-profit advocacy group, told Newsweek. Its hard to show this payment was made solely because he was running for election.

While current commissioners are not authorized to talk about ongoing cases, Ravel, who wrote a New York Times op-ed in February of last year calling the Commission dysfunctional, questioned the motivations of her former Republican colleagues. Ravel said it was common knowledge at the FEC that Hunter was angling for a position in the Trump administration.

Hunter declined to answer questions about claims she was seeking a job while at the FEC. The other Republican commissioner, former FEC chair Matthew Petersen, was already tapped by Trump for the federal judiciary. Despite a qualified rating from the American Bar Association, Petersen failed to answer basic legal questions from Republican Sen. John Kennedy during a confirmation hearing. He consequently withdrew his nomination and returned to the FEC.

Commissioners are usually nominated in pairs, one by each party. Last year, the White House nominated former Trump campaign lawyer Trey Trainor to the FEC. Republicans say they are waiting for a Democratic nominee, but Democrats in Congress have yet to put one forward. Minority leader Sen. Chuck Schumers office did not respond to questions about his partys plan to nominate a Democrat to one of the open commission positions.

Some critics say both parties are to blame for abandoning campaign finance regulation and the FEC.

Yes, its bad under the Trump administration, but it fell into this disrepair during the Obama administration, Common Causes Ryan said. Both parties share the blame. Both parties share a responsibility to fix it.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from Newsweek
Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has decided that he will travel to Washington, D.C., in the next few weeks to testify at upcoming congressional hearings in the wake of a user-data scandal that has roiled the company, CNN reported, citing anonymous sources.

A Facebook spokesman declined to confirm that Zuckerberg will appear before Congress. The company has received several invitations and is in talks with legislators about next steps.

Facebook remains in damage-control mode after news broke about user data that was obtained illicitly by Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm that was contracted to work on Donald Trumps 2016 election campaign and reportedly used the Facebook data to target voters. U.K.-based Cambridge Analytica got its hands on information about some 50 million users  without their knowledge or consent.

On Monday, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley invited Zuckerberg, as well as Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, to appear at an April 10 hearing on data privacy.

Meanwhile, Zuckerberg turned down a request by the U.K.s House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee for him to appear before its Fake News inquiry to explain the Cambridge Analytica situation and how social-media firms are using data for political ad targeting.

On Monday, the Federal Trade Commission officially announced the launch of a non-public investigation into Facebooks data-privacy practices. Specifically, the agency is looking at whether the company violated a 2011 consent decree requiring user consent for sharing data. Facebook faces potential fines of $40,000 per user for violations of the FTC agreement, which could amount to a massive monetary penalty.

Zuckerberg last week issued a statement about the companys handling of the Cambridge Analytica case, and subsequently made select media appearances after several days out of the public eye. He apologized for the breach of trust with users and outlined actions the company has already taken and intends to make.

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Comilla court issues show cause on Dhaka jail authorities

Court Correspondent :

A Comilla court yesterday issued show cause notice to Dhaka Central Jail authorities to explain within 7 days why BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia was not produced before it in an arson case.

Senior Judicial Magistrate Kazi Arafat of Comilla Cognizance Court 5 issued the show cause on the Central Jail

The court also fixed April 8 for hearing on a bail petition of Khaleda Zia in the case.

Earlier, on March 13, the BNP Chief was shown arrested in the case. In the case she has been charged with instigating arson attack on a bus on Dhaka-Chittagong highway in Comilla's Chauddagram area. The incident left seven passengers dead and 25 to 30 others injured on February 3, 2015.

On March 14, the judge of the same court of Comilla rejected a bail petition of Khaleda Zia in the case. It may be remembered that after landing in the prison in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case, she was shown arrested in the case. Besides, the court asked the jail authorities to produce Khaleda Zia before it in the case on March 28 (Wednesday).

The prison authorities of Dhaka have been asked to come forward with the explanation within the next seven days. Meanwhile, it has already been reported that BNP Chief Khaleda Zia is ill that kept her away from appearing before another trial court in Dhaka on Wednesday in connection to the Zia Charitable Trust graft case.




A few days ago, The New Yorker published an article which discusses Ben Afflecks body in minute detail  and the internet is not happy about it. The piece, titled The Great Sadness of Ben Affleck talks about Afflecks gut pooching outward, and even appears to compare the actor and filmmaker to Homer Simpson. Consider this description of a rather unflattering photo which recently surfaced of the film star. His gut is pooching outward in a way that, in a more enlightened country like, say, France, would perhaps be considered virile, not unlike the lusty Gerard Depardieu in his prime but, in fitness-fascist America, tends to read as Homer Simpsonesque, wrote Naomi Fry.
By Ben Klayman DETROIT (Reuters) - A former Michigan State University dean, who supervised the doctor at the center of the USA Gymnastics sex abuse scandal, was himself charged on Tuesday with criminal sexual conduct involving medical school students. A student at the College of Osteopathic Medicine accused William Strampel, 70, of forcible sexual contact, prosecutors said in papers filed in state district court in East Lansing. Prosecutors said other students also accused Strampel of sexual misconduct. The charges emerged during a probe into how Michigan State handled complaints about the gymnastics doctor, special prosecutor William Forsyth told reporters in Lansing. The focus widened after investigators received a tip. The new charges, which Strampel's attorney denied, make the university a bigger target for the "#MeToo" movement that has engulfed powerful men across society in harassment and abuse allegations. "We did what we felt we needed to do and it led us to where we are today," Forsyth said. Strampel was dean from 2002 until the end of 2017. He supervised ex-USA Gymnastics physician Larry Nassar, who has been sentenced to prison for sexually abusing female gymnasts. The four criminal counts against Nassar's former boss include fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct. The accusations also include failing to properly oversee Nassar, whose scandal sparked probes into why the U.S. Olympic Committee, USA Gymnastics and the university failed for years to investigate complaints. After a short hearing in state court in East Lansing, Strampel's attorney John Dakmak told reporters, "My client denies that he ever engaged in any inappropriate touching of anyone. He denies that there was any quid pro quo for sexual favors."Regarding the charges relating to Strampel's supervision of Nassar, Dakmak said his client immediately involved other school officials in 2014 when the complaints surfaced and fired Nassar in 2016 when the sexual assault allegations were made. Michigan State's interim President John Engler said in a statement that one of his first actions upon his appointment in early February was moving to fire Strampel. Engler called the allegations against the former dean "disturbing." "Todays charges confirm our belief that he has fallen short of what is expected and required from academic leadership," Engler said. Four female medical students told investigators Strampel made sexually suggestive comments during meetings, including what some perceived as academic privileges in exchange for sex. Two accused him of grabbing their buttocks without consent. One student described meeting with Strampel in June 2017 to appeal a test score and feeling intimidated when he mentioned her age, saying: "26-year-old women can 'put out' for 20 minutes with an old man ... and in return the women could get the benefit of a free vacation," according to court documents. Another witness said Strampel suggested she become a centerfold model and related to her how another student had become a stripper to pay for school, court documents said. When Strampel agreed to let the student retake a test, he said she must agree to do anything for him, which she interpreted as a request for sex, court documents said. Strampel is also accused of using his position as dean to receive pornographic images of women "through threats and manipulation," court documents said. They said investigators seized his computer in February and found about 50 photos of nude women, sex toys and pornography, including selfies of female students, pornographic videos and a video of Nassar performing "treatment" on a young female patient. Strampel, handcuffed hands clasped in his lap and his legs crossed, appeared at his arraignment via video feed. A split screen showed him expressing little emotion as he interacted with the judge. Judge Richard Ball, citing a lack of criminal history, set a $25,000 personal recognizance bond, meaning Strampel need not post a cash bond. A preliminary hearing is set for May 3. If convicted, he faces five years and a possible fine of $10,000 for a misconduct in office charge, two years and a possible fine of $500 for the fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct charge and one year and a possible fine of $1,000 for each of the two willful neglect of duty charges, according to court documents. An attorney for more than 150 of Nassar's victims said his clients were encouraged by the charges against Strampel. The charges demonstrate that officials are "serious about investigating the systemic misconduct at MSU that led to the largest child sex abuse scandal in history and holding the responsible parties accountable," John Manly said in a statement. Michigan State has been criticized for its handling of Nassar, 54, who was a faculty member and physician at an on-campus clinic. Athletes had complained about Nassar since the 1990s, but the school did not open an investigation until 2014. Nassar was fired in September 2016. He received sentences this year that will keep him in prison for the rest of his life. (Additional reporting by Rebecca Cook in East Lansing, Michigan, Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles and Gina Cherelus in New York; Writing by Scott Malone; Editing by David Gregorio)
Washington (AFP) - President Donald Trump rejected Wednesday a former US Supreme Court judge's call for the repeal of the Second Amendment to the US Constitution, which guarantees the right to bear arms.

"THE SECOND AMENDMENT WILL NEVER BE REPEALED!," Trump wrote in a tweet in response to the appeal by former justice John Paul Stevens.

"As much as Democrats would like to see this happen, and despite the words yesterday of former Supreme Court Justice Stevens, NO WAY. We need more Republicans in 2018 and must ALWAYS hold the Supreme Court!," Trump added.

Stevens made the call Tuesday in an op-ed in The New York Times three days after the "March for Our Lives," a series of nationwide protests that were the largest in support of gun control for nearly two decades and came in response to the Valentine's Day school shooting in Parkland, Florida that left 17 students and staffers dead.

"Rarely in my lifetime have I seen the type of civic engagement school children and their supporters demonstrated in Washington and other major cities throughout the country this past Saturday," wrote the former high court judge, now aged 97.

Stephens, who was nominated to the Supreme Court by Republican president Gerald Ford in 1975, said the protests "reveal the broad public support for legislation to minimize the risk of mass killings of school children and others."

But he said activists, who are calling for a ban on assault rifles and raising the legal age to buy a firearm to 21, should go further in their demands.

"They should demand a repeal of the Second Amendment," he said.

The amendment states that "a well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

"Today that concern is a relic of the 18th century," when states worried that a standing national army could be used against them, Stevens said.

In 2008, the Supreme Court held that the Second Amendment protects the right of individuals to possess firearms for self-defense in the home, in the landmark case "District of Columbia v. Heller." It ruled a ban on handguns and laws on storage requirements for rifles and shotguns violated this.

A decade on, Stevens remains convinced that decision was "wrong and certainly was debatable," and that it has handed the NRA "a propaganda weapon of immense power."
Photo: Getty Images

A Colorado school district plans to move to a four-day school week, starting in August, because of funding issues.

Brighton-based School District 27J announced the planned change in mid-March and currently offers an online guide for parents about the switch. Among other things, the guide says that a four-day week will create a clean, consistent, and concise schedule, give teachers and staff time to better prepare for classes and develop professionally, and allows for the reallocation of funds.

With the change, elementary school students will start their days at 7:50 a.m. and wrap up at 3:30 p.m., while middle school and high school students will start at 8:30 a.m. and be finished at 4:32 p.m. They will go to school Tuesdays through Fridays.

Were confident its going to attract teachers and keep them, District 27J Superintendent Chris Fiedler told KUSA-TV in Denver. I havent had teachers say that this is a horrible idea.

Fielder says in the parent guide that he realizes the change is significant for students, parents, and the community. But our district can no longer be expected to do more with less financial resources, he said.

The new schedule was announced after the district failed six times to get more money through bond elections. By eliminating Mondays from the school week, Fielder says the district hopes to save about $1 million through not running school buses on those days and not having to hire substitute teachers on Mondays, as well as savings on utility costs.

While budget was repeatedly mentioned in the reasoning for the move, Tracy Rudnick, public information officer for School District 27J, tells Yahoo Lifestyle that its really about attracting talented and qualified teachers so that students can have a better education. We are one of the lowest-funded school districts in the state of Colorado, so our teachers are paid very low wages compared to neighboring districts where they can make up to $10,000 a year more, she says. If we cannot pay them like professionals, were going to treat them like professionals.

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Rudnick says that reaction from parents has been mixed. Some love the fact that theyre going to have another day with their children at home, while others are concerned about childcare on Mondays, especially if they have younger students. Thats why Rudnick says the district is offering childcare on Mondays for $30 a day. Weve already had over 700 families express interest in that, she says.

The move seems a little unusual, but there is some precedence for this, John Conrath, PhD, a senior lecturer in Ohio State Universitys Department of Educational Studies, tells Yahoo Lifestyle. There have been attempts to do this sort of thing in the past, and its generally almost always for budgetary reasons, he says.

Clearly, this can help the district save some money. But the impact on other areas is harder to predict. Determining the effects on students, staff, and parents  that gets to be much more complex, Conrath says. And, he adds, in almost every case, the impact is different from school to school.

Heres what is known, though: These kinds of changes seem to be easier on older students than on their younger counterparts. Older students seem to adapt more readily, are more flexible, and have parents who seem to be more flexible in making these changes, Conrath says. With younger students, it always becomes problematic.

As for whether its actually possible to jam five days of education into four, Conrath says anything is possible.

Though trends in education have come and gone, Conrath points out that things pretty much always go back to normal. There really has not been a major movement in education in the last 60 years that affects the amount of time or the scheduling of time with students that has been able to be sustained, he says Almost universally, those efforts have reverted back to the traditional five hours day, five days a week.

Worth noting: Several Colorado school districts are currently operating on a four-day week. Even if the School District 27J budget improves, Rudnick says there are no plans to revert to a five-day week. As for now, funding is still one of the main concerns. We still need and would like additional funding, she says. Its very important.

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Paris (AFP) - President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday hailed a policeman who sacrificed his life in an Islamist attack as a symbol of the "French spirit of resistance" and urged the nation to be vigilant in the face of an "insidious" jihadist threat.

"The name of his attacker will be forgotten, but the name of Arnaud Beltrame will live on," Macron told a national ceremony to honour the officer, one of four victims of Friday's shooting spree in southwestern France.

The French leader vowed to ensure "he will not have died in vain".

"His example will remain etched in French hearts," the president told hundreds gathered in the rain at the historic Invalides military museum and hospital in central Paris.

Beltrame, a 44-year-old member of the gendarmerie military police force, died offering to take the place of a female checkout worker whom attacker Radouane Lakdim was using as a human shield at a supermarket in the town of Trebes.

Lakdim, who claimed allegiance to the Islamic State group, had already shot dead the passenger of a car he hijacked in nearby Carcassonne, before driving to the supermarket and killing two more people there.

Beltrame hoped to be able to negotiate with the 25-year-old, but Lakdim stabbed him in the throat and the officer died of his wounds the next morning.

His coffin lay draped in the French flag on a wooden bier in the vast cobbled courtyard of Les Invalides during Wednesday's ceremony.

Contrasting the deaths of Beltrame and his killer Macron said Lakdim had died "a cowardly death obtained through the murder of innocents".

After the worst attack of his presidency so far, he urged heightened vigilance against Islamic extremists who have claimed more than 240 lives in France over the past three years, including the massacres in Paris and Nice.

"We are not just fighting terrorist groups, the armies of Daesh and imams who preach hate and death," Macron said, using another name for the Islamic State group.

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France is also facing a form of "underground Islamism" that "corrupts on a daily basis", he said, blasting it as "an insidious enemy which requires renewed vigilance and civic-mindedness from every citizen".

- 'Man with a big heart' -

Thousands of people lined the streets as Beltrame's funeral cortege made its way through Paris for the ceremony.

"It's important for me to be here to pay tribute to all the police officers who protect us on a daily basis and risk their lives for us," said 64-year-old Andree.

Some 400 people including former presidents Francois Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy attended the ceremony, where Beltrame was posthumously made a Commander of the Legion of Honour and promoted to the rank of colonel.

His widow Marielle and other family members were also at the ceremony, along with relatives of Lakdim's other victims, including four people wounded in the shooting spree.

Across the country, police stations paused for a minute's silence at 10.00 am.

Family members have said it was typical of Beltrame, who trained as a paratrooper and served in Iraq, to put others first.

"You behaved in your last moments just as you behaved throughout your whole life: as a patriot, as a good man, as a man with a big heart," his brother Damien wrote on Facebook.

Flowers have been piling up outside his local gendarmerie base in Carcassonne, where a note on one bouquet read: "Thanks to you, Arnaud, France is beautiful."

Rightwing opposition leader Laurent Wauquiez and far-right leader Marine Le Pen have accused the government of a laxist approach to the jihadist approach.

The government has rejected criticism that the attack could have been prevented through tougher measures such as the preventive detention of known extremists.

Lakdim, who had previous convictions for drug use and handling a banned weapon, had been on a list of suspected extremists since 2014 and was being monitored.

"There is a clear refusal to accept that Islamic fundamentalism has declared war on France," Le Pen told Sud Radio on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe has hit back at politicians who "promise people zero risk", and rejected hardline proposals from rightwingers such as an outright ban on ultraconservative Islam.

France already has "a legal arsenal" to "understand, monitor and sanction" extremists, Philippe said.
Paris (AFP) - Mourners were to gather in Paris on Wednesday for a silent march to condemn the gruesome killing of an 85-year-old Jewish woman, the latest of several anti-Semitic attacks that have rattled France's Jewish community.

Mireille Knoll, who escaped a notorious roundup and deportation of Jews from Paris during World War II, was found dead in her bed in her small apartment in eastern Paris last Friday by firefighters called to extinguish a blaze.

Police arrested a neighbour and another suspect who have been charged.

Investigators are working on the theory that Knoll's killers stabbed her, robbed her and set her body on fire because she was a Jew.

"The terrible thing is that one of the attackers told the other: 'She's a Jew, she must have money'," Interior Minister Gerard Collomb told parliament on Tuesday.

"There are stereotypes we have to fight."

Several leading politicians including Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo have said they will attend the march from 1630 GMT, making their way from Place de la Nation to Knoll's home in the city's east.

Parliamentary proceedings will be suspended to allow politicians to join the march, a joint statement from the National Assembly and the presidents of parliamentary groups said.

Notably absent will be officials from the far-right National Front whose presence "is not wanted", said Francis Kalifat of the CRIF umbrella group of French Jewish organisations.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe also plans to meet with Knoll's family on Wednesday.

The death of the frail octogenarian -- she was suffering from Parkinson's disease, one of her sons said -- has shocked France's Jewish community, coming a year after an Orthodox Jewish woman in her sixties was thrown out the window of her Paris flat by a neighbour shouting "Allahu Akhbar" (God is greatest).

A judge confirmed just last month that the April 2017 murder of Sarah Halimi was motivated by anti-Semitism, a delay that drew the ire of several Jewish groups.

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Halimi's murder reignited the debate over anti-Semitism in working-class districts in France, where Jews have been targeted in several deadly jihadist attacks in recent years.

France's half-a-million-plus Jewish community is the largest in Europe but has been hit by a wave of emigration to Israel in the past two decades, partly due to the emergence of a virulent strain of anti-Semitism in predominantly immigrant neighbourhoods.

In 2012, an Islamist gunman shot dead three children and a teacher at a Jewish school in the southwestern city of Toulouse.

Three years later, an associate of the two brothers who massacred a group of cartoonists at satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo killed four people in a hostage-taking at a Jewish supermarket in Paris.
Holding the casket The national homage includes a minutes silence in French police stations and myriad events in schools that both honour Mr Beltrames memory and provide a focal point for national grief after last Fridays killing spree. (PA)

The policeman who died in last weeks extremist attack in southern France is being honoured in an elaborate, daylong national homage led by French President Emmanuel Macron.

Lieutenant Colonel Arnaud Beltrame, 45, was shot in the neck last Friday after offering to take the place of a woman during a gunmans assault on the Super U supermarket in Trebes.

The coffin of Beltrame was carried in procession in the Wednesday morning drizzle from the Pantheon across Paris to the Hotel des Invalides, the final resting place of Napoleon.

The French president will deliver a public eulogy in front of colleagues and family of Mr Beltrame, who died of his wounds on Saturday morning, hours after swapping himself for a hostage during a siege in a supermarket.

During the ceremony, Mr Macron will posthumously award Mr Beltrame the Legion of Honour, Frances highest award.

The national homage includes a minutes silence in French police stations and myriad events in schools that both honour Mr Beltrames memory and provide a focal point for national grief after last Fridays killing spree.

Some 2,000 high school students and scores of police attended the Paris event that began as gendarmes sang the French revolutionary anthem the Marseillaise in the stone courtyard of the French Interior Ministry.
The first funerals were held on March 28 for victims of a fire at a shopping mall that killed 64 people in the Siberian city of Kemerovo, Radio Free Europe reported.

The funerals took place as the country observed an official day of mourning after the tragedy, Radio Free Europe said.

It followed numerous protests in the city and calls for the regional governor to be sacked, after investigators said that fire exits at the mall were blocked and a fire alarm system was out of service, acocrding to Radio Free Europe. Credit: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty via Storyful
By William James LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May will promise Britain bright prospects outside the European Union on Thursday when she tours a country still deeply divided about its future as the countdown to Brexit starts its last 12 months. Britain will leave the European Union at 2300 GMT on March 29, 2019, severing ties that helped define its national identity, its laws, and its international stature over 46 years of integration with European neighbors. The world's sixth largest economy caused a major global shock in 2016 by narrowly voting to withdraw from the EU after a fevered referendum campaign that sharpened regional divisions, pitted young against old, and exposed a deep distrust between voters and the political establishment. In the 21 months since the referendum vote, May, who became prime minister in the resulting political chaos, has struggled to unite the country behind a single vision of Brexit. Polls show voters' disparate views on leaving are entrenched, and few have any certainty about Britain's long term future. On Thursday, May will meet voters in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland -- a whirlwind tour designed as a rallying cry for the union between the four nations, and to paint a positive post-Brexit vision. "I am determined that our future will be a bright one," she said ahead of the roughly 800-mile (1,280 km) trip ending in London. "It's a future in which we trade freely with friends and partners across Europe and beyond. Having regained control of our laws, our borders and our money, and seized the opportunities provided by Brexit, the UK will thrive as a strong and united country that works for everyone, no matter whether you voted Leave or Remain." LONG WAY TO GO May, 61, has 12 months to plot a successful course through difficult political and economic terrain. Brexiteers fret that the EU divorce is taking too long and could be reversed. Pro-EU campaigners still push for a less radical exit or a second referendum. At home, May only has a small majority in parliament and must find a way to corral her Conservative Party, which is still split over the best Brexit plan, into backing legislation that will prepare Britain for life outside the bloc. That task has so far swamped her government and its administrative machine, leading to accusations she has taken the eye off the ball on domestic policy and given the socialist-led Labour Party a chance to build support ahead of a 2022 election. In Brussels, May's ministers have won little in the way of concessions from the EU negotiating team, setting a difficult tone for upcoming talks on long-term trading ties - particularly when it comes to the future of Britain's economic engine: its financial services sector. But, a transitional deal that effectively keeps Britain inside the EU single market until the end of 2020, agreed in principle last week with Brussels, has calmed anxious businesses and bought May time to work out the details of post-Brexit policy. Among those challenges will be holding together the United Kingdom, made up of four nations which were split at the referendum: Wales and England voted to leave the EU, Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to remain. Scotland and Wales are drawing up contingency plans to protect their own interests in case they can not reach agreement with May on how powers regained from Brussels are redistributed. Northern Ireland is into a second year of a political crisis that has left it without a devolved administration, and the future management of its land border with EU-member Ireland is one of the thorniest issues outstanding in talks with Brussels. Against that backdrop, May's tour on Thursday will focus on meeting a cross-section of voters to reassure them that she is working to tear down the barriers thrown up by the referendum, and that whether they voted 'Leave' or 'Remain', they will be better off after Brexit. "I am determined that as we leave the EU, and in the years ahead, we will strengthen the bonds that unite us, because ours is the worlds most successful union," she said. (Reporting by William James; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
Banjul (Gambia) (AFP) - The Gambian army has filed desertion charges against two renegade generals who went into exile with former president Yahya Jammeh last year, the force told AFP on Wednesday.

General Umpa Mendy and General Ansumana Tamba sought refuge in Equatorial Guinea alongside Jammeh in January 2017 after his brutal 22-year rule came to an end.

Major Lamin Sanyang, an army spokesman, said the pair were "charged with desertion of duty contrary to the Gambia Armed Forces Act", and would appear before a general court martial on April 4.

Mendy was in personal charge of protecting the mercurial former leader, while Tamba was the head of his presidential guard.

The top brass left the country on board Jammeh's plane bound for exile in Equatorial Guinea on January 21, 2017.

The former president's refusal to step down after losing an election the month before to unknown businessman Adama Barrow pushed neighbouring countries to the brink of a military intervention, until Jammeh conceded at the 11th hour.

The generals' arrival caused controversy as airport staff waved them through without attempting to detain them for questioning.

Elements of The Gambia's armed forces are known to have maintained support for the former president and a number of soldiers are on trial on treason and mutiny charges for plotting to overthrow the country's newly elected government.

The country is still being secured by soldiers deployed by the ECOWAS regional grouping until reform of the security services is complete.
Khaleda's bail extended till April 5

Court Correspondent :

The Special Court-5 of Dhaka yesterday extended BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia's bail till April 5 in Zia Charitable Trust graft case. Dr Md Akhtaruzzaman, Judge of the court passed the order on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the BNP Chairperson was not produced in the court yesterday although strict security measures were taken in the court area on the occasion. It has been learned that Khaleda Zia was not produced before the court due to her sickness.

Earlier on March 13, the same court ordered the prison authorities to

produce the BNP leader in the court on March 28 and 29 on the occasion of submission of arguments in the Zia Charitable Trust graft case.

Earlier, Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) lawyer Mosharraf Hossain Kajal had applied to the court to produce Khaleda Zia before the court. He said, it is not possible to place arguments in the case without the presence of Khaleda Zia in the court. So the court ordered Khaleda Zia to appear before the court on the fixed date.

On August 8, 2010, the ACC filed the Zia Charitable Trust graft case with Tejgaon Model Police Station accusing four persons including Khaleda Zia for misappropriating over Tk 3 crore 15 lakh and 43 thousand that came as grant from a foreign bank for orphans. On February 8, the Special Court-5 of Dhaka sentenced Khaleda Zia to five years imprisonment in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case. He was then taken to the prison of old Dhaka.
Warning: Spoilers ahead.

Mark Hamill just gave a glimpse at what could have been.

Star Wars creator George Lucas had other plans for Hamills character, Luke Skywalker, the actor said in an interview with IGN published Monday.

I happen to know that George didnt kill Luke until the end of [Episode] IX, after he trained Leia, Hamill said, referring to a forthcoming film in the series.

This is the first weve heard of Lucas ever planning to kill off Luke. The character dies at the end of 2017s The Last Jedi, which was directed by Rian Johnson. Lucas sold the rights to the series to Disney and is not writing or directing any installments in the latest trilogy.

Actor Mark Hamill poses on his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame after it was unveiled on March 8. (Photo: Mario Anzuoni / Reuters)

This is also the first weve heard of Leia becoming a Jedi in one of the films. She is portrayed as one in other Star Wars products. To many fans dismay, Lucasfilm announced in April 2014 that stories depicted in books, video games and comics would no longer be considered authorized canon.

With Lukes exit in The Last Jedi  though he could return as a Force ghost  and Carrie Fishers death in December 2016, Lucas version is not one were ever going to see.

Lucas did famously save one character from an early demise: Han Solo. Screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan and Harrison Ford, who played Han, thought the character should die in the first trilogy.

J.J. Abrams is returning to the series to direct the as-yet-untitled Star Wars: Episode IX, which is scheduled for a Dec. 20, 2019, release. He directed The Force Awakens, the first entry in the latest trilogy.

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United Nations (United States) (AFP) - Germany on Wednesday rejected claims that it violated a supposed decades-old agreement to let Israel run unopposed for a seat on the United Nations Security Council.

Pro-Israel activists in the United States have accused Berlin of not honoring an agreement struck almost 20 years ago when the Jewish state joined the Western European and Others (WEOG) regional group at the UN.

The deal purportedly included a promise to let Israel run uncontested for one of the non-permanent seats reserved for the regional group, but Germany denies that such a pledge was made.

"It's always been the case in the past that there are different candidacies," German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told journalists in New York where he was lobbying for Berlin's candidacy.

"We do not run against anyone. We are running for a seat at the Security Council."

Israel, Germany and Belgium are vying for the two seats reserved for the regional group in elections at the General Assembly on June 8.

In all, five seats are up for grabs but three of those are reserved for Africa, Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region, which traditionally have rallied around one candidate from their group.

The five new members will serve a two-year term starting in 2019.

Maas pointed out that Germany seeks a non-permanent seat every eight years, "so this is an issue that one can deal with in a very normal way."

If elected, Germany would be making its sixth stint at the council.

The New York Post ran an op-ed accusing Germany of a "shameless power play against Israel."

President Donald Trump's designated ambassador to Berlin, Richard Grenell, also weighed in, demanding on Twitter that "Europe keep its word."

To win election to the council, candidate-countries must win a two-thirds majority in the 193-nation assembly.

Germany last served on the council in 2011-2012 as one of the 10 non-permanent members alongside the five veto-wielding powers: Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.

The foreign minister said Germany -- already among the top UN financial contributors -- stands ready to take on additional responsibilities as a council member.

"We live in times where we need more United Nations and not less as some believe," he said.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's visit to China -- his first overseas trip since inheriting power in 2011 -- is the most tangible and dramatic step so far in a four-way diplomatic dance.

It comes with Kim due to hold a summit next month with South Korea's Moon Jae-in, and ahead of a planned meeting with US President Donald Trump -- events that give both Pyongyang and Beijing new incentives to repair their battered relationship, analysts say.

China wants to regain its influence in what it sees as its back yard, and protect its interests.

"Order is restored under heaven," tweeted veteran Korea-watcher Aidan Foster-Carter, adding that upcoming summits would be different in tone and content now Kim and Xi Jinping have met.

Kim's meeting with the Chinese president brings Beijing back onto a stage where it had played a key role for decades as Pyongyang's diplomatic guardian and its chief source of aid and trade.

For the North, it is a chance to rekindle a relationship it has seemingly deliberately allowed to cool -- and the prospect of an insurance policy if talks with Washington do not go well.

The rapprochement has been brought about by the same events that have driven Pyongyang's detente with Seoul and Washington: the North's nuclear advances, Washington's hardline rhetoric and the growing impact of sanctions on the economy.

An atmosphere of cooperation fostered by the Winter Olympics in the South catalysed the process.

But the appointment of the hawkish John Bolton as national security adviser has heightened fears that the US might resort to military action if Trump is disappointed by his meeting with Kim.

The US and North Korea still have wildly diverging views of the North's nuclear programme, said Beijing-based independent political commentator Hua Po, adding the summit could go "a lot of different ways".

If the negotiations fail, he said, Kim will "want China's understanding and support".

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"Therefore, Kim must come and communicate with China," Hua told AFP.

Pyongyang is looking to stay one step ahead in the diplomatic dalliance, added Kim Han-kwon, a professor at the Korea National Diplomatic Academy.

"North Korea is trying to secure another bargaining chip by showcasing improved ties with China," he said.

- North Korea playbook -

Relations between Beijing and Pyongyang were forged in the blood of the Korean War, when Mao Zedong's forces saved Kim Il Sung from defeat, but China has grown increasingly frustrated with its neighbour's nuclear and missile antics.

It has shown a new willingness to enforce tougher UN sanctions, including restrictions on oil supplies to the isolated regime.

Cheong Seong-Chang, senior fellow at the Sejong Institute, said: "Considering the deterioration of North Korea's economy from international sanctions, China is the country that the North most urgently needs to mend ties with."

But it's not a one-way street.

Beijing fears the collapse of the regime in Pyongyang and the instability it would bring, potentially sending waves of refugees into China and heralding the possibility of US troops stationed on its border in a unified Korea.

And the flurry of diplomatic progress on the peninsula, orchestrated by the South's Moon, has threatened to sideline Beijing.

China wants to see reduced tensions, said Bill Bishop, publisher of the Sinocism China Newsletter, but also wants to be the only country with leverage over its nuclear-armed neighbour.

"China doesn't want a nuclearised peninsula but they also don't want any steps toward unification," Bishop told AFP.

"They're concerned about being left out, with the North Koreans cutting a deal with the Americans that doesn't necessarily reflect Chinese interests."

And there is historical precedent for the meeting.

Christopher Green, an analyst at the International Crisis Group, pointed out that Kim's father and predecessor Kim Jong Il travelled to Beijing to meet with the then Chinese leader Jiang Zemin in 2000, ahead of the first inter-Korean summit.

"North Korea is playing its diplomatic cards professionally, and moreover in order," tweeted Green.

Like his son, he added, for the first six years of his rule the older Kim stayed in North Korea "securing his rule domestically, often violently" before starting to meet foreign leaders.

"That is the playbook Kim Jong Un is following."
By Cheikh Amadou Diouara BAMAKO (Reuters) - Unidentified gunmen killed one person and wounded at least two others late on Wednesday in an attack on a hotel in the central Mali town of Bandiagara regularly frequented by United Nations staff and humanitarian workers, witnesses said. Just two days ago, Prime Minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga visited Bandiagara and gave a speech in which he promised to defeat the Islamist insurgents who have plunged Mali's central and northern regions into chaos. Five men approached the entrance to Bandiagara's Hotel la Falaise on foot at around 9.30 p.m. (2130 GMT), removed rifles from beneath their flowing traditional robes and opened fire, several witnesses said. "They were walking calmly and seemed normal," said Bocar Karambe, a driver who was across the street from the hotel when the attack began. "Once they arrived in front of the gate, we heard the gunfire. When I turned around I saw they were shooting point blank at the people in front of the hotel," he said. At least three people, a soldier guarding the entrance and two hotel workers, were struck by bullets. The soldier later succumbed to his injuries, Karambe and a second witness said. One attacker was also killed. "I saw the body of one of the attackers lying on the ground. He had been shot by that same soldier before he was himself gunned down by the other assailants," said Barema Kassogue, who sells antiques near the hotel. The Hotel la Falaise was once popular with tourists visiting the Dogon people, who inhabit the cliffs of Mali's central plateau. However, the area's tourism industry dried up after Islamist groups, some with links to al Qaeda, seized Mali's desert north in 2012. They were driven back by a French-led military intervention a year later, but attacks remain frequent. The hotel now mainly caters to humanitarian aid workers responding to the consequences of the violence. Prime Minister Maiga and eight of his ministers began a nine-stop national tour last week aimed at shoring up support for the government of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita ahead of national elections planned for July 29. The trip included stops in several areas senior government officials rarely visit because of security concerns. Central Mali's once peaceful Mopti region, which includes Bandiagara, has become a new flashpoint for violence over the past year as marginalized Fulani herdsmen have joined forces with al Qaeda-allied Islamists based farther north. (Reporting by Cheikh Amadou Diouara; Writing by Joe Bavier; editing by Grant McCool)
Port-au-Prince (AFP) - More than 200 journalists and supporters marched in silence Wednesday in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince to demand answers over the disappearance two weeks ago of freelance photojournalist Vladjimir Legagneur, amid mounting fears he may have been killed.

"Where is Vladjimir?" read the banner carried by those leading the protest.

Legagneur, 30, has not been seen since March 14, when he left his home for an assignment in Grand-Ravine, one of the poorest and roughest parts of the city that has been the scene in recent years of bloody gang wars.

Rumors he may have been assassinated have circulated in media circles and on social media, but his family and friends are still pressing the authorities for official news of his fate -- and action.

"We don't need expressions of solidarity from government ministries or officials. Society put them in office to act. We want to see action, concrete action," said journalist Lunie Joseph, reading a statement from press associations.

"We are here to express our anger and rage in the face of the laziness and lack of interest shown by police and justice officials about the disappearance" of Legagneur, the text says.

The missing journalist's wife, Fleurette Guerrier, has been looking for her husband since the night of March 14. After two days, she filed a report with Haitian authorities but they have yet to provide any concrete information.

National police spokesman Frantz Lerebours said Monday: "In these kinds of cases, where there have been no demands for ransom, we fear a fatal outcome."

Press advocacy group Reporters without Borders (RSF) has expressed its concern for his fate and urged police to conduct a thorough probe.

Guerrier filed a fresh complaint with prosecutors on Wednesday, hoping for news.

"Today's turnout showed me that people are moved, that they too want results: the authorities must give me an answer about what happened to Vladjimir," Guerrier told AFP by phone.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - One of the militants killed in a U.S. air strike in Libya over the weekend was a "high-ranking" official in al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the Pentagon said on Wednesday. The strike on Saturday, the first against al Qaeda militants in Libya, killed "two terrorists" as part of efforts to deny militants a safe haven in the country's vast desert. The military had previously acknowledged the weekend strike, but had not until now said who the target of the strike was. In a statement, the U.S. military said Musa Abu Dawud, the senior al Qaeda militant, had trained recruits in Libya to carry out attacks in the region. "He provided critical logistics support, funding and weapons to AQIM, enabling the terrorist group to threaten and attack U.S. and Western interests in the region," U.S. Africa Command said. The Saturday strike had hit on the outskirts of the city of Ubari and was carried out in coordination with the internationally recognized Government of National Accord in Tripoli. (Reporting by Idrees Ali, editing by G Crosse)
Addis Ababa (AFP) - For the first time, Ethiopia has picked a leader from the Oromo ethnic group that drove years of anti-government protests, and analysts say Abiy Ahmed faces a tricky task of reconciliation and reform.

The 42-year-old former minister of science and technology will take the reigns of one Africa's fastest growing economies after more than two years of protests and political turmoil that led to Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn's shock resignation last month.

But analysts say Abiy cannot stabilise Ethiopia unless he convinces the country's long-serving ruling coalition to change its authoritarian ways.

First on his agenda, they say, should be repealing a widely criticised state of emergency imposed after Hailemariam's resignation last month.

"Lifting the state of emergency is, I think, the first or most important step. Without that, there is no reform agenda," said Awol Allo, an Ethiopian political commentator who teaches law in Britain.

Ethiopia's spiral into crisis began in late 2015 when Oromo activists who have long complained of marginalisation condemned a government development plan they felt was unfair.

This sparked protests that would spread across the country and cause hundreds of deaths and tens of thousands of arrests.

Their grievances were targeted at the all-powerful Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), the coalition of four ethnically based parties which has ruled Ethiopia since chasing the communist Derg regime from power in 1991.

The government declared a 10-month state of emergency in October 2016 to stop the protests, but many from the Oromo and the second-largest ethnic group the Amhara still feel alienated from a government they criticise for locking up dissidents and ignoring the demands of local communities.

"His priority should be to calm the country and, secondly, he needs to address the questions of the youth because the young people are the ones that can help our country," Hana Dabele, a data encoder in the capital Addis Ababa, said of Abiy.

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- A process of secrecy -

After organising a mass release of jailed politicians and journalists last January in a reaction to the public disenchantment, Hailemariam made the surprise decision to resign.

Shortly after, Abiy was elevated to the top post of the Oromo Peoples' Democratic Organization (OPDO), the party representing Oromos in the EPRDF, as the coalition scrambled to find a successor.

Long seen as a tool of more powerful EPRDF factions, the OPDO had raised its political clout last year by reaching out to the protesters.

Abiy, then a top OPDO official, was part of that outreach, and Awol said believes he will continue that reform push as prime minister.

"When you look at the change that has taken place within the OPDO as an organisation, I think there is every reason to believe that Ahmed will ... push some of the reform agenda set up by his own party," Awol said.

Abiy's election as party chairman was made by 180 top EPRDF officials in a vote behind closed doors about which few details have been released.

While some analysts believe the vote was swayed by the protests, a former diplomat in Ethiopia also highlighted the central role Oromos play in the rapidly growing economy, and the EPRDF's desire to have Ethiopia, still one of Africa's poorest countries, reach middle-income status by 2025.

With the entire process done in secret, Ethiopian political analyst Hallelujah Lulie said it's unclear what promises Abiy made to other EPRDF parties to gain their support.

"We don't know on what terms ... Abiy is coming to the post," he said.

- The struggle continues -

Aside from a decision on the state of emergency, observers will be watching what happens to 11 high-profile dissidents who were arrested this week, some of whom had left prison last month in the prisoner release.

In the countryside, the protesters are waiting.

"I will be happy if (Abiy) responds to Oromo" demands, a protester who participated in demonstrations in the restive town of Ambo two years ago told AFP on condition of anonymity.

But if he doesn't, the protester says "Oromo people (will) not give up the struggle."
BUDAPEST (Reuters) - A Syrian man who is under U.S. sanctions for assisting the Syrian government received residency status in Hungary under a visa bond program launched by Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government, two Hungarian websites reported. The investigative portals Direkt36 and 444.hu said on Wednesday in a joint report, citing unnamed sources, that Hungary gave a residency permit to Atiya Khoury, who the United States accused in 2016 of paying for fuel procurements for President Bashar al-Assad's government. The "golden visa scheme" launched in 2013, which guarantees temporary residency for at least five years to foreigners buying a Hungarian bond for up to 300,000 euros, helped Hungary raise funds at a time when its credit rating languished in "junk" status. Hungary halted the program last year. Orban's chief of staff Janos Lazar told a regular news conference that national security bodies had screened all those who had bought residency bonds. "I'm sure that they screened everyone very thoroughly ... I have no doubt about that," he said when asked repeatedly about the report. He did not address specific details in the report. The websites' allegation that certain Syrians were among those allowed to buy residency comes at a sensitive time for Orban's right-wing government which has been fiercely campaigning against Muslim immigrants ahead of an election on April 8. The websites said it could also be a worrying lapse of national security, if it were confirmed. Orban is seeking a third consecutive term and his party has a lead over the opposition in the opinion polls. The opposition Socialist party urged the government to clarify whether it let "criminals" settle in Hungary, and the opposition Democratic Coalition and LMP parties demanded more clarity on the issue. The Immigration Office did not reply to Reuters questions regarding the identity of the man who the websites said received his status under the bond program. The government did not respond to Reuters requests for comment. Hungary's intelligence agency did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment. Reuters could not independently verify the websites' report, which did not say when the Syrian man was given the visa. Direkt36 said it received a list of names from an unnamed source which included individuals from several countries, not just Syria, who took part in the visa program. Another source familiar with the administrative process confirmed the man and his relatives received residency permits through the program, Direkt36 said. It highlighted a second Syrian man who Italian authorities suspect took part in an international money-laundering scheme. Direkt36 said he was detained by police on Nov. 28, 2017, in Hungary. Police did not reply to requests for comment. The U.S. Treasury Department said on its website at the time when it imposed sanctions that the man the Hungarian websites identified, alternatively spelled as Atiya Khouri by the U.S. Treasury, operated a firm Moneta Transfer & Exchange and moved cash between Syria, Lebanon, and Russia on behalf of another man, and with authority from the government of Syria, "He paid for fuel procurement for the government of Syria using Moneta Transfer & Exchange and received a commission for these transactions," it added at the time. It was not possible to contact the man. (Reporting by Krisztina Than; Editing by Alison Williams)
Sebastien Roblin

Security, Asia

But will it happen?

The Indian Air Force's next Super Weapon Could Be the F-35 or F/A-18

When the Times of India revealed that the Indian air force was revising its single-engine fighter competition to encompass twin-engine jet designs, a collective groan likely rang from New Delhi to Washingtonand even Stockholm.

The competition was meant to acquire a new generation of short-range jets suitable for defending Indias borders. The Indian air force is gradually retiring its 1950s-era MiG-21 single-engine fighter jets over the next few decades. Currently, it has only thirty-three squadrons of combat aircraft out of a planned forty-four, with ten more squadrons set to retire their aircraft over the coming decade.

An analyst quoted by the Times of India characterized Indias Ministry of Defense as constantly changing their rules, changing their minds and having a knack for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. The exasperation stems from two factors. The first is that the single-engine competition had narrowed down to just two choices, the American F-16 and Swedish JAS 39 Gripen. If the government had simply stuck to the original guidelines, the Indian air force could have begun receiving 115 new fighters by the early 2020s and retained domestic production facilities to build even more if desired.

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The second factor is that the Indian government is notorious for its incredibly slow arms procurement processthat often results in dysfunctional weapon systems and partially or completely cancelled orders. Take the preceding Medium Multi-Role Competition (MMCR) which began in the year 2001: even though the Indian air force wanted to order more Mirage 2000s, New Delhi insisted on holding a competition that took so long that the Mirage 2000 stopped being available for production. Fifteen years later, bickering over technology transfers led India to order just thirty-six more advanced and expensive Rafale fightersout of the 126 aircraft originally stipulated.

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Then there is the domestically built single-engine HAL Tejas (Radiant) Light Combat Aircraft, which India began developing in the 1980s. Over three decades later, the delta-wing fighter has proven so underpowered that the Indian navy refused to adopt it into service and the air force reduced the size of its order. Although HAL is working on an improved Tejas Mark IA and II which may correct some of the aircrafts flaws, production is lagging behind schedule.

So, unless the Ministry of Defense moves more quickly than before, selection and procurement of replacement fighters could drag on for years while the fighter force continues to shrink.

Bargaining for Better?

The single-engine requirement was supposedly revised because the Indian air force never really wanted to constrain the competition to light fighters in the first place. Instead, the Indian air force wanted to procure the rest of the medium fighters the MMCR project failed to obtain. This may have coincided with recent public furor over the cost-per-plane of the Rafale, causing the Modi administration to open up the new competition to a wider range of fighter types.

Single-engine fighters are significantly cheaper and more cost-efficient to operate than their twin-engine counterparts. Twin-engine fighters tend to boast greater range and weapons capacity. As Indias chief likely adversary, Pakistan, is a short hop across the border, short-range fighters have a viable role to play in Indias defense strategy. A downside of single-engine jets is that they tend to suffer higher accident rates because they lack a backup engine.

The single-engine competition had narrowed down to either the updated F-16 Block 70 or the Saab JAS-39 Gripen-E. While the Swedish jet is more advanced, the super F-16 would have been cheaper up front and come with advantageous export conditions due to the U.S. Foreign Military Sales program. Though both aircraft would have been manufactured in India by partner companies, the F-16 deal would have involved an opportunity for India to become the sole distributor of the popular airframe.

Some critics of the single-engine competition grumbled that investing top dollars on an upgraded version of a fighter developed in the 1970s was not a sound investment for the future. However, the Gripen-E and F-16 Block 70 technically both remain on the table, even though the number of eligible competitors has increased.

Notable new twin-engine contenders now include the American Super Hornet, the Eurofighter Typhoon, the French Rafale, and the Russian Su-35 or MiG-35. The Russian fighters offer good bang-for-buck on paper, but India has been frustrated by poor after sales support and frequent breakdowns in much of its Russian hardwareincluding the MiG-29 and Su-30MKI jets.

Another factor is the Indian navy, which has to account for fifty-seven naval fighters operating from its current ski-jump-style aircraft carriers as well as a planned catapult-equipped flat top carriers. The aircraft under consideration are the FA-18E Super Hornet, the Rafale-M, a navalized Gripen, and the MiG-29Kall of which have land-based counterparts. If both the Indian navy and air force end up choosing similar aircraft, there could be significant cost-savings in terms of spare parts and training.

The Super Hornet is favored to win the naval contract and recent reports indicate it may be the leader in the revised fighter competition as well. Though the Super Hornet does not quite match earlier twin-engine fighters such as the F-15 in terms of raw performance, the newer aircraft are designed with modern digital avionics, and also has a comparatively stealthy radar cross section of only one meter squared. The new Block III model comes equipped with conformal fuel tanks for greater range at lower aerodynamic cost, an infrared search-and-track system and a sophisticated networkable targeting computer.

The Stealth Angle

Fourth-generation jets like the F-16 and Super Hornet are highly capable in most regards, but aerial war games have suggested one major limitationthey lose by lopsided margins when pitted against fifth-generation stealth fighters. Stealth fighters also have much better odds of successfully penetrating hostile air space defended by ground-based surface-to-air missiles.

New Delhi has wanted its own stealth fighters for a whileand has invested the equivalent of over five billion dollars in Russias PAK FA stealth fighter program, now designated as the Su-57, in the hopes of getting an India-specific variant called the FGFA. However, the program has suffered major setbacks and Moscow has downsized its production run to only twelve Su-57s. Indian officials have grown increasingly disenchanted with the Su-57, publicly complaining about underpowered engines, subpar stealth characteristics and a lack of transparency as to what lay behind these problems.

Separately, Indias Defense Research and Development Organization has invested significant resource drawing up plans for its own HAL AMCA stealth fighter, with hopes for a flying prototype in the mid-2020s. However, a viable AMCA would require India to acquire or develop key technologies including the manufacture of radar-absorbent materials, high-performance domestic jet engines and advanced AESA radars.

As it happens, a Hindustan Times article from March 11, 2018 indicates that the light-fighter competition will now be linked to the transfer of technologies necessary for producing the AMCA. This naturally leads to the question: who actually has that stealth technology to share? India is already linked to Russias Su-57 program but is dissatisfied with the collaboration. Both Boeing and Rafale have some experience with stealth technology, but the clear leader in the field is Lockheed-Martin, manufacturer of the F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter and the earlier F-22 Raptor.

The single-engine F-35 has long been the elephant in the room, as it is being exported to U.S. allies at a price of roughly $100 million per airframe. Though the Lightning isnt as fast, maneuverable or heavy-lifting as top fourth-generation fighters, its stealth characteristics and advanced sensors and avionics allow it to lob missiles at adversaries from far beyond the range it can be tracked by opposing X-Band targeting radars. Furthermore, its avionics are designed to share sensor data with less stealthy friendly fighters, enhancing their effectiveness.

Washington would love for India to join in on the deal, and not just because India could pitch in more money to control the bloated per-unit cost of the F-35. The F-35s would be an expensive, long-term and ongoing commitment that would tie the Indian military closely to the United States and help counterbalance Chinas modernizing air force. On the other hand, both the U.S. military and Lockheed are tight-fisted when it comes to sharing both stealth technology and the F-35s networked operating system, which could leave both end users and service providers vulnerable to hacking.

India had historically relied on the Soviet Union and then Russia to furnish its military hardware, so spurning the Su-57 program in favor of the F-35 risks cooling that relationship. Indeed, New Delhi has steadfastly maintained it is not seeking to purchase F-35s. However, India is increasingly concerned with with Chinas rapidly growing military capabilities, which include new J-20 stealth fighters and Russian-built Su-35s. This means New Delhis geopolitical interests are drawing it closer to Washington instead of Moscow, as evidenced by a base-sharing agreement struck in 2016.

Indeed, on March 4, 2018 the U.S. Pacific Commands Adm. Harry Harris revealed that New Delhi was making inquiries about purchasing F-35s. Realistically, Indian buy-in to the F-35 would take years to arrange, and the stealth fighter continues to suffer from serious teething issues in U.S. service. Therefore, even if the F-35 is on the table, New Delhi will still likely pursue additional fourth-generation fighters to replenish its shrinking air force.

Sebastien Roblin holds a Masters Degree in Conflict Resolution from Georgetown University and served as a university instructor for the Peace Corps in China. He has also worked in education, editing, and refugee resettlement in France and the United States. He currently writes on security and military history for War Is Boring.

Image: Wikimedia Commons.

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Two sacks of locally-made arms recovered from CU halls

Chittagong Correspondent :

Police in an overnight drive arrested 20 Bangladesh Chattra League (BCL) activists and recovered two sacks of locally-made weapons from two students' dormitories of Chittagong University on Wednesday night.

Police with the help of Chittagong University authority conducted raids at Shahjalal and Suhrawardy Halls following clashes between two rival groups of BCL on the campus.

Police conducted the raids from 8.00pm to 10.00pm.

"We recovered a total of two sacks packed with machetes, knives and iron rods during raids in two varsity halls," said Moshiuddowla Reza, Additional Superintendent of Chittagong Police.

He said they also detained at least 20 students from the halls. "Police also sized five motor bikes during the raids."

Proctor Ali Asgor also confirmed The New Nation about recovery of arms from the dormitories.

"Rival BCL groups have locked in clashes in the last two days. The varsity authority cooperated with police to carry out raids so that none can create anarchy on the varsity campus," he added.

Earlier on Tuesday, a clash broke out between the followers of CU unit BCL leaders Mizanur Rahman Bipul and Mansur Alam at the university, leaving 7 students injured.

The two groups again engaged in clash on Wednesday evening. They were seen taking up positions in their halls with sharp weapons making the situation tense on the campus.

Later, police conducted raids in the dormitories to detain the BCL demonstrators.
By Mai Nguyen and James Pearson HANOI (Reuters) - A crackdown on corruption in Vietnam unnerved some foreign investors when it intensified last year, but they are now getting much more sanguine about it and some say the business climate is improving as a result. While the campaign by the government of Communist party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong has slowed some dealmaking in a country already plagued by Soviet-era red tape and bureaucracy, it has not deterred foreign investors from putting their money in Vietnam. Vietnam's economy grew 6.8 percent last year, the strongest pace since 2010, while foreign direct inflows hit record highs for two years in a row, reaching $17.5 billion in 2017. To some foreign investors the crackdown was long overdue. Nearly two-thirds of Vietnam's people have had to pay a bribe to get access to public services, Transparency International (TI) said in a 2017 report. Out of 16 Asian countries surveyed, only India fared worse. The anti-corruption drive is a "good signal" to many foreign investors, said Somhatai Panichewa, chief executive of Amata VN Pcl, a unit of Thailand's top industrial estate operator Amata which in January announced major investments in Vietnam. "We think the government is serious about showing the public that investing in Vietnam is no longer 'know-who' but about 'know-how,'" she said. Some business risk analysts take a similar view. "Once the political thrust behind the arrests ... and their pattern could be more clearly identified, confidence was restored in the government's commitment to courting foreign investment," said Brendan Brady of consulting firm Eurasia. That doesn't mean the business conditions are easy for foreign investors. Executives on the ground have to navigate "a minefield" of new challenges, said Adam Sitkoff, executive director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hanoi. "Whether a result of corruption, protectionism, tax collection, or the government trying to pick winners and losers, our member companies often see areas where inconsistencies, inefficiencies, and unfair practices persist - and in some cases new unfair practices are being enacted," Sitkoff said. The government did not respond to requests for comment on the fallout from the crackdown or the circumstances in which it was launched. Over 100 people - mostly from state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the banking or energy sectors - have been prosecuted, jailed and, in some cases, given death sentences in the anti-corruption campaign. POLITICALLY MOTIVATED Government critics say the crackdown is politically motivated and has targeted those close to former prime minister Nguyen Tan Dung, who lost a power struggle in 2016 to Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong. But it has also shed light on deep-seated graft, mismanagement and nepotism within state-owned enterprises (SOEs) firms in the country at a time when a long-delayed privatization drive is accelerating. Trinh Xuan Thanh, a former chairman of a unit of the PetroVietnam state energy group, is now serving two life sentences for corruption after he fled the country and turned up in Hanoi in bizarre circumstances. Germany accused Hanoi of kidnapping him in a Cold-War style abduction in a Berlin park last year. Thanh's senior, ex-politburo member Dinh La Thang, was also sacked and became Vietnam's highest-ranking official to have been jailed for decades. He was given 13 years in prison and is again on trial facing another potential jail term. "Officials have been more cautious after the corruption crackdown," said an executive of a small government enterprise, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the subject. "There have been quite a lot of requirements to cut down costs recently ... some are required, some are forced, some are achieved via technology enhancements that cut down on electricity costs, material costs etc," the executive said. Earlier this month, one of Vietnam's most sought after SOEs earmarked for privatization, telecoms firm MobiFone, was accused by a government investigating team of several violations in a bid to buy a 95 percent stake in a private pay-TV service called Audio Visual Global. The government inspectors described the deal as "negatively affecting" MobiFone's proposed privatization and proposed handing over the case to police. The two sides called off the deal just before the results of the investigations were announced. MobiFone has not responded to a request for comment. Calls to Audio Visual Global were not answered. The privatization of MobiFone has already been delayed for more than a decade and it could take even longer if the case is handed over to the police. Vietnam has failed to meet its privatization targets in previous years but has plans for over 100 initial public offerings as well as partial stake sales in around 400 companies by 2020. "It seems that managers of SOEs - at least the most important ones - are now more cautious in their activity, in particular in relation to equitisation (partial privatization), divestment and so on," the European Chamber of Commerce said in a statement to Reuters. "The approval of line ministers is more systematically sought and the valuation of assets or shares is subject to more constraints". Still, as Thang and Thanh went on trial in January, the government managed to raise about $740 million from selling partial stakes in three PetroVietnam units - despite the corruption attached to its name. And last December, the government raised a lofty $4.8 billion from selling 54 percent of brewer Sabeco. (Additional reporting by Chayut Setboonsarng in BANGKOK and Karin Strohecker in LONDON; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
Tehran (AFP) - Former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday that his ally Hamid Baghaie was on hunger strike and in deteriorating health after being imprisoned on what he said were politically motivated charges.

Ahmadinejad, who served as president from 2005 to 2013, made the claims in a letter to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, published on the Dolatebahar website run by his supporters.

It is the latest volley in a bitter feud with his former colleagues in the Iranian establishment -- particularly the conservative-dominated judiciary -- which has led him to demand wide-ranging reforms, including fully free elections.

"The judicial apparatus, without any documents or proof or legal citation... under the cover of financial accusations and in a closed trial - has condemned (Baghaie) to the severest possible punishment," Ahmadinejad wrote in his latest letter.

Baghaie, who served as his vice president, was jailed this month for 15 years for embezzling 3,766,000 euros and $590,000.

Prosecutors said the cash was given to him by General Ghasem Soleimani, feted head of the external operations arm of the Revolutionary Guards, the Qods Force, and earmarked for "affairs to do with African countries".

"Mr Baghaie has never accepted these accusations and he's been on hunger strike for 14 days in protest at this injustice by the judicial apparatus," Ahmadinejad said in the letter.

"It is heard that his physical situation is deteriorating. He's been kept in solitary confinement since the first day of his arrest," Ahmadinejad added, calling on Khamenei to step in to avoid a "big catastrophe and irreparable damage".

In an earlier report on the Dolatebahar website, Baghaie was quoted as saying: "Suppose this impossible, fabricated story is true -- should I be blamed, or should it be General Ghasem Soleimani as the authorised official in the Qods Force who has delivered the said foreign currency?"

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- 'No proof' -

Ahmadinejad and Baghaei claim no proof of the alleged transactions was presented at the trial in December.

Another of their associates -- Ahmadinejad's former chief of staff Rahim Mashaie -- was arrested this month after burning a copy of Baghaei's verdict outside the British embassy.

A populist with close ties to the hardline religious elite and Revolutionary Guards during his time in office, Ahmadinejad's unruly style saw him fall out with the establishment and clash with Khamenei.

He has become a growing thorn in their side in recent years. Both he and Baghaie were barred from standing in last year's presidential election by the Guardian Council, which vets candidates.

In another letter to Khamenei last month, Ahmadinejad called for "the immediate holding of free presidential and parliamentary elections -- of course without their being engineered by the Guardian Council and without interference by military or security bodies so that people have a free choice."

Ahmadinejad remains a hate figure for many reformists, who associate him with the bloody crackdown on mass protests in 2009 and 2010 that followed his contested re-election.

However, he remains popular particularly among poorer segments of society who recall the large-scale welfare schemes he implemented during his presidency.
Iraq and Syria have declared victory over the Islamic State militant group (ISIS), an international jihadi network whose presence in the Middle East drew in multiple local and international forces against it. However, months after Baghdad and Damascus both pronounced the militants' self-styled caliphate dead, the U.S. and Turkey have fought on in spite of calls to withdraw their forces.

While the U.S. has argued its indefinite military presence was necessary in both countries to prevent the resurgence of Islamist groups, Turkey has used the opportunity to launch a new campaign against Kurdish militias supported by the Pentagon but considered terrorist organizations by Ankara. As Turkish forces launched new attacks on Iraqi and Syrian Kurdish fighters combatting the remnants of ISIS, both countries have attempted to reduce or completely expel Turkey.

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In a press conference Tuesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi assured reporters that the Iraqi military was "in complete control of all of Iraqs borders" and that the government had "a timetable for the reduction of the number of foreign troops in Iraq."

In neighboring Syria, where only Russia and Iran were considered legitimate foreign allies, an official Foreign and Expatriates Ministry statement issued Monday renewed "the demand for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of the Turkish occupation forces from Syrian territory."

On Tuesday, Syrian ambassador to the United Nations Bashar al-Jaafari condemned "attacks directed against the sovereignty, safety and territorial integrity of Syria" by the U.S.-led coalition, Turkey and Israel, according to the ruling Baath Party's official newspaper.

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The Kurds are a Middle Eastern ethnic minority that claim parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey as their ancestral homeland and have alleged political oppression by the majority communities in all four countries. Iraqi and Syrian Kurds have since taken advantage of unrest in their home nations to challenge the dominance of their mostly Arab central governments.

Don't miss: U.S. Almost Attacked Russians In Syria Again But Moscow Stepped in, Mattis Says

ISIS formed out of a merger of jihadi groups, including Al-Qaeda in Iraq, in the wake of the 2003 U.S. invasion and overthrow of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, a member of Iraq's Sunni Muslim minority and opponent both of the fellow Baathist government in neighboring Syria and of the Kurdish ambitions at home. As ISIS took half of Iraq and Syria in 2014, a U.S.-led coalition began bombing it, while also supporting Kurdish forces on the ground in these countries.

The U.S.'s 2015 decision to establish the mostly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces angered Turkey, which linked Syrian Kurdish militias such as the People's Protection Units (YPG) to the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) at home. With ISIS mostly defeated in Syria, thanks to campaigns by the U.S.-led coalition and its Syrian Democratic Forces allies, as well as the Syrian military supported by Russia and Iran, Turkey launched a new offensive against U.S.-backed Kurds in the northwestern region of Afrin in January and successfully took the city earlier this month,

The campaign has caused major friction between Turkey and the U.S., which has refused to withdraw Special Forces operating alongside Kurds in the northern city of Manbij, one of at least six Syrian and Iraqi cities located along Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's warpath. The U.S. has also declined support for Kurds leaving the battle against ISIS in the east to enter into a deal with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whom the U.S. has attempted to overthrow since the beginning of Syrias seven-year civil war.

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As Assad's government reclaimed most of the territory lost to rebels and jihadis, he and his Russian and Iranian allies have called on the U.S. to withdraw. But the Trump administration has declined to offer any timetables as to when or if it planned to withdraw U.S. forces.

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Jennifer Cafarella, a senior intelligence planner at the Institute for the Study of War, told Newsweek that "the U.S. needs to be prepared to defend its positions in Syria and Iraq with force." She noted that "Russia, Iran and Assad seek to expel the U.S. from Syria and have attacked U.S. and partnered forces on numerous occasions" since President Donald Trump ordered a cruise missile strike against a Syrian air base in the aftermath of what the U.S. said was a chemical weapons attack perpetrated by the Syrian military in the rebel-held province of Idlib last April.

In Afrin, the rebel Free Syrian Army, once backed by the CIA, has planted Turkish flags, signaling a potentially long-term presence for Ankara as it eyes the nearby town of Tel Rifaat, which reportedly was recently transferred from Syrian Democratic Forces to Syrian government control. The U.S.-led coalition said officials acknowledged "the departure of some SDF forces from the Middle Euphrates River Valley and continue to point out the potential costs of any distraction from the Defeat-ISIS fight" in a statement sent to Newsweek earlier this month.

Turkish airstrikes have also hit Kurdish militia targets in northern Iraq, where Ankara also felt vulnerable to PKK infiltration. Unlike Assad, Abadi has attempted to maintain a working relationship with Turkey, mostly due to its alliance with the U.S., which entered its 15th consecutive year operating in Iraq earlier this month. A number of local politicians have become increasingly vocal in their opposition to Turkish and U.S. military presence, however, and Abadi assured journalists on Tuesday that he told Turkish Foreign Minister Binali Yildirim that Iraqi forces could handle Kurdish militant activity in northern Iraq.

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INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF WAR

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Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari also told his Turkish counterpart earlier this week that Turkey should withdraw from the city of Bashiqa. In addition to growing anger over the Turkish military presence in Iraq, Abadi has faced increased pressure to push for the U.S. to exit the country from the powerful, influential collective of Iran-backed Shiite Muslim militias known as the Popular Mobilization Forces.

This large paramilitary force was assembled in 2014 and fought alongside both Iraqi and Syrian troops to defeat ISIS. Earlier this month, they were made an official part of Iraq's armed forces. As Abadi prepared for elections later this year, the mostly Shiite Muslim forcewhich also included many Sunni Muslims, Yazidi Christians and other communitieshas urged him to expedite the withdrawal of U.S. forces, threatening to wage a new conflict if they did not leave.

"The Iranians may be preparing to escalate against U.S. forces in Iraq in an attempt to expel them, as well," Cafarella told Newsweek.

"Iranian proxies are campaigning for Iraqs upcoming elections on a platform of resisting U.S. 'occupation.' Irans proxies likely submitted a recent resolution that passed the vote in Iraqi parliament that demands a timeline on the full withdrawal of coalition forces. Iran likely seeks to gain an Iran-friendly prime minister after the election, enabling it to eject the U.S. politically," she added.

Earlier this month, the U.S.-led coalition told Newsweek in a separate statement that "as invited guests in Iraq, we work closely with the government of Iraq and its security forces" and that the coalition was "committed to the lasting defeat of Daesh [the Arabic-language acronym for ISIS] in Iraq and Syria."

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from Newsweek
Dublin (AFP) - Ireland will hold a referendum on May 25 on whether to alter its constitution to legalise abortion, Health Minister Simon Harris said on Wednesday.

The move follows the Irish Senate voting in favour of holding the poll by a wide margin Tuesday night.

"Referendum to repeal the 8th Amendment will take place on Friday, 25th May. The people will have their say," Harris tweeted.

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar last year won leadership of the governing centre-right Fine Gael party after campaigning on same-sex marriage and liberalising abortion laws in the overwhelmingly Catholic country.

The election of Varadkar, Ireland's first openly gay leader, was seen as a watershed moment on the socially conservative island.

The referendum will take place exactly three months before the visit of Pope Francis, the first visit to the country by a pontiff since John Paul II went there in 1979.

The Eighth Amendment of the Irish constitution recognises the equal right to life of the unborn and the mother.

Abortion is illegal unless there is a real and substantial risk to the life of the mother, and a woman convicted of having an illegal termination faces 14 years imprisonment.

However, women are free to travel abroad for abortions and thousands do so every year, mainly to England.

Amnesty International welcomed the announcement, calling it "a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Ireland to put in place laws which respect the #humanrights of women & girls".

Leaders from the Church of Ireland, an Anglican denomination, urged voters "to think through the issues involved carefully".

"There is, for Christians, a very clear witness in the Scriptures that all human life, including before physical birth, has a sacred dignity in the eyes of God," they said.

There have already been five referendums related to the issue, the first in 1983.

But in recent years the Irish parliament had stalled proposals to hold another poll, as well as legislation to relax the laws allowing abortion in cases of fatal foetal abnormality.
Jerusalem (AFP) - Israeli chief of staff Lieutenant General Gadi Eisenkot has warned the army has been given authorisation to open fire ahead of mass protests on the Gaza border planned for Friday.

Eisenkot said reinforcements, including special forces snipers, had been deployed to the border to counter what he said was the most serious risk of conflict since he took up his post in 2015.

A series of incidents in recent days, including two infiltrations, one by three armed Palestinians who penetrated some 20 kilometres (12 miles) inside Israel, has already sent tensions soaring on the volatile frontier.

Friday's mass rallies near the border fence mark the start of more than six weeks of planned protests leading up to the inauguration of the new US embassy in Jerusalem around May 14.

US President Donald Trump's recognition of the disputed city as Israel's capital in December has infuriated Palestinians who claim its annexed eastern sector as the capital of their future state.

Gazans are being urged to set up a string of protest camps along the Israeli border, each some 100 metres (yards) from the security fence, and the army is braced for attempts to break through.

"We won't allow mass infiltration into Israel and to damage the fence, and certainly not to reach the communities," Eisenkot told the mass-circulation Yediot Aharonot newspaper.

"The instructions are to use a lot of force," he said.

"We've deployed more than 100 snipers who have been drafted from all the army's units, mainly from the special units. In the event of mortal danger, there is authorisation to open fire."

Hamas, the Islamist group which controls Gaza, has fought three wars with Israel since 2008, the most recent of which in 2014 ended with a fragile truce.

Asked whether he feared a new conflict, Eisenkot said: "The chance of that happening is greater this year than it was in the first three years of my term.

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"There are a lot of negative vectors in the region that are pushing towards a conflict."

Eisenkot gave a similar warning in a separate interview with left-leaning newspaper Haaretz.

"An explosive, sensitive situation is developing in the entire Middle East, but especially among the Palestinians," he said.
By Jeffrey Heller and Nidal al-Mughrabi JERUSALEM/GAZA (Reuters) - The Israeli military has deployed more than 100 sharpshooters on the Gaza border ahead of a planned mass Palestinian demonstration, Israel's top general said in an interview published on Wednesday. Organizers said they expect thousands in Gaza, including entire families, to answer their call to gather in tent cities in five locations along the sensitive border from Friday in a six-week protest for a right of return of Palestinian refugees to what is now Israel. Citing security concerns, the Israeli military enforces a "no go" zone for Palestinians on land in Gaza adjacent to Israel's border fence. Lieutenant-General Gadi Eizenkot, the military's chief of staff, told the Yedioth Ahronoth daily that the military would not allow "mass infiltration" or tolerate damage to the barrier during the protests. "We have deployed more than 100 sharpshooters who were called up from all of the military's units, primarily from the special forces," Eizenkot said in the interview. "If lives are in jeopardy, there is permission to open fire." Israeli soldiers are confronted by frequent violent Palestinian protests along the Gaza border and have used tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition against demonstrators who the military said hurled rocks or petrol bombs at them. Organizers said the protest is supported by several Palestinian factions, including Gazas dominant Islamist Hamas movement, which is dedicated to the destruction of Israel. Nickolay Mladenov, the U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, called on all sides "to exercise restraint and take the necessary steps to avoid a violent escalation". In a statement emailed to Reuters, he said: "Children in particular should not be put at risk at any time by anyone." RISING TENSION Israeli cabinet minister Tzachi Hanegbi, speaking on Israel Radio, said Hamas had avoided direct conflict with Israel since the end of the 2014 Gaza war. But he said that pressure Hamas was now feeling from Israel's destruction of some of its network of attack tunnels near the border, coupled with harsh economic conditions in Gaza, were "a formula for rising tension". The start of the demonstration was symbolically linked to what Palestinians call "Land Day", which commemorates the six Arab citizens of Israel killed by Israeli security forces in demonstrations in 1976 over land confiscations. The week-long Jewish holiday of Passover, when Israel heightens security, also begins on Friday. The protest is due to end on May 15, the day Palestinians call the Nakba or Catastrophe, marking the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the conflict surrounding the creation of Israel in 1948. Palestinians have long demanded that as many as 5 million of their compatriots be granted the right to return. Israel rules this out, fearing an influx of Arabs that would eliminate its Jewish majority. Israel argues the refugees should resettle in a future state that the Palestinians seek in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip. (Writing by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Alison Williams)
Jerusalem (AFP) - Israel said Tuesday it would not allow bureaucratic red tape to delay the controversial transfer of the US embassy to the disputed city of Jerusalem scheduled for May.

The construction of a security wall and an emergency exit route both need planning permission, Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon said in a statement.

"We will not allow bureaucracy needlessly to delay the transfer," he said.

Kahlon said the move was of "strategic" importance to Israel and that his staff would "do everything that is needed to respect the timetable".

Breaking with decades of US policy, President Donald Trump in December officially recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital and pledged to move the embassy from Tel Aviv.

The United States has said it will relocate its embassy in May, bringing forward the contested move to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the creation of the Jewish state.

Both Israel and the Palestinians claim Jerusalem as their capital.

The embassy move could destroy prospects of a two-state solution to the decades-old Middle East conflict, the Palestinians have warned.

The move has prompted deadly protests and 128 states condemned it in a UN General Assembly vote in December. Only seven smaller countries aligned themselves with Washington.

Until now, the US embassy has been located in Tel Aviv with a separate consulate general located in Jerusalem that represents US interests in the Palestinian territories.

The new embassy is to be housed initially in a US consular building in Jerusalem while Washington searches for a permanent location.
Jerusalem (AFP) - Israel has warned that its soldiers could use live fire if Gaza Palestinians try to breach the border with Israel during a mass rally planned for Friday.

The demonstration marks the annual Palestinian Land Day, commemorating the killing of six unarmed Arab protesters in Israel in 1976.

It is expected to kick off more than six weeks of protests throughout the Palestinian territories leading up to the inauguration of the new US embassy in Jerusalem around May 14.

Gazans are expected to gather from Friday in camps being erected along the border fence, a few hundred metres (yards) from the Israeli lines.

Israeli armed forces chief Lieutenant General Gadi Eisenkot said in comments published Wednesday by local daily Yediot Aharonot that the current border tension presented the most serious risk of conflict since he took up his post in 2015.

Israeli tanks on Wednesday fired at positions of Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas, in the wake of heavy gunfire from the strip, the detonation of roadside bombs aimed at Israeli border patrols and an incursion by three armed Palestinians who penetrated some 20 kilometres (12 miles) into Israel before being captured.

Eisenkot said reinforcements, including more than 100 special forces snipers, had been deployed to the border and the army was prepared for all scenarios.

Among them is the prospect of an attempt by protesters, organised or not, to break through the border fence which surrounds the Gaza Strip, home to two million Palestinians largely cut off from the rest of the world by Israeli and Egyptian blockades.

"We won't allow mass infiltration into Israel and to damage the fence," Eisenkot told Yediot.

"The instructions are to use a lot of force," he said. "In the event of mortal danger (to troops) there is authorisation to open fire."

Officially, protest is being organised by civil society, but Israel believes Hamas and allied groups are behind the plans.

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Hamas leader Ismail Haniya said his movement was involved as "an investment in this peaceful and popular event to support the steadfastness of the Palestinians in their battle to regain their legitimate rights."

Speaking to journalists in the Gaza Strip, he said Israel was seeking to delegitimise the planned protest.

"It will describe it as an activity that belongs to Hamas, will threaten to use violence against it and will deny its popular and peaceful foundation," said Haniya.

The Israeli security cabinet met Wednesday to discuss military preparations but did not issue any public statement.

- Tensions soar -

Soldiers posted at the border regularly fire live ammunition at Gazans who come too close, but Israel this time is worried about the possible presence of women and children in the danger zone.

Thousands, if not tens of thousands, of Gazans are expected to join border protests in coming six weeks, culminating on May 15 with a march toward the barrier.

That date is marked by Palestinians as the anniversary of the Nakba, or "catastrophe", when more than 700,000 Palestinians fled their land or were expelled during the war that led to the creation of Israel in 1948.

The United States plan to open its embassy around the same time, to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the foundation of the Israeli state, is further stoking Palestinian anger.

The US decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital infuriated the Palestinians, who have broken off ties with the administration of President Donald Trump.

They claim the city's Israeli-annexed eastern sector as the capital of their future state, an aspiration which Trump did not address in his December declaration.

Hamas has said it would ensure that participants do not expose themselves to danger by going too close to approaching Israeli positions too closely.

But the latest border incidents have sent tensions soaring.

Hamas and Israel have fought three wars since 2008, the most recent of which in 2014 ended with a fragile truce.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - AFP

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was released from hospital on Tuesday after suffering from a high fever and a cough, his office said.

Netanyahu said on Twitter: "I am on my way home. Sure some rest and hot soup will put things right."

An official statement from his office said hospital tests indicated the prime minister was suffering from a mild viral infection of his upper respiratory tract.

"The doctors recommended him to rest and undergo medical treatment," his office said in a statement, without giving details.

An earlier statement said Netanyahu's personal physician believed the 68-year-old leader had not fully recovered from an illness two weeks ago and therefore decided he should undergo further tests in hospital.

Netanyahu fell ill in mid-March and cancelled his public schedule for five consecutive days.

"The prime minister did not complete the time required in order to recover from the illness he had two weeks ago and therefore the symptoms have gotten worse," the spokesman said in a text message.

Netanyahu's illness has come at a stressful time for the four-times right-wing prime minister, who is under police investigation for corruption in three different cases. Netanyahu denies any wrongdoing.

On Monday Netanyahu, his wife and son were questioned by police as part of an investigation into one of the corruption cases in which the prime minister is a suspect.

In the two other cases police have already recommended that Netanyahu be charged with bribery. The final decision about whether to prosecute rests with the Israeli attorney general. That decision could be months away.

Profile | Benjamin Netanyahu

So far, partners in Netanyahus governing coalition have stood by him, saying they are awaiting the attorney generals next moves. Political analysts say such support may erode if the investigations against Netanyahu intensify.

Surveys have shown that about half of Israelis believe the police over Netanyahu and think he should step down, while a third think he should remain in office. Support for Netanyahu's Likud party remains strong in opinion polls.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was reportedly rushed to the hospital on Tuesday after his fever symptoms worsened.

The Israeli leader was suffering from "high fever and coughs" due to complications from strep throat, according to Israeli daily Haaretz, which cited Netanyahu's doctor. The Jerusalem Post, which identified the physician as Dr. Tzvi Berkowitz, said Netanyahu did not complete a period of rest, leading him to be rushed to Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem.

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Ronen Zvulun/Reuters

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While Netanyahu has enjoyed a strong political relationship with President Donald Trump, who appeared to largely agree with the conservative Israeli leader's views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he has experienced unrest at home as Palestinians protest Trump's decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and Israeli authorities came to a "unanimous agreement" last month that Netanyahu should be indicted on charges of bribery and receiving illicit gifts.

Earlier on Tuesday, six former heads of Israel's intelligence agency Mossad delivered remarks deeply critical of Netanyahu in a front-page interview with Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.

"We have children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren here, and I want them to live in a healthy country - and the country is sick, Zvi Zamir, Mossad director from 1968 to 1974, said, according to Reuters.

"We are in a critical medical state. It could be that the country had symptoms when Netanyahu took over, but he has brought it to the grave condition of a malignant disease," he added.

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By Philip Pullella and Steve Scherer ROME (Reuters) - Italian anti-terrorism police on Wednesday arrested an Italian citizen of Moroccan origin who they said was an Islamic State sympathizer planning a truck attack. It was the latest in a series of arrests this month involving suspected supporters of Islamist terrorism and came as Italy stepped up the number of foreigners it expels. Elmahdi Halili, 23, arrested in the northern city of Turin, "was studying how to prepare a truck for an attack", Francesco Messina, the city's police chief said. "He was learning how to use a knife and looking into where and how to attack." Assailants in London carried out three vehicle attacks last year. In 2016, militants mowed down scores of people in Nice and Berlin. Police said Halili received a two-year suspended prison term in 2015 for "instigating terrorism" by running a website praising Islamic State and hailing the attacks it or its supporters perpetrated in Europe. It was not immediately possible to seek comment from Halili or anyone representing him. "The terrorist risk is very high," said Matteo Salvini, leader of the far-right League party, which is in talks to form a government after the inconclusive March 4 election. "We want immediate action, so everyone who crosses our borders by sea or land be monitored and that all (migrant) boat arrivals on our coasts be suspended," he added. Almost 120,000 boat migrants reached Italy from North Africa last year. Wednesday's police operation targeted an undisclosed number of accomplices, both foreign and Italian, some of whom had converted to Islam and were part of "a campaign of radicalization". In an interview in Wednesday's Turin newspaper La Stampa, Interior Minister Marco Minniti said the security threat to Italy from supporters of Islamic State was higher than ever. He attributed this to more foreign fighters attempting to return to Europe via Italy after Islamic State suffered defeats in Syria and Iraq. On Tuesday in southern Foggia, police arrested an Egyptian-born man suspected of being an Islamic State member and of indoctrinating children in a cultural center he ran. He encouraged them to kill non-Muslims, police said. On March 15, police acting on a tip from the U.S. FBI arrested a man of Latvian origin who they said had been preparing pipe bombs. A judge's detention order said the man had been considering an attack on a kindergarten. In recent months, Italy has stepped up expulsions of foreigners believed to be a threat to national security. So far this year, 29 have been expelled, most of them Muslims, compared with 132 for all of 2017. (Editing by Alison Williams)
Rome (AFP) - Italy's outgoing government said Wednesday that a new minimum income scheme launched at the start of the year is working, but needs to be beefed up further with additional resources.

Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni has officially tendered his resignation after his centre-left government was defeated in the March 4 general election, but he is continuing to run day-to-day affairs until a new administration can be formed.

And presenting a report on how the so-called "inclusion scheme" or REI has performed so far, Gentiloni said that the monthly allowance for people in financial difficulty was actually working.

Under the REI scheme, payments range from 190 euros for a single person to 540 euros for households of six or more.

"Three months after its launch, we can say that the inclusion scheme works," Gentiloni told a news briefing.

"We know that this is an important step, but we must continue by reinforcing it with new resources."

Gentiloni said that some 316,000 people have have already benefitted from the REI. And from July, that number will be gradually expanded to eventually reach 2.5 million people. The government has earmarked two billion euros for funding in 2018.

In January, Italy's unemployment rate was 11 percent, according to figures from national statistics agency ISTAT, above the eurozone average of 8.6 percent.

The jobless rate for the under-25s in Italy stood at 31.5 percent.

According to ISTAT, 4.7 million Italians were living in poverty in 2016, a nearly threefold increase from the 1.7 million recorded in 2006.

REI is similar to systems of income support -- such as the RAS is France -- that have long existed elsewhere in Europe but its introduction is a first for Italy.

It also has similarities to the basic income promised during the election campaign by the Five Star Movement (M5S), which became the largest party in Italy's hung parliament after the election.

The outcome of the vote on March 4 was inconclusive, with the right-wing coalition and the anti-establishment party M5S winning the biggest shares of the votes, while Gentiloni's centre-left coalition slumped to third place.

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Under the M5S proposal, 780 euros would be paid monthly to the unemployed, while those who each month earn less than that sum, considered the poverty line by ISTAT, will receive a top-up.

In all, it would benefit nine million people, a much larger base than the one the current government is targeting with REI.

National insurance agency INPS claims that the M5S's measure would cost Italy 35-38 billion euros, more than double the 14.9 billion estimated by ISTAT.
The wife of a Taiwanese democracy activist jailed in China said Wednesday he is denied "basic correspondence rights" after visiting him in prison for the first time in a case that has strained cross-strait relations.

NGO worker Lee Ming-cheh was sentenced to five years in prison in November on charges of subverting state power by a court in central Hunan province, as activists face increased pressure from authorities under Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Lee was arrested in March 2017 during a trip to the mainland and held incommunicado for months. Taipei has called his jailing "unacceptable" and a serious blow to relations with Beijing, while his wife Lee Ching-yu has said his trial was a "political show".

Lee Ching-yu was allowed to visit her husband in Chishan prison in Hunan on Tuesday, when they spoke for 30 minutes through a glass window.

"Lee Ming-cheh's health... in prison seems fine from his appearance... But it's very obvious he is still denied right of speech and basic correspondence rights," she told reporters at the airport near Taipei after returning from China.

"He still cannot write letters to me. Even though the reason he gave is that he has very busy work hours in prison," she said, adding that Lee only received two of the 11 books she sent him.

"Every word they (prisoners) speak, even their voice and expression, will be recorded in writing by the prison."

Chinese authorities cancelled Lee Ching-yu's mainland travel permit last April as she searched for her missing husband and later only granted her single-entry visas to attend the trial and sentencing. In January, she was barred from boarding a flight to visit Lee in prison.

During his trial, Lee admitted the charges, stating that he had written and distributed online articles that criticised China's ruling Communist Party and promoted democracy.

He had shared "Taiwan's democratic experiences" with his Chinese friends online for many years and often mailed books to them, according to the Taiwan Association for Human Rights.

"Lee Ming-cheh cannot correspond with the outside world and his family's visitation rights are not ensured. This is evidence that China violates international and even its own laws," said the association.

Amnesty International and other Taiwanese rights groups have also called for Lee's release.
Jewish leaders in Britain have accused the leader of the center-left Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, of being the figurehead of anti-Semitism and an apologist for slanderous attacks on Jews.

In an open letter written by the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council, Jewish leaders argued that Corbyn and his party ignore the mainstream majority of British Jews. The leaders also claimed that Corbyn is so fixated on leftist politics that he supports international figures who espouse anti-Israel and antisemitic sentiment, and that he has consequently become the leader of a political culture based on obsessive hatred of Israel.

We conclude that [Corbyn] cannot seriously contemplate anti-Semitism, because he is so ideologically fixed within a far-left worldview that is instinctively hostile to mainstream Jewish communities, the letter read.

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When Jews complain about an obviously anti-Semitic mural in Tower Hamlets, Corbyn of course supports the artist. Hezbollah commits terrorist atrocities against Jews, but Corbyn calls them his friends and attends pro-Hizbollah rallies in London. Exactly the same goes for Hamas. Raed Salah says Jews kill Christian children to drink their blood. Corbyn opposes his extradition and invites him for tea at the House of Commons, the letter continued.

These are not the only cases. He is repeatedly found alongside people with blatantly anti-Semitic views, but claims never to hear or read them, the document added.

The letter also slammed the Shami Chakrabarti inquiry, a 2016 report that looked into allegations of antisemitism and racism in the U.K.s Labour Party.

The Labour Party is not overrun by antisemitism, Islamophobia or other forms of racism. Further, it is the party that initiated every single United Kingdom race equality law, the report found.

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In their letter published Monday, Britains Jewish leaders called the inquiry a glaring example of a repeated institutional failure to properly address Jewish concerns and to tackle anti-Semitism.

Some people in Britain, however, speculated that these accusations are unfounded.

"To suggest the Labour Party and Corbyn have done nothing about antisemitism is patently untrue. A motion on the subject by the Jewish Labour Movement was backed by Corbyn and Momentum, and passed at conference," Luke Wilson, a Jewish Labour supporter in London, told Newsweek. "Hundreds of activists, if not more, have been suspended or expelled from the Party, often without due process, for saying things that would stretch any reasonable definition of antisemitism."

What's more, Wilson argued that the accusations of antisemitism against Corbyn only work to undermine efforts to fight real antisemitism.

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"The real damage caused by these stunts is not to the Labour Party, but to the Jewish community. By abusing the term [antisemitism] for political gain, by trivialising it and conflating it with criticism of Israel... the Jewish self-appointed leadership risks desensitising the public to real antisemitism," Wilson said.

Some anti-Corbyn protesters demonstrated outside a meeting of Labour parliamentarians on Monday. The pro-Corbyn Jewish Voice for Labour is organizing a counter-protest. One self-professed anti-racist activist wrote an open letter to the British paper the Independent, defending Corbyns political career.

I am not a member of The Labour Party but have been committed to anti-racist activism for over 40 years. Jeremy Corbyn has spent his political life in absolute opposition to racism in whatever filthy form it manifests itself, and not just with words, the letter, written by a man named Sasha Simic, claimed.

On the 23 April 1977 Jeremy Corbyn, then a councillor in Haringey, joined a 12,000-strong anti-Nazi demonstration which stopped the fascist National Front marching through Wood Green, Simic continued.

Corbyn also responded to the accusations with a message posted to his Facebook and Twitter accounts claiming that I utterly condemn antisemitism.

We recognise that antisemitism has occurred in pockets within the Labour Party, causing pain and hurt to our Jewish community in the Labour Party and the rest of the country. I am sincerely sorry for the pain which has been caused, Corbyns statement read.

Our party has deep roots in the Jewish community and is actively engaged with Jewish organisations across the country, the message continued.

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By Jeffrey Heller JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The number of Jews and Arabs between the Mediterranean Sea and Jordan River is at or near parity, figures cited by Israeli officials show, raising questions whether Israel can remain a democracy if it keeps territory where Palestinians seek a state. The population statistics were mentioned in an Israeli parliamentary statement on Monday summing up legislators' questioning of an official of Israel's military-run civil administration (COGAT) that coordinates government activities in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and in the Gaza Strip. Demography is studied closely on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because of its potential implications for both societies as they weigh possible solutions as Israel celebrates its 70th anniversary next month. With over a "two-state solution" frozen since 2014, some argue that if Israel becomes a binational state through annexation of land seized 51 years ago, it could one day be forced to choose between remaining a democracy or securing a Jewish majority by denying Palestinians the vote. "We estimate the (Palestinian) population in Judea and Samaria at between 2.5 million and 2.7 million," Colonel Uri Mendes, COGAT's deputy director, using Israel's term for the West Bank, told a session of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee. He noted that a Palestinian census put the figure even higher, at 3 million. Avi Dichter, the committee's chairman and a former head of Israel's Shin Bet security service, responded that with the addition of Gaza's 2 million Palestinians, that meant there was now a total of about five million Palestinians living in the two territories that fell to Israel in the 1967 Middle East war. Taking the higher end of the Israeli figures cited and adding them to the 1.84 million Arabs living inside Israel, according to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), would bring the total number of Arabs in Israel and the Israeli-occupied territories to around 6.5 million. This is around the same number of Jews living between the Jordan Valley and Mediterranean, according to the CBS. Jewish settlements in occupied territory Palestinians seek for a state have also dimmed Palestinian hopes of a viable and contiguous country of their own with East Jerusalem as its capital. Palestinians also fear their quest for statehood suffered another blow when U.S. President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital in December. SETTLERS DISPUTE DATA Israeli settlers immediately disputed the population figures, citing one study that put the number of Palestinians in the West Bank at 1.8 million. "The slanted publication about Arab demography in Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley relies on data from the Palestinian statistics bureau which are not true or accurate. They (Palestinians) have an interest in inflating the numbers," settler spokesman Yigal Dilmoni said. But Ahmed Tibi, an Arab legislator in the Israeli parliament, described the figures as accurate and "well known to us for a long time". Without the creation of a Palestinian state, Tibi said, Israel will be headed toward a "one-state solution" embracing either "apartheid or an Arab-Palestinian prime minister". Ofer Shelah, a committee member from the opposition centrist Yesh Atid party, said it is clear the Jewish majority between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean is "precarious". "From a demographic perspective, if Israel does not part with the Palestinians then there is real danger to realizing the Zionist dream of a Jewish and democratic Israel," Shelah told Reuters. Sergio DellaPergola, a demographer and professor emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said one state taking in two nations was not viable. "The answer is separation, the answer is manifestly separation. Two countries for two people, which of course has to be negotiated," said DellaPergola. Underlying political dynamics, he said, are more important than exact population percentages. (Additional reporting by Stephen Farrell, Maayan Lubell and Dan Williams; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
The student activists fighting for gun control reform do not pose a threat to the Second Amendment, according to former President Jimmy Carter.

The ex-commander in chief came to the defense of the students during an interview with CBS News that airs Tuesday. He said he watched the students demonstrate last weekend and believes that the Never Again movement has "the prospect of being successful" in its aims, which, he noted, do not include eliminating the Second Amendment.

"The distortion of the Second Amendment has been a mistake," Carter said. "Theres no threat to the Second Amendment among the desire of the young people to have good background checks before you can buy a weapon."

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Led by survivors from last month's Parkland, Florida, school shooting, students have focused on their safety in the national debate over gun control. On Saturday, an estimated 1 million people marched in cities from coast to coast, advocating for universal background checks and a ban on assault weapons for those under 21.

Detractors have accused the students of attempting to abolish the Second Amendment. Conspiracy theories have especially targeted shooting survivors Emma Gonzalez and David Hoggs.

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Goran Tomasevic/Reuters

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Carter said he hopes the students persevere. They could finally be able to reach those who have "abjectly submitted themselves to the domination of the NRA," he said.

Carter's comments about youth activism align with prevailing thinking among Democrats, unlike his recent statement about the Russia investigation and President Donald Trump. In a Sunday interview on CBS's Sunday Morning, Carter said he hopes the embattled president is able to complete his full term.

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"My own preference would be that he not be impeached but that he be able to serve out his term, because I think he wants to do a good job," Carter said. "And I'm willing to help him, if I can help him, and give him the benefit of the doubt."

His interviews on CBS are part of a promotional tour for his new book, Faith: A Journey for All, which was released Tuesday.

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Joe Arpaio, who is running for Senator in Arizona despite a criminal conviction, has promised to resurrect a debunked conspiracy theory about former President Barack Obamas birth certificate, if elected to office.

The octogenarian former sheriff, who has repeatedly been accused of human rights abuses for his treatment of Hispanic inmates, is a staunch ally of President Trump. Like Trump, Arpaio was an early proponent of so-called birtherisma movement of people who openly doubted or denied the eligibility of Obama to serve in office, based around the false notion that he was not a natural-born citizen. The movement has been labeled by many as racist.

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While Trump has moved on from, but never apologized for, his birther past, Arpaio appeared to reconjure the conspiracy while speaking to a room of supporters at the Western Conservative Conference in Phoenix, which took place over the weekend. Video of Arpaios chat was posted to YouTube by the channel Tru Conservative TV, and archived by the non-profit publication Right Wing Watch.

I talked about another thing that made a little news, Arpaio told the small gathering. I dont talk about it anymoreuntil I become the U.S. senatorbut thats something to do with a document. If I ask you guysIm a nothing now, but if I was still the sheriff I could ask for your birth certificate.

One hundred percent we proved thats a fake document, Arpaio added. One hundred.

The promise to further pursue the debunked claims follow statements Arpaio made in January to CNN.

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Im not going to go into all the detail, but yes, its a phony document, he told the network then.

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David McNew/Getty Images

President Trump pardoned Arpaio in August of 2017, sparing him from jail after he was convicted of criminal contempt related to his notoriously brutal tactics of targeting undocumented immigrants in Maricopa County, Arizona, while serving as sheriff there. Trump has not endorsed Arpaios candidacy as of yet but has frequently praised him, and invited him to speak at the 2016 Republican National Convention.

Arpaio constructed a "tent-city" as an extension to Maricopa County jail in 1993 and used it to house illegal immigrants, some of them for misdemeanor offenses. He once referred to it as a "concentration camp.

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While serving as sheriff, he was heavily criticized for failing to investigate certain sex offenses, including cases of child rape. He emerged as a national figure in part because of the birther conspiracy, which he publically promoted during Obama's tenure.

At age 85, Arpaio is more than 30 years older than his two Republican rivals, Representative Martha McSally, who is a retired Air Force fighter pilot, and Kelli Ward, a former family physician and state senator.

Earlier this week, he claimed that "deep state" actors were working to undermine President Trump.

"I feel very sorry with what's going on with the president," Arpaio told NBC News.

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Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens drew attention Tuesday when he argued for the repeal of the Second Amendment, which protects the right to bear arms. But many gun control supporters say they dont want to go anywhere near the idea.

From a technical standpoint, the already-difficult path to pass a constitutional amendment is complicated by the current Republican domination of state legislatures. And from a strategic standpoint, they fear that the push for an amendment would only rile up gun supporters, making it more difficult to get legislation passed.

Jonathan Turley, a constitutional law professor at George Washington University, explained that the founding fathers specifically designed the constitutional amendment process to be extremely difficult. The proposed amendment would have to either be approved by two-thirds of both chambers of Congress and then ratified by two-thirds of the states, or two-thirds of the states would have to independently call for a constitutional convention.

Thats a very difficult challenge in the best of times; its even more difficult in the current times, Turley said, noting that there is still a high level of support for Second Amendment rights across the country. The chances of securing two thirds of both houses [of Congress] is rather remote, and the chances of securing ratification of 38 states is virtually nonexistent.

Republicans, who typically run on a platform of supporting gun rights, currently control 32 state legislatures, per data from the National Conference of State Legislatures. Even assuming that the 18 states that have either divided or Democratic control backed an amendment, they would still need 20 GOP-controlled states to support the proposal in order to pass.

And even if state legislatures and Congress had the votes to repeal the Second Amendment, there is a very real political risk to actually doing it, especially for those advocating for gun control reform. Gun control advocates frequently stay away from the notion of repealing the Second Amendment; theres never been a major push for it from Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Chris Murphy, both of whom have led the charge in pushing Congress to implement stronger gun control laws, or from advocacy groups like the Brady Campaign or Everytown for Gun Safety.

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The courts have overwhelmingly ruled that there is no inconsistency between 2nd Amendment rights and reasonable, common sense gun safety laws, and states are already stepping up to protect people from gun violence, said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown. A spokesman for the Brady Campaign reaffirmed that, the Supreme Court was in agreement that the Second Amendment allows for the common-sense gun reforms that the Brady Campaign and most Americans support.

The Second Amendment is a sticking point because, for most gun owners, the debate is not necessarily about guns but about the right to own a gun that is explicitly enshrined in the Constitution. This dynamic is precisely why membership and donations to gun rights groups often spike after a mass shooting, when calls for gun control grow louder. A movement to repeal the Second Amendment would only compound these sentiments.

Without the provision of the Second Amendment, without the fact that the colonists had a right to keep arms, we would be singing Hail Victoria and saluting the British flag, Richard Shackleton, an attorney and NRA member from New Jersey, told TIME last October after the shooting at a Las Vegas music festival killed over 50 people and wounded nearly 500. The fact is that armed people are a free people, he said.

Shackletons fears are reflected in the statement issued by Chris Cox, the executive director of the NRAs Institute for Legislative Action, who said that Stevens article shows the real motive of gun control advocates is to take away weapons.

Emboldened by the mainstream media, the gun-control lobby is no longer distancing themselves from the radical idea of repealing the Second Amendment and banning all firearms. The protestors in last weeks march told us with their words and placards that the current debate is not about fake terms like commonsense gun regulation. Its about banning all guns, said Cox.
North Korean and Chinese media have confirmed a meeting took place between the countries' leaders, Kim Jong Un and Xi Jingping, hosted in the Chinese capital Beijing, at which they discussed denuclearization of the Korean peninsula ahead of key summits with South Korea and the U.S. in the coming weeks.

The surprise trip was shrouded in secrecy and was only publicized after the North Korean leader and his wife Ri Sol Ju left the country after a visit which lasted from Sunday to Wednesday (25-28 March), according to the Chinese state news agency Xinhua. The North Korean delegation reportedly arrived in Beijing on Monday and left on Tuesday via train.

On Wednesday, the North Korean ruling party's newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, featured an 8-page spread about the trip, including several pictures. The country's veteran news reader, Ri Chun Hee, broadcast on Korean Central Television a detailed account of the visit in her traditional pink dress.

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Kim and his wife were received by Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan, with a red carpet ceremony at the North Hall of the Great Hall of the People on Monday. They attended a "magnificent banquet" that included live performances of music, dances, and North Korean and Chinese songs, North Korean state news agency KCNA reported, noting that Kim's motorcade received the protection of 21 motorbikes.

2018-03-28T055452Z_304734395_RC1912BB87D0_RTRMADP_3_NORTHKOREA-MISSILES-CHINA

KCNA/via Reuters

At the meeting between North Korean and Chinese officials, Kim thanked China for its friendship and renewed its commitment to giving up on nuclear weapons, according to Chinese state media reports.

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"It is our consistent stand to be committed to denuclearization on the peninsula, in accordance with the will of late President Kim Il Sung and late General Secretary Kim Jong Il," he said, quoted in Xinhua.

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Despite paying lip-service to the idea of a nuclear-free peninsula, Kim's father and grandfather laid the groundwork for the country's nuclear development program which has accelerated in recent years.

"The issue of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula can be resolved, if South Korea and the United States respond to our efforts with goodwill, create an atmosphere of peace and stability while taking progressive and synchronous measures for the realization of peace," Kim reportedly added.

North Korean media reports of the visit did not include mentions of denuclearization nor of the summits with South Korea and the U.S., merely attributing a "positive change in the situation of the Korean peninsula" to North Korea's efforts.

08

KCNA/Reuters

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The timing of the visit to China, North Korea's closest economic and military partner, is seen as strongly linked to preparations ahead of foreign summits.

According to Robert E. Kelly, associate professor in political science at South Korea's Pusan National University, the trip to Beijing signals an increased likelihood of a summit between Kim and President Donald Trumpwhich Pyongyang has yet to officially confirm.

"Kim probably wanted to ask the Chinese if they thought Trumps offer was real, given Trumps tendency to skylark, before answering him," Kelly wrote in his assessment on the visit for the Lowy Institute.

A highlight of the trip was Tuesday's visit to the Chinese Academy of Science, showcasing China's scientific and technological achievements since Xi took power in 2011. Pictures showed Kim and his wife touring the exhibition and trying on virtual reality headsets. Kim expressed his admiration for China's accomplishments in a note.

"Under the wise command of the Communist Party of China, we will achieve better scientific performance," he wrote, according to KCNA.

This article was first written by Newsweek

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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met in secret with Chinas Xi Jinping this week in Kims first trip abroad since assuming power, Chinese state news reported Wednesday.

The news confirms widespread rumors that Kim had unexpectedly traveled to China via an armored train on Monday in his first foreign trip as leader of the North. The 21-car behemoth chugged into Beijings central train station, where a military honor guard and a large motorcade of diplomatic vehicles reportedly met it. But senior officials in the U.S., South Korea and China declined to comment on exactly who was thought to be in the carriages.

The news of Kims visit was only officially confirmed after the same train left Beijing. Yang Jiech, a leading Chinese diplomat, will brief South Korean officials on Thursday about the meeting, South Koreas government said.

President Donald Trump said he heard from Xi on Tuesday night.

His meeting with KIM JONG UN went very well and that KIM looks forward to his meeting with me, Trump tweeted Wednesday. In the meantime, and unfortunately, maximum sanctions and pressure must be maintained at all cost!

Xi Jinping, Kim Jong Un hold talks in Beijing https://t.co/uCJX76DSHA pic.twitter.com/VshbzqqWoI  China Xinhua News (@XHNews) March 27, 2018

Chinas state-run Xinhua News Agency said Kim made the unofficial visit at Xis request, just weeks before the North Korean leader is expected to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump. Kim was also accompanied by his wife, Ri Sol-ju, and his senior advisers.

The meeting is a new development in the diplomatic saga on the Korean peninsula. Kim met with envoys from South Korea earlier this month, who later said the North Korean government was open to holding talks with the United States.

Chinese media reported that Kim expressed a similar willingness for dialogue during his meeting with Xi.

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The issue of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula can be resolved, if south Korea and the United States respond to our efforts with goodwill, create an atmosphere of peace and stability while taking progressive and synchronous measures for the realization of peace, Kim Jong Un was quoted as saying in Xinhua News. The outlet also said Kim hoped to develop friendship with China following the meeting.

Its unclear where a summit between Kim and Trump would take place. Until this week, Kim had never crossed North Korean borders. A sitting U.S. president has never traveled to the country.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Kim Jong Un, pictured at a trolley factory in Pyongyang in February, reportedly arrived in Beijing by armored train this week in his first trip abroad as North Korea's leader. (Photo: KCNA KCNA/Reuters)

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Kim Jong Uns wife stunned the Chinese public with her stylish fashion choices while accompanying the North Korean leader on his surprise visit to China this week. Ri Sol Ju, North Koreas first lady, was seen in at least three different outfits during the unofficial two-day Beijing trip to meet Chinas President Xi Jinping.

Many citizens took to Weibo, a popular Chinese social media platform, to praise Ris appearance. Ri Sol-ju is indeed beautiful and amiable. I can tell she would be good at first-lady diplomacy, better than Kims sister, one user wrote.

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Reuters

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William Tang Tat Chi, a Hong Kong fashion designer, said Ris dress sense was subtle although not conservative, reported the South China Morning Post.

After discussions praising the first ladys style started to gather steam on Weibo, authorities quickly moved to censor all mention of Ris appearance. At the time this article was published, the term Ri Sol Ju was still blocked on Weibo.

Ris first outfit, debuted at the welcoming ceremony, was a tan cropped jacket with a knee-length matching pencil skirt and pointed high heels. She finished off the ensemble with a diamante butterfly broach, a thin necklace and stud earrings.

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Reuters

Ri changed into a cream two-piece dress, which featured three-quarter sleeves with frills and a high neckline, when she and her husband met Xi for lunch at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. During a trip to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the North Korean first lady was seen in a lime green dress that she paired with an off-white coat that featured a dark flower brooch on one side.

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Reuters

In 2012, Ri was identified as North Korean dictator Kims wife. Little is known about the mysterious woman, who frequently vanishes from the public eye for months at a time. Local reports claim she is around 28 years old and the mother to three children, but that information has never been officially confirmed by the authoritarian government.

This article was first written by Newsweek

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Zintan (Libya) (AFP) - Leaders of the two most heavily armed towns in western Libya met Wednesday for the first time since they fought for control of Tripoli four years ago, hailing the reconciliation talks "historic".

The towns of Misrata and Zintan were among the first to rise up against the regime of dictator Moamer Kadhafi who was killed in 2011.

The rebels had taken control of the capital in the summer of 2011 two months before Kadhafi was caught in his hometown of Sirte.

They shared strategic sites in Tripoli until 2014 when a coalition led by Misrata forced out the Zintanis after weeks of bloodshed.

Leaders of the armed groups and dignitaries from Misrata travelled to Zintan, 170 kilometres (105 miles)southeast of Tripoli, for a meeting that a final statement declared "historic".

"This meeting is a first step which will be followed by others," said Zintan mayor Mustafa al-Barouni at the start of the discussions.

"There will no longer be recourse to arms to settle our differences," he vowed.

Ahead of the next meeting due to take place in Misrata, 200 kms east of Tripoli, the two sides agreed to set up a committee to look into the main issues, such as the fate of prisoners and those who have disappeared.

Mohamad Rajab, head of Misrata's military council, said Wednesday's first session would facilitate "reconciliation with other regions and tribes".

Their statement said both sides stressed the need to bring the army and police under a civilian authority and to fight terrorism.

Libya has been gripped by chaos since a NATO-backed uprising toppled Kadhafi, with rival administrations and multiple militias vying for control of the oil-rich country.

Today a national unity government in Tripoli, which has international recognition, faces a rival authority supported by Khalifa Hafter in the east.

Khalifa is accused by Misrata of seeking to set up a new military dictatorship in Libya.

Jihadists and people-traffickers have taken advantage of the chaos to gain a foothold in the North African country.
Lululemon (LULU): Shares stretching forward in early trade, up around 10.1%. The yogawear maker beat on quarterly earnings, while offering current quarter guidance that topped street estimates. Shire (SHPG): Shares soaring here, up around 17% The news? Japans Takeda Pharmaceutical said it is "considering making an approach" to buy the drugmaker, in a deal that could approach $50 billion. Restoration Hardware (RH): Shares higher here, up around 23%. The upscale furniture retailer beat on earnings and revenue in the past quarter. Note that 40% of RH's float, is short.
Lusaka (AFP) - A former Zambian minister and a leading critic of President Edgar Lungu appeared in court on Wednesday to deny charges that he had profited from the proceeds of crime.

Chishimba Kambwili has emerged as one of the most prominent voices speaking out against Lungu, who is accused of increasingly authoritarian rule and of cracking down on dissent.

Lungu had been due to face an opposition motion of impeachment in parliament on Wednesday but the process was delayed by officials who claimed more time was needed to consider the process.

Kambwili, who has been in hospital for undisclosed condition since his arrest on Thursday, appeared in court under heavy police guard.

"I understand the charge and plead not guilty," Kambwili told magistrate Mwaka Mikalile after she read the 34 counts faced by the dissident lawmaker from the governing Patriotic Front party who previously served as foreign minister and Lungu's information minister.

He has since fallen out with Lungu and repeatedly accused the president and government of being corrupt.

Lungu has denied accusations that he is creating a dictatorship in Zambia and has accused rivals of trying to overturn the 2016 election result.

Kambwili was ordered to return to court on June 4 for trial and was released on $1,000 (800 euros) bail.

Several opposition leaders were in court to support Kambwili.

After the hearing, opposition UPND party leader Hakainde Hichilema -- another fierce critic of Lungu -- accused the president of intimidating his opponents.

"This is not how you should run the country. They think running the country is to brutalise some people. A dictator has no true friend other than his wife and family," he said.

Lungu had been due to face a motion of impeachment on Wednesday tabled by opposition parties in parliament -- but the National Assembly said in a letter that the hearing would be delayed, prompting anger from Lungu's critics.

"This appears to be a delaying tactic and we suspect the executive is interfering with the work of parliament," UPND spokesman Charles Kakoma told AFP.
LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - Luxembourg announced on Wednesday that it was recalling its ambassador to Russia for consultations and said it agreed with Britain that Moscow was very likely to have been responsible for a nerve agent attack on British soil. The small European country wedged between France and Germany has not expelled any Russian diplomats, but it becomes the latest EU nation to react to the poisoning of a former Russian double agent with military grade nerve gas in the English town of Salisbury. Most EU countries, the United States and Australia have expelled Russian diplomats. "The Luxembourg government condemns the attack in the strongest terms and agrees with the analysis of the United Kingdom that it is very likely that the Russian Federation is responsible for this act and that there is no other plausible explanation," the Luxembourg foreign ministry said in a statement. "Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn has decided to recall the Luxembourg ambassador to Moscow for consultations," the ministry added. (Reporting by Robert-Jan Bartunek; editing by Philip Blenkinsop)
A few days ago, The New Yorker published an article which discusses Ben Afflecks body in minute detail  and the internet is not happy about it.

The piece, titled The Great Sadness of Ben Affleck talks about Afflecks gut pooching outward, and even appears to compare the actor and filmmaker to Homer Simpson.

Consider this description of a rather unflattering photo which recently surfaced of the film star.

The article seemed to compare the actor to Homer Simpson. (Photo: PA)

His gut is pooching outward in a way that, in a more enlightened country like, say, France, would perhaps be considered virile, not unlike the lusty Gerard Depardieu in his prime but, in fitness-fascist America, tends to read as Homer Simpsonesque, wrote Naomi Fry.

I wrote about affleck on the beach https://t.co/gvEDyDkprq  Naomi Fry (@frynaomifry) March 25, 2018

A blue-gray towel is wrapped protectively around his midsection  recalling a shy teen at the local pool, the piece continued. Staring at the water before him, his gaze obscure and empty, Affleck is a defeated Roman senator The image suggests not just the fall of Affleck but the coming fall of man.

The focus on his physique and comparison to caricatures of fatness have led internet users to believe that yes, The New Yorker is body-shaming Affleck.

The actors weight is under scrutiny. ((Photo: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for CinemaCon)

It is the most mean-spirited article Ive read in a long time, wrote one Twitter user.

He has struggled with alcohol addiction, which you managed to leave out, read another comment. So low-level, I will not be subscribing to The New Yorker  ever.

A piece which seemed to have no other point than to body-shame a person who feels depressed, added a critic. A low moment for anything resembling journalism.

This is no article, this is not news, this is you body-shaming a man that works hard, chimed in another unhappy reader.

Others, however, didnt agree, and one commenter said that the piece was beautiful.

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Laughing out loud for far too long, one reader wrote. I love everything about this piece.

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

Drew Barrymore shares body-shaming incident with fan who assumed she was pregnant: No, Im just fat

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By Tim Ghianni

NASHVILLE (Reuters) - A man accused of killing a woman in a September 2017 shooting rampage at a Tennessee church pleaded not guilty to the crime on Wednesday, his defense attorney said.

Emanuel Kidega Samson, 26, entered the plea in a Davidson County criminal court on the 43-count indictment for the shooting at the Nashville church, in which six others were injured, attorney Jennifer Thompson told Reuters by telephone. She declined further comment.

The charges, which were handed down in an indictment by a Davidson County grand jury last week, include murder, civil rights intimidation and 24 counts of aggravated assault.

Stephen Hayslip, spokesman for the Davidson County District Attorney General's office in Nashville, confirmed the details of proceedings in the Nashville courtroom, but declined further comment. No date has been set yet for Samson's trial.

Samson is charged with walking into Burnette Chapel Church of Christ on Sept. 24, 2017 wearing a ski mask and opening fire, Nashville police have said. An usher grappled with the suspect and eventually retrieved a gun from his vehicle and held at bay the suspect, who had shot himself in the chest, until police arrived.

A churchgoer, Melanie Smith, 39, of Smyrna, Tennessee, was fatally shot in the parking lot, where she was found lying next to the suspect's blue SUV.

About 50 people were worshipping at the church when the gunman entered, police said. Samson was armed with two pistols and had another handgun and a rifle in his sport utility vehicle, police said.

Church members said Samson, who is black, attended the church in the past, police said.

A note in Samson's car indicated he may have been seeking revenge for the fatal 2015 shootings at Emanuel AME church, a historic African-American house of worship in Charleston, South Carolina, The Tennessean newspaper previously reported. Police have not confirmed such a note was found.

(Reporting by Tim Ghianni; Editing by Ben Klayman and Frances Kerry)
By David DeKok

HARRISBURG, Pa. (Reuters) - A magistrate on Wednesday threw out manslaughter charges filed against five members of a Pennsylvania State University fraternity for their roles in the alcohol-fueled hazing death of sophomore Timothy Piazza last year.

The Feb. 4, 2017, death followed a night of heavy drinking that prosecutors claim was forced upon Piazza but defense lawyers contend was voluntary. It was the latest in a series of pledge deaths that have cast a harsh light on U.S. college fraternity culture and prompted some schools to ban fraternities.

Wednesday's ruling marked the second time Magisterial District Judge Allen Sinclair rejected the most serious charges brought by state prosecutors against members of Penn State's Beta Theta Pi fraternity, after he rejected similar charges last summer.

Prosecutors had brought a range of lesser charges against a total of 11 fraternity members, and Sinclair ruled that four of them should stand trial on charges of conspiracy to commit hazing or furnishing to minors.

He did not give a reason for his ruling, which followed four days of hearings in the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte. He released his ruling by e-mail Wednesday morning.

Piazza, 19, twice fell down flights of stairs, which caused the injuries that killed him, prosecutors said, charging that fraternity members ignored the incidents. Some of Piazza's agonies were captured on a graphic video played in court.

"I am disappointed by the decision. ... We are assessing our legal options," state Attorney General Josh Shapiro said. "My office is committed to seeking justice for Timothy Piazza and his family."

Tom Kline, lawyer for the Piazza family, could not immediately be reached for comment.

After Sinclair dismissed the charges last summer, then-District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller vowed to retry the manslaughter charges before a different magistrate, arguing that Sinclair had committed errors of law.

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But Centre County President Judge Pamela Ruest ruled that Sinclair would hear the charges again. Shapiro did not appeal that ruling.

"It's silly to ask the same judge for a different outcome," Parks Miller, who was voted out of office last year, said in a phone interview. "Everyone knew he's not going to give one."

(Editing by Scott Malone and Leslie Adler)
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Utah Senate candidate Mitt Romney said Monday that hes more of a hardliner on immigration than President Donald Trump, citing his opposition to citizenship for Dreamers, the undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children.

Im also more of a hawk on immigration than even the president, he told a crowd of supporters during a campaign event. My view was these DACA kids shouldnt all be allowed to stay in the country legally. I will accept the presidents view on this, but for me, I draw the line and say those whove come illegally should not be given a special path to citizenship.

Trump ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program last September, calling on Congress to find a legislative fix for Dreamers. The presidents position has since become more hardline on that fix. He now says he would only accept a deal for Dreamers to be offered a path to citizenship in exchange for funding his border wall and supporting the end of family-based migration  which immigration restrictionists often call chain migration.

Romney took this a step further, saying Monday that Dreamers needed to earn their right to stay in the country by attending community college or serving in the military.

His campaign offered a clarification Tuesday about that position, pointing to a campaign disclosure statement from Romney that said Dreamers deserve legal status, but not a path to citizenship.

I support the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and believe the best way to fix birthright citizenship abuses, and retain the Constitutions provision, is to end chain migration, the statement added.

For those seeking clarification as to his stance on DACA, @MittRomney submitted his position on permanent residency and citizenship for DACA individuals to the Utah Republican Party last week: https://t.co/65qln5iu2n  Romney for Utah (@Romney4Utah) March 27, 2018

Romneys comments Monday constitute the same immigration policy position he held during his 2012 presidential run, a campaign spokesman told the Deseret News, but take into account changes to the immigration system in the intervening years, most notably President Barack Obamas decision to establish DACA.

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President Obama enacted DACA and Gov. Romney believes the commitment made by President Obama should be honored, the spokesman said. Therefore, he agrees with President Trumps proposal to allow DACA recipients to legally stay in the country but does not support a special pathway to citizenship.

In 2012, Romney also famously called for self-deportation  people choosing to return to their home countries willingly  as a means to reduce the number of undocumented immigrants in the country.

Perhaps seeking to curry favor with Utahs pro-immigration constituency, Romney hailed the states welcoming policy toward legal immigrants, contrasting it with Washingtons message of exclusion, in last months campaign video announcing his Senate run. Republican-dominated Utah is relatively less anti-immigration that other red states, in part because of the Mormon Churchs cautiously pro-DACA stance.

Romney is widely expected to win the November election for the Utah Senate seat that opened up after Sen. Orrin Hatch (R) announced his retirement in January. A February poll showed that Romney has 60 percent of support among state voters.

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By Lamine Chikhi ALGIERS (Reuters) - Algerian doctors are expanding a pay strike and teachers are resuming one, representatives said on Tuesday, putting pressure on President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and his prime minister at a time when resources are limited. Medical students and specialist doctors in several hospitals on Tuesday joined a strike by family doctors that has already been weakening health care in Algiers and other major cities for the last four months. Protests over economic grievances are frequent in the OPEC member, but this year's walkout is the largest since riots in 2011 that followed uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia and elsewhere in the region. The protests come at a time of political uncertainty  Bouteflika, 81, has barely appeared in public since suffering a stroke in 2013. "Our colleagues the students and our colleagues the specialists have decided to show support by joining the strike," Mohamed Toualeb, a spokesman for the strikers, told Reuters, without giving numbers. "The government is unable to address our demands," he said. "So we are calling on Bouteflika to find a solution to our problems." Teachers plan to launch new a strike on April 9, a labor union said, in disappointment that government promises after an earlier protest had not led to any concrete action. "We will go for a strike of two days per week," the teacher's union said a statement." Several weeks ago Bouteflika, in office since 1999, defused a three-month teachers' strike that had shut down hundreds of schools by promising to find a solution. In 2011, the government took the sting out of protests by raising social spending - but this time, money is much shorter as energy revenues, which make up 60 percent of state income, have halved since 2014 due to low prices. A well-known religious leader asked by the government to mediate has had no success. Bouteflika could intervene again, but this would make look Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia weak, raising the likelihood of a cabinet reshuffle, observers say. "Ongoing strikes are evidence that the government has not found the formula to defuse social timebombs," said political analyst Farid Ferrari. A list of potential new ministers has already been circulated on social media and a private TV channel, but officials were not available to comment on it. (Editing by Ulf Laessing and Kevin Liffey)
More white-collar lawyers have refused to defend President Donald Trump from special counsel Robert Muellers Russia investigation as the president searches for a replacement for attorney John Dowd.

On Monday (26 March) the international law firm Winston & Strawn said two of its partners were approached to join Trumps personal legal team fighting back against Muellers probe.

Both former federal prosecutors Tom Buchanan, a partner at the firms Washington office, and Dan Webb, a Republican defense lawyer and co-executive chairman at the firm, declined the job.

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They were unable to take on the representation due to business conflicts. However they consider the opportunity to represent the President to be the highest honor and they sincerely regret that they cannot do so, the firm said in a statement to reporters. They wish the president the best and believe he has excellent representation in Ty Cobb and Jay Sekulow.

03_27_Trump

Joshua Roberts/Reuters

Cobb represents the White House in the Mueller probe, making Sekulow the only lawyer left on Trumps personal legal team mounting a defense against the investigation. Trump has been searching for new lawyers to join the team following the departure of his lead attorney, John Dowd, last week.

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Days before his resignation, Dowd said that Muellers investigation should be shut down. It is examining allegations the Trump campaign worked with Russia to interfere in the 2016 election and that Trump obstructed justice by attempting to quash investigations into the matter.

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Trump was working to bring in Washington legal couple Joseph diGenova and Victoria Toensing ahead of Dowds departure. But on Sunday, Sekulow said in a statement that both had conflicts that wouldnt allow them to represent the president. They are representing other clients in the Russia investigation.

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We thank the president for his confidence in us, and we look forward to working with him on other matters, diGenova and Toensing wrote in a joint statement Sunday.

Many lawyers and top law firms want to represent me in the Russia case dont believe the Fake News narrative that it is hard to find a lawyer who wants to take this on, Trump wrote on Twitter Sunday. Fame & fortune will NEVER be turned down by a lawyer, though some are conflicted, the president continued, adding I am very happy with my existing team.

The shakeup in Trumps legal team comes as Dowd and Sekulow were negotiating the terms of an interview between the president and Mueller.

Trump has continued to seek advice on the Russia investigation from his long-time attorney Marc Kasowitz, who was replaced by Dowd last summer.

The president has sought legal representation throughout Washington, but many law firms and lawyers have declined to represent him.

This article was first written by Newsweek

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Models from the Beso Tura, Alexandr Rogov, and Anastasia Dokuchaeva runway shows from Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia. (Photos: Courtesy of MBFW Russia; art: Quinn Lemmers)

When you think of the worlds top fashion capitals, you tend to think of the big four: Paris, Milan, London, and New York  not Moscow. But that perception is changing.

In recent years, the fashion industry has witnessed a new guard of fashionable cities emerge in Eastern Europe and Asia. Places like Tbilisi, Kiev, Berlin, Seoul, Tokyo, and now Moscow have become prime sites for scouting emerging talent and fresh-faced street style stars. But for Moscow in particular, this journey toward becoming the next fashion capital has been more than 10 years in the making.

This year, I was invited to attend the 37th season of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia. To my surprise, it was nothing like what I had imagined. I always perceived the Russian fashion scene to be heavy on streetwear (i.e., analogous to their main breakout star, Gosha Rubchinskiy). But instead, the designers were diverse in background and presented collections that were multifaceted and distinct from one another. Some were definitely much stronger than others in terms of design technique, fabric choices, and styling choices, but overall the clothes were varied, ranging from intricate, embroidered gowns to commercial style workwear, as well as gender fluid clothing and, yes, streetwear, too.

At its core, MBFW Russia is focused on fortifying Russian talent, but it is also big on supporting international designers. This season included special international showcases with designers from Africa and Kazakhstan. In the past, guest designers have been invited from China and Indonesia as well. In fact, such household names as Jeremy Scott and Vivienne Westwood have previously shown in Russia.

To those outside of Moscow, it might seem like Russias fashion scene has just begun, and in some respects, it has. Its important to remember that the Soviet Union dissolved in December 1991, less than 30 years ago. In the early 1900s, Russia didnt have someone like Coco Chanel, Cristobal Balenciaga, or Christian Dior leading its fashion industry. Many of the designers on the Russian calendar today started their journey not long ago  some in the early 2000s, others just recently.

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In fact, 2004 is when Russias first fashion week launched. At the time, we invited just 17 designers, Alexander Shumsky, president of the Russian Fashion Council, tells Yahoo Lifestyle. He explains that the shows were set up in tents similar to those at New Yorks Bryant Park, centered in Moscows iconic Red Square, home to St. Basils Cathedral and the historic GUM shopping center and near the Kremlin. Now, the shows are held at the Manege in Moscows Design Museum.

To Russias disadvantage, the country didnt have sustainable commercial brands like you have in New York: Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, Donna Karan, Proenza Schouler, says the RFC president. That is why the Russian Fashion Council is focused on selecting the best designers for its fashion week, not necessarily the most known brands. In the end, were focused on talent and aim to establish Moscow as a fashion capital. Not a shopping capital.

As a city that is one of the worlds largest, with more than 12 million people, it possesses immense potential for global fashion success. But to say that Moscow is the next fashion capital right now is a bit premature, although its certainly one to watch closely. Until then, meet Moscows six brightest stars, who will certainly serve as catalysts in the citys journey to becoming the fashion capital it aspires to be.

Models walk in Alexandr Rogovs show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia. (Photos: Courtesy of MBFW Russia; art: Quinn Lemmers)

To Russians, Alexandr Rogov is already considered a star. His fashion show clearly reflected his popularity, being the most packed show of the week. I was almost elbowed out at one point. Rogov actually began his career in television but soon transitioned into fashion styling, where his success bloomed. Hes worked with premier publications in Russia such as Harpers Bazaar, Glamour, and Elle. In 2012, Tatler named him one of the most influential Russian stylists. The following year, in 2013, Rogov decided to establish his own eponymous fashion line.

In just a few short years, he cemented himself as a designer to watch. His collection for fall fuses an Eastern European aesthetic, similar to Demna Gvasalias streetwear hit: Vetements with a light femininity. Key items include his silky patchwork dresses, sheer tops, and sweatshirts. His accessories are also worth mentioning: Matrix-style sunglasses, colorful gloves, and sheer embellished socks.

Models walk in Anastasia Dokuchaevas show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia. (Photos: Courtesy of MBFW Russia; art: Quinn Lemmers)

Anastasia Dokuchaeva has only two fashion collection under her belt, but she presented one of the strongest collections of the week. Her designs seamlessly mesh maximalist style with streetwear and border on futuristic but still wearable. Key pieces include her graphic geometric coats, logo outerwear, and a white strapless dress with splatters of blood similar to Raf Simonss SS18 collection for Calvin Klein.

Models walk in Artem Shumovs show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia. (Photos: Courtesy of MBFW Russia; art: Quinn Lemmers)

Artem Shumov is one of Russias biggest rising stars. Hes shown in Russia for a few seasons now and was one of six selected to present in London recently. Although Shumov established his brand in St. Petersburg and is currently based in Shanghai, hes a big fan of Moscow. I love Moscow more and more, he says. Its changing, its freer, its more open now for different opportunities. It also helps that Moscow is a very beautiful city, says the designer.

But for this seasons collection, Shumov was inspired by his new home base. His show also had one of the most diverse model casts of the week, featuring South Sudanese model Nile Shadow. Shumovs designs creatively played with proportions, tailoring, and color.

Models walk in Beso Turas show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia. (Photos: Courtesy of MBFW Russia; art: Quinn Lemmers)

Beso Turazashvili of Beso Tura is a Georgian-Russian designer whose collections are inspired by his travels. He previously worked with Stella McCartney in New York and lived in Dubai. He describes his designs as meant for powerful, strong women. According to his website, the Beso Tura woman is self-confident, modern, ambitious, and independent. This seasons collection had hints of Anthony Vaccarellos vision for Saint Laurent, whose FW18 show featured bright lights coupled with similar short 80s-style minidresses. But the leather jumpsuits and trench coats were the biggest highlights. Dont be surprised if you see Bella Hadid rocking one of these looks in the near future.

Models walk in Rich Mnisis show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia. (Photos: Courtesy of MBFW Russia; art: Quinn Lemmers)

Rich Mnisi was part of MBFW Russias Africa Explosion showcase, which highlighted African designers specially invited to show their collections on the Russian catwalk. Mnisis designs were refreshing for the Eastern European fashion scene due to their gender fluidity. Male models wore sheer trousers and svelte feminine suiting, while female models wore vibrant, graphic coats and skirts. Mnisis accessories were also on trend, featuring oversized tote bags, colorful earrings, and waist bags.

Models walk in Otocyons show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia. (Photos: Courtesy of MBFW Russia; art: Quinn Lemmers)

Surprisingly, one of the best collections at MBFW Russia came from a young designer who didnt even show on the main fashion calendar. Her name is Lesya Ruakovich, and she is the founder of Otocyon. She was one of more than 20 young designers chosen to present at Futurum Moscow, an all-day free fashion event sponsored by the Russian Fashion Council that takes place on the last day of fashion week.

This season, Futurum Moscow intermixed art with fashion by featuring a special exhibit in partnership with Artis Project, founded by Anastasia Potanina. They enlisted popular, Russian street-artist, Alexey Mednoy to create live artwork on site based on Moscows urban landscape. Futurum Moscow was founded in 2017 to provide young designers a platform to showcase their fashion collections without worrying about how to fund them or produce them. This investment in Russias youth is strategic. After all, the fate of Russias future in fashion lies in the hands of its youth.

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

 Fashion week in Russia came with many twists  including the gender fluid collection of a South African designer

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By Madeline Chambers BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's decision to expel Russian diplomats has split the Social Democrats (SPD), Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition partner, undermining her tough stance on Moscow just two weeks into a new government. Berlin is sending four diplomats back to Russia, joining other European states and Washington in a concerted response to a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in England which Britain blames on Russia. Moscow denies any involvement. "We must do everything possible to prevent a new Cold War with Russia," Social Democrat Gernot Erler, government coordinator for Russia, told the Passauer Neue Presse. He said Germany had a clear and unshakeable position, "but we want to stay in dialogue with Moscow". While there is broad consensus on the response at the top of Merkel's conservatives and the SPD uneasiness among the SPD's rank and file is growing. The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and radical Left parties have already criticized the government's stance and German business groups have also sounded warnings. Merkel, who has a tricky relationship with Putin, and her SPD Foreign Minister Heiko Maas have repeatedly called on Russia to cooperate, said it is almost certain Russia was behind the attack and that Germany stands by Britain. Some prominent SPD members have gone further than Erler who stopped short of criticizing the government. Former European Commissioner Guenter Verheugen said any sanctions should be based on facts, not suspicions. "The view that if in doubt, 'Putin and the Russians are responsible for everything', is one that poisons thought and must stop," he told the Augsburger Allgemeine daily. Former foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel said Verheugen's comment showed "courage and a cool head". While dissent among Merkel's conservatives was muted, business groups are worried. Sales to Russia rose last year for the first time since 2012 when sanctions over Moscow's role in the Ukraine crisis dented what was a 38 billion-euro ($47 billion) export trade. Exports in the first eleven months of last year were 24.1 billion euros. Germany also needs Russia for roughly a third of the gas it uses, and on Tuesday it said it had approved the construction and operation of the Russia-built NordStream 2 gas pipeline. The German Committee on East European Economic Relations warned against "over-hasty conclusions", saying political reprisals risked a "spiral of escalation". (Additional reporting by Paul Carrel and Thomas Escritt; Writing by Madeline Chambers; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
A 55-year-old North Carolina man has been found guilty of murder nearly two years after killing his wife and young daughter and then posting photos of their bodies online, multiple news outlets report.

Following his conviction, Elhadji Diop was sentenced to life in prison without parole in the death of his wife, Aminata Drame, according to the Associated Press. In the second-degree murder of his 2-year-old daughter, Fatim, Diop received an additional 20 to 25 years behind bars.

The double homicide was first reported on April 5, 2016, when a niece of the family, who lives in Senegal, alerted Raleigh police after she saw a disturbing post on Diops Facebook page, according to local station WTVD.

Look what god did 2. me. A beautiful family .all gone. [sic], he reportedly wrote above two photos of his deceased family.

In an ensuing investigation, an autopsy concluded that Drame, 40, died from strangulation, according to WTVD. The report determined the couple had been fighting and landed on top of their child, leading authorities to suspect the girl may have been smothered beneath them.

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Trial testimony showed that Diop and Drame were suffering from financial problems before the killings, the News & Observer reported.

Drame and her daughter had returned home that April day from shopping, the newspaper reported, and Diop was replacing linoleum tiles on the floor when he and his wife began arguing and tussled on the ground, where Diop violently strangled Drame.

Before police arrived to his home, Diop cut himself and ingested a toxic substance, WTVD previously reported.

Prosecutors argued that he posted the photos as trophies, while Diops attorney said he posted them as a shrine, according to reports from the courtroom. (PEOPLEs attempts to reach the Wake County District Attorneys Office and Diops attorney were unsuccessful on Tuesday.)

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After Diops conviction, Drames sister, Maimouna Diop, spoke with reporters about her familys loss, according to the News & Observer.

Theres a little bit of closure but Ami [Drame] is still gone. Well never see her again, she said. [She was a] beautiful, hard-working woman. She was always dressed up. She was full of life.

Drame had two older daughters, ages 15 and 12, who are now living with Maimouna and her mother.
Washington (AFP) - Louisiana's attorney general announced on Tuesday that two police officers will not face any charges in the 2016 shooting death of an African-American man in the southern US state, which sparked widespread protests.

California's state justice department meanwhile announced that it will oversee an investigation into another controversial police shooting -- that of an unarmed black man in Sacramento.

The two cases have revived concerns about police misconduct -- fatal shootings of African-American suspects in recent years have fueled a nationwide debate over race and criminal justice.

Alton Sterling, 37, was shot dead in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on July 5, 2016 in a scuffle with police outside a convenience store where he had been selling CDs. The shooting was captured on cell phone video.

The state's attorney general Jeff Landry told a press conference that no legal action would be taken against officers Blane Salamoni and Howie Lake, both of whom are white.

"Our investigation has concluded that officers Lake and Salamoni attempted to make a lawful arrest," Varney said, adding that the decision not to file charges "was not taken lightly."

He said Sterling was armed, under the influence of illegal drugs and had resisted efforts to arrest him.

"Throughout the encounter, the officers attempted several non-lethal techniques to gain compliance and control of Mr. Sterling's hands," he said.

"Their efforts to do so were a direct result of the information relayed to them by the Baton Rouge police department dispatcher -- and that was that Mr. Sterling was armed with a firearm.

"Furthermore, the officers' concern that he was armed and dangerous was in fact subsequently verified and correct," he said.

According to the Louisiana Justice Department report into the shooting, a loaded .38 caliber handgun was found in the right front pocket of Sterling's pants.

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- 'Fight for justice' -

Sterling's aunt, Sandra Sterling, condemned the decision not to charge the police officers.

"You put a killer back on the streets," Sterling said.

"We're going to continue to fight for justice," said another aunt, Veda Washington. "One way or another it's going to come," she told CNN.

Nearly a year ago, the US Justice Department also declined to press charges against the officers involved in Sterling's shooting.

The US Justice Department said it found "insufficient evidence to support federal criminal charges" against either officer.

According to investigators, Salamoni shot Sterling three times in the chest and then again in the back in an encounter that lasted less than 90 seconds.

The United States was then set on edge for weeks after an African-American man shot and killed five police officers in Dallas, Texas.

A similar assault took place in Baton Rouge, where three officers were shot dead by another black man, also a former military veteran.

- Sacramento shooting probed -

Authorities in Sacramento, the California state capital, called for calm on Tuesday as they announced a probe into the March 18 fatal shooting of Stephon Clark.

"Our independent oversight of the investigation and our separate review of the (Sacramento police) department will be based on the facts and the law. Nothing more, nothing less," California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said.

Clark, a 22-year-old father of two, was shot dead by police in the backyard of his grandparents' home.

The incident was triggered by an emergency 911 phone call stating that a man was smashing car windows in the neighborhood.

Videos caught by a helicopter and by the officer's body cameras showed Clark running through the neighborhood, then entering the backyard of his grandparents' home, where he lived.

The officers burst into the yard with their weapons drawn and confronted Clark, shouting: "Show me your hands!" followed soon after by "Gun, gun, gun!"

The officers fired at least 20 rounds. Clark did not have a weapon but was clutching an iPhone.

Protests were held outside the state capitol building and in the streets of downtown Sacramento, with marchers blocking traffic and clashing with police.

The officers involved in the shooting were put on leave pending the investigation.
By Christine Kim and Ben Blanchard SEOUL/BEIJING (Reuters) - Accompanied by his wife, greeted by honor guards, and entertained at banquets, Kim Jong Un made his international debut as North Korea's leader by being wined and dined in the capital of the world's most populous country. Kim's "unofficial" visit to China this week marks his first known trip outside the North since taking power in late 2011, and it helped burnish the image he has recently been cultivating as a leader who has to be shown respect by the world's most powerful. Despite recent chilly relations between the neighbors, Chinese President Xi Jinping rolled out an actual red carpet for Kim, who arrived from Pyongyang in a 21-car bulletproof train. "Just look at Kim's big smile on his face while he's shaking hands with Xi," said Kim Yong-hyun, professor of North Korean studies at South Korea's Dongguk University. "Although it was Kim's first trip outside North Korea since he took power, he looked quite confident, posing himself as a world player equal to China's Xi." The surprise visit to Beijing comes as Kim has launched a diplomatic offensive, proposing upcoming summits with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump. LAVISH RECEPTION In line with the previous three visits by Kim's father to China, the Chinese government described the trip as unofficial, with no North Korean flags hung around Beijing's Tiananmen Square as happens with state visits. But Chinese state television gave similar coverage to Kim's meetings with Xi as they did to Xi's meetings with Trump last year, with an unusually long 14-minute report of what Xi and Kim discussed and where and how they met, though the initial secrecy of the trip meant no live coverage of the welcome ceremony. The images showed the two men chatting in a friendly way, and Xi's wife Peng Liyuan also greeting Kim's wife, Ri Sol Ju. Kim and Ri were shown waving out of a window as their car drew away. In making the trip to Beijing in the customized train, Kim sought to highlight his place as the heir to his father Kim Jong Il, said Aidan Foster-Carter, an honorary senior research fellow at Britain's Leeds University. His father had also gone to China by train on his visits. "Ordinary mortals just take the plane," he said. "The train sets the precedent of following in daddy's footsteps." But by making his wife a key figure in the Beijing trip, Kim parted from his father's behavior and mirrored the ways of today's modern country leaders. Kim Jong Il had never been seen abroad with any of his wives, though he was believed to have been accompanied by the woman suspected of being his fourth wife on visits to China and Russia, yet it was never announced officially. "Unlike his father, Kim Jong Un presented Ri Sol Ju as first lady of North Korea, emphasizing her status and portraying his image as a normal leader," said Dongkuk University's Kim. "It appears to be a well-calculated tactic that would help turn Kim's hostile and unfavorable image to a gentle and sane one." LEGITIMACY AT HOME AND ABROAD As the leader of a country often called reclusive and strange, Kim is also much younger than many world leaders, a difference that gets additional resonance in Asia, where respectful deference to elders is widely upheld. Estimated to be 34, Kim is decades younger than 64-year-old Xi, 65-year-old Moon, and Trump, who is 71. Frosty relations between Beijing and Pyongyang since Kim took office had seen state-to-state relations deteriorate, but the two sides have always maintained party-to-party ceremonies and traditions, such as sending envoys to share the outcomes of key party meetings, according to diplomats. Kim officially cast his visit in the same light, saying he felt obligated to come congratulate Xi in person on his recent re-appointment as president, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry's account of the trip. China's most senior party diplomat, Politburo member Yang Jiechi, attended the main meeting between Xi and Kim, along with Wang Huning, the party's top theoretician. The government's top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi, was also there, though at the far end of the table. From the North, Kim Jong Un brought with him the country's most high-profile officials, including vice chairman of the Workers' Party Central Committee Choe Ryong Hae, Politburo member Ri Su Yong, Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, and Kim Yong Chol, a former intelligence chief who now handles inter-Korean affairs. Taking nearly all of his closest aides highlights the confidence he may be feeling now that he has secured his position, showing that he doesn't fear there could be a coup against him during his time away, said Yang Moo-jin, professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul. "We saw many high-ranking officials with Kim, but almost none from the military. One could worry about a military coup, but the fact that he made this trip as he did shows he's completely in charge of the military as well as all of North Korea's internal networks," Yang said. (Reporting by Christine Kim and Heekyong Yang in SEOUL and Ben Blanchard in BEIJING; Additional reporting by Christian Shepherd in BEIJING; Editing by Josh Smith and Martin Howell)
A photograph of Saturday's March for Our Lives demonstration: EPA

The parents of one of the victims in the Parkland shooting last month say that they received a nice letter from former President Barack Obama after their son was killed  but that President Donald Trump did not reach out at all.

Michael Schulman and Linda Beigel Schulman received the handwritten letter from Mr Obama earlier this month, and say they would have been moved by the note even if Mr Obama was not a former president. Their son, 35-year-old Scott Beigel, was killed February 14 after he unlocked the door to his classroom to let his students return to the safety of the class  but was shot dead before he could get back in.

Your son seemed like an extraordinary young man, and Michelle and I grieve alongside you, the letter to the couple read, according to New York Magazine. We can only imagine the hardship you are going through; hopefully all the wonderful memories can help ease the pain. Well get the details about your fund in his honour. In the meantime, you are in our thoughts and prayers.

The couple told that magazine that they hadnt heard anything from Mr Trump since their son was shot, but that other politicians have reached out to express their condolences. They got a nice letter from Florida Sen Marco Rubio, they said, and from other members of Congress as well.

The couple said that they think the Parkland shooting is the final straw, and that the student activists will succeed where other movements have failed. The students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School are pushing the conversation, and show promise to make sure that this is indeed the last major school shooting as the young students at the March in Washington Saturday who had survived a tragedy less than two months ago pledged.

How many times has this gone on? Oh another school shooting. This one is different. This isnt another school shooting. This is the school shooting thats going to make a difference, Ms Beigel Schulman said.

Saturdays march in the US capital was attended by at least 200 students from Parkland, their families, survivors of other gun violence, and a heavy media presence that blasted coverage of the event throughout the day.
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President Donald Trump got gun-reform activists heated this week with one strong early morning tweet. Trump is not in favor of touching the United States Second Amendment.

In his statement, Trump referred to an op-ed in the New York Times titled John Paul Stevens: Repeal the Second Amendment. The retired conservative Supreme Court Justice explained his reasoning on why the constitution should be changed to include more gun restrictions in America.

This clearly did not sit well with the president, and Trumps response equally rubbed supporters of gun-form the wrong way. In response, several of the Parkland shooting victims began tweeting back at the president, trolling his gun stance.

Of course, there were many who agreed with Trumps tweet. They too voiced their opinions on the gun control debate on Twitter, applauding the presidents strong stance.

And like with any good argument, there were the moderates, who insist that America can have its cake and eat it too.
A pilot dumped 33 tons of fuel in mid-air to enable an emergency landing after a passenger came down with a life-threatening medical issue.

The China Eastern Airlines flight was traveling from Shanghai to New York on Friday when a 60-year-old female passenger experienced breathing problems, Asia One reported.

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Trending: Russia Warns of New Cold War After Mass Expulsion of Diplomats

Crew members attempted to assist the woman, who was transferred from economy class to business class so she could receive more attention. However, her breathing became worse and she lapsed into unconsciousness.

The situation had not improved after help from a doctor on board, according to a statement by the airline.

In a bid to save the passengers life, the pilot decided to dump fuel, enabling the plane to land in Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport in Alaska.

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"The airplane's weight was 282 tons, far more than the maximum landing weight," pilot Gu Jian explained to CGTN. "When the sick passenger needed medical attention for safety reasons, the plane had to descend and dump gasoline at the same time."

The emergency landing took place around eight hours into the plane's planned 15-hour journey, reported The South China Morning Post.

The woman was removed from the plane and taken to an Anchorage hospital for emergency treatment.

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According to reports the plane refueled in Anchorage and continued its flight to New York, where it landed after a six-hour delay.

The woman taken ill was discharged from hospital the following day, and was able to continue the journey to New York with her daughter.

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Responding to critics who complained about the plane dumping the fuel, the airline said in its statement: Fuel dumped mid-air is ejected in the form of gas and therefore destruction to the environment is comparatively minimal. Saving someones life is the priority.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from Newsweek
By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis on Wednesday told members of the Mafia in Italy, where many go to Church and worship openly, that they cannot call themselves Christians because they "carry death in their souls". Francis' improvised words before tens of thousands of people at his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square was his strongest attack on organized crime in nearly four years. "So we don't have to go far, let's think about what happens right here at home (Italy)," he said while speaking generally about "fake Christians" who are corrupt while pretending to be righteous. "(What about) the so-called Christian Mafiosi," he said. "They have nothing at all in them that is Christian. They call themselves Christians but they carry death in their souls and inflict it on others." Many members of organized crime groups in Italy, such as Sicily's Cosa Nostra and Calabria's 'Ndrangheta, see themselves as part of a religious, cult-like group. Particularly in smaller towns and cities in the south, they take part in Catholic sacraments, go to church and in some cases have also found complicity by some churchmen. The town of Oppido Mamertina in the Calabria region made headlines in 2014 when locals carrying a statute of the Madonna in a traditional religious procession diverted its route to pass by the home of local mob boss who was infirm. They paused before the boss' house and tilted the statue slightly as if to kneel in a sign of respect toward the clan boss. When Pope Francis visited the Calabria region the same year, he accused organized crime members of practising "the adoration of evil" and said Mafiosi excommunicate themselves from the Church by their actions. At the audience in St. Peter's Square on Wednesday, Francis asked the faithful for prayers for Mafiosi, "so that the Lord touches their souls". In 1993 Pope John Paul sternly warned members of Sicily's Cosa Nostra that they would "one day face the justice of God". The crime group responded several months later with bomb attacks against several churches in Rome, including the Basilica of St. John's, which is a pope's church in his capacity as bishop of Rome. In recent years, the Calabria-based 'Ndrangheta has overtaken Sicily's Cosa Nostra as the most feared and lucrative Italian crime group, making most of its money from drug trafficking. It has spread throughout the world. (Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Peter Graff)
ATHENS (Reuters) - Attacks by organized groups against migrants, refugees and activists have been creeping up in Greece, the Athens-based Racist Violence Recording Network (RVRN) said on Wednesday, and it called for zero tolerance towards racist violence. In its 2017 annual report, RVRN said the living conditions of refugees and migrants on Greek islands, where thousands are stranded in dire, overcrowded camps, drove xenophobic rhetoric in local communities, sometimes with "extreme manifestations." It found violent assaults had increased in Athens too, and said perpetrators appeared to execute instructions given to them by their organizations based on pre-meditated plans. "The RVRN alarmingly observes an increase in the number of assaults committed by groups employing 'hit-and-run' like practices," the report said. On the island of Leros, asylum-seekers reported they had been attacked by groups of motorcyclists using sharp objects. One pregnant woman said she was targeted because of her headscarf. In Athens, one man was verbally abused and beaten in the face at a bus stop, the report said. RVRN, established in 2011 by the U.N. refugee agency in Greece and the National Commission for Human Rights, gives a broad definition of racist violence as "criminal or violent acts or behavior against people because of their ethnic origin, color, religion, gender identity, sexual preferences or disabilities." On the basis of interviews with victims, it recorded 102 incidents of such violence in 2017, more than a third of which resulted in injury. That was up from 95 incidents in 2016. Most of the attacks were against lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, transgender or intersex (LGBQTI) people, followed by those against refugees or migrants, which made up a third of all attacks. The number of attacks against LGBQTI people fell compared with the previous year. Hostility toward migrants and refugees has risen in Greece since it plunged into an economic crisis in 2010. Actual numbers are likely to be higher than those reported as victims are sometimes too scared to report attacks to the police. (Reporting by Karolina Tagaris; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens has called for the repeal of the Second Amendment: Getty Images

Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens has called for the repeal of the Second Amendment of the US Constitution  the right to bear arms - saying it would make our schoolchildren safer and honour the memories of... victims of recent gun violence.

In an comment piece in the New York Times, the 97-year-old argued that the amendment had been warped by gun lobbying groups such as the National Rifle Association (NRA) to extend beyond its original intent.

He pointed out that the amendment was adopted out of concern that a national standing army might pose a threat to the security of the separate states.

Today that concern is a relic of the 18th Century, said the former justice, a Republican, even though he is widely considered to have been on the liberal side of the highest court in the US at the time of his retirement in 2010.

Mr Stevens was on the losing end of a 2008 ruling in which the Supreme Court held that the Second Amendment gives individuals the right to own a gun for self-defence.

In his opinion piece, Mr Stevens wrote that a constitutional amendment to get rid of the Second Amendment would do more to weaken the NRAs ability to stymie legislative debate and block constructive gun control legislation than any other available option.

https://t.co/JcFNFTA6VD Not what were going for here, but very interesting considering who wrote it. Feel free to give it a read. I dont feel the same way, but its an interesting point of view.  Cameron Kasky (@cameron_kasky) March 27, 2018

His comments were largely in response to the March for Our Lives demonstrations last weekend, where hundreds of thousands of people across the country called on members of Congress to pass stricter gun control laws.

The protests were led by students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas, the high school in Parkland, Florida, where a shooter killed 17 people, including 14 students, last month.

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Rarely in my lifetime have I seen the type of civic engagement schoolchildren and their supporters demonstrated in Washington and other major cities throughout the country this past Saturday, Mr Stevens wrote. These demonstrations demand our respect.

But he said they should seek more effective and lasting reform. The demonstrators are currently demanding a prohibition on civilian ownership of semi-automatic weapons, an increase in the minimum age to buy a gun from 18 to 21, and comprehensive background checks on all purchasers of firearms.

Stoneman Douglas student Cameron Kasky, one of the leaders of the March for Our Lives, posted a link to Mr Stevens op-ed on Twitter, saying it was very interesting considering who wrote it, but I dont feel the same way.
(Photo by George Pimentel/Getty Images)

WWE wrestler Trish Stratus is honoring her babys first birthday  and her recent comeback  with a killer before-and-after photo.

On Tuesday, the now retired married mother of two posted the image on Instagram, which showed her wearing a pair of black underwear and a blue-and-gold embroidered robe. If you had told me I would be celebrating my daughters first year birth month by kicking ass in a @wwe ring, I would have probably said get the F out of here, she wrote.

The 42-year-old added, But I did. At 12 months postpartum, 12 years post retirement and 7 years since Ive competed in a ring and since birthed 2 children  I did it. I came. I fought. I stratusfied. Because I am woman.

In the post, Stratus gave a shout-out to her trainer, who helped her get back into shape post-baby, and to the all-womens Royal Rumble match in January, which she participated in as one of seven moms among the 30 participants.

Just because I had a baby, doesnt mean I have to stop doing me, wrote Stratus. In fact, I am a stronger, wiser, more bad assy version of me, because trust me, birthing and babies do that to a woman! So lets take a minute to shout out to the mamas out there who are doing it, to the soon to be mamas  get ready to be a better, stronger version of you!

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Accompanying the 87,000 likes were comments that Stratus was inspiring and impressive.

Stratus, who did not return Yahoo Lifestyles request for comment, was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2013  the same day she announced her first pregnancy with her now 4-year-old son, Maximus. I just wanted to let you all know that in September, Ill be delivering a little Stratusfaction, she told the crowd.

Her second child, a daughter named Madison-Patricia, was born on Jan. 14, 2017.

Since retiring, the Canada native launched a second career running a yoga studio called Stratusphere, and won a handful of business awards.

Impressive, both in and out of the ring.

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Turns out Richard Dreyfuss had a starring role in one of Donald Trumps meetings with Stormy Daniels, and even he cant come to terms with it.

As Daniels explained to Anderson Cooper in the highly anticipated interview featured on last Sundays episode of 60 Minutes, in which she detailed an alleged affair with Trump, the two once watched an entire documentary on shark attacks, at his request. It supposedly happened when Daniels and the future leader of the free world met at the Beverly Hills Hotel to talk about her becoming a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice in the summer of 2007. (Trump has denied Danielss claims.)

As she told it, the encounter happened during Shark Week, when the Discovery Channel airs shark-themed shows. The Wrap deduced that the show Trump and Daniels most likely watched together was Ocean of Fear: The Worst Shark Attack Ever, which aired on July 29, 2007, and depicted the tragic story of the USS Indianapolis. The World War II ship was torpedoed by the Japanese in 1945, and about 900 of the 1,200 men aboard died of drowning, dehydration, and, of course, shark attacks.

Actor Richard Dreyfuss promotes Jaws on March 10. (Photo: Bobby Bank/Getty Images)

Enter Dreyfuss, who narrated that show, not only because he has a fantastic voice  all layered and confident  but also because he starred in Jaws, the iconic movie about a fake killer shark that mentions the true story of the ship. One of the movies central characters, the late Robert Shaws Quint, is a survivor of the Indianapolis, a fact that obviously impresses oceanographer Matt Hooper, played by Dreyfuss.

From left to right, actors Richard Dreyfuss, Roy Scheider, and Robert Shaw star in the 1975 movie Jaws. (Photo: Universal Studios/Courtesy of Getty Images)

Dreyfusss adult son, Ben Dreyfuss, whos also an actor, pointed out the revelation to his dad, to which the elder Dreyfuss had the same response many people might have had.

Many things in this tweet would not have made sense a few years ago. https://t.co/xmd4swKj7n  Richard Dreyfuss (@RichardDreyfuss) March 27, 2018

Dreyfusss response was a lot more tame than what he might have said in the past. The Hollywood Reporter captured a string of tweets that he offered back in 2016 that made it clear he did not support Trump. In fact, he used the hashtag #NeverTrump in one of his now-deleted tweets. In another post, the month before Trumps election, Dreyfuss referred to the former Apprentice host as a disgusting, dangerous pig.

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Dreyfuss is notably the founder of the Dreyfuss Civics Initiative, which identifies as a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization on its website. Its mission is to revive the teaching of civics in American public education to empower future generations with the critical-thinking skills they need to fulfill the vast potential of American citizenship.

In other words, Dreyfuss surely has a lot more to say on the subject. Perhaps hell talk about it if you get him drunk on a boat while youre out hunting sharks.

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:
Roseanne Barr loves Twitter  and it runs in the family. For Tuesdays premiere of the Roseanne reboot  which did very well in the ratings department, proving merica missed the Conners  the actress live-tweeted the East Coast broadcast, as she was in N.Y.C. with her co-stars/TV kids Michael Fishman (D.J.), Lecy Goranson (Becky 1), and Sarah Chalke (Becky 2) to do publicity for the show.

However, come West Coast broadcast time, the 65-year-old actress and executive producer handed the reins over to her 22-year-old son, Buck Thomas, so he could do the honors.

What's up everyone! It's past my moms bed time in NYC so I'll be live tweeting for us folks on the West Coast! I haven't seen any of the episodes yet so I am

So excited and proud of her no matter what! P.S. Keep your eyes peeled for this handsome dude on the set!

-Buck.T pic.twitter.com/A3orUxZtaf  Roseanne Barr (@therealroseanne) March 28, 2018

Buck, who is Barrs youngest child, was born toward the end of her first run on the show. He hadnt watched any of the new episodes (there were two last night), but noted that he was so excited and proud of her no matter what. His exclamation points also adorably emphasized his excitement.

Here we go!!  Roseanne Barr (@therealroseanne) March 28, 2018

Dan is Alive and thriving!  Roseanne Barr (@therealroseanne) March 28, 2018

Darlene is back! And looking Fab!  Roseanne Barr (@therealroseanne) March 28, 2018

Granny is an uber driver now?? Haha  Roseanne Barr (@therealroseanne) March 28, 2018

#Roseanne what do y'all think so far?  Roseanne Barr (@therealroseanne) March 28, 2018

Jackie and Granny getting heated! #Roseanne  Roseanne Barr (@therealroseanne) March 28, 2018

Clearly mama let him watch the original because he was up on all things Connor. While tweeting, Buck also showed off a photo of himself that is used on the set. Its a framed pic thats in the Conner living room. (Apparently, a lot of the photos are people Barr actually knows.) He looks a little different than the last time we saw him  or maybe its just the beard.

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Roseanne Barr and her son Buck Thomas outside Jimmy Kimmel Live in L.A. on Aug. 31, 2015. (Photo: AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)

While we know all about Barrs kids on the show  Becky (or, more appropriately, the Beckys, Darlene, D.J., and lesser-known Jerry  it seems we know a lot less about her children in real life. Shes actually a mom of five. 

She gave her firstborn up for adoption.

In May 1971, when she was 18, Barr had a child who she put up for adoption. Its kind of a crazy story, which she detailed in a 1989 People story, because she had a note for the girl, Brandi Brown, to open when she turned 21. However, a tabloid found out about the adoption and threatened to run a story about it. So Barr had to hire a private investigator, find the girl, and break the news herself to beat the press. Another weird fact: Barr ended up knowing the family that had adopted her daughter.

Soon afterward, they met in person at an L.A. hotel. I turned around and felt this powerful magnet, she said. We looked at each other, Brandi jumped out of her seat, and we started running toward each other. We embraced and wouldnt let go of each other, hugging and crying.

She had three children during her first marriage.

Three years after giving up her daughter, Barr married Bill Pentland, a postal worker, and they had three children: Jessica, Jennifer, and Jake. She went from living in the suburbs with her fam to Hollywood, with the original Roseanne debuting in 1988. Bill  who wrote scripts for her standup and was a consultant on the show  and Roseanne couldnt work through their issues, including her soaring fame, and they split.

The children didnt do well with the divorce, and Jessica ended up needing treatment for alcohol as a teen, according to People. Today, she owns a travel agency. Earlier this year, Jennifer reportedly spoke to the National Enquirer about having substance abuse problems and going into a lockdown [psychiatric treatment] facility for eight months. But she appears to have a good relationship with her mom, sharing this group family photo. (Barrs boyfriend and ex-husband are both in it.) As for Jake, hes based in L.A., according to his Twitter profile. He used to have a radio show.

Four days after Barrs divorce from Pentland was final in 1990, she married Tom Arnold, who was friends with her and her husband. (Awkward.) While they tried to have kids, were sure theyre both glad they didnt. Their 1994 divorce was dramatic enough without a custody battle.

And Buck makes five.

The year after her second divorce, in 1995, she married her bodyguard, Ben Thomas, at a casino. She had previously announced her pregnancy, through IVF, and their son, Buck, was born in August 1995. Roseanne and Ben stayed together until 2002. Their divorce hasnt been great either. (Heres a quote she gave about him in 2011 when they were publicly fighting over the support she was giving him: [Ben] has a history of going to the Philippines and bringing home a woman, and marrying and divorcing her after a period of time.)

As for Buck, hes has been a student on the West Coast and is getting ready to graduate. Hes always sort of been his moms sidekick because he was born while she had the show. Hes been to premieres with her and backstage at talk shows. He attended her Comedy Central Roast, and hes been on the Roseanne reboot set. For his 21st birthday, they partied together with Carrot Top in Las Vegas.

Heres Buck visiting the Roseanne set  and hanging with his mom and John Goodman:

Here he is with his father, Ben Thomas:

If you watch them on Kannabis Kitchen, Barrs show about cooking with marijuana  which we didnt know she had until today  youll see they have an interesting relationship.

(Note: The language is not safe for work.)

Since 2002, Barr has been in a relationship with Johnny Argent. They live on a macadamia nut farm in Hawaii.

Roseanne is also a grandma.

Just today, while talking about the success of the Roseanne reboot, she said it was hard to leave Hawaii  and her grandkids  to return to L.A. to make the show, but she did it.

i am so happy-I left Hawaii last June to go to work to write the Roseanne shows-I worked hard thru bronchitis, missing my grandkids & a bum knee & U guys made it all worth it! thanks so very much!  Roseanne Barr (@therealroseanne) March 28, 2018

She loves to post photos of them  and is clearly proud.

Happy 2nd birthday Maisie!! A post shared by Roseanne Barr (@officialroseannebarr) on Jul 24, 2017 at 6:56pm PDT

Cute! A post shared by Roseanne Barr (@officialroseannebarr) on Dec 7, 2016 at 5:44pm PST

our punk rock group is called 'the hell girls' pic.twitter.com/blvDABh2Iw  Roseanne Barr (@therealroseanne) February 22, 2018

During an interview with Extra last week, she said, I have six grandkids. Thats what changed the most in my life [since the original Roseanne]. Youve got to be pushier to your kids and make sure they do right by their kids, so it kind of gives you an excuse to be a big bitch that youve always wanted to be.

Yeah, yeah with the bitch routine. We know she has a soft side too  especially for her family.

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:
Poland signed the largest weapons deal in the countrys history on Wednesday, and finalized an agreement to purchase a Patriot missile defense system for almost $5 billion, a move that is likely to rile its neighbor Russia.

Polands President Andrzej Duda called the weapons deal an extraordinary, historic moment that would allow his country to modernize its weaponry and defense capabilities.

Its a lot of money, but we also know from our historical experience that security has no price, Duda said, presumably referring to the Soviet and German invasions of Poland during World War II, which decimated the country. The company Raytheon will begin delivering rockets and other supplies to Poland in 2022, and the system could be operational by 2024.

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Poland is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and of the European Union, but the majority of the countrys weaponry still dates back to the time when Poland was a communist country and part of the Soviet-aligned Warsaw Pact. In 2010, the U.S. sent a surface-to-air missile battery to Poland, accompanied by 100 U.S. military personnel. But its mission was to train Polish troops and not provide defense. Even so, the deployment was slammed by Russia as a breach of trust.

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Wojtek Radwanski/AFP/Getty Images

The decision to purchase new weapons, particularly a missile defense system, will not be received warmly by Moscow. In December, Russia also accused the U.S. of violating a long-standing arms deal by agreeing to sell a missile defense system to Japan. Russia claims that U.S. missile defense systems can launch missiles, and that this violates a 1987 treaty signed between Washington and the Soviet Union that is still in force today. The U.S. denies that selling missile defense systems is a violation of the weapons treaty.

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But ever since Russia began supporting pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine in 2014, Poland has taken steps to ensure that its own country is prepared if Moscow makes similar incursions into its borders. In April last year, the Trump administration sent U.S. soldiers as part of a NATO battalion of more than 1,000 troops stationed to secure Polands borders.

NATO allies such as the Netherlands, Germany, Spain and Greece already have Patriot missile defense systems, and Polands acquisition of this technology will allow Warsaw to participate in defense operations with these allies.

Poland shares a border with Russias Kaliningrad enclave, which operated as a closed military zone during the Soviet period.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from Newsweek
Russia and China are building ultra-fast missile technology at a quicker speed than the U.S., officials from Congress and the Pentagon have warned.

Both Russia and China have allegedly tested the hypersonic missile, a weapon that moves 10 times faster than the speed of sound, over the past year, officials note. China also recently announced plans to build the worlds fastest wind tunnel that will help design ultra-fast airplanes. But experts say that the tunnels could be used to test hypersonic missile technology.

Lawmakers underscored that the U.S. does not have a comparable technology and is falling behind in the development of hypersonic missiles. Last week, the Commander of U.S. Strategic Command, John Hyten, told Congress that the U.S. would have a hard time responding if Beijing or Moscow were eventually to employ these weapons. The only way the U.S. could respond would be through the use of nuclear weapons, Hyten stressed.

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Meanwhile, a report published last year by the Rand Corporation stated that hypersonic missiles are a new type of threat that can surpass almost all missile defense systems, and that countries like China, Russia and the United States must act quickly to stop these new weapons from proliferating over the next decade.

Hypersonic missiles can be maneuverable and travel at approximately 5,000 to 25,000 kilometers per hour, or one to five miles per second. In more familiar terms, these missiles fly six to more than 25 times as fast as modern airliners, the report noted. They fly at unusual altitudes between a few tens of kilometers and 100 kilometers. These characteristics of high speed, maneuverability, and unusual altitudes make them both challenging to the best missile defenses now envisioned and, until the last minutes of flight, unpredictable as to their targets.

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Officials say the U.S. Air Force and Missile Defense Agency are working on developing new sensors that would be able to detect these weapons. But they are still in the prototype phase.

President Donald Trump has attempted to develop strong ties with Russian and Chinese leadership, despite slapping China with a new set of trade tariffs. Nevertheless, military officials have taken a less conciliatory view on these countries, naming them as the top geopolitical threats in the 2018 National Defense Strategy.

"It is increasingly clear that China and Russia want to shape a world consistent with their authoritarian modelgaining veto authority over other nations economic, diplomatic, and security decisions," the strategy indicated.

Hyten also recently told Congress that the U.S. needs new, low-yield nuclear weapons for the purpose of deterring Russia. Recently, U.S. Special Forces began training in Alaska to prepare for a potential military confrontation with Russia in the Arctic region.

This article was first written by Newsweek

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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Wednesday that Moscow would assess the levels of hostility which Washington and London feel towards Russia before retaliating over the expulsion of Russian diplomats, the Interfax news agency reported. In the most sweeping action of its kind against Moscow since the height of the Cold War, the United States and European Union member states plan to expel scores of Russian diplomats to punish the Kremlin for a nerve agent attack on a former double agent and his daughter in England. Russia, which denies any part in the March 4 attack, says the West's action is a "provocative gesture" and has said it will respond. (Reporting by Katya Golubkova; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
The West risks plunging the world into another Cold War because of its response to the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal, Russias ambassador to Australia warned.

In a show of unity, 23 nations expelled over 130 Russian diplomats and spies after the Russian double-agent Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were attacked on British soil with a Moscow-made nerve agent called Novichok. Western allies blame the Russian state.

What's happening is a well-orchestrated campaign...it's boorish behavior [by] the West and we would have to retaliate, Russian Ambassador Grigory Logvinov told journalists in Canberra, according to Reuters.

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"The anti-Russian campaign has no future...If the West would follow this line, I'm afraid we will be deeply in a Cold War situation, Logvinov said.

Russia denies being behind the attempted murder of the Skripals on March 4. But the U.K. said its intelligence leads it to conclude that either the Russian government arranged the attempted assassination or was negligent in allowing Novichok to fall out of its control.

Putin Russia

YURI KADOBNOV/AFP/Getty Images

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The pair were poisoned while out in the city of Salisbury, England, where Skripal lived. Skripal went to Britain in 2010 after he was released from a Russian prison in a spy swap deal with the U.S. The retired Russian military intelligence colonel was convicted in 2006 of spying for the British and sentenced to 13 years in prison.

The U.S. expelled 60 Russian diplomats and closed a consulate in Seattle after the Skripal incident, joining allies across the West taking similar steps.

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The United States takes this action in conjunction with our NATO allies and partners around the world in response to Russias use of a military-grade chemical weapon on the soil of the United Kingdom, the latest in its ongoing pattern of destabilizing activities around the world, a White House spokesperson said, announcing the expulsions ordered by President Trump.

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Todays actions make the United States safer by reducing Russias ability to spy on Americans and to conduct covert operations that threaten Americas national security. With these steps, the United States and our allies and partners make clear to Russia that its actions have consequences.

The United States stands ready to cooperate to build a better relationship with Russia, but this can only happen with a change in the Russian governments behavior, the statement continued.

But Alexander Vershbow, who was U.S. ambassador to Russia between 2001 and 2005, told Newsweek previously that the expulsions are not enough to deter President Putin.

I think what is needed is to go beyond thatto include some of these targeted sanctions that single out Putins cronies for sanctions in terms of limiting their access to international markets, possibly banning their travel, pressing for more transparency about the sources of their wealth, said Vershbow.

If youre really going to hit Putins power base, you have to go beyond the expulsion of some diplomats and spies, who can be replaced, he added.

This article was first written by Newsweek

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At least 20 countries have kicked out Russian diplomats who they suspect are spies, and New Zealand had every intention of doing the same, only it could not find any agents to oust.

More than 130 Russian embassy officials received orders to return home from the United States, Germany, France and other allied nations of the United Kingdom on Monday (26 March) in what London is touting as the largest ever collective act of its kind.

Each host country requested that Russia remove staff suspected of espionage in their territory as an act of solidarity with the British government, which has clashed with the Kremlin over the poisoning of a Russian-British national.

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Sergei Skripal once served as a British double agent in Russias intelligence community. He was convicted and imprisoned by Russia for high treason in 2006. In 2010 he was returned to the U.K. as part of a spy swap for Russian agents. Earlier in March 2018, he and his daughter were found severely poisoned in the U.K. city of Salisbury.

British authorities have alleged that Russia had the ability, motive and precedent to utilize the Novichok nerve agent that poisoned the Skripals. The Kremlin has denied any involvement, but many countries have found the British case convincing.

03_27_Russia_Kremlin

Mladen Antonov/AFP/Getty Images

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New Zealand summoned the Russian ambassador to give him a formal dressing down, as other countries did with Russias envoys, but announced no plans to kick out any spies. The reason was because it simply had not found any spooks to banish.

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While other countries have announced they are expelling undeclared Russian intelligence agents, officials have advised there are no individuals here in New Zealand who fit this profile, New Zealands Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said, according to The Guardian newspaper.

Most popular: What Is the Interstitium? Scientists 'Discover New Organ'

"If there were, we would have already taken action. We remain steadfast with our international partners in our shared concern about the Salisbury nerve agent attack, Ardern said.

New Zealands Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters added that the country is keeping possible future actions under review but did not say what those would be.

Russias Ministry of Foreign Affairs repeatedly condemned the joint move against its staff on Monday, however, it has not yet taken practical action against the countries that announced this weeks expulsions.

This article was first written by Newsweek

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Tokyo (AFP) - Saudi Arabia and Japan's SoftBank will partner to develop a massive, multi-billion-dollar solar project in the kingdom that could generate 200 gigawatts by 2030, SoftBank said Wednesday.

The deal was signed on the sidelines of a US visit by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has undertaken a whirlwind of economic and social reforms in recent months.

SoftBank will invest in the project through its $100-billion SoftBank Vision Fund, created in 2016 with money from Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund and others.

The project aims to generate "200 gigawatts by 2030 from various (solar) farms all over the country, with a first phase of 7.2 gigawatts," SoftBank spokesman Matthew Nicholson told AFP.

"Building will start this year," he added, with operations expected to start from 2019.

The entire project cost is expected to run to $200 billion, with the first phase costing $5 billion.

SoftBank's Vision Fund will provide $1 billion for the first phase, with the rest coming from project financing, Nicholson said.

Speaking to journalists in New York, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son described the solar plan as the "by far the largest solar project ever", according to video of the event distributed by Bloomberg.

He said the sale of electricity produced by the first phase of the project would help finance successor stages, and that while solar panels would initially be imported, a factory to produce them locally would be built in the kingdom in two or three years.

Last year, Saudi Arabia invited bids for a "utility-scale" 300-megawatt solar project, in a first for the world's top oil exporter.

Saudi Arabia and other Gulf monarchies have been examining ways to cut their energy bills and diversify power sources away from oil, their main export commodity.

Riyadh has set a target of 9.5 gigawatts of renewable energy by 2023.

Virtually all of Saudi Arabia's power currently comes from oil or natural gas.
By Stephen Kalin and Sarah Dadouch RIYADH (Reuters) - A missile attack this week on Riyadh has raised the risk of an escalation in the Yemen war in a region riven with interwoven conflicts, but a direct confrontation between arch-foes Saudi Arabia and Iran still appears unlikely. Saudi Arabia's powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, now touring the United States, must balance animosity toward Iran with the need for stability as he pitches the kingdom's economic transformation plan to foreign investors and drums up support for containing Iran's regional influence. However, Iranian authorities - facing the prospect of a more hawkish U.S. administration with Donald Trump's appointments last week of John Bolton and Mike Pompeo as national security adviser and secretary of state - might crank up pressure in the Yemen war as a form of deterrence, diplomats and analysts say. Saudi Arabia sharpened its rhetoric against Tehran after Saudi forces shot down a flurry of missiles launched by the Iran-aligned Houthis on Saudi cities late on Sunday. One of the missiles caused the war's first casualties in the Saudi capital Riyadh when falling debris struck a home and killed an Egyptian man and injured two others. Saudi King Salman, in comments carried by state media, pledged on Tuesday to "firmly and decisively thwart any hostile attempts" targeting the kingdom's security and stability. A day earlier, the spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthi movement accused it of using Iranian-made missiles and said that Saudi Arabia reserved the right to respond to Iran when and how it deemed appropriate. The coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 in a campaign to restore its internationally recognized government after it was driven into exile by Houthi forces. "Iran is the appendicitis in the body of the world and should fix itself or else the world will fix the Iranian situation," spokesman Colonel Turki al-Malki said. Iran has repeatedly denied giving missiles to the Houthis. FEW MILITARY OPTIONS Analysts said that in the short term, the Saudi leadership is unlikely to respond aggressively amid increased international scrutiny of the three-year-old Yemen conflict, which has given rise to the world's most urgent humanitarian crisis. "Prince Mohammed would like to be viewed as a more restrained and composed leader" while touring his closest Western ally, the United States, according to Ehsan Khoman, Head of Research and Strategist for MENA at MUFG. "(He) may leverage the recent Houthi missile attacks to strengthen his narrative that Iran's encroachment is undermining regional stability and that a more concerted international effort is needed to contain Iran." The Yemen conflict pits a coalition of Western-friendly states led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates against the Houthis, who are sympathetic to Iran but deny being a pawn of its Shi'ite Muslim theocracy. Yemen's war fits into a broader decades-long struggle for supremacy between Middle East powerhouses Iran and Saudi Arabia, which fund and train proxy forces in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon and accuse each other of backing terrorism. Military escalation in response to the latest rocket salvo could mean more coalition air strikes - which have been widely criticized for killing civilians - or mobilizing the Saudi National Guard from a mostly static position along the border to undertake a concerted ground assault inside northern Yemen. Diplomats and analysts say that the coalition has few other options short of direct action against an Iranian target, something that remains unlikely unless a Houthi rocket takes out a valuable Saudi asset. Last year, when the Houthis fired missiles at Riyadh that were intercepted, the coalition responded by shutting Yemen's airports and ports. The United Nations said that blockade raised the danger of mass starvation, and it was partially lifted. "They may make similar moves in order to be seen to be doing something, but it won't really change the dynamics of the conflict," said Jane Kinninmont, Middle East expert at Chatham House in London. "My concern is that they could be tempted to take some action directly against some Iranian target, and that any such course of action could escalate further." Consultancy Eurasia Group said that a successful Houthi strike on a prized Saudi target would probably prompt a firm military response from Riyadh to try to deter Iran. Analysts said that while a direct Saudi-Iranian showdown is unlikely, miscalculation remains a risk. MEDIATION EFFORTS Western countries have urged Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Arab allies to protect civilians and find a quick end to Yemen's war. But they also support Riyadh's argument that it needs to defend itself from cross-border strikes and limit the spread of Iran's imprint in territory overlooking important trade routes. The United Nations says more than 10,000 people have died in the war, and 22.2 million Yemenis - three-quarters of the population - need relief aid. More than 1 million cholera cases have been reported, the worst outbreak in modern history. Analysts said that while Saudi Arabia will probably double down on its military campaign in Yemen to oust the Houthis from the capital Sanaa and reinstate President Abd Rabbu Mansour al-Hadi, it may continue to support mediation efforts. However, the appointments of Bolton and Pompeo in Washington could encourage Iran to ramp up activities in Yemen to signal its ability and willingness to undermine the United States and its partners, Eurasia Group said. Economists have played down the impact of the Houthi attacks on the Saudi economy, which Prince Mohammed is trying to wean off oil exports with a slate of reforms that include cutting energy subsidies and expanding the private sector. Investors may have already largely priced in risks from Houthi missile strikes. But an intensification of the Yemen conflict and certainly an escalation to direct conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia could scare off foreign investors. (Fixes misspelling of analyst's name in paragraph 11, adds title.) (Additional reporting by Marwa Rashad in Riyadh, Katie Paul and Noah Browning in Dubai, and Bozorgmehr Sharafedin in London; Writing by Stephen Kalin; Editing by Ghaida Ghantous and Mark Heinrich)
Photo: Getty Images/design Yahoo Lifestyle

A new study this week in Scientific Reports isnt just revising the way we think about our bodies  its shaking the very foundation of human anatomy. In it, scientists suggest that weve overlooked the largest organ we possess: the interstitium, a complex web of interconnected tissues, just below the skin, that contain fluid-filled sacs that are constantly weaving around organs, veins, and arteries.

If youre confused by this explanation, youre not alone. Much of the scientific world is baffled by the discovery  so much so that eight scientific journals (according to the Daily Beast) turned down the story before Scientific Reports decided to run it. So, as doctors, scientists, and engineers begin to grapple with what the interstitium means for the future of medicine, heres a breakdown of what you need to know.

What is the interstitium?

The interstitium is located in the space between our organs, the tissues just below skin level that we cant see. Scientists once considered this region to be simply dense tissue that held our organs together but did little else. What theyve discovered now is that this space isnt just flat tissue, but an intricate meshwork of tissue (made of collagen and protein) that houses sacs carrying important fluid.

Who discovered it and how?

According to an in-depth report from Daily Beast reporter Tanya Basu, the discovery was made after two endoscopists, Dr. David Carr-Locke (Weill Cornell Medicine) and Dr. Petros Benias (Northwell Health), approached Dr. Neil Theise, a professor in the Department of Pathology at New York University, with a question about oddly shaped bright spaces that they noticed on a slide of tissue. Carr-Locke and Benias had a simple question: What is that?

The three tested to see if the sacs were blood vessels or collagen sacs, but found they were neither. They asked other doctors, researchers, and scientists, but no one could explain what these mysterious sacs were. As they continued to search for an answer, they began collecting more and more slides of live tissue, and made an incredible discovery: The fluid-filled sacs were everywhere. Once the three uncovered how vast this structure was, they knew theyd found something major, and set out to define its purpose.

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How had scientists missed this?

According to an explanation from New York Universitys Langone Hospital (from which the lead researcher Theise hails), the process of studying tissues led to the oversight. Scientists prepare tissue  by treating it with chemicals, slicing it thinly, and [dyeing] it to highlight key features, writes NYU. The fixing process makes vivid details of cells and structures, but drains away any fluid. So when scientists have looked at images of tissues up until now, theyve looked at tissues without the fluid  which forms an integral part of the interstitium, and reveals its complex web. Removing the fluid caused the sacs to pancake, they write, like the floors of a collapsed building. When they took images with the fluid intact, they were able to locate the complex mesh framework that surrounds it.

Why is it considered an organ?

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, an organ is defined as a group of tissues in a living organism that have been adapted to perform a specific function. One of the main functions of the interstitium, scientists believe, is to act as a shock absorber for our other organs by weaving in, out, and around them. This prevents tissues from tearing, allows vessels to pump, and ensures muscles can expand.

Because the connective tissue houses fluid-filled sacs, its constantly shifting shape, allowing us to absorb (and sustain) pressure. On top of this, the interstitium appears to be in communication with our lymphatic system, which is responsible for distributing immune cells. This means that it helps carry immune cells through the body but also can act as a pathway for disease.

Why is this such a big deal?

Based on this study, the interstitium makes up 20 percent of the human body, meaning its officially the largest organ we have (skin, the closest, makes up 16 percent). Previously believed to be stagnant tissue, the concept that this is actually a major organ performing complex functions opens up millions of possibilities for things that it could explain. It may explain why acupuncture is so effective, as Theise theorized to the Daily Beast, or how inflammation spreads through the body.

But thats just the beginning of insights that it may provide. The finding that this layer is a highway of moving fluid may explain why cancer that invades it becomes much more likely to spread. Draining into the lymphatic system, the newfound network is the source of lymph, the fluid vital to the functioning of immune cells that generate inflammation, NYU writes. Furthermore, the cells that reside in the space, and collagen bundles they line, change with age, and may contribute to the wrinkling of skin, the stiffening of limbs, and the progression of fibrotic, sclerotic, and inflammatory diseases.

***

For his part, Theise is excited about the future. This fixation artifact of collapse has made a fluid-filled tissue type throughout the body appear solid in biopsy slides for decades, he said in a statement. This finding has potential to drive dramatic advances in medicine, including the possibility that the direct sampling of interstitial fluid may become a powerful diagnostic tool.

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Semi-automatic AR-15's are for sale at Good Guys Guns & Range in Orem, Utah. An AR-15 was used in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida: Getty Images

Each American mass shooting in recent history has been followed by calls for more gun control laws, with proposals ranging from requests for sensible restrictions on firearm purchases to demands for a complete repeal of the Second Amendment.

The amendment has become increasingly more controversial since it was adopted in 1791, and now a former Supreme Court justice is even calling for its end.

What does the Second Amendment say?

The amendment consists of just one sentence: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Why does the Second Amendment exist?

In an op-ed in the New York Times, former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens pointed out that the amendment was adopted out of concern that a national standing army might pose a threat to the security of the separate states.

Today that concern is a relic of the 18th century, wrote Mr Stevens, a Republican, even though he is widely considered to have been on the liberal side of the high court at the time of his retirement in 2010.

How has the Supreme Court interpreted the Second Amendment?

For over 200 years after the adoption of the amendment, Mr Stevens said,  it was uniformly understood as not placing any limit on either federal or state authority to enact gun control legislation.

Four times between 1876 and 1939, the Supreme Court declined to rule that the amendment protected individual gun ownership outside the context of a militia, according to Michael Waldman, the president of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York Universitys School of Law.

In 1939, the Supreme Court held that Congress could ban the possession of a sawed-off shotgun because that weapon had no reasonable relation to the preservation or efficiency of a well regulated militia.

But then in 2008, the high court found that civilians had the right to own a firearm for self-protection.

How does the National Rifle Association (NRA) view the Second Amendment?

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Supporters of the NRA say the gun-rights lobbying organisation advances their rights to buy and own guns according to the Second Amendment.

The organisation has refused to endorse any new restrictions on assault-style gun ownership, or to endorse any other types of new restrictions on gun ownership.

The group gives grades to politicians running for reelection. An NRA A+ candidate is one who has not only an excellent voting record on all critical NRA issues, but who has also made a vigorous effort to promote and defend the Second Amendment.

Former Chief Justice Warren Burger, who served on the Supreme Court from 1969 to 1986, publicly declared that the NRA was carrying out one of the greatest pieces of fraud, I repeat the word fraud, on the American public by special interest groups that I have ever seen in my lifetime.

Mr Burger was a conservative.
By Christian Shepherd and Heekyong Yang BEIJING/SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's visit to China, countering what had been growing estrangement between the Cold War allies, is likely to bolster Pyongyang's leverage going into a planned summit between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump. For Chinese President Xi Jinping, the meeting with a long-troublesome neighbor ensures Beijing will not be left out of any deal struck between the United States and North and South Korea, experts said. Months of frosty relations between Beijing and Pyongyang appeared suddenly to thaw with Kim's secretive trip, which saw the Chinese capital go into security lockdown as the mysterious North Korean delegation toured the city. China said Kim had pledged to denuclearize the Korean peninsula while North Korean state media said Xi had accepted "with pleasure" an invitation to visit the North. Kim's meeting with Xi strengthens North Korea's negotiating position by aligning the two nations ahead of Trump and Kim's planned meeting, said Wang Peng, a North Korea expert at the Charhar Institute in Beijing. "North Korea is seeking assurances," he said. "They want to quickly mend ties with China so that they have more leeway with the United States and they have more confidence in a good outcome." Analysts say North Korea has been hurt by tightening UN sanctions and would need Beijing's support for any softening of trade restrictions. China wanted to show its importance as a partner to North Korea and ease worries about being sidelined in negotiations between the Koreas the United States. At the end of the day, Chinas got huge interests and it was not comfortable not being at the table, said Paul Haenle, director of the CarnegieTsinghua Center in Beijing and a White House representative to the Six Party Talks from 2007-2009. Kim Jong Uns first meeting with a head of state was with the Chinese president, which frankly from the Chinese perspective is exactly the right thing, he added. Trump's decision to hire hardliners such as incoming National Security Adviser John Bolton may have put added pressure on North Korea before the summit, said Han Suk-hee, professor of Chinese Studies at Yonsei University. "It seems that North Korea is not ready to deal with the United States without support and help from its longtime ally China," he said. CLOSE ALLIES AGAIN? China, as well as being North Korea's biggest trade partner, also has key strategic interest in assuring its isolated neighbor remains a buffer between it and South Korea, home to 28,500 U.S. troops. The two nations also have long-standing emotional and historic ties. China sometimes says they are "blood brothers", having fought side-by-side in the 1950-53 Korean War. The two remained close allies in the decades immediately after the Korean War, but have drifted apart since Kim succeeded his late father. North Korea's rapid escalation of nuclear tests and missile launches, combined with the assassination of Kim's half-brother last year in a Kuala Lumpur airport, brought diplomatic ties between Beijing and Pyongyang to historic lows. With China signing on to ever-stricter United Nations sanctions against Pyongyang, North Korean state media took to openly criticizing and even threatening China. "China is ... the only state willing and able to immediately ease North Korea's economic burden," said Christopher Green, senior adviser at International Crisis Group. North Korea was not prepared to give up its close relationship with China, much as it may chafe at its economic and political reliance on its much bigger neighbor, he added. With North and South Korean relations improving during the Winter Olympics and plans for summits involving Trump, Moon and Kim, Beijing had reasons to resume contact with North Korea that had all but disappeared in the past year. Xi stressed to Kim that past Chinese and North Korean leaders had always visited each other "as often as relatives", proposing the two leaders set up new channels of communication, China's official Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday. Chinese state media has cast Beijing as crucial to forcing talks between Trump and Kim with its "freeze for freeze" pitch for North Korea to suspend nuclear and missile tests, and South Korea and the United States to suspend military drills. "It's extremely difficult for the U.S. to map out a feasible denuclearization process that meets the North Korean preconditions without China's support and involvement," said Cheng Xiaohe, a North Korea expert at Renmin University in Beijing. "China wants to show it cannot be left out." A FRIEND IN NEED Speaking at a banquet hosted by Xi, Kim Jong Un expressed gratitude to China for readily accepting his proposal to visit and all the efforts Chinese leaders made to pave the way for a successful visit in a short period of time, according to the North's official KCNA news agency. China remains an advocate for a dual track of pressure and greater dialogue with North Korea, a position at odds with the Trump administration's maximal pressure approach. That disagreement had left Beijing sidelined amid the escalating crisis, shunning a meeting of foreign ministers in Canada where leaders discussed how to pressure the North into backing down. North Korea may also be taking advantage of tensions in U.S.-China relations over trade and the disputed South China Sea to draw in Beijing, Jia Qingguo, dean of the School of International Studies at China's Peking University "China wants North Korea to denuclearize but does not want to alienate North Korea at a time when China-U.S. relations are deteriorating very fast," said Jia, who has advised the government on foreign policy. "We want a denuclearized North Korea, but at the same time we want North Korea to be a friend." (This story has been refiled to correct typo in sixth paragraph) (Reporting by Christian Shepherd in BEIJING, John Ruwitch in SHANGHAI, and Josh Smith, Heekyong Yang and Soyoung Kim in SEOUL.; Editing by Tony Munroe and Lincoln Feast)
Brasilia (AFP) - Three shots were fired Tuesday at buses in the campaign convoy of former Brazilian leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is again running for the presidency, but no one was injured, the leader of his Workers Party (PT) said.

The incident occurred as the convoy was traveling between towns in southern Brazil as part of a campaign tour for Lula, who is trying to make a comeback in the October 7 presidential election.

"Our convoy is being targeted by fascist groups," Lula wrote on Twitter.

"They have already thrown eggs, stones. Today they fired a shot at a bus," he said.

Workers Party leader Gleisi Hoffmann told AFP by telephone that two shots hit a bus carrying reporters and a third shot hit a different vehicle.

Hoffmann said she and Lula were traveling in the only bus that was not hit.

The party leader also said they were attempting to determine if Lula was the target of an assassination attempt.

The alleged shooting came two days after Lula and his entourage were pelted with eggs and stones while on a campaign stop. An angry Lula wrote on his website at the time that "vandals, fascists" were to blame.

Although still widely popular in Brazil, the 72-year-old Lula is campaigning under a dark legal cloud that could yet scupper his attempt to return to power.

On Monday, a Brazilian court rejected his appeal against a corruption conviction that could see him imprisoned for 12 years and disqualified from holding public office.

The ex-president remains free while the Supreme Court considers his argument that he should not be imprisoned until he has exhausted all of his appeal options. The court said it would rule on that on April 4.
By Fathin Ungku SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore on Wednesday invited Human Rights Watch to give evidence at a parliamentary hearing on "fake news" as a dispute grew between the New York-based group and the city state. A parliamentary committee in Singapore is reviewing possible measures to prevent "deliberate online falsehoods", mirroring efforts in various countries to tackle false information amid growing questions about the influence of internet companies. Activists worry that laws aimed at "fake news" could be used to stifle free speech. "We can hear you on any date in May, or after May, after Parliament reopens," the committee said in a press release, addressing Human Rights Watch (HRW). Vikram Nair, a member of the ruling People's Action Party, said this week Human Rights Watch had in a recent report used "clearly false" examples to further its agenda and undermine public discourse. In its report, the rights group called on Singapore to amend or repeal laws that it said were too broadly worded and were used to "arrest, harass, and prosecute critical voices", including a Sedition Act and Public Order Act. The group cited several examples including a defamation case against a blogger, a case against an activist opposed to the death penalty and a case against a free-speech campaigner. "From the examples it relies on, HRW seems to advocate the use of false and fabricated allegations in political discourse," Nair said in a written argument submitted to the committee. Nair was among 79 people asked to speak in parliament over the eight days set for the hearing. The committee said it had earlier invited a HRW official to speak at a hearing in late March, which the group first accepted but later declined. Human Rights Watch Asia director Brad Adams said it had sought the Singapore government's view ahead of the publication of its report but had received none. The group's earlier offer to send an official to testify before the Singapore committee also went unanswered, he said. "The purpose of the hearing was not to discuss our findings and recommendations in good faith, or to get our input into dealing with 'deliberate online falsehoods' ... but to engage in ridiculous and irrelevant arguments aimed to discredit our report and Human Rights Watch," he said in a statement. Last week, representatives of global tech giants including Facebook and Twitter spoke at the hearing to express concern about new laws to tackle falsehoods, saying sufficient rules were already in place. Singapore ranks 151 out of 180 countries in a World Press Freedom Index issued by Reporters Without Borders, a non-government group that promotes freedom of information. Neighboring Malaysia is debating legislation aimed at jailing "fake news" offenders for up to 10 years. (Reporting by Fathin Ungku; Editing by Jack Kim, Robert Birsel)
An artists conception shows Chinas Tiangong-1 space lab flying over the Gulf of Mexico. (The Aerospace Corp. via YouTube)

After months of tracking Chinas uncontrollable Tiangong-1 space lab, satellite watchers have narrowed down the time frame for its final, fiery plunge through the atmosphere  and its this weekend.

Here are a few of the current predictions:

The latest predictions are about half a day later than they were earlier in the week, largely because an expected solar storm didnt sweep past Earth. This means that the density of the upper atmosphere, through which Tiangong-1 is moving, did not increase as predicted (which would have dragged the spacecraft down sooner), ESA explained.

Where will it fall? Nobody knows, precisely. But experts have mapped out a large zone where it wont fall  and it wont fall anywhere close to Seattle. The reason experts can be so sure is that when Tiangong-1 was launched in 2011, it was put in a specific orbital inclination that strays only so far from the equator: 42.8 degrees latitude, north and south.

Re-entry zone

Seattle is beyond that territory, along with the rest of the northern tier of the U.S., plus Alaska, Canada, northern Europe and Russia. Youd have to drive almost as far south as Grants Pass, Ore., to reach the potential re-entry zone. (Update for April 1: The final orbital tracks show that Tiangong-1 wont fall anywhere near North America.)

Put the emphasis on potential: As with other cases of uncontrolled re-entry, the chances are great that Tiangong-1s space junk will blaze through the skies over one of the worlds oceans, just because that accounts for most of the zones area.

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But not all of the area. The possibility that debris from the space lab will fall on a populated area has been stoking headlines for days. If thats what youre worried about, dont overstress: The chances of being injured by space debris are astronomically small  less than 1 in a trillion, by some estimates. And as previously noted, the chances are zero outside the potential re-entry zone.

Only one person has ever reported being hit by orbital debris: Thats Lottie Williams of Tulsa, Okla., who said in 1997 that she was struck a glancing blow by a 6-inch metal fragment later traced to a Delta rocket stage. Even then, she wasnt injured.

The coordinates for Tiangong-1s demise are uncertain because the abandoned labs Chinese controllers lost contact with it in 2016, three years after it was last occupied. That means the labs descent is subject to the vagaries of atmospheric drag rather than a precisely planned series of commanded thruster firings. Thats the preferred way to bring a spacecraft down.

Tiangong-2, a successor space lab that China launched in 2016, is still going strong.

In terms of tonnage, Tiangong-1 isnt even close to the largest piece of hardware to fall from the sky. That honor goes to Russias 120-ton Mir space station, which made a controlled descent in 2001. The biggest object to make a less than fully controlled fall was NASAs 74-ton Skylab station, which littered debris over Australia in 1979.

Tiangong-1, which weighed 8.5 tons when it was launched with a topped-off tank of fuel, is more on a par with the European Space Agencys 12-ton ATV or Japans 10-ton HTV space transports.

The most likely effect of Tiangong-1s re-entry will be to put on a shooting-star show, as was the case with ATV and HTV re-entries. The only question is whether anyone will be in the vicinity to see it. By Monday, well know.

This report was originally published at 1:25 p.m. PT March 28, and last updated at 2:54 p.m. PT April 1.

More from GeekWire:
Heres a look at some of the companies the Yahoo Finance team will be watching for you.

SoftBank (SFTBY) tops our list. The groups Vision Fund is planning to invest a whopping $200B to create the worlds largest solar power project in Saudi Arabia. Yesterday, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman signed a preliminary agreement to build a series of solar parks throughout the kingdom. Once completed, there will be enough energy to power 150 million homes.

Google (GOOGL) could be handing over some major cash to Oracle (ORCL). A federal appeals court has overturned the ruling that it was fair when Google copied Oracles Java program to create Android. The court now says Googles use of Java was not fair and has sent the case back to trial to determine damages. Oracle originally sought $9B in damages but is now expected to ask for even more.

In an effort to appease users, Facebook (FB) just announced its making it easier to delete data that you have already shared with the social-media company. Bloomberg reports the new system will allow users to change privacy settings from a single place instead of having to go to some 20 different screens. But it all might be too little, too late. Three Facebook users are now suing over the collection of call and text history on the platforms Messenger app. And to add insult to injury, adult magazine Playboy is leaving the networking site, saying it doesnt want to be complicit in Facebooks data collection practices.

There seems to be no stopping Netflixs (NFLX) subscriber growth, at least thats what Citi thinks. According to Forbes, the banks analysts predict the streaming giant will grow to 262 million subscriptions within ten years. Currently, Netflix boasts 118 million subscribers. To grow at these levels, Citi estimates Netflix will spend upwards of $15B a year on content alone.

And finally the U.S. has opened an investigation into that deadly Tesla (TSLA) crash last week in Mountain View, California. The electric carmaker says it still doesnt know what caused the accident involving its Model X that killed the 38-year-old driver. Tesla also says its working with the National Safety Transportation Board to determine whether its partially autonomous driving system, dubbed AutoPilot, had anything to do with the crash.
Madrid (AFP) - Sun-drenched Spain should be a natural for solar energy, and it is here that the technology is making an effort to stand on its feet financially without subsidies.

Investors are now betting again on solar power generation in Spain, which for a decade was in the shadows as the country cut subsidies for the clean but expensive source of energy.

A plunge in the price of solar panels and lower construction costs has changed the maths, and new projects are moving forward again.

Iberdrola, Spain's largest power company, this month launched a solar project with a capacity of 425 megawatts.

And last week Spanish renewable energy firm Cox Energy signed a deal for the construction of 495 megawatts of capacity in Spain, and another 165 megawatts in neighbouring Portugal, in a 400-million-euro ($490 million) investment.

Companies have sought authorisation for solar power projects across Spain with a total capacity of 24,000 megawatts, according to the director general of Spanish solar power lobby UNEF, Jose Donoso.

- Subsidies stumble -

That is the equivalent of 14 of the latest generation nuclear power plants that France hopes to launch later this year, after a decade of costly construction.

Spain was one of the pioneers of solar power-generation. Subsidies in the form of a high purchase price for solar power lured investors and homeowners to install solar panels, triggering an installation boom in 2008 that saw Spain's installed capacity jump five times to 3,355 megawatts.

But the global financial crisis, which ravaged Spain via a collapse of the property market, led to a bust in new projects and the cash-strapped government was quickly forced to abandon the subsidies.

Just 49 megawatts was added in 2015, and 55 megawatts in 2016, before picking up to 135 megawatts in 2017, according to UNEF figures.

However in Germany, which kept up its subsidies, solar power swelled by six times although the country does not receive as much sun as Spain, meaning each panel produces less electricity.

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The country now has more than 40,000 megawatts of solar power, compared with 5,400 in Spain at the end of 2015.

But the sector has undergone "a complete reversal in less than six months", according to Donoso.

- Blazing return -

One reason is that solar panels can now produce electricity at a lower price than traditional power sources such as coal, gas and nuclear.

The cost of solar power production plunged 73 percent between 2010 and 2017, according the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena), which predicts it will continue to fall.

Companies also realised the projects didn't need guaranteed prices from the state.

A tender for solar power projects launched by the government in July had so many bids that the price was capped at 30-31 euros per megawatt hour.

According to the European statistical agency Eurostat, non-residential customers in Spain paid an average 107 euros per megawatt hour last year.

Investors concluded that "it is better to run risks in the market then depend on regulated demand", Donoso said.

Moreover, investors into renewables know how much construction and operation will cost them, while traditional power stations have only a limited ability to lock in prices for fuel.

"It is much more profitable to invest in capital-intensive technologies (like photovoltaic power) than technologies where the raw material comes at a cost" like gas or coal, said the president of renewable energy lobby group Fundacion Renovables, Fernando Ferrando.

- Room to grow -

Donoso said this explains why major Spanish power firms such as Iberdrola "who stood aside from this sector" have suddenly jumped in.

"The Spanish market will certainly be one of the biggest in Europe in the coming years," he added.

A group set up by the government proposes setting as a goal having a total of 30,000-60,000 gigawatts of installed solar capacity by 2020, Donoso said.

Spain's conservative government has so far not made solar power a priority, said Ferrando.

"We only use the sun for tourism not for electricity," he said.

Solar power represents just 3-4 percent of electrical power production in Spain, compared with 20 percent for wind power and 16-17 percent for hydroelectric power, according to the lobby group.
MADRID (Reuters) - Spain will expel two Russian diplomats in response to a nerve agent attack in England that the British government has blamed on Moscow, its foreign ministry said in a statement on Monday. "From the beginning, the government of Spain has considered that the attack perpetrated in Salisbury through the use of a neurotoxic agent is a fact of extreme gravity that represents a serious threat to our collective security and international law," the statement said. The Spanish government reiterated its solidarity with the United Kingdom and with all those affected. (Reporting by Jesus Aguado; Editing by Catherine Evans)
Corey Feldman was hospitalized after he was stabbed in the stomach on Tuesday in Los Angeles San Francisco Valley. According to the actor, he is OK.

The Los Angeles Police Department is investigating the attack as an attempted homicide, Feldman tweeted. He claimed a group called the Wolfpack, who has been harassing him on various social media platforms, was responsible for the incident.

As Feldman described on Twitter, he was in the car with his security guard when a man approached and distracted the guard. Then another vehicle pulled up, and a man opened the door and allegedly stabbed Feldman in the abdomen.

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Since posting to social media, Feldmans tweets were liked hundreds of times by his followers. In addition to his original messages, he shared three posts from British tabloids about the stabbing.

Corey Feldman

Brett Carlsen/Getty Images

IM IN THE HOSPITAL! I WAS ATTACKED 2NITE! A MAN OPENED MY CAR DOOR & STABBED ME W SOMETHING! PLEASE SAY PRAYERS 4 US! he wrote in the first message. THANK GOD IT WAS ONLY MYSELF & MY SECURITY IN THE CAR, WHEN 3 MEN APPROACHED! WHILE SECURITY WAS DISTRACTED, W A GUY A CAR PULLED UP & ATTACKED! IM OK!

@LAPD R CURRENTLY INVESTIGATING THE CASE AS AN ATTEMPTED HOMICIDE! he wrote in the second tweet. I HAVE HAD MOUNTING THREATS ON ALL SM PLATFORMS BY THIS VILE WOLFPACK & THIS IM SURE IS A RESULT OF THOSE NEGATIVE ACTIONS! I HAVE REASON 2 BELIEVE ITS ALL CONNECTED! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! HOW SICK R THESE PPL?!?

This article was first written by Newsweek

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Myanmar's parliament on Wednesday elected a staunch ally of Aung San Suu Kyi as the country's new president, allowing her to maintain a tight grip on top-level decision-making.

Win Myint, 66, had been tipped for the role after former president Htin Kyaw suddenly stepped down last week, citing the need for rest.

Suu Kyi is barred by the military-drafted constitution from the presidency because she was married to a foreigner and has two sons who are British citizens. She has instead served as state counsellor since her party's landslide 2015 election victory, declaring she would work "above" the president.

But her position has no official constitutional role.

That makes it crucial for her to have a compliant friend as president as she manages an often fraught power-sharing arrangement with the still powerful military, which ruled the country for almost half a century.

"I will do my best to carry out my duties for the people," Win Myint told reporters as he left parliament after the vote.

Win Myint, who resigned as lower house speaker last week, swept up nearly two thirds of the votes in a parliament dominated by Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party.

He beat two opponents, including the military-backed acting president Myint Swe.

The former lawyer hails from Suu Kyi's inner circle -- the pair fought side-by-side during the 1988 democracy movement that was violently quashed by the junta and saw Win Myint, alongside many others, being taken political prisoner.

As Myanmar emerged from outright military rule, Win Myint won his seat in 2012 by-elections, the same vote that elevated Suu Kyi to parliament after a combined 15 years of house arrest.

She is still widely regarded as a heroine in Myanmar even though her reputation lies shattered globally for failing to speak up on behalf of the country's Rohingya Muslim community.

An army crackdown has driven almost 700,000 of the persecuted minority out of the country since last August.

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Her supporters say she has her hands tied by the military, which retains control over three key ministries -- home affairs, borders and defence -- and is guaranteed a quarter of the parliamentary seats.

- 'Honest and stern' -

Supreme Court advocate Khin Maung Zaw worked with Win Myint in recent years and said: "He is an honest person, he is quite hard-working, but sometimes he is stern."

As speaker he was known for his passion for protocol, famously dressing down members of parliament for failing to don the correct clothing.

His tenure was marked by "exerting strict control over the MPs", said Khin Zaw Win, director of Yangon think-tank The Tampadipa Institute.

Activists have been frustrated at his reluctance to abolish a controversial online defamation law that has seen dozens of people face charges for Facebook posts critical of the government or military.

Observers say his appointment is unlikely to change politics much although he could assume some duties from Suu Kyi, who is notoriously unwilling to delegate.

"We cannot expect a very high political impact on Myanmar democratisation," said independent analyst Yan Myo Thein.

Political analyst Yan Kyaw said that while Win Myint's profile may rise, "he won't do anything against Daw Aung San Suu Kyi".

burs-rs/ssm/sm
The lawyer representing Stormy Daniels filed a motion in a California federal court overnight to get depositions from President Donald Trump and his personal lawyer Michael Cohen, as his client seeks to free herself from a nondisclosure agreement.

Daniels is arguing the agreement, for which she was paid $130,000 by Cohen, is invalid and that she should be able to speak freely about the affair she alleges she had with Trump in 2006. She signed the agreement with Cohen in exchange for her silence just days before the 2016 election.

We are confident that after applying Supreme Court precedent from the Clinton matter, the Court will order the depositions and the trial to proceed, attorney Michael Avenatti told NBC News early Wednesday.

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stormy daniels

Ethan Miller/Getty Images

We expect to be placing the president and his fixer under oath in the coming months, he continued. Avenatti was referencing the Supreme Court precedent set decades ago when Paula Jones sued Bill Clinton for sexual harassment. That ruling meant that Clinton was forced to give a deposition, whereupon he committed perjury.

The ruling was used this month by a New York Supreme Court judge as grounds to allow a defamation case to proceed against Trump brought by Summer Zervos, a woman who accuses him of unwanted sexual touching. Zervos argues that Trump defamed her after she made the accusation by calling her a liar during a campaign speech.

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Trumps lawyers in the case said it shouldnt be allowed to proceed until Trump is no longer president as he is unable to make time for it. The judge cited precedent of Clintons deposition for why it should go ahead.

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Read more: Trump lawyer Michael Cohen made illegal campaign contribution with Stormy Daniels payoff, says former FEC chairman

We want to know the truth about what the president knew, what he knew about it and what he did about it, said Avenatti during an appearance on CBSs This Morning . As it relates to this agreement we're going to test the veracity or the truthfulness of Mr. Cohen's statements.

Cohen has said he made the payment to Danielswhose real name is Stephanie Cliffordout of his own pocket and told friends that he was not reimbursed by the president. The payment was made at a time when several woman had come forward with allegations about incidents of sexual misconduct by Trump.

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The White House has denied that Trump had an affair with Daniels. There was no knowledge of any payments from the president, and he has denied all these allegations," White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in early March.

Avenatti has asked for deposition from Trump of no greater than two hours.

During an interview on 60 Minutes Sunday, Daniels said that she was threatened by someone in a parking lot who told her to leave Trump alone. Former FEC chairman argued on the program that Cohens payout to Daniels may have violated U.S. election law.

We want to know the truth, Avenatti told CBS, adding that he and his client are confident that when we get to the bottom of this, we're going to prove to the American people that they have been told a bucket of lies.

This article was first written by Newsweek

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Teslas Autopilot driver-assist technology is in the spotlight after a Model X SUV collided with another vehicle on a highway in Mountain View, California, on Friday afternoon.

A 38-year-old Tesla driver was killed in the incident after the crash caused his Model X to catch on fire. On Tuesday, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said it was investigating the incident to determine whether the vehicle was safe to drive.

In a statement posted to Twitter, the NTSB said it is unclear whether the automated control system was active at the time of the crash. They also announced the two investigators will be looking into the post-crash fire and taking steps to ensure the vehicle is safe for removal from the scene.

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2 NTSB investigators conducting Field Investigation for fatal March 23, 2018, crash of a Tesla near Mountain View, CA. Unclear if automated control system was active at time of crash. Issues examined include: post-crash fire, steps to make vehicle safe for removal from scene.  NTSB_Newsroom (@NTSB_Newsroom) March 27, 2018

Yesterday, Tesla defended the technology in a blog post. "Our data shows that Tesla owners have driven this same stretch of highway with Autopilot engaged roughly 85,000 times since Autopilot was first rolled out in 2015 and roughly 20,000 times since just the beginning of the year, and there has never been an accident that we know of," the company wrote on its website.

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The company said that the reason the crash was so severe is because the highway safety barrier had been removed or crushed in a prior accident without being replaced.

We have never seen this level of damage to a Model X in any other crash, Tesla added.

Story continues

GettyImages-545144650

Getty

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Tesla rolled out the Autopilot function in 2015. A year later, a Tesla Model S crashed into a truck while on Autopilot mode in Florida, prompting criticisms that the function lulled drivers into a false sense of security.

The company responded by modifying the vehicle to better facilitate driver engagement while using Autopilot.

Newsweek has reached out to Tesla for comment.

This article was first written by Newsweek

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Tesla (TSLA) shares fell after the National Transportation Safety Board said it sent investigators to look into a fatal car crash last week in California, according to a post on social media.

A negative analyst call from Citigroup also weighed on the stock, which has been under pressure this past one month.

The NTSB's post on Twitter said: "2 NTSB investigators conducting Field Investigation for fatal March 23, 2018, crash of a Tesla near Mountain View, CA. Unclear if automated control system was active at time of crash. Issues examined include: post-crash fire, steps to make vehicle safe for removal from scene."

"We have been deeply saddened by this accident, and we have offered our full cooperation to the authorities as we work to establish the facts of the incident," Tesla said to CNBC.

Citi Research said Tuesday that its analysis of the company's Model 3 competition points to near-term risk for the stock.

"We open a 90-day downside catalyst watch on Tesla shares," the report said.

Tesla shares declined 8.2 percent Tuesday to their lowest price since Feb. 2017. The stock is down 20.5 percent in the last one month.

Moody's downgraded Tesla's credit ratings after the close Tuesday and changed the outlook to negative from stable, citing "significant shortfall" in the Model 3 production rate and a tight financial situation.
Qalaat al-Madiq (Syria) (AFP) - Thousands of Syrian rebels and civilians arrived in opposition territory on Wednesday after having evacuated their Eastern Ghouta enclave near Damascus, an AFP correspondent said.

Buses carrying opposition fighters, their relatives, and other civilians began arriving at a transit point in northwestern Syria around dawn, after travelling all night from Ghouta.

Aid groups could be seen handing out toys, milk, and juice to children descending from the buses.

The convoy that left a battered pocket of Ghouta late Tuesday comprised 101 buses carrying 6,432 people, according to state news agency SANA.

They left under an evacuation deal between the Islamist rebel faction Faylaq al-Rahman, which controls a part of Ghouta, and Russia, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Moscow has negotiated two such agreements to empty the last rebel holdouts in Eastern Ghouta, once the opposition's strategic perch on the edge of the capital.

The negotiations come after a ferocious Syrian army offensive that overran vast swathes of Ghouta, already suffering a crippling half-decade siege.

The agreement with Faylaq al-Rahman was announced on Friday and implementation began the following day.

So far, more than 19,000 people, including rebels and civilians, have been bused out of the part of Ghouta they control.

Faylaq al-Rahman spokesman Wael Alwan said the operation could see as many as 30,000 ultimately leave the enclave.

According to Syrian state media, hundreds more people were boarding buses in the Faylaq-held pocket of Ghouta on Wednesday for new evacuations.

It said more than 128,000 people had fled Ghouta in recent weeks, many of them through routes into government-held territory that were opened by advancing government troops.
* EU expulsions followed week of intense diplomacy

* U.S. visits laid ground for coordinated approach

* Macron and Merkel provided turning point at EU summit

By Robin Emmott

BRUSSELS, March 27 (Reuters) - Three days after European Union leaders left a summit in Brussels with a discreet yet vague agreement to expel Russian diplomats over a nerve agent attack on British soil, envoys met back to share details before an afternoon deadline.

Unveiling national expulsion lists at a closed-door meeting on Monday, the 28 ambassadors from the EU's member states were unaware of the scale of their plan to isolate Moscow: more than half the bloc's governments had joined the West's most sweeping expulsion of Russian diplomats since the Cold War.

"It wasn't until the meeting that we saw the plans, that we could say we had agreed something meaningful, unprecedented," one senior EU diplomat told Reuters, recounting events echoed by four other diplomats and officials.

Coupled with U.S. expulsions that were the result of days of intense diplomacy by Washington, London and later Paris, EU governments pulled off what seemed unthinkable a week before, and all in support of a country quitting the bloc in 2019.

But EU capitals wanted to demonstrate that, Brexit notwithstanding, security ties were paramount. "Russian interference is bigger than Brexit, it goes way beyond that," a second EU diplomat said.

In total, more than 100 Russian diplomats are being removed from over 20 countries, including 15 members of the European Union, which has long been split on how best to handle Russia.

Moscow denies any involvement in the attempted murder of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, who were found slumped on a public bench in the English city of Salisbury on March 4.

The show of EU support for Britain was all the more surprising because, in the weeks before the attack, the tone between London and Brussels had deteriorated as Britain sought new post-Brexit trade ties that the EU said were unworkable.

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However, for the EU to unexpectedly come together, it still took a concerted British diplomatic effort with U.S. support.

From NATO via discussions with European Union foreign ministers to the EU's two-day March 22-23 summit, the public focus was to be on a statement condemning Russia.

Behind the scenes, Prime Minister Theresa May had stronger demands: EU help in disrupting a Russian network of spies working under diplomatic cover in Europe.

Assistance first came from Baltic allies eager for Britain's military protection against Russia, while U.S. officials had done groundwork by visiting some European capitals to sound out support for their plans to expel 60 Russian diplomats.

Crucially, before the EU summit got under way in the egg-shaped glass Europa building in Brussels' European quarter, a regular meeting of the six Baltic and Nordic EU countries - Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Denmark, Sweden and Finland - opened up their forum to May.

There she made a plea for countries to consider the expulsion of Russian diplomats, sharing classified evidence on Russia's involvement. Sweden and Finland, which maintain a traditional neutrality and are not NATO members like Denmark, signalled they might join the initiative.

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite went into the two-day EU summit on Thursday musing publicly that she could expel Russian diplomats. Privately, she had Poland's agreement to join the move. Latvia, Estonia and France had also shown interest.

LIGHTS OUT

With the summit under way, May took her plea just before dinner to French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. May had only one thing on her mind, a third diplomat said. "The evidence she presented Merkel and Macron was very strong."

The meeting did not start well, however. The lights went out briefly in the British suite as news photographers crowded in for a brief photo call, with someone unknowingly leaning on the light switch and plunging the trio into darkness.

But after everyone else had left the room and the lights came back on, May won their agreement that something must be done about Russia, which NATO has accused of trying to undermine the West with a campaign of disinformation, cyber attacks and covert action such as the Skripal poisoning.

Merkel also agreed that London would not have to wait for the results of tests on samples of the Salisbury nerve toxin from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) before Europe would act, mainly because Russia is a member of the watchdog and was seen as uncooperative in the inquiry.

Then, over scallops and rack of lamb on Thursday night, EU leaders discussed Russia for three-and-a-half hours, first attempting to agree a formal statement attributing blame for the toxin attack to Moscow.

With tough wording proposed by France and Ireland, that came around midnight and was a breakthrough, overcoming Greek resistance to criticism of Russia, and about as far as many diplomats had expected discussions to lead.

But May pressed on, sharing more intelligence that proved that "only one country could have done it", she told the room.

Several leaders were looking around to see who else might join the expulsions when France's Macron spoke up in support. Then Merkel, having received backing from her government coalition partner back in Berlin, joined too.

"That was the turning point," a fourth diplomat said. (Additional reporting by Andreas Rinke; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un (L) arrive to sign a document to acknowledge the progress of the talks and pledge to keep momentum going, after their summit at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa island in Singapore,

Thomas Cynkin

Security, Asia

By starting small, but aiming big, Pompeo can work up to a major win.

Pompeo Is Back in North KoreaThis Is What He Should Do

As American Secretary of State Mike Pompeo travels to North Korea this week, it's easy to be cynical about the Singapore Summit. Rather than briefly suspending judgment while we see whether Singapore was the start of a "Sadat Moment" involving a momentous geopolitical shift, most commentators have been quick to focus on what wasn't immediately achieved.

The summit's official outcomein the form of the joint declaration and public remarks by Secretary Pompeois short on details, especially in comparison to agreements inked by previous U.S. Administrations with North Korea. Pundits are correct to note the absence of a clear, unambiguous commitment by the North in the document to "complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization" (CVID). That said, North Korea never honored its previous written agreements with the U.S. anyway, so it is not clear that such comparisons are relevant. Instead, the question now is whether the shock and momentum generated by the Singapore summit will finally propel North Korea along the path of productive, good-faith negotiationsor not.

Short-Term Gains for North Korea

Given North Korea's track record, there is much cause to doubt Kim Jong Un's sincerity or to assume he is just focusing on immediate-term problems. Facing immense economic and political challenges under the weight of the Trump Administration's highly effective "maximum pressure" campaign, North Korea seems strongly motivated to dissipate the existing sanctions and gut the momentum for further sanctions. From this perspective, the summit has given China and South Korea a convenient excuse to dial back sanction enforcement, not to mention any sanction expansion or tightening.

Kim increased his international and domestic political stature by meeting the President of the United States as a nominal equal. Meanwhile, through his decision to suspend major exercises with South Korea, President Trump seems also to have adopted de facto the Chinese formula of a double freeze, which the U.S. had long rejected. Namely, the double freeze called for no American-South Korean military exercises in return for no North Korean missile or nuclear tests. Also, although technically this arrangement was phased and not officially a direct trade-off, the result is the same.

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That Trump took this step without consulting or alerting Tokyo or Seoul has caused concern in both capitals. But this was tempered by South Korea lauding the exercise suspension as consonant with President Moon's soft stance toward the Northnot to mention that South Korean leaders were secretly happy the U.S. did it so they didn't have to be the ones to ask. Besides, the United States and South Korea confirmed June 19 that they are suspending this August's joint Ulchi Freedom Guardian military exercise.

Kim also succeeded in creating the impression that he is deterrablein other words, that he is not a madman prone to launching weapons of mass destruction without provocation or even reason. Ultimately, Kim would like to convince the U.S. that North Korea today resembles China in the 1960sworking toward proportional deterrence, but not an existential threat that must be eliminated. By seeming to be reasonable and even statesmanlike, Kim successfully put a damper on any public debate, for the time being, about bloody nose options or regime change.

However, the key takeaway here is that Kim's achievements would rapidly evaporate should it become clear that he did not operate in good faith. If Kim were to revert to form and renege on his repeated pledges to pursue productive, good-faith negotiations for denuclearization, it should be expected that America too would reverse course. As a result of Kim's reversal, the atmosphere of good will would dissipate, and suspension of major American-South Korea exercises would be the first thing to go.

Jumpstarting Denuclearization

Secretary Pompeo stated publicly that not all of that work between the U.S. and North Korean negotiating teams appeared in the final document but there were lots of other places where there were understandings reached that were not reduced to writing.

Kim now has the opportunity to build on those understandings, and to work toward confidence building and relationship building with the United States through concrete denuclearization. If Kim persists in thinking small, the familiar historical pattern will repeat: the usual North Korean efforts to trade incremental, reversible micro-concessions for significant, breathing space or irreversible concessions by America and its allies, until the jig is up.

The logical first step would be for North Korea to provide a complete accounting of its nuclear activities as a prelude to inspections and removal of nuclear materials. That is perfectly reasonable, given repeated denuclearization assurances by Kim. That said, the North Korean regime is likely to balk at providing up front a complete targeting solution of its nuclear program to the United States. Given their past behavior patterns, it is most likely that the North Koreans will stall.

But denuclearization has to start somewhere. Rather than getting bogged down with North Korean lies and stalling, one option is to get the North to start taking concrete measures, rather than just talk about them. For instance, America could propose several North Korean sites to serve as a prototype for an inspection regime, which would lead to concrete denuclearization and also serves as a confidence-building measure. One of those sites could be the missile engine testing site Kim reportedly promised to dismantle. A team of international inspectors, including U.S. experts and perhaps some from other legitimate nuclear weapon states (P-5), would move rapidly to inspect those sites to their satisfaction. The United States and North Korea would then review the experience, discuss how to improve and build upon it, and begin developing a schedule for inspecting additional sites, including especially previously undeclared ones. This schedule would also include removal of nuclear material.

U.S. negotiators should keep their eyes on the prize: CVID. Confidence building in this manner should be just a means to that end. As has been discussed elsewhere, this should include a full declaration of heretofore undeclared aspects of the North Korean nuclear program, including facilities, fissile material, and so on. Furthermore, this should be followed by visits by international inspectors. Ultimately, the goal will be for allowing America to remove North Korean nuclear materials, including warheads and missiles. Numerous variations on this theme could, in theory, also be negotiated. After all, timelines have been floated ranging from immediate denuclearization to fifteen years. But U.S. negotiators need to get Kim as close as possible to complete nuclear disarmament as quickly as possible. This is because America conceding to any nuclear weapons retention by North Korea will de facto legitimize North Korea's possession of them.

Moreover, American negotiators should not hesitate to emphasize that the United States removed its last nuclear weapons from South Korea in December 1991 and that North Korean should reciprocate. If raised, they should also note that references to Libya are being (deliberately) conflated. Libya in the disarmament context means CVID as it was entirely eight years after handing over the Libyan nascent nuclear program that Qadafi was overthrown, and nuclear weapons wouldn't have made a difference.

Investing Kim in the Process

Kim was reportedly very nervous before meeting with President Trump, perhaps concerned that it was all a trick. Now, he seems to be transforming into an enthusiastic globetrotter. The United States should endeavor to get Kim invested in this process and to make clear that its continuation depends on his producing concrete, tangible progress on denuclearization.

The United Nations General Assembly's annual General Debate will be Tuesday, 25 September 2018, and is scheduled to last nine working days. National leaders may elect to speak, and no special invitation is required. This would be the perfect opportunity for Kim to appear and proclaim to the world the concrete, meaningful steps toward CVID that North Korea has taken and will take. America should consider using this as a forcing event to get Kim to agree to concrete actionsand even begin taking thembefore September. Another meeting with President Trump in New York, or even Washington, could be offered if Kim makes significant progress.

More broadly, if Kim seizes the opportunity offered by the United States to undertake a fundamental reappraisal of his strategic interests, he would be able to reduce North Koreas long-standing dependency on China by diversifying. While North Koreas leadership has attempted to resist Chinese domination, and the Chinese generally use a relatively light touch in pressuring Pyongyang, and ultimately Pyongyang knows Beijing has the wherewithal to bring North Korea to its knees. Small wonder that Kim has felt it necessary to meet with Chinas President Xi at every stage of the U.S.-North Korea rapprochement. Getting out from under Beijings thumb would no doubt be welcome to Kim, and American officials should subtly touch on this prospect.

Kim seemed entranced (if a bit terrified) by his tour of Singapores bustling metropolis, and the slick and alluring presentation the United States side gave him of a prosperous future for North Korea no doubt made a positive impact. President Trumps vision of hotels and residences on North Korean beaches imbued the concept of a U.S.-North Korean condominium relationship with new meaning.

This is offset to some extent by the fact that, ultimately, Kim is concerned only about his well-being and that of North Korean elites that maintain him in power, not the majority of the North Korean people. North Korea's moniker of "Hermit Kingdom" is well-earned: Kim has much to fear from outside contact by average North Koreans with the outside world, even with China.

Isolation has not been entirely to North Korea's disadvantage, even if the extent of that isolation may have exceeded its utility. During the height of the Cold War, 90% of East Germans could watch West German television, and the reality of day-to-day news reporting and glimpses of Western standards of living had an enormously corrosive effect on the German Democratic Republic's ability to limit public expectations. Prospects for hordes of South Koreans, Americans, or even Chinese swarming all over Pyongyang or an exclusive economic zone would be viewed as destabilizing by the North Korean security services, not to mention the North Korean political leadership. If America wants to avoid scaring Kim off, Washington may need to emphasize that economic development would proceed at a measured, controllable pace.

Offering to normalize diplomatic relations with North Korea is another possible enticement for Kim. This move would confer an additional degree of legitimacy on North Korea that he would no doubt welcome. A related question would be establishing a U.S. Embassy or representative office by another name in Pyongyang. That would mean friendly, Korean-fluent U.S. diplomats wandering around the capital, speaking with and possible influencing North Korean elites, and serving as a visual, physical symbol of the democratic and prosperous U.S. system. (North Korean diplomats at the UN already serve as de facto representatives to the U.S.) North Korean security services might balk at such a move, although they seem to have tolerated the presence of Western representatives of the World Food Program, among others. Kim might best be incentivized with an offer to establish relatively small liaison offices, to start.

A major incentive for Kim would be a peace treaty officially ending the Korean War. The political theater involved would be momentous, but the practical implications are mostly negative for the United States. Politically, a peace treaty would make it politically difficult for the U.S. to tighten sanctions against North Korea or even enforce them, given the predictable euphoria in Seoul and the inevitability that Beijing and Moscow would fully capitalize on the new atmosphere. Additionally, pressure on U.S. troops to withdraw from the South would intensify. The United Nations Command in Korea would be abolished, as would the United Nations Command-Rear in Japan, both of which help legitimize the U.S. military presence in their respective countries. The sense that North Korea is standing alone against the world community would diminish, and U.S. military cooperation with South Korea would be circumscribed by the perceived need to avoid being "provocative." America must plan for this eventuality, but must also make clear to Kim that a peace treaty will only materialize in the final stages of the denuclearization process.

If Not Now, When?

The North Koreans have expressed support for complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula much in the same way that old Soviet leaders used to show support for world peaceas a pleasant fiction. The United States needs to make clear that it expects rapid, visible, and physical progress by North Korea on CVID. If Kim balks even at this incremental approach, at least it will be clear to the world that America went the extra mile to give North Korea every possible chance to negotiate its way to a solution.

Thomas Cynkin is the Vice President of External Affairs at the Daniel Morgan Graduate School of National Security and an Adjunct Professor of Economics at George Washington University. He is also a former Foreign Service Officer and was the Asian affairs advisor to two U.S. Ambassadors to the U.N. and two Deputy Secretaries of State.

Image: FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un (L) arrive to sign a document to acknowledge the progress of the talks and pledge to keep momentum going, after their summit at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa island in Singapore, June 12, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo

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Critics charge that the Trump Administrations decision to add a question about citizenship to the 2020 census could make government information less accurate, leading to an uneven distribution of federal money and tilting the political landscape in favor of Republicans.

While the White House characterized the move as a way to help protect minority voting rights, demographics experts, civil rights leaders and Democratic lawmakers argue that it will lead many undocumented immigrants to opt out of answering Census questions entirely, leading to a dramatic undercounting in areas where they live.

That would affect everything from how many representatives a state sends to Congress to how much money different areas receive from the federal government for such things as Medicaid and highway funds. It could even affect the Electoral College, which is based on the size of each states congressional delegation.

The inaccurate count would immediately be reflected in shifts of political representation and political power, says Wendy Weiser, director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. I have no doubt that would lead to a lot of litigation so in addition to seeing massive shifts, there will be massive uncertainty over where the seats are going to be and how the shifts will turn out.

In an eight-page memo, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said that the decision to add the question came at the request of the Department of Justice, which has said that it needs the information to better enforce the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Having citizenship data at the census block level will permit more effective enforcement of the VRA, a statement from the Department of Commerce reads. Secretary Ross determined that obtaining complete and accurate information to meet this legitimate government purpose outweighed the limited potential adverse impacts.

Read More: The Head of the Census Resigned. It Could Be as Serious as James Comey

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Speaking at the White House press briefing on Tuesday, spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders argued that the question was backed by tradition.

This is a question thats been included in every census since 1965, with the exception of 2010, when it was removed, she said. This is something that has been part of the census for decades and something that the Department of Commerce felt strongly needed to be included again.

That claim muddies the waters between different surveys, however. Under the Constitution, the federal government is required to take an actual enumeration of the whole number of persons one each state every 10 years, but the Census Bureau also uses samplings to ask more detailed questions of a smaller group of recipients on an annual basis.

The decennial census has not included a question about citizenship since 1950, although the more detailed sampling surveys have. That question is currently included on the American Community Survey, which offers a more detailed read on the state of the U.S. population and replaced a different long-form questionnaire in the 2010 census.

In a January letter to the Commerce Secretary, six former directors of the Census Bureau warned against adding a citizenship question to the survey so late in the Census preparation process, according to the Washington Post. A dress rehearsal for the census is already starting in Rhode Island.

We strongly believe that adding an untested question on citizenship status at this late point in the decennial planning process would put the accuracy of the enumeration and success of the census in all communities at grave risk.

Civil rights leaders say the argument that the question would help with enforcement of the Voting Rights Act is also disingenuous, since the government already collects data that can be used to address that.

The American Community Survey has been and will continue to be suitable for civil rights and voting rights enforcement, said Gupta, who headed up the Justice Departments Civil Rights Division under President Obama.

If the change goes ahead, the effects would begin to be felt after the 2020 presidential election, which will still rely on lines drawn up after 2010. After the last census, the apportionment data was released on December 21, causing 10 states to lose seats in Congress and eight to again them.

The census also provides an essential set of data that is used by businesses and government in states and localities. University of California, Berkeley professor and demographer Kenneth W. Yachter notes that the data it offers could help a school board decide whether or not an additional elementary school needs to be built in a particular district.

With an inaccurate census, all those forecasts become inaccurate and the whole planning and process in business and government is impaired, says Wachter. The census is really the vehicle on which a lot of our countrys economic life functions.

The response to the administrations decision was swift. Within hours of the announcement, the Attorney General of California announced he was filing a lawsuit to try to stop the question from being included. Former Attorney General Eric Holder, who now leads the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, said the organization will also sue to stop it.

The addition of a citizenship question to the census questionnaire is a direct attack on our representative democracy, Holder said in a statement.

Civil and immigrant rights groups are also preparing to act in response to the Trump Administrations decision, including by lobbying Congress to intervene. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, who co-chairs the House Census Caucus, has introduced a bill that would to block the Commerce Secretary from implementing changes to the decennial census that have not been researched or tested at least three years before census day. Legislation that specifically addresses the citizenship question has also been introduced in the Senate.

Immigrant and civil rights groups see the addition as an affront to Latinos, Asian-Americans and immigrants who could be deterred from participating in the 2020 Census. Leaders said on a conference call Tuesday that there were already gearing up for difficulties in getting members of underrepresented communities to participate, given the Trump Administrations rhetoric and strict immigration enforcement practices. This decision, they fear, could be yet another hindrance.

Even if the question is removed, there will be barriers we will have to get through, said John C. Yang, the president and executive director, Asian Americans Advancing Justice.
President Donald Trump won Republican-friendly Texas by nine points in 2016, securing his path to the White House and the GOP's hold over Washington. But now this ruby red state, with its melange of arid landscapes, oversized steaks and cosmopolitan cities brimming with people from around the world, could lose representation in Congress and billions of federal dollars because of a Trump administration decision to add a question about citizenship status to the U.S. Census in 2020.

The change, instated by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross Monday night, would bring back a question last seen in the 1950s. Ross claims the citizenship question will be used to increase data and prevent voter discrimination. But detractors argue the shift is intended to scare immigrants and prevent them from participating, and it's the voters in Texas, many of whom backed Trump, who could be among the hardest hit.

Once the new federal survey lands, Texas, a state that already exceeds the national average for low Census response scores, could face new obstacles in accurately representing its population, a figure that determines Congressional representation and federal funding. A vocal group of bipartisan critics say that questions about citizenship would dissuade a large percentage of legal and undocumented Texas residents from answering the Census, which is used to calculate the state's official population. There are nearly five million immigrants living in Texas, and more than half of them are undocumented or live with someone who is.

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An undercount of Texass immigrant population could lead to underrepresentation in Congress, less federal funding for citizens still recovering from Hurricane Harvey and fewer Congressional districts, which could stymie the so-called blue wave of Democrats winning office in the typically Republican state.

The new Census question will scare away millions of people in our country from participating, skewing the results and costing Texas billions of dollars in federal funds over the next 10 years, said U.S. Representative Joaquin Castro, a Democrat representing parts of San Antonio and Austin, in email to Newsweek.

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Texas is one of a handful states slated to gain seats in Congress after the 2020 Census count, in part because of its growing immigrant community. In 2010, the state added four new seats fueled largely by a 42 percent growth in its Hispanic population.

Texas was supposed to pick up three seats in Congress after the next Census and this decision could cost us one of those, said Castro.

Funding and representation often go hand-in-hand, and an undercount could limit both. The Census is used by the federal government to allocate more than $675 billion in federal funds annually for health, welfare, infrastructure and other federal services. Nearly 600,000 undocumented immigrants reside in Houston alone.

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While our immigrant communities include both documented and undocumented, todays anti-immigrant rhetoric can only suppress an accurate Census countin Houston and across our country, Margaret Wallace Brown, deputy director for the Houston Planning and Development Department, told the U.S. Conference of Mayors in January. Brown expressed concern about the diaspora of Houstonians flooded out of their homes and businesses due to Hurricane Harvey. The interruption of established social and community networks will further complicate an accurate count.

An undercount could mean a loss of millions in resources for health care, public education, infrastructure and transportation, disaster relief and preparedness, and the distribution of billions in federal funds critical to projects in Texas, said U.S. Representative Beto ORourke, a Democrat from El Paso running for the Senate against incumbent Ted Cruz, in email to Newsweek.

Cruz, who was born in Canada and maintains hardline anti-immigration views, was part of a group that recommended the additional Census question to the Department of Commerce. The senator called the question a reasonable, common-sense addition to the Census in a group statement with Republican Senators Tom Cotton, of Arkansas, and Jim Inhofe, of Oklahoma Monday night. It is imperative that the data gathered in the Census is reliable, given the wide-ranging impacts it will have on U.S. policy, Cruz added.

Democrats argue that the citizenship question would undermine a growing left-leaning populace that Democrats are hoping can turn Texas from a deeply red to purple state. In Texas's three largest counties, Democratic primary voters outnumbered Republicans in 2018, a significant change from 2014 when the opposite was true.

This change is purely political, said Ryan Robinson, Austin City demographer who has worked through four decennial Censuses, to Newsweek. Theres nothing were going to gain from an efficiency standpoint. This is all about Democrats versus Republicans.

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Immigrants tend to congregate in cities, which largely vote Democratic in Texas. But having fewer Congressional districts representing these population centers, will slow the march toward purple; this will be a step or two backwards, said Robinson.

Democrats also fear that Texas Republicans will use the new data to redraw Congressional districts to limit the power of immigrant voters, who tend to lean left.

Beyond decade-long impacts on Texas families, it will also work in tandem with gerrymandering to erode the voting rights of those in our state and threaten our representation in the Federal government, said ORourke.

Outrage around the issue, however, could work in Democrats' favor ahead of the November midterm elections. American Bridge, a progressive group that supports Democratic candidates, says the change would fuel voter turnout among Latino and other immigrant groups. "This cowardly attack on the Constitution and the democratic process is an attempt by Donald Trump to sell Texas and a host of other states short, denying them the federal dollars that they deserve, said spokesperson Andrew Bates to Newsweek. Keeping this bigoted dog whistle of a question from being part of the 2020 Census is yet another reason the American public will vote for a Democratic Congress in November."

Ross defended the addition of the question, saying that the value of the data would outweigh any underrepresentation. "Secretary Ross carefully considered the argument that the reinstatement of the citizenship question on the decennial Census would depress response rate," a Department of Commerce spokesperson told Newsweek. "Secretary Ross found that the need for accurate citizenship data and the limited burden that the reinstatement of the citizenship question would impose outweigh fears about a potentially lower response rate."

But a letter circulated internally at the U.S. Census bureau in September showed that the government workers had found that asking about citizenship caused fear and could possibly reduce the response rate of immigrants. There had been a recent increase in respondents spontaneously expressing concerns about confidentiality in some of our pretesting studies conducted in 2017, the memo said, referring to the American Community Survey, an ongoing Census survey that already collects data about citizenship status.

Adding a question to the Census less than two years before 2020 is irresponsible, said Lloyd Potter, former Texas state demographer and director of the Texas State Data Center at the University of Texas San Antonio. Weve been working on these questions for a decade and to all of a sudden put a question out there that hasnt been tested is unprecedented, he told Newsweek. The Census typically needs about five years to accurately test the impacts and validity of a question, he said.

The Census is a huge logistic problem and the bureau is very good at systematically developing methods and testing them, and to throw something so rushed into this very structured and well-regulated process is my biggest concern, said Potter.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from Newsweek
Washington (AFP) - President Donald Trump on Tuesday spoke with European leaders about working together to counter China's alleged unfair trade practices, the White House said.

The move comes as Washington and the European Union are at loggerheads over Trump's decision earlier this month to slap steep tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.

Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel "discussed joining forces to counter China's unfair economic practices and illegal acquisition of intellectual property," the White House said in a statement.

The pair also discussed "leveling the playing field on tariffs," the statement said.

In a separate call with French President Emmanuel Macron, Trump likewise discussed "next steps" in dealing with China's "unfair trade practices," the White House said.

"The two leaders also discussed trade practices between the United States and European Union," according to a statement.

Trump is waging simultaneous trade battles with Beijing and Brussels, having unveiled tariffs this month on the metal imports as well as on up to $60 billion in annual imports of Chinese goods.

European and American trade officials have said talks are underway to reach a compromise and the United States has temporarily exempted Europe from the tariffs of 10 percent on aluminum and 25 percent on steel.

But Brussels has identified US goods -- such as peanut butter and Harley-Davidson motorcycles -- which could be subject to painful import duties if the compromise efforts fail.

European officials have said the US tariffs do not address the common problem of industrial overcapacity and market glut, for which Washington blames Beijing.
President Trump has figured out whos going to pay for his wall on the U.S. border with Mexico. Hint: Its not Mexico.

Trump has privately pushed the U.S. military to fund construction of the border wall, the Washington Post and CNN reported Tuesday, citing sources who requested anonymity.

The president is said to have suggested his idea that the military should pitch in to fund the border wall to both Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and to House Speaker Paul Ryan, the Post reported.

The move comes after Trump failed to secure nearly enough funding from Congress in the recently signed omnibus spending bill. Trump is seeking $25 billion for construction of the wall, and Congress allocated just $1.6 billion for upgrades to the existing fencing.

At Tuesdays briefing, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders sidestepped a question about whether having the military wall construction posed constitutional issues, and gave a glass-half-full assessment of where the presidents signature campaign promise currently stands.

I cant go into the specifics of that at this point, but I can tell you that the continuation of building the wall is ongoing, and were going to continue moving forward in that process, Sanders said.

Over the weekend, Trump seemed to first publicly float the idea that the military could help him fulfill his campaign pledge.

Because of the $700 & $716 Billion Dollars gotten to rebuild our Military, many jobs are created and our Military is again rich. Building a great Border Wall, with drugs (poison) and enemy combatants pouring into our Country, is all about National Defense. Build WALL through M!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 25, 2018

Perhaps the most notable refrain from Trumps 2016 presidential campaign rallies was an audience call-and-response in which Trump, after whipping up his crowd by first insisting that he would build a wall if elected, then asked, And whos going to pay for the wall?

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Mexico! his crowds routinely shouted back in unison.

(Cover thumbnail photo: Carolyn Kaster/AP)

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Read more from Yahoo News:
Washington (AFP) - US President Donald Trump decided Tuesday to end the protected status of thousands of Liberian migrants to the United States and gave them a year to leave the country.

It's the latest of similar moves, after more than 250,000 Salvadorans, Haitians and Nicaraguans lost their protected status under an administration which has made cracking down on immigration a priority.

In 1991, when the West African country was in the grip of civil war, some Liberians living in the US were given "temporary protected status" to allow them to remain in safety.

Then in 1999 approximately 10,000 of them were made eligible for "deferred enforced departure," or DED, by then-president Bill Clinton, allowing them to continue to build new lives.

Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama have periodically renewed the DED status, but Trump has now decided to allow it to expire, deeming Liberia safe for returnees.

Trump has taken a tough stance on immigration in general and, in reported private conversations, an even tougher stance on Africans from what he has reportedly deemed "shithole countries."

The latest grace period expires on March 31, but Trump said in a letter to the Department of Homeland Security that he would accord the Liberians a 12-month "wind-down" period to prepare their departure.

"Through consultation with appropriate executive departments and agencies and my advisors, I have been informed that conditions in Liberia have improved," Trump wrote.

"Liberia is no longer experiencing armed conflict and has made significant progress in restoring stability and democratic governance," he argued.

Trump admitted that the 2014 outbreak of the Ebola virus in West Africa had brought "tragic loss of life and economic damage" to Liberia, one of the world's poorest countries after years of civil war.

But he declared himself satisfied with Liberia's progress in tackling the disease.

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It is not clear how many of the original 10,000 DED recipients may have died, moved on voluntarily or been granted another form of legal US residency -- but the rest face an uncertain future.

Opponents of Trump's move warned it would uproot many who had made new and productive lives for themselves in the United States.

Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat, noted on Twitter that, thanks to the previous presidents' DED extensions, the Liberians had been living in the United States legally since 1992.

"Many work in Minnesota hospitals and nursing homes," she wrote. "I won't give up this fight. We have a year."
President Donald Trump said there is a good chance that North Korea will do what is right and denuclearize after his meeting with Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un, scheduled to take place before the end of May.

For years and through many administrations, everyone said that peace and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula was not even a small possibility, Trump tweeted early in the morning of Wednesday (March 28). Now there is a good chance that Kim Jong Un will do what is right for his people and for humanity. Look forward to our meeting!

The president said he received a message from Chinas President Xi Jinping, who had just held a meeting in Beijing with Kim. During that meeting, Kim said he is "committed to denuclearization on the peninsula".

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Received message last night from XI JINPING of China that his meeting with KIM JONG UN went very well and that KIM looks forward to his meeting with me, Trump tweeted. In the meantime, and unfortunately, maximum sanctions and pressure must be maintained at all cost!

Donald Trump Kim Jong Un

REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque, KCNA/Handout

Trump wants North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons programme. Pyongong is getting close to developing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of delivering nuclear warheads to the U.S. mainland. Trump said this is his red line; if North Korea crosses it, America will take military action.

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Throughout 2017, North Korea increased activity on its nuclear weapons programme, conducting a number of provocative missile tests. Trump and Kim fired volleys of rhetoric at one another, threatening their respective countries with annihilation if pushed too far.

The world put new, tough sanctions on North Korea's regime to pressure it into halting its nuclear weapons research. China also put diplomatic pressure on its ally to stop conducting weapons tests and get around the table for talks.

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Tensions on the Korean Peninsula eased during the 2018 Winter Olympics, hosted by U.S. ally South Korea. The two Koreas competed in a united team under a single banner. Alongside the Olympics were talks by officials from both countries, which progressed well, laying the ground for the eventual Trump-Kim summit.

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Speaking previously to Newsweek, Alexander Vershbow, who served as U.S. ambassador to South Korea between 2005 and 2008, cautioned against having the meeting so soon. He said it's too early to know what North Korea wants in exchange for denuclearization and this needs to be sounded out if Trump-Kim talks are to be productive.

"There is no understanding of what conditions they attach to that, or what timeframe they attach to [denuclearization], Vershbow said. If theyre talking about denuclearization by the end of the millenium, as opposed to denuclearization over a one or two year period, that makes all the difference in the world."

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President Donald Trump wishes he could bring top aide Rob Porter back to the White House after he resigned last month amid allegations of domestic violence from his two ex-wives, according to a report.

Trump has called Porter and asked his advice, three people familiar with the conversations told The New York Times Monday. He has told close advisers he hopes Porter will return to the West Wing.

The president, however, has also told advisers that he knows its unlikely he could bring Porter back. A White House official said Trump misses the structure Porter brought as White House staff secretary and the team that he helped build.

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03_27_RobPorter

Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

There has been a large shakeup at the highest levels of the Trump administration and the White House since Porters resignation on February 7. White House Communications Director Hope Hicks, who was romantically involved with Porter, resigned in late February.

Trumps chief economic advisor Gary Cohn resigned in early March. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has also been ousted, along with National Security Advisor General H.R. McMaster.

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With the resignations and firings, the presidents calls to Porter have increased, and he has sought advice about how best to proceed with his decision to impose steep tariffs on steel and aluminum imports and how to grant exemptions to those rules for some countries. Cohn opposed the tariffs and resigned soon after Trump decided to impose them.

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Porter left the White House after The Daily Mail published a story in which his two ex-wives accused him of physical and emotional abuse.

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At a Senate hearing in February, FBI Director Chris Wray indicated their accounts of abuse were standing in the way of Porter obtaining a security clearance. He said that chief of staff John Kelly and Trump had ignored warnings and a final report about Porters vulnerability to blackmail.

Trump continued to defend Porter after the allegations emerged.

It also emerged that as many as 100 White House staff and officials were serving with interim clearances more than a year after Trump's inauguration. By the end of February, more than 30 Trump aides had their security clearances downgraded from top-secret to secret.

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ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey will take action if militants do not withdraw immediately from Syria's Manbij region and areas in the country east of the Euphrates, Turkey's National Security Council said on Wednesday. Turkey, which stormed the northern Syrian town of Afrin last week after a two-month offensive against the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, has repeatedly threatened to push its operations further east to Manbij where U.S. troops are stationed. Expanding Turkey's military campaign into the much larger Kurdish-held territory further east, which President Tayyip Erdogan has vowed to do, would risk confrontation between the NATO allies who have been at loggerheads over the U.S. policy in Syria and other issues. "In the meeting, it is stated that the terrorists in Manbij should be removed from the area, otherwise Turkey will not hesitate to take initiative by itself as it did in other regions," the statement from the security council, chaired by Erdogan, said. It said the same approach also applied to the militants on Syrian soil at the east of Euphrates, without elaborating where that would specifically apply to, or who it might target. Turkey considers the YPG to be an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a decades-long insurgency against the state, and has been infuriated by the support Washington has provided the Syrian Kurdish fighters. The Council said it also expected Iraq's government to prevent the PKK operating in Iraq, especially in towns of Sinjar and Qandil. If that was not possible Turkey would prevent them itself, the council added. "In the meeting it is stated that aside from Syria, Turkey expects Iraq to prevent operations by the separatist terrorist organization in its territory and if it is not possible Turkey will prevent them by itself," the council statement said using the term it applies to PKK. On Tuesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said Iraqi armed forces would prevent Kurdish militants based in northern Iraq from staging cross-border attacks against Turkey during a phone call with his Turkish counterpart. (Reporting by Ezgi Erkoyun; Editing by Alison Williams)
Defense Secretary James Mattis revealed Tuesday that U.S. forces nearly bombed Russians fighting on behalf of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad sometime in the past week, but a call with Moscow's own armed forces defused the situation.

Mattis said he believed Russian military officials when they said they were not giving orders to private Russian citizens battling the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) and rebel groups as part of a coalition of pro-Syrian government militias. Following an incident last month, in which the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS killed a large number of these pro-Assad fighters, including Russians, Mattis said another clash was recently avoided after Marine Corps General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, contacted Russia's top military leader, Army General Valery Gerasimov, via a deconfliction hotline.

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"There were other Russian elements like this moving across the deconfliction line, which is the river, as you know, into an area that we'd agreed with the Russians they could operate in, as they had allowed us to operate basically to the west of the river, up at Tabqa and around Raqqa. We'd agreed for them being slightly east of the river at Deir Ezzor," Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon.

"These were forces moving into more advanced positions, too close. Deconfliction discussions between our chairman and his Russian counterpart, General Gerasimov [took place] and those elements fell back. So we have also drawn off slightly in order to maintain a deconfliction between the elements there," he continued.

"So it looks like, this time, it was resolved through the deconfliction communication line. It did not, you know, go into harm's way, as it did there a month ago," he added.

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USdestroysRussiatank

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

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The battleground in eastern Syria has only grown more complex as the U.S.-led, mostly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces and the Russia-backed Syrian military fought two separate campaigns to destroy ISIS. As the Syrian military, backed by various pro-government militiasmany of which were supported by Iranand Russian warplanes, retook Deir Ezzor city and the border town of Al-Bukamal, they declared victory over ISIS and reclaimed the region for Assad.

On the other side of the Euphrates River, however, the Syrian Democratic Forces maintained control of lucrative oil fields. The Kurdish leadership had reportedly entered into preliminary talks with the Syrian government to negotiate the return of these sites in exchange for greater autonomy across majority-Kurdish northern Syria, but two major developments have upset the dynamics of eastern Syria.

First, Turkey protested to a U.S. plan to establish a Syrian Democratic Forces border force. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to crush the U.S.-backed Kurdish "terror army" he accused of being linked to the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) that has waged a decades-long separatist guerrilla war in Turkey. Turkey rallied its rebel, once-CIA-backed Free Syrian Army allies in January to take the Kurd-held town of Afrin and Kurdish fighters have left the U.S.-led coalition frontlines in eastern Syria to resist the spreading Turkish invasion alongside pro-Syrian government forces as part of a deal with Assad.

Not long after, the mostly Arab faction of the Syrian Democratic Forces in eastern Syria said they had come under attack by pro-Syrian government forces. The U.S.-led coalition responded with massive force, killing up to 100 pro-Assad fighters, including at least dozens of Russian citizensmany of which were reportedly operating as part of private military companies.

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Russia stated it had no control over Russian nationals working outside the military, but blamed the U.S. for provoking the attack and denied coalition claims that the U.S. had contacted Russian military officials before, during and after the attack. A U.S. drone killed more pro-Syrian government forces in a Russian tank days later.

GettyImages-931207138 (2)

LOUAI BESHARA/AFP/Getty Images

While the degree to which Gerasimov was able to influence irregular Russian fighters on the ground was unclear, the elite general issued a direct warning that the U.S. military must not place his troops in danger. As negotiations over the evacuation of civilians and rebels from the insurgent-held districts outside of Damascus accompanied a violent Syrian air campaign earlier this month, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley warned that "the United States remains prepared to act" in response to reports of chemical weapons and civilian casualties.

Russia has denied its Syrian ally's involvement in chemical weapons attacks, including an alleged sarin gas attack last April that convinced President Donald Trump to launch airstrikes at a Syrian air base, a move Russia argued threatened the lives of its personnel. In response to Haley's renewed threat against the Syrian military, Gerasimov said he would "take retaliatory measures to target both the missiles and their delivery vehicles" if Russian lives were put in harm's way.

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(Reuters) - Thirty-four people said to be illegal immigrants were in custody on Wednesday after federal agents raided a "drop house" in Phoenix suspected of being a part of a human smuggling operation, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials said.

The raid late on Tuesday was precipitated by a tip that a "local residence contained a large group of suspected undocumented aliens," Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for ICE, said in a statement.

The information led agents with ICE Homeland Security Investigations to "dismantle a human smuggling drop house," she said.

"Federal agents discovered 34 undocumented aliens inside the residence. The group included 27 Guatemalan nationals, 5 Mexican nationals and 2 Honduran nationals," Mack said.

All 34 were detained for violations associated with the failed human smuggling operation and processed for removal. "The investigation into the smuggling activity is ongoing," Mack said.

U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered stricter immigration enforcement.

(Reporting by Gina Cherelus in New York; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Leslie Adler)
U.S. and NATO forces would be without air support for several weeks in the event of a European war with Russia, as Moscows advanced anti-aircraft systems could close European airspace to NATO warplanes.

Army officials and defense experts told the Association of the United States Army's Global Force Symposium that the U.S. must therefore upgrade its artillery forces in order to degrade Russias cutting-edge anti-aircraft capabilities, Military.com reported.

Russia has one of the most sophisticated anti-aircraft defense networks. The key to its power is the S-400 Triumf missile system. Each S-400 battery has four missiles, each designed for use at different ranges, and can engage targets 250 miles away and an altitude of just over 98,000 feet. Its fastest missiles flies at Mach 15, or 11,509 miles per hour.

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U.S. aircraft would be taking a huge risk operating over Eastern Europe in the event of war. The range and lethality of Russian anti-air systems would limit close-air support and surveillance missions, leaving U.S. and NATO ground troops with severely limited air coverage and intelligence-gathering options.

S-400 Triumf

KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP/Getty Images

John Gordon IV, a senior policy researcher at Rand Corp, concluded that Russia would have a very significant advantage in terms of numbers and all aspects of ground combat in the first seven to 10 days of a potential conflict.

The way around this problem, Gordon explained, is to improve American artillery weapons to compensate for limited air reach should war break out. It's certainly going to put a premium on U.S. Army field artillery, he said.

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Gordon believes that the U.S. and NATO have some catching up to do in artillery. The Russians take this stuff seriously; artillery has been the strong suit of the Russian Army since the days of the czars, he said. They've got a range advantage over us in a number of different areas, particularly cannons. Typically, modern Russian cannons have got 50 percent to 100 percent greater range than the current generation of U.S. cannons.

This mismatch is driving the Army to increase the range and sophistication of its artillery. The Army has named the Long-Range Precision Fires (LRPF) program its top modernization goal.

US Artillery in South Korea

Kim Hong-Ji/AFP/Getty Images

General Robert Brown, commanding general of U.S. Army Pacific Command, told the symposium, We've got to push the maximum range of all systems under development for close, deep and strategic, and we have got to outgun the enemy. We dont do that right now; its a huge gap.

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General Brown continued, We need cannons that fire as far as rockets today. We need rockets that fire as far as today's missiles, and we need missiles out to 499 kilometers, or 310 milesthe missile range limit set by the the 1988 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty.

One of the central elements of the LRPF project is the Precision Missile System, which will have a range of 310 miles and will replace the Army Tactical Missile System. Prototypes will be ready for testing next year and the Army hopes the weapon will be introduced by 2023.

The Extended Range Cannon Artillery project will upgrade its 155 milimeter artillery weapons with rocket-assisted projectiles and an upgraded breech to extend its range to 43 miles. It will also create an improved auto-loading mechanism to increase rate of fire to six to 10 rounds per minute. These are expected to be ready by 2023.

In the long-term, the Army is researching the feasibility of futuristic hypervelocity and electromagnetic weapons, which others branches of the military have already had some success with.

US soldiers in Bulgaria

DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP/Getty Images

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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday criticized Myanmar's army chief after he declared that the Muslim Rohingya had nothing in common with the country's other ethnic groups.

Guterres said he was "shocked" at reports of General U Min Aung Hlaing's remarks at a military gathering and urged Myanmar's leaders to "take a unified stance against incitement to hatred and to promote cultural harmony."

At the gathering in northern Kachin state on Monday, Hlaing referred to the Rohingya as "Bengalis," a term meant to describe them as foreigners, and said they "do not have the characteristics or culture in common with the ethnicities of Myanmar."

"The tensions were fuelled because the 'Bengalis' demanded citizenship," said the general who was quoted in the Dhaka Tribune.

Some 700,000 Rohingya have been driven into neighbouring Bangladesh since last August by a major army crackdown that the United Nations has likened to ethnic cleansing.

Myanmar authorities say the operation is aimed at rooting out extremists.

Myanmar's de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace prize laureate, has lost her democratic credentials on the world stage for failing to speak out in favour of the Rohingya.

Guterres said it was "critical that conditions are put in place to ensure that the Rohingya are able to return home voluntarily, in safety and in dignity."

The UN Security Council is hoping to travel to Myanmar to get a first-hand look at the refugee crisis, but has not yet been given the green light for the trip by Myanmar authorities.

Guterres has for months been weighing the appointment of a special envoy for Myanmar that would keep the plight of the Rohingya in the international spotlight.
Washington (AFP) - US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Tuesday he had "no reservations" about working with John Bolton, the controversial hawk named by President Donald Trump to be his new national security advisor.

"Last time I checked he's an American. I can work with an American," Mattis told reporters.

The retired Marine general said he had never met Bolton before, but expected to get together with him soon at the Pentagon.

A former US ambassador to the United Nations and Fox News contributor, Bolton is known for his vehement opposition to the Iran nuclear deal and defense of a US first strike against North Korea.

Mattis has stressed diplomacy in dealing with both countries, and has argued against scrapping the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.

Asked whether he could work with Bolton, Mattis said he had "no reservations, no concerns at all."

"I hope that there's some different world views, that's the normal thing you want unless you want group think," he said.
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While much has been written about Jan. 6 and Donald Trumps reaction while it was going down, Bob Woodwards new book, Peril, is giving readers more insight into what happened behind closed doors. The day was fraught with a lot of drama, and as we know, much of the burden of getting through to the []
Walmart (WMT), the worlds largest retailer known for its everyday low price, has become more popular with Democrats in the U.S. in the last five years, according to new data released by YouGov BrandIndex, a global market research company.

Five years ago, Democratic shoppers held a negative view of Walmart, while Republican shoppers were positive and Independents were mildly positive, according to YouGov.

In early 2013, only 43% of Democrats surveyed were considering shopping at Walmart, compared to 52% as of March 25, 2018. Meanwhile, 66% of Republican shoppers polled in January 2013 were considering making a purchase at Walmart, with that number trending slightly downward to 63% in July 2016 and moving back up to 65% today, the data show. Independents have remained steady at about 57% over that period.

Democrat shoppers perception of Walmart has trended upward over the last five years. (Source: YouGov BrandIndex)

Democrat shoppers are more likely to make a purchase at Walmart today compared to five years ago (Source: YouGov BrandIndex).

Big picture  I say Walmart has done a reasonably good job building support among consumers who identify as democratic and it hasnt lost too much ground among conservatives, YouGov BrandIndexs CEO Ted Marzilli told Yahoo Finance.

Marzilli pointed that Walmart, headquartered in Bentonville, Ark., has historically held a significant footprint in the southeastern part of the U.S., which tends to lean more conservative politically. The retailer also appeared in more rural areas, he noted. That said, Walmart has been expanding into more urban areas.

Whats noteworthy about the last five years is that Walmart has also made some public stances on some political issues that would likely resonate with Democrats.

For instance, in the aftermath of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, Walmart raised the age to purchase firearms and ammunition to 21. The retailer said it would remove items resembling assault-style rifles, including nonlethal airlift guns and toys, from its website. In 2015, Walmart stopped selling modern sporting rifles, including the AR-15.

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Last fall, following the white supremacist rallies in Charlottesville, CEO Doug McMillon sent a memo to Walmarts employees criticizing President Trumps response to the violence.

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As we watched the events and the response from President Trump over the weekend, we too felt that he missed a critical opportunity to help bring our country together by unequivocally rejecting the appalling actions of white supremacists, McMillon wrote at the time.

Going back even further, in April 2015, McMillon joined other CEOs in opposing religious freedom bills, which could lead to discrimination against the LGBT community. Walmart publicly shared statements from McMillon asking Governor Hutchinson to veto the HB1228 in Arkansas, saying that it threatens to undermine the spirit of inclusion present throughout the state of Arkansas and does not reflect the values we proudly uphold.

(Photo by Chris Hondros/Getty Images)

Walmart, the biggest private employer in the U.S., also increased the minimum wage for half a million employees in back 2015 to $9. A year later, the company raised it to $10. This year, following tax reform, Walmart boosted its hourly wage to $11 per hour.

Consumers can associate CEOs with the brands and companies that they run, and this affiliation can be much stronger when the CEO is also a founder of a company, according to Marzilli.

When CEOs speak out like this they essentially are the mouthpiece for their company, so it absolutely is a reflection of the brand it carries a lot of risks and a lot of rewards, says Marzilli.

Marzilli noted that the data from consumers compiled by YouGov would suggest that McMillon has done a pretty good job where hes waded into the political or social debate.

A representative for Walmart didnt immediately respond to a request for comment at the time of publication.

For its surveys, YouGov BrandIndex draws from 2.2 million people in the U.S. who ages 18 and up. Its panelist community is roughly split into thirds when it comes to political affiliations, according to Marzilli.

Each day, YouGov interviews about 5,000 people, gathering their opinions on 1,600 consumer brands. The surveys are continuous and ongoing. Panelists answer questions about the buzz surrounding the company in the prior two weeks that can be positive or negative. Theyre asked to consider news, advertising, and things they hear from friends and family about the brand.

Walmart is not a client of YouGov.



Julia La Roche is a finance reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter.
TAOYUAN, Taiwan (Reuters) - The wife of Taiwanese activist Li Ming-che, who is serving a five-year prison sentence in China for subversion, said on Wednesday after visiting her husband that he looks well but can't write letters and some books were not getting through. Li, a community college lecturer and an activist at a human rights non-governmental organization in Taiwan, disappeared while visiting China in March last year. He was found guilty of subversion in November in a trial that his wife denounced as illegitimate and has since been held in central China's Hunan province. Li Ching-yu, his wife, visited her husband on Tuesday for the first time since he was jailed. "Judging by his outward appearance, Li Ming-che's current situation in prison seems all right, but his right to speak, as well as his basic communication rights are still being restricted," Li told reporters after returning to Taiwan from China. Her husband currently cannot write her letters, apparently, she was told, because he was too busy working, and he only received two of the 11 books she sent to him, Li said. The couple spoke for 30 minutes by telephone, separated by glass, she said. No one answered the telephone when Reuters called the publicly listed number for the jail where Li is being held. The case has added tension in fraying ties between Taipei and Beijing. After the November ruling, Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party said it was strongly dissatisfied and called for Beijing to allow Li to return to Taiwan. Li admitted during his trial to having criticized China's ruling Communist Party and to having shared articles and arguments promoting Taiwan's multi-party democracy. China views self-ruled Taiwan as a wayward province and said last week Taiwan would face the "punishment of history" for any attempt at independence. (Reporting by Twinnie Siu; Writing by Christian Shepherd; Editing by Nick Macfie)
Zachary Quinto needs a latte more work to stay anonymous in public.

The Star Trek Spock recently used an alias to order coffee at a Starbucks in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and got called out on Twitter for it.

Host James Corden displayed the users response on Monday when Quinto visited The Late Late Show.

Zachary Quinto thinks he can come into MY Starbucks, use the fake name Josh for his order, and not get recognized?? the post said.

Quinto believes the tweeter was a woman who was snickering at him in the store.

The actor sheepishly apologized for his ruse, saying he gets nervous when hes alone. Maybe people dont know me and I can go undercover, he said. Clearly thats not always the case.

We suspect the guy would have to boldly go where no man has gone before to avoid detection.

Take a coffee break and watch the segment above.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Thursday she was considering a travel ban on some Russian citizens in response to a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in Britain that the British government has blamed on Moscow. New Zealand has not joined the United States and other allies in expelling Russian diplomats in response to the poisoning, but would consider restricting Russians entering the country. "I've now asked MFAT (Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade) to advise me on whether there are people who should be the subject of visa exclusions for New Zealand as well," Ardern told Radio New Zealand. The United States said on Monday it would expel 60 Russian diplomats, joining governments across Europe in punishing the Kremlin. In total, 100 Russian diplomats were being removed, the biggest Western expulsion of Russian diplomats since the height of the Cold War. Ardern had previously said that unlike other intelligence partners, there were no Russian spies present at the Russian embassy in New Zealand for her government to expel. Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters told Parliament on Wednesday that most of Russia's spying activity on New Zealand took place from offshore. In 2014, the previous National government had slapped travel sanctions on around 20 Russians and Ukrainians to protest Russia's annexation of Crimea in eastern Ukraine. (Reporting by Charlotte Greenfield; editing by Grant McCool)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was hospitalized in Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalems Ein Kerem Tuesday evening due to suffering from a high fever and a severe cough.

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After undergoing medical examinations, doctors decided that he would be discharged the same night.

His personal physician, Dr. Berkowitz, said that he believes the prime minister's symptoms from an illness he was suffering two weeks ago may have worsened due to not completing the period of rest required for recovery.

Doctors said he was suffering from an inflammation in his respitory system and that he was not in life-threatening danger.

PM Netanyahu (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

Dr. Berkowitz decided that the prime minister should undergo a number of medical examinations at the hospital, and he was therefore admitted.

Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman quickly wished the prime minister a speedy recovery on his Twitter page.

To our dear prime minister, I wish you a speedy recovery. It is important to me and the entire nation of Israel that you are healthy as you sit with your dear family for the Passover feast, that you eat a lot of Haroset and ever a a few butter herbs. Be healthy! he wrote on his Twitter account.

Labor Party Chair Avi Gabbay also sent Netanyahu his best regards, wishing him fast recovery so he can sit with his family on Seder dinner.

Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalems Ein Kerem (Photo: Eli Mendelbaum)

After being given fluids and having his medical test results affirm he is in no danger, doctors approved his release. He returned to his home shortly after.

Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman said he was "happy to hear" Netanyahu's medical teasts came back normal and that he felt better.

"I hope that with the help of God in the coming hours he will recover and return to full functioning soon," he said, wishing the premier a "speedy and complete recovery."

Two weeks ago, the Israeli premier complained that he was not feeling well After undergoing a series of medical examinations, Dr. Berkowitz diagnosed him with an inflammation in his throat and a fever and instructed him to rest in his home a prescribed him medication.

Last week, an a round of questioning in a corruption probe at which he is at the center was canceled due to his falling sick. He was also compelled to cancel his participation in a number of events.
The IDF warned residents of the Gaza Strip Tuesday evening not to approach the border fence with Israel during their Great March of Return planned for Friday, and described it as a March of Anarchy.

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Israeli security forces are bracing for the upcoming mass march in the strip, and preparing for extreme scenarios envising diversion operations designed to enable Hamas terrorists to infiltrate into Israel while Israeli security forces are dealing with rioters spread across the border.

In a video posted in Arabic on the IDF Spokespersons Unit Facebook page, residents were told that Hamas was using them as a decoy in its violent schemes rather than providing solutions to the problems that Gazans face.

Hamas is using you. Instead of dealing with problems such as an electricity shortage, infrastructure and unemployment in the strip, it is planning an insignificant march, the message said, adding in a play of words that the march was not one of return but of anarchy.

In addition to the heightened alertness, the IDF warns residents of the coastal enclave not to engage in activities of public disturbances, while prison services are preparing to take in dozens of people arrested.

The majority of those arrested will be sent to Ketziot Prison in the Negev and the prison services will decide will decide whether or not to apply emergency regulations.

Screenshot from IDF warning to Gaza (Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)

On Tuesday evening, IDF soldiers, hundreds of whom were from the Givati and Nahal Brigades, began preparing and training for their arrival at the end of the week at the Gaza Division.

They will join Golani soldiers and the Armored Corps who are currently responsible for the border area.

As part of the beefed-up deployment, the forces have been instructed to prepare not only to deal with rioters who could march beyond the border fence, but particularly with a situation in which Hamas could exploit the chaos in order to have people infiltrate into Israeli territory while soldiers attention is focused on suppressing the disorder in various flashpoints.

Israeli security forces are particularly cautious of sinister attempts to exploit the planned riots to send terrorists across the border, but also to plant bombs nearby to be detonated when an IDF patrol approaches

On March 17, an explosion occurred in the eastern portion of the Gaza Strip, in the vicinity of the area in which two explosive devices detonated two days earlier. The incident marked the fifth time in three months a device was detonated near the Gaza fence.

Activists assemble near border aheaed of the march (Photo: AFP)

In recent weeks, the army has claimed that Palestinians, who protest every week at the border, have been exploited by Hamas and other terror groups in the Gaza Strip on at least three occasions to plant bombs.

Ynet also learned that on December 20 last year, IDF soldiers spotted a powerful bomb being planted by Palestinian rioters who were protesting near the border fence. Sappers neutralized the bomb without any incident using lasers that caused it to explode from afar.

In recent weeks, the army has claimed that Palestinians, who protest every week at the border, have been exploited by Hamas and other terror groups in the Gaza Strip on at least three occasions to plant bombs.

Hamas has said that the large scale protests will continue until Israel 70th birthday, which falls on the same day as Nakba Day when Palestinians mark what they describe the catastrophe of 1948 that led to Israels independence.
A relative of a Palestinian farmer says suspected Israeli settler vigilantes attacked him with clubs and metal pipes as he worked his land in the West Bank.

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Fathi Abu Mughli, a doctor at the West Bank's Istishari Hospital, said Tuesday that 62-year-old Tayseer Suleiman suffered multiple jaw fractures in the attack near the Palestinian village of Hawara a day earlier.

Suleiman's 26-year-old son, Hamodeh, says his father can't speak, but that he wrote down what happened to him.

Hawara is near Yitzhar, viewed as one of the more militant settlements in the northern West Bank.

The Israeli rights left-wing group Yesh Din says it has recorded 25 cases of settler violence in the area of Yitzhar in the past six months.

Israeli police were not immediately available for comment.
Like many who survived Nazi horrors, Mireille Knoll embraced life, eating out and going to the theater despite limited means. Even as age and Parkinson's disease took their toll, she delighted in receiving guestsuntil one of them allegedly stabbed the 85-year-old to death because she was Jewish.

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The brutal killing in Paris last week has raised uncomfortable questions about resurgent anti-Semitism in France.

"I thought I was going to die on the spot. I cried all the tears in my body and I thought of her. She didn't deserve this," her anguished son, Daniel Knoll, said Tuesday, near the Paris public housing project his mother called home for most of her life.

"How can one do that to anybody? The police revealed she was stabbed 11 times."

Mireille Knoll's murder has shocked the local Jewish community

As Knoll's family gathered in Paris to attend her funeral on Wednesday, horrified French leaders and activists called for people to take to the streets to protest racism.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo urged all Parisians to join a silent march in memory of Knoll on Wednesday, and politicians across the political spectrum pledged to attend. French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted his "absolute determination to fight against anti-Semitism."

For Knoll's family, the killing was a cruel coda to her long life.

At age 9, she fled Paris to escape a notorious World War II roundup of Paris Jews. French police herded some 13,000 peopleincluding more than 4,000 childreninto the Vel d'Hiv stadium in 1942 and shipped them to the Auschwitz death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. Fewer than 100 survived.

A family member with Brazilian citizenship helped Knoll and other relatives escape Nazi-occupied territory for southern Europe and then Canada. She returned to France only after the end of the war.

Over the years her grandchildren and other French Jews moved to Israel, but Knoll stayed in her beloved Paris, living nearly her whole life in the modest apartment on Avenue Philippe Auguste.

"There was nothing to steal. My mother was poor," her son said. "Her credit card? She would have only been able to withdraw 100 euros. She had no money on her account."

Authorities have not released the names of the two men in custody but have said the chief suspect is a 29-year-old with a past conviction who lived in the same building.

Daniel Knoll said the suspect had lived there since he was 7. His mother "took pleasure in having him at home and ... although we'd asked her not to welcome him, she let him in like she always did, the same way she did with everybody, with kindness," he said.

"My mother had a thirst for knowledge and meeting new people and talking to them and that's what killed her," he said.

On Tuesday, a photo of Knoll hung on her door, surrounded by paper hearts and a police notice saying the apartment was the subject of a judicial inquiry.

On a gate outside the building in eastern Paris, neighbors hung up a tribute poster. Candles flickered next to piles of flowers in her honor.

Smoke residue from the fire still stained her apartment window.

Knoll's granddaughter, Jessica, lashed out at the attackers who "burned all of our memories, burned my entire childhood that I experienced there, in photos, albums, souvenirs."

Speaking Tuesday in Herzliya in central Israel, Jessica Knoll stroked a ring her grandmother gave her on her last visit to Paris, and remembered her irrepressible energy.

"She used to run faster than us," she said.

Daniel Knoll remembered his mother as talkative and vivacious. In a home video she could be seen raising a glass and declaring, "Lechaim!" -- "to life!" in Hebrew.

When she could still walk, he said, "she was going to restaurants, to theaters, to cinemas to see movies. She likes so much to read, she likes life so much. All those people who know war, they like life, maybe more than these crazy people" who killed her.

An autopsy showed Knoll had been stabbed 11 times before the apartment was set on fire (Photo: AFP)

Mireille Knoll's husband was deported to Nazi concentration camps, and their wartime experiences colored their children's lives.

Yet, despite a resurgence of anti-Semitic violence and vandalism in recent years, and anti-Israeli sentiment among many young French Muslims, Daniel Knoll said he didn't feel targeted for being Jewish.

Granddaughter Jessica, however, warned that "today it is my grandmother and tomorrow it will be a grandmother, a grandchild, someone else's father."

Jessica Knoll, who emigrated to Israel as a child 20 years ago, urged the French to "stop making excuses and see reality for what it is."

The French Jewish group CRIF compared Knoll's killing to that of Sarah Halimi, 65, who was beaten and thrown from her balcony last April. That murder was reclassified as anti-Semitic last month. The suspect is in a psychiatric hospital.

France's government presented a plan earlier this month to fight racism and anti-Semitism, focusing on social media and prevention in schools. It also wants to change French law to force internet platforms to detect and remove illegal content.

An annual national count of racist, anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim and anti-Christian actsmost involving threatsdipped in 2017 compared with the year before. But anti-Semitic violence increased by 26 percent, and criminal damage to Jewish places of worship and burial by 22 percent.
A resident of Hebron, who does not have a permit to enter Israel, hid behind a baby stroller tucked away in the trunk of a car in order to enter Jerusalem.

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He was arrested by border guards who spotted him hiding, and was taken for questioning. In addition, the driver of the vehicle, a resident of the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Isawiya, was arrested. The vehicle itself was confiscated.

Palestinian caught hiding behind stroller (Photo: Israel Police)

Commenting on the arrest, the Israel Police stated that they "operate both on the intelligence and operational levels in order to eliminate the entry of illegal aliens into Israel, Palestinians who are often involved in property offenses in Israel and sometimes even involved in terrorism."

Palestinians who wish to enter Israel and do not have an entry permit sometimes pay Israelissome of whom are Israeli Arabsto help them through the checkpoints.

Today in Israel there are tens of thousands of Palestinians who entered the state illegally.

Some who live in harsh conditions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip get involved in crime, mainly in property crime, as a way to earn a better livingsmuggling the stolen property over to Palestinian territories where they can sell them to a fence for profit.

This system is well known to the police, which try by all means to prevent it.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres have met to discuss Yemen as a war between a Saudi-led military coalition and Yemen's Houthi rebels enters its fourth year.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir says the prince and the UN leader "had a very productive and comprehensive meeting" Tuesday.

Prince Mohammed delivered a previously pledged $930 million Saudi and Emirati contribution to humanitarian efforts in Yemen.

The UN says the men discussed protecting civilians, allowing humanitarian access, keeping ports open and working toward a political settlement. Al-Jubeir says they talked about avoiding foreign intervention in Yemen, particularly from Iran.

Western countries and UN researchers have accused Iran of supplying arms to the Houthis. Iran denies it.

The US provides logistical support and weaponry to the coalition.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has pledged to denuclearize and meet US officials, China said on Wednesday after an historic meeting with President Xi Jinping, who promised China would uphold its friendship with its isolated neighbor.

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After two days of speculation, China and North Korea both confirmed that Kim had visited Beijing and met Xi during what China's Foreign Ministry called an unofficial visit to China from Sunday to Wednesday.

The China visit was Kim's first known trip outside North Korea since he assumed power in 2011 and is believed by analysts to serve as preparation for upcoming summits with South Korea and the United States.

Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan with Kim and his wife Ri Sol Ju (Photo: AP)

North Korea's KCNA news agency made no mention of Kim's pledge to denuclearize, or his anticipated meeting with US President Donald Trump that is planned for some time in May.

Beijing has traditionally been the closest ally of secretive North Korea, but ties have been frayed by Pyongyang's pursuit of nuclear weapons and China's backing of tough UN sanctions in response.

China's Foreign Ministry cited Kim in a lengthy statement as telling Xi that the situation on the Korean peninsula was starting to improve because North Korea had taken the initiative to ease tensions and put forward proposals for peace talks.

"It is our consistent stand to be committed to denuclearization on the peninsula, in accordance with the will of late President Kim Il Sung and late General Secretary Kim Jong Il," Kim Jong Un said, according to the statement.

North Korea is willing to talk with the United States and hold a summit between the two countries, he said.

"The issue of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula can be resolved, if South Korea and the United States respond to our efforts with goodwill, create an atmosphere of peace and stability while taking progressive and synchronous measures for the realization of peace," Kim said.

'Nuclear umbrella'

Kim Jong Un's predecessors, grandfather Kim Il Sung and father Kim Jong Il, both publicly promised not to pursue nuclear weapons but secretly continued to develop the programs, culminating in the North's first nuclear test in 2006 under Kim Jong Il.

The North had said in past failed talks aimed at dismantling its nuclear program that it could consider giving up its arsenal if the United States removed its troops from South Korea and withdrew its so-called nuclear umbrella of deterrence from South Korea and Japan.

Kim-Xi meeting (Photo: AP)

Many analysts and former negotiators believe this still constitutes North Korea's stance on denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and remain deeply skeptical Kim is willing to give up the nuclear weapons his family has been developing for decades.

At first wrapped in secrecy, the announcement of Kim Jong Un's visit soon became the third-most discussed topic on China's Twitter-like Weibo microblogging site, although many state media outlets blocked their comments sections.

Widely read Chinese state-run newspaper the Global Times praised the meeting as proving naysayers about Beijing-Pyongyang relations wrong.

"China and North Korea maintaining their friendly relations provides a positive force for the whole region and promotes strategic stability in northeast Asia," it said in an editorial.

Billed as an unofficial trip, Kim's appearance in Beijing contained almost all the trappings of a state visit, complete with an honor guard and banquet at Beijing's Great Hall of the People.

Kim and Xi also met at the Diaoyutai State Guest House, where Kim Il Sung planted a tree in 1959 that still stands.

State television showed pictures of the two men chatting amiably and Kim's wife, Ri Sol Ju, getting an equally warm welcome from Xi's wife, Peng Liyuan.

Trump briefed

China briefed Trump on Kim's visit and the communication included a personal message from Xi to Trump, the White House said in a statement.

"The United States remains in close contact with our allies South Korea and Japan. We see this development as further evidence that our campaign of maximum pressure is creating the appropriate atmosphere for dialogue with North Korea," the statement said.

A top Chinese diplomat, Politburo member Yang Jiechi, will brief officials, including President Moon Jae-in, in Seoul on Thursday about Xi's meeting with Kim Jong Un, according to the presidential office in Seoul.

Kim told a banquet hosted by Xi the visit was intended to "maintain our great friendship and continue and develop our bilateral ties at a time of rapid developments on the Korean peninsula", according to KCNA.

Xi had accepted an invitation "with pleasure" from him to visit North Korea, KCNA said.
A Germania airline Boeing 737, set to take off for Berlin, collided Wednesday morning at Ben-Gurion Airport with an El Al plane that was supposed to take off for Rome just minutes later.

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There were no casualties and all passengers were safely taken back to the terminal.

(Photo: Ella Avner)

The German airplane suffered severe damage to its vertical stabilizer, which was almost completely cleaved off by the Israeli plane's horizontal stabilizer.

Ofer Lefler, spokesman for the Israel Airports Authority, said "the incident is under investigation and further details will be given later."

(Photo: Lior Grundman)

The chief accident investigator at the Transportation Ministry launched an investigation into the incident.

The person responsible for the incident is apparently the driver of the tow truck that took the German company's plane from the terminal towards the route.
Gazas embattled Hamas rulers are imploring people to march along the border with Israel in the coming weeks in a risky gambit meant to shore up their shaky rule, but with potentially deadly consequences.

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Beginning Friday, Hamas hopes it can mobilize large crowds to set up tent camps near the border. It plans a series of demonstrations culminating with a march to the border fence on May 15, the anniversary of Israels establishment, known to Palestinians as the Nakba, or catastrophe.

Palestinian protester near the Gaza border (Photo: EPA)

The group aims to mobilize hundreds of thousands of people for the effort, though it hasnt been able to get such turnouts at past rallies, and the trend does not seem to be changing.

While the organizers of the march receive relatively extensive media coverage in Gaza and even larger media coverage in Israel, they do not seem to be generating much support for the march in the strip. For example, the official Facebook page of the march has less than 7,000 followers, most of whom are not residents of the strip. This is a negligible number compared to the coverage the march receives.

Speaking to Ynet reporters, some residents in Gaza called the marches a failed campaign, noting its organizers hope it will gain greater momentum once it begins.

Nonetheless, a jittery Israel is closely watching and vowing a tough response if the border is breached.

When we march to the border, the organizers will decide then what to do, said Ismail Radwan, a Hamas official. Warning Israel against targeting the protesters, he said the occupation should not commit any stupidity in confronting the Palestinian crowds.

A 2015 Palestinian march near Erez Crossing

Hamas says the demonstration is meant to draw attention to the plight of hundreds of thousands of Gazans whose relatives fled or were expelled from their homes in what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding Israels creation.

But the first-of-its-kind protest also comes at a low point for the Islamic militant group and the 2 million residents of Gaza, where conditions have deteriorated since Hamas seized control of the territory from the internationally-backed Palestinian Authority in 2007.

An Israeli-Egyptian blockade, along with three wars with Israel and a series of sanctions by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, have left Gazas economy in tatters. Unemployment is well over 40 percent, tap water is undrinkable and Gazans receive just a few hours of electricity a day.

An Egyptian-led attempt to broker a reconciliation deal between Hamas and Abbas Fatah movement took a major downturn earlier this month after a bombing targeted a convoy carrying Abbas prime minister and security chief shortly after they entered Gaza. Abbas has blamed Hamas and threatened more financial pressure, such as cutting civil servant salaries or fuel purchases, to force the group to cede control.

Hamas has realized its besieged from three sides; Israel, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, said Mkhaimar Abusada, political science professor at Gazas al-Azhar University. It feels the crisis is suffocating.

He said that for Hamas, the protests can divert attention from their domestic woes while avoiding renewed war with Israel. They think busying Israel with this issue may put it under pressure, he said.

As Gazas woes have mounted, Hamas popularity has plummeted, and it remains unclear whether the group will be able to mobilize the crowds it envisions. Still, a combination of social pressure and curiosity in a territory with few options for recreation could help attract people.

Palestinian protesters near the Gaza border (Photo: AFP)

On Tuesday, bulldozers were busy leveling the five camp locations from north to south. Trucks unloaded portable toilet stalls, and the Palestinian Scholars Union, which represents Islamic clerics, declared participation in the protests a religious obligation.

The demonstrations will begin after the Muslim noon prayer on Friday. Buses will carry people from all over Gaza to the five tent camps, situated hundreds of meters from the border fence.

Hamas and Hamas-allied organizers of the Great Return March say the sit-in will remain peaceful through May. But the ultimate plan is to move to the border in mid-May.

Organizers say they are trying to realize the right of return, a Palestinian demand that descendants of refugees who lost their homes in 1948 should be able to return to lost family properties in what is now Israel.

Israel opposes any large-scale return of refugees, saying it would destroy the countrys Jewish character. The fate of refugees and their descendants has been a core issue in past rounds of peace talks.

Israeli Cabinet Minister Yoav Galant, a retired general and member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus inner Security Cabinet, said that Israel had set clear red lines.

Hamas is in distress, he said. They are using in a cruel and cynical way their own population in order to hurt them and to hurt Israel.

He said the military was well-prepared to prevent any infiltrations. We will try to use the minimum force that is needed in order to avoid Palestinians wounded and casualties. But the red line is very clear. They stay on the Gazan side and we stay in Israel.

IDF soldiers near the Gaza border (Photo: Reuters)

Violent skirmishes are expected even before May 15. Clashes have erupted along the border every Friday since December 6, when President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israels capital and announced plans to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to the capital.

Additionally, while the spotlight is rightly directed at the Gaza Strip, Land Day demonstrations are also planned to take place in the West Bank and in east Jerusalem.

As in recent protests , demonstrators are expected to congregate near Ramallah, Hebron, Nablus and other Palestinian towns and villages. There, too, serious confrontations with Israeli security forces may lead to casualties.

While both Land Day and Nakba Day could also spark large protests that could devolve into violent confrontations with Israeli forces, they are not the only commemorative days observed by Palestinians in the coming weeks which could prove troublesome for the state.

The Palestinian Prisoners' Day, in which Palestinians express solidarity with Palestinian prisoners incarcerated in Israel and their families, is commemorated annually on April 17, the date in which the first Palestinian security prisoner was released in a prisoner exchange deal in 1974.

The upcoming Jewish holiday of Passover, Israeli Independence Day celebrations in April and the planned move of the embassy in May could also lead to additional clashes.

Palestinian protesters in Ramallah (Photo: Getty Images)

Israels Foreign Ministry called the planned marches a dangerous, premeditated provocation meant to fan the flames of the conflict and increase tension.

There have already been a series of security incidents along the border recently, including a bombing that wounded four Israeli soldiers last month. On Tuesday, three Gazans armed with hand grenades managed to cross into Israel and travel some 30 kilometers (20 miles) before they were caught.
Iraq declared victory over the Islamic State group in December after driving the militants from the last territory under their control, but in recent months the group has resumed insurgent-style attacks in northern Iraq.

Iraqi security officials say between 150 and 200 members of the security forces have been killed in IS attacks across the country in the past few months. The security officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to brief the media.

Over the past week alone, IS has claimed responsibility for six attacks at fake checkpoints, including one that destroyed oil tankers and another targeting Shiite pilgrims. Other attacks have included strikes on oil installations and convoys, with IS claiming to have captured weapons and vehicles.
Findings of a Military Police investigation into the death of Ibrahim Abu Thuraya, a double amputee who was killed during a violent protest near the border fence in the northern Gaza Strip in mid December, reveal that the sniper fire had ended at least an hour before the time Abu Thuraya was hurt according to Palestinian reports, Ynet has learned.

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Two snipers from the Maglan special forces unit were questioned under caution by the Military Police Investigations Division in recent weeks on suspicion of causing Abu Thuraya's death. One of the snipers told his investigators, "There's no chance we killed him. We have been trained to detect injuries."

The two fighters' commanders and Gaza Division commanders offered the soldiers their full support in light of the findings of the operational investigation, which were submitted to Southern Command chief Major-General Eyal Zamir.

Abu Thuraya during a protest near the border fence (Photo: Reuters)

According to the findings, Ynet had learned, the sniper fire that day was halted at least one hour before the Palestinians claim Abu Thuraya was shot and hit. The snipers fired at key instigators only three times that day.

The investigation revealed that about 1,000 Palestinians had taken part in the violent riot near the fence that day. Some threw stones at the fence and hurled Molotov cocktails as well as a pipe bomb, which exploded without causing any injuries.

A Gaza Division investigation revealed that Abu Thuraya, who often participated in the fence protests, visited his family members on the night before the incident and apologized that he had to bid farewell to them as a "shahid" (martyr).

Gaza Division officials have also detected the growing participation of many disabled Palestinians, including people in wheelchairs, in these protests. The fighters have been instructed to avoid hitting the disabled protests, who are usually positioned in the centers of friction, so as not to provide Hamas with the image it is hoping to gain.

The bottom line of the military investigation is that no fault was found in the forces' conduct during that incident. One of the assumptions, which hasnt been proved as part of the investigation, is that Abu Thuraya died from a ricochet of a certain crowd dispersal mean used by the forces to drive the rioters away.

Abu Thuraya's funeral (Photo: AFP)

The two Maglan unit snipers were questioned under caution by the Military Police following Palestinian claims that an autopsy found Abu Thuraya had been struck in the head by a bullet while attending the weekly fence protest.

The two fighters and their commanders argued that no shots had been fired at the disabled protestor. "We are trained to accurately hit our targets," one of the snipers told his investigators. "And in any event, the instruction is to shoot at the lower part of a key instigator's body. There's no chance we killed him. We are trained to detect injuries after every shooting, and when that happens we see people gather around the wounded person. In this case, it didn't happen."

alestinian protestors clash with IDF forces near the Gaza border fence (Photo: Reuters)

An initial IDF investigation into the incident had concluded that no live fire had been aimed at Abu Thuraya and that it was impossible to determine the cause of his death.

"No live fire was aimed at Abu Thuraya. It is impossible to determine whether Abu Thuraya was injured as a result of riot dispersal means, or what caused his death," part of the military statement said.

It added that protesters hurled explosive devices and rocks and rolled burning tires "with the aim of harming soldiers and destroying security infrastructure" and that non-lethal riot dispersal means were mainly used, although a few live rounds fired under supervision were aimed "towards main instigators."
IDF tanks fired at two observation posts belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization in the northern Gaza Strip in retaliation for an attempted arson of a platform of IDF engineering equipment by two Palestinian suspects near the old Karni crossing, just 50 meters west of the Gaza security barrier.

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The suspects did not cross the fence into Israel.

The IDF stated following the incident that they regard any attempt to sabotage and damage the security fence and security infrastructure with great severity.

IDF tank on Israel-Gaza border (archives) (Photo: Barel Efraim)

On Tuesday, two Palestinians approached the southern part of the Gaza border, placing at least one flag on the border fence. The IDF is checking whether the flag contained an explosive device.

Those two Palestinians were arrested Tuesday night by Hamas' border seizure force, which thought they were planning to infiltrate Israel.

Wednesday's incident took place just one day after three Palestinians managed to infiltrate Israel from the Gaza Strip and proceed 20 kilometers from the border before being apprehended near the entrance to the Tze'elim army base.

The terrorists, who are all members of the same family from Rafah, were captured in possession of three grenades, a knife and two cutters. "We dont know what their target was because they are still being interrogated," IDF Spokesperson Ronen Manelis said following the incident. "They didnt pull out the weapons at any point.

"This incident shouldn't have happened," Manelis added. "It ended successfully without any injuries. It's unclear why they weren't caught immediately. The terrorists likely didnt have a vehicle that picked them up, but the investigation isn't over yet."

IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot addressed the incident on Wednesday in a ceremony welcoming the new Military Intelligence Directorate head, Tamir Hayman."In light of what happened in the past week, we must look inside and draw lessons using a professional and modest approach, to reach the norms we are pursuing to defend the state."

The terrorists who infiltrated Israel near Kibbutz Tze'elim

On Saturday, four Palestinians entered Israel from the Gaza Strip near Kibbutz Kissufim and attempted to torch heavy engineering equipment used for the construction of the underground anti-tunnel barrier.

An IDF force approached them and the four fled back to the Gaza Strip. There were no casualties and only minor damage was caused to the heavy equipment.

Former Southern Command chief Major-General (res.) Yom Tov Samia addressed Tuesday's infiltration incident in an interview to the Ynet studio Wednesday. "These events are symptoms of a situation in which the terror organizations use civilians as a human shield when they go out to fight or when they know we're about to attack them, and that's the absurd situation created by Israel's inconsistent security policy."

Major-General (res.) Eitan Dangot, the former coordinator of the government's activities in the territories, told Ynet that the IDF must draw its conclusions ahead of Friday's planned march from Gaza. "We are headed towards a tense month. I believe in our ability to stop and contain, and it could carry a price. So each side will have to calculate the risks in what it is doing," he clarified.

Ashraf al-Ajrami, the former Palestinian minister of prisoners affairs, said: "This protest is a national Palestinian consensus in Gaza and serves as a meeting point for all organizations, including Fatah and Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the fronts and all the factions, from and outside of the PLO. They are all stressing the political issue which has reached a dead end recently, as well as the need for national Palestinian unity after the failure of the reconciliation move."
The Croatian Defense Council has accepted Israel's offer to sell an F-16 squadron to the Croatian army, the Croatian Defense Minister announced Wednesday.

According to the media, Croatia intends to buy twelve used F-16 fighter jets for 403 million euros, a decision that has yet to be officially confirmed by the government.

The F-16s are expected to replace the obsolete MiG-21 of the Croatian Air Force.
More than the Code Red sirens, more than missiles and even more than terror tunnelsthe scenario of terrorists infiltrating directly through the Gaza border fence is the event that residents of the Gaza vicinity are most concerned about.

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On Tuesday it happened, and only miraculously ended without casualties. Finger-pointing and criticism aside, something about the sense of security cracked that day. While the sense of security in the communities surrounding the Gaza Strip is relatively good, it is also fragile.

The terrorists arrested (Photo: Barel Efraim)

In the everyday atmosphere there is a sense of security, even if disturbances on the border fence put a damper on the Passover holiday, and even if rockets are fired here and there. But when the paths near the settlements are freely treaded by three Palestinians armed with grenades and knives, anxiety rises. The nightmare scenario becomes reality.

It will take time, a long time, for this event to be forgottenbut we all know it will happen eventually, because it is human nature and that is the nature of the residents of the Gaza vicinity. Families will not leave because of the infiltration, and the number of children in the playgrounds in the surrounding communities will not decrease. The special relationship between the IDF and the residents will be maintained.

All this is true, but nevertheless the infiltration incident sharpened the frightening understanding that despite everything, if the terrorists really want to, then anything is possible. There is no such thing as one hundred percent protection. The border is not hermetic. Our fears are justified. It can happen. This is reality. Learn to live with it, because otherwise it is impossible to live at all.

Palestinians crossing the Gaza border fence

Currently, the barrier project is being built around the Gaza Strip, which is part of an underground obstacle against tunnels, and its upper part is a massive fence. The fence, which is identical to the fence that is currently located along the Israel-Egypt border, will be a significant obstacle and almost entirely prevent infiltrations such as Tuesday's, but there will always be a small hole through which it will be possible to penetrate Israeli territory.

Residents of the Gaza vicinity do not delude themselves into thinking they can somehow be completely safe. Hamas or any other organization will continue its efforts to try to attack Israel in any way possible. The knowledge that the IDF is defending us makes a significant contribution to the sense of security, and the army has a very significant role in the growth of the settlements and in the decision of new residents to settle in the Gaza vicinity.

An event like Tuesday's was expected, but should not have happened. The IDF also understands that this is a serious failure, as they have admitted Wednesday. But this failure is exactly the same as the small theoretical hole in the nearly, though not quite, perfect defense barrier for the Gaza vicinity communities.

Ynet reporter Matan Tzuri lives in a community in the Gaza vicinity.
The IDF has deployed more than 100 sharpshooters on the Gaza border ahead of a planned mass Palestinian demonstration near the frontier, Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot told Yedioth Ahronoth in a special interview that will be published in full on Friday.

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Organizers hope thousands in Gaza will answer their call to flock, starting on Friday, to tent cities in five locations along the sensitive border in a six-week protest for a right of return of Palestinian refugees to what is now Israel.

Citing security concerns, the Israeli military enforces a no go zone for Palestinians on land in Gaza adjacent to Israels border fence.

Eisenkot says sharpshooters called up from all of the militarys units, primarily from the special forces (Photo: Yair Sagi)

Lieutenant-General Gadi Eisenkot, Israel's top general, told Yedioth Ahronoth that the military would not allow mass infiltration or tolerate damage to the barrier during the protests.

We have deployed more than 100 sharpshooters who were called up from all of the militarys units, primarily from the special forces, Eisenkot said in the interview. If lives are in jeopardy, there is permission to open fire.

Israeli soldiers are confronted by frequent violent Palestinian protests along the Gaza border and have used tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition against demonstrators whom the military said hurled rocks or petrol bombs at them.

Organizers said the protest is supported by several Palestinian factions, including Gazas dominant Islamist Hamas movement that is dedicated to the destruction of Israel.

Palestinians preparing for mass protests near Gaza border (Photo: AFP)

Eisenkot added in the interview that "in its 70th year of existence, the State of Israel had reached an improved strategic balance with huge gaps from its enemies. Seventy-year-old Israel is an unbeatable country."

Israel's main enemy today, Eisenkot clarified, is Iran. "The Iranian enemy operates both through proxies and independently," he said.

"I might have to command the army through a war, but I'm making great efforts to prevent that," he said. "The chance of that happening this year is bigger than in the first three years of my terms. There are many negative vectors in the region pushing towards a conflict, and there are many things that depend on us."

Addressing the IDF and defense establishment's secret activity, Eisenkot revealed that "more than 1,000 activities have been conducted beyond the borders during my term as chief of staff, creative operations in which reality exceeds imagination. We arent publishing them because the credit or the name Gadi Eisenkot isn't important. The important thing is its contribution to the State of Israel."

Rising tensions

Cabinet Minister Tzachi Hanegbi, speaking on Israel Radio, said Hamas had avoided direct conflict with Israel since the end of the 2014 Gaza war.

But he said that pressure Hamas was now feeling from Israels destruction of some of its network of attack tunnels near the border, coupled with harsh economic conditions in Gaza, were a formula for rising tension."

Minister Tzachi Hanegbi (:  )

The start of the demonstration was symbolically linked to what Palestinians call Land Day, which commemorates the six Arab citizens of Israel killed by Israeli security forces in demonstrations in 1976 over land confiscations. The week-long Jewish holiday of Passover, when Israel heightens security, also begins on Friday.

The protest is due to end on May 15, the day Palestinians call the Nakba or Catastrophe, marking the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the conflict surrounding the creation of Israel in 1948.

Palestinians have long demanded that as many as five million of their compatriots be granted the right to return. Israel rules this out, fearing an influx of Arabs that would eliminate its Jewish majority. Israel argues the refugees should resettle in a future state that the Palestinians seek in West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
An unarmed Palestinian was captured Wednesday afternoon at the Zikim Beach in southern Israel after infiltrating Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip. The circumstances of the incident are being investigated.

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A number of Palestinians entered Israel in recent days on several different occasions. The most serious incident took place on Tuesday, when three terrorists armed with knives and grenades were apprehended near the Tze'elim army base, about 20 kilometers from the Gaza border.

Palestinians cross Gaza border

The IDF Spokesperson's Unit said in a statement Wednesday, "An IDF force arrested a suspect who had crossed the border fence into Israel from the northern Gaza Strip. The suspect was apprehended near the crossing point and was taken in for questioning by the security forces. He was unarmed."

Meanwhile on Wednesday, the Israel Police thwarted an infiltration of illegal aliens from the Samaria area in the West Bank.

Security forces caught 34 West Bank residents who were in Israel illegally. They have all been taken in for questioning.

The police and the IDF caught the group after being alerted to a possible breach of the security fence in the Gilboa area.

"Police forces, Border Police soldiers and IDF soldiers were dispatched to the Gilboa area after receiving an alert on an infiltration from the security fence in the area," a statement read.

"After combing the area by foot, with police cars and with a police helicopter, the forces tracked down 34 illegal residents from Judea and Samaria who had crossed the border and infiltrated Israeli territory. All the men who infiltrated Israel through the fence have been detained and are on their way for questioning at the Afula Police station."
Croatia said Wednesday it will purchase upgraded Israeli F-16 fighter aircraft as it seeks to bolster its defenses amid Russia's arming of neighboring Serbia.

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Once formally approved by the government, it will be Croatia's largest single military deal since it split from Serb-led Yugoslavia in the bloody 1991-95 war.

Croatia's Defense Council accepted an Israeli offer that will replace the country's aging MiG-21 fighters.

Zagreb launched a tender offer last year to acquire military jets to replace its outdated Russian-made MiG-21s.

Apart from Israel, the countries invited to submit bids included Greece, South Korea, Sweden and the United States.

The military experts did not specify details of the deal, but previous reports have said it involves 12 used F-16 aircraft worth some $500 million that have been heavily modified with Israeli-made avionics.

Sweden's manufacturer Saab had offered a squadron of new Gripen fighters, but the package was reportedly estimated at some $700 million.

"If Croatia was a richer country, and if our economy was stronger, maybe we could have picked a more expensive offer," Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said. "But, based on the parameters presented to us by our expert team, we believe that we have made a responsible decision which will meet all the needs of the Croatian air force in the next 30 years."

"The defence council... has accepted that Israel made the best offer and gave a recommendation to the government to decide on acquiring" the Israeli planes, the defence council said in statement late Tuesday.

"It is a historic decision... a project guaranteeing Croatia's security and sovereignty," Defence Minister Damir Krsticevic told the state-run HR radio Wednesday.

The minister has said he expected the first jets to arrive in 2020, and the remaining ones by 2022.

NATO member Croatia faces a mini arms race with Russian ally Serbia, which recently received six used Russian MiG-29 fighter jets.

Moscow is attempting to increase its influence in the Balkans, mainly through Serbia.
Malta is recalling its ambassador to Russia for consultations following the poisoning of a former Russian double agent in the British town of Salisbury, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday.

"The government of Malta condemns the attack in Salisbury in the strongest possible terms, and agrees with the United Kingdom government's assessment that it is highly likely that the Russian Federation is responsible," the ministry said.

Malta decided this week not to join 19 EU countries in expelling Russian diplomats over the episode, saying such a move would "effectively terminate diplomatic relations" due to the small size of Malta's diplomatic mission in Russia.

Earlier on Wednesday, Luxembourg said that it would also recall its ambassador to Moscow having decided not to expel any Russian diplomats.

Malta has recently been trying to improve links with Russia, notably through tourism and language studies.
Poland signed a $4.75 billion deal with the United States Wednesday to buy air defense Patriot missile systems as it seeks to bolster its defenses against a resurgent Russia.

President Andrzej Duda described the deal for the state-of-the-art anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems as "historic" for his country and its armed forces.

"It's a lot of money, but we also know from our historical experience that security has no price," Duda said.

The defense deal is Poland's largest in almost 30 years.

The system is compatible with technology used by NATO and US troops based in Poland, Duda said. It includes 16 launchers, four radars and the latest fire control system.
A 50-year-old woman was stabbed to death on Wednesday afternoon in her apartment on Derekh Shalma in south Tel Aviv.

Medics originally said that she was in critical condition, but were forced to pronounce her dead.

Police opened an investigation into the murder, and arrested her husband as a suspect.

The circumstances were not immediately clear, but police are compiling testimony from neighbors who claim that in recent weeks the couple were were involved in an ongoing conflict.
Israeli security forces caught 34 West Bank residents who were in Israel illegally Wednesday. They have all been taken in for questioning.

The police and the IDF caught the group after being alerted to a possible breach of the security fence in the Gilboa area.
A new population census report by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) says that 4.7 million Palestinians currently live in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem.

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According to the figures, which were published on Wednesday in Ramallah, there are 2,881,000 Palestinians in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, while 1,900,000 live in the Gaza Strip.

The figures confirm the statistics that were cited on Monday by Israels Deputy Commander of the Israel Civil Administration (COGAT) illustrating that the number of Jews and Muslims living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea had almost reached parity.

Ala Awed and President Mahmoud Abbas (Photo: AFP)

Col. Haim Mendes presented the fresh numbers to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, and sparked outrage from nationalist lawmakers who expressed their disbelief, and rebuffed his conclusions for being based on Palestinian findings.

The Palestinian statistics, which show that 4,780,000 Palestinians live in the narrow area, were officially published by head of the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Ala Awed in the presence of Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas.

Also present at the presentation of the report were PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah and other senior officials.

Moreover, the number of Palestinians living in eastern Jerusalem, according to the report, stands at 435,000. The total number of Palestinians who are registered as refugees in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem stands at 1,980,000 and 98 percent for the Palestinians are Muslim.

Christian Palestinians account for one percent of the overall Palestinian population and the unemployment rate for Gaza and the West Bank is 26%. Four percent of Palestinians were recorded in the report as being illiterate.

The data also concludes that the average number of people in a Palestinian family is 5.1. Gaza is considered one of the most overcrowded areas in the world, where every square kilometer contains an average of 5,200 people, compared to 509 in the West Bank.

By comparison, according to Israels CBS, in 2016, the average Israeli family contained 3.7 members, a figure that remained unchanged for the past decade.

The figures for the same year concluded that 6.56 million Jews and 1.84 million Muslim lived inside Israel within the Green Line.

A report for 2018 indicated a slight increase in the number of Jews living in Israel, taking a small leap to 6.9 million, while the number of Muslims, according to the report, remained exactly the same as in 2016.

Combining the Muslim populations spread beyond and within the Green Line, there are 6.6 million in total.

Ramallah also said that there are 929,000 Palestinian families, 393,000 of which live in Area C of the West Bank.

The West Bank also contains, the report concludes, 627,000 buildings and more than a million apartments. Disabled people account for 5.8% of the population.

After Mendes presented the statistics, Arab MK Ahmad Tibi (Joint List) asserted that Israel could soon have an Arab prime minister.

"The vision of an Arab prime minister, which now looks like a delusional idea, is drawing near. And then this will be an equal and democratic country, and not a Jewish and democratic one," Tibi said.

The following day, Israel's leading demographics expert defended Mendes's figures.

Sergio Della Pergola, a demographer from Jerusalem's Hebrew University, said the numbers of Arabs and Jews are nearly equal when you factor in the population of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and eastern Jerusalem along with the population of Israel.

Members of Israels Right flank dismissed the figures as being deliberately inflated, but leader of the Zionist Union camp, Avi Gabbay, said that the data should serve as a red flag and guide Israels approach to the peace process.

Were talking about 5 million Palestinians who aren't going anywhere, despite the wonderful support by Trump, Pence and now Bolton., Gabbay said. The responsibility to separate from them is ours only.

MK Tzipi Livni (Zionist Union) responded to the revelations on her Twitter account, using the figures to attack the notion of annexing the West Bank, a policy advocated by some by Israels Right.

If we dont wake up from the delusions of annexation, we will lose the Jewish majority. Its that simple, she wrote.

Responding to Livni, MK Yehudah Glick (Likud) ridiculed the figures, rejecting them has unrealistic and delusional.

To build a theory based these facts is akin to believing that the Oslo Accords will bring about peace, or that (Shimon) Peres is still leading in the polls or that the Zionist Union camp headed by Isaac Herzog is going to establish a government, Glick wrote.

These are beliefs that, regrettably for you, are time and again slapped in the face by reality, he added.
PARIS - French President Emmanuel Macron participated in the funeral Wednesday of Mireille Knoll, an 85-year-old Jewish Holocaust survivor who was stabbed to death last week in her apartment in Paris, before her home was set on fire in what was believed to be an anti-Semitic attack.

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The attack shocked France, and thrust the Jewish community into a state of renewed fear and anger at the surge in anti-Semitism that the country has experienced in recent years.

President Macron at the funeral

He murdered an innocent and defenseless woman purely because she was Jewish, President Macron said at a ceremony at the Hotel des Invalides. In doing so, he struck our sacred values and our history."



As the funeral took place, marches against anti-Semitism across France were held, in which thousands participated, including the Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo and Jewish community leaders. Imams also marched in solidarity with the Jewish community.

I am here as a civilian, and I called on all elected state officials from all sides of the political spectrum to unite for the a human cause. The surge in anti-Semitism is totally unacceptable, she said.

After delivering his remarks at a tribute ceremony for Lt. Col. Arnaud Beltrame who was murdered in last week's extremist attack in southern France, Macron continued on to pay his respects at Knolls funeral.

March against anti-Semitism in France (: )

X

Mireille Knoll

The mass march in Paris began at 7 pm (Israel time) and concluded at the Knolls home in the French capital's 11th arrondissement, with marchers carrying flowers and scarfs with the colors of the French flag.

The march, which was attended by around 30,000 people, was also joined by far-right French leader Marine Le Pen, who insisted in standing in solidarity with the Jewish community despite criticism from France's leading Jewish group.

Marine Le Pen (Photo: EPA)

Le Pen, however, was unwelcome at the march and was greeted with jeers from the crowds who surrounded her and her cohorts, screaming slurs including "Nazi," "fascist" and calls to "go away."

The persona non grata political leader however, was not treated with contempt by Knoll's son. "I asked that anyone who can come here come, even if it isn't so comfortable for some people," he said.

The left-wing French politician Jean-Luc Melenchon was also unwelcome at the march. I am where every French person should be, he said despite the hostility of the crowds.

It is an abhorrent act that happened to a helpless woman and we are all obligated, from every party, to join this march in solidarity."





Former French prime minister Manuel Valls also joined the marchers. It is extremely important that many people came, but the most important thing at the moment is to act against anti-Semitism, he said.

Tensions heightened when a few of the marchers tried to attack the unwanted politicians, who were spirited away from the emotional crowds by police forces.

It is a disgrace that they attacked someone who came to participate and to show solidarity, said one eye witness.
Israel's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that it is "very disturbed" by online attacks on an anti-racism activist in Poland that followed criticism by a government official.

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Rafal Pankowski, head of the Never Again association, gave a presentation last week at the Global Forum for Combating Anti-Semitism in Jerusalem in which he described examples of anti-Semitic rhetoric in Poland that have accompanied a controversial new Holocaust speech law.

Afterward, Andrzej Pawluszek, an adviser to Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, said on Twitter that Pankowski had "attacked his own country." Pankowski has since been denounced as a traitor and threatened in online comments.

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki (Photo: Reuters)

Israel's Foreign Ministry was "very disturbed to see the anti-Semitic attacks on Rafal in Poland, following the tweet by the Adviser of Poland's PM," spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon tweeted Wednesday. "This is not the way to deal with anti-Semitismin Poland or anywhere!"

Pawluszek said that he was saddened by Nahshon's response. He said he had commented on Pankowski from his private Twitter account and not in any official capacity. He also said he should not be held responsible for the behavior of "crazy anti-Semites on the Internet."

"I did not attack Mr. Pankowski," Pawluszek said. "I just pointed out that I was shocked that he attacks his own country and also made such a strong statement without providing any statistics."

Pankowski denied attacking his country.

"In order to combat anti-Semitism, we need to have a frank and open debate about it," Pankowski said. "As a Polish patriot, I believe anti-Semitism should be called out and to say that is not attacking Poland. It is defending an important part of the Polish multicultural heritage."
Israel has returned to the Palestinian Authority the body of Yassin Omar al-Saradih who was killed last month during an IDF operational activity in the West Bank city of Jericho.

Footage from a security camera that captured the incident shows al-Saradih running towards the Israeli force with a pronged metal bar before being shot and beaten by soldiers.
British police say they believe a Russian ex-spy and his daughter first came into contact with a military-grade nerve agent at their front door.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Dean Haydon says in a statement Wednesday police are now focusing their investigation in and around Sergei Skripal's home.

London's Metropolitan Police say they have "identified the highest concentration of the nerve agent, to-date, as being on the front door of the address."

The revelation is significant because it's the first time police have offered any suggestion about where the Skripals were poisoned. Police have also searched a variety of sites around Salisbury, including a pub, a restaurant and a cemetery.

Britain blames Russia for the poisoning, triggering a diplomatic dispute between Moscow and Western countries. Moscow vehemently denies any involvement.
Until about 50 years ago, all known superconductors were metals. This made sense, because metals have the largest number of loosely bound carrier electrons that are free to pair up and flow as electrical current with no resistance and 100 percent efficiency  the hallmark of superconductivity.

Then an odd one came along  strontium titanate, the first oxide material and first semiconductor found to be superconducting. Even though it doesnt fit the classic profile of a superconductor  it has very few free-to-roam electrons  it becomes superconducting when conditions are right, although no one could explain why.

Now scientists have probed the superconducting behavior of its electrons in detail for the first time. They discovered its even weirder than they thought. Yet thats good news, they said, because it gives them a new angle for thinking about whats known as high temperature superconductivity, a phenomenon that could be harnessed for a future generation of perfectly efficient power lines, levitating trains and other revolutionary technologies.

The research team, led by scientists at the Department of Energys SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University, described their study in a paper published Jan. 30 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"If conventional metal superconductors are at one end of a spectrum, strontium titanate is all the way down at the other end. It has the lowest density of available electrons of any superconductor we know about, said Adrian Swartz, a postdoctoral researcher at the Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Science (SIMES) who led the experimental part of the research with Hisashi Inoue, a Stanford graduate student at the time.

Its one of a large number of materials we call unconventional superconductors because they cant be explained by current theories, Swartz said. By studying its extreme behavior, we hope to gain insight into the ingredients that lead to superconductivity in these unconventional materials, including the ones that operate at higher temperatures.

Dueling Theories

According to the widely accepted theory known as BCS for the initials of its inventors, conventional superconductivity is triggered by natural vibrations that ripple through a materials atomic latticework. The vibrations cause carrier electrons to pair up and condense into a superfluid, which flows through the material with no resistance  a 100-percent-efficient electric current. In this picture, the ideal superconducting material contains a high density of fast-moving electrons, and even relatively weak lattice vibrations are enough to glue electron pairs together.

But outside the theory, in the realm of unconventional superconductors, no one knows what glues the electron pairs together, and none of the competing theories hold sway.

To find clues to whats going on inside strontium titanate, scientists had to figure out how to apply an important tool for studying superconducting behavior, known as tunneling spectroscopy, to this material. That took several years, said Harold Hwang, a professor at SLAC and Stanford and SIMES investigator.

The desire to do this experiment has been there for decades, but its been a technical challenge, he said. This is, as far as I know, the first complete set of data coming out of a tunneling experiment on this material. Among other things, the team was able to observe how the material responded to doping, a commonly used process where electrons are added to a material to improve its electronic performance.

Everything is Upside Down

The tunneling measurements revealed that strontium titanate is the exact opposite of what youd expect in a superconductor: Its lattice vibrations are strong and its carrier electrons are few and slow.

This is a system where everything is upside down, Hwang said.

On the other hand, details like the behavior and density of its electrons and the energy required to form the superconducting state match what you would expect from conventional BCS theory almost exactly, Swartz said.

Thus, strontium titanate seems to be an unconventional superconductor that acts like a conventional one in some respects, he said. This is quite a conundrum, and quite a surprise to us. We discovered something that was more confusing than we originally thought, which from a fundamental physics point of view is more profound.

He added, If we can improve our understanding of superconductivity in this puzzling set of circumstances, we could potentially learn how to harvest the ingredients for realizing superconductivity at higher temperatures.

The next step, Swartz said, is to use tunneling spectroscopy to test a number of theoretical predictions about why strontium titanate acts the way it does.

SIMES is a joint SLAC/Sanford institute. Theorists from SIMES and from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville also contributed to this study, which was funded by the DOE Office of Science and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundations Emergent Phenomena in Quantum Systems Initiative.

Citation: A. Swartz et al., PNAS, 30 January 2018 (10.1073/pnas.1713916115)

For questions or comments, contact the SLAC Office of Communications at communications@slac.stanford.edu.

SLAC is a multi-program laboratory exploring frontier questions in photon science, astrophysics, particle physics and accelerator research. Located in Menlo Park, Calif., SLAC is operated by Stanford University for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science.

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time.
The IPMC College of Technology is one of the leading IT training institutes in Ghana. Established in 1992, the college has helped many students shape and hone their technology skills and become experts in their respective fields. IPMC courses focus more on training and imparting industry-oriented knowledge to learners. With over 20 disciplines available, individuals can choose from business and corporate training programmes to professional IT courses.

Image: ipmcghana.com

Source: UGC

The IPMC College of Technology structures its courses and curriculum to cover all types of learners. Beginners, experts, and business professionals can choose any of the IPMC courses to gain quality education and improve their skills in technology.

What is the full name of IPMC?

IPMC is an acronym for Intercom Programming and Manufacturing Co. It is one of the largest IT companies in West Africa that provide ownership on IT services and products to corporate, medium, and small businesses. The company also provides dynamic solutions to the growing IT infrastructure, which includes training in information technology.

Courses available at IPMC

IPMC Ghana College of Technology has many courses for new students and professionals in different fields. Apart from the traditional degree, diploma, and certificate courses, students can also enrol for corporate and professional courses. That means individuals can choose programmes that suit their career path.

IPMC corporate courses

The institution designed corporate courses to target working professionals that need to upgrade their skills in their respective fields and remain competitive. These programmes help individuals to ascend to the corporate ladder faster. They include:

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Big Data

Cyber Security

Project Management

Corporate programmes at the institution enhance a leaners market-relevant skills. At the end of any of the above courses, an individual will receive an IPMC certificate.

READ ALSO: College of education Ghana online admission application step-by-step guide

IPMC professional courses

Instagram: instagram.com, @ipmctraining

Source: UGC

Under professional courses, students can enrol for the certificate, diploma, and short programmes at the institution. The aim is to ensure students get a broader and profound understanding of the technical domains available in the IT industry. These are the professional courses by category:

1. Certificate courses

The professional certificate courses available at IPMC College of Technology include:

Certificate in Database Technology

Certificate in Graphic Designing and Web Development

Certificate in Software Engineering

Certificate in System Engineering

Each of the above IPMC courses adds value to both beginners and professionals that want to sharpen their skills in technology. You can enrol for them at any IPMC centres in Ghana.

READ ALSO: Nursing schools in Ghana: fees and course admission requirements

2. IPMC diploma courses

Unlike many educational training institutions, IPMC has diploma courses that cover some of the latest technologies in the modern world. The programmes help students to get practical hands-on knowledge and skills in modern technologies. These courses include:

Diploma in Database Technology

Diploma in Graphic Designing and Web Development

Diploma in Software Engineering

Diploma in System Engineering

Throughout the programmes, students will get a chance to learn from modern laboratories and get exposure through networking and industry visits. Learners will also hold an IPMC Diploma at the end of their respective courses.

3. Short courses

The IPMC College designed short courses for both beginners and professionals in various fields. All the programmes have short durations of six weeks. By enrolling for the short courses, you will get an introductory understanding of the topic as you prepare yourself to study it at a more advanced level. These courses include:

Accounting with IT

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Big Data Analytics

Cyber Security

Digital Marketing

MS Office for Business

Software Programming

You will receive an IPMC certificate at the end of your study period. The professional short courses are available at all of the institutions branches.

READ ALSO: Ghana College of Nurses and Midwives courses, admission and contacts

IPMC undergraduate programmes

Instagram: instagram.com, @ipmctraining

Source: UGC

IPMC College of Technology has many undergraduate or bachelors degree programmes for all qualifying individuals. The courses provided are a balanced combination of both practical knowledge and theoretical information. The institution provides the courses under two categories. These include:

1. Study abroad programmes

Study Abroad Programmes allow students to get an education abroad in a different environment and experience diverse cultures. Through it, candidates will travel to India and learn from a top university. IPMC College chose India because it has the third-largest higher education system in the world. Furthermore, its institutions offer courses and degree programmes that prepare individuals for the competitive market.

READ ALSO: Prempeh College courses, houses, alumni, and address

IPMC College partners with the Lovely Professional University (LPU). That means you will have to choose one of the programmes offered by LPU. The advantage of LPU is that it is a top learning institution when it comes to placements, resources, and quality education. To select a course, you will have to visit the LPU website.

2. Undergrad courses from the UK

Over the years, IPMC College has been promoting UK degree programmes in Ghana. The programmes are available at the college via the UKs National Computing Centre. The NCC offers higher education programmes that cover Foundation Level qualifications, English Language and Business. It is a regulated body in providing British education in business and information technology. As a student, you have the opportunity to select any of the following undergraduate courses at the institution:

Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Business Computing and Information Systems

Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Computing

Level 4 Diploma in Business (L4DB)

Level 5 Diploma in Business (L5DB)

Level 4 Diploma in Business Information Technology (L4DBIT)

Level 5 Diploma in Business Information Technology (L5DBIT)

Level 3 Diploma in Computing (L3DC)

Level 4 Diploma in Computing (L4DC)

Level 5 Diploma in Computing (L5DC)

By enrolling for the courses, you will prepare yourself for professional life through your area of specialisation. You will also receive a British degree while studying in Ghana.

IPMC online registration

The process of applying for a course at IPMC College is simple and straightforward. As a prospective student, follow the steps below to complete your IPMC online registration.

Visit the institutions primary website.

Go to the Courses tab and select a category of a programme for which you would like to apply. For this example, consider Corporate Courses.

Under the Corporate Courses category, select a programme you want to study by clicking Read More.

On the next page under Book Demo, enter your name, mobile number, and email address.

Choose your preferred branch from the dropdown list, e.g. IPMC Kumasi.

Select your course.

Once you fill in the information required, submit it and wait for IPMC College to respond.

READ ALSO: Accra College of Medicine courses, fees, and entry requirements

Image: ipmctraining.com

Source: UGC

Understand that the process of applying for undergrad courses at IPMC College is different. Here is what you can do.

At the institutions website, go to the Courses tab.

Select Undergrad Programmes.

You will have two options  Study Abroad Programmes and Undergrad Courses from the UK.

For Study Abroad Programmes, click on Read More.

On the next page, scroll down until you find a link with the words Choose a Programme.

The link will redirect you to the LPU website.

At this point, you can apply for a course offered by the Lovely Professional University.

For Undergrad Courses from the UK, click on Read More.

A list of bachelor degree programmes will display.

Choose your preferred programme.

The link will redirect you to NCC partner universities.

You can now apply for the programme.

Alternatively, fill the information under Book a Demo and wait for IPMC to respond.

Apart from applying online, consider visiting the institutions physical location. Use the Find a Centre option to visit the nearest IPMC College branch. The college does not have a student portal from which you can complete your applications.

READ ALSO: How to become a pilot in Ghana - a step-by-step guide

IPMC fees

To get more information about the fees payable at IPMC, consider calling the institution, visiting any of its physical locations, or sending an email. Use the following contacts:

PO Box: AN 7617, Kwame Nkrumah Avenue, Accra, Ghana.

AN 7617, Kwame Nkrumah Avenue, Accra, Ghana. Phone: +233 (0)55-555-2222

+233 (0)55-555-2222 E-mail: training@ipmcghana.com

IPMC College also has many branches in Ghana that you can visit for information about its fees.

Does IPMC offer degree courses?

The IPMC College of Technology has degree courses offered in partnership with other educational institutions. It promotes undergraduate programmes from the UK, specifically those available through the NCC. Also, the college has Study Abroad Programmes aimed at helping students travel to foreign nations to study bachelor degree courses. The bachelor courses are available through a partnership with the Lovely Professional University, India.

Which university is IPMC affiliated to?

IPMC Training College is an NCC Education Accredited Partner Centre. When you join the institution, you will get a chance of studying in Ghana and obtain admission to the final year of an IT degree programme, specifically Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Business Computing and Information Systems. NCC has many partner universities that you will have to select to complete your studies, including the University of Wales, London.

Is IPMC accredited in Ghana?

IPMC is not accredited in Ghana. Instead, the technology training institution is an accredited partner centre of NCC Education. NCC Education UK has more than 350 accredited partners and exists in more than 50 countries.

The IPMC College of Technology is one of the leading information technology institutions in Ghana. Students can enrol for various IPMC courses at beginner and advanced levels. IPMC also gives learners a chance to study and get a British degree while learning in Ghana or travel abroad and earn a certificate in a relevant field.

Yen.com.gh recently compiled a list of the most profitable businesses in Ghana across different sectors from online jobs to agribusiness. The list delves deep into the requirements for opening such a business and the costs involved.

While Ghana records a high number of graduates every year, white-collar job opportunities are shrinking and the level of unemployment is relatively high. This means that most graduates will have to venture into business in order to earn an income and this list may come in handy.

Source: Yen
Whenever you send a parcel, you may get worried about the safety of the parcel. You imagine all the types of things that can happen to your parcel, including the late delivery issue. However, thanks to the technology advancements being used in service delivery, people using the Ghana postal services to send and receive parcels now can enjoy the Ghana post tracking system to keep track of their parcels. The service that is provided by third-party service providers is available for both domestic and international people who are sending parcels. Heres all you need to know.

In August 1995, Act 505 was established and incorporated in the Ghana Postal service. The Act gave Ghana Post independent identity from the Ghana Telecom Company. Under this new act, the Ghana Post was expected to carry its operations in a self-supporting manner and operate on cost-effective and productive commercial lines. Four years later the corporation was transformed to be a limited liability company. After this conversion, the company was now in the same market environment as the other private enterprises that were operating in Ghana. The company was now going to face the same legal and regulatory factors that affect the private companies.

This move proved to be very beneficial to the company giving it an opportunity to grow and operate efficiently in the most competitive commercial market. The conversion also allowed the company to widen its objects that were present in the parliamentary Act 505. It's evident that for the past decade Ghana Post has shown outstanding success thanks to the entrepreneurial drive, the professional skills and effective management skills that the Ghana Post staff and management has. Ghana Post has managed to establish itself as the best courier service provider in the courier industry in Ghana.

READ ALSO: Ten Regions in Ghana and Their Capitals: Be Familiar with Your Nation

Some of the postal services you can use to send a parcel to Ghana are:

369Express Postal Services

4-72 Postal Services

852 Express Postal Services

Afghan Post Postal Services

Aland Post Postal Services

Albanian Post Postal Services

Algeria Post Postal Services

Ali Business Logistics Postal Services

An Post Postal Service

The Ghana post tracking system also has a mobile app that people can sue to track their parcels. The app is very helpful for auto imports, and parcels being sent by international companies like Shopify, Magento, Amazon, Woocommerce, eBay, Aliexpress, and Wish. The main advantage of using the Ghana post tracking parcel is that individuals can access details about their parcels online, details like date of arrival, destinations, and origin of the parcel can all be accessed online by just using your tracking number. The system is used to track the parcel in Ghana supports EMS and registered parcels.

The Ghana post tracking international has proven to be the best tool for those dealing and using the e-commerce platforms to make purchases of goods. The Ghana Post Tracking API is used by e-commerce developer to get real-time and precise data and tracking information about their parcels. Customers can be provided with all the tracking information in the shopping cart and in the marketplace. When the customers use the Ghana post registered mail tracking services they have the option of subscribing to either SMS or email alerts or updates.

Customers are sent customized message or emails, giving them updates on the state of their parcels. Most messages sent by the Ghana post express tracking will indicate whether the parcel is on TRANSIT DELIVERED OR OUT OF DELIVERY. Some companies that offer the Ghana post parcel tracking services assist their consumers with bulk tracking services. Customers upload all the Ghana post tracking numbers they have for their parcels in one CSV document.

Ghana post office tracking

The Ghana post office tracking services are provided by third-party service providers who have partnered with Ghana's Post Office. These companies which provide the parcel tracking services in Ghana act as multi-carrier tracking tools. In order to get all the tracking information about your parcel, you will need to have a Ghana post tracking number.

Customers use their parcel tracking numbers, AWB (air way-bill) numbers or the reference numbers to get access to all the tracking information to their parcel (be it a domestic parcel or an international parcel). Customers who have more than one parcel can use the CSV upload provided by the Ghana post office tracking service providers. The other tool used by customers with many parcels is the shipment tracking API. Those individuals who check their bulk international parcels using the Ghana Post will get all their tracking details being displayed in one place, the information will also include the country of origin and the destination country.

The process of accessing your parcel tracking information is very simple. First, you will need to access the official website of any of the reliable Ghana post registered mail tracking service providers. Once you access their website, you will be required to use your Ghana post tracking number. You will be required to enter the tracking number and then all the tracking information about your parcel or parcels will be provided to you. The tracking information that will be provided to you will include:

The tracking number

The destination of the parcel

The country or place of origin of the parcel

The status of your parcel with regards to delivery

The pickup time

The pickup date

The delivery date

The delivery time

If you want to get timely updates from the Ghana parcel tracking services, then you can subscribe to the email and/or SMS updates and alerts being provided by the company. Apart from parcel tracking services, these courier service tracking companies in Ghana offer the following services to their customers:

Trading links

Courier Tracking

Air Cargo Tracking

Postal Tracking

Vessel Tracking

Live-Vessel Traffic

International Parcel Tracking Services

Cargo Loading Calculator

Most of these customers that make use of the Ghana speed post tracking don't need to be worried about not finding information about their parcel since most of these third-party service providers have partnered with more than 300 postal services around the world. If you are the one receiving the parcel make sure that the sender of the parcel gives you details about the parcel, especially the tracking number since you will not be able to access the parcel tracking information if you dont have the tracking number. The additional information is important when you are confirming the details of the parcel and the one being displayed on the parcel tracking system.

In case you want additional information about your parcel, and you don't get the information that you are looking for concerning your parcel then you can directly contact your courier services that are dealing with sending process of your parcel. Those who use the Ghana Post Office can use the following contact information:

Asafoatse Nettey Street, Accra Central

Accra

Contact

T 030 2666647

T 030 2664038

T 030 2662063

Source: Yen
Are you passionate about media and are eager to become part of the team of the growing journalists in Ghana? If this is your desire then you probably know that you are expected to study in an accredited institution if you want to stand a chance. Knowing which multimedia schools in Ghana to attend to is a first step in the right direction. As an aspiring student of journalism you need to understand that the industry is competitive and only picks the very best among the numerous competition out there. You need therefore to know that you can only study in a school that will help you further your career goals. Consider the following schools by weighing their pros and cons and settle for the most appropriate according to your needs and preference. The bottom line though is that if you choose to study in any of the mentioned media colleges in this article, then you improve your chances of succeeding in Ghanas mainstream media industry by a higher margin. Check these schools out.

Source:Al-Rayan International School

The school you join before starting out your career is important as it is responsible for the basic skills you will be acquiring to help you excel in your job. It is especially crucial if you are going to enter into an industry that is as competitive as the media. Choose the right school if you want to stand out. Consider the following schools.

Accredited multimedia schools in Ghana- start right

When scouting for a school to join in Accra make sure that you are settling for one that is accredited and recognized in Ghana and beyond. The goal is to ensure that your skills will not be questioned when you finally get to practice as a journalist. The school you attend should be able to mold you into a world class journalist that can handle tasks on the ground quite effectively. Fortunately these schools are all over in Ghana meaning that if you are really looking for a school in which to study media then you will always find one to suit your needs. Consider the following.

Multimedia schools in Accra Ghana

Ghana media school

This makes first on the list of media schools in Ghana and especially in Accra. The school specializes in offering a diversity of media courses meaning that any person within the region desiring to take up a course in mass media or journalism can start their search here. Its exact location is in Chimota, Abofu junction. Whether you are looking to join film, radio, production or reporting, anchoring or even TV, all you need to do is to check in at the Ghana media school for more information. Make a point to visit their offices any time of day to get further clarity and detailed info concerning the depth and variety of their courses. You can be sure that you will find something to help you grow into a relevant journalist especially in the current changing modern society.

Abro Media Institute Accra

This is another of Accras finest as far as media students are concerned. The institute is situated in Dansoman. If you are the kind of person that only wants the best the industry has to offer in terms of training then Abro is your go-to college. It specializes in high class training in media related courses. If your focus is on attaining top notch training on broadcast media and newspaper among others then you must visit Abro for more inquires. This may be a decision that you will never regret. It is the right catapult towards success in a highly competitive media world. The institute approaches its training from an angle that emphasizes on practical training with a merge of interactive theory education as long as it can be practiced. This hands on approach makes the quality of education in Abro one of the very best.

Multimedia Institute Ghana

Another of Ghanas gem located at the heart of Accra is the multimedia institute. The location of multimedia institute of Ghana is near the opera square in Accra. The exact position is between Pagan Street and Asafoatse Nettey. Going by its past successes it is easy to see why this should be a school of your choice. The school has nurtured some of the best journalist in the industry. It boasts of outstanding performances based on the number of professionals that have been churned from the institute. You can choose any of the courses offered at MIG and you will be on the right track.

Ghana institute of journalism

Also found in Accra, at Gamel Abdul Nasser Ave. It is a public university that specializes in offering training and imparting media skills on student interested in journalism. It was first established by Ghanas first president, Kwame Nkurumah in 1959. Its association to the University of Ghana makes it possible for the institute to offer degree programs. In fact the institute is recognized as one of the best multimedia colleges in the whole of Ghana. If you want to choose a school that will teach media studies effectively within Accra then this is institute is worth your search. The school offers a variety of courses ranging from short courses, certificates, diplomas and even degree courses.

National film and television institute

This is one of the earlier multimedia college establishments in Ghana. It was started in 1978 and is situated in Kakramadu road in Accra. It is considered one of the best schools offering media studies in Accra Ghana. It is in fact one of the schools one would easily recommend to anyone searching for good quality media education. If your goal is to find an all rounded institution that offers media studies then the national film and television institute offers all the guidance you need.

Ghana Technology university college

This school was founded in 2005. Its an establishment of the national telecommunications company. It is located in greater Accra and boost of a good number of students averaging to 7000 students. Its focus is mainly technology courses related to multimedia which makes it stand out.

Accra film school

The Accra film school is also another establishment in Accra whose focus is on TV and film production courses. It is a great recommendation for any person that desires to attend a school that would teach them to become great journalist in Ghana.

Source:accrafilmschool.com

Source: UGC

Cystall galaxy college

This Accra based college specializes in media business and aviation. It is a great school for any person who has deep interest in matters media especially if you are in love with the business aspect of it. It is one of the highly esteem and accredited media colleges in Ghana.

READ ALSO:Fashion Schools in Ghana and their Fees

J-prompt professional institute of technology

This is an accredited higher education institute with full mandate from the Ghana education services. It is one of the institutes located at Limomo walk asylum in Accra. It specializes in offering courses on journalism and media with a focus on high quality education to all students that attend the school. With a focus on channeling reputed professionals in the media world, this schools aim is to stand out and be counted. It definitely meets the cut of one of the best multimedia schools in Ghana.

This college is well known for its focus on three aspects of multimedia training. These are video editing, sound engineering and character animation all of which are exciting area so career advancement in addition to being massive income earners. In case you are the kind of person who passion and ambition are in either of these three lines then J-prompt is ready and willing to assist you make your move towards a successful career path that would otherwise be only a dream. The school focuses on raising professionals through its different courses. These include diploma courses in :

Video editing

Sound engineering

Character animation

Topman multimedia institute

This college specializes in different media productions including TV and radio. It also has specialty training in other media areas indulging Djying, The college hopes to make its contribution in the media by communicating, developing and being a major part of nation building through appropriate training of its students who will end up in the job market. The institute teaches a number of things including:

Television production

Radio presentation

Disc jokey

Acting

Script writing

Sound engineering

Professional video editing

News reporting

Camera handling

TV presenting

These three courses are further divided into departments that then focus on the details of each course. For instance, video editing has capturing, editing itself and effecting and achieving. As for sound engineering the department deals with sound programming, recording and editing as well as mastering and achieving. The last category of character animation focuses of web animation and video animation.

Multimedia schools in Kumasi

Even though most of the multimedia schools are in Accra, there are some that are in Kumasi. Some of those in Accra have branches in Kumasi a good example being the multimedia institute of Ghana Kumasi. The following are a few media schools in Kumasi that are worth noting.

Royal media communication institute

This is a private institute that trains journalists in broadcasting. The school offers three month long training with the aim of improving the skills of already practicing professionals. It was inaugurated in 2004

Oxford institute of acting and journalism

This is a Kumasi based private media school established in 2005 with only 11 students. It has grown over the years because of its focus on offering quality training in media subjects. It offers courses that include journalism, film acting as well as business.

READ ALSO: Top 50 Senior High Schools in Ghana

P&C Media college

This media college is located at Adrepo highways junction in Kumasi. Its main focus is on radio broadcasting. The owner, one Mr. Ohene Clement and his wife took it upon themselves to set up the college in a bid to save the diminishing standards of radio broadcasting in the country. It also focuses on other aspects of journalism including TV broadcasting.

Even with the list of journalism schools discussed above, there are still some that you can checkout for 2018 entries. When all is said and done it comes down to the school that someone prefers over others. This means that you should be in a position to compare and contrast. Some of these institutes to consider include:

Ghana Institute Of Journalism

University Of Ghana School Of Communication Studies

University Of Education Department Of Communication And Media Studies

Islamic University College Ghana Department Of Communication Studies

Bluecrest University College School Of Journalism And Mass Communication

Jayee University College Faculty Of Communication Science

African International University College

Christian service University College Department Of Communication

Crystal Galaxy College

All Stars Media College

Media professional institute

READ ALSO:List accredited media schools in Ghana

Multimedia design schools in Ghana

AiSAD is the only portfolio multimedia design school in West Africa. It deals with different disciplines of communication designs. It is a course that focuses on media that uses different combinations of media forms including text, audio, video and animation just to mention a few. Students get to experience different competencies that will come in handy in the media field. Some of the lessons will cover the following:

Drawing and illustration

Art direction

Creative communication

Copy writing

Advertising design

Motion graphics and

Typography among others

With this media course students can turn out as a professional in different areas within the media industry. These include:

Animator

3D modellor

Graphic designer

Film maker

Advertising designer

Digital photographer

Motion graphic artist

Seeing from the different skills that one can acquire in media colleges, it is possible to break the myth that most media courses end up in traditional roles either as a presenter or reporter. As the market changes and the media platform diversifies, there is a lot more to gain from taking up a media course. The secret is to choose a college or institute that has a higher chances of helping you actualize your goals and dreams. This article only serves to kick start your decision. Take a look at the different colleges and follow up by contacting the few that pick your interest. Within no time you will be on your way to starting off an exciting career in the media.

Source: Yen
- About 5000 protestors are expected to demonstrate against the Ghana-US military deal

- The protest closely follows the arrest of NDC deputy general secretary, Koku Anyidohu

- Koku Anyidohu has been charged with treason

Thousands of Ghanaians are expected to hit the streets today in fierce protest against the controversial military cooperation deal with the United States of America.

YEN.com.gh is gathering that already, some of these protesters are converging at the Obra Spot at Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra ahead of the protest.

READ ALSO: Koku Anyidohu of NDC arrested over "overthrow Nana Addo" comments

Communications director of the Ghana First Patriotic Front (GFPF), says about 5000 protesters are expected to show up at the protest.

This protest is expected to be highly massive and well attended as it follows moments after the arrest of the deputy secretary general of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Koku Anyidohu, for making threats of a 'civilian coup in Ghana'.

So far, the maverick politician has been slapped with charges of treason and also denied bail as he is expected to write his final statement.

Meanwhile, general secretary of the NDC says the party is "disappointed with how laws are run in the country, this is the beginning, we will follow it until we realize the full sovereignty of this country," he revealed in a press conference.

READ ALSO: Photo of the casket carrying Ebony's mortal remains

The fate of Koku Anyidohu remains on the balance especially when the charge of treason amounts to death by hanging.

YEN remembers the beautiful life of dancehall diva Ebony Reigns with this video below:

Know someone who is extremely talented and needs recognition? Your stories and photos are always welcome. Get interactive via our Facebook page.

Source: Yen
The Chief Scribe of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Aseidu Nketia, aka General Mosquito, has been 'mocked' many times by some Ghanaian social media users for what they claim to be his 'bad' fashion sense.

The top NDC ranking member recently became news for wearing what social media users claim to be an oversized shoe while having a crucial meeting with the UK, Ireland chapter of the NDC executives together with former President Mahama.

Asiedu Nketia's new funeral dress is causing a stir on social media

READ ALSO: Manufacturers of Ebonys casket reveal secret behind design, black colour

Asiedu Nketia in a run-up to the 2016 election was heavily mocked in a similar fashion on various social media platforms, after he was accused of wearing a woman's Winter Coat while on an official duty in Germany.

Although many argued at the time that the fashion choice of the NDC stalwart was no issue, he became a laughing stock in the Ghanaian media.

However, it seems the NDC man is not bothered about his detractors, as he has been spotted wearing what appears to many as an oversized dress at a funeral ceremony suspected to be in his hometown.

READ ALSO: Asiedu Nketia breaks silence on Koku Anyidoho's arrest

Asiedu Nketias oversized outfit has drawn huge attention and debate on social media, with many concluding that, the popular politician has a 'bad' fashion sense.

Though, the NDC firebrand has not yet commented on his funeral dress, photos of him have garnered lots of media attention, with many 'mocking' that, General Mosquito adds a touch of humour to his appearance, whenever he steps out with his bad fashion sense.

READ ALSO: KMA taskforce openly 'fights' hawkers in Kumasi

Check out the heartbreaking tribute Ebony's parents paid to their daughter:

Yen.com.gh is building a platform where Ghanaians can share local news and own experiences with each other. Witnessing an incident? Want to tell about a local problem? Know someone who is extremely talented and needs recognition? Your stories and photos are always welcome. Message us on Facebook now

Source: Yen.com.gh
- The Ghana Geological Survey Authority is hinting of a possible earthquake

- The prediction follows earth tremors at some areas of Accra

-The authority fears the earthquake could strike anytime from now

Ghana is to expect an earthquake anytime soon, the country's major Geological Survey Authority has warned.

The Ghana Geological Survey Authority (GGSA) has revealed that the possible earthquake follows various instances of earth tremors currently recorded across various areas of the country.

READ ALSO: KMA taskforce openly 'fights' hawkers in Kumasi

What this means is that we should expect an earthquake anytime soon in the country.

A senior expert in the area of earthquakes (seismologist), Nicholas Opoku, said serious tremors around the Weija area in Accra is enough evidence of a possible tremor.

Mr. Opoku said the time transmission reading on the seismometer at the authoritys remote station near the Weija Dam indicated that three tremors occurred on the same day, with the first two happening at 3:09 a.m. and 3:41 a.m., while the third one took place at 11:31 a.m. last Saturday.

"An earthquake has a return period, so once we have had a major earthquake like 6.5 on the Richter scale in Accra in 1862 and 1939, it can come and it can even be bigger than that, he revealed in an interview with Daily Graphic.

Residents of Weija-Broadcasting, Sampa Valley, SCC, West Hills Mall area, Gbawe, Anyaa, all expressed concerns over the tremor.

The tremors caused panic among some residents of the affected areas, with some fearing the trembling could be followed by an earthquake.

An earth tremor is a relatively small or short-lived movement of the earth's surface caused by the same forces that produce earthquakes.

Here in Ghana, the only severe earth tremor was recorded way back in 1999 to 2000 - a development which left many buildings with wide cracks.

READ ALSO: KMA taskforce openly 'fights' hawkers in Kumasi

Check out the heartbreaking tribute Ebony's parents paid to their daughter:

Yen.com.gh is building a platform where Ghanaians can share local news and own experiences with each other. Witnessing an incident? Want to tell about a local problem? Know someone who is extremely talented and needs recognition? Your stories and photos are always welcome. Message us on Facebook now.

Source: Yen News
-Hassan Ayariga was seen at the anti-military deal protest riding on a horse

- Hassan Ayariga wants to pay government off so as to get the deal terminated

- The protest saw thousands of Ghanaians march through major streets of Accra

Hassan Ayariga of the APC was spotted riding a horse at the massive demonstration against the military deal with the US.

Thousands of protesters in red and black took to the streets on foot with placards having severe concerns inscribed on them. The protest, which started from the Obra Spot at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra, had a different touch when Hassan Ayariga turned up riding on a horse.

READ ALSO: Expect an earthquake soon - Geological survey authority warns

It remains unclear the reasons behind Mr. Ayariga's decision to ride on a horse but there are suspicions the humorous politician just wanted to make a commanding presence at the demonstration.

Hassan Ayariga embarks on demo with a horse

Hassan Ayariga has stated that the Ghana-US military deal is one of the worst deals ever to be signed by the government.

According to Hassan Ayariga, he is willing to pay government all amount agreed in the military deal if only government is willing to terminate the contract.

Sharing his thoughts on the deal, Hassan Ayariga claimed that American soldiers are "gays who marry themselves." According to the 2012 presidential candidate, Ghanaians are at risk of seeing these military officials "marry your fathers, mothers and even yourselves."

The US ambassador says the 20 million dollar deal with Ghana is enough to let Ghanaians know how committed the US is to boosting Ghana's army. "I think Ghanaians never treated us fairly. I am very disappointed at the reaction we are getting.

Maybe there should be more public knowledge because this deal was signed back in 1998," Robert P. Jackson revealed. So far, the government has insisted that there is no going back on the military deal with the United States.

The defense minister says the agreement was signed way back in 1998 and that they are just renewing it.

READ ALSO: KMA taskforce openly 'fights' hawkers in Kumasi

There are fears that the deal between Ghana and the US to "establish a military base in the country" could spell doom for Ghana's security. Security expert, Dr. Vladmir Antwi Danso, is warning that the decision by Ghana to host US troops could expose the country to terrorist attacks. So far, America remains the major country in the world very exposed to terrorist groups like ISIS.

Check out the heartbreaking tribute Ebony's parents paid to their daughter:

Yen.com.gh is building a platform where Ghanaians can share local news and own experiences with each other. Witnessing an incident? Want to tell about a local problem? Know someone who is extremely talented and needs recognition? Your stories and photos are always welcome. Message us on Facebook now.

Source: Yen.com.gh
If you are looking for the new Immoral Minority posts, you should know that they can be found here at our new home Please stop by to get caught up on politics, join the conversations, or simply check out the new digs.
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Investcorp, a leading global provider and manager of alternative investments, today announced the appointment of Jan Erik Back as group chief financial officer.

Back will join Investcorp in the summer.

Back has more than 30 years of industry experience, the majority of which was in senior finance roles of financial services firms including Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (SEB), Skandia and Handelsbanken. He most recently served as executive vice president and chief financial officer of SEB, a leading Nordic financial services group providing retail and merchant banking, wealth management, and life insurance services to its corporate and institutional clients across international markets.

Prior to that, he was the executive vice president and chief financial officer at Vattenfall, one of the largest producers of electricity and heat and executive vice president and chief financial officer of Skandia Group, a provider of products for savings and investments (subsequently acquired by Old Mutual plc). In these positions, his responsibilities included finance, treasury, investor relations, risk control and procurement functions. He started his career with Swedish bank, Handelsbanken, in their international finance and accounting operations.

Mohammed Alardhi, executive chairman, Investcorp, said: We are delighted to welcome Jan Erik to Investcorp. He brings with him extensive experience of leading finance functions across the international financial services industry. This experience will be extremely valuable to ensure the first-class financial reporting standards and management that we strive for, continue to be delivered and adhered to. Together with the board and the wider executive team, I look forward to working with Jan Erik. - TradeArabia News Service
GE has launched the GE Reservoir, a comprehensive energy storage platform that delivers a suite of customised storage solutions to help customers address new challenges and seek new opportunities in a rapidly transforming power grid that is becoming more highly diversified and distributed.



GEs Reservoir platform, developed with innovative technology from GEs Global Research Center, is a flexible, compact energy storage solution for AC or DC coupled systems. The reservoir solution combines GEs advanced technologies and expertise in plant controls, power electronics, battery management systems and electrical balance of plant  all backed by GEs performance guarantees.



The reservoir is an ideal fit for the Middle East and North Africa (Mena), where renewable energy, especially solar power, is becoming an increasingly significant part of the energy mix. The reservoir expands GEs 10-year footprint in the energy storage space and builds upon recent successes and milestones, said a statement.



GE is presenting The Reservoir solution at the ongoing Smart Grid and Energy Storage conference organised by the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) in collaboration with EDF during today (March 21) and tomorrow (March 22), in Dubai, UAE, it said.



The reservoir already has a 20 megawatts (MW), 80 megawatt hours (MWh) pre-launch commitment. Last year, GE introduced the worlds first hybrid-electric gas turbine to multiple accolades across the industry, it added.



GE was the first-to-market with advanced applications for hybrid electric-gas turbines, wind hybrids and Black Start capabilities. Recently, GE also announced a new project with the Arenko Group to build one of the worlds largest energy storage systems in the UK.



Russell Stokes, president and CEO, GE Power, said: The energy landscape is undergoing an unprecedented paradigm shift, as the growth of renewables, decentralisation of power and digitization create both new challenges and opportunities in how power is generated, transmitted and distributed.



GEs Reservoir delivers the new type of energy system that customers are looking for to help manage electricitys next chapter, he said.



Eric Gebhardt, vice president and strategic technology officer of GE Power, said: GEs Reservoir platform enables cost-effective distribution, storage, and utilisation of cleaner, more reliable power where and when it is needed most.



It can fit into most any setting, from centralised grid systems to the most remote villages and communities. The reservoir also allows energy providers new degrees of flexibility for more intelligently managing and getting the most out of all their power assets, he added.



The 1.2 MW, 4 MWh Reservoir Storage Unit, is the fundamental building block of GEs Reservoir platform. It is a modular solution that integrates GEs Battery Blade design (module stack design) with key technologies from across the companys portfolio to achieve an industry-leading energy density, footprint and lifetime performance.



GEs proprietary Blade Protection Unit (BPU) actively balances the safety, life, and production of each battery Blade, extending battery life by up to 15% and reducing fault currents by up to 5X.



GEs Reservoir platform leverages Predix and Edge controls technologies to provide data-driven insights that help energy operators enhance their systems. These digital technologies leverage GEs unique and unparalleled technical and industry domain knowledge across the entire energy ecosystem from generation to consumption.



Put together, GEs Reservoir delivers the most comprehensive energy storage platform to help meet the energy industrys rapidly changing needs. The ability to offer highly customised solutions through the platform offers customers unprecedented levels of flexibility, resilience and operational efficiency in hybrid generation, grid operation and energy management.



GEs Reservoir also enables other diverse applications that include: Managing higher levels of renewable power, grid stabilisation, peak demand management and controlling energy flow. By enabling better asset utilisation and overall system management, customers can realise new revenue opportunities and cost savings as well.



The reservoir is a strategic complement to the long-term energy diversification and security goals of the Mena. With the UAE looking to generate 44 per cent of its power from clean energy by 2050, Kuwait setting goals to increase the share of renewable generation to 15 per cent by 2030, Egypt intending to supply 20 per cent of its generated electricity from renewable sources by 2022, and other countries in the region turning towards a rising share of renewable energy in the overall generation mix, the region needs solutions to support a more diversified and distributed power grid, it stated.  TradeArabia News Service
Seef Properties, a leading integrated real estate company in Bahrain, has given approval for the distribution of 15 per cent of cash dividends, equivalent to BD6.9 million ($18.2 million) at BD 0.015 per share, to the investors.



The announcement was made at the company's annual general meeting held at Fraser Suites, Seef District in the presence of company directors and a number of shareholders.



Speaking at the meeting, chairman Essa Mohammed Najibi said: "Seef Properties continues to achieve success year after year. 2017 saw a significant increase in operating profits and high overall revenue. I am pleased to report the end of another year that has been marked by a number of outstanding achievements, driven by a long-term sustainable strategy supported by efficient performance, enhanced growth opportunities and an outstanding level of customer service."



Seef Properties reported a gross revenue of BD17.78 million in 2017 compared to BD15.38 million in 2016, citing a 15.6 per cent increase.



Seef Properties posted operating profits of BD15.16 million compared to BD13.9 million in 2016, resulting in an increase of 9.1 per cent.



Consolidated net profit reached BD11.06 million for the year ending on December 31, 2017 compared to BD11.04 million in 2016.



"We have also built a diverse and profitable portfolio of assets that has enabled us to achieve rewarding returns, and add value to all shareholders," he noted.



According to him, 2017 was a successful year as it witnessed the completion of the design phase of the Liwan project located in Hamala where all official approvals were obtained in order to complete it as scheduled.



The mixed-use development project Liwan generated tremendous interest since it was launched in the market and when completed, it will redefine and elevate the surrounding area, acting as a magnet for locals as well as tourists and leisure-seekers from across the GCC, and further positioning the Kingdom as an attractive tourist Hub in the region.



Seef Properties CEO Ahmed Yusuf said: "We have stepped into 2018 with increased confidence, and we are on path to achieving even greater accomplishments this year guided by a visionary strategy and a solid investment portfolio."



"Our search for profitable investment opportunities will remain a key priority for the coming year, as we set out to further expand our asset portfolio which will also benefit the community and contribute towards the kingdoms economic growth," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
Expatriates in Oman will now be able to invest in large portfolios such as shopping malls, airports and ports, thanks to the introduction of Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) funds, said a report.



These are funds that will be launched in the stock market; so people will be able to buy real estate shares and real estate owners will be able to liquidate their assets, reported Times of Oman citing a senior official.



"The real estate association has been pushing for this for the last three years as it believes it will be beneficial to both the owners of these big assets, who can liquidate shares, and to the public, who cant own huge properties but can have a stake in such portfolios," remarked Fahad Al Ismaili, a board member of Oman Real Estate Association.



The law was issued in January and the first REIT fund will be launched probably in April, he added.



Lauding the move, Al Ismaili said: "There are a lot of real estate portfolios such as shopping malls airports, ports etc. The owners of big assets can benefit by cashing or liquidating shares in those assets. For example, a citizen cannot buy a mall or an airport, but can buy shares in a mall. So, for an investment as low as RO1,000, people can own shares in large portfolios, he stated.



"The good thing is that these funds will not just be applicable to Omanis, but expatriates as well. I think it is a very smart move by the government," he added.
Greeces New Economy Development Fund (Taneo) has signed a MoU with Mubadala Investment Company to create a 400 million ($495.59 million) co-investment platform.



The platform will target compelling investment opportunities found in key sectors of Greeces economy, said a statement.



Established in 2001 by the Greek government, Taneo is a principal investment firm specialising in fund of funds investments. The firm invests in venture capital funds which specialise in start-up, early, and expansion stage investments, in particular, Greek SMEs operating in telecommunications, IT, e-commerce, biotechnology, and new materials.



To date, Taneo, which is now co-funded by the Greek government and institutional investors, has indirect investments in approximately 50 companies through over 10 venture capital funds.



Antonis Georgakakis, chairman and CEO, Taneo; and Waleed Al Mokarrab Al Muhairi, Mubadala deputy group CEO and chief executive officer, Alternative Investments and Infrastructure, signed the agreement today (March 28) at a ceremony held in Abu Dhabi, UAE.



Under the terms of the MoU, Taneo and Mubadala will each contribute 200 million ($247.75 million) to the new co-investment platform, which will capitalise on resilient businesses with growth potential across key sectors of Greeces economy, it added.



The two organisations will also share knowledge, further enhancing Greeces strong diplomatic and trade relations with the UAE, it said.



Greeces Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Development Yannis Dragasakis said: The creation of a new co-investment platform represents an exciting partnership for both parties.



Greece and the UAE have had strong diplomatic ties for many decades and, in recent years, we have seen an increase in trade and bilateral investment between our countries, he stated.



The signing of this MoU represents the first step towards wider cooperation between Mubadala and Taneo, and the creation of an investment platform that can facilitate the growth of resilient businesses in key areas of the Greek economy, he added.



Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, group chief executive officer and managing director of Mubadala, added: The Greek economy has demonstrated its resilience in recent years and many sectors are now demonstrating robust growth.



As a global long-term strategic investor and partner, Mubadalas focus is on finding opportunities across different markets which offer compelling investment prospects and the opportunity to generate strong and consistent returns, he added.



Mubadala is active in 13 sectors and over 30 countries around the world, prioritising its partnerships with best-in-class organisations. The company is currently developing global industrial champions in sectors such as aerospace, ICT, semiconductors, metals and mining and renewable energy, utilities and manages a diverse portfolio of financial holdings. TradeArabia News Service
GlassPoint Solar, a leading supplier of solar energy to the oil and gas industry, demonstrated its innovative solar steam technology at the ongoing 11th edition of Omans Oil and Gas Exhibition (OGWA), which was held in Muscat, Oman.



The event which opened on March 25 will conclude on March 28, at the Oman Convention & Exhibition Centre.



GlassPoint Solars innovative solar steam technology is being deployed on oilfields around the world to reduce operating costs and save natural gas consumed in the production of heavy oil, said a statement.



GlassPoint launched its latest 360 virtual reality video tour of Miraah, its landmark project with Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) that began operating last year. The virtual reality experience allows visitors to immerse themselves within one of the worlds largest solar projects, experiencing the companys technology first-hand, it said.



GlassPoint also released a new technical paper on the integration of Miraah with conventional steam facilities. The first 100 MWt of the gigawatt-scale project were commissioned safely, on time and in line with budget, and is meeting all targets for steam output required by the Amal oilfield, it added.



Marwan Chaar, vice president of project development, GlassPoint Solar, said: Our proven technology delivers the lowest-cost solar steam for thermal enhanced oil recovery (EOR) operations, freeing valuable natural gas typically used in the process.



Were continuing to come down the cost curve as we execute on additional Miraah blocks and plan for future projects. In the first four blocks alone, weve already achieved over 55 per cent cost savings compared to the pilot we built back in 2012, he added.



Chaar took part in the panel session Effective Resource Management and Capability Development, where he discussed how large-scale deployment of solar on Omans oilfields can develop local talent and create a local manufacturing base.



Miraah is putting Oman on the global solar energy map, creating jobs and developing expertise in solar technology innovation, project deployment and manufacturing. This local expertise will be exported around the world as GlassPoint scales its operations and deploys its technology in new markets, including its project in California, US, with oil and gas producer Aera Energy.



OGWA is held alongside the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) EOR Conference, where GlassPoints project development senior analyst Siddiqa Al Lawati presented the SPE paper Integration of Solar Steam Facilities with Existing Steam Generation Systems".



The technical paper details the first few months of Miraahs performance and integration with the Amal oilfield, including its novel automated control system developed in the Sultanate.



Al Lawati said: The study showed that large-scale solar steam generation facilities, like Miraah, can be integrated and operated in parallel with conventional steam systems with no adverse impact on existing surface facilities.



Miraah is in daily operations, producing steam to PDOs specifications. PDO and GlassPoint have been carefully monitoring the results as solar steam flow to the Amal oilfield increases and have been very satisfied with performance to date, Al Lawati added.  TradeArabia News Service
The UAE is a unique international model addressing the Fourth Industrial Revolution, through its establishment of the Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and adoption of a national innovation strategy, which aims to create a knowledge-based economy and empower its youth, said Tanmay Bakshy, the world's youngest artificial intelligence, AI, expert.



It all started when he was only five years old. "I used to watch my father working on computer programming every day. So I wanted to know more about it," Bakshy told Emirates News Agency Wam.



"So I fell in love with computers at five, released my first iPhone app at nine, and now at 14 I am working with IBM on Artificial Intelligence," added the prodigy, who is now in the UAE attending the now-running International Government Communication Forum, which was opened early today by HH Dr. Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah.



"It is not my first visit to UAE, but my first visit to Sharjah. I visited Dubai three times before and attended the Dubai Health Forum, and Dubai Knowledge Summit and now Im here for the International Government Communication Summit," Bakshy added while expressing his happiness about UAE having a minister for AI.



"I actually love it. Having a minister for AI proves that artificial intelligence affects every single detail in our lives on a daily basis. And actually yes it does. If you open your mobile or Twitter, or go for Amazon.com, etc., youre actually using AI. AI is an integral part of our life and over the coming five years, we will see tremendous growth. Its quite important for the UAE and to every country in the world to be on the cutting edge and to make sure it remains updated on the latest technology and such a portfolio is the tool for that."



In October 2017, the UAE appointed Omar Bin Sultan Al Olama as the countrys first Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence.



About the possibility of having AI schemes in UAE, Bakshy informed that he is working on a project focused on mental healthcare, with an objective of providing early warning of depression in teens.



"I have not talked to any officials in the UAE in specific but Id love to and Im discussing the idea with some companies and Ill be happy to bring the idea here to the UAE."



He also praised the UAEs AI strategy, which aims to improve government performance, accelerate its achievements, and create innovative working environments using the latest technologies and AI tools.



Bakshy highlighted the UAEs desire to adopt AI technology in various work environments and invest in its potential.



An international talent in technology and AI, Bakshyi is also a writer, lecturer, software developer, and a specialist in algorithms and cloud technology at such an early age.



In his younger days Bakshy had also developed many applications, and his unique skills have enabled international developers and technology experts to learn from him and innovate and develop their programmes, systems, and electronic and smart applications.



Bakshy disagrees that AI will ever replace humans. "AI will never replace humans, but using AI helps us get the best out of humans. Artificial communication should be used to enable those who cannot communicate naturally. AI is going to empower rather than weakening us."

Artificial intelligence means augmented intelligence. Actually, the world needs more programmers. We should rather enable children to innovate and have access to the growth of 4th Industrial Revolution technology."



However, the prodigy kid does not deny AI will replace some jobs. "I believe some will lose jobs but those jobs to be replaced by AI will have a direct impact on our health, for example, and will help us do better. In the meantime, AI opens up new jobs and helps us do our job easier, accurately and more properly. Many problems could be solved through AI, for instance, delivering healthcare to remote places," he enthused.



Bakshy laughed when asked about rumours that he has been hired by Google. "Actually I was surprised to hear that I have been hired by Google. A lot of people think Im working with Google but Im not."

"It started when some people took a picture of mine and wrote down that Im hired by Google for two million dollars per year. But Im not," he added.
Cebu Pacific (CEB), The Philippines leading carrier, has launched an exclusive seat sale on from March 27 to 28 for Dubai to Manila flights, with ticket prices dropping to as low as Dh1 ($0.27).



The discounted fare is available for travel between January 1, 2019, to March 30, 2019.



Candice Iyog, vice president of marketing and distribution - Cebu Pacific, said: The weather in the Philippines tends to be cooler and less humid from January to Marchperfect for tourists and expats to take in the sights and enjoy the countrys breath-taking island destinations.



Aside from being an ideal period for summer travels, the first quarter of the year is also considered a peak season for Filipino expats who are coming home to be with their families.



Industry experts and travellers themselves have constantly voted the Philippines natural wonders, such as Palawan and Cebu, into the worlds best islands listsmaking the country a bucket-list destination for several people across the globe.



CEBs seat sale, rolled out at certain points of the year, also gives travellers the chance to finalise their holiday plans well in advance. Those looking to extend their vacation can connect via Manila through the Cebu Pacific route networkwhich spans 25 international and 37 domestic destinations. - TradeArabia News Service




Leading travel commerce platform Travelport and Air France KLM have signed an agreement for the distribution of content through Travelports platform.



Air France, KLM and HOP! content on Travelports platform will include its rich content, branded fares, fare families and multiple ancillaries.



Travelport customers will continue to benefit from the company's tools beyond booking capability that enable workflow automation, change management processes, multiple content integration, robotics for fulfilment and other vital services.

Travelport is the only operator of a GDS with the highest level of Iata certification for the deployment of its NDC technology.



This agreement also enables customers selected by Air France, HOP! and KLM to access a private channel via Travelport through which they will receive content without the additional distribution surcharge levied by Air France KLM starting April 1.



Commenting on the agreement, Derek Sharp, Travelports senior vice president and managing director for Air Commerce, said: We are delighted to have signed this agreement with Air France KLM, one of Europes leading airline groups. This is an extension of a long-term relationship which has delivered greater choice to Air France KLMs customers. We look forward to a continuing productive partnership as we deploy new technology with the airline.



Emmanuelle Gailland, vice president, Distribution Air France KLM, said: Travelport has been a great partner throughout our Private Channel engagement as a transition towards NDC. Both Air France KLM and Travelport will work together to bring NDC content of new fares, products, services and rich media in the marketplace. - TradeArabia News Service


Emaar Hospitality Group has appointed Riad Abi Haidar as general manager of Address Dubai Marina, a popular urban waterfront destination set in one of the worlds largest waterfront developments.



He is mandated with strengthening the strategic positioning of the hotel, delivering creative initiatives, and focusing on enhancing operational efficiency and productivity.



Address Dubai Marina opened in 2009 under Emaar Hospitality Groups Address Hotels + Resorts premium luxury hotel and serviced residences brand. Joining from Manzil Downtown, another hotel under Emaar Hospitality Groups Vida Hotels and Resorts, where he was general manager, Haidar has a proven track record in delivering industry-leading innovation and setting benchmarks in hotel performance. He has extensive experience in the industry, having worked in several senior managerial positions at international hotel chains in various global markets.



Olivier Harnisch, chief executive officer of Emaar Hospitality Group, said: Address Dubai Marina, one of the landmark hotels under Address Hotels + Resorts, has established its credentials as a modern business and leisure destination. Riad Abi Haidar brings extensive industry experience, and strong domain knowledge of Dubais hospitality sector, which will prove invaluable in driving the hotels growth and delivering exceptional customer service standards.



Haidar said: As a property that exemplifies the brand values of Address Hotels + Resorts, Address Dubai Marina stands out for its sophisticated architecture and design, elegant interiors, outstanding restaurant concepts, and a wide range of amenities that appeal to both business and leisure travellers. Our focus is to ensure that Address Dubai Marina continues to offer superior guest experiences for our customers underlining its premium position, and create long-term value.



Located in Dubai Marina, with upscale retail outlets, popular restaurants and trendy late-night lounge destinations, Address Dubai Marina is at the heart of new Dubai with the rooms opening to spectacular views of the Dubai Marina and the Arabian Sea. - TradeArabia News Service


National carrier Oman Air received the official Four-Star Airlines Rating in the category of Major Regional Airline at the Apex Regional Passenger Choice Awards (PCAs), held in Shanghai earlier this month.



The four-star rating award was received by Oman Airs China country manager, Vincent Tao Lin, at the awards ceremony. The ceremony was the grand finale of Apex Asia, 2018 event, where airlines and suppliers from around the world gather to exchange ideas and information.



These awards cover Asia and Australia, Africa and the Middle East, and represent the opinions of passengers around the world via the Official Airline Ratings (OARs).

The Apex Official Airline Ratings are new and innovative industry-rating programmes and were created by Apex, in partnership with TripIt from Concur. The ratings allow Apex airline members to receive exclusive access to anonymous insights from their passengers, which can then be used to elevate the passenger experience. TripIt facilitates the collection of validated passenger ratings at scale, and Apex leverages insights to create a global overall ranking of all the airlines, as well as select winners of the Passenger Choice Awards.



As a key stakeholder of the Muscat International Airport, Oman Air operates up to 200 flights per day from the new state-of-the-art new terminal which will have the capacity to handle 20 million passengers per year and its runway will be able to accommodate the worlds largest aircraft, the Airbus A380, and independent parallel operation. The new passenger terminal with its ultra-modern facilities will help Oman Air provide best services to its guests. The New Terminal Building boasts a number of excellent facilities including 6,000-sq-m of Duty Free shopping, 96 check-in counters, 8,000 parking spaces and a 90-room airside hotel. - TradeArabia News Service


British Airways new summer seasonal Seychelles flights are already set to move to year-round, operating twice a week, every week of the year.



On March 25, the airlines first flight touched down at Mahe International Airport, making it the only airline offering a non-stop service from the UK.



The flights are to be operated by the airlines newest aircraft to the fleet, the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner with four cabins: World Traveller (economy), World Traveller Plus (premium economy), Club World (business class) and an exclusive eight-suite First cabin.



Scattered across the Indian Ocean, Seychelles is famed as some of the most idyllic islands on the planet, offering honeymooners, families and sun worshippers world famous beaches, crystal clear waters, easy island hopping and colourful coral reefs.



Flights depart on Wednesdays and Saturdays and the route timetable is perfectly positioned for honeymooners and holidaymakers keen to immerse themselves in island-life for longer.



Richard Tams, British Airways spokesperson who flew on the very first flight, said: Seychelles is called the land of perpetual summer and the route has proved so popular with our leisure customers that we are delighted to start serving the destination year-round.



Return fares start from 699 ($990.7) in World Traveller, 999 ($1,415.9) in World Traveller Plus, 2,499 ($3,541.8) in Club World and from 3,499 ($4,959.1) for First, and are available to book now on the airline's website.



For those wanting to soak up the sun in Seychelles, British Airways Holidays has the following packages on offer:



 Seychelles  British Airways Holidays offers seven nights at the three-star Le Relax Hotel & Restaurant, from 939 ($1,330.8) per person, travelling on selected dates in September. Includes World Traveller return flights from London Gatwick and accommodation with breakfast. Book by March 31.



 Seychelles  British Airways Holidays offers seven nights at the four-star Hilton Seychelles Labriz Resort and Spa, from 1,399 ($1,982.8) per person, travelling on selected dates in June. Includes World Traveller return flights from London Heathrow and accommodation with breakfast. Book by March 31. - TradeArabia News Service
Crowley Maritime Delivers First Liquefied Natural Gas ISO Container

Earlier this week, Crowley Maritime Corporations liquefied natural gas group successfully executed the first load of close to 11,000 gallons of liquefied natural gas into an ISO container at the Eagle LNG Partners facility near Jacksonville, Florida.



Crowley reports that it loaded the liquefied natural gas (LNG) container and delivered it to Jacksonvilles Port in order to transport the container overseas for customers in Puerto Rico.

According to Crowley, the new plant located in Jacksonville will allow the company to expand the supply and availability to its customers in the United States, Caribbean and Latin America.



Matt Jackson, Vice President of LNG at Crowley reports that successful transportation of the LNG container means a great deal of progress in transporting liquefied natural gas.



With the successful LNG tank container loading at the Eagle LNG Partners Maxville Facility, Crowley can offer even more flexible services and sourcing locations to supply customers with LNG as a cleaner, safer fuel source. The new plant location means LNG can be easily produced and transported to the port all within the Jacksonville area, said Jackson.



Not only will Crowley and Eagle LNG Partners provide a fuel source that decreases environmental impacts, Crowley can provide supply chain and engineering solutions that are resilient alternatives to traditional energy sources in Puerto Rico and other markets.



Crowley reports that after it receives a liquefied natural gas, and ISO container is transported by truck to an ocean vessel, with both modes of transportation provided by Crowley.



According to Crowley, the company has provided transport for more than 6.5 million gallons of liquid natural gas to date.



Interested parties may learn more about Crowleys LNG deliveries by visiting their website.


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If Congress and Americas European allies are unable to amend the Iran nuclear deal, US President Donald Trump is prepared to potentially walk away from it, the White House said on Monday.

The Times of Israel reports in its article White House: If its not changed, Trump prepared to potentially exit Iran deal that the language was softer than Trumps own speech in January, when he waived sanctions against Tehran, as required under the accord, but stated explicitly that if an agreement to fix what he deems the pacts flaws was not reached, he would withdraw from the deal immediately.

Asked whether he could confirm reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told French and German diplomats on Monday that Trump will leave the deal if three parts of the deal are not modified, Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah told reporters, If changes arent made, the president is prepared to potentially withdraw from the agreement. Shah said he could not confirm or deny reports of what the Israeli premier might have said in a meeting.

Earlier Monday, Axios reported that Netanyahu told those two countries foreign ministers, who had been visiting Jerusalem, that he predicts with very high probability that the American president is, in fact, going to follow through on his threat to exit the accord on May 12, the next deadline to waive sanctions under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

According to Axios, Netanyahu said that three critical parts of the deal needed to be altered for the US to stay in it: adding a ban on Iran testing ballistic missiles, increasing inspection access to Irans military facilities, and removing the sunset clauses that allow certain restrains on Irans nuclear program to expire in nine years.

Trump has recently ousted members of his national security team who have urged him to stay and keep the deal, such as former secretary of state Rex Tillerson and national security adviser H.R. McMaster, and replaced them with more hawkish figures like CIA Director Mike Pompeo and former US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton, who, in 2015, called forpreemptively bombing Iran.

Much of Washingtons foreign policy community now believes that Trump will abrogate the accord. Tennessee Senator Bob Corker, a Republican who is chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told CBS last week that he expects Trump to walk away.

The Iran deal will be another issue thats coming up in May, and right now it doesnt feel like its going to be extended, he said. I think the president likely will move away from it, unless our European counterparts really come together on a framework. And it doesnt feel to me that they are. Now, as we get within two weeks of the May 12 date, that could change.

But when asked by Margaret Brennan, who hosts the networks flagship Sunday morning program, Face the Nation, if he thinks Trump will leave the deal, Corker told her: I do, I do.
A surprise visit by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to China may indicate Pyongyang's need for support from its closest ally ahead of upcoming summits with South Korea and the US.

As CNN writes in the article Why Kim Jong Un made a secret trip to China, Kim met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and other high ranking officials in Beijing this week. Observers had said it would have been highly unusual for him to meet US President Donald Trump without seeing Xi first. Prior to the Beijing trip, Kim had never met a foreign leader since he took power in 2011. China is North Korea's number one trading and economic partner, and is Pyongyang's only major military ally. Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in are due to meet next month, and a proposed meeting with Trump is due to take place by May. Aidan Foster-Carter, an honorary senior research fellow at Leeds University, said it would have been almost unthinkable for Kim to meet with Moon and Trump having never met Xi, given the importance of the Sino-Korean alliance.

Key alliance

Since North and South Korea reopened diplomatic ties in February, Pyongyang has been pushing for a Korean solution to the ongoing crisis on the peninsula, which analysts say is a way of driving a wedge between Seoul and Washington.But recent moves have also left China, North Korea's most important ally, somewhat marginalized. The two countries have been allies since the Korean War, when Mao Zedong sent troops to support Kim's grandfather Kim Il Sung, and still maintain a mutual defense treaty, under which they pledge to "immediately render military and other assistance by all means at its disposal" in the event of war or foreign attack. Since Kim Jong Un took power in 2011 however, the relationship has become increasingly strained. Kim purged several key officials with close ties to Beijing, including his uncle, Jang Song Thaek. He also angered China by pursuing missile and nuclear testing against Beijing's stated goal of a denuclearized Korean Peninsula.

"The North Korean Chinese relationship has not been very good in recent years, particularly over China's acceptance of international sanctions and degree of implementing thecm," said James Hoare, an associate fellow at Chatham House and former UK diplomat in North Korea. "These will be subjects the North Koreans are keen to talk about."

Foster-Carter agreed, adding Pyongyang may be hoping China will ease up on sanctions following the summits with South Korea and the US. Tong Zhao, a North Korea expert at the Carnegie Tsinghua Center for Global Policy in Beijing, said Pyongyang "wants to have some insurance against this upcoming summit meeting with President Trump." ''They know the meeting is very important but also very risky, there are a lot of uncertainties," he said. "If the meeting fails the US could declare that diplomacy has failed and shift to a more coercive approach or even a military strike." "A stable and positive relationship with China would prevent the US from launching a military strike," Zhao said.

Difficult diplomacy

China has repeatedly emphasized that it supports a denuclearized Korean Peninsula, and has suggested a freeze-for-freeze solution to the current crisis, whereby the US and South Korea suspend joint military drills in return for North Korea suspending weapons testing. "China would like to be seen as the ultimate peacemaker in the region," said Adam Cathcart, an expert on Sino-Korean relations at the University of Leeds. "The Chinese would like a win."

Zhao said Beijing is far more willing than the US to tolerate a nuclear North Korea, at least in the short term. "China has long accepted the status quo," he said. "It is prepared to deal with the nuclear reality and work on incremental progress towards disarming North Korea."

Multiple analysts said the US may find itself outflanked if North Korea proposed a Chinese-backed freeze-for-freeze, or similar first step towards denuclearization. "The US has rather got itself into a bind with its impossible demand for the total elimination of North Korea's nuclear weapons," Hoare said. "The North Koreans might agree to halt their present programs, both missile and nuclear development, but I don't think they're going to go backwards -- they see (the nuclear program) as essential to preserving their existence."

North Korea expert Foster-Carter said "someone on either side has got to find a clever formula which suffices to convince the Americans that some kind of denuclearization process is on the table or beginning," while still allowing North Korea to claim domestically that it has not sacrificed its deterrent capabilities.
One year before the United Kingdom is scheduled to leave the European Union - on March 29, 2019. The Russian experts told about the exit process.

Associate Professor at Moscow State Institute of International Relations Nikolai Topornin recalled that one of the main issues of the recent EU summit, which was held in the end of last week, was Brexit: "The first day of the summit, March 22, attended by British Prime Minister Therese May, was entirely devoted to the solution of various aspects of Britain's exit from the EU. Britain does not change its position despite rumors and false information in the media. It will strictly implement the decision of the people that was adopted in 2016. The latest polls show that 53% of Britons would now keep European Union membership, but this number is not a constant - bigger and smaller. Generally speaking, the British society is split roughly into two equal halves. The second stage of the process to agree on the parameters of the UK's exit has started. They finished the first stage in December of last year, and now outlined the main targets of those goals and objectives, to work on them in the next 6-7 months."

The United Kingdom is scheduled to leave the European Union before March 29, 2019, but a special regime will operate before January 1, 2021. "The special regime is mainly intended for those EU citizens who are currently working in the UK, and those British citizens who are currently working in continental Europe. For them, by and large, nothing changes. Citizens of the EU, who will arrive in the UK for work, study or other issues during this transitional period, will have the same rights that other European citizens had before this significant process," Topornin said.

Answering the question of what is the purpose of the transition period, he noted: "The UK insists on maintaining the free trade regime. It would be unacceptable for it to lose such an important market for goods and services as continental Europe. Even the conservative government, which are Eurosceptics, understands that if a fence between Britain and the EU is erected, the United Kingdom will suffer very serious losses, especially in terms of economic development. Therefore they want to preserve the free trade zone and determine its conditions themselves. The European Union has a number of agreements that have been concluded with some international alliances. Last year, a treaty on a free trade zone with Canada was ratified, the negotiations with Mexico are currently under way, there were successful negotiations with Japan. That is the EU is on its way to creating a comprehensive network of agreements within which turnover of services and goods will be free of duty. Today the negotiations on TTIP and Transatlantic partnership with the US are frozen to some extent for Europeans, but nevertheless they think that this obstacle is surmountable if Trump are not re-elected for the next term. Therefore, the UK does not want to sign these agreements concluded by the European Union, but wants to individually agree on each issue and reserve the opportunity to enter into additional agreements with each EU country. "

Meanwhile, Deputy Director of the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladislav Belov concluded that the Brussels summit ended with nothing in terms of Brexit: "The UK presents high expectations, wishing to maintain a special industry-specific regime. But Russia had been made a priority at the summit as an image of the enemy, which should consolidate the society around May and Johnson. Therefore, there were no new solutions in terms of Brexit. "
At the end of last week, the EU summit was held in Brussels, where one of the main topics of discussion was the issue of EU unity and its relations with Russia.

Commenting on the results of the summit, Deputy Director of the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladislav Belov noted that on March 16, on the eve of the summit, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the former mayor of Hamburg Olaf Scholz met with their French colleagues to discuss the interaction of Berlin and Paris within the EU: "The Paris-Berlin axis is negatively perceived by the Nordic countries, the southern countries, the Visegrad Group. [French President Emmanuel] Macron and Merkel promote the idea of "Multi-speed Europe". The Visegrad Group protests against a unified immigration policy. On March 19, Angela Merkel met with the Polish colleagues, where she more or less settled this issue."

Therefore, the topic of Russia, raised by London at the summit, has become one of the main themes. "It is unpleasant that it was overbased. It's unpleasant that Angela Merkel and Macron expressed their unequivocal support to British claims to Russia, saying that this is the most credible version. On the eve of the summit, the German ambassador, along with the British and US ambassadors, did not come to a meeting with Lavrov. All this contradicts what was written in the coalition agreement, in which Russia is designated as a partner with great potential, which mentions the Minsk process and the east of Ukraine," Belov said.

At the same time, according to Moscow State Institute of International Relations associate Nikolai Topornin, the European Union remains Russia's main trade and economic partner: "The events related to the Salisbury incident affect our partnership relations. Now the West European and NATO countries are being consolidated into a single coalition, into a single the front against Russia, which is a serious economic threat to Russia. The main economic project of Russia and the EU is the construction of the North Stream-2. It is planned that the first line will be put into operation in 2019. But eight countries of the European Union sent a letter to the headquarters of the commission, which says that it would be expedient to suspend the project for a number of reasons because it is "toxic" for the European Union. This refers to increasing energy dependence on Russia, which the EU wants to avoid."

The second point, which disturbs Nikolai Topornin, is the situation over Ukraine. "I mean our pipeline, through which we deliver gas to the European Union. It is one of the most important sources of replenishment of the Russian budget. The Stockholm court decide against Russia after Ukraine's claim, there were lawsuits against each other, but as a result Russia was obliged to pay 2 billion 560 million. Now Ukraine makes a claim in respect of the gas transit contract. And they believe that it is necessary to at least double the gas transit price. It creates additional threats to us in the European direction. And these threats are not ephemeral. These are serious threats that could affect the global tasks announced by the president in his address to the Federal Assembly: raising salaries, labor productivity, ensuring economic growth and GDP. Therefore, we need to think about improving relations with the EU and individual countries, because, unfortunately, we are not able to reach a reasonable compromise using language of mutual sanctions and mutual threats," the expert is confident.
Today, Russia has started a nation-wide day of mourning for 64 victims of a fire in the Zimnyaya Vishnya shopping mall in Kemerovo. Many cities organized the special cites for offering condolences and nationwide sorrow for the victims, most of whom were children. There are two such sites in Moscow - on Manezhnaya Square and Pushkin Square, but people are also bringing flowers to the building of the Kemerovo Region Administration under the government of the Russian Federation on Bolshaya Tatarskaya Street.

Today, representatives of the Azerbaijani community of Moscow held a mourning event there.

According to the correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza, the director of the Fund of Development and Revival of Azerbaijani Culture, Shamil Tagiyev, stressed that the representatives of the Azerbaijani community considered it their duty to honor the memory of the deceased. "Today, a nation-wide day of mourning was declared in Russia for people, for children who died for nothing. Not just here, but also in Azerbaijan, people honor their memory today. We hope that this will not happen again in Russia and in the world, because peaceful people should not die in peacetime due to negligence," he said.

"A lot of people died there, 64 people, inducing 41 children. We are very sorry that it happened. For two days people in Azerbaijan have come to the Russian embassy and honor the memory of those killed in this tragedy. The government must take measures. Such fires broken out in Moscow and other regions, and for us, for the entire Russian people, including Russian Azerbaijanis, fires have become not just extraordinary cases, but a national tragedy," Shamil Tagiyev drew attention.

"We hope that those responsible for these fires will be punished. We call upon all representatives of our diaspora not to yield to provocations, many of which have appeared on the internet recently. They are created by certain people who are trying to use the situation for their political purposes," the director of the Fund of Development and Revival of Azerbaijani Culture noted.

Nail Isayev, who works as assistant investigator in the Western Administrative Okrug of Moscow on a voluntary basis, said that the fire in Kemerovo was a tragedy for the whole country. "I hope that president Vladimir Putin and head of the Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin will not leave this unpunished. The entire Russian People's Friendship University is mourning. This is a wound for all the people and the whole country. God, give patience to the families that suffered, the children, who were left without parents, and those who lost their children," the participant said.

Associate Professor at Peoples' Friendship University of Russia Oktay Huseynov also stressed that Russian Azeris mourn today with the whole Russian people and express condolences to the relatives and friends of the deceased. "It's a huge tragedy. If you look at the recent history, a lot of emergencies happen in shopping malls. The fact that it was impossible to open a spare entrance door shows the negligence of businessmen who are not capable of organizing fire safety. The Azerbaijani people condole with the families of the deceased. Azerbaijanis come to the Russian Embassy in Azerbaijan and express their sorrow," he said.
For the last two days, Azerbaijani citizens have held a spontaneous action in Baku to commemorate 64 victims of a fire in the Zimnyaya Vishnya shopping mall in Kemerovo.

The people leave flowers, candles, notes and toys outside the Russian Embassy in Azerbaijan.

Russias Embassy in Baku opened a book of condolence in honor of the victims of the fire. The first record in it was left by the first vice-president of Azerbaijan Mehriban Aliyeva, the correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza reports.

The chairman of the Caucasian Muslims Office, Sheikh-ul-Islam Allahshukur Pashazade also commemorated the victims of the tragedy in Kemerovo.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was taken to a hospital yesterday where he was diagnosed with a mild viral illness of the upper respiratory system, according to officials with the hospital and the Prime Minister's office.

Netanyahu was released early Wednesday after a series of exams, officials said.

He had been taken to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem because he had a high fever and coughs, CNN reported with reference to Netanyahu's office.

The statement said the Prime Minister's personal physician, Dr. Tzvi Herman Berkovich, thinks Netanyahu did not complete the period of rest needed for full recuperation since his illness two weeks ago, and his symptoms worsened. Berkovich went with the Prime Minister to the hospital, where Netanyahu was treated by the medical staff.

Doctors recommended rest and medicine for the Prime Minister, officials said.

On Monday, Netanyahu, his wife and son were questioned for about 4 hours in an ongoing corruption investigation.
The visit of the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to Moscow has been postponed due to changes in the Russian leaders schedule, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a message.

"Due to changes in the working schedule of the Russian leaders, it was decided to postpone a working visit to Russia by Chinese Foreign Minister and member of the State Council Wang Yi to a later date," the ministry said. "A new date of the visit will be agreed through diplomatic channels."

The visit was originally scheduled for March 27-28. Wang Yi was expected to meet with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov.
The West should expect an adequate response from Moscow to the mass expulsion of Russian diplomats in connection with the so-called Skripal poisoning case, Russia's envoy to the EU Vladimir Chizhov said.

Speaking in an interview with Euronews television, Chizhov expressed disappointment with the fact that half of the EU member-countries followed 'false solidarity' by supporting the United Kingdom in its groundless claims of Moscow's direct involvement in Skripal poisoning.

"An adequate response should be expected," Sputnik cited Chizhov as saying.

Earlier, Russian envoy to EU said that the United Kingdoms actions in connection with the poisoning of former Russian intelligence officer Sergey Skripal in Salisbury were an attempt to deflect attention from problems related to the process of the country's withdrawal from the European Union.

Vladimir Chizhov emphasized last week that Brexit talks did not contribute to the UK Prime Minister Theresa May's or the UK government's popularity.
Russian bailiffs canceled physical persons' bad debts in the amount of about 2.2 trillion rubles to banks, the Izvestia newspaper reported with reference to Russia's Federal Bailiffs Service.

In 2017, bailiffs were not able to recover 2.2 trillion rubles of the debts, so 16.9 million executive proceedings have been canceled. The main reason for debt cancellation is the impossibility of collecting debts.

In 2016, 14.3 million executive proceedings (1.9 trillion rubles) have been canceled and in 2017, bailiffs planned to cancel physical persons' bad debts in the amount of about 1 trillion rubles to banks, Vestnik Kavkaza reported.

Thus, on average, last year, 130177.51 rubles were wrote off in one case. Accordingly, in 2016, the average bad debt in one case was 132867.13 rubles.

Russia's Federal Bailiffs Service explained that the increase in canceling bad debts of Russians is associated with an increase in lending and a decline in real incomes of the population last year.

The vice-rector of the Academy of Labour and Social Relations Alexander Safonov, speaking to a correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that 2.2 trillion rubles of "forgiven" debts are really a significant amount of loss for the financial system. "It is easy to estimate the scale of it if we compare these 2.2 trillion rubles with the transfer of the federal budget to the pension system, which amounted to 3 trillion rubles this year. If these funds entered the budget, it would be possible to remove all discussions about raising the retirement age. As a rule, citizens' tax debts are mainly debts entering the budget system of municipalities and subjects of the Russian Federation," he said.

"As you know, the government, in order to support the fulfillment of presidential decrees on wages, transferred grants in the amount of 20 billion rubles to the regions last year - compare them with 2.2 trillion rubles. If such money were paid by citizens in the Russian regions with high unemployment, low wages and incomes, it would be possible to close the regions' need for assistance from the federal center and substantially improve the financial system by eliminating the credit crunch of the entities of the Russian Federation. It shows one thing - the people have no money even to pay taxes," Alexander Safonov pointed out.

The problem of debt overburden of the population, which need a loan after loan, has not disappeared. "First of all, this problem is created due to micro-loans, the total amount of such debts is about 1.5 trillion rubles, due to the fact that interest on microloans is very high. Up to 70% of loans on microloans are an attempt to roll over their debt," the vice-rector of the Academy of Labour and Social Relations concluded.

The advisor on macroeconomics to the CEO of the 'Opening-Broker' brokerage house, economist Sergey Hestanov, in turn, drew attention to the fact that these financial losses are extremely unevenly spread. "If we are talking about banks, then they have a small amount of irrevocable financial losses. But in such a sector as microlenders, there are not enough reliable statistics, so even this figure is not easy to assess. These 2.2 trillion rubles is a significant number and is comparable to 10% of the money that citizens keep on deposits," he said.

"In practice, this is a significant amount of money that suggests that Russia's regulation of debt collection is much worse than those of many other countries. In most developed countries, there are radically fewer cases when debts cannot be recovered and they are classed as bad ones," Sergei Hestanov explained.

"In general, the situation, when it was not possible to recover debts of 16.9 million debtors in a year, is characterized as moderately unfavorable. This figure indicates the need to work seriously with the debt collection mechanism. The more effective these mechanisms are, the more accessible loans for bona fide borrowers will be," the advisor on macroeconomics to the CEO of the 'Opening-Broker' brokerage house summarized.
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani wrote a message to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin condoling with him on the deadly blaze at a shopping center in Russia's city of Kemerovo.

In a message, Rouhani extended his condolences to his Russian counterpart over the death of more than 60 people, saying the tragedy has caused him deep grief and sorrow.

The president extended his deepest sympathies to the families of the victims, which included 41 children, Mehr news agency reported.

Rouhani further wished continued health and success for President Putin and prosperity and felicity for the Russian people.
Trade turnover between Georgia and Israel will reach $1 billion over the course of the next five years, Georgias Economy Minister Dimitry Kumsishvili said at the meeting with the Minister of Economy and Industry of Israel, Eli Cohen.

Developing trade and economic relations was one of the main topics of discussion at their meeting.

At the meeting Kumsishvili and Cohen agreed to deepen cooperation in various fields of economy. The ministers found several sectors interesting for future cooperation such as maritime transport, logistics, advanced technology and tourism, Agenda.ge reported.

Trade turnover between the counties increased by 31% in 2017 compared to 2016, while export increased by 28% during the same period.
US President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed a number of issues in a phone call, including the Skripal case, trade policy, the Syrian conflict and North Korea, the White House said.

Trump and Merkel also discussed joining forces to counter Chinas economic practices and alleged intellectual property theft, the White House said.

Trump, in the call with Merkel also praised the coordinated decision with governments across Europe to expel Russian diplomats. The expulsions were intended to punish the Kremlin for a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in Britain that has been blamed on Moscow, Reuters reported.
Russia welcomes the meeting between the leaders of China and North Korea, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"We view the talks as an important step in consolidating positive tendencies seen of late in the development of the situation on the Korean Peninsula and around it," the statement says.

The ministry confirmed Moscows readiness to continue close cooperation with Chinese partners and "make active efforts" to contribute to settling regional problems by peaceful political and diplomatic means through "a direct dialogue between all the parties concerned."

The North Korean leaders visit to Beijing was held on March 25-28. During the trip, Kim Jong-un held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Turkey and the US will discuss the issue of the liberation of Syrias Manbij city from terrorists of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and the Peoples Protection Units (YPG), the Turkish Foreign Ministry said.

According to the message, this issue will be discussed during official representative of the Turkish Foreign Ministry Hami Aksoys visit to Washington on March 30.

On March 27 the Turkish Armed Forces liberated Syrias Tel-Rifat city from terrorists. Moreover, Turkeys Armed Forces and Free Syrian Army liberated Afrin city from PYD and YPG terrorists on March 18. On Jan. 20, the Turkish Armed Forces, together with the Free Syrian Army, launched the Operation Olive Branch in Afrin, Syria.
Russia must take responsibility for the alleged poisoning of Sergei Skripal in the UK if it wants to improve relations with the United States, US State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said during a press briefing.

"If Russia wants to improve relations it needs to first acknowledge its responsibility for this attack and cease its recklessly aggressive behavior," she told reporters.

Speaking about whether the UK provided the United States with any evidence of Russia's involvement in this attack, Nauert said that she personally had not seen it. "I dont have access to that kind of information. But I can tell you these were people operating under diplomatic cover," the spokeswoman added.
Saudi Arabia and Russia are working on a historic long-term pact that could extend controls over world crude supplies by major exporters for many years, Reuters reported.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said that Riyadh and Moscow were considering a deal to greatly extend a short-term alliance on oil curbs that began in January 2017 after a crash in crude prices.

We are working to shift from a year-to-year agreement to a 10 to 20 year agreement, the crown prince said, adding that they have agreement on the big picture, but not yet on the detail.

The Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia and Saudi Arabia maintain ties on the issues related to cooperation on energy markets.

"Russia and Saudi Arabia are actively expanding ties on various levels - expert, top-level (ties), as they discuss different cooperation areas, including cooperation on energy markets," the spokesman said.

A leading analyst of the National Energy Security Fund, a lecturer at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, Igor Yushkov, speaking to Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that that Saudi Arabia's statement should be regarded as an attempt to exert influence on traders. "Such statements will be made as long as it affects the prices. But we should not consider seriously the statement that Russia will join OPEC and that someone has an action plan for the next 20 years," the expert said. .

At the same time, he recalled that the decision to conclude the OPEC + deal was situational. "Nobody knew whether it would work or not, but after raising oil prices, they were faced with the fact that the US benefited best from this situation. The prices increased, shale deposits became profitable, and so did extraction. Therefore, in order to maintain the prices at an acceptable level, all the deal participants must constantly make such statements," a leading analyst of the National Energy Security Fund said.

In addition, he expressed doubt that any proposals in the framework of this cooperation from OPEC will be of interest to Russia. "OPEC produces about 40% of oil. In addition, we are competitors in the world energy markets. It is difficult to find any point of cooperation here. Russia was forced to agree to this cooperation. The only possible option for cooperation within the framework of OPEC + is the reformatting of output quotas. But the total oil output in the framework of OPEC + will not change," the lecturer at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation summarized.

The Professor of the department of state regulation of the economy of the Institute of Public Administration and Management of RANEPA, Olga Malikova, in turn, said that the coherent policy of Russia with the largest oil-exporting countries seems rational, but not in the current conditions. "The problem is that if oil prices start rising fast, it stimulates the rapid development of alternative energy production technologies in Europe and the growth in the number of operating rigs drilling for shale oil in the US. These factors limit OPEC's impact on oil prices," she drew attention.

"In this regard, it is difficult to answer the question whether it makes sense for Russia to enter OPEC, but it is rather no than yes. I would emphasize that any sharp rise in oil prices lead to activation of shale oil producers, the growth in oil supply and the escalation of competition. In addition, the volume of energy production from alternative sources is expanding in the European market. It turns out that a coordinated policy is, of course, advisable, but in modern conditions joining OPEC does not make sense," Olga Malikova summed up.
By Mai Huong

HA NOI  Viet Nams tourism industry is booming and is fast becoming the driving force behind economic growth  but it also faces calls for reform to keep up with high standards.

The smoke-free industry has witnessed spectacular success in the past few years with higher growth rate every year.

Last year, nearly 13 million foreign visitors came to our shores, earning the country more than VN500 trillion (US$22 billion). Thats up 30 per cent and 20 per cent year-on-year, respectively.

Over the decade, the number of international visitors to Viet Nam has tripled while revenue has increased by nine times.

Viet Nams tourism ranked sixth in the top 10 fastest growing tourism destinations globally and was crowned the best performer in Asia in 2017. The industry last year contributed 7.5 per cent to the nations GDP.

With such impressive achievements, tourism has been identified a key economic sector by 2020. It can help boost the development of other sectors including construction, real estate, retail, education and job opportunities

A Politburo resolution on developing tourism and seeing it evolve into a major player in Viet Nams economy was introduced last year.

The nation hopes to welcome 17-20 million foreign arrivals and 82 million domestic tourists by 2020. Tourism revenue is expected to reach $35 billion, contributing 10 per cent to the countrys GDP by then, and the industry may create four million jobs, including 1.6 million direct jobs.

Bottlenecks

Tourism is forecast to maintain strong development in the next few years thanks to the Governments support policies, determination of provincial authorities and dynamic development of both businesses and communities.

However, such rapid expansion is exposing many challenges and if the industry cannot be restructured to break bottlenecks it could be beaten by overdevelopment.

Rapid increase in the number of visitors to Viet Nam in the short term is putting the industry under great pressure of transport infrastructure, human resource and destination management capacity, said Nguyen Quy Phuong, director of Travel Management Department under the Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism.

Phuong said infrastructure deficiencies, particularly overloaded airports, will likely make tourists worn out due to long waiting while the lack of adequate human resource and public management capacity in destinations will affect service quality.

In reality, airports in major cities such as Ha Noi, HCM City, Hue and a Nang, are facing the overload trouble.

Half of the people who visited from overseas last year flew into Tan Son Nhat International Airport in HCM City. It was built to accommodate 25 million passengers per year, but in 2016, 32 million came through its doors.

According to Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index 2017 of the World Economic Forum, Viet Nams tourist service infrastructure ranked 113th out of 136 economies, airport infrastructure 61st, ground traffic 71st, IT platform 80th, clean and safe environment 82nd and international openness (mainly visas) 73rd.

Urgent attention should be paid to upgrade of transport infrastructure, including seaports in the context of increasing demand for cruise tourism, as well as improvements in visa and immigration procedures, Phuong said.

Vu The Binh, deputy chairman of Viet Nam Tourism Association, also stressed the need to create a greater experience for visitors, highlighting the problems with visas.

Viet Nam has granted visa waivers for visitors from 24 countries while applying electronic visa to citizens of 46 countries. However, according to Binh, these numbers are still feeble compared with Thailand which awards free-visa for tourists of 67 countries and Indonesia which waives visa for citizens of 169 countries and territories.

Not only that, also procedure of visa exemption applied for foreigners is quite complicated, creating inconvenience and displeasure for both foreign visitors and travel companies, Binh was quoted as saying on the Thoi bao kinh te Viet Nam (Vietnam Economic Times).

Collective economic sector

For a long time, Viet Nams tourism has been developed in a spontaneous manner.

Individuality is key, and many regions hope to promote their own unique brands to showcase to the world but they mostly do so in keeping with the national strategy.

Important things to consider include tourists needs, promotional campaigns, infrastructure, human resources and management.

According to Trinh Thi My Nghe, vice chairman of Ha Noi City Tourism Association, tourism is not a single industry but a collective one relating to other sectors and subjects.

Good infrastructure, management, safety, hygiene and friendly citizens are all surface factors to attract visitors, Nghe told Viet Nam News.

Travel companies design and sell products to tourists and the local authorities are responsible for organisation and management of destinations.

Apart from visiting beautiful landscape, foreign tourists coming to Viet Nam want to learn more about Vietnamese culture, meet and experience the local living, she said, adding that responsibility of businesses and community is to study customer demand to design attractive products.

Tourism development also requires inter-regional coordination. Viet Nam has developed several successful regional tourism brands such as the connection of the eight Northwestern provinces and cluster of the three central provinces (Thua Thien-Hue, a Nang and Quang Nam).

The Government is also urged to improve the business environment to ensure the deep participation of private businesses and community in the national tourism development strategy.

Viet Nam hopes for around 16 million foreign visitors, 80 million domestic arrivals and VN620 trillion in total tourism revenue in 2018. These are considered achievable goals but collective efforts among management agencies, businesses, communities and professional organisations are needed to ensure sustainable development in the future.

But as the country evolves, one thing that each and everyone can do, is welcome our visitors with the traditionally Vietnamese smile.  VNS
HA NOI  Vietnamese firms should expand their partnership to at least three markets to avoid sole dependence on a particular market, said economist Pham Chi Lan.

She also urged the firms to provide clear and transparent filings to meet the standards of exporting markets.

Vietnamese enterprises must prove that they do not enjoy protectionism of the government and do not sell products at a dumping price level to ensure they are not affected by the anti-dumping tax policies of the exporting markets, she said.

Given the context in which US regulators have planned to impose anti-dumping taxes on Vietnamese exports to protect their local fishery and steel industries, Lan suggested firms to explore other markets and diversify their targeted markets to ensure less reliance on a sole, large market.

A three-market strategy will ensure that a companys export is balanced and that business will not depend on any particular market, Lan said.

Such business strategy will help Vietnamese firms to survive and exploit new opportunities in the context of a rising global trade war, following intense statements from China and the United States against each other, she said on the sidelines of a conference co-organised by the Vietnam Executive MBA Programme in Ha Noi, University of Hawaii, and the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam last week.

The United States announced a US$60 billion tariff bill on Chinese imports last week. China, in return, filed a list of 128 US products for retaliation, raising global concerns about a possible trade war.

According to Jack Suyderhoud, professor of Business Economics at the Shidler College of Business, University of Hawaii at Manoa, recent actions of the US government are aimed at protecting its local industries, such as fisheries and steel, against threats from cheaper imports from China and Viet Nam.

Rising protectionism will encounter objection from those benefiting from free trade, Jack said, adding that the US government should notice how important the win-win principle is and how it exists in every trade deal.

Lan urged local firms to strengthen their competency so that they can take advantage of benefits brought about by free trade agreements, to which Viet Nam must comply, and encounter less negative impacts from a possible global trade war.

Besides the US and China, Vietnamese firms should increase its influence in other markets, such as the European Union, reducing its dependence on the worlds two largest markets, Lan said.

There are no winners in a trade war, she said, adding that the United States and China are two of the largest trading partners of Viet Nam, thus, we need to expand our trade relations to different markets to boost the countrys economy.

The establishment of the CPTPP (Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership), signed on March 8 without the United States participation, is a good way to deal with the unpredictable policies of the United States and China at the moment, Lan said.

The CPTPP deal will help other economies to get to know each other, increase their cooperation and protect their economies, offsetting the damages caused by US protectionism and Chinas responses, she added.

CPTPP is proving to be attractive to other economies that are not partners to the deal, such as South Korea and the United Kingdom, she said.  VNS
General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee Nguyen Phu Trong (first left) meets with leaders of major enterprises in France yesterday.  VNA/VNS Photo Tri Dung

PARIS  Viet Nam always welcomes foreign investors, including those from France , said General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee Nguyen Phu Trong.
HA NOI  Domestic cement consumption reduced in March, while cement exports had growth against the same period last year, according to the Ministry of Construction.

Total cement consumption at home and abroad reached 7.96 million tonnes in March, a month-on-month increase of 340,000 tonnes but the same volume year-on-year, according to the ministrys building material department.

In March, cement consumption in the domestic market stood at 5.56 million tonnes, a reduction of 11 per cent year-on-year. Meanwhile, the export volume was 2.4 million tonnes, marking a growth of 30 per cent year-on-year.

Experts attributed the difference in consumption between the two markets to lower domestic demand after Tet (Vietnamese Lunar New Year) and higher demand in China, where cement production has temporarily stopped.

The department said in the first quarter of this year, total cement consumption at home and abroad was expected to reach 20.97 million tonnes, 15 per cent higher than the same period last year. Of this, export volume in the first quarter stood at 7.51 million tonnes, a year-on-year surge of 28 per cent. - VNS
PARIS  Vietjet Aviation JSC will bolster the strategic partnership with Safran Aircraft Engines, following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding by the two sides in Paris on Tuesday.

The signing ceremony was witnessed by French President Emmanuel Macron and Nguyen Phu Trong, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Viet Nam, during his official visit to France.

Accordingly, Safran Aircraft Engines will support Vietjet with fleet management services, training, R&D programmes including fuel efficient usage, technical management and help in creating regional-level support maintenance capabilities.

Vietjet has been a customer of Safran Aircraft Engines since 2011, via CFM International---a 50/50 joint company between Safran and GE. Today, VietJet Air operates 57 CFM56-powered A320 family aircraft and has signed by-the-hour service contracts for these engines.

To support its business growth, in 2016, Vietjet announced an order for 100 Boeing 737 MAX twinjets powered by LEAP-1B engines from CFM International. Deliveries of these aircraft will start in 2019.

The agreement marks a new milestone in the strategic partnership between Vietjet and Safran and CFM, Vietjets Vice President inh Viet Phuong said.

Phuong said he believed the new agreement would contribute positively to the economic and trade exchange between Viet Nam and France and create more jobs for the two countries.

This MoU is in line with our recent commercial agreements with Vietjet and reflects the relationship of mutual trust between the airline and Safran Aircraft Engines and CFM, Philippe Couteaux, Senior Vice President, Sales & Marketing, at Safran Aircraft Engines and CFM said.

While in France, Vietjets leaders also inked a finance agreement with GECAS France on purchasing and leasing six A321neo aircraft worth US$800 million. -VNS
HA NOI  National carrier Vietnam Airlines early this week opened a new route between Nha Trang and Seoul with two flights, numbered VN440 and VN441.

The flights will connect Cam Ranh Airport in the southern province of Khanh Hoa and Incheon Airport in Seoul.

Luu Anh Tuan, head of the representative branch of Vietnam Airlines in South Korea, said Vietnam Airlines started flights to South Korea in 1993 between Seoul and HCM City. After more than 20 years, together with the rapid development of bilateral ties, Vietnam Airlines has continued to expand its network in the South Korean market to meet the increasing demand of people from the two sides.

Nha Trang is the fourth city in Viet Nam to have a direct Vietnam Airlines flight to Seoul, after Ha Noi, HCM City and a Nang, bringing the total number of flights to 53.

The Nha Trang-Seoul route will have four Airbus A321 flights per week, providing four-star international service. The flights will depart from Cam Ranh Airport at 9.35pm every Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday and will return from Incheon Airport at 6.20am every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday. The travel time will be some five hours.

The first flight on the Nha Trang - Seoul route departs from Cam Ranh Airport in the southern province of Khanh Hoa.

Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner operates on Ha Noi-Moscow route

Vietnam Airlines on Tuesday launched the new-generation, wide-body aircraft Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner on the Ha Noi-Moscow route, with the aim to strengthen economy, trade and tourism between the two countries.

The Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner has replaced the Airbus A330 fleet on the route.

Vietnam Airlines opened direct flights to Russia in 2002. After 15 years of operation, the carrier has helped more than 1.5 million passengers commute between the two countries.

Vietnam Airlines operates three flights per week between Ha Noi and Moscow.

The airline is currently in collaboration with Aeroflot and Siberia Airlines and flies to 30 domestic destinations in Russia.  VNS
HA NOI  Vietnamese students have won various prizes at the Kyushu Music Concour 2018 held in Kumamoto, Japan.

Phan Trung Kien won the voice gold prize in the 18-25 age group, while Le Trang Linh won the gold prize for piano in the 11-12 age group.

Both Kien and Linh, who are students of the Viet Nam National Music Academy, also won the special prizes, the highest prize in the contest, for their impressive performances. The special prizes were awarded to mark the 20th anniversary of the contest.

Over 1,000 contestants from all over the world competed in the annual contest, which has categories including vocal and piano for people under 18 and people aged 18 to 25.

Kien, who possesses a bass voice, and Lai Thi Huong Ly, with a soprano voice, both competed in the vocal category for ages 18-25.

Last year, Kien won the gold cup at the Asia Pacific Festival 2017 held in Hong Kong. He then won the first prize at the National Young Talent Contest for Art Students held in Nha Trang the same year.

Kien started to play the organ at 5 years old and then learnt piano. Only in 2013, after he graduated from high school in the northern province of Lang Son, did he begin studying vocal performance at the academy.

Artist o Quoc Hung, acting head of the Voice Department at the academy and Kiens supervisor for the past few years, said he chose the aria Dormiro sol nel manto mio regal by Giuseppe Verdi so that he could utilise his bass voice to maximum advantage.

The bass voice that Kien possesses is rare and valuable to opera circles not only in Viet Nam but also across Southeast Asia and Asia at large, Hung said. He is the only one under 40 who can sing with that voice. I believe that if Kien gets further training and practice, he will have more opportunities to achieve success.

Student Ly won the silver prize in the same category.

Le Trang Linh has been learning the piano for the past four years under the guidance of noted pianist Nguyen Trinh Huong.

Linh has won various prizes, including the second prize in an online contest titled Best Mozart Competition, held on the 262nd birthday anniversary of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in January 2018.

Three other students of Huong: Le Thu Giang, Vu Phuong Anh and Pham Nguyen Nguyet Ha - also won the Silver Prize in the 13-14 age group, the Bronze Prize in the 13-14 age group and the Bronze Prize in the 15-17 age group, respectively, in the same contest.

Le Quoc Nhat Vinh, another Vietnamese student, won the Bronze Prize in the 11-12 age group.  VNS
Pianist ang Thai Son builds new music home at Oberlin Conservatory

Viet Nam s world-renowned concert pianist ang Thai Son has confirmed that he will join the piano faculty at Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio , United States this fall.

His teaching career spans 30 years, including positions at the Kunitachi College of Music in Tokyo , Taipei National Normal University , Universite de Montreal and, last but not least, his alma mater, the Viet Nam National Academy of Music in Ha Noi. In each of these posts, ang Thai Son chose to be a guest professor.

I have only agreed to be a guest professor, which speaks volumes about my love for independence," he told the Oberlin College and Conservatory website.

"This time is different: No more being an outsider! I have decided to change my life by joining the music family at the Oberlin Conservatory, which has truly welcomed me. I very much look forward to building our new house together.

In March 2017, ang Thai Son gave master classes in a residency which was part of the Oberlin-Como Piano Academy , an exclusive partnership with Italy s International Piano Academy Lake Como.

Well-travelled teacher: ang Thai Son gives a master class to Aimi Kobayashi of Japan during a 2017 residency at Oberlin. Photo by Dale Preston

As a member of the Oberlin piano faculty, ang Thai Son will mentor Oberlin-Como Fellows and have his own studio of undergraduate pianists.

"We are thrilled that the esteemed pianist ang Thai Son will be joining our faculty, says Professor of Piano Alvin Chow, chair of Oberlins Piano Department. He has such a distinguished international career not only as a superb performing artist, but also as a master teacher and jury member of the worlds most prestigious piano competitions. We are truly excited about the insights and passion he will bring to our already acclaimed piano faculty."

ang Thai Son made headlines around the world when he became the first Asian to win first prize and the gold medal at the X Warsaw International Chopin Piano Competition in 1980.

Born and raised in Viet Nam , ang Thai Son began piano studies with his mother, Thai Thi Lien, co-founder of todays Vietnam National Academy of Music. Growing up, he joined the music school and the rest of the residents evacuating cities for the countryside during the US war in Viet Nam .

Discovered during a visit to Viet Nam by Russian pianist Isaac Katz, ang Thai Son later took up studies at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory under Vladimir Natanson and Dmitri Bashkirov.

His discography  much of it devoted to the music of Chopin  includes a pair of 2017 releases: a recording of Schubert on JVC Kenwood and a collection of works by Paderewski that includes a concerto recorded with the Philharmonia Orchestra and conductor Ashkenazy.
HA NOI  Vietnamese and Moroccan experts have emphasised the importance of cultural diversity for national unity during a conference held yesterday in Ha Noi.

They also shared experiences in cultural preservation and development as Viet Nam and Morocco have many similarities in culture and history. Both of the countries enjoy the harmony of different communities with unique cultures, said Azzeddine Farhane, Moroccan Ambassador to Viet Nam.

The conference was held in the framework of historical relations between Morocco and Viet Nam, and within the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Institute for Africa and Middle East Studies (IAMES) and the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences Research (CERSS), signed, on March 28, last year.

The conference saw the attendance of senior officials, professors, Ambassadors and students.

During the event, the specialists discussed general scope and meanings of cultural diversity and lessons learned from Cultural diversity experiences and implementation of legal frameworks on this issue. They considered cultural diversity as a cement for national unity and territorial integrity.

This event aims to contribute to strengthening academic research, and more specifically to exchange the experiences of Morocco and Viet Nam in cultural diversity, for permanent inter-cultural dialogue and mutual enrichment, said Farhane.

The seminar took the form of a debate about the relations between culture diversity, co-existence and national unity.

The Ambassador said the event will help strengthen co-operation in research academic programs about cultural diversity, smooth integration and national unity; and put out the policy model of Morocco and Viet Nam for strengthening national unity, social cohesion and territorial integrity.

Michael Croft, head of the UNESCO Ha Noi Office said cultural diversity is embodied in uniqueness and plurality as a source of exchange, innovation and creativity.

Cultural diversity is as necessary for humankind as biodiversity is for nature, he said. Cultural diversity widens the range of options opened to everyone. UNESCO always works to promote cultural diversity in each country.

Le Phuoc Minh, general director of the Institute for Africa and Middle East Studies (IAMES), said Viet Nam has a rich and diversified culture, thats the result of the establishing and developing process of the nation during thousands years.

The ethnic groups always show solidarity and cultural exchange due to the real condition that Viet Nam always faced with the risk of being invaded during its history, he said.

Viet Nam has a treasure of 7,000 festivals; a rich heritage of folk music, art and crafts; as well as various beliefs and worshipping that nurture the spiritual life of the Vietnamese people.

In order to preserve and develop cultural diversity, Minh suggested that managers and cultural activists should focus on popularising Vietnamese language, training a generation of traditional cultural practices and respecting the indigenous culture of ethnic groups.

Prof Abdallah Saaf, former Minister of National Education of Morocco, said he has researched much about Vietnamese history and culture and realised some similarities in cultural diversity between two countries.

While Viet Nam has 54 groups with some communities immigrated from neighbouring countries such as Thailand, Laos and Cambodia and China, so does Morocco, some Moroccans look like Europeans, some look like Asians.

He stressed that the unique culture of each group is an integral part of the national culture and plays an important part in developing the nation comprehensively.

On the occasion, the Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco in Viet Nam introduced a Vietnamese translation of the book Histoire dAnh Ma (Brother Mas History), written by Prof Saaf.

Its the story of Ben Aomar whose Vietnamese name is brother Ma. Moroccan Communist Party sent Aomar to Viet Nam following President Ho Chi Minhs request with aim to support the then Viet Nam Communist Party during the resistance against French invaders.

Prof Saaf compiled the book due to his personal sentiment and respect for Aomar. He wants to honour Aomars braveness and achievement in political activities in general and Vietnamese revolution in particular.  VNS
HA NOI  A silk painting by Nguyen Nam Son (1890-1973), one of the leading artists in modern Vietnamese fine art, was auctioned at 205,000 euros.

The auction was held by the Aguttes company at the Drouot auction centre in Paris, France, on March 26.

Mau Tu (Maternity) by Le Pho.

The painting, titled Thon Nu Bac Ky (Peasants of Tonkin), is an ink and watercolour work on silk, measuring 65x52.5cm, with the painters signature on the upper right and lower left and the title on the lower left. It was auctioned at an initial price of 35,000 euros and was expected to be sold for 50,000 euros at the most. The painting is believed to have been made in 1935.

The painter, whose real name is Nguyen Van Tho, was a co-initiator of the Indochine Fine Arts College in Ha Noi with Victor Tardieu (1870-1937).

Chuyen Tro (Conservation) by Vu Cao am was sold at 170,000 euros.

At the same auction, 18 other paintings by Vietnamese artists were sold at high prices.

A lacquer painting, titled Thieu Nu Mo Mong (A Dreamy Young Girl), by Le Pho (1907-2001), 60x91cm, was sold at 100,000 euros, though it had been expected to be sold at 30,000 euros at the most.

Another painting by Le Pho, titled Mau Tu (Maternity), ink and watercolour on silk, measuring 59.5x48cm, was sold at 300,000 euros, while his Thieu Nu Ben Hoa Hong (A Young Girl by a Rose), also ink and watercolour on silk, 41x32.2cm, was sold at 160,000 euros.

Thieu Nu Mo Mong (A Dreamy Young Girl) by Le Pho.

Both the paintings had been expected to get a maximum of 200,000 euros.

Vu Cao ams (1908-2000) painting, titled Chuyen Tro (Conservation), ink and watercolour on silk, 60x45cm, was sold at 170,000 euros though it was expecting to fetch 50,000 euros.

A painting by Mai Trung Thu (1906-1980), titled Khoanh Khac Am Nhac (Instant Music), ink and watercolour on silk, was sold at 230,000 euros.  VNS
HCM CITY  Various Canadian culinary specialities were on show at Canadian Delicacies, a reception held for Vietnamese food and beverage firms in HCM City on Monday.

The event, held as part of Canadian food promotion activities organised through March and April, featured Canadian fish and seafood from the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, beef from the western province of Alberta, dried fruits from British Columbia, maple syrup, wines, and beers.

We are proud to showcase some of Canadas world renowned culinary specialties, Canadian consul in the city, Kyle Nunas, said.

Our vast and diverse land, pristine and cold water enables us to develop a world-class food industry dedicated to high-quality and tasty products while respecting the environment.

Viet Nam is Canadas top trading partner among ASEAN member countries. Canadian agricultural and seafood exports to Viet Nam doubled in 2017 to C$612 million, accounting for 58 per cent of the countrys total exports to Viet Nam.

This year marks the 45th anniversary of the diplomatic relations and the conclusion of Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement.

Nunas said: I am pleased to note the growing appreciation of Canadian food and beverage products among Vietnamese consumers. We look forward to further opportunities under the CPTPP.  VNS
HA NOI  Nearly 40,000 books of various genres, including culture, education, politics, economics and literature, are available at the annual spring book fair hosted by the Vietnamese Womens Museum.

The books are being offered at favourable prices starting from VN2,000 (US$0.08), along with a sale promotion of up to 50 per cent, besides interesting gifts accompanying the books sold.

During the four-day fair, organisers will hand gifts worth VN10 million (US$438) to the library at Thien Phuc Pagoda in Quynh Phu District, the northern province of Thai Binh.

Students can attend a talk on tips to hunt for government scholarships, which will be shared by writer Tran Ngoc Thinh, best-seller author of the book titled Du Hoc Khong Kho (Studying Overseas is not Dificult) at 9am, March 31.

Noted writer Nguyen Thi Thu Hue will discuss with the audience her short stories collection titled Cua e Danh (Reserved Property) at 3pm, March 31.

Various games and drawing activities are also being held at the site.

The fair will run until April 1 at 36 Ly Thuong Kiet, Ha Noi.  VNS
National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan meets with Vietnamese community and officials of the Vietnamese Embassy in The Hague.  VNA/VNS Photo Trong uc

THE HAGUE  National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan has lauded the contributions of the 20,000-strong Vietnamese community in the Netherlands, especially the Vietnamese Association in The Hague, to promoting Viet Nams image to the world and social movements at home.

Meeting officials of the Vietnamese community and officials of the Vietnamese Embassy in the European country on March 26, the top legislator noted that the association had worked with the Vietnamese Embassy to organise Vietnamese classes in the country since late 2017, promoting national culture and traditions.



She affirmed the Party and States policy of considering overseas Vietnamese communities an inseparable part of the nation, noting that many policies had been designed to create favourable conditions for Vietnamese people abroad to return home and seek business opportunities, especially in science and technology.



A revised Law on Technology Transfer had been issued, aiming to encourage more technology transfer to Vietnam, she noted.



She also praised the efforts of the Vietnamese Embassy in the Netherlands in implementing tasks assigned by the Party and State, pledging that the NA would create optimal conditions for the embassy to operate efficiently.



She expressed delight at the sound friendship and cooperation between Vietnam and the Netherlands over the past 45 years, as well as strengthened bilateral political trust.



Links in climate change response, water management, sustainable agriculture and food security had been fruitful, she added.



The Netherlands has become the largest export market of Viet Nam in the EU. Two-way trade in 2017 exceeded US$7.7 billion, while the Netherlands ranks 11th out of 126 foreign investors in Vietnam with total investment of US$8.17 billion. VNS
HA NOI  Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc chaired a rehearsal of activities of the sixth Greater Mekong Sub-region Summit (GMS-6) and the 10th Cambodia-Laos-Viet Nam Development Triangle Summit (CLV-10) in Ha Noi yesterday.

The Prime Minister inspected venues for the activities within the framework of the events, including the GMS Senior Officials Meeting, the GMS Business Summit, the sixth GMS Retreat, the GMS-6, the CLV-10, and the Gala Dinner.



The Government leader said the GMS-6 and CLV-10 were among the biggest multilateral events hosted by Viet Nam in 2018. They would be opportunities for the GMS leaders to discuss measures to boost investment co-operation, regional connectivity, trade promotion, and sustainable management and use of natural resources.



"This is also a chance for Viet Nam to reiterate its commitments and contributions to the Mekong co-operation mechanisms in general and in the GMS, CLV in particular, while boosting regional co-operation to serve its socio-economic development goals," he said.



The PM urged subcommittees, secretariat and relevant ministries to ensure thorough preparations for the events in terms of organisation work, protocol, press conferences, logistics, security, health care, in line with the practices of the GMS and CLV summits in an effective and saving manner.



The events should show international friends Viet Nams hospitality and potential, as well as the beauty of Vietnamese people, while giving Vietnamese people an insight of the significance of the conferences, he noted.



Themed "Leveraging 25 years of co-operation and building an integrated, sustainable and prosperous GMS", the summit aims to celebrate the 25th founding anniversary of the GMS Programme and define co-operation orientations to build a region of prosperity, integration and sustainable development.



GMS was established in 1992 as an initiative of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The GMS Programme is the most complete co-operation programme that involves Viet Nam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, and Chinas Yunnan and Guangxi provinces. Priority fields include infrastructure development, energy, telecommunications, tourism, trade-investment, human resources, and the environment.



Meanwhile, the CLV-10 is meant to review the implementation of the Master Plan for Socio-Economic Development of the CLV Development Triangle Area for 2010-20 and discuss co-operation orientations in the coming time, especially seeking to increase the trilateral economic connectivity.



The CLV Development Triangle Area was established in 1999, covering Viet Nams Kon Tum, Gia Lai, ak Lak, ak Nong provinces; Laos Sekong, Attapeu and Salavan provinces; and Cambodias provinces of Stung Treng, Rattanak Kiri, and Mondul Kiri. In 2009, the three countries agreed to add Viet Nams Binh Phuoc Province, Cambodias Kratie Province, and Laos Champasak Province to the area. Its co-operation focuses on the fields of security, external affairs, transport, industry, agriculture, trade, investment and environmental protection.  VNS
According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), for example, 86 per cent of workers in Viet Nams textile and footwear industries are at great risk of losing their jobs under the influence of technological breakthroughs caused by Industry 4.0.  VNA/VNS Photo

HA NOI  Industry 4.0 poses a challenge to the Vietnamese labour force so significant that the only way to meet it is to impose reforms across the board, starting with education and training programmes, experts agreed at a seminar yesterday in Ha Noi.

Titled The 4th Industrial Revolution and the impact on the labor market in Viet Nam, the seminar drew economists and other experts, all of whom agreed that the country will struggle to adapt to Industry 4.0the wave of rapid technological development transforming workforces and economies across the world.

According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), for example, 86 per cent of workers in Viet Nams textile and footwear industries are at great risk of losing their jobs under the influence of technological breakthroughs caused by Industry 4.0.

Industry 4.0 will leave no place for farming workers. The youth unemployment rate will be higher. The shortage of skilled workers as Industry 4.0 comes will also be very high, Pham Quang Ngoc, an economist and labour market expert, said at the seminar.

If we dont have creativity, technological application will be very low. The weak competition will lead to no growth, said Ngoc.

According to the World Economic Forum (WEF)s Readiness for the Future of Production Report 2018, among the 100 countries assessed, Viet Nam was ranked among those that arent ready for Industry 4.0.

Solutions

Dr. Le Anh Vinh from the Vietnam Institute of Educational Sciences at the Ministry of Education and Training said the young generation needed to be prepared for major changes to the countrys workforce.

More than half of Viet Nams workforce is under the age of 40, with the proportion of workers aged 15-29 at 25 per cent.

Not only lacking in professional knowledge, Vietnamese workers are weak in problem solving, leadership and communication skills. The advantage of low labour costs in Viet Nam is gradually losing attractiveness in the eyes of foreign investors.

Enterprises surveyed by domestic and foreign organizations for a number of research projects said they were dissatisfied with the quality of education and skills of staff, especially engineers and technicians.

At the seminar, experts mapped out solutions.

Training institutions need to adopt learner-centered training methods and the application of information technology in lecture design and delivery.

Innovation of form and method of examination are needed to develop work capability and creativity among learners.

Institutions should pay more attention to the development of the automation industry, as well as invest in in-depth research teams in the fields of information technology, energy and new materials and biotechnology.

The State focuses on forecasting human resource needs according to the structure of the industry and training level. On that basis, the State has made timely adjustments in terms of training, meeting the requirements of socio-economic development in each period and intensifying multilateral and bilateral cooperation in the field of education and training.

The State shall train and foster teachers and school administrators and create favourable legal and social conditions for foreign investors to open high-quality educational institutions in Viet Nam.

Enterprises need to deploy robots to automate and apply technology solutions to improve productivity.

The seminar was jointly organized by Viet Nam Omega Books Joint Stock Co, Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industrys Office of Employers and the Centre for International Studies at University of Social Sciences and Humanities under Vietnam National University HCM City. -- VNS
HA NOI  Experts agreed on the definition of gender equality at a workshop, "Communication on gender equality of state agencies," held here on Wednesday.

The concept of gender equality suggests that men and women, including the gay and lesbian community, should receive fair treatment in all aspects of socio-economic life and human rights.

The workshop was organised by the Research and Development Centre (RED) under the Vietnam Union of Scientific and Technological Organisations (VUSTA) in collaboration with the Department of Gender Equality under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs.The workshop is part of the project "Media Co-operation to Improve Economic Policy", supported by the Government of Canada Global Issues. Participants discussed various issues, including how the media implements eight sectors in the Law on Gender Equality, and how to do the work well.

Education on gender and gender equality should not include gender bias, should not create gender-based prejudice and should eliminate all gender discrimination. Pham Ngoc Tien, director of the Department of Gender Equality, said this was still a new issue for many state agencies, although the Gender Equality Law and Decree 48/2009/N-CP has regulations on this subject. Over the years, education on gender equality has been fully adopted in the Tuyen Quang and Long An provinces and in HCM City. The MOLISA organised a number of activities to provide education on the issue.

However, some of the objectives of the national strategy for gender equality in the period 2011-20 were unsuitable and needed more time to complete, he said.

Education on the issue still focuses on women, and gender stereotypes persist in media products. For instance, 80 per cent emphasise the role of women in the family, 83 per cent of women appear as a housewife.Tran Thi Kim Thanh, director of the Division of Child Care and Protection under the HCM City Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, highlighted the current difficulties in communication on gender equality.

Thanh mentioned the overly broad topics on gender equality and the lack of instruction from the concerned ministries. Moreover, the staff of gender equality departments in provinces have not been trained on the Law on Gender Equality.

In seeking a solution, the participants of the workshop believed that education on gender equality was not only the duty of the MOLISA but should also be considered in the management and planning of policies of all state administrative agencies.

Education activities require the coordination of specialised agencies and state agencies, political and social organisations and personnel networks.  VNS
HA NOI  Hospital infection control is a major concern for health care providers and patients all over the world. Preventing such infections is a critical aspect of improving hospital safety, heard a conference in Ha Noi yesterday.

Addressing a conference on strengthening infection control in healthcare facilities, Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Viet Tien said hospital infections are an especially significant burden for patients in under-developed and developing countries. Hospital infections contribute to an increase in fatalities, treatment time, usage of antibiotics and cost of treatment.

Statistics from the World Health Organisation (WHO) revealed that the rate of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) ranges between 3.5 per cent and 12 per cent in developed countries. For European countries, the rate is 7.1 per cent on average, causing about 7 billion euros (US$8.6 billion) in losses including the costs for treatment and hospital fees.

No specific data about HAIs in developing and under-developed countries was available, but recent studies conducted by WHO showed that HAIs occur more frequently at these countries due to limited resources.

Recognising the important role of hospital infection control in providing successful treatment to patients, Tien said the health sector had adopted measures to tighten infection control at health care facilities, including the issuance of regulations and professional supervision on the issue.

As a result, most hospitals and health clinics started mobilising sources for infection control activities, he said.

The infection control programme had been implemented at healthcare facilities nationwide. Hand hygiene was undisputedly the single most effective control measure for hospital-acquired infections.

However, he admitted that there were several challenges to infection control in Viet Nam . The infection control system at healthcare facilities remained incomplete.

Figures from the ministry showed that 16.2 per cent of hospitals nationwide failed to establish an infection control department and 26.3 per cent failed to assign a head of the department to implement infection control tasks.

Moreover, most health staff at the departments did not receive training, and departments also faced staff shortages. Many hospitals paid inadequate attention to investing in infection control practices as well as equipment so the efficiency of the work was still limited.

Tien said poor infection control contributed to a measles outbreak in April 2014, killing more than 110 children and hospitalising thousands nationwide. It also played a role in the deaths of four pre-term and low birth weight infants at Bac Ninh Hospital of Obstetrics and Pediatrics in November 2017.

To improve the situation, Luong Ngoc Khue, director of the Ministry of Healths Medical Examination and Treatment Management Department, said infection control work should be tightened to minimise HAI contraction at hospitals, ensuring the safety of health workers and patients, given the prevalence of such diseases as Avian Influenza (H5N1, H1N1 and H7N9), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome of Corona virus (MERS-CoV) and Ebola.

The health sector would be expected to organise training courses for health staff on infection control and allocate funds for medical equipment to implement infection control practices, he said.

Dissemination campaigns should be adopted to raise awareness among patients and their relatives to improve infection control.  VNS
SEOUL  North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has visited China at the invitation of President Xi Jinping and reaffirmed his commitment to denuclearisation during their first summit, the two countries media said Wednesday.

The Norths leader made a surprise "unofficial" visit to China from Sunday to Wednesday, accompanied by his wife Ri Sol-ju and key officials, including de facto No. 2 figure Choe Ryong-hae, according to the Norths state news agency.

It was Kims first foreign trip since he took office in late 2011. Kims father, Kim Jong Il, visited China eight times during his tenure as North Koreas supreme leader.

The summit came as Kim plans to meet the leaders of South Korea and the United States in the coming months.

His trip was seen as aimed at mending long-frayed ties with China, North Koreas sole ally and key economic benefactor, which has joined international sanctions over the Norths nuclear and missile programmes.

By holding the meeting, Kim also appeared intent on securing diplomatic leverage ahead of talks with Seoul and Washington over North Koreas nuclear programmes. Kim is set to hold summits with President Moon Jae-in in late April and is supposed to meet US President Donald Trump by May.

For China, the summit also seemed to offer a chance to highlight its role as a mediator in resolving North Koreas nuclear and missile programmes.

The Norths leader told Xi that the situation on the Korean Peninsula is starting to "get better" as it has taken an initiative to ease tensions and propose for peace talks, according to Chinas Xinhua News Agency.

"It is our consistent stance to be committed to denuclearisation on the peninsula," in accordance with the will of late founder Kim Il-sung and former leader Kim Jong-il, Kim was quoted as saying by the report.

Trump has agreed to meet with Kim after South Korean envoys relayed Kims expression of his commitment to denuclearisation.

North Koreas leader also officially revealed his willingness to hold summits with the leaders of South Korea and the US, according to Xinhua, as US President Donald Trump has inserted hawkish officials to important foreign policy posts recently.

Kim said that North Koreas denuclearisation is up to the South and the US.

"The issue of denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula can be resolved, if South Korea and the U.S. respond to our efforts with goodwill, create an atmosphere of peace and stability while taking progressive and synchronous measures for the realisation of peace," he was quoted as saying by Xinhua.

Kim did not elaborate on what "progressive and synchronous" steps mean.

The Norths Korean Central News Agency reported that Kim invited Xi to Pyongyang at his convenient time and the Chinese leader accepted it.

During the summit, Xi expressed a "warm welcome" to Kim, saying that ties between Beijing and Pyongyang should be continuously developed.

Tensions between the North and the US heightened last year, amid North Koreas advancement in its nuclear and missile programmes. Kim and Trump exchanged personal insults and bellicose rhetoric, raising fears about war on the divided peninsula.

It conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test in September last year. The North launched three intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) last year, which analysts say are capable of reaching the US mainland.

But the North extended a rare olive branch to Seoul in January, as Kim expressed his willingness to send athletes to the PyeongChang Winter Olympics held in the South last month.

The US has been carrying out its campaign for "maximum pressure" to make the North give up its nuclear arsenal and bring it to the negotiation table.

South Koreas spy agency told lawmakers this week that the South plans to simultaneously seek to provide a security guarantee for North Korea and make the North give up its nuclear weapons when the two Koreas hold a summit.

Seouls unification ministry gave a positive assessment of signs of better ties between the North and China.

"Ahead of the Norths summits, we believe that an improvement in Pyongyang-Beijing relations will help resolve the Norths nuclear issue and bring peace to the Korean Peninsula," Baik Tae-hyun, spokesman at Seouls unification ministry, told a press briefing.  YONHAP
LONDON  NATO joined 25 governments around the world Tuesday in expelling Russian diplomats in response to a nerve agent attack in Britain, marking what London called a "turning point" in the Wests relations with Moscow.

The US-led military alliance expelled seven Russian staff and denied accreditation to three more, bringing the total number of suspected Russian spies expelled to almost 150, including the 23 initially dispatched by Britain.

In an unprecedented act of coordination, at least 25 countries have echoed Britains action in response to the March 4 attack on former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said the mass expulsions were "a blow from which Russian intelligence will need many years to recover".

It "could become a turning point", he wrote in The Times newspaper, adding: "The Western alliance took decisive action and Britains partners came together against the Kremlins reckless ambitions."

Skripal, a Russian military intelligence officer imprisoned by Moscow for passing on information about Russian agents in various European countries, came to Britain in a 2010 spy swap.

Moscow has fiercely denied any involvement in his attempted murder, instead pointing the finger at London.

It responded to Britains expulsions with its own, and the closure of the British Council cultural organisation -- and on Tuesday promised it would hit back against the coordinated moves.

"Well respond, have no doubt! No one wants to put up with such loutish behaviour and we wont," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on the sidelines of a conference in Uzbekistan.

Lavrov said the coordinated response was the result of "colossal pressure, colossal blackmail" from the United States.

Full Cold War

Washington led the way in responding, ordering out 60 Russians in a new blow to US-Russia ties less than a week after President Donald Trump congratulated his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on his re-election.

Washingtons expulsions represented the largest ever of Russian or Soviet agents and came after US President Donald Trumps predecessor Barack Obama expelled 35 in late 2016 over alleged election meddling.

The Russian embassy in Washington responded by asking its Twitter followers to vote on which US consulate should be closed, listing those in Vladivostok, St Petersburg and Yekaterinburg as options.

Trump on Tuesday discussed the spy attack with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, the White House said, and expressed "support for the Wests strong response."

Australia, Canada, Ukraine and 18 European Union states followed with smaller-scale expulsions, most recently coming from Belgium which on Tuesday evening announced the dismissal of one Russian diplomat.

"Relations between Russia and the West are entering a period of full Cold War," foreign policy analyst Fyodor Lukyanov wrote in the Vedomosti daily.

The Izvestia daily dismissed the expulsions as a "russophobic flashmob".

The Skripals remain in a critical state in hospital, and Prime Minister

Theresa May said on Monday that "they may never fully recover".  AFP/VNS
PARIS  The Islamist gunman who killed four people in southern France last week had been summoned by anti-terror police for questioning shortly before his shooting rampage, a police source told AFP on Tuesday.

Radouane Lakdim, a 25-year-old Moroccan-born French national, had been on a list of suspected extremists since 2014 and was being monitored, leading to criticism of the security services from some politicians over their failure to prevent the attack.

Lakdim killed four people and injured four others on Friday in three separate shootings in the towns of Carcassonne and nearby Trebes, where he took hostages at a supermarket before being shot by anti-terror police.

The police source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Lakdim had been sent a letter in March asking him to arrange a face-to-face meeting with agents from Frances domestic intelligence agency DGSI.

Lakdims 18-year-old girlfriend, a radicalised Muslim convert who was detained after the attack, was set to appear before a judge on Monday evening.

Prosecutors have called for her to be charged with terrorist conspiracy and kept in custody.

A 17-year-old friend of Lakdims was meanwhile released on Monday "due to the absence of incriminating evidence at this stage," prosecutors said.

President Emmanuel Macron will lead a national commemoration on Wednesday for hero policeman Arnaud Beltrame, who agreed to swap himself for a hostage inside the supermarket but was then killed by Lakdim who slit his throat.

The fact that Lakdim was on Frances terror watchlist has led to accusations from the right and far-right that Macrons government is too soft on Islamists, while far-right leader Marine Le Pen has called for the interior minister to resign.

The government hit back at the criticism Tuesday.

"Those who say ignorantly that this attack could have been avoided, those who promise people zero risk -- I say to them, these people bear a heavy responsibility in speaking so casually," Prime Minister Edouard Philippe told parliament.

He rejected proposals from rightwingers to impose an outright ban on ultraconservative Salafist Islam or "preemptively" detain the most radicalised Islamists.

France already has "a legal arsenal" to "understand, monitor and sanction" extremists, he said.

Experts point out that France has around 20,000 people suspected of being Islamic extremists and security forces have been successful in thwarting a series of attacks in recent years thanks in part to tough new anti-terror laws.  AFP
Beshear deploys National Guard to more hospitals as cases appear to level off
By West Kentucky Star Staff Mar. 27, 2018 | 12:07 PM | MCCRACKEN COUNTY, KY

In an effort to combat the states opioid epidemic, Attorney General Andy Beshear and CVS Health teamed up today to launch new safe medication disposal programs in Kentucky.

Beshear joined CVS Healths Thomas M. Moriarty, Lexington Mayor Jim Gray, State Representative George Brown Jr., Police Chief Lawrence Weathers and Sharon Tankersley with Voices of Hope to urge Kentuckians to clean out their medicine cabinets and dispose of unused prescription drugs at a CVS Pharmacy.

In-store disposal units, now in nine 24-hour CVS Pharmacy locations allow Kentuckians to properly dispose of dangerous opioids and help reduce the nearly 80 percent of heroin users who begin their addiction with prescription drugs.

Two of the new units are located at CVS Pharmacy stores in Lexington, and in seven stores in Elizabethtown, Frankfort, Georgetown, Louisville and Paducah. In total, CVS Health will install units in 750 CVS Pharmacy locations across the U.S.



CVS Health also offers a community donation program, which invites local law enforcement to apply to receive a drug collection unit for their community. In western Kentucky, the company has donated units in Madisonville and Murray.

Beshear's office recently launched the states first initiative to allow Kentuckians to safely dispose of opioid medications at home. Beshears Kentucky Opioid Disposal Program has the potential to dispose of more than 2.2 million unused opioids.

The pilot program includes McCracken County. Beshears Office of Senior Protection is also working with the faith-based community to distribute the pouches at senior events.
March 19 brought an evening of recognition to the Wetzel County Board of Education meeting. Several distinguished guests were honored, including a local Girl Scouts troop, which led meeting attendees in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Also, Short Line Schools Leslie Lively was recognized as the recipient of the Bob Thompson Excellence in Energy Award. This award is via the National Energy Education Development (NEED) Project.

The Bob Thompson Excellence in Energy Award was created by NEED in memory of long-time NEED teacher and staff member Bob Thompson. Thompson was a dedicated teacher, friend, and proponent of science and energy education.

The award includes a $1,000 cash grant to Lively to use as he/she chooses in the classroom and an all-expenses paid trip to the NEED Energy Conference for Educators hosted in Galveston, Texas, July 8-12. The award will be given at the 38th Annual NEED Youth Energy Conference and Awards hosted in Washington, D.C. June 25.

Of his award, Lively credited those around him. He noted it is not he who earns the award, but his students.

In another matter, the board and meeting attendees also had the opportunity to meet Wetzel Countys 2018 JASON Learning Argonauts  students Martha Doiron (Valley High School) and Abbe Stackpole (Paden City High School), along with teacher Carolyn Hizer (Paden City High School). This trio will head on an expedition to Nicaragua to learn about active volcano study.

JASON Learning is a nonprofit founded in 1989 by Dr. Robert D. Ballard. Notably, Ballard is best-known for his discovery of the Titanic.

JASON Learning provides curriculum in science, engineering, technology, and math; Wetzel County Board of Education is implementing the curriculum.

Argonauts are student and teacher pairs who go on adventures. Argonauts travel to national parks, as well as islands around the world. On these travels, Argonauts meet and study with scientists.

According to JASON Learning, each Argonaut applicant applies for an Argonaut position through a highly competitive and rigorous selection process.

Recently, Hundred High School student Travis McCoy, along with Brittany Mason (fifth grade teacher at New Martinsville School), and Sharon Snider (fourth grade teacher at Long Drain School) attended an expedition to Malaysia, as JASON Argonauts. Prior to that, Short Lines Lively, along with Aubrey Neff (PCHS student) and Haley Feldmeier (Magnolia High School student) attended an expedition to Peru.

In another matter, Assistant Superintendent Shane Highley spoke on the preliminary 2018-2019 Wetzel County Schools calendar. March 19 was the first of two public hearings required. These meetings allow interested parties to discuss the calendar. The March 19 meeting was held at New Martinsville School, while an April 2 meeting will be held at Valley High School.

Once public input is garnered, the calendar will be submitted to the State Superintendent for approval.

Wetzel Countys preliminary calendar currently has Sept. 4 as the first day for students, while the last day of instruction would be May 31. However, this would not factor in snow days. Thanksgiving break would be Nov. 19-23, with a return date of Nov. 26. Christmas break would be Dec. 4 through Jan. 1, with a return date of Jan. 2. Spring break would be April 19-23, with a return date of April 24. CD Days are currently Aug. 23-30 and June 18-19. OS Days are June 10-17.

As for the current, 2017-2018 school year, it was reported that the last day of school is currently June 8. However, this is an unofficial date.

Also at the March 19 board meeting, the board heard a presentation from Wetzel County native Breanna Nolan.

Nolan is currently a student at West Virginia University School of Medicine and will graduate in May. As part of her rural scholars studies, Nolan is aspiring to implement the GoGirlGo program at Short Line School for girls in grades fifth through eighth.

GoGirlGo, which offers a free curriculum, is used nationwide to encourage physical activity.

The programs curriculum deals with an age-appropriate topic for girls each week, followed by 30 minutes of physical activity. Nolan said she hopes to conduct follow-ups with the programs participants.

Participants, and their parents, would have to consent to the program, and participants would fill out a brief survey prior to the program, addressing topics such as eating habits.

Data from the GoGirlGo program will eventually be translated to the form of a poster or manuscript, according to Nolan.

The board expressed interest in Nolans endeavors, as President Warren Grace asked how the board could help her with the program. They also expressed gratitude for Nolan choosing to stay and work in West Virginia. Nolan said West Virginia, and this area, makes my heart full.

In another matter, Jamie Doty and Director of Facilities Brian Jones provided the board with an update on security upgrades at Wetzel Countys schools. The duo described the detailed entry system for the county facilities, the ability for the buildings to lockdown, and the implementation of intrusion resistant glass, as well as upgrades to cameras. They also stressed how strict the entry system is with key fobs, making sure only the people that need fobs have them.

Board member Mike Blair referred to Doty and Jones as unsung heroes, as the two have remained constant in staying up-to-date on the latest technologies to keep the schools safe. Jones noted that Doty is tireless.

Grace expressed the importance of always staying up-to-date on security. I want us to be the best we can be.
Judge Jeffery Cramer recently proceeded over the following cases in Wetzel County Circuit Court:

Justin Alan Richeson, 34, of Rt. 20 P.O. Box 19, Reader, had been charged by the January term of the Wetzel County grand jury with the felony offense of Nighttime Burglary. He pleaded guilty to the crime on March 19, before the Honorable Judge Jeffery D. Cramer.

Richeson entered the plea as part of a plea agreement with the state where he would plead by way of an Alford-Kennedy plea, which allows him to plead guilty without admitting to the crime. Richeson would have been facing up to life in prison if found guilty by trial due to his involvement and conviction in other breaking and enterings and felony offenses.

According to Prosecutor Tim Haught, Richeson was caught in a home back in 2006 and as a result, suffered a severe head injury when the owner hit him with a crow bar. On Monday, he pleaded guilty to a lesser included offense of attempted burglary, which has a potential sentence of one to three years in prison.

Richeson told the court he has depression from the head trauma; he also takes anti-seizure medication.

Judge Cramer ordered a pre-sentence investigation report to be done by the probation office, and he will set a date for sentencing after he receives the report.

Kevin Joseph Hubbard, 27, of RR1 Box 43C, Reader, recently pleaded guilty to a lesser included offense of unlawful assault, count one of a three-count felony indictment.

The remaining two counts of the indictment against him were dismissed as part of the plea. He faces a potential one to five years in prison. Judge Cramer ordered a pre-sentencing investigation be completed by the probation office. Upon receiving the report he will set a sentencing date. Hubbards bond will continue post-conviction.

Zachary Jeremiah Ferrebee, 28, of Paden City was recently sentenced to not less than one nor more than 10 years in prison for the offense of Breaking and Entering. A decretal judgment was also awarded to the victim for damages. The case was investigated by Patrolman Raphe Bailes of the Paden City Police Department.

Ferrebee had pleaded guilty to the offense on Jan. 31, through a plea agreement reached between the state and the defendant.

Dustine Michael Moore, 24, of 6 Witscheys Addition Street, New Martinsville, appeared in court recently for a pre-trial hearing. Judge Cramer was informed there had been a plea agreement in the case, and Moore would plead guilty to conspiracy to deliver Methamphetamine, count three of his indictment.

Moore pleaded guilty to the charge and was sentenced to one to five years in prison. He was given credit for 281 days of time served and was remanded to jail to serve the remainder of his sentence. He agreed to forfeit property and cash to the New Martinsville Police Department, and to pay the cost of his prosecution.

Steven Anthony Blatt II, 31, of 606 North Fifth Avenue, Paden City, appeared in court alongside his attorney for a Rule 35 motion for early release.

Blatt had been convicted for possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver. Prosecutor Tim Haught told the court that Blatt would be eligible for early release on April 5 since he has been incarcerated since November 5, 2017, which would be the five month requirement.

Judge Cramer ruled he would grant the motion for early release effective at 8 a.m. April 5, providing there are no write-ups between now and then. Blatt will also be placed on two years supervised probation and have to go through drug court.

Jason Anthony Litton, 38, of 133 South 1st Ave., Paden City, recently pleaded guilty to two counts of third-offense shoplifting.

Litton was previously handed two indictments by the grand jury; each indictment charged him with two counts of third-offense shoplifting and one count of conspiracy. Per the terms of the plea agreement, the third count of conspiracy was dismissed from one indictment, along with the three counts of the other indictment.

When asked what he had done to make him guilty, Littleton said he went into Wal-Mart and took items off the shelves, returning them for money. Litton has previous convictions in Wetzel County Magistrate Court and Moundsville Municipal Court.

Per the terms of the plea agreement, Litton faces a potential one to 10 year prison sentence for each count of third-offense shoplifting.

A pre-sentence report was ordered to be done by the probation office. Litton was remanded to jail.

Thomas James Hull, 26, of 32 Ross Street, New Martinsville, appeared in court before Judge Cramer for a pre-trial/voluntariness hearing. Due to the absence of a state witness the case was continued until March 30 at 9 a.m. His bond was allowed to continue.

He is charged in a three-count felony drug case by the January Grand Jury.

Michael Lee Erb, 32, of 911 Pioneer Community Road, St. Marys is charged with the felony offense of Receiving Stolen Goods; he recently appeared in court alongside his attorney for a pre-trial hearing. His case was continued until March 30, and a trial date was set for April 25. Erb is out on bond and his bond was allowed to continue; he was told to see the probation officer who he had failed to see since he was placed on bond.

Lee Ann Higginbotham, 37, of Morgan Run Road, Smithfield, was previously charged by the Wetzel County Grand Jury with a four count felony indictment of forgery, uttering and two conspiracy counts. She was scheduled to appear in court for a pre-trial/plea hearing, but Judge Cramer continued the case until March 30, as there is a possible plea agreement resolution. Higginbothams bond was allowed to continue.

Daniel Lee Wilson, Route 1, Box 71, Mannington, appeared in court recently for a pre-trial hearing before Judge Cramer. Wilson is charged by the Wetzel County Grand Jury with grand larceny. Judge Cramer set April 19 as a trial date.

Kelly Lee Tustin, 44, of P.O. Box 402, Hundred, appeared in court recently for a pre-trial hearing. She is charged with the felony offenses of Grand Larceny and Conspiracy. Attorney Patricia Kurelac made a motion that Tustin be released from supervised probation and put on non-supervised probation because her job is time consuming and requires her to travel. The prosecution and probation officer both objected and Judge Cramer denied the motion. Tustin was ordered to return to court on March 30 for further proceedings in the case.

Lindsay Nicole Burley, 25, of P.O. Box 301, Hundred, represented by attorney Shane Mallett, appeared in court for a pre-trial hearing. Burley is charged by the Wetzel County Grand Jury with two felony offenses  Grand Larceny and Conspiracy, both alleged to have occurred between July 24 and July 31, 2017.

Burley is free on bond and was ordered to return to court on March 30. If no plea agreement as been reached by that time, Burleys case will proceed to trial.

Ashley Willhoite, 37, of 133 South First Ave, Paden City, was previously charged with daytime burglary, grand larceny, and conspiracy. She was ordered to return to court on March 30 and remanded to jail. A trial date of April 9 was also set.

Alexander Cleveland King, 32, of 148 South Main Street, New Martinsville, appeared in court for a plea agreement to the felony charge of uttering.

He pleaded guilty to passing a counterfeit $100 bill at Speedway in New Martinsville. The plea agreement calls for a two to 10 year sentence, suspended; King would be placed on two years supervised probation. Judge Cramer ordered a pre-sentencing report to be done, and King will return at a time set by Judge Cramer. His bond was allowed to continue.

Robert Jack Six, 33, of HC 62 Box MM, Burton, was in court to face two separate indictments with the felony offenses of Daytime Burglary, Conspiracy, and third offense DUI. Six will return to court on March 30 for further proceedings.

Crystal Lynn Aston, 36, of 664 Maple Avenue, New Martinsville, will return to court March 30, 9 a.m. She faces a one-count indictment, charging her with Malicious Assault. Ashtons attorney, Brett Ferro, informed the court that an agreement had been reached in the case. Aston, who is on pre-trial supervision, was allowed to have her bond continued, and Judge Cramer ordered her to be drug tested by the probation office.

Gregory Dalton Morgan, 23, of 404 Virginia Street, New Martinsville, will return to court on March 30. Dalton has been charged with one felony account of grand larceny and two misdemeanor counts of breaking and entering an automobile, and destruction of property. All offenses allegedly occurred April 27, 2017.

Judge Cramer was informed that a plea agreement had been reached in the case. Attorney Ferro asked the court to allow his client to commute between states, as Morgan is working 80 hours a week in the oil and gas fields.

Judge Cramer asked Morgan how he could still be eligible for a court-appointed attorney if he was working 80 hours per week.

Morgan was instructed to fill out paperwork to see if he is still eligible for a court-appointed attorney.

Benjamin Ray Highley, 47, of HC 60 Box 43C, Reader, is charged by the grand jury with Possession of a motor vehicle without vehicle identification mark, and altering a vehicle identification number.

Highly told Judge Cramer he disputes the giving voluntary statements in the matter. He is scheduled to appear in court for a trial.

Joshua Elijah Toothman, 32, of 714 North Fourth Avenue, Paden City, charged in two separate indictments, did not appear in court as scheduled. Toothman is charged with one count felony offense of retaliation of a witness, and in a separate indictment he is charged with attempted nighttime burglary and conspiracy  both felony offenses.

He is represented by attorney Kevin Neiswonger who told the court that Toothman was not transported and is incarcerated. Judge Cramer continued the case to March 30 after being told there could be a possible plea agreement. A trial date in the matter is still set for April 9.
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Mar 28, 2018 | By Benedict

Researchers at Northwestern University have discovered a new method for speeding up the 3D printing of millimeter-sized imaging lenses. The technique could be used create customized contact lenses or to turn iPhones into disease-spotting microscopes.

Of all things you might attempt to 3D print, lenseswhich need to be immaculately finished, transparent, and consistentmight not be high up your list. The inherent problems with the 3D printing of lenses are obvious: if your 3D printed lens has any visible stepping between layers, it becomes virtually useless (unless the aim of your lens is to obfuscate vision). Other fabrication methods would therefore seem more practical.

When engineers at Northwestern University in Illinois recently attempted to 3D print their own lenses, they ran into this very problem: the curved layers of their lenses, made from photo-curable resin, created visible stepping. They simply werent functional for any kind of imaging application.

Cheng Sun, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Northwestern, described that moment of truth: We realized that the layers on top of each other created surface roughness. The layer thickness is typically 5 microns, while the wavelength of visible light is around 0.5 microns. This creates an optically rough surface.

Of course, this result was to be expected, so the researchers thought about other ways they could 3D print lenses so that they would not produce stepping. After lengthy research, they decided to attempt a two-step process of layering and polishingif the DLP resin 3D printer wasnt going to produce a perfectly smooth surface on its own, why not supplement that process with a helping hand?

First, we used grayscale images to create more transitions between steps, Sun said. Then, we coated the surface with the same photo-curable resin. That then forms the meniscus that further smooths the surface.

After over 100 attempts to get this technique right, the researchers finally achieved their goal: a 3D printed transparent lens with a smooth surface (less than 7-nanometer surface roughness) suitable for imaging applications.

But the exciting part of the 3D printing research isnt just the fact that Northwestern has been able to 3D print functional lenses. After all, other groups, including German lithography specialist Nanoscribe, have already done this with some success. Rather, the unique achievement of the research is the sheer speed at which the researchers are now able to fabricate these lenses.

If you want to make a lens, do you want to make it in two hours or two weeks? asked Xiangfan Chen, a PhD candidate in mechanical engineering and lead author on the study. We are very excited about this lens.

Applications for the polished 3D printed lens are numerous. Sun says many devices in the field of optics and biomedical imaging could benefit from such lenses, and the researchers are now planning to make much larger 3D printed lenses.

But one of the most exciting future applications of these resin-made lenses could be within the field of medicine. The researchers think their quickly fabricated lenses could ultimately be used in endoscopes or optical microscopes, which could help detect diseases such as cancer.

The lenses could even be used by medical professionals in undeveloped areas for diagnostic imaging. On the other hand, they could also be used as customized contact lenses to counter the effects of keratoconus, a disease of the cornea.

Up until now, we relied heavily on the time-consuming and costly process of polishing lenses, Sun said. With 3D printing, now you have the freedom to design and customize a lens quickly.

The research, HighSpeed 3D Printing of MillimeterSize Customized Aspheric Imaging Lenses with Sub 7 nm Surface Roughness, has been published in Advanced Materials.

Posted in 3D Printing Technology

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Ezra Klein in Vox:

On Monday morning, I woke up to a tweet from Sam Harris, the bestselling author and popular podcast host, referencing a debate we never quite had over race and IQ.

Harris is touting a New York Times op-ed by David Reich arguing that it is simply no longer possible to ignore average genetic differences among races. Reich is careful in his claims about what is known as of yet. He says that if scientists can be confident of anything, it is that whatever we currently believe about the genetic nature of differences among populations is most likely wrong  a level of humility often absent in this discussion. He goes on to slam researchers who, discussing race and intelligence, claim they know what those differences are and that they correspond to racist stereotypes. I do not find this column as troubling as Harris seems to think I will.

The background to Harriss shot at me is that last year, Harris had Charles Murray on his podcast. Murray is a popular conservative intellectual best known for co-writing The Bell Curve, which posited, in a controversial section, a genetic basis for the observed difference between black and white IQs.

Harriss invitation came in the aftermath of Murray being shouted down, and his academic chaperone assaulted, as he tried to give an invited address on an unrelated topic at Middlebury College. The aftermath of the incident had made Murray a martyr for free speech, and Harris brought him on the show in part as a statement of disgust with the illiberalism that had greeted Murray on campus.

More here.


AMEX and ISXPay Execute Aggregator Agreement

NYSE:AXP

Melbourne, Mar 28, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Australian Securities Exchange and Frankfurt Stock Exchange cross list iSignthis Ltd ( ASX:ISX ) ( FRA:TA8 ), the world leading RegTech for identity verification and payment services, is pleased to announce that it's Australian subsidiary, iSignthis eMoney (AU) Pty Ltd, has executed a payment aggregation agreement with American Express Australia ("AMEX").Highlights- iSignthis eMoney (AU) Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of the leading RegTech payment and identity verification provider iSignthis Ltd, is now an aggregator for American Express., one of the major card schemes.- Aggregator services compliment Paydentity RegTech offeringsThe AMEX service will compliment ISXPay(R) offerings to merchants in Australia, and will allow ISXPay to onboard merchants directly.Under the agreement. the Company will purchase AMEX processing at a pre-agreed wholesale Merchant Services Fee (MSF) rate, and then is able to on-sell to merchants under its usual Merchant Services Fee (MSF) plus flat fee structure.The Agreement contains provisions for AMEX direct MSF management of larger or preexisting merchants enabled via the ISXPay(R) network.Card Scheme & Payment Service UpdateISXPay(R) is a Principal Member of three card schemes, including Mastercard Worldwide, JCB International and Visa Inc, and is able to offer card acquiring, processing and settlement services across the European Economic Area and Australia. The addition of AMEX Is highly complimentary to our core payment services.The ISXPay(R) service offering is further complimented by Trustly, Sofort and Polipayments, all of which are available as a pure payment service, or in conjunction with out Paydentity(TM) Customer Due Diligence / eKYC platform.Integration will commence on AMEX immediately, with approximately a 3-4 month integration and certification window before it can be made live to merchants.In the meantime until full integration is completed, ISXPay(R) is able to process AMEX transactions for a flat fee, but does not receive any MSF contribution.ABOUT AMERICAN EXPRESS (AMERICAN EXPRESS, IS:- the world's largest card issuer by purchase volume- processes millions of transactions daily as the premium network for high-spending cardmembers- helps small business owners succeed by delivering purchasing power, flexibility and financial control- provides commercial payment tools and expertise that help companies control their spending and save billions of dollars- offers marketing and information management insights that help merchants build their businesses- the customer loyalty experts with industry-leading rewards programs and platforms- the operator of one of the world's largest travel networks- recognized as the most innovative company in its industries- dedicated to serving its customers, 24/7, around the worldAbout iSignthis Ltd

iSignthis Ltd (ASX:ISX) (FRA:TA8) is a hybrid monetary financial institution and also a RegTech leader in remote identity verification, payment authentication with deposit taking, transactional banking and payment processing capability. iSignthis provides an end-to-end on-boarding service for merchants, with a unified payment, electronic money and identity service via our Paydentity(TM) and ISXPay(R) solutions.

By converging payments and identity, iSignthis delivers regulatory compliance to an enhanced customer due diligence standard, offering global reach to any of the world's 4.2Bn 'bank verified' card or account holders, that can be remotely on-boarded to meet the Customer Due Diligence requirements of AML regulated merchants in as little as 3 to 5 minutes. Paydentity(TM) has now onboarded and verified more than 1.5m persons to an AML KYC standard.

iSignthis Paydentity(TM) service is the trusted back office solution for regulated entities, allowing merchants to stay ahead of the regulatory curve, and focus on growing their core business. iSignthis' subsidiary, iSignthis eMoney Ltd, trades as ISXPay(R), and is an EEA authorised eMoney Monetary Financial Institution, offering card acquiring in the EEA, and Australia.

ISXPay(R) is a principal member of Mastercard Inc, Diners, Discover, (China) Union Pay International and JCB International, an American Express aggregator, and provides merchants with access to payments via alternative methods including SEPA, Poli Payments, Sofort, PRZ24 and others.

Probanx Solutions Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of iSignthis Ltd, provides API based access to CORE Banking solutions, SEPA Core, SEPA Instant and SEPA business scheme, for neobanks, banks, credit unions and emoney institutions, and provides a bridge to the Eurosystem's Central Bank of Lithuania's CENTROLink service.
Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin appears to be on thin ice with the White House, but Shulkin has maintained a critical bloc of support in the nation's veterans groups, who have come out vocally calling on President Donald Trump to keep him at the helm of the agency.

John Rowan, the head of the Vietnam Veterans of America, defended Shulkin on Tuesday, saying that Shulkin has stayed true to the agency's mission of serving America's veterans -- and that he wants to see Shulkin finish what he started.

"When he came in as secretary, he had a lot of issues no question about it, to deal with, but he's been dealing with it," Rowan told CNN's John Berman. "This is a huge system. If any other system out there was scrutinized like the VA was, they would find problems."

Shulkin ran the Veterans Health Administration under the Obama administration and was unanimously confirmed to lead the VA last year. While his early tenure included a number of bipartisan legislative victories on Capitol Hill, Shulkin has been locked in a power struggle with political appointees within the department, amid a disagreement over to what extent veterans should be able to seek care outside the VA health care system at cost to the government.

Garry Augustine, who heads the Disabled American Veterans' Washington DC headquarters, told CNN he was concerned about the uncertainty surrounding the VA and hoped that Trump will "give the secretary a vote of confidence and we can continue to move forward."

"If you look at the beginning of this administration, some of their biggest victories -- and their only victories -- were VA legislation," Augustine said. "I'd think the President would want to continue in that vein."

The show of support from major veterans service organizations comes as Shulkin's future appears to be tenuous with the White House and the President preparing to oust him. The announcement could happen as early as this week, the source said. However, until an announcement is made, no decision in the Trump White House is considered final.

Several officials told CNN's Jeff Zeleny that Trump wants a replacement for Shulkin to announce seamlessly.

Shulkin has kept a low profile in recent weeks, with few public appearances. Speaking on Capitol Hill earlier this month, he said he was focused on serving veterans, not political distractions.

"I've come here to improve the lives of vets. A lot of people are more interested in politics. I'm interested in getting the job done," he said. "I do believe we are getting back on track. And there is a lot of work to do."

Asked about recent reports that Shulkin's departure was imminent, a VA spokesperson said that there are "no personnel changes to announce at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

"President Trump has made clear that he expects the Department's sole focus to be on providing quality care to America's veterans who have sacrificed to keep this country free and safe," the spokesperson said.

Who could be the next VA Secretary?

At least two potential replacements for Shulkin, confirmed by two sources familiar with White House deliberations, could face tough confirmation fights on Capitol Hill.

One option is "Fox & Friends Weekend" host Pete Hegseth, an Iraq War veteran who previously served as the chief executive of Concerned Veterans for America, a group funded by the conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch. The group played an influential role in the Trump transition and favors, as Hegseth does, giving all veterans the choice to seek care in the private sector.

A White House official on Tuesday was skeptical that Hegseth would be the next leader of the agency.

"I'm not sure about that," the official said of Hegseth, pointing to the skepticism from veterans groups and concerns that Senate confirmation could be a hurdle. The same White House official said there are discussions about replacing Shulkin with someone from the Defense Department.

Hegseth also appears to lack the support of traditional veterans service organizations, who favor a more moderate approach when it comes to downsizing VA and instead relying on a privatized system. Asked if Hegseth would have his support if the President nominated him on Tuesday, Rowan said he would not due to his inexperience.

"No experience in running anything. I mean, the guy's a nice guy apparently, he's a veteran ... but he has no experience running a mega-organization like the VA," Rowan said.

Hegseth has also publicly criticized some lawmakers whose support he would need to win Senate confirmation. In November of last year, he called Georgia Sen. Johnny Isakson, the top Republican on the Senate's veterans panel, a "so-called Republican" and a "swamp creature" amid the Senate's debate to expand the Choice program. More recently, he described the $1.3 trillion spending bill to keep the government's doors open as a "swamp budget."

"This is a Mitch McConnell special. The GOP is not the party of fiscal responsibility," he said on Fox News.

Augustine, who heads up DAV's Washington headquarters, declined to weigh in on specific candidates, but said that "when people come in and start talking about privatization or dismantling the VA ... we have real concerns."

"We believe that the VA is a very good system that needs corrections, needs proper funding and support in order to improve," he said. "It is concerning when we hear names coming up that have called for the VA to be not as stable as it is now."

Another potential Shulkin replacement is former Florida Rep. Jeff Miller, who served eight terms in Congress and was the chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee. He was an early supporter of the President's campaign, and since leaving Congress has worked as a lobbyist, including on veterans issues.

Miller was viewed as a potential pick for VA's top job when Trump first took office, but wasn't in serious consideration because he wasn't a veteran.

CNN and The New York Times previously reported that Trump was considering replacing Shulkin with Energy Secretary Rick Perry, an Air Force veteran and former Texas governor, but Perry told CNN's Rene Marsh that he had no interest in the role and that he is currently in the "perfect job."

While the nation's major veterans groups have nearly unanimously lined up behind Shulkin, others have given Shulkin's tenure mixed reviews.

"Shulkin has received good marks in the first year from veterans' groups and others, but with multiple IG reports and political infighting, it's been tough for him," Paul Rieckhoff, founder and chief executive of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "He's had a tough couple weeks. He's under fire right now. Unfortunately, veterans are caught in the middle again."

IAVA has declined to take a position on whether Shulkin should stay on at VA, but Rieckhoff said that "talking to veterans across the country, his stock continues to plummet."
The US military conducted its first airstrike against al Qaeda in Libya Saturday, killing one of the group's leaders, according to US Africa Command, which oversees US military operations in the region.

"This is the first precision airstrike the US has conducted against al Qaeda," Africa Command spokesperson Robyn Mack told CNN.

Africa Command said in a statement Wednesday that the strike, which took place near Ubari, Libya, killed "two al Qaeda terrorists, including Musa Abu Dawud, a high ranking al-Qa'ida in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) official."

AQIM is the local al Qaeda affiliate in North Africa.

"Dawud trained AQIM recruits in Libya for attack operations in the region. He provided critical logistics support, funding and weapons to AQIM, enabling the terrorist group to threaten and attack US and Western interests in the region," the statement added.

The statement said the strike was "conducted in coordination with the Libyan Government of National Accord" and that the US military assesses that no civilians were killed.

The US has carried out a series of airstrikes targeting ISIS in Libya, a country beset by internal divisions and conflict following the ousting of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.

US aircraft carried out over 500 airstrikes against ISIS in the coastal city of Sirte after the terror group seized control of the city, helping to drive ISIS out by the end of 2016. The US has carried out additional strikes against ISIS in remote areas of the Libyan Desert.

"It's very very hard to plan some kind of operation that has a large effect when you have two to three guys in the Libyan desert," a Africa Command official told CNN last month.

"It's not an ideal solution but we're keeping them degraded," the official added.

However, this is the first time the US has specifically targeted the local al Qaeda affiliate in Libya, though US forces have targeted operatives with links to the group. AQIM also has a presence in neighboring Algeria and other North African countries like Mali.

Al Qaeda in Libya was responsible for the 2013 attack against the In Amenas oil consortium in Algeria, which killed three US citizens, Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Sheryll Klinkel told CNN -- as well as the 2012 Benghazi attack.

"An al Qaeda-affiliate was also responsible for the US Consulate attack in September 2012 that killed our Ambassador and several others," Klinkel added.

US military officials have expressed concerns about the growing strength of al Qaeda-linked groups in northwest Africa, particularly in Mali.

"ISIS and al Qaeda have taken advantage of under-governed spaces in Libya to establish sanctuaries for plotting, inspiring, and directing terror attacks; recruiting and facilitating the movement of foreign terrorist fighters; and raising and moving funds to support their operations," Africa Command said in its statement confirming Dawud's death.
Ecuador says it has again suspended Julian Assange's ability to communicate with the world outside its embassy in London. The South American nation accuses him of failing to commit to an agreement not to release messages interfering with other nations' affairs.

The WikiLeaks founder has normally had internet and social media access at the embassy, where Ecuador granted him asylum and allowed him to stay continuously for nearly six years to avoid an arrest warrant.

But Ecuador says it cut off his outside communications access -- for at least the second time in two years -- on Tuesday.

"The government of Ecuador has suspended all systems that allow Julian Assange to communicate outside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London," Ecuador's statement, released Wednesday, reads.

"This decision was taken due to Assange's failure to commit to the written agreement he agreed with the government at the end of 2017, where he was obligated not to release any messages that would interfere with other countries' matters.

"Ecuador's government warns that Assange's behavior through his social media messages puts in risk the good relationship the country has with the UK, other EU countries and other nations."

The statement did not specify which message or messages, if any, violated the agreement.

Assange's recent tweets

Assange has been holed up at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012 in an effort to avoid a Swedish arrest warrant for alleged rape -- accusations he has always denied.

Sweden dropped the charges in May 2017, but Assange remains the subject of a UK arrest warrant.

Assange has recently tweeted about a wide range of subjects, including the UK's accusation that Russia was likely responsible for a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in Britain.

"While it is reasonable for (UK Prime Minister) Theresa May to view the Russian state as the leading suspect, so far the evidence is circumstantial & the OCPW (Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons) has not yet made any independent confirmation, permitting the Kremlin (to) push the view domestically that Russia is persecuted," Assange posted to Twitter on Monday.

His most recent Tweets, sent Tuesday, respond to an insult from Alan Duncan, a minister of state at the Foreign Office. Duncan, during a parliamentary session, called Assange a "miserable little worm" who should leave the embassy and give himself up to British justice.

"As a political prisoner detained without charge for 8 years, in violation of 2 UN rulings, I suppose I must be 'miserable'; yet nothing wrong with being a 'little' person although I'm rather tall; and better a 'worm,' a healthy creature that invigorates the soil, than a snake," Assange tweeted Tuesday.

Ecuador's relationship with Assange has been uneasy in recent years. It temporarily cut off his internet access in October 2016, citing a batch of documents that WikiLeaks released -- documents that Ecuador said targeted the 2016 US presidential election campaign.

Assange has previously expressed concern that if he leaves the Ecuadorian embassy in London, he could end up being extradited to the United States, where he fears facing the death penalty over allegations of revealing government secrets through WikiLeaks.

In December, Ecaudor granted Assange citizenship, with Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa calling the measure "one more ring of protection" for Assange.

Espinosa in January said Ecuador would continue to pursue a dialogue with the UK to eventually remove Assange from the embassy.
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Easter Among the Ashes for the Assyrians of Iraq

As Christians in the West dye and hide eggs and attend Easter vigils and sunrise services, their brothers and sisters in genocide-ravaged Iraq and Syria will be celebrating Easter alongside them, but in a much harsher environment. Casting a pall over the most important feast of the liturgical calendar is a sense of homesickness, according to Ashur Sargon Eskrya, Iraq president of the Assyrian Aid Society, a humanitarian organization that provides assistance to Assyrian Christians in Northern Iraq. "Today our people in Camp are missing home back in the Nineveh Plains and Mosul," Eskrya, who is located in Dohuk, explained in an email to CR. "As they used to make ready and busy all the last ten days before Easter, most of them are trying to accept the facts and what has happened so that life should continue in the right way. However, at a time during the Holy Week when Christians mark the resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday following His crucifixion on Good Friday, Christians in the refugee camps of Northern Iraq "are still awaiting the liberation of their villages and homes." Since ISIS (hereafter Daesh) swept across Iraq and Syria in the summer of 2014, Christian communities who have lived in areas like the Nineveh Plains since the time of the Apostles have been uprooted and scattered all over the region. Many live in refugee camps in the Kurdish region of Government (KRG), while other families and communities have been scattered as far as Turkey and Jordan by the barbarian horde. Nonetheless, even after almost two years of displacement from their ancient homelands, these believers have found ways to adapt their Easter observances to their present state. "Christians in the camps have different ways of celebrating Easter," reads Ashur's email. "If they live in Ankawa [an Assyrian city north of Erbil, Iraq] they have more options to participate in the mass with their own churches. In camps -- which are typically tents or caravans -- [they worship] with [their own] pastors or priests or with other Christian churches like the Chaldean Catholic Church in Ankawa and the Assyrian Church of the East." As for most Christians around the world, the Holy Week celebrations began on Palm Sunday in Iraq. "They walked with palms in their hands in the pouring rain in Northern Iraq on Sunday and they danced, with our traditional dancing on Palm Sunday," explained Juliana Taimoorazy, founder and president of the Iraqi Christian Relief Council and fellow at the Philos Project. Taimoorazy is herself an Assyrian Christian. "Nothing really keeps us away from our faith." Taimoorazy, who is based out of Chicago, visits the region frequently and was on the ground in Iraq just last month. While there, she spoke with locals about the persecution they had faced under Daesh. "I asked this woman, 'Why is it that you did not convert to Islam?'" she recalled. "And she said, even at the point of death, even at the threat of beheading, that she would never think of converting." "They told me that their faith has become even stronger because of their persecution. And they also told me, 'Please don't take us to the West. Please don't further displace us because we see how you lose your faith in the West, whereas we here die for it and hold on to it.'" "They are proceeding with masses as planned," explained Taimoorazy. "In Northern Iraq, in Baghdad, in Syria they go to the churches that are open. For example there's a camp in Ankawa called Ashti 1, that is a very, very poor camp. They've taken a couple of storage containers and they've made it a church. And on every chair you'll see the Arabic letter "N" [for Nazarene, which Daesh used to mark the houses of Christians when it overtook Mosul]; there are very simple pictures of Jesus and Mary there and there's a little podium that acts as their altar." Finding community with other believers can be difficult for some who have found refuge outside the camps. "In other places some will miss the mass or miss celebrating Easter," says Eskrya. "Especially for families who live in rural areas and far away from their relatives or their family friends, because people are distributed in different places now." However, even the darkest of times cannot shake the faith of these followers of Christ. "As for most of our people, they have strong belief in Christianity," writes Eskrya. "So their faith is still high and at times like Easter, which is very important for our people in the Middle East, this gives them more powerful hope for the future and builds the spirit of God amongst our society." Despite the darkness and grinding toll that Daesh's genocide has taken on their community, hope and joy still shine through. "For people in the camps, Easter brings people close together, sharing their stories from the days they had at home and memories of the days before two years ago when every thing was different. But for now they will try to arrange everything in the camps" for the holiday, said Eskrya. "But not only have they lost their own churches and home back home in the Nineveh Plains. They lost many friends and relative because of migration. So the celebration will not be complete for those people if they cannot return back to their own villages and churches."
Croatia's Defense Council on Tuesday accepted an Israeli offer for the purchase of upgraded used F-16 combat aircraft that will replace its aging MiG-21 fighter jets.

IAF F-16C Barak fighter jet

(Credit: IAF)

The Croatian government announced the decision in a statement on Tuesday night, after a lengthy meeting with a team of experts of the Defense Ministry and the Armed Forces General Staff.



Last year, Croatia received four bids for the new fighter jets: American F-16 Bloc 70/72 from Lockheed Martin, Greek F-16 Block 30, Israeli second-hand F-16 Barak and Swedish new models JAS 39 Gripen.



The value of the deal of 12 used F-16 C/D Barak is estimated at over three billion kuna (420 million U.S. dollars), paid in ten annual installments.



According to defense experts, it may well be that the F-16 fighter aircraft being offered by Israel have been upgraded with cutting-edge technological systems, with Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. (IAI) being the upgrade contractor.



The Israeli F-16s can also be equipped with advanced Israeli weapon systems including the Python air-to-air missile produced by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd.



After the Council's recommendation, the Croatian government must make an official decision and sign a contract with the bidder. Under the plan, the first fighters are to be delivered to the Croatian Air Force by late 2020.
India is planning to donate four Mi-24 gunships to Afghanistan, the Hindustan Times newspaper writes.According to Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to India Shaida Abdali, India will buy four Hind combat helicopters from Belarus and donate them to Kabul.

A Belarusian Air Force Mi-24V combat helicopter

(Credit: Belarus MoD)

"We have recently signed a trilateral [India, Afghanistan, Belarus] MoU [Memorandum of Understanding]  India will acquire four Mi-24s [which will be delivered] in the next few months. All the rotorcraft will be bought by India," the Afghan official said quoted by the Hindustan Times.



It should be mentioned that Kabul urgently requires the aforementioned combat helicopters for counter-insurgency (COIN) operations. "India has been kind enough to agree to that request Afghanistan will have ready helicopters that will be used in the coming season," Shaida Abdali added.



India is reported to have donated four Hinds to the Afghan Air Force (AAF) in 2015-2016.



According to the Afghan diplomat, several Mi-24 gunships have been grounded due to the lack of spare parts. "India is hammering out a plan to help repair and refurbish these Mi-24s and other Russian-originated helicopters and transport aircraft of the AAF," Shaida Abdali said quoted by the Hindustan Times.



The variant of the Mi-24 gunships to be acquired from Belarus has not been specified. According to the Military Balance 2017 analytical book published by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), the Belarusian military operated four Mi-24 helicopters as of early 2017. Therefore, India is expected to acquire these platforms and donate them to Afghanistan

 Copyright 2018 TASS. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Qatar has selected Safran Helicopter Engines as engine supplier of its new NH90 fleet. The 28 NH90 military helicopters, whose acquisition was announced on 14 March, will all feature RTM322 engines.

(Credit: Airbus Helicopters)

The engines will be assembled in Bordes (France) and delivered to Airbus Helicopters' facility in Marignane, where the NH90 tactical transport version (TTH) is assembled, and to the Leonardo Venice-Tessera facility in Northern Italy for integration with the naval (NFH) configuration. Safran Helicopter Engines now powers 80 % of the worldwide NH90 fleet.



Safran's RTM322 is a 2,100 to 2,600 shaft horsepower engine (shp) designed for ten-to-fifteen ton military helicopters. It features state-of-the art technologies that enable it to perform in extremely demanding environments.



Commented Florent Chauvancy, Safran Helicopter Engines VP Heavy Helicopter Engine Programs, "the RTM322 has once again demonstrated that it is the best engine for the NH90. Since our acquisition of the program in 2013, we have generated a high level of operator satisfaction through increasing engine robustness and operability, and by implementing simpler and more efficient maintenance practices".



The Qatar Armed Forces NH90 will feature the RTM322-01/9A version. It features a 7% power increase over the baseline RTM322-01/9 variant. This additional power increases mission capabilities in "hot and high" conditions.



Today, 1,100 RTM322 have been delivered worldwide, accumulating over 1.3 million flight-hours.



As part of this agreement, Qatar has also ordered 16 H125 light single-engine helicopters for operation by the its Armed Forces Air Academy. These rotorcraft will also be Safran-powered, by the Arriel 2D .
The former Pinson Valley High School band director has been indicted for alleged sexual contact with a student.

Adam Bearden, who was pink-slipped in 2016, rehired amid an outpouring of support from students and the community and then resigned in 2017, is charged with a school employee having sexual contact with a student under the age of 19. It is a felony charge.

A Jefferson County grand jury issued the indictment on March 9, and it was made public Wednesday. Jefferson County Jail records show Bearden was booked into the lockup at 7:43 a.m. Saturday and released at 9:29 a.m. the same day.

According to the indictment, the 26-year-old Bearden did have sexual contact with the unnamed student by "touching the victim's buttocks for the purpose of gratifying the sexual desire of either part."

In May 2016, Bearden was one of nine teachers who learned they would not returning for the following school year. Bearden has been at the high school for three years and had been a member of the Shades Valley High School band while attending the Jefferson County International Baccalaureate School for High School.

He spent four years with the Million Dollar Band while at the University of Alabama where he graduated with honors. He had previous taught in Huntsville.

Following the 2016 dismissal of Bearden and the theatre director, the high school's fine arts department started an online petition to get the two teachers reinstated. Students held a protest with signs saying, "The arts mean something," "One band, one sound, #forbearden," and "Oh captain, my captain, #fortriola."

Bearden was rehired but one year later - in May 2017 - resigned amid the investigation into possible wrongdoing with the student. Efforts to locate Bearden for comment weren't immediately successful.

"Once again an adult failed his students,'' said Jefferson County sheriff's Chief Deputy Randy Christian. "It's hard to believe the lines can be blurred like that and it's disappointing."
A Montgomery judge has denied a motion filed by Roy Moore's attorneys to dismiss the defamation lawsuit filed by Leigh Corfman, one of the former U.S. Senate candidate's accusers.

Montgomery County Circuit Judge Roman Ashley Shaul has also scheduled the lawsuit's first court hearing for April 12.

In the order issued Wednesday afternoon, the judge also denied Moore's request to transfer the case to his home of Etowah County as well as denied Moore's request for a hearing to make oral arguments on the issue of dismissing the lawsuit and relocating to Etowah County.

Corfman filed her lawsuit in January, less than a month after Moore lost the U.S. Senate special election to Doug Jones. Corfman came forward in a Washington Post story on Nov. 9, 2017, alleging that Moore made unwanted sexual advances toward her when she was 14 years old and he was 32.

Moore has repeatedly denied the allegations by Corfman and other women who made allegations of unwanted romantic or sexual advances. He has re-stated those denials in court documents.

"We're gratified by the court's ruling and that Leigh will now have an opportunity to prove her case in court," Neil Roman, one of Corfman's attorneys, said in a statement to AL.com.

Moore's attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment from AL.com.

In addition to opposing Moore's desire to dismiss the lawsuit, Corfman's attorneys also resisted Moore's request to move the case to Etowah County.

The hearing on April 12 will be for the judge to "hear arguments on possible discovery limitations," Shaul said in his order.

Moore's attorneys had requested that discovery be delayed until the judge ruled on the issue of venue and the motion to dismiss.

Corfman's based her lawsuit on comments made about her by Moore and those connected with his campaign.

According to the lawsuit, Moore and his campaign committee "have defamed Ms. Corfman, repeatedly and in all forms of media, calling her a liar and questioning her motivation for publicly disclosing that Mr. Moore sexually abused her in 1979 when she was a 14-year-old high school freshman and he was a 32-year-old assistant district attorney."

Moore had asked the judge to dismiss the lawsuit because it was not filed in the proper venue -- arguing that it rightfully should have been filed in Etowah County, where Corfman said the encounter with Moore occurred. Moore's attorneys also said that the case should be moved to Etowah County for the convenience of the parties involved, saying that both the plaintiff and defendant reside in Etowah County.

The response from Corfman's attorneys were that Moore wanted the case moved to Etowah County because it would be a "home forum." And that of the nine people named or involved in the lawsuit, all but three live closer to Montgomery than the Etowah County seat of Gadsden. Those three, Corfman said, are Corfman, Moore and Corfman's mother, who did not mind traveling to Montgomery.

And Corfman argued that Moore's attorneys, in a December lawsuit filed in a failed attempt to have the election results certified, was filed in Montgomery County. In that lawsuit, Moore's attorneys described Corfman as making "false and malicious attacks."

In seeking to have the lawsuit dismissed, Moore's attorneys argued that comments made by a political candidate on the campaign stump should be protected speech and a candidate should be allowed to defend himself against allegations such as those raised by Corfman.

Updated today, March 28, 2018, at 4:47 p.m. with new information throughout.
NASA expects to be in the human spaceflight business for a long time, and that's led to one of the more interesting job postings so far this year. The space agency is hiring flight directors.

Flight directors lead the flight controllers, engineers, and support teams around the world during space missions. They make "the real-time decisions critical to keeping NASA astronauts safe in space," the agency says. For that, they're paid between $118,000 and $154,000 a year.

"NASA's missions require strong, creative leaders as human spaceflight continues to evolve," said Holly Ridings, acting chief of the Flight Director Office at Johnson. "We are looking for a mix of people with diverse backgrounds to play this critical role and add strength to our flight director team."

Candidates for the job don't have to be flight controllers, but they must be U.S. citizens with a bachelor's degree in engineering, biological science, physical science, computer science or mathematics.
The Alabama Senate has again delayed a vote on a bill to exempt economic development professionals from the state ethics law after it led to a slowdown that could jeopardize other bills on what could be the Legislature's last day.

Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh, R-Anniston, moved to delay action on the bill after Sen. Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, spoke at length in opposition to it. Sen. Dick Brewbaker, R-Montgomery, also spoke in opposition to the bill, saying it needed an amendment.

The Legislature had tentatively planned to finish the annual session today, and the economic developers bill is one of the key bills still in play.

Marsh said he underestimated the level of opposition to the economic developers bill this morning. The Senate could still reconsider it later.

Supporters of the bill to exempt economic development professionals from having to register as lobbyists under the ethics bill say the disclosure requirements and other requirements for lobbyists would hurt Alabama's chances to compete for employers who want to keep their site searches confidential.

Opponents say it would weaken the ethics law.

Marsh said some senators wanted to take a recess today to attend memorial services for VictoryLand casino owner Milton McGregor, who died Sunday.

The Senate this morning gave final passage to a bill to give education retirees' a one-time bonus of $1 for every month they worked. That bill goes to Gov. Kay Ivey.

Sen. Paul Sanford, R-Huntsville, is filibustering to block a bill to allow people to hunt deer and feral hogs over bait. The bill has been proposed for years.

Sanford, an avid hunter, said allowing hunting with bait would be a detriment to the sport.
The Alabama Senate debated tonight but did not vote on a bill that would exempt some people who work in economic development from the state ethics law.

The Senate voted to delay action on the bill and adjourn for the night after Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, entered the debate and indicated he was prepared to slow down the process because of concerns about the fate of his bill to track racial profiling. Smitherman's bill was on the House calendar tonight.

The House adjourned without taking a vote on Smitherman's bill.

Tonight's postponement of action on the economic developers bill might not be the last delay related to the fate of the racial profiling bill.

Smitherman and Rep. Merika Coleman, D-Pleasant Grove, the House sponsor of the racial profiling bill, said the fate of other bills could depend on it. Coleman said the racial profiling bill is the No. 1 priority for the Legislative Black Caucus.

The House had a long calendar of other bills to consider tonight, in addition to the racial profiling bill, but abruptly voted to adjourn after a long recess.

Earlier today, Smitherman and Coleman were optimistic about a new version of the racial profiling bill, which replaced one rejected by the House last week.

But opposition to the new version emerged during the day.

Legislators had planned to finish the session on Wednesday but still have not given final approval to the education budget.

Smitherman said he was prepared to delay the budget if necessary as leverage for the racial profiling bill.

House Speaker Mac McCutcheon, R-Monrovia, said as he left the House floor tonight that there would be discussions about the racial profiling bill tonight. McCutcheon helped initiate the negotiations that produced today's compromise version of the bill.

As for the ethics bill on economic developers, Sen. Phil Williams, R-Rainbow City, who is sponsoring the bill in the Senate, said he believes it has enough support to pass.

Supporters of the bill say a requirement that economic development professionals register as lobbyists and disclose their clients could hurt Alabama's chances to compete for employers who want to keep their site searches confidential.

Others, including Executive Director Tom Albritton of the Alabama Ethics Commission, have expressed concern that such an exemption would weaken the ethics law.

Williams is handling a substitute version of the bill intending to address some of those concerns.

"As much as we've tightened it up, it is decidedly a tight piece of legislation that I think does exactly what we say it does," Williams said. "(It) makes it virtually impossible for someone to by hook or crook get around the ethics laws. The only people that would have the opportunity for an exemption are the true economic developers that were never intended to be in the bill in the first place."

Williams said the Ethics Commission asked the Legislature to provide guidance on the issue. Last year, the commission declined to adopt an opinion recommended by the commission staff that site consultants for companies considering moving to Alabama are required under certain circumstances to register as lobbyists in Alabama.
Alabama's first openly gay legislator received a standing ovation as she bid farewell to the House of Representatives before the last day of the legislative session Wednesday.

Rep. Patricia Todd, a Democrat from Birmingham, will not seek re-election after serving 12 years.

Todd said on the House floor Tuesday evening that her life changed forever when she joined the Alabama legislature as its first openly gay member in 2006.

"You are incredible, beautiful people, some people I thought I would never get along with or never like," Todd told her fellow lawmakers.

She said that when she speaks to gay political candidates around the country, they always ask how she's received in Alabama - and she answers that she's treated like anyone else.

"You walked into this institution that's never had anybody like you. It's Alabama. I was prepared for the worst. But you know, I've never heard anybody make any crude remark. Everybody's always been very respectful," Todd told the Associated Press on Wednesday.

"Honestly, what surprised me the most is how close I became to a lot of people who I would have never met before or don't agree with on hardly any issues. They're now some of my dearest friends."

Todd, one of few white Democrats in the GOP-dominated House, helped pass Carly's Law to allow marijuana-derived medication for treating severe seizures and expanded its use to more patients under Leni's Law two years later.

More often than not though, Todd's bills failed. She unsuccessfully pushed her colleagues to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana, legalize medicinal marijuana and add sexual orientation as a protected category under the state's hate crime law.

"I'd hoped to make progress on that. But Alabama's not ready," Todd said. "I haven't passed many bills but I haven't let things happen."

Todd fought against what she called discriminatory bills that came through the chamber. She wished she could have stopped a 2017 law that allowed faith-based adoption organizations to refuse to place children with gay parents or other households because of their religious beliefs.

Todd was a member of education, fiscal responsibility and Jefferson County committees and said she tried to hold the legislature financially accountable about who received government funds in the budget.

Todd, whose background is in activism, said she's taking away future lessons from her legislative experience.

"What I learned is how to actively listen and try to understand their reasoning behind their positions and to be respectful and I think that makes me a better activist. I'm saddened in this country that we can't have civil discourse without screaming at each other. I hope I changed some of that," Todd said.

"I hope I opened up some hearts and minds," Todd told her fellow lawmakers Tuesday evening. "I won't be the last. There will be other openly gay folks that join this chamber."

She is supporting two other openly gay candidates running for the Alabama Legislature in 2018. Neil Rafferty, a gay former Marine who works with Birmingham AIDS Outreach, is one of three Democrats who are running for Todd's seat. Todd is also supporting gay Democratic businesswoman Felicia Stewart, who is running against incumbent Rep. David Faulkner, a Republican, in one of the state's wealthiest suburbs.

Todd married her current wife in 2016. A native of Kentucky, she has lived in Alabama since 1984. She said she has her eye on a few job opportunities after the session including as the executive director of an advocacy organization formed in Orlando, Florida, after the Pulse nightclub shooting.

Todd said she is not attending the last day of the session Wednesday because she is "terrible at saying goodbye."

A longer version of this story was posted at 2:07 p.m.
Six days after a ransomware attack crippled a host of services in Atlanta, city officials aren't saying if they plan on paying the $51,000 sought by the hackers.

"Everything is up for discussion," Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said when asked if city would pay the ransom.

City officials first discovered the ransomware attack on March 22, forcing all municipal employees to shut down their computers and stopping a host of resident services. The attack involved the encryption of city data and hackers are reportedly demanding a ransom of 6 Bitcoins or roughly $51,000.

"Our cross-functional incident response team is looking into this matter and working around-the- clock. It would be inappropriate to speculate on when this matter will be fixed, but we are committed to resolution," the city said on its website page devoted to the attack.

Currently, Municipal Courts in Atlanta cannot process ticket payments, either online or in person, and court appearances are being rescheduled. No new water services can be processed and applications for employment with the city are suspended until further notice, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported.

People doing business with Atlanta are urged to "take precautionary measures to maintain the safety and security of their personal information" though the city maintains it has not "seen any evidence that personal information has been misused as a result of this incident."

The FBI, Department of Homeland Security, Secret Service and independent forensic experts are assisting the city with the investigation.
The education budget and other bills stalled Tuesday night in the Alabama Legislature because of the uncertain status of a bill intended to identify racial profiling.

The racial profiling bill is the No. 1 priority for the Legislative Black Caucus, and sponsors of the measure say they are prepared to use legislative rules to delay the other bills as the legislative session winds down.

Lawmakers had tentatively planned to finish the session on Wednesday, even though that would leave six of their allowed 30 meeting days unused. Sen. Rodger Smitherman, sponsor of the racial profiling bill, said there's no reason lawmakers can't use more of their allotted days.

"We have six more legislative days," Smitherman said tonight. "So it's nothing for the body to get panicky, like we've got to do this by 12 tomorrow because we unofficially said that tomorrow would be the last day."

Smitherman's racial profiling bill would, among other things, require police agencies to keep records of traffic stops in an effort to determine if drivers are being stopped just because of their race. Smitherman has described his own experiences being profiled and says such incidents are all too common for African-Americans.

The Senate passed Smitherman's bill in January without a dissenting vote.

But last week, it fell far short of the required three-fifths margin on a procedural vote in the House. The vote was 34-52, with most Republicans opposing it.

Smitherman and the House sponsor, Rep. Merika Coleman, D-Pleasant Grove, met this morning for negotiations with Republican leaders, lawmakers who are former law enforcement officers and others. The result was a new version of the bill. Smitherman said it allowed law enforcement entities to devise how they would record traffic stop information intended to show whether there is racial profiling.

"If you say that this process can be done better, I'm going to give you an opportunity to do it," Smitherman said. "But the bottom line, we have to record the stops, because that's the profiling, the fact that people are stopped and it's not recorded. And stopped for no apparent reason and no probable cause."

Smitherman and Coleman expressed optimism about the compromise. The bill was on the House calendar today.

But Smitherman later moved to stall debate in the Senate on an unrelated bill because of apparent opposition to his bill in the House. At that point the Senate adjourned for the night. The House adjourned later, leaving most of its long calendar unfinished, including the profiling bill. Both chambers return on Wednesday.

Smitherman said the challenge for the racial profiling bill is clearing the three-fifths margin on the procedural vote, which stopped the bill last week. That's necessary to allow it to proceed to a final vote, on which it could pass by a simple majority.

Coleman said the Black Caucus was prepared to delay other legislation because of the importance of the racial profiling bill.

"Tonight we're breaking at 8:30 and we could have gone on till midnight," Coleman said. "There are lots of bills on that calendar tonight that we could have passed had we just dealt with this issue. It's unfortunate, but right now this piece of legislation is between lots of other things passing this session or not."

Coleman said lawmakers tell her they support the intent of the bill but won't necessarily commit to vote for it.

"I think as a body we need to have some political courage and do what we need to do," Coleman said. "All of those folks have come to me and said, 'I don't believe in racial profiling. I think it's wrong.' Well then, show us that you think it's wrong and support this piece of legislation."
A 19-year-old from Florida is jailed for threatening a school shooting in northeast Alabama, authorities said.

Anthony Kessler is accused of threatening a school shooting in Alabama. (Lee County, Florida jail photo)

Anthony Kessler, of Lehigh Acres, Florida, is held in the Lee County jail on a warrant charging him with making a threat against a school, records show. Kessler is accused of threatening the shooting at Fort Payne High School in northeast Alabama, police confirmed.

The arrest was announced by the Lee County Sheriff's Office amd the FBI.

"We take every threat seriously," FBI Special Agent in Charge Eric Sporre in a news release. "The FBI Tampa Field Office continues to work with our local, state and federal law enforcement partners in assessing any and all threats. As always, we will work with our law enforcement partners to gather, share and act upon threat information as it comes to our attention."

Kessler was captured today at a restaurant on Palm Beach Boulevard in Fort Myers.

Fort Payne police Chief Randy Bynum said Kessler made the threat March 5, claiming the act of violence would happen the next day.

Lehigh Acres, Florida is more than 700 miles from Fort Payne, Alabama. Police haven't released information about a motive for the threat.

In a news release Wednesday afternoon, Bynum said: This arrest would not have been possible without the Fort Payne Police Department Detectives, Gadsden FBI Special Agent Frank Langdon and Supervisory Resident Agent in Charge of the FBI Gadsden office Stan Ruffin. The cooperation that Gadsden FBI gave us in bringing Mr. Kessler to justice can not be measured. This is an example of cooperation between agencies going above and beyond for the safety of Fort Payne school students.
An Athens man is jailed in connection with a child sexual assault that was reported in Limestone County over the weekend.

Jonathan Norwood is accused of sexually assaulting a child.

Jonathan Dakota Norwood, 23, is held in the Limestone County Jail with bail set at $200,000. He is charged with sexual abuse of a child younger than 12. The charge is punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a lifetime on the sex-offender registry.

The case came under investigation when sheriff's deputies and the Department of Human Resources were called to Athens-Limestone Hospital to investigate a sexual assault on Saturday, authorities said. The victim -- a boy younger than 12 -- was examined and released, according to a police report.

Norwood is related to the person who owns the mobile home park where the victim lives, according to the sheriff's office. Based on the investigation, deputies arrested Norwood.

Limestone County District Attorney Brian Jones said the investigation is ongoing. He declined to comment further on the details of the case.
An Alabama man and his girlfriend were convicted this week for the rape of his 11-year-old autistic son.

Sean Cole was convicted for the rape of his 11-year-old autistic son.

The boy's father, 29-year-old Sean Cole, got his girlfriend to rape, sodomize and abuse the child because he thought his son was gay, according to the prosecutor.

On Tuesday, a Madison County jury convicted Cole and his girlfriend, Khadeijah Moore, of rape, sodomy and sexual abuse of a child younger than 12. Each faces up to life in prison. Sentencing is May 24 at 11 a.m.

The crimes happened during the week of Thanksgiving 2016 when the boy was in Huntsville to visit his father, said Tim Douthit, the Madison County assistant district attorney who prosecuted the case. The trial began Monday and wrapped up with the guilty verdicts Tuesday afternoon.

After Cole found his son in a "compromising position" with another boy, he directed Moore to perform sex acts on the child, prosecutors said. Moore, 20 years old at the time, raped, sodomized and inappropriately touched the child, according to trial testimony. The couple also forced the child to perform sex acts on Moore.

"It was solely that (Cole) was worried that his son was gay or might become gay," Douthit said. "There was no evidence he had a sexual attraction to his son or children. He just though he could, for lack of better words, 'straighten him out.'"

The boy lived in Georgia with his mother. When he returned home, he asked her questions about sexual behavior that made her suspicious. When the child told his mother what happened in Alabama, she immediately drove from Georgia to speak with Huntsville police investigators.

HPD Investigator Will McDonald charged Cole and Moore in January 2017. Cole has been in the Madison County Jail since his arrest. Pending sentencing, bail is set at $750,000 cash only. Cole's attorney James Cathey declined to comment.

Khadeijah Moore was convicted for the rape of her boyfriend's 11-year-old autistic son.

Moore is considered a fugitive because she didn't show up for trial after being released on bail.

Despite her absence, Moore was represented by appointed lawyer Reta McKannan. Madison County Circuit Judge Allison Austin issued a warrant for Moore's arrest at the beginning of the trial.

"My client did everything at Sean Cole's direction. That doesn't make it OK. That doesn't make it right," McKannan told AL.com. "As sorry as I am that my client is in this much trouble, I respect that jury for what they had to do."

She said the facts of the case were difficult for the jurors to hear and consider.

"I have been prosecuting child sex crimes for a long time now, and this is the first time I've ran into anything like this," Douthit said. "The most terrible part of this is the little boy still doesn't understand it's not his fault."

Douthit said when a forensic interviewer asked the boy what was going through his mind during the rape, the child replied, "I was thinking why is my dad doing this to me. Dad said to tell no one. I failed him -- I just told you."

Considering everything he's been through, the boy, who turned 13 on Tuesday, is doing well now Douthit said. "But, he still thinks he's the bad guy. It's heartbreaking."

Updated at 2:14 p.m. with comments from Moore's attorney.
President Donald Trump tweeted his support for the Second Amendment Wednesday, a day after retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens' high-profile op-ed calling for its repeal.

THE SECOND AMENDMENT WILL NEVER BE REPEALED! As much as Democrats would like to see this happen, and despite the words yesterday of former Supreme Court Justice Stevens, NO WAY. We need more Republicans in 2018 and must ALWAYS hold the Supreme Court!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 28, 2018

Stevens, 97, wrote in a New York Times op-ed that repealing the Second Amendment was the first step in countering the National Rifle Association to allow "constructive" gun control legislation to move forward.

"Overturning that decision via a constitutional amendment to get rid of the Second Amendment would be simple and would do more to weaken the N.R.A.'s ability to stymie legislative debate and block constructive gun control legislation than any other available option," Stevens wrote.

Trump's tweet also referenced the importance of the GOP maintaining control of Congress in the 2018 election and the role that could play in appointing future Supreme Court justices.
One year ago today, Woodstock captured the hearts of people around the world when the podcast "S-Town" was released. Three hundred and sixty five days and tens of millions of downloads later, the tiny Bibb County town of 2,000 people is reaping the economic benefits thanks to the podcast that delved into the life that was the enigma wrapped inside a riddle packed in an advanced Sudoku puzzle that was John B. McLemore.

The podcast's namesake had been coined by McLemore, who compared Woodstock and Bibb County to a more vulgar term for fecal matter. McLemore wrote about the town to "S-Town" host Brian Reed, urging him to investigate what McLemore said was the cover-up of a murder by a prominent member of a local family. While McLemore's claim became increasingly dubious, the podcast's second episode ends with news of McLemore's shocking suicide. The show's remaining five episodes go on to explore McLemore's life and relationships with people who did not know of each other but were considered McLemore's friends.

Jeff Dodson, a longtime McLemore friend, business partner and now mayor of Woodstock, said he and his wife, "S-Town" character Cheryl Dodson, have received letters from as far away as Australia asking questions that the podcast left open, including the status of McLemore's mother, Mary Grace, and the future of featured "S-Town" character Tyler Goodson, who faced charges for trespassing on McLemore's land after McLemore's death and taking some property.

Meanwhile, travelers from 15 states and beyond have visited Woodstock to lay candles, dimes and mini bottles of Wild Turkey at McLemore's grave at the Green Pond Presbyterian Church Cemetery.

"When the podcast first came out, it was real busy," Jeff Dodson told AL.com. "We were getting a lot of attention, really worldwide. It was pretty widespread. ... People just wanted to feel closer to [McLemore], I guess."

Among the spots made popular by "S-Town" that out of towners wanted to see was the Little Caesar's on Highway 5 that McLemore frequented, McLemore's secluded property (tourists couldn't get any further than the gate) and the gravesite.

Woodstock hosted its inaugural music festival last September to build a senior center and provide meals to senior citizens. Dodson credited "S-Town" with boosting turnout.

"The fact that you had some free advertisement, if you will, I took it," Dodson said. "Listen, I didn't fight it at all. If you wanted to see Woodstock, I didn't care how I got you here as long as I got you here."

Cheryl Wynn, a former security guard for KyKenKee, a lumber business owned by the prominent Burt family mentioned in "S-Town," said her job involved keeping tourists off the company's property after the podcast's success.

"We would have people coming in from California, New York, Virginia. They would stand outside the gate because I couldn't let them in the gate, but they would stand up there and take a picture of the KyKenKee sign behind them," said Wynn, who is now a convenience store clerk at one of Woodstock's main commercial drags.

Wynn said the excitement over "S-Town" hit its peak soon after the podcast was released, but said there are "still a few old timers who sit around and talk" about it.

"It was strange. Everybody thought they might come out with a movie or something," she said. "I was hoping on that. I wanted to watch it. They still sit around and talk about the podcast."

Meanwhile, McLemore's suicide has had a silver lining for Woodstock. In the coming weeks, the town is set to hold its inaugural Wildflower Run by the track outside town hall to raise awareness for mental illness and suicide. The event is being organized by Cheryl Dodson, who is also training to become a suicide prevention counselor.

Jeff Dodson noted that Bibb County ranks 9th among suicides in Alabama, and that 31 of the state's 67 counties have suicide rates above the national average.

"If the podcast brought attention to that ... that would be a great thing," he said.
A Tanner High School teacher is jailed for being drunk in class today, authorities said.

Mae Edwards, a teacher at Tanner High School, was arrested today on charges of public intoxication and possession of prohibited liquors.

Mae Gladys Edwards, a 40-year-old family and consumer science teacher, was charged today with public intoxication and illegal possession of prohibited liquors. Both are misdemeanors.

A Limestone County sheriff's school resource officer arrested Edwards just after 1 p.m. today, said Stephen Young, a sheriff's spokesman. School officials and the resource officer started investigating after student reported the teacher was behaving oddly.

Young said a liquor bottle was found near the teacher's desk.

"We have no tolerance for this kind of alleged behavior on school property," said Limestone County Schools Superintendent Tom Sisk. "It's very troubling our kids were exposed to this kind of behavior."

Sisk said the situation was handled "immediately and decisively." Edwards is on paid leave while the school system investigates the incident. Based on the outcome, the superintendent said he will recommend how the school board should handle Edwards' employment future.

Edwards has worked at Tanner for less than one year. Tanner High serves K-12 students in Limestone County. The school is at 2060 Sommers Road in Athens

Edwards is held in the Limestone County Jail. Bail is set at $1,000. But, she can't be released until she is sober, Young said.
Senate unanimously passed a resolution declaring support for early voting locations on college campuses Tuesday night.

Now that the resolution, co-written by senators and sponsored by groups like Chomp the Vote and the Vote Everywhere Ambassadors, is passed, it will be sent to several Florida universities as well as state officials, including Gov. Rick Scott, Rep. Chuck Clemons and Sen. Keith Perry.

An early voting forum will be held at 6 p.m. on April 4 in Pugh Hall to offer information about how to pass legislation to allow for early voting locations on campus, said Sen. Sam Jenkins (Inspire, District C), who co-authored the resolution.

Sen. Michael Rosen (Impact, Liberal Arts) won the open seat in the Information and Communications Committee in a vote of 43-36 against Jenkins.

Senate also unanimously passed a $572.99 bill for Lucha Latina, a new student organization aiming to help Latinas prepare for interviews and create bonds through a mentorship program.

Sen. Maria Perez (Impact, District D), who also serves as the president of the organization, said the purpose is to reach out to the community but also prepare its members. She wants to create a scholarship program for high school seniors in the area and help students prepare for the college application process.

We want to be able to create a safe space not only for Latinas, but all UF students, Perez said.

Contact Christina Morales at cmorales@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter at @Christina_M18.
Ever since Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico Sept. 20, the island and its people have struggled to get by. It was the most powerful storm in about a century, and the island of about 3 million people was struck head on.

You may assume that in six months things have gotten back to normal, but some residents in Puerto Rico are still without water, shelter and power. In the town of Yabucoa, where 35,000 people sat through the eye of the storm, just 35 percent of the town is energized, according to Mother Jones. The town is providing water to its citizens by using 25 generators to power pumps. Significant damage can be seen throughout the town, including piles of debris near city hall.

According to The New York Times, the hurricane knocked out all electricity for nearly 70 percent of all households and destroyed towns with floods and mudslides. Six months later, 7 percent of the islands population still has no power, according to the Los Angeles Times.

In November, the island officials estimated that after Hurricanes Irma and Maria, they would need nearly $95 billion to rebuild the island. But the money received hasnt been enough. Puerto Rico officials have complained continuously that the federal government isnt doing enough to help with recovery.

If Florida got hit as Puerto Rico did, we wouldnt be writing this editorial. The Red Cross would have stepped in. The National Guard would be working to help people from their homes and distribute food and water. The government would have passed emergency funding to ensure available resources for power and restoration of available water. You saw this after Hurricane Irma as officials ordered evacuations to protect residents and make sure supplies were ready.

And while its more difficult to give emergency aid to an island than a part of the contiguous U.S., we need to do more. And we need to start with representation.

Out of the 540 people who represent the U.S. and its territories in Congress, only one person goes to the Capitol on behalf of Puerto Rico. Her name is Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon, and she has no vote.

And shes not the only one. Representatives for Washington, D.C.; American Samoa, Guam; the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands also have no vote on legislation on the Congress floor.

And while these representatives can propose legislation political clout, this lack of power is reflective of how the U.S. views its territories: as second-class.

Dont forget about Puerto Rico. But most importantly, dont forget about the people.

While some are still on the island waiting patiently, thousands have left. The majority of the migrants have come to Florida, according to CNN. We must be conscientious of this. We must keep this in mind and try to help as much as possible.

In an op-ed column in The New York Times, Daiza Aponte Torres, who is living in a New York hotel with her two daughters, wrote, Were barely surviving  We were confined to our rooms all day. My limited English has made it difficult to find a job. I applied for welfare assistance so that I could feed my children, but the request was denied twice.

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It can be difficult to feel connected to the island when at the political level it faces an uphill battle for representation.

Its on us to make sure they feel welcome and ask our legislators to represent the voice of Puerto Rico.
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By submitting this article to a friend we reserve the right to contact them regarding Fastmarkets AMM subscriptions. Please ensure you have their consent before giving us their details. Global tin: Rotterdam premiums up on tight supply in quiet market

Rotterdam tin premiums rose week on week on Tuesday March 27 concurrent with expectations of Indonesian exports lowering in coming months, while US and China premiums held steady ahead of the upcoming Easter holiday.

Rotterdam 99.9% premium rises

US and China premiums steady

Indonesian exports expected to slow down

The tin premium for standard purity tin increased further in Rotterdam this week in anticipation of lower exports from Indonesia over the next month or two.The premium for 99.9% tin ingots with 300 parts per million (ppm) lead content rose at the bottom end to $340-375 per tonne in-warehouse Rotterdam on March 27 from $325-375 a week before.Deals were reported at the top end of the range, albeit in quiet spot trading conditions, with offers rising while traders anticipate a supply crunch in Europe around late April and May.[Pricing at] $350 is the strict minimum at the moment  with the government tightening its grip on export licenses in Indonesia, many suppliers wont manage to get their stocks out of the country, a tin trader said.The Indonesian government is reviewing its export regulation  it has announced a temporary freeze on new licences and threatened to revoke existing ones, pending clarification on whether local agencies are compliant with current export policies, according to trade sources.It all sounds very messy. It is severely reducing export availability of tin from Banka. Premiums are rising, and big gaps are likely for late April and May arrivals in Europe and other locations, another trader in Europe said.This coincides with continued production problems at Refined Bangka Tin, which is not selling on spot and even experiencing delays in its contractual deliveries while its smelter is being equipped with a new electrolytic furnace.Exports from Indonesia have already dropped in March - and with only a few days left in the month, they look set to reach their lowest level in at least nine months. Only 3,915 tonnes have traded on the Indonesia Commodity and Derivatives Exchange for exports so far, compared with 7,015 tonnes in February and 5,245 tonnes in January. PT Timah is said to be doing most of the exports.Concurrently, demand has remained steady across various sectors.The US delivered premium and the US in-warehouse Baltimore premium both remained unchanged at $550-625 per tonne and $480-580 per tonne, respectively.Steady demand for material continues, although some market participants were concerned that the upcoming Easter holiday could negatively impact demand.No supply issues have been reported, with the market appearing to be balanced overall.Not much is happening. Were busy, but theres no change in the market, one US-based trader said.Meanwhile, the tightness in the trucking industry continues to cause delays when shipping material. Market participants are worried that the situation will get worse with the electronic logging device mandate going into full enforcement on Sunday April 1.A second US-based trader said that hes been waiting for a week to have his material picked up and delivered from a Baltimore warehouse. [The situation] is starting to have a pretty big effect in terms of picking up material, the trader said.In China, tin premiums for 99.85% and 99.9% tin ingots, cif Shanghai, and 99.9% tin ingots, low lead, cif Shanghai, were unchanged at $150-170 per tonne, $230-250 per tonne and $320-350 per tonne, respectively, due to weak spot demand.The market is keeping a close watch on tolling license issues.China imported 19,561 tonnes of tin concentrates in February, up 124.7% on a yearly basis, and exported 745,920 tonnes of refined tin, around 146 times the number of tonnes exported at the same time last year, according to customs data.Shanghai Futures Exchange tin stocks decreased by 381 tonnes to 4,677 tonnes as of Friday March 23.Shivani Singh, Singapore; Echo Ma, Shanghai; and Perrine Faye, London, contributed to this article.
Posted on: March 28, 2018 8:36 AM

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The 17th meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) will take place in Hong Kong from Sunday 28 April 2019, it was confirmed today. The ACC is one of the Anglican Communions four Instruments of Communion, and the only one that includes laity amongst its number. Through its triennial meetings, the ACC and its standing committee sets the agenda for the international work of the Anglican Communion and the Anglican Communion Office, and helps to co-ordinate intra-Communion joint action and programmes across a range of issues.

ACC-17 will be shorter than recent gatherings, with the meeting due to conclude on Sunday 5 May. The last ACC, held in Lusaka in 2016, discussed a range of issues and approved by assent motions on subjects as diverse as intentional discipleship, the continuing detention of Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi, gender-based violence and the environment, particularly in light of climate change.

Intentional discipleship is expected, once more, to be a focus for the meeting, as the Communion gears up to the next meeting of the Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops, which will meet in Canterbury in July to August 2020, under the theme Gods church for Gods world. The ACC was first convened in 1971 in Limuru, Kenya. Since then it has met in Ireland, Trinidad, Canada, England, Nigeria, Singapore, Wales, South Africa, Panama, Scotland, Hong Kong, Jamaica, New Zealand and Zambia.

At the end of ACC-16 in Lusaka, it was announced that the next meeting would be held in Sao Paulo, Brazil. But last year the ACCs Standing Committee decided to postpone Brazils hosting of the ACC because of the challenging time for the country and for the Anglican Church there. The Chair of the ACC, Archbishop Paul Kwong, offered to host it in Hong Kong, subject to the agreement of his House of Bishops, which has now been confirmed.

I am delighted that the next meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council will be taking place in Hong Kong, Archbishop Paul told ACNS. It will be a great privilege to welcome members of the ACC to our province. Many of the details have still to be finalised, but I am certain that ACC-17 will build on much of the good work of ACC-16, particularly in the area of intentional discipleship. It is going to be an exciting time.

The Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, Dr Josiah Idowu-Fearon, commented: I am very grateful to Archbishop Paul Kwong and to the province of Hong Kong for stepping in to host ACC-17.

Our meeting next year will be shorter than in 2016 but I am looking forward to it immensely. Its an opportunity to spend time in prayer and worship together and to hear about what has been happening across our worldwide family and learn from each other.

Our time in Lusaka was a great blessing and I am optimistic that Hong Kong will be too. I invite the Communion to join me in praying for ACC-17 as work continues to develop the programme.

Hong Kong will also host the next meetings of the Inter Anglican Finance and Audit Committee, which will take place ahead of ACC-17, and the Provincial Secretaries Conference, which will take place following ACC-17.

Members of the ACC are appointed by their provinces to serve for three meetings of the ACC. The largest provinces are entitled to three members: a bishop, priest and lay person; mid-sized provinces are entitled to two members: one ordained person (deacon, priest or bishop) and lay person; and the smaller provinces are entitled to one member, which the constitution says should preferably be a lay person. In addition, five members of the ACC are elected from amongst the Primates of the Anglican Communion; and the ACC can appoint up to six additional Members in order to achieve balanced representation and to assist the work of the Council in achieving its Object.

Provincial Secretaries are currently confirming their Churches representatives on the ACC ahead of next years meeting.

O 17 encontro do Conselho Consultivo Anglicano confirmado para Hong Kong em 2019.

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O 17 encontro do Conselho Consultivo Anglicano (CCA) acontecera em Hong Kong a partir do domingo dia 29 de abril de 2019. O CCA e um dos quatro Instrumentos de Comunhao da Comunhao Anglicana, e o unico deles que inclui pessoas nao-ordenadas (leigas/os) entre seus membros. Os encontros trienais servem para o CCA e a Diretoria do mesmo estabelecerem a agenda para o trabalho internacional da Comunhao Anglicana e do Escritorio da Comunhao Anglicana (ACO) em Londres, Reino Unido, e contribui para coordenar as acoes e programas intra-anglicanos relacionais a uma serie de temas e questoes.

O CCA-17 tera uma duracao menor do que os seus ultimos encontros. Tera seu termino no Domingo dia 5 de maio. O ultimo CCA, que aconteceu em Lusaka em 2016, discutiu uma seria de assuntos e aprovou varias mocoes sobre assuntos diversos como o discipulado intencional, a detencao demorada de uma crista paquistanesa chamado Asia Bibi, violencia de genero e o meio ambiente, particularmente relacionados com as mudancas climaticas e seus impactos.

E esperado que o discipulado intencional seja, mais uma vez, o foco do encontro, ja que a Comunhao esta em pleno vapor em direcao a proxima Conferencia de Lambeth das bispas e bispos anglicanos, que acontecera em Cantuaria, Reino Unido, em Julho/Agosto de 2020, com o tema Igreja de Deus para o Mundo de Deus. O primeiro encontro do CCA foi em 1971 em Limuru, Quenia. Desde la o CCA encontrou-se na Irlanda, Trinidad, Canada, Inglaterra, Nigeria, Singapura, Pais de Gales, Africa do Sul, Panama, Escocia, Hong Kong, Jamaica, Nova Zelandia e Zambia.

Ao final do CCA-16 em Lusaka, Zambia, foi anunciado que o proximo encontro seria em Sao Paulo, Brasil. Mas, no ano passado, o Comite Executivo do CCA decidiu adiar o Brasil como hospedeiro do encontro para uma outra oportunidade, por causa dos desafios e da crise que vive o pais e por causa da Igreja Episcopal Anglicana local. O presidente do CCA, Arcebispo Paul Kwong, ofereceu-se para hospedar o encontro em Hong Kong, cuja confirmacao da aceitacao por todos os bispo

s chegou agora, confirmando o evento naquela provincia.

Eu estou muito feliz que o proximo encontro do Conselho Consultivo Anglicano seja em Hong Kong, afirmou o arcebispo para o ACNS. Sera um grande privilegio acolher os membros do CCA na nossa provincia. Muitos dos detalhes ainda estao por ser finalizados, mas eu estou certo de que o CCA-17 seguira os passos do trabalho excelente realizado no CCA-16, particularmente no que diz respeito ao discipulado intencional. Sera um tempo de muita alegria.

O Secretario Geral da Comunhao Anglicana, Dr. Josiah Idowu-Fearon, comentou: Eu estou muito agradecido ao Arcebispo Paul Kwong e a Provincia de Hong Kong por tao prontamente oferecer-se para acolher o CCA-17.

Nosso encontro no proximo ano sera menor do que o que aconteceu em 2016, mas eu estou ansioso pelo menos imensamente. E uma oportunidade de tomar tempo em oracao e louvor juntas e juntos e de escutar-se mutuamente sobre o que tem acontecido na nossa familia globalmente e aprender umas das outras, uns dos outros.

Nosso tempo em Lusaka foi uma grande bencao e eu estou muito otimista que Hong Kong sera tambem. Eu convido toda a Comunhao para unir-se a mim em oracao pelo CCA-17, neste momento em que esta sendo desenvolvido o programa.

Hong Kong ainda hospedara o proximo encontro do Comite Inter-Anglicano de Financas e Auditoria, que acontecera antes do CCA-17 e a Conferencia de Secretarias/os Provinciais, que sera depois do CCA-17.

Membros do CCA sao nomeados por suas provincias para servir por tres encontros do CCA. As provincias maiores tem direito a tres membros: um bispo/a, um/a clerigo/a e uma pessoa nao-ordenada (leiga); as provincias de tamanho considerado mediano tem direito a dois membros: uma pessoa ordenada (diacona/no, cleriga/o, bispa/o) e uma pessoa nao-ordenada (leiga); e as provincias menores tem direito a um membro, que pela constituicao do CCA deveria ser preferencialmente uma pessoa nao-ordenada (leiga). Alem disso, cinco membros do CCA sao eleitos entre os Primazes da Comunhao Anglicana; e o CCA pode indicar ate seus membros adicionais para garantir o equilibrio de representacao e para apoiar o trabalho do Conselho em atingir seus objetivos.

Os/As Secretarios/as Provinciais estao confirmando as pessoas que representarao suas respectivas Provincias no proximo CCA em 2019.

El 17 Encuentro del Consejo Consultivo Anglicano confirmado para Hong Kong en 2019

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El proximo encuentro del Consejo Consultivo Anglicano (CCA) sera en Hong Kong, empezando el 29 de abril 2019. La confirmacion se dio hoy . El CCA es uno de los cuatro Instrumentos de Comunion de la Comunion Anglicana, y el unico que incluye personas no-ordenadas en su composicion. A traves de sus encuentros trienales, el Consejo y su comite directivo establecen la agenda para el trabajo internacional de la Comunion Anglicana y para la Oficina de la Comunion Anglicana en Londres-UK, y apoya la coordinacion de acciones y programas dentro de la Comunion en diferentes aspectos.

El CCA tendra menos dias de trabajo que sus encuentros anteriores, terminando en el domingo 5 de mayo. El ultimo CCA, en Lusaka en 2016, discutio una serie de cuestiones y aprobo con parecer favorable mociones sobre diversos temas como el discipulado intencional, la detencion prolongada de un cristiano paquistani Asia Bibi, violencia basada en genero y el medio ambiente, particularmente referente al cambio climatico.

El discipulado intencional sera el enfoque principal, una vez mas, considerando que toda la Comunion ya esta en movimiento para la proxima Conferencia de Lambeth, que reune obispos y obispas anglicanos, que sera ocurrira en Canterbury en Julio/Agosto de 2020. El tema de la Conferencia es La Iglesia de Dios para el Mundo de Dios. El CCA tuvo su primera reunion en 1971 en Limuru, Kenia. Desde este tiempo, el Consejo se encontro en Irlanda, Trinidad, Canada, Inglaterra, Nigeria, Singapur, Pais de Gales, Africa del Sur, Panama, Escocia, Hong Kong, Jamaica, Nueva Zelandia y Zambia.

Al final del encuentro en 2016, en Lusaka, habia sido anunciado que el proximo encuentro seria en Sao Paulo, Brasil. Pero, el ano pasado el Comite Directivo del CCA decidio posponer la posibilidad de hacerlo en Brasil en otro momento, en razon de la situacion desafiadora que enfrenta el pais y la Iglesia Episcopal Anglicana local. El coordinador del CCA, Arzobispo Paul Kwong, ofrecio Hong Kong como posibilidad para el evento, confirmado ahora por todos los obispos.

Estoy encantado que el proximo encuentro del CCA sera en Hong Kong, compartio Arzobispo Paul con ACNS. Sera un gran privilegio dar la bienvenida a los miembros del CCA en nuestra provincia. Muchos de los detalles aun no estan finalizados, pero estoy seguro de que el CCA-17 seguira los pasos del buen trabajo desarrollado en CCA-16, particularmente en relacion al discipulado intencional. Sera un tiempo de mucha alegria.

El Secretario General de la Comunion Anglicana, Dr. Josiah Idowu-Fearon, comento: Estoy muy agradecido con el Arzobispo Paul Kwong y a la provincia de Hong Kong por ofrecerse tan prontamente para acoger el CCA-17.

Nuestro proximo encuentro sera mas pequeno que el que paso en 2016, pero estoy con mucha expectativa que llegue. Es una oportunidad para tomar tiempo en oracion y celebrar juntas/os y para compartir lo que ha pasado en nuestra familia global y aprender unas/os de otras/os.

Nuestro tiempo en Lusaka fue una gran bendicion y estoy optimista que Hong Kong tambien lo sera. Yo invito a toda la Comunion para unirse a mi en oracion por el CCA-17 en este tiempo de desarrollo del programa.

Hong Kong tambien sera el lugar para la reunion del Comite Inter-anglicano de Finanzas y Fiscalizacion, antes del CCA-17, y tambien la reunion de secretarias/os provinciales, despues del CCA-17.

Miembros del CCA seran designados por sus provincias para servir por tres encuentros. Las provincias mas grandes tienen derecho a tres miembros: un obispo/a, un clerigo/a y una persona laica; provincias de tamano mediano tienen derecho a dos miembros: una persona ordenada (diacono/a, reverendo/a o obispo/a) y una persona no-ordenada; las provincias de tamano mas pequeno solamente un miembro, preferencialmente una persona no-ordenada, de acuerdo con la constitucion del CCA. Ademas, cinco miembros del CCA son elegidos entre los Primados de la Comunion Anglicana; y el CCA indica hasta seis miembros adicionales para que haya una representacion equitativa y para colaborar con el trabajo del Consejo en lograr sus objetivos.

Las/los secretarios provinciales estan confirmando las representaciones de sus Iglesias para el encuentro en 2019.
Posted on: March 28, 2018 11:41 AM

The Archbishops of Armagh and Dublin have said that a proposed change to the Republic of Irelands abortion law is not an ethical position we can accept. They urge church members in the Republic of Ireland to think through the issues involved carefully and with prayer before voting on a referendum, set to take place in May, which could change the countrys constitutional ban on abortions. Under current law, abortion is outlawed in the Republic of Ireland except where it is necessary to save the life of the mother.

We have previously expressed our concern that the forthcoming Constitutional referendum is being understood as something akin to an opinion poll on the complex issue of abortion, Archbishops Richard Clarke and Michael Jackson said in a statement today. However, now that the Government has made known the general scheme of a Bill which it would introduce should the referendum . . . be passed, voters face a stark decision.

The Archbishops said that the present constitutional provision has proved less than satisfactory in some respects and had suggested a possible constitutional modification. But they say the governments proposals go too far in legalising unrestricted access to abortion up to 12 weeks of pregnancy.

As we have said before, unrestricted access to abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, or indeed at any stage, is not an ethical position we can accept. There is, for Christians, a very clear witness in the Scriptures that all human life, including before physical birth, has a sacred dignity in the eyes of God.

We therefore ask Church members to think through the issues involved carefully and with prayer over these coming weeks.
(ANSA) - Rome, March 28 - An Italo-Moroccan accused of belonging to the Islamic State (ISIS) Islamist terror group was arrested in Turin on Wednesday and police said he had been planning to use trucks for attacks and seeking 'lone wolves' to carry them out.

He was the second alleged terrorist to be arrested in Italy in two days. Elmahdi Halili, 23, the author of the first ISIS propaganda message in Italian, was captured at the end of a probe by anti-terrorism police in the northwestern Italian city.

At the moment of his arrest, Halili reportedly shouted "Tyrants! I'm going to prison with my head held high".

Turin Police Chief Francesco Messina said "he is a very motivated individual, with no intention of repenting".

Messina said "we had to act immediately to eliminate this threat: Halili could have carried out attacks".

"He had moved from self-indoctrination to trying to contact others, 'lone wolves', who could carry out terrorist actions, and he was weighing how to use knives and how to prepare trucks for attacks," Messina said.

In some cases he met these lone wolves, Messina said, who were Italians converted to Islam, Ghanaians and Moroccans, often already known to police for other crimes.

Messina said "it was a threat in a fluid context, not precise but very delicate." He said "Daesh (ISIS) has been defeated on the field of battle but its propaganda continues".

The head of the DIGOS special security police in Turin, Carlo Ambra, who coordinated the operation, said "it was time to intervene.

"We couldn't afford to let him identify a target to strike.

"There was a need to act immediately".

Ambra said the operation was called 'Love and Hate' because "Halili said that Islam is a balance between these two feelings: love for believers and hate for unbelievers".

Halili's younger sister told reporters: "He had sworn to us that he wouldn't do it any more.

"And, instead, we are here in the same situation as before", she said in the family home in the outlying Turin district of Lanzo. Halili was already arrested in Brescia in 2015 and plea-bargained a term of two years for apology of terrorism, police said.

The probe, codenamed Balkan Connection, identified people able to enlist fighters for ISIS. These included the Brescian foreign fighter Anas El Abboubi who was arrested and then released by a parole court and went to fight in Syria.

He is believed to have died.

Police on Wednesday carried out searches across northern Italy - in Milan, Modena, Bergamo and Reggio Emilia - and also in Naples against individuals suspected of links to extremist Islamist circles, police said.

A number of Italians who have converted to Islam are also involved in the probe, as well as citizens of foreign origin, police said.

Charges against them include waging a campaign of radicalization and proselytism via the Internet, judicial sources said.

On Tuesday in Foggia an Italo-Egyptian was arrested on charges of teaching children to kill for jihad.

An Italian teacher from Foggia who works in Ferrara has been placed under investigation in that probe, judicial sources said Wednesday.

The teacher is said to have converted to Islam.

An investigation by anti-mafia police showed the man had been in contact with the Foggia Islamic cultural centre run by Mohy Eldin Mostafa Omer Abdel Rahman, sources said.

In response to the arrests and an alert from EU border agency Frontex on possible migrant landing infiltrations, anti-migrant League leader Matteo Salvini on Wednesday called for an end to all migrant landings in Italy because of the terror threat. "The risk of terrorism if very high: after the arrests and Frontex's alert on the possibility of there being terrorists infiltrated among those landing, we ask for an immediate move, an ironclad control on all our borders by land and sea and the suspension of all further landings on our coasts," he said. In an interview with La Stampa newspaper Wednesday, caretaker Interior Minister Marco Minniti said "the picture of the ISIS threat remains unchanged.

"May the new government continue with the deportation of those who have been radicalised".


BEIRUT - The UN's Coordinator for Syria, Ali al Zaatari, on Wednesday called on the international community to raise 150 million dollars to aid nearly 250,000 displaced Syrian civilians.



They have been forced to leave their homes in recent weeks due to the government offensive in East Ghouta and the Turkish military operation in the Kurdish enclave of Afrin.



According to Zaatari, cited by the AP, at least 80,000 people fled Ghouta, while another 50,000 are still living in shelters to protect themselves from bombardments and combat.



He said about 180,000 have been displaced from Afrin and are gathered in the city of Tel Rifaat in northern Syria.



"Financial aid is coming, but it is still below needed levels," Zaatari said. Meanwhile, nearly 10,000 militants and another 15,000 of their family members have left East Ghouta, said Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoygu.



"Thus far, 128,161 people have left" East Ghouta, "including 103,117 civilians, 9,670 militants and 15,374 of their family members," he said.
France funds project to create jobs for Jordanians Also aimed at helping refugees

(ANSAmed) AMMAN, MARCH 28: France signed with Jordan 8 million euro financing agreements aimed at creating jobs for locals and refugees through training on vocational skills to meet job market, an official statement said today.



This 36-month programme will serve some 4,600 Jordanian and Syrian beneficiaries, 50 per cent of whom are women, helping them to get out of the vicious spiral of a lack of skills hindering their access to job opportunities.



These projects will strengthen the employability of young Jordanians and refugees by improving vocational training schemes and adapting them to the needs of businesses," said the French embassy in a statement.



The project seeks to support for employment for vulnerable groups by developing support and orientation schemes for paid employment, self-employment or the creation of a micro enterprise.



The schemes include "Tanmyeh", a project that seeks to support 2,000 young Jordanians and Syrian refugees in accessing employment and entrepreneurship opportunities in the manufacturing industrial hubs of Zarqa, Irbid, Amman, Ajloun and Jerash.



Mafraq, Irbid, Amman, Ajloun and Jerash Governorates will benefit from "Amal" (or "hope"), a project to empower young local Jordanians and refugees and their communities in the personal, professional and economic fields, in partnership with JEFE.



An additional project is "Taghyyr" (or "change"), which will provide youth with demand-driven training that leads to employment in the hospitality sector in collaboration with the Luminus Foundation.



The agreement was signed between French Development Agency (AFD) and local partners including the Business Development Centre (BDC), Jordan Education for Employment (JEFE) and Luminus Foundation.



"We are currently witnessing a distortion in the labour market between the job opportunities and the qualifications and capabilities of job seekers," said Minister of Labour Samir Murad.



"It is important for a country like Jordan, which has such a vibrant touristic scene, to include its population in the hospitality sector," an official at the embassy said, noting that hospitality is the fifth largest contributor to the GDP in Jordan. (ANSAmed)
Gaza: barrier set on fire, Israel strikes Hamas positions Tension grows after Palestinians set wire ablaze

(ANSAmed) - TEL AVIV, MARCH 28 - Tension is escalating in Gaza. After two Palestinians from the Gaza Strip set on fire the upper part of the defensive barrier with the Jewish State in northern Gaza, the Israeli army used tanks to fire against two observation positions used by Hamas in the same area, an Israeli military spokesman said Wednesday. He added that ''the two suspects did not cross the border and did not infiltrate Jewish state territory''. Israel, continued the military spokesman, ''sees with great severity any attempt to damage the security barrier as well as its structures''. (ANSAmed)
Tunisia: 'Salam' project against violent extremism In country's five key regions

(ANSAmed) - TUNIS, MARCH 28 - ''Salam'' - or peace in Arabic - is the most-used greeting across the Muslim world and, not by coincidence, the name of a recent European initiative to fight violent extremism in Tunisia, with an approach based on the promotion of human rights and the consolidation of peace. The project called ''Salam - preventing violent extremism in Tunisia'', includes as promoters the Spanish NGO Novact, together with Tunisian organizations such as the Ugtt, the Ligue Tunisienne des Droits de l'Homme, the Association des Femmes Democrates, Free Sight Association and the Italian Gvc. It aims to understand the deep reasons behind extremism and to boost ''resistance'', especially among youths, to the message of extremist and violent imams thanks to research andactivities including art projects in order for the young and women to develop policies and strategies to prevent fundamentalism.



''Salam'' operates both at a central level and in five key regions: Kasserine, Tataouine, Grand Tunis, Medenine and Kef. The project is also part of the Observatory for the prevention of violent extremism (OPEV), a platform of civil society organizations on the two shores of the Mediterranean including Gvc, the project coordinator of Gvc, Alessandro Bozzini, told ANSAmed. ''Salam'' has five key missions: strengthening the Observatory on the prevention of violent extremism in Tunisia as a platform of dialogue and proposals for civil society in public policies against violent extremism; contributing to the development of knowledge on the deep causes of violent fundamentalism; promoting the participation of women and the young in the creation of targeted public policies; helping the young against imams preaching violence; working to implement a strategy against violent extremism in prisons. Gvc was created in Bologna in 1971 and operates in international cooperation and humanitarian aid. It is active in over 20 countries to guarantee access to water, food, healthcare, education and employment. (ANSAmed)
UN calls for 150 mn dollars for displaced Syrians After Ghouta and Afrin offensives, 180,000 displaced in all

(ANSAmed) - BEIRUT, MARCH 28 - The UN's Coordinator for Syria, Ali al Zaatari, on Wednesday called on the international community to raise 150 million dollars to aid nearly 250,000 displaced Syrian civilians.



They have been forced to leave their homes in recent weeks due to the government offensive in East Ghouta and the Turkish military operation in the Kurdish enclave of Afrin.



According to Zaatari, cited by the AP, at least 80,000 people fled Ghouta, while another 50,000 are still living in shelters to protect themselves from bombardments and combat.



He said about 180,000 have been displaced from Afrin and are gathered in the city of Tel Rifaat in northern Syria.



"Financial aid is coming, but it is still below needed levels," Zaatari said. Meanwhile, nearly 10,000 militants and another 15,000 of their family members have left East Ghouta, said Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoygu.



"Thus far, 128,161 people have left" East Ghouta, "including 103,117 civilians, 9,670 militants and 15,374 of their family members," he said. (ANSAmed).




Egypt: Coptic bishops back Sisi - 'he protects us from ISIS' 'He is president of all Egyptians'

(by Rodolfo Calo) (ANSA) - CAIRO, MARCH 28 - Two Coptic Catholic bishops, including one who is on the frontlines of the war on ISIS, have said their communities feel protected by Egyptian authorities and therefore they support the re-election of President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi.



''In the whole province of Ismailia, in the eastern part of the delta'' of the Nile and the ''Suez Canal, within my diocese, we are well protected'', Bishop Makarios Tewfik, told ANSA.



The bishop is in charge of an area bordering with the governorate of Sinai, in the north-western part, a stronghold of the Islamic State which the army has been fighting since February in an anti-terror campaign presented by Sisi as key.



''We feel and we see that the current government is doing everything it can to protect us'', confirmed Kyrillos William Samaan, bishop of Assiut, a city some 300 kilometers south of Cairo.



''All churches are under police protection: during the holidays, moreover, soldiers are also deployed, each time there is a threat measures are taken'', the bishop also told ANSA.



Regarding the electoral support to Sisi by Christians in Egypt, the Coptic ethnic-religious minority, which represents about 10-15% of the country's population and the largest Christian community in the Middle East, Mons. Kyrillos confirmed: ''Certainly, we support the president because his initiatives and gestures show that he is a president for all Egyptians''.



''No other president before him had the courage to do this in favor of Christians'' said the cleric, stressing that ''Sisi is always interested in churches: when he visits a city that is being built and he is shown a mosque he immediately, spontaneously asks - where is the church?'' An example is ''the new cathedral being built in the new administrative capital'' under construction in eastern Cairo, stressed Mons. Kyrillos.



Mons. Makarios also replied that the majority of the Coptic community supports Sisi and is voting in the three-day presidential elections.



Regarding security ahead of the Coptic Easter, which follows the Catholic festivity by a week, the bishop acknowledged that ''they'', Islamic terrorists, ''try to use any occasion to do something'', or an attack.



''Something can happen, like in Europe or in America'', warned Makarios, but he stressed that ''the police and the army are doing everything possible to protect us''.



The bishop said he is touring eight provinces ''to celebrate mass with different communities'' and feels that ''we are quite free to move around'' in spite of the threat posed by ISIS.




Montenegro: Podgorica decides to expel one Russian diplomat Country is NATO's newest member and an aspirant to join the EU

(ANSAmed) - PODGORICA, 28 MARCH - The Montenegrin authorities have announced on Wednesday the decision to expel one Russian diplomat due to the poisoning of former Russian intelligence operative Sergei Skripal in the United Kingdom. In a statement, the government of Montenegro, NATO's newest member and an aspirant to join the European Union, said the decision was taken in line with steps undertaken by its "allies and partners, the EU and NATO", and in solidarity with Britain. In addition, the Montenegrin government 'withdraws the consent of the honorary consul of Russia in Montenegro.



(ANSAmed)
Turkey orders Kurds out of Syria and Iraq 'or we'll attack' Natl Security Council renews threats on Manbij and PKK

(ANSAmed) - ISTANBUL, MARCH 28 - Turkey is ready to take military action against the Kurdish-Syrians of the PYD, following the victory of the Turkish offensive on Afrin, if PYD militants refuse to retreat from Manbij, the region in northern Syria where US troops are also stationed.



The announcement came in a statement released after a meeting of the Turkish National Security Council, which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan presided over for more than four hours. The statement said Ankara is also ready to attack the PKK in northern Iraq, if local authorities do not put an end to its presence there.



In recent months, Erdogan has repeatedly threatened to attack Manbij, which is west of what is considered the "red line" of the Euphrates River.



Turkey has been engaged in ongoing negotiations with Washington to obtain a withdrawal of the Kurds, but thus far the talks have not produced the effects that Turkey has hoped for.(ANSAmed).




Yemen: Saudi Arabia and UAE donate 930 mn dlr to UN One-third of aid deemed necessary by UN for Yemen in 2018

(ANSAmed) - NEW YORK, MARCH 28 - Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have donated 930 million dollars to UN humanitarian efforts in Yemen as the war between the Saudi-led military coalition and Shiite rebels enters its fourth year.



Saudi heir prince, Mohammed bin Salman, presented last night the donation to UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, who thanked him. The donation represents about one-third of the humanitarian aid that the UN deems necessary this year for Yemen.



''On the other hand, we know that a humanitarian solution to humanitarian problems doesn't exist'', added Guterres. ''The solution is a political one: we are completely at your disposal to work together to find a political solution, when that will be possible'', said Salman.




Not at all. It just seems like a lot of back-and-forth talk.

Yes. I'm growing very worried over what might happen.

If it keeps up, I might be a little more concerned.

I think there are much larger things to concern us as a country.

It's hard to tell; I can't take the leader of either country seriously.

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HH Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Civil Aviation Authority and Dubai Air Navigation Services, has affirmed that 2017 has been an exceptional and ground breaking year in the history of Dubai Air Navigation Services, revealing that the organisation has achieved three strategic projects that are of paramount significance to the Aviation sector during last year.

Accordingly, HH Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed highlighted that the establishment of the Contingency Approach Control Room (CACR), which oversees and ensures the seamless continuity of air traffic flow during emergencies, as well the launch of the Dubai Academy for Air Traffic Management and the Airspace restructuring project for Dubais Airspace . The latter project yielded astounding results as it enabled further enhancement of air traffic movements capacity in the Emirate, 25% at Dubai International Airport (DXB) and 100% at Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC) in specific, in addition to enhancing operations through terminating delays as airlines had to wait for Air Traffic Control clearance before landing due to congested skies in the past.

HH Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed commented on the importance of the Airspace restructuring project clarifying that in addition to the operational benefits it has yielded, its implementation has also enabled carriers flying from Dubai International Airport (DXB) to save a wholesome total of AED 53 million from their annual budgets. His Highness also expressed his utmost appreciation and gratitude to the magnanimous cooperation and support that the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority has demonstrated through spearheading the APO project, as it strives to vehemently strengthen the United Arab Emirates position as an international travel and transportation hub.

HH Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed indicated that the successful completion and implementation of these projects are only initial steps that lead to the launch of a series of larger than life projects in the near future which have been devised based on the vision of HRH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, to transform the Emirate of Dubai into a globally leading airport hub.

Sustainability in Dubais Economy

In light of the significant role that Dubai Air Navigation Services contributes in shaping a sustainable economy for the Emirate of Dubai, HH Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed stated: Dubai Air Navigation Services dominates a central role in enabling the Aviation sector to be one of the major contributors to Dubais Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which currently stands at 28% and is forecasted to increase to 35% by 2020. The organisation has been able to play this transformational role through multiple facets; providing employment as well as training and development opportunities, in addition to flawlessly managing thousands of air traffic movements across Dubais airspace on annual basis, and the implementation of the latest cutting edge and innovative technology in efforts to cater to the continuous growth in air traffic capacity throughout our airports.

Dubais airspace to witness 600,000 air traffic movements by 2020

Air Traffic Control Officers at Dubai Air Navigation Services have seamlessly and efficiently managed more than 500,000 air traffic movements in Dubais airspace throughout 2017, which included both civilian and military aircrafts. From those figures, more than 400,000 movements occurred at both Dubai International and Al Maktoum International airports in specific. This comprised of a total of 205,131 movements in landing and 205,093 movements in departures, recording a daily average of 1134 movements during the year. And on the other hand, the remaining movements were directed to Sharjah International airport and other airports in the Northern Emirates.

Whereas Air Traffic Control Officers operating from Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC) managed a total of 34,234 air traffic movements throughout 2017.

Based on reports issued by the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority, sector indicators reveal that air traffic control officers are forecasted to navigate and manage more than 600,000 air traffic movements in Dubais Airspace by 2020. This will come as a result of the full completion of the final phases of the airspace restructuring and expansion, and as demand on international travel increases through Dubai International Airport, enabling it to withstand its strong position of being the Worlds leading airport in terms of international passenger figures.

Recent official reports also indicate that international passenger figures at Dubai International Airport on its own are forecasted to increase to more than 100 million passengers by 2020, whereas it is also forecasted that combined figures for both Dubai International and Al Maktoum International airport are to increase to a solid 124 million passengers by 2023.

AED 60 million invested in Air Traffic Management

On the other hand, H.E. Mohammed A. Ahli, the Director General of the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority and the CEO of Dubai Air Navigation Services stated that dans has invested AED 60 million in the three strategic projects that have been mentioned earlier. The return on investment translates into large scale results that drive further enhancement in Dubai Airports capability to cater to the continuous growth in air traffic movements capacity. The organisation has also been successful in managing one of the largest challenges that the Air Traffic Management sector encounters and that is the continuous catering to ever growing air traffic movement capacity, a success that is a result of combining implementation of the latest cutting edge and innovative technologies with the organisations most valuable resource-its specialised and talented team in air traffic management.

He added: We have been able to reach new frontiers in accordance to the vision of HRH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum and due to the everlasting support and guidance we receive from HH Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, which have supported our journey in growing and moving forward to dominate global standards. H.E. also stated that innovation and sustainability are the key pillars we have utilised while designing the road map of the Aviation sector, which aims at positioning Dubai International Airport at the forefront of all global airports in terms of international passenger figures, through delivering an enjoyable travel experience that leaves a positive mark, as well as the adaptation of technology to serve our ambitions that exceed beyond the sky.

Contingency Approach Control Room (CACR) - the first of its nature in the MENA region.

H.E. Mohammed Ahli also added : In an unprecedented incident where Dubai Airports experienced for the first time in its history a technical halt due to a glitch in the main power supply, the Contingency Approach Control Room- facility operated by dans was activated and utilised, inspite of the fact that it has not been officially launched yet. The CACR is a contingency facility which is activated during times of emergency and crisis only, and that ensures the vitality of air traffic management operations are kept to a seamless standard and remain uninterrupted. The immediate activation of the CACR facility until the situation was resolved in the matter of minutes, demonstrates dans capabilities and long term strategic planning that enables it to successfully and efficiently address any planned or unplanned emergency situations in a professional manner. It is also noteworthy to state that this facility is the first of its kind across the entire MENA region.

The organisation has invested a total of AED 18 million in the establishment of the CACR facility, which is located in the premises of Al Maktoum International Airport. The facility houses the latest innovative and cutting edge technologies of its kind, as well as radar equipment that specifically focus on Approach services. Air traffic control officers have been trained on the management of the equipment The facility also incorporates all of the same equipment that already exists in the organisations official Approach facility that mirror ongoing operations, which enables the air traffic control team to continue their duties immediately in an efficient manner during a crisis.

Dubai Air Navigation Services continuously strives to enhance its resources, both Human capital and technologically, to ensure the safe, efficient and expeditious delivery of air traffic management services in Dubai Airports and part of the Northern Emirates. And accordingly, the CACR facility contains all the necessary equipment and tools that enable it to manage all types of flights across all of the nations airspace at large, at times of an emergency or as and when required.

Dubai Academy for Air Traffic Management

In efforts to further enhance the Aviation sector as well as cater to both domestic and international market requirements, the Dubai Academy for Air Traffic Management will provide bespoke courses in air navigation services, air traffic engineering, airspace design amidst several others. Upon its official inauguration, the academy is going to be located in Dubai South.

On that note, H.E. Mohammed A. Ahli, CEO of dans stated: The establishment of the Academy demonstrates our profound dedication to create opportunities that cater to both local and international demand on air traffic control officers and air traffic engineers, given that these roles are highly specialised and unique. On a global scale, Dubai enjoys a highly trustworthy and credible reputation with regards to the forte of the services provided in the Aviation sector on both regionally and internationally, and accordingly we forecast a widespread interest and a surge of applicants to the courses offered by the academy.

And inspite of the fact that the academy hasnt been officially inaugurated, dans has already received around 24 thousand applications from the Air Navigation Services Provider of Indonesia. The academy provides attested certifications that are aligned with international standards such as that of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), the General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) of the UAE and Euro control.

Additionally, H.E. Mohammed A. Ahli expressed his utmost appreciation to H.E. Eng. Sultan Al Mansoori, the Minister of Economy and the Chairman of the General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), and to H.E. Saif Al Suwaidi, the Director General of the General Civil Aviation Authority, for their continuous support to all the projects and initiatives launched by dans that strives to strengthen and enhance air traffic management services in the Emirate of Dubai.

Airspace restructuring of Dubais airspace

In 2017, the Air traffic management sector witnessed the implementation of an unprecedented project that has been implemented for the first time in the history of the organisation, the Air space restructuring project (ARP) of Dubais airspace. With AED 27 million in investment, the project yielded groundbreaking results enabling fuel reduction for airlines worth of up to AED 53 million on annual basis. Moreover, the project also resulted in tangible significant reduction in CO2 emissions, as well as the enhancement of air traffic movements capacity for Dubai and the Northern Emirates with up to 25% at Dubai International Airport (DXB) and 100% at Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC).This in turn has resulted in terminating hold up for airlines on arrival that used to occur in the past due to congested skies.

In light of the ARP, dans has successfully implemented 90 new procedures and introduced 150 routes as part of the new airspace design in Dubai. In addition, 168 air traffic control officers were trained on managing the operations in a safe and expeditious manner in effort to maximize the utilisation of the new airspace across the Emirate.

AED 9 Billion worth of losses for airports in the region due to flight delays

Based on forecasts from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), passenger figures are expected to increase up to 7.8 million across the world by 2036, which is double the current figure in 2017, from which the Middle East region receives 517 million passengers. Specialists in the sector also highlight that flight delays in arrivals and departures or during approach, led to financial losses mounting up to AED 9 billion to airports in the region during 2015 only.

Dubai Air Navigation services (dans) is the air navigation services provider for Dubai and part of the Northern Emirates. dans also provides air navigation services for airport authorities and numerous prestigious airlines, such as Dubai Airports and private airports in the UAE.
Aeropodium is organising the third annual Iranian aviation symposium on 22nd and 23rd April 2018 in Tehran, Iran.

The keynote address speaker will be Dr. Farzaneh Sharafbafi, CEO and Chairperson or Iran Air. Dr. Hassan Shafti, Former Managing Director and Chairman of Iran Air and Chairman of the Iranian Association for Scientific Air Transportation will give the welcome address at the symposium. Furthermore, Her Majesty's Ambassador to Iran Nicholas Hopton will give the opening address.

Following the success of the previous events in Tehran, the third annual Iranian Aviation Symposium will explore the latest developments in Irans aviation sector. This event will provide the platform for high level debate, exchange of ideas and information as well as unparalleled networking opportunities for aviation executives from around the world.

Investment and business opportunities in Iran present a challenge for the industry. This major event will explore the latest developments in the aviation sector of this country and new business opportunities and challenges for operators and manufacturers. It is a unique opportunity for all participants to debate the future of aviation in Iran, discuss different business models, enhance their knowledge about the Iranian market, learn about regional infrastructure developments, and network with leading experts.

The third annual symposium will provide a unique networking opportunity for aircraft operators and manufacturers, registries, banks, airports, law firms, financial analysts, leasing and finance companies and any aviation professional with an interest in the development of the aviation sector in Iran.

Bermuda Civil Aviation Authority, Chabok Aviation, Federal Management Services, Hangxin and Inmarsat Aviation are supporting the symposium as silver sponsors.

HOMA Rises: An Exhibition of Iranian Flight History and Memorabilia will take place during the event.

The agenda includes panel discussions with the participation of expert speakers including Arnaud Brun-Khoobeelass of Bombardier Commercial Aircraft, Mauro Calvano of Airways Aviation, Capt. Len Cormier of BCAA, Dean Entekabi of Chabok Aviation, Neale Faulkner of Inmarsat Aviation, Massoud Ghassemi of the Iranian Aviation & Space Industries Association, Laurence Hanley of Ince & Co, Dr. Ahmad Khonsari of Watson Farley & Williams, Dr. Mohammad Ebrahim Ansari Lari of the Kish Free Zone Organization, Atousa Mahmoudpour of Eversheds Sutherland, Dr. Manouchehr Manteghi of the Office for Science Affairs, Aviation & Aerial Knowledge Based Technology and Industries Development, Dr. A. Nikzad of FARSCO Aviation MRO Center, Raul Villaron of Embraer, Rob Watts of Aerotask, and Andrew Wilkins of Compass Aviation Services.

Panagiotis Panagopoulos, CEO and Founder of Aeropodium said: We are meeting for the third time in Tehran to explore the latest development and new business opportunities in the aviation sector of Iran. This is a unique opportunity for delegates from around the world to enhance their knowledge, participate in high level debates, and meet the experts.

The conference agenda will cover themes such as assessment and review three years after the JCPOA, Kish Free Zone as an entry point to investment in Irans aviation sector, maintenance and operations, financing, leasing and insurance, legal issues and investment in Iran, regaining lost position and being a more efficient hub in the Middle East, business aviation in Iran, roadmap to Irans aviation development objectives.
The exercise by Qatar of the option for 12 additional Rafale becomes effective Saint-Cloud, 27 March 2018  The exercise of the option for the purchase of 12 additional Rafale fighters for Qatar is now in effect.

This option was exercised on 7 December 2017 at Doha in the presence of the President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, and his Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

It followed the contract signed on 4 May 2015 between the State of Qatar and Dassault Aviation for the acquisition of 24 Rafale aircraft.

Once these two batches have been delivered, the Qatar Emiri Air Force will operate 36 Rafale fighters.

Dassault Aviation and its partners thank the Qatari Authorities for having given them this renewed opportunity to comfort 40 years of outstanding cooperation between the French aviation industry and the Qatar Emiri Air Force.
Qatar Airways first flight to Thessaloniki, Greeces second-largest city, proudly touched down at Thessaloniki International Airport Makedonia today, as the airlines Airbus A320 was welcomed with a traditional water cannon salute, followed by welcome ceremony for VIP delegates.

The new four times-weekly service from Doha to the airlines second gateway in Greece commenced just one month ahead of the launch of its third destination in Greece, the beautiful island of Mykonos.

Qatar Airways Group chief executive, Akbar Al Baker, said: Qatar Airways new service to Thessaloniki will help reinforce links between the State of Qatar and Greece, and deepen the friendship and co-operation between our two great countries. Our second gateway in Greece, Thessaloniki is a major tourist destination all year round offering access to some of Greeces most famous resorts. We are delighted to support Greeces tourism industry by providing more global travellers the opportunity to visit this iconic city.

Alexander Zinell, Fraport Greece chief executive officer, said: I am delighted to welcome Qatar Airways to Thessaloniki Makedonia Airport and the first ever-scheduled flights to and from Thessaloniki and Doha. The decision by our new airline partner, Qatar Airways, is a clear indication of the Thessaloniki Makedonia Airport growth potential. Passengers from Northern Greece and the Balkans can now benefit from direct flights linking Thessaloniki with the international hub of Doha and beyond. We look forward to working closely with Qatar Airways and support them in ensuring the success of the new route.
Royal Jordanian expanded its codeshare agreement with Qatar Airways, giving its guests access to Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Qatar Airways flights.

Royal Jordanian will start to market Qatar Airways route to Dhaka International Airport (DAC) as of April 1, 2018. The route will be sold in connection with RJs Amman-Doha sector.

Royal Jordanians codeshare agreement with Qatar Airways took effect on August 6, 2015; since then, RJ has been giving its customers access to various global points including Muscat, Colombo, Karachi, Singapore, Perth and now Dhaka.

RJ President/CEO Stefan Pichler said: Our code share agreement with Qatar Airways is opening up a larger number of weekly flights between Doha and Amman, in addition to numerous new connections beyond Hamad International Airport. We invite our guests to make use of these convenient connections and travel to many points they desire. We always work on enhancing our route network by partnering with other airlines through codeshare agreements to offer our passengers the best travel options they could possibly find.
Open skies with the European Union could help the Tunisian Government turn the corner on a difficult few years. But for Ilyes Mnakbi, the new chief executive of flag-carrier Tunisair, the hard times are just beginning. Martin Rivers reports.

The European Unions delegation to Tunisia could not have struck a more optimistic tone in December, when EU Transport Commissioner, Violeta Bulc, met with officials in Tunis to conclude negotiations over the looming open skies treaty between the two sides.

The Tunisian Government has been inching towards the treaty for several years, emboldened by the success of Moroccos deal with the EU in 2006. That landmark agreement saw tourist arrivals rocketing by 60% over five years, propelled by an influx of European low-cost carriers to the countrys popular holiday resorts. Tunisias treaty, Bulc predicted, would be no less transformative.

Today, we are not only delivering on the EUs aviation strategy, we are also taking our relations with Tunisia to new heights, she said. This far-reaching aviation agreement will improve market access and contribute to the highest safety, security and environmental standards. This is great news for tourism, passengers and businesses.

Despite promising to grow Tunisias gross domestic product (GDP) by 2.7%, the open skies agreement remains a source of contention for many stakeholders in the country.

Trade unions staged a protest within days of the deal being rubber-stamped, warning that flag-carrier Tunisair  by far the countrys main employer of aviation workers  cannot withstand a competitive onslaught from Europe. The state-owned airline has already lost $240 million since the Arab Spring erupted in 2010, reeling from an exodus of tourists that only accelerated after Daesh targeted the country in 2015.

For Tunisair chief executive, Ilyes Mnakbi, who describes the deal as a huge problem, buying time has become the preferred strategy. We will not have open skies in Tunis for five years, he said, referring to the capitals temporary exclusion from the agreement. We will have open skies in Djerba, in Monastir, but not Tunis.

By the time Tunisairs primary hub is opened to competition, Mnakbi said he expects about 1,200 of his 7,400 employees to have taken voluntary redundancy. Reducing the headcount has been a priority for successive bosses at the airline, but disputes over severance pay have repeatedly derailed the process. Tunisair currently employs more than 230 people for each of its aircraft, versus less than 70 per aircraft at Royal Air Maroc.

We have to give them an amount of money for compensation for early departure, the chief executive confirmed. We hope that next year we will find an agreement. Then we have the appropriate number of employees and we will be in a better position.

Creating a no-frills offshoot could be another way for Tunisair to boost its competitiveness, Mnakbi added, with management weighing up launching a small new company with a low-fare, not low-cost philosophy.

The subsidiary would configure its aircraft in an all-economy layout and charge extra for food, checked luggage and seat selection. If properly executed, it could narrow the gap between Tunisairs full-service pricing and that of ultra-low-cost-carriers like Ryanair. But its small scale would be a significant handicap. When Royal Air Maroc made a similar foray into the no-frills arena with Atlas Blue, it quickly deemed the project as non-viable.

A better lesson from Moroccos flag-carrier could be its reliance on sixth-freedom traffic flows between West Africa and Europe. Rather than competing in low-yield point-to-point markets, Royal Air Maroc retreated to its Casablanca hub after open skies and focused on routes that Ryanair had neither the traffic rights nor the inclination to serve.

The result was a dramatic reversal of fortunes from four years in the red to four in the black  a turnaround that Mnakbi is eager to replicate for his government shareholder.

Tunisairs international network is already primed for transit traffic. The flag-carrier flies to 29 destinations in Europe; eight in West Africa; five in North Africa; three in the Middle East; and one in North America. It also operates three domestic routes.

Regional subsidiary Tunisair Express, meanwhile, serves four domestic routes, as well as connecting Tunis with Naples, Italy and the Mediterranean island of Malta.

The addition of Montreal, Canada in 2016 heralded Tunisairs entry to the long-haul market. Frequencies on the route will double to four per week this year, while New York JFK Airport is also in the pipeline for 2019.

We have a lot of demand from [passengers in] African countries to get them to Tunis, and then to go to other countries in Europe and Montreal, Mnakbi said, when asked about the sixth-freedom model. Maybe when we will open New York it will be an opportunity for African people to go there.

Finding new markets in the airlines home continent is a critical component of the strategy. Having launched flights to Cotonou, Benin last December, Tunisair will this year begin serving Khartoum, Sudan; Douala, Cameroon; and Ndjamena, Chad.

For 2019, its targets are Lagos, Nigeria and Accra, Ghana. The roadmap for 2020 has not yet been decided, but Libreville, Gabon is believed to be among the candidates.

Frequencies are also likely to grow in the key transit points of Dakar, Senegal and Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, owing to Tunisairs reliance on fifth-freedom routes in West Africa.

Growing capacity in Europe will be more challenging due to 2015 terror attacks on a beach in Sousse and a museum in Tunis. Those atrocities claimed the lives of 58 foreign tourists, prompting several western governments to warn their citizens against visiting Tunisia. However, with Daesh on the back foot across North Africa, most countries have softened their travel advisories and holidaymakers are again returning.

In 2017, we had growth of traffic. In Europe it was about a 23% increase and we suppose that this year it will be about 11% or 12%, Mnakbi confirmed. Now we can consider that Tunisia is in a good position of safety and we are very happy to have visitors from Germany, from France, from all Europe to come into Tunisia.

He noted that Manchester in the UK and Dublin in Ireland could both re-join the network in 2018, likely as charter services. Britain was the worst affected country in the 2015 attacks, losing 31 of its citizens. But the UKs Foreign Office eased its travel warning for Tunisia last summer, allowing tour operators to re-enter the market.

Steady expansion at Tunisair will necessarily be accompanied by a gradual increase in the fleet size. The flag-carrier currently deploys 16 Airbus A320s, four A319s, seven Boeing 737-600s, and two A330-200s.

Six leased A320neos will be inducted between 2019 and 2020, injecting new capacity for the African network in particular. Mnakbi is also considering whether to take more Boeing narrow-bodies, noting that some of the -600s will be relocated to Djerba and Monastir to fend off low-cost competition.

Parallel changes are afoot at Tunisair Express. The regional subsidiary has already agreed to sell its ATR 72-200 to Niger Airlines, and Mnakbi now wants to replace its two 72-500s and one Bombardier CRJ900. Despite saying that newer models of the same variants will be sought, the chief executive left the door open to a possible CSeries switch.

We visited the [Dubai] air show and we are interested maybe to purchase some CSeries, because it is a very good aeroplane. For us it will be useful, he said, without clarifying which business unit would deploy the type. We will check with our minister and then we will decide maybe to take at the most, in the beginning, two or three.

Having witnessed the impact of open skies on Royal Air Maroc, Mnakbi is determined to restructure Tunisair before low-cost carriers descend on its home base.

Even as he lays down plans for a more efficient future, though, there is little doubt that management remain fundamentally opposed to liberalisation. With no firm date set for the signing of the treaty, Europes policymakers should not take for granted that the deal will be implemented in full.

Royal Air Maroc started the experience [with open skies] because they expected a lot of tourists will fly on board these low-cost carriers. But it was the Moroccan people living abroad who take these flights! [There was] no increase in the hotels, communications director Youssef Kekli argued. Thats why the Tunisian Government wants to reinforce the [flag-carriers] position in the main airport before accepting open skies.


UltraTech Cement will buy loan defaulter Binani Cement's stressed assets by providing Rs 7,266 crore.

The company's board agreed to issue comfort letter to provide Rs 7,266 crore in return for 98.43 per cent stake in BCL.

New Delhi: The Competition Commission has cleared UltraTech Cement's bid to acquire Binani Cement, pursuant to the insolvency proceedings.

UltraTech Cement last week said it will buy loan defaulter Binani Cement's stressed assets by providing Rs 7,266 crore to its parent company, Binani Industries.

In a stock exchange filing, the Aditya Birla Group firm said: "The company has received approval from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) with respect to its bid for Binani Cement Ltd (BCL)." UltraTech's offer came days after rival Dalmia Cement said its Rs 6,350 crore bid to buy BCL has been accepted by the lenders.

The CCI in a tweet on Wednesday said it has not found any "appreciable adverse effect on competition (AAEC) in respect of UltraTech Cement's proposed acquisition of 100 per cent shares of Binani Cement."

Binani Industries Ltd (BIL) -- the promoter firm of BCL -- had approached UltraTech for arranging funds to pay off the lenders.

The company's board agreed to issue comfort letter to provide Rs 7,266 crore in return for 98.43 per cent stake in BCL.

A lot of apprehensions were raised by the Resolution Professional about UltraTech obtaining the CCI clearance on its bid for Binani Cement, the company said adding that CCI has today cleared it. "UltraTech was rated as H2 bidder instead of H1 for this reason," it added.

The said acquisition is subject to termination of IBC proceedings, entering into definitive agreement and other customary and regulatory approvals.

UltraTech Cement is the leader in the cement industry with a 92.5 million tonnes (MT) installed annual capacity, and this makes it the fourth largest cement company in the world excluding China. BCL capacity, on the other hand, is 6.25 MT.
Bachchan, who has a cameo in the film, shared a look test in which he can be seen sporting a long grey hair and beard.

Mumbai: Megastar Amitabh Bachchan is in Hyderabad to shoot for South superstar Chiranjeevi's Telugu film, 'Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy', based on the life of freedom fighter from Rayalaseema, Uyyalawada Narasimha Reddy.

The 75-year-old actor, who has a guest appearance in the movie, took to his blog to make the announcement.

He also shared a look test in which he can be seen sporting a long grey hair and beard.

Image courtesy: Amitabh Bachchan's blog

"Dear friend Chiranjeevi, that majestic super star and icon from the world of Andhra and Telugu cinema, requests for a guest appearance in his magnum opus, on a most valiant period character that he portrays, and I agree...

"So am off to begin its shoot in Hyderabad... In a few hours... the first look tests of which seem to be somewhat, thus... These are not the final, but close," Bachchan wrote.

The veteran actor added that he is getting such roles as he is in the winter of his life.

"... To bring in a character, attempt to put me in situations that resemble the above... Cannot really deny their choice... The days of yore are over... I mean they could never be reborn as this for example."

Bachchan will next be seen in '102 Not Out' playing father to his 75-year-old son, portrayed by Rishi Kapoor.

He also stars in YRF's 'Thugs of Hindostan' alongside Aamir Khan.
Seer said granting special status to the community will unite the divided sub-castes of Lingayats.

In the letter to Shah, Seer termed the ongoing movement in Karnataka between the followers of Lingayats and Veerashaiva Lingayats community as a 'temporary outbreak of emotions', which will not last long. (Photo: PTI/File)

Tumakuru: Seer Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru of Chitradurga Mutt on Wednesday wrote a letter to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah, requesting him to support the Karnataka government's decision of granting minority status to Lingayats community.

In the letter to Shah, Seer termed the ongoing movement in Karnataka between the followers of Lingayats and Veerashaiva Lingayats community as a 'temporary outbreak of emotions', which will not last long.

He said granting special status to the community will unite the divided sub-castes of Lingayats.

"Minority status to this religion will deliver some benefits to youth of community --individually and collectively. It is not a step to divide community but a measure to unite divided sub-castes of Lingayats," the letter read.

The letter of the seer came a day after Shah accused the ruling Congress party in Karnataka of creating a rift between the Hindus.

Earlier on Tuesday, while addressing a public rally in Davanagere city ahead of the state assembly election, Shah said, "On one hand their party president (Rahul Gandhi) talks about uniting Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, and Christians, on the other hand, their chief minister (Siddaramaiah) is creating a divide between Hindus. Such a major internal conflict is not there in any other party."

The elections to the 224-seat assembly will be held on May 12, and the results will be declared on May 15.

While the Congress party is trying to retain power in Karnataka, the BJP is pulling all stops to regain the southern state into its fold.
To move impeachment motion against CJI, signatures of 100 Lok Sabha and 50 Rajya Sabha MPs are required.

Opposition parties are circulating an unprecedented petition for sacking Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, leaders of the NCP have confirmed. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: Backed by several opposition parties, Congress is leading efforts to bring an impeachment motion in the parliament against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra.

The parties are circulating an unprecedented petition for sacking the Chief Justice of India, leaders of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) have confirmed.

NCPs Majeed Memon said signatures of 20 members have been collected so far. Three Congress leaders, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Kapil Sibal and Ahmed Patel have reportedly signed the petition and five more signatories are from the NCP.

Congress leaders said nothing on record on the move that has been confirmed mainly by NCP leaders Majid Memon and DP Tripathi.

Read: Oppn parties have begun impeachment process of CJI: NCP leader

"The Congress as the largest Opposition party has belatedly initiated the proceedings for impeachment of the Chief Justice of India," Majid Memon said on Tuesday.

NCP's DP Tripathi said, "I have signed it and others are also signing it and the process is going on." The CPI-M and CPI have also signed the petition, he said.

The Samajwadi Party on Wednesday said it supports the petition. "The Samajwadi Party stands with the impeachment motion, which is about bringing independence and unquestionable integrity to the judiciary," SP leader Ghanshyam Tiwari told news agency ANI.

Tripathi said it is not just corruption, but "the charges are far more serious" and it emanates from the letter that four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court had earlier written stating that there was danger to the independence of judiciary.

Also Read: SC admin not in order, say 4 top judges in unprecedented press meet

Meanwhile, the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) MP M Rajamohan Reddy on Wednesday said his party has not received any proposal for moving an impeachment motion against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra.

The petition refers to allegations that sensitive cases were assigned to handpicked judges and the most-senior judges were ignored; the allegations were raised in January by the four top Supreme Court judges - J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur and Kurien Joseph - after the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra.

To move an impeachment motion against the Chief Justice of India, signatures of 100 MPs are needed in Lok Sabha while in signatures of 50 members are required in Rajya Sabha.

Leaders of several opposition parties reportedly met and discussed the issue with the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad.

Many opposition leaders, including those from Trinamool Congress, NCP and the CPI(M), have reportedly held discussions over the past few days.

On Tuesday, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee, who is in Delhi, reportedly held discussions with senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan.

(With agency inputs)
The police in a statement said that the militants were 'eliminated' in a 'well coordinated daylong operation.'

The officials believe that the militants had sneaked into Rajouri from Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir after breaching the Line of Control (LoC) five days ago. (Representational Image)

Srinagar: Four gunmen believed to be foreign militants were killed in a daylong gun fight with the security forces in Jammu and Kashmirs frontier Rajouri district on Wednesday.

The officials said that the slain militants had planned a fidayeen or suicide attack against the security forces in the area but before they could execute the plan, the security forces took on them in Sunderbani area of Rajouri.

J&Ks Director General of Police, Shesh Paul Vaid, tweeted 4 Terrorists killed in joint operation in Sunderbani Rajouri. It was a group recently infiltrated from LoC. Great job boys.

The police in a statement said that the militants were eliminated in a well coordinated daylong operation.

It said that a search operation in the villages of Sunderbani was going for the last two days following specific inputs. It added, Last night, a strong input was developed after which a joint column of the police, the Army and the BSF launched an operation in the area Rawariya Talla near a security establishment,

According to the police, on Wednesday morning the militants hiding in bushes opened fire on the search party after which siege was laid to the area and with the arrival of reinforcements action was initiated against the militants.

A police spokesman in Jammu said that the slain militants were attempting to carry out a major fidayeen attack somewhere which has been foiled successfully. He also said that several weapons with ammunition were found on the slain militants whose identity is being ascertained.

The officials believe that the militants had sneaked into Rajouri from Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir after breaching the Line of Control (LoC) five days ago.

An earlier report had said that the militants had attacked a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) camp in the area. The authorities denied it. As per another report, a sentry at the gate of a CRPF camp at Sodra in Sunderbani area fired some warning shots and raised an alarm after he detected some suspicious movement near it.

Rajouri's SSP Yougal Manhas said three bags of ammunition and explosives were recovered from outside the CRPF camp.

Following the incident, Rajouri Deputy Commissioner Shahid Iqbal Choudary, ordered the closure of all the educational institutions in Sunderbani sector as a precautionary measure.

On Tuesday night, two gunmen had barged into the house of one Bushan Kumar Sharma in Bunpori-Yoginallah area in Sunderbani and had forced the family to prepare food, which they had taken away along with themselves, the police sources said.
The BJP hit out at its former ally, saying while her state was 'burning', Mamata was 'doing politics' in Delhi.

BJP leaders Shatrughan Sinha, Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie with West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee in New Delhi on Wednesday. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee met some BJP leaders on Wednesday and called on UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi at her home in the evening.

Banerjee, who heads the ruling Trinamool Congress in Bengal, was seen entering 10, Janpath at about 7pm.

We want Congress to help the regional parties front that is being talked about, so as to facilitate a one-is-to-one fight. This one-is-to-one fight will eliminate BJP politically, Banerjee said after the meeting.

Her meeting with Gandhi, who was Congress president till December last year, assumes significance as Banerjee is a key player in a possible grouping of non-BJP political parties ahead of next years Lok Sabha elections. Her visit to New Delhi is seen as a bid to assemble forces against the BJP in the run-up to 2019.

On Tuesday, she had met with several MPs, including those from the NCP, Shiv Sena and TRS.

Earlier in the day, Banerjee called on BJP leaders Yashwant Sinha and Shatrughan Sinha and also held discussions with Arun Shourie, a former Union minister in the NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

After the meeting, Shourie, who has been critical of the Modi government, said the Trinamool chiefs theory of putting up a one-on-one fight against the BJP in every state was the right path to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

If the one-on-one formula is implemented, the opposition will be able to corner 69% of votes, Shourie said.

Though Yashwant Sinha did not clarify on whether he or Shatrughan Sinha would join a united force against the BJP, he said, Mamata is our old cabinet colleague. Her personality is known to everyone. The role she has taken to save the country is appreciable. In future also, we will support her.

Banerjee was the railways minister in the Vajpayee government.

BJP attacks Mamata

The BJP was quick to hit out at its former ally, saying while her state was burning, she was doing politics in the national capital. The party was referring to incidents of violence during Ram Navami processions in West Bengal.

Senior BJP leader Prakash Javadekar told reporters that Trinamool thugs were attacking peaceful Ram Navami processions in the state.

Bengal is burning and Mamata is doing politics in Delhi. It is like Nero fiddled while Rome was burning, said Javadekar.

He accused Banerjee of being insensitive towards the state and said that this attitude of the TMC supremo is insult to the peoples mandate.

It is also an insult to the chief minister post, he said.

The West Bengal chief minister is free to do politics and the BJP is quite capable of replying to it, the minister said.

But one should not do politics on the cost of the state and her constitutional duties, he said.
Asks cadre not to play an active role in Kairana, Noorpur LS Assembly seats.

Lucknow: BSP president Mayawati, after defending her partys alliance with Samajwadi Party, has done a turnaround and asked her cadres not to play such an active role in upcoming by-elections to Kairana Lok Sabha and Noorpur assembly seats.

At a meeting with her party leaders, the BSP president said that while the BSP-SP alliance would be in place in the 2019 general elections, she was less than willing to be part of the recent Lok Sabha by-election-like understanding again.

The by-polls in Kairana parliamentary constituency will be held following the demise of incumbent BJP MP Hukum Singh and the by-election to the Noorpur assembly seat has been necessitated by the death of BJP MLA Lokendra Pratap Singh.

Political analysts feel that the BSPs blow hot-blow cold stand is designed to keep her new ally, the Samajwadi Party, on its toes.

The BSP is apparently upset at the fact that the BSP candidate lost the recent Rajya Sabha elections and Ms Mayawati has said that SP president Akhilesh Yadav should have ensured the victory of the BSP candidate more than the victory of SP candidate Jaya Bachchan.

Ms Mayawati has also told her followers that she would rather like to focus on rebuilding of the party machinery, which has been dented severely in the past few years due to the exit of leaders like Naseemuddin Siddiqui and Swami Prasad Maurya.

While Maurya joined the BJP and is a cabinet minister in the Yogi Adityanath government in the state while Naseemuddin Siddiqui, has switched sides to the Congress.

Though Ms Mayawati is keen to work out an alliance for the Lok Sabha elections, she also wants to be projected as a alliance leader and get seats of her choice.
NHRC on Tuesday served a notice to the state government seeking a report on the incident within four weeks.

Bhopal: A day after television journalist Sandeep Sharma was run over by a speeding truck in the district headquarters town of Bhind in Madhya Pradesh, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Tuesday decided to hand over the probe into the incident to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

In a related development, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Tuesday served a notice to the state government seeking a report on the incident within four weeks.

The chief ministers decision to recommend a CBI probe into the incident comes in the wake of demand by Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, who suspected a conspiracy in the hit-and-run case leading to horrific death of the scribe. He had done an expose of the nexus of sand mining mafia and local police in a sting operation.

The chief minister recommended a CBI probe into the incident, state information and public relations minister Narottam Mishra said here on Tuesday.

The journalist was knocked down by a speeding truck when he was riding a two-wheeler in Bhind town on Monday morning.

The dumper had suddenly veered off the middle of the road towards left and ran over him.

Police later arrested the truck driver Ranveer Singh Yadav (19).

According to the police, the driver confessed that he had no experience of driving a truck. He has no driving licence either.

The scribe had done a sting in July last year in which the then sub-divisional police officer (SDP) Indraveer Bhadoria purportedly was heard demanding a bribe to allow free passage of sand-laden trucks in the town.

The police officer was transferred after the exposure.

Soon after, the journalist had sought police protection fearing threat to his life.
Vistara also informed that it is 'fully committed to providing cooperation to all the authorities' probing the case.

A member of the cabin crew operating Flight No. UK997 from Lucknow to Delhi on 24 March 2018, reported an incident of sexual harassment by a passenger. (Photo: Facebook | @AirVistara)

New Delhi: A 62-year-old Pune resident travelling to Delhi in Air Vistara flight was arrested for molesting a cabin crew onboard. An FIR was filed by Vistara's flight attendant after which the passenger was arrested. The airline company stated that it does not tolerate abusive or unruly behaviour by passengers.

Cabin crew member of Air Vistara Lucknow-Delhi has filed an FIR against the man identified as Rajeev Vasant Dani for sexually harassing her in the flight recently.

The flight attendant on Vistara flight UK997 said the man sexually harassed her while passengers were preparing for deplaning at Terminal 3 of Delhi IGI airport.

The FIR has been filed under Section 354 A of the IPC (Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty).

The accused is said to have been handed over to CISF.

Air Vistara has released the following statement on the matter:

"A member of our cabin crew operating Flight No. UK997 from Lucknow to Delhi on March 24 2018, reported an incident of sexual harassment by a passenger. Vistara does not tolerate abusive or unruly behaviour by passengers that puts the safety of its staff and other customers at risk, or compromises their dignity. We have reported the matter to the Police and other relevant authorities. An FIR is registered and investigation is on."

Vistara also informed that it is "fully committed to providing cooperation to all the authorities" probing the case.

The accused passenger was arrested earlier on Wednesday after an FIR was registered in Delhi.
Videos shared on Youtube showed Pak PM Abbasi adjusting his t-shirt after going through security checks at the John F Kennedy airport.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was reportedly on a private visit to meet his ailing sister in the US. (Photo: File | AP)

New Delhi: Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was abased down to any regular person at the John F Kennedy airport in New York, as viral videos on Youtube show Abbasi being frisked during the security procedure.

Ditching official customs as a visiting dignitary, that too as a Prime Minister of a nuclear-armed nation, Abbasi, who reportedly was on a private visit to meet his ailing sister in the US, can be seen in the video adjusting his t-shirt after getting out of security checks with his jacket and a trolley bag.

Abbasi, however, has a history of making private trips to foreign nations, as according to Pakistani TV news channel Geo News, the PM was previously spotted travelling alone at a train station during his visit to Britain.

This comes at a time when Pakistan-USA relations have been strained lately, especially since US President Donald Trump tweeted, "The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!"

Earlier this month, Vice-President Mike Pence told Abbasi that Pakistan "must do more" against the Taliban and other militants.

"Vice President Pence reiterated President (Donald) Trump's request that the Government of Pakistan must do more to address the continued presence of the Taliban, Haqqani Network, and other terrorist groups operating in their country," the White House said in a statement.
SCL India carried out a caste census in Uttar Pradesh on behalf of a national party, tweets Christopher Wylie.

Wylie tweeted there are 10 offices in India. The firm is headquartered in Indirapuram, Ghaziabad and has offices in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Cuttack, Ghaziabad, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Kolktata, Patna and Pune. (Photo: AP)

Mumbai: Former Cambridge Analytica (CA) employee and whistleblower Christopher Wylie  who exposed Facebooks data breach -- tweeted on Wednesday on the rather long association Indian politics had had with the company to get voter information and strategise poll campaigns around it.

Wylie tweeted: I have been getting a lot of requests from Indian journalists, so here are some of Strategic Communication Laboratorys (SCL) past projects in India. To the most frequently asked question  yes SCL/CA works in India and has offices there. This is what modern colonialism looks like.

Wylie attached a document to his tweet which states the firm was engaged in the 2003 Rajasthan elections by a major state party to carry out two pieces of work, one internal and aimed at assessing the partys organisational strength, the other external and looking at the nature of the voting population, and, more particularly the attitudes and behaviours of politically-active individuals within the state.

I've been getting a lot of requests from Indian journalists, so here are some of SCL's past projects in India. To the most frequently asked question - yes SCL/CA works in India and has offices there. This is what modern colonialism looks like. pic.twitter.com/v8tOmcmy3z  Christopher Wylie (@chrisinsilico) March 28, 2018

In the 2003 Madhya Pradesh elections, SCL India carried out a psephological study and opinion polling for a national party to identify swing voters. This was followed with a more in-depth analysis of behavioural dynamics at work in key seats which in turn informed the partys efforts to ensure a local structure and communication strategy that matched the caste make-up and attitudinal positions of the pre-identified swing population.

In 2007, SCL worked in Kerala, West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh, on a communication campaign to support a trans-national programme for countering the Non-Desired Behaviour of recruitment into, and support of, violent Jihadism. The project focused on ancillary populations as opposed to perpetrators of violent Jihadism themselves and required in-depth motivational understanding of the populations of six states.

In 2007, the firm worked in Uttar Pradesh and carried out a full political survey on behalf of a major party.

Also Read: Believe Cong was company's client: Cambridge Analytica whistleblower

In the 2010 Bihar state election, the firm was asked to provide electoral research and strategy for the Janata Dal (United).

Wylie also says in 2012, SCL India carried out a caste census in Uttar Pradesh on behalf of a national party. The research included analysis of caste structure and dynamics within the state leading to conclusions regarding the identification of the partys core voters as well as likely swing voters.

Wylies tweeted document also says in 2011 Uttar Pradesh, SCL India undertook a statewide (200mn people) research campaign to identify voter caste by household. This booth level polling data formed the basis of further research into swing vopter motivation and supporter mobilisation strategies, which were presented to individual candidates and tailored to their constituencies.
Shatrughan Sinha on Tuesday showered praise on apparent RJD heir Tejaswi Yadav and said he saw a 'bright future' for the young leader.

'I am amazed at the maturity and poise that Tejaswi displays while answering tough questions. He has a bright future. He will definitely emerge as a force to reckon with,' Shatrughan Sinha told a news channel. (Photo: PTI)

Patna: BJP Lawmaker Shatrughan Sinha on Tuesday showered praise on apparent RJD heir Tejaswi Yadav and said he saw a "bright future" for the young leader.

The actor-turned-politician also said Tejaswi would be a "major player" in the next Assembly polls in Bihar.

"I am amazed at the maturity and poise that Tejaswi displays while answering tough questions. He has a bright future. He will definitely emerge as a force to reckon with," he told a news channel.

The comments of Sinha, who represents the Patna Sahib Lok Sabha constituency, come close on the heels of his meeting with jailed RJD supremo Lalu Prasad in Ranchi on Saturday.

This meeting was followed by a visit, a day later, to the residence of former Chief Minister Rabri Devi whom he met in the presence of her sons Tejaswi and Tej Pratap.

"The precision with which Tejaswi speaks reminds me of NCP chief Sharad Pawar in his hey day," Sinha remarked.

Replying to a query, he said, "Undoubtedly Tejaswi would be a major player in the next Assembly polls in Bihar. I cannot say whether he will be in a direct fight with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who is also my dear friend. But even Nitish said the young man has a long political career ahead."

Sinha was referring to Kumar's intervention in the Assembly on Tuesday wherein the chief minister had advised his former deputy to exercise restraint while raising, on the floor of the House, matters relating to communal tensions.

Sinha, who has been critical of his own party and the Narendra Modi government for quite some time, said he was upset over not getting an invitation for the Bihar Diwas celebrations held last week.

"The Bihari Babu was not invited to Bihar Diwas, for reasons we all know and I need not elaborate upon. So I thought it would be a good idea to meet my old friend Lalu who is a mass leader," Sinha said.

"Bihari Babu" is one of the sobriquets by which Sinha is known.

"Thereafter, on coming to Patna I met his family members and told them that Lalu was doing fine. It was a great reunion after a long time," he added.

Sinha had visited a Ranchi hospital, where RJD supremo Lalu Prasad is admitted, accompanied by local Congress MP and former Union minister Subodh Kant Sahay.

Lalu Prasad has been serving sentence after being convicted in fodder scam cases. He was admitted to the hospital on March 17 after he fell ill at the Birsa Munda Jail in Ranchi.

Sinha, however, parried questions about his future political moves as well as queries relating to the allegations levelled against his party over the recent spurt in communal tension in Bihar.

"We shall talk about these things later," he said.
It is learnt that later in the evening Sonia Gandhi sent a text message to the TMC chief confirming the meeting for Wednesday evening.

BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha, former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie with West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee before a meeting at the TMC party office in New Delhi. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday met UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and sought the Congress Partys support to regional parties to facilitate a 1:1 fight with the BJP at the state level in the 2019 general elections.

Ms Banerjee has already indicated her willingness to be the leader of any grouping of federal parties to take on the BJP and has also expressed uneasiness in being part of any front that led by the Congress.

Ms Banerjee, who is on a three-day visit to the national capital, met leaders from across the political spectrum on Tuesday in Parliament and had sent an emissary to enquire whether Mrs Gandhi was present in the Congress office. However, the former Congress president had already left by then.

It is learnt that later in the evening Mrs Gandhi sent a text message to the TMC chief confirming the meeting for Wednesday evening.

After her nearly hour-long meeting with Mrs Gandhi, the West Bengal chief minister told the media, Whenever I come here I meet her. We share a good relation. I enquired about her health.

We also had political discussions. I said that the country wants it to be one-is-to-one in 2019.

Whichever party is strong in a state, it should fight the BJP there. We want Congress to help the regional parties front that is being talked about, so as to facilitate a one-is-to-one fight. This one-is-to-one fight will eliminate BJP politically, she said.

I want that Congress wins in Karnataka, because Congress is strong there. In Uttar Pradesh, we want that Akhilesh and Mayawati win and Laluji in Bihar If there is one-on-one, then the BJP will go, I am 100 per cent sure, she said.

Earlier in the day, Ms Banerjee met disgruntled BJP leaders Yashwant Sinha, Shatrughan Sinha and Arun Shourie.

Speaking to media after the meeting with the West Bengal chief minister, Mr Shourie, a former Union minister said, If we go by the 1:1 formula, then we begin by 69 per cent votes as Modi has come to power with only 31 per cent votes.

Questioned on whether there were any discussions on the leader of an Opposition alliance in formed, he said, The leader will evolve.

He added that the Congress needs to cooperate with other parties. Mamata Banerjee had given them sensible offers in Tripura and Assam but they did not cooperate.

Former finance minister Yashwant Sinha said, The country needs to be saved and efforts towards this being made by Ms Banerjee are praiseworthy. We have come to give her full support.

The TMC chief, who has given indications that she considers herself most eligible for the role of the leader of any Opposition alliance, had on Tuesday met leaders from across the political spectrum, including parties like Samajwadi Party, DMK, Shiv Sena and RJD. The most notable among them was Nationalist Congress Party supremo Sharad Pawar who many consider one of the foremost claimants to lead an Opposition alliance.

Though no representative from the Bahujan Samaj Party met Ms Banerjee, BSP supremo Mayawati on Wednesday accused the Centre of using double standards and blamed the government for clashes in Bengal.

The West Bengal CM was quick to thank the dalit leader on Twitter, thereby signifying the bonhomie between the two leaders.
Shimon Lev fell in love with India with all its faults, peculiarities and attractions.

A file photo of Hermann Kallenbach (right) with his friend Mahatma Gandhi in their South Africa days.

Dr Shimon Lev, a professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, is anything but the typical academic. A traveller, columnist, photographer, history sleuth and adventure seeker, he has something of an Indiana Jones about him.

After completing a compulsory three-year stint in the Israeli military (intelligence section), Shimon, like many Israelis, took a break that brought him to India, an event that proved to be defining.

Shimon fell in love with India with all its faults, peculiarities and attractions. This was in 1985. Since then he has been returning to India once or twice every year, building relations and trying to unearth linkages that go beyond ancient history.

Unlike the celluloid Jones, Shimon is not after crystal skulls or hidden treasure; his is a quest for the links that tie his beloved Israel with India. This was the motive that launched his academic career.

On his return from India and Nepal after a one-and-a-half-year sojourn, Shimon had taken up a photography course. For many years he worked as an itinerant photographer and journalist.

India remained in focus; he returned often during an era when travelling to India was not possible for Israeli citizens. Fortunately, he had a United States passport as well and an Indian visa was never a problem.

When Shimon went back to academics, his India interest grew and he joined the Hebrew University in Jerusalem that offered an India Studies programme. This would ultimately secure his academic career.

During one of his treks in northern Israel, he stumbled upon the remains of Hermann Kallenbach, an ardent Zionist who had lived most of his life in South Africa. Kallenbachs life, which began in Lithuania, fascinated Shimon who wrote about it. For, his family too was from Lithuania; his father was the only survivor of the Holocaust, having escaped to Canada before the outbreak of the Second World War.

The article prompted the long-dead Kallenbachs niece to write to Shimon inviting him to peruse the papers and correspondence left behind by her uncle. Shimon accepted the invitation and on arriving at Kallenbachs nieces house found a wonderfully preserved library full of notes and correspondence. Among all this was a series of letters exchanged between him and Mahatma Gandhi.

Dr Shimon Lev in New Delhi recently  Indranil Banerjie

This was a huge discovery as no one till now had any idea that Kallenbach, an ardent South African architect and Zionist, had had such a close relationship with Gandhi.

This was a dream for any historian, recalls Dr Lev, who eventually wrote his masters thesis on the Gandhi-Kallenbach relationship. This was later published as a book: The Story of Mahatma Gandhi and Hermann Kallenbach (2012).

For my Ph.D., I expanded my previous research to take a larger view of the encounter between the Zionist and the Indian national movements, he explains. His Ph.D. thesis completed in 2016 was eventually published as a book The Cultural and Political Encounter between Indians and Jews in the Context of the Growth of their Respective National Movements (Orient BlackSwan, 2018).

Dr Shimon Lev today is considered an authority on Gandhi and the India-Israel relationship. He is also academic editor of the Hebrew editions of Gandhi: Satyagraha in South Africa (2014) and Gandhi: Hind Swaraj (2016). His publications among others include The Camera man: Women and Men Photograph Jerusalem 1900-1950 (2016) and Vesheyodea Lishol (1998).

It is his renown as an India scholar that has led him down many a historical trail. A few years ago, the current Lithuanian ambassador to New Delhi, Laimonas Talat-Kelpsa, after reading Dr Levs book on Kallenbach and Gandhi, asked him to help in a project.

Kallenbach, the ambassador pointed out, was born and raised in Lithuania. He could therefore be a symbol uniting Lithuania, India and Israel. The ambassador proposed that Dr Lev help him in his endeavours to put up a statue of Kallenbach and Gandhi in Lithuania and publicise the event.

In 2015, this statue was indeed erected in the Lithuanian town of Rusne on Gandhis 146th birth anniversary. It was quite an event in Lithuania with Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius and Indias minister of state for agriculture Mohanbhai Kundariya unveiling the statue.

Dr Levs latest visit to India was also the result of an academic accident. While researching Rabindranath Tagores influence on Jewish literature in the post-1913 period (after winning the Nobel Prize for Literature), he stumbled upon the name of an unknown woman called Schlomith Flaum, who it turned out had been a friend of the old master.

Flaum, raised in Lithuania, had met Tagore in New York in 1921. She was a Hebrew teacher at that time and had helped organise Tagores lecture which was held in a local synagogue. Attracted by Tagores ideas on pedagogy, she travelled to Santiniketan the following year, where she spent two years.

The experience changed her life and she met many of the leading figures of the Indian national movement, including Gandhi and Sarojini Naidu. She wrote about her encounters in the Hebrew press in Palestine, about Indian nationalism and Tagores ideas on education.

After her departure from India, she continued to exchange letters with Tagore and met him again in Berlin in 1930. In 1946, she published a biography of Tagore in Hebrew all by herself. Significantly, she called her publishing house Shanti, and that book remains the only work on Tagore written in Hebrew.

Flaums experience under the mango trees in Santiniketan was profound, believes Dr Lev. She discovered her identity as an Asian. This was an important part of the process of Israelis discovering their identity as Asians and not Europeans. Tagore was important because he symbolised the revival of Asia.

Dr Lev has collected his findings on Flaum and Tagore in his latest book From Lithuania to Santiniketan: Schlomith Flaum & Rabindranath Tagore, which is published by the Lithuanian embassy in India and releases across the country this month.

Dr Lev remains restless, sensing that the growing India-Israel relationship has many more undiscovered stories. I will be back, he grins. Who knows what he will stumble upon next?

The writer is an independent commentator on political and security issues
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was present in the House, untill it was adjourned for the day by Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu.

New Delhi: Continuing their protest over the Cauvery water issue, AIADMK members on Tuesday led to the adjournment of the Rajya Sabha, which was to bid farewell to its retiring members. TDP members, who had been protesting against the governments unwillingness to grant a special category status for Andhra Pradesh, also joined the AIADMK members in the well of the House. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was present in the House, untill it was adjourned for the day by Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu.

An angry Mr Naidu then adjourned the House for the day leaving Opposition parties surprised. Mr Azad was heard urging members to remain seated in the House. Most of the Opposition members including Congress, BSP, SP, Left and NCP and former PM Manmohan Singh remained seated in the House till 12 noon.

Treasury benches members too were in the House for quite sometime after the Chair had called it a day.

Earlier, the House was adjourned briefly for 15 minutes when Mr Naidu asked leaders of various parties to meet him to resolve the situation.

We dont have courtesy even for retiring members, Mr Naidu remarked as he asked protesting members to go back to their seats. As his appeal went unheeded, he asked both leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad and leader of the House Arun Jaitley: Are we so helpless?. To this, Mr Azad said the House should function.

Minister of state for parliamentary affairs Vijay Goel also appealed to protesting MPs to let the House function. He was seen persuading AIADMKs V Maitreyan to give up the protest and let the farewell process begin.

As the AIADMK and the TDP did not relent, Mr Naidu adjourned the House for 15 minutes.

When the members reassembled, Mr Naidu again appealed for peace in the House.

As the AIADMK MPs continued protest, Mr Naidu said there were two options  one is to name the protesting members and take action against them, or adjourn the House and deprive retiring members from sharing their experience.

We are raising Tamil Nadu issue, Dr Maitreyan said. To this Mr Naidu quipped everybody was concerned about Tamil Nadu which is part of Bharat Nadu. However, the AIADMK did not yield.
Music and language have been the glue that held the Bhojpuri culture intact in the adopted land of the people.

Baithak gaana, Sohar and some other quintessential Bhojpuri folk practices are the essence of Suriami culture which is a melting pot of Indian and Caribbean flavours.

Aashna W.R Kanhai, Surinames ambassador to India, personifies this cultural fusion, speaking in chaste Bhojpuri while interacting with Asian Age, emphasising the Indianness of her Caribbean identity. We (people of Indian origin) have retained our culture despite the Caribbean influences, she said.

Aashna represents around 40 per cent of her countrys population who are the descendants of migrants from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, who once sailed from the banks of Hooghly to Suriname between 1873 and 1917 as indentured labour for the Dutch colonisers.

Music and language have been the glue that held the Bhojpuri culture intact in the adopted land of the people. The artists mostly sing immigration songs in baithak gaana (singing while sitting) style, said the ambassador.

The change in the composition of the Surinamese society and the integration of the (East) Indian indentured laborers creating an identity in the new motherland, has been excellently described by certain authors from Suriname. Leaving behind memories, families and their Indian soil, the indentured somehow believed in a future in Suriname, said Aashna recognising that arrival of Indian indentured laborers in the 19th century was the most important element of the Surinamese history.

The young Surinamese has a great desire to know more about India and trace their roots opening the way for expanding social, cultural and economic ties between the two countries, she said. As far as continuation of cooperation in the field of cultural heritage between the two countries is concerned, I feel that we must keep organising jugalbandi for the artistes of both countries. I can confidently say that we (Suriname) have given a new image to the culture that travelled from India with a Caribbean spirit, not forgetting the past, she said elaborating that pensive mood of the music and the rustic musical instruments used in Baithak gana are very touching.

Personally, I like Baithak gana, Sohar and Vidai songs, which are quite popular in Suriname, she said.

There are several other forms of Indian folk songs, especially of Bihar and UP, which are popular there including Londwa ke naach, where boys dance dressed as girls. Mundan songs rendered in Sohar style are a rage. The songs conveys blessings to the child for a happy and prosperous life.

Union external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj in 2015 had unveiled the Suriname Memorial at the Suriname Ghat along the banks of river Hooghly in Kolkata in West Bengal. The statue, of a plainly-dressed couple carrying a potli, honours those Indian indentured workers who had migrated to Suriname. The memorial is an aluminium representation of Baba and Mai or Mai Baap  a depiction of male and female indentured workers who had left the Indian coasts to work as labourers in sugarcane plantation. The original Baba and Mai monument is in Parimaribo, capital of Suriname, and symbolises the first Indian man and woman to set foot in this Dutch-speaking nation.
Establishments would get a subsidy of up to Rs 30,000 to switch from diesel generator sets to electricity generator sets.

Deputy CM Manish Sisodia arrives to present the Budget in New Delhi on Tuesday. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: The Delhi Assembly on Tuesday passed the Rs 53,000 crore green Budget for 2018-19, with the maximum share for education and health in allocations and a focus on fighting pollution, including commissioning of 1,000 electric buses and subsidies for switching to non-polluting fuel.

Of the total budgetary allocations, up from Rs 48,000 crore in 2017-18, as much as Rs 13,997 crore (26 per cent of the Budget) has been allocated to the education sector and Rs 6,729 (12.7 per cent) to the health sector.

The government also gave Rs 6,903 crore to the local bodies, which is 13 per cent of the total Budget and is 9.88 per cent higher over the 2017-18 allocations. The 26 anti-pollution programmes, spanning four departments  Environment, Transport, Power, and Public Works  include a real-time, round-the-year study in partnership with the University of Washington to understand sources of pollution.

Others include replacing all streetlights on PWD roads with energy efficient LED lights, an extensive tree plantation drive, and new city forests in Jaunapur, Ayanagar, Dera Mandi and Bela Farm among others.

The programmes also have a slew of incentives for switching to non-polluting fuel, including 50 per cent concession in registration charges for private cars with factory-fitted CNG kits. Restaurants will be given a subsidy of Rs 5,000 per tandoor or earthen oven to replace coal-based ones with electricity or gas-based variants. A subsidy of up to Rs 1 lakh will be given to industries in approved industrial areas, to switch to piped natural gas from existing polluting fuels.

Establishments would get a subsidy of up to Rs 30,000 to switch from diesel generator sets to electricity generator sets.

The government will also launch an incentivised pilot agriculture-cum-solar farm scheme, under which solar panels will be installed on raised structures on agricultural farms without affecting the normal farming activities. Another pilot project aims to install solar panels over 16 km length of cycle tracks.

The Rs 13,997 crore allocated for the education sector was up from Rs 3,525 crore in the previous budget and finance minister Mr Sisodia said that education has been getting about 25 per cent of the total Budget for the third consecutive year.

A sum of Rs 175 crore was allotted for installing 1.2 lakh CCTVs.
Parents of the girl claimed that she was upset as a teacher had scolded her after finding chits in her answer sheet.

Police said the girl hung herself from the ceiling of her house in suburban Powai on Monday evening after returning from her school in Kurla. (Representational Image)

Mumbai: A 13-year-old girl allegedly committed suicide with her parents claiming that she was upset as a teacher had scolded her after finding chits in her answer sheet, police said.

Police said that the girl hung herself from the ceiling of her house in suburban Powai on Monday evening after returning from her school in Kurla.

"Family members, who entered the room in the nick of time, managed to rush her to hospital but she died while under treatment," an official said.

Police said that no suicide note was found but her parents alleged that she took the step because a teacher had scolded her after finding chits in her answer sheet.

"When the girl was submitting her exam paper at her school in Kurla yesterday, the teacher found some chits in the victim's answer sheet. She allegedly accused the girl of cheating and scolded her," the official said.

Officials said that a case of accidental death had been registered and further investigations were underway.
Justice Revati Dere was hearing an application filed by the girls parents seeking cancellation of bail given to the trustee.

Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Wednes-day pulled up the Mumbai police for repeatedly summoning a child witness to the police station in connection with the probe into the alleged rape of a three-year-old girl by the trustee of an Andheri school in November 2016.

The court said that the police was defeating the purpose of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act by not adhering to investigational procedure under the Act. The court also directed the Andheri MIDC police station to submit the case diary at the next hearing on April 2, to find out how many times the minor boy had been summoned to the police station.

Justice Revati Dere was hearing an application filed by the girls parents seeking cancellation of bail given to the trustee. The court on Wednesday said, If the police keep summoning children to police stations like this, parents are naturally bound to feel that it is just adding to the trauma. It is very disturbing to note that the child and his father had to go to the police station on several

occasions.

The Act is very clear on what procedure needs to be followed by the police while probing cases of such nature. Why were the child and his father called to the police station? the court said.

The trustee was arrested on November 7 last year and was granted bail by the sessions court on November 24 of the same year.
CBSE schools in Mumbai are clueless about the announcement as they havent been officially notified.

Mumbai: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Wednesday announced that it will re-conduct two examinations i.e. the class XII economic paper and the class X mathematics paper. The decision was taken as the two papers were leaked during the examination in Delhi. However, the CBSE is yet to clarify whether the re-examinations will only be for Delhi or for the entire country. CBSE schools in Mumbai are clueless about the announcement as they havent been officially notified.

CBSE officials said that the dates of the re-examinations will be declared within a week. The CBSE official statement read, The board has taken cognisance of certain happenings in the conduct of some examinations as have been reported. With a view to upholding the sanctity of board examinations and in the interest of fairness to students, the board has decided to re-conduct examinations in the said subjects.

The primary reason for conducting re-exams is the reports of paper leak in the national capital. While the mathematics exam was conducted on Wednesday, the economics exam was held on Monday. According to reports, the question papers of these two subjects were leaked and circulated on social media sites an hour before commencement of the examination. However, the CBSE denied these allegations and registered a case with the Delhi police regarding the paper leak.

However, Avnita Bir, director-principal, R.N. Podar School, Santacruz, told The Asian Age that no circular had been issued to CBSE schools in Mumbai regarding the same. We got to know about this re-examination from media reports as there has been no notification from CBSE to us (schools) till now. It is a similar case with other CBSE schools in the city.

Meanwhile, students who appeared for their mathematics exam on Wednesday said that the paper was easy and that all questions pertained to their syllabus. Rohan Salunkhe, a student, said, I prepared well for the exam and all the questions were from the syllabus and the paper went pretty easily too. However, if they ask us to give the exam once again, it will only place an additional burden on us.
The session on the Kashmir issue was in the afternoon.

Mumbai: Terming it anti-national, the Maharashtra government on Wednesday cancelled a seminar organised by the Mumbai Universitys (MU) Dr Ambedkar Centre For Social Justice. One of the sessions in the seminar titled Military Occupation in Kashmir  Sexual Violence on Kashmiri Women was cancelled.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Atul Bhatkhalkar raised the issue in the Legislative Assembly, following which state education minister Vinod Tawde said that the state government would ask the governor, who is the chancellor of MU to direct the vice-chancellor to hold an inquiry into the issue.

Mr Bhatkhalkar raised the issue of the national-level seminar organised by the Dr Ambedkar Centre on Disparity, Discrimination, Deprivation and the Idea of Social Justice on Wednesday. The session on the Kashmir issue was in the afternoon.

Mr Bhatkhalkar said that Kashmir belongs to India and the Army is there to protect the countrys interest. So the seminars session is anti-national, he said.

He asked the government to intervene immediately and direct the university to cancel it.

Mr Tawde backed Mr Bhatkhalkars views and said, The university is autonomous and this centre is independent. If the government interferes, these organisations allege that its breach freedom of speech. But this is an important issue and the government will ask the governor to look into it.

He also directed the VC to take action against the people who had organised the session on Kashmir.
The writer is an advocate practising in the Supreme Court. The views expressed here are personal.

The most alarming fact is that the value of Indian exports either stagnated or declined.

Its clear that the real thrust to Sino-Indian bilateral trade began in 1999-2000, and from the start it was Advantage China and Disadvantage India.

Indias bilateral trade with China has been a one-way street, for many years, and its been Advantage China all the way.

The facts speak for themselves. At the beginning of the 21st century (1999-2000), Indias exports to China stood at $539.04 million, while imports from China came to $1.282.89 billion  an adverse trade balance of $743.85 million. In the subsequent years, this imbalance only grew, and it is high time that India takes corrective action. In 2000-2001, Indias exports were $831.3 million, to Chinas $1.502 billion. Just look at the figures:

2001-2002: India $951.95 million to Chinas $2.036 billion

2002-2003: India $1.975 billion to Chinas $2.792 billion

2003-2004: India $2.955 billion to China $4.053 billion

2004-2005: India $5.615 billion to China $7.097 billion

2005-2006: India $6.759 billion to China $10.868 billion

2006-2007: India $8.321 billion to China $17.475 billion

2007-2008: India $10.871 billion to China $27.146 billion

2008-2009: India $9.353 billion to China $32.497 billion

2009-2010: India $11.617 billion to China $30.824 billion

2010-2011: India $14.168 billion to China $43.479 billion

2011-2012: India $18.076 billion to China $55.313 billion

2012-2013: India $13.534 billion to China $52.248 billion

2013-2014: India $14.824 billion to China $51.034 billion

Its clear that the real thrust to Sino-Indian bilateral trade began in 1999-2000, and from the start it was Advantage China and Disadvantage India.

China began with a $743.85 million trade surplus in 1999-2000. The proverb morning shows the day comes to mind. It indeed did for both Beijing and New Delhi. One wonders what made the Indian government ignore this huge imbalance for so long. What were the compulsions, if any, and were they foreign or domestic?

The irony is that whereas Indias bilateral trade deficit was bad from 1999-2000 to 2004-05 (varying between $743.85 million in 1999-2000 to $1,482 billion in 2004-05), the year-on-year Chinese surplus figure never exceeded the $2 billion mark. Against that, Indias deficit (or the Chinese surplus) started becoming unmanageable and alarming from 2005-06, when it touched a record $4.108 billion. The adverse trend kept increasing from then on.

In 2010-11, it went into negative territory, touching minus $29.31 billion and then kept on going downhill: in 2011-12 $37.23 billion; in 2012-13 $38.74 billion and in 2013-14 it was $36.21 billion. Then in 2014-15, the gap shot up to $48.479 billion. The figure was $52.696 in 2015-16 while in 2016-17 it marginally dropped to $51.110 billion.

The most alarming fact is that the value of Indian exports either stagnated or declined. Thus whereas Indias exports to China in 2013-14 stood at $14.824 billion, it declined to $11.934 billion in 2014-15; $9.010 billion in 2015-16, and marginally rising to $10.171 billion in 2016-17.

The question arises: why have Indian exports steadily fallen over the years? Does it show Indias inclination and propensity to take shortcuts for more import from and less export to China?

Are we taking the easier route of import for internal trading at the expense of our indigenous industrial production, factory expansion and employment generation? Are we unwittingly taking recourse to what the United States did over three decades ago? The US then depended on comparatively cheap mass-produced fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), manufactured by Western as well as joint-venture Chinese corporations based in China, which sent the goods from there to the US. At that time, the US imported huge amounts of goods from China to avoid buying comparatively expensive American goods.

Is India making the same mistake now? Is the cost of goods taking precedence over quality?

But in the long run, India has no alternative but to adopt a course correction  both for the health of the economy as well as to ensure political survival.

It would be an understatement to say that the situation is alarming. Why? Because the Chinese are investing $52 billion for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), passing through our territory in Jammu and Kashmir under the illegal occupation of Pakistan and China.

Can it then be said that the entire CPEC investment money in our own territory is being sourced from India? Is India unknowingly, but indirectly, funding a cause which it deems to be a violation of its sovereignty? Is it incorrect to suggest or ask: Is India scoring a same-side goal under the banner of Sino-Indian bilateral trade? Only for the sake of so-called Chinese goodwill?

There is one factor which is too conspicuous to be ignored. The entire Sino-Indian bilateral trade appears to be between a country supplying cheap raw material (India) and a nation that is an industrial goods manufacturer (China), which could be likened to Lenins famous quote on imperialism being the highest stage of capitalism, in which the industrial nations send their finished goods (at a fat profit) to consumers who had earlier exported the raw material to produce it. Low-cost raw material ending with high-priced finished goods results in an adverse trade balance for India!

Lets see what India imports from China and what it exports to that country. Indian exports to China include iron ore, cotton yarn, granite and natural stone, plastic raw material, bulk minerals and ores, human hair, pearl, precious, semi-precious stones, finished leather, marine products, electronic components, etc.

Chinas exports to India include telecom instrument, electronic components, computer hardware peripherals, organic chemicals, consumer electronics, electronic instruments, electric machinery and equipment, airconditioners, refrigeration machinery, products of iron and steel, project goods, aluminium products, cranes, lifts and winches, machine tools, accumulators and batteries and moulded and extruded goods.

Even before moving into the White House, US President Donald Trump has been crying hoarse about his countrys adverse trade balance vis-a-vis China, but it is doubtful how far, or how much, he will be able to do anything to reverse the situation. India, however, hasnt yet reached the position where America stands today. Does India really want to fall to that position? Will it do any good to a nation of 1.26 billion? Should India remain a nation of eternal trade deficit even in the 21st century?
Asif Ghafoor said situation in region became complex in the aftermath of a tweet earlier this year by US President Donald Trump against Pakistan.

General Ghafoor said India should also be thankful to Pakistan that it acted as a buffer state between unstable Afghanistan and India otherwise India would also have been affected by the scourge of terrorism.

Islamabad: Pakistans military on Wednesday said that alleged Indian provocations along Line of Control and Working Boundary will have negative implications for the region. Addressing a news conference here, Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Asif Ghafoor said the situation was not very different from the previous year and 948 ceasefire violations had so far been recorded in first three months.

He said India should know that any provocative acts along the LoC will further deteriorate peace situation between Pakistan and India. The DG ISPR said Pakistan was a peaceful country but our desire for peace should not be construed as our weakness. He urged India to end targeting civilian population along LoC and Working Boundary.

On Pak-US relations, major general Asif Ghafoor said Pakistan had played a key role in war against terrorism and to bring peace and stability in the region.

He said situation in region became complex in the aftermath of a tweet earlier this year by US President Donald Trump against Pakistan.

However, the US must recognize the historic positive role played by Pakistan in facilitating rapprochement between the US and China in 1970s, helping the US in becoming unipolar power and assisting Washington in gaining its objectives in Afghanistan.

General Ghafoor said India should also be thankful to Pakistan that it acted as a buffer state between unstable Afghanistan and India otherwise India would also have been affected by the scourge of terrorism.

However, he said, if India continued its efforts to destabilize Pakistan by using the land of Afghanistan, it will serve no good for the region. He said there is also a need that all countries of the region and beyond work with Pakistan to eradicate the menace of terrorism. On internal security situation, he said Operation Raddul Fasaad (elimination of discord) continues across Pakistan and so far 26 major operations and 23318 Intelligence Based Operations (IBOs) had been carried out during which over 23000 weapons recovered.

He said security situation in Balochistan had improved to a great extent and peace has returned to the province. He said army has deployed more troops in the areas where economic projects are in progress.

The General said civilian government has a lead role in socio-economic development of Balochistan while security forces are assisting the provincial government.

Highlighting the problems of electricity, water and communication infrastructure in Balochistan, he said efforts are being to provide these facilities.
The 66-year-old politician was previously the Speaker of the Lower House. He resigned from office on the same day Htin Kyaw announced his resignation as head of state and two days later he was elected vice president. Like many other political activists, he has been arrested several times by the previous military regime. Corruption, rule of law and territorial conflicts at the heart of his mandate.

Naypyitaw (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The Myanmar Parliament has elected Win Myint as the new president of the Union (photo). He is the tenth head of state since the independence of the country and the second civilian to hold the post since the military coup in 1962 after Htin Kyaw, who resigned March 21 for health reasons.

The 66-year-old politician was previously the Speaker of the Lower House since February 2016, following the victory of Aung San Suu Kyis National League for Democracy (Ndl) in the2015 general election. Win Myint resigned from office the same day in Htin Kyaw announced his resignation and two days later was elected vice president, as part of the process of becoming president.

According to analysts, Win Myint will reorganize and energize the government, which has received criticism on the slow pace of implementation of political and economic reforms, as well as the growing criticism from the international community for the management of the crisis in Rakhine.

A long-time member of the NLD, Win Myint is considered a trusted man by the Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is forbidden to take the presidency under the 2008 military constitution.

Born in 1951in Danubyu, in the Irrawaddy delta, Win Myint studied geology at the University of Yangon before devoting himself to the study of Jurisprudence in the eighties. He worked as a lawyer in 1988, when protests for democracy broke out at national level, leading to the founding of the NLD, which he later joined.

Win Myint has enjoyed electoral success on three occasions: in the 1990 general election, in the 2012 election and in the last general elections of 2015. However, achieving these successes was not easy. Like many other political activists, he was arrested several times by the previous military regime. Detained at the time when his only son became seriously ill, he rejected the offer of military intelligence to visit his son, on his deathbed, in exchange for his renunciation of politics.

Win Myint became a member of the NLD Central Executive Committee in 2010. He also served as secretary of the Committee on the Rule of Law, Peace and Tranquillity of the Council of Ministers chaired by Aung San Suu Kyi, who at the time was a parliamentarian elected for represent the Kawmu district of Yangon. Because of his long experience in legal and political affairs, the election of Win Myint raises hopes and expectations. The Burmese people expect him to work effectively on corruption, the rule of law and territorial conflicts, as he himself declared when he was the Speaker of the House.
In his message to the faithful, Mar Sako cites the humiliation of Iraqi citizens who lost "security, stability and wealth" as a result of war and terrorism. He calls on his fellow Iraqis to work together to overcome differences in "religion, race, [and] colour". The upcoming elections will be an opportunity for "change" for a "strong and prosperous" nation.

Baghdad (AsiaNews)  Chaldean Patriarch Mar Louis Raphael Sako released his Easter message to the faithful today and sent it to AsiaNews.

In it, he describes Iraq as the "cradle of civilisation", a country of "fortune and glory" that was transformed into a place of "disasters" by the "wicked who came to rob and kill which has meant a loss of security, stability and wealth so that many of its citizens now feel "humiliated".

However, this background of violence and tragedy "should not make us despair". On the contrary, the Iraqi people "must observe these events with the gaze of faith" in the risen Christ and "analyse it from an historical and political point of view".

Addressing the faithful who marking in Holy Week celebrations with enthusiasm and participation, His Beatitude exhorts them to use difficulties as an "element of unity".

He urges them to "work together" for the future of the country, overcoming "differences in religion, race, colour or the concept of majority and minority".

This opportunity must be exploited to "build trust" and work "hand in hand" to put an end to suffering [. . .] by accepting our being different."

From 2003 to now, the Christian population in Iraq has more than halved. The numbers confirm the outflow: from about a million and half in 2000 to about half a million today.

The US war in Iraq to oust Saddam Hussein gave extremists an excuse to attack Christians as proxies of the American invaders, up to the rise of the Islamic State whose violence and terror forced many to flee.

"Every Iraqi citizen must feel responsible from a moral and national perspective for this situation, says the Chaldean patriarch. At the same time, everyone can contribute personally or in group to solving it.

To overcome difficulties, one must overcome a "conventional" mindset and promote "the notion of citizenship" by adopting a "language of peace, solidarity and affection.

Citing the upcoming political elections in May, he said that they represent a "golden opportunity" for "change".

For this reason, "I urge all Iraqis to vote for the best possible candidate, that our wishes may become reality" and benefit a strong and prosperous nation at the social, economic, educational and cultural levels.

In such a place, the law will "protect" the weak and be the same for everyone. "Iraq is for all of us; it is our identity and our refuge. At the same time, The religious sphere concerns only God and must be protected from distortions and politicisations."

In his plea, Mar Sako calls on people "to vote aware that (the Creator) wants us to live as brothers and sisters with pride, freedom, dignity and happiness. He is the God of life, peace, love, and mercy."

Finally, the primate of the Iraqi Church notes that We must always carry in our hearts the message of resurrection that Christ entrusts us at Easter". This means that we "live with passion" as an element of strength and change.

"We have seen orphans, widows, and homeless people overcome sorrow after meeting someone who shared their pain, loved them and gave them hope."

"The resurrection means that God loves us as a father and that we are in his hands.

Do you believe in me? This is the question that we are asked amid our tragedies, that we may change our way of thinking and face every element of life."
by Shafique Khokhar

The case went before an anti-terrorism court that issued its ruling on 24 March. In Pakistan there is no justice for persecuted religious minorities. The courts are "dominated by fanatics".

Lahore (AsiaNews)  The Lahore anti-terrorism court acquitted 20 people accused of burning alive Shahzad Masih and his wife Shama, a Christian couple of humble origins.

Last Saturday, the court gave the accused the benefit of the doubt and ordered their release.

Speaking on the Spot Light television program, Peter Jacob, activist and executive director of the Centre for Social Justice, said: "There is no protection in Pakistan for persecuted families like Shama and Shahzad. The judicial system is weak and therefore persecuted families, especially members of religious minorities, do not get justice."

The serious episode of religious violence occurred four years ago in Kot Radha Kishan, Kasur district (about 60 km from Lahore). The married couple were stoned and thrown alive in the brick kiln where Shahzad worked as a labourer.

On 4 November 2014, they were accused of blasphemy, which triggered a homicidal fury that drove 400 people to attack and kill them. In fact, the blasphemy charge was just a vendetta over money the Christian man owed to his Muslim employer.

At the time, the woman was pregnant with her fifth child. In November 2016, a court sentenced five men to death, ten to varying prison terms and acquitted 93 others.

Jacob believes that "it would have been better if a regular court had been in charge of the case instead of the anti-terrorism court. In the latter there are several shortcomings, innocent victims do not get justice and offenders often escape punishments.

"Burning an innocent couple is not terrorism like suicide attacks. It is a crime that should be dealt with by regular courts. We need adequate training of investigators if we want to ensure the correct application of the rule of law."

"The most painful aspect is that those who incited violence were punished, but the owner of the brickyard was able to avoid going to trial.

"The persecution of religious minorities, in particular of Christians, is not new in Pakistan, said Rojar Noor Alam, operation manager of Caritas Pakistan. Unfortunately, government prosecutors often fail in their work. This causes delays in justice, which in turn results in the release of the offenders without any punishment."

"In the history of this country those responsible for attacks against minorities have never been punished, he bemoaned.

Even the courts are dominated by fanatics who use their influence to get terrorists freed. Pakistan is becoming a very dangerous place for religious minorities."

"It is sad news that the court acquitted the defendants, said Kakkazai Amir, a researcher and writer. This will embolden others to commit the same heinous crime in the name of religion.

"We should all condemn this act and ask legislators to tighten the laws and remove every legal loophole that could benefit offenders. Justice must be the same for everyone and the state must pay more attention to religious minorities, ensuring everyone dignity and the right to live."
by Vladimir Rozanskij

Patriarch Kirill heads the Russian Literature and Language Society, set up with the Ministry of Culture and Education. The Russian language and Russian literature are means for population cohesion. Schools need to be normatively grounded. Focus must be given to language teaching for the ethnic groups of the Caucasus.

Moscow (AsiaNews)  One of the main concerns of the Russian Orthodox Church, in particular of its patriarch Kirill (Gundayev), is the protection and development of the Russian language and culture.

According to the spiritual leader of the Russian people, only by promoting the countrys artistic, literary and historical heritage can it prevent the loss of national identity and true spirituality, thus avoid the dominant secular culture that prevails in todays world, especially in West.

To this end, Patriarch Kirill agreed to a proposal made by President Vladimir Putin in 2016 to appoint him as head of the Russian Literature and Language Society, which was set up by the Patriarchal Council of Culture and the Ministry of Culture and of Education, to coordinate all institutions dedicated to language and literature.

After two years dedicated to organisational issues, the Society is now ready to perform its dedicated task, namely promoting a true Russian culture. With this in mind, its board of directors met in the Conference Hall of Christ the Saviour Cathedral on 21 March.

For Patriarch Kirill, this is nothing new. In the 1990s, the metropolitan of Smolensk, as he was then, was also responsible for the external relations of the Patriarchate. This led him to create the World Russian People's Council, an organisation devoted to bringing together groups that were genuinely interested in the ethical and religious (Orthodox) renaissance of Russia.

As the head of the Council, a position that he kept even after he became patriarch, and as president of the Russian Literature and Language Society, Kirill is clearly expressing his desire to call on all Russians to work together to rediscover the historical vocation of the Russian people.

The meeting of Societys board of directors was also attended by various ministers, university deans, regional politicians, top Russian Academy of Sciences officials, writers, journalists, teachers and entrepreneurs from all over the Russian Federation and other countries. Next to the patriarch sat Bishop Tikhon (Shevkunov), head of the Patriarch's Council for Culture.

Discussions included the new standards of teaching the Russian language and literature, seen as a fundamental tool for the cohesion of the Russian-speaking population at home and abroad.

"As everyone knows, the preservation of Russias national independence depends not only on military and technical means, said Education Minister Olga Vassiljeva, but also on the education of citizens, who need a common national and cultural identity as well as patriotic consciousness. It is no coincidence that the Russian language and literature, like the country's history, are referred to in the National Security Strategy of the Russian Federation."

Control over the teaching of history and literature is therefore one of the main tasks of government institutions and the Orthodox Church itself, and the controversy in recent months over the centennial of the Russian Revolution showed the urgency of boosting this at the level of laws, publishing industry and mass media.

In fact, the humanities still reflect very much Soviet ideological perspectives or are left to the independent elaboration and interpretation by individual teachers or the private schools set up in the past 20 years.

Kirill stressed the need to re-establish the so-called "golden rule" of classical Russian literature, that is, the set of "normative" works needed in education and Russian social culture. For the patriarch, this means a "social pact" for culture between teachers, parents, writers of manuals and programmes and all those who care about education.

In his address, the spiritual leader of Russian Orthodoxy also expressed concerns about the low quality of Russian language teaching in the areas of the country inhabited by other [non-Russian] ethnic groups, like the Caucasus, and the need to support the study of the national culture among Russians abroad.

His goal is the develop pastoral outreach for the whole Russian-speaking world, at home and abroad, to which the Church provides pastoral, educational and social care.
A bipartisan group of over a hundred retired army officers and former ambassadors exhorts the president to respect the JCPOA. Its cancellation will not improve national security. But the White House seems increasingly in favour of abandoning it, with the risk of triggering a conflict. Open letter from Zarif to the countries of the Middle East: New collaboration policy.

Washington (AsiaNews) - A bipartisan group of over 100 US security experts - including 50 retired army officers and over 30 former ambassadors  is urging President Donald Trump to keep Iran's nuclear deal alive (the JCPOA). Despite a growing movement of intellectuals, military experts, parliamentarians and members of the civil society in favor of the pact with Teheran, the White House seems increasingly in favour of abandoning it.

The document entitled "Keep the deal with Iran - 10 good reasons why", the signatories urge Trump to "maintain the US commitment to the Iran nuclear deal" as doing so will "strengthen America's hand in dealing with North Korea, as well as Iran, and help maintain the reliability of America's word and influence as a world leader." "Ditching it would serve no national security purpose," the statement said.

Penned by a group that calls itself the National Coalition to Prevent an Iranian Nuclear Weapon, the coordinated message comes as US officials seem bent on an confrontation with Tehran. Proof of this are the recent appointments of Mike Pompeo and John Bolton, two falcons who have always been the proponents - especially the second - of a war against the Islamic Republic.

Analysts and experts point out that the White House seems to have two tracks of approach to the agreement, defined by Trump in the electoral campaign as "the worst ever": negotiate with the European allies to obtain changes acceptable to the US or abandon it. This second road appears to be the most probable one.

This comes after years of embargo. Western economic sanctions were eased in 2015 in exchange for a deal on the countrys controversial nuclear programme. Largely welcomed by the international community, the deal has been a boost for the economy and investments, stimulating urban renewal and reforms in the energy sector.

However, the United States  and critics of the deal, especially Israel  have maintained sanctions against Iran over its ballistic missile programme and the armed support for Shia movements in the Middle East.

On 12 January, Trump extended the suspension of a series of sanctions to Iran for another 120 days. However, he added that this would be "the last time". In less than two months, on May 12, the US leader will have to rule on the fate of the agreement.

Meanwhile in Europe there is growing concern over the end of the agreement. A French diplomatic source, quoted by Le Monde, behind anonymity reveals that "if Iran resumes enrichment of uranium, it will produce a nuclear bomb in a year. In this case, bombardments of Iranian nuclear targets by the United States and Israel will be inevitable. And if they are attacked, the Iranians will respond ".

Meanwhile, in an open letter published on Al-Jazeera, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif appeals to the nations of the Middle East, calling for a new policy of collaboration and trust between all parties. "Like our Arab neighbors with whom we divide maritime and land borders,- writes the head of Tehrans diplomacy  joint security is based on the principles established by the UN Charter". "The joint security - he adds - requires effective measures for building mutual trust, such as communication of military exercises, transparency in military procedures, reductions in military spending and mutual visits among senior officers".

He suggests starting with the policy of small steps "encouraging tourism among our nations, and promoting joint nuclear safety projects, combating pollution and crisis management". "Once more - concludes Zarif - Iran offers its hand to the neighbors. And it is not a maneuver, but a strategic choice. Iran is deeply convinced that what unites us is far superior to what divides us ".
Canadian human rights activists with links to the Philippines have expressed shock and anger as the countrys president Rodrigo Duterte declared that some of them have become "unwitting tools" of drug lords.

He is giving vigilantes a license to come after ushuman rights groups and foreign aid workers in the Philippines, said a Filipino-Canadian migrant worker, who has rallied against Dutertes war on drugs.

Declining to be named in fear of being targeted, the activist said the government of Canada should warn Duterte to stay away from Canadian aid workers and rights activists in the Philippines.

The move to connect drug lords to human rights workers and aid workers is reflective of Dutertes overall stance against criticism and dissent, according to critics.

Some rights groups may have become "unwitting tools" of drug lords in the Philippines to undermine the president, Dutertes spokesman said this week, a statement that Human Rights Watch said was "shameful" and risked provoking violence.

Rights groups have denounced President Rodrigo Duterte's bloody war on drugs in which thousands of people have been killed, either by police or by shadowy, unidentified gunmen.

Duterte, who says he must be tough to protect the people from the scourge of drugs, has criticised rights groups saying they were "trivialising" his campaign and unjustly blaming the authorities for bloodshed.

Drug lords have suffered huge financial losses since the campaign was unleashed 20 months ago and drug syndicates were trying to destabilise the government, the president's spokesman, Harry Roque, said in a statement.

"We therefore do not discount the possibility that some human rights groups have become unwitting tools of drug lords to hinder the strides made," Roque said, without naming any rights group.

Roque said attacks on the president's war on drugs had been "vicious and non-stop", echoing comments by Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano last week after he defended the policy at a UN human rights council meeting in Geneva.

Roque did not offer any evidence to support the suggestion that rights groups were being used by drug lords.' The anti-narcotics campaign has raised international alarm and drawn criticism from some UN representatives, including High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, who suggested recently that Duterte needed to see a psychiatrist.

Police say they have killed more than 4,200 drug suspects who were violently resisting arrest since the launch of the crackdown, which Duterte has vowed to pursue until he steps down in June 2022.

Several thousand more people have been killed by unidentified gunmen.

Police suspect many were victims of gang wars though activists believe vigilantes supporting the government campaign were responsible for many of the killings.

Brad Adams, Asia director of Human Rights Watch, criticised Roque's statement, and the earlier comment from Cayetano, as "shockingly dangerous and shameful".

"Are they trying to have death squads target human rights activists?" Adams asked in a statement.

"Cayetano and Roque provide no evidence. They should withdraw their comments immediately."

Presidential legal counsel Salvador Panelo said the Human Rights Watch's call for Cayetano and Roque to withdraw their statements was "misplaced".

Duterte said on March 14 the Philippines would pull out of the International Criminal Court more than a month after court prosecutors opened a preliminary inquiry into his drug war. Panelo said Duterte felt the ICC had become "a tool of oppression, a tool of harassment".

Earlier this month Filipino Women rights advocates targeted Duterte as they marched in rallies to celebrate Womens Day.

Migrante-Alberta said, Dutertes recent order to the military to shoot women guerrillas in their vaginas to render them useless is a brazen show of disrespect and violence against women in general.

When its the person in the highest office who personifies misogyny by the language he uses to publicly harass, berate, mock and humiliate women, Migrante-British Columbias (BC) Womens Organizing Committee said it sets the tone in the Philippines, encouraging the local law enforcement and the military to follow suit.

Migrante-Alberta added that it is a shame that it is no less than the government of the Philippines that does not implement International Humanitarian Law and instead encourages sexual violence and war crimes. The group said they will they will join the fight even against the most disrespectful and despotic leaders of the world.

Other groups like Karapatan and Movement Against Tyranny have also strong Canadian connections. They have protested policies of the Duterte administration in public rallies that they described as recipes for a full-blown dictatorship.

The Philippines is often referred to as one of the most dangerous countries in the world to be a human rights defender. In 2017, Front Line Defenders said in its annual report that 80% of deaths of human rights defenders took place in 4 countries: Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and the Philippines.

At least 4 human rights workers have been killed under the Duterte administration so far: Karapatan Negros Oriental coordinator Elisa Badayos, Bicol paralegal Edwin Pura, Catholic priest Father Marcelito Paez, and Moro human rights activist Billamin Turabin Hasan.
Guest Commentary

By Stewart Muir

Canadas natural resource development opponents are indicating that an increase in the number of crude oil tankers leaving the Port of Vancouver would make a catastrophic crude oil spill inevitable.

They continue to promote this position even though their evidence has been considered and rejected by the judicial bodies involved.

Our legal system relies on people giving testimony relating to facts, and occasionally on the opinions of duly qualified experts. Having failed to achieve their objectives in Canadas legal system, opponents now insist that social license from the community is a prerequisite for any commercial development.

They prefer this approach because the social license does not rely on facts or duly qualified experts, but rather on the opinions of average citizens. Opponents know, that unlike actual experts, the intuition and perceptions of average citizens can be influenced with emotionally charged rhetoric and disinformation.

One strategy deployed by Canadas natural resource development opponents is to massively inflate the associated risks, while massively understating the importance of resource development to Canadas economy. For example, a common statement by opponents suggests that the resource sectors are responsible for only 5% of Canadas GDP and a modest number of jobs. This is a ridiculous argument that completely ignores the extent to which resource development drives things like secondary processing, manufacturing, construction, the service sector, public services, and innovation.

Without resource development, demand for products and services in multiple sectors would be a fraction of what they are today. The fact is that diminished resource development in Canada means a diminished future for all Canadians. It means Canada will have a diminished ability to transition to a low carbon future, or; to improve the living standards of indigenous peoples and the poor. There is no new economy on hand to replace the old economy they seek to destroy.

As for increased tanker traffic on Canadas west coast, no one is disputing that a major spill would be a catastrophe. However, its important to note that oil tankers have been moving safely and regularly along Canadas West Coast since the 1930s. Every single day, modern technology enables crude oil tankers to traverse ports around the world without incident. Here in British Columbia, an independent risk analysis was conducted by Det Norske Veritas, a globally respected authority on marine safety.

The risk areas they have identified have been mitigated through Canadas new World Class Tanker Safety System. Among the safety features of this new system, two Canadian pilots are required to be aboard every double-hulled tanker leaving port, and; a powerful tugboat is tethered to the rear of the tanker to ensure maneuverability in the event the tanker lost power and became adrift. The dedicated men and women who work within this system, many of whom are life-long British Columbians who have worked on the water for their entire career, disagree with Canadas natural resource development opponents that a catastrophic crude oil spill on Canadas west coast is inevitable. Their expert opinions should carry far more weight than the opinions of the fear-mongers whose goal is to terminate resource development in our country.

If it proceeds, the Kinder Morgan Project is expected to generate $5.7 billion in benefits to the Province of British Columbia and over $20 billion to the federal government. This revenue could immediately be used for many things, for example, the immediate construction of over 20,000 homes for less privileged people. If the pipeline does not proceed, it will serve as a tremendous blow to Canadas reputation as a place to invest, and that together with the damage this would do to our relationships with the rest of Canada, should make us concerned for British Columbias future. Canadians need to decide if were going to make major economic decisions based on facts or fear.

Stewart Muir is Executive Director of Resource Works, which communicates with British Columbians about the importance of the province's resource sectors to their personal well-being.
By Catherine Sas,

Special to The Post

International students are a key part of Canadas strategy to attract economic immigrants. Under the Express Entry selection program, which is the cornerstone of Canadas economic immigration stream, applicants who have studied or worked in Canada garner more points than those who havent.

Obtaining work in Canada is not so easy to arrange when you are in a different country and on another continent. However, for International students in Canada, there is the option of the Post - Graduate Work permit (PGWP). After completing a certificate, diploma or degree program, students may be eligible for a work permit of one to three years in duration.

Even one year of work experience can make a huge difference in the number of points a student can obtain in the Express Entry application process.

But many of Canadas international students will not be eligible for a PGWP because of the school that they are attending.

If Canadian permanent residence is your ultimate goal, you will want to be sure to attend a school that qualifies for the issuance of a PGWP.

The starting point for any international student to be able to study in Canada is to obtain a study permit. As of June 01, 2014, Canadian schools were required to obtain certification as a Designated Learning Institution (DLI).

Almost ALL schools in Canada have been able to be registered as a DLI for immigration purposes.

Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) provides a system for determining whether your chosen school is a DLI such that you will be eligible for a study permit. Many students assume that if they are studying at a DLI that has been recognized by IRCC, that they will also qualify for a PGWP. They are mistaken.

To be eligible for a PGWP you must be taking a program of study at a public college or university or at a private school that is able to grant certificates, diplomas or degrees in accordance with provincial legislation. There are many, many private schools that do not fit this description.

Private language schools, vocational schools, and private colleges generally are not able to issue provincially recognized educational credentials and completing their programs will not allow a student to obtain a PGWP. This has generated considerable confusion which has recently lead the Minister of Immigration to release an announcement cautioning students about their choice of school given their ultimate immigration goals. On February 19, 2018, Minister Hussen posted an online announcement Determine your eligibility - Work after graduation which notes:

If you graduated from a DESIGNATED LEARNING INSTITUTION, and want to stay in Canada temporarily while working, you may be eligible to apply for a post-graduation work permit (PGWP).

Not all Designated learning institutions make you eligible for a post-graduation work permit.Check the designated learning institution list, to find out which schools offer programs that make you eligible.

So, while the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship acknowledges that there is a problem, he only refers students back to the list of DLIs and NOT to the list of PGWP eligible schools. Surprisingly, IRCC does not publish such a list of PGWP eligible schools. Which leaves everyone - including immigration officers who regularly issue work permits to students who are not eligible for them - completely confused.

Some provinces, as part of their PNP programs for International students, provide reference to a provincial list. In British Columbia, students can find a list of PWGP qualifying schools at Welcome BC.

If immigration officers cant get it straight, how is a prospective international student supposed to figure this out?

On January 16, 2018 my colleague posted an open letter to Minister Hussen calling upon him to provide clarity to international students seeking a PGWP.

While the Minister seems to have heard the message, his recent announcement does little to accomplish the desired result. For a prospective international student to Canada, keen to be able to obtain work experience that will lead to permanent residence, the message is clear: not all schools in Canada are created equal when it comes to obtaining a PGWP.

Be sure to do your homework before you apply!

Catherine Sas, Q.C. has over 25 years of legal experience. She provides a full range of immigration services and is a leading immigration practitioner (Lexpert, Whos Who Legal, Best Lawyers in Canada). Go to canadian-visa-lawyer.com or email casas@shaw.ca.
Nestle uses sugar reduction technology in chocolate bar





Nestle has debuted the first chocolate bar made using its new sugar reduction technology.

In late 2016, Nestle revealed that it was working on a way to reduce sugar in its food without changing the taste or using any sweeteners. The process developed by Nestles involves aerating sugar participles which then dissolve quicker on the tongue to create more sweetness with less sugar.

Nestle is now using the sugar reduction method for the first time commercially, selling a version of its white chocolate Milkybar in the UK called Milkybar Wowsomes.

Milkybar Wowsomes come in two varieties and are said to have 30 per cent less sugar than similar chocolate products. It has no artificial sweeteners, preservatives, colours or flavourings.

Milk is the main ingredient and a 18g bar has 95 calories.

Chief Executive Officer of Nestle UK and Ireland, Stefano Agostini, said Nestle has been working incredibly hard to make the chocolate bar a reality.

We have a unrivalled research and development network and the experts at our Product Technology Centre in York have been instrumental in this breakthrough, Agostini said.

Jas Scott de Martinville, Global lead for Nestle Confectionery Research and Development, called the ambition behind Milkybar Wowsomes enormous.

To create a confectionery product in just 12 months which has 30 per cent less sugar than similar chocolate products and contains no artificial sweeteners is extraordinary, Martinville said.

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Hello. Last year my parents applied for the contributory parent visa (subclass 143) whilst outside of Australia. After a couple of issues (their migration agent didn't send it!) it was finally confirmed as submitted in August last year. They have been in Australia on a visitors visa (subclass 600) since early last year which means they can stay for up to three years but must leave the country for 6 months out of every 18. I don't understand the logic behind this - surely they are better off spending the money they have to pay for flights, accommodation etc overseas in the country they have chosen to live? Does anyone know if there is another visa option they can consider or anything else they can do until their subclass 143 is confirmed? Thanks
The National Safety Council (NSC) announced a new partner in support of its Check To Protect campaign, which educates the public about the importance of addressing open vehicle recalls. The National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) announced its support of Check To Protect at its annual show in Las Vegas.

Wes Lutz, the incoming NADA chairman, will be the first automobile dealer to join forces with the campaign by promoting CheckToProtect.org on his website and during interactions with customers.

NADA wholeheartedly supports the National Safety Council Check To Protect initiative and is proud to be a partner in its efforts to educate and raise awareness about the importance of getting recall repairs completed, Lutz said. Im honored to be the first dealer to link directly to the Check To Protect website from my dealership homepage, and Im encouraging all franchised dealers, of every brand, to do so as well.

The council encourages vehicle owners to go to CheckToProtect.org to review their recall status. Those with an open recall are encouraged to make an appointment with their certified auto dealer right away. All recalls are 100% percent free for drivers to have repaired at authorized dealerships regardless of the age of the vehicle.

Image courtesy of National Safety Council

For Check To Protect to work on a national level, the NSC knows it needs dealer support, said Kelly Nantel, vice president of communications and advocacy for the council. At the end of the day, dealers are the ones who repair the open recalls and close the loop. This relationship raises awareness about the Check To Protect campaign among dealers, drivers, and their communities  all places we want to spread the word.

In addition, FCA US is a founding partner of Check To Protect. The council launched Check To Protect in June 2017. Since that time, more than 100,000 people have visited CheckToProtect.org to learn whether their vehicle has an open recall.
Arizona Governor Doug Ducey. Photo via Gage Skidmore/Flickr.

Arizona Governor Doug Ducey has banned San Francisco-based Uber from testing its self-driving vehicles in his state, following the death of a woman who was hit by one of the technology companys cars, Reuters reports.

Ducey sent a letter to Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi calling the video of the incident disturbing and alarming. In the video, the operator of the vehicle, an Uber employee, is seen looking down at her phone mere seconds before a pedestrian steps onto the road. The vehicle, which was in autonomous mode at the time, strikes and ultimately kills the 49-year-old woman.

In the best interests of the people of my state, I have directed the Arizona Department of Transportation to suspend Ubers ability to test and operate autonomous vehicles on Arizonas public roadways, Duceys letter reads, in part.

Following Arizona's decision, Uber's autonomous division indicated to the California Department of Motor Vehicles that it will not seek to renew its permits to test in the state. Its current permits expire March 31.

Breaking: After the fatal self-driving car crash in Arizona, Uber indefinitely halts its self-driving car testing in California. Here's a letter from the state's DMV about the company's decision: pic.twitter.com/shx7lnMwOK  Dara Kerr (@darakerr) March 27, 2018

Uber originally moved most of its self-driving operations, about 200 of its vehicles and hundreds of employees, to Arizona after California regulators shut down operations for lack of proper permits.

This article was updated March 28 to reflect Uber's decision not to renew its autonomous test driving permits in California.
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NOTE: I will be on 1170 KFAQ with Pat Campbell at 7:05 am on Wednesday, March 28, 2018 to discuss the tax increases passed by the Oklahoma House of Representatives last night and the path forward. Listen live on 1170kfaq.com or on the Tune In app. Later the interview will be posted on Pat Campbell's podcast page.

I'm disappointed but not surprised that the tax-eaters finally got their three-quarter billion dollar tax increase through the State House, with the largest tax bill, HB1010XX, passing by a vote of 79 to 19, a margin sufficient to bypass the constitutional requirement for ratification by a vote of the people in November. The proposal was introduced late in the afternoon and was passed a few hours later. In order to give the public a look at the bill before the vote, State Rep. Jason Murphey put the bill online, when it wasn't yet available on the official legislature website.

HB1010XX raises taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel (3 and 6 cents per gallon, respectively), on little cigars, cigarettes ($1 a pack), chewing tobacco (10%), and hotel rooms ($5 per day -- the definition of hotel is broad enough to affect campers at church camps and spiritual retreats like Falls Creek, and it looks broad enough to me to affect apartment renters, too; tribal casino hotels are, of course, exempt). The Gross Production Tax will increase from 2% to 5%. Another bill caps itemized deductions, effectively raising income taxes on middle-class Oklahomans.

If the bills pass the Senate, they will go into effect 90 days after the governor signs them into law. The 90-day delay was included in the constitutional process for tax increases to give citizens time to put a repeal of the tax on the ballot through the initiative petition process before the tax goes into effect.

The phenomenon I described in my previous piece, the dynamic that makes it easier for legislators to raise taxes than to root out waste, was in full effect yesterday. After the vote, it was disgusting to watch Republican legislators congratulating themselves on the tremendous achievement of passing a massive tax increase "for the first time in state history since 1990." At the very least, they ought to regard the vote as an admission of failure: After a decade of full Republican control, they had failed to clean up the state's finances and had to resort to a tax increase to fund teachers' raises, capitulating to a tiny Democratic minority's wish list of taxes and spending to get the votes they needed.

Why? Because the Republican legislative leadership and Governor Fallin have refused to work with the principled members of their caucus who insist on following the Republican Party platform and restraining the size and scope of government. Because these Republican elected officials refused to pursue any of the many proposals offered by the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs (OCPA), the free-market, small-government think-tank, to raise teachers' salaries without raising taxes.

There seems to be genuine resentment and disdain on the part of the legislative leadership and the governor toward these principled organizations and individuals. I hear that legislative leaders refuse to work with OCPA and refuse to work with the Platform Caucus.

Remember when you were a teenager, the way you felt when your mom or dad or some other adult authority figure logically dismantled your carefully crafted excuses for not doing the right thing? I suspect that's the way legislative leaders feel about OCPA. They like the OCPA as much as the emperor liked the little boy who pointed out that his beautiful new clothes were non-existent.

One excuse I've heard is that one of OCPA's proposals last year required repurposing money in the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust fund in a way not expressly on the list of spending purposes permitted by Article 10, Section 40, of the state constitution.

Instead of changing the Oklahoma Constitution to make it easier to raise taxes, why not change the constitution and statutes to make it easier for the tax dollars we already send to the State Capitol and the county courthouses to get where they're really needed?

Oklahomans may have the impression (fed by sloppy reporting) that there's one big pot of tax money from which all state and local government expenditures are drawn. In fact, there are hundreds, maybe thousands of pots, large and small, earmarked for a specific purpose. That means that in the same year core governmental functions funded from the general fund are squeezed by revenue shortfalls, agencies with dedicated revenues may have far more money than they need.

The lazy legislator looks at that situation and says, "We have to put more money in the big general fund pot." What we need is for legislators to look at where money is going and where it is needed and then do the hard work of changing laws and constitutional provisions so the tax dollars we're already paying will go where they are needed.

Will that take a long time? Probably. Will it be hard work? Undoubtedly, with a lot of digging into details of budgets and spending and laws. Will it make some people angry? Certainly, especially those agency leaders who will lose their cushy earmarked funds and have to justify all of their spending each year. But hard work and making people angry is not a legitimate reason for legislators to avoid doing something. It's why we elected them.

(We did not, however, elect them so they could experience the Joy of Sex with new people they meet at the State Capitol. Some legislators over the years have been confused on this point. I suspect that confusion has led to moral compromise which has made said legislators more susceptible to compromising on their professed political principles.)

We should also expect our legislators to do the hard work of investigating and auditing state agencies, school districts, colleges, and other taxpayer funded entities and then implementing reforms in response to those audits. It is a difficult task, and it will make certain people feel threatened and angry, but legislators have a moral obligation to ensure that the tax dollars we entrust to them are wisely spent.

Of the 17 State House members who had taken the Taxpayer Protection Pledge for their current term of office, only 6 voted to uphold that pledge. The Taxpayer Protection Pledge for state legislators simply reads: "I, ____, pledge to the taxpayers of the State of Oklahoma, that I will oppose and vote against any and all efforts to increase taxes."

Here is the list of Oklahoma House pledge-breakers on HB1010XX: Earl Sears, Dustin Roberts, Josh Cockroft, Dennis Casey, Leslie Osborn, Charles Ortega, Mike Sanders, Scooter Park, Randy McDaniel, Chris Kannady, Michael Rogers. State Sen. Kim David is the Senate sponsor of the bill; her sponsorship makes her a pledge-breaker as well. I am happy that they took this step before the filing period for state office next month, and I hope challengers are ready to oppose them and the rest of the 51 Republicans who voted in favor of the biggest tax increase in nearly 30 years.

Even though Republican House leaders and their weak-willed followers voted to violate the party platform because of their failure to manage our tax dollars wisely, Oklahoma's affiliate of the leftist National Education Association is still planning an illegal strike on Monday because their entire list of demands were not satisfied. If the strike happens despite this massive tax increase, it will reveal the union as utterly unreasonable and should inspire support for repeal of the tax increases by the voters and defeat of the proposed constitutional amendment that would make it easier for the legislature to raise taxes without a vote of the people.

I'm happy to see conservative activists fired up to fight this tax increase. Steve Fair, a longtime grassroots leader in the Oklahoma Republican Party and former Republican National Committeeman, notes with disgust that no reforms of our tax-funded education system were required in exchange for these new taxes.

The disappointing thing is once again the education lobby won because self-described fiscal conservatives in control of the legislature caved. Education didn't have to agree to consolidate administrative services, school districts, or submit to comprehensive audits of school districts. They just threatened to walk-out and lawmakers caved. No Oklahoman disputes teachers in Oklahoma deserve a raise, but so do the butchers, bakers and candlestick makers. Unfortunately, those people can't afford to stage a walk-out because they can't afford to take the day off. They have to work to pay their taxes.

Former U. S. Senator Tom Coburn, renowned for his fight against government waste in Washington, will keynote the launch of a new organization, Oklahoma Taxpayers Unite!, tomorrow, March 28, 2018, at the State Capitol:

Fiscal hawk and Taxpayers' friend, Senator Tom Coburn, will announce the formation of a new Taxpayers' coalition to take the fight to the legislative tax hogs, oath breakers and Political Class. Oklahoma Taxpayers are fed up with legislative leadership that seeks first to raise taxes and refuses to make the structural, transformational reforms that fiscal responsibility requires. With HB1010XX, passed under duress and rules suspension March 26, the majority of the House of Representatives has chosen the path of more taxation instead of reform. Oklahoma Taxpayers Unite! is a coalition of Oklahoma Taxpayers -- civic leaders, concerned citizens, grassroots activists, and party leaders, working together, demanding constitutional, ethical, transparent, and fiscally responsible governance for the Oklahoma Taxpayers. Reminiscent of the group known as "Stop New Taxes" which almost repealed HB 1017 28 years ago with a referendum petition, and then Oklahoma Taxpayers' Union, which successfully passed SQ 640, the new coalition reflects the disgust and anger with a Governor and legislature that has refused to lead, opting for new taxes instead. Of the 79 House members who voted for new taxes, 11 of them previously signed a pledge for their entire term of office with Americans for Tax Reform, "to oppose [and vote against] any efforts to increase taxes." Apparently, their word means nothing. Two of the oath-breakers are running for higher office in 2018. Seven members of the Senate signed the same pledge. Oklahoma Taxpayers Unite! will offer its 7-point Taxpayers Platform for all incumbents and candidates to pledge to on their Word of Honor.

At a time of life and with a record of accomplishment that would justify a quiet retirement, it's commendable that Tom Coburn would be willing to devote his time and his credibility to fixing waste in Oklahoma state government. May God grace us with more men and women of his integrity to serve in our State Capitol.
Finding the Unpopulated Oregon Coast During Spring Break's Madness

Published 03/28/2018 at 4:35 AM PDT

By Oregon Coast Beach Connection Staff





(Oregon Coast)  Spring break on Oregon's coast is a double-edged sword: it's fun but it's frenzied. It's calming but chaotic.

Even more so at this time, finding a real hidden spot on the beach, with nary another soul around, is one of life's real pleasures. There are few more ecstatic experiences than stumbling upon a stretch of sand, tucked away behind some brush or squeezed between a couple of minor headlands, and finding yourself completely alone. (Above: Winema Beach, near Pacific City).

This is a tad more difficult on the Oregon coast during spring break than other times. Still, deserted beaches can be found. You just have to look a little harder during busier parts of the year. Here are a few hints.





The Cannon Beach Less Traveled. Believe it or not, there are some parts that are less populated with people, like the very northern end, near the southern face of the cliffs of Ecola State Park, essentially Chapman Point. It takes some walking, but that's why you'll find less folks there.

These basalt headlands are perhaps half a mile from the nearest beach access, which lies at the end of a private neighborhood at the end of 5th St. You can, however, reach it by a much longer walk from the last access downtown, from the park.

If you're extremely lucky, low tides may allow you brief access to the very clandestine Crescent Beach (which you can only see from the top of Ecola State Park's viewpoints). Otherwise, you can reach it via a two-mile or so hike from a gravel pullout along the road to Ecola.





Secret Side of Seaside. Oregon coast's spring break king does have a slightly unpopulated side. Head to the very northern end of town, at the 12th Ave. access, and you'll discover a section of beach with usually no one around. From these dunes to the Necanicum River's mouth, it's all calm and soft sands. You're also quite likely to find more whole sand dollars than anywhere else.





Winema Beach. It's hard to get more hidden than this. Just a few miles north of Neskowin (and even closer to Pacific City), a completely unassuming sign declares Winema Road. Follow that to the bottom and a tract of sandy beach that nearly no one knows about. There's another blob of a rock structure that looks a bit like Neskowin's Proposal Rock to the south, which features a flat stretch at the top that's perfect for lounging.

Other interesting shapes and crevices present themselves as you walk northward. Some spots in the cliffs seem to invite climbing and exploring. And there's more than one hole in the rocks to huddle from the wind and cuddle a bit.





Neskowin's Truly Hidden Section. Just south of Pacific City, Neskowin is the quiet little resort that's constantly threatening to explode into something much bigger.

Hit the beach and you'll usually find loads of people milling about. But cross the creek, walk towards mysterious Proposal Rock, and the population density gets less. You can actually walk around on top of the rock and check out the views from the top (although be extremely cautious of the tide so as not to get stuck.)

This is also where the famed 1800-year-old ghost forests lie.

For even less people, hit the very northern end. Drive the road that runs alongside the beach, where the street names turn to names of Oregon cities, and a mile past the major curve you'll find some hidden accesses. Things are starkly different here. The sand grains are much bigger and coarser, and it's completely bereft of other folks.





Bob Creek Wayside. South of Yachats, and just barely south of Strawberry Hill and Neptune State Park, you'll find this almost mystical spot. More tide pools populate this obscure but fascinating place than humans. They really emerge at lower tides, clinging to odd, mushroom-shaped rocky blobs at the southern end. At this end, there's also a small sea cave and a huge boulder that together create a sort of arch by leaning up against the cliffs here.





Behind Depoe Bay: North Point. A delightful and untamed bit of surrealistic shoreline lurks behind the neighborhood at Vista St., found at the northern tip of Depoe Bay. Head to its end and you'll encounter the secret headland of North Point, a stretch of basalt cliffs filled with odd patterns, strangely smooth chunks, but mostly craggy, pointy structures. From here, you can glimpse a different view of Depoe Bay and see what it looks like from the front.

The northern tip has a weird railroad-like shape embedded in it, coming complete with incredible views of some wild coves. Other areas seem to form natural seats, perfect for sitting and viewing the crazed tide. There's a spot that's sunken and slightly flat, like the remnants of a basement - and a stairway-like structure formed naturally - rather miraculous, even ironic.

Walk just a little bit and it won't take long to notice you can often feel the tide shake and rattle these rocks ever so slightly. Meander to the south and the rocks take on a smoother and more colorful texture, with a long arm-sort-of-rock structure stretching out into the sea. Often, fishermen can be seen on these rocky shelves so close to the ocean. Oregon Coast Hotels in these areas - Where to eat - Maps - Virtual Tours







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Haystack Rock Sunset, Height, Geology; and Brooten Road, Through Pacific City

Three Capes Loop Virtual Tour, Oregon Coast: Oceanside, Netarts, Tierra Del Mar, Pacific City

Pacific City's iconic Haystack Rock is framed by an exceptionally colorful sunset.

How tall is Haystack Rock?

It has an estimated height of 340.6 feet (103.8 m) as determined from Lidar data collected by state geologists. More here on height of Haystack Rock.

Plus, what is its geologic origin?

The towns main drag is Brooten Road, which also eventually connects to the road that takes you up the Three Capes Loop. It begins at the junction to 101, which takes you past the muddy banks of the Little Nestucca River  a fave fishing spot.

Brooten then meanders past the downtown area, essentially a handful of businesses, bars and eateries.








The Bible has been under attack in the western world for over 200 years but never more intensely than today. These attacks have taken different forms and have come from many different corners of the academic world, from philosophers, to scientists, to textual critics. In the specialized world of archaeology the attacks have increased dramatically in the past 50 years. Once a specialization filled with Bible believing individuals, the field of archaeology is now overrun with atheists and skeptics, agnostics and those committed to the destruction of the Bible as a source of true historical information.

These attacks on the Bible are a part of a sweeping movement in western culture. Spearheaded by academic elitists in the university and the public educational system, the news and popular media, and the entertainment industry, these revisionists cloak themselves with supposed objectivity, purity of motives, and the superiority of science over the "uninformed", "unscientific", religious community.

They regularly mock those who question their world-view and their conclusions by name-calling and the worst forms of anti-Bible and anti-Christian propaganda. They have powerfully infected the church by turning Bible believing Christians against the very Scripture which is the foundation of truth and life in this world. Instead of contending for the Bible, Christian academics, pastors, and lay-persons are making egregious accommodations to these destroyers of faith and truth.

In these days of intense spiritual battle, God has called ABR to step into the gap to contend for the truth and to assist the church in this critical hour. ABR is a non-profit ministry dedicated to demonstrating the historical reliability of the Bible and to give answers to questions being asked by believers and non-believers alike. We do this by using original archaeological fieldwork and research along with studies in other apologetic disciplines. We take on the bold claims of skeptics and critics. We challenge the bizarre anti-biblical propaganda that is purveyed upon the public as gospel through television and print media. We uphold the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is God's message for the salvation of all mankind!
For Immediate Release, March 28, 2018 Contact: Perrin de Jong, (828) 252-4646, perrin@biologicaldiversity.org Lawsuit Launched to Speed Habitat Protections for Two Appalachian Crayfish Delay Has Increased Extinction Risk for Critically Imperiled Crawdads CHARLESTON, W.Va. The Center for Biological Diversity today filed a formal notice of intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to protect critical habitat in West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky for the Big Sandy crayfish and the Guyandotte River crayfish. The two Appalachian crayfish were protected under the Endangered Species Act in 2016 because of habitat loss and water pollution. But the Service is now late in designating required critical habitat areas for the imperiled crustaceans, which are found nowhere else on Earth. Every day that we delay these habitat protections is a day these two Appalachian crawdads move closer to extinction, said Perrin de Jong, staff attorney at the Center. Local communities will benefit, too. Protecting the habitat of these unique species will help prevent their extinction and protect the clean water that local residents rely on. The Big Sandy crayfishs range has been reduced by more than 60 percent. It is found in the upper Guyandotte River and Bluestone River drainage of West Virginia, and the upper Big Sandy drainage in southern Virginia and eastern Kentucky. The Guyandotte River crayfish has undergone more than a 90 percent range reduction and is now found only in Wyoming County, West Virginia.



Under the Endangered Species Act, the Fish and Wildlife Service was required to designate critical habitat for these species within one year of when they were listed, which would have been April, 2017, but the agency has yet to act to protect their habitats. Though it is already illegal to harm the crayfish, critical habitat designation adds an additional layer of protection. It requires any federally funded or permitted project to consult with the Service to make sure crayfish habitat is not harmed. Surface coal mines are bad for the health of every living being around them, de Jong said. These rare crayfish could be wiped out by the mines, which also threaten people living nearby by polluting their air and water. Crayfish are also known as crawdads, crawfish, mudbugs and freshwater lobsters. Crayfish keep streams cleaner by eating decaying plants and animals. They are eaten, in turn, by fish, birds, reptiles, amphibians and mammals, making them an important link in the food web.
NAIROBI, Kenya - Eight prominent columnists working for Kenya's biggest media group quit on Tuesday over what they said was increased meddling by government and a loss of media freedom at its outlets.

 Sergio Paulo Gomes Lacueva via 123RF

The columnists include George Kegoro, executive director of the Kenyan Human Rights Commission; Lynne Muthoni Wanyeki, Africa director of the Open Society Foundation; and Nic Cheeseman, professor of democracy at Birmingham University."I resign to protest the growing infringement on media freedom. I resign to show solidarity with the voices that have been silenced. I resign because we must live our beliefs," Cheeseman wrote on Twitter.In a joint statement, the eight highlighted several incidents in recent years that they said pointed to meddling in the independence of the Nation Media Group (NMG).These included the firing of a managing editor after an editorial critical of the presidency and failing to renew the contract of popular cartoonist Gado who regularly took aim at government.Last month, NMG sacked the manager of its NTV station, Linus Kaikai, after he said there had been collusion between media owners and government to censor coverage of the mock swearing-in of opposition leader Raila Odinga, who maintained he won elections last year.NTV and two other television stations were pulled off air for a week - despite court orders directing they be put back on - as they attempted to cover the ceremony.The media suspension was attacked by the UN, the United States and rights watchdogs."A worrying pattern has emerged where it appears the executive [government] is able to influence who works for or contributes to NMG," read the joint statement."Censoring individual columnists signals official intolerance for dissenting views and suggests executive willingness to go to any length - even co-opting editors - to achieve its aims."The NMG is the biggest private media house in East Africa, operating in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda.The group responded to the mass resignation "with regret" and assured readers they remained "committed to media freedom"."We wish to reiterate that overall we have honoured our obligation to respect their views and did not tamper with their positions except to correct basic errors," the group said in a statement.Kenya is recovering from a damaging election season in 2017 which saw a first vote overturned by the Supreme Court, and a second boycotted by Odinga who claimed the election would not be free and fair.Protests during the crisis left at least 92 dead, mostly shot by police, according to rights activists.In a surprise move earlier this month, President Uhuru Kenyatta and Odinga shook hands and vowed to reconcile in a bid to heal divisions - a decision which has thrown the opposition NASA coalition into disarray.Source: AFP.
An innovative, low cost, digital lunch scheme for staff that's been implemented by over 60 companies across major Kenyan cities, is being hailed as pivotal in boosting staff productivity, retention and companies' profitability.

Dubbed M-Kula, the innovative application has been developed by Sodexo Kenya, an offshoot of global benefits and rewards firm Sodexo, and rides on the amendment to the Finance Act 2014 that exempts from taxation food offered to employees for up to Sh48,000 every year, the equivalent of Sh4,000 a month,Upon signing for the M-Kula service, a company is given an account with details of the employer, and the amount each employee is entitled to in meal allowance per day. Once the order is confirmed and payment made, the electronic voucher is disbursed to the employees. The employees can then go to any of the over 230 restaurants that accepts M-Kula services, order and pay in the same way customers purchase goods and services through Mpesa. The service, which is available on IOS and Android platforms, also allows customers to pay for meals delivered to the office. Employees who enroll for the service are able to save up to Sh14,000 each year attributable to tax exemptions. To bolster the reach and convenience, Sodexo Kenya has partnered with over 200 food outlets including stalls, Jumia Food, Java, Debonairs, Nyama Mama among others.We settled on digital lunch vouchers because food is a very important component in the labour market yet it is often ignored. Food helps drive productivity and motivation and ultimately a companys bottom line. Numerous studies have shown that there is a world of difference between companies that offer their staff lunch and those that dont. We have also proven it here in Kenya, said Neil Ribeiro, the CEO of Sodexo Kenya.Afternoon productivity is 25% less than in the morning, studies have shown. On the other hand a 2015 Sodexo Kenya survey indicated that 63% of workers who were not motivated in their jobs attributed it to being unappreciated in the workplace with another 52% blamed lack of, or wrong benefits.Staff appreciation, Ribeiro argues, doesnt have to be an expensive affair. Technology offers companies one of the cheapest and innovative ways that balances between staffs well-being and the companys profitability. M-Kula for example provides a unique opportunity for organisations to embrace a new tax free incentive to their staff thereby increasing employee engagement and motivation, he said.The impact of lunch provision on staffs productivity has been documented in Kenya. When KenPoly Manufacturers Ltd started providing lunch, productivity went up by between 7 and 12%. Three months after introducing lunch for staff, Subati Flowers recorded a drop in absenteeism from 9% to 4%. The average number of days off also dropped from 2.8 days per sickness to 1.2 days of sick out.Inspired by the burgeoning uptake of the service, Sodexo Kenya is now planning to scale it across the country while entering into more strategic partnership. There is an impressive motivation among employers in Kenya who have seen business sense by realising that it takes more than a pay cheque to keep the Kenyan workforce happy. With an estimated three million employed Kenyans, less than 1% are fed by their employers and so we see a lot of opportunity in the coming years, Ribeiro added.The company that has leveraged on its international acumen and reach in provision of services that improve quality of life, also runs M-Tuza, a multi-store digital voucher for rewards to employees and clients. Acceptable at over 300 locations, including clothes and shoe shops, gyms, spa and hair salons among others, the service allow companies to appreciate employees and clients by giving them an array of products to choose from while ensuring seamless purchasing and distribution process.
A new report released by the International News Media Association (Inma) focus on how the "connected individual" is impacting news media today.

 Pixabay via Pexels

SOUTH AFRICA The modern marketer is a connected one

Attention as a finite resource: Reduced attention spans caused by always on devices are turning attention into a finite resource  which is having a ripple effect on how stories get told.

Mobile driving connectedness: Mobile devices are empowering consumers to not just become multi-channel readers, but also to be connected patients, shoppers, and voters.

Consumer expectations rising: These connected individuals have higher expectations for news and information, especially via mobile devices where standards are rapidly rising.

Connected marketing emerging in response: In response, media companies are embracing a shift to connected marketing to meet the needs of the connected individual, which impacts the brand experience across platforms.

Emerging behavioural patterns: Behavioural patterns are emerging on connected individuals ranging from an inability to focus to the need for participation to a need for instant gratification.

Personalisation and friction points: There is an increasing need for personalisation and the elimination of friction points driven by connected individual attributes.

In How the connected consumer is redefining news media, author Paul Berney outlines the ramifications for media companies when the individual is in control of the intersection of publishers, media, and their audiences.Berney, founder of The Connected Marketer and a mobile marketing specialist, describes how connectedness has changed the behaviour and expectation of readers and, subsequently, should be changing how marketers communicate to this connected individual.Among the report highlights:The Inma report is punctuated with interviews and case studies from The Wall Street Journal, News Corp Australia, Hearst Digital, Financial Times, #hashtagourstories, Mather Economics, NZZ, Axel Springer, De Persgroep, and The Washington Post.Inma members may download the report and non-members may order the report by clicking here
KIGALI, Rwanda - Scientific African is a new pan-African, peer reviewed, open access publishing journal, dedicated to boosting the global reach and impact of research by Africans.

(L to R): Thierry Zomahoun, president and CEO of AIMS, and founder and chair of NEF, Elsevier CEO, Ron Mobed.

Shared expertise

The new publication is the result of a partnership between the Next Einstein Forum (NEF), an initiative of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), and Elsevier , the information analytics business specialising in science and health. Scientific African will generate increased visibility for African researchers and provide a platform to share their research with the global community. Despite the digital revolution, African researchers continue to suffer from a lack of global exposure. They will now benefit from Elsevier's existing journal infrastructure and expertise to publish their research across a wide range of scientific disciplines.Scientific African was launched at the Next Einstein Forum Global Gathering 2018 being held in Kigali, Rwanda, March 26-28, 2018."Scientific African is central to the Next Einstein Forum's vision of propelling Africa onto the global scientific stage. What better way to do this then by actively publishing the groundbreaking discoveries and excellent research of African scientists?" said Thierry Zomahoun, president and CEO of AIMS, and founder and chair of NEF."The NEF is committed to promoting scientific excellence and collaboration in Africa. We believe the two go hand-in-hand to improve scientific output and outcomes and we are happy that Scientific African will be led by the NEF's brilliant Community of Scientists."The journal's mission is to widen the availability and capacity of research by Africans, increase its impact and discoverability, and make African research more visible around the world. Scientific African will publish articles that focus on areas of critical importance to African scientists, citizens, and policymakers."Through the efforts of both Elsevier and the Elsevier Foundation , we are committed to building African capacity in research. Scientific African is a state of the art platform, which will complement national and regional efforts to increase visibility and provide cohesion for the African research community," said Ron Mobed, Elsevier CEO.As part of its partnership with NEF, Elsevier will offer the publishing infrastructure for Scientific African at cost. Elsevier will also share its expertise in publishing, data sharing, marketing, editorial organisation and information analytics, to help build a freely accessible flagship journal for African researchers.Headed by Fellows from NEF's Community of Scientists, the journal will allow authors to publish their articles Open Access at a low cost, enabling African researchers to share their work to an international audience on a highly-visible, prestigious publishing outlet that utilises Elsevier's market leading technology. Scientific African will publish peer-reviewed original research from all scientific disciplines and will also occasionally publish reviews, editorials, and invited perspectives or critical policy papers. The journal welcomes submissions to its peer reviewed, open access, inter- and multidisciplinary scientific platform dedicated to expanding access to research by Africans, increasing intra-African scientific collaboration, and building scientific capacity in Africa.Source: African Media Agency (AMA).
By combining advances in machine learning and the vast amount of publicly available information on the internet, you can today understand and track Porters Five Forces in real time to understand strategic opportunities and threats for your business. Executives that take advantage of this new opportunity create an unfair information advantage over those who dont, explained Jorn Lyseggen, CEO and founder of Meltwater. DataSift has built a scalable platform that lets developers build data science-driven insights from social firehoses while protecting the privacy of an individuals data. When combined with the data Meltwater captures and our AI capabilities, developers can disrupt the Business Intelligence space by either building new applications or complementing existing ones with unique signal that can be only derived from external data.Meltwater and DataSift have the partnerships, data and AI to serve the growing competitive intelligence market with advanced analytics. DataSifts CEO Tim Barker and CTO Lorenzo Alberton, among others, have joined the Meltwater team and will add increased leadership bench strength to the development of the Outside Insight platform.We share the same vision and passion to increase access to the data and algorithms needed to gain strategic insights from data outside your business, said DataSift CEO Tim Barker. At a time when other tech companies are now trying to assemble proprietary data moats, were excited about joining an established player to create an open data and insights platformbuilt on the foundation of privacyfor the worlds innovators, developers and data scientists.Founded in 2010, DataSift has more than 15 data partners, such as WordPress, Facebook and LinkedIn, and built an ecosystem that allows developers to derive insights and application developers to include these insights in software offerings. DataSifts patent-pending technology applies anonymisation, aggregation and redaction to provide insights while protecting users identities.DataSift clients will now have access to Meltwaters data platform, sophisticated AI models to extract insights, and gain an experienced partner with local expertise in more than 55 markets on six continents.The Meltwater platform has been analyzing web data for more than a decade now, and weve invested in developing AI methods to systematically mine actionable insights from these unstructured data sources, says Aditya Jami, Senior Director of Engineering and Head of AI at Meltwater. DataSifts advanced analytics platform is a great compliment to what we have in house, at a time of growing privacy concerns and regulation such as GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). DataSifts technology will be instrumental in the integration of our recent acquisitions to deliver next generation insights.Meltwater, a pioneer of media intelligence and now Outside Insight, gives businesses the information advantage they need to stay ahead. More than 26,000 companies have used Meltwaters media intelligence to stay on top of billions of online conversations and extract relevant insights to strategically manage their brands. With nearly 20 years of experience analyzing data, Meltwater is dedicated to personal, global service built on the local expertise of 55 offices across six continents. Meltwater is also committed to fostering the data science ecosystem through MEST, a pan-African entrepreneurial program and incubator, and Shack15, a global data science community. Learn more at Meltwater.com DataSift is the leader in Human Data Intelligence. Every day, DataSift transforms billions of items of human-created data into business intelligence. DataSifts privacy-first PYLON platform extracts actionable intelligence without compromising consumer trust. Founded in 2010 in Reading, UK, DataSift powers an ecosystem of developers that deliver solutions for agencies, application builders and brands. More information can be found at DataSift.com
Retail and financial services provider, HomeChoice, is considering an equity raising to fund future growth. The business, which holds a market cap of R4.7 billion, is looking to accelerate its digital transformation, expand its product offering, enhance customer experience and grow its technology and logistics infrastructure.

Shirley Maltz, group CEO, HomeChoice.

Capitalising on digital retail

HomeChoice group CEO, Shirley Maltz, said In addition to an R800 million long-term funding facility already in place, the group is contemplating the placement of new shares to support its next phase of expansion projects. We are planning further strategic capital investments, including new product developments, systems and platforms to enhance customer experience and analytics capabilities, roll out of customer showrooms following the success of our first showroom in Cape Town, and expanding our logistics infrastructure.HomeChoices relatively low PE ratio has largely been a result of the current concentrated shareholder register and lack of liquidity in the share. This is set to change with the announcement that the group is considering a capital raise and that the two main shareholders would at the same time, subject to favourable market conditions, sell down a portion of their shares to improve liquidity. The share issue is subject to shareholder approval at the AGM on 11 April 2018.This share placement is aligned to the groups focus on improving its free float and share liquidity, explains Maltz. The placement will introduce additional institutional shareholders to the group, which will be beneficial to the free-float and liquidity in the companys shares.We have exciting expansion plans and as a distance retailer we are very well positioned to capitalise on the growing trend in digital retailing. We intend to roll out a range of new showrooms across the country and neighbouring states, as well as smaller click and collect hubs to get even closer to our customers. We are planning to become a digital department store and a fintech platform with a wide range of offers focused specifically on our mass market female customer in southern Africa, says Maltz.Recently released annual results showed retail sales 17% higher at R1.7bn and loans up 17.5% to R1.5bn. Headline earnings shot up 23% to 509c per share with the full-year dividend up 21% to 191c per share. Maltz said the group consistently acquired more than 20,000 new customers a month and now had an active client base of 796,000.
Coca-Cola Beverages SA (CCBSA) is committing to divert R3.9 billion in procurement spend, or 30% of the total, to black-owned and black women-owned organisations over the next three years.

Catalysing transformation

Sustainable development

Our new approach breaks down the barriers in the way of business growth and economic development. Were laying the groundwork for an environment in which opportunities are available  equally  to all businesses, and where collaboration across businesses builds a thriving and vibrant economy that benefits us all, said CCBSA MD Velaphi Ratshefola.He was speaking at the companys annual Supplier Development Conference, which hosted more than 1,000 delegates, including 220 SMME exhibitors, 750 SMME attendees, five corporate exhibitors and 150 corporate attendees at Gallagher Estate in Johannesburg. The conference targeted specific commodity categories, including fleet maintenance, manufacturing plant spares and machinery, engineering and logistics, and packaging suppliers to maximise opportunities to enter the supply chains of participating corporates.CCBSA said the new procurement process will catalyse transformation for its existing suppliers and open new opportunities for black-owned small and mid-sized businesses.Research indicates that the majority of small businesses launched in South Africa will fail  many of them within the first year of operation. Among the reasons for these failures are entrepreneurial capability, unscalable business models, access to market and access to capital. CCBSAs new supplier development initiative will take concrete steps to address these underlying hurdles in the way of small business growth in its supplier ecosystem."We have recognised that large enterprises like ourselves are not always geared to collaborate with small and mid-sized suppliers, said CCBSA financial director Walter Leonhardt.He said some of the global best practice procurement guidelines that organisations like CCBSA adhere to, made it very difficult for small and mid-size businesses to participate in the supplier ecosystem.The company says it will accelerate change in this space while balancing this with fiscal responsibility and accountability to all the companys stakeholders.We have therefore invested significant financial and skills resources to developing viable, sustainable new approaches to enterprise and supplier development, Leonhardt said.These models responsibly yet innovatively set us up to dealing more effectively with smaller suppliers. To support these efforts, we have launched new supplier development and supplier funding initiatives, and created a team dedicated to working with smaller suppliers, he continued.In addition, 250 small to midsize black-owned businesses will benefit from CCBSAs skills development initiatives, business accelerators and new procurement opportunities.Ratshefola said innovative and sustainable approaches to enterprise and supplier development would be key to driving economic growth and job creation in South Africa.
Everywhere we look, technology is being touted as the enabler of a new era of African agricultural prosperity. The exciting world of possibilities offered by blockchain, IoT, machine learning and the like have made companies, governments and policy-makers sit up and take notice of how such technologies can be applied to foster greater innovation, efficiency and economic and social progress.

Photo by Max Boettinger on Unsplash

Data feeds digital transformation in agriculture

Reimagining Africa's agricultural sector

A technology platform designed for smallholder farmers

But how should we as a continent approach the adoption of these technologies across the agricultural value chain - a process we commonly refer to as digital transformation - especially in an industry that the World Bank estimates employs two-thirds of the continent's workforce and produce a third of its total GDP I would argue that quality data is the single most important building block toward establishing a smart agricultural sector for Africa.The African agricultural sector is dominated by smallholder farmers. According to the International Fund for Agricultural Development, there are an estimated 500 million smallholder farmers in Africa and South-East Asia, providing as much as 80% of the food consumed in these regions and supporting up to two billion people financially.Many of the difficulties these smallholder farmers experience are directly or indirectly related to the availability of quality information and data mainly because of infrastructure. Such data includes information about buyers and exporters, information about inputs such as soil types, growing best-practice, weather, and pest control; information about markets such as pricing and local, regional or global demand; traceability information related to food safety and certification to increase the market value of goods produced; information regarding storage and logistics; and access to financial services in the form of micro-loans or insurance.In many instances, the lack of information has a direct impact on African smallholder farmers' outputs and, by effect, livelihoods. Only 5% of cultivated land in Africa, for example, makes use of irrigation, compared to 38% in Asia, leading to lower yields and limiting their income-earning ability. And while agricultural performance has improved over the past decade, it is not yet sufficient to meet the demands of a population that is expected to grow by 1.3 billion people in Africa alone by 2050. A technological intervention is needed.According to a 2017 report by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), the continent's food system requires an agricultural transformation that is focused on more than just agricultural production and encompasses the entire food system. The report further points to promoting the growth of smallholder farms and SMEs involved in Africa's food systems and providing assistance to smallholder farmers that commercialises viable farm business prospects and capabilities.One view to a smart agricultural sector involves establishing a sustainable and inclusive agricultural model that promotes equitable value distribution across the value chain; creates jobs; allows the increase of productivity and improvement of logistics and storage capacities while remaining cost-effective and respectful of the environment; and implementing and monitoring effective and efficient public policies.We believe that the bedrock of such a model is the capturing in real time of all relevant data produced by each of the different stakeholders within the agricultural value chain so that their decisions are as rational and efficient as possible. Here, technology has a clear role to play.In 2009, SAP embarked on the development of a solution that would enable better management of smallholder farms by tracking and collecting data related to farms, cultivated plots (via GPS coordinates), crops, farmers, and farm gate selling processes. A prototype of this solution was developed in cooperation with the GIZ, a partner of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), and piloted in nine African countries reaching more than 100,000 small-scale producers.The solution is operated in the SAP Cloud Platform and delivered as Software-as-a-Service to farmers who access it via their mobile phones, negating the need for costly technology infrastructure investment. Rural Sourcing Management is used by the worlds largest chocolate producer, Barry Callebaut, and the Kalangala Oil Palm Growers Trust in Uganda, where 80% of the population is involved in agriculture.The solution is helping the KOPGT grow and expand, improve efficiency, and keep all major players in the value chain connected digitally. This is shining a path toward prosperity in Uganda and supporting the government in its aspirations of moving its citizens to a middle-income status by 2040. We believe that by providing African smallholder farmers with technology tools designed to improve their day-to-day farming operations, we are creating an ecosystem of benefits across the agricultural value chain that will take the continent one step closer toward realising a brighter and more food-secure future for generations to come.
USAID has opened applications for the WomenConnect Challenge, seeking global solutions that meaningfully change the ways women and girls access and use technology.

Through the challenge , for which applications are open until 4 May 2018, USAID hopes to identify and accelerate solutions that empower women and girls to access and use digital technology to drive positive health, education, and livelihood outcomes for themselves and their families.It is open to registered US or non-US organisations regardless of type, with all applicants required to use WomenConnect funds to implement a solution in a country with a USAID presence.Technology is revolutionising the world by providing tools for entrepreneurship, access to critical health and education, and life-enhancing information. Today, 1.7 billion women in low- and middle-income countries still do not own mobile phones, and the gap between the number of men and women using the internet has grown steadily over the past three years, resulting in a digital gender divide, USAID said.This digital gender divide is reinforcing or even exacerbating existing socioeconomic gaps between men and women. By reducing this divide, women and girls will have access to information, networks, and services, driving inclusive economic growth and accelerating poverty alleviation.
Bon Hotels has added the four-star, 35-roomed Destiny Lodge Nelspruit to its portfolio - concluding their second South African transaction in a matter of months, the group's second property located in the Kruger region, and BON's sixth acquisition in 2018.

Destiny Lodge Nelspruit by Bon Hotels

Attracting government business and international conventions

Speaking at the announcement in Cape Town this week, Guy Stehlik, CEO of Bon Hotels, confirmed the addition of Destiny Lodge into the BON fold as evidence of their positive outlook for 2018. BON Hotels adheres to a strict directive of only taking on properties where they can add value and, according to Stehlik, the lodge is an ideal fit for the brand.Being five minutes from the KMIA (Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport), within close proximity to the Kruger National Parks Numbi Gate, and being on the outskirts of Nelspruit, the location of this property caters to showcase the beautiful Lowveld across all market segments, he explained.Stehlik said that his groups initial focus would be on the local and international Tour Operator market, the FIT (Free Independent Travellers), domestic and leisure market.The government tourism segment - local and international conferencing - will form part of the groups immediate and future strategy as the property commences with a refurbishment of the current offering. The improvements include a more than doubling of the room capacity by adding 35 new rooms and a comprehensive refurbishment of the entire property.In addition to the immediate upgrades, plans are confirmed for the erection of a first-rate international convention centre. Construction of the convention centre will commence mid-2018 and will have a capacity of hosting up to 1,500 delegates, a first of that magnitude in the region. Stehlik said that the convention centre will play an important role in attracting government business and international conventions to the area. There is nothing like this in Mpumalanga and we are very excited to promote this exceptional African experience and destination to a larger audience.
Coding academy Moringa School will host the third edition of Nairobi Tech Week next month, aimed at bringing together all in the tech ecosystem in one space to foster conversations and learnings around various relevant technology-related topics.

The event, which is taking place under the theme The Role of Technology in Problem Solving for Africas Future, will take place on 19-21 April 2018 at Strathmore University.In conjunction with title sponsor Microsoft, Nairobi Tech Week presents a three-day event featuring panel discussions, workshops and a hackathon.For the first time, the event will also host an awards show, in a bid to recognise companies playing influential roles and driving impact within Silicon Savannah.Our aim is to launch a community-driven tech event focused on developers, thought leaders within the tech space as well as the best innovations in Sub-Saharan Africa, said Sandra Mukidza, the main event organiser.Various organisations will feature in the event, including iHub, Africas Talking, Swahili Box, AngelHack, M-Power, and CBO. Tickets can be obtained here and nominations for the awards made here
International Relations and Cooperation Deputy Minister Luwellyn Landers says government is in the process of submitting documentation and the Tripartite Free Trade Agreement to Parliament for ratification.

Calls for labour movement, stakeholders to make Parliamentary submissions

The Deputy Minister said this when he fielded oral questions during the Peace and Security Clusters question and answer session at the National Council of Provinces on Tuesday.This comes after President Cyril Ramaphosa led a South African delegation to the African Union Extra-Ordinary Summit in Rwanda, where he signed the Kigali Declaration on the establishment of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement.Addressing the Fourth Annual Ubuntu Awards last week, the President said the South African government has, after signing the Kigali Declaration, undertaken to ratify all related instruments in accordance with the countrys domestic laws and process.Deputy Minister Landers said on Tuesday: South Africa signed the Tripartite Agreement during the sixth Tripartite Sectorial Ministerial Committee meeting in July 2017.So far, 22 countries have signed the TFTA agreement. For the TFTA to be implemented, it requires 14 countries to ratify it and so far, only two countries  Uganda and Egypt  have ratified.South Africa is in the process of submitting the relevant documentation and agreement to Parliament for its ratification, he said.The Minister said South Africa participates in trade-related multi-lateral organisations with the objective of promoting South Africas National Development Plan, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, or agenda 2030 and the African Union Agenda 2063.This involves strengthening of mutually beneficial, regional and international relations and negotiating structures aimed at advancing South Africas global competitiveness and its trade industrial and economic development objectives, he said.The Tripartite Free-Trade Area Agreement is the initiative between three regional economic communities in the Eastern and Southern Africa.The TFTA is anchored on three pillars - market integration, infrastructure development and industrial development.This was based on the recognition of the importance of a developmental integration approach which does not only focus on market access, but also addresses the productive capacity and infrastructure constraints of both the region and the continent, the Minister said.The Deputy Minister said, meanwhile, that what the agreement seeks to do is liberalise trade between countries on the African continent to cut back on things like tariffs.He said one of the strong points that the Minister of Trade and Industry Rob Davies has emphasised strongly is what he calls the rule of law of origin.What this means is that partner countries would need to ensure that localisation is prioritised and that they guard against products from countries outside the African continent from being traded under the agreement as this could lead to job losses.The danger we face, which we have to guard carefully against, is when a product purportedly comes from Zambia but it comes from another country outside the African continent, lets say from England, from Canada or France or Russia or China, then the rule of origin kicks in because that product does not come from an African country, the provisions of the agreement does not apply to that product.The danger to the labour movement is not only here in South Africa, but to countries in Africa  I have referred to the Zambian example. Zambian workers would lose because that product comes from another country outside the continent. They would not have participated in the manufacture of that product and therefore, you will find that job losses would occur and as a consequence, the Free Trade Area Agreement would fall apart.So I would strongly urge people in the labour movement to become involved in the discussion in Parliament when the agreement is tabled in that fashion.
South Africa's first premium flavoured beer, Flying Fish Chill Lite, recently launched the Lite Brunch Collective. The platform is an Instagram page dedicated to all things brunch-related, from recipes, wellness tips and the best places to brunch in South Africa. The Instagram page also ties in with brunch-related occasions that will be hosted around the country for its consumers.

The event took place in both Cape Town and Johannesburg on 25 March 2018. TV heartthrob Jesse Suntele hosted the Johannesburg leg of the event in Kramerville and TV personality Leigh-Anne Williams hosted Cape Towns first launch event at Sky Bar.The morning event which was attended by media, social media bloggers and industry influencers kicked off with a delectable brunch harvest and Flying Fish Chill Lite-infused cocktails. Guests were treated to good music and an interesting and unique way of enjoying brunch by incorporating various activities such as Beer Yoga and Salsa Aerobics.We have started hosting events around Johannesburg, and we will definitely be extending these to Durban and host more in Cape Town. We are seeing that there is a market for consumers who enjoy drinking while still maintaining a balanced lifestyle. The Lite Brunch Collective is not only a social media platform but an event property, its all about providing consumers with a holistic approach to a their lifestyle, comments Marketing Manager Colleen Duvenage at SAB INBev.Consumers looking to find the litest brunch recipes can go to the Instagram page @LiteBrunchCollective to get content on recipe ideas for brunch and suggestions on light cocktails that consumers can use.The Chill Lite variant, which comes in a Zesty Lemonade flavour, has 30% less calories, 35% less sugar and 35% less carbohydrates, making it the perfect choice for consumers looking to enjoy something light.Flying Fish Chill Lite is available nationally at reputable outlets in 440ml cans and 330ml nonrefundable bottles.
This job expired on 27 May 2018.
This job expired on 21 May 2018.
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Campus News

Final push for Haiti humanitarian trip

Molli Warunek, clinical assistant professor, has done previous humanitarian work in Haiti. She is helping lead the trip.

By MARCENE ROBINSON

More than half of the people in Haiti live in absolute poverty  earning less than $2 a day.

To make a difference in the lives of as many Haitians as possible, students and faculty from the UB School of Nursing will travel to Haiti for the first time to deliver much-needed health care.

A group of 10 students, in partnership with community organization Servants in Fellowship, plan to treat nearly 800 individuals through a mobile medical clinic in Galette, Haiti, a rural settlement where access to care is difficult. The students will also provide hygiene education that is sustainable in Haitian culture to help prevent future illness.

The mission trip, supported by a successful crowdfunding campaign, is seeking to raise $7,500, most of which will go toward purchasing medical supplies and hiring translators.

However, the campaign is not over yet. Only a small portion of the funds will support student travel expenses, which are roughly $1,000 per person.

To further support the School of Nursings work in the Haitian community, donate at crowdfunding.buffalo.edu. The crowdfunding campaign was scheduled to close Saturday, March 31; however it has been extended to April 3 at 8 a.m.

The mission trip, led by Molli Warunek, clinical assistant professor, and Linda Paine Hughes, clinical assistant professor, both in the School in Nursing, is scheduled for April 22-29. The group will also be accompanied by physicians and pharmacists from community partners.
Saint-Gobain has raised more than 200,000 over the year for childrens charity Barnardos.

Barnardos has been the companys chosen charity partner for the last year, as part of Saint-Gobains together charity programme. This programme brings together employees, customers and suppliers across Saint-Gobain UK and Irelands 36 businesses to fundraise for the chosen charity.

Richard Batley, Director of Corporate Social Responsibility and HR for Saint-Gobain UK and Ireland said: Our funds are being focussed on two critical areas: firstly, were building on our commitment to training to develop a new training academy in London together with a range of construction based training programmes to give young people valuable skills to help build better performing homes.

Secondly, we are funding the construction of new transitional homes for young people leaving care  using know-how and combined solutions from more than 20 of our brands to create comfortable, high-performance homes.

Tara Honeywell, Head of Corporate Partnerships for Barnardos, said: The money raised by Saint-Gobain will really make a difference to transform the lives of the vulnerable children and young people we work with. This could not have happened without the dedication, hard work and commitment demonstrated by the Saint-Gobain brands. We look forward to building on this momentum in year two and seeing the impact of such an important partnership.
Howarth Timber and Building Supplies has appointed Paul Bullivant as its new Commercial Director.

The company, which has 31 branches across the UK, has created the role in support of its plans to further strengthen its brand identity and continue its UK-wide branch growth and refurbishment programme.

Paul has over 31 years experience in the builders and plumbers merchant industry, and for the last eight years has held commercial and marketing director roles with Jackson Building Centres and Plumbase.

At Howarth Timber, Paul will head the category management, marketing and external sales teams and work closely with the regional management team to link the companys central function and its merchant branches.

Howarth Timber has also appointed a new Marketing Manager, Gavin Knowles. Gavin takes over the role from long-serving Marketing and Product Development Manager, Neale Brewster, who is set to retire.He joins from XL Joinery, and brings a wealth of digital and traditional marketing experience to the role of marketing manager.

Gavin will oversee all aspects of the companys marketing activity, from social media to branding, and will be instrumental in the delivery of Howarth Timbers annual Trade Day Bonanza, which last year attracted over 1,000 tradespeople to Leeds and achieved over 250,000 in sales.
Air India employees may get stock optionsin the airline after it is privatised. The government is planning to create an employee stock pool from the 24 percent stake it will hold in the airline.

On Wednesday the government announced that it will divest 76 per cent stake in the national carrier. Permanent employees will be given stock option in the company, it will be given from the residual stake the government will hold in Air India, said a senior government official. This, along with an assurance of job continuity for the next one year is the governments ...
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Having spent close to three months at the helm, Salil Parekh, CEO & MD of Infosys has now completely taken over the wheels as he looks forward to bring better operational control driving internal efficiency and leveraging the internal talent more and more, something for which Infosys was known for during its earlier phase.

Parekh, a former Capgemini top executive, who joined Infosys in January this year, is in complete control of the things and looks to his next big plan which will be in the form of laying out the strategy road-map to drive the company in medium to the long-term, ...
Telecom companies' pre-tax losses widened to a staggering Rs 381.53 billion in the 2016-17 fiscal from Rs 17 billion in the preceding year, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

Also, 24 out of 50 reported losses before tax during 2016-17, the government said.

"Based on audited/unaudited information submitted by telecom service sector to TRAI, the profit-before-tax (PBT) for the telecom service sector has decreased from Rs 17 billion for the financial year 2015-16 to Rs 381.53 billion for the financial year 2016-17," Sinha said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

"The government ensures healthy competition in telecom sector. Recently, Trai has reiterated the regulatory principles of non-predatory, non-discrimination and transparency in tariff offers vide Telecommunication Tariff (63rd Amendment) Order, 2018 on February 16, 2018," Sinha said.

The note of minister's reply mentioned that the likelihood of a company getting into financial stress is high when the debt to Ebitda ratio is 4 times or above on a sustained basis.

As per data shared by Sinha, telecom major Airtel had the debt to Ebitda ratio of 3 times, Idea Cellular 5.8 times and Reliance Communications (RCom) 7.4 times.

In view of financial stress and market scenario, Idea Cellular opted for combining its wireless business with Vodafone and RCom decided to adopt strategic debt restructuring process.

Sinha said that bankruptcy petitions have been filed by Aircel and its subsidiaries before National Company Law Tribunal.

He said that during radiation audit by the vigilance arm of the Department of Telecom (DoT), it was revealed that most of the mobile towers of Aircel were switched off which led to non-generation of porting code and further causing great inconvenience of the customers.

"It has also been mentioned that the quality of service being offered to the customers is getting adversely affected... DoT has issued direction to M/s Aircel Limited on 19.03.2018 for compliance of various clauses of the agreement including those relating to customer services and quality of performance," Sinha said.
The BJP on Wednesday hit out at TMC supremo and Chief Minister over incidents of violence during Ram Navami processions in West Bengal, saying while her state was "burning", she was "doing politics" in the capital.

Peaceful Ram Navami processions were attacked by Trinamool Congress (TMC) "thugs" in the state, senior BJP leader Prakash Javadekar told reporters here.

"Bengal is burning and Mamata is doing politics in Delhi. It is like Nero fiddled while Rome was burning," he said showing alleged pictures of the violence that took place during the processions.

People associated with the TMC were not only targeting innocent devotees of Lord Ram, but they also attacked police personnel, he said.

The minister also showed a picture of a DSP rank official injured in the violence.

The West Bengal government is doing nothing about it, despite so much violence, the Union HRD minister alleged.

Javadekar accused Banerjee of being insensitive towards the state and said that "this attitude of the TMC supremo is an insult to the people's mandate".

"It is also an insult to the chief minister post and an insult to the oath to the constitution," he said.

Kolkata: People take part in a candlelight vigil for peace in the state, in Kolkata on Wednesday evening | Photo: PTI

The West Bengal chief minister is free to do politics and the BJP is quite capable of replying to it, the minister said.

"But one should not do politics on the cost of the state and her constitutional duties," he said.

Erstwhile TMC leader Mukul Roy, who joined the BJP last year, also attacked Banerjee over the law and order situation in the state.

He claimed that she aspires to become the prime minister, but has forgotten her duties as the state's chief minister.

"Instead of discharging her constitutional duties, is in Delhi to form a third front," he said.

He also alleged that state-sponsored terrorism was going in the state and said but people in West Bengal want peace and communal harmony.
West Bengal Chief Minister on Wednesday met Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and got the backing of BJP rebels Shatrughan Sinha, Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie to her efforts to forge a broad coalition of forces for one-to-one fight with the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

While Kejriwal, who met Banerjee for about half-an-hour, did not speak to the media, the BJP rebels expressed their support for her endeavours.

Former union minister Yashwant Sinha met Banerjee along with BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha and said they came to meet her as there was a need to save the country. "We worked together for a long time in the (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee government and you are all familiar with her personality," he said.

"The role she has played in this direction is admirable. We came to thank her and she should continue discharging the role strongly in the future. She has our full support and cooperation," Yashwant Sinha said.

Shatrughan Sinha said Banerjee was a mass leader connected to the grassroots.

"We are with her in her struggle for the country. Nation is bigger than the party. All this work is not anti-party but pro-nation. We have come to give her support for the sake of the country," he said.



Banerjee, who arrived in Delhi on Monday, had met NCP chief Sharad Pawar and MPs of BJP's ally Shiv Sena on Tuesday. She had also met Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao's daughter K. Kavitha and Lalu Prasad's daughter Misa Bharti besides MPs from Biju Janata Dal, Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and DMK.

Shourie hailed Banerjee's pitch for one-to-one contest with the BJP in 2019 elections.

"If this is one-to-one formula is adopted, then the opposition parties start with 69 percent of the votes. Because even at the height of his popularity, Modi got only 31 percent of the votes," he said.

Supporting Banerjee, he said that coordination in each state should be left to the wisdom of the dominant person. "He should distribute tickets in such a way that everybody can come together in that particular region," Shourie said.

Answering a question on Congress, he hoped that the principal opposition party "will see the good sense for everybody to be together".

"Because if this momentum (of BJP's victories) is not broken, there will be no Congress and nobody even among them personally in the second round," Shourie said.

Citing the instance of Bihar where Congress was part of a coalition that defeated the BJP, he said the party did not take Banerjee's offer for an alliance in Tripura and the result was there for all to see. He also referred to Assam where Congress did not go for an alliance.

"So they should reflect on these things. There are mature people there. They should reflect," he said.

Targeting the government, Shourie said Modi has become "very tired now" and has lost the grip on the government.

"It seems he is strong, but actually he is busy only with ceremonial stuff. And the government is paralysed. He is, as Mr Advani said, a very good event manager but he, it is turning out, is only an event manager. He is announcing schemes but not seeing what is happening to schemes. And the people are now seeing that his pronouncements and the results are very different," he said.

Referring to the problems of farmers in Maharashtra, Shourie said the distance between Modi's "propaganda and the ability to manage the media and the reality is too visible to people".

He also alleged that real control of the government and of the party was slipping from Modi's hands into BJP chief Amit Shah's hands. "This is a very big change in the last four months and the country will pay for this," he said.

Shourie called upon the media not only to look at opposition parties as an alternative to Modi but also to the movements such as the one by farmers in Maharashtra.

He said youth leaders Hardik Patel, Alpesh Thakore and Jignesh Mevani had emerged in Gujarat and Kanhaiya Kumar had emerged at JNU. "Parties should also connect with them," he added.

Answering a question about who will lead the front against Modi, he said there was no need to think about it now and it was sufficient for people to work in their areas for the present.

He also said that opposition parties should highlight the report of the standing committee of defence in which army has stated that various efforts taken for modernisation have "received a little setback".

Shourie accused Modi of managing headlines through the media.

--IANS

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The Cambridge Analytica scandal came to light when whistleblower Wylie accused Cambridge Analytica of gathering details of 50 million Facebook users. Cambridge Analytica used this data to psychologically profile these users and manipulated their opinion in favour of Donald Trump.

BJP and Congress have accused each other of using the services of Cambridge Analytica in India as well. How can India safeguard the democratic process against such intervention? The author tries to answer this question in this Business Standard Special. Those that celebrate the big data/artificial ...

Disclaimer: Views expressed are personal. They do not reflect the view/s of Business Standard.
The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has extended the submission date of bids for the ongoing Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) round of oil and gas auctions by almost a month to May 2. This came after two foreign companies sought more time from the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), said two persons close to the development.

At least 12 companies are likely to participate in the bidding, in which 55 blocks will go under the hammer. Earlier, the last date for submitting bids was April 4, and it has been extended to May 2. This came after overseas ...
The volume of financial transactions have risen substantially after a concerted push towards inclusion, but, interestingly, underbanked customers seem to be insulated from fraudsters, as of now.

This is due to physical transactions with the supervision of new age bankers and an increase in basic financial literacy among users, say executives at small finance banks and payments banks. However, the rise in financial literacy is only so much and there's a wide gap that needs to be filled to make the bottom of pyramid financially educated, as well as accustomed to banking ...
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledged his commitment to denuclearisation and to meet US officials, China said on Wednesday after his meeting with President Xi Jinping, who promised China would uphold friendship with its isolated neighbour. After two days of speculation, China and North Korea both confirmed that Kim had travelled to Beijing and met Xi during what China called an unofficial visit from Sunday to Wednesday. The visit was Kim's first known trip outside North Korea since he assumed power in 2011 and is believed by analysts to serve as preparation for ...
US President Donald Trump, who has agreed to meet with Kim Jong Un, said on Wednesday there is a now a good chance the North Korean leader will give up his country's nuclear weapons.

"For years and through many administrations, everyone said that peace and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula was not even a small possibility," Trump wrote in an early morning tweet.

This is what he tweeted:





For years and through many administrations, everyone said that peace and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula was not even a small possibility. Now there is a good chance that Kim Jong Un will do what is right for his people and for humanity. Look forward to our meeting!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 28 March 2018



His comments came as Kim completed a secretive and unprecedented visit to Beijing on Wednesday as the two countries seek to repair frayed ties before Pyongyang's landmark summits with Washington and earlier with South Korea.

On his first trip abroad since taking power, Kim and his wife were greeted by an honour guard and a banquet hosted by President Xi Jinping, according to state media, which confirmed the three-day visit on Wednesday only after Kim had returned by train to North Korea.

The two men held talks at the Great Hall of the People and Kim pledged he was "committed to denuclearization" on the Korean peninsula, according to China's Xinhua news agency.

Kim also expressed willingness to hold the summits with Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, it said.

Analysts said Xi likely wanted to see Kim in order to ensure North Korea does not cut a deal with Trump that hurts Chinese interests during their summit, expected to be held in May.
Saudi Arabia and Russia are working on a historic long-term pact that could extend controls over world crude supplies by major exporters for many years. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Reuters that Riyadh and Moscow were considering a deal to greatly extend a short-term alliance on oil curbs that began in January 2017 after a crash in crude prices. "We are working to shift from a year-to-year agreement to a 10 to 20 year agreement," the crown prince told Reuters in an interview in New York late on Monday. "We have agreement on the big picture, but ...
Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was abased down to any regular person at the John F. Kennedy airport in New York, as viral videos on Youtube show Abbasi being frisked during the security procedure.

Ditching official customs as a visiting dignitary, that too as a Prime Minister of a nuclear-armed nation, Abbasi, who reportedly was on a private visit to meet his ailing sister in the US, can be seen in the video adjusting his t-shirt after getting out of security checks with his jacket and a trolley bag.

Abbasi, however, has a history of making private trips to foreign nations, as according to Geo News, the PM was previously spotted travelling alone at a train station during his visit to Britain.

This comes at a time when Pakistan-USA relations have been strained lately, especially since US President Donald Trump tweeted, "The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!"

The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 1, 2018

Earlier this month, Vice-President Mike Pence told Abbasi that Pakistan "must do more" against the Taliban and other militants.
There is no sign that the United States is distancing itself from the World Trade Organization, and negotiations are underway to avert a global trade war, WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo said in a BBC interview broadcast on Wednesday. U.S. President Donald Trump has launched a series of tariff-raising moves, upsetting allies and rivals alike. Trump is also vetoing the appointment of WTO judges, causing a backlog in disputes and threatening to paralyse what is effectively the supreme court of trade. Some trade experts have begun asking if Trump wants to kill the WTO, whose ...
Four terrorists were gunned down in an encounter with the security forces in Sunderbani area of Rajouri district on Wednesday.

"4 terrorists killed in a joint operation in Sunderbani Rajouri. It was a group recently infiltrated from LOC," said Director General of Police, SP Vaid.

Also, Rajouri Deputy Commissioner Shahid Choudhary tweeted out regular updates in regard to the number of terrorists killed in the encounter.

"Sunderbani encounter: 3 terrorists killed as per reports. Forces on the job for suspected 4th," he wrote and later posted "4th as well."

Earlier in the day, as a precautionary measure, he tweeted, "All Schools in Sunderbani sub-division have been ordered to be closed for today".

Reportedly, the security forces are conducting a search operation to flush out more possible terrorists hiding to avoid detection.

Earlier on March 25, a Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) terrorist was gunned down in Budgam.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In order to augment the skill-set of its middle-senior level employees identified for succession planning, Airports Authority of India (AAI) has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Indian Institute of Management (IIM - Bangalore) today.

As per the MoU, customized training programs in the area of management and leadership development will be offered by IIM-B for AAI officers at the levels of Assistant General Manager, Joint General Manager, General Manager and Executive Director.

The MoU has been signed for a period of three years starting from April 1, 2018 and a total of nine batches comprising of 20-25 officers in each batch will be conducted during this period.

The MoU was signed by Sanjay Jain, Executive Director (HR), AAI and Professor R. Srinivasan, Chairperson, EEP, IIM-Bangalore. The Board Members of AAI were presentduring the ceremony.

Speaking on the occasion, Anuj Aggarwal, Member (HR), mentioned that training and development has been one of his top priorities since he assumed the charge of Member (HR) in AAI.

He said that the AAI has been undertaking new initiatives in creating an environment of training in line with Government of India's Skill India Mission.

He thanked IIM-Bangalore for partnering with AAI for taking this important step towards introducing AAI officers to latest business management practices and tools which will invariably enhance the work performance.

Professor G.Raghuram, Director-IIM Bangalore expressed his pleasure to be associated with the leading player in civil aviation industry and remarked that this partnership will be equally beneficial to IIM-Bangalore in terms of exploring the challenges faced by this industry.

Apart from IIM-Bangalore, AAI is also exploring business partnerships with other leading management institutes to provide a gamut of training inputs to its employees.

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Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu met with the members of the Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) at the Secretariat here on Wednesday to review the ongoing rehabilitation process.

NCST Chairman Nanda Kumar Sai informed Naidu that over the last two days, the commission members had extensively toured villages around the Polavaram project and lauded the steps taken by the government to ensure proper rehabilitation of those affected.

"Polavaram is a project with immense significance and more than 50 percent being displaced due to the project are from the scheduled tribes (ST) community. Proper rehabilitation is the only thing that will please them and I am glad that the state government is taking great care of that," said Sai.

"Polavaram is an old project that was conceptualised in 1940. It is a matter of great prestige for us and we want to make sure that nobody receives unfair treatment. We will provide the best incentives to the tribals and they will receive irrigated land as compensation. Nobody must feel deprived. We are very keen on providing fair compensation to the displaced and will leave no stone unturned to achieve that," added Naidu.

The Chief Minister also assured the committee members that the government would come up with townships around the Polavaram project area and also attract industries, in a bid to provide basic amenities and skill development opportunity to those displaced.

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The Cabinet on Wednesday gave its approval for enhancing the scope of Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Protsahan Yojana (PMRPY).

The Government of India will now contribute the employer's full admissible contribution for the first three years from the date of registration of the new employee, and for all the sectors including existing beneficiaries for their remaining period of three years.

The informal sector workers would get social safety net and there would be more job creation.

Till now, the scheme has produced encouraging results and added about 31 lakh beneficiaries involving an expenditure of more than Rs 500 crore.

The PMRPY has been in operation since August 2016. In this scheme, the government is paying 8.33% of the contribution of Employers to the Employees' Pension Scheme (EPS) in respect of new employees (who have joined on or after 1st April 2016) having a new Universal Account Number (UAN), with salary up to Rs 15,000/- per month.

The scheme has a dual benefit as on the one hand, the employers are incentivized for increasing the employment base of workers in the establishments, and on the other hand, a large number of workers will find jobs in such establishments.

A direct benefit is that these workers will have access to social security benefits of the organised sector.

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The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and South Asian Cooperative Environment Programme (SACEP) to cooperate on the issue of oil and chemical pollution in the South Asian Seas region.

As per an official release, the MoU aims to seek cooperation between India and other maritime nations including Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives and Pakistan to protect and preserve marine environment in the South Asian region.

The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) is assigned to be the Competent National Authority and national operational contact point for implementation of "Regional Oil Spill Contingency Plan" under the MoU.

The Regional Oil Spill Contingency Plan was made to facilitate international co-operation and mutual assistance in preparing and responding to a major oil pollution incident in the seas around the Maritime States of Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

The ICG is also assigned to report about an incident of oil or chemical spills on behalf of the Union government.

Further, the ICG Maritime Rescue Coordination Centres have been designated as the national emergency response centre for marine incidents.

The South Asian Cooperative Environment Programme was signed in 1982 by the governments of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka to enhance the environmental conditions in the South Asian region.

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Seemingly unbothered by a sting operation expose on certain media houses agreeing to peddle hate against him, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said that he can never hate those who try to stir up hate against him.

Taking to Twitter, Gandhi wrote, "I can never hate those who try to stir up hate against me, with fake stories and their cunning twisting of fact. For them it's just business; hate sold for a price, as the Cobrapost expose shows. I'm blessed and honoured that they make their livelihoods spinning lies about me."

Investigative news portal, Cobrapost recently released a sting operation conducted by its journalist that showed senior employees of 17 media houses agreeing to push communally divisive news stories for a price.

Some of them also seemed to agree to produce defamatory content against Gandhi, among other politicians.

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The Central Board of Secondary (CBSE) will conduct a re-examination for the Class X Maths and Class XII Economics papers over reports of the paper leak.

"Board has taken cognizance of certain happenings in the conduct of certain examinations as are being reported. With the view to uphold the sanctity of the Board Examinations and in the interest of the fairness to the students, the Board has decided to re-conduct the examinations in the following subjects," a statement released today said.

"Dates for fresh examinations and the other details shall be hosted on the CBSE website within a week," the statement added.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Union Minister of Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) Prakash Javadekar and conveyed his unhappiness over the paper leak issue. He has also asked for strict action, says sources.

On March 26, Class XII CBSE students were left appalled following the rumours of their Economics paper being leaked on social media hours before the examination.

However, the board denied any leak.

A similar incident occurred on March 15 when several students had received copies of CBSE Accountancy paper on WhatsApp, hours before their exam. The matter came to light after Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister and Minister Manish Sisodia received a copy of the "leaked" paper.

Exams for both Class X and Class XII began from March 5 and over 28 lakh students are appearing for the same.

CBSE students appeared for the Class 10 Mathematics paper on Wednesday, while the Class 12 Economics exam was held on March 26.

According to media reports, a total number of 16, 38,428 students had registered for class 10 exams and for class 12, a total of 11, 86,306 students had registered.

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The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of India on Wednesday signed a USD 80 million loan to help modernise technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions and improve the skills ecosystem in the state of Himachal Pradesh.

Sameer Kumar Khare, Joint Secretary (Multilateral Institutions), Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, signed the loan agreement for the government of India, and Kenichi Yokoyama, Country Director of ADB's India Resident Mission, signed on behalf of the ADB.

The project agreement was signed by Dr Basu Sood, Adviser (Planning), Planning Department on behalf of the government of Himachal Pradesh.

Speaking on the occasion, Sameer Kumar Khare said that the project will support the skill initiatives of the Government of Himachal Pradesh and help the state step-up the reform and scale-up its skill development efforts.

He further said that it will fund short-term and long-term training programs in growth areas including automobiles, electronics, pharmaceutical, tourism and hospitality and banking and financial services, healthcare to help enhance the skills set of the youth and increase their employability.

Yokoyama said that after achieving impressive enrollment rates for higher education, the state of Himachal Pradesh faces 'second-generation' challenge of preparing its youth for the challenging labour market.

He said that the project will help in equipping the youth with market-relevant technical and vocational skills.

The state will need more than 5,00,000 skilled workers by 2022 across various trades.

The project will help seize this opportunity by providing support in developing relevant and good quality TVET programs thereby improving employment prospects of nearly 65,000 youths by 2022.

Further, the project will establish a polytechnic for women, six city livelihood centers, and seven rural livelihood centers, and upgrade 11 employment exchanges into model career centres.

These efforts will result in improved TVET awareness among youth, modernising training equipment, implementing a training information system, forging partnerships with private sector, and creating better access to quality market-relevant TVET and livelihood development opportunities for youth in Himachal Pradesh.

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A delegation of Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes Commission is due to meet President Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday to request for a review petition to be filed in Supreme Court regarding the changes it made to the Prevention of Atrocities (SC/ST Act) Act 1989.

The court had passed an order earlier with a view to prevent misuse of certain provisions in the act.

The bench comprising of Justices Adarsh Kumar Goel and Uday Umesh Lalit noted that to avoid a case of false implication of an innocent, a preliminary inquiry will be done by the Deputy Superintendent of Police to verify the authenticity of the allegations for prosecution under the Atrocities Act.

The top court further observed that a government official cannot be prosecuted on mere allegations of committing an offense under the Act without the sanction of the appointing authority.

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Senior United Kashmir People's National Party (UKPNP) leader Dr. Shabir Choudhry has said that the constant firing by the Pakistani forces along the Line of Control (LoC) has hurt the Kashmiris on both the sides.

In a meeting with British parliamentarians, Dr. Choudhry echoed the views of Dr. Misfer Hussain, a UKPNP leader who earlier had said the constant ceasefire violations by Pakistan was causing a lot of hardships for the Kashmiris and environmental issues.

Dr. Choudhry called on the Pakistani forces to stop the firing immediately.

"Like him, I also want this firing to stop immediately, because it hurts innocent people on both side of Jammu and Kashmir. It is totally wrong to assume that only people of so called Azad Kashmir (Pakistan-occupied Kashmir) suffer as a result of this firing. Despite the propaganda to the contrary, bitter fact is that the Pakistani bombs and bullets also kill our people on the other side of the divide," he added.

Dr. Choudhry claimed that during the presidential rule of General Pervez Musharraf, there was a ceasefire in the LoC and no firing-related incidents were reported at that time.

Coming down hard on the Pakistani forces, the senior UKPNP leader said, " This strengthens the view that the firing on the LOC is deliberately started by the Pakistani army, which enables armed militants to infiltrate from the Pakistani side to commit acts of violence on the other side. If we are serious in stopping the LOC firing; and suffering of the people, then we have to tackle the root cause of infiltration. If infiltration stops, the LOC firing should stop too."

Acknowledging that the China-Pakistan economic corridor (CPEC) was causing environmental hazards in Pakistan, he slammed Islamabad and Beijing for having 'no interest' in addressing the issues.

"Apart from the existing mega projects in PoK and Gilgit-Baltistan, China is investing more than 60 billion dollars under the CPEC project. Tens of thousands of lorries travelling in each direction everyday will surely have enormous effect on the environment of the region. They have not allocated any funds for the problems related to the environment of the region, clearly indicating that it is not their priority," Dr. Choudhry scoffed.

Stressing the part when Labour Party MP Fabian Hamilton made a reference to the contribution by the UK government, especially during the Kashmir earthquake in 2005, he further said, "We appreciate that contribution; however, I want to emphasise that any help given in name of people of Azad Kashmir (PoK) and Gilgit Baltistan should not be handed over to officials of Islamabad because it ends up somewhere else; and doesn't reach the needy people."

He went on to say that the victims affected in the earthquake in the PoK by and large, still continue to live in camps and do not have basic facilities they deserve, although tonnes of money was sent for them from the UK and elsewhere.

Accusing Pakistan of not honouring the UN resolutions and not vacating the areas of Jammu and Kashmir under their control, Dr. Choudhry explained, "The Resolution of August 13, 1948 clearly demanded that Pakistan must withdraw all their troops, together with all the tribesmen and those Pakistanis who went there for the purpose of fighting. After Pakistan's complete withdrawal, India was to withdraw a 'bulk' of the troops."

"Pakistan did not withdraw in 1948-49 and there is no way they will withdraw now, especially when China is investing 60 billion dollars on the CPEC which goes through Gilgit Baltistan," he further said.

Acknowledging that a lot has changed since the UN resolutions was passed, Dr. Choudhry said that Kashmiri pandits were forced to leave their homes in Kashmir Valley and slammed Pakistan for discarding the state subject laws, allowing its people to settle in Gilgit Baltistan.

"This has changed demography of the region. In practise, the UN Resolutions are not implementable. In my opinion, a new mechanism has to be evolved that will of the divided people could ascertained," Dr. Choudhry asserted.

Condemning the human right abuses on the Kashmiris on both the sides, he claimed that there were some people, who only want to talk of human right violations in Jammu and Kashmir, especially abuses against the Pandit community.

Describing himself as a 'victim of Pakistani policies' in PoK, Dr. Choudhry said, "My identity card which is fundamental to life in Pakistan and in areas of Jammu and Kashmir under their control, was not renewed. I could not travel with dead body of my father who died in Luton in August 2015. Denial of the ID card means denial of my fundamental rights. I cannot visit my home in Azad Kashmir. (PoK)."

He claimed that Pakistan did not allow him to travel freely and to meet his friends and relatives. He could not stay in any hotel, without any ID card.

The senior UKPNP leader went on to day that he did not have the right to buy or sell property without the ID card and his bank accounts were frozen.

Continuing his tirade against Islamabad, Dr. Choudhry added that he could not publish any books in Azad Kashmir (PoK) because the Pakistan government had put a ban his my books, thereby denying him the right of expression. He also said that could not hold any public meeting, which is a denial of a right to assemble and express my political views.

"Apart from me, many other people in so called Azad Kashmir are suffering due to the oppressive policies of Pakistan; and sadly, we are not even allowed to complain about the problems we encounter due to their wrong policies," he continued.

Calling on the need for an independent Jammu and Kashmir, Dr. Choudhry said, "The Jammu and Kashmir diaspora has an important role to play in our quest for independence; and I expect the Jammu Kashmir National Independence Alliance (JKNIA) to take initiative in their own hand, and bravely counter designs of those who are enemies of peace and our independence."

The JKNIA recently arranged a lobbying on Jammu and Kashmir dispute in the British Parliament, where lobbyists met individual MPs, followed by a joint meeting.

Around fifteen members of the alliance representing various political parties were present in the Parliament, together with Ershad Malik who represented sentiments of people of the Kashmir Valley.

Apart from Dr. Choudhry, Amjad Yousaf, Shaukat Hussain and Qamar Khalil were there to represent the UKPNP in the British Parliament.

Other people who spoke in the meeting included Dr. Hussain, Sajjad Raja, councillor Ghulam Hussain, Ershad Malik and Rizwan Siddique. The people who made to the lobbying included Abbas Butt, Zafar Hussain, Zohaib Hasrat, Sahim Manzoor, Mohammed Azeem and Zaheer Sahib.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Threats of shutting down the China-Pak border were issued to the China by residents of Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) region in Pakistan occupied Kashmir, who allege that over 50 women, of Chinese origins, married to the G-B residents, have been detained by Beijing without any charges against them.

Urging the Chinese government to immediately release the families, including children of the G-B traders, an all party conference demanded to run the affairs of the Pak-China trade as per protocols agreed upon.

According to a Pakistan daily, they demanded that those traders possessing border passes should be given access to interior China and the duration of border passes should be extended.

"It is a serious issue and if the matter is not resolved immediately it may harm the relations between Pakistan and China," said Pakistan Peoples Party G-B President Ajmad Hussain told The Nation.

"It is the job of the Foreign Office to safeguard its people but it has failed miserably," Amjad said, also blaming the Pakistan embassy in Beijing for not performing its duty.

"It is like dying every day. I feel intense pain and grief. Sometimes, I become totally blank - missing my children and wife is like you have lost some of your body part - something vital one," said Ali, a resident of GB, whose two children and wife have been detained in Xinjiang province.

"It is very unfortunate. I am alive but my kids are living without parents, my wife is detained in a school building turned into a prison," he said.

According to locals, they have been crossing over to China since ages, with many traders marrying Chinese women on business visits.

"It was sheer luck. It was 2007. I was in Kashgar and busy importing goods to Pakistan when I met a nice Chinese girl and married her," said Ali.

After the marriage, Ali was granted a residency permit by the Chinese Government, although he shifted back to Gilgit, where his wife started teaching locals.

His family then went to China in the winters, with his wife visiting her native village, while he was in Kashgar city.

Recalling the incident, he said, "I cannot forget that horrifying call- my wife was crying intensely- between her sobs- she told me, the police are taking her to investigate something related to her Pakistan visit and will release in a day or two. But she never came back nor I could know where she is -since then, I am running pillar to post, I have knocked every door I could, I have registered my complaint with the Pakistan embassy in Beijing- the interior ministry - all offices of GB but nobody heard my plea," he added.

His visa extension was not approved, thus he had to be sent back to Pakistan, and when he got it done from Islamabad, he was not allowed to cross the Pak-China border at Khunjerab.

This was just one example among dozens of men, whose families have been detained by the Chinese government.

According to Human Rights Watch, the missing women are detained in makeshift prisons called, political education centres, since April 2017.

Those who have not committed any crimes, but deem politically unreliable, who have travelled abroad or have families who live abroad or found participating in unauthorized religious activities, such as wearing headscarves or other Muslim attire are detained there.

The detainees are compelled to renounce their ethnic and religious identities, resulting in anxiety and fear among residents- whose livelihoods depend heavily on trade across the border.

The GB Legislative Assembly (GBLA) passed a unanimous resolution last month, asking the federal government to take immediate steps for the release of the families.

However, sources in the Foreign Office deny having received any request from the G-B government and assert on the fact that they can act on an official government request only.

G-B locals say that GBLA Deputy Speaker Jafferullah was entrusted to communicate the issue with the Foreign Office and he and many other government officials were present in previous meetings.

.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
India and China have agreed to share hydrological information for managing their trans-border rivers in times of emergency as top Water Resource officials of the two countries wrapped up two-day talks.

The 11th meeting of the India-China Expert Level Mechanism (ELM) on Trans-Border Rivers concluded on March 27 in the Chinese city of Hangzhou.

Both sides reviewed the progress made in regard to data sharing since the earlier meetings of the ELM.

It also included a review of the data utilization report in regard to the hydrological information provided by China to India during the flood season on Brahmaputra and Sutlej Rivers.

The meeting comes at a time when former Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to raise the issue of China building dam on the Brahmaputra River.

Earlier in the day, while interacting with the media, the former minister said that the artificial rainwater harvesting plan of China will create even more danger for the North-eastern region.

In December last year, the water of the Brahmaputra river in Assam and Siang river in Arunachal Pradesh had turned contaminated and muddy.

The contaminated water caused concern among people and authorities of the states, as they suspected dam building activities by China.

The governments of both the states were suspecting that dam building activities in China could be a reason for the pollution.

The Yarlung Tsangpo river, which flows from Tibetan plateau, enters India and continues to flow through Arunachal Pradesh as Siang river and then Brahmaputra river in Assam.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday blamed the ruling All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) for the ruckus created in West Bengal's North 24 Parganas that claimed one life and injured a police officer.

"In North 24 Parganas (West Bengal), All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) goons attacked Ram Navami Shobha Yatra, where one person was killed in the incident and a Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP's) hand was slashed," Javadekar said in a press conference here.

"Permissions (for procession) were not given at many places; all this is being done deliberately," Javadekar added.

Tension prevailed at Beldi village in Purulia district, Raniganj in Paschim Burdwan district and Kankinara in North 24 Parganas district on Tuesday where three people fell victims to the violence.

The TMC government had disallowed Shobha Yatra processions to be held on March 25, due to which they were carried out the following day.

The police lathi-charged at the crowd to disburse them leaving even the children injured. The situation went out of control in the area and heavy police deployment has been in place since then.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday met senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders in Delhi a day after meeting various opposition leaders to discuss prospects of forming a third front.

After meeting her, disgruntled BJP leaders Yashwant Sinha and Shatrughan Sinha appreciated her efforts to bring together all regional forces against the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government.

The leaders, on more than one occasion, have expressed their displeasure with the Modi government's decisions.

Soon following the meeting, Sinha lauded Mamata saying, "She is a good person and is saving the nation". Similarly, Sharughan Sinha also hailed over the meet stating that, "Nation is always larger than the political party".

Mamata also met Arun Shourie, a former Union minister in the Democratic Alliance (NDA) government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, in a meeting where TMC MP Derek O' Brien was also present.

After the meeting, Shourie said, "Control of the BJP is now moving from Narendra Modi to Amit Shah".

Mamata, who is camping in Delhi for last two days, has held a crucial round of meetings with leaders from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Shiv Sena, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Mumbai blasts accused Farook Takla, who was recently deported from Dubai and arrested by the Mumbai Police, was on Wednesday sent to 12-day police custody in connection with the 1993 explosions that left 257 people dead.

A special Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (TADA) court here sent underworld kingpin Dawood Ibrahim's aide to police custody till April 9, 2018.

Takla was arrested on March 8 this year after being extradited from United Arab Emirates (UAE). He faces charges such as spreading and sponsoring terrorism, waging a war against the nation, criminal conspiracy, murder, attempt to murder, and voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons, and had been absconding after the blasts.

The court, in an earlier hearing, had extended his custody till March 28.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
New Delhi [India], Mar.28 (ANI): During the presidency of George W Bush, a strong cabal of neo-con hawks guided his foreign policy and got the president into all sorts of failures. Prominent among them were Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, John Bolton and others. Vice President Dick Cheney and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld were, however, the true leaders of a hard-line policy on Iraq in 2002-03.

A badly configured and unfinished war in Afghanistan, a foolish misadventure in Iraq, and an inability to control Pakistan in the so-called Global War on Terror, left the United States trying to fend off Iran, a regional power that was becoming strong enough to challenge American interests.

Later, as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Bolton would in October 2007, advocate a similar hardline policy against Iran.

Many now expect that President Trump's next Security Advisor, Bolton, would pursue similar hardline policies against Iran and North Korea with greater determination and tenacity.

The underlying fear of course being that this could take Washington closer to war than ever before. This naturally depends on two factors - (1) Bolton's own life expectancy in the Trump uncertain order of things and (2) Trump's own attention span.

However, handling Afghanistan in Pakistan is an area where Bolton's hardline policies could bear better results without that risk of war involving American troops.

Some analysts assess that Bolton is not the kind who will spoil for a war in Iran for fear of destabilising the energy-rich West Asia at a time when it is already unstable and Russia and China now having a high profile there.

Nuclear unpredictability of the kind spread by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, would also be a dampener on Bolton's firebrand policies. Other analysts feel that Bolton is one man who could pressure Pakistan where the United States has no such risks and burnish his reputation as the ultimate hardliner.

If the United States really wants to see peace in Afghanistan, it must stop pursuing mindless dreams like asking religious leaders to pressure the Taliban to talk to the Afghan leaders. Instead, it must pursue where the battle really originates - in Pakistan. Ultimately, Bolton or whoever else will decide what they perceive to be in U.S. interests.

This will not be easy for an America that has usually threatened Pakistan only to deceive itself or promised India stern action only failed to deliver.

One can see differences, if not fissures in U.S. policy. While the U.S. President is all brimstone and fire, new nuclear sanctions have been imposed, the Pentagon is speaking in far more conciliatory terms. Establishments and advisers change in the U.S. in eight, if not four, years. In the present dispensation, this has been much more frequent. The very permanent mindset of GHQ Pakistan will exploit this to their maximum advantage.

The civil administration, politicians and pliable journalists will be let loose on Afghanistan and the U.S. speaking the language of conciliation, peace and brotherhood of Islam. Meanwhile, ISI proxies, the Haqqani Terrorist Network, which is more than just an adjunct of the Taliban, will continue to be marauders in Afghanistan. India-specific terror groups - Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, will be kept well-heeled and deployed at will.

As long as the US soft pedals, Pakistan's assistance and support to groups like the Haqqani Network, will keep the latter's life support system intact and the Pakistan Army sees no incentive or urgency to change this.

Pakistan's rulers (i.e. the military) will make some cosmetic changes of incumbents handling crucial matters, rope in foreign ambassadors, diplomats, military attaches and foreign media based in Islamabad, to sell their sob stories of being victims of terror fighting America's war.

This is a worn out decades-old script churned out year after year, for president after president and administration after administration. This tactic is effective because there is no new thought in Washington D.C. Despite volumes of analytical reports and literature by experts that the solution to the problem lies in an appropriately hard stance in Pakistan rather than indulgence, the policy has not changed.

At the same time, the tactic would be to threaten the United States indirectly by hinting that the Russians are showing renewed interest in Afghanistan and wooing Pakistan.

The so-called Bajwa Doctrine, which his acolytes laud as new paths to Pakistan strategic thought, is essentially the same that Generals Ayub to Raheel Sharif have believed and practiced, except that Ayub and Musharraf were enlightened moderates and Zia was a useful Islamist.

Pakistan's military opinion of their politicians varies from condescension to contempt. It would want to restrict their power to dissolve assemblies instead of the president - a power acquired through the 18th Amendment. They want this rolled back. They disapprove of regional autonomy and prefer a strong centralised system. It took Admiral Mullen (considered one of the most influential Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff in history), some time to realise that General Kayani was stringing him along. This is something the Pakistan establishment has done to the Americans for decades.

Those who hope that Bolton will read the riot act to Pakistan may want to pause to see how he understands Pakistan tactics and how his policy evolves. It remains to be seen how much and how soon American policy makers get beguiled into assuming that the Bajwa Doctrine portrayed as being transformational in seeking peace with Afghanistan and Iran while being patient with what has been described as a "stubborn" Modi.

The Deep State has become audacious enough to try to mainstream Hafiz Saeed as a leader of an approved political party that can contest general elections scheduled for mid-year.

All is not well inside the Pashtun regions of Pakistan. Pakistan is seemingly vulnerable in its north-west with Pashtun awakening seeking an end to the decades-old Pakistani policies. The British had divided the Pashtun with the Durand Line, they further divided the Pashtun within what was at that time India, into FATA and NWFP, also within that into tribal and settled areas, and finally, merged southern Pashtun regions into British Balochistan.

Pakistan not only continued these imperial policies of inbuilt discrimination and hardship, but its policies since the Afghan jihad drove many Pashtun out of their traditional homes seeking shelter in alien. and at times, hostile Karachi or other parts of the Pakhtukhwa province. The Pashtun feel they have been exploited and used by the Pakistan establishment and are now seek redemption.

So far, the Pashtuns have been orderly and peaceful in their protests fended off the state's usual strong-arm tactics of coercion and trying to discredit the movement as anti- or politicise it through amenable politicians along with media silence.

Enforced disappearances of journalists or open intimidation of those who want to cover the forbidden area of FATA or their contacts are the most common tactics. This is what autocratic or military regimes do - they feel secure once they have blindfolded or gagged their population. Voluntary silence may mean consent but enforced silence can only be sullen and rebellious.

The United States may want to take notice of this development and India must not only remain engaged in Afghanistan but also sharpen its profile there.

The views expressed in the above article are that of Mr. Vikram Sood.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
NITI Aayog member V.K Saraswat met with Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu here on Wednesday to highlight the possibility of exploring coal reserves in the state and using them as a source of income.

Saraswat explained that ethanol can be produced from coal reserves available at Chintalapudi, Nuzividu areas in the state, which can then be directly supplied to thermal power plants, thus facilitating the production of electric power at a lower cost.

Further, Saraswat noted that using ethanol to produce electricity can prevent air pollution to a large extent. Moreover, Ethanol can be used to eradicate rats and other pests that adversely affect crops, thereby helping increase crop yield. He also suggested that the state government could take assistance from Israel, where advanced technology for producing ethanol from coal is available.

To this, Naidu directed his ministers to consider the proposals of Saraswat and take necessary action.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court on Wednesday extended the judicial custody of Gokulanath Shetty, Vipul Ambani and nine other accused till April 11 in connection with the Rs 12,700 crore Punjab Bank (PNB) fraud.

Former Punjab Bank Deputy Manager Shetty, who was already in judicial custody along with five other accused for colluding with celebrated jeweller Nirav Modi in cheating the bank, was arrested by the CBI on March for conniving with Mehul Choksi for getting loans approved for Gitanjali Gems.

Previously, on February 22, the CBI found out the Head of Finance Department of Firestar Group of Companies of Nirav Modi, Vipul Ambani, was fully aware of the fraudulent and illegal Letter of Undertakings (LoUs) in connection with the case.

The PNB had lodged two financial fraud complaints of Rs 11400 crore and Rs 280 crore against Nirav Modi, his family members and Mehul Choksi, owner of Gitanjali Gems.

The Punjab Bank detected a 1.77 billion dollar scam, in which jeweller Nirav Modi acquired fraudulent letters of undertaking from one of its branches for overseas credit from other Indian lenders.

The scam was started in 2011 and was detected in the third week of January this year, after which the PNB officials reported it to the concerned agencies.

Meanwhile, the PNB filed a second complaint with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on February 13.

The CBI had received the complaint from the PNB on January 28 and a case was registered in the case on January 31.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan said on Wednesday that the first US consignment of natural gases will reach Maharashtra on March 30.

In a joint statement released by Pradhan and Governor of Texas Greg Abbott, they discussed the trade of oil and natural gases between India and United States.

Pradhan, while calling Texas as the hub of hydrocarbons of the United States, called the visit of Abbott as 'significant'.

He informed, "The oil and gas companies of India have invested five billion dollars assets in Hydrocarbons in the United States. Further energy trade worth 9 billion will be done on a longtime basis".

He also said Abbott mentioned about Cambridge Energy Research Associates conference that took place in Texas in 2016.

He said, "India is contributing to job creation in Texas. India is a growing economy and the growing economies need energy for their growth".

"Texas is blessed to be abundant in energy (resources)", he added.

He then mentioned of the first-ever shipment of oil from Texas to India in October 2017.

He also ensured to create opportunities to import oil to help the Indian economy to grow.

Later in the discussion round Pradhan while responding to a question on the capacity to store the natural gas said, "Our capacity needs to be increased to accommodate nine million tonnes of natural gas".

He said, India is the third largest consumer of natural gas in the world, but still its per capita income generated out of this energy sector is very low.

He further highlighted the need to increase the City Gas Distribution (CGD) network while saying, "150 districts have been connected with CGD. 200 districts will be added in 2018. There is an indiction of the gas market in India."

Pradhan then highlighted the Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga program. He said that the program will be expanded to eight states of the north-east.

Further, he hinted upon new markets (of natural gas) to come up in Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
As the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) stays adamant on its demand for 'Special category Status' to Andhra Pradesh, one of its MPs, Naramalli Sivaprasad took to a unique way of protesting by dressing up as the Vedic sage, Narad Muni on Tuesday.

From dressing up as a cattle herder to a schoolboy, Chittoor MP has even donned a sari as part of the protest against denial of the status by the Centre.

Earlier this month, Sivaprasad dressed as a Swachh Bharat worker with a wiper in his hands, while on another day, he wore shorts and carried a ruler with a notebook and said PM Modi has been the "bad student of the class".

A doctor by profession, Sivaprasad has acted in movies too. He became a lawmaker in 1999 and has served in Chandrababu Naidu's cabinet as a minister.

The Andhra ruling party and the BJP-ruled Centre have been at the loggerheads over the non-issuance of the 'Special Category Status' to Andhra Pradesh. Amid protests by TDP MPs in the Parliament over it, the party ultimately quit the Democratic Alliance (NDA) coalition on March 16.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
External Affairs Minister (EAM) Sushma Swaraj reached Tokyo on Wednesday to attend the ninth India-Japan Strategic Dialogue with Japanese Foreign Taro Kono.

The strategic dialogue between Swaraj and Kono is scheduled to take place on Thursday.

Swaraj is on a three-day visit to Tokyo from 28-30 March 2018.

As per an official release by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), the two sides will review all aspects of bilateral relations and exchange views on regional and international issues of common interest.

The MEA further said that the visit of Japanese Prime Minister to India in 2017 gave 'fresh impetus' to the bilateral ties between the two countries.

"Bilateral relations have been strengthened in diverse sectors in recent years. The visit of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to India in September 2017 has given fresh impetus to the ties," the MEA said.

"Japan is today one of the largest investors in India, with a growing presence in infrastructure projects, manufacturing, financial markets and capacity-building, among others," it added.

Earlier in 2014, India and Japan concluded a Special Strategic and Global Partnership during the landmark visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Japan.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Raising concern over the issue of China building dam on the Brahmaputra River, former Assam Chief Minister on Wednesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take cognisance of the matter.

Interacting with media, the former chief minister said that the artificial rainwater harvesting plan of China will create even more danger for the North-eastern region.

"China has already been diverting Brahmaputra water with a dam which will create water shortage for us. The artificial rainwater harvesting plan of them (China) will create even more danger. The Prime Minister should take this matter seriously," Gogoi said.

Gogoi's statement came amid the reports of talks between India's Ministry of Water Resources with their Chinese counterparts on the cooperation of trans-border rivers.

The officials from both the side apparently met in China's Hangzhou city.

The officials reviewed the data utilisation report of hydrological information on Brahmaputra and Sutlej Rivers provided by China.

Both India and China have an agreement to provide flood season data, which was not provided by Beijing last year citing 'technical reasons'.

Earlier in December, the water of the Brahmaputra river in Assam and Siang river in Arunachal Pradesh had turned contaminated and muddy.

The contaminated water caused concern among people and authorities of the states.

The governments of both the states were suspecting that dam building activities in China could be a reason for the pollution.

The Yarlung Tsangpo river, which flows from Tibetan plateau, enters India and continues to flow through Arunachal Pradesh as Siang river and then Brahmaputra river in Assam.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders on Tuesday defended United States President Donald Trump's silence on allegations leveled against him by porn star Stormy Daniels.

Sanders, while throwing light on Daniels branding Trump as a "counter-puncher", clarified that she didn't say he "punches back on every single topic".

"If he did he would probably be addressing a lot of the stories that most of you write every single minute of every single day. He also has a country to run. And he is doing a great job with that. ... Sometimes he chooses to specifically engage and punch back and sometimes he doesn't," CNN reported Sanders, as saying to reporters.

According to the report, the President has been advised that "lashing out" on the Daniels story will only make it worse.

Daniels on Monday accused Trump's attorney, Michael Cohen for defamation, amending her lawsuit against the US President.

According to the lawsuit, it now claims that Cohen defamed Daniels by suggesting that she is lying about her alleged 2006 affair with Trump, The Hill reported.

Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford appeared on on CBS' "60 Minutes" where Anderson Cooper interviewed her over her alleged affair with Trump.

The White House on Monday dismissed Daniel's claims in the CBS interview as "absolutely inaccurate and incoherent".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that Chinese President Xi Jinping notified him that his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was a success.

The two leaders held talks in Beijing on Wednesday during Kim's surprise visit to China that reportedly took place from March 25 and 28.

"Received message last night from XI JINPING of China that his meeting with KIM JONG UN went very well and that KIM looks forward to his meeting with me," Trump said in an early morning tweet.

"In the meantime, and unfortunately, maximum sanctions and pressure must be maintained at all cost!" he added.

The United States and the United Nations have imposed tough sanctions on North Korea, owing to its persistent ballistic missile tests last year.

Most recently, Trump slapped new sanctions on North Korea, targeting 56 vessels, shipping companies and trade businesses, of which Chinese firms and personnel are involved.

It is being said that the talks would have largely centred on the situation of the Korean Peninsula and denuclearisation of North Korea.

Trump also mentioned of denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula while highlighting the willingness of Kim to meet him.

"For years and through many administrations, everyone said that peace and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula was not even a small possibility. Now there is a good chance that Kim Jong Un will do what is right for his people and for humanity. Look forward to our meeting!", Trump further said.

An inter-Korean summit is also expected to take place in Late April to discuss the issue of denuclearisation.

There has been a pressing need for the denuclearisation of North Korea by Japan, the United States, China and South Korea. On the same lines, a proposed summit is expected to take place between Trump and Kim in May 2018.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The stock is quoting at Rs 426.95, up 1.47% on the day as on 12:54 IST on the NSE. Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd is down 0.42% in last one year as compared to a 10.92% jump in NIFTY and a 16.72% jump in the Nifty Energy index.

Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd is up for a third straight session today. The stock is quoting at Rs 426.95, up 1.47% on the day as on 12:54 IST on the NSE. The benchmark NIFTY is down around 0.41% on the day, quoting at 10141.95. The Sensex is at 33041.69, down 0.4%. Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd has slipped around 3.38% in last one month.

Meanwhile, Nifty Energy index of which Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd is a constituent, has slipped around 5.2% in last one month and is currently quoting at 13354.4, down 0.9% on the day. The volume in the stock stood at 19.91 lakh shares today, compared to the daily average of 40.64 lakh shares in last one month.

The benchmark March futures contract for the stock is quoting at Rs 426.8, up 1.28% on the day. Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd is down 0.42% in last one year as compared to a 10.92% jump in NIFTY and a 16.72% jump in the Nifty Energy index.

The PE of the stock is 12.85 based on TTM earnings ending December 17.

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The stock market continued to languish in negative terrain in mid-afternoon trade. At 14:15 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, fell 159.44 points or 0.48% at 33,014.95. The Nifty 50 index dropped 43.40 points or 0.43% at 10,140.75. The Sensex was trading above 33,000 level after falling below that level in intraday trade. Weakness in global stocks weighed on sentiment on the domestic bourses. FMCG stocks advanced in a weak market.

Trading was lackluster ahead of March F&O expiry and financial year ending. The March 2018 F&O contracts expire today, 28 March 2018. The stock market remains shut on Thursday, 29 March 2018 for Mahavir Jayanti and also on Friday, 30 March 2018 on the eve of Good Friday.

Meanwhile, the long-term capital gains tax (LTCG) on equities proposed in the Budget last month will apply on profits made from sale of shares on or after 1 April 2018. Long-term capital gains exceeding Rs 1 lakh from sale of shares made on or after 1 April 2018 will be taxed at 10%.

Back to the day's trade, key indices started the session on a negative note amid weakness in global stocks. Indices extended losses in morning trade and traded with modest losses in mid-morning trade. Key indices trimmed losses with the Nifty hitting intraday high in early afternoon trade. Indices languished with modest losses so far till mid-afternoon trade.

Among secondary indices, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 0.51%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index declined 0.83%. Both these indices underperformed the Sensex.

Overseas, shares in Europe and Asia dropped, mirroring overnight slide on Wall Street. US stocks closed sharply lower yesterday, 27 March 2018, erasing earlier gains, as a decline in the broader tech sector brought the major indices down. Last week, reports emerged alleging that Cambridge Analytica, an analytics company, had gathered data from 50 million Facebook profiles without users' permission, raising concerns over data privacy.

Closer home, the breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was weak. On the BSE, 1,685 shares declined and 836 shares advanced. A total of 179 shares were unchanged.

FMCG stocks advanced. P&G Hygiene Health Care (up 1.85%), Colgate-Palmolive (India) (up 1.29%), Nestle India (up 1.1%), Dabur India (up 0.89%), Britannia Industries (up 0.41%), Godrej Consumer Products (up 0.39%), Hindustan Unilever (up 0.23%), Emami (up 0.22%) and Marico (up 0.09%) gained.

GlaxoSmithkline Consumer Healthcare (GSK Consumer) tumbled 8.96% after GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK) announced of its intent to carry out a strategic review of GSK's Horlicks and its other consumer nutrition products which will include an assessment of its 72.45% shareholding in the company.

Aviation stocks were trading lower. Jet Airways (India) (down 3.01%) and SpiceJet (down 0.4%) declined. However, InterGlobe Aviation was up 0.05%.

On the macro front, the total revenue received under Goods and Services Tax (GST) for the month of February 2018 (received in February/March upto 26 March) has been Rs 85174 crore. 1.05 crore taxpayers have been registered under GST so far till 25 March 2018.

Meanwhile, the Lok Sabha was adjourned today, 28 March 2018 till 2 April 2018 amid protests by opposition. The budget session headed towards a washout amid clamour by parties to take up the no-confidence motion against the government. The session will conclude on 6 April 2018.

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Indoco Remedies lost 8.89% to Rs 221.50 at 09:25 IST on BSE after the company got seven observations for drug manufacturing Plant I, Goa from UK-MHRA.

The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 27 March 2018.

Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 145.43 points, or 0.44% to 33,028.96. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was down 94.59 points, or 0.55% to 17,058.34.

On the BSE, 22,000 shares were traded in the counter so far compared with average daily volumes of 35,000 shares in the past two weeks. The stock had hit a high of Rs 232.30 and a low of Rs 218.55 so far during the day. The stock hit a 52-week high of Rs 317 on 24 January 2018. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 179 on 31 May 2017.

The small-cap company has equity capital of Rs 18.43 crore. Face value per share is Rs 2.

Indoco Remedies said that United Kingdom - The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (UK-MHRA) inspected the company's drug manufacturing facility Plant I, Goa from 14 March 2018 to 16 March 2018. Subsequent to the inspection, the UK-MHRA issued observations, which include 3 critical and 4 major. Goa Plant I manufactures solid dosages, liquid orals and external preparations.

The company is committed to its philosophy of highest quality in manufacturing, operations, systems integrity & cGMP culture, Indoco Remedies said. The company is fully committed in resolving the issue and will respond to UK - MHRA at the earliest within the stipulated time, it added.

Indoco Remedies' net profit rose 28.82% to Rs 22.66 crore on 0.73% rise in net sales to Rs 274.19 crore in Q3 December 2017 over Q3 December 2016.

Indoco Remedies is a fully integrated, research-oriented pharma company engaged in the manufacturing and marketing of formulations (finished dosage forms) and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs).

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The stock market closed the volatile session with modest losses amid weak global cues. The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, fell 205.71 points or 0.62% at 32,968.68, as per the provisional closing data. The Nifty 50 index dropped 62.85 points or 0.62% at 10,121.30, as per the provisional closing data. The Sensex provisionally settled below 33,000 level after hovering above and below that level in intraday trade. Weakness in global stocks weighed on sentiment on the domestic bourses. Metal and telecom stocks tumbled.

Trading was volatile ahead of March F&O expiry and financial year ending. The March 2018 F&O contracts expired today, 28 March 2018. The stock market remains shut on Thursday, 29 March 2018 for Mahavir Jayanti and also on Friday, 30 March 2018 on the eve of Good Friday.

Meanwhile, the long-term capital gains tax (LTCG) on equities proposed in the Budget last month will apply on profits made from sale of shares on or after 1 April 2018. Long-term capital gains exceeding Rs 1 lakh from sale of shares made on or after 1 April 2018 will be taxed at 10%.

Back to the day's trade, key indices started the session on a negative note amid weakness in global stocks. Indices extended losses in morning trade and traded with modest losses in mid-morning trade. Key indices trimmed losses with the Nifty hitting intraday high in early afternoon trade. Indices extended losses amid volatility to hit intraday lows towards the fag end of session.

Among secondary indices, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index provisionally fell 0.53%, outperforming the Sensex. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index provisionally declined 0.92%, underperforming the Sensex.

The total turnover on BSE amounted to Rs 6075.60 crore, higher than the turnover of Rs 5407.62 crore registered during the previous trading session.

Overseas, shares in Europe and Asia dropped, mirroring overnight slide on Wall Street. US stocks closed sharply lower yesterday, 27 March 2018, erasing earlier gains, as a decline in the broader tech sector brought the major indices down. Last week, reports emerged alleging that Cambridge Analytica, an analytics company, had gathered data from 50 million Facebook profiles without users' permission, raising concerns over data privacy.

Closer home, the breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was weak. On the BSE, 1,696 shares declined and 935 shares advanced. A total of 198 shares were unchanged.

Metal and mining stocks slumped. Jindal Steel & Power (down 4.7%), Steel Authority of India (down 4.23%), Tata Steel (down 3.37%), Vedanta (down 3.08%), JSW Steel (down 3.97%), Hindustan Copper (down 2.64%), NMDC (down 2.31%), Hindalco Industries (down 2.04%), National Aluminium Company (down 2.29%) and Hindustan Zinc (down 2.18%) declined.

Telecom stocks tanked. Reliance Communications (down 8.21%), Idea Cellular (down 5.7%) and Bharti Airtel (down 3.56%) fell.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) was off 2%. Reliance Eagleford Upstream Holding LP (Reliance), a subsidiary of both Reliance Holding USA, Inc and RIL, announced the signing of a purchase and sale agreement with Sundance Energy Inc, to divest its interest in certain acreage, producing wells and related assets in the western portion of its Eagle Ford shale position for approximate consideration of US$100 million, subject to certain customary adjustments and closing terms and conditions. This transaction is in conjunction with sales made by Pioneer Natural Resources USA Inc and Newpek LLC, the other working interest owners in the joint development with Reliance.

The assets being sold are located in Atascosa, La Salle, Live Oak and McMullen Counties, Texas and were not part of near term development plan of the joint development. Reliance continues to retain its interest in the remaining Eagle Ford assets that are core to its development priorities. The sale is expected to close in Q1 June 2018 and is subject to customary closing conditions.

Sundance Energy Inc. doesn't belong to the promoter group and the transaction does not fall within related party transactions. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 27 March 2018.

On the macro front, the total revenue received under Goods and Services Tax (GST) for the month of February 2018 (received in February/March upto 26 March) has been Rs 85174 crore. 1.05 crore taxpayers have been registered under GST so far till 25 March 2018.

Meanwhile, the Lok Sabha was adjourned today, 28 March 2018 till 2 April 2018 amid protests by opposition. The budget session headed towards a washout amid clamour by parties to take up the no-confidence motion against the government. The session will conclude on 6 April 2018.

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Key benchmark indices edged lower in early trade tracking weakness in Asian peers and overnight slide on Wall Street. At 9:15 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, fell 152.07 points or 0.46% at 33,022.32. The Nifty 50 index dropped 40.55 points or 0.4% at 10,143.60.

The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 0.5%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index declined 0.63%. Both these indices underperformed the Sensex.

Overseas, Asian stocks dropped tracking overnight slide on Wall Street. US stocks closed sharply lower yesterday, 27 March 2018, erasing earlier gains, as a decline in the broader tech sector brought the major indices down. Last week, reports emerged alleging that Cambridge Analytica, an analytics company, had gathered data from 50 million Facebook profiles without users' permission, raising concerns over data privacy.

Closer home, the broader market depicted weakness. On the BSE, 760 shares declined and 238 shares advanced. A total of 27 shares were unchanged.

State Bank of India (SBI) was down 1%. The bank announced that the committee of directors for capital raising approved allotment of 29.25 crore equity shares on preferential basis to the Government of India, at Rs 300.82 per share, aggregating to Rs 8799.99 crore. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 27 March 2018.

Wipro rose 0.48% after the company unveiled its Texas Technology Center in Plano, Texas. The company also plans to ramp up its headcount in Texas to 2,000 over the next few years from 1,400 now. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 27 March 2018.

Reliance Industries (RIL) was off 0.69%. Reliance Eagleford Upstream Holding LP (Reliance), a subsidiary of both Reliance Holding USA, Inc and RIL, announced the signing of a purchase and sale agreement with Sundance Energy Inc, to divest its interest in certain acreage, producing wells and related assets in the western portion of its Eagle Ford shale position for approximate consideration of US$100 million, subject to certain customary adjustments and closing terms and conditions. This transaction is in conjunction with sales made by Pioneer Natural Resources USA Inc and Newpek LLC, the other working interest owners in the joint development with Reliance.

The assets being sold are located in Atascosa, La Salle, Live Oak and McMullen Counties, Texas and were not part of near term development plan of the joint development. Reliance continues to retain its interest in the remaining Eagle Ford assets that are core to its development priorities. The sale is expected to close in Q1 June 2018 and is subject to customary closing conditions.

Sundance Energy Inc. doesn't belong to the promoter group and the transaction does not fall within related party transactions. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 27 March 2018.

On the macro front, the total revenue received under Goods and Services Tax (GST) for the month of February 2018 (received in February/March upto 26 March) has been Rs 85174 crore. 1.05 crore taxpayers have been registered under GST so far till 25 March 2018.

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National Agricultural Cooperative Federation of India Ltd. (NAFED) signed the Debt Settlement Agreement with its eight lender banks. The One Time Settlement with the lender banks has been made at Rs. 478 Crore with the cash payment of Rs. 220 Crore and assignment of sale rights of one of its prime properties located at Lawrence Road, New Delhi. In addition, the lenders are entitled to the assignment of auction right of the property of one of the defaulters of its tie-up business conducted in the years 2003-05. The Deputy General Manager, Central Bank of India signed the agreement on behalf of lender banks with Addl. Managing Director AMD, NAFED.

It may be recalled that the Federation had mired itself with a number of controversial businesses conducted with private parties when the borrowings made from banks were diverted to the private associates without proper collateral/securities. This has led to the default by NAFED to its bankers as the monies were not returned by the business associates.

Such defaults had reached a level, when NAFED had no money to pay in the years 2011-12, forcing banks to declare NAFED's account as NPA.

The organization serves the farmers throughout the country by implementing the Price Support Scheme of Govt. of India for Oilseeds, Pulses, Copra & Cotton. Though the fund requirement of the PSS was separately provided to the Organization through sovereign guarantee, but its problems with banks many times created hurdles in smooth withdrawals even against government guarantee, affecting payment to the farmers. It is hoped that with this settlement, the Price Support Scheme operations will be more smooth and effective. During the last three years, the Federation has made record procurement of Oilseeds & Pulses at MSP under PSS. Further, it has been the major agency having procured around 90% of the buffer target of Pulses.

The Govt. of India had constituted a Committee headed by Additional Secretary & Financial Advisor, Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers' Welfare comprising of senior officials from the Departments of Expenditure, Financial Services, Cooperation and Managing Director, NAFED, to work out the scheme for the financial revival including the One Time Settlement with the banks. The Committee had held various meetings with the lender banks and decided the OTS in January 2016.

Initially, the Govt. of India was to provide the financial assistance through the interest-free loan against NAFED's properties, but later on, it was revised with the contribution by NAFED through cash payment and transfer of one of its prime properties. Govt. of India has undertaken to provide for the shortfall in the OTS amount if any.

This settlement has brought much relief to the Organization and its employees in particular and Cooperative Sector in general.

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The Government has been constantly striving to develop a system of higher of quality appropriate to the national needs and aspirations and in tune with global trends. To increase access to Higher Education, new Institutions of National Importance viz. Indian Institutes of Technology, Indian Institute of Information Technology, Indian Institutes of Science and Research, National Institutes of Technology, universities and Colleges are established, intake capacity of existing institutions is enhanced, quality distance is promoted and quality private education institutions are allowed to operate for creating opportunities for students belonging to disadvantaged section of the society.

Further, Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA), a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS), provides strategic funding to eligible state higher educational institutions.

The objective is to achieve the target of Gross Enrolment Ratio of 30% by the year 2019-20 with equity and inclusion.

The Department of Higher Education has a scheme called Central Sector Interest Subsidy Scheme on education loan for students belonging to Economically Weaker Sections. The objective of the Scheme is to encourage poor students aspiring to pursue Higher Education especially in Technical and Professional education. Government of India bears full interest subsidy during the Moratorium period.

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The allocation for a Centre-sponsored tribal welfare scheme launched in 2014 has come down to a mere Rs 1 crore ($154,000) in 2016-17 from Rs 200 crore in 2015-16 and Rs 100 crore in 2014-15, according to an RTI reply that also indicates that the lion's share of the allocations went to BJP-ruled tribal states while Congress-ruled states were ignored.

The Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojana (VKY) was launched in 2014 by the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs for overall development of the country's estimated 60 million tribal population, the indigenous people.

It was included as a Central Sector Scheme in the ministry's annual plan with an initial allocation of Rs 100 crore for 2014-15.

However, the then Congress-ruled states of Meghalaya, Manipur (both predominantly tribal states), Congress-ruled Karnataka and Uttarakhand (which then had a Congress-led government) don't feature in the list provided by the ministry.

Among the National Democratic Alliance (NDA)-ruled states that did not feature in the list are Goa, Haryana and Punjab (then ruled by SAD-BJP alliance). The last two don't have any tribal population.

Andhra Pradesh received Rs 10 crore in 2014-15 and Rs 5 crore in 2015-16. Arunachal Pradesh got not even a penny in 2014-15 while in 2015-16 it got Rs 6 crore.

Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal received no funds under the scheme in 2014-15. However, in 2015-16, Tamil Nadu received Rs 7 crore, Uttar Pradesh Rs 2 crore and West Bengal Rs 2.45 crore.

Assam and Bihar too did not receive any amount in 2014-15, while in 2015-16, they got Rs 8.52 crore and Rs. 7.6 crore, respectively.

BJP-ruled states got the lion's share under the Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojana. Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan were allocated Rs 10 crore each in 2014-15.

In 2015-16, Chhattisgarh received Rs 13.84 crore, Gujarat got Rs 17.23 crore, Jharkhand Rs 13.44 crore, Madhya Pradesh Rs 19.09 crore, Maharashtra's share was Rs 14 crore and Rajasthan got Rs 10.46 crore.

On the other hand, Himachal Pradesh was allocated Rs 10 crore in 2014-15 while it received a zero sum in 2015-16.

Jammu and Kashmir and Kerala too did not receive any amount in 2014-15. In 2015-16, J&K and Kerala got Rs 5 crore and Rs 3 crore lakh , respectively.

Odisha got Rs 10 crore in 2014-15 and Rs 16.50 crore in 2015-16.

Other northeastern states like Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura -- all of which have substantial tribal populations -- received no funds in 2014-15. However, in 2015-16, Mizoram got Rs 4.95 crore, Nagaland received Rs 7.66 crore, Sikkim Rs 3.82 crore and Tripura Rs 6.13 crore.

Telangana, meanwhile, got Rs 10 crore in 2014-15 and in 2015-16, it was allocated Rs 42.7 crore.

Stressing that the Adivasis were in bad shape, Congress President Rahul Gandhi had attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi before the Gujarat election last year and asked: "Where did the Rs 55,000 crore meant for the Vanbandhu scheme go?"

This was Gandhi's 10th question as part of a Congress strategy wherein he would put one question daily to Modi ahead of the Gujarat Assembly polls. He had apparently got his figures wrong.

"Neglect left Adivasi society in tatters, Modiji, where did Rs 55,000 crore for the Vanbandhu scheme go?" Gandhi had asked.

(Sidhartha Dutta can be contacted at sidhartha.d@ians.in)

--IANS

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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday held both Israel and the US responsible for the deadlock in the Middle East peace process, Palestinian media reported.

Abbas' remarks were made in a meeting with Foreign Minister of Morocco Nasser Bourita in the West Bank city of Ramallah, saying that the Israeli measures and the unfair US policies are the main reason for bringing the peace process into a deadlock, Xinhua reported.

Abbas stressed the importance of holding an international peace conference that prepares for a mechanism to resolve the Palestinian cause based on the international resolutions and lead to establishing a Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital.

The Palestinian state-run news agency (WAFA) reported that President Abbas briefed the Moroccan FM on the latest developments in the Palestinian territories as well as the peace process, which is stalled due to the Israeli and the US policies.

Abbas also renewed the his calls on the importance of the Arab position that backs the Palestinians who are sticking to their legitimate rights and who oppose the language of dictation and threats, which aim at liquidating the Palestinian cause.

Meanwhile, Bourita stressed the importance of his visit to the Palestinian territories to express the supportive positions on Morocco towards the Palestinians and express solidarity with them.

He informed Abbas that King Mohamed the 6th "is deeply concerned in the issue of Jerusalem and is always interested in coordination with President Abbas on this respect and other issues related to the Palestinian cause."

Earlier on Tuesday, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) announced that it had agreed with Morocco on forming a joint ministerial committee that will convene before the end of this year.

The PNA minister of foreign affairs Reyad al-Malki announced in a joint news conference with Bourita that the formation of the joint committee "is to express the strong and joint ties between the two countries."

"The visit of the Foreign Minister of Morocco is a clear sign that expresses the desire of the Moroccan kingdom to keep in contact with the Palestinians and express its interest in the historic and political position of Jerusalem," al-Malki told reporters.

He unveiled that he agreed with Bourita to ask the ambassadors of both countries to start working together on the formation of the joint committee "in order to come up with the expected positive results."

Bourita, who visited earlier al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem told reporters that his country rejects any action that influence the Arab or Islamic identity of the city of Jerusalem, adding that his country follows up various projects to support the Palestinians steadfastness.

--IANS

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An international team of astronomers has detected a hot, metallic, Earth-sized planet outside our solar system which has a density similar to Mercury.

"Mercury stands out from the other solar system terrestrial planets, showing a very high fraction of iron and implying it formed in a different way," said David Armstrong from University of Warwick in Britain.

"We were surprised to see an exoplanet with the same high density, showing that Mercury-like planets are perhaps not as rare as we thought," Armstrong said.

Named K2-229b, the planet is 20 per cent larger than Earth but has a mass 2.6 times greater -- and a dayside temperature of over 2000 degrees Celsius.

Situated at about 340 million light years away from Earth, it finds itself very close to its host star (around a hundredth of the distance between the Earth and the Sun), which itself is a medium-sized active K dwarf in the Virgo Constellation.

K2-229b orbits this star every fourteen hours, according to the study published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

"Interestingly K2-229b is also the innermost planet in a system of at least three planets, though all three orbit much closer to their star than Mercury. More discoveries like this will help us shed light on the formation of these unusual planets, as well as Mercury itself," Armstrong added.

Using the K2 telescope, Armstrong and colleagues employed the Doppler spectroscopy technique -- also known as the 'wobble method' to discover and characterise this faraway planet.

The dense, metallic nature of K2-229b has numerous potential origins, and one hypothesis is that its atmosphere might have been eroded by intense stellar wind and flares, as the planet is so close to its star.

Another possibility is that K2-229b was formed after a huge impact between two giant astronomical bodies in space billions of years ago -- much like the theory that the Moon was formed after Earth collided with a body the size of Mars, according to the study.

Discovering details about far-flung planets across the universe gives us more clues as to how planets in our own solar system formed.

As K2-229b is similar to Mercury, the researcher believe that knowing more about the former can potentially reveal more about the latter.
Union Minister Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday said West Bengal is burning due to violence during Ram Navami while Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is busy playing in Delhi.

"The whole of Bengal is burning and Mamata ji is busy doing in Delhi. We strongly deplore this," Javadekar said at a press meet called by his Bharatiya Janata Party.

"Mamata Banerjee is enacting 'Nero fiddled while Rome burned' in Delhi. You may play if you so wish, but first douse the fire in Bengal which the goons of your own Trinamool Congress (TMC) have ignited," the senior BJP leader said after making a presentation of the images of violence from the state.

A clash broke out between two groups over a Ram Navami procession at Raniganj in Asansol on Monday. A person was allegedly hacked to death while a Deputy Commissioner of Police lost a hand after being hit by a bomb. Several shops and houses were vandalised and set ablaze during the procession.

Javadekar blamed the Mamata-led TMC for the attacks on 'Ram bhakts'. "People had come out in large numbers for the procession and this did not go down well with the TMC goons. Police could not take any action and instead were attacked by the TMC workers," the Union Minister said.

"Law and order has failed in West Bengal. (General) Election is next year. First go to Bengal and bring the situation under control and then do whatever politics you want to do. We will surely reply to that politics," said Javadekar.

BJP's Bengal leader Rupa Ganguly claimed that Mamata Banerjee had come to Delhi after telling reporters in Bengal that she would go there and seek central help and meet Ministers but once in the national capital she is busy playing politics for the Third Front. "She is not able to handle her work," Ganguly said.

Ganguly, a former TV actress, said the violence in Bengal was pre-planned and it began with an official ban order on carrying of firearms/weapons during the Ram Navami procession, which was resented by many.

Earlier in the day, the Ministry of Home Affairs asked the West Bengal government for a report on the violence.

--IANS

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The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Wednesday approved a proposal to remove the prohibition on the export of all varieties of edible oils except mustard oil.

The decision, according to a government statement, will provide additional marketing avenues for edible oils and oilseeds and will benefit farmers by way of better realisation for oilseeds.

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry had mooted the proposal which was approved at a CCEA meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

However, the CCEA decided that mustard oil will continue to be exported only in consumer packs upto 5 kgs and with a minimum export price of $900 per tonne. Mustard oil is an item of mass consumption in India.

"In order to support growing production of oilseeds and to explore additional avenues for marketing of edible oils, it was required to allow bulk export of all edible oils with the exception of mustard oil," the statement said.

"Allowing export of edible oils may also result in utilisation of idle capacity in India's edible oils industry and is a step towards Ease of Doing Business by removing confusion arising out of prohibition on export of edible oils and a plethora of exemptions."

At present, only certain edible oils were allowed to be be exported in bulk and other oils only in 5 kg packs.

According to the statement, the production of oilseeds saw a quantum jump in 2016-17 in comparison to the past two years.

"It is expected that the production of oilseeds in 2017-18 is going to sustain at the same levels," said the statement.

The CCEA also approved empowering a panel headed by Secretary, Department of Food and Public Distribution to review the export and import policy on all varieties of edible oils and consider measures such as quantitative restrictions, prior registration, imposition of minimum export price and changes in import duties depending on domestic production and demand, domestic and international prices and international trade volumes.

As such, the inter-ministerial committee, headed by the Commerce Secretary, mandated to review the export of edible oils, has been discontinued.

--IANS

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The Union Cabinet on Wednesday gave its ex-post facto approval to he MoU between India and Canada to boost bilateral cooperation in the field of Intellectual Property Rights (IP), an official statement said.

The MoU was signed on February 23, 2018 and is intended to promote innovation, creativity and economic growth in both countries.

The statement said the MoU establishes a broad and flexible framework through which both countries can exchange best practices and work together on training programs and technical exchanges to raise awareness and better protect IPRs.

The priority initiatives under the MoU include exchange of best practices, experiences and knowledge on how to raise IP awareness among the public, businesses and educational institutions of both countries.

It also includes cooperation to understand how traditional knowledge is protected.

--IANS

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A Romanian employee of (CA), who worked on its project in India, may have been "poisoned" in Kenya, an ex-employee has told a British parliamentary select committee.

Christopher Wylie, a former employee of Cambridge Analytica, told the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee on Tuesday that Dan Muresan, who had worked on the Indian project, was suspected to have been poisoned in his Kenyan hotel room in 2012 after a deal went sour.

Wylie said that CA worked "effectively" in India with an office and staff there and "I believe their (CA's) client was Congress".

Appearing before the panel alongside Wylie, data protection expert Paul-Olivier Dehaye alleged that Muresan had double-crossed the Congress while working for it by getting paid by an unnamed Indian billionaire who wanted it to lose.

However, during the testimony videocast by British Parliament on the web, Wylie clarified his assertion about the poisoning of Muresan by saying: "I cannot speak to the veracity of that.

"This is what I have been told, and so I am not saying this is a matter of fact: people suspected that he was poisoned in his hotel room," Wylie said.

"I also heard that police were bribed not to enter the hotel room for 24 hours," he added.

Wylie linked Muresan's death to his work in Kenya and not to India.

"When you work in Kenyan politics -- politics in African countries -- if a deal goes wrong, you can pay for it," he said.

According to Romania-Insider.com., Muresan was the son of former Romanian Agriculture Minister Ioan Avram Muresan.

Dehaye, who is the co-founder of Personal.Data.IO, said Muresan worked simultaneously on projects in Kenya and India. He suggested that journalists from Romania, Kenya and India should collaborate to piece together Muresan's and CA's activities.

Wylie said he succeeded Muresan on some of CA's projects, but did not know about his death when he joined the organisation.

Labour MP Paul Farelly, who conducted the questioning on India, noted that it was "tops in terms of members" of Facebook.

CA has been accused of illegally using data of tens of millions of Facebook users for political work on behalf of its clients. Farelly described India as a "country rife with opportunities for destabilisation".

He said that as the "world's largest democracy with lots and lots of elections all the time", India was a prime source of business" and asked for more details of CA's involvement there.

Dehaye said Muresan was "working for Congress apparently, according to reports from India".

"But apparently, he was paid for by an Indian billionaire, who actually wanted the Congress to lose," he added. "So he was pretending to work for one party, but was paid underhand by someone else. That seems to be the reports that are coming from India."

Wylie, who came to the hearing with his hair dyed pink, said that besides the work for Congress, CA has "done all kinds of projects" in India.

"I don't remember a project, but I know regionally," he added. "India is so big that one state can be as big as Britain."

He said that he had some documentation on CA's involvement in India and offered to share it with the committee. Damian Collins, the committee chair, asked him to provide the documentation.
Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday cited a sting by a news website to get back at those targeting him unfairly, saying he can never hate those who try to stir up hate against him.

"I can never hate those who try to stir up hate against me, with fake stories and their cunning twisting of fact. For them it's just business; hate sold for a price, as the Cobrapost expose shows. I'm blessed and honoured that they make their livelihoods spinning lies about me," Gandhi said in a tweet.

Cobrapost, a website that is known for journalistic sting operations, had alleged on Monday that a sting operation on some media houses has revealed that they were ready to peddle Hindutva agenda to polarise voters on communal lines for money.

It alleged that the media houses also agreed to malign images of opposition leaders like Congress President Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and leaders from the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party.

It said they were even ready to target Union Ministers like Arun Jaitley, Maneka Gandhi, Jayant Sinha and others from BJP allies like Upendra Kushwaha, Om Prakash Rajbhar and Anupriya Patel.

--IANS

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China told the US that North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un visited Beijing this week, the White House has said.

The communication on Monday between Beijing and Washington also included a message from Chinese President Xi Jinping for his US counterpart, Donald Trump, a statement said on Tuesday, Efe news reported.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said the US has discussed Kim's visit with South Korea and Japan.

"We see this development as further evidence that our campaign of maximum pressure is creating the appropriate atmosphere for dialogue with North Korea," she said.

Kim Jong-un travelled with his wife Ri Sol-ju on Sunday to Beijing making it his first overseas visit since coming to power in 2011.

During the visit, Kim met Xi and expressed his commitment to achieve the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.

--IANS

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The CPI-M on Wednesday demanded deployment of para-military forces in the tense areas like Asansol in West Bengal and urged the Mamata Banerjee government to take the initiative for requisitioning the army's services in view of the unrest related to Ram Navami processions.

Expressing "deep concern" over the armed processions in various parts of the state around Ram Navami, Communist Party of India-Marxist State Secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra said three lives have been lost, while the property of many poor and middle classes people have been damaged.

"Even police personnel have come under attack. The Hindutva forces have been inciting people and carrying out attacks. People are terrorised."

Refering to the violence in Asansol of Paschim Bardhaman district, Mishra alleged in a statement that the state administration has "totally failed" to control the situation.

"In such a scenario, the CPI-M demands deployment of para-military forces in troubled areas like Asansol. If need be, the state government should take the initiative for army deployment."

--IANS

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Key Indian equity indices traded on a lower note during the mid-afternoon session on Wednesday following negative global peers, along with heavy selling pressure in metals, banking and healthcare stocks.

According to market observers, investors traded on a cautious note ahead of March derivatives expiry.

Around 1.15 p.m., the Nifty50 of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) fell by 52.90 points or 0.52 per cent to trade at 10,131.25 points.

The barometer 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the BSE, which opened at 33,098.09 points, traded at 33,004.74 points -- down 169.65 points or 0.51 per cent from the previous session's close.

The Sensex has so far touched a high of 33,104.11 points and a low of 32,946.04 during the intra-day trade.

The BSE market breadth was bearish with 1,621 declines and 822 advances.

"Sensex and Nifty50 declined in early morning trade following losses in global equities. US stocks fell sharply on the back of losses in technology names," said Dhruv Desai, Director and Chief Operating Officer of Tradebulls.

On Tuesday, the indices gained for the second consecutive trade session as positive global cues, coupled with the Central government's plan to reduce borrowing, uplifted investors' sentiments.

The NSE Nifty50 edged higher by 53.50 points or 0.53 per cent to close at 10,184.15 points, while the BSE Sensex closed at 33,174.39 points -- up 107.98 points or 0.33 per cent.

--IANS

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Four members of an inter-state gang have been arrested for helping candidates cheat in online examinations of the Staff Selection Commission, police said on Wednesday.

The arrested accused Sonu Singh, Param, Gaurav and Ajay Jaiswal are residents of Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad, Haryana's Bahadurgarh and Delhi. Two accomplices Harpal and Anni are still at large.

The accused were arrested on Tuesday during a joint operation by the Delhi Police and the Special Task Force of the Uttar Pradesh Police from a flat in north Delhi's Timarpur while they were helping candidates appearing in an exam, STF Inspector General of Police Amitabh Yash said.

They were allegedly using screen-sharing software to access computers used by the candidates to help them cheat, for which they charged over Rs 3 lakh from each candidate. They were operating the racket since 2011, Yash said.

While gang leader Harpal provided the necessary infrastructure and logistics to the gang, Sonu helped contact candidates.

Police seized 10 mobile phones, three laptops, five bluetooth devices, one hard disk, a pen drive, router, three luxury cars and Rs 5 lakh, the officer added.

Police is scanning the mobile phones and laptops of the accused to ascertain the number of candidates who availed of their services.

--IANS

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A French police officer who died after he offered himself in exchange for a hostage in a supemarket siege was honoured in Paris on Wednesday.

Lt Col Arnaud Beltrame, 44, was one of four victims of the shooting spree in the Super U supermarket in southern town of Trebes on Friday.

An armed man took hostages and barricaded himself in the supermarket, leading to a tense stand-off with police in which four people were killed.

Col. Beltrame exchanged places with one of the hostages and was subsequently shot, a sacrifice that saw him praised by President Emmanuel Macron, who later in the day will award him France's highest accolade Legion d'Honneur, the BBC reported.

Macron said he "fell as a hero" after showing "exceptional courage and selflessness".

Crowds watched in the rain as the officer's coffin was taken in procession through the streets of Paris to Les Invalides, where the President will deliver an eulogy in front of dozens of Col. Beltrame's friends, family and colleagues.

Earlier, a minute's silence was observed in all police stations across France and flags were lowered to half-mast on public buildings.

After the ceremony, Col. Beltrame's coffin will be taken back to Carcassone for his funeral. The officer's actions helped bring an end to the siege in the supermarket by 25-year-old Redouane Lakdim.

Lakdim was said to have demanded the release of Salah Abdeslam, the key surviving suspect in the November 2015 attacks in Paris which killed 130 people.

The gunman had been on an extremist watch list and was known to authorities as a petty criminal, but intelligence services had determined he did not pose a threat. He was shot dead by police.

Sixteen people were injured, two seriously, in what was the worst jihadist attack under Macron's presidency.

Lakdim's girlfriend is reportedly a convert to Islam who has been known to security services for at least a year. On Tuesday, she was placed under formal investigation accused of "associating with terrorists preparing attacks" and remains in police custody.

Another person, a 17-year-old friend of the gunman, was released on Monday after being questioned.

--IANS

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Hyderabad-based Startup 'GoliSoda', on Wednesday announced the launch of 10 ethnic natural beverages under the brand name 'GoliSoda'.

The proprietary, preservative free, ethnic thirst quenchers with seasonal local produce will be available in major drive-ins and in 90 restaurants in Hyderabad including online delivery platform, Swiggy. The company also announced the launch of 10 new outlets that will begin operations immediately.

'GoliSoda' started piloting the product to introduce the most sought-after native thirst quenchers - coconut water, sugarcane juice, 'badam' (almond) milk, rose milk, fruit milk, Arabian style pulpy grape juice, nannari sherbet, spiced buttermilk, watermelon juice and paanakam.

The 300 ml coconut water bottle is priced at Rs 60 whereas the enriched milk range is priced at Rs 65 per unit.

"Over the past one year, we have been working on our research and development as well as piloting the natural thirst quencher beverages online with Swiggy, in few of drive-ins and in some restaurants before we brought it to the market," said Ravi Teja Jallepalli, Founder, GoliSoda.

Currently, the company is selling 2,000 bottles every day. "This summer, we aim to clock sales of 12,000 bottles per day, targeting all age groups that are willing to try something new and tasteful," said Jallepalli, a Chartered Accountant and Economics degree holder from London School of Economics.

After the consolidation of the market in Hyderabad, the company plans to launch its products in Bengaluru followed by Chennai.

According to Jallepalli, the company clocked Rs.1 crore revenue first year during the product testing itself. "We are looking at a 15x growth this year. We foresee a big potential in the B2B segment and we are working towards consolidating our penetration in this segment," 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.)
A gunfight started on Wednesday between the security forces and militants in Sunderbani area in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district, official said.

"Following suspicious movements in Sunderbani area on Wednesday morning, a search operation was launched by the security forces," police said.

"As the security forces closed in on the hiding militants, they fired at the security forces triggering an encounter which is underway," a police officer said.

Police also said suspicious movements were first noticed by the sentry of a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) battalion headquarters in the area who fired in the air after which army, CRPF and Jammu and Kashmir Police started a search operation during which the hiding militants were spotted, police said.

--IANS

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Heritage Foods Limited (HFL), a leading dairy company owned by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu's family, will make a capital expenditure of Rs 100-Rs 120 crore every year to achieve its revenue target of Rs 6,000 crore by 2022.

The capex will be in the back-end processing as well as front-end like freezers and chillers over the next four years, said Nara Brahmani, executive director of HFL on Wednesday.

She told reporters that the company registered a 30 per cent growth as of Q3 of the current financial year and was on course to achieve its Rs 6,000 crore target. The company had close to Rs 2,700 crore revenues in 2016-17.

"This is quite encouraging. We have grown organically and inorganically by acquiring Reliance's dairy business," she said while launching a new premium range of ice-creams under the brand name Heritage 'Alpenvie'.

Brahmani, who is also the daughter-in-law of Chandrababu Naidu, said initially these products will be available in key metros in the South and West and will eventually expand nationally. The company plans to invest Rs 80 crore over the next four years in the ice-cream business.

Brahmani said that for ice-cream they had a processing facility in Hyderabad with 20,000 litres per day capacity. "We need to be selling 50,000 litres per day by 2022. For that we have to look at one or two more processing facilities," she said.

The revenue from the ice-cream business is expected to be Rs 230 crore by 2022.

HFL achieved 14 per cent growth in terms of revenues till 2017 but it is looking at 25 per cent growth over the next four years. Brahmani believes this is achievable as the company divested its retail business and is now focusing only on the dairy business.

"Our vision has changed. We want to focus more on value-added dairy products. We are looking at partnerships and acquisition, if possible. We have the advantage of direct milk sourcing which is the biggest challenge in the Indian dairy market which is growing at 15 per cent year-on-year whereas milk production is growing at four-five per cent," she said.

The company significantly rationalised Reliance's dairy business, which it recently acquired. It also acquired a new plant in Ludhiana with an investment of around Rs 20 crore to be able to cater to the Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh markets.

"We have three third party processing facilities that have turned into own facilities. We are looking at doubling volumes in that market in next one year," she said.

HFL, which signed a joint venture with a French dairy company Novandie, plans to launch flavoured yoghurt by the end of 2018.

The company is currently processing 15 lakh litres of milk and milk products per day. It has set a target to increase this to 28 lakh litres by 2022.

HFL currently has a 10-12 per cent market share in the dairy business in the country. It has 16 processing plants and is operating in 15 states. In 2017-18 it acquired two plants and expanded one plant.

The company is focusing on value-added products, which are expected to contribute to 40 per cent in the revenues by 2022. This was 24 per cent last year. Curd will contribute 70 per cent of this revenue. The company claims to be the number one private sector player in curd and is planning to have a presence in the northern markets.

Brahmani clarified that the 2022 revenue target currently does not include any acquisitions. "However, if we come across any interesting ones, we will look at that," she said adding that they will look at companies which will not cannibalise HFL's existing business.

--IANS

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India on Wednesday strongly condemned the missile attacks on Saudi Arabia earlier this week targetting capital Riyadh and other cities by Houthi militias in Yemen.

"We strongly condemn the renewed missile attacks targeting civilian areas in the direction of Riyadh and other cities of Saudi Arabia," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in response to media queries.

"We are deeply concerned about the escalating situation threatening the lives of innocent civilians," he said. "We reiterate our resolve to fight terrorism and violence in all its forms."

Yemeni Houthi rebels fired several long-range ballistic missiles into Saudi territory on Sunday midnight.

At a press conference in Riyadh, Turki Al-Malki, the spokesperson for the Saudi-led Arab coalition, alleged the Iran-backed Houthi militias launched as many as seven ballistic missiles on March 26 "carrying the stamp of the terror-sponsor Iranian regime".

Al-Malki said three of the missiles were fired at Riyadh and one Egyptian civilian was killed when fragments landed in a suburb. One missile was fired towards Khamis Mushait in the province of Asir, another towards Najran and the other two at Jizan.

He said the scattering splinters of the missiles have dispersed over a number of Riyadh civilian-populated neighbourhoods, in a flagrant violation of the international law.

Al-Malki stressed that coalition countries have the right to legitimate self-defence as stipulated in Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations and preserving the Kingdom's right to retaliate against Iran at the appropriate time and form guaranteed by international law and the inherent right to defend its territory, people and interests under international conventions, including the Charter of the United Nations.

Iran has repeatedly disavowed any links to these attacks.

--IANS

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Indian and Pakistani officials will discuss here on Thursday and Friday the Permanent Indus Commission (PIC), established under the Indus Waters Treaty.

The PIC is mandated to establish and maintain cooperative arrangements for the implementation of the treaty and to promote cooperation between the two sides in developing the Indus water systems.

The 113th meeting of the Commission was held in Pakistan in March last year. The 114th meeting in New Delhi will cover technical grounds.

Pakistan has been protesting over the design and construction of two projects - the 330 MW Kishanganga hydroelectric project and the 850 MW Ratle hydroelectric project - by India on the tributaries of the Indus in Jammu and Kashmir.

The Indus Waters Treaty was signed in 1960 and involves six rivers: the Beas, Ravi, Sutlej, Indus, Chenab and Jhelum.

Brokered by the World Bank, the treaty gave the right to use waters of the first three rivers to India and of the other three rivers to Pakistan.

India has said it has the right under the treaty to set up hydropower plants on the tributaries of the rivers flowing through its territory. Pakistan fears this might reduce the water flow into its territory.

--IANS

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After keeping it under wraps and the world guessing, China on Wednesday announced North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was indeed in Beijing, and met Chinese President Xi Jinping.

An arrival of a special North Korean train and heightened security in Beijing had led the media to believe Kim was in town but neither Beijing nor Pyongyang let on until Wednesday morning when China's state-controlled Xinhua news agency flashed the news.

The news outlet described Kim's visit from Sunday to Wednesday as "unofficial" and said the North Korean leader and Xi discussed Korean Peninsula nuclear crisis.

Kim told Xi that the situation on the Korean Peninsula was improving, as Pyongyang has taken the initiative to ease tensions and decided to talk to Seoul and Washington.

A reclusive Kim is due to meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in next month and US President Donald Trump in May on North Korea's nuclear tests.

China is North Korea's sole ally. Their friendship dates back to the Korean War when Beijing stood by Pyongyang.

However, North's testing of ballistic missiles by defying sanctions has frustrated China which is wary of a war in the neighbourhood.

"It is our consistent stand to be committed to denuclearisation on the peninsula, in accordance with the will of late President Kim Il Sung and late General Secretary Kim Jong Il," Kim told Xi.

Kim said North Korea is determined to transform the inter-Korean ties into a relationship of reconciliation and cooperation and hold summit between the heads of the two sides.

Pypongyang is willing to have dialogue with the US and hold a summit of the two countries, he said.

"The issue of denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula can be resolved, if South Korea and the US respond to our efforts with goodwill, create an atmosphere of peace and stability while taking progressive and synchronous measures for the realisation of peace," said Kim.

Xi said positive changes had taken place on the Korean Peninsula since this year, and China appreciates the important efforts made by North Korea.

Xi said China sticks to the goal of denuclearisation of the peninsula, safeguarding peace and stability on the peninsula and solving problems through dialogue and consultation.

China calls on all parties to support the improvement of inter-Korean ties, and take concrete efforts to facilitate peace talks, said Xi, noting China will continue to play constructive role on the issue and work with all parties, including North Korea, toward the thaw of the situation in the peninsula.

--IANS

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Former Bihar Chief Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad, who is behind bars following his conviction in four fodder scam cases, on Wednesday left for AIIMS in New Delhi for treatment.

Lalu Prasad left for the national capital by the Rajdhani Express in the evening.

A special CBI court had on Tuesday given approval to take the RJD chief to AIIMS for treatment. It granted the permission based on reports by two medical teams.

Hundreds of RJD workers gathered at the Ranchi Railway Station to see off the former Bihar Chief Minister.

As he was brought to the station under heavy security, slogans like "Jail ka phatak tootega, Lalu chootega (Gate of jail will be broken and Lalu Prasad will walk free)" were chanted by the supporters.

Three party leaders accompanied him in the train.

A medical board was constituted last week in the local Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), where Lalu Prasad was shifted from jail on March 17 after he complained of chest pain and discomfort.

The medical board recommended that Lalu Prasad be shifted to a higher medical centre as he has multiple health-related issues which needed better care and monitoring. A second medical board on Monday recommended to send him to AIIMS.

Lalu Yadav has been in the Ranchi jail since December 23 last year when he was convicted by a special CBI court for fraudulent withdrawal from the Deoghar treasury and was subsequently awarded three-and-a-half years' of imprisonment on January 6 this year.

On January 24, he was awarded five years of imprisonment in the Chaibasa treasury case, while on March 24 he was awarded 14 years of imprisonment and a fine of Rs 60 lakh in the Dumka treasury case.

The RJD supremo was convicted in the first fodder scam case in 2013 and awarded five years in jail. The court had charged the RJD chief with fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 47 lakh from the treasuries in Banka and Bhagalpur districts. But later, he was granted bail.

--IANS

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The first liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipment from the US state of Texas will reach India within a week to provide a thrust to the country's move towards a gas economy, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Wednesday.

Briefing reporters following a meeting here with Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who is in India on an eight-day visit, Pradhan said: "The first consignment of natural gas from Texas, of a 9-million tonne LNG long-term contract, will reach Dabhol in Maharashtra in early April."

To a query on India entering into more such long-term contracts for import of the clean fuel, Pradhan said this would depend on the increase in the country's off-take capacity.

"After all, 9 million tonnes is not a small amount. We are adding to our infrastructure in terms of pipelines, regasification capacity, LNG terminals...," he said.

Texas -- the American oil and gas industry hub -- has also sent its first oil shipment to India that is due to arrive soon, Abbot said.

"Texas has more LNG export facilities now and we will also be adding to our oil export facilities," he said.

"Texas is a willing partner to provide oil and gas to satisfy the energy needs of India, which is the most prolific economy in the world," Abbot added.

Lauding the contribution of the growing Indian-origin population of Texas to its economy and culture, Abbot said he is the first Governor of the state to have started Diwali celebrations at his official residence.

--IANS

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Following an uproar, the Maharashtra government on Wednesday withdrew a controversial circular extending school working days by over a month, barely 24 hours after it was issued.

Minister Vinod Tawde said the notification of the Maharashtra Academic Authority (MAA), Pune, stands withdrawn and Class I to IX students shall not be required to attend school till April 30.

"The notification stands withdrawn... and the decision of MAA has been cancelled. If needed, we shall consider it next year," Tawde announced in the Maharashtra Legislature.

Strongly opposing the notification, Mumbai Principals Association Secretary Prashant Redij sought to know "what was the need to implement a Government Resolution of 2005-2006 after so many years and that too at the last minute".

"Lakhs of families of schoolchildren have already made their bookings to travel outstation for summer vacations, their families have taken leave and this will create havoc with their plans... What was the need for such a hasty move... Sufficient notice should have been given for it," Redij told IANS.

Defending the notification, MAA Director Sunil Magar said it was issued as per a Government Resolution (GR) and was perfectly in order, though there are some misconceptions about it.

"It is not curtailing school vacations or extending school working hours in any manner, but only seeks to implement conducting workshops, co-curricular and extra-curricular activities for the students," Magar told IANS.

However, now it stands cancelled and Redij said schools, parents and children can heave a sigh of relief.

--IANS

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A group of parliamentarians from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) said on Wednesday that a proposed bill regulating fake news in Malaysia violates freedom of expression and called for its withdrawal.

A large protest was held outside Parliament in Kuala Lumpur calling for MPs to reject the bill, Efe news agency reported.

Asean Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) said in a statement that the proposal "would impose unjust restrictions on freedom of opinion and expression and further empower the government to arbitrarily go after critics".

"This so-called 'fake news' bill is an affront to fundamental freedoms and poses a debilitating threat to journalism, activism, and informed civic discourse," said APHR board member and a member of the Philippines House of Representatives, Teddy Baguilat.

The Director of Amnesty International for Southeast Asia, James Gomez, said on Tuesday that it was no coincidence that Malaysia had decided to table this law with the general elections just around the corner, to limit any public debate on the issue.

"With both Singapore and the Philippines considering their own 'fake news' legislation, we call on all countries in the region to refrain from following this dangerous trend," Gomez said.

The bill proposed maximum penalties of up to 10 years imprisonment and fines of $129,000 for anyone who knowingly creates or shares "fake news".

The proposal also stipulated that the penalties will be imposed on individuals irrespective of their nationality, citizenship, or location when the fake news affects Malaysia or its citizens.

The measure was proposed a few months ahead of the next general elections in which Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak will seek another term amid criticism for his alleged involvement in a graft scandal.

An investigation by The Wall Street Journal and the Sarawak Report portal revealed some $700 million had been siphoned off the public investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhard (1MDB) into the Prime Minister's personal account.

Najib and 1MDB denied having committed any crime and an investigation by the Malaysian Prosecutor's Office exonerated the former in January 2016. The polls in Malaysia must take place before August 24.

--IANS

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West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday expressed her gratitude towards Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati for her comments on the Narendra Modi-led BJP government.

In a tweet she wrote, "Thank you Mayawati Ji for your comments about Bengal. You have exposed the BJP govt. BJP govt is scared as we are all working together."

Mayawati accused the Modi government of having different standards for West Bengal and slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for trying to create unrest by carrying out a "protest with arms".

A clash broke out between two groups centering a Ram Navami procession in the state's Raniganj on Monday.

A person was allegedly hacked to death while the Deputy Commissioner of Police lost a hand after getting hit by a bomb.

Tension soared high as several shops and houses were vandalised and set ablaze. Police have arrested 19 people so far for fomenting trouble.

Heavy police force has been deployed and police pickets put up in the area since Monday evening to prevent any more untoward incidents. Police claimed the situation was under control.

--IANS

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called for talks on trade policy between the European Union (EU) and the US in a telephone call with US President Donald Trump.

"The Chancellor called for a dialogue process between the EU and the US on trade policy, taking into account the rules-based international trade system," German government spokesperson Steffen Seibert said in a statement on Tuesday, Xinhua reported.

The US has decided to grant a temporary exemption to the EU and six other economies from the steel and aluminium tariffs signed off by Trump earlier this month.

Despite widespread dissent from business groups and trading partners around the world, Trump signed proclamations two weeks ago to impose a 25-per cent tariff on imported steel and a 10-per cent tariff on aluminium, which took effect last Friday.

Merkel and Trump reaffirmed the desire for continued close cooperation between the two governments, according to Seibert.

In light of Salisbury's nerve gas incident, Merkel and Trump underscored their solidarity with Britain, according to Seibert's statement.

Britain blamed Russia for the incident but Russia denied.

The US, Germany, France and some other European countries and NATO have followed Britain in expelling Russian diplomats as retaliation.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
NASA is now targeting May 2020 for the launch of its James Webb Space Telescope, the $8 billion dollar Hubble successor.

The announcement on Tuesday made after an independent assessment of remaining tasks for the highly complex space observatory further pushes the launch target of the next-generation space telescope by about a year.

"Webb is the highest priority project for the agency's Science Mission Directorate, and the largest international space science project in US history," said acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot.

"All the observatory's flight hardware is now complete, however, the issues brought to light with the spacecraft element are prompting us to take the necessary steps to refocus our efforts on the completion of this ambitious and complex observatory," Lightfoot said.

Testing the hardware on the observatory's telescope element and spacecraft element demonstrate that these systems individually meet their requirements.

However, recent findings from the project's Standing Review Board (SRB) indicate more time is needed to test and integrate these components together and then perform environmental testing at Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems in Redondo Beach, California, the project's observatory contractor.

NASA said it is also establishing an external Independent Review Board (IRB), chaired by Thomas Young, a highly respected NASA and industry veteran who is often called on to chair advisory committees and analyse organisational and technical issues.

NASA will consider the findings and recommendations of both the boards' findings for defining a more specific launch time frame.

The US space agency will then provide its assessment in a report to Congress this summer.

Webb is an international project led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.

NASA will work with its partner, ESA, on a new launch readiness date for the Ariane 5 vehicle that will launch Webb into space.

ESA is providing the Ariane 5 as part of its scientific collaboration.

Once a new launch readiness date is determined, NASA said it will provide a cost estimate that may exceed the projected $8 billion development cost to complete the final phase of testing and prepare for launch.

Additional steps to address project challenges include increasing NASA engineering oversight, personnel changes, and new management reporting structures.

"Considering the investment NASA and our international partners have made, we want to proceed systematically through these last tests, with the additional time necessary, to be ready for a May 2020 launch," said Thomas Zurbuchen, Associate Administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

--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 Wednesday called for considering whether there is need for setting up a body of full-time experts to assist in "identifying, scrutinising and evaluating" the candidates to be appointed judges of Supreme Court and the high courts at the pre-appointment stage.

"There is need to consider ... whether there should be a body of full time experts, without affecting the independence of judiciary, to assist in identifying, scrutinising and evaluating candidates at pre-appointment stage and evaluating the performance post appointment," said the bench of Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel and Justice Uday Umesh Lalit in their judgement.

Pending consideration of issue of All India Judicial Service, the court said that there was need to consider the proposal for "central selection mechanism" for filling up vacancies in courts other than the Constitutional Courts and also to "consider as to how to supplement inadequacies in the present system of appointment of judges to the Constitutional Courts at all levels".

It further said that the "government may also consider what changes are required in the process of evaluation of candidates at its level so that no wrong candidate is appointed".

"What steps are required for ensuring righteous conduct of judges at later stage is also an issue for consideration," the court said in its conclusions.

This court said this in its conclusions focusing on de-clogging the courts of pending cases including arrears, curbing frequent strikes by lawyers and other issues.

It said that the authorities concerned "may examine whether there is need for any changes in the judicial structure by creating appropriate fora to decongest the Constitutional Courts so as to realistically achieve the constitutional goal of speedy justice".

Taking a strong view on the "frequent" strikes by lawyers, the court said that pending "legislative measures to check the malady of frequent uncalled for strikes obstructing access to justice, the Ministry of Law and Justice may compile information and present a quarterly report on strikes/abstaining from work, loss caused and action proposed".

It further said that the matter can thereafter be considered in the "contempt or inherent jurisdiction of this court."

It said that the Court may direct having regard to a fact situation, that the "office bearers of the Bar Association/Bar Council who passed the resolution for strikes or abstaining from work or took other steps in that direction are liable to be restrained from appearing before any court for a specified period or till they purge themselves of contempt to the satisfaction of the Chief Justice of the concerned High Court based on an appropriate undertaking/conditions."

It said that the "frequent uncalled for strikes by the lawyers" seriously affects access to justice as even cases of persons languishing in custody are delayed on that account.

"Tax payers' money is lost on account of judicial and public time being lost. Nobody is accountable for such loss and harassment," said the court, as it asked the central government to file an affidavit in the light of its observations within three months.

The matter, the court said, may be listed for consideration of the above affidavit on Wednesday, July 4 before the appropriate Bench.

The top court said this in its judgment on an appeal by Krishnakant Tamrakar challenging the Madhya Pradesh High Court rejecting his bail twice in life sentence for murder despite his being in custody for more than ten years.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
An agreement on protecting classified data was signed by India and France on March 10, 2018, replacing an earlier agreement signed in 2008, Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre said on Wednesday.

"An agreement between India and France regarding the Exchange and Reciprocal Protection of Classified or Protected Information was signed on March 10, 2018, during the visit of President of France to India," Bhamre said in the Lok Sabha.

"This agreement defines the common security regulations applicable to any exchange of classified and protected information between the two countries."

Bhamre was responding to a question by Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MP Muttamsetti Srinivasa Rao, who sought to know if India and France had signed any new confidentiality agreement replacing the 2008 pact.

The Minister's statement becomes significant in the backdrop of the opposition demanding details of the Rafale fighter jets deal from France, while the government has been sticking to its stand that it cannot reveal the price of the fighter jets in the interest of national security and because of a confidentiality agreement signed by the two countries in 2008 under the UPA government.

The Congress alleges that there are irregularities in the deal for buying 36 Rafale fighter jets off-the-shelf from France.

It also claims that the fighter jets are being bought from France at a price higher than what was negotiated in the previous multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) deal under which 126 fighter jets were to be bought.

The government has, however, been maintaining that the price India is getting under the Inter-Government Agreement is lesser than the MMRCA deal.

--IANS

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The Rajya Sabha was on Wednesday adjourned till Monday soon after it met after the lunch break.

As soon as the House was reconvened at 3.40 p.m., Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien tried to take up a short duration discussion on banking fraud to be moved by BJP's Roopa Ganguly and Janata Dal United's Harivansh.

However, senior Congress leader Anand Sharma objected to it, asking the Chair as to why the notices given by the opposition leaders on the same topic (bank fraud) were not being accepted.

"Why are our notices on bank fraud not being accepted though notices from the members of the ruling party are accepted? As per the rules, we must be informed, the House must be informed, as to why our notices were not in order," he said.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Vijay Goel said that if the members did not want the short duration discussion, then other government business can be taken up.

Meanwhile the AIADMK, TDP and the opposition members trooped near the Chair's podium. Earlier, AIADMK member A. Navaneethakrishnan said that back in Tamil Nadu, people were asking AIADMK MPs to resign from Parliament since they could not do anything about the Cauvery water issue.

Amid the pandemonium, Kurien adjourned the House till Monday - as Thursday and Friday are holidays.

Earlier, the upper House bid farewell to its retiring members.

--IANS

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The Odisha Assembly continued to witness a logjam over the Lokayukta appointment issue for the third successive day on Wednesday as the Congress and the BJP members created a ruckus.

As soon as the House met for the day, members from both the parties trooped near the Speaker's podium, raising slogans demanding the appointment of the Lokayukta.

The Opposition MLAs also carried placards, levelling corruption charges against the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) government.

Unable to run the House, Speaker Pradip Kumar Amat adjourned it till 11.30 a.m.

The noisy scenes continued after the members reassembled. Later, the Speaker adjourned the House till 3 p.m. and called an all-party meeting to resolve the deadlock.

Leader of Opposition Narasingh Mishra said the state government is deliberately delaying the appointment of the Lokayukta.

Bharatiya Janata Party member Rabi Naik said while the opposition has been demanding a statement from the Chief Minister on the issue, he is not replying on the appointment of the Lokayukta as the BJD leaders will be entangled in chit fund, mining, dal and other scams.

--IANS

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The Russian ambassador to Australia denied the presence of spies from his country in Australia, a day after the Australian government expelled two alleged intelligence agents in response to the Sergei Skripal poisoning case in Britain.

"My best wish is that what is happening won't cause serious damage to our relations because we have spent quite serious efforts together with Australian colleagues within the last two years to gain some positive momentum," Ambassador Grigory Logvinov told reporters, Efe news reported on Wednesday.

When asked how many Russian spies are in Australia and how many remain after the alleged two were expelled, the diplomat responded "zero minus zero is still zero".

Australia's decision to deport the spies is part of a coordinated measure of several governments worldwide, which led to at least 150 Russian diplomats being expelled in response to the nerve agent attack on Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter earlier in March in the UK.

The British government blamed Russia for the attack.

"What's happening is a well-orchestrated campaign," Logvinov said in reference to the allegations against Russia, and criticised the press for believing the British and overlooking the facts, as well as denouncing the lack of evidence linking the incident to Moscow.

"If the West would follow this line, I'm afraid we will be deeply in a Cold War situation," said the Russian ambassador, who avoided commenting on possible reprisals.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop earlier said she expected reprisals to happen, according to an interview with Channel 9.

Bishop, who is scheduled to meet with Logvinov on Wednesday, said that although the Russian government has not responded to Australia's decision yet, the ambassador said he would consider all possible options.

Australia imposed economic sanctions on Russia in 2014 over the Russian annexation of Crimea, and hardened the punitive measures after a Malaysian Airlines aircraft was shot down in eastern Ukraine by pro-Russian rebels.

--IANS

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External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday left for a three-day visit to Japan during which she will co-chair the Ninth India-Japan Strategic Dialogue with Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono.

"Strengthening our Special Strategic and Global Partnership with Japan! EAM @SushmaSwaraj departs on a 3-day visit to Japan for the 9th India-Japan Foreign Minister's Strategic Dialogue in Tokyo," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted.

India and Japan will review all aspects of bilateral relations and exchange views on regional and international issues of common interest during the Strategic Dialogue to be held on Thursday.

India-Japan ties have been on the upswing after the bilateral relationship was elevated to a Special Strategic and Global Partnership during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Japan in 2014.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit to India in September last year for the annual bilateral summit gave fresh impetus to the ties. During that visit, the ground breaking ceremony of the Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train project, to be built with Japanese aid, was also held.

"Japan is today one of the largest investors in India, with a growing presence in infrastructure projects, manufacturing, financial markets and capacity-building, among others," an External Affairs Ministry statement said.

India-Japan trade stood at $13.61 billion in fiscal 2016-17, showing a decrease of 6.21 per cent over fiscal 2015-16, when the total trade was $14.51 billion. The bilateral trade during April-August 2017 was $6.183 billion.

The two countries are also part of the recently revived quad that also includes the US and Australia and seeks to work for peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region.

--IANS

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Swedish luxury watch brand GoS has formed a strategic alliance with capital-based Excedo Luxuria to retail GoS watches in India.

Excedo Luxuria has exclusive marketing and distribution rights for the GoS brand across India.

"GoS is a niche luxury brand in the design-driven category of sophisticated watches from Sweden and offers an exclusive selection of timepieces designed by a renowned watchmaker. I am sure collectors and aficionados will appreciate this art form," Rahul Kapoor, Co-founder, Excedo Luxuria, said in a statement.

Patrik Sjogren of GoS watches said this was the right time for the brand to enter the Indian market.

--IANS

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Tension prevailed over parts of Raniganj and adjoining areas in West Bengal's Paschim Burdwan district on Wednesday following clashes over Ram Navami rallies, even as the state government rushed a crack police team including senior officiers to prevent any breach of peace, sources said.

"We are maintaining a tight vigil. So far things are normal. We expect everybody to maintain peace", said a senior police officer posted at one of the troubled locations.

A clash broke out between two groups centering a Ram Navmi procession in Raniganj on Monday. A person was allegedly hacked to death while a Deputy Commissioner of Police lost a hand after getting hit by a bomb.

The Union Home Ministry has sought a report from the state government on incidents of arson and violence during the processions.

However, the Trinamool Congress government denied knowledge of any such directive from the Central government, and blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party for the unrest.

"Those who will break the law will have to pay for it. At this moment, the disturbed areas of Raniganj or Asansol should be brought under control. Those miscreants with BJP flags have tried to scupper peace and harmony of these places," said Education and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee.

"This is a deliberate attempt by the BJP to create disorder in the state," he alleged.

Chatterjee said he had no information about Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi planning to visit the affected area to see the condition of the injured senior police officer, but maintained that peace should be restored before any such trip.

"I do not have that information. But before going there, peace shou ld be restored in the area."

He also denied any knowledge of whether the Governor has been stopped from visiting the area.

"I don't know about any such development. But what I feel is peace and harmony should be restored in Raniganj and Asansol before he goes there. There is ample time for his visit."

Chatterjee also turned down the Central government's offer of assistance of paramilitary forces.

"We are capable enough to handle present situation. We have handle d more difficult situations before," he said.

Meanwhile, there was intense patrolling by police and Rapid action Force personnel in north Asansol, especially in the Dhadka area, where a police vehicle was vandalised and two Trinamooloffices torched over fresh violence over a Ram Navami procession on Tuesday.

Sources said a special team from Kolkata police led by Additional Police Commissioner Vineet Goel was being dispatched to Raniganj to prevent any more untoward situations.

Two other senior IPS officers, Siddh Nath Gupta and Jawed Shamim were also being sent to the troubled spot.

The BJP on its part alleged that the administration was trying to forcibly stop Ram Navami processions and lodging cases against its leaders.

"The administration is trying to forcibly stop this (processions). Cases are being slapped against BJP and Vishwa Hindu Parishad activists. This is only escalating the violence. If the administration wants peace, they should stop acting out of vengeance. Police should be restrained," said state BJP chief Dilip Ghosh.

Another BJP leader Mukul Roy lambasted Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for "whiling her time" in Delhi to try and cobble together a 'Third Front' while police personnel were getting injured in the state.

He also alleged there was a "state-sponsored terrorism" in Bengal.

Several shops and houses were vandalised and set ablaze over the Ram Navami related clashes in parts of Paschim Bardhaman district. Police have arrested 19 people so far for fomenting trouble.

On Sunday, five police personnel were injured as clashes broke out over a Ram Navami rally in an area under Arsha police station in Purulia district.

The BJP, which is trying to pitchfork itself as the main challenger to the Trinamool in the state, has been using the Ram Navami celebrations since last year to appeal to the sentiments of the majority Hindu population.

Sensing the BJP's motive, the Trinamool also resorted to celebrate the occasion massively on its own this year.

--IANS

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Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) President Lobsang Sangay on Wednesday said his government-in-exile "doesn't want to cause inconvenience to host India".

Speaking on cancelling of events planned by his administration earlier in New Delhi to mark the beginning of the 60th year of the Dalai Lama stepping on India soil, he told reporters here: "Whatever we do, we don't want to cause inconvenience to our hosts or to the persons who want to meet us."

"They may have particular reasons as to why these coming months are sensitive. So, we completely understand and respect that. There is no disappointment at all but rather an understanding of the situation," he said.

Sangay was responding to a media query regarding a circular issued by the Indian government relating to the "Thank You India" events starting on March 31.

Without mincing words, he said the government and people of India have done the most for Tibet.

"Every year, in all the formal and non-formal events, we Tibetans always say thank you India. I think it's important that we also demonstrate our gratitude in deeds."

"His Holiness the Dalai Lama calls himself a 'son of India'. So, we should be saying thank you a lot. Moreover, our relationship with India is like parent and children. Therefore, we want to thank India," he said.

Amidst the recent tensions with China, the Indian government was reported to have cautioned its senior officials last month to stay away from events aimed at marking the start of the Dalai Lama's 60th year of exile.

After cancelling events in the national capital, the Tibetan government-in-exile will now start pan-India "Thank You India" programmes to mark the beginning of the 60th year of the Dalai Lama arriving in India.

The Dalai Lama escaped from Tibet to India in March 1959.

To mark the events, Sangay on Wednesday released a "Thank you India" music video, performed and produced by artistes of the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts, thanking India for its hospitality and assistance.

Sangay said the yearlong events lined up as part of the campaign include a mass tree plantation drive to support a green India movement, participating in Yoga Day events organised by the government of India, distribution of food to the hungry and homeless and a mass cleanliness drive to observe the Indian government's Swachh Bharat initiative.

Acknowledging the growing Chinese pressure on global leaders on the Tibet issue, Sangay said: "Wherever I go, be it Europe, the US, the pressure is increasing."

The CTA is organising a public event here to officially launch the "Thank You India" campaign on March 31.

It will be one of the largest events ever organised by the Tibetans in Dharamsala and hundreds of guests are expected to attend, including Naren Das, a member of the first delegation that received the Dalai Lama when he first set foot on India.

Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama will attend the event.

The Dalai Lama, in an interview to CNN News18, has said he "doesn't care about how Chinese pressure forced the cancellation of the events of the Tibetan government-in-exile in Delhi".

He said it was more about "how you feel for Tibetans and how Tibetans feel for India".

The Tibetan administration in exile is based in the north Indian hill town of Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh.

--IANS

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Two Afghanistan nationals were arrested after a woman from Kazakhstan accused them of raping her in south Delhi, police said on Wednesday.

Accused Jamshed Khan, 34, and Zarmal Khan, 40 are residents of Ballimaran in old Delhi and deal in dry fruits and readymade garments."Five years ago, the woman married a Kashmiri man and began living in Hauz Rani area. Jamshed and Zarmal were known to her husband and visited their residence. They went to her residence on Sunday in her husband's absence and sexually assaulted her," a senior police officer said.

The woman approached the Malviya Nagar police station on Monday, following which a case of rape and unnatural sex was registered.

A Saket court has since sent the two accused in 14-day judicial custody.

--IANS

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The US government said it has reached an agreement with South Korea on a revised bilateral trade pact, which first entered into force in 2012.

The government also said Washington will exempt Seoul from its steel tariffs and maintain the 10 per cent tariffs on imports of South Korean aluminium.

Based on the revised agreement, South Korea will be able to trade with the US a quota equivalent to 70 per cent of South Korea's average exports to the US from 2015-2017 without the 25 per cent tariffs that President Donald Trump imposed on steel imports to his country, the US government announced on Tuesday, Efe news reported.

This will result in a 30 per cent reduction of steel shipments from South Korea to the US, according to a senior US official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

However, Washington has not reached any agreement with Seoul on the tariff exemption of aluminium, hence the 10 per cent tax will still be imposed, he added.

Last week, the Trump administration announced that it would temporarily exempt South Korea, the European Union (EU), Australia, Argentina and Brazil, as well as its NAFTA partners, Canada and Mexico, from tariffs on steel and aluminium.

The announcement on the terms to be applied with South Korea is revealing for the other countries on the US temporary tariff exemption list because the Trump administration confirmed that in future negotiations on tariffs it is planning to apply a quota to these nations in order to reduce the exports of those metals to the US.

A second senior US official said in a conference call with journalists that what this agreement makes clear is that any tariff relief in the negotiations with the US will necessarily come with a strict quota.

On the other hand, the US and South Korea are close to concluding their renegotiation of their bilateral trade agreement, which entered into force in 2012 and which Trump had criticised harshly for the deficit that Washington has accumulated.

The modifications included in the agreement are limited and fundamentally affect the automobile sector, although the US government has described them as historic.

"When this is finalised, it will be the first successful renegotiation of a trade agreement in US history," a third US official said.

Among the revisions is the extension of the 25 per cent tariff that Washington imposes on South Korean trucks until 2041, which was due to expire in 2021 under the current trade deal; in addition to the expansion from 25,000 to 50,000 vehicles from each manufacturer that the US can export each year, under its own standards, to South Korea.

South Korea has also agreed to include US pharmaceutical companies this year in its special pricing program for innovative drugs, and a bilateral currency agreement is expected to be finalized soon, officials said.

--IANS

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Several US government installations near Washington, including three military sites, received suspicious packages in the mail, the FBI reported on Tuesday.

Besides the military installations at Fort McNair and the Anacostia-Bolling naval base, both in Washington, the headquarters of the CIA, Fort Belvoir and the Naval Surface Warfare Center -- the latter three in Virginia -- also received suspicious packages, Efe reported.

"The FBI responded to multiple government facilities today for the reports of suspicious packages," the FBI said in a statement. "Each package was collected for further analysis by the FBI."

The FBI also said that the packages had been determined to contain "potential destructive devices," adding that they were apparently mailed from Seattle and announcing that one suspect has been arrested.

The man, identified as Thanh Cong Phan, 43, "was taken into custody by FBI Seattle and the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office at his residence in Everett, Washington," the bureau said.

Authorities warned, however, that it is possible that the suspect sent other package bombs that may not yet have arrived at their destinations, and so it is working with the US Postal Service to either locate such packages or rule out the possibility that they are in the mail.

Despite the fact that no official details have been released about the mailings, it is known that at least one of the objects, the one received at the National Defense University at Fort McNair, contained a black powder - which could be gunpowder - a fuse and a GPS device, although authorities rendered it harmless.

As a precaution, one of the buildings at the military installation, located in southern Washington, was evacuated, ABC News reported.

The sending of these packages comes at an especially delicate time, after Mark Anthony Conditt, 23, sowed terror for several weeks in and around Austin, Texas, by sending at least five package bombs to various locations, causing the deaths of two people and injuring five others.

Last Wednesday, as authorities were closing in to arrest him, Conditt detonated a bomb he had with him, killing himself.

--IANS

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It was the perfect photo-op when Prime Minister Narendra Modi hugged Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg during a town-hall meeting at the social media giant's sprawling headquarters at Menlo Park, California, in September 2015.

With Facebook now embroiled in a massive data breach controversy, the bonhomie appears to be over, with India warning Zuckerberg of "stringent action", including summoning him over the "misuse" of data to allegedly influence the country's electoral process.

Zuckerberg has recently said Facebook will ensure that its platform is not misused to influence elections in India and elsewhere, but after witnessing how social media platforms were infiltrated during the 2016 US presidential election and the Brexit vote in the UK, nothing can be predicted at this point of time.

While governments the world over are fast formulating new laws that deal with users' data security and privacy, and the spread of false news, India lags far behind on this front.

Is the country prepared in case a huge data security or privacy breach hits its people?

According to top cyber law experts, India as a nation has missed the broader point in the ever-changing tech landscape.

"The moot point here is: How do we regulate mobile app providers, social media players and intermediaries in terms of handling and processing the users' data? We don't have a data protection law in place. We neither have a national law on cyber security nor a national law on privacy," Pavan Duggal, the nation's leading cyber law expert, told IANS.

The absence of these critical laws has created a very fertile ground for the misuse and unauthorised access of users' data by the service providers.

"On top of it, India has not revisited its stand on intermediaries' liabilities since 2008. Also, the service providers have been given a great fillip by a judgement of the Supreme court, where the service providers are directed not to take any action till such time they get a court or a government agency order," Duggal informed.

In such a scenario, service providers are using the "Indians' data with impunity".

"They are transferring them outside the territorial boundaries of the country because we as a nation are sleeping. Once the data goes outside the country, the government loses all control. This has a detrimental impact on the protection and preservation of people's data privacy and personal privacy," Duggal stressed.

India has to learn from the European Union (EU) when it comes to formulating a legal framework to secure data.

The EU has asked businesses and service providers globally to comply with its new privacy law -- the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) -- that comes into force from May 25 this year.

The EU GDPR has been designed to harmonise data privacy laws across Europe -- to protect and empower all EU citizens' data privacy and to reshape the way organisations across the region approach data privacy.

After four years of debate, the GDPR was finally approved by the EU Parliament on April 14, 2016. Organisations that fail to comply with the new regulation will face hefty fines.

Although a white paper on data security has been published by the Indian government for all the stakeholders to deliberate upon, the country is still working on drafting a data protection bill.

"India is woefully under-prepared to address issues of data protection and cyber-security. We need a data protection law that protects citizens from misuse of data with strict liability and extremely high statutory damages that must be awarded within a strict period of time," said Mishi Choudhary, President and Legal Director of New Delhi-based Software Freedom Law Centre (SFLC.in), a not-for-profit organisation.

According to Duggal, also a noted Supreme Court lawyer, India should not cut-paste any other country's law as it has to deal with a different set of problems.

"India's social realities are entirely different. The country has to deal with the huge issue of Aadhaar which is reeling under variety of cyber attacks because we have failed to apply cyber security as an integral part of the Aadhaar architecture," Duggal told IANS.

India's approach has to be based from its soil and the country must strive for data localisation.

"India should not allow its data to be stored outside its boundaries. Service providers must (be made to pay) high penalty if they are found to be misusing the data of Indians irrespective of if they are physically located in the country or not," Duggal said.

(Nishant Arora can be contacted at nishant.a@ians.in)

--IANS

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Yemen's system has been devastated by the country's brutal conflict, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said here on Tuesday, reporting that at least half a million children have dropped out of school since the escalation of the war in 2015.

"An entire generation of children in Yemen faces a bleak future because of limited or no access to education," said Meritxell Relano, UNICEF Representative in Yemen.

"Even those who remain in school are not getting the quality they need."

The total number of out-of-school children now stands at about 2 million, and almost three quarters of public school teachers have not been paid their salaries in over a year, putting the of an additional 4.5 million children at grave risk, Xinhua reported.

More than 2,500 schools are out of use, with two thirds damaged by attacks, 27 per cent closed and 7 per cent used for military purposes or as shelters for displaced people.

Children risk being killed on their way to school. Fearing for their children's safety, many parents choose to keep their children at home, according to UNICEF.

The lack of access to education has pushed children and families to dangerous alternatives, including early marriage, child labour and recruitment into the fighting.

UNICEF appeals to the warring parties, those who have influence on them, government authorities and donors to put an end to the war, pay teachers, protect children's education unconditionally, and increase funding for education.

On March 26, 2015, a coalition of countries led by Saudi Arabia intervened militarily at the request of Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi to secure the return of the government to Sanaa, which had been seized by Houthi militias and allied units of the armed forces when the conflict initially erupted in 2014.

Three years on, the fighting is still raging and the United Nations has listed Yemen as the country of the world's number one humanitarian crisis, where seven million Yemenis are on the brink of famine.

--IANS

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Ten Yemeni soldiers trained and backed by the United Arab Emirates were killed today in an attack by armed Islamist extremists in southwest Yemen, military and medical sources said.

Five gunmen were also killed in the attack on a military post in the Hajr district of the port city Mukalla, a high-ranking military source said on condition of anonymity.

A source at the Ibn Sina military hospital in Mukalla confirmed that 10 soldiers had been pronounced dead after the attack.

Mukalla, located on the Gulf of Aden, has been controlled by the Saudi-backed government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi since 2016, when Al-Qaeda's branch in Yemen withdrew from the city.

The UAE is a key member of a military coalition, led by Saudi Arabia, which has fought alongside the Yemeni government against Yemen's Huthi rebels as well as Islamist groups.

The UAE trains and supports elite forces in southeast and southwest Yemen, including brigades stationed in Mukalla known as "Quwat al-Nokhba".

The troops were key in driving Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula out of Mukalla in April 2016, one year after they overran the coastal city in the midst of Yemen's civil war.

Islamist networks, including AQAP and the Islamic State group, have exploited the Yemen war to expand their presence in pockets across southern Yemen.

Military outposts have been regularly targeted by suicide bombings and armed attacks, some of them claimed by AQAP or IS.

The Yemen war has claimed nearly 10,000 lives since Saudi and its allies joined the conflict in March 2015, triggering what the United Nations has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

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The Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (PMSA) today apprehended nearly 24 Indian fishermen from Gujarat in the Arabian Sea, said a fishing association official.

"We have learnt that around 24 fishermen, who set sail from Porbandar in Gujarat four days ago, were apprehended by the PMSA near the international maritime border," said Manish Lodhari, the secretary of Porbandar-based National Fishworkers' Forum.

The PMSA also seized three to four boats of the fishermen, Lodhari said.

He said the Pakistani authorities were yet to confirm the exact number of fishermen apprehended and the number of boats seized by the maritime security agency.

In February this year, the PMSA had arrested 42 fishermen from Gujarat and had seized their eight boats.

Earlier in January, the PMSA had arrested 17 fishermen for allegedly fishing illegally in Pakistan's territorial waters.

In a goodwill gesture, Pakistan had in December 2017 and January this year, had released 292 Indian fishermen, imprisoned there.

As per Lodhari, the PMSA had apprehended about 400 fishermen and seized around 65 of their boats last year.

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A total of 28 cases of custodial deaths were reported from Ahmedabad city and district in the last two years, the Gujarat government today told the Legislative Assembly.

In a written reply to Congress MLA Imran Khedawala's question during Question Hour of the Budget session, Minister of State for Home Pradeepsinh Jadeja stated that 28 custodial deaths were reported in Ahmedabad district and city during the last two years.

Responding to a sub-question about the action taken against those responsible for such deaths, Jadeja stated that out of two police inspectors, who were found responsible, one has been awarded "punishment" while departmental inquiry is underway against another.

Similarly, a sub-inspector and a head constable have been given "punishment" while two head constables are facing departmental inquiry, the minister stated.

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Four terrorists were today killed in a gunfight with security forces in the Sunderbani area of Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district, the police said.

The militants had infiltrated into the Indian territory from across the Line of Control (LoC) about four-five days ago, prompting security forces to launch a search operation in the area.

Authorities had ordered the closure of educational institutions in the Sunderbani tehsil in view of the search operation.

"Four terrorists have been killed in the encounter," J&K's DirectorGeneral of Police (DGP) S P Vaid told PTI.

No injury was reported to anyone in the gunfight with the terrorists, he said.

The encounter broke out in the Nowshera-Sunderbani belt after the group of infiltrating terrorists was intercepted by the security forces early today, the DGP said.

SSP, Rajouri, Yougal Manhas said three bags containing ammunition and explosives were recovered from outside a CRPF camp in Sunderbani.

According to reports, a security guard manning the gate of the CRPF camp at Sodra fired warning shots and raised an alarm on detecting suspicious movement near the paramilitary facility.

Manhas said the police and other security forces had been conducting a combing operation to track down the militants for four to five days.

CRPF PRO Ashish Kumar Jha denied media reports that the terrorists had attacked the paramilitary CRPF camp in Sunderbani.

Earlier in the day, Deputy Commissioner, Rajouri, Shahid Iqbal Choudary ordered the closure of all educational institutions in the Sunderbani sector in view of the search operation.

Last night, two terrorists had entered the house of Bushan Kumar Sharma in the Bunpori-Yoginallah area in Sunderbani and forced the family to prepare food for them, according to reports.

Police officials said the terrorists were continuously changing hideouts to dodge the police.

This is the second biggest terror incident in the Jammu region this year.

On February 10, a group of militants had attacked the Sunjwan Army camp, killing five jawans and a civilian. Three terrorists were also gunned down by the security forces.

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A 60-year-old man allegedly committed suicide by jumping before a train near here, police said today.

The incident took place near the Mauli railway crossing on the Phagwara-Goraya section last night, GRP Post In-charge Gurbhej Singh said.

The deceased was identified as Pala Ram, a resident of Takhran village, he said, adding that the man jumped before the Jaipur-Amritsar Express.

The reason behind him taking the extreme step is not known, he said.

The body was handed over to his family after post mortem at the local Civil hospital today, the GRP official said.

A case under Section 174 of the CrPC was also registered, he said.

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Airports Authority of India (AAI) has signed an MoU with a state-run hospital for providing a Teletherapy and Brachytherapy unit for cancer care here.

The initiative was part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative, AAI said in a release here.

AAI, Chennai airport, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Tamil Nadu Government Multi Super Speciality Hospital here and the radiotherapy equipment will be installed at the hospital within 36 weeks, it said.

"The project has been approved for Rs 18.5 crore by the Airports Authority of India and it is the highest value of single CSR project undertaken in Tamil Nadu," the release added.

As part of its CSR, AAI has taken several steps to sustain and empower under-privileged communities near its airports and provide necessary help in socio-economic development of the region, the release said.

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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says he is worried that security threats to Japan, including short- and medium-range missiles, may not be discussed at a U.S.-North Korea summit.

Abe told parliament today he is worried President Donald Trump will focus on intercontinental ballistic missiles and forget shorter-range missiles that threaten Japan but not America.

Abe made the remark after surprise talks between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Chinese President Xi Jingping.

Meetings between Kim and the presidents of South Korea and the US are also being planned, sidelining Abe.

Abe said he wants to remind Trump of his concerns during an expected trip to the US next month. He also said Trump should seek North Korea's full nuclear and missile abandonment, not just a nuclear test ban.

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Multi-lateral funding agency Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved USD 80 million loan for hill state Himachal Pradesh to fund modernisation of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions and improve skills ecosystem to help boost employability of the youth.

ADB and the central government today inked a USD 80 million loan agreement, signed by Sameer Kumar Khare, Joint Secretary (Multilateral Institutions), Finance Ministry and Kenichi Yokoyama, ADB Country Director in India.

"The project will support the government of Himachal's skills policy to guide the reform and scale-up skills development efforts in the state," Khare said.

"It will fund short-term and long-term training programmes in growth areas including cars, electronics, pharmaceutical, tourism and hospitality, banking and financial services, healthcare to help state youth enhance their skillsets and get better paying jobs," he said.

Manila-headquartered ADB said the state needs more than 5 lakh skilled workers by 2022 across various trades.

The Himachal Pradesh Skills Development Project will help seize this opportunity by providing support in developing relevant and good quality TVET programmes, thereby improving job prospects of nearly 65,000 youths from 2017 to 2022.

"After achieving impressive enrolment rates for higher education, the state of Himachal Pradesh faces 'second-generation' challenge of preparing its youth for the challenging labour market," Yokoyama said.

"The project will help in equipping the youth with market-relevant technical and vocational skills."



Setting up a polytechnic institution for women, 6 city livelihood centres and 7 rural livelihood centres as well as upgradation of 11 employment exchanges into model career centres are part of this funding project.

It will help improve TVET awareness among youth, modernise training equipment, implement a training information system, forge partnerships with private sector and creating better access to quality market-relevant TVET and livelihood development opportunities for youth in Himachal Pradesh, ADB said.

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Strongly opposing the Maharashtra government's ban on plastic products, the All India Plastic Manufacturers' Association (AIPMA) today said the move will adversely impact the Rs 50,000-crore industry and it may take legal actions if the issue is not resolved.

"The Maharashtra Plastic and Thermocol Products Notification, 2018 is impractical, unrealistic and is not the solution for underlying issue of pollution. There is complete ambiguity in the ban issued and it will adversely impact the industry which contributes nearly 35 per cent to the state's GDP," AIPMA president Hiten Bheda told reporters here.

According to the association, the total plastic industry in Maharashtra alone is around Rs 50,000 crore while the ban-related products is nearly a Rs 5,000-crore market.

Also, the plastics processing industry is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 10.5 per cent between financial years 2014-15 and 2019-20 to reach 22 million tonne per annum.

Bheda said AIPMA is in talks with various stakeholders and government authorities to quash the blanket ban and is ready to work with the government to support the anti-littering initiative.

"We are talking to various stakeholders. We will try to convince the government authorities. But if we do not get the desired response, we may take a legal stand against the notification," he added.

He further said that the GST collection from this sector in Maharashtra is around Rs 8,400 crore and the share of disposable plastic items, which are to be subjected to the ban, is Rs 800 crore.

"This decision will devour the plastic industry and also affect the state's economy. The ban will also adversely impact the sectors dependent on the plastic industry like the food and beverage, medical, retail, garment, packaging, dairy, among others," said Bheda.

According to the association, this ban has affected manufacturers, traders, distributors, retailers and other stakeholders of the plastic industry and will result in unemployment on a large scale as the industry employs more than 4 lakh people at present.

"Also, around 2,150 plastic industrial units will be shut after this ban," he said.

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Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh today promised a thorough probe into the sale and supply of spurious pesticides and herbicides to farmers, warning of strict action against those found guilty.

Amarinder Singh said this while responding to the issue raised by Akali MLA Bikram Singh Majithia during the Zero Hour in the State Assembly here today.

The chief minister vowed to get to the bottom of such cases, in which the farmers were being fleeced by unscrupulous dealers selling pesticides and insecticides.

He promised to take stern action against erring dealers and suppliers found engaged in sale of sub-standard or spurious pesticides.

Notably, Amarinder Singh also pointed out that such instances of sub-standard pesticides had been in existence for the past 40-50 years due to which the crop disease of 'gulli-danda' had not been eliminated.

The most noticeable weed of the wheat crop guli-danda has caused significant reductions in grain yield in the state.

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Social-activist Anna Hazare's hunger strike entered sixth day today, with the veteran anti-corruption crusader loosing over five Kg weight, his aide claimed.

His blood pressure also plunged because of fasting, Hazare's aide Datta Awari said.

Nana Patole, former BJP MP, who quit the party and joined the Congress, also met Hazare at the Ramleela Maidan where he is on hunger strike since March 23.

On Monday, the Centre reached out to Hazare, with its emissary and Maharashtra minister Girish Mahajana assuring the social-activist that most of his "demands will be taken care of".

Hazare's demands include appointment of Lokpal at the Centre and Lokayuktas in states, and giving better prices to farmers for their yield.

Mahajan, who is minister for Water Resources and Medical Education in the state, had said that out of the 11 main demands put forth by Hazare, nearly 7-8 have been agreed upon.

He had also said that a written proposal will be given to Hazare.

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Austrian police say 24 people were injured when a bus carrying South Korean tourists crashed near Salzburg.

Police in upper Austria say the Croatian driver and a South Korean tourist were seriously injured, while 22 others suffered minor injuries in today's crash.

In a statement, police said the incident happened in Gosau, about 30 kilometers southeast of Salzburg.

According to preliminary information the bus, which was heading to the scenic village of Hallstatt, slid off the road in snowy conditions and hit a perimeter wall.

The injured were taken to hospitals in Voecklabruck, Salzburg, Bad Ischl and Gmunden.

Police say a total of 35 South Korean tourists were on board.

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Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab Partap Singh Bajwa today met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and sought his intervention in bringing the ashes of Maharaja Duleep Singh from England to India so that his last rites could be performed in Amristar according to Sikh traditions.

Bajwa also urged Modi to provide financial compensation and government jobs to the families of each of the 39 men who were killed in Mosul, Iraq.

"It is the demand of the Sikh community worldwide that the body of Maharaja Duleep Singh is exhumed and his ashes are brought back from England to India," Bajwa, who met Modi in the prime minister's Parliament House office, said in a letter.

Maharaja Duleep Singh was the youngest son of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who ruled Punjab from 1799 to 1839.

After the annexation of Punjab by the British on March 29, 1849, Duleep Singh was exiled to England at the age of 15 when he was also converted to Christianity. He was not allowed to meet his mother during his initial years there.

"On reuniting with his mother in 1861, Maharaja Duleep Singh came to know about the rich history of the Sikh empire in India. He came to know how the British had annexed their territories, and sought to return to his motherland after the death of his mother. His efforts to embrace Sikhism again were thwarted by the British as a sign of rebellion," Bajwa said in the letter to Modi.

The former PCC chief said that on October 22, 1893, the Maharaja, then 55, died in Paris and was laid to rest with Christian rites at the Elveden Estate in England.

His wish that his body be brought to India was not honoured because there was fear of unrest in view of the growing resentment against British rule and the symbolic importance of the funeral of the last Maharaja of Punjab.

"In this regard, I would urge your government to hold talks with its British counterpart and ensure that the body of Maharaja Duleep Singh is exhumed and his ashes are brought back from England to Shri Amritsar Sahib, the Mecca of the Sikhs, and cremated as per Sikh traditions," the Congress MP said in his letter.

Bajwa said the issue was an emotional and sensitive one for the people of Punjab and urged the prime minister to personally take an initiative in this matter.

The MP has also been demanding that adequate compensation be given to the families of the 39 men killed in Iraq by suspected ISIS members. Most of the construction workers killed were from Punjab.

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Pakistan Army said today that Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa was not against the 18th amendment but simply wants to ensure the provinces are capable of making the decisions as it clarified that if a 'Bajwa doctrine' exists its scope is limited to security measures only.

The landmark 18th amendment that has lent greater autonomy to the provinces was passed unanimously by parliament with all major political parties on board.

"Every army chief has their own perspective and General Bajwa's is to promote peace which existed in the past. That is what the Bajwa doctrine is," Army spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor said while addressing a press conference.

Gen Bajwa recently met a group of journalists and explained his doctrine which was being seen as a template for bringing peace and security to Pakistan and the region.

Ghafoor said the army chief's views in his informal meeting with journalists may have been misrepresented by some.

"There was a lot of talk about the 18th Amendment," he said. "The army chief never said that as a whole 18th Amendment is not good; amendments are brought because the Constitution remained incomplete in certain aspects."



Ghafoor said that the army supports empowerment of provinces and rejected the idea that Gen Bajwa expressed desire to undo delegation of powers to province by the previous government.

He also said that Pakistan was committed to complete multi-billion dollars China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which will benefit the entire region.

"We wish for CPEC to be successful. It will bring prosperity to the whole region. If India sees it as a threat, it (such thinking) will negatively affect the region. If our contributions are seen as negative, this will affect the region's stability," he said.

Ghafoor said Pakistan was sending troops to Saudi Arabia under the bilateral security agreement of 1982 to help in "training and advise" the Saudi government to maintain internal stability.

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Ben Affleck and Lindsay Shookus were photographed spending time together in Hawaii and are said to be in a "committed relationship".

Dressed up in casual workout clothes, the duo was spotted holding hands after a breakfast date on March 24 in Honolulu.

A source told People magazine that they are "very much still together".

Another insider added that Affleck, 45 and Shookus, 37, are taking their time but "enjoy each others company" and "are in a committed relationship".

The actor has been training for his new film "Triple Frontier" in the popular holiday destination.

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In the wake of violence on the occasion of Ram Navami, West Bengal Governor K N Tripathi today appealed for peace and said everybody should perform their religious practices peacefully.

Tripathi's comment comes in the backdrop of violence in various parts of the state over the celebration of Ram Navami on Sunday.

"There should not be any riot or violence. And people should perform their religious practice peacefully," Tripathi told PTI.

When asked whether he has any piece of advice for the state government, Tripathi said, "whatever I have to say to the state government, I'll communicate separately".

Heavy police force was deployed in the Raniganj area of West Bengal yesterday after clashes broke out between two groups on Monday over a Ram Navami procession, killing one person and injuring two police officers, a district official said.

In another incident, one person was killed and five police personnel were injured in group clash in Purulia.

Sword-wielding BJP supporters had defied the state government's ban on armed rallies on Ram Navami.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had directed the director general of police to instruct all superintendents of police to take strong action against those who carried arms in the rallies.

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Bihar MLAs belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes today protested against the recent Supreme Court order diluting provisions of the SC/ST Act, forcing adjournment of the House till lunch break.

Legislators of RJD, JD(U) and RLSP, a constituent of the NDA, belonging to the SC/ST communities united to protest in the House.

When Speaker Vijay Kumar Chaudhary turned down an adjournment motion moved by RJD MLA Shiv Chandra Ram on the issue during Zero Hour, legislators belonging to the communities, including those in the treasury benches, began protesting vociferously.

Ram said the court verdict was tantamount to the weaker sections being deprived of an opportunity to get justice and that the intentions of the Centre were suspect as no attempts were being made to file a review petition challenging the order.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shravan Kumar tried to intervene, saying the issue fall outside the ambit of the assembly and it would not be proper to hold a debate on it on the floor of the House.

As the commotion continued for some time, the Speaker adjourned the House till 2 pm.

Later, the SC/ST MLAs sat on a dharna in the lawn on the assembly premises demanding that the Centre file a review petition against the Supreme Court order at the earliest.

The agitating MLAs included minister Maheshwar Hazari and the ruling JDU's deputy leader in the assembly, Shyam Rajak.

Lalan Paswan, an MLA of the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party an NDA constituent was also among the protesters.

Asked about their participation in the protest despite being part of the ruling coalition in the state and at the Centre, they said: We are Dalits first. We owe our current standing to our Dalit identity."



The Supreme Court had on March 20 ordered that there shall be no immediate arrest based on a complaint filed under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

Before arresting a public servant under the Act, a preliminary probe by an officer not below the rank of deputy superintendent is a must, the court had said.

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A discussion organised by the Dr Ambedkar Centre For Social Justice of Mumbai University on 'Military Occupation in Kashmir Sexual Violence on Kashmiri Women' was cancelled after the issue was raised in the Maharashtra Assembly.

BJP MLA Atul Bhatkhalkar raised this issue in the Assembly, and Education Minister Vinod Tawde announced that the government would ask the Governor, who is the Chancellor of the university, to direct the vice-chancellor to hold an inquiry into the issue.

Bhatkhalkar said the seminar on 'Disparity, Discrimination, Deprivation and the Idea of Social Justice' had an afternoon session today on the topic "Military Occupation in Kashmir: Sexual Violence on Kashmiri Women".

Criticising the theme of the discussion, he said Kashmir belongs to India and the Army is there to protect the country's interests. "This theme is serious and anti-national," he said, demanding its cancellation.

Tawde said the university is autonomous and the Ambedkar Centre is independent. "If government interferes, these organisations allege that it is a breach of freedom of speech. Some people malign the Army in the garb of human rights. But this is an important issue, and the government will ask the governor to look into it and direct the vice- chancellor to take necessary action," he said.

The session was subsequently cancelled, government sources said.

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The BJP's Karnataka unit today said it would announce its list of candidates in five to six days for the May 12 assembly polls.

"After three days, after Amit Shah's (BJP National President) visit to Mysuru, I will go to Delhi and get things finalised there," BJP's Karnataka unit chief B S Yeddyurappa told reporters here.

"In another five to six days, we will announcethe list (of candidates)," Yeddyurappa added.

Shah is scheduled to visit Mysuru, Mandya and Chennapatna on March 30 and 31.

BJP, which is striving to return to power after five years, has announced Yeddyurappa as its chief ministerialcandidate, with a target of winning 150 out of 224 assembly seats.

Yeddyurappa was earlier forced to resign as chief minister in 2011 over graft charges, following which he quit the party to form his own outfit, the Karnataka Janata Party, which failed to make a mark except damage BJP's prospects in 2013 polls.

He returned to BJP following the announcement of Narendra Modi as party's prime ministerial candidate ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

Unlike in 2013, when BJP was split into factions with Yeddyurappa forming KJP and B Sriramulu of Ballari floating BSR Congress, they are all fighting as anunified force this time around.

Earlier today, Pradesh Congress president G Parameshwara said the congress would announce its candidates for all the 224 assembly seats in the state in a "single phase" by April 15.

Meanwhile, Janata Dal Secular has already announced candidates for 126 constituencies.

The party is in alliance with Bahujan Samaj Party for Karnataka polls.

The Election Commission had yesterday announced single phase election for the 224-member Karnataka Legislative Assembly.

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Bosnia today called for more interaction with India to identify the areas of cooperation between the two countries.

"We need more interaction at the top government and official level to identify the areas of cooperation between the two countries for strong bilateral relations," Ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina in India Dr Sabit Subasic said.

He was speaking at an interactive session on 'Doing Business with Bosnia' at the Merchants' Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) here.

Subasic said he had already discussed various issues with some Indian ministers to boost bilateral ties.

Describing Bosnia as "modern Kashmir", he invited Indian tourists to visit the country and enjoy its "picturesque beauty".

"With Serbia and Montenegro in East and Croatia in the North, small and beautiful Bosnia is also famous for its hydel power. Bosnia with only 4.6 million population consumes only 35 per cent of the total hydel power generated in the country. The rest it exports to neighbouring countries," Subasic said.

The envoy also urged Indian investors to explore possibilities of cooperation in the areas of wood processing, IT, textile and leather, agriculture, food processing, automobile and tourism.

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A 12-year-old boy was allegedly hacked to death today by unidentified persons on the premises of the Zilla Parishad school in Nandeli village in the district, police said.

The incident occurred this morning when the boy, identified as Suraj Bhoir, was relieving himself in an under-construction structure on the premises of the school, a police official said.

The deceased was class 4 student of the same school.

According to police, the boy was attacked with an axe on his neck and hips.

The victim's body was sent to the government hospital for postmortem.

Additional SP, Thane, Prashant Kadam said the motive behind the killing is not known immediately.

Nobody is arrested so far, he said.

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China's "Belt and Road Initiative" has provided a great opportunity for Sri Lanka to achieve its goal to develop national economy and extend economic dividends to the grassroots level, a senior Sri Lanka official said today.

Secretary General of Sri Lanka's National Economic Council (NEC) and Chief Economist Professor Lalith Samarakoon, during his meeting with Chinese Ambassador to Sri Lanka Cheng Xueyuan also said that Colombo attaches great importance on Sri Lanka-China economic cooperation.

"The NEC will accordingly coordinate all related departments to speed up the implementations of the joint projects and deepen the friendship of the two countries," Samarakoon was quoted as saying in a Chinese embassy release here.

China's massive Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) seeks to build rail, maritime and road links from Asia to Europe and Africa in a revival of ancient Silk Road trading routes.

The issues related to BRI, earlier known as "One Belt One Road (OBOR), have been a major bone of contention between India and China as one portion of the corridor passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had represented Sri Lanka at the OBOR summit last year.

Emphesising that China attaches great importance to the bilateral relations, the Chinese Ambassador said his country was willing to implement the important consensus of the two leaders and actively push forward the practical cooperation under the BRI framework.

"China never interferes in the internal affairs of Sri Lanka and never attach additional conditions to its assistance to Sri Lanka," the Chinese Ambassador was quoted as saying in the statement.

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A senior judge of the Allahabad High Court, Justice Sudhir Agarwal today said that shortage of judges is the reason behind accumulation of cases in high courts and district courts.

Out of the sanctioned strength of 160 judges in the Allahabad High Court only 106 judges were working, he said, adding that many of them would retire in coming months reducing the strength to below 100.

Justice Agarwal, who has been appointed by the Supreme Court as chairman of the arrears committee, told PTI that the Allahabad High Court has over 9 lakh pending cases, whereas the district courts have over 63 lakh pending cases.

"Over three lakh cases are filed every year in the Allahabad High Court", the judge said.

The apex court had constituted the arrear committee to work out ways to reduce the pendency and impart speedy justice to the suffering people.

"Other members of the committee include Justice RD Khare and Ramesh Sinha", he added.

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In a major relief to civil servant Devyani Khobragade, the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has asked the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to promote her as a Joint Secretary within two months if she is found fit for the job.

The direction came on her plea alleging that when her batch was considered for promotion to Grade-III of the Indian Foreign Service, that is the Joint Secretary rank for he vacancy year 2016-17, her case was not considered and kept in a sealed cover, apparently due to the pendency of enquiry proceedings against her.

The MEA had initiated proceedings against her for giving interviews to the media without taking permission from the Ministry, as also for her "misleading" statement that it was permissible for her children, who were both under 18 years of age, to retain both Indian and US passports.

The disciplinary authority (DA) had in November 2017 imposed the penalty of reduction to a lower stage in the time scale of pay by one stage for a period of one year without cumulative effect and not adversely affecting her pension on her.

The bench, while noting that there was an "inordinate and unexplained" delay of about 20 months at the end of the Ministry in acting on Khobragade's March 2015 reply on the charges, said the penalty imposed by the DA shall be treated as effective from September 2015 with its currency ending on August 2016.

"From the inordinate delay of 20 months at the end of the respondents (Ministry), we are fully convinced that the respondents have not shown any alacrity or seriousness to complete the proceedings against the applicant (Khobragade) in a reasonable time frame.

"Even the time prescribed in the guidelines have not been adhered to. This delay has severely prejudiced the case of the applicant for promotion to the next higher grade," the bench, headed by CAT Chairman Justice Permod Kohli, said.

It said if the time frame was adhered to by the Ministry, she would have secured her promotion along with her batch-mates as the currency of the punishment would have ended by that time.

"The sealed cover relating to the promotion of the applicant (Khobragade) to the grade of Joint Secretary shall be opened and if she is found fit for promotion, she shall be promoted to the grade of Joint Secretary with effect from November 1, 2016 when her batch-mates were promoted to such grade.

"This shall be done within a period of two months from the date of receipt of a certified copy of this order. It is also clarified that the applicant shall be entitled to all consequential benefits," the bench, also comprising member K.N. Shrivastava, said.

Khobragade was deputy consul general in New York in late 2013 when she was arrested by US authorities for allegedly underpaying her Indian maid in a fraudulent manner.

Her strip-search, which had followed the arrest, had created an uproar in India with the then UPA government threatening similar action against US diplomats and scaling down the immunity enjoyed by them here.

Khobragade's children live in the US with their father while she is not allowed to travel abroad pending the case against her in the US. She has also moved the High Court against denial of Indian citizenship and passport to her children by the MEA.

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Former Catalan minister Clara Ponsati, wanted by Spain for her role in last year's independence bid, surrendered to Scottish police today to face arrest under a European warrant, an AFP reporter witnessed.

She was due to appear in court later today for a preliminary extradition hearing where her lawyers will request that she be granted bail pending a full hearing.

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The CBSE today announced re-examination in the Class 10 mathematics and Class 12 economics subjects in the wake of reports of paper leaks even as Union HRD minister Prakash Javadekar said a new leak-proof system would be put in place for conducting the board exams.

Seeking to reach out to parents and students worried over the alleged incidents of repeated leaks, Javadekar said he has spoken to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and apprised him about the developments.

He also said that the HRD ministry had initiated an internal probe into the matter.

The Delhi Police's Crime Branch has also begun investigating the alleged leak of the CBSE's Class 12 economics paper and registered a separate case in connection with the alleged leak of the Class 10 mathematics paper.

Top police officials, this evening, also discussed the further line of investigation.

In a circular, the Central Board of Secondary (CBSE) said that dates for the re-examination would be posted on its website within a week.

"The board has taken cognisance of certain happenings in the conduct of certain examinations as are being reported. With a view to uphold the sanctity of the board examinations and in the interest of fairness to the students, the board has decided to re-conduct the examinations for the following subjects," it said.

Panic had gripped Class 12 CBSE students on Monday after claims were made on social media sites that the economics paper had been leaked on WhatsApp.

On March 15, social media was abuzz with reports that the Class 12 accountancy paper had been leaked with the Delhi government saying it had received complaints about it.

This came after the CBSE had denied the claims, saying, "We have checked with all examination centres and the paper was not leaked."



"The source of the circulation of this information is not known yet," the board had said.

The Union HRD minister told reporters that a new leak-proof system would be put in place from coming Monday onwards for conducting CBSE exams.

"It seems some kind of gang is behind this and it is doing it deliberately. A special team is already investigating the matter and the guilty will not spared, the minister told reporters as he faced a barrage of questions about the repeated leaks.

We will ensure no injustice is caused. I just want to tell the parents and children that it is extremely unfortunate that this incident(s) happened, Javadekar said.

He said that the "with the help of technology, put in place a system which is so foolproof that there is no leak".

"We have also decided to tighten security for the time when papers are being distributed in the examination centres, the minister said but did not elaborate the details of the proposed new system.

Refuting charges against the CBSE, he said it has a solid system in place and conducts 24 exams annually for 1.2 crore students.

But if someone is leaking it or there is some loophole in it and taking that into consideration, a new system will be put in place from Monday which will ensure there is no such leakage, he underlined.

Meanwhile, Alok Kumar, joint commissioner of police, crime, confirmed a case was registered yesterday following a complaint by the Board.

Special Commissioner of Police (Crime) R P Upadhyay and Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Alok Kumar also held a meeting with Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik in the evening to discuss the future course of investigation.

Another officer privy to the probe said the case has been registered under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including cheating.

Twitter users went berserk today, with some of them venting their anger and displeasure today vented their anger as the CBSE announced re-examination in the Class 10 mathematics and Class 12 economics papers amid reports claiming paper leaks.

Delhi Congress president Ajay Maken tweeted about how his son and many other students have been left dejected because of these reports.

"My son Aujaswi studied really hard for #CBSE Class X Board Math Exams held today. His joy of finishing Board Exams was short lived. He is extremely dejected as the Math paper got leaked& this #LeakingGovt will hold the Exam again. I feel sorry for him as lakhs of other students! (sic)," he tweeted.

Lawyer and activist Prashant Bhushan questioned whether any exam or selection is "scam-proof" in India.

"#Vyapam,AIIMS, #SSC & now #CBSE exam leak through WhatsApp. Is there any exam or selection which is safe&scam proof in India? Even after PM's app leaks our personal data to US firm, our govt tells us that Aadhar data is safe behind thick walls! Incredible!," he posted on the micro-blogging site.

Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala attacked the Modi government and said that it should be renamed as 'Paper Leak Government'.

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In the wake of reports claiming paper leaks, the CBSE today announced re-examination in the Class 10 mathematics and Class 12 economics subjects.

The Central Board of Secondary (CBSE) issued a circular today informing about the re-examination and said dates and other details for it would be posted on the board's website.

"The board has taken cognisance of certain happenings in the conduct of certain examinations as are being reported. With a view to uphold the sanctity of the board examinations and in the interest of fairness to the students, the board has decided to re-conduct the examinations for the following subjects," it said.

Dates for the re-examination of the Class 10 mathematics and Class 12 economics papers would be posted on the CBSE website within a week, the circular said.

Panic had gripped Class 12 CBSE students on Monday after claims were made on social media sites that the economics paper had been leaked.

The CBSE had denied the claims, saying "We have checked with all examination centres and the paper was not leaked."



"The source of the circulation of this information is not known yet," the board had said.

On March 15, the Delhi Government had said it had received complaints of the Class 12 CBSE accountancy paper being leaked.

The government had ordered a probe, even as the board denied any leak.

"There has been no leakage of the question paper. All the seals have been found intact at all exam centres. However, at the local level, some miscreants may have circulated messages through WhatsApp and other social media platforms to hurt the sanctity of the exam," the board had then said.

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The Competition Commission has cleared UltraTech Cement's bid to acquire Binani Cement, pursuant to the insolvency proceedings.

last week said it will buy loan defaulter Binani Cement's stressed assets by providing Rs 72.66 billion to its parent company, Binani Industries.

In a stock exchange filing, the Aditya Birla Group firm said: "The company has received approval from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) with respect to its bid for Binani Cement Ltd (BCL)."



UltraTech's offer came days after rival Dalmia Cement said its Rs 63.50 billion bid to buy BCL has been accepted by the lenders.

The CCI in a tweet today said it has not found any "appreciable adverse effect on competition (AAEC) in respect of UltraTech Cement's proposed acquisition of 100 per cent shares of Binani Cement."



Binani Industries Ltd (BIL) -- the promoter firm of BCL -- had approached UltraTech for arranging funds to pay off the lenders.

The company's board agreed to issue comfort letter to provide Rs 72.66 billion in return for 98.43 per cent stake in BCL.

A lot of apprehensions were raised by the Resolution Professional about UltraTech obtaining the CCI clearance on its bid for Binani Cement, the company said adding that CCI has today cleared it.

"UltraTech was rated as H2 bidder instead of H1 for this reason," it added.

The said acquisition is subject to termination of IBC proceedings, entering into definitive agreement and other customary and regulatory approvals.

is the leader in the cement industry with a 92.5 million tonnes (MT) installed annual capacity, and this makes it the fourth largest cement company in the world excluding China.

BCL capacity, on the other hand, is 6.25 MT.
The Supreme Court today agreed to hear next week the Maharashtra government's appeal challenging the Bombay High Court order granting bail to a lawyer, accused of illegally possessing call detail records (CDRs) of actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui's wife.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice A M Khanwilkar considered the submission of Maharashtra counsel Nishant Katneshwar that the appeal be heard on an urgent basis.

The apex court will hear the matter on April 6.

The Bombay High Court had on March 21 directed the Thane Police to release from their custody advocate Rizwan Siddiqui, who was arrested on March 16 for allegedly having ordered the illegal procurement of the CDR of actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui's wife.

The high court had held that in arresting Rizwan Siddiqui, the Thane Police had acted in a "high-handed" manner and had failed to follow "due process of law".

The HC had also directed the senior-most officials of the Thane Police and the state Home department to inquire into the actions of the Thane Police and if deemed fit, initiate appropriate punitive proceedings against the officials concerned.

Rizwan Siddiqui's wife, Tasneem, had challenged the manner of his arrest and filed a habeas corpus petition in the high court.

In the plea, she claimed that her husband Rizwan Siddiqui had received a witness summon from the Thane Crime Branch Unit one on February 14.

However, around 10 pm on March 16, Thane Crime Branch officials came to his office and while recording the statement, arrested him without giving him any notice under Section 41(A) of the CrPC to give him time to make an appearance before the police, the plea read.

It alleged that the Thane police kept him in wrongful and illegal custody.

The state, however, told the high court that the Thane Crime Branch had attempted to serve the 41(A) notice on Rizwan Siddiqui.

But because he refused to accept it, he was arrested, the prosecution said.

Section 41 (A) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) sets guidelines for a prosecuting agency to arrest a person without warrant.

However, the court noted that while the notice was issued on March 15, asking Rizwan Siddiqui appear before it on March 17 at 11 am, he was arrested before he could visit the police.

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The Union Minority Affairs Ministry has received a proposal from the Karnataka government on recognition of the Lingayat community as a religious minority, the Lok Sabha was informed today.

Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told the Lower House in a written a reply to a question that the ministry received the proposal on Monday.

He, however, said the ministry has so far not received any representation from the state government for granting of separateor independent religion status to the Lingayat community in the state.

The Ministry of Home Affairs had communicated the November 2013 comments of the Registrar General of India (RGI) to the National Commission of Minorities that Veerashaiva Lingayat is a sect of Hindus and not an independent religion and that RGI had not assigned any separate code to Veershaiva Lingayat during 2011-Census, Naqvi said.

It also stated that if the Veerashaiva Lingayat is treated as a separate religion by providing a separate code other than Hindu, all scheduled castes professing the Veerashaiva Lingayat sect will lose their constitutional status.

However, this ministry has recently received a proposal of Karnataka government on 26.03.2018 regarding recognition of Lingayat as a religious minority, Naqvi said.

The Karnataka minorities welfare department on March 22 notified the Lingayats and Veerashaiva Lingayats as religious minority, but said the notification would come into effect after the central government's approval to the state government's recommendation on the issue.

In its notification, the state government said it recognises Lingayats and Veerashaiva Lingayats as minorities without affecting the rights and interests of other religious minorities of Karnataka, including reservations.

Karnataka goes to polls on May 12.

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The Centre has sought a report from the West Bengal government on incidents of arson and violence during Ram Navami processions in the last two days and offered assistance to deal with the situation, an official spokesperson said.

In a communication, the Ministry of Home Affairs asked the West Bengal government to send a report about the incident, the steps being taken to restore normalcy and the action taken against those involved in the violence.

The Centre also offered assistance of paramilitary forces in the light of reports of continuing violence and tension in some districts of the state, the MHA spokesperson said.

At least two persons were killed and nearly a dozen others injured, some of them seriously, in intermittent violence involving Ramanavami processions at various places in West Bengal, including Purulia, Murshidabad, Bardhman West and Raniganj.

The injured included several policemen with a senior police officer losing a hand after a bomb was hurled at him during a clash in Raniganj area.

The state government has ordered heavy deployment of police force in violence-hit areas, besides lodging several cases of arson and rioting .

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The Tamil Nadu government today urged the Centre to constitute the Cauvery Management Board in view of the aspirations of the people in the state and the farmers of the Cauvery delta region.

Chief Minister K Palaniswami said he expected the Centre to come out with a "good" decision on setting up the Cauvery Management Board (CMB) and the Cauvery Water Regulatory Committee (CWRC).

"The Centre should realise the aspirations of the people of Tamil Nadu and the delta farmers," he told reporters here.

In case the Centre does not constitute the CMB and CWRC, the state government's next course of action would be decided only after the lapse of six weeks time from the February 16 Supreme Court verdict on the vexed inter-state dispute, the chief minister said.

Palaniswami had yesterday also expressed hope that the Centre would set up the CMB by March 29, a demand persistently made by the state government in the backdrop of the Supreme Court judgement.

The apex Court on February 16 pronounced its verdict on the dispute between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. After it was announced, the lower riparian state has been urging the Centre to set up CMB and CWRC to ensure it receives its due share of water.

Tamil Nadu's stand is that the Centre must constitute the panels within six weeks from the day the apex court gave its verdict, which would be March 29.

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China said today it will resume sharing with India the hydrological data of the Brahmaputra river as top water resource officials of the two countries wrapped up two-day talks, the first after Beijing last year stopped providing the data crucial to predict floods.

"On the basis of humanitarian spirit and our shared will to develop bilateral ties we will continue with the cooperation on hydrological information cooperation," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a media briefing here.

He was responding to a question whether China will resume sharing of the hydrological data on Brahmaputra river, which Beijing suspended last year stating that it could not share it with India due to upgradation of data collection station in Tibet.

China's announcement to not to share the data came soon after the 73-day long stand-off between Indian and Chinese troops at Dokalam over Chinese military's plans to build a road close to India's Chicken Neck corridor connecting North-Eastern states.

A team of officials of India's Ministry of Water Resources held talks with their Chinese counterparts on the cooperation of trans-border rivers in the last two days at the Chinese city of Hangzhou, the first after Beijing last year stopped providing the data.

Lu said during the talks the two sides reviewed the achievements of the previous meetings as well as bilateral cooperation on emergency and response and hydrological information.

"The two sides have agreed to continue with such cooperation. On the grounds of humanitarian principles and the basis of bilateral relations China will continue with this cooperation with the Indian side on the provision of hydrological information and emergency response cooperation," Lu said.

Asked whether China would resume the data, Lu said "since you made it quite clear", China will continue with the cooperation on hydrological information cooperation.

The two-day talks of the 11th meeting of the India-China Expert Level Mechanism (ELM) on Trans-Border Rivers concluded yesterday at Hangzhou, a statement from the Indian Embassy here said today.

The Indian side was led by Teerath Singh Mehra, Commissioner (B&B), Ministry of Water Resources and the Chinese side by Yu Xingjun, Consul, Department of International Cooperation Science and Technology, Ministry of Water Resources.

The meeting which was held in a "cordial and friendly" atmosphere reviewed the progress made since the earlier meetings of the ELM and their continued cooperation on provision of hydrological information and emergency management in respect of trans-border rivers, the press release said.

The officials also reviewed the data utilisation report upon provision of hydrological information provided by China to India in flood season on Brahmaputra and Sutlej Rivers.

The institutional mechanism of the ELM was established in 2006 to discuss various issues related to trans-border rivers.

Under existing bilateral Memorandums of Understanding, China provides to India hydrological information of Brahmaputra River (Yarlong Zangbo) and Sutlej River (Langqen Zangbo) during the flood seasons.

Under the arrangement, China provides flood season data of the Brahmaputra river between May 15 and October 15 every year.

China has been building major dams on Brahmaputra river to generate hydel power. It operationalised Zangmu hydroelectric project in October, 2015 and three more are under construction.

While dams raised concerns of water shortages in India and Bangladesh, which are lower riparian states of Brahmaputra river, China said its dams were aimed at generating power and not storing water.

The data shared by upper riparian state, China, to lower riparian states, India and Bangladesh is essential every monsoon to allow anticipation of the flow of the water and take necessary measures to deal with flooding in India's north-eastern States.

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China has agreed to take concrete steps such as giving more market access to Indian products and services, and setting up industrial parks here to narrow the widening trade deficit, Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu said.

India has raised the concerns of ballooning trade deficit and the growing difference between imports and exports, at a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Zhong Shan, he said.

The Chinese minister "has agreed to balance the trade with India over a period of time by doing 3-4 things. He is personally keen to address the trade deficit issue by importing more from India", Prabhu told PTI.

China would work to provide greater market access to agricultural items, pharmaceuticals and other manufactured products, he said.

To facilitate the movement of goods, the neighbouring country has agreed to organise Government-to-Government meetings to address regulatory issues for sectors like pharma and also hold Business-to-Business meetings.

Prabhu said that exporting more services to China will also help address the trade deficit issue in a big way.

In the next few weeks, he said, the ministry will send strong delegation to the neighbouring country.

He further informed that China has a concrete proposal to set up industrial parks in India to promote investments.

"Manufacturing those things which are made in China today and are imported by India... so why not make in India itself. So we will do that. For that they have concrete proposal that they will make industrial parks in India," he added.

"This is the first time that the Chinese side have agreed to (take steps) like this," he added.

India's trade deficit with China stood at USD 36.73 billion during the April-October period of the current fiscal.

The deficit had marginally dipped to USD 51 billion in 2016-17 from USD 52.69 billion in the previous fiscal.

The bilateral trade between the countries increased to USD 71.42 billion in 2016-17 from USD 70.17 billion in the previous fiscal.

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A circular issued by an body of the Maharashtra government to keep all schools in the state open till April 30 for Classes 1 to 9 will be withdrawn, minister Vinod Tawde said today.

The circular was issued by the Maharashtra State Council of Educational Research and Training (MSCERT) on the directives of the Centre, the school minister said in the Legislative Council.

"The circular should have been issued before the start of the academic year rather than at the end of the year. However, it will be withdrawn now. The summer vacations for schools will continue (as per earlier schedule)," he said.

Depending upon the need, the government shall consider implementing it from the next academic year starting in June, he said.

Tawde this after Kapil Patil (JD-U) raised the issue in the Upper House and argued that it was unjust for schools to be open till April 30 for students who are exhausted after their annual exams.

Moreover, the teachers, too, have to assess the answer sheets, he said.

Replying to the debate over issues for improving the quality of education, Tawde expressed displeasure over Patil bypassing him and approaching Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for even "small" issues.

The minister also said that a false campaign was launched on social media platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp over assimilation of surplus teachers in schools from those having low enrolment of students.

"Jokes making fun of the government's decision were posted by some people (on social media)," he said.

"The government took the decision to assimilate surplus teachers to other nearby schools following directives of the Union Human Resources Development (HRD) ministry, stating that if there are less than 10 students in a classroom in a school they should be assimilated in nearby schools," he said.

A false campaign was launched that the government was closing down schools run by it, he said.

On the directive asking teachers to take selfies with children who were not going to school and posting them online, he said the decision was taken to ensure that children of migrant labourers were not deprived of

"If their (children's) parents migrate for work elsewhere, then the education officer of that area can be alerted and the child can be brought to a school there to continue with his/her education. However, this decision of the government was also mocked (on social media)," Tawde said.

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CoLive, a technology-driven platform to rent branded and serviced homes, is all set to expand its presence in major towns of Tamil Nadu.

Through rapid operational expansion in Chennai, Coimbatore, Vellore, Thanjavur and Tiruchirapalli, the company aims to hit the 10,000-beds milestone by the end of 2018, largely unmet demand for good quality and safe accommodations for migrating students, a press release from CoLive said.

Since its launch in 2016, the Bengaluru-headquartered CoLive has grown exponentially, with the number of beds it manages increasing from 1,000 to 3,000 in the last one year.

Commencing the first phase of its expansion with Tamil Nadu cities, CoLive aims to eventually expand its presence to 25 university towns in the next three years and grow its inventory to include a total of one lakh beds, the release said.

"While poor quality of housing and lack of basic amenities is the biggest pain point for students, for the paying parent, the safety of their children is a major concern," CoLive Founder and CEO Suresh Rangarajan said in the release.

"We are currently in the process of implementing cutting-edge proprietary technologies such as FRAME (Facial Recognition Access Management Engine) and CSM (Command Centre Security Management), as well as an Emergency Response/SOS assistance service, to ensure the highest level of security for students," he said.

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A conference on India's growth engine and to analyse its economic, financial and business components will be held at the prestigious Columbia Business School here next month.

Prominent business and political leaders, entrepreneurs from India and the US and leading academicians will attend the day-long conference on April 7.

The South Asia Business Association (SABA) at Columbia Business School will host the 14th Annual India Business Conference with the theme of 'India: Unlocking the Growth Engine.'



The conference will bring together influential and insightful voices from India and the US to discuss India's growth story, "dissect its economic, financial and business components, probe its sustainability, debate its strengths and weaknesses, and discuss strategies to enable businesses tap and harness its power," the conference's organisers said.

Among those expected to address the conference are former Minister of External Affairs Salman Khurshid, Columbia University professor and former Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog Arvind Panagariya, Member of Parliament and Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy among others.

Co-President Uma Kollareddy, who is leading the SABA organising team, said in a statement that this year's conference comes at a crucial time in the Indian business environment given the recent major changes in the economic landscape of India in the form of digitisation, implementation of GST, demonetisation, "providing an impetus to digital payments, instituting the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, and Aadhaar's support for financial inclusion."



"Each of these macro factors has had a significant impact on the business environment by themselves and together, they create a historic moment in India's business climate fuelling entrepreneurship in several sectors," Kollareddy said.

Ibrahim Ali Khan, Co-President, South Asia Association at the School of International and Public Affairs said the Indian economy is attracting the attention of global business powerhouses and on the other hand, new businesses are emerging across the country with innovative propositions and business models aiming to harness the domestic potential.

"This conference will provide an opportunity to connect global business leaders with their Indian counterparts and promote dialogue aimed at decoding the nuances of the complex Indian environment" in the country, Khan said.

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Members of two communities clashed today over taking out a religious procession in Bihar's Nalanda district, leaving more than 20 persons, including four security personnel, injured, police said.

Nalanda is the native district of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Communal clashes have erupted in several districts in the state since Ram Navami last Sunday.

"People from both sides indulged in heavy stone-pelting in Silao block of the district following a dispute over the route of a Ram Navami procession, and police had to resort to mild use of force besides firing tear gas shells to quell the mobs," Superintendent of Police, Nalanda, Sudhir Kumar Porika said.

Nalanda district has a tradition of Ram Navami processions being taken out in different parts on separate dates even after the festival which was on Sunday last. The procession was scheduled for today in Silao.

He said the miscreants also hurled stones at the security personnel, causing injuries to a jawan of Sashastra Seema Bal, the bodyguard of a Deputy SP and two constables. A number of vehicles were damaged.

A number of rioters were also injured in the violence which has been brought under control, the SP said.

Senior officials, including DIG Patna Range Rajesh Kumar and Nalanda DM Thyagarajan, were camping in the area, he added.

More than 20 persons, including the injured security personnel, were taken to the Primary Health Centre in Silao for treatment and their condition was stated to be out of danger, the SP added.

No arrests have been made so far and investigations were on, he said.

Clashes have erupted in districts like Bhagalpur and Aurangabad, triggering a political slugfest with the opposition RJD-Congress combine blaming the spurt in such incidents on alleged dominance of the BJP, the junior partner in the Nitish Kumar government, on the state's bureaucratic machinery.

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Kerala Assembly today witnessed a noisy protest by opposition UDF over what it called the 'continuous' absence of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in the House during the ongoing budget session.

Vijayan, who is in New Delhi today to take part in the CPI(M) central committee meeting, did not attend the House on on Monday also.

Opposition Congress-led UDF members stood up asking 'Where is the Chief Minister?" when PWD minister G Sudhakaran replied on behalf of Vijayan during the zero hour.

Though both Sudhakaran and Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan said the Chief Minister had informed the business advisory committee of the legislature that he would be away today, the opposition continued the protest.

UDF members said Vijayan, who holds the Home portfolio, skipped the session on Monday also when a notice for a motion was moved on the "highhandedness" of police.

He was present only for some time in the assembly yesterday, they said during the brief protest.

Seeking to move a notice for an adjournment motion on the atrocities by goons and mafia gangs, K Muraleedharan (Congress) asked whether Vijayan was following the 'model' of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who he alleged, used to skip Parliament sessions.

The MLA said the Chief Minister, who gave a miss to the assembly session, had taken part in a programme of CITU, the trade union outfit of the Left party, on Monday.

He wanted to know whether the Central Committee meeting and CITU programme were more important to Vijayan than the Assembly session.

Sharing his party colleague's sentiments, Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala said though the Chief Minister was busy, he should realise the significance of attending assembly sessions.

However, Sudhakaran refuted the opposition charges and said Vijayan was a "model" chief minister who had participated the maximum number of days in the assembly proceedings.

He justified the Chief Minister attending party Central Committee meeting.

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The Karnataka Congress today said all candidates for the 224-member state assembly polls will be announced in a single phase by April 15.

The highly anticipated state polls are scheduled for May 12.

"We will announce candidates for all 224 assembly constituencies in a single phase. As the date of election has already been announced, we need to do it as soon as possible," Pradesh Congress president G Parameshwara told reporters here.

Stating that the party's central election committee will meet after the screening committee meeting onApril 9 and April 10, he noted that the list of party candidates for the state polls will be out by April 15.

The Election Commission had yesterday announced that a single phase election would be conducted in the southern state on May 12 and the counting of votes will be taken up on May 15.

As part of the poll preparations, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Parameshwara are holding back to back meetings with ministers in-charge of various districts and the election manifesto committee.

Explaining the process of selection of candidates, the KPCC president said the Pradesh Election Committee has already held its meeting and taken certain decisions, which has been conveyed to the leadership in Delhi.

"As part of the same process, the chief minister and myself are holding discussions with district in-charge ministers today, to gather their opinion that will help in the selection of candidates," he said.

"In continuation of this process, there will be a screening committee meeting in Delhion April 9 and 10 where we will put forward all the information we have gathered, following which thedecisions will be taken," Parameshwara added.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi had earlier this month constituted the screening committee for the upcoming Karnatakaassembly polls. The committee is headed by senior party leaderMadhusudan Mistry, which will also comprise party MPs Tamradhwaj Sahu and Gaurav Gogoi.

AICC General Secretary In-charge of the state K C Venugopal, G Parameshwara and Siddaramaiah are ex-officio members of the committee.

Parameshwara also said that the party was in theprocess of finalising the list of 40 star campaigners forthe polls.

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A city court has directed the police to register an FIR against officials of Delhi and Mumbai-based branches of the Punjab National Bank (PNB) in a cheating case.

A woman, in her complaint, alleged that her brother fraudulently procured loan to the tune of over Rs 7 crore in her name without her knowledge in connivance with officials of the PNB, Brady House, Mumbai and PNB, Mayur Vihar in east Delhi.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Harjyot Singh Bhalla allowed the plea seeking lodging of FIR under section 156 (3) of CrPC against the complainant's brother, assistant general manager of PNB, Brady House, Mumbai, an official of the bank's Mayur Vihar branch and owners of a renowned bar-lounge in Connaught Place here.

"Prima facie a cognizable offence has been committed. At this stage, I cannot conclude to what extent the complainant herself is responsible as she stated that she had signed certain loan documents in good faith.

"Only an investigation can reveal the beneficiaries of the money obtained from the bank and to what extent the complainant has been cheated, the magistrate said.

The court, while passing the order, noted that the entire money had gone to accused Amarjeet Singh, victim Devinder Kaur Bedi's brother, and prima facie the banks also have been cheated.

It said the loans were given on forged sale deeds so the involvement of the bank officials was a matter of probe.

"In these circumstances, although the complaint itself is not revealing the complete picture, the submissions of the investigating officer and his findings in the preliminary inquiry have also been considered while passing the order for registration of the FIR," the ACMM said.

The complaint lodged by Bedi, a resident of Lajpat Nagar here, through advocate Manish Jain, alleged that loans of Rs 2 crore and Rs 5 crore were fraudulently taken by the accused persons from PNB, Brady House, Mumbai.

Another loan of Rs 50 lakh was taken from PNB, Mayur Vihar in the woman's name without her knowledge and consent, it said, adding that the victim approached the court after the police failed to register a case in the matter.

The court has listed the matter for compliance on April 23.

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The state Congress today said it will submit a memorandum to the President against any move to shift the majority of campus of the proposed Central University of Himachal Pradesh to Dehra from Dharamshala.

Dehra, about 70 kilometres from Dharamshala, in Kangra district falls under the constituency of BJP MP Anuraag Thakur.

The university campuses are to be constructed in Dehra and Dharamshala. The matter had been hanging in the balance for the past eight years as the BJP wants 70 per cent of the campus in Dehra and the rest in Dharamshala, while the Congress wants majority of the campuses in Dharamshala.

"It is the right of Dharamshala to have the major portion of Central University of Himachal Pradesh. The land was made available by our government in Dharamshala," Congress leader Sudhir Sharma said.

Sharma said party leaders would submit a memorandum to the President - through Kangra deputy commissioner - in support of the demand.

Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur yesterday said that the work on establishing the university campuses at Dehra in Kangra district would be started with in next two months.

Thakur said that this project had suffered a lot due to the negative politics of the previous government in the state. He said he had a detailed discussion on this issue with Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar.

On Monday, Anuraag Thakur said the long-awaited laying of foundation stone of the university would be done within three months at Dehra.

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The Supreme Court today sought response of the Uttar Pradesh government on a plea challenging an Allahabad High Court order rejecting the bail plea of the proprietor of a firm which supplied oxygen to a government hospital in Gorakhpur where scores of children died last year.

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Manish Bhandari who is in jail for last seven months, said that it was an admitted position that the children died of Japanese Encephalitis and not due to short supply of oxygen. He referred to the stand of the state government and added that the accused has been suffering due to media trial.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice A M Khanwilkar asked the state government to file its reply within 12 weeks.

"Issue notice, fixing a returnable date within twelve weeks. Let a copy of the petition be served on Aishwarya Bhati, Additional Advocate General for Uttar Pradesh, for consideration of the prayer for bail. List the matter on April 9," the bench said.

More than 60 children, mostly infants, had died at the hospital within a week in August 2017. There were allegations that the deaths occurred due to disruption in oxygen supply over unpaid bills to the vendor.

The Allahabad High Court had in February rejected the bail plea of Manish Bhandari, the proprietor of the firm which supplied oxygen to the government-run Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur.

The high court had on February 13 rejected the bail petition of Bhandari, saying, "the court is inclined to accept the submission that custodial interrogation of the accused may still be warranted and it would not be appropriate to grant him bail at this stage."



The counsel for the UP government had opposed the petition, saying the investigation in the case was pending and Bhandari may be required for it.

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The continued disruptions in the Rajya Sabha found mention in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech for retiring members today when he said they would not be able to participate in debates when the House decides on important bills such as the one which seeks to criminalise the practise of instant triple talaq.

In his brief speech, Modi said "unfortunately", the retiring members will not be part of Parliament when the decision on instant triple talaq is taken.

He also said the outgoing members must have prepared speeches on important issues so that their contribution is remembered.

But they could not do so. He said the responsibility of smooth functioning lies not only with the opposition but also with the government.

The Rajya Sabha, Modi said, is a distinguished House with eminent members serving here. He said the House plays a vital role in India's democracy.

He did not use terms such as din, disruptions in his speech.

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Veteran screenwriter Javed Akhtar today warned "bigots" to be wary of communalising the Indian film industry, which he termed as "the citadel of secularism".

The 73-year-old lyricist-writer's comments come after India-based French journalist Francois Gautier had responded to reports of a planned on-screen adaptation of Mahabharat, in which Aamir Khan could possibly play Krishna, highlighting the Bollywood star's religion.

Without naming Gautier, Akhtar, who has spent 53-years in films, asked people to stop spreading hatred in the name of faith in the field of cinema.

"I had joined film industry in 1965 on a salary of 50 rupees per month. In these 53 years not for a second I have experienced or even seen any communal bias in our industry.

"This film industry is the citadel of secularism. Bigots, don't try to pollute it," he tweeted today.

Gautier had tweeted, "Why should @AamirKhan, a Muslim, play in most ancient & sacred of Hindu epics, the Mahabharata? Is @BJP4India Govt of @narendramodi going to be like the @INCIndia & just stand by in name of secularism??? Would Muslims allow a Hindu to play life of Mohamed?"



Akhtar had earlier slammed the journalist for behaving like a PR machine, calling him "clueless" about Indian history and films.

"Can somebody educate this clueless idiot Gautier that a film Mahabharata was made in 1965 and had become a super hit. The producer's name was Ghaffar Bhai Nadiadwala. This is India that we are proud of. Can some body explain it to the dimwit," Akhtar had written earlier.

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Ecuador today said it has stopped Julian Assange's ability to communicate to the outside world from its London embassy, where the Wikileaks founder has been holed up since 2012.

The decision was taken to prevent the Australian from interfering in other country's affairs, an Ecuadorian government statement said.

It came after Assange on Monday questioned on Twitter Britain's accusation that Russia was responsible for the March 4 nerve agent poisoning of a Russian former double agent in the English city of Salisbury.

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Hundreds of cheques were fradulently issued from the accounts of National Peroxide and some other companies of Wadia Group, as per a complaint lodged by a senior official of the conglomerate.

The complaint was recently lodged with the N M Joshi Marg Police station and then transferred to the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai police, said a police official today.

Shailesh Chouhan, chief financial officer of National Peroxide, said in the complaint that 1,160 cheques were issued to a company called "RBIM Sales" and some other companies whose names resembled the names of Wadia Group firms between 2008 and 2017.

The cheques, totalling Rs 37 crore, were issued from the bank accounts of National Peroxide and other Wadia Group companies in Canara Bank and State Bank of India, Chouhan told police.

Five persons were involved in the issuance of cheques, according to the complaint. Nobody has been arrested yet.

Wadia Group owed no money to RBIM or other recipient firms, nor were there any business dealings between the group and these firms, according to the complaint.

Police registered a case of cheating and other relevant offences under the IPC and transferred it to the EOW. Further probe is on.

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Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis today told the Legislative Council that the "lion and tiger"--an allusion to the BJP and the Shiv Sena- would contest the 2019 elections together.

Fadnavis' remarks came in response to Leader of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil's dig that "rats will destroy the throne of the BJP-led state government".

Former BJP minister Eknath Khadse had last week questionned the claims of a private company that a total of 3,19,400 rats were killed in the state secretariat in a week.

Khadse, an MLA from Jalgaon district, had also said that Dhule farmer Dharma Patil had consumed the same poison whoch was meant for killing rodents in Mantralaya to commit suicide in January this year.

The embarrassed government later clarified that 3,19,400 was actually the number of rat poison tablets placed in Mantralaya and not the number of rodents killed.

Building on Khadse's statement, Vikhe Patil said the remaining rats in Mantralaya would destroy the throne of the state government.

Returning the barb, Fadnavis said his government had no fear of rodents.

"Tiger (a symbol of Sena) and lion (an allusion to BJP) are together so we don't fear rats. Rats willcome our way, but the tiger and the lion will destroy them and win the 2019 polls," he said.

Responding to the CM's remarks, Jayant Patil (NCP) said they knew about the tiger but the presence of the lion is a new thing.

"Rats were set loose from your side. People of the state will show all these animals their place in2019," he said.

In a veiled reference to the constant criticism of the BJP by its belligerent ally Sena, Vikhe Patil said, "People of the state have seen the love of the tiger and lion. People of the state are seeing for the last four years the way the two are living with each other".

CM's statement of a joint contest assumed significance as the Sena had resolved in its national executive to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha and Assembly polls solo.

Sena MP Sanjay Raut reportedly met TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee, who is projecting herself as a pivot for a federal front to challenge the BJP in upcoming polls, in Delhi yesterday.

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The family of a missing youth, who has reportedly joined militancy, today urged him to shun the path of violence and return home, while appealing to the ultras to let him go as his parents were not well.

Faid Mushtaq Waza, a resident of Khanyar here, went missing on Friday and an appeal was made by his family after a picture purportedly showing him holding a gun went viral on social media yesterday.

His ailing parents were shocked after they learnt that he had reportedly joined the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militant outfit, Waza's family members told reporters at the Press Enclave in Jammu and Kashmir's summer capital.

No statement or comment has been issued by the police.

Waza had gone to attend a religious gathering on Friday and did not return home. His mobile-phone is switched off since then, a family member said.

The youth's family members have filed a missing person's report.

His father is in hospital and his mother is also not keeping well, they are both in shock, she said.

"We came to know that he has joined militancy, we saw his picture on the Internet. We appeal him to leave arms and return home, otherwise his parents cannot bear it," the family member said.

The family also appealed to the LeT to let Waza go, she said.

"The militants are also our sons. We appeal them to let him go as his parents are ill," the family member said.

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An umbrella body of farmer groups has prepared two Bills -- one on clearing debts of farmers and another on guaranteed remunerative minimum support prices for farm produce -- and sought the help of political parties to introduce them in Parliament.

At a round table meeting of the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC), leaders from various parties today extended their support to the demand for a special session of Parliament on the agrarian crisis in the country.

The meeting resolved to pass at least in the Upper House the two bills -- Freedom from Indebtedness Bill 2018 and Farmers' Right to Guaranteed Remunerative Minimum Support Prices for Agricultural Commodities Bill 2018.

The political leaders supported the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee on the need for creating legal entitlements for farmers on the issues of indebtedness and lack of remunerative prices, a statement of the AIKSCC read.

Trinamool Congress leader Dinesh Trivedi recommended a special session of Parliament to find a solution to the agrarian crisis in the country.

"This suggestion found favour with all the participants including AIKSCC members and it was decided to raise this demand in a unified manner," the statement read.

Congress's Mallikarjun Kharge, NCP's Sharad Pawar, JDU's Sharad Yadav, CPIM's Sitaram Yechury, NC's Farooq Abdullah, among others attended the round table meet organised by the AIKSCC.

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The first shipment of LNG from the US under a 20-year deal will reach India on March 30, Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said today.

State-owned gas utility GAIL India has contracted 3.5 million tonnes per annum of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Cheniere Energy's Sabine Pass liquefaction facility in Louisiana.

"On March 30, the first long-term LNG consignment from the US will reach Dabhol, Maharashtra," Petroleum Minister Pradhan said here.

The deal will broaden the hydrocarbon engagement between India and the US, Pradhan told reporters after a meeting with the visiting Texas Governor Greg Abbott here.

Pradhan also said India is going to be a huge energy market very soon even as the per capita consumption in the country is very low.

The minister said India's bilateral relation with Texas has always been strong and oil and gas engagement is further augmenting it. Texas being the hydrocarbon hub of the US is a very special state, Pradhan said.

"There is much more we have to gain, through further investments, technological tie-ups and cooperation between universities," Pradhan said.

"Today, fertiliser is the primary consumer, power sector is second consumer, I can visualise a big new consumer base in the steel sector," he added.

Abbot, who also addressed the media, said India is the most prolific economy in the world and it will continue to grow.

"Indian economy is growing and such economies need access to energy to assist their growth. Texas is blessed with huge amount of energy, oil and natural gas," Abbot, who is leading a high-level delegation as part of his efforts to boost trade, economic and cultural ties between resource-rich Texas and India, said.

Abbot said Texas is honoured to engage in trade opportunity with India, including first shipment of US oil arrived India in last October.

"We're looking forward to more shipments to India. We're also honoured about the opportunity to ship natural gas, LNG to India, which will ironically reach India on my last day in India. We will also be adding further export facility for oil. Texas is adding more LNG export facilities to ensure to be able to meet the needs of India as well as other countries," he said.

Last October, India imported its first shipment of crude oil from the US. The US had stopped oil exports in 1975, but the ban was lifted by former US President Barack Obama in 2015.

On price fluctuations, Abbot said as India has entered into a long-term contract so there will be price stability and certainty about the access to the LNG.

Pradhan said he expected a price balance in the market.

"We expect a reasonable price. We are not for a very low price and for very unnatural price... It has to be affordable price...," he said.

On March 6, India began importing natural gas from the US, after crude oil, with the first shipment of LNG under a 20-year deal flagged off from Louisiana.

GAIL had signed a sale and purchase agreement (SPA) with the US LNG exporter Cheniere Energy in December 2011.

Under terms of the agreement, Cheniere will sell and make available for delivery to GAIL about 3.5 million tonnes a year of LNG.

Cheniere's LNG is based on natural gas sourced from the US market, which provides access to abundant and low-cost gas resources.

Cheniere Energy, Inc is the leading exporter of US LNG. It is currently operating and constructing its Sabine Pass LNG facility in Louisiana and is constructing a second liquefaction facility near Corpus Christi, Texas. When both projects are complete, it is expected to be a top-5 global supplier of LNG.

GAIL is India's biggest natural gas transportation and marketing company. It is expanding pipeline network by 4,000 km at an investment of over USD 3 billion to operate over 15,000 km by 2020. GAIL commands 75 per cent market share in gas transmission and has a gas trading share of over 50 per cent in India.

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The Bombay High Court today said the Maharashtra government's practice of issuing fitness certificates to private vehicles without conducting an independent test was illegal and in breach of its previous orders.

Therefore, the state government must take a decision on amending its rules and circulars on the issue and inform the court of its decision, a bench of justices A S Oka and R I Chagla said.

The bench was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Shrikant Karve, a Right to Information (RTI) activist from Pune.

Karve alleged that officials at various regional transport offices (RTOs) across the state had been granting fake fitness certificates, or registration certificates, to private as well as transport vehicles without subjecting the vehicles to mandatory fitness tests first.

On a previous hearing, another bench led by Justice Oka had held that since under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, the registration of vehicles is treated as valid only if it had a valid certificate of fitness, such vehicles that did not have a fitness certificate must be deemed as unregistered, and thus, not permitted to be driven at all.

However, the court was informed recently that the Maharashtra government had been granting registration to new vehicles without the fitness certificate.

The state's counsel, Abhinandan Vagyani, had told the court that this was being done since all new vehicles were already checked for fitness by the manufacturers before delivery.

The bench, however, held today that the state's stand was contrary to provisions of the law, and hence, illegal.

A fitness certificate is an official document certifying that the holder's vehicle is fit for being driven in public places.

As per the Motor Vehicles Act, a vehicle must have a fitness certificate issued by the manufacturer, and also, another fitness certificate issued by the state RTO authorities after the inspection of its condition, its pollution certificate, tax, insurance, and other such details.

"Since under the Act, the registration of vehicle is treated as valid only if it has valid certificate of fitness from the manufacturer and the inspecting authority, the state's stand that a vehicle can be granted registration merely on the basis of the date of its manufacture is illegal," the high court said.

"It (the state's stand) is also in breach of the law and the previous orders of this court," it further said.

The bench held that in granting new registration certificates without proper fitness certificates and merely on the basis of the manufacturers' certificates, the state was harming the interest of several people.

The court has now directed the state to take a decision on amending its current practice in view of its observations, by April 25 this year.

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Five Naxals including two women surrendered before Gadchiroli police in Maharashtra today, an official statement said.

The surrendered rebel leaders were carrying a reward of a total of Rs 25 lakh on their heads, police said.

Sainu alias Mirgu Jhuru Weddah (35), who was the 'commander' of Company No 4 'A' platoon of Naxals and was involved in 62 police-Naxal skirmishes, had 17 cases of murder registered against him, police said. He was carrying a reward of Rs 12 lakh on his head.

Rupi alias Jhuri Kande Karoye (36), a woman Naxal, was Platoon commander of Company No 4 'C' from 2008, was involved in 42 cases of encounter, seven blasts and eight cases of murder, police said. She was carrying a reward of Rs 6 lakh on her head.

Others were identified as Arjun Barsay Poya (25), Chhaya alias Raje Devu Kudyeti (23) and Vinu alias Ramnath alias Bijawu Sundar Kowachi (23).

This is a second incident of surrender by Naxals in the area after two Naxals laid down the arms last month. Last year, 22 rebels had surrendered in Gadchiroli, according to the police.

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At least four people died due to scrub typhus infection in Mizoram during 2017-2018, Health Minister Lal Thanzara today informed the state Assembly.

In a written reply to a question from Dr K Beichhua of the Mizo National Front (MNF) Lal Thanzara said that three people died due to the scrub typhus infection in Aizawl district, while another one died in Mizoram-Tripura-Bangladesh border Mamit district.

He said that 540 people were found to be infected with the scrub typhus.

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The sessions court here today sentenced four persons, who had attacked the accused in the infamous Kopardi rape and murder case, to five years' of rigorous imprisonment.

Prosecutor Mangesh Diwane said that on April 9, 2017, when the three accused in the Kopardi case were being taken to prison after a hearing, they were attacked with sharp weapons on the court premises here.

Notably, the police arrested Sukhdev Khune, Ganesh Khune, Baburao Valekar and Rajendra Balasaheb Jarhad immediately after the attack.

Sessions judge Satynarayan Navander today sentenced them to five years' of rigorous imprisonment under section 307 of the IPC (attempt to murder).

The brutal rape and murder of a 15-year-old Maratha girl at Kopardi in the district had led to protests across the state by the Maratha community.

Jitendra Shinde, Nitin Bhailume and Santosh Bhaval, the accused in the Kopardi case, were sentenced to death by the sessions court here last year.

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Hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani's son as well as the son of noted businessman Zahoor Ahmed Watali have been listed among the "prosecution witnesses" by the National Investigation Agency in a case related to terror funding in the Kashmir Valley.

The NIA, which filed a charge sheet in the case in January this year, have named Watali's son Yasir Gaffar at serial number 30 and Geelani's son Naim-ul-Zaffar at serial number 37 in the list of prosecution witnesses submitted to a special court.

The NIA has also submitted eight-page and four-page statements given by Ghaffar and Zaffar respectively to an NIA official during the course of investigation.

A statement given before a police official is not admissible as a primary evidence in the court.

The charge sheet has been filed by the NIA against 12 people, including Lashker-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed and Hizbul Mujahideen terror group's head Syed Salahuddin. Both of them are in Pakistan. Ten people arrested by the NIA in connection with the case inlcude son-in-law of Geelani, Altaf Ahmed Shah, besides Watali.

The probe agency registered a case against separatists in the Kashmir Valley on May 30 last year and also managed to secure confessional statements on the flow of money, especially from Pakistan, from some people related to the funding of terror activities in Kashmir.

Geelani's son, who had fled the state to Dubai, London and later to Pakistan after he was threatened by counter-insurgents, had appeared before the NIA on many occasions.

He gave a duly signed statement in which he gave several details, including the people he had met during his post-doctorate from Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences.

Watali's son also gave a detailed statement about the business of his father and his associates, the officials said.

The charge sheet also names 42 protected witnesses in its list of 232 people who would be examined during the proceedings. The witnesses have been protected under section 43(3) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act under which the name and address of the person is not mentioned during the court proceedings.

Besides Shah and Watali, the NIA has arrested Geelani's close aides Ayaz Akbar, who is also spokesperson of the hardline separatist organisation Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, Peer Saifullah, Shahid-ul-Islam, spokesperson of the moderate Hurriyat Conference, Mehrajuddin Kalwal, Nayeem Khan, Farooq Ahmed Dar alias 'Bitta Karate', photo-journalist Kamran Yusuf and Javed Ahmed Bhat.

The NIA had registered a case on May 30 against the separatist and secessionist leaders, including unidentified members of the Hurriyat Conference, who have been acting in connivance with active militants of proscribed terrorist organisations Hizbul Mujahideen, Dukhtaran-e-Millat, Lashkar-e-Taiba and other outfits and gangs, officials said.

The case was registered for raising, receiving and collecting funds through various illegal means, including hawala, for funding separatist and terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir and for causing disruption in the Valley by way of pelting stones on the security forces, burning schools, damaging public property and waging war against India, the probe agency had said in the FIR.

The FIR had also named organisations such as the two factions of the Hurriyat, one led by Geelani and the other Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the Hizbul Mujahideen and the Dukhtaran-e-Millat, an all-women outfit of the separatists.

Kamran Yusuf and Bhat were released on bail last week by a special court.

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The German government today said that Russia had the right to replace the four diplomats Berlin is expelling as part of coordinated Western action against Moscow.

Germany has given four envoys until Monday to leave the country, joining several EU partners, NATO and other allies in diplomat expulsions over the poisoning of an ex-spy in Britain.

A German foreign ministry spokesman said that Berlin had selected the four envoys to be expelled based on "links to intelligence services", according to practice set out in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

Asked whether Moscow could replace the four, the spokesman said "yes", noting that the Vienna Convention did not include a provision to cap the number of diplomats at a country's mission.

At least 25 countries have ordered out more than 120 Russia diplomats in response to the March 4 attack on former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury.

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Union minister and BJP leader Vijay Goel accused the Congress of disrupting proceedings in Rajya Sabha today, and said it stood exposed.

"There were no AIADMK members in the Well. When the House could have taken up legislative business and discussion on banking scam, Congress members rushed to the Well raising slogans...They accuse others of disrupting proceedings. Now, they stand exposed," he said here.

The Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the day today after bidding farewell to retiring members amid protests by Congress members demanding that a discussion on the banking fraud should be held under a rule that entails voting.

The Rajya Sabha has not been able to transact any serious business for the 17th day in a row due to protests over several issues. However today, it took up the process of bidding farewell to about 60 members whose tenure would end in the next few weeks.

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US President Donald Trump said today that there is a "good chance" that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will give up nuclear weapons, but cautioned that maximum sanctions and pressure must be maintained on Pyongyang.

His comments came as Kim completed a secretive and unprecedented visit to Beijing during which he met Chinese President Xi Jinping yesterday and said that he is committed to denuclearisation.

The White House said China briefed the administration on Kim's unannounced visit to Beijing, and stressed that the US policy of maximum pressure on North Korea is working.

Xi reached out to Trump, after his meeting with Kim, with a personal message, the White House said.

"For years and through many administrations, everyone said that peace and the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula was not even a small possibility. Now there is a good chance that Kim Jong-un will do what is right for his people and for humanity. Look forward to our meeting!" Trump tweeted.

Tensions temporarily abated in the Korean Peninsula recently over the North Korea's nuclear programme following which Trump accepted an invitation from Kim to have a summit meeting between the two.

The invitation was communicated to him through the South Koreans, who held a meeting with the North Korean leaders early this month. The date of the meeting has not been announced yet.

In his tweet, Trump said he has received a message from Xi.

"Received message last night from XI JINPING of China that his meeting with KIM JONG UN went very well and that KIM looks forward to his meeting with me. In the meantime, and unfortunately, maximum sanctions and pressure must be maintained at all cost!" Trump said in another tweet.

Last night, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said the US remains in close contact with its allies South Korea and Japan.

"We see this development as further evidence that our campaign of maximum pressure is creating the appropriate atmosphere for dialogue with North Korea," Sanders in a statement after China confirmed of Kim's visit to Beijing.

In February, Trump imposed the "heaviest-ever" sanctions on North Korea's shipping companies in a bid to prevent the reclusive nation from acquiring nuclear weapons and developing intercontinental ballistic missiles.

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The government today allowed export of two million tonnes of sugar until the end of the 2017-18 marketing year, in order to clear surplus stocks and improve cash flow to millers for making payment to sugarcane farmers.

The government has also allowed export of white sugar till September 2018 under the Duty Free Import Authorisation (DFIA) scheme, under which exporters are allowed to import sugar at zero duty within three years.

Sugar mills owe Rs 13,899 crore to sugarcane growers as on March 21, according to official data.

In its latest order, the Food Ministry has allowed two million tonnes of export under the Minimum Indicative Export Quota (MIEQ) scheme for the 2017-18 marketing year.

"In view of inventory level with the sugar industry and to facilitate achievement of financial liquidity, mill-wise MIEQ has been fixed for the 2018-19 marketing year," the order said.

Under the MIEQ, it is mandatory to export the fixed quota, failing which the mills shall be deemed to be violating the directives of the government, it said.

The export quota has been fixed taking into account average production of mills achieved in the last two years and up to February of this marketing year.

Mills can export the quota or get it exported by mills on mutually agreeable conditions.

The export quota would be over and above the obligations under the Advance Authorisation Scheme, the order said.

In a separate notification, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has allowed export of white sugar till September 2018 under the DFIA scheme.

As per official data, mills in Uttar Pradesh have maximum cane price arrear at Rs 5,136 crore, followed by Karnataka Rs 2,539 crore and Maharashtra Rs 2,348 crore as on March 21 of this year.

To stabilise domestic prices, the government has doubled import duty on sugar to 100 per cent, scrapped the export duty and also imposed stock limits on sugar mills for two months.

Sugar output is estimated to rise to 27.2 million tonnes in 2017-18 marketing year, as against the demand of 25 million tonnes. India had produced 20.3 million tonnes in the 2016-17 marketing year.

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The government today approved amendments to the National Medical Commission (NMC) Bill including removing the contentious provision of "bridge course", which would have allowed practitioners of alternative medicines to pursue allopathy, an official statement said.

Observing the need to act strictly against unqualified practitioners, the government approved an amendment to make the punishment for any unauthorised practice of medicine "severe" by including a provision for imprisonment of up to one year along with a fine extending to up to Rs five lakh.

The Union cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi also approved that the final MBBS examination would be held as a common exam throughout the country and would serve as an exit test to be called the National Exit Test (NEXT).

Thus, students would not have to appear in a separate exam after MBBS to get licence to practice and 'NEXT' would serve as the screening test for doctors with foreign medical qualifications in order to practice in India, the statement said.

According to the statement, the provision dealing with "bridge course" for AYUSH practitioners to practice modern medicine has been removed.

The provision was strongly opposed by health organisations, including the Indian Medical Association, which said allowing AYUSH doctors practise modern medicine would promote "quackery".

The health ministry, however, had stated that the provision seeks to address "acute shortage" of doctors in India.

"It has been left to state governments to take necessary measures for addressing and promoting primary health care in rural areas," the statement said.

PTI had reported yesterday that the health ministry has "omitted" the contentious provision of bridge course proposed in the NMC Bill and also replaced the provisions of the National Licentiate Examination with a 'Common Final Year MBBS Exam' and the term National Licentiate Examination (NLE) with National Exit Test (NEXT).

A parliamentary panel, in its report earlier this month, had said that the bridge course should not be made a mandatory provision while recommending penal provisions for those practising medicine without requisite qualification.

The amendment to the NMC Bill comes in the backdrop of its consideration in Lok Sabha on January 2 and subsequently being referred to the Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committee (DRPSC).

The government has considered the recommendations made by the committee in its report tabled in the House on March 20, the statement said.

It also said that the maximum limit of 40 per cent seats - for which fee would be regulated in private medical institutions and deemed universities - has been increased to 50 per cent.

Further, it has been clarified that the fee would include all other charges taken by the colleges.

"Responding to the demands from states to increase their representation in the NMC, the nominees of states and UTs in the NMC have been increased from 3 to 6. The NMC will comprise 25 members of which at least 21 will be doctors," it said.

Another major concern gathered during discussion with stake-holders was the wide range of monetary penalty, ranging from one-half to ten times the annual fee recovered from a batch, to be imposed in a graded manner on a medical college non-compliant with the norms.

"The clause has been replaced with a provision which provides different options for warning, reasonable monetary penalty, reducing intake, stoppage of admission leading up to withdrawal of recognition," the statement said.

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Assam government is committed to create an ideal atmosphere for the growth of students as they are the country's future, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said today.

"The state government is working resolutely for the intellectual, physical and social development of students so that they can contribute to the growth of the state", he said in an interaction with students at the Central Hall of Assam Assembly here.

"There is no shortcut to success and the students should work hard to taste success in life", he said.

He also appealed to the students to live in peace with people belonging to various castes, creeds, communities and religions and work for a new Assam which could claim to be among the five most developed states in the country.

Students from Patharkandi College, Karimganj College, Haflong College and Pharmacy Institute Gauhati Medical College interacted with him.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary. MLAs Tapan Gogoi, Gurujyoti Das, Krishnandu Paul, Mihir Kanti Shome, Bir Bhadra Hagjer, Mrinal Saikia and Additional Chief Secretary to the department of Parliamentary Affairs A K Singh were also present on the occasion.

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The government today unveiled plans to sell up to 76 per cent stake in Air India and transfer the management control to private players, starting the ambitious strategic disinvestment process for the debt-laden national carrier.

Coming out with a detailed preliminary information memorandum on the stake sale, the Civil Aviation Ministry said the proposed disinvestment would include profit-making Air India Express and joint venture AIATSL. The latter is an equal joint venture between the national carrier and Singapore-based SATS Ltd.

While the government would retain 26 per cent stake in the national carrier, the winning bidder would be required to stay invested in the airline for at least three years.

Starting off the disinvestment exercise -- a major initiative of the NDA government -- Expression of Interest (EoI) has been sought from various entities, including foreign airlines.

The last date for submission of EoI is May 14 and intimation to the qualified interest bidders would be made on May 28.

Bidding can be done as a single player or as part of a consortium. The bidder should have a minimum net worth of Rs 5,000 crore and the requirement is subject to certain conditions depending on the class of entities.

Among others, the ministry has said that each consortium member should have positive profit after tax in at least three of the immediately preceding five financial years from the EoI deadline.

"However, if the member of the consortium is a scheduled airline operator in India, the condition to meet positive profit after tax shall not apply to such member provided shareholding of such member is restricted to maximum of 51 per cent of paid up equity share capital of the consortium (special purpose vehicle).

"In case of a foreign airline (ie airline which is not a scheduled airline operator in India), the requirement to meet positive profit after tax requirement shall remain applicable," it said.

Bids by management and employees of companies participating directly or by forming a consortium would be considered subject to guidelines issued by the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM).

The consortium can be along with a bank, venture capitalist, a financial institution or fund.

Four other subsidiaries of the airline -- AIESL (Air India Engineering Services Ltd), AIATSL (Air India Air Transport Services Ltd), HCI (Hotel Corporation of India) and AASL (Airline Allied Services Ltd) -- would be hived off through demerger or any other appropriate mechanisms, as per the memorandum.

AIESL mainly provides maintenance and overhaul of engines while AIATSL is into ground and cargo handling services.

HCI owns and operates two hotels in the national capital and Srinagar. AASL is the regional arm of Air India and flies to Tier II and III cities.

"Air India has interests in other entities (Air India Engineering Services, Air India Air Transport Services, Airline Allied Services and Hotel Corporation of India) which are in the process of being transferred to a separate SPV and will not be a part of the proposed transaction," the memorandum said.

Air India had a fleet of 115 aircraft as of December 2017 and serves around 39 international destinations.

As on December 1, 2017, the airline had 11,214 permanent employees and 2,913 on contract, among others.

Among other conditions, the selected bidder would be required to "lock-in its entire shareholding in Air India and in the special purpose vehicle (in case investment in AI is made through a special purpose vehicle by a consortium or otherwise), up to the expiry of 3rd Anniversary of the consummation of the proposed transaction".

During this period, the bidder would also not be allowed to cede the management control.

Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) or Central Government Owned Cooperative Societies would not be allowed to bid for Air India unless a proposal is brought up for consideration of the Core Group of Secretaries on Disinvestment by the government, the memorandum said.

Ernst & Young LLP India has been appointed as transaction adviser for the strategic disinvestment process.

In June 2017, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) gave in-principle nod to the strategic disinvestment of the airline, which has a debt burden of over Rs 50,000 crore.

Subsequent to the decision, the Air India Specific Alternative Mechanism (AISAM), headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, was set up to decide on specific issues.

The national carrier is staying afloat on taxpayers' money under the turnaround plan approved by the previous UPA government in 2012.

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The Government Railway police (GRP) today arrested two Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) jawans in an inebriated condition from Bihar's Katihar district.

Katihar GRP SHO Dhananjay Kumar said that GRP arrested the two jawans from Rajdhani Express at Katihar junction.

The jawans were returning home to Chandigarh and Lucknow on vacation, SHO said adding they boarded the 12423 Dibrugarh-New Delhi Rajdhani Express at New Jalpaiguri junction in West Bengal.

On suspicion, GRP's escort party questioned them but they misbehaved and were found them drunk, he said adding that medical test will be conducted on both.

An FIR has been lodged in this connection, the SHO said.

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The Bombay High Court today granted bail to three men, who are accused, along with others, of killing a Muslim IT professional in Pune in 2014 after they being "provoked" by the speech of the leader of a Hindu right-wing group.

Justice Mridula Bhatkar granted bail to Vijay Gambhire, Ajay Lalge and Ganesh Yadav, maintaining her earlier observation that their act was not premeditated.

She had granted bail to them in January 2017, while noting in the order that the men had acted without premeditation as they were "provoked in the name of religion".

The Maharashtra government challenged the order in the Supreme Court, which sent it back to the high court, asking it to decide it afresh.

Yesterday Justice Bhatkar asked the government why it challenged only her order, as before her, two other judges of the high court had granted bail to 17 co-accused who face the same charges as the three men.

"If it was only because of the comment on religion, then I believe instead of approaching the apex court you could have directly come to me.

"You could have felt free and requested me to delete the remarks, I would have had surely made the changes. It is my duty to address the issue properly," she had said.

In her order granting the bail today, Justice Bhatkar observed that the killing was unfortunate and such vengeance and assault in the name of any religion was never justified.

She said no religion preached violence and everyone was expected to respect the other religion.

They were expected not to commit any offence, causing injury to a person, property and feelings of people of other religion and not to disregard the secular frame of the Constitution, she said.

"Such crime is always condemned by the law," she said.

However, the judge maintained that it was not a premeditated offence, as the accused had no "personal vendetta" against Mohasin Shaikh, the victim.

"I believe that the applicants can be granted bail on the ground of parity (with the other 17 who got bail). They were provoked by the speech and a discussion in the meeting which had taken place just half an hour before the incident...the accused had no serious criminal record prior to the incident," the judge said.

"This is not a premeditated, or a pre-designed crime," she said.

The judge imposed several conditions on the three applicants while granting them bail, including regular appearance before police for facing questioning.

She said they should not have ties with the Hindu Rashtra Sena (HRS), the right-wing group in question.

As per the prosecution, on June 2, 2014, the HRS had organised a meeting at Hadapsar in Pune over an incident involving morphed pictures of Shivaji, late Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray and some Hindu deities.

Its leader, Dhananjay Desai, gave a provocative speech "instigating" the audience, as per the police.

After the meeting, some of those who attended it went on a rampage. On spotting two men on a motorbike, with one of them sporting a beard, they attacked them.

The two men, Mohsin Shaikh and Riyaz, both IT professionals, were heading for dinner. While Riyaz managed to escape, Shaikh was killed in the attack.

Desai was subsequently arrested and is currently in jail.

In January 2017, Justice Bhatkar, while granting bail to the three applicants, had observed, "The fault of the deceased was only that he belonged to another religion. I consider this factor in favour.. of the applicants/accused.

"Moreover, the applicants/accused do not have criminal record and it appears that in the name of the religion, they were provoked and have committed the murder," she had said.

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The Bombay High Court today castigated the city police for summoning repeatedly a child witness to the police station for recording his statement in a case of alleged rape of his three-year-old class mate by the school's trustee, a French national.

Justice Revati Mohite Dere expressed her anger saying that the police were defeating the purpose of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act by not adhering to the laid down procedures for probe into a case under the Act.

Justice Dere vent off her ire after coming to know that the police had summoned the child witness and his father to the police station to record their statements in the case of rape, allegedly committed last May by the trustee of an international school of the city.

Irked by the information about summoning of the child witness, Justice Dere said, "If the police keep summoning children to police stations like this, the parents are naturally bound to feel that it was just adding to the trauma. It is very disturbing to note that the child and his father had to go to the police station on several occasions."



"The Act is very clear on what procedure needs to be followed by the police while probing cases of such nature. Why were the child and his father called to the police station?" Justice Dere asked.

The whole purpose of the POCSO Act would be defeated if the police behave in such an ignorant manner, she said, adding that as per the Act, the police have to go to the residence of the child in civil clothes and record his or her statement.

Upset with the episode, Justice Dere ordered the police to submit to the court the case diary details, marking out how many times the boy and his father were called to the police station.

The court was informed about the repeated summoning of the victim's class mate, a three-year-old boy, and his father by the counsel for the victim's mother, who has moved the court challenging the grant of bail to the school trustee by the sessions court.

Appearing for the victim's mother, her counsel Vijay Hiremath had apprised the court about repeated summoning of the child witness to the police station during the last hearing on the woman's plea against the grant of bail to the French national.

Besides the victim's mother, the parents of 42 other students from the school, located in suburban Andheri, too had moved the court seeking a direction to the trustee to stay away from the institution as they feared for the safety of their children.

The trustee, a French national, was arrested on November 7 last year, but was granted bail by the sessions court on November 24 last year.

Following this, the victim's mother had approached the high court for cancellation of his bail.

After hearing arguments on the victim's mother plea, the court today reserved its order for April 2.

Senior counsel Shirish Gupte, appearing for the French trustee of the school, argued that his client had fallen victim to the school politics.

"He (trustee) has been managing the school for 25 years and has no criminal antecedents. There is a sinister motive behind this case," Gupte argued.

Hiremath, however, argued that the sessions court order was perverse and bad in law.

The incident dates back to May last year, when the girl's parents noticed changes in her behaviour, and difficulty in sitting and walking.

When they asked her if anyone had hurt her or touched her inappropriately, she pointed to a picture of the school trustee, the child's mother said in the plea.

An FIR was subsequently lodged against the trustee in May last year. He, however, was arrested only in November after the victim's parents filed a writ petition in the high court alleging the police inaction.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Following are the top at 2100 hours:



NATION:



DEL 74 CBSE-LD RE-EXAMCBSE paper leak: Board announces re-exam; HRD initiates probeNew Delhi: The CBSE today announced re-examination in the Class 10 mathematics and Class 12 economics subjects in the wake of reports of paper leaks even as Union HRD minister Prakash Javadekar said a new leak-proof system would be put in place for conducting the board exams.

DEL72 ED-NIRAVMODI-LD ARREST



PNB scam: ED arrests close associate of Nirav Modi



Mumbai/New Delhi: The ED today said it has arrested a "close" associate and the vice president of a firm of diamantaire Nirav Modi for allegedly aiding in the laundering of over Rs 5,900 crore in connection with the PNB bank scam case.

DEL70 JK-3RDLD ENCOUNTER



4 'fidayeen' killed in encounter in Rajouri



Sundebani (J&K): Four terrorists, who were part of a suicide squad, were today killed in a day-long encounter with security forces in the Sunderbani area of Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district, the police said.

DEL56 PASWAN-LD MODI-SCST



MPs meet PM to discuss verdict on SC/ST atrocities act



New Delhi: A delegation of NDA's SC and ST MPs, led by LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan and Union Social Justice Minister Thawarchand Gehlot, today met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss their concerns on the apex court judgement diluting provisions of the SC-ST atrocities act.

DEL6 AV-VISTARA-SEXUAL HARASSMENT



62-yr-old bizman held for 'sexual harassment'



New Delhi: A 62-year-old Pune businessman has been arrested on a complaint of sexual harassment lodged against him by a cabin crew member of the Air Vistara, Lucknow-Delhi flight on March 24, the police said today.

DEL5 MHA-WB-REPORT



Centre seeks report from W Bengal govt on violence during Ram Navami



New Delhi: The Centre has sought a report from the West Bengal government on incidents of arson and violence during Ram Navami processions in the last two days and offered assistance to deal with the situation, an official spokesperson said.

PAR9 RS-NAIDU



Naidu concerned over washout of Par proceedings



New Delhi: Concerned over the virtual washout of Parliament proceedings, Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu today urged MPs not to further erode "the quality of polity" and make a fresh beginning by conducting themselves in a more dignified manner.

PAR8 RS-LD PM



MPs could not debate major issues due to disruptions: PM in RS



New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today lamented that disruptions in Parliament have unfortunately prevented several members, retiring from the Rajya Sabha, from being able to participate in debates on historic legislations like the triple talaq bill.

LEGAL:



LGD19 SC-2ND LD SYMBOL



SC puts on hold HC order on symbol allotment to Dhinakaran faction of AIADMK



New Delhi: The Supreme Court today kept in abeyance a Delhi High Court order asking the Election Commission to consider allotting the 'pressure cooker' or any other poll symbol to the AIADMK faction led by T T V Dhinakaran.

LGD16 SC-LD MAHATMA



Re-opening probe into Mahatma Gandhi's death a futile exercise: SC



New Delhi: Nearly 70 years after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, the Supreme Court today put at rest an attempt to reopen the investigation into it, saying it would be "an exercise in futility".

FOREIGN:



FGN22 LANKA-PREZ-LD PM



Sirisena cuts PM's duties amid ongoing political crisis



Colombo: Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena today reduced the responsibilities of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in the backdrop of the ongoing political turmoil in the country.

FGN19 CHINA-KIM-2NDLD VISIT



Kim seeks Xi's support ahead of meeting with Trump



Beijing: Bracing for an unprecedented meeting with US President Donald Trump, North Korea's reclusive dictator Kim Jong-un made a secret trip to Beijing to seek Chinese President Xi Jinping's backing while pledging support for denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The district rural police raided four hookah parlours in Bhayander here and found irregularities in one of them, an official said today.

The police seized about 40 hookah pipes and 15 boxes containing flavoured tobacco from one of the parlours, during the raid conducted in the early hours yesterday, assistant superintendent of police Atul Kulkarni said.

The police also registered offences against five people working at the hookah parlour under relevant sections of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, he said.

Notably, the Maharashtra government yesterday introduced a bill in the Legislative Assembly to ban hookah bars in the state.

The bill to amend the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act-2003 was introduced by state Parliamentary Affairs Minister Girish Bapat.

According to the bill, no person shall, either on his own or on behalf of any other person, open or run a hookah bar in any place, including an eating house.

The bill also states that the police would have the power to seize any material or article used as a subject or means of a hookah bar.

Violators would be punished with imprisonment ranging from one to three years and fines between Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh, the bill states.

The government had said the hookah bars mushroomed in places like Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, among other cities, and that they were being run in public places and restaurants.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Shares of IDBI Bank today plunged over 5 per cent after the company said the CBI has registered cases in the two of the five complaints with regard to loans aggregating to Rs 772 crore for pisciculture.

The company's stock dropped 5.25 per cent to end at Rs 72.25 on BSE. During the day, it plunged 8.39 per cent to Rs 69.85.

On NSE, shares of the company fell by 5.31 per cent to close at Rs 72.20.

In a regulatory filing the company yesterday said, the bank had sanctioned pisciculture loans during the period from FY 2009 to FY 2013 at a few branches of erstwhile state of Andhra Pradesh.

Subsequently, these cases were parked in five branches -- Basheerbagh in Hyderabad, Guntur, Rajahmundry, Bhimavaram and Palangi.

"It was later discovered that some of these loans (52 aggregators with principal outstanding of Rs 772 crore) were fraudulently obtained by some industrialists who stood as common guarantor for these loans and were referred to as aggregators, by submitting fake lease documents of non-existent fish ponds," the bank said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
India and China are keen to re-negotiate bilateral investment agreement with an aim to create a more stable and transparent environment to facilitate greater investment in both the countries, an official said.

The issue was discussed during the meeting of Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu with his Chinese counterpart Zhong Shan here.

The two ministers acknowledged that significant growth in bilateral investment calls for an upgradation of bilateral investment agreement between the two countries.

"Both the sides agreed to re-negotiate the bilateral investment agreement to create a more stable, transparent and predictable legal environment to facilitate greater investments," the government official said.

India has received USD 1.78 billion foreign direct investment from China during April 2000 to December 2017.

The official added Chinese side raised certain issues with regard to investment facilitation in India.

"The commerce ministry informed the Chinese officials that they can have separate meetings with the Department of Economic Affairs on the investment treaty," the commerce ministry official said.

They also want to set up more industrial parks in the country, a move would also help narrowing the trade deficit.

Chinese firms that have presence in India include Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A team of officials of India's Ministry of Water Resources held talks with their Chinese counterparts on the cooperation of trans-border rivers, the first after Beijing last year stopped providing the data on the flow of Brahmaputra waters.

The two-day talks on the 11th meeting of the India-China Expert Level Mechanism (ELM) on Trans-Border Rivers concluded yesterday in the Chinese city of Hangzhou, a press release from the Indian Embassy today here.

The Indian side was led by Teerath Singh Mehra, Commissioner (B&B), Ministry of Water Resources and the Chinese side by Yu Xingjun, Consul, Department of International Cooperation Science and Technology, Ministry of Water Resources.

The meeting reviewed the progress made since the earlier meetings of the ELM and their continued cooperation on provision of hydrological information and emergency management in respect of trans-border rivers, the press release.

The officials also reviewed the data utilisation report upon provision of hydrological information provided by China to India in flood season on Brahmaputra and Sutlej Rivers.

The institutional mechanism of the ELM was established in 2006 to discuss various issues related to trans-border rivers.

Under existing bilateral Memorandums of Understanding, China provides to India hydrological information of Brahmaputra River (Yarlong Zangbo) and Sutlej River (Langqen Zangbo) during the flood seasons.

Under the arrangement, China provides flood season data of the Brahmaputra river between May 15 and October 15 every year.

Last September, China said it couldn't share the data with due to upgradation of data collection station in Tibet.

China's announcement soon after the 73-day long standoff at Doklam over Chinese military's plans to build a road close to India's Chicken Neck corridor connecting North-Eastern states.

China has been building major dams on Brahmaputra river to generate hydel power. It operationalised Zangmu hydroelectric project in October, 2015 and three more are under construction.

While dams raised concerns of water shortages in India and Bangladesh, which are lower riparian states of Brahmaputra river, China said its dams were aimed at generating power and not storing water.

According to officials, the data shared by upper riparian state, China, to lower riparian states, India and Bangladesh is essential every monsoon to allow anticipation of the flow of the water and take necessary measures to deal with flooding in India's north eastern states.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
India today strongly condemned renewed missile attacks targeting civilian areas in Riyadh and other cities of Saudi Arabia, and reiterated its resolve to fight terrorism and violence in all its forms.

According to Saudi authorities, one person was killed after seven missiles were fired from Yemen by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels on Sunday.

"We strongly condemn the renewed missile attacks targeting civilian areas in the direction of Riyadh and other cities of Saudi Arabia. We are deeply concerned about the escalating situation threatening the lives of innocent civilians. We reiterate our resolve to fight terrorism and violence in all its forms," the External Affairs Ministry spokesperson said.

The missiles were fired at four targets, including the capital city of Riyadh, and all were intercepted and destroyed, said spokesman of the Saudi coalition forces for supporting the legitimacy in Yemen Colonel Turki Al-Malki in a statement yesterday.

Fragments from the intercepted missiles killed an Egyptian resident, the statement added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
India, the second largest almond importer in the world last year, has already imported 154 million pounds till February this crop year (August 2017 to July 2018), overtaking Spain and China, according to the Almond Board of California (ABC).

Spain has imported 119 million pounds this year till February, while China has imported 138 million pounds.

India overtook China in last crop year 2016-17 to be ranked the second by importing 167 million pounds, a 33 per cent rise over 125-million-pound imports in the previous year.

"This year, till February, India has already imported 154 million pound, and the shipments for the sub-continent looks bright in the current crop year," ABC regional director Audarshan Mazumdar told PTI here.

Spain was the biggest almond importer in 2016-17 with 210 million pounds, while China had 150 million pound imports.

According to Mazumdar, India is an important market for ABC and is witnessing a double-digit growth on the back of increasing spending power and the growing middle class who are becoming health conscious.

The board is conducting education and promotional programmes on the benefits of almonds in the country to further boost consumption in India.

"We work towards reminding people to consume the nut daily and for its health benefits," he added.

Mazumdar said traditionally the northern and the western region of the country are strong in terms of almonds consumption, however, the south is also picking up.

"We run programmes in the southern region of the country and the market is slowly picking up," he added.

California grows 80 per cent of the total almonds in the world, of which 33 per cent in consumed in the US and Canada, while 67 per cent is exported to 90 countries.

In 2004-05, the Asia Pacific region accounted for 25 per cent of the exports, which has now gone up to 38 per cent, mainly driven by demands from India and China.

The total almond production was 2.01 billion pounds in 2016-17, while it is 2.25 billion pounds this year till February mainly due to increase in area.

"This growth is mainly due to increase in the area. In 1980, the area was 91,000 acres which has now grown to 1 million acres of almond orchards," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar today said the government was conducting an internal inquiry into reports claiming that the CBSE Class 10 mathematics and Class 12 economics papers had been leaked.

A new system would be put in place from Monday to ensure no leaks take place and the government would ensure that there is no injustice, Javadekar said.

He said he was "saddened" by reports that the papers had leaked and asserted that he was confident that the police would investigate and nab the culprits.

The Central Board of Secondary (CBSE) today announced a re-examination in the Class 10 mathematics and Class 12 economics papers following reports that they had been leaked.

"CBSE had a very solid system in place. But if someone is leaking it or there is some loophole in it, taking that into consideration, a new system will be put in place from Monday which will ensure there is no such leakage.

"This I want to assure parents and students. I am confident that police will investigate and nab the culprits," the minister told reporters.

Asked about Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaking to him about the issue, Javadekar said he had been given all the information.

The prime minister, he said, had always discussed stress free exams with people.

"This is an issue which is very important for him," he said.

The government will, with the help of technology, put in place a system "which is so foolproof that there is no leak", Javadekar said, adding that his ministry is also conducting an internal probe.

"The board has taken cognisance of certain happenings in the conduct of certain examinations as are being reported. With a view to uphold the sanctity of the board examinations and in the interest of fairness to the students, the board has decided to re-conduct the examinations... ," the CBSE circular stated.

Dates for the re-examination of the two papers would be posted on the CBSE website within a week, the circular said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Markets regulator Sebi on Wednesday said investigation is going on a priority basis into the matter related to alleged lapses at Healthcare and Religare Enterprises.

The regulator has been looking into the alleged lapses after reports that financial irregularities emerged at the two

The development came against the backdrop of reports that Healthcare's promoters Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh took at least $78 million out of the company without any board approval about a year ago.

"Investigation is on in and Religare. It is going on a priority basis," Sebi Chairman Ajay Tyagi told reporters after the board meeting here.

Apart from Sebi, the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) has also initiated a probe into the alleged financial irregularities at the two
Investments of Rs 79,000 crore is expected to fructify in Assam following the 263 pacts signed between the state government and different investors during the Global Investors' Summit held last month, Industry Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary today.

In a reply to questions of Abdul Khaleq (Cong) in the Assembly here, Patowary said the Ambani, Tata and Adani groups, Inland Waterways Authority of India, Airports Authority of India and others had also expressed desire to invest Rs 20,000 crores in the state.

He said investors from different countries had participated in the summit including Bangladesh, Bhutan, Canada, Cambodia, Czech Republic, Germany, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Netherland, Saudi Arabia, England, USA and Vietnam.

On the expenditure incurred by the state government to host the summit, Patowary said only after receiving all the bills from various sources and calculating them will the final expenditure figure emerge.

However, the government has released Rs 25.40 crore so far in four installments to event partner Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce (FICCI), Rs 30 crore under various heads of account, he said, adding, the Centre has given sanction for release of Rs 10.59 crore for the event.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
On a desolate highway in northern Iraq last week, nine federal police officers packed into a large SUV were stopped at a checkpoint they had never seen before.

Behind them, a taxi carrying a handful of other officers lagged behind on the long drive from the northern city of Kirkuk back to the capital, Baghdad.

Men dressed as Shiite paramilitaries asked the policemen to hand over their IDs and weapons for inspection, and then took them hostage. When the taxi rolled up, the men at the checkpoint opened fire, causing it to turn around and speed off, according to one of the men in the vehicle.

Those who had been in the SUV would not be seen again until days later, when photos circulated on jihadi forums showed them being forced to kneel before being shot dead by their captors. The Islamic State group claimed the killings.

Iraq declared victory over IS in December after driving the militants from the last territory under their control, but in recent months the group has resumed insurgent-style attacks in northern Iraq.

Iraqi security officials say between 150 and 200 members of the security forces have been killed in IS attacks across the country in the past few months. The security officials, and the policeman in the taxi, spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to brief the media.

"There are empty spaces between the federal forces and the peshmerga," said Kirkuk Gov. Rakan al-Jibouri, referring to the Kurdish forces who have been locked in a months-long standoff with Baghdad.

He said he has repeatedly asked the central government for additional forces to secure the area, but has been ignored. "This issue is not taken sufficiently seriously despite the many incidents," he said.

Over the past week alone, IS has claimed responsibility for six attacks at fake checkpoints, including one that destroyed oil tankers and another targeting Shiite pilgrims. Other attacks have included strikes on oil installations and convoys, with IS claiming to have captured weapons and vehicles.

The attacks have focused on rural targets and have increased ahead of elections planned for May. They are in keeping with IS documents uncovered by intelligence officials months ago that detailed plans for an insurgent campaign on the heels of the group's territorial defeat, according to one of the security officials, who works in the government's anti-terrorism intelligence department.

Over the course of a grueling three-year campaign, Iraqi forces backed by a US-led coalition drove IS from the vast swaths of territory it seized in the summer of 2014, and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared a final victory in December.

But Iraqi and coalition officials have warned that the group remains capable of carrying out insurgent-style attacks.

A Baghdad-based security official said IS fighters are able to move with greater freedom through rural areas and the open deserts in northern Iraq since the U.S.-led coalition began reducing its military footprint earlier this year.

With fewer coalition troops on the ground, Iraqi forces are not getting the large amounts of intelligence they did at the height of the fight against IS, and coalition surveillance has also been scaled back, the official said.

"Right now it's a tactical fight. Daesh has been defeated militarily, but the fight for security is not yet over," the official said, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

Since the end of major combat operations in Iraq, the U.S.-led coalition has "shifted" air assets to Syria and Afghanistan, coalition spokesman Col. Ryan Dillon told The Associated Press. But he said the coalition is continuing to support Iraqi operations, and is allocating resources according to Iraqi priorities.

"We already know ISIS feeds off of instability and sectarian divides," he said. "For them to conduct attacks in that area where there are already tensions is something that is not uncommon.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Israel's national airline El Al today filed an urgent petition to the High Court against Air India's new route connecting New Delhi and Tel Aviv via Saudi airspace, days after the Indian carrier launched its maiden service to the Jewish state, Israeli media reports said.

Speaking at a press conference in Tel Aviv, El Al's CEO Gonen Usishkin and chairman Eli Defes said that by allowing Air India to fly over a country (Saudi Arabia) that does not grant El Al the same rights, the government is violating its commitments to Israel's national carrier, the Times of Israel reported.

El Al has taken legal action against the Israeli government, its Civil Aviation Administration, Transportation Minister Israel Katz, and Air India, the Israeli airline's spokesperson Ran Rahav was quoted as saying by the paper.

On March 22, Air India's maiden flight to Israel landed in Tel Aviv amid great fanfare, reducing the travel time by two hours after Saudi Arabia for the first time allowed an Israel-bound commercial flight to use its airspace.

Saudi Arabia permitted Air India to use its airspace, enabling it to take a shorter route, covering the distance in 7.25 hours, about 2.10 hours less as compared to the only other airline that flies between the two countries -- El Al.

During the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the new Air India route as "historic".

"But El Al argues that allowing Air India to cross over airspace that is closed to Israeli-owned airlines violated articles 9 and 11 of the 1944 Convention on International Civil Aviation, as well as various Israeli government decisions," the paper said.

As long as El Al is barred from flying over Saudi Arabia en route to and from Israel, it was illegal for foreign airlines to do so, Rahav said, citing the International Air Transport Association's principles of reciprocity and equality.

"There can be no fair competition between an airline that can fly directly from destination to destination and an airline that is forced to use longer routes because of discrimination based on nationality," Rahav added.

El Al currently flies four weekly flights to Mumbai. It takes a circuitous route over the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and then enters India and avoids countries that are on the direct flight path such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The detour adds fuel and operational expenses.

El Al has also asked industry group IATA to help it access Saudi Arabia's airspace.

Quoting El Al's vice president for Commercial and Industry Affairs Michael Strassburger, the paper said that he appreciates the importance the Air India route has for a potential improvement of Israel's ties with the Arab world, but argued that it cannot come at the expense of an Israeli company.

"We also welcome any competition as long as it's fair competition. Now this (current) situation is something that we condemn. Because it's competition, but it's not equal, and we're not able to compete in the way that we should be able to."



Israel must ensure that competition is equal, he insisted.

"If one airline can fly a certain route, then the other airlines deserve to be able to do the same," he was quoted as saying by the paper.
The wife of a Taiwanese democracy activist jailed in China said Wednesday he is denied "basic correspondence rights" after visiting him in prison for the first time in a case that has strained cross-strait relations.

NGO worker Lee Ming-cheh was sentenced to five years in prison in November on charges of subverting state power by a court in central Hunan province, as activists face increased pressure from authorities under Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Lee was arrested in March 2017 during a trip to the mainland and held incommunicado for months. Taipei has called his jailing "unacceptable" and a serious blow to relations with Beijing, while his wife Lee Ching-yu has said his trial was a "political show".

Lee Ching-yu was allowed to visit her husband in Chishan prison in Hunan on Tuesday, when they spoke for 30 minutes through a glass window.

"Lee Ming-cheh's health... in prison seems fine from his appearance... But it's very obvious he is still denied right of speech and basic correspondence rights," she told reporters at the airport near Taipei after returning from China.

"He still cannot write letters to me. Even though the reason he gave is that he has very busy work hours in prison," she said, adding that Lee only received two of the 11 books she sent him.

"Every word they (prisoners) speak, even their voice and expression, will be recorded in writing by the prison."



Chinese authorities cancelled Lee Ching-yu's mainland travel permit last April as she searched for her missing husband and later only granted her single-entry visas to attend the trial and sentencing. In January, she was barred from boarding a flight to visit Lee in prison.

During his trial, Lee admitted the charges, stating that he had written and distributed online articles that criticised China's ruling Communist Party and promoted democracy.

He had shared "Taiwan's democratic experiences" with his Chinese friends online for many years and often mailed books to them, according to the Taiwan Association for Human Rights.

"Lee Ming-cheh cannot correspond with the outside world and his family's visitation rights are not ensured. This is evidence that China violates international and even its own laws," said the association.

Amnesty International and other Taiwanese rights groups have also called for Lee's release.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader and former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren today met Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao here and discussed "national politics" with him.

Soren, who hasexpressed solidarity with Rao's proposal to forge a new political front in the country, met him at Pragati Bhavan, Rao's official residence complex-cum-camp office at Begumpet, here.

"They both had lunch together and later discussed national politics," an official release said.

Rao, also president of the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti, had recently met West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee at Kolkata to discuss plans for evolving a coalition of regional parties.

The TRS chief has alleged that successive governments ruled by both the Congress and BJP at the Centre have miserably failed to ensure the country's development.

Rao, popularly called KCR, recently said he would talk with like-minded parties and leaders for creating an agenda for the country's growth.

Soren had earlier extended support to Rao's suggestion that a non-Congress and non-BJP front should be formed in the country.

Calling for a "qualitative change" in politics, Rao had also announced that he was ready to take on the mantle of leading a political front.

Yesterday, he said that the alternative being proposed by him would be a "peoples front of India.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Stepping up pressure ahead of the May 12 assembly polls, the Congress government in Karnataka has written to the Centre recommending it to consider representations of the Lingayat and Veerashaiva community to recognise them as a religious minority.

The letter comes days after the state cabinet decided to recommend to the Centre grant of religious minority status to Lingayats and Veerashaiva Lingayats.

It was seen by the BJP and other political opponents as a move by the Siddaramaiah government to cut into the vote bank of BJP, which banks significantly on their support.

The BJP has seen the government decision as an attempt to divide Hindus.

BJP president Amit Shah was on a two-day visit to Karnataka from Monday and met several Lingayat pontiffs.

In a letter to the Secretary of Ministry of Minority Affairs, Secretary to Karnataka government, Minority Welfare Department, has sought recognition of Lingayats and Veerashaivas who follow 12th century social reformer Basavanna's philosophy and teachings as a religious minority Under Section 2(c) of National Commission of Minorities Act, 1992.

"..the State Government recommends that the Government of India may consider representations of the Lingayat community and Veerashaiva community who believes in Basavanna's teachings and recognise them as a religious minority," the letter listing the chronology of events said.

"Upon such recognition may take necessary action to notify the Lingayat and Veerashaiva Lingayats who believe in Basavanna's philosophy, Basavanna's vachanas and teachings as a religious minority under Section 2(c) of the National Commission of Minorities Act,1992," it further said.

The letter dated March 23 was released to the media today.

The state cabinet on March 19 had decided to recommend to the Centre to grant religious minority tag to the dominant Lingayat and Veerashaiva Lingayat community, based on the recommendation of the Karnataka State Minority Commission.

As per the decision of the cabinet, thestate government had recently issued a notificationunder Section 2(d) of the Karnataka State Minorities Act,1994, notifying Lingayats and Veerashaiva Lingayats as religious minority.

The notification had a rider that it would come into effect from the date the central government notifies the communities as a minority.

The demand for a separate religion tag to Veerashaiva/ Lingayat faiths has surfaced from the numerically strong and politically-influential community, amid resentment fromwithin over projecting the two communities as the same.

One section led by Akhila Bharata Veerashaiva Mahasabha has demanded separate religion status, asserting that Veerashaiva and Lingayats are the same.

The other group wants it only for Lingayats as they believe that Veerashaivasare one among the seven sects of Shaivas, which is part ofHinduism.

Of late, some Lingayats have also stated that they were open to having the Veerashaivas under their umbrella, butthe Lingayat nomenclature was non-negotiable.

The cabinet decision has been vehmently opposed by the Veerashaivas who have accused Siddaramaiah government of dividing the community.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un told his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping that he is committed to denuclearisation as the dictator made a secret trip to China ahead of his landmark meeting with US President Donald Trump.

After two days of speculation, China and North Korea both confirmed that Kim had travelled to Beijing to meet Xi, with both sides seeking to portray strong ties.

Kim paid a four-day "unofficial visit" to Beijing from Sunday to Wednesday -- his first journey abroad since taking power and his first reported meeting with a foreign head of state -- at the invitation of Xi, state-run Xinhua agency reported.

The state media confirmed the visit only after Kim had returned to North Korea.

The confirmation of the visit ended speculation about Kim's secret trip after Japanese media spotted a green train, similar to the one used by Kim's father, arriving in Beijing on Monday and departing the following day.

Though Chinese officials had refused to confirm Kim's presence, there were also reports about heavy security on the China-North Korea border and later at a a guesthouse where prominent North Koreans have stayed in the past.

During the visit, which was kept under wraps, Kim held talks with Xi at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing during which the two leaders hailed their nations' historic relations, with the North Korean leader pledging that he was "committed to the denuclearisation" of the Korean peninsula, Xinhua reported.

Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan held a welcoming banquet for Kim and his wife Ri Sol Ju and watched an art performance together, the report said.

During the talks, Xi welcomed Kim warmly and appreciated his congratulatory message greeting him for his re-election as the General Secretary of CPC and head of the military as well as president for the second five-year term, the report said.

Xi said Kim's current visit to China had come "at a special time" and was of great significance.

"We speak highly of this visit," Xi told Kim.

Xi underscored the importance of developing ties, saying it was "a strategic choice and the only right choice," according to Xinhua.

The Chinese leader said he was willing to maintain frequent contact with Kim "under the new circumstances".

Kim was quoted as saying that his country wants to transform ties with South Korea into "a relationship of reconciliation and cooperation."



Kim also said that North Korea is willing to hold summits with Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

"The issue of denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula can be resolved, if South Korea and the United States respond to our efforts with goodwill, create an atmosphere of peace and stability while taking progressive and synchronous measures for the realisation of peace," Kim said.

He said a series of major and happy events had taken place consecutively in China recently and referred Xi's re-election for the second term.

Kim said it was his obligation to come congratulate Xi in person, in line with the North Korea-China friendly tradition, the report said.

"There is no question that my first foreign visit would be to the Chinese capital," Kim said, according to North Korea's official KCNA agency.

The North Korean leader said that many important changes have taken in the Korean Peninsula where the situation is developing rapidly and he felt he should come in time to inform Xi in person the situation "out of comradeship and moral responsibility".

Though allies, the China-North Korean relations went through some testing times since Kim took over as the supreme leader of the country as he pressed ahead with his nuclear programme disregarding caution from Beijing.

Relations between the two countries have been strained after Beijing beefed up UN sanctions by blocking essential supplies like oil and coal following pressure from Trump.

In his talks with Kim, Xi said that China and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the official name for North Korea, had "traditional friendship" which was "the precious wealth" of both sides.

Xi said that China was willing to work with North Korea to promote long-term, healthy and stable development of bilateral relations that would benefit the two countries, its peoples, and regional peace, stability and development.

The Chinese president made four proposals concerning the development of the bilateral relations: continuation of high-level exchange, including close communication between him and Kim; make full play of strategic communication; actively advance peaceful development; cement the popular will foundation for China-DPRK friendship enhancing people to people contacts.

Kim said he was greatly encouraged and inspired by Xi's important views on North Korea-China friendship and the development of relations between the two countries.

Meanwhile, the White House said Trump received a personal note from Xi about Kim's visit.

"The Chinese government contacted the White House earlier on Tuesday to brief us on Kim Jong Un's visit to Beijing. The briefing included a personal message from President Xi to President Trump, which has been conveyed to President Trump, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said.

"The US remains in close contact with our allies South Korea and Japan. We see this development as further evidence that our campaign of maximum pressure is creating the appropriate atmosphere for dialogue with North Korea," Sanders said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
China broke its day-long silence today and finally acknowledged the visit of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un here and his meeting with President Xi Jinping.

Kim paid a four-day unofficial visit -- from Sunday to Wednesday -- to Beijing at the invitation of Xi, state-run Xinhua agency reported today.

Kim reportedly arrived in China by a special train from across the border and left in the same train yesterday.

During the visit, which was kept under wraps, Xi held talks with Kim at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan held a welcoming banquet for Kim and his wife Ri Sol Ju and watched an art performance together, the report said.

Premier Li Keqiang, Vice-President Wang Qishan and other top leaders of the ruling Chinese Communist Party of China, (CPC) attended related activities, respectively, it said.

During the talks, Xi welcomed Kim warmly and appreciated his congratulatory message greeting him for his re-election as the General Secretary of CPC and head of the military as well as president for the second five-year term, the report said.

Xi said Kim's current visit to China had come "at a special time" and was of great significance.

"We speak highly of this visit," Xi told Kim.

For his part, Kim said a series of major and happy events had taken place consecutively in China recently and referred Xi's re-election for the second term.

Kim said it was his obligation to come congratulate Xi in person, in line with the DPRK-China friendly tradition, the report said.

Kim was quoted as saying that many important changes have taken in the Korean Peninsula where the situation is developing rapidly and he felt he should come in time to inform Xi in person the situation "out of comradeship and moral responsibility".

This was Kim's first visit abroad and came ahead of his planned summit with US President Donald Trump. Yesterday, China had parried questions over Kim's visit amid intense media speculation.

Though allies, the China-North Korean relations went through some testing times since Kim took over as the supreme leader of the country as he pressed ahead with his nuclear programme disregarding caution from Beijing.

Relations between the two countries have been strained after Beijing beefed up UN sanctions by blocking essential supplies like oil and coal following pressure from Trump.

In his talks with Kim, Xi said that China and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the official name for North Korea, had "traditional friendship" which was "the precious wealth" of both sides.

Xinhua quoted Xi as saying that that the traditional China-DPRK friendship should be passed on continuously and developed better.

"This is a strategic choice and the only right choice both sides have made based on history and reality, the international and regional structure and the general situation of China-DPRK ties. This should not and will not change because of any single event at a particular time," Xi was quoted as saying.

Xi reportedly said that China was willing to work with the DPRK to promote long-term, healthy and stable development of China-DPRK relations that would benefit the two countries, its peoples, and regional peace, stability and development.

Xi made four proposals concerning the development of China-DPRK relations: continuation of high-level exchange, including close communication between him and Kim; make full play of strategic communication; actively advance peaceful development; cement the popular will foundation for China-DPRK friendship enhancing people to people contacts.

Kim said he was greatly encouraged and inspired by Xi's important views on DPRK-China friendship and the development of relations between the two parties and countries.

The two sides informed each other of their respective domestic situation.

"The Chinese side expects political stability, economic development and people's happiness in the DPRK led by Kim to advance along the path of socialism in developing economy and improving people's livelihood," Xi said.

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Bracing for an unprecedented meeting with US President Donald Trump, North Korea's reclusive dictator Kim Jong-un made a secret trip to Beijing to seek Chinese President Xi Jinping's backing while pledging support for denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.

After day-long silence yesterday, China today acknowledged Kim's visit apparently after his bullet proof green and yellow train, by which he travelled, left China's borders and entered North Korea.

Kim paid a four-day "unofficial visit" to Beijing from Sunday to Wednesday - his first journey abroad since taking power in 2011 and his first reported meeting with a foreign head of state -- at the invitation of Xi, state-run Xinhua agency reported.

During his visit, which was kept under wraps, Kim held talks with Xi at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan held a welcoming banquet for Kim and his wife Ri Sol Ju and watched an art performance together, the report said.

Premier Li Keqiang, Vice President Wang Qishan and other top leaders of the ruling Chinese Communist Party of China (CPC) attended related activities, respectively, it said.

But the key takeaways from the young mercurial dictator's first overseas visit to China, North Korea's decades old closest ally, was apparently to meet Xi, with whom he shared fractious relationship, before his proposed meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in next month and Trump in May.

China, a key broker pushing for six-party talks between US, North Korea, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia, was on tenterhooks as Kim began directly responding to the overtures of South Korea and Trump himself in an apparent snub to Beijing for tightening the UN sanctions by halting the supplies of oil, coal and other essentials under pressure from Trump.

Kim raised eyebrows in China when he refused to meet Xi's special envoy Song Tao few months ago.

But with Xi himself emerging more powerful this month after the removal of the two-term presidential limit paving the way for his life long rule, Kim made the surprise visit to Beijing to address China's concern and restoring primacy of Beijing's as an important player in North Korean peace process.

During his trip, Kim heaped praise on Xi saying the Chinese leader enjoyed the support of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) and the people of the whole country.

Xinhua quoted Kim as saying that it is his obligation to come to congratulate Xi in person, in line with the North Korea-China friendly tradition.

At present, the Korean Peninsula situation is developing rapidly and many important changes have taken place, Kim said, adding that he felt he should come in time to inform Xi in person the situation out of comradeship and moral responsibility.

Kim said his country is determined to transform the inter-Korean ties into a relationship of reconciliation and cooperation and hold summit between the heads of the two sides.

The DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) is willing to have dialogue with the US and hold a summit of the two countries, he said.

"The issue of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula can be resolved, if south Korea and the US respond to our efforts with goodwill, create an atmosphere of peace and stability while taking progressive and synchronous measures for the realization of peace," Kim told Xi.

The DPRK hopes to enhance strategic communication with China during the process, jointly safeguard the trend of consultation and dialogue as well as peace and stability on the peninsula, he said.

Xi said that positive changes had taken place on the Korean Peninsula since this year, and China appreciates the important efforts made by the DPRK.

On the Korean Peninsula issue, Xi said that China sticks to the goal of denuclearisation of the peninsula, safeguarding peace and stability on the peninsula and solving problems through dialogue and consultation.

Kim said that as the situation of the Korean Peninsula is undergoing unprecedented changes, he paid a swift visit to China, out of good wishes for promoting peace and stability on the peninsula, and carrying on and developing the DPRK-China friendship.

He said the fact that he chose China as the destination of his first overseas visit showed his will to carry forward the tradition of DPRK-China friendship, and how he valued the friendship between the two countries.

"I have had successful talks with General Secretary Xi Jinping on developing relations between the two parties and the two countries, our respective domestic situation, maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, and other issues," he said.

Commenting on Kim's visit, Pang Zhongying, a senior fellow at the Ocean University of China in Qingdao, said Kim was securing China's support ahead of his meeting with Trump.

"By denuclearisation, Kim actually means the whole Korean peninsula should be denuclearised and that the nuclear weapons deployed by the US in South Korea should be withdrawn," Pang told Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post.

Paul Haenle, director of the Carnegie-Tsinghua Centre in China, agreed that Kim was looking for support from Beijing ahead of his meetings with South Korea's president and Trump.

"Just as Kim may have felt he had secured some leverage against Xi having independently secured summits with Trump and Moon, he'll now feel more confident knowing where things stand with Beijing heading into those same meetings," he said.

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A legislation to combat spoofing -- a scheme in which the origin of a phone call is hidden or misrepresented -- has been signed into law in the US.

The Indian Embassy in Washington DC has been a major victim of spoofing calls, of late.

The legislation, which was signed into law as part of the omnibus spending bill, would crack down on criminals who engage in spoofing.

Congresswoman Grace Meng, author of the legislation, which was tagged along the Omnibus Spending Bill, said, in spoofing the crooks call unsuspecting victims and falsely claim they're from from a financial institution, police department or government agency.

"They then steal their money by convincing them to wire cash or provide bank account or personal information," she said.

Meng said spoofing had been one of the fastest growing forms of fraud in America.

"But the enactment of my Anti-Spoofing Act will provide new and critical tools to stop those who perpetrate this deceitful and malicious crime," Meng said.

"Finally, we can fight back against these unconscionable thieves who for too long have preyed on unwitting consumers including the most vulnerable in our society such as immigrants and the elderly," she said.

Meng said the legislation would make spoofing attempts from abroad a criminal act. Presently, spoofing to defraud Americans is not against the law if the calls originate from outside the US.

It will also expand spoofing protections to cover text messaging and internet-based Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services that enable individuals to make calls from computers and tablets.

In addition, the legislation would require the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), in collaboration with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), to regularly update education materials that help consumers identify and protect themselves from caller ID scams.

The Congresswoman first sponsored anti-spoofing legislation after receiving spoofing complaints from local seniors and the 'Communities of Maspeth and Elmhurst Together (COMET),' a civic organisation in her district in Queens, New York.

COMET President Roe Daraio congratulated Meng on the legislation's signing into law.

"It will help deter con artists from posing as the IRS, banks and other entities, and stop them from stealing cash or identities from unsuspecting victims. Hopefully, this enacted legislation will put an end to this activity once and for all," Daraio said.

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In a jocular vein, Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu today asked Congress member Renuka Chowdhury to lose weight and make efforts to increase the weight of her party.

The remarks evoked peals of laughter in the House, which witnessed several light moments during the farewell speeches of retiring members who are about to complete their tenure.

"He (Naidu) knows me from many kilos before. Sir, many people worry about my weight but in this job, you need to throw your weight around," Chowdhury said in her farewell speech.

To this, Naidu wittily responded, saying "My simple suggestion is, reduce your weight and make efforts to increase the weight of the party". The reparte led to peals of laughter in the House.

In another such moment, Chowdhury recalled that during her political journey in the Upper House, she was fortunate for being "the entire Opposition's united candidate to contest against Najma Heptullah for the Deputy Chair here".

This led Naidu immediately quip: "That would have solved many problems."



Chowdhury said from Shah Bano to Surpanakha, she has been a witness to history in the making in the House.

"The lot of women has not impoved tremendously. It is a pathetic 11 per cent even now (women's strength in Rajya Sabha). I really think we need more women," she said.

Rajni Patil, also of the Congress, said it was destiny that she did not get a full tenure either in the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha, to which Naidu said, "then you go to Lok Sabha again," which again evoked laughter across the House.

She also alleged discrimination against women members of Parliament, calling for a change in the mindset and urged the ruling dispensation for early passage of the Women's Reservation Bill.

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Luxembourg is recalling its ambassador to Moscow for consultations in the latest show of solidarity from EU states to Britain over the poisoning of an ex-spy, the government said in a statement today.

Noting Luxembourg's "solidarity" with Britain over the Salisbury attack, it said that "Foreign and European affairs minister Jean Asselborn has decided to recall Luxembourg's ambassador to Moscow for consultations".

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Luxembourg is recalling its ambassador to Moscow for consultations in the latest show of solidarity from EU states to Britain over the poisoning of an ex-spy, the government said in a statement today.

The move comes just a day after the tiny but wealthy grand duchy said it would not follow the lead of 18 other EU states that have so far expelled Russian diplomats over the nerve agent attack in the English city of Salisbury.

"In the context of the Salisbury attack, the government of Luxembourg stands in full solidarity with Britain, faced by this grave challenge to our common security," said a foreign ministry statement.

Noting that Luxembourg shared Britain's assessment that it was highly likely Russia was responsible, it added that "Foreign and European affairs minister Jean Asselborn has decided to recall Luxembourg's ambassador to Moscow for consultations".

Asselborn had been quoted by broadcaster RTL on Tuesday as saying that Luxembourg would not expel any Russian diplomats.

"As far as Luxembourg is concerned, we have a very limited number of Russian diplomats here and, despite all our efforts, we have been unable to prove that any spy or person is working against Luxembourg's interests," he said at the time.

Luxembourg is one of the EU's smallest states but is disproportionately influential due to its status as one of the union's founding countries and the site of several of its key institutions.

Bulgaria, which currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, has taken a similar step by saying it will recall its ambassador for consultations but not expel any Russian diplomats.

Austria is one of the key states that has said it will not take any action, saying it wants to be a bridge between east and west.

Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Slovenia, Slovakia and Portugal have also not taken any action so far.

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Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis today rejected the demand for revoking the ban on plastic items, which came into effect from March 18.

He said the government was willing to address genuine concerns of the plastic manufacturing industry.

Fadnavis saida Cabinet sub-committee headed by Environment Minister Ramdas Kadam would be directed to engage with plastic industry stake-holders to find a working solution.

The chief minister saiddiscussions had been held with the plastic industry stake-holders in the last six months and more engagement would be done to ensure they do not suffer because of the ban.

The demand for reconsideration of the ban was made by some MLAs during a debate on theOpposition-sponsored last week motion on the last day of the Budget session.

Leader of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil (Congress) saidthe government should ensure that plastic manufacturers don't get affected since the industry is the generator of jobs.

The state government implemented its ambitious plan to ban almost all plastic carry bags and single-use plastic, such as disposable plates and cutlery, food packaging and other items.

The government has proposed fines of Rs 5,000, Rs 10,000 and Rs 25,000 for the first three offences, with the maximum punishment for violation of the ban being a three-month jail term.

To a question, Fadnavissaid the state government would fill 72,000 posts in various departments in the next twoyears.

"A total of 14000 posts will be filled in Home department, 1500 in Urban Development department. The government will fill 2572 posts in agriculture department," he said.

Recently, unemployed youths had held protests against non-fulfillment of government posts.

Fadnavis also justified the reappointment of senior bureaucrat Radheshyam Mopalwar as the vice-chairman and managing directorof the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) last month.

The chief minister cited a GR (Government Resolution), dated February 9, 2000, on whose basis former bureaucrat R C Sinha was reappointed by the erstwhile Congress-NCP government.

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Maharashtra Legislative Council Chairman Ramraje Nimbalkar today directed the state government to explore the possibility of bringing in a suitable law for protecting the privileges of the members of the state legislature.

The chairman's suggestion came after NCP member Sunil Tatkare moved a breach of privilege motion against a member of the Raigad Zilla Parishad, Kishor Jain, for criticising a decision of the council chairman.

"The person spoke ill of a decision taken by the council chairman in a meeting the latter had held recently in his office. Nobody has the right to speak against the decision taken by the chairman. The person went as far as saying that chairman's authority is limited to the premises of the legislature," Tatkare said.

Backing Tatkare, Leader of Opposition Dhananjay Munde (NCP) said if a strict decision is not taken now, the legislature will lose the respect of people.

"Tomorrow, members of gram panchayats will speak against us. Then members of municipal councils and corporations will talk against us. People will not think twice before insulting members of the state legislature then," Munde said.

Observing that the breach of privilege committee at times takes long to take a decision on cases, Munde demanded a specific time-frame for clearing pending cases.

PWP member Jayant Patil said comments against the chairman amounted to insult of the Upper House.

"There should be a strong law to ensure members of the House are not insulted," Patil said.

BJP Leader of the House and Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil said the Zilla Parishad member concerned should be made to understand that the chairman's position is not just limited to the legislature.

He backed Munde's observation that the breach of privilege committee does not decide on cases in time.

Chairman Nimbalkar then said he was forwarding the breach of privilege motion moved by Tatkare to the privileges committee and directed that a decision be taken over this issue within a month's time.

"If the existing law is incomplete, it should be studied and the necessary action taken. Also, discussions should take place with local bodies members to explain to them that belittling the status of the legislature is not good for democracy.

"If there is no suitable law in place, the government should consider bringing in a suitable law in the next session," said the chairman.

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Maharashtra Governor Vidyasagar Rao today prorogued the Legislative Assembly at the end of a month-long budget session.

Speaker Haribhau Bagde read out a communication from the governor proroguing the Assembly, whose budget session started on February 26.

The session saw 22 sittings and the budget was presented on March 9.

The monsoon session of the state legislature will start on July 4.

However, the governor's order, read out by the Speaker, did not mention whether the monsoon session will be held in Mumbai or Nagpur, the second capital of Maharashtra.

The state cabinet recently decided to set up a cabinet sub-committee to hold talks with the Opposition leaders to finalise the venue of of the monsoon session.

"The cabinet has decided that the monsoon session would be held either in Nagpur or Mumbai from July 4," said Parliamentary Affairs Minister Girish Bapat last week.

As per convention, the winter session of the legislature is held in Nagpur, while Mumbai hosts the monsoon and budget sessions.

Bapat had said the issues related to Vidarbha and Marathwada regions would be discussed during the three-week- long monsoon session.

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Patients from Maharashtra undergoing treatment at two premier hospitals in Goa will be covered under the Maharashtra government's medical insurance scheme, Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Jan Aarogya Yojna, it was announced tonight.

After a late night with Chief Minister Devendra Fadanavis in Mumbai, Goa Health Minister Vishwajit Rane told reporters that the Maharashtra government has agreed to empanel Goa Medical College and Hospital and North Goa District Hospital in its medical insurance scheme.

The Goa government has begun charging patients from outside the state to ease load on its facilities.

According to state government data, about 30 per cent of the patients being treated at Goa government-run hospitals are from outside the state.

I met Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadanavis on the issue regarding charging the patients at Goa Medical College and Hospital, Rane told PTI over phone.

He said that the Maharashtra chief minister has directed his officials to empanel Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) and North Goa District Hospital under the scheme and set up counters at these facilities so that the patients coming from Maharashtra can avail treatment under this scheme.

The patients from Maharashtra can swipe their card and get the benefit at our facilities. GMCH will also earn revenue, Rane said.

He said that the facilities for the patients from Maharashtra would be set up within seven days.

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Malaysian lawmakers voted today to redraw the electoral map in what critics slammed as a bid to rig looming polls, sparking angry protests outside parliament and fury from opposition MPs inside.

The election is expected within weeks and Prime Minister Najib Razak is battling to keep his long-ruling coalition in power despite allegations that billions of dollars were looted from a sovereign wealth fund he founded.

He is also facing a tough challenge from an opposition headed by veteran ex-premier Mahathir Mohamad, 92, who is seeking to win over the government's traditional support base of rural Muslim voters.

After a heated debate in parliament, which is dominated by the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, lawmakers voted overwhelmingly in favour of a bill to redraw constituency boundaries despite concerns that it will unfairly tilt the election in Najib's favour.

Opposition lawmakers got to their feet and jeered at the ruling coalition MPs and waved placards that read "rise up to stop cheating".

The changes must now by given royal assent but that is expected to happen quickly.

The opposition claims the overhaul will favour Najib's coalition by decreasing voter numbers in BN's traditional seats, making it easier for their MPs to be elected, and creating more constituencies dominated by the traditionally pro-government Muslim Malay majority.

But lawmaker Liang Teck Meng, whose party is a member of the ruling coalition, told parliament the opposition opposed the changes as "they know they will not get the mandate of the people to rule the country".

Hundreds of protesters marched to parliament as the bill was tabled, waving banners that read "stealing an election is not winning an election", and were joined at one point by Mahathir, who denounced the changes as "kleptocracy".

Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, deputy leader of the opposition coalition Pact of Hope and wife of jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, told AFP the electoral overhaul was "scandalous".

"We believe an election victory may be stolen from us," she said.

The controversy over state fund 1MDB has rocked Najib's administration, with the US Justice Department alleging that $4.5 billion was stolen in a campaign of fraud and money-laundering. Najib and 1MDB deny wrongdoing.

Nevertheless, Najib is tipped to win at the elections -- which must be called by August at the latest, but are expected sooner -- due to BN's tight grip on the system and the weakness of the opposition.

BN, which has governed Malaysia since independence in 1957, is under pressure to do better in the looming polls after losing the popular vote for the first time in 2013, and as discontent grows at graft scandals, race-based in the multi-ethnic country and rising living costs.

Redrawing constituencies to favour the government is nothing new in Malaysia and has been used for decades by BN leaders, including Mahathir.

The passing of the law was the latest sign polls are looming.

The government earlier this week tabled a bill seeking to outlaw "fake news" that would punish offenders with up to 10 years in prison, a move critics say is designed to stifle dissent before the election.

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West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today stressed the need for the Congress to join a united opposition front against the BJP at a meeting here with UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

Banerjee said the two leaders discussed the current political scenario and strategies to oust the BJP in Assembly and Lok Sabha elections at the 20-minute meeting at Gandhi's residence.

"I told Soniaji that we want the Congress to be a part of the united opposition," she told reporters later.

The Trinamool Congress leader said she stressed that the opposition had to come together to fight the BJP in the states.

"I told her what the country wants is that there should be a state-wise, one-on-one fight with the BJP. The party that is the strongest in the state should contest against the BJP there," she said.

"We want the Congress to win Karnataka because the Congress is strong there," she added.

Banerjee said she also discussed with Gandhi the talks that she has been holding with the leaders of regional parties.

"We are trying to work together...We want the Congress also to be part of that," she said.

The chief minister's meeting with Gandhi was to have been held yesterday, but was postponed because the UPA chairperson was indisposed.

The TMC leader had met several opposition leaders yesterday, but did not have talks with anyone from the Congress.

The West Bengal chief minister said the Congress should also help the "one-on-one fight" in the states and added that parties which had an alliance with the Congress would carry on with the tie-ups.

"Lalu (Yadav) ji and Sharad (Yadav) ji have an alliance with the Congress. Their alliance will continue," she said, adding that the opposition party which was the strongest in a state should be supported by the others to oust the BJP.

She also lashed out against the BJP while talking to reporters.

"To finish democracy in the country, the BJP is committing atrocities. Apart from political vendetta, the BJP does not do anything," she said.

Banerjee added, "I am 100 per cent sure that when there is one fight, the BJP will go".

The chief minister is in Delhi to hold talks with various parties in a bid to form a united front against the BJP and bring together opposition parties on one platform.

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West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today thanked BSP president Mayawati after she charged the Centre with adopting double standard in dealing with NDA-ruled Bihar and TMC-governed West Bengal, and said the UP leader had "exposed" the Narendra Modi dispensation.

Banerjee, who is the Trinamool Congress chief, also said that the BJP government was "scared" because all the opposition parties were "working together".

"Thank you Mayawati Ji for your comments about Bengal. You have exposed the BJP govt. BJP govt is scared as we are all working together," tweeted Banerjee, who is currently in Delhi to explore a 'federal front' option to take on the BJP in the next Lok Sabha polls.

"The BJP government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is adopting double standards while dealing with Bihar and West Bengal governments as the former is led by their own coalition and the latter by TMC's Mamata Banerjee," Mayawati said in a statement released in Lucknow.

"Though the West Bengal government is being targeted for asking police to act sternly against those instigating riots by taking out a yatra, in a similar case in Bihar, the government there is out to save the son of a union minister," the BSP chief said.

She was apparently referring to Arjit Shashwat, son of Union minister of state Ashwini Kumar Choubey who was recently booked for allegedly inciting communal passion by taking out an unauthourised procession in Bhagalpur town in Bihar.

In her statement, Mayawati asked, "Why this double standard on the part of the central government on the issue of law and order and amity?"



She also recalled that communal riots had taken place in Kasganj area of Uttar Pradesh when a 'tiranga yatra' was taken out allegedly "without permission".

Banerjee had yesterday held meetings with NCP chief Sharad Pawar and leaders of some regional parties as well as NDA ally Shiv Sena mooting a "one-to-one" fight in all the states.

Today she met disgruntled BJP leaders Yashwant Sinha and Shatrughan Sinha in New Delhi.

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In A bid to tap rural markets across the country, Vadodara-based Manpasand Beverages has expanded its nutritional drinks portfolio with a new brand Siznal.

"The company aims to make healthy drinks its mainstream. Siznal is a blend of fruits and vegetables juices with the goodness of honey," Dhirendra Singh, chairman and managing director of Manpasand Beverages told PTI here today.

"The brand doesnt contain any preservatives or added sugar and is high on nutritional value," he added.

Siznal will come in the variants, Carrot and Orange, Cucumber and Spinach, Beetroot and Carrot, and Pomegranate and Carrot. It will be available through general trade, modern retail stores, food chains, and institutional tie-ups.

Initially, the product will be available in three popular SKUs in PET bottles, each bottle priced at Rs 25.

While, the blended fruit and vegetable juices have a good market overseas with people having great appeal for such juices, its still new in India, he said.

The shift in focus is part of the expansion strategy by the company to focus on healthier beverages and to help farmers by procuring their produce in competitive prices.

The companyhas completed setting-up of its sixth manufacturing facility in Gujarat.

Located in Vadodara, the new facility will contribute additional 45,000 to 50,000 cases per day to Manpasands existing capacity of 150,000 cases per day, and also help the brand penetrate into north and central India.

The total investment for this facility was around Rs 150 crore and has been financed though a QIP issued in 2016.

Singh said Manpasand aims to grow aggressively across India, and keep logistics cost low along with capacity rise.

He said, "We will produce the entire range of Fruits Up, carbonated and non-carbonated, Jeera Sip, Siznal, along with our flagship brand, Mango Sip."



Manpasand now has six manufacturing facilities of which three are in Vadodara, one in Varanasi, UP, one in Dehradun and one at Ambala in Haryana.

Singh also said by 2020 he expects Manpasand to process five times the quantity of pulp his factories process currently (12,000 tonnes per annum).

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal devoted a major part in his reply to the discussion on the state budget in the Assembly today to attacking his uncle and former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his family.

A day after SAD president and Parkash Singh Badal's son Sukhbir Singh Badal dubbed him as an "incompetent" finance minister, Manpreet Singh Badal today hit back.

Manpreet Singh Badal was once in the Akali Dal and served as the finance minister in the erstwhile SAD-BJP government (2007-12). After separating from the SAD, he floated his own outfit for a brief period before joining the Congress.

"I have presented six budgets (including as finance minister in the SAD government), but they dub me as incompetent...They also have problem when I use poetry in my speech," Manpreet Singh Badal said, while giving his reply to the discussion on the budgetary estimates for 2018-19.

"As Finance Minister, I went to Delhi on many occasions to attend meetings, but I never claimed a penny from the exchequer for my transportation," he said, alleging the erstwhile SAD-BJP government emptied state coffers and allegedly looted the state.

He was unsparing in his attack on the 90-year-old Parkash Singh Badal, a five-time chief minister.

However, both Parkash Singh Badal and Sukhbir Singh Badal were not present in the House today.

"They (Akali MLAs) are trying to run away. They don't want to listen to my reply now," he said.

Manpreet Singh Badal also targeted former minister Bikram Singh Majithia, a relative of the Badals.

"(Parkash Singh) Badal Sahab went to the United States for a heart ailment checkup earlier and the money was borne by the Punjab government," he alleged.

"Those who looted Punjab are now pointing fingers at me. I don't run buses and own big transport companies, I don't own five star hotels..I don't know how to loot the coffers...," the finance minister said.

Chief Minister Amarinder Singh was present in the House when Manpreet Singh Badal launched the attack on the Parkash Singh Badal family.

As Manpreet Singh Badal was speaking, opposition SAD and AAP MLAs rushed to the Well of the House demanding a discussion on farmers' suicide after a panel report was tabled in the state assembly today.

Later, as the Akali and ruling Congress MLAs engaged in a verbal duel, the Speaker adjourned the House for 20 minutes.

After the House re-assembled, SAD MLAs did not return after having staged a walkout.

In a press statement issued later, SAD lambasted Manpreet Singh Badal for allegedly turning his reply on the budget speech into a "cheap and vulgar rant against his former mentor and political guru Parkash Singh Badal and the Badal family."



"He used crude and derogatory language against those who nurtured him and made him what he is today," SAD legislators said in the statement.

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People today vented their anger and frustration on Twitter after the Central Board of Secondary announced re-examination in Class 10 mathematics and Class 12 economics papers amid reports that the papers had been leaked.

Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken tweeted how his son and many other students were feeling dejected following the reports.

"My son Aujaswi studied really hard for #CBSE Class X Board Math Exams held today. His joy of finishing Board Exams was short-lived. He is extremely dejected as the Math paper got leaked& this #LeakingGovt will hold the Exam again. I feel sorry for him as lakhs of other students! (sic)" he tweeted.

Lawyer and activist Prashant Bhushan questioned whether any exam or selection process is "scam-proof" in India.

"#Vyapam,AIIMS, #SSC & now #CBSE exam leak through WhatsApp. Is there any exam or selection which is safe&scam proof in India? Even after PM's app leaks our personal data to US firm, our govt tells us that Aadhar data is safe behind thick walls! Incredible! (sic)" he posted on the micro-blogging site.

Pranav Viju, a candidate for the Class 10 examination, said he was "surprised" to read reports about the leak.

"Today I came home happily finishing y #CBSE class 10 math paper & was surprised to find in the that the paper was leaked & we have to rewrite our exams now, like literally I don't understand what are the officials doing (sic)," he tweeted.

Student activist Shehla Rashid expressed solidarity with the students who will have to take the examinations again.

"?We are in solidarity with students and youth protesting against CBSE Exam paper leak. We will struggle and force our politicians to take our future seriously. Vyapam, SSC & CBSE Leaks have made a mockery of #March4Education."



Many other students also took to social media to express their displeasure.

"As a student of @ShivNadarSchool I strongly feel that CBSE Maths paper should be held again because it is unfair on the part of students who had worked hard," Reva said on Twitter, urging students not to fear taking the exam again.

Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala attacked the Modi government and said it should be renamed as a "paper leak government".

"Modi Govt should be renamed as Paper Leak Govt'! SSC Scam jeopardised the future of over 2 Cr Youth. #CBSE Xth & XIIth class #PaperLeak has road hit the aspirations & hard work of lakhs of toiling students. Modiji, Your Govt has imperiled the future of our Exam Warriors'! (sic)," he said.

CBSE has issued a circular, informing about the re-examination and said dates and other details for it would be posted on the board's website.

Panic had gripped Class 12 CBSE students on Monday after claims were made on social media that the economics paper had been leaked.

The CBSE had denied the claims, saying "We have checked with all examination centres and the paper was not leaked."



HRD minister Prakash Javadekar today said the government was conducting an internal inquiry into reports claiming that the CBSE Class 10 mathematics and Class 12 economics papers had been leaked.

He said a new system would be put in place from Monday to ensure no leaks take place.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Students of a private medical college here have hit the streets to protest against exorbitant hike in the annual fees by the college administration.

Holding placards, students of SGRR medical college staged a dharna here in protest against the college administration's decision to effect a manifold hike in the annual fees.

Besides SGRR Medical college, Himalayan Medical college and Subharti Medical college have hiked their annual fees for a medical course from Rs 8 lakh to Rs 19 lakh.

The placards appealed to the college administration to revoke the decision as middle class families could not afford it.

The decision follows a cabinet move giving private medical colleges the freedom to decide their own fees.

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Cox and Kings-owned Meininger Hotels today said it has signed an agreement with LGIM Real Assets (Legal and General) for a hotel in Glasgow, Scotland.

The hotel, located on the West George Street opposite Queen Street Train Station, will offer 160 rooms and 590 beds and is scheduled to open in 2020, a release issued here said.

The new property will be the second hotel for the Meininger group in the UK, as it already operates a hotel in London since 2006. *************************** OLX launches initiative to promote online safety *



Online classifieds marketplace OLX has launched a consumer safety initiative, Webwise, to raise awareness among users about safe online transactions.

Under Webwise, OLX will be promoting online safety through its initiatives which include product updates, user safety guidelines, awareness programs with law enforcement authorities and customer support.

Irwin Preet Singh Anand, chief operating officer, OLX India said, "With our awareness initiatives such as OLX Webwise combined with constant improvement of our product, our attempt is to educate and help create a safer online experience for our users." *************************** Kansai Nerolac to continue sponsoring Sunrisers Hyderabad *



Kansai Nerolac Paints today said it will continue to sponsor the Indian Premier League franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad during the upcoming edition.

The brand will be visible on the helmets of the team.

"Last year, our association with the Sunrisers Hyderabad created a fair amount of value for us and we are excited to announce our continued association with the team," Kansai Nerolac Paints director decorative Anuj Jain said. ************************** Mother Dairy appoints Wavemaker as its media partner *



Mother Dairy, the wholly owned subsidiary of the National Dairy Development Board has appointed Wavemaker as its media partner.

Wavemaker, a media, content, and technology agency from GroupM created from the merger of Maxus and MEC, will manage the media strategy and investment for Mother Dairy, from its Gurugram office. ************************** TV brand Thomson to re-enter India in April via online route *



French television brand Thomson is re-entering the Indian market in April through the online channel.

Thomson will reinvest India through a local partner with a range of smart TVs in April and the brand will have an exclusive alliance with a local licensee.

"India is a very promising market... With our range of Smart TVs, we want to give this consumer a top-of-the-line product at an aggressive price; which is currently missing. Thomson Smart TVs will be the best bet for the Indian online consumer looking for intelligence, elegance and class in his Smart TV, yet a competitive cost," Thomson's Sebastien Crombez said in a statement.

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Fortis Healthcare Ltd (FHL) today said the merger of its hospitals business into Manipal Hospitals Enterprises is expected to be completed in 10-12 months.

The company's board had yesterday approved demerger of its hospitals business, which will be acquired by Manipal Hospitals and TPG Capital, along with the sale of 20 per cent stake in diagnostics chain SRL Ltd.

"The merger will take time. The merging of Fortis into Manipal will take between 10 to 12 months," FHL CEO Bhavdeep Singh said in a conference call today.

The company had said yesterday that the proposed transaction was subject to shareholders' approval, creditors' approval, applicable regulatory approvals (including Competition Commission of India, SEBI, stock exchanges and National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) and other customary conditions precedent.

When asked about the investigations by Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) in the company over alleged financial irregularities in the company involving its promoters, Singh brothers, Bhavdeep Singh said: "We are cooperating with the ongoing SFIO investigations."



The sale of the hospital business of Fortis to Manipal-TPG combine comes at a time when the Singh brothers -- Malvinder and Shivinder -- are facing intense pressure over alleged financial irregularities at Fortis and Religare, which the SFIO is investigating.

Both Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh had quit from the boards of Fortis and Religare last month.

The Delhi High Court had on January 31 upheld an international arbitral award of Rs 3,500 crore passed in favour of Japanese pharma major Daiichi Sankyo, which had alleged that the former promoters of erstwhile Ranbaxy Laboratories had concealed information about proceedings against them by the US Food and Drug Administration.

Moreover, on February 15, the Supreme Court lifted its stay on sale of shares of Fortis Healthcare Ltd. pledged with banks by the Singh brothers before August 31, allowing financial institutions, including Axis Bank and Yes Bank, to sell the pledged shares.

Shares of Fortis Healthcare tanked 9.58 per cent in the afternoon trade at Rs 128.80 apiece on BSE reacting to the of sale of its hospitals business.

As part of the transaction, Fortis board had also approved sale of 20 per cent stake in diagnostics chain SRL Ltd.

Manipal Hospitals, part of Manipal Education and Medical Group (MEMG), is owned by Dr Ranjan Pai and has been backed by TPG, a leading global alternative asset firm and experienced healthcare investor since 2015.

As part of the proposed transaction, Ranjan Pai and TPG will invest Rs 3,900 crore in to the merged entity.

The combined entity will have pan India presence with 45 hospitals and a bed capacity of over 7,658 beds. It will have over 4,200 doctors, more than 9,300 nurses and 11,400-plus other employees across India.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Ministry of Home Affairs today said it has no information about the death of CBI Special Judge B H Loya, who passed away in Nagpur in December 2014.

In a written reply to a query by K T S Tulsi on the issue, Union minister of state for home Hansraj Gangaram Ahir said in the Rajya Sabha that 'police' and 'public order' are state subjects under the 7th Schedule of the Constitution.

"The Ministry of Home Affairs has no information in this regard," he said



Tulsi had asked whether any person accompanied the body of CBI special judge B H Loya and if that person gave any history of Loya to the doctor at a Nagpur hospital. He also sought to know the time of death of Loya and cause of death as per hospital records.

Judge Loya was hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case. Loya died of a cardiac arrest in Nagpur on December 1, 2014, when he had gone to attend the wedding of a colleague's daughter. The apex court is hearing petitions seeking independent probe into Loya's death.

Gangster Sohrabuddin Shaikh, who the Gujarat Police claimed was also a terrorist, was killed in an alleged fake encounter by the Gujarat and Rajasthan police in 2005. His wife Kausar Bi disappeared, and was alleged to have been eliminated by police. Shaikh's associate Tulsi Prajapati was also later killed in an alleged fake encounter.

The CBI took over the probe in February 2010 and filed charge sheet in July the same year against 23 accused, including Amit Shah, who at that time was the minister of state for home in Gujarat.

The trial court, over a period of time, discharged several accused in the case, including Shah and three IPS officers.

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Germany recorded a bounce in the birth rate in 2016, official statistics showed Wednesday, hitting a 43-year high helped along by large numbers of recently-arrived migrants.

Some 792,131 children were born in Europe's most populous nation in 2016, federal statistics authority Destatis said, an increase of 7.0 percent over the previous year.

While German women had some 3.0 percent more babies than in 2015, at 607,500, non-German births increased 25 per cent, to 184,660.

"The number of women from countries with traditionally higher tendency to bear children increased" following a surge in migration in 2015-16, Destatis said.

Those years saw more than a million people arrive in Germany, many from conflict hotspots in the Middle East such as Syria and Iraq.

Among German mothers, there were more women aged between 30 and 37 in 2016, and women of that age group were more likely to have children under "favourable family policy and economic conditions," Destatis said.

Long a birth-rate laggard among European countries, the 2016 surge brought the figure in Germany to 1.59 children per woman, around the continent-wide average and the highest since 1973.

France boasts the highest birth rate across Europe, at 1.92, while women in Spain and Italy have the fewest children at 1.34.

Higher birth rates in Germany could be good for the country, as Destatis' population projections see the ratio of working-age people to over-65s falling to just two to one by 2060, compared with around three to one in 2015.

The Bundesbank central bank last year warned that a wave of retirement among the post-war baby boomer generation could begin sapping economic growth from the middle of next decade, as there will be fewer young workers to replace them.

But higher birth rates among migrant women could amplify the political aftershocks of the asylum seeker influx, which propelled anti-immigration, anti-Islam party Alternative for Germany (AfD) into parliament for the first time at last September's elections.

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MIT World Peace University, Pune, has approached the Odisha government to set up a leadership school in the state, an official release today said.

Rahul Biswanath Karad, Executive President, MIT World Peace University, met Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at the State Secretariat yesterday and proposed to set up the school.

He told the chief minister that todays youth are quite reluctant to join and hardly consider it as a career option. The proposed school will also promote professional and ethical leadership among elected representatives at all levels and will ultimately strengthen democracy, it said.

He proposed the setting up of Odisha Institute of Political Leadership under the aegis of Odisha Legislative Assembly in association with MIT School of Government in Pune.

Karad said that the MIT School of Government in Pune is the first-ever leadership Institute in India and Asia offering a career in

Patnaik has said the state government will consider the proposal with a positive attitude, the release issued by the chief minister's office said.

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Attacking the Narendra Modi government over its alleged failure to fulfil promises made to Andhra Pradesh post-bifurcation, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu today accused it of playing with people's sentiments.

"You are playing with people's sentiments.It may give you temporary political benefits, but will cause permanent damage to the nation. We may differ in politics, but if it causes damage to the nation, it is not good," Naidu said.

Making a suo-moto statement in the assembly on the all-party meeting held yesterday, the Chief Minister flayed the Modi government, vis--vis fulfillment of the promises made to AP post-bifurcation.

"The Centre cannot arm twist the states. It cannot happen and we will not let it happen," he asserted.

The Chief Minister displayed video clips of Modis speeches, made on different occasions, promising not only to honour the promises made in the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014 but also 'do much more' to the state.

Chandrababu questioned if it was co-operative federalism or Team India spirit to not honour promises made to a state.

The Prime Minister owed an explanation to five crore people of Andhra Pradesh on this, he said, adding the centre "cannot discriminate between states."



Noting that he had called for peaceful protests, seeking justice from the Centre, Naidu said the Centre would be happy if there was any violence "because it does not want Andhra Pradesh to develop".

Lashing out at BJP president Amit Shah once again over the nine-page letter he wrote to him last week, the TDP chief remarked that other states might be in the habit of diverting Central funds, but not Andhra Pradesh.

"We will account for every Rupee (granted by the Centre) and demand and secure our funds. Development, welfare and good governance will not stop in AP," he asserted.

Naidu also came down on BJP national spokesman G V L Narasimha Rao for terming the utilization certificates submitted by the state for the Central grants, as 'fake'.

"Those who dont even know what is governance are criticizing us. How can he say the UCs are fake?" he asked.

"The Centre will try to find fault with us (over utilization of funds), so I have directed my officials to present clear facts," he added.

The Chief Minister pointed out that the economic growth of Andhra Pradesh in the last four years on an average was 10.5 per cent as against the national average of 7.4 per cent.

"Had the government at the Centre implemented the (Reorganisation) Act, we would have grown by 12 to 13 per cent. That would have led to growth in income and eradication of poverty," he noted.

It would take at least 10 more years for Andhra Pradesh to grow better than other southern states and "we have to work hard for it", he said.

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The Madhya Pradesh government has come up with a mobile application to market rare chicken breed--the "Kadaknath"--whose black meat is in high demand for its nutritious content and purported medicinal properties.

The "MP Kadaknath" mobile app aims to connect poultries that sale the breed with people from other parts of the country.

"Through this app, people can place orders for Kadaknath chicken from anywhere. Availability of Kadaknath chickens with the cooperative societies can also be seen on this app," Minister of State for Cooperatives Vishwas Sarang told PTI today.

He said the app would provide marketing platform to 430 members of 21 societies in Jhabua and Alirajpur districts and that more societies are being added to this platform.

The minister said Kadaknath breed is known for its taste and nourishment value, especially high percentage of protein.

"A Kadaknath chicken contains 25-27 per cent of protein in comparison with other breeds of chickens that contain 18 per cent protein. This breed is also known for its high iron content. The fat and cholesterol content is lower compared with other chicken," said the minister.

The app, developed by state Cooperative department, would be available on Google Playstore from today.

The Kadaknath is popular mainly for its adaptability, and the good-tasting black meat, which is believed to have medicinal properties.

Recently, the breed virtually became a bone of contention between Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh with both the states staking claim over its nativity.

Both the states had filed applications with the Geographical Indication Registry office in Chennai for the 'GI tag' for this black-winged chicken variety.

MP Animal Husbandry department's Additional Deputy Director Dr Bhagwan Manghnani had said that Madhya Pradesh was likely to get the GI tag for the black bird, mainly reared in Jhabua district.

"The Gramin Vikas Trust of Jhabua applied for the GI tag in 2012 on behalf of the tribal families involved in Kadaknath breeding," he said.

Manghnani said the state-run hatcheries annually produce about 2.5 lakh chickens of the Kadaknath variety.

Madhya Pradesh set up the first poultry farm for this breed of chicken in 1978 in Jhabua, but Chhattisgarh excelled in its production in a shot span of time.

Srinivas Gogineni, chairman of Global Business Incubator Private Limited (GBIPL), a private firm, had said the bird was reared in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district in a unique way, and in a homely atmosphere.

GBIPL was roped in by Dantewada district administration for helping tribals in generating livelihood through a public-private partnership model.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Music lessons can enhance children's memory, reasoning and planning abilities, leading to improved academic performance, a study has found.

Visual arts lessons also significantly improve children's visual and spatial memory, researchers said.

Music has been decimated in schools around the globe, due to competition with academic subjects and an increasing lack of funding.

These days, the opportunity to learn an instrument is seen as more of a luxury than a necessary part of education, researchers said.

"Despite indications that music has beneficial effects on cognition, music is disappearing from general curricula," said Artur Jaschke, from VU University of Amsterdam in Netherlands.

"This inspired us to initiate a long-term study on the possible effects of music on cognitive skills that may underlie academic achievement," said Jaschke.

Published in Frontiers in Neuroscience, the research is the first large-scale, longitudinal study to be adapted into the regular school curriculum.

The researchers conducted the study with 147 children across multiple Dutch schools, using a structured musical method.

All schools followed the regular primary school curriculum, with some providing supplementary music or visual arts classes. In these, the children were given both theoretical and practical lessons.

After 2.5 years, the children's academic performance was assessed, as well as various cognitive skills including planning, inhibition and memory skills.

Researchers found that children who received music lessons had significant cognitive improvements compared to all other children in the study.

Visual arts classes also showed a benefit: children in these classes had significantly improved visual and spatial short-term memory compared to students who had not received any supplementary lessons.

"Children who received music lessons showed improved language-based reasoning and the ability to plan, organise and complete tasks, as well as improved academic achievement," said Jaschke.

"This suggests that the cognitive skills developed during music lessons can influence children's cognitive abilities in completely unrelated subjects, leading to overall improved academic performance," he said.

"We hope that this study will support political developments to reintegrate music and arts education into schools around the world," he said.

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Many organisations in the development sector that worked with Muslims did not want to acknowledge that they did so, and then there were some who did not want to work with them at all.

Activist and author Farah Naqvi said she realised the sombre truth during her research for her new book "Working with Muslims: Beyond Burqa and Triple Talaq" that was released by former vice president Hamid Ansari yesterday.

The issue of "flattening" Muslim identity in India echoed in the packed hall of the India International Centre where an eminent panel discussed the book, which investigates the reality of NGOs and their developmental work with Muslims in eight major states of India.

Written in collaboration with the Sadhbhavna Trust, the book studies 373 NGOs and their work with Muslims. Of the 373, 79 are from Uttar Pradesh.

Ansari, who delivered the keynote address, set the ball rolling on the debate and said there was need to discard the virus of considering Muslims with "apprehension, intolerance and otherness".

Discussing people's fear of working with Muslims even on something as acceptable as developmental work, Naqvi said she found during her research that a large number of organizations worked with the community but didn't want anyone to acknowledge it.

"There were also an equal number of organizations who simply did not want to work with Muslims in the first place," Naqvi said during the discussion that was attended by the likes of actor Sharmila Tagore and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah.

A large number of organizations that we interviewed would ask Muslims? They would say, 'We don't know the identity map of the people we work with we don't know if they are Hindus, Muslims Christians, Dalits... we just know that they are poor'," she told the gathering.

She quoted another respondent as telling her that this was a divisive way to look at development.

According to Naqvi, it was not just because of the present aggressive political environment that people want to hide the fact that they worked with Muslims.

The secular baggage necessitates flattening of all identities beyond those of poor, even those identities that add to the layer of discrimination and impoverishment, and this at a time when Muslims in mainstream politics -- both at the level of representation and national concern -- are being invisibilized and marginalized, she said.

Social activist Harsh Mander, who was also on the panel, said after Partition this was the most difficult time for a Muslim to be in India.

Fear has settled into the hearts and souls of Muslim people across religion, caste, class and gender and then the kind of stories I hear from my travels across the country Koi phone train mein kare toh as-salamu alaykum nahi kehna' (Don't greet in Urdu if someone calls while you are travelling in train). Don't get into a fight. Don't get into an argument. Keep your head as low as possible."



The former IAS officer added that there are 180 million Muslims and they are central to the imagination of India, to its creation and to its future.

BJP is the first ruling party that has no Muslim representative in the Lok Sabha and is happy about it and the BJP can do that. But Muslims have become castaways and political untouchables for other political parties too," said Mander.

Siddharth Varadarajan, founder-editor of the portal The Wire, said there is an "endless cycle of poison" in the public sphere against Muslims.

It was Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma who said that APJ Abdul Kalam musalman hote hue bhi itne bade desh bhakt the' (Despite being a Muslim APJ Abdul Kalam was a nationalist) and this is something he said while allegedly praising the former president," he said.

"Now, in any self-respecting democracy such a minister would not have survived his job but here we forgot about it he has gone out to make other statements, he said.

Varadarajan also questioned the present government's "smartly coined slogan" Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas' and said it has a coded message.

'... it means that others were favoured until now, others have been appeased and we are stopping that appeasement under the garb of flattening out identities."



He added that the term appeasement should have been retired hurt in 2006 when the Rajinder Sachar Committee came out with its data, revealing the dismal social, economic and educational conditions of the Muslim community in the country.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Concerned over the virtual washout of Parliament proceedings, Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu today urged MPs not to further erode "the quality of polity" and make a fresh beginning by conducting themselves in a more dignified manner.

Naidu also pointed out that the representation of women in the Upper House was "very low" despite the passage of the Women Reservation Bill in 2010 and hoped all political parties would accord priority to this.

Naidu's comments came in the backdrop of the second leg of the Budget session, which began on March 5, having failed to transact any substantial business in both the Houses of Parliament. The Upper House was only able to pass the Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) Bill 2017, while the Lok Sabha has cleared the Finance Bill 2018.

Addressing around 60 retiring members of the Upper House, he said "I have had the Honour of being the Chair for last three sessions.

"During this short span of time, I have had mixed emotions. ...In this session, on several occasions, I appealed to parties, their leaders to ensure the smooth functioning of the House. I must confess that I am deeply perturbed the way we have been conducting ourselves."



One one hand, Naidu said he has witnessed very high quality of debate on several occasions, while on the other hand, "I am filled with sadness at the disorder, indiscipline and inappropriate conduct in the House."



He urged the parliamentarians not to "further erode the quality of our polity".

"Whatever has happened, has happened. Let us make a new beginning and see to it that we conduct ourselves in a more dignified manner and live up to the expectations of the Constitution's framers and people of the country," he said.

Making an emotional appeal, the Chairman urged members to conduct themselves with dignity as he recounted the sacrifices of soldiers, who were posthumously honoured with the Shaurya Chakra by the President yesterday for sacrificing their lives for the nation.

"The adverse weather conditions and the situation in which they were stationed and the way they fought the enemy to protect the unity and integrity of the country is really ... you cannot measure it by words. And I was reminded of what is happening in the House. I don't want to say anything more than that," he said in an emotional tone.

Stating that this reference should not become part of political tactic and the House become theatre of politics, he said, "In democracy, there is agreement and disagreement. I agree to disagree, there is nothing wrong in it. But there is a way. I would like to see a more constructive engagement on public issues in future."



Naidu said the Upper House is supposed to be a model for others and hence, "let us leave a legacy of ideas".

"All parties are equal to me as chairman. I appeal to you let's conduct the House in more digified manner and take the country forward and take the House forward," he added.

Expressing concern over very low representation of women in the Rajya Sabha, the Chairman said: "It is a matter of concern that despite the stellar contribution made by many women members, they still constitute only 11.7 per cent of total membership of this House."



Six women members are retiring this year. Two of them are returning to the House and three new women members would be added. As against this, in the 2016 elections, 10 women members had retired while three women members got elected, he said.

"It is ironical that even though the Rajya Sabha is proud that it has passed the Women's Reservation Bill way back in 2010 seeking better representation of women, still there is very low representation of women in this House," Naidu said.

While appreciating the valuable contribution and services rendered by women members, the Chairman said all political parties need to accord priority to provide adequate representation to women in Parliament and state assemblies.

Wishing good health to the retiring members, Naidu took the names of many stalwarts including Deputy Chairman P J Kurien and nominated members Rekha, Anu Agha, Sachin Tendulkar and K Parasaran while appreciating their contribution.

"Those members who are leaving us, I would like to mention that the farewell from Rajya Sabha should be viewed as an opportunity to promote welfare of people and not as retirement from public life. You are getting retired, not tired. Once we are in public life, in my view, there is no retirement at all,' he said.

He also mentioned that some retiring members would be remembered for raising points of order, some for their interventions and making good and valid points, while some for giving some lighter moments. "All these are part of democracy. I don't have any ill will against anybody."



Around 60 members from 17 states, including 4 nominated members, are retiring over the next few weeks.

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Nearly 300 people, including 111 in 2017 alone, were killed in various incidents of communal violence in last three years across India, the Rajya Sabha was informed today.

Union Minister of State for Home Hansraj Gangaram Ahir said 111 people were killed and 2,384 others were injured in 822 communal incidents in the country in 2017.

In 2017, the highest 44 people were killed in Uttar Pradesh in 195 communal incidents, followed by 12 deaths in 91 such incidents in Rajasthan.

In 2016, 86 people were killed and 2,321 others were injured in 703 communal incidents in the country. That year, among all the states, Uttar Pradesh had seen 162 communal incidents in which 29 people were killed.

As many as 12 people were killed in 101 communal incidents in Karnataka in 2016.

In 2015, 97 people were killed and 2,264 others were injured in 751 communal incidents in the country.

In 2015, among all the states, the highest 22 people were killed in Uttar Pradesh in such incidents, followed by 20 in Bihar and 14 in Maharashtra.

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The relations between Nepal and India have been very cordial despite some small fractions from time to time, which is natural between two close neighbours, Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali said today.

Gyawali, who is also the senior leader of CPN-UML, said Nepal wants to develop friendly relations with its neighbours - India and China - on the basis of equality and mutual benefit.

"There is no alternative but to forge close and friendly relations between the two neighbours," he said.

He also said that preparations have already started for the upcoming visit of Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli to India, his first foreign trip after assuming office early this year.

The tentative date for Oli's India visit has been fixed for April 6-8, though formal announcement is yet to be made.

The main objective of the high-level visit will be to make the bilateral relations contextual with the changing trends of the 21st century and it will be geared to gain financial benefit, Gyawali said.

During an interaction programme organised by Nepal-India Friendship Society, India's ambassador to Nepal Manjeev Singh Puri presented a book on Yogic practices to Gyawali.

Gyawali also said that the Nepal government is committed to protect foreign investments.

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The Delhi government today said the people in the city will not have to pay more despite a hike in the fixed charges.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said the AAP government had not allowed any hike in the power tariff for a fourth year on the trot.

Attacking the BJP, he alleged that the party was "misleading" the people of Delhi saying power bills would increase.

Power Minister Satyendar Jain said the central government had implemented a 50 paise/unit hike on power production at power plants in the fixed charge category.

Jain said that due to the hike in the fixed charges, the power tariff could have gone up significantly in Delhi, but the AAP government reduced the user charges.

He said that if a consumer having 1 KW meter consumes up to 200 units, he would have to pay Rs 115 less now.

"If a person, who has a 2 KW meter, consumes up to 400 units, the bill would be reduced by Rs 280 per month.

"Similarly, the bill will come down by Rs 175 if a person having 3 KW meter consumes up to 400 units," Jain told reporters here.

Sisoida claimed that there would be no increase in the power tariff in all categories.

He said that the 50 per cent power subsidy given by the Delhi government will continue.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted: "Congratulations to the people of Delhi. In the entire country, Delhi has the lowest electricity rates. the people of Delhi voted for an honest government. They are happy today.

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has come up with a mechanism under which 101 most underdeveloped districts of the country termed as 'aspirational' would be competing with each other in terms of performance and they will be ranked on 49 indicators based on various data points.

The 49 indicators on 81 data points will cover five development areas of health and nutrition, education, agriculture and water resources, financial inclusion and skill development and basic infrastructure.

From the beginning of next fiscal year from April 1, this real-time data collection and monitoring will be open for public viewing.

India cannot grow at a high rate on a long run until these districts catch up, whatever high are the GDP number, it has no meaning until the benefit of growth percolates down to very basic level, CEO Amitabh Kant said while announcing the launch of ranking for the "Aspirational Districts'.

The ranking of districts follows the launch of 'Transformation of Aspirational Districts' by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January with an aim to quickly and effectively transform some of the most underdeveloped districts in the country.

This will converge the central and state schemes, collaborate central, state and district collectors to strengthen these districts by identifying the low-hanging fruits for immediate improvement, measure progress and then rank the district by getting the data on a real-time basis.

All the states -- except West Bengal and Kerala -- are on board in this ranking initiative; however, these states are expected to join soon, Kant said.

As per the baseline ranking, Vizianagaram in Andhra Pradesh is ranked highest with score of 48.13 per cent while Mewat in Haryana tails at the end with 26.02 per cent.

Among others, Asifabad (Telengana), Singrauli (Madhya Pradesh), Kiphire (Nagaland), Shrawasti, Siddarthnagar and Balrampur (Uttar Pradesh), Namsai (Arunachal Pradesh), Sukma (Chattisgarh) are ranked at bottom of the list.

While on top of the list among others include Rajnandgaon (Chhattisgarh), Osmanabad (Maharashtra), Cuddapah (Andhra Pradesh), Ramanathapuram (Tamil Nadu), Udham Singh Nagar (Uttarakhand), Mahasamund (Chhattisgarh), Khammam (Telangana), Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh).

and the Andhra Pradesh government have created a dashboard for monitoring the real-time progress of the districts.

From April 1, these 101 districts will start entering data and from May onwards, they will be ranked based on progress made (delta ranking) on a real-time basis.
Four members of a gang were arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) for remotely accessing computers of candidates during online competitive exams and solving their papers, an official release said today.

The four accused, identified as Sonu Kumar, Ajay Kumar, Paramjeet Singh and Gaurav Naiyar, arrested from Timarpur, New Delhi allegedly used to charge hefty amount of money from candidates, the release said.

The accused were allegedly helping candidates appearing for online exams including the SSC and others.

According to the release, a number of laptops, bluetooth devices, pen drives, three cars and over Rs 51 lakh cash were recovered from their possession.

The gang used computer tools to remotely access computer of the candidates at examination centres and get the papers solved from other places through their laptops, the STF said.

The matter is being investigated for further details, they added.

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Union minister Ananth Kumar today accused opposition MPs, including Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, of ridiculing Parliament and said people would give them a "befitting reply" for mocking the process of a no-confidence motion.

The tactics would boomerang on the opposition, the Union parliamentary affairs minister said, a day after opposition parties protested in the Lok Sabha by holding placards to suggest they had numbers to move a no-confidence motion against the government.

The second leg of the budget session, which started on March 5, seemed to be heading for a washout with both Houses failing to transact any business due to adjournments forced by noisy protests by some parties. Today as well, the Lok Sabha was adjourned today and is to meet again on Monday.

They (opposition MPs) tried to ridicule the functioning of Parliament by holding placards right from the beginning and creating a ruckus. It is the style of Shri Rahul Gandhi to try to ridicule country's This won't yield anything, the Union minister told reporters outside Parliament.

He claimed that the opposition parties lack the numbers to move the motion and wanted show people that they can achieve something without the numbers.

The people will give a befitting reply across the country, and also in Karnataka, for the way they have stalled functioning of Parliament, created a ruckus and ridiculed the process of a no-confidence motion, he added.

The Rajya Sabha yesterday saw a unique protest by opposition parties with members continuing to be in their seats for over 30 minutes after Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu called it a day and left the House.

The Lok Sabha, too, failed to take up notices for a no-confidence motion against the government after Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said the House was not in order and adjourned proceedings amid noisy protests over various issues.

In a novel way to convey they have enough numbers to initiate a no-confidence motion, members of the Congress, Left and some other parties displayed blue-coloured placards, each with a circled number -- from 1 to 80 -- along with the words 'For no-confidence'.

At least 50 members are needed to support a no-confidence notice for the House to accept it and start a debate.

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Pakistan Army today warned India of a response in case of any "misadventure" across the border and said nobody should underestimate the capability of the country's armed forces.

"If India tried for any misadventure, then it will be responded," Army spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor said at a press briefing.

He was responding to a question about the state of preparedness in case of a surprise attack by India.

"Nobody should underestimate our capability vis-s-vis India. Our response capability in case of any threat from India is absolutely ready," he said.

Ghafoor also accused India of killing of 30 Pakistani civilians in 2018 in firing along the Line of Control.

"Pakistan has played a positive character for peace in the region. If India promotes instability in Pakistan through Afghanistan or the Line of Control it will not be in India's best interests either," he said.

To a question, the spokesman said that Indian diplomats were also invited to witness the Pakistan Day parade on March 23 along with diplomats from other countries.

"We wanted to show the world that we have invited them (Indian) despite what they are doing to our diplomatsWe also wanted to show them our capability and resolve," he added.

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Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif today called for a regional approach for achieving lasting peace and stability in war-torn Afghanistan.

Asif led a Pakistani delegation to the Tashkent Conference on Afghanistan, the Foreign Office (FO) said, adding that he also addressed the moot.

He "emphasised the need of a regional approach for lasting peace and stability in Afghanistan and the region", the FO said in a statement.

The Foreign Minister said Pakistan had consistently stressed for resolution of Afghan conflict through a political settlement.

"He said that bringing the Taliban to the table and establishing peace and stability in Afghanistan was a shared responsibility of the international community," the FO said.

Asif reiterated Pakistan's support for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's national peace and reconciliation plan unveiled during Kabul process meeting on 28 February and his offer of peace talks to the Taliban under an Afghan-led and owned process.

He said that there was a need for collective pressure on the Taliban to avail this opportunity to shun violence and join the peace process.

He also expressed concern over unchecked proliferation of ISIS and phenomenal increase in the drug production in Afghanistan.

Asif emphasised the need for cooperation between Afghanistan and its neighbours to prevent cross-border movement of terrorists and criminal networks.

He said that Pakistan's proposal entitled 'Afghanistan-Pakistan Action Plan for Peace and Solidarity' was aimed at developing mechanisms for bilateral cooperation in security, counter-terrorism, border controls and smooth return of Afghan refugees to Afghanistan.

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The ED today said it has arrested a "close" associate and the vice president of a firm of diamantaire Nirav Modi for allegedly aiding in the laundering of over Rs 5,900 crore in connection with the PNB bank scam case.

Shyam Sunder Wadhwa, the vice president of the Firestar group, was arrested last night under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in Mumbai, the Enforcement Directorate said in a statement.

It said Wadhwa, a chartered accountant, was sent to seven days of ED custody by a special anti-money laundering court in Mumbai today.

He was described by the central probe agency as a "close confidant" of Modi.

"He is in close touch with Modi and also involved in money laundering at the behest of and in aid of Modi," an official said.

This is the ED's first arrest in the case.

The ED claimed Wadhwa was instrumental in setting up two companies in Hong Kong (Ms Aura Gem and Ms Sino Traders) along with "dummy" directors and these firms "were used" for laundering proceed of crime and substantial amounts totalling Rs 5,921 crore.

These funds were routed from the LOUs (Letters of Undertaking) "fraudulently" issued by the PNB for the Nirav Modi group of companies-- Ms Solar Exports, Ms Stellar Diamonds and Ms Diamonds R US, it said.

"Out of the funds so received, Ms Aura Gem has transferred an amount of Rs 468 crore and Ms Sino Traders Rs 506.69 crore to the said three companies and completed the process of laundering money," it said.

The agency said Wadhwa's custodial interrogation would help it in "unravelling the truth behind the scam".

It alleged that he was trying to initially "mislead" the agency during interrogation but later confessed to doing the paperwork for creating the two firms and appointing "dummy" or fake directors in them.

The central probe agency has filed two money laundering FIRs against Modi and his uncle and Gitanjali Gems promoter Mehul Choksi to probe the alleged over Rs 13,000 crore fraud in the Punjab National Bank (PNB).

It has conducted a total of 251 country-wide searches in the case after it began the criminal probe against the accused in February. The total seizure and attachment of diamond, gold, precious and semi-precious stones and other movable and immovable assets in the case stand at Rs 7,664 crore.

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Poland signed a $4.75 billion deal with the United States Wednesday to buy air defense Patriot missile systems as it seeks to bolster its defenses against a resurgent Russia.

President Andrzej Duda described the deal for the state-of-the-art anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems as "historic" for his country and its armed forces.

"It's a lot of money, but we also know from our historical experience that security has no price," Duda said.

The defense deal is Poland's largest in almost 30 years. The system is compatible with technology used by NATO and U.S. troops based in Poland, Duda said. It includes 16 launchers, four radars and the latest fire control system.

Parts of the system will be made in Poland, a boost for the country's armaments industry. US Ambassador Paul Jones called the deal a milestone that brings the NATO member into a family of 15 countries that rely on the Patriot system for their airspace security.

"We are allies forever," Jones said in fluent Polish. Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has said the Patriot system will increase security in Poland and the surrounding region in an "unprecedented way."



On NATO's eastern flank, Poland is upgrading its defense systems and modernizing its military to reach the highest Western standards after Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak signed the document at an armaments plant in Warsaw.

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The Punjab Assembly here today passed a Bill that provides for imposing a permanent ban on the 'hookah' bars in the state.

The move is aimed at reducing the use of tobacco in various forms.

The Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2018 was moved by Health Minister Brahm Mohindra.

Mohindra informed the state Assembly that the objective behind the amendment to the 2003 Act was to provide for prohibition of 'hookah' or 'sheesha' bars in the state.

The new trend of hookah-sheesha smoking is increasing day by day and these bars are being opened in restaurants, hotels, clubs and even in marriage palaces, he said.

The youth, including girls, are using hard and soft drugs in hookah and sheesha bars, he said.

"Hookah/sheesha bars are just like drug consumption rooms and they are a new threat to our youth. The owners of such cafes are providing every facility to our youth for soft drug addiction in a very comfortable and friendly atmosphere. The most harmful ingredient in hookah is nicotine, which is known to be carcinogenic," he said.

At present, prohibitory orders under section 144 of the CrPC are promulgated against all hookah bars in all the districts of the state for two months, with an extension required at the end of the period.

The House also passed the Punjab Transparency and Accountability in Delivery of Public Service Bill, 2018. According to this bill, the state government intends to provide all the services to the citizens through on-line mode in a transparent, accountable and time-bound manner with effective use of digital technology.

"This will help in ensuring good governance characterised by efficiency, effectiveness and transparency. The Punjab Transparency and Accountability in Delivery of Public Service Bill, 2018, is proposed to be enacted to realise this objective. The new legislation will replace the existing "Right to Service Act, 2011"".

The House also passed the Punjab Police (Amendment) Bill, 2018.

This bill aims to increase the efficacy of police action against heinous crimes endangering public life and property. It proposes to establish a Special Operations Group capable of countering and neutralising those indulging in such crimes.

The Assembly today passed another Bill for regularisation of unauthorised colonies in the state.

The state Assembly on the last day of its budget session today also passed another Bill, which clears the decks for the members to pay their own income tax.

Meanwhile, the Punjab State Commission for Scheduled Castes (Amendment) Bill, 2018, which was listed among the Bills to be passed, was withdrawn. As the Speaker asked Welfare Minister Sadhu Singh Dharmsot to read out the Bill, the Minister said that the Bill had been withdrawn.

Opposition Shiromani Akali Dal had yesterday said it would resist any move of the Punjab government to reduce the number of members of the Scheduled Castes Commission.

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There is no proposal from Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti seeking a dialogue with Pakistan for bringing peace in the state, the government informed the Rajya Sabha today.

Union minister of state for home Hansraj Gangaram Ahir said the government has clear and consistent position that it desires "normal neighbourly" relations with Pakistan and is committed to addressing all outstanding issues bilaterally and peacefully in accordance with the Simla Agreement and the Lahore declaration.

In a written reply to a question by Shiromani Akali Dal member Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa on whether the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir has recently asked the central government to talk to Pakistan for peace in the state, Ahir said: "No such proposal has been received from the state government".

The minister said any meaningful dialogue with Pakistan can be held only in an atmosphere free of terror, hostility and violence.

"Onus is on Pakistan to create such a conducive atmosphere," he said.

The reply by the Centre has the potential of creating a controversy in the state as the Chief Minister as well as her party have been claiming to have asked the Centre to hold a meaningful dialogue with Pakistan.

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Supporters of Hindutva leader Sambhaji Bhide, one of the main accused in the Koregaon-Bhima caste violence, today held a protest here demanding withdrawal of an attempt to murder case registered against him.

Members of various right-wing organisations assembled near the river bed near the historic Shaniwarwada for the protest, a day after the police denied them permission to hold a march from the Shaniwarwada to the district collectorate.

"Over 5000 supporters gathered near the riverbed and staged a protest for withdrawal of a case against Bhinde," said Sanjay Jadhar,Pune district president of the Shiv Pratishthan Hindustan, founded by Bhide.

He said the administration allowed some representatives to hand over a memorandum of their demands to district collector Saurabh Rao.

The mother of Rahul Phatangade, who was killed during the clashes between Dalits and Marathas on January 1, also took part in the protest here and sought stringent action against the culprits.

Bhide (85) and another Hindutva leader Milind Ekbote were booked on January 2, a day after the violence, under SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act and under various sections of the IPC including attempt to murder as one person was killed in the clashes.

Ekbote was already arrested by the police after his anticipatory bail plea was rejected by the Supreme Court.

Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh (BBM) leader Prakash Ambedkar had alleged that Hindu Ekta Aghadi and the Shiv Pratishthan were responsible for the caste clashes.

The violence had occurred at an event to mark the 200th anniversary of the battle of Bhima Koregaon in which the British Army comprising Dalits had defeated the Peshwas.

A large section of Dalits view the historical battle as the defeat of the 'casteism' of upper-caste Peshwas.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis yesterday told the Assembly that there was no proof of the involvement of Bhide in connection with the violence.

Bhide, who hails from Sangli district in western Maharashtra, has been maintaining that he was not present at the spot on the day of the incident and was away to attend MLA Jayant Patil's mother's rituals.

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A local court has sentenced a Rohingya migrant and an Indian national to simple imprisonment for up to two years for the offences of cheating and forgery after the former managed to get an Aadhaar card by submitting fake documents.

The migrant, Mohammad Taher alias Abu Taher from Myanmar, with the help of B Hemanth, an Indian national, had procured an Aadhaar card illegally by submitting false ID proof and was staying in the city, Rachakonda Commissioner of Police Mahesh M Bhagwat said today, adding "this is the first case of conviction of a Rohingya migrant who was illegally staying in the city".

The XIV Metropolitan Magistrate Court yesterday convicted the two after they were found guilty of charges under relevant IPC sections and under the Foreigners Act, Bhagwat said.

The court sentenced Taher to two years simple imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 10,600 on him while Hemanth was awarded one-year simple imprisonment.

According to the police official, Taher migrated to Bangladesh from Myanmar. Then, he entered Kolkata illegally by crossing the border in 2015.

Later, he went to Delhi and shifted to Hyderabad and worked as a labourer.

While in the city, he got acquainted with Hemanth who was working as a supervisor, the Commissioner said.

With Hemanth's help, Taher procured the Aadhaar card illegally by submitting fake ID proof and obtained a driving licence in Kolkata, he said.

In 2016, Mohammad Taher married a local woman and was since then residing in Hyderabad, he said.

On a tip-off, a police team raided their place in May, 2016 and seized Taher's Aadhaar card and his driving licence, Bhagwat said.

The Commissioner said Taher and Hemanth were arrested and a charge sheet was filed.

The police official also warned illegal immigrants not to indulge in anti-social activities.

"Over the past two years, 19 criminal cases have been registered against Rohingyas on the charge of cheating, impersonation, human trafficking, attempt to murder etc," he said.

"So far, 31 Rohingyas have been arrested," Bhagwat said, adding, there were 3,626 Rohingyas in Rachakonda limits.

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A Romanian national was arrested today from the Goa capital for allegedly installing skimming devices in ATMs of various banks in the state, police said.

Alexa Patrica (28) was picked up by Panaji police personnel who spotted him roaming in the city in a suspicious manner, an official said.

Police are investigating whether Patrica withdrew the money through skimming devices or is a part of a racket.

Police Inspector Siddhanth Shirodkar said the arrest of Patrica, who is on tour of Goa, would help them in solving a number of cases wherein unsuspecting people have lost their money due to skimming devices attached to ATM devices.

A skimming device is a card reader which can be disguised to look like a part of the ATM machine. It saves the users' card number and pin code, which is then replicated into a counterfeit copy for theft.

A senior police officer said the accused has confessed to his involvement in attaching skimming devices to ATM machines in at least three places---Panaji, Vasco and Porvorim.

In one such case, Punjab National Bank had lodged a complaint that an unknown person had installed the skimming device at an ATM operated by the bank on March 20.

Similarly, several people had filed complaints of unauthorised withdrawals from the Vasco ATM of Canara Bank, he said.

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A South African parliamentary panel has said a full-scale investigation would be initiated into the citizenship status of the Gupta family members, who are closely linked to former president Jacob Zuma.

The move comes after the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) wrote a letter to the chairperson of the South African Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs, requesting a probe following Home Minister Malusi Gigaba's controversial remarks about the citizenship of the Gupta family members.

The committee will institute a full-scale parliamentary inquiry into the Gupta family's citizenship, sources said.

The House Chairperson of Committees in Parliament, Cedric Frolick, had instructed the chairpersons of portfolio committees to institute inquiries into alleged state capture probes on June 15 last year already, but these have been delayed for various reasons.

The DA had alleged that more Gupta family members were granted South African citizenship but this was never reported to Parliament.

"Home Minister Malusi Gigaba and his department only explained the circumstances surrounding the naturalisation of five Gupta family members, when there was in fact a further six members of the Gupta family that are South African citizens and registered as voters on the IEC database," the DA was quoted as saying by the Independent Online.

Gigaba had earlier said that Ajay Gupta, one of three India-born brothers who are at the centre of state capture allegations, was not a citizen of South Africa as he had declined to renounce his Indian citizenship.

He had said that Ajay's wife, mother and two children were only granted the country's citizenship, but when Ajay and his four other family members were denied naturalisation in 2013, they had appealed against the decision.

But after local media printed copies of identity documents and proof that the Gupta brothers had voted in an election here, Gigaba issued another statement saying neither Ajay nor Atul were citizens, but they had permanent residency permits.

The Guptas and Duduzane Zuma, the son of former president who was forced to resign on February 14, have not appeared at various enquiries into allegations of their involvement in state capture and irregular deals with parastatal bodies running into billions of rands.

The Guptas, who arrived in South Africa from their home town of Saharanpur in India about two decades ago, amassed a huge fortune through companies in the IT, media and mining sectors, allegedly through their closeness to Zuma.

Their property interests in India have also come under the scanner by tax authorities there.

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The Supreme Court today pulled up the Delhi Development Authority over the sealing drive in the national capital, observing that the housing authority was not concerned with the common people of the city but worried only about traders.

The top court said the DDA does not notice people until they come out in the streets.

The scathing remarks by a bench comprising justices M B Lokur and Deepak Gupta came after the counsel of the DDA informed the court that traders in the national capital have been staging protests against the sealing drive run under the supervision of the apex court- appointed monitoring committee.

"You (DDA) are working under tremendous pressure. DDA is not concerned about common people, they do not concern you. Are common people of Delhi irrelevant to you. For you only traders are your concern but not the common people," the bench observed.

If people engaged in electricity theft staged protests, then will the concerned authority waive off the penalties under pressure, the court asked.

"If people don't stage protest they don't come into your notice. You should strike a balance between traders and common people. You should first look after the interest of common people then you should look after the interest of traders," the bench observed.

Counsel for the DDA said that it is looking after the interest of the common people but was just informing about the protests staged by the traders.

"Then it means if you are not trader, DDA will not recognise you," the top court said.

The apex court said that it would consider the reports of the DDA, Municipal Corporations and other concerned parties after two weeks.

On March 6, the apex court had stayed any "further progress" in amending the Delhi Master Plan 2021 to protect unauthorised construction from the ongoing sealing drive in the national capital, sternly observing that 'dadagiri' (bullying tactics) must stop.

The apex court took strong exception to the non-filing of affidavits by the Delhi government, Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and municipal corporations of Delhi (MCDs) on whether an environment impact assessment was conducted before proposing amendments to the city's Master Plan despite the court's February 9 direction.

It had observed that the authorities were "not bothered" and were not filing affidavits despite the court order, which was "nothing short of contempt".

The Master Plan-2021 is a blueprint for urban planning and expansion in the metropolis to ensure overall development and the proposed amendments are aimed at bringing a uniform floor area ratio (FAR) for shop-cum-residential plots and complexes at par with residential plots. FAR is the ratio of a building's total floor area (gross floor area) to the size of the piece of land on which it is built.

The apex court had also ordered restoration of its monitoring panel to identify and seal offending structures.

The committee, comprising K J Rao, former advisor to the Election Commission, Bhure Lal, chairman of the Environment Pollution Control Authority, and Major General (Retd) Som Jhingan, was set up on March 24, 2006, by the apex court.

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A gun fight broke out today between the security personnel and some militants, who had infiltrated from across the LoC four-five days back in Rajouri sector and were traced to be in its Sunderbani tehsil after days of combing operations, the police said.

Amid the ongoing encounter between the security forces and the militants, the authorities refuted reports of a terror attack at a CRPF camp, but ordered closure of all educational institutions in the tehsil as a precautionary measure.

"An encounter has broken out between Nowshera-Sunderbani belt after a group of infiltrator militants were intercepted by the security forces today," J&K Director General of Police S P Vaid told PTI.

He refuted reports of a terror attack by the militants terming them as "totally false."



Giving further details, Rajouri SSP Yougal Manhas said three bags of ammunition and explosives were recovered from outside a CRPF camp in Sunderbani.

As per the reports, a security guard manning the gate of a CRPF camp at Sodra in Sunderbani area fired some warning shots and raised an alarm after he detected some suspicious movement near the paramilitary camp.

The police and security forces had been conducting search and combing operation to track down the suspected infiltrating militants for four to five days in Sunderbani.

Denying reports of an attack on the CRPF camp, CRPF PRO Ashish Kumar Jha said there was such attack on the paramilitary force camp in Sunderbani.

He said the alert troops had detected some suspicious movement and had fired some warning shots.

Rajouri Deputy Commissioner Shahid Iqbal Choudary ordered the closure of all the educational institutions in Sunderbani sector in wake of the search operation.

The schools shall remain closed in the Sunderbani division today as a precautionary measure, he said.

Last night, two militants had entered into the house of one Bushan Kumar Sharma in Bunpori-Yoginallah area in Sunderbani and had forced them to prepare food, which they had taken away along with themselves, the reports said.

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The Shiv Sena in Goa has demanded the suspension of a police inspector, alleging that his subordinates thrashed a cancer patient, who is an accused in a financial fraud case.

The incident took place on March 25 evening when Amit Naik was arrested by the Sanguem police in Netravalim area of South Goa district, about 60 km from here, for skipping the summons of a court in Maharashtra's Pune district in connection with the case against him, the Sena said.

However, a senior Goa police official said that Naik had tried to run away while he was being apprehended, and that there was a scuffle during which he got injured.

He said that an inquiry into the alleged assault would be conducted if Naik's family files a complaint.

Goa Shiv Sena chief Jitesh Kamat alleged that Naik was mercilessly beaten up by two policemen and as many civilians while he was in custody.

Naik, who is suffering from cancer, was being treated at a hospital in Mumbai due to which he could not appear before the Pune court, Kamat told reporters here yesterday.

"We demand that Sanguem police inspector Sagar Ekoskar be immediately placed under suspension as a sub-inspector and a constable attached to that police station had mercilessly beaten up Amit Naik," Kamat said.

Naik was initially treated at the district hospital in Margao and later admitted to the Goa Medical College and Hospital near here after he allegedly suffered damage to his kidney, he claimed.

When contacted, South Goa Superintendent of Police Arvind Gawas said an inquiry would be conducted into the incident when they receive a formal complaint from accused's family.

Gawas said the incident took place when the police had gone to execute the summons issued to Naik.

"The accused tried to run away (when the police went to nab him) and there was a scuffle during which he was injured," he said.

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Seven persons have been arrested in connection with a child trafficking case, police said today.

Police had yesterday rescued a 15-day-old baby girl, who was about to be sold and had arrested a 23-year-old woman identified as Manga, they said.

Based on information provided by her, police today arrested six more persons from different locations including the prime accused Gangadhar Reddy (32), a native of East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, Deputy commissioner of police (Shamshabad Zone) PV Padmaja said.

Reddy faces similar cases in different police stations in Hyderabad on charges of being involved in baby selling rackets, the DCP said.

He had allegedly sold 12 babies out of which two babies have been rescued, the officer said.

"Reddy had earlier worked in infertility centres and formed a gang and hatched a conspiracy to sell babies to childless couples," Padmaja said.

Accordingly last week Manga brought the baby girl from Andhra Pradesh to the city, the officer said.

Police after getting specific information yesterday that the gang members were trying to sell the baby for Rs 83,000 conducted a raid at a house and rescued the baby and arrested Manga, though other gang members had fled.

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Veteran director Shekhar Kapur has been appointed chairman of the central panel of the 65th National Film Awards, sources in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said today.

The central panel comprises a chairperson and 10 other members, including five regional chairpersons who head the respective regional panels.

Film writer Imtiaz Hussain, known for his works in films like "Astitva" (2000) and "Parinda" (1989) will be the regional chairperson of South I panel. Mehboob, who penned the lyrics for the Hindi (dubbed) version of 1995 Tamil romantic drama "Bombay", was appointed as the regional chairperson of South II panel, the sources said.

Actress Gautami Tadimalla, who is known for her work in Tamil films, is the regional chairman of the North panel, while director Rahul Rawail known for films like "Love Story" (1981), "Betaab" (1983), "Arjun" (1985) and "Jo Bole So Nihaal" (2005), was chosen as the regional chairperson of the Western panel, they said.

Director P Sheshadri, a known name in Kannada cinema, is the regional chairperson of Eastern panel.

Other members of the panel include Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, a Bengali and Hindi film director; playwright Tripurari Sharma; dialogue and script writer Rumi Jaffery; Ranjit Das known for the critically acclaimed film "Pratyavartan"; and film writer, director and producer Rajesh Mapuskar, the sources added.

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Parminder Bhullarai is unhappy with the move to dilute the stringent provisions of a law dealing with cases of atrocities against Dalits. And he has found a novel - but striking - way to show his disapproval.

Near the main bus stand on the busy National Highway 1 in Punjab's Phagwara city last evening, Bhullarai took off his shirt, placed his shoes on his head and stood alone in protest.

His action drew the attention of everyone passing through the area, especially thousands of bus passengers.

The lone protester also displayed a banner that read scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and religious minorities were not safe in India.

He told reporters that he had to resort to this distinct way of protest to draw public attention to the issue of the Act's dilution, which, he added, will increase atrocities against Dalits.

The Supreme Court in an order on March 20 diluted the provisions of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, in a bid to protect honest public servants discharging bonafide duties from being blackmailed with false cases under the Act.

The court said government servants should not be arrested without prior sanction and private citizens too should be arrested only after an inquiry under the law.

But Dalit organisations, including the Dalit Shoshan Mukti Manch, and opposition political parties fear the dilution of the provisions might lead to increase in violence against Dalits. They have urged the Union government to seek an immediate review of the Supreme Court judgement.

Calling the Modi government "anti-Dalit", Bhullarai also alleged that ever since it took over the reigns at the Centre in 2014, the situation in the country has been getting vitiated.

"Cow vigilantes are killing people in the name of cow protection and Hindu nationalists are beating people under the garb of (patriotism)," he said.

He accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of intentionally not seeking a review of the Supreme Court order.

Surinder Dhanda, president of Ambedkar Sena (Punjab), came out in support of Bhullarai at the protest venue. Though he did not remove his shirt, he displayed a banner against the BJP-led Union government and demanded its removal.

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There is a shortage of 274 pilots in the Army and the Navy, the government today informed the Lok Sabha.

In a written response to a question, Subhash Bhamre, minister of state in the defence ministry, said the sanctioned strength of pilots in the Army is 794, while it has 192 vacant posts.

The Navy has a sanctioned strength of 735 pilot and has 82 vacant posts.

"There is a marginal shortage of pilots in Indian Air Force against the authorised establishment. However, the available strength in the IAF is sufficient to meet the current operational requirements," he said.

On a question whether the Navy has decided to increase its watch over Indian Ocean, Bhamre said the geo-strategic importance of the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) has seen a gradual increase in the recent past.

"The Indian Navy closely monitors the maritime areas if our interest and regularly deploys ships for Presence and Surveillance Missions (PSM), off critical choke points/ sea lanes in the IOR," he said.

In response to another question, Bhamre said the Navy does not undertake joint monitoring of the Indian Ocean in cooperation with other foreign countries.

Replying to another question, the minister said the government has identified 73 roads as "strategic Indo-China Border Roads" (ICBRs), out of which 34 roads are completed and in the remaining 39 ICBRs, work in progress.

He added that the government has taken measures to expedite the construction of border roads in the states of Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarkhand and has constituted an Empowered Committee to resolve the issues pertaining to BRO.

He added that 22,225.17 km road has been entrusted to the Border Roads Organisation, of which 7,122 km is in Jammu and Kashmir, 5,267 kms in Arunchal Pradesh.

In response to another question whether there has been an increase in Chinese transgressions over the last one year or so, Bhamre said there is no commonly delineated Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the border areas of between India and China.

"There are areas along the LAC where both sides have differing perception of LAC. Due to this, both sides undertake patrolling up to their perception of the LAC and as a result transgressions do occur," he said.

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A Sikh man in Canada was dragged and his turban ripped by two white men who shouted racial slurs and threatened him with a knife in an apparent racist attack, according to media reports.

The man was attacked by two white men, both in their 20s, near Westgate Shopping Centre on Friday night, CBC reported.

Apart from robbing him and tearing the turban off his head, the two threatened him with a knife. They also hurled racial slurs at him, the report said yesterday.

Two suspects, described as white men by police, approached the victim at 11:25 p.m. while he waited for a bus. They asked the man about his ethnicity and spoke about cutting his beard and hair, police said.

"He was asked specifically about his ethnicity and then there were some racial slurs that came along with that," said Staff Sergent Mike Haarbosch of the Ottawa police.

"They also asked him whether he'd ever cut his hair or his beard, so, that's pretty specific, so at a minimum we're suggesting at this point that there were some racial overtones to this."



The two suspects left, then returned and asked the man for change. Police said they started making racial slurs, and one suspect produced a knife.

The victim ran to a nearby business, which was locked. Police said the suspects then assaulted the man, dragged him on the ground and threatened him.

They also removed and stole the victim's turban, as well as his phone and bus pass, police said.

Haarbosch said this may be an isolated incident, but they're looking for more information.

"We have some information they may have been drinking, so this could certainly be a one-off event committed by a couple of guys that were acting stupidly and disgustingly, but that's part of the investigation that's going on."



The victim was treated by paramedics for minor injuries.

Police are investigating the incident and whether it was a hate-motivated crime.

Political leaders of both the democratic and conservative parties in Canada have condemned the attack, adding that the Sikh community in Canada have for "long stood on guard for our freedom and have helped to build our country for well over a century. Shame on those responsible.

Meanwhile, the World Sikh Organisation (WSO) of Canada said it is deeply disturbed by the attack.

"We are shocked by the attack on a Sikh in Ottawa last week. We had feared that recent accusations of extremism and radicalism against the Sikh community would lead to a rise in intolerance against Sikhs," WSO President Mukhbir Singh said.

The forcible removal of a Sikh's turban is considered the greatest insult a Sikh can be subjected to and is being taken very seriously by the community, Singh added.

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Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena today reduced the responsibilities of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in the backdrop of the ongoing political turmoil in the country.

The unity government of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the United National Party (UNP) was thrown into a crisis after former president Mahinda Rajapaksa's new party pulled off a stunning victory in local elections seen as a referendum on the ruling alliance.

Sirisena removed the control of Central Bank of Sri Lanka from Wickremesinghe in a further manifestation of the political crisis the unity government is currently faced with.

The Securities and Exchange Commission, which was also under the Prime Minister, has been brought under the Finance Ministry by Sirisena.

The changes, which sources said were against the wishes of the Prime Minister, were published in a gazette notification issued today.

The move came ahead of the next week's no confidence motion against Wickremesinghe handed by the Joint Opposition of Rajapaksa. It is to be debated on April 4.

Wickremesinghe's action to bring the Central Bank under his control was one of the main charges in the no confidence motion which alleges that it was a deliberate action to commit the fraud in the issues of Central Bank bonds in 2015.

Wickremesinghe's handpicked governor of the Central Bank Arjuna Mahendran's son-in-law's firm was accused of committing a fraud in Bond deals.

Mahendran was sacked by Sirisena in 2016 and a Commission appointed had ruled that Mahendran's son-in-law's firm had made undue profits due to Mahendran's action of providing them with inside information.

Mahendran, a Singapore national, has been issued with an arrest warrant while his son-in-law and the CEO of the firm have been in custody since early February.

Rajapaksa's new political party, Sri Lanka People's Party (SLPP), defeated Sirisena's SLFP and Wickremesinghe's UNP, winning 225 councils or two thirds of the 340 councils which went to polls in February.

After registering the landslide win, Rajapaksa was quick to demand a snap general election which is scheduled to be held after August 2020.

Since the defeat, Sirisena has been seeking the removal of Wickremesinghe as the prime minister, attempting to form his own SLFP government, analysts have said.

However, in the absence of required numbers, Sirisena has to accept Wickremesinghe, they said.

Wickremesinghe has said that the result of the local body polls was a wake up call for the government.

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Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena today reduced the responsibilities of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in the backdrop of the ongoing political turmoil in the country.

The unity government of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the United National Party (UNP) was thrown into a crisis after former president Mahinda Rajapaksa's new party pulled off a stunning victory in local elections seen as a referendum on the ruling alliance.

Several state institutions including the Central Bank and Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka have changed hands, Colombo Gazette reported today.

The Central Bank and Securities and Exchange Commission, which were under the Prime Minister, have been brought under the Finance Ministry by President Sirisena, the report said.

Wickremesinghe was last month appointed as the Minister of Law and Order in the unity government's second cabinet reshuffle.

Former strongman Rajapaksa's nearly a decade-long rule was ended by Sirisena in 2015.

Rajapaksa's new political party, Sri Lanka People's Party (SLPP), defeated Sirisena's SLFP and Wickremesinghe's UNP, winning 225 councils or two thirds of the 340 councils which went to polls in February.

After registering the landslide win, Rajapaksa was quick to demand a snap general election which is scheduled to be held after August 2020.

Since the defeat, Sirisena has been seeking the removal of Wickremesinghe as the prime minister, attempting to form his own SLFP government, analysts have said.

However, in the absence of required numbers, Sirisena has to accept Wickremesinghe, they said.

Wickremesinghe has said that the result of the local body polls was a wake up call for the government.

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Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter first came into contact with a nerve agent at their home address in Britain, police said today as the high-profile probe into the attack continues.

"At this point in our investigation, we believe the Skripals first came into contact with the nerve agent from their front door," said Dean Haydon from London's Metropolitan Police.

The March 4 attack on the Skripals in the English city of Salisbury has been met with a major response that has seen more than 150 Russian diplomats expelled from countries around the world.

British authorities have blamed Moscow, which denies any involvement, and said a Soviet-designed nerve agent dubbed Novichok was used in the poisoning.

"Traces of the nerve agent have been found at some of the other scenes detectives have been working at over the past few weeks, but at lower concentrations to that found at the home address," said Haydon.

Investigators had earlier sealed off the bench where the Skripals were found, a pub and restaurant the pair visited, and the grave of the former spy's wife.

Police said around 250 counter-terrorism detectives are currently working on the case, which could continue for months.

"Those living in the Skripals' neighbourhood can expect to see officers carrying out searches as part of this but I want to reassure them that the risk remains low and our searches are precautionary," said Haydon.

The Skripals remain in a coma in hospital, while a police officer who responded to the attack was discharged last week.

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The slain hero of last week's extremist attack in southern France was honoured today in an elaborate, daylong national homage led by French President Emmanuel Macron.

The tribute came as questions were raised about possible failures by French counterterrorism officials in tracking the gunman, who was on a radicalization watch list before he went on a rampage on Friday.

The coffin of Lt. Col. Arnaud Beltrame was driven through the morning drizzle in a procession across Paris from the Pantheon to the Hotel des Invalides, the final resting place of Napoleon. Macron delivered a patriotic public eulogy calling for national solidarity after last week's attack, which together with myriad other extremist attacks on French soil have claimed over 200 lives since 2015.

Beltrame symbolized "the spirit of French resistance," Macron said.

Beltrame died of his wounds Saturday morning, hours after swapping himself for a hostage during a siege in a supermarket near the city of Carcassonne.

"We will prevail thanks to the resilience of the French... We will win by the cohesion of a united nation," he added.

After inspecting troops at the monument as a military band played a stirring rendition of the French national anthem, the Marseillaise, Macron posthumously awarded Beltrame the Legion of Honor, France's highest award.

Two former presidents, Francois Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy, also attended.

The tribute provided a national focal point for grief, even as questions were growing about possible mistakes made by the French security services regarding Beltrame's killer, Redouane Lakdim.

Interior Minister Gerard Collomb confirmed today that French security services were poised to reduce the surveillance on Lakdim, who had since 2014 been on a radicalization watch list, ahead of the extremist attack.

But Collomb maintained there were no "dysfunctions" in the tracking Lakdim, who also killed three other people before he was shot dead by police.

Speaking on France Inter, Collomb said "ultimately no one thought that there would be a hasty attack" by Lakdim, a Moroccan-born French resident with dual nationality.

Moroccan authorities have also questioned France's handling of Lakdim's case.

The chief of a counterterrorism agency known as Morocco's FBI said Tuesday that France never alerted his country about Lakdim's radical behaviour calling the absence of contact "a misunderstanding."



Since the attack, the agency created three years ago to consolidate counterterrorism efforts has been investigating Lakdim's family members in Morocco, Abdelhak Khiame told The Associated Press Lakdim visited Morocco several times, most recently in February 2012, before the establishment of the Islamic State, Khiame added.

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Kashmiri shopkeeper Aqib Farooq Mir got a jolt today when he found that he was labelled as a newly-recruited militant and his picture was being circulated on social media.

The police, who were alerted immediately after the circulation of the picture, traced Mir, a resident of Beehama in Ganderbal district of central Kashmir, to his shop on the outskirts of the city.

Mir, unaware that his picture was doing the rounds of various social media platforms including WhatsApp and Facebook, was stunned to find that policemen were enquiring about him from others as well as his family members.

Soon, police checked his previous records and found him clean. A case was registered under various sections to identify the mischief-mongers and in a quick action, police arrested one person, Manzoor Ahmad Ganie, who circulated Mir's photograph on a WhatsApp group.

The picture was circulated on social media platforms with an intent to cause fear and alarm to the public, describing him as a new militant recruit.

"On verification, it turned out to be a mischief," a police spokesman said.

The spokesman said on verification it was found that Mir is a respectable citizen and is running a shop in Beehama area of Ganderbal. His family was in stress after the fake of his joining a militant group appeared on social media.

"Strict action will be taken against the mischief- and rumour-mongers who are trying to disrupt the peaceful atmosphere in the valley," the spokesman said.

His family members had received multiple calls from relatives regarding the incident, which made his parents worried.

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Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel today shot off a letter to Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, asking the latter to withdraw an order on not admitting any questions raised by legislators in the House on reserved subjects.

The Speaker said he would seek the intervention of President Ram Nath Kovind and Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan over the issue, if the Lt Governor did not withdraw his order during the budget session of the House. The session will continue till April 3.

Sources said Goel might also write to Assembly speakers of other states, seeking their support to lodge a protest against the Delhi L-G's move.

"I have written to the Lt Governor seeking withdrawal of his letter. If he (L-G) does not withdraw his letter during the budget session of the Delhi Assembly, I will write to the President and Lok Sabha Speaker on the issue," Goel told reporters here.

Last week, the Ministry of Law advised the Delhi Lt Governor's office to communicate to the Speaker that he should not admit questions related to reserved subjects such as public order, police, services and land, with the departments concerned refusing to answer questions on this ground.

Earlier in the day, Goel, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, cabinet ministers and AAP MLAs wore black bands in protest against the move.

"It is unfortunate that the law ministry has issued directions. It is a very dangerous incident in the history of Independent India. The Centre's move is highly condemnable...I want to sit with black band as a mark of protest," the Speaker said in the House.

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Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, cabinet ministers and AAP MLAs today wore black bands in protest against the Centre's communication to the Speaker, asking him not to admit any question raised by legislators in the House on reserved subjects.

Last week, the Ministry of Law advised the Lt Governor's office to communicate to the Speaker that he should not admit questions related to reserved subjects such as public order, police, services and land, with the departments concerned refusing to answer questions on this ground.

Goel said the central government has "insulted" the Delhi Assembly with the directive.

As the House proceedings began, AAP MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj said he has not received a reply of his question pertaining to Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash moving a court against Question and Reference Committee and Privilege Committee.

Responding to Bharadwaj's concern, Goel said out of 40 questions, the House has not received answers of 17 questions as the departments concerned have denied answering on 'reserved subject'.

Goel forwarded the matter to the Question and Reference Committee of the House.

"It is unfortunate that the law ministry has issued such directions. It is a very dangerous incident in the history of Independent India. The Centre's move is highly condemnable...I want to sit with black band as mark of protest," he said.

Protesting the Speaker's decision, BJP MLA Manjinder Singh Sirsa said he can not wear black band as the former was a constitutional body.

"You (Speaker) are starting a new tradition in the country as Speaker is the constitutional body. Hence, you should not wear black bands. It is not good for the country," he said.

During the Question Hour, Sisodia told the House that several questions were left un-answered answered by the departments.

AAP MLA Vishesh Ravi called the Lt Governor "dictator" in the House.

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Four men were arrested for their alleged involvement in an organised racket of cheating in online examinations being conducted by the Staff Selection Commission, police said today.

In a joint operation conducted by Uttar Pradesh Police's Special Task Force and Special Staff, North District, Paramjeet Singh (24), Ajay Kumar (30), Sonu Kumar (31) and Gaurav Nayyar (24) were arrested yesterday, they added.

Yesterday, UP STF Meerut informed their counterparts in north district that they had information that one person named Harpal, apparently working in the Delhi government's Sales Tax Department was running a cheating racket from his residence in Gandhi Vihar, Timarpur, the police said.

Subsequently, a team of officials of UP STF and north district conducted a raid at the given address. There Ajay, Sonu, Gaurav and Paramjeet were found working on laptops and phones.

It was found that they were assisting candidates through a remote access application, namely Team Viewer, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (North)Jatin Narwal.

Three laptops, 10 mobile phones, an external hard disk, a white colour tender router, four pen drives, a wi-fi device, five blue tooth devices were seized from the spot, he added.

Some loose papers with names and roll numbers of candidates were also seized besides Rs 51,83,700, that had been collected from the students.

During interrogation, it was found that the cheating racket was being run in an organised manner. The gang members had hacked into the online system and would assist students taking the exams.

The prospective candidates were lured and charged anywhere between Rs five to 10 lakh and get to know about their respective centres of examination.

This gang was alleged to have network with the centres of the examination and computer labs across various cities.

These labs were outsourced by the SSC for conducting the examination. Harpal and the other accused were also running labs in different parts of the city which are further hired by the outsourced labs for conducting the examinations, the officer said. Harpal is yet to be arrested.

The accused, Paramjeet Singh, is a resident of Bahadurgarh, Haryana and is a BE in computers from PDM College, Haryana. Ajay Kumar is a resident of Vats Colony, Bahadurgarh and has a masters degree in Hindi. Sonu Kumar, a resident of Bhopure, UP, is a graduate. Gaurav Nayyar, a resident of Timarpur, has completed his bachelors in computer application.

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A large number of students and teachers of central universities, including Delhi University, today took out a protest march from Mandi House to Parliament Street against the UGC move granting full autonomy to select higher educational institutes,



The march, organised by Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA) and Federation of Central Universities' Teachers' Associations (FEDCUTA), was joined by leaders of some opposition parties and culminated with a protest meet on Parliament Street.

Addressing the gathering, CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat said policies of the Modi government intended to end reservations in higher

"This is done by those people who talk about progress in the society. The government is trying to destroy top universities and such effort will end social justice," Karat said.

Commenting about the autonomy given to universities, she said that autonomy given to universities is to ensure that they start courses that fetches more money and give reservation to foreign students.

The CPI(M) leader during the protest also demanded arrest and suspension of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) professor Atul Johri, accused of sexually harassing some girl students, and restoration of the Gender Sensitisation Committee Against Sexual Harassment (GSCASH) in the university.

Congress MP Sushmita Dev and AAP MP Sanjay Singh also joined the march.

DU Students Union president Rocky Tuseed said the autonomy granted to universities was a step taken keeping in mind students from economically stronger sections. JNUSU president Geeta Kumari said that the government appointed vice-chancellors who would abide by its decisions to ensure the reservation policy in varsities were abolished.

The protesters also demanded the universities to follow Vishakha Guidelines in letter and spirit to end sexual harassment on campuses.

The Vishakha Guidelines laid down the requirements for employers dealing with complaints of sexual assault and stipulated the formation of committees to dispose of complaints from victims of harassment.

Offering support to the protesters, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said, "It is sad that the central government is scared of They have understood the power of colleges and universities properly and that is why they want to destroy it. They are scared that universities and colleges, if go well, their politics will end."



They have destroyed government schools and encouraged private schools belonging to leaders and the country's four to five influential people. This is what they want to do to colleges and higher education institutions, he added.

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The iconic classic ballet, 'Swan Lake', is all set to be staged here this weekend as part of a multi-city tour across the country.

Following a resounding success in Mumbai, where the tour started earlier this month, the show will open to the public at JLN Stadium on March 30.

The co-production by Royal Russian Ballet and Navrasa Duende, mounted with 45 artistes, choreographed by Vladimir Troschenko and directed by Anatoly Kazatsky, was attended by over 15000 people in Mumbai, the organisers said.

"The Mumbai experience has been overwhelming in terms of audience, critic response as well as ease and smoothness of organising such events at NCPA, Mumbai. It was simply a delight to see the kids, young generation and even people 90+ taking such a keen interest in classical arts.

"With the tremendous response that the first phase of the tour in Mumbai has received, we are optimistic that the ballet will delight the discerning connoisseurs of performing arts across other cities as well," Dinesh Singh, founder of Navrasa Duende, said.

With 140-year-old history, the Swan Lake ballet is performed on the score composed by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky



The story originates from Russian folk tales, with Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse, as the principal character.

Tchaikovsky's inimitable and timeless compositions play a prime movers role in the complex and dramatic narrative.

With its primary themes as love, and the battle between good and evil, the story holds a special place in the hearts of viewers across all ages even today and never fails to move them despite the era it belongs to.

The show will end in Delhi on April 1 before moving to Ahmedabad from April 6 to 8, and Kolkata from April 12 to 14, where the month-long tour will conclude.

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External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today arrived here for a three-day visit during which she will co-chair the strategic dialogue with her Japanese counterpart Taro Kono and review the entire gamut of bilateral ties.

The 9th India-Japan Strategic Dialogue will take place tomorrow.

Upon her arrival at Tokyo, she was received by Indian Ambassador in Japan Sujan Chinoy and Ambassador Hideaki Hoshi of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan.

"Yokoso! Upon her arrival at Tokyo, EAM @SushmaSwaraj was warmly received by Indian Ambassador @SujanChinoy and Ambassador Hideaki Hoshi of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. #KonnichiwaNamaste," the Embassy of India in Japan said in a tweet.

During the visit, "the two sides will review all aspects of bilateral relations and exchange views on regional and international issues of common interest," Ministry of External Affairs had said in a statement in New Delhi yesterday.

India and Japan concluded a Special Strategic and Global Partnership during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Japan in 2014. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had also visited India in September 2017.

Bilateral relations have been strengthened in diverse sectors in recent years. India and Japan have a strong cooperation in the areas of nuclear energy, defence and science and technology.

The Mumbai to Ahmedabad High Speed Rail project will be based on the Shinkansen super speed trains in Japan.

Japan is today one of the largest investors in India, with a growing presence in infrastructure projects, manufacturing, financial markets and capacity-building, among others.

According to official figures, Japanese FDI in India during 2016-17 was USD 4.7 billion, an increase of 80 per cent over the last year.

In 2016-17, India-Japan trade reached USD 13.61 billion, showing a decrease of 6.21 per cent over 2015-16, when the total bilateral trade was USD 14.51 billion.

India's export to Japan for 2016-17 was USD 3.86 billion, whereas India's import from the East Asian country for 2016-17 was USD 9.76 billion.

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App-based cab service Uber in partnership with the Telangana government, today flagged off the first 100 cars under the Driver Empowerment Programme.

The programme was launched by the Departments of SC, ST, Backward Classes and Minorities Welfare to enhance livelihood opportunities in the driving profession, a press release from Uber said.

Each Department has identified 500 candidates who have been given skill enhancement training and financial assistance for vehicle purchase, it said.

At the end of the programme, they are also given an opportunity to be on-boarded as an Uber driver partner to provide a market linkage for income generation, it said,adding the remaining vehicles will be grounded through the course of the year.

The programme was launched on a pilot basis in August 2017 where 31 applicants from the ST and BC communities were identified by the respective welfare departments, who assisted them with the vehicle purchase and post training were on-boarded on Uber as Driver Partners.

Based on it's success, the Telangana government decided to extend this programme to all districts of the state and to the SC and minority communities as well, it said.

All 100 applicants were then given financial assistance for vehicle purchase by the Government and were later onboarded as Driver Partners who can drive using the Uber app.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A senior West Bengal minister today accused the BJP of fomenting trouble in the state "using the name of Lord Rama" and warned the party that steps would be taken against those violating the law by the administration which was capable of maintaining peace.

Education Minister Partha Chatterjee said attempts were made to create unrest in places such as Raniganj and Asansol but the administration had handled the situation there.

On the Centre seeking a report from the state government on the violence, Chatterjee said he was not aware of any such letter.

He also refused to comment when asked about the Central government's offer to send paramilitary forces to the state.

"Media reports have mentioned the Centre's offer but a decision in this regard has to be taken by the chief minister," Chatterjee, who is also the Trinamool Congress secretary-general, told reporters here.

He said the state police were competent and had tackled many difficult situations in the past.

The Centre has sought a report from the West Bengal government on incidents of arson and violence during Ram Navami processions in the last two days and offered assistance to deal with the situation, an official spokesperson said.

To a question on whether the state government had advised the Governor not to visit Raniganj, Chatterjee said "I do not know (about that)".

Asked if he thought the Governor should visit the troubled area, the minister said, "Let peace be restored there. One can always go".

Governor K N Tripathi today appealed for peace in the state and said everybody should perform their religious practice peacefully.

"There should not be any riot or violence. And people should perform their religious practice peacefully," Tripathi told PTI.

Accusing the BJP of fanning trouble in the state, Chatterjee said party workers could take out processions but should not carry arms.

Referring to state BJP president Dilip Ghosh's allegation that its workers were provoked by the police, the minister said, "They have carried arms. If the police took action, is it a provocation? Action will be taken if there is any violation of law."



"The BJP is fomenting unrest in the state using the name of Lord Rama," he said.

On the BJP's charge that TMC supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had gone to Delhi when there was trouble in West Bengal, Chatterjee said, "She is there in the interest of the people. She is there to share people's agony created by the BJP".

Heavy police force was deployed in the Raniganj area of West Bengal yesterday after clashes broke out between two groups on Monday over a Ram Navami procession in which one person was killed and two police officers were injured, a district official said.

In another incident, one person was killed and five police personnel were injured in a group clash in Purulia on Sunday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Gunmen have shot and killed a transgender woman and her friend in Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan's Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, police said.

The victims were travelling in a rickshaw when they were targeted yesterday by two assailants riding on a motorcycle, police said, adding that multiple shot were fired at them.

The bodies were shifted to Khyber Medical College for autopsies and the police have launched an investigation into the matter, police said.

However, no one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

Pakistan became one of the first countries in the world to legally recognise a third sex in 2009, allowing transgender people to obtain identity cards.

More than 50 transgender persons were killed during 2015 and 2016, Trans Action President Farzana had claimed earlier.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Two inland fishermen were electrocuted at Ayaba in a remote village of Kendrapara district today as they came in contact with a live wire, police said.

A live wire had snapped and fell in the pond where the fishermen had spread nets to catch fish. As the water body was charged with current, they were killed on the spot, they said.

The deceased have been identified as Gokul Sethi and Amar Pradhan, both natives of local village.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Two men were paraded naked by a mob in Upper Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh for allegedly raping a high school student, a top police official said.

The two accused were thrashed and paraded naked by the mob, including women, in Yingkiong market area on March 26 before being handed over to the police.

Two others are absconding, the police official said.

The 17-year-old girl was allegedly raped by the four men, including her boyfriend, near the under-construction Gandhi Bridge on March 25, DIG (central range) John Neihalaia said.

The incident took place at around 8.30 pm at a place, about six kilometre away from Yingkiong town and the police received information on the following day, the DIG said.

The accused are from Pangkang village.

The DIG said that a search has been launched to nab the two accused and a police team has been sent to Jengging in search of the duo, he said.

Terming the incident as "unfortunate", state Home Minister Kumar Waii has sought the support of one and all to bring the guilty to book.

He also asked minors to avoid going out with strangers to unknown locations and travelling after dark.

"Such incidents are unexpected but could be tackled with coordinated efforts," he said and advocated that the civil society should be vigilant to ensure the security of girls.

Meanwhile, the Arunachal Pradesh State Commission for Women has asked the Upper Siang SP to nab the absconding culprits under the POCSO Act, 2012 and award exemplary punishment to them.

The APSCW also requested the family members of the culprits and society to cooperate with the police to deliver justice to the victim and her family.

This is the second rape incident in the town this year. A six-year-old girl student was allegedly raped by her teacher on February 22 last.

Cases of mob outrage and vigilante justice have surfaced in the state over the past few months prompting the state government to enact a legislation on March 16 which would provide death penalty to those convicted of raping girls below 12 years.

Earlier this month, a man accused of raping a 12-year-old was paraded naked around Daporijo town in Upper Subansiri district before he was handed over to the police.

A mob of around 800 people stormed into the Tezu police station in Lohit district on February 19 last and dragged out a man and his accomplice accused of raping and murder of a five-year-old girl and lynched them in the market area.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Tesla(MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.) -- The NTSB said Tuesday that it is investigating a fatal car crash involving a Tesla that happened last week in Northern California.



Whether or not the Tesla Model Xs semi-automated control system, called Autopilot, was active during the crash is one of the issues the agency said it was examining.



Last Friday, the Tesla was traveling south on U.S. Highway 101 near Mountain View, California, when it collided with the median barrier and burst into flames, according to the California Highway Patrol.



Two other cars crashed into it moments later. The driver of the Tesla was transported to a hospital where he died of his injuries, according to CHP of Redwood City. No other injuries were reported.



This probe comes after a 2016 NTSB investigation of a fatal crash in Florida involving a Tesla and a tractor-trailer. The agency concluded that while the Teslas Autopilot system performed as intended leading up to that incident, the driver was not paying attention to the road due to overreliance on vehicle automation, causing him to collide with a truck that was improperly crossing his path.



Tesla bills Autopilot an assist feature and said it expects drivers to keep their hands on the wheel, prepared to take over at any time. The feature is disabled by default, but it prompts an onscreen reminder of Teslas expectations when activated.



This investigation also comes on the heels of a March 18 incident in Tempe, Arizona, in which a woman was struck and killed by a fully autonomous car operated by Uber.



Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has since announced that he was suspending Ubers driverless car testing program in the state.



Autonomous cars, unlike cars with driver-assist features, are capable of driving without someone at the wheel, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
The US State of Delaware has declared April as the 'Sikh Awareness and Appreciation Month' in recognition of the contribution of the religious minority community.

Throughout this month, the public will be educated on what Sikhism truly is and what it stand for.

Delaware Governor John Carney in a proclamation declaring April as "Sikh Awareness Month" said the community have earned respect and appreciation through exceptional service to the community.

"The State of Delaware seeks to further the diversity of its community and afford Delawareans the opportunity to better appreciate the rich history of Sikh Americans," the proclamation read.

The State Assembly - House of Representatives and Senate -- simultaneously passed unanimous resolutions proclaiming April as 'Sikh Awareness and Appreciation Month'.

The move gains significance because Delaware has a small Sikh population.

"Sikhs and Indian Americans are welcome in the state of Delaware with open arms," Carney told PTI after signing the proclamation.

Several legislators sported turbans during the unanimous passage of the Sikh legislation in the Delaware House of Representatives.

"Wearing this turban shows that we are also part of America. Because of this resolution, for the second consecutive month, the identity and awareness about the Sikh community has increased in the state," local Sikh leader Charanjeet Singh Minhas told PTI outside the State Capital in Dover.

However, Minhas said, there was still a lack of awareness about Sikhism among people.

"There are still a lot of people who think that people with Turbans are members of the Taliban, member of Al Qaeda. Turban is normally seen as anti-American, anti-western, which is not true. This is what we are trying to correct," he said.

Noting that the Sikh community in America continues to peacefully overcome attacks on its members, as well as attacks on Sikh identity and practices; the Delaware House and Senate said that the current US Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, was raised as a Sikh and in New Jersey, Gurbir Grewall became the first Sikh Attorney General in the US.

"One way that the Delaware Sikh community promotes love, respect, and peace for all is through billboards on I-95 that celebrate holidays such as Diwali, Thanksgiving, Guru Nanaks birthday, and Christmas;" the resolution read.

"Observance of "Sikh Awareness and Appreciation Month" raises awareness of the contributions of Sikhs in Delaware to the economy and wider community," it read.

The resolution said that the State of Delaware stood with the Sikh community in denouncing hate crimes directed towards any individual on account of their religious beliefs.

It also said that since September 11, 2001, Sikhs are often mistaken for Taliban or followers of Al Qaida based upon their appearance and clothing.

"Since September 11, 2001, nationally, Sikhs have been subject to school harassment, employment discrimination, and fatal shootings," the resolution said.

Carney, a Democrat leader, said that a general anti-immigrant sentiment prevailed in the country.

"It is personally embarrassing to me," he said.

Delaware Senator Bryan Townsend, one of the key sponsors of the resolution, said that Sikh-Americans play a very important role in the economic development of the State.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Describing India as a major market and a strategic country, the Governor of the US State of Delaware, John Carney today sought an increase in bilateral trade relationship with India.

"Delaware is open for business," Carney told PTI in an interview as he urged Indian companies to establish their foothold in the state.

While he has no current plans to take a trade delegation to India, Carney said he wants to build on the trade missions that his predecessor Jack Markell took to India, during his term as State Governor for 2009 to 2017.

The first two years of his administration, he said, has been focused more on improving the business environment of Delaware.

"That certainly makes a lot of sense for us to the extent that we're able to develop those kinds of relationships and to export goods from the US to India and the other way around," Carney said in response to a question.

India, he said, was a huge market and offered a great business opportunity for companies based in Delaware and the products being manufactured there.

"It should be an opportunity for us," he said.

Asked if he plans to travel to India, Carney said he didn't have any plan in near future.

"I don't have any plans now. I've had a lot of offers. I have a lot of friends in the Indian-American community here in Delaware and they've encouraged me (to take a trade delegation to India)," Carney said.

"Obviously trips like that are important for economic development, getting the word out that Delaware is open for business," he said.

The Delaware governor also hailed the role of the Indian-American community in the state's economy and urged Indian companies to invest in the state.

"As we think about the challenges that we face here in our State, creating and cultivating a strong economy is chief among them. That's where Indian Americans are so important for our future because of the skills that they bring to Delaware to make it a place where businesses can thrive," Carney said.

"They bring tremendous skills to Delaware in every business enterprise. We welcome them with open arms. We would encourage more folks to come and more are coming. We have a significant workforce needs that that Indian-Americans have provided to our state and they're continuing opportunities for others to come," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A senior West Bengal minister today accused the BJP of fomenting trouble in the state "using the name of Lord Rama", a charge that drew the ire of the party, which lashed out at chief minister Mamata Banerjee, accusing her of "doing politics" in the national capital while her state was "burning".

Education Minister Partha Chatterjee said attempts were made to create unrest in Raniganj and Asansol and the administration had handled the situation there.

He warned that steps would be taken by the administration against those violating the law.

"The BJP is fomenting unrest in the state using the name of Lord Rama," Chatterjee, who is also the TMC secretary general, told reporters in Kolkata.

On the Centre seeking a report on the violence from the state government, Chatterjee said he was not aware of any such move.

Asked about the Central government's offer to send paramilitary forces to the state, he said, "Media reports have mentioned the Centre's offer but a decision in this regard has to be taken by the chief minister ... We are competent and had tackled many difficult situations in the past".

The Centre has sought a report from the West Bengal government on incidents of arson and violence during Ram Navami processions earlier this week and offered assistance to deal with the situation, an official spokesperson said.

Accusing the BJP of fanning trouble in the state, Chatterjee said the party workers could take out processions but should not carry arms.

Referring to state BJP president Dilip Ghosh's allegation that its workers were provoked by the police, he said, "They had carried arms. Is it then a provocation if the police took action? Action will be taken if there is any violation of law."



On the BJP's charge that the chief minister was away in Delhi when there was trouble in the state, Chatterjee said, "She is there in the interest of the people. She is there to share the people's agony created by the BJP."



Slamming the TMC, senior BJP leader Prakash Javadekar told reporters in New Delhi that Trinamool Congress "thugs" had attacked peaceful Ram Navami processions in West Bengal.

"Bengal is burning and Mamata is doing in Delhi. It is like Nero fiddling while Rome was burning," he said.

The union HRD minister alleged that "innocent devotees of Lord Ram" were attacked by TMC workers in the state and the West Bengal government was doing nothing about it.

He accused Banerjee of being "insensitive" towards the state, and said, "This attitude of the TMC supremo is an insult to the people's mandate. It is also an insult to the chief minister post."



A statement issued by the Raj Bhavan in Kolkata said the West Bengal government has advised Governor K N Tripathi not to visit Durgapur to call on a police officer who was injured in Raniganj when violence broke out over Ram Navami processions.

The governor had planned to visit the hospital in Durgapur where Asansol-Durgapur deputy commissioner of police Arindam Dutta Chowdhury is being treated after he was injured on duty on March 26 and also to acquaint himself with the situation, the statement issued by the governor's press secretary said.

Dutta Chowdhury lost a hand when agitators hurled a bomb at him.

The state government had said because of the deployment of police in the area, it would be difficult for it to provide adequate security to the governor during the visit, the statement said.

The state government also said the situation was still tense there, including in the nearby areas of Raniganj and Asansol, and it was not advisable for the governor to visit Durgapur, it said.

The governor has appealed to all sections of society to maintain peace, it added.

Asked if the state government had advised the governor not to visit Durgapur, Chatterjee said, "I do not know (about that)".

In reply to a question on whether he thought the governor should visit the troubled area, the minister said, "Let peace be restored there. One can always go".

Heavy police force was deployed in the Raniganj area of West Bengal yesterday after clashes broke out between two groups on Monday over a Ram Navami procession in which one person was killed and two police officers were injured, a district official said.

In a group clash in Purulia on Sunday, one person was killed and five police personnel were injured.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Maharashtra government would appoint new Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) within four weeks, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavistoday told the Legislative Council.

Raising the issue through a Point of Propriety, Congress member Sanjay Dutt saidthe assurance given by the chief minister on appointing the new CIC during the winter session held in Nagpur in December last, has remained unfulfilled.

Dutt saidnon-appointment of CIC was adversely affecting the people's right of filing RTI (Right to Information) applications and that more than 50,000 RTI appeals are pending in the state.

The post of CIC is vacant since Ratnakar Gaikwad retired in May last year after completing his five year term.

In his reply, Fadnavis said, "NewCIC will be appointed within four weeks or even before that".

Dutt also drew the CM's attention to Mumbai municipal commissioner declaring 'Praja Foundation', a voluntary organisation, and their representatives as "persona non grata" and debarring them from receiving any information under the RTI Act and questioned the scope of the civic chief's powers.

Dutt said such an order is illegal and a blatant violation of the RTI act.

"Today Mumbai commissioner has done it. If it is not stopped, tomorrow others will follow. Hence corrective action needs to be taken urgently to protect the RTI Act from being so blatantly violated," Dutt said.

Fadnavis said he would call for details of the matter and ensure that appropriate action is taken as per the RTI Act.

Dutt also demanded the government departments display all RTI requests and their responses on their websites, as mandated by section 4 of the RTI Act. He said Department of Personnel and Training, Ministry of Personnel, has issued a Government Resolution (GR) in this regard.

The CM said the state government would endeavour to implement the guidelines of the DOPT and the state government on thematter.

Meanwhile, former central information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi told PTI the new appointment is delayed.

"The government knew the date of his (Gaikwad's) retirement from the day he was appointed. This (new) appointment is delayed," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
One woman was allegedly raped at a friend's birthday party in the city and the accused has been arrested, police said today.

The alleged incident took place at Jadavpur in the south Kolkata on Sunday and the woman, who is in her 20s and a resident of Beliaghata in the eastern part of the city, had stayed back at her friend's place in the night, a police officer investigating the incident, said.

As per the woman's complaints lodged at Beliaghata and Jadavpur police stations, she was raped by the accused towards the end of the night when everybody were either sleeping or were intoxicated.

According to the complaint, the accused had arrived at the party late and had forced himself on the woman despite her resistance, the officer said adding the police have collected evidence from the spot and were talking to those present at the party.

"We have arrested the accused and waiting for the medical report," the police officer added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
With the arrest of a 22-year-old woman, police today claimed to have solved the murder of a minor girl from Nallasopara here who was kidnapped and whose body was later found in Gujarat.

The accused, Anita Waghle, also a resident of Nallasopara, Palghar district, was arrested last night, police said.

The five-year-old girl was kidnapped from outside her home on March 24 and she was found dead in the ladies' toilet of Navsari railway station in Gujarat, over 250km from Mumbai, on Sunday, Additional SP Raj Tilak Roshan told reporters.

The Navsari police initially registered a case of accidental death and sent the body for a post-mortem which revealed the death was due to strangulation.

Later, a murder case was filed, police said.

A probe revealed Waghle had taken the girl to Navsari in a train and strangled her to death in the toilet, police said.

A team of cops led by senior inspector Kishore Khairnar zeroed in on the woman on Tuesday night and placed her under arrest, they said and claimed she has confessed to the crime.

The woman was reportedly in a relationship with the victim's father, an autorickshaw driver, and wanted to marry him. However, he was dilly-dallying on marriage and this enraged her, they said.

To teach him a lesson, the accused kidnapped and killed his daughter, police added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
(Reuters) - Alkem Labs Ltd said on Wednesday the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) has issued a report about its Amaliya facility, citing 13 observations following an inspection.The company said it is filing a response to the Form 483 observations about the facility in the western union territory of Daman and Diu, without disclosing details. Shares fell as much as 10.4 percent, their biggest ever intra-day percentage loss.Alkem has 16 manufacturing facilities, including 14 in India and two in the United States, the company website showed. (Reporting by Aby Jose Koilparambil ...
By Hadeel Al Sayegh, Alexander Cornwell and Nawied Jabarkhyl - DUBAI, March 28 (Reuters) - Middle East ride-hailing app Careem is in early talks to raise as much as $500 million in new funds from investors, sources told Reuters.Careem, Uber's rival in the region, is testing the appetite of potential investors and hopes to secure its targeted $500 million in a new funding series, three sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity as the matter is not public.Careem declined to comment when contacted by Reuters on Wednesday.Some of the money could go towards new business lines, said one ...
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's Hyundai Mobis plans to make an announcement involving its parent Hyundai Motor Group's ownership structure around 3:30 pm local time (0630 GMT) on Wednesday, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. Another source said that the announcement will be made at 3 to 4 pm local time, and has to do with "major changes" without elaborating further.Hyundai Motor Group, South Korea's No.2 conglomerate after Samsung, has been under government pressure to address its complex shareholding structure, which critics say gives too much power to its ...
(Reuters) - The Income Tax department has frozen Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp's bank accounts and deposits in Chennai and Mumbai for allegedly evading a dividend distribution tax (DDT), according to a report on Tuesday.A Cognizant spokesman confirmed the report and said in a statement that a court has instructed the tax department not to take further action pending further hearings.Cognizant failed to pay the tax of more than 25 billion rupees ($385 million) in the 2016-17 financial year, the Hindu newspaper reported, citing officials from the tax department. ...
India on Wednesday allowed the import of used goods for repair and refurbishing on condition that the imported items are exported, a move that could entice companies like smartphone maker Apple further into the Indian market. New Delhi has changed its policy at a time when the United States and its biggest trading partner China are on the brink of a trade war, with President Donald Trump announcing plans to impose tariffs on up to $60 billion worth of Chinese goods. China plans to impose additional duties on up to $3 billion of U.S. imports, mainly in response to Washington's ...
SEOUL (Reuters) - Hyundai Mobis Co Ltd, a key firm within the Hyundai Motor Group will become a holding company, a South Korean online news site reported, a move that is likely to presage a restructuring of ownership within the automotive conglomerate.Hyundai Mobis' board made the decision at a meeting early on Wednesday, Money Today reported.South Korea's antitrust chief told Reuters in August he had been in talks with Hyundai Motor Group about overhauling its complex ownership structure, which critics say gives too much power to its controlling family at the expense of shareholders. A ...
By Tanvi Mehta and Zeba SiddiquiBANGALORE/MUMBAI (Reuters) - Manipal Hospitals Enterprises Private Ltd plans to buy troubled Fortis Healthcare Ltd's hospital business, but the deal is expected to run into opposition from Fortis minority shareholders whose shares plunged 14 percent on the news.If successful, the acquisition would create one of India's biggest healthcare providers and help resolve an uncertain outlook for Fortis, which has been under a cloud as authorities investigate whether its founders siphoned funds out of the company.Fortis Chief Executive Bhavdeep Singh said the deal ...
By David Alire Garcia and Marianna ParragaMEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico awarded nearly half of the 35 oil and gas blocks tendered on Tuesday, in an auction where state-run Pemex took advantage of growing political risk ahead of a presidential election to consolidate its predominance in the Gulf's shallow waters.The bidding round is the last before the July 1 election in Mexico, which has been directly competing with Brazil for foreign investment in recent years. The Mexican presidential frontrunner has said he will review contracts awarded under a historic energy opening if he wins.Either or ...
By Ahmed RasheedBAGHDAD (Reuters) - OPEC is seeking "very long-term" cooperation with other crude exporters, the secretary general of the oil exporting group said on Wednesday.Mohammad Barkindo was commenting on news that top OPEC producer Saudi Arabia and non-OPEC Russia were working on a long-term pact that could extend controls over world crude supplies by major exporters for up to 20 years.Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced the plan in an interview with Reuters on Monday.Russia, the world's biggest oil producer, has worked with the 14-member Organization of the Petroleum ...
By David ShepardsonNEW YORK (Reuters) - Tesla Inc shares fell sharply again on Wednesday, reeling from a credit downgrade of the electric car maker by Moody's Investors Service, federal probes of a fatal crash and concerns about Model 3 production.Shares tumbled 9 percent before ending down 7.7 percent at $257.78. On Tuesday, Tesla tumbled 8.2 percent to its lowest close in almost a year after the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) opened a field investigation into a fatal crash and vehicle fire in California on March 23.On Wednesday, a second federal regulator, the National ...
SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - The trial of the former chairman of Anbang Insurance Group Co Ltd Wu Xiaohui for alleged economic crimes started in Shanghai on Wednesday, a court statement said.The case comes a month after the Chinese government officially seized control of the once-high flying insurer and announced that Wu was being prosecuted, as Beijing cracks down on big-spending conglomerates and financial risk.Anbang had been one of the most aggressive investors behind a wave of overseas acquisitions by Chinese firms that have attracted the attention of global regulators and investors.The ...
LOGAN  The Utah Highway Patrol held a press conference Tuesday morning as Sgt. Cade Brenchley was released from Logan Regional Hospital. The 13-year veteran had been hospitalized since Sunday afternoon, after being hit while responding to multiple slide-offs in Sardine Canyon.

After showing dash-cam video of Brenchley being hit by a passing motorist, the 40-year-old Providence man said it was a miracle he is alive.

I think you can see Im extremely grateful to be alive and here talking to you, said Brenchly, while sitting next to his wife and surrounded by his children. It was not my favorite day.

The video shows Brenchley walking towards a car that had slide off the road, between big curve and the mouth of the canyon. A black car is seen coming up and striking him from behind. The impact threw him forward into the air, hitting the car he was walking towards.

Brenchely explained that he remembers getting out of his car after checking traffic around him, but has no recollection of getting hit.

It felt like a dream and I started wondering what was going on. At that point, I kind of woke up and I saw snow. I was laying there with the wind knocked out of me. I was gasping for breath. I was right up against a car and I remember thinking to myself, Ive been hit, I just got hit holy crap.

Several motorists were able to give aid to Brenchley until paramedics arrived and transported him to the hospital. He broke several ribs and his scapula.

Brenchley became emotional as he compared Sundays accident to a similar crash in November 2016 that killed fellow trooper Eric Ellsworth, near Garland City. He said if it wasnt for his brother in heaven, he could have also been taken away from his wife and four children.

We just got to slow down and heres the thing. I know were police officers and were out there doing our job, but more importantly perhaps to me is that Im a husband and a father to these kids. Im a friend, and got a lot of great friends and family. I am truly blessed.

So please give us room. The tow-trucks, give them room. Construction workers, the medical personnel. When you see lights, error on the side of caution and just slow down, even if you feel like you are going slower than you may need to, and move over.

The female driver who hit Brenchley visited him in the hospital, bringing him flowers. Brenchley said he and his family hold no ill will against her. He was grateful to meet her and the passengers that were in the car at the time of the accident.

There was heavy snowfall Sunday afternoon that had made road conditions slick. Altogether, there were six crashes and five slide-offs within a 20-minute period. No one else was hurt.

Logan City Police are investigating the crash. They have turned their evidence over to the Wellsville City Attorney, who will determine if any charges are filed against the woman.
Hundreds of commercial motorbike riders in the city pledged to work towards restoring peace and order, while contributing to sustainable nation building report CT.

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An unprecedented reception has been accorded to the Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, who is on his maiden official visit to the South West Region.



From the legendary hospitality town of Buea, Tuesday March 27, it was a bevy of peace plant-carrying commercial motorbike riders who gathered at the entrance to Kumba (K-Town) to welcome the Minister.



The happy riders, flanked by CPDM militants sang peace songs and made friendly gestures as the ushered in the visiting Minister; a never-seen scenario since the onset of the social upheavals in the region.



During a concertation at the Kumba City Council hall, Minister Atanga called on the commercial motorbike riders to regularize their situation by identifying themselves to competent authorities. The Minister noted that the sector is an important one which cannot be left for laissez faire.



As the riders manifested their support for the unity of Cameroon, the Minister told them that their support to the State should be unconditional. People should not impose their ideas and beliefs on others, Atanga Nji noted.



Tuesdays meeting was an opportunity for Minister Atanga to symbolically offer helmets and jackets to some bike riders as an indication that they have to be identified and take safety precautions while exercising. The Government Delegate to the Kumba City Council, marveled by the action, promised to multiply the materials. The Territorial Administration boss also handed peace plants to the bike riders so that they can be messengers of peace.



The Kumba meeting was preceded by a meeting in Buea with administrative and security officials of the region. After the meeting, Minister Atanga told reporters that they had done an evaluation of the security situation which led to the conclusion that the South West Region is calm. There is good collaboration between security forces and the population, the Minister noted, reiterating that nothing can justify atrocities and calling on everyone to be united against terrorism.



Atanga Nji posited that dialogue can only be done within the framework of State institutions. He used the meeting to extend the congratulations of the Head of State to administrative and security officials for so far handling the social upheavals in the South West Region. He commended them for their professionalism.



AMINDEH Blaise ATABONG


| BY Ricki Green |

Smiths has teamed up with PHD Australia and Pedestrian.TV, creating the Smiths Street Eats Chippie Sanga Challenge to promote the launch of its new Street Eats range. The new range transports consumers taste buds with three new exciting flavours, inspired by popular street food from around the world: Chinese Peking Duck, American Pulled Pork and Mexican Burrito.

The PHD-curated campaign poses a challenge to consumers, asking them to buy one of the new Street Eats flavours and create their own Chippie Sanga with all the trimmings. By sharing the ingredients used in their creation and uploading an image of their Sanga, contestants go in the draw to win $10,000 AUD worth of travel.

Eager to help as many Australians as possible enter the Challenge, the team  in conjunction with Pedestrian.TV  built a mobile Chippie Sanga concept kitchen hosted by the ARIA-winning music artist and guest chefs for the day, Peking Duk. On March 29th, Australians can come down to the kitchen, located at Notre Dame University in Sydney, and create their own best Chippie Sanga. Contestants will have the opportunity to taste the brand new flavours, win instant cash prizes and enter a draw to win the ultimate travel prize  literally transporting their taste buds.

The Pedestrian TV production team will be at the activation, capturing content for amplification through their social media channels. Smiths will also be featuring this footage in future promotions of their new range.

Says Lynn Rutherford, senior brand manager at Smiths Chips: Smiths are Australias favourite chips, but we dont take that for granted and know we need to deliver new news and fun on the brand to maintain relevance, particularly with younger consumers. We challenged PHD to bring us new ideas for the launch of this great new Street Eats range and they delivered. This Pedestrian TV partnership is the perfect platform to reach a younger audience with our delicious new flavours, allowing then to experience the brand in an engaging and impactful manner, delivered with an appropriate tone of voice.

Says James McManus, head of creative projects at Pedestrian.TV: Pedestrians core 18-29 year-old audience is always hungry for relatable content and new experiences, let alone a fresh bag of chippies. By teaming with local legends, Peking Duk, were really offering an engaging and playful social promotion that invites readers to shake up their share house meals and get a bit creative, and prizing of up to a whopping $10k. Our audience cook 65% of their meals at home and are always on the hunt for extra cash  Smiths is here to make things a bit simpler for them.

Says Stephanie Douglas-Neal, executive business director at PHD: The Street Eats program is a big departure for Smiths. Weve never had the latitude with this brand to take the campaign to a younger and edgier audience. Were excited to work with Pedestrian and Peking Duk to have a bit of fun with the chippie sanga and highlight the travel inspired flavours.

Client: PepsiCo

Media Agency: PHD

Media Partner: Pedestrian.TV
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Wednesday, March 28, 2018 at 10:32AM

Dysons international design award, the James Dyson Award, is now accepting entries that will follow the brief design something which solves a problem, big or small. The winner of the competition doesnt just gain international exposure but also $50,000 to develop the idea. Last years winner was a team from McMaster University who worked on a low-cost, early detection melanoma skin cancer device called The sKan. If youre an young designer or engineer whos still in school or just graduated and have an idea you want to pitch, you can read more about the contest after the jump.

About the Competition

The competition brief: design something that solves a problem. This problem may be a frustration we all face in daily life, or a global issue such as world hunger. The important thing is that the solution is an effective and well-thought through solution.

The prize: The international prize: $50,000 (and $8,500 for their university), $8,500 for two international runners-up and each national winner receives $3,000.

The process: Entries are judged first at the national levelbefore progressing to the international stage. A panel of Dyson engineers select an international shortlist of 20 entries. The Top 20 projects are then reviewed by Sir James Dyson, who selects the international winner.

The James Dyson Award runs in 27 countries and regions worldwide. These are: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, UAE, UK, and USA.

The deadline: midnight GMT on 20 July 2018

How to enter: candidates enter through an online application via the James Dyson Award website.

Entrants should concisely explain what their invention is, how it works, and their development process. The best entries are always realistic and sustainable, show iterative development, solve a real problem and tell a story.

Entrants should submit imagery to support their application. The best entrants should be able to show evidence of physical prototyping as well as sketches and CAD.

Eligibility criteria

Entrants must be, or have been within the last four years, enrolled for at least one semester in an undergraduate or graduate engineering or design program at a university in a country or region chosen to participate in the James Dyson Award.

In the case of team entries, all members of the team must be, or have been within the last four years, enrolled for at least one semester in an undergraduate or graduate program at a university in a country or region chosen to participate in the James Dyson Award. One will need to be nominated and registered as the team member.
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The Canberra Greyhound Racing Club is eyeing a temporary move to Goulburn while it fights the ACT's incoming ban on the sport. Greyhound racing will be illegal in the territory after April 30, with those caught facing fines of up to $15,000 or a year in jail. The club's final Canberra Cup will be held over the last two weekends of April. And while it has applied for an injunction on the ban, the club will shift its races to Goulburn if that fails, club spokesman Kel Watt said. "We want to emphasise that's a temporary move," Mr Watt said. "Our primary focus is to come back to Canberra." However the club is also looking to build a training facility at the thoroughbred racing track in Queanbeyan so trainers are not forced to move out of the ACT. Mr Watt said they were drawing up plans for the facility with "bipartisan" support from the NSW government and Opposition. He would not state how much financial support they had been promised from the NSW government. However Mr Watt said NSW had committed to a $1.2 million upgrade of the lights at the Goulburn track as part of the negotiations to temporarily relocate the Canberra club. Discussions are also continuing about building a racing track in Queanbeyan, however Mr Watt said they would only pursue that further "if and when all legal and political options have been exhausted". "People have said why don't you you just pack up your bags and move? Well the national industry wants to see the ACT survive," Mr Watt said. "Opponents of the industry saw us as low-hanging fruit.They'll then turn their attention to Tasmania and the Northern Territory if we pack up and move. If we can hold back the tide that's a positive thing." Mr Watt said it would also be "pointless" building a new track in Queanbeyan if the club managed to overturn the ACT ban. ACT Racing Minister Gordon Ramsay was contacted for comment. His spokesman encouraged members of the racing industry effected by the ban to contact the transition taskforce as soon as possible. The Canberra Liberals spokesman for racing and gaming Mark Parton praised the "resilience" of the industry. "Labor and the Greens believed that the Canberra Greyhound Racing Club would just roll over but they will leave no stone unturned to remain here in their home in Canberra," Mr Parton said. "ACT Labor remain the only branch of the Labor party in Australia to not support the greyhound racing industry and that is most obvious with the bipartisan support in NSW for the Club's efforts to retain the ACT industry and to construct new training facilities in Queanbeyan just 3.8 kilometres from its current site."

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Good morning, Canberra. Happy Thursday! It's going to be hot today so keep hydrated. We're in for a sunny day with light winds in the afternoon. A top of 30 degrees is forecast and we're in for a warm long weekend too. Friday will be sunny with a top of 29, and it's expected it to reach 27 degrees on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Here's what's making headlines. If you've ever thought you've been paying too much at the bowser - you're not wrong. Canberrans are paying more than 10 cents a litre extra for fuel on average compared with other capital cities, and prices are expected to remain high over the Easter long weekend. As Blake Foden reports, motorists have been charged an average 148.3 cents per litre for premium unleaded fuel in Canberra since Christmas Day. The story can be found here. In sport, Chris Dutton spoke to ACT Brumbies skipper Sam Carter, who opens up on concussions and hopes of Waratahs selection. Carter revealed his concussion made him hypersensitive to crowds and loud noises. He said he was hopeful of being cleared to make his comeback in the match against the NSW Waratahs on Saturday night, just three weeks after being rattled by a hit from Lopeti Timani. Read the story here. And finally ... if you're planning to stay in town for the Easter long weekend - we've got you covered. From the National Folk Festival to Easter egg hunting, Jil Hogan has complied a list of five things you can do this weekend. And if you need to know what's open and when over the break, check out our guide here.

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A jury was warned on Wednesday that any opinions they held about Australia's refugee policies were irrelevant when it came to decide verdicts for seven protesters who superglued their hands to a balustrade in Parliament House. Timothy Buchanan, Philip Evans, Hannah Grant, Samantha Hawker, Chamomilla Hill, Sally Hunter and Jason Ray have faced an ACT Supreme Court trial this week after each pleaded not guilty to a charge of intentionally damaging Commonwealth property. The court has heard that at about 2pm on November 30, 2016 a larger group began a protest in the southern gallery in the House of Representatives and forced Question Time to a halt. Security staff removed most of the protesters one by one, eventually bringing in hand sanitiser to dissolve the superglue under the remaining protesters' hands. Federal prosecutors allege the seven superglued their hands to the leather balustrade with the intent of damaging the property. But in closing arguments, the group's lawyer urged the jury to find the seven not guilty, and said they did not have the intent to damage the leather. It was accepted by prosecutors that the seven had come to Parliament House that day to stage a protest. "But intent to protest and intent to damage property are not mutually exclusive," federal prosecutor Jane Paingakulam said. She said it was the Crown case that the seven had intended to glue their hands to the property, and they were "aware that [damage] would occur in the ordinary course of events". She said the damage was not trivial. The court has heard the cost of repairs was $1295 plus GST and that it took maintenance staff more than 18 hours to restore the leather. Ms Paingakulam told the court the leather was refurbished every six months. She suggested the condition of the material was important, and signified a respect for Australia's democracy and its parliament. The protesters' hands were "quite stuck" she said, and the leather moved as staff lifted the protesters hands. She urged the jury to use their own knowledge of superglue and its effects to decide whether the group intended to damage the leather that day. But defence lawyer Tim Sharman urged the jury to acquit the group, and said that the seven did not intend to do any damage. He pointed to the evidence given in court by Mr Evans, who said the group had sought advice from a paramedic, who told them it would be safe to use nail polish remover with acetone, which could dissolve the glue without damaging property. Mr Evans told the court the group - who came from Newcastle, Melbourne, Sydney and Wamboin - came to Canberra with the intention of disrupting parliament with a non-violent protest, but they did not intend to cause injury or to cause any damage. The man said they had prepared a speech to be read out, and told the court they wanted to delay their removal from the building while the speech was read via a call and response. Mr Sharman said the group had urged security staff to call for paramedics to help remove them, and they had suggested the staff use nail polish instead of the hand sanitiser gel eventually used to free the group. At the end of the day, Chief Justice Helen Murrell gave the jury directions on the law before they were to start deliberating. She also warned the jury again that the case was not concerned with the plight of refugees or the right to protest. The jury will return Thursday to begin its deliberations.

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The South Florida Water Management District submitted its plan on March 26 to build the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) Storage Reservoir for federal approval.

A Post Authorization Change Report seeking to build the reservoir as part of the congressionally-approved Central Everglades Planning Project (CEPP) was submitted to the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works in accordance with state law.

The Tentatively Selected Plan for the proposed reservoir included in the report will meet the goals set forth by the Florida Legislature when it passed Senate Bill 10 in 2017. It will reduce damaging discharges to the northern estuaries, deliver clean water for Everglades restoration and achieve water quality standards.

After many months of hard work by district staff, this is a momentous day for the future of the Everglades and for all who call South Florida home,, SFWMD Governing Board Chairman Dan OKeefe said. This agency has done its job and created a plan that combines sound science with public feedback to achieve the goals and objectives of state law. Its now up to our federal partners to carry the momentum on southern storage.

Together with authorized projects, the plan will send an annual average of approximately 370,000 additional acre-feet of clean water south to the Everglades that will be protected by rule or reservation to benefit the natural system. It will also reduce the number of damaging discharge events from Lake Okeechobee to the northern estuaries by 63 percent when used in conjunction with authorized projects.

The additional flows south to the Everglades proposed by the plan will be treated in a new 6,500-acre Stormwater Treatment Area in combination with existing ones and Flow Equalization Basins, such as the A-1 FEB, to achieve state water quality standards. The reservoir will store 240,000 acre-feet of water on the 10,100-acre site comprised of the district-owned A-2 parcel and lands to the west as identified in SB 10. The plan will work in conjunction with Gov. Rick Scotts Restoration Strategies for a total of 350,000 acre-feet of storage south of Lake Okeechobee.

The net increase in cost over the currently authorized Central Everglades Planning Project is $1.1 billion. The total cost, defined as the capital investment costs, of the authorized CEPP, as modified by the report plan, is $3.17 billion (2018 price level).

The report was approved by the SFWMD Governing Board on March 8 and submitted this week, along with an independent peer review that found the report to be technically sound.

To read the full report or for modeling data, or for more information on the previously held public meetings, including agendas and presentations, visit online at www.sfwmd.gov/eaareservoir.

Source: South Florida Water Management District
A Lee Health officer has received the Cape Coral Community Foundations top honor, the Elmer Tabor Award.

Scott Kashman, Chief Acute Care Officer at Lee Health, was honored for his outstanding philanthropy in the community and leadership that inspires other to be generous. The Generous Cape reception, held Thursday at the Cape Coral Yacht Club, celebrates the accomplishments of those who give back.

This is a huge honor and completely unexpected. Cape Coral has embraced me and my family since we moved here, Kashman said. We wanted to focus on a shared vision of a healthier Cape Coral and Southwest Florida. The community has rallied around the work we have done.

The other nominees were Elaine Green, E. Howard Grossman, Brad Middaugh, Karen Scott and Gloria Tate, who on Tuesday won the Burton Award for citizenship, presented by the Board of County Commissioners.

Kashman came to Cape Coral in August 2011 to become chief administrative officer at Cape Coral Hospital before assuming his current position in January 2017.

Kashman said he thought Tate would win for her work in the community that has lasted as long as the community itself. Tate said there are plenty of awards to go around to the many who give back.

Scotts done a great job taking Cape Coral Hospital from where it was to a great hospital, Tate said. Its great honor to be nominated. Elmer Tabor is someone I grew up with and who I look up to and desire to walk in his shoes.

Karen Scott said it was an honor to be nominated and that the foundation is doing things that are necessary to make Cape Coral a better place.

The mark of true success is when you can give and you dont care who gets the credit because its about helping people, said Scott, who has started an organization in North Fort Myers that helps keep together foster siblings who have faced poverty, abuse and neglect in foster homes.

Michael Chatman, president and CEO of the foundation, said the idea of the event is to celebrate generosity citywide with donors and professional advisors the great year the foundation has had, which was full of firsts.

We gave about $125,000 in collective grants to non-profits. We launched our EMPY Awards which celebrates non-profit excellence and our Power Players event, and we had our first ever Florida event fundraising conference, Chatman said.

The event also featured numerous grants given to non-profits including the American Military Veterans Foundation, ECHO, Hope by Song, the Cape Coral Animal Shelter, Quality Life Center of Southwest Florida, Waters Edge Church, Golisano Childrens Hospital, Cape Coral Historical Society & Museum and Goodwill Industries of Southwest Florida.
To the editor:

So happy to see the Florida Legislature didnt ban assault rifles. Now we will be able to arm ourselves with semi-automatic weapons so we can deal with the overpopulation of fuzzy little bunny rabbits here on the island

I am concerned that our politicians only allocated $400 million to mental health. I just dont know if that will be enough to treat all our legislators and the morons that continue to elect them.

Michael Dicorpo

Sanibel
Words matter. Holy Week is upon us, and with it, Christians use many words to describe significant events of that final week of the earthly ministry of Jesus. For many, those terms are meaningless, but for others they stir emotions of gratitude and praise.

Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday. It was on that day that Jesus made his entry into Jerusalem riding on a donkey with the crowds waving palms and shouting, Hosanna! They also threw their garments in the street before him as he entered. The procession had the markings of the arrival of a hero or king. The word hosanna means save us. The crowd was looking to Jesus to bring hope, salvation and freedom from oppression.

Maundy Thursday confused me for many years, even as a young Christian. I thought people were saying, Monday Thursday and just werent sure if they were getting the day right. Maundy is derived from the Latin word for mandate or command. Jesus gave only a few commands during his three years of ministry, but it was on Thursday night in the upper room, as he shared the Passover meal with his disciples that he gave a command. He washed the disciples feet (much to their surprise) and commanded them to do the same. From that command came generations of Christians with a heart to be servants to others.

Friday, the day of the crucifixion, is often called Good Friday. Christians see it as good because it is the day Jesus gave his life for us on the cross. He took the sins of the world upon himself so that we could be forgiven. As Paul wrote in Romans, God demonstrated His great love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Good Friday is also called, Tenebrae. Tenebrae simply means darkness or shadows. As Jesus died on the cross, darkness fell upon the earth for three hours. Often Christians pause on Good Friday, or Tenebrae, looking past the darkness to the light of Easter.

Easter, also called Pascha or Resurrection Sunday, is the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. (New World Dictionary) The term Pascha points back to the Jewish Passover celebration, which Jesus had been celebrating with his disciples. It is also referred to as the Passion of Christ, demonstrating fully the heart of God in both the crucifixion and the resurrection.

While many look to Easter as a time for bunnies, eggs and bonnets, Christians celebrate the greatest gift of all: eternal life through Gods son. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him, will not perish, but will have eternal life. (John 3:16) Happy Easter!

Dr. Daryl Donovan is the senior pastor at the Sanibel Community Church.
Photo: Contributed

A Central Okanagan business owner is taking on an associate role as a consular warden in the Philippines.

ZipZone president Kevin Bennett, who winters in Southeast Asia, will act as a volunteer liaison for the Western Visayas region, which includes the provinces of Aklan, Antique, Capiz, Guimaras, Iloilo, Negros Oriental, Negros Occidental and Siquijor.

The community outreach program is managed by the Canadian government.

Wardens assist the local embassy, acting as a communications conduit, advising embassy staff of local situations and emergencies affecting Canadians, providing a point of contact and assistance for Canadian visitors, emergency planning and assisting in evacuating Canadians in crisis.

They also help foster trade and community relations between Canadians and Filipinos.

Bennett lives in Dumaguete when ZipZone is closed for the winter, and will soon be marrying there.

The wardenship came about through a fellow Canadian business owner there, and he has since met Canada's ambassador to the Philippines,e John Holmes, and the consulate staff.

"Its an opportunity for me to serve both Canada and the Philippines; taking care of any Canadians who may get into distress here and also promoting Canadian cultural and trade relations among the community here," said Bennett.

He plans to keep his business here, saying: "I have an amazing staff, so Im able to run the business from abroad when its quiet and return during the busy times.

"Im very blessed to be in a position where I get to live in two countries. I love the natural beauty, quietness and orderliness of Canada, but equally, I love the chaos and craziness of the Philippines.... The Filipino people have a exceptional charm. They are some of the friendliest and happiest people you could wish to meet."

He noted several Canadian companies, including Telus and BC Hydro, have offshore call centres in the country.

At the same time, doing business there is not easy, he says.

"Their laws are quite complex, and corruption exists at all levels ... so it can be something of a minefield to navigate. Its my hope that I may be able to facilitate business opportunities (here)."

Bennett can be reached at [email protected]
Here is a prediction. My friend works in Alberta but lives here in B.C. as do thousands of other B.C. residents. He brings his Alberta income back to B.C. where he pays B.C. provincial income tax.

With the newly declared war against the rest of Canada I'm sure the next shot to be fired in this tax war will be the Alberta Premier kicking out, out-of-province (B.C.) workers from the oil patch and other sectors. If you don't pay Alberta Income Tax then you are not welcome to work here! G0 back to B.C.

This Tax War against the rest of Canada is going to spill over in ways we cant even yet imagine. This tax will be like ISIS decapitating our provincial economy right before our very eyes!

This tax must be stopped at all costs!

Bill Ferguson
Just think of the money Lake Country and by extension Kelowna, could save if they didnt have to buy all those useless speed limit signs. Almost no one pays attention to them anyway!

In Winfield it's basically a race to see who can get from one end of town to the other and by golly, all the better if none of those irritating children are trying to cross at the last intersection so you can race through the red light at 40 km over the speed limit. Never mind that the police station is on that corner, no worries there! And the silly 60 km construction zone speed coming into Kelowna from the north. Those lazy construction workers are hardly ever there so pedal to the metal!

Other cities where I have lived, often have radar set up in these critical areas where people can get hit, injured or killed but the freedom here to drive my car at whatever speed I choose is just the best!

Ron Gardiner


Photo: Contributed

A celebration of life is planned this weekend for a beloved Penticton Secondary teacher who lost a battle with cancer late last year.

Regine Siemons, 45, passed away Dec. 17, 2017 after a cancer diagnosis over five years prior, leaving behind two children. Now on April 2, her birthday, friends and family will hold a funeral at 2 p.m. at the Penticton Vineyard Community Church.

Born in Belgium, she immigrated to Alberta with her parents when she was two years old.

Already at that young age it was clear that she had a voracious appetite for learning, and it would become her lifes work to share her joy in unlocking the mysteries of math, the sciences and language, her obituary reads.

After attending UBCO in Kelowna and UBC in Vancouver, she eventually settled down to teach French Immersion classes in science and math at Penticton Senior Secondary.

Beloved by students and colleagues at the school, in lieu of flowers, a scholarship will be set up in Siemons name at Penticton Secondary.
Photo: Getty Images

A Vernon man is in custody following a string of Kelowna disturbances and crimes.

RCMP arrested a suspect Wednesday evening last week and are calling for witnesses to come forward.



About 7:15 p.m., police responded to reports of an aggressive male acting erratically near Chapman Place and Rosemead Avenue.

The suspect allegedly threatened and chased strangers, and damaged at least two vehicles in the area.



Using witness descriptions, RCMP tracked their suspect and arrested him near Ethel Street and Laurier Avenue, after a brief foot chase, says Cpl. Jesse ODonaghey.



No one was physically harmed during any of the hostile encounters, he added.



Tyler Fitzpatrick, 28, of Vernon, was found to be in breach of a probation order. He was held in police custody and has been charged with possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, willfully resisting or obstructing a peace officer, breach of a probation order and four separate counts of assault with a weapon.

He is scheduled to make a court appearance on Thursday.



Any witnesses are asked to call Kelowna RCMP at 250-762-3300, CrimeStoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or www.crimestoppers.net or by texting CRIMES (274637) ktown.
Photo: Chelsea Powrie

Emergency crews attended to a minor motor vehicle crash downtown Penticton Tuesday evening.

Two vehicles collided in the intersection of Main Street and Westminster Avenue at about 5:40 p.m., blocking traffic while emergency crews assessed the scene and cleared the crash.

The occupants of both vehicles were unharmed.
Photo: Nicholas Johansen Kelowna mayor Colin Basran said Tuesday the proposed provincial speculation tax is "fundamentally" wrong for Kelowna.

Kelowna's mayor says the province's proposed speculation tax is fundamentally the wrong way to go in Kelowna, despite the amendments announced Monday.

On Monday, finance minister Carole James said the 0.5 per cent tax on a vacant property's assessed value in certain areas of the province, expected to be introduced in the fall, will be increased to one per cent for out-of-province Canadians and two per cent for foreign investors in 2019.

Additionally, homes worth less than $400,000 and those that are rented more than six months of the year will be exempt.

On Tuesday, Kelowna mayor Colin Basran said the tweaks were a good first step, but the tax will still cause more harm than good in Kelowna.

I think it will open up a few homes for people who are looking for them but I think those positives will be far outweighed by the negative consequences which are negative impacts to our tourism industry and negative consequences to our construction industry, Basran said.

He said he knows for a fact that development projects in Kelowna have been put on hold because of uncertainty the proposed tax has caused.

Basran said he hears from people outside the province on a daily basis who tell him: We're not coming back to your city because your provincial government has made it feel like we're not welcome here.

He said council is in favour of a flipping tax which would target people buying and selling properties within a short period of time, rather than the province's speculation tax.

Basran says he's still trying to set up a meeting with James and Premier John Horgan to discuss his concerns with how the tax will impact Kelowna.

West Kelowna mayor Doug Findlater has also said he is disappointed with the tax, despite the amendments.
Josh Winquist

Vernon Search and Rescue has outgrown its building in Coldstream.

It will be seeking support from the Regional District of the North Okanagan to locate and purchase a new property  a location, it hopes can facilitate its need for not only now but into the future.

"We are doing a presentation for the RDNO to explain the type of land we'll need and purpose-built building for Vernon Search and Rescue," explains Search and Rescue member Trevor Honigman.

Currently, the equipment, gear and vehicles are squeezed into the space on Aberdeen Road.

In order to get to any particular piece of equipment, members must crawl over, push out of the way, or remove entirely one piece of equipment to get to another.

"When we need our boats and our incident response truck in that bay, we have three-quarters of an inch of leeway between the walls and boats."

Jokingly, Honigman says it helps the members train, however, in reality, it adds time to already time-sensitive events.

"The access to our equipment is not ideal. When we have a time critical issue, this building does not allow us to get the gear that we need out efficiently and effectively."

The RDNO owns the property that the current search and rescue building is on, and Honigman says that expansion of that property is not possible due to environmental concerns for a species of frog.

Vernon Search and Rescue submitted a proposal to the RDNO outlining its 'wish list' for a facility, and in its business proposal, it is requesting the district secure 3.5 million dollars for the organization.

"We are requesting RDNO support to move through the Alternative Approval process for this funding. We have reviewed multiple properties, but with the lengthy funding process it is likely that these open market properties will sell before a deal can be completed."

The group is hoping to find a property that is central to Vernon, close to a major highway, and not in close proximity to schools.

It has identified three properties that could potentially work, but these come with their own set of issues.

Pottery Fire Training Centre

Only access is through training centre (would be hampered if they are doing fire training)

Only building area is on top of closed landfill

McLeish Rd works yard

Current tenants have no plans to move  Poor highway access

School zones

DND land near College

1 year lease annually

In its proposal to the RDNO, search and rescue set out some parameters for a new facility.

Mostly flat lot

Minimum 2 acres

8 vehicle bays or 4 pull through deep bays  Classroom / Office and Comms space

Mission planning space

Washrooms

Search and rescue have been working on this plan for a number of years, and in an ideal situation, it would be out of the building on Aberdeen Road and into a new location by the end of 2018.
Photo: Contributed

The Vernon Lapidary and Mineral Club have provided two Kelowna students with $500 scholarships.

Siblings Nicole and Eric McGinn received this year's scholarships and current are the grandchildren of Lorraine Stacey, a longtime club member.

Nicole and Eric are students at UBC Okanagan in microbiology and biology.



The BC Lapidary Society and The Gem and Mineral Federation of Canada are non-profit organizations that promote the love of rocks, minerals, and fossils.

The brother and sister were presented with their cheques at the club meeting held at the Art Centre in Polson Park.

The Vernon Lapidary and Mineral Club say all school-aged students who become members of the club are eligible for future scholarships.

Everyone is welcome to attend the meetings which are held the second Wednesday of every month except July, August and December at the Art Centre.
Photo: West Kelowna RCMP Lawrence Hamilton

UPDATE: 1:25 p.m.

Police have confirmed Lawrence Hamilton was last seen walking in the 2300 block of Butt Road at about 3 p.m. on March 25.

While police initially said he was last seen on March 24, they have since corrected that he was actually last seen the following day.

"Police are in the process of engaging both the RCMP Air Services Section and our partners with Central Okanagan Search And Rescue to assist with conducting both air and ground searches," said Cpl Jesse O'Donaghey of the RCMP. "Searchers will be focussing their efforts on routes that Mr. Hamilton is known to frequent most."

UPDATE: 12:50 p.m.

The Central Okanagan Search and Rescue are taking to the air above West Kelowna and hitting the streets in search of a missing man.

The family of 72-year-old David Lawrence Hamilton (who goes by Lawrence) hasn't seen him since March 24, and are concerned for his well-being.

Ephraim Nowak, search manager with COSAR, said they will begin conducting a broad urban search, using a helicopter above downtown West Kelowna, in conjunction with vehicles on the ground.

"There's still a very large search area, so we've started by identifying high-probability areas and searching those," Nowak said.

West Kelowna RCMP have asked anyone who's seen Hamilton to call police.

ORIGINAL: 10:30 a.m.

West Kelowna RCMP are asking for the publics help to find a missing West Kelowna man.

David Lawrence Hamilton, who goes by Lawrence, was last seen by family on March 24, 2018 at about noon.

Hamilton is an avid hiker and frequently walks long distances.

Police are concerned for his health and well-being as he suffers from a medical condition which requires he regularly take medications.

Hamilton is described as a caucasian male, 72 years-old, 6'1'', with grey hair and hazel eyes.

He was last seen wearing a dark blue puffy jacket, a pair of blue jeans, along with a scarf and a pair of gloves.

Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Hamilton is urged to contact their local police, or remain anonymous by calling Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
Photo: RDCO

A West Kelowna park closure has been extended.

Due to unexpected construction challenges with the outfall expansion at the Regional District of Central Okanagan's wastewater treatment plant in West Kelowna, Pebble Beach Park remains closed.

The park closed in January for outfall construction through the park into Okanagan Lake.

The $4.7-million project is taking longer than expected and may not be complete until the end of May, the city says.

Work continues between 7 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. daily.

The plant treats 10 million litres of water a day from West Kelowna, Peachland and the Westbank First Nation.
Photo: berryandsmith.com Stu Berry passed away on Mar. 21 at age 87 in Penticton.

Stu Berry, a South Okanagan stalwart in the trucking industry, passed away in Penticton last week.

Berry died of natural causes at the Haven Hill Retirement Centre on Mar. 21 with wife Roberta holding his hand, according to his obituary. He was 87 years old.

His legacy is a long one in the Penticton area, based on his community involvement and his reputable trucking-transport company he co-founded more than 60 years ago.

Berry and Smith Trucking Ltd. was founded in 1954 in Naramata by Berry and his friend Ted Smith, when they pooled Berry's fruit hauling business and Smith's fruit trucking and school bus firm.

"They were driving in the daytime, and the evenings were spent doing any repairs that needed to be done, in a very small garage they had out in Naramata," said son Matt Berry, now president of the company.

"Very physical work... Really just two guys who were very motivated to try and make this work."

Smith sold his share in the company in 1970. Berry retired at 67 in 1998, and passed over the reins to sons Mark and Matt, who have been working with the company since 1973 and 1985 respectively.

The company is now headquartered in Penticton and has offices in Delta and Calgary as well.

Matt said "nobody's above doing any job here," and said that philosophy has existed since his father and Smith first founded the company.

"Our father was really a remarkable guy. A great listener, very good with the staff... you didn't work for him, you worked with him. Good with customers, just a really fair man. It's a real loss to have him pass on."

Stu's health deteriorated after a severe stroke he suffered in January 2016., at which time he moved into the Haven Hill facility.

In the community, Stu spent several years as the Naramata director for the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen. He was involved in Toastmasters, the Rotary, the Wood Wacker's trail maintenance group in Naramata and other initiatives.

"If there was issues or concerns, he would be front-and-centre there trying to sort out a fair solution to whatever issue might be present... A lot of people don't do that, but he would step up and take those difficult tasks," Matt said.

Matt added he is thankful for the condolences and well-wishes from people in the community, and said he's grateful for the care Stu received at Haven Hill.

Stu is survived by his wife and four children  Matt, Mark. Debby and Julie  as well as his six grandchildren and four great grandchildren.

His celebration of life will be held at 2 p.m. June 30 at the Columbia Hall in Naramata.
Photo: Facebook Julian Hoekstra

One half of a criminally inclined couple will spend another 205 days behind bars after pleading guilty Wednesday to a slew of mail-theft related charges.

Julian Hoekstra and his then-girlfriend, Kristina Anderson, were arrested in December following months of mail thefts throughout West Kelowna, Peachland and Summerland.

Anderson pleaded guilty to five charges earlier this month, and was sentenced to a total of 10 months in prison.

During her sentencing, Anderson's lawyer said he considered the couple a kind of Bonnie and Clyde.

While Hoekstra initially planned to face trial, he pleaded guilty Wednesday, and his defence counsel and the Crown put forth a joint submission on sentencing, which Justice Gale Sinclair agreed with.

Hoekstra pleaded guilty to one count of stealing mail stemming from a December 2016 incident in Peachland in which a tracking device in the mail led police to them.

Additionally, he pleaded guilty to possession of a stolen credit card from the mail in October 2017 on which he racked up more than $3,400 in charges.

The most recent conviction stems from the couple's recent arrest, when police found them on a rural property above Peachland on Dec. 16, 2017, living in a stolen $37,000 RV. The campfire Hoekstra was sitting around was being fuelled by stolen mail, and there was more mail inside the RV.

Justice Sinclair noted Hoekstra was convicted of identity theft in November 2015, which led him to give Hoekstra two more months of jail time than Anderson.

In the 1990s, Hoekstra was married, had two children and was employed as a truck driver, but his lawyer, Jordan Watt, said his life took a turn after his wife was killed in a car crash in 1997, and his adopted father died two years later.

In the following years, he found it harder to keep things together, Watt said. He got involved in substance use, misuse, and the habit to crystal methamphetamine turned into a severe addiction.

Hoekstra and Anderson are no longer together.

With enhanced credit for time served, Hoekstra will spend another 205 days in jail, followed by a year of probation.
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The Georgia Northwestern Bobcats suited up for the competition of the year in Atlanta, this past weekend. After a record-setting performance at SkillsUSA Georgia last year, Georgia Northwestern Technical Colleges team managed to raise the bar a little higher at the professional skills competition in 2018.

GNTC competitors won gold medals in 10 total categories this year, besting the 2017 mark of eight total first-place finishes for the college. As President of GNTC, I am very proud of the performance of our students at the 2018 SkillsUSA State of Georgia competition, said Georgia Northwestern Technical College President Pete McDonald. Seventeen students from GNTC have qualified to compete at the National SkillsUSA competition this Summer. The Bobcats qualified 43 students to compete in 20 different categories at the state-level event.



On March 24, the Bobcats SkillsUSA team brought home gold in half of the categories in which they competed: Brandy LeVan (Catoosa County, GA), Prepared Speech; Chris Roberson (Floyd County, GA), Sheet Metal; Jacob Hargrove (Catoosa County, GA), Welding; Tristin Bethune (Walker County, GA), Automotive Service Technology; Taylor Eagle (Chattooga County, GA), Residential Systems Installation and Maintenance; Brandon Battles (Chattooga County, GA), Industrial Motor Controls; Patricia Escutia (Polk County, GA), Medical Assisting; Stephen Bottoms (Floyd County, GA), Nathan Rittweger (Bartow County, GA), and Tucker Tumlin (Floyd County, GA), Welding Fabrication Team; Marvin Pointer (Polk County, GA), Noah Ranels (Gordon County, GA), Logan Thomas (Gordon County, GA), and George Soto (Whitfield County, GA), TeamWorks; and Beck Maxwell (Bartow County, GA), Jake Woodall (Floyd County, GA), and Derek Walck (Floyd County, GA), Engineering Technology/Design.



Leading the way for the GNTC teams was the GNTC TeamWorks squad. The construction-based crew competed at SkillsUSA Georgia three consecutive years. And, three consecutive times, the TeamWorks entry brought home the gold. We truly felt we had a great chance at turning a lot of heads in many of the categories on the state level, said Missy Mclain, Georgia Northwestern Technical College SkillsUSA coordinator. We have many incredibly well-trained and talented young men and women. This competition really allowed us to showcase these students.



The national SkillsUSA competition will be held during the National Leadership and Skills Conference in Louisville, Kentucky the week of June 25-29. More than 16,000 students, instructors, and business recruiters and partners are expected to be in attendance.

Bringing home silver medals for the Bobcats at SkillsUSA Georgia were Bo Dooley (Gordon County, GA), Electrical Construction Wiring; Autumn Tomlinson (Polk County, GA), Cosmetology; Audrey Andrews (Paulding County, GA), Barbering; and Josh Barlow (Floyd County, GA), Medical Terminology.



Earning bronze medals for their third-place finishes at the state competition were Amanda Teeters (Walker County, GA), Pin Design; Melvin Mitchell (Bartow County, GA), Job Demonstration; and Kimberly Kelly (Floyd County, GA), Briska Bailey (Bartow County, GA), Savannah Almond (Floyd County, GA), and Ariel Crider (Floyd County, GA), Health Knowledge Bowl.

Also competing for GNTC in the SkillsUSA this past week were Maegan Gibson (Haralson County, GA), Medical Math; Courtney Compton (Douglas County, GA), Medical Math; Shanna Ely (Floyd County, GA) Medical Math; Amber Wilson (Cherokee County, GA), Medical Assisting; Erica Brown (Polk County, GA), Medical Terminology; Van Wright (Floyd County, GA); Medical Terminology; Raphaella Hawkins (Floyd County, GA), Health Occupations Professional Portfolio; Josh Embree (Floyd County, GA), First Aid/CPR; Cynthia Kirk (Polk County, GA), Related Technical Math; Corey Knight (Polk County, GA), HVAC; Austin Vinson (Polk County, GA), Mechatronics; Yony Escalante (Polk County, GA), Mechatronics; Austin Tapp (Chattooga County, GA), CNC Milling Specialist; Geovani Ramirez (Whitfield County, GA), Information Technology Systems; Austin Boyd (Floyd County, GA), Automotive Refinishing; and Cesar Bejarano (Whitfield County, GA), Automotive Refinishing.



GNTC's SkillsUSA chapter also earned a Silver Chapter of Distinction award from the states Chapter of Excellence Program. SkillsUSA Georgia judges also awarded the Bobcat chapter of the organization the title of Quality Chapter. I would also like to recognize the outstanding job done by our faculty advisors to mentor the students, said Mr. McDonald. Preparing them not only to succeed in the SkillsUSA competition, but also to prepare them for successful careers in the future.


Bill Gauntt unzips a small, red pouch and pulls out a triangular shard of clear plastic. Its edges are uneven and the plastic has yellowed with age. But Mr. Gauntt knows exactly what it is and where it came from.This is part of my canopy, he says.The canopy from his fighter jet that crashed in Vietnam in 1972; the jet that he and his backseater, Lt. Fran Townsend, ejected from after its tail was sheared off by anti-aircraft fire.Both parachuted safely. Mr. Gauntt survived but was captured; Mr.Townsend was gunned down by North Vietnamese soldiers.The plane slammed into the ground near the home of a nine-year-old Vietnamese boy who, 46 years later, gave Mr. Gauntt the canopy piece when the former pilot visited the crash site, now a fish pond.It was emotional, Mr. Gauntt says in a seemingly vast understatement.The man, named Phong, also said that once a year he holds a ceremony to honor Townsends spirit.They honor their ancestors. Its part of their culture. So they honored his spirit, he says. It gives you a little faith in humanity.Going backIn February, a group of 10including Mr. Gauntt and another Vietnam vet, Bill Rainesspent two weeks touring the country, visiting cities, villages and spots like Mr. Gauntts crash site and the buildings where he spent 18 months as a POW.Traveling to Vietnam was an educational experience for everyone in the group and exceeded all expectations, said Robert Dooley, dean of the UTC College of Business and organizer of the trip . He has been to Vietnam many times in the past.Returning to sites that held special meaning for Mr. Gauntt and Mr. Raines was emotional for everyone, Mr. Dooley says. There were a lot of tears from everybody, he says. It was a real honor to walk where they walked.Mr. Dooley, who has been to Vietnam several times in the past, said the recent trip was an educational experience for everyone in the group.Among the stops were the military firebases stretching along the former Demilitarized Zone, a 60-mile swath that once cut the country into North and South Vietnam. The firebases purpose was to prevent North Vietnamese soldiers from coming south. As a young captain in 1970-71, Raines was charged with keeping the firebases properly supplied, not only with ammunition, food and health care but also with efficient soldiers to run them and maintain morale.Mr. Raines, who retired as a U.S. Army major general, wanted to see a few of those bases, including one at the Khe Gio Bridge where Mitchell Stout, a 20-year-old sergeant from Lenoir City, Tn., earned a U.S. Medal of Honor by picking up a Vietnamese hand grenade tossed into a bunker and using his body as a shield before it exploded. He died but saved several of his fellow soldiers.Mr. Stouts death took place three months before Mr. Raines took over the supplying of the Khe Gio Bridge firebase, but he wanted to return to the site where Mr. Stout sacrificed his life.Its a small hill, very much like Orchard Knob here, that size, says Mr. Raines, who retired as a U.S. Army major general. When I was there, there was all sorts of concertina wire around it, bunkers on top; we had machine guns; we had dusters (anti-aircraft guns). We guarded the bridge.I just had to sit there and be quiet, and everyone left me there to soak up this hillside.Mr. Raines, who retired as a U.S. Army major general, had not been back to Vietnam since his tour of duty ended and was initially hesitant to return. It wasnt so much the memories he might have to face, he says, but a lingering sense that Americans had failed the Vietnamese people.But over the two weeks, his apprehension faded as he witnessed free-market entrepreneurship thriving throughout the country, including Hanoi, the capital of North Vietnam during the war and now the capital of the reunited country. At one plaza inside the city, Raines says, he was able to stand in one place and see Popeyes Chicken, Dunkin Donuts, Burger King and McDonalds. The building where Mr. Gauntts POW cell was located is now a string of small businesses run by Vietnamese natives.It takes out of my recesses the memories of what the country was like when I left, Mr. Raines says, and replaces it with a dynamic, interactiveexcept for the name communism as a trademark for the countryits got entrepreneurship and its freedom that I hope I can see it totally in my life. I saw 90 percent freedom when I was there.FreedomIn his office at the Raines Group real estate investment company, Mr. Raines pulls out an unopened bottle shaped somewhat like the familiar shape of a beehive. Its filled with a honey-colored liquid, but whats floating inside is what catches the eye. In its mouth, a small cobra, hood extended, holds a jet-black scorpion the size of your hand. Yes, theyre real and this is Vietnamese snake wine. And yes, Raines tried some.Its pretty much just sweet wine, he says.Selling snake wine is not what Americans would generally think of when the word capitalism comes up, but the beverage is indicative of the small businesses that now run the gamut across Vietnam. Whether its bike-repair shops, cafes or restaurants serving silkworm or jellyfish stew, the Vietnamese have not only embraced Western business techniques, theyve embraced Westerners themselves.Both Mr. Gauntt and Mr. Raines say the Vietnamese people show no animosity towards Americans and, in fact, are excited to see them.They welcome us with open arms, Mr. Gauntt says. Thats the transition thats been made by these people. They love Americans; they love tourists. They love capitalism; they love to do business.We may have lost the war, but we have won the hearts and minds of the people, by and large, he adds.For Mr. Raines, the happiness of the Vietnamese people and their utter lack of anger at the U.S. means our soldiers deaths were not in vain.Weve really won this war, not on the battlefield where we thought about it, but through the freedoms that I saw emerging. That to me is positive.I would encourage every Vietnam vet, if they could and if they wanted to, to go back to Vietnam and replace the thoughts, visions and memories that you had 47 years ago.We did some good. It was not the way we wanted it to be, but we did some good.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will convene its semi-annual, worldwide General Conference from Saturday, March 31 - Sunday, April 1.



Sessions will be held on Saturday and Sunday at noon and 4 p.m. in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. All are welcome to attend or watch.



In the greater Chattanooga area, the 188th semi-annual General Conference may be viewed on local EPB channel 450, Dish, Direct TV, BYU TV, or at local LDS chapels. Proceedings are also streamed live at LDS.org and on the Mormon Channel.



The general priesthood session will be held this Saturday from 8-10 p.m., with a corresponding womens session to be held in October. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir will perform at select sessions, including on Easter Sunday.



"This General Conference will be unique in that two new apostles will be called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles to fill the vacancies upon the passing of President Thomas S.

Monson and Elder Robert D. Hales. Also, the general womens session is now only in October and the general priesthood session for men is only in April  an historic change that was announced last October."How is a new apostle chosen? During Jesus mortal ministry, He went into a mountain to pray. After a night of continual prayer, He called twelve disciples who would ensure the continuation of the Church He had established by giving it a foundation of  apostles and prophets (see Ephesians 2:19-20). This foundation of living apostles and prophets  chosen and called through prophecy and revelation by priesthood authority, serving in love and unity under the direction of the resurrected Christ  continues today, officials said.As President Russell M. Nelson teaches, No prophet or any other leader in [The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints], for that matter, has ever called himself or herself. No prophet has ever been elected. The Lord made that clear when He said, Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you (John 15:16). You and I do not vote on Church leaders at any level. We do, though, have the privilege of sustaining them (Sustaining the Prophets, Oct. 2014)."During the 188th Semi-Annual General Conference, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as Mormons, will have the privilege of sustaining President Russell M. Nelson as prophet, seer and revelator  and will also have the privilege of sustaining two new apostles."

Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said, When the President of The Church has the inspiration he needs [in the selection and calling of new apostles], he brings back the name (or names) to the council that we have of the the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles to sustain. That goes forward to general conference (Deseret News, Sept. 24, 2015).
There was little to choose between the teams in the first half, with Ramona Bachmann and Drew Spence going closest for the Blues, but three minutes after the restart So-Yun collected a Fran Kirby pass and finished brilliantly to give us the lead, before Cuthbert headed home from a Magdalena Eriksson corner shortly after coming on to cap a memorable victory.

We now go into next weeks return at Kingsmeadow in a strong position, but with plenty of work still to be done.

Hedvig Lindahl came back into the starting line-up in goal and the back three, with Maren Mjelde operating as the central figure, remained unchanged from the weekend win over Liverpool.

Maria Thorisdottir and Hannah Blundell started as the two wing-backs and Drew Spence was tasked with providing the creativity in behind strikers Fran Kirby and Ramona Bachmann.

Karen Carney and Deanna Cooper missed out through injury while Jonna Andersson was cup-tied.

Former Chelsea striker Sofia Jakobsson, meanwhile, started up front for Montpellier.


Schools continue to grapple with driver shortage, technology issues Despite some improvements, including enhanced pay and recruitment efforts, Chesterfield County Public Schools continues to search for answers to the ongoing bus driver shortage thats frustrated parents and dogged administrators...

School system sees rise in COVID cases, quarantining students As the district nears the end of its first month of school, just over 3% of Chesterfield County Public School students are at home in quarantine. According to the school...
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...
There were expectations that the first fatal crash involving an autonomous Tesla Model S in 2016 would set back AVs for years. In fact, the opposite happened. Waymo vehicles, for example, drove 2 million miles in self-driving mode across 25 cities in 2017, the company said, lifting its total autonomous miles to 4 million, as it accelerated testing to prepare for the launch of its ride-hailing fleet later this year. Likewise, Uber has driven 2 million autonomous miles since 2016, with the last million autonomous miles being driven in just 100 days prior to the Las Vegas CES technology show in January. In short, the industry learned from the accident and quickly moved on. The same likely will occur this time around.
There was a feeling that it was not the right time to do this, given what Trump was doing essentially in the opposite direction, that it would be sending mixed signals, said William Reinsch, a foreign trade expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, D.C., think tank. My guess is its going to be sitting around for a while, unfortunately.
However, an emotional support animal is different. The unit owner claiming the need for such support has the burden to prove it is real and necessary. While you cannot inquire into the nature of the need for the support animal, you certainly have the right to question and challenge the letter from the alleged medical doctor that indicates the need for that animal.
Feldman has alleged that he and others were sexually abused when they were child actors by those in the entertainment industry. When the revelations around powerful Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein first came to light in October, Feldman announced that he was going to name names. But he received criticism after he said he needed to first raise $10 million to finance a film that would be the "most honest and true depiction of child abuse ever portrayed." He eventually publicly accused two men.
Terry Bryant appears during a hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court, Wednesday, March 28, 2018, in Los Angeles. Bryant, who is charged with stealing Frances McDormand's Oscar statuette at an Academy Awards after-party, appeared in court but the quick resolution to the case that was expected did not emerge. (Richard Vogel / AP)
Still, the parallel can only be drawn so far, for while aligned in their sympathies, in their expression of them they were not. After describing Kings first attempt to organize in the North, against poverty and housing discrimination in Chicago, Margolick writes, Kennedy also tackled the inner city, but more slowly and deliberately. Not through nonviolence or by debating policies on the Senate floor, however. Rather by giving a trio of speeches during which he declared, Margolick reports, urban problems were soluble, but residents had to take the lead in solving them. Is there really an equivalence between Kings activism and Kennedys stumping, and if so, what about all the other remarks delivered by congressmen on the subject? In the same month as Kennedys speech, Gerald Ford, at the time a Republican representative from Michigan, stated in a national address, the poor themselves must have an important role in policy decisions at the local level. Does that count as tackling the inner city?
"We would get up in the morning, and in the middle of the night she had gotten up and made a whole cake," she said. "We would clean her room and find empty food wrappers and candy wrappers -- anything she could get her hands on. We just didn't know how to stop it. She got bigger and bigger and bigger."
I missed the LA-to-Quito flight because of flight delays outside of our control, which screwed up the Galapagos flight. I canceled the flight ahead of time and attempted to reschedule for a fee of $201. I received four new e-tickets from Mytrip with flight information for a flight with Ecuador's national airline, Tame, confirming the reschedule. But, two days later, when I arrived at 7 a.m. for our departure flight at 9 a.m., an airline representative told me I wasn't "on the manifest." It turns out my reservation had been canceled. I bought tickets with another airline for the next flight out, five hours later, for an additional $1,100.
Kendall on Wednesday sanctioned Brodsky for bizarre courtroom behavior that included falsely accusing an expert witness of inventing a son. In the ruling, she wrote that if left unpunished, Brodskys actions would serve to undermine the integrity of this court, ordering him to pay a $50,000 fine, undergo anger management training and take an ethics course, and she referred him to a panel that could bar or suspend him from practicing in federal court.
Defense attorneys Wednesday filed their motion for a change of venue  which could result in the proceedings being moved to a different county, or having out-of-county jurors selected to hear the case in the Leighton Criminal Court Building. But when defense attorney Randy Rueckert told the judge that the defenses polling experts report on the change of venue would not be available until May, Gaughan grew frustrated, telling them to have the numbers by mid-April or make their expert fly in from out of state to testify about why his report isnt ready.
Also on the panel was the Rev. Johnny Miller, a pastor who once served on the Chicago Police Board, and Emmett Farmer, whose son Flint Farmer was carrying only a cellphone when he was fatally shot in 2011 by a Chicago police officer who had been involved in two previous shootings that same year.
The girl was in the 2600 block of South Tripp Avenue when the assailant grabbed her and forced her into a light blue minivan parked in an alley, where he sexually assaulted her, police said.
In some ways, the ongoing saga is an only-in-Cook County tale. According to data compiled by the National Registry of Exonerations, a wrongful conviction database maintained by the University of Michigan, at least 159 people have been freed from prison after being convicted in Cook County  a staggering sum that ranks Cook County higher than almost every state for exonerations.
Also on the docket Wednesday is an ordinance allowing for new lease and use agreements for the gates at O'Hare to generate the airport fees to pay for the eight-year project, which Emanuel has said will include no cost to Chicago taxpayers. The deal is significant in large part because it came together with the cooperation of American Airlines, which had spent weeks opposing the airport overhaul on the grounds rival United Airlines was getting a better gate deal.
But Kevin Quinn, who had held state and political positions with Madigan's operations for 20 years, was not ousted from the speakers organization until last month. Thats nearly three months after she wrote a letter to the speaker and he had an attorney look into the issue. Kevin Quinn has not commented on the matter.
I am not anti-gun, said Maria Pike, a gun control advocate whose 24-year-old son was shot to death in Logan Square in August 2012. I am for gun sense. I am for our human beings that live here in the city and in the state. We deserve peace. We deserve our children. We deserve to be able to walk in the parks, to go to theaters, to go everywhere we want to without fear of being shot.
State campaign finance records show Dombrowski and two companies he controls made the campaign contributions on March 21. Thats the same day McCarthy told the Chicago Tribune in an exclusive interview that he would run against Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who fired him as the citys top cop in 2015. The campaign cash from Dombrowski accounts for more than 20 percent of the $122,985 McCarthy has raised to date, records show.
Ald. David Moore, 17th, was the lone City Council vote against the bond issue. He had expressed reservations about supporting it unless the big bond underwriting firms could show him they were bringing in minority lawyers for a piece of the deal. We have to push these banks to do better and have more representation when they come in here for these big bond deals, Moore said. Still, the full council quickly approved it after it previously was debated at length by a committee.
Many of the packages were intercepted at screening facilities on the receiving end. None exploded, and no one was harmed. But federal authorities said buildings were evacuated and law enforcement scrambled at each location, such as on Monday at the National Defense University on the grounds of Fort McNair in Southwest Washington.
According to reports, a former Trump lawyer floated potential pardons forformer national security adviser Michael Flynn, left, and former campaign chairman Paul Manafort. (Tribune News Service photos)
Even New Deal-era minimum wage laws exempted tipped workers until 1966. By then, tipping was so culturally embedded that Congress took it for granted that certain workers "customarily and regularly" received tips, while others did not. It created the "tip credit" system, whereby restaurants could pay customarily and regularly tipped personnel a much smaller minimum wage than others received, as long as tips offset the difference.
Last year Norpac asked the Commerce Department to punish the Canadian imports, but no other U.S. newsprint mills supported Norpacs claim, according to Chavern. The newsprint industry is shrinking because of the internet, not foreign competition. It also is regionally based. Publishers and other print-focused companies in the Midwest and Northeast rely on Canadian newsprint because there are no U.S. mills operating in these regions. Yet those newsprint customers now face skyrocketing prices because Canadian mills will pass on the cost of U.S. tariffs.
Manya Brachear Pashmans article Afghan war vet deported to Mexico is 'homeless and penniless,' his Chicago family says notes just how hard life will be for Perez in Mexico, since he has spent so much time in the U.S., but it does not fully capture just how dangerous it has become for people like Perez to be in Mexico. Since finding employment is hard for young deportees who have few ties to Mexico, they become prime targets for recruitment into criminal organizations.
"With the passing of what is nationally being referred to as the Tobacco 21 ordinance (T21), the city of Aurora joins other municipalities in Illinois, including Evanston, Chicago, Naperville and Bolingbrook, in taking a stand for the health of our youth by becoming a T21 city," Irvin said. "In fact, nearly 300 cities in 19 states have done the same."
Trustees originally voted down the plan, saying they didn't want two similar facilities next door to each other. However, developer John McVickers, with McVickers Development, asked trustees to reconsider at a recent Village Board meeting, and a trustee asked for it to be put on the agenda for reconsideration at this week's board meeting.
Frieders said the scope of the work now focuses primarily on finishing the roads and some water and sewer infrastructure improvements, with the exception of a section of Faxon Road that does not have residences. The roadway, which will eventually be connected to Route 47 with a stop light, will be done in the future, the alderman said.
He said his advice to kids planning to come out is to find someone they think will be a source of support  a friend, a teacher or therapist  before they come out to their parents. He said in some cases, he offers to meet with the parents separately or with the teen to talk about it.
For example, teens are tasked with everything from researching the growth and cultivation of the "L'Olivo," which means the olive; "La Commercalizzazione," which involves marketing the product through tastings and promotions; and "La scienza economica," which is the study of economics and the international laws regarding importing products.
A section of the creek is exposed between the two streets, and the work will involve building a new box culvert that will completely enclose part of the creek. The new culvert will also be larger than the ones now in place, which will help the flow of the creek and is anticipated to reduce flooding issues along the creek, Ishler said.
Greenwood told me Tuesday the SSMMA is considering multiple strategies to try to persuade a majority of county board members that the Southland deserves special consideration. For months, the SSMMA and its members asked county board members to put off a vote on the measure until its impact could be fully studied.
Lt. Christian Jensen was the self-described boss on the scene of the March 12 standoff during which Clements refused officers orders to get out of her vehicle after it was stopped on Interstate 90. Jensen and other officers were preparing to use nonlethal methods of ending the standoff, but after Clements set her car on fire and then emerged from it holding a knife and moving toward officers, Jensen fatally shot her, according to police video released by the city.
219 E. DuSable Lake Shore Drive, No. 2A, Chicago: $5,115,000 | Listed: Aug. 4, 2021



This five-bedroom home has six full bathrooms, two half-baths, two large outdoor patios and two private elevators. A formal living room with a fireplace overlooks the lake and has a wall of windows. The family room has built-in bookcases and shelving, and the kitchen is equipped with a large island, granite counters and an eating area that opens onto one of the patios. The primary bedroom has a fireplace, a wall of windows overlooking the lake, two walk-in closets, a sitting room and a full Luxe bath. This unit comes with three garage parking spaces and is located in a building with a 24-hour door person.



Agents: Linda Rosenbloom, @properties, 847-892-4800; Carol Gooze, @aproperties, 847-909-5585



*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.
"We've seen most growth in clients served where there is chronic need (such as Zion, Fox Lake area)," she said. "These are seniors, veterans and the disabled  those on fixed incomes. Among these most vulnerable populations the level of need has not decreased or changed since we began tracking this information in 2013.
These same Facebook aficionados say they find the social platform easy to keep in contact with kids, family and friends, sharing insights and pictures and news with each other. Their kids may have a presence on Facebook, but they have abandoned it for Snapchat, which is facing its own online revolt, and Instagram, which is owned by Facebook. Kids use Facebook when they want to see what grandma and their aunts are up to. Or so I've been told.
Kristen Gober said she "tried to get her kids out of the fire but there was too much smoke," according to the affidavit. She "was telling her kids to come out and she could hear the kids but the flames kept her back," the affidavit states.
"For example, in one of the scenes at the orphanage, Miss Hannigan used to have a line that had her complaining that Annie gets so much attention 'pretty soon she'll be in the newspaper funnies.' Now, the line is changed with Miss Hannigan saying 'pretty soon, they'll write a Broadway musical about her.' They've also taken out the line that mentions Annie getting paddled by Miss Hannigan."
Pfister and Sopko's attorney Greg Bouwer declined to comment on Wednesday, but in previous responses filed for both as part of the State Board of Accounts report, Bouwer has claimed that both men believe they received payments due to them that were approved by the school board and wondered why the state board was questioning them years later.
Far be it for me to tell the Hobart police how to do their jobs. All the same, the next time you want to direct traffic, try getting your butts out of your cars and directing it that way, instead of trying to rely on your telepathic abilities, and those of others to get your message across.
The Illinois Municipal League stated that a municipality with home rule status can exercise any power and perform any function unless it is specifically prohibited from doing so by state law. According to the state constitution, a home rule unit may exercise any power and perform any function pertaining to its government and affairs including, but not limited to, the power to regulate for the protection of the public health, safety, morals and welfare; to license; to tax; and to incur debt.
All the aldermen on the West Side voted for this because they understand  they have felt forgotten from the type of public investments that can spur economic growth, Emanuel said. It will have its own value of safety for the entire city. It will have its own value of safety... to the West Side. And it will be an investment in the kind of economic activity we want to see.
Coronado Motel recognized for historical significance

The Coronado Motel was placed on the National Register for Historic Places last year and received recognition from History Colorado.
The mainstream media has been full of doomsday scenarios these past few weeks concerning the potential for a China-US trade war given the tariff impositions US President Donald Trump imposed upon China to stop steel dumping and protect American jobs.

Bearing in mind Trump was elected on the premise of anti-China dumping, the massive trade gap the US has with China, and the Make America Great Again slogans designed to both protect and create American jobs, a scenario where Trump would have a go at China to satisfy his voters has always seemed likely. But as I pointed out on Russia Briefing last month, China isnt a huge supplier of steel to the US.

Washington has since gone on to say that the US will impose tariffs on US$50 billion worth of imported Chinese goods, with US trade representative Robert Lighthizer saying the goal is to target 1,300 product categories. This is apparently intended to pressure China to alter its trade practices, regardless of the established realization that China provides the US with a lot of products where the profit margin is made by the US importers, distributors, and price markups rather than Chinese manufacturers per se. Apple, in particular, leaves a measly US$10 or so value in China for every US$800 to 1,000 iPhone 8/X they make, which is why they are the worlds most valuable company  they retain the value and profit.

Another example is in the clothing supply chain. A pair of jeans from a US brand, designed in the US, made in China on German, Japanese, or US machines from US cotton, and processed into cloth in the US on US or Swiss textile machines, and exported to China. The rivets are made from Chilean copper on German machines in China. A US quality control agent inspects them. The jeans are packed into boxes made from recycled US paper waste exported to China (that reduces US landfill pollution) on machines that come from Germany. They are then packed into shipping containers made in China, Korea, or Vietnam, owned by a US leasing firm, funded by US investors, then hauled to port by Japanese, US, or Swedish trucks on trailers made in Korea.

They are shipped on a Chinese or Korean built ship owned by a Japanese, Chinese, Taiwanese, or European shipping company, with a Filipino crew and European officers. A US Company insures them and the whole process is financed by a US trade bank. They are unloaded at a US port by American dockworkers, American customs and clearing agents inspect them, and American security guards protect them. US import taxes are paid, if applicable. They are loaded onto a US built tractor-trailer and delivered to a distribution facility, financed or leased from US bank, employing US workers. They are advertised on US owned TV, radio, and billboards (and online by the US dominated internet) using services from a US ad agency and artists. They are further distributed to the retail outlet or sold on the internet, paid for by a US owned credit card company or bank, and finally are delivered to the customer. When they are worn out, they may be reprocessed into cotton waste products, sent back to China, Bangladesh or Vietnam, where the cycle starts again.

Chinas response, among the predictably enunciated political sabre rattling promising hellfire and fury, has been to impose retaliatory tariffs on US$3 billion of US goods, among them fresh fruit, nuts, wine, and pork, as well as recycled aluminum and steel pipes.

According to the Office of the United States Trade Representative, in 2016 China-US bilateral trade was worth about US$650 billion, with US exports to China amounting to US$169.8 billion and Chinese imports at US$478.8 billion, making the US goods and services trade deficit with China US$309 billion.

This means that even if the US imposed tariffs on US$50 billion of Chinese imports, that would affect just over 10 percent of total US imports. As for China, its targeted response of US$3 billion of additional tariffs on US imports is actually just 1.8 percent of the total. While the American figure of US$50 billion would certainly have an impact, it remains to be seen if it will actually be carried out. In fact, that amount would only impact an equivalent of 0.42 percent to Chinas 2017 GDP. Thats hardly a punishment.

There are other issues. Chinas tariff response has been measured and has hit back at exactly the same voters Trump is eager to protect. Rather than swinging an axe at over 1,300 different products, China has taken a measured response, designed to deliberately hurt Trumps political base. That US$3 billion of imposed tariffs included US pork exports. The American pork industry sent US$1.1 billion in products to China last year, making it the third largest market for US pork. In total, American farmers shipped about US$20 billion of goods to China in 2017. A large part of Trumps voting base? American farmers. They are not very happy right now. In fact, forty-five US trade associations have written to Mr. Trump opposing the tariffs. Only three support them. A copy of that letter can be seen here.

In short, the amount of additional tariffs China has imposed upon the United States equates to just 0.4 percent of the total trade volume. For a trade war, thats pretty lame. And as for China, theyve done a good job in educating an Apprentice. The spat will rumble on a little bit more, but a trade war was never the intention, and it wont happen.
Dolphin Books of China International Publishing Group (CIPG) launched the English edition of "This Is the 24 Solar Terms" and related products at Bologna Children's Book Fair in Italy on March 26, 2018.





The event was attended by international publishing houses and cultural institutions at the invitation of Dolphin Books, who signed the copyright license contracts for the Albanian and English versions of the book with Albanian Publishing House DITURIA and American Skyhorse Publishing respectively. Dolphin Books also reached cooperation agreements on the book with German Edition Bracklo, Lebanese Digital Future, Japanese g. Grape and Nepalese Current Publication.





CIPG Vice President Wang Gangyi emphasized that with over two hundred million children and teenagers, China has a huge market for children's books, and there is a rich variety of children's books for sale with new versions of original children's books also emerging in large numbers in recent years. He said he hopes to let more overseas children have the opportunity to read these books from China via extensive cooperation with international institutions in the future.





Director of the Children's Library, National Library of China, Wang Zhigeng and Executive Manager of Children's Books Department in Dangdang Liu Yu also addressed the event, speaking highly of the value and practice of the overseas promotion of the book.





During the launch, Dolphin Books, together with Ningbo Yi-Qu Culture Communication Co., Ltd., a leading institution for early education and cultural creation in China, and Kada Story, an online platform for digital content, presented their co-developed toy book "Floor Jigsaw Puzzle Book: This Is the 24 Solar Terms", audio book "This Is the 24 Solar Terms" amongst others. They aimed to build a multi-language, omni-media, and comprehensive content production and distribution channel for "This Is the 24 Solar Terms" series.





After the launch ceremony, Dolphin Books presided over the "Going Global" symposium together with more than 10 outstanding Chinese private publishing houses of children's books, including Baby Cube Brand Management Co., Ltd., King-in Culture (Beijing) Co., Ltd., Everafter Books Co., Ltd., Beijing Yutian Hanfeng Books Co., Ltd., Beijing Poplar Culture Project Co., Ltd., Shanghai Shang-Yi Trading Co., Ltd., Fanglue Bohua Media Co., Ltd., "Kada Story" and Ningbo Yi-Qu Culture Communication Co., Ltd.





They discussed over joint efforts to promote Chinese children's books globally and to achieve a win-win development in cooperation.




A high-profile exhibition on art, culture and life during the Italian Renaissance opened to the public on Tuesday at the Capital Museum in Beijing.











The exhibition features a total of 102 pieces and sets from 17 Italian museums and institutes, including cultural treasures from the prestigious Uffizi Gallery, the National Museum of the Bargello and the National Gallery of Umbria. More than 80 items came to China for the first time, the Italian curator Federica Zalabra told media on Monday.





"China hosted many exhibitions on Italian culture in the past decades, but this one at the Capital Museum will be a rare and special one," Huang Xueying, the exhibition curator and vice president of the Capital Museum, told China.org.cn on Monday.





Huang said the exhibition was initiated by the governments of both China and Italy, and is held under the framework of Italy's "Sleeping Beauty" project . The project aims to create a shared network of Italian museum resources in order to present the world with pieces of the country's cultural heritage that have long been hidden away in museum warehouses.





"This is a cultural exchange at the governmental level and also the first time for the Sleeping Beauty' project to come to China," Huang said, adding that the working teams from both sides had spent more than a year on research and discussion to design the display.









Original paintings by top-tier Italian artists, including Titian, Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino and Tintoretto, are showcased. Collected articles for daily use, such as badges, pottery bowls and clothes, are on display along with several small-scale replicas of Renaissance architecture. Sculptures from ancient Rome as well as Byzantine paintings are also included in the exhibition.





The Italian curator Zalabra highlighted the daily necessities on display, noting that such items are often ignored by museumgoers who tend to pay much more attention to artistic pieces such as paintings and sculptures. However, through these everyday necessities, people can better and more fully understand the culture and social life of that era, she said.





The exhibition will run through June 22.
You are here: Business

China will see the implementation of a new regulation on express delivery services to help the sustainable and healthy development of the rapidly-growing sector.

As the first separate law in the sector, it will be effective on May 1, according to a decree by the State Council, signed by Premier Li Keqiang.

The regulation aims to establish a regulatory framework to guide the operation of courier services companies and improve the protection of consumers, and tackle emerging problems including information security and packaging waste.

With average annual growth of 42 percent in the past decade, China's delivery services sector has topped the world for four straight years in terms of business volume. Over half of global deliveries were made by Chinese companies.

The sector saw 495 billion yuan (nearly 80 billion U.S. dollars) of revenue in 2017.

The regulation also encourages businesses to launch cross-border delivery services and increase their presence in overseas markets.

"It will help China build an express delivery network connected with the world and support a global logistics system," said Wei Jigang, researcher with the Development Research Center of the State Council.
You are here: China

China on Tuesday officially inaugurated the National Health Commission, as part of a massive institutional reshuffle.



Sun Chunlan, member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and vice premier of the State Council, attended the inauguration ceremony.

While addressing a symposium held Tuesday, Sun called on health institutions to strengthen the work to offer "comprehensive, lifecycle health services to the Chinese people."

"The establishment of the commission reflects a change of concept of the country's health-related work," said Sun, noting that the commission must focus on improving the overall health conditions of the Chinese people, instead of illness treatment, through enhancing disease prevention and health education.

Sun also called for more efforts on healthy lifestyles and deepening medical and healthcare reform.
The silhouette of a hunchbacked man is often spotted pedaling a tricycle at night through the streets of Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang Province  collecting recyclable garbage.

People may often mistake the man, 86 years old, as a vagabond, but in reality he is a retired veteran living on a comfortable pension of more than 6,000 yuan (US$965) per month. The nocturnal scavenger, a Mr. Wang Kunsen, sells the collected plastic bottles, boxes and defunct home appliances to make money to finance students in need who may otherwise drop out of school due to poverty.

Wang's first benefactor was an impoverished girl to whom he granted 5,000 yuan a year for four straight years, enabling her to finish her undergraduate education.

According to Wang, he knows the misery of being illiterate and understands the joy of being able to resume schooling. Having lived through one of China's turbulent eras, he can relate based on his own life experiences.

Born to an affluent family in Linping, suburban Hangzhou, in 1932, Wang was afforded a carefree life until the age of five by the stable income of his father, a railway staff member.

But following the 1937 Macro Polo Bridge Incident, when Japanese troops invaded China in full scale, the railway staff were dismissed, which deprived the family of their income and forced them to move to Shangyu, an outlying area of Shaoxing in the same province.

Then, in 1939, the life of the family deteriorated further after Wang's mother died from a disease caused by the biological weapons carried by the Japanese invaders. The death of his mother struck a blow to the family, pushing Wang's elder sisters and brother to leave home. In the ensuing years, Wang lived with his father in dire poverty.

Apart from building railways for the Japanese for a meager wage, the father and son sold homemade cigarettes they assembled by picking up used stubs and gluing them to rolled papers filled with tobacco, just to earn a little extra money to survive through these difficult years. As Wang recounted his past during an interview with Guangzhou Daily, tears trickled down his cheeks.

When his father managed to save some money at the tail end of the War of Chinese People's Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1931-1945), Wang was admitted to school at the age of 12. "I entered school at such an late age that I can certainly understand the pain of being denied access to education," he explained.

In 1949, when the People's Republic of China was founded, Wang was admitted to a secondary school in Hangzhou, but a year later he joined the People's Liberation Army (PLA), moving to the northeast part of China.

After many years in the PLA, Wang's wife was unable to withstand the cold weather of the northeast, so he decided to leave the army and return to Hangzhou, where the couple worked for what is now the Zhejiang University School of Medicine. During those years, Wang taught courses in national defense and organized military trainings for students.

"I was a Staff Officer, an expert in warfare, so I was eager to have an influence with my professional knowledge," he said.

During his 15-year tenure, Wang donated money to hundreds of students to cover their miscellaneous fees, and his subsidies carried on even after he retired in 1993.

Several years following his retirement, he was deeply moved by a photo of an eight-year-old country girl with wide-open eyes. The girl's name was Su Mingjuan, from Jinzhai, Anhui province, and her photo had been used by the China Youth Development Foundation in the promotion of Hope Schools, which were established to readmit rural dropouts. Su, who was now working as a banker in Anhui, had the orbit of her life completely changed by the donations and support of the larger society.

Her photo inspired Wang to begin selling garbage to help children living in poverty. His son protested, however, saying his scavenging brought shame to the family.

"I don't steal or rob. I finance students in need. That should be a good thing to do. So I won't listen to him," the old man insisted.

In 2012, he contacted a poor girl via media and offered his aid to her. To fulfill his commitment, he began going out to collect in the middle of the night.

"The scavengers working in the daytime are trying to earn a living, so I shouldn't encroach on their interests. That's why I chose to work by night. As a retired man I have plenty of time during the day to sleep," Wang explained.

The girl he funded since 2012 sent her graduation photo to Wang. Seeing her in her graduation gown, Wang said he was so happy. Since he never had the chance to put on his own gown, the girl fulfilled his dream.

To expand his dream even farther, Wang will keep donating to several other students, saying he won't stop helping them until his last moment in life.
As Liu Ming, 68, leaves his apartment, he is always careful to check that he has all his belongings: ID card, keys, money, phone, pills, shopping bag...

Liu lives in fear of forgetting something when he goes out because he lives on the eighth floor and, without an elevator, climbing the stairs is like climbing a mountain.

Liu, who lives in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, says he has worn out his knees by climbing the stairs every day and he even has to pay extra money when parcels are delivered.

"It's annoying and tiresome," Liu said. "Getting an elevator installed in our building has been one of my preoccupations for years."

In the middle of January, Liu's dream, which he shares with many of his neighbors, seemed about to come true as Guangzhou's lift installation project reached his building.

Back in 2016, Guangzhou issued a string of rules and regulations about adding elevators to existing buildings. About 1,000 old buildings have had elevators installed since then, according to the city's land resources and planning commission.

Most of them are old buildings like Liu's that were built in the 1980s, when reform and opening up had just begun. To save on costs, most buildings with fewer than nine floors were built without elevators.

Deng Kanqiang, deputy director of the Guangzhou urban renewal bureau, said that renovating the old neighborhoods can substantially improve quality of life.

"The work is demanding and the government has to solve numerous disputes over the rights and interests of residents," Deng said.

Some districts in Guangzhou have opened "elevator offices" especially to deal with the problems of elevator installation.

On Caihong Street, Liwan district, one office has dealt with the problems of about 6,000 people, holding more than 200 consultation and mediation meetings since May.

Elevator installations require the agreement of two-thirds of the owners of any building.

"Opposition comes mainly from residents on lower floors and mostly over concerns about safety, fees and noise," said Wei Tingsheng, a volunteer at the elevator office. "Besides, old buildings often have no space for an elevator, so they have to be installed outside the buildings, which can cause problems with natural light in the apartments.

"However, we have gained experience in dealing with people's problems and concerns, and become better at helping residents reach agreement in their negotiations."

With the help of Wei, residents in Liu's building held several rounds of negotiations before reaching a consensus.

The whole installation will cost around 700,000 yuan (US$110,000), with a government subsidy covering 100,000 yuan. Residents on the first and second floors are exempt from paying fees, while those from the third to the ninth floors share the construction cost-from 20,000 yuan to 50,000 per household-based on the floor they live on. The higher the floor, the more they pay.

Residents on the top seven floors also pay 60,000 yuan in compensation to each household on the first and second floors for the inconvenience.

In addition to Guangzhou, more than 20 cities, including Beijing, Hangzhou, Xiamen and Chengdu, are also installing elevators in old buildings.

Beijing is expected to set up more than 400 elevators in old neighborhoods this year, with plans for 1,000 more by 2020.




You are here: China

Forest police in north China's Shanxi Province said on Tuesday that they have arrested a suspect for illegal hunting and trading of wild animals.

The police seized more than 200 wild animals from the suspect, including a Eurasian eagle owl, which is a second-class national protected animal.

Earlier this month, police found the suspect, surnamed Cheng, trading wild animals online.

The suspect confessed he hunted wild animals in the province's Yushe County and Shouyang County and traded them online.

The case is under further investigation.
Wu Xiaohui, the former chairman of Chinese insurance conglomerate Anbang Insurance Group, went on trial in Shanghai on Wednesday morning, on charges of embezzlement and fraud.



Shanghai No. 1 People's Intermediate Court announced via its account on Sina Weibo that Wu, who was detained in Beijing last June, was facing charges of "fraudulently raising capital" and "work-related embezzlement."

Wu's trial comes just over one month after the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) announced it was taking control of Anbang for one year, while also confirming that Wu would face criminal proceedings for "economic crimes."

Under Wu, Anbang led various high-profile mergers and acquisitions overseas, including the 2014 purchase of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York for US$1.95 billion and Strategic Hotels & Resorts for US$6.5 billion in 2016.

However, question marks soon arose over the internal finances of Anbang, with Hong Hao, chief China strategist of financial services company BOCOM International Holdings telling CGTN the CIRC's takeover of Anbang was a move "in the right direction."

Hong further warned that leveraged trading and other operations led by Anbang could have led to systemic risk if the CIRC had not intervened.

After Wu's criminal proceedings and the CIRC takeover were confirmed, a spokesman for Anbang said it "fully supported" the decision, before adding "we will continue to be committed to our overseas subsidiaries' business and investment, and will provide necessary support to their healthy development."

Anbang is ranked 139th on the Fortune 500 list, with registered assets worth 1.97 trillion yuan (US$310.9 billion).
The U.S. has unilaterally launched tariff packages in defiance of World Trade Organization (WTO) rules in recent months, first announcing tariffs of 25 percent and 10 percent on imported steel and aluminum, and soon after launching additional levies targeting $60 billion of imports from China.



The first action angered the world, including U.S. allies - but the second has clearly set China as its primary target.

U.S. trade actions defy WTO rules

These are unmistakably unilateral acts, taken in defiance of established WTO rules and apparently in an attempt to protect U.S. industries by invoking domestic laws and imposing them on trade partners, especially China. Early on, U.S. experts warned that steel and aluminum tariffs could trigger a trade war, and sure enough, immediate retaliatory threats were made by countries, including allies, affected by the levy.

The U.S. then decided to spare Mexico and Canada, and to grant allies the chance to negotiate for exemptions - what President Trump called "flexibility." The outlined "must meet" conditions for exemption, however, are actually non-negotiable and revealed that the deal amounts to a forced transfer of the American position. As the conditions of "flexibility" were disclosed, it became clear that China was an indirect target, as countries who wanted to negotiate were required to join the "anti-China" camp in order to strike an exemption deal.

Steel and aluminum tariffs were not the end of the story. The U.S. subsequently unveiled its so-called findings of Section 301 investigations into China's trade practices, and on March 22 President Trump signed a memorandum imposing new tariffs targeting $50-60 billion of Chinese imports - an undisguised declaration of trade war against China.

The Section 301 investigation, however, raised issues that failed to reflect the trade realities between the U.S. and China. Trade imbalance has been an issue, but China has made efforts to work with U.S counterparts to find win-win solutions. While the U.S. fanned the flames with a stubborn insistence on reductionist results, China was busy trying to resolve the issues and avoid escalation through high-level consultations. State Councilor Yang Jiechi made a visit to Washington to attempt reconciliation of trade relations, followed closely by a visit by Politbureau member Liu He in pursuit of peaceful resolutions.

But these goodwill efforts were ignored; President Trump's tweet that "Trade wars are good, and easy to win" heralded the looming trade war and the U.S.'s chosen path of confrontation.

There will be no winner in a trade war

China has warned the U.S. that unilateralism and protectionism will set a bad example to the world in dealing with trade disputes. A trade war will have damaging effects on both sides, and no one will come away without injury. Roberto Azevedo, director-general of the WTO, echoed China's position urging the two sides to talk, warning that there will be "no winners" in this confrontation.

"Disrupting trade flows will jeopardize the global economy at a time when economic recovery, though fragile, has been increasingly evident around the world. I again call for restraint and urgent dialogue as the best path forward to resolve these problems," Azevedo said Friday.

China is ready for the "first of many"

A seemingly elated President Trump said, "This is the first of many," and China is ready for the other measures that may come, be they investment restrictions, alliances against China at the WTO or the exclusion of China in U.S.-led initiatives. China survived U.S. embargo in the middle of the last century, as well as many recent technological blockades. In fact, the Chinese have a tradition of developing under hostile pressures.

Already there are speculations on how China will respond to the U.S. initiated trade wars. Will there be "soft-measures" or "sharp measures?" Anything is possible, but retaliation is the only choice. China does not want to fight a trade war, but it is absolutely not afraid of a trade war. It is not as strong as the U.S. economically and militarily, but we have confidence in our ability to deal with external bullies.

And China will not close its door as a result. As Michelle Obama once said, "When you go low, we go high" - an apt description of China's position as we are forced to fight a trade war. China will not be bullied.

Li Yong is director of the China-US-EU Study Center of China Association of International Trade (CAIT).

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.


 Flash

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Tuesday called on the U.S. Congress to play a constructive role and work with China to maintain the political and public opinion foundations for China-U.S. relations.

Li made the remarks while meeting with a U.S. congress delegation, led by U.S. senator Steve Daines.

Li said China-U.S. ties had gone through a tortuous journey since the establishment of diplomatic ties, and had been moving forward.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump met and communicated several times, and reached important consensus on bilateral ties and cooperation, he said.

"The two economies are highly complementary to each other and their cooperation has been continuously expanding," Li said, adding that friction and differences were inevitable.

"Some age-old trade issues cannot be settled overnight," the Chinese premier added. "To launch a trade war could never solve problems, and runs counter to the fundamental principles of trade."

"China will work towards a solution through dialogue and consultation, and is also fully prepared with counter measures," Li said.

He called on the U.S. side to meet China halfway, which will help to maintain multilateral trade rules and is good for both countries and the whole world.

Steve Daines and senators Charles Grassley, Ron Johnson, David Perdue and Ben Sasse called U.S.-China ties one of the most important bilateral relations in the world, adding that there was no reason for both countries to have conflict.

They said the U.S. Congress was ready to help resolve bilateral trade friction in a mutually beneficial way.

Later in the day, Wang Chen, vice chairperson of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) presided over talks between the NPC and the delegation, and both sides exchanged views on parliamentary exchanges and other issues.
 Flash

Over 13,000 rebels and their families have evacuated the central towns in Syrian capital Damascus' Eastern Ghouta countryside in the past three day.



The rebels and civilians have left in three batches, with the latest one leaving after midnight Tuesday. A total of 6,749 people, including 1,620 rebels, left the areas of Jobar, Zamalka, Arbeen, and Ayn Tarma on Tuesday, the state news agency SANA reported.

In the previous two batches, on last Saturday and Sunday respectively, a total of 6,416 people, including rebels and their families, evacuated the same areas and moved to the rebel-held areas in the northwestern province of Idlib.

Efforts are ongoing to facilitate the evacuation of more rebels, who will leave Eastern Ghouta through a crossing in the town of Arbeen and reach the government-controlled area on the outskirts of Arbeen before going to Idlib.

The aforementioned areas have been under the control of the Failaq al-Rahman rebel group, which agreed last Friday to negotiate over its evacuation from Eastern Ghouta.

The deal, brokered by the Russians, also demanded for the release of the kidnapped people from the rebels' custody.

On Tuesday night, 28 people were freed and reached the government-controlled area, a day after eight people were released from the same area.

The evacuation agreement has been implemented smoothly, and it came right after a similar deal was reached and implemented in Harasta city in Eastern Ghouta, where rebels and their families had left before it became under the control of the government.

After the full evacuation of the Failaq al-Rahman rebels, only the Douma district in Eastern Ghouta would still be controlled by the rebels.

There have been reports that the rebels in the Douma district were also discussing with the Russians to reach a settlement there.

SANA said that the militants of the Islam Army, the major rebel group in control of Douma, are ready to lay down their weapons and withdraw from that area.

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 the government-controlled neighborhoods east of Damascus.

Four major rebel groups have 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 an alarm about the worsening humanitarian situation for 400,000 people living in that region.

Activists said around 1,000 people have been killed since late last month by the heavy bombardment and military conflicts between rebels and government troops in Eastern Ghouta.

As the Syrian army steadily advanced in Eastern Ghouta recently, an estimated 120,000 civilians have fled the region for the government-controlled areas.
You are here: World

 Flash

The Republic of Korea (ROK) returned the remains of 20 Chinese People's Volunteer (CPV) soldiers who were killed during the 1950-1953 Korean War on Wednesday morning.



A handover ceremony of the caskets, covered with the Chinese national flag, was held at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, at 10 a.m. local time.

Over 197,000 CPV soldiers were believed to have perished in the war, with most buried on the Korean Peninsula.

It marks the fifth batch of remains returned since 2014. According to Yonhap, the ROK transferred the remains of 569 Chinese troops between 2014 and 2017.

Chinese vice minister of civil affairs Gao Xiaobing and Chinese ambassador to the ROK Qiu Guohong also attended the ceremony.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping's special representative Yang Jiechi will pay a visit to the Republic of Korea (ROK) from Thursday to Friday.

Yang, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the head of the General Office of the Central Committee for Foreign Affairs, will visit at the invitation of the ROK government, foreign ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said Wednesday at a daily press briefing.
By Khanh Vu, Reuters | Mar. 27, 2018

Vietnam Airlines has awarded Air France Industries KLM Engineering & Maintenance a US$500 million contract to provide aircraft maintenance service to Vietnamese airline, it said in a statement.

Under the contract signed in Paris on Monday, AFI KLM E&M, a unit of Air France KLM group, will handle maintenance of Vietnam Airlines' 787 GEnx engines for 12 years, Vietnam Airlines said.

The country's flag carrier said it aims to raise its fleet of Boeing 787s to 19 by 2021.
Last week, the Chicago Tribune reported on multiple allegations against Willow Creek Community Church founder and longtime pastor Bill Hybels:

The alleged behavior included suggestive comments, extended hugs, an unwanted kiss, and invitations to hotel rooms. It also included an allegation of a prolonged consensual affair with a married woman who later said her claim about the affair was not true.

Hybels and his church have denied the allegations reported by the Tribune. Hybels, is of course, not the first megachurch pastor, or even pastor, to be embroiled in allegations of adultery and sexual misconduct. Throughout the years, Christianity Today has reported on a number of high-profile ministry leaders who lost their jobs after they confessed to sexual sin. (In fact, news that Southern Baptist leader Frank Page resigned from ministry over a morally inappropriate relationship broke right after this podcast was recorded.)

Most pastors who have been guilty of inappropriate relationships arent in a great place spiritually, says Jim Wilhoit, a professor of Christian formation at Wheaton College who has counseled church leaders who have confessed to sexual misconduct.

No one that Ive talked with that has had an affair has had what I would say at that time was a vital and well-developed relationship with Christ, said Wilhoit. Im just not very sanguine about the spiritual life of many American pastors.

Wilhoit joined associate digital media producer Morgan Lee and editor in chief Mark Galli to discuss why pastors commit sexual sin, when congregations should know about allegations against ministry leaders, and how the expectations of the modern pastorate may make it hard for ...

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Pope Francis warned this year against fake fasting during Lent.

We must pretend, Francis said with a smile during a Friday mass in February. That is not showing others that we are performing acts of penance. Those who fast should reflect on their sins and ask God for forgiveness, he said.

Most Americans dont observe Lent. But thats not because they think theyre sinless.

In fact, 2 out of 3 Americans confess to being a sinner (67%), according to LifeWay Research [full infographic below]. The rest dont see themselves as sinners (8%), dont think sin exists (10%), or preferred not to answer the question (15%).

While a few of the self-confessed sinners dont mind being one (5%), most say they are either working on being less of a sinner (34%) or depending on Jesus to overcome their sin (28%).

Almost nobody wants to be a sinner, said Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research.

More women (33%) than men (22%) say they depend on Jesus to overcome sin, as do more Protestants (49%) than Catholics (19%) and more evangelicals (72%) than non-evangelicals (19%). About half of those who attend religious services at least monthly (51%) say they depend on Jesus, compared to 15 percent of those who go less frequently.

In 2016, a LifeWay study for Ligonier Ministries found that 65 percent of Americans think that everyone sins a little, but most people are good by nature. Americans with evangelical beliefs were less likely to agree than those without evangelical beliefs (54% vs. 68%).

More than three-quarters of those surveyed said people have the ability to turn to God on their own initiative (79%), while nearly the same amount soundly rejected the idea of a small sin deserving eternal damnation (74% disagreed, 62% strongly).

Those with evangelical beliefs were more likely to agree that people can turn to God on their own (82%), but also more likely to say that even the smallest sin deserves eternal damnation (47%).

Americans were split on whether they could help earn their way into heaven with good deeds (52% agreed, 35% disagreed, 13% werent sure), but pretty confident that an individual must contribute to his or her own personal salvation (76% agree, 16% disagree, 8% not sure).

Those with evangelical beliefs were more likely than non-evangelicals to disagree with both: 59 percent said people could not earn their way to heaven (vs. 30%), and 23 percent said people could not contribute to their own salvation (vs. 14%).

More than half of Americansand nearly all evangelicalssaid it would be fair for God to show his wrath against sin (57% Americans vs. 92% evangelicals). About the same number said there will be a time Jesus will return to judge all people (59% Americans vs. 96% evangelicals).

Perhaps its not a surprise that Americans are split on their punishment of sin, since there is no consensus on what actions are sinful.

About half of Americans said that sex outside of traditional marriage is a sin (49%); the same number said abortion is a sin (49%). Forty-two percent said the Bibles condemnation of homosexual behavior doesnt apply to today.

Those with evangelical beliefs are far more likely to condemn all of those: 91 percent said sin outside of traditional marriage is sin, 87 percent said abortion is a sin, and 75 percent said the Bibles condemnation of homosexual behavior does apply today.

An older LifeWay Research survey found that Americans are more likely than Protestant pastors to condemn divorce as a sin in most cases.

While pastors were more likely to say divorce was sinful when a couple fell out of love (61%, vs. 38% Americans) or when one spouse was addicted to pornography (39% vs. 35%), pastors were less likely to call it a sin when one spouse commits adultery (32% vs. 39%), when one of the spouses is abusive (28% vs. 37%), or when one spouse abandons the other (27% vs. 38%).

Americans were almost twice as likely as Protestant pastors to say that none of those reasons makes divorce a sin (37% vs. 19%).

Twitter users arent giving up any of those sins for Lent this year, according to the Twitter Lent Tracker. Social networking topped the list, followed by Twitter, alcohol, chocolate, swearing, and meat.

Americans also observe Lent by attending church services (57%), praying more (39%), giving to others (38%), LifeWay reported.
As Americans look for better strategies to prevent gun violence, pastor Robert Jeffress recently told Fox News that the first step should be instructing children to obey God and his commandments.

Teaching people, starting with our children, that there is a God to whom theyre accountable is not the only thing we need to do to end gun violence, but its the first thing we need to do, said Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas and an evangelical adviser to President Donald Trump, ahead of his churchs March for Eternal Life on Palm Sunday. The day before, dozens of March for Our Lives events across the US advocated for more gun control.

Jeffress lamented the 1960s Supreme Court rulings that declared daily teacher-led prayer and Bible readings in school unconstitutional. For the first 150 years of our nations history, our school children prayed. They read Scripture in school. They even memorized the Ten Commandmentsincluding the commandment, Thou shalt not kill, he said.

Even without such religious activities in public schools, Americans across faiths continue to ascribe to the set of God-given guidelines that make up the foundation of Jewish and Christian morality.

A new survey by YouGov and Deseret News found that half or more of US adults view each of the commandments as important to live by, with you shall not commit murder ranking at the top.

The survey, part of an ongoing Deseret News series on the Ten Commandments, was conducted March 1013 among a nationally representative sample of 1,250 US adults. The margin of error is +/- 3.1 percent, and higher among subgroups.

Overall, 94 percent of Americans and 99 percent of evangelicals believe the commandment against murder remains significant.

Image: Deseret News

Evangelicals were more likely than the average American or members of other religious groups to be concerned with following each of the Ten Commandments.

Image: Deseret News

After murder, the commandments against stealing (99% of evangelicals vs. 94% of Americans), lying (99% of evangelicals vs. 91% of Americans), honoring parents (97% of evangelicals vs. 85% of Americans), and adultery (94% of evangelicals vs. 83% of Americans) were viewed as most important.

Americans held the Ten Commandments in higher esteem than respondents to a similar YouGov survey conducted in the United Kingdom, where adults were less than half as likely to still believe in the commandments regarding worshiping idols, the Lord as God, using the Lords name in vain, and observing the Sabbath.

Image: Deseret News

Last year, a YouGov and Deseret News survey found that while white evangelicals had stricter standards for adultery and cheating, they grew more accepting of politicians who had extramarital affairs. In 2017, 53 percent said it wouldnt matter, compared to 42 percent the year before.

In this years survey, Americans came down hard on lying to a spouse or partner about an affair, with 95 percent of evangelicals and 87 percent of all adults saying that would never be okay.

Yet, Americans overall grew more accepting of lying in politics. When asked, If you agree with a candidate on most issues, yet believe they are sometimes less than honest and would lie to cover up the truth, would you still vote for that person or would that be a deal breaker for you?, 36 percent of respondents said they would still vote for the candidate, compared to just 23 percent the year before.

Image: Deseret News

More than half of evangelicals opposed all instances of lying, ranging from cheating on taxes (which 93% said was never acceptable) to exaggerating a story (which 62% said was never acceptable).

Overall, Americans have grown more tolerant over white lies in the past decade or so, with more people considering it okay to inflate their resume (36% say its fine, compared to 11% in 2006), call in sick to work when they arent (60% say its fine, compared to 34% in 2006), or lie to their children about their past (51% say its fine, compared to 40% in 2006).

Image: Deseret News

Christians have debated whether there are acceptable situations to lie, and whether deceit could serve a good purpose. The late theology professor Allen Verhey addressed the question for Christianity Today in 1999, saying:

Devotion to God should lead us to speak the truth, to love the neighbor, to serve life. In this sad world, however, sometimes we find ourselves in situations where to speak the truth may harm a neighbor, or where a lie (as in Rahab's story) may be necessary to preserve the life of a neighbor. (Even the instruction not to "bear false witness" in the Ten Commandments is put in the covenant context of not harming one's neighbor.) We live the truth not for its own sake, but for God's sake and for the neighbor's sake.

CT also covered the different levels of lying, including Christians tendency to downplay their white lies.
New Book Shakes the Pillars of Christianity

Contact: Ray Evans,

817-779-3446,

revans@simplegrafx.com



ARLINGTON, Texas, March 28, 2018 /Christian Newswire/ -- DesertStream Publications is happy to announce the launch of "The Gospel...According to God," by noted Christian author, R C Evans, author of "The 12 Keys To Unlocking A Happier, Healthier, Wealthier Life;" "Financial Freedom  The S.I.M.P.L.E. Way, A Biblical Approach To Financial Planning;" and "The Endtimes: What You Need To Know Right Now."



In his newest book, "The Gospel...According To God," RC Evans identifies seven popular Christian doctrines that have been misinterpreted or misunderstood for centuries.



The author says a lot of Christians are going to be sorely disappointed when they get to the pearly gates and hear Jesus say, "Depart from me, I never knew you."



According to Evans, "While this book was written for Christians, it's intended for anyone who is skeptical, confused or just wants answers to questions that have plagued people for generations."

What Is Eternal Life

What Happens After We Die?

What Is Freewill?

What Is Salvation?

And Much, Much More

"It's not rocket science," Evans opined, "God says what he means; and means what he says."



This 115-page book is enlightening. It's a quick read; but the depth of meaning is unparalleled. It will help readers understand why Jesus said to beware of the Scribes and Pharisees; and constantly warned of false teaching.



"Just because everyone believes something to be true, doesn't make it truth," Evans says. "At one time everyone believed the earth was flat."



The book is controversial; but the reader will be rewarded with an understanding of scripture that is logical, practical and finally makes sense.



A Press Kit and a review copy of the book (in PDF format) is available to journalists and bloggers at www.desertstreampublications.com/gospel-press-kit.



About the Author:

Illuminated on Christmas Day, 1986, Ray Evans committed his life to serving God after a "Damascus Road" experience on January 13, 1987. He spent nine months in prayer and meditation growing in wisdom, knowledge and understanding; what was revealed was this: "Christianity is not a religion, it's a way of life; a way of living as God intended." The author of several inspired works, he is also the owner of SimpleGrafx and several other on and offline businesses.



To schedule an interview with Ray Evans or to use content from the book, please contact: Ray Evans - revans@simplegrafx.com or call him direct at 817-779-3446


The magic returns; the strains of our music will once more ring forth. Consortium Aurora Borealis is back in action after the silence imposed on so many arts organizations by COVID-19.
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AKRON, Ohio - If you haven't gotten your shirt yet for 330 Day, no worries, Akron-based rockEVERYwear apparel & art is delivering 330-centric t-shirts purchased from its website all day on Thursday.

rockEVERYwear, whose tagline is "Bringing a City Together," is delivering the shirts to prepare residents for Friday, March 30, when people across the 330-region will show their local pride by wearing t-shirts that promote the city, local businesses and organizations.

Officially 330 Day was started in 2016 by Northeast Ohio public radio station The Summit. The day marked the launch of the Summit's online music station the330.net, which plays music exclusively generated by Northeast Ohio musicians.

Each year, The Summit hosts a free concert featuring local musicians at a different location in the 330 area. This year, the concert is at 6 p.m. Friday, March 30 at the Akron Civic Theatre in downtown Akron. 330 Day commemorative t-shirts and posters will be available for $33.

Adding to this year's festivities, the Akron/Summit Convention & Visitors Bureau announced a contest for residents and businesses across the 330 area to post selfies with people wearing 330-themed shirts for a chance to win two airline tickets for a trip departing from the Akron-Canton Airport.

"330 Day potentially could be a lot of fun for the area," said Roger Riddle, the visitors bureau's social media and marketing manager. "It's been a celebration of local music up to this point, but we want everyone to kind of feel a part of it."

The selfie contest is hoped to spur people to show their Akron pride via social media, while benefiting local businesses, Riddle said.

More organizations could be involved in next year's 330 Day.

"The event is clearly growing and we fully intend to work with community partners to continue to make 330 Day better for everyone," said Ryan Humbert, The Summit's event & marketing coordinator.

330 Day was started in 2016 by Northeast Ohio public radio station The Summit to mark the launch of online music station the330.net, which plays music exclusively generated by Northeast Ohio musicians. Each year, The Summit hosts a free concert at a different location in the 330 area featuring local musicians.

This year, local t-shirt producers rockEVERYwear and Rubber City Clothing are feeling the 330 Day enthusiasm.

rockEVERYwear's online store has been busy filling orders for higher-quantity group orders, said owner Ryan Weiss, who started his business in 2009.

Weiss runs the store and a fashion truck, which could be mistaken for a food truck at Akron's outdoor events if it weren't for the t-shirts and gear on display.

Right now, his Akron Diversity design, which features Akron businesses and destinations - from Stan Hywet to the Rubber Bowl - is in big demand.

"The revenue is awesome, but I think this is reflecting on Akron and what's going on here," he said. "I started the company to help promote the positively we have going in Akron. We have a lot of great local businesses, and artists, musicians and obviously athletes, like LeBron."

In addition to making t-shirt deliveries Thursday, rockEVERYwear is running a $5 off promotion that's good through midnight March 30.

Rubber City Clothing, which has been producing Akron-centric t-shirts, window stickers and other gear since 2004 in Akron, has also been busy.

Rubber City Clothing stocks hundreds of designs, from tires to blimps to logos from vintage Akron businesses. For 330 Day, the company will attach 330 decals, free, to the sleeves of shirts purchased through the end of March, said manager Angela Roloff.

It's tough to say which designs are doing the best.

"They're all doing very well," she said. "We have so many different versions of 330."

Rubber City Clothing is located at the Northside Marketplace, 21 Furnace St. in the Northside Arts District.

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 - City Council is examining questions about enforcement and unintended consequences as it weighs legislation to raise the age to 21 to buy tobacco products in Akron.

The legislation, known as T-21, was presented to council March 19 by At-large Councilwoman Linda Omobien and Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan. Similar legislation has been adopted in about 270 U.S. cities. The current age to buy tobacco products in Akron is 18.

The Health & Public Service committee of City Council is taking another week to deliberate, as officials work through the law's potential affects.

At its core, the law is seeking to keep high-school kids ages 14-18 from starting to smoke. The theory is that most high schoolers don't hang around with 21-year-olds, so taking legally bought cigarettes out of the hands of teens means fewer loose cigarettes will be distributed from friend-to-friend in school.

The legislation would raise the age to purchase all traditional tobacco products, including e-cigarettes and vaping oils and paraphernalia.

Any measure that makes it harder for teenagers to get tobacco could mean one less life-long smoker, said Summit County Public Health Commissioner Donna Skoda. The health department, which already inspects businesses across the county, would enforce T-21.

"This [law] is fairly simple to begin and to implement, but it doesn't take a great deal of cost," Skoda told the committee on Monday. "Anything that controls youth access is a best-proven standard, according to the Centers for Disease Control. And that' what we're after here."

Infant mortality

Raising the age in Akron to buy tobacco originally emerged out of efforts to reduce high infant-mortality rates, said Akron Health Equity Ambassador Tamiyka Rose.

Summit County's smoking rate for women aged 18-21 is 23.7 percent -- almost triple the smoking rate for pregnant women across the U.S. Those numbers correlate to the county's high infant-mortality rate, which is 30 percent higher than the national average.

From 2012-2016, nearly 24 percent of infant deaths in Summit County were linked to mothers who smoked during pregnancy. That's 65 percent higher than the county's average for all births, the health department reports.

Rose, working in conjunction with the hospitals and health department, has brought physicians from all three major hospital systems to testify on the T-21 legislation at City Council.

On Monday, Akron Children's Hospital Pediatrics Department Chair Dr. Norman Christopher, called the county's infant-mortality rates " very high and very troubling."

"There is no safe level of tobacco exposure for children," Christopher said.

Enforcement

If T-21 passes, the health department would provide enforcement, shaping the inspection process based on its existing inspections of food establishments and bars, said Cory Kendrick, the health department's director of population health.

In the first six months after the law is approved, the health department would work to educate the 460 vendors that sell tobacco products in Akron. Vendors would go through a licensing or registration process that is yet to be determined.

Stores would also have to install signage for customers and be prepared to provide information on smoking cessation programs available locally, Kendrick said. Under-age "secret shoppers" would be sent in to buy cigarettes at tobacco retailers to ensure the law was being enforced.

Residents would learn about the new law through ads on buses and billboards, and through mailings. The young people affected by the bill would be targeted through social media channels as well.

Once the program is up and running, retailers caught selling to underage buyers would first be given a warning. On the second offense, they would be charged a $500 civil fine. The fine would be $1,000 for each offense thereafter. Repeat offenders could lose their licensing and be banned from selling tobacco products, Kendrick said.

At-large Councilwoman Veronica Sims said adequate information had been provided by officials who addressed council and the health department, but continuing discussion was needed. She requested that smoking cessation information be made available to young smokers affected by the new law.

"Nobody opposes the effort to try to reduce young folks smoking," Sims said. "Sometimes we pass legislation with good intent but don't think about some of these consequences. They've been pretty convincing this is not about law enforcement - it's about becoming better partners with the retailers in efforts to reduce smoking."

Unintended consequences

Ward 5 Councilwoman Tara Mosley-Samples said she's concerned about the law creating a "black market" of young people buying cigarettes illegally from adults or 20-year-olds selling lose cigarettes to younger kids.

Although the law would be designed to impose civil penalties on tobacco vendors, not citizens, Mosley-Samples said it could still lead to criminalizing of young people. She pointed to the death of Eric Garner, who was choked to death by a New York City Police officer while selling loose cigarettes in 2014.

"As someone that represents a community that predominately looks like me, full of young boys that get pulled over on a regular basis for whatever reason, are we now creating yet another reason to pull them over?" she said.

She questioned what might happen if a police officer saw someone he or she recognized as being under-age pass in a car, smoking a cigarette.

"It's hard for me to believe that it's not going to fall back on these young people that live in the neighborhood I represent," she said. She asked the officials for more information that will show how the undercover aspects of enforcement will unfold.

The ordinance will be discussed again by Akron City Council's Health & Public Service Committee on Monday, March April 2. If it is approved by full council, the measure would then go before the board of Summit County Public Health in early May and be ready for implementation in October.

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 - An Akron man was sentenced to 26 years in prison for tying up two men and pistol-whipping them during a home invasion.

Davon Irvine, 24, was found guilty earlier this month of two counts of aggravated robbery, one count of aggravated burglary and two counts of kidnapping in the Dec. 30, 2015 incident in Akron's Lane-Wooster neighborhood.

Judge Christine Croce sentenced him Wednesday in Summit County Common Pleas Court, prosecutors said.

An Akron woman let Irvine and a second robber into a home on Pontiac Avenue near West Thornton Street so they could steal money from two brothers, according to court records.

Investigators have not identified the second robber.

Irvine and the second robber grabbed the two brothers, bound them with zip-ties and pistol-whipped them while demanding money, according to court records.

The robbers put a bag over a 29-year-old man's head and duct-tape over his 40-year-old brother's mouth, according to police reports.

The robbers took $1,200 before they left the home.

The woman who let the robbers into the home, Alexandra Amos, was later sentenced to four years in prison.

Amos, 24, of Akron, pleaded guilty to burglary in the case. She spent nine months in the Ohio Reformatory for Women before she was granted judicial release on June 22, 2017, according to Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction records.

Irvine's criminal history includes prior convictions for felonious assault, cocaine possession and improperly handling a firearm in a motor vehicle, prosecutors said. He was on probation when the home invasion robbery occurred.

To comment on this story, visit Wednesday's crime and courts comments page.
BEACHWOOD, Ohio -- In a well-mannered meeting attended by 35 people Tuesday evening at the city's library, a group called Beachwood Community Connection made its case to persuade people to vote against the upcoming school levy.

Among those in attendance, seated in a back row, were Beachwood Schools Superintendent Robert Hardis and Treasurer Michele Mills. Hardis and Mills remained in their seats and answered a few questions, but mostly came to listen.

On May 8, the school district will ask voters to approve a combined operating levy and bond issue. The operating levy is the first the district has sought in 13 years. It comes in an era when most public school districts seek operating money from voters every three to five years.

The bond issue portion of Issue 2 seeks to raise funds to combine Bryden and Hilltop elementary schools at one location, a renovated Fairmount School property. The Hilltop and Bryden buildings would be demolished.

The Hilltop property would become a community park, while the Bryden property would be used to develop single-family homes.

The combined levy totals 8.7 mills. For the owner of a $250,000 home, the increased taxes would amount to $63 per month, or $756 annually. The median price for a single-family Beachwood home, as of January, was $278,000.

The increase, the school district notes on its website, is 13 percent for homeowners and 11 percent for commercial property owners.

"A lot of people I've talked with don't even know there's an election May 8," said Bruce Bream, one of the three residents who hosted the meeting, along with construction business veteran Jim Mezi and Daniel Dermer.

The event's organizers are hoping that those who attended the meeting will spread the word to other residents that a school issue is coming May 8, and that a yes vote could be costly.

"Most people will go into the polls, see 'schools,' and say, 'OK, we support it,'" Mezi said. "That's the way Beachwood is. They support their schools."

Mezi said that the project's cost estimate has risen from an estimated $35.7 million in 2015 to the current $38.9 million. A fact sheet given to those in attendance, compiled after the organizers recently met with Hardis and Mills, stated that the school district's capacity to borrow is $39 million.

The meeting's organizers say that the school board misrepresented the costs to homeowners. The actual cost, they said, is $302 per $100,000 of valuation, or for the owner of a $300,000 home, $906 per year.

After examining the costs, Mezi asked, "Where's the educational benefit?" He added that a combined school will take away the neighborhood feel currently enjoyed at Bryden and Hilltop.

"The main thing I'm against is combining the issues," Bream said. It was a statement with which many in attendance agreed.

"They're (school board) trying to pull a fast one," resident Mikhail Alterman said of the combined issue.

Bream said that, if the two issues were separate, he would likely support the operating levy.

Some in attendance weren't sure why the school board wants to pour millions of dollars into converting an existing building while tearing down two other buildings.

Under the schools' plan, the Fairmount building would house all of the approximately 545 students that now attend Bryden and Hilltop.

Mezi said it is not the building that makes a good student.

"It's already a blue ribbon school district," he said. "What distinguishes Beachwood Schools are the households the kids come from."

When asked after the meeting why the issues are to be combined on the ballot, Hardis explained, "Both are critical at this time."

He said that state school funding is being reduced by $2.2 million this year, then $2.5 million in the years that follow.

In addition, $1 million in taxpayers' money is being transferred from the Beachwood Schools District to non-public schools to pay for school choice scholarships and those schools' special education services. In some instances, Beachwood Schools are transferring $27,500 per student to non-public schools.

As for the bond issue, he said: "Bryden and Hilltop are both 62 years old. They both have boilers that are 62 years old."

Upgrading the schools' heating systems would be expensive, as would other needed upgrades, he said.

"Just like someone's home, when they get to be 62 years old, there are things that need to be done -- a new roof, a new furnace. And this is on a larger scale, a school building. We do maintain our buildings, but why put millions into old buildings to make them last another 10 years?"

Hardis said that the new classrooms at the Fairmount School building would each include a new safety feature -- two exits -- to make for quicker evacuation.

While Mezi questioned the need for a "welcoming vestibule" that would be featured at the Fairmount building at a cost of $1.4 million, Hardis said that Bryden and Hilltop do not now have modern, proper school entrances. A modern entrance, Hardis said, allows for a vestibule where a visitor's business at the school can immediately be determined.

Bream criticized the school for seeking money to spend on the consolidation plan while the Beachwood High School natatorium is in need of renovation.

Hardis and Mills said the indoor pool, parking lot and other upgrades are contained in the permanent improvements budget that is upgraded each year.

"And that permanent improvement money would not come out of the (Issue 2) levy money," Hardis said.

When asked why the two issues had to be combined, Mills said district officials felt residents would likely vote for the less expensive bond issue and not for the operational levy.

Bream told those gathered that voting against Issue 2 would not harm the Beachwood Schools financially. He said the operating levy could be put on the November ballot, separate from the bond issue, and still allow for the schools to begin collecting increased tax money in January, the same month it would begin collecting if Issue 2 is passed May 8.

To learn more from the Beachwood Community Connection perspective, visit savebrydenhilltop.wordpress.com.

The group Beachwood Citizens for Quality Schools present their argument for passage on May 8 at investinthebestbeachwood.com.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Euclid man arrested Wednesday is accused of acting as a sort-of middleman between Chinese suppliers of synthetic opioids and users in the U.S.

Antoin Austin, 28, used the online handle "DARKKING22" on a dark web marketplace and sold various drugs. Undercover investigators made a series of purchases from "DARKKING22," with the most recent being Monday, according to a criminal complaint.

Authorities say they also have evidence that Austin got shipments of fentanyl from a Chinese distributor, zeroing in on one sent to him in October.

Austin is charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances. He is in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service, with a detention hearing set for next week.

Ed Bryan, Austin' federal public defender, declined comment.

The complaint says "DARKKING22" sold drugs at least 60 times, as that was the amount of reviews he received for transactions on the dark web marketplace the FBI and other agencies visited. Austin's storefront advertised "Fentanyl Pure HCL, Methozymethylfentanyl '30490,' molly, pure lofentanil, and MMAF New Product." Most of those are either fentanyl or analogues, the complaint says.

Undercover agents bought one gram of "MMAF New Product" on Jan. 26 with Bitcoin, the complaint says. The shipment arrived Feb. 13 in a white envelope with a stamp that showed it was mailed from around Cleveland. Inside was a greeting card and a small plastic bag with 1.4 grams of a fine white powder, according to authorities.

Agents bought more drugs from Austin on March 20, this time using a Wickr handle that he listed on his storefront page, the complaint says.

Two days later, they received a package that again originated from a post office in Wickliffe. The package contained two greeting cards with bags of powder inside, the complaint says. Lab tests showed that the substance was a synthetic opioid.

A post office employee in Wickliffe identified Austin as the man who sent the package, the complaint says.

Agents made additional purchases and trailed Austin as they confirmed he was the seller, officials say.

"Drug traffickers like this have enriched themselves while causing so much pain in our community," U.S. Attorney Justin Herdman said in a news release.

Cuyahoga County, like the rest of the state and the nation, has seen an influx in recent years of synthetic opioids such as fentanyl being shipped from China. The drugs are often exponentially more powerful than heroin.

The fact that they arrive in the U.S. has shattered preconceived notions that drugs are only flooding in from Mexico and other Latin American countries. The head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration told cleveland.com that it requested and received money in a recent spending bill to inspect more packages and help root out mailed drugs.



Previous Coverage: FDA head details plans to curb shipments of synthetic opioids into Ohio

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CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A judge on Wednesday overturned the 2003 murder conviction of a man who spent 15 years in prison for a killing he didn't commit.

Ru-El Sailor walked into court a prisoner, but walked out of jail a free man after the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office found he wasn't at the scene of a killing that he always insisted that he didn't commit.

Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Nancy McDonnell granted a joint motion from Prosecutor Michael O'Malley's office and Sailor's defense attorneys, Kimberly Corral and the Ohio Innocence Project's Jennifer Bergeron, to vacate Sailor's conviction in the death of Omar Clark.

In exchange, Sailor, who's been imprisoned for 15 years, pleaded guilty to perjury and obstruction of justice charges for lying on the stand during his trial and received a 10-year sentence, the maximum for those charges at the time of his 2003 trial.

Sailor was given credit for time served, so he was ordered released from custody.

"It's a long that comes to an end," Sailor said in court, dressed in a V-neck sweater over a collared shirt, slacks and dress shoes.

Sailor was released from jail about 6:30 p.m. to a jubilant crowd of his family, who whooped and hollered when he came out.

"I ain't just the face of somebody who made it out," Sailor told a scrum of reporters. "I'm the face of many people who didn't make it out. There's a lot more in there, and we have to continue fighting for them."

Sailor, his fiance Amy Spence, and a crowd of family, friends and attorneys from the Ohio Innocence Project, left the courthouse, where a party bus -- named "Boss III" -- waited to take the group to Texas Roadhouse for steaks.

The day marked the culmination of a 15-month investigation by Russell Tye, who heads O'Malley's conviction integrity unit, the first such investigation to stem from a direct application from a defendant and not through an appellate court's decision.

"Justice was served for Ru-El Sailor today," O'Malley said after the hearing.

Umar Clark, Omar Clark's brother, came forward in 2010 and said that shortly after the trial that another man, William Sizemore, was actually at the scene of the shooting and not Sailor. But Umar Clark said in court Wednesday that he didn't come forward then because he didn't care who got put away for his brother's murder, as long as someone did.

But eight years later, as he got older and wiser, he said someone asked him what he wanted to see in life.

"I said, 'I want to see an innocent man walk out of jail,'" Umar Clark said, pausing to fight back tears. "That day, I vowed to just do all I can to see change and see this man right here come home."

No physical evidence ever tied Sailor to Omar Clark's death. He was shot during a confrontation between Cordell Hubbard, his sister Nichole Hubbard, and a friend over a $20 marijuana cigarette laced with PCP.

Sailor testified during his own trial and told the jury that he was out at bars with Hubbard the entire night of the shooting and that the two never separated. Sailor was confident that he wouldn't be convicted because knew he was innocent and told the lie in an effort to cover for Hubbard, his lawyer said.

But the statement likely damaged Sailor's credibility, and jurors convicted him and both Hubbards. McDonnell sentenced Sailor to 28 years to life in prison.

Sailor's guilt was called into question almost immediately, as Hubbard declared at sentencing that investigators had the wrong man.

Despite his attorneys obtaining affidavits from key witnesses who recanted their testimony, appeals courts continued to reject his requests for a new trial.

Former Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty also twice rejected Sailor's applications to have the conviction integrity unit examine his case.

O'Malley, who ousted McGinty in the 2016 Democratic primary election, agreed to review the case in January 2017 and, after 15 months of tracking down witnesses, corroborated Sailor's claims that he wasn't there. O'Malley agreed to vacate his conviction but insisted that he plead guilty to lying under oath.

In court Wednesday, O'Malley acknowledged that it was "unfortunate" that Sailor's trial took place, and turned to his comments to Sailor's false testimony.

"Mr. Sailor has acknowledged the wrong that he committed in that trial," O'Malley said in court Wednesday. "It's been a long, hard lesson."

Sailor apologized to McDonnell for lying in the stand, and to Umar Clark for trying to cover for Hubbard.

McDonnell, who oversaw Sailor's trial and denied two of his requests for a new trial, told Sailor his conviction was his fault for lying in court to try and cover for Hubbard.

"If you would have just told the truth, you wouldn't have spent the last 15 years in prison," McDonnell said. "You put yourself in prison."

Spence said the way Sailor was spoken to, in the same moment that the murder conviction that he spent 15 years in imprisoned for was dropped, was upsetting.

"He was spoken to like he's a criminal and he's not a criminal. He's innocent," she said. "He did what he did because he was young and naive. I just don't want people to think he's a bad person, because he's not a bad person."

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CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The 'March for Our Lives,' put at risk by gun violence, could be followed up with a 'March for Our Lives' put at risk by the appointment of John-Bomb-'em-Bolton as National Security Adviser.

President Trump's lawyers had erroneously told him the Mueller investigation would be over by last Thanksgiving. Now it's not unrealistic to believe the investigation may come to an end when John Bolton ignites a nuclear world war. That's not hyperbole, given Bolton's long record of being an unabashed warmonger. A record that frightened even Republicans into voting against confirming him for a past appointment.

In 2013, Trump called the Iraq War "a waste of blood & treasure." In 2018 President Trump named one of that war's biggest advocates his National Security Advisor. Bolton still defends the war as the right decision, despite WMD's never being found.

Trump reportedly passed on Bolton for Secretary of State because he didn't like Bolton's trademark mustache. He should have bolted from Bolton as Secretary of State and National Security for his extremism that puts the security of the U.S. and world at risk.

For Bolton, diplomacy is just a target that should be bombarded like Iran,North Korea, and any other international dilemma confronting the nation.

Upon his appointment as NSD, Bolton claimed on Fox News that his past views were now in the past and all that matters to him is Trump's positions, not his.

"Frankly, what I have said in private now is behind me," said Bolton. "The important thing is what the President says and the advice I give him."

Bolton talked about how he understood the role of the National Security Advisor is to put in front of the president all his possible options, and then work to put the president's decision into action.

Like Johnny Manziel with the Browns, Bolton talks a good game. His actions tell a different story.

As U.N. Ambassador, Bolton routinely undercut his boss Condoleeza Rice. He has a reputation for being combative with colleagues and for cherry-picking information that supports his positions, which is how President Bush and Colin Powell got manipulated into approving the Iraq War by Vice President Dick Cheney.

After Trump named Bolton, CNN's Kaitlin Collins had reported that her sources said Bolton promised Trump "he wouldn't start any wars" if Trump chose him for the job. But by the next day, Axios refuted that report.

Jonathan Swan of Axios tweeted that a source close to John Bolton told him Bolton made no promise to Trump that he wouldn't start any wars. "Not true, wasn't discussed," the source told Swan.

Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, former National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and Defense Secretary James Mattis had served as checks against Trump's reckless impulsiveness. With Tillerson and McMaster now gone, only Mattis and new Secretary of State Mike Pompeo remain as checks against Trump, who will now be emboldened by another bull in the world's china shop, Bolton.

Trump and Bolton are dangerous enough by themselves, together they can prove deadly for those targeted by nuclear bombs, here and abroad.

Last year, BuzzFeed reported that McMaster had derided Trump during a dinner with Oracle CEO Safra Catz. According to BuzzFeed's sources, McMaster demeaned Trump as a "dope" and an "idiot" who had the intelligence of a "kindergartner."

Calling Trump an "idiot" likely sealed McMaster's fate. But Trump proved McMaster was right when he named Bolton to replace him.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Custom BioGenic Systems, the Michigan company believed to be the manufacturer in the University Hospitals fertility freezer incident, told NBC News that no malfunction in its equipment occurred.

University Hospitals said Tuesday that they believe the freezer incident, a fluctuation in freezer temperature that rendered thousands of eggs and embryos nonviable, could have been caused by equipment failure and human error.

CBS provided NBC News the following statement:

"Custom Biogenic Systems (CBS) is aware of the incident at University Hospitals Ahuja Center in Beachwood, Ohio, and is currently in the process of gathering information. Our objective is to work diligently to support the investigation into what occurred and be helpful in the search for answers in this difficult situation. We continue to have confidence in our products and our people that serve our customers."

CBS sent a second statement to NBC News on Tuesday evening. In it, CBS denied that issues with the auto-filling mechanism constituted a "malfunction" or an underlying "technical problem."

Tuesday and Wednesday, CBS would not answer questions from the Plain Dealer.

Custom BioGenic Systems, founded in 1987 and based in Bruce Township, Michigan between Flint and Detroit, is designer and manufacturer of liquid nitrogen laboratory freezers, cryogenic equipment and accessories.

In a letter to patients and media interviews on Tuesday, UH said all 4,000 of the frozen eggs and embryos at Ahuja Medical Center's fertility program were ruined when the temperature in a tank rose to unacceptable levels.

The hospital had experienced problems with one tank's autofill function, and had been working with the manufacturer to fix the problem. The temperature inside the tank climbed before a fix could be made. UH is still investigating why there was a temperature fluctuation in the tank.

Human error, according to UH, was another factor because the remote alarm system on the tank, designed to alert employees to changes in temperature, was somehow turned off or deactivated. This meant that alerts that should have been sent to staff were never sent.

About 950 patients were affected, UH said.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- As the opioid epidemic in Ohio and across the nation continues to evolve from a prescription-pill problem to one centered around deadly street drugs, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration sought money to stem the flow of synthetic opioids into the country, said FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb in an interview with cleveland.com.

The $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump on Friday set aside $94 million so the FDA can increase inspections of the some 2.4 million packages shipped into the United States every day.

The FDA is zeroing in on shipped drugs that are re-packaged and sold on the street because they are increasingly to blame for overdose deaths in America, Gottlieb said.

He estimates that about 9 percent of the parcels shipped into America through nine international mail facilities contain illegal drugs, which includes synthetic opioids like fentanyl. The substance is 30-to-50 times stronger than heroin and was found in the systems of at least 477 people who died of drug overdoses in Cuyahoga County last year, according to a preliminary report from the county medical examiner's office. Prior to 2015, the county had not seen any fentanyl-related deaths.

Currently, the FDA inspects only about one half of one percent of the packages they suspect contain drugs, Gottlieb said. He hopes the inspection increases will help limit the amount of foreign synthetic opioids that are playing a large role in the continued spike of fatalities in Northeast Ohio and other regions hit hard by the opioid epidemic.

The problem of illegal drugs crossing into the country through the mail is illustrated by a slew of fentanyl importing schemes under investigation by federal agents in Cuyahoga County, Summit County and the surrounding regions. An Akron couple was charged earlier this month in one such case, in which the U.S. Attorney's Office accused them of buying synthetic opioids on the dark web and having them shipped to post office boxes around Akron and Canton.

Investigators say the couple could turn a few ounces of pure fentanyl or carfentanil, which is 3,000-to-5,000 times more potent than heroin, into pounds of drugs for resale by cutting them with a health supplemental powder.

The packages that the FDA inspects are first flagged for additional inspection by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which, in collaboration with the Postal Service, is tasked with monitoring international shipments that arrive in the country through airports, seaports and by land.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents perform the initial screenings using X-ray machines, drug-sniffing dogs, and other methods to confiscate any shipments that obviously contain controlled substances. But when CBP agents can't determine a package's contents, or whether a substance inside a package is illicit, they pass it on to the FDA for further evaluation. This means that the FDA's inspections are one of the last lines of defense before a package makes it to its final destination inside the country.

"So the fact that (the FDA) is still seeing (these packages that contain drugs) gives you a sense of both the difficulty of detecting these things, and the overwhelming volume," Gottlieb said. "We presume there are packages going through that probably do contain controlled substances that we're not catching -- that's why we want to step up these efforts. This is a big vulnerability."

While President Trump has advocated for a southern border wall, in part, to stop the flow of inbound drugs, the fact remains that illicit substances are increasingly finding their way into the country through the U.S. Mail.

U.S. Senator Rob Portman of Ohio has frequently drawn attention to this method of drug smuggling and last year introduced a bill meant to combat it: the Synthetics Trafficking & Overdose Prevention Act. It would require all international mail packages to have electronic tracking information that would aid in the targeting of suspicious shipments.

And while the FDA will execute its plan to cut down on the supply of fentanyl-like drugs that make it into the United States, the agency is still faced with finding solutions for those who are already dependent on opioids.

In line with President Trump's opioid initiative announced on March 19, Gottlieb spoke of advancements in opioid treatments that his agency is pursuing to help those suffering from addiction.

Gottlieb said the FDA wants to facilitate the development of new and better opioid treatments that may be longer-acting than the treatments already on the market.

"Previously, the end point was abstinence: this (new) drug will end addiction. Well, a drug may not (outright) induce abstinence, but it might help treat some of the symptoms of addiction and craving. That, in conjunction with other medications or psychosocial support, could help lead to...an overall treatment plan to help an addicted patient live a life of sobriety," Gottlieb said. "We're trying to be flexible in how we look at regulatory endpoints."

The fight against the opioid epidemic is generally considered a two-pronged approach: stop the flow of opioids into the hands of those who may abuse them, and treat those who are already addicted. A whole new set of challenges arise as more and more users turn to unregulated and extremely more potent substances that are available on the street, as opposed to pills that are dispensed from medical professionals, Gottlieb said.

When asked if his agency was partly culpable for fueling the surge of doctor-prescribed opioids that led to the nation's current epidemic, Gottlieb acknowledged that the FDA was part of the rest of America's medical establishment that initially underestimated the dangers of the drugs when they began to flood the market.

"In hindsight there were a lot of things we could've done differently. I think what we want to do is be vigilant and aggressive enough now...that we don't make any mistakes going forward," Gottlieb said.

President Trump, too, has vowed to be aggressive in his initiative to Stop Opioid Abuse and Reduce Drug Supply and Demand.

But one portion of the plan that has drawn concern from those on the frontlines of the epidemic and Americans at large is the president's proposal that the Justice Department should seek the death penalty against some drug traffickers. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions last week went on to urge federal prosecutors to pursue capital punishment against large-scale traffickers when appropriate.

Public health experts have condemned the idea, saying it would not be an effective way to fight the opioid crisis. Gottlieb refrained from agreeing.

"That's really a question to put toward the law enforcement professionals," Gottlieb said. "It's important that everyone who has a role to play (in the opioid epidemic) stay within their lane and look at this within the context and prism of what they're able to do."

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CLEVELAND, Ohio - Mayor Frank Jackson unveiled plans Wednesday for a $15 million development of apartments and shops in a blighted area on the city's East Side.

Jackson said the project, which will involve both private investment and tax dollars, will serve as a framework for his plans to revitalize some the city's other struggling neighborhoods.

"We still have institutional disparity and inequality," he said in an earlier interview with cleveland.com. "If we concentrate on creation of quality of life and prosperity in areas where there is none, it will buffer and sustain everything else we have done."

What's the plan?

The apartments and shops are to go up adjacent to a proposed new park at East 105th and Ashbury Avenue and just north of the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center and University Circle.

The area, one of several that Jackson is targeting on the East and West sides, is between Ashbury and Superior avenues and east of 105th Street. A short distance south is University Circle, where tens of thousands of people are employed.

That proximity is key, Councilman Kevin Conwell said at the news conference.

"This project here is going to be seamless with University Circle," Conwell said. "When you leave University Circle, you shouldn't drop off the way [economic conditions] drop off. Now we're going to be connected with University Circle."

The developer, the Finch Group, has several housing projects in the University Circle area, including the Innova Apartments on Chester Avenue near the Cleveland Clinic, Park Lane Dwellings off 105th Street near Euclid, Circle East Townhomes on Euclid Avenue and Parkside Dwellings on Stearns Road.

The new building will have about 13,500 square feet of commercial space on the first floor and 63 apartments in the upper floors. The design work will go to City Architecture and the construction work will be awarded to Ozanne Construction.

The building should be completed by June 2019, Finch Group Chairman Wes Finch said in an interview. The city will provide tax abatements and tax increment financing for the project.

Some of the commercial space will open onto the new park, which will have an amphitheater. The hope is that a restaurant or two will locate there, Finch said.

The remaining space will be used to support new businesses, he said. Businesses that can't afford rents will have access to space by making Finch Group a partner.

"Here's an opportunity for entrepreneurs," Finch said.

The project should be a catalyst for development in the adjacent neighborhood, Finch said. "We've got a point to prove."

Nearly 30 new homes are expected to be built in the area over the next two or three years with assistance from the city. Another 20 homes are expected to be rehabilitated and made ready for sale. The city already has control of much of the property.

Homeowners will be able to get assistance to fix up the exteriors of their homes and to make emergency interior improvements such as furnace replacements or electrical work.

Some aspects of the Finch deal will have to be approved by Cleveland City Council. Council, though, has supported the mayor's plan. In addition to Conwell, council President Kevin Kelley attended Wednesday's news conference.

This map shows the part of Glenville that is the first area targeted by Mayor Frank Jackson's neighborhood revitalization initiative. The area stretches from East 105th Street to Lakeview Road between Superior and Ashbury avenues.

What's the goal?

Jackson expects the program will spark more economic growth in the neighborhood, draw in new residents and businesses and boost wealth for those who already live there by boosting the equity in their homes.

"If you're going to invest and you're willing to take the risk of investment, this is your area," Jackson said in an interview. "We're investing in the people who live there and we're investing to get people to come there."

Ultimately the model could be throughout the city, Jackson said.

What's the big picture?

Jackson's revitalization programs are targeting the corridors of East 105th and East 93rd streets on the East Side and the Clark Fulton area on the West Side.

The areas have easy access to public transit and major employment centers are nearby. Yet development and economic growth in the areas have been stagnant.

The city has committed $25 million toward the plan -- money that was carved out of a $100 million bond issue from 2015 and set aside specifically for neighborhood development and revitalization.

Jackson expects that money will leverage another $40 million in private investment, raising the total to $65 million. Huntington National Bank, PNC, Key Bank and Fifth Third Bank have publicly committed to support the plan with financing.

The money will fund loan programs to help jump start housing construction and commercial development. It also will support an incubator program to encourage entrepreneurs and new businesses, pay for demolition of dilapidated housing and support restoration of homes that can be saved.

The goal is to provide a spark that ignites more growth and development in neighborhoods, creating jobs and boosting home values to boost wealth. While there has been strong growth in several Cleveland neighborhoods -- places like Ohio City, Detroit Shoreway, University Circle -- development activity has been stagnant in several blighted areas.

"We had to create a public-private partnership so we could have investment," Jackson said Wednesday.
GARFIELD HEIGHTS, Ohio - No one was hurt when a Garfield Heights man struck two Cleveland patrol cars while trying to avoid arrest in a drug case, police said.

A 37-year-old man was taken into custody during the Tuesday incident on Burleigh Road near Garfield Boulevard, Cleveland and Garfield Heights police said.

The man was wanted in a narcotics case, a Cleveland police spokeswoman said. No additional information was immediately available.

Cleveland police officers went to a house shortly before 9:30 a.m. and found the man outside. He jumped in his car and tried to drive away, Cleveland and Garfield Heights police said.

The man struck two Cleveland patrol cars and drove over several neighbors' lawns as he sped away, Garfield Heights police said.

A Garfield Heights police officer providing backup in the area followed the man's car onto Garfield Boulevard. He pulled over and surrendered moments later near the intersection at East 93rd Street, Garfield Heights police said.

Garfield Heights detectives will seek charges, including felonious assault and traffic offenses, in connection with Tuesday's incident. Detectives will present evidence directly to a Cuyahoga County grand jury for a possible indictment, Garfield Heights police said.

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CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A veteran Cleveland police officer robbed at gunpoint at a cellphone store Tuesday waited until the robbers left the building before a shootout ensued outside, the police union's president said.

The officer, who was off-duty and shopping at the store with his girlfriend, ordered the robbers to drop their weapons and stop as they ran to a getaway car, according to Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association President Jeff Follmer.

The robbers instead turned around and opened fire on the officer. The officer returned fire, striking the robbers' car before they fled, Follmer said. No one was injured, according to police officials.

Cleveland police officials have not released an incident report on the robbery or shootout. A police dispatch report, however, also details some of Follmer's account of the incident.

"He did everything right," Follmer said. "He did an amazing job. He laid on the ground with his gun exposed and waited until they left to make sure everyone was safe."

Breaking: Off-duty Cleveland police officer shoots at robbers at Metro PCS. We are live from the scene. Posted by cleveland.com on Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Two men arrested later in the night on drug charges are being investigated as possible suspects in the robbery, according to Follmer and the dispatch records . No formal charges have been filed.

Cleveland police officials have not yet released the identity of the officer, who is on paid administrative leave for three days because he fired his service weapon.The officer is David Price, a 21-year veteran officer, according to three police sources and the police dispatch report.

The department's use-of-deadly-force detectives are investigating the case and Internal Affairs will also review the incident to see if the officer violated any policies.

The robbery happened about 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Metro PCS store in a shopping plaza on Broadway Avenue in the city's North Broadway neighborhood, police said.

Two gunmen, including one wearing a surgical mask, ordered several customers-- including the officer and his girlfriend-- and employees to the ground at gunpoint, according to police dispatch records and Follmer.

The robbers rummaged through the customers' pockets, stealing wallets, cash and other items, Follmer said.

One robber stole Price's wallet, which had police identification inside, according to Follmer and the police dispatch report. Price also had his police-issued gun with him, but the robbers did not steal that, Follmer said.

The officer chased the gunman outside, the police dispatch report says.Once outside the gunmen fired several shots at the officer, who was not hit.

Several witnesses reported hearing between eight and 20 gunshots during the exchange, according to to the dispatcher's report.

"One wrong move, and he and any of the employees or customers inside could have died," Follmer said.

Officers spotted an SUV about 20 minutes later that fit the description of the getaway car on Fuller Avenue near East 98th Street, about two miles east of the Metro PCS, according to dispatch records.

The SUV appeared to have bullet holes in the side and officers reported finding drugs and mail from Metro PCS inside, according to dispatch records. The records, however, say that the SUV was not confirmed to have been involved in the robbery and shootout.

Two men -- ages 19 and 23 -- were arrested on suspicion drug possession and obstructing justice, according to Cleveland City Jail records.

Investigators combed through the SUV looking for evidence that could link the duo to the shootout, dispatch records say.

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CLEVELAND, Ohio -- An off-duty Cleveland police officer was involved in a shooting Tuesday night during a robbery at a retail store, authorities said.

The off-duty officer fired shots during an attempted robbery just before 8 p.m. at the Metro PCS store in the 5800 block of Broadway Avenue, in the city's North Broadway neighborhood, Cleveland police spokeswoman Sgt. Jennifer Ciaccia said in a brief email.

No one was injured, Ciaccia said.

Breaking: Off-duty Cleveland police officer shoots at robbers at Metro PCS. We are live from the scene. Posted by cleveland.com on Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Two men walked into the store with guns and attempted to rob the cellphone retailer when the officer intervened in the robbery, Ciaccia said during a press conference at the scene.

The officer, who was a customer at the store, exchanged gunfire outside with the two men before they drove away in a vehicle, police said.

Investigators did not provide a description of the two men or the vehicle.

Surveillance video may have captured the incident, police said.

Police originally said the robbers may have possibly been arrested. No arrests have been made.

Investigators said store employees and other customers were inside when the shooting begin.

The department's forensic unit was at the scene collecting evidence. Several officers could be seen inside the store questioning people and taking notes.

Police remained at the scene as of 10:50 p.m.

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CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Should the Second Amendment, the part of the U.S. Constitution that gives Americans "the right to bear arms," be repealed? One former Republican Supreme Court Justice argues the amendment is nothing more than a relic and has no place in our modern society.

Former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens is calling for a repeal of the Second Amendment, saying it's outdated and misunderstood.

Stevens penned an op-ed for the New York Times, where he praised the students of Parkland, Fla., who are protesting for stricter gun laws after a gunman killed 17 of their classmates and faculty in a mass shooting on Valentine's Day.

But Stevens said the students and their thousands of supports worldwide should be calling on lawmakers to repeal the Second Amendment because that would make more of a lasting change than upping the age to buy guns and some of the other ideas proposed.

"Concern that a national standing army might pose a threat to the security of the separate states led to the adoption of that amendment, which provides that 'a well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.' Today that concern is a relic of the 18th century," Stevens wrote.

The op-ed came three days after hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered in cities across the country, including Cleveland, for March for Our Lives rallies to demand an end to gun violence.

Stevens claims the Amendment has been misinterpreted in recent decades to extend beyond its original intent to allow citizens to form militias in the face of potential government tyranny. He also states it has provided the NRA with a "propaganda weapon of immense power."

He said by repealing the Second Amendment it "would eliminate the only legal rule that protects sellers of firearms in the United States -- unlike every other market in the world. It would make our schoolchildren safer than they have been since 2008 and honor the memories of the many, indeed far too many, victims of recent gun violence."

Is it time for America to repeal the Second Amendment? Share your thoughts by joining us for a discussion from 1:30-3 p.m. for today's edition of "Talk It Out," a civil, moderated, constructive conversation on this topic in the comments section.

In our Talk it Out pre-curated conversations, comments are published after they are reviewed by a moderator -- promptly -- to ensure they adhere to our community rules, which prohibit indecent, hateful, abusive or harassing comments, personal attacks, vulgar nicknames, personal information including telephone numbers and addresses, email addresses belonging to others, anything inciting criminal behavior and copyrighted material for which you do not own the rights.
WASHINGTON -- The Trump administration has decided to use the 2020 census to ask every single household about its citizenship status. Within days, this has quickly devolved into accusations about motives, and worries that some immigrant families will duck the whole census or give false answers out of fear.

If so -- and this contention is disputed by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross -- that could matter deeply.

If families don't answer U.S. Census questions accurately because they fear or don't trust the government, the nation's decennial headcount could be flawed. This could change the makeup and number of congressional and state legislative districts, which are based on the every-10-years population counts from the census. It could affect how much federal money is sent to communities, for everything from housing to health care grants.

It could unfairly affect the clout or lack of influence a state has in the Electoral College, Democrats and civil rights groups charge.

Nonsense, says Ross, who made the final decision Monday. There is no solid evidence that people will duck out of the Census as a result of this single question, he said in an 8-page memo explaining his decision. Besides, other Republicans say, the makeup of voting districts should be determined by the number of people eligible to vote -- namely, United States citizens -- in the first place.

Latest absurd freak out is over #census2020 citizenship question. In every nation citizenship matters, so shouldnt we know how many we have? And districts apportioned based on # of people not here legally dilutes the political representation of citizens & legal residents.  Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) March 28, 2018

The decision raises lots of questions. Here are some answers.

The census is supposed to provide an accurate snapshot of the country's population. Are you saying there isn't a good snapshot of immigrants, whether here legally or otherwise?

The census is a short list of questions that goes to every household. Its questions are limited partly in an effort to get a high response rate. Attempts are made to contact households that don't respond.

But questions on citizenship are not on the every-household survey. They are asked on an occasional basis on the Census Bureau's American Community Survey, sent to a subset of the American population.

Why does the Trump administration now want to ask the question of everyone?

Those who want the question asked universally, including the Justice and Commerce Departments, say that to better enforce the Voting Rights Act -- which protects the right to vote and comes into play with challenges to voter suppression claims at the polls -- the nation needs a fuller assessment of citizenship.

It should be stated at the outset that voting rights cases tend to involve accusations that members of minority groups were denied their right to cast a ballot in an election. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 has its roots precisely in upholding minority rights.

This stated link between asking about citizenship and defending minority groups under the Voting Rights Act strikes Democrats and their allies as highly disingenuous.

Why are Democrats skeptical?

There are two primary reasons. One is that some congressional Republicans have pushed for a few years to get this question on the decennial census -- not to better defend minority voting rights, but so states could draw their legislative and congressional districts using only the number of U.S. citizens rather than the overall population. Republican U.S. Rep. Warren Davidson of southern Ohio explains this in a tweet:

#CitizenshipMatters Apportionment for Congressional seats and electoral votes should be based on citizens, not on residents. Otherwise citizens are underrepresented... For example, California gets roughly three extra members of Congress based on estimates of illegal residents. https://t.co/Acq02zM4Ev  Warren Davidson (@WarrenDavidson) March 27, 2018

The resulting congressional districts would likely mean fewer Democrats, and more Republicans, in key electoral states, and in Congress altogether. Republicans would gain more power and Democrats would lose it. We'll come back to that.

What's the other reason for skepticism?

The other reason for the skepticism centers on how the current proposal came about. It came out of President Donald Trump's Justice Department.

ProPublica, a nonprofit journalism organization, found through the Freedom of Information Act that the idea sprang from "a Justice Department political appointee who spent years as an attorney in private practice defending GOP redistricting maps around the country."

The appointee was John Gore, acting head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division and a former partner in Jones Day's Washington office. This caused Democrats -- including former top Justice Department officials under President Barack Obama -- and civil rights groups to believe the motivation involved a desire for more Republican congressional districts and had little to do with minority voting rights.

Constitution does not require citizenship question. This is purely political. Trump Administration is trying to rig the 2020 Census (to protect gerrymandering) by intimidating people. Dont be fooled-some states will unfairly lose funds and representation. We will sue. https://t.co/2R3mZ0FQSp  Eric Holder (@EricHolder) March 27, 2018

Is there something inherently wrong with asking every household about its citizenship?

Not at all, say those who support asking.

U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci, an Ohio Republican running for the Senate, "thinks it's an important question to be asked to get the right picture of the make-up of this country," his spokeswoman, Kelsey Knight, said.

Only US citizens should vote in US elections

Only US citizens should be able to receive government benefits

Only US citizens should be counted officially in the US census



RETWEET!  The Trump Train  (@The_Trump_Train) March 28, 2018

Opponents of asking the question say the question has partisan motives and could lead to economic harm -- and not just political changes -- for poorer Americans.

They say families of unauthorized immigrants might go further underground for fear that the census could be used to catch them. The question could create concern or fear even among authorized immigrants. That could result in an inaccurate count.

"The citizenship question and similar policies by this administration seek to leave minority communities undercounted, under-represented and under-protected," said John C. Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice.

Can you explain that a little more?

Because many government programs distribute money to communities based on population and income characteristics, an undercount in cities and neighborhoods with immigrants could mean those cities and neighborhoods wind up with fewer federal funds for housing, transportation, health services, legal services and so on. Numerous federal programs, involving hundreds of billions of dollars, depend on accurate population figures.

"Census data not only determines how we are represented in Washington, it helps determine where more than $400 billion in federal funding goes each year," said a blog post from Emily Campbell, associate director of the Center for Community Solutions, a Cleveland-based think tank that focuses on social services.

"Anything that discourages a household from responding to census questionnaires makes census data less reliable, and can threaten our ability to compile and analyze information for small geographies at the local level, such as by Cleveland ward or Ohio legislative district," she said.

Democrats and civil rights groups say an undercount would give Republicans a way to slice government services. The census, they say, would provide a backdoor way to achieve this longtime desire.

The census must count every person. Our Constitution demands it. Our democracy requires it. @realDonaldTrump is jeopardizing its accuracy by adding an unnecessary citizenship question. I stand with former Census directors from both parties in opposing this terrible decision. https://t.co/UEutSiYsdK  Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) March 27, 2018

Trump's appointees are "simply trying to shrink-wrap a respectable label on a bottle filled with Trump's poisonous partisan agenda," Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said on a conference call with reporters. She headed the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division under Obama.

"In fact, existing Census Bureau research already documents the growing reluctance of survey respondents to take part in any Census Bureau surveys -- all due to the 'climate of fear' created by the Trump administration's hostile policies and rhetoric," Gupta said.

Did the census ever ask about citizenship?

It did long ago. The White House and Commerce Department have noted this very point.

"Prior decennial census surveys of the entire United States population consistently asked citizenship questions up until 1950, and Census Bureau surveys of sample populations continue to ask citizenship questions to this day," Ross said Monday in his memo that ordered the question's return.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders gave a variation of the same answer at her press briefing Tuesday. She got the year wrong.

"This is a question that's been included in every census since 1965, with the exception of 2010, when it was removed," she said.

In 2000, the Census Bureau brought back the question -- but only in the decennial survey's "long form," which as Ross noted only goes to "one in six people in the U.S." In contrast, the census survey that goes to everyone has only 10 questions, or did as of 2010, in an effort to get more people to answer.

The Census Bureau changed things up again in 2005, asking a citizenship question on its American Community Survey, a longer survey going to a smaller group of Americans.

"Therefore, the citizenship question has been well tested," Ross said.

So the question is already asked of some. What's the big deal, then?

The American Community Survey, which is a detailed socioeconomic survey, only goes to "a small percentage of the population on a rotating basis throughout the decade," the Census Bureau notes on its website. "No household will receive the survey more often than once every five years."

That's different from asking every household in the United States.

If it was fine to ask the question until 1950, why shouldn't it be fine now?

Many Republicans ask this very question, too.

Democrats and civil rights groups give this answer: Times were different when the question was last asked of everyone. Illegal or unauthorized immigration was not a hot-button issue.

The country is now in the midst of a debate, as yet unsettled, over proposed deportation of unauthorized immigrants. Democrats say the timing of the Justice Department request to bring the question back, and Commerce's agreement this week to proceed, drips with political motivations.

Said a statement from the office of Sen. Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat: "Instead of adding untested questions to the census survey, Senator Brown supports a comprehensive fix to our broken immigration system that recognizes we aren't going to deport 13 million people here already, but we can secure our borders and create a pathway to earn citizenship if you follow the law, have a job and pay taxes."

What about the matter of political representation?

Recent immigrants and unauthorized immigrants tend to live in cities and in certain states. If cities and states are not fully or accurately counted, they could wind up without full political representation -- or with shifts in power -- because their voting districts will not have been devised based on actual size.

California, New York, Texas and Florida could see the biggest shifts in power that would benefit Republicans, the Washington Post reported.

How do Trump's critics know that immigrants, whether here legally or not, will be afraid to answer the census if asked about citizenship?

Former Census Bureau chiefs have cited their belief on this, and Census Bureau staff have stated it as well. An internal Census Bureau presentation, disclosed publicly by ProPublica, found immigrants were worried their information could be turned over to authorities who "will come looking" for them. Members of an Arabic focus group cited concerns about linkage to a possible "Muslim ban."

Said one respondent: "The immigrant is not going to trust the census employee when they are continually hearing a contradicting message from the media every day threatening to deport immigrants."

Wilbur Ross Overruled Career Officials at Census Bureau In Adding Citizenship Q https://t.co/hNPUNVSAo0  Vanita Gupta (@vanitaguptaCR) March 27, 2018

Ross, the Commerce secretary, addressed these concerns in his memo Monday. He said that despite the concerns and anecdotes, "limited empirical evidence exists about whether adding a citizenship question would decrease response rates materially."

What about the fears of immigrants -- are they justified?

We're talking about human behavior, suspicion, political motivations and facts. The facts are these, according to the New York Times:

"During World War I, the Census Bureau shared with the military the names of men who were of draft age. During World War II, the bureau provided the Secret Service with the names and addresses of some Japanese-Americans in the Washington, D.C., area as part of an investigation. And in 2000, the bureau acknowledged and apologized for sharing data on Japanese-Americans living on the West Coast to help the military relocate them to internment camps after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941."

That's powerful stuff if you have reason not to trust the government's motives.

But then there's this, as the Times continues: The law was changed in 1978 to prohibit the Census Bureau from sharing information with other government agencies for a period of 72 years after it collects personal data.

Let's throw in a thought experiement so you can answer the question yourselves. Ask yourself, no matter which side you're on, whether you fully believe this statement: You can trust us, we're from the government.

Is there a penalty for not answering a census question?

There is, but the law behind it hasn't been enforced in decades.

The fine in Title 13 of the U.S. Code is up to $100 for refusing to complete a census form and $500 for answering falsely. The law allows an exception for refusing to answer a question about religious belief or affiliation.

But a different section of the law says the fine for refusing to answer a Census Bureau survey can be up to $5,000, says PolitiFact.

Nevertheless, no one has been prosecuted for that since the 1970 census, PolitiFact reported.

Does the White House want to start enforcing that law?

Sanders was asked just that at the daily press briefing Wednesday.

"Look, the goal is to have data that we can use for specific things," she replied. "And we think that having accurate data is important. I'm not aware of a mass campaign to start fining individuals, but we certainly want people to follow the law and we want them -- whether it's the census or anything else, people should follow the law, and the law should be enforced."

Who runs the census and what right do they have to ask this?

The Census Bureau is a division of the Commerce Department, and Commerce appears to have the right to devise questions unless told not to by Congress or courts. Since Congress has Republican majorities in both houses, it could be hard to reverse Ross's decision.

So is this headed to court?

Yes.

The states of California and New York have already announced lawsuits to block the question, and more states are likely to join, according to New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - President Donald Trump will once again try to gain support for his infrastructure plan in Ohio on Thursday when he speaks at a union training facility in Richfield.

The administration sees infrastructure investment as a winning plan - a chance for the Republican president to strike a deal at a time when he needs a political win. But Trump tried that approach previously in Ohio in 2017, with his announcement mostly being overshadowed by a more scandalous topic - the then-impending testimony of fired FBI Director James Comey.

The president will make another attempt to curry support for his infrastructure proposal after 2 p.m. to a group of workers inside a training facility for the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 18 in Richfield. The event is not open to the public.

Trump released his infrastructure plan in February, which includes using $200 billion in federal money to spur $1.5 trillion in investment from states, municipalities and private companies to rebuild the nation's roads, bridges and waterways.

A senior administration official said the White House wanted to make a strong push to finish the deal by the end of the year.

However, the chances of a full-on infrastructure deal seem unlikely with Congress at a standstill and election season in full swing.

The investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and Trump's low popularity has also largely hamstrung the president's initiatives in his first 15 months in office.

Congressional Democrats are lukewarm on the plan itself, saying it unfairly relies too much on state and local government funding.
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci failed to disclose nearly $50,000 in political contributions while registered as a Washington lobbyist starting in the late 2000s, according to an Associated Press review of federal records.

The AP review identified five reporting periods from 2008 to 2010 while the Ohio Republican was registered as a lobbyist when he either failed to file the required disclosure form or reported giving no political contributions when he had given.

Renacci, a businessman and former Wadsworth mayor, is Republicans' favored candidate to win a GOP primary and take on Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown this fall in one of the year's most closely watched Senate contests.

Renacci's campaign said that he never lobbied. They said he was registered as the lobbyist with the consulting firm he helped launch in 2008, Smokerise International Group, as a precautionary measure.

Renacci's attorney, Laura Mills, said he "never performed any lobbying activities."

"He requested my office to deactivate him in 2009, as the entity in which he was a member never performed any lobbying and he wanted to be in full compliance of the law prior to entering into Congress," Mills said.

Mills provided the AP a form not available online that listed Renacci's lobbyist status as "inactive" as of Aug. 1, 2009. The campaign said only active lobbyists are required to disclose their contributions.

But an AP review found Mills didn't file the companion form required to deactivate Renacci's registration until 2011. Renacci's registration was terminated as of May 2011, about four months after he entered Congress.

And Renacci continued to file and digitally sign lobbyist disclosure reports, other than the two he missed, through mid-2011, as an active lobbyist would.

His campaign refused to specify why he filed the reports if, as it contended, they were not required or to address the inaccurate reporting of his contributions.

Campaign spokesman James Slepian said the campaign's position was "there would be no requirement for (Renacci) to report them since he never lobbied at any point."

Under the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, signed by Republican President George W. Bush in 2007, federally registered lobbyists are required to disclose all federal political contributions of more than $200.

Along with that beefed-up transparency, the law increased civil penalties for knowing and willful reporting violations from $50,000 to $200,000.

A senior researcher at the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks lobbyists' efforts to influence congressional candidates and members, said submitting accurate lobbyist filings provides the public with its "only real source of information about how Washington is operating, and how government officials are being influenced and/or supported."

"It's somewhat self-policed, so we rely on the filers to file honest and accurate reports," researcher Dan Auble said.

Federal Election Commission reports show Renacci gave $26,875 in federal donations to other Republican candidates and party organizations that he didn't disclose on lobbyist forms and $17,450 to his own campaign.

AP's review found that Renacci:

-- Filed no disclosure report for Jan. 1 to June 30, 2008, his first period as a registered lobbyist;

-- Reported "No Contributions" for July 1 to Dec. 31, 2008, when he'd given two $2,300 contributions and a $12,500 contribution to campaign funds supporting Arizona U.S. Sen. John McCain's presidential bid and $7,900 to Ohio Republican Party committees;

-- Filed no report for Jan. 1 to June 30, 2009, when he'd given $1,000 to LaTourette for Congress;

-- Reported "No Contributions" for July 1 to Dec. 31, 2009, when he'd given $500 to Portman for Senate, $375 to the Stark County GOP and $2,400 to his congressional campaign;

-- Reported "No Contributions" for Jan. 1 to June 30, 2010, when he'd given $15,050 to his campaign.

All federal contributions over $200, including to one's own campaign, are required to be disclosed on the lobbyist disclosure form.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Political experts increasingly believe Democrats in 2018 have a shot at pulling off an upset in Ohio's 16th Congressional District, even though it was designed to be a safe Republican seat.

But with a slew of first-time primary candidates whose campaigns are getting late starts -- none of whom have reported any significant fundraising activity -- and with early primary voting beginning in less than two weeks, are they in danger of being ill-prepared to take advantage of the opportunity?

"It's one of those years when you may look back and say, 'How did we miss this?'" said Jerry Austin, a long-time Democratic political consultant who lives in suburban Akron. "We didn't miss anything. It's a work in progress, and you can't predict some of the things that have happened."

Ohio's 16th Congressional District

Political observers began re-imagining the 16th District earlier this month after Democrat Connor Lamb, riding a wave of Democratic enthusiasm, pulled off an upset in a heavily Republican special congressional election in suburban Pittsburgh. The oddly-shaped 16th District, which encompasses suburbs of Cleveland, Akron, Canton, Medina and all of Wayne County, demographically resembles the district Lamb won.

Like the seat Lamb won, Ohio's 16th District is an open seat, since incumbent U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci decided to run for statewide office instead of seeking re-election. As recently as 2012, Democratic U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton lost the seat by just 4 points to Renacci in what was a generally strong year for Democrats. Like Lamb's district, Trump won Ohio's 16th District by nearly 20 points, although Trump performed better in other Republican districts.

Sabato's Crystal Ball, a widely read political analysis website based at the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, switched the 16th District to "leans Republican" from "likely Republican." That may not seem like much, but the distinction upgrades the district from a perceived near-lock for Republicans to a possible win for Democrats.

Dean DePiero, a former Parma mayor and ex-state legislator who decided not to run for the 16th District after seriously considering doing so, said he thinks the right Democrat could eke out a win. But he was halting in his answer when asked to size up the Democratic candidate field.

"I don't want to criticize any of the people who are running," DePiero said. "I think anything is possible in a year like this. I think it is a little tougher, because none of them have held elected office. But that said, maybe a fresh face is what people are looking for."

The 16th District's Republican primary has attracted national attention. It features former Ohio State University star Anthony Gonzalez, a first-time candidate running a more traditional Republican campaign; and State Rep. Christina Hagan, an established Stark County politician who has made repeated, conspicuous efforts to align herself with President Donald Trump.

The Democratic primary is viewed as more wide open, but party leaders are looking at two candidates in particular to potentially distinguish themselves.

One is Grant Goodrich, an Iraq War veteran who is the director of the Great Lakes Energy Institute at Case Western Reserve University, which aims to advocate for and fund renewable energy research. Another is Susan Moran Palmer, a health care professional and former longtime board member for Providence House, a Cleveland nonprofit that aims to help and protect abused children. Both Goodrich and Palmer have recently hired dedicated campaign staffs and are working to kick the tires on something resembling a professional campaign. Both also are running in a more moderate mold.

Another candidate, laborer TJ Mulloy, has received a key endorsement from the Cleveland Building Trades Council, an influential labor group. Another, physicist Aaron Godfrey, has been endorsed by the Cuyahoga County Progressive Caucus, a local affiliate of the remnants of Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign. Also running are Mark Dent, an attorney and John Wilson, a stay-at-home father.

No candidate has consolidated support from Democratic Party groups, activists, or donors. Only Godfrey, a progressive who has been energetically working the Democratic activist scene for over a year, has reported raising any money as of the last campaign finance filing deadline. But, he only raised about $3,600 through December, a paltry sum considering competitive congressional campaigns can spend hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars on advertising, get-out-the-vote efforts and campaign staff.

That leaves candidates scrambling to raise money for advertising while also attending community meetings, meeting potential endorsers and striving for media attention.

"I think the party generally would prefer to have someone who had more experience or more proven experience or proven electoral mettle," said Kyle Kondik, a political analyst and Ohio native who edits Sabato's Crystal Ball. "But you know, that doesn't necessarily mean the person who emerges won't be good."

Ohio Democratic Party Chair David Pepper said he and other party leaders actively decided to take a hands-off approach to the race.

"Right now in the Democratic Party, I think there is a huge cry, and I agree with it, for the party to not play too heavy in primaries, or frankly not to play at all," he said.

Asked if he thinks that puts the party at a disadvantage -- and makes it more likely a less viable candidate advances -- Pepper said he believes support will coalesce around the winning candidate, if that candidate can convince donors, activists and voters that they have a shot at winning.

DePiero, the former Parma mayor who considered running, would have been, on paper, an ideal candidate in many ways. He consulted with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee before ultimately deciding not to run.

He said around 38 percent of votes in the 16th District are in western and southwestern Cuyahoga County. A successful Democratic candidate would have to attempt to have broad appeal while mobilizing support in more suburban communities like Brunswick, North Royalton, Rocky River, Strongsville and Westlake, he said.

He believes the so-called "Blue Wave" effect could translate to 3-5 points, putting a Democrat within striking distance if everything else plays out favorably.

"I still wouldn't underestimate the Trump voter," DePiero said. "I still think the Democrat has to stand for something and be right on the issues... the candidate's got to be middle of the road, mainstream. Someone like that could have some appeal."

Grant Goodrich

Goodrich, the economic development official, said he first thought about running last year, but decided to stay out after he'd heard speculation that DePiero or Sutton, the former 16th District representative, might decide to run. But after no established candidates stepped forward, he announced his candidacy in January.

Goodrich acknowledged he is learning on the fly, while also balancing the demands of working, running for office and being a father of a young child. Goodrich's campaign has emphasized that he is a gun owner, as well as the owner of a fruit farm in Medina County. He said he's found people in the district are concerned about economic issues like paying for their children's education, improving stagnating wages or paying for escalating health care costs.

"I was in Iraq in 2004, while Anthony Gonzalez was catching passes for Ohio State," Goodrich said. "There's no comparison in terms of qualifications and experience, and if I can get that story in front of voters, I feel fairly certain that I can make the case to win this race."

Democrats look at Goodrich and see someone similar to Conor Lamb, who like Goodrich is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran. A major knock on Goodrich, though, is that he doesn't live in the 16th District. Goodrich said if he wins, he'll move there from his home in Cleveland's Ohio City neighborhood.

He also points out that he grew up in Summit County, attending Revere schools, and is a Medina County taxpayer via his farm. He said the district is heavily gerrymandered, and that when he's able to explain his background, people see that he's "Northeast Ohio through and through."

Susan Moran Palmer

Palmer, meanwhile, jokes she's in a "mixed marriage" -- that is, her husband is a Republican who she said isn't crazy about Trump. "We're both fiscally conservative and socially, somewhere between liberal and 'It's none of the government's business,'" she said. Democrats look at Moran, a Westlake resident who works in health care-related sales, and see someone like U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos, a Democrat with a health care background who won election in 2016 in an Illinois congressional district that Trump won.

Palmer, who grew up in a working-class family in the Youngstown area before putting herself through college, said she's concerned economic opportunities aren't available anymore for people with her background. She said she's sunk $20,000 of her own money into her campaign to get things started, and hopes to build from there. She said she thinks she has a knack for public speaking and connecting with people.

She said the Democratic primary is "wide-open," and the general election is winnable. She said given the uphill battle the district will pose for a Democrat, it's naturally attracted candidates with no political experience.

"When it was +8 [Republican], if you had an established Democrat, they weren't running into this district. It was an opportunity to lose," she said. "If you were someone with an established political reputation, you didn't want to throw those dice."
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Democratic Attorney General candidate Steve Dettelbach, in a full-throated attack on his Republican opponent Ohio Auditor Dave Yost, said Wednesday he wants tougher ethics regulations for statewide office holders.

Dettelbach has been critical in recent months of Yost's response to allegations of misconduct at the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, a troubled charter school that was found to owe the state millions of dollars before it closed this year.

Yost appears to have followed standard procedures in his handling of complaints against ECOT -- and eventually put the school system under additional scrutiny, records reviewed by cleveland.com show. But Dettelbach continues to point out problems he sees in the way Yost's office handled ECOT. In his plan released on Wednesday, he offered solutions to what he sees as a toxic special interest culture in Ohio politics, taking jabs at Yost along the way. He plans to do a top-to-bottom review of Ohio's ethics laws if he's elected attorney general.

"It's something that I think is so fundamental to people having confidence in government, which is knowing that government is working for people, instead of working for special interests," Dettebach said in an interview Wednesday.

How does Dettelbach's new plan attack Yost?

Dettelbach wants safeguards to ensure Ohio's top elected officials don't make decisions on issues on which they have conflicts of interest. He wants to give the Ohio Ethics Commission the ability to force state officials to recuse themselves from state business if there is a conflict. Dettelbach wants to increase protections to employees at private companies who report misuse of public money.

Yost over the years has received campaign donations from companies and people affiliated with ECOT, totaling at least $29,000. And for some of that time, Yost's office was checking the school system's books. Yost's office in 2014 cleared ECOT of wrongdoing when two ECOT employees came forward with allegations of misuse of federal dollars and bogus enrollment numbers.

Dettelbach alleged that Yost negotiated with ECOT over the terms of the audit. The auditor's office in a statement said it did not negotiate with ECOT, but complied with standards set by the Ohio Department of Education.

When the auditor reviewed ECOT, it applied rules set by the Ohio Department of Education and the Ohio legislature. Enrollment data was the standard to determine how much money ECOT and other charter schools received per student.

In 2016, the department began using student participation data instead.

That's when ECOT got caught, because it couldn't provide the student participation data.

Dettelbach also claimed that Yost's office ignored "internal office procedures" and allowed "ECOT to escape the fraud investigation without producing attendance logs."

The auditor's office denied that claim, and said that the 2014 audit, in response to the allegations of misconduct, put ECOT under additional review. The auditor's office also said all policies were followed.

"ECOT did not escape the fraud investigation," auditor's office spokesman Ben Marrison said.

What else is in the plan?

Dettelbach wants politicians to disclose more about the gifts they receive, such as the gift giver's interest in local or state government and the value of the gift. He also wants to ban gifts of more than $20 to employees of the attorney general's office.

What's Yost response?

"Any honest reviewer will see that the now-closed ECOT received more scrutiny from Dave Yost than any other charter school in Ohio. Unfortunately for Ohioans, Steve Dettelbach has already proven he is not an honest reviewer and will hurl lies to score political points," Yost campaign manager Kevin Servick said in an emailed statement.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - If you're hunting for eggs this Easter weekend or hoping to wear your Easter dress to church without tights if you celebrate the holiday, beware. Northeast Ohio will ride the weather roller coaster this weekend with periods of sun, clouds and rain likely.

Good Friday will start the weekend on a cold note. Temperatures will range from the mid 30s to just around 40 degrees, and morning cloudiness associated with the storm system bringing widespread rain Thursday will slowly decrease as the day goes on.

Saturday could start with a bit of sun, but as a cold front tracks in, clouds will return ahead of a chance of scattered rain in the afternoon and evening. A slight chance lasts overnight, so if showers last that long you may notice the switch to flurries, but nearly nothing will stick.

High pressure will take the front's place on Easter Sunday, but with northerly winds and the cold front leaving behind cooler air, the building sun won't allow much of a warm up. Make sure to top your dress with a cardigan, or wear a winter jacket if Easter egg hunting outdoors; temperatures will stay in the 30s all day.

Check out the forecast:

Temperatures

Temperature forecast.

Precipitation chances

Precipitation forecast.

Winds

Wind speed and direction forecast.

Keep checking cleveland.com/weather for daily weather updates for Northeast Ohio, and don't forget to submit any weather questions you may have!

Kelly Reardon is cleveland.com's meteorologist. Please follow me on Facebook, Twitter @KellyRWeather and Instagram.
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Cedar Valley Fashion Week brings design, community together this weekend

WATERLOO  Darvel Givens and other members of the Black Student Union at the University of Northern Iowa started Cedar Valley Fashion Week in 2013 as part of a series of events celebrating Black History Month in February.

But the event was such a huge success it outgrew two on-campus venues.

Its really become its own monster, Givens said.

Now in its fourth year, Cedar Valley Fashion Week Style, Music and Beauty Expo will be held for the first time at the Five Sullivan Brothers Convention Center in Waterloo. The Saturday showcase, beginning at 8 p.m., is expected to draw 1,000 people interested in fashion, design, music and other arts.

Theres more to Iowa than agriculture  theres a lot of culture, a lot of diversity, Givens said. You see all these amazing artists and performers, all these different scenes you didnt know were available.

Fashion Week will showcase 15 local designers, whose models will walk a runway while musicians and others perform on stage.

One of those designers is Shante Wallican-Nesbit, a 2006 textiles and apparel graduate of UNI who has designed for celebrity clients like Keshia Knight Pulliam in Atlanta and for department stores such as Target in Minneapolis. Now back living in the Cedar Valley, shell present pieces from her online boutique, Luxe Life, including her line of luxury kimonos.

Its fun to be able to showcase what Ive learned as well  its kind of full circle for me, Wallican-Nesbit said. Its a homecoming feeling.

Annette Lynch, who taught Wallican-Nesbit as the professor of textiles and apparel at UNI, said it proves you dont have to leave the area to find talent.

People dont know Iowa is a place where people create collections  and we do, and theyre really good, Lynch said.

Read more at:plus size bridesmaid dresses uk | navy bridesmaid dresses
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Market Overview:

Palm oil is one amongst the most nutritious edible oil. It is derived from palm fruit which is originally from Western Africa but can flourish wherever heat and rainfall are abundant. Palm oil can be classified into crude palm oil, palm kernel oil, and others. Crude palm oil is derived from the fruit of the oil palm tree and referred as "red palm oil" because of its rich dark red color in its unprocessed natural state. Whereas, palm kernel oil is derived from the seed or the kernel of the palm fruit. Palm oil has a high resistance to oxidation and therefore has a long shelf life.

Globally, palm oil is witnessing a high demand in the market. Palm oil is applicable as a cooking oil, bio-diesel, lubricants, cosmetics, and others, which is driving the growth of the market. Increasing demand for vegetable oil is a major factor driving the growth of the market. Moreover, in the biofuels market, it is used as the feedstock for the production of biodiesel and as an alternative to mineral oils for use in power stations which is boosting the growth of the palm oil market.

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The fatty acid derivatives of palm oil are used in the production of bactericides, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and water-treatment products. Increasing consumption of palm oil in the manufacturing process of soaps and detergents and in the production of greases, lubricants, and candles is further boosting the growth of the market. Moreover, increasing usage of palm oil as a substitute for trans-fat in processed foods is adding fuel to the growth of palm oil market.

Major Key Players:

Some of the key players profiled in the global palm oil market: Cargill Inc. (U.S.), Wilmar International Limited (Singapore), Sime Darby (Malaysia), IOI Corp. (Malaysia), Golden Agri Resources Limited (Singapore), Kulim BHD (Malaysia), Godrej Agrovet Limited (India), London Sumatra (Indonesia)

Key Findings:

Indonesia, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Papua New Guinea, and Guatemala are the major exporters of palm oil market

India, China, Pakistan, Spain, and Egypt are the major importers of Indonesia palm oil market

Industry Segments:

The global palm oil market is segmented into type and application.

On the basis of type, the palm oil market is segmented into crude palm oil, palm kernel oil, and others. Among all, crude palm oil is dominating the market followed by palm kernel oil. Crude palm oil has less saturated fat than palm kernel oil. Moreover, crude palm oil has a high level of tocotrienols which makes it an outstanding source of vitamin E and a powerful antioxidant, driving the growth of the segment.

On the basis of the application, the palm oil market is segmented into cooking oil, bio-diesel, lubricant, cosmetics, and others. Amongst all the cooking oil segment is dominating the market. However, cosmetics segment is expected to witness high growth over the forecast period.

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Regional Analysis:

The global palm oil market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and rest of the world (RoW). Asia Pacific is dominating the market and is witnessed to have a substantial growth over the forecast period with increasing consumption of palm oil in different industries. Indonesia and Malaysia are the major producers and exporters of palm fruit which are majorly contributing to the growth of palm oil market in Asia Pacific.

North America and Europe are projected to have a moderate growth during the forecast period. Moreover, Latin America and the Middle East & Africa are anticipated to be the fastest growing region in palm oil market over the estimated period.
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This CoolSocial report was updated on 2021-04-05, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want.
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Website mokka-club.com uses latest and advanced technologies like: JQuery and Php. It supports HTTPS. The main html page has a size of 49885 bytes (48.72 kb uncompressed).

This CoolSocial report was updated on 2020-10-24, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want.
I know temps aren't *quite* ready for spring dresses but I for sure am! I keep wondering if it will ever actually get warm...





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(more sizes available HERE ) c/o /(identical HERE ; similar HERE ) /I wore this exact look one night in Palm Beach (seen here ) but was finally able to shoot it in New York recently. That explains why I'm in a light and airy beach dress and the people walking behind me are in full coats and gloves. #BlogLifeBut when it actually does decide to warm up, you'll be reaching for this banana leaf dress every chance you get! When I was shopping online the dress looked just kind of ok, but after trying it on in person I was like, "DAMN this banana leaf dress is awesome!"I mean, who can say no to a banana leaf dress? It has an elastic waistband and arms so you can really customize the fit to your body shape (which I love). The material is very thin and will be perfect for the super hot summer days. It doesn't have pockets (sad) but this dress is still amazing!As for my shoes, these are my pride and joy. They are the only shoes I want to wear in the summer. I usually find my Hermes sandals secondhand, but I also wanted to share that I found an IDENTICAL sandal that comes in at $150 . There are only three colors but I've heard they are hard on the case of releasing more. So if you want the look without spending the money, these are your shoes
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In 1960, JFK exploited those insecurities by drumming up a panic about a (wholly made up) "missile gap" between Russia and the U.S. -- a tactic Ronald Reagan blatantly copied in 1980. As the Soviets fizzled out, experts started hyping up Japan as the next world leader that would totally unseat us. Then it was the European Union, then China. Since the 1950s, America has never gone more than a decade without feeling like this is it, we had a good run, the end's around the corner. Now it's Guatemala or something's turn to be top dog.

Today, the feeling that things are getting worse than ever is ... uh, getting worse than ever. A 2016 Wall Street Journal poll found that, despite having it better than anyone else in history by almost every metric, 73 percent of American voters believed the country was not on the right path. Why is this happening? We don't really know. Some commentators have linked the growing pessimism to the fact that more Americans suffer from depression than ever, but it's possible that there's just more awareness of the condition (we used to call it "being in a mood," and the cure was punching a horse). Another theory involves the reminiscence bump -- our tendency to think that the world in general was way better back when we were younger, cuter, and our parents paid for everything.

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Maybe the more our life expectancy grows, the more negative Nancys and Nelsons survive? Whatever the explanation is, Trump played his cards well when he focused on how bad things were. It's what America wanted to hear at that moment. Voters were looking for someone who would take them back to the good ol' days, whenever that was and whether or not they actually existed. Trump probably won more sympathy for acknowledging the "obvious" decline than for offering any real solutions.

Harvard Business Review (1992)

Time (2011) They ran out of cover space before they could put in America: OK, I Guess printed sideways.

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But we're not alone. A few months before the U.S. election, this bias had worked itself up in Britain too. The boogeyman in this case was the European Union, which was coming to install a poor Bulgarian into every English household (the "Leave the EU" referendum won largely because of a demonstrably irrational fear of immigration). A recent Cambridge University study found that Europeans who support right-wing populists don't do it because they're worried about the economy, but due to "a very negative view of the evolution of society."

But just as Trump wasn't the first American politician to take a declinist stance, he won't be the last. Hell, Bernie Sanders' popularity could be chalked up to declinism, too. Would you be shocked if the next president's slogan was "Welp, It Can't Get Any Worse"? How many of you would vote for that? And more importantly, how much is it to copyright a slogan? We'll be right back.

Judith can be reached at judithsmith2503@gmail.com.

We've still got Stephen Colbert -- can you believe it's been over 10 years since he released I Am America (And So Can You!)?

Support Cracked's journalism with a visit to our Contribution Page. Please and thank you.

For more, check out How Half Of America Lost Its F**King Mind and Donald Trump Is The JFK For Millennials (Seriously, Folks).

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Azerbaijani authorities have banned Karine Oganesyan, an ethnic Armenian citizen of Estonia, who serves as a member of the Tallinn city council, from entering the country at the Baku airport. Oganesyan said on Facebook that she departed to Azerbaijan on March 23 to participate in an international conference of teachers.

March 28, 2018, 12:30 Estonian citizen barred from entering Baku in airport because of Armenian ethnicity

STEPANAKERT, MARCH 28, ARTSAKHPRESS-ARMENPRESS:Oganesyan had officially received an electronic visa and departed to Baku as part of the Estonian delegation. But, immediately upon arrival in the airport, Azerbaijani authorities noticed the Estonian citizens Armenian surname, and barred her from entering the country and sent her back to Estonia after 12 hours of detention in a special zone.

Armenias Ambassador to Estonia Tigran Mkrtchyan weighed in on the incident, saying: This conduct once again displays the racist and intolerant nature of Baku authorities. Baku, which is absorbed in anti-Armenian policy, is once again displaying cynical conduct towards European values, values which are so strange for itself. I hope the Estonian side will make conclusions and will adequately react to this deplorable story, and will protect the interests of its citizen. European institutions shouldnt remain indifferent too, since Estonia is a EU member and Karine Oganesyan is a EU citizen.

And generally, if any country is unable to receive all participants and accompanying staff who were invited to international conferences based on various motives, then the appropriateness of organizing similar events in the given country should be seriously revised.
Top Tories Chris Patten and Jacob Rees-Mogg had a go at each other. It was not so much a Westminster bar brawl as a drawl-on-drawl, a duel with ginger snaps drawn, or two tortoises trying to chew each others skull.

The injuries sustained were no greater than if you butted a pillar confected of the very best meringue.

Lord Patten, though wet politically, has a persona as dry as the Melba toast at the Savoy Grill. Sometime Tory chairman, Brussels commissioner and BBC chairman, his lordship is deliciously superior. His voice creaks like the deck timbers of a vintage barque moored at Cowes. He has perfected that slightly pained, throwaway world-weariness with which formerly powerful men console themselves. In his every phrase there is the suggestion that he knows better than todays decision-makers, were they only sensible enough to consult him.

With our official departure from the EU now just a year away (although there will then be 21 months of horrid transition), the pro and anti Brexit camps held morning events to mark this historic moment.

The audience included his mother, Lady Rees-Mogg, charming and twinkly. She told me it was quite wrong to describe Jacob as a toff. Her own father had been a Welsh tenant farmer

At a venue just off Parliament Square, Lord Patten gave a speech to a group of Remainers. It consisted of very Pattenesque sighs and downbeat barbs. His attacks did not entirely conform to logic yet they were characteristically droll. Brexiteers, he said, lived on dogma pie yet they were seeing their desired Brexit being whittled down to not very much. Red lines are turning pink or disappearing entirely, said Lord Patten with gooey satisfaction.

Er, it is surely hard for the Brexiteers  so far generally supportive of Theresa Mays negotiating approach  to be manically dogmatic if they are accepting the abandonment of those red lines. But never mind.

Lord Pattens cropped grey hair was set off by a hint of perma-tan, testament to his plump pensions, decent access to winter sun and a hint of the ever-youthful Dorian Grays about the 73-year-old.

His wardrobe was studiously crumpled, favouring a cavernous jacket that no longer fit quite as it once may have done. It is a look that is, in its way, as distinctively British as that of the pro-Brexit Rees-Mogg, whom Lord Patten proceeded to attack.

Jacob is much better than he has allowed himself to seem, croaked his lordship. He teased Mr Rees-Mogg for holding the same views now that he did as an eccentric eight-year-old. He has allowed himself a bit to be taken over by image and caricature. An hour later, Mr Rees-Mogg made a speech of his own on the far side of St Jamess Park.

In his speech, which he rattled off like a Latin grace at Eton, Mr Rees-Mogg spoke optimistically about British independence. He urged negotiators to be prepared to tell the EU to get stuffed

Mr Rees-Mogg hailed Mrs Mays confident handling of the Russia crisis and compared that to the craven surrender of the British establishment after Suez, when Macmillan burst into tears

The audience included his mother, Lady Rees-Mogg, charming and twinkly. She told me it was quite wrong to describe Jacob as a toff. Her own father had been a Welsh tenant farmer.

In his speech, which he rattled off like a Latin grace at Eton, Mr Rees-Mogg spoke optimistically about looming British independence. He urged our negotiators to be prepared to tell the EU to get stuffed. Was the EU prepared for the eventuality of no deal? He thought not, and their lack of preparedness made our position stronger, he argued. Without our money they were facing a financial crisis. On the surface, the dark-suited Rees-Mogg, 48, looked the more ancient figure.

Yet his can-do confidence and his spry humour invigorated the room, including one gent in the sort of battle fatigues worn by militia backwoodsmen in the Appalachian Mountains. He hailed Mrs Mays confident handling of the Russia crisis and compared that to the craven surrender of the British establishment after Suez, when Macmillan burst into tears. He argued clearly that the EU was bad for the lower-paid.

And what about Chris Patten? Mr Rees-Mogg said Patten was an old family friend whom he had known since infancy. He did not intend to slag him off. He merely noted that when his lordship was Governor of Hong Kong he was hotly pro-democracy. Why was he now in favour of the anti-democratic EU?
The daffodils are out in force and the days are getting longer and lighter: yep, spring is definitely en route. And with it, comes every chocoholic's favourite time of year Easter!

When a daily hot cross bun is deemed mandatory, Easter-themed sweet treats are considered a household essential and gorging on chocolate eggs all Sunday long is downright encouraged, is it any surprise that we love Easter?

And the best news is that this year, M&S have pulled out all the stops to ensure yours is the most delicious fun yet. From decadent new hot cross bun flavours to the most indulgent and inventive chocolate eggs around, we know where we'll be picking up our Easter treats this March  without even having to leave the house, thanks to the new M&S Easter Shop online.

Easter is the highlight of Spring - bringing the family together, and of course, involving plenty of chocolate!

First things first, let's take a closer look at those fancy new hot cross buns. M&S's best-selling Luxury Hot Cross Buns are not only the most fruit-packed on the high-street but they also account for over half of all M&S hot cross bun sales the week before Easter. And fans will be thrilled to discover that Bakery Expert Sadia Usman has created four new mouthwatering additions to the range.

Sadia says: 'Our traditional luxury hot cross buns are still hugely popular with customers but we've also found they love a bun with a twist. This year we've introduced delicious Blueberry Hot Cross buns which are bursting with fruit, along with Hot Cross Bun Mini Loaves, which make the perfect breakfast treat.'

As with every year, we'll be filling our baskets to the brim with Luxury Hot Cross Buns (1.70 for 310g), the most fruit-packed on the high street

Try the Breakfast Hot Cross Mini Loaves (1.70 for 250g) for breakfast or the Salted Caramel and Chocolate Hot Cross Buns (1.70 for 272g) which are studded with dark chocolate chips, salted caramel fudge and toffee pieces (right)

We're obsessed with the delicious Salted Caramel and Chocolate Hot Cross Bun (1.70 for 272g). Sticky, glazed seasonal buns are studded with rich dark chocolate chips, salted caramel fudge and toffee pieces, which is just perfect with your afternoon cup of tea  or as a satisfyingly sweet dessert.

Why not toast one and add sliced banana, whipped cream, Salted Caramel Sauce and flaked almonds for a decadent pudding?

You can even get away with them for lunch in a jazzed up version of a cheese toastie. Grill Blueberry Hot Cross Buns  jam-packed with blueberries and Vostizza currants  then spread with seasoned cream cheese. Top with smashed walnuts, fresh thyme and a drizzle of honey.

There are loads of tasty dishes you can create using the flavoured hot crossed buns - check out M&S's page to get some more ideas

Or if you fancy a more traditional taste, why not enjoy the Sweet Orange Marmalade versions where Seville orange, sultanas and candied citrus fruits make for a zingy treat.

Perhaps the Breakfast Hot Cross Mini Loaves are more up your street? All of the usual yumminess, plus the addition of tasty seeds, wholegrains and tropical toasted coconut; we always knew a hot cross bun was a perfectly acceptable breakfast choice.

Now for the big showstopper of any Easter feast - the chocolate egg! M&S have scoured the country to find the most talented chocolatiers to produce some truly impressive creations this year and the level of skill involved in the making and hand-decorating of their eggs are clear to see. Ideal for gifting to someone special... if you can resist devouring it yourself.

M&S have created a superstar of the all eggs - their award-winning Hand Decorated Belgian Milk and Dark Chocolate Egg with a gold shimmering centre (20)

The Hand Painted Belgian Milk Choc Egg (15) with mini Marc de Champagne truffles is an unusual octagonal shaped ombre shimmering egg

M&S have gone all out this year - from an incredibly innovative dippy egg to specially crafted dairy-free creations. But it is their award-winning Hand Decorated Belgian Milk and Dark Chocolate Egg with a gold shimmering middle (20) that takes centre stage.

Other products which will blow away even the fussiest adult include the elegant octagonal-shaped Hand Painted Belgian Milk Choc Egg (12 for 240g) with mini Marc de Champagne truffles. We'll raise a toast to that!

We're equally nuts for the irresistible combination in the Nutty Surprise egg (12 for a whopping 620g). This hand-crafted beauty of an Easter egg features a smooth, rich milk chocolate shell which is generously studded with a sweet and salty caramelised peanut interior, continuing the sweet and savoury trend that shows no sign of going away and perfect for any age!

We'd be equally nuts for the irresistible combination in the Nutty Surprise (12 for a whopping 620g) egg, which boasts milk chocolate studded with caramelised peanuts

Everybody's favourite piggy makes a special Easter guest appearance as Globetrotting Percy (8 for 315g)

Chick-a-boo Chocolate Egg (8 for 250g), left, and Spinetail the Dinosaur (6 for 220g), right, make perfect Easter gifts for the little people in your life

Children will also be thrilled to receive M&S's newest  and most adorable  Easter character, the Chick-a-boo Chocolate Egg (8 for 250g) featuring a peekaboo baby chick peeking out from a handmade egg of M&S's signature thick milk chocolate. Spinetail the Dinosaur (6 for 220g) will make a scarily scrummy gift for dino lovers.

You can't nip into M&S without picking up a pack of everyone's favourite piggy sweets, and this spring he makes an extra special Easter guest appearance as Globetrotting Percy (8 for 315g). Globetrotting Percy is housed in a super-indulgent hand-decorated hollow white chocolate egg, delicately flavoured with juicy raspberry and strawberry extracts. Plus there's a bag of Globetrotting Percy jelly sweets bursting with fruity flavours to take the edge off those Percy Pig cravings.

M&S's Quail Eggs are pretty pastel speckled sugar shells encase a solid milk and white chocolate centre (5 for 12)

The M&S Dippy Egg (10 for 280g) is our favourite egg on the high street this year and surely wins the award for most inventive Easter treat

Taking the deliciousness of a breakfast treat to another dimension, the M&S Dippy Egg (10 for 280g) is our favourite egg on the high street this year and surely wins the award for most inventive Easter treat. This creamily luxurious milk chocolate egg is filled with molten caramel yolk to die for and we reckon it's definitely the tastiest teatime treat around. The only question is is what to use for the soldiers

Anyone with diary intolerances needn't miss out on a slice of the Easter egg action either; M&S's Made Without Dairy Dark Choc Egg (7 for 160g) will hit any chocoholic's spot, or try the beautiful new Handmade Soft Nougat Egg (5 for 135g) of innovative Italian-style nutty nougat packed with indulgent amounts of almond, hazelnut and pistachio for something a bit different to the chocolate-heavy norm.
With a royal wedding looming, its hard not to compare the two couples the world will be watching.

Kate and William and Meghan and Harry are very different couples in very different relationships.

Kate and William took the traditional path: they were college sweethearts before they got married and had children, so have grown up together.

Meghan and Harry met in their 30s with past relationships and life experiences in tow.

Kate might be a commoner, but she was born into an upper-middle-class family with British parents and relatives who played host to British royalty as long ago as 1926.

Relationship expert Tracey Cox says the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have taken the traditional path, meeting when they were at university

Meghans mixed race, American, Catholic, divorced, an older woman, an actress and about to marry an English Prince.

What?!

Traditional royalists threw their hands in the air when Britains most eligible bachelor chose her to be his wife even if the rest of us cheered (Vive La Difference!)

Kate respectfully toed the line right from the beginning, Meghan seems to be ripping up the royal protocol book as she goes along.

The big question is which approach and relationship is going to survive the intense pressure of being royal long term?

Meanwhile, Prince Harry and Meghan met much later in life, with previous relationships and life experiences in tow

Of course, theres another important factor which hugely influences all their lives: William is highly likely to be King and Kate most probably his Queen.

The responsibility on their relationship is far greater and Meghan and Harry will have far more freedom.

Personally, Im batting for both couples but there are strengths and weaknesses to each relationship style.

Which one is more likely to last the distance: traditional or modern?

KATE AND WILLIAM

Relationships expert Tracey Cox (pictured) says there are strengths and weaknesses of each relationship style

WHY THEYLL LAST THE DISTANCE

Shes got the right background

Shes educated (a degree in Art History) but not particularly ambitious career wise  possibly because she met William early in her life and knew that if they married, shed have no chance to further it anyway.

William is heir to the throne after Prince Charles and needs a wife who can devote herself entirely to him and royal obligations; Kates clearly prepared to do this.

Theyre both crystal clear on whats expected of each other which means no misunderstandings about their roles within the relationship.

He gives her priority

William mostly toes the line but speaks up when it comes to family. He continues to break protocol by travelling with Kate and the children (multiple heirs to the throne shouldnt travel together in case theres an accident).

He has a strong commitment to his personal relationship with his family as well as respect for his royal role.

They took their time to get to know each other

Kate and William met in college and didnt get engaged until five years after they graduated.

Couples who get engaged after a longer engagement tend to last longer than couples who get engaged while in the first flush of romance.

The pair also broke up for a few months, then reunited, showing theyre capable of healing old wounds and moving forward without dwelling on past slights.

Kate and William met at St Andrews and didn't get engaged until five years after they graduated. The couple are pictured here on the day of their graduation

They accept whats expected of them

Compare the engagement interviews of the two couples and Kate and William seem formal and unaffectionate.

They sat apart and rarely touched  the most we saw was the odd pat on a knee  and angled their bodies towards the interviewer not each other.

But this was because they were following unwritten protocol set by Queen and Prince Phillip who virtually never indulge in PDAs.

Kate treads carefully and defers to William, lets him do the leading and talking  all of which is expected of a future King of England.

Tracey says the fact that both Kate and William are sporty, up for a laugh, and competitive in a good way is a huge positive in their relationship

She dresses the part

Some say her clothes are matronly and way too old for her (Kates one year younger than Meghan but appears older probably because of her dress sense) but her style is classic, timeless and very royal.

Besides, she cant be that boring because she created the Duchess Effect: when Kate wears something it almost instantly sells out.

They have history and are very similar

Couples who get together young have history: they know so much about each other, they dont have to explain themselves.

Theyre both English and have a lot of the same friends as well as shared cultural references and memories.

All of this is incredibly important in long-term relationships.

The couple that play together, stay together

They might not be publically physically affectionate but theres lots of eye contact and clear affection between Kate and William.

Theyre smiley and often photographed having a good laugh together.

This suggests they prioritise having fun and this is an accurate predictor of high relationship satisfaction and an important part of a successful relationship.

The relationship expert says that Kate and William have created the perfect family together, with another child on the way in April

They clearly share the same sense of humour, theyre both sporty, up for a laugh, and competitive in a good way.

They like doing the same things as well: Kate admits they have date nights where they stay in, cook and watch Game of Thrones.

Shes a good breeder

The couple have a boy, a girl and a third child on the way: theyve created the perfect family.

POSSIBLE PROBLEM AREAS

Meeting young has its drawbacks

Unlike Harry whos played the field and Meghan whos been married before, Kate and William have been together since their teens, which means theyve possibly missed out on a lot of partying.

This can lead to feelings of having missed out on youth.

Change can feel more threatening

Another problem with getting together young is that if one person starts to grow or change in another direction, it can feel more destabilising.

Youre much more likely to share the same opinions if youve grown up together and shared the same experiences.

Tracey says that William's commitments are all encompassing, and when he becomes King, his workload will become cripplingly exhaustive

Youre not used to thinking differently so if one of you does, the person who remains unchanged feels duped  Whats going on? Youre not who you were?

The person who is evolving can feel held back.

Change is nothing to be frightened of, but it can feel more threatening in this scenario.

Williams commitments are all encompassing

He tries his best to accommodate his family but the cruel reality is, when William does become King his workload will become cripplingly exhaustive.

In many instances, he will have to put the monarchy before his personal relationship with Kate.

We all watched The Crown and saw the effect that had on Queen Elizabeths marriage.

MEGHAN AND HARRY

WHY THEYLL LAST THE DISTANCE

They were introduced by a mutual friend

Research proves friends are a much better judge of what suits us relationship wise  way better than parents, relatives, or dating apps.

If friends think theyd make a good match, theyre probably right!

They kept their relationship secret for six months

Friends and family influence us whether we like it or not, so its very wise to make your own mind up about a future partner before letting everyone else give their opinion.

Imagine the entire world having their say on your choice!

Knowing this would happen, Meghan and Harry very sensibly got to know each other by laying low and simply hanging out  for almost a year.

This meant the relationship wasnt put under intense scrutiny when it might have buckled under the pressure (as was the case with Chelsy and Cressida).

Before their engagement, Harry and Meghan kept their relationship a secret for six months

Shell cope well with the strains of being a royal

As an activist, Meghans capable of holding her own and standing her ground. As a celebrity, shes used to being in front of the cameras and being the centre of attention.

As we saw with Diana, its not easy being heard in the royal household and strong will is essential; shes also unlikely to be completely over-whelmed by constantly being under a frequently harsh world spotlight.

During the engagement interview, Meghan led and carried it: Harry was happy playing second fiddle.

Shes strong enough to control bad boy Harry

At 11, Meghan successfully campaigned to get a company to change what she saw as a sexist TV ad  this is no shrinking violet.

Shes feisty, opinionated, charismatic and dominant - she has publicly voiced her pride in being a strong, confident, mixed race woman.

Harrys a nice guy but he is a former party animal - I suspect he needs someone whos going to keep him in line.

Tracey says Meghan is strong enough to control Harry, who was previously known to be a party animal

Shes a humanitarian like Diana

Its no secret the boys adored their mother and Meghan is an activist with an impressive humanitarian work history.

She works with the UN, has a degree in theatre and international studies and identifies as a feminist.

While she is giving up acting once married, she also makes it clear she intends to direct all that energy to humanitarian work.

Meghans helping Harry carry the torch for Diana who almost single-handedly changed world attitudes towards things like AIDS.

Its no bad thing that Meghan is feisty and a rule-breaker one reason why Harry he probably went for her in the first place.

Remember, Harry and William are the sons of Princess Diana who broke a lot of rules.

Shes emotionally open

The couple sat shoulder to shoulder during their engagement interview, holding hands with fingers fully entwined  the trademark hand-hold of a couple in the heady honeymoon period.

Its obvious theyre besotted with each other but even more obvious that theres a deep connection: Meghan sees Harry as Harry, not just a Prince.

Harry, Kate and William are strong advocates of mental health and encourage everyone to open up and talk about real issues.

In true American fashion, Meghans not afraid to talk about hers.

Tracey says Harry is letting Meghan be herself, allowing her to wear ripped jeans and a white shirt to her first ever public appearance with him at the Invictus Games last September

Shes a homebody

The pair effectively hid away for months, avoiding the public eye until they knew each other well.

As anyone in a long-term relationship knows, the couple who can happily stay in together, with just the telly and each other for stimulation, work well.

He cooks a mean roast chicken, apparently, and she seems to equally enjoy low key hanging out.

They have common goals

Harry wants to modernise the monarchy and he couldnt have picked a better person to do it with.

This suggests they think the same and have the same common goals which is crucial for high relationship satisfaction.

Hes letting her be her

She wore faded blue jeans with rips and a white shirt to her first ever public appearance with Harry  Twitter trolls condemned her but he didnt care.

He chose someone who doesnt conform to usual royal standards and seems happy that she doesnt.

She wants to fit in

Pictured together at the Royal Foundation Forum, we saw our first glimpse of the two couples together as a foursome.

Meghan was clearly mirroring Kate  deferring to her as the expert in how to behave  both with crossed ankles and hands in their lap.

The relationship expert says that Meghan was mirroring Kate at the Royal Foundation Forum in February, showing that the former actress wants to fit in

Shes individual but happy to conform to fit in: another quality which will stand her in good stead in royal life.

As the relationship between Harry and Meghan progresses, the dynamic is changing.

Shes acting more adoring and more deferential to Harry  shes bigging him up. Hes acting more like a future husband than a besotted fan and becoming more confident.

Rather than her being threatened by losing control, Meghans embracing it: shes flexible and willing to change to suit the relationship.

They met later in life

This can mean the couple are more committed  they know whats out there and know when they have a good thing in front of them.

The older you are when you meet, the more formed you are as individuals: you bring life lessons and self-knowledge into the relationship.

Meghans been married before so isnt naive about relationships: she knows they can fail but it hasnt put her off giving it another go.

Hes protective

Harrys made it clear right from the start that Meghan is his choice and its non-negotiable.

When news of their engagement was followed by a wave of abuse and harassment, he responded quickly with a strongly worded statement saying he was deeply disappointed that he wasnt able to protect her and horrified at the sexist, racist comments.

It was one of the most powerfully worded public defences of privacy any member of the royal family has ever issued.

Feeling protected by your partner and that theyre on your side, is an important quality for future happiness.

POTENTIAL PROBLEM AREAS

Shes giving up a lot

Unlike Kate, Meghan was a highly successful career girl.

She worked hard to get where she got, shes used to lots of attention, calling the shots and being the star.

Shes better equipped to deal with the media attention and used to the worlds eyes upon her but she will be reined in and might not enjoy the loss of freedom.

However, Tracey says Meghan is giving up a lot to be with Harry, forgoing her successful acting career

Shes divorced

The fact that shes divorced means she has no intention of staying married unless its working.

Studies show couples who are as committed to the institution of marriage as they are to each other last longer than those who arent.

Getting together older means youre more set in your ways

Both are used to being independent, doing things their way and not having to answer to anyone so it could be more difficult for them to make shared decisions.

Theres also evidence that  contrary to popular opinion - people whove sown their wild oats find it harder to settle down than those who havent.

Its likely theyll have children quickly

Meghans 36: not over the hill fertility wise but no spring chicken either.

Theyll probably want to get a move on with having a family which means less time together just as a couple.

Studies show couples who have a strong foundation of time together before kids coming along are better able to cope with the stress of parenting.

AND THE WINNER IS

Neither  and both.

Traditional style relationships work well for certain people and not others; ditto more modern style couplings.

As close as they are, Harry and William are very different men who need different things from their partner - and thats exactly what theyve got.

Meghan is a brilliant choice for Harry and both are suited to a modern marriage; Kate is equally as perfect for William who both fit the traditional mould.

Thats what makes them such a dynamic quartet.

Like the rest of us, their relationships will have their ups and downs: just because theyre royals, doesnt mean they wont be affected by the pressures of life and marriage.

But my moneys on both of them lasting the distance.

Visit traceycox.com for more of Traceys views on sex, relationships and love and to see her books and product range.
A married couple who are spicing up the bedroom by having sex with strangers have revealed how their swinging lifestyle strengthens their relationship.

Cee*, 33, and Dee*, 42, otherwise known as C&D in the swinging world, started engaging in sex with other people in January 2014.

The pair, originally from Queensland but now live in Sydney, enjoy their lifestyle so much, they also have their own podcast to share their soiree into the experience.

For the past four years, the professional working couple have bonded over their sexual adventures, including meeting like-minded people around the world.

They have attended parties, hosted events, engaged in partner swaps, been with at least eight people on a bed and taken part in a 10-people hot-tub.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, the duo, who have been together for nine years, offered a glimpse into their lives as swingers.

Cee*, 33, and Dee*, 42, otherwise known as C&D in the swinging world, started engaging in sex with other people in January 2014

'In terms of bedroom play, we've been in and around eight to 10 people on bed, some engaging with each other and swapping, others just with partners and we've been in a hot tub with 10 people,' she said.

'Just because parties or bedrooms contain people it doesn't mean you always swap or interact, that's a common misunderstanding. Consent is key and so is connection.

'We have met hundreds of swingers all over the world, people in Queensland and Sydney right through to people at a clothing optional resort in Mexico.

'We've met people from all walks of life, socioeconomic backgrounds, religious beliefs, business people and stay at home parents. It's amazing to know that we all have at least one thing in common.'

The couple started talking about exploring their sexual desires and wildest fantasies.

'We started discussing sexual desires and fantasies, one night Dee was curious about what I wanted out of life sexually,' she said.

'It wasn't an unusual question as we had been friends for so many years and have a strong foundation we often discus life, the universe and everything.

'Unfortunately for me, I couldn't answer his question. This was not because I was shy or ashamed, it was more that I literally had no idea.

'I'd never really thought about it or given myself the space to even contemplate what I wanted sexually.'

And so, they started researching and watching porn to see what piqued her sexual interest - and eventually, they thought about the possibility of adding other people to their sex life.

'This led us to the idea of discussing other partners, what it would be like for a third, a fourth, what about singles, what about couples, more women, more men,' she said.

'From there the idea of swinging came about. What did it really mean? We didn't know anything about it at the time so we started to research it.

'From those original nights of research over wine and lots of discussion, we have now been enjoying the swinging lifestyle for four years.'

For the past four years, the professional working couple have bonded over their sexual adventures, including meeting like-minded people around the world

The couple both work in global roles that see them travelling the world to conduct business.

'Sometimes if we're lucky, we get to add on a weekend and sneak away somewhere sexy together which is an added bonus,' she said.

The pair believe communication is key and they believe their sexual adventures have helped keep their relationship stronger than ever.

'Communication is super important. Without a strong foundation and communication skills, a relationship will struggle in swinging,' she said.

'If you join swinging for the right reasons for you and your partner, you will find it to be very fulfilling to your relationship.

Communication is super important. Without a strong foundation and communication skills, a relationship will struggle in swinging... If you join swinging for the right reasons for you and your partner, you will find it to be very fulfilling to your relationship

'You'd be surprised how much a relationship can grow when there is nothing that cannot be discussed, when you have the ability to openly communicate and share thoughts on whatever you like, when no subject or thought is judged or taboo.

'How do we react seeing our significant other with someone else. We both firmly believe that our relationship is stronger as a result of the lifestyle and the sex has nothing to do with it.

'Since being in the lifestyle, we have strengthened our ability to communicate which has led our relationship to being healthier and happier.

Cee insisted they hardly have any doubts on their relationship created by other potential partners because they always communicate.

'Jealousy is certainly something that can creep into any relationship at any point in time and is an emotional battle field,' she said.

'Have we met people who are a younger, hotter, more successful versions of each other? Probably yes. Does that mean they are better suited for us, no.

'Our journey is together as a couple, if we find a partner we think is compatible we are more likely to engage as pants on and off friends rather than feeling like they are a potential threat.

'We have learned that there are many different ways to have a relationship, there is no one perfect mold for anyone and that we each have the power to choose our relationship the way it works for us.

'We've also learned to be kind to ourselves through this journey, to allow ourselves the space and peace to think outside the box about all matters in life including sexuality.'

Surprisingly, Cee explained the swinging lifestyle isn't just about sex - and they enjoy the experience for other reasons

And of course, there are rules in place when they are swinging.

'Boundaries are certainly something that we have and are highly recommended to any single or couple interested in the lifestyle,' she said.

'Understanding what you want to experience and what is on or off limits is very important and healthy.

'For us, we chose to engage in the lifestyle together so we play together, in the same room and preferably on the same surface - I'd say bed but that isn't always the case.'

For us, we chose to engage in the lifestyle together so we play together, in the same room and preferably on the same surface - I'd say bed but that isn't always the case

Surprisingly, Cee explained the swinging lifestyle isn't just about sex - and they enjoy the experience for other reasons.

'Most people are expecting us to write the three letter word you're all thinking it... Sex,' she said.

'It's actually not the case for us, we were very surprised to find that the people you meet are just amazing, normal, exciting, interesting humans.

'We have made so many pants on and off friends in the lifestyle that it's almost impossible to imagine life without these people in it.

'They are the most caring and compassionate people we've ever met, similar to our heightened communication, we're also able to talk to our lifestyle friends about anything.

'We find ourselves around a dinner table talking about everything from finances, politics, career aspirations through to anal sex and what lube is the best on the market right now.'

By sharing their story, the pair wanted to break the stigma surrounding the swinging lifestyle

And while they enjoy a life behind closed doors, the pair have been keeping their hobby underwraps from most people.

'Very few 'vanilla' people in our life know about our hobby,' Cee said.

'We have told a few very close friends who have listened to our story and remained non-judgmental but whom would not be keen on trying it themselves.

'A few select work colleagues know as well but for the most part we keep that part of our life separate.'

We have made so many pants on and off friends in the lifestyle that it's almost impossible to imagine life without these people in it

The couple enjoy their hobby so much, they even launched their own podcast called Swinging Downunder.

'When we first started our journey, we had no idea what we were doing, what to look for, what to discuss and what rules or boundaries to consider,' Cee said.

'We did the best we could with what research was available at the time. So, in order to pass it forward we started a global podcast.

'We talk about topics, questions, lifestyle, events and our mishaps along the way. We do our best to be authentic and share a lot of ourselves on the podcast.

'We hope that we can help one couple or single in their own journey and help people to not feel isolated or alone in their feelings.'

The pair believe communication is key and they believe their sexual adventures have helped keep their relationship stronger than ever

By sharing their story, the couple wanted to break the stigma surrounding the swinging lifestyle.

'When swinging is brought up at a party or at a work function, it's always with this idea of 1970s key parties where you take some random person to your bed,' she said.

We get that people don't want to join in on what we do, that's perfectly fine, it's not for everyone and we respect that, we just ask for the same consideration in return

'Often, people believe that swinging and the idea of ethical non-monogamy is dirtier than cheating.

'People in everyday life might forgive a cheating partner quicker than they will accept that we choose to engage in activities together as a couple.

'If I could change one thing it would be kindness. To allow us all to carve our way through life and decide what works best for us.

'We get that people don't want to join in on what we do, that's perfectly fine, it's not for everyone and we respect that, we just ask for the same consideration in return.'

*Names have been changed for privacy reasons.
Sydney is a bustling, hectic city which, on the surface, seems largely driven by business, lively nights out and somewhat of an obsession with owning property.

But now a survey by new art project Intangible Goods has revealed that property is in fact not the most desirable thing in their lives.

Artists Elizabeth Commandeur and Mark Starmach worked with mental health professionals to question people as to what they thought was missing from their lives.

And based on the responses they received, the artists designed a range to 'products' to stock a vending machine which made these concepts and ideas 'available' to buy.

An art project called 'Intangible Goods' uses a vending machine to sell people concepts and ideas they think may be missing from their lives

Sydney is a bustling, hectic city which, on the surface, seems largely driven by business and consumerism and an obsession with owning property (stock image)

Of all the things people said they wanted in their life, a closer connection with others was considered the most important.

Coming in at second, third and fourth place was purpose, structure and bravery. Spontaneity, calm and certainty were also flagged.

Rounding out the list was the need to have someone who cared enough to listen, faith in humanity and patience.

'We live in a society where, for most of us, our physical needs are largely met, but often our emotional and psychological lives go unfed,' Mr Starmach said.

'This is seen in the increase in diagnoses of mental illnesses like depression and anxiety, and in the more commonplace experiences of stress and loneliness.'

'We live in a society where, for most of us, our physical needs are largely met. Yet increasingly our emotional and psychological lives go unfed,' said the artists.

The artists designed products to would stock the vending machine with, based on what people indicated they needed most for their well being

The brightly-coloured packages cost $2.00 and come with different contents which vary from origami stars and maps to pencils and written prompts

What do people need most in their life right now? 1. Closer connection with others 2. Purpose 3. Structure 4. Bravery 5. Spontaneity 6. Calm 7. Certainty 8. Someone who'll listen to me 9. Faith in humanity 10. Patience Source: Intangible Goods Advertisement

'Each intangible good is designed to elicit a different emotional response, depending on the good you pick.'

Some of the things people said they wanted more of included patience, faith in humanity, friendship, reassurance, structure, imagination and certainty.

The brightly-coloured packages cost $2 each and come with different contents which vary from origami stars and maps to pencils and written prompts.

'In this fun, interactive artwork, we hope people find an unexpected way to talk about the things we all need more of in our minds, and increase their awareness of an important cause,' added Ms Commandeur.

Lord Mayor Clover Moore said raising awareness around mental health was vital for creating strong and supportive communities.

'Art has the capacity to impact our community and break down stigma and isolation.

'This poignant  and fun  artwork will help to raise awareness about things we can all do to look after our mental health and that of those around us.'

The Intangible Goods vending machine will be installed across three city locations from 26 March until 8 April 2018. Click here for more details
With support from the Embassy of Armenia in Lithuania, the French Institute of the country organized a Francophone movie screening evening on March 27 on the occasion of the Francophonie Day in Vilnius.

March 28, 2018, 14:30 Henri Verneuils Mayrig screened in Vilnius Francophone movie event

STEPANAKERT, MARCH 28, ARTSAKHPRESS:French-Armenian filmmaker Henri Verneuils Mayrig was screened at the event, the ministry of foreign affairs said.

Armenias Ambassador to Lithuania Tigran Mkrtchyan delivered remarks at the event, mentioning that the traditional evening is a good opportunity to reaffirm the commitment of International Organization of La Francophonie countries to the universal values of the organization  peace, respect towards human rights and cultural diversity.

The upcoming summit of the International Organization of La Francophonie will take place in Yerevan, Armenia in October.
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Located in a converted grain silo with stunning views over Cape Town, it is easy to see why this hotel has been named one of the most amazing in the world.

The Silo has just 28 rooms, each individually designed by the owner, which cost between 800 and 9,000 per night. The hotel also boasts a rooftop pool and a collection of 300 pieces of contemporary African art.

No expense was spared in creating this vibrant, contemporary hotel, with 50,000 being spent on constructing each of the 104 bespoke geometric windows that dominate the walls.

However beyond the grandeur, there is a very real challenge facing The Silo: Cape Town's worst drought in a century.

On BBC Two's Amazing Hotels: Life Beyond the Lobby, presenters Giles Coren and Monica Galetti see how staff are being forced to adapt to the crisis by finding ways to clean the floor-to-ceiling windows without water; and restricting the amount of water used by each guest.

Coren and Galetti then take a trip out of the city to visit The Silo's sister hotel, La Providence, located in the heart of South Africa's wine country.

The Silo hotel is in the heart of Cape Town, it's interior is influenced heavily by the art featured heavily throughout the former grain silo

The striking building has 104 stunning which contain over 5,824 individual panes of glass overall and cost 50,000 each to construct

Built in the empty elevator shafts of a grain silo - which was once dubbed the tallest building in sub-Saharan Africa - and on top of the new Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa

The 189 members of staff of The Silo work across a five-star restaurant, cocktail bar and spa and gym and an exclusive 11th floor roof terrace and pool with panoramic views

The Silo, owned by husband and wife developers Liz and Phil Biden of The Royal Portfolio group, occupies six floors in a 90-year-old former grain store that sits 187ft above the V&A Waterfront.

Beneath the hotel is the new Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa - the African equivalent of the Tate Modern.

The redesign of The Silo was led by celebrated British designer Thomas Heatherwick, who created 104 windows boasting more than 5,824 individual panes of glass.

As Cape Town is currently battling drought, every two weeks a team abseils down The Silo to clean every single pane with a waterless cleaning product made from lemon juice and alcohol.

It is part of measures that have seen the hotel reduce water consumption by nearly 60 per cent.

Restaurant critic Coren works alongside maintenance man, Dean, as he checked the hotel's water aerators - a special devices fitted to taps and shower heads that prevents guests from using excessive amounts of water.

The property boasts 28 rooms which are all individually designed by Mrs Biden, with custom crafted ceramic coffee cups that match the colour theme in each

Presenter Giles Coren visits the hotel which was part of the regeneration of Cape Town, the redesign of the silo building was led by British star designer Thomas Heatherwick

Monica drew the short straw and to abseil from the 11th floor of the building to clean the exterior, using the waterless mixture of citrus peel and alcohol

The Silo is an industrial-chic, luxury art-themed hotel in the heart of Cape Town overlooking the seafront which has undergone a multi-million pound regeneration

Meanwhile Galetti works with Zimbabwean bar-manager, Jonas, who serves guests a selection of 14 different types of gin, many distilled in Cape Town and infused with plants that can only be found locally.

They are among the 189 members of staff work across a five-star restaurant, cocktail bar and spa and gym and an exclusive 11th floor roof terrace and pool with panoramic views.

Coren and Galetti then travel less than an hour away to La Residence, another hotel owned by the Bidens.

The hotel is located in the world-famous wine region near one of South Africa's oldest towns, Franschhoek, where Huguenots settled in the late 1600s, bringing with them their expertise in wine-making.

La Residence is a sumptuous rustic, Provencal-type property, with flashes of Versailles-inspired decor. It sits in 30 acres of a fully functioning farm, with 12 acres of vines supplying the hotel's own-brand wine.

La Residence is a sumptuous rustic, Provencal-type property, with flashes of Versailles-inspired decor, sitting in 30 acres of a fully functioning farm

To experience rural South Africa, Giles and Monica spend time in The Silo's sister hotel, La Residence where rooms are cheaper between 300 and 1,900 per night

Monica tries to keep up with enthusiastic Head Housekeeper, Christina, who battles with peacock droppings; sticks her head into loos to check cleanliness standards

Rooms at La Residence are cheaper than The Silo, costing between 300 and 1,900 per night.

Coren spends time with estate manager, Eddie, who tends to the vineyard which produces more than 42 tonnes of grapes - equal to 11,220 bottles of wine - a year.

He is heartened by Eddie's story of post-Apartheid life and a visit to his newly bought plot of land  site of his own future home.

Meanwhile Galetti tries to keep up with enthusiastic Head Housekeeper Christina as she battles with peacock droppings; sticks her head into loos to check cleanliness standards; and meticulously polishes the fruit displayed in the bedrooms of high-profile guests

The presenters also see how Christina and the staff try to add value to the local area of Groendal, where 80 per cent of them live in conditions that are in stark contrast to the luxury of the hotel.

Returning to The Silo, Giles and Monica help launch a new art exhibition in the hotel's art gallery, surrounded by staff from both sites.

Amazing Hotels: Life Beyond the Lobby returns next Tuesday on BBC Two at 9pm
The latest drama from BBC One has garnered mixed reviews from viewers, with many slamming lead actor Christopher Eccleston's Northern Irish accent as 'terrible' - and others left feeling awkward over the first episode's 'rough' sex scenes.

Airing at 9pm last night, viewers watched as single-dad mechanic Greg Farrell (Eccleston) rescued Brenna from an abusive relationship - and then wooed her in a series of graphic sex scenes.

And Eccleston's Northern Irish accent prompted questions about why a native actor wasn't employed in the role.

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Christopher Eccleston plays Greg Farrell in the BBC's latest drama Come Home - but the first episode left some viewers shocked by the 'endless' sex that featured between Greg and Brenna (Kerri Quinn)

As passions between Greg and Brenna reach fever pitch, the pair enjoy a passionate encounter in Greg's car - before being spotted by a local policeman

The steamy encounter shocked some viewers, with one saying he wasn't comfortable watching 'Doctor Who have rough sex'

Single dad Greg is seen rescuing Brenna from an abusive husband - and then wooing her throughout the first episode

Some viewers said the sight of Greg and Brenna's 'rough' sex left them feeling uncomfortable. Right: A more tender embrace between the pair, who are seen in the throes of first romance during the first episode

Middle-aged Greg sees his ardour reignited 11 months after his wife Marie (Paula Malcolmson) left him in sole charge of their three children

The drama, filmed in Belfast and written by Danny Brocklehurst, sees Greg struggling to deal with his three children nearly a year after his wife Marie (Paula Malcolmson) 'walked out on her home and kids for no reason.'

A spark between Greg and sandwich delivery driver Brenna quickly escalates into a raunchy encounter between the sheets, the first of several in the episode.

The most graphic of them sees Greg and Brenna being caught in flagrante by a local police officer after a vigorous tryst in a car.

The scenes left many viewers feeling a little awkward.

@birdiegotweet84 wrote: 'At the ripe old age of 34, it's still awkward watching a sex scene with your mum in the room! Thanks @bbc'

@joshaaronr added: 'I'm not comfortable watching doctor who have rough sex tbh.'

@PhilipMur asked: 'Is this just going to be 3 episodes of endless sex?'

@amz07 cringed: 'Dont think I like seeing #ChristopherEccleston have sex...'

@Lauren_R_C added: 'Didnt realise #ComeHome was going to be that full of sex.'

Eccleston's Northern Irish accent sparked criticism - and some applause - on social media

While some viewers said that the former Doctor Who star's accent was 'painful' to listen to, others said he had made a decent job of mastering it

Eccleston's accent also fired up hot debate, with many viewers asking why an Irish actor wasn't employed in the role.

@lisa488 wrote: 'That accent is terrible. There are plenty of fabulous NI actors.'

@CottomSarah penned: 'I know its only 12 mins in but Im not really getting in to it. His accent is crap.'

Others said the actor had actually done a fine job of mastering the accent.

@ShelleyFMarsden said: 'So I'm from Belfast and can confirm @Christopher_Ecc in #comehome is one of the most authentic accents I've heard from a non-Belfastian. Stellar actor.'

@SaxSurely agreed, saying: 'For everyone complaining about his accent, obviously we all know he is not Irish, he is an actor. That is what they do. It is their job to act out parts and pretend to be other people.'

A spokesperson for the programme responded to the criticism of Eccleston's accent, saying: 'Christopher Eccleston is a highly talented actor who was hired for his acting skills rather than his nationality and with his extensive credits, Christopher has brought an extraordinary quality to this ambitious series which we believe audiences will enjoy.'

Eccleston himself said he loved filming the drama in the Northern Irish city. He told Belfast Live: 'I have to say, I've fallen in love with Belfast very much. It's an incredible place. I could get moved by it.'

He added: 'I'd love to come back. I feel like Belfast will always be part of my life now. I'm based in London because my children (Albert and Esme) are there, but I'll definitely be back.'
An American woman has woken up with a 'posh' English accent after sustaining a head injury during a break-in.

Ashley Bosma, 28, from Hollywood, Florida, was alone at home in October 2017 when an intruder broke in, hitting her on the head and leaving her unconscious.

After being treated in hospital for a head injury, Ashley went back to her normal life despite still suffering with memory problems and brain fog.

But just a month later, her thick American accent disappeared overnight and instead she began speaking with a plummy English voice.

Doctors now believe that Ashley is suffering from foreign accent syndrome - a rare speech disorder found in cases of brain injuries.

Life-changing attack: Ashley, from Hollywood, Florida, was alone at home in October 2017 when an intruder broke in, hitting her on the head and leaving her unconscious

Mother-of-one Ashley said: 'I have never been to the UK or even anywhere near it so it is a real mystery how this has happened.

'I was a fan of Harry Potter when I was young but not really anything linked to Britain other than that. If anything I was more impressed by the French accent growing up.

'The only exposure I have had was a former work colleague who was a Brit and I loved his accent but I haven't spoken to him for about three years.

'My friends and family think it is really funny. They quote lines from Monty Python and even Mrs Doubtfire at me and finish off conversations with "Cheerio" or some other British mannerisms.'

Ashley's husband Derek and daughter Sophia, five, are amazed by the transformation in the accent which can also sound Australian or South African at points.

Ashley enjoying a cuppa. She revealed her friends and family think her accent is 'really funny', adding: 'They quote lines from Monty Python and even Mrs Doubtfire at me and finish off conversations with "Cheerio" or some other British mannerisms'

Ashley and daughter Sophia. During a dinner with her husband one night she lost consciousness and began acting strangely, so her husband rushed her back to hospital

What is Foreign Accent Syndrome? Foreign Accent Syndrome is speech disorder that causes a sudden change to speech so that a native speaker is perceived to speak with a 'foreign' accent. Foreign Accent Syndrome is most often caused by damage to the brain caused by a stroke or traumatic brain injury. Other causes have also been reported including multiple sclerosis and conversion disorder. In some cases no clear cause has been identified. Speech may be altered in terms of timing, intonation, and tongue placement, so that is perceived as sounding foreign. Listeners can usually still understand the sufferer's speech; it does not necessarily sound disordered. Foreign Accent Syndrome has been documented in cases around the world, including accent changes from Japanese to Korean, British English to French, American-English to British English, and Spanish to Hungarian. There have only ever been 150 confirmed cases of Foreign Accent Syndrome in the world so far. Advertisement

Ashley had recently returned to her studies to be a paramedic after taking time off to recover.

But she has found she suffers with social anxiety after people have accused her of faking it.

Ashley said: 'At first I couldn't understand what was happening and my lips and jaw were hurting and I spoke with the same dialect but didn't sound like my normal self.

'My husband was there to see it as I had a meeting at home with a Russian fitness trainer and overheard me and he actually thought I was trying to mock the person I was with.

'People think it's fake, that it's something not real - I don't like to record myself much because I sound funny.

'Whenever me and my husband go out, someone will always ask about where I'm from and then we have to explain it all - my husband has perfected his explanation.'

Police are still hunting the intruder, who is believed to have hit Ashley on the head with cast iron skillet.

She still remembers very little from the night of her injury but she does remember the kindness of the paramedics and says that it inspires her as she goes forward in her training.

She added: 'That night for me is a blur - I don't really remember much at all and because there didn't seem like I had any visible injury on my head, we didn't think much of it at the time.

'I had a throbbing pain, my sleep started to increase and I had very bad memory issues over the next two days.'

Recovery: After being treated in hospital for a head injury, Ashley, went back to her normal life despite still suffering with memory problems and brain fog

Ashley in hospital. A month after returning home, her thick American accent disappeared overnight and instead she began speaking with a plummy English voice

Ashley (pictured with husband Derek) said: 'Whenever me and my husband go out, someone will always ask about where I'm from and then we have to explain it all - my husband has perfected his explanation'

During a dinner with her husband one night she lost consciousness and began acting strangely, so her husband rushed her back to hospital.

Ashley said: 'They thought I was suffering with retrograde amnesia as at the time I couldn't form any new memories.

'They wanted to keep me in overnight, but because I was in a strangely belligerent state I decided to check myself out in the middle of the night, but luckily a police officer found me and took me home.

'When I returned to hospital - a different hospital - the doctors thought I had severe concussion she said six months of resting my brain - so no social media, no phone.

'I got bored within a week and I didn't listen and I started to use my phone and I was desperate to return to work and school as a first responder and at this point I still spoke normally.

Ashley has found she suffers with social anxiety after people have accused her of 'faking' her accent, but she has no idea why it has affected her

Ashley (pictured with her pet dogs) revealed: 'I have two pet corgis and I had someone once ask me "do you have corgis because they're the queen's favourite?"'

Ashley's husband Derek and daughter Sophia, five, are amazed by the transformation in the accent which can also sound Australian or South African at points

'The day I finally took home, I slept all day and all night and then after I had an insurmountable amount of sleep and I woke up with an accent.

'My husband reminded me of what the doctor had said originally - about how we shouldn't be surprised if changes occur, like my speech - it's extremely rare but stranger things have happened.

Ashley, who worked in the military as a mechanic for six years, gets her care through the VA and was diagnosed as having foreign accent syndrome.

She was put through lots of neurological tests and they looked at history of her exposure to accents, but found that she had only ever been exposed to one British accent - a former colleague.

'You don't have to be exposed to the accent for you to develop it and people with an American accent often sound like they're a cross between American and British English - it's actually called a transatlantic accent.

Ashley, who worked in the military as a mechanic for six years, gets her care through the VA and was diagnosed as having foreign accent syndrome

The mother-of-one was put through lots of neurological tests and they looked at history of her exposure to accents, but found that she had only ever been exposed to one British accent

'There's only about 100 cases that have been recorded in the last century - I thought of course I have to be the statistic.

'People think it's fake, that it's something not real - which is really frustrating. I don't like to record myself much because I sounds funny to myself.

'I have two pet corgis and I had someone once ask me "do you have corgis because they're the queen's favourite?" I don't think I even answered him.'

Ashley wants to make people more aware of the syndrome and to reach out to others going through the same thing.

Her husband Derek added: 'She's been so strong about it - I'm not sure If I could have dealt with it as well as she has.

'She's still the same wife and I feel so much love for her - the accent is just a tiny part of her. I just want her to be happy.'
A woman with a collection of royal memorabilia so huge it take up five rooms of her house has branded herself Britain's 'most loyalist Royalist'.

Margaret Tyler, 74, from Wembley, began collecting royal knick-knacks 40 years ago, and her hoard is now so vast she says keeping all of the thousands of pieces of china, figurines and photo frames dusted takes up much of her time.

Margaret says she doesn't smoke or drink or take holidays, as she devotes all of her time and money to her 'labour of love' hobby.

The avid monarchist, who has a Princess Diana mural on the ceiling at her home, is now eagerly awaiting the royal wedding that will see Meghan Markle become an official member of the royal family - because she's convinced she and Harry will 'rule the world'.

Margaret Tyler, 74, from Wembley began her collection forty years ago and the collection of royal memorabilia is so huge it encompasses four rooms and a bedroom.

She has branded herself Britain's 'most loyalist Royalist' and spends all her time and money on the collection

The fanatic has branded the thousands of items a 'labour of love' and is proud of her collection

Margaret said: 'It's a labour of love, looking after my collection. I don't go on holiday, I don't smoke, I don't drink. I spend all my time and money on my collection and I love it and I love sharing it with people.'

Margaret's obsession began with a small dish she picked up at a school fair, and has blossomed into an entire house-full of memorabilia.

'It's grown and grown since then,' she said.

'I now have four rooms and a bedroom full of memorabilia.'

Margaret was nine years old when Queen Elizabeth was crowned following the death of her father, King George VI.

'I can hardly remember a time when she wasn't there,' she said.

Her house has become a veritable shrine to the UK's royal family, which she says is 'the best in the world'.

Margaret explained that dusting is a big part of her life and as as soon as she finishes she has to start over again

Calling the British Royal family the 'best in the world', Margaret can't wait for Meghan Markle to join the monarchy

She was nine years old when the Queen Elizabeth II was crowned following the death of her father, King George VI (Charles memorabilia pictured)

Margaret's collection started with a small dish at a school fair and has blossomed into a house-full of memorabilia

Her house has become a veritable shrine to the UK's royal family, an entity she considers to be 'the best in the world.'

Despite the size of her collection, every item has its own place in her home and she is rather particular about where each item goes (Diana seen)

Despite the size of her collection, every item has its own place in her home and she is rather particular about where each item goes.

'I can't have a mug for one royal next to another royal, if anybody moves anything I know straight away!'

Talking about her love for the royal family she added of the queen: 'She is the mother of the world because our royal family is the best in the world'.

And the collector can't wait for the upcoming wedding of Prince Harry and his Suits fiancee Meghan, declaring the couple 'a breath of fresh air in the royal family' and 'very much in love.'

She has a whole room dedicated to Princess Diana

The collector can't wait for the upcoming wedding of Prince Harry and his Suits fiancee Meghan

She believes she will add sparkle to the family and her and Harry will 'rule the world'

'Meghan and Harry make a lovely couple, they're very much in love,' she said.

'They will be a breath of fresh air in the royal family. Meghan will be an amazing addition to the royal family - she is very good as a speaker.

'She has been brought up in Hollywood and knows her own mind. She's a sparkling girl and together they will practically rule the world.

'This year will be one of the biggest royal years as we have two royal weddings and two royal babies,' Margaret added excitedly.

Dusting is a full time job for the loyal Royal fan who doesn't go on holiday

Her collection is so huge that she has thousands of items

'Meghan and Harry make a lovely couple, they're very much in love,' she said

Even the outside of her home features tributes to the queen

The royal couple will marry at St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle on May 19, with millions of people expected to watch around the world.

They will then embark on a carriage procession around the Berkshire town, cheered by residents and visitors, before a reception at St George's Hall.

Palace aides have previously said that the prince and Ms Markle's wedding will 'reflect their characters and personalities' and be a moment of 'fun and joy'.

Her crockery collection boasts glasses and cups with members of the family pictured

A stained glass window of Britain's Diana, Princess of Wales forms part of Margaret Tyler's royal memorabilia collection

Cut out corgi dogs form part of Margaret Tyler's royal memorabilia collection

Margaret Tyler adjusts a bed in her home in north London

Part of Margaret Tyler's royal memorabilia collection in her home in north London

The Queen will attend, as will the rest of the royal family, along with Ms Markle's parents Thomas Markle and Doria Ragland.

Prince George and Princess Charlotte are likely to take on the roles of pageboy and bridesmaid.

The royal family are paying for the wedding, including the church service, the music, the flowers and the reception. But the security costs for the high-profile event are being covered by the state.

Harry proposed to Suits star Ms Markle during a cosy night in over a roast chicken dinner after a 16-month whirlwind romance.

'I can't have a mug for one royal next to another royal, if anybody moves anything I know straight away!'

Talking about her love for the royal family she added of the queen: 'She is the mother of the world because our royal family is the best in the world'

'They will be a breath of fresh air in the royal family. Meghan will be an amazing addition to the royal family - she is very good as a speaker,' she said of Harry and Meghan
The big day is drawing near, and the coveted invitations to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding have already landed on the doormats of the lucky few who will be at Windsor Castle on May 19.

But as the world whips itself into a frenzy over Meghan's impending marriage, MailOnline's etiquette expert William Hanson has pointed out that the painstakingly produced invitations included a subtle reference to her first one.

On the traditional invitations, issued in Prince Charles' name and written in American ink on English card, Meghan is referred to as 'Ms' Markle - in contrast to invitations to the 2011 royal wedding, on which the now Duchess of Cambridge was referred to as Miss Catherine Middleton.

Etiquette dictates that Ms is the correct way to refer to a divorced woman, but William has pointed out that the royal household has 'never before' acknowledged the honourific.

Mail Online's etiquette expert William Hanson has revealed the subtle nod to the Meghan Markle's previous marriage in the recently issued wedding invites to Prince Harry

He said: 'The royal household, in particular the Queen, has never before acknowledged the honourific Ms - regardless of whether it was being used to signify a divorced woman or one who did not feel her marital status was of importance.

'It was first used in connection to Meghan in the November engagement announcement and since then has been used throughout the royal household's communications, on press releases, invitations and social media.

'I would imagine Meghan herself has asked to be styled accordingly and that there is no slight intended on Prince Harry's fiancee. It is another subtle sign that the royal household is moving with the times.'

The stunning invites, which featured American ink on English card printed in italic writing and issued in Prince Charles' name, refer to the American actress as 'Ms' Markle

Actress Meghan was previously married to film producer Trevor Engelson - the pair wed in 2011 after seven years of dating.

The couple divorced three years later citing irreconcilable differences, with insiders blaming the amicable split on clashes in their work schedule.

Harry and Meghan's wedding invitations, which were revealed to the public after being posted last week, were produced by company Barnard & Westwood, which has held a Royal Warrant for Printing & Bookbinding by Appointment to Her Majesty The Queen since 1985.

Talented actress Meghan was previously married to film producer Trevor Engelson, and the duo married in 2011 after seven years of dating, but divorced in 2013

The invites read: 'His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales KG KT requests the pleasure of the company of....... at the marriage of His Royal Highness Prince Henry of Wales with Ms Meghan Markle at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle on Saturday 19th May, 2018 at 12 Noon followed by a reception at Windsor Castle.'

The royal couple will marry at St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle on May 19, with millions of people expected to watch around the world.

Some 600 guests will attend the wedding service, before enjoying a lunchtime reception at St George's Hall, held by the Queen.

The newlyweds will then embark on a carriage procession around the Berkshire town, cheered by residents and visitors, before a reception at St George's Hall.

'I would imagine Meghan herself has asked to be styled accordingly and that there is no slight intended on Prince Harry's finance. It is another subtle sign that the royal household is moving with the times,' Etiquette expert William Hanson said (Meghan seen in Suits)

Later that evening, 200 guests are invited to the private reception at Frogmore House given by The Prince of Wales.

The invitation specified that men wear military uniform or a morning coat and lounge hat, while women are asked to wear a day dress and hat.

Palace aides have previously said that the prince and Ms Markle's wedding will 'reflect their characters and personalities' and be a moment of 'fun and joy'.

The Queen will attend, as will the rest of the royal family, along with Ms Markle's parents Thomas Markle and Doria Ragland.

Prince George and Princess Charlotte are likely to take on the roles of pageboy and bridesmaid.

The royal family is footing the bill for the wedding, including the church service, the music, the flowers and the reception.

Harry proposed to the stunning Suits star during a cosy night in over a roast dinner in 2017 after a 16-month whirlwind romance.
A devastated mother has told how her only son's sudden suicide at the age of 21 left her with post-traumatic stress disorder and forced to take early retirement.

Pippa Travis' son Henry took his own life in 2016 at the age of 21 - just five days after he was sectioned overnight under the Mental Health Act - unbeknownst to his parents - by police who had found him at a suicide spot in Ipswich.

Pippa, who appeared on This Morning on Wednesday, said of the moment a police officer turned up on her doorstep to tell her of the tragic news: 'I felt like I died there and then on the spot.

'I lost my only son. He was my world. I lived for him. I feel I died on the day he died. I've had to try and rebuild my life.'

The grieving mother, from Ipswich, appeared on the show to talk about mental health issues and support the show's Project 84 campaign, which highlights male suicide statistics.

Pippa said she's battled depression in the wake of the tragedy and has been forced to stop working.

Pippa Travis' only son, Henry, took his own life in 2016 at the age of 21 just five days after he had been sectioned overnight by the Mental Health Act

Henry took his life just five days after he was sectioned overnight by the Mental Health Act, something which his parents weren't aware of

The photography student, who was living in London, had returned home from his studies to celebrate his birthday with his mother two years ago.

After his mother dropped Henry off at the station to he walked to Orwell Bridge, a known suicide spot just outside of Ipswich station, where he was stopped by police and detained under the Mental Health Act.

He was assessed by two psychiatrists at Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, kept overnight and later released to make his way back to London - but his parents were told nothing about the incident due to patient confidentiality.

Pippa, who says she doubts Henry's capacity to make the decision about keeping his parents in the dark, wants to see a change to the legislation around patient confidentiality - and says decisions in cases like her son's should be 'at the clinician's discretion'.

'We found out afterwards he had actively been researching how to take his own life on the internet,' she said.

'He told the clinicians that is what he had been doing. I'm not wishing to pin the blame on anybody, but I think there has to be some changes with legislation in regards to patient confidentiality.

Pippa explained that Henry was a gifted student, and that art had 'proved to be his forte'.

However, she believed he had become 'disillusioned' with London and the fashion world, in which he was attempting to make his way as a photographer.

'Henry was a very genuine soul, he was very sensitive and he was very kindhearted and I think he was very disillusioned with what he thought was going to be the way forward for him,' she said.

'He was trying to concentrate on his studies. The pressure that these young people are under the clock was permanently racing for him.'

Pippa last saw her son after she dropped him at Ipswich train station following his 21st birthday celebrations

The grieving mother had no idea that it would be the last time she saw her only son as he took his own life

When he came home to celebrate his 21st birthday, Pippa admitted she was worried about his mood.

'I could tell he was not his normal self. He didn't seem excited about his birthday at all. He promised me he would go and see his GP,' she said.

'I noticed he was tired. He said he hadn't been sleeping too well. He thought he was falling behind with his studies. I said, "Look I think you need to get some professional help".

Henry had contacted his GP which his doctor later confirmed to his parents, saying that she had seen him in London on May 16 and was so concerned about him that she had prescribed him some medication and contacted an emergency mental health crisis team in London - but she did not get an immediate response.

Henry, who was believed to have taken his life in the early hours of May 17, had also tried to email his tutors, leaving a voicemail for one of them, but had not spoken to them.

'[Dropping him at the station] was the last time I saw him,' his mother said on the show on Wednesday.

'We spoke a few times on the phone. He still seemed very down-hearted. So much so I spoke to his step-mother about it. They [his father and step-mother] were visiting him in London. I said, Please will you talk to him? I feel like hes a little bit depressed.'

Henry was stressed with his university studies and his mother had asked him to seek help from his GP

Pippa explained that she wasn't aware her son had been assessed by psychiatrists due to patient confidentiality

Henry's father Stuart Curtis, 53, had visited his son with his partner Teresa Dear. They both believe that Henry was failed by the patient confidentiality legislation.

He said previously: 'It is just so galling that we were not told anything about the severity of his mental health condition while he was still alive when we could have helped.

'They all knew that my son had been found on Orwell Bridge and had seen two Consultant Psychiatrists and then a GP in London.

'These so called professionals should have told us, so we could have looked after him. Instead a policeman came to his mother's door and told her, 'Your son is dead'.

Director of Operations for Suffolk at NSFT, Alison Armstrong said following Henry's death in 2016: 'I am very sorry to hear about the sad loss of this young man.

'I cannot comment on individual cases but if there is anything I can do to support family or friends please do get in touch.'

A Suffolk Police spokesman added: 'If we get a scenario like this, we would simply detain the person.

'Ultimately it is a mental health issue and we would put the person into the care of health services. If a person was under 18, we would probably have had more involvement.'

This Morning airs weekdays on ITV at 10.30am

For confidential support call the Samaritans on 116123 or visit a local Samaritans branch, see https://www.samaritans.org/ for details.
Elegant in a cream dress, the Queen looked ready for spring as she welcomed the President of Estonia to Windsor Castle today.

But a closer look at photos of the meeting reveals how the monarch, 91, is still feeling the bite of the lingering winter chill.

For just feet away from where the Queen and President Kersti Kaljulaid shook hands was a simple grey fan heater, whirring away beneath an ornate console table.

The Queen, 91, received President Kersti Kaljulaid, 48, in a private audience at Windsor Castle on Wednesday. Just feet away from the women was an electric fan heater whirring away

President Kaljulaid is on a three-day visit to Britain and has already met with the Prime Minister and members of the British Government. Today she was welcomed to Windsor Castle

The plastic-cased appliance, which costs roughly 30 from the high street, can be seen in the background of several photos of the Queen and President Kaljulaid.

Similar heaters have been seen in other rooms inside both Buckingham Palace and Balmoral, proving how the Queen is keen to keep her housekeeping costs to a minimum.

President Kaljulaid, 48, is on a three-day visit to Britain and has already met with the Prime Minister and members of the Government.

The Queen looked ready for spring in a simple mid-length shift dress, which she teamed with a black handbag and heels. She hosted President Kalijulaid in one of Windsor's opulent rooms

Today she was received by the Queen at a private audience in one of the reception rooms of Windsor Castle.

The Queen looked ready for spring in a simple mid-length shift dress, which she teamed with her black handbag and black heels.

Meanwhile President Kaljulaid opted for a chic whit midi dress for the occasion.

The room where the reception took place has previously hosted a number of notable visitors, including religious and political leaders.
Cynthia Nixon is hoping her fans will show their support for her gubernatorial campaign by wearing buttons that say 'unqualified lesbian'.

The 51-year-old Sex and the City star-turned-politician is selling the new campaign buttons through the Democratic fundraising site ActBlue for $5 each, with all sales going toward the running of her campaign for Governor of New York.

Nixon's cheeky pins reference a phrase that was used against the star when she announced her bid for public office, which she is now taking back as a cheeky way to turn her nose up at critics.

Scroll down for video

New merch! Cynthia Nixon is selling buttons that say 'unqualified lesbian' to raise funds for her campaign for governor

Taking it back: The buttons reference a critical comment made by Andrew Cuomo supporter Christine Quinn

Nixon announced last week that she is challenging New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for the Democratic nomination this September.

Many people were quick to share their thoughts on the move, including prominent Cuomo supporter Christine Quinn.

'I'm surprised by this race. It's a flight of fancy on her part,' Quinn said, according to the New York Post.

'Cynthia Nixon was opposed to having a qualified lesbian become mayor of New York City. Now she wants an unqualified lesbian to be the governor of New York. You have to be qualified and have experience. She isn't qualified to be the governor.'

Quinn, who is a lesbian herself, is a former New York City Council Speaker who ran for mayor in 2013. She ran for the Democratic nomination but lost out to Bill de Blasio, who went on to win the election and become mayor.

Not sugar-coating it: Cynthia, 51, has since hit back and joked, 'I don't have my certificate from the Department of Lesbian Affairs, but in my defense, there is a lot of paperwork involved'

There also happens to be a great divide in the New York political scene, with Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio on opposite sides. The two have been in an ongoing public feud of unknown origins, with Cuomo recently accusing de Blasio of bribery.

So if Democrats are taking sides, Quinn and Nixon are very much on opposite ones. While Quinn is a Cuomo supporter, Nixon campaigned for de Blasio and was even present at his inauguration.

After Quinn's 'unqualified lesbian' comment, Nixon shot back with humor at a campaign event on March 21.

'Good evening sisters, brothers, those who reject the gender binary. Welcome. Welcome unqualified lesbians. And qualified ones, too,' she said.

'Yesterday, when I announced my candidacy, one of Governor Cuomo's top surrogates dismissed me as an "unqualified lesbian," she went on. 'And I just want to say tonight, that she was technically right.

'I don't have my certificate from the Department of Lesbian Affairs, but in my defense, there is a lot of paperwork involved.'

Context: Quinn, a former New York City Countil member, was comparing Nixon unfavorably to herself, noting that she is a 'qualified lesbian' and Nixon is not

Swearing-in: Nixon is a supporter of Cuomo's nemesis Bill de Blasio, the mayor of New York

Now she's taking the snarky comeback a bit further with the two styles of campaign pins, the first merchandise she has released.

Though Nixon is taking public donations for her campaign, she is not taking corporate donations.

The new 'unqualified lesbian' buttons are reminiscent of the 'Nasty Woman' T-shirts sold during Hillary Clinton's run for President of the United States.

After Donald Trump attacked her as a 'nasty woman,' thousands of her supporters reclaimed the phrase and wore it proudly through the campaign and later at the 2017 and 2018 Women's Marches.

While Nixon continued to shoot back at the remark made against her, Quinn herself has taken to Twitter to explain her comments.

'To be clear, Cynthia Nixons identity has no bearing on her candidacy and it was not my intention to suggest it did. I want to be clear about that. I would never, EVER, criticize someone because of their identity,' she said.

Defense: After Quinn's comments made headlines, she took to Twitter to explain

Background: She pointed out that she as not calling Nixon a lesbian in a critical manner, as she herself is a lesbian

Got it: She was merely saying that Nixon didn't like it when Quinn, a 'qualified lesbian,' ran for mayor, and now she, an 'unqualified lesbian,' was running for governor

Clear: She said qualifications are important when taking on a big job

'Ive experienced it time and time again, and would never support it or condone it. As a lesbian who ran one of the most high profile races in the country, I know what thats like. And I know its imperative that we encourage more members of our community to run for office.

'Cynthia Nixon aggressively opposed my candidacy in New York despite my qualifications for the office and despite my strong progressive credentials. I was attempting to make a comparison between the two of us.

'The real point I am trying to make is that qualifications matter and records matter. I do not believe she has the qualifications or the record.'

Cynthia Nixon also tossed out some criticism of her own last week, wasting no time telling the public what she really thinks of her competition.

On Friday, Glamour published an interview in which Nixon pulled no punches when speaking about Cuomo and what he has done (and not done) as Governor of New York.

Explaining why she decided to run, the star said: 'Because we so badly need someone to run against Andrew Cuomo. To show who he is. And to show everything thats been lacking here in the last eight years and everything New York could be in opposition to Donald Trump.'

Nixon's wife, Christine Marinoni, works in the citys Department of Education. In 2013, the couple campaigned hard for New York City mayor Bill de Blasio. Nixon was on stage for his swearing-in and the two are considered to be friends.

Not a fan: Since announcing her run, Nixon has blasted Cuomo and enumerated his shortcomings

Speaking to Glamour, she didn't hold back her lack of faith in the Governor.

'The blunt truth is that Andrew Cuomo has a [nearly] $31 million war chest, and he is famously vengeful. It is almost impossible for anybody who is in Democratic politics to run against him.

'I think somebody who is supposed to have the public interest, but rules through fear, is exactly the person you have to go up against.

'Bullies have to be confronted,' she said.

She acknowledged how unusual it is for someone to run against an incumbent from his or her own party, but said the the 'anger and hunger' in New York made it clear to her that a change was needed.

When she announced her candidacy, she said, 'People were saying, "Youve got to get him out of there. Hes a crook. He makes Chris Christie look like a choir boy." And so Andrew Cuomo has big name recognition and he has big money, but in terms of loyalty of the person on the street, I think its pretty small.'

While one of the most common criticisms of Nixon's bid for Governor is that she is a celebrity, the star pointed out that Cuomo was well-known before he took on the role, too.

She called him a 'celebrity politician,' noting that he is the son of former Governor Mario Cuomo, who served from 1983 to 1994.

Family: Her wife, Christine Marinoni, works for New York City's Department of Education and the pair campaigned for de Blasio

Star power: The former Sex and the City star, pictured with her co-stars, acknowledged being a 'theatrical celebrity' but said Cuomo is a 'political celebrity'

'He is in a political celebrity family, and I am in a theatrical celebrity family. He was also a celebrity when he ran,' she said. 'But I dont know. To me, celebrity seems like a distraction.

Nixon also addressed some of the issues she'd most like to tackle if she won, including protecting undocumented people, fixing the subways, improving the lack of affordable housing, and taking care of the 'tyranny' of landlords.

She talked about poverty in New York, saying that the 'entire state has been negatively impacted by Andrew Cuomos massive budget cuts to corporations and the wealthy'.

And, she added, a lot of the issues with poverty are tied to race.

'I think we only have to look at the election of Donald Trump to see that we are so clearly not living in a post-racial society,' she said. 'Maybe even less than we thought we were.

'When things like Donald Trump happen  and frankly, when things like Andrew Cuomo and his massive disinvestment in our state happen  [African-Americans] are the hardest hit. And they're the first hit.'

Nixon also accused Cuomo of being out of touch, saying that his team wasn't bothered about details. As an example, she noted that after Trump was elected, Cuomo's website still read 'Make New York great again'  a catchphrase similar to MAGA, despite the state voting overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton.
Adding a splash of colour will no doubt help put a spring in your step

FEMAIL has done the hard work for you, by picking out an entire outfit

Moving into spring, sorting out your transitional wardrobe can be a headache

As we finally move into spring, sorting out your transitional wardrobe can be a bit of a headache.

So, FEMAIL has done the hard work for you - by picking out an entire outfit, complete with accessories.

Adding a splash of colour will no doubt help put a spring in your step...
Popular Canadian ice cream brand Sweet Jesus has come under fire for its 'blasphemous' name and 'mockery' of religious symbols, as thousands of Christians demand a boycott of the company following its expansion into the United States.

The ice cream parlor, which was founded in Toronto by Andrew Richmond and Amin Todai in 2015, is facing a call to action from Christian communities who want people to boycott the brand  but the company is refusing to change its name.

One petition posted on the conservative advocacy group CitizenGO has received more than 11,000 signatures following its claims that Sweet Jesus is 'all about trashing Christianity and mocking the saving work of our Lord Jesus Christ.'

Under hellfire: Canadian ice cream brand Sweet Jesus is facing backlash from critics over its 'blasphemous' name and 'mockery' of religious symbols

'Serve Up Blasphemy': One CitizenGO petition, which has received more than 11,0000 signatures, calls for a boycott of the popular ice cream brand that was founded in 2015

'Choosing the name of our Lord for a brand of soft-serve ice cream is totally offensive and revolting,' the petition reads. 'Both in their promotional materials and menu selection, it is plain to see that Richmond and Todai have every intention of mocking Christ and Christianity. If anything could qualify as "hate speech," this is it!'

The petition points out the names of some of Sweet Jesus' ice cream flavors, including 'Red Rapture,' 'Hella Nutella,' and 'Sweet Baby Jesus.'

It also references a blog post on Activist Mommy calling out the company logo that features an 'SS style "S", popular among equally blasphemous and Satanic metal bands of the '70s and '80s, and an upside down cross.'

Meanwhile, a Change.org petition demanding that Sweet Jesus change its name and remove its 'offensive Antichrist imagery immediately' has received more than 2,000 signatures.

A Change.org petition demands that the company changes its name and removes its 'offensive Antichrist imagery' following the company's U.S. expansion

Are you laughing? Ads for the brand features cheeky spins on religious references, including taglines such as 'Eat like it's your Last Supper' and 'The answer to your prayers'

This petition argues that the brand is 'highly offensive to Christians, noting that a similar company named after Muhammad would never be allowed.

'God forbid the name of the prophet Muhammed was used in this manner or the name of Allah against Muslims. So why is it that the name of Jesus Christ can be openly mocked in our so called fair, equal, and democratic society?' it asks.

Sweet Jesus has 19 locations in Canada, one location in Baltimore, Maryland, and a second U.S. location slated to open at the Mall of America in Minnesota.

Ads for the brand features cheeky spins on religious references, including taglines such as 'Eat like it's your Last Supper' and 'The answer to your prayers, and your next two meals.'

#Blessed: The ice cream parlor has 19 locations in Canada, one in Baltimore, Maryland, and a second U.S. location slated to open at the Mall of America in Minnesota

Critics have slammed the company over its use of religious imagery, including these ads featuring Bible verses and mentions of the Ten Commandments

This person's a fan: However, despite the controversy, some people think the ads are hilarious

'They make great ice cream': A Sweet Jesus fan named Raymond noted that Christians should be more concerned about loving their fellow man

Although critics insist the name of the brand is mocking Christ, Richmond explained in a statement to The Star that it was inspired by the popular phrase 'Sweet Jesus,' which people often use to express joy and surprise.

'We are conscious of the fact that, to some, our name can be off-putting,' he explained.

'That fact is something we struggle with because we sincerely do not wish to give offense or show disrespect in any way toward anyones personal beliefs. Neither is it our intention to be exploitative or flagrantly provocative.'

Although the company considered changing it's name, it ultimately refused to give in to the pressure.

Hypocrisy: Canadian businesswoman Arlene Dickinson pointed out that the ice cream chain is coming under fire at the same time a porn star is talking about 'spanking Donald Trump'

Not having it: One Twitter user argued that U.S. Evangelicals are offended by an ice cream chain's name, but not the actions of their president

Up in arms: Father James Mallon called out the results of Toronto Star's poll in which 62 per cent of respondents said the name is 'harmless fun'

Moot point: Someone named Silvia hit back that 'sweet Jesus' is a common phrase

Laughing it off: One Twitter user posted a picture of the ice cream shop's menu, joking that it will make you say 'Sweet Jesus'

Ironic: He also joked about many critics are the same people who complain that 'people are such snowflakes nowadays'

'After a lot of thought, we have decided that we will not make a change,' Richmond said. 'The best brands come from an honest place. Sweet Jesus is an honest reflection of our experiences and that of our customers and how they react when they try our product.

'In our experience, the majority of people understand that were not trying to make a statement about religion.'

As the petition controversy continues to make headlines, people have been taking to Twitter to defend the company and call out hypocrisy.

'Sweet Jesus ice cream chain is being boycotted in the USA b/c the chains name is see as blasphemous  at the very same time as Stormy Daniels is on 60 Minutes talking about having sex with & spanking Donald Trump? Canadian business woman Arlene Dickinson tweeted. 'Good God America. Seek help. (Pardon the blasphemy.)'

'Funny how we pick our fights': Jonathan Merritt also found the outrage to be hypocritical

Loving it: Someone known as CK joked that she would eat Sweet Jesus ice cream 'religiously'

Can't even: Twitter user Toronto Mike found the controversy to be frustrating

'An ice cream chain called "Sweet Jesus" offends Evangelicals. BUT not their "President" marrying 3 times, divorcing twice, having 5 kids from 3 different women, having affairs with Porn Stars and all the ignorant f*****y he gets up to doesn't,' someone else commented.

And someone known as CK joked: 'If we had Sweet Jesus ice cream in Indiana, I'd eat it religiously.'

Meanwhile, Father James Mallon called out the results of Toronto Star's poll in which 62 per cent of respondents said the name is 'harmless fun,' writing: 'Now imagine the results if the place was called 'Sweet Mohammed [sic].'

'But the term 'sweet Jesus' is an actual phrase used by our culture as an expression of joy,' someone named Silvia hit back. 'I am unaware of a Muslim phrase like this. Sorry your argument carries no weight @FJMallon.'
The victims were kidnapped in Mosul in 2014. Their bodies found in a mass grave. Criticism of the government of Narenda Modi, for publishing the identity of the workers before talking with the families.

New Delhi (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The bodies of the 39 Indian workers killed by Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq will be repatriated soon, perhaps as early as next week. This was announced yesterday by Indian Foreign Minister, Sushma Swaraj, meeting the relatives of the victims kidnapped in Mosul in 2014 after their bodies were found in a mass grave.

Last week, Ms. Swaraj published news about the identification of the bodies in the media, a move that sparked criticisms of "insensitivity" towards the families of the workers who learned of the deaths of their families on television. In the four years since their disappearance the Delhi government has repeatedly declared that it is doing its utmost to recover their bodies. In July of last year Swaraj had affirmed before the Lok Sabha (Lower House of the Indian Parliament) that "from the latest information from third party sources, they are all safe".

The victims had gone to Iraq in search of work, despite the risks of Islamic fundamentalism. The DNA investigations confirmed their identities: 27 are from the Punjab state; 4 from Himachal Pradesh, 6 come from Bihar and two from West Bengal. Rajrani Sharma, wife of Pritpal, spoke with tears in her eyes of her shock at the minister's announcement. " "They assured us over and over again that everything was all right - that they were alive and that the government was searching for them," she said.
April showers bring May flowers but just a few drops can wreak havoc on outfits, shoes and hairdos.

To prevent inclement weather from cramping your style, invest in a few fashionable waterproof pieces (yes, they exist!). FEMAIL reveals the six items needed to keep you looking pulled together, even in torrential downpours.

Bonus: Aside from it's functional benefits, plastic fashions are trending this season, as seen on the Chanel spring/summer runway.

Life in plastic: Plastic fashions came down the Chanel spring/summer runway

Rain gear checklist:

Jacket: Look for a weather-proof topper in an interesting silhouette that flatters your figure. Opt for a neutral shade that will go with any and every ensemble.

Umbrella: We're all guilty of buying generic throwaway umbrellas during an unexpected sprinkle, but why not invest in one that expresses your personality?

Poncho: Stay dry at a moment's notice in a poncho. They're the simplest way to protect yourself from the elements because their lightweight compact design makes them easy to carry. Look for styles that have functional features like detachable hoods and pockets.

Shoes: Stick to sleek and chic footwear that you won't even what to slip out of when you get to your destination.

Handbag rain jacket: Just because it's raining, doesn't mean you can't carry your designer handbag, but keep it protected.

Hair: The slightest precipitation can instantly turn a blowout into an unruly mess. To help minimize this frizz and keep hair looking smooth, try a Heated Brush (shop below).

Hooded Rain Mac by Topshop, $95; topshop.com

Left: Cyriel color-block shell hooded top by Isabel Marant Etoile, $490; net-a-porter.com. Right: Melanie hooded shell jacket by Elizabeth & James, $695; net-a-porter.com

Waterproof Poncho with pouch by November Rain, $59; novemberrain.co

Sportmax Code Never Too Late Clear Rain Jacket, $262; asos.com

Rain check? Umbrella by Kate Spade, $38; katespade.com

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SHOP HUNTER FOR TARGET ON APRIL 14:

Target partnered with Hunter  a British heritage brand known for their tall wellies on a limited-edition lifestyle collection.

The capsule includes home and outdoor goods, as well as boots, sandals, jackets, tops, bottoms, backpacks, duffels and small accessories for women, men, girls, boys and toddlers.

Hunter for Target includes more than 300 items. Products range in price from $5-$80, with the majority of items under $30. The collection will be available at select Target stores and on Target.com

Stars like Jenna Dewan Tatum, Kate Bosworth and Anna Kendrick celebrated the launch wearing rain gear from the line.

Affordable necessities: Target partnered with Hunter  a British heritage brand known for their tall wellies on a limited-edition lifestyle collection
Standing in my headmasters office, shaking with anger and frustration, I felt he somehow saw me as less deserving of respect than anyone else on his staff.

Earlier that day, one of my pupils had been removed from my class at his parents insistence. They didnt want their son taught German by a Sauerkraut.

This is racist, I insisted, aghast that the head was siding with them. Anyway, who else did they think was better qualified to teach this child my own mother tongue?

But deep down, I knew I was wasting my breath. This was a battle Id lost the moment my student told his parents my German name.

After all, this conversation was taking place in Brighton in the late 1960s; in a country where, despite more than two decades having passed since the end of World War II, memories of the pain and suffering it caused still cast their shadow over the parents of the children I taught.

Monika Jephcott Thomas explained how her father Max (pictured in his uniform) was a doctor who was conscripted as a medic under the Nazis

I came to England in 1966, having married a British man I met through family friends, finding work as a languages teacher.

Since my arrival Id been met with deep suspicion by many parents and several of my fellow teachers. I got the cold shoulder from colleagues in the staff room, and these werent the only parents to demand I didnt teach their children.

It hurt but I could understand why.

After all, many of these people had lost loved ones in that terrible war and been bombed out of their homes during the Blitz. Theyd grown up with rationing and considerable deprivation, which continued long after peace was declared.

As far as they were concerned the place of my birth somehow aligned me with the atrocities of the Nazi regime. And yet, for ordinary families like mine, nothing could have been further from the truth.

We were appalled by what had been committed in our countrys name, and had suffered our own terrible losses during the war. Our fathers, brothers and sons had died on the battlefields, too.

Monkia, now 72, said she feared talking about her father for many years. She moved to England in the 1960s, after marrying a British man

But I was now living among people who had been raised to hate the Germans; who, as children, had been told to believe that the only good German was a dead one.

And even though I knew that a great many of them would have had strikingly similar personal stories to my own, I kept quiet.

I knew they wouldnt have been able to see past the fact that my father once wore a Nazi uniform, even though he was conscripted as a medic and deplored the Nazi regime.

It wont have occurred to them that the cost of war on my family  in common with so many ordinary German families  had been catastrophic. That men like my Dad were simply serving their country, just as their loved ones had.

It meant I didnt feel able to talk about how terribly we had suffered, too.

And so, when a Jewish boys parents asked for extra support for their son who was struggling with his German studies, only to react with fury when they discovered I was providing it, I had to swallow my upset.

Monika only met her father for the first time after he was released from a prison camp in Siberia in 1949, after being captured by the Russians. She is pictured here with her father aged five on their first holiday together

The most extreme example of ignorance I had to endure was one D-Day anniversary when all senior staff came to school dressed in German SS uniforms, shouting Heil Hitler! and generally behaving like thugs, much to everyones amusement in the school assembly.

Again, I went to the headmaster to ask him to intervene. I even suggested giving an account of the history of the war from a German perspective to provide some balance for the children.

He refused to let me, in case that caused offence. And yet, all I wanted to do was explain that suffering and war go hand in hand  whatever side of it you happen to be on.

Im 72 now, and time gives new perspective. It also teaches valuable lessons.

My experiences will no doubt resonate with many adults of my generation who were also the children of soldiers so broken by their terrible wartime experiences that they were never the same again. Families were destroyed on both sides.

Yet its only now that I can tell how, as a little girl, I used to clasp tightly to my chest each night a black and white photograph of my father in his uniform and wish him goodnight.

Monika explained how her parents Erika and Max (pictured with her in 1949) were both doctors. She explained how her father had deplored the Nazi regime

My parents, Erika and Max, were both doctors. My father became an army medic after war broke out and was posted to the Eastern Front. There, he was ordered to set up a field hospital in the city of Breslau, now Wroclaw in Poland, which was transformed into a military fortress, preparing for a protracted defence against the Russians.

On May 6, 1945, following an 82-day siege that saw the city completely surrounded, the Germans surrendered Breslau to the Russians. Two days later Germany declared its unconditional surrender.

World War II had come to an end. But for my father it was only just beginning.

His unit of 72 men were captured and taken prisoner by the Russians. Forced to march around Breslau, each man carrying his 130lb army backpack, for seven days and nights without rest, they had no choice but to be incontinent as they marched.

When anyone fell down from exhaustion, they were shot dead. Of the 72 men in the unit, only 26 survived. They were then deported to Siberia as prisoners of war.

My father spent the next four years there, in freezing and barbaric conditions, trying to care for the sick and wounded in a dilapidated hospital in a labour camp with nothing but aspirin and coal dust as medicines.

Monkia described how she was met with deep suspicion by many parents and several fellow teachers while working at a school during the 1960s

He had to secretly use contraband wire clippers to amputate frostbitten fingers and toes in order to prevent fatal gangrene.

When he was finally released in 1949, able at last to re-join my mother and I, his now four-yearold child, my father appeared nothing like the hero who had lived for so long in my imagination.

Id never met my dad, having been born four days after Germanys surrender. I only knew him by that photo Id treasured, encouraged by my mother.

But the man who appeared on our local train station platform when we went to collect him looked more like a ghost. The uniform he wore with pride in my photograph was hanging off him.

He was emaciated, he smelled terrible and his eyes were dead. It was bewildering to think this scruffy man could possibly be my dad.

To me, this was someone my mother would normally warn me to keep away from. And yet she was telling me that this frightening looking stranger was coming home to live with us. This was the father I had loved from afar for so very long.

The author says the pictures of her father in his uniform are not a source of shame for her. Pictured are her parents Max and Erika on their wedding day in 1943

My father struggled to adjust to normal family life after his horrific prison camp experiences.

Id expected him to take me in his arms when he arrived home  to hug and kiss me and tell me he loved me.

It didnt happen. He didnt even hug my mother.

I walked home behind him that day weeping, deprived of my fairytale ending after being fatherless for so long, too young to understand that he was a broken man.

Later in his life, hed tell me how appalled he was by the terrible crimes that were committed by the Nazi commanders who had sent men like him into battle.

And how he understood better than most the horrors of being held in a labour camp, having been kept a prisoner for so long in one himself.

But as a child there was enough of a battle going on between us at home. He had terrible mood swings and there was no joy in him at all. I was afraid of his temper, and saw him as an intruder rather than my dad. A major source of friction between us was food. Id very little interest in eating, which might well be diagnosed as an eating disorder today.

It took until I became an adult myself before I could fully grasp how profoundly his time as a prisoner had affected him. We were both casualties of a war fought by ordinary people

It was probably related to the trauma of losing my father before I knew him. But my poor father found my lack of interest in food particularly upsetting since he had spent the last four years being starved in a prison camp.

Over time, things settled down and we found peace as a family. A closeness grew between us.

But it took until I became an adult myself before I could fully grasp how profoundly his time as a prisoner had affected him.

We were both casualties of a war fought by ordinary people who didnt get to choose which side they were on. It all came down to where they were born.

My dad went on to live a long life with my mother  her love helped heal many of the scars war had inflicted on him.

But he continued to weep in his sleep, and the horrors hed experienced haunted him in his dreams until the end of his life. That still makes me cry.

They died of old age three years ago, both aged 95  Dad first, followed by Mum six months later.

I can imagine there will be those, even today, who imagine that the pictures of my father in his uniform are a source of shame for me.

But theyre not. The one I said goodnight to as a little girl is as precious to me today as it was back then.

Indeed, to me, it symbolises the emotional damage done to families by war, which is often as catastrophic as any that gets inflicted physically. Its a subject I write about in my novels.

My first, Fifteen Words, and its sequel, The Watcher, are based on ordinary Germans experience of the war and its aftermath.

I think enough time has elapsed for people to be able to look at it now from a different perspective. After all, war continues to displace and tear apart the lives of families today, just as it did in World War II.

And in war, children suffer whatever their cultural heritage and whoever their parents fight for. Nobody knows that better than me.

Interview: Rachel Halliwell

The Watcher is published by Clink Street Publishing for 8.99 (ebook 4.99)
A teenager tripped and fell while hiking, landed face first on rocks 10 metres below and knocked herself unconscious - before making an incredible recovery just two months later.

Faith Butt, 13, was hiking through Victoria's Grampians National Park while on a Year 8 school camp when she lost her balance and toppled into remote bushland, Seven News reports.

Brave rescuers spent five hours trying to reach her but couldn't get a helicopter into the area she was lying.

Scroll down for video

Faith Butt, 13, (pictured) was hiking through Victoria's Grampians National Park while on a Year 8 school camp when she lost her balance and toppled into remote bushland

After '30 to 40' people eventually made it to her, they had to stretcher her out from the rocks before flying her to the Royal Children's Hospital.

She was placed on life support and her mother Barbara remembers being told she may not make it.

'I knew then that things were very serious,' Ms Butt told Seven News.

The left-hand side of Faith's skull was severely damaged with doctors admitting they were worried she would have permanent issues with her speech

The left-hand side of Faith's skull was severely damaged with doctors admitting they were worried she would have permanent issues with her speech and moving the right side of her body.

'It was around about 50 days by the time she woke,' Faith's mother said.

The 13-year-old was left in a wheelchair before being forced to learn basic skills like walking and talking.

'I knew then that things were very serious,' Ms Butt (pictured) told Seven News

Victoria's Grampians National Park is an iconic area of bushland

'Learning to walk again was definitely the worst part,' Faith said.

She is now a healthy and happy schoolgirl, with only a scar on her neck left as a physical reminder of the terrifying fall.
A mother and her unborn son were saved after surgeons performed the first operation of its kind in the UK - with a team of 30 experts on stand-by.

Polly Marshall was 29 weeks pregnant when she started suffering severe abdominal pains and feared she was going into premature labour.

Doctors discovered a large swelling of a uterine artery - which carry blood to the baby.

The swelling, known as a pseudoaneurysm, could have killed her and the baby, her first child, if it had burst.

Polly Marshall, 38, and her partner Mat Fearon, 46, are pictured with their first child Gus, who is now six months old

Miss Marshall, 38, who was expecting her first child with partner Mat Fearon, 46, had emergency surgery in June last year.

Surgeons at St Georges Hospital in Tooting, south London, successfully closed off the artery, allowing her to carry her son to 38 weeks.

Miss Marshall, from north-west London, said it was amazing that she could carry Gus to full term. He is now six months old.

I will always be grateful that the problem was identified so early, she said.

The operation had never been carried out on a pregnant woman in the UK and there is only one other documented case in France, according to the hospital.

Dr Kevin Hayes, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist who led the team which diagnosed the condition, said it was extremely rare for women to develop pseudoaneurysms while pregnant.

Ms Marshall was 29 weeks pregnant when she started suffering severe abdominal pains and feared she was going into premature labour

Detailed scans showed that the swelling in Pollys artery was 5cm in diameter and also getting bigger, he said.

Blood flow through this artery is particularly strong during pregnancy, so we knew doing nothing was not an option.

Knowing they could not wait for her to deliver naturally, doctors decided to press ahead with the surgery in June last year.

Experts in anaesthesia, obstetrics and gynaecology were on hand in case the baby became distressed and had to be delivered early.

Vascular surgeons were also in theatre, bringing the total team to 30 people, amid fears the major blood vessel could rupture, meaning she could bleed to death.

They inserted a fine tube into a pin-size hole in her groin to reach the aneurysm. Metal coils were then inserted into the artery supplying the swelling, to stop the blood flow.

Professor Anna-Maria Belli, the consultant who carried out the procedure, said they were worried the surgery could have killed both mother and baby.

But the operation was a success and three months later Miss Marshall, who works in financial technology, gave birth by caesarean section.

The fact she was able to undergo the procedure - and carry her baby to term - is a fantastic achievement and has positive implications for other women in her position, said Professor Belli.
Trendy hoverboards are sending tens of thousands of children to hospital, a new study reveals.

The toy, which can cost in the region of 180, has soared in popularity since it was invented five years ago.

However, the gadgets, which have been used by Canadian pop star Justin Bieber, have gained notoriety for catching fire.

But scientists have now discovered the majority of injuries caused by hoverboards are from fractures and sprains - not burns.

Experts at Weill Cornell Medical Center, New York, estimated 25,000 children injured themselves by falling off the toy between 2015 and 2016.

Hoverboards are sending tens of thousands to the emergency room, according to new study

Doctors are now calling for parents to stop their children from riding hoverboards - and if they do, warn wearing helmets and wrist guards are essential.

Dr Robert Glatter, an emergency physician at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, told CBS News: 'Hoverboards have a very low center of gravity, increasing the risk of falls.

'Riding one safely requires a good amount of core strength to maintain your balance. It often looks a lot easier to ride one than it really is.

'My personal feeling is that they are unsafe, and I would advise parents against allowing their teens and children to ride them.

'That said, I would advise caution if you do allow your child to ride one.

'It's essential that they wear an appropriate and well-fitted helmet, as well as wrist guards with padding to reduce the risk for injury.'

Researchers compared 26,854 hoverboard injuries and 121,398 skateboard injuries that ended up in emergency rooms at US hospitals between 2015 and 2016.

The most common injury were fractures, at 40 per cent, while contusions, sprains and strains were less frequent.

Children mostly injured their wrist, forearm or head. Only a few were injured by burning, according to the study published in Paediatrics.

The study estimates that over 25,000 kids have injured themselves by falling off the latest toy

They found 11 year olds were the most likely to injure themselves on hoverboards - but 13 was the most common age for skateboard injuries.

They found also that boys were more likely to be injured, and the majority of these injuries happened at home.

Dr Sean Bandzar, lead study author, told Reuters: 'Many of these injuries may be avoided with proper protective gear.

'Parental supervision is one of the best ways to reduce the risk of injury, in addition to having children wear helmets and wrist pads.'

The researchers state these results will help parents understand the risks associated with these toys.

'This is a well-known pattern seen for falls associated with many consumer products,' Smith,' Dr Gary Smith, president of the Child Injury Prevention Alliance in Ohio.

'Starting in the pre-school years, children have enough strength and coordination to use their out-stretched arms to attempt to break their fall.

'The force of their fall often causes a fracture in one of the bones in their forearm near the wrist.'

Hoverboards, which began gaining popularity in 2015, had some initial problems with overheating and bursting into flames.

British officials warned in November that year that consumers should be careful when buying a cheap hoverboard, because they could explode.

A Welsh family were left homeless earlier this week after their son's hoverboard burst into flames and burned down their home in Porthmadog.

Tammy Humphreys and her children have been left devastated after the toy caught fire while charging and filled their home with thick black smoke.

The use of the name 'hoverboard' is controversial, as these boards don't actually hover. The term 'self-balancing 'electric scooter' is sometimes preferred.
Health officials have issued a warning over a new strain of super gonorrhoea that is resistant to two crucial antibiotics - including a last-ditch resort.

In the first recorded case worldwide, an unidentified English man - who was having regular sex with a woman in the UK - caught the STI from another woman during his travels to south east Asia earlier this year.

Public Health England revealed his gonorrhoea was resistant to ceftriaxone and azithromycin - the two drugs that the World Health Organization recommends to be given to patients with the STI.

The Government-run agency has issued an alert regarding the possible spread of the bug - which proved resistant to recommended treatment.

In the first recorded case worldwide, an English man caught the STI from a woman during his travels to south east Asia earlier this year

A PHE report read: 'This is the first global report of high-level azithromycin resistant N. gonorrhoeae which is also resistant to ceftriaxone.'

It added that it has now 'formed an incident management team' to co-ordinate the investigation and contain the spread of the superbug.

The new case, revealed yesterday, follows repeated warnings over the dangers of super gonorrhoea by concerned health chiefs.

WHO raised concerns two years ago that the STI, once known as the 'clap', could become immune to antibiotics in a 'matter of years'.

COULD THIS BE A CURE FOR SUPER GONORRHOEA? A new antibiotic was found in the arms race against incurable superbugs, The Daily Mail revealed last July. The drug is a weapon in the fight against a strain of super-gonorrhoea similar to that which swept across London, the South East and Midlands. Chief Medical Officer Dame Sally Davies has previously written to GPs warning that gonorrhoea, Britains second most common STI after chlamydia, could become an untreatable disease. But the bug, some strains of which are now resistant to every hospital antibiotic, was defeated by British scientists using the antibiotic closthioamide. While still at least five years away from being available to patients, closthioamide cured 98 per cent of gonorrhoea samples taken from British patients. The antibiotic, only discovered seven years ago, has also been found to tackle hospital superbug MRSA and deadly E.coli and could go on to be tested against other bacteria, including drug-resistant TB. Advertisement

The new document stated the man - whose location has also been withheld - attended sexual health services earlier this year.

He was having regular sex with a female in the UK, but also had a one-off encounter with another woman in south-east Asia.

The man told doctors his gonorrhoea symptoms began a month after having sex with the woman on his travels, PHE officials said.

The document does not state whether the Asian woman already had the multi-drug resistant strain of gonorrhoea, or if it mutated.

He was started on a course of ceftriaxone and spectinomycin - but tests showed the STI remained in his throat, suggesting one failed to work.

Laboratory tests revealed a high resistance to azithromycin and ceftriaxone. It also showed the bug was only susceptible to spectinomycin.

The patient - who will be retested in the middle of next month to see if he still has gonorrhoea - is now being treated with daily injections of ertapenem, another antibiotic.

Preliminary STI results for his sexual partner in the UK returned negative for gonorrhoea. She is being followed up.

More than 35,000 people a year are infected with gonorrhoea in England, including record numbers of baby boomers. Only chlamydia and genital warts are more prevalent. Figures show 78 million people worldwide contract gonorrhoea each year.

But a super version of the STI, which is caused by the Neisseria gonorrhoeae bacterium, swept across Britain two years ago, striking London, the South East and the Midlands.

It was resistant to the common antibiotic ciprofloxacin and extended-spectrum cephalosporins, which are the drugs of last resort.

A WHO analysis of STI data around the world previously revealed 97 per cent of countries have reported strains of gonorrhoea that are resistant to ciprofloxacin.

A further 81 per cent stated there was increasing resistance to just azithromycin. And more than 50 countries warned strains were showing some form of resistance to ceftraixone - another last-resort treatment.



Chief Medical Officer Dame Sally Davies has previously written to GPs warning that gonorrhoea could become an untreatable disease.

Super gonorrhoea is one of many antibiotic-resistant infections which together kill an estimated 700,000 people worldwide each year.

Deemed to be one of the biggest threats to humanity, the issue has previously been cited as severe as terrorism and global warming.

Antibiotics have been so overused by GPs and hospital staff for decades that the bacteria have evolved to become resistant.

Doctors claim medicines including penicillin no longer work on sore throats, skin infections and, more seriously, pneumonia.

Dr Gwenda Hughes, head of STIs at PHE, said: 'We are investigating a case who has gonorrhoea which was acquired abroad and is very resistant to the recommended first line treatment.

'First line treatment for gonorrhoea is a combination of two antibiotics (azithromycin and ceftriaxone). This is the first time a case has displayed such high-level resistance to both of these drugs and to most other commonly used antibiotics.

'We are following up this case to ensure that the infection was effectively treated with other options and the risk of any onward transmission is minimised.'
Arguing parents leave children unable to identify a range of emotions, new research suggests.

Seemingly harmless, everyday conflicts can make youngsters incapable of interpreting emotions that are not extreme, which may affect their relationships in later life, according to researchers.

This is thought to be due to such children learning to interpret parental anger as a time to retreat, while happiness suggests their surroundings are 'safe'.

Shy children are particularly affected by such conflicts, the research adds.

Although children of argumentative parents are able to interpret extreme emotions, more subtle expressions pass them by, the study found.

Lead author Professor Alice Schermerhorn, from the University of Vermont, said: 'The message is clear: even low-level adversity like parental conflict isn't good for kids.'

Arguing parents have a lasting impact on their children's mental health (stock)

IS GETTING DIVORCED LINKED TO EATING DISORDERS? Divorce may trigger eating disorders in middle-aged women, research suggested in January 2017. Women in their 40s are at risk of developing bulimia or anorexia due to life changes such as a marriage breakdown or death of a parent, a study found. Although middle-aged women were previously thought to have passed the 'window of risk' for eating disorders, which are often associated with teenagers, emotional upheaval may trigger such conditions. Rebecca Field from the eating disorder charity Beat said: Eating disorders come at all ages, not just for people under the age of 18, and there are many life changes like divorce and bereavement which happen to people in later life and can act as triggers. One environmental factor might be changes in normal daily life and routine. The anxiety from these changes could lead to an eating disorder. The researchers, from University College London (UCL) and Icahn School of Medicine in New York, analysed 5,300 women from the UK. Results revealed 15.3 per cent had suffered an eating disorder in their lifetime, with 3.6 per cent reporting one in the past year. Women in their forties are at a higher risk of bulimia if their mother gave them little affection. A good mother-daughter relationship is associated with a 20 per cent reduced likelihood of developing the disorder. The death of a parent in childhood makes people seven times more likely to develop bulimia. Lead author Dr Nadia Dr Micali, from UCL, adds many middle-aged women are not seeking help for their eating disorders and hopes the results of the study will encourage them to get assistance. Advertisement

How the research was carried out

The researchers analysed 99 children aged between nine and 11, of which 56 were male.

The children were shown photographs of actors posing as a couple expressing anger, happiness or neutrality towards one another, which they were asked to define.

They also reported on any conflict between their parents.

The youngsters' mothers completed questionnaires regarding their children's shyness.

Children of arguing parents are less able to read emotions

Results suggest children from low-conflict homes can accurately gauge emotions.

Youngsters whose parents argue can identify images of couples arguing or being happy, but are confused by those expressing neutrality.

Professor Schermerhorn believes this may be due to such children being overly vigilant, saying: 'If their perception of conflict and threat leads children to be vigilant for signs of trouble, that could lead them to interpret neutral expressions as angry ones or may simply present greater processing challenges.'

Neutral expressions may also hold less weight for children with argumentative parents.

Professor Schermerhorn said: 'They may be more tuned into angry interactions, which could be a cue for them to retreat to their room, or happy ones, which could signal that their parents are available to them.

'Neutral interactions don't offer much information, so they may not value them or learn to recognize them.'

Being shy also makes children less able to read emotions, even if they do not have temperamental parents.

Professor Schermerhorn added: 'Parents of shy children need to be especially thoughtful about how they express conflict.'

Seemingly harmless, everyday conflicts can cause youngsters to experience anxiety (stock)

Could impact future relationships

Speaking of the impact of the study's findings, Professor Schermerhorn said: 'One the one hand, being over-vigilant and anxious can be destabilizing in many different ways.

'On the other, correctly reading neutral interactions may not be important for children who live in high conflict homes, but that gap in their perceptual inventory could be damaging in subsequent experiences with, for example, teachers, peers, and partners in romantic relationships.'

She adds parents should ensure their children are aware they still care about each other even if they are arguing.

The findings were published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.
A new type of antibiotic that kills hospital superbugs has been developed by scientists.

In experiments, the drugs cured mice of notoriously difficult-to-treat, antibiotic-resistant MRSA infections.

The discovery comes as a scientists raise alarm over a global rise in antibiotic resistance, driven by over-prescription of common antibiotics.

The Brown University researchers' breakthrough medication may be one of a whole new group of compounds that, they hope, will have equal success in treating the dangerous infection in humans.

Researchers have developed a novel drug that may treat MRSA (pictured), an antibiotic-resistant form of staph infection that poses a major health threat to hospitals

Better medicines have led to harder-to-beat superbugs

For decades since the introduction of antibiotics in the 1920s, the drugs turned bacterial infections from severe illnesses to easily treatable ones.

But as humans and our drugs have evolved, so have the bacteria.

After encountering an antibiotic, bacteria cells may morph and change, meaning that the antibiotic attacks are no longer a good match for the pathogens they are meant to treat.

These survivor bugs replicate, and soon a new, antibiotic-resistant 'superbug' is born and ready to spread among populations.

The threat posed by superbugs has been described as the 'antibiotic apocalypse.'

The more antibiotics we take, the more quickly bacteria become resistant to them

Worryingly, this threat is only made worse the more antibiotics are consumed.

Public health experts are calling for more care to be taken, as nearly one third of antibiotic prescriptions are written unnecessarily, but antibiotic resistance is inevitable, so new drugs will eventually be essential.

Already, a form of staph infection, MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), has become untreatable by nearly all antibiotics.

Around 30 percent of people carry the bacteria and in hospitals, where there is a high concentration of people - many of whom have weakened immune systems - who are more likely to come into physical contact, they are more likely to be passed to others, causing infection.

The infection spreads and must be treated quickly, or it can cause sepsis and death.

A new drug attacks the heart of MRSA's survival mechanism

But the Brown University researchers may have created a new line of defense against the superbug.

The secret to their new drugs' potential success could lie in them being the first to specifically target 'persister' cells - bacterial cells that survive the usually deadly attacks mounted against them by traditional antibiotics.

The new antibiotics work by destroying the outer layer of the bacteria - making it unlikely they will become resistant.

These drugs have a similar chemical make-up to Vitamin A and target the cell walls, or membranes, of bugs.

As conventional antibiotics are not effective in the treatment of infections caused by MRSA bacteria, novel antibacterial therapeutics are urgently required Dr Eleftherios Mylonakis, Brown University study author

The researchers tested their new weapon on bacteria grown in the lab and in mice, and found the bugs were unable to hold-off the new drugs' effects in either.

Importantly, the rodents experienced no side effects - suggesting the discovery of a non-toxic alternative to current antibiotics.

Dr Eleftherios Mylonakis and colleagues say they have made a breakthrough that could save lives.

The new class of antibiotics, described in the journal Nature, completely wiped out MRSA in the pre-clinical mouse model.

They also form 'sub-populations' of metabolically inactive, antibiotic-tolerant 'persister' cells.

The researchers identified two synthetic compounds known as 'retinoids' that killed both growing and persister MRSA cells in tests on nematode worms.

One of these was also effective in treating a mouse model of chronic MRSA infection.

Dr Mylonakis said they work either alone or in combination with the common antibiotic gentamicin.

The researchers think it is unlikely bacteria will develop resistance to them.

The effective drugs may be two of many that could fight resistant bacteria

The team identified the compounds - called CD437 and CD1530 - after screening the performance of about 82,000 possible molecules in stopping MRSA killing worms in experiments.

Dr Mylokanis said: 'As conventional antibiotics are not effective in the treatment of infections caused by such bacteria, novel antibacterial therapeutics are urgently required.'

The new compounds 'exhibit high killing rates, synergism with gentamicin and a low probability of resistance selection,' he said.

'With further development and optimization, synthetic retinoids have the potential to become a new class of antimicrobials for the treatment of Gram-positive bacterial infections that are currently difficult to cure.'

Currently over 4,000 natural and synthetic retinoids have been described. So it is possible that more antimicrobial candidates will be found amongst them.

In the meantime, further development of these two compounds is needed in order to improve their safety profile, and move them closer to clinical trials.

Dr Mylokanis said: 'Despite the potential advantages of membrane-active antimicrobials such as the retinoids described here - including fast killing, low probability of developing resistance, and anti-persister activity - the major obstacle for developing retinoids as therapeutics is their potential cytotoxicity, which is a matter of considerable debate.

'Nevertheless, we have identified a specific chemotype of membrane- active synthetic retinoids that are relatively selective for bacte rial membranes and exhibit a high level of activity towards MRSA persister cells.

'These findings are notable because the development of appropriate antibiotics for persisters is an important unmet need.'

Dr Julian Hurdle and Dr Aditi Deshpande, of the Center for Infectious and Inflammatory Diseases at Texas A&M Health Science Center in Houston, welcomed the findings.

In a review for the journal they said: 'Chronic infections can be hard to treat because slow-growing bacteria known as persister cells are usually unharmed by antibiotics.

'The identification of molecules that target such cells might provide a solution.'
Amy Bright, 41, gave birth to her son Jacob by c-section in 2003 and has been suffering from back pain ever since. Last fall a CT scan revealed that a piece of the epidural needle was buried in her spine

A mother who endured back pain for 14 years after giving birth has discovered part of an epidural needle embedded in her spine.

Amy Bright, 41, gave birth to her sixth and youngest son Jacob by cesarean section at a hospital in Jacksonville, Florida, in 2003.

Two months later she started experiencing severe back pain that would linger for more than a decade until, last year, a CT scan last fall revealed a 3cm-long chunk of needle was buried in her spine.

The needle had allegedly broken off when she was given an epidural 14 years earlier and had caused extensive nerve damage leaving her with limited use of her left leg and foot, according to People.

Bright and her attorney claim that the hospital knew it had broken off but neglected to do anything about it even though the damage could have been avoided if it was removed at the time.

Removing the needle now could leave her permanently paralyzed, but leaving it in will likely have the same consequence.

She is now poised to become the 15th person to sue the hospital since 2005 - at least three of whom won upwards of $1 million for their grievances.

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The scans above show the 3cm-long chunk of needle that had broken off when she was given an epidural 14 years earlier and gotten lodged in her spine

Removing the needle now could leave Bright paralyzed, but leaving it in may do the same

Courtesy of News4Jax

'Every time I move and walk and bend and twist and sleep, that needle moves inside my spine. For 14 years, I've been creating scar tissue in my spine from this needle moving,' Bright told People.

Over the years she has seen several doctors and been prescribed pain killers, muscle relaxants and other medications to cope with her pain.

'It feels like fire, like a poker next to my tailbone. On occasion, it shoots down the left side of my leg on my calf, and then down and into my foot,' Bright told WRAL.

Doctors initially thought the pain was sciatica, a term used to describe the symptoms of leg pain, tingling, numbness, or weakness that travel down the low back via the sciatic nerve in the back of the leg that is, ironically, treated with an epidural shot.

The CT scan was intended to diagnose the sciatica, but instead it revealed the real root of the problem.

'I was absolutely livid and upset and scared,' she said.

Bright and her attorney Sean Cronin claim that the hospital knew a piece of needle had broken off and been left behind nut did nothing about it.

'This is something that was not disclosed,' Cronin told People. 'These needles are about 9 or 10 centimeters and they have a tip on the end that the provider is supposed to inspect to make sure they have the whole needle.

'They knew this was in her, according to our experts, because so much of the needle was missing. And the safety tip is still in her.'

A mother is pictured leaving the hospital in Jacksonville, Florida, where Bright gave birth in 2003. A lawsuit is expected to be filed against the hospital later this year

Bright said she has tried to protect her kids from the experience, especially son Jacob

Cronin claims that if the needed would have been removed immediately the pain and nerve damage could have been avoided, but taking it out now could leave Bright paralyzed.

Instead she said she will have to rely on pain medication and physical therapy to manage the damage for the rest of her life.

'It has gotten to the point where it just burns constantly. I'm very scared of my future. [My leg] is getting weaker,' Bright said. 'I'm probably going to be in a wheelchair. It's scary because I don't know.'

'I don't know what my future holds. I'm very paranoid and scared,' she said.

She added that she doesn't talk about the experience with her children because she wants to shield them from it, particularly Jacob, now 14.

Bright and Cronin have accused the hospital of fraud and malpractice and are planning to file a lawsuit in the coming months, but it is not clear how much money they will be seeking.

At least 14 lawsuits have been filed against the hospital since 2005 and at least three of them ended in settlements totaling around $1 million each.

In 2005 a judge awarded $40 million to the parents of a two-year-old who sustained brain damage after the hospital waited too long to perform a c-section.
The two are set to meet today. Lee Ming-cheh is serving a five-year sentence for subversion. On 19 March 2017, he went missing on entering the mainland from Macau. For more than 170 days, Chinese authorities refused to say where he was.

Taipei (AsiaNews/Agencies)  The wife of a Taiwanese human rights activist jailed in mainland China travelled to the country on Monday after being granted permission to visit him in prison for the first time. The case has strained relations between the two countries.

The Taiwan Association for Human Rights said Lee Ching-yu (pictured) left Taiwan on Monday to see her husband Lee Ming-cheh in prison in Changsha, capital of central Chinas Hunan province.

Lee is serving a five-year prison sentence after he was convicted of subversion during a trial that began last September, which his wife dismisses as a political show.

During the proceedings, Lee admitted the charges, stating that he had written and distributed online articles that criticised the mainlands ruling Communist Party and had promoted democracy.

The 43-year-old activist was often in touch with civil society groups in mainland China. He also discussed Taiwans democratic experiences online, sending books to his interlocutors.

On 19 March 2017, he went missing when he entered in China from Macau through Zhuhai. Chinese authorities kept silent for more than 170 days.

His wife thought he was missing, and eventually sought to enter China to find him, but was barred.

Taiwans Central News Agency reported Chinese authorities informed Lee through a mainland-based Taiwanese business association on Thursday that they would issue a one-off document allowing her to enter the mainland. Her previous application was rejected because she did not have a valid Mainland Travel Permit needed by Taiwanese citizens.

CNA said that Lee is being accompanied by an official from Taiwans semi-official Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), which handles relations with the mainland. She is set to return to Taiwan on tomorrow.
Cot deaths could be caused by a faulty gene, research suggests.

British scientists say the rare defect makes babies respiratory muscles weaker, meaning they find it harder to regulate their breathing.

It is the first genetic link to cot death that directly involves a babys breathing. The findings could pave the way for a screening programme or drug treatment for infants most at risk, the researchers say.

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The exact cause of cot death is not known but growing evidence suggests that safer sleeping practices  such as putting babies on their backs  significantly reduces the risk

ot death, also known as sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), kills more than 200 children under the age of one every year in the UK

Campaigners last year argued that putting babies to sleep in a simple cardboard box would reduce the risk of cot death

Cot death, also known as sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), kills more than 200 children under the age of one every year in the UK.

The exact cause is not known but growing evidence suggests that safer sleeping practices  such as putting babies on their backs  significantly reduce the risk.

Scientists from University College London were alerted to a possible genetic link by a number of SIDS cases involving babies with respiratory problems, and parents with neuromuscular diseases.

These diseases, such as periodic paralysis and myasthenic syndrome  which results in muscle weakness  can severely affect breathing but can be treated with medication.

Working with the University of California in Los Angeles, researchers looked at 278 cases of SIDS in the UK and US, focusing on mutations in a gene known as SCN4A.

Typically, SCN4A mutations are rare, occurring in fewer than five people in every 100,000. But the study uncovered harmful mutant versions of the gene in four of the cot death victims.

Tests on the mutation revealed it significantly impaired the function of muscles used during breathing.

Study leader Professor Michael Hanna, from the UCL Institute of Neurology, said it was a significant discovery.

He added: Our study is the first to link a genetic cause of weaker breathing muscles with sudden infant death syndrome and suggests that genes controlling breathing muscle function could be important in this condition.

Those with the faulty gene may be at particular risk of cot death, the researchers suggest.

But they stress that this is unlikely to be the sole cause and that the study, published in the medical journal The Lancet, does not change advice about safe sleeping practice.

However, it could pave the way for genetic testing of parents before they conceive. Babies could also be put on medications used to treat neuromuscular diseases during the most risky time, usually between two and six months.
Do you have a driveway but no car, a spare room or even an old power drill you never use? What about a hidden talent for arts and crafts or cooking?

Over the past few days weve explained how to turbo-charge your nest egg, make 2,000 by switching suppliers and protect your pocket against rising mortgage rates. Today, in the final part of our Spring Clean Your Finances series, its all about simple ways to boost your bank balance.

Use your property to prosper

If you have a spare room, consider renting it out. Under the Governments Rent a Room scheme you can earn up to 7,500 in rent a year tax-free. For anything over this you will have to fill out a tax return.

If you dont want a permanent lodger, you could rent out a room for a few weeks a year via Airbnb. Airbnb estimates the typical UK host earns around 3,000 from renting their space for 36 nights a year.

However, you must check with your mortgage lender and home insurance provider that you would be covered if something happens. If your insurer wont extend your cover, you can buy top-up insurance from a pay per day firm such as Inlet.

If you cant bear the idea of sharing your home with anyone, why not rent out the extra space for storage?

Websites such as storemates.co.uk let you list spare rooms, basements, attics and even garage space. You specify the size of the space and what it would be suitable for storage-wise, then set a price per month. The website will take a 15 pc cut.

Get dosh from your driveway

Anyone who lives near the city centre or train station and doesnt have a car could make some serious cash by renting out their driveway online.

Figures from yourparkingspace.co.uk show someone with a single driveway in Brighton could make 1,150 a year, while a homeowner with two spaces in Edinburgh could earn more than 1,500 a year.

You can let spaces for a day, a week or a month and you set your own price. Try searching for other spaces up for rent in your area to get an idea of what you could get. YourParkingSpace takes around 20 per cent of the charge.

Cash in with your car

Make money by renting out your car via networks such as easyCar Club (carclub.easycar.com).The site estimates someone renting out a two-year-old Fiat 500 for five days a month could make 103  or 1,236 a year.

If you fancy company on a commute, try liftshare.com. Enter the route, time and day of travel, and suggest a contribution towards the cost of petrol and the running of the car.

Typically, car insurers dont mind if you share lifts as long as you are not profiting, but check first. Liftshare estimates someone going from Stockport to Manchester five days a week could save 696 a year in travel with an extra passenger, based on a contribution of 1.50 per trip.

Or let a company advertise on your car through sites such as carquids.com, which match your location and car to firms.

Tell your insurer as some may consider advertising a type of modification, which could invalidate your policy.

Earn from old items

Use rentmyitems.com to help you hire out many of those household items you dont use all the time, such as tools and appliances.

Current listings on the site include a weeks hire of a car bike rack for 6 and a days hire of a sewing machine for a fiver. Spending a day clearing out the loft could also reap rewards.

Vintage toys or unwanted exercise equipment can be sold on sites such as eBay or Gumtree, and you can often ask buyers to collect bulky items to save you getting stung on delivery costs.

Or, if your shelves are stocked with books, CDs, DVDs and games, try out musicMagpie.

You just scan the barcode of items you want to get rid of using a phone app or enter the details on its website (musicmagpie.co.uk). It will then calculate how much they are worth.

Some will only earn you pennies but the site has extended the list of items it is interested in, and an iPhone 6 64GB in good condition could fetch 101.

The site will even pay 4 for 1kg (about 2lb) of Lego bricks.

Once youve logged your items, you box them up and send them postage-free or drop them at a local shop to which they will direct you.

Alternatively, musicMagpie can send a courier.

Make a favourite hobby pay

Whatever your interests, there are ways to profit.

Budding photographers could make money selling snaps to stock photo websites, while aspiring chefs can make cash by hosting dinner parties through organisations such as Eatwith.

Animal lovers can even earn extra income by looking after pets when owners are away with dogbuddy.com or pawshake.co.uk, for example.

Homeowners should be sure to check with their home insurer first, and remember to get the pets insurance and vet details.

Creative types can set up shop on websites such as Etsy, where entrepreneurs sell craft products such as stationery, soaps, art and accessories.

Meanwhile, those with a photogenic property could make money hiring their home out for film or TV shoots through JJ Media or Shootfactory  as long as there is enough space for a film crew.

Georgie Frost, consumer advocate at GoCompare, says: There are so many ways to make a bit of extra cash on the side and lots of apps and guides to help you get started, but you cant ignore the tax man altogether.

Selling unwanted clothes or books on eBay or Gumtree is fine, but if youre actively buying and selling or making items, renting out your driveway, or taking in peoples pets for holidays, then you do need to declare it to the Revenue.
Colman's Mustard is to close its historic Norwich factory by the end of next year.

Unilever, its parent company, said a move out of the 160-year-old site was expected to begin in the autumn, with the loss of about 50 out of 113 jobs.

End of an era: Unilever, Colman's parent company, said a move out of the 160-year-old site was expected to begin in the autumn

About 40 roles will be moved to Burton upon Trent, in Staffordshire, while a new site in Norwich will create about 25 jobs.

It comes after Britvic, which shared the factory with Colmans, announced in October it was stopping production there.

Unilever then said it too was considering moving production away from Norwich.

Jon Strachan, vice-president of supply chain at Unilever UK and Ireland, said: The proposals we are now moving forward with represent the best long-term solution for Colmans production in the UK, while preserving the historic link with Norwich.
Hundreds of bargain Booze and Wine Rack stores teetered on the brink of closure today after their owner Conviviality confirmed it will appoint administrators within the next 10 days 'unless circumstances change'.

If Conviviality collapses, up to 2,600 people face losing their jobs, but the group has said it will continue trading over the next 10 days in a bid to preserve 'as much value as possible' for its stakeholders, while it makes a last-ditch effort to attract a buyer for some of the business.

In a market announcement, Conviviality said it was exploring 'a number of inbound enquiries regarding a potential sale of all or parts of the business.'

Out of a job: Chief executive Diana Hunter left after more than five years at the helm

The group added: 'Following discussions with its lending banks, the board has resolved to file notice of intention to appoint administrators to the company.'

In a statement to the stock market today, Conviviality revealed it had failed to secure 125m in emergency funding to save it, following a dramatic fall from grace just three weeks ago.

Suppliers are said to have deserted the business, which supplies a host of major pubs and restaurants, after it failed to come up with the money to pay an unexpected 30m tax bill due to HMRC today.

It had planned to use the cash to give the business some headroom as it reassessed its finances. Conviviality said it is now in talks with its lenders and is looking at selling either all or parts of the business.

But it admitted that should it be sold, shareholders are expected to lose everything.

The drinks retailer was plunged into financial chaos this month when it made an incorrect calculation in its financial forecasts and subsequently issued two profit warnings.

After its first profit warning on March 8 its share price plunged 66 per cent, wiping more than 300m off its value. It was forced to suspend trading of its shares and cancel its dividend.

Chief executive Diana Hunter left after more than five years at the helm.

It proved a marked contrast to Convivialitys performance last year, when its share price surged as much as 51 per cent between the end of 2016 and October 2017.

Conviviality is understood to have accountants PwC waiting in the sidelines should it be forced into administration. The wholesaler has more than 700 convenience stores across the UK, which employ 2,600 staff.

A Conviviality spokesman said: Despite a significant number of meetings with potential investors, resulting in good levels of demand, and constructive discussions with a number of key customers and suppliers regarding the provision of support, there was ultimately insufficient demand to raise the full 125m.

The board wish to thank its customers, suppliers and employees for their continued support during this difficult period for the company.

Conviviality supplies 23,000 pubs and restaurants, with customers including JD Wetherspoon and Slug And Lettuce owner Stonegate Pub Company, with which it renewed long-term contracts earlier this year. In January it did a ten-year deal with pub owner Wadworth to supply wines to 200 managed sites and 139 independent outlets.

A spokesman for Wetherspoon said it had no plans at the moment to ditch Conviviality.

Were one of, if not their biggest, customers. We have a contingency plan in place but so far there have been no issues with deliveries, he said. Theyve been our supplier for 20 years and were not going anywhere else for the time being.

Convivialitys collapse would add more doom and gloom to the UK High Street, which has lost a number of big names, including Toys R Us and Maplin, leaving more than 5,000 jobs hanging in the balance.

Restaurants have faced a similar upheaval. Pizza and pasta chain Prezzo is closing 94 restaurants around a third of its sites  celebrity chef Jamie Olivers Jamies Italian has shut 12 of 37 restaurants, while burger chain Byron is preparing to close 20 sites.

Conviviality said it will update the market in due course.
The Easter long weekend is fast approaching so now is the time to think about stocking up on last-minute groceries, drinks - and of course, chocolates - so you don't get caught out.

Good Friday and Easter Sunday are restricted trading days with Coles, Woolworths, Aldi, bottle shops, and even some McDonald's stores completely closed for business.

So those desperate not to cook on Friday need may need to turn to food delivery services Foodora, UberEats, Menulog and Deliveroo.

Here's your guide to what is and isn't open over the long weekend...

Although Good Friday has an alcohol restriction across the country, alcohol can still be served at many restaurants, bars, hotels and pubs

Good Friday and Easter Sunday are restricted trading days with Coles, Woolworths, Aldi, bottle shops, and even some McDonald's stores completely closed for business

GOOD FRIDAY

Good Friday and Christmas Day are the most restricted trading days across Australia, which means most shops will be closed.

Supermarkets: Aldi stores will be closed across the country.

Almost all Woolworths stores will be closed with the exception of Brisbane Airport in QLD, Eaton Fair Bunbury and Margaret River in WA, and Victor Harbor, Mt Barker and Murray Bridge Green in SA.

Coles stores will be mostly closed except for Dunsborough, Eaton Fair and Margaret River in regional Western Australia and Victor Harbour, Mount Barker and Murray Bridge Green in regional South Australia.

Some Harris Farm stores are open with normal trading hours.

Retail: Westfield centres, Kmart, and Big W stores will all be closed.

Melbourne Central will be closed.

Alcohol: Dan Murphy's, BWS, and First Choice Liquor will be closed in all states and takeaway alcohol sales are not allowed in most areas.

In NSW and WA pubs, breweries, and wineries can open from noon until 10pm. Bowling clubs can operate as normal.

In Victoria pubs and clubs can serve alcohol from midday.

In QLD and SA you can buy alcohol only with a dine-in meal in a licensed venue.

Skycity Casino in Adelaide will be closed.

If you're in Tasmania or the ACT and want a drink you're in luck with no alcohol restrictions in these areas.

The best bet for a last minute meal is through food delivery services Foodora, UberEats, Deliveroo and Menulog

Licensed premises in NSW are only allowed to serve alcohol from noon until 10pm on Good Friday

Domino's and Crust pizza will operate through the Easter long weekend

Food: The majority of McDonald's stores will be trading on Good Friday, with the exception to those in food courts, which will close for the day.

In NSW restaurants are open and can serve alcohol between noon and 10pm.

The best bet for a last minute meal is through food delivery services Foodora, UberEats, Deliveroo and Menulog.

Most of these delivery services will be operating as normal with many of their participating restaurants trading for the entire long weekend.

Smaller corner stores, petrol stations and chemists are exempt and are allowed to trade on Friday but it is up to them whether they open their doors.

Dominoes will be trading on Good Friday, but has urged customers to check their local stores for varying hours.

All 7-Eleven's 650 stores will also be running at normal hours over the long weekend for all coffee, petrol, ice and food needs.

The majority of Coles and Woolworths stores will be closed on Good Friday, but locals can try their luck at a smaller grocer with many staying open on the public holiday

Australians looking to buy alcohol at their local bottle shop might find it more difficult than usual with shops including BWS and Dan Murphys closed for trading on Good Friday

EASTER SATURDAY

Saturday is mostly back to normal with supermarkets and bottle shops generally trading with normal hours on Easter Saturday despite it being a public holiday in all states and territories apart from Western Australia and Tasmania.

Supermarkets: Most Coles and Aldi will be open on Saturday.

Woolworths all stores will be open except George Street and Sydney Metcentre in NSW and Heidelberg, Melbourne Central, Bourke Street and Collins Square in Victoria.

Western Australia Woolworths stores will be open except Esperance, Kalgoorlie, and Katanning.

Alcohol: Bottle shops, Dan Murphy's, and BWS will reopen their doors on Saturday across the country from about 9am.

Pubs, clubs, restaurants, breweries, and wineries can trade as normal.

Retail: Major shopping centre Westfield will also be open on Saturday as will Coles, Woolworths and Aldi.

Kmart will be open but will have amended hours.

Melbourne Central will be open from 10am until 6pm.

Those living in inner city suburbs should make note that some Coles and Woolworths express stores will be closed for the entire four-day Easter weekend

EASTER SUNDAY

Supermarkets: As Sunday is a restricted trading day in most states, supermarkets, including Coles and Woolworths, are closed.

But a few major inner-city Woolworths and Coles stores will be open.

Aldi will be open, however, some stores in NSW and SA will remain closed.

Some Harris Farm stores, predominantly in the metro area, are open with normal trading hours.

Retail: Westfield centres will mostly be closed across the country. About half of Big W stores will open.

Kmart stores will be closed in NSW and SA and have amended opening hours in other states.

Melbourne Central will be open on Sunday from 10am until 6pm.

Alcohol: Most bottles shops will be closed across the country, though some Liquorland and Dan Murphy's stores open across the states.

In most States pubs, clubs, restaurants, breweries, and wineries can operate on their normal Sunday trading hours.

Food: Delivery food services UberEats, Deliveroo, Menulog and Foodora will also run as normal on Easter Sunday, with the same restaurants delivering as Good Friday.

Major shopping centre Westfield will also be open on Easter Saturday as will Coles and Woolworths

EASTER MONDAY

Supermarkets: Coles, Aldi and Woolworths will be open again in most states, although many will have reduced trading hours.

Aldi stores in SA will be closed on Monday.

Retail: Easter Monday is a public holiday across the country but most major shopping centres will be open and trading as normal including Melbourne Central which will be open from 10am until 6pm.

Kmart stores will be closed in SA.

Alcohol: There are no restrictions on alcohol sales on Monday and bottle shops including BWS and Dan Murphy's will open as usual.

Food: Restaurants and food delivery services will operate as normal.
Pet shops across Australia have announced they will suspend the sale of rabbits over Easter to prevent impulse and irresponsible buying.

Store owners say impulse-buying baby rabbits as pets over the four-day holiday leads to thousands of rabbits being later neglected, euthanaised or left abandoned across Australia each year.

'Every year, breeders and bunny mills sell baby rabbits for parents to put in children's baskets. Rabbits are one of the most abandoned animals at shelters,' PETA said in a statement.

Pet shops across Australia have announced they will suspend the sale of rabbits over the four-day holiday to prevent impulse and irresponsible buying

Store owners say impulse-buying baby rabbits as pets over the four-day holiday leads to thousands of rabbits being later neglected, euthanaised or left abandoned across Australia

'Impulse-buys can lead to terrible neglect, and shelters and vets dealing with surrendered and 'lost' rabbits,' Animals Australia said.

The Rabbit Run-Away Orphanage in Victoria has already taken in 150 abandoned rabbits this year alone.

Vice president Bryce Inglis said the number of deserted rabbits peaked about seven months after Easter when the rabbits were teenagers.

Bryce and his wife Judi rescue rabbits that are dumped, neglected or handed into vets after their owners 'become bored and disinterested' in their predominantly impulse-bought pets.

Vice president Bryce Inglis (pictured) from the Rabbit Run-Away Orphanage in Victoria said the number of deserted rabbits peaked about seven months after Easter

Activists discourage people impulse-buying baby rabbits as pets over Easter and promote messaging that rabbits are a commitment and not just an Easter present

The Rabbit Run-Away Orphanage in Victoria has already taken in 150 abandoned rabbits this year alone. Vice president Bryce Inglis said the number of deserted rabbits peaked about seven months after Easter when the rabbits were teenagers

'A lady bought a five-week-old bunny from a pet shop and after two weeks she took it to the vet to be euthanised,' Mr Inglis told Daily Mail Australia.

'Another lady drowned three baby rabbits with her primary school aged children'.

The couples' passion for rabbit welfare was born when they realised how many rabbits were dumped in night boxes at shelters and subsequently euthanised.

Bryce and his wife Judi rescue rabbits that are dumped, neglected or handed into vets after their owners 'become bored and disinterested' in their predominantly impulse-bought pets

Some animal welfare groups such as Animals Australia and PETA estimate up to 80 per cent of store-bought rabbits over Easter are later dumped or abandoned.

Mr Inglis said rabbits needed more vet visits than any other animal, usually due to the fact it was difficult for owners to know when something was wrong with their pet.

He said it was not until the eleventh hour when the rabbit needed to be taken to an emergency vet when owners realised.

Mr Inglis said emergency vet bills could be upwards of $800 and many people did not want to foot the bill, leading to the rabbits being dumped or neglected.

Some animal welfare groups such as Animals Australia and PETA estimate up to 80 per cent of store-bought rabbits over Easter are later dumped or abandoned

In light of this, many pet shops have suspended the sale of rabbits.

'The RSPCA strongly discourages buying a rabbit as a surprise Easter gift,' an RSPCA spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia.

If you already have a pet rabbit, the RSPCA recommends protecting it from ingesting any chocolate, especially over the Easter period, as even small amounts can be lethal.
Texas has executed a death row inmate 13 years after he murdered a pregnant prostitute then stuffed her body in a suitcase and tossed her in a landfill.

Rosendo Rodriguez III, 38, was executed at the Huntsville unit on Tuesday night.

Before being given the lethal injection, he spoke for seven minutes but showed no remorse for killing 29-year-old Summer Baldwin in 2005 or 16-year-old Joanna Rogers the year before that.

Rodriguez only confessed to Rogers' killing once in custody for Baldwin's murder. He had met the teenager after chatting with her online and killed her in the same way he murdered Baldwin but was not found out until after the second murder.

Both women's families watched the execution through a window on Tuesday but Rodriguez did not acknowledge them.

'The state may have my body but they never had my soul.

'I've fought the good fight, I have run the good race. Warden, I'm ready to join my father,' were his final words.

Rosendo Rodriguez, 38, was executed on Tuesday night in Huntsville, Texas. In 2005, he strangled pregnant prostitute Summer Baldwin (right) then put her body in a suitcase and tossed it in a landfill. Prosecutors at his trial said she was still alive when she was placed in the bag

Rodriguez also murdered 16-year-old Joanna Rogers the year before he killed Baldwin. He was already in custody when he confessed to it

Rodriguez also complained about the death penalty and implored people to 'boycott every business in Texas' until the state outlaws capital punishment.

It took 22 minutes for him to die after he was given a lethal dose of pentobarbital.

In 2005, Rodriguez suffocated Baldwin, who was described as a 'drug addicted prostitute', after the pair had consensual sex in a hotel room.

At the time, he was in the Marine Corps and was based in San Antonio but was in Lubbock on leave.

He had been living with his parents.

He was arrested after police found her body in a suitcase at a landfill days later. Rodriguez had paid for the suitcase with his debit card.

He told police that he strangled her in self-defense when she pulled a knife on him.

Baldwin was ten weeks pregnant at the time and already had four children.

A jury rejected his claims and found him guilty of first degree murder.

Once in custody, he also admitted to murdering teenager Joanna Rogers the year before.

It took Rodriguez 22 minutes to die after he was given the lethal injection in the death chamber of the Huntsville Unit (above) on Tuesday night. He spoke for seven minutes beforehand but did not acknowledge his victims' families who were watching through a window

Rodriguez is shown above during a recent appeal hearing. He tried to get out of execution by complaining about the practices of the medical examiner during his trial but a judge rejected his complaints

Joanna was just 16 when he started speaking to her online. He persuaded her to meet up with him one night and she snuck out of her home.

The next day, when her parents went to her room to wake her, she was gone.

They pleaded for information about her disappearance for years. In 2006, when police were investigating Rodriguez's killing of Baldwin, they made the connection to Joanna's murder.

They told him that if he confessed to killing Rogers and telling them where her body was, he would not be sentenced to death.

He agreed and revealed that he strangled the teenager and put her body in a suitcase then tossed it in a landfill too.

Baldwin was a drug addicted mother-of-four and was ten weeks pregnant when she died. Rodriguez told police he strangled her when she pulled a knife on them after they had sex in a hotel room

Police found the suitcase containing Joanna's body in 2007.

The execution was the fourth this year in Texas and seventh nationally.

The U.S. Supreme Court, less than 30 minutes before Rodriguez was taken to the death chamber, rejected an appeal to block his punishment.

Rogers' family had no idea what happened to her until after the other woman's death when Rodriguez confessed that he had met the teenager out one night after striking up a conversation online. He strangled her too and put her body in a suitcase then in a landfill. It was found three years after she vanished from her home

Rodriguez's lawyers told the justices lower courts improperly turned down appeals that focused on the medical examiner's testimony at Rodriguez's trial for the September 2005 slaying of Summer Baldwin. State lawyers said the high court appeal was improper, untimely and meritless, and 'nothing more than a last-ditch effort,' according to Texas Assistant Attorney General Tomee Heining.

Jurors who convicted him of capital murder decided he should die after evidence showed Rodriguez also was linked to at least five other sexual assaults.

Testimony at his 2008 trial showed Baldwin had about 50 blunt force wounds and may have been alive when she was folded into the suitcase and tossed into a trash bin. The contents subsequently wound up at the city dump.

'He's really good at killing people. Very calm, very calculated,' Lubbock County District Attorney Matt Powell, who prosecuted Rodriguez, said Monday.

'Women were terrified of him. He used his charm and good looks and status for a long time to victimize women,' Powell said.

'In this case, the right guy is getting the appropriate punishment,' he added.
This is the dramatic moment a three-year-old toddler is rescued after swinging in air by his head from a fourth-storey window of a building in central China.

Footage filmed by an onlooker shows the boy dangling by the side of the building after having slipped through the metal railings outside his home.

The crowd is heard gasping as four rescuers clamber up from the ground floor to reach the child. One man manages to make it to the third-storey and push the boy's suspended body back inside.

Boy, aged three, is seen hanging by his head from the metal railings of a fourth-storey window cage in China. The footage is filmed by an onlooker from the ground

The incident took place in Huangshi City in Central China's Hubei Province last Sunday. The boy had been asleep when his grandma left for the hospital, so she decided not to wake him up.

Home alone, he is thought to have crawled out through the window before falling through the grille and getting his head stuck between the metal railings.

Four men, thought to be working nearby, are seen in the video climbing up the building from the ground floor using ladders.

Four men working nearby desperately attempt to reach the boy initially on stacked ladders and air conditioning units. Then they clamber over ledges and advertising banners

One 33-year-old man successfully reaches the fourth-storey by climbing on top of the window grille below the dangling boy. He then pushes him back up through the metal fencing

The toddler is successfully lifted back inside the building and sustained no injuries

According to Huanqiu.com, a man called He Yulong made it onto the roof of the third-storey window grille and lifted the boy up by his legs through the railings. Mr He is a 33-year-old decorator who is himself a father to a seven-year-old son.

Another rescuer is a store manager from a nearby jewellery shop. Upon hearing the news, he rushed out with a ladder.

The boy did not sustain any injuries, according to the report.
An elderly cancer patient has described the terrifying moment she was allegedly assaulted and robbed by a nurse shortly after surgery.

Janice Bennett claims a nurse pinned her to the bed at the elite Hospital for Specialist Surgery, leaving her battered and bruised, and needing to undergo further operations.

The 77-year-old woman said the nurse demanded PIN numbers to her credit cards in the middle of the night on March 16, Daily Telegraph reported.

Elderly cancer patient, Janice Bennett, described the terrifying moment a nurse (pictured in grey) allegedly stole two credit cards from her after a 'frightening' attack

The 77-year-old was left with deep tissue bruising from her wrist to elbow and required plastic surgery after the 'terrible nightmare' by the nurse (pictured) in Sydney's north-west

'It was like a dream ... some sort of terrible nightmare,' Ms Bennett said.

'I feel very scared, very frightened, I can't sleep ... I just can't believe it was not safe.'

The elderly patient raised the alarm the next morning at the elite hospital in Sydney's north-west where her family allegedly discovered two credit cards were missing.

Ms Bennett was left with deep tissue bruising from her wrist to elbow and required plastic surgery as well as suffering from bruising to her legs, neck and chest at the Baulkham Hills hospital.

A 45-year-old mother of two was pictured being escorted from a house in handcuffs after being charged with the alleged assault.

The nurse of the elite private hospital was charged with aggravated robbery, knowingly dealing with the proceeds of crime and dishonestly obtaining financial advantage.

The nurse, (pictured centre) who was described as a 'team leader', was pictured being escorted from a house in handcuffs on Tuesday and was granted bail after the 'brazen attack'

The woman allegedly stole the two credit cards before withdrawing $1000 cash from an ATM in Sydney's north-west, Hills Shire Times reported.

'Four minutes after finishing work ... (the nurse) says some random person gave (the cards and PIN numbers) to her and asked her to do it,' police prosecutor Sergeant Nathan Blatch said at Blacktown Court on Tuesday.

'In terms of the risk to the community, a person who is prepared to rob somebody in a hospital bed ... where would she stop?'

Magistrate Roger Brown said there had been a 'degree of violence' at Hospital for Specialist Surgery at Baulkham Hills (pictured) which would take time to resolve

The nurse, who was described as a 'team leader', was granted bail after the 'brazen attack' as Magistrate Roger Brown said there was a 'degree of violence' that needed time to resolve.

Legal Aid lawyer Margaret Malak said the 45-year-old was captured on CCTV 'withdrawing money' but there were no 'independent witnesses' for the alleged incident, the publication reported.

The nurse has been banned from working at any hospital while on bail.
A beloved family dog has miraculously been brought back to life after she was rushed to the vet following a seizure.

Portia, a 10-year-old dachshund, had dilated pupils, a blue tongue and her heart stopped beating by the time she reached the surgery in Brisbane.

Just two weeks earlier the pooch had been bitten by a venomous snake in the backyard, unbeknown to her owners.

Portia the dachshund was near dead when her family raced her to their local vet after she had a seizure

More than two weeks earlier, Portia has been bitten by a venomous snake in their Valdora home in Brisbane's north

The dachshund was being looked after by Kathy Hamer while her father-in-law was in hospital.

It was a short drive to the Beachside Veterinary Surgery, but by the time Portia and Kathy reached the surgery her heartbeat had stopped and she was no longer breathing.

'She literally had a heartbeat until we pulled up,' Ms Hamer told the ABC.

She was rushed to a Brisbane vet when her heart stopped beating, at that point they didn't know the dog had been bitten by a snake

The family didn't know she had been bitten by a venomous snake two weeks earlier in their backyard.

'Every snake bite is different, and every dog is different in terms of the reaction to it,' Beachside Veterinary Surgery director Daniel Capps said.

They began the surgery to kick-start Portia's heartbeat so they could use antivenin to treat her.

After 10 minutes of work her heartbeat started and they began to fight the venom in her system

After 10 minutes of work from the surgery, Portia's heart started beating and they began to fight the venom in her system.

'She had a lot of antibiotics and drug therapy, and she started breathing after 18 hours on her own  then she started oxygen therapy,' Dr Capps said.

Portia was released a week after she was thought to be dead and re-united with her family.

Dr Capps said Portia was lucky to survive the snake bite as most cats and dogs often die from them.
Thousands of faithful flock to the churches for the rites of Holy Week. The celebrations are an opportunity for the community to meet in a context characterized by a "popular faith, peculiarities and different traditions". Msgr. Hinder: pastoral care of migrants is a priority theme, fundamental to sharing in their joys and sorrows.

Abu Dhabi (AsiaNews) - The celebrations of Holy Week and Easter are "opportunities of encounter" for a community composed almost exclusively by immigrants that lives the rites [confessions, Masses, Via Crucis] "with a popular faith, impregnated with the influence of their origins ", recounts Msgr Paul Hinder to AsiaNews. The apostolic vicar of southern Arabia (United Arab Emirates, Oman and Yemen) describes a climate of expectation and participation ahead of the climax the holidays. "Lebanese, Syrian, Jordanian - he explains - have a different style compared to Filipinos, Indians. However, this difference creates faith filled atmosphere and is witness to true catholicity ... Thousands of people with different peculiarities and traditions ".

About one million faithful, all of foreign nationality, live in the southern Arabian region. The most important community is the Filipino one, followed by Indian Catholics, mainly from Kerala. The rest of the Church is made up of Lebanese, Syrians, Iraqis, Egyptians and Jordanians who have come to the region for work.

Thanks to the freedom of worship granted by the emirates of the Persian Gulf, the life of the Church is very active and is organized around seven parishes in the United Arab Emirates, four parishes in Oman with about 18 thousand faithful and a small community in Yemen, which wreaked by violence. 55 priests work in churches and Catholic schools dedicated to migrants.

"The Arabian Church is a living Church - underlines Msgr. Hinder, a Franciscan of Swiss origin - and the places of worship are crowded with believers. Several Catholics from the West, having encountered this reality, say that it is an antidepressant and a source of vigour and warmth ". Last week at the evening masses there were on average, "a thousand faithful, singing and praying, a sign of profound faith".

In these days the Christians have crowded the confessionals for the sacrament of penance. Until 9.30 in the evening, 5 or 6 priests in every church in Abu Dhabi welcomed thousands of people "wishing to go through the confessional", said Mgr. Hinder. From the feast of St. Joseph, patron of the cathedral in the capital of the Emirates, to the Palm Sunday Mass, the celebrations attracted entire communities, even from remote places. Despite the concerns of everyday life, from the employment crisis to fears over an uncertain future, people "do not want to miss the weekly appointment with Mass".

The priests of the entire vicariate are expected to attend the Chrism Mass on Thursday, even if some from Oman cannot be present. For Good Friday and Holy Saturday there will be double celebrations to cater to high attendance. "Otherwise - underlines the vicar - it would not be possible to welcome everyone". Security remains an issue: "The authorities are attentive - he adds  and discreetly keep watch of Christian places of worship, to prevent any kind of violence".

The pastoral care of migrants, a subject dear to Pope Francis, remains the priority for the vicar of southern Arabia and for priests and nuns operating throughout the territory. "They need material and spiritual comfort - he says - both those who have moved with their families and have to struggle to survive, and those who are alone, living in the compounds they work in and it is not always easy to reach them". "For us men of the Church - concludes Msgr. Hinder - it is essential to be ready to listen to their joys and sorrows, to encourage them to share the Easter message of resurrection. "(DS)
Scotland Yard spent more than 5,000 on disciplinary procedures after a copper was accused of stealing a tin of biscuits.

PC Thomas Hooper was accused of taking the biscuits from a 'two-tier tin' belonging to a colleague.

But after a costly three-day misconduct hearing, the panel in February found the officer had no case to answer.

It was alleged that on May 7, 2016, PC Hooper took another officer's biscuits from a cupboard without her permission - apparently with the intention of sharing them

Metropolitan Police constable Thomas Hooper is based at Scotland Yard's Kingston Operational Command Unit in South West London. Kingston police station is pictured

The hearing took place at the Empress State Building (above) in West Kensington, West London

It was alleged that on May 7, 2016, PC Hooper took another officer's biscuits from a cupboard without her permission - apparently with the intention of sharing them. He offered to replace the tin.

The hearing in London was that it was not just a matter of taking a tin of biscuits but whether his actions had amounted to a breach of professional standards.

The disciplinary hearing racked up costs including a 2,026 expense claim from panel chair Naheed Asjad, a 780.50 expense claim from a panel member, 369 for a stenographer and counsel fees of 108.

A further payment request was submitted for 1,728 and staff from Scotlad Yard's Directorate of Legal Services invoiced an estimated 466 for their time.

During the hearing Mrs Asjad recognised that the public would raise concerns that a complaint involving a tin of biscuits had reached such an advanced stage in the disciplinary process.

She asked Sarah Blake, who was an inspector at the time: 'You have a sergeant and an inspector and a box of biscuits that have gone missing and the only thing you can come up with is to refer the matter to the Directorate of Professional Standards?'

PC Hooper, based at Kingston Upon Thames' Operational Command Unit, was also accused of driving a police van in 'response mode', exceeding the speed limit with flashing lights on, without a valid reason.

He was found to have no case to answer for either allegation, and returned to full duties immediately, having been on restricted duties since July 2017.
Russia's ambassador to Australia has laughed off espionage allegations, denying that the two diplomats expelled from the country were spies.

Grigory Logvinov was grilled by ABC presenter Leigh Sales hours after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced Australia would be joining the U.K., the United States and some European countries in expelling 100 Russian diplomats.

Russia's man in Canberra suggested the question was unfair.

'Very funny question, actually,' he told the 7.30 program on Tuesday.

This is the awkward moment Russia's ambassador to Australia denied two expelled diplomats were spies

'I would be happy to see you ask this question to any ambassadors here in Canberra.'

Asked again if there were Russian intelligence operatives in Australia's capital, Mr Logvinov said there was only 'career diplomats' at his embassy in Canberra.

'Well, no ambassador would give you an answer and actually ask your authorities how they could judge who is a special agent or not,' he said.

Grigory Logvinov was grilled by Leigh Sales hours after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced Australia would be joining the U.K. and the U.S. in expelling 100 Russian diplomats

The Russian ambassador to Australia also denied his country had poisoned former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury in the U.K.

The Russian ambassador to Australia also denied agents of his country had poisoned former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury in the United Kingdom earlier this month, which has sparked the biggest diplomatic expulsion since the Cold War.

'Of course not. Scotland Yard said it would take weeks, if not months, to clear this case,' he said.

'How can one say for sure it was kind of mysterious a Russian agent to poison Skripal there.

'Actually, we still don't know whether he was really poisoned, what is his condition?'

ABC 7.30 host Leigh Sales asked Russia's ambassador to Australia if he had spies in the Canberra embassy

Flanked by Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, Malcolm Turnbull accused Russia of being reckless and a threat to democracies around the world, following the poisoning of Skripal in Salisbury

Flanked by Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, Malcolm Turnbull on Tuesday accused Russia of being reckless and a threat to democracies around the world, following the poisoning of Skripal in Salisbury.

'This was the first act of chemical warfare in Europe since the second World War,' the prime minister said.

'Russia is threatening the democratic world right around the world.'
The battle to take Britain out of the EU is not yet won, Jacob Rees-Mogg warned last night  as campaigners launched a fundraising drive to take on calls for a second referendum.

In an open letter yesterday, Tory MP Mr Rees-Mogg made a direct appeal for funds to help take on the lavishly resourced Remain campaign.

The prominent Eurosceptic described diehard Remainers as cave dwellers (who) still want to stop the process. But he warned that the pro-Brexit camp still had a fight on its hands to ensure Britain leaves the EU in a years time.

Remain campaigners have still not given up on their attempts to trap us inside the EU, he said. They want us to go crawling back to Brussels, in what would be the biggest humiliation since Suez.

In an open letter yesterday, prominent Tory backbencher Jacob Rees-Mogg (pictured) made a direct appeal for funds to help take on the lavishly resourced Remain campaign

A betrayal of this kind would be the most almighty smash to the national psyche that could be imagined.

Despite our historic vote for change and independence in 2016, the battle is not yet won. Help us secure the clean, swift Brexit you voted for  and defeat the Remainers who do not believe in Britain.

The intervention came as the pro-Remain group Best for Britain prepared to launch a 500,000 advertising campaign today aimed at forcing a second referendum. The group, bankrolled by US billionaire George Soros, has prepared a ten-week advertising blitz.

Campaign chairman Lord Malloch-Brown, a former Labour minister, said: It has been 21 months since the Brexit referendum. Our research shows that the British people  both Leave and Remain  are profoundly and increasingly frustrated that they still do not know what Brexit means.

Leading Leave supporter Mr Rees-Mogg, pictured with his mother Gillian yesterday, warned that 'Remain campaigners have still not given up on their attempts to trap us inside the EU'

Efforts to thwart Brexit are now being led by a string of well-funded groups, including Best for Britain, Open Europe and the European Movement, as well as organisations such as the CBI and TUC. By contrast, there is almost no organised campaigning to ensure the referendum result is respected.

Mr Rees-Mogg clashed publicly yesterday with former Tory chairman Lord Patten, who said the closest ministers had come to a new trade deal was the checkout at Waitrose.

Lord Patten used a speech to mark a year until Britain leaves the EU to call for the UK to stay in the customs union to prevent a return to the days of shooting and maiming in Northern Ireland. The former EU commissioner also took a swipe at Mr Rees-Mogg, who he has known since he was eight, saying: I think he has allowed himself a bit to be taken over by his own image and caricature.

Mr Rees-Mogg replied: I will only say this: when he was governor of Hong Kong, I greatly admired his efforts to defend and promote the rights of the people of Hong Kong and to argue for democracy. It is a great sadness that he wanted democracy for the people of Hong Kong but rejects it for the people of the United Kingdom.

Worker shortage fears dismissed

Firms are unlikely to suffer shortages of workers even without a supply of cheap foreign labour after Brexit, a report has found.

Claims by employers that they would not attract more UK workers even if they raised wages were not credible, said an independent panel of Government advisers.

Interim findings by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) undermined complaints by businesses that they will struggle if the supply of migrants dries up once the UK leaves the European Union.

The 67-page analysis, unveiled yesterday, indicated that blue-collar British workers were being shunned by companies which had become dependent on workers from the European Economic Area (EEA).

The MAC report said the prospect that migration curbs would lead to a large number of unfilled vacancies was unlikely.

It added: Individual employers would almost always be able to recruit resident workers if they paid wages sufficiently above the going rate.

The review  commissioned by Home Secretary Amber Rudd  took views from more than 400 businesses, industry bodies and government departments.
A whistleblower was yesterday branded a 'charlatan' and accused of speaking out to pursue a vendetta against Brexit campaigners.

Christopher Wylie, a former worker at scandal-hit data firm Cambridge Analytica (CA), told MPs that the referendum result was secured because pro-Brexit group Vote Leave hired a firm that used the personal data of millions of Facebook users.

In a series of extraordinary claims, he alleged that his predecessor may have been murdered because of his work at CA.

But Mr Wylie, who appeared before a Commons committee with pink hair and wearing a nose ring, later came under fire when asked whether he was trying to damage the credibility of Vote Leave because the lobby group had previously turned him down when he asked for a job.

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Christopher Wylie (pictured) told MPs that the referendum result was secured because pro-Brexit group Vote Leave hired a firm that used the personal data of millions of Facebook users

Data specialist Mr Wylie, a Eurosceptic, worked for British firm CA until 2015. In November that year, he met Vote Leave's campaign director Dominic Cummings and offered his data services.

Mr Cummings turned the offer down, instead hiring Aggregate IQ (AIQ), a Canadian company linked to CA, shortly afterwards.

As Mr Wylie was questioned by MPs during a hearing lasting almost four hours, Mr Cummings labelled him a 'fantasist charlatan' in a blog post, and said newspapers which uncritically published his alleged disclosures will 'look really silly'.

Earlier this month, Mr Wylie lifted the lid on how CA had harvested the personal details of millions of Facebook users, partly in a bid to sway the American election.

Vote Leave's campaign director Dominic Cummings (pictured) labelled Mr Wylie a 'fantasist charlatan' in a blog post

Mr Wylie (right) and social media expert Paul-Olivier Dehaye give evidence to the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee's inquiry into fake news on Tuesday

Yesterday the digital, culture, media and sport committee heard him repeatedly allege that Vote Leave only secured a vote for Brexit in 2016 thanks to AIQ.

'I think it is completely reasonable to say there could have been a different outcome of the referendum had there not been, in my view, cheating,' he said.

Of his time at CA, Mr Wylie claimed some workers had faced death threats when relationships turned 'sour'.

He said: 'My predecessor was found dead. One of my other co-workers had a massive head injury and is missing part of his skull. People do get hurt at this firm.'

But Tory MP Julian Knight questioned Mr Wylie on whether he had lifted the lid on Vote Leave because the group had turned him down.

Mr Knight also likened Mr Wylie to a 'failed Alexander Nix'  the Eton-educated boss of CA who was filmed boasting about techniques such as using honey trap Ukrainian escorts to try to influence politicians.

Mark Zuckerberg has refused to be grilled by MPs about how his firm failed to protect the personal information of millions of its users

Facebook boss snubs Parliament Facebook billionaire Mark Zuckerberg has refused to be grilled by MPs about how his firm failed to protect the personal information of millions of its users. However, last night the company said he was prepared to answer questions from US legislators in Congress. Last week MPs demanded that the Facebook founder appear before them to answer questions about how the personal information of millions had been farmed out to scandal-hit British data firm Cambridge Analytica. But yesterday, in a letter written by one of his staff, Mr Zuckerberg snubbed the invitation, despite claiming he supports the 'belief that those issues must be addressed at the most senior levels of the company'. Instead, he has asked one of his deputies to appear before the Commons digital, culture, media and sport committee. Advertisement

'You tried to set up in business as a type of CA, hawking your wares to Vote Leave and they said No, and now you are here in front of the committee, making suggestions about Brexit,' Mr Knight said.

Mr Wylie hit back, saying he would not have launched a 'vendetta' to get back at the group's campaign director.

After the hearing, Mr Knight said that although Mr Wylie's evidence had been 'compelling', huge questions remained unanswered.

He said: 'This whistleblower is making serious  and as yet unsubstantiated  charges against the Leave side which are being seized upon by those who want to set aside the result. I think people voted leave because they wanted to get out of the EU, not because they were hoodwinked.'
Disturbing footage has emerged showing a young woman launch a shocking verbal attack on a commuter sitting alone on a busy Melbourne train.

In the short clip uploaded to social media, a blonde woman shouts racist obscenities across the Metro Trains carriage, urging the victim to 'go back to your own country'.

The situation escalates when the woman appears to ask her tormentor to stop looking at her.

'I'll stare at you the whole time now c***. Make me shut up, b****. I ain't gonna shut up. I never gonna shut up, c***,' the blonde, wearing a black hoodie, responds.

Shocking video has emerged a young woman launching a vile, racist attack on a commuter sitting alone on a busy Melbourne train

'What are you going to do? Go back to your own f***ing country... F**k you too, you motherf***ing curry muncher.'

The victim attempted to calm the situation and said: 'I don't know you, you don't know me.'

'It's my country, it's not your f***ing country,' the blonde woman responds.

The woman who posted the video to social media described the behaviour of the two blonde girls as 'disgusting'.

'They racially abused a lady sitting on her own. [We] pressed the emergency button and sat beside the lady to support her until these girls got off the train.'

The group were praised online for supporting the victim, with one writing: 'Well done ladies, so glad you didn't just stand by.'
Britain could face a greater threat from Islamist terrorism over the next two years, a security review warns today.

Intelligence experts fear battle-hardened jihadis in Syria are dispersing to set up cells elsewhere from which to plot attacks on the West.

There are also concerns that die-hard fanatics could try to come back to Britain to carry out massacres.

MI5 chief Andrew Parker (pictured) warned last year that the terror threat was already the worst he had ever seen in his 34-year career

These factors, on top of concerns that youngsters at home are being easily radicalised on the internet, point to a heightened terror threat, spies say.

The assessment comes after MI5 chief Andrew Parker warned last year that the terror threat was already the worst he had ever seen in his 34-year career.

A security shake-up will be detailed in the National Security Capability Review (NSCR) today.

It will state: 'We expect the threat from Islamist terrorism to remain at its current heightened level for at least two years and it might increase further.'

The review will outline the threats facing the UK and how the Government plans to deal with them. In it, Theresa May (pictured) states: 'Every part of our Government and every one of our agencies has its part to play'

The review comes in the wake of five terror attacks on British soil last year and this month's nerve-agent attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in Salisbury.

It can also be revealed:

The UK will introduce a 'fusion doctrine' to use military, financial, cultural and diplomatic clout to quash threats;

'Unprecedented' levels of intelligence were shared with allies after Salisbury to make the case for action against Russia;

Russia, Iran and North Korea are identified as the key state-based threats;

So-called 'soft power' such as the BBC's World Service and social media will be used to tackle misinformation.

The review will outline the threats facing the UK and how the Government plans to deal with them.

In it, Theresa May states: 'Every part of our Government and every one of our agencies has its part to play. As long as we defend our interests and stand up for our values, there will continue to be those who seek to undermine or attack us. But these people should be in no doubt that we will use every capability at our disposal to defeat them.

'Over the past year we have witnessed appalling terrorist attacks in London and Manchester. But also a brazen and reckless act of aggression on the streets of Salisbury: Attempted murder using an illegal chemical weapon, amounting to an unlawful use of force against the UK.'

She said national security depended on not only the police, security services and the Armed Forces, but 'on our ability to mobilise... the full range of our capabilities in concert'.

The PM said national security depended on not only the police, security services and the Armed Forces but 'on our ability to mobilise... the full range of our capabilities in concert'. Pictured, emergency services after the Manchester Arena attack

A senior Whitehall official said the nerve-agent attack in Salisbury had shown how important it was to counter propaganda from Russia, which put out more than 20 different stories following the incident 'to try to confuse the picture, confuse the charge sheet if you like'.

On top of this, up to 2,800 Russian bots  computer programmes that generate posts on social media  are thought to have tried to sow confusion after the poison attack by spreading fake information.

Officials have feared for months that IS jihadists defeated in Iraq and Syria could morph into a new terror group.

But the danger from Islamist extremists moving into Africa and other regions seems likely to increase the threat to British citizens.

A source said: 'There will be further cycles of it. There are cells in Yemen, Nigeria, Somalia, as well as Syria and Iraq. They will still seek to project out. What will happen as the so-called caliphate has essentially been defeated, is that those militants who fought for it are diffusing. So the threat will shift. And some of that could affect us here.'

A senior Whitehall official said: 'The biggest shift in the terrorist threat in my career has been that you can radicalise people in our own communities, people have been radicalised from Syria... through their interactions in cyber space.'
A senior executive at National Grid yesterday urged ministers to bring a ban on new petrol and diesel cars at least ten years forward.

The Government has said the sale of new cars with internal combustion engines should be outlawed by 2040.

But Graeme Cooper, the official in charge of electric cars at National Grid, told MPs that the UK should aim to match or beat targets set by other countries in Europe for the switch to electric vehicles. Although Mr Cooper did not specify a new deadline, one MP on the business, energy and industrial strategy committee pointed out that Norway has declared plans to ban sales of new diesel and petrol cars in 2025.

Mr Cooper said: The sooner you make the change the easier it is to achieve the target. I think from a National Grid point of view 2030 or 2040 is far enough out.

Asked whether National Grid could cope with the ban starting in 2030, he said: Absolutely, we would probably actively support that. I think it would allow the networks and industry to respond appropriately.

The firm wants to build superfast car charging points at motorway services.
London was yesterday crowned the worlds leading financial centre in a major boost for Britain as the country leaves the European Union.

The capital has again pipped New York to the top spot in the twice-yearly Global Financial Centres Index, and widened its lead over its main European rivals  undermining doom-laden warnings about the threat to the City from Brexit.

London and New York were followed by Hong Kong in third, Singapore in fourth and Tokyo in fifth. The highest-ranking city on the continent was Zurich in 16th followed by Frankfurt in 20th, Luxembourg in 21st and Paris in 24th. The report, published by think-tank Z/Yen Group, made a mockery of claims that cities such as Frankfurt and Paris posed a threat to Londons status as a global financial powerhouse.

Not everyone can be a London or a New York, a Montreal-based asset manager said in the report. It seems to me that more of the smaller centres would do better by specialising in one sector.

London was yesterday crowned the worlds leading financial centre in a major boost for Britain as the country leaves the European Union

Brexit supporter Gerard Lyons, a former adviser to Boris Johnson, added: Londons competition is global.

When the UK did not join the euro, at that time one fear was that London would lose out as Europes leading financial centre to Frankfurt, Paris or Amsterdam.

The rankings in the report were based on more than 100 factors measured independently by groups including the World Bank, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and the United Nations.

They include political stability and the rule of law, regulation, taxes, skills, quality of life, availability of capital, cultural diversity and reputation. London scored 794 out of 1,000  one point ahead of New York on 793. The capital extended its lead over Frankfurt from 79 points to 86 points and over Paris from 100 points to 107 points.

The gap in the ratings of London and Paris was wider than the gap between Paris and the Isle of Man, Guernsey, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Jersey.

Brexit campaigner John Longworth, the former head of the British Chambers of Commerce, said: London is the worlds No 1 financial centre. Its real competition comes from New York and Asia. By contrast, the much vaunted Paris and Frankfurt are rated as little better than British provincial cities.
Homes left empty for two years will be slapped with double the rate of council tax as part of a drive to bring properties back into use.

Local authorities will be handed powers to levy extra charges on houses that stand empty for two years or more.

Ministers believe the tax hike could lead to thousands of properties being made available. Local government minister Rishi Sunak said: It is simply wrong that while there are 200,000 long-term empty properties across the country, thousands of families are desperate for a secure place to call home.

This new power will equip councils with the tools they need to encourage owners of long-term empty properties to bring them back into use  and at the same time tackle the harmful effect they have on communities through squatting, vandalism and anti-social behaviour.

Homes left empty for two years will be slapped with double the rate of council tax as part of a drive to bring properties back into use (file photo)

Since 2013, local authorities have been able to charge a 50 per cent premium on the council tax bills of owners of homes empty for two years or more. Some 291 out of 326 councils applied an empty homes premium in 2017-18.

Councils will be able to raise the premium to 100 per cent under legislation to be introduced in the Commons today.

The Government has published guidance telling councils the premium should not be used to penalise owners of homes that are on the market for rent or sale. There are also exemptions in place for homes that are empty due to the occupant living in Armed Forces accommodation or to annexes being used as part of a main property.

Figures released earlier this year showed 60,000 properties across England have been empty for two years or more.

About 11,000 homes have been empty for more than ten years, 23,000 for five years or more, and a total of 216,000 homes have been empty for six months.

Theresa May has said solving the housing crisis is the mission of her premiership.

Earlier this month, the Prime Minister suggested former shops could be turned into homes as online shopping reshapes high streets. And she rejected the idea that tackling the crisis meant concreting over the Green Belt as she admitted young people were right to be angry about their inability to get on the property ladder.

Mrs May vowed to crack down on blocks to construction, such as developers sitting on land and waiting for its value to rise.

Local government minister Rishi Sunak said it was 'simply wrong' that there were so many long-term empty properties while others were desperate to find a home

The Prime Minister said: One of the elements of the new planning rules were setting out is to make it easier for shops to be turned into housing if thats appropriate, but also for development above retail units to take place.

Often theres a very good argument for having homes being built in the centre of town, accessible to shops, accessible to transport infrastructure as well. And greater extension upwards can be one of the solutions for ensuring were building enough homes.

It came as ministers announced they were reversing the so-called staircase tax which has seen hundreds of firms hit by demands for higher business rates.

The move, applying to England, follows an outcry over a Supreme Court ruling last year that firms operating in adjoining rooms or units which were accessed by a common corridor or staircase should be taxed as if they were separate premises.

The decision left many firms facing significant additional bills backdated to April 2015.

Communities secretary Sajid Javid said that under new legislation, they would be able to have their rates recalculated under the old system and any savings due backdated.
ISIS-inspired Muhammad Abid, 27, was given two council flats by Newham Council

A jihadi who plotted to bomb 30 landmarks acrossLondon had two council houses - one for himself and another for his wife.

Muhammad Abid was jailed alongside two other men over a plot to brainwash Muslim boys as young as 11.

The 27-year-old wanted to train youngsters to drive cars 'like Mujahideen' before arming them with weapons to carry out atrocities at targets including Big Ben, Heathrow Airport and Westfield shopping centre

Abid swindled his way to two council flats by claiming his wife needed her own because she 'wanted her independence'.

He hired lawyers to demand a second taxpayer-funded home from Newham Council - and was eventually successful.

Abid also claimed benefits for being his wife Juwayriyah Noor's carer, despite living apart from her in this East London tower block.

He told the council she was suffering 'stress and depression' and required full-time care.

However, he stayed holed up at his other flat 20 minutes drive away.

MPs have called for an investigation into how east London's Newham Council was duped.

Former Secretary of State for International Development Priti Patel said: 'The abuse of the housing register and benefits system is scandalous and questions must be asked as to how he cheated it.

'At a time when there is a shortage of housing Newham should have been more vigilant and carried out more checks.'

After moving to London from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire Abid was given a one-bedroom flat in a tower block in Manor Park, east London. Pictured: The block believed to house Abid's flat

Abid hired lawyers to demand this second taxpayer-funded home from Newham Council

The 27-year-old plotted to enlist child jihadis and attack 30 London landmarks. Pictured: His bedroom where he plotted attacks

Newham Council said today: 'The council was not aware that they were a couple until after the husband's arrest.

'They have never been dealt with by our housing service as a couple.'

The father-of-three was born and raised in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire - the hometown of three of the four 7/7 bombers.

In 2010 he moved to London to work as an electrician and married Juwayriyah in 2012.

A year later he was given a one-bedroom flat in a tower block in Manor Park, east London.

However, his wife was also given a flat on the first floor of a building just four miles away in Canning Town.

Abid told jurors: 'She wanted to maintain her independence from myself and, number two, because of her health conditions.'

Abid was given a one-bedroom flat in a tower block in Manor Park as well as a flat for his wife on the first floor of a building just four miles away in Canning Town

The youngsters, aged 11 to 14, were radicalised in this marquee next to a mosque in Barking

He also claimed he was forced to become her carer when she suffered post-natal depression.

Umar Haque showed beheading videos to children as young as 11 and made them reenact the Westminster terror attack in which a policeman was stabbed to death.

Haque had access to 250 children over four years while working at two Muslim secondary schools and teaching after-school classes at a madrasa attached to a mosque in Barking.

Police believe he tried to radicalise around 110 boys and girls.

He had disturbing conversations with fellow teachers Abuthaher Mamun, 19, and Muhammad Abid, 27 about radicalising pupils and carrying out attacks.

Haque is also said to have known London Bridge terrorist Khuram Butt who, with accomplices Rachid Redouane and Youssef Zaghba, ploughed a white van into pedestrians before rampaging through Borough Market with knives last year.

The three men killed eight people and injured 48 before dying in a hail of police bullets.

Abid was jailed for four years and three months at the Old Bailey yesterday for failing to disclose information about terror plans hatched by co-defendant, Umar Haque.

Juwayriyah's neighbors yesterday told The Sun it was an outrage she and Abid had been allowed a flat each.

Rukshana Begum, 37, said: 'It's a scam basically. We all want more space to live but we can't just pick up the phone to the council and demand what we want. What checks did they make? I think the council should have been tougher.'

A third man, Abuthaher Mamun, 19, was handed 12 years for helping Haque prepare attacks.

A fourth man, Nadeem Patel, 26, was cleared of plotting with Haque and had previously admitted to having a gun.

Bookmaker Abuthaher Mamun, 19, was jailed for 12 years with a further year on extended licence.
Prof David Robie

NEWSDESK | Pacific Media Watch

AUCKLAND - News media need to empower people over climate change and to encourage them to take action in their communities and press governments to do more, says Professor David Robie, a New Zealand environmental journalist and advocate.

Professor Robie, director of the Pacific Media Centre at Auckland University of Technology, told researchers at a recent seminar at Indonesias Universitas Gadjah Mada in Yogyakarta that journalists in the Asia-Pacific region needed to step up to the mark.

We are rapidly running out of time, he said in an interview with the Indonesian universitys Centre for Southeast Asia Social Studies.

The news media itself is not terribly good when it comes to long term planning, and long-term issues. It tends to respond to immediate issues and consequences. It lacks the attention span for longer term challenges.
MPs from all parties called on Greg Clark to intervene to protect UK industry and jobs

When Peugeot decided to buy Vauxhalls British operations last February, threatening thousands of jobs in the process, our Business and Energy Secretary Greg Clark responded in the style of Neville Chamberlain.

First, he travelled to Paris for crunch talks with the French car firm. Then, this would-be statesman returned to Blighty brandishing a metaphorical piece of paper  an assurance that his new Gallic chums wanted to expand production and that all existing commitments to Vauxhalls UK plants would be honoured.

As a result, Clark did nothing to prevent the sale of this important and historic UK manufacturing giant. But more than a year down the line, the sad truth is that  in the eyes of critics  Mr Clark has been played for a fool.

In October, Peugeot announced it was cutting 400 jobs at Vauxhalls plant in Ellesmere Port, which makes the Astra.

Three months later, it announced another 250 British workers at the plant were to lose their livelihoods.

The Government argues such jobs would have gone even if the takeover had been blocked.

Workers gathered last month to stand against the GKN takeover

The insouciance of the Government, and in particular Business Secretary Greg Clark, to the sale of GKN has worried commentators

Unions say protecting those jobs ought to have been a condition of the deal going through.

Wherever one stands, we should consider, in light of this episode, Mr Clarks triumphant announcement yesterday that hed persuaded the would-be buyer of the venerable engineering giant GKN  a rapacious venture capital firm called Melrose  to give assurances over the future of jobs, pensions, and research and development.

As history has repeatedly shown during the 20-odd months that Clark, 50, has spent in his current job, the assurances of companies seeking government approval for takeovers are rarely worth the paper theyre written on.

The fact is that modern Business Secretaries have for years failed to protect UK PLC and stop the family silver, as it were, being sold off. Indeed, its been 16 years since a takeover was blocked by the government under the Enterprise Act.

Greg Clark falls firmly into this tradition. During the summer of 2016, he failed to stop the Japanese firm Softbank taking over the brilliant Cambridge technology company ARM, a computer chip manufacturer whose fate is of huge importance to the nations economic future (though he did secure an agreement, so far honoured, to keep the firm in the UK).

Straight afterwards, he sat on his hands when a German raider, Deutsche Borse, sought to merge with the London Stock Exchange.

It was left to the European Commission to block the deal.

Last year, Clark allowed the acquisition of Sepura  also a Cambridge firm  which makes products used by law enforcement and emergency services, by a Chinese company called Hytera, having initially intervened to demand a consultation on its national security implications.

Mr Clark has responded to the proposed sale in the style of Neville Chamberlain (above) by returning to Blighty brandishing a metaphorical piece of paper

In the past, Theresa May has signalled that the government will block the takeover if it is not in the national interest

He added: 'The answer to this bid should be a resounding no  otherwise the UK might as well give up its claims to be a great engineering nation, not that rapacious hedge funds would care a damn about that'

Clark is famed for his dull persona  sketch-writers have written about his soporific power, saying he speaks in the honeyed tones of a graveyard shift local radio presenter accustomed to speaking to three insomniacs at most.

Little wonder that under his stewardship the Business Department has acquired a reputation in certain quarters for stasis.

It did nothing to prevent new contracts being handed to ailing construction group Carillion before its collapse earlier this year. And Clark last year allowed Britains biggest gas storage facility at Rough, off the Yorkshire Coast, to be shut down, leaving the nation perilously close to black-outs last month.

His unveiling of a new Industrial Strategy last November was supposed to mark a grand reforming of the nations economic landscape. But in the event, it turned out to be a damp squib, dismissed by critics as 10,000 words of waffle.

Downing Street aides blamed Clark for watering down potential changes to takeover rules, which at present give the government only three very narrow grounds (national security, media plurality and financial stability) to block deals.

Shortly afterwards, Mr Clarks stock with Number 10 fell so low he was reportedly due to be moved on, only to earn a reprieve when Jeremy Hunt, who would have taken over the Business brief, refused to leave the Health department.

Though admirers rightly say hes a fundamentally decent person, opponents complain that Clark dithers, appears utterly incapable of making decisions, and lacks a sense of political conviction.

Nothing has previously been made of the fact his wife Helen Clark, mother of his three children, earns a crust as a chartered accountant working in offshore trusts and tax planning.

I act for a wide variety of individuals, with interests in properties and trusts both in the UK and abroad, with a focus on the UK impact of offshore trusts, and UK non-residence and foreign domicile issues, reads her profile on the website of her firm, Dixon Wilson.

Mrs Clarks work in this exotic realm  where the interests of clients may not always be aligned with that of the UK Treasury  has contributed to the Business Secretarys domestic set-up in a large detached home in the leafy commuter town of Tunbridge Wells, which was bought for 1.1million in 2011.

Its a world away from the deprived Middlesbrough estate where Clark grew up, the comprehensive-educated son of a milkman whose mother worked on the checkout of Sainsburys.

As the first member of his family to go to university, studying Economics at Cambridge, he joined the SDP in the 1980s, before moving to the Tories in the early 1990s.

Aside from a brief stint at the BBC, hes been in politics ever since, and was elevated to a shadow job by David Cameron shortly after becoming an MP in 2005.

Since then, hes become adept at clinging onto Westminsters greasy pole and sidestepping controversy. But the row over GKN and Melrose puts him at the eye of a storm that might yet blow his career onto the rocks.
Parkland school shooting survivor David Hogg is being compared to Hitler after various videos emerged online with the Nazi leader's voice dubbed over footage of the teenager speaking at the March for our Lives rally.

The videos, which have been posted on YouTube and played by Infowars, Breitbart and other far-right media sites, used footage of the 17-year-old speaking to the crowds of protesters in Washington on Saturday.

Hitler's voice from one of his 1930s rally speeches has been edited into the videos and also features crowds of Nazi supporters cheering.

Parkland school shooting survivor David Hogg is being compared to Hitler after various videos emerged with the Nazi leader's voice dubbed over footage of him at March for our Lives

At the end of his speech on Saturday, Hogg raised his fist in the air and right-wing social media immediately started claiming it resembled Hitler's Nazi salute.

YouTube put a viewer discretion warning on one of the Hitler comparison videos.

The 56-second video, which was posted on YouTube on Monday by user MAGA3D, was flagged as containing material that some viewers had found to be 'inappropriate or offensive'.

Viewers trying to watch the video were made to click 'I understand and wish to proceed' in order to watch it.

The YouTube user titled the video: 'Hogg Hitler! The little dictator in the making'.

The videos, which have been posted on YouTube and played by Infowars, used footage of the 17-year-old speaking to the crowds of protesters in Washington on Saturday

Hitler's voice from one of his 1930s rally speeches has been edited into the videos and also features crowds of Nazi supporters cheering

YouTube put a viewer discretion warning on one of the Hitler comparison videos that was uploaded on Tuesday by user MAGA3D

Hitler salutes during the Nuremberg Rally back in 1937

Far-right conspiracist Alex Jones played one of the videos during his Infowars broadcast on Tuesday.

He described the video as 'truly frightening historically iconography that you cannot deny these parallels of this youth march'.

Jones later clarified he didn't believe Hogg was a Nazi but argued that the gun control movement by student activists was similar to Nazi ideology.

He had earlier called the rally a 'Hitler Youth invasion' and said Hogg was 'the chief propagandist in the left-wing fascist Hitler Youth army'.

At the end of his speech on Saturday, Hogg raised his fist in the air and right-wing social media immediately started claiming it resembled Hitler's Nazi salute

Alex Jones played a video featuring @davidhogg111's #MarchForOurLives speech dubbed over with a Hitler speech https://t.co/icsyQcxG4I pic.twitter.com/3Dt5mhIL4J  Media Matters (@mmfa) March 27, 2018

Hogg has previously been compared to the Nazis by the far-right in the wake of the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last month that left 17 people dead.

Minnesota Republican Rep. Mary Franson compared the teenager to the Hitler Youth in a series of Facebook posts after the March for Our Lives rally.

She later deleted the posts.

An aide to Brooklyn state Sen. Marty Golden was fired on Tuesday after he compared the student protesters to Nazis.

'Anthony Testaverde is no longer employed by my office. While freedom of speech is a right, that all citizens enjoy, what occurred in this instance was wrong and cannot be tolerated,' Golden said in a statement.
The number of times a family moves home has halved since the financial crisis, research suggests.

Soaring house prices and high taxes have made extensions more attractive to many than moving to a larger home, according to estate agent Savills.

It said that before the financial crisis a decade ago, homeowners would move an average of 3.6 times after buying their first house.

However, the slower pace of buying today suggests that they will now move just 1.8 times, the research for the BBC found.

Soaring house prices and high taxes have made extensions more attractive to many than moving to a larger home, according to estate agent Savills

Key reasons include high prices, difficulty getting a mortgage and older people staying put in large houses  meaning they do not come on to the market. Massive stamp duty costs may also play a role.

Lucian Cook, of Savills, said: 'Those not trading up are the forgotten people of the housing market. We've concentrated on first-time buyers.

'They get the concessions and all the focus has been on getting people on to the housing ladder.'

London has long had a problem, with property on the second rung of the ladder being too expensive for buyers who are trying to move up from their first home.

But Savills said it was a growing issue elsewhere as well  both in cities such as Manchester, where prices have surged, and in areas where there has been little change because families have made almost no profit on the property they are in.

The number of times a family moves home has halved since the financial crisis, research suggests

Savills said there were areas such as Basingstoke in Hampshire, south Norfolk, Swindon, Bracknell in Berkshire and Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, where the market was neither surging out of control nor too sluggish to move.

Here, properties changed ownership once a decade on average and it was still possible to move up.

At the other end of the scale was sparsely populated Pembrokeshire in south-west Wales  possibly due to a lack of houses to move into  and the London borough of Harrow, where homes tended to switch owner once every 19 years.

Brent in London, Wolverhampton and Anglesey in North Wales were next slowest, with properties taking 18 years to change hands.

A lack of moves would also make it more difficult for young people to get their first home because fewer would come on to the market.

A report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies think-tank last month revealed only one in four young middle-class people now owned their home  down from two-thirds 20 years ago, amid concerns over the housing shortage.

Tory MP Nick Boles warned that more must be done.

He said: 'The collapse in home ownership among people in their twenties and thirties earning average incomes is a social and economic disaster. Margaret Thatcher's vision of a property-owning democracy is under threat.

'It will turn into a political disaster for the Conservative Party if the Government does not match its ambitious rhetoric with bold steps to increase house building.'
Assurances secured by ministers over the hostile takeover of GKN are not worth the paper theyre written on, critics said last night.

Just 48 hours before shareholders decide the future of the British engineering giant, Business Secretary Greg Clark finally broke his silence.

He said he had received assurances from Melrose, which is mounting the 8.1billion takeover, about the future of the 259-year-old firm, particularly its aerospace division.

Greg Clark stands accused of paving the way for vultures to buy GKN, a venerated British defence giant

Critics have pointed out that Melrose may eventually sell off parts of GKN to the highest bidder after five years, jeopardising the long-term future of the firm

GKN is famed as the company which made Spitfires (foreground) during the Second World war

And he effectively cleared the way for the deal, telling MPs he was unlikely to intervene over concerns about national security before shareholders vote.

But MPs lined up to condemn the supposed guarantees, warning they may not be legally enforceable or stop Melrose from breaking GKN up and selling it off.

They said his last ditch intervention had generated little more than warm words and had come too late to influence shareholders, many of whom will have already voted.

Critics also pointed out the promises would allow Melrose to sell off parts of GKN to the highest bidder after five years, jeopardising the long-term future of the firm, which makes parts for the Eurofighter Typhoon and US-UK fighter jets.

The government has intervened 12 times in takeovers since the Enterprise Act 2002 was created.

Seven of these were on national security grounds, including in 2005 when US defence giant Lockheed Martin bought military communication firm Insys.

The row erupted after Melrose made an eleventh hour bid to persuade wavering shareholders to back the deal yesterday.

Melrose snaps up underperforming firms and sells them on at a profit, often within three to five years, raising concerns that GKN will be broken up and flogged off around the world.

Concern for UK industry was heightened after major GKN customer Airbus said it would find it practically impossible to give GKN work under short-term owners.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson is believed to remain unconvinced by the national security aspect of the deal

Labour MP Jack Dromey has argued that warm words do not conceal the reality that GKN would become history if Melrose takes over The guarantees are not worth the paper they are written on,' he said

Mr Clark sent Melrose a letter in which he laid out his concerns over long-term investment in GKN  particularly in light of the firms state defence work.

I am concerned that a short-term approach to ownership may not be compatible with maintaining the longer-term relationships which characterise the best interests of the defence field, he said.

I would expect to see a commitment to continuity of ownership and strategic investment specific to the defence-related business of GKN and to exclude the option of a short-term sale of this business without the consent of the Government.

In response, Melrose yesterday issued a series of promises insisting it would not sell the aerospace arm of GKN before April 2023.

But this commitment did not make the formal undertakings agreed with the Takeover Panel watchdog. As such, it may not be considered legally binding.

Melrose also said it would keep its own headquarters in the UK, keep its shares on the London Stock Exchange and protect the GKN name for five years.

No binding promises were made on the UK workforce or maintaining GKNs headquarers in Redditch, Worcestershire.

After receiving these guarantees, Mr Clark gave a statement to MPs saying he would take advice on whether to intervene on national security grounds after shareholders have voted, paving the way for the deal to be approved.

However, the Mail understands that Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson remains unconvinced by the national security aspect of the deal.

Last month he raised serious concerns about a lack of clarity about what would happen to the military side of the business.

And in Parliament, MPs on both sides of the house raged at the failure to protect the firm.

Labour MP Adrian Bailey has argued that the commitment by Melrose not to sell GKN aerospace division before 2023 falls well short of the investment cycles of 20-40 years that are needed in the aerospace industry

Labour MP Jack Dromey said: Warm words conceal the reality that GKN would become history if Melrose takes over.

The guarantees are not worth the paper they are written on.

Rachel Maclean, the Tory MP for Redditich, said the pledges were simply not good enough for Redditch.

She added: There is no clarity about the headquarters being in Redditch and it would be a really sad day if we lost them. There are still major question marks hanging over this deal.

Addressing Mr Clark, Labours Rachel Reeves, chairman of the business, energy and industrial strategy committee, demanded to know why he hadnt intervened sooner.

Pointing out the takeover had been looming for two-and-a-half months, she said: Why did it take three days before shareholders have to vote on this bid for you to write to shareholders to get those assurances?

'Which are frankly pretty limited and its too late for you to drive a harder bargain.

Labour MP Adrian Bailey added: The Melrose commitment not to sell GKN aerospace division before 2023 falls well short of the investment cycles of 20-40 years that are needed in the aerospace industry.

Steve Turner, assistant general secretary of the Unite union, which represents GKN workers, said: It is doubtful that even these limited assurances are worth much more than the paper theyre written on, or are actually legally enforceable by either the Government or the takeover panel.

'No deal should be struck on the basis of false promises.

Melrose has repeatedly said it invests in businesses as if it will own them forever. In his letter, chief executive Simon Peckham said: We are totally transparent.

We are here because under the management of its current board, GKN has underperformed ... and the business needs help. We believe we are the right team to return this ailing business to ... a British engineering and manufacturing powerhouse.
Firefighters have asked for forgiveness after it was revealed they were banned from helping victims the night of the Manchester bombing.

Rank-and-file firefighters today told of their devastation at the decisions made by senior management during the attack which left 22 dead and 119 injured.

A probe by Lord Bob Kerslake revealed that fire crews were delayed by two hours and six minutes after the bombing.

Firefighters have asked for the forgiveness of the victims and families caught up in the Manchester Arena attack

The fire service 'stuck to the rules' of an operation designed to keep emergency service workers away from on-the-run terrorists amid uncertainty over whether the bomber was still on the loose.

In an emotional open letter, one anonymous firefighter told how they had never 'felt so much guilt in all my life'.

'Young children were dying and we weren't there to help. I did not sign up to the best job in the world to turn my back. Please forgive your firefighters who were begging to help.'

Luckily, paramedics did not follow the same rules and twelve ambulances, along with armed police, did arrive within 20 minutes.

The report refused to say whether the delays led to extra deaths, insisting that question should be considered by a coroner.

Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, has ordered a review into what happened and urged people 'not to jump to conclusions'.

The anonymous firefighter's emotional letter in full I have been a firefighter for 10 years now and never ever felt so much guilt in all my life. I was one of the first crews who got turned out to the tragic event in Manchester. We stood around and were not given any updates. We got most of the information from news updates even though we were at an rendezvous point with high ranking senior fire officers. Two hours went by, watching numerous paramedics from as far away as East Midlands turning up and being deployed while we just stood around doing nothing. Even a paramedic came to us pleading. She had just taken a young girl to hospital, sadly one of the tragic victims of this horrid attack. She was begging us, pleading with us to help, because they needed it. Help in getting the casualties away from danger, help with triage and help with carrying victims. I have felt nothing but guilt, feeling ashamed and feeling let down by senior officers who didnt have the balls to commit us. We pleaded with our high ranking officers to let us go but that got declined on numerous occasions. Young children were dying and we werent there to help. I did not sign up to the best job in the world to turn my back! We were only half a mile away from helping, from potentially saving lives. This will stick with me forever. I would personally like to apologise to the victims and their families because I was part of a service you depend on and we werent there when you needed us. Please please forgive your firefighters who were begging to help. Advertisement

The report praised the bravery and compassion of emergency services but criticised the rules and procedures under which they operate

Another firefighter with more than a decade of experience told how his crew had been sent away from the arena while paramedics attended.

In a moving plea he said: 'I would like to ask for the forgiveness of the victims, their families, and other emergency service workers for not upholding my end on the night.

'If it ever happens again I will do what I should have done on that night - pick up the first aid bag off the taxpayers' fire engine and walk to the incident myself - or hitch a ride with the true heroes of the incident - the ambulance service.

'Many of us have been left distressed and devastated by what happened.'

The emergency service personnel described how he and his colleagues had found it impossible to come to terms with the brutality of the event.

Concert-goers stream from the Manchester Arena after the bombing in May last year. Some of those caught up in the blast have criticised the lack of medical assistance in the aftermath

Graphics included in the report show the bomber targeted the foyer at the end of the concert

Paramedics were on the scene in 20 minutes but the lack of medical supplies was criticised

The bombing claimed the lives of 22 people. Over a hundred others were injured in the blast

He said morale in the force was at rock bottom, and asked forgiveness of the victim's of the attack.

'We were just that sitting there, desperate to go. We just wanted to help.

'Police from Wales and Yorkshire and ambulances from the East Midlands were at the Arena helping the dead and wounded - 400 yards from our base.

'It was heart wrenching for those sat there, with news coming back that the general public were carrying dead, dying, and injured people on advertising boards.

'Paramedics were coming back questioning why we weren't doing anything when they needed us for basics like oxygen cylinders and to fetch and carry.

'Five fire engines and a specially trained team of firefighters, specifically for responding to terrorist attacks, sat idle at the station for the remainder of the incident.'

Suicide bomber Salman Abedi (left) targeted the teenage fans of popstar Ariana Grande (right)

A mourner lights a candle at a vigil in Manchester's Albert Square after the bombing

The firefighter added he believes crews were failed by their management and in turn failed to serve the public.

'With the hatchet falling in the form of the Kerslake report I want your readers to be fully aware that on the night of the terrorist attack the firefighters up to and including the rank of station officer were expecting to be deployed to the arena,' he said.

'The effects of the evening have been far reaching. We still feel let down.

'Morale has been low for a good few years now. The events of the night of the Arena have made things a whole lot worse.

'While I was walking aimlessly, helpless and frustrated around Thomson Street station - less than a mile from the Arena I saw a note on a tile.

'It was not an ordinary tile but one from the roof of Strangeways Prison, presented to firemen who turned out when there was a riot on. The inscription said 'We Called You Came'.

'Reading that as I waited and waited to be sent to the Arena I felt ashamed to be a firefighter.'
Jurors on Tuesday recommended the death penalty for a Mexican national who repeatedly entered the US illegally before killing two Northern California deputies in a case that fueled the national immigration debate.

A grinning Luis Bracamontes was found guilty last month of murder in the 2014 shootings of Sacramento County sheriff's Deputy Danny Oliver and Placer County sheriff's Detective Michael Davis Jr.

He also was convicted of attempted murder, carjacking, weapons violations and other crimes.

Scroll down for video

Still laughing it up: Luis Bracamontes grins as the verdict is read that he will receive the death penalty in the murders of of two California deputies on Tuesday

The Mexican national was convicted in February of killing Placer Sheriffs Deputy Michael Davis Jr. (left) and Sacramento Sheriffs Deputy Danny Oliver (right)

On Tuesday, it took the jury four hours of deliberations to decide on the capital punishment recommendation.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Steve White will deliver a formal sentence April 25, according to The Sacramento Bee. Family members of the victims will be given a chance to deliver impact statements during the sentencing hearing.

California has not executed a death row inmate since 2006. There are currently 746 condemned criminals waiting execution.

Bracamontes, who often wore a smirk on his face during his trial, smiled and silently clapped his hands as the jury's sentencing recommendation was read, the Bee reported. The victims' loved ones who were in court smiled right back at him.

'He's a coward,' said Phyllis Sylvia, Oliver's sister.

Condemned: When his guilty verdict was read in February, Bracamontes smirked, softly said, 'Yay,' and later added that would 'kill more cops soon' (pictured at the time)

Insanity defense: Defense attorneys argued that Bracamontes was mentally ill and high on methamphetamine

During the trial, he was removed from the courtroom repeatedly for profane outbursts. When his guilty verdict was read, Bracamontes smirked, softly said, 'Yay,' and later added that would 'kill more cops soon.'

Investigators said he shot Oliver outside a Sacramento motel on Oct. 24, 2014, triggering a manhunt and chase that lasted hours and spanned 30 miles (48 kilometers). It ended after authorities say he shot Davis and surrendered following a lengthy standoff.

Defense attorneys argued that Bracamontes was mentally ill and high on methamphetamine during the shootings and should be spared. A judge found Bracamontes competent to stand trial and he refused to plead not guilty by reason of insanity.

President Donald Trump featured Bracamontes in a January ad accusing Democrats of being 'complicit' in the slayings of law enforcement officers by people in the US illegally.

Last week, Bracamontes' wife, 41-year-old Janelle Monroy (pictured), was convicted of 10 charges and sentenced to nearly 50 years in jail

Public defenders Jeffrey Barbour and Norm Dawson argued unsuccessfully that anti-immigrant sentiment prompted by Trump made it unlikely that Bracamontes could get a fair trial.

Last week, Bracamontes' wife, 41-year-old Janelle Monroy, was convicted of 10 charges including murder, attempted murder and carjacking, and possessing an assault rifle, and sentenced to nearly 50 years in jail after jurors rejected claims that she'd only gone along with her husband's murderous scheme because she was terrified of him.

Monroy, a US citizen who was married to Bracamontes for 12 years, willingly moved her husband's assault-style rifle from vehicle to stolen vehicle after he killed Oliver and before he killed Davis hours later, prosecutors said.
Thomas Kelly's notorious one-punch killer has been charged after allegedly bashing a high-ranking Rebels bikie during a wild prison brawl.

Kieran Loveridge, who in 2012 killed the teenager in an unprovoked attack in Kings Cross, allegedly assaulted Mathew Rymer at Sydney's Silverwater jail on Monday.

'A 24-year-old inmate allegedly approached a 34-year-old inmate and punched him in the face, before a wrestle ensued,' police told Daily Mail Australia.

Loveridge, who killed 18-year-old Thomas Kelly (pictured) in a brutal one-punch attack in Kings Cross in 2012, has been charged with assault after allegedly bashing a Rebels bikie in prison

Loveridge (pictured) is accused of attacking a senior Rebels member while behind bars at Silverwater jail

'The men were separated by Corrective Services officers and the older man was taken to the clinic for treatment for facial injuries.'

Loveridge has been charged with affray and will appear at Burwood Local Court on Wednesday.

The 24-year-old is reportedly linked to the Lone Wolf bikie gang, who are said to be feuding with Rebels members in jail.

Rymer is president of the Penrith chapter of the Rebels.

His brother Chris, another high-ranking member, walked free from Silverwater in December last year.

Pictured: Mathew Rymer, the alleged victim and president of the Penrith chapter of the Rebels bikie gang

Mr Kelly suffered catastrophic head injuries after Loveridge (right) punched him in an unprovoked attack at Sydney's red-light district in July 2012

Mr Kelly suffered catastrophic head injuries after Loveridge punched him in an unprovoked attack at Sydney's red-light district in July 2012.

His life support was turned off two days later.

Loveridge also carried out a string of other drunken assaults on the same night.

Mr Kelly's parents became advocates for action to curb alcohol-fuelled violence after his death and campaigned tirelessly for the introduction of Sydney's lock out laws.

Loveridge allegedly punched Rymer (pictured) in the face at Silverwater jail on Monday

Rymer's brother Chris (left), another high-ranking Rebels member, walked free from Silverwater prison in December last year

Mr Kelly's parents became outspoken advocates for action to curb alcohol fuelled violence following his death and campaigned tirelessly for Sydney's lock out laws

Loveridge was in 2013 sentenced to four years jail for Mr Kelly's manslaughter, but a 2014 appeal by the director of public prosecutions meant his time behind bars was almost doubled.

He was ordered to serve a non-parole period of seven years, meaning the earliest he could be released from jail would be November 17, 2022.

In September 2015, Loveridge was moved from a NSW mid-north coast correctional centre to Goulburn Supermax prison after allegations he had an affair with a female prison guard.

The guard, Jody Marson, was also dismissed following investigations of an 'improper relationship' with the inmate.

In 2016, NRL star Andrew Fifita famously took to the field with the letters 'FKL' on his arm strapping in a message of support for Loveridge.

Fifita said at the time he wanted to give his close friend a morale boost while he was behind bars.

Fifita said at the time he wanted to give his close friend a morale boost while he was behind bars

Andrew Fifita famously took to the field in matches during 2016 with the letters 'FKL' on his arm strapping

'My support for Kieran is there because he is sitting without a glimmer of hope and I want to give him some hope,' Fifita told the Sydney Morning Herald.

'There are very few people who are going to support him and my bond with him runs deep. I consider Kieran family.

'I know what he did, I know there is no excuse, but the way I live my life, and have always lived my life, is that you don't turn your back on your brothers. It's how I was brought up.'

Fifita later issued an official apology to the Kelly family via the Cronulla Sharks website.

'I fully understand and accept the seriousness of the crime committed by Loveridge, the devastating impact it has had on the Kelly family and the need for Loveridge to serve his time,' he said.

'I want to extend my sincere apologies to the Kelly family for any distress caused to them by having this tragic matter back in the media.'
A parolee stashed three bags of methamphetamine and two syringes in his rectum before visiting a Queensland police station because he feared he would be arrested again, a court has found.

Aaron Keep had been on parole for just two weeks when he visited Maroochydore Police Station, north of Brisbane, in late 2016, according to the Sunshine Coast Daily.

Worried he would be arrested because he missed a previous appointment, Mr Keep hid the meth 'for the future', Justice David Boddice told Brisbane Supreme Court on Tuesday.

Aaron Keep (pictured), a parolee, stashed three bags of methamphetamine and two syringes in his rectum before visiting a Queensland police station in late 2016

When Keep arrived at the police station, officers noticed him acting strangely and performed a search, during which they found a package 'covered in faeces'.

The meth and syringes were hidden inside the package.

'Your behaviour caused them to have concerns as to whether you were concealing something. They attempted to search you and for that purpose restrain you,' Justice Boddice said, according to the publication.

'Having possession of 6.442g of pure methylamphetamine two weeks after being placed on parole and taking it to the police station, apart from indicating complete stupidity, is not consistent with an 18-month sentence,' he continued.

Keep, who pleaded guilty, was sentenced to two years in jail and given credit for 177 days he has spent behind bars.

He'll be eligible for parole on April 10.
Former Disney Channel actress Caroline Sunshine has landed herself a job in the White House press office.

The 22-year-old will join President Trump's team working as a press assistant.

Sunshine, who starred in Disney's Shake It Off from 2010-2013, has been interning of late in various Republican offices.

Former Disney Channel actress Caroline Sunshine, 22, has landed herself a job in the White House press office as a press assistant

The California native was also recently a White House intern.

Caroline Sunshine applied for the internship through the White House's website, White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters told CNN.

'Caroline Sunshine was a White House intern. In college, she was involved with the American Enterprise Institute and an active member of her school's Model United Nations team,' Walters said.

'Prior to her internship at the White House, Caroline interned for the Office of House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, the College Republican National Committee and the California Republican Party.'

Sunshine made a name for herself as a teen starring opposite Bella Thorne and Zendaya (above) on Shake It Off, which tells the story of a group of Chicago-based backup dancers

Sunshine starred in Disney's Shake It Off from 2010-2013. She played European exchange student Tinka Hessenheffer on the show

Despite not being very active on her social media accounts, Sunshine has amassed a large following with 500,000 Twitter followers and more than 235,000 on Instagram.

She made a name for herself as a teen starring opposite Bella Thorne and Zendaya on Shake It Off.

Sunshine played European exchange student Tinka Hessenheffer on the Disney show, which tells the story of a group of Chicago-based backup dancers.
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Dino Cinel, 76, was found stabbed to death last month in Medellin, Colombia

A former Catholic priest who was kicked out of a church rectory where he lived after child pornography was discovered in his room was stabbed to death last month by his 18-year-old male lover in Colombia, it has been reported.

Dino Cinel, 76, was a priest in a New Orleans church until 1988, when colleagues found homemade videotapes in his room showing him having sex with young men in his rectory.

Last month, local police in the northern Colombian town of Medellin received an emergency call from a young man who confessed to stabbing Cinel, a Colombian news site, El Tiempo, reported.

When police arrived at a sixth-floor apartment that the man shared with Cinel, they found Cinel tied to his bed with a stab wound to his abdomen.

Cinels lover told police that they had been in a relationship for a year and that they had just had an argument.

Colombian authorities said they were unaware that Cinel had been living in Medellin for five years.

Medellin is the city perhaps best known as the home of the notorious drug cartel once run by late kingpin Pablo Escobar.

Last month, local police in the northern Colombian town of Medellin received an emergency call from a young man who confessed to stabbing Cinel

Today, Medellin has a reputation as a city that has attracted a growing number of American retirees, according to The Miami Herald.

Cinel was a historian who taught at Tulane University while living in the rectory of St. Rita Catholic Church in 1988.

A fellow priest had come upon child pornography and homemade videos showing Cinel having sex with young men in the church rectory.

While on vacation in Italy in 1988, Cinel received a telephone call from the then-archbishop, Philip Hannan, who told him he was fired.

Cinel understood from the phone call that authorities were after him, according to The Times-Picayune.

Many suspect to this day that Hannans phone call was meant to alert Cinel and thus help him escape justice.

Cinel was a priest in a New Orleans church until 1988, when colleagues found homemade videotapes in his room showing him having sex with young men in his rectory

Although the pornographic materials were found in 1988, it wasnt until two years later that the public learned of the scandal.

Initially, the then-district attorney of the Parish of Orleans, Harry Connick Sr, declined to prosecute, saying that the case against Cinel was too weak.

Connick allowed the church to hold onto the videos for weeks so that church officials could identify and contact any victims involved.

Investigators had recommended to Connick that charges be filed, but Connick, a devout Catholic, refused, according to Vanity Fair.

Connick Sr, the father of jazz musician Harry Connick Jr, admitted at the time that his wish not to embarrass the church was an absolute consideration on my mind.

Cinel was a guest of Connicks at his home, and he even performed the rites at the wedding of Connicks brother-in-law.

Connicks public career ended because of the backlash to the authorities response to the scandal.

Authorities eventually charged Cinel with possession of commercial child pornography, but he was acquitted because the court ruled he had obtained the material before 1986, when a law was passed making it illegal.

One of Cinels former sexual partners, who said he was underage at the time of his tryst with Cinel, sued him in civil court.

Cinel was formally kicked out of the priesthood in 2010.

The Cinel case was considered one of the more egregious examples of the Churchs cover-up of pedophile priests.
Salim Mehajer has been charged with two counts of possessing and one count of supplying a prohibited drug just one day before his final bail application.

Police allege they found more than 200 pills of prescription anxiety and pain medications during a raid on his Lidcombe home in November 2017.

On November 8, officers allegedly found 174 tablets of Endone and Targin - both with the active ingredient of Oxycodone, or 'hillbilly heroin'.

They also allege they found 50 tablets of alprazolam - more commonly known as Xanax.

Salim Mehajer has been charged with supplying and possessing prohibited drugs after police allegedly found more than 200 pills containing Oxycodone at his house

Officers allege they discovered the prescription medication during a raid on his home in Lidcombe in November last year

Mehajer has been languishing in remand at Silverwater Prison since January on charges of perverting the course of justice and conspiracy to cheat and defraud in relation to an allegedly staged car crash.

The 31-year-old property developer and former Deputy Mayor has also been hit with another charge of perverting the course of justice, in relation to documents filed in a previous bail application.

He will face the NSW Supreme Court on Thursday to make his final bid for bail after three rejected applications.

His solicitor, Zali Burrows, told Daily Mail Australia Mehajer would be fighting all the new charges, and viewed the late filing as questionable.

'The last minute stack up of charges is being used as an attempt to prejudice his bail application,' she said.

'[Mehajer] hopes his bail application tomorrow will be successful so he can properly fight all of his charges.'

In October, Mehajer was on his way to face court on charges over the assault of a taxi driver when his Mercedes collided with another car at an intersection in Lidcombe, allegedly days after he'd insured it for more than $150,000.

Salim's new charges come just one day before he appears in NSW Supreme Court to make his final application for bail

Mehajer was freed by firefighters and taken to hospital but his passenger and the two female occupants of the other vehicle were not injured.

Six of his co-accused who are charged with conspiring with each other and Mehajer to cheat and defraud an insurer also faced court on Wednesday.

Mehajer's business associate Ahmed Jaghbir, who is under house arrest, faced court alongside Elias Moufferrige, Fakaha Ki Malinda Moufferrige and Nora Anne Bush, while a lawyer represented Rafi Noori.

Michael Moufferrige, who is in custody, also appeared via video link.

Mehajer has already faced court this week on charges of dangerous driving and stalking or intimidating his estranged wife.

Less than three years after their lavish wedding made headlines for shutting down western Sydney streets, Mehajer continues to fight several legal battles including allegedly breaching an AVO taken out by his ex-partner.

He was declared bankrupt last week by a Federal Court Circuit judge and he awaits a verdict next month on electoral fraud charges.

In February, Mehajer was found guilty of assaulting a television reporter when he slammed his car door on her arm, and earlier this month he was placed on a good behaviour bond for the April 2017 cabbie attack.
Gold Coast council have banned outdoor activities such as fire twirling, slacklining and bongo drums in a Burleigh Heads park over concerns of anti-social behvaiour.

The newly installed sign was directed at a series of drumming circles and cultural events which fed-up locals claim went hand-in-hand with alcohol and other substances.

According to the council, the events have been flagged as a problem by residents who live near the area.

The Gold Coast council has banned fire twirling, bongo drums and slacklining at a popular Burleigh Heads park

Complaints of excessive noise, a lack of respect for the area and graffiti were detailed as an issue according to the Gold Coast Bulletin.

The sign, which was erected on Tuesday has already attracted negative feedback on social media from some members of the community.

In less than 24 hours it has already been vandalised with the words 'fun' over the new park rules.

Bongos at Burleigh is on every Sunday evening at the park and was described to attract 'anti social behaviour' ny the council

'It appears the sign has been appropriately updated overnight,' one person said posting a photo of the vandalised sign.

Area Councillor Pauline Young said concerns were raised about the area being used inappropriately.

'For the last month, we've been working alongside a stakeholder group, to come up with a better direction, and bring groups who use the park for recreational activities into line, under the same permit,' she told the paper.

Area Councillor Pauline Young said concerns were raised about the area being used inappropriately (Stock photo, it is not alleged the persons shown acted inappropriately)

She said: 'The actions of a rogue few, are reflecting back on, what used to be a very popular event.'

Facebook users have hatched a plan to start a petition to remove the the sign and the newly introduced rules.

'I hadn't seen that sign but what a disgrace, the council should be asked to 'please explain.' I'd like to see their reasoning behind this ban and was the local community consulted. It seems to me it's petition time,' one user said.

In 1999, Matthew McConaughey was arrested for playing the bongos nude while he was high on marijuana in Austin, Texas

Another user posted: 'The Sunday "drumming " in Burleigh has been a cultural highlight every Sunday for years in Burleigh. I agree, alcohol wrecks the family friendly vibe. Instead of banning the drumming etc, could they had out fines to drunk people and this would clean it up?'

One person has drawn attention that this ban might be directed at American actor, Matthew McConaughey who was arrested for playing the bongos nude while he was high on marijuana in Austin, Texas.
President Trump has secured his first major trade deal with South Korea ahead of planned nuclear talks with North Korea.

The Trump administration said on Tuesday that the United States and South Korea had agreed to revise their six-year-old trade pact.

Officials said the revised deal widened US access to South Korea's car market while providing American manufacturers protection from South Korean imports.

Trump had previously called the original South Korea pact a job killer.

President Trump has secured his first trade deal with South Korea after the two countries agreed to revise their six-year-old trade pact with a side deal to deter competitive currency devaluation by Seoul and with concessions for US autos and pharmaceutical companies

The new deal doubles - to 50,000 - the cars each US automaker can export annually to South Korea, reduces bureaucratic barriers to American products and extends a 25 percent US tariff on South Korean pickup trucks until 2041.

South Korea escapes the new 25 percent tariff on imported steel but must accept quotas on steel shipments to the United States.

The agreement, cobbled together quickly with only a few rounds of negotiations under Trump's threat of withdrawal, will include a side-letter that requires South Korea to provide increased transparency of its foreign exchange interventions, with commitments to avoid won devaluations for competitive purposes.

The currency deal, final details of which are still being negotiated between the U.S. Treasury and South Korea's Ministry of Strategy and Finance, is considered a 'side letter' that will not be enforceable with trade sanctions.

Many US lawmakers, particularly Democrats, had opposed the 2015 Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal because it had a similar currency manipulation side-agreement that could not be enforced.

Nonetheless, the revised US-South Korean Free Trade Agreement, known as KORUS, would be the first US trade deal in force with a currency side-deal, and would not need congressional approval, the officials said.

The new deal doubles - to 50,000 - the cars each US automaker can export annually to South Korea. Pictured above is a crane transporting vehicles to a container ship in Oakland

A worker works at an assembly line of Hyundai Motor's plant in Asan, South Korea on Tuesday

Asked whether the forex agreement would ensure that South Korea is not declared a manipulator in the US Treasury's next currency report due on April 15, the officials declined to comment, saying such assessments would be made in accordance with Treasury's normal procedures.

South Korea has been kept on a Treasury currency 'monitoring list' due to its large global current account surplus and US trade surplus. The Treasury's October report urged Korea to 'to enhance the transparency of its exchange rate intervention.'

The officials confirmed that South Korea agreed to cut its steel exports to the United States by about 30 percent in exchange for the rest being excluded from steel tariffs. Korean aluminum producers would still be subject to Trump's 10 percent tariff on aluminum.

Other countries also must agree to similar quotas to escape tariffs, but the size of the limits would vary. The United States is negotiating with Canada, Mexico, Brazil, the European Union, Australia and Argentina.

One official said it was 'not a one-size fits all kind of thing' and added that the South Korean quota was agreed due to its 'unique' position in steel exports. South Korea imports and processes significant amounts of Chinese-made steel, much of which is under anti-dumping and anti-subsidy tariffs.

South Korean Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong listens to a reporter's question during a briefing at Foreign Ministry in Seoul, South Korea regarding the deal

The announcement of the agreement came as Beijing confirmed that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had visited China to hold talks with President Xi Jinping, in his first foreign visit since taking power

'What will be the same for any country that is out from under the 232 tariff, like with Korea, there will be a hard quota,' the official added.

South Korea also agreed to amend a government health program that pays premium prices to domestic drug companies in order to ensure a level playing field for US pharmaceuticals producers, the US officials said.

In addition to the increased access for American vehicles that meet US but not necessarily South Korean safety standards, the US officials also said they won reductions in non-tariff barriers to US vehicle sales, including elimination of duplicate environmental testing requirements and recognition of US replacement parts standards.

Extension of the phase-out period for US pickup truck tariffs to 2041 would ensure that US pickup truck production would not migrate to South Korea as some production moved to Mexico after the North American Free Trade Agreement eliminated the tariff, the officials said.

The announcement of the agreement came as Beijing confirmed that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had visited China to hold talks with President Xi Jinping, in his first foreign visit since taking power.

During the meeting, Kim committed to denuclearisation in Korea if the United States and the South showed 'goodwill', it was reported, with China agreeing to support its neighbor if nuclear tensions could be eased.
A woman at a pro-refugee rally has told a former Israeli soldier she would refuse to speak with him because he is Jewish.

Conservative activist Avi Yemini was in Melbourne, wearing a yarmulke and interviewing people on the plight of white South African farmers, when he encountered the anti-Semitic remarks by a woman.

'Youre Jewish, right. Youre Jewish, forget it,' she told him.

This is the moment a woman told a former Israeli soldier she would refuse to speak with him because he is Jewish

Earlier, she had denied white farmers in South Africa were being targeted with violence, despite 400 such landowners being murdered in 2017 alone and before parliament voted last month to seize their land without compensation.

'Yes, I'm denying it,' she said.

Yemini, a former Israeli soldier who this month joined the right-wing Australian Liberty Alliance, encountered some hostility at the Bourke Street mall in the city as he vox-popped protesters at Justice for Refugees rally on Sunday.

'Drop dead, you're a fascist. Drop dead, you're a fascist,' one man shouted.

Conservative activist Avi Yemini was in Melbourne, wearing a yarmulke and interviewing people at a pro-refugee rally when he encountered some anti-Semitic remarks by a woman

Yemini, a former Israeli soldier, was also called a fascist at the Bourke Street mall in the city as he vox popped protesters at Justice for Refugees rally on Sunday

Another man physically jostled with the former soldier and gym owner as he asked him about South African farmers.

'I don't want to talk to you man because you're a f***er,' he said, before grabbing his arm. 'Go away, don't threaten me.'

Despite being clearly identified as Jewish, Yemini was asked by one woman if he was associated with Nazis.

'Why are you hanging out with your Nazi mate over there?,' she asked.

On the issue of refugees, another woman slammed Immigration Minister Peter Dutton for wanting to give special visas to white South African farmers when he should be helping Muslim Rohingya refugees in Myanmar instead.

'He's a racist and a fascist and a murderer,' she said.

'That's Peter Dutton, sums (it) up for me.'

Although there is no suggestion Mr Dutton actually is a murderer, when asked how he could be one, the woman said he was 'allowing them to die' in Myanmar.

Another old man physically jostled with the former soldier and gym owner as he asked him about South African farmers
A 30-year-old man who allegedly held his girlfriend hostage, stabbing her during a two hour siege in Melbourne's north-west, has been arrested.

The man is in custody after police were called to an address on Warwick Place in Tullamarine following reports of alleged domestic violence and serious assault.

A 32-year old woman was taken to hospital on Wednesday morning with serious but non-life threatening injuries, Victoria Police told Daily Mail Australia.

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A 30-year-old man who allegedly held his girlfriend hostage, stabbing her during a two hour siege at an address in Tullamarine in Melbourne's north-west, has been arrested

The man is in custody after police were called to an address on Warwick Place in Tullamarine following reports of alleged domestic violence and serious assault

Detectives allegedly found the woman who was held hostage about 8.20am before the man released her.

The man barricaded himself inside the property before he was finally arrested by members from the critical incident response team at 10.30am, Nine News reported.

The woman was taken to the Royal Melbourne Hospital with serious upper body and arm injuries, believed to be inflicted by a knife.

Witnesses reported seeing the man allegedly with a gun inside the home, waving it out the window.

The man barricaded himself inside the property before he was finally arrested by members from the critical incident response team at 10.30am

A 32-year old woman was taken to hospital on Wednesday morning with serious but non life threatening injuries, Victoria Police told Daily Mail Australia

The gun has reportedly been seized and will undergo ballistics testing to determine if its real or imitation, Seven News have said.

Police are investigating if the man was under the influence of drugs.

He is currently in police custody.
Two friends of a man who had been missing for more than seven weeks have been charged with his murder after his body was found buried in the yard of an Alabama home.

The Cullman County Sheriff's Office and Hartselle police on Tuesday announced the charges against Andrew Maresh, 19, and Tyler Hudson, 20, in the death of 22-year-old Daniel Osborn Ray II.

Osborn's family and friends said in a Facebook post Tuesday morning the accused men were his friends, and had also shared posts and joined the Facebook group to help find him.

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With friends like these... Andrew Maresh, 19 (left), and Tyler Hudson, 20 (right), have been with with murder in the death of their missing friend, 22-year-old Daniel Osborn II

What happened to Daniel? Osborn was last seen alive on February 3 in Alabama, and his family reported him missing on February 18

Police found Osborn's body buried in the yard on this property in Fairview, Alabama, Monday

Osborn's family said on Facebook that he was last seen on February 3. Two weeks later, they got a text message from the man's number but suspected that he did not write it, reported WHNT19.

On February 20, they wrote on the Facebook page that his beloved white Chevy Impala was found abandoned in a Baileyton junkyard with a flat tire.

Sheriff Matt Gentry said investigators responded to a residence in the Fairview community on Monday and found Osborn's body buried in the yard. Gentry did not release a motive or cause of death but said the investigation is ongoing.

Cover-up: On February 16, Osborn's family got a text message from his number but suspected that he did not write it

Maresh (left) and Hudson (right) in February joined a Facebook group dedicated to helping find their friend, whom they had allegedly killed

The administrator of the group likened the murder suspects to a wolf in sheep's clothing for apparently feigning concern for Osborn

A neighbor told CBS42 the property where Osborn's body was recovered belongs to the family of one of the suspects.

Authorities have not said what led to the arrests of Maresh and Hudson. Both men are held without bond.

JoAnna Helmuth, the administrator of the Facebook group 'Justice for Daniel Osborn' lashed out at the two murder suspects, Maresh and Hudson, in a post on Tuesday, accusing them of feigning concern for their missing friend.

'Wolf in Sheep Clothing,' she wrote. 'Right under our noses this entire time. Not only were they friends of Daniel Ray Osborn II, but they were also sharing our post and joining our group to "help find him."'

She also shared screenshots indicating that both Maresh and Hudson had joined the Facebook group seeking justice for the man they had allegedly killed.
At least 12 states have indicated that they plan to file lawsuits in a bid to block the Trump administration from asking everyone if they are a citizen in the 2020 US Census.

New York State attorney general Eric T. Schneiderman revealed on Tuesday that he was leading a multi-state lawsuit after the government announced it would reintroduce a question about citizenship status in the questionnaire.

Schneiderman said the lawsuit would be to preserve a 'fair and accurate Census' as he slammed the Trump administration's decision to ask the citizenship question as 'reckless'.

He added that the question would 'create an environment of fear and distrust in immigrant communities that would make impossible both an accurate Census and the fair distribution of federal tax dollars'.

New York State attorney general Eric T. Schneiderman said on Tuesday he was leading a multi-state lawsuit over the decision to reintroduce a citizenship question in the 2020 US Census

'This move directly targets states like New York that have large, thriving immigrant populations - threatening billions of dollars in federal funding for New York, as well as fair representation in Congress and the Electoral College,' he said.

Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Washington plan to join the lawsuit, the New York Times reports.

California already announced on Monday that it would sue.

'The census is supposed to count everyone,' said Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey.

'This is a blatant and illegal attempt by the Trump administration to undermine that goal, which will result in an undercount of the population and threaten federal funding for our state and cities.'

The issue of citizenship has proved to a sensitive area in the Trump era, given he has made cracking down on legal and illegal immigration one of his hallmarks.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra immediately said he would sue over the change

The Commerce Department, which oversees the census, said the question will be added at the request of the Justice Department in order to help determine possible violations of the Voting Rights Act.

That law, however, is aimed at prohibiting racial discrimination at the polls while the census tally is used to determine the number of seats alloted to each state in the House of Representatives.

Only US citizens are allowed to register to vote but Trump has long claimed, without providing proof, that millions of illegal immigrants voted in the 2016 presidential election.

The last time a question about citizenship was included in the census questionnaire, which currently covers about 3.5 million people, was 1950.

Critics fear that asking people if they are US citizens could discourage some minorities from taking part in the census, out of fear the information will be used against them, and thus undermine the accuracy of the tally.

They say that even immigrants with legal residency status may be reluctant to take part if they have ties to people who do not have papers.

This map shows the population numbers of non-citizens by state. California has an estimated non-citizen population of 5.2million

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross (center) announced the return of the citizenship question on Monday, saying the additional data was needed in order to enforce the Voting Rights Act

The population tally affects distribution of more than $675 billion in annual federal funding for schools, hospitals, roads and other public services, according to the Census Bureau.

When Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross announced the return of the citizenship question on Monday evening, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra immediately announced he would sue over the change.

In a memo announcing the change, Ross wrote that 'neither the Census Bureau nor the concerned stakeholders could document that the response rate would in fact decline materially' if a citizenship question were added.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra wasted no time challenging the change, however, calling the citizenship question 'truly insidious' in a San Francisco Chronicle op-ed.

'It would discourage noncitizens and their citizen family members from responding to the census, resulting in a less accurate population count,' Becerra wrote.

Becerra said in a statement that he filing a federal lawsuit over the citizenship question, calling it 'illegal' to add to the 2020 Census.
A 19-year-old student who was caught driving with a blood alcohol level five times over the limit has revealed she was drinking because of a failed grade.

Emma Martin, an aspiring nurse, was stopped by police earlier this month for driving erratically and speeding on Bruce Highway near the Sunshine Coast.

The teenager pleaded guilty on Wednesday to one count of drink driving, according to the Sunshine Coast Daily.

Emma Martin (pictured), a 19-year-old Sunshine Coast student who was caught driving with a blood alcohol level five times over the limit, has revealed she was drinking because of a failed grade

The aspiring nurse (pictured) was stopped by police earlier this month for driving erratically and speeding on Bruce Highway

During the hearing Ms Martin told the court she was intoxicated because she was 'devastated' about failing a subject.

She said she decided to drive because she didn't want to miss out on dinner plans with her brother.

While behind the wheel, several other drivers called the police and reported Ms Martin's dangerous driving.

She blew a .226 when she was stopped by officers after veering across two lanes of traffic with her hazard lights on, the publication reported.

The court ordered Ms Martin to pay a $1,300 fine. Her license is disqualified for 14 months.
An Australian man has relived the devastating moment he told his British friend he had lost his leg after he was dragged under a truck for nearly 50ft in a horror crash in Thailand.

James Bailey, from Brisbane, gripped the hand of his friend Harry Cross and told him not to speak as he lay motionless in a hospital bed at a Thai medical centre last week.

'I said, ''do you know you've been in a crash?'' I felt a squeeze. Then I said, ''do you know you've lost your leg'' and I got a squeeze. I don't think I've done anything harder in my life,' Mr Bailey told Nine.com.au.

'I was even the one who had to make the call to his family. You can imagine how difficult that was. It's something I never want to do again.'

Mr Cross, 29, from Dagenham in East London, was on his motorbike when he was hit by truck and dragged along a road in Kanchanaburi, west of Bangkok. He suffered a broken pelvis and several leg breaks in the horrifying accident while his skin was torn from his right leg.

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An Australian man has relived the devastating moment he told his friend he had lost his leg after he was dragged under a truck for 15 metres in a horror crash in Thailand

James Bailey, from Brisbane, gripped Harry Cross' (pictured) hand and told him not to speak as he lay motionless in a hospital bed at a Thai medical centre last week

Moments after Mr Cross squeezed his friend's hand, he had a tube removed from his throat and replied: 'At least I am alive'.

'At the moment his injuries are pretty horrific... They weren't able to save his leg so it's been amputated above the knee,' he said.

Mr Bailey said his friend's hip socket had also been shattered - an injury the third-world hospital didn't have the resources to repair.

He also suffered internal bleeding, has fluid on his lungs and several broken ribs.

Mr Cross, a former East Ham Working Mens Club barman, is now stable enough to be able to be transported to Bangkok, but is waiting in excruciating pain for an ICU bed to become available.

Mr Cross' mangled motorbike is pictured under a truck after the horror smash

They weren't able to save his leg so it's been amputated above the knee,' Mr Cross' friend said

His motorcycle was legally registered and an insurance policy covers a small percentage of his medical bills, which are expected to total over $40,000.

But he didn't have any travel insurance and is quickly running out of money to cover the hospital costs and the gruelling rehabilitation process ahead.

'He is not looking for a hand out, he is merely looking for some support,' reads a GoFundMe page set up to help Mr Cross and his family.

'Bear in mind that past the medical bills there is going to be a huge journey ahead for him, with the need for a prosthetic leg down the track and learning to walk again.

'So your money will help with everything, will show him how much he means to everyone and that there is good in the world.'

Mr Bailey said his friend's hip socket had also been shattered - an injury the third-world hospital didn't have the resources to repair
A man has been brought back to life following the heroic actions of bystanders when his breathing and heartbeat stopped after a traffic accident at Baulkham Hills in Sydneys northwest this morning.

Emergency services, who revived the man, have praised the work of members of the public who rushed to help the man and performed CPR until they arrived.

NSW Ambulance Chief Inspector Brian Parsell told Hills Shire Times that, This patient was clinically dead  his heart had stopped and he was not breathing when we arrived on scene.

The man was brought back to life following a traffic accident in Baulkham Hills in Sydney northwest

While en route to hospital, the patient became increasingly responsive and started to wake up, which was absolutely terrific to see.

Inspector Parsell gave much credit to the bystanders saying their actions were crucial in saving the man, and his chances of making a recovery are good.

He said statistically patients who have a cardiac arrest while not in hospital have less than a 10 per cent chance of survival. However, if CPR is performed along with early defibrillation the survival rate can go up to as much as 85 per cent.
A Republican congressman who attacked one of the Parkland shooting survivors online over her Cuban heritage has said his meme against Emma Gonzalez was justified because she is promoting communism.

Gonzalez, 18, took to the stage at Saturday's March for Our Lives, wearing a Cuban flag badge, to mark the death of her 17 classmates and teachers who were gunned down in the fatal shooting in February.

Gonzalez's six-and-a-half minute speech brought the crowd to tears as she thanked the people who came out to call for gun control.

But Iowa Rep. Steve King's campaign chose to mock the teenager over her Cuban heritage.

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Rep. Steve King's (pictured) campaign chose to mock the teenager, who was wearing a Cuban flag, over her Cuban heritage

'This is how you look when you claim Cuban heritage yet don't speak Spanish and ignore the fact that your ancestors fled the island when the dictatorship turned Cuba into a prison camp, after removing all weapons from its citizens; hence their right to self defense,' the campaign wrote in a post, over a photo of the teen.

The post sparked fury on social media where people hit out at the campaign for bullying the teen.

But a spokesperson for King defended the meme.

'The meme in question merely points out the irony of someone pushing gun control while wearing the flag of a country that was oppressed by a communist, anti-gun regime,' King's representative told the New York Daily News.

'Pretty simple, really.'

Gonzalez's schoolmate, David Hogg, who has also taken a leadership role in the anti-gun protests that erupted after the massacre, blasted King on Twitter and came to the defense of his fellow student.

Gonzalez's schoolmate, David Hogg, who has also taken a leadership role in the anti-gun protests that erupted after the massacre, blasted King on Twitter and came to the defense of his fellow student

Hogg then called on Marco Rubio, the senator from his home state of Florida who like Gonzalez is also of Cuban descent, to challenge King

King then tweeted that if young people shouldn't be allowed to own a gun before age 21, then they shouldn't be allowed to vote either

Hogg responded: 'Maybe because so many of us are gunned down before we even become 21'

'She's a beautiful woman of Cuban descent and we love her,' Hogg tweeted.

'You would too if you ever got the chance to meet her. We need to love each other as Americans regardless [sic] of our descent, ethnicity or race.'

Hogg then called on Marco Rubio, the senator from his home state of Florida who like Gonzalez is also of Cuban descent, to challenge King.

'Hey @marcorubio, @Emma4change's family fled Cuba to escape totalitarianism and live in freedom just like your family could you please respond to @SteveKingIA?'

King then tweeted that if young people shouldn't be allowed to own a gun before age 21, then they shouldn't be allowed to vote either.

'If you are a teenager & believe you wont be responsible enough to own a gun until 21, why should you vote before 21?' King tweeted.

Hogg responded: 'Maybe because so many of us are gunned down before we even become 21.

'You prove exactly why so many American's are done with politicians like you who only have the goal of dividing America to make us weaker.'

Earlier on Tuesday, social media users expressed outrage over the King campaign's meme.

'Are you SERIOUSLY mocking a school shooting survivor for her ethnic identity?!' wrote Brandon Wolf, a survivor of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando.

Emma Gonzalez, 18, took to the stage at Saturday's March for Our Lives to mark the death of her 17 classmates and teachers who were gunned down in the fatal shooting in February

Gonzalez's six-and-a-half minute speech brought the crowd to tears as she thanked the people who came out to call for gun control

'When it was my community, where were you? When it was Sandy Hook? Columbine? Were you on the sideline mocking those communities too? Did you question someone identifying as a mother? Did you question whether people like me were crisis actors?

'Emma stood for 6 mins and 20 seconds to honor the lives of 17 gone too soon,' Wolf added.

'The least you could do is shut your privileged, ineffective trap for 6 seconds to hear someone else's perspective.'

King's campaign hit back, claiming they weren't picking on the teen, but were 'calling attention to the truth'.

'Pointing out the irony of someone wearing the flag of a communist country while simultaneously calling for gun control isn't 'picking' on anyone.

'It's calling attention to the truth, but we understand that lefties find that offensive,' they wrote.

Gonzalez, whose father migrated to New York from Cuba in 1968, has become one of the most recognizable faces of the Majory Stoneman Douglas High School survivors.

But the teen has become a target for the right as she calls for gun control in the wake of the tragedy.

Recently, NRA enthusiasts have been accused of photoshopping the Teen Vogue cover that features Gonzalez to show her tearing up a copy of the Constitution.

She is actually tearing up a paper target on the cover of the magazine, while her fellow classmates stand in solidarity behind her.

A fake image of Gonzalez ripping up the Constitution circulated on social media. The real video shows her tearing up target paper

Emma Gonzalez, a Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student who survived the Parkland shooting on February 14, rips up target paper for Teen Vogue cover

Teen Vogue tweeted the cover of their March issue featuring some of the students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School

Teen Vogue tweeted the cover with with the caption: 'We, the youth of the United States, have built a new movement to denounce gun violence and call for safety in all of our communities. This is only the beginning.'

The cover attracted a lot of attention from Trump followers and NRA supporters alike.

Many were quick to condemn and attack the high school students on Twitter with one person writing: 'Look at these little oppressors. I hope my daughter never lives in the world they imagine.'

The cover attracted a lot of attention from Trump followers and NRA supporters

Many people in the Twittersphere were quick to condemn and attack the high school students

Many were unimpressed with Gonzalez ripping the paper and looking angry

However there were some people in support of the children. 'I'm glad for the first time in human history people are against murder,' the twitter user said

Many were unimpressed with Gonzalez ripping the paper with one man sarcastically tweeting: 'Oh no. You tore up a target. Wherever will we find more...paper?' while another user wrote: 'Let the children lead us...into ripping a target in half and scowling.'

However there were some people in support of the children. 'I'm glad for the first time in human history people are against murder,' the Twitter user said.

Saturday's rally in Washington DC to fight gun control marked the biggest youth protest since Vietnam.

Hundreds of thousands of people turned out for the DC event, with 800 more events being held across world.

The rally, which was organized by the survivors of the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, saw 175,000 people protest in New York.

30,000 were counted in Atlanta and Pittsburgh and 15,000 people attended a rally in Parkland, Florida - where 17 high school students were killed last month.

The movement had a global outreach, with die-ins being held in Berlin and London and marches taking place in Sydney, Mumbai, Tokyo, and Paris as well.

Despite the rally's across the US on Saturday to protest gun control, many people were still against the high school children

Some social media users blamed the youngsters, claiming they were puppets being used by politicians and seniors

Twitter users condemned the children for their lack of intelligence

The gun control debate continues to rage on both sides with people still arguing it's infringing on their Second Amendment rights

People were very outspoken on Twitter against the high school students

Gonzalez was one of the lead speakers on Saturday. She stood silent on stage for six minutes and 20 seconds - the same amount of time it took Nikolas Cruz, 19, to kill 17 or her classmates and injure 15 others with an AR-15 that he had obtained legally.

She took the crowd by surprise with her uncomfortable silence, prompting the crowd to cheer support and chant 'Never again,' as it seemed they thought she had lost her words due to emotion. Then a time went off, and she spoke.

'Since the time that I came out here, it has been six minutes and 20 seconds. The shooter has ceased shooting and will soon abandon his rifle, blend in with the students as they escape, and walk free for an hour before arrest,' she said when she began to speak again.

People didn't take the Teen Vogue cover seriously and tweeted sarcastic remarks

A lot of Twitter users weren't interested in listening to the young high school students

'Fight for your lives before it's someone else's job,' she said, ending her time of silence.

Gonzalez, who has been an outspoken voice among the Parkland survivors, used the minutes of silence to punctuate an an already moving speech.

'Six minutes and 20 seconds... In a little over six minutes, 17 of our friends were taken, 15 were injured and everyone, absolutely everyone, in the Douglas community was forever altered,' she said.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student Emma Gonzalez (center) listens with other students during the March for Our Lives Rally in Washington, DC on Saturday

Gonzalez was pictured with fellow protesters and classmates at the Washington DC rally

'Everyone who was there understands. who has been touched by the cold grip of gun violence understands. For us, long, tearful chaotic hours in the scorching afternoon sun were spent not knowing.

'No one understood the extent of what had happened. No one could believe that there were bodies in that building waiting to be identified for over a day.

'No one knew that the people who were missing had stopped breathing long before any of us even knew that a code red had been called. No one could comprehend the devastating aftermath or how far this would reach or where this would go.'

She went on to honor some of the lives lost on that day, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
A massive great white shark stunned two Florida fishermen on Saturday as it circled their boat.

Kyle Morningstar, 31, was out fishing with his friend Ian Smith off the coast of Ponce Inlet when the shark casually swam up to their boat.

'Holy f**k!' Morningstar and Smith are heard shouting. 'Oh my f**king God, bro,' in a video they took of the shark swimming around them.

A massive great white shark stunned two Florida fishermen on Saturday as it circled their boat

The encounter took place around 2.30pm when Kyle Morningstar started pulling the anchor of his boat

Morningstar (right), 31, and Ian Smith were out fishing when the shark casually swam up to their boat

Morningstar said they were out on his 23-foot Sea Box boat named Team Side Effects when the close encounter occurred.

'We were bottom fishing for red snapper, trigger fish,' Morningstar told the Daytona Beach News Journal.

Morningstar said the encounter took place around 2.30pm when he started pulling the anchor of the boat.

He said he spotted a bunch of remora fish swimming around what appeared to be a 'great, gray blob,' Morningstar quickly discovered was a great white shark.

'I was just in shock,' he said. 'When it circled a second time I was shouting and yelling to my friend to get the phone and shoot the video,' he told the Journal.

Morningstar estimated the shark was 12- to 15-feet-long as it was more than half the size of his boat.

He said the 'monster shark' did two laps around the boat before disappearing into the deep blue sea.

'After it disappeared, we hurried to get ashore,' he said.

Morningstar estimated the shark was 12- to 15-feet-long as it was more than half the size of his boat

He said the 'monster shark' did two laps around the boat before disappearing into the deep blue sea
Fish farmers on a barramundi farm in the Northern Territory have contended with a host of bizarre animals including crocodiles, snakes, feral pigs, and bandicoots, swept in during record-breaking floods.

Farmers on the Humpty Doo property have been forced to 'evacuate' around thirty tonnes of barramundi as transport routes have been flooded with crocodile-infested waters.

The rainfall was 200ml above the last record-breaking floodline in 2011 and the Northern Territory property has been turned into a 14-kilometre-wide lake, the ABC reported.

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Fish farmers on a barramundi farm in the Northern Territory have been forced to 'evacuate' around thirty tonnes of barramundi during record-breaking floods

Farmers on the Humpty Doo property have been forced to 'evacuate' around thirty tonnes of barramundi in now crocodile-infested floodwaters

Transport routes off the Arnhem Highway have been submerged, forcing the farm to airlift the barramundi to higher ground so they can be taken in refrigerated trucks and sold for market consumption.

A mix of animals have made their way to the area in an attempt to seek out shelter on higher ground.

Staff have needed to be ferried to and from the farm on small tinnies, navigating floodwaters and the animals which have now called it home.

This is the biggest time of the year for the farm which needs to get 50,000 fish to southern markets in time for Easter.

Staff have needed to be ferried to and from the farm on small tinnies, navigating floodwaters and the animals which have now called it home

This is the biggest time of the year for the farm which needs to get 50,000 fish to southern markets in time for Easter

The farm has been forced to airlift the barramundi to higher ground

Farm manager Pete Fisher told the ABC that wild pigs were 'coming in every night ripping the [fish feed] bags open and it's a big expense'.

But crocodiles have proven to be the most dangerous to the farm.

'We've trapped six since the wet receded and we've got a at least five on the farm we know of,' Mr Fisher said.

Snakes including death adders are now swimming in the floodwaters and have needed to be relocated.
The father of New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand reportedly has ties to an alleged slave sex cult.

GOP senatorial candidate Chele Farley said on Monday that Gillibrand's father, Doug Rutnik, was once a lobbyist for NXIVM and its founder, Keith Raniere.

Raniere was arrested by the FBI on Monday and charged with sex trafficking and forced labor conspiracy.

'For Kirsten Gillibrand, the self-proclaimed #MeToo Senator, to claim ignorance about a notorious sex-slave cult, in her own backyard, is simply hard to believe,' Farley said.

The father of New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (pictured, December 2017) reportedly has ties to an alleged slave sex cult. Doug Rutnik, was once a lobbyist for NXIVM and its founder, Keith Raniere

Raniere, 57, was arrested by the FBI on Monday and charged with sex trafficking and forced labor conspiracy after he was found at a luxury villa in Puerto Vallarta on Sunday

According to the New York Post, Rutnik was hired by Raniere as a lobbyist in 2004 and was later sued by him. The case was eventually settled for $100,000.

On Tuesday, a Gillibrand spokesman reiterated a November statement to the Post claiming that she knew nothing about the case.

'Senator Gillibrand had never heard of this group until she recently read about them in the newspaper,' said spokesman Glen Caplin.

'She is glad that federal and state prosecutors have taken action in this case.'

Raniere, 57, is the leader of NXIVM, a secretive group headquartered in Albany.

He is accused of branding female followers with his initials as part of an initiation ceremony.

Members are branded with a symbol that reportedly includes Raniere and alleged second-in-command Allison Mack's initials

Raniere (left, with Mack) left the US last year after The New York Times reported that some women who joined a group in his organization had been branded with a symbol that included his initials

He was taken into custody by Mexican authorities after he was found at a luxury villa in Puerto Vallarta on Sunday and extradited to Fort Worth, Texas, on Monday.

The group, which has been described by former members as a 'sex cult', claims to be a self-help organization that operates centers in US, Mexico, Canada and South America.

It emerged last year that the Dalai Lama was paid $1million to speak to 3,000 NXIVM followers and place a khata - a traditional ceremonial Tibetan scarf - around Raniere's neck.

Raniere left the US last year after The New York Times reported that some women who joined a group in his organization had been branded with a symbol that included his initials.

The women told investigators they were subjected to 'master-slave' conditions that involved physical punishments for disobeying orders.

Raniere is due to face court on Tuesday, according to a federal criminal complaint filed in the Eastern District of New York.

'As alleged in the complaint, Keith Raniere created a secret society of women whom he had sex with and branded with his initials, coercing them with the threat of releasing their highly personal information and taking their assets,' US attorney Richard P. Donoghue said.

Many DOS slaves were branded on their pelvic areas using a cauterizing pen with a symbol which, unbeknownst to them, incorporated Raniere's initials, according to past members

The complaint says Raniere founded NXIVM about 20 years ago and held a series of purported self-help workshops.

Since NXIVM's creation, Raniere has maintained polyamorous relationships with its members, according to the complaint.

Courses associated with the group costs thousands of dollars each and participants are encouraged to pay for additional classes and to recruit others in order to rise within the ranks of NXIVM.

According to the complaint, Raniere created a secret society within NXVIM called DOS in 2015, which loosely translated to 'Lord/Master of the Obedient Female Companions', or 'The Vow'.

DOS operated with levels of women slaves headed by masters and most were recruited from within NXIVM's ranks.

When new DOS slaves were recruited, they were required to provide collateral, which included highly damaging information about friends and family members, nude photographs and/or rights to the recruit's assets.

The complaint says DOS slaves feared that their collateral could be released by the group if they left.

Smallville actress Allison Mack was considering a high-ranking member of the cult and was believed to have been second in charge to Raniere

Former Dynasty star Catherine Oxenberg had previously met with prosecutors in New York to detail her daughter India's experience in the group

Many DOS slaves were branded on their pelvic areas using a cauterizing pen with a symbol which, unbeknownst to them, incorporated Raniere's initials, according to the court documents.

During the branding ceremonies, slaves were required to be fully naked and a master would order one slave to film the branding while the others restrained the slave being branded.

'Smallville' actress Allison Mack was considering a high-ranking member of the cult and was believed to have been second in charge to Raniere.

Former 'Dynasty' star Catherine Oxenberg had previously met with prosecutors in New York to detail her daughter's experience in the group.

Oxenberg, through her lawyers at Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss, said she hoped Raniere's arrest would go as far as reuniting her with her daughter.

'I want to help all the young women affected by this cult. They are the victims of human trafficking, which is slavery,' she said.

'For months, I have worked to expose Keith Raniere and Nxivm and today's arrest vindicates my efforts.

'I want my daughter to know I love her and that I want her back in my life.'

If convicted, Raniere is facing up to life in prison.

'As alleged, Keith Raniere displayed a disgusting abuse of power in his efforts to denigrate and manipulate women he considered his sex slaves,' FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William F Sweeney said.

'He allegedly participated in horrifying acts of branding and burning them, with the cooperation of other women operating within this unorthodox pyramid scheme.

'These serious crimes against humanity are not only shocking, but disconcerting to say the least, and we are putting an end to this torture today.'
A police officer involved in the beating of a 16-year-old boy with Asperger's syndrome as he lay naked screaming for help said he 'feared for his safety' during the incident.

An official investigation is underway into the arrest, and the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission is questioning whether four officers used excessive force when they detained the boy outside Nomads Backpackers hostel in Byron Bay, New South Wales on January 11.

A public hearing is being held in Sydney, and on Wednesday it heard police officers used pepper spray, a taser, physical force and hit the boy with their batons 19 times before he was taken to Byron Bay police station, the Daily Examiner reported.

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A police officer who savagely beat a 16-year-old boy with Asperger's syndrome as he lay naked screaming for help said he 'feared for his safety' during the incident

An official investigation is underway into the arrest, and the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission is questioning whether four officers used excessive force

The hearing was told the victim, known by the name AO, was kept naked in a holding dock for 30 minutes before he was taken to hospital.

One of the officers involved said he feared for his safety as the boy was 'advancing' towards him, and the teenager later told authorities he had taken acid.

'I wasn't prepared to let him walk into town in that state... the drug hadn't fully peaked yet,' the officer said.

The police officer denied calling the boy a 'c**t' , saying he was actually saying the word 'calm'.

Chief Commissioner Michael Adams said he had listened to the audio in the recording 'a number of times as you can expect and I hear "c**t"'.

'I don't agree with it,' the officer replied.

Horrifying footage of the beating was captured from a nearby balcony, sparking the investigation.

The boy can be heard frantically shrieking for help as the officers swore at him and continued to beat him.

He was left with severe purple bruising across his legs following the altercation.

The unnamed teenager, who has Asperger's syndrome, was lying on the ground outside the backpacker hostel on Lanteen Lane before police arrived.

Police allege they deployed pepper spray when the boy became aggressive, before using a taser when he allegedly assaulted an officer.

Officers also allege the teenager continued to resist arrest before he was taken to Byron Bay police station.

The boy's parents, who were out at dinner when the incident occurred, are reportedly 'furious'.

The unnamed teenager, who has Asperger's syndrome, was lying on the ground outside of the backpacker hostel on Lanteen Lane before police arrived (bruising pictured)

The victim told the LECC he does not remember much but does recall being given a glass of wine from some locals before becoming 'disorientated'.

The footage, filmed by terrified locals, shows four officers repeatedly hitting the 16-year-old and yelling 'you f***ing loser' at the boy.

The boy then yells 'I'm not resisting' as police struggle to handcuff him.

The attack is just one of many drug-related crimes and incidences police are having to deal with in Byron Bay, as the holiday hot spot is in the midst of a drug crisis.

Criminologist Dr Terry Goldsworthy said the level of police force used on the boy was unnecessary, especially with the number of officers attending.

'If it's just a matter of handcuffing him with four officers there, I probably wouldn't see the need for the repetitive baton strikes,' he told the program.
A Michigan college student has pleaded guilty to falsely claiming that she was attacked and raped on campus.

Mary Zolkowski, 21, told a court on Tuesday that she lied to police when she told them she had been raped by a stranger in the parking lot of Delta College back in February last year.

'I called Delta College and falsely reported the rape on their campus,' Zolkowski told the judge, according to MLive.com.

Mary T. Zolkowski pleads guilty to making a false report of a felony in front of Bay County Circuit Judge Joseph K. Sheeran on March 27

Zolkowski, 21, told a court on Tuesday that she lied to police when she told them she had been raped by a stranger in the parking lot of Delta College back in February last year

'My mother made the initial call and I took the phone and continued to report.'

Zolkowski said she had told her mother she had been raped while walking to her car.

When asked by the judge why she made the false claim, Zolkowski said she had been assaulted previously not on Delta's campus and was ashamed of the circumstances.

Zolkowski told the court that she was wrong to have brought Delta into it.

She told authorities at the time that she only saw her attacker's hands and had 'kind of blacked out' during the incident.

When police started investigating, Zolkowski refused a medical examination and her injuries didn't match up with her account.

Authorities then started noticing discrepancies in her story during a length investigation.

Zolkowski had told police that she was attacked and raped in the parking lot at Delta College (above) in Michigan in February 2017

Zolkowski had told authorities she had gone to the campus the following day to tell college staff she was dropping her studies because of the rape, but it was later found she had in fact dropped the courses before reporting the incident.

When confronted, Zolkowski then changed her story again saying she had been raped by an acquaintance.

Police interviewed the man and records show that he said Zolkowski had previously told him she was trying to get her fees refunded by Delta.

He also showed them text messages from Zolkowski in which she claimed she had been raped outside a Walmart store on February 22, the same night she claimed she was raped in Delta parking lot.

Zolkowski pleaded guilty to one count of false report of a felony.

She is yet to be sentenced.
Scot Chastain (pictured in an undated video grab) joined NBC in 1999 and managed the network's marketing, sales and advertising materials for its 240 affiliates. The content of the allegations against him is not known

NBC has fired its affiliate-marketing chief after a 23-year career at the company following an internal investigation into claims of misconduct.

Scot Chastain joined NBC in 1999 and managed the network's marketing, sales and advertising materials for its 240 affiliates.

The content of the allegations against Chastain are not known and he has so far not commented on them in public.

NBC Universal, the network's parent company, told Variety: 'A thorough internal review was conducted. Scot Chastain is no longer with the company.'

Chastain, Executive Vice President, Affiliate Marketing and Development, produced NBC's annual upfront presentation to advertisers.

Chastain's LinkedIn notes he also worked on 'existing and developing new business projects that involve the partnership between the network, stations and their respective ownership groups.'

Prior to his career at the NBC central office he worked for its affiliates in Bryan, Texas; New College Station, Texas; New Orleans; Winston-Salem; and North Carolina.

He also chairs industry trade group PromaxBDA, having worked his way up from treasurer and vice chair since joining the board in 2005.

PromaxBDA has not commented on the allegations against Chastain.

DailyMail.com has contacted NBC for comment.
A fraternity chapter on campus of a large Texas college has been suspended for five years after an investigation revealed several hazing offenses.

The Pi Kappa Alpha fraternitys Beta Zeta chapter at Southern Methodist University in Dallas was ordered to cease all organizational activity on Tuesday after investigators discovered that new pledges were subjected to humiliating initiation rituals.

Those trying to enter the fraternity were in some cases forced to eat onions, hot sauce, eggs, and milk, according to The Daily Campus student newspaper.

Some new members were even required or encouraged to drink alcohol.

This is the third on-campus fraternity that has been shut down over alleged hazing.

This past fall, SMU ordered the suspension of Kappa Alpha Order for four years.

The Pi Kappa Alpha fraternitys Beta Zeta chapter at Southern Methodist University in Dallas was ordered to cease all organizational activity on Tuesday after investigators discovered that new pledges were subjected to humiliating initiation rituals. SMU's campus is seen above

In the spring of 2016, SMU suspended Lambda Chi Alpha. It will be allowed to resume operating on campus in 2021.

All three fraternities that were disciplined reportedly forced would-be pledges to be subjected to very similar hazing techniques.

They included forcing recruits to drink alcohol and eat foods including jalapenos, habaneros, red onions, and milk until they vomited, according to the Dallas Morning News.

In recent months, a number of high-profile cases involving fraternity hazing have made headlines because of tragic deaths.

Over a dozen members of a Pennsylvania State University fraternity are being tried on charges including manslaughter and aggravated assault in connection with the February 2017 death of Timothy Piazza.

Piazza, 21, is alleged to have died after drinking large amounts of alcohol  18 drinks in just 90 minutes - as part of a hazing ritual at the Beta Theta Pi fraternity house in State College.

Since Piazzas death, at least 10 of the 49 fraternities at Penn State have been suspended, according to the OnwardState.com student blog.

Earlier this year, Florida State University suspended its fraternities and sororities after the November 3 death of Andrew Coffey.

Coffey, 22, was a junior and a pledge at Pi Kappa Phi.

He died November 3 after he was found unresponsive after a party. The cause of death was later determined to be alcohol poisoning.

Coffey was found with a blood alcohol level of .447, which is more than five times the legal limit to drive.

He drank the alcohol at a fraternity event known as 'Big Brother Night,' when older pledges get acquainted with the younger pledges.

FSU has since lifted the ban on Greek Life though it has kept some restrictions.
A judge may end up having to make the politically-sensitive decision over whether to maintain life support for Sergei and Yulia Skripal, experts have said.

A friend of the poisoned spy says he believes the critically ill pair are supported by machines in a Salisbury hospital and his niece has claimed they only have a one per cent chance of survival.

Their deaths would have global repercussions, further ratcheting up the tensions between Russia and the West over who was responsible for a nerve agent attack.

Any future decisions over the treatment of Sergei and Yulia Skripal may have to be made by a judge at the Court of Protection, legal experts have said

Mr Skripal's best friend, Ross Cassidy (pictured), has said that the double agent and his daughter should be allowed to die

The Zizzi restaurant at the centre of the nerve agent attack probe remains closed this week

If, as friends and family suggest, the Skripals are on life support, the Court of Protection could be called in to rule on treatment were their condition to deteriorate.

Zak Golombeck, a senior human rights lawyer at Slater and Gordon, told MailOnline that as the court had already been involved in the case over the taking of blood samples, it was likely to be involved in future decisions over their care.

Doctors treating them would likely be encouraged to consult the Skripal's family members in Russia and the Official Solicitor, the British body which represents people who lack mental capacity, he said.

A judge at the Court of Protection, where issues relating to people who lack the mental capacity are considered, gave doctors permission to take blood samples from the Skripals earlier this month.

Any decision on their treatment would have huge political implications amid growing tensions between the UK and Russia.

Professor Anthony Glees, a security expert University of Buckingham, told MailOnline: 'Mr Skripal's death would be a family tragedy, and doubly so if his daughter also dies, but it would also be of international significance.

'The government will then have to tell us what was the secret intelligence which the Foreign Secretary was basing his claim that it was "overwhelmingly likely" that Putin was behind it, or the government could be in big trouble.

'Because Putin will play it for all it's worth, saying "the British don't know what they are doing", "they are clowns" and "their doctors couldn't keep them alive".

'In short, the British government has no interest in seeing his life support system being turned off any time soon.'

Russia ramped up the pressure on Britain today with a series of accusations over the probe

Questions over the Skripals' future treatment could take on international significance

Police today closed off an alleyway near to Mr Skripal's house as part of the ongoing probe

Russia stepped up pressure on the UK over the investigation today, with a bullish statement from the country's Foreign Ministry.

The statement said: 'On March 16, 2018, Russia's Investigative Committee initiated criminal proceedings regarding the attempted murder of Russian citizen Yulia Skripal and submitted a relevant request to the British side.

'We expect London to cooperate with us within the framework of the investigation that has been launched by the Russian legal authorities.'

Mr Skripal's best friend, Ross Cassidy, has said that the double agent and his daughter should be allowed to die.

It was also revealed that Mr Skripal's mother had not been told of the incident, while family believe there is just a 'one per cent chance' of the pair pulling through.

Mr Skripal's best friend said the Russian double agent (right) and his daughter Yulia (left) are so ill that they should be allowed to die

Viktoria Skripal said the prognosis for the former Russian double agent and his daughter Yulia 'really isn't good'

He told Sky News: 'Quite frankly, what future have they got? I don't know the properties of this weapon that was used on them and my guess is they are probably being kept alive by artificial means and what life will they have if they survive?

'We've already been told they will be severely mentally impaired and I don't think they would want that. I think death would probably be merciful.'

It comes as Mr Skirpal's niece said her uncle and cousin have only a slim chance of surviving.

Viktoria Skripal said the prognosis for the former Russian double agent and his daughter Yulia 'really isn't good'.

She told the BBC: 'Out of 99 per cent I have maybe 1 per cent of hope. Whatever it was has given them a very small chance of survival.

'But they're going to be invalids for the rest of their lives. The first priority was to protect our granny so that she wouldn't hear or find out anything.'

Sergei, 66, (pictured) enjoyed drinking in Salisbury and was attacked with a nerve agent in the city with his daughter

Countries across the world joined the UK in diplomatic action against Russia, which has been blamed for the attack.

Theresa May hailed the 'unprecedented series of expulsions' of Russian diplomats, which she said sent a strong message to Moscow that it could not ignore international law.

The Russian Embassy in the UK said the Prime Minister had had still not presented evidence that the country was responsible for the poisonings, adding that 'no-one in the wider world would take British words for granted'.

It also responded to claims by officials that more than 20 different stories had come out of Moscow since the attack to 'try and confuse the picture'.

Scotland Yard issued the first clear photograph of the former double agent's car, a burgundy BMW (pictured) and are trying to piece together where it was on Sunday 4

A statement posted on its website read: 'This only confirms the openness of the Russian society and the independence of Russian media, which Prime Minister May wrongly confuses with the Russian state.

'Given the lack of official information, every Russian, just like every Briton, is entitled to their own version of events.

'Let's also not forget that at least five different versions of the poisoning have been 'leaked' by the police to British media: the Skripals were either poisoned in a pub, or in a restaurant, or in their car, or by putting the chemical into Ms Skripal's suitcase, or by smearing their door handle.

'To see Russia being accused of spreading false rumours in this context is rather surprising.'

On Wednesday, Ireland became the 24th country to join the the UK in diplomatic action against the Kremlin.

With Downing Street saying that more than 115 Russian diplomats had been ordered home by friends and allies, Dublin added one more to the list.

In Moscow, President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, hinted that the Kremlin would respond with tit-for-tat expulsions, saying Russia would proceed from the 'principle of reciprocity'.

Russia has already ordered 23 British diplomats to leave in response to the expulsion of a similar number of undeclared Russian intelligence officers from the UK.
A senior attorney at a New York state agency has resigned and paid full restitution after admitting to filing false attendance records over a 16-month period, the state inspector general's office announced Tuesday.

Laura Cail, 48, of Troy, was charged in December with 36 counts of first-degree offering a false instrument for filing and third-degree grand larceny, both felonies.

Cail, who was a senior attorney at the state Office of Children and Family Services, was accused of filing false attendances for 36 of the 39 pay periods between June 2015 and October 2016. Her arrest followed an investigation by the state inspector general's office.

The false records allowed Cail to receive $12,271 in pay for time she wasn't present at work.

"This defendant's treatment of her employment as a 'come as you please' job violated the public trust and left taxpayers woefully shortchanged," said state Inspector General Catherine Leahy Scott.

Cail pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and agreed to pay restitution. She provided a check for $12,271 in Rensselaer City Court Tuesday.
Richard Ford (pictured) wrote the sadistic letters in his prison cell and threatened officers and a judge

A prisoner who was jailed for 45 years for threatening to kill prison staff and have sex with their corpses has had his sentence reduced to 12 years after saying he has an 'extraordinary low IQ'.

Richard Ford, 39, was serving 30 months at Nottingham Prison for possessing a knife when he penned the sadistic letters in his cell.

He threatened officers, police, a judge and his ex-partner and wrote of twisted necrophiliac fantasies, adding crude drawings depicting his plans.

As he had been charged only with making threats to kill, the judge who jailed him was unable to pass an indefinite or life sentence.

However, amid fears that he could act upon his twisted urges, he was handed the extremely long sentence at Lincoln Crown Court in December 2016.

But he appealed against his sentence arguing he has a 'low IQ' and Sir Brian Leveson slashed what he described as 'one of the longest' prison terms ever passed in England at the hearing on Tuesday.

Sir Brian instead imposed a sentence comprising 12 years in custody and eight years' extended licence.

It means Ford could be freed on licence after serving as little as eight years behind bars, said the judge, sitting at the Court of Appeal in London.

Sir Brian said that the judge, unable to impose a life term, had passed consecutive terms to a total length of 45 years.

He continued: 'It has been imposed on a man who never actually assaulted or attempted to assault anyone; indeed, committing these offences, he never left his prison cell.

'Plainly, such an overall sentence is entirely disproportionate to the offences which he has committed and cannot be upheld.

Ford was serving 30 months at Nottingham Prison (pictured) for possessing a knife when he penned the letters

'But the protection of the public against the obvious risk that Ford presents must be at the forefront of any consideration of this case.'

Substituting the term of 12 years' custody and eight years licence extension, he said Ford would be able to apply for parole after eight years, two thirds of his custodial term.

He added: 'Whether he is then released will depend on an assessment of risk to the public that he then poses.

'If not granted parole, he is at risk of being required to serve the full 12-year term.

'At whatever point he is released, he will remain on licence until 20 years from the date of sentence.'

Lawyers at Ford's appeal earlier this month said he had mixed motives in committing the offences, as he had become 'institutionalised' behind bars.

He has an extremely low IQ and, when released from a previous sentence, had called 999 in order to report that he was a danger to others.

Sir Brian heard the appeal with four other judges earlier this month and returned to court to deliver judgment on Tuesday.
Police have launched an urgent appeal to find a mum who vanished with her 10-month hold baby two weeks ago.

Kelly Martin, 36, told her partner she was going to visit her family earlier this month but hasn't been seen since.

She left her her home in Tulse Hill on March 16 with baby Kelise Martin-Smith, with only a grey sling to carry her in.

Met Police have now issued an appeal to trace her.

Police have launched an urgent appeal to trace Kelly Martin (left) and her baby Kelise Martin-Smith (right)

A Met Police spokesperson said: "She took her 10-month-old daughter, Kelise Martin-Smith, with her. However she did not take any baby equipment with her other than a grey sling to carry the baby in."

Officer said she was reported missing on March 17.

Kelly is white with blonde hair, of slim build, has a tattoo on her left hand of a snake and a tattoo on her right hand of a clown.

Baby Kelise is described as a light-skinned black female.

Kelly is not believed to have an Oyster travel card or a bank card.

Police said Kellys daughter is the subject of a care plan requiring her to be returned to the care of her father.

Anyone who sees Kelly is asked to call police on 101, Lambeth missing persons office on 07876131748 or Lambeth CID 07785 4774447 (out of hours).
A Cambridge Analytica whistleblower has suggested Facebook uses people's mobile phones to spy on them at home or at work.

Christopher Wylie, a former employee of the scandal-hit firm, said companies like Facebook use the microphone on mobile phones to help tailor their adverts.

He told a Commons committee yesterday he believes the social media giant is able to decipher whether someone is out in a crowd of people, in the office or at home.

Christopher Wylie (pictured), a former employee of scandal-hit firm Cambridge Analytica, said companies like Facebook use the microphone on mobile phones to help tailor their adverts

Asked by Conservative MP Damian Collins (pictured) whether Facebook can listen to what people are saying to shape their advertising, Mr Wylie said they use the smartphone app microphone for 'environmental purposes'

Asked by Conservative MP Damian Collins whether Facebook can listen to what people are saying to shape their advertising, Mr Wylie said: 'On a comment about using audio and processing audio, you can use it for, my understanding generally of how companies use it... not just Facebook, but generally other apps that pull audio, is for environmental context.

'So if, for example, you have a television playing versus if you're in a busy place with a lot of people talking versus a work environment.'

'It's not to say they're listening to what you're saying. It's not natural language processing. That would be hard to scale.

'But to understand the environmental context of where you are to improve the contextual value of the ad itself' is possible.'

Mr Wylie was answering questions on Cambridge Analytica's influence over the Brexit referendum result. Pictured: House of Commmons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee's inquiry into Fake News yesterday

Mr Collins's question about Facebook spying is reflected in research carried out by Internet charity DotEveryone.

Their studies show seven per cent of people think Facebook listens to their phone conversations and five per cent believe it is capable of tracking their eye movements when they're looking at a screen.

Mr Wylie's claims were only speculative and said Mr Collins's was 'probably one for Facebook'.

The tech giant has long denied allegations of spying on people to customise ads.

But since it was revealed it harvested data from over 50 million users to aid Cambridge Analytica's election campaigns, other data issues have been brought into question.

Rob Goldman, vice president of ad products at Facebook directly addressed the claims on Twitter in October last year.

Rob Goldman, vice president of ad products at Facebook directly addressed the claims on Twitter in October last year saying the social media giant doesn't use the microphone for ads. Pictured: Founder Mark Zuckerberg

He wrote: 'I run ads product at Facebook. We don't - and have never - used your microphone for ads. Just not true.'

'That includes Facebook-owned Instagram.'

A Facebook spokesman told MailOnline it does not use phone microphones for ads, instead using interests and other profile information to shape what users see on their News Feed.

Any third party seeking permission to use phone microphones would have to obtain it independently from the user, they added.

Mr Wylie was answering questions on Cambridge Analytica's influence over the Brexit referendum result.

In previous sessions at the House of Commons the former CA employee has made claims his predecessor was found dead under 'suspicious circumstances' in Kenya.

He said Dan Muresan was working for President Uhuru Kenyatta's re-election campaign when he was found dead in 2012 amid reports a deal he was working on went 'sour'.

Giving evidence to the culture select committee of MPs, Mr Wylie told how rumours that Mr Muresan had been killed circulated around the controversial data firm.

And he heard talk the Kenyan police had been bribed not to enter the hotel room for 24 hours in a bid to cover up the possible murder.

Cambridge Analytica tweeted yesterday to refute Mr Wylie's extraordinary claims.

A spokesman wrote: 'Christopher Wylie was a part-time contractor who left in July 2014 and has no direct knowledge of our work or practices since that date.'
A Russian wife discovered her lecturer husband was cheating on her after seeing pictures of one of his students sitting in their flat on Instagram.

Anna Rudenok, 24, began to suspect 27-year-old husband Dmitry was being unfaithful after going through his Instagram 'likes' and discovering student Emilia Ignatova appeared often.

But after delving deeper the mother-of-one found images on Ignatova's Instagram page showing the 19-year-old in her flat, wearing her clothes, and even an image of her pet cat.

Anna Rudenok, 24, discovered 27-year-old husband Dmitry was cheating on her with a 19-year-old student Emilia Ignatova after discovering her among his 'likes' on Instagram

Anna then discovered pictures showing Ignatova inside her apartment, with some even showing the cot that her baby son with Dmitry slept in

Another Instagram image showed Emilia sitting topless on the edge of a hotel bed

Some shots were next to the cot of her and her husband's baby son - and all taken when she was away from home at her mother's house with their child.

One image showed Emilia in a hotel in Chelyabinsk sitting topless on the edge of a bed wearing tights.

Rudenok is a teacher and chief press officer at South Ural State University in Russia, reported pro-Kremlin news outlet life.ru

Her caption to the picture reads: 'Yet another breezy day to pay my university debts.'

Anna (left and right) said Dmitry was initially aggressive and threatened to 'bury' her after she challenged him, but he later admitted to an 18-month affair

Anna was also shocked to find an image of her pet cat on Emilia's Instagram page

Emilia is a 19-year-old student at South Ural State University, where Dmitry is a lecturer, and describes herself online as a model

The furious wife messaged her husband shaming him for his illicit relationship.

Her husband immediately removed his Instagram account and Emilia blocked access to hers. Neither of them have denied the wife's accusations.

Anna later claimed that her husband admitted to an 18 month relationship.

She initially claimed Dmitry had threatened her, saying: 'He called me and said "I'll destroy you, I'll bury you, I won't care that you are the mother of my child".

Anna said that after she exposed her husband she also received calls from a woman threatening her, and said she would call police (Emilia pictured)

Anna has now moved out of the home she shares with

'I asked him what was my fault? It wasn't me who had an affair or posted pictures in the wife's clothes. I am also a woman, and I got fed up with this.'

Anna said: 'Then this woman called me and threatened me, too.

'I said I was ready to go to the police if this was to continue.'

Anna gave birth to the couple's baby son several months ago.

She said she has moved out of her marital home and she and the baby are currently at living with her parents.
A mother-of-one accused of slashing a prostitute's face because she suspected her boyfriend had paid her for sex in a red light district has been cleared of all charges.

Shazia Hussain, 27, was arrested amid claims she confronted and attacked 25-year old Denisa Margean with a kitchen knife after texting her partner, Ian Jones, accusing him of sleeping with a sex worker.

But at Manchester Crown Court, Hussain, from Didsbury in Manchester, claimed Miss Margean had been attacked by her own boyfriend before he turned on her.

Shazia Hussain, 27, pictured left, was arrested amid claims she confronted and attacked 25-year old Denisa Margean, right, with a kitchen knife after angrily texting her partner Ian Jones accusing him of sleeping with a sex worker when he should have been with their son

She wept and sobbed 'thank you' to the jury as she was cleared of wounding with intent to cause grievous harm.

The incident occurred on September 20 2017 after Romanian-born Miss Margean, who lives in Oldham, claimed she was attacked while working on a back street in Manchester's Cheetham Hill district.

The court heard police found 87 messages Hussain sent to 43-year old Jones in the minutes before the stabbing saying: 'I know you've gone to see that prostitute. You're making excuses to go to a bent street.

Ian Jones, Hussain's partner, said: 'I have never been and never will be with a prostitute, I love Shazia too much to that'

'You're with her. if you can't stick to one girl then why should I stick to one guy. You've got a f****** girlfriend Ian, why you paying for a prostitute. F****** trampy Romanians don't have a clue.'

The court heard Miss Margean was stabbed in the head and chest - leaving her with a deep 'potentially disfiguring' wound across the bridge of her nose.

Police detained Hussain after a scuffle broke out in the immediate aftermath of the attack between her, Miss Margean's boyfriend who was at the scene and other call girls.

Miss Margean told the court: 'It was very bad - it was horrible. She got me on the bridge of my nose and eyebrows then my left temple on the right hand side of my face, then on my chest just across my collar bone. I was covered in blood and I thought I was going to die.

'My last customer before the attack had a call on his phone and the name came up as 'wife'. He spoke to her for a few seconds and he spoke in English.

'I went back to my place and lit up a cigarette and sat down. I saw a woman coming towards me angry. She had a cigarette in her hand she was very angry.

'I have never seen this woman before in my life. She had blonde hair, I didn't see what she was wearing she was very angry I was looking at her gestures and she was angry. I grabbed her by the hair straight away and her hand came up and she had the knife and she started to strike me with the knife.

'I let go of her and started screaming that she's hit me. I just remember fainting for three seconds and fell back but I remember her voice.

Hussain admitted sending the texts to Mr Jones but said they referred to another woman he had previously been romantically involved with. They are both pictured outside court

'She asked me what nationality I was and I told her I was Romanian. She asked me if I worked there and I thought she was working there as well and wanted to fight.

'I didn't recognise her at all but I could just tell she was angry by her gestures. I don't know how many times she hit me, I had cuts all over my head. When I fell down she tried to lift me up. I was shouting that she had destroyed me.'

Miss Margean was treated with surgical stitches before being discharged from North Manchester General Hospital. The court heard a black handled kitchen knife found near to where she was arrested had Miss Margean's blood on the blade and Hussain's DNA on the handle.

But Hussain denied attacking Miss Margean, claiming the victim was attacked by her boyfriend Giane Vasile.

She claimed she was an innocent bystander who had happened to be in the area to meet Jones and said she tried to intervene to stop the assault only to be chased away and attacked by Vasile.

Vasile, who denied wrongdoing, was arrested at the time of the incident on suspicion of assaulting Hussain but police took no action against him.

Hussain told the hearing: 'I was just walking around in circles, wanting to know where Ian was when I saw something was going on. I said something like 'what are you doing' then he started chasing me and his top was off.

'All of a sudden he was right behind me and I was running as fast as i could and when I turned around he was there.

'I got a glimpse of the knife and got a grip of it but he had it in his right hand. I was trying my best to restrain him, I'm not a strong girl and I don't know how I managed to do it.

'I'm a victim nearly as much as her. Did you want me to get stab wounds and be in the same position?

'I hadn't slashed anyone yet I nearly got slashed in my stomach. He was aiming right for my guts. So much was going on it was like a whirlwind.

'He was trying to break my wrists and my neck. I stuck up for myself and I don't know why god gave me the strength he did. I was being a Good Samaritan and that's what got me stuck here. I don't resort to stuff with violence I run my mouth. He tried killing me.'

She said of Jones: 'I don't know where he was. Sometimes I accept that he's with his mates but it's the seeds planted in my head. The texts are not bitter, it's the way I speak. We are madly in love with each other.'

At Manchester Crown Court, Hussain, from the city's Didsbury district wept and sobbed 'thank you' to the jury as she was cleared of wounding with intent to cause grievous harm.

She was also acquitted of the lesser charge of unlawful wounding and having a bladed article in public after jurors took three hours to reach their verdict.

She admitted sending the texts to Mr Jones but said they referred to another woman he had previously been romantically involved with.

Jones told the hearing: 'That day I had been with friends and she was annoyed about that. I have never been and never will be with a prostitute, I love Shazia too much to that. I'd arranged to meet a Shaz later on that evening.

'I don't know any Romanians and I don't use the services of a prostitute. She always talks like that in the texts, I tell her to leave it until we come home and then we can talk about it.

'Things just festered in her own mind. She has a bit of an imagination. She believed I had sex with that girl in the car but that never happened. I have never been with a prostitute.
Britain is gearing up for an all-out counter-propaganda war against 'fake news' being spread by Russia and terrorists on social media.

Ministers have ordered a major fightback amid fears over the wave of misinformation and extremist material being distributed online.

A new 'Fusion Doctrine' aims to tackle the evolving threats from states such as the Kremlin and North Korea - as well as groups like ISIS - which use social media and cyber sabotage as part of their offensive capabilities.

Meanwhile, Moscow's embassy in London underlined the nature of their tactics by accusing the UK of behaving like the Nazis towards Russian nationals.

Whitehall sources said the aftermath of the nerve-agent attack in Salisbury had shown how important it was to combat propaganda.

Whitehall sources said the aftermath of the nerve-agent attack in Salisbury (pictured) had shown how important it was to combat propaganda

Russia's Embassy has responded to the chemical weapons attack by mocking Britain online

Russia had put out more than 20 different stories following the incident 'to try to confuse the picture', they said.

Up to 2,800 Russian bots  computer programmes that generate posts on social media  are also thought to have tried to sow confusion after the poison attack.

In an example of the new response, the Foreign Office issued a rebuttal video online earlier this month that pointed out the contradictory claims coming from the Kremlin.

Moscow's embassy in London tweeted today comparing Britain's treatment of Russians to the Nazis treatment of jews.

'Targeting all dirty money or just people of a particular nationality? The former is welcome though long overdue, the latter went out of fashion in 1945,' the embassy posted.

Launching the new National Security Strategy, Theresa May said the government would mobilise 'every capability at our disposal' to address threats.

Security services could take measures including 'suffocating' hashtags on Twitter to prevent extremists from getting their message out.

The BBC World Service could also be given a wider remit to promote British values abroad, while Ofcom could target media organisations that merely produce propaganda.

The security review also warned a that the threat from Islamist terrorism could rise over the next two years.

Intelligence experts fear battle-hardened jihadis in Syria are dispersing to set up cells elsewhere from which to plot attacks on the West.

There are also concerns that die-hard fanatics could try to come back to Britain to carry out massacres.

MI5 chief Andrew Parker (pictured) warned last year that the terror threat was already the worst he had ever seen in his 34-year career

These factors, on top of concerns that youngsters at home are being easily radicalised on the internet, point to a heightened terror threat, spies say.

The assessment comes after MI5 chief Andrew Parker warned last year that the terror threat was already the worst he had ever seen in his 34-year career.

A security shake-up will be detailed in the National Security Capability Review (NSCR) today.

It will state: 'We expect the threat from Islamist terrorism to remain at its current heightened level for at least two years and it might increase further.'

The review will outline the threats facing the UK and how the Government plans to deal with them. In it, Theresa May (pictured) states: 'Every part of our Government and every one of our agencies has its part to play'

The review comes in the wake of five terror attacks on British soil last year and this month's nerve-agent attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in Salisbury.

The review will outline the threats facing the UK and how the Government plans to deal with them.

In it, Theresa May states: 'Every part of our Government and every one of our agencies has its part to play. As long as we defend our interests and stand up for our values, there will continue to be those who seek to undermine or attack us. But these people should be in no doubt that we will use every capability at our disposal to defeat them.

'Over the past year we have witnessed appalling terrorist attacks in London and Manchester. But also a brazen and reckless act of aggression on the streets of Salisbury: Attempted murder using an illegal chemical weapon, amounting to an unlawful use of force against the UK.'

She said national security depended on not only the police, security services and the Armed Forces, but 'on our ability to mobilise... the full range of our capabilities in concert'.

The PM said national security depended on not only the police, security services and the Armed Forces but 'on our ability to mobilise... the full range of our capabilities in concert'. Pictured, emergency services after the Manchester Arena attack

Officials have feared for months that IS jihadists defeated in Iraq and Syria could morph into a new terror group.

But the danger from Islamist extremists moving into Africa and other regions seems likely to increase the threat to British citizens.

A source said: 'There will be further cycles of it. There are cells in Yemen, Nigeria, Somalia, as well as Syria and Iraq. They will still seek to project out. What will happen as the so-called caliphate has essentially been defeated, is that those militants who fought for it are diffusing. So the threat will shift. And some of that could affect us here.'

A senior Whitehall official said: 'The biggest shift in the terrorist threat in my career has been that you can radicalise people in our own communities, people have been radicalised from Syria... through their interactions in cyber space.'
A registered sex offender who tried to groom an eight-year-old girl online while her mother was in the bath has walked free from court after being found mentally unfit - for the second time in the space of a year.

Autistic Thomas Hagger, 28, approached the child through her mother's account on the live streaming app Bigo after she asked to borrow her phone to watch YouTube videos.

He asked for photos of her wearing 'Pocahontas knickers' and tried to lure her onto Snapchat before sending a picture of his penis.

The girl's horrified mother discovered the messages then posed as her child to carry on the chat and gather more evidence - which she passed on to a team of self-styled paedophile hunters called Internet Interceptors.

He asked for photos of her wearing 'Pocahontas knickers' and tried to lure her onto Snapchat before sending a picture of his penis. He is pictured as he is being confronted by members of Internet Interceptors

Hagger was arrested at the scene and charged with attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and breaching a sexual harm prevention order, but he was later deemed unfit to plead

They cornered the suspect near his home in Epping, Essex, on September 15 last year and placed him under citizen's arrest, while dialling 999.

During the confrontation, the group claimed they reported him to police that morning but were told officers were 'too busy' to come and arrest him and would not be able to respond for up to three days - despite Hagger having been put on the sex offenders register just three months earlier for trying to groom a 12-year-old girl.

The clash turned ugly when Hagger's irate brother pulled up in a car and leapt to his defence, screaming at the paedophile hunters to leave him alone.

Hagger was arrested at the scene and charged with attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and breaching a sexual harm prevention order, but he was later deemed unfit to plead.

A jury at Chelmsford Crown Court found Hagger did commit the offences but the verdict was classed as a finding of fact rather than a finding of guilt due to his mental health difficulties.

He was handed a five-year sexual harm prevention order and a two-year supervision order on March 16. A restraining order was also imposed, preventing Hagger from having any contact with the victim.

Dramatic footage of his arrest - filmed live on Facebook - shows Hagger being approached by two women while out walking his dog.

A jury at Chelmsford Crown Court found Hagger did commit the offences but the verdict was classed as a finding of fact rather than a finding of guilt due to his mental health difficulties

When challenged, he claims he can barely remember speaking to the eight-year-old because he was 'tired' at the time.

A woman - named as Julie - shows him the explicit picture he sent and asks: 'Do you think it's acceptable to send that to what you believed was a child?'

He says 'it's not' and insists: 'I don't like paedophiles at all.'

Julie replies: 'But you are one, Thomas. You've asked for an eight-year-old in a pair of Pocahontas knickers and then you've sent an eight-year-old a penis picture. You need to be stopped. You can't keep playing the mental health card.'

Hagger, who also claimed to suffer with dyspraxia - a brain disorder which affects motor function - admits to sending the picture and says he is 'distraught' by his actions.

Julie says: 'You messed up big time because you spoke to the wrong mother. She, luckily enough, came to us.

'I gave the police all of your information this morning. They're not coming to get you until Sunday because they're too busy.'

Hagger's brother then turns up in a car and tries to grab the camera, shouting: 'He's autistic. Let the Old Bill do it.'

The suspect tries to get in his brother's car but the women block him.

Julie then jumps in the front passenger seat to stop them from leaving and Hagger's brother screams: 'Get out of my f****** car.'

Autistic Thomas Hagger, 28, approached the child through her mother's account on the live streaming app Bigo after she asked to borrow her phone to watch YouTube videos

Police arrive a short while later and break up the slanging match before taking the suspect away in handcuffs.

The girl's mother - who cannot be identified - said after the case: 'I was in the bath no longer than 30 minutes.

'I put my kids to bed and went on my phone to find messages from Thomas Hagger to my daughter.

'He was asking her to come off the app and add him on Snapchat, after she told him she is only eight.

'Four messages between him and my daughter were exchanged. She hadn't read his last message where he asked if she had a bath or a shower.

'I pretended to talk to him as her, he was asking if she could FaceTime him and get naughty, what her favourite underwear was and how he'd like to see it.

'Within 20 minutes he had told her she was beautiful and sent a picture of his d***.

'In the morning I contacted Internet Interceptors, they were amazing and tracked him down.

'The police were going to leave him until Sunday - three more days of him talking to kids on the internet.'

Last June, Hagger was given a sexual harm prevention order for attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity, attempting to cause a child to watch a sexual act and three counts of making indecent images of children, between 2012 and 2015.

Chelmsford Crown Court heard Hagger sent sexual messages to a 12-year-old girl on Facebook and was arrested after her stepfather called the police.

When officers searched Hagger's computers they found the terms 'pre-teen movies', 'teen chat' and 'chat sites for kids' had been entered and there were 98 indecent images of children - eight from Category A.

He was judged mentally unfit to stand trial but a jury found he committed all the offences based on the evidence.

Detective Chief Superintendent Steve Worron, of Essex Police, said: 'On September 15, 2017, we received a report from a third party informing us that 28-year-old Thomas Hagger had been attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child.

'This report was taken seriously and later that same day at 6.45pm we received a further call in relation to Mr Hagger. Fifteen minutes later he was arrested by officers.

'He was subsequently charged and convicted of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

'We are carrying out a review to understand whether we could have done anything differently and we will take any learning from that.

'Every day teams of specialist officers work to manage the risks to the public presented by registered sex offenders who are living in Essex. There are more than 1,200 registered sex offenders in our county and every one of them has a special management plan in place to keep communities safe.

'Mr Hagger was one of those registered sex offenders and his monitoring was entirely compliant with national guidelines.

'Prior to September 15 there was no intelligence to suggest that Hagger presented any risk to the community and once we were made aware of his meeting with a third party we responded immediately.

"Anyone who is aware of people who are committing any type of sexual offence, whether online or in person, must contact Essex Police.

'We have teams of specially trained detectives who have the skills to investigate these crimes but most importantly the power of the law behind them to arrest and secure convictions of these perpetrators.'
A man accused of smothering a Queensland mum of four to death has been found guilty of her murder and will be sentenced next week.

At the beginning of the Supreme Court trial in Brisbane, Jacob Michael Smith pleaded not guilty to murder of Anthea Mari, 34, who was found dead in the lounge room of her Brisbane home on August 26, 2014.

Smith showed no emotion when the verdict was read out on Wednesday, the ABC reports.

It took the jury a day to reach their unanimous verdict.

Mother of four Anthea Mari was murdered in her Brisbane home in August 2014

The prosecution told the court Smith killed Ms Mari by smothering or suffocating her with a pillow or blanket and then fled after stealing a number of items, including Ms Mari's mobile phone.

Prosecutor Philip McCarthy said two expert pathologists 'would not exclude the possibility of death by asphyxia' and pointed to evidence of a text message Smith sent to a close friend after Ms Mari was killed, which said he was in big trouble.

Jacob Michael Smith will be sentenced next week

Smith was arrested on the Gold Coast after Ms Mari was found dead in her home.

'The police are coming, what does he [Smith] do? He runs,' Mr McCarthy told the court.

'Why does he run? He's killed someone, that's why he is hiding from police.'

He said authorities 'may never know' why Smith killed Ms Mari.

'The Crown's not required to prove why something happened, to prove motivation,' Ms McCarthy told the court.

'The focal attention for you in this trial is the issue of whether he did it.'

Smith's defence barrister Damian Walsh told the court there was no evidence Ms Mari was smothered, or suffocated and told the jury a small abrasion on her neck could have been inflicted by her roommate or paramedics who administered CPR.

Mr Walsh told the court Smith had no motive to kill Ms Mari.

'All evidence points to the fact that they were friends  they had been friends for years,' he said.

The court heard there were levels of methamphetamine found in Ms Mari's system.

A forensic pathologist called to give evidence by the defence told the jury he could not determine a cause of death and Ms Mari could have died from a possible drug overdose or asphyxia.

Just days before her death, Ms Mari posted on Facebook that 'a man who hits a woman is not a man'

The jury also heard that Smith confessed to the murder to a friend.

'Smith told her that he had done something stupid and killed someone,' the prosecutor said.

'Smith told her the person had it coming, the person had deserved it and that he intended to do what he had done.'

Anthea Mari was an advocate against domestic violence who had spent 15 years in and out of domestic violence refuges, couch-surfing and even slept in her car while raising her children

Before her death, Ms Mari was an advocate against domestic violence and revealed in a newsletter to Catholic community group, Micah Group, that she had spent 15 years 'in and out of domestic violence refuges, couch-surfing and even sleeping in her car' while raising children.

'Don't think you're the only one. There are plenty of other women going through it, too,' Ms Mari said.

Micah Projects welfare co-ordinator Karyn Walsh told AAP in 2014: 'Like many women who have been through the fear of domestic violence she was very passionate about wanting to tell other women to seek help.'

Just days before her death, Ms Mari posted on Facebook that 'a man who hits a woman is not a man'.
The body of Austin bomber Mark Conditt was released to his family as a vigil was held for his youngest victim.

Conditt planted bombs in different parts of the Texas state capital, killing two people and severely wounding four others.

At a vigil for 17-year-old Draylen Mason, the orchestra in which he played performed his favorite songs, while friends and teachers danced in his honor and told stories of his compassion and wit.

Every time I report about Draylen Mason, I learn about another impressive talent he had. Tonight, we learned he loved to dance. (And was great at it!!) So at his vigil, students and teachers are dancing in memory of him. pic.twitter.com/KA5PugoJNb  Jacqulyn Powell (@JacqulynPowell) March 28, 2018

Draylen Mason was a talented musician who had been accepted to Oberlin Conservatory of Music before he died

Friends, classmates and teachers danced and told stories about him while his orchestra played his favorite songs

While balloons tied to a lamppost outside Draylen's house, where he was killed by bomb sent left Mark Conditt

Conditt began by placing explosives in packages left overnight on doorsteps, killing and Draylen Mason, 17, and 39-year-old father Anthony Stephan House as well as critically injuring 75-year-old Esperanza Herrera.

He died after detonating an explosive device early as a SWAT team officers ran toward the 23-year-old's vehicle to arrest him in an Austin suburb.

Williamson County spokeswoman said his body has now been release to his family, the Austin American  Statesman reported.

Mark Conditt died when he set off a bomb as a police SWAT team closed in on him in an Austin suburb

Draylen's mother was also seriously injured when a package exploded in their kitchen.

The high school student and talented musician and had already been accepted to Oberlin Conservatory of Music.

At East Austin College Prep's MLK campus, hundreds of classmates, friends and community members crowded in the auditorium to pay tribute to him, with many in the audience holding candles.

The Austin Soundwaves, the school orchestra group Draylen was a member of, played his favorite songs in his honor, with a teacher taking his place as the only bass player.

'We have all agreed that every note we play it would be for him,' friend Fatima Cisneros-Acevedo told KXAN.

'So even if we do cry and we can't read the notes on the sheet music anymore, we'll keep playing and we'll all act like we're Draylen.'

Timeline of Texas package bomb attacks March 2: Anthony Stephan House, 39, is killed when a package blows up at 6.55am at his home on the 1100 block of Haverford Drive. 6.44am on March 12: Draylen Mason, 17, is killed and his mother is seriously injured in a package explosion in their kitchen on the 4800 block of Oldfort Hill Drive. 11.50am on March 12: Esperanza Herrera, 75, is severely injured in a package explosion while visiting her mother's home on the 6700 block of Galindo Street. March 18: Two men in their 20s are seriously injured by a trip wire explosion on a sidewalk near the 4800 block of Dawn Song Drive. Around 12.01am March 20: One man is injured in a FedEx facility in San Antonio when a package 'containing nails and pieces of metal' bound for Austin explodes. Wounded employee is taken to hospital with minor injuries. 6.19am March 20: Bomb squad responds to a FedEx sorting facility at 4117 McKinney Falls Parkway. An unexploded package bomb is secured. Police confirm it is connected. Advertisement

Classmates and teachers also danced in his memory and told stories about him, including from when he went to Thailand, to help build an orphanage.

'Just to remember him for being this intelligent, enthusiastic incredibly funny guy,' one of his close friends, Jazmin Lopez said.

'I know it's a very difficult time for my friends and his family, but I just want everybody to keep celebrating him and honoring him.'

Orchestra classmate Lucerito Gonzalez added: 'He wanted to impact peoples lives, and I feel like he has impacted peoples lives throughout his story.'

After detonating the first round of bombs, Conditt then rigged an explosive to a tripwire along a public trail, injuring two young men who crossed it.

Finally, he sent two parcels with bombs via FedEx, one of which exploded and injured a worker at a distribution center near San Antonio.

Eddie Harp, a spokesman for Conditt's family, said earlier this week, a decision about final arrangements had not yet been made.

Harp also said that he was 'pretty sure' any services to be held would not be open to the public.

The authorities have released more information on the recorded confession Conditt left before he blew himself up.

In it, he called himself a 'psychopath' in a recorded confession and said he felt no remorse for deadly explosions that killed two people and terrorized the city, a US congressman said Saturday.

Investigators are still looking into what motivated 23-year-old Conditt, but the recording he left on his cell phone shows that he was a 'sick individual,' US Rep. Michael McCaul said.
This is the moment a gun-wielding moped robber holds former Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan at gunpoint and steals his 127,000 watch.

Mr Jordan was driving in his Maserati with his 80-year-old father in Croydon when the thief struck, forcing him to hand over the rare white hold Franck Muller timepiece.

He has since offered a 5,000 appeal for its return while the police have released a picture of the watch and urged anyone who is offered it or knows of its whereabouts to get in touch with officers.

Dashcam footage captured the chilling moment on film, with the rider seen pulling up alongside the driver's window before producing the weapon.

This is the moment a moped-riding thief held up former Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan at gunpoint and stole his 127,000 watch

Mr Jordan, pictured, said he was trying to protect his 80-year-old father during the incident, during which he was driving him home from hospital

The Franck Muller watch, left and right, is a rare timepiece made from white gold

After a few seconds the thief is seen reaching inside the vehicle before speeding away.

Mr Jordan, who made his fortune in the mobile phone industry, told The Sun he had been taking his father home from hospital where he had been for five weeks suffering from heart failure and pneumonia, and that when the ambush happened he instinctively tried to protect him.

He said: 'The gunman was ordering "give me your f****** watch you c*** or I will shoot your f****** face off" and I was telling him he wasn't having it, saying "no".

'It seemed to last for a minute while he held the handgun to my head. Meanwhile my father was trying to get out of the car to have a pop back at the gunman.'

Mr Jordan speculated the gun may have been a Beretta or Magnum but 'could have been a BB handgun for all I knew'.

He added: 'What I did know was that I was a split second from being killed. I tried to defy the robber for as long as I could, but handing over the watch was perhaps the wisest decision.'

On the day of the robbery, Mr Jordan tweeted: 'Today I was robbed at Gunpoint in Croydon whilst driving my 80-year-old father from the doctors.

'Having a gun in your face being told he will shoot your f****** face off, not the best.

'He got a very expensive Franck Muller watch but will always be a t***.

'What's wrong with people?'

The businessman, left and right, who made his fortune in mobile phones, said he was furious about the ambush but the watch was 'not worth losing his life' over

Detective Sergeant Tim Walter, from Croydon CID, said: 'This was a terrifying ordeal and robbery of a man sat in his car waiting at a traffic light.

'The single suspect has pulled up alongside him and pointed a suspected handgun at him before making threatening demands for his watch.

'No other items were taken. Although shaken the victim did not require hospital treatment.

'My team are doing everything they can to identify the culprit and bring him to justice. This involves the recovery of local CCTV footage and ongoing forensic work.

'The item stolen is a rare white gold, blue faced Franck Muller watch. If you are offered this item for sale or have on information on its whereabouts I would urge you to get in touch.'

Anyone with information concerning this robbery is asked to call Croydon CID on 101 quoting CAD 3746/21March or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
U.S. Rep. John Katko is once again inviting high school students from the 24th district to enter the annual Congressional Art Competition.

The contest is open to students in the western portion of Oswego County and all of Cayuga, Onondaga and Wayne counties. The winner of the contest hosted by Katko, R-Camillus, will have their artwork displayed for one year in the U.S. Capitol.

The list of accepted artwork includes paintings, drawings, prints, mixed media, computer-generated art and photography. The dimensions may be up to 26 inches wide by 26 inches tall by four inches thick. It must be two-dimensional and original in concept, design and execution.

There is a 15-pound weight limit for submitted artwork and it must not violate U.S. copyright laws.

More information on contest rules and other requirements can be found at katko.house.gov.

"Central New York is home to many talented artists and this competition is a fantastic opportunity to showcase our local talent in the U.S. Capitol," Katko said in a statement. "Each year, we receive many diverse and unique entries and I look forward to seeing this year's submissions."
Megyn Kelly has waded into the Stormy Daniels-Donald Trump saga by claiming she too was threatened by the President's people.

Appearing on 60 Minutes Sunday, former porn star Daniels said she was threatened and told to 'leave Trump alone' after she claimed to have had an affair with him back in 2006.

In the fallout of the interview, Kelly came out to claim the Republican leader's campaign manager Corey Lewandowski tried to get her removed as a moderator for a 2D Fox News debate.

Megyn Kelly, pictured hosting Megyn Kelly Today, has come out to claim she too has been a victim of Donald Trump's people

Megyn Kelly has waded into the Stormy Daniels-Donald Trump (pictured) saga by claiming she too was threatened by the President's people

Stormy Daniels revealed on '60 Minutes' that she and her infant daughter were threatened after it was learned that she planned to tell all about President Donald Trum

As the world dissected the stunning interview, Kelly tweeted: 'And lets not forget this, from #coreylewandowski  who threatened me if I dared to show up at the 2d Fox News debate. Sound familiar?'

Megyn Kelly has waded into the Stormy Daniels-Donald Trump saga by claiming she too was threatened by the President's people

Along with the post, she posted an excerpt from her Settle for More book released in 2016.

The book reads: 'Out of the blue, he threatened me not to come.

'He went on Twitter and asked his followers if he should go to the debate at all. He accused me of being unfair.

'For the first time I thought, "Is this real? Or is this for attention?" With Trump, you just never know. Sunday, he kept at it. Tweet, tweet, tweet.

'At the same time, Trump's campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, made a phone call to Bill Sammon (Fox News editor) and tried to get me booted off the debate team.

'When Sammon told him it was out of the question, Lewandowski threatened me, saying I'd had a "rough couple of days after the last debate,' and he "would hate to have [me] go through that again".

'The tone was unmistakable. Sammon warned Lewandowski that he was out of line.

Kelly came out to claim the Republican leader's campaign manager Corey Lewandowski (pictured center) tried to get her removed as a moderator for a 2D Fox News debate

'I was far from the only woman or reporter Lewandowski had threatened.'

President Trump's former campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, denied ever recommending that the president fire his chief of staff, John Kelly.

'No, I never have,' Lewandowski replied when asked the question by NBC's Chuck Todd for Sunday's Meet the Press.

In the aftermath of the Rob Porter scandal, Vanity Fair reported that Lewandowski had phoned Trump and recommended that he ax Kelly.

On Sunday, Lewandowski called Kelly an 'American patriot' and said he's done a 'fantastic job serving his country,' when it was mentioned how the idea of firing Kelly was often attributed to Lewandowski.

'He has recognized how difficult a job it is to be the chief of staff to the president of the United States,' the former top Trump aide said.

'And and I don't believe it's General Kelly's job to manage the president. His job is to manage the staff. And that's what he has been doing.'

Kelly and Trump sparred in the build-up to the the Republican earning his seat in the Oval Office. But one of the great feuds of the 2016 elections came to an abrupt end and in May and this interview ended up with cute quips about exchanging cell phone numbers

Kelly and Trump sparred in the build-up to the the Republican earning his seat in the Oval Office.

The journalist had called out the property tycoon over his sexist comments and he held nothing back in responding.

Trump tweeted in January 2016 at the height of their feud: 'I refuse to call Megyn Kelly a bimbo, because that would not be politically correct. Instead I will only call her a lightweight reporter.'

The tit-for-tat continued until the pair sat down in May, but sparks did not fly.

One of the great feuds of the 2016 elections came to an abrupt end and the interview ended up with cute quips about exchanging cell phone numbers.

Trump said he didn't mean to call Kelly a 'bimbo', then showed slight contrition for dragging Ted Cruz's wife into his rivalry with the senator during the race for the GOP nomination.

The pair performed the interview seated across from each other on the Republican presumptive nominee's turf inside Trump Tower in Manhattan.

According to Daniels, she agreed to tell her story about her tryst with Donald Trump to a sister publication of In Touch magazine for $15,000 dollars

The Kelly revelation comes after an extraordinary interview by Stormy Daniels, who described the moment she and her infant daughter were threatened by a mystery man to keep quiet after she told a magazine about her tryst with Donald Trump.

Daniels appeared on '60 Minutes' on Sunday night in a highly-anticipated interview with Anderson Cooper.

The 39-year-old, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, said the man approached in a parking lot in Las Vegas her as she prepared for a fitness class and said: 'Leave Trump alone. Forget the story.'

'And then he leaned around and looked at my daughter and said: "That's a beautiful little girl. It'd be a shame if something happened to her mom." And then he was gone,' she added.

She was holding a bag of diapers and trying to put her daughter in a car seat at the time.

According to Daniels, the altercation took place after she agreed to tell her story to a sister publication of In Touch magazine for $15,000 dollars in 2011.

Daniels told Cooper that she was approached in a parking lot for a fitness class with her infant daughter when she approached by a man

The 39-year-old, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, said the affair began after the two m t in July 2006 at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe

Daniels said that following the conversation she was rattled and that, when she got to the workout class, her hands are shaking so much she was scared she was going to drop her daughter.

She told Cooper that she's never forgotten the face of the man who threatened her and that she'd recognize it today.

She added that she never went to police because was too scared.

She publicly denied having an affair with Trump for multiple years and signed a non-disclosure agreement before going public.

Daniels, who has been married to drummer and porn producer Glendon Crain since 2010, said she never planned on having children until she met her future husband.

In 2012, in an interview with The Daily Beast, Daniels discussed doing two years worth of work in porn in one year because 'I'm not like a normal mom. I can't work while I'm pregnant. I did two years of work in one year.'

Daniels has gone to great lengths to keep her seven-year-old daughter out of the mainstream media and never shares photos of her on social media.
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President Emmanuel Macron has today hailed the hero police officer murdered by an ISIS terrorist as the symbol of the 'French spirit of resistance' .

Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame, 44, was stabbed in the throat and shot repeatedly after taking the place of a female hostage during the siege in Trebes, east of the popular medieval tourist city of Carcassonne, last Friday.

Today, his coffin was carried in a procession from Paris' Pantheon to a ceremony at Hotel des Invalides, where he was posthumously awarded the Legion of Honor for his bravery.

In his eulogy to the murdered cop, President Macron said: 'The name of his attacker will be forgotten, but the name of Arnaud Beltrame will live on.'

French President Emmanuel Macron leans at the coffin of Lt. Col. Arnaud Beltrame, with his posthumoua Legion of Honor lyinf on top of the French flag at the Hotel des Invalides in Paris

In honour: Officials of the French gendarmerie nationale and French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb, pictured bottom and centre, hold a minute of silence for Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame at the Interior Ministry in Paris.

True hero: A portrait of Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame, who was stabbed and shot by an ISIS-terrorist during a siege at a supermarket when he swapped himself for a female hostage last Friday

French President Emmanuel Macron stands in front of the flag-drapped coffin of Lt. Col. Arnaud Beltrame, after paying tribute to the brave police officer in Paris today

Eulogy: French President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech during a national ceremony for Lt. Col Beltrame, whose coffin stands draped with the national flag, at the Hotel des Invalides in Paris

The French leader vowed to ensure 'he will not have died in vain,' ,' urging the nation to be vigilant in the face of an 'insidious' jihadist threat.

'His example will remain etched in French hearts,' the president told hundreds gathered in the rain at the historic Hotel des Invalides military museum and hospital in central Paris.

'To accept to die so the innocent can live: that is the essence of what it means to be a soldier,' he said, comparing the policeman's sacrifice to those of France's World War II heroes.

'Others, even many who are brave, would have wavered or hesitated.

'We are not just fighting terrorist groups, the armies of Daesh and imams who preach hate and death,' Macron said, using another name for the Islamic State group.

French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron leave after the ceremony

French President Emmanuel Macron reviews troops of Republican Guards and cadets from the joint-army military school ahead of the national ceremony for Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame at the Hotel des Invalides in Paris

President Macron and Prime Minister Edouard Philippe stand in silence during the ceremony at the Hotel des Invalides

French Republican Guards and cadets from the joint-army military school carry the coffin during the ceremony at the Hotel des Invalides in Paris, France

French Republican guards carry the flag-draped coffin of Lt. Col. Beltrame during the ceremony at the Hotel des Invalides

Lt. Col. Beltrame will be awarded the Legion of Honor posthumously by President Emmanuel Macron today

France is also facing a form of 'underground Islamism' that 'corrupts on a daily basis', he said, blasting it as 'an insidious enemy which requires renewed vigilance and civic-mindedness from every citizen'.

Three former presidents, Francois Hollande, Nicolas Sarkozy and Valery Giscard d'Estaing, were also in attendance at the ceremony, as well as several senior politicians.

Today's national homage includes a minute's silence in French police stations and myriad events in schools that both honour Lt. Col. Beltrame's memory and provide a focal point for national grief after last Friday's killing spree.

Some 2,000 high school students and scores of police attended the Paris event that began as gendarmes sang the French revolutionary anthem the Marseillaise in the stone courtyard of the French Interior Ministry.

Also present today is his wife, Marielle. The couple were devout Catholics, and were married by a priest as Lt Col Beltrame lay dying in hospital on Saturday.

Lt Col Beltrame reportedly kept a picture of himself and Marielle in his hat, and the family have said the hat, with the picture in, will rest with him in his coffin.

A convoy of French Republican Guards escorting the coffin of late Lieutenant Colonel Arnaud Beltrame transported by car during a funeral procession arrives for a national ceremony, at the Hotel des Invalides in Paris

Former French Presidents Francois Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire and Minister of Ecological and Social Transition Nicolas Hulot wait prior to a national tribute for Colonel Beltrame at the Hotel des Invalides

French President's wife Brigitte Macron at the Hotel des Invalides ahead of the ceremony in honour of Lt. Col. Beltrame

Politicians and Parisians attend a national ceremony at the Hotel des Invalides in honour of the hero policeman

French far left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon, second right, waits with French feminists Caroline Autain, left, prior to a national ceremony for Lt. Col. Arnaud Beltrame, at the Hotel des Invalides in Paris

Beltrame, a member of the gendarmerie military police force, died offering to take the place of a female checkout worker whom attacker Radouane Lakdim was using as a human shield.

Lakdim, who claimed allegiance to ISIS, had already shot dead the passenger of a car he hijacked in nearby Carcassonne, before driving to the supermarket and killing two more people there.

Beltrame hoped to be able to negotiate with the 25-year-old, but Lakdim stabbed him in the throat and the officer died of his wounds the next morning.

It has now emerged that a full five bullets were fired from Lt. Col. Beltrame's Sig Sauer 9 mm service pistol after three hours in captivity.

The evidence points to a struggle with Lakdim after the terrorist discovered that the policeman was carrying a gun.

A total of four men were murdered in the attacks around Carcassonne before Lakdim himself was gunned down by special forces GIGN police.

Hundreds braved the rain in to wait for the hearse transporting the coffin containing the body of Lt. Col. Beltrame in Paris

People gather to watch as the coffin of the late Lieutenant Colonel Arnaud Beltrame is transported by car during a funeral procession leaving the Pantheon as part of a national tribute

Police on motorcycles escort the coffin of the late Lt.Col. Beltrame transported by car during a funeral procession leaving the Pantheon as part of a national tribute in Paris, France

Speaking on Wednesday, Interior Minister Gerard Collomb confirmed the security services were about to reduce the surveillance on Lakdim, who was on a radicalization watch list.

'Ultimately no one thought that there would be a hasty attack,' he said.

Lakdim's girlfriend was also on police radar. Investigating judges on Tuesday filed preliminary charges of criminal terrorist association against the woman, identified only as Marine P., according to a judicial official.

The prosecutor said the girlfriend denied involvement in Lakdim's plans. But Molins said she posted online a Quran verse 'indicating that infidels were promised to hell' just a few hours before the attack.

Lt. Col. Beltrame had left his phone on inside the supermarket after taking the place of a woman checkout assistant identified only as Julie.

In honour: French gendarmes hold a minute of silence in Carcassonne, southwestern France

Rrspect: French Gendarmes attend a ceremony in tribute of Beltrame at the Gendarmerie Nationale Headquarters in Issy-les-Moulineaux near Paris , France

Cadets from the joint-army military school and police officers gather prior to a national ceremony for Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame, at the Hotel des Invalides in Paris

Tributes are pictured in front of barracks of the gendarmerie on March 28, 2018 in Carcassonne

This enabled colleagues to hear what was going on inside the shop, right up until gunfire signalled the fight.

A source close to the enquiry into the bloodbath said 'it took place in a store room, and five spent cartridges from the Sig Sauer were found near Arnaud's body'.

Lakdim's own 7.65mm pistol was found with an empty cartridge, alongside a bloodstained machete.

Lt Col Beltrame was trained at the elite St-Cyr military academy before starting a brilliant career which included service in Iraq, and guarding the Elysee Palace in Paris.

His funeral will take place in the south of France on Thursday, along with that of the other three victims: Herve Sosna, Jean Mazieres and Christian Medves.
Airlines have been accused of marking up the price of food and drink by as much as 8,900 per cent in a bid to squeeze more money out of passengers.

A report has shed light on the inflated prices being charged for snacks on flights - from 2.23 for a packet of crisps to 2.70 for a cup of tea and 2.68 for a bottle of water.

To give an indication of just how lucrative snack sales are for airlines, prices in the air have been compared to prices charged in a supermarket.

Jet2 airline charges 2.70 for a cup of tea on a flight when you can pick up a 40 tea bags in a supermarket for 1.35 - or just 3p a bag

Ryanair charges 2.68 for a bottle of water where a similar product costs 36p in a shop

Budget airline Jet2 charges a premium 2.70 for a cup of tea, when you would be available to pick up a pack of 40 PG Tips Pyramid tea bags at Tesco, Asda or Sainsburys for 1.35 - or just 3p a bag.

This equates to a mark up of around 8,900 per cent, according to the analysis by flight comparison site Kayak.

Ryanair is only marginally cheaper, charging 2.68 for a cup of tea, with Jet2 and EasyJet both charging 2.50.

Jet2 also charges the most for coffee, at 2.70 for a cup. Travellers can buy eight individual sachets of Nescafe Gold Latte for 1.50, which works out at just 19p per cup. This equates to a mark up of 1,321 per cent, according to the report.

Ryanair charges the most for a bottle of water and a soup - both costing 2.68, or three euros.

Passengers would be able to pick up a bottle of water in Tesco for as little as 36p and a sachet of instant soup for 20p at Tesco.

Those who feel peckish during a flight also have to cough up.

EastJet charges 2.50 for a muffin - when a similar treat can be bought from a supermarket for as little as 25p as part of a multipack. This amounts to a 900 per cent mark up.

A bag of peanuts will set you bag 1.80 on a Flybe flight and as little as 48p at Tesco, while Easyjet charges 1.80 for a chocolate bar which could be purchased for 50p as Sainsburys.

The survey was conducted by online comparison website Kayak

The findings emerge after the Mail revealed the government is poised to launch an official probe into charges imposed by airlines for extras including seat reservations, baggage fees and new boarding passes.

The food and drink costs may be more galling for those who fly with British Airways as it only started to charge for sandwiches, snacks and drinks on short haul flights in January last year.

While the airlines snacks and drinks are not the most expensive, a cup of coffee or tea costs 2.50.

Neil Cartwright, travel expert at Kayak said: When were on flights, passengers are pretty much the definition of a captive audience, making it tempting for airlines to charge as much as they think they can get away with.

However, we do recognise that airlines are providing a service by offering food and drink to passengers.

Onboard sales and extra charges for add-ons such as baggage provide a crucial source of income for airlines - particularly budget carriers which typically offer cheaper fares.

The sale of food, drink, perfume and other items such as scratchcards provided 1.5billion in ancillary revenue for Ryanair in 2016 - 27 per cent of its total revenue, Last year a Daily Mail investigation revealed how cabin crew are set strict sales targets and face being penalised if they fall short.

Measures that have taken against crew who do not make the grade included being suddenly removed from their home bases away from their families to be placed anywhere in Europe.

An EasyJet spokesperson said: Providing an on-board range of food and drink brings with it associated supply chain costs, such as loading and security processes which are not incurred by high street shops or supermarkets.

These factors inevitably affect the prices we charge, however, we are confident that we always provide good value and choice for our customers.

For example, our 7 meal deal with a main meal, snack and drink provides savings of up to 29 per cent.
An eagle-eyed Tesco worker was shocked to find a live frog hidden in a bunch of bananas.

The tree frog, native to the Dominican Republic, is better known for hopping from tree to tree in the rainforest - rather than turning up in a bag of fruit in Blackburn, Lancashire.

The worker immediately contacted the RSPCA, whose staff advised her to make tiny air holes in the plastic and add some water for moisture.

Staff then took the frog to an exotics rescue centre Reptilia, which identified the critter as a Dominican tree frog and fittingly named him Nana.

This Dominican tree frog was spotted in a bag of bananas at a Tesco in Blackburn, Lancashire

The shop worker immediately contacted the RSPCA, whose staff advised her to make tiny air holes in the plastic and add some water for moisture

It is likely the case that the frog was hidden in the bananas while they were cut from the trees and was not seen until it was spotted by the shop worker

Tesco said its growers work hard to inspect packaged fruit carefully but this sort of thing can happen on rare occasions.

It is likely the case that the frog was hidden in the bananas while they were cut from the trees and was not seen until it was spotted by the shop worker last Friday.

Amphibian from the Caribbean: Tree frogs The Dominican tree frog - also known as the Hispaniolan common tree frog - is found in the Dominican Republic and Haiti... and very rarely in Blackburn, Lancashire. It is commonly found near water in forests - and as its name implies, is arboreal. Like other tree frogs, they are herbivorous as tadpoles. As adults, they are generally insectivorous and eat small invertebrates, such as moths, flies, ants, crickets and beetles. The Dominican tree frog is not poisonous. Advertisement

The frog is expected to make a full recovery despite being a little skinny following the 4,000-mile journey from the Caribbean to the local Tesco branch.

Animal collection officer (ACO) John Greaves said: 'The little tree frog was confined inside a bag of bananas so we asked [the shop worker] to make some tiny air holes in the plastic and add some water for moisture and keep him confined until we could attend.

'The amphibian must have had quite the shock when he emerged in a Lancashire supermarket considering he's used to more tropical climates usually.'

Mr Greaves collected the stowaway and took him to Reptilia - a specialist exotics rescue centre in Ossett, West Yorkshire.

'The staff there checked him over and identified him as a Dominican Republic tree frog,' he added.

'That means he's definitely a long way from home - more than 4,200 miles in fact! He's a little skinny following his ordeal but he should make a full recovery.'

Staff at Reptilia are currently taking care of the amphibian and said it will soon be up for adoption.

Staff at the Tesco store (pictured) took the frog to an exotics rescue centre Reptilia, which identified the critter as a Dominican tree frog and fittingly named him Nana

BLACKBURN, LANCASHIRE Population: Approx 148,000 March-Apr temperature: Average 9C Economy: Retail, numerous business parks DOMINICAN REPUBLIC Population: Approx 10million March-Apr temperature: 25C Economy: Primarily agriculture and tourism Advertisement

The frog is expected to make a full recovery despite being a little skinny following the 4,000-mile journey from the Caribbean to the local Tesco branch. (File image of the Dominican Republic)

A spokesman for Reptilia said: 'It's a Dominican tree frog. It's a bit underweight but it's doing fine apart from that.

'It will be looking for adoption in about six weeks' time. Since it is was found in a bunch of bananas, we have we've decided to name it Nana'.'

A Tesco spokesman said: 'As soon as our eagle-eyed colleague spotted our "unfrogrettable" friend, they hopped to it and contacted the RSPCA for help.

'We sell millions of bananas every week and our growers work hard to inspect our fruit carefully.

'However, given the freshness of our produce, this sort of thing can happen on very rare occasions.'
Nine EU countries are holding out against expelling Russian 'spies' despite the growing international reprisals over the Salisbury nerve agent attack.

Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Bulgaria and Greece have stopped short of ejecting diplomats - although they have voiced support for the UK.

Theresa May has hailed the united response to Russia in the wake of the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

After Britain declared it would remove 23 undeclared intelligence agents, the US said it would kick out 60.

President Putin (pictured in Siberia yesterday) is set to 'respond to every country' in kind after EU states, the Ukraine, the US and Canada announced the expulsion of diplomats

A swathe of European states have expelled Russian diplomats alongside Canada and the US

France and Germany have both expelled four, as have Poland and Canada.

Ireland, Moldova and Belgium yesterday became the latest of Britain's allies to expel Kremlin agents.

Nato yesterday announced it was expelling seven Russian staff and denied accreditation to three more.

The total number of suspected Russian spies kicked out now stands at almost 150, with 26 countries having taken action.

Austria, which is not a Nato member, has said it will not expel diplomats due to its principle of neutrality.

Slovakia has rejected the idea of 'theatrical gestures', while Slovenia has yet to decide on any action.

Luxembourg today said it would recalling its ambassador to Moscow for consultations, following in the footsteps of Bulgaria,

Turkey, a Nato member, has condemned the Novichok attack but stopped short of reprisals against Russia.

The PM told the Cabinet yesterday that the move against Russia was 'an unprecedented series of expulsions that has demonstrated to the Kremlin that we will not tolerate their attempts to flout international law, undermine our values or threaten our security'.

Sergei Skripal, 66, (left, in 2006) and his daughter Yulia, 33, (right) are critically ill in hospital after being exposed to an unknown substanc

Theresa May gave evidence to MPs last night (pictured) about Russia and her actions in response to the Salisbury attack

The Prime Minister added: 'It is also important to note that our partners are not only taking these measures out of solidarity with the UK, but also because they recognise the threat that these Russian networks pose to the security of their own countries and the pattern of Russian aggression which has affected us all.'

Irish deputy premier and foreign minister Simon Coveney said: 'The use of chemical weapons, including the use of any toxic chemicals as weapons, by anyone, anywhere, is particularly shocking and abhorrent.

'The attack in Salisbury was not just an attack against the United Kingdom, but an affront to the international rules-based system on which we all depend for our security and well-being.'

Despite the freeze in relations, Mrs May last night wrote to Mr Putin expressing condolences over the fire at a Siberian shopping centre which left 64 people dead.
Millions of Britons could lose their rights to urgent medical treatment while travelling in the EU after Brexit, peers have warned.

Currently, British nationals who suddenly need hospital treatment have their care covered through the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) scheme.

But the Lords EU Committee said there is no guarantee Britain will get to stay in the scheme after the country leaves the EU.

The British Government says it wants the UK to stay in the scheme - which provides for free or cheaper treatment in the EU, the three European Economic Area and Switzerland.

But the committee said the current arrangements were based on the free movement of people which ministers are pledged to end when Britain leaves the EU in March 2019.

The Lords EU Committee (pictured) said there is no guarantee Britain will get to stay in the scheme after the country leaves the EU

It said: 'In the absence of an agreement on future relations that covers this topic, the rights to reciprocal healthcare currently enjoyed by 27 million UK citizens, thanks to the EHIC, will cease after Brexit.

'Without more detail from the Government about how exactly it intends to maintain reciprocal healthcare arrangements or provide a suitable replacement, this report argues that we should not take the future of UK-EU reciprocal healthcare for granted.

'Because reciprocal healthcare benefits derive from freedom of movement, we agree ... that it is difficult to square the Government's ambitions for reciprocal healthcare with its stated aim of ending freedom of movement of people from the EU.'

Lord Jay of Ewelme, the chairman of the EU home affairs sub-committee, said: 'One of the primary aims of the EU's reciprocal healthcare arrangements is to support free movement by eliminating the financial or bureaucratic barriers that individuals would otherwise face in accessing healthcare.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt (pictured) and the rest of the Government wants the UK to stay in the scheme to give UK nationals health cover in Europe after Brexit

'These arrangements have brought the greatest benefit to some of the most vulnerable members of our society.

'We do not wish to see this progress reversed in the future.

'While we applaud the spirit underlying the Government's ambition to maintain reciprocal healthcare arrangements, including the EHIC, post-Brexit, it is difficult to square this with ending freedom of movement of people from the EU.'

Theresa May has got the EU to sign up to the Brexit transition deal last week - meaning talks are now moving on to trade and the future relationship.

She has negotiated a 19 month transition deal - where the UK will effectively stay in the block until 31 December 2021.

But the details of the future relationship have yet to be thrashed out.
Abbie Payne said she was particularly shocked to see the steaks arranged in that shape

Animal rights activists have lashed out at a top London steakhouse over a competition to 'win a whole cow' - claiming it is disrespectful to the animals.

Restaurant Smith and Wollensky launched the competition on January 30, offering a 'nose to tail experience' dining experience for the winner and 19 friends.

In an advert posted on social media they wrote: 'Win a cow, yep, a whole cow, for you and 19 friends at your own S&W dinner party.

'Enter below for a chance to win the ultimate 14-course nose to tail dinner experience.'

But animal rights activists and PETA have attacked the steakhouse and branded the competition a 'tasteless gimmick.'

They have accused Smith and Wollensky of showing 'disrespect' to cows by promoting a video showing steaks laid out in the shape of the animal with 'sexy music' in the background.

On a picture of the Facebook advert, the cuts of meat are arranged to vaguely resemble the shape of a cow.

The promotion at Smith & Wollensky read: 'There's still time to Win A Cow! Click the link and enter to win a nose-to-tail dinner for you and 19 friends, courtesy of S&W London

The chain restaurant, which first opened in New York in 1977, came to London three years ago

Abbie Payne, who discovered the allegedly targeted advert on her news feed despite being vegan, said she was particularly shocked to see the steaks arranged in that shape.

The nursery worker, from Romford, East London, said: 'Obviously I understand that they are a steakhouse but it's a horrible advert. I saw it and just thought "this is horrific".

'It was so disrespectful to the animals and almost making a joke of its dead body. It says "win a cow" and is offering it as a prize - it's just distasteful.

'That's the word I've heard most often to describe it - distasteful.

'What made it even worse was they had laid out the different steaks into the shape of a cow, to show what it would have looked like when alive.

'It's like they're joking about the image of a butchered animal.

Angry vegans took to the restaurant's Facebook page to leave one star reviews and blast the establishment for the offer

'I've had meat-eater friends who have said they wouldn't go there after seeing the advert.

'There's also a video circulating online which promotes this competition.

'In the background there is almost pornographic, sexy music playing then the image of the cow.

'It's very strange. I don't really understand what they are trying to achieve by running the competition. It seems like some sort of a publicity stunt.

'I'm also a vegan so I'm not sure how a sponsored advert, that I thought was targeted at people based on their online activity, is appearing on my news feed.'

Nursery worker Abbie said: 'Obviously I understand that they are a steakhouse but it's a horrible advert. I saw it and just thought "this is horrific"'

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have also condemned the competition, labelling it a 'tasteless gimmick'.

A spokesperson said: 'At a time when so many people are losing their appetite for animal flesh - and restaurants worth their salt are boosting their vegan credentials - it's not surprising that this steak restaurant is having to resort to a tasteless gimmick to try to get customers through the door.

'Of course, what the marketing materials won't tell you is that many cows used in the beef industry spend their entire lives indoors on filthy factory farms, where they may develop respiratory problems because of the choking chemicals that fill the air as a result of the piles of manure around them.

'And if this restaurant truly wants to offer diners an experience they'll never forget, it should be showing them that at the end of these cows' miserable lives, they're commonly shot with a captive-bolt gun, hung upside down, and bled to death.

'When it comes to animals, human health, and the future of the planet, delicious vegan foods - of which there are plenty - are always the winning choice.'

A spokesperson for Smith and Wollensky claimed that only a small proportion of people had complained about the competition and said thousands of customers had entered.

He refused to comment any further on the issue.

The chain restaurant, which first opened in New York in 1977, came to London three years ago.

It is known for being one of billionaire Warren Buffett's favourite restaurants and received rave reviews since it was found more than 50 years ago.
A bizarre legal loophole that means anyone can legally park on your driveway has emerged, amid fears that it could cost thousands of pounds to remove them.

Homeowners across Britain have found a stranger's car on their driveway, before being told by the police and local council that neither can do anything about it.

Local authorities can fine a motorist blocking a driveway on a public road - but if on a driveway, it becomes private property on which councils have no jurisdiction.

Homeowners across Britain have found a stranger's car on their driveway (file picture)

Councils can also remove abandoned cars from public or private property, but they are unlikely to touch it on private land if it is taxed and insured, with a valid MOT.

Meanwhile police would likely say that although the car is trespassing it is actually a civil offence, meaning the homeowner would need an eviction notice in court.

This would begin a long and expensive legal process that would see a solicitor have to obtain the civil court's permission to track down the owner of the car.

A judge would then have to make a removal order before court enforcers could take action to remove the car  all of which would be at the cost of the homeowner.

Other options available include blocking in the stranger's car with your own vehicle, before catching them returning and asking them to move.

Homeowners could also spend at least 100 on a private tow truck to remove it but the car owner could make them pay for any damage while it is being towed.

Jack Cousens, head of roads policy for the AA, told the Sun: 'In a bizarre way, the system seems to favour the offender over the victim in this case.

'Because the offence of trespass is a civil matter the police cannot get involved, and as the vehicle is on private land the council cannot help either.

Councils can remove abandoned cars from public or private property, but they are unlikely to touch it on private land if it is taxed and insured, with a valid MOT (file picture)

'So the only options available to homeowners seeking to get back what is rightfully theirs, costs both time and money.'

He added that one preventative measure would be to install a collapsible bollard on the driveway, but this is an 'expense people should not have to part with'.

Mr Cousens also told MailOnline that the issue is most likely in areas close to a train station, football ground or hospital where there is no on-street parking or parking is very expensive.

But he added: 'It happens rarely enough that it's not thought about how should we actually work this from a legislative, civil, criminal workthrough in terms of how we protect the victim.'

David Carrod, from the British Motorists' Protection Association, told MailOnline: 'It's very rare to come across instances of this sort of thing, and if it happens it's most likely to occur on properties close to sports stadia, eg Twickenham or Wembley.

In a bizarre way, the system seems to favour the offender over the victim in this case Jack Cousens, the AA

'It's true that the homeowner can only pursue the offender under a civil tort of trespass, for which the damages would usually be nominal, unless the homeowner could prove that consequential losses were incurred, such as losing pay because he couldn't get to work.

'But if the trespass action were successful in a court hearing, he would be able to recover his costs  the court claim issue fee, the hearing fee, and his witness costs for attending court.'

He added: 'Anybody with reasonable cause can apply to the DVLA on form V888/3 to get the registered keeper details of a vehicle.'

Last April a resident in Bedminster, Bristol, was left stunned when a stranger parked a car on their driveway  and the police refused to help out.

The council said it was not responsible for helping, while the DVLA said it would not contact the owner or tell the resident who owned the car.

The car, which was properly taxed and insured, was eventually moved five days later  but local residents were shocked by the lack of action by the authorities.

Jenny and Malcolm Banks, who live near a hospital in Bedfordshire, have told how they used to find strangers parked in their driveway  sometimes about once a week.

They claimed the drivers simply told them that the hospital car park was full, and were 'often abusive' - but they have now put lockable posts across the drive.
Activists in Keir Starmer's constituency said MPs used protest to attack Corbyn

Labour MPs have revealed they have been threatened with deselection for daring to speak out against anti-Semitism in the party.

Leading moderates John Mann and Wes Streeting wrote to Jeremy Corbyn telling him activists have threatened to oust them over joining the protest outside Parliament.

And they revealed the sheer scale of the hate mail Corbynistas have deluged them and Jewish MPs with.

It comes as the Board of Deputies for British Jews told the Labour leader he has to take 'personal responsibility' for tackling the abuse peddled in his name.

They said Mr Corbyn's Facebook page is still awash with anti-Semitic abuse and they said it is a 'disgrace' Labour MPs who spoke out for the Jewish community have been 'vilified'.

labour MP John Mann was among the moderates who attended the protest on Monday night to tell Jeremy Corbyn 'enough is enough' and he must do far more to tackle anti-Semitism

Labour MPs Chuka Umunna and Stella Creasy also attended the protest - but were attacked online by Corbynistas for daring to speak out against their leader

The protest was called after Jeremy Corbyn was exposed for defending this anti-Semitic mural

The group laid out a list of demands it said the Labour leader must fulfill to show he is actually trying to tackle anti-Semitism.

They said all outstanding anti-Semitism cases must come to a 'swift' conclusion, and that Labour MPs, councillors and members must not share platforms with people who have been kicked out the party for the abuse.

The Board said the party must do more to engage with the Jewish community, that change must be 'sustained and enduring'.

And they said Mr Corbyn must directly take on the activist peddling anti-Semitism in his name.

Corbyn 'was a member of fifth anti-Semitic Facebook group' Jeremy Corbyn has been hit by a fresh anti-Semitic scandal today. The Labour leader has been found to be a member of two more Facebook groups where anti-Semitic material was posted. It takes the toll up to five. He is a member of 'Jeremy Corbyn Leads Us To VICTORY' since 2015. The group contains messages about the Rothschilds and comparisons between Israel and the Nazis. He has also a member of the group' Labour for Democratic Socialism' since 2015. Users posted messages denying the Holocaust an claiming that Auschwitz was not a death camp. Advertisement

The Board wrote: 'People inside and outside the Jewish community are repeatedly subjected to abuse and insults for raising the issue of anti-Semitism in the labour party.

'This even affects those Labour MPs who showed their solidarity with the Jewish community on Monday. This is a disgrace. Nobody should be vilified for opposing anti-Semitism.'

They said Mr Corbyn must say 'publicly, in your own voice' that everyone has a right to protest against anti-Semitism and that this is not part of an anti-Corbyn smear.

Hundreds of people descended on Parliament Square to tell Mr Corbyn 'enough is enough' and demand he finally confront anti-Semitism among his supporters.

The Labour leader issued a grovelling apology insisting he is a 'militant' opponent of the racism - although he snubbed the protest and did not meet its leaders.

But now many of the Labour MPs who went to the protest 'in solidarity' have been inundated by hate mail from Corbynistas and told to kill themselves.

And activists in the constituency of leading moderate Keir Starer, the shadow Brexit secretary, have accused the MPs of attending the demonstration to 'attack' Mr Corbyn.

Mr Streeting tweeted an example of some of the hate mail he has received in the last 48 hours.

A man called Nick Nelson branded him a 'red tory neoliberal scumbag...traitor', accusing him of taking part in a 'pathetic smear campaign' and telling him to 'resign...kill yourself you worthless Tory.'

Mr Streeting, MP for Ilford North, said: 'Nick Nelson seems like a nice chap, but I won't be acting on his advice that I kill myself.

'As Nye Bevan might have said: this is my fan mail, tell me yours.'

A twitter user accused Labour moderates who joined in the protest of standing with 'Tory Jews'

Labour MP West Streeting tweeted an example of some of the hate mail he has received in the last 48 hours.

Labour MPs Wes Streeting and John Mann have written to Jeremy Corbyn to tell him they have received a 'torrent of abuse' in the wake of the anti-Semitism protest

Donna Sloane wrote online: Harriet Harman, Stella Cresey, John Mann, Ruth (smeeth) and Chuka stood shoulder to shoulder with Tory Jews. #IStandWithJeremyCorbyn 'WeAreJeremyCorbyn #JC4PM.'

Mr Streeting and fellow moderate Labour MP John Mann, who also attended the protest, have written to the Labour leader to highlight the flood of the abuse they have received.

What are the anti-Semitic incidents in Labour that have reached a crisis under Corbyn's watch? Jeremy Corbyn defended an artist who painted an anti-Semitic mural in 2012, questioning why the offensive art should be removed

He was a member of a Facebook group which was awash with anti-Semitic rhetoric, and he has described anti-Semitic groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah as 'our friends'

The Labour leader stood by when a speaker disrupted the launch of his party's anti-Semitism policy by accusing a Jewish MP of colluding with the press

Labour has still failed to expel former London mayor Ken Livingstone, two years after he claimed Hitler supported Zionism. He has still not apologised

Delegates at last year's Labour conference complained of a 'witch hunt' against anti-Semitism and heard from a speaker who said it was legitimate to question the Holocaust

The problem is so rife in the party the Jewish Labour Movement has had to hold training sessions for party members on how not to be anti-Semitic

Labour members and councillors have shared disgusting messages and images on Facebook describing Jewish people of controlling world capitalism and being to blame for the policies of the Israeli government

The party is failing to deal with a huge backlog of complaints and has failed to expel people even though they have committed offences such as referring to Jewish people as Yids

Corbyn ally Len McCluskey, the Unite general secretary, has dismissed anti-Semitism claims as 'mood music' spread by Blairites.

Labour's new general secretary Jennie Formby was accused of recruiting a party member suspended for saying Hitler was a Zionist god. Advertisement

In the letter they state: 'Those of us who have spoken out against anti-Semitism have received a torrent of abuse and threats of deselection.

'Our Jewish colleagues have in the last 24 hours alone, received social media abuse accusing them of running a smear campaign and have subjected them to further anti-Semitic remarks.'

The onslaught of abuse comes as Corbyn-backing activists in party branches also mobilise to condemn Labour moderates who joined the protest.

In Holborn and St Pancras, Sir Keir's local constituency in central London, activists rounded on MPs who joined the throng outside Parliament.

In a motion passed last night, they accused the doze n or so Labour politicians who took part of using the demo to attack their leader.

The motion states: 'This Party believes that Jeremy Corbyn is opposed to anti-Semitism and all forms of racism and is totally committed to working for equality for all.

'The main stream media have ignored the many occasions he has led the fight against anti-Semitism.

'Particularly with local elections pending, it is disappointing that some Labour MPs used this important issue to attack our Party's leadership.'

It also accused those who have criticised My Corbyn for tolerating anti-Semitism in Labour's ranks of launching 'disproportionate attacks.

It said: 'This Party does not equate anti-Semitism with criticism of the State of Israel's treatment of Palestinians.

'We call for the recommendations of the Chakrabarti Inquiry for fair disciplinary procedures to be implemented.

'Sadly, while no section of society can claim complete immunity from traces of racism including anti-Semitism, the present spate of attacks on the Party is disproportionate.

'The respected Institute of Jewish Policy Research has located anti-Semitism in the UK mainly among parties of the Right.'

Mr Corbyn issued a groveling apology to Jewish leaders on Monday night after he was exposed for defending an anti-Semitic mural.

Hundreds joined the protest, which was called by Jewish leaders after what they said had been years of non action by Jeremy Corbyn

Hundreds of protesters gathered on Parliament Square on Monday night (pictured) to hear Jewish leaders warn Jeremy Corbyn 'enough was enough' in an anti-Semitism storm

Corbynistas hosted their own counter demonstration on Monday night (pictured) where they insisted criticism of him oer anti-Semitism was just a pot to oust him

But critics said the time for words had finished and demanded tough action on rooting out the abuse - with some Labour MPs warning their party could end up being destroyed unless Mr Corbyn tackles the abuse.

Labour MP Angela Smith, a member of the influential committee of backbench Labour MPs, said Mr Corbyn must explain himself to his MPs.

She told PoliticsHome: 'The most important thing he can do is turn up and illustrate to us what his plan is for dealing with it.

'He's had some time now to start thinking through what the early actions are and he needs to give an idea to the Parliamentary Committee what his response is.

'It's important that he comes along and shows some leadership.'

Labour has been dogged by anti-Semitism scandals ever since Mr Corbyn was elected leader in 2015.
Kim Jong-un made his first foreign visit as Supreme Leader to China this week as he repeated his pledge to abandon North Korea's nuclear weapons program.

But doubts have been raised about whether the offer is genuine as satellite imagery showed increased activity at a reactor located north of Pyongyang.

North Korea has long viewed the development of nuclear weapons as key to the survival of the Kim dynasty and as a means to force other foreign powers to take the dictatorship seriously.

A satellite image taken last month at a nuclear reactor in North Korea. Steam coming from the stack and new construction around the facility shows testing has likely begun

Kim Jong-un pledged to give up his nuclear program during his visit to Beijing this week, his first foreign trip as Supreme Leader, but doubt remains over whether the promise is genuine

Kim visited China from Sunday to Wednesday with his wife, Ri Sol Ju, where they held talks and a banquet while Kim said he was willing to talk to the United States

Kim Jong Un, left, and his wife Ri Sol Ju wave from a car as they bid farewell to President Xi and his wife, Ri Sol Ju

Donald Trump tweeted about his proposed meeting with Kim Jong-un this morning, saying that he was looking forward to it and hoping that 'Kim Jong-un will do what is right'

Steam rising from the stack of the Yongbyon Atomic Energy Research Center combined with new construction suggests testing has begun at the facility, according to analysis by IHS Markit.

While the facility is designed to produce energy it could easily be adapted to manufacture weapons-grade nuclear material.

That material could then power a hydrogen bomb Kim claims to have developed, which in turn could be mounted on a Hwasong-15 missile, which Kim says can range virtually anywhere in the world.

Donald Trump tweeted on Wednesday morning that Xi had messaged him following talks with Kim, saying they went 'very well'.

Trump also said Kim is looking forward to meeting him but that sanctions must be maintained in the meantime.

'For years and through many administrations, everyone said that peace and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula was not even a small possibility.

'Now there is a good chance that Kim Jong Un will do what is right for his people and for humanity,' he added.

North Korea has pursued its nuclear program despite complete isolation from the international community and decades of punitive sanctions.

But amid a softening of relations between North and South Korea, Kim first touted the idea of giving up his nukes.

Chinese media said he repeated the pledge during talks with Xi Jinping in Beijing this week, and it is expected he will repeat the pledge a third time when he meets with President Trump at a location and date which have yet to be specified.

What he will demand in return, however, is still unknown. Still more questions remain over whether his pledge can be trusted.

Analysts are skeptical that Kim will suddenly give up the nuclear arsenal and believe he will seek a more nuanced and long-term approach that could allow him to emerge looking victorious in the minds of his people and domestic elites.

During the visit from Sunday to Wednesday, Kim held talks with Xi Jinping in Beijing, where the Chinese president hosted a banquet to welcome the North Korean leader

Kim Jong Un told Chinese President Xi Jinping that it was his 'solemn duty' to make Beijing his first overseas destination as he made his maiden foreign trip as leader

'Kim Jong-un does not need to sell anything to the North Korean population, particularly because denuclearisation is a process that will take at least 10 years to realistically achieve,' said Michael Madden, an expert on North Korea leadership at Johns Hopkins University's 38 North website.

'Pyongyang most likely envisions ... a series of incremental agreements around this, rather than one or two large grand bargains.'

Former South Korean officials who have negotiated with the North in the past say such a pivot could be difficult, but not impossible - if the United States makes major concessions Kim Jong Un can take back and parade to his people.

'Kim Jong-un would seek to propagate the idea that he induced the U.S. and international community's "surrender" by having mastered nuclear weapons,' said Kim Hyung-suk, who served as the South's vice unification minister.

'If talks go well, sanctions are eased and the economy grows. Then the people would understand Kim's denuclearisation decision and become strongly supportive of it.'

Whether such a deal would be appealing to Trump and his advisers, or indeed what the US hopes to get from the meeting, is a mystery.

But Trump's new national security adviser, John Bolton, recently said Trump should insist any meeting he holds with Kim be focused squarely on how to eliminate that country's nuclear weapons program as quickly as possible.

During Kim's trip to Beijing, he held talks with Xi at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing and he and his wife Peng Liyuan hosted a banquet for Kim and wife Ri Sol Ju.

'I have had successful talks with General Secretary Xi Jinping on developing relations between the two parties and the two countries, our respective domestic situation, maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, and other issues,' Kim said at the banquet.

Kim also committed to denuclearisation in Korea if the United States and the South showed 'goodwill', it was reported, with China agreeing to support its neighbour if nuclear tensions could be eased.

Kim visited China from Sunday to Wednesday with his wife, Ri Sol Ju, a South Korean news agency said, with President Xi also accepting an invitation to visit North Korea.

Kim (right) said he had successful talks with General Secretary Xi Jinping (left) on developing relations between the two parties and the two countries

President Xi and Kim strolled through Beijing together as they did their best to show relations were back on track after a recent chill

Kim and his wife Ri Sol Ju, visit an exhibition highlighting achievements by the Chinese Academy of Sciences

The trip comes weeks after US President Donald Trump accepted an invitation to meet Kim.

Analysts say Kim would have felt a need to consult with his country's traditional ally ahead of his planned meetings with Mr Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

'If South Korea and the United States respond with good will to our efforts and create an atmosphere of peace and stability, and take phased, synchronized measures to achieve peace, the issue of the denuclearization of the peninsula can reach resolution,' Mr. Kim said, according to Xinhua's summary of his meeting with Mr. Xi.

In a statement Tuesday night, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said: 'The Chinese government contacted the White House earlier on Tuesday to brief us on Kim Jong Un's visit to Beijing.

'The briefing included a personal message from President Xi to President Trump, which has been conveyed to President Trump.

'The United States remains in close contact with our allies South Korea and Japan.

'We see this development as further evidence that our campaign of maximum pressure is creating the appropriate atmosphere for dialogue with North Korea.'

Kim signs a message during his trip to Beijing, which was only recently confirmed by China

Kim Jong-un waves from the window of his personal train during his whirlwind visit to China

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was accompanied by his wife Ri Sol Ju for the unofficial visit

Mr Kim made the unofficial visit to China from Sunday to Wednesday at Mr Xi's invitation, China's official Xinhua News Agency said

Kim told Xi that it was his 'solemn duty' to make Beijing his first overseas destination as he made his maiden foreign trip as leader, Pyongyang's official news agency reported.

Beijing has traditionally been the closest ally of secretive North Korea, but ties have been frayed by North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons and China's backing of tough U.N. sanctions in response.

Xi hailed Kim's visit as embodying the importance with which the North Korean leader regarded ties with China.

'We speak highly of this visit,' Xi told Kim, according to Xinhua.

At a banquet in Beijing Kim said: 'There is no question that my first foreign visit is to the Chinese capital,' KCNA reported.

Bottoms up: The two leaders enjoyed a glass of wine as they met in Beijing this week

It was all smiles as the North Korean dictator sat down for a banquet during his visit to China

The leaders sought to portray strong ties between the long-time allies despite a recent chill as both countries confirmed Mr Kim's secret trip this week

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his wife Ri Sol Ju pose for pictures alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his wife Ri Sol Ju are pictured visiting the Chinese Academy of Sciences

'This is my solemn duty as someone who should value and continue the DPRK-PRC relations through generations,' he added using the countries' official acronyms.

Kim confirmed that his nuclear-armed regime was willing to hold a summit with Washington, Xinhua said.

'The DPRK is willing to have dialogue with the United States and hold a summit of the two countries,' Kim reportedly said.

'It is our consistent stand to be committed to denuclearisation on the peninsula, in accordance with the will of late President Kim Il Sung and late General Secretary Kim Jong Il,' he said.

'The issue of denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula can be resolved, if South Korea and the United States respond to our efforts with goodwill, create an atmosphere of peace and stability while taking progressive and synchronous measures for the realisation of peace.'

A dark green train (pictured), believed to be carrying a senior North Korean delegation, left the Chinese capital on Tuesday following a dramatic whirlwind visit

Earlier, a motorcade of blacked out cars had been seen entering Beijing Railway Station. The meeting between the leaders of China and North Korea was later confirmed

President Xi said: 'Both Comrade Chairman and I have personally experienced and witnessed the development of China-DPRK relationship.

'This is a strategic choice and the only right choice both sides have made based on history and reality.... This should not and will not change because of any single event at a particular time,' Xi said.

The visit to China marks Kim's first known trip since taking power in 2011 and his reported meeting with Xi was his first meeting with a foreign head of state.

Kim's father, late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, visited China several times during his rule, for the final time in May 2011, months before his death.

Past visits by Kim Jong Il to China were surrounded in secrecy, with Beijing only confirming his presence after he had crossed the border by train back into North Korea.

A limousine without car plates and bearing a gold color emblem on its side arrives amid heavy security at the train station in Beijing

A senior U.S. official said the available evidence suggested that Kim had travelled to Beijing to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping. Beijing later confirmed the meeting

Earlier, a motorcade of blacked out cars had been seen entering Beijing Railway Station while a foreign guesthouse in Beijing had a heavy security presence overnight.

The visit came ahead of planned summit meetings with Mr Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

Improving ties between North Korea, which is pursuing nuclear and missile programmes in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions, and China would be a positive sign before the planned summits, an official in Seoul said.

A Reuters reporter saw a convoy leave Beijing's Diaoyutai State Guest House, where senior foreign leaders often stay, and drive north on Tuesday morning. It was unclear where the convoy was headed.

Later, a journalist saw what was believed to be the delegation's train pulling out of a Beijing station. The group was reported to have arrived in China on Sunday after crossing from North Korea in the border city of Dandong.

The dark green train bears a distinctive yellow stripe down the side and looks the same as one used by Kim Jong-il in the past

There was a heavy police presence as a motorcade travelled along hang'an Avenue, a major east-west thoroughfare in Beijing

The news of the meeting came amid talk of preparations for a meeting between the North's reclusive leader and President Donald Trump

Xi and Kim Jong Un had reasons to meet in advance of Kim's meetings with Moon and possibly Trump, a U.S. official said.

'Xi has met Trump, and in many respects learned how to deal with him better than some people here do,' the official said.

'At the same time, despite the recent tensions, he needs to know what Kim has in mind for dealing with the South and the U.S., and he still has a lot of leverage with the North.'

Beijing is the main ally of secretive and isolated North Korea, as well as its biggest trading partner.

The rail journey between Dandong and Beijing covers more than 680 miles. It takes at least 14 hours by ordinary service, according to Chinese railway timetables.

A South Korean in Seoul watches a television news report about a visit to China by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un

Police in tactical gear block a road leading to the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing amid reports Kim Jong-un was in town, which were later confirmed

The train appeared to be the same one that was used by Kim Jong-il to visit China multiple times in the past (pictured here in 2011)

Kim Jong-il pictured visiting China on board a North Korean armoured train in 2001

The North Korean leader is due to hold separate summits with South Korea in late April and the United States in May.

'The fact that the summits are being held has been beyond our expectations. Right now, the situation surrounding the Korean peninsula is moving very quickly and it would be inadvisable to think with prejudice,' a Blue House official said.

Kim Jong Un's father, Kim Jong Il, met then-president Jiang Zemin in China in 2000 before a summit between the two Koreas in June that year.

Kim Jong Il was considered at the time to have made the visit to reaffirm close ties with China.

'North Korea likely wants to confirm its relationship with China and believes it has some leverage with which it can ask for things from China,' said Yoo Ho-yeol, Professor of North Korean studies at Seoul's Korea University.

'If North Korea speaks with the United States on its own, it might feel it is at a disadvantage but, if it has China as an ally, Pyongyang may think it will be able to protect its interests and profits during the summits.'
The New York State Retired Teachers association is offering a new $1,000 grant to assist full-time educators with an innovative program or project.

Possible areas of use include improving student achievement, curriculum support, self-esteem, bullying and teen pregnancy awareness, and more.

The grant honors Ross C. Hudson of Gouverneur, N.Y.

Applicants must be full-time teachers or administrators in a public school system in Cayuga, Chenango, Herkimer, Madison, Oneida, Onondaga or Oswego counties. The application deadline is May 1, and the winner will be notified after the end of the school year in June.

For more information, or to obtain an application, visit nysrta.org, email mrad3329@gmail.com, or write to Mary Radloff, 3299 Sands Road, Aurora, NY 13026.

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Bikie boss Mick Murray has been jailed after refusing to help authorities justifying it by saying: 'I'm not a dog.'

The Comancheros chief. 40, was hauled before Victoria's chief examiner to be quizzed about four serious alleged offences in March last year.

But on Wednesday, a Supreme Court judge sent him to prison for eight months for contempt.

Bikie boss Mick Murray has been jailed for contempt after refusing to help authorities with investigations into organised crime

Justice Peter Riordan said the Melbourne bikie's refusal to be sworn in and co-operate was both 'deliberate and flagrant'.

'Your refusal to be sworn was blatant, and you have not sought to purge your contempt,' he said.

Victoria Police's division targeting outlaw bikie gangs had summoned Murray to appear before the court.

They wanted him to be questioned about organised crime offences but he repeatedly refused to participate.

The Melbourne-based Comancheros leader told detectives 'I'm not a dog' when police asked for information

'Mate, this is very, very simple. I'm not a dog. I'm not answering questions. I'm not lagging anyone,' he told police. 'You're wasting your time.'

Murray also expressed concern about the secrecy of the coercive process, calling it the 'worst kept secret in Melbourne'.

'You guys can try and keep it a secret. It's not,' he said.

The court heard Murray was approached repeatedly by police who advised him they had uncovered a plan to harm him and his family, and his life was in danger.

Justice Riordan said his refusal to co-operate was not based on fear of retribution and jailed him for eight months

The threats, and his role in the outlaw bikie gang, has led to Murray being housed in 23-hour lockdown in Barwon Prison's Acacia unit in a cell with no windows.

But Justice Riordan said his refusal to co-operate was not based on fear of retribution, but a desire to maintain the code of silence.

'Your blunt refusal to co-operate was in direct defiance of the legislation,' he said.

'You have demonstrated no remorse and your prospects of rehabilitation are poor.'

The judge took into account his harsh prison regime and threats to him and and his family, in sentencing.
A horrified mother watched in despair as medics fought to save her 19-month-old son after he was accidentally ran over by his father.

Stelios Andrew Karsas was declared dead outside his family's fish and chip shop in Minsterley, Shropshire on the morning of December 21 last year.

His father, also called Stelios, from Cyprus, was seen reversing his Hyundai Santa Fe on CCTV. He was unaware his son had walked behind it and knocked him over in a tragic accident.

Paramedics and an air ambulance rushed to the scene in a bid to save him, but he was declared dead at 10.50am.

Stelios Andrew Karsas (pictured) was declared dead outside his family's fish and chip shop in Minsterley, Shropshire in the morning of December 21 last year

The 19-month-old (pictured) was accidentally run over by his father, also called Stelios, as he reversed his Hyundai Santa Fe in Minsterley, Shropshire

An inquest at Telford and Wrekin Coroner's Court in Shrewsbury heard the youngster died of traumatic brain injuries after the incident outside the chip shop at Minsterley Garage in Station Road, Minsterley.

A statement prepared by collision investigator, PC Nicholas Stafford, said it was unlikely Stelios's father would have been able to see his son because of his height and dark clothing.

He said shortly before the accident the Hyundai stopped to the right of his takeaway shop and a man, woman and three children were seen near the car.

CCTV footage from the scene showed the woman and two children enter the shop nearly five minutes later.

The man then got back into the car and tragically young Stelios was seen walking from the front of the car towards the back and was run over when the vehicle started reversing.

Passers-by revealed how they desperately fought to save the toddlers life as his mother Mirasol, from the Philippines, watched on.

His father, also called Stelios (pictured with him), from Cyprus, was seen reversing his Hyundai Santa Fe on CCTV. He was unaware his son had walked behind it and knocked him over in a tragic accident

A statement prepared by collision investigator, PC Nicholas Stafford, said it was unlikely Stelios's father (pictured) would have been able to see his son because of his height and dark clothing

Hero nursing home carer Simon Jones was passing the scene and tried to save Stelios' life.

He and a colleagued performed CPR in a desperate attempt to keep him alive until an ambulance could arrive.

Simon said: 'I deal with death and dying frequently but nothing can prepare you for what I saw that day. The child in question was only 19 months old.

'When I arrived a colleague of mine was already there. Her husband waved me over and suddenly I saw the little boy lying on his side with his mouth full of blood.

'I turned him with my colleague's assistance slightly more on his side to clear his airway.

'Another lady behind me was on the phone to the ambulance operator, who told us we had to start CPR.

Stelios (pictured) died as a result of a head injury caused by a vehicle, said the coroner

'My colleague assisted by doing the compressions while I concentrated on the breaths, and we did this until the ambulance arrived.

'His mum was there and as far as I am aware they owned the chip shop the little man was lying outside.

'She was in bits but once we started CPR everything else became background noise.

'It made me feel useless in all truth. I'm properly broken and I can't close my eyes without seeing his face.

'He had the eyes of an angel and I'm so sorry I couldn't do more. I'll always think of him even though I never knew him.

'The emergency services were fantastic and responded so quickly, and I have to thank the three people there helping me. I'm gutted the outcome wasn't a different one.'

PC Stafford added: 'Children that age do not generally understand the dangers of a vehicle that is moving.'

Delivering his conclusion, senior coroner for Shropshire Telford and Wrekin, John Ellery, said: 'Stelios was in a collision with a car and not only were there several witnesses to what occurred, it was captured on the Minsterley Garage CCTV.'

In the immediate aftermath of the tragedy floral tributes were laid at the scene of the crash in Minsterley, Shropshire

He said Stelios died as a result of a head injury caused by a vehicle, and delivered a conclusion of death by road traffic collision.

No police charges were brought against the boy's father. The family were not present at the hearing.

In the immediate aftermath of the tragedy floral tributes were laid at the scene of the crash.

Family friends spoke of their grief and the local Methodist church invited people to light candles in memory of the little boy.

Writing on Facebook, The Reverend Pam Bickley of Holy Trinity Church, Minsterly said: 'If you would like to light a candle in memory of Stelios, the little boy killed yesterday in Minsterley, Holy Trinity Minsterley is open all day today and tomorrow.

'Please pray for his family. Rest in peace little one. God bless.'
A toddler boy in China has been rescued after having his head trapped in a security gate when the automatic barrier suddenly retracted.

His mother can be seen desperately trying to pull his son out before onlookers rushed over to help.

The three-year-old was freed after a swift rescue and was taken to a hospital for checkup. He did not sustain any injuries.

A mother and her three-year-old son are waiting at a gate outside a kindergarten in China (left). The boy had his head trapped inside the gate when the barrier suddenly moved (right)

According to Jiangxi Network Television, the incident happened outside a kindergarten in Yinchuan in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region on March 19.

The unnamed boy can be seen climbing on a security gate and putting his head in between the metal gate, but the automatic gate suddenly started pulling back.

Nearby CCTV clip shows the boy in red top gets his head stuck in the gate.

His mother desperately tried to free her son while calling for help.

Onlookers including one policeman rushed towards the gate to pull the gate to the right in a bid to save the boy.

Onlookers came to help pulling the bars apart as they heard the mother yelling for help

Police officer Qiao Kun said the boy had his head and his left shoulder stuck inside the gate

The mother took her son to a nearby hospital for checkup as soon as the boy was freed

On-duty police officer Qiao Kun told the reporter that the toddler had his head and left shoulder firmly stuck inside the gate.

He added that the gate was still pressing on the boy during the moment of rescue.

Few minutes later, the boy was rescued and sent to a nearby hospital.

The boy did not sustain any injuries.
A former Catalan politician facing extradition to Spain has been bailed after handing herself in to police in Scotland today.

Professor Clara Ponsati, former education minister in the Executive Council of Catalonia facing extradition to Spain, surrendered to officers in Edinburgh after a European Arrest Warrant was issued for her.

But she remains 'resolute, defiant and determined to fight back', according to her legal team, and plans to resist any attempts to remove her from Scotland through the courts.

The 61-year-old, who works at the University of St Andrews in Fife, returned to the country earlier this month to resume her role as an economics and finance professor after spending months in Belgium with exiled Catalan leader Carles Puidgemont.

Clara Ponsati mimed that she is keeping her silence after she was bailed at police station

She was all smiles as she posed for pictures with her lawyer Aamer Anwar after the brief police appointment

Former Catalan education minister Clara Ponsati, pictured with her lawyer Aamer Anwar, has surrendered to police in Scotland after a European Arrest Warrant was issued for her

Professor Ponsati, who works at the University of St Andrews in Fife, is being sought on charges of 'violent rebellion and misappropriation of public funds'

Scores of protesters gathered outside Edinburgh Sheriff Court today where Prof Ponsati appeared earlier today

Her lawyer Aamer Anwar said he was preparing her for a court appearance today where she intends to fight extradition.

Outside the police station he said: 'Clara remains defiant, resolute and is determined to fight back.

'She wants to thank the many hundreds of thousands of ordinary people especially in Scotland who have shown her such love and support.

'She is truly humbled by the unconditional support from students, colleagues and the principal at St Andrews University.

'Clara wishes to thank Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish Government and politicians for their solidarity. Scotland has been a true friend to Catalonia in her darkest hours.

'However it is absolutely right that the independence of the judiciary in Scotland is respected and that no Government should ever interfere in that process. Clara accepts her fate now lies in the hands of the Scottish Justice system.'

Professor Ponsati, is being sought by the authorities in Madrid on charges of 'violent rebellion and misappropriation of public funds' over her role in Catalonia's controversial independence referendum last year.

She denies the charges and is set to embark on a legal fight to resist the attempts to have her returned Spain.

The academic appeared from custody at an initial hearing at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.

The hearing before Sheriff Nigel Ross lasted less than 10 minutes on Wednesday afternoon with a number of her supporters present in the packed court room.

Prof Ponsati views the charges as 'political persecution', according to her lawyer

The court heard Prof Ponsati does not consent to extradition and the application for bail was not opposed by the Crown.

She was granted bail and asked to surrender her passport.

Her lawyer says she views the charges - which could attract a jail term of up to 30 years - as 'political persecution' and believes that her human rights cannot be guaranteed in Spain.

Scottish-based Prof Ponsati attended a police station in Edinburgh voluntarily on Wednesday morning after she was made the subject of a European arrest warrant last week.

She was placed under arrest and formally had the European Arrest Warrant read to her.

Prof Ponsati returned to Scotland earlier in March having been in Belgium since fleeing Spain with Catalonia's ex-leader Carles Puigdemont and three other former cabinet members, following an unsuccessful bid to declare independence from Spain in October.

Mr Anwar, pictured left and right with Prof Ponsati, said he would 'robustly defend' her against attempts to extradite her to Spain

The protesters were showing solidarity with the former Catalan minister and have called for the attempt to extradite her to be blocked

Demonstrators waved Catalan flags and held up posters pledging their support to Prof Ponsati

She had resumed working at the University of St Andrews in Fife.

But a Spanish judge issued arrest warrants on Friday for Prof Ponsati and the other fugitive politicians including Mr Puigdemont, who was detained by police in Germany.

On Monday, a group of protesters congregated outside the Spanish consulate in Edinburgh to demonstrate against the arrest warrant and the actions of the Spanish Government.

Meanwhile, the Scottish Government is to raise concerns over the use of European arrest warrants with the European Commission.

Mr Anwar said of Prof Ponsati: 'She is truly humbled by the support she has received from across Scotland as well as that of the Scottish Government, but believes that it is right that our courts must now decide what happens next.'
Dr Chizoro Edohasim, pictured, was jailed for four years after he killed his nine-year-old daughter Olivia in a car crash on May, 7, 2016

A doctor whose dangerous driving led to a high speed crash which claimed the life of one of his children has had his jail term cut.

Chizoro Edohasims nine-year-old daughter Olivia died after he shot through a red light and ploughed into a brick wall in Altrincham, Manchester.

The 47-year-old father-of-three was seriously injured, as well his other daughter Eva, 11. Both had to be cut from the wreckage.

Despite pleas for mercy from his wife, Dr Edohasim was jailed for four years after being found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving and causing serious injury by dangerous driving at Manchester Crown Court in January.

He has now had that sentence cut by a year by top judges, who said his powerful mitigation had not been sufficiently taken into account.

Dr Edohasim was driving his daughters to a maths tutorial on May 7, 2016, Mr Justice Goss told Londons Court of Appeal Court.

He drove his Toyota Auris dangerously and continuously for some distance up the road and overtook another car on the wrong side of Stamford Brook Road.

That driver told Dr Edohasims trial he had been driving like a lunatic.

He drove through a red light and over a junction at speeds of up to 59mph before hit a brick wall.

Olivia died instantly, while Eva and her father had to be cut free from the car.

Eva underwent emergency surgery and had to spend a month in hospital. Dr Edohasim himself suffered multiple serious injuries.

Dr Edohasim was driving his daughter Olivia, pictured, to a maths turorial when he lost control of his car and crashed into a wall

Dr Edohasim, from Timperley, appeared at previous courthearings in both a wheelchair and on crutches.

At his trial, he denied causing the death of his daughter, arguing that the cars brakes failed and must have been faulty.

Experts found no evidence of any vehicle failure and he was convicted by a jury.

The sentencing judge found that Dr Edohasim had intended to brake at the traffic lights, but that in error, pressed the accelerator instead of the brake peddle.

He then reacted to his mistake by pressing down harder on the accelerator until the peddle was completely down.

At Manchester Crown Court, Judge Stuart Driver QC, described medical researcher Dr Edohasim as a loving father who would carry the burden of what happened for the rest of his life.

He was dragged from the dock as wife shouted this is not justice when he was sentenced.

Dr Edohasim and a second daughter Eva had to be cut free from the crashed car, pictured

Speaking afterwards Bethel Edohasim expressed her disgust saying: 'In whose interest is this? It is not in my childrens interest, it is not in the publics interest.

'We are the ones suffering here. My daughters have lost a sister and now they are losing their dad.'

Dr Edhohasim appealed against his sentence, with his barrister, Simon Russell Flint QC, arguing at the Court of Appeal his jail term was far too tough and should have been suspended.

He said a personal tragedy had befallen Dr Edohasim and his family with the loss of Olivia and then his incarceration.

Mr Flint said Dr Edohasim was a professional man of exemplary good character who still suffers greatly from the very serious physical injuries caused to him.

He said his clients guilt bares on him every single second of every single day.

Mr Flint said Dr Edohasim is unable to get the physiotherapy he needs in prison and spends more than 20 hours a day in his cell.

Mr Justice Goss said the Dr Edohasims actions led to a personal and family tragedy.

'Powerful mitigating features were not taken sufficiently into account by the trial judge,' he added.

'We consider that it is appropriate to adjust the sentence which was passed in the lower court.'

Sitting with two other judges, he reduced the jail term from four years to three years. Dr Edohasims driving ban was cut from five years to four-and-a-half years.
Cementing Professor Stephen Hawking's reputation as one of the greatest scientists Britain has ever produced, his ashes will be interred near some of the most esteemed figures in history.

In recognition of his pioneering work in theoretical physics - particularly with black holes - Hawking's ashes will be laid to rest close to Sir Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin in the nave of Westminster Abbey.

He will also be close to memorials or graves belonging to astronomers John and William Herschel, penicillin pioneer Howard Walter Florey, mathematician James Clark Maxwell and genius physicist Michael Faraday.

Below is a list of some of the excellent company Hawking will have in the abbey when he is interred there later this year.

Sir Isaac Newton

Newton is best known for his law of gravitation, which was set out in his hugely influential book Philosophi Naturalis Principia Mathematica

Newton, who was born in Lincolnshire in 1642, was Lucasian Professor at Trinity College Cambridge from 1669 to 1702 (Hawking held the same post from 1979 to 2009).

He is best known for his law of gravitation, which was set out in his hugely influential book Philosophi Naturalis Principia Mathematica.

He also made enormous contributions to mathematics, particularly with differential and intergral calculus and binomial theory.

In addition to those developments, he was a major figure in the areas of optics, mechanics and astronomy, and his invention of the reflecting telescope and studies of light put at the very forefront of scientists.

An engraving on his Westminster Abbey monument reads: 'Here is buried Isaac Newton, Knight, who by a strength of mind almost divine, and mathematical principles peculiarly his own, explored the course and figures of the planets, the paths of comets, the tides of the sea, the dissimilarities in rays of light, and, what no other scholar has previously imagined, the properties of the colours thus produced.

'Diligent, sagacious and faithful, in his expositions of nature, antiquity and the holy Scriptures, he vindicated by his philosophy the majesty of God mighty and good, and expressed the simplicity of the Gospel in his manners. Mortals rejoice that there has existed such and so great an ornament of the human race! He was born on 25th December 1642, and died on 20th March 1726'.

Charles Darwin

Darwin, a naturalist born in Shrewsbury in 1809, changed the world forever when he published On the Origin of Species in 1859

Darwin, a naturalist born in Shrewsbury in 1809, changed the world forever when he published On the Origin of Species in 1859.

The book is considered the foundation of evolutionary biology and introduced the theory that organisms evolved over generations through the process of natural selection.

Despite being an agnostic and the propagator of a theory that went on to damage the credibility of religions worldwide, he was buried in Westminster Abbey at the request of many holy men.

During a speech a week after his funeral, the Bishop of Carlisle, Harvey Goodwin, said: 'I think that the interment of the remains of Mr Darwin in Westminster Abbey is in accordance with the judgment of the wisest of his countrymen

'It would have been unfortunate if anything had occurred to give weight and currency to the foolish notion which some have diligently propagated, but for which Mr Darwin was not responsible, that there is a necessary conflict between a knowledge of Nature and a belief in God'

Michael Faraday

Albert Einstein greatly admired Faraday (pictured) and kept a painting of him in his study

Faraday was born in 1791 in London.

He contributed enormously to physics, chemistry, the study of electricity, magnetism and the construction of optical glass.

Albert Einstein greatly admired Faraday and kept a painting of the illustrious experimenter in his study.

Faraday's discovery of electromagnetic induction led to electricity being transformed from a curiosity into a usable technology.

He even helped coin words like 'ion', 'electrode' and 'cathode'.

While buried at Highgate Cemetery in North London, a memorial to the great man was installed at Westminster Abbey near Sir Isaac Newton.

The inscription on his memorial reads simply: 'The memorial of Michael Faraday 1791-1867. Buried elsewhere'.

James Clark Maxwell

Maxwell, a hugely influential mathematician and physicist, was born in Edinburgh in 1831

Maxwell, a hugely influential mathematician and physicist, was born in Edinburgh in 1831.

Before heading to the University of Cambridge, he submitted a paper to the Royal Society of Edinburgh at the age of 15.

He devoted his life to studying optics, colour vision, Saturn's rings, electromagnetics and thermodynamics.

His work on Saturn's rings determined that the mysterious planet was orbited by individual particles rather than a fixed ring.

When the Voyager space probe passed Saturn in the 1980s, he was proved correct.

After he died in 1879, he was buried in Kirkcudbright in Scotland, but a memorial was erected at Westminster Abbey near Newton.

He is considered second only to Newton in his contributions to mathematics.
A Georgia elementary school teacher has been charged with murder in the gang-related shooting deaths of two young siblings in 2016.

Based in part on a police sketch, police believe 26-year-old Michael De'Sean White was at the scene of the killings of 11-year-old Tatiyana Coates and her 15-year-old brother, Daveon Coates.

Suspected gang members shot the children after breaking into their home in search of another 15-year-old boy, who had fled prior to the deadly home invasion.

From teacher to suspect: Michael White (left), an elementary school teacher from Georgia, has been charged with murder in the 2016 killings of Tatiyana and Daveon Coates (right)

The siblings were killed by suspected gang members during a home invasion that took place at this residence on Libby Lane in Jonesboro

Clayton County Police Major Tina Daniel says at least one other person also has been arrested, and the agency is still waiting on ballistics tests on a gun recovered from a shootout in Tennessee the next day, reported WSB-TV.

She would not say whether White, a fifth-grade teacher at Toney Elementary School, was the one who pulled the trigger, killing the Coates siblings.

White was arrested on Friday and has been removed from the school pending the outcome of the criminal case.

Daveon and Tatiyana Coates were home with four other children, aged between six and 13, at around 5am on October 22, 2016, when several people broke into the residence on Libby Lane in Jonesboro.

One of the children inside the home called 911 to report the home invasion and when officers arrived they found the brother and sister shot to death.

Based in part on this police sketch (left), police believe White (pictured in his mugshot, right)was at the scene of the killings

White became a fifth-grade teacher at Toney Elementary School in August 2017 after submitting to two separate background checks

The children's parents were believed to have been out for the night as the home invasion unfolded.

Detectives believe that gang members attacked the home in Jonesboro looking for a 15-year-old who had been staying there with his mother and four siblings, and who was allegedly in possession of their weapons.

Daveon and Tatiyana's mother had reportedly offered the other family a place to stay when they moved from Chattanooga, Tennessee, a couple of months before the tragedy, reported Chattanooga Times Free Press.

Clayton County Police Chief Michael Register said the teen had run away back to Chattanooga because he knew that the members of the gang were coming for him, leaving his four younger brothers and sisters, along with the Coates children, to fend for themselves.

Daveon Coates (left) was a tenth-grader at Mundys Mill High School in Jonesboro. His sister Tatiyana (right) was a sixth-grader at Pointe South Middle School

The suspected murder weapon was recovered in Chattanooga the next day following a shootout involving the same gang members suspected in the Coates double homicide.

White was hired as a teacher's aid at Dekalb Schools in March 2017 after passing a background check, according to Atlanta Journal Constitution. He became a fifth-grade teacher at Toney Elementary School in August of that year after submitting to a second background check, which officials say raised no red flags.

Daveon Coates was a tenth-grader at Mundys Mill High School in Jonesboro. His sister was a sixth-grader at Pointe South Middle School. They are survived by their parents and seven siblings.
Sainsbury's was drawn into an Easter storm today after a staff member accidentally claimed that its chocolate eggs were certified halal.

The supermarket was forced to respond to a barrage of complaints from customers after the chain said all of its Easter eggs complied with Muslim ritual slaughter rules.

The furore began when a customer asked whether the superstore had halal certification on its chocolate Easter products on Twitter.

In response the supermarket tweeted: 'Every Easter or hens egg we sell is halal certified so technically every single one of our eggs that we sell is halal. I hope this answers your question.'

The supermarket was forced to respond to a barrage of complaints from customers after the chain said all of its Easter eggs complied with Muslim ritual slaughter rules

But the reply caused a flurry of irritated Tweets, with many people saying they would boycott the store.

Mark tweeted: Can anyone explain to me why @sainsburys sell halal Easter eggs? Please. Maybe I'm thick. Or just not getting it. @sainsburys can you explain please?'

KnishsTaxi @KnishsTaxi asked: 'Why does an egg associated with a Christian holiday need to be Halal?'

Chloe Mansfield added: 'We do not WANT or NEED halal food.

'It may have escaped your notice Sainsbury's buy the UK is a Christian country & not in the middle East.

The furore began when a customer asked whether the superstore had halal certification on its chocolate Easter products on Twitter

'It's disgusting that Halal has found its way into our food chain without our knowledge 4 a mere 6 per cent of the population 94% don't want it.'

Another said: 'Couldn't make it up could you. Sainsbury's making halal stuff for a religious event Muslims don't even get involved in.'

And then the store backtracked, admitting its eggs were actually not halal.

But the reply caused a flurry of irritated Tweets, with many people saying they would boycott the store

The official account tweeted: 'Hi, apologies my colleague gave out the incorrect information.

'None of our own brand chocolate eggs are halal certified. Really sorry for any confusion caused.'

Others poked fun at those who had been worked up by Sainsbury's mistake.

The official account tweeted: 'Hi, apologies my colleague gave out the incorrect information. None of our own brand chocolate eggs are halal certified. Really sorry for any confusion caused'

@XIXcLiberal quipped: 'Glad to know that there are no pork or shrimp by-products in Sainsbury's Easter eggs. Now I can cut those chocolate chickens' throats and bleed them dry of treats without remorse.'

Halal food must be prepared in accordance with Islamic law by following rules of how animals should be slaughtered.

So for Easter eggs to be considered halal they must avoid using blood, pork and alcohol.

Cow's milk is nearly always halal as it does not involve the slaughter of animals or pigs.

It's only when gelatine - or other products derived from animals - are used in products that halal certification is needed.

A Sainsbury's spokesperson cleared up the confusion, adding: 'Sainsbury's own brand chocolate eggs are not halal certified.'
Two sets of heartbroken parents in China have arranged their critically ill toddlers to 'marry' each other at an unusual nuptial ceremony.

The two families fear the children might not live long enough to find their partners and get married, so they want to see them have their big day when they can.

Boy Wu Tianyi and girl Sun Yichen are both two years old. They suffer from acute myeloid leukaemia - a type of leukaemia that develops quickly - and are waiting for their respective bone marrow transplant.

Boy Wu Tianyi and girl Sun Yichen pose for pictures during their 'wedding ceremony' in Beijing

The two children, both two years old, suffer from leukaemia and are waiting for transplants

Yichen (left) wears a badge which reads 'bride' and Tianyi (right) sports a badge which reads 'groom'. Their parents say they want to see the children have their big day when they can

The two toddlers attended the ceremony and posed for their 'wedding pictures' in Beijing on Monday. Tianyi sported a tiny stripy suit and a hat while Yichen wore a flowing pink dress.

'I put on the dress for my daughter. After I did it, I cried,' Yichen's mother Hu Xiaomeng told MailOnline.

'It's my dream to see her wear wedding dress one day, but because she is very ill now, I fear I might not get the chance to see it.

'She shares a ward with Tianyi and the two of them get along well, so we thought we should have the ceremony,' added 26-year-old Ms Hu who comes from the province of Henan.

Tianyi's family (left) and Yichen's family (right) pose for group pictures during the 'wedding'

The two families are seen in a picture together as the toddlers are married to each other

Yichen fell seriously ill last September. She had high fever and suffered pain all around her body. Local doctors failed to diagnose her, and her parents took her from their hometown to Beijing in order to seek better medical treatment.

Ms Hu, a full-time housewife, and her husband, a driver, have drained all their savings paying their daughter's medical bills. The had to sell their house for 200,000 yuan (22,448) to finance the treatment and that money has nearly been spent.

Ms Hu and her husband now live in a shared rented flat in Beijing, which costs them 2,500 yuan (280) every month.

She said she and her husband are now trying to borrow money from their relatives in order to fund Yichen's bone marrow transplant, which will cost around 800,000 yuan (898,700).

'The doctors told me the transplant would take place soon. My husband will donate his bone marrow to her. He's stopped working because he needs to rest and prepare for the transplant,' said Ms Hu. 'No matter how hard it is, I'll save my daughter.'

Sun Yichen comforts her mother in the hospital. The girl fell ill all of sudden last September

In order to save Yichen (seen before she got sick), her parents have drained all their savings

Yichen's mother Hu Xiaomeng said: 'No matter how hard it is, I'll save my daughter'

Tianyi's family, who are also from Henan, share a similar story.

Tianyi's father Wu Laixin told MailOnline: 'It's a big thing for every parent to see their son get married. My son is going to have the transplant and I don't know if it will succeed. So I want him to have a wedding.

'We asked Yichen's parents if she's willing to be his bride, and they agreed.

'If the transplant is successful. After he grows up, he could look back at it and remember how strong he was once.'

Tianyi has been ill for about eight months. He was admitted into the Beijing Aerospace Central Hospital after his parents had taken him to different hospitals in Henan, but failed to find medical solutions.

Wu Tianyi is pictured with his parents at the Beijing Aerospace Central Hospital

Tianyi's mother holds the boy when the boy is being treated in Beijing, a strange city for them

Tianyi (pictured) and Yichen share the same ward. Tianyi's parents asked Yichen's parents if they could hold a wedding ceremony with their daughter and the girl's parents agreed

Mr Wu, a fruit vendor, quit his job to take care of the boy. The 30-year-old man said he and his wife, a full-time housewife, had spent nearly 400,000 yuan (44,935) on Tianyi's treatment and had run into debts.

They live in a rented flat near the hospital which costs 4,600 yuan (516) a month.

He added: 'The doctors said they could arrange a transplant for us in April, and we need to prepare a further 600,000 yuan (67,386) for it.

'I've quit my job, so now I'm trying to make some money by broadcasting our life through a live-streaming app.'

Tianyi and Yichen's wedding was organised and funded by Han Yuqi, a volunteer who has been helping both families.

Ms Han, a 21-year-old university student, said she spent about 300 yuan (33) buying the costumes for the two children. The venue of the ceremony was rented to them for free by a local media company.

Ms Han told MailOnline: 'Everyone present was so moved by the scenes. We all cried.

'I sincerely hope the two children could recover from their ordeal, and I hope more people could extend their help to unfortunate families like them.'

Ms Han has set up crowdfunding pages for the two children. Donations can be given to Tianyi here (in Chinese) and Yichen here (in Chinese).
A 50-year-old man found stabbed to death in a house is believed to be the 11th murder victim in the capital in just 13 days.

Metropolitan Police officers forced their way into the property in Tooting, south London after they received a call from a concerned member of the public.

The victim, who had been stabbed, was pronounced dead at the scene, detectives said.

The force launched a murder investigation following the discovery of the body at the house in Tooting High Street at 3.12pm on Monday.

Police forced their way into a property on Tooting High Street (pictured) to discover the man stabbed to death

The 50-year-old is the 11th person murdered in London in the space of just 13 days. This graphic shows the full extent of the crimes across the city

A post mortem examination is due to take place later today. So far no arrests have been made.

His death comes a day after the tenth person to be murdered in London in just 12 days was named as the son of a Nigerian politician who was given an award for saving a woman from a sex attack.

Abraham Badru, 26, was shot dead near his family's home in Hackney on Sunday night at around 11pm.

Abraham Badru, pictured, 26, was named as the tenth victim murdered in London in just 12 days

Mr Badru, pictured left and right, is the son of a Nigerian politician and was also given a police bravery award as a teenager when he saved a woman from a sex attack

Paying tribute to his son, father Dolapo Badru, 62, a member of the Nigerian Assembly, similar to the House of Commons in the UK, described him as 'quiet and hard-working'.

He told the Evening Standard: 'A few years ago a girl was raped on the estate and Abraham fought them off. He went to court to testify against them and the police gave him an award.'

Mr Badru died with his mother at his side, with witnesses saying she 'collapsed in tears' on the pavement.

Concerns have been raised about rising levels of violent crime in the UK, and earlier this month eight people were shot or stabbed in London in the space of a week.

Patrick Green, chief executive of knife-crime awareness charity the Ben Kinsella Trust, said a 'crisis point' had been reached.

Anyone with information should contact the incident room on 020 8345 3985 or ring Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
In addition to serving shock probation, Harrington will have to register as a sex offender. He was also ordered to pay roughly $1,500 in fees and surcharges.

Also in court:

 An Auburn man pleaded guilty Tuesday to failing to report a change of address as a sex offender.

In 2011, Wayne Bresee was designated a level-one sex offender for abusing a child in 2006. He was also designated a sexually violent offender, meaning he would have to stay on the state's sex offender registry for life.

But in late 2016, Bresee said he "forgot" to register a new address with the state when he moved from Pine Street to Murray Street in Auburn. As a sex offender, he was required to report a change of address within 10 days of moving, but Cayuga County District Attorney Jon Budelmann said Bresee did not notify police until almost a year later.

Bresee admitted to the crime Tuesday and was remanded to Cayuga County Jail, where he's been since his arrest in October. In exchange for his plea, Bresee will likely be sentenced to one year in local jail. His sentencing was scheduled for May 29.
The family of a young New South Wales woman who took her own life in a mental health facility hope to soon get some answers about her final hours.

The Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) has finalised its investigation into the death of Newcastle teen Ahlia Raftery, 18, who committed suicide at Mater Mental Health Centre's psychiatric intensive care unit.

It comes just over three years to the day since her tragic death on March 19, 2015.

The HCCC has filed proceedings in the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal against four nurses who were responsible for caring for Ahlia in her final 12 hours.

The Health Care Complaints Commission has finalised its investigation into the death of Ahlia Raftery

Ahlia Raftery took her own life at Mater Mental Health Centre's psychiatric intensive care unit in March 2015, a month after celebrating her 18th birthday

The nurses, who have not been publicly named, face potential disciplinary action.

'As the matter is now subject to legal proceedings and the timing associated with relevant hearings is a matter for the Tribunal, the Commission is unable to provide further public comment,' a HCCC spokesman told nine.com.au.

Ahlia's relieved parents Kirstie and Michael will attend the disciplinary hearings.

'Overall I'm disappointed, three of the nurses have continued to work based on their actions,' Ms Raftery told nine.com.au.

'I've been unable to work through this but they have continued to go on with life. I'm thankful that even though it has been a long process that we have got to this point. I hope there hasn't been an impact on other lives as a result of these people continuing to work and I'm not sure that's the case.'

'I don't want anyone saying to themselves, saying it was someone else, or a process that let Ahlia die if in fact they played a part in it,' her father Michael said.

Four nurses are facing potential disciplinary action in relation to the death of Ahlia in 2015

Ahlia's father is also desperate for answers.

'The sooner this can be finalised the better for all concerned,' Mr Raftery said.

'I don't want anyone saying to themselves, saying it was someone else, or a process that let Ahlia die if in fact they played a part in it. I want blame to be placed squarely on the shoulders of anyone whose fault it was.'

Ahlia was transferred between four mental health facilities in the six days before she took her own life, a coronial inquest heard in 2017.

Lawyers for Hunter New England Health District admitted at the time there were failures in Ahlia's care and apologised to the family for their loss.

The inquest led to recommendations to improve policies, nurse training, record keeping and communication between staff so future tragedies could be prevented.

'Ahlia had an adventurous spirit which could not be contained, a sense of selflessness which had no limits, and a love for her family and friends which knew no bounds,' deputy state coroner Derek Lee said at the time.

Ahlia celebrated her 18th birthday just weeks before she ended her life
Maxon Peremai had only been in Australia for six months when he met and charmed Lisette Christie.

The pair quickly fell in love, Lisette blissfully unaware that her new beau would soon be threatening her and forcing her to move states fearful for her life.

The fact that she had an AVO out against Peremai gave her little comfort - he had broken it once and would do so again, 9News reported.

Lisette Christie had only been dating her partner a few weeks when he started to abuse her

A contributing factor to Australia's alarming domestic violence rates has been perpetrators ignoring their court orders to stay awya from the victims.

Many people are now arguing they are 'worthless pieces of paper' and do little to protect victims.

A few weeks into their relationship Lisette claims Peremai turned violent, smashing glass over her head.

She went straight to the police and had an AVO was put in place. He was released on bail the same day and was back on her door step within half an hour she claims.

'He was there that quickly and that should've been their first telltale sign that he wasn't going to stop,' she said.

Lisette claims he continued to contact her and her family and friends actions that would be in breach of his AVO.

Maxon Peremai (pictured right) was in Australia on a working visa and after he became violent breached his AVO

After three weeks of almost constant calls and text messages she says her neighbour called her to say the police were at her house.

Peremai had allegedly broken into her property, set fire to the kitchen, urinated on her children's bed and left blood everywhere. The police had arrested him in her backyard.

He has been charged with breaching a DVO, break and enter, and intentionally or recklessly destroying property. He was again granted bail.

Data from 2015 shows that almost half the AVOs issued are later breached, some within hours of them being granted.

Lisette is afraid for her life. She is still getting text messages from Peremai and is now packing up her children and moving states.

'I will die my children will die and that's when something will be done. That is so wrong.'

He allegedly broke into her house and set fire to her stove and urinated in her kids bed

Micheal Castigation is the director of the Tara Costigan Foundation which was launched after his niece was killed by her partner

Across Australia many victims have been stalked, harassed and abused by perpetrators who have a DVO against them. In several cases, some have lost their lives.

Micheal Costigan's niece Tara Costigan was hunted down and killed by her ex-partner Marcus Rappel a day after applying for an AVO against him.

In front of her children he murdered her with an axe.

Mr Costigan is now a director of the Tara Costigan Foundation which aims to create awareness, education and lobby for for positive changes to domestic violence.

Some governments and organisations are bringing in extra protections to help victims stay safe.

The Staying Home Leaving Violence Program in NSW provides services to woman and children who are suffering domestic violence.

New programs and tools being tested by organisations include GPS tracking of perpetrators and handheld panic button technology

Part of their program involves setting up safer houses that have cameras and proper lighting. They can also work with the police to monitor perpetrators though GPS and offer a new handheld panic button technology.

'The program places accountability firmly on the shoulders of the violent offender and ensures women and children are not driven to homelessness or uprooted from their families, friends and schools,' it's website says.

They've set up a monitoring system that will contact the police when victims are in danger and provide key behaviour insights, like if perpetrators are armed or have drug use issue, to officers.

New South Wales recently started putting the trackers on some perpetrators who have exiting Family Violence Orders against them, as they leave jail.

Tasmania has also adopted the GPS tracking system and police can apply to a magistrate to put the tracker on a person who is yet to commit an offence.

An allegation or a history of violence, even without a successful prosecution, could be enough to be fitted with the GPS system.

More than 15 women have been killed by domestic violence this year.
A woman fighting for her life after being crushed by a pallet of bricks that fell from 70ft has been identified as a young mother, MailOnline can reveal.

Shocking footage shows Michaela Boor, 29, from East London unconscious on the pavement surrounded by piles of rubble on Tuesday morning.

She was understood to have dropped her son off at school across the road from the building site in Mile End when bricks descended from scaffolding above.

Today as Miss Boor fights for her life in hospital it has tragically emerged the young mother had recently got engaged.

Passers-by rushed to help Michaela Boor from East London as she lay unconscious on the pavement on Tuesday morning among bricks and broken wood

Today as Miss Boor fights for her life in hospital it has tragically emerged the young mother had recently got engaged to Andy Murgatroyd (pictured together)

She shared the happy news to her Facebook page after her partner of four years Andy Murgatroyd is understood to have popped the question on March 17.

It has also emerged Miss Boor's father Matthew Boor is a bricklayer who has been in the profession for 20 years. A fundraising page has been set up by his employers.

Building firm Maytrix Construction created a JustGiving page in a bid to raise 20,000 to help Mr Boor and his family, It has so far collected about 900.

A friend of the woman told the Evening Standard: 'Her family are devastated, we all are. She has ended up fighting for life in hospital on her 29th birthday.

'We had seen pallets of bricks wobbling up there, it was just not safe. It could have been any of us. The family and all of us want answers.'

Mother Bernadette Hegarty, vicar of St Paul's of Bow Common Church, attached to the school, rushed to the scene minutes after the accident at about 9.30am.

She told how paramedics brought saved the young woman after she suffered multiple injuries.

This is basket on the crane from which the pallet of bricks is believed to have fallen

A woman remains in critical condition in hospital after being struck by bricks and falling debris, pictured, which tumbled 70ft from a crane at a building site in Mile End

Mother Bernadette told MailOnline: 'The young woman looked very wounded. The paramedics brought her back.

'I sat down and prayed with her as the paramedics worked to bring her back. The Ambulance Service worked very hard and they managed to bring her back.

'She is now critical in hospital. I did not see the accident but I went over to comfort her after I heard what had happened.'

The young mother is believed to have been on her way to a local supermarket when the pallet of bricks fell upon her.

Prayers will be offered for the young woman at a Maundy Thursday service today and at a Good Friday service tomorrow at Bow Common Church.

Mother Bernadette told MailOnline: 'She is a well-liked member of the community. I know her to say hello to. We are all in deep shock by what has happened, as are the workers on the building site.

'Our thoughts and prayers are with the young woman and her family at this difficult time.'

Pictured: The young mother fighting for her life in hospital after being hit by a pallet of bricks has been identified as 29-year-old Michaela Boor (left and right)

Paramedics took the woman to hospital with severe injuries after the incident in East London

The site has been cleared although some evidence of the horrific accident remains

Another parent from St Luke's Church of England Primary School described the young woman as a 'lovely girl'. She added: 'We are all devastated by what happened.'

Meanwhile local politicians have slammed safety conditions at the site, claiming barriers should have been put in place.

Mile End councillor Shah Alam, who lives just a few doors down from where the accident took place, said he raised health and safety concerns with the local Tower Hamlets Council after the incident.

He said: 'They have been working here for eight months but they have never had any hazard notices or barriers to protect people. There were no staff present while the crane operated overhead.

'There are three primary schools nearby, a nursery, a church and a mosque. My neighbour doesn't feel safe walking her children to school.'

Officers attended the scene at 9.38am, where bystanders were helping the woman after she was spotted lying in a pile of rubble and broken wood.

Paramedics took the woman to hospital after the incident outside Bow Corner, a new development of luxury flats. A second person was also taken to hospital.

Work appears to have halted at the site, pictured, while a Health and Safety Executive investigation is ongoing

Pictured: The aftermath of the bricks which fell around 70ft from the crane in Mile End

Scotland Yard said the woman appeared to have been injured by the debris after 9.30am

Witness Alan Harris, who owns go-kart track Revolution Karting that faces the development, said he rushed over to see what had happened after hearing a 'loud bang.'

'One woman was out cold underneath the bricks and another woman next to her was screaming hysterically for an ambulance and looking up into the heavens,' he told the East London Advertiser.

Mr Harris said it wasn't clear if the two women were together. The 72-year-old said he called for ambulance and indicated 'the seriousness of the situation' to the operator.

Witness Aladdin Rahman said: 'My friend who's a bus driver and was driving a bus at the time it happened, said that some bricks had fallen on the woman.

'Several people were trying to get to the lady and so were the construction workers. It was a hectic scene at the time.'

Pedestrians on the road caught the aftermath of the accident on video,

Bricks could be seen scattered around the victim as she lay on the pavement with bystanders giving her first aid next a building site.

The woman remains in a critical condition after being hit by a pile of bricks in East London

The basket on the crane can be seen following the shocking incident at the building site

The incident happened next to the Bow Corner housing construction in East London

The London Ambulance Service later took the woman to an east London hospital where she remains in a critical condition, Metropolitan Police said.

A man was also treated for shock and forensic investigators remain at the scene.

A Health and Safety Executive spokesman said: 'Inspectors have attended the site and are making ongoing enquiries in conjunction with the Metropolitan Police to investigate the circumstances of the incident.

'As the investigation is ongoing we are unable to comment further at this time.'

Bow Corner is a development of 19 one, two and three bedroom apartments by Higgins Homes that is expected to be completed this year.

One beds start from 435,000, two beds from 545,000 and three beds from 650,000.

Steve Boreham, construction director of Higgins Homes, said: 'Our primary thoughts and concerns are with the lady who has been injured and those affected today.

'We are working with the Health and Safety Executive who are investigating the incident to determine the cause and will release more information as soon as it's available. Our priority at the moment is of course to make the area safe.'

Bow Corner in East London is a development of 19 one, two and three bedroom apartments

Police in Tower Hamlets were called after the woman was injured by falling debris, with the scene cordoned off for much of the day

Local road closures were put in place while emergency services dealt with events.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: 'Police in Tower Hamlets are dealing after a woman was injured by falling debris.

'Officers were called at 9.38am. A woman has apparently been struck by debris falling from a building site crane.

'London Ambulance Service attended and the woman was taken to an east London hospital in a critical condition. Her next of kin have been informed.'

A London Ambulance Service spokesman added: 'We were called at 9.38am to E14 to reports of an incident.

'We sent a number of resources to the scene including an incident response officer, a motorcycle responder, two single responders in cars and two ambulance crews. We also dispatched London's Air Ambulance by car.

'We treated a woman at the scene for serious injuries and took her as a priority to a major trauma centre. We also took a second person to hospital.'
A little-known former prosecutor with a doctorate in medieval history will play a central role on U.S. President Donald Trump's legal team, as many top-tier lawyers shy away from representing him in a probe into Russia's meddling in the 2016 election.

Andrew Ekonomou, 69, is one of a handful of lawyers assisting Jay Sekulow, the main attorney representing Trump in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.

Sekulow told Reuters on Tuesday that after the departure of Washington attorney John Dowd from Trump's personal legal team last week, Ekonomou will assume a more prominent role.

Ekonomou said he has been working with Sekulow on the Mueller probe since June.

The elevation comes at a crucial time in the Mueller probe, as Trump's team is negotiating the terms under which the president himself may be interviewed.

Found a lawyer! Andrew Ekonomou is the first attorney hired since the departure of John Dowd from Trump's legal team. He is currently a contract assistant DA in Georgia prosecuring murders and, on his own account, 'nothing earthshaking'

Expert: Ekonomou has a doctorate in medieval history and wrote a book about popes from AD 590, when Pope Gregory the Great became the leader of the church

Sekulow is now the last man standing of a trio of personal lawyers hired last spring to assist Trump on the probe.

Combative New York lawyer Marc Kasowitz exited the team last summer.

Sekulow said Ekonomou, who works under contract as an assistant district attorney in Brunswick, Georgia, was a 'brilliant strategist' who has handled complex investigations for decades.

Ekonomou assisted Sekulow in a famous case involving the religious group Jews for Jesus before the Supreme Court in the 1980s.

While Ekonomou has also worked on criminal matters, he has not handled cases as high-profile and complex as the Mueller probe.

In an interview, Ekonomou told Reuters that he 'prosecutes a lot of murders for the D.A.'

When asked about his biggest cases of late, Ekonomou said, 'That's basically it. Nothing earthshaking.'

Ekonomou said he is up to the task of defending Trump, saying he has practiced law for more than four decades.

'I've been tested plenty of times,' Ekonomou said. 'Just because you're not a Beltway lawyer doesn't mean you dont know what you're doing.'

Mueller is investigating Russian attempts to influence the 2016 U.S. election, and possible collusion by Trump aides.

Russia has denied U.S. intelligence agencies' conclusion that it meddled in the election, and Trump has said there was no collusion between his campaign and Moscow officials.

Not hiring: Trump has tried to tap top-tier lawyers to represent him but been repeatedly rebuffed, according to people familiar with the matter

Trump has tried to tap top-tier lawyers to represent him but been repeatedly rebuffed, according to people familiar with the matter.

For example, on Monday, Dan Webb, a former U.S. attorney in Illinois, said Trump had reached out to him and a Washington colleague, but business conflicts prevented them from representing the president.

Savannah Law School professor Andrew Wright, former associate counsel in the Obama White House, said it is unusual for a president to turn to lawyers like Ekonomou who are untested on the national scene and not part of the elite white-collar bar.

'He's well past the A-team grab space,' Wright said. Ekonomou said that since he began working with Sekulow, he has attended meetings with Mueller's team.

He said he brings more criminal experience to the table than Sekulow.

Ekonomou is a member of The Lambros Firm LLC, a boutique firm in Atlanta, which mostly handles civil and criminal racketeering cases for D.A.s around the state.

In the late 1970s and early '80s, Ekonomou spent several years in the U.S. Attorney's office in Atlanta, where he was chief of the office's criminal division and briefly served as acting U.S. attorney in 1982.

Since the Jews for Jesus case in the '80s with Sekulow, Ekonomou has done some work for the American Center for Law and Justice, a non-profit which advocates for religious and constitutional freedoms and is known for supporting Christian causes.

Sekulow is the center's chief counsel. Following what he called a 'mid-life crisis,' Ekonomou said he went back to school and got his doctorate in medieval history at Emory University in 2000.

Ekonomou said he is the author of a book on Byzantine Rome and the Greek popes.

Drew Ashby, a trial lawyer who worked for Ekonomou between 2007 and 2010, said Ekonomou has a commanding presence that would likely serve him well when dealing with Trump.

'He is a force of nature,' Ashby said. 'Andy has the kind of presence and the kind of mind that I would think would make Donald Trump listen.'
Shocking photographs have emerged showing tourists having to drive around the dismembered bodies of cartel victims in Acapulco.

Drug violence in the Mexican city has soared in recent years, and the barbaric executions are now beginning to spill into the visitors' quarters.

Yesterday, a car of tourists was seen passing burned corpses and severed limbs which had been left strewn on the Lazaro Cardenas Boulevard - one of the main carriageways running through the heart of the city.

The car full of tourists, seen with luggage on the SUV's roof, passes the burned corpses and severed limbs (bottom left, muzzed) on one of the main trunk roads through Acapulco

Forensic workers remove the body of a taxi driver gunned down by unknown assailants in Acapulco, Mexico on March 23, 2018

Another body is cleared from the street in the ongoing war on drugs in the state of Guerrero.

In spite of its popularity with visitors, with it being a favorite

the beach resort in the state of Guerrero has a sinister drug scene which is is beginning to come to the surface.

Last year, more than 25,000 people were murdered in Mexico, setting a new record.

Guerrero had the most of any state - 2,318.

Mexico's federal government sent the military into the streets to combat drug cartels in 2006 and has been fighting a bloody war with them ever since.

Guerrero state is home to popular beach resorts such as Acapulco, Ixtapa and Zihuatanejo, but is also among Mexico's poorest states and is hard-hit by organized crime.

The crimes committed by the notorious cartels in the state are now more public than ever.

On Valentine's Day, the gory crime scene of the day was a severed head left on the sidewalk in a gift box with a balloon tied to it.

At the beginning of the month, a police commander was kidnapped in Acapulco and then shot to death.

Hector Moreno, of the Morelos state police command, was abducted when off duty by criminals in a poor area of the city and later shot to death, according to a member of the command's staff.

Forensic workers stand above the bodies of two women who were gunned down on March 25

Another crime scene in Acapulco, Guerrero state. Last year, more than 25,000 people were murdered in Mexico, setting a new record. Guerrero had the most of any state - 2,318

A bullet is seen at a crime scene were two women were gunned down three days ago in Acapulco

Last week, Mexican Interior Minister Alfonso Navarrete there are 'warning signs' that drug cartels are trying to influence the country's upcoming elections.

Mexico will elect a new president, Congress and a host of local and state officials on July 1, a vulnerable moment for a country where multi-billion-dollar drug cartels wield huge power.

Navarrette said: 'There are warning signs and alarm bells in some regions of the country.

He mentioned the town of Chilapa, in the violent southern state of Guerrero, where two candidates for a seat in the state legislature were murdered last month.

'There have been reckless attempts to pressure candidates... to align themselves with a particular criminal group,' Navarrete said.

'We're not going to let this happen.'

But Mexico is historically a dangerous place for politicians.

According to the National Mayors' Association, more than 100 mayors, ex-mayors or mayors-elect have been murdered by criminal gangs since 2006, the year the government declared war on drug cartels.

Candidates are often in the line of fire as well.

The latest killing came two weeks ago, when a mayoral candidate in the central state of Puebla named Gustavo Martin Gomez Alvarez was shot 11 times by gunmen in the town of Francisco Z Mena.

The shooting happened hours after the secretary general of the Organization of American States, Luis Almagro, warned that political violence has reached 'absolutely unacceptable' levels in Mexico ahead of the July polls.
Teakaura Tapaki pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death after he mowed down his 64-year-old mother Amelie Tapaki (above)

A drunk driver who tragically ran over and killed his mother after claiming he had only hit a dog has been jailed for eight years.

Teakaura Tapaki pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death after he mowed down his 64-year-old mother Amelie Tapaki at her Cairns home on New Year's Day 2017.

The 28-year-old had been drunk and under the influence of methamphetamine when he ran over his mother with her own car, before reversing over her body and speeding off, Cairns Post reports.

Tapaki had visited his mother's property with a Swedish backpacker he met the night before on New Year's Eve at Cazalys.

As he drove out of the cul-de-sac with the headlights off, the backpacker yelled, 'I think your mother is in front of the car'.

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Teakaura Tapaki pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death after he mowed down his 64-year-old mother Amelie Tapaki at her Cairns home on New Year's Day 2017 (Family pictured outside court)

The 28-year-old had been drunk and under the influence methylamphetamines when he ran over his mother with her own car, before reversing over her body and speeding off (Cairns District Court pictured)

After feeling the vehicle hit a bump, the woman screamed: 'I think you just drove over your mother.'

But Tapaki replied with: 'It was a dog.'

The man then reversed the vehicle and left the property, before returning a short while later to take his mother to hospital.

Ms Tapaki died in Cairns Hospital of her 'terrible injuries'.

Ms Tapaki died in Cairns Hospital of her 'terrible injuries' (Family pictured outside court)

A remorseful Tapaki appeared in court on Tuesday where Judge Tracy Fantin described his actions as having 'catastrophic consequences'.

'You will have to find a way of living with yourself,' Judge Fantin said.

'Sorry is not enough for what I have done. I took our best friend, my mum,' Tapaki told the court.

He pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death while adversely affected and 24 summary charges at Cairns District Court.

Tapaki will be eligible for parole on September 1 next year.
President Donald Trump is taking on a retired Supreme Court justice who dramatically called for the repeal of the Second Amendment.

Trump said Wednesday that the constitutional right to bear arms would 'NEVER' be taken away in a tweet squarely aimed at John Paul Stevens, a former associate justice.

Writing in all caps, Trump said, 'THE SECOND AMENDMENT WILL NEVER BE REPEALED! As much as Democrats would like to see this happen, and despite the words yesterday of former Supreme Court Justice Stevens, NO WAY.

'We need more Republicans in 2018 and must ALWAYS hold the Supreme Court!' the president said, turning the anti-gun push into a mid-term election rallying cry.

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Former justice John Paul Stevens touched off on the anti-gun violence marches led by students across the country and said that true reforms would only come from a constitutional amendment ending Americans' right to bear arms. President Trump hit back at him on Wednesday

'We need more Republicans in 2018 and must ALWAYS hold the Supreme Court!' the president said, turning the anti-gun push into a mid-term election rallying cry

Protesters hold signs and shout during the 'March for Our Lives' rally in support of gun control in Washington. Stevens' op-ed was in direct response to the marches

Trump and the head of the National Rifle Association claimed last month at a national gathering of conservative activists that the left would come after Americans' gun rights if they seize power.

'Our American freedoms could be lost and our country will be changed forever,' NRA chief Wayne LaPierre said. 'The first to go will be the Second Amendment.'

A day later at the same conference, President Trump echoed LaPierre's mid-term warning, telling guests that if Democrats 'get in' to office, 'They will take away your Second Amendment, which we will never allow to happen.'

In an op-ed for the New York Times on Monday, Stevens urged legislators to do just that.

Touching off on the anti-gun violence marches led by students across the country over the weekend, Stevens said that true reforms would only come from a constitutional amendment ending Americans' right to bear arms.

'That simple but dramatic action would move Saturday's marchers closer to their objective than any other possible reform,' Stevens, a Republican-appointed justice, wrote.

On the court, Stevens often sided with the liberal wing, even though he was appointed by Republican President Gerald Ford. He has declined to state his political affiliation in recent years.

The 97-year-old retired in 2010 after 35 years of service, making him the third-longest serving justice.

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. What the Second Amendment says

Stevens said in the Times that he'd been inspired by the student-led marches that represent a broadening level of support for gun reforms.

The marches are a clear sign that legislators should raise the minimum age for certain types of firearms from 18 to 21, he said, and introduce stricter background checks for purchasing firearms.

'But the demonstrators should seek more effective and more lasting reform. They should demand a repeal of the Second Amendment,' he said.

The concerns that led to the creation of the constitutional amendment, the need fight back against a government assault, 'is a relic of the 18th century,' Stevens wrote.

He pinpointed loose gun regulations on powerful lobbying by the National Rifle Association, calling the gun group a 'propaganda machine.'

'Overturning that decision via a constitutional amendment to get rid of the Second Amendment would be simple and would do more to weaken the N.R.A.'s ability to stymie legislative debate and block constructive gun control legislation than any other available option,' he said.

The 97-year-old retired in 2010 after 35 years of service, making him the third-longest serving justice. He's seen here with his fellow justices in 2009 in the front row, second from left

Repealing the Second Amendment, he wrote, would get rid of the only legal standing that firearms sellers have in America.

'It would make our schoolchildren safer than they have been since 2008 and honor the memories of the many, indeed far too many, victims of recent gun violence,' he stated.

A fierce debate over gun control is underway in America following a school shooting in Parkland, Florida, last month. Students from the high school started a nationwide movement that has taken hold and led to marches on Washington and other major cities over the weekend.

The federal government last week passed two minor measures that had bipartisan support and the backing of President Trump. Students and activists are asking legislators to do more before the conversation moves on, including the creation of a rule requiring background checks on private gun sales.

President Donald Trump has said that schools should allow teachers to carry firearms as a deterrence to violence in schools. The White House is also pressing state governments to authorize temporary restraining orders for mentally ill persons to block their access to firearms.

As a justice, Stevens led the dissent in the most significant Second Amendment case he was party to, 2008's District of Columbia v Heller, which ended with a 5-4 ruling that the right to bear arms was not connected to service in a militia.

It opened the way for 2010's decision that state regulation of them has to be in line with the 14th Amendment's Due Process clause.

Together both of them were seen as victories by the gun lobby, and Stevens' op-ed suggests that he sees no other way to regulate guns effectively than by abolishing the Second Amendment in its entirety.
This is the adorable moment a baby broke down in tears after seeing her RAF pilot father without his beard for the first time.

Rose Debling is just 18-months-old and was not sure about her father's new look as he prepared to return to his job with the air force.

Her parents Steve, 32, and Kim, 34, from Basingstoke, Hampshire, filmed the toddler's reaction to Mr Debling's clean shave before he returned to work as a Chinook helicopter pilot in January.

Toddler Rose Debling was at the family home in Basingstoke, Hampshire, when her mother called her in from the kitchen to see her father

Rose, who is 18 months old, toddled into the hallway to greet her father, who was home on leave after being away in his job as an RAF chinook pilot

But she was shocked to find her father was clean shaven - the first time she had ever seen him without his beard. Rose walked away upset

Mrs Debling, who is currently undergoing treatment for stage four cancer and is making YouTube videos from home, said: 'I thought she might react like that, but the reaction was a lot stronger.

'I felt pretty terrible.

'She was like that for about an hour, after that she was absolutely fine.

'I think she knew it was him but she knew something was wrong. You can see her trying to touch his face.'

Kim, who is an ex RAF air traffic controller, said: 'Steve has to be clean shaven for work but I love it when he grows a beard so I always insist he grows one whenever he is on leave.

'He took shared parental leave for Rose and grew an amazing bushy beard.'

An obviously traumatised Rose burst into tears as her laughing father hugged her

Rose's mother, Kim, said: 'I think she knew it was him but she knew something was wrong. You can see her trying to touch his face'
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At first glance, Birmingham firefighters, a boating party and Britain's only female blacksmith may not appear to have much in common.

But what they do share is today's date.

These fascinating pictures show snapshots of life in Britain over the last century, all taken on March 28.

One, from 1912, features members of Birmingham's fire brigade, in full regalia, as they pose beside their new motorised escape ladder.

Another shows a group of girls on the beach at Ramsgate, in Kent, painting their boat for the first outing of the 1936 season.

Meanwhile, blacksmith Elizabeth Arnold is photographed in 1938 - still wielding her sledgehammer at the age of 70.

The photos, taken from Getty Images massive archive, were published online by genealogy website Ancestry.

These fascinating pictures show snapshots of life in Britain over the last century, all taken on March 28. Pictured, a group of girls on the beach at Ramsgate, in Kent, painting their boat for the first outing of the 1936 season

Elizabeth Arnold from Kent was believed to be England's only woman blacksmith in 1938. Despite being 70 and only 5ft tall, it was said she could still wield a 10lb sledgehammer

Members of Birminghams fire brigade, in full regalia, pose beside their new motorised escape ladder in 1912 - designed to reach people trapped in high-level buildings

Brides of WWII Australian servicemen start the long journey home to re-join their husbands in 1946, arriving at London Waterloo by coach with their children

Trainee nurses gather at the bedside of Mrs Brown, a dummy patient complete with false teeth and moveable legs and arms, to complete their training at Ashford Hospital in Middlesex in 1952

From a rooftop work break by the Thames to miners and their wives preparing food for strikers: More images from Britain at work and play - taken on various dates over the years

The new collection contains a wealth of captivating everyday insights, documenting a continuously-evolving British society, sparked by innovation, social and cultural progress  the return to daily life after WWII, women in the workplace, holidays and socialising.

Ancestry spokesperson Russell James said: 'Captured forever in time, these black and white prints and photos are a journey through the decades and document almost every aspect of life, from daily routines through to occasions of national celebration, such as the 1953 coronation and Captain Scott's birthday in Antarctica.

'This sizeable collection is a historical reminder of an ever-changing world, as seen through the lens of photographers working for the most famous name in the field.

'Scenes of children playing, families visiting a local fair or long-forgotten hobbies are just as invaluable as written records for understanding our ancestors.'

A group of women entertain themselves with an impromptu game of hurdling on the beach in 1934, dressed in almost identical swimsuit fashions of the day

City employees head to the office rooftop to enjoy a summer tea break in 1934, armed with books and knitting, to take in views of the Thames and the Tower of London in the background

Leader of the British suffragette movement, Emmeline Pankhurst, who helped women win the right to vote in 1928

The first guests arrive for a party in the grounds of Buckingham Palace in 1957, entertained by the changing of the Guard

A group of schoolgirls stop for a tea break during a spring camping trip to Boverton, South Wales in 1936

The wedding reception of Roger Moore and Luisa Mattioli at the Royal Garden Hotel, Kensington. The couple are pictured with best man Kenneth More and his wife Angela Douglas on April 11, 1969

Long before railings were erected around 10 Downing Street, journalists and members of the public were able to get much closer to the Prime Minister's front door. The year is 1939 and photographers have gathered to take photos of Cabinet ministers

Dairymaids take a break from a butter-making competition during the 1938 Royal Agricultural Show in Cardiff

The Queen, aged 25, on the occasion of her coronation on June 2, 1953

Nursing students at the Edinburgh Home for Babies and School of Mothercraft gain practical experience in the welfare of children, dressing them for the day and combing their hair in 1935

A soldier bids farewell to his family in 1855 as he heads off to fight in the Crimean War

At the foot of Helvellyn in the Lake District, three women hikers gather beside a stream to cool down ahead of tackling one of the region's biggest mountains in 1934. Their walking gear consists of leather shoes, long skirts and scarves

Captain Robert Falcon Scott (at the head of the table) with his comrades as they enjoy Midwinter day dinner at Winterquarters Hut, June 22, 1911

Miners and their wives prepare food and drink to be taken down to 90 strikers at Wyndham Colliery in 1938

Captain Cook's voyage to Australia in the late 18th century

Without its modern-day high-rise neighbours, there's no missing St Paul's from the river, as the 1809 Lord Mayor's Show passes by




A new sculpture has been unveiled at Trafalgar Square in tribute to an ancient statue destroyed by ISIS fanatics three years ago.

The artwork, called The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist, has been designed by artist Michael Rakowitz.

The striking piece is a recreation of a statue destroyed by ISIS in 2015, when the group smashed ancient artwork as they rampaged through a museum in Mosul.

Mr Rakowitz, 44, from Chicago said he did not want to make an exact copy of the original statue which stood in Nineveh, near Mosul.

The artwork, called The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist, has been designed by artist Michael Rakowitz

The statue resembles that of a Lamassu and took four months to create out of around 10,500 empty Iraqi date syrup cans

Mr Rakowitz, 44, from Chicago said he did not want to make an exact copy of the original statue which stood in Nineveh, near Mosul

The unusual building material was chosen to symbolise one of Iraq's former thriving industries that was obliterated by war

The artists, whose family left Iraq in 1946, told the London Evening Standard: 'I think the impetus to rebuild is indicative of something good in the human spirit but I think of the things that I make as being ghosts or apparitions of what the artifacts were.'

The statue resembles that of a Lamassu - an Asssyrian bull god - and took four months to create out of around 10,500 empty and flattened Iraqi date syrup cans.

While the winged and bearded Lamassu was destroyed during fighting in Iraq, so too was the once-mighty date syrup industry  which until recently ranked second only to oil among the countrys exports.

The unusual building material was chosen to symbolise one of Iraq's former thriving industries that was obliterated by war.

Mr Rakowitz set out to recreate thousands of priceless artefacts that were destroyed or stolen from museums and ancient sites in war-torn Iraq and Syria.

The project, which began 11 years ago, has seen the creation of around 750 pieces so far  but the artist say it is unlikely that he will ever finish the work.

The Trafalgar Square sculpture is designed to represent Iraq and Britain's 'complex' shared history.

Scores of sculptures in Iraq have been destroyed by ISIS over the last few years - some dating back to the 13th century B.C.

The UN has described the destruction of ancient artefacts by the militants as a 'war crime' - accusing the militants of cultural and ethnic cleansing

Islamic State militants destroyed ancient relics on several sites, saying they promoted idolatry that violated their fundamentalist interpretation of Islamic law

London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who unveiled the sculpture today, said: 'Michael's work shows the power of art to bring to life politics, cultures and personal stories from around the world and across generations'

Mr Rakowitz set out to recreate thousands of priceless artefacts that were destroyed or stolen from museums and ancient sites in war-torn Iraq and Syria

The Trafalgar Square sculpture is designed to represent Iraq and Britain's 'complex' shared history

The project, which began 11 years ago, has seen the creation of around 750 pieces so far  but the artist say it is unlikely that he will ever finish the work

Onlookers watch as the striking artwork is unveiled today in a dreary Trafalgar Square

The sculpture is the 12th to take a place on the empty plinth, and previous artworks include Marc Quinn's statue of pregnant artist Alison Lapper and Yinka Shonibare's giant ship in a bottle

The plinth has become a regular feature for new art in London's Trafalgar Square (file picture)

Complete destruction: The end of a 2015 video allegedly shows Islamic State militants blowing up the ancient ruins near Mosul

Attack: An ISIS militant uses a sledgehammer to destroy a several thousand years old stone slab in a video allegedly showing the group's attack on the ancient ruins of the city of Nimrud, near Mosul, Iraq in 2015

'It is traumatic,' Mr Rakoqitz added, 'and there are all different things that are part of that relationship but I'm not interested in doing work that is simple sloganeering so it is about the richness of that relationship despite all the traumas.'

London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who unveiled the sculpture today, said: 'I am delighted to unveil this new work by Michael Rakowitz, the next sculpture to be features on the Fourth Plinth - the world's most famous public art platofrm.

'Michael's work shows the power of art to bring to life politics, cultures and personal stories from around the world and across generations.'

ISIS militants destroyed ancient relics on several sites, saying they promoted idolatry that violated their fundamentalist interpretation of Islamic law.

The ancient Iraqi city of Hatra, a UNESCO World Heritage site, was targeted as was the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud.

Not all the artefacts are believed to have been destroyed though - some are thought to have been sold others on the black market to fund the terror group's atrocities.

In March 2017 US-backed Iraqi forces discovered a secret network of tunnels dug by ISIS under Mosul's ancient Mosque of Jonah in a bid to preserve artefacts for loot.

The Islamist extremists seized the shrine when they stormed through northern Iraq tin 2014, bulldozing and dynamiting ancient sites and smashing statues and sculptures.

Statues and sculptures dating back to the second millennium BC lay littered around the museum in Palmyra in 2016

Jonah's mosque was blown up in July 2014, but experts surveying the damage after it was recaptured in January found the tunnels leading down to a 7th century BC Assyrian palace.

In 2016 images showing the devastation inside Palmyra's national museum with priceless ancient artefacts destroyed were released after the town was recaptured from ISIS by Syrian government forces.

The historic and cultural heritage preserved by the museum was demolished or vandalised by the militants.

This satellite image shows the Tetrapylon and Theater prior to damage caused by ISIS. The photo was taken on December 26, 2016

This satellite image, taken on January 10 2017, shows the significant damage caused to the Roman Theater and Tetrapylon (noted with red arrows) in the UNESCO World Heritage site of Palmyra

The following year - 2017 - militants destroyed the historic Tetrapylon and 'significantly damaged' the Roman Theater at the UNESCO World Heritage site of Palmyra.

Satellite images, taken on January 10 2017 - showed monuments of huge cultural importance lying in ruins after the jihadist group recaptured Palmyra on December 11, 2016, when Syrian armed forces pulled out.

The Trafalgar Square sculpture is the 12th to take a place on the empty plinth, and previous artowkrs include Marc Quinn's statue of pregnant artist Alison Lapper and Yinka Shonibare's giant ship in a bottle.

The plinth was taken over by Anthony Gormley in 2009, when he allowed members of the public to stand on it for an hour of a time.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs, a branch of the U.S. Department of Interior, recognized Clint Halftown and his council as the nation's leaders in December 2016. The decision attempted to end a longstanding dispute between Halftown, his followers and a group of chiefs and clan mothers formerly known as the Unity Council.

"The Court found that the group's legal challenges were 'based on speculation, assignations of nefarious intent and mere disagreements with the decisions reached by the agency,'" according to the release. "It stated that the group's motion 'was not an efficient use of the parties' or the Court's time and resources,' and that the group's claims were 'not supported by the record.' The Court held that the Interior Department did no more than provide 'technical assistance' on a process through which the Cayuga Nation's own citizens affirmed the leadership group led by Halftown as the rightful governing body of the Cayuga Nation."
Thanh Cong Phan appeared in a federal court in Washington state after being arrested at his home in Everett on Monday night and just more than 24 hours after he allegedly mailed the 11 packages

The man who allegedly mailed 11 packages to military bases in the DC area on Monday has been pictured after being arrested on the other side of the country late that night.

Thanh Cong Phan appeared in a federal court in Washington state after being arrested at his home in Everett on Monday night and just more than 24 hours after he allegedly mailed the packages.

He has been charged with one count of shipping explosive materials and could face a maximum of 10 years in prison if convicted.

The FBI identified the 43-year-old as a suspect by the rambling notes included in the packages, which mirrored his history of writing perturbing letters to the military.

Packages were delivered to Fort McNair, Fort Belvoir, Dahlgren Naval Station, Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, the mail screening centers at the CIA and Secret Service, and other locations.

At least two were stuffed with explosive components such as black powder, fuses and circuit boards, and all were said to be accompanied by 'rambling and disturbing' notes.

Officials said none of the bombs appeared to be fully functioning, and that they were intended to frighten more than to injure or cause actual damage.

He has been charged with one count of shipping explosive materials and could face a maximum of 10 years in prison if convicted. Pictured is his home in Everett, Washington, where he was arrested late Monday night

The packages were found at these three locations near the Capitol as well as CIA and White House mailing facilities

One of Phan's neighbors told CBS they were in 'in shock,' by the revelation he may have been the one to send in the threatening packages.

'I don't know what to say, it's so close to my house,' the individual said.

Phan's motive was not immediately clear, but the official said there was no immediate connection to terrorism.

Investigators also told NBC the suspect may have an 'obsession' that motivated him to deliver the bombs. According to the outlet he may have had 'long-standing grievances' and 'had probably expressed them before'.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters on Tuesday that all of the packages sent to Defense Department facilities are under the control of the federal authorities.

'Basically there's a set procedure, they went through the procedure,' said Mattis.

'We've had nobody injured and all those packages and all the evidence is accessible and is the hands of the FBI right now.'

The first package raised alarm at The National Defense University at Fort McNair in Washington, DC around 8.30am.

The package was addressed to the National Defense University and found to contain black powder, which can be used to make explosives.

An X-ray also found what appeared to be a GPS and a fuse.

The building was evacuated and later cleared around 1:15pm.

'At 12.10pm, 52nd Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal from Fort Belvoir, VA, confirmed the package tested positive for black powder and residue, Army spokesman Michael L. Howard said in a statement.

'The X-ray conducted indicates suspected GPS and an expedient fuse were attached. The package was rendered safe. No injuries are reported,' he added.

Parcels also arrived at a CIA mail-sorting facility, a White House mail-sorting facility, Naval Support Facility Dahlgren, Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling and two locations on Fort Belvoir - the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and another defense university.

One of Phan's neighbors told CBS they were in 'in shock,' by the revalation he may have been the one to send in the threatening packages. The first of the packages was reported at The National Defense University at Fort McNair around 8.30am

Another package was also discovered at two sites at Fort Belvoir in Virginia in the afternoon, addressed to The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the defense university

Packages were also sent to the Naval Support Facility Dahlgren (pictured), a White House mail-sorting facility and a CIA mail-sorting facility

Pictured above is Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, where another suspicious package was sent Monday

Previous reports said there were six packages sent in total. But the total number has been reported as 11.

All were investigated and deemed to be safe. The FBI is analyzing the packages at their lab in Quantico, Virginia.

One of those packages contained liquid in a vial and a circuit board, according to law enforcement officials.

Some of the deliveries were also accompanied with some long letters, described as rambling and disturbing, according to officials.

Officials do not believe the packages are linked to the bombings in Austin, Texas.

CNN reported that the military bases where the packages were sent make up the backbone of military presence around the Capitol.

Phan has a prior criminal record, having been arrested in 2011 near Woodland, Washington, the Daily Democrat reported.

He was apprehended after stealing a 2000 Isuzu Rodeo from a gas station in Redding in May, 2011. Police there put out a 'lookout' alert for the car, and he was arrested at 7.30am on the 23rd after a police chase.

Phan was charged with unlawfully taking a vehicle and felony evading.

At one point Phan also called into the California Highway Patrol to tell officers he had killed his brother, who was contacted and confirmed to still be alive.
President Donald Trump says he's looking forward to meeting Kim Jong-un at a nuclear summit where he believes there's a strong chance the brutal North Korean dictator will agree to abandon his illicit weapons program.

Trump said Wednesday that he had received a message from Chinese President Xi Jinping following Kim's shock visit to Beijing affirming the talks and informing him the conversation had been productive.

The U.S. president welcomed the face-to-face between Kim and his country's closest ally in tweets that struck an optimistic chord yet emphasized the United States' commitment to its maximum pressure campaign on North Korea.

'For years and through many administrations, everyone said that peace and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula was not even a small possibility,' Trump said. 'Now there is a good chance that Kim Jong Un will do what is right for his people and for humanity. Look forward to our meeting!'

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Beijing has confirmed that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has visited China to hold talks with President Xi Jinping, his first foreign visit since taking power

Beijing confirmed reports after the fact that the North Korean leader had visited China for talks with Xi in his first foreign visit since taking power in 2011.

President Donald Trump says he's looking forward to meeting Kim Jong-un at a nuclear summit where he believes there's a strong chance that brutal North Korean dictator will agree to abandon his illicit weapons program

The announcement corroborated speculation on Tuesday that Kim was in the country when a train similar to the one the dictator's father used was spotted making a round-trip to Beijing.

Chinese state media said Xi held talks with Kim at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing -- the same government building he entertained Trump in four months ago -- and hosted a banquet with wife Peng Liyuan for Kim and his spouse Ri Sol Ju.

'I have had successful talks with General Secretary Xi Jinping on developing relations between the two parties and the two countries, our respective domestic situation, maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, and other issues,' Kim said at the banquet.

Kim also committed to denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula if the United States and the South show 'goodwill,' state media said, with China agreeing to support its neighbor if nuclear tensions could be eased.

Kim visited China from Sunday to Wednesday with his wife, Ri Sol Ju, where they held talks and a banquet while Kim said he was willing to talk to the United States

Kim Jong Un, left, and his wife Ri Sol Ju wave from a car as they bid farewell to President Xi and his wife, Ri Sol Ju

During the visit from Sunday to Wednesday, Kim held talks with Xi Jinping in Beijing, where the Chinese president hosted a banquet to welcome the North Korean leader

Kim Jong Un told Chinese President Xi Jinping that it was his 'solemn duty' to make Beijing his first overseas destination as he made his maiden foreign trip as leader

Kim visited China from Sunday to Wednesday with his wife, Ri Sol Ju, a South Korean news agency said, with President Xi also accepting an invitation to visit North Korea.

The trip comes several weeks after Trump accepted an invitation to meet Kim by May at an as of yet unspecified location.

Analysts say Kim would have felt a need to consult with his country's traditional ally ahead of his planned talks with Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, whom he is scheduled to meet for the first time in April.

'If South Korea and the United States respond with good will to our efforts and create an atmosphere of peace and stability, and take phased, synchronized measures to achieve peace, the issue of the denuclearization of the peninsula can reach resolution,' Mr. Kim said, according to Xinhua's summary of his meeting with Mr. Xi.

In a statement Tuesday night, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the Chinese government made contact on Tuesday and briefed the Trump administration on Kim's visit to Beijing.

'The briefing included a personal message from President Xi to President Trump, which has been conveyed to President Trump,' she said. 'The United States remains in close contact with our allies South Korea and Japan.

Sanders added: 'We see this development as further evidence that our campaign of maximum pressure is creating the appropriate atmosphere for dialogue with North Korea.'

At her daily news conference on Wednesday afternoon, Sanders indicated that the White House was caught flat-footed on the Kim visit. She said it was not made aware of it until Tuesday.

'The ambassador from China came to the White House yesterday and briefed members of the national security team who then briefed the president,' she said.

At her daily news conference on Wednesday afternoon, Sanders indicated that the White House was caught flat-footed on the Kim visit. She said it was not made aware of it until Tuesday.

'The ambassador from China came to the White House yesterday and briefed members of the national security team who then briefed the president,' she said.

President Trump said Wednesday morning that he would not let up on sanctions while the as of yet unscheduled talks are negotiated in a tweet that rehashed the state of play.

'Received message last night from XI JINPING of China that his meeting with KIM JONG UN went very well and that KIM looks forward to his meeting with me,' Trump said. 'In the meantime, and unfortunately, maximum sanctions and pressure must be maintained at all cost!'

State Department Spokeswoman Heather Nauert said later in the morning on Fox & Friends that the U.S. looks 'forward to working with China' on the issue and that it hopes to 'get a more fulsome read out' of the Kim visit in the days ahead.

Kim (right) said he had successful talks with General Secretary Xi Jinping (left) on developing relations between the two parties and the two countries

President Xi and Kim strolled through Beijing together as they did their best to show relations were back on track after a recent chill

Kim and his wife Ri Sol Ju, visit an exhibition highlighting achievements by the Chinese Academy of Sciences

Kim signs a message during his trip to Beijing, which was only recently confirmed by China

Kim Jong-un waves from the window of his personal train during his whirlwind visit to China

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was accompanied by his wife Ri Sol Ju for the unofficial visit

Mr Kim made the unofficial visit to China from Sunday to Wednesday at Mr Xi's invitation, China's official Xinhua News Agency said

During the trip, Kim told Xi that it was his 'solemn duty' to make Beijing his first overseas destination as he made his maiden foreign trip as leader, Pyongyang's official news agency reported.

Xi hailed Kim's visit as embodying the importance with which the North Korean leader regarded ties with China.

'We speak highly of this visit,' Xi told Kim, according to Xinhua.

At a banquet in Beijing, Kim reportedly said, 'There is no question that my first foreign visit is to the Chinese capital.'

'This is my solemn duty as someone who should value and continue the DPRK-PRC relations through generations,' he added using the countries' official acronyms.

Beijing has traditionally been the closest ally of secretive North Korea, but ties have been frayed by the increasingly isolated country's pursuit of nuclear weapons and China's backing of tough U.N. sanctions intended to curb the illicit behavior.

Bottoms up: The two leaders enjoyed a glass of wine as they met in Beijing this week

It was all smiles as the North Korean dictator sat down for a banquet during his visit to China

The leaders sought to portray strong ties between the long-time allies despite a recent chill as both countries confirmed Mr Kim's secret trip this week

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his wife Ri Sol Ju pose for pictures alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his wife Ri Sol Ju are pictured visiting the Chinese Academy of Sciences

Kim confirmed that his nuclear-armed regime was willing to 'hold a summit' with Washington and 'have a dialogue' with the U.S., Xinhua said.

'It is our consistent stand to be committed to denuclearization on the peninsula, in accordance with the will of late President Kim Il Sung and late General Secretary Kim Jong Il,' he said.

The North Korean leader is said to have claimed, 'The issue of denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula can be resolved, if South Korea and the United States respond to our efforts with goodwill, create an atmosphere of peace and stability while taking progressive and synchronous measures for the realisation of peace.'

A dark green train (pictured), believed to be carrying a senior North Korean delegation, left the Chinese capital on Tuesday following a dramatic whirlwind visit

Earlier, a motorcade of blacked out cars had been seen entering Beijing Railway Station. The meeting between the leaders of China and North Korea was later confirmed

President Xi likewise said, 'Both Comrade Chairman and I have personally experienced and witnessed the development of China-DPRK relationship.

'This is a strategic choice and the only right choice both sides have made based on history and reality.... This should not and will not change because of any single event at a particular time.'

The visit to China marks Kim's first known trip abroad since taking power in 2011. His meeting with Xi was his first with a foreign head of state.

Kim's father, late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, visited China several times during his rule, with the final time in May 2011, months before his death.

Past visits by Kim Jong Il to China were shrouded in secrecy, with Beijing confirming his presence only after he had crossed the border by train back into North Korea.

A limousine without car plates and bearing a gold color emblem on its side arrives amid heavy security at the train station in Beijing

A senior U.S. official said the available evidence suggested that Kim had travelled to Beijing to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping. Beijing later confirmed the meeting

Like his father, Kim visited China in secret this week.

A motorcade of blacked out cars had been seen entering Beijing Railway Station while a foreign guesthouse in Beijing had a heavy security presence overnight on Monday.

A Reuters reporter saw a convoy leave Beijing's Diaoyutai State Guest House, where senior foreign leaders often stay, and drive north on Tuesday morning. It was unclear where the convoy was headed.

Later, a journalist saw what was believed to be the delegation's train pulling out of a Beijing station. The group was reported to have arrived in China on Sunday after crossing from North Korea in the border city of Dandong.

The rail journey between Dandong and Beijing covers more than 680 miles. It takes at least 14 hours by ordinary service, according to Chinese railway timetables.

The dark green train bears a distinctive yellow stripe down the side and looks the same as one used by Kim Jong-il in the past

There was a heavy police presence as a motorcade travelled along hang'an Avenue, a major east-west thoroughfare in Beijing

The news of the meeting came amid talk of preparations for a meeting between the North's reclusive leader and President Donald Trump

Xi and Kim had reason to meet in advance of Kim's meetings with Moon and possibly Trump, a U.S. official told Reuters.

'Xi has met Trump, and in many respects learned how to deal with him better than some people here do,' the official said. 'At the same time, despite the recent tensions, he needs to know what Kim has in mind for dealing with the South and the U.S., and he still has a lot of leverage with the North.'

Kim's father met then-president Jiang Zemin in China in 2000 before a summit between the two Koreas in June of that year.

The elder Kim was considered at the time to have made the visit to reaffirm close ties with China.

China is not only North Korea's only major ally, it is also the country largest trading partner.

A South Korean in Seoul watches a television news report about a visit to China by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un

Police in tactical gear block a road leading to the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing amid reports Kim Jong-un was in town, which were later confirmed

The train appeared to be the same one that was used by Kim Jong-il to visit China multiple times in the past (pictured here in 2011)

Kim Jong-il pictured visiting China on board a North Korean armoured train in 2001
Maundy Thursday will soon be celebrated in the UK and by Christians all around the world.

Queen Elizabeth II will take part in a special service at Leicester Cathedral to mark the occasion. The service itself dates all the way back to the medieval period and has undergone a number of changes over the centuries, though its core traditions have remained remarkably intact after all these years.

But just what exactly is Maundy Thursday? Heres all you need to know about what it is, when it is, why its called Maundy Thursday, how its celebrated in the UK, what the origins of Maundy Thursday services are and how else its celebrated throughout the world.

Queen Elizabeth II will soon take part in Maundy Thursday services at Leicester Cathedral

What is Maundy Thursday?

Maundy Thursday is the Thursday before Easter and is observed by millions of Christians worldwide in commemoration of the Last Supper of Jesus Christ and his disciples. Christians also believe that Jesus commanded his followers to love each other and washed their feet during the meal.

It always precedes Good Friday and marks the start of the three-day Easter celebration.

Maundy Thursday is also sometimes known as Holy Thursday, the Thursday of Mysteries, Covenant Thursday and Sheer Thursday.

When is Maundy Thursday 2018?

Maundy Thursday 2018 will be on Thursday, March 29.

Why is it called Maundy Thursday?

The word Maundy is derived from the Latin word mandatum, which means command.

This refers to the command that Jesus gave his disciples to love each other during the Last Supper: A new commandment I give you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. (John 13:34, Revised Standard Version).

How is Maundy Thursday celebrated in the UK?

Queen Elizabeth II will observe Maundy Thursday by taking part in the distribution of alms at Leicester Cathedral with the Duke of Edinburgh, a tradition that dates all the way back to the Middle Ages.

The Royal Maundy will be distributed among 91 women and 91 men, a symbolic number that represents her 91 years of age.

All of the recipients will be senior citizens who will receive the Royal Maundy in honor of their service to the church and the local community.

Liechester A post shared by Alex Wells (@alexjwells) on Mar 25, 2018 at 2:30am PDT

What are the origins of Maundy Thursday services?

Maundy Thursday services date all the way back to the 13th century and used to involve the distribution of money to the poor and washing their feet.

The feet washing tradition, however, ended in the 18th century under King James II. Instead, the Queen now commemorates the holiday by distributing alms to senior citizens to thank them for their service to their church and their community.

Nowadays, the Queen will give both a white purse and a red purse to each recipient, with the white purse containing the Royal Maundy created for the occasion in the form of 91p in recognition of her age and the red purse holding a 5 coin in recognition of the centennial of the House of Windsor, and a 50p coin that honors Sir Isaac Newton.

The red purse contains 5.50 for historical purposes. 3 is for clothing while 1.50 is in lieu of provisions and 1 is for the redemption of the Queens gown.

How else in Maundy Thursday celebrated around the world?

In addition to the distribution of alms by Queen Elizabeth II at Leicester Cathedral, the holiday is marked in unique ways by Christians all around the world.

Feet washing is still a tradition held in many Christian denominations around the world, including by the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Catholic Church and the Armenian Apostolic Church. Solemn Chrism Masses are also held on the day by many Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches. The Eastern Orthodox Church also marks the day with Vespers prayers and the Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great.

In Sweden, the holiday, connected to ancient folklore about witches, often sees children dress up as witches and knock on doors for treats and Easter eggs. In Bulgaria, it marks the day when people traditionally color Easter eggs and begin to prepare for the Easter celebrations.

Maundy Thursday is also a public holiday in many countries which were historically parts of the Spanish and Danish Empires.
This is the moment a man who slept with a married woman was tied upside down and flogged by her husband - a day after she was lashed 100 times for adultery in an Indian village.

The unnamed man was strung up from the branch of a tree in Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh before being whipped repeatedly for the affair.

Another clip shows him cowering on the ground as a baying crowd savagely attacked him with sticks.

A day earlier, the victim's lover had been tied up by the wrists and whipped 100 times by her husband for eloping. Afterwards, some of the men watching sexually assaulted and tried to rape her.

A man who slept with a married woman was tied upside down and flogged by her husband - a day after she was lashed 100 times for adultery in an Indian village

Shocking footage shows a wife being flogged 100 times by her husband as punishment for adultery before collapsing in front of a mob

According to Bulandshahr police, the woman had run off with her lover in the first week of March and was staying with him at a relative's house.

On March 10, her husband sent a people to convince her to return home - telling her they will forget the past and start their life afresh. But when she returned, a kangaroo court of village elders was set up to decide a punishment.

A hunt was launched for the lover following a diktat from the same 'Panchayat' court.

His punishment was to be tied upside down from a tree and mercilessly thrashed with sticks and leather belts.

He can be seen holding out his hands in a bid to fend off some of the ferocious blows and cries out in pain as he is lashed repeatedly.

The beating mirrored the one handed to his married lover who, a day earlier, could be heard screaming as her husband attacked her over and over again.

Mob justice: The savage punishment was carried out after a kangaroo court found her guilty of eloping with her boyfriend.

A group of men and boys standing around in a circle watched as she collapsed unconscious (pictured) after the frenzied beating yesterday in Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh

A group of men and boys standing around in a circle watched as she collapsed unconscious after the frenzied beating. But her ordeal did not end there with reports claiming some of the villagers then

exually assaulted and tried to rape her. When she regained her senses, they warned her against telling the police before running off.

Her husband pauses only briefly to take off his jacket before completing his merciless assault.

The woman was badly injured and filed a complaint against the accused after a week once she had recovered.

According to her statement, police have registered a case against her husband, an ex-village head and five village strongmen.

Police Inspector Altaf Ansari, in charge of Police Station, said: 'We have registered a case against her husband Saudan, former village head Sher Singh and his son Shravansinh and arrested them.

'We have started a hunt for other accused. The woman has been sent to the hospital for medical examination.'
Two men accused of raping a 17-year-old girl were paraded naked through the streets with their hands tied behind their backs as women slapped them.

The pair were led through the streets of Yingkiong in far northeastern India by an angry mob before they were handed over to local police.

'It seems the public did such a thing before handing the two to the police,' Police Deputy Inspector General John Neihlaia said.

Two men accused of raping a 17-year-old girl were paraded naked through the streets with their hands tied behind their backs as women slapped them

He said the teenage victim agreed to go out with one of the men after befriending him on social media, but claimed he and three of his friends raped her.

After they were finished the men allegedly dropped her home about 2am and the brave girl went to the police the next morning.

'Meanwhile, the victim's relatives and neighbours caught two of the accused and handed them over to the police,' Inspector General Neihlaia said.

Police were still hunting the other two suspects who were believed to be in their 20s.

The pair were led through the streets of Yingkiong in far northeastern India by an angry mob before they were handed over to local police

Police said the teenage victim agreed to go out with one of the men after befriending him on social media, but claimed he and three of his friends raped her

Enraged villagers in the state of Arunachal Pradesh have several times rounded up alleged rapists and humiliated them in similar fashion.

Last month the alleged rapist of an eight-year-old girl was paraded through the town of Daporijo, but other incidents were more violent.

Nearly 1,000 people last month stormed a police station in Tezu, grabbed two men accused of the rape and murder of a five-year-old girl, and killed them in the town's marketplace.

A day later, a mob of almost 900 people ransacked the police station at Yingkiong in protest that a man accused of raping a five-year-old girl was moved to another district.

Enraged villagers in the state of Arunachal Pradesh have several times rounded up alleged rapists and humiliated them in similar fashion
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum walked back the suggestion he made that protesting students should learn CPR over pushing for stricter gun laws.

'Well, the fact of the matter is I did misspeak, in using the term CPR,' Santorum said on CNN Wednesday morning. 'I think Sanjay Gupta's job here at CNN is probably safe as being the medical commentator on things,' the ex-senator added, referencing the network's top talking doctor.

Santorum didn't back away from his position that the students are 'avoiding the issues that are really, actually unifying,' he said. 'That's really the most disturbing thing,' the Republican added.

Former Sen. Rick Santorum admitted Wednesday morning that he misspoke when he suggested Sunday that protesting students learn CPR over pushing for stricter gun laws

Rick Santorum (right), speaking to CNN's Chris Cuomo (left) Wednesday morning, stood his ground on what he said was the point he was trying to make: that students should be focused on unifying solutions over gun control

Among those ideas, according to Santorum: 'Create an environment at school where there isn't bullying, where there's a sensitivity to people who have problems and be able to identify those problems, be able to get proper care to people.'

What Santorum didn't believe she be at the top of the list was anything to do with guns.

That's why, on Sunday, he floated on CNN that the students who had taken to the streets a day before in support of stricter gun laws would be better served by learning something like CPR, to prepare them for the next mass shooting.

'How about kids, instead of looking to someone else to solve their problem, do something about  maybe taking CPR classes or trying to deal with situations that, when there is a violent shooter that you can actually respond to that,' Santorum, a Republican, said Sunday on CNN's State of the Union.

Santorum, who got voted out of office in 2006, tried to suggest that those who participated in Saturday's 'March for Our Lives' rallies across the country weren't taking appropriate actions because they were merely asking lawmakers to pass 'phony' gun laws.

Former Sen. Rick Santorum made the comments during a panel discussion on CNN's State of the Union Sunday show. During the program he suggested student activists should be focused on 'What am I going to do to actually help respond to a shooter?'

Another panelist, liberal Van Jones (far right) said he didn't want his son, who is entering high school, to have to worry about learning CPR so he could help a friend that had gotten shot. 'I want him focused on algebra and other stuff,' Jones said

'They took action to ask someone to pass a law,' Santorum pointed out to host Brianna Keilar. 'They didn't take action to say, "How do I, as an individual, deal with this problem? How am I going to do something about stopping bulling within my own community? What am I going to do to actually help respond to a shooter?"'

'Those kinds of things where you can take it internally and say, "Here's how I'm going to deal with this. Here's how I'm going to help this situation," instead of going and protesting and saying, "Oh, someone needs to pass a law to protect me,"' Santorum went on.

CNN's Van Jones, who was part of the panel discussion, noted how his son was about to be high school age.

'I want him focused on algebra and other stuff,' Jones argued. 'If his main way to survive high school is learning CPR so when his friends get shot ... that to me, we've gone too far.'

'I'm proud of these kids. I know you're proud of these kids too,' Jones said to Santorum.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student David Hogg speaks onstage at March For Our Lives in Washington on Saturday. On Sunday, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum suggested that the students would be better served learning a skill like CPR

Activist David Hogg chimed in suggesting that the NRA might need CPR performed on it after this November's midterm elections. Hogg and other Parkland, Florida student activists have called on Americans to vote out lawmakers not in support of stricter gun laws

The former Pennsylvania senator agreed, but continued to make his point.

'I'm proud of them, but I think everyone should be responsible and deal with the problems that we have to confront in our lives. And ignoring those problems and saying they're not going to come to me and saying some phony gun law is gonna solve it,' Santorum continued. 'Phony gun laws don't solve these problems.'

He also suggested that a much broader discussion about school safety was needed beyond all the talk of guns.

Santorum continued to make that point on Wednesday when he faced off against CNN's Chris Cuomo.

'And my point is, this is a horrific thing that's going on in this country and what we should be focused on is unite this country around solutions that we can all agree on and put our shoulder forward,' Santorum said. 'That's not being discussed Chris.'

'And I blame myself, I said that wrong comment on Sunday and that got everybody off on a rabbit trail,' the ex-senator said.

Santorum's comments had immediately gotten noticed by Everytown for Gun Safety program manager Erica Lafferty, whose mother Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung had been the principal of Sandy Hook Elementary School, and died defending her kids.

'Rick Santorum's words are an insult to the kids of Parkland, my family and to the countless others who have had loved ones taken by gun violence,' Lafferty said in a statement Sunday.

'My mother was killed while protecting her students at Sandy Hook School. For anyone to suggest that the solution to gun violence is for kids to learn CPR is outrageous, and indicative of the NRA's desire to do or say anything except strengthen America's weak gun laws,' Lafferty said.

Santorum's comments also got the attention of Marjory Stoneman Douglas senior David Hogg, one of the most vocal students to survive the Parkland, Florida, Valentine's Day massacre.

It was Hogg and his classmates who organized Saturday's rallies.

'I think @RickSantorum might need to learn CPR for the NRA following midterms,' Hogg tweeted Sunday afternoon.

Hogg and other Parkland, Florida student activists have called on Americans to vote out lawmakers not in support of stricter gun laws.
A journalist has faced physical abuse outside court as relatives of a boy who was shot in the face appeared on firearm charges.

As the five-year-old's grandfather and father left Warwick Court, in Queensland, on Wednesday, the female 7 News reporter was yelled at, shoved and grabbed.

Dramatic footage showed the journalist attempting to walk towards the men, before being intercepted by two women - one yelling at her and the other grabbing her around the waist, Yahoo7 reported.

The female 7 News reporter was grabbed around the waist (pictured) as she tried to approach the boy's father and grandfather to ask them questions

'He has nothing to say,' one woman repeatedly yelled at the journalist, who struggled to break free from a bear-hug from the other woman.

The journalist can be heard asking the father, 'how is your son doing?', all the while battling to escape the firm grasp of the angry woman.

As the men drove away in a silver sedan, the reporter can be heard asking the women, 'please don't touch me'.

But they continue in their crusade to cover the camera and block the journalist with physical advances.

The reporter was set on as the relatives of a boy accidentally shot in the face

The young boy, Cameron Calvisi, miraculously survived being shot in the face with a .22 rifle at a Cottonvale property in January.

The bullet was accidentally fired by the boy's 12-year-old cousin when the pair and a third child were playing with the gun at the rural property, according to reports.

His father and grandfather faced charges of unlawful possession and failing to store a weapon properly.

The boy's father, Robert Calvisi, told The Courier Mail he drove with a 'lead foot' through a fierce storm to reach the nearest hospital as his son's eyes rolled back and blood poured out of his mouth.

The father of Cameron Calvisi (pictured) said he drove with a 'lead foot' through a fierce storm to get his son to the nearest hospital after he was shot

'I've never driven so fast in my life, 156km/h I think I was doing all the way, in the rain,' he said.

His grandfather, Tony Calvisi, told Ten News about his devastation at the accident, and the fear of what could have happened.

'Anything can go wrong when the bullet is that close,' he said.

Family members were set to return to court in May.
Ben Needham's mother has spoken of her frustration after more funding was given to the search for Madeleine McCann, while she is left with the reality her son is probably dead.

Little Ben disappeared while he was staying with family on the Greek island of Kos on July 24 1991. He was just 21-months-old.

The youngster had been left in the care of his grandparents, who lived on the island, while his mother Kerry went to work at a nearby hotel.

He disappeared that afternoon and has never been since, with police probing whether he was kidnapped or died in a tragic accident involving a digger.

Kerry Needham, 43, burst into tears on TV today after Scotland Yard got the green light to continue the 11-year-old search for missing toddler Madeleine McCann this week.

Appearing on ITV's Loose Women, she said the extraordinary money and resources put into the search for Maddie 'hurts her', as she struggles on as a single parent.

Missing toddler Ben Needham's mother Kerry (pictured) spoke on ITV's Loose Women today about the difference between her family's case and the McCanns

Little Ben (pictured left) disappeared while he was staying with family on the Greek island of Kos on July 24 1991. He was just 21-months-old. Madeleine McCann (right) went missing from her parents hotel room in Portugal on May 3 2007

Maddie went missing on May 3 2007 from her parents' hotel room in the Algarve, Portugal.

Thousands of pounds have been pumped into the investigation into her disappearance and the Metropolitan Police are still pursuing their inquiries.

The Home Office revealed this week it had allocated further funds to Operation Grange - the Met's investigation into her disappearance.

The new fund is believed to be as large as 150,000.

Ms Needham told audiences: 'It hurts us, as Ben's mum. 'I'm not taking anything away from them. We haven't had a fraction of that help.

'I've had to fight for that help alone as a single mum. I'll still keep going, doing the interviews, as Ben's name still needs to be out there. '

She continued: 'In our minds it's very difficult to accept that he has died because we have no concrete proof.

Ms Needham told audiences: 'It hurts us, as Ben's mum. 'I'm not taking anything away from them. We haven't had a fraction of that help'

'In the back of our minds we know that he has died but we will never be able to move on from that, he will always be a missing person.'

Police now believe Ben was crushed to death by digger driver Konstantinos 'Dino' Barkasin in a tragic accident close to the farmhouse where he was last seen and where a sandal believed to belong to the toddler was found in 2012.

Ms Needham added: 'They believe that Ben died on the day he disappeared and his body was moved from the area.

'South Yorkshire Police do believe that, and I believe them. If they do, then I have to.'

She also revealed she still gets messages from well wishers 17 years after her Ben disappeared and begged her mother not to blame herself.

'People send their Facebook pictures saying that they think they are Ben,' she said.

Ben's mother Kerry burst into tears as she spoke of her son's disappearance on Loose Women today

His mother Kerry Needham, 43, burst into tears on TV today after Scotland Yard got the green light to continue the 11-year-old search for missing toddler Madeleine McCann, while she struggles on as a single parent. Pictured: The site of Ben's disappearance

'I don't have personal contact with these people, my friends do that side of things for me.'

She added: 'I want my Mum to know that it's not her fault and I don't' blame her. Ben was with my mum that day. They lived through the hope of bringing him back to me.

'I've not had counselling as I'm not ready. I don't think I'm strong enough to release all that emotion.

'I'd rather keep the anger and the fight in me than talk about it too much.'

Recently the family's spirits were lifted by the birth of Ben's sister's second daughter, Aurora.

His 24-year-old sibling, Leighanna Needham, told of her 'pure joy' after giving birth to her second little girl, named after a Disney princess in Sleeping Beauty.

Leighanna, of Sheffield, who is also mother to four-year-old Hermione, told the Mirror earlier this month: 'I have two princesses now and Hermione adores her.'

Her mother Kerry added: 'We have something to make us smile again.

'We are totally delighted with the birth of the new addition to our family.'

The toddler disappeared that afternoon and has never been since, with police probing whether he was kidnapped or died in a tragic accident involving a digger (investigation pictured)
The car Salim Mehajer used to assault a television reporter was mysteriously withdrawn from auction minutes before it was about to be sold.

The white Porsche Panamera was set to go to a luxury car auction in Sydney's south-west on Monday night after clocking up 292,563km on its odometer.

It's understood a finance company withdrew the car from the auction at the last minute, but wouldn't reveal who the owner was, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Mehajer used the car's passenger-side door to assault Channel 7 journalist Laura Banks on April 2 last year.

The car Salim Mehajer used to assault a television reporter (pictured) was mysteriously withdrawn from auction minutes before it was about to be sold

The white Porsche Panamera was set to go to a luxury car auction in Sydney's south-west on Monday night after clocking up 292,563km on its odometer

Mehajer (right) used the car's passenger-side door to assault Channel 7 journalist Laura Banks (left) on April 2 last year

He had climbed into the vehicle to escape a media pack outside a central Sydney police station, where he had been taken early that morning after allegedly assaulting a taxi driver.

Mehajer was found guilty of assault occasioning bodily harm against Ms Banks, in an incident that left her with hand and back injuries.

Ms Banks had been standing in the doorway of the Porsche trying to quiz Mehajer on the incident when the assault occurred.

The Porsche is believed to be owned by a company linked to the Mehajer family, according to the publication.

Mehajer was declared bankrupt by a Federal Circuit Court judge last week after one of his companies failed to pay a debt of more than $200,000.

He cannot benefit from the sale of his assets and all proceeds will go to his trustee in bankruptcy Paul Weston.

Mehajer was found guilty of assault occasioning bodily harm against Ms Banks, in an incident that left her with hand and back injuries

Ms Banks had been standing in the doorway of the Porsche trying to quiz Mehajer on the incident when the assault (pictured) occurred

Many were disappointed the Porsche was withdrawn from the auction, denying them the chance of snapping up a luxury vehicle at a bargain price.

'It is eight years old and has a lot of kilometres so it wouldn't sell for much - maybe $40,000,' one auction attendee said.

The car is well overdue for a service and has no registration, however it comes with personalised black number plates.

Mehajer was charged earlier on Wednesday with two counts of possessing and one count of supplying a prohibited drug, just one day before his final bail application.

The Porsche is believed to be owned by a company linked to the Mehajer family

Mehajer was charged earlier on Wednesday with two counts of possessing and one count of supplying a prohibited drug, just one day before his final bail application

Police allege they found more than 200 pills of prescription anxiety and pain medications during a raid on his Lidcombe home in November 2017.

On November 8, officers allegedly found 174 tablets of Endone and Targin - both with the active ingredient of Oxycodone, or 'hillbilly heroin'.

They also allege they found 50 tablets of alprazolam - more commonly known as Xanax.

Mehajer has been languishing in remand at Silverwater Prison since January on charges of perverting the course of justice and conspiracy to cheat and defraud in relation to an allegedly staged car crash.
An Iranian woman who was badly injured after being pushed off a box in Tehran as she was waving her hijab during a protest has been jailed for a year.

Maryam Shariatmadari, 32, was demonstrating against laws which force women to wear a veil in the Islamic republic when a policeman violently shoved her to the ground on February 23.

Despite journalists and supporters reporting that the woman needed 'urgent' medical attention after suffering a 'severe' leg injury that required stitches, she was kept in prison before being sentenced.

Scroll down for video

Maryam Shariatmadari, 32, was demonstrating against laws forcing women to wear a veil in the Islamic republic when a policeman violently shoved her to the ground on February 23

Despite journalists and supporters reporting that the woman needed 'urgent' medical attention after suffering a 'severe' leg injury that required stitches, she was kept in prison. Pictured: Shariatmadari being shoved

The protest turns nasty when a police officer climbs onto the podium and pushes her to the pavement, earning jeers from spectators

In the shocking video, Shariatmadari (pictured), standing above Tehran pedestrians on a utility box, is seen defiantly waving a headscarf on the end of a stick

According to activist group My Stealthy Freedom, Shariatmadari was sentenced to a year in jail for breaking the strict nation's laws.

But human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, who represented the woman, said the verdict 'even goes against the laws.'

According to the Center for Human Rights in Iran, Shariatmadari was forced to undergo knee surgery for her injury.

The organisation cited Jila Baniyaghoo, a journalist in the country, who claimed Shariatmadari was at one point taken out of surgery by police when she was about to go under the knife.

Tehran Police spokesman Saeed Montazer al-Mahdi said on February 25 that police - though they have a responsibility to tackle 'visible crimes' - had no right to 'violate the law'.

According to the Center for Human Rights in Iran , Shariatmadari (pictured) was forced to undergo knee surgery for her injury

According to activist group My Stealthy Freedom, Shariatmadari (pictured) was sentenced to a year in jail for breaking the strict nation's laws

In the shocking video, Shariatmadari, standing above Tehran pedestrians on a utility box, is seen defiantly waving a headscarf on the end of a stick.

But the protest turns nasty when a police officer climbs onto the podium and pushes her to the pavement, earning jeers from spectators.

The veil has been a mandatory dress requirement for women in Iran since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

It comes days after footage showed another protester, Shaparak Shajarizadeh, standing on a traffic island in the Iranian capital Tehran and waving her headscarf around on the end of a stick.

In the latest clip, the woman is seen raising the headscarf above her head by a set of traffic lights in Tehran.

Two policemen confront the protester and ask her to come down to the pavement.

She asked what offence she had committed, and was told she was 'disturbing public order', according to The New Arab.

One activist said: 'No man has the right to treat a woman like this'.

Around 30 women have been arrested in Tehran for refusing to wear a headscarf, it has been reported.

A movement called White Wednesdays encourages women to flout regulations by capturing footage and pictures of themselves without their hijabs and posting it online.

The Islamic code also forbids women touching, dancing or singing with men outside their families.

It comes after footage showed another protester, Shaparak Shajarizadeh standing on a traffic island in the Iranian capital Tehran and waving her headscarf around on the end of a stick

A movement called White Wednesdays sees women flouting the regulations by capturing footage and pictures of themselves without their hijabs and posting it online

Since 1979 Iran has required women to wear the Islamic headscarf in public. The Islamic code also forbids women touching, dancing or singing with men outside their families

Women are only allowed to show their face, hands and feet in public and are supposed to wear only modest colours.

Over the years, however, women have pushed back the boundaries of the law, with many wearing loose, brightly coloured headscarves far back on their heads.

In November, footage emerged of women standing up to police and strangers after walking the streets without hijabs.

At one point a female campaigner shouts 'spit out your insults' after being told to cover her head while a second film shows a man threatening to slap a young woman for breaking the law.

Another video showed a father standing up for her daughter after a passer-by ordered her to 'observe hijab'. The father stands his ground and tells the man 'I don't believe that nonsense'.
A further reduction in funding would mean cuts in services such as tutoring, homework assistance, pregnancy prevention services, and food for students, Farrington said.

"It's less contact with the kids that need a place to go," she said.

The center employs around 50 people, with the four after-school programs covering around 400 students. Farrington said the state dictates there must be one staff member for every 10 students, and more children have flocked to the center's programs over the years. This has resulted in more staff, but with grant funding remaining the same. Previous grant cuts forced the center to cut back on services such as transportation and Friday field trips, Farrington said.

Farrington said the grants alone can't fund the programs, but the whittled funding has required the center to turn to other benefactors, such as United Way, to offset the difference. There have been efforts to advocate for more funding, Farrington said, as parents of children in the center's programs recently sent postcards to Cuomo's office, explaining what the the program has meant for their children.

"Nobody realizes how much of a connection an after school program has for our families," Farrington said.

Staff writer Kelly Rocheleau can be reached at (315) 282-2243 or kelly.rocheleau@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @KellyRocheleau.

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Schools across the UK were put into lockdown after teachers were sent horrifying threats that children would be deliberately run over by a car and shot.

The terrifying warning was sent to hundreds of British schools, ranging from Devon, in the south west of England, all the way up to the north east.

Police in Cambridgeshire, where threats were also received, claimed that vehicles would plough into as many pupils as possible as they left to go home.

Officers in Durham have now told more than 100 schools that they believe the letters to be a hoax and not 'credible' as a threat and have told them to stand down.

The email, sent at about 10am this morning, read: 'If you try and evacuate them the driver will get out and shoot any student leaving.

Several schools are believed to have been locked down as a precaution, including Marlborough Primary School in Plymouth, Devon (pictured)

'You have a choice here, you can ignore this email and risk the lives of the students you say you care for, or you can listen to what we are telling you.

'The only way out is to go out with a BANG.'

Several schools have been locked down as a precaution, including Marlborough Primary School in Plymouth, Devon.

The school's headteacher Rachel Summers told the Plymouth Herald: 'We followed procedure by phoning 999, phoning the police, as soon as we received that email.

'We then went into lockdown, so that children were all inside, with doors locked, nobody in, nobody out, just to be safe and make sure children were OK.'

Chief Inspector Catherine Clarke, from Durham Constabulary, said: 'We can confirm that at this time we believe none of the threats received by schools to date are considered to be credible.

'In the absence of any further threats being received, schools do not need to take any further action.

'If any further threats are received they should be reported immediately to police.

'We are in contact with the schools in our area to give guidance and reassurance.

'More than 100 schools in the North-East region have received the emails and we are working with neighbouring forces to establish the facts and investigate who is responsible.'

It comes two weeks after similar letters were sent to schools threatening to detonate bombs left on school property throughout the UK.

Police later announced that they did not believe the threat to be viable, as the letters had been sent from the United States and were demanding money.
An 'extremely greedy' former Chinese official has been given a death sentence after accepting massive bribes, according to China's state media.

Zhang Zhongsheng, 66, is said to have taken bribes amounting to 1.04 billion (116.8 million) in the space of 16 years - the equivalent of being bribed 178,000 yuan (20,000) a day.

The disgraced officials received the economic benefits while working senior roles in Lvliang, one of China's poorest regions, said the court.

Corrupt Chinese official Zhang Zhongsheng receives a death sentence in Shanxi, China

The court said Mr Zhang's crimes had caused 'huge losses to the country and its people'

The news has grabbed much attention in China because few corrupt officials have been given a death penalty - even after Chinese President Xi Jinping launched a tough anti-graft campaign while assuming the office in 2013.

Mr Zhang was sentenced today by the Intermediate People's Court of Linfen City in Shanxi, according to People's Daily Online.

The disgraced official received the astronomical bribes between 1997 and 2003 when he worked for the regional governments in Lvliang, Shanxi Province.

He was investigated in 2015 while working as the deputy mayor of Lvliang City. His other positions included the head of Zhongyang County in Lvliang.

Lvliang is a poverty-stricken area. According to China News, 1,346 villages and 480,000 residents of the area are classified as 'impoverished' by the central government.

According to the court, Mr Zhang accepted a total of 18 bribes in the forms of cash and property. Among them, two cases exceeded 200 million yuan (22.5 million) in value; and over 88 million yuan (10 million) had been requested by Mr Zhang from his contacts.

In return, the former powerful regional leader offered the other party help in the approval of projects and the obtaining of coal resources, which Shanxi is famous for, reported Xinhua News Agency.

The court said Mr Zhang is 'extremely greedy' and his crimes had caused 'huge losses to the country and its people'. All of his personal assets will be confiscated.

Mr Zhang took the bribes between 1997 and 2013 when he worked as a regional leader in China

Mr Zhang's sentence came after China's ruling Communist Party vowed to further crack down on corruption with a proposed anti-graft agency.

Earlier this month, China's National People's Congress began a third and final reading of a draft supervision law that would extend the newly formed anti-graft body's authority, led by the party, over vast numbers of workers in the public sector.

This means the Communist Party-led anti-corruption agency would police not only the party's cadres, but also doctors, teachers, entertainers and other state employees.

Chinese University of Hong Kong law professor Ryan Mitchell told Associate Press that expanding the scope of the anti-graft agency's powers to include government workers may have been 'calculated as a way to intimidate the bureaucracy into more closely following the party line.'

In the past five years, roughly 1.34 million lower-ranking officials have been punished under President Xi anti-corruption drive.
David Gauke (pictured in Parliament today) had suggested that he would mount a legal challenge against the Parole Board decision to release the rapist, but later U-turned

Justice Secretary David Gauke today faced calls to 'fall on his sword' and quit over his refusal to challenge the release black cab rapist John Worboys.

Mr Gauke had suggested that he would mount a legal challenge against the Parole Board decision to release the rapist, but later U-turned.

The serial sex attacker would have been free to walk the streets of Britain if his victims had not crowdfunded their own legal challenge and won their landmark High Court case to keep him locked up.

Today a Tory minister admitted Mr Gauke had 'made a mess' of the case while Conservative MPs also rounded on him and said he should consider resigning.

A Tory MP told the Telegraph he should quit over the scandal. They said: 'He f**ked up, he could not have f**ked up more.

'He showed no leadership at all, he allowed himself to be rolled by officials. He is fighting for his future, he has to take responsibility and consider his position.'

A Conservative minister told Mail Online: 'We seem to have made quite a mess of this.

'It's a problem when you don't push back against advice. David raised hopes he was going to step in and then backed off.

'But David is well liked and has been a good minister. It isn't going to finish him.'

The victims of John Worboys (pictured) stepped in to crowdfund their own legal challenge and today won their landmark High Court case to keep him locked up

Labour MP John Woodcock said Mr Gauke should go, telling The Sun: 'This ruling is a massive relief and shows David Gauke's refusal to appeal the parole board's decision was a monumental misjudgement.

'John Worboys would be free to walk the streets if it had been left to the government.

'There is clearly something badly wrong in the Ministry of Justice and Mr Gauke bears responsibility for the screw-up - he should fall on his sword.'

Meanwhile, bookies have slashed the odds of him being the next minister to leave the Government.

The under fire Cabinet minister had to go to the House of Commons to explain his decision after today's landmark ruling.

Speaking during the Commons clash, Labour's shadow justice secretary Richard Burgon said the minister must 'accept responsibility in the failings for the dossier presented by the Ministry of Justice'.

Clashing with the minister in the Commons today, he added: 'Can you give more information on why he chose not to pursue his own judicial review.

Labour's shadow justice secretary Richard Burgon said the minister must 'accept responsibility in the failings for the dossier presented by the Ministry of Justice'.

'And to be blunt, do you regret your decision to pursue a cheap headline and brief the weekend newspapers in advance before properly checking if you could pursue a judicial review?

'It is not just me asking this question, it has been reported that his conservative colleagues are asking this question a well to the extent that the Prime Minister has been moved to say today that she still has full confidence in him.'

What are the reforms to the way parole boards operate does David Gauke want to bring in? The Justice Secretary (pictured today) said he wanted to bring in reforms that would shatter the the secrecy that currently surrounds parole board decisions David Gauke today vowed to usher in radical reforms to shatter the secrecy surrounding the way parole boards work in the wake of criticism over the John Worboys case. The Justice Secretary said he wanted to bring in reforms that would shatter the the secrecy that currently surrounds parole board decisions. He wants to abolish the much criticised Rule 25 so that summaries of the decisions reached by parole boards can be given to victims affected. And he said he also wants to create a system so that parole board decisions can go to an appeal which is heard by a judge led panel. He told the Commons about his 'his intention to 'conduct further work to examine the Parole Board rules in their entirety'. He added: 'As a result of the work that has been completed to date, I have already decided to abolish Rule 25 and will do so as soon as possible after the Easter recess, 'This will enable us to provide for the Parole Board to make available summaries of the decisions they make to victims. In addition, I will bring forward proposals for Parole Board decisions to be challenged. 'I intend to consult on the detail of these proposals by the end of April alongside other proposals to improve the way that victims are kept informed about the parole process. 'I will make a statement to Parliament this afternoon and set out our response to the judgment - and our next steps - in more detail.' Advertisement

The Labour frontbencher said that it was only down to the tireless efforts of victims that Worboys, 60, is staying behind bars.

And he called for legal aid to be given to people mounting judicial review challenges.

Mr Burgon said: 'Personally I don't think it's right that victims of people like John Worboys have to crowdfund to pursue justice, because justice cannot depend on the depths of your pockets.'

He added: 'There have been widespread failings in this case from the very outset.'

Meanwhile, Ladbrokes said they slashed the odds of Mr Gauke being the next minister to leave Theresa May's Government from 50/1 to 5/1.

But Mr Gauke defended his decision saying that he followed the legal advice and made it clear he would not stand in the way of victims bringing their own case.

He said: 'I made no secret that I was considering a judicial review 

'The reality was that the victims were in a better position to bring a successful case than I was.

'What is also very important is that we should ensure in the future that where the parole board reaches a conclusion that reaches certain criteria there is an ability for the parole board to be able to look again at this.'

And he also apologies to the many victims of Worboys over the handling of the case.

He said: 'This case should have been much more effectively dealt with in terms of the Parole Board hearing.

'There should have been much greater probing, there should have been much greater testing of the case that Worboys was making to the Parole Board.

'And I deeply regret that that did not happen and I share the anger that he does the victims therefore had to go through this process and I'm sorry that that happened.'

And several Tory big-hitters backed the Justice Secretary and said it was right that he followed the legal advice.

Former justice secretary Ken Clarke came to the defence of Mr Gauke, saying that it would have been 'scandalous' to ignore the original legal advice not to launch a judicial review.

He said: 'It would be absolutely scandalous if he as Justice Secretary had ignored the legal advice he got, which sounds to be perfectly sensible on the basis of the facts available to him.

Worboys' black cab (pictured) was used to pick up victims who were offered cut price fares

'It would be a very bad day if ministers started intervening in criminal sentencing cases in response to campaigning and did not judge them objectively according to the rule of law and the public interest.'

Three Parole Board members who made Worboys decision will not be named or sacked The three members of the Parole Board who made the controversial decision to free John Worboys will not face disciplinary action. The trio - who have never been named - will also keep their anonymity, it was today confirmed. Critics have torn into the way the secrecy which surrounds the way Parole Board decisions are made. And Justice Secretary David Gauke today said he plans to bring in reforms to make the summaries of rulings available to victims. Advertisement

Mr Gauke today vowed to overhaul how the parole board operates in response to the wave of public anger sparked by the Worboys case.

He said he wanted to bring in reforms that would shatter the the secrecy that currently surrounds parole board decisions.

The Justice Secretary said he wants to abolish the much criticised Rule 25 so that summaries of the decisions reached by parole boards can be given to victims affected.

And he said he also wants to create a system so that parole board decisions can go to an appeal which is heard by a judge led panel.

He told the Commons: 'As a result of the work that has been completed to date, I have already decided to abolish Rule 25 and will do so as soon as possible after the Easter recess,

'This will enable us to provide for the Parole Board to make available summaries of the decisions they make to victims. In addition, I will bring forward proposals for Parole Board decisions to be challenged.

'I intend to consult on the detail of these proposals by the end of April alongside other proposals to improve the way that victims are kept informed about the parole process.

Why was John Worboys approved for release in the first place? The Parole Board's reasons for releasing John Worboys were only made public during the High Court appeal. The parole board accepted Worboys posed a reduced risk of reoffending because: Worboys had taken full responsibility for his offending.

He had undertaken treatment.

The sex offender had shown 'good insight' into his risk factors and triggers and how to manage them.

He had been 'open and honest' with professionals and was considered likely to remain compliant following his return to the community . Advertisement

'I will make a statement to Parliament this afternoon and set out our response to the judgment - and our next steps - in more detail.'

Worboys was due to be released from prison but judges at London's High Court ordered the parole board to review their flawed decision to free him.

The serial sex attacker was prosecuted for attacks on 12 women but police believe he may have more than 100 victims making him perhaps the most prolific sex attacker ever.

The judges found there were flaws in the decisions to release him and the chairman of the Parole Board, Professor Nick Hardwick, was forced to quit today in response to the scandal.

One of the victims said: 'I can get on with my life again without looking over my shoulder. The constant reminders in the news have been distressing and made me want to hide.'

But there is growing anger at the Justice Secretary that the women were forced to bring the case themselves, rather than the government taking action.

Today's ruling means the decision over whether to release Worboys will go back before a different parole panel.

A new decision is not expected for several months, during which Worboys will remain behind bars.

A prison van carrying Worboys leaves the Royal Courts of Justice after the hearing in February

In their own words: How the parole board justified freeing sex attacker Today's judgement reveals the reasons given by the three-person panel which recommended Worboys be released. The panel told Worboys: 'You evidence good insight as to your risk factors and how you can use internalised risk management skills to ensure that you do not re-offend. 'You have learnt to be open and honest with professionals and you are assessed as being compliant and motivated to remain compliant when in the community.' Worboys told them: 'I'm deeply sorry about what I have done. I feel I've become a better person since I changed my stance and admitted my guilt.' He added: 'From 2011 I felt so guilty didn't know who to speak to  I found religion  decided if I'm going to follow the Lord I've got to be honest and admit what I have done'. The panel added: 'Clinical opinions indicate that the risks you pose are manageable in the community and lack imminence... your risks are assessed as being manageable and lacking imminence in the community and in open prison conditions. ' Advertisement




Steven Prescod, 26, (pictured today) impressed Prince William in 2014 when he performed a part of his one-man show, A Brooklyn Boy, which tells the story of Steven's life growing up in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant

Just by looking at him, you wouldn't know that Steven Prescod has performed for a prince.

On a Friday morning in March, the 26-year-old actor and star of his autobiographical one-man show leans back in his chair as he talks, sitting between his director Moises Belizario at the head of the table and producer Laurie Meadoff beside him, inside the East Village Playhouse in Manhattan. Steven's quiet voice and steady manner are a contrast to his dynamic, expressive performance of A Brooklyn Boy the night before.

It has been four years since he first performed just a part of his show for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in December 2014 during their New York City visit. Prince William was so moved by the monologues that he gave Steven his phone number and offered to help him get the show to London's West End.

That all happened when Steven was 22, the year he would have been released from prison had his life taken a different turn. Instead of giving 15-year-old Steven the seven-year sentence for the assault and battery charges he had pleaded guilty to, the judge offered five years' probation and work with an alternative to incarceration program called CASES. Through CASES, Steven got an internship with the CityKids Foundation in 2007 and began working with Moises, the artistic director of the youth development program.

As they worked together, Moises and Steven talked about the teen's experiences of growing up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn and Moises encouraged him to write down those stories  gradually leading to one monologue, then another and another. Combined, all the monologues have become A Brooklyn Boy.

Though Steven has not yet performed on the West End, his show has reopened in the East Village Playhouse. The small 50-seat black box theater used to be the music shop Tribal Soundz and is now the home of CityKids, which was founded 33 years ago by Laurie.

Because the play tells his personal coming-of-age story, Steven admits there is more to A Brooklyn Boy than he can perform. An audience will see a small part, but he is living it in real time every day.

'Even now today I still deal with challenges,' Steven tells DailyMail.com. 'The story of A Brooklyn Boy isn't over. I still face challenges today. I always think how can I be a better me. And the story still continues.'

Steven's performance (pictured) was part of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's visit with the CityKids Foundation, a youth development program in New York City, on December 9, 2014

As soon as Steven had finished his two monologues, Prince William immediately stood up and shook Steven's hand (pictured), saying he was moved by Steven's monologues

Steven (pictured as a child) walks the audience through each of his earliest years of life, telling brief stories from each year. The older he gets, Steven's stories become longer and more significant, including how difficult it was to grow up with strict Christian relatives and the pressures of fitting in with his friends on the violent streets

The set of A Brooklyn Boy is simple: just one wooden chair and a white backdrop where photographs and video are projected, showing actual locations in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn where Steven grew up and had the experiences he is acting out or explaining.

The hour-long play goes through Steven's life, starting with the story of how his Grenadian mother and Guyanese father met at a party and how his father was incarcerated when Steven was one. The play highlights some of the most influential moments of Steven's young life  with original songs and choreography woven in. He plays all 32 characters himself, ducking in and out of each role including his parents, grandparents and friends, while spinning back and forth between his present-day addresses to the audience and flashbacks that show the events that impacted him the most.

Steven walks the audience through the years of his life, telling brief stories from each of the earliest years of his life as he was raised by his single mother. As the play goes on, he draws out the more significant stories, including how difficult it was to grow up with strict Christian relatives and the pressures of fitting in with his friends on the violent streets.

In one anecdote, Steven explains how one of his friends introduced him to a group of kids who pressured him into beating up a random person on the street. As he acts out the scene, Steven also describes the internal battle he had with himself  not wanting to hurt anyone, but also wanting to fit in. In the moment, fitting in won out.

As he approached the man, Steven kept hoping he would run away, but he didn't. Steven knocked him down and started beating him up. When the guy got up to run away, though, Steven let him go  just in time so that Steven's friends couldn't catch up to do more damage.

A Brooklyn Boy begins with the story of how Steven's Grenadian mother and Guyanese father met at a party and how, when Steven was just one year old, his father was incarcerated. The play highlights some of the most influential moments of Steven's young life, including the first time he rode his bicycle without training wheels. Steven is pictured as a child

Steven (pictured as a child) says he has always loved to dance and he has wanted to act since she was young

In another harrowing scene, Steven tells how after being put on parole, he was outside his house with his cousin, waiting for one of his friends to come pick up a gun Steven had borrowed. He put the gun in a place above the front door just as an unmarked cop car passed by and then backed up.

The three officers  two black cops and one of Indian descent, as Steven notes in the play  must not have seen what he had hidden or where, but they all got out of their car as Steven ran inside where his aunt and grandparents were. The officers chased him with their guns drawn but didn't find anything. Despite their questions of where he had hidden 'it', Steven told them he didn't have anything to hide, he just ran because he was scared. One of the officers then told Steven that he could have shot him if he hadn't been 'a good cop'.

His story is not an easy one to tell  especially with intense action and emotion and all the switching back and forth between characters  but his performance is authentic and he plays each person with the same focus.

'Every show is different for me,' he says. 'And I'm always learning new things each show, whether it's before the show, during the show, after the show. It depends on who's in the audience. It depends on the kind of day that I had The different stories that I tell in the play, sometimes when I do it, it would relate to something that I'm experiencing for that moment, even if- it doesn't have to be so literal, it can be something that relates to something that I'm experiencing, so each show there'll be a story that will probably hit me differently in a performance.'

When Steven was 15, he was charged with assault and battery and was facing a seven-year sentence. Instead, the judge gave Steven a second chance and offered him five years parole if he also worked with an alternative to incarceration program called CASES. When Steven told them he liked to dance and act, CASES sent him to interview for an internship with CityKids, where he met his mentor Moises Belizario, the program's artistic director

CityKids is a youth development program founded in 1985 by Laurie Meadoff. The goal of the organization is to provide 'opportunities for personal growth, leadership and artistic expression' for youth, according to the website. Steven (center) is pictured with other teens from CityKids

Steven has wanted to be an actor since he was a kid, he says. So when he got to CASES and they asked what he liked to do, that's what he told them. They knew right away to send him to CityKids, a youth development program founded in 1985 with the goal of 'providing opportunities for personal growth, leadership and artistic expression' for youth, according to the website.

'When I did the interview the first thing [Moises] asked me was what are you here for? And at first I was a bit hesitant because they [CASES] told me not to tell what was it that I did,' Steven says. He ended up telling Moises anyways, who said: 'Okay, we want you to stay'.

After his six-week internship, Steven was told he could become a part of the CityKids acting company, where he and Moises developed the monologues that now make up his play. So in 2014 when the Duke and Duchess were planning their New York City trip  including a visit to CityKids performances  Moises recommended Steven for an audition for the Prince's entourage, who screened the performers ahead of the royal visit.

Steven impressed them so much that he made it through several rounds of auditions and was told he would be performing for the prince, though he would have to trim his monologues down to just a few minutes.

The set of A Brooklyn Boy is made up of just one wooden chair and a white backdrop where photographs and video are projected, showing specific locations in Bed-Stuy where Steven grew up and where specific events in A Brooklyn Boy actually happened

After almost four years since it was first performed for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, A Brooklyn Boy has reopened in the East Village Playhouse. In the hour-long show, Steven plays 32 different characters, including his parents, grandparents and friends. He is pictured playing different characters in the show

Steven says Prince William was so impressed he told Steven he 'would pay millions of dollars' to see A Brooklyn Boy and he wanted to help him get the play toured around and even brought to London's West End

Performing A Brooklyn Boy is no easy feat. Besides switching between 32 different characters with different voices and mannerisms and shifting between the past and present, Steven (pictured) also does choreography throughout the play

After Steven did perform on December 9, 2014, the prince immediate stood up and came over to Steven, saying how much the monologue moved him and how much he wanted to help.

'He was naming all these other celebrities and places he visited and he said he would pay millions of dollars to come and see this [A Brooklyn Boy] if he had to and that he would love to see this on the West End, he would love to see it on Broadway. He said it really moved him and he said what did I plan on doing with the piece? I told him, well it's actually a 90 minute show and I really want to tour it around, take it to schools,' Steven chuckles. 'He was saying, I would love to help you. When he said that, I was like wow I wasn't expecting to get anything from [the performance].'

That encounter led to 'interview after interview', Steven says, before he and Moises sat down and put together a longer performance of A Brooklyn Boy for BAFTA  a connection that came directly from the meeting with Prince William. With the sponsorship of the British organization, A Brooklyn Boy was shown at the National Black Theatre in mid-2015, a performance that included background dancers and a violinist.

After Steven performed for and met Prince William, BAFTA reached out to Steven about organizing a longer version of his show. The British charity went on to sponsor a performance of A Brooklyn Boy in mid-2015 at the National Black Theatre in Harlem

More performances of A Brooklyn Boy and other opportunities soon followed, including roles in Blind and The Private Life of a Modern Woman, two films released in 2017 starring Alec Baldwin. In Blind, Steven worked alongside Baldwin and in the other film, Steven had a cameo. Steven is pictured in 2014 with British actress Jane Seymour after his performance for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

Several other performances followed, giving Steven a lot to be excited about for new opportunities including his roles in Blind and The Private Life of a Modern Woman, two films released in 2017 starring Alec Baldwin. In Blind, Steven worked alongside Baldwin and in the other film, Steven had a cameo.

'Everything just hit me at once, boom. Everyone was just saying things like, your life is about to change,' Steven says, adding later that 'it didn't change the way I thought it was going to change.'

Things actually ended up slowing down for Steven in 2015, leaving him wondering what was going to happen next. Everything had started so quickly  the constant interviews and seemingly endless opportunities  so he had quit his job. But the fast pace didn't last forever.

'When things got slowed down, I remember I went through a really deep depression,' he says. 'I wasn't working. I had quit my job And I remember I used to sit in my room, just like, what's next? And everyone had all these high expectations and I just didn't know what to say.

'But through that time that I had to myself, it just made me appreciate a lot of things in life. It made me appreciate my family, friends, just everything. Just all the small things that I probably would have taken for granted and then just made me look at life in a very different way.'

Things eventually slowed down for Steven and fewer opportunities came his way. He says that was a time in his life where he 'went through a really deep depression' and he wasn't sure what was going to come next. But he says, 'through that time I had to myself, it just made me appreciate a lot of things in life.' Steven is pictured during his 2015 performance at the National Black Theatre

'I came from sitting in a cell to performing in front of live audiences,' Steven (pictured performing in 2015) says. 'I never thought that when I was sitting in the cell that I would be performing for the Duke and Duchess or being on these talk shows and performing in front of people'

There has been some collaboration with producers in London to bring A Brooklyn Boy to the UK, though not much has happened with that yet. Moises says the goal is to get the Duke and Duchess out to see the entire show and not just the two minutes they saw in 2014, and organizing that has taken time.

For now, that seems to be alright with Steven, who says a lot of good has still come from that first meeting with the prince.

'A lot has changed for me because of that moment,' he says. 'So many great opportunities have come from it. Such as this space that I'm in now,' he says about the East Village Playhouse.

'I came from sitting in a cell to performing in front of live audiences. I never thought that when I was sitting in the cell that I would be performing for the Duke and Duchess or being on these talk shows and performing in front of people Just to see how things could just gradually take a turn, it just made me appreciate the now. Because I don't know when life will take a turn that will be challenging for me and I will have to think to myself, how do I get out of it? How do I overcome this obstacle?'

A Brooklyn Boy has reopened at the East Village Playhouse (pictured). The small 50-seat black box theater used to be the music shop Tribal Soundz and is now the home of CityKids, which was founded 33 years ago by Laurie Meadoff

Today Steven still lives in his family home in Bed-Stuy where he grew up, though the neighborhood has changed significantly because of gentrification. He lives there with his mother and stepfather, but says he plans on 'moving at some point when I can, [when] the opportunity presents itself'. He is hoping to get more involved in film and plans on auditioning more this summer. He says he's particularly excited about taking A Brooklyn Boy to the Hollywood Fringe Festival in Los Angeles. He will be performing the play at the Actor's Theater from June 7 through June 19.

'I'm excited about that, but I'm just taking it day by day,' he says. 'I'm just like, whatever happens, happens when we go to LA, but there's a lot of great things that I'm hearing already about us visiting LA and people that are going to meet us, so I don't know what's going to happen.'

As Steven talks about his experiences over the past few years  the creation of A Brooklyn Boy, the whirlwind of interviews and the following discouragement he felt  Moises sits quietly and watches Steven with full attention. When Laurie points out how quiet Moises is, he explains that he usually talks a lot more but has been learning to let Steven come into his own.

'I'm watching a young man that I saw walk in at 16 who barely spoke, who is now feeling more and more comfortable with himself to talk,' he says. 'So I'm learning now to just sit back and let him go through his process.'

Today Steven (pictured in 2015) still lives in his family home in Bed-Stuy where he grew up, though the neighborhood has changed significantly because of gentrification. He lives there with his mother and stepfather, but plans on moving when 'the opportunity presents itself'

Steven says: 'I'm just happy with life and I don't look at things as a mistake. I feel like everything is meant to happen and A Brooklyn Boy, our show is a perfect example of that, that nothing in life is a mistake.' He is pictured in 2015 for his performance of A Brooklyn Boy at the National Black Theatre

Moises also grew up in Brooklyn around drugs and gangs and violence until he came to CityKids when he was 17. Because of his own personal experiences, Moises understands the difficulties Steven has faced and overcome.

'The street was challenging for Steven,' he says. 'Even though he went through his process, the street was still saying come back. We miss you. And it wasn't about a play, it was about, Steven, how do we grow through this process? How do we allow these moments that are coming up to not change you, but how do we allow them to just truly live in you that you don't feel guilty, 'cause a lot of the times, men of color and kids of his age at the time, the guilt keeps them in the road. Keeps them on their path because they think people are not going to love them. No matter what he did wrong, I said I'm still here, brother.'

Laurie chimes in, saying that the success of CityKids as a whole has depended on the humility and authenticity of the staff.

'We have been successful 'cause for 33 years we've sat with a group and done exactly what Mo has done in terms of real depth and conversation and authenticity with support of each other,' she says. 'Not just, I'm the adult, you're not. No. I'm growing with you. And I'm standing in front of you, behind you and on your side. And that's all we can do as we move through life with each other.'

She adds: 'There's something about pain being cross-cultural and this is why Brooklyn Boy and [Steven's] work is so evergreen. And the fact is that, when you hear an authentic voice, which is what you're experiencing, walls come tumbling down and that's been the magic of what has been authentically working. It's a b**** to go through adolescence, I don't care where you are.'

Until A Brooklyn Boy closes at the end of April, Steven will continue to perform his show four times a week  Thursday, Friday and twice Saturday  which is exhausting, but 'all positive', he says. Whatever happens in the future, he'll take is as it comes.

'I'm just happy with life and I don't look at things as a mistake. I feel like everything is meant to happen and A Brooklyn Boy, our show is a perfect example of that, that nothing in life is a mistake.'
A trip to the dentist is never fun but Bob Morrison got more than he bargained for when he went to get his teeth replaced.

Not only did the 80-year-old grandfather get a new set of chompers but also a two centimetre dental screwdriver down his throat.

He was told by the surgeon it happened when he violently coughed towards the end of the dental procedure and ingested the screwdriver.

Scroll down for video

Bob Morrison isn't laughing about his dental mishap

The dental screwdriver was inside the 80-year-old for six weeks

'The next thing I recall is they stood me up, wanting to make sure I could breathe properly,' Mr Morrison told A Current Affair.

'He told me when I woke that a small something or another had dropped down my throat and they wanted to make sure I could breathe. It wasn't until the next day he told me it that it was a dental screwdriver and that it would naturally pass through in three or four days.'

Six weeks later, it was still inside him.

'After about a month, my GP said it was time we got it looked at,' Mr Morrison said.

'I was told colonoscopy was the way to go.'

The procedure required an overnight stay in hospital.

'There was always the fear it may,' Mr Morrison when asked whether the screwdriver could cause damage inside him.

'If it did pierce the bowel, I would have known about it and I'd be rushed to hospital.'

Since the ordeal, Mr Morrison has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress syndrome and is now seeing a psychologist.

He's also now seeing speech pathologist because it affected his speech.

The dental procedure not only left Mr Morrison black and blue but with a screwdriver inside him

'My dad has a good sense of humour about it but it has affected him,' his daughter Victoria told A Current Affair.

'To hear he's seeing a psychologist and has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress syndrome is really quite alarming. It's hard as a daughter to see him suffer.'

To make matters worse, the dental surgeon has since sent Mr Morrison a $30,000 bill for the surgery.

'Even if I paid him the full amount, which I could do, I do have the funds, I would always feel ... he won,' Mr Morrison said.

He has never received an apology from the dental surgeon and has made a formal complaint to the Dental Board, which is investigating.

He needed a colonoscopy and overnight stay in hospital to remove the screwdriver
Two bodies matching the description of a Michigan couple who went missing five months ago have been found in a swamp.

Alexandria Foust, 19 and Jeff Hurley, 34, were last seen on November 7 near the Dead Stream Swamp in Missaukee County, where the bodies were found Monday, state police said in a news release.

The 47-square-mile cedar swamp is one of the nation's largest and has a 30,000-acre peat bog, the Crime Stoppers missing persons flyer stated.

A Facebook support group, Bring Jeff And Alex Home, which has 4,765 members, includes several daunting details about the pair's mysterious disappearance and the statewide hunt.

A Facebook photo of Alexandria Marie Foust and Jeff Hurley, who disappeared in the Dead Steam Swamp in Michigan back in November. Their bodies were believed to be found on Monday

A missing poster for Hurley and Foust is seen above with details about their disappearance

Above shows the Dead Stream Swamp n Missaukee County. An exceptionally large example of a northern white cedar swamp. It is located 30 miles northeast of Cadillac, Wexford County

An administrator of the group said people who worked with Hurley knew something wasn't right when he failed to show up for work on November 7.

The following day, hunters in the forest reportedly heard what they believed to be a 'female screaming for help', when they called police about the matter.

That's when authorities searched the area, and eventually found Hurley's car stuck in the mud. Important belongings were left inside, such as the pair's licenses, Foust's purse and Hurley's wallet.

Outside of the vehicle, police found Hurley's shoes in separate locations and his sweatpants.

Hurley failed to show up for work the day the pair (pictured above) went missing. On November 8, hunters told police they heard a woman screaming for help in the forest

An official cause of death for Hurley and Foust have not yet been reported as autopsies are underway

The search was postponed due to inclement weather by Friday, but resumed the following Tuesday, one week after the couple went missing.

According to the support page, another search was halted on November 17 due to fire arm season.

Officials said in a news release they were able to conduct the new search more thoroughly at the end of winter as snow had been cleared from the area.

Autopsies are currently underway to positively identify the bodies as well as a possible cause of the death for Hurley and Foust.

Above shows a Crime Stoppers poster for the pair who were last seen on November 7 in the swamp

While speaking with local 9 and 10 News this week, Hurley's brother, Joel Hurley, said news of the bodies found is a form of closure, but not enough for his family.

'We always wanted to have that freedom with each other and take off... we never quite got it,' the late Hurley's brother told the news station.

Joel Hurley said the family was able to make it through the past seven months with the support of eachother.

'It was tough,' he said. 'We stuck together. Luckily, we had the whole family here together, my mother, my sister and I've got my daughter and my niece here. It really helped.'

Family, friends and community members spoke out after hearing police found two bodies on Monday

He went on: 'We were like twins, just two years different. I mean, everybody who sees me, sees him. Its been my whole life, really. He and I were a lot alike.'

Several community members posted condolence messages to the Facebook group after hearing the tragic news this week.

'Today, the police searched an area where we couldn't access before very well and that is where they found two bodies not far from where the vehicle was found. Sadly, they are sure it is Jeff and Alex,' one wrote.

'I would like to take this time to thank everyone who followed this. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all the support given to the friends and family,' another said.

Someone else added: 'So sad. God bless the family of both your beautiful souls.'
A popular Chinese movie star have been caught in a sexual assault scandal following an alleged attack at a luxury Sydney hotel this week.

Yunxiang Gao and co-accused Jing Wang, were arrested after a woman claimed the pair attacked her inside a room at the Shangri-La Hotel on Monday.

The pair, both 35, remained in police custody following a complaint made to police by a 36-year-old woman, the Daily Telegraph reported.

Yunxiang Gao, 35, (pictured) and co-accused Jing Wang, were arrested after a woman claimed the pair attacked her inside a room at the Shangri-La Hotel on Monday

The pair, both 35, remained in police custody following a complaint made to police by a 36-year-old woman

They appeared via video link from prison at Central Local Court Wednesday, with them both forced to share a seat for their brief on-screen appearance.

Their lawyer stated the duo would be pleading not guilty and applying for bail at a later date.

The woman claimed she and the men entered the hotel room together on Monday before the alleged attack took place.

One man was arrested Tuesday afternoon from inside his Shangri-La hotel room, while the other was arrested shortly after at Haymarket, in the city's CBD.

The case was set to return to court in June.

One man was arrested Tuesday afternoon from inside his Shangri-La (pictured) hotel room, while the other was arrested shortly after at Haymarket, in the city's CBD

Gao has acted in three movies, including the 2012 hit Drug War, and 12 Chinese TV series, including Mi Yue.

Despite being well-known in the industry, supporters outside court Wednesday described him as 'a small potato in Singapore'.

The actor married fellow Chinese movie star and TV actor Xuan Dong in 2011, and the couple had a daughter, who's nickname is 'Little Dimple', in June 2016.
A Norwegian family has had to cancel their yearly Easter trip for the first time in 20 years after they were sent a photograph showing their cabin buried under snow.

The snap, taken in the Finnmark area of Norway's far north, was sent to Bente Andreassen by neighbour Camilla Daae-Qvale.

It showed an ominous-looking cornice of snow hanging over the family pad amid reports of an unusual number of avalanches in the region.

The snap, taken in the Finnmark area of Norway's far north, was sent to Bente Andreassen by neighbour Camilla Daae-Qvale

Average March lows in Finnmark are about -9C, but the area has been experiencing such bad weather this month that many communities have been left isolated

She said the family had 'decided that we should go' to the cabin, but added: 'When we got the picture, we said "No".'

'It was terrifying to see,' she told NRK.

After choosing to put off the trip, she posted the photograph to a Finnmark Facebook group explaining that it would be the first time in 20 years that her family would not be there for Easter.

Her post attracted hundreds of replies from people remarking on the looming ledge of snow above the small cabin.

The image showed an ominous-looking cornice of snow hanging over the family pad amid reports of an unusual number of avalanches in the region

But Daae-Qvale, who took the picture, said her nearby cabin was perfectly fine despite the snowy weather.

Average March lows in Finnmark are about -9C, but the area has been experiencing such bad weather this month that many communities have been left isolated.

Because it is so far north of the Arctic Circle, the region experiences midnight sun from the middle of May until the end of July.
An ambulance driver is locked in a bitter High Court battle with his two siblings over who should inherit the house where they were brought up.

Colin Nutt, 63, says he was the main carer for his mother Lily during her final years and he deserved to inherit her 400,000 home.

But his brother Chris, 73, and sister Vivienne, 71, said that his claim that they cared less than him is 'simply not true.'

The High Court in London heard that Lily signed a will in 2005 which left her fortune equally between her children.

But days after her funeral Mr Nutt told his brother and sister that their mum handed him a mystery envelope, only to be opened after her death, that contained another will, from 2010, in which it stated that he should inherit the house.

Colin Nutt (left) is locked in a bitter divorce battle with his older brother Chris (right) and sister Vivienne

The court heard there was 'no explanation' as to who prepared the new document, while Vivienne's name was misspelt on the papers.

Nor did the 2010 document include Lily's previous wish, expressed in the 2005 will, that her ashes should be laid to rest beside her dead husband.

Lily Nutt died aged 88 in 2013, leaving behind her house in Chigwell, Essex, which had been her family's home since the early 1950s.

Chris and Vivienne are now battling to convince a judge that their mother was by then too 'frail and forgetful' to make a valid will.

Gavin Hamilton, representing Chris and Vivienne, told the court that Colin had accused his older brother of 'not doing enough' for their mother.

He said: 'He said that Lily had given an envelope to him and told him not to open it until after she died, and that he had not done so.'

The two wills are now the focus of a highly charged row between the siblings over which of them should be accepted as their mother's last testament.

As well as challenging the 2010 will's validity, Colin and Vivienne claim their 'domineering' younger brother put pressure on Lily.

But Colin, who is representing himself in court, insists his mother knew her own mind and that he never expressed any interest in inheriting the house.

He said that for several years before Lily's death he suspected the house had been handed down to him.

He had done his best to discourage her from making a new will, but told the court: 'She always said that the others have got houses and you don't.

The sibling's battle for their mother's 400,000 house in Chigwell has gone to the High Court (pictured)

'She said that she wanted me to have the house, and I always said to her, 'forget about it, don't do it'.

She handed him a mystery envelope in 2010, ordering him not to open it until 'after her death', Colin told the court.

And although he suspected it contained her new will, he respected her wishes, locking the envelope in his girlfriend's safe until Lily passed away.

Mr Hamilton said Colin had moved away from Lily's home in 1990 and 'did not come back until about 2003.'

And the barrister claimed: 'In between, he had little or no contact with her'.

'In the last decade of her life Lily needed and received a lot of support from her family,' he told the court.

'It is not Chris and Vivienne's case that they did more for her than Colin. But it is their case that Colin's assertion that they did less than him is simply untrue.'

Chris, a retired businessman, told the court he 'never saw much of Colin' before he 'returned to the family fold' in 2003.

He insisted that he and his sister had shouldered an equal burden in caring for their mum, with Vivienne at one point providing most of the daily support she needed.

Chris described his younger brother as a man who 'had no truck with arguments' and who was always keen to take centre stage.

'It is not Chris and Vivienne's case that they did more for her than Colin. But it is their case that Colin's assertion that they did less than him is simply untrue.' Barrister Gavin Hamilton, representing Chris and Vivienne

Chris said he always visited his mother 'on a regular basis', even though he lived an hour away from her, in Burnham-on-Crouch.

But Colin claimed that, after Lily underwent heart surgery in 2007, he and his girlfriend stepped in to bear the brunt of her care.

'After three weeks, you and Viv told me that it was all interfering with your lives too much, and we took over for the next four months,' he told Chris in the witness box.

'I am very proud to have done that,' he added, although Chris insisted that all three siblings had taken turns with their mum's care following her surgery.

Mr Hamilton said Colin had portrayed himself as providing 'liberal and unstinting care' for Lily, while 'belittling what his brother and sister have done'.

But Chris and Vivienne claim their younger brother had a 'dominating and domineering personality' which overwhelmed their frail mum.

The barrister also queried why Lily would have changed her mind in 2010 to cut Chris and Vivienne out of the bulk of their inheritance.

Mr Hamilton told Master Julia Clark: 'In 2005 she didn't think it was appropriate to leave her house to Colin, so what happened?

'We won't ever know the answer.

'But if you accept she knew what she was doing when she left the house to him, why did she do that?

'You're entitled to conclude that she did it because Colin put pressure on her.'

Master Clark reserved her decision on the case and will give her ruling at a later date.
A British man has died in a rock-climbing accident in Malaysia.

He reportedly fell while on a climbing route in the Mulu National Park in the south-eastern Malaysian state of Sarawak.





The 50-year-old was reportedly on an outcrop known locally as the Pinnacles on March 26 when the accident occurred.

A helicopter taking the climber, who was still conscious, to hospital but he later died

He was attended by Mulu Park's own search and rescue team, who brought him, still conscious, to a camp that could be reached by helicopter.

The Miri Fire and Rescue Department chopper took him to Miri General Hospital in Sarawak, though he was reportedly unconscious by 2am that night.

He died the morning after the fall from serious injuries to his head and body.

Miri Fire and Rescue boss Chief Superintendent Law Poh Kiong said: 'At about 8.30pm Monday, our Bomba rescuers located him about 2.1 kilometres (1.3 miles) inside the national park.

The accident happened in the Mulu National Park in the south-eastern Malaysian state of Sarawak (pictured)

'At that time, he was still conscious and could speak. However, he passed away early this morning.'

According to local news website bharian.com he lost his balance when traveling down from the summit he fell at a height of about 5600 feet.

The website said a friend with whom he was climbing alerted the authorities.

It was not reported where the man came from in the UK, how the accident occurred or who was with him at the time.

Malaysian media did not report how much rock-climbing experience he had.

He was reported to have been on holiday in Malaysia but it is not known whether any relatives were with him.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: 'We are in contact with the Malaysian authorities about the death of a British national in the Mulu National Park and stand ready to provide consular assistance.'
Earlier this year the Democratic Caucus of the New York State Election Commissioners Association formally endorsed early voting in New York state. The support for this voting reform was nearly unanimous within our caucus. The time is now for New York state to enact this vital reform. For five years New York has remained in limbo on the question of early voting and the corresponding funding. During that time we have seen other states not only enact early voting but in many cases expand its usage. There are now 37 states, the vast majority of the country, that allow their citizens the option of casting votes before Election Day. It is time for New York to become the 38th state.

In our modern day society there is more pressure than ever on our time. We have single parent households and dual income households trying to balance the needs of long work hours with childcare and school activities. Commuters face delays that are out of their control. Family and medical emergencies can further put demands on our already limited time. The concept of voting only in a single 15-hour period on a Tuesday in November is antiquated and does not take into account our modern needs. Early voting is one of the most vocal demands of citizens coming to our Board of Election offices in the days leading up to Election Day. They see other states have this convenience and want that option here in our state.
Billionaire Harry Macklowe's estranged wife accused him of searching for child pornography on their computer during their bitter divorce battle.

Linda Macklowe's experts discovered the alleged search while going through the laptop's history for any evidence Harry had hidden assets, sources said.

The porn searches were never mentioned during the Macklowes' divorce trial, which ended in December, but a grand jury subpoena was issued on January 26, from the Southern District of New York, for the computer.

Linda gave the Mac computer to the FBI on February 5, New York Daily News reports.

The 79-year-old, who was married to Harry for almost 60 years before he dumped her for his younger girlfriend in June 2016, said she 'shocked and horrified' by the discovery and was now working with the authorities.

Billionaire Harry Macklowe's estranged wife accused him of searching for child pornography on their computer during their bitter divorce battle (Linda and Harry Macklowe, pictured together at the 2009 Guggenheim International Gala)

A friend of Harry branded the claims 'absurd.'

Harry moved out of the lavish 14,000 square-foot condo at the Plaza in May 2016, his divorce trial heard.

The computer was recovered from an office in the apartment which is said to contain the internet search history from 2010 to 2015.

It reportedly showed hundreds of visits to hardcore porn sites, with search terms that included 'kids' and 'very young,' and '12 years old.'

Harry Macklowe, 80, informed his wife he was leaving her for a younger woman - the blonde French mistress Patricia Landeau (seen with Harry above on the right in May 2017), 62

Landeau, 62, (pictured with Harry) is president of the French Friends of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem

There were more than a dozen visits to sites which advertised young boys and girls engaging in sex acts, while one site that was visited advertised a video featuring children as young as eight years old, the records allegedly showed.

Searches were performed late at night and early in the morning.

Non-pornographic searches included tickets to Leonard Cohen at Radio City and the US Open and for news on Sotheby's.

However, experts say that a grand jury subpoena is fairly easy to obtain while a source told NY Daily that the computer was not password protected and could have been accessed by multiple people.

Yet the FBI probe is still likely to damage Harry's reputation.

Justice Laura Drager will divide the couple's assets in half as part of the lengthy divorce proceedings.

They include their vast $1 billion art collection, which includes works by Andy Warhol and Mark Rothko, their $41 million custom racing yacht and multiple properties including homes in the Hamptons.

Harry and Linda Macklowe (together in 2014 in New York) were together 58 years before their acrimonious divorce

Divorce attorney Valentina Shaknes said that if Harry was indicted on child porn charges, it would likely affect Drager's decision on how to award their assets.

'The divorce court can consider it and award Linda a larger share of the assets, which is what the whole trial has been about,' Shaknes said.

Harry Macklowe's lawyers declined to comment.

This is the latest scandal to arise following their divorce trial which revealed the couple's hatred for each other.

During the bitter divorce trial, the billionaire real estate developer managed to make over half-a-billion dollars disappear from his property portfolio.

Although Macklowe's financial statements say he holds a portfolio of properties worth $548.9million, he insisted to Linda's lawyers that he is really worth a measly $23million.

In 2016, Harry Macklowe gave a 'statement of financial condition' to banks so that he could obtain loans and lines of credit.

The statement listed $548.9million worth of assets, including the 'crown jewel' in his portfolio - Macklowe's $440milllion stake in 432 Park Avenue, the tallest residential building in the Western hemisphere.

In the statement, he also claims just $30million in liabilities.

Yet, in his divorce Harry claimed liabilities of $400million - most of which is from deferred capital gains.

The Macklowe's have had a bitter divorce, fighting over assets with Harry claiming at one point that his $548.9million of properties were really worth $23million. Pictured is the 'crown jewel' in his portfolio - Macklowe's $440milllion stake in 432 Park Avenue

One of the Macklowes' estates in the Hamptons (above) includes a pool, main house and what appears to be a guest house or separate building on the property, which one site has valued at more than $7.6million

The statement failed to mention the art collection, which is thought to be worth in excess of $1billion.

He also owns a condominium in the Plaza Hotel whose value is estimated to be at $100million.

Linda's team scoffed at attempts by her husband's lawyer to downplay his wealth, saying that he's used accounting tricks to hide his true value.

Harry Macklowe, 80, informed his 79-year-old wife of 58 years, Linda, that he was leaving her for a younger woman - the blonde French mistress Patricia Landeau last year.

It marked the end of an era for one of New York City's most long-lasting and recognizable couples in the cutthroat world of real estate and Manhattan high society.

As husband and wife fought to keep their properties, paintings and playthings their divorce seemed set to be just as ruthless as Harry's business dealings.

Landeau, 62, is president of the French Friends of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
A lesbian art teacher in Texas has been put on paid administrative leave following a complaint by at least one parent regarding alleged conversations with students about her sexual identity.

Stacy Bailey, 31, an art teacher at Charlotte Anderson Elementary School in Texas' Mansfield Independent School District (MISD), has been suspended with pay since September 8.

Her suspension was implemented just one day after she reached out to counselors at another school in the district regarding adding protections for LGBTQ+ employees and students to MISD's nondiscrimination policy.

MISD released a statement on Tuesday, breaking protocol to cite the parent's complaint which was received on August 23 as the cause for Bailey's suspension, according to the Dallas Morning News.

Parents, students and staff at Charlotte Anderson showed up at the school district meeting on Tuesday in support of Bailey, who was named the school's teacher of the year for 2016, seeking answers about her suspension.

Stacy Bailey was placed on paid leave on September 8, due to a complaint regarding alleged conversations with students about her sexual identity

'[It's MISD's] general rule not to comment on employee personnel matters' but Baileys personnel matter 'has created disruption to the Charlotte Anderson Elementary School educational environment,' a spokesperson for MISD wrote in a statement emailed to the Dallas Morning News.

The statement went on to say that Bailey 'insists that it is her right and that it is age appropriate for her to have ongoing discussions with elementary-aged students about her own sexual orientation, the sexual orientation of artists, and their relationships with other gay artists.'

'Ms. Bailey refused to follow administrations directions regarding age-appropriate conversation with students,' it read.

'Parents have the right to control the conversation with their children, especially as it relates to religion, politics, sex/sexual orientation, etc.'

Bailey is seen here at left with her wife, Julie Vazquez, in a photo shared to social media

Third-grader Kain Hendrix (pictured), told board members that Bailey's suspension was unfair to the school's families, students and to Bailey, and that he was sad Bailey was no longer his art teacher

Bailey was named 2016 Charlotte Anderson Elementary School's Teacher of the Year, according to a tweet by a colleague, posted on May 8, 2017

But at least some parents are left wondering why their children are being deprived of one of their favorite teachers, who was named 2016 Charlotte Anderson Elementary School's Teacher of the Year, according to a tweet by a colleague, posted on May 8, 2017.

Parent and school receptionist, Jennifer Kureska is one of them.

'I have seen Ms. Bailey teach and even read some of her lessons before, and never have I seen anything inappropriate,' Kureska told the school board at a meeting on Tuesday.

'My daughters learned about Ms. Baileys family. They saw photos of them during her introduction. They learned about various artists. Not once did they ever say the conversation made them wonder about a gay lifestyle.'

Charlotte Anderson elementary third-grader Kain Hendrix, told board members that Bailey's suspension was unfair to the school's families, students and to Bailey, and that he was sad Bailey was no longer his art teacher.

'Ms. Bailey was my teacher, my role model and someone who always cheered me up,' said the nine-year-old. 'Every time I go to art it is not the same.'

Bailey did not comment, but her attorney, Giana Ortiz, responded with a statement, also emailed to the Dallas Morning News.

'For Stacy, this entire ordeal began when she spoke with the students about her family which, for Stacy, included her wife,' Ortiz wrote.

Bailey's attorney, Giana Ortiz expressed 'shock [at] the school district's decision to speak openly about a personnel matter - Stacy's administrative leave - in spite of its legal obligations of confidentiality'

The Star-Telegram obtained text messages between Sheira Petty, the principal of Charlotte Anderson show here in a staff photo, and another staff member referred to as Donna, from August 23 where Petty refers to an email from a parent that had been sent to MISD Superintendent Jim Vaszauskas and the school board

'The District appears to speak for Stacy when it states that she "insists it is her right and that it is age appropriate" to discuss matters including ongoing discussions about her own sexuality. This is absolutely false. Further, she never received directives to change her behavior - and never refused to follow any directive.'

The Star-Telegram obtained text messages between Sheira Petty, the principal of Charlotte Anderson and another staff member referred to as Donna, from August 23 where Petty refers to an email from a parent that had been sent to MISD Superintendent Jim Vaszauskas and the school board.

The contents of the referenced email have not been revealed, but Donna texted back to Petty, asking if her memory was correct in that 'something similar has occurred in past years?'

Donna's text back did not clarify whether she means involving Bailey, or simply in general with reference to whatever was mentioned in the email.

Petty replied, 'To my knowledge she had never gone to this extent,' and that, 'She has said she had a girl friend and she showed a slide show of her friends that included [her] girlfriend.'

It should be noted that Bailey's attorney referred to her romantic partner, Julie Vazquez, as her wife, not as her girlfriend.

'In talking with HR it was always determined I was NOT to tell her she cant say certain things,' Petty wrote.

In reply, Donna wrote that Petty should contact MISD Associate Superintendent Kim Cantu the next morning 'for guidance' and said that she would let Dr. Vaszauskas know that they would ask human resources 'how best to handle the parents concern, employees rights, & appropriate administrative action.'

Petty then replied that she had responded to the email to let the parent know she would look into his concerns, and that the superintendent and the school board were copied on the reply email.

Petty is seen here at right in a photo from the Charlotte Anderson Elementary School's website

The text messages obtained by the Star-Telegram are shown here

The exchange said that Petty should contact MISD Associate Superintendent Kim Cantu the next morning 'for guidance' and said that she would let Dr. Vaszauskas know that they would ask human resources 'how best to handle the parents concern, employees rights, & appropriate administrative action.' Charlotte Anderson Elementary School is pictured

Meanwhile, on August 25, two days after this text message exchange, Bailey sent an email to the school district inquiring about whether there was a gay/straight alliance group so she could connect with the faculty members who organized the group regarding nondiscrimination protections based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.

'I think it is important that MISD starts movement towards progress now,' Baileys email, obtained by the Dallas Morning News, read. 'We have many LGBTQ teachers, students, and families in this district. We deserve the right to feel protected by our district.'

On September 7, she sent a similar email to counselors at the Ben Barber Innovation Academy, which is also an MISD school.

Cantu then sent Bailey a letter, dated September 8, informing her she had been placed on paid administrative leave, 'until an investigation is completed.'

MISD has maintained it was the parent complain that brought on Bailey's suspension.

'Again, this situation is not about Ms. Baileys inquiries regarding the Districts nondiscrimination policies,' the MISD statement said.

'Rather, it is a matter of parents having certain rights pertaining to the topics to which their children are exposed and the Districts right and responsibility to ensure age-appropriate instruction.'

Two days after this text message exchange, Bailey sent an email to the school district inquiring about whether there was a gay/straight alliance group so she could connect with the faculty members who organized the group regarding nondiscrimination protections based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression

Ortiz expressed 'shock [at] the school district's decision to speak openly about a personnel matter - Stacy's administrative leave - in spite of its legal obligations of confidentiality.'

Ortiz said the District's actions violate Stacy's rights under the U.S. Constitution, and that MISD is trying to 'silence the families and staff at Charlotte Anderson' who suport Bailey and want to see her reinstated as their children's art teacher.

'The fact is that she was placed on leave after years of exemplary work based on a single parent complaint,' Ortiz wrote.

Since Bailey's suspension, community members created a petition seeking the changes to the MISD's nondiscrimination policy that Bailey had sought, which has garnered more than 1,000 signatures.

'Currently, Mansfield ISD does not protect their LGBT employees and students under their non-discrimination policy,' the petition read.

'If you agree that LGTB employees and students deserve to be treated as equals and to be protected under the policy please sign.'

Several dozen also showed up at a school board meeting on Tuesday to seek answers about her suspension.

The district's local policy states: 'The District prohibits discrimination, including harassment, against any employee on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, national origin, disability, or any other basis prohibited by law.'

The district said on March 9, 'Mansfield ISD is committed to providing a safe working environment for all employees' and it does not 'condone harassment or discrimination of any kind toward anyone.'

Bailey reportedly wanted to change that language to be similar to the nondiscrimination policy of the nearby Fort Worth school district.

That policy states that the district prohibits discrimination against 'any employee on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, sexual orientation, disability, gender identity and expression, military/veteran status, or any other basis prohibited by law.'

Bailey's wife, Vazquez, told the Dallas Morning News that she was thankful for everyone's support of her partner.

'It is so appreciated, and it shows how the family of Charlotte Anderson Elementary is,' Vazquez said.

'They support each other, they love each other and are there for each other.'
Osman Ali, 25, was imprisoned for more than eight yeas in 2012 for raping a college student. He was released for 'good behaviour' before going on to rape a 12-year-old girl

A rapist groomed and repeatedly attacked a 12-year-old girl after being freed early from prison for 'good behaviour' after he was locked up for a knifepoint gang rape.

Osman Ali, 25, was imprisoned for more than eight yeas in 2012 after he and two other men took it in turns to rape a college student whilst filming the attack.

But he was freed in 2016 after serving just half of his sentence.

Within months Ali was targeting the 12-year-old after they met through the social media site and he convinced her he was her boyfriend.

The pair arranged illicit liaisons behind her parents' back who were under the mistaken belief she was having extra school lessons.

Over a seven month period they would meet up at his sister's house in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, where he would take pictures of the girl in her school uniform before raping her multiple times.

Ali was arrested again by police last May after his latest victim was admitted to hospital when a passer by found her walking in a daze in the street and threatening to harm herself.

She was found to have his mobile phone number written on her arm.

In a statement the girl, now 13, said: 'I was only 12 at the time and he had me lying to my parents about where I was.

'He used me and he did terrible things to me that I have had to talk to police officers about.

'We had to get social workers involved and it may affect me in years to come or when I meet future partners. '

Ali was arrested again by police last May after his latest victim was admitted to hospital when a passer by found her walking in a daze in the street and threatening to harm herself. Ali is pictured in 2012

She added: 'My school became aware and some of my friends drifted away from me.

'I had to visit the court and I used to have bad dreams and wake up in the night.

'I feel like I am being punished over it all. My dad has had to support me. I feel like I am missing part of my teenage years.

'The memories of what he has done to me will live on for years.'

At Minshull Street Crown Court Ali, from Rochdale was sent back to jail for 14 and-a-half-years after admitting seven charges of rape.

When freed again, he will be on licence until 2037 under an extended sentence.

He was also ordered to comply with an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

The court heard he began preying on the girl in September 2016 after she met his brother via Facebook and Snapchat.

The youngster initially claimed she was 17 and Ali asked her to send pictures of herself before they began meeting up.

Miss Katie Jones prosecuting said: 'He asked her to take a picture of what she was looking like and he became controlling of her.

'There was telephone evidence in terms of taxi companies that they had been using that were available from his phone.

'They began to meet up most Saturdays from the 10 January 2017.

'They would telephone a taxi and go to the home address of his sister's home, where they would go upstairs.

'She took her clothes off and he would get her to have sex with him.

'There was times when she did not want to engage in sexual activity and he would become angry and upset.

'She thought he was controlling with her. She told him she was 12-years-old before the relationship was discovered.

'She lied to her parents. She said she was doing Saturday morning studies.

At Minshull Street Crown Court Ali, from Rochdale was sent back to jail for 14 and-a-half-years after admitting seven charges of rape.

'She would call a cab at 9am and spend the morning with the defendant.

'The defendant had videos of him rubbing her over her clothing and he took pictures of her without her permission.'

The liaisons were discovered in May last year after the girl was found in a distressed state saying her 'boyfriend' had broken up with her.

She was treated in hospital and her father called police after he was contacted whilst at a job centre.

The girl said Ali had asked her not to involve the police and said she had been in a sexual relationship with him for some time.

She said he told her not to get him into trouble.

She was taken to a medical centre where she was assessed and received support from specially trained police officers and social workers.

Ali, who admitted seven charges of rape between December 2016 and May 2017, made no comment in police interview.

His 2012 court case was told he was the ringleader of a gang who subjected a 19-year old student to a terrifying rape ordeal after inviting her to 'chill' with them.

Sentencing, the judge Mr Recorder Michael Murray said: 'The victim was a vulnerable person and you groomed her and you were controlling of her. Pictured Minshull Street Court

They threatened to knife her to death if she didn't go along with their demands and she later described the attack as 'a living nightmare'.

His lawyer Michael Johnston said: 'The defendant has intellectual difficulty. Whatever was done when he was serving his last sentence was unsuccessful.

'The future management of him will be robust and he understands this is going to be a long sentence. At the end of the day it is this defendant's fault he is here and his fault he became involved.'

But sentencing, the judge Mr Recorder Michael Murray said: 'The victim was a vulnerable person and you groomed her and you were controlling of her.

'You tried to prevent her from reporting you to the police. This was over a period of five months when she was aged 12.

'Many individual offences were committed. On the 16 May last year, your victim had been seen by passers by and she was distressed because of something that had happened between you and her.

'She was threatening to harm herself - it's clear that you had a telling hold on her.

'She was 12 and you are twice her age and you were using her for sex.

'When she met you, she told you that she was 17 but things moved on quickly and it became sexual - and you would have known that she was under 17 once you had met her.

'You would meet every Saturday. It took place in a room at your sisters house. When she was spending time with you, her parents believed that she was having extra school lessons.

They grew suspicious in mid May.

'You said that you believed she was 18 but I have read a report on you and a victim statement.

'Your offending has had a significant effect on the victim for the future.

'I find you to present a significant risk to members of the public. It's necessary to impose an extended sentence to protect the public.'

After the case Det Con Ben Harris, of Greater Manchester Police said: 'Osman Ali is a depraved individual who preyed on a vulnerable young girl and repeatedly raped her on a number of occasions despite knowing full well that she was a twelve year old schoolchild.

'He manipulated her into believing that he cared about her and they were a real couple but in reality he was just attempting to satisfy his own sickening desires and clearly had no concern for his victim.

'Given his offending history, it is clear that he is a dangerous individual who has no remorse for his actions and this has been recognised by the courts who have given him an increased sentence.

'I do not wish to waste another word on Osman Ali, what I would like to do is pay tribute to the victim in this case.

'She has shown incredible bravery in not only telling her story to police but also in moving forward with the investigation and supporting the prosecution of such a dangerous man.

'Her help in getting him off the streets has been invaluable.

'She and her parents have been provided with support from specially trained officers and social workers from the Sunrise team and parent support workers throughout but her courage has been unfaltering and for that I would like to thank her.'
Grieving family members have gathered for the funeral of an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor who was stabbed to death for being Jewish in a case that has shocked France.

French President Emmanuel Macron joined Mireille Knoll's relatives and friends for the service in the Paris suburb of Bagneux five days after she was stabbed to death in her flat in the French capital in an anti-Semitic attack.

Macron, 40, said earlier today that Knoll's attacker 'murdered an innocent and vulnerable woman because she was Jewish, and in doing so profaned our sacred values and our history.'

He could be seen speaking to Knoll's son, Daniel, as somber-faced guests arrived at the Jewish section of the cemetery. Later, silent marches were held around the country in her honour, and to denounce racism.

Grieving family members have gathered for the funeral of 85-year-old Holocaust survivor Mireille Knoll (pictured) who was stabbed to death for being Jewish in a case that has shocked France

Daniel Knoll (third from left), son of Mireille Knoll, and his wife Jovita (in front of him) were pictured in front of the coffin at the Bagneux cemetry , outside Paris today

French President Emmanuel Macron (right) joined Mireille Knoll's relatives and friends for the service in the Paris suburb of Bagneux five days after she was stabbed to death in her flat in the French capital in an anti-Semitic attack

Macron, 40, said earlier today that Knoll's attacker 'murdered an innocent and vulnerable woman because she was Jewish, and in doing so profaned our sacred values and our history'

Mireille Knoll's death has taken on national importance, reminding France of both historic anti-Semitism and its resurgence in some quarters in recent years.

She was killed on Friday in her apartment, which was then set on fire. Prosecutors filed preliminary charges against two people for murder with anti-Semitic motives, including a neighbor Knoll hosted regularly, according to her son.

Authorities have not released the names of the two men in custody but have said the chief suspect is a 29-year-old with a past conviction who lived in the same building.

A French-Israeli MP Meyer Habib has said he was convinced Mrs Knoll had become the victim of the 'hatred and barbarism of an Islamist'

Speaking Tuesday to The Associated Press, Daniel Knoll said, 'My mother had a thirst for knowledge and meeting new people and talking to them, and that's what killed her.'

Mireille Knoll was forced to flee Paris with her family at the age of nine to escape a notorious World War II roundup of Jews.

After the war she returned to Paris and spent most of her life in the eastern Paris apartment where she was killed, according to her son.

France's government presented a plan earlier this month to fight racism and anti-Semitism, focusing on social media and prevention in schools.

Thousands of people participate in a silent march in Paris in commemoration of Mireille Knoll

Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris, is among those who joined the peaceful march

Far-right French leader Marine Le Pen insisted on attending a Paris march held in Knoll's honour, despite criticism from France's leading Jewish group.

The head of the CRIF Jewish group said Le Pen's National Front and members of the far-left would not be welcome at the marches because of anti-Semitic sentiment among their members.

Killed: Mireille Knoll, 85, was found stabbed to death after a fire in her flat in Paris

Le Pen tweeted Wednesday that the CRIF can't stop her from attending. She has sought to distance herself from the anti-Semitism that stained her party in the past, instead focusing anger on immigrants and Islamic extremists.

The National Front said it was maintaining its appeal to members to attend Wednesday's marches because Knoll's son Daniel said 'everyone, without exception' is welcome to join.

Speaking on RMC radio, Daniel Knoll said he wanted to encourage national unity and distanced himself from the CRIF's political position.

'Whether it is a Jewish mother, a black mother, a Protestant mother, a Muslim mother, they are all our mothers. They have the right to live normally, with love,' he said.

The death of the frail octogenarian - she was suffering from Parkinson's disease, one of her sons said - has shocked France's Jewish community. It comes a year after an Orthodox Jewish woman in her sixties was thrown out of the window of her Paris flat by a neighbour shouting "Allahu Akhbar" (God is greatest).

A judge confirmed just last month that the April 2017 murder of Sarah Halimi was motivated by anti-Semitism, a delay that drew the ire of several Jewish groups.

Halimi's murder reignited the debate over anti-Semitism in working-class districts in France, where Jews have been targeted in several deadly jihadist attacks in recent years.

A French-Israeli MP Meyer Habib has said he was convinced Mrs Knoll had become the victim of the 'hatred and barbarism of an Islamist', who 'stabbed her eleven times in her family flat'. The apartment block is pictured above

A picture taken on Tuesday shows the window of the apartment of Mireille Knoll in Paris sealed by the police, after she was found dead in her apartment on March 23 by firefighters called to extinguish a blaze

A picture taken on Tuesday shows Mireille Knoll's heart-shaped documents and seals of the police posted on the door of her apartment in Paris after she was found dead by firefighters called to extinguish a blaze

France's half-a-million-plus Jewish community is the largest in Europe but has been hit by a wave of emigration to Israel in the past two decades, partly due to the emergence of a virulent strain of anti-Semitism in predominantly immigrant neighbourhoods.

In 2012, an Islamist gunman shot dead three children and a teacher at a Jewish school in the southwestern city of Toulouse.

Three years later, an associate of the two brothers who massacred a group of cartoonists at satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo killed four people in a hostage-taking at a Jewish supermarket in Paris.
A student at one of the UK's leading boarding schools was suspended after he tried to force feed a Jewish pupil pork.

The victim 'suffered psychologically' after the incident involving a ham pizza at 35,000-a-year Clifton College in Bristol, it was claimed.

The Jewish teenager remained at the prestigious school alongside his alleged attacker, who was allowed back into classes after a short suspension.

Insiders said the suspended boy was on the periphery of another incident at the school a few years ago where a pupil - who was later expelled - wore a Nazi costume.

The Jewish student was at the prestigious Clifton College in Bristol (pictured) and was almost forced to eat a pizza with ham toppings

Religious community leaders and parents have voiced concerns about the incident, which happened in December.

The school has its own synagogue and had a school house dedicated to Jewish students until 2005.

A high profile member of Bristol's Jewish community, who wished to remain anonymous, said: 'I would like to express disappointment felt by the local Jewish community at the school's lack of response.

'It isn't the first case of anti-Semitism at Clifton College.

'The fact it happened in the first place is awful but the way in which Clifton College has brushed it under the carpet is much worse.

'There was a promise from the school that the student would be expelled but I don't think that happened.

'It's difficult to describe what abuse like this does to a child. Beyond the physical abuse is a deep psychological effect.

'For someone who is Jewish and never eaten pork this is truly horrible thing to go through.

'For someone to be assaulted and abused is terrible - but with the anti-Semitism it is potentially very scarring for the victim. He has suffered psychologically.'

It is understood the alleged victim and the other boys involved in the incident all still attend the 1,200-pupil school.

The Jewish pupil was nearly forced to eat the pizza which contained ham (stock photograph)

Clifton College opened a boarding house for Jewish pupils called Polack's House in 1878, which closed in 2005.

But the school still has the Polack Centre, which houses a synagogue, and offers Jewish Studies, Hebrew teaching and Bar or Bat Mitzvah preparation, according to its website.

The school website adds: 'Jewish pupils are encouraged to celebrate and nurture their Jewish identity, for their benefit and the benefit of the wider school community.

'Clifton is a school that believes a diverse community is a healthy and dynamic community, and where 'the dignity of difference' is an integral part of the overall ethos.'

A Clifton College spokesperson said: 'In December 2017, a Jewish pupil was eating with his close-knit group of friends when his friends attempted to force him to eat a piece of pizza containing ham.

'While the pupil concerned felt that this was not an anti-Semitic act, the school considered the incident to be completely unacceptable, falling far short of the high standards we expect from our pupils.

Clifton College opened a boarding house for Jewish pupils called Polack's House in 1878, which closed in 2005

'Anti-Semitism in any guise is abhorrent, pernicious and is absolutely not tolerated at Clifton College, which enjoys a deep and longstanding connection with the Jewish community.

'We are proud that there have been Jewish students at Clifton College since 1879. They are an integral and valued part of the Clifton College community.

'Following a thorough investigation of the incident by the school, proportionate and appropriate sanctions were put in place.

'We take every opportunity to educate our pupils about the importance of kindness, tolerance and the potentially devastating effects of prejudice.'

Clifton College costs between 10,000 and 12,750 per term for boarders in years nine to 13 - known as upper school.

Upper school day pupil fees are between 7,870 and 8,285 per term.

Term fees for children in years four to eight are between 4,275 and 9,300.

The school boasts a long list of notable alumni - referred to as Old Cliftonians - including actor John Cleese, former MI5 director general Roger Hollis, broadcaster John Inverdale and theatre director Sir Michael Redgrave.
A 33-year-old Florida woman was arrested last week after admitting to having a sexual relationship with her brother.

Police started investigating Pauline Elizabeth Martin in November, when her baby was born with 'severe medical problems'.

Immediately after being born on November 21, the baby was put into specialized care at Winnie Palmer Hospital for Children in Orlando, where genetic testing revealed that the parents were closely related.

Pauline Elizabeth Martin, 33, was arrested for incest after Florida police discovered she was having a 'romantic sexual relationship' with her brother

Last Thursday, cops interviewed Martin at the McDonald's where she works as a cashier in Leesburg.

During the interview, Martin admitted to being in a 'romantic sexual relationship' with her brother for the past five years, according to the arrest report.

She said she moved to Florida three years ago to live with him as a couple. Her Facebook profile indicates she is originally from Connecticut.

Police started investigating the Groveland Martin (left and right) back in November, when her child was born with severe medical problems'

She has one other child, a 12-year-old girl, from a different relationship.

When asked when the last time she had sex with her brother, Martin said the night before - March 21.

However, she expressed regret about the relationship, telling officers that 'she was going to end her relationship...because she knows it is wrong'.

At another point in the interview though, Martin tried to get up and run towards the back of the restaurant.

Cops were able to arrest her and get her to calm down in order to take her to the station.

While being driven to the station, she allegedly got upset again and started spitting from her mouth as she yelled 'F*** this!'.

Officers say she also tried to kick a detective, before they restrained her legs with shackles.

Martin was booked into the Lake County jail on charges of incest and resisting without violence. She faces up to five years in jail if convicted.

She was released the following day after posting $3,000 bond.

Martin's brother has not been named. Police say they have been unable to track him down.
A chef riled a group of vegan protesters by carving a deer leg in the window of his restaurant while they demonstrated outside on Friday night.

Chef Michael Hunter is the co-owner of Antler in Toronto. The restaurant specializes in locally farmed ingredients and includes wild boar and venison on its menu.

For weeks, vegan protesters have descended on the restaurant with signs accusing it of murder and animal cruelty.

On Friday night, they came back with an enormous banner reading 'murder' and signs which included one which read: 'Chickens display compassion to others suffering. Can you?'

Hunter took a stand by moving out of the kitchen towards a window seat, bringing with him a large leg of deer.

Chef Michael Hunter of Antler in Toronto is pictured butchering a deer's leg at the window table of his restaurant in front of a group of horrified vegan protesters who have been staging demonstrations outside his eatery for weeks

As the protesters complained, he slapped it down in front of them and began cutting it up. They filmed him as he set to work on the meat and gave an incredulous commentary.

'The owner has brought the leg of a recently murdered animal to the table.

'He is going out of his way to show us the leg. What animal would that be guys?

'What he's doing here to mock us, the owner of this restaurant, has gone out of his way to mock this legal peaceful protest at Antler restaurant by bringing the leg of an animal to this table where people are only supposed to be dining,' said one of the protesters as they filmed Hunter.

In the background, other protesters attempted to win sympathy from passersby.

One person, who was confused by their outrage, asked: 'They're murdering people?'

'No, they're murdering animals!' one of the protesters said back. 'Is this against a health code? Is this legal!?' another said.

As a customer tried to enter the restaurant, another protester shouted: 'Don't go in there look at what they're doing! They're trying to taunt us!'

The group shouted that he was butchering a 'recently murdered deer' and tried to warn passersby not to go into the restaurant

Diners inside the restaurant shared photographs and videos of the activists as they interrupted their meal

The vegan protesters were pleased when two police officers arrived. They thought they would side with them but the officers instead went inside, chatted to Hunter, then left with a smile and told the activists: 'It's his restaurant, he can do what he likes'

After slicing up the meat, Hunter went back to the kitchen to cook it then returned to eat it in front of the protesters

After the falling out on Friday, Hunter added vegan dishes to his menu. He also invited the vegans to go foraging with him but they did not accept his invitation

Two police officers then arrived and entered the restaurant to speak to Hunter as the protesters remained outside.

They spoke with him for several minutes, leading the protesters to think they would intervene. At the end of their conversation, they and Hunter both smiled and laughed.

The protester providing the running commentary, at that point, said: 'I do see them smiling. That's unfortunate.'

After cutting up the meat, Hunter retreated to the kitchen to cook it.

He then returned to the window seat 30 minutes later and ate it in front of the group.

'It shocked me. It made me feel really sad. For me its just an animal and its an animal that didnt want to die.' protester Marni Ugar told The National Post.

Hunter did not respond to DailyMail.com's inquiry to the restaurant on Wednesday.

On its website, the restaurant describes its commitment to ethically sourcing local produce and meat.

The protesters have been descending on the small restaurant for weeks. They say they do not want to do the same at chain restaurants because their voices won't be heard

Antler specializes in locally foraged ingredients and Canadian wild game. Above, its Valentine's Day menu

Among items on its menu is an $18 Wild Game burger made from boar, bison and deer, and a $42 cut of Ontario venison.

In light of his row with the protesters, he has added vegan dishes to his menu and asked them to go foraging with him.

Social media did not sympathize with the vegans, nor did customers inside the restaurant who were eating when they staged their protest.

Gordito Slim tweeted: 'I understand peaceful protesting but youre clearly disrupting business making people feel judged unwelcome to eat right outside of owners establishment.

'Wouldnt this be classified as disrupting the peace? Why target a small business and not monopoly food chain?'

Another supporter of Antler said: 'Antler is one of my fave restaurants. Vegans are free to protest peacefully outside.

'But Chef Hunter (yes thats his name) also has the right to carve a deer windowside in his own restaurant.'
Britain's new military chief has been announced as outspoken General Sir Nick Carter who made a strong case for more money for the Army.

Gen Carter, the head of the Army since 2014, will succeed Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach when he stands down in June to become chairman of Nato's military committee.

His appointment is seen as a boost for the Ministry of Defence after he was given the green-light in January to issue a stark warning about the Russian threat as he bid for more cash.

Gen Carter (pictured), the head of the Army since 2014, will succeed Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach when he stands down in June

Gen Carter completed several tours of Afghanistan when British forces were deployed there

In a speech at the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), he laid bare the scale of the threat and said Vladimir Putin could start hostilities against the West sooner that we expect.

He also warned of Russias eye-watering military capabilities and said Britains ability to response to the threat would be eroded if we dont match up to them now.

Army sources feared the speech could have impacted on his chances of becoming the new Chief of the Defence Staff.

But Downing Street today announced Gen Carter  who served in Germany during the Cold War - as the new CDS after approval from the Queen.

The Prime Minister had interviewed  Gen Carter, General Sir James Everard who is currently the UK's most senior officer at NATO, and General Sir Gordon Messenger.

Defence sources said his appointment was a win for the department.

Sources said: He really spoke up for defence with his speech and really brought alive the issue of the Russian threat.

He has made the arguments for extra cash. The fact the Prime Minister chose him we think is good sign about investment for defence.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said: General Carter has been an exceptional Chief of the General Staff, leading the Army at a time of rapid change, with troops deployed to deter Russian aggression and protect our NATO allies in the east.

He has also overseen the delivery of vital training to help Iraqi Security Forces defeat Daesh.

At this crucial time for defence, as we look to strengthen our Armed Forces in the face of intensifying global threats, Im confident General Carter will be an outstanding Chief of the Defence Staff.

Theresa May said: General Carter is a superb choice as the next Chief of the Defence Staff and will bring vast experience to the role having served as Chief of the General Staff for nearly four years.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson is understood to view Gen Carter as an ally in his efforts to get more funding for the military

Gen Carter was previously Britain's most senior soldier but will now take on the biggest job in the forces

In that time I have been impressed not only by the reforms he has carried out with the British Army, but by the care he has demonstrated for the men and women under his command.

Gen Carter joined the Army in 1977 as an 18-year-old and joined the Royal Green Jackets, an infantry regiment.

He served in Germany during the Cold War, in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, in Cyprus with the UN and in command of a battalion in Bosnia and Kosovo.

The chief was a brigade commander in Iraq in 2003/4 and completed several tours of Afghanistan.

At one point he commanded 55,000 Nato troops in Regional Command South. He has been Chief of the General Staff - Head of the British Army - since 2014.

He was born in Nairobi and served his early career in the Royal Green Jackets.

During that time he was deployed on operational tours to Northern Ireland, Kosovo, Cyprus and Germany.
Kim Jong-un has been given a series of new nicknames including 'fatty on the train' and 'obese patient' in China.

Chinese web users came up with the creative aliases after censors had allegedly banned sensitive search words related to the North Korean leader during his four-day visit to the country this week.

Beijing confirmed today that Kim has visited China to hold talks with President Xi Jinping, in his first foreign visit since taking power in 2011.

Kim Jong-un waves from the window of his personal train during his whirlwind visit to China. The Supreme Leader of North Korea has been nicknamed 'fatty on the train' in China

Kim visited China from Sunday to Wednesday with his wife, Ri Sol Ju, where they held talks and a banquet while Kim said he was willing to talk to the United States

Kim was nicknamed 'fatty on the train' () because he is believed to have arrived in China by train after having travelled through the Chinese-North Korean border in Dandong.

While 'obese patient' () refers the North Korea leader's expanding waist and Kim's previous rumoured health status.

Lastly, 'visitor from the north-east' () refers to the fact that the guest had travelled from the north-east direction to Beijing.

Kim Jong-un has also been known as 'Kim Fatty III' () and 'fatty fatty fatty' among Chinese web users.

North Korean officials reportedly requested Chinese authority to stop its people from body shaming their supreme leader in 2016.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his wife Ri Sol Ju pose for pictures alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan

A special train is seen at Beijing Railway Station in Beijing Tuesday, March 27, 2018, sparking speculation that Kim Jong-un has been visiting the Chinese capital city

Why is Kim Jong-un called 'Kim Fatty III' in China? This picture taken by North Korean news agency KCNA on March 2, 2017 shows Kim Jong-un and his wife Ri Sol-Ju visiting the a school in Pyongyang There are several different theories on the origin of the nickname. Here are the two popular ones according to Chinese media. The first one deprives from the three-generation lineage of North Korean leadership. Apparently all of the three leaders on North Korea's history are deemed 'fat' by Chinese people. Kim Il-sung, the founder of the communist country, is called 'Kim Fatty I'. His son, Kim Jong-il, is 'Kim Fatty II' while Kim Jong-un is 'Kim Fatty III'. The second theory says because Kim Jong-un is the third son of Kim Jong-il and he is fat, he is called 'Kim Fatty III". Advertisement

Rumours started flying on Monday that Kim Jong-un was visiting China after news outlets in Japan and South Korea had reported sightings of a green train passing Dandong, the border city between China and North Korea.

In the days to follow, China did not respond to the speculation, but Chinese censors had apparently started blocking searches related to Kim Jong-un.

On Monday, MailOnline typed in search words, such as 'Kim Jong-un', 'Fatty Kim' and 'Kim Fatty III', on Chinese social media platform Weibo, but failed to pick up any posts related to the visit.

Words that mention 'President Xi Jinping', 'fat' and 'Kim Jung-un' have been listed as illegal content on all Chinese social media sites and the main search engine Baidu, according to China Digital Times, a data analysing website.

Weibo and Baidu have blocked sensitive words such as 'fatty arrived Beijing', 'fatty fatty fatty is coming' and 'fatty the third'.

A view of the motorcade as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un paid an unofficial visit to China

In this image taken from video footage run on Wednesday by China's CCTV, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping attend a welcome ceremony in Beijing

Cyber security remains high during Kim Jong-un's visit and no Chinese media had posted any news regarding the sensitive topic until today.

The Cyberspace Administration of China has yet to comment on the internet ban.

China's mouthpiece, Xinhua News, confirmed Kim's visit this morning.

The post has drawn over 3,500 comments. However, all comments appear to be positive and praising the great friendship between the two neighbouring Communist nations and the meeting of the two world leaders.

During Kim's visit to Beijing from Sunday to Wednesday, Xi held talks with Kim at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing and he and his wife Peng Liyuan hosted a banquet for Kim and his wife Ri Sol Ju.

'I have had successful talks with General Secretary Xi Jinping on developing relations between the two parties and the two countries, our respective domestic situation, maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, and other issues,' Kim said at the banquet.

Kim also committed to denuclearisation in Korea if the United States and the South showed 'goodwill', it was reported, with China agreeing to support its neighbour if nuclear tensions could be eased.

North Korea's Orient Express: The Kim family's 'party' train An armoured North Korean train arrived in Beijing on Monday amid heavy security, sparking rumours that Kim Jong-un could be on board When North Korea's leaders need to travel, they've got a train that's unlike any other. No surprise, then, that the appearance in Beijing on Monday of a deep green train with yellow piping that looked a lot like the one used exclusively by the ruling Kim family generated so much speculation of a surprise visit by leader Kim Jong Un. A day after the train was spotted pulling into the station in Beijing and amid reports it had already left on Tuesday afternoon, there was still no official word about who was aboard and why. But Beijing later confirmed that Kim Jong Un had travelled to China, his first known trip outside North Korea since the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, in December 2011. And, oddly enough, it would be a pretty typical way for him to travel. Advertisement

The trip comes weeks after US President Donald Trump accepted an invitation to meet Kim.

Analysts say Kim would have felt a need to consult with his country's traditional ally ahead of his planned meetings with Mr Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

'If South Korea and the United States respond with good will to our efforts and create an atmosphere of peace and stability, and take phased, synchronized measures to achieve peace, the issue of the denuclearization of the peninsula can reach resolution,' Mr. Kim said, according to Xinhua's summary of his meeting with Mr. Xi.

In a statement Tuesday night, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said: 'The Chinese government contacted the White House earlier on Tuesday to brief us on Kim Jong Un's visit to Beijing.

'The briefing included a personal message from President Xi to President Trump, which has been conveyed to President Trump.

'The United States remains in close contact with our allies South Korea and Japan.

'We see this development as further evidence that our campaign of maximum pressure is creating the appropriate atmosphere for dialogue with North Korea.'
Australia's largest regional airline has called on the government's help to deal with its 'acute' pilot shortage and restore flights to regional communities.

QantasLink wants an extension on the time foreign pilots can stay in Australia on work visas longer than the two years allowed under the skilled visa program, The Australian reports.

The airline is expected to reveal on Thursday it wants to recruit up to 75 senior pilots and simulator instructors from overseas in the first year, and up to 55 a year after that over the next five years.

QantasLink chief executive John Gissing has called on the government's help to deal with its acute' pilot shortage

Earlier this year, the government allowed foreign pilots into Australia on two-year visas for regional air routes.

But QantasLink wants visas extended because experienced pilots do not want to move themselves and their families to Australia for less than five years.

The airline carrier would look for pilots in South Africa, Canada, the US and the UK.

Late last year, QantasLink was forced to cut the number of flights to regional cities due to pilot resourcing issues, which led to flight cancellations and increasing customer frustration.

The average capacity is down eight per cent across regional markets in Queensland and New South Wales.

'We know how important air transport is to regional communities, so we're doing all we can to restore capacity and frequency,' said QantasLink chief executive John Gissing told The Australian.

QantasLink chief executive John Gissing wants an extension on the time foreign pilots can stay in Australia on work visas longer than the two years allowed under the skilled visa program

'The quality of pilots who fly for us is crucial and we'll never compromise on safety. Our focus has always been to recruit Australian-based pilots, and that hasn't changed. But the current skills shortage means we have to go overseas to find the trainers we need to keep bringing local pilots back into QantasLink.'

In February, Qantas revealed long term plans to address the worldwide pilot shortage by setting up what it says could be the southern hemisphere's largest flight academy.

The Qantas Group Pilot Academy is expected to open its doors to students in 2019 and will initially train around 100 pilots a year to enter the Qantas Group, including Jetstar and QantasLink.

Qantas has a proud history of having some of the best pilots in the world and we want to make sure it stays that way,'' chief executive Alan Joyce said in a statement.

'Boeing estimates the world will need about 640,000 more pilots in the next 20 years, with 40 per cent in the Asia Pacific region. Over time, we see potential for the academy to become a competitive advantage for Australia in the region.'
In March 2018, The Office star Angela Kinsey bought a #UniqloToGo jacket from an airport vending machine, posted a picture of it on social media. And now, the plum puffer has its own Instagram account.

Angela has become a bit of an Instagram vlogger in recent years after starring in the Netflix comedy series Haters Back Off with YouTuber Miranda Sings, as she regularly shares videos of her daily life.

On March 8 2018, Angela Kinsey posted the first Instagram of her $69.99 (50) jacket

The fan-created @angelasvendingmachinejacket Instagram account that posts pictures of the actress wearing the jacket, has already gained more than 11,000 followers in a matter of days, hitting viral status. But who is Angela Kinsey?

Who made the @angelasvendingmachinejacket account?

On March 8 2018, Angela Kinsey posted the first Instagram of her $69.99 (50) jacket and, since then, has worn the item in a number of posts, some of which have received more than 40,000 likes.

The @angelasvendingmachinejacket has since documented all of the Uniqlo jackets appearances on its feed, praising how adorable Angela looks in her Instagram pictures.

The fan, who is also behind the @pawnee.scranton Twitter and Instagram account, was thanked by Angela, who found it hilarious.

Omg... you guys my airport vending machine jacket has an instagram!!!  Thanks Charis aka https://t.co/UznxvB7xAm  Angela Kinsey (@AngelaKinsey) March 22, 2018

Who is Angela Kinsey?

Born Angela Faye Kinsey on June 25 1971 in Lafayette, Louisiana, she moved to Indonesia when she was two where her father worked as a drilling engineer. After living in Jakarta for 12 years, she returned to the US where the family settled in Archer City, Texas.

After graduating from Baylor University, she was an intern on NBCs Late Night with Conan OBrien which led to her moving to Los Angeles and pursuing her acting career. After doing some voice roles, she auditioned for the part of Pam Beesley on The Office, but was turned down before being called back for the Angela Martin audition.

The Office cast won the Outstanding Broadband Program - Comedy Daytime Emmy Award for the webisode series The Office: Accountants and she was known to regularly update her MySpace blog with anecdotes of behind-the-scenes at the show. Angela went on to star in the Hulu comedy series The Hotwives alongside Haters Back Off.

Who is Angela Kinsey married to?

Angela Kinsey married writer and producer Warren Lieberstein in 2000, the brother of Paul Lieberstein who played the much-hated character Toby Flenderson on The Office. The couple had one daughter, Isabel Ruby Lieberstein in 2008, but they separated a year later.

In 2016, she revealed that she was engaged to Joshua Snyder on Instagram with a detailed summary of the proposal. They married in November of the same year. Joshua is an actor by trade but also has a baking YouTube channel, called Baking With Josh.

Are Angela Kinsey and Jenna Fischer friends?

It may come as a surprise to some The Office fans, but Angela Kinsey and Jenna Fischer, who played Pam on the show, are actually best friends in real life.

They both regularly share pictures on social media after spending time together, as well as throwback pictures of when they were acting together.

Is The Office coming back?

Rumours have always circulated about The Office being rebooted, but at the end of 2017, NBC revealed that a revival could happen, but without Dunder Mifflins original regional manager Michael Scott, who is played by Steve Carrell.

While there is no set date, The Office revival could welcome new faces rather than see the return of the likes of Mindy Kaling, Rainn Wilson, John Krasinski and Ellie Kemper.

Where can you get #UniqloToGo jackets?

At present, Uniqlo has a number of airport vending machines that stock their Ultra Light Down Jackets as well as the famously warm Heattech tops.

The vending machines are located in Oakland and Houston airports in addition to the Hollywood & Highland Center in Los Angeles and the Queens Center Mall in New York.
CCTV footage captured the heart-stopping moment a pit bull pup attacked a young boy who tried to feed it biscuits and broke his wrist.

The months-old pit bull mix named Money is believed to have felt threatened when the seven-year-old child who lives next door threw the snack in its direction.

Security video from the alleyway in Kaohsiung City's Hunei District in south-western Taiwan shows the boy trying to back away from the pooch, which continues to charge at him.

Money, a pit bull pup, is said to have felt threatened by a seven -year-old boy who was throwing treats in his direction in south-western Taiwan

Disturbing CCTV footage captures the moment the dog launches itself at the small child in the street. Neighbours say the dog is known for being 'aggressive'

Money, who according to neighbours is known for being 'aggressive', then knocks the child to the ground and begins biting the boy's arm and shaking its head.

The footage shows the pit bull, despite being a puppy, overpowering the victim. Even the 11-year-old boy whose family owns it is unable to stop the attack.

The older boy, surnamed Hsu, said: 'I sat on the ground trying to pull it away, but it wouldn't let go.'

Hsu's mum, the owner of the pit bull, eventually runs up to separate the dog from the victim, who walks away crying.

According to the seven-year-old's family, he suffered a broken wrist and required surgery, but they have decided not to press charges against their neighbours, who are close friends.

The victim's mother said: 'It was accident, and the owners have been very apologetic about it.'

Money is said to have gone to dog training classes for two months after attacking passing schoolchildren in the past, but they seem not to have worked.

The family has sent Money to a farm, where it will be a guard dog.

Money then knocks the child to the ground and begins biting the boy's arm and shaking its head

The footage shows the pit bull, despite being a puppy, overpowering the victim. Even the 11-year-old boy whose family owns it is unable to stop the attack

Money is said to have gone to dog training classes for two months after attacking passing schoolchildren in the past, but they seem not to have worked




As 2013 drew to a close, Gerard Lheritier was riding high - a multi-millionaire dealer in rare French manuscripts, he had just acquired the original of the Marquis De Sade's masterwork, 120 Days Of Sodom.

But just a year later his vast fortune was tied up by the courts, his company was being dismantled, and he was facing 10 years in jail accused of running a $1billion Ponzi scheme - the largest in French history.

Now he has claimed that a longstanding feud with the French government that came to a head over the Marquis manuscript was behind his fall from grace.

Gerard Lheritier has been accused of running the largest Ponzi scheme in French history by selling shares in rare manuscripts to investors

In 2014 he managed to acquire the original manuscript of the Marquis de Sade's 120 Days Of Sodom, scooping the French government which had tried to buy it the year before

Born as a working class boy in northern France, Lheritier earned his vast fortune relatively late in life thanks to his interest in rare books and letters.

His idea was to acquire the works before breaking the ownership up into shares which could then be bought by investors.

Buyers would hold the stock for five years while he displayed the works in a museum in Paris, increasing their value, after which they could offer the shares back to him at the inflated price.

The Marquis wrote his work, described as 'the most impure tale ever written', while in jail in 1785 on the orders of his mother

In 1990 he found a company called Aristophil and in 2002 he bought his first major work, a collection of letters by Albert Einstein discussing the theory of relativity.

From there Aristophil took off and by 2013 Lheritier was the owner of the largest private collection of manuscripts and letters in France, at 130,000 pieces.

Along the way he had manged to make enemies of other dealers, who found his business model offensive, but also - according to an interview Lheritier gave to Esquire - former French culture minister Aurelie Filippetti.

He told the magazine that the pair had fallen out over a set of Charles de Gaulle letter he had purchased, which Filippetti had claimed belonged to the state.

In 2014, Lheritier managed to buy the Marquis manuscript for $10million from its Swiss owner after a deal with the French government fell apart the year before.

He offered the National Library a chance to display it, after he had kept it for up to seven years in his own museum, in return for a reduction in his tax liabilities.

Lheritier claims a long-running feud with the government, and in particular former minister of culture Aurelie Filippetti, led to the destruction of his company so they could reclaim the work

After Lheritier's company was dismantled the French government declared the manuscript a national treasure, meaning it had to be removed and sold to them for a fair-market price

But the Ministry of Culture, still under Filippetti refused to back the deal. Two months later, the police were at Lheritier's door.

'Filippetti and some malicious prosecutors thought that the manuscript would be submitted free of charge after Aristophils destruction,' Lheritier said.

'They placed a bomb in the heart of Aristophil and its museums, and it exploded.'

In fact the manuscript was due to be sold at private auction in December last year, but two days before it went under the hammer, it was declared a national treasure.

The ruling meant that it had to be withdrawn from the auction while the state works to negotiate a fair-market price - likely less than the $10million Lheritier paid.

A selection of his other works were sold off for well under the asking price, putting his investors at risk, and effectively ruining his business.

Lheritier, meanwhile, is now facing 10 years in jail, though he denies all charges and is confident he will avoid prison time.

However, he does believe that the Marquis manuscript is cursed, and led to his downfall.

'Maybe if I hadnt touched the manuscript, Aristophil would still be here,' he said.
Theresa May is heading for Wales on a walking holiday over Easter, Downing Street said today.

The Prime Minister's short break with husband Philip will raise eyebrows at Westminster - as the last time she went on a similar trip a year ago she called a snap election.

The disastrous Tory campaign that followed saw Mrs May stripped of her overall majority in June.

As a result she has had to enlist the support of the DUP to prop her up in power.

The Mays often visit Switzerland in the summer (pictured in 2016), with Mrs May having previously disclosed that her favourite areas are Zermatt and the Bernese Oberland

No10 has laughed off suggestions that Mrs May might pull a similar stunt this time around.

But journalists recall the vigorous denials that were handed out last year.

Mrs May let slip her holiday plans earlier this month at a Westminster dinner for political correspondents.

Joking that the previous event had to be delayed because of the election she said: 'I was looking forward to this event so much that I called a general election to get out of it.

'But I can't pull that stunt two years in a row.

'Or can I? I am, after all, going walking in Wales at Easter.'

Mrs May's official spokesman said the PM would be in Wales over the Easter weekend and will return to her Maidenhead constituency in the middle of next week.

'There will be an element of walking,' the spokesman added.

The Mays are known as fans of hiking holidays.

They often visit Switzerland in the summer, with Mrs May having previously disclosed that her favourite areas are Zermatt and the Bernese Oberland.

On her first overseas trip as premier, Mrs May gave German Chancellor Angela Merkel two books about hiking to reflect their shared passion for the hobby.
A Scottish wildcat nicknamed 'the Beast' has been captured on video by researchers in the Scottish Highlands.

It is one of the largest recorded in the world and is about twice the size of a regular wildcat, researchers say.

Dr Paul O'Donoghue, chief scientific officer at Wildcat Haven described the animal, usually about the same size as a domestic cat as 'the real deal'.

A Scottish wildcat nicknamed 'the Beast' has been captured on video - it's thought to be one of the largest ever

Dr Paul O'Donoghue, chief scientific officer at Wildcat Haven, said: 'I have seen every reference wildcat in existence and this is the biggest one I have ever seen'

Nicknamed the Clashindarroch Beast, it was captured on camera and is estimated to be 4ft (1.2m) from nose to tail, they are usually less than 3ft in length

He said: 'I have seen every reference wildcat in existence and this is the biggest one I have ever seen.

'This is the real deal, a pure Scottish wildcat. There is no doubt about that.'

The cat, one of 13 the organisation is monitoring in Aberdeenshire's Clashindarroch forest, is estimated to measure four feet from nose to tail.

Kev Bell, the researcher responsible for looking after the camera which filmed The Beast, said: 'I couldn't believe my eyes when I first saw this cat - he is enormous, a magnificent animal.'

Field workers set up cameras activated by movement in areas they believe the animals to live, leave food or a scent as bait, and then wait for the creatures to appear.

'The cameras give us amazing insight to this priceless group of wildcats which have somehow survived here and avoided hybridisation,' Mr Bell added.

'Some people say that the wildcat doesn't exist any more, but we know different and wildcats like 'The Beast' prove it. This is nothing like a domestic cat, and you certainly wouldn't want it sitting in your lap.'

Steve Sleigh, another fieldworker with Wildcat Haven, said: 'These cats are a vital part of Scotland's wild nature and ecology, and they must be protected wherever they live; they are one of the rarest animals in the world.'
Megan died on August 4 last year after struggling with a mixture of diabetes and an eating disorder

A woman driven to suicide by her eating disorder and diabetes had asked her therapist for notes she could send to Dignitas to avoid killing herself at home.

An inquest heard Megan Davison penned a six page suicide letter explaining her battle with diabulimia after she was refused the dossier for Dignitas.

Tragic Ms Davison even texted the therapist about her suicide to avoid her parents finding her body.

The 27-year-old's body was found by police who had eventually been alerted by the therapist who received Ms Davison's text message.

Ms Davison died on August 4 last year after struggling with a mixture of diabetes and an eating disorder.

She had been discharged from mental health services just three days before she took her own life, after it was judged she did not to have clinical depression and had full capacity, the inquest heard.

Ms Davison had previously tried to kill herself at the end of 2016 through an overdose.

On the morning of her death she had texted therapist, Renata Harris, saying: 'Please make sure the emergency services find my body so my parents don't have to.'

The therapist decided the text had no 'immediate implications' and so did not tell anyone about it for almost an hour.

When police were contacted they went to Ms Davison's home in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, and found her body.

On the morning of her death Ms Davison had texted therapist, Renata Harris, saying 'please make sure the emergency services find my body so my parents don't have to'

The therapist had also been asked by Ms Davison just a month before for a dossier that could be sent to Dignitas, an assisted suicide facility in Switzerland.

When the therapist said that she could not provide this, Ms Davison responded: 'Thanks for trying, good to see the system winning again.

'The Dignitas route would have stopped me wanting to hide everything from family.'

Ms Davison had made it clear to her treatment team that she did not want her family to find out about what she had asked for.

A meeting of Ms Davison's care team, which excluded Ms Harris, was held on August 1 2017, just three days before she took her own life.

An inquest heard Megan Davison penned a six page suicide letter explaining her battle with diabulimia after she was refused the dossier for Dignitas

At this meeting it was determined that Ms Davison had full capacity and was not suffering the signs of clinical depression, having been prescribed and taken off anti depressants without significant change in her mental state.

As Ms Davison had said she wanted to end her treatment with the mental health team, the meeting decided that the best course of action would be to let her leave and keep the door open for a return.

Police rushed to Ms Davison's house in Cheshunt on the morning of August 4 after Ms Harris reported the message she had received.

Officers found Ms Davison's body and next to it she had left a six-page letter detailing her struggle with diabulimia, an unrecognised medical condition where the sufferer chooses not to inject themselves with insulin in an attempt to lose weight.

Police rushed to Ms Davison's house in Cheshunt on the morning of August 4 after Ms Harris reported the message she had received. Pictured: Ms Davison and her sister Olivia

Those diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, like Ms Davison, inject insulin to manage the level of sugar in their blood and must check the levels in their body frequently.

Potential side effects of not managing the illness include blindness and a numbing of extremities, which can lead to the amputation of limbs.

A statement read to the coroner on Ms Harris' behalf said: 'Ms Davison asked me for a dossier to send to Dignitas.

'I told her providing a report would be contrary to UK law.

'She sent me a message saying 'Thanks for trying, good to see the system winning again, The Dignitas route would have stopped me wanting to hide everything from family'.

WHAT IS DIABULIMIA? The condition sometimes begins with body image issues, or a desire to lose weight Diabulimia refers to an eating disorder in a person with diabetes, typically type I. Medical professionals sometimes use the term ED-DMT1, Eating Disorder Diabetes Mellitus Type 1, which refers to any type of eating disorder that co-occurs with type 1 diabetes Sufferers of Diabulimia purposefully restrict insulin in order for them to lose weight. The condition sometimes begins with body image issues, or a desire to lose weight. Treatment can be difficult because type 1 diabetes sufferes tend to show a higher dropout rates and poorer treatment outcomes than other patients. Advertisement

'I did not think think Dignitas provided an immediate threat.

'I firmly thought Megan was more stable and that Dignitas was just an attempt to stay informed.'

Ms Harris continued: 'At 6:54am on August 4 Megan texted me saying: 'Please make sure that emergency services find my body so my parents don't have to'.

'I didn't see the message until 8:10 am and I didn't consider the message to have immediate implications. At 8:50 I decided to get others involved.

'I was called by police at about 10:00am to say they had found Megan.'

Senior Hertfordshire Coroner Geoffrey Sullivan said: 'The eating disorder started at the young age of 12 and Ms Davison was diagnosed with diabetes at 16 years.

Megan's parent Lesley and Neal Davison

'Her eating disorder would cause her to starve herself.

'Megan soon realised not taking insulin would assist her in losing weight, so she would inject her self with less insulin than she needed.

'This caused her numerous admissions to hospital. She would also overdose on her insulin.

'The admissions to hospital did not seem to have any lasting effect on her.

'Megan's intractable and terrible eating disorder and the mental distress led to her suicide.'

Mr Arvind Sharma, a consultant psychiatrist who saw Ms Davison in the lead up to her death, said: 'She was more distressed than depressed.'

Recording a suicide verdict, Coroner Geoffrey Sullivan said: 'There's nothing I can see in the evidence that makes me consider it likely that any parties, acts or admissions made has caused or contributed to this death.'
Employees at the Kansas City amusement park where a 10-year-old boy was decapitated warned executives about the water slide's faulty brakes that failed at least 29 times.

An indictment further states that Schlitterbahn Waterpark co-owner Jeffery Henry and his chief operations officer Tyler Austin Miles tried to hide from investigators reports of as many as 14 injuries that had occurred on the ride before Caleb Schwab's death.

They duo now face second-degree murder charges in Schwab's death as well a numerous other charges.

Footage has also emerged of Henry saying the 170-foot Verruckta that took the life of Schwab in August 2016, was the 'safest ever ride built'.

Scroll down for video

Schlitterbahn Waterpark co-owner Jeffery Henry is heard in this 2014 Good Morning America interview say the water slide that decapitated a 10-year-old was the 'safest ever built'

Caleb Schwab (pictured) was horrifically killed in August 2016 while riding the 170-foot Verruckt water slide at the Schlitterbahn Waterpark in Kansas City

Henry (left) and his chief operations officer Tyler Austin Miles (right) knew their newest water slide was deadly before it decapitated a 10-year-old boy, a new indictment has claimed

Water park co-owner charged with murder in deadly water slide accident that killed 10-year-old. @MattGutmanABC has the story: https://t.co/wtsz0LeSNl pic.twitter.com/qYy1K5JZrZ  Good Morning America (@GMA) March 28, 2018

In the 2014 interview with Good Morning America, the interviewer asked Henry on the ride's opening day, 'So you're saying it is safe?,' while speaking of the world's tallest slide constructed at his park.

The owner replied: 'Oh, yeah... this ride is probably the safest that's ever been built. It's been tested... it's been evaluated.'

The indictment claims that employees at the park previously warned executives about the brakes failing, but the defects were never repaired.

Lifeguard at the park, Nathan Campbell, told Good Morning America he was also injured on the ride during testing.

'The brakes just didn't work and we just never stopped and kept going, hit the very end of the ride, and flipped off,' Campbell said.

A grand jury have indicted Henry and his former employee Miles on 20 felony charges, including involuntary manslaughter. They have also been charged with several counts of aggravated battery, aggravated endangering a child, and interference with law enforcement.

Designer John Schooley was charged with reckless second-degree murder, along with Henry & Sons Construction Co., which is described as the private construction company of Schlitterbahn.

Second-degree murder carries a sentence of 9 years to 41 years in prison.

The indictment has revealed numerous allegations of negligence, including that Miles and Henry ignored safety red flags in their quest to build the world's tallest water slide, according to the Washington Post.

Employees at the park told executives the brakes failed at least 29 TIMES on 'world's tallest water slide' but there were no repairs

The indictment has revealed numerous allegations of negligence, including that Miles and Henry ignored safety red flags in their quest to build the world's tallest water slide

Investigators claim that while Henry and Miles knew that Verruckt was dangerous, they rushed to get the ride open, even replacing mathematical calculations with 'crude trial-and-error methods'.

It also cites comments from Henry in which he plainly states that the slide is a 'seriously dangerous piece of equipment'.

'[Verruckt] could hurt me, it could kill me,' Henry stated, according to the indictment. 'There are things that we don't know about it.'

'Every day we learn more. I've seen what this one has done to the crash dummies and to the boats we sent down it...it's complex, it's fast, it's mean.'

'If we mess up, it could be the end. I could die going down this ride.'

In this July 2014 image, the Verruckt water slide designers, John Schooley, left, and Schlitterbahn co-owner Jeffrey Henry, speak about the challenges of opening the 17-story tall attraction prior to it's operation in Kansas City

The Verruckt slide, which is a German word for 'crazy' or 'insane', has been closed since the boy's death. It is nearly 170-feet tall and features a 17-story plunge

Nathan Campbell, a lifeguard at the park, said he was also injured on the ride during testing

It was Henry who came up wit the idea for Verruckt, wanting to build a ride that would impress producers of the Xtreme Waterparks series on the Travel Channel, according to the indictment.

'Clearly the issues with Schlitterbahn go far beyond Caleb's incident, and we know the Attorney General will take appropriate steps in the interest of public safety Caleb's family statement

Henry designed the ride with his business partner Schooley, despite the fact that neither of them 'had any credentials in mathematics, physics, or engineering'.

The pair raced to have the entire slide finished in just seven months, completing a prototype of the ambitious ride in just 36 days.

An engineering firm was then hired to test the slide's safety just a week before its grand opening.

The tests showed that, when carrying a weight of 400 to 550lbs, the rafts on the slide were likely to go airborne.

This was especially dangerous as the slide was covered with a net suspended by metal hoops, meaning riders could knock into them if the raft went airborne.

The indictment notes that this is in violation of international standards that prohibit a ride from obstructing a rider's path.

Two women, Hannah Barnes and Matraca Baetz, who rode behind Caleb on that ride were also seriously injured, but survived

The indictment also states that Henry and Miles tried to hide from investigators reports of a number of injuries that had occurred on the ride before Schwab's death

Investigators say the company ignored obvious red flags and safety violations in regards to the slide. Henry allegedly pushed for it to be done in seven months despite knowing it was unsafe

'Henry and Schooley did the opposite,' the indictment states. 'They installed metal bars directly across the known flight path.'

'The presence of the overheard netting and support hoops speaks volumes about the designers' extreme disregard for the value of human life.'

Schwab was decapitated when his raft collided with the hoops, and two women he was riding with suffered bone fractures and lacerations.

The indictment claims that Henry was well aware of this problem and tried to fix it before eventually ignoring it entirely.

It states that 13 people total were injured in the two years the ride was opened, with some reporting neck pain and even concussions.

Investigators also revealed that designers scratched a plan to make the minimum age 14 years old to ride the slide on the eve of its grand opening.

Schwab's family (pictured) settled a multiple defendant lawsuit with Schlitterbahn for $20million last year

Caleb is pictured here with his father, Kansas state Representative Scott Schwab

Henry was arrested on Monday in Texas and is being held without bond until a court appearance on Tuesday.

Miles, who left the company in September, turned himself in on Friday to the Wyandotte County Sheriff's Office and was released on $50,000 bond.

Schlitterbhan spokeswoman Winter Prosapio said in a statement that considering last week's indictment, the company is not surprised by Henry's arrest.

'We as a company and as a family will fight these allegations and have confidence that once the facts are presented it will be clear that what happened on the ride was an unforeseeable accident,' she said in an emailed statement.

'The safety of our Schlitterbahn guests and employees has been at the forefront of our culture throughout our 40 years of operation. Many of us rode Verruckt regularly, as did our children and grandchildren.'

Verruckt, which is a German word for 'crazy' or 'insane', has been closed since the boy's death. It was named the world's tallest water slide in 2014.

The slide, however, still remains standing due to a court order to facilitate investigation.

Schwab's family settled a multiple defendant lawsuit with Schlitterbahn, an affiliated general contractor called Henry & Sons Construction, the raft manufacturer Zebec USA, and a consultant named John Hunsucker for $19.7 million last year.

'While we as a family continue to mourn and heal from Caleb's passing, we wanted to again thank the community of Kansas City for its continued prayers and support,' Caleb's family said in a statement.

'Clearly the issues with Schlitterbahn go far beyond Caleb's incident, and we know the Attorney General will take appropriate steps in the interest of public safety.'
A 42m wave energy project off the British coast has yet to produce any electricity despite being up and running for eight years.

Wave Hub, an undersea electrical socket installed to test wave energy machines off Cornwall has hosted just one device since 2010.

But it was not connected to the shore and one of the project's two remaining potential customers has now pulled out.

Wave Hub said it was 'disappointed' that energy firm Carnegie had decided to test its device in Australia.

Wave Hub, an undersea electrical socket installed to test wave energy machines off Cornwall has hosted just one device since 2010

The scheme was financed by the South West of England Regional Development Agency, 12.5m, the European Regional Development Fund Convergence Programme, 20m, and the UK Government, 9.5m

Carnegie - an Australian company - was given 9.6m from the European Regional Development Fund to test its device.

Wave Hub, based at Hayle in west Cornwall, said the wave energy business was 'unfortunately taking longer to develop' than anticipated so it was 'diversifying' and exploring options for testing floating wind turbines.

HOW THE SYSTEM WORKS The Ceto 6 system is different from other wave energy devices as it operates under water, which means it is safer from large storms and invisible from the shore. The device works using a large float submerged in the sea. As the float is lifted and lowered by the wave motion, this drives a pump and a generator. Power is delivered back to shore through subsea cables to power desalination plants as well as for export into the grid. Advertisement

The scheme was financed by the South West of England Regional Development Agency, 12.5m, the European Regional Development Fund Convergence Programme, 20m, and the UK Government, 9.5m.

The authorities said at the time that it could generate 76m over 25 years for the regional economy.

A total of four developers can connect a number of devices into the Wave Hub via the seabed socket which then supply energy to the national grid.

MP for the area, George Eustice, said: 'This is obviously disappointing news. Cornwall has a wave resource that is second to none, however the development of technologies to successfully harness wave energy has taken longer than hoped.'

Johnny Gowdy, from Regen South West, which promotes renewable energy systems, said floating wind turbines were a 'great way of using the asset' and there was more money going into that technology than into wave power.

In 2006 three companies were signed on for initial development but all pulled out.

The system is different from other wave energy devices as it operates under water, this means it is safer from large storms and invisible from the shore

A total of four developers can connect a number of devices into the Wave Hub via the seabed socket which then supply energy to the national grid

The only other project in the pipeline at Wave Hub is from the American firm Gwave but that deployment is not expected for several years.

According to the Wave Hub the UK's target is to generate 30 per cent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020, as a way of reducing our reliance on fossil fuels and providing greater energy security.

On its website, Wave Hub said: 'The challenge is to reduce the cost of these technologies to make them commercially attractive.

The authorities said at the time that it could generate 76m over 25 years for the regional economy

'This is why it is important to have sites where wave, tidal and offshore wind devices can be tested in real conditions.

'And there could be big economic benefits.

'If the UK can maintain its leading position in the marine energy sector it could be worth 70 billion to the UK economy by 2050 and create tens of thousands of jobs.

'In South West England, it is estimated that marine energy has the potential to generate almost 6,000 jobs by 2035', according to the Offshore Renewables Resource and Development report.
Pedro Rubim, 43, (pictured) told a paramedic his baby son Alejandro fell out of a baby bouncer on a sofa bed

A finance worker who shook his six-week-old baby to death before frantically trying to cover his tracks has been jailed for eight and a half years.

Pedro Rubim, 43, told a paramedic his baby son Alejandro fell out of a baby bouncer on a sofa bed while he went to get his bottle.

But the infant's injuries were not consistent with the fall and he shook the baby to death while his wife was out at a dentist's appointment.

Blood was pouring from the little baby's nose and he suffered a brain haemorrhage and later died at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

His wife Maribel Rodriguez texted him to ask how it was going when he was alone with his son only a few weeks after he went back to work after paternity leave.

In a panicked 999 call Rubim made at 11.15am on 20 February 2016, he claimed the baby had fallen from a height of around 10cm.

Rubim said the baby was 'very numb' and his eyes weren't open and claimed the fall happened when 'he was too on the edge.'

Ms Rodriguez, 40, was out at a dentists appointment and left Rubim sitting on the settee with his arms around Alejandro.

His next feed was due at 11am and she left three bottles of milk she had prepared for little Alejandro, but only hours later he was being rushed to hospital.

Prosecutor Sally O'Neill, QC, said doctors at the Royal Free Hospital where the baby was first taken were not satisfied with his version of events.

Pedro Rubim, 43, (pictured) has been jailed for more than eight years for manslaughter

His injuries were found to be consistent with that of a 'shaken baby' - generalised brain swelling and haemorrhaging.

Ms O'Neill said: 'It is the Crown's case, in short, that for whatever reason, Pedro Rubim shook his small baby son with sufficient force to cause those serious and ultimately fatal injuries to him.

'And that he did so at the very least with the intention of causing some harm to him.'

Rubim told police, 'I am deeply upset and in shock about this terrible accident as I love Alejandro very much.'

Rubim moved to the UK from Portugal in 2006 to work for Global Asset Management and had been in a relationship with Maribel, a nanny from Columbia, for five years.

They had been living together in a one bedroom flat in Camden, north London since 2013.

Rubim worked for Global Asset Management as an administrative assistant.

Maribel went on maternity leave in 2015 and Rubim had a month's paternity leave after his son was born and had only been back at work for a couple of weeks before the fatal day.

JURY HEAR HARROWING 999 CALL In his 999 call, Rubim said 'I can't even talk' before the operator asked Rubim what had happened. He said: 'The baby fell off, erm..... we call it a bed and like a sofa bed, he fell on the floor. 'Now he's gone.....he's not moving at all..... and he's bleeding from his nose.... nose and mouth.' He was asked by the operator if the blood was coming from the inside the nose, and he said: 'I think it's coming from inside.... and he's very very numb he doesn't do anything.' He went on to say: 'His eyes aren't really open but he is not doing anything at all. He doesn't respond to anything. His eyes aren't moving.' The operator asked how high had Alejandro had fallen from, and Rubim said: 'It's not too high, it's about I don't know 10cm or something.' And when asked what caused the fall, he said: 'It's because he was.... he was too on the edge he should have been more in the middle..' Advertisement

Alejandro was pronounced dead on 24 February 2016 at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Consultant forensic pathologist Dr Nat Cary carried out the post-mortem and concluded his death was as an 'example of fatal head injury of the shaking/impact type.'

The prosecutor said: 'In Dr Cary's opinion, it was not plausible that a low level fall could cause the nature and extent of both bruising and in the internal signs of injury present in the brain, the eyes and the cervical spine.

'He concluded that this is a pattern of injuries he would expect to see if a young infant were forcibly thrown to the ground or against some upright structure, with or without the element of movement or shaking.'

Jurors took 32 hours and 32 minutes to return a guilty verdict of manslaughter by a majority verdict of 10-2 after a lengthy trial at Blackfriars Crown Court today.

Rubim stood emotionless in the dock while members of his family wept in the public gallery.

Earlier referring to why Rubim killed his son, Ms O'Neill said: 'Why he did so is more difficult to understand but sometimes, for example, people snap when a baby keeps crying and they won't stop, particularly if they are tired or stressed.

'I am not suggesting that any of those possibilities was the case here.

'All that we are in a position to say is that a 45-day-old baby was in the sole care of his father at the time he received those injuries which led to his death four days later.'

Rubim had only been back at work for a couple of weeks after taking paternity leave at the time of his son's death.

Nadine Poggioli Radford QC, defending, said Rubim had lost everything, but his family 'still stand by him'.

She said the immediate custodial sentence he faced was nothing like the 'punishment inflicts upon himself.'

Inevitably, Rubim will lose his job and he will be deported once he has served his sentence, she said.

'Most of all he lost his son,' she said.

Family members wept throughout sentencing in front of a bouquets of flowers that were on the floor.

Nine members of the jury returned more than an hour after their verdict to see the judge pass sentence, who had earlier excused them, if they wish, to not serve on a jury again for a period of five years.

Rubim remained without any visible emotion as he sat down with his spectacles placed in his jumper alongside an interpreter and one dock officer.

The jury sitting at Blackfriars crown Court (above) heard Rubim's harrowing 999 call before convicting him of manslaughter

Mr Justice Kerr told Rubim: 'The jury has convicted you of unlawfully killing your son, Alejandro.

'This is a distressing and tragic case, you did not mean him to die, you did not mean to cause him really serious injury, but you did unlawfully assault him causing his death.

'Most killings are done by people far worse than you, until this happened, no one would have thought of you as a bad man, you have led a productive and blameless life.

'Yet what you did to Alejandro was very bad, almost certainly worse than anything else you have sons or will do in the future, for what you did to Alejandro you must answer to the law.'

He said it was clear from the medical evidence that there were three separate impact traumas.

'I am satisfied on the evidence, applying the criminal standard of proof that you caused all three of those injuries.

'I do not accept the injury to the head occurred when Alejandro fell to the floor from the baby bouncer.

'The medical evidence, in particular from Dr Cary and Dr Richards, makes me sure that the injury did not occur that way.

'The injury to Alejandro's head was, I am sure, inflicted by you.'

He said it was 'abundantly clear' from the evidence that there was a degree of force used and the way it was inflicted was 'horrific'.

He continued: 'In my judgment, there was a momentary intent on your part to commit a violent and obviously wrong and dangerous assault on this vulnerable victim with tragic consequences.'

The judge said Rubim 'repeatedly gave an implausible and untruthful account of how Alejandro had sustained the injuries.

'Finally you have lost your only son.

'You will have to live the rest of your life without him, knowing that it is your fault he is not there with you and his mother.

'I am sure you miss him and will miss him in the future.'

An NPSCC spokesperson said: 'Rubim should have loved, protected, and kept his son safe from harm. Instead, he robbed him of his life and it is right that he is now behind bars as a consequence of his actions.

'Babies and young children are completely dependent on those who care for them and we all have a duty to look out for their welfare.

'The NSPCC offers advice and support for parents on coping with crying and other stressful situations on its website www.nspcc.org.uk

'Anyone concerned about a child is urged to contact the NSPCC Helpline on 0808 800 5000, while young people can call Childline on 0800 1111.'

Olcay Sapanoglu, from CPS London's Homicide Unit, said: 'This is not a case of a 45-day-old baby accidentally falling out of a baby bouncer, but the death of a small child while in the sole care of his father.

'Although Rubim called 999 himself, the prosecution was able to present a number of medical professionals as witnesses who were clear that Alejandro's fatal injuries were far from consistent with a fall from a low level height. Many of them pointed to medical evidence that showed Alejandro's injuries were most likely caused by being shaken and or thrown.

'Deaths involving infants are particularly tragic and the CPS will always consider the evidence and circumstances surrounding each individual case before considering whether it is in the public interest to bring a prosecution.'

Rubim, of Lodge Drive, Southgate, denied but was convicted of manslaughter.
This is the dramatic moment an airline passenger punches a drunk man in the face because he threatened to 'blow up the plane'.

The fracas was caught on camera by another passenger on a flight from the city of Yekaterinburg in western Russia's Sverdlovsk Oblast region to the resort city of Antalya in southern Turkey.

The attacked passenger is alleged to have acted inappropriately towards women, and was abusive to children on the plane.

Other travellers said he was swearing at the top of his voice, even threatening to blow up the plane.

One passenger named only as Valentina said: 'It all started 20 minutes before landing, when you're not allowed to leave your seat.

'People were forced to get up and run around the plane to get away from him.'

One man finally decided he had had enough and walked over to the passenger,

When the drunk man, seated at the time, turned around to tell the man to mind his own business, the sober passenger punched him in the face.

Cabin staff intervened at this point but clearly recognised where the problem lay as the unnamed attacker was allowed to return to his seat unchallenged.

But male cabin crew kept a close eye on the drunk passenger for the rest of the flight and handed him over to police on arrival in Turkey.

The man was arrested at Antalya airport but later released. The police investigation continues and he could still face charges.

The man who punched him was not thought to be facing any legal action.

This is the dramatic moment an airline passenger punches a drunk man in the face because he threatened to 'blow up the plane'

The fracas was caught on camera by another passenger on a flight from Russia to Turkey

The attacked passenger is alleged to have acted inappropriately towards women, and was abusive to children on the plane
The first nude beach on the island of Ireland will officially open south of Dublin in April, a spokesman from the Irish Naturist Association has told the BBC.

Pat Gallagher said that naked beach-going is more popular in the country than people realise.

'This country has had people using beaches all around Ireland for as long as I can remember for nude bathing,' he told Good Morning Ulster.

UP until now nude swimming or sunbathing on a public beach or in a public place has been illegal

The view from above Hawk Cliff in Dalkey - the beach is in a relatively secluded area where it is unlikely that children would be inadvertently exposed to nude bathers

Ireland is not considered to be the warmest places for nudists to bare all

'A lot of people would prefer not to say to anyone, but they would go on the continent to nude beaches or go to nude resorts on their holidays.'

He said his organisation had been lobbying for some time for an official nudist beach to open in a country that for many years has been considered socially conservative - and occasionally a little chilly.

But Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council has agreed to buck the trend and put up signs at Hawk Cliff in Dalkey notifying people of nude bathers.

Mr Gallagher said the fact that he beach at Hawk Cliff is 'not really a family beach area' had addressed the concerns of those who feared that children might be inadvertently exposed to nude bathers.

'Certainly children shouldn't be there, it's quite dangerous. Any children that would be down there should be supervised. It's not your typical beach area,' he told the BBC.

He said that he had spent many years going naked at beaches in Ireland and had never had any issues with local people because Irish nudists tended to go to beaches that are 'out of the way'.

'We don't just go down onto a popular beach - we leave our cars behind, climb over sand dunes and go to little coves that basically no one else wants to go to,' said Mr Gallagher, who described himself as liking 'the idea of the sun, the sand, the sea, the whole lot' without the need for a bathing suit.

Nor does he consider Ireland too cold for a spot of skinny dipping.

'Not in the summer, no,' said Mr Gallagher. 'I know we don't get the best of weather, we don't get Mediterranean weather, but we get pretty good weather at the best of times.

'When you hear the farmers complaining that they need rain, then it's good weather.'

The Irish Naturist Association's website has yet to reflect news of the new site.

'Nude swimming or sunbathing on a public beach or in a public place is illegal,' it says, '[and] naturism is not as accepted in Ireland as it is in many other European countries.

'The Irish Naturist Association accepts no responsibility if you encounter problems.'
Theresa May today thanked Donald Trump for his 'very strong response' to the Salisbury attack by expelling 60 Russian diplomats.

The US President shocked his critics by banishing the embassy staff and closing a consulate in Seattle.

He joined leaders from over 20 countries around the world in ordering the united crackdown on Russia in an unprecedented show of global unity.

The two leaders had a ten minute 'friendly' conversation during which the Prime Minister said the response showed the Kremlin the 'brazen' attack would not be tolerated.

Theresa May today thanked Donald Trump for his 'very strong response' to the Salisbury attack by expelling 60 Russian diplomats.

Donald Trump joined leaders from over 20 countries around the world in ordering the united crackdown on Russia in an unprecedented show of global unity (pictured, Vladimir Putin in Russia today)

A spokesman for Mrs May said: 'The Prime Minister today spoke with President Trump to welcome the US decision to expel 60 Russian diplomats in response to the use of a nerve agent in Salisbury.

What is the Novichok nerve agent used against the Skripals? The Novichok nerve agent used against former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia is among the most deadly poisons ever created. They were secretly developed by the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold war in the 1970s and 1980s. Communist scientists developed the poison so it would not be able to be detected by Nato's chemical detection equipment. They come in the form of a ultra-fine powder, Novichok is up to eight times more potent than the deadly VX gas. Victims who are poisoned by the powder suffer muscle spasms, breathing problems and then cardiac arrest. There is a known antidote to the nerve agent - atropine can block the poison. But doctors find it very tricky to administer the antidote because the dose would have to be so high it could prove fatal for the person. Novichok poisons are highly dangerous to handle, requiring the expertise of skilled scientists in a sophisticated lab. Dr Vil Mirzayanov, former Chief of the Foreign Technical Counterintelligence Department at Russias premiere, was among the team of scientists who helped develop the agent. Advertisement

'The PM said the US had delivered a very strong response and welcomed the breadth of international action in response to Russia's reckless and brazen behaviour, with 26 countries now putting expulsions in place.'

More than 100 Russian diplomats have been ejected from the US, Canada and over 20 countries across Europe.

The wave of expulsions is a major victory for Mrs May who has been on a diplomatic blitz urging nations to come down hard on Russia.

Russian former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yuia are both fighting for the ir lives in hospital after being poisoned by Novichok.

Mrs May and Mr Trump also spoke about the steel tariffs the US has imposed on some countries.

The PM thanked the US leader for exempting the EU from the hefty charges, and said she hopes the exemptions can be made permanent.

Her spokesman said: 'The PM welcomed the temporary exemption to steel and aluminium tariffs announced by the US last week with relation to the European Union.

'She said she looked forward to constructive talks taking place between the EU and US on making that exemption permanent.'

The spokesman said Mrs May had thanked Mr Trump for his personal support in securing the passage of the Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act (Cloud Act) by the US.

The Act 'will provide an important tool in the investigation of terrorists and other offences in the UK and keep people living here safer', she told the president.

But the two leaders did not discuss when Mr Trump's long-awaited state visit to the UK will be.

The US announced on Monday that it was joining countries around the world in expelling Russian diplomats.

Mr Trump's ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, welcomed the move and said: 'Here in New York, Russia uses the United Nations as a safe haven for dangerous activities within our own borders.'

A swathe of European states have expelled Russian diplomats alongside Canada and the US

Sergei Skripal (left) and his daughter Yulia (right) have been in a critical condition since they were found unconscious on a bench outside a shopping centre in Salisbury on March 4

Spokeswomen for the White House and the State Department, along with Haley and US ambassador to Moscow Jon Huntsman condemned the alleged Russian attack.

Germany, France and Poland each expelled four diplomats, with Lithuania, Latvia and the Czech Republic also taking action.

Ukraine - not an EU state - joined the European revolt by expelling 13 diplomats.

Canada followed suit by expelling three Kremlin staffers and, in a flurry of action yesterday evening, both Hungary and Norway announced the expulsion of one diplomat respectively.

Soon after Spain announced the expulsion of two.
Democrats are split on how much of the Stormy Daniels saga they should use to rain on President Trump's parade, as they go after Congressional Republicans in advance of the November midterm elections.

The Hill newspaper reported on Wednesday that some Democrats are eager to attack Trump on his alleged affair with porn star Stormy Daniels, suggesting he's more vulnerable now to character attacks in the age of 'Me Too.'

But others caution that Democrats have gone down the he's-bad-to-women route before, and were left with him in the White House.

'We heard him bragging about it on the Access Hollywood tape and he got elected anyway,' Hillary Clinton's 2008 campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle told the Hill.

Another top Democratic strategist told the publication the issue was 'complicated' because 'no one voted for Donald Trump on the basis of his personal morals.'

Democrats are split on whether they should use President Trump's alleged tryst with porn star Stormy Daniels politically going into the midterm elections. So far, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has stayed above the fray on the topic

Porn star Stormy Daniels (right), seen in 2006 with then-businessman Donald Trump (left), shared details about an alleged one-night stand with the billionaire on Sunday's episode of 60 Minutes

That being said, the strategist argued, playing up the Daniels story 'will help rev up our base,' and potentially diminish turnout among Republican voters.

'Even a small drop in evangelical support for Republicans would be devastating,' the strategist noted. 'You want to dampen Republican enthusiasm. We should take a lesson from the Republican playbook and let an "all of the above" strategy take hold from different messengers across different targeted platforms.'

One messenger Democrats probably won't deploy is House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who Republicans have already said they planned to run against, tying other Democratic hopefuls to the liberal leader from California.

So far, Pelosi has stayed above the Stormy Daniels fray.

'I don't know that we necessarily have to get involved in any of that,' Pelosi said this week, dismissing question on what she called 'rumors about the president's personal life.'

'I'm more concerned about the president's policies, which undermine the financial security of America's working families,' Pelosi said.

And the Democrats' most recent success story  the election of Conor Lamb in Pennsylvania's once-red District 18  didn't involve taking on Trump personally.

But Democrats, argued strategist Jim Manley to the Hill, 'shouldn't shy away from raising this issue to the extent theyre comfortable because it comes down to a question of credibility.'

'To put your head in the sand and pretend this isn't going on is ridiculous,' Manley, a former aide to ex-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, told the publication. 'A lot of folks are just appalled by what they're hearing.'

The Daniels' scandal has yet to dent the president's approval numbers.

On Monday, a CNN poll showed the president with a 43 per cent approval rating, the highest he's had since his first 100 days in office last year.

A Politico/Morning Consult poll that dropped Wednesday morning had Trump similarly rated, at 42 per cent.
A local council has won a four-year legal battle over a horse which lived in a residential property with its owner.

Western Isles Council said today it had spent around 10,000 on the Grey Lady Too's upkeep since seizing the animal - more than five times what owner Stephanie Noble paid for the animal.

On top of the costs of sheltering and feeding Grey Lady Too, the council has also had to pay thousands on legal bills. Now Sheriff David Sutherland has given the council the go-ahead to sell the horse on.

Scroll down for video

Stephanie Noble kept the horse in her semi-detached property in the Western Isles

Ms Noble lost the legal battle against the council over the right to own Connemara pony

He gave the council a disposal order for the animal and awarded the council costs in the long running case.

Western Isles council now has a decision to make as to whether to sell the Connemara pony or donate it to a charity after winning the case but any proceeds are unlikely to get anywhere near covering the upkeep costs, let alone the legal fees.

The drawn-out legal battle finally drew to a conclusion after Ms Noble, who wanted the return of the horse, lost her case.

A spokesman for the council said: 'From the outset, the council's concern in this matter has been the welfare of the animal and we welcome the court's decision which validates the council's position and actions.

'We will take time to consider the details of the judgement carefully and await passage of the period for any appeal to be lodged. Grey Lady Too was removed by the council in 2014 because of unsuitable stabling arrangements.'

Western Isles council now has a decision to make as to whether to sell the Connemara pony or donate it to a charity after winning the case

The council seized the animal four years ago in February, saying its living conditions in the front room of a former council house in Broadbay View, on the Isle of Lewis, where it had lived for two years, broke its guidelines

The council seized the animal four years ago in February, saying its living conditions in the front room of a former council house in Broadbay View, on the Isle of Lewis, where it had lived for two years, broke its guidelines.

Although Ms Noble was still the owner, the local authority had to pay thousands to look after the animal at stables on the neighbouring islands of Benbecula, more than 80 miles away.

The council took Ms Noble to court so it could sell or donate the horse, although the owner said the authority acted wrongly when it seized Grey Lady Too.

Ms Noble said previously: 'Taking her away from me is bad enough - but to a different island is just added torture.

The council took Ms Noble to court so it could sell or donate the horse, although the owner said the authority acted wrongly when it seized Grey Lady Too

Ms Noble was given until the end of October 2013 to make alterations to her semi-detached home so that the pony could live in her house - or find alternative accommodation

'I just can't believe how cruel this council is. I intend to win her back and keep in better circumstances.'

Ms Noble was given until the end of October 2013 to make alterations to her semi-detached home so that the pony could live in her house - or find alternative accommodation.

The council said that under the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006 it had the power to 'take possession' of the pony if a vet said it is likely to suffer.

Ms Noble said she had no choice but to move the animal into her home after it was 'dumped' on her lawn on Christmas Eve following an argument with the owner of the land where the horse had previously grazed.

The Connemara pony had been bought by Ms Noble, a qualified horse instructor and trainer, for 1,850 in September and had moved her furniture upstairs when it started living in the house by Christmas the following year.
A property firm owned by Earl Cadogan (pictured in 1999) is facing a hefty fine after builder was exposed to asbestos while working at Grade II listed building

A property investment firm owned by one of Britain's richest families if facing a hefty fine after a builder was exposed to asbestos while working on a Grade II listed building.

Cadogan Estates admitted failing to manage the risk of the deadly substance at Rosetti Studios, Flood Street, Chelsea.

It is owned by Earl Cadogan - whose has a net worth of 5.53billion, according to Forbes.

Prosecutor Harry Vann, said: 'The initial uncontrolled release took place in the summer of 2015 in Studio 6.

'Waughman Limited subcontracted this work and a man unwittingly broke into asbestos material which put others at risk.'

But the worker who was exposed to the material has 'so far shown no signs of illness', Westminster Magistrates' Court heard.

Cadogan Estates are waiting for their expert to assess the risk, in the type of asbestos and the number of people who may have been exposed when the material was 'put in a bag and moved elsewhere.'

District Judge Elizabeth Roscoe, said: 'It is not simply a fall or something that is very easy to see, there are issues and there are concerns with asbestos because of the way it goes through the atmosphere.

'It does need some opportunity for the defendant to have that input.'

Cadogan Estates admitted failing to manage the risk of the deadly substance at Rosetti Studios (pictured) in Flood Street, Chelsea

Charles Cadogan, whose fortune is based in 93 acres of property in Kensington and Chelsea, turns over 150 million a year from his land.

Rosetti Studios, a Grade II listed building, was originally occupied by the Chelsea Art School.

Cadogan Estates and E&J Waughman Limited, an electrical installations company, both admitted failing to ensure or carry out an assessment into the presence of asbestos in the building.

E&J Waughman, whose owner Edward Waughman appeared in court, admitted a further charge of failing to ensure health and safety of an employee.

Sentence was adjourned until June 13, so Cadogan Estates can serve an expert report.
Heart-breaking images have emerged showing a deaf-mute man in China being chained and locked up inside a stone house by his mother.

Wang Zhiqiang, 41, was born unable to hear or speak and later became mentally ill.

His mother Yue Rong, 77, admitted that she had kept him chained up for the past 12 years in a bid to prevent him from hurting the other people.

Wang Zhiqiang has been chained and locked up in a stone house in China for over 10 years

His mother could not afford to pay for psychiatric treatment and forced to leave him at home

Mr Wang was sent to a boarding school for special needs by his family when he was little.

However, Mr Wang started to develop psychological issues after being bullied by his classmates.

He was sent back home and got chained up by his parents since then.

Ms Yue told Zhengzhou Evening Post that her son's condition worsen and started attacking neighbours in the village in Dengfeng of Henan Province.

Mr Wang was left untreated by the poverty-stricken family.

'When my husband was still alive, he was able to take care of our son. But when he passed away 12 years ago, I could not handle my son on my own,' Ms Yus told the reporter.

Ms Yue had no choice but to chain him up and lock him in a stone house.

Mr Wang's elder sister, Wang Shufen, cried every time she visited her brother in the animal-like state.

The 50-year-old sister said it was heartbreaking to see her brother begging to let him out.

The 41-year-old deaf-mute man was locked since his father passed away 12 years ago

Wang's family is receiving monthly subsidies from the local government

Wang's sister said it was heartbreaking to see Wang begging to leave the house

Ding Yanfang, a party secretary of the village, told Zhengzhou Evening Post: 'When Wang was still a boy, he was very smart despite being deaf-mute.'

'When he returned from the special needs school with mental problems, there was little we could do. It was heartbreaking,' he added.

The village secretary said the local government provides the family with monthly subsidies, but Mr Ding hopes members of the public will help raise enough funds to send Wang to a psychiatric hospital to receive treatment.
Pensioners on the outskirts of Sydney are being forced to sell their houses after the local council tripled their rates.

Residents of Oakville are outraged by Hawkesbury Council changing its rates structure to boost revenue - some going from $2300 to $12,000.

Monica Castles said her bill jumped from $2,500 to to $9,300 and $400 of her meager fortnightly pension was needed to pay the new rates.

Pensioners on the outskirts of Sydney are being forced to sell their houses after the local council tripled their rates

Fritz Hofer, who has lived in Oakville for 41 years, said he had to dig into his savings to pay the the council and couldn't afford it

'I have friends that live in different areas around Oakville and their rates increased but increased by $50 and $90, but ours went up 300 per cent and it's just not fair,' she told 9 News.

Fritz Hofer, who has lived in Oakville for 41 years, said he had to dig into his savings to pay the the council and couldn't afford it.

'It's just money grabbers at the moment. They send us broke, basically,' he said.

Hawkesbury Council said it needed more money to fix the area's roads

More may have to sell up and leave as the council has applied to pricing watchdog IPART to raise rates by another 31.29 per cent.

Hawkesbury Council said it needed more money to fix the area's roads. IPART will make its decision in May.
An extra 600 million will be ploughed into a new generation of 'dreadnought' submarine which will carry Britain's nuclear deterrent, the PM today announced.

Theresa May said the the extra cash will ensure the state-of-the-art vessels are made on time.

The submarines will carry the Trident deterrent when the current Vanguard class is scrapped.

The Prime Minister has been under pressure to plough more cash into Britain's military budgets to ensure they can take on the renewed threats posed by states like Russia

Announcing the cash injection in PMQs today, Mrs May said that overall the Ministry of Defence (MoD) would have an extra 800 million in the next financial year.

An extra 600 million will be ploughed into a new generation of 'dreadnought' submarine which will carry Britain's nuclear deterrent, Theresa May (pictured in PMQs today) said

She said: 'I can announce today the Chancellor and I have agreed that the Ministry of Defence will have access to 600 million this coming financial year for the MoD's dreadnought submarine programme.

'Today's announcement will ensure that the work to rebuild the UK's new world class nuclear submarines remains on schedule and it's another sign of the deep commitment this Government has to keeping our country safe.

'And along with the 200 million carry forward agreed at the supplementary estimates.

'This means the MoD will benefit from an extra 800 million in the next financial year and we continue to exceed the Nato two per cent target and remain the second biggest defence spender in Nato.'

Britain is currently carrying out a defence review and military top brass hope that ministers will agree to find extra money for the Armed Forces after it is done.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson has dropped several public hints that he is hopeful that his department will get more money.

The dreadnought submarines will carry the Trident deterrent when the current Vanguard class (pictured) is scrapped

While his predecessor in the job, Sir Michael Fallon, has urged the Treasury to find more money for defence - saying the Nato 2 per cent target should be a floor not a cap.

The issue of Britain's defences has raised up the political agenda in recent months following the a spate of terror attacks cyber hacks and the renewed threat posed by Russia.

The UK saw five terror attacks take place in the UK last year - killing over 100 people.

While the poisoning of Russian former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with the nerve agent Novichok has raised fresh questions about how the UK is defending itself against Moscow.
An Tso Sun, 18, was arrested on Wednesday over an alleged plot against the Catholic private school he is a guest of in Pennsylvania

A Taiwanese exchange student has been arrested in Pennsylvania over an alleged plot to carry out a mass shooting at the private Catholic high school he is a guest of.

An Tso Sun, 18, was arrested on Wednesday over his alleged plan to attack Bonner Prendergast Catholic High School, an $8,850-a-year high school in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania.

According to police, Sun told another student at the school not to attend on May 1 and also asked them where he could buy a gun.

That student told teachers who contacted the police.

When they searched the host family home where Sun was staying, they found a crossbow, military-style ballistic vest, a backpack with pouches to hold ammo clips, a loading dock for AK-47s and AR-15s, 20 rounds of 9mm ammunition, a military ski mask, ear protectors for firing and a strangling device.

Police have also searched an iPad Sun used at school to research AK-47s and AR-15 rifles.

The teenager has been arrested on charges of making terroristic threats.

He denies the charges and claims instead that all of the equipment found in his room was part of an elaborate Halloween costume.

This is the haul of equipment that was found in the home where Sun is staying. It included a military vest, a crossbow with seven arrows and ammunition. His attorney says it was all part of an elaborate Halloween costume from last year

It is not clear when Sun told the other student 'not to come to school'. His lawyer Enrique Latoison told DailyMail.com on Wednesday that his arrest was a misunderstanding and that he was 'joking' when he made the comment to the other student.

'He is no kind of a threat to anyone. He did not plan on shooting or killing anyone. He thought he was making a joke when he said, "Don't come to school on May 1, just kidding."

'That's what he said but he is not from here, he is not American, so his ability to joke and understand the cultural norms of America... he doesn't have the same social skills as others,' Latoison said.

He would not reveal whether it was Sun's family in Taiwan or his host family in the US who hired him but said both families were happy he was working on his behalf.

Sun has been in the US for five months.

Sun is an exchange student at Bonner Prendergast Catholic High School, an $8,850-a-year high school in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania

His lawyer said that all of the pieces of equipment found under his bed were part of a Halloween costume that he wore in October.

None of the items are illegal on their own but when combined, police said they painted a worrying picture.

'Thats a lot of stuff. I have a lot of concern over it. When you add it all together, we believe that he was planning something horrible,' Upper Darby police superintendent Mike Chitwood said on Wednesday.

Sun remains in custody on a $100,000 bond which he has to pay 10 per cent of to be freed.

He will appear again in court on April 11.

The teenager's lawyer said he had hopes of joining a US law enforcement agency before his arrest.

He said he had been recently accepted into college to study criminal justice but that now has been thrust into uncertainty.

The school said it was grateful to the student who came forward to report Sun's comment.

'Archdiocesan schools take the safety and security of every student, teacher, and staff member very seriously. Thankfully, no one was harmed. Incidents such as this demonstrate the importance of all members of the school community working together to maintain a safe environment.

'Parents have been asked to speak to their children and remind them that they should always report any suspicious activity immediately.

'They have also been encouraged to contact police if they have information that will be helpful to the ongoing investigation,' spokesman Kenneth Gavin said in a statement.
President Donald Trump's personal attorney floated the idea of presidential pardons with lawyers for two of the highest-profile targets of the Robert Mueller probe.

The New York Times said Wednesday that John Dowd - who quit the Trump legal team last week - had suggested that the president could use his powers to pardon Mike Flynn, the disgraced national security adviser, and Paul Manafort, his former campaign chair.

The report raised questions about whether Dowd was hoping to prevent both men from co-operating with the special counsel investigation.

Flynn has since taken a plea deal from Mueller and is now a convicted felon and co-operating witness with the probe.

Pardon you? John Dowd, who until last week was working for the Trump legal team dealing with the Robert Mueller probe, is reported to have floated the president pardoning Mike Flynn

Pardon you too? Paul Manafort's lawyers are also said to have had a pardon floated by John Dowd

Manafort, however, is fighting a string of felony charges of tax evasion, money-laundering and breaking foreign agents registration laws and on Tuesday made a fresh legal bid to have them thrown out of court.

The New York Times did not say when the alleged pardon discussions took place, but Flynn pleaded guilty on December 1 to lying to the FBI, while the Mueller probe began in May 2017.

Three sources told the New York Times about the development, but Dowd denied discussing pardons.

'There were no discussions. Period. As far as I know, no discussions,' he told the newspaper.

Ty Cobb, a lawyer who is heading up the White House's end of the investigation, gave the Times a similar response.

'I have only been asked about pardons by the press and have routinely responded on the record that no pardons are under discussion or under consideration at the White House,' he said.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders referred reporters to Cobb's statement at her daily briefing on Wednesday, referring to him as 'the person that would be the most directly involved in this.'

She denied that the president had ever considered pardons for the former aides or that he had reason to keep them from talking to Mueller for his investigation into the Trump campaign's contact with Russia, which has been accused by the U.S. intelligence community of election meddling.

'There was no collusion,' she said, 'and we're very confident in that and look forward to this process wrapping up.'

The development that Dowd tried to influence the men's willingness to cooperate with the feds could itself become part of the Mueller probe with the special counsel known to be looking into whether Trump and those around him obstructed justice.

Trump has virtually unlimited powers to pardon people even before they have been charged with a crime.

But offering it as a possibility to someone who is the focus of a criminal investigation with the intention of limiting their possible co-operation with that investigation could be of interest to Mueller - and those around the president do not carry the same power of pardon as he does.

Asked about about that concept on Wednesday, Sanders again said, 'There's no discussion or consideration of this.'

She said she would not know whether Trump believes that the men ought to be pardoned because it has never come up.

'The president has the authority to pardon individuals, but you're asking me about a specific case in which it hasn't been discussed, so I would not have brought that up with him,' she stated.

Sources close to Flynn say the decorated military officer plans to sell the 2,118-square-foot home in Alexandria (above center) that he bought in November 2015 for $774,000

Trump himself discussed the issue of pardoning Flynn two weeks after his short-lived national security advisor plead guilty.

'I don't want to talk about pardons for Michael Flynn yet,' he said.

'We'll see what happens. Let's see. I can say this: When you look at what's gone on with the F.B.I. and with the Justice Department, people are very, very angry.'

He has not pardoned Flynn, however, and the extent of the former aide's co-operation remains unknown.

In his plea deal, Flynn agreed to hand over all relevant information -- even if asked to wear a wire-tap. It is not known if he had done so before the deal was made public.

Flynn took the deal as his legal costs mounted and questions over whether his son Michael Flynn Jr would be dragged into the saga swirled, as well.

He has put his $820,000 home in Old Town Alexandria, close to Washington D.C., on the market, and his family set up an appeal to help pay his legal bills.

Sources close to Flynn said last year that he decided to plead guilty to lying to the FBI about his contact with Russian officials during the presidential transition because he felt abandoned by Trump.

Flynn is prepared to testify that Trump directed him to make contact with Russians when he was a presidential candidate, ABC News reported.

The former three-star Army general was the first member of Trumps administration to plead guilty to a crime uncovered by Muellers wide-ranging investigation into Russian attempts to influence the 2016 US election and potential collusion by Trump aides.

Russia has denied meddling in the campaign, and Trump has steadfastly denied any collusion took place.

Under a plea bargain deal, Flynn admitted in a Washington court that he lied when asked by FBI investigators about his conversations last December with Russias then-ambassador, Sergei Kislyak, just weeks before Trump took office.

Prosecutors said the two men discussed US sanctions against Russia and that Flynn also asked Kislyak to help delay a UN vote seen as damaging to Israel.

On both occasions, he appeared to be undermining the policies of outgoing President Barack Obama.
Dozens of school across Britain were placed on lock-down today after receiving imminent threats of an attack on students.

The email, which is now being treated as a hoax, claimed a car would mow down as many pupils as possible leaving the schools.

If children were to be evacuated from the premises, they would be shot, the email added.

Anxious parents were reportedly outside schools picking up their children after the threats were made.

The email read: 'If you try and evacuate them the driver will get out and shoot any student leaving. You have a choice here, you can ignore this email and risk the lives of the students you say you care for, or you can listen to what we are telling you.

'The only way out is to go out with a BANG.'

A marked police car would be stationed outside Heronsgate primary school and neighbourhood policing teams would visit the school in the next few days, the headteacher warned

It finished: 'From your team PI3x13t.'

Schools from the North East to the South West of England were threatened by the hoax today, which the National Crime Agency has now been enlisted to work alongside police force in the affected regions.

The Metropolitan Police confirmed there were a 'number of reports' that the hoax email had been sent to schools in London.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: 'The Met has received a number of reports relating to malicious communications sent to schools across London on Wednesday, 28 March.

'These are currently being treated as hoaxes. There is no evidence to suggest that this is terror-related.'

One of the schools in London which was forced to evacuate was Heronsgate Primary School in Greenwich.

A marked police car would be stationed outside the school and neighbourhood policing teams would visit the school in the next few days, the headteacher warned.

Steven Connors added: 'We evacuated both sites to ensure the safety of the children,' said the letter.

'We responded quickly to the threats and made the Police aware.

'The Metropolitan Police have advised that they are not treating the emails as a credible threat.

'There is nothing within the email that names a specific school and the same email has also been sent to other schools throughout London.

Plymouth City College was among the schools to have a hoax attack threat made to it today

'The children were extremely well behaved and co-operated fully.'

One school in Colchester for autistic children had to close following the threat.

Doucecroft School at Eight Ash Green, near Colchester, is owned and operated by Autism Anglia and includes pupils from Essex and the surrounding area. Staff contacted parents to come and collect their children after the threatening phone call earlier in the day.

The school caters for day and and residential pupils. A number of day pupils who were due to stay overnight had to be taken home and others in the residential area of the school had to be evacuated.

One parent, whose child has to travel 25 miles from their home in Suffolk every day, said: 'We don't have any details yet but what kind of sick individual would target children like this who are among the most vulnerable in society.'

At least 12 schools in Plymouth received the hoax email, including Marlborough Primary school and Plymouth City College.

Headteacher of Plymouth's Marlborough Primary School, Rachel Summers said: 'We followed procedure by phoning 999, phoning the police, as soon as we received that email - and then went into lockdown, so that children were all inside, with doors locked, nobody in, nobody out, just to be safe and make sure children were OK.'

A spokesperson for Devon and Cornwall Police said: 'We are aware of a series of malicious communications to schools in Devon and Cornwall as well as across the country.

'Enquiries continue to establish the facts and forces are working together to investigate who is responsible.

'Police take hoaxes extremely seriously. They divert police resources and cause disruption and alarm to the public.'

The Milton Primary school was among one of three to be evacuated in Stoke-on-Trent

Suffolk Police confirmed it received 14 reports of a 'malicious hoax' to schools today.

A spokesman added: 'Officers take hoaxes extremely seriously. They divert police resources and cause disruption and alarm to the public.

'Suffolk County Council is working to support police and the affected schools.'

A further six schools in Cheshire also got received the email, as well as schools in Birmingham, Cambridgeshire, the North East and in Stoke.

The Milton Primary school was among one of three to be evacuated in Stoke-on-Trent.

Chief Inspector Catherine Clarke, from Durham Constabulary, said: 'We can confirm that at this time we believe none of the threats received by schools to date are considered to be credible.

'In the absence of any further threats being received, schools do not need to take any further action.

'If any further threats are received they should be reported immediately to police.

'We are in contact with the schools in our area to give guidance and reassurance.

'More than 100 schools in the North-East region have received the emails and we are working with neighbouring forces to establish the facts and investigate who is responsible.'

It comes two weeks after similar letters were sent to schools threatening to detonate bombs left on school property throughout the UK.

Police later announced that they did not believe the threat to be viable, as the letters had been sent from the United States and were demanding money.
Mariah Martinez (pictured) was found alive in New Mexico on Monday - nearly a year-and-a-half after she went missing from Texas

A nine-year-old Texas girl who went missing nearly a year-and-a-half ago has been found alive in New Mexico after an anonymous tipster watched a story about her case on TV.

On Friday, A&E's Live PD aired a re-run episode that featured a segment on missing girl Mariah Martinez, who disappeared from Lubbock, Texas in October 2016 - just before her mother was about to lose custody.

Live PD is a show that gives viewers 'a live look at police across the country as they work the night shift in real time'.

A viewer who watched the show recognized Mariah and called the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to inform them about the girl's whereabouts in New Mexico.

The center in turn worked with police to track down the girl, who was rescued on Monday. It's unclear who she had been staying with all that time.

Mariah and her two younger siblings went missing along with their mother in October 2016, just before her mom was set to lose custody

Mariah was found after A&E's Live PD show (above) profiled her story in a re-run episode on Friday

Mariah's mother, Amanda Martinez, came under investigation on October 6, 2016, when Mariah's little brother Jeremiah, then five, told Child Protective Services workers at his school that his mom's boyfriend had punched him in the nose after getting into a fight with his mom.

The boyfriend, Isaac Sanders, then threatened to kill the whole family by driving into a pond.

On October 17, teachers at Mariah and Jeremiah's school called CPS after the siblings didn't show up for school in a week.

That same day, their mother tested positive for methamphetamine.

Three days later, CPS got a court order to remove the three kids - including two-year-old Leimiah Martinez McGavok - from Martinez's care, but the family had skipped town. It was then that the three kids were reported missing.

On January 17, 2017, cops got a tip and tracked Martinez and her two youngest kids down to a local residence - but Mariah was nowhere to be seen.

Police tracked down the mom, Amanda Martinez (pictured), and her two younger kids in January 2017, but Mariah was not with them

Mariah (top right) is pictured above with her siblings - little brother Jeremiah and sister Leimiah. Jeremiah was five and Leimiah was two when they first disappeared

Martinez was arrested on felony charges of custody interference but refused to cooperate with police and tell them where her eldest daughter was.

Police suspected that Mariah was in the New Mexico area, since Martinez had ties to the state, but jurisdictional issues meant that they couldn't do more to try and locate her.

On Tuesday, the Lubbock Police department thanked the National Center for Missing & Exploited Childrne for helping them find Mariah.

'The Lubbock Police Department is thankful that the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children continued to place this case at the top of their priority list, ensuring that Mariah [returned] home safely,' the statement reads.
First pictures have emerged The 'love train' used by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to meet his Chinese counterpart.

The distinctive green and yellow armoured train that pulled into Beijing on Monday is the same one used by his father Kim Jong-il in May 2000 when he too travelled to Beijing to visit Jiang Zemin, China's leader at the time.

According to a 2009 report in the South Korean press, the train at the time consisted of about 90 armoured carriages, with two separate trains travelling ahead and behind it to handle security.

The distinctive green and yellow armoured train that pulled into Beijing on Monday may be slow but it is not without its luxurious fittings inside

The North Korean leader was treated to a lavish welcome by Chinese President Xi Jinping during his secretive trip to Beijing as both sides seek to repair frayed ties ahead of landmark summits between Seoul and Washington

The pink leather chairs inside the train contrast with its green and yellow exterior

It is not clear whether the North Korean leader treated his distinguished Chinese guest to some of the luxurious food and drink reputed to be on the train

Because of its weight, it moves slowly - its average speed is reported to be 37 mph - but inside, it is relatively high-tech and luxurious.

The train is reported to come complete with luxurious seating, dark wood panelling and plentiful supplies of alcohol.

According to an account by Konstantin Pulikovsky, a Russian official who travelled with Kim Jong-il to Moscow in 2001, the train was stacked with cases of Bordeaux and Beaujolais, which had been flown in from Paris especially.

One Russian official who travelled with Kim Jong-il on the train to Moscow in 2001 said that live lobster and other delicacies were regularly sent to the train as it travelled, the Washington Post reported.

The visit by Kim Jong-un to meet Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping (right) bears striking similarities to a visit made by his father Kim Jong-il to meet Chinese President Jiang Zemin in June 2000 (left)

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (centre) and his wife Ri Sol Ju (centre right) are greeted by Chinese Communist Party members on the arrival at Beijing station in Beijing

Speculation about a visit to Beijing by Kim Jong-un or another high-level Pyongyang official was running high Tuesday amid talk of preparations for a meeting between the North's reclusive leader and President Donald Trump

The North Korean leader arrived in Beijing for talks with his Chinese counterpart amid a shroud of secrecy

The North Korean leader was able to sample some Chinese wine in addition to what was available to him on the train

Kim Jong-un has used the train to travel domestically: In video from 2015, he was shown sitting in a stark white conference room on board with a laptop in the background.

It is difficult to know how - if at all - the train has changed from the days of Kim Jong-Il but the likelihood is that it would not be short of food or drink. The older Kim was reputed to enjoy on board banquets and karaoke.

It is often been reported that that the Swiss-educated Kim Jong-un has inherited his father's fondness of the finer things in life, especially Swiss cheese, Cristal champagne and Hennessy cognac.

But while Kim Jong-il was rumoured to hate flying and used the train as an alternative means of travel to China, Russia and Eastern Europe his son is not so squeamish and often travelled abroad by air while getting educated in the West.

In any event, the similarities between the trip in 2000 and Kim Jong-uns 2018 excursion are hard to miss, The Washington Post has reported.

In both cases, the Kims visited for three days; in both cases, they arrived unannounced on a train; in both cases, they met with the Chinese president and toured Beijings technology hub in Zhongguancun; and in both cases, their visit to China took place ahead of a planned summit with South Korea.

The secrecy surrounding Kim Jong-uns visit to Beijing this week also echoed that of his fathers various trips abroad, with state media announcing the visit only after it was over, presumably for security reasons.
Members of an Iraqi gang suspected of helping migrants from five different countries into Britain have been arrested in Spain.

Europol, the EUs law enforcement agency, said it had broken up a gang responsible for people smuggling.

It is thought the seven suspects offered illegal migrants, mainly Albanian citizens, passage from Spain to the UK.

The raids have also been captured on shocking video footage.

The gang are also believed to have helped people from Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and Syria into the country.

Authorities said the gang used regular ferries from the northern Spanish ports of Santander and Santurtzi to carry out their criminal activities.

They were able to sneak migrants through restricted areas at the ports and hide them in trailers, containers, caravans and lorries waiting to board the ferries.

The gang also helped transport migrants to the Spanish towns of Cantabria and Biscay from other countries and temporarily housed them there. The investigation began when Spanish authorities detected a growing number of Albanian citizens trying to access Santurtzi port  and launched a day of action on March 19, arresting seven people including Iraqi, Albanian and Spanish nationals.

The Spanish Civil Guard raided three houses  two of which were being used as safe houses.

The Spanish civil guard has arrested a group of seven traffickers who illegally brought immigrants into the UK

The civil guard has released a video showing the arrests of seven men who trafficked in migrants from Albania, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan

They seized IT and mobile devices, bank cards and ID documents and passports from different countries.

Many young migrants have proudly shared stowaway selfies while hiding in the back of lorries bound for Britain.

The National Crime Agency has warned that Albanian crime groups have established a high-profile influence within UK organised crime.

The seven suspects are charged with human trafficking and belonging to a criminal organisation

According to reports, migrants were brought from their place of origin to accommodation in the two Spanish autonomous communities

They are behind much of the supply of cocaine around the country and are also involved in trafficking and prostitution. Albanians make up the third largest foreign group jailed in England and Wales, behind Irish and Polish criminals  at a cost of around 53million to the taxpayer.

Figures released by the Ministry of Justice this month revealed there were 726 offenders from the Balkan state behind bars in Britain last year  almost triple the 267 seen in 2013.

In February, nine Albanians were rescued from a dinghy adrift in the Channel, some 20 miles south of Eastbourne, East Sussex, as they tried to reach Britain.

The immigrants left Spain from Santander in Cantabria and Santurtzi in the Basque Country

The gang would smuggle the migrants into Spanish ports through perimeter fences and hide the immigrants in caravans, trailers, and containers

Between January and August last year 1,251 migrants were caught trying to sneak into Britain by ferry from Spain  up from 436 in the whole of 2016.

More than 11,000 migrants arrived in Spain in the first half of 2017, compared with over 13,000 in the whole of 2016, the International Organisation for Migration said.

Civil Guard officers arrested gang members of Spanish, Albanian and Iraqi origin, accused of facilitating the immigrants' entry into the UK. Three were detained in Santander and four in Santurtzi during 'Operation Hegira'.

The Civil Guard began the operation when they noticed a large number of Albanian nationals entering the Port of Bilbao in Santurtzi.

Officers also detected an increase in people travelling illegally to the UK after they had been intercepted in either Spanish or UK ports.

Spanish authorities raided three homes, police allegedly found locked rooms overcrowded with immigrants

Agents seized electronic devices, bank cards and numerous fake documents, passports and forms of identification
A New York City politician has introduced a bill that would make it illegal for employers to require private employees to respond to electronic communications when they're not working.

Rafael L Espinal, Jr, introduced the 'Disconnecting From Work bill' in the New York City Council on Thursday.

'The lines between our work and personal lives have blurred,' Espinal tweeted on Friday. 'My bill will simply protect employees from retaliation when they choose to disconnect.'

New York City Council representative Rafael Espinal, Jr, has introduced a bill that would make it illegal for private employers to require private employees to respond to electronic communications when they're not working

Espinal's bill, if passed, would apply to private businesses with 10 or more employees, preventing management from requiring communication with workers who are off duty, on vacation, using personal days or off sick.

'There's a lot of New Yorkers out there that don't know when their work day begins or when their work day ends, because we're all so tied to our phones,' the representative for Brooklyn told CNN affiliate WCBS.

This bill would allow for the city to fine private employers found to be requiring employees to respond to things like emails and text messages while off duty a fine of $250 and require them to pay $500 to the employee involved in the violation.

Espinal's bill, if passed, would apply to private businesses with 10 or more employees, preventing management from requiring communication with workers who are off duty, on vacation, using personal days or off sick

'The lines between our work and personal lives have blurred,' Espinal tweeted on Friday

Espinal (center) speaks at a press conference in support of Bernie Sanders on the steps of City Hall in Manhattan on March 2, 2016

Penalties would be steeper for employers found to retaliate against, or even fire, employees who exercise their right not to respond to such communications.

Employees would be allowed up to two years to report such incidents for investigation.

'You can still work, you can still talk to your boss, but this is just saying that, when you feel like you've hit your boiling point and you can't do it anymore, you're able to disconnect and decompress for a while,' Espinal said.

Employees who work overtime, or are on call 24 hours each day, would not be affected by the bill, if it passes.

Espinal said he hopes to see the bill become law this year. If it does, employees who believe their employer may be in violation will be able to report the situation to 311 for investigation, and possible fining.

The bill was introduced in the Committee on Consumer Affairs and Business Licensing.

France enacted a similar law in January 2017, applying to businesses with 50 or more employees.
A pregnant mother-of-four accused of masterminding the daylight execution of a Sydney criminal lawyer allegedly fled to New Zealand with more than $6,000 in cash just two days after the killing.

Police allege Analosa Ah Keni, 35, paid a hitman to murder Ho Ledinh, 65, at Happy Cup cafe in Bankstown as he held a meeting at 3.30pm on January 23. He was shot four times in the stomach and died at the scene.

Ms Ah Keni fled the country on January 25 but was stopped by New Zealand custom officials who took her phone, which allegedly contains pictures of the semi-automatic gun used in Mr Ledinh's murder, Prosecutor Rossi Kotsis told the Burwood Local Court on Wednesday.

'The deceased's body was barely cold before she arranged to buy tickets to get out of the jurisdiction without her children,' Mr Kotsis said, according to the Daily Telegraph.

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Mr Ledinh (pictured with wife Ngo Thu Huong), a father to two young children, was shot four times at Happy Cup cafe in Bankstown as he held a meeting at 3.30pm on January 23

Analosa Ah Keni, 35, a pregnant mother-of-four accused of masterminding the daylight execution of the Sydney criminal lawyer (scene pictured)

'The premises where she lived and the entire household including furniture items had been packed up and were placed in storage ready to be shipped to New Zealand.'

Police allege Ms Ah Keni knows where the semi-automatic gun has been hidden.

Court documents tendered to the court reveal officers believe the same weapon was used in a double homicide in 2015, according to the Daily Telegraph.

Ms Ah Keni, who returned to Australia on February 6, was denied bail on Wednesday after Magistrate Robyn Denes found the mother-of-four was a potential flight risk.

'More questions are raised by the conduct of the accused immediately after the murder than are answered,' Ms Denes said.

Ms Ah Keni was arrested on the Hume Highway in Marulan, NSW, on March 8 and charged with murder.

Police allege she paid a hitman to murder Mr Ledinh, 65, and was there to oversee the killer (pictured) being handed a green jacket and a water bottle - which were crucial clues in the investigation that led to her arrest

Ms Ah Keni, 35, allegedly fled to New Zealand with $6,000 two days after killing Ho Ledinh (pictured with wife Ngo Thu Huong and two of their three children)

Ms Ah Keni told officers after her arrest that she had no recollection of what she was doing when Mr Ledinh was murdered, the documents state.

Court documents also revealed Ms Ah Keni is four months pregnant and has been 'experiencing difficulties' in a prison clinic since her arrest.

Mr Ledinh, a father to two young children, staggered to the floor and died in front of horrified witnesses.

Despite their best efforts, paramedics and his close friend Huu - crying 'say something, please!' - could not revive him.

The gunman, who police allege was Arthur Kelekolio, 38, wore a green top and was seen on security vision throwing a water bottle into a bin prior to the killing.

Ms Ah Keni was arrested on the Hume Highway in Marulan, New South Wales, on March 8 and charged with Mr Ledinh's (pictured) murder

Court documents revealed on Wednesday allege that she waited in a Bankstown shop while father-of-five Mr Ledinh was executed with a handgun in broad daylight (scene pictured)

The documents state she received a phone call shortly after the deed was done, before jumping into her van, which she supplied as a getaway vehicle for the gunman (scene pictured)

Detectives wearing forensic gloves picked up numerous water bottles and sorted them into brown paper bags after the shooting in January

Ms Ah Keni's arrest comes three weeks after police arrested the alleged gunman, Arthur Kelekolio (pictured), 38

Police alleged in court documents that Ms Ah Keni watched as Kelekolio was given his outfit and drink bottle prior to the shooting.

Ah Keni is alleged to have driven past the cafe less than an hour before the shooting and is also accused of driving the getaway van the killer escaped in afterward.

Kelekolio was arrested at Sydney International Airport last month over the alleged murder, as he attempted to board a flight to Bali.

His lawyer, Adam Houda, has not applied for bail. The matter was adjourned to April 11.

Ah Kenis will return to court on May 2.

Ms Ah Keni told officers after her arrest that she had no recollection of what she was doing when Mr Ledinh (pictured with his wife and children) was murdered, the documents state

Friends of Mr Ledinh said he was a good lawyer but a bad businessman, and records showed he was owing significant sums of money.

His wife Ngo Thu Huong, 30, was in Vietnam with the couple's two young children at the time of his death.

Following the targeted attack, officers said they would be looking into Mr Ledinh's organised crime clients as part of their investigation, with the Homicide Squad setting up Strike Force Eugene to investigate the shooting.

The father-of-five was one of the solicitors who represented Philip Nguyen, the man jailed over the killing of Sydney police constable Bill Crews in 2010.
The wife of a Pennsylvania man arrested in Mexico with a missing 16-year-old girl has filed for divorce just two days after he was extradited back home.

Stacey Esterly filed for divorce on Monday, citing adultery and an 'irretrievable breakdown' of her marriage to 45-year-old Kevin Esterly.

The husband and 16-year-old Amy Yu were found in Cancun on March 17, about two weeks after they disappeared from Allentown.

Police have said they believe the girl went willingly with Esterly, who had posed as her stepfather and repeatedly signed her out of school in recent months.

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It's over: Stacey Esterly (left) on Monday filed for divorce, citing adultery and an 'irretrievable breakdown' of her marriage to 45-year-old Kevin Esterly (right)

In suing for divorce, Stacey, who has been married to Kevin for 12 years and has four daughters by him, claims she has been the victim of indignities, reported Allentown Morning Call.

The wife is asking for spousal support and alimony, arguing that she is unable to sustain herself during the course of the litigation.

Esterly is in jail on a felony charge of custodial interference.

Meanwhile, Yu's mother, Miu Luu, is also preparing to take legal action against Kevin Esterly, whose actions were described by the woman's attorney as 'predatory.'

And judging by the language used in her lawyers statement, Kevin might not be the only person named in the impending civil suit.

The mother of Amy Yu (pictured) is pursuing legal action against Kevin Esterly, and possibly other people and entities connected to this case

Ms Luu trusted Kevin Esterly and his wife to supervise and care for her daughter when her daughter spent time with their daughter at their home, attorney Everett Cook wrote.

Lehigh Valley Academy Regional Charter School where Yu was a student and American Airlines, which she and Esterly used to leave the country, were also mentioned as potential defendants.

The airline responded to WFMZ by saying that as a 16-year-old, Yu did not need her parents' permission to travel.

Yu's family previously said the teen and Kevin met at church years ago, and the 16-year-old was friends with one of the man's children.

Last week, Stacey admitted that she has had concerns about her husband's close relationship with Yu for months.

Esterly arrived back in Allentown, Pennsylvania on Saturday after being extradited from Miami, the Lehigh County District Attorney's office said.

He and Yu were tracked down together in Playa del Carmen on March 17 and then flown to Mexico. They had been missing since March 5. His bail has been set at $500,000 and he is due in court on April 2.

And though Stacey was concerned, she said she 'never had any inkling it would lead up to this'.

Yu grew close to the Esterly family and went on ski and beach vacations with the couple and their daughters.

'I did reach out to her mother, just saying I didn't want [her] around as much, around my family and my children,' she told ABC 6.

'We thought the communication had stopped.'

'It got to the point in December, I had found out that he had rented an apartment four blocks away from [the teen's] house,' she said. Yu grew close to the Esterly family and went on ski and beach vacations with the couple and their daughters

She said she believed her husband when he told her nothing was happening between he and the teenager, and believed she would never do anything to harm either she or the couple's four daughters.

'But it got to the point in December, I had found out that he had rented an apartment four blocks away from [the teen's] house,' she said.

According to police, Esterly had been checking Yu out of school without her parents knowledge for months.

Stacey said she knew about this - but explains she was shocked she when she found out.

'There were several times I found out that my husband Kevin had signed her out of school with no permission... I was very upset that the school would allow somebody to sign a child out of the school,' she told the news station.

'I guess it was alleged that he was her stepfather which in any means is not true.

'He has four daughters of his own and a wife. And [she] is no stepchild.'

Stacey said she saw her husband the morning he went missing, and that he told her he'd see her when she got home from work.

'I kissed him goodbye. He said, "Have a great day at work. I'll see you when you get home,'" she said.

'That was the last time I've seen him.'

Amy changed school documents to list Esterly as her step-father, and he signed her out of school 10 times between November 13 and February 9. They are pictured with his daughters

Esterly now faces a felony charge of interference with the custody of a child, which would require him to register as a sex offender for 15 years if convicted.

Authorities may opt to bring further charges upon the investigation, but the age of consent is 16 in Pennsylvania, and Mexican federal law sets the age of consent at 12.

However, if he gave Yu alcohol that could open up additional charges of corrupting the morals of a minor or endangering the welfare of a child, experts said.

Esterly and Yu first met at church years ago, because the teen is friends with one of the man's daughters.

They got so close that she went on their family vacations and Esterly came over to Amy's family's home for meals, her mother Mia Luu said.

The teen even changed school documents to list the older man as her stepfather, and he signed her out of school 10 times between November 13 and February 9, police explained.

Amy's mother discovered the deception when she came to get the girl from school on February 9 and found that Esterly had already signed her out. The furious mom warned him to stay away from the teen.

Before fleeing town with the girl, Esterly withdrew $4,000 from his join bank accounts with wife Stacey, she told police.

Mexican police are seen taking Esterly into custody in Playa del Carmen. From there US Marshals transported him to Miami

Miu Luu discovered after her daughter vanished on March 5 that she had taken some of jewelry, her passport and cash.

When the pair disappeared, police were immediately suspicious. A warrant for Esterly's arrest was issued on March 7.

Cops tracked the pair to Mexico and issued an Amber Alert there on March 15. Two days later, Esterly and Yu were located near the resort Island of Cozumel.
Former senator Al D'Amato ripped into his estranged wife in a secretly recorded video that shows him screaming and cursing at her while she recovered in a Manhattan hospital from neck surgery.

The video was released Wednesday as D'Amato, 80, and his wife Katuria, 51, fight for custody of their 10-year-old son and eight-year-old daughter. Katuria's lawyer, Tom Liootta, said he plans to play the video during the couple's custody hearing on April 11.

In the cell-phone footage, the former senator is seen leaning over Katuria's hospital bed yelling at her as she pleads for him to stop.

Ex-senator Al D'Amato was seen in a secretly recorded video yelling and curing at his wife Katuria while she recovered in the hospital

The estranged couple, pictured in 2006 during happier times, are in the midst of a nasty divorce and custody battle

'Alright, no sense staying here for another f***ing hour. You won't let me order. You won't let me do s***,' he fumes. 'You won't talk to me. You talk to me about that f***ing thing.'

As D'Amato screams, Katuria cries hysterically asking him to calm down.

'I know poor abused girl. Bullcrap! I'm sick and f***ing tired of being treated like nothing,' D'Amato yells. 'I am s***. Tell me I'm wrong. No matter what I do it's never enough.'

Several times in the video Katuria asks her irate husband to stop yelling at her. D'Amato just paces in the room hurling expletives at her.

'Please, please, please. Just stop yelling at me,' Katuria begs through tears.

He responds by telling her to stop crying. 'F***ing bulls*** this is,' he says. 'Knock it off and I'll stop.'

The video ends when Katuria tells D'Amato her incisions are hurting and asks him to leave.

Katuria, who is the middle of a nasty divorce and custody battle with D'Amato, said during a press conference at her lawyer's office that the video was filmed in March 2017 at Mt Sinai Hospital.

She was recovering from neck surgery after getting into a car accident. The mother-of-two said she released the video to show what she dealt with 'on a regular basis'.

'This is what my kids are spending four days with,' she said. 'He seems to have this rage he cannot filter.'

D'Amato was granted temporary custody of the kids, a 10-year-old boy and eight-year-old girl, pending the custody trial

Katuria (left) said she released the video show what she had to deal with on a regular basis

Katuria added: 'He's kind of known as a bully, but it was always a drama queen kind of bully thing. He's just rage-filled. He's an angry person. He goes out in the street and kicks the air and screams. He screams at everybody, by the way, just I'm the biggest target.'

Her lawyer, who said the estranged couple was arguing about who was going to sign their son up for Little League, accused the former politician of trying to save his public image by making false claims that he loved Katuria and was concerned for her mental health.

It has turned out during the eight days of hearings that weve had so far that former United States Senator Alphonse DAmato, my clients husband, is truly an inveterate liar, he said.

Katuria and D'Amato's estranged 14-year marriage hit a breaking point last September when police were called to the Lido Beach home. She was detained for a mental evaluation after she said someone planted secret listening devices and were shining green lasers through their windows.

D'Amato was granted temporary custody of the children pending the custody trial.
They are usually the ones tasked with upholding standards of behaviour.

But judges were yesterday handed an extraordinary set of rules about their own conduct  including a warning against taking selfies to ensure they maintain the dignity of the office.

Casual pictures spreading around social media can bring the courts into disrepute, according to the updated guidelines sent out by the Lord Chief Justice.

Lord Burnett, centre, warned about the rise of social media and the concerns it poses for those serving the courts

And any judge who posts a snap of themselves with family or friends on Facebook or Twitter risks compromising their security, the guidelines warned.

In a foreword to the new rulebook, the Guide to Judicial Conduct, Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett said: The rise of social media has presented new questions and concerns for which guidance is required.

Under the heading social activities, judges are told that selfies need to be assessed in the light of the judicial officeholders duty to maintain the dignity of the office and not to permit associations, which may affect adversely to officeholders ability to discharge his or her duties.

Lord Chancellor David Gauke (pictured) may face rebuking or dismissing those who ignore conduct rules online

And judges who ignore the conduct rules may receive complaints to the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office, and may be rebuked or even dismissed with the agreement of the Lord Chief Justice and the Lord Chancellor, currently David Gauke.

The effective ban on selfies comes at a time of deepening concern over the manner in which private pictures are published online.

Last week Scotland Yard apologised after two Metropolitan Police officers posted a picture of themselves at a murder scene in an East London shopping mall.

Some armed forces, notably the Russian army, have ordered personnel never to put their pictures online because of security concerns.

Last year celebrity chef Jamie Oliver banned his 14-year-old daughter from putting her pictures online, adding, were the first generation of parents to deal with this.

The guidelines go on to state that judges should be wary of posting photographs of themselves in casual settings whether alone or with family members and/or friends.

They should also consider the lack of control over data once posted, and should not give opinions that could damage public confidence in their own impartiality or in the judiciary in general.

The guide is designed to prevent any behaviour that could make the judge look biased, hypocritical or undignified. It adds: They should avoid any appearance of political ties  for example by attending public gatherings, political fundraising events or contribution to political parties.

The Met Police has been severely criticized after posting a selfie of beat officers at a London murder scene just hours after a young man was killed

It also instructs that judges should be careful about political activities of family members.

High Court judge Sir Christopher Nugee is married to Labours Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry, while High Court judge Sir William Blair, brother of former Prime Minister Tony, retired from the bench in December.

They are permitted to accept only small gifts. It is hinted that anything given for a speech or an appearance should be donated to charity.

In March 2015 three judges were sacked for watching pornography on court computers.

The new advice said: Judges should not use equipment, including IT equipment, provided for their official use for other purposes which could bring them or the judiciary in general into disrepute.

Lord Burnett said that since the guide was first produced in 2003 changes have occurred in wider aspects of judicial and public life, adding: The Equality Act of 2010 has underlined the importance of equality and fairness of treatment inherent in the judicial oath.

Judicial independence, impartiality and integrity provides judges with a guide, not only as to the way they discharge their judicial functions, but also as to how they conduct their private lives.
Labour was in meltdown over anti-Semitism last night after its disciplinary chief resigned for opposing the suspension of an apparent Holocaust denier.

Christine Shawcroft, who was only appointed in January, stood down after it emerged that she had e-mailed colleagues to demand the activist be let back into the party.

The activist, Alan Bull, a Labour candidate for Peterborough Council, had been suspended for posting a link on Facebook to a fake news article titled: 'International Red Cross Report Confirms the Holocaust of Six Million Jews is a Hoax.'

It was accompanied with a picture of the famous gates of Auschwitz, with the phrase 'Arbeit Macht Frei' [work sets you free] replaced with 'Muh Holocaust'.

This phrase is apparently used by opponents of Israel to allege that whenever anyone criticises it to a Jewish person, they will start talking about the Holocaust to deflect attention.

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Labour was in meltdown over anti-Semitism last night after its disciplinary chief Christine Shawcroft (pictured) resigned for opposing the suspension of an apparent Holocaust denier

Despite this, Miss Shawcroft, the hard-Left chairman of Labour's disputes panel, emailed colleagues on Sunday to criticise Mr Bull's suspension. Astonishingly, she claimed that the Facebook post was only 'alleged to show anti-Semitism' and said it had been taken 'out of context'.

And she suggested he had only been suspended after having been targeted by moderates. Last night, Miss Shawcroft said she was 'deeply sorry' for defending the man behind the 'abhorrent' post  and announced she was resigning. It is believed she went after pressure from Jeremy Corbyn's office.

The revelation places yet further question marks over how seriously Labour is taking allegations of anti-Semitism in the party. It came as Jewish groups wrote to the Labour leader to demand root-and-branch reform.

The Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council said the party must appoint an independent ombudsman to investigate claims of anti-Semitism. As the crisis threatened to engulf the party:

 Labour MPs who attended Monday's anti-Semitism rally in Westminster were deluged with hate mail for 'standing with Tory Jews';

 Moderate MP John Woodcock said he was considering quitting the party whip in protest at the its direction under Mr Corbyn;

 The leader's official Facebook page is full of messages describing the anti-Semitism claims as a 'smear'.

In her statement last night, Miss Shawcroft said: 'I sent this email before being aware of the full information about this case and I had not been shown the image of his abhorrent Facebook post.

The activist, Alan Bull, a Labour candidate for Peterborough Council, had been suspended for posting a link on Facebook to a fake news article titled: 'International Red Cross Report Confirms the Holocaust of Six Million Jews is a Hoax'

'Had I seen this image, I would not have requested that the decision to suspend him be re-considered. I am deeply sorry for having done so.

'This week we have seen a clear expression of the pain and hurt that has been caused to Jewish members of our party and the wider Jewish community, and by the reality of anti-Semitism being denied and downplayed.'

Yesterday the Mail revealed Labour was dealing with at least 74 allegations of anti-Semitism.

Mr Bull was suspended on Thursday, nine months after posting the offensive article on Facebook. The suspension means he cannot stand in the local elections for Peterborough Council in May.

He claims he had only posted the page to 'provoke discussion'.

A day after the suspension, the issue of anti-Semitism returned to the headlines when it emerged that Mr Corbyn had defended the artist of an anti-Semitic mural.

A day after the suspension, the issue of anti-Semitism returned to the headlines when it emerged that Jeremy Corbyn (pictured) had defended the artist of an anti-Semitic mural

A director of Momentum, Miss Shawcroft (pictured) took over as chairman of the Labour Party's disputes sub-committee in February  ousting a moderate

Two days later, on Sunday, Miss Shawcroft emailed senior Labour figures to question the suspension of Mr Bull.

A director of Momentum, she took over as chairman of the Labour Party's disputes sub-committee in February  ousting a moderate. She wrote: 'I am concerned to hear about the suspension of Alan Bull.

'The original complaint, a Facebook post taken completely out of context and alleged to show anti-Semitism, was received by the party almost a year ago; yet Mr Bull has been suspended just in time to stop him standing in the Peterborough elections.'

She wrote that he had a chance of winning the council seat and that 'elements' of the local party wanted him suspended and added: 'I think we should reinstate his membership.'

The Jewish community called on Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to stamp out anti-Semitism in the Labour Party

Last night the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council condemned threats to MPs who highlight the hatred of Jews.

They outlined six pre-conditions before they meet Mr Corbyn  including cases being ' brought to a swift conclusion under a fixed timescale'.

The letter said: 'An independent, mutually agreed ombudsman should be appointed to oversee performance, reporting to the Party and to the Board of Deputies and Jewish Leadership Council.'

Mr Corbyn was called on to take 'personal responsibility' that the changes are implemented.

Among the messages describing anti-Semitism cases as a smear was one by Annie Macfarlane. She wrote: 'This is just a vicious slur in the lead up to the council elections. The genuine people know the truth.'
President Trump tweeted out four pictures Wednesday afternoon that he said depicted the start of construction on his border wall.

'Great briefing this afternoon on the start of our Southern Border WALL!'

Trump said he'd had a briefing on the topic just prior to sending out the photos of steel bollard fencing being put into place in an unspecified place by cranes.

But the Department of Homeland Security told CNN that the pictures depicted a section of fence being replaced in Calexico, California, which was paid for by last year's federal funding bill.

President Trump tweeted about 'the start of our Southern Border WALL,' though looked to include pictures from a segment of the wall that was constructed last month on funds allocated in 2017

The Department of Homeland Security told CNN that the photos President Trump used in his tweet were from a section of wall near Calexico, California, which local officials have said is not part of Trump's wall project

Here workers are seen adding new portions to the border from the area in question, located in Calexico, California

That wall, located outside of Calexico, California, was part of a 'local tactical infrastructure project,' a local official said, specifying that it wasn't part of the politically-tinged border wall that President Trump promised during the campaign

Workers are shown in early March working on a new section of wall near Calexico, California, while an older piece still stands

Additionally, as the structure was being replaced last month, local officials made sure the project wasn't mistaken for the building of the president's promised border wall.

'We just wanted to get out in front of it and let everybody know that this is a local tactical infrastructure project that was planned for quite some time,' David Kim, the assistant chief patrol agent for the Border Patrol's El Centro sector, told the Desert News.

Kim said he wanted to ensure that, 'there is no confusion about whether ... this is tied to some of the bigger immigration debates that are currently going on.'

The White House did not respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment on the contents of the tweet.

The president made immigration the centerpiece of his 2016 presidential campaign, calling for a wall and promising that Mexico would pay for it.

With Mexico refusing to do so, though, the president has been trying to identify alternative funding.

The president suggested last weekend that the U.S. military could carry the costs, although that idea was quickly deflated externally.

Trump suggested in a Sunday tweet that the $25 billion the administration says he needs could come from the Pentagon.

His White House press secretary did not deny in a Tuesday news conference that Trump was eyeing the defense department's massive budget for his border barrier.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders merely said she was 'not going to get into the specifics of that' as she was questioned about Trump's plan.

On Friday, the president approved an omnibus spending bill that gave the military a major boost in funds. Trump nearly vetoed the measure but put his name to it, he said, as a matter of national security.

Explaining it in a Sunday tweet, the president said, 'Because of the $700 & $716 Billion Dollars gotten to rebuild our Military, many jobs are created and our Military is again rich.'

But then he said, 'Building a great Border Wall, with drugs (poison) and enemy combatants pouring into our Country, is all about National Defense. Build WALL through M!'

The 'M' was short-hand for military -- revealing Trump's apparent desire to tap Pentagon funds for the border structure he originally said that Mexico would pay for.

Asked to say Tuesday what Pentagon programs Trump intends to make cuts to in order to fund the wall, Trump's spokeswoman dodged.

'You know, I can't get into the specifics of that at this point. But I can tell you that the continuation of building the wall is ongoing,' she said, 'and we're going to continue moving forward in that process.'

Last month, U.S. Customs and Border Protection replaced a 2.25 mile section of the U.S-Mexico border wall near Calexico, California

Trump's border wall has become a wedge issue between the United States and the country it shares a southern border with. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto is one of the few heads of state from an allied country that Trump has not met with since taking office.

Pena Nieto and Trump have repeatedly called off visits to the White House over the dispute.

Mexico has said unequivocally that it will not pay for the border barrier that Trump promised he'd build in the 2016 election.

Trump has said he will exact the charges through new trade regulations that the two countries and Canada are currently negotiating.

'I think he still has plans to look at potential ways for that to happen,' Sanders said Tuesday of Trump's desire to make Mexico fund the barrier.

On the front end, the president has asked the U.S. Congress to fund the border structure.

More than half of the 110 funded miles  63 in all  will look like this section, with replacement 'bollard walls' going up so weaker fencing can be torn down

Trump has said he would only need to build between 700 and 900 miles of walls to secure the border; more than half of the 1,954 miles is lined by 'natural barriers' like mountains and rivers

Legislators have steadily rejected his demands for the full amount of money, which his administration now puts at $25 billion. They granted him a $1.6 billion reprieve in the spending document he signed Friday that will buy him six months of time and materials, however.

The money covers the costs of 14 miles of secondary fencing in San Diego along the border, Fox News reported, and 25 miles of 'primary pedestrian levee fencing' in the Rio Grande sector.

The rest of the funds will go toward the 'replacement of existing primary pedestrian fencing along the southwest border, in addition to 'planning and design,' and border security technology.'

Congress approved fewer miles of new wall than the White House asked for in fiscal year 2017, authorizing repairs to existing wall instead.

'Not exactly what we wanted, where we wanted,' Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney admitted. 'Congress chose to ignore some of the suggestions that [Customs and Border Protection] made on where the best kind of wall should go and that's unfortunate.'

Lawmakers fulfilled the entire $1.6 billion request for the fiscal cycle, however, with the other money being appropriated to repairs for 63 miles of fencing that was already there.

Ordinary fencing already stretches along 650 miles of the border. An administration official said last week that a stronger wall 'would have to be replacing all of that.'

The president indicated during his campaign that the entire 1,954 miles of U.S.-Mexico border would have physical protection from illegal immigration and the drug trade, although the White House has taken the stance that mountains and other natural barriers will do the trick in many places and only 700-900 miles of border wall is necessary.
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The Marine Corps has held 10 days of battle simulations and exercises to test out new urban warfare technologies.

The exercises, dubbed Urban 5th Generation Marine Exploration and Experimentation 2018 (U5G), ran from March 15 to 25 in Camp Pendelton in southern California. About 180 Marines participated.

Multiple naval warfare centers and military laboratories joined 48 private companies for U5G, where NCOs tested out some 79 technologies and offered feedback.

The experimental equipment included anti-drone weapons, sensors that see through walls, 'smart' networked radio, micro drones, an enhanced thermal imager with information displays, as well as autonomous vehicles and enhanced munitions.

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US Marine Corps Lance Corporal Briar Purty tests DroneKiller, which uses RF waves to disrupt drone command and control

Another anti-drone weapon tested during the exercise was the SkyWall 100, a portable, 25-pound system that is shoulder-launched and fires a mortar-like projectile containing a net to snare a flying drone within a range of 130 yards

US Marines test drive an electric tactical vehicle during Urban Advanced Naval Technology Exercise 2018 (ANTX-18)

Marines test drive an all-electric Nikola NZT modified with tactical systems during the exercises at Camp Pendelton

A Multi-Utility Tactical Transport (MUTT) is tested during the Urban Advanced Naval Technologies Exercise 18 (ANTX18)

'This whole week was introducing us to new technology and getting feedback from us as the end user,' said Marine Sgt. Matt Levine in a video interview from U5G released by the Department of Defense.

'A lot of things we get are great on paper but when you actually put it in the field or when you actually give it to guys to use a lot of the concepts fall apart,' he continued. 'Whereas in this situation, this scenario, you can give us gear that you think is a good idea and we can test out concepts.'

The exercises included two battle-simulation 'vignettes', according to USNI News.

One, securing key infrastructure in a hostile environment, saw Marines reinforcing a mock US Embassy under attack. The other scenario was clearing and securing an urban village in support of a broader military operation.

Among the new technology under field testing was the SkyWall 100, a drone-capturing system developed three years ago by UK-based OpenWorks Engineering.

The portable, 25-pound system is shoulder-launched and fires a mortar-like projectile containing a net at a flying drone within a range of 130 yards. The system deploys a parachute after ensnaring the drone, so it can be recovered intact on the ground for intelligence gathering.

Marine Cpl. Dmitry Kavaliou shows off a tethered Persistent Area Reconnaissance and Communication platform (PARC)

Lance Cpl. Skyler Stevens uses new night optics technology during Urban Advanced Naval Technology Exercise 2018

Marines test night optics during the exercises at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in California

Marines test a Head-Up Display (HUD) during Urban Advanced Naval Technology Exercise 2018 (ANTX18)

Corporal Dorian Howard attends a class on a Head-Up Display (HUD) during Urban Advanced Naval Technology Exercise 2018

Another anti-drone weapon, the IXI Dronekiller, uses radio frequency waves to disrupt drone command and control functions.

The Marines also gave their own new drones a spin during the exercises, including the Persistent Area Reconnaissance and Communication platform (PARC) built by Massachusetts-based CyPhy Works.

The drone uses a power tether to stay up to 400 feet aloft for much longer than a traditional drone, providing reconnaissance ability and communications support.

Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division used the PARC from a rooftop launch during the embassy reinforcement exercise.

One technology that appeared very popular with Marines who tested it was the Beartooth, a small, lightweight radio developed by Montana-based Beartooth Radio.

The device plugs into a smartphone and enables a platoon to talk, text and see each other's location on the battlefield without the need for cellular service or Wi-Fi.

Lance Corporal Jose Nieves tests a Step In Visor and Low Profile Mandible during the technology testing exercise

A Marine wears an Enhanced Combat Helmet (EHC) with detachable visor and mandible during the exercises

The Beartooth, a small, lightweight radio plugs into a smartphone and enables a platoon to talk, text and see each other's location on the battlefield without the need for cellular service or Wi-Fi

Lance Corporal Alberto Ramirez utilizes a communication system while underground during the exercises

Another smartphone-based system tested was KILSWITCH, which turns a smartphone into a command and control hub by pulling networked data, imagery and other information for clearer situational awareness.

Among the vehicle technologies tested were autonomous land vehicles with mounted weapons for logistics and fire support.

Marines were also spotted racing around in Nikola NZTs, fully electric lightweight utility vehicles that seat four, modified with heavy machine gun mounts.

Enhanced Combat Helmets with removable visors and mandibles also went through testing.

U5G is latest in a series of Advanced Naval Technology Exercises (ANTX) where military research and development organizations join with private industry to demonstrate rapidly-emerging technologies and concepts.
Customers are threatening to boycott Groupon after an advertisement appeared on the website describing the color of boots as 'n***er brown'.

The racial slur was discovered on two pages on the deal retailer's site and caused immediate outrage on social media.

A third party Groupon vendor had listed two pairs of suede boots on the site with the color choices being apricot, black, brown and n***er brown.

Both pages and the vendor have since been removed.

Customers are threatening to boycott Groupon after an advertisement appeared on the website describing the color of boots as 'n***er brown'

Groupon issued an apology on Wednesday, saying it was appalled by the language used in the advertisement.

'This product description was provided by a third-party seller via our self-service platform. Regardless, this is completely unacceptable and violates our policies - to say nothing of our values,' Groupon said in a statement.

'When made aware of the issue, we immediately removed the deal - as well as the third-party seller - from our marketplace. Language like this has no place on Groupon, and we're further strengthening our self-service controls to ensure it doesn't happen again.'

The two boots on sale were 'Womens Mens Suede Leather Fur Lining Winter Boots' and 'Women's Fringed Suede Moccasin Boots'.

Twitter users bombarded the company with complaints and demanded an explanation over the racial slur.

'No way @Groupon no way!!!!! 'N****r Brown'???? REALLY!! And I'm tired of apologies from these blatantly racist organizations. THROW THE WHOLE BUSINESS AWAY,' one angry user wrote.

'I can't believe @Groupon has a woman's boot called 'N****r-Brown'. What type of color exactly is 'N****r-Brown'? another wrote.

Another user said: '@Groupon you have some explaining to do. New color choice selected by a racist employee? #shutdowngroupon.'
A year from today, at 11pm on Friday, March 29, the United Kingdom will leave the European Union.

In doing so, we will reach the end of a process that began in the summer of 2016 with the single biggest democratic mandate this country has ever seen.

Of course there were many who, at the time, wanted to see a different outcome. I know there are still some who would be happier if the referendum were to be rerun or the result ignored.

But as I travel around the country, talking to ordinary people far from the Westminster bubble, one thing quickly becomes very clear.

Regardless of whether they backed Leave or Remain, most people are tired of hearing the same old divisive arguments from the referendum campaign, writes Theresa May (pictured)

Regardless of whether they backed Leave or Remain, most people are tired of hearing the same old divisive arguments from the referendum campaign, and just want us to get on with the task of making Brexit a success.

And they're right to think that. The people of this country voted to leave the EU and, as Prime Minister, it's my job to make that happen.

That's why, in the 12 months since I triggered Article 50, the Government has been working around the clock to make Brexit work for Britain.

There have been countless hours of negotiations between the UK and Brussels.

Thousands of civil servants in departments right across Whitehall have been working hard to prepare the country for life after the EU.

The people of this country voted to leave the EU and, as Prime Minister, it's my job to make that happen, says Theresa May

I've travelled across Europe, meeting with national and EU leaders to discuss the way ahead, while Cabinet ministers have spearheaded negotiations in their areas of responsibility.

This enormous effort is already paying off. Just look at the recent agreement on the implementation period.

Some said reaching such a consensus was an impossible task, yet we've done exactly that, securing an arrangement that delivers for the UK and which was warmly welcomed by leaders at last week's EU Council.

The agreement on the implementation period shows what can be achieved when we come together as a nation and focus on the future.

I have an ambitious vision for that future. It's a future in which we trade freely with friends and partners in Europe and beyond and build on the progress we've made as a country over the past few years.

The economy is growing more strongly than many predicted, the deficit is down by three-quarters, employment is at a record high.

It is our job to secure a Brexit that not only locks in that economic success, but makes our country even more prosperous and secure.

A year from today, at 11pm on Friday, March 29, the United Kingdom will leave the European Union.

And, by seizing the opportunities provided by Brexit, that is exactly what we are going to do.

Today, I'm travelling to all four nations of the UK, visiting businesses and talking to people about how  together  we can deliver a Brexit that works for every part of our precious union.

I am determined that as we leave the EU, and in the years ahead, we will strengthen the bonds that unite us, because ours is the world's most successful union.

We have one year to get Britain ready to leave the EU, 365 days in which to shape the legacy we will leave to our children and grandchildren.

If we put aside our differences and all pull in the same direction we can deliver a Brexit that works for everyone. That's what people of this country demanded. And that is what we must give them.
The parole system was in crisis yesterday after top judges attacked the decision to free black cab rapist John Worboys (pictured)

The parole system was in crisis yesterday after top judges attacked the decision to free black cab rapist John Worboys.

In a scathing ruling, they cited basic failures in the Parole Board's handling of the case.

They said the 60-year-old's claim that he posed no risk had 'not been probed to any extent, if at all'.

The fiasco led to the sacking yesterday of the board's chief, left a minister on the brink and sparked fears that the whole parole system might not be fit for purpose.

Ministers last night ordered an urgent review into recent decisions to release six other dangerous criminals straight from top-security prisons.

The order to free Worboys was overturned only after two of the predator's victims won their case at a crowd-funded judicial review.

Three High Court judges found that the Parole Board failed to carry out 'basic lines of inquiry' to determine whether the former taxi driver, who is said to have attacked more than 100 women, was still a danger.

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As the decision was announced, Parole Board chairman Nick Hardwick (pictured) was forced to resign in disgrace

As the decision was announced, Parole Board chairman Nick Hardwick was forced to resign in disgrace.

But Justice Secretary David Gauke was fighting to keep his job with lawyers for the victims suggesting he should also be held accountable.

Mr Gauke turned down the chance to bring a judicial review himself, and authorised the use of taxpayers' money to defend the right of the Parole Board to cloak its decision in total secrecy.

Tory MP Anna Soubry said she was seeking reassurances 'that there are not other instances where the Parole Board has released people who we deemed to be dangerous in circumstances where they should not be'.

Another Conservative MP, Julian Lewis, said the crisis 'illustrates the fact that there is a culture of consideration for rapists and murderers that puts the public gravely at risk'.

The killers set free to strike again Pictured from left, Paul O'Hara, who murdered his girlfriend, Douglas Vintner, who knifed his wife to death, and Damien Hanson, who murdered a banker three months after winning parole The Parole Board has been in the dock many times before, with a string of killers released only to kill again... THE GIRLFRIEND KILLER Paul O'Hara murdered new girlfriend Cherylee Shennan in 2014 two years after he was freed early from a life term for killing his ex Janine Waterworth, whose parents said their protests that he was still dangerous were ignored by the Parole Board. THE THUGS WHO MET IN JAIL Stephen Unwin and William McFall, were jailed this week for raping and murdering a young Vietnamese mother who they had tortured for four hours. They met while serving life for killing OAPs during burglaries. Each was paroled after only 13 years. THE ADDICT KILLER Long-term drug addict George Johnson killed a hotel worker in 1986 for just 3. Freed in 2006, he battered to death an 89-year-old widow five years later to steal 25 to feed his heroin and crack cocaine habit. THE 'DEVILS'S CHILD' Damien Hanson murdered a banker in 2004, three months after winning parole. He was seven years into a 12-year term for trying to kill a teenage boy. Known as 'the Devil's Child', he was freed despite a report saying he was a 91 per cent reoffending risk. THE BODYBUILDING KILLER Fitness fan Douglas Vinter knifed his wife Ann White to death after kidnapping her and holding her hostage in 2008. They had married soon after he was freed in 2005  just ten years into a life sentence for murdering a workmate in a railway cabin. Advertisement

Stephen Unwin (right) and William McFall (left), were jailed this week for raping and murdering a young Vietnamese mother

In other developments:

Worboys' victims told of their relief at the court's ruling and spoke of anger at the official failures;

The judges said the Parole Board ignored a dossier referring to dozens more victims and questioned Worboys for only 50 minutes;

They ordered the board to reassess the case  with Worboys to remain in jail until a decision is made;

The rapist is said to have duped the three-strong panel by claiming he had found religion and lying by insisting he started attacking women only after being dumped by a girlfriend;

Mr Gauke survived a bruising day with a vote of confidence from Theresa May before announcing emergency measures to shore up confidence in the Parole Board;

Police were urged to open fresh investigations into Worboys after another ten women came forward claiming they were also victims.

George Johnson killed a hotel worker in 1986 for just 3. Freed in 2006, he battered to death an 89-year-old widow five years later

Fury over the Worboys case erupted in January after the Parole Board ruled that he should be released from top-security HMP Wakefield.

Worboys had been jailed indefinitely, with a minimum term of eight years, in 2009 for drugging and sexually assaulting women passengers in and around London.

The former stripper was convicted of 19 offences relating to 12 women but police have linked the prolific offender to more than 100 attacks.

The decision to release him after such a short term in jail sparked outrage, but Mr Gauke declined the opportunity to launch a legal challenge, claiming it would be 'inappropriate' for him to act.

As a result, a judicial review was eventually brought by two women, identified in court only as DSD and NBV.

Delivering their verdict on the women's challenge yesterday, three High Court judges said that neither the Parole Board nor the psychologists involved in assessing Worboys for release had appeared to have questioned whether his honesty was genuine.

Justice Secretary David Gauke (pictured) was fighting to keep his job with lawyers for the victims suggesting he should also be held accountable

They said the Parole Board had also failed to question why Worboys had paid 241,000 in compensation to 11 women, despite admitting attacking only three of them.

Instead, the Parole Board had claimed that Worboys had 'learnt to be open and honest' and had shown 'good insight' into his offending.

Mr Gauke said he had ordered officials to 'look closely' at the six other cases to check if there were any concerns about the decisions  raising the prospect of the criminals being sent back behind bars.

On Worboys, he apologised to the victims and said there should have been much greater testing of the case he made.

Lawyers for the two women said the Ministry of Justice had failed in its responsibility to ensure all relevant material was highlighted to the Parole Board.

Phillippa Kaufmann QC said Mr Hardwick's resignation was 'very disappointing', adding: 'It looks as though he's been scapegoated.'

Worboys was convicted in 2009 but continued to protest his innocence and had asked the Criminal Cases Review Commission to look at his case.

But in May 2015  nine months before he would become eligible for parole after serving his minimum term  he dramatically admitted he had carried out the attacks he had been convicted of, but not the other allegations.

The Parole Board decides whether prisoners serving life or indeterminate sentences for public protection, fixed-length sentences of four years or more and some violent criminals who have reoffended should be released.

In 2016-17, it carried out 25,204 parole hearings, including 7,377 oral hearings. Of the 5,184 oral hearings concluded, 48 per cent led to releases.
Jeffrey Henry appeared at a court in Brownsville, Texas, on Wednesday, to agree his extradition to Kansas to face charges including reckless second-degree murder

The co-owner of a water park where a 10-year-old boy was decapitated has appeared in a Texas court to agree his extradition to Kansas, where he and two co-workers will face charges ranging from involuntary manslaughter to second-degree murder.

Jeffrey Henry will not oppose his extradition to Kansas, where Schlitterbahn Waterpark is located, and will remain in Cameron County Jail in Brownsville, Texas, until he is picked up by officials from the state.

Henry and ride designer John Schooley are charged with reckless second-degree murder in the Tuesday indictment over the August 2016 death of Caleb Schwab, who was decapitated when his raft went airborne on the world's largest waterslide.

The grand jury last week also indicted the park and its former chief operations officer, Tyler Austin Miles, on 20 felony charges, including involuntary manslaughter.

Henry & Sons Construction Co., which is described as the private construction company of Schlitterbahn, is charged with reckless second-degree murder, which carries a sentence of 9 years to 41 years in prison.

Schlitterbahn itself faces several other charges in connection to the 13 other people who were injured while riding the slide, which has since been shut down.

Ride designer John Schooley (left) is charged with reckless second-degree murder while operations manager Tyler Austin Miles faces 20 felony charges including involuntary manslaughter. Both images are undated

Caleb Schwab (pictured in an undated image) was horrifically killed in August 2016 while riding the 170-foot Verruckt water slide at the Schlitterbahn Waterpark in Kansas City

Miles' attorney said he was released on $50,000 bond. Henry  who is also charged with aggravated battery and child endangerment - was ordered held without bond and prosecutors say Schooley is not in custody.

Kansas said it will conduct a full audit of the inspection records at Schlitterbahn before its annual season opens on May 25.

Department spokeswoman Barbara Hersh said the park is required to have qualified inspectors examine its rides daily and to keep reports on those inspections. She said the department will ensure that the inspections have been done.

Schlitterbahn described Caleb's death as a 'terrible and tragic accident' in a statement.

It says Henry, Schooley and Miles are 'innocent' and that the company runs a 'safe operation.'

Caleb died when his raft went airborne and he hit an overhead loop.

It recently emerged that employees at the attraction warned executives about the water slide's faulty brakes that failed at least 29 times.

Footage has also emerged of Henry saying the 170-foot Verruckta that took the life of Schwab, was the 'safest ever ride built'.

In the 2014 interview with Good Morning America, the interviewer asked Henry on the ride's opening day, 'So you're saying it is safe?,' while speaking of the world's tallest slide constructed at his park.

Henry (pictured in court on Wednesday) will not oppose his extradition to Kansas, where Schlitterbahn Waterpark is located

The indictment also states that Henry and Miles tried to hide from investigators reports of a number of injuries that had occurred on the ride before Schwab's death

The owner replied: 'Oh, yeah... this ride is probably the safest that's ever been built. It's been tested... it's been evaluated.'

The indictment claims that employees at the park previously warned executives about the brakes failing, but the defects were never repaired.

Nathan Campbell, a lifeguard at the park, told Good Morning America he was also injured on the ride during testing.

'The brakes just didn't work and we just never stopped and kept going, hit the very end of the ride, and flipped off,' Campbell said.

The indictment has revealed numerous allegations of negligence, including that Miles and Henry ignored safety red flags in their quest to build the world's tallest water slide, according to the Washington Post.

Investigators claim that while Henry and Miles knew that Verruckt was dangerous, they rushed to get the ride open, even replacing mathematical calculations with 'crude trial-and-error methods'.

Schwab's family (pictured) settled a multiple defendant lawsuit with Schlitterbahn for $20million last year

Schlitterbahn Waterpark co-owner Jeffery Henry is heard in this 2014 Good Morning America interview say the water slide that decapitated a 10-year-old was the 'safest ever built'

Water park co-owner charged with murder in deadly water slide accident that killed 10-year-old. @MattGutmanABC has the story: https://t.co/wtsz0LeSNl pic.twitter.com/qYy1K5JZrZ  Good Morning America (@GMA) March 28, 2018

It also cites comments from Henry in which he plainly states that the slide is a 'seriously dangerous piece of equipment'.

'[Verruckt] could hurt me, it could kill me,' Henry stated, according to the indictment. 'There are things that we don't know about it.'

'Every day we learn more. I've seen what this one has done to the crash dummies and to the boats we sent down it...it's complex, it's fast, it's mean.'

'If we mess up, it could be the end. I could die going down this ride.'

It was Henry who came up with the idea for Verruckt, wanting to build a ride that would impress producers of the Xtreme Waterparks series on the Travel Channel, according to the indictment.

Henry designed the ride with his business partner Schooley, despite the fact that neither of them 'had any credentials in mathematics, physics, or engineering'.

The pair raced to have the entire slide finished in just seven months, completing a prototype of the ambitious ride in just 36 days.

Investigators say the company ignored obvious red flags and safety violations in regards to the slide. Henry allegedly pushed for it to be done in seven months despite knowing it was unsafe

Nathan Campbell, a lifeguard at the park, said he was also injured on the ride during testing

An engineering firm was then hired to test the slide's safety just a week before its grand opening.

The tests showed that, when carrying a weight of 400 to 550lbs, the rafts on the slide were likely to go airborne.

This was especially dangerous as the slide was covered with a net suspended by metal hoops, meaning riders could knock into them if the raft went airborne.

The indictment notes that this is in violation of international standards that prohibit a ride from obstructing a rider's path. It described the attraction as 'a deadly weapon'.

'Henry and Schooley did the opposite,' the indictment states. 'They installed metal bars directly across the known flight path.'

'The presence of the overheard netting and support hoops speaks volumes about the designers' extreme disregard for the value of human life.'

Schwab was decapitated when his raft collided with the hoops, and two women he was riding with suffered bone fractures and lacerations.

The indictment claims that Henry was well aware of this problem and tried to fix it before eventually ignoring it entirely.

Two women, Hannah Barnes and Matraca Baetz, who rode behind Caleb on that ride were also seriously injured, but survived

Nathan Campbell, a lifeguard at the park, said he was also injured on the ride during testing

The Verruckt slide, which is a German word for 'crazy' or 'insane', has been closed since the boy's death. It is nearly 170-feet tall and features a 17-story plunge

It states that 13 people total were injured in the two years the ride was opened, with some reporting neck pain and even concussions.

Investigators also revealed that designers scratched a plan to make the minimum age 14 years old to ride the slide on the eve of its grand opening.

Schlitterbhan spokeswoman Winter Prosapio said in a statement that considering last week's indictment, the company is not surprised by Henry's arrest.

'We as a company and as a family will fight these allegations and have confidence that once the facts are presented it will be clear that what happened on the ride was an unforeseeable accident,' she said in an emailed statement.

'The safety of our Schlitterbahn guests and employees has been at the forefront of our culture throughout our 40 years of operation. Many of us rode Verruckt regularly, as did our children and grandchildren.'

Employees at the park told executives the brakes failed at least 29 TIMES on 'world's tallest water slide' but there were no repairs

The indictment has revealed numerous allegations of negligence, including that Miles and Henry ignored safety red flags in their quest to build the world's tallest water slide

Verruckt, which is a German word for 'crazy' or 'insane', was named the world's tallest water slide in 2014.

Although the slide is closed, it still remains standing due to a court order to facilitate investigation.

Schwab's family settled a multiple defendant lawsuit with Schlitterbahn, an affiliated general contractor called Henry & Sons Construction, the raft manufacturer Zebec USA, and a consultant named John Hunsucker for $19.7 million last year.

'While we as a family continue to mourn and heal from Caleb's passing, we wanted to again thank the community of Kansas City for its continued prayers and support,' Caleb's family said in a statement.

'Clearly the issues with Schlitterbahn go far beyond Caleb's incident, and we know the Attorney General will take appropriate steps in the interest of public safety.'
Return flights to China could soon be bought for as little as $400 - but only if the airline making the offer is given the all clear to fly to Australia.

Donghai Airlines is set to offer return flights from Darwin to Shenzhen for the incredibly cheap price.

Northern Territory Tourism and Culture Minister Lauren Moss said the Chinese airline cannot fly to Australia yet as it is still awaiting approval from the Civil Aviation Authority, the NT News reported.

Donghai Airlines is set to offer return flights from Darwin to Shenzhen for the incredibly cheap price

Ms Moss said the flights could begin about late April or early May.

'Donghai Airlines are currently undergoing the Australian certification process. However we believe that the necessary approvals are very close,' she said.

'I am confident and really excited that direct flights from China will start very soon.'

Travel agents have been providing pricing in anticipation of the airline being authorised to fly to Australia.

'The NT Government is focused on growing Chinese visitation to support our tourism industry and create jobs. We know Chinese visitors spend more on average than other visitors - it is an important and lucrative market,' Ms Moss said.

She said the Government hopes to attract 30,000 visitors from China to the Northern Territory by 2020, bringing with them $46million.

The NT Government hopes to attract 30,000 visitors from China to the Northern Territory by 2020. bringing with them $46million (Shenzhen pictured)

Ms Moss said a direct service between China and Darwin will help meet that target.

Planning is underway for functions and events to accompany the inaugural Donghai Airlines flight.

Darwin Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis said he was excited about the cheap fares on offer between the NT and China.

A Donghai Airlines spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia once the airlines is approved to fly to Australia the flights will be offered on the company's website.
The president and chief executive of the Southern Baptist Convention's executive committee has resigned following a 'morally inappropriate relationship.'

Frank Page initially announced Monday he was retiring.

But on Tuesday the 65-year-old released a statement saying he was resigning because of 'a personal failing.'

He said he first announced his retirement without explanation because he wanted to protect his family.

'As a result of a personal failing, I have embarrassed my family, my Lord, myself, and the Kingdom,' Page said in a statement released through the Baptist Press.

The president and chief executive of the Southern Baptist Convention's executive committee has resigned following a 'morally inappropriate relationship.' Frank Page initially announced Monday he was retiring

'Out of a desire to protect my family and those I have hurt, I initially announced my retirement earlier today without a complete explanation,' Page said.

'However, after further wrestling with my personal indiscretion, it became apparent to me that this situation must be acknowledged in a more forthright manner.

'It is my most earnest desire in the days to come to rebuild the fabric of trust with my wife and daughters, those who know me best and love me most.'

Page says he hopes to rebuild the trust of his wife and two daughters.

Details about the relationship weren't released.

In a statement, executive committee chairman Stephen Rummage says the group is committed to providing the Page family spiritual and emotional support.

In his role on the committee, Page oversaw a budget of nearly $200million and played a key role in coordinating the convention's national ministries.

Americas largest evangelical denomination, the 15.22 million-strong SBC is a mostly conservative organization that was founded in 1845 in Augusta, Georgia.

It now claims 47,000 churches, making it the second largest Christian denomination in the United States after the Catholic Church.

While it is heavily concentrated in the US South, the SBC has member churches across America and has 42 state conventions.

Politically and culturally Southern Baptists tend to be conservative.

Most do not drink alcohol and in general they oppose abortion and gay rights and vote Republican.

Former US President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, left the convention in 2000 complaining that it was becoming 'too rigid.'
An Anzac memorial dedicated to war veterans has been defaced with a swastika in a shocking vandalism attack.

The offender targeted the Cenotaph outside the Avalon Beach RSL Club by branding the monument with the fascist symbol.

On a nearby flagpole which is a part of the memorial footpath, the words 'sex tourist' had been scrawled with a black marker, the Daily Telegraph reported.

An Anzac memorial dedicated to war veterans was desecrated with a swastika

The words 'sex tourist' (pictured) were also scrawled with a black marker on a nearby flag pole

Police were called by club management after the offensive symbol and text were discovered on Tuesday morning.

The clubs general manager Angus Rimmer explained members were outraged by the discretion of the memorial structures.

'Everyone associated with the club and the sub-branch are pretty disgusted by this,' he said.

Mr Rimmer believes one 'silly idiot' is trying to make a name for him or herself by creating controversy but says otherwise the wider community is fantastic.

Tamara Sloper-Harding (pictured), an Australian Navy veteran who served in East Timor, said the local community was outraged

'Unfortunately we have no idea who may have done this. It could be anyone.'

Tamara Sloper-Harding, an Avalon Beach RSL sub-branch vice-president, is urging police to find the person responsible as soon as possible.

'The vandalism has come as a real shock to the community and the RSL Club which are very supportive of veterans and Australian service personnel,' she said.

Ms Sloper-Harding, an Australian Navy veteran who served in East Timor, said the incident had caused an outcry on social media.
For 161 years Britains largest white horse has been looked after by proud and willing volunteers.

The white horse of Kilburn was created on a steep Yorkshire hillside by a the village schoolmaster and his pupils in 1857.

The generations who have cleared, cleaned and painted it since have never had a single accident.

But now the Forestry Commission, which owns the land, has informed the volunteer group that for health and safety reasons they can no longer work on the famous horse and it will do the job itself.

The decision followed recent instructions to volunteers to stop using strimmers or any mechanical devices, as well as all chemical sprays, in their regular weeding sessions.

John Bielby, 64, chairman of the Kilburn White Horse Association, said the decision came out of the blue.

The decision followed recent instructions to volunteers to stop using strimmers or any mechanical devices, as well as all chemical sprays, in their regular weeding sessions

Weve always had full insurance and were happy for the Forestry Commission to help us do the work as we are not getting any younger and its difficult getting younger volunteers, he added.

But they suddenly told us thats it you cant go on the horse any more and that was a bit of a bummer really. They just quote health and safety.

Ive sent numerous emails asking them to define which health and safety rule is behind this but have had no replies so far.

Mr Bielby has been helping to look after the horse for more than 45 years and is one of four generations of his family to do so.

His father John helped camouflage the horse - visible from miles around - during World War Two, and his two young grandchildren helped out last year.

Sadly tradition has been brought abruptly to an end.

Mr Bielby said in years past volunteers would scramble up the slope and carry out the regular weeding and clearing jobs on hands and knees.

For much of the last decades proper ropes and harnesses have been used to ensure everyones safety.

Weve never had an incident of any description - maybe a cut finger on the briar but thats about it, he said.

Margaret Gomersall, 81, the associations treasurer, said the decision to banish volunteers came as an ultimatum.

The white horse of Kilburn was created on a steep Yorkshire hillside by a the village schoolmaster and his pupils in 1857

We didnt have any choice in the matter, she said. Its all come as a bit of a shock and not very well received, I can tell you.

The Kilburn horse was originally funded by businessman Thomas Taylor, who was impressed by the chalk figures in southern England and wanted one for his home village.

Schoolmaster John Hodgson and his pupils marked out the hillside working to an artists drawing before 31 volunteers did the cutting and clearing. The exposed scree was then whitewashed.

The horse covers just over an acre, measuring 318ft long by 220ft high, and has had a chequered history.

It was badly damaged by a hail storm in 1896 and fell into disrepair after the First World War.

A local newspaper campaign in 1925 brought the fading horse back to life but a storm in 1949 almost destroyed it again.

Over recent decades the Kilburn White Horse Association charity has used donated funds to look after the horse.

It is cut into limestone and chalk chippings have been put down over the horse to give it a white appearance.

However every four or five years the white horse turns into a grey mare and a paint job is needed.

Four years ago 10 volunteers helped contractors cover the horse with 220 gallons of paint.

It was due another whitewash this year but that is now up to the Forestry Commission.

A Forestry Commission spokesman said the slope was dangerous to navigate without specialist equipment.

Alan Eves, forest management director for Yorkshire, said: We must keep the volunteers and the thousands of others who choose to support our work across the nations forests just as safe as our own staff.

As a result we have agreed to maintain the white horse at Kilburn ourselves.
Hundreds of troops will perform ceremonial duties on Prince Harry and Meghan Markles wedding day.

The regiments and units that will carry out roles when the couple marry on May 19 have a special relationship with the prince, who served in the Army for a decade.

Household Cavalry troopers in their gleaming breast plates and plumed helmets will line the staircase at the ceremony at St Georges Chapel, Windsor Castle.

Hundreds of troops will perform ceremonial duties on Prince Harry and Meghan Markles wedding day. Pictured: Prince Harry and Meghan on a visit to Belfast

Streets within the precincts of the castle will be lined by members of the Windsor Castle Guard from 1st Battalion Irish Guards and personnel from the Royal Navy Small Ships and Diving, Royal Marines, 3 Regiment Army Air Corps, the Royal Gurkha Rifles and RAF Honington.

Musical support will be provided by the Band of the Irish Guards.

Trumpeters and a captains escort from the Household Cavalry will also provide ceremonial support, bringing the total number of Armed Forces personnel involved in the wedding to more than 250.

Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach, the outgoing Chief of the Defence Staff, said: I am proud that members of the Armed Forces have been asked to take part. It is a happy occasion for the country and reminds us of the role the Armed Forces play in marking important events in the life of the nation.

Kensington Palace said: The military, and these units in particular, hold a great significance for Prince Harry and the couple are incredibly grateful.

Harry was deployed twice to Afghanistan during his Army career before leaving in 2015 after rising to the rank of captain.
Easter is just around the corner and with the Good Friday public holiday tomorrow, now is the time to stock up on last-minute supplies before the major retailers shut up shop.

Good Friday and Easter Sunday are restricted trading days with supermarkets and bottle shops such as Coles, Aldi, Woolworths, and Dan Murphy's shutting their doors.

Opening hours for the rest of the long weekend are also likely to be altered for many stores, however, those desperate not to cook need only turn to food delivery services Foodora, UberEats, Menulog and Deliveroo, which are open all weekend.

Here's your guide to what is and isn't open over Easter...

Good Friday and Easter Sunday are restricted trading days with supermarkets and bottle shops such as Coles, Aldi, Woolworths, and Dan Murphy's shutting their doors

In NSW, Victoria, and WA pubs, breweries, wineries, and bowling clubs can open from noon

Good Friday has an alcohol restriction across the country, although alcohol can still be served at many restaurants, bars, hotels and pubs

GOOD FRIDAY

Good Friday and Christmas Day are the most restricted trading days across Australia, which means most shops will be closed.

Supermarkets: Aldi stores will be closed across the country.

Almost all Woolworths stores will be closed with the exception of Brisbane Airport in QLD, Eaton Fair Bunbury and Margaret River in WA, and Victor Harbor, Mt Barker and Murray Bridge Green in SA.

Coles stores will be mostly closed except for Dunsborough, Eaton Fair and Margaret River in regional Western Australia and Victor Harbour, Mount Barker and Murray Bridge Green in regional South Australia.

Some Harris Farm stores are open with normal trading hours.

Retail: Westfield centres, Kmart, and Big W stores will all be closed.

Melbourne Central will be closed.

Alcohol: Dan Murphy's, BWS, and First Choice Liquor will be closed in all states and takeaway alcohol sales are not allowed in most areas.

In NSW and WA pubs, breweries, and wineries can open from noon until 10pm. Bowling clubs can operate as normal.

In Victoria pubs and clubs can serve alcohol from midday.

In QLD and SA you can buy alcohol only with a dine-in meal in a licensed venue.

Skycity Casino in Adelaide will be closed.

If you're in Tasmania or the ACT and want a drink you're in luck with no alcohol restrictions in these areas.

Aldi stores will be closed around the country on Good Friday and many will be closed on Easter Sunday

The best bet for a last minute meal is through food delivery services Foodora, UberEats, Deliveroo and Menulog

Licensed premises in NSW are only allowed to serve alcohol from noon until 10pm on Good Friday

Food: The majority of McDonald's stores will be trading on Good Friday, with the exception to those in food courts, which will close for the day.

In NSW restaurants are open and can serve alcohol between noon and 10pm.

The best bet for a last minute meal is through food delivery services Foodora, UberEats, Deliveroo and Menulog.

Most of these delivery services will be operating as normal with many of their participating restaurants trading for the entire long weekend.

Smaller corner stores, petrol stations and chemists are exempt and are allowed to trade on Friday but it is up to them whether they open their doors.

Dominoes will be trading on Good Friday, but has urged customers to check their local stores for varying hours.

All 7-Eleven's 650 stores will also be running at normal hours over the long weekend for all coffee, petrol, ice and food needs.

The majority of Coles and Woolworths stores will be closed on Good Friday, but locals can try their luck at a smaller grocer with many staying open on the public holiday

Domino's and Crust pizza will operate through the Easter long weekend

EASTER SATURDAY

Saturday is mostly back to normal with supermarkets and bottle shops generally trading with normal hours on Easter Saturday despite it being a public holiday in all states and territories apart from Western Australia and Tasmania.

Supermarkets: Most Coles and Aldi will be open on Saturday.

Woolworths all stores will be open except George Street and Sydney Metcentre in NSW and Heidelberg, Melbourne Central, Bourke Street and Collins Square in Victoria.

Western Australia Woolworths stores will be open except Esperance, Kalgoorlie, and Katanning.

Alcohol: Bottle shops, Dan Murphy's, and BWS will reopen their doors on Saturday across the country from about 9am.

Pubs, clubs, restaurants, breweries, and wineries can trade as normal.

Retail: Major shopping centre Westfield will also be open on Saturday as will Coles, Woolworths and Aldi.

Kmart will be open but will have amended hours.

Melbourne Central will be open from 10am until 6pm.

As Sunday is a restricted trading day in most states, supermarkets, including Coles and Woolworths, are closed

Easter Sunday will see more supermarkets open than Good Friday but many will remain closed

EASTER SUNDAY

Supermarkets: As Sunday is a restricted trading day in most states, supermarkets, including Coles and Woolworths, are closed.

But a few major inner-city Woolworths and Coles stores will be open.

Aldi will be open, however, some stores in NSW and SA will remain closed.

Some Harris Farm stores, predominantly in the metro area, are open with normal trading hours.

Retail: Westfield centres will mostly be closed across the country. About half of Big W stores will open.

Kmart stores will be closed in NSW and SA and have amended opening hours in other states.

Melbourne Central will be open on Sunday from 10am until 6pm.

Alcohol: Most bottles shops will be closed across the country, though some Liquorland and Dan Murphy's stores open across the states.

In most States pubs, clubs, restaurants, breweries, and wineries can operate on their normal Sunday trading hours.

Food: Delivery food services UberEats, Deliveroo, Menulog and Foodora will also run as normal on Easter Sunday, with the same restaurants delivering as Good Friday.

Kmart stores will be closed Good Friday and also on Easter Sunday for SA and NSW

Major shopping centre Westfield will also be open on Easter Saturday as will many Coles and Woolworths stores

EASTER MONDAY

Supermarkets: Coles, Aldi and Woolworths will be open again in most states, although many will have reduced trading hours.

Aldi stores in SA will be closed on Monday.

Retail: Easter Monday is a public holiday across the country but most major shopping centres will be open and trading as normal including Melbourne Central which will be open from 10am until 6pm.

Kmart stores will be closed in SA.

Alcohol: There are no restrictions on alcohol sales on Monday and bottle shops including BWS and Dan Murphy's will open as usual.

Food: Restaurants and food delivery services will operate as normal.
As a Brit living abroad, I've done my fair share of transatlantic travel over the past few years, and have come up against a few nightmare situations, facing lengthy delays, uncomfortable seating, and even the odd smelly neighbor.

But none of that could ever eclipse the horrifying ordeal that I suffered as a one-time - and only-time - passenger on Norwegian Airlines.

What began as a 'minor' delay due to a 'technical fault' turned into a shocking nightmare that saw me left stranded in an airport for 24 hours, without anywhere to sleep or shower - and all while wearing the same onesie. A less than hygienic outfit for such a lengthy airport stay.

Awful: DailyMail.com's Femail Editor Charlie Lankston was among hundreds of passengers left stranded in Gatwick Airport for 24 hours by Norwegian Airlines

Having arrived at London Gatwick at around 4.15am on March 26 to board my 7.45am Norwegian Airlines flight to New York, I was met with what was actually a rather easy journey through security and into Departures, where I picked up a few presents for people at home - including chocolate for the office - before making my way to the gate.

The first bump in the road came however, when we were invited to begin boarding the plane, which was operated not by Norwegian, but by Portuguese charter airline Hi Fly, and I saw that one of the toilets was broken.

A passenger near me noted that this had also been the case on the Hi Fly plane that she traveled on from New York to London. To add insult the injury the bracket of my seatbelt had also been bent out of shape and was poking into my back.

But I thought, 'Who cares, within a few hours, I will be in New York and at home!'

If only I had known then just how wrong I was.

After boarding the plane half an hour or so behind schedule, we eventually began taxiing down the runway; a journey which was soon halted by the pilot informing us there had been a technical issue with the plane, which meant we had to return to the terminal for an inspection. He assured us however that once the check was complete we would be on our way.

Fast forward two hours, and we're still sitting on the tarmac, having been told that the flight has been cancelled and that we have to return to the terminal via a bus. Once back inside the terminal, the real drama kicked off.

At first, staff were at a loss in terms of where to send us; while Norwegian staff told us to go to international connections, security personnel there insisted they couldn't let us through with our old boarding passes, and directed us to passport control and baggage reclaim.

Once there, after waiting for an hour, during which time we were given little to no information about our plight, we were informed by Norwegian staff that our flight was not in fact cancelled, but rather just delayed, and that we should all make our way out of customs and back through security into Departures.

The first flight of the day, which had been due to take off at 7.45am, was cancelled and then delayed due to a technical issue

This roundabout journey came to a very quick end when security revealed that our now-defunct (and rather crumpled) boarding passes would not allow us back through into the Departures area. To add further confusion, many people were carrying large bottles of liquid that they had already procured in Duty Free, during the first attempt they had made to leave the country that day.

Eventually, we were all let through into security and onto Departures, and informed via text message, and via a baffled-looking Norwegian staffer that we had to wait until 9.30pm to board another plane. Cue outrage, confusion, upset, and a rather large outpouring of frustration.

I also took the opportunity to put my incredibly loud voice to the test; the Norwegian staff seemed incredibly reluctant to make any announcements at a decibel level that could be heard by the average human - let alone the older members of our group - so I decided to help them out. And ended up earning myself the title of 'class president', a moniker I wasn't at all unhappy with. One man even asked if I was planning to run for office. We'll see...

Having done all the yelling I could do, and made a vow not to give into the madness, myself and a group of my fellow travelers sought refuge in The Flying Horse, the South Terminal's very own Wetherspoons.

There, we were able to charge our phones, complain about our Norwegian nightmare, and attempt to keep our spirits up courtesy of a few pizzas, plates of French fries, and several bottles of wine (which sadly could not be bought with our Norwegian-supplied food vouchers, much to our dismay).

We were also able to formulate something of a game plan, which essentially involved keeping each other entertained and sane until we could board our flight at around 8pm. We even made 'reservations' for dinner at the terminal's Wagamama, prompting a series of very confused looks from the wait staff.

I even treated myself to a pair of shoes; having decided to make my journey in my trusty OnePiece onesie, I felt it was best to further increase my comfort levels with the addition of some new sneakers. The shopping also helped to curb the boredom. Slightly.

The day really was about peaks and troughs; at times, we all felt hopeful, and dare I say jubilant about the prospect of finally leaving the airport. At others, we sunk to bottom-of-the-well-style levels of exhaustion and frustration. But as our 5.30pm dinner reservation arrived, we cheered ourselves with more food than any group of humans should ever be able to consume, along with a few more wines for the road.

Desperate times: Some passengers - including myself - sought refuge in the airport's restaurants and bars in order to refuel, and charge phones and laptops

As we were finishing our rather delightful meal, however, disaster struck, and we all received a text message from Norwegian Airlines informing us that our flight had been delayed even more - this time until 2am.

At this point, it seems fury took over for a lot of passengers - understandably - and we were greeted with what looked very much like a mob as we made our way to the flight information desk.

One woman in particular seemed absolutely outraged, screaming abuse at the Norwegian staff, who could, frustratingly, offer very little in the way of an explanation. And what they could offer was once again shared at a whisper - much to the exasperation of the increasingly-angry group.

Eventually I discerned from a rather sweaty Norwegian Airlines staffer that there had been yet another mechanical issue with the plane, and we had to await the arrival of a new part from Derby before we could board and - dare I suggest - take off.

In other words, it was time for more waiting.

And it was at this point that our endurance was really tested. I myself nearly had a nervous breakdown while on the phone to my mother, who kindly suggested that I leave the airport and return home until a ticket on another flight could be secured.

'I can't do that, I only have a suitcase filled with onesies with me and that is no way to live!' I tearfully shouted down the phone. 'I need my clothes. I need my life!'

Slightly dramatic, I know, but by this time tiredness and outrage had come together to result in an emotional, exhausted mess of a person. Class president indeed.

I should also point out that spending 19 hours in a dirty and rather sweaty airport terminal while clad in a onesie is not the most pleasant, or indeed hygienic, of experiences. I am the number one supporter of the adult onesie - trust me on this - but even I couldn't avoid the inevitable, and incredibly uncomfortable, chaffing (sorry) that resulted from such a lengthy time spent wearing the same sweaty ensemble.

Announcements: Due to Norwegian Airlines staff's reluctance to speak up while making announcements, I took over and put my loud voice to good use

Sleep tight: With our requests for a hotel denied by staff, we were forced to make other arrangements. Namely bedding down on the padded floor of a children's play area

And while I may have been alone in my onesie-focused freakout, I know I was not the only one who had reached a new level of despair. The group made valiant attempts to rally, but it was becoming increasingly difficult to see any light at the end of the cold, dirty, and unwelcoming Norwegian Airlines tunnel.

Eventually, even the restaurants and shops that had once offered us refuge from the exhaustion and boredom closed their doors in our faces - the final insult of what felt like the longest day on record.

With few other options, we made our final plan of the night - to bed down on the padded floor inside the children's play area. A controversial choice, yes, but one which we all agreed would result in the most rest.

In the end, however, we fell victim to yet another insurmountable hurdle in the form of the airport terminal's blinding fluorescent lights - the great nemesis of sleep.

After an hour or so of tossing and turning, we received more horrifying news - our flight had been delayed again. This time until 3.30am, an announcement that effectively snuffed out any light at the end of that tunnel, and effectively destroyed any and all remaining hope we might have had.

While the ever-sweaty and nervous-looking Norwegian Airlines staff attempted to quell the fury that erupted around them - this time with the help of uniformed police officers brought in to keep the peace - we were able to learn that the part we had been waiting for had yet to arrive, having apparently been entrusted to a snail who was slowly creeping his way from Derby to London at a glacial pace only rivaled by the horror of Norwegian's delays.

Desperate for a change of scenery, I decided, along with my new-found friends, to make a beeline for the gate, our logic being that we would either be there until the plane could be boarded, or until the flight was cancelled and we were sent home. Either way it was to be the setting for our final few hours of our Norwegian nightmare.

Once again bedding down for some rest was a main priority, and we were thrilled to see several sofas where we were able to actually recline - albeit uncomfortably - for our remaining few ours in the airport.

At last! The flight landed into New York JFK at 7am - 21 hours behind schedule, and more than 30 hours after most people had arrived at London Gatwick

Eventually, we received updates from the same sweaty-faced Norwegian Airlines staff member, who spent much of his time with his phone glued to his ear, an action which many suggested may have been a ploy to avoid speaking to us, as well as two flight attendants who were sent out to try and calm the crowds as they attempted to repair the plane.

Although greeted with more enthusiasm than the Norwegian ground staff, they quickly lost any goodwill when they announced that they had 'come in on their days off to help us get home'. Never have my eyes rolled so far back in my head.

At long last, we received that happy piece of news we had been waiting for - the plane was fixed and we could actually board. Even this was not without its drama, however, as one woman experienced something of a meltdown after seeing the premium passengers being whisked to the front of the line.

'They've actually driven us insane,' a woman behind me noted as we watched the poor lady argue with security and police as they then searched through her bags as part of a 'random' security check.

At long last it was time to board, and I think I speak for almost every passenger on the plane when I say we collapsed into our seats. I certainly have never experienced such a quiet flight in my life; almost every person on the plane was reduced to a zombie-like sleep after their airport ordeal.

Ironically, the flight itself went off without a hitch - and we actually arrived into JFK bang 'on time'. If you don't count the more than 21-hour delay from our actual scheduled arrival that is.

Even the immigration officers seemed to pick up on our exhaustion, and we were ferried through the process with relative ease to find that our bags had been unloaded onto the carousel almost immediately.

It seems even Norwegian Airlines was aware it could not risk an error at this final stage of what had been for most the worst travel day on record.

I myself returned home feeling like a broken husk of a human, and promptly collapsed into a deep sleep, no doubt by body's way of trying to reclaim the 38 or so hours it had been forced to go without a proper rest. At least said sleep took place in my own bed in New York...
Dr. Ronny Jackson is currently a physician to the president for President Donald Trump. On Wednesday, Trump nominated him to run Veterans Affairs.

A Texas native, Jackson attended Texas A&M for undergraduate, and received his medical degree from the University of Texas' Medical Branch, graduating in 1995.

That same year, Jackson began his active duty Naval service in Portsmouth, Virginia. He completed a number of medical internships and became the honor graduate of the Navys Undersea Medical Officer Program, before completing his residency at the top of his class in 2004.

The next year, he became part of Operation Iraqi Freedom as an emergency medicine physician in charge of resuscitative medicine.

Jackson was promoted to a White House physician while still deployed in Iraq in 2006. He's served in three administrations - those of Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump - and held a variety of positions, including the physician supervisor for Camp David, before being promoted to physician to the president under Obama in 2013.

Jackson has three children and lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C.
Human footprints found off Canada's Pacific coast show people were living there 13,000 years ago at the end of the most recent Ice Age, scientists have found.

The footprints, which are the only ones ever found from this time around Canada's Pacific coast, belong to at least three different individuals.

The incredible prints could have captured the moment these individuals disembarked from their boat for the first time before moving to drier areas.

Digital photographic studies have revealed that the footprints probably belonged to two adults and a child, all barefoot.

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Photograph of a track beside digitally-enhanced image of same feature. Note the toe impressions and arch indicating that this is a right footprint. Researchers uncovered 29 human footprints of at least three different sizes in these sediments, which radiocarbon dating estimated to be around 13,000 years old

The new find adds to evidence suggesting people crossed over to North America from Asia during the last Ice Age. It is believed they reached the coast of British Columbia as well as coastal regions to the south

Previous research suggests that during the last Ice Age (which ended around 11,700 years ago), humans moved into the Americas from Asia.

They did this across what was then a land bridge to North America, eventually reaching what is now the west coast of British Columbia, Canada as well as coastal regions to the south.

Along the pacific coast of Canada, much of this shoreline is today covered by dense forest and only accessible by boat.

This makes it difficult to look for the archaeological evidence which might prove people moved across this land bridge at the time.

Researchers were looking at an area where the sea level was two to three metres lower than today, between 14,000 and 10,000 years ago.

'All we have is footprints and a few stone tools', Dr Duncan McLaren, lead author of the paper and Hakai Institute Scholar told MailOnline.

He said from the prints it appeared the individuals were mostly standing looking inland with their backs to the channel.

'It's possible they were disembarking from the watercraft before moving to drier areas', he said.

In this study, the research team from the Hakai Institute and University of Victoria excavated inter-tidal beach sediments on the shoreline of Calvert Island, British Columbia.

Here, the sea level is two to three meters higher than it was at the end of the last Ice Age.

Researchers uncovered 29 human footprints of at least three different sizes in these sediments, which radiocarbon dating estimated to be around 13,000 years old.

The footprints, which are the only ones ever found from this time around Canada's Pacific coast, belong to at least three different individuals. Pictured are researchers at the site

The incredible prints could have caught the moment these individuals disembarked from the watercraft for the first time before moving to drier areas. Pictured are Alaskan Natives filmed as part of the 1949 documentary Eskimo Hunters in Alaska - The Traditional Inuit Way of Life

WHEN DID HUMANS ARRIVE IN NORTH AMERICA? It is widely accepted that the earliest settlers crossed from what is now Russia into Alaska via an ancient land bridge spanning the Bering Strait which was submerged at the end of the last Ice Age. Issues such as whether there was one founding group or several, when they arrived, and what happened next have been the subject of extensive debate. The earliest evidence of human settlers on the continent dates to around 14,000 years ago, with the remains of an ancient village found 'older than Egyptian pyramids' found in April 2017. Artefacts uncovered at the settlement, found on Triquet Island 310 miles (500km) northwest of Victoria, Canada, include tools for creating fires and fishing hooks and spears dating from the Ice Age. Most recently, researchers have found human footprints found off Canada's Pacific coast. They show people were living there 13,000 years old at the end of the most recent ice age. The footprints, which are the only ones ever found from this time around Canada's Pacific coast, belong to at least three different individuals. The incredible prints could have caught the moment these individuals disembarked from the watercraft for the first time before moving to drier areas. Digital photographic analyses revealed that the footprints probably belonged to two adults and a child, all barefoot. Advertisement

It is not known how many individuals made the crossing, although it appears both coastal and interior groups live in the Bering Land Bridge for millennia before moving southwards.

'The so-called land bridge was situated to the north of the ice sheet and was a dry, cold coastal plain with vast and low lying interior areas', said Dr McLaren.

'I imagine that the inhabitants living there were able to thrive on both marine and terrestrial resources. They lived there as opposed to simply moving across it', he said.

This finding adds to the growing body of evidence supporting the hypothesis that humans used a coastal route to move from Asia to North America during the last Ice Age.

In this study, the research team from the Hakai Institute and University of Victoria excavated inter-tidal beach sediments on the shoreline of Calvert Island (pictured), British Columbia

It is not known how many individuals made the crossing, although it appears both coastal and interior groups live in the Bering Land Bridge for millennia before moving southwards

The remains were found off Calvert Island, British Columbia. Here, the sea level is two to three meters higher than it was at the end of the last ice age.

The authors suggest that further excavations with more advanced methods are likely to uncover more human footprints in the area.

This would help to piece together the patterns of early human settlement on the coast of North America.

'This finding provides evidence of the seafaring people who inhabited this area during the tail end of the last major ice age', said Dr McLaren.

In January of this year, researchers found the DNA of a six-week-old Native American infant.

In January of this year, researchers found the DNA of a six-week-old Native American infant. The young girl lived at the Upward Sun River camp (artist's impression) in what is now Alaska

WHEN DID NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN NATIVES SPLIT? While the Ancient Beringians split from all other Native Americans around 20,000 years ago, the Northern and Southern groups diverged later on. Based on previous research, this suggests they must have already been on the American continent south of the glacial ice when they diverged. The divide probably occurred after their ancestors had passed through the Laurentide and Cordilleran ice sheets. These are two vast glaciers that covered what is now Canada and parts of the northern United States, but began to thaw around this time. The ice sheet isolated southbound travellers from the Ancient Beringians in Alaska, who were eventually replaced or absorbed by other Native American populations. Although modern populations in Alaska and northern Canada belong to the Northern Native American branch, the new analysis shows that these derive from a later 'back' migration north, long after the initial migration events. Advertisement

Named Xach'itee'aanenh t'eede gay, or Sunrise Child-girl, by the local Native community, the young girl's remains were found at the Upward Sun River archaeological site in Alaska in 2013.

The child died 11,500 years ago and her genes reveal the first humans arrived on the continent 25,000 years ago - much earlier than some studies claim.

This is the first time that direct genetic traces of the earliest Native Americans have been identified.

The girl belonged to a previously unknown population of ancient people in North America known as the 'Ancient Beringians.'

This small Native American group resided in Alaska and died out around 6,000 years ago, researchers claim.

It is widely accepted that the earliest settlers crossed from what is now Russia into Alaska via an ancient land bridge spanning the Bering Strait which was submerged at the end of the last Ice Age.

Issues such as whether there was one founding group or several, when they arrived, and what happened next have been the subject of extensive debate.

Some scientists previously hypothesised about multiple migratory waves over the land bridge as recent as 14,000 years ago.

The study from January shows that this migration occurred in one wave, with sub-divisions of Native American groups forming later on.

It also shows that a previously undiscovered group named the 'Ancient Beringians' formed as part of this split, taking the known number of ancestral Native American groups from two to three.
Elias, the new language teacher at a Finnish primary school, has endless patience for repetition, never makes a pupil feel embarrassed for asking a question and can even do the 'Gangnam Style' dance.

Elias is also a robot.

The language-teaching machine comprises a humanoid robot and mobile application, one of four robots in a pilot programme at primary schools in the southern city of Tampere.

Pictured is Elias, a robot teaching children in a Finnish school. Elias can understand and speak 23 different languages

The robot is able to understand and speak 23 languages and is equipped with software that allows it to understand students' requirements and helps it to encourage learning.

In this trial however, it communicates in English, Finnish and German only.

The robot recognises the pupil's skill levels and adjusts its questions accordingly. It also gives feedback to teachers about a student's possible problems.

Some of the human teachers who have worked with the technology see it as a new way to engage children in learning.

'I think in the new curriculum the main idea is to get the kids involved and get them motivated and make them active.

Elias can adjust its expectations - and questions - to match certain students' skill levels. Additionally, it can give teachers feedback on their students

I see Elias as one of the tools to get different kinds of practice and different kinds of activities into the classroom,' language teacher Riika Kolunsarka told Reuters.

'In that sense I think robots and coding the robots and working with them is definitely something that is according to the new curriculum and something that we teachers need to be open minded about.'

However, Elias, unlike human teachers, cannot control students' behavior

Elias the language robot, which stands around a foot tall, is based on SoftBank's NAO humanoid interactive companion robot, with software developed by Utelias, a developer of educational software for social robots.

The Maths robot - dubbed OVObot - which is a small, blue machine around 25 cm (10 inches) high and resembles an owl, was developed by Finnish AI Robots.

The purpose of the pilot project is to see if these robots can improve the quality of teaching, with one of the Elias robots and three of the OVObots deployed in schools.

The OVObots will be trialled for one year, while the school has bought the Elias robot, so its use can continue longer.

Using robots in classrooms is not new - teaching robots have been used in the Middle East, Asia and the United States in recent years, but modern technologies such as cloud services and 3D printing are allowing smaller start-up companies to enter the sector.

'Well, it is fun, interesting and exciting and I'm a bit shocked,' pupil Abisha Jinia told Reuters, giving her verdict on Elias the language robot.

Despite their skills in language and mathematics however, the robots' inability to maintain discipline amongst a class of primary school children means that, for the time being at least, the human teachers' jobs are safe.

A different robot named OVObot teaches children mathematics. OVObot was developed by Finnish AI Robots and will be tested in the classroom over the next year
Self-driving cars have gotten so advanced in recent years that many proponents believe humans should be banned from driving altogether.

But the boss of Google's Waymo, which is widely considered to be the leader in autonomous vehicle testing, doesn't agree.

At a media event in New York City, Waymo CEO John Krafcik was asked whether he believed the rise of self-driving cars would eventually remove the need for human drivers.

'Good heavens, no,' Krafcik told Jalopnik.

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John Krafcik, the CEO of Waymo, stands with the Jaguar I-Pace vehicle on Tuesday. Self-driving car pioneer Waymo will buy up to 20,000 of the electric vehicles from Jaguar

The comments came after Waymo announced that it will buy up to 20,000 electric vehicles from Jaguar Land Rover to help realize its vision for a robotic ride-hailing service.

Waymo has surged ahead in the race to bring self-driving cars to the streets and currently has one of the largest test fleets of autonomous vehicles in operation.

Tesla follows closely behind it, in addition to Uber.

But Tesla chief and billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk has strikingly different views from Krafcik on the future human drivers.

Musk has said on several occasions that as self-driving cars continue to proliferate, human-driven vehicles may need to be banned.

'Its too dangerous. You cant have a person driving a two-tonne death machine, Musk said at an event in 2015.

He believes human drivers could become obsolete much like elevator operators are a thing of the past.

Waymo's Jaguar 'I-Pace' self-driving vehicle was introduced on Tuesday. Waymo has surged ahead in the race to bring self-driving cars to the streets and currently has one of the largest test fleets of autonomous vehicles in operation

Pictured is the roof dome of a Jaguar I-Pace vehicle, which houses the autonomous vehicle's LIDAR technology. LIDAR, or light detection and ranging, sensors help a car 'see' surroundings

'It would be like an elevator. They used to have elevator operators, and then we developed some simple circuitry to have elevators just automatically come to the floor that youre at  the car is going to be just like that,' Musk said.

Many people share Musk's views, including Omar Rahim, chief executive of tech firm Energi Mine, who said human emotions often get in the way of driving, making the whole experience dangerous.

'What makes us human is our complex nature, our propensity to let emotion affect our decision-making', he said.

'In many walks of life this is a great asset - and ones that machines do not yet possess. In relation to driving it is downright dangerous'.

By contrast, Krafcik said he's 'not a believer' in the theory that we'll all give up owning a car one day.

He also believes human drivers 'appreciate' driving alongside Waymo cars in particular because they 'interact well with humans.'

Tesla chief Elon Musk (pictured) has said on several occasions that as self-driving cars continue to proliferate, human-driven vehicles may need to be banned

Further, Krafcik thinks humans will always want the freedom of being able to get behind the wheel.

'There are going to be times when we want to get into our 911, and take it for a drive...because that's what we want to do,' he explained.

'And I think we will always have the choice.'

He added that he would 'fight' a ban on human driving, should such an idea ever be proposed.

Waymo's commitment announced Tuesday marks another step in the firm's evolution from a secret project started in Google nine years ago to a spin-off that's gearing up for an audacious attempt to reshape the transportation business.

The Jaguar deal will expand upon a fleet of self-driving cars that Waymo has been gradually building in partnership with Fiat Chrysler since 2015.

Waymo initially equipped about 600 Pacifica minivans with its self-driving technology before negotiating to buy 'thousands' more of the vehicles.

The minivans will be part of a ride-hailing service that Waymo plans to launch in Phoenix later this year.

Waymo's commitment announced Tuesday marks another step in the firm's evolution from a secret project started in Google nine years ago to a spin-off that's gearing up for an audacious attempt to reshape the transportation business

WHAT ARE THE SIX LEVELS OF SELF-DRIVING AUTOMATION? Level Zero - The full-time performance by the human driver of all aspects of the dynamic driving task, even when enhanced by warning or intervention systems. Level One  A small amount of control is accomplished by the system such as adaptive braking if a car gets too close. Level Two  The system can control the speed and direction of the car allowing the driver to take their hands off temporarily, but they have to monitor the road at all times and be ready to take over. Level Three  The driver does not have to monitor the system at all times in some specific cases like on high ways but must be ready to resume control if the system requests. Level Four  The system can cope will all situations automatically within defined use but it may not be able to cope will all weather or road conditions. System will rely on high definition mapping. Level Five  Full automation. System can cope with all weather, traffic and lighting conditions. It can go anywhere, at any time in any conditions. Tesla's Model 3 Sedan - one of the world's most advanced road-legal cars with autonomous elements - currently operates at Level Two autonomy. It is equipped for Level Three autonomy, which may be introduced in a future software update Advertisement

If all goes well, Waymo expects to expand the service to other states.

Jaguar will deliver its vehicles for Waymo's ride-hailing from 2020 to 2022.

The 20,000 "I-Pace" models will provide up to 1 million rides per day, according to Waymo.

The alliance with Jaguar will give Waymo a way to appeal to passengers who want to ride in a more luxurious car or want to avoid the pollution caused by vehicles fueled by gasoline.

Waymo's planned ride-hailing service poses a potential threat to Uber and Lyft, the early leaders in that still-developing field.

Both Uber and Lyft are trying to ward off Waymo by developing their own self-driving cars, even though they got a late start in autonomous technology.

Uber's efforts suffered a major setback when one of its autonomous cars struck and killed a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona last week.

Without mentioning Uber, Waymo CEO John Krafcik emphasized the company's track record for safety while its cars have traveled more than 5 million miles on public roads as its engineers have continued to fine tune the robotic technology.
Microsofts latest updates to its terms of service have some users concerned that the firm is exerting too much control over what they can and cannot do online.

In the new version of the Services Agreement, effective May 1, Microsoft says it will be cracking down on offensive language, among other violations.

It doesnt, however, specify what counts as offensive language.

For Xbox Live users in particular, where profanities are ubiquitous, the new rules have some fearing they may now be at greater risk of facing suspensions or even being banned.

Many have also expressed concerns over their privacy based on Microsofts note that it has the right to investigate users' content.

In the new version of the Services Agreement, effective May 1, Microsoft says it will be cracking down on offensive language, among other violations. Some users have pointed out that the vague terms could leave the door open to all sorts of violations. File photo

The lengthy Services Agreement warns against sharing inappropriate content, including 'nudity, bestiality, pornography, offensive language, graphic violence, or criminal activity.'

If you violate these Terms, we may stop providing Services to you or we may close your Microsoft account, Microsoft says.

It also adds: When investigating alleged violations of these Terms, Microsoft reserves the right to review Your Content in order to resolve the issue.

Despite the outcry across social media, the new rules dont just mean the company will now scour your accounts for inappropriate activity.

Instead, Microsoft looks into content flagged by other users.

And, many of the terms included in the new Microsoft Services Agreement are rules carried over from the previous versions.

One addition, though, has struck some users as especially troubling.

In the Code of Conduct section, weve clarified that use of offensive language and fraudulent activity is prohibited, Microsoft says in a summary of the changes.

Weve also clarified that violation of the Code of Conduct through Xbox Services may result in suspensions or bans from participation in Xbox Services, including forfeiture of content licenses, Xbox Gold Membership time, and Microsoft account balances associated with the account.

One user pointed out that the Code of Conduct prohibits the sharing of inappropriate content, including nudity, suggesting he could be punished for using Skype to engage in an adult video call with his girlfriend. But, Microsoft does not watch or listen to Skype calls

Some users have pointed out that the vague terms could leave the door open to all sorts of violations that could get them in trouble.

If I call someone a mean name in Xbox Live, not only will they cancel my account, but also confiscate any funds Ive deposited in my account?, questioned law student Jon Corbett in a blog post about the updates.

Dailymail.com contacted Microsoft for clarification on what falls under offensive language.

But, the firm offered little insight on the issue, instead explaining that the updates are designed for transparency.

We are committed to providing our customers with safe and secure experiences while using our services, a Microsoft spokesperson told Dailymail.com.

The recent changes to the Microsoft Service Agreements Code of Conduct provide transparency on how we respond to customer reports of inappropriate public content.

WHAT'S IN MICROSOFT'S NEW 'CODE OF CONDUCT'? Microsoft has update its Services Agreement to include a slew of new rules. The firm's Code of Conduct, effective May 1, now states: i. Dont do anything illegal. ii. Dont engage in any activity that exploits, harms, or threatens to harm children. iii. Dont send spam. Spam is unwanted or unsolicited bulk email, postings, contact requests, SMS (text messages), or instant messages. iv. Dont publicly display or use the Services to share inappropriate content or material (involving, for example, nudity, bestiality, pornography, offensive language, graphic violence, or criminal activity). v. Dont engage in activity that is fraudulent, false or misleading (e.g., asking for money under false pretenses, impersonating someone else, manipulating the Services to increase play count, or affect rankings, ratings, or comments). vi. Dont circumvent any restrictions on access to or availability of the Services. vii. Dont engage in activity that is harmful to you, the Services, or others (e.g., transmitting viruses, stalking, posting terrorist content, communicating hate speech, or advocating violence against others). viii. Dont infringe upon the rights of others (e.g., unauthorized sharing of copyrighted music or other copyrighted material, resale or other distribution of Bing maps, or photographs). ix. Dont engage in activity that violates the privacy of others. x. Dont help others break these rules. Advertisement

In the blog post, Corbett also points out that the Code of Conduct prohibits the sharing of inappropriate content, including nudity, suggesting he could be punished for using Skype to engage in an adult video call with his girlfriend.

But Skype users likely have little to worry about on this front.

Skype-to-Skype voice, video, file transfers, and instant messages are encrypted, and Microsoft does not watch or listen in on Skype calls.

And, as Gizmodo notes, the nudity ban is nothing new.

A Wayback Machine search indicates it was also in previous versions of the Services Agreement, including one from summer 2016.

Still, many Microsoft users are concerned about what the upcoming crackdown could mean for their accounts.

The new Services Agreement, published online this month, goes into effect May 1, 2018.
The race to perfect robot cars continues despite fears kindled by the death of a woman hit by a self-driving Uber vehicle while pushing a bicycle across an Arizona street.

Uber put a temporary halt to its self-driving car program in the US after the fatal accident this month near Phoenix, where several other companies including Google-owned Waymo are testing such technology.

While the Uber accident may be used to advance arguments of those fearful of driverless cars, it does not change the fact that 'transformative technology is coming whether we like it or not,' according to Adie Tomer, a fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington.

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Pilot models of the Uber self-driving car, pictured in 2016 before one of the autonomous vehicles killed a woman in Arizona. Uber put a temporary halt to its self-driving car program in the US after the fatal accident this month near Phoenix

'There certainly will be calls to stop all autonomous vehicle testing, not just Uber's program,' Tomer said in a post on the institution's website.

'But, technological progress is hard to stop, and I don't expect it to happen in this case.'

Furor caused by the Uber accident could keep some cities or states from allowing testing of autonomous cars, or prompt tighter national rules, but there is too much private investment taking place to stop it, according to Tomer.

Self-driving cars hold the promise of being more attentive and quicker to react than humans at the wheels, and would free people to use travel time more productively or pleasantly.

The governor of Arizona on Monday put the brakes on Uber's self-driving car program in that state, citing 'disturbing and alarming' dashcam footage from the fatal crash.

San Francisco-based Uber told AFP that it decided not to re-apply for a permit needed to operate autonomous vehicles on California roads.

Arizona and California have been particularly welcoming to self-driving car testing, hoping companies developing autonomous technology in those states will create local jobs and facilities devoted to a promising new industry.

Technology giants, automakers, and vehicle parts companies, sometimes in alliance, are racing toward a future where cars driving themselves whisk people wherever they wish.

The competition is fierce and costly, with billions of dollars being spent on research.

HOW DID AN UBER AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE HIT AND KILL A WOMAN IN ARIZONA? A self-driving Uber vehicle struck and killed a pedestrian in the first death involving a fully autonomous test vehicle on March 19, 2018. The accident prompted the ride-hailing company to suspend road-testing of such cars in the US and Canada. The Volvo SUV was in self-driving mode with a human back-up operator behind the wheel in Tempe when a woman walking a bicycle was hit. Elaine Herzberg, 49, died in hospital. Police have said that the victim, 49 year old Elaine Herzberg, stepped out in front of the car suddenly and they do not believe the car was to blame. Uber suspended its self-driving vehicle testing in the Phoenix area, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Toronto. The testing has been going on for months as car makers and technology companies compete to be the first with cars that operate on their own. Uber's self-driving car crash that led to the death of a mother-of-two could have been avoided, driverless vehicle experts have claimed. Cortica, a firm that develops artificial intelligence for autonomous vehicles, has analysed the dash cam video. The company concludes the car, which failed to brake or swerve before the collision, had enough time to react and potentially save Ms Herzberg's life. Speaking to CNET, Cortica's CEO Igal Raichelgauz said the firm's self-driving AI system detected Ms Herzberg 0.9 seconds before impact. At this point the car was around 50 feet (15 metres) away. He said the autonomous car's cameras and radar system should have had enough time to pick up the pedestrian and react to the situation. Driverless cars are fitted with a system of cameras, radar and lidar sensors that allow them to 'see' their surroundings and detect traffic, pedestrians and other objects. An AI computer system then decides what actions the car takes to avoid a collision - a setup that is supposed to work as well at night as during the day. A top executive for the maker of Lidar sensors used on Uber's self-driving car said she was 'baffled' as to why the vehicle failed to recognise Ms Herzberg. Advertisement

Waymo and Jaguar Land Rover on Tuesday announced they have joined forces to develop a 'premium self-driving electric vehicle' based on a new I-PACE model.

Testing of an I-PACE equipped with Waymo self-driving technology will begin later this year, and the goal is to make it part of a Waymo driverless transportation service, according to Jaguar.

'This is just the beginning,' the Waymo team said in an online post.

'The ultimate goal: with Waymo as the driver, products tailored for every purpose and every trip.'

For example, self-driving vehicles could be designed for various needs such as working while commuting, celebratory nights out, or napping, according to Waymo.

Waymo chief executive John Krafcik over the weekend contended that the recent Uber accident would not have occurred with his company's technology.

'At Waymo, we have a lot of confidence that our technology would be able to handle a situation like that,' Krafcik told a car dealership conference in Las Vegas.

Krafcik said Waymo's vehicles had clocked more than eight million kilometers (4.9 million miles) on routes frequented by pedestrians since 2009 without being involved in a fatal accident.

Waymo early this year announced it was ordering 'thousands' of minivans from Fiat Chrysler to expand its self-driving taxi program, which is launching this year in Phoenix, Arizona.

The nonprofit group Consumer Watchdog has argued that autonomous vehicles are not ready for roads and the public should not be put at risk to test such technology.

Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal released a statement maintaining that the Uber accident 'makes it clear that autonomous vehicle technology has a long way to go before it is truly safe for the passengers, pedestrians, and drivers.'

Self-driving technology in the Uber car included some from California chip maker NVIDIA, which told AFP that it parked its test vehicles pending results of the accident investigation.

US authorities are investigating whether a Tesla electric car had its autopilot system engaged when it was involved in a fatal crash

'Although we developed our self-driving technology independently, as good engineering practice, we will wait to learn from Uber's incident,' an NVIDIA spokesman said.

NVIDIA shares suffered on the news, closing the formal trading day down 7.7 percent to $225.52 on Tuesday.

Japanese auto giant Toyota also tapped the brakes on its autonomous car testing after the Uber accident, while German titan BMW maintained pace.

US federal authorities on Tuesday opened an investigation into a fatal accident in California involving a Tesla electric car, with one of the goals being to determine whether its autopilot system was engaged at the time.

The US Transportation Department last year closed an investigation into a fatal 2016 crash in Florida of a Tesla on autopilot, finding that no 'safety-related defect' had caused that accident.
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A 28 billion ($40 billion) project hailed as the world's first smart city has faded into a 'Chernobyl-like ghost town'.

The 'high-tech utopia' of Songdo on South Korea's northeast coast was built from scratch and designed around technology, with computers built into its streets and condos to control traffic and let neighbours hold video chats.

Residents were promised a city of the future, with remote-controlled front doors and pneumatic rubbish chutes that 'sucked' garbage from your home to later be recycled to generate electricity.

But eerie photos show that, just over 15 years since the Songdo project began, the city is still less than half-built, with one citizen remarking it's like 'living in a deserted prison'.

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A 28 billion ($40 billion) project hailed as the world's first smart city has faded into a 'Chernobyl-like ghost town'. The 'high-tech utopia' of Songdo (pictured) on South Korea's northeast coast was built from scratch and designed around technology

The brainchild of property developers and the South Korean government, the vision was to construct a new way of thinking for over 300,000 residents, spread out over 600 hectares of reclaimed land from the Yellow Sea.

Songdo was to push boundaries in the way cities dealt with technology, environment, business and education. Built within 25 miles (40km) of Seoul, it was billed as the antithesis of the suffocating, over-populated capital.

But the 28 billion ($40 billion) project, launched in 2002, has struggled to bring in big companies and investors despite hosting South Korea's tallest skyscraper.

Completion dates for the city, also known as the Songdo International Business District, have been used loosely. It was meant to be fully functional by 2015, then 2018, and now it's 2022.

Critics have remarked that the city, which is currently less than a quarter full with just 70,000 residents, has a 'Chernobyl-like emptiness'.

Far from giving up on the project, Songdo's developers are now going out of their way to entice foreigners, including Brits, with the construction of 'American Town'.

Eerie photos show that, just over 15 years since the project began, the city is still less than half-built, with one citizen remarking it's like 'living in a deserted prison'

Residents were promised a city of the future, with remote-controlled front doors and pneumatic rubbish chutes that 'sucked' garbage from your home to later be recycled to generate electricity. Computers were built into its streets (pictured) and condos to control traffic and let neighbours hold video chats

WHAT IS SOUTH KOREA'S 28 BILLION SMART CITY SONGDO AND WHY IS IT SO EMPTY? The 'high-tech utopia' of Songdo on South Korea's northeast coast was built from scratch and designed around technology (artist's impression) The 'high-tech utopia' of Songdo on South Korea's northeast coast was built from scratch and designed around technology, with computers built into its streets and condos to control traffic and let neighbours hold video chats. The city was supposed to kick-start a car-free world, with 40 per cent green space and dozens of kilometres of cycling routes. In an attempt to shape a clean-cut version of Manhattan, the city is dominated by a rectangular green space, aptly named Central Park, which is surrounded by cutting edge skyscrapers. It was planned to contain 80,000 apartments, 50 million square feet (5 million square metres) of office space and 10 million square feet (900,000 square metres) of retail space. But the 28 billion ($40 billion) project, launched in 2002, has struggled to bring in big companies and investors, halting completion of developers' wide-eyed dream. Completion dates for the city, also known as the Songdo International Business District, have been used loosely. It was meant to be fully functional by 2015, then 2018, and now it's 2022. Critics have remarked that the city, which is currently less than a quarter full with just 70,000 residents, has a 'Chernobyl-like emptiness'. Advertisement

The 28 billion ($40 billion) project, launched in 2002, has struggled to bring in big companies and investors, halting completion of developers' wide-eyed dream. Pictured is one of the city's deserted subway stations

The city was supposed to kick-start a car-free world, with 40 per cent green space and dozens of kilometres of cycling routes (pictured). The city is dominated by a rectangular green space surrounded by cutting edge skyscrapers

The district offers luxury apartments with futuristic technology, US and UK-style education and cleaner living.

Currently under-construction, American Town will have three large towers - up to 50-stories high - and two smaller ones, serving 900 apartments and 1,000 businesses over 4 million square feet (386,000 square meters).

Developers also hope to entice people from the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Germany, and New Zealand.

American Town was announced in January 2014 with one official stating that 'already more than 1,200 units have been sold to foreign buyers'.

The brainchild of property developers and the South Korean government, the vision was to construct a new way of thinking for over 300,000 residents, spread out over 600 hectares of reclaimed land from the Yellow Sea

Songdo was to push boundaries in the way it dealt with technology, environment, business and education. Built within 25 miles (40km) of Seoul, it was billed as the antithesis of the suffocating, over-populated capital city

It was planned to contain 80,000 apartments, 50 million square feet (5 million square metres) of office space and 10 million square feet (900,000 square metres) of retail space. But a failure to lure in companies and investors means many of the city's building plots are still empty (pictured)

Completion dates for the city, also known as the Songdo International Business District, have been used loosely. It was meant to be fully functional by 2015, then 2018, and now it's 2022

Koam, the Virginia-based real estate consulting firm in charge of the American Town project, toured US cities, especially those with large Korean populations, such as New York and Los Angeles, held meetings with locals and got over a thousand signed letters of intent to move.

New citizens could add over 20 per cent to the current population.

Although CEO Augustine Kim said the primary target was 'people who left Korea for the American dream over 40 years ago', Songdo locals tell a different story.

Some residents claim that the high cost of living is driving local people back into Seoul and the city is being built especially for foreigners.

Critics have remarked that the city, which is currently less than a quarter full with just 70,000 residents, has a 'Chernobyl-like emptiness'

Some residents claim that Songdo's high cost of living is driving local people back into Seoul and the city is being built especially for foreigners

Songdo citizen Shim Jong Rae described the deserted metropolis as a 'ghost town'. He said: 'There are many foreign schools, hospitals, and amenities however, they're all too expensive. Everything is expensive'

In an attempt to shape a clean-cut version of Manhattan, the city is dominated by a rectangular green space, aptly named Central Park, which is surrounded by cutting edge skyscrapers. Pictured is a mall near the park

Songdo citizen Shim Jong Rae described the deserted metropolis as a 'ghost town.'

'There are many foreign schools, hospitals, and amenities however, they're all too expensive. Everything is expensive,' he said.

'Although they might develop the area well in the future, people are starting to leave the city. It's too focused on attracting foreigners that they forget that normal people live here too.

'If they could just get their head around adjusting the cost of living here, Songdo could potentially be not only the best city in Korea, but the world. But development has stalled a lot.'

American Gale International - who own 61 per cent of the project - have been at the forefront and have never doubted its success. The plan was designed by the New York office of architect Kohn Pedersen Fox, while labour and funding has been provided by the metropolitan South Korean city of Incheon, which Songdo is attached to

Gale International admit that concentrating on quality of life meant 'what has probably missed the mark is for companies to locate here'. Pictured are empty bicycle racks in the city

On weekends, the cycle racks are empty (pictured), the area is desolate apart from the odd stray tourist visiting the top of the 65-floor Northeast Asia Trade Centre, now South Korea's tallest building (pictured)

American Gale International - who own 61 per cent of the project - have been at the forefront and have never doubted its success.

The plan was designed by the New York office of architect Kohn Pedersen Fox, while labour and funding has been provided by the metropolitan South Korean city of Incheon, which Songdo is attached to.

Around the perimeter fence of the American Town there's the slogan 'Dream of Incheon, vision of Korea.'

But people aren't coming and neither are businesses - less than 50 big brands have bothered - and public transport is a pain, it's a near two-hour connection to downtown Seoul.

The streets, footpaths and cycle lanes are strangely empty for such a large city, there's no presence of culture - no museums, theatres or cinemas

Blogger Ian James, writing for Korea Expose , said it reminded him more of Chernobyl than the best example of future living. He said: 'Songdo is a new kind of city: Completely artificial, painstakingly designed, without a hint of decay or poverty, and nearly empty. It's a human desert'

Far from giving up on the project, Songdo's developers are now going out of their way to entice foreigners, including Brits, with the construction of 'American Town' (pictured). The district offers luxury apartments with futuristic technology, US and UK-style education and cleaner living

Gale International admit that concentrating on quality of life meant 'what has probably missed the mark is for companies to locate here'.

One resident described it as 'living in a deserted prison'.

The streets, footpaths and cycle lanes are strangely empty for such a large city, there's no presence of culture - no museums, theatres or cinemas.

On weekends, the cycle racks are empty, the area is desolate apart from the odd stray tourist visiting the top of the 65-floor Northeast Asia Trade Center, now South Korea's tallest building.

Blogger Ian James, writing for Korea Expose, said it reminded him more of Chernobyl than the best example of future living.

Currently under-construction, American Town will have three large towers - up to 50-stories high - and two smaller ones (pictured), serving 900 apartments and 1,000 businesses over 4 million square feet (386,000 square meters)

Developers also hope to entice people from the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Germany, and New Zealand. American Town was announced in January 2014 with one official stating that 'already more than 1,200 units have been sold to foreign buyers'. Pictured left is the complex's larger tower, while the right image shows one of its smaller structures

Koam, the Virginia-based real estate consulting firm in charge of the American Town project (pictured), toured US cities, especially those with large Korean populations, such as New York and Los Angeles, held meetings with locals and got over a thousand signed letters of intent to move. New citizens could add over 20 per cent to the current population

'The fact that 1,500 acres of Yellow Sea marshland, home to several endangered bird species, was devastated for this "green" city is another matter,' he wrote.

'Songdo is a new kind of city: Completely artificial, painstakingly designed, without a hint of decay or poverty, and nearly empty. It's a human desert.

'There is an oppressive, Chernobyl-like emptiness here. The shallowness is awesome, in both the modern and traditional sense of the word; you can almost feel that these huge buildings are only years away from being completely abandoned.'

But developers are adamant that everything is going along fine, with Scott Summers, vice president of Gale International, telling NPR in 2015: 'It's a great place to live. And it's becoming a great place to work.'
An out-of-control Chinese space station is getting closer to crashing into Earth.

The European Space Agency (ESA) predict that Tiangong-1 will tumble back to our planet at some point between March 30 and April 2.

When the station, which is carrying highly toxic chemicals, does eventually enter the atmosphere it could unleash a 'series of fireballs' that will be seen by observers.

Amateur astronomers are now training their telescopes on Tiangong-1 to catch a glimpse of the doomed satellite.

You can join the viewing as of 13:00 BST (8am ET) via a live stream from the Virtual Telescope Project.

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Agencies around the world who have monitored an out-of-control Chinese space station's fall to Earth believe it has a higher chance of hitting parts of the US, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Cities at higher risk include Barcelona, Beijing, Chicago, Istanbul, Rome and Toronto

Daily updates on ESA's website are currently tracking the space stations gradual descent.

It currently sits at an altitude of around 124 miles (200 kilometres).

Due to its gentle descent, Tiangong-1 is now experiencing significant drag as it brushes against the planet's denser outer atmosphere and it is dropping out of orbit by about 2.5 miles a day.

When Tiangong-1 reaches an altitude of about 43 miles above the surface, it will begin its fiery re-entry.

When it reaches this point, Markus Dolensky, of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, told CNN that observers on Earth will potentially see 'a series of fireballs streaking across the sky'.

'It is now nearing its fiery demise,' he added.

This will only happen if conditions are clear, however.

The dramatic reentry will be unmissable, but keen astronomers are keeping their eyes peeled for the passing of Tiangong-1 throughout its final days.

It is visible to the naked eye and can be seen by people living in mid-latitude areas in both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere.

Like many satellites and the ISS, Tiangong-1 looks like an unblinking white light gliding swiftly across the sky.

For those not in the correct regions to see the passage of the satellite, a live stream has been set up to allow amateurs to see the final passages of the Chinese space station as it passes overhead.

This image of the Chinese Space Station was taken over a two second exposure and from the Virtual Telescope Project live feed. The space station was travelling at 18 degrees a second across the sky

Predicting when and where the rogue station will reach the surface is extremely difficult as it orbits the Earth at around 18,000 mph (29,000km/h).

To track the satellite, experts are using some of the most advanced and powerful telescopes in the world.

At the Fraunhofer Institute for High-Frequency Physics and Radar Techniques, scientists were recently able to capture images of the craft using radar imaging.

Commissioned by the ESA, Fraunhofer researchers are studying the speed of the satellite and its rotation.

The tracking and imaging radar system uses signals in the Ku-band (12 to 18 gigahertz) and I-band (100  150 megahertz) radio frequencies to follow Tiangong-1.

At the Fraunhofer Institute scientists can track Tiangong-1 using radar (pictured). Radar allows the institute to watch the station regardless of the weather, or if it is day or night

Radar allows the institute to watch the station regardless of the weather, or if it is day or night.

ESA claim that its estimate for reentry is still 'highly variable' and that a precise time and place will only be known around 24 hours before landing.

In a statement, the space agency said: 'The Chinese space station Tiangong-1 will re-enter the Earth's atmosphere where it will to a large extent burn up.

'It is possible that some debris will reach the Earth's surface.'

According to experts tracking the station at the European Space Agency (ESA), it has the highest chance of crashing along a narrow strip around latitudes of 43 degrees north and south.

This includes a number of highly populated cities including New York, Barcelona, Beijing, Chicago, Istanbul, Rome and Toronto.

There is a chance parts of the station containing hazardous hydrazine could plummet into these highly-populated area.

Hydrazine is a chemical which is included in rocket fuel that causes irritation of the eyes and throat, dizziness and can lead to the growth of cancerous tumours.

Fall of Chinese space station Tiangong-1 over time and potential landing spots and times. The odds of being struck by space debris at one in 1.2 trillion. That is roughly 10 million times less likely than getting hit by lightning

The chances of human injury are small, claims Stijn Lemmens, an ESA space debris expert based in Darmstadt, Germany.

'Over the past 60 years of space flight, we are nearing the mark of 6,000 uncontrolled reentries of large objects, mostly satellites and upper (rocket) stages,' he told AFP.

'Only one event actually produced a fragment which hit a person, and it did not result in injury.'

Mr Lemmens says the odds of being struck by space debris at one in 1.2 trillion.

That is roughly 10 million times less likely than getting hit by lightning.

Although nobody has ever died from being hit by space junk falling back to Earth, one Australian region did fine Nasa $400 for littering when its Skylab crashed around the town of Esperence in 1974.

WHICH CITIES LIE IN THE TIANGONG-1 'DANGER ZONE'? Name of city Country Name of city Country Barcelona Spain Milwaukee USA Beijing China Monaco Monaco Bilbao Spain Naples Italy Boise USA New York USA Boston USA Nice France Boulder USA Philadelphia USA Buffalo USA Pittsburgh USA Cannes France Punta Arenas Chile Chicago USA Rochester USA Christchurch New Zealand Rome Italy Cleveland USA Salt Lake City Spain Concord USA San Sebastian Spain Des Moines USA Sapporo Japan Detroit USA Sioux Falls USA Florence Italy Sochi Russia Istanbul Turkey Stanley Falkland Islands Kushiro Japan Toronto Canada Madrid Spain Trelew Argentina Marseilles France Valladolid Spain

China's out-of-control space station will crash into Earth over Easter weekend, according to the European Space Agency. Pictured in blue is the craft's observed path while red shows its predicted time of impact with Earth

'At no time will a precise time/location prediction from ESA be possible,' the agency's Space Debris Office, based in Darmstadt, Germany, said in a previous statement.

Scientists will only know the precise date Tiangong-1 will impact and exactly where debris will fall during the finals days of its decline. Pictured is a graph showing how the window of predicted impact dates (y-axis) has changed over time (x-axis)

WHAT IS THE TIANGONG-1 SPACE STATION? The vehicle is 10.4 metres long and has a main diameter of 3.35 metres. It has a liftoff mass of 8,506 kilograms and provides 15 cubic metres of pressurised volume Tiangong-1 is China's first Space Station Module. The vehicle was the nation's first step towards its ultimate goal of developing, building, and operating a large Space Station as a permanent human presence in Low Earth Orbit. The module was launched on September 29, 2012. Tiangong-1 features flight-proven components of Chinese Shenzhou Spacecraft as well as new technology. The module consists of three sections: the aft service module, a transition section and the habitable orbital module. The vehicle is 10.4 metres long and has a main diameter of 3.35 metres. It has a liftoff mass of 8,506 kilograms and provides 15 cubic metres of pressurized volume. Advertisement

ESA say that the forecast was updated approximately weekly through to mid-March, and is now being updated every 1-2 days.

The doomed 8.5-tonne craft has been hurtling towards Earth since Chinese scientists lost control of it in 2016.

After completing its final life phase, the space craft became unresponsive.

The descent is difficult to predict as the conditions in space are widely unknown and unpredictable.

The orbit pattern of Tiangong-1 is also making predictions more complex.

Explaining why, Dr Hugh Lewis, senior lecturer in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Southampton, compared the geometrical processes at work to crossing the road.

The Tiangong-1 space station (artist's impression) is hurtling towards Earth carrying a 'highly toxic chemical'. The doomed 8.5-tonne craft is believed to contain dangerous hydrazine

Speaking to MailOnline, he said: 'The spacecraft is travelling around a more or less circular orbit, which is tipped with respect to the equator at 43.

'If you plot this path on a map of the Earth, it produces a sine wave pattern, with the slower curve of the wave in northern and southern latitudes and the faster straighter sections running from east to west.

'If you imagine the green low risk area on the map is the part of the road we're trying to walk across, the quickest way is to go at 90 degrees  straight across.

'When the spacecraft crosses the equator, it's crossing the road at this point, and it does so really fast.

'When it goes across the red bands further north and south, it's crossing at a steeper angle - almost parallel to the road.

'It takes longer to cross at these latitudes, which is why it has a higher risk of coming down here.'

WHAT IS THE 'HIGHLY TOXIC' CHEMICAL ONBOARD CHINA'S TIANGONG-1 SPACE STATION? A 'highly-toxic' corrosive chemical could land on Earth when parts of an out-of-control Chinese space station crash into our planet. The chemical, called hydrazine, is used in rocket fuel and long-term exposure is believed to cause cancer in humans. It is being carried aboard the Tiangong-1 space station which is hurtling towards Earth. The warning over exposure to the chemical came from Aerospace Corp, a non-profit corporation based in El Segundo, California, which provides technical guidance and advice on all aspects of space missions. Hydrazine is a colourless, oily liquid or sometimes white crystalline compound with a very highly reactive base. A 'highly-toxic' corrosive chemical could be spread over the planet when a Chinese space station crashes to Earth, experts have warned. The substance, called hydrazine, is used in rocket fuel and is believed to cause cancer in humans (stock image) It has a number of industrial, agricultural and military uses, including in rocket fuel. Symptoms of short-term exposure to high levels of hydrazine include irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat, dizziness, headache, nausea, pulmonary edema, seizures, and coma, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Long-term exposure can also damage the liver, kidneys, and central nervous system in humans. The liquid is corrosive and may produce dermatitis from skin contact in humans and animals. Increased incidences of lung, nasal cavity, and liver tumours have been observed in rodents exposed to hydrazine. The EPA has classified hydrazine as a Group B2, a probable human carcinogen. Advertisement

Predictions of Tiangong-1's most likely point of impact come from Aerospace, a US research organisation based in El Segundo, California, that advises government and private enterprise on space flight.

Estimates from Aerospace say the space station will enter the Earth's atmosphere on April 1, give or take a few days, and debris will fall no further north than 42.7 N latitude or south of 42.7 S latitude.

These zero probability areas, marked safe as Tiangong-1 does not fly over them, constitute about a third of the Earth's total surface area.

Tracking website SatView allows users to follow the exact movements of a range of different satellites, the Chinese Tiangong-1 is one of them. It shows a predicted time of reentry to the atmosphere as well as information on where it has been and where it is going

The Chinese space agency has been tracking the space station (pictured before it was launched in 2011), and vowed to issue warnings if there are any potential collisions imminent. But not everyone is convinced by this

An interactive map from SatView allows you to track the space stations's descent in real-time.

There are two maps available; the largest one shows the past path and the predicted path as a series of dots, whilst the smaller inset map shows the space station's exact location above Earth at any given moment.

The Satview map shows several different satellites in orbit, including the Hubble telescope and the International Space Station.

The larger map which shows the dots revealing the satellite's route is produced by Satview.

The second map is powered by USstratcom (United States Strategic Command) and then overlaid on to Google Maps.

As more information is garnered as to when the reentry will take place, the site updates with the most likely landing spot for the space station.
The mesmerising process of a kidney bean burgeoning into a fully-grown plant has been captured in an incredible new timelapse.

Shot through a soil cross section, the footage shows how the bean first bursts and sprouts roots, before a stem and plant shoots out above the surface.

The amazing video was captured by Lithuanian YouTuber Mindaugas Kriksciukas in a painstaking process that took a total of four attempts.

The footage was shot over 25 days, with Mr Kriksciukas, 27, setting his camera to shoot an image of the bean's progress every nine minutes and 36 seconds.

The result was a jittery but engrossing clip showing just how much plants can move during their earliest stages of growth.

The idea came to Mr Kriksciukas while brainstorming ideas for an interesting time-lapse subject for his YouTube channel GPhase.

Having remembered soil cross sections of roots from the biology books of his youth, the Lithuanian photographer thought that a time-lapse of such a cross section, and then growth, may have never been captured before.

Mr Kriksciukas, from Garliava, Lithuania, said: 'Response was overwhelmingly positive - people have been commenting that they liked the video or find it amazing.

'On a normal timescale, plants move so slow that one could easily not notice how much they move.

The mesmerising process of a kidney bean burgeoning into a fully-grown plant has been captured in an incredible new timelapse. Pictured is the kidney bean (left) sprouting roots shortly after it was planted (right)

HOW DOES A SEED BECOME A FULLY-GROWN PLANT? Most plants grow from seeds, which come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Within this compact package is everything the plant needs to grow and reproduce. The outside covering of seeds is called the coat, which protects the baby plant and is split open once it begins to grow. In order for seeds to grow into plants, they need soil containing nutrients, water, sunlight, the right temperature, room to grow, and time. In order for seeds to grow into plants, they need soil containing nutrients, water, sunlight, the right temperature, room to grow, and time. If the conditions are just right, the seed begins to sprout roots deep into the soil to collect water If the conditions are just right, the seed begins to sprout roots deep into the soil to collect water, while a stem shoots upwards. The plant knows which way to grow its roots and stem because it can sense the pull of gravity through the soil - while the stem is grown in the opposite direction, the roots are pushed in line with gravity. Once the stem has breached the surface of the soil, it grows leaves to collect sunlight. The plant has specialised cell machinery that means its stem always grows in the direction of the sun to make sure it is pointing the right way. Advertisement

'Seeing the motion, the action, growth itself is definitely the most fascinating thing about these videos.'

Most plants grow from seeds, which come in a variety of shapes and sizes, and the kidney bean plant grows from kidney beans.

Within this compact package is everything the plant needs to grow and reproduce.

Shot through a soil cross section, the footage shows how the bean first bursts and sprouts roots, before a stem and plant shoots out above the surface

The amazing video was captured by Lithuanian YouTuber Mindaugas Kriksciukas in a painstaking process that took a total of four attempts. After the stem breaks the surface of the soil (left) it quickly grows leaves to collect UV light (right)

The outside covering of seeds is called the coat, which protects the baby plant and is split open once it begins to grow.

In order for seeds to grow into plants, they need soil containing nutrients, water, sunlight, the right temperature, room to grow, and time.

If the conditions are just right, the seed begins to sprout roots deep into the soil to collect water, while a stem shoots upwards.

The footage was shot over 25 days, with Mr Kriksciukas, 27, setting his camera to shoot an image of the bean's progress every nine minutes and 36 seconds

The result was a jittery but engrossing clip showing just how much plants can move during their earliest stages of growth. The bean grew from a tiny seed into the plant pictured right in just 25 days

The plant knows which way to grow its roots and stem because it can sense the pull of gravity through the soil - while the stem is grown in the opposite direction, the roots are pushed in line with gravity.

Once the stem has breached the surface of the soil, it grows leaves to collect sunlight.

The plant has specialised cell machinery that means its stem always grows in the direction of the sun to make sure it is pointing the right way.
Elon Musk has announced his latest plan to sell Lego-like blocks made from rocks dug out of the Boring Company's tunnels.

Musk tweeted that instead of disposing of leftover earth removed as part of his network of tunnels, he plans to recycle it.

He says these rocks - dug out from under Washington, DC and Los Angeles - could create sculpture and buildings.

Last month, Musk claimed his company had raised $10 million (7 million) for his high-speed tunnel venture after selling 20,000 'zombie-killing' flamethrowers in just four days.

Its currently unknown when these bricks, or the kits, will be available or how much theyll cost.

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Elon Musk has announced his latest plan to sell Lego-like blocks made from rocks dug out of the Boring Company's tunnels (pictured)

'Lifesize Lego-like interlocking bricks made from tunnelling rock that you can use to create sculptures & buildings', Musk tweeted

The billionaire first tweeted a picture of his firm's boring machine in February 2017 with the caption 'Minecraft' - a reference to the popular video game in which players dig large tunnel networks for resources.

In January the Boring Company presented plans to build the 6.5-mile (10.5 km) shaft under Culver City, California, at a council meeting.

It first started work on a test site under SpaceX headquarters in LA at the end of last year.

Now, Musk says he is going to make Lego-like bricks from the waste material.

'Lifesize Lego-like interlocking bricks made from tunnelling rock that you can use to create sculptures & buildings', Musk tweeted.

'Rated for California seismic loads, so super strong, but bored in the middle, like an aircraft wing spar, so not heavy.'

On the website, the company claims that creating bricks will reduce the environmental impacts of its projects - as production of cement accounts for 4 per cent of global CO2 emissions, writes Business Insider.

'First kit set will be ancient Egypt  pyramids, Sphinx, temple of Horus, etc', Musk subsequently wrote on his Twitter.

The SpaceX billionaire also joked; 'And they said I'd never be a rock star...' , later complaining he felt his quip had gone unappreciated.

'Turns out joking about being a 'rock' star because of digging tunnels (through, uh, rock  hello??) is deeply underappreciated', he said.

The billionaire first tweeted a picture of his firm's boring machine back in February 2017 with the caption 'Minecraft' - a reference to the popular video game in which players dig large tunnel networks for resources

In January the Boring Company presented plans to build the 6.5-mile (10.5 km) shaft under Culver City, California, at a council meeting. Now, Musk says he is going to make Lego-like bricks from the waste material. Pictured is the Lego Group chairman Jorgen Vig Knudstorp with some novelty-sized bricks

The company had already hinted at these plans on the FAQ page on its website.

'Buildings have been constructed from Earth for thousands of years including, according to recent evidence, the Pyramids'.

'These bricks can potentially be used as a portion of the tunnel lining itself, which is typically built from concrete', it reads.

The company had already hinted at these plans on the FAQ page on its website. 'First kit set will be ancient Egypt  pyramids, Sphinx, temple of Horus, etc', Musk wrote on Twitter

The SpaceX billionaire also joked; 'And they said I'd never be a rock star...' On the website, the company claims that creating bricks will reduce the environmental impacts of its projects

He later complained he felt his quip had gone 'deeply unappreciated. 'Turns out joking about being a 'rock' star because of digging tunnels (through, uh, rock  hello??) is deeply underappreciated', he tweeted

This is not the only bit of Boring Company merchandise Musk has decided to create.

His last novelty item was flamethrowers retailing at $500 (351) each, which he announced back in January.

The company sold 20,000 of them, and Musk tweeted at the time that they were 'guaranteed to liven up any party!'

'When the zombie apocalypse happens, you'll be glad you bought a flamethrower,' he tweeted at the end of January.

'Works against hordes of the undead or your money back!'

Each flamethrower, he said, comes with a free fire extinguisher and buyers need to agree to certain conditions before getting the device in spring.

This is not the only bit of Boring Company merchandise Musk has decided to create. His last novelty item was flamethrowers retailing at $500 (351) each

Each flamethrower, he said, comes with a free fire extinguisher and buyers need to agree to certain conditions before getting the device in spring.

The company also offered $30 (21) fire extinguisher, sales for which have now also ended.

The firm said: 'Buy an overpriced Boring Company fire extinguisher! You can definitely buy one for less elsewhere, but this one comes with a cool sticker and the button is conveniently riiight above.'

'I know it's a little off-brand, but kids love it,' Musk wrote about the flamethrower when he first announced it.

Most people initially assumed that the South African entrepreneur was joking.

Earlier this month, Musk also tweeted that he had an adjusted plan for the urban loop system, revealing a new focus on mass transit.

While Musk previously outlined a system that would ferry individual cars at high-speeds on electric sleds, a new animation visualising the project shows multi-passenger carriages that prioritise pedestrians and cyclists.

In some ways, Musks new vision is much like the original plan.

But, instead of beginning with personal cars, it will first roll out to the masses.

The electric buses would descend to the tunnels in an elevator shaft, before setting off on a track where they can hit speeds of up to 125 miles per hour (200km/h).

Adjusting The Boring Company plan: all tunnels & Hyperloop will prioritize pedestrians & cyclists over cars, Musk tweeted.

Will still transport cars, but only after all personalised mass transit needs are met. Its a matter of courtesy & fairness. If someone cant afford a car, they should go first.

In a video shared alongside the new details, futuristic passenger cars can be seen picking up riders from the street level, before descending on a high-speed trip to LAX.

Adjusting The Boring Company plan: all tunnels & Hyperloop will prioritize pedestrians & cyclists over cars, Musk tweeted

Will still transport cars, but only after all personalised mass transit needs are met. Its a matter of courtesy & fairness. If someone cant afford a car, they should go first.

Earlier this month, the company released details of twin tunnels from downtown DC to downtown Baltimore.

This 'Loop' transit system could allow people to travel between Washington D.C. and Baltimore in 15 minutes.

They want this route to eventually extend all the way to New York, writes Elec Trek.

'The DC-to-Baltimore Loop would consist of the construction of a set of parallel, twin underground tunnels', it reads on the Boring Company website.

'The proposed twin tunnels would run in parallel for approximately 35 miles from downtown DC to downtown Baltimore, beneath New York Avenue and then the Baltimore-Washington Parkway.

In a video shared alongside the new details, futuristic passenger cars can be seen picking up riders from the street level, before descending on a high-speed trip to LAX

'This would serve as the central artery for a potential future transportation network which would hopefully be extended to New York'.

A few months ago Elon Musk claimed he had received verbal government approval to build a Hyperloop connecting New York to Washington, with stops in Philadelphia and Baltimore.

With permission from the DC government, the Boring Company can now do work within an abandoned parking lot at 53 New York Avenue NE, near the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The firm already had backing from the state of Maryland, after it was revealed this past October that the administration had granted Elon Musk permission to begin tunnelling beneath Baltimore.
'Facebook will never sell your information without consent.'

That is the impression Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was keen to give during a 2009 interview, but events in recent weeks suggest that was not the whole story.

Video footage of the conversation was posted to Twitter by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

It follows revelations that the Trump-affiliated consulting firm obtained data on at least 50 million unsuspecting Facebook users.

This information was used to target voters in the US, based on psychological profiling, with political adverts spreading disinformation.

Facebook is also facing criticism for collecting years of data on call and text histories from Android users.

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'Facebook will never sell your information without consent.' That is the impression Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was keen to give during a 2009 interview, but events in recent weeks suggest that was not the whole story

Snowden sent a tweet yesterday containing a video that showed Zuckerberg addressing privacy concerns on his website.

In the tweet, the former CIA computer specialist implored his followers to spread the clip beyond the social media site, attaching a download link to the original file.

The interview was conducted by the BBC journalist Laura Trevelyan, who pressed Zuckerberg on his firm's handling of data.

Their conversation ran as follows:

Ms Trevelyan: So who is going to own the Facebook content, the person who puts it there, or you?

Zuckerberg: The person who puts the content on Facebook always owns the information, and this is why Facebook is such a special service.

Ms Trevelyan: And you won't sell it?

Zuckerberg: No, of course not.

Ms Trevelyan: Just to be clear, you're not going to sell, or share, any of the information on Facebook?

Zuckerberg: We're not going to share people's information except for with the people that they've asked for it to be shared.

Zuckerberg's public 2009 promise is in stark contrast to his private thoughts at the time of launching his Facebook.

Video footage of the conversation was posted to Twitter by National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden. The former CIA computer specialist implored his followers to spread the clip beyond the social media site, including a download link to the original file

During an instant messenger conversation with a friend at the age of 19, he branded early users of his social network dumb f***s for trusting him with their data.

First picked up on by the media in 2010, these comments have also re-surfaced in the wake of Cambridge Analytica.

The leaked conversation was published in a Medium blog post by journalist Maria Bustillos.

Ms Bustillos said it shows that Zuckerberg has a long history of disregarding the privacy expectations of users over handling of their data.

The conversation, which has since been discussed widely on social media, ran as follows:

Zuckerberg: Yea so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard, just ask. i have over 4000 emails, pictures, addresses, sns

WHAT HAS FACEBOOK DONE TO ADDRESS PRIVACY CONCERNS? Facebook is giving its privacy tools a makeover as it reels from criticisms over its data practices and faces tighter European regulations in the coming months. The changes won't affect Facebook's privacy policies or the types of data it gathers about its users. But the company hopes its 2.2 billion users will have an easier time navigating its complex and often confusing privacy and security settings. Facebook is giving its privacy tools a makeover as it reels from criticisms over its data practices and faces tighter European regulations in the coming months. This image shows how the settings will appear before (left) and after (right) the redesign Facebook says it's trying to make the controls easier to find and to give users a simpler way to access and download the data it collects on them. The announcement follows revelations that Trump-affiliated consulting firm got data on millions of unsuspecting Facebook users. Facebook is also facing criticism for collecting years of data on call and text histories from Android users. In a written statement, Erin Egan, vice president and chief privacy officer, policy, and Ashlie Beringer, vice president and deputy general counsel, said: 'Last week showed how much more work we need to do to enforce our policies and help people understand how Facebook works and the choices they have over their data. This image shows a redesign of Facebook's privacy tools. The changes won't affect Facebook's privacy policies or the types of data it gathers on users, but the company hopes users will have an easier time navigating its complex settings menus Among the changes, Facebook is making data settings and tools easier to find, is introducing a new privacy shortcuts menu, and is adding tools to find, download and delete your Facebook data 'Weve heard loud and clear that privacy settings and other important tools are too hard to find and that we must do more to keep people informed. 'Were taking additional steps in the coming weeks to put people more in control of their privacy. 'Most of these updates have been in the works for some time, but the events of the past several days underscore their importance.' Among the changes, Facebook is making data settings and tools easier to find, is introducing a new privacy shortcuts menu, and is adding tools to find, download and delete your Facebook data. Advertisement

Friend: what!? howd you manage that one?

Zuckerberg: people just submitted it. i dont know why. they trust me. dumb f***s.

Zuckerberg may have been saved from the current privacy backlash had he listened to his rival, the late Steve Jobs, it seems.

Footage of the former Apple boss warning over Facebook's handling of private data dating from 2010 has also re-appeared in recent days.

Speaking at the time of a previous privacy row involving the social network, Jobs warned that privacy rules should be spelled out in 'plain English and repeatedly.'

Footage of the late Apple boss Steve Jobs, pictured here in 2007, warning over Facebook's handling of private data dating from 2010 has also re-appeared in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal

Jobs made the comments at The Wall Street Journals (WSJ) All Things Digital conference, held in Los Angeles, where Zuckerberg was in the audience, waiting to be interviewed.

Walt Mossberg, the WSJ'S principal technology columnist from 1991 to 2013, asked Jobs about his thoughts on recent privacy issues around Facebook and Google, as well as Silicon Valley's stance on handling sensitive data.

Facebook was at the time in the process of updating its privacy controls, in light of criticism that it was forcing people to share their data.

Google, meanwhile, had been accused of secretly intercepting Americans' data sent over unencrypted Wi-Fi routers during a two-year period.

In response, Jobs said: 'Silicon Valley is not monolithic. Weve always had a very different view of privacy than some of our colleagues in the Valley.

'Privacy means people know what theyre signing up for, in plain English, and repeatedly.

'Im an optimist; I believe people are smart, and some people want to share more data than other people do.

'Ask them. Ask them every time. Make them tell you to stop asking them if they get tired of your asking them. Let them know precisely what youre going to do with their data.'

'A lot of people in the Valley think were really old-fashioned about this, and maybe we are, but we worry about stuff like this.'

Zuckerberg took out full-page adverts in nine major US and British newspapers over the weekend to apologise for the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

In the ads, the Facebook founder vowed to clamp down on allowing third parties access to data which can be sold on.

Mark Zuckerberg, pictured here in July 2017, took out full-page adverts in nine major US and British newspapers over the weekend to apologise for the data privacy scandal. The breach saw details from 50 million Facebook users leaked to political activists

The ads, done in simple black text against a plain white background, were headlined: 'We have a responsibility to protect your information. If we can't, we don't deserve it.'

'You may have heard about a quiz app built by a university researcher that leaked Facebook data of millions of people in 2014,' the apology begins.

'This was a breach of trust, and I'm sorry we didn't do more at the time. We're now taking steps to make sure this doesn't happen again.'

'We've already stopped apps like this from getting so much information. Now we're limiting the data apps get when you sign in using Facebook.'

'We're also investigating every single app that had access to large amounts of data before we fixed this. We expect there are others. And when we find them, we will ban them and tell everyone affected.'

'Finally, we'll remind you which apps you've given access to your information - so you can shut off the ones you don't want anymore.'

'Thank you for believing in this community. I promise to do better for you.'

The apology is formally signed off by the 33-year-old Facebook chief.

The Facebook data scandal deepened over the weekend after users found the social network had harvested information including call logs and text messages.

Some users discovered the Silicon Valley giant had been storing complete logs of incoming and outgoing calls and text messages.

Others reported that data such as contacts in their address books, social events in their calendars and even friends' birthdays had been stored.

One user, Dylan McKay, reported that from October 2016 to July 2017 his logs contained 'the data of every [mobile] call I've made, including time and duration' and 'data about every text message I've received or sent'.

Rather than delete an account entirely, the social media site encourages people to 'deactivate' their profile as this leaves all personal data on its servers.

However, when users request to permanently delete their accounts, the site suggests: 'You may want to download a copy of your info from Facebook.'

Emma Kennedy tweeted that she had found that Facebook had recorded 'every single phone number in my contacts.

Facebook is also facing criticism for collecting years of data on call and text histories from Android users. Facebook user Dylan McKay revealed Facebook logged every mobile call he'd ever made

'They had every single social event I went to, a list of all my friends and their birthdays, and a list of every text I've sent'

'They have plundered my phone. They have phone numbers of people who arent on Facebook. They have phone numbers of household names who, Im sure, would be furious to know their phone numbers are accessible. Im appalled.'

A Facebook spokesman said: 'The first time you sign in on your phone to a messaging or social app, it's a widely used practice to begin by uploading your phone contacts.

'Contact uploading is optional. People are expressly asked if they want to give permission to upload their contacts from their phone  it's explained right there in the apps when you get started.

'People can delete previously uploaded information at any time and can find all the information available to them in their account and activity log from our Download Your Information tool.'

The company says an opt-out for uploading contacts is available and users can delete all uploaded contacts by turning off the continuous uploading setting in Facebook's Messenger app.

All previously uploaded contacts are deleted when a user permanently removes their profile. Contacts will also no longer continue to be uploaded.
Archaeologists have found the body of a fearsome Chinese warlord buried in a 1,800-year-old tomb, despite ancient efforts to hide his resting place.

The hidden underground tomb dates back to the year 220AD and is believed to belong to Cao Cao, who was one of the most famous warlords at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

The huge mausoleum site was hard to find as most of its structure above ground had been demolished.

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Archaeologists have found the body of a fearsome Chinese warlord buried in a 1,800-year-old Han Dynasty tomb (pictured), despite ancient efforts to hide his resting place

A tomb thought to be his was found in 2009 but a controversy has raged since then over whether it was really Cao Cao in the main chamber (pictured)

Historians say Cao Cao's outstanding military and political talents enabled him to build the strongest and most prosperous state in northern China.

He ruled during the Three Kingdoms period in 208 to 280 AD, when China had three separate rulers.

A tomb thought to be his was found in 2009 but a controversy has raged since then over whether it was really Cao Cao in the main chamber.

But archaeologists from the Provincial Institute of Cultural Heritage and Archaeology say they are now sure that the remains of a man aged between 60 and 70 are those of the famous warlord.

Although Cao Cao was revered at the time of this death, the tomb, found in the village of Gaoxixue in Anyang County in Eastern China's Henan province, has very little information on it.

It is thought that Cao Cao forbade any grand tombs but that his son Cao Pi ignored his wishes and built one anyway.

However, Cao Pi is believed to have changed his mind later, fearing tomb robbers, and had the upper part of the mausoleum taken down.

Archaeologists from the Provincial Institute of Cultural Heritage and Archaeology say they are now sure that the remains of a man aged between 60 and 70 are those of the famous warlord. This picture shows the site where the remains are buried

The hidden underground tomb dates to the year 220AD and is believed to belong to Cao Cao (pictured), who was one of the most famous warlords at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty

The huge mausoleum site (pictured) was hard to find as most of its structure above ground had been demolished

Although Cao Cao was revered at the time of this death, the tomb, found in the village of Gaoxixue in Anyang County in Eastern China's Henan province, has very little information on it

WHO WAS CAO CAO? Cao Cao was the final chancellor of the Eastern Han dynasty, before going on to form his own state during the political turmoil of the Three Kingdoms period. Cao Cao as he was portrayed in an adaptation of the historical novel Romance Of The Three Kingdoms Historians say Cao Cao's outstanding military and political talents enabled him to build the strongest and most prosperous state in northern China during the Three Kingdoms period in 208 to 280 AD, when China had three separate rulers. He died in 220 AD in Luoyang, the capital of the Eastern Han dynasty, and was posthumously named Emperor of the Wei state that he founded. His father was the adopted son of the chief eunuch of the imperial court and Cao was a minor garrison commander before rising to prominence as a general when he suppressed a rebellion, which threatened the last years of Han rule. Characters based on Cao are depicted as shrewd and unscrupulous villains in traditional Chinese operas and in one of China's best-loved historical novels, 'Romance Of The Three Kingdoms'. In the fictionalised account, Cao says: 'Better for me to wrong the world than for the world to wrong me.' The common saying in Chinese 'speak of Cao Cao and Cao Cao arrives' is the equivalent of the English expression 'speak of the devil'. Cao was also a prolific poet. Advertisement

Archaeologist Zhou Ligang said: 'This means that the demolition was not an act of revenge but was planned.

'If the construction was knocked down by his opponents, there would be plenty of debris at the scene, but at Cao Cao's mausoleum that is not in that case.'

However, there were still a few signs the site was Cao Caos tomb, including a stone tablet that has the name 'King Wu of Wei' on, ones of Cao Cao's titles.

The underground mausoleum is also extremely large.

Several agate decorations (pictured) were found in the 1,800-year-old tomb. There were still a few signs the site was Cao Caos tomb, including a stone tablet that has the name 'King Wu of Wei' on, ones of Cao Cao's title

It is thought that Cao Cao forbade any grand tombs but that his son Cao Pi ignored his wishes and built one anyway

However, Cao Pi is thought to have changed his mind later, fearing tomb robbers, and had the upper part of the mausoleum taken down. Pictured is the excavation site

Pictured is a burial iron knife found at the site. Among the relics found were stone paintings featuring the social life of Cao's time, stone tablets bearing inscriptions of sacrificial objects, and Cao's personal belongings

Cao Cao died in 220 AD in Luoyang, the capital of the Eastern Han dynasty, and was posthumously named Emperor of the Wei state that he founded. Pictured are bronze sculptures of miniature soldiers, produced during the Eastern Han Dynasty

According to Mr Ligang the identities of two ladies found in the tomb remained mysterious. A new museum is now planned at the site

A stone tablet carrying the inscription 'King Wu of Wei' found in the tomb

Among the relics found were stone paintings featuring the social life of Cao's time, stone tablets bearing inscriptions of sacrificial objects, and Cao's personal belongings.

According to Mr Ligang the identities of two ladies found in the tomb remained mysterious.

History records that Cao Cao was buried with his wife, who died aged between 70 and 80, but the two corpses are of one woman in her fifties and one in her twenties.

A new museum is now planned at the site.

Mr Ligang said it was hoped it would receive its first visitors in around three years.

Characters based on Cao are depicted as shrewd and unscrupulous villains in traditional Chinese operas and in one of China's best-loved historical novels, 'Romance Of The Three Kingdoms'.

In the fictionalised account, Cao says: 'Better for me to wrong the world than for the world to wrong me.'

The common saying in Chinese 'speak of Cao Cao and Cao Cao arrives' is the equivalent of the English expression 'speak of the devil'
Jaywalkers in one Chinese city will soon receive an instant notification and a fine as soon as they violate the rules, thanks to a new Big Brother-style scheme.

Officials are looking to upgrade an existing system that uses artificial intelligence and facial recognition technology to name and shame offenders.

Images of pedestrians crossing the road against red traffic lights are already beamed onto large LED screens.

Now, the government is consulting with mobile carriers and social media firms to add the extra deterrent for the region's 12 million people.

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Jaywalkers in one Chinese city will soon receive an instant notification as soon as they violate the rules, thanks to a new spy scheme. Officials are looking to upgrade an existing system that uses artificial intelligence and facial recognition technology to name and shame offenders

Traffic police in Shenzhen City, south-east China, have asked Intellifusion - the firm behind the existing scheme - to adopt the new measures.

The firm's cameras are equipped with high resolution seven million pixel sensors, which capture photos of pedestrians crossing the road against traffic lights.

Its facial recognition technology then identifies the offender from a database.

Individuals caught out suffer the indignity of having their photo, family name and part of their government identification number displayed on the screens.

In the ten months from launch to February of this year, the system has caught 13,930 offences on camera at one busy intersection.

In March, police launched a webpage which displays photos, names and partial ID numbers of jaywalkers.

Local mobile providers and social media firms WeChat and Sina Weibo are reported to be involved in the next stage of the project.

Wang Jun, the companys director of marketing solutions, told the South China Morning Post: 'Jaywalking has always been an issue in China and can hardly be resolved just by imposing fines or taking photos of the offenders.

'But a combination of technology and psychology  can greatly reduce instances of jaywalking and will prevent repeat offences.'

News first emerged that Shenzhen had installed facial-recognition systems, dubbed 'robocops', in April 2017.

In the ten months from launch to February of this year, the system has caught 13,930 offences on camera at one busy intersection. In March, police also launched a webpage which displays photos, names and partial ID numbers of jaywalkers

Traffic police in Shenzhen City, south-east China, have asked Intellifusion - the firm behind the existing scheme - to adopt the new measures. Local mobile providers and social media firms WeChat and Sina Weibo are reported to be involved in the next stage of the project

HOW DOES FACIAL RECOGNITION TECHNOLOGY WORK? Facial recognition is increasingly used as way to access your money and your devices. When it comes to policing, it could soon mean the difference between freedom and imprisonment. Faces can be scanned at a distance, generating a code as unique as your fingerprints. This is created by measuring the distance between various points, like the width of a person's nose, distance between the eyes and length of the jawline. Facial recognition systems check more than 80 points of comparison, known as 'nodal points', combining them to build a person's faceprint. These faceprints can then be used to search through a database, matching a suspect to known offenders. Facial recognition is increasingly used as way to access your money and your devices. When it comes to policing, it could soon mean the difference between freedom and imprisonment (stock) Facial scanning systems used on personal electronic devices function slightly differently, and vary from gadget to gadget. The iPhone X, for example, uses Face ID via a 7MP front-facing camera on the handset which has multiple components. One of these is a Dot Projector that projects more than 30,000 invisible dots onto your face to map its structure. The dot map is then read by an infrared camera and the structure of your face is relayed to the A11 Bionic chip in the iPhone X, where it is turned into a mathematical model. The A11 chip then compares your facial structure to the facial scan stored in the iPhone X during the setup process. Security cameras use artificial intelligence powered systems that can scan for faces, re-orient, skew and stretch them, before converting them to black-and-white to make facial features easier for computer algorithms to recognise. Error rates with facial recognition can be as low as 0.8 per cent. While this sounds low, in the real world that means eight in every 1,000 scans could falsely identify an innocent party.. One such case, reported in The Intercept, details how Steven Talley was falsely matched to security footage of a bank robber. Advertisement

According to the People's Daily Online, the technology was set up at a crossroad near Peking University Shenzhen Hospital on April 15, 2017, as part of a trial run.

The cameras operate 24 hours.

A display screen was also installed at the side of the road and at the pedestrian island.

Chief officer Li Qiang at Shenzhen Traffic Police Technology Department told reporters that the technology mainly relies on the camera to detect a pedestrian crossing during the red light.

News first emerged that Shenzhen had installed facial-recognition systems, dubbed 'robocops', in April 2017

According to the People's Daily Online , the technology was set up at a crossroad near Peking University Shenzhen Hospital on April 15, 2017, as part of a trial run

Shenzhen traffic police hope to roll out the technology to the whole city, promoting road safety to the region's 12 million people

Cameras capture an offender's face and sends it to display screens, as well as the police bureau, where using face-recognition technology is used to identify the person.

The monitor display operates in real-time, meaning that head-shots of any offenders will upload instantly and run on a loop.

The system also records the number of times a person has run a red light.

The new facial recognition technology has brought an effect of public shaming. However, officer Li said it serves as a function of giving out a warning, sourcing evidence and promoting road safety.

Shenzhen traffic police department released a press release on March 16 showing a record of 123,200 cases of jaywalkers throughout 2016.

Officials are hoping to roll out the technology to the whole of Shenzhen city in the near future to help reduce the figures.

Cameras operating 24-hours will capture an offender's face and sends it to display screens, as well as the police bureau, where using face-recognition technology is used to identify the person
A re-designed Apple Watch featuring a 15 per cent larger screen and better health monitoring will arrive in autumn, according to the latest leak.

The new 'Apple Watch Series 4', which could launch in the third quarter of this year, will also have a longer battery life, according to the source.

The analyst - who has one of the best track records when it comes to Apple rumours - says that the upgrade will have better health sensors without going into details about the design.

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A re-designed Apple Watch featuring a 15 per cent larger screen and better health monitoring will arrive in autumn, according to the latest leak. Pictured is an Apple Watch Series 3

Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities says the devices will have a 'more trendy from factor design' than the rounded square format first introduced three years ago.

According to the leak, the increased size of the screen with probably result in a larger overall body, writes 9 to 5 Mac.

The current Apple Watch - series 3 - has a bespoke heart rate monitor, an accelerometer to measure movement and a gyroscope for navigation.

Current models come in two different case sizes: 38mm and 42mm.

If the head of the case increases proportionally to the screen it will be around 44mm and 48mm respectively on the new model.

However, the bezel size could be reduced so the body of the watch stays the same size, notes Apple Insider.

The analyst has predicted the company will sell between 22 to 24 million Apple Watches this year. That would be a 30 per cent increase from last year.

It is not known if the increase in size will result in more space for additional components.

Mr Kuo believes if the device has a larger lithium ion cell battery and longer battery life, the body of the watch will have to be larger.

The new 'Apple Watch Series 4', which could launch in the third quarter of this year, will also have a longer battery life, according to the source. Pictured is a person wearing the Apple Watch Sport

WHAT FEATURES DOES THE APPLE SERIES 3 WATCH HAVE? In September 2017 Apple revealed its Series 3 Apple Watch. The $399 (399) device allows users to make calls directly from their wrist, much like the previous versions  but, with an integrated SIM card and a display that becomes the antenna, you can now do so without having a phone nearby. The watch has exercise features, a faster dual-core processor, and 18-hour battery life, making it the firms most powerful smartwatch yet. The display itself works as a transmitting and receiving element for 4G LTE and UMTS, meaning it becomes the antenna. And, the built-in eSIM is just over one-hundredth the size of a traditional SIM card, according to Apple. This allows for over-the-air activation in the compact design. Pre-orders for the Series 3 Apple Watch began on 15 September and it became available on 22 September. Its equipped with intelligent coaching features, water resistance up to 50 meters, and a new barometric altimeter that measures relative elevation. These things, coupled with the cellular connectivity, give people a new sense of freedom according to the firm. The Series 3 watch is available in silver and space grey aluminium, along with the new gold aluminium. Advertisement

In September last year Apple revealed its Series 3 Apple Watch.

The $399 (399) device allows users to make calls directly from their wrist, much like the previous versions  but, with an integrated SIM card and a display that becomes the antenna'.

The watch has exercise features, a faster dual-core processor, and 18-hour battery life, making it the firms most powerful smartwatch yet.

Now you can go anywhere with just your Apple Watch, said Jeff Williams, Apples Chief Operating Officer at the time.

The display itself works as a transmitting and receiving element for 4G LTE and UMTS, meaning it becomes the antenna.

Pictured is Apple Watch Series 2. The analyst has predicted the company will sell between 22 to 24 million Apple Watches this year. That would be a 30 per cent increase from last year

In September last year Apple revealed its Series 3 Apple Watch (pictured). The $399 (399) device allows users to make calls directly from their wrist, much like the previous versions  but, with an integrated SIM card and a display that becomes the antenna'

During the launch event, Williams showed how this new feature works, using the watch to call some one who was paddle-boarding - and, the call could be heard clearly.

Its really magical to make a call on a device this small,' Williams said.

Its just darn close to magic.'

If the rumours are true the new watch will have better health capabilities and it seems Apple is increasingly looking to get into monitoring people's health.

In January it was revealed the company wanted people to be able to access their medical records more easily from their iPhone.

The company rolled out a test version of a product that allows users to download their health records onto their iPhones.

The records can be accessed quicker and easier in order to be shown to a doctor or caregiver, according to CNBC.

Pictured is an Apple watch with 42mm stainless steel case with milanese loop. The watch has exercise features, a faster dual-core processor, and 18-hour battery life, making it the firms most powerful smartwatch yet

'We view the future as consumers owning their own health data,' Apple Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams told CNBC.

The app retrieves data from a health provider and displays it whenever new information becomes available.

Apple so far has signed contracts with a dozen hospitals in the US, including Cedars-Sinai, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Penn Medicine, and the University of California, San Diego.

Users will be able to quickly call up data on a range of health issues including allergies, conditions, immunisations, lab results, medications, procedures, and vitals.

The data will be encrypted and protected through a password.
The burgeoning #DeleteFacebook movement has just gained even more support.

Playboy sent out a press release on March 27 announcing the deactivation of its Facebook account. The news comes as Facebook has seen a backlash in the wake of the reported Cambridge Analytica data breach.

Playboys statement read that:  the recent news about Facebook's alleged mismanagement of users' data has solidified our decision to suspend our activity on the platform at this time. There are more than 25 million fans who engage with Playboy via our various Facebook pages, and we do not want to be complicit in exposing them to the reported practices. That is why we have announced that we will be leaving Facebook's platform, deactivating the Playboy accounts that Playboy Enterprises manages directly.

Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg has faced a growing backlash in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica data breach, which saw the data of 50 million Facebook users impacted

Playboy is just the latest influential company to quit the embattled social media platform. On March 23, Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk deleted both of the companys Facebook pages after Twitter users urged him to do so in the aftermath of the data breach controversy.

Cambridge Analytica Facebook scandal

In March 2018, reports emerged in a number of influential media outlets of a major data breach on the popular social media site Facebook.

According to reports and recent revelations from whistle blower Christopher Wylie, Cambridge Analytica, a political consultant firm, began collecting private information about Facebook users in 2014 for political purposes, a violation of Facebooks user agreement.

According to Wylie, a third-party app for Facebook called thisisyourdigitallife was created by Aleksandr Kogan, a professor at the University of Cambridge, purportedly for collecting data for academic purposes. The 270,000 people on Facebook who shared their data on the app unwittingly gave the app permission to collect information about 50 million other users without their consent through their friends network on Facebook. The data was subsequently sold to Cambridge for political data mining and analysis purposes.

Americans who say they trust:



Amazon: 66%

Google: 62%

Microsoft: 60%

Apple: 53%

Yahoo: 48%

Facebook: 41%



(Reuters/Ipsos)  The Spectator Index (@spectatorindex) March 28, 2018

The data breach and resulting privacy concerns caused an uproar among millions of Facebook users, leading to the growing #DeleteFacebook movement to urge users to deactivate their profiles. The scandal has hit Facebooks financial standing hard as well, with the companys stock declining in the wake of the scandal. The stock losses have reportedly cost Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg about $7 billion (5 billion) in just the first few days following the reports of the data breach.

What is Cambridge Analytica?

Cambridge Analytica is a political consulting firm that blends strategic communications with data brokerage and data mining. Its recently been at the center of a controversial data breach targeting Facebook users.

The company was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in London with additional offices in New York City and Washington, D.C. Its CEO is Alexander Nix.

According to Nix, Cambridge Analytica was involved in 44 political races in the United States in 2014. The firm also conducted analytical services for the presidential campaign of Ted Cruz starting in 2015, and later worked for Donald Trumps campaign during the 2016 election, whose digital efforts were helmed by Brad Parscale and his firm Giles Parscale. The company also reportedly worked alongside the Leave.EU campaign in the lead up to the 2016 Brexit referendum.

We take allegations of unethical practices in the past by our former global (non-US) political consultancy very seriously; they are currently the subject of a full and independent investigation which we have instigated to establish the facts. Its findings will be made available.  Cambridge Analytica (@CamAnalytica) March 27, 2018

In March 2018, a number of news outlets reported on the firms controversial business practices, notably its Facebook data breach. According to reports, the company acquired personal information about Facebook users from a third-party researcher and used it as data for political campaigns despite claims that it would be used for academic purposes only.

In another controversy, Channel 4 also aired undercover investigative reports that appear to show Nix claiming to have used bribery and prostitution in order to smear politicians it was conducting opposition research against. These recent revelations have resulted in a warrant against the firms servers by the Information Commissioner of the UK and the companys ads being banned by Facebook on the social media platform, claiming it had been misled by the political consultant firm.
It is widely accepted that the earliest settlers crossed from what is now Russia into Alaska via an ancient land bridge spanning the Bering Strait which was submerged at the end of the last Ice Age.

Issues such as whether there was one founding group or several, when they arrived, and what happened next have been the subject of extensive debate.

The earliest evidence of human settlers on the continent dates to around 14,000 years ago, with the remains of an ancient village found 'older than Egyptian pyramids' found in April 2017.

Artefacts uncovered at the settlement, found on Triquet Island 310 miles (500km) northwest of Victoria, Canada, include tools for creating fires and fishing hooks and spears dating from the Ice Age.

Most recently, researchers have found human footprints found off Canada's Pacific coast.

They show people were living there 13,000 years old at the end of the most recent ice age.

The footprints, which are the only ones ever found from this time around Canada's Pacific coast, belong to at least three different individuals.

The incredible prints could have caught the moment these individuals disembarked from the watercraft for the first time before moving to drier areas.

Digital photographic analyses revealed that the footprints probably belonged to two adults and a child, all barefoot.
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A Californian villa has gone up for sale for $12.9million and comes complete with a 1950s diner, a wine cave and even a garage with space for 100 cars.

Villa De Madre is located just 20 minutes from Napa and is spread across 24,000 square feet.

As well as the main house, it includes a four-bedroom caretakers cottage, two garages for cars and 63 acres of carbernet vines.

The sprawling Villa De Madre just outside of Napa in California, which has recently gone on the market for $12.9million

The whole estate was custom built over 16 years ago. Pictured are vintage cars lined up outside a 1950s style scene

Another of the car barns, which has been decorated in a 1950s style with storefront facades and a diner with a working soda fountain

One of the two huge separate barn areas that can be used to park up over 100 cars. The previous owner had been in the car business

A wine cave buried deep in the property, which houses bottles of wine. The vineyard has enough grapes to produce up to 150,000 bottles of wine

According to agents, Pacific Union, who are listing the property, it was designed and decorated in a European style with the artwork on the walls inspired by the Italian city of Venice.

Visitors at the main entrance are greeted by an arcade of arches and columns as well as a huge marble fireplace.

In the living room, there are high ceilings as well as a double winding staircase with a gold chandelier hanging over the top.

The property also boasts an indoor swimming pool and in the detached barns where there is space to park cars, they have been decorated in a 1950s style with storefront facades and a diner with a working soda fountain.

One of the bedrooms that comes complete with a four-poster bed and spectacular views across the property's vineyards

Another of the sprawling bedrooms with a four-poster bed and Italian-style murals that have been intricately painted on the walls

One of the bathrooms, which has a marble bath where guests can relax in the water and look across the views of vineyards

The villa also comes complete with a swimming pool that is indoors and is surrounded by chair and sunloungers

The house has been listed on the market mulitple times and in 2010 it even had an asking price of more than $20million

Meanwhile, the vineyard has enough grapes to produce up to 150,000 bottles of wine and enough olive trees to make your own olive oil.

The whole estate was custom built in 2002 by Sutton Construction for Copart auto auction company owner, Willis Johnson.

It is believed he lived there with his family until he and his wife recently moved to Tennessee.

When walking through the front door of the main house, guests are greeted by a giant double winding staircase that has a chandelier hanging over it

The house was originally built in 2002 for prominent businessman Willis Johnson. Pictured is the living with it comfortable seating areas

The living room has 40 foot high ceilings and is decorated in the European style - taking inspiration from the Italian city of Venice

Upstairs, homeowners can entertain their friends in the game room which comes with a pool table and a jukebox for music

The home also comes with 63 acres of cabernet vines- enough to make up to 150,000 bottles of wine and olive trees to make your own olive oil

The property was also listed on the open market in 2010 when the seller wanted $22million for the property.

And listing agent Bill Doyle told SFGate that any buyer snapping up the house would be getting a good deal for $12.9million.

He explained: 'A contractor told me that to build the house now, it would cost $20 million.'

A potential buyer will also get all of the furniture inside the property including this dining suite and cabinet for the glasswear

The previous owners had lived in the property until they decided to relocate to Tennessee. Pictured is the office area
As Frank Sinatra once sang, theyve got an awful lot of coffee in Brazil.

But then Brazil has an awful lot of everything: its roughly the same size as the United States and slightly larger than Australia  not something you always appreciate from a quick glance at the map.

Whats more surprising is that while many travellers are familiar with the lesser-known parts of Australia or the US, British tourism to Brazil remains largely rooted to a Rio, Sao Paulo, Iguazu Falls triangle.

Recife Antigo, or 'Old Recife', is a city in Brazils northeastern state which boasts a burgeoning music and alternative culture scene

Brazil experts, however, would argue that there are even richer treats for the visitor in the north-east of the country. Historically, this is the area that first attracted the interests of the early European explorers and settlers.

When the Portuguese and Spanish drew a line to divide what they thought was the extent of South America, they could hardly have guessed how big the country actually was (the Portuguese got Brazil while Spain ended up with everything else).

Venturing to Salvador, the capital of the state of Bahia, is quite a trek  its a journey of more than 1,000 miles but well worth the effort. This was the first city in Brazil and its first capital.

In the old town, you will be amazed to discover a rich array of fabulous buildings in a style that reminded me of the streets of Lisbon.

Most amazing are the many baroque churches with interiors fashioned from gold plate, and houses painted in almost every shade of pastel.

While there are glimpses of Europe, you will also see much of Africa: the countrys African heritage is strongest here  seen in the rich, spicy cooking and the carnival beat of the drum-troupe orchestras.

Shore winner: A couple take a leisurely stroll on Praia do Carneiros near Tamamdere in north-eastern Brazil

Fine hotels include the Villa Bahia situated in the Pelourinho district and built in glorious colonial style: some rooms have four-poster beds and claw-footed baths where you can feel like Indiana Jones ready to tackle the Amazon jungle.

If its a sun-and-sand holiday youre after, head 500 miles further north to Recife, capital of Brazils northeastern state, Pernambuco, a place of languorous rivers, lovely islets and away-from-it-all peninsulas.

Start by visiting Recife Antigo  Old Recife on its own island near the harbour  the heart of the citys burgeoning music and alternative culture scene.

There are some fine historic buildings in the old town centre, which dates back to the 16th Century.

A woman seen wearing traditional Afro-Baiana dress

A group Brazilians seen playing footvolley on Ipanema Beach in Rio as the sun sets

Even more alluring, however, is the fabulous Boa Viagem Beach, which lies about four miles south of town. The five-mile promenade, lined with high-rise buildings, is also a very desirable area attracting a well-heeled crowd.

Boa Viagem is reckoned to be the longest stretch of urban seafront in Brazil; the off-shore coastal reef calms the waves and helps maintain the sea water at a very comfortable 25C.

Not surprisingly, this is one of the most popular beaches in South America, probably attracting more people than the better- known Copacabana beach further south.

This is where the people of Recife come to socialise: it has one of the biggest shopping centres in Brazil.

Most of Recifes best hotels are in Boa Viagem, as well as many outdoor cafes and a lively nightclub scene.

Every night, Boa Viagem beach is lit up, allowing bathers to swim under the stars and attracting many young people.
The former Biggest Loser contestant announced his engagement to Daniella Schot in 2016.

But it appears Sam Rouen's wedding has been called off, as he was spotted looking for a new partner online.

The 30-year-old was noticed on dating app Bumble this week, flaunting his slimmed-down frame to attract potential dates.

Newly single? Former Biggest Loser star Sam Rouen (right) has been spotted on dating app Bumble - after being ENGAGED to fiancee Daniella Schot (left) for one year

Sam famously transformed his body several years ago after losing an impressive 72kg on The Biggest Loser Australia.

It is understood Sam and Daniella split last year, well before he created his dating profile on Bumble.

Daniella previously accepted a giant pear-shaped diamond ring from Sam when he proposed in 2016.

Back on the market! The 30-year-old firefighter was noticed on dating app Bumble this week, flaunting his slimmed-down frame to attract potential dates

Transformation: Sam famously transformed his body several years ago after losing an impressive 72kg on The Biggest Loser Australia

Would YOU swipe right? Sam, a fireman from Campbelltown, Sydney, added pictures of himself in his firefighter uniform and post-workout selfies (pictured) to his Bumble profile

Sam, a fireman from Campbelltown, Sydney, added pictures of himself in his firefighter uniform to his Bumble profile.

He also shared post-workout selfies and photos of himself cuddling up to dogs.

Sam's photos did not show any sign of him being previously engaged. His bio simply read: 'I indicate out of roundabouts. That pretty much sums me up'.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Sam Rouen and Daniella Schot for comment.

That's awkward! Sam's photos did not show any sign of him being previously engaged. His bio simply read: 'I indicate out of roundabouts. That pretty much sums me up'

Daniella announced the engagement in 2016 on Facebook, claiming she 'couldn't be happier' while showing off her sparkling new ring.

Sam shared the news on Instagram, writing: 'It's not everyday you ask the person you love to marry them. Today was definitely a special day and one we will never forget.

'Excited to see what the future holds and feel incredibly blessed to have such a loving partner and amazing families on both sides. Thank you for (eventually) saying yes, I'm definitely the luckiest guy in the world.'
She shares four children with her musician ex-husband Seal.

And on Tuesday, supermodel Heidi Klum was seen with her bunch - Helene, 13, Henry, 12, Johan 11, and Lou, nine - arriving at Los Angeles International Airport.

The 44-year-old beauty looked as chic as ever, wearing a black leather jacket with silver zippers teamed up with a printed silk scarf by Theodora & Callum.

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Runway ready: Heidi Klum looked chic as she arrived at Los Angeles International Airport with her four children on Tuesday

Dressed in an all black ensemble, Heidi sported a pair of airplane-ready sweatpants and a black undershirt.

She teamed her look up with a pair of black lace-up sneakers and dark grey aviator sunglasses.

Going au naturel, the blonde stunner showed off her ageless skin and kept her wavy blonde locks down.

Leather bound: The supermodel donned a black jacket with silver zippers over a printed silk scarf from Theodora & Callum

Family affair: The blonde beauty shares four children with her musician ex-husband Seal - Helene, 13, Henry, 12, Johan 11, and Lou, nine

The America's Got Talent judge arrived at the terminal with her four children, who were dressed in comfortable sweatpants and sneakers for their upcoming flight.

The brood might have been heading to New York City, where Heidi just purchased a 5,000 sqft penthouse loft for a staggering $5.1 million, according to TMZ.

The supermodel has plans to completely renovate the lavish space, which has views of One World Trade Center and beyond.

Ready for take-off: Heidi's four children were dressed comfortably in sweatpants and jackets for their upcoming flight

But her real estate ventures aren't the only things on the blonde beauty's mind.

On Sunday, the Heidi Klum Intimates founder was seen sharing an affectionate smooch with 28-year-old Tokio Hotel guitarist Tom Kaulitz on the set of America's Got Talent.

Tom and Heidi were last spotted on March 14 leaving Delilah in West Hollywood. While there were no public displays of affection that night, the duo were seen hopping into the same vehicle.

The supermodel was last linked to her boyfriend of three years, art curator Vino Schnabel. The couple split in 2017.

Lip-locked! Heidi Klum and 28-year-old Tokio Hotel guitarist Tom Kaulitz were seen packing on the PDA while Heidi was filming America's Got Talent on Sunday afternoon
She is a star of the Netflix sensation Stranger Things.

And Natalia Dyer was photographed this week heading to a West Hollywood restaurant beloved by celebrities.

The 21-year-old actress modeled a chic black, white and burnt-orange print dress as she headed into Craig's on a pair of black boots.

Stepping out of an evening: Natalia Dyer was photographed this week heading to a West Hollywood restaurant beloved by celebrities

She wrapped herself in an olive green Babaton at Aritzia trench coat that fell past the knee, accessorizing with a cross-body purse and a stylish pair of earrings.

Nashville-born Natalia, who accentuated her winning features with makeup, was seen with a smile on her face and her phone to her ear

She is currently dating her Stranger Things co-star Charlie Heaton, a 24-year-old from East Yorkshire, and dished recently to Us Weekly about their relationship.

The place to be: The 21-year-old actress modeled a chic black, white and burnt-orange print dress as she headed into Craig's on a pair of black boots

Shortly before the cast gave a panel talk at PaleyFest in Los Angeles on Sunday, she called her boyfriend 'great. It's a lot of fun, we goof off a lot.'

In fact, to hear her tell it: 'The whole cast does. We're all very close so we always have a great time on and off [set].'

One side effect of this happy state of affairs is that 'Sometimes it's even heard to stop laughing, stop goofing off. It's been lovely!'

So stylish: She wrapped herself in an olive green coat that fell past the knee, accessorizing with a cross-body purse and a stylish pair of earrings

Stranger Things, a sci-fi series set in the 1980s, put its first season on Netflix in July of 2016 and released its second just before this past Halloween.

The third season is due to last eight episodes, just like the first season but unlike the second season, which consisted of nine.

Natalia's upcoming releases include the films Tuscaloosa, Mountain Rest and Yes, God, Yes - as well as a short entitled After Her.
She is the mother of Kim, Khloe, Kourtney, Robert Kardashian, Kendall Jenner and Kylie Jenner.

And on Tuesday, Kris Jenner was spotted stepping out for lunch in Calabasas while rocking a colorful ensemble.

The 62-year-old reality star donned a feline emblazoned Dolce and Gabbana top with black trousers, adding retro sunglasses and a Hermes Birkin handbag.

Fancy: Kris Jenner was spotted stepping out for lunch in Calabasas while rocking a colorful ensemble on Tuesday

The mother-of-six chose a hot pink patterned top featuring two different felines emblazoned all over.

She showed off her slim legs in classic black trousers, which she styled with matching suede boots.

The ageless star toted a pricey bag with silver and black retro sunglasses shielding her eyes.

Kris, who was seen getting out of her black Range Rover, fought off the wind as she made her way into the restaurant.

So chic: The 62-year-old reality star donned a feline emblazoned button up with black trousers, adding retro sunglasses and a Hermes handbag

Kris painted her pout a pink hue, adding just a touch of contour to her cheeks.

She was seen filming scenes for her hit reality show, Keeping Up With The Kardashians.

The savvy entrepreneur recently became a grandmother for the seventh and eighth time this year with the births of granddaughters Chicago and Stormi.

Chicago is the daughter of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West; they welcomed her via surrogate on January 15.

Looking good: The mother of six chose a hot pink patterned top featured two different felines emblazoned all over

Stormi is the first child of Kylie Jenner and her boyfriend Travis Scott; the 20-year-old makeup entrepreneur welcomed her on February 1.

Meanwhile, daughter Khloe is eight months pregnant with her first child; she is set to welcome a girl in April with her boyfriend Tristan Thompson.

She is also grandma to Kim's kids North West, four, and Saint West, two; as well as Kourtney's three children: Mason, eight, Penelope, five and Reign, three, and Robert's daughter Dream, born November 2016.

Family: She is also grandma to Kim's kids Chicago, born January 15, North West, four, and Saint West, two; as well as Kourtney's three children: Mason, eight, Penelope, five and Reign, three

Cute: Stormi is the first child of Kylie Jenner and her boyfriend Travis Scott; the 20-year-old makeup entrepreneur welcomed her on February 1
She's had plenty of memorable TV WEEK Logie Awards appearances over the years, including blurting out a winner prematurely, tripping on stage and dropping the F-bomb during the live broadcast.

And on Wednesday, Julia Morris appeared to campaign for a Gold Logie as she reflected on her impressive TV career with hilarious collages.

The comedian, 49, got nostalgic with the tiled image as she hinted 'Its Logies voting time' to her 177k followers.

'You deserve the Gold for this montage alone!' I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! host Julia Morris reflects on her TV career in hilarious post as she continues campaign for Gold Logie (PICTURED: Julia's 2015 blunder presenting at the Logies)

Julia has been nominated this year for a Silver Logie in the 'Most Popular Presenter' category for her role as host of Channel Ten's I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!

The montage showed off her presenting skills and her unique humour on-and-off the stage.

She made sure to highlight her long-standing career in Australian television by including shots from her acting role in House Husbands, presenting role on Australia's Got Talent, Who Do You Think You Are? and I'm A Celebrity.

Throwback: The montage showed off her presenting skills and her unique humour on-and-off the stage

What a career! She made sure to highlight her long-standing career in Australian television by including shots from her acting role in House Husbands, presenting role on Australia's Got Talent, Who Do You Think You Are? and I'm A Celebrity

Julia dedicated a whole 14-picture collage to her role on I'm A Celebrity over the past four seasons, which featured her co-host Dr Chris Brown.

Her fans were clearly impressed by the effort that went into the post, and expressed: 'You deserve the Gold for this montage alone!!'

'Unbelievable! So many shows, so many dresses, so many smiles, so much laughter, so much work and talent! you are amazing,' another added.

'Unbelievable! So many show...so much work and talent! you are amazing': Fans were clearly impressed by the effort that went into the post

Hostess with the mostess? Julia dedicated a whole 14-picture collage to her role on I'm A Celebrity over the past four seasons, which featured her co-host Dr Chris Brown

Australian actress Rebecca Gibney claimed the Gold Logie would either go to Julia or Project host Lisa Wilkinson, joking: 'I can be bribed for my vote... love u(sic) both.'

Julia's 2018 Silver Logie nomination is her fifth nomination since 2013.

TV Week Logie Awards voting is open to the public until Sunday, April 1
They exchanged vows in a surprise 'commitment ceremony' earlier this month.

And Karl Stefanovic has confirmed the intimate celebration with Jasmine Yarbrough, 34, was not a legally-binding wedding, as some fans initially believed.

The 43-year-old spoke with Triple M's Kennedy Molloy on Tuesday and joked that his big day in Palm Beach was just 'practice'.

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'One step at a time': Karl Stefanovic has confirmed his intimate commitment ceremony with Jasmine Yarbrough, 34, was not a wedding

Radio host Mick Molloy told Karl he had a 'bone to pick' with him for hosting a commitment ceremony without getting their buck's night 'off the ground'.

'No, this is all practice! It's practice, Mick. One step at a time,' Karl replied, confirming he and Jasmine didn't officially tie the knot.

'Why can't we have a commitment bucks?' Mick asked, joking that Karl's pretend wedding also deserved a pretend bachelor party.

'No, this is all practice! It's practice, Mick. One step at a time,' Karl offered, confirming the couple didn't officially tie the knot at the Palm Beach ceremony

Abruptly changing the tone of the conversation, Karl joked he and Mick had already enjoyed a special service of their own.

'I seem to recall us very fondly having a commitment ceremony of our own not so long ago in Sydney, Mick, so come on,' he said.

'And I'm prepared to renew my vows anytime soon Karl, anytime you're ready,' responded Mick.

'I want to divorce you Mick and re-marry you, like Elizabeth Taylor,' Karl quipped.

'And I'm prepared to renew my vows anytime soon Karl, anytime you're ready' Mick replied, playing along. Pictured: Triple M hosts Jane Kennedy and Mick Molloy

Karl previously told The Fix he and Jasmine will 'probably' get married later this year.

Fans of the couple took to the Today show's Facebook page after their commitment ceremony to speculate the low-key event was held due to Jasmine being pregnant.

'She looks pregnant? Why else hold a commitment ceremony?' asked a social media user.

'Why not just wait a decent amount of time has passed from the divorce and then get married... my money's on a baby,' they added, referring to Karl's 2017 divorce from his former wife Cassandra Thorburn.
When someone's been in the public eye as long as radio star Jackie 'O' Henderson has, there's bound to be some strange rumours about her from time to time.

And on Wednesday's Kyle & Jackie O Show, the 43-year-old revealed the most bizarre story she's heard about herself.

Speaking to co-host Kyle Sandilands, 46, Jackie admitted the 'most untrue' rumour about herself was that she was cocaine user.

'Of all things to be said about me, it's the most untrue': Jackie 'O' Henderson hit back at ongoing rumours she was once a rampant cocaine user on Wednesday's edition of KIIS FM's Kyle & Jackie O Show

Discussing the speculation, which has arisen several times in the past, Jackie O denied the allegations.

'As you well know Kyle - of all things to be said about me, it's the most untrue,' she said.

Confirming that the rumour was untrue, Kyle speculated on how the whispers initially began and decided people thought her small nose was due to snorting the drug.

'I think it was because they were like "Oh yeah, check out her nose" and I'd be like I work with her every day - she doesn't do that,' he explained.

How the rumours began? Kyle speculated the whispers surrounding Jackie O may have initially began because people thought her small nose was due to snorting cocaine

Kyle and Jackie have previously chatted about their drug experiences on air in candid discussions.

While talking about Ita Buttrose's nephew Richard's release from jail after dealing cocaine in November, the topic came up.

At the time, Kyle exclaimed: 'Jackie has never bought a bag in her life!'

'Jackie has never bought a bag in her life!:' Kyle has previously backed up claims that Jackie O has never done cocaine

Although Jackie has never ingested cocaine, she has admitted to dabbling with a different type of drug in her younger years.

'I smoked marijuana,' the mother-of-one confessed in 2015.

While Jackie openly admitted to smoking cannabis  a substance that's illegal in Australia  Kyle was more cagey, saying of his drug use, 'I've dipped a toe'.
She famously kept her husband Oliver Curtis' whereabouts a secret from their children after he was sentenced to spend a year in jail for insider trading.

And Roxy Jacenko, 37, has spoken candidly about why she waited for a month after Oliver's release to tell their daughter Pixie the truth.

Appearing on the Kyle And Jackie O Show this Wednesday, the fiery PR guru-turned-socialite dished out some advice to a fellow mother whose husband had been sentenced to jail.

I'm glad I told Pixie when I told her': Roxy Jacenko, 37, has spoken candidly about why she waited for a month after Oliver's release to tell their daughter Pixie the truth

'It's a hard situation to be in and I've been there and I've done it, and everyone's giving you advice about what you should do and what's right for your children,' she advised the listener.

'And, you know what, only you know what is right and when the time is right. And that's exactly the same for me.'

Roxy continued: 'If I had listened to everyone else, I probably would have told them on the day. And I'm glad I didn't, I'm glad I told Pixie when I told her.'

Prison stint: Oliver spent a year in Cooma Correctional Centre in regional New South Wales after being convicted of insider trading in June 2016

'About a month after the fact, when she got back into the groove of having her father at home again which they hadn't had for some time. Then I told her,' she explained.

Roxy went on to admit that Pixie was initially thrown by the sudden revelation, but that she eventually appreciated her mother's honesty.

'[Pixie] was upset, she cried. But at the same time, after the tears passed- and that was only after a few minutes and I explained it in a dumbed-down version- she said, 'Thanks for telling me mum''.

'She cried': Roxy went on to admit that Pixie was initially thrown by the sudden revelation, but that she eventually appreciated her mother's honesty

Oliver spent a year in Cooma Correctional Centre in regional New South Wales after being convicted of insider trading in June 2016.

During his imprisonment, Roxy lied to her children Pixie and Hunter, telling them that their father was in China on business.

Roxy has since confirmed that she hasn't told Hunter the truth about his father's year away.
She's a mother of two and working Hollywood actress.

But Natalie Portman took some time for herself as she was spotted on a solo outing in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

The 36-year-old actress was busy with a phone call as she rocked a casual ensemble of a black tee and denim jeans.

Off duty beauty! Natalie Portman, 36, was spotted on a solo outing in Los Angeles on Tuesday

Daring to impress, the Annihilation star swathed her diminutive figure in a solid tee and baggy pants as she stomped the sidewalks in Adidas kickers.

Her trademark brunette tresses were left long and loose as they cascaded over her petite shoulders and were held back by a pair of retro shades.

Throwing caution to the wind, the starlet went virtually makeup free with only a dab of berry lipstick.

The Star Wars alum gave birth to her first girl, Amalia, just over a year ago, on February 22 2017.

Working mom: The actress was busy with a phone call as she rocked a casual ensemble of a black tee and denim jeans

Impressive: Daring to impress, the Annihilation star swathed her diminutive figure in a solid tee and baggy pants as she stomped the sidewalks in Adidas kickers

She also shares son Aleph, six, with husband Benjamin Millepied.

Besides her daughter's birthday, Natalie also celebrated last month the release of her latest sci-fi flick, Annihilation.

In it she plays a scientist who risks everything to search for her husband lost within an eerie environmental disaster zone.

Hair story: Her trademark brunette tresses were left long and loose as they cascaded over her petite shoulders and were held back by a pair of retro shades

Au natural: Throwing caution to the wind, the starlet went virtually makeup free with only a dab of berry lipstick

The film was directed by Ex Machina auteur Alex Garland and is based from a best-selling book trilogy by authored Jeff VanderMeer.

Actresses Tessa Thompson, Gina Rodriguez, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Tuva Novotny also star in the film.

Next up, Natalie can be seen in Vox Lux playing the role of a rising pop star named Celeste.
Naomi Campbell has been accused of photoshopping an image of herself taken from a beauty shoot.

The 47-year-old model uploaded a make-up free snap to Instagram on Tuesday, which lead fans to question if she had digitally slimmed down her nose.

Fans of the star flooded the comments section after Naomi shared the snap, captioned: '#Mood #Bare @narsissist @patti_wilson #Family'.

Accused: Naomi Campbell has been accused of photoshopping an image of herself taken from a beauty shoot (left) that she uploaded to Instagram on Tuesday

They wrote: 'Baby!! Yo nose lookin a lil slim. But you still cute tho!'; 'it looks so crazy u can even c where theyve photoshopped it. Theyre rude!

'Why they PHOTOSHOPED YOUR *NOSE* ?, the ORIGINAL PIC WITH *YOUR REAL NOSE* ( With your real skin texture by the way, and your little perfection) is EVEN BETTER!'; 'Whyd you photoshop your nose smaller? Its wider in the original photo.

'They made her nose look abnormally tiny. Why change her beauty so stupid!!!'; 'You are beautiful but where is your nose??'.

Other followers, including Kim Kardashian and Yolanda Hadid, were blown away by the image, posting: 'Stunning'; 'you are so perfect'; 'Love u'; 'Perfection!!!'

MailOnline has contacted Naomi's representatives for comment.

Turning heads: Naomi upholds a reputation as one of the world's most beautiful women, a title which has seen her front campaigns for some of fashion's biggest brands

Shocked: Fans flooded the comment section to accuse Naomi of editing her skin and nose, but some followers, including Kim Kardashian and Yolanda Hadid, were blown away by the image

Despite her reputation as one of the world's most beautiful women, a title which has seen her front campaigns for some of fashion's biggest brands, Naomi recently admitted she has always been 'self-conscious' of her body.

Naomi - whose model looks are as prevalent as ever - revealed her figure insecurities when speaking to GMB hosts Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid about celebrities stripping off and posting nude selfies on social media last month.

Asked for her standpoint on the craze, which is popular with stars including Kim Kardashian and Emily Ratajkowski, she confessed: 'That's them. That's what they want to do.

'I can't do it. I've always been self-conscious of my body. When I first got to New York, if I wore something tight, I would wrap a cardigan around me to hide my back.'

When a shocked Susanna told Naomi that her revelation would come as a surprise to many of the women watching at home, the modelling icon added: 'That's how I've always felt. It took me years for me to feel comfortable doing lingerie.'
Naomi Watts is in talks to star in the new action movie Boss Level.

The 49-year-old 'King Kong' actress is currently in negotiations to join Frank Grillo and Mel Gibson in the new movie by The Grey filmmaker Joe Carnahan, Variety report.

The film has been penned by the Borey Brothers and Will Sasso will also be joining the cast.

Like a boss: Naomi Watts is in talks to star in the new action movie Boss Level

Grillo is set to play Roy, a retired Special Forces veteran who is trapped in a never-ending loop, resulting in his death every year.

It is not yet known who Watts, Gibson or Sasso will be playing.

Grillo is also teaming up with Carnahan in the remake of the Indonesian movie The Raid after the filmmaker posted a tweet in 2016 which read: 'THE RAID remake will hew closer in tone & feel to THE GREY and NARC.@Ghuevans is producing alongside & has given us his full blessing.

'It's not a remake. It's a reimagining of the same scenario. Everybody take a deep breath. We won't disappoint you, rabid-fanboy-from-Hell (sic)'

Co-stars: The time looping flick also stars Mel Gibson and Frank Grillo

Watts - who is best known for her role in 'Mulholland Drive' - has also been cast to star in upcoming psychological thriller 'The Wolf Hour' by filmmaker Alistair Banks Griffin, in which she will also serve as an executive producer.

The movie will see Watts starring as a woman who lives alone in the Bronx, New York, having once been a celebrated counter-culture figure who has almost cut herself off from society.

It's set after the notorious Son of Sam serial killer who struck between 1976 and 1977, with David Berkowitz pleading guilty to six murders.

The horrific series of deaths inspired the 1999 movie 'Summer of Sam', and it's these incidents that leave Watts' character retreating into isolation.

An unseen tormentor begins to exploit her weaknesses in a nail-biting thriller from HanWay Films.
She was rumoured to have 'quietly cooled' things off with her boyfriend.

But it appears Sam Frost and Dave Bashford are still very much together, according to the blonde beauty's latest Instagram post.

A close-up selfie saw her beau's father Peter Bashford taking to the comments section, inviting her to have 'a little R&R down the coast'.

Guess they are still together! Sam Frost received a sweet message from boyfriend Dave Bashford's father on Instagram, after it was rumoured they had split

Sam posted a gorgeous snap of herself wearing an orange bra-let.

Smouldering for the camera, the 28-year-old drew attention a makeup palette consisting of a bronzed complexion, defined brows, subtle kohl-rimmed eyes and a glossy pink lip.

Dave's father Peter took to the comments section, heaping praise on the Home And Away star and inviting her for a visit to their home on Sydney's south coast.

In profile: Last Wednesday, Sam posted a gorgeous snap of herself wearing an orange bra-let

He wrote: 'Nice snap sweetie. Hope all is well. Doing a great job. Don't work too hard. You know there's always a place to rest up any time. All our love'.

Sam was quick to respond, writing: 'Thank you PB  I'll definitely have to take you up on that offer soon.. little R&R down the coast sounds perfect. Lots of love xx'.

The interaction comes after NW reported last week that Sam has 'quietly cooled' things off.

Sweet message: Dave's father [far left] took to the comments section, heaping praise on the Home And Away star

According to the publication, the former reality star has been 'getting close' to co-star Orpheus Pledger, with the pair said to have 'red-hot chemistry' both on and off-screen.

The pair were first linked at the Logie Awards last April when Sam was still single.

Orpheus sparked hook-up rumours after posting a cosy photo of them together.

They continued to fuel speculation after being seen at Melbourne Airport together the following morning.

Peter wrote: 'Nice snap sweetie. Hope all is well. Doing a great job. Don't work too hard,' adding that she's always welcome at their home

Sam responded: 'thank you PB I'll definitely have to take you up on that offer soon...little R&R down the coast sounds perfect. Lots of love xx'

However three months later, Sam began dating her longtime friend and navy diver Dave.

Sam went public with Dave last summer and admitted she was 'in love' with him during a Daily Telegraph interview in December.

'It's nice for us just to be in our own little love bubble and keep that for us,' she said.

Despite initially sparking speculation that they've split after failing to post about Dave since the beginning of the year, it appears they are still going strong.
Before he found fame as Dr. Doug Ross on ER, George Clooney had a recurring guest role on hit TV comedy Roseanne as he strove for success in Hollywood.

Fast forward 27 years, and the A-lister was offered the chance to reunite with Roseanne Barr and the rest of the cast for the sitcom's highly anticipated reboot.

But he didn't bite.

'George Clooney didn't want to come on,' Roseanne, 65, told Howard Stern Tuesday. 'So that was a bummer, but he lives in Italy.'

Bummer: George Clooney, who had a recurring guest role on Roseanne from 1988 to 1991, turned down the chance to return for the series reboot, Roseanne Barr revealed Tuesday

Clooney, 56, played Roseanne's factory foreman Booker Brooks who dated her sister Jackie, played by Laurie Metcalf, on the series from 1988 to 1991.

The actor, notorious for his penchant for practical jokes, did cause trouble for the comedienne, she revealed.

She confirmed a long circulating rumor that he had taken a bat to a large chocolate bar in the shape of the number one sent by the network to celebrate the show reaching number one in the ratings.

Clooney said other stars got much more valuable gifts when they hit the top of their time slot and so, after smashing the candy to pieces, they took photos of it and sent it to network executives in protest.

'That caused a lot of problems for me,' Roseanne acknowledged. 'I should not have sent that picture. But it's so funny.'

Starting out: Before he found fame as Dr. Doug Ross on ER, Clooney played Roseanne's factory foreman Booker Brooks who dated her sister Jackie, played by Laurie Metcalf

Spilling beans: Roseanne, who appeared on the Howard Stern Show with co-star John Goodman, recounted some of the practical jokes Clooney played during his time on the sitcom

Clooney also teased her that Roseanne be fired from the show that bore her name.

He would tape the name 'Sandy Duncan' on her dressing room door in a reference to the actress who took over Valerie Harper's spot on The Hogan Family in its second season.

The actor, of course, went on to become a household name just three years after his part on Roseanne after snagging the role of the hunky pediatrician on ER which premiered in 1994.

Roseanne continued to run until 1997 ending after nine seasons.

A-lister: Clooney, 56, went on to become a household name just three years after his part on Roseanne after snagging the role of the hunky pediatrician on ER which premiered in 1994

Roseanne and John Goodman, who plays her on-screen husband Dan, spent the day Tuesday promoting their returning comedy.

They were also joined by castmembers Sara Gilbert, Michael Fishman, Lecy Goranson and Sarah Chalke for appearances on The View and SiriusXM.

The show catches up again with the blue collar Conner family as they navigate life in the era of President Trump.

One big happy family: Michael Fishman, Lecy Goranson and Sarah Chalke joined Roseanne and Goodman at SiriusXM studios in New York

Opening up: Earlier, on ABC's The View, Roseanne, 65, talked about the decision to make her character someone who voted for Donald Trump

Tremendous trio: The two were also joined by Gilbert on The View as they spent the day promoting the rebooted sitcom set to premiere Tuesday night

On The View, Roseanne talked about the decision to make her character someone who voted for Donald Trump.

She explained: 'Well, I wanted to show an accurate depiction of our country, you know? People are really  I know so many families that are divided over the election, still, and they still are fighting and stuff.'

She added: 'We wanted to show that, and how our family deals with it, and we all have the hope that people will start talking to each other again, because that's what we need.'

Looking good: Roseanne dressed to impress in a long orange coat over a black leather jacket with a matching top

Business chic: John (left), 65, looked handsome in a long grey coat over an olive green knit sweater as Sara (right), 43, looked stylish in a checked suit with Gucci sneakers
Lisa Rinna has become a better person, but her new demeanor on Tuesday's episode of The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills irritated Lisa Vanderpump.

The 57-year-old British restaurateur nagged Rinna for becoming too 'detached' from their petty squabbles.

'I don't feel that you are as invested in the group,' she complained.

New person: Lisa Rinna vowed to become a better person but her positive changes irritated Lisa Vanderpump on Tuesday's episode of The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills

'I'm just not engaging in this stupid f***ing bulls***,' snapped Rinna, who said she had 'changed' and grown as a person.

'I have two teenage girls that look up to me and I have to really watch my behavior,' added the 54-year-old, who has two model daughters Delilah Belle Hamlin, 19, and Amelia Gray Hamlin, 16.

Vanderpump wasn't having it, and said she missed the 'old Rinna' who feuded regularly last season on the Bravo show.

The dog lover then started a feud with Kyle Richards, because Kyle couldn't remember her grandmother Nanny Kay.

Not engaged: Vanderpump accused Rinna of not engaging with the group

Teenage girls: Rinna said she changed her behavior with her teenage daughters in mind

Memory slip: Kyle Richards couldn't remember for a second who Nanny Kay was

'Kyle doesn't remember Nanny Kay, I've talked about Nanny Kay ever since I've known her, Nanny Kay lived with me for 25 yearshas she left her memory back in America?' balked Vanderpump, who was furious.

'For a second I got confused,' protested Kyle, while Erika Girardi noted that she 'actually listens' when people talk, and remembers what they say.

The show opened with Kyle, who was packing up her house, rather than getting movers to help.

Important person: Vanderpump reminded Kyle that Nanny Kay was the most important person in her life

Getting along: Dori Kemsley and Teddi Mellencamp Arroyave were getting along in Berlin

Swimsuit collection: Mother-of-two Dorit was shown working on her swimwear collection

Fashion show: Dorit made some suggestions for the swimwear line on a model

'I have to be in control, I'm a control freak, what can I say?' she asked.

Vanderpump, who had recently just lost two dogs, was worried about another one of her pups, 13-year-old Lollipop.

'She looks sad to me,' she fretted, while sobbing about her double bereavement.

Packing up: Kyle opened the episode packing up for the move to her new home

Beloved pet: Vanderpump was still mourning the death of Pink Dog

Too soon: The British restaurateur also recently lost her dog Pikachu

The women gathered for the screening of Vanderpump's documentary about dog abuse in China.

The audience was shocked by the gruesome footage.

'You can't even fathom that this is happening in our world,' said Teddi Mellencamp Arroyave, the 36-year-old daughter of music legend John Cougar Mellencamp.

Dog abuse: Vanderpump hosted a screening of her documentary about dog abuse in China

Tough material: Camille Grammer had to look away during the film

Getting emotional: Vanderpump cried while watching the movie

Rinna met Erika and Dorit Kemsley at Erika's mansion.

Erika pulled out a giant cardboard cutout of her new 'avatar' from her addition to the Kim Kardashian app game.

'All of these great things are lining up, how could you say no to anything?' said the glam showgirl, who has recently released a book and appeared on Dancing With The Stars.

Popular app: Erika Girardi showed off a cardboard cutout of her avatar in the Kim Kardashian app game

Tasty treats: Rinna and Dorit visited Erika who served up tasty cookies

Erika planned a horse riding trip during their trip to Berlin.

'I want an old nag to ride,' said Erika, 46, who is married to big shot lawyer Thomas Girardi, 78.

'Clearly she has a type,' joked Vanderpump.

Good one: Vanderpump cracked a joke about Erika preferring an 'old nag'

Erika packed latex clothes plus 'baby powder and lube' to help them fit, while Rinna had a huge bag of pills.

Of course Erika took the Presidential Suite, which came with with panoramic views, a full bar and a panic room.

'Maybe I should lock these b****es up,' she joked.

Panic room: Erika's suite featured a panic room

Before the trip Teddi was hesitant to leave her husband Edwin and their kids.

'I'm a helicopter mom,' she said, while admitting that she was scared of spending time with Erika.

'She has snapped at me multiple times,' she said.

The RHOBH continues next week on Bravo.
His Married At First Sight 'sins' were immediately forgiven after he delivered the timeless catchphrase '#CoconutOil' during the reunion dinner party.

And Nasser Sultan is taking advantage of his newfound popularity by launching a 'new career' as an Instagram beauty blogger.

Following in the footsteps of Kim Kardashian and Kyly Clarke, the 50-year-old personal trainer revealed the secrets behind his flawless skin.

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'Ladies, how are you?': Married At First Sight's Nasser Sultan (pictured) is taking advantage of his newfound popularity by launching his 'new career' as an Instagram beauty blogger

In a 50-second video posted to social media on Wednesday, a youthful-looking Nasser explains 'how to put on moisturiser'.

He begins: 'Ladies, how are you? This is Nasser's Beauty Blogging, my new career!

'I'm going to quickly go through how to put on moisturiser. It's not about the hips, the lips or the t*ts - it's about beautiful, soft skin and a nice smell.'

'I'm going to quickly go through how to put on moisturiser': Following in the footsteps of Kim Kardashian and Kyly Clarke, the 50-year-old revealed the secrets behind his flawless skin

Beauty guru: Nasser told his Instagram followers, 'It's not about the hips, the lips or the t*ts - it's about beautiful, soft skin and a nice smell'

He then takes out a bottle of Cetaphil Moisturiser, which retails between $15 and $24, and begins to carefully apply it to his face.

Nasser explains: 'Very quickly, you get your moisturiser, put it in your palm. Little dabble. Dab, dab, then three dabs up the top (forehead). Rub it in.

'Make sure it's all in. Go around - not in the eyes! - and just around all the creases. Frown a little bit so it's all in. Beautiful, eh? Nice, soft, glowing skin.'

'Spray under the chin and then walk in to it. And you're done': At the end of the video, Nasser reveals the finishing touch to his daily beauty routine - a spray of the finest cologne

Will she be impressed? Interestingly, Nasser tagged Kim Kardashian in his beauty tutorial

At the end of the video, Nasser reveals the finishing touch to his daily beauty routine - a spray of the finest cologne.

He says: 'Get your little smell... perfume, your favourite one. Spray under the chin and then walk in to it. And you're done.'

In the caption of his video, Nasser wrote: 'A 50 second tutorial to looking as good as Nass! #BeautyBlogger #NewCareer #MAFS'.

Interestingly, he also tagged Kim Kardashian.
She's the dazzling Australian actress who is known for her timeless beauty and effortless glamour.

And so it's no wonder Naomi Watts, 49, was entrusted with the role of hosting Cartier's exclusive exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra this Wednesday.

Draped in a chic black-and-white gown with bold panels and diagonal zip detailing, the King Kong star turned heads as she floated down the red carpet.

Effortlessly chic: Naomi Watts, 49, looked glamorous on the red carpet at Cartier's exclusive exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra this Wednesday

Youthful-looking Naomi completed her elegant look with a pair of black stiletto heels and a diamond-encrusted Cartier bangle.

Wearing some precious Cartier pieces, Watts was on hand as the National Gallery of Australia prepared to throw open its doors to a new and different type of exhibition.

From Friday, visitors with an eye for beautiful jewels can treat themselves to a walk-through viewing of 300 Cartier pieces that have graced the necks of the rich and famous.

Glittering arrival: Draped in a chic black-and-white gown with bold panels and diagonal zip detailing, the King Kong star turned heads as she floated down the red carpet

'We've seen them in movies, these pieces - incredible pieces - in paintings - they're part of our travelling through history,' Naomi said during the red carpet event on Wednesday.

'There is nothing quite like seeing them up close and this particular selection of pieces is quite astounding.'

Speaking to media at the event, Naomi revealed that she was dazzled by the display, which includes historic pieces on loan from the British royal family.

'There is nothing quite like seeing them up close and this particular selection of pieces is quite astounding': Naomi revealed that she was dazzled by the display

'You see not only these fantastic pieces, but the story behind who wore them and when and what was happening at that time, and that just really makes it so much more powerful,' she said.

Among the jewels on display is the Queen's 'Halo' tiara worn by the Duchess of Cambridge when she married Prince William.

Three of the Queen's favourite pieces are featured in the collection, as well as Princess Grace of Monaco's 10.48 carat engagement ring and Elizabeth Taylor's stunning ruby and diamond necklace, which was a gift from her third husband Mike Todd.

'You see not only these fantastic pieces, but the story behind who wore them and when and what was happening at that time, and that just really makes it so much more powerful,' Naomi cooed.

IN good company! Naomi posed up a storm with fellow atendees Pierre Rainero of Cartier (L) and Gerard Vaughan NGA Director (R)
Like most new parents, Braith Anasta and his girlfriend Rachael Lee can't help but share their newborn daughter Gigi's every more.

And the pair were at it again on Wednesday, when they attended Rachael's son's Easter Hat Parade.

However, it appears that things didn't quite go to plan, with the two-month-old bursting into tears at the event.

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You can't win them all! Former NRL star Braith Anasta struggles to comfort his crying two-month-old daughter Gigi as he attends a school Easter Hat Parade

'Addis Easter Hat parade. Gigi's having a ball,' Rachael wrote on an Instagram snap she uploaded.

In the snap baby Gigi looked cute as a button in a pink onesie.

Addison, who stood on the other side of his new sibling, wore similar coloured shorts to Braith and a grey jumper.

Dotting father: Braith welcomed his second daughter Gigi into the world with girlfriend Rachael Lee, 31, two months ago

Seemingly missing from the family's day out was Braith's daughter, four-year-old Aleeia, who is likely spending time with her mother and his ex-wife Jodi Gordon.

Braith and Rachael welcomed baby Gigi on January 21 and took to Instagram to share the good news with their legions of followers, along with the caption 'PERFECTION! GiGi Anasta 21/1/18'.

A year ago, Braith opened up about the juggling act he faced as a working father and member of a blended family.

'It has been a bit of a challenge with the 50-50 [custody],' he told The Sydney Morning Herald of sharing parenting duties with ex Jodi while trying to fit in time for his career.

'The relationship [with Jodi] is all smooth, which has made it, I suppose, easier...But I have [Aleeia] a lot, which is unbelievable'.

Clarifying his statement, he added that he felt 'lucky' because many fathers miss out on equal-share custody after divorces.
She's the former Biggest Loser host known for her enviable curves.

And on Wednesday, Fiona Falkiner flaunted her cleavage in a skimpy bikini, at Sydney's Clovelly Beach.

The busty Instagram snap comes just hours after the 35-year-old stunned in a floral jumpsuit, at Mr G's first birthday party.

Sizzling hot! Fiona Falkiner, 35, flaunted her cleavage in a skimpy bikini on Wednesday, after stunning at Mr G's first birthday party

Reclining on a striped towel, Fiona draws attention to her toned arms, cleavage and slender waist, in a skimpy abstract bikini top.

Showing off her penchant for style, the plus-size model accessories with tinted sunglasses, bracelets and a delicate necklace.

Allowing her semi-wet locks to fall effortlessly behind her toned back, Fiona tilts her head and smiles broadly, showing off her stunning side profile.

Social: The post comes just hours after Fiona made a stylish appearance at Mr G's first birthday party, in Sydney's exclusive suburb of Double Bay

The Channel Ten personality captions the snap: 'Sydney you are' [on point emoji] [sun emoji].

Fiona's post comes just hours after she made a stylish appearance at Mr G's first birthday party, in Sydney's exclusive suburb of Double Bay.

The event held on Tuesday night, saw the blonde bombshell showcasing her curves in a peach-toned floral jumpsuit, which featured ruffles around her decolletage.

Fiona accessorised with an orange bangle, nude clutch and metallic scandals.

Sporting a golden tan, the red carpet regular wore her sun-kissed locks out in relaxed waves, showing off her natural beauty by wearing minimal makeup.

Fabulous in floral: The event held on Tuesday night saw the plus-sized model sporting a plunging floral-print jumpsuit with wrap detailing cinching in at her slender waist

Fiona went solo at the restaurant celebration, going without her new girlfriend Lara Creber.

The brand ambassador confirmed last October that she was in her first same-sex relationship with longtime friend Lara.

Fiona told Cosmopolitan that she had been surprised by the media interest in their romance.

'This is the first female relationship I've had and I didn't think there would be interest in it because it's just normal life,' she told the magazine.

'I'm at a place in my life where I'm just focusing on what makes me happy and not caring what other people think and focusing inwardly. And Lara was part of that journey.'
She's been busy distracting herself from her recent split with Justin Bieber.

And Selena Gomez proved on trend as she was spotted enjoying a night out at a roller skating rink in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

The 25-year-old pop sensation rocked a form fitting ensemble of tight tee and cut off denim shorts as she left the Moon Light Rollerway with a friend.

Night out! Selena Gomez, 25, was spotted enjoying a night out at the roller skating rink in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

Channeling a retro roller skater, the How Low Is Your Love songstress highlighted her ample assets in a bright yellow T-shirt.

She wrapped her petite shoulders in a denim jacket that covered the tee tucked into her lithe waist.

Her gorgeous gams were thrust on center stage as she rocked skimpy jean shorts that were hemmed at mid thigh.

Pairing the throwback look with a set of retro bright white sneakers, thick leather belt, and over sized hoop earrings, Selena commanded attention exiting the arena.

Stepping out: The pop sensation rocked a form fitting ensemble of tight tee and cut off denim shorts as she left the Moon Light Rollerway

Assets: Channeling a retro roller skater, the How Low Is Your Love songstress highlighted her ample assets in a bright yellow T-shirt

Wrap it up: She wrapped her petite shoulders in a denim jacket that covered the tee tucked into her lithe waist

The outing comes as Selena is in the midst of another break-up with her on-again/off-again Justin Bieber.

Reports surfaced late last week that Selena and Justin had ended their relationship once again.

The couple - who dated on and off from 2011 to 2015 - got back together in November and were inseparable until March.

Leggy lady: Her gorgeous gams were thrust on center stage as she rocked skimpy jean shorts that were hemmed at mid thigh

Pairing the throwback look with a set of retro bright white sneakers, thick leather belt, and over sized hoop earrings, Selena commanded attention exiting the arena

Current issues: The outing comes as Selena is in the midst of another break-up with her on-again/off-again Justin Bieber

It has been claimed the Hands To Myself hitmaker is 'taking time to herself' away from the spotlight in a bid to come to terms with the split and reconcile her relationship with her mother, who was blamed for the break-up.

'She is taking time to herself,' a source told ET. 'This is not the first time she has done this.'

'Selena is very delicate; her comeback to the spotlight has been tough -- especially with the interest in her personal life with Justin,' the source added.

Back again: Reports surfaced late last week that Selena and Justin had ended their relationship once again

Romance for the ages: The couple - who dated on and off from 2011 to 2015 - got back together in November and were inseparable until March

Easy peasy: Selena looked to completely at ease as she was spotted speeding around the rink later on
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He tied the knot with his Uzbek wife Nigora Whiteman during a romantic ceremony on a Portugal beach in June of last year.

And Duncan Bannatyne, 69, appeared to be embracing his life as a newlywed, as he and his 38-year-old wife attended the Pride of the North East Awards, held at the Newcastle Civic Centre on Tuesday night.

The lovebirds were accompanied by Nigora's 15-year-old daughter Gabrielle, who matched her glamorous mother in the sartorial department, stepping out in a layered purple minidress.

Night out: Duncan Dannatyne attended the Pride of the North East Awards with his wife Nigora Whitehorn and his stepdaughter Gabrielle at the Newcastle Civic Centre on Tuesday night

Brunette beauty Nigora was typically glamorous in a flowing champagne pink lace and chiffon gown, which boasted a deeply plunging neckline.

She complemented her sleeveless number with a pair of black-and-gold heels and a quilted gold handbag, adding an extra touch of pizzazz to her ensemnble.

Sporting accessories which included a statement pendant, she wore her raven tresses in an elegant chignon with a centre parting, while her good looks were highlighted with a rich palette of makeup.

Red carpet: The trio looked stylish as they posed for snapshots on the sprawling red carpet

Pretty in pink: Brunette beauty Nigora was typically glamorous in a flowing champagne pink lace and chiffon gown, which boasted a deeply plunging neckline

Multimillionaire Dragon's Den star Duncan cut a dapper figure for their family night on the town, stepping out in a black suit, under which he wore a patterned waistcoat and white shirt.

Their outing comes a week after Duncan's daughter Abi revealed that she is lucky to be alive after she mistook deadly sepsis for a hangover.

Mother-of-two Abi assumed she had partied too hard at a friend's wedding in France when she woke up feeling unwell and shivering last September.

But within 24 hours, she was rushed to hospital - and lay hallucinating on the floor of a busy A&E while doctors rushed to find her a bed.

Flair for fashion: Gabrielle matched her glamorous mother in the sartorial department, stepping out in a layered purple minidress

The 34-year-old had a temperature of 42C - which is so high it could have caused brain damage - after a water infection sparked sepsis.

Abi, from Middlesbrough, is now speaking about her ordeal in a bid to raise awareness of sepsis and help others recognise the signs.

'It was a really frightening experience and I dread to think the outcome if I had not listened,' she said. 'It could have been a lot worse.'

Abi only told her father, who currently lives in Portugal, days after her life-threatening ordeal. The wedding was at Le Chateau de la Belle, in Benest - 114 miles (185km) north east of Bordeaux.

Let's hug it out: The Dragon's Den star was seen sharing a friendly embrace with Denise Welch

Dapper: Meanwhile, Duncan looked dapper in a black suit as he enjoyed his night on the town

She claims she didn't want to worry her father, who has an estimated 175 million fortune, because he was on holiday in Monaco at the time.

'Dad was really worried but I told him not to panic and that I was getting better in hospital,' Ms Bannatyne - who is the second-eldest of six children - added. 'He was calling and texting me every day.'

Duncan has four children with his first wife Gail and two with his second wife Joanna. Since marrying Nigora, he has spoken about having children with her.

Health scare: Their outing comes a week after Duncan's daughter Abi revealed that she is lucky to be alive after she mistook deadly sepsis for a hangover

'Of course we want children together,' Nigora proclaimed during an appearance on This Morning last year, before continuing: 'Well be planning the future family. I would like to have at least two boys.

'I cant wait to be a dad again,' Duncan added to the conversation, before the Nigoria relayed the reason why she wants to expand her family with Duncan: 'Hes an amazing father. I'm proud of how he is with my daughter.

'She adores Duncan and couldnt ask for better stepfather. Hes going to be an amazing father to my future children.'

Water infection: The 34-year-old had a temperature of 42C - which is so high it could have caused brain damage - after a water infection sparked sepsis. Pictured with her sister
She is set to celebrate 20 years of marriage to her husband Rande Gerber in May.

And Cindy Crawford, 52, still looked as besotted as the first day she met the 55-year-old businessman, as she enjoyed a romantic meal with him at Craig's restaurant in West Hollywood on Tuesday night.

The stunning supermodel flashed a broad smile as she held hands with her handsome spouse on their departure from the popular celebrity haunt.

Table for two: Cindy Crawford and her husband Rande Gerber enjoyed a romantic meal at Craig's restaurant in West Hollywood on Tuesday night

Mother-of-two Cindy looked typically stylish in an all-black ensemble which included skinny jeans, knee-high suede boots and a shimmering patent bomber jacket.

With her brown locks resting about her shoulders in soft waves, she highlighted her famous good looks with a flattering palette of makeup.

Former model Rande also stepped out in stylem, wearing a black collarless jacket over a matching button-down top, which he teamed with grey jeans.

You've got to hand it to her: The stunning supermodel flashed a broad smile as she held hands with her handsome spouse on their departure from the popular celebrity haunt

Last month, Cindy received a barrage of tributes on social media as she celebrated her 52nd birthday, including a special message from her beloved husband.

Rande posted a throwback black-and-white modelling shot of his wife to Instagram writing: 'The good things in life are simply Beautiful. Happy Birthday Beautiful!'

The Casamigos co-founder is husband number two for Cindy, who was previously married to movie star Richard Gere from 1991 until 1995.

Cindy and Rande have two children - 16-year-old daughter Kaia and 18-year-old son Presley, who have both followed their mother's footsteps into modelling.

Stepping out in style: Mother-of-two Cindy looked typically stylish in an all-black ensemble which included skinny jeans, knee-high suede boots and a shimmering patent bomber jacket

Kaia posted a sweet birthday message to her mother on Instagram, alongside a GIF of Cindy dancing on the set of Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air in 1990.

Cindy paid this set visit for an episode of MTV's House Of Style, and in the GIF, Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air star Will Smith is briefly visible in the background.

Before she performed the moves seen in the GIF, Will had encouraged her to 'let yourself go crazy, and you do the dumbest dance that you could possibly do'.

In the caption to the Instagram post, Kaia wrote: 'Happy birthday to this beautiful angel. Im so lucky to get to call you mom. LIVING LEGEND... I love you the mostest @cindycrawford,' and added a heart emoji.

Birthday girl: Last month, the runway veteran celebrated her 52nd birthday, an occasion her husband Rande marked with a throwback Instagram photo of her

Throwback: Kaia posted a sweet birthday message to her mother on Instagram, alongside a GIF of Cindy dancing at the set of Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air in 1990

Cindy, who originally hails from DeKalb, Illinois, found herself in a reminiscent mood when her birthday rolled around.

She posted an Instagram photo of herself blowing out the candles on the cake for her sixth birthday in 1972. Another little girl, likely her sister Danielle, gawped nearby.

'A few years ago, today,' Cindy dryly captioned the shot, alongside a birthday cake emoji.
Ahead of the return of Made In Chelsea this month, a source told MailOnline Frankie Gaff had quit the series.

And it seems that she has now confirmed the news, posting a tweet out to her fans on Monday after her final scene had aired.

'Ciao Ciao. Onto the next adventure,' she typed.

She's done: Frankie Gaff 'CONFIRMS' she's left the show 'for the next adventure'... after tensions with Olivia Bentley reach a crescendo

Frankie, 23, first appeared on Made In Chelsea in its 11th season - and has been around ever since [it's now in it's 15th, but has aired summer seasons in America, Ibiza and the South of France in between, which Frankie also appeared in].

Her main story-line featured her rocky relationship with Jamie Laing, which came to an end at the end of last year, but more recently she has locked horns with former pal Olivia Bentley.

It seemed Olivia's boyfriend Digby Edgley immediately took a dislike to Frankie, and the feeling was mutual.

Rumours began to circulate that he 'hated' her, with them having another argument in the most recent episode.

Rift: More recently Frankie has locked horns with former pal Olivia Bentley

'Ciao Ciao!' It seems that she has now confirmed the news, posting a tweet out to her fans on Monday after her final scene had aired.

Frankie's off: While she has appeared on season 15, it seems Frankie has made her final exit

'I don't know you well enough to hate you,' Digby insisted before Frankie and Olivia came to blows.

Frankie had told Digby that Olivia had 'the ick' over his relationship - something Olivia never said.

'I'm choosing Digby over you!' Olivia said, walking away from her former friend.

Frankie told friend Sophie 'Habbs' Habboo that she needed time away from the drama and was last seen leaving Mimi Bouchard's pajama party.

Stirring: Frankie had told Digby that Olivia had 'the ick' over his relationship - something Olivia never said

'I'm choosing Digby over you!' Olivia has turned her back on her former friend

It seemed that Frankie was losing her patience with the show anyway, recently tweeting during an episode: 'Wow how boring are we, sitting in various cafes over London talking about boring boy bulls**t, as if thats all there is to us!'

Frankie's on again/off again boyfriend Jamie managed to woo her back on numerous occasions over the last few months. But it seems the pair have split for good - with Jamie dating Clementine Cuthbertson last season and new girls Melody and Elle already this year.

After her break up with Jamie, Frankie has since attempted to get back into the dating game with James Taylor and Harry Baron, but this went nowhere.

It seemed that Frankie was losing her patience with the show anyway, recently tweeting during an episode: 'Wow how boring are we, sitting in various cafes over London talking about boring boy bulls**t, as if thats all there is to us'

Goodbye: Frankie told friend Sophie 'Habbs' Habboo that she needed time away from the drama and was last seen leaving Mimi Bouchard's pajama party

Earlier this month, a source told MailOnline: 'She wants to do modelling. And stuff on Instagram.'

Frankie boasts 368k followers on the photo sharing site; and indeed, reality stars that rack up a healthy social media following can make a decent penny from their Instagram posts.

She recently tweeted her followers asking their thoughts on her starting a YouTube channel too.

MailOnline has approached a rep for Frankie for comment.

The news comes as Frankie's pal Tiff Watson also confirmed she was leaving the show.

Over and out: Frankie's on again/off again boyfriend Jamie Laing has managed to woo her back on numerous occasions over the last few months

Departing together: Frankie's pal Tiff has also ditched the series

Tiff - who is a fitness enthusiast and a vegan activist on the side - confirmed that she is had quit via a spokesperson... but suggested it's more of an open-exit.

'Tiff has taken a break for now to concentrate on a number of exciting projects including TV as well as the opening of her vegan restaurant with her sister and her lifestyle/stationary business 365 which she launched a few months ago,' the spokesperson said.

'She also has a number of trips coming up for work and leisure as well as her best friend's wedding where she is her maid of honour so its a busy few months and seemed the right time to step back and work on all the exciting things she has coming up and give them her all,' they added.

A spokesperson for MIC added: 'Whilst shes yet to film in series 15, its never goodbye in Chelsea.'

Made In Chelsea continues on Monday at 9PM on E4.
She hit headlines in 2011 when she was pictured wearing a burkini on an Australian beach, as reports stated her ex-husband Charles Saatchi didn't want her to get a tan.

And Nigella Lawson was back to covering up on the beach once again last week, as she was spotted strolling the sunny shores of Auckland, New Zealand, in a full-length blue-and-white button down Zara dress - and further shielded herself with a parasol.

The 58-year-old celebrity chef cut a stylish figure in her unconventional beach attire, which featured long sleeves and was buttoned all the way up to her neck, as she enjoyed a leisurely day out with a small group of friends.

Covered up: Nigella Lawson was spotted strolling the beach in Auckland, New Zealand, in a long-sleeved maxi dress last week

While other women in her immediate vicinity soaked up the rays in barely-there bikinis, the stunning TV personality added a pair of black fingerless gloves to her ensemble, seemingly adding to her efforts to avoid any expose to the sun.

She also covered up her long brown tresses with a wide-brimmed white hat, which she did dare to remove at one point during her relaxing excursion.

Her outing comes seven years after she was photographed sporting a burkini on Sydney's sun-kissed Bondi Beach, although it was later reported that she wore the Muslim swimwear to appease her then-husband Charles.

Headwear: The celebrity chef teamed her buttoned-up number with a wide-brimmed white hat

Burkini: Her covered-up outing was reminiscent of the burkini she was seen sporting when she took to the shores of Sydney's sun-kissed Bondi Beach back in 2011

Pic: At one point, she did away with the hat and parasol as she snapped pictures of the scenery

Back in 2014, friends of the star told the Sunday People that she did not pick the suit because she was shy about showing off her curvy figure, or because she was worried about getting sunburned in the 90-degree heat.

The friend said: 'Charles wants his women to be porcelain white or have alabaster skin. Thats the real reason why Nigella was so covered up.'

In an 2013 interview with Time magazine, Nigella admitted she did not think much of the suit either, saying: 'It was a very unflattering photo. Dry, I looked a lot better. Wet, I could see the hippo resemblance.'

Shielded: Keeping her feet comfortable in a pair of black Nike running shoes, the 58-year-old TV personality also shielded her hands with a pair of fingerless gloves

Rays: The star strolled past a bikini-clad sunbather during her leisurely day out at the beach

The mother-of-two divorced the art collector after pictures emerged of him with a hand around her throat at a London restaurant in June of 2013.

Nigella bought the 79.99 burkini from UK-based Islamic swimwear company Modestly Active and has been credited with a boom in sales.

Burkinis are lightweight outfits made of Lycra and nylon that leave only the hands, feet and face showing.

They were originally imported from Turkey and Morocco, but now London-based companies Modestly Active and Modestkini, which have been selling the swimsuits since 2007, are cashing in on the boom.

Enjoying the sights: The mother-of-two smiled as she checked out the sights with her friends

Svelte: The brunette beauty is sporting a slimmed-down frame after taking up yoga regularly

While Nigella likes to cover up at the beach, she currently boasts a new frame after slimming down, which she has attributed to taking three yoga classes a week.

Despite dropping from a size 16 to a size 12, the television favourite insisted that she has 'never dieted' in an interview with Good Housekeeping in 2015.

She told the publication: I have never been on a diet to try to lose weight, she said. I feel like I havent lost weight, but Im possibly in better shape.

As you get on in life, you value feeling well as opposed to looking well. Yoga certainly makes you feel great, and you want to carry on feeling great. No one should be put on this earth to go on a diet! No one should eat themselves ill either.

On the promo trail: The TV chef recently promoted her new book, At My Table, in Australia
Mahalia Barnes joined Prinnie Stevens on stage at Wednesday night's Premier's Harmony Dinner in Sydney.

And the ladies were sure to use the opportunity to reiterate the importance of multiculturalism in Australia as a way of educating and uniting the country, during a time when racism is still rife.

Mahalia - who comes from a mixed-race background and family - told Yahoo Be: 'Im Thai, Scottish, Australian and part Chinese, and Ive been told that because Im married to a white Australian, I'm participating in white genocide.

'I've been accused of genocide!' Mahalia Barnes has revealed how online trolls accused her of being racist because she's married to a white Australian

'It's a long game really but Im here to slowly breed out all white people apparently,' the 35-year-old added.

The daughter of Australian rock star Jimmy Barnes drew upon how easily racism can get through via social media platforms.

'Social media can be a really ugly thing as well as an amazing tool,' she said. 'Theres fantastic stuff that has come from the accessibility of social media such as being able to see people from all walks of life.

'It also means that people control and have a voice. Were both pretty thick skinned, but weve certainly faced a fair bit of trolling online with some pretty horrible things that can be said.

Trolls: The daughter of Australian country music star Jimmy Barnes drew upon how easily racism can get through via social media platforms

'But you know what, at the same time, these people having a voice, I think they are getting fewer and fewer as time goes on and I hope that more open-minded and kind-hearted people are also going to learn to actually speak up and see things that are out of line.'

Mahalia praised the world of TV, however, for its diversity.

'It is very important for me to see more and more as time goes on, more and more different types of faces, skin colors and genders on TV,' she said. 'Its really important and I think its really important for my children.

'Ive got two beautiful girls. Theyre completely different. Ones blonde and fair, and ones brown skin and dark hair and you know, I want them to be able to identify with the people they look up to. I think thats really important.'

In agreement: Prinnie Stevens - also a musician, rising to fame on The Voice in 2012 alongside Mahalia - echoed these words

The same sentiment: 'I was just saying the other day, for us growing up it was really rare to find anybody of colour or multicultural people on television or the newspaper, and now weve come so far,' Prinnie said

Prinnie Stevens - also a musician, rising to fame on The Voice in 2012 alongside Mahalia - echoed these words.

'I was just saying the other day, for us growing up it was really rare to find anybody of colour or multicultural people on television or the newspaper, and now weve come so far,' she said.

'But we have to remember theres so much further to go and we just need to keep educating people and keeping panels multicultural and just keep the conversation alive, continue to grow our country and have a fair representation of all the cultures.

'Cultures are changing so much even now, so weve come a long way but theres still a long way to go.'
She's the AFL WAG, TV presenter, radio star and a mother-of-four.

And Bec Judd has added another feather to her cap, with the star set to release her first book - The Baby Bible.

The 35-year-old will be hitting the road to impart some pearls of motherly wisdom and she's charging $129 for the privilege.

On tour: Bec Judd will be hitting the road to impart some pearls of motherly wisdom from her debut book The Baby Bible and she's charging $129 for the privilege

She took to Instagram on Wednesday to announce a trio of speaking engagements in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth, organised by Business Chicks.

In making the announcement, Bec shared a motherly image of her, replete in double denim, happily wrangling her twin boys Tom and Darcy, six months.

Captioning the image, Bec revealed that for $129 (or $109 for premium members), fans could hang out with her and even get the chance to buy a signed copy of her debut tome.

'Bring your girlfriends, sip on rose, nibble on canapes and chat to me about work, life, kids, babies, motherhood and everything in between (plus you can buy the book and I'll sign it for ya too if you're keen),' Bec captioned the photo.

Hitting the road: The 35-year-old took to Instagram on Wednesday to announce a trio of speaking engagements in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth, organised by Business Chicks

It appears that there is plenty of demand to see Bec in the flesh with nearly 3,000 of her followers hitting 'like' on the post.

'Looking forward to a great night, can't wait to meet you,' one fan commented summing up the excitement.

Bec will join high-profile celebrities such as Nicole Kidman, Nigella Lawson, Turia Pitt, Arianna Huffington and Lisa Wilkinson who have all taken part in Business Chicks events.

Goodies: 'Bring your girlfriends, sip on rose, nibble on canapes and chat to me about work, life, kids, babies, motherhood and everything in between (plus you can buy the book and I'll sign it for ya too if you're keen),' Bec told fans on Instagram

In good company: Bec will join high-profile celebrities such as Nicole Kidman, Nigella Lawson, Turia Pitt, Arianna Huffington and Lisa Wilkinson who have all taken part in Business Chicks events.

The $129 price tag comes as somewhat of a bargain for Bec's fans with Lisa Wilkinson charging $159, or $1390 for a table of ten, for a Business Chicks breakfast event in December.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Bec Judd's representatives for comment.

Bec surprised her legion of fans last week when she took to Instagram to share a snap of her proudly displaying her book.

'Guess what? My new baby arrived today - The Baby Bible to be exact- my first book! It's the modern woman's guide to having a baby,' she declared.

Bec is married at AFL star Chris Judd and the pair share four children, twins Tom and Darcy, daughter Billie, four and son Oscar, 6.
Corey Feldman is out of the hospital and sharing a new story in the wake of a bizarre attack that took place on Tuesday night.

The Los Angeles Police Department tells DailyMail.com that Feldman was released early Wednesday morning, shortly after he shared two posts detailing an attack that he believes almost cost him his life.

The LAPD were quick to state that Feldman was not not stabbed and had no visible injuries as a result of the attack, but the actor is standing by his statement.

Perry Wander, the lawyer for Feldman, told DailyMail.com that his client filed a police report stating that three Hispanic man appeared and tried to fight him and his security guard, with one of the men then stabbing the actor with a sharp object while his guard was distracted by the others.

Fingerprints and DNA samples were both taken from the scene according to Wander, and are now being tested by the LAPD.

An officer confirmed to DailyMail.com that the department is investigating a possible assault with a deadly weapon against Feldman.

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Attacked: Corey Feldman was stabbed by a knife-wielding thug in a shocking 'murder attempt' in Los Angeles late Tuesday night. The star tweeted snaps of himself in his hospital bed

Checked over: He shared a shot of himself getting checked over by a medical professional as his distressed wife Courtney Anne Mitchell looked on

Getting the word out: Feldman posted on Twitter shortly after the attack on Wednesday

The actor, 46, wrote on Twitter that he was sitting in his car on Tuesday night and while his security detail was distracted by a group of men, an individual opened his door and stabbed him with 'something.'

Feldman also claimed on Twitter that this attack was the work of the 'wolfpack,' a group of powerful Hollywood players that he believes have been trying to kill him in order to get revenge after he named a number of alleged pedophiles in the movie industry.

The Los Angeles Police Department said on Wednesday that officers were called to a residence in Reseda just before midnight on Tuesday in response to an assault with a deadly weapon call.

Feldman was at the residence and suffering from a minor abdominal wound he said had been caused by an unknown sharp object.

Officer Drake Madison later stated that the actor was stopped at an intersection Tuesday night when an unknown male approached the window on the driver's side of the car, made a 'jabbing motion' and fled.

There were no visible injuries on Feldman's body according to Officer Madison.

'IM IN THE HOSPITAL! I WAS ATTACKED 2NITE! A MAN OPENED MY CAR DOOR & STABBED ME W SOMETHING! PLEASE SAY PRAYERS 4 US!' wrote Feldman on Wednesday.

'THANK GOD IT WAS ONLY MYSELF & MY SECURITY IN THE CAR, WHEN 3 MEN APPROACHED! WHILE SECURITY WAS DISTRACTED, W A GUY A CAR PULLED UP & ATTACKED! IM OK!'

The star then linked the attack to his recent decision to speak out about the rampant sexual abuse that he says has haunted his and his friends' careers.

He wrote: 'I HAVE HAD MOUNTING THREATS ON ALL SM PLATFORMS BY THIS VILE WOLFPACK & THIS IM SURE IS A RESULT OF THOSE NEGATIVE ACTIONS! I HAVE REASON 2 BELIEVE ITS ALL CONNECTED! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! HOW SICK R THESE PPL?!?' [SIC]

In one of the snapshots, Corey is wearing a patterned hospital gown as he lies on a stretcher, while another shows him getting checked over by a medical professional as his distressed wife Courtney Anne Mitchell looks on.

His wife Courtney has yet to comment but can be seen in the photos appearing forlorn while sitting next to her husband's bed.

She also had a prescient horoscope on Wednesday, which posted directly to her Twitter timeline and stated: 'Its your turn to be the chatty one of the group today.'

This comes just four months after Feldman made a shocking claim about his safety while appearing on Megyn Kelly Today.

The actor was speaking about fears for his safety in the wake of his announcement that he hoped to raise $10 million to produce a feature film that will reveal a number of powerful Hollywood pedophiles.

A good deal of that money would go towards security said Feldman, a cost he justified by claiming he had almost been killed just a few days prior.

'The most important thing is that I have security. Somebody tried to kill me the other day. I've been arrested. This is no joke. I'm fearing for my life,' said Feldman.

When Megyn pressed the actor on his near-death experience, he stated: 'I had two trucks come speeding at me at the same time.'

He quickly added: 'I'm not saying they were trying to kill Corey Feldman. But they were trying to kill a group of people walking across the street.'

That $10 million project was later scrapped in favor of a $100,000 one for his 'truth campaign,' which has raised $29,000 as of Wednesday morning.

Since the recent Harvey Weinstein sex scandals sparked a surge of Hollywood heavyweights getting toppled from their positions of power, Corey's previous accounts of abuse at the hands of showbiz executives have gained new traction.

Feldman first came forward with his account in his 2013 memoir, Coreyography, claiming that both he and Corey Haim were repeatedly abused as up-and-coming actors.

Back in December, the actor was vindicated again as police in California said they had uncovered a tape in which Corey listed the names of men who had abused him in the past.

The former child actor had claimed in October that he had given the names of sexual predators in Hollywood to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office in 1993 during their investigation into Michael Jackson's molestation charges.

Then in November, the actor revealed the identities of two alleged child molesters he claims took advantage of him and other adolescent screen stars years ago.

He claimed on Dr. Oz that his former assistant and actor Jon Grissom was the first to take advantage of him in the 1980s.

Feldman also named former child talent manager and convicted sex offender Marty Weiss in a separate interview on Today.

Weiss was arrested in 2011 after one of his clients told police he had been sexually abused by the man starting when he was just 11-years-old, claiming the incidents happened 30 to 40 times over a roughly three years period.

He eventually pleaded no contest to two counts of child molestation in 2012 and was sentenced to a year in jail and five years probation however he was immediately released after entering his plea for time served.

Feldman spoke about telling police the names of these predators over two decades ago while being questioned about his friend Michael Jackson in multiple interviews last year.

'In 1993, I told the Santa Barbara Police Department, when they came to interrogate me about Michael Jackson, when they came to convince me that he was a pedophile. And I said he's not,' said Feldman while appearing on Megyn Kelly Live.

'And I said, 'I've been molested.' They said, 'by who?' I said, 'I can give you the names, here they are.' And they said, 'that's not our area. That's outside of our community.'

In November, the LAPD revealed it was investigating this rumored Hollywood pedophile ring after Feldman filed a formal police report identifying the men.

'Corey Feldman filed a report with the Los Angeles Police Department. There is no further information at this time, and his report is being investigated,' a spokesperson told DaillyMail.com at the time.

Veteran: Feldman may be best known for his work in classic 1985 adventure film The Goonies

Haim was one of the biggest stars of the 1980s, with leading roles in films including 'Lucas,' 'Watchers' and the Oscar-nominated 'Murphy's Romance,' which he starred in alongside Sally Field and James Garner.

The boys first worked together on the 1987 vampire flick 'The Lost Boys,' and paired up again in the films 'License to Drive' and 'Dream a Little Dream.'

Haim was quite the ladies man too over the years, dating Alyssa Milano, Nicole Eggert, Holly Fields and even Victoria Beckham at one point.

Feldman and Haim had a chance to share the screen once more in 2007 with their reality show 'The Two Coreys,' which was cancelled after two seasons.

It was a little over a year after that last season aired that Haim died as a result of drug induced pneumonia.

Feldman detailed Haim's struggles with drugs - as well as his own - in his 2013 memoir 'Coreyography.'

In that book he revealed that the first time they tried cocaine was with two of the men who were abusing them.

Feldman also wrote in the book about Haim having sex with adult men on the set of 'Lucas' and 'The Lost Boys,' sharing a story he claims Haim told him one of the first times they met.

'At some point during the filming [of Lucas], he explained an adult male convinced him that it was perfectly normal for older men and younger boys in the business to have sexual relations, that it was what all 'guys do,' wrote Feldman.

'So they walked off to a secluded area between two trailers, during a lunch break for the cast and crew, and Haim, innocent and ambitious as he was, allowed himself to be sodomized.'

Feldman also wrote about Haim spending time with Weiss while they were filming 'The Lost Boys.'

He claimed in the book that one day on set Haim, who was 15 during filming, was aroused and wanted to have sex.

'Marty's gay? Why don't you ask him?' wrote Feldman.

'The two walked, single file, into the adjoining room. ... I heard sounds, banging, thumping. I felt my stomach flip-flop. I felt sick.'

Feldman also detailed a night when he allegedly received oral sex from a man after he was fed a cocktail of drugs.

The abuse at the hands of that man, who he called 'Ron' in the book, went on for years after that first incident.

'I don't know why I couldn't confront Ron, but I was consumed with guilt. I felt like the whole thing was my fault,' wrote Feldman.

'I desperately wanted him to stop, but I was afraid of losing my friend.'

The actor married Courtney Anne Mitchell, 28, in 2016 and shares 13-year-old son, Zen with ex-wife Susie Sprague.
She found love with the much younger Keith Frazer last year.

But now The Bachelor's Zilda Williams, 34, is back on the market after splitting with the 27-year-old tradie after almost a year together.

Speaking exclusively to Daily Mail Australia on Wednesday, the blonde bombshell said: 'Yes, I'm single... I'm back home in New Zealand with my friends and family.'

'Yes, I'm single!' The Bachelor's Zilda Williams has confirmed that she's single after splitting with boyfriend Keith Frazer after almost a year together

The former FHM centerfold continued: 'He's a great guy but the age difference wasn't great. I need something serious and long-term, so I'll be going for a more mature man in the future.'

The Christchurch-born beauty said that she wishes her ex the best and that there are no hard feelings, but she's 'moving on' and enjoying New Zealand after leaving the Gold Coast home she shared with Keith.

'I'm heading to Auckland next week, I'm so excited!' she gushed.

'He's a great guy but the age difference wasn't great': The 34-year-old revealed that age played a part in her split from the 27-year-old aspiring model

'I need something serious and long-term, so I'll be going for a more mature man in the future,' said the former FHM centerfold

When asked if she's already started dating again, Zilda said cryptically: 'It's a bit soon but I love Kiwi men, so we'll see.'

The busty model, who is famous for her E-cup breasts, has been unlucky in love since failing to receive a rose from Sam Wood on season three of The Bachelor.

She's been linked to a number of high-profile fellas since her memorable stint on the reality series, including actor Firass Dirani and former Gold Coast Titans star Kevin Gordon.

She also recently caught the attention of Married At First Sight's Telv Williams, who was caught 'liking' her racy Instagram photos.

Flashback: The busty model, who is famous for her E-cup breasts, first entered the spotlight on the third season of The Bachelor

No rose: Despite her good looks and bubbly personality, the Kiwi-born bombshell failed to receive a rose from Sam Wood

Last year, the stunner relocated from Sydney to the Gold Coast after complaining that there weren't enough 'nice guys' in Sydney.

'I just can't seem to find nice guys,' she said at the time. 'I don't know if it's Sydney or it's a big city vibe.'

'I'm definitely looking for love, like I have been for years and I'm super serious about that. I'm not going to be with someone for the sake of it,' she added.
She has escaped the harrowing British weather for the balmy climes of Barbados.

And Zara Holland looked to be relishing every moment of sunshine as she enjoyed a stroll along the beach with her youthful mother Cheryl Hakeney on Monday.

The 22-year-old reality star showcased her incredible figure in a striking blue bikini as she spent another day topping up her tan, before packing on the PDA with boyfriend Elliot Love.

Another day in paradise: Zara Holland looked to be relishing every moment of sunshine as she enjoyed a stroll along a Barbados beach on Monday

The Love Island alumni put her ample cleavage on display in a turquoise two-piece that boasted ornate jewel detailing along the straps.

Letting her natural beauty shine through, Zara kept her face free of make-up and swept her damp blonde tresses into an easy top knot.

Cheryl, 52, gave her daughter a run for her money as she slipped her age-defying figure into a strapless reptile print bikini.

Sight for shore eyes! The 22-year-old reality star showcased her incredible figure in a striking blue bikini as topped up her tan alongside mum Cheryl Hakeney

Youthful: Cheryl, 52, gave her daughter a run for her money as she slipped her age-defying figure into a strapless reptile print bikini

The mother-daughter duo are extremely close and have even been pictured enjoying nights out together at some of London's biggest party hot spots.

Zara, who was de-crowned of her Miss Great Britain title after romping on reality show Love Island back in 2016, even pulled out of the show after learning her mother was feeling unwell.

Zara lamented at the time: 'I'm so sad to leave the villa but it's important for me to get home and spend time with my mum while she gets better.

Steamy: Zara was also caught sharing a passionate kiss with her boyfriend Elliot Love as they enjoyed some drinks

Beach babe! The Love Island alumni put her ample cleavage on display in a turquoise two-piece that boasted ornate jewel detailing along the straps

'I've had the time of my life on Love Island and would like to thank all of my fellow Islanders and the production team for all their support.'

But despite being unlucky in love in the villa, the beauty queen has since found love with boyfriend Elliot Love.

The pair struck up a romance just months after Zara left the show, and last year she told the Daily Star that he was 'the one'.

She gushed: 'We're very happy together and have such a great time.

'He is absolutely amazing and he's definitely the one.'

Less is more: Letting her natural beauty shine through, Zara kept her face free of make-up and swept her damp blonde tresses into an easy top knot

Getting her vitamin sea! Zara looked in high spirits as she paraded on the beach with her family

Dancing like no one's watching! Zara looked to be showing off her moves as she danced up a storm by the bar
She's been taking a break, having given birth to her first child in February.

But it seems that Tessa James' maternity leave is short-lived as she took to her Instagram stories on Wednesday to post shots from the set of her current project.

The actress, 26, left her month-old baby with husband Nate Myles as she got back to work in Los Angeles.

Back to the grind: Actress Tessa James headed back to work for the first time since giving birth on Wednesday

She uploaded four shots - one of which of a cute Pomeranian dog who was on set with her.

'My new friend for the day,' was the caption.

She appeared to be shooting under a bridge throughout the day and into the evening as night fell.

It's unclear what project Tessa is working on next. Her last role was in In 2017. She starred in a production of Nick Enright's Blackrock at the Seymour Centre.

It's off to work she goes: Tessa James' maternity leave is short-lived it would seem

On location: She appeared to be shooting under a bridge throughout the day and into the evening as night fell

'My new friend for the day!' She uploaded four shots - one of which of a cute Pomeranian dog who was on set with her

Her first television role was playing Anne Baxter in veteran soap Neighbours.

She then took the lead role in the Australian short film Hugo before joining the cast of Home And Away as Nicole Franklin in 2008.

In March 2011 Tessa left Home And Away to break Hollywood.

She landed a role in telefilm Beaconsfield, a dramatisation of the Beaconsfield Mine collapse.

She faced a bump in her career when she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma at the tender age of 23 - she is now in her third year of remission.

Family life: The actress, 26, left her month-old baby with husband Nate Myles as she got back to work in Los Angeles

New role: The actress, 26, took to her Instagram stories on Wednesday to post shots from the set of her current project

Tessa declared she was 'three years clear and counting' in a heartfelt post with her 107,000 Instagram followers recently, marking the anniversary.

The new mum tagged her husband in the Instagram as she credited him for his support.

The former soap star beat the disease after a gruelling regime of chemotherapy following her cancer diagnosis in 2014.

Tessa credited her 'wonderful' husband for his incredible support when he stood by her during the challenging time.

Must be love: The new mum, who announced the birth in February, tagged in her husband in the Instagram as she credited him for his support

She told The Sunday Herald Sun in February: 'I have a lot of help and I have a wonderful husband. I am really healthy and I credit a lot of that to how good I feel. I think that happiness, it says a lot.'

They have gone from strength to strength since they tied the knot in a romantic ceremony in December 2011.

The couple were introduced in 2009 by former lovebirds Braith Anasta and Jodi Gordon, when Tessa and Jodi starred on Home and Away together.
He has been struggling to cope after his horrific rape ordeal.

And Coronation Street's David Platt will face fresh fears next week, as he heads to an STI clinic after believing there's a chance he may have contracted HIV.

Fans will see David (Jack P. Shepherd) go to the clinic as he worries for his health after being raped by Josh Tucker - but fails to talk about his assault as he leaves without getting tested.

Fresh fears: Coronation Street's David Platt fears he may have HIV next week, as he heads to an STI clinic after his horrific rape ordeal

In heartbreaking scenes David will head to the STI clinic to get himself checked out, after speaking to friend Maria Connor (Samia Longchambon) about the chance he may be HIV positive.

Registering under the name Gary Windass, David struggles to answer when the doctor enquires about his sexual history, causing him to run out in shame.

The soap mainstay has been a shadow of his former self as he struggled to come to terms with being raped by the villainous Josh Tucker - played by ITV newcomer Ryan Clayton.

Crumbling: David will secretly visit an STI clinic, but after struggling to tell the doctor about his sexual history runs out before getting tested

Josh will also step up his menacing campaign against David next week, as he targets Alya Nazir (Saira Khan) in pursuit of an alibi for his crime, just as David (Jack P. Shepherd) threatens to finally go to the police.

The mechanic will show off his flirting skills with Alya after showing no remorse for his horrific crime towards David, who is still struggling to cope with the aftermath.

Fans will see Josh flirting with Alya as David continues to crumble following his assault earlier this month.

Net is closing in: Josh will pursue a new alibi next week as David threatens to finally call the police and report him for his crimes

David is furious to discover that Josh is still on the Street acting as if nothing untoward has happened, confronting him in the Rovers Return yard.

While he immediately threatens to report Josh to the police, David is later stunned to see his attacker flirting with Alya inside the pub.

Josh then reveals that having a girlfriend will make David's claims less believable, leaving the mainstay unsure of whether to go through with the threat.

No going back: David will later be stunned to see Josh flirting with Alya Nazir, as the mechanic says the claims will be less believable if he has a girlfriend

Fans will have to wait and see whether David decides to report Josh, in what will be another difficult week after his rape ordeal.

David's relationship with Shona (Julia Goulding) will come to an end next week, after she demands answers over their lack of intimacy.

The couple were at odds after David decided to move to New Zealand with his dad Martin (Sean Wilson), making it clear that Shona must join them or their relationship is over.

Breaking point: In another difficult week for the soap mainstay, David's relationship with Shona will come to an end next week, as he throws her out of the Platt home for demanding answers

While David later retracted his decision, Shona's continuing demands for answers lead him to throw her out of the Platt household next week.

Things are not set to get any easier for David, as producer Kate Oates recently revealed the controversial storyline will run for many weeks to come.

David has reached breaking point following his rape ordeal, as Josh showed no remorse for the attack.

The evil character confidently told David last week that he has no plans to leave the cobbles just yet, as the rest of the Street continue to fall for his 'nice guy' persona.
She's the lauded pop star who has long been one one Australia's greatest musical exports.

And Kylie Minogue, 49, will lend her musical talents to the anticipated reboot of iconic Australian film Picnic At Hanging Rock.

New Corp reported on Thursday that Kylie's 1994 hit Confide In Me has been remixed for the series with the track featuring on a new trailer.

Reimagining; Kylie Minogue, 49, will lend her musical talents to the anticipated reboot of iconic Australian film Picnic At Hanging Rock with a remix of her hit Confide In Me featuring on an errie new trailer

While Kylie's voice is not heard in the short, ethereal clip, a haunting arrangement, complete with stirring strings and swirling piano, can be heard over the eerie footage.

The track proved a winner for Kylie when released in 1994, hitting the top of the Australian charts while peaking at number 2 in the UK.

Based on a novel by Joan Lindsay, the 1975 Picnic at Hanging Rock was directed by Peter Weir and tells the eerie and ethereal story of a group of students and a teacher from a girls' school vanish without a trace while on an excursion to Hanging Rock, Victoria in 1900.

Atmospheric: While Kylie's voice is not heard in the short, ethereal clip,a haunting arrangement, complete with stirring strings and swirling piano, can be heard over the eerie footage.

Anticipated: The reboot, a six-part series which will air on Foxtel in April, will star Orange Is the New Black actress Yael Stone, Game Of thrones star Natalie Dormer and Romper Stomper's Lily Sullivan.

It won best film, best direction and best screenplay at the 1976 Australian Film Institute awards.

The reboot, a six-part series which will air on Foxtel in April, will star Orange Is the New Black actress Yael Stone, Game Of thrones star Natalie Dormer and Romper Stomper's Lily Sullivan.

Kylie, who is set to arrive in the country this week to perform songs from her highly-anticipated new album, Golden, cancelled all Australian promotional interviews and her Sydney show, citing illness as the cause.

Cancelled: The Daily Telegraph reported on Tuesday that Kylie has pulled out of all promotional interviews during her trip home to Australia this week

A spokesperson told The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday: 'She (Kylie) has a throat infection and needs to rest her voice ahead of the performance.'

The publication says 'all other commitments are believed to have been spiked until further notice.'

Awkward: The news comes less than 48 hours after journalist Karl Stefanovic was slammed for his interview with Kylie, which was broadcast on Sunday night's edition of 60 Minutes

The news comes after Today host Karl Stefanovic was slammed for his interview with Kylie, which was broadcast on Sunday night's edition of 60 Minutes.

Viewers branded the Channel Nine star's chat a 'trainwreck' and called for someone more 'professional' to take the helm.

During the chat Karl made Kylie visibly uncomfortable by describing her as 'hot 50-year-old' and asked if she could stop dating 'incredibly good-looking d**kheads'.

Oh dear: Karl was slammed after he called a 'hot 50-year-old' and told her to stop dating 'd**kheads' in a bizarre interview

Viewers flocked to Twitter to blast the 'rubbish' interview and claimed Karl was using the chat to 'creep' on Kylie.

The Channel Nine personality concluded the interview by bringing out a birthday cake for Kylie and singing to her, in a nod to her 50th in May.

Coming up from behind her, the grinning host gestured at the camera crew and publicists to join in as he serenaded a squirming Kylie.

It's not believed that the poorly-received chat is related to the pop queen's decision to pull the pin on further interviews with Australian journalists.
Last year, it was announced that The War Of The Worlds - one of the best-read science fiction in history - was being adapted for a British television.

And on Wednesday, filming was seen getting well underway in Cheshire's Delamere Forest, as Rafe Spall shot dramatic alien attack scenes for the BBC adaptation of HG Wells' classic novel.

Getting into character as George, the 35-year-old actor sported a soot-covered Victorian-ea dark suit as he chatted away on the set with Harry Melling, who stepped out in soldier uniform for his role in the upcoming drama.

Adaptation: Rafe Spall was spotted shooting scenes for the BBC's adaptation of HG Wells' classic novel The War Of The Worlds in Cheshire's Delamere Forest on Wednesday

The pair were surrounded by a group of soldiers, who were seen bearing rifles as they acted out scenes for the three-part series, hours after filming had taken place on a set in Liverpool's Eldon Grove, Vauxhall.

Dressed in Victorian-era attire, a group of soldiers were seen carrying bodies on stretchers through a set fashioned to look like a bombed street as cameras rolled.

A solitary woman was also seen standing before cameras with blood on the side of her face as she wandered through the aftermath of an explosion, while an elderly man, muddied by rubble, stood in shock with his hands across his chest.

Having a chat: He was seen chatting with Harry Melling, who was dressed in solider uniform

Suited and booted: The 35-year-old actor stepped before cameras in a loose-fitting dark suit

Ready for battle: The Extras looked ready for battle as they roamed the set in their ensembles

Armed: They were also seen bearing rifles as they acted out their fight against an alien invasion

The book, which was published more than 120 years ago, will be imagined in a three-part BBC adaptation, which tells the story of a catastrophic alien invasion.

Whilst previous big screen adaptations have been set in the US, this version will stay true to the original book and unfold in London and Surrey - where marauding Martians are attacking humans.

The tentacled aliens use sophisticated fighting machines known as tripods and chemical weapons dubbed Black Smoke to lay waste to as many people as possible, in order that they can suck their blood.

The novel has been adapted by Peter Harness, the screenwriter behind Wallander and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, and is set to be broadcast later this year.

Under wraps: Harry, who appeared in the Harry Potter films, kept himself warm in a camouflage coat between takes

Warming up: Other castmembers wrapped up under blankets, coats and hats between takes

In good company: Poldark actress Eleanor Tomlinson, who has yet to be spotted on the set, will also be starring in the miniseries

Military weaponry: A range of military weaponry was scattered throughout the forest set

Action: A storyboard, which gives a hint of all of the action to come, was also seen on the set

Damien Timmer, head of Mammoth Screen - the production company which will make the show  said that his adaptation will remain faithful to the original.

This huge title - the original alien invasion story  has been loosely adapted and riffed on countless times, but no one has ever attempted to follow Wells and locate the story in Dorking at the turn of the last century.

We hope Peters adaptation will be the definitive adaptation of one of the great classic novels.'

Mr Harness said: Im feeling phenomenally lucky to be writing The War of the Worlds, and blowing up gigantic swathes of the Home Counties at the dawn of the twentieth century.

Shooting underway: Earlier in the day, actors were spotted shooting dramatic scenes on the Liverpool set of the BBC's three-part adaptation of HG Wells' classic novel

Devastated: Castmembers got into character as they portrayed the devastation of the attack

Going back in time: Actors were seen dressed in Victorian-era solider uniforms as they shot scenes portraying the aftermath of a harrowing alien attack

The War Of The Worlds has been dramatised numerous times over the years  but it has almost always been set in America.

One of the most famous versions was the 1953 film starring Gene Barry, which placed the action in California

Who was HG Wells? Author Herbert George Wells was born in Bromley in 1866 to parents who were shopkeepers in Kent. His first novel was The Time Machine, but his most famous work was The War of the Worlds. It was seen as a revolutionary vision into the future. He died in 1946 and suffering from diabetes set up The Diabetic Association which later became Diabetes UK in the years before his death. Advertisement

In the late eighties, Paramount made a series for American and Canadian television imagining what would have happened there after the novel finished.

And, more recently, in 2005, the HG Wells book was turned into a major Hollywood blockbuster directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Tom Cruise as an American father trying to save his family.

According to insiders, British broadcasters have wanted to do a faithful retelling of HG Wells book for some time.

However, it was difficult to get the rights from Paramount  and it was considered too expensive to make. Recent advances in technology mean that it is now much cheaper.

Piers Wenger, the BBCs new drama boss, said: Up until now, TV has not been able to achieve the same production values as film, and that is no longer the case. We think this is a way of exploring period drama in a really new, and surprising way.

Wade: Men dressed as solider waded through a plethora of overturned dustbins for the scenes

Novel: Bodies were seen on stretchers in the first British TV adaptation of the HG Wells novel

Released: The BBC's three-part take on the classic novel is set to be released later this year

Dilapidated: A row of dilapidated homes were used as the backdrop for the dramatic scenes

He added that The War of the Worlds was one of a number of new series that will make the BBCs output feel more British  so that in five years time it feels like a celebration of British authorship, identity and life in all its most diverse forms.

I want a strong streak of Britishness to run through the centre of everything we do. It gives us distinctiveness in a crowded landscape and a strong identity internationally.

A classic sci-fi novel The War of the Worlds is a science fiction novel by HG Wells, which was first published in 1897 as a serialisation in Pearson's Magazine in the UK and Cosmopolitan in the US. A year later it was published in book form and tells the tale of two brothers as England is invaded by Martians. It was an instant hit and has been adapted numerous times. The most famous of which was Orson Welles' 1938 radio broadcast, which went out as a news bulletin and caused widespread panic. Jeff Wayne launched his musical interpretation of the story in 1978 and Tom Cruise starred in a Steven Spielberg-directed movie in 2005. Advertisement

'I think its the individuality, chutzpah, determined vision and tireless curiosity at the heart of Britains creative community which has played a huge part in turning drama from the UK into such a valuable cultural export, he said.

But not everything on the BBCs new slate of dramas quite lives up to that billing.

The corporation is also planning a new version of Little Women, the classic novel by Louisa May Alcott which follows the story of the four March sisters growing up in 19th century America.

Call The Midwife writer Heidi Thomas will adapt the book for a three-part series expected to air later this year or in 2018.

Miss Thomas said: Little Women is one of the most loved novels in the English language and with good reason. Its humanity, humour and tenderness never date, and as a study of love, grief and growing up it has no equal. There could be no better time to revisit the story of a family striving for happiness in an uncertain world, and I am thrilled to be bringing the March girls to a new generation of viewers.

Little Women has been dramatised numerous times since its publication in 1868. The first was in 1933 starring Katharine Hepburn as the tomboy of the sisters, Jo March. It was a role reprised by Winona Rider in 1993.

Screening: Tom Cruise and then-wife Katie Holmes attended a fan screening of Paramount Pictures' War of the Worlds at Hollywood's Grauman's Chinese Theatre in June 2005
She is one of a bevy of British celebrities who is chasing the sun by flocking to more tropical lands.

And Ashley James relished another day in paradise as she sizzled on the beaches of Tulum, Mexico, in a vibrant yellow bikini on Tuesday.

Joined by her pal Charlotte de Carle, the 30-year-old star looked to be having the time of her life as she enjoyed an ice cold beverage and another day in the sunshine.

Ashley James relished another day in paradise as she sizzled on the beaches of Tulum, Mexico, in a vibrant yellow bikini on Tuesday

The Celebrity Big Brother star looked sensational in a plunging yellow bikini, which flashed serious cleavage as she larked around in the sea.

Upping the glamour, Ashley paired the two-piece with statement hooped earrings and circular sunglasses.

When she wasn't sizzling in her bright bikini, the star opted for a stylish cover-up of orange crochet shorts and a matching vest top.

It doesn't get any better! Joined by her pal Charlotte de Carle, the 30-year-old star looked to be having the time of her life as she enjoyed an ice cold beverage and another day in the sunshine

Not so mellow yellow! The Celebrity Big Brother star looked sensational in a plunging yellow bikini, which flashed serious cleavage as she larked around in the sea

Finishing touches: Upping the glamour, Ashley paired the two-piece with statement hooped earrings and circular sunglasses

Model Charlotte's swimwear style was equally bold, with the beauty showing off her toned abs in a fuchsia Calvin Klein bikini.

Ashley's holiday comes shortly after she took to Twitter to reveal she had been mugged by two kids on scooters, but she managed to chase down the thieves and get her phone back.

The in-shape star proudly revealed that she's a 'fast runner' and sprinted to get her phone back.

Minutes after the mugging, Ashley told her Twitter followers about the terrifying ordeal, writing: 'Two kids on scooters just snatched my phone near Kilburn station.'

The fuchsia's bright... Model Charlotte's swimwear style was equally bold, with the beauty showing off her toned abs in a fuchsia Calvin Klein bikini

Getting their vitamin sea! The girls looked in their element as they sipped on drinks and enjoyed a chat in the ocean

Sight for shore eyes! The stunner was bound to turn more than a few heads during her day at the beach

'Little do they know I was on my way to Kobox and I'm a fast runner so I chased them and got it back (I dropped it in the tackle though so it's mad scuffed up). Be careful of these little fu*kers. #nottodaysatan.'

'That said, one very nice guy who saw it happen and came to check on me said I shouldn't have chased them down as they could have had acid so in hindsight and in future I won't do that again.'

When a follower asked if she had reported the theft, Ashley added: 'They were wearing helmets and there was no reg on the scooters but two young white kids. They mounted the pavement so just be vigilant to the noise if you're in the area and walking home.'

The beauty even revealed it's not the first time a mugger has met his match opposite her, tweeting: 'On the slightly amusing side, that's the second time someone's tried to mug me and I've chased them down though.'

Bronzed: Ashley's yellow bikini was the perfect shade for offsetting her tanned complexion

The brighter the better: When she wasn't sizzling in her bright bikini, the star opted for a stylish cover-up of orange crochet shorts and a matching vest top

Life of luxury: The girls retreated to plush sun loungers when they had finished their ocean cool down
No one's star has risen faster than that of Jeremy Meeks  the 'hot felon' who was discovered while doing time for gun and theft charges.

After serving his 27-month sentence, the California-native, now aged 34, began a modeling career that took him all around the world. Now, he's shacking up with Topshop heiress Chloe Green who is said to be pregnant with his second child.

Jeremy and Chloe, 27, have been spending time together since June 2017. All the while, the former Mendota Federal Correctional Institution inmate was still married to estranged wife Melissa Meeks.

Hot felon Jeremy Meeks is reportedly expecting his second child with girlfriend Chloe Green

Jeremy filed for divorce in October 2017 and has been battling with his estranged wife over spousal support and child support for his only biological son with her ever since.

So what's Jeremy Meeks's net worth?

Who is Jeremy Meeks?

Jeremy Meeks was born February 7, 1984. He's a native of Stockton, California, where he was a member of the Northern Crips.

Speaking with Man About Town about whether or not he was through gang banging, Meeks said: 'You can quit, to a certain extent I have, I am very extremely non-active. I'm grown now.'

Workin' it A post shared by JEREMY MEEKS (@jmeeksofficial) on Mar 15, 2017 at 4:54pm PDT

The father-of-one was arrested on June 18, 2014, according to ABC News. Police allegedly busted him with a gun, ammunition and marijuana inside his vehicle.

Jeremy was charged with five felony weapons charges and one gang charge.

A judge sentenced Jeremy, who was called 'one of the most violent criminals in the Stockton area', to 27-months in prison.

That wasn't his first stint behind bars, however. KTXL-TV reported that the hot felon was convicted of forgery in 2007 and theft two years before that. In total, he served less than 75 days for both crimes.

The Smoking Gun reported that Jeremy was arrested for identity theft in 2005 as well.

The website also noted that between 2005 and 2007, Jeremy was listed as a defendant in Spokane, Washington, courts on five separate occasions.

In 2002 he's said to have served two years in prison for grand theft of a person.

When Jeremy rose to fame, women around the world where saddened to learn that he was taken. He married wife Melissa Meeks, with whom he has one biological son and two step sons, in or around 2008.

According to The Sun, Melissa works in Oakland, California, as a nurse at a juvenile detention center.

What is Jeremy Meeks's net worth?

While there's been no confirmation about how much Jeremy Meeks is making since he became a model, he's rumored to be rolling in dough.

In November 2017, TMZ reported that estranged wife Melissa Meeks declared her income as part of divorce proceedings and took a stab at what Jeremy's might be. By her estimates, Jeremy's bringing home about $1 million (707, 300) per month.

She, on the other hand, makes $10,000 (7,073) per month and has expenses of $11,000 (7,781).

How did Jeremy Meeks make his money

Jeremy Meeks made his money modeling. He signed a contract with White Cross Management.

Jeremy Meeks wife Melissa

Melissa Meeks is thought to have married Jeremy Meeks in 2008. She has three children, only one of whom is Jeremy's biological child.

Melissa reportedly works as a nurse in Oakland, California.

She announced plans to leave Jeremy after photos surfaced of him sharing a smooch with now-girlfriend Chloe Green in October 2017. He beat her to the punch however, filing for divorce first.

#nocaptionneeded  A post shared by Melissa (@mmeeks14) on Jun 4, 2017 at 7:07pm PDT

Jeremy isn't the only one who's moved on fast in the wake of their split.

It's been reported that Melissa's dating billionaire Donald 'DJ' Friese. In February the pair were seen spending time together at a concert in Las Vegas.

Sources told The Sun: 'The have really hit it off.'

Jeremy Meeks wife Instagram

Melissa Meeks has taken subtle shots at her estranged husband, Jeremy Meeks, on Instagram. Not long after photos of him and Chloe Green first surfaced, she posted a series of photos of quotes about going through hard times.

Around the same time, she posted a selfie with the caption: 'Real Eyes Realize Real Lies.'

Melissa also often posts photos of herself with her sons.

Real Eyes Realize Real Lies  A post shared by Melissa (@mmeeks14) on Jun 17, 2017 at 1:01am PDT

Jeremy Meeks divorce

Jeremy Meeks filed for divorce from wife Melissa Meeks in October 2017. Court documents obtained by E! News cited irreconcilable differences as the main reason for their split.

In his filing, Jeremy requested joint legal and physical custody of their son, Jeremy Meeks Jr.

Melissa responded to her estranged husband's filing with a request for spousal support and the court to terminate their ability to award Jeremy any such support.

TMZ reported in November 2017 that Jeremy filed paperwork stating that he's currently being paid the same amount Melissa was during their marriage, at which time she was the breadwinner in the family.

He stated in the filing that he was willing to pay child support, but could not pay as much as Melissa was requesting.

Jeremy claimed in the court documents obtained by the outlet that he was making about $6,000 (4,249) per month and would be open to paying what the child support schedule would dictate for that income level

TMZ estimated that would be about $418 (296) per month.

Jeremy also stated in the filing that he has been sure to set a good example for his sons, meanwhile Melissa does TV interviews and undergoes 'televised reconstructive surgeries'.

Jeremy Meeks child

Jeremy Meeks has one biological child, an eight-year-old son called Jeremy Meeks Jr. The boy is a regular fixture on mom Melissa Meeks's Instagram as well as his father's.

Like father like son ! @jimjordanphotography A post shared by JEREMY MEEKS (@jmeeksofficial) on Oct 18, 2017 at 3:06pm PDT

Jeremy Meeks tattoos

Jeremy Meeks has a number of tattoos, many of which are from his days as a Northern Crip. In fact, he has NC tattooed on his throat, a man nestled between two guns sporting a blue kerchief on his chest, and Crip life written on his left and right forearm.

Jeremy also has a teardrop tattoo on his left eye, a cross on his left shoulder, a name tattooed in script on his neck and many other tattoos on his arms, hands and stomach.

Chloe Green net worth

Chloe Green's exact net worth is unknown, but she is the daughter of billionaire Topshop boss Sir Philip Green and she is set to inherit his fortune.

Sir Philip Green net worth

According to Forbes, Sir Philip Green's net worth is estimated to be about $4.9 billion (3.4b).
She's the Married At First Sight villain, who's no stranger to shocking antics.

And Davina Rankin, 27, set tongues wagging yet again on Thursday, this time after posing topless in a clip shared to YouTube.

The confident brunette stripped down to a white G-string and flashed her pert derriere while getting a massage.

That's cheeky! Davina Rankin, 27, set tongues wagging yet again on Thursday, this time for posing topless in a clip shared to YouTube. She recently embarked on a trip to Byron Bay for her birthday and she documented her getaway in a recent vlog

She recently embarked on a trip to Byron Bay for her birthday and she documented her getaway in a recent vlog.

Earlier this week, it was revealed that the smooth-talking beauty used her celebrity profile to score herself a 'special rate' holiday at an exclusive Byron Bay retreat.

A Byron Bay Rentals spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia that the 'social media influencer' was a repeat guest at the luxury Pavilion 2 at Broken Head and received a special rate.

The perks of reality TV: Earlier this week it was revealed that the smooth-talking beauty used her celebrity profile to score herself a 'special rate' holiday at an exclusive Byron Bay retreat

For those paying full price, one night at the beachside destination can cost between $800 and $1330, depending on the time of year.

The Channel Nine star first made headlines in recent months, when her 'affair' with Dean Wells was exposed on the show.

At the time of their rendevous, they were both 'married' to other people.

During a confrontation with Dean's now 'ex-wife' Tracey Jewel, Davia slammed the single mum as 'crazy.'

The truth: During a confrontation with Dean's now 'ex-wife' Tracey Jewel, Davia slammed the single mum as 'crazy' and she recently claimed there is a good reason for the name calling

Busted! Davina and Dean Wells were previously seen sneaking around in one of MAFS' most controversial episodes

She recently insisted there was a valid reason for the name calling and claims her and Tracey are 'fine' with each other now the dust has settled.

Speaking to A Current Affair on Monday, she said: 'Tracey actually called me after she left Dean at the aisle of the last ceremony, and we're actually fine.'

Davina went on to explain that she and Tracey, 35, had in fact discussed the issues off-camera and put the whole thing to bed - which is why she felt blindsided by the sudden outburst at the group dinner.

This confusion led to Davina branding Tracey 'crazy' after she launched into a tirade.

'She's crazy!' Speaking to A Current Affair on Monday, Davina said: 'Tracey actually called me after she left Dean at the aisle of the last ceremony, and we're actually fine.' Davina went on to explain that she and Tracey, 35, had in fact discussed the issues off-camera and put the whole thing to bed - which is why she felt blindsided by the sudden outburst at the group dinner
She was named an Angel for Victoria's Secret in 2015.

And almost three years later, Sara Sampaio was spotted heading out to lunch in New York City on Tuesday.

The 26-year-old model flaunted her long legs in skintight leather leggings with a heavy furry lined jacket, adding a knit beanie and flat boots.

Beaming: Sara Sampaio was spotted heading out to lunch in New York City on Tuesday

The Portuguese model chose skintight textured bottoms with an oversized motorcycle jacket.

The statuesque beauty hit the pavement in flat pointed boots, complete with buckle detailing.

Sara donned a two-tone beanie over her long brunette tresses; the stunner showed off her flawless complexion by going makeup free.

The runway beauty was spotted in the West Village neighborhood with an equally bundled up friend, model Sadie Newman.

Effortless: The 26-year-old model flaunted her long legs in skintight leather leggings with a heavy furry lined jacket, adding a knit beanie and flat boots; with pal Sadie Newman

Sara, who was born in Porto, Portugal, made her debut on the Victoria's Secret runway for their annual fashion show in 2013.

She walked for the lingerie giant the following four years.

In addition to being a Victoria's Secret Angel, Sara is also an ambassador for skin and hair brand Moroccanoil and jewelry company Graff.

Mesmerizing: Sara made her debut on the Victoria's Secret runway for their annual fashion show in 2013; seen on November 20, 2017 at the show in Shanghai

Multi-talented: In addition to being a Victoria's Secret Angel, Sara is also an ambassador for skin and hair brand Moroccanoil and jewelry company Graff

Last month, the cat walker enjoyed a Bahamas getaway with her pals.

The stunner shared a series of photos while rocking revealing bikinis on a yacht.

She flaunted her flat stomach and her incredibly fit frame in a striped bikini while posing with fellow models Georgia Fowler and Sadie.

Wow: Last month, the cat walker enjoyed a Bahamas getaway with her pals

Good looking: The stunner shared a series of photos while rocking revealing bikinis on a yacht
Charlotte Crosby has always been candid about her love of cosmetic enhancements.

And the 27-year-old former Geordie Shore star was again revealing all on Wednesday's episode of This Morning as she revealed her widely-discussed pout was the result of just one round of fillers per year.

Despite her insistence, viewers soon swarmed Twitter to discuss her lips with some deeming the look 'unattractive' and 'insane', yet one fan yearned for her pout during her glamorous appearance on the show.

Shocking: Charlotte Crosby opening up on Wednesday's episode of This Morning as she revealed her widely-discussed pout was the result of just one round of fillers per year

After confessing she was insecure about her lips previously, Charlotte began plumping up her pout with a divisive reaction.

As she chatted to Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, the former asked her what she had had done to her incredibly plump pout.

She responded: 'I dont actually, I get them done once a year, I had a big problem down the sides, but once a year thats it and I dont think theyre that bad'.

Shortly before her TV interview, Charlotte spoke to MailOnline about her surgeries as she said: ' I have no regrets over my surgery. I never went over the top. I'm very happy and feel a lot more confident since I had the correctional (boob job).'

Way back when: Charlotte has always been candid about her love of cosmetic enhancements (pictured in 2011)

Oh dear: Despite her insistence, viewers soon swarmed Twitter to discuss her fillers with some deeming the look 'unattractive' and 'insane', yet one fan yearned for her pout during her glamorous appearance on the show

Hitting back: As she chatted to Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, the former asked her what she had had done to her incredibly plump pout

In response to her lips, one supporter took to the site to pen: 'Just want Charlotte Crosby's lips tbh', followed by a mouth Emoji and heart.

Less complimentary responses came from others, who wrote: 'in what world does charlotte crosby think her lips are attractive... Philip schofield telling charlotte Crosby that her collegen pumped lips look natural. lol...

'the way tv people blow smoke up each others a**e is hilarious... There is no way that Charlotte Crosby has her lip filler done once a year #ThisMorning #OkThen...

Hitting back: Fans criticised her lips on Twitter yet Charlotte is adamant she has had nothing done

Out and a pout: As she chatted to Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, the former asked her what she had had done to her incredibly plump pout

Way back when: Charlotte looked worlds away from her current look back in 2013

'Charlotte Crosby's face on This Morning is insane! Nothing moves other than her giant lips! Bloody hell lass!... Im not Charlotte Crosby fan but WTF has she done to her lips!! @thismorning... What? Charlotte Crosby has had her lips done?!

'#ThisMorning... Charlotte Crosbys lips look like you could stick her too a window!! Why do women think that is attractive?!... How much lip filler and face procedures has #charlottecrosby had cuz she is morphing into a #geisha #duck #lmao'.

Charlotte looked sensational on the show as she wore a funky navy dress with one-shoulder while her hair was flawlessly coiffed.

Stunner: Charlotte litters her Instagram account with smouldering snaps - where she displays her plump pout
They're gearing up to welcome their first child together, a baby boy, due in just a matter of weeks.

And loved-up couple, Jordan Banjo, 25, and his pregnant girlfriend Naomi Courts, 26, packed on the PDA during a romantic country stroll on Saturday after collecting their brand new black Mercedes-Benz G-Class.

The Diversity dancer and his long-time partner of three-years cut a casual figure as they were spotted kissing in the luscious green landscape.

Parents-to-be: Jordan Banjo, 25, and his pregnant girlfriend Naomi Courts, 26, packed on the PDA during a romantic country stroll on Saturday

Naomi showed off her blossoming baby bump in a fitted black and tan top while she teamed the ensemble with dark leggings and a long duster coat.

The heavily pregnant beauty opted for comfy footwear as she donned a pair of white trainers and accessorised with a green leather circle bag.

Naomi tied her luscious brunette locks into a loose bun for the fun outdoor adventure with her partner.

Smitten: The 26-year-old showed off her blossoming baby bump in a fitted black and tan top while she teamed the ensemble with dark leggings and a long duster coat

Loved-up: The heavily pregnant beauty opted for comfy footwear as she donned a pair of white trainers and accessorised with a green leather circle bag

While dad-to-be, Jordan, wore a pair of skinny jeans teamed with an oversized grey t-shirt and patterned coat.

Copying his girlfriend for style and comfort inspiration, the former I'm a Celebrity contestant donned a pair of stylish black and white striped Vans trainers.

The expecting couple were in good spirits after picking up their new family car and couldn't stop giggling as they walked around the picturesque scenery.

Jordan and Naomi announced their pregnancy in January, admitting that the news came as a shock to both of them after taking a whopping nine tests to make sure they were expecting.

Family mobile: The loved-up couple were in high spirits after collecting their brand new black Mercedes-Benz G-Class

Exciting times: Jordan and Naomi announced their pregnancy in January, admitting that the news came as a shock to both of them after taking a whopping nine tests to make sure they were expecting

But the couple revealed that they were 'over the moon' with the news, even though they admitted that the little one will be a 'huge lifestyle change'.

Announcing their exciting announcement to OK! Magazine, Naomi said: 'I wanted to be sure so I went out and bought eight more tests. I sat with them laid out in front of me on the bathroom floor, staring at them in disbelief.

'We always said we wanted kids together, we just didn't think it would happen this soon. We're over the moon, though!'

While Jordan added: 'It took a bit of time for me to get excited about becoming a dad because it's going to be a huge lifestyle change - right now my greatest responsibility is making sure my phone is charged!'
It was recently revealed that she had signed her first modelling contract with a top fashion agency.

And Love Island's Montana Brown certainly proved herself in front of the camera on Tuesday, as her striking black and white photo shoot with famous photographer David Yarrow was unveiled.

The reality star, 22, looked truly stunning as she posed nearly-nude on a windswept beach in Iceland - slipping into just a thin white leotard and hooded black coat.

Stunning: Montana Brown posed for a stunning black and white photo shoot with famous photographer David Yarrow on Tuesday - after revealing she had signed a modelling contract

The ITV2 star first showed off her sensational figure in the slinky white leotard, which saucily flashed her braless frame underneath in the setting's blustery climes.

Clinging to her frame all the way down, the one-piece then cut off high at her thigh to leave her long and slender legs on show, as she fiercely cocked a hip for the camera.

Not stopping there, Montana then stripped completely nude for a second shot on the beach - with only a black hooded coat concealing her modesty.

Dramatic: The reality star, 22, looked truly stunning as she posed nearly-nude on a windswept beach in Iceland - in nothing but a thin white leotard and hooded black coat

Leaving her hair in loose, tousled waves and sporting minimal make-up, the brunette drew attention to her naturally striking features and glowing skin as she smouldered for the camera, against the stunning, barren landscape.

The black and white shoot saw Montana pose beside a number of wild horses, with David known for his work with wildlife and nature.

The Brit is an iconic fine-art photographer, who recently shot supermodel Cara Delevingne for TAG Heuer in close proximity of lions.

Sexy: The ITVBe star stunned in a slinky white leotard, which saucily flashed her braless frame underneath in the setting's blustery climes

She's a natural: Iconic photographer David Yarrow had nothing but praise for Montana after the shoot, stating of the new model: 'She has a great work ethic and is super smart'

Despite being new to the modelling scene, the famous photographer had nothing but praise for Montana - who he gushed was the consummate professional on set.

He said after the shoot: 'Montana has great a work ethic and is super smart. It was a pleasure to ask her to join our shoot.

'I think I put her in the toughest climate conditions she has ever experienced, but she coped well and the resulting images are powerful. I have no doubt her career will blossom.'

The stunning project comes days after it was revealed Montana had been signed by Select Model Management.

Strike a pose: Montana, who often shares sizzling bikini snaps to Instagram, recently signed a contract with Select Model Management, after dazzling with her PrettyLittleThing campaign

The Love Island babe is said to have wowed the agency, which kick-started the careers of Agyness Deyn and Sienna Miller, with her PrettyLittleThing campaign last year.

A source told The Sun last week: 'Even 2017 Love Island winner Amber Davies has not landed a gig this big.'

Montana has been making waves in the fashion world ever since she appeared on the ITVBe series last summer.

She was named the UK ambassador for online retailer PrettyLittleThing last year, and released her own clothing collection for the brand soon afterwards.
She's the star of Frederick of Hollywood's new lingerie campaign.

And Megan Fox, who joined the company as co-owner, creative collaborator and global brand ambassador in 2016, looks incredible in a white lace bodysuit for the cover of Style Verify magazine this week.

The mother-of-three sizzles as she shows off her slender physique in the racy image.

Sultry star: Megan Fox, 31, poses in white lingerie for her Frederick's of Hollywood campaign

The brunette beauty has been heavily promoting the new range of underwear in recent weeks including fashion store Forever 21 launching the lingerie collection in its stores.

In the new issue of Style Verify the New Girl actress opens up about how she is often portrayed negatively in the press.

'People like to twist my own narrative and use it against me. I felt sort of powerless in expressing myself no matter how hard I tried to be genuine or to be who I was.' she explains.

'I felt discouraged in that way because I felt like I dont know how to be or live in this industry and have to do interviews.

Brunette beauty: The actress shared this selfie in the same lace bodysuit back in November

Girl on film: In the new issue of Style Verify Megan opens up about how she's portrayed in the press

'Thats a part of what we do when every time I open my mouth no matter how positive my intentions are it becomes something scandalous or something negative and then I get torn apart for it.'

But she's learned to overcome it by not taking things so personally.

She went on: 'You start to look at things that seem like obstacles or blocks or attacks as something youve brought to yourself as lessons-lessons that your ego and personality needs to learn.

'When you look at it that way, it removes the victimhood from a lot of this and it then gives you your power back because you no longer feel like someone is doing something to you. You realize that youve brought this to yourself for a reason and that its going to have a positive outcome because now your perspective has changed.'
Her husband is travelling the world on his Man Of The Woods Tour.

But on Tuesday, Jessica Biel was all smiles as she left lunch at The Smile restaurant in New York City.

The 35-year-old actress met up with a friend for the fashionable outing, clad in a red-and-black houndstooth printed coat featuring colorful tweed arms and lining.

Out for a stroll: Jessica Biel stuns in a houndstooth print coat and leather pants as she leaves The Smile restaurant with a friend in New York City on Tuesday

The quirky frock was adorned with four large clear buttons across the chest.

She teamed up her eclectic look with L'Agence leather pants and bright white Nike Air Jordan sneakers embellished with a gold zipper.

Looking as chic as ever, the mother-of-one kept a pair of clear-rim sunglasses on her eyes.

Her long blonde hair flowed seamlessly in the wind, making the movie star look like she was on the set of her latest photo shoot.

Eclectic: The actress teamed up her look with black leather pants and a pair of bright white Nike Air Jordan sneakers

The on-screen beauty had her cellphone in hand and also managed to flash the huge six-carat diamond on her ring finger, given to her by husband Justin Timberlake when he proposed in 2011.

Keeping her personal belongings close, the 7th Heaven star donned a small black leather backpack.

In one photo, Jessica is seen crouching under some yellow caution tape as she makes her way onto the NYC street.

Ducking for cover: The 35-year-old beauty crouched under a yellow line of caution tape as she made her way onto the NYC street

The A-team actress' friend held up the tape for her, casually dressed in a black leather jacket and skinny jeans.

Jessica has recently starred in the USA Network hit miniseries The Sinner.

The show, also starring Bill Pullman, is about a young mother, played by Jessica, who commits a startling act of violence and has no idea why.

Return to TV: Jessica recently starred in the USA network miniseries The Sinner, alongside Independence Day actor Bill Pullman, and received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance

The starlet picked up a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series.

The mystery show garnered an impressive 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, and was recently made available to stream on Netflix.

Earlier this month, USA Network announced that The Sinner will be returning for a second season. However, Jessica will not star in the show but will stay on as a producer.
They've already ventured into the spirits business.

And American hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan are expanding into an own-brand premium vodka next.

This follows on from the launch of the group's Wu-Tang Clan Premium Liqueurs, which was launched in Australia last year.

That's the spirit! Wu-Tang Clan are adding premium vodka to their own-brand range of spirits and liqueurs

The band - who are from New York's Staten Island - will return to Sydney to launch Wu-Tang Clan Vodka on 13 April to mark their 25th anniversary as a band.

The launch is set to take place at Max Watts music venue, which will feature performances from hip-hop star Jay Sean and musician Timomatic.

The group's liqueurs already features strawberry, butterscotch and cream expression flavours.

They are bottled at 21.5 percent and only are available exclusively in Australia through online retailer Dan Murphys for AU $14.99.

Wu-Tang Clan Vodka will also remain exclusive to only Australia once released.

From showbiz to the vodka biz: The band - who are from New York's Staten Island - will return to Sydney to launch Wu-Tang Clan Vodka on 13 April to mark their 25th anniversary as a band

New drink: The launch is set to take place at Max Watts music venue, which will feature performances from hip-hop star Jay Sean and musician Timomatic

The band are known for their off-the-wall products.

The PR-savvy group notoriously released an album in 2015 which was brandedone of the most highly-anticipated albums in music history.

Once Upon A Time In Shaolin was released in an attempt to break free from the Spotify and YouTube era of freely-shared music.

The influential collective sold the 31-track double LP to one bidder for millions of dollars.

After a private online-only sale in March 2015 through art dealers Paddle8 - which employs Britain's Princess Eugenie - the buyer was told they could not share the album for at least 88 years.

Branching out: The group's liqueurs already features strawberry, butterscotch and cream expression flavours

DailyMail.com was at the launch event, where the album was unveiled and immediately locked away again, not being played again until the year 2103.

The launch took place with the group's de facto leader RZA, producer Cilvaringz, a small group of prospective buyers and half a dozen selected fans on attendance in Queens, New York City.

The rare one-of-a-kind album was bought in November 2015 by Martin Shkreli for for $2 million.

He was sent to prison for security fraud - and kept there for offering to pay $5k to anyone who could pull out some of Hillary Clinton's hair - and ended up selling the album on eBay for $1,025,100.
She's enjoyed a lengthy career in a challenging industry.

And Sharon Stone looked to be nearly half her age in a series of sultry images for the six-year anniversary of ODDA magazine.

The 60-year-old actress showed off her incredible figure wearing luxurious ensembles for the images shot by acclaimed photographer Cameron Postforoosh.

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Cover girl: Sharon Stone looked to be nearly half her age in a series of sultry images for the six-year anniversary of ODDA magazine

Peeks of her toned tummy popped through a daring cutout positioned just below the top of a black velvet dress.

Her golden complexion was on full display in the seductive outfit which featured a halter strap around her neck.

The Basic Instinct starlet flaunted her long legs in one photo where she was perched in a futuristic, clear plastic chair which hung from the ceiling.

Wow! The 60-year-old actress showed off her incredible figure wearing luxurious ensembles for the images shot by acclaimed photographer Cameron Postforoosh

Gorgeous: Her golden complexion was on full display in the seductive outfit which featured a halter strap around her neck

Rockstar: Stone showed off her slender waistline as she opted for a pair of classic black shorts paired with a golden Versace jumpsuit

Stone showed off her slender waistline as she opted for a pair of classic black shorts paired with a golden Versace jumpsuit.

She covered her arms with a cropped black leather jacket which was lined with thick silver studs.

The Casino actress appeared to be having a great time during the shoot as she laughed while twirling in a white cut-out dress.

Sky-high black leather boots grazed her thighs as she rocked the ruffled number in a series of shots.

Stunning: The Casino actress appeared to be having a great time during the shoot as she laughed while twirling in a white cut-out dress

Strike a pose: Sky-high black leather boots grazed her thighs as she rocked the ruffled number in a series of shots

Nice: Draped in the mustard yellow Cecilia dress from Mulberry, she accessorized with a massive matching hat

Model behavior: Sharon added the $1,200 Doris coat to the ensemble, with creamy fabric and golden buttons draping her torso

Draped in the mustard yellow Cecilia dress from Mulberry, she accessorized with a massive matching hat.

Sharon added the $1,200 Doris coat to the ensemble, with creamy fabric and golden buttons draping her torso.

The Beverly Hills shoot featured eclectic music, vegan food and a rock-n-roll vibe to capture the femme fatale in all of her glory.

She's most recently been romantically connected to 41-year-old Italian entrepreneur Angelo Boffa.
Filming is finally underway for the Netflix movie Triple Frontier.

Ben Affleck, 45, was snapped in normal-guy attire in downtown Honolulu, Hawaii while shooting a scene for the upcoming film.

The film, which is expected to be re-titled, is finally being made after years in limbo.

Back in action: Ben Affleck, 45, was snapped in downtown Honolulu, Hawaii while shooting a scene for new Netflix film Triple Frontier

A series of photographs showed the Batman v Superman actor shooting a scene while dressed in khakis, a tucked in blue polo shirt, and a pair of grey New Balance sneakers.

Ben heads the film's ensemble cast, which also features Oscar Isaac, Charlie Hunnam, Pedro Pascal, Garrett Hedlund and Adria Arjona.

J.C. Chandor is directing the Mark Boal-penned drama, which is being produced by Charles Roven, Alex Gartner, and Andy Horwitz.



Normal guy: The Batman v Superman actor was seen dressed in khakis, a tucked in blue polo shirt, and a pair of grey New Balance sneakers

Last July, Ben dropped out of the film to focus on personal issues and focus on his family.

Back then, he was going to star in it with brother Casey Affleck and Mahershala Ali, but both have had to back out since due to scheduling conflicts.

The Accountant star stayed on the film nonetheless, and has been living and training in Oahu, with filming finally begging on Monday.

Finally: After years in limbo, shooting has finally begun on the J.C. Chandor-directed picture

According to Deadline, 'Netflix took on the picture after Paramount let go of it after Tom Hardy and Channing Tatum dropped out weeks before production was to begin.'

The script was originally written by Mark Boal for his Hurt Locker partner Kathryn Bigelow to direct.

The film takes its title from its setting in the infamous border zone of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil, however, that area has become less dangerous since the movie was originally penned.

Chandor has updated the script in recent years, and the picture will shoot in Hawaii, Colombia, and California.

Body art: The A-lister was snapped with his now infamous tattoo on the beach in Honolulu, Hawaii while preparing to film Triple Frontier

A little over a week ago, the A-lister was snapped with his now infamous tattoo on the beach in Honolulu, Hawaii while preparing to film Triple Frontier.

The enormous colorful tattoo of a phoenix covers his entire back, in addition to a pair of designs on each shoulder.

Affleck took to the tide with actors Charlie Hunnam, Garrett Hedlund, and Oscar Isaac toting lifeguard equipment, as the quartet trained for the Netflix movie.

Break from work: Ben Affleck and Lindsay Shookus enjoyed a kayak jaunt in Honolulu on Tuesday after the actor finished filming Triple Frontier
She finalized her divorce in January.

And this Wednesday, Christina El Moussa wished her hunky new boyfriend, Wheeler Dealers host Ant Anstead, a happy birthday.

Christina, 34, posted a sweet Instagram photo of herself and her Devon-born boyfriend cozying up to each other as they sat at a table.

Her new man: This Wednesday, Christina El Moussa wished her hunky new boyfriend, Wheeler Dealers host Ant Anstead, a happy birthday

'At the end of 2017 I was lucky enough to be introduced to this guy through a mutual friend,' began Christina's caption.

The reality TV personality, who separated from her husband and Flip Or Flop co-star Tarek El Moussa in 2016, went on: '#Fate. He has already grounded me in so many ways and Im so grateful for him.'

Christina continued of her new beau: '@antanstead is an amazing dad to his children and also great with mine, driven and talented, humble and kind, patient and a great listener, fun and hilarious, spiritual and to top it all off hes hot AF.'

The mother of two closed her caption: 'Happy 39th birthday gorgeous. #hmf #pic'.

Cute couple: Christina El Moussa dished that she 'introduced to this guy through a mutual friend' and called him 'an amazing dad to his children'

Christina and Tarek married in 2009 and began co-starring on their HGTV house-flipping show four years later.

The couple are parents to two children, a seven-year-old daughter named Taylor and atwo-year-old son named Brayden.

After splitting up late in 2016, they got around to filing for divorce last year, and the finishing legal touches were put on the breakup this January.

The way they were: Christina and Tarek married in 2009 and announced their separation in 2016, ultimately finalizing their divorce in January of this year

Ant separated from his own wife of 12 years Louise last July, and they share two daughters, Amelie and Archie.

Christina is now selling the luxurious home the couple lived in together in Yorba Linda, which is in California's Orange County.

She is currently asking $2.995 million for the five-bedroom 6,366-square-foot house, according to People magazine.

According to Realtor.com, she and Tarek paid $2 million for the place in 2013 and spent a further $1.5 million renovating the nine-bathroom house.
He's a musician just like The King.

Michael Lockwood, ex-husband to Lisa Marie Presley, channeled Elvis when he stepped out in a pair of blue suede shoes on Wednesday afternoon.

The 56-year-old guitar player was spotted grabbing ice cream with his two twin daughters Finley and Harper, age nine.

Go cat go! Michael Lockwood, ex-husband to Lisa Marie Presley, channeled Elvis when he stepped out in a pair of blue suede shoes on Wednesday afternoon

Michael was eclectically dressed in denim on denim for his family outing.

The California native also donned a puzzle piece button down shirt and a grey scarf.

On his head was a distressed cowboy hat.

Blue jean baby! Michael was eclectically dressed in denim on denim for his family outing

Sweet treat! The 56-year-old guitar player was spotted grabbing ice cream with his two twin daughters Finley and Harper, age nine

Just days ago, Priscilla Presley, the wife of Elvis, began her press tour for the new HBO documentary The Searcher.

The nostalgic film looks back at Elvis' life and career with the help of archived photos and private collections including the ones housed at Graceland itself.

The documentary explores his ties to Memphis and uses interviews with music industry stars including Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, Stax Records' David Porter and Sun Records' Sam Phillips to determine just how far his artistry spread.

Blast from the past: Just days ago, Priscilla Presley, the wife of Elvis, began her press tour for the new HBO documentary The Searcher that takes a look back at The King's life and career

Hound dog: The documentary explores his ties to Memphis and uses interviews with music industry stars including Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, Stax Records' David Porter and Sun Records' Sam Phillips to determine just how far his artistry spread

Lockwood and Presley called it quits back in 2016 after being married for 10 years.

To date, the divorce has not been finalized.

Lisa Marie was recently ordered by a judge to pay Michael a whopping $100,000 to cover legal fees despite claiming that she is more than $16 million in debt.
She might not have found lasting love during her 2010 season of The Bachelorette, but Ali Fedotowsky still got her happily ever after.

The 33-year-old television personality proudly flaunted her growing baby bump in a white bikini as she enjoyed her babymoon in Kauai with husband Kevin Manno.

The blonde beauty was all smiles as the couple played in the ocean and she gently embraced her stomach.

Bumping along: Ali Fedotowsky showed off her growing baby bump during a Hawaiian babymoon with her husband Kevin Manno

Ali was glowing in a white triangle bikini top with colorful floral detailing. She teamed up her swimwear with a pair of light blue bikini bottoms.

The former Bachelorette, who is already a mother to one-year-old Molly, kept her blonde tresses tied back in a messy ponytail and showed off her fresh tan.

Going au naturel, the pregnant blogger embraced her television and radio host husband in a long hug.

All yours: The couple embraced each other in a long hug as they enjoyed some alone time in the ocean water

Splish splash: The two parents looked like they enjoyed themselves as Ali threw her toned arms up in the air

Kevin, who hosts The Seven on MTV, wore a pair of coral and orange swim trunks for the couple's tropical getaway.

In another snap, the two are seen playfully splashing in the water, as Ali throws her toned arms up in the air.

The couple's daughter Molly came along for the island vacation, and the expecting mother shared some candid moments with her precious tot on Instagram.

Along for the ride: The couple welcomed their one-year-old daughter Molly in July 2016

In the photo, the one-year-old is playing with the sand next to her mother. Ali captioned the post: 'I've got everything I need right here (heart emoji).'

Also along for the trip were Ali's mother and mother-in-law who were on hand to watch the soon-to-be big sister, giving the doting parents plenty of alone time.

In a blog post, Ali thanked the sets of grandmothers saying: 'I cant believe this is our last vacation as a family of 3,' she wrote, 'Well, we're really a family of 5 this trip because we're lucky enough to have both grammies come with us.'

Alone time: The couple were joined by both Ali and Kevin's mother so that the two could spend time together ahead of their May due date

And Kevin and Ali looked like they took advantage of their time together, laughing and smiling in the water.

The pair married last year after welcoming their daughter in July 2016. They met a few years earlier through a producer friend on the NBC travel show 1st Look, which the former Bachelorette hosted in 2012.

The couple announced they were pregnant with their second child, a baby boy due in May, in an Instagram post earlier this year.

Romance: The parents met in 2012 show on the NBC travel show 1st look, which Ali hosted, and married last year

According to People, the parents were trying to conceive for several months before the former reality star found out she was pregnant.

I took a test in the morning and when it was positive, I ordered a book, I'm A Big Sister, from Amazon and had it delivered the same day, said Ali.

On the thought of having two kids, Ali spilled: 'This is what we've wanted and we feel so lucky. But at the same time I'm terrified! I'm scared, but I also know they are going to be able to play together and I can't wait for that.'
She was nominated for the Rising Star Award at this year's BAFTAs.

Despite missing out on the accolade to Daniel Kaluuya, Florence Pugh continued to showcase why she is one-to-watch as she arrived to the screening of her new BBC TV movie King Lear in style on Wednesday.

The 22-year-old actress looked spellbinding in a floral embellish semi-sheer lace top while she posed for photos with her co-star Emma Thompson, 58, at London's Soho Hotel for the show, which will air on BBC Two this Spring.

A vision: Florence Pugh continued to showcase why she is one-to-watch as she arrived to the screening of her new BBC TV movie King Lear in style on Wednesday

The Marcella star, who has previously starred in 2016's Lady Macbeth, teamed the torso-hugging garment with a pair of stylish high-waisted white flares.

Florence's statement pant elongated her gym-honed legs while she accesorised the look with a vibrant red clutch and matching bright lip.

Putting her best fashion foot forward, she worked her tresses into a slicked back look which highlighted her flawless complexion for the star-studded event.

Following her co-star's stylish lead, Emma looked sophisticated in a pinstriped black suit.

Camera ready: The 22-year-old actress looked spellbinding in a floral embellish semi-sheer lace top while she posed for photos with her co-star Emma Thompson, 58, at London's Soho Hotel

Fashion forward: The Marcella star, who has previously starred in 2016's Lady Macbeth, teamed the torso-hugging garment with a pair of stylish high-waisted white flares

Red hot! She accesorised the look with a vibrant red clutch and matching bright lip

Wearing the pants: Florence's statement pant elongated her gym-honed legs

Mane attraction: Putting her best fashion foot forward, she worked her tresses into a slicked back look

The Beauty and the Beast star donned a slinky white camisole under her double-breasted blazer while she sported a pair of matching tapered trousers.

She teamed the stylish look with a pair of metallic Stella McCartney flatforms and accessorised the attire with a long penchant while her blonde locks were swept off her face.

Joining the glamorous duo at the event was their male co-star and BAFTA winner Andrew Scott, who looked suave in a grey suit.

The Irish actor attended the event alongside Jim Carter, who plays the Earl of Kent, and Karl Johson, who plays the Fool in the dramatic Shakespearean offering.

Radiant: She highlighted her flawless complexion for the star-studded event

Suit you: Following her co-star's stylish lead, Emma looked sophisticated in a pinstriped black suit

Having fun: The pair playfully puckered up to one another while posing for photos

Thrilled: The pair looked thrilled to be reunited at the event

The tragic Shakespearean classic follows the story of an aging King who invites disaster into his kingdom when he abdicates to his corrupt daughters, while rejecting his loyal and favourite offspring Cordelia in the process.

The BBC movie stars Oscar-winner Anthony Hopkins as King Lear, Emma as Lear's eldest daughter Goneril while Emily Watson plays middle daughter Regan, Florence undertakes the role of Cordelia and Andrew plays the drama's main antagonist Edgar.

Emma's appearance at the exclusive screening comes after she revealed how much she could relate to her Love, Actually character Karen, who sobs uncontrollably after she discovers that her husband has bought jewellery for another woman.

Suspecting his infidelity, she removes herself from the gift-giving to cry her heart out to Joni Mitchell's From Both Sides which is one of the most poignant scenes from the beloved 2003 flick.

Looking sharp: The Beauty and the Beast star donned a slinky white camisole under her double-breasted blazer

Matching: She sported a pair of matching tapered trousers

Radiant: She showcased her radiant complexion with minimal make-up

Blonde ambition: her blonde locks were swept off her face for the occasion

Glittering: She accessorised the attire with a long penchant while

Fancy footwear: She teamed the stylish look with a pair of metallic Stella McCartney flatforms

Having fun: The pair caught up with their male co-star Andrew Scott

Giddy: The trio appeared in jovial spirits together

The acclaimed actress confessed the emotion from that scene was all too real for her as she drew on personal experience when she split first husband Kenneth Branagh following his affair with Helena Bonham Carter.

Speaking at a fundraiser for the Tricycle Theatre in North West London in February, she said she could relate to the heartbreak her character felt in Love, Actually as they could understand the pain of suspecting their husband has been unfaithful.

That scene where my character is standing by the bed crying is so well known because its something everyones been through, she said. 'I knew what it was like to find a necklace that wasn't meant for me'

Hugging it out: Florence and Andrew shared a joyous hug

Beaming: The costars appeared animated during their reunion

Happy: Producer Sonia Friedman joined Andrew and Florence

Having her cake: Emma wheeled out a Tower of London birthday cake to surprise director Richard Eyre, not pictured

Delight: The British star beamed as she surprised their director

I had my heart very badly broken by Ken. So I knew what it was like to find the necklace that wasnt meant for me.

'Well it wasnt exactly that, but weve all been through it.'

Emma and Kenneth, now 57, fell in love when they starred as newlyweds in the BBC drama Fortunes Of War in 1987 and married two years later, appearing together in films including Peters Friends, Dead Again and Much Ado About Nothing.

Candid: Andrew and Jim posed together for a photo

Suave: Andrew looked suave in a grey suit for the festivities

Dapper: The BAFTA winner teamed his suit with a light grey shirt and dark brown brogues

Ready: The Dublin native is no stranger to Shakespeare having recently been nominated for an Olivier award for his role of Hamlet

However the Dunkirk actor was said to have started an affair in 1994 with Helena while filming Mary Shelleys Frankenstein.

The following year, they filed for divorce, claiming hectic work schedules had led to the breakdown of the relationship. The Cinderella director went on to date Helena until 1999.

Following her heartbreak, Emma went onto marry actor Greg Wise, with whom she has two children, in 2003 while Kenneth married art director Lindsay Brunnock the same year.

Stepping out: The Irish actor attended the event alongside Jim Carter, who plays the Earl of Kent

Dressed to impressed: The actor donned a suit blazer for the event
He's in Hawaii filming scenes for his Netflix movie Triple Frontier.

And taking a well-deserved break from the action, Ben Affleck cooled off with a spot of kayaking with girlfriend Lindsay Shookus on Tuesday.

The 45-year-old actor wore a white T-shirt and grey shorts as he sat up front while Lindsay, 38, sported a striped top sitting behind the Hollywood star.

Break from work: Ben Affleck and Lindsay Shookus enjoyed a kayak jaunt in Honolulu on Tuesday after the actor finished filming his new Netflix movie

Aloha: Lindsay showed off her slender figure in a black swimsuit and striped long-sleeved swim top

The blonde mother-of-one wore a black one-piece which showed off her slender figure and layered on a life vest over the top of her long-sleeved colorful swim top.

As they paddled out further from shore a big wave took them by surprise and the couple flipped over into the ocean.

On their second try they appeared to get it right and enjoyed a smooth sail with Lindsay having a turn at the helm.

Ben and Lindsay have been dating since April 2017, going public in July of that year.

And since then the duo have been pictured on lots of romantic dates together.

Safety first! The couple donned life vests before heading out on the ocean

Kayak for two? The duo appeared to be discuss the strategy before hopping in the watercraft

Setting sail: The couple pushed the kayak out to the water's edge

The Argo actor continues to co-parent his three children with estranged wife Jennifer Garner; Violet, 12, Seraphina, nine, and Samuel, five.

Ben and Jen, 45, separated in 2015 and filed for divorce in April.

Ben's new project, which is expected to be re-titled, is finally being made after years in limbo.

Ben heads the film's ensemble cast, which also features Oscar Isaac, Charlie Hunnam, Pedro Pascal, Garrett Hedlund and Adria Arjona.

J.C. Chandor is directing the Mark Boal-penned drama, which is being produced by Charles Roven, Alex Gartner, and Andy Horwitz.

Love on the high seas: Ben and Lindsay took a paddle each to navigate the waves

Getting choppy! The brave duo didn't mind getting splashed by the surf

Wipe out! Unfortunately one wave was too much for their narrow kayak and it flipped over

Lost at sea: The twosome didn't seem to be put off by the mishap

Can't hold them down: The duo wasted no time in getting back in the boat

Last July, Ben dropped out of the film to focus on personal issues and focus on his family.

Back then, he was going to star in it with brother Casey Affleck and Mahershala Ali, but both have had to back out since due to scheduling conflicts.

The Accountant star stayed on the film nonetheless, and has been living and training in Oahu, with filming finally beginning on Monday.

Smooth sailing: The couple appeared to get the hang of it on the second try

Work perk! The duo, who went public with their romance in July 2017, are enjoying a trip mixing work and pleasure

Girl power: The mother-of-one took a turn the helm of the kayak

According to Deadline, 'Netflix took on the picture after Paramount let go of it after Tom Hardy and Channing Tatum dropped out weeks before production was to begin.'

The script was originally written by Mark Boal for his Hurt Locker partner Kathryn Bigelow to direct.

The film takes its title from its setting in the infamous border zone of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil, however, that area has become less dangerous since the movie was originally penned.

Chandor has updated the script in recent years, and the picture will shoot in Hawaii, Colombia, and California.

Back on dry land: The couple trudged back up the beach after their jaunt

Hard at work: The couple were seen on set on Wednesday discussing scenes with executive producer Anna Gerb

Action! Ben's new project, which is expected to be re-titled, is finally being made after years in limbo




One-time reality star Georgia Love, 29, has taken a swipe at Australia's preeminent songstress Jessica Mauboy ahead of the star's Eurovision debut.

In an eyebrow-raising Tweet posted on Monday, Georgia aired her grievances with Jessica's new song We Got Love, which was inspired by recent tragedies including the Florida school shooting.

'I do love Jess Mauboy but don't try telling me 'love is stronger than fire' isn't one of history's most stupid song lyrics,' she wrote in a Tweet- which has since been deleted.

Not a fan? One-time reality star Georgia Love, 29, has taken a swipe at Australia's preeminent songstress Jessica Mauboy ahead of the star's Eurovision debut

'I do love Jess Mauboy but don't try telling me 'love is stronger than fire' isn't one of history's most stupid song lyrics': On Monday, Georgia took to Twitter to reflect upon the Eurovision song,

The Channel 10 personality's commentary relates to a poetic refrain in We Got Love's chorus, which reads: 'I know, I know what you must be thinking / That we are powerless to change things / But don't, don't give up / 'Cause we got love, 'cause we got love / I won't throw my hands up to surrender / 'Cause love is stronger than fire.'

Jessica has previously spoken about the significance of We Got Love, which she penned alongside highly sought-after songwriters David Musumeci and Anthony Egizii.

Speaking to News Corp, the talented songstress explained that she was inspired to write the lyrics after being 'emotionally shaken by heartbreaking events including the Florida school shooting and sexual assault of a two-year-old girl in Tennant Creek'.

Inspiration: Jessica has previously spoken about the significance of We Got Love

Heartbroken: Speaking to News Corp , the talented songstress explained that she was inspired to write the lyrics after being 'emotionally shaken by heartbreaking events'

'All of these things we see online, whether in our indigenous communities, past and present and how the world is turning, made me angry,' she said.

'But what affected me more was the love coming from people, seeing people standing tall and strong.'

Jessica, who is representing Australia at Eurovision in May, debuted the song earlier this month after it was leaked online.

It's not the first time outspoken Georgia has sparked debate on Twitter, having recently posted a curious comment about Married At First Sight star Davina Rankin's face.

'Has something...happened...to her?' It's not the first time outspoken Georgia has sparked debate on Twitter, having recently posted a curious comment about Married At First Sight star Davina Rankin's face

'I've just turned on #MAFS for the first time and I'm very confused,' Tweeted Georgia, adding: 'I don't understand Davina's face? Has something...happened...to her? Is this by choice? Why has she done this?'

Davina has never admitted to having altered her face through fillers or Botox, but has revealed details of a 'boob job' in her teens.

A close friend of Davina lashed out at Georgia for criticising Davina's appearance, labelling her Tweets as an example of cyber-bullying.

Staying mum: Davina has never admitted to having altered her face through fillers or Botox, but has revealed details of a 'boob job' in her teens
Sam Wood and Snezana Markoski have revealed they are planning to expand their brood.

In an interview with OK! magazine, the couple discuss having another baby after welcoming their daughter Willow into the world, six months ago.

The pair told the publication: 'Willow is only six months old, but we are definitely think we want another baby!'

Baby number two! The Bachelor's Sam Wood and Snezana Markoski announce their exciting family news

Sam and Snezana fell in love on The Bachelor in 2015, became engaged later that year and welcomed their baby daughter Willow in October last year.

Snezana's daughter Eve, who is from a previous relationship, lives with them in Melbourne.

In recent months, Sam gave an insight into becoming a dad for the first time when Snezana gave birth to Willow.

'You fall in love straight away,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

Happy family: Sam and Snezana fell in love on The Bachelor in 2015, became engaged later that year and welcomed their baby daughter Willow in October last year. Snezana's daughter Eve, who is from a previous relationship, lives with them in Melbourne

'Never experiencing having a baby before, it is amazing how instantly the emotions just take over.'

Elsewhere in their OK! interview, Sam praised his fiancee, calling her the 'best mum'.

'Snez is the best mum to both Eve and Willow, and she's always taking care of us all. That's why I'm even more focused on ensuring she takes good care of herself, as she often needs a little reminder to do this.'
Logan mayor Luke Smith is refusing to say if he received a boat from a campaign donor, two days after being charged with corruption offences.

Smith is due to face court next month, but on Wednesday repeatedly refused to answer questions about whether he received a luxury boat from a developer who contributed to his campaign.

"What the media is reporting is incorrect...I'm waiting to see what the allegations are," Smith told ABC Radio on Wednesday, while declining to say whether he had received the boat.
Employers who don't pay superannuation could face up to 12 months in jail under new penalties being introduced by the government.

"It is fundamentally unacceptable for people not to be paid their superannuation entitlements," Financial Services Minister Kelly O'Dwyer told parliament on Wednesday, introducing new penalties the tax office can impose.

She said for the first time the ATO would be able to apply for court-ordered penalties, up to a year in prison in the worst cases, where an employer defies directions to pay superannuation liabilities.
Veterans will get their say on whether the system of compensation and rehabilitation available to them is adequate through a major new inquiry.

The Productivity Commission will spend the next 15 months examining whether the system of compensation and rehabilitation for veterans is fit for purpose, and reviewing the Veterans Affairs governance arrangements, administrative processes and service delivery.

"As we mark 100 years of repatriation and continue caring for the next generation of veterans, this inquiry will help inform how we deliver services for our ex-servicemen and women and their families into the future," Veterans Affairs Minister Darren Chester said in announcing the inquiry on Wednesday.
Worker's at Glencore's Oaky North coal mine have returned to work following an end to one of Queensland's longest-ever industrial disputes.

More than 70 per cent of employees of the mine voted in favour of the new enterprise agreement on Tuesday.

It comes after a three-year bitter dispute with the CFMEU which left 175 workers locked out of the Queensland site for more than 200 days.

During protests, members of the union were reportedly caught on tape threatening to physical attack those refusing to support its lockout with the mine.

CFMEU mining and energy division Queensland district president, Stephen Smith, said the new agreement is a massive achievement for workers.

"As a result of standing firm, the employees have been able to retain the vast majority of their terms and conditions including rights to arbitration, housing subsidies, and bonus arrangements," he said.

Glencore said they are pleased with yesterday's result and will now "continue the process of reintegrating these employees with the rest of the workforce at the mine".
A man has been accused of punching a 90-year-old woman in the face and knocking her to the ground during an alleged crime spree in Perth's southern suburbs.

Police say the Spearwood man punched and cracked the windscreen of a parked car outside a cafe in O'Connor last week when the vehicle's 59-year-old owner refused to give him money.

He then allegedly threatened a 24-year-old man with a metal pole in Spearwood on Thursday before assaulting two women as they used an ATM in Kardinya, including the 90-year-old, striking them both in the face and causing them to fall over.

The 36-year-old was arrested on Friday and is due to appear at Fremantle Magistrates Court later on Wednesday to face several charges including aggravated assault occasioning bodily harm.
A man who suffered a cardiac arrest behind the wheel and crashed into oncoming peak-hour Sydney traffic has been brought back to life thanks to the quick action of bystanders.

The 45-year-old lost consciousness after suffering a heart attack and went into cardiac arrest while driving in Baulkham Hills on Wednesday morning, a NSW Ambulance spokesman told AAP.

After crashing into oncoming traffic, a group of bystanders, including an orthopaedic surgeon, rushed to the man's aid.

Ambulance chief inspector Brian Parsell said their prompt action helped paramedics to successfully revive the man once they arrived on the scene.

"This patient was clinically dead - his heart had stopped and he was not breathing when we arrived on scene," Insp Parsell said in a statement.

"While en route to hospital the patient became increasingly responsive and started to wake up, which was absolutely terrific."

Out-of-hospital heart attacks have a mortality rate of more than 90 per cent but the combination of CPR and defibrillation meant the patient was able to be revived, Insp Parsell said.

"The signs are certainly very promising for this patient," he said.

The man remains in a critical condition at Westmead Hospital.
Milk prices could rise in spring if farmers in bushfire-affected southwest Victoria are unable to sow and fence their properties.

Fires in the areas of Penshurst, Terang and Cobden have been burning for more than a week and claimed thousands of head of cattle on more than 70 dairy farms, with concerns for future prices if winter preparations are delayed.

"The next six to eight weeks are a really critical time and if we don't get it right it has the potential to affect the spring when milk flow is at its peak ... (and) that's when we'd see milk prices rise," state president of United Dairyfarmers Adam Jenkins told AAP on Wednesday.
Australia's water, port, electricity and telecommunications assets will have stronger protections from "malicious" foreign influence including sabotage and spying.

Legislation cleared parliament on Wednesday which will establish a register of assets and give the minister increased powers to step in when national security risks are identified.

The laws come amid debate within the coalition over whether AGL's Liddell power station in NSW should be sold to Chinese interests.

Government minister Mitch Fifield said the laws would help protect Australia from national security risks like sabotage, espionage and coercion stemming from malicious foreign influence.

"It ensures we have access to essential services for everyday life such as food, water, energy and communications," Senator Fifield said.

The bill passed the Senate unopposed after winning support from Labor, the Greens and the crossbench.

The Greens and One Nation found some rare common ground on the issue, with both parties calling for assets to be returned to government hands.

"You've given so much control to other countries it's an absolute disgrace," Pauline Hanson told the government in the Senate.

Greens senator Nick McKim called for five privately-owned electricity interconnectors to be nationalised.

"Neoliberalism and laissez-faire capitalism have abjectly failed the people they purported to service," Senator McKim said.

He argued security risks to assets should also include climate change, which he says poses a major threat to Australia's infrastructure and national security.

Senator Hanson pointed to the 99-year lease of the Darwin port to a Chinese company and the sale of Cubbie Station in Queensland to a Chinese-led consortium as examples of critical assets under control of foreign powers.
Russia's ambassador has made jokes throughout an hour-long press conference where he denied having spies in Australia.

In the ageing Russian embassy in Canberra, Grigory Logvinov told reporters the two diplomats Australia is expelling aren't intelligence agents.

"They are absolutely legal, career diplomats," he said on Wednesday morning.

Mr Logvinov rejected any suggestions there were Russian spies working in his embassy. Asked how many would be left in Australia after the two "undeclared intelligence agents" were expelled.

"Zero minus zero is still zero," he said.

The jovial ambassador continued to crack gags throughout an hour-long grilling, that at times got heated.

He alleged a grand conspiracy between western nations to discredit Russia, and suggested it started when the country became more independent following the 1990s.

"If the west would follow this line, I'm afraid we will be deeply in a Cold War situation," he said.

Mr Logvinov demanded to see evidence from Britain that Russia was behind the poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury.

But then Mr Logvinov accused Australian spies of bad behaviour in 2016 and 2017 - without providing any evidence.

"We have a bad history of improper behaviour of Australian authorities," he said.

Would he provide any details?

"Nope."

On the downing of MH17, the interference in western elections and the assassination of Alexander Litvinenko, Mr Logvinov again demanded to see the evidence of Russia's involvement.

Photographs of people working at the Russian embassy were published in newspapers, but Mr Logvinov laughed as he said they were technicians, drivers, and in one case, the wife of the embassy cook.

On the Skripal case that reignited the international push back against Russia, the ambassador said there was no reason for Russia to be interested in the double agent.

"He was sentenced, he served his sentence, he was free," Mr Logvinov said.

"He's of no interest to Russia any more."
Twenty-five rainbow lorikeets have been killed by a fruit tree net in Melbourne, prompting a warning from authorities before the Easter long weekend.

Forty-four of the colourful birds were trapped in the net, which appeared to be covering an apple tree. Twenty-three were found dead and two died later, while a pair are still in care and the others have been released into the wild.

The incident prompted a warning on Wednesday from the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning to homeowners to check or remove their fruit-tree netting before going away for the Easter holidays.
Lindt Cafe siege survivor Louisa Hope says she's found a "happy place" in raising money for Australian nurses, including those who cared for her following the 2014 attack.

Ms Hope was taken hostage along with her mother and 16 others during the terrifying Sydney siege, which claimed the lives of cafe manager Tori Johnson and barrister Katrina Dawson.

She has since founded the Louisa Hope Fund for Nurses to benefit nursing staff at the Prince of Wales Hospital, so far raising about $180,000 to support six projects.

"It is indeed my most happy place to be involved with the nurses like this," she told reporters at a Sydney function for the charity on Wednesday.

"It's such a privilege for me - to find the opportunity to remind people to be hopeful and keep focused on progressing our world forward."

Ms Hope spoke alongside Police Commissioner Mick Fuller at the function at the Parliament of NSW.

She spent three months in hospital recovering from shrapnel wounds from when police stormed the cafe at 2am on December 16 after gunman Man Haron Monis executed Mr Johnson. Ms Dawson, a mother of three, was fatally wounded by police bullet fragments.

More than three years on, Ms Hope says she's feeling "happy and well in her heart".

"I'm looking forward to improved health, but really focused around the future now," she said.

"I've got a little list of post-siege concerns I'm working on."

Ms Hope's fund gives nurses the freedom to choose a research project or equipment and she says as soon as the money was put on the table, the ideas came "flooding in".

"That said to me that they already knew what they wanted, all they needed was the funding."

Mr Fuller said nurses can't be thanked enough for the difficult jobs they do.

"We often talk about courage in policing and in defence, but there are many who show great courage every day in terms of protecting us in the community," he said.

People who want to contribute to Ms Hope's nurses' fund can visit Prince of Wales Hospital fundraising site, www.powhf.org.au.
Disgraced Sydney businessman Salim Mehajer has been charged with supplying prohibited prescription drugs, including the sedative Xanax.

Police allegedly found more than 200 anxiety and painkiller pills at the property developer's lavish Lidcombe home during a raid in November 2017.

The 31-year-old was hit with the fresh charges at Burwood Local Court on Wednesday where he was facing allegations he staged a car crash and defrauded an insurance company.

Officers allegedly discovered 50 alprazolam tablets -- commonly known as Xanax -- and 174 tablets of Endone and Targin at Mehajer's mansion on November 8.

He's been charged with two counts of possessing and one count of supplying a prohibited drug.

The former Auburn deputy mayor, who has already thrice been denied bail, was expected to appear via video link from prison in court but was delayed.

He is due to make a fourth bid for bail on Thursday in the NSW Supreme Court.

In October, Mehajer was on his way to face court on charges over the assault of a taxi driver when his Mercedes collided with another car at an intersection in Lidcombe, allegedly days after he'd insured it for more than $150,000.

Mehajer was freed by firefighters and taken to hospital but his passenger and the two female occupants of the other vehicle were not injured.

Six of his co-accused who are charged with conspiring with each other and Mehajer to cheat and defraud an insurer also faced court on Wednesday.

Mehajer's business associate Ahmed Jaghbir, who is under house arrest, faced court alongside Elias Moufferrige, Fakaha Ki Malinda Moufferrige and Nora Anne Bush, while a lawyer represented Rafi Noori.

Michael Moufferrige, who is in custody, also appeared via video link.

Mehajer has already faced court this week on charges of dangerous driving and stalking or intimidating his estranged wife.

Less than three years after their lavish wedding made headlines for shutting down western Sydney streets, Mehajer continues to fight several legal battles including allegedly breaching an AVO taken out by his ex-partner.

He was declared bankrupt last week by a Federal Court Circuit judge and he awaits a verdict next month on electoral fraud charges.

In February, Mehajer was found guilty of assaulting a television reporter when he slammed his car door on her arm, and earlier this month he was placed on a good behaviour bond for the April 2017 cabbie attack.
Resources Minister Matt Canavan has affirmed optimism about mineral exports after facing questions from Chinese media about Australia's "deteriorating" relationship with China.

A reporter from Chinese news agency Xinhua asked Senator Canavan about Australian exports to China, given the deteriorating relationship and political "loss of trust".

"We're always going to go through difficulties from time-to-time but in the last few decades we've come a remarkable way in our relationship with China," Senator Canavan told the National Press Club on Wednesday.

"It can continue to grow and the best way is to continue to build business and investment and get stronger."

Senator Canavan said while the forecasts for exports to China might be tapering off, he expects trends to remain positive.

He said businesses making investments in other countries only brought nations closer together.
A member of the outlaw Life and Death bikie gang is behind bars after several guns and a stash of cannabis was seized at a western Sydney home.

The 43-year-old man was arrested during a search of a house in Tregear on Tuesday afternoon, where officers found a .22 pistol fitted with a silencer, two sawn-off shotguns, a stun gun, six cannabis plants and marijuana leaf.

The arrest follows an investigation from the State Crime Command's Criminal Groups Squad into a bikie war between the Life and Death gang and the Comancheros, police said.

The man is due to face Mt Druitt Local Court on Wednesday where he's facing 12 charges including possessing an unregistered firearm-prohibited firearm and cultivating a prohibited drug.
Women who frequently get their nails done have been advised to apply sunscreen beforehand or use fingerless gloves to limit any potential harm from the UV lamps used to harden gel polish.

UV nail lamps are frequently used in salons for acrylic gel manicures and emit similar light to carcinogenic UV tanning beds, warn experts.

In an editorial published in the Australasian Journal of Dermatology, a group of plastic surgeons in Ireland say there have been observational case reports linking the use of these lamps to the development of skin cancer on the hand.

"However, the risk associated with these lamps has yet to be truly established," they wrote.

Despite a lack of evidence, the surgeons from the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, University Hospital Galway say the use of these UV lamps is controversial and as a precautionary measure people should apply a sunscreen before having a gel manicure.

"The Skin Cancer Foundation in the USA and the American Academy of Dermatology, recommend that prior to a gel manicure, clients should apply a broad-spectrum sunscreen to the hands," they wrote.

"The evidence on this subject is variable and often controversial, leaving the health-care provider with no clear conclusion, and further research is warranted."

"In the interim, we agree with the advice that approximately 20 minutes before having a manicure a broad spectrum, high sun protection factor sunscreen is applied to the hands, or the use of fingerless gloves should be considered," they advised.

Sydney-based dermatologist, Associate Professor Stephen Shumack says while there is no current formal recommendation in Australia, the advice is sensible.

A spokesperson for the Australasian College of Dermatologists, Professor Shumack suggested it may only be a matter of time before Australia follows the US lead, likening the situation to the issue associated with solariums.

"Now that we know that the American Academy of Dermatology has put out a recommendation in this regard it does mean that Australian dermatologists will be recommending that people who are having these manicures wear a sunscreen product,"said Professor Shumack.

Cancer Council Australia warned frequent exposure to UV radiation through these lamps can be problematic.

"Generally, these devices emit low levels of UV radiation and people are exposed for very short periods. However, UV damage adds up over time so protecting your hands is recommended," said Heather Walker, Chair National Skin Cancer Committee, Cancer Council Australia:
A white supremacist who took part in the bludgeoning murder of a 42-year-old man in Perth has been charged with contempt of court over a violent outburst in the dock.

Alan Taylor was beaten to death with a hammer at the Girrawheen house he shared with his partner Melony Jane Attwood, 37, and her 22-year-old live-in lover Robert Edhouse.

When Attwood and Edhouse were found guilty of murder by a WA Supreme Court jury earlier this month, Edhouse lunged and swung at his former ally Corey Joshua Dymock, 21, who was acquitted of murder but found guilty of being an accessory.
A new documentary about Midnight Oil is set to be released featuring unseen footage of the band at the height of their fame.

Midnight Oil 1984, made by Melbourne director Ray Argall, follows the band as they became one of the biggest musical groups in the country while juggling frontman Peter Garrett's first foray into politics.

The film gets up close and personal with the Oils, showing the band behind the scenes while also featuring performances from some of their famous shows.

There's footage of the band performing in packed venues at the beginning of their career, with condensation dripping from the walls, and where Rob Hirst has nailed his drum-kit to the floor.

Audiences will see the band's personal struggles, particularly as they juggle their music career while Garrett goes for a seat in the Senate as a member of the Nuclear Disarmament Party.

The beloved band reformed last year for a world tour, selling out gigs in Australia and overseas, including massive concerts in Sydney's Domain and Melbourne's Myer Music Bowl, and a special benefit gig in Cairns in aid of the great Barrier Reef.

Midnight Oil 1984 will have a limited release in select Australian cinemas from May 10 and tickets are on sale from midnightoil1984.com.au
A group of teenagers tried to play a game of cat-and-mouse with police across two states using a stolen car, but were caught when they finally stopped.

The saga began before sunrise on Tuesday near the NSW and Queensland border, and ended with the arrest of five boys and girls close to midnight.

Officers first tried to pull over a Subaru Forester about 5.30am after it had been reported stolen from a beachside suburb on the Gold Coast.

But the driver allegedly didn't stop, prompting a police chase. It was called off soon after it began because of the way the car was being driven.

With the help of Queensland police and a helicopter, the car was later spotted crossing the state border into NSW a number of times between 10.15pm and 10.50pm.

Eventually, it stopped at Tweed Heads in NSW, and the 15-year-old driver and his four passengers - a 13-year-old boy and girls aged 14, 16 and 17 - fled on foot.

Three of them were arrested at the scene, while the other two were nabbed shortly after.

All five were charged with various offences, including resisting police, entering enclosed land, and police pursuit.

Three were refused bail and are due to front a children's court on Wednesday, with the other two scheduled to appear in April.
Pastoralists from WA's outback have ridden on horseback to parliament to muster support for changes to laws restricting tourism and other business diversification opportunities.

Evan and Robin Pensini from Cheela Plains Station in the state's north handed a petition with 7000 signatures to Regional Development Minister Alannah MacTiernan on Wednesday and called on the government to alter terms for more than 500 leaseholders.

"A lot of these pastoral leases were taken up to run livestock and in today's business world, that's extremely difficult situation to be in ... putting all your eggs in one basket," Mr Pensini said.
Two people suffered horrific burns and are fighting for life after a fire engulfed a home in Sydney's north.

Emergency services were called to the Marsfield address after 4pm on Wednesday following reports people were injured in a house fire.

A man in his mid-40s received significant burns to 70 per cent of his body and was found unconscious at the scene by paramedics.

He was flown to Royal North Shore Hospital by helicopter in a critical condition.

The man has been placed in an induced coma, authorities say.

A 29-year-old woman also received burns to 70 per cent of her body and was taken to the same hospital by ambulance in a critical condition.

Vision from the scene showed emergency crews working to stabilise patients and secure the area while smoke filled the street.

An eight-year-old girl was treated for smoke inhalation and taken to Westmead Children's Hospital in a serious condition while an adult man was assessed for smoke inhalation but was not hospitalised.
Cardinal George Pell's legal team has accused police of running a "get Pell operation" amid revelations detectives planned to arrest him in late 2015 over historical sexual offence allegations.

Pell's high-profile barrister Robert Richter QC also accused a magistrate of bias, and criticised the police investigation code named Operation Tethering.

The investigation targeting Australia's most senior-ranked Catholic began in March 2013 into allegations of "inappropriate behaviour".

Mr Richter said in Melbourne Magistrates Court on Wednesday that Tethering started as an operation looking for a crime when no crimes had been reported.

"Operation Tethering, that wasn't a 'get Pell' operation was it?" Mr Richter asked the detective overseeing the investigation.

Detective Superintendent Paul Sheridan said it was an "intel probe" to see whether there were unreported serious crimes.

"I guess you could term it the way you did, but I wouldn't term it that way," he told Mr Richter.

The court has been told police wanted to arrest the Vatican treasurer during his planned return to Australia to appear before a royal commission hearing in December 2015.

"What's being flagged here is he would be arrested for questioning?" Mr Richter asked.

Detective Senior Constable David Rae replied: "He'd be interviewed."

Mr Richter suggested arresting someone for the purpose of questioning was illegal, but Det Const Rae understood police had a power of arrest.

Pell, 76, did not return to Australia as planned as he was too ill to travel due to a heart condition, and gave evidence to the commission from Rome in early 2016.

He was charged on summons with historical sexual offences involving multiple complainants in June 2017.

Before he was charged, Pell's legal team tried to persuade police and Victoria's Director of Public Prosecutions not to take that step.

"While it's clear that the complainants are for one reason or another 'damaged', there would not be any material that pre-dates the cardinal's obtaining of significant public prominence and points to him as being the person responsible for such damage," part of the defence submission said.

The court was told the first formal complaints against Pell were made following a royal commission hearing in 2015, when Mr Richter said there was a notion that the cardinal must have known about a group of pedophile clergy and covered it up.

Mr Richter accused detectives of tunnel vision and being determined to charge Pell despite evidence that might show the alleged offences didn't happen, suggesting some officers were "single-mindedly pursuing Pell".

During a legal argument with magistrate Belinda Wallington, Mr Richter accused her of bias.

"I apply that your honour disqualify herself from further hearing this matter on the basis of a biased view of the evidence," he said.

"Your application is refused," she replied.

Pell, who denies the charges, will face the final day of evidence on Thursday at the hearing that will determine if he stands trial.
An elderly Queensland man accused of raping and abusing a girl over seven years has been charged.

The 71-year-old allegedly began abusing the girl in 2010 when she was aged eight and it continued until 2017

Most of the offences occurred on the Gold Coast, police said.

Following lengthy investigations the elderly alleged pedophile was on Wednesday charged with sexual assault, two counts of rape and 19 counts of indecent treatment of a child.

He's due to front Ipswich Magistrates Court on April 11.
A Melbourne woman had "lost it" during a fight with her abusive partner when she drove at him in a car park, slamming into a sign that fell and fatally split his head open.

Jessie Donker, 31, pleaded guilty to manslaughter over the incident at Sunbury where Richard Powell, 32, died after the parking sign cleaved his head in January 2017.

"It is gruesome, but in the same way it is freakish," Supreme Court Justice Michael Croucher said of the death, during Donker's pre-sentence hearing on Wednesday.

"It would be hard to foresee."

Donker was enraged at Mr Powell and was driving aggressively at him in the kindergarten car park early that morning, the judge heard.

"She's driven into a tree, a brick fence, bins have been knocked over and she comes back and has another go," prosecutor Mark Rochford QC said.

Donker finally slammed into a pole nearby Mr Powell, flattening it.

"The edge of the disabled parking sign has come down and struck him in the head, effectively splitting it open," Mr Rochford said.

But Donker's barrister Pardeep Tiwana urged the judge to show leniency to his client when sentencing.

He said Donker had long suffered abuse at the hands of Mr Powell and she finally "lost it" that morning.

"The provocation and torment she had been suffering, not only then but over many years, surfaced in the most dramatic manner," Mr Tiwana said.

Donker was living in her car at the time and she told police Mr Powell had woken her, pulled her out of the car and assaulted her.

She said Mr Powell, who had been drinking and taken "ice", had also accused her of cheating on him.

Donker called police after the crash and raced to Mr Powell's parents' house screaming, "I've killed him".

Mr Powell's father saw his son's body on the footpath and his horrific head injuries.

"The image of this affects my sleep," Peter Powell said in a statement to the court.

"I had to restrain my wife from seeing him."

Donker was first charged with murdering Mr Powell but she later pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

The couple had two children who are now being cared for by her Mr Powell's parents.

Donker is due to be sentenced on April 27.
Australia's treatment of asylum seekers is dismantling global humanitarian commitments which grew from the darkness of the holocaust, former high court judge Michael Kirby has warned.

Australians must remember the charters and laws, which push nations to accept refugees, were established because European states did not take in those fleeing Nazi Germany, Justice Kirby says.

Their actions condemned countless lives to the concentration camps in the months and years that followed.

"These stories teach us the obligations of ordinary humanity to people who are in peril," he told the crowd at a book launch for human rights law lecturer Daniel Ghezelbash.

Dr Ghezelbash's book says Australia modelled many asylum policies on the United States - particularly off-shore processing, push-back operations and mandatory detention.

But Justice Kirby said the Australian constitution, unlike that of the United States, does not enshrine human rights.

The result is that lawyers who seek to help asylum seekers have few "quivers for their bow"," Justice Kirby said.

Now the rest of the world, particularly Europe, is looking to emulate Australia's uncompromising policies to cope with their waves of undocumented migration, the book argues.

"We have become a model not for a good law but for a cruel and harsh law," Justice Kirby said.

"(Other countries) think we have got something to tell them on how to turn back the boats or to turn back the trucks."

"And this is going to lead to a falling away of the key elements of the asylum principals."

Dr Ghezelbash's book warns Europe is one of the final bastions of asylum but the global consensus to help the helpless could be lost, in part because of Australia.

Justice Kirby said he hopes the book serves as a "reminder of where we have come from, where we were, and where we seem to be going".
A former high court justice has hit out at Peter Dutton's decision to grant special refugee status to persecuted white farmers in South Africa.

Justice Michael Kirby, speaking at a book launch critiquing Australia's refugee policy, said "we should reach out" to farmers being displaced and attacked in South Africa.

"If they have claims for refugee status they should be granted refugee assistance," he said in Sydney on Wednesday.

"I'm sure some of them are being dealt with very cruelly and very unfairly in South Africa."

Justice Kirby said whether the farmers' claims amounted to a well-founded fear of persecution - a central aspect of the refugee definition - were another question.

Mr Dutton caused widespread controversy and diplomatic tensions after arguing last week the farmers needed help from a "civilised country" like Australia.

He wants the farmers fast-tracked through Australia's refugee program.

"Giving them special status because they have white skin is something too deeply embedded in Australian history and it's time we got over it," Justice Kirby said.

Mr Dutton said he would stare down the growing criticism from "crazy lefties", arguing his detractors in the media are "completely dead" to him.
Vladimir Putin is deciding how to retaliate after Australia kicked out two Russian spies from the embassy in Canberra.

The diplomats now have five days to leave Australia, in a show of solidarity with the UK over the poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury.

More than 100 Russian diplomats have been expelled from countries around the world, and Russian Ambassador Grigory Logvinov said President Putin is deciding how to respond.

"The final decision is taken by President of the Russian Federation," the top diplomat told reporters on Wednesday.

"The ambassador in the USA already said the embassy of Russia is working on different and relevant options which would be reported to the President and the President would make a final decision."

When the UK expelled 23 Russian diplomats, Russia retaliated by sending the same number of UK officials back.

Mr Logvinov said the diplomats being expelled from Australia were not spies.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop hauled Mr Logvinov in for a "please explain" meeting on Wednesday, where he said Russia wants an investigation into the nerve agent attack.

"We want an absolutely proper investigation under the auspices of the convention on prohibition of chemical weapons," Mr Logvinov told Ms Bishop.

But Ms Bishop said Russia had not declared its Novichok chemical weapons, which were used in the Skripal attempted assassination.

"This is the very convention that we believe Russia is in breach of by its failure to declare its Novichok program," she replied to Mr Logvinov.

"We seek a credible answer from Russia as to how its nerve agent could have been deployed in these circumstances."

Mr Logvinov said there was no evidence Russia was responsible but Ms Bishop said she had "seen this script before".
Victorian government MPs will face yet another investigation over Labor's $388,000 rorts-for-votes scandal, with parliament's closed-door privileges committee on the case.

The government sided with the Greens in the upper house on Wednesday, out-voting a Liberal-Nationals opposition plan for a publicly-held select committee.

Government members of the privileges committee will be removed on Thursday and replaced with MPs who were not sitting in the previous parliament.

"The privileges committee is specifically designed to hold MPs accountable to the parliamentary code of conduct and has the power to recommend sanctions," Greens MP Sam Hibbins said, adding it is the most appropriate body to handle the matter.

Last week Ombudsman Deborah Glass reported on the systematic misuse of public money by 21 past and present Labor MPs to partially fund the party's winning 2014 campaign.

Eleven MPs still remain in parliament and those sitting in the upper house can be compelled to give evidence to the privileges committee.

The committee can ask people outside of parliament and lower house MPs to give evidence, but it cannot compel Legislative Assembly members to appear.

Leader of the opposition in the chamber, Mary Woodridge, said lower house MPs will again dodge scrutiny, having already avoided providing evidence to Ms Glass' investigators.
Witnesses are being sought after a 12-year-old girl was run down by an unattended ute in a theatre car park on the NSW south coast.

The girl's father tried to stop the vehicle striking his daughter as it began rolling backwards, but it ran her down at the Shellharbour theatre before crashing into a street sign on Wednesday evening, police said on Thursday.

The girl was taken to Shellharbour Hospital before being airlifted to the Sydney Children's Hospital in Randwick where she remains in a stable condition.
The government must listen to First Nation solutions to counter the indigenous over-incarceration "crisis point" in Australian jails, Labor says.

Indigenous Labor senator Pat Dodson says the findings of an Australian Law Reform Commission report - including that indigenous women are 21.2 times more likely to go to jail than non-indigenous women - have to be a wake-up call.

"It's making mothers who are often subject to domestic violence become the victims of incarceration," Senator Dodson told ABC Radio on Thursday.

"This is a real indictment upon us. This is a wake-up call for the nation and the governments of the nation to start to do something that's required."

The findings in the report, tabled in parliament on Wednesday, were labelled a "national crisis" by the Law Council of Australia.

It found indigenous Australians were 12.5 times more likely to be in jail than non-indigenous people.

The commission made 35 recommendations to counter the trends, including promoting rehabilitation programs as well as indigenous consultation and engagement.

Senator Dodson said state and territory governments were not listening to solutions coming from the indigenous community.

"The communities are almost in despair by the lack of action from all governments," he said.

"You have to find cultural imperatives that will work rather than just the punitive systems that we've been constantly meting out to the First Nations people."

Justice reinvestment was one recommendation Labor has called to be incorporated into the Closing the Gap strategy.

"It's about not asking for more money but using the money that's already allocated in the system to go to other purposes that are preventative and restorative of people's activities," Senator Dodson said.

"That's what justice reinvestment is about."

MPs have urged the government to adopt the recommendations.

"The cycle of incarceration will continue devastating families and communities if we do not remodel our approach to criminal justice," Aboriginal Legal Service NSW/ACT chief executive Lesley Turner said.

Law Council of Australia president Morry Bailes said the report's recommendations offered "a renewed roadmap" to decrease over-incarceration.
A man and woman are fighting for life with burns to 70 per cent of their bodies after a fire engulfed their home in Sydney's north, with forensic investigators combing through the site that is now a crime scene.

The 29-year-old woman and a man in his 40s were critically injured when a two-storey brick house on Zanco Road in Marsfield went up in flames about 4pm on Wednesday.

An eight-year-old girl was treated for smoke inhalation and taken to Westmead Children's Hospital in a serious condition, while another man was assessed for smoke inhalation but was not hospitalised.

A NSW Fire & Rescue spokesman says the roof collapsed while crews from 10 trucks worked to extinguish the blaze.

"Firefighters attacked the house quickly but the house was fully engulfed on arrival," Mr Buckley told AAP on Thursday.

The man and woman remain in a critical condition in Royal North Shore Hospital.

A crime scene has been established at the premises and forensic investigators will comb through the site, NSW police said on Thursday.

A young neighbour Linus Sainsbury, 13, said he dialled triple-zero when he saw people running from the burning home.

"They were severely burned and their pants were burned off and their clothes were burned so I called triple-zero and explained what happened," Linus told the Seven Network.
Kim had not met Xi since the young North Korean leader took over after the death of his father, Kim Jong Il

North Korea's Kim Jong Un made his first-ever foreign trip as leader to meet China's president in Beijing, the official Xinhua news agency said Wednesday, ahead of proposed summits with Seoul and Washington that could unsettle nuclear-armed Pyongyang's sole ally.

During the visit from Sunday to Wednesday which came at the invitation of Xi Jinping, Kim held talks with the Chinese president who hosted a banquet to welcome the North Korean leader and his wife Ri Sol Ju, Xinhua said.

"I have had successful talks with General Secretary Xi Jinping on developing relations between the two parties and the two countries, our respective domestic situation, maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, and other issues," Kim said at the banquet.

Relations between China and North Korea had soured as Beijing has backed tough United Nations sanctions to punish Pyongyang for its missile and nuclear tests.

Analysts had earlier suggested Beijing had been sidelined by Pyongyang's approaches to Seoul and Washington, but Kim's visit puts China firmly back at the centre of the diplomatic scrum.

"Both Comrade Chairman and I have personally experienced and witnessed the development of China-DPRK relationship," Xi said, using the initials for North Korea's official name.

"This is a strategic choice and the only right choice both sides have made based on history and reality.... This should not and will not change because of any single event at a particular time," Xi said.

Kim had not met Xi since the young North Korean leader took over after the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, in 2011.

burs-amu/kaf
Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman arrives to meet with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres (L) at the United Nations, where he presented a check for humanitarian aid in Yemen

Saudi Arabia on Tuesday presented a $930 million check to the UN for humanitarian aid in Yemen as the UN chief pushed for an end to the war in which Riyadh leads a military coalition.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres thanked Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the contribution, but stressed that the war in Yemen requires a political solution, and not just a humanitarian response.

"There is no humanitarian solution for humanitarian problems," Guterres said after receiving the check, which also came from the United Arab Emirates.

The Emirates plays a major role in the coalition, which intervened militarily three years ago to support Yemen's government against Iran-backed Huthi rebels.

Civilian casualties from coalition air strikes have drawn criticism from rights groups, and in October the UN placed the alliance on a "blacklist" for killing and maiming children.

Riyadh insists the coalition respects its obligations under international humanitarian law.

"The solution is political and we are entirely at your disposal to work to find a solution" that will "end the suffering in Yemen," Guterres said.

The United Nations is making a fresh push for peace talks in Yemen, where the coalition acted to support the internationally-recognized government after the Huthis seized the capital.

About 10,000 Yemenis have been killed in the war.

The UN calls it the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with 22.2 million people in need of aid, a growing risk of famine, and a severe outbreak of cholera.

- 'Stupid war' -

It was the second meeting between the UN chief and the crown prince, who has bristled at Guterres' description of Yemen as a "stupid war" that is harming the interests of the countries involved.

Prince Mohammed said Saudi Arabia was working to uphold UN principles which he said meant "not interfering in the affairs of other countries," an apparent reference to Iran's support for the Huthis.

"We try as much as we can to solve the problems of the Middle East politically and if things get out of control, we try as hard as we can to avoid all the other impacts," said the crown prince, speaking through a translator.

"We will continue to comply, as we always have, with international law," he said.

The UN chief has appointed a new peace envoy, Martin Griffiths, who was in the rebel-held capital Sanaa this week for talks on kick-starting the political process, following a first round of meetings in Riyadh.

UN diplomats believe the new effort could succeed because Iran has sent signals that it is willing to pressure the Huthis to seek a settlement.

Guterres on Tuesday will travel to Geneva for a donors' conference hosted by Switzerland and Sweden to raise funds for Yemen.
Kim's meeting with Xi brings Beijing back onto the diplomatic centre stage

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's visit to China -- his first overseas trip since inheriting power in 2011 -- is the most tangible and dramatic step so far in a four-way diplomatic dance.

It comes with Kim due to hold a summit next month with South Korea's Moon Jae-in, and ahead of a planned meeting with US President Donald Trump -- events that give both Pyongyang and Beijing new incentives to repair their battered relationship, analysts say.

China wants to regain its influence in what it sees as its back yard, and protect its interests.

"Order is restored under heaven," tweeted veteran Korea-watcher Aidan Foster-Carter, adding that upcoming summits would be different in tone and content now Kim and Xi Jinping have met.

Kim's meeting with the Chinese president brings Beijing back onto a stage where it had played a key role for decades as Pyongyang's diplomatic guardian and its chief source of aid and trade.

For the North, it is a chance to rekindle a relationship it has seemingly deliberately allowed to cool -- and the prospect of an insurance policy if talks with Washington do not go well.

The rapprochement has been brought about by the same events that have driven Pyongyang's detente with Seoul and Washington: the North's nuclear advances, Washington's hardline rhetoric and the growing impact of sanctions on the economy.

An atmosphere of cooperation fostered by the Winter Olympics in the South catalysed the process.

But the appointment of the hawkish John Bolton as national security adviser has heightened fears that the US might resort to military action if Trump is disappointed by his meeting with Kim.

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The US and North Korea still have wildly diverging views of the North's nuclear programme, said Beijing-based independent political commentator Hua Po, adding the summit could go "a lot of different ways".

If the negotiations fail, he said, Kim will "want China's understanding and support".

"Therefore, Kim must come and communicate with China," Hua told AFP.

Pyongyang is looking to stay one step ahead in the diplomatic dalliance, added Kim Han-kwon, a professor at the Korea National Diplomatic Academy.

"North Korea is trying to secure another bargaining chip by showcasing improved ties with China," he said.

- North Korea playbook -

Relations between Beijing and Pyongyang were forged in the blood of the Korean War, when Mao Zedong's forces saved Kim Il Sung from defeat, but China has grown increasingly frustrated with its neighbour's nuclear and missile antics.

It has shown a new willingness to enforce tougher UN sanctions, including restrictions on oil supplies to the isolated regime.

Cheong Seong-Chang, senior fellow at the Sejong Institute, said: "Considering the deterioration of North Korea's economy from international sanctions, China is the country that the North most urgently needs to mend ties with."

But it's not a one-way street.

Beijing fears the collapse of the regime in Pyongyang and the instability it would bring, potentially sending waves of refugees into China and heralding the possibility of US troops stationed on its border in a unified Korea.

And the flurry of diplomatic progress on the peninsula, orchestrated by the South's Moon, has threatened to sideline Beijing.

China wants to see reduced tensions, said Bill Bishop, publisher of the Sinocism China Newsletter, but also wants to be the only country with leverage over its nuclear-armed neighbour.

"China doesn't want a nuclearised peninsula but they also don't want any steps toward unification," Bishop told AFP.

"They're concerned about being left out, with the North Koreans cutting a deal with the Americans that doesn't necessarily reflect Chinese interests."

And there is historical precedent for the meeting.

Christopher Green, an analyst at the International Crisis Group, pointed out that Kim's father and predecessor Kim Jong Il travelled to Beijing to meet with the then Chinese leader Jiang Zemin in 2000, ahead of the first inter-Korean summit.

"North Korea is playing its diplomatic cards professionally, and moreover in order," tweeted Green.

Like his son, he added, for the first six years of his rule the older Kim stayed in North Korea "securing his rule domestically, often violently" before starting to meet foreign leaders.

"That is the playbook Kim Jong Un is following."
An Iraqi Roma girl attends a class, after many years of not going to school, in the village of Al-Zuhour in Iraq's Diwaniya province, 200 kilometres (125 miles) south of Baghdad on March 25, 2018

Carrying her bag on the way home from class, Malak is glowing: the 10-year-old girl has just finished her first-ever semester of school in her Iraqi Roma village.

In 2004 armed Islamists attacked the village of Al-Zuhour in Iraq's Diwaniya province, 200 kilometres (125 miles) south of Baghdad, destroying the only school for the marginalised Roma community.

"On television, I would see other children with school bags and they looked happy," Malak told AFP.

"I was a bit jealous because our school was destroyed years ago," she said.

The 2003 US-led invasion and the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime had changed things dramatically for the Muslim Roma minority, who had come to Iraq centuries before from India.

Iraqi Roma children attend a class, after many years of not going to school, in the village of Al-Zuhour in Iraq's Diwaniya province, 200 kilometres (125 miles) south of Baghdad on March 25, 2018

During the dictator's rule, Iraq's Roma -- also called "Kawliya" or gypsies -- were primarily known as professional musicians and dancers invited to feasts, weddings and parties.

But since the rise of hardline Islamist groups in Iraq after Saddam's fall, the Roma have increasingly been persecuted, accused of loose morals and of participating in parties where alcohol was served.

Many of the country's tens of thousands of Roma have been forced to flee their native villages, often reduced to begging on the streets.

- Chased from other schools -

The same held true for the people of Al-Zuhour after Islamist fighters attacked the village leaving behind a trail of death and destruction.

Iraqi Roma children attend a class, after many years of not going to school, in the village of Al-Zuhour in Iraq's Diwaniya province, 200 kilometres (125 miles) south of Baghdad on March 25, 2018

For 14 years the village children had no school to go to.

But today, thanks to an online campaign, Al-Zuhour's nearly 100 remaining families have opened a school amid dusty dirt roads often lined with rubbish.

"As soon as we heard about it, I was the happiest person in the world. I begged my father to sign me up," Malak told AFP, wearing a beige hijab to match her coat.

During her first-ever school semester Malak says she was taught "to read and write, mathematics and sciences".

Now she "dreams of becoming a school teacher" in her village, home to stone structures with thatched palm roofs.

Before the new school opened, some children from Al-Zuhour tried to continue their studies in nearby villages but they were not welcomed, said activist Manar al-Zubeidi.

Iraqi Roma children attend a class, after many years of not going to school, in the village of Al-Zuhour in Iraq's Diwaniya province, 200 kilometres (125 miles) south of Baghdad on March 25, 2018

"They were insulted and sometimes beaten, so many stopped going to school", Zubeidi, who helped launch the campaign for the new school, told AFP.

After being turned away by a number of human rights associations, Zubeidi took her campaign to the internet along with several other volunteers using the Arabic-language hashtag "Roma are human".

The campaign attracted the support of Iraq's ministry of education, the government body for human rights and the United Nations children's fund (UNICEF).

- 'Social barriers' -

Once the material for the school was obtained, it became necessary to recruit teachers. But "social barriers" still exist, said Zubeidi.

Many candidates declined the job for fear of being associated with the Roma of Diwaniya, the second poorest province in Iraq.

Iraqi Roma children walk outside a make-shift school, after many years of not going to school, in the village of Al-Zuhour in Iraq's Diwaniya province, 200 kilometres (125 miles) south of Baghdad on March 25, 2018. In 2004 armed Islamists attacked the village, destroying the only school in the marginalised Roma community. But since the rise of hardline Islamist groups in Iraq after Saddam's fall, the Roma have increasingly been persecuted, accused of participating in parties where alcohol was served and loose morals. Many of the country's tens of thousands of Roma have been forced to flee their native villages, often reduced to begging on streets.

Qassem Abbas, who was tipped to become the principal of the newly-named Al-Nakhil (Palm Trees) school, said he was initially hesitant and concerned about his reputation in the tribal province.

"But when I knew that these children had no school for 14 years, I reminded myself that I worked in education to teach everyone, regardless of their gender or origin, so I accepted," he told AFP.

Abbas stuck with the job despite being the target of criticism on social media, he said.

He teaches a group of 27 primary schoolchildren with the help of two other teachers.

Their efforts were clear at the end of the first semester.

"Ninety percent of the students passed the final exams, and many with high marks," he said.

When Al-Nakhil school first opened it was set up in a tent but it now comprises nine prefabricated rooms: six for the school proper and three that serve as an infirmary.

Iraqi Roma children play at a make-shift school, after many years of not going to school, in the village of Al-Zuhour in Iraq's Diwaniya province, 200 kilometres (125 miles) south of Baghdad on March 25, 2018

Haydar Sattar, the UNICEF representative in Diwaniya, said the infirmary provides health services to the students and the rest of the village.

"The people of Al-Zuhour face forms of sectarian discrimination, marginalisation and racism," he said. "But the most important issue (until now) was the lack of education services."

Al-Nakhil soon hopes to expand educational opportunities to adults in the village, and is planning "literacy classes" specifically aimed at women, he added.
The plan to redraw Malaysia's electoral boundaries has sparked accusations of gerrymandering and angry protests

Malaysian lawmakers voted Wednesday to redraw the electoral map in what critics slammed as a bid to rig looming polls, sparking angry protests outside parliament and fury from opposition MPs inside.

The election is expected within weeks and Prime Minister Najib Razak is battling to keep his long-ruling coalition in power despite allegations that billions of dollars were looted from a sovereign wealth fund he founded.

He is also facing a tough challenge from an opposition headed by veteran ex-premier Mahathir Mohamad, 92, who is seeking to win over the government's traditional support base of rural Muslim voters.

After a heated debate in parliament, which is dominated by the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, lawmakers voted overwhelmingly in favour of a bill to redraw constituency boundaries despite concerns that it will unfairly tilt the election in Najib's favour.

Opposition lawmakers got to their feet and jeered at the ruling coalition MPs and waved placards that read "rise up to stop cheating".

The changes must now by given royal assent but that is expected to happen quickly.

The opposition claims the overhaul will favour Najib's coalition by decreasing voter numbers in BN's traditional seats, making it easier for their MPs to be elected, and creating more constituencies dominated by the traditionally pro-government Muslim Malay majority.

But lawmaker Liang Teck Meng, whose party is a member of the ruling coalition, told parliament the opposition opposed the changes as "they know they will not get the mandate of the people to rule the country".

- 'Scandalous' -

Hundreds of protesters marched to parliament as the bill was tabled, waving banners that read "stealing an election is not winning an election", and were joined at one point by Mahathir, who denounced the changes as "kleptocracy".

Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, deputy leader of the opposition coalition Pact of Hope and wife of jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, told AFP the electoral overhaul was "scandalous".

"We believe an election victory may be stolen from us," she said.

The controversy over state fund 1MDB has rocked Najib's administration, with the US Justice Department alleging that $4.5 billion was stolen in a campaign of fraud and money-laundering. Najib and 1MDB deny wrongdoing.

Nevertheless, Najib is tipped to win at the elections -- which must be called by August at the latest, but are expected sooner -- due to BN's tight grip on the system and the weakness of the opposition.

BN, which has governed Malaysia since independence in 1957, is under pressure to do better in the looming polls after losing the popular vote for the first time in 2013, and as discontent grows at graft scandals, race-based politics in the multi-ethnic country and rising living costs.

Redrawing constituencies to favour the government is nothing new in Malaysia and has been used for decades by BN leaders, including Mahathir.

The passing of the law was the latest sign polls are looming.

The government earlier this week tabled a bill seeking to outlaw "fake news" that would punish offenders with up to 10 years in prison, a move critics say is designed to stifle dissent before the election.
The restive east is being wracked by various conflicts pitting ragtag militias, rebel groups, vigilantes and the Congolese army

Sexual and ethnic violence are alarmingly on the rise in Democratic Republic of Congo's lawless east, spawning a humanitarian catastrophe with millions forced to flee their homes.

At least 13.1 million Congolese need humanitarian aid, including 7.7 million who are severely food insecure, the UN Security Council said in March in a unanimous statement which the Kinshasa government dismissed as a gross exaggeration.

The DR Congo then shunned a massive donor conference in Geneva aimed at raising $1.7 billion (1.37 billion euros) to tackle the crisis.

But rapes are increasing in the volatile region.

"In 2015, we noticed a noticeable decrease in sexual violence," celebrated gynaecologist Denis Mukwege, this year's Nobel Peace Prize co-winner, told AFP in March.

"Since the end of 2016 and 2017, there has really been a rise," he said at his 450-bed Panzi Hospital in the city of Bukavu where rape victims undergo reconstructive surgery and receive holistic care.

One of the survivors is a 10-year-old girl wearing a Minnie Mouse T-shirt who was raped by militiamen in February when they attacked her village of Kabikokole.

Mukwege said the profile of rapists has changed.

"Now the majority of sexual violence in South Kivu is committed by civilians and no longer by security forces and armed groups," he said.

However, many of the civilians were former rebels, the Panzi Foundation said.

- 'Amputations quite common' -

Mukwege, 63, was recognised for two decades of work to help women recover from the violence and trauma of sexual abuse and rape in DR Congo

Meanwhile, various conflicts in the region among ragtag militias, rebel groups, vigilantes and the Congolese army are claiming more and more lives.

According to the Congo Research Group, the "uncivils" -- a euphemism for Congolese troops -- were alone responsible for 106 deaths and 80 kidnappings in North Kivu in February.

In the North Kivu capital Goma, the Bethesda Hospital run by the Red Cross tends to people with bullet injuries.

"Since the middle of 2017, the number of patients has increased. We had 64 beds and now we have 92," a medic said, adding: "Amputations are quite common here."

- Avenging exploitation? -

In the southeastern province of Tanganyika, clashes between Pygmies and Bantus from the ethnic Luba group have also forced thousands to flee.

Pygmies from the ethnic Twa group regularly come into conflict with Bantus who regard them as second-class citizens.

Tensions between them stretch back to before DR Congo gained independence from Belgium in 1960, with the land-owning Bantus accused of exploiting the hunter-gatherers, giving them meagre wages or paying them with alcohol and cigarettes for agricultural labour.

For their part, Bantus have endured horrendous attacks that have seen entire villages being burnt, pregnant women disembowelled and people killed with arrows.

Aid workers say up to 650,000 were displaced by a spike in violence in 2016-17. Today, around 67,000 displaced Bantus live in 12 camps surrounding the provincial capital Kalemie.

Kavumbu Sidiki, 62, says his 45-year-old wife Marcelina Kisumbole was six months pregnant when Pygmy attackers cut open her stomach.

"The Pygmies arrived at our village around midnight," he said. "I jumped out of the window and escaped. My wife couldn't and they killed her."

Another man opens his mouth to show a missing incisor that he says the attacking Pygmies extracted.

One of the camps in Kalemie where 67,000 displaced people are sheltered

"Have pity on us!" he said. "The Pygmies are beating the living daylights out of us. We're suffering terribly."

The governor of Tanganyika, a stronghold of President Joseph Kabila, said he was baffled by the resurgence of violence.

"They lived side by side. We have not understood why the conflict erupted in 2016 with such indescribable violence," said Richard Ngoy Kitangala.

The governor added that key Pygmy demands included an end to submission to Bantu chiefs, access to land and to positions of authority -- and the right to marry Bantu women.

"These are justifiable claims, but we deplore the violence that has accompanied the claims," he told a mixed delegation from the European Union and the UN aid coordination agency.

"Last February, we organised a big forum. We invited the Pygmy leaders. We smoked the pipe of peace," Ngoy Kitangala said.

"No, there is no peace," countered Pierrot, a displaced man from a village 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Kalemie. "Pygmies still threaten and kill people... If there is lasting peace, we will go home."
Aboriginal Australians are thought to have lived on the continent for at least 65,000 years

All indigenous languages in Australia descend from a single common tongue, a study revealed Wednesday in findings that shed new light on the country's cultural history.

More than 250 languages were spoken at the time of British settlement in 1788 and after three years investigating their origins, researchers said they had finally proven a long-held theory that they all derive from so-called Proto-Australian.

The existence of a common parent language gives further weight to the idea that all Aboriginal Australians descend from a single group that landed on the continent at least 65,000 years ago, and spread out over the following millenia, becoming ethnically and linguistically distinct.

The project used a standard method in historical linguistics to establish whether similarity between languages was due to inheritance from a common ancestor, as opposed to transfer from one language to another through human contact.

Western Sydney University chief investigator Robert Mailhammer said the findings repeatedly revealed similarities between languages that were not in contact.

"We discovered that the sounds of words we compared showed recurrent systematic differences and similarities across a set of languages that are spread out in a geographically discontinuous way," he said.

"This makes it very unlikely that they are the result of chance or language contact."

He added that the findings pointed to Proto-Australian being spoken about 12,000 years ago.

"This raises more questions around how the languages spread and how the linguistic findings connect to the genetic findings," he said.

University of Newcastle historical linguist Mark Harvey said he hoped the research, published in the linguistics journal Diachronica, would enhance the understanding of Australian and human history.

"Until now, it was speculated that Australia was significantly more linguistically diverse than somewhere like Europe, because it had not been proven that all Australian languages actually stemmed from the same lineage," he said.

"This is the first demonstration that all Australian languages are part of the same language family."

He said this language likely spread across Australia from a small area in the country's north that was first populated thousands of years ago.

"This spread is likely to have been carried out by at least some population movement whose material and genetic traces have remained somewhat elusive," he added.

"However, with further interdisciplinary research, this new linguistic evidence is likely to give us a more precise reconstruction of Australian prehistory from what is currently known."

Only around 120 of the original 250 tongues are still spoken today, with many at risk of being lost as elders die off without passing on the language to younger generations.
Abhisit Vejjajiva (C), former prime minister and current leader of Thailand's Democrat Party, performs a Buddhist prayer before hearing new party regulations issued by the Election Commission, during an official gathering of political parties

Thai political parties called on the junta Wednesday to lift curbs on campaigning as disquiet with the military's four-year rule deepens and demands mount for an election.

Since seizing power in 2014 Thailand's generals have banned gatherings of more than five people and coup leader Prayut Chan-O-Cha has repeatedly postponed the date for a return to democracy.

But as the fourth anniversary of the May 22 coup approaches, discontent is festering with the junta, accused of vacillating over the poll date while it faces a series of scandals.

Last month Prayut announced that elections would be held "no later" than February 2019 as he opened the door for new political parties to register.

Yet the junta has refused to ease restrictions on political gatherings and has said parties cannot meet without permission or publicly discuss policy.

On Wednesday, in the largest sanctioned political gathering since the coup, dozens of parties filled a vast convention centre in Bangkok to hear the Election Commission lay out ground rules related to the vote.

Many called for permission to campaign freely, iron-clad confirmation of a poll date and guarantees that elections would be transparent and not weighted towards military-aligned candidates.

"The parties want a clear stance on what we can and cannot do," said Phumtham Wechayachai, secretary general of the Pheu Thai party, whose government was toppled in the 2014 coup.

Politicians from other parties echoed the impatience.

"I want the EC to lift all the bans so that parties can hold meetings, campaign and do public relations activities like we used to," Sanyapong Phupraditsilapa from the Palang Thongtin Thai party told AFP.

Politicians also expressed concern that the cards are stacked in favour of military-linked parties who have already come out in support of junta chief Prayut staying on as premier.

"What Im concerned about is, if the junta is establishing a political party and using government mechanisms, will it be fair for other parties?" said Supachai Jaismut, the deputy secretary general of the Bhumjaithai party.

Analysts say that even if the election goes forward as planned, the next civilian government will have its hands tied by a junta-scripted constitution that will enshrine key policy perimeters for the next 20 years.

The charter has turned Thailand's upper house or senate into an appointed rather than elected body, a powerful check on the next administration.

It also leaves the door open for an non-elected premier, who could come from the military.

Prayut, an ex-army chief, has not ruled out future political ambitions.

The general seized power following massive street demonstrations, vowing to bring stability to a country beset by political divisions between Pheu Thai-aligned rural supporters and a Bangkok-backed military elite.
Local rescue workers gather over the bodies of the victims of the mass shooting last July

Six men were sentenced to death on Wednesday for the massacre of a Thai village headman and seven members of his family, including three children, over a land dispute.

The execution-style murders, which caused widespread public horror, saw the masked gunmen storm into the local leader's compound in the southern province of Krabi in July 2017 and take his family hostage with handcuffs and blindfolds.

They held the group for several hours while waiting for village chief Worayuth Sanlang to return. Then they shot him in the head along with seven family members.

Three others were injured but survived, including a woman who played dead after a bullet passed through her ear.

The court said the massacre was motivated by a land dispute between the village headman and the lead gunman, Surikfat Bannopwongsakul.

"The six defendants used pistols to shoot all the eight victims, which included women as well as girls aged four, eight, eleven, devastating the public," said the verdict read out at Krabi's provincial court on Wednesday.

While death sentences are still on the statute books in Thailand, no prisoner has been executed since 2009.

Gun murders are common in Thailand, a country where firearms are widely available. Killings are often motivated by revenge, "loss of face" and business disputes.

But while petty arguments and disputes frequently turn deadly, mass killings are rare.

A survivor of the massacre and relative of the victims, Anchalee Booterb, welcomed the sentences.

"Yes I am satisfied, but even if they are executed it will not bring my relatives back" she told broadcaster Channel 9.
Israeli tanks monitor the security fence on the volatile border with Gaza on February 18, 2018

Israeli tanks hit two Hamas positions in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday after activists set fire to the base of the security fence on the volatile frontier, the army said.

The army said the two suspected arsonists had not crossed the fence and infiltrated Israel but it retaliated with tank fire against two Hamas observation posts.

"The (army) views with great severity any attempt to damage the security fence, as well as security infrastructure," it said.

The incident comes a day after Israeli soldiers detained three Palestinians who had slipped across the border from Gaza in possession of knives and grenades.

The army said the trio were apprehended near an army base some 20 kilometres (12 miles) inside Israel, while police distributed pictures of hand grenades, knives and wire cutters found on them.

There had already been an uptick in incidents along the border as Palestinian anger runs high over US President Donald Trump's decision in December to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

On Saturday, a number of Palestinians breached the frontier and tried to torch heavy equipment. In response, Israeli jets attacked positions of Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza.

A day later gunfire from Gaza set off Israel's Iron Dome air defence system and in response a tank fired at a Hamas position.

The incidents come as Israel braces for the annual Palestinian Land Day protests, commemorating the killing of six unarmed Arab demonstrators in Israel in 1976, set to begin in Gaza on Friday.

Gazans are being called to march towards the border fence en masse.
US army officers stand in front a US Patriot missile defence system during a joint Israeli-US military exercise earlier this month

Poland signed on Wednesday a $4.75 billion (3.8-billion-euro) contract to purchase a US-made Patriot anti-missile system, a move that is likely to irk Russia as East-West tensions rise.

"We are signing today a contract to deliver a modern system that has proven itself in numerous countries and thanks to which we are joining an elite group of states which have an efficient weapon that guarantees security," said Polish Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak.

The first deliveries are expected in 2022.

The Patriot is a mobile air-defence system made by US defence firm Raytheon and designed to intercept tactical ballistic missiles, low-flying cruise missiles and aircraft.

Moscow was reported to have deployed nuclear-capable Iskander missiles for exercises in its Kaliningrad exclave in 2016, rattling nearby NATO members.

Tensions with Moscow have been high since the Ukraine crisis and Kremlin's annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the current diplomatic spat over the nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in Britain has done nothing to calm matters.

Russia has complained about the prospect of the deployment of Patriot anti-missile systems in Poland and Romania, which it says violates a 1987 arms treaty.
A Syrian evacuee from Eastern Ghouta carries an infant after arriving with others in the village of Qalaat al-Madiq on March 27, 2018

Thousands of Syrian rebels and civilians arrived in opposition territory on Wednesday after having evacuated their Eastern Ghouta enclave near Damascus, an AFP correspondent said.

Buses carrying opposition fighters, their relatives, and other civilians began arriving at a transit point in northwestern Syria around dawn, after travelling all night from Ghouta.

Aid groups could be seen handing out toys, milk, and juice to children descending from the buses.

The convoy that left a battered pocket of Ghouta late Tuesday comprised 101 buses carrying 6,432 people, according to state news agency SANA.

They left under an evacuation deal between the Islamist rebel faction Faylaq al-Rahman, which controls a part of Ghouta, and Russia, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Moscow has negotiated two such agreements to empty the last rebel holdouts in Eastern Ghouta, once the opposition's strategic perch on the edge of the capital.

The negotiations come after a ferocious Syrian army offensive that overran vast swathes of Ghouta, already suffering a crippling half-decade siege.

The agreement with Faylaq al-Rahman was announced on Friday and implementation began the following day.

So far, more than 19,000 people, including rebels and civilians, have been bused out of the part of Ghouta they control.

Faylaq al-Rahman spokesman Wael Alwan said the operation could see as many as 30,000 ultimately leave the enclave.

According to Syrian state media, hundreds more people were boarding buses in the Faylaq-held pocket of Ghouta on Wednesday for new evacuations.

It said more than 128,000 people had fled Ghouta in recent weeks, many of them through routes into government-held territory that were opened by advancing government troops.
Lee Ching-yu was allowed to see her husband, the jailed Taiwanese activist Lee Ming-cheh, for 30 minutes

The wife of a Taiwanese democracy activist jailed in China said Wednesday he is denied "basic correspondence rights" after visiting him in prison for the first time in a case that has strained cross-strait relations.

NGO worker Lee Ming-cheh was sentenced to five years in prison in November on charges of subverting state power by a court in central Hunan province, as activists face increased pressure from authorities under Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Lee was arrested in March 2017 during a trip to the mainland and held incommunicado for months. Taipei has called his jailing "unacceptable" and a serious blow to relations with Beijing, while his wife Lee Ching-yu has said his trial was a "political show".

Lee Ching-yu was allowed to visit her husband in Chishan prison in Hunan on Tuesday, when they spoke for 30 minutes through a glass window.

"Lee Ming-cheh's health... in prison seems fine from his appearance... But it's very obvious he is still denied right of speech and basic correspondence rights," she told reporters at the airport near Taipei after returning from China.

"He still cannot write letters to me. Even though the reason he gave is that he has very busy work hours in prison," she said, adding that Lee only received two of the 11 books she sent him.

"Every word they (prisoners) speak, even their voice and expression, will be recorded in writing by the prison."

Chinese authorities cancelled Lee Ching-yu's mainland travel permit last April as she searched for her missing husband and later only granted her single-entry visas to attend the trial and sentencing. In January, she was barred from boarding a flight to visit Lee in prison.

During his trial, Lee admitted the charges, stating that he had written and distributed online articles that criticised China's ruling Communist Party and promoted democracy.

He had shared "Taiwan's democratic experiences" with his Chinese friends online for many years and often mailed books to them, according to the Taiwan Association for Human Rights.

"Lee Ming-cheh cannot correspond with the outside world and his family's visitation rights are not ensured. This is evidence that China violates international and even its own laws," said the association.

Amnesty International and other Taiwanese rights groups have also called for Lee's release.
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A former Zambian minister and a leading critic of President Edgar Lungu appeared in court on Wednesday to deny charges that he had profited from the proceeds of crime.

Chishimba Kambwili has emerged as one of the most prominent voices speaking out against Lungu, who is accused of increasingly authoritarian rule and of cracking down on dissent.

Lungu had been due to face an opposition motion of impeachment in parliament on Wednesday but the process was delayed by officials who claimed more time was needed to consider the process.

Kambwili, who has been in hospital for undisclosed condition since his arrest on Thursday, appeared in court under heavy police guard.

"I understand the charge and plead not guilty," Kambwili told magistrate Mwaka Mikalile after she read the 34 counts faced by the dissident lawmaker from the governing Patriotic Front party who previously served as foreign minister and Lungu's information minister.

He has since fallen out with Lungu and repeatedly accused the president and government of being corrupt.

Lungu has denied accusations that he is creating a dictatorship in Zambia and has accused rivals of trying to overturn the 2016 election result.

Kambwili was ordered to return to court on June 4 for trial and was released on $1,000 (800 euros) bail.

Several opposition leaders were in court to support Kambwili.

After the hearing, opposition UPND party leader Hakainde Hichilema -- another fierce critic of Lungu -- accused the president of intimidating his opponents.

"This is not how you should run the country. They think running the country is to brutalise some people. A dictator has no true friend other than his wife and family," he said.

Lungu had been due to face a motion of impeachment on Wednesday tabled by opposition parties in parliament -- but the National Assembly said in a letter that the hearing would be delayed, prompting anger from Lungu's critics.

"This appears to be a delaying tactic and we suspect the executive is interfering with the work of parliament," UPND spokesman Charles Kakoma told AFP.
Kim Jong Un had never met a foreign leader before, and the secrecy around his Beijing trip allowed both countries to stage manage any potential embarrassing errors

For a hush-hush "unofficial visit", North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's trip to China bore all the trappings of a state reception: honour guards, bouquets, red carpets, and a banquet served on imperial yellow porcelain.

Chinese and North Korean state media on Wednesday finally broke the secret about Kim's meetings with President Xi Jinping in Beijing with a slew of images that provided some clues about the state of the complex relations between the old allies.

Kim had never met a foreign leader before, and the secrecy -- a standard security measure during past North Korean state visits to China -- allowed both countries to stage manage any potential embarrassing errors.

Kim discreetly rolled into Beijing on Monday in a slow-moving, forest-green train with tinted windows similar to those used by his father and grandfather, known to have bulletproof carriages.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has backed UN sanctions to punish Kim's regime over its nuclear and missile tests

Upon arrival, he was offered tissue-wrapped flowers and escorted away in a motorcade led by a fleet of motorbikes, according to photos from North Korea's official Rodong Sinmun newspaper.

No North Korean flags lined the roads, however, though China typically plasters the city in the standard of the country whose leader is visiting.

At the Great Hall of the People just off Tiananmen Square, Kim and his wife Ri Sol Ju watched a bayonet-wielding honour guard march and salute alongside Xi and first lady Peng Liyuan, dressed in a striking white coat patterned with black blotches.

Footage of talks that followed between Kim and Xi from Chinese state broadcaster CCTV cut pointedly between shots of the Chinese leader speaking and Kim studiously taking notes.

Xi referred to Kim as "Comrade Chairman" as he expounded on the two countries' "common ideals and beliefs", according to China's official Xinhua news agency.

The two leaders and their spouses also watched an art performance and attended a welcome banquet.

On the table where Xi and Kim sat was a decorative diorama of a lake park complete with pagodas, a bridge and frolicking doves and swans

CCTV footage showed technicolour adornments decorating 10 round tables put out in a high-ceilinged, chandelier-topped room -- including bright fruit baskets piled with grapes and tangerines and crowned with green and orange ornamental birds.

In the middle of the largest, central table where the two couples sat was a decorative diorama of a lake park complete with pagodas, a bridge and frolicking doves and swans.

A photo from Rodong Sinmun showed the two leaders toasting, with Xi appearing to have chosen red wine and Kim white.

- 'Little brother' -

Hua Po, an independent Chinese political commentator, told AFP he felt Kim had appeared "very humble" before Xi, like "a little brother calling to pay his respects to his big brother."

Kim Jong Un discreetly rolled into Beijing in a slow-moving, forest-green train with tinted windows similar to those used by his father and grandfather, known to have bulletproof carriages

Yet despite the warm welcome ceremony, "the overall atmosphere of the talks was tepid, because the two sides couldn't fully accept each other emotionally," he assessed.

Xi has backed UN sanctions to punish Kim's regime over its nuclear and missile tests, including during key political events hosted by China last year, straining relations between the longtime allies.

In recent years, Kim has done "a range of things to anger, frustrate and disrespect both Xi personally and China," explained Michael Kovrig, senior advisor for northeast Asia at the International Crisis Group.

Beijing chose not to reward Kim with the honour of an official visit because it was "not yet ready to communicate that all is forgiven," he said.

Nevertheless, the formal banquet with Peng, China's chief diplomat Wang Yi and other top officials demonstrated China's wish to shift its ties with Pyongyang towards "a normal state-to-state relationship managed by foreign ministries", in contrast with the North's desire for a more "party-to-party, blood brothers kind of relationship," he added.

- 'China's got my back' -

Authorities never confirmed Kim's presence in China while he was in the country, with a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman stating she was not aware of it even as reporters chased down the conspicuous motorcade whisking him back to the train station for departure.

Authorities never confirmed Kim's presence in China while he was in the country

On Tuesday, Kim visited an exhibition on the key achievements of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and was briefed on China's progress in "nuclear physics" and other subjects, according to the North's official KCNA news agency.

It added that Kim wrote an inscription in the visitors' book that read: "We can grasp the mightiness of China, a great neighbouring country. More excellent scientific successes will be achieved under the wise leadership of the Communist Party of China."

His China trip paves the way for planned summits with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and US President Donald Trump, said Kovrig, as it signalled that Beijing would not stand in the way of a potential Kim-Trump encounter.

It also places Kim in a stronger position going into talks, he said, sending the message: "Before you think about pushing me around, remember that China's still got my back."
Former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says his ally Hamid Baghaie, seen here in Tehran on April 5, 2017, is on hunger strike and in deteriorating health after being imprisoned on what he says are politically motivated embezzlement charges

Former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday that his ally Hamid Baghaie was on hunger strike and in deteriorating health after being imprisoned on what he said were politically motivated charges.

Ahmadinejad, who served as president from 2005 to 2013, made the claims in a letter to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, published on the Dolatebahar website run by his supporters.

It is the latest volley in a bitter feud with his former colleagues in the Iranian establishment -- particularly the conservative-dominated judiciary -- which has led him to demand wide-ranging reforms, including fully free elections.

"The judicial apparatus, without any documents or proof or legal citation... under the cover of financial accusations and in a closed trial -- has condemned (Baghaie) to the severest possible punishment," Ahmadinejad wrote in his latest letter.

Baghaie, who served as his vice president, was jailed this month for 15 years for embezzling 3,766,000 euros and $590,000.

Prosecutors said the cash was given to him by General Ghasem Soleimani, feted head of the external operations arm of the Revolutionary Guards, the Qods Force, and earmarked for "affairs to do with African countries".

"Mr Baghaie has never accepted these accusations and he's been on hunger strike for 14 days in protest at this injustice by the judicial apparatus," Ahmadinejad said in the letter.

"It is heard that his physical situation is deteriorating. He's been kept in solitary confinement since the first day of his arrest," Ahmadinejad added, calling on Khamenei to step in to avoid a "big catastrophe and irreparable damage".

In an earlier report on the Dolatebahar website, Baghaie was quoted as saying: "Suppose this impossible, fabricated story is true -- should I be blamed, or should it be General Ghasem Soleimani as the authorised official in the Qods Force who has delivered the said foreign currency?"

- 'No proof' -

Ahmadinejad and Baghaei claim no proof of the alleged transactions was presented at the trial in December.

Another of their associates -- Ahmadinejad's former chief of staff Rahim Mashaie -- was arrested this month after burning a copy of Baghaei's verdict outside the British embassy.

A populist with close ties to the hardline religious elite and Revolutionary Guards during his time in office, Ahmadinejad's unruly style saw him fall out with the establishment and clash with Khamenei.

He has become a growing thorn in their side in recent years. Both he and Baghaie were barred from standing in last year's presidential election by the Guardian Council, which vets candidates.

In another letter to Khamenei last month, Ahmadinejad called for "the immediate holding of free presidential and parliamentary elections -- of course without their being engineered by the Guardian Council and without interference by military or security bodies so that people have a free choice."

Ahmadinejad remains a hate figure for many reformists, who associate him with the bloody crackdown on mass protests in 2009 and 2010 that followed his contested re-election.

However, he remains popular particularly among poorer segments of society who recall the large-scale welfare schemes he implemented during his presidency.
Egyptians voted Wednesday on the third day of a presidential election guaranteed to hand a second term to Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, leaving turnout as the only contest.

The election commission announced that voting was being extended by an hour to 2000 GMT after warning people who do not vote they would be fined 500 pounds ($30).

Voters had trickled into polling stations with the authorities encouraging them to show up in high numbers.

The commission said not voting "serves the interests of people who hate the country", state television reported.

After polling stations closed there was no official figure for the turnout. Full results are not expected before April 2 but partial estimates should be released in the coming hours by local media.

Sisi won his first term in 2014, a year after the former army chief ousted his Islamist predecessor Mohamed Morsi following mass protests against him.

He won that election with 96.9 percent of the vote, against a left-wing candidate.

This time, his serious rivals withdrew citing restrictions, were sidelined or arrested.

His sole rival is the little-known Moussa Mostafa Moussa, himself a Sisi supporter.

Prime Minister Sherif Ismail urged voters to participate, saying on Tuesday it "is a national duty for all citizens".

State television showed voters at different polling stations and played patriotic music.

Abdel Fattah al-Sisi

At some polling stations, voters were granted free meals. AFP was unable to verify the source of the donations.

At a news conference, an election commission official, Mahmud al-Sherif, said there had been no violations of Egypt's election law.

Some 60 million people in Egypt, the most populated Arab country, were registered to vote on March 26, 27, and 28.

In 2014, about 37 percent of voters participated in the two-day election, prompting authorities to add a third day to obtain a final participation rate of 47.5 percent.

- Opposition urged boycott -

Opposition groups had called for a boycott of this week's election which they labelled a facade.

There were no presidential debates and Sisi himself did not appear at any official campaign events, although he spoke at a number of ceremonies.

In an interview days ahead of the vote, Sisi said he had wished there were more candidates, denying any role in sidelining them.

At a speech before the vote he also called for a high turnout.

"I need you because the journey is not over," Sisi told a mostly female audience. "I need every lady and mother and sister, please, I need the entire world to see us in the street" voting.

Morsi's removal had ushered in a deadly crackdown that killed and jailed hundreds of Islamists.

A jihadist insurgency since has killed hundreds of policemen and civilians.

An Egyptian stains his finger after casting his vote at a polling station in Cairo's central Abdin neighbourhood on March 27, 2018, on the second day of voting in the 2018 presidential elections

The Islamic State group's Egyptian affiliate, which has carried out a number of deadly attacks, has threatened to target election infrastructure.

On Saturday, two policemen were killed in a car bomb targeting the provincial head of security for the northern Alexandria governorate. The security chief was unharmed.

Egyptian cities, especially Cairo, have been flooded with banners showing Sisi and messages of support from business owners. Posters vowing support for Moussa, 65, are rarely seen.

While still popular, Sisi has embarked on tough economic reforms that have been welcomed by foreign investors but dented his popularity at home.
A child looks out of the window of a bus as Syrian civilians and rebels evacuated from the Eastern Ghouta region arrive in Qalaat al-Mandiq, near the central city of Hama, on March 28, 2018, following an evacuation deal

Pressure was mounting Wednesday for rebels to accept a negotiated withdrawal from their final holdout in Syria's Eastern Ghouta, as hundreds boarded buses to leave another part of the battered enclave.

Thousands of opposition fighters and civilians have agreed to quit the former rebel bastion of Ghouta, target of a five-week-long assault by the regime.

Syrian troops have recaptured more than 90 percent of Ghouta, and are draining the last opposition pockets with negotiated pull-outs mediated by Russia.

Moscow has secured two such deals already and has been pressing Jaish al-Islam, the rebel faction in control of the third and final pocket of the enclave near Damascus, to leave too.

The group holds Ghouta's largest town of Douma, whose population has swelled to an estimated 200,000 with people displaced from other devastated districts.

Jaish al-Islam had hoped to reach a settlement that would avoid their evacuation, but they were now facing the spectre of a renewed blitz on Douma.

Syrian troops were clustering around the town for a second day on Wednesday, Syria's Al-Watan daily reported.

How control on the ground in Eastern Ghouta changed between February 18-25.

"The Syrian army amassed further around Douma to increase pressure on Jaish al-Islam to accept a reconciliation deal, like those in neighbouring towns and cities in Eastern Ghouta," it said.

The armed faction was also under growing pressure from Douma's residents, several hundred of whom descended into the town's main square on Wednesday.

They marched down streets lined by crumbling buildings, demanding to know how negotiations with Russia were going and calling for the release of people held by Jaish al-Islam, residents told AFP in Beirut.

- Russia hardball -

Jaish al-Islam had been in talks with Russia to reach a settlement whereby they could stay in Douma as government-provided water and electricity returned to the town.

Russian military police, but not Syrian government forces, would have a presence in the town.

But negotiations faltered over the group's demands that Syria's regime grant them a general amnesty and allow Douma's residents to move freely across the country, a source with knowledge of the talks told AFP.

"At the end of their meeting Monday, the Russians gave Jaish al-Islam two choices: surrender or face an attack," another source close to the talks said.

Anticipating further bombardment, hundreds of civilians fled Douma into government territory via a humanitarian corridor Wednesday, state media reported.

Determined to clear rebels out of their six-year bastion of Ghouta, President Bashar al-Assad launched a military assault on the suburb on February 18.

He pursued a divide-and-conquer strategy, seizing most of the enclave then breaking up what was left of it into three pockets each controlled by a different group.

Moscow stepped in to negotiate a deal for each area.

A first deal saw more than 4,500 hardline rebels and civilians bussed out of the town of Harasta to opposition-held Idlib province in northern Syria.

Syrians sit in the street with their belongings as they wait to be evacuated from Arbin in Eastern Ghouta on March 27, 2018

A second agreement between Russia and the Islamist faction Faylaq al-Rahman has already seen nearly 20,000 people quit the towns of Arbin and Zamalka and the Jobar district since last week.

Their spokesman Wael Alwan has said as many as 30,000 could be evacuated from those towns in total.

On Wednesday alone, more than 6,000 people reached a transit point in northwestern Syria after having evacuated Ghouta the previous evening.

- Broken windows -

Dozens of buses pulled in to the Qalaat al-Madiq staging ground with their windows broken, an AFP correspondent there said.

Evacuees said people had thrown rocks at the convoy as it drove through government-held parts of Syria.

Syrian children evacuated from Eastern Ghouta run with balloons after arriving in the village of Qalaat al-Madiq, near the central city of Hama, on March 27, 2018

Once they reached Qalaat al-Madiq, wounded rebels hobbled off the buses to get medical treatment and aid groups could be seen handing out toys, milk, and juice to children.

Some evacuees had family members and friends waiting to take them to the neighbouring province of Idlib, but others were bussed to displacement camps.

According to state media, another 3,000 boarded buses in the Faylaq-held pocket of Ghouta on Wednesday for new evacuations.

They said more than 128,000 people had fled Ghouta in recent weeks, many of them through routes into government-held territory that were opened by advancing army troops.

The UN humanitarian coordinator in Syria, Ali al-Zaatari, said 26,000 of those who had come to the shelters outside Ghouta have now left to stay with relatives in Damascus or to return to their devastated Ghouta neighbourhoods.

"There are malnutrition cases among pregnant or breastfeeding women" in those temporary centres welcoming displaced Ghouta residents, he said at a news conference.
Pakistan's first transgender news anchor Marvia Malik reads the news on air

A Pakistani TV channel has put the country's first transgender news anchor on the air, a watershed cultural moment for the marginalised community in the deeply conservative country.

Marvia Malik, a former model who appeared on the Lahore-based private broadcaster Kohenoor for the first time last Friday, told AFP she has received "unprecedented love and support" since landing the job.

"My family never accepted or owned me," she said, adding that the rift drove her to seek a better future in Lahore, Pakistan's cultural capital.

"Here I received unprecedented love and support from everyone that I never got from my own family," she said, adding that the positive response only escalated once she went on air for the daily broadcast.

Transgenders -- also known in Pakistan as "khawajasiras", an umbrella term denoting a third sex that includes transsexuals, transvestites and eunuchs -- have long fought for their rights in the patriarchal Islamic country.

In 2009 Pakistan became one of the first countries in the world to legally recognise a third sex. Last year the first transgender passport was issued, while several have also run in elections.

But they live daily as pariahs, often reduced to begging and prostitution, subjected to extortion and discrimination or targeted for violence.

Malik, who declined to confirm her age to AFP but is reportedly around 21, said she hoped to use her platform to urge people to treat one another as human beings first, without discrimination.

A journalism graduate from Punjab University, she said she hopes eventually to enter politics herself or form a non-governmental organisation aimed at promoting gender rights.

If she becomes "financially sound", she added, she may even seek to establish her own TV channel.

Many transgenders in Pakistan earn their living as dancers at weddings or parties and, sometimes, in more clandestine ways.

Her employers at Kohenoor admitted that Malik had stunned them while interviewing for the job by turning a question around on them.

"She asked, 'Would you want to see me a beggar, a sex worker or dancing at the cultural festivals, or give me a respectable job in your channel?'" news director Bilal Ashraf told AFP.

"Her question stunned us really, and we had no reply."

It forced them to "devise a policy to welcome, accept and own everyone in our channel without any discrimination," he said, adding: "We don't bother with where our channel will stand in the ratings by doing this."

So far the response has been positive, with Pakistanis widely heralding the move on social media.

Malik prepares to go on air

But transgenders remain targets. Late Tuesday a transgender was shot dead along with a friend in the northwestern city of Peshawar, police told AFP.

Farzana Riaz, head of rights group TransAction, said 55 transgenders have been murdered during the past five years.

"We want protection from government from this continued persecution," she said.

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Since January, Congolese troops have been engaged in a major military operation against Uganda's ADF rebels in eastern DR Congo

Ten civilians and a Ugandan militant died when Congolese troops clashed with rebels in the flashpoint town of Beni in Democratic Republic of Congo's troubled east, an army spokesman said Wednesday.

The violence took place on Tuesday evening when rebels attacked military positions around Beni in North Kivu, Captain Mak Hazukay told AFP.

"We listed 10 dead civilians so far," he said.

A rebel from Uganda's Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) militia was also killed, he said, adding that fighting was ongoing.

Michel Kakule, the lead physician at Beni hospital, told AFP some of the victims "had gunshot wounds while others had been attacked with machetes."

It sparked an angry backlash among locals "who blocked off several main roads in the town in protest over the murder of 10 civilians," said Gilbert Kambale, who works for a civil society organisation.

Since January, Congolese troops have been engaged in a major military operation against the ADF but it has not managed to stop the bloodshed in and around Beni.

The ADF "is now conducting an asymmetrical war -- when we attack them in one area, they get around it by attacking elsewhere," said Hazukay.

The ADF is one of a number of armed groups that hold territory in the eastern DR Congo that are battling for control of the region's rich mineral resources.

The militia group, which was created by Muslim radicals to oppose the rule of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, has been present in the North Kivu area since 1995 where it stands accused of killing several hundred civilians in the past three-and-a-half years.

It has also been accused of killing 15 UN peacekeepers from Tanzania in a deadly attack in the Beni area last December.

- Army issues Ituri ultimatum -

Meanwhile, Congolese troops operating in Ituri, a neighbouring province which has also been hit by violence, on Wednesday issued an ultimatum to armed groups responsible for a series of bloody attacks on civilians.

Since December, scores of people have been killed in clashes involving the Hema and Lendu communities, cattle herders and farmers who have a long history of violence over access to land.

The bloodshed has so far claimed at least 130 lives, according to an unofficial toll compiled by AFP, with around 40 people killed in mid-March in an attack on the Djugu by assailants using guns, machetes and arrows.

Addressing those behind the attacks, army spokesman Lieutenant Jules Ngongo said they had "48 hours" to lay down their arms or face "a blistering attack" by the army.

He said 10 soldiers and 28 "attackers" had been killed in Ituri since the start of February when Congolese troops began a crackdown aimed at halting the bloodshed.

The violence has forced thousands of people to flee their homes in the past two months, with the UN putting the figure at around 57,000 while locals put the figure closer to 300,000.

Last week, Kinshasa announced plans to hold a peace conference in Ituri to discuss the violence and those displaced by it, but without saying when it would take place.

The government has said there will be a peace conference in Ituri, and there are also plans for President Joseph Kabila to visit the area.

- UN mission renewed -

DR Congo's restive east has been wracked by violence for the past 20 years.

On Tuesday, the UN Security Council renewed the mandate of its huge MONUSCO peacekeeping mission for another year, tasking it with helping prepare for December elections aimed at ending the rule of President Joseph Kabila.

With more than 16,000 troops on the ground, it is the UN's biggest peacekeeping mission and has been present in the country since 1999.

But the DRC's ambassador to the UN, Ignace Gata Mavita, said the mission's focus should be fighting rebel groups rather than supporting elections.

Its role should be "to combat armed groups to protect civilians and restore peace and security in the east of our country," he said

The ambassador also renewed calls for MONUSCO's exit from the DRC. The origins of the UN peacekeeping mission go back nearly 20 years.
Protesters in Accra took to the streets to express opposition to the idea of the US military establishing bases in Ghana

Hundreds of people took to the streets of Accra, Ghana's capital, on Wednesday to protest against a controversial military deal with Washington which was passed by parliament last week.

The agreement was approved by President Nana Akufo-Addo's government on Friday but has come under heavy criticism from the opposition who say it undermines the country's sovereignty.

Ghana and the United States are working to forge closer ties between their armed forces but both have denied rumours that Washington is planning to set up military bases in the West African nation.

"This is an insensitive government," said protestor Yaa Yaa Abban. "We'll resist this deal with the US because it does not favour us."

Protestors wearing the black and red of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) carried signs reading: "Akufo-Addo must not sell Ghana," and "Incompetent government, incompetent agreement".

In a tweet supporting the protest, former president John Mahama said: "I join in declaring #GhanaFirst as my compatriots and other democratic forces converge to demonstrate their opposition to the Ghana/US military agreement."

On Tuesday a high-ranking NDC member, Koku Anyidoho, was reportedly called in for questioning by police after a radio interview on Monday in which he said there would be a "civilian coup d'etat" over the deal.

Such remarks are "treasonable", Information Minister Mustapha Abdul-Hamid said in a statement on Tuesday.

Last week, the US Embassy in Accra said Washington had "not requested, nor does it plan to establish a military base or bases in Ghana".

It added: "This year, the United States of America is investing over $20 million (16.3 million euros) in training and equipment for the Ghanaian armed forces."

Ghana's military is seeking to build closer ties with the US armed forces

Joint exercises were planned for this year "which require access to Ghanaian bases by US participants and those from other nations when included," it added.

In the past decade, the United States has expanded its military presence in Africa, ostensibly to stop the spread of Islamist extremism by groups such as Islamic State, Boko Haram and Al Shabab on the continent.

Ghana, a major producer of gold and cocoa, prides itself as being a beacon of stability in a region blighted by coups, dictators and corruption.
Former president Yaya Jammeh flew into exile on January 21 2017. The Gambian army has now filed desertion charges against two generals who went with him

The Gambian army has filed desertion charges against two renegade generals who went into exile with former president Yahya Jammeh last year, the force told AFP on Wednesday.

General Umpa Mendy and General Ansumana Tamba sought refuge in Equatorial Guinea alongside Jammeh in January 2017 after his brutal 22-year rule came to an end.

Major Lamin Sanyang, an army spokesman, said the pair were "charged with desertion of duty contrary to the Gambia Armed Forces Act", and would appear before a general court martial on April 4.

Mendy was in personal charge of protecting the mercurial former leader, while Tamba was the head of his presidential guard.

The top brass left the country on board Jammeh's plane bound for exile in Equatorial Guinea on January 21, 2017.

The former president's refusal to step down after losing an election the month before to unknown businessman Adama Barrow pushed neighbouring countries to the brink of a military intervention, until Jammeh conceded at the 11th hour.

The generals' arrival caused controversy as airport staff waved them through without attempting to detain them for questioning.

Elements of The Gambia's armed forces are known to have maintained support for the former president and a number of soldiers are on trial on treason and mutiny charges for plotting to overthrow the country's newly elected government.

The country is still being secured by soldiers deployed by the ECOWAS regional grouping until reform of the security services is complete.
Palestinians sit near the Gaza-Israel border on the outskirts of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on March 28, 2018

Israel has warned that its soldiers could use live fire if Gaza Palestinians try to breach the border with Israel during a mass rally planned for Friday.

The demonstration marks the annual Palestinian Land Day, commemorating the killing of six unarmed Arab protesters in Israel in 1976.

It is expected to kick off more than six weeks of protests throughout the Palestinian territories leading up to the inauguration of the new US embassy in Jerusalem around May 14.

Gazans are expected to gather from Friday in camps being erected along the border fence, a few hundred metres (yards) from the Israeli lines.

Israeli armed forces chief Lieutenant General Gadi Eisenkot said in comments published Wednesday by local daily Yediot Aharonot that the current border tension presented the most serious risk of conflict since he took up his post in 2015.

Israeli tanks on Wednesday fired at positions of Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas, in the wake of heavy gunfire from the strip, the detonation of roadside bombs aimed at Israeli border patrols and an incursion by three armed Palestinians who penetrated some 20 kilometres (12 miles) into Israel before being captured.

Eisenkot said reinforcements, including more than 100 special forces snipers, had been deployed to the border and the army was prepared for all scenarios.

Among them is the prospect of an attempt by protesters, organised or not, to break through the border fence which surrounds the Gaza Strip, home to two million Palestinians largely cut off from the rest of the world by Israeli and Egyptian blockades.

"We won't allow mass infiltration into Israel and to damage the fence," Eisenkot told Yediot.

"The instructions are to use a lot of force," he said. "In the event of mortal danger (to troops) there is authorisation to open fire."

Officially, protest is being organised by civil society, but Israel believes Hamas and allied groups are behind the plans.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniya said his movement was involved as "an investment in this peaceful and popular event to support the steadfastness of the Palestinians in their battle to regain their legitimate rights."

Speaking to journalists in the Gaza Strip, he said Israel was seeking to delegitimise the planned protest.

"It will describe it as an activity that belongs to Hamas, will threaten to use violence against it and will deny its popular and peaceful foundation," said Haniya.

The Israeli security cabinet met Wednesday to discuss military preparations but did not issue any public statement.

- Tensions soar -

Soldiers posted at the border regularly fire live ammunition at Gazans who come too close, but Israel this time is worried about the possible presence of women and children in the danger zone.

Thousands, if not tens of thousands, of Gazans are expected to join border protests in coming six weeks, culminating on May 15 with a march toward the barrier.

That date is marked by Palestinians as the anniversary of the Nakba, or "catastrophe", when more than 700,000 Palestinians fled their land or were expelled during the war that led to the creation of Israel in 1948.

The United States plan to open its embassy around the same time, to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the foundation of the Israeli state, is further stoking Palestinian anger.

The US decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital infuriated the Palestinians, who have broken off ties with the administration of President Donald Trump.

They claim the city's Israeli-annexed eastern sector as the capital of their future state, an aspiration which Trump did not address in his December declaration.

Hamas has said it would ensure that participants do not expose themselves to danger by going too close to approaching Israeli positions too closely.

But the latest border incidents have sent tensions soaring.

Hamas and Israel have fought three wars since 2008, the most recent of which in 2014 ended with a fragile truce.
A picture taken on March 13, 2018 shows a general view of destroyed buildings in a central district in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi.

A senior Al-Qaeda operative and another jihadist were killed in a US air strike in Libya, the Pentagon confirmed Wednesday.

The March 24 strike near Ubari in southern Libya killed "two Al-Qaeda terrorists, including Musa Abu Dawud, a high-ranking Al-Qaeda in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) official," the US military's Africa Command said in a statement.

Officials said the strike, the second by the US this year and the first targeting AQIM, had been coordinated with the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) of Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj.

As is the case in Somalia, the Pentagon has the authority to conduct plane and drone strikes in Libya, provided it has the support of the local government.

"Dawud trained AQIM recruits in Libya for attack operations in the region," the Africom statement read.

"He provided critical logistics support, funding and weapons to AQIM, enabling the terrorist group to threaten and attack US and Western interests in the region."

The US State Department said Dawud was a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in 2016.

He began engaging in terrorist activity as early as 1992, the State Department said at the time.

"As a senior leader for AQIM, Dawud is responsible for multiple terrorist attacks, including the February 4-5, 2013, attack on the military barracks in Khenchela, Algeria, that injured multiple soldiers and a July 2013 attack on a Tunisian military patrol in the Mount Chaambi area that killed nine soldiers," officials said.

Libya has been gripped by chaos since a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011, with rival administrations and multiple militias vying for control of the oil-rich country.

Jihadists and people-traffickers have taken advantage of the chaos to gain a foothold in the North African country.
US Attorney General Jeff Sessions' Justice Department has filed suit to challenge California's "sanctuary state" legislation

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday backed Orange County supervisors joining a federal government lawsuit challenging California's "sanctuary state" legislation protecting undocumented migrants.

The country lawmakers oppose the California Values Act, which prohibits local law enforcement from asking about immigration status and bars local authorities from detaining undocumented immigrants for federal authorities to pick up.

"My administration stands in solidarity with the brave citizens in Orange County defending their rights against California's illegal and unconstitutional Sanctuary policies," the president tweeted.

"California's Sanctuary laws release known dangerous criminals into communities across the State. All citizens have the right to be protected by Federal law and strong borders."

Officials in Orange County, a traditionally more conservative pocket of liberal California, say the law does not stop sheriff's deputies from giving immigration authorities access to jails to interview inmates.

Local law enforcement officials may also cooperate with the deportation of state convicts in prison or inmates in local jails being held for a list of serious offenses, the legislators say.

Orange County Supervisor Michelle Steel proposed a resolution passed on Tuesday condemning the state law, which she called "totally unconstitutional."

This prompted another supervisor, Shawn Nelson, to propose joining the Justice Department lawsuit, which was also passed.

The votes came on the heels of a preliminary vote by the city council of Los Alamitos, located in the county, to "exempt" the city from the state law, drawing a rebuke from the American Civil Liberties Union, which has pledged to sue.

Republican congressman Dana Rohrabacher, who represents Orange County, said the sanctuary law was "doing nothing more than attracting millions more people to come to this country and to consume the very wealth that is necessary for our quality of life."

He said the "flow of illegals" had "brought down our quality of education," as well as health care and housing, complaining that millions came to claim benefits in the United States.

But Democratic state senator Kevin De Leon countered: "This kind of obsessive immigrant bashing is embarrassing to the county and its residents, and seems designed to court the approval of a racist president and his cronies."

Undocumented immigrants may be entitled to emergency medical care, schooling and access to certain nutrition programs but they do not get welfare, social security, Medicare or Medicaid, access to Obamacare and children's health insurance, disability support or food stamps.

Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens has announced that her department will begin publicly releasing information about the release of undocumented immigrants from the county's jails.

Hutchens opposed the state law because she felt it would hinder her department's cooperation with federal authorities.

Justice Department spokesman Devin O'Malley welcomed Orange County's decision to support the suit over California's "sanctuary state."

A spokesman for California's Democratic Governor Jerry Brown said he was unlikely to react to the move.
Demonstrators gather outside The United States Supreme Court on October 3, 2017 to call for an end to partisan gerrymandering

The US Supreme Court on Wednesday revisited an issue close to the heart of American democracy: do voters pick their politicians, or is it the other way round, with lawmakers choosing their electorate?

Voters have for decades complained about partisan "gerrymandering" -- the widespread practice of redrawing a state's congressional districts to favor one political party over another.

The much-maligned tactic is a hot topic in the run-up to November's midterm elections -- with Republicans suing over Democrat redistricting in the state of Maryland.

In October, the Supreme Court's justices heard arguments in a lawsuit on Republican gerrymandering in Wisconsin -- but have yet to make a decision on that case.

While the new case accuses the Democrats, most charges of gerrymandering have in the recent past been levied against the Republicans.

The Maryland example is particularly illustrative of the phenomenon: the Democrats previously held six constituencies, the Republicans two.

Then in 2011, the Democrats pushed their advantage by redrawing the electoral map, flipping Maryland's 6th Congressional District over from Republican to Democrat.

"What the Maryland legislature did was to shuffle 360,000 people out and bring in 350,000 people," the left-leaning Justice Elena Kagan said Wednesday as the court began hearing the case.

"The result of that is that the district went from 47 percent Republican and 36 percent Democratic to exactly the opposite, 45 percent Democratic and 34 percent Republican."

"How much more evidence of partisan intent could we need?" she added.

- One person, one vote -

In the US, where Donald Trump was elected with fewer votes than his rival Hillary Clinton, redrawing the boundaries to benefit a particular party is common practice.

For years, the Supreme Court has been reluctant to get involved in gerrymandering cases -- unsure of the criteria by which to judge them and fearing a deluge of electoral challenges.

But for the first time, it could set limits on the practice, named after 19th century Republican Elbridge Gerry, who redrew state senate election district boundaries in Massachusetts.

The new boundaries were said to resemble a salamander, giving way to the second part of the term.

"Is there a practical remedy that won't get judges involved in every -- or dozens and dozens and dozens of very important political decisions?" wondered Justice Stephen Breyer, who was appointed by former president Bill Clinton.

"It seems like a pretty clear violation of the Constitution in some form to have deliberate, extreme gerrymandering," he added.

Under the US Constitution, legislative districts are supposed to be the same size in terms of population, following the legal principle of one person, one vote.

But by redrawing voting blocs along party lines, millions of votes are in effect diluted.

"First Amendment retaliation does not even try to answer the perennial question of how much is too much politics in a redistricting process that this Court has called inherently political," said Maryland's solicitor general Steven Sullivan.

The Supreme Court could, by June, set gerrymandering limits by studying the possibility of a technical tool to curb the tactic.

Constituency maps for state and federal elections are usually redesigned following the US Census, carried out once per decade.

In most cases, it is the elected officials of each state who draw up the new districts according to population.

After the 2010 elections, the Republicans controlled Congress and redrew the electoral maps of 21 states.

The Trump administration has decided to add a question on citizenship to the next census, adding a new wrinkle to the issue.
The delegations from the two Koreas are expected to meet at the Unification Pavilion building on the northern side of the border truce of village of Panmunjom on Thursday

A top South Korean official set off Thursday for a high-level meeting with the North's officials in the Demilitarized Zone to prepare for an inter-Korean summit, days after Kim Jong Un made his international debut with a surprise trip to China.

Kim is due to meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in next month, followed by landmark talks with US President Donald Trump which could come as early as May.

Cho Myoung-gyun, Seoul's unification minister and the leader of its delegation to Thursday's meeting, said that setting a date for the third-ever summit between the two Koreas was a key agenda item.

"We will have good discussions with the North to successfully hold the inter-Korea summit in April," Cho told reporters.

The rapid rapprochement on the peninsula was kicked off by the Winter Olympics in the South and comes after a year of heightened tensions over the North's nuclear and missile programmes, which saw Kim and Trump engage in a fiery war of words.

Events have since moved rapidly, with a flurry of official visits between the two Koreas before Kim went to Beijing this week to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping for the first time.

Three-member delegations from the two Koreas were to meet at the Unification Pavilion building on the northern side of the border truce of village of Panmunjom to discuss the agenda for next month's summit.

Pyongyang's delegation is led by Cho's counterpart Ri Son Gwon, who is chairman of the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country.

South Korean Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon said that setting a date for the summit was a priority in the talks

Also Thursday, China's State Councillor Yang Jiechi, the country's top diplomat, was due in Seoul to brief Moon on Kim's secretive visit to Beijing.

It was the North Korean leader's first overseas trip since inheriting power after the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, in 2011.

China has long been the North's key diplomatic defender and provider of trade and aid, but relations have been strained by Pyongyang's weapons programmes, with Beijing showing a new willingness to implement UN sanctions against it.

Even so the two leaders hailed their nations' historic relations, with Xi accepting Kim's invitation to visit Pyongyang, according to the North's official Korean Central News Agency.

"There is no question that my first foreign visit would be to the Chinese capital," it quoted him as saying, calling it a "noble obligation".

Kim pledged that he was "committed to denuclearisation" on the Korean peninsula, according to China's Xinhua news agency -- but added that it was dependent on South Korea and the US taking what he called "progressive and synchronous measures for the realisation of peace".

Analysts say that both sides had reasons for the meeting -- Pyongyang to secure Beijing's backing and support, and China to protect its interests in what it considers its backyard.

Robert Kelly, a professor at Pusan National University in South Korea, said: "Xi would not grant this meeting unless the Chinese were genuinely concerned about the summits to come and wanted some kind of role to play."
Nobel peace laureate Malala Yousafzai -- shown here at the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos in January -- is back in her native Pakistan for her first visit since being shot in the head

Nobel peace laureate Malala Yousafzai returned to Pakistan on Thursday, officials said, in her first visit to her native country since she was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman for advocating education for girls in 2012.

Precise details of her itinerary have been "kept secret in view of the sensitivity surrounding the visit," a government official said of the trip, which is expected to last four days and include a meeting with Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.

Accompanied by her parents, the 20-year-old student was escorted through Islamabad's Benazir Bhutto International Airport under tight security, according to still photographs broadcast on local television.

Malala has become a global symbol for human rights and a vocal campaigner for girls' education since a gunman boarded her school bus in the Swat valley on October 9, 2012, asked "Who is Malala?" and shot her.

She was treated for her injuries in the British city of Birmingham, where she completed her schooling.

Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014, she has continued her campaigning while pursuing her studies at Oxford University.

Many Pakistanis on Twitter were pleased that the campaigner had returned for the visit, despite ongoing security fears.

"I welcome #MalalaYousafzai the brave and resilient daughter of Pakistan back to her country," politician Syed Ali Raza Abidi wrote on Twitter.

But she remains controversial among some conservatives at home, who view her as a Western agent on a mission to shame her country.

One leading Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir issued a plea for opposition politicians and commentators not to use bad language when talking about the visit.

"International media is highly focused on her return and this (bad language) will damage Pakistan's image," he said.

Malala began her campaigning career aged just 11, when she started writing a blog -- under a pseudonym -- for the BBC's Urdu service in 2009 about life under the Taliban in Swat, where they were banning girls' education.

In 2007 the Islamist militants had taken over the area, which Malala affectionately called "My Swat", and imposed a brutal, bloody rule.

Opponents were murdered, people were publicly flogged for supposed breaches of sharia law, women were banned from going to market, and girls were stopped from going to school.

But it was only after the shooting, and Malala's subsequent near-miraculous recovery in a British hospital, that she became a truly global figure.

She opened a new Twitter account on her last day of school in July 2017 and now has more than a million followers.

"I know that millions of girls around the world are out of school and may never get the opportunity to complete their education," Malala wrote at the time.
Susan Rice directed the National Security Council from 2013 to 2017, providing the daily briefing to then-president Barack Obama, and was responsible for foreign and national security policy, intelligence and military efforts

Netflix said on Thursday it had tapped former US national security advisor and United Nations ambassador Susan Rice to join its board of directors -- sparking an angry backlash from conservatives.

Rice, a visiting fellow at Harvard and an opinion writer for The New York Times, directed the National Security Council, providing the daily briefing to then-president Barack Obama during his second term.

This put her in charge of foreign and national security policy, intelligence and military efforts in the years following the 2012 attack on the US embassy in Benghazi, Libya, that left four Americans dead.

Rice came under fire from Republican lawmakers who accused her of underplaying the attack as a spontaneous act of violence in response to an anti-Muslim film, while Obama admitted it was a premeditated attack.

She was also berated for inappropriately "unmasking" the names of associates of President Donald Trump that appeared in intelligence reports last year.

National Rifle Association spokeswoman Dana Loesch took to Twitter to describe Netflix as "the perfect place for a former staffer who blamed a terror attack on a poorly-made short film."

"Netflix doubles down in support of Obama corruption -- compromised Susan Rice, who lied repeatedly on both Benghazi and the unmasking issue joins its Board of Directors," said Tom Fitton, president of the conservative foundation Judicial Watch.

Republican Twitter users threatened to cancel their Netflix subscriptions, pointing out that that Obama himself is reportedly in talks with the streaming service for a production deal.

Netflix co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings said in a statement, however, that the streaming service was "delighted" with its new hire.

"For decades, she has tackled difficult, complex global issues with intelligence, integrity and insight and we look forward to benefiting from her experience and wisdom."

Rice said she was thrilled to be joining a "cutting-edge company whose leadership, high-quality productions and unique culture" she admired deeply.
MADRID (AP) - Demonstrators angered by the detention of former leader Carles Puigdemont blocked highways across Catalonia and roads in central Barcelona on Tuesday, as the separatist politician remained in a German jail pending a decision on Spain's extradition request.

Transportation authorities in the northeastern Spanish region said a main motorway remained blocked in Figueres, near the border with France. Demonstrators also stopped traffic in another highway leading to the city of Lleida, and a national road between Tarragona and Valencia.

Early protests that caused disruptions on several roads in central Barcelona, the main city in Catalonia, had cleared by mid-Tuesday morning.

A picture of Carlos Puidgemont is fixed in front of the entrance building of a prison in Neumuenster, northern Germany, Tuesday, March 27, 2018 where Carles Puigdemont, the fugitive ex-leader of Catalonia and ardent separatist, is believed to be held after he was arrested Sunday by German police on an international warrant as he tried to enter the country from Denmark. (Frank Molter/dpa via AP)

The prosperous region has been marred by largely peaceful protests for more than six months, since a bid for secession from Spain began in earnest.

The Catalan parliament's declaration of independence in late October following an ad-hoc referendum banned by the Spanish government received no international recognition and provoked a takeover of the regional government by Spanish authorities.

Puigdemont was ousted and fled to Belgium. Last week, a Spanish Supreme Court judge charged the 55-year-old politician with rebellion and misuse of public funds.

Spain then issued arrest warrants for six of the seven Catalan separatists who have fled the country. Puigdemont was detained on Sunday, shortly after crossing the border into Germany from Denmark.

Defense lawyer Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas, who visited the politician in the Neumuenster prison where he's awaiting a tribunal's decision on whether to extradite him to Spain, said Puigdemont was in "perfect shape, both physically and emotionally," ready to fight the request.

"To see him with such determination has been a shot of euphoria," Alonso-Cuevillas said.

Further decisions on Puigdemont's immediate future appear unlikely before Easter. A court in Schleswig will decide on formal pre-extradition custody and whether his extradition is admissible. Such cases are typically dealt with in writing, without a hearing, though one is possible.

Germany's criminal code - unlike Belgium's, where Spain had earlier sought Puigdemont's extradition - includes an offense that appears to be comparable to rebellion, the main accusation against the Catalan politician. It calls for prison sentences for anyone who "undertakes, by force or through threat of force" to undermine the republic's existence or change its constitutional order.

Spanish government spokesman Inigo Mendez de Vigo said that Madrid is confident that Puigdemont's extradition will be granted because the case, he said, is not politically motivated.

"This is not just a Spanish issue," Mendez de Vigo told reporters at the end of a Spanish Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. "Flouting the rules of a (European Union) member state is also a crime in Germany."

In a move celebrated by his supporters, the United Nations Human Rights Committee announced that it has registered a complaint by Puigdemont alleging that Spain has violated his political rights.

A group of lawyers and human rights experts lodged the case in March, claiming that Spain has violated human, civil and political rights in its crackdown on Catalonia's independence bid. The Spanish government has six months to respond.

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Associated Press writer Geir Moulson contributed to this report from Berlin.

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A previous version of this story has been corrected to reflect that the former Catalan leader's detention took place after crossing into Germany from Denmark, not Finland.

People hold banners that reads in Catalan "Freedom for the political prisoners" in support of Catalonian politicians jailed on charges of sedition and condemning the arrest of Catalonia's former president, Carles Puigdemont in Germany, during a protest in Barcelona, Spain, Monday, March 26, 2018. Five months after going on the run from Spanish authorities, Catalonia's former president was detained in Germany on an international warrant by highway police after the ardent separatist crossed the border with Denmark. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - A Kenyan court on Tuesday ordered the immediate release of an opposition politician whose confrontation with authorities trying once again to deport him ended up with his reported detention in an airport toilet.

Miguna Miguna earlier had been deported to Canada as part of a crackdown on opposition politicians who participated in the mock Jan. 30 inauguration of opposition leader Raila Odinga in protest of President Uhuru Kenyatta's disputed re-election. A Kenyan court last month ordered that Miguna's Kenyan passport be restored and that he be given safe passage into the country.

When he tried to return on Monday, Miguna was denied entry at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and plainclothes officers tried to hustle him onto an Emirates airline flight bound for Dubai, witnesses said. After Miguna protested, that failed. On Tuesday, his lawyer Nelson Havi tweeted that the opposition figure was "currently detained in a toilet at Terminal 2-Arrivals and has been denied access to his lawyers."

After his lawyers went to the high court, Justice Roselyn Aburili ordered Miguna's release, noting that he was being held "incommunicado," and directed him to appear in court on Wednesday morning.

An interior ministry spokesman, Mwenda Njoka, tweeted that "government takes court orders very seriously and as such can't respond to court orders based on hearsay and press reports."

The airport confrontation came two weeks after a surprise meeting between opposition leader Odinga and Kenya's president as they announced a new initiative to heal the East African nation after months of sometimes deadly election turmoil. Odinga had argued that Kenyatta lacked legitimacy because his initial Aug. 8 re-election victory was nullified by the Supreme Court over "irregularities and illegalities."

The repeat election had a low turnout as Odinga boycotted it, citing a lack of electoral reforms. Miguna was at Odinga's side when he took an oath as the "people's president" at the mock inauguration. The government responded by arresting opposition politicians.

In a video of the airport confrontation posted on social media, Miguna declared: "You cannot take me from country by force. ... You cannot chase me from my country of birth because you have guns." The video appeared to have been taken with a mobile phone by an airline crew member.

Kamanda Mucheke with the government-funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, which had been instructed by an earlier court order to oversee Miguna's return to Kenya, said up to 100 police officers beat up journalists and opposition supporters during the confrontation.

Police did not immediately comment. Odinga has not commented on the incident.

Kenyatta's government has been accused of pulling back on freedoms of expression and assembly. Also on Tuesday, eight columnists resigned from Kenya's leading newspaper, the Daily Nation, accusing the government of influencing who can work at the privately owned publication and who can't.

Human rights groups and media also have accused Kenyatta's government of attacking watchdog institutions.

Ninety-two people were reported killed during protests over Kenyatta's re-election.

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BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) - Kosovo Serbs set up a roadblock in northern Kosovo and their representatives walked out of Kosovo's government Tuesday a day after the arrest and expulsion of a senior Serbian government official that has refueled tensions between the Balkan foes.

European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini was making an urgent trip to Belgrade for talks with Serbia's president in a bid to prevent a full-blown crisis from erupting. Mogherini earlier had called for restraint from both sides.

The developments came a day after Marko Djuric, the head of the Serbian government office for Kosovo, was briefly detained in the divided town of Mitrovica because he entered the country without Kosovo's official approval. Kosovo police used tear gas and stun grenades to disperse Serb protesters in Mitrovica on Monday.

Kosovo Serbs set up a road block near the northern, Serb-dominated part of Mitrovica, Kosovo, Tuesday, March 27, 2018. Kosovo police briefly detained and expelled a senior Serb official in a divided northern town as officers also fired tear gas and stun grenades at Serb protesters Monday - an incident that triggered an angry reaction from Serbia and inflamed tensions between the two bitter Balkan foes. (AP Photo/Bojan Slavkovic)

Djuric said he was beaten while in detention and that his arrest was aimed at humiliating Serbs in Kosovo and as a rehearsal for a possible attempt by Kosovo police to take over northern Kosovo.

"By dragging me on the ground like a dog, pulling me by my tie, they wanted to humiliate me thinking they can humiliate the Serbian people," Djuric told a news conference Tuesday.

Politicians representing Kosovo's Serb minority met with Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vucic, in Belgrade, saying they would no longer support Kosovo's government. This could trigger a government crisis if the Serb ministers aren't quickly replaced by Kosovo Albanians.

Goran Rakic, who heads the Serbian List in Kosovo's parliament, said that Serbs would on their own form an association of Serb-dominated municipalities in Kosovo, which was envisaged in a European Union-mediated deal in 2013 but was never carried out by Kosovo authorities.

"This is not a one-sided move. This is a forced move," Rakic said. "We waited for five years for them to give us what is ours. We will form only what they signed up to, what was guaranteed five years ago."

The move could further fuel friction between Serbia and its former province Kosovo, which declared independence against Belgrade's wishes in 2008. In 1999, NATO intervened to stop a bloody Serb crackdown against Kosovo Albanian separatists.

On Tuesday, Kosovo Serbs blocked the main road leading from northern Kosovo to the capital, Pristina, by parking a bulldozer and a flatbed truck across it.

Djuric, whose hands were bandaged, appeared at the news conference with Kosovo Serb officials after talks with Vucic.

He said that Kosovo police officers "took selfies with me and pulled me down to my knees, with a gun pushed against my body."

He accused unidentified Western countries of directly or indirectly supporting Kosovo's actions. While Russia supports Serbia's claims over its former province, the U.S. and most Western states have recognized Kosovo's independence.

Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj said in Pristina on Tuesday that "yesterday's actions weren't directed against Serb citizens in Kosovo, but against those who broke the law."

"It is not good to make limitless testing of anyone's decision," Haradinaj said. "It would be good to return to the negotiating table and discuss the issues together."

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Associated Press writers Jovana Gec in Belgrade, Serbia, and Llazar Semini in Tirana, Albania, contributed to this report.

Kosovo police escort Marko Djuric a Serb official to a police station in Kosovo capital Pristina after he was arrested in northern Kosovo town of Mitrovica on Monday, March 26, 2018. Kosovo police arrested a Serb official after he was banned from visiting a divided town in northern Kosovo and then fired tear gas and stun grenades at Serb protesters Monday. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)

Kosovo police block a road near the northern, Serb-dominated part of Mitrovica, Kosovo, Monday, March 26, 2018. Serbian state television says Kosovo police have arrested one Serb official and fired tear gas and stun grenades at Serb protesters in northern Kosovo. (AP Photo/Bojan Slavkovic)

Serbian government official Marko Djuric gestures with an injured hand, as he speaks during a press conference in Belgrade, Serbia, Tuesday, March 27, 2018. Kosovo police briefly detained and expelled a senior Serb official in a divided northern town as officers also fired tear gas and stun grenades at Serb protesters Monday - an incident that triggered an angry reaction from Serbia and inflamed tensions between the two bitter Balkan foes. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
MADRID (AP) - The Latest on Catalonia's political struggle with Spain (all times local):

5:10 p.m.

Carles Puigdemont's lawyer says the former Catalan president is in "perfect shape, both physically and emotionally" and will await with "courage and determination" the German judicial decision on whether to extradite him to Spain.

Jaume Alonso Cuevillas, left, and Gonzalo Boye, lawyers of Carlos Puigdemont speak to media at the prison in Neumuenster, Germany, Yuesday, March 27, 2018, where Carlos Puigdemont, the fugitive ex-leader of Catalonia and ardent separatist, is believed to be held after he was arrested Sunday by German police on an international warrant as he tried to enter the country from Denmark. (Markus Scholz/dpa via AP)

Speaking to reporters outside the prison in Neumuenster, where the separatist politician is jailed pending a German tribunal's decision, attorney Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas said Puigdemont remains energetic and "very clear in his courage and determination not to falter defending the ideals he represents."

Alonso-Cuevillas said that "to see him with such determination has been a shot of euphoria."

He added that Puigdemont welcomed the acceptance by the U.N. Human Rights Committee this week to review his complaint for the alleged violation of his political rights by Spain. The lawyer also conveyed a message by Puigdemont for separatists in Catalonia to remain united and to keep violence away from protests.

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1 p.m.

A United Nations spokeswoman says the U.N. Human Rights Committee has registered a complaint by Catalonia's former president who alleges that Spain has violated his political rights.

Carles Puigdemont is in preliminary custody in northern Germany awaiting a court's decision on whether to proceed with an extradition request by Spain.

Julia Gronnevet, a media officer with the Geneva-based UN body, says the complaint was registered Monday. She added no further information can be shared because the case is "confidential."

A group of lawyers and human rights experts launched legal action in March claiming that Spain has violated human, civil and political rights in its crackdown on Catalonia's independence bid.

The registration means that the Spanish government has now six months to respond with any information or observations to the human rights body.

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10:10 a.m.

Catalonia's transit authorities say demonstrators have blocked motorways and roads in the northeastern Spanish region, amid sustained protests over the detention of the former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont.

The separatist politician is in preliminary custody awaiting a northern German court's decision on an extradition request by Spain.

The regional transportation service in Catalonia says a main motorway through eastern Spain is blocked by protesters in Figueres, near the border with France, as is a national road between Tarragona and Valencia.

Protesters also caused disruptions in the early hours of Tuesday in several roads in central Barcelona, the regional capital.

Further decisions in Germany appear unlikely before Easter. A court in Schleswig will decide on formal pre-extradition custody and whether his extradition is admissible.

Such cases are typically dealt with in writing, without a hearing, though one is possible.

A picture of Carlos Puidgemont is fixed in front of the entrance building of a prison in Neumuenster, northern Germany, Tuesday, March 27, 2018 where Carles Puigdemont, the fugitive ex-leader of Catalonia and ardent separatist, is believed to be held after he was arrested Sunday by German police on an international warrant as he tried to enter the country from Denmark. (Frank Molter/dpa via AP)

People hold banners that reads in Catalan "Freedom for the political prisoners" in support of Catalonian politicians jailed on charges of sedition and condemning the arrest of Catalonia's former president, Carles Puigdemont in Germany, during a protest in Barcelona, Spain, Monday, March 26, 2018. Five months after going on the run from Spanish authorities, Catalonia's former president was detained in Germany on an international warrant by highway police after the ardent separatist crossed the border with Denmark. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

People hold a large banner that reads in Catalan "Freedom for the political prisoners" in support of Catalonian politicians jailed on charges of sedition and condemning the arrest of Catalonia's former president, Carles Puigdemont in Germany, during a protest in Barcelona, Spain, Monday, March 26, 2018. Five months after going on the run from Spanish authorities, Catalonia's former president was detained in Germany on an international warrant by highway police after the ardent separatist crossed the border with Denmark. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Ron Corbett, the sole Republican who was challenging Gov. Kim Reynolds in Iowa's gubernatorial race, failed to qualify for the primary ballot because he didn't collect enough valid signatures from the public, an elections panel concluded Tuesday.

The decision means Reynolds will not have a GOP primary challenger, allowing her to focus on the November general election. Six Democrats and two libertarians also remain in the gubernatorial race. They'll face off in the June 5 primary for a chance against Reynolds.

Corbett said he'll consider legal options, but he believes they're limited. Corbett noted there are only a few weeks before the primary and local elections officials will soon begin printing ballots.

"It doesn't look very promising," he said. "The path isn't very wide."

Corbett didn't turn in enough nomination petition signatures to be on the ballot after some names he submitted this month were determined to be duplicative. His attorneys then failed to argue to the State Objection Panel that signatures that had initially been crossed off from submitted paperwork should still count.

The three-person panel also turned down other technical challenges by Corbett's attorneys aimed at reaching the required 4,005-signature threshold to stay on the statewide ballot. Patrick Sealey, one of those attorneys, stressed that some of the rejected petition signatures were legitimate names that the campaign crossed off by mistake. He questioned the implications of the panel's decision.

"I have tremendous problems that we deny the citizens of Iowa the right to make that choice, that three people deny the citizens of Iowa to make that choice," he said.

The panel is made up of Secretary of State Paul Pate, State Auditor Mary Mosiman and Attorney General Tom Miller. Pate and Mosiman are Republicans and Miller is a Democrat, though their party affiliation is not supposed to affect how they rule.

The panel spent the most time deciding whether crossed off signatures from Corbett's campaign should count. Pate, the state's top elections official, didn't think so.

"Our office cannot be mind readers. If they're stricken off, they're stricken off," Pate said. Mosiman agreed, and believed that adding back the signatures would wrongfully alter the paperwork.

Pate stressed the importance of campaigns submitting more than the minimum signatures to ensure they can qualify for elections ballots.

In the end, the panel agreed that Corbett's campaign had turned in 3,997 signatures, just eight short. The panel voted 2-1 to reject Corbett qualifying to be on the ballot. Miller voted against the objection.

A Republican strategist, Craig Robinson, had pointed out in a formal challenge earlier this month that Corbett's campaign had submitted enough duplicative signatures to throw his candidacy into question. Corbett said Robinson's challenge was politically driven, a claim Robinson denied.

Corbett, the former Cedar Rapids mayor and ex-Iowa House speaker, emerged last year as the only Republican to announce a challenge against Reynolds. He faced an uphill battle with Reynolds, who had raised millions of dollars more for her campaign. Records show Corbett raised more than $800,000 last year.

Reynolds, who formally launched her gubernatorial campaign earlier this month, is serving the final term of Gov. Terry Branstad, who left the job last May to become U.S. ambassador to China.

The elections panel, which met for several hours and reviewed multiple candidacy challenges, also booted a GOP primary challenger in Iowa's 2nd congressional district over not enough valid signatures. A Republican challenger was also kicked out of an Iowa House race because he was registered as a Democrat when he collected signatures for the ballot. The panel dismissed challenges against Reynolds and U.S. Reps. David Young and Steve King.

The panel did not issue a ruling on whether Theresa Greenfield, a candidate in Iowa's 3rd congressional district, should remain on the ballot. Greenfield's candidacy has been questioned because of issues over her signatures.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Nipton's new swimming hole is under construction, booze is returning to the restaurant and lottery tickets are being sold again at the ghost town's general store.

But it likely will be some time before those buds of green and gold that tokers really want are lining the shelves of stores in the California desert town, whose owners envision turning it into a marijuana-themed resort destination.

"We're putting that on the back burner for now," David Gwyther, president of the cannabis technology company American Green, told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

FILE - In this Aug. 3, 2017, file photo, a woman leaves the Nipton Trading Post in Nipton, Calif. A Phoenix-based marijuana technology company bought the town of Nipton for $5 million with ambitious plans to turn its dusty, nearly deserted 80 acres into a pot-friendly resort destination just an hour outside Las Vegas. But the company announced earlier in March 2018 it has sold Nipton to Delta International Oil & Gas in a cash and stock deal worth about $7.7 million. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

He added that, like other cannabis entrepreneurs, Nipton's owners have discovered that even after California legalized recreational marijuana on Jan. 1, meeting the myriad of regulations to obtain a license to sell it is not easy.

So while the 80-acre town's owner confronts those legal challenges, it is moving forward with renovations to Nipton's Old West-styled hotel and other buildings on the edge of the Mojave Desert.

Although American Green sold the town to the exploratory drilling firm Delta International Oil & Gas for $7.7 million earlier this month, Gwyther said American Green controls that company too, adding the move was akin to moving Nipton "from one pocket to another."

At the same time, he said Delta's stock-trading status as a fully reporting company puts it in a better position to raise money for the town's development.

When American Green purchased Nipton for $5 million last year it announced ambitious plans that included transforming the hotel into a "buds and breakfast" inn and bottling and selling cannabis-infused beverages. It also planned to attract cultivators and marijuana-theme boutique owners such as glassblowers.

"We still want people to feel comfortable using cannabis," Gwyther said Tuesday, adding people 21 and older will be encouraged to toke up privately. "It's going to be the kind of environment we call cannabis hospitality."

Nipton recently got its liquor and lottery sales licenses transferred and the latter is proving a big income generator for a town an hour outside of Las Vegas, where lottery sales are not allowed.

"Over 100 people were waiting for the store to open last week when the Powerball jackpot got up to $480 million," Gwyther said.

FILE - In this Aug. 3, 2017, file photo, a woman walks out of the Hotel Nipton in Nipton, Calif. A Phoenix-based marijuana technology company bought the town of Nipton for $5 million with ambitious plans to turn its dusty, nearly deserted 80 acres into a pot-friendly resort destination just an hour outside Las Vegas. But the company announced earlier in March 2018 it has sold Nipton to Delta International Oil & Gas in a cash and stock deal worth about $7.7 million. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Trump administration said Tuesday it has widened U.S. access to South Korea's car market while providing American manufacturers protection from South Korean imports.

The United States and South Korea have reached an agreement to overhaul the six-year-old U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement, senior administration officials said, confirming an announcement earlier Monday in Seoul. President Donald Trump had called the original Korea pact a job killer.

The new deal doubles - to 50,000 - the cars each U.S. automaker can export annually to South Korea, reduces bureaucratic barriers to American products and extends a 25 percent U.S. tariff on South Korean pickup trucks by 20 years, through 2041.

In this Friday, Oct. 6, 2017, photo, new Sonatas sit outside a Hyundai dealership in the south Denver suburb of Littleton, Colo. The Trump administration said Tuesday, March 27, 2018, it has widened U.S. access to South Korea's car market while providing American manufacturers protection from South Korean imports. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

South Korea escapes America's new 25 percent tariff on imported steel - but must accept quotas on steel exports equal to 70 percent of its average annual shipments to the United States between 2015 and 2017.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss the policy ahead of an official announcement.

The United States this month began imposing the steel tariffs, saying imports jeopardized U.S. national security. But it has been suspending the duties on allies like the European Union, Canada and Mexico.

The U.S. Treasury Department is also in talks on a deal to prevent Seoul from deliberately pushing its currency lower to give South Korean exporters a competitive advantage. A formal agreement on currency would be unprecedented - but it wouldn't have teeth, because it would include no enforcement mechanism.

The U.S. trade deficit in goods with South Korea - nearly $23 billion last year - widened after the original pact took effect in 2012, one reason Trump has denounced it. Trade in autos has been especially lopsided: South Korea last year exported to the United States 929,000 passenger vehicles worth $15.7 billion. By contrast, the U.S. shipped to South Korea fewer than 53,000 autos, worth just $1.5 billion, according to the U.S. Commerce Department.

The United States says South Korea has used non-tariff barriers, such as rigorous customs inspections, to block U.S. products.

Trump's complaints about South Korean trade practices have caused friction between the two allies at a crucial time, as he prepares for a meeting with North Korea's reclusive leader, Kim Jong Un.

Unions at South Korea's two-largest automakers, Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp., have already blasted the new agreement for blocking access to the fast-growing U.S. pickup truck market. "It is a humiliating deal that accepts Trump's strategy to preemptively block South Korean pickup trucks," Hyundai Motor Company's labor union said in a statement.
LIMA, Peru (AP) - A Peruvian official says new President Martin Vizcarra will continue to ban Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from attending a regional summit next month.

The decision to exclude Maduro from the Summit of Americas was taken by former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.

But with Kuczynski's resignation last week as he faced impeachment there was speculation his successor would look to reverse the decision. Vizcarra said Tuesday that he would leave the decision to his foreign ministry.

FILE - In this March 2, 2018 file photo, Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro smiles while answering a journalist's question, at the National Electoral Council in Caracas, Venezuela. Maduro announced in a state television broadcast Thursday, March 23, that he's tackling the country's staggering inflation by lopping three zeros off the increasingly worthless bolivar currency. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)

A ministry official later agreed to reveal the decision to The Associated Press only on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss the matter with the press.

Maduro has vowed to travel to Peru for the summit despite the ban. President Donald Trump is also scheduled to attend.
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) - Police in Pakistan say gunmen riding on motorcycle shot and killed a transgender woman and her friend in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

Police officer Mohammad Tahir says the two were targeted as they traveled in a rickshaw late Tuesday night, and that the motive for the killing is unknown.

Dozens of transgender people have been killed in recent years, mainly in the conservative Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, of which Peshawar is the capital. The Trans Action Alliance, a local rights group, says 55 have been killed there in the last three years.

No one has claimed the killings, but Islamic extremists, who associated transgender people with prostitution, are active in the region.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - Family, friends and strangers, some expressing anger and frustration, gathered in Sacramento on Wednesday for a public wake for 22-year-old Stephon Clark, an unarmed man shot by police in his grandparents' backyard.

Some attendees wore black shirts calling for justice, while one woman held up a clenched fist as she exited the Bayside of South Sacramento church. The wake was largely quiet until Clark's brother, Stevante Clark, shouted at the media to leave before being picked up and carried away.

The outburst came a day after he disrupted a Sacramento City Council meeting and chanted his brother's name at Mayor Darrell Steinberg.

Mariah Jones, second from left, hug her husband, Jamarr Jones as they leave the wake for police shooting victim, Stephon Clark at the Bayside of South Sacramento Church, known as BOSS Church, Wednesday, March 28, 2018, in Sacramento, Calif. Clark, who was unarmed, was shot and killed by Sacramento Police Officers, Sunday, March 18, 2018. A another mourner, right, holds the couples daughter Amina Jones, 2. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

Some said the two police officers who shot Clark should be criminally charged, while other mourners said they could envision their own families in Clark's family's place.

"This feels like the '60s, it doesn't feel like 2018. We've definitely regressed," said Cynthia Brown, a friend of Clark's grandfather who brought her 10- and 15-year-old grandsons to the wake. "To me, (they) could be Stephon Clark."

The Rev. Al Sharpton plans to deliver the eulogy at Clark's funeral on Thursday.

Tensions remain high in California's capital city following the March 18 shooting. Two police officers who were responding to a report of someone breaking car windows fatally shot him in his grandparents' backyard. Police say they believe Clark was the suspect and he ran when a police helicopter responded, then did not obey officers' orders.

Police say they thought Clark was holding a gun when he moved toward them, but he was found only with a cellphone.

Many mourners weren't buying that narrative.

"You always feel threatened - you're a law enforcement officer, it comes with your job title," said Rahim Wasi. "That doesn't give you a right to go running around like Clint Eastwood in a movie."

Some of Clark's relatives were more conciliatory.

"We're not mad at all the law enforcement. We're not trying to start a riot," said Shernita Crosby, Stephon Clark's aunt. "What we want the world to know is that we got to stop this because black lives matter."

Cousin Suzette Clark said the family wants Stephon Clark remembered as "more than just a hashtag."

He was outgoing, funny, loving, a good-looking man who liked to dress sharp and the doting father of two young sons.

"He made some mistakes in his life, but he was genuinely a good person," she said.

Protests have been held almost daily in town and on Wednesday, hundreds of people marched in New York City to protest the shooting. Police there said someone threw a bottle at an officer and at least 11 people were detained as tensions flared.

Sacramento marchers have twice blocked fans from entering the NBA arena downtown for Sacramento Kings games.

The Kings warned Wednesday that there will be a "significant" police presence in and around the Golden 1 Center on Thursday to keep protesters from reaching the plaza and blocking fans for a third time.

Sgt. Vince Chandler said officers would be ready to respond in protective gear, according to The Sacramento Bee.

There also will be additional stadium security and barriers along with ticket checks at the plaza outskirts.

On Wednesday, about 50 protesters took over the intersection near the Sacramento district attorney's office as part of a protest organized by the local Black Lives Matter chapter to urge the district attorney to file charges against the officers.

They disrupted midtown rush hour traffic as they marched through the streets. Latavia Ross, pushing her 2-year-old son Jayceon Hurts in a stroller, said she attended the protest because she thinks it's good for the community to come together to end to gun violence.

Meanwhile, Steinberg said disruptions like Stevante Clark's at Tuesday's council meeting won't happen again.

"That sort of demonstration in the council chamber cannot happen again. It won't happen again. But in that moment, that was a brother grieving for the loss of his brother," he said.

For all the angst and raw emotions, some grieving and weary family members are skeptical that any substantive change will result before the next young black man dies from police gunfire and siphons away the national media and banner headlines.

"You know, sadly, I have no confidence in America and the fact that I will probably hear another story sometime this year of an innocent life lost over excessive police force," Curtis Gordon, Clark's uncle and the family's spokesman, told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday. "It's so common, you're numb to it."

The California attorney general's office on Tuesday joined the investigation, a move Sacramento Police Chief Daniel Hahn said he hopes will bring "faith and transparency" to a case that he said has sparked "extremely high emotions, anger and hurt in our city."

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Associated Press writer Sophia Bollag and videographer Haven Daley contributed to this story.

Stevante Clark, the brother of police shooting victim Stephon Clark, is carried into the Bayside of South Sacramento Church, known as BOSS Church, after confronting members of the media who covering Stephon's wake Wednesday, March 28, 2018, in Sacramento, Calif. Clark, who was unarmed, was shot and killed by Sacramento Police Officers, Sunday, March 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

Latavia Ross pushes her two-year-old son Jayceon Hurts in a stroller in Sacramento, Calif., on March 28, 2018, as part of a protest calling for criminal charges against the police officers who fatally shot Stephon Clark, an unarmed black man. She said she attended the protest because she thinks it's good for the community to come together in an effort to end to gun violence. (AP Photo/Sophia Bollag)

Stevante Clark, the brother of police shooting victim Stephon Clark, is carried into the Bayside of South Sacramento Church, known as BOSS Church, after confronting members of the media who were covering Stephon's wake Wednesday, March 28, 2018, in Sacramento, Calif. Clark, who was unarmed, was shot and killed by Sacramento Police Officers, Sunday, March 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

An attendee for the wake of police shooting victim Stephon Clark carries a drawing of Clark to the Bayside of South Sacramento Church, known as BOSS Church, Wednesday, March 28, 2018, in Sacramento, Calif. Clark, who was unarmed, was shot and killed by Sacramento Police Officers, Sunday, March 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

CORRECTS SPELLING OF FIRST NAME TO CURTIS, INSTEAD OF KURTIS - As Sequita Thompson, center, discusses the shooting of her grandson, Stephon Clark, Clark's uncle, Curtis Gordon wipes a tear from her cheek during a news conference, Monday, March 26, 2018, in Sacramento, Calif. Clark, who was unarmed, was shot and killed by Sacramento police officers a week ago who were responding to a call about a person smashing car windows. At right is attorney Ben Crump. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

An attendee for the wake of police shooting victim Stephon Clark carries a drawing of Clark to the Bayside of South Sacramento Church, known as BOSS Church, Wednesday, March 28, 2018, in Sacramento, Calif. Clark, who was unarmed, was shot and killed by Sacramento Police Officers, Sunday, March 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

This March 18, 2018 photo, courtesy of the family, shows Stephon Clark at 5:20 p.m. in the afternoon before he died in a hail of police gunfire in the backyard of his grandmother Sequita Thompson's home in Sacramento, Calif. On Monday, March 26, Thompson called for changes in the way police confront suspects, such as sending in a police dog, using a Taser, or aiming for an arm or leg when shots are fired. (Family courtesy photo via AP)

Stevante Clark jumps on the dais and shouts at Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, left, during a city council meeting, Tuesday, March 27, 2018, in Sacramento, Calif. Clark, the brother of Stephon Clark, who was shot and killed by Sacramento Police officers a week earlier, disrupted the meeting and demanded to speak. The city council adjourned for a roughly 15-minute recess as a result of the disruption. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

People blocked from entering the Golden 1 Center stand outside metal detectors, Tuesday, March 27, 2018, in Sacramento, Calif. A demonstration over the shooting death of Stephon Clark by two Sacramento police officers on March 18 forced a lockdown of the arena, keeping thousands of ticket holders from watching the Sacramento Kings play the Dallas Mavericks in an NBA basketball game. The team released a statement saying refunds would be given for those ticket holders who were not able to get in. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

Ticket holders unable to enter the Golden 1 Center stand outside the building after protesters forced a lockdown of the arena before the Dallas Mavericks played the Sacramento Kings in an NBA basketball game Tuesday, March 27, 2018, in Sacramento, Calif. The demonstration was over the shooting death of Stephon Clark by Sacramento Police officers on March 18. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
TOKYO (AP) - Increased activity at a North Korean nuclear site has once again caught the attention of analysts and renewed concerns about the complexities of denuclearization talks as President Donald Trump prepares for a summit with Kim Jong Un in the coming weeks.

Satellite imagery taken last month suggests the North has begun preliminary testing of an experimental light water reactor and possibly brought another reactor online at its Yongbyon Nuclear Research Center.

Both could be used to produce the fissile materials needed for nuclear bombs.

FILE - In this June 27, 2008, file photo from television, the 60-foot-tall cooling tower, which was later dismantled, is seen at the main Yongbyon nuclear reactor complex in Yongbyon, North Korea. Increased activity at the Yongbyon North Korean nuclear site has once again caught the attention of analysts and renewed concerns about the complexities of denuclearization talks as President Donald Trump prepares for a summit with Kim Jong Un. (AP Photo/APTN, File)

The findings come at a particularly sensitive time. Trump and Kim are planning to meet by May, according to officials, and denuclearization will likely be the biggest topic on their agenda if they do meet. North Korea tested its biggest nuclear device to date last September. Pyongyang claims it was an H-bomb.

While the North hasn't conducted any tests since, or test-launched any long-range missiles since Nov. 28, the heightened activity at the Yongbyon complex could be ominous.

According to an analysis in Jane's Intelligence Review published earlier this month, a testing program is now underway at the experimental reactor, which means it could become operational with "little warning later in 2018 or in 2019." It said the preliminary testing follows increased activity throughout 2017.

The reactor was completed five years ago and is primarily designed to generate electricity for civilian use. But it could also be used to produce plutonium or tritium.

The Jane's report cautioned that without international inspections it's impossible to tell for sure if it's being used to produce civilian electricity or weapons-grade material for bombs. The reactor has been linked to the local electricity grid and is believed to be potentially able to power a city of about 50,000 if operated at full capacity.

"Further monitoring of the type and cadence of activity at the site is likely to reveal clues about North Korea's ultimate intentions," the Jane's report concluded.

In a separate report posted on 38 North, a website that specializes in North Korea news and analysis, experts said they have detected activity at another reactor in the Yongbyon complex, which is located north of Pyongyang, that could be an even bigger concern.

Imagery of Yongbyon's 5-megawatt reactor suggests it was brought into operation very recently. The website said that would mean "North Korea has resumed production of plutonium presumably for its nuclear weapons program."

It said commercially available satellite imagery of the reactor revealed steam vapor plumes emanating from the generator hall, along with river ice melt near the reactor. Additionally, North Korean technicians might have stepped up efforts to conceal signs of the reactor's operations, "making monitoring efforts more difficult going forward."

The March 5 report added that a military tent camp has been set up at Yongbyon, possibly for troops doing construction or providing enhanced security.
ROME (AP) - Police in northern Italy say they have arrested a Moroccan-Italian man accused of participation in the Islamic State group by spreading its propaganda online.

Twenty-three-year-old Elmahdi Halili was arrested Wednesday in Turin. A police statement says searches are being carried out elsewhere for Italians who have converted to Islam and are active in radicalization campaigns.

The operation came a day after police in southern Foggia arrested an Egyptian imam accused of preaching extremist and violent interpretations of Islam to children.

In an interview Wednesday with La Stampa, Interior Minister Marco Minniti sounded the alarm about the threat of Islamic-inspired terrorism in Europe following the collapse of the Islamic State group in parts of Iraq."
DULUTH, Ga. (AP) - A 17-year-old in Georgia has been accused of threatening to blow up his private Catholic school.

News outlets report that Joseph Mentesana is charged with making terroristic threats to Notre Dame Academy in Duluth. WXIA-TV reports that Mentesana threatened to blow up the school, threw tables and threatened individual students verbally and through text messages.

A Duluth police news release says the department responded to a call about the threats at about 10 a.m. Tuesday. The outlet cites an unidentified spokesperson for the school as saying the junior will not be returning to the school.

The outlet reports that Mentesana also threatened to bring weapons to the school.
MOSCOW (AP) - The Latest on the poisoning of a Russian ex-spy in Britain (all times local):

10:50 p.m.

British police say they believe a Russian ex-spy and his daughter first came into contact with a military-grade nerve agent at their front door.

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May leaves 10 Downing Street to attend the weekly session of Prime Minister's Questions at Parliament in London, Wednesday, March 28, 2018. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Dean Haydon says in a statement Wednesday police are now focusing their investigation in and around Sergei Skripal's home.

London's Metropolitan Police say they have "identified the highest concentration of the nerve agent, to-date, as being on the front door of the address."

The revelation is significant because it's the first time police have offered any suggestion about where the Skripals were poisoned. Police have also searched a variety of sites around Salisbury, including a pub, a restaurant and a cemetery.

Britain blames Russia for the poisoning, triggering a diplomatic dispute between Moscow and Western countries. Moscow vehemently denies any involvement.

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9:45 p.m.

President Donald Trump has spoken with British Prime Minister Theresa May about the coordinated effort by Western allies to expel Russian intelligence operatives.

That's according to the White House, which says the leaders agreed Wednesday that dismantling Russian spy rings is a priority to "curtail Russian clandestine activities and prevent future chemical weapons attacks on either country's soil."

More than 150 Russian envoys have been expelled so far. The moves came weeks after Russia allegedly poisoned a former spy and his daughter on British soil with a nerve agent on March 4.

The White House says Trump and May also discussed the recent passage of a law designed to make it easier for U.S. and foreign law enforcement officials to share access to electronic data stored overseas.

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8:30 p.m.

Russia's envoy to the top trans-Atlantic security and rights group says the expulsions of Russian diplomats over the poisoning of an ex-spy in Britain have set a bad precedent.

Alexander Lukashevich, the Russian envoy at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said the expulsion of more than 150 Russian diplomats by more than 20 nations created "a dangerous precedent of a collective punishment of a nation whose guilt hasn't been proven."

Britain has accused Russia of a nerve agent attack on ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter. Russia has fiercely rejected the accusations, calling them unfounded.

Lukashevich, speaking in televised remarks Wednesday, dismissed the British claim as a "large-scale provocation."

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8:05 p.m.

A senior Russian diplomat says that Moscow is in "no rush" to retaliate to the wave of expulsions of Russian diplomats over the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the RIA Novosti news agency Wednesday that Russia is "thoughtfully and thoroughly" considering its response to the expulsion of more than 150 Russian diplomats by more than 20 nations in a show of solidarity with Britain.

Britain has accused Russia of a nerve agent attack on ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter. Russia has fiercely rejected the accusations, calling them baseless.

Ryabkov told Interfax that the expulsions were directed by London and Washington, adding that other nations succumbed to their pressure. He added that "all options are on the table" regarding Russia's response.

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7:45 p.m.

Malta has decided to recall its ambassador to Russia over the nerve agent attack on a former spy in Britain.

Initially, Malta held off on recalling Ambassador Carmel Brincat for consultations. A government spokesman said doing so would have effectively terminated diplomatic relations, given the small size of Malta's embassy in Moscow.

But on Wednesday, the foreign ministry announced it was recalling Brincat and was standing "in full solidarity with the United Kingdom in the face of this serious challenge to our common security."

In a statement, the government said it agrees with Britain's assessment that it is "highly likely that the Russian Federation is responsible" for the poisoning.

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7:30 p.m.

The niece of Sergei Skripal, the Russian ex-spy poisoned in Britain along with his daughter, has said her uncle and cousin have only a slim chance of surviving.

Viktoria Skripal told the BBC: "Out of 99 percent I have maybe 1 percent of hope. Whatever it was has given them a very small chance of survival."

The former spy and his daughter Yulia, who were found slumped on a bench in Salisbury on March 4, remain in critical condition after they were poisoned by a nerve agent. Britain blames Russia for the attack, but Moscow denies responsibility.

Viktoria Skripal also said that her uncle's mother had not been told of the incident. "The first priority was to protect our granny so that she wouldn't hear or find out anything," she said.

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5:25 p.m.

Slovakia's foreign minister says the government has decided to recall its ambassador to Moscow for consultations over the nerve agent attack on a former spy in Britain.

But Miroslav Lajcak says after a meeting of the country's Security Council that the government is not yet ready to join two dozen other countries in expelling Russian diplomats over the incident.

Although Lajcak calls Slovakia's move "a serious diplomatic step," the British ambassador to Bratislava, Andrew Garth, is not impressed.

Garth has told the Slovak public television and tweeted that the seriousness of the attack "requires a firm response."

The ambassador adds that "I acknowledge the decision. But cannot say I am not disappointed."

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4:20 p.m.

Germany is rejecting suggestions it was premature to expel four Russian diplomats over the attack on an ex-spy in Britain.

Opposition lawmakers have criticized the government for joining other European countries and the United States in ordering the Russian embassy officials to leave the country.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Rainer Breul said Russia had made no effort to cooperative constructively in the British investigation.

Breul said Wednesday there was "no other plausible explanation" than that Russia was behind the attack and expelling four diplomats deemed to have intelligence ties was "measured and appropriate."

Government spokesman Steffen Seibert said "the investigations that have already happened in Great Britain are of a very high standard and the decision by European Union member states was taken after intensive European contacts and intensive explanations by the British government."

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2:40 p.m.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has reportedly said his country won't expel Russian diplomats based on "an allegation."

NATO-member Turkey this week condemned the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain and called for the perpetrators to be brought to justice.

The government said however that it had no plans to follow NATO and EU allies in ousting Russian diplomats.

Erdogan reportedly told journalists: "Just because some countries took a step based on an allegation, we don't have to (decide to) take the same step." His comments were published in Hurriyet and other newspapers on Wednesday.

Britain has accused Russia of being behind nerve agent attack on former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter. More than 20 nations have expelled over 130 Russian diplomats this week in a show of solidarity.

Turkey has cultivated closer ties with Moscow as its relations with western allies have deteriorated. Ankara and Moscow are also working together to try and end the Syrian conflict.

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1:40 p.m.

Montenegro has decided to expel a Russian diplomat from the tiny Adriatic state which joined NATO against Moscow's wishes.

The Montenegro government said Wednesday it has informed the Russian embassy in Podgorica of the measure and gave the unidentified diplomat seven days to leave the country.

With the move, Montenegro, which is not yet an EU member, joined a wave of countries and groups expelling Russian diplomats over the nerve-agent attack on a former spy in Britain.

Montenegro government says it has taken the decision "in coordination with our allies."

A former close Russian ally, Montenegro has accused the Kremlin of being behind an alleged coup attempt in October 2016 because of its NATO bid. Moscow has vehemently denied involvement.

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1 p.m.

The Russian Foreign Ministry says British special services could have been behind the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain.

Britain has accused Russia of a nerve agent attack on former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter. Russia has fiercely rejected the accusations, calling them baseless.

More than 20 nations have expelled over 130 Russian diplomats this week in a show of solidarity with Britain. Russia denounced the actions as "boorish" and pledged to retaliate.

The Russian Foreign ministry's claim Wednesday of "possible involvement" of British special services in the poisoning marks Moscow's bluntest claim yet of alleged British foul play. British officials have previously rejected such Russian claims as nonsense.

Moscow said the British failure to provide evidence suggests the poisoning was a "major political provocation."

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12:45 p.m.

The Kremlin says it will respond soon to the recent expulsions of more than 130 Russian diplomats from Western nations.

Monday's mass expulsions by the United States, European Union nations and some other countries were a show of solidarity for Britain, which blames Russia for poisoning a former Russian intelligence agent in Britain with a military-grade nerve agent. Moscow vehemently denies responsibility.

Asked if Russia is going to react to the expulsions, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday that Russia's response will follow an that that it will be "timely and will suit the interests of Russia."

Russia is observing a nationwide day of mourning on Wednesday for the victims of a shopping mall fire in Siberia.

Russia's ambassador to Australia Grigory Logvinov speaks during a press conference at the Russian Embassy in Canberra, Wednesday, March 28, 2018. Logvinov says the dozens of countries that have expelled Russian diplomats in response to the recent nerve agent attack on a former Russian military intelligence officer and his daughter in Britain are "not a significant number." (Lukas Coch/AAP Image via AP)

A man talks on the phone on the grounds of the Russian Embassy in Canberra, Australia, Tuesday, March 27, 2018. Australia has announced it is expelling two Russian diplomats in response to the recent nerve agent attack on a former Russian military intelligence officer and his daughter in Britain. (Lukas Coch/AAP Image via AP)
THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) - The Latest on migrant issues facing Europe (all times local):

1:05 p.m.

The European Union's law enforcement agency says authorities have broken up an Iraqi gang that smuggled migrants and refugees into the United Kingdom from Spain.

Europol says the gang took Albanian migrants as well as refugees from Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and Syria to the U.K. using regular ferry services from northern Spain, hiding them in trailers, caravans and trucks that were waiting in restricted parking bays to board the ferries.

The statement on Wednesday says Spain's Guardia Civil arrested seven members of the gang, including Iraqis, Albanians and Spaniards, in raids on houses this month.

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11:15 a.m.

Greek authorities say they are searching for a group of migrants who made an emergency call saying they were in danger while crossing a river marking the border between Greece and Turkey.

Police and fire department officials said Wednesday an unidentified person called an emergency number Tuesday afternoon saying they were among a group of 15 people trying to cross the Evros river, which was swollen by heavy rainfall. Rescue crews have been searching the area near the Greek village of Praki but had found nothing by Wednesday morning.

Hundreds of people attempt to cross from Greece to Turkey each week. Most make the crossing from the Turkish coast to nearby Greek islands, but many also attempt to cross the river, on the land section of the Greek-Turkish border.
Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today:

1. RECLUSIVE KIM JONG UN BREAKS ISOLATION

North Korea's leader made a surprise visit to Beijing this week and his travel itinerary this year will include a summit with his South Korean counterpart, with possible summits with the U.S., Russia and Japan to follow.

People blocked from entering the Golden 1 Center stand outside metal detectors, Tuesday, March 27, 2018, in Sacramento, Calif. A demonstration over the shooting death of Stephon Clark by two Sacramento police officers on March 18 forced a lockdown of the arena, keeping thousands of ticket holders from watching the Sacramento Kings play the Dallas Mavericks in an NBA basketball game. The team released a statement saying refunds would be given for those ticket holders who were not able to get in. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

2. 'YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE UNTIL YOU EXPERIENCE IT'

A blinding national spotlight is shining on the family of Stephon Clark, the 22-year-old unarmed black man killed by police in Sacramento, California, last week.

3. HOW JUSTICES MAY BE LEANING ON REDISTRICTING

There are signs the Supreme Court could place limits on drawing maps for political gain.

4. OPTIONS DIM FOR SYRIA'S VANQUISHED REBELS

Three years removed from a massive military parade, Army of Islam fighters stand alone in eastern Ghouta facing a stark choice: Surrender or die.

5. ONLINE ADS FROM UNLICENSED POT SHOPS ROIL CALIFORNIA MARKET

State-licensed marijuana shops are complaining they are being undercut by black market sellers that don't pay taxes and can offer cheaper products.

6. TAKE TWO TABLETS - AND A SELFIE

Your doctor's orders may one day include a smartphone video to make sure you took your medicine.

7. WHERE EXTREMISTS ARE EXPERIENCING A RESURGENCE

Islamic State group attacks and kidnappings are on the rise in northern Iraq, particularly around Kirkuk were political tensions have further fractured security forces.

8. PALESTINIANS PREPARE MASS DEMONSTRATIONS ALONG GAZA BORDER

It's a high-risk gambit by embattled Hamas rulers meant to shore up their shaky rule, but with potentially deadly consequences with its Israeli foe.

9. FILM ACADEMY PRESIDENT KEEPS JOB FOLLOWING INVESTIGATION

John Bailey, a cinematographer whose credits include "Groundhog Day," ''The Big Chill" and "As Good as It Gets," was cleared of any wrongdoing in a decade-old sexual misconduct allegation.

10. WHO THINKS HE SHOULD BE MVP

Cavaliers star LeBron James tells AP he thinks he's worthy of a fifth MVP award, but the Rockets' James Harden is favored to capture the coveted award.

In this March 26, 2018, photo, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center left, his wife Ri Sol Ju, left, are accompanied by Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, center right, and his wife Peng Liyuan at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. North Korea's leader Kim and his Chinese counterpart Xi sought to portray strong ties between the long-time allies despite a recent chill as both countries on Wednesday, March 28, 2018, confirmed Kim's secret trip to Beijing this week. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
MADRID (AP) - The Latest on Catalonia's political struggle with Spain (all times local):

4:20 p.m.

A former Catalan minister facing extradition to Spain on charges of rebellion has been granted bail as attorneys outlined plans to fight the validity of a European arrest warrant.

Former Catalan Minister Professor Clara Ponsati who is facing extradition to Spain attends a police station In Edinburgh, with her lawyer Aamer Anwar on Wednesday March 28, 2018. Professor Ponsati was serving in the Catalan government when it declared independence from Spain in October and being sought by the authorities in Madrid . (Jane Barlow/PA via AP)

Clara Ponsati is preparing a legal challenge to the charges, stemming from her role as education minister in Catalonia's unsuccessful effort in October to declare independence from Spain. The professor at the University of St. Andrews returned to Scotland in March after leaving Spain.

Ponsati's lawyer, Aamer Anwar, says the charges amount to political persecution and that her human rights "cannot be guaranteed" in Spain.

He says "Clara remains defiant and resolute and believes that the Spanish government will never be able to crush the spirit of the Catalan people."

A preliminary hearing was set for April 12 at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.

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12:30 p.m.

A former Catalan minister facing extradition to Spain on charges of rebellion has turned herself in to authorities in Scotland.

Clara Ponsati, Catalonia's former education chief, is preparing a "robust" legal challenge to the charges, stemming from her role in Catalonia's unsuccessful effort to declare independence from Spain.

The professor at the University of St. Andrews returned to Scotland in March after fleeing Spain with Catalonia's ex-leader Carles Puigdemont.

Ponsati's lawyer, Aamer Anwar, says the charges amount to political persecution and that her human rights "cannot be guaranteed" in Spain. He says "Clara remains defiant and resolute and believes that the Spanish government will never be able to crush the spirit of the Catalan people."

The academic is due at an initial extradition hearing at Edinburgh Sheriff Court Wednesday.

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12:10 p.m.

Catalonia's parliament has passed a symbolic motion affirming the right of the Spanish region's former separatist leader Carles Puigdemont to be re-elected to his old job, even though he is in jail and facing a possible trial.

Pro-independence parties used their slim majority to approve the motion Wednesday and continue their defiance of the Spanish government, which says the wealthy northeastern region cannot secede.

Puigdemont fled Spain to avoid arrest five months ago after the Catalan parliament's declaration of independence. Spanish authorities ousted Puigdemont and imposed direct rule on the restive region.

The Spanish Supreme Court has charged the 55-year-old separatist leader with rebellion. He was detained in Germany on Sunday on a European arrest warrant. German authorities are due to decide on his extradition.

Former Catalan Minister Professor Clara Ponsati who is facing extradition to Spain attends a police station In Edinburgh, with her lawyer Aamer Anwar on Wednesday March 28, 2018. Professor Ponsati was serving in the Catalan government when it declared independence from Spain in October and being sought by the authorities in Madrid . (Jane Barlow/PA via AP)

Former Catalan Minister Professor Clara Ponsati who is facing extradition to Spain smiles as she attends a police station In Edinburgh, on Wednesday March 28, 2018. Professor Ponsati was serving in the Catalan government when it declared independence from Spain in October and being sought by the authorities in Madrid . (Jane Barlow/PA via AP)

Former Catalan Minister Professor Clara Ponsati who is facing extradition to Spain attends a police station In Edinburgh, with her lawyer Aamer Anwar on Wednesday March 28, 2018. Professor Ponsati was serving in the Catalan government when it declared independence from Spain in October and being sought by the authorities in Madrid . (Jane Barlow/PA via AP)

Former Catalan Minister Professor Clara Ponsati who is facing extradition to Spain smiles as she walks past police officers outside police station In Edinburgh, on Wednesday March 28, 2018. Professor Ponsati was serving in the Catalan government when it declared independence from Spain in October and being sought by the authorities in Madrid . (Jane Barlow/PA via AP)

A poster is fixed at the gate to the entrance building of a prison in Neumuenster, northern Germany, Wednesday, March 28, 2018, where Carles Puigdemont, the fugitive ex-leader of Catalonia and ardent separatist, is held after he was arrested Sunday by German police on an international warrant as he tried to enter the country from Denmark. (Frank Molter/dpa via AP)

Yellow ribbons in support of Catalonian politicians who have been jailed on charges, are seen placed on empty seats during a parliamentary session in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, March. 28, 2018. Carles Puigdemont, fugitive ex-leader of Catalonia, was arrested Sunday by German police on an international warrant as he tried to enter the country from Denmark. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Constantine George Theoharis went missing last week, on the day he was supposed to appear in court for a child support hearing

Police in Florida are looking for a 52-year-old man who hasn't been seen since he went paddle-boarding in the Atlantic Ocean more than a week ago.

Fort Lauderdale police say Constantine George Theoharis was due in court later that day - March 20 - to speak on charges of not paying over a half-million dollars in child support.

But he didn't show up for court, or for work as a commercial real estate agent. The judge rescheduled his hearing for March 27, but he didn't show then either.

The last time Theoharis was seen was around 7.30am the morning of March 20, when a neighbor's surveillance camera captured him paddle-boarding in the Atlantic Ocean behind their properties.

Theoharis' brother, Richard, says the family has no idea what happened to him - whether he drowned or fled the country.

Scroll down for video

The last time Theoharis was seen was early that morning, paddle-boarding in the Atlantic Ocean behind his property

Theoharis, his paddleboard and his diving equipment have not been found since he disappeared last week

Courtesy of WPLG

'Right now, Im like 50-50, either he fled or hes out there drowned, I dont know,' Richard told NBC Miami.

'For nobody to find the board, for him not to come back, his wallet, keys were there at the house, something's fishy.'

It appears that Theoharis may have gone out to dive at the reefs behind his home since his fins, mask and weight belt were missing from his dive bag.

Richard says his brother is an experienced paddle-boarder and swimmer who knows the Atlantic well, living on the beach most of his life.

'Hes very capable on the paddle board so it seems fishy to me,' Richard told CBS4.

'He was under pressure. He owed $500,000 and he didnt have it. He was afraid the judge would throw him in jail.'

Above, the location of Theoharis' home in Fort Lauderdale, near where he was last seen on March 20

Theoharis' brother Richard, pictured, says his brother owed more than $500,000 to his ex-wife in child support. He says he didn't have the money and probably would have been sent to jail

One of Theoharis' Facebook friends posted over the weekend that he known to take off for the Bahamas at the last minute

One of Theoharis' Facebook friends posted over the weekend about how he had been known to take off to the Bahamas on short notice.

But family members are skeptical that he tried to flee the country since he left his passport and wallet at home.

Theoharis has been divorced since 2008. His ex-wife is fighting him for child support for their two teen daughters.

Private companies are searching for Theoharis in the ocean from the air.

'If hes scared, we hope he will contact us. Make a phone call. Just let somebody know youre safe so we can rest at night,' Richard Theoharis said
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) - Police have charged two people with breaking the ear off a statue of the Pennsylvania State University mascot.

Authorities say a 19-year-old from Connecticut and an 18-year-old from North Carolina are facing charges of criminal mischief and tampering with evidence in connection with the damage caused to the Nittany Lion Shrine.

The ear on the right side of the statue was broken off and found nearby Feb. 24. The incident happened during the weekend's State Patty's Day celebrations, an unofficial campus holiday that has led to several alcohol-related arrests in the past.

The university's Office of Physical Plant has since fixed the ear.

Both suspects are facing up to $500 in fines and are scheduled to appear in court April 17.
WARSAW, Poland (AP) - Poland signed a $4.75 billion deal with the United States Wednesday to buy air defense Patriot missile systems as it seeks to bolster its defenses against a resurgent Russia.

President Andrzej Duda described the deal for the state-of-the-art anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems as "historic" for his country and its armed forces.

"It's a lot of money, but we also know from our historical experience that security has no price," Duda said.

Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak, left, and U.S. ambassador to Poland Paul Jones check the just signed deal to buy the U.S. made air defense Patriot system in Warsaw, Poland, Wednesday, March 28, 2018. Poland has signed a $4.75 billion deal with the United States to buy the Patriot missile systems as it seeks to bolster its defenses against a resurgent Russia. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz)

The defense deal is Poland's largest in almost 30 years.

The system is compatible with technology used by NATO and U.S. troops based in Poland, Duda said. It includes 16 launchers, four radars and the latest fire control system.

Parts of the system will be made in Poland, a boost for the country's armaments industry.

U.S. Ambassador Paul Jones called the deal a milestone that brings the NATO member into a family of 15 countries that rely on the Patriot system for their airspace security.

"We are allies forever," Jones said in fluent Polish.

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has said the Patriot system will increase security in Poland and the surrounding region in an "unprecedented way."

On NATO's eastern flank, Poland is upgrading its defense systems and modernizing its military to reach the highest Western standards after Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak signed the document at an armaments plant in Warsaw.

Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak signs a deal to buy the U.S. made air defense Patriot system in Warsaw, Poland, Wednesday, March 28, 2018. Poland has signed a $4.75 billion deal with the United States to buy the Patriot missile systems as it seeks to bolster its defenses against a resurgent Russia. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz)

Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak, left, and U.S. ambassador to Poland Paul Jones present the just signed deal to buy the U.S. made air defense Patriot system in Warsaw, Poland, Wednesday, March 28, 2018. Poland has signed a $4.75 billion deal with the United States to buy the Patriot missile systems as it seeks to bolster its defenses against a resurgent Russia. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz)

U.S. ambassador to Poland Paul Jones, left, shakes hands with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, as Poland's President Andrzej Duda, center, smiles during a ceremony of signing a deal to buy the U.S. made air defense Patriot system was signed, in Warsaw, Poland, Wednesday, March 28, 2018. Poland has signed a $4.75 billion deal with the United States to buy the Patriot missile systems as it seeks to bolster its defenses against a resurgent Russia. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz)

Polish President Andrzej Duda speaks during a ceremony of signing a deal to buy the U.S. made air defense Patriot system was signed, in Warsaw, Poland, Wednesday, March 28, 2018. Poland has signed a $4.75 billion deal with the United States to buy the Patriot missile systems as it seeks to bolster its defenses against a resurgent Russia. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz)

Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak signs a deal to buy the U.S. made air defense Patriot system in Warsaw, Poland, Wednesday, March 28, 2018. Poland has signed a $4.75 billion deal with the United States to buy the Patriot missile systems as it seeks to bolster its defenses against a resurgent Russia. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz)

U.S. ambassador to Poland Paul Jones speaks during a ceremony of signing a deal to buy the U.S. made air defense Patriot system was signed, in Warsaw, Poland, Wednesday, March 28, 2018. Poland has signed a $4.75 billion deal with the United States to buy the Patriot missile systems as it seeks to bolster its defenses against a resurgent Russia. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz)
BRUSSELS (AP) - The European Union is making plans to improve military mobility among its member states and allow equipment to move more quickly across the continent.

The EU Commission proposed a plan to cut administrative red tape and reinforce certain roads and railways to make easier the transport of heavy defense equipment such as tanks.

EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini says that "by facilitating military mobility within the EU, we can be more effective in preventing crises, more efficient in deploying our missions and quicker in reacting."

To kick off, member states this year will look at where the bottlenecks are and how to ease customs formalities. The EU also will need to look at which civil projects on roads and railways can have a defense component.
TIRANA, Albania (AP) - Truck drivers from Kosovo have held a peaceful protest against Albania's first planned toll road.

Local media report that 150 empty trucks from Kosovo crossed the border Wednesday holding banners with messages such as "We are not lifting borders, we are installing borders."

Albanian authorities this week started testing the toll road, where drivers will pay between 2.5 and 22.5 euros ($3.08-$27.79).

The 110-kilometer (70-mile) highway linking Milot, near the Adriatic coast, to the Morine border crossing with Kosovo is used by Kosovars travelling to Albania to enjoy the seaside they lack at home.
LONDON (AP) - The Bank of England has advised European financial firms working in the U.K. to plan to operate as they do now for a period after Brexit in a little more than a year's time.

In a statement Wednesday, the bank welcomed last week's agreement between the British government and the remaining 27 members of the European Union for a transition period after Brexit until the end of 2020.

Under the transition period, which will come into force if the two sides agree on a withdrawal agreement, Britain will remain in the tariff-free single market and customs union even though it will be out of the EU's decision-making structures.

Bank of England officials, notably Governor Mark Carney, were urging the government to swiftly agree on the outlines of a transition period in order to stop many financial firms from relocating out of the U.K. and into the EU.

The Bank of England said it has "made clear to relevant firms that they may plan on the assumption that U.K. authorization or recognition will only be needed by the end of the implementation period."

Currently, financial firms across the EU operate under so-called "passporting" rights and other common EU rules, which give certainty to those wishing to operate outside their home country.
SUPERIOR, Ariz. (AP) - The Arizona mother arrested this week in the deaths of her toddler and infant left the children with relatives for days at a time, according to a police report that cites an unidentified relative.

Police in the small town of Superior called Arizona child protection officials in early January because of those concerns about the two children after the relative accused the mother, Brittany Velasquez, of stealing a $3,500 fur coat, said town interim Police Chief Christian Ensley.

But the coat was later returned and the relative did not seek prosecution.

This undated photo provided by the Pinal County Sheriff's office shows Brittany Velasquez. Authorities said Tuesday, March 27, 2018, that Velasquez has been arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder after her two children were found in car seats in a vehicle amid evidence of foul play. (Pinal County Sheriff's Office via AP)

The police report also indicated that Velasquez would not be investigated for child neglect or abuse unless the unidentified family member stated she was no longer willing to care for the children.

Velasquez was arrested after her two children were found dead late Monday in car seats inside a car parked by the home of relatives in Superior, a hardscrabble mining town of about 2,900 people about 60 miles (97 kilometers) east of Phoenix. Bond for Velasquez was set at $2 million.

Pinal County Superior Court Administrator Todd Zweig said Velasquez would be represented by the county public defender's office, where officials said a specific attorney had not yet been assigned to her case. She could not be reached at the jail.

Autopsies were being conducted to determine causes of death of the 2-year-old boy and 10-month-old girl, whose names have not been released. The Pinal County Sheriff's Office did not immediately disclose what evidence was found.

The Arizona Department of Child Safety said Tuesday it had received two reports about the boy and the girl and that a case worker visited the woman's home.

"The children showed no visible signs of abuse or neglect," the report about the visit said. "There were no legal grounds to remove the children from the parent's custody."

The agency said case workers determined Velasquez had a job and that the apartment where she then lived in the city of Mesa had everything needed for her children. It said it provided her with free daycare so the children would not have to stay with her grandmother.

"We can only make decisions based on the available evidence and what the law allows," the agency said in a statement. "The Department acted in good faith based on the information we received and exercised our due diligence during these prior investigations."
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - An Afghan official says that at least two people including a district police chief were gunned down when militants opened fire on a crowd gathered at a funeral in eastern Nangarhar province.

Noor Ahmad Habibi, deputy spokesman for the provincial governor in Nangarhar, says that four other civilians were wounded in the attack late Wednesday afternoon.

Matiullah Safi, district police chief for Khewa district, was attending the funeral of a soldier when he was shot and killed by unknown gunmen, added Habibi.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but both Taliban insurgents and Islamic State group affiliates are active in eastern Afghanistan and have claimed previous attacks in Nangarhar province.
SANFORD, N.C. (AP) - Police in North Carolina have shot and killed a suspect in the wounding of a teen.

News outlets reported Sanford officers were called to a home around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday and found 41-year-old Juan Carlos Romero with a handgun. Police said Romero shot at the three officers, and they returned fire, killing him.

A news release says officers determined Romero had shot and wounded a 19-year-old woman, who was in stable condition Wednesday at a hospital in Chapel Hill.

The names and races of the officers involved weren't immediately released. They've been placed on leave while the State Bureau of Investigation reviews the shooting.

A spokesman for the police department didn't immediately return messages Wednesday seeking more information.

Sanford is about 35 miles (55 kilometers) southwest of Raleigh.
NEW YORK (AP) - Most Easter Sundays, you can find John Legend at home, helping cook a big dinner for family and friends. Except this Easter. He'll be a little busy - being Jesus Christ in front of millions.

Legend leads a cast that includes Sara Bareilles and Alice Cooper in a live NBC version of the rock opera "Jesus Christ Superstar" by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice.

It will be the latest addition to the prime-time lineup of live TV musical remakes that kicked off five years ago with "The Sound of Music" and includes "Peter Pan," ''Grease," ''The Wiz" and "Hairspray." While the shows often air at Christmas, this time it made sense for an Easter broadcast of the 47-year-old musical.

This image released by NBC shows, clockwise from foreground center, John Legend as Jesus Christ, Sara Bareilles as Mary Magdalene, Alice Cooper as King Herod, Brandon Victor Dixon as Judas Iscariot and Jason Tam as Peter from the NBC production, "Jesus Christ Superstar Live In Concert," airing April 1. (James Dimmock/NBC via AP)

"It's an iconic show. It's meant a lot to a lot of people for a long time," Legend said. "You want people who are fans of it already to be excited by our rendition. But then also we want to attract new people to the show, too."

The musical explores the caustic intersection of politics and showbiz, using a pulsating guitar- and organ-driven score that includes "I Don't Know How to Love Him," ''Everything's Alright" and "Superstar."

Live TV musicals have become progressively more complex, with the use of cars and multiple locations, sometimes outdoors. But "Jesus Christ Superstar" will be more stripped down, an attempt to capture a concert vibe. It will be staged inside an armory in Brooklyn with about 12 cameras.

The actors will be augmented by a 32-piece band - including a mobile, all-woman string quartet - and 1,500 people will be in the audience, surrounding the action and interacting sometimes with the performers. The stage will be just 2 feet above a mosh pit.

"I'm so excited that we have a live audience to work with and to feel the energy of in the room because I think, as someone who's a concert performer and now in the theater, that's the missing link so much of the time," said Bareilles, who plays Mary Magdalene.

Director David Leveaux is promising this version of the musical to be "very unpackaged, not neat, quite raw." The rest of the cast includes Brandon Victor Dixon as Judas, Cooper as King Herod and Norm Lewis as Caiaphas.

Costume designer Paul Tazewell, who dressed the "Hamilton" cast, has picked flowing tunics and modern, sexy silhouettes. Choreographer Camille A. Brown will mix traditional social dances with hip-hop, New Orleans-style second-line dancing and The Charleston.

Leveaux, who in a 2013 Broadway revival of "Romeo and Juliet" put Orlando Bloom on a motorcycle with a set that spit fire, will use real flames and pyrotechnics for "Superstar." He'll also employ some low-tech tricks, like a white scarf that can have multiple uses.

"This is live. So you create ingredients that can combust because it's live," said Marc Platt, an executive producer. "In this instance, we have a live audience and an interactive concert, and live musicians - never done before. So we're not daunted by it. We welcome what's live and what's risky about it because that's what's exciting."

Legend, who has won a Grammy, Tony and Oscar, knows he is just an Emmy away from winning the coveted EGOT, but he isn't planning that his portrayal of Jesus will add to his trophy haul. He made his acting debut in 2016's "La La Land."

"I have no presumptions about the idea that I'll be considered an award-winning actor in my second role as an actor," he said, laughing. "But I'm aware of the gap in my EGOT."

The annual live broadcasts have gradually dipped in viewership, with the lowest being "A Christmas Story Live" last Christmas that attracted 4.5 million viewers - but they've become popular fodder for hate-tweeting.

"It's part of it. You just kind of do the best you can," said executive producer Neil Meron, who helped start the live TV trend with "The Sound of Music" broadcast in 2013. "They'll rip it apart, they'll praise it."

Leveaux has even coined a new term for the potential online hating this time, one that combines Twitter with crucifixion. He calls it death by "twitterfixon."

___

Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

This image released by NBC shows, John Legend as Jesus Christ, and Sara Bareilles as Mary Magdalene from the NBC production, "Jesus Christ Superstar Live In Concert," airing April 1. (Virginia Sherwood/NBC via AP)
BEIRUT (AP) - A journey that before the war in Syria was just a 15-minute drive from Damascus now took well over an hour, clambering over giant ramparts of dirt and rubble. Visiting his house in the town of Harasta for the first time in six years, Danny Makki couldn't recognize it.

"I didn't even know it was my street till I recognized the supermarket opposite the house ... no placards, no signs, just destruction," he said.

The visit this week by Makki, a British-born Syrian journalist, provided a first look into the devastation wreaked in Harasta, where opposition fighters surrendered after a ferocious, Russian-backed air and ground offensive by government forces aiming to retake the region of eastern Ghouta on the edge of the Syrian capital.

This Monday, March. 26, 2018 photo provided by Danny Makki, a British-born Syrian journalist, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, shows a view of damaged buildings due to fighting and Syrian government airstrikes in the town of Harasta, in eastern Ghouta region east of Damascus, Syria. A journey that before the war was just a 15-minute drive from Damascus now took well over an hour, clambering over giant ramparts of dirt and rubble. Visiting his house for the first time in six years in the town of Harasta, Danny Makki couldn't recognize it. (Danny Makki via AP)

The rebels agreed to lay down their arms in return for safe passage to opposition-held northwestern Syria. As thousands of fighters were bused out, Harasta's civilians have been transported to government centers in and around Damascus, leaving the town, once home to a population of around 35,000, an empty, shattered husk.

Harasta, on Damascus' northeastern edge, was among the first to rise up against President Bashar Assad's rule in 2011 and soon fell into the hands of the armed opposition along with other towns of eastern Ghouta. For six years, the army has been trying to uproot the rebels in grueling warfare with no decisive victory, until the assault that began last month. Harasta was declared officially under Syrian army control on Friday.

The area is still restricted to civilians while army experts work to clear explosives. But Makki, who is temporarily based in Damascus, was able to enter briefly Monday afternoon to check on his home, where his mother and grandmother lived before the war.

Makki passed a water station on the edge of town that not long ago had been a front-line battle zone. He walked down dirt roads where tanks and military trucks kicked up clouds of dirt. The sky was black with smoke; looters were burning scrap to extract copper and other metals, the last things to be stripped from a town where over the past six years anything of value had been ripped out.

At the intersection leading to his house, a row of buses blocked the road, he said. So he had to climb over 3-meter-high (10-foot-high) mounds of dirt that had been put up as barriers between the two warring sides. Then over under huge pile of dirt that had been in place so long grass had grown out of it, he said.

"The streets were empty. It was like a ghost town," he said. He passed a cemetery where holes had been blasted in the walls.

"Not even the dead could escape this war," he said.

His district is called Hay el-Hada'eq, or Gardens Neighborhood. "I just saw streets full of rubble so deep you couldn't even see the ground at some point," he said.

When he spotted the supermarket and realized he was on his street, he found his apartment building. It didn't seem so bad at first sight. But then he went in and saw even the elevator was gone. The stairs were blackened, covered with rubble and glass. The apartment itself was a shell, walls blasted open to the street on three sides, floors piled with wreckage. All belongings in it were long gone, even the doors.

Slogans were scrawled on the walls by both government troops and rebels, showing that both sides had occupied the house at various times over the years.

Farther down the street, the destruction continued. There was a tunnel around 100 meters (109 yards) deep and 3 meters (3.3 yards) wide in the middle of a street.

"How are people meant to come back to this?" Makki asked.

This Monday, March. 26, 2018 photo provided by Danny Makki, a British-born Syrian journalist, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, shows a view of damaged buildings due to fighting and Syrian government airstrikes in the town of Harasta, in eastern Ghouta region east of Damascus, Syria. A journey that before the war was just a 15-minute drive from Damascus now took well over an hour, clambering over giant ramparts of dirt and rubble. Visiting his house for the first time in six years in the town of Harasta, Danny Makki couldn't recognize it. (Danny Makki via AP)
Carnival Cruise rolled into a small Virginia town this week on the hunt for a local teen and his coveted Snapchat handle @CarnivalCruise.

The company surprised 15-year-old Darian Lipscomb at his Prospect, Virginia, home Tuesday night after peppering the town with signs asking 'Hey Prospect, does anyone know Darian?'

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports the company offered to trade Lipscomb a free trip for his family abroad its newest ship, Carnival Horizon, in exchange for his Snapchat handle.

Lipscomb told the newspaper he accepted the offer, and was utterly 'surprised' when he walked out of his door and saw a truck with his name on it.

Scroll down for video

Pictured: Darian Lipscomb On Tuesday night, Carnival Cruise traveled to Prospect, Virginia to surprise the 15-year-old and exchange his Snapchat handle

Lipscomb agreed to give up the handle of the company's name in exchange for the trip after he was surprised outside his home with his name on a truck

Lipscomb created the name back in 2012 after he went on an awesome cruise with friends

The net worth of the trip is about $5,000.

Organizers say Lipscomb will receive customized surprises throughout the trip, which will be documented on the cruise's social channels.

The Dispatch reports the company said the trade was a fun way to claim the handle and reward a 'superfan'.

The teen admitted he was a superfan, too, as he created the Snapchat name back in 2012 after he went on an awesome cruise with friends.

'When I was 9 years old, I went on a cruise and got really excited and wanted to share it with my friends,' he told the Times-Dispatch.

Lipscomb had shared Snapchats of himself and his pals tubing, ziplining and having fun.
QUEBEC CITY (AP) - The man accused in the slayings of six men at a Quebec City mosque asked for forgiveness Wednesday after changing his mind and pleading guilty.

Alexandre Bissonnette faced six charges of first-degree murder and six of attempted murder from a shooting rampage during evening prayers at the Islamic Cultural Centre in January 2017. More than 50 people were at the center, and six men aged between 39 and 60 were killed.

"Every minute of my existence I bitterly regret what I did, the lives I have destroyed, the pain and suffering I have caused to so many people, without forgetting the members of my own family," Alexandre Bissonnette said as he read out a letter in court. "I am ashamed of what I did."

FILE - In this Feb. 21, 2017 file photo shot through an obstruction Alexandre Bissonnette arrives at the courthouse in Quebec City. Bissonnette, accused in the slayings of six men at a Quebec City mosque has pleaded not guilty. Bissonnette entered the pleas in a courtroom Monday, March 26, 2018, ahead of pretrial motions to be debated this week. (Mathieu Belanger/The Canadian Press via AP, Pool, File)

The 28-year-old spoke to the court shortly after a judge accepted his guilty pleas. Many people in the courtroom burst out sobbing and held hands as the judge confirmed the guilty pleas.

Bissonnette originally pleaded not guilty to the 12 charges during a court appearance Monday morning but a few hours later announced he wanted to plead guilty.

Superior Court Justice Francois Huot refused to accept the pleas Monday afternoon pending a psychiatric assessment of the accused to ensure he fully understood the consequences of his decision. Huot placed a publication ban on the Monday afternoon proceedings. He accepted the 12 guilty pleas Wednesday.

The fact Bissonnette was never charged with any terrorism-related counts angered many people, particularly those in the Muslim community. On Wednesday, the accused addressed the terrorism angle.

"Despite what has been said about me, I am neither a terrorist nor an Islamophobe," he told the court. "Rather, I am someone who was overcome by fear, by negative thoughts and a sort of horrible kind of despair."

On Monday, Bissonnette said he wanted to plead guilty in order to "avoid a trial and for the victims to not have to relive this tragedy."

Bissonnette told the judge then that he had been thinking for some time of pleading guilty but that he was missing certain pieces of evidence, which were relayed Sunday.

When Huot asked him if he was fully aware of what he was doing, Bissonnette replied, "Yes."

Huot asked Bissonnette whether he knew he would be getting a life sentence and he answered, "I understand."

Huot also asked if he understood he could receive consecutive sentences, meaning 150 years of prison.

"I know," Bissonnette replied in a low voice.

Psychiatrist Sylvain Faucher said Bissonnette "is fit to stand trial and to plead what he wants to plead."

"He did not want to be the perpetrator of another collective drama," said Faucher, who met with Bissonnette on Monday evening.

Many members of Quebec City's Muslim community were present in court Monday and Wednesday.

Amir Belkacemi, whose 60-year-old father, Khaled Belkacemi, was among those killed, said no one wanted to live the trauma again.

"That the trial won't have to take place, it's a good thing for us, it's a good thing for everyone in the community," Amir Belkacemi told reporters. "Very relieved."

Jury selection had been scheduled to start April 3 and the trial to last two months.

Sentencing arguments will take place at a later date.

Those who monitor extremist groups in Quebec described Bissonnette, a French-Canadian university student, as someone who took extreme nationalist positions at Laval University and on social media. He was a supporter of French far-right leader Marine Le Pen and U.S. President Donald Trump.
OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) - Pope Francis will not apologize to Canadian residential school survivors and their families for the role the Roman Catholic Church played in operating the schools or the abuses suffered by their students.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Wednesday he was disappointed by the Catholic church's decision.

Some 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Metis children were taken from their families over much of the last century and put in the schools, where they were forced to convert to Christianity and not allowed to speak their native languages. Many were beaten and verbally and sexually abused, and up to 6,000 are said to have died. Almost two-thirds of the 130 schools were run by the Catholic church.

Bishop Lionel Gendron, president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, said Wednesday in a letter to the Indigenous Peoples of Canada that Francis has not shied away from acknowledging injustices faced by indigenous peoples around the world, but that he can't personally issue an apology for residential schools in Canada.

"The Catholic Bishops of Canada have been in dialogue with the Pope and the Holy See concerning the legacy of suffering you have experienced," Gendron wrote. "After carefully considering the request and extensive dialogue with the bishops of Canada, he felt that he could not personally respond."

A papal apology was one of the 94 recommendations from a Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Canada. Trudeau had also asked the pope to apologize during a visit to the Vatican last year.

"Obviously I am disappointed with the Catholic church's decision," Trudeau said. "We know that taking responsibility for past mistakes and asking forgiveness is something that is core to our values as Canadians."

The Canadian government apologized for the schools in 2008, and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was born out of a negotiated settlement agreement that included compensation for survivors.

Gendron says the pope has not ruled out a visit to Canada and a meeting with indigenous peoples, but in the meantime is encouraging Canadian bishops to continue working with indigenous peoples on reconciliation issues and projects that help with healing.

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde said in a statement he has written to Francis urging him to come to Canada and meet indigenous peoples.

"Hearing an apology directly from Pope Francis would be an important act of healing and reconciliation," Bellegarde said.

Canadian Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett said Canada won't give up on the idea yet.
ATLANTA (AP) - At a funeral that began with the voice of Ray Charles singing "Georgia On My Mind" and ended with taps echoing through the ornate Georgia Capitol rotunda, former Gov. Zell Miller was celebrated Wednesday as a beloved leader who helped bring the state into a more modern era.

Gov. Nathan Deal became emotional as he thanked Miller's family at the former U.S. senator and two-term Georgia governor's state funeral.

"To the family, let me just say thank you for being a part of his life, for being a part of the fabric that has made our state great," Deal said.

A Georgia State Patrol honor guard stands watch over the casket containing the remains of former U.S. senator and two-term Georgia governor Zell Miller in the rotunda of Georgia Capitol before a state funeral. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

Miller died Friday at age 86 in his old family home in the north Georgia mountain town of Young Harris. He had retreated from public view in the past year after his family revealed he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.

Governor from 1991 until 1999, Miller came out of retirement in 2000 at age 68 to fill the final four years of a U.S. Senate term.

"I think what the people appreciated is, he governed on what he campaigned on," U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue said. "And he was determined - you know him - to be very forceful and decisive and knew where he wanted to go."

Perdue reflected on when Miller first gained prominence in state politics and credited him with helping burnish Georgia's image - among its own residents and across the nation.

"Many people in the United States still considered Georgia kind of a backwater state," Perdue said. "And yet Zell Miller, I think, put Georgia on the rails to become a modern state, a progressive state and a state of achievement."

Miller is known nationally for championing the idea of using lottery profits to fund scholarships for schoolchildren.

The HOPE scholarship, which arose from Miller's efforts, was launched in 1993. It pays college tuition for Georgia students maintaining a B average and was funded by establishing a state lottery.

Religious conservatives opposed the lottery as sinful gambling, but Miller won approval from lawmakers and voters, and HOPE scholarships have funded the education of 1.8 million Georgia students since then, according to the Georgia Lottery.

The state funeral was the third ceremony to mourn Miller and honor his legacy. The first was Monday in Young Harris, where Miller began his long political career as mayor after serving as a U.S. Marine. On Tuesday, former Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush spoke at Peachtree Road United Methodist Church in Atlanta.

"His achievements as governor are truly legendary, as was his career in the United States Senate," Deal said. "I think that fact is verified by yesterday, in which three of the five living presidents of the United States attended his funeral here in our capital city."

From a balcony inside the Capitol, a bugler played the somber notes of taps after Deal spoke. Bagpipes played as Miller's body was carried outside to a hearse, where Deal and Perdue replaced the state seal covering his casket with the Marine Corps emblem.

A small family funeral is planned before his burial.

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John Bazemore of The Associated Press contributed.

A Georgia State Patrol honor guard carries the casket containing the remains of former U.S. senator and two-term Georgia governor Zell Miller from the Georgia Capitol Building after a state funeral. Miller died Friday, March 23 at the age of 86. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal embraces former Georgia First Lady Shirley Miller after a state funeral for husband former U.S. senator and two-term Georgia governor Zell Miller Wednesday, March 28, 2018 in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

Pall bearers carry the casket in a procession down the steps of the Capitol after the state funeral Wednesday, March 28, 2018, for Zell Miller, the former U.S. senator and two-term Georgia governor. in the Rotunda of the Capitol in Atlanta. (Bob Andres/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

Gov. Nathan Deal and first lady Sandra Deal, left, and former Gov. Sonny Perdue give a final salute before the motorcade leaves the Capitol after the state funeral for Zell Miller, the former U.S. senator and two-term Georgia governor, Wednesday, March 28, 2018, in the Rotunda of the Capitol in Atlanta. (Bob Andres/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

A bugler plays taps on the 3rd floor balcony at the conclusion of the state funeral Wednesday, March 28, 2018, for Zell Miller, the former U.S. senator and two-term Georgia governor. in the Rotunda of the Capitol in Atlanta. (Bob Andres/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)

Former Governor and Sec. of Agriculture Sonny Perdue delivers his eulogy at the state funeral Wednesday, March 28, 2018, for Zell Miller, the former U.S. senator and two-term Georgia governor. in the Rotunda of the Capitol in Atlanta. (Bob Andres/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)

An honor guard salutes at the state funeral Wednesday, March 28, 2018, for Zell Miller, the former U.S. senator and two-term Georgia governor. in the Rotunda of the Capitol in Atlanta. (Bob Andres/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - The Palestinian population in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem grew by 27 percent in a decade, to 4.780 million, according to preliminary census figures released on Wednesday.

The findings come at a time of renewed debate in Israel about if and when Arabs could reach numerical parity with Jews in the territory between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River. This area encompasses Israel and war-won lands sought by Palestinians for a future state.

Prominent Israeli demographer Sergio Della Pergola reiterated this week that he expects parity in a generation - a prognosis dismissed by Israeli nationalists as skewed and hailed by supporters of an Israeli-Palestinian partition deal as a call for action. Those calling for a Palestinian state alongside Israel say it's the only way - in light of demographic trends - to keep Israel both Jewish and democratic.

Ola Awad, the head of the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, said she expects parity even sooner than Della Pergola, but used different criteria.

Her office released preliminary results from the 2017 census on Wednesday.

According to the figures, 2.881 million Palestinians live in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, and 1.899 million in Gaza.

This marked an increase of 27 percent from 2007 when 3.767 million Palestinians were counted. In the decade between 1997 and 2007, the population grew at a slightly faster pace of 30 percent, Awad said.

She said the total number of Palestinians in the Holy Land, including Israel's large Arab minority, has reached 6.36 million, compared to 6.5 million Jews. Awad said she expects the gap to close as early as 2020.

Della Pergola used a higher figure of 6.9 million on the Jewish side, including non-Jewish spouses. He said he expects parity in 15-20 years.

Della Pergola, from the Hebrew University, said such trends have profound political implications.

"These arguments are very powerful and say, 'friends, if you want a Jewish state, we must have two states, and you must forget the dream of the whole Land of Israel in Jewish hands," he said.

Those challenging such forecasts argue, among other things, that the Gaza Strip should be taken out of the equation because it is cut off from Israel and the West Bank. They also claim that Palestinian population growth has slowed significantly in recent years, and will decline further.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) - A diversity task force at Harvard University is booting a reference to "Puritans" from the school's official song.

The song known as "Fair Harvard" previously ended with the lines "Be the herald of light, and the bearer of love, till the stock of the Puritans die."

But on Tuesday the school's Task Force on Inclusion and Belonging said it will now end, "Till the stars in the firmament die."

The Ivy League school chose the new line after seeking suggestions from students, staff and alumni. The final pick came from a 1984 graduate.

Officials said the old line wrongly tied the school to "ethnic lineage and to the rise and fall of racial groupings."

The task force received 168 suggested replacements. A panel of professors and alumni chose the winner.
PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) - The Latest on Kosovo-Serbia tension (all times local):

7 p.m.

Serbia's president says he has spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin, asking him for advice on how to counter Kosovo's "violence and aggression" against the Serbs.

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with local officials after visiting a memorial for the victims of a fire in a multi-story shopping center in the Siberian city of Kemerovo, about 3,000 kilometers (1,900 miles) east of Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, March 27, 2018. Putin flew to the city of Kemerovo earlier on Tuesday to look at the investigation into the blaze that trapped dozens of parents and children who came to the entertainment center on Sunday on the first weekend of the school recess. (Alexei Druzhinin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Aleksandar Vucic's office said in a statement that he informed Putin about the "brutal attack" by Kosovo police on Monday against a senior Serb official who was arrested and expelled after entering the country without an official permit.

The statement also said that Vucic sought Putin's advice "because it's perfectly clear that (Kosovo) Albanians have wide support of numerous Western states for their unilateral declaration of independence" a decade ago.

The statement didn't say whether Putin had offered any specific advice.

While Russia supports Serbia's claims over its former province, the U.S. and most Western states have recognized Kosovo's independence. Russia has been trying to expand its influence in the Balkans mainly through its traditional Slavic ally Serbia.

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6:20 p.m.

The Kremlin says President Vladimir Putin has strongly condemned the arrest of a senior Serbian official by Kosovo police in a call with the Serbian president.

It said in a statement that Putin and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Wednesday discussed the issue of Kosovo "in the context of the provocative action by Pristina authorities" against Marko Djuric, the head of the Serbian government office for Kosovo.

The statement added that Putin expressed "resolute condemnation" of Djuric's arrest, which he said violated a U.N. Security Council's resolution.

Monday's arrest and expulsion of Djuric angered Serbia and Kosovo Serbs, who don't recognize Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia. The incident also has fueled fears of renewed instability in the region.

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4 p.m.

Kosovo's Serb minority has demanded that the country's interior minister and police chief resign over the arrest and expulsion of a senior official from Serbia's government amid soaring tensions between the bitter foes.

Kosovo police detained Marko Djuric, the head of the Serbian government office for Kosovo, in the divided northern town of Mitrovica on Monday because he entered the country without Kosovo's official approval. He was later expelled under police escort.

Monday's actions angered Serbia and Kosovo Serbs, who don't recognize Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia. The incident also has fueled fears of renewed instability in the region. The U.S. and the European Union have been trying to help resolve the

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11:20 a.m.

The United States has strongly condemned the recent friction between Kosovo and Serbia, saying it could "unnecessarily heighten tensions and threaten regional stability."

Marko Djuric, the head of the Serbian government office for Kosovo, was briefly detained in the divided town of Mitrovica on Monday because he entered the country without Kosovo's official approval. He was expelled under police escort.

The following day, Russia became involved in the dispute and the European Union sent its foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on an urgent trip to Belgrade.

A statement from the U.S. State Department on Tuesday urged all parties to avoid further escalation and resolve disputes peacefully.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia, against Belgrade's wishes, in 2008.
JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel's national carrier is suing the government for allowing Air India to fly over Saudi airspace on its New Delhi-Tel Aviv flights.

El Al said Wednesday Israel's government had pledged to "encourage fair and healthy competition" between Israeli airlines and foreign competitors.

Saudi Arabia and Israel have no diplomatic relations. The kingdom's decision to allow the Indian carrier to fly through its airspace en route to Tel Aviv reflects an apparent behind-the-scenes warming of ties between the two countries.

But El Al says it has been harmed, since it currently has the only flights connecting Mumbai and Tel Aviv. Air India's new route significantly shortens travel time and airfare costs.

El Al requests a halt in Air India flights until Israeli airlines are also allowed to fly over Saudi Arabia.
SUPERIOR, Ariz. (AP) - The Latest on an Arizona woman arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder in the deaths of her two small children (all times local):

5:15 p.m.

Authorities say an Arizona mother of two small children who died after being left for hours in a vehicle tried to blame someone else she said was supposed to be watching them.

A narrative of events released Wednesday by the Pinal County Sheriff's Office says there is no proof that 20-year-old Brittany Velasquez left the children with someone who was to care for them. That person's name is redacted in the document.

Velasquez is being held on $2 million bond on suspicion of first-degree murder in the deaths Monday of her 2-year-old son and infant daughter in the mining town of Superior.

Her case was assigned to the county public defender's office, but a specific attorney has not been named.

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4:30 p.m.

Authorities say an Arizona woman arrested in the deaths of her two small children was the last person to see the infant and toddler alive.

A document released Wednesday by the Pinal County Sheriff's Office says Brittany Velasquez left the children in a car outside the family home in the mining town of Superior and went to work the day they died.

The document says the children were dead when Velasquez returned to the car nearly 14 hours later. They were strapped into car seats and wearing the same clothes they had on in the morning.

Velasquez has been arrested on suspicion of two counts of first-degree murder. Authorities have not disclosed a motive or said how the children died.

Her case has been sent to the county public defender's office, but no specific attorney has been selected yet to represent her.

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11:30 a.m.

The Arizona Department of Child Safety says it made a visit in January to the home of a young woman arrested this week in the deaths of her small son and daughter and found no visible signs of child abuse or neglect.

The agency said in a statement late Tuesday that officials investigating a Jan. 5 neglect report determined Brittany Velasquez had a job and that the apartment where she then lived in the city of Mesa had everything needed for her children. The department provided her with free daycare.

Velasquez' toddler and infant were found dead Monday in their car seats in a car outside the home of relatives in the mining town of Superior.

She 20-year-old was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder.

Authorities have not disclosed a motive or said how the children died.

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10 a.m.

A police report from January cites an unidentified family member of the Arizona mother arrested this week in the deaths of her toddler and infant as saying the woman left the children with relatives for days at a time.

The document blacks out the name of the relative in the small mining town of Superior, where the children's bodies were found Monday night inside their car seats in a car.

The police report says the relative told officers that 20-year-old Brittany Velasquez took her $3,500 fur coat, but it was later returned and the relative did not pursue criminal charges.

The report also said Velasquez would not be investigated for child neglect or abuse until the relative stated she was no longer willing to care for the children.

Velasquez is being held on $2 million on suspicion of two charges of first-degree murder in the deaths of her son and daughter.

Authorities have not said how the children died.

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6 a.m.

Police say they alerted Arizona child protection officials about a 20-year-old mother now being held on suspicion of killing her toddler son and infant daughter, but the department says it did not find evidence of neglect or abuse.

Brittany Velasquez was arrested after her two children were found dead in car seats inside a vehicle late Monday, parked outside the family's home in Superior, a hardscrabble mining town of about 2,900 people about 60 miles (97 kilometers) east of Phoenix. Bond for Velasquez was set at $2 million.

Autopsies were being conducted to determine causes of death of the 2-year-old boy and 10-month-old girl. The Pinal County Sheriff's Office did not immediately disclose what evidence was found.
CHICAGO (AP) - A judge says trial will begin this summer for a Chicago police officer charged with murder in the 2014 shooting death of black teenager Laquan McDonald.

Cook County Judge Vincent Gaughan said Wednesday that he won't give a specific month that Officer Jason Van Dyke's first-degree murder trial will start, "but it will go to trial this summer." Gaughan says he doesn't want bad weather to keep people from getting to the Chicago courthouse.

Van Dyke was indicted more than two years ago after the release of dashcam video showing Van Dyke shoot McDonald 16 times.

Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke walks towards the bench in front of Judge Vincent Gaughan during a hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building, Wednesday, March 28, 2018, in Chicago. Judge Gaughan says trial will begin this summer for Van Dyke, who is charged with murder in the 2014 shooting death of black teenager Laquan McDonald. (Nancy Stone//Chicago Tribune via AP, Pool)

Also on Wednesday, defense attorneys filed a request to change the trial venue. They have said a new venue is needed because a fair trial in Chicago is impossible.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - Alabama's first openly gay legislator received a standing ovation as she bid farewell to the House of Representatives ahead of the last day of the legislative session Wednesday.

Democratic Rep. Patricia Todd of Birmingham will not seek re-election after serving 12 years. Todd said on the House floor Tuesday evening that her life had changed forever when she joined the Alabama legislature as its first openly gay member in 2006.

"You are incredible, beautiful people, some people I thought I would never get along with or never like," Todd told fellow lawmakers.

FILE - In this Jun3 29, 2013 file photo, State Rep. Patricia Todd, D-Jefferson County, Alabama's first and only openly gay legislator speaks at the Madison County Democratic Headquarters in Huntsville. Todd, a Democrat from Birmingham, will not seek re-election after serving 12 years. Todd said on the House floor, Tuesday, March 27, 2018, that her colleagues are "incredible, beautiful people" who all treated her with equality, even though some she thought she "would never get along with or like." (Bob Gathany/AL.com via AP)

She said that when she speaks to gay political candidates around the country, they always ask how she's received in Alabama. She answers that she's treated like anyone else.

"You walked into this institution that's never had anybody like you. It's Alabama. I was prepared for the worst. But you know, I've never heard anybody make any crude remark. Everybody's always been very respectful," Todd told the Associated Press.

Todd was married twice while a House member, first in Massachusetts in early 2015 and then, following a divorce, in Alabama in late 2016 after the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. Her second marriage came two months after Roy Moore, then chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, was suspended for ordering probate judges to refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Todd said Moore's order didn't affect her because judges in Jefferson County where she lived supported same-sex marriage. She said that although Moore had supporters in the Alabama legislature, gay marriage was never a point of debate after the Supreme Court's ruling.

Moore lost Alabama's special U.S. Senate election in December 2017.

Todd, one of few white Democrats in the GOP-dominated House, helped pass a law to allow marijuana-derived medication for treating severe seizures and expanded its use to more patients two years later.

More often than not though, Todd's bills failed. She unsuccessfully pushed her colleagues to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana, legalize medical marijuana and add sexual orientation as a protected category under the state's hate crime law.

On the latter point, she said, "I'd hoped to make progress on that. But Alabama's not ready."

But she said she fought against what she called discriminatory bills that came through the chamber, adding, "I haven't passed many bills, but I haven't let things happen."

She wished she could have stopped a 2017 law that allowed faith-based adoption organizations to refuse to place children with gay parents or other households because of their religious beliefs.

Todd, whose background is in activism, said she's taking away future lessons from her legislative experience.

"What I learned is how to actively listen and try to understand their reasoning behind their positions and to be respectful and I think that makes me a better activist," she said.

"I hope I opened up some hearts and minds," Todd told her fellow lawmakers Tuesday evening. "I won't be the last. There will be other openly gay folks that join this chamber."

She is supporting two other openly gay candidates running for the Alabama Legislature in 2018. Neil Rafferty, a gay former Marine who works with Birmingham AIDS Outreach, is one of three Democrats who are running for Todd's seat. Todd is also supporting gay Democratic businesswoman Felicia Stewart, who is running against incumbent Rep. David Faulkner, a Republican, in one of the state's wealthiest suburbs.

A native of Kentucky, Todd has lived in Alabama since 1984. She said she has her eye on a few job opportunities after the session including possibly as the executive director of an advocacy organization formed in Orlando, Florida, after the Pulse gay nightclub shooting.

Todd said she chose not to attend the last day of the session Wednesday because she is "terrible at saying goodbye."
The Justice Department's internal watchdog said Wednesday it will examine Republican complaints of FBI misconduct in the early stages of the Russia investigation.

Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz's investigation comes at the request of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and congressional Republicans.

They have been urging his office to review whether FBI and Justice Department officials abused their surveillance powers in using information compiled by a former British spy and paid for by Democrats as part of the basis to justify monitoring a former campaign adviser to Donald Trump.

Horowitz said his office will look at those claims, as well as communications among the spy, Christopher Steele, and Justice Department and FBI officials.

Notorious figure: The use by the FBI of the golden showers dossier drawn up by ex-British spy Christopher Steele will be examined by the probe

Crisis: The FBI's deputy director Andrew McCabe (left) has already been fired - a day short of his retirement date - over a finding of misconduct. New FBI Director Chris Wray must now try to right the ship

Republicans have been fuming about they see as bias within the FBI, while Democrats say the surveillance abuse allegations are designed to undermine special counsel Robert Mueller's sprawling investigation into the Trump campaign's ties to Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Horowitz's review comes weeks after Republicans on the House intelligence committee released a declassified memo that detailed the use of political opposition research to obtain a warrant to monitor Carter Page, the former adviser to Trump's campaign.

The GOP memo describes the department's use of information compiled by Steele in obtaining a secret warrant to monitor Page's communications. Steele's anti-Trump research was paid for by Democrat Hillary Clinton's campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

As the Republicans suggested the FBI may have conspired against Trump, Democrats countered with their own memo that said the FBI only 'made narrow use' of that research.

Sessions referred the Republican complaints to the inspector general's office, a move that enraged Trump, who denounced it as 'disgraceful' and said Sessions should have ordered his own investigation. Sessions insisted he had taken the appropriate step.

Pressure: James Comey is publishing his book next month about his firing as FBI director - but the new move puts his record under scrutiny. And it could also impact on Robert Mueller's special counsel investigation

The new investigation comes as the FBI is already under intense political pressure. Horowitz's office has been examining for more than year the FBI's handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation, an inquiry focused not only on specific decisions made by FBI leadership but also on news media leaks.

That investigation formed the basis for the firing of former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. That inspector general's report has not been released but is expected out soon.

Some Republicans praised Horowitz's latest move, including Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who has criticized the process for obtaining secret surveillance warrants and had sought an inspector general review.

'Federal surveillance authority is an important tool to combat terrorism and keep Americans safe, but it must be used by the book in order to protect the constitutional rights and civil liberties of all Americans,' he said Wednesday.

Democrats have said the investigations are a waste of money and time.

'It is a shame that the inspector general has to devote resources to investigate a conspiracy theory as fact-free, openly political, and thoroughly debunked as the president's so-called 'FISA abuse,'' said New York Rep. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. He said the review would show the FBI acted appropriately.

Under pressure from lawmakers to move more quickly, FBI Director Christopher Wray said Tuesday that he has now assigned 54 FBI staff to collecting documents for separate congressional investigations into the Justice Department initiated by the House Judiciary panel's Republicans. The staff, he said, are working from 8 a.m. to midnight.
HONOLULU (AP) - Sentencing has been postponed again for a North Carolina man who prosecutors say scammed the University of Hawaii out of $200,000 by lying about his ability to secure Stevie Wonder for a fundraiser concert.

Marc Hubbard was scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday, but his defense attorney, William Harrison, asked for time to review Hubbard's pre-sentence report prepared by probation officials.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Marc Wallenstein objected to another delay. "This proceeding has been put off, I can't tell you how many times," he said.

FILE - In this Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2016, file photo, North Carolina concert promoter Marc Hubbard walks to federal court in Honolulu. Nearly a year and a half after pleading guilty to scamming the University of Hawaii out of $200,000, the man who said he lied about being able to bring Stevie Wonder to the school for a concert is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday, March 28, 2018. (Dennis Oda/The Star-Advertiser via AP, File)

A judge rescheduled the sentencing hearing for April 6.

Hubbard pleaded guilty to wire fraud in 2016. His sentencing has been postponed several times. The day before his sentencing was scheduled last month, he filed a motion asking to take back his guilty plea.

He said he's innocent and was coerced into pleading guilty because he feared prosecutors would reveal he cooperated against East Coast mobsters. Prosecutors denied that and said while he did offer to cooperate against purported organized crime figures, his help was useless.

A judge rejected his request to withdraw his guilty plea, ruling that there was nothing ambiguous in the questions he was asked during his 2016 guilty plea hearing and the answers he gave. She noted that at the time she asked him if he agreed that relying on his false statements, the university wired $200,000 and he replied "yes."

The university paid the $200,000 deposit in 2012 then began selling tickets before learning that neither Wonder nor his representatives had authorized a show.

Thousands of ticket purchases had to be refunded, causing embarrassment for the school and prompting investigations.

A special state Senate committee that investigated the university's handling of the bungled concert said the incident tarnished the university's reputation.

The committee said no one at the university looked into whether the agent was an authorized representative of the singer. They also faulted a lack of oversight and communication in the school's athletics department, general counsel and disbursing office.

As part of a plea deal, prosecutors will recommend his sentence run concurrently with the more than six-years he's serving for a similar Pennsylvania case.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - A former FBI agent who allegedly shared secret documents with a national media organization has been charged months after Attorney General Jeff Sessions vowed to crack down on government leaks.

Terry J. Albury, who was an agent in Minnesota, faces two counts of unauthorized disclosure of national defense information. He was charged Tuesday by felony information, which typically indicates a defendant will plead guilty.

The charges allege Albury shared two documents with a reporter, including one dated Aug. 17, 2011, that relates to how the FBI assesses confidential informants. The other document, which is undated, pertains to "threats posed by certain individuals from a particular Middle Eastern country," according to the information.

The charges say Albury shared the documents sometime between February 2016 and Jan. 31, 2017.

Prosecutors don't name a reporter or news organization, but on Jan. 31 of last year, The Intercept posted a story about how the FBI assesses and manages informants. The story references a secret document dated Aug. 17, 2011, that deals with assessing informants and recruiting them by identifying their "motivations and vulnerabilities."

The Trump administration has made prosecuting government employees who leak sensitive information to the media a high priority. Last year, Sessions pledged to clamp down on leaks, noting that the Justice Department had more than tripled the number of active leak investigations since President Barack Obama left office and that the FBI had created a new counterintelligence unit to focus on such cases. He told members of Congress in November that the department was conducting 27 investigations into leaks of classified information.

Albury's attorneys, JaneAnne Murray and Joshua Dratel, said in a statement that Albury served the U.S. with distinction domestically and in Iraq and "accepts full responsibility for the conduct set forth in the Information."

They also said that as the only African-American FBI field agent in Minnesota, his actions were driven by a "conscientious commitment to long-term national security and addressing the well-documented systemic biases within the FBI."

The local FBI office referred questions to the Justice Department, which is handling the case. A spokesman with the Justice Department declined to comment beyond the charging documents.

According to search warrant applications obtained by the Star Tribune, Albury began working for the FBI in 2000 and most recently was assigned to work on counterterrorism and other matters at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

The search warrant applications say the FBI linked references to secret documents in data requests filed by The Intercept to Albury's activity on the bureau's information systems. The FBI also later identified 27 documents - 16 marked classified - that The Intercept published, and found that Albury had accessed more than two-thirds of them.

The charges filed Tuesday also allege that from April 7, 2017, to Aug. 28, 2017, Albury willfully kept a document about an online platform used by a specific terrorist group for recruitment, and failed to give it to an officer and federal employee who was entitled to it.

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Associated Press writer Sadie Gurman contributed from Washington.

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Follow Amy Forliti on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/amyforliti . More of her work at: https://apnews.com/search/amy%20forliti .
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - Hundreds of journalists wearing white shirts marched through Haiti's capital Wednesday to demand an investigation into why a freelance photographer vanished two weeks earlier while on assignment.

Vladjimir Legagneur disappeared March 14 after entering the Grand Ravine area, considered one of the poorest and most dangerous districts in Port-au-Prince. He has not been heard from since, and none of his belongings have been found as anger and frustration grow over a lack of answers from police and justice officials.

"We expect more from the justice system," photographer Jeanty Junior Augustin said as he marched with hundreds of other journalists.

Fleurette Guerrier, the wife of missing photojournalist Vladjimir Legagneur, joins hundreds of journalists in a march to demand an investigation into why the freelance photographer vanished while on assignment, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday March 28, 2018. Legagneur disappeared on March 14 after entering the community of Grand Ravine, considered one of the poorest and most dangerous in Port-au-Prince. He has not been heard of since, and none of his belongings have been found as anger and frustration grows over a lack of answers from police and justice officials. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)

Legagneur grew up in a slum similar to those he was visiting in recent weeks as part of a project to illustrate life in Haiti's slums. The 30-year-old freelancer also was preparing for an upcoming workshop in Paris.

Police said earlier Wednesday that they have started to receive specific information about Legagneur's disappearance, but authorities provided no further details except to say they don't believe he was kidnapped because there has been no demand for ransom.

Legagneur's wife, Fleurette Guerrier, told reporters earlier this week that she always stayed in contact with him whenever he went out on risky assignments. She said that when she called him and got no response hours after he had left the house March 14, she contacted police.

Legagneur worked for the newspaper Le Matin and online news agency LoopHaiti before becoming a freelancer for local media and non-governmental groups. Colleagues said he was always eager to learn more and had a particular interest in capturing human expressions.

The U.S. government has warned people about the dangers of Grand Ravine, saying it is one of a handful of communities that has presented problems even for United Nations peacekeepers and Haiti's police.

Gustavo Mohme, president of the Florida-based Inter American Press Association, demanded that Haitian officials "act with a sense of urgency and exhaustively investigate in order to locate the journalist as soon as possible and punish those responsible."

A journalist holds up a framed image of 30-year-old photojournalist Vladjimir Legagneur in a march to demand an investigation into why the freelance photographer vanished while on assignment, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday March 28, 2018. Legagneur disappeared on March 14 after entering the community of Grand Ravine, considered one of the poorest and most dangerous in Port-au-Prince. He has not been heard of since, and none of his belongings have been found as anger and frustration grows over a lack of answers from police and justice officials. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)

Reporters hold a banner with a question that asks in French: "Where is Vladjimir?" as hundreds of journalists marched to demand an investigation into why the 30-year-old photojournalist Vladjimir Legagneur vanished while on assignment, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday March 28, 2018. Legagneur disappeared on March 14 after entering the community of Grand Ravine, considered one of the poorest and most dangerous in Port-au-Prince. He has not been heard of since, and none of his belongings have been found as anger and frustration grows over a lack of answers from police and justice officials. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)

A news photographer holds the edge of a banner that shows a photo of missing journalist Vladjimir Legagneur 30, during a march to demand an investigation into why the 30-year-old photojournalist vanished while on assignment, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday March 28, 2018. Legagneur disappeared on March 14 after entering the community of Grand Ravine, considered one of the poorest and most dangerous in Port-au-Prince. He has not been heard of since, and none of his belongings have been found as anger and frustration grows over a lack of answers from police and justice officials. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)
WASHINGTON (AP) - An attorney for adult film star Stormy Daniels has filed a motion seeking to depose President Donald Trump and his attorney over the alleged sexual encounter she had with the president years ago.

If successful, the deposition would be the first of a sitting president since President Bill Clinton in 1998.

Here's a look back at other times presidents have testified under oath:

June 1994 - President Bill Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton provide sworn testimony to the special prosecutor investigating the death of a White House lawyer and White House contacts with Treasury regulators about the Whitewater investigation. The president was questioned for 90 minutes in the White House residence by Whitewater special counsel Robert Fiske and an assistant. Later, Mrs. Clinton was interviewed for an hour. The session marked the first time a sitting president had given a deposition about his official conduct, the New York Times reported at the time.

April 1995 - The Clintons are interviewed under oath by Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr at the White House. The president and first lady were questioned separately, for about two hours each in the residential quarters of the White House.

April 1996 - President Clinton gives four hours of videotaped testimony as a defense witness in the criminal trial of his former Whitewater business partners. After testifying for the defense for 45 minutes and a brief break, the president faced more than three hours of cross-examination by the prosecution at the White House.

July 1996 - President Clinton testifies for more than two hours in the case of Arkansas bankers Herby Branscum Jr. and Robert M. Hill. They were accused of illegally using bank funds to reimburse themselves for contributions to political candidates - including Clinton in 1990 when he ran for governor and in 1991 when he considered seeking the presidency.

January 1998 - President Clinton testifies for almost six hours in response to the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit. During the lengthy session in his lawyer's office, Clinton denies having a sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky. The testimony marked the first time a sitting American president had testified as a defendant in any criminal or civil suit.

August 1998 - Clinton undergoes more than four hours of questioning from independent counsel Kenneth Starr before a federal grand jury and testifies that he engaged in an inappropriate relationship with Lewinsky, a White House intern. The questioning is transmitted via a scrambled video signal from the White House to the grand jury. The session marked the first time a president had testified before a grand jury investigating his own conduct.

Other examples:

Reagan:

- In December 1987, then-President Ronald Reagan submitted written answers that amounted to sworn testimony in response to questions submitted by independent counsel Lawrence Walsh in the investigation of the Iran-Contra affair. After leaving office, Reagan also testified for the defense in the Iran-Contra trial of his former national security adviser, John Poindexter. Poindexter was convicted on five felony counts, but the convictions were later overturned on appeal. Then-Vice President George H.W. Bush also gave sworn testimony.

Carter:

- President Jimmy Carter testified twice on video, once as a government witness in the prosecution of a Georgia state senator in 1978 and again in an investigation of financier Robert Vesco in 1980. In 1979, Carter gave a four-hour sworn deposition to the special counsel who investigated the Carter family's peanut business in Georgia. The special counsel concluded there was no evidence of any criminal wrongdoing. Carter also gave a deposition to the Justice Department about conversations he'd had with his attorney general regarding an investigation into whether his brother had violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act, according to the New York Times.

Ford:

- On November 1, 1975, then-President Gerald Ford gave a videotaped deposition in the trial of Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, who was convicted of trying to assassinate Ford. The videotape was played for jurors at Fromme's trial.

Nixon:

- In May 1975, former President Richard Nixon delivered secret testimony to a grand jury about the Watergate break-in that drove him from office. The testimony was ordered released 36 years later, in 2011, by a federal judge.

Jefferson:

- The first attempt to force a sitting president to testify at a criminal trial came in in 1807 from Aaron Burr, the former vice president, who was on trial for treason. Burr tried to force President Thomas Jefferson, under whom he had served, to travel from Washington to Richmond, Virginia, to testify at the trial. The president eventually got out of going.
VALENCIA, Venezuela (AP) - Venezuela's chief prosecutor reported late Wednesday that 68 people died in a fire that swept through the cell area inside a police station, which townspeople said followed a disturbance by detainees being held there.

Attorney General Tarek William Saab said on his official Twitter account that nearly all the dead were prisoners. He said two women who were staying overnight at the station were also killed, but didn't provide any further details.

Saab said four prosecutors had been named to determine what happened at the state police headquarters in Valencia, a town in Carabobo state about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of Caracas.

Relatives wait to hear news about the fate of detained prisoners at a police station where a riot broke out, in Valencia, Venezuela, Wednesday, March 28, 2018. In a state police station housing more than one hundred prisoners, a riot culminated in a fire, requiring authorities to open a hole in a wall to rescue the inmates. (AP Photo/Juan Carlos Hernandez)

It was one of the worst jail disasters in a country where human rights groups complain about bad prison conditions. A fire at a prison in the western state of Zulia killed more than 100 inmates in 1994.

Local authorities in Valencia had confirmed earlier only that there were fatalities, and said they were working to determine an exact number. They said they were not providing any estimates "out of respect for the families."

Angry relatives who gathered outside the station said dozens of detainees had been kept in squalid conditions at the station and expressed fear that their loved ones were dead.

Dozens of men and women demanding to know if their loved ones had survived clashed with police officers in riot gear. Police used tear gas to disperse the crowd.

"I don't know if my son is dead or alive!" cried Aida Parra, who said she last saw her son a day before, when she went to deliver him food. "They haven't told me anything."

A Window to Freedom, a nonprofit group that monitors conditions at Venezuela's jails, said preliminary but unconfirmed information indicated the riot began when an armed detainee shot an officer in the leg. Shortly after that a fire broke out, with flames growing quickly as the blaze spread to mattresses in the cells, it said. Rescuers apparently had to break a hole through a wall to free some of the prisoners inside.

Photos shared by the group showed prisoners being taken out on stretchers, their limbs frozen in awkward positions as skin peeled off.

A Window to Freedom's director, Carlos Nieto Palma, said officials should be held accountable for failing to address deteriorating conditions in police station jails. The group said overcrowding has become common throughout the country as detainees are kept long past customary brief holding periods before being sent to other larger jails before trial or freed.

"It's grave and alarming," Nieto Palma said. "What happened today in Carabobo is a sign of that."

Outside the police station, some relatives buried their hands in their faces as tears streamed down their cheeks. Others had to be held up with the support of friends and family as they collapsed in despair. Still others wept quietly and clutched their hands in prayer.

Nearby, National Guard troops wearing bullet-proof vests and carrying rifles across their backs walked in and out of the station. Fire trucks and ambulances stood outside, and unused stretchers leaned against a wall.

Opposition lawmaker Juan Miguel Matheus demanded that the pro-government leader of Carabobo state inform relatives about what had happened.

"The desperation of relatives should not be played with," he said.

Clashes between prisoners and guards are not uncommon in Venezuela. Inmates are frequently able to obtain weapons and drugs with the help of corrupt guards and heavily armed groups control cellblock fiefdoms.

A woman is overcome by tear gas that was used to disperse the relatives of prisoners who were waiting to hear news about their family members imprisoned at a police station where a riot broke out, in Valencia, Venezuela, Wednesday, March 28, 2018. In a state police station housing more than one hundred prisoners, a riot culminated in a fire, requiring authorities to open a hole in a wall to rescue the inmates. (AP Photo/Juan Carlos Hernandez)

A woman kicks at a riot police shield as relatives of prisoners wait to hear news about their family members imprisoned at a police station where a riot broke out, in Valencia, Venezuela, Wednesday, March 28, 2018. In a state police station housing more than one hundred prisoners, a riot culminated in a fire, requiring authorities to open a hole in a wall to rescue the inmates. (AP Photo/Juan Carlos Hernandez)

Police officers disperse the relatives of prisoners who were waiting to hear news about their family members imprisoned at a police station when a riot broke out, in Valencia, Venezuela, Wednesday, March 28, 2018. In a state police station housing more than one hundred prisoners, a riot culminated in a fire, requiring authorities to open a hole in a wall to rescue the inmates. (AP Photo/Juan Carlos Hernandez)
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - A judicial board accused a New Jersey judge of violating rules of conduct when he asked a woman during a court hearing if she tried closing her legs to prevent an alleged sexual assault.

State Superior Court Judge John Russo made the comment during a 2016 hearing on a restraining order the woman was seeking against a man she accused of forcing her to have sex.

According to a transcript contained in the complaint, when the woman described her encounter with the man, Russo asked her, "Do you know how to stop somebody from having intercourse with you?"

When the woman answered affirmatively and said one method would be to run away, Russo continued, "Close your legs? Call the police? Did you do any of those things?"

The complaint filed this week alleged Russo "mistreated the victim."

The panel also accused him of other instances of violating rules on judicial conduct, including ruling on an alimony case in which Russo acknowledged he knew both parties.

In that case, according to the complaint, Russo reversed an order by another judge who had issued a bench warrant for the man unless he paid $10,000 in back alimony. Russo ultimately reduced that to $300.

Russo's attorney said Wednesday the judge looks forward to a hearing on the matter.

"Judge Russo looks forward to a public hearing in which he will be able to respond to the allegations against him," attorney David Corrigan said. "We have respect for the process as well as the advisory committee on judicial conduct, and therefore won't comment further."

Corrigan said he has 20 days to respond to the complaint, and that a hearing likely would not take place for several months.

Russo, who is assigned to Ocean County, has been on paid administrative leave since last year stemming from a separate matter.
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) - The United States Naval Academy says it has dismissed a white midshipman for using a racial slur for African-Americans in online communications with other midshipmen.

Jeff McFadden, an attorney for Midshipman 4th Class Ted Colter, tells The Capital the plebe was expelled Feb. 26 for unsatisfactory conduct and plans to appeal on grounds that the language is common to a "generation of street-tough teenagers" from Colter's home in the New York City borough of Queens.

Academy spokesman Cmdr. David McKinney says the incident is the first in recent memory of a midshipman being dismissed for using a racial slur.

McFadden provided a memo from academy Superintendent Vice Adm. Ted Carter saying two midshipmen had filed complaints against Colter, who they say ignored their requests to stop using the slur word.

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Information from: The Capital, http://www.capitalgazette.com/
Thousands of empty properties across England could be brought back into use under new legislation allowing council tax to be doubled on homes left unoccupied for years.

Councils will be handed powers to levy additional charges on homes standing empty for two years or more.

The move is part of a range of Government measures aimed at increasing the number of available homes and comes alongside efforts to boost housebuilding.

Rishi Sunak gave details of the new council tax powers (Chris McAndrew/UK Parliament/PA)

Local government minister, Rishi Sunak, said: It is simply wrong that, while there are 200,000 long-term empty properties across the country, thousands of families are desperate for a secure place to call home.

This new power will equip councils with the tools they need to encourage owners of long-term empty properties to bring them back into use  and at the same time tackle the harmful effect they have on communities through squatting, vandalism and anti-social behaviour.

The move was announced in the November 2017 Budget.

Chancellor Philip Hammond said previously: It cant be right to leave property empty when so many are desperate for a place to live.

So we will give local authorities the power to charge a 100% council tax premium on empty properties.

According to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, the number of homes empty for six months or longer is substantially lower than when records began in 2004, when the figure was 318,642.

Chancellor Philip Hammond announced the measure in the Budget (Yui Mok/PA)

It said as of October 2017, the number had fallen to 205,293.

And it said the number of empty homes has reduced dramatically since 2013, when councils were given powers to charge a 50% premium on council tax bills empty for two years or more.

The Government said guidance makes clear the premium should not be used to penalise owners of homes that are genuinely on the market for rent or sale.

There are exemptions in place for homes are empty due to the occupant living in armed forces accommodation for job-related purposes, or to annexes being used as part of a main property.

Also, the council tax system provides statutory exemptions for properties left empty for a specific purpose, for example, when someone goes into care.

Councils also have powers to apply discounts in cases where homes are empty due to special circumstances such as hardship, fire or flooding.

There is a council tax exemption for homes which are empty due to probate.
A man who denies stealing Frances McDormands Oscar from an after party will appear in court charged with theft.

Terry Bryant, 47, will appear before a judge in Los Angeles on Wednesday accused of swiping the best actress Academy Award as McDormand celebrated her victory for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri at the Governors Ball.

Bryant, described as a sweet, gentle man of faith by his rabbi, was released on bail after pleading not guilty to one charge of grand theft of property.

The court was previously told Bryant has 13 primarily theft-related convictions from between 1994 and 2012.

He was see leaving the ball in a tuxedo as he showed off the award to photographers, including one who confronted Bryant after not recognising him as a victor.

Bryant was also seen planting a kiss on the awards head in a video selfie on Facebook on March 4.

Look it, baby. My team got this tonight. This is mine, he said in the now-deleted clip.

Frances McDormand won the award for best performance an actress in a leading role for her turn in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Photo by Eric Jamison/Invision/AP)

His lawyer, Daniel Brookman, previously said there is a difference between holding an Oscar and what he is charged with.

A publicist for McDormand, 60, said she was happily reunited with the award, her second best actress Oscar.

Mr Brookman said his Los Angeles-based client will appear on bail at Foltz Criminal Justice Centre.
The policeman who died in last weeks extremist attack in southern France is being honoured in an elaborate, daylong national homage led by French President Emmanuel Macron.

It comes as questions are being raised about possible failures in French counter-terrorism tracking of the gunman, who was on a radicalisation watch list before he went on a rampage last Friday.

Arnaud Beltrame (Emilio Morenatti/AP)

The coffin of Lieutenant Colonel Arnaud Beltrame was carried in procession in the Wednesday morning drizzle from the Pantheon across Paris to the Hotel des Invalides, the final resting place of Napoleon.

The French president will deliver a public eulogy in front of colleagues and family of Mr Beltrame, who died of his wounds on Saturday morning, hours after swapping himself for a hostage during a siege in a supermarket.

A convoy of French Republican Guards escorting the coffin of late Lieutenant Colonel Arnaud Beltrame arrive at a national ceremony at the Hotel des Invalides in Paris (Ludovic Marin, Pool via AP)

During the ceremony, Mr Macron will posthumously award Mr Beltrame the Legion of Honour, Frances highest award.

Three former presidents, Francois Hollande, Nicolas Sarkozy and Valery Giscard dEstaing, are also attending in a symbol of the political dimension this ceremony has taken.

Former French presidents Francois Hollande, left, and Nicolas Sarkozy wait prior to a national ceremony for Arnaud Beltrame (Christophe Ena/AP)

The national homage includes a minutes silence in French police stations and myriad events in schools that both honour Mr Beltrames memory and provide a focal point for national grief after last Fridays killing spree.

Some 2,000 high school students and scores of police attended the Paris event that began as gendarmes sang the French revolutionary anthem the Marseillaise in the stone courtyard of the French Interior Ministry.

Police officers escort for the coffin of late Lieutenant Colonel Arnaud Beltrame (Etienne Laurent, Pool via AP)

The ministrys boss, Gerard Collomb, maintained on Wednesday morning that there were no dysfunctions in tracking Mr Beltrames killer, Redouane Lakdim, who also killed three other people before he was shot dead by police.

Speaking on France Inter, amid questions on possible failures in counter-terrorism tracking, Mr Collomb confirmed the security services were about to reduce the surveillance on Lakdim, who was on a radicalisation watch list.

French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron attend the ceremony (Ludovic Marin, Pool via AP)

He said ultimately no one thought that there would be a hasty attack by Lakdim, a Moroccan-born French resident with dual nationality.

Questions have been also raised by authorities in Morocco.

People applaud as the coffin of Arnaud Beltrame leaves the Pantheon in Paris (Etienne Laurent, Pool via AP)

The chief of a counter-terrorism agency, known as Moroccos FBI, said on Tuesday that France never alerted his country about Lakdims radical behaviour  calling the absence of contact a misunderstanding.

Since the attack, the agency  created three years ago to consolidate counter-terrorism efforts  has been investigating Lakdims family members in Morocco, Abdelhak Khiame told The Associated Press

Lakdim visited Morocco several times, most recently in February 2012, before the establishment of the Islamic State, Mr Khiame added.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have given 930 million dollars (505m) to US humanitarian efforts in Yemen.

The nations made the pledge on Tuesday, as a war between a Saudi-led military coalition and Yemens Shiite rebels enters its fourth year.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman presented the previously pledged donation to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as the two discussed Yemen.

The Arab worlds poorest country is in the grips of a stalemated war and what the UN calls the worst humanitarian crisis, with 22 million people needing aid.

Mr Guterres thanked Prince Mohammed for the contribution, which covers nearly a third of the total the UN is seeking for Yemen humanitarian aid this year.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, right rear, and Saudi Arabias Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, left rear, watch as their representatives sign a voluntary financial contribution memo for the Yemeni humanitarian response plan at UN headquarters (Eskinder Debebe/United Nations via AP)

On the other hand, we know that there is no humanitarian solution for humanitarian problems, Mr Guterres added. The solution is political, and we are entirely at your disposal to work together to find a political solution when that becomes possible.

The UN said Mr Guterres and the prince also discussed protecting civilians and needs for humanitarian access and open ports.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir called the meeting very productive and comprehensive.

He said the two talked about avoiding foreign intervention in Yemen, particularly from Iran.

Western countries and UN researchers have accused Iran of supplying arms to the Yemeni rebels, known as Houthis. Iran denies it, though a growing body of evidence contradicts the claim.

The US provides logistical support and weaponry to the Saudi-led coalition, which has been criticised for airstrikes that kill civilians and for a port blockade that brought Yemen to the edge of famine.

The Houthis and their allies seized Yemens capital, Sanaa, in September 2014. The war began six months later, with the coalition backing Yemens internationally recognised government.

Over 10,000 people have been killed.

On Sunday, the rebels fired a barrage of ballistic missiles targeting Saudi Arabia. Fragments of one missile that went over Riyadh, the Saudi capital, killing one person and wounding two.
The head of the Army, General Sir Nick Carter, is to be the new Chief of the Defence Staff, the Government has announced.

Gen Carter will succeed Air Marshal Sir Stuart Peach when he stands down as Britains most senior military officer in June to become chairman of Natos military committee.

The announcement of Gen Carters appointment comes just two month after he publicly entered the debate over defence spending, warning the UK was in danger of being left behind by adversaries like Russia.

General Sir Nick Carter is to be the new Chief of the Defence Staff (Steve Parsons/PA)

NEWS: Her Majesty the Queen has approved the appointment of @ArmyCGS to take over from Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach as the next Chief of the Defence Staff this summer https://t.co/swzKUyLwml pic.twitter.com/TKjszPM8tk  Ministry of Defence  (@DefenceHQ) March 28, 2018

First commissioned as an officer in The Royal Green Jackets in 1978, he served in Northern Ireland, Cyprus, Germany, Bosnia and Kosovo.

He subsequently commanded the 20th Armoured Brigade in Iraq in 2004 and the 6th Division in Afghanistan in 2009/10.

Appointed Director General Land Warfare in 2011, he was the chief architect of the Army 2020 restructuring plan published the following year.

He served as deputy commander of the US-led coalition in Afghanistan from October 2012 to August 2013, before becoming Chief of the General Staff in September 2014.

Announcing his appointment as Chief of the Defence Staff, Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said: Gen Carter has been an exceptional Chief of the General Staff, leading the Army at a time of rapid change, with troops deployed to deter Russian aggression and protect our Nato allies in the east.

Prime Minister Theresa May said: I have been impressed not only by the reforms he has carried out with the British Army, but by the care he has demonstrated for the men and women under his command.

It is also a testament to him that over his period of leadership the Army has become more reflective of the society it serves.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said British special services could have been behind the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Salisbury.

Britain has accused Russia of a nerve agent attack on former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

Russia has fiercely rejected the accusations, calling them baseless.

Police in protective suits at The Maltings shopping centre, where former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found critically ill (Ben Birchall/PA)

These 5 slides are literally all the confidential evidence @foreignoffice presented to prove its point in Skripal case. No wonder over 160 countries were not impressed. pic.twitter.com/4qBFzI0U4X  Russian Embassy, UK (@RussianEmbassy) March 28, 2018

More than 20 nations have expelled over 130 Russian diplomats this week in a show of solidarity with Britain.

Russia denounced the actions as boorish and pledged to retaliate.

The Russian Foreign ministrys claim of possible involvement of British special services in the poisoning marks Moscows bluntest claim yet of alleged British foul play.

British officials have previously rejected such Russian claims as nonsense.

Moscow said the British failure to provide evidence suggests the poisoning was a major political provocation.
Archie Panjabi has said she was once warned that it was impossible for Indian women to make it in Hollywood.

The British-born Asian actress, 45, said early in her career an agent told her she would struggle to get her big break in Tinseltown.

She said there were still too few leading lady roles for women of colour on the big screen.

Archie Panjabi said there were still too few leading lady roles for women of colour on the big screen (Ian West/PA)

Panjabi said in National Geographic magazine: When I started out it was challenging because there were very few roles for women who looked like me.

I was even told by an agent that it was impossible for Indian women to make it in Hollywood.

The actress got her first big film break in 1999 in East Is East, which explored the lives of a Pakistani immigrant family in the UK.

It was an exciting time as more characters that truly reflected the (British) population soon arrived on screen, said Panjabi in Aprils special race issue of the magazine.

I believe that great drama can shine a light on the intricacies of race and prejudice and enable us to gain a better understanding.

But she added: I think its safe to say that there is still only a tiny percentage of leading roles in Hollywood films for women of colour, let alone for women of Indian origin!

I definitely have to fight against that.

She went on: Diversity isnt just about race. It isnt about being black or white.

The society in which we live should be reflected accurately on screen in terms of age, gender, socioeconomic background, race, sexual orientation, disability, and physical attributes.

The actress guest edited National Geographic as part of the magazines 130th birthday celebrations this year.

Panjabis full interview will be in Aprils issue of National Geographic, out on April 4.
Tributes have been paid to Britains youngest councillor following her death at the age of 21.

Clarissa Slade, who was just 18 when she was elected as a Conservative councillor for Mid Devon District Council in 2015, was found dead at her flat in Winchester on Monday.

Hampshire Police say the death of Miss Slade, a student at the University of Winchester, is being treated as unexplained.

Clarissa Slade was found dead at her flat in Winchester on Monday (Mid Devon District Council/PA)

Her father Colin Slade, who is also a Conservative councillor in Devon along with Miss Slades mother Elizabeth, said the family were still pretty much in the dark as to the circumstances.

Mr Slade told the Daily Telegraph: It is such a shock. She was due to come back to visit and the first thing we knew was when she was not on the train.

She had a bright future ahead, she was very keen on politics and she was a very bright young councillor, the youngest in the country when she was elected.

She was looking to possibly pursue a career in politics.

He added that the family was waiting for information from the coroner regarding the cause of Miss Slades death.

Miss Slade was a student at the University of Winchester, having been offered a place to read Classical Studies in 2015.

She told the council at the time that she had no intention of resigning and that she remained committed to serving the people of her ward.

Stephen Walford, chief executive of Mid Devon District Council, said: This is clearly a great shock to everyone at the Council and will affect all those who worked with Clarissa and the community she served.

Clarissas parents, who are both serving councillors here at Mid Devon, will be devastated by this news and we will be supporting them in any way we can.

Shocked and deeply saddened to read of Clarissa's death at only 21. My thoughts and prayers are with her family. https://t.co/rWjuTlCbWh  Kevin Foster (@kevin_j_foster) March 27, 2018

He said a book of condolence would be opened at Phoenix House, the main office of the council.

Leader of the council Clive Eginton said: The devastating news regarding the sudden passing of Cllr Clarissa Slade has been deeply felt by myself, fellow councillors and officers across the council.

As our youngest ever elected councillor, Clarissa worked hard for her residents in Cranmore ward, Tiverton, and also participated across the town as a whole in a variety of events.

On the national stage she had also made her mark with her involvement in youth politics.

Clarissa had an endearing personality to all those who knew her well, and we will miss her enormously.

Our thoughts at this time are with Clarissas parents Colin and Elizabeth.

My sincere condolences to Colin & Elizabeth. Colin was my agent & campaign manager in #NDevon prior to the 2015 election. I knew Clarissa well. She was hardworking and always so upbeat, and had a bright future. Such a sad day.https://t.co/jFrpst9gxO  Peter Heaton-Jones (@PeterNorthDevon) March 27, 2018

MPs from the area also paid tribute to Miss Slade.

Kevin Foster, Conservative MP for Torbay, tweeted: Shocked and deeply saddened to read of Clarissas death at only 21. My thoughts and prayers are with her family.

North Devon MP Peter Heaton-Jones tweeted: My sincere condolences to Colin & Elizabeth.

Colin was my agent & campaign manager in #NDevon prior to the 2015 election. I knew Clarissa well. She was hardworking and always so upbeat, and had a bright future. Such a sad day.

A spokeswoman for Hampshire Police said: Officers were called to an address in Thurmond Crescent, Winchester, on the afternoon of Monday March 26 after the body of a 21-year-old woman was found.

The University of Winchester confirmed that Miss Slade had been a student.

We are deeply saddened by her death and our thoughts and prayers are with her family and friends at this difficult time, a university spokeswoman said.
The head of the body that ordered the release of black cab rapist John Worboys has resigned after the High Court quashed the decision.

Parole Board chairman Professor Nick Hardwick announced he was standing down after being told by Justice Secretary David Gauke that his position was untenable.

The dramatic development came as three senior judges in London ruled that the board must make a fresh determination.

Professor Nick Hardwick announced his resignation as chairman of the Parole Board (PA)

It means Worboys, 60, will remain in jail at least until the case has been re-assessed. The process is expected to take several months.

Outrage erupted earlier this year after it emerged a three-person panel had decided that Worboys was safe to be freed after around a decade behind bars.

The serial sex attacker was jailed indefinitely in 2009 with a minimum term of eight years after being found guilty of 19 offences, including rape, sexual assault and drugging, committed against 12 victims.

Full High Court judgment in Jon Worboys parole case

available here https://t.co/DFb4H5ZKAb  Judicial Office (@JudiciaryUK) March 28, 2018

Worboys became known as the black cab rapist after attacking victims in his hackney carriage.

Police believe he committed crimes against 105 women between 2002 and 2008, when he was caught.

The Parole Board was ordered to revisit the case after two victims mounted a legal challenge in the High Court.

Handing down their ruling, Sir Brian Leveson, Mr Justice Jay and Mr Justice Garnham said the board should have undertaken further inquiry into the circumstances of Worboys offending.

The two women who brought the legal challenge, known as DSD and NBV, expressed relief at the outcome.

NBV said: I can get on with my life again without looking over my shoulder.

Their solicitor, Harriet Wistrich, said since news of the decision to release Worboys appeared in the media, she had been inundated with calls from other victims who were convinced he was a danger to women and would offend again.

The judges heard that Worboys has denied committing any offences other than those for which he was convicted.

In his resignation letter, Professor Hardwick acknowledged that the ruling was critical of some aspects of the panels decision-making processes, although he noted that it did not overturn the panels decisions on these grounds.

Parole Board statement following decision of Judicial Review in the case of John Worboys https://t.co/E3IcuDB8H7  The Parole Board (@Parole_Board) March 28, 2018

He said: The court did however find that the panels understanding that it could not go beyond the offences for which Worboys was convicted was mistaken.

I shared the panels misapprehension in this matter and this was supported by the advice I received. We were wrong.

Addressing Mr Gauke, who he met on Tuesday, Prof Hardwick said: You told me that you thought my position was untenable.

The outgoing chairman said he had no role in the decision and believes he is capable of leading the Parole Board through the changes, many of which I have advocated, that will now be necessary.

Saying he was sorry for the mistakes that were made, Prof Hardwick said he would accept accountability for the Boards work and will not pass the buck to those who work under me.

He also warned that the episode raises very troubling questions about how the Boards independence can be safeguarded.

Mr Gauke said he believed Prof Hardwicks decision to resign was correct in light of the serious failings outlined in the judgment.

The cabinet minister also defended the Governments decision not to launch its own legal challenge.

He said: The bar for judicial review is set high.

I considered whether the decision was legally rational  in other words, a decision which no reasonable Parole Board could have made.

The advice I received was that such an argument was highly unlikely to succeed.

And, indeed, this argument did not succeed. However, the victims succeeded in a different argument.

The Parole Board had argued that its decision was lawful and rational and was based on appropriate evidence.

Following the judgment, the organisation said it will not challenge the outcome and the case will now be re-referred.

An oral hearing will take place in the next few months.
A recreation of a protective deity destroyed by Islamic State in Iraq now haunts Trafalgar Square  in the latest Fourth Plinth unveiling.

The sculpture, titled The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist, has been made with 10,500 empty, Iraqi date syrup cans.

It is the work of US artist Michael Rakowitz, who has been attempting, since 2006, to remake more than 7,000 archaeological artefacts looted from the country of his ancestors.

The unveiling of the new commission for Trafalgar Squares Fourth Plinth (Rick Findler/PA)

The new Fourth Plinth work by Michael Rakowitz is unveiled pic.twitter.com/gpMREBD7Ni  Sherna Noah (@showbizsherna) March 28, 2018

He has recreated Lamassu, a winged bull and protective deity which guarded the entrance to the Nergal Gate of Nineveh from 700BC, out of date syrup cans.

The deity was destroyed, along with other artefacts in the Mosul Museum, by terror group IS in 2015.

The cans are representative of a once-thriving industry decimated by war, said Rakowitz, who has Iraqi roots.

They represent the human, economic and ecological disasters caused by the Iraq wars and their aftermath, he added.

They are also designed to reflect the way that the reliefs at the base of Nelsons Column in Trafalgar Square are made from salvaged cannons.

Rakowitz said the sculpture allows an apparition to haunt Trafalgar Square at a time when we are witnessing a massive migration of people fleeing Iraq and Syria.

I see this work as a ghost of the original, and a placeholder for those human lives that cannot be reconstructed, that are still searching for sanctuary.

The recreation stands outside with its wings raised. Its still performing its duty as guardian of Iraqs past and present, facing south-east  hoping to return in the future.

Today we unveil the next #FourthPlinth commission - The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist by #MichaelRakowitz



An amazing recreation of the destroyed lamassu, made from date syrup cans pic.twitter.com/fBED8IX74Z  Mayor of London's Culture team (@LDN_Culture) March 28, 2018

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said: Michaels work shows the power of art to bring to life politics, cultures and personal stories from around the world and across generations.

The sculpture is the 12th to adorn the Fourth Plinth.

It will stay on display until 2020, when a sculpture of a whirl of cream topped with parasites, by British artist Heather Phillipson, will take its place.

Some of the most memorable Fourth Plinth sculptures over the years have included Marc Quinns sculpture of Alison Lapper, who was born with no arms, Yinka Shonibares scaled-down replica of HMS Victory, contained in a glass bottle, and Katharina Fritschs blue fibreglass sculpture of a cockerel.

Antony Gormley created One & Other in which people  including a man who posed naked  took it in turns to spend an hour on the plinth.
A Nigerian police officer accused of lying about his nationality when he joined the service will stand trial for fraud.

Oluwaseyi Alao allegedly said he was a British citizen on his application to the Metropolitan Police in 2013.

The 34-year-old served with the force for two years before his alleged deceit was discovered.

The 34-year-old is accused of fraud (Kirsty OConnor/PA)

Alao appeared at Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday charged with fraud.

After confirming his details, he was asked by the court clerk what his nationality is, to which he replied: Im Nigerian.

He pleaded not guilty to the single charge he faces and is due to stand trial in July.
The policeman killed in last weeks extremist attack in southern France has been honoured in an elaborate, daylong national homage led by French President Emmanuel Macron.

The tribute came as questions were raised about possible failures by French counter-terrorism officials in tracking the gunman, who was on a radicalisation watch list before he went on a rampage on Friday.

Arnaud Beltrame symbolised `the spirit of French resistance, Mr Macron said (Emilio Morenatti/AP)

The coffin of Lieutenant Colonel Arnaud Beltrame was driven through the morning drizzle in a procession across Paris from the Pantheon to the Hotel des Invalides, the final resting place of Napoleon.

Mr Macron delivered a patriotic public eulogy calling for national solidarity after last weeks attack, which together with myriad other extremist attacks on French soil have claimed over 200 lives since 2015.

A convoy of French Republican Guards escorting the coffin of Arnaud Beltrame arrive at the Hotel des Invalides in Paris (Ludovic Marin, Pool via AP)

Mr Beltrame symbolised the spirit of French resistance, Mr Macron said.

The officer died of his wounds on Saturday morning, hours after swapping himself for a hostage during a siege in a supermarket near the city of Carcassonne.

Soldiers carry the coffin in the courtyard of the Hotel des Invalides (Christophe Ena/AP)

We will prevail thanks to the resilience of the French We will win by the cohesion of a united nation, Mr Macron added.

After inspecting troops at the monument as a military band played a stirring rendition of the French national anthem, the Marseillaise, Mr Macron posthumously awarded Mr Beltrame the Legion of Honour, Frances highest award.

Former French presidents Francois Hollande, left, and Nicolas Sarkozy wait prior to the national ceremony (Christophe Ena/AP)

Two former presidents, Francois Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy, also attended.

The tribute provided a national focal point for grief, even as questions were growing about possible mistakes made by the French security services regarding Mr Beltrames killer, Redouane Lakdim.

French President Emmanuel Macron posthumously awards the Legion of Honour to Arnaud Beltrame (Christophe Ena/AP)

Interior Minister Gerard Collomb confirmed on Wednesday that French security services were poised to reduce the surveillance on Lakdim, who had since 2014 been on a radicalisation watch list, ahead of the extremist attack.

But Mr Collomb maintained there were no dysfunctions in the tracking of Lakdim, who also killed three other people before he was shot dead by police.

People applaud as the coffin of Arnaud Beltrame leaves the Pantheon in Paris (Etienne Laurent, Pool via AP)

Speaking on France Inter, he said ultimately no one thought that there would be a hasty attack by Lakdim, a Moroccan-born French resident with dual nationality.

Moroccan authorities have also questioned Frances handling of Lakdims case.

French Republican Guards and cadets from the joint-army military school carry the coffin of Arnaud Beltrame (Ludovic Marin, Pool via AP)

The chief of a counter-terrorism agency known as Moroccos FBI said on Tuesday that France never alerted his country about Lakdims radical behaviour  calling the absence of contact a misunderstanding.

Since the attack, the agency  created three years ago to consolidate counter-terrorism efforts  has been investigating Lakdims family members in Morocco, Abdelhak Khiame told The Associated Press.

Lakdim visited Morocco several times, most recently in February 2012, before the establishment of the Islamic State, Mr Khiame added.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markles wedding day will feature regiments and units that have a special relationship with the royal who served in the military for a decade, the Ministry of Defence has announced.

The marriage ceremony will be enhanced by the spectacle of Household Cavalry troopers in their gleaming breast plates and plumed helmets lining the staircase at St Georges Chapel, Windsor Castle where the couple will be married on May 19.

Streets within the precincts of the castle will be lined by members of the Windsor Castle Guard from 1st Battalion Irish Guards, and by Armed Forces personnel from the Royal Navy Small Ships and Diving, Royal Marines, 3 Regiment Army Air Corps, The Royal Gurkha Rifles and RAF Honington.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (Niall Carson/PA)

Musical support to the street liners will be provided by the Band of the Irish Guards.

Just announced: Members of the Armed Forces will provide ceremonial support at the wedding of Prince Harry and Ms. Meghan Markle. Units with a special connection to Prince Harry will take part in the carriage procession at the request of Kensington Palace. https://t.co/RORscwAbDj pic.twitter.com/vrZFrDGj7m  Ministry of Defence  (@DefenceHQ) March 28, 2018

Trumpeters and a Captains Escort from the Household Cavalry will also provide ceremonial support bringing the total number of Armed Forces involved with the wedding to more than 250.

Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach, Chief of the Defence Staff, said: I am proud that members of the Armed Forces have been asked to take part in the ceremonial celebrations taking place on the royal couples wedding day.

It is a happy occasion for the whole country and reminds us of the role the Armed Forces play in marking important events in the life of the nation.

I am particularly pleased to hear that members of the Armed Forces who have a close relationship with Prince Harry will be taking part. Servicemen and women from the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force will all be honoured to offer their support.

The Ministry of Defence has confirmed that Armed Forces units with a special connection to Prince Harry will provide ceremonial support at his wedding to Ms. Meghan Markle on 19 May: https://t.co/tSsJP8wgU2  The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) March 28, 2018

Harry began his military life in 2005 as an officer cadet at Sandhurst, and later joined the Blues and Royals and served with the Household Cavalry Regiment.

During his 10-year career he was deployed twice to Afghanistan before leaving in the summer of 2015 after rising to the rank of captain.

His first period of frontline service in Afghanistan was served with the 1st Battalion, the Royal Gurkha Rifles in 2007-08.

For his second deployment the prince retrained becoming an Apache helicopter co-pilot gunner with 662 Squadron, 3 Regiment Army Air Corps, flying in Helmand Province during 2012-13 and later in his military career became an Apache commander.

Harry recently became Captain General Royal Marines, succeeding the Duke of Edinburgh in December last year, is Commodore-in-Chief, Small Ships and Diving and Honorary Air Commandant of RAF Honington.

A Kensington Palace spokesperson said: Prince Harry and Ms Meghan Markle are pleased that members of the Armed Forces will play such a special role in their wedding.

The military, and these units in particular, hold a great significance for Prince Harry and the couple are incredibly grateful for their support.
A former Catalan minister facing extradition to Spain has been released on bail after handing herself in to police in Scotland.

Professor Clara Ponsati, the ex-Catalan education minister, is being sought by the authorities in Madrid on charges of violent rebellion and misappropriation of public funds over her role in Catalonias controversial independence referendum last year.

She refutes the charges and has embarked on a legal fight to resist the attempts to have her returned to Spain.

Scottish-based Prof Ponsati attended a police station in Edinburgh voluntarily on Wednesday morning after she was made the subject of a European arrest warrant last week.

She was placed under arrest and formally had the European Arrest Warrant read to her.

Thanku so much from @ClaraPonsati - Defiant, Resolute & Determined to Fight Back on way 2Edinburgh -Clara will b arrested in next hour & taken 2court 4extradition hearing at 2pm #DefendClara #Catalonia please keep sharing https://t.co/Lwi2rGLweG pic.twitter.com/XcMx6R8j5K  Aamer Anwar#BlackLivesMatter (@AamerAnwar) March 28, 2018

The academic appeared from custody at an initial hearing at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.

The hearing before Sheriff Nigel Ross lasted less than 10 minutes on Wednesday afternoon with a number of her supporters present in the packed court room.

The court heard Prof Ponsati does not consent to extradition and the application for bail was not opposed by the Crown.

She was granted bail and asked to surrender her passport.

Her lawyer says she views the charges  which could attract a jail term of up to 30 years  as political persecution and believes that her human rights cannot be guaranteed in Spain.

Solicitor, Aamer Anwar, said earlier: Clara remains defiant, resolute and is determined to fight back.

She wants to thank the many hundreds of thousands of ordinary people especially in Scotland who have shown her such love and support.

She is truly humbled by the unconditional support from students, colleagues and the principal at St Andrews University.

Clara wishes to thank Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish Government and politicians for their solidarity. Scotland has been a true friend to Catalonia in her darkest hours.

A group of supporters gathered at the police station as Prof Ponsati and her lawyer spoke to the media (Jane Barlow/PA)

Prof Ponsati returned to Scotland earlier in March having been in Belgium since fleeing Spain with Catalonias ex-leader Carles Puigdemont and three other former cabinet members, following an unsuccessful bid to declare independence from Spain in October.

She had resumed working at the University of St Andrews in Fife.

But a Spanish judge issued arrest warrants on Friday for Prof Ponsati and the other fugitive politicians including Mr Puigdemont, who was detained by police in Germany.

A crowdfunding drive to raise money for Prof Ponsatis extradition defence reached 100,000 just over two hours after it was launched on Wednesday morning.

Please RT, share & contribute 2 my crowdfunder - Later on this morning I will attend police station with my lawyer @AamerAnwar & will b arrested & taken 2court as Spain tries 2extradite me, I need ur support #DefendClara #Cataloniahttps://t.co/9wQKd4ZeW4  pic.twitter.com/TM0tL3t7mQ  Clara Ponsati (@ClaraPonsati) March 28, 2018

On Monday, a group of protesters congregated outside the Spanish consulate in Edinburgh to demonstrate against the arrest warrant and the actions of the Spanish Government.

At the police station on Wednesday Xavier Oliver was one of a number of people who turned up to show support for Prof Ponsati.

The 35-year-old software engineer from Catalonia said: The Spanish Government is using this excuse to put people in jail and let them rot.

They should tackle the problem politically. In their minds putting people in jail on ridiculous charges is enough to change the minds of two million people.
London mayor Sadiq Khan has called for Labour to do much more to tackle anti-Semitism in the party as he told of his anger over the problem.

Jeremy Corbyn is facing fresh criticism over his failure to tackle hostility to Jews following a report that the party has a backlog of 74 cases that are still to be dealt with.

Mr Khan said he was angry that friends of his who are Jewish felt they did not have a home in the party and the issue had left him heartbroken.

He told BBC Radio 4s The World At One: Im appalled and heartbroken that Londoners of Jewish faith dont feel the Labour Partys for them.

I think the Labour Party needs to do much more. Its the Labour Partys responsibility.

Jeremy is the leader but its the Labour Partys responsibility to take decisive, swift action against those members of our party against whom allegations have been made.

Prime Minister Theresa May called for MPs to eradicate racial hatred when she spoke during Prime Ministers Questions (PA)

It comes as Theresa May called on MPs to eradicate racial hatred.

She told the Commons: I think there should be a very clear message from all of us in this House that there is no place for racial hatred, for hate crime, in our society  this should not be part of our society.

Whether it is Islamophobia or anti-Semitism, this is something we should all stand up against and do our best to eradicate from our society.

A Labour source quoted by the Daily Mail said some of the complaints about anti-Semitic behaviour in the party dated back two years and included some of the most shocking and blatant examples of anti-Jewish sentiment.

The party said the number of live cases represented around 0.01% of the Labour membership.

A spokesman said that any complaints of anti-Semitism were dealt with extremely seriously and were fully investigated.

I have written to the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council. I will never be anything other than a militant opponent of antisemitism. In this fight, I am an ally and always will be. pic.twitter.com/QhQnFEpplU  Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) March 26, 2018

Mr Corbyn acknowledged on Monday that the party had been too slow in dealing with cases of anti-Semitism, and apologised for the hurt it had caused.

His admission followed an unprecedented letter from the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council accusing him of siding with anti-Semites again and again.

The Mail quoted a Labour source as saying: Many of these cases include the most shocking and blatant anti-Semitism that would make even a committed Nazi blush.

From Holocaust denial to outright hatred of Jewish people, these views should not be tolerated anywhere in society let alone Jeremy Corbyns Labour Party.

In response to the claims, a Labour Party spokesman said: The Labour Party is committed to challenging and campaigning against anti-Semitism in all its forms.

Any complaints of anti-Semitism are taken extremely seriously. These are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures and any appropriate disciplinary action taken.

Labour MPs Wes Streeting, co-chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Jews, and John Mann, chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group against Anti-Semitism, have written to Mr Corbyn to urge him to take action to tackle this poison in our ranks.

Posting a copy of the letter on Twitter, Mr Streeting said: @jeremycorbyns statement on Monday has not been heeded by all those claiming to support him. @JohnMannMP and I have written about the abuse thats taken place in the last 48 hours and the action thats needed.

.@jeremycorbyn's statement on Monday has not been heeded by all those claiming to support him. @JohnMannMP and I have written about the abuse that's taken place in the last 48 hours and the action that's needed. #EnoughIsEnough pic.twitter.com/Q6NQKbaD8x  Wes Streeting MP (@wesstreeting) March 27, 2018

The letter warns that there must be a turning point for our Party on anti-Semitism, and says Mr Corbyn should meet with Jewish colleagues and send a message of solidarity to all Jewish members demanding that social media abuse against them ends.
A call for a legally-binding target to reverse the decline in bus use has been rejected by the transport minister.

Humza Yousaf told MSPs at Holyrood he did not believe a centrally imposed target was the right way to tackle falling passenger numbers.

The Scottish Greens used a debate at the parliament to press for the measure to be included in the forthcoming Transport Bill.

Transport Minister Humza Yousaf has rejected a call for a statutory target to reverse the decline in bus passengers (David Cheskin/PA)

Figures in February revealed the number of bus journeys made in Scotland fell by almost 10% in five years, going from 436 million in 2011-12 to 393 million in 2016-17.

John: We need a target in the Transport Bill as buses are the only form of transport in decline. We need clear ambition. #BetterBuses is about connectivity, tackling poverty and climate change. Let's make it happen.  Scottish Greens (@scottishgreens) March 28, 2018

Green MSP John Finnie said: Nearly 20% of bus journeys are subsidised so its entirely reasonable to have a target increasing bus usage.

It is very clear that buses stand out as the only transport type in decline.

I accept the solution we have proposed will be complex with bus companies, local authorities and the Scottish Government working together, but to make this work will require clear ambition.

Its fair to say that the solution will be different in different parts of the country, all this can be accommodated under a high-level statutory target.

It fits well with other targets, it fits well on inclusive communities, connectivity, anti poverty, air pollution, domestic manufacturing and climate change.

Ministers have already said that they want to increase bus use so lets all make that clear in a target.

Mr Yousaf agreed urgent action was needed but said the bill would give councils flexibility to pursue other approaches such as partnership working, local franchising or running their own buses.

In #BetterBuses debate, Transport Minister @HumzaYousaf says he doesn't agree with our proposal for a target in the bill to reverse decline in bus usage. "It's not for central government to dictate."  Scottish Greens (@scottishgreens) March 28, 2018

He said: I dont agree that a centralised national approach is necessarily the right way nor do I think a big increase in public ownership is necessarily the answer.

Its not for central government to dictate how people get around or indeed how transport authorities help them to do so, but we do want authorities to have the tools.

The upcoming transport bill is exactly that way minded, to give local authorities the tools that they need to hopefully increase patronage.

Both the Conservatives and Labour backed the Greens proposal, although Tory Jamie Greene suggested this could be achieved in other ways  such as in a transport strategy  rather than in legislation.

He said: It is important the Government is held to account on this because the move to buses and public transport is part of a much wider discussions around CO2 emission reduction, reducing congestion on our roads and getting people out of cars and on to buses.

Labours Colin Smyth added: We have legal targets for our NHS at present, many of which are never met. Targets therefore have to be backed by actions to deliver them.

So we need a bold rethink about how we manage bus services in Scotland. We need to ensure the real alternative of radical re-regulation and municipal ownership is at the very heart of the forthcoming Government Transport Bill.
The judge warned she would clear the court if there was any reaction from members of the public when verdicts were returned.

It was a difficult task and people must have respect, the court was told.

And, so as the jury panel of eight men and three women filed in one by one, you could have heard a pin drop should one have fallen in the packed courtroom.

Ireland and Ulster rugby players Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding (Niall Carson/PA)

Paddy Jackson, Stuart Olding, Blane McIlroy and Rory Harrison sat side by side in the glass dock in the middle of court 12, just as they had done for the duration of the nine-week trial.

As always, they were impeccably turned out. Jackson in a grey suit and open neck dark shirt while his co-defendants were dressed in dark suits, white shirts and ties.

In contrast to their appearance on arrival at Belfast Crown Court on Wednesday morning, they seemed relaxed, flashing brief smiles and offering a quick word to each other before they heard their fate.

The deep intakes of breath were perhaps the only indicator their confident demeanour could be concealing nerves.

Blane McIlroy rubbed his eyes and sipped on water and at one point Olding appeared to whisper: You alright?

Paddy Jackson sat head tilted to one side, staring ahead, while Rory Harrison was also impassive.

The men were told to stand and as each rose to their feet they clasped their hands in front of their bodies  as if lined up for pre-kick-off anthem rendition.

The time was almost 12.30pm and it seemed everyone in court was holding their breath.

A few seconds later and the tense atmosphere had lifted.

The jury had reached unanimous decisions on all six charges after three hours and 45 minutes deliberation, the court was told.

The men barely flinched as not guilty verdicts were returned for each individual and each charge separately.

Minutes later, the scenes outside the court room were of jubilation.

The defendants, their friends and families, who had attended every day of the trial and listened to every piece of graphic evidence, wept with relief and hugged each other.

Others made excited phone calls to relay the not guilty verdicts to those unable to get a place in the 100-seat capacity public gallery.

Words such as we did it, well done, thats it and its over echoed through the fourth floor corridor.

Someone even ran and jumped into Blane McIlroys arms.

Outside the court an enormous crowd had also gathered.

It not only included media from across Ireland and beyond but onlookers and office workers keen for a glimpse of the famous sportsmen during their lunch break.

First to exit was Blane McIlroy who walked out, head held high.

He was accompanied by legal representatives and his mother, who had walked him in and out of court every day of the trial.

He said nothing to the media.

Jackson was next, and he walked out to a small ripple of applause from some members of the public.

There was a media scrum as reporters and cameramen jostled for position to hear him thank the judge.

Id just like to thank the judge and the jury for giving me a fair trial, my parents for being here every day, as well as my brother and sisters, he said.

Jackson also thanked his barristers and solicitors, but added: Out of respect for my employers Ive nothing further to comment.

Meanwhile, an impassioned speech was made by his defence solicitor Joe McVeigh.

Paddy leaves court for the last time today as he entered almost 10 weeks ago  an innocent man, the solicitor said.

The prosecution made much of the perceived privileged position provided by virtue of Paddy being an international rugby player.

We say that it was this very status as a famous sportsman that drove the decision to prosecute in the first place.

The high profile trial is among the longest rape trials ever heard in Belfast.

It generated an unprecedented level of coverage on both sides of the border and a massive amount of debate on social media, particularly

on Twitter.

Mr McVeigh hit out against the intrusive infection that social media had on the legal process.

Theres no reason to believe that this problem will not worsen, he added. To that end we invite the office of the Lord Chief Justice, the Attorney General, and the Public Prosecution Service, to enter into fresh discussions with us to look at more robust mechanisms that can strike an effective balance between everyones rights, but that properly secure the integrity of our criminal justice system.

As for Paddy, his main priority now is to return to work, that means getting back on the rugby pitch, and representing his province and his country.

Rory Harrison left the court as he had arrived every day  alone and without a word. His family, who had supported him in court, walked out a short time later.

Stuart Olding walked out accompanied by his solicitor.

Paul Dougan read out a statement written by Olding, in which he expressed regret about the events of June 2016.

I want to acknowledge publicly that though I committed no criminal offence on the evening of June 28 2016, I regret deeply the events of that evening.

I want to acknowledge that the complainant came to court and gave evidence about her perception of those events.

I am sorry for the hurt that was caused to the complainant. It was never my intention to cause any upset to anyone on that night.

I dont agree with her perception of events, and I maintain that everything that happened that evening was consensual.

Meanwhile, discharging the jury and excusing them from jury service for life, Judge Smyth said the case had been among the most difficult heard in the city.

She said: May I take the opportunity to thank you for the enormous commitment that you have given to us.

I have no doubt that it has been at great personal cost to all of you.

This has probably been the most difficult trial that any jury in Northern Ireland has ever been asked to adjudicate on.

The high-profile trial opened on January 30, and every day the rugby players and their supporters walked through the bank of photographers in rain, hail and snow.

As they left for the last time, as free men, the sun finally shone.
The man accused of killing six men at a Quebec City mosque has changed his mind and pleaded guilty.

Many people in the courtroom burst out sobbing and held hands on Wednesday as the judge confirmed Alexandre Bissonnettes guilty pleas.

Bissonnette, 28, originally pleaded not guilty to the 12 charges on Monday morning but that afternoon announced he wanted to plead guilty.

Superior Court Justice Francois Huot refused to accept the pleas on Monday pending a psychiatric assessment of the accused to ensure he fully understood the consequences of his decision.

Mr Justice Huot placed a publication ban on Monday afternoons proceedings but agreed to accept the 12 guilty pleas on Wednesday.

Manon Marchand and Raymond Bissonnette, left, the parents of Alexandre Bissonnette, leave the courthouse in Quebec City (Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press via AP)

Bissonnette faced six charges of first-degree murder and six of attempted murder.

More than 50 people were at the Islamic Cultural Centre in January 2017 when the shooting began during evening prayers.

Six men aged between 39 and 60 were killed.

In my heart, its the decision I have wanted to make in order to avoid a trial and for the victims to not have to relive this tragedy, he told the court on Monday.

Bissonnette said he had been thinking for some time of pleading guilty but that he was missing certain pieces of evidence, which were relayed on Sunday.

When Mr Justice Huot asked him if he was fully aware of what he was doing, Bissonnette replied: Yes.

The judge asked Bissonnette whether he knew he would be getting a life sentence and he answered: I understand.

Mr Justice Huot also asked him if he understood he could receive consecutive sentences, meaning 150 years of prison.

I know, Bissonnette replied, in a low voice.

Psychiatrist Sylvain Faucher said Bissonnette is fit to stand trial and to plead what he wants to plead.

He did not want to be the perpetrator of another collective drama, said Mr Faucher, who met with Bissonnette on Monday evening.

Many members of Quebec Citys Muslim community were present in court on Monday and Wednesday.

Amir Belkacemi, whose 60-year-old father Khaled Belkacemi was killed, said no-one wants to live the trauma again.

That the trial wont have to take place, its a good thing for us, its a good thing for everyone in the community, said Amir Belkacemi, the son of victim Khaled Belkacemi. Very relieved.

Jury selection was scheduled to start April 3 and the trial was expected to last two months.

Sentencing arguments will take place at a later date.

Those who monitor extremist groups in Quebec described the French-Canadian university student as someone who took extreme nationalist positions at Laval University and on social media.

He was a supporter of French far-right leader Marine Le Pen and US President Donald Trump.

Quebecs premier previously acknowledged the French-speaking province has its demons in terms of attitudes towards Muslims.
The heartbroken parents of 22-month-old baby Alfie Evans have hit out at the British legal system after losing the latest round of their court battle to continue his life-support treatment.

Tom Evans and Kate James, of Liverpool, asked judges at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg to examine their son's case after both the High Court and Court of Appeal ruled doctors could halt his care against his parents' wishes.

Medics at Alder Hay Children's Hospital in Liverpool say Alfie has a 'relentless and progressive' neurological condition which has destroyed part of his brain, and he is unable to breathe or swallow on his own.

ECHR judges rejected the family's latest bid to continue treatment on Wednesday just days after the UK Supreme Court also refused to hear the case and the hospital have since claimed this brings the legal battle to an end.

Writing on the official Facebook support group for his son's campaign, Mr Evans said the family had been 'failed disgracefully by the system' and urged the hospital to allow Alfie to 'go home to die'.

Should the parents and hospital disagree over whether Alfie can go home there could yet be another court battle to decide where he spends his final days.

Tom Evans and Kate James, the parents of 22-month-old Alfie Evans, will not have their case heard at the European Court of Human Rights after judges refused to accept it

Alfie, pictured, has a 'relentless and progressive' neurological condition which has destroyed part of his brain

In an emotional Facebook post Mr Evans said Alfie was about to be 'murdered' and begged doctors to work with the family

Mr Evans also posted images of Alfie including this one of him holding his son's hand, arguing they prove he is 'not dying'

In an emotional post on Facebook, Mr Evans uploaded images of his son in hospital and said they 'clearly proved' his son was not dying and was about to be 'murdered'.

They also appealed for help from The Queen, the Pope and Angela Merkel in their efforts to keep Alfie alive.

He wrote: ' FAILED DISGRACEFULLY BY THE SYSTEM.

'DOES OUR SON LOOK IN ANY OF THESE PICTURES LIKR (sic) HE IS DYING!!!!! NONE OF THESE SRE (sic) SEIZURE OR REFLEXES HE IS CLEARLY THERE ALIVE.

'SHARE SHARE SHARE PLEASE EVERYONE WE AS PARENTS ARE NOT GIVING UP SHARE SHARE SHARE.

'OUR SON IS ABOUT TO HE MURDERED,TAKING AWAY FROM US, HIS INNOCENT LIFE IS ABOUT TO BE TAKEN.

'PLEASE OUR QUEEN POPE FRANCIS PLEASE ANGELA MERKEL. SOMEONE SAVE OR (sic) INNOCENT NOT DYING SON.

'WE ARE IN BITS DISTRAUGHT IN PAIN.

'HE LOOKS INTO OUR EYES EVRYDAY (sic) HE RESPONDS TO US EVERYDAY ALFIE JAMES EVANS WE LOVE YOU SO SO SO MUCH.

'WE WLL (sic) DO EVRYTHING (sic) WE CAN

'PLEASE AH (Alder Hay) LET HIM GO HOME TO DIE ON A TRACHY (sic) THAT HE CAN PAY FOR OUT HIS OWN FUNDS!!!

'We beg now ah to work with us.'

A spokesman for Alder Hey Children's Hospital said the decision brought the legal process to an end and it would work with the family to offer 'palliative care'.

'Today the European Court of Human Rights declared Alfies familys application inadmissible, finding that there was no appearance of a violation of the rights and freedoms set out in the European Convention on Human Rights.

This signals the end of a very difficult and protracted legal process. We understand that this decision is very distressing for Alfies family.

'Our priority is now to work with them to agree the most appropriate palliative care plan and we would ask that their privacy is respected at this time.'

The family said Alfie, pictured, was 'about to be murdered' after the ECHR decision

Mr Evans begged The Queen, the Pope and Angela Merkel to help Alfie, left and right, holding his parent's hand, in the Facebook post and said the family was distraught

Mr Evans also asked Alder Hey Children's Hospital to let Alfie 'go home to die'

Supporters on Twitter are still urging the courts to allow Alfie to be taken for treatment elsewhere

A spokesman for the ECHR said judges had declared the application inadmissible and found no appearance of any human rights violation.

The couple had already run out of legal options in the UK.

A High Court judge has ruled that doctors at Alder Hey Childrens Hospital in Liverpool can stop treating Alfie, against the wishes of his parents.

That decision has been upheld by Court of Appeal judges and Supreme Court justices.

Judges heard that Alfie, who was born on May 9 2016, is in a 'semi-vegetative state' and has a degenerative neurological condition doctors had not definitively diagnosed.

Specialists at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool said life-support treatment could stop and the judge said he accepted medical evidence which showed that further treatment was futile.

Mr Evans, pictured at the High Court, and his wife want to take Alfie to a hospital in Italy to continue the search for a cure

The youngster is unable to breathe or swallow on his own and doctors say any further treatment is 'futile'

Alfie's parents, right, have exhausted their legal options in the UK and had gone to the European Courts to continue their fight for their son, left

Supporters have voiced their outrage at the decision on Facebook, with one writing they were 'ashamed to be British' over the long-running case

Others have pledged their support to the family and given them their sympathies

At a Court of Appeal hearing earlier this month Lord Justice McFarlane, Lord Justice McCombe and Lady Justice King dismissed the parents' challenge.

Mrs Justice King said Alfie's parents were 'unable to accept what movements in Alfie they see are not positive responses'.

Mrs Justice King said medical evidence showed that Alfie was 'deeply comatose' and 'to all intents and purposes unaware of his surroundings'.

She added: 'I think, in fairness to the parents waiting anxiously on the other end of the telephone line, I should tell them immediately their applications for permission to appeal are refused.'

Supreme Court justices then decided that the case is not worth arguing and refused to give the couple 'permission' to mount a further appeal.

Rules meant that Alfie parents could not simply ask Supreme Court justice to consider the case.

The parents' fight for Alfie has won support across the country with demonstrators backing them at previous court hearings, including this girl carrying a placard at the High Court in February

The family have also been leading social media campaigns to gather support from across the world

They first had to clear an initial legal hurdle by persuading justices that they had a case worth arguing.

A Supreme Court spokeswoman said that justices had rejected the couple's bid after analysing written arguments from everyone involved.

His parents had argued he should be taken abroad to continue the search for a diagnosis and cure.

They said the Bambino Gesu Hospital in Rome, Italy was willing to take him in.

The Italian hospital had proposed carrying out two surgical procedures, one placing a breathing tube into his throat and another placing a feeding tube into his stomach.
Scottish Brexit Minister Mike Russell has accused the UK Government of being frankly dishonest over Brexit and letting everybody down.

While the Prime Minister and others have highlighted opportunities that could come from leaving the European Union (EU), Mr Russell insisted that there is no pot of gold that will come as a result of this.

Concerns are growing about the inability of Theresa May and her government to measure up to the task they have in negotiating the countrys exit deal, he said.

Brexit Minister Mike Russell (Jane Barlow/PA)

And with a prolonged standoff between Holyrood and Westminster over where powers should go when they come back from Brussels, Mr Russell insisted there needs to be less rhetoric from the Prime Minister, more work on making sure everybody sits around the table and agrees.

While both Scotland and Wales want a deal with the UK Government that will allow them to give their consent to the EU Withdrawal Bill, he claimed Westminster was ignoring the reality of devolution  adding that as things stood no deal could be stuck.

If no agreement is reached between the UK and the devolved administrations he warned the constitutional crisis simply gets worse, gets deeper.

With a year to go until the UK formally leaves the EU the Scottish Government published a document highlighting the impact leaving could have on a variety of people across the county.

The Protecting What Matters report concludes leaving the EU will have huge implications with Scottish ministers pledging to give a voice to individuals all of whom have so much at stake from Brexit.

To launch the document Mr Russell met with some of those who spoke out about their fears, including Piotr Tlok from Poland, who said unanswered questions about what will happen to EU citizens had sparked concerns that people could be deported.

The 29-year-old recruitment consultant said: What were experiencing at the moment is a huge, huge question mark, I dont know what my status is, what my status will be in a year, I dont know what I should do, where I should go, what authorities I should approach to ask. Thats the biggest problem at the moment.

He added: I would like to know what my status is and what I need to do to stay in Scotland and to have my rights provided, that is the biggest question at the moment.

Asked about his biggest concern, he said: If I will be deported or not. The amount of unanswered questions we have, some people actually consider deportation might happen. I believe its quite extreme but you never know.

Mr Russell said: What were doing is listening to people who are affected by Brexit and were publishing their views today to mark the first anniversary of the Article 50 letter and a year to go before it takes effect.

Worries have simply increased since the referendum in 2016, the Brexit Minister said, adding that people are very unsure and uncertain about what is taking place.

He hit out Far from things clarifying in the last 12 months weve got even more uncertainty. If you are EU citizen who is living here then you are unsure about what lies ahead, if you are somebody who is involved in farming or fishing you are unsure about what lies ahead, if you work in a university you are unsure about what lies ahead.

The issue is people dont know what is happening and with six months left of negotiating time, there are huge issues to be addressed that are simply not being addressed.

So I think you have to look at this government and see it is letting everybody down, but it is also talking often nonsense about Brexit.

He also spoke to Ana Rodriguez, 55, and originally from Spain, but who has lived in the UK for 35 years.

She has been in Scotland for 25 years, but said that after Brexit for the first time she had been told to go to my own country.

Speaking about the referendum she said: In Scotland Ive always felt very much accepted and very integrated into life here so I felt betrayed by the result.
A surge in rural homelessness is being fuelled by unaffordable countryside rents, a charity leader has warned as sweeping law reforms approach.

The Homelessness Reduction Act is coming into force on April 1 and will place extra legal duties on councils to ensure rough sleepers are supported in their area.

While destitution is most rife in cities, the English countryside has witnessed escalating levels in recent years, increasing 52% between 2010 and 2016 in the 41 largely rural local authority areas and 32% in mainly rural parts, according to research from the Institute for Public Policy Research.

The sprawling wilderness makes it difficult to detect rough sleepers in more remote communities, the 2017 report said, but one Somerset organisation found a hidden problem when it investigated.

Stephen Fowler, CEO of Elim Connect Centre in Mendip, estimated that there had been a 30% jump in cases over recent years and said they were currently supporting 16 rough sleepers.

His team has helped move around 60 people from the wilds into accommodation over the last year and offers support, temporary accommodation and drop-in sessions for those affected.

Mr Fowler told the Press Association: I didnt realise there was a problem with rough sleeping in our area until we started to do some work on this.

Rural rough sleeping is slightly different to urban in the sense that people are often isolated and hard to find, people choose very often to live in a more rural location such as woods, barns, sheds and converted buildings.

Stephen Fowler became concerned when he realised the scale of the problem in rural Somerset (PA)

One major issue in rural areas was access to social and affordable housing, he said.

Our biggest challenge is finding accommodation, in terms of access to social housing or supported housing that many people need (it) is extremely difficult  we work quite hard with the private rented sector but in an area like this the rents are so expensive.

The other problem you have in a rural area that you dont have in an urban area is you dont have many HMOs  houses in multiple occupation  we dont have many small flats or bedsits, they tend to be more expensive properties. Even to rent a two-bedroom flat here you would have to find quite a lot of money.

Coaxing rough sleepers from their makeshift campsites can often prove difficult in the countryside as few hostels exist and many find security in isolation.

Tim, who lived in the Wells woodland for four years, said his ramshackle home offered sanctuary from the ravages of everyday life.

His former camp is still littered with signs of a hermetic existence, including mud-strewn toothbrushes, rusting kettles and a surfeit of tarpaulins. Much of it has appeared in the time since Tim left.

He said: Drugs, the people I was associating with, the lifestyle I was living, I didnt want to live that life anymore  I wanted to go away from it. The only way I could get away from it was to run away and hide.

When I was up here first I was on my own, but when I left there was a couple of other people (who) moved in down the track.

Garry Murphy is currently homeless (PA)

For others, their change of circumstance was more unexpected.

Garry Murphy, who is currently homeless in the Mendip area, said: I was the victim of a violent assault and I found myself in a situation where I wasnt able to work because of the injuries I sustained. It was a knife attack.

The knock-on effect of that (was that) I wasnt able to pay rent on where I was living.

I think a lot of people have been conditioned to think that homeless people either have some drug or alcohol addictions going on  its much wider than that, homelessness, it can happen to anyone.

The impending changes to the law has given optimism to those supporting the transient communities of rural homeless, however.

Paul Kingston, an outreach worker from the Connect Centre, said: That should do a lot to assist people are homeless, it will make the responsibility of local councils much greater to them.
By Maggie Fick and Humphrey Malalo

NAIROBI, March 27 (Reuters) - Columnists from Kenya's top media group resigned en masse on Tuesday accusing it of letting the government interfere with editorial decisions, a charge the publisher denied.

Eight writers of opinion pieces accused management at Nation Media Group (NMG) - which publishes the Daily Nation, Kenya's most widely read paper - of being too close to the ruling party.

"We refuse to continue to clothe the loss of editorial independence and media freedom at the NMG with respectability," the columnists said in a statement on Twitter. The said it appeared the executive was able "to influence who works for or contributes" to the papers.

The paper issued a statement later on Tuesday saying it wanted "to reassure our readers and stakeholders that we continue to be committed to media freedom".

There was no immediate comment from the government.

President Uhuru Kenyatta's government launched a security crackdown after the legitimacy of his re-election in October was challenged by opposition leader Raila Odinga.

In a separate incident throwing the spotlight on media freedoms, police punched and kicked journalists covering the attempted deportation of an opposition politician at Nairobi airport on Monday.

The opposition politician, Miguna Miguna, was detained on Monday when he returned on a flight from abroad, a month after being deported in a dispute over his dual citizenship amid an escalation of political tensions in Kenya.

After his deportation in February, a court ordered Miguna be granted re-entry but on Monday Nairobi immigration officers refused to accept his Kenyan passport and asked him to surrender his Canadian travel document, his lawyer Nelson Havi said.

An hours-long standoff ensued before several dozen plainclothes officers dragged Miguna onto an Emirates airline plane bound for Dubai, opposition Senator James Orengo said. Miguna was then removed from the airliner and taken to an airport police station.

He remained there on Tuesday without access to his lawyer, Orengo said.

On Tuesday afternoon a Kenyan court ordered that Miguna be released immediately and that he present himself in court on Wednesday. His lawyer Havi said on Tuesday evening that he remained in detention at the airport. "We served the attorney general with a copy of the court order. We demand his release."

During the scuffle, journalists from the Daily Nation and two private TV stations were assaulted and left bleeding on the ground, according to video footage and one Nation journalist.

"I watched a police officer kick my colleague in the back, then kick his camera, then with his other leg kick in him in the head," journalist Ibrahim Oruko said.

Interior Ministry spokesman Mwenda Njoka said the government was just following the law in Miguna's case. "We have not denied him (entry). We just need him to follow the process like everybody else."

Kenyatta and Odinga struck an unexpected truce earlier this month after months of elections-related unrest in which 100 people died.

It was unclear whether the dispute over Miguna would affect the reconciliation pact.

Odinga came to the airport to lobby for Miguna to be let back into Kenya, Orengo said. (Reporting by Maggie Fick and Humphrey Malalo Additional reporting by Omar Mohammed Writing by Maggie Fick Editing by Mark Heinrich and Andrew Heavens)
By Nita Bhalla

NAIROBI, March 27 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A Kenyan charity launched a range of educational materials on Tuesday to teach children about the dangers of trafficking, in a bid to combat child slavery and exploitation.

Most information on human trafficking, including images, is focused on southeast Asia, said Sophie Otiende of HAART Kenya, and is therefore often of limited relevance in Kenya.

"If children are not able to relate, they cannot identify, and it is unlikely that the information will make a difference to them," she said.

"So we felt it was important to design something which suited them, and make it also engaging."

The International Labour Organization says one in four of the world's estimated 40 million slaves are children.

Activists say there are few tools to help minors recognise the signs and avoid the dangers - particularly in Africa.

HAART said not enough was being done to teach children of the risks.

Otiende said the charity hoped the child-friendly materials - including colourful posters, brochures and a teaching manual - would be copied and used across the country in schools, youth clubs and church groups.

The manual helps teachers plan lessons on subjects ranging from basic child rights - such as their right to shelter and food, as well as an environment free of abuse - to explaining what traffickers and recruiters are.

The lessons include discussions, songs, drawings and even role-playing to get the message across.

The government welcomed the initiative.

"We are very keen to look at ways on how to empower communities to tackle human trafficking," Ruth Njuguna, a member of the anti-trafficking committee at the labour ministry, told delegates at the event.

"Once people understand the issue, they will be able to recognise the indicators, and this will help in prevention."

Kenya is a source, transit and destination country for men, women and children who are trafficked into forced labour and sexual slavery, according to the U.S. State Department's 2017 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report.

Children are bought and sold into forced labour in domestic work, farming, fishing, herding, street-vending and begging. Girls and boys are also exploited in prostitution throughout Kenya, including in sex tourism on the coast, it added.

There are no accurate figures on the number of children trafficked in Kenya. However, the 2017 TIP report said the Kenyan government had identified 153 child victims in 2016.

Campaigners say the true number is far higher, adding that victims often do not understand they have been trafficked and enslaved, are fearful of their traffickers, or even feel ashamed - especially if they were forced into sex work.

(Reporting by Nita Bhalla @nitabhalla, Editing by Robert Carmichael. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit http://news.trust.org)
Prof. Channa Jayasumana, a leading academic who has done extensive research into the kidney disease in Rajarata, speaks about Glyphosate and its impact on the spread of the disease. Also, he compares the disease pattern in Sri Lanka and India. Excerpts of the interview:

Describes how international scientist research corroborates his finding

Throws light on disease pattern in India and Sri Lanka

Q How do you view the move to ban the use of weedicide called Glyphosate?

It is an unwise proposal. The ban on Glyphosate should not be lifted due to any reason.

Q How do you support your argument that this particular agro-chemical was responsible for kidney disorders?

I have to emphasise Glyphosate is linked to disease but it is not the sole cause. For the first time in 2013, we produce epidemiological evidences to show glyphosate

is associated with chronic kidney disease in agricultural communities. Our finding shows farmers who used glyphosate and paraquat (another weedicide which was banned in 2010) are prone to the disease five times more than those who are exposed to it. Then we found groundwater and food items contaminated with Glyphosate

and residues. Thirdly, we detected glyphosate residues in these patients biological samples. Very recently, we found specific lesion in biopsy samples of these particular kidney patients.

Glyphosate has been identified as one of the chemical, which produces such a lesion. In addition a recently published human study from China shows glyphosate causing renal damage. Chinese scientists selected 526 workers who were occupationally exposed to glyphosate from 5 glyphosate-producing factories as cases; and another 442 administrative staffs who were not exposed to glyphosate were selected as controls. The overall rates of abnormal renal function in the case group were 16.2% while it was 4.8% in controls. This is a very strong study to support our argument. In another study done by UK and France scientists, it has been shown that glyphosate based herbicide produces renal lesion in rats, which are similar to the lesions in Sri Lankan kidney patients when exposed through drinking water. So what else you need to say this chemical is linked to disease?

I have to emphasise Glyphosate is linked to disease but it is not the sole cause. In 2013, we produce epidemiological evidences to show glyphosate is associated with chronic kidney disease in agricultural communities

Q There is an argument that glyphosate ban is a reason for governments poor performance in the recent local election. What is your opinion?

It is nonsense and a very poor argument. There are hundreds of reasons for governments defeat. It is nothing to do with glyphosate. If this is the reason, why was the government defeated in Maharagama (Colombo suburb)? Are voters of Maharagama using Glyphosate?

Q You recently had an academic involvement in India. How do you see the disease pattern there?

This is very interesting. For the last 10-15 years, we compared the disease in the Central American region and Sri Lanka. There were some recent reports from India saying that the similar disease is spread across four Indian states - Andra Pradesh, Telungana, Odisha and Gujarat. This was found among sugar-cane and rice farmers and vegetable growers. I visited the affected areas there and had a conference in Chandigarh in Panjab. It was at the 37th annual conference of Indian society of toxicology. I had the opportunity to meet different doctors and investigators working in different fields of medicine, particularly the toxicologists.

They are of the opinion that this disease is basically due to certain toxins. I exchanged ideas with those doctors and investigators. The clinical picture is similar with patients of north central province of Sri Lanka. I did a few field visits. The remarkable thing is that the environment, soil and climate are similar to the disease endemic region in Sri Lanka, similar to which were found in Andra Pradesh, Telangana and Odisha. The unofficial report said the death toll in India is very high. It may be exceeding the death toll in Sri Lanka.

One thing is that. The health system is well developed in Sri Lanka compared to India. Any death due to kidney disease is reported to the health system in our setup. In India, this system does not exist. In the rural areas, this chronic disease is under-reported. I believe the disease might have begun to spread in India in 1990s. Yet, it was not reported till the last couple of years.

Q Is it due to high population in India?

One thing is that. The health system is well developed in Sri Lanka compared to India. Any death due to kidney disease is reported to the health system in our setup. In India, this system does not exist. In the rural areas, this chronic disease is under-reported. I believe the disease might have begun to spread in India in 1990s. Yet, it was not reported till the last couple of years.

Q How do you speak about the aetiology of this disease?

It is found in the river basins in India, where the rivers are very long. So the washout is also high. So, concentration of toxic agents downstream is very high compared with our rivers. The disease is found downstream in India close to the coastal areas in river basins.

Different studies show that the toxic concentration in muddy soils is very high. People in such areas are heavily affected. Their hypothesis is that this is caused by toxins. They need more research to confirm. Their studies are not on par with our studies. We have studied it for the last two decades. They have just started it. I feel this is the same disease that is found in India.

The remarkable thing is that the environment, soil and climate are similar to the disease endemic region in Sri Lanka, similar to which were found in Andra Pradesh, Telangana and Odisha. The unofficial report said the death toll in India is very high. It may be exceeding the death toll in Sri Lanka

Q What are the kinds of scholarly exchanges you are planning to make?

I was able to interact with those attached to high medical research institutions in Gujarat, Telangana and Andra. They expressed their willingness to collaborate with us and get our expert views. Research-wise, we are well ahead of them.

The former President of the Indian Institute of Pharmacology invited for an official collaboration between Rajarata University and their institution in Hyderabad. We have to establish whether it is the identical disease in India. According to available evidence, it is the same disease. However, we have to establish it in a credible manner. India has some improved laboratory and medical facilities in certain aspects. Collaborative studies will lead to minimize the spread of this disease and fight it in a common field.

Q Is there any collaboration for the development of traditional medicine to treat the patients?

India is a country which is abundant with Ayurvedic and complimentary medicine. They have different methods to treat kidney patients and issues associated with the urinary tracts. I think we can get their expertise in this regard. However this should be done with great care, as there are many pseudo healers.

At a recent international symposium here, we discussed how Sinhala indigenous physicians and western medical practitioners treat patients suffering from chronic kidney diseases. Research findings show that certain indigenous practices can improve renal functions of these patients. In the western system, we can only control the disease.

In Sri Lanka, we have very good indigenous medicinal practices. India also has a very good Ayurvedic practice. Close cooperation could bring in favourable results. Both could feed with each other in this respect. The western medicine has almost failed in the treatment of this chronic kidney disease

Q Have you identified any Sinhala indigenous physicians in Rajararata?

Yes, we presented a paper at a recent international conference on traditional medicine systems. An indigenous physician was there in the same panel. We presented some data. Actually, 56% of the patients who have been treated by this physicians have shown significant improvement in their blood and urine parameters.

In Sri Lanka, we have very good indigenous medicinal practices. India also has a very good Ayurvedic practice. Close cooperation could bring in favourable results. Both could feed with each other in this respect.

The western medicine has almost failed in the treatment of this chronic kidney disease. Though I am a professor in western medicine, I have to accept the truth.
By Chandeepa Wettasinghe

The Sri Lankan government may need to increase the rate to be charged under the proposed Debt Payment Levy many fold, in order to meet the revenue target expected from it, according to a banker.

The 2018 budget presented last November proposed to charge 0.02 percent per cash transaction done via financial institutions through the Debt Repayment Levy.



But KPMG Sri Lanka Managing Partner Reyaz Mihular told a banking forum this week that the government is likely to convert the proposed levy into a 0.25 percent increase in the Financial Value-Added Tax.



The intention of the government was to make Rs.20 billion through the Debt Repayment Levy. It doesnt make sense. You wont be able to raise that money with 0.25 percent. If at all, with 2.5 percent, yes, to some extent. Not 0.25 percent in my opinion, NDB Bank PLC CFO Lalith Fernando said.



He was speaking at an investor forum organised by NDB in Colombo on Tuesday.



The Debt Repayment Levy was the third largest new revenue measure in the 2018 budget, set to bring in Rs.20 billion of the Rs.110 billion expected from all new revenue proposals.



The government had also outlined that the financial institutions will not be allowed to pass on the effect of the levy to the customer, although the Treasury officials in public admitted that the government has no ability to control such an action, since the financial institutions have many methods of passing on costs.



The Debt Repayment Levy was envisioned to last for three years and help the government manage the peaking sovereign debt repayments amounting to Rs.7 trillion during the period, which includes Rs.600 billion in foreign debt maturities each year.



The Sri Lankan government has a track record of not meeting budgeted revenue levels and instead cutting expenditure in order to meet or get close to the budget deficit targets.



However, this year, the governments ability to cut expenditure is restricted since it lost the recent local elections and is attempting to build back public support ahead of national level elections in 2019 and 2020.
But says banks need to do proper estimate on impact on profits and capital

Says can allow staggered application of capital requirements under BASEL III

Impact on impairment provisions of some banks from IFRS 9 are estimated as high as 40%

The Central Bank this week said they could be lenient on higher capital ratios under the new BASEL III rules but the banks need to convey by how much their profits and capital bases may get eroded from the new accounting standard on loan loss provisions.



Sri Lanka fully adopted the IFRS 9 or the new International Financial Reporting Standard on financial instruments on January 1, 2018, replacing its earlier version of IAS 39 and the application of the standard is estimated to substantially increase the impairment provisions on the loans with a knock-on impact on profits and capital. As a result, some of the banks might find it challenging to meet the elevated capital ratios under the BASEL III, which is slated to come into full effect on January 1, 2019.



Hence, to avoid any likely breach of these minimum capital levels by banks, the Central Bank has asked the banks to provide them with a reliable estimate of the impact on their capital augmentation plans.



Even in this IFRS 9 process, we have told the banks to provide us with the impacts and we will definitely facilitate with regard to the difficult positions that they are going to face in looking at the capital situation, Central Bank Assistant Governor Yvette Fernando said.



Speaking at a public  private policy dialogue organized by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce on Monday to discuss the regulatory and compliance challenges facing the banking sector, she said if credible estimates can be given, the Central Bank can allow staggered application of the capital requirements, which is also allowed by the BASEL III accord.

So, the only issue is that we have still not got a proper estimate. There are some vague figures but it will take a little more time for us to get the numbers. Once the numbers are available and if we are confident that they are the proper numbers, definitely the Central Bank will give some staggered application of the capital requirements because BASEL has provided that discretion to the national regulator so that, that kind of facilitation can be provided, added Fernando, who was also a former Director, Bank Supervision, at the Central Bank.



The announcement may prompt many small and mid-sized lenders who find it challenging to meet the higher capital requirements to take up the matter with the Central Bank collectively.



Meanwhile, the Managing Partner at KPMG Sri Lanka, Reyaz Mihular who delivered the keynote address at the event said the impact on impairment provisions of some banks from IFRS 9 are as high as 40 percent.



I know that the impairment on ECL, the impacts on banks are sometimes around 40 percent in some of the cases. Not unusual, he said, adding that in certain other jurisdictions, the impact is higher.



Unlike the incurred loss model under the previous IAS 39, where a bank awaits a facility demonstrating signs of sourness before making a provision, the IFRS 9 assumes a probable loss on the very first day the loan is granted resulting in a provision during the first year of the facility.



Further, when the facility indicates a serious deterioration in the quality, the new standard requires the bank to make provision for the life time of the facility.

The new provisioning method under IFRS 9, which is called the Expected Loss Model, though inherently judgmental, Mihular said the new standard is very much aligned with the business model of the bank, while it takes out the ability to postpone provisions or making inadequate provisions on possible bad loans.

When IFRS 9 comes in, the impairment provisions are going to get escalated. So, what will happen is about 30 to 40 percent of impairment losses are going to come and hit you. It might get through your reserves.



When it hits your reserves, what will happen is your pool (capital) what is needed for BASEL III is going to be eroded. So, your capital adequacy is going to get affected through that, Commercial Bank Chief Financial Officer Nandika Buddhiplala said.



Pix by Kushan Pathiraja
Startling revelations are now coming to light as to how Sri Lankans too are getting actively involved in human trafficking. But there is a failure on the part of the authorities concerned in taking adequate action against these law breakers which has raised eyebrows in the society.

Although the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau and the Department of Immigration and Emigration are closely keeping a check on suspected traffickers and taking legal action against the criminals, the Consular Affairs Division of Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Colombo and the Maradana Police have come under severe criticism for not taking any action to arrest a trafficker who had recently trafficked two marine engineering students to Malaysia.

CAST opened the first shelter in 2004

Matul was made to work over 18 hours per day

It has come to light as to how the US Government and non-governmental organizations are working hand in glove towards combating human trafficking

The Malaysian Police had rescued two Sri Lankan youths recently from forced labour and had arrested the Malaysian agent

Sri Lankan agency isnt registered either with the SL Foreign Employment Bureau or with Ceylon Shipping Lines

Upon seeing an advertisement in a national paper, Madusanka Perera Edirisinghe and Dushan Kavinda De Silva had applied for jobs related to maritime engineering

The officials of the Consular Affairs Division of Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Colombo and the Maradana Police when asked as to why they have so far failed to arrest the criminal and produce the individual in court on charges of trafficking told the DailyMirror that since the two 21-year-old victims have willingly signed the contract with the local agent, action cannot be taken under the laws of trafficking regarding this person.

They have signed the contract and had gone to Malaysia. This cannot be considered as trafficking, officials said.

When told that the two boys had been duped by the agent promising a job in a vessel and not to mine sand in a boat- which falls under forced labour- neither the police nor the Consular Affairs Division was ready to accept that forced labour too is part and parcel of human trafficking.

Our Embassy staff have been notified that the two boys cant be sent as an investigation is now in progress

-Director Consular Affairs Division

This is contrary to how the law enforcement authorities in the United States of America are handling human trafficking issues. During a recent visit to the US, it came to light as to how the US government and non-governmental organizations are working hand in glove towards combating human trafficking. They further stretch their helping hands to rehabilitate the victims through legal, social and advocacy services.

Following s expose last week which appeared under the headline US Closes in on Sex Slave Operators and Human Traffickers, it came to light how a Sri Lankan job agent in Darley Road, Colombo is involved in human trafficking, but is operating freely thanks to some officials in Sri Lanka Police and Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Malaysian Police had rescued two Sri Lankan youths recently from forced labour and had arrested the Malaysian agent, an Indian Tamil, who was involved in a series of human trafficking cases. Although the Malaysian Police was quick enough to arrest the agent in Malaysia, it is surprising to note how the local agent- Vernon- who sent the two victims for forced labour is still at large despite a compliant being lodged at the Maradana Police, by the victims parents.

Instead of safeguarding the interests of those who have been trafficked for the purpose of forced labour and slavery-like practices a few officials of these two Government institutions are alleged to have not taken action against the perpetrator during the past several days.

Victims parents shouted at

Several attempts were made to contact OIC Crimes Maradana, who is alleged to have shouted at the parents when the latter party went to lodge a complaint against the fraudster agent. However these attempts to contact the OIC Crimes were futile. The parents had later got their statement recorded in the police following their inquiries to learn what action the police had taken against Vernon. Although this newspaper requested for a personal contact number to reach the OIC Crimes, officials of the Maradana Police did not provide any contact details of the OIC.

However, the OIC Maradana said that he would look into what has happened and give this paper a feedback. All attempts thereafter to contact the OIC Maradana too failed.

Meanwhile Director Consular Affairs Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the Daily Mirror that unless the complaint lodged against the Malaysian agent is withdrawn, there would be a delay in getting back the two students.

Our Embassy staff in Malaysia have spoken to the Police. They have been notified that the two boys cant be sent as an investigation is now in progress. The only way to get the two victims back, is to withdraw the complaint against the Malaysian agent, the Director said.

When asked as to why the Foreign Ministry cant have discussions at Government level and get back the victims without making requests to withdraw the complaint, Director Consular Affairs said that there is no other way to get the children back if the complaint isnt withdrawn.

He further said that it was revealed that the agency in Sri Lankan is not registered either with the Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau or with Ceylon Shipping Lines and the only institution that could take action against the agency is the Foreign Employment Bureau and not the Consular Affairs Division.

Meanwhile, Prashantha, the father of Dushan Kavinda, said that the two boys had received a call from one of the Sri Lankan female employees attached to the Sri Lankan High Commission in Malaysia who has accused the boys of lodging a complaint against the Malaysian agent. I know the name of this officer and will reveal the details at a future inquiry.

What made her accuse our children of lodging the complaint without taking action instead to get the boys released? Evan one Ms. Malkanthai from the Consular Affairs Division called me on Monday after the made inquiries as to why they are slow in taking action to get the children. This person wanted me to ask my son to withdraw the complaint. Why are they so concerned about the complaint? Our foreign mission has to safeguard our interests, but not the Malaysians. We believe this is a racket and even officials in our foreign mission too are involved in this, Prashantha alleged.

The traffickers took our passports to confine us to the place where we worked

-Reloj

Newspaper advertisement

Upon seeing an advertisement in a national paper, Madusanka Perera Edirisinghe and Dushan Kavinda De Silva, two students studying at the Colombo International Nautical and Engineering Campus (CINEC) and following a Navigation Watch Keeping Simulator Course, had applied for jobs related to maritime engineering with the view of obtaining experience. Both students had to pay Vernon, Rs.325, 000 each as the agent fee. This agent had claimed that he had to send part of the money to the agent in Malaysia.

Although they have been promised jobs in a large vessel, they have been forced to mine sand in Malaysia.

According to Prashantha, when the two boys arrived in Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia, the Malaysian agent - Mr. Ravi from India- had met them and forced them to surrender their passports before taking them to Sibu Island on a speed boat.

At Sibu, our children had been forced to mine sand, an order which they had refused carry out. Later after several days of agitation, they had been able to escape from the traffickers and had lodged a complaint with the police. The police had immediately arrested the Indian national under the Act of Anti-Trafficking in Persons although our own police and the Consular Affairs Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs failed to take any action against the local agent, Prashantha said.

According to Prashantha, when the parents of the victims went to the Maradana police Station soon after they were informed that their children had been trafficked, OIC Crimes had not wanted to record the statement. When we told him what had happened to our children, the OIC asked one of his officers in the MO branch to record the statement which was unheeded. The complaint was recorded the following day, but no action has been taken to date, Prashantha said.

According to him, the two boys are now held by the Malaysian Police for further investigation and the officers there had inquired as to whether the Sri Lankan police had arrested the local agent?

The parents further alleged as to how the Consular Affairs Division of Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not take any action against Vernon, despite a complaint being lodged.

When Vernon was asked to appear at the Consular Affairs Division, he wasnt present at the inquiry. They are yet to take action against the agent, Prashantha said.

What made her accuse our children of lodging the complaint without taking action instead to get the boys released?

-Prashantha

CAST

Although the situation in Sri Lanka remains thus, Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST) which is an anti-human trafficking organization based in Los Angeles CA, helps to rehabilitate victims of human trafficking through legal, social and advocacy services.

According to CAST, its officials have spearheaded many development efforts in the anti-trafficking movement. It opened the first shelter for human trafficking victims in 2004 and was instrumental in starting the Los Angeles Slavery and Trafficking Task Force which is now called as Los Angeles Metropolitan Task Force on Human Trafficking.

At CAST, the Daily Mirror met Irma Matul who was a victim of forced labour. After several years in captivity she was able to contact CAST with the help of her neighbour. CAST helps out the victims of trafficking to overcome their traumatic past. We were taken for counseling and were provided with housing facilities, leadership training and mentorship. CAST is the leading voice in shaping policy and public awareness to prevent modern slavery and human trafficking. The organization supports and encourages survivors to realize their own leadership qualities and to value their insight not just as survivors, but as experts in the human trafficking field. Their work has not only changed the lives of those impacted by human trafficking, but has come up as an organization to put an end to human trafficking and modern slavery, she claimed.

Once I decided to run away from the clutches of the traffickers and went in search of CAST

-Reloj

Matuls story

Matul further stated as to how she was brought to US at the age of 17 to look after a baby. I worked for a family in Indonesia and the employer once asked whether I would like to go to Los Angeles to work as a Nanny and serve a family known to them. I was overjoyed as I was promised a better package and came to US on a labour visa. Upon my arrival at LA, I had to handover my passport to my new employer who I did not know was a trafficker. I was trafficked with a cousin of mine and do not know her whereabouts nor whether she too was subjected to abuse. The trafficker in US is also from Indonesia and her husband is a Chinese and they both have US citizenship, Matul said.

According to her the salary she was promised as a nanny had not been paid by the trafficker nor had the employer granted her leave even when she was sick.

Although I was promised a good salary, I was paid a minimal amount. I wasnt provide with even a mat to sleep on. During the winter season, I slept on the floor in a corner of the hall without a blanket. I was continuously abused physically and verbally. Although I decided to run away on many occasions, I could not do so as I couldnt speak in English, she added.

According to her, she was given leftover milk provided for the child. She added as to how she had to work over 18 hours per day without taking a break.

I had to get up at 6 in the morning and work till past 2 am the following day. During the four hours that I got to seep, I still had to get up if the baby awoke. When I came to the US, I believed that everything was normal. I suffered immensely for three years and never knew that I was in slavery. I was beaten up on many occasions, but the employer never took me to a doctor to put medicine for the bruises. I was told not to talk to any outsider as they were in fear that I would reveal how they were treating me. When I could not bear the pain and the anguish anymore, I took the ladder climbed up the wall and went to the neighbours house seeking help. It was they who brought me to CAST. Since there were no proper laws in US in 2000, my trafficker was not prosecuted. Now we educate doctors and nurses on how to identify traffickers. The fear we underwent cant be described to anyone in words. I dont want any other human being to undergo the suffering what I personally experienced, she said.

Matul is now happy with her involvement in the CAST leadership programme which she joined in 2012. She added that there are 200 members with her involved in the leadership programme; people who have been trafficked to the US from 24 different countries.

Meanwhile Avellino Reloj is a Phillipino who too had been trafficked to the US in 2007. In Philippines he had worked as a housekeeper and was in debt back in his home country.

As I could not settle the debt in my country, I decided to go overseas for a better salary. It was at that time that I came to know about and agent who was sending people to US for a higher salary. When I met the agent I was offered a janitors job and signed a contract. We were promised free food, lodging and medical care, Reloj said.

I was trafficked with a cousin of mine and dont know whether she too was subjected to abuse

-Matul

According to Reloj when he came to the USA, he was asked to enter into another employment agreement to which he had felt suspicious. Reljo too had to surrender his passport after arriving USA. The traffickers took our passports to confine us to the place where we worked knowing that we cannot run away without any travel document, Reloj said.

Instead of getting free food, lodging and medical care as promised, we had to pay for all these and even for the travelling. Instead of a house, we were given a bunker. I had to bear all this as my debt swelled in Philippines by 2009. This was because the salary that was promised was not paid to us. We were promised US $ 1,500 per month, but we were paid only US$ 500. Once I decided to run away from the clutches of the traffickers and went in search of CAST. During the past five years I have been working at Beverley Hills and get remunerated well.
In 1970, a watershed movement to help the underprivileged was led by five vibrant young ladies in Galle. Almost 48 years later, these gentlewomen of the Muslim Ladies Study Circle (MLSC) have left a legacy of service.

Engaged in community service for several decades, the MLSC is responsible for the establishment of a vocational centre at Kahatowita in Attanagalle, serving the community over the past 10 years. The women and children in Kahatowita were duly benefitted under the patronage of the MLSC. As the numbers grew, the need for a more spacious building was communicated to the ladies at the wheel.

Business tycoon and well-known philanthropist, Alhaj Ellyas Careem responded positively to this need as he believed charity should be done in a constructive manner. When Careem attended an awards ceremony at the MLSC-sponsored vocational training centre in Galle, he came across numerous successful and independent women who had acquired their tertiary skills from the vocational training centre in Galle. Careem was a strong believer that charity should make the recipient self-supportive and not be made dependent through charity. It is with this belief that he extended support towards the establishment of a new and improved vocational training centre in Kahatowita, a densely populated village.

With a Rs.40 million donation from Careem, a three-storey building was erected for the new vocational training centre. Speaking at the humble opening ceremony, MLSC President Mrs. Ameena Faisz Musthapha said empowering women of the rural hamlets was one of the circles key objectives. Our vision is to give women skills so they could gain not only economic independence but also the confidence they need to secure their place in society, she said. 10 years ago, we commenced our first MLSC vocational training centre in Kahatowita in rented premises. We had no regret in investing our efforts at this centre as we found the teachers and the committee were very diligent and hardworking.

The teachers who conduct these classes have been trained at our headquarters in Colombo. They will be conducting classes in cookery, dressmaking, embroidery, cake icing, machine embroidery, computer studies, English and Thajweed. The MLSC Colombo has come forward to provide this centre with all necessary furniture and equipment for these courses, a committee member of the MLSC said.

A close-knit community with a majority of Muslims forms the Kahatowita village. However, it is observed that they live in harmony and help each and every family of the village when in need. Their unity was illustrated when several underprivileged Sinhalese families were granted electricity connections through the efforts of the MLSC and the Kahatowita community.

In addition to vocational training, the community has also come together to engage in various community outreach programmes such as tutoring students for the scholarship examination and free medical clinics. The new building will be instrumental in reaching out to women in surrounding areas such as Udugoda, Thihariya, Pasyala, Attanagalla, Pugoda, Kal-eliya, Algama and Orchadwatte.

The Kahatowita vocational training centre educates some 150 ladies at present. The young and the old are enrolled in various programmes ranging from cookery to embroidery and craftwork designed to help them embark on self-employment ventures. The objective is to empower young girls and women to be self-sufficient and also to support their families.

15-year-old Faliha Falrik, who is enrolled in a computer studies programme, hopes to complete her course while attending school. Through the vocational training course, I can support myself when I need to in the future, she said eagerly.

Juraisa Jamaldeen, a young lady of 24 years, is a student at the Colombo Universitys School of Computing. However, she has enrolled for courses in cookery and dressmaking at the Kahatowita training centre. Im excited to start learning new skills. I love to learn and this organisation has provided us with many inspiring examples. This programme motivates women to seek employment and encourages housewives to be economically independent, said ambitious Juraisa who hopes to be a software engineer and inspire young girls of her community one day.

Munawar Alhaj Fayaz, a senior Kahatowita committee member said the village had endured numerous difficulties in the past. He noted however, through the amity, dedication and perseverance of the villagers, they have been able to overcome many hardships and become an exemplary village. The new vocational training centre premises will empower not only the ladies of our community but our community as a whole, he opined.

Vocational training centres sponsored by the MLSC have been established in Colombo, Galle, Panadura and Weligama. These centres have thus far produced approximately 7,500 qualified and capable women. The new vocational training centre building in Kahatowita not only empowers women but also ensures the continuity of education and quality vocational training for many deserving women in society.
Though Sri Lanka has achieved some small recent progress in terms of implementing UN resolutions, British Minister for Asia and Pacific Mark Field said the progress had been slower than they would have anticipated or liked.

The Minister expressed these views during a debate held in British Parliament on March 20 over the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Sri Lanka.

Responding to other members queries during the debate, Minister Field said Sri Lankas co-sponsorship of UN Human Rights Council resolution in 2015 was a truly historic moment.

It was, at least verbally, a strong commitment to addressing the legacy of its long-running and devastating civil war, a commitment subsequently extended by two years last year in resolution 34/1. Sri Lanka pledged to establish a commission for truth, justice, reconciliation and non-recurrence, to sit alongside other mechanisms as part of a comprehensive truth and justice process.

We remain absolutely committed to the full implementation of those resolutions as the single best way to secure the lasting reconciliation and peaceful future that are in the interests of all Sri Lankans, and which they so richly deserve, he said.

He said an Office on Missing persons is close to being operational and the Sri Lankan Government have passed a law to prevent and criminalise enforced disappearances.

I understand that a draft law to establish an office of reparations has been approved by the Sri Lankan cabinet. I also understand that draft legislation for a truth-seeking commissionan important part of this whole processhas been prepared, drawing upon the work of a country-wide consultation taskforce, he said.
By Indika Sakalasooriya

Japanese financial services major, ORIX Corporation, yesterday exited the Sri Lankan market with the sale of its 30 percent stake in Lanka ORIX Leasing Company PLC (LOLC) to the leasing companys local promoter and its Deputy Chairman Ishara Nanayakkara, in a whopping Rs.12.8 billion deal.



The early trading hours witnessed a block trade of 142.4 million LOLC shares, at Rs.90 per each, significantly down from Tuesdays closing price of Rs.111.00. The stock was up Rs.6.50, at Rs.117.50, in intra-day trading and closed at Rs.118.00 As at December 31, 2017, the LOLC groups net asset value per share stood at Rs.141 and at company level, it stood at Rs.97.55.



A stock market filing by LOLC yesterday said LOLC Holdings (Pvt.) Ltd bought 142.4 million LOLC shares that amounted to 29.97 percent of the issued shares of the company.



Ishara Nanayakkara is the sole director and shareholder of LOLC Holdings. With the acquisition, Ishara Nanayakkaras shareholding in LOLC increases to Rs.78.88 percent. Also, the deal will up Nanayakkara familys entire stake in LOLC to almost 85 percent.



The purchase of shares has been carried out through LOLC Securities, an LOLC group company.

Since of late, Japans ORIX Corporation was seen exiting from markets that it didnt have controlling interests. Last week, ORIX Corporation sold its minority shareholding in Oman ORIX Leasing Company to its local promoters in a 1.7 billion yen deal.



ORIX Corporation entered Sri Lanka almost four decades ago, following its decision to expand its footprint in the Asia and Oceania region. The connection with Sri Lanka was established in 1980 and Lanka ORIX Leasing Company (LOLC) was registered on March 14, 1980.



Since then, ORIX Corporation has continued its active engagement in LOLC with a 30 percent shareholding, making it the main investment partner, with two senior executives of ORIX Japan present on the LOLC board.

Analysts Mirror Business talked to said ORIX Corporations investment in LOLC should have yielded it fantastic returns as LOLC has transformed itself into a conglomerate from its humble beginning as a company offering only leasing solutions.



Today, LOLC is a group of companies that specialises in offering financial services beyond leasing, such as factoring, savings and deposits, tailored financial products for the SME sector, microfinance, Islamic financing, foreign currency deposits and insurance and stockbroking.



In a strategic move towards becoming a diversified conglomerate, the LOLC group has also moved into sectors such as agriculture, leisure, construction and renewable energy.



Despite the exit of ORIX Corporation, Lanka ORIX Leasing PLC is likely to retain its name, albeit only the abbreviation, LOLC.



For the nine months ended December 31, 2017, LOLC made a group net profit of Rs.7.3 billion on the net interest income of Rs.32.1 billion. The earnings per share stood at Rs.15.28. The groups total asset base as per the same date was Rs.770.2 billion.
(From Left) Mr. Sunil Hettiarachchchi, Secretary  Ministry of Education, Mr. P. G. Kumarasinghe Sirisena, Chairman  Sri Lanka Telecom & Mobitel and Dr. Sarath Amunugama, Deputy Director General, Public Health Services officially launching the DengueFreeChild app.

Mobitel, Sri Lankas National Mobile Service Provider, launched an innovative mobile app to help combat the spread of Dengue among school children in Sri Lanka at a special event held at the BMICH on 27 March 2018.

The DengueFreeChild app was developed by Mobitel in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health, the University of Colombo and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. The app enables users to proactively report of Dengue or suspected Dengue fever so that action can be taken to the premises around which the infection is prevalent for mosquito breeding areas as well as to alert other parents to keep a keen eye on Dengue-like symptoms in their own children.

Around 30 percent of all Dengue patients who sought treatment in 2017 were children, according to the data collected by the National Dengue Control Unit of the Ministry of Health.

Early diagnosis of Dengue can save a childs life, says Dr. Hasitha Tissera, National Coordinator of the National Dengue Control Unit. We have found that early diagnosis of Dengue and immediate treatment almost always leads to a complete recovery. The need for parents and carers to be alert and aware of the possibility of Dengue symptoms in their children cannot be overstated.

Recent statistics revealed that there are nearly 4.4 million students in more than 10,000 schools across Sri Lanka today. As the Dengue mosquito is reported to be active during the morning hours, students are all at greater risk of being infected if mosquito breeding grounds exist in schools and surrounding areas. The app creates awareness and allows sharing of information quickly that enables parents and school authorities to take preventive action to stop the spread of Dengue. Ministry of Education through Health and Nutrition Division is actively contributing to maintain schools free of dengue breeding sites. Therefore, this new app will help them to monitor the situation more closely.

The DengueFreeChild app has been created with separate user access for government officials and school authorities, in addition to the general public use of sharing and accessing information about Dengue patients.

Dengue has become a critical national health issue, and as the National Mobile Service Provider, we had a responsibility to find ways to combat this disease, says Isuru Dissanayake - Senior General Manager Marketing, Mobitel. We are proud to collaborate with the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health, the University of Colombo and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore to design and develop this timely and much-needed application. It gives us immense satisfaction to leverage on our specialized mobile technology to enhance the wellbeing of the children of our country.

The DengueFreeChild app is now available for free download by Android Users on Google Play Store.
World Oral Health Day (WOHD) is celebrated every year on 20th of March. It is an international day to celebrate the benefits of a healthy mouth and to promote worldwide awareness of the issues around oral health and the importance of oral hygiene tomaintain general health and well-being.

Under the theme of  Say Ahh: Think Mouth, Think Health , avaluable program was held in Pollonnaruwa, organized by Regional Directors Office - Health Service and sponsored by Link SUDANTHA, the premier oral care brand of Link Natural Products.

A demonstration walk was held from Weera Pedesa, 2nd Canal, to Royal Primary College, New Town-Pollonnaruwa , and was patronized by about 1000 enthusiastic volunteers including Students of Vocational Training Authority, Trainee Teachers of College of Education  Pulathisipura, Staff of Civil Defense Force, Staff of Sri Lanka Police, Representative Staff from Heath Sector and from community groups. A replication dummy of a tooth and a toothbrush together withpopular cartoon characters amongst children, added colour to the procession. The participant carried important oral health messages in line with the theme of the world oral health day. The displayed messages emphasized the importance of oral hygiene for a quality life.

The parade gathered at the auditorium of Royal Primary College, New Town-Pollonnaruwa, and participated for an interactive, important lecture by Dental Surgeon, Dr. NandanaKollure. 100 pregnant mothers from the area were invited for this forum and a valuable gift pack of all their baby needs was sponsored by the courtesy of Link Natural,- SUDANTHA.

Both the events concluded extremely successfully, with massive crowds and with full support of all media.Themain objective was to educate and create awareness to general public in line with the theme of world Oral health Day.
When Pope Francis washed the feet of prisoners including a Muslim girl on Holy Thursday in the first year of his papacy, quite a few clergymen both here and abroad were shocked by what they thought was a flagrant violation of liturgical norms and a disregard for Jesus alleged (but not scripturally recorded) intention that only men be the recipients of this service.Holders of such views and attitudes have failed to grasp the revolutionary message Jesus has communicated to all generations by this gesture --- a gesture that Pope Francis has re-enacted with an equally revolutionary effect. To appreciate this message one must delve into the culture as well as the scriptures of the Jews.

Cultural and Scriptural Background of Foot-washing

In the dry and dusty region of ancient Israel it was customary to wash the feet of guests on entering a house. Both hygiene and hospitality demanded it. Yet an unholy tradition dictated that this service had to be performed only by a female slave; and in the absence of a female slave, a female member of the family had to step in. In fact in his letter to Timothy, St Paul mentions widows who continued to render that same service. No male member nor a fortiori, the male head of the family, would ever compromise his male superiority by indulging in a menial serviceallegedly suited only for slaves and women! Thus both gender and class discrimination marred this otherwise commendable practice.

But Jesus who hosted his disciples to a meal stunned them by doing what he always did: flouting discriminatory laws at the risk of scandalizing the sanctimonious hypocrites. We hail Pope Francis for doing the same.By washing the feet of prisoners including Muslim women, this Pope, too, countered both gender and class taboos just as Jesus did.St Paul puts it well: In Christ (therefore among Christians) there is no discrimination in terms of gender (male or female) class (free or slave) and ethnicity (Jew or gentile).

Johns description of the event --- if interpreted according to the cultural mores mentioned above--- suggests that Jesus had assumed the posture of a domestic woman-slave in that he removed the over-garment, took up a towel and knelt down before the guests to wash their feet. Observe that this service (abodah in Hebrew) which Jesus performed voluntarily out of sheer love was the sameservice(abodah) that women slaves did compulsorily under social pressure. To fathom the spiritual depth of this self-effacingly bold gesture of Jesus we must comprehend the three meanings which the Bible gives to the Hebrew word abodah, which literally means service. For abodah could denote any one of the following types of service: (a) voluntary service rendered out of love to other humans, specially to the needy; (b)slavery or forced labour,i.e., a service unjustly imposed on others by loveless people ; (c) Divine Service. i.e., worship of the one true God. The Bible transmits a very profound teaching on justice and love by the way it employs these three meanings of service(abodah).

In the Book of Exodus, God is shown to be moved by compassion to liberate the Israelites from Egyptian slavery (abodah), and calls them to freedom that they might render unto God the servicedue to Her, namely, worship (abodah). The implication is that abodah as worship of God is not compatible with abodah as slavery or compulsive labour. It is only abodah as loving service towards needy humans that accord with abodah which is divine worship. Hence any attempt to worship God without engaging oneself in loving service towards other humans ceases to be abodah (worship) and becomes a mere sheret (ritual).

No wonder we hear the Prophets such as Amos, Hosea and others castigating those Israelites who indulged in temple worship without caring for the needy or meting out justice to the oppressed.Theirs was a severe warning that true worship of God (abodah) goes hand in hand with service (abodah) to victims of poverty and injustice. This is the biblical background which explains the true meaning of what happened on that Holy Thursday, as we are about to see.

But Jesus who hosted his disciples to a meal stunned them by doing what he always did: flouting discriminatory laws at the risk of scandalizing the sanctimonious hypocrites

From Ritual (sheret) back to Service (abodah)

Note well that John does not describe the Last Supper (unlike the other evangelists) and, in its stead, he goes out of his way to mention the Foot-Washing, which certainly took place in the context of the Last Supper. Instead of the words Do this in memory of me referring to the sharing of bread and wine as his body and blood, Jesus is heard saying, Do as I have done to you referring to his washing of their feet. The Christ-event is to be remembered not only by enacting the Last Supper but also by imitating Jesus who humbled himself in the service of his subordinates. . Both the Eucharistic meal and mutual service are inseparable expressions of Love which alone saves.

Then why did John de-emphasize the Communal Meal and accentuated abodah which, according to the Scriptures, is at once worship of God and service to humans? St Paul helps us to find out why. Writing only about twenty years after Christs death, Paul expresses his shock on hearing that the Lords Supper, as celebrated in the Corinthian church, had ceased to be an authentic worship and had degenerated into a mere rite marred by a scandalous class division between the rich Christians who ate and drank sumptuously and the poor Christians who were starving. A Love Feast without love is a sacrilege! No wonder Paul condemned their Eucharistic worship as a sin, more precisely, a sin against the Body of the Lord ! Like the old Prophets, Paul could not tolerate Christians who would take part in divine worship while being discriminative towards those that are not of their social standing.AEucharistic celebration which ceases to be an authentic abodah (divine worship accompanied by human service) is no more than a meaningless ritual (sheret), nay, a sin!

Now we can imagine the sorry state of this Holy Meal about thirty, forty or more years after Pauls lament, i.e., when John compiled the Fourth Gospel. Hence it would seem that this evangelist wanted to re-emphasize the service dimension of divine worship and redeem the churches from their ritualism. He seems to insist that mutual service done in a spirit of humility and equality is an essential ingredient of Christian worship and that its absence in Christian communities had deprived their Eucharistic celebration of its basic constituent, namely, service-filled worship or sacrificing ones life (flesh and blood) for others in accordance with the Masters command and example. Foot-washing is recorded in order to remind the churches of Johns time that Divine Worship and Human Service are inseparably associated with each other. What God has put together let no one put asunder!

Let me conclude with a caveat. The foot-washing also risks being ritualized into an annual ceremony unless the churches see it as a divine summons to create Christian communities wherein mutual service eliminates every shade of discrimination in terms of gender, class and ethnicity. This is quite clearly suggested by the afore-mentioned socio-cultural context in which Jesus gave us an example of abodah, Loving Service to Humans as a constitutive dimension of Divine worship.]
It would take at least another ten years to revive the fallen education system in the North, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said today.

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe expressed this sentiment during a ceremony held at Temple Trees distribute permanent appointment letters to nearly 400 teachers in the North last morning

The whole system of education in the North had fallen today. What have to do is to lay the foundation stone to revive this system in the province. It will take time, he said.

I cannot say we can do this in one year as it will take at least ten years. We have to introduce a new education system within the next ten years. There should be a familiar system for the North. We need the support of retired principals and teachers to do it. I have requested the Minister of Education to get the support of the Provincial Council to set up a new education programme for the province. However, one cannot give a dead line for it, the Prime Minister said.

It is a duty of the Government to grant appointments as permanent teachers to those who have worked under volunteer and contract basis in the Northern Province for a long time.

The granting of permanent appointments to teachers will not end today as there are more to be made permanent. Most of these who are got appointments today worked at the Northern schools during war time.

Others came during the post war period when there was a shortage of teachers in the province. There was no method of recruitment at that time while some did not have enough qualifications to become permanent teachers. However many persons helped to resolve the teacher shortage in the province during difficult times. Thanks very much for your commitment. Leader of Opposition, Governor of Northern province, Minister of education and the state Minister of education were keen to resolve this issue, he added.

Mr. Wickremesinghe said the standard of education was very high in the North before the war and during his tenure as the Minister of Education.

Education in Colombo was also of high standard. Gampaha was second. Then there is Kandy and Galle in the ranks. Education in Jaffna is on a standstill. There are a number of districts in the country where the education is of higher standards compared to Jaffna, he also said.

Governor of Northern Province Reginald Cooray said the Government had understood the importance of reviving the education system in the North. North was the foremost place of Sri Lankas education in the past but the education sector had come down during the war. President Regime had decided to put things right, he said.

Minister of Education Akila Viraj Kariyawasam said the decision was made to provide permanent appointments to Northern teachers after discussions with the Public service commission.

He said temporary appointments were given to teachers in the North as there were issues pertaining to procedures.

State Minister of Education V. Radhakrishnan said it was the people in the North who were against helping the province and not those from the South.

He said some in the education sector, who are against giving these appointments and were carrying out continuous protests in the North. (Yohan Perera)
The Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM) has created a sense of anticipation by announcing the National Sales Congress (NASCO) 2018. As the premier event dedicated to recognize the efforts and performance of sales personnel, NASCO is eagerly awaited by Sri Lankas corporate community as it is the only national level event to recognize and reward the performances of the sales force in the country.

NASCO has repeated success year after year, with 110 companies from 22 industries taking part in the previous years edition of NASCO, counting 550 entries in total.

Although the official entry kits for NASCO 2018 are yet to be released, SLIM has revealed that participants can look forward to some exciting changes to the format. A new category has been added above the Territory Manager category while the judging process has been changed according to the current context. A reclassification has also been done of Industry and Business categories.

As the National Body for Marketing, SLIM has been at the forefront of fostering marketing knowledge and best practices in the country. Organized for the 18th consecutive year, NASCO awards are being presented in 15 diverse business sectors under the Senior Manager, territory manager, sales executive/ sales supervisor and front-liner categories. In addition to Gold, Silver and Bronze awards, best female sales personnel are also recognised under each category.

SLIM NASCO committed to instil the importance and recognition in the sales profession. A national level competition with participation from different industries has continuously improved the standard of the individuals. Hence, this competition has made a positive impact on the corporate sector. The sectors for nominations are: Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), Financial Services & Banking, Industrial, Media, Consumer Durables, Telecommunication, Fashion & Clothing, Healthcare, Modern Retail, Travel & Leisure, Insurance, Alcohol & Tobacco, and Corporate Selling.
Slovakia, the worlds highest per capita car producer, is keen on importing Sri Lankan rubber tyres for the Slovakian automotive manufacturing industry, according to a communique from the local Industry and Commerce Ministry.



We want to diversify our rubber intake and to this end, expanding the sourcing from our present African and Southeast Asian suppliers. Tyre supplies are crucial for us. We want to expand this sourcing and are now keenly focusing on the Sri Lankan rubber sector, especially tyres, Slovak Finance Minister Peter Kazimir said during his visit to Sri Lanka with a nine-member delegation.

Kazimir, who was visiting the Sri Lankan Industry and Commerce Ministry yesterday, said that with the rapid expansion of the Slovak automobile manufacturing industry, a need has arisen to diversify the rubber sources.



Last year, Slovakia produced over one million cars or 191 cars per 1,000 inhabitants. Global automobile giants such as KIA, Volkswagen, Jaguar Land Rover, Audi and PSA Peugeot Citroen have factories in Slovakia.



Lately, Slovakia has begun expanding from car production to SUVs, having launched production of Porsche Cayenne in 2017, while the new generation of Volkswagen Touareg and Audi Q8 are expected to begin production in the future.

Kazimir said that the Slovak government wishes to send business delegations to Sri Lanka for rubber sourcing and even provide technical knowhow to the Sri Lankan automotive industry, if so desired.

Industry and Commerce Minister Rishad Bathiudeen welcomed the interest shown by Slovakia.



Global demand for our high-quality rubber continues to increase; even last year our rubber exports increased by 18 percent to US $ 39 million from US $ 33 million in 2016.



Therefore, you are in the right location looking for high-quality rubber and tyres for your automotive sector, he said.



Bathiudeen pledged his support for business and investment delegations expected to arrive from Slovakia.



Kazimir also expressed interest in investing in Sri Lanka and called for bilateral investment protection and double tax avoidance mechanisms between both countries during the ministerial meeting.



Bilateral trade between Sri Lanka and Slovakia totalled US $ 45 million in 2017. Sri Lankas leading export to Slovakia in 2017 was apparel while machinery was the key import item to

Sri Lanka from Slovakia.
A tense situation has been reported at the Maskeliya Pradeshiya Sabha during the ballot to elect the Chairman and Vice Chairman, a short while ago.

Police teams were summoned to the scene to control the situation.

Meanwhile, a clash reported between the Ceylon Workers' Congress members and National Workers Congress members opposite the Maskeliya Police station. Police Special Task Force and several Police teams were deployed to control the situation. (Ranjith Rajapaksha and Gamini Illangatillake)

Video by Ranjith Rajapaksha

- Pix by Ranjith Rajapaksha
United Nations, (The Hindu) March 27, 2018 - United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has expressed shock over Myanmar Army chiefs reported remarks that Rohingya have nothing in common with the countrys other ethnic groups, calling on the leaders to take a unified stance against incitement to hatred.



General U Min Aung Hlaing, during a speech to a military gathering in Kachin State, referred to the ethnic Rohingya community as Bengalis, according to a report in the Dhaka Tribune. The report quoted him as saying that the Bengalis do not have any characteristics or culture in common with the ethnicities of Myanmar. The tensions (in Rakhine State) were fuelled because the Bengalis demanded citizenship.



In a statement issued on March 26 by the spokesman, Mr. Guterres expressed shock at the reports of remarks attributed to Gen. Hlaing.
zMessenger, the multiple-award winningfull spectrum digital solutions agency in Sri Lanka, celebrated its 15th year of digital excellence by becoming the only Sri Lankan Gold Award Winner at the prestigious Festival of Media APAC Awards 2018.

zMessengers Ekata/Onra campaign for WUSC Sri Lanka (World University Service of Canada) won the Gold award under the "Best Social Marketing Campaign" category. The Festival of Media APAC Awards celebrate the best in media thinking and communications the Asia Pacific Region. Judged by a senior panel of industry experts, it is the only awards ceremony dedicated to the evolution of media across the APAC region with participation of 13 countries, 63 judges and 147 shortlisted entries.

During the course of its 15 years of operations, zMessenger has built a reputation for its innovative approach and its commitment in transforming the digital marketing landscape of Sri Lanka, empowering local organizations to keep up with the rapid pace of evolution witnessed around the world. It leverages efficient and innovative digital expertise to create cutting-edge IT-enabled business solutions and mobile strategies across a vast range of industries that includes banking and finance, FMCG, manufacturing, real-estate, mass media, government and aviation. It currently handles over 90 companies including several of the islands leading organizations and has provided digital solutions to more than 130 brands.

In order to expand the companys regional footprint, zMessenger has made strategic tie-ups with regional leaders in technology and advertising. Last year, the company entered into a partnership with Japanese veteran advertising agency network Chuo Senko to expand its Digital Marketing Technology and Services into the ASEAN region. Through this partnership, the company is able to take its novel stack of MarTech (MarketingTech) platforms involving AI-driven Programmatic Ad platform, Virtual Reality and Content Solutions to the regional level as they pitch 360-degree solutions to companies in Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand Cambodia, Myanmar and Japan. Most recently, zMessenger embarked on a partnership with SSD-Tech, a leading technology company based in Bangladesh, emphasizing the companys regional expansion with regards to leveraging on the potential market opportunities in Bangladesh.

Since inception, zMessenger has won numerous awards for designing and delivering exceptional consumer experiences. Last year, the company won the Runner-up award in the ICT Services Sector at the National Business Excellence Awards 2017 organised by the National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka and also bagged four wins at the Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) ZeroOne Awards including the Overall Winner award for the Best Use of Mobile category. During 2016, the company was presented with the Best Digital Marketing and Social Media Company South Asia award at the South Asian Partnership Summit (SAPS) & Business Awards. Additionally, Jayomi Lokuliyana won the Best Female Entrepreneur in South Asia award given out by the South Asian Business Partnership Awards.

Expressing her views on the milestone, Jayomi Lokuliyana - Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of zMessenger stated, The Festival of Media APAC Awards win has come at the right time and is a culmination of years of hard work by the team. It gives us more reasons to celebrate our 15th anniversary. It has been a wonderful journey full of exciting challenges and outstanding innovations. In fact, innovation is the lifeblood of zMessenger from inception and the core value the entire company shares. As a result, every year, a significant portion of the annual budget is spent in terms of resources, IT infrastructure and learning. In order to extend our innovation efforts, we have made strategic partnerships with some of the island's leading IT universities such as the UCSC of University of Colombo and University of Kelaniya.

Commenting further, she added, 15 years ago, we introduced mobile as the fourth screen to enable anytime, anywhere interactive brand communications. Today, mobile has grown as a catalyst to organization-wide innovation and we are geared to supercharge our clients digital transformation journey with the power of data and artificial Intelligence to enable digitally led exceptional brand experiences.As we step into our 16th year of operations, I can confidently state that we are fully geared to empower digital transformation for years to come.Meanwhile, the company has planned a series of Round table discussions themed Digital For Good focusing on impact of digital across various industries. The very first Digital for Good Round Table discussion for Non For Profit Sector will take place during the first quarter.
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The Centre on Wednesday sought a report from the West Bengal government on continuing incidents of arson and violence during Ram Navami processions in the last two days.



A Ministry of Home Affairs spokesperson said the government is closely monitoring the situation and has offered assistance of paramilitary forces in the light of reports of continuing violence and tension in some districts of the state.

Ram Navami celebrations in the state have this year witnessed unprecedented violence leading to the death of at least three people.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh is closely watching the situation and has instructed officials to assist the state in all possible ways to control the situation.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has put the blame on Hindutva outfits, including the BJP, for the violence, saying the state has never seen Ram Navami marches carrying arms.

Defying the administration's orders, several marches were held in the state with people carrying swords and other arms.

Mamata had said, "Everyone is free to practice their religion. But carrying pistols and playing politics in the name of Lord Ram will not be tolerated."

BJP state president Dilip Ghosh has accused the chief minister of not being able to control those behind the violence while denying the involvement of his partymen in the stir.
Hundreds of Malaysians protested on Wednesday at a government bid to redraw electoral boundaries as polls loom, with the Opposition slamming the move as a "scandalous" attempt to steal the election.



The polls are expected within weeks and Prime Minister Najib Razak is battling to keep his long-ruling coalition in power despite allegations that billions of dollars were looted from a sovereign wealth fund founded by him.

The electoral constituency bill was due to be tabled in Parliament on Wednesday, two days after the government proposed a law to combat "fake news" carrying a maximum 10-year jail term, that critics said was aimed at stifling dissent.

Electoral authorities say redrawing boundaries is a regular exercise that must be undertaken to reflect demographic changes.

However, the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, which has been in power since independence in 1957, has long been accused of rigging the electoral map to help it in polls and the plan sparked accusations of gerrymandering.

About 200 protesters marched on Parliament, waving signs that read: "stealing an election is not winning an election" and "we will not be silenced".

"It is scandalous. It amounts to vote rigging because the new electoral boundaries will result in the election favouring Barisan Nasional," said Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, deputy leader of the Opposition coalition Pact of Hope.

"We believe an election victory may be stolen from us," he added.

The Opposition claims that the plan to redraw boundaries will see voters who traditionally favour them lumped together in larger constituencies, creating smaller constituencies packed with pro-BN voters - particularly the country's Muslim Malay majority.

But Abdul Rahman Dahlan, minister in charge of economic planning, denied the claims.

"Each time the redrawing of constituencies is done, the opposition cries foul," he said.

The bill needs to be backed by a majority of MPs to pass and is expected to do so as BN has most seats in the 222-seat Parliament.

Despite the scandal surrounding state fund 1MDB, Najib is tipped to win another parliamentary term due to vote-rigging and his coalition's strong grip on the electoral machinery.

He is, however, facing a strong challenge from the Opposition's candidate, veteran ex-leader Mahathir Mohamad, 92, who is still popular with rural voters.
The continued disruptions in the Rajya Sabha found mention in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech for retiring members on Wednesday when he said they would not be able to participate in debates when the House decides on important bills such as the one which seeks to criminalise the practise of instant triple talaq.



In his brief speech, Modi said "unfortunately", the retiring members will not be part of Parliament when the decision on instant triple talaq is taken.

He also said the outgoing members must have prepared speeches on important issues so that their contribution is remembered.

But they could not do so. He said the responsibility of smooth functioning lies not only with the Opposition but also with the government.

The Rajya Sabha, Modi said, is a distinguished House with eminent members serving here. He said the House plays a vital role in India's democracy.

He did not use terms such as din, disruptions in his speech.
Two men were paraded naked by a mob in Upper Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh for reportedly raping a high school student, a top police officer said.



The two accused were thrashed and paraded naked by the mob, including women, in Yingkiong market area on March 26 before being handed over to the police.

Two others are absconding, the police officer said.

The 17-year-old girl was reportedly raped by four men, including her boyfriend, near the under-construction Gandhi Bridge on March 25, DIG (central range) John Neihalaia said.

The incident took place at around 8.30 pm at a place, about 6 km away from Yingkiong town and the police received information on the following day, the DIG said.

The accused are from Pangkang village.

The DIG said that a search has been launched to nab the two accused and a police team has been sent to Jengging in search of the duo, he said.

Terming the incident "unfortunate", state Home Minister Kumar Waii has sought the support of one and all to bring the guilty to book.

He also asked minors to avoid going out with strangers to unknown locations and travelling after dark.

"Such incidents are unexpected but could be tackled with coordinated efforts," he said and advocated that the civil society should be vigilant to ensure the security of girls.

Meanwhile, the Arunachal Pradesh State Commission for Women has asked the Upper Siang SP to nab the absconding culprits under the POCSO Act, 2012, and award exemplary punishment to them.

The APSCW also requested the family members of the culprits and society to cooperate with the police to deliver justice to the victim and her family.

This is the second rape incident in the town this year. A six-year-old girl student was reportedly raped by her teacher on February 22.

Cases of mob outrage and vigilante justice have surfaced in the state over the past few months prompting the state government to enact a legislation on March 16 which would provide death penalty to those convicted of raping girls below 12 years.

Earlier this month, a man accused of raping a 12-year-old was paraded naked around Daporijo town in Upper Subansiri district before he was handed over to the police.

A mob of around 800 people stormed into the Tezu police station in Lohit district on February 19 and dragged out a man and his accomplice accused of raping and murder of a five-year-old girl and lynched them in the market area.
The Kremlin said on Wednesday that Russia was still open to the possibility of a meeting between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin despite Washington's expulsion of a slew of Russian diplomats.



Trump earlier this month congratulated Putin on his re-election win and said the two leaders would meet soon.

However, already poor ties between Moscow and Washington have since deteriorated further over the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain and the United States on Monday said it was expelling 60 Russian diplomats.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call on Wednesday that Moscow had received no information from Washington about whether the Trump-Putin meeting was still on the agenda, but remained open to cooperation.
Kuldeep Singh Jhala, who called himself an incarnation of goddess Shakti and Jagdamba, was arrested on charges of sodomy of teenage boys and alleged involvement in abetting a 20-year-old youth to commit suicide last month, police said.



According to the police, the accused person, famously known as Jagdamba baba, in the name of 'deeksha' would terrify youths, indulge into sexual activities and later torture them.

38-year-old Jhala was arrested yesterday following an investigation into a case under sections 306 and 354 of the IPC for abetment of suicide lodged against him earlier this month, Jhalawar Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Chagan Singh said.

"He would be produced before the court today," the DSP added.

The officer said father of a 20-year-old deceased youth, identified as Yuvraj Singh, who committed suicide on February 19 this year, lodged a case of abetment of suicide against the accused Baba on March 1.

As per the complaint filed by the victim's father, Yuvraj was set to be engaged with a girl from Ujjain, but when the accused Baba got to know about the proposed engagement he threatened him to not get married and started torturing him.

"Depressed and puzzled by the torture and harassment, the youth ended his life on Feb 19 by hanging himself to the ceiling fan at his home," the DSP said.

Police said they have recorded statements of about five to seven youths, who also have confessed of them being subjected to vulgar activities and sexual harassment in the name of deeksha and later engaging them with vulgar mobile chats.

However, any sexual involvement with women has not been traced so far, they said.

The accused, who had over 700 followers, has been involved into hypocrite religious activities at his home, and would once in a year during Navratra dress up as a woman with makeup and lead a grand procession through the city, the DSP said.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday derided the media for allegedly stirring hate against him with their "cunning twisting of facts" and said he was honoured they made their livelihood spinning lies about him.



Gandhi cited a recent sting operation by the portal 'Cobrapost', allegedly revealing that 17 media firms were ready to push communal reports for cash without even raising a bill for it.

"I can never hate those who try to stir up hate against me, with fake stories and their cunning twisting of facts. For them it's just business; hate sold for a price, as the Cobrapost expose shows," Gandhi said on Twitter.

"I'm blessed and honoured that they make their livelihoods spinning lies about me," he added sarcastically.

His party said on its Twitter handle that the "mainstream media's silence on the Cobrapost 'sting' is a telling tale on its own credibility".
Former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found unconscious on a park bench in Salisbury in the UK on March 4. According to police, they were exposed to a nerve agent that also affected police detective sergeant Nick Bailey. The incident made international headlines and soon, everyone heard another name -- 'Novichok'.



The Novichok class of agents were reportedly developed in an attempt to circumvent the Chemical Weapons Convention (chemical weapons are banned on the basis of chemical structure and so, a new chemical agent is not subject to past treaties).

These agents are designed to be undetectable by chemical detection equipment and they are believed to be safer to handle.

Novichok was first developed by Russia in the 1970s and according to scientists, they are the most dangerous nerve agents ever created.

Novichok is reportedly five to eight times more toxic than the VX nerve agent and the effects are rapid, usually within 30 seconds to two minutes. Novichok agents are typically stored as two separate less toxic ingredients that, when mixed, react to produce the active toxic agent.

The main exposure route is likely to be through inhalation, though they can also be absorbed through the skin. Novichok, like other nerve agents, causes the collapse of body functions. Death can occur by asphyxiation or cardiac arrest.

Helping a person exposed to a Novichok agent requires concentration upon basic life support measures and decontamination in order to remove the agent and prevent additional exposure, according to ScienceDirect. Antidotes like Atropine, Pralidoxime and Diazepam can be given but many agents are specifically designed to be resistant to nerve agent antidote therapy.








"I've been getting a lot of requests from Indian journalists, so here are some of SCL's past projects in India. To the most frequently asked question - yes SCL/CA works in India and has offices there. This is what modern colonialism looks like," Wylie tweeted, along with a document.





The document reveals that since 2003, Cambridge Analytica, accused of illegally accessing data of Facebook users worked for several parties across India.





Address of SCL India HQ and Amrish Tyagi's OBI are the same





One of the images tweeted by Wylie shows the address of the SCL India's headquarters and a map of other branches across India. The address shows the HQ as being in Ghaziabad near Delhi and the other 9 branches being in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Cuttack, Pune, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Kolkata, Patna and Pune.





Interestingly the address of the headquarters in the document is the same as that of Ovelano Intelligence Bureau (OBI) the Indian offshoot of the SCL. The website of OBI says they had worked for BJP, Congress, JD(U) and companies Airtel and ICCI. The Managing Director of the company, according to the website, is Amrish Tyagi, son of JD(U) leader K C Tyagi.





The website has been suspended since the revelation of irregularities in Cambridge Analytica.





2003 Madhya Pradesh elections





SCL India carried out a psephological study and opinion polling for a national party to identify swing voters. This was followed by more in-depth analysis of the behavioural dynamics at work in key seats which in turn informed the party's efforts to ensure a local structure and communicate on a strategy that matched the caste make-up and attitudinal positions of the pre-identified 'swing population.





2003 Rajasthan elections





A major state party contracted SCL India to carry out two pieces of work, one Internal aimed at assessing the party's organisational strength, the other external looking at the nature of the voting population and, more particularly, the attitudes and behaviours of politically-active individuals within the state.





Both consisted of quantitative surveys followed by qualitative in-depth interviews, the product of which was analysed using the Behavioural Dynamics methodology, though the subject of the enquiries and the implications for the party's strategic approach were naturally very different. SCL India also assisted the party in understanding how to use the diverse findings.





2007 Uttar Pradesh Elections





For the 2007 Uttar Pradesh elections, SCL India carried out a full political survey on behalf of a major party. The research included a party audit and a statewide census of politically active individuals using in-depth interviews to assess satisfaction levels of party workers at the booth level.





Kerala, West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh





In 2007, SCL India also undertook a research communication campaign to support a transnational programme for countering the Non-Desired Behaviour (NOB) of recruitment into, and support of, violent Jihadism.





The project focused on ancillary populations as opposed to perpetrators of violent Jihadism themselves and required an in-depth motivational understanding of the population of six states.





2009 General Elections





In the 2009 general elections, SCL India /Cambridge Analytica managed the campaigns of a number of Lok Sabha candidates. The research and campaign teams employed SCL India's proprietary data collection methodologies to form strategies that gave the clients successful election campaigns.





2010 Bihar Elections





SCL India was asked to provide electoral research and strategy for the 2010 Bihar Elections for the Janata Dal (United). SCL undertook a behavioural research programme targeting over 75% of households to assist the client in not only identifying the correct battlegrounds but also the right audiences, messages and most importantly the right castes to target with their campaigns.

Christopher Wylie, the former Cambridge Analytica employee, who exposed the Facebook data breach scandal, on Wednesday, tweeted details of Cambridge Analytica's activities in India.
The eternal favourite sushi is getting a makeover by chefs in the city who are giving it a spin to make it appealing to the Indian palate.





Pinaki Swarnakar, the executive sous chef of The Lalit Ashok Bangalore, says, "Indians have learnt to accept Japanese cuisine and culture over the years. The stuffing and the shape of a sushi are what defines it. Though we have incorporated new elements to make it appealing to our palates, the three basic ingredients are irreplaceable."

The sticky rice in the sushi is what holds and binds it together. The nori sheets give it the texture it needs and the roll shape. And the final ingredient is the raw fish, vegetables or fruits.

Most restaurateurs import these ingredients from Singapore, Malaysia and Japan.

There are only very few restaurants that serve authentic sushi. The Japanese version is strong in flavour which is why versions like California rolls or

maki rolls are more popular here.

Chef Paul Kinny, director culinary Phoenix Mills, explains, "Maki is a type of roll in which the seaweed wrap is the outer covering. This can include the filling

of avocado and other proteins which is something we are used to having in India."

However, the most important thing to ensure is to have ingredients of high quality.

"As the ingredient, especially seafood, is served raw here, you have to make sure the quality is of the highest level. It can be very dangerous otherwise. And because of our limitations of having the best seafood of this quality here, we prefer to import it," says Paul.

The restaurant gets its tuna from Philipines or Maldives, Hamachi from Japan and Salmon from Norway.

And to make the sushi suitable for the Indian palate, mayo, tempura and crunchy veggies are incorporated.

Then there are also chefs in the city who are open to using local ingredients when making a sushi roll.

The Fatty Bao in Indiranagar is unrolling sushi and turning it on its head at 'Sushi Unrolled', a food festival which gives the traditional sushi new shapes and flavours.

The executive chef, Prashanth says, "We were inspired to make pizza, sandwich, taco, pita pocket and a roll using sushi.

The techniques are the same but the presentation and the ingredients used are very different."

The team have included items which aren't normally used in sushi like cheesy beef, miso lotus root, fried garlic chips and mackerel, to name a few.

A question of being too innovative with the dish does come into factor.

Prashanth says, "When it comes to sushi, chefs across the globe

are experimenting with locally sourced ingredients. We are still maintaining

the basic composition because that is what makes sushi what it is. The three core ingredients are impossible to substitute, we just play around with the rest. Many of the Japanese living in the city are also open to these innovative dishes."
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on Wednesday said it keeps a constant vigil to ensure that user data is fully protected.



"As far as Aadhaar data is concerned, data is fully protected. I presented before the Supreme Court that there is not a single breach from the Aadhaar system during the last seven years. We are constantly on vigil," UIDAI CEO Ajay Bhushan Pandey told reporters here.

Stating that the nodal authority for Aadhaar is well aware of the new threats that are emerging, Pandey asserted that UIDAI remains committed to keeping the data safe at all times.

"In the IT world, new technologies are coming. While it is enabling the people, it is also enabling the other side who do not have good intentions. So what we need to do is keep upgrading our technology, keep assessing what new technology our opponents would apply, how to take proactive steps in time, so that our data remains safe...," Pandey said.

He also said that banks can continue to link Aadhaar with bank accounts, but that accounts cannot not be deactivated for the lack of Aadhaar, till the Supreme Court verdict is pronounced.

The top court on March 13, indefinitely extended the March 31 deadline for linking bank accounts and mobile phone numbers with Aadhaar.

Pandey said that the apex court had not given a stay order.

"The court has extended the last date for linking till the date of judgement. During this process, banks can continue to provide the facility and people can link...But any deactivation or adverse consequences will happen only after the judgement of court," he said.
Hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani's son, and the son of noted businessman Zahoor Ahmed Watali have been listed among the "prosecution witnesses" by the National Investigation Agency in a case related to terror funding in the Kashmir Valley.



The NIA, which filed a charge sheet in the case in January this year, have named Watali's son Yasir Gaffar at serial number 30 and Geelani's son Naim-ul-Zaffar at serial number 37 in the list of prosecution witnesses submitted to a special court.

The NIA has also submitted eight-page and four-page statements given by Ghaffar and Zaffar respectively to an NIA official during the course of investigation.

A statement given before a police official is not admissible as a primary evidence in the court.

The charge sheet has been filed by the NIA against 12 people, including Lashker-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed and Hizbul Mujahideen terror group's head Syed Salahuddin. Both of them are in Pakistan. Ten people arrested by the NIA in connection with the case include son-in-law of Geelani, Altaf Ahmed Shah, besides Watali.

The probe agency registered a case against separatists in the Kashmir Valley on May 30 last year and also managed to secure confessional statements on the flow of money, especially from Pakistan, from some people related to the funding of terror activities in Kashmir.

Geelani's son, who had fled the state to Dubai, London and later to Pakistan after he was threatened by counter-insurgents, had appeared before the NIA on many occasions.

He gave a duly signed statement in which he gave several details, including the people he had met during his post-doctorate from Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences.

Watali's son also gave a detailed statement about the business of his father and his associates, the officials said.

The charge sheet also names 42 protected witnesses in its list of 232 people who would be examined during the proceedings. The witnesses have been protected under section 43(3) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act under which the name and address of the person is not mentioned during the court proceedings.

Besides Shah and Watali, the NIA has arrested Geelani's close aides Ayaz Akbar, who is also spokesperson of the hardline separatist organisation Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, Peer Saifullah, Shahid-ul-Islam, spokesperson of the moderate Hurriyat Conference, Mehrajuddin Kalwal, Nayeem Khan, Farooq Ahmed Dar alias 'Bitta Karate', photo-journalist Kamran Yusuf and Javed Ahmed Bhat.

The NIA had registered a case on May 30 against the separatist and secessionist leaders, including unidentified members of the Hurriyat Conference, who have been acting in connivance with active militants of proscribed terrorist organisations Hizbul Mujahideen, Dukhtaran-e-Millat, Lashkar-e-Taiba and other outfits and gangs, officials said.

The case was registered for raising, receiving and collecting funds through various illegal means, including hawala, for funding separatist and terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir and for causing disruption in the Valley by way of pelting stones on the security forces, burning schools, damaging public property and waging war against India, the probe agency had said in the FIR.

The FIR had also named organisations such as the two factions of the Hurriyat, one led by Geelani and the other Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the Hizbul Mujahideen and the Dukhtaran-e-Millat, an all-women outfit of the separatists.

Kamran Yusuf and Bhat were released on bail last week by a special court.
India has raised its contributions to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees by four times, even as President Donald Trump's administration suspended American Government's support to the organization.

New Delhi has increased its contribution to the UNRWA from $ 1.25 million to $ 5 million (Rs 8.15 crore to Rs 32.61 crore) for three years, beginning from 2018-19, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Wednesday.

India committed to quadruple its contributions to the UNRWA in order to help the agency cope with a $ 446 million budget shortfall, which was caused by Trump Administration's move to suspend United States' aid for Palestinians. Trump in January this year said that the US would not provide aid to the UNRWA unless Palestinians agreed to renew talks with Israel to carry forward the peace process.

"This enhancement (contribution by New Delhi) was made in the backdrop of the unprecedented financial crisis being faced by (the) UNRWA, which has been delivering valuable public services to Palestinian refugees around the world," Raveesh Kumar, spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, said.

New Delhi pledged to raise its contributions to the UNRWA during a conference in Rome on March 15.

India's move to help out the UNRWA came just a few weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Palestine on February 10.

Modi's visit to Ramallah was aimed at sending out a message that India did not budge from its traditional support to the cause of Palestine even as it stepped up its engagement with Israel after the BJP's ascent to power in New Delhi in May 2014. Prime Minister's earlier visit to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in July 2017 had de-linked India's relations with Israel and Palestine.

The UNRWA, which was set up by UN General Assembly resolution on December 8, 1949, provides assistance and protection to Palestinians in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. It now helps 5266603 Palestinians, runs 692 schools with 500698 refugee students, and provide healthcare to 9000000 refugees in a year. It also helps refugees to develop and maintain camp infrastructure and provides them micro-finance and emergency assistance.

The US has been the largest donor to the UNRWA with its annual voluntary contributions to the agency crossing the $ 350 million mark in the past two years.

Washington, however, provided only $ 60 million to the UNRWA this year, thus putting the agency in severe financial crisis.

Trump irked Palestinians by formally recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in December 2017. India declined to toe the US line on recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel but refrained from reiterating its long-held view that eastern part of the holy city should be the capital of the future state of Palestine.




Disgruntled BJP leaders Yashwant Sinha and Shatrughan Sinha on Wednesday met West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, and appreciated her efforts to bring together all regional forces against the Modi government ahead of coming Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.



Banerjee, who has been meeting leaders of various opposition parties and some allies of the ruling BJP here, today also held discussions with Arun Shourie, a former Union minister in the NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

After the meeting, Shourie, who has been critical of the Modi government, said the Tranamool Congress chief's theory of putting up a one-on-one fight against the BJP in every state was the right path to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"If the one-on-one formula is implemented, the opposition will be able to corner 69 per cent of votes," Shourie said.

Though Yashwant Sinha did not clarify on whether he or Shatrughan Sinha would join a united force against the BJP, he said, "Mamata is our old cabinet colleague. Her personality is known to everyone. The role she has taken to save the country is appreciable. In future also, we will support her."

Banerjee was part of the Vajpayee government.
A prominent Lingayat seer has commended the Siddaramaiah government's decision to recommend religious minority tag to Lingayats and Veerashaiva Lingayats, in an embarrassment to BJP president Amit Shah, who had termed it as an attempt to 'divide' the Hindu community.



The Seer of Murugha mutt, Dr Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru, backed the government move in a memorandum submitted to Shah at Chitradurga yesterday, seeking the Centre's approval for the religious minority tag.

On a mission to connect with the pontiffs of the community, Shah had met several Lingayat/Veerashaiva seers during his two-day visit to Karnataka, in an apparent move towards keeping the BJP's traditional Lingayat voter base intact, ahead of the May 12 assembly polls.



The pontiff said he had submitted a memorandum to Shah seeking the Centre's approval for the religious minority tag for Lingayats as recommended by the Karnataka government. He said Shah heard them patiently. The memorandum pointed out that a strong movement is going on in Karnataka by Lingayat and Veerashaiva Lingayats, pressing for minority status to the community.



"At the outset, it appears that there is a controversy between Lingayat and Veerashaiva Lingayat followers," but it is a "temporary outbreak of emotions" of small groups in the followers of both faiths and "it will not last long," it said.

The seer further said that the government of Karnataka has "rightly" recommended to the Centre in this regard.



"Minority status to this religion will definitely deliver some benefits to the youth of this community- individually and collectively. It is not a step to divide the community, but a measure to unite the already subdivided sub caste followers in Lingayats," he said.

During his two-day visit, Shah had yesterday said the move to accord religious minority tag to Lingayats and Veerashaiva Linagayats was an attempt to "divide" Hindus and questioned the timing of such recommendation, ahead of assembly elections.



The Karnataka cabinet on March 19 had decided to recommend to the Centre to grant religious minority tag to the Lingayat and Veerashaiva Lingayat community.
On this episode of Radio Free Acton, Kevin Schmiesing, research fellow at Acton, speaks with Robert Kennedy, professor in the department of Catholic Studies at the University of St. Thomas, on Justice in Taxation. Then, Caroline Roberts talks with Brett VanderKamp, founder and president of New Holland Brewing Company on how entrepreneurs make a freer society. Finally, on the Upstream segment, Bruce Edward Walker discusses the life and work of Madeleine LEngle with Sarah Arthur, author of a new biography on LEngle, and talk about A Wrinkle in Time in light of the new film adaptation.

Check out these additional resources on this weeks podcast topics:

Read Catholic Social Teaching and tax justice by Robert G. Kennedy

Check out Justice in Taxation, the latest volume in Actons Christian Social Thought Series

Learn more about New Holland Brewing

A Wrinkle in Time IMDb

Check out Sarah Arthurs forthcoming biography of Madeleine LEngle

Do you have questions for the Radio Free Acton team that you would like answered in future podcast segments? Leave a message at 888-705-4180 or email [email protected]
In an attempt to appease his disgruntled ministers, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday held one-to-one meetings with all of them.



Siddaramaiah spent almost the entire day at the KPCC main office on Queen's Road, holding the meetings with the ministers and the district Congress presidents. KPCC president G Parameshwara was also present at the meetings. The exercise was meant to get a feedback on candidate selection and assess poll preparedness.

Housing Minister M Krishnappa, Municipal Administration Minister Eshwar Khandre, Fisheries Minister Pramod Madhwaraj and Horticulture Minister S S Mallikarjun were said to be upset with the party and the government for sidelining them. And it was speculated that Krishnappa and Madhwaraj may even join the BJP.

Khandre and Mallikarjun, who are incharge of Bidar and Davangere districts respectively, were unhappy with the decision to accord separate religion minority status to Lingayats. Khandre was also opposed to the induction of businessman Ashok Kheny into the party.

Krishnappa, who is also Mandya district incharge minister, was upset with Energy Minister D K Shivakumar's interference in the district administration. Madhwaraj, who is incharge of Udupi district, was said to be upset with Siddaramaiah for not visiting the Krishna temple in Udupi. However, all the four ministers later told the media that they were not quitting the party.

Heat of rebellion

The ruling Congress has started feeling the heat of rebellion, with the party taking up the process of candidate selection. The ticket aspirants from Melkote constituency in Mandya have opposed Siddaramaiah's proposal not to field a Congress candidate in the constituency and instead, extend support to Darshan Puttannaiah, son of late MLA K S Puttannaiah in the polls. The aspirants have threatened to contest the elections as rebels.

Similarly, the party is facing rebellion in Mahadevapura, Chamarajpet and Pulakeshinagar constituencies in Bengaluru as the local leaders are opposing the plan to give tickets to those who joined the Congress recently.

Later speaking to reporters, Parameshwara said 50% of the sitting legislators would get the ticket to contest the polls. Party president Rahul Gandhi will take a call on the rest of them.
A large number of students and teachers of central universities, including Delhi University, today took out a protest march from Mandi House to Parliament Street against the UGC move granting full autonomy to select higher educational institutes,



The march, organised by Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA) and Federation of Central Universities' Teachers' Associations (FEDCUTA), was joined by leaders of some opposition parties and culminated with a protest meet on Parliament Street.

Addressing the gathering, CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat said education policies of the Modi government intended to end reservations in higher education.

"This is done by those people who talk about progress in the society. The government is trying to destroy top universities and such effort will end social justice," Karat said.

Commenting about the autonomy given to universities, she said that autonomy given to universities is to ensure that they start courses that fetches more money and give reservation to foreign students.

The CPI(M) leader during the protest also demanded arrest and suspension of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) professor Atul Johri, accused of sexually harassing some girl students, and restoration of the Gender Sensitisation Committee Against Sexual Harassment (GSCASH) in the university.

Congress MP Sushmita Dev and AAP MP Sanjay Singh also joined the march.

DU Students Union president Rocky Tuseed said the autonomy granted to universities was a step taken keeping in mind students from economically stronger sections. JNUSU president Geeta Kumari said that the government appointed vice-chancellors who would abide by its decisions to ensure the reservation policy in varsities were abolished.

The protesters also demanded the universities to follow Vishakha Guidelines in letter and spirit to end sexual harassment on campuses.

The Vishakha Guidelines laid down the requirements for employers dealing with complaints of sexual assault and stipulated the formation of committees to dispose of complaints from victims of harassment.

Offering support to the protesters, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said, "It is sad that the central government is scared of education. They have understood the power of colleges and universities properly and that is why they want to destroy it. They are scared that universities and colleges, if go well, their politics will end."

They have destroyed government schools and encouraged private schools belonging to leaders and the country's four to five influential people. This is what they want to do to colleges and higher education institutions, he added.
Karnataka should not focus its resources solely on Bengaluru and, instead it should develop other cities as financial and economic capitals, said historian and writer Ramachandra Guha.



He was speaking at a panel discussion on 'My idea of Karnataka' organised by the Bengaluru Central University on Wednesday. This is the first session of the Foundation Lecture series organised by the varsity.

Guha gave examples of neighbouring states such as Tamil Nadu and Kerala which have more than one centre of commerce.

The panel also included academician Valerian Rodrigues, researcher Sharad Lele, engineer C P Ravikumar among others.

They discussed the hegemony of Bengaluru and the increasing disconnect between the city and the hinterlands.

"The big question is how Bengaluru can move forward without hurting the hinterland. Bengalureans don't understand where our water comes from and the effect it has on the Western Ghats," said Lele, who is a researcher at the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE).

He, however, added that there is still time for course correction. "Bengaluru is at an early stage of decay in terms of pollution levels, and its resources have not yet depleted irreversibly, so we still have time to chart a new trajectory," said Lele.

The event also saw the release of a book titled 'Speaking for Karnataka' - a compilation of deliberations on the state.
Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday assured the students that there would not be any difference in the difficulty level when the CBSE re-conducts the board examinations for Class X Mathematics paper and Class XII Economics paper.



He also asserted that there will not be "any leakage" of question papers of the board examinations.

The sanctity of the question papers will be protected with the use of technology across the country from Monday, he added.

"We are deeply saddened with the incident. I want to assure parents and students that they will not have to face any such problem in future. I can understand the ordeals that students and parents must have gone through due to the paper leak," the minister told reporters during a press conference at the BJP headquarters here.

He noted that students after taking their examinations were saying that the papers were easy.

"They are now worried as to what type of papers and level of difficulty (in the questions) will come when the board re-conducts the examinations. There is nothing to worry. It will be same. There will not be any injustice with any student," Javadekar promised.

Javadekar's assurance came within an hour after the reports of paper leak surfaced and CBSE cancelled the examinations for Mathematics and Economics.

Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Javadekar and expressed his displeasure with the CBSE's failure to maintain the sanctity of the board examinations.

"We keep updating our prime minister on every important issue. Union Cabinet's meeting is also scheduled to be held today(Wednesday). From Monday, I believe, there will not be any possibility of paper leak as the sanctity of the question papers will be protected with the use of technology," Javadekar told reporters when asked about his interaction with the prime minister on the issue.

Javadekar said that the his ministry will conduct "an internal inquiry" in the case while Delhi police team will continue with its probe separately.

The minister, however, sought to defend the CBSE by saying that it has been successfully conducting as many as 24 examinations in a year.

"This time some of the contents of two-three papers came out (leaked) through WhatsApp half an hour before the examinations began. It seems some gang or group of people are deliberately doing such mischief," he maintained.
Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday led a delegation of Opposition leaders to President Ram Nath Kovind to convey the unease and feeling of insecurity among Dalits and other oppressed communities over the Supreme Court's dilution of the anti-atrocities act.



Rahul was accompanied by senior leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ahmed Patel, Mallikarjun Kharge, P L Punia, BSP leader S C Mishra, CPM leader T K Rangarajan, TKS Elangovan (DMK), Vandana Chavan (NCP), Bishambhar Prasad Nishad (SP) among others.

"We expressed our concerns on the dilution of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. On the one hand, atrocities against Dalits are increasing and on the other, their biggest weapon against atrocities is being diluted," Rahul told reporters after the meeting.

A three-page memorandum submitted to the President listed out instances of atrocities against Dalits and tribals since 2014.

"A 2016 report published by the National Crime Records Bureau says the conviction rates in crimes against Dalits are abysmally poor," the memorandum said.

CPM leader T K Rangarajan said political parties urged the President to direct the government to file a review petition against the March 20 Supreme Court direction that has diluted the provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

"It is the duty of every government to safeguard the weaker and vulnerable sections of society," NCP leader Vandana Chavan said.

BSP leader S C Mishra said the delegation told the President that the government had failed to argue the case effectively in the Supreme Court, which was the reason for the dilution of the Act.

The Opposition leaders alleged that it was surprising that instead of fighting for the rights of Dalits, as claimed by the Union Government, at the time of hearing of the case before the Supreme Court, the Centre stated that anticipatory bail could be allowed in cases of atrocities against Dalits if no prima facie case was made out.

"This shows the double-faced character of the present government - one inside the courts and the other outside, before public and media," they said said in the memorandum.
It may sound strange but it is true. Ford India, one of the largest car makers in India, has issued a public notice saying that it has "lost" five crucial documents, including sale deed, deed of exchange and government order, pertaining to its expansive manufacturing unit on the outskirts of Chennai.



Ford India, that began its operations in India in 1995, boasts of a 350-acre massive plant in Maraimalai Nagar, 45 km from Chennai, on the highway connecting the state capital with Madurai and other cities down south.

In the notice, the company said it has lost the documents pertaining to its immovable properties in Maraimalai Nagar and has appealed to people to return them to the company if found. The documents which have been "lost" are the CMDA sale deed of 1999, Tamil Nadu Housing Board Sale Deed (1997), Deed of Exchange (1998), Government order (1999) and Transfer through Letter of 1998 of the Mahindra Ford India Limited.

Ford Motor Company established a joint venture company with Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) to assemble and distribute the Ford Escort, the company's first model to be showcased in India. But the firm was rechristened Ford India in 1999, following a change in equity holding, with Ford buying out a majority stake.

Sources in the police said they were informed about the "loss of documents" by Ford India a couple of days back. "They informed us orally. Now that they have issued a public notice appealing to people to return the documents if someone comes across them, we will register a formal complaint very soon," a police officer told DH.

Not clear

It was not clear how the "crucial documents" relating to the plant have gone missing or got "lost".

When contacted, a spokesperson of Ford India confirmed the development. "The public notice is issued by Ford India to obtain the duplicate/certified copies of the title deeds relating to our Chennai plant from relevant Government authorities/departments," the spokesperson told DH.
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved continuation of nutrient based subsidy and city compost scheme till 2019-20.



The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the proposal of the Department of Fertilisers for continuation of both the schemes. The total expenditure for continuation till 2019-20 will be Rs 61,972 crore, an official statement said.

The expenditure on the scheme will be on actual basis since national roll out of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) entails 100% payment of subsidy to fertiliser companies on sale of fertilisers to farmers at subsidised rates, it said.

The Cabinet also approved restructuring of National Skill Development Fund (NSDF) and National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), a move that will strengthen governance, implementation and monitoring framework.

The restructuring will also ensure better corporate governance, transparency and accountability in operations of NSDC, besides strengthening the oversight role of NSDF.

NSDC and NSDF were set up by the Ministry of Finance and registered in July 2008 and January 2009 respectively for implementing coordinated action for skill development.

School education

The CCEA also cleared the proposal of the Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry to integrate all school education programmes, including Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), under one umbrella scheme from this year to improve the quality of school education.

"The CCEA has approved the proposal of the department of school education and literacy to formulate an integrated scheme on school education by subsuming SSA, Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Teacher Education (TE) from April 1, 2018 to March 31, 2020," an official statement said.

An estimated allocation of Rs 75,000 crore has also been approved, the government added.

"The vision of the scheme is to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education from nursery to senior secondary stage in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goal for Education. The main emphasis of the integrated scheme is improving quality of school education by focussing on the teacher and technology," the HRD ministry said.

The integrated scheme offers "flexibility" to the State governments and the Union Territory (UT) administrations to plan and prioritise their interventions within the scheme norms and the overall resource envelope available to them.

Education loans

"It will help improve the transition rates across the various levels of school education and aid in promoting universal access to children to complete school education. It would also lead to an optimal utilisation of budgetary allocations and effective use of human resources and institutional structures created for the erstwhile schemes," the Ministry said.

The CCEA also approved continuation of the credit guarantee fund for supporting the education loans scheme as well as continuation and modification of the central sector interest subsidy scheme with a financial outlay of Rs 6,600 crore for the period 2017-18 to 2019-20.

"This will provide education loans to 10 lakh students during this period," the government said.
There is now greater activity among opposition parties over giving a joint fight to the BJP in the coming electoral contests, especially as the next Lok Sabha election approaches.



The assembly elections to be held in several states this year will largely see straight contests between the BJP and the Congress and so the pooling of opposition strength may not be very relevant in those states. But the general elections will present a different and complex scenario, with many parties holding sway in states across the country. The need for unity of opposition forces is being increasingly realised by these parties as they witness the spread of the BJP to new territories, formation of its governments in new states through fair and not-so-fair means, and its aggressive declaration of intent to finish off the Congress politically, a call whose logical extension would be to eliminate all opposition, too. This has given a sense of urgency to the parties. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is positioning herself at the head of these efforts, is in Delhi currently, meeting political leaders from Sharad Pawar of NCP to Shiv Sena's Sanjay Raut, SP's Ramgopal Yadav to DMK's Kanimozhi and AAP's Arvind Kejriwal. She has even met BJP dissidents Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie and Shatrughan Sinha.



Parties have started seriously thinking about and are making moves to form alliances, but the efforts are being made separately by different parties without a common plan and focus. The Congress, at its recent plenary meet in Delhi, called for "a pragmatic approach of working with like-minded partiesato defeat the BJP-RSS in 2019". This is a throwback to 2003 when the party suspended its reservations about alliance politics and went on to form the UPA government. But Indian politics has undergone major changes since then. For one, Congress is a mere shadow of its former self. Yet, it still has presence in all states and is the major party in many. While it has still not taken any initiative till now, some moves have been made for the formation of a non-Congress, non-BJP front, notably by Mamata and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao. The major limitation of such an alliance is that the regional parties are largely confined to their own states and cannot help one another. One alliance that has already shown results is the SP-BSP tie-up that defeated the BJP in its Gorakhpur and Phulpur bastions in UP earlier this month.

Opposition parties have to a long way to go to find a workable, effective and credible alliance against the BJP. A healthy and functioning democracy needs a strong opposition, and if the parties are weak individually they should gain strength through unity and joint action. So, all attempts for consolidation of the opposition should be welcomed.
BJP national president Amit Shah, in his next leg of election tour of the state from March 30, will be visiting the "driest part" for the party electorally in Karnataka - the districts of Mysuru, Chamarajanagar, Mandya and Ramanagaram. The BJP, in 2013 polls, scored a nil out of 26 seats in the four districts - yes, a total blank.



The party has been making several strategies to make inroads into this Vokkaliga-dominated region. On his part, Shah has a packed schedule during his two-day tour. He will be visiting the members of the erstwhile royal family, will have lunch with Dalits and farmers and of course, will visit temples and mutts.

On March 30, Shah will commence his tour with a visit to the Suttur Mutt in Mysuru. He will later interact with Pramoda Devi Wadiyar, Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar and other members of the erstwhile royal family at the Mysuru Palace. He will have lunch with Dalit leaders in the afternoon.

Later in the day, Shah will address an ST convention at the Ambedkar Stadium in Chamarajnagar. The evening schedule includes a visit to the Srikanteshwara temple in Nanjangud and the Ganapathi Sachidananda Ashrama in Mysuru.

The next day, Shah will visit the Cheluvanarayana Temple at Melkote in Mandya district, interact with the organic farmers in Mandya, visit the Channapatna craft park and interact with the silk growers in Ramanagaram district. During his tour of the state, Shah will also be visiting the residence of BJP activist Raju, who was hacked to death in Mysuru in 2016.
The state BJP has given a new spin to the Siddaramaiah government's controversial decision to accord religious minority tag to Lingayat-Veerashaiva (Basava tatva) as a conspiracy against B S Yeddyurappa to prevent him from becoming chief minister.



According to party sources, it is a politically calculated move, and the saffron party will be repeatedly using the conspiracy angle at various conventions till election day, to turn the issue to its advantage.

Shah, during his recent tour of the state, mentioned it twice - while addressing a coconut growers' conference at Tiptur in Tumakuru district and then at a press conference in Davangere. Yeddyurappa is considered an influential Lingayat leader and hence, the party declared him its chief ministerial candidate nearly two years ago.

The government, last week, notified its decision to accord religious minority status to Lingayat/Veerashaiva (those who follow Basavanna's principles) and forwarded the same to the Centre in a move seen as an attempt to chip away at the BJP's strong Lingayat voter base. The BJP has been treading cautiously and has adopted a wait-and-watch approach on the issue as the matter has huge electoral implications. However, with the powerful Akhila Bharatha Veerashaiva Mahasabha opposing the government's move and objecting to the inclusion of the term Basava tatva, the BJP has decided to go for the kill.

Inciting Lingayat sentiments for electoral gains is nothing new to the BJP and it has done so at least twice in the past, fetching it rich electoral dividends. The abrupt and humiliating sacking of Veerendra Patil, a prominent Lingayat leader, as chief minister by Rajiv Gandhi in 1990 did not go down well with the community. The BJP, which was just an emerging party then, portrayed it as an anti-Lingayat stand taken by the Congress.

Political observers see this episode as a turning point in the state's history with Lingayats, then largely supporting the Congress, ditching the party to favour the BJP in a bid to vent their anger. The Congress eventually lost control of the state in the December 1994 Assembly elections.

The 'betrayal card' played by the party against the JD(S) for not keeping its promise to hand over power to the BJP in 2008 as per the 20-20 agreement, thus denying Yeddyurappa the chief ministerial post, also paid rich dividends to the BJP. With 110 seats, it emerged as the single largest party in the 2008 elections and Yeddyurappa became the chief minister.
Slovenia to Join the Boxer Program, Will Initially Buy 48



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The Carmel Valley Community Planning Board approved the new Lighthouse Ridge housing development with the condition that two of the proposed 10 homes are deleted as the board believes the lots are in designated open space land. The board has been looking into the complicated development issue since October 2017, when they found out that the projects engineering firm Latitude 33 successfully challenged the Official Zoning Map for Carmel Valley to move the open space line as they believed there had been an error.

I do not feel there was an error in the city map, said CV Planning Board Chair Frisco White, who crafted a motion to support the project without the two homes. The project will next move on to the San Diego Planning Commission.

The Lighthouse Ridge development is planned on a vacant lot at the end of Lighthouse Way in the neighborhood behind Congregation Beth Am. Neighbors have shared concerns about the impacts of building the new homes on the steep canyon slope above Chelterham Terrace. One resident said when she purchased her home she expected the slope to remain open space, There was no way we ever couldve seen someone building there as steep as it is.

It simply strains credulity that a project such as the one proposed for Lighthouse Ridge can be permitted within the existing North City West Development Plan for Unit 4A, wrote neighbor Jose Lau in a letter to Latitude 33. The proposed developments eastern portion intends to destroy what I and my neighbors perceive to be undisturbed, open space Canyonlands, and build up with fill the existing ground level by thirty feet.

Melissa Krause, associate principal at Latitude 33, said they believed there was a clear error in the open space map and challenged the Official Zoning Map in June 2017the citys Development Services Department (DSD) made the findings to move the open space boundary. At the planning boards October 2017 meeting, members were surprised that a zoning map change can be simply administerial if an error is identified.

White questioned city staff about the process and the findings.

The open space map was changed on the premise that part of the area was previously disturbed; therefore it couldnt be open space. This doesnt make sense as disturbed land can be restored, White stated in an email to city staff. Shouldnt the open space designation be independent of the state of the land?

The city stood by its changes and, according to DSD project manager Glenn Gargas, the map change was a result of staff research that included not only review of the zoning land use maps and a site visit, but also review of various aerial photos, prior or as built grading permits, and geology reports for any test results or other indications of past disturbance on the subject site.

Robert Vacchi, director of DSD, indicated in a November email that the zoning map correction was due to a discrepancy between the land use designation and the citys Official Zoning Map. He stated that the North City West Planned Development Unit 4-A takes precedence over the zoning map and an error occurred during the transfer from the 4-A document to the official map with the open space spilling onto the mesa, covering single-family lots and a slightly larger portion off Lighthouse Way.

Lighthouse Ridge property owner Terry Johnson said if you stuck with the original open space line, a lot of homes wouldnt be there because it was drawn in error. There are over 100 houses in the open space, he said.

White did not agree that there was an error. He said the comparison with the Official Zoning Map and the 4A map concludes that the map clearly and accurately transferred the intent to protrude into the area occupied by lots 9 and 10 in the Lighthouse Ridge plan.

Board member Ken Farinsky disagreed with the developers argument that There were a lot of errors so we should be allowed more errors.

The city is pushing forward a strange interpretation of mapping, Farinsky said. I think they are building in open space and I think we should deny the project based on the fact that two lots are in open space.

Rather than approve with conditions, Farinsky said they should deny the project, noting that the Planning Commission would take the boards conditional approval as a yes and that the two lots would likely get built anyway. Farinsky made a motion to deny but it did not carry with a split 4-4 voteShreya Sasaki, Stella Rogers and Debbie Lokanc joined him in voting to deny while Vic Wintress, Annie Glenn, Barry Schultz and White voted against the project denial.

Im not as cynical about what happens to our motion or recommendation at the Planning Commission, said Schultz explaining his vote against the project denial. The project is not a problem, Its just the two lots.

Johnson said he remains excited about the Lighthouse Ridge project and thinks it will bring value to the community.

We have done everything in our power to try and work with the neighbors, said Johnson, noting they have lowered the walls, re-oriented the houses, reduced the slope and added additional landscaping to the slope to lessen the visual impact. They have also talked to the city about creating a new trail connection to Gonzales Canyon. We feel like we have done everything we can do to make it consistent with the neighborhood.
Solana Beach is staying mum as the April 3 deadline nears for responding to a lawyers request that the city abandon its at-large elections for city council.

Part of a campaign that has compelled scores of cities across California over the past five years to switch to district-based voting, Malibu-based attorney Kevin Shenkman sent Solana Beach a letter last month asking the countys second-smallest city to follow suit.

The Feb. 14 letter alleges that Solana Beachs practice of having all five council seats chosen by all voters renders its elections racially polarized, resulting in minority vote dilution  a violation of the California Voting Rights Act of 2001.

At-large elections thus allow a bare majority of voters to control every seat, not just the seats in a particular district or a proportional majority of seats, Shenkman wrote in the letter.

The letter also points to an alarming absence of Latino candidates for city council, despite more than 15 percent of the citys 13,000 residents identifying as Latino in the 2010 census.

The entire recent election history in Solana Beach is illustrative: during the past 20 years, there has not been one Latino that has emerged as a candidate for the Solana Beach City Council, the letter states, adding that Solana Beachs system is not only  outwardly disturbing, it is also fundamentally hostile towards Latino participation.

Shenkman has carried out his campaign on behalf of the San Antonio-based Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, which over the past five years has taken on one at-large jurisdiction after another. Several Latino residents of Solana Beach urged him to bring the action, Shenkman said in an interview.

No jurisdiction has successfully contested Shenkmans challenge. In all, more than 80 cities have switched to by-district voting, including Encinitas, Carlsbad, Oceanside, El Cajon and Escondido in the past two years.

The Solana Beach City Council has discussed Shenkmans challenge once in closed session, and did not schedule the topic on its March 28 meeting agenda, which occurred after press time. Mayor Ginger Marshall said March 26 that she expects the discussion for a future meeting, but did not indicate when that might be.

In a March 27 interview, Shenkman said he believes Solana Beach may be trying to procrastinate and delay, as Santee did upon receiving its letter a year ago. Santee officials recently relented and are scheduled to adopt a by-district ordinance next month.

April 3 marks the 45 days required by state law for Solana Beach to file a response.

Beyond that, theyre open to getting sued, Shenkman said. Were not going to be at the court clerks desk at 8:30 a.m. on April 4. But at the same time, were not going to just sit idly by, either. It would behoove them to respond.

He pointed to Mission Viejo, which Shenkman sued last week after its city leaders became embroiled in bitter in-fighting over how to respond.

Most other cities voluntarilyalbeit begrudginglycomply. That wasnt the case for Shenkmans first challenge: Palmdale in 2012. City leaders there fought tooth and nail before losing their legal battle in 2015 to the tune of $7 million in court fees and more than $4 million in interest and legal reimbursements.

Cities now can look to Palmdale or to a lesser extent Highland or Modesto or even Santa Monica to see what happens when you dont promptly do the right thing, when you choose to fight, Shenkman said.

Solana Beach and Del Mar are among the final few cities that still use at-large voting. Shenkman said he has reviewed Del Mar but does not recall what was decided. Del Mar Mayor Dwight Worden said he hopes the city will avoid entanglement by virtue of being too small to divide into districtsit has barely 4,000 residentsand its lack of a sizable minority population.
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India rising: Electric vehicles and opportunities for Taiwan

The government of India launched an ambitious plan to transition to an all-electric vehicular (EV) fleet by 2030. This plan has revved up the Indian automotive industry, in line with the global trends, marking the end of internal combustion engines (ICE). It is evident from the recently concluded India Auto Expo, where most leading domestic and international automakers displayed electric vehicles - bus, cars, motorcycles, and scooters - that the transition to EV has taken off in India.

The driving forces for EV in India

Reduce ever-increasing fuel bill

India is the world's third largest oil importer; oil import bill is set to touch US$88 billion by 2017-18 increasing by 25% from US$70 billion in 2016-17 out of which 65-70% is used for transportation. By 2030, India oil import bill is pegged to reach US$300 billion causing a major concern for the India government. Accelerated adoption of electric vehicles could save US$60 billion in diesel and petrol costs while cutting down as much as one gigaton (GT) of carbon emissions for India by 2030.

Pollution control

Electric vehicles have zero emission. Through EV adoption, India could save 64% of energy demand for road transport and 37% or 1GT of carbon emissions by 2030.

Improvements in EV technology

Recent trends in the automobile industry indicate that the world is overtaken by the EV wave to replace ICE-vehicles. EV technology has undergone tremendous improvement over the years including: increase in range and battery storage capacity; better cost efficiencys; and shorter charge time. The cost of battery power has fallen from around US$1,000 per kWh in 2010 to around US$227 in 2016, and is expected to drop below US$200 per kWh by 2020.

India government initiatives

Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles in India, or FAME, is aimed at promoting the use of EVs in multimodal public transport to help lower pollution levels in urban areas. In order to accelerate the adoption of EVs, the government of India is offering incentives to cities with population of more than one million. Under FAME initiative, the central government is looking to offer incentives for the procurement of electric cars, city buses, as well as three-wheelers. The government is offering grants of US$16.2 million (INR105 Cr) to every selected city. Additional incentives of US$2.3 million will also be provided to each city for the construction of EV charging infrastructure. The criteria for short listing dictate that each city should have a population above one million, as per 2011 census. The incentives will be used only to buy electric buses, three-wheelers, and passenger cars running on new-generation batteries with traces of lead like lithium polymer, lithium iron phosphate, nickel metal hydride and zinc air, among others.

Components and outlay under FAME scheme Component under FAME FY2015-16

INRm (US$m) FY2016-17

INRm (US$m) Technology platorm 700 (10.5) 1,200 (18) Demand incentives 1,550 (23.25) 3,400 (51) Charging infrastructure 100 (1.5) 200 (3) Pilot projects 200 (3) 500 (7.5) IEC/operations 50 (0.75) 50 (0.75) Total 2,600 (39) 5350 (80.25)

Source: FAME

India unveiled the 'National Electric Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP) 2020' in 2013 to address the issue of national energy security, vehicular pollution and growth of domestic manufacturing capabilities. It aims to achieve national fuel security by promoting hybrid and electric vehicles in the country. There is an ambitious target to achieve 6-7 million sales of hybrid and electric vehicles year on year from 2020 onwards. NEMMP 2020 envisions the deployment of 5-7 million electric vehicles in the country by 2020; and 400,000 passenger battery electric cars (BEVs) saving 4 million tonnes of CO2 with a required investment of US$3 billion. With the support from the government, the cumulative sale is expected to reach 15-16 million by 2020

One of the main detriments for EV adoption is the expensive battery cost. In order to address this issue the government of India announced incentives for battery makers to set up more manufacturing units in India. The government is in talks with resource-rich countries to ensure supplies of raw materials such as lithium.

Opportunity for Taiwan

India's EV wave provides Taiwan component manufacturers a huge opportunity given Taiwan's leadership in electronics, and the matured and complete auto components manufacturing ecosystem. Industry leaders were thrilled to learn that pioneering EV technology including: Tesla's original technology and the successful Gogoro e-scooter were from Taiwan. While the Indian government - at both the central and state levels - is framing its own EV policies, they are looking up to Taiwan for its best practices. This symbiotic development in India's EV future opens up expansive collaborative opportunities between India and Taiwan:

*Indian automakers and components manufacturers/suppliers are all in their strategic planning stage for EV which makes it an ideal time for collaboration and exploring business opportunities

*Indian automakers and components manufacturers are looking for the basic EV components, namely: electric motor, controller, battery pack, charger, DC/DC converter, contactors.

*For Taiwan or any foreign component suppliers it is key to manufacture in India and have a JV/partnership with credible Indian entity. A strict anti-dumping policy and increased imports duties on auto components has been put in place in order to promote local manufacturing.

*For EV component manufacturers, it is critical that they have: Appetite to make in India; JV/partnership with Indian entity; robust R&D and clear roadmap in each of their manufactured product/field; strong service support/after sales support; and open for joint development(JDM) projects.

*Workshop/roadshow at automakers factory showcasing EV components solution and products and interaction with engineers. Workshop is welcomed by most automakers.

*Collaboration with thinktank and government departments, particularly departments of transport and non renewable energy, to help define India EV policies.

(Note: Jonathan Lalremruata is a consultant for India Market Entry. Jonathan is an alumnus of Taiwan's National Tsing Hua University and ITRI. He has over a decade of global experience in the ICT industry and specializes in India-Taiwan industrial collaboration. He can be reached at jonathan.lalremruata@gmail.com)
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SEATTLE  The Park 3025 apartments, at 3025 N.E. 137th St., have sold for $17.7 million, according to King County records. The seller was Core 3025 LLC, which acquired the property in 2014 for $8.9 million.

The buyer was Acme WMR Park 3025 LLC, which is associated with the residential address of a Mercer Island investor.





. . .
ABC/Randy HolmesPhoenix is launching a five-show residency at the Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles beginning September 6. The multi-night event will feature exclusive merchandise, special guests and even gelato.

Prior to the LA shows, Phoenix is playing a five-show residency in Brooklyn, New York. That run kicks off July 5. For ticket info to all Phoenix residencies, visit WeArePhoenix.com.

Phoenix will be supporting their latest album Ti Amo, which was released last year.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
One of three suspects tied to the break-in at the home of New England Patriot Rob Gronkowski appeared in Wrentham District Court on Wednesday.

Foxborough resident Eric Tyrrell, 28, pleaded not guilty to two counts of receiving stolen property worth more than $250, reports the Foxborough Patch. A judge ordered Tyrrell, who turned himself in on Tuesday afternoon, to be held on $1,000 cash bail and to stay away from Gronk's home.

Gronkowski called Foxborough Police in early February to report his house had been robbed while he was away for the Super Bowl. So far, police have charged Tyrell and Anthony Almeida of Randolph in connection with the break-in. Another suspect, Shayne Denn, of Tewksbury, remains at large.

Almeida reportedly admitted to being the driver for Denn during the break-in, when Denn allegedly stole valuable 19th century coins from Gronk's house. Police accuse Denn of giving the stolen coins to Tyrrell, who sold them for thousands of dollars to a dealer in Weymouth. According to the Patch, the dealer who purchased the coins said Tyrell told him the coins belonged to his father, and that he had more things to sell.

Denn remains at large and police have issued a warrant for his arrest.
The OECD has found that penalties for competition law breaches are significantly lower in Australia than in comparable OECD jurisdictions, prompting the nations competition regulator to announce it will rethink its approach to competition law enforcement.

The OECD report, Pecuniary Penalties for Competition Law Infringements in Australia(link is external) compared the penalties for companies which breach competition laws in Australia with the EU, the UK, Germany, Japan, Korea and the USA.

It found that in Australia, both the maximum and average penalties imposed by the Courts for competition law breaches are significantly lower than in the OECD jurisdictions considered, especially for large firms or for long-standing anti-competitive behaviour.

Noting that this disparity in penalties has the potential to limit the effective deterrence of breaches in Australia, the OECD calculated the average Australian penalty would have to be increased by 12.6 times to be comparable with the level of the average penalty in these OECD countries.

The report also stated that in most OECD countries financial penalties are set according to a set methodology which includes sales of the infringing companys product. In Australia, however, the penalties are determined by the Federal Court following an instinctive synthesis of various factors.

According to OECD Economist Dr Sean Ennis, this difference does not prevent Australia from imposing substantial and deterrent sanctions for competition law violations. He said that clearer guidance on the size of penalties could be useful in Australia to ensure penalties deter and that companies are aware of the likely size of fines.

Rod Sims, the Chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), said the OECD report offered valuable insights for debate and discussion about the future of competition law penalties in in Australia.

The ACCC has been concerned that penalties in competition cases historically have not been sufficiently high to deter breaches, especially in cases involving large businesses, he said.

As I have said before, we do not want breaches of our competition law to be seen as an acceptable cost of doing business. We need penalties that will be large enough to be noticed by senior management and company boards, and also shareholders.

Among its findings, the report highlighted that the ACCC does not start its penalty assessment by reference to the companys turnover or value of commerce affected.

The ACCC sees merit in considering the relevance of this baseline approach, noting that if it was applied in Australia, it would appear likely that firms with larger turnover would generally end up with much higher penalties.

We will reflect carefully on the report, including the OECDs suggestion to consider developing penalty guidelines, similar to the approach taken by the other OECD jurisdictions.

In Australia, penalties for breaches of competition law, such as cartel conduct, are determined by the courts, whereas in most of OECD other countries considered in the report, the competition regulator initially sets the penalty (although this may be subject to an appeal to a court).
A blog is an invaluable marketing tool that can help your business reach new customers, retain existing customers and even generate more sales. Unfortunately, many business owners ignore these benefits and, instead, focus their marketing strategy on minimally effective outbound techniques. Regardless of what type of business you operate, though, a blog can increase your sales in several ways.

Encourages Higher Search Rankings

Publishing unique, high-quality content on your blog will encourage higher search rankings. And with higher search rankings, youll have more people viewing your business and buying its products or services. Each new post you publish creates fresh content that search engines will crawl. Assuming its valuable and authoritative content, search engines will respond by increasing your sites ranking.

Recommendation Blog Posts Influence Buying

Consider publishing reviews or recommendations of your businesss products or services on your blog. According to the Content Marketing Institute, 61 percent of consumers in the United States have made a purchase after reading a recommendation. When a prospect reads a positive review or recommendation on your blog, he or she may proceed to buy it. Just remember to be honest and transparent when writing these blog posts.

Attracts Links and Social Shares

Blogging can also increase your businesss sales by attracting links and social media shares. If someone enjoys reading your blog posts, they may share links to it on their own website, blog or social media profile. These links can benefit your business in several ways. First, they provide direct traffic to your blog, some of which may yield sales for your business. Second, they show search engines that your blog is worthy of a top ranking. If other websites link to your blog, search engines will view your blog as being an authority, thus increasing its search ranking.

Establishes Trust and Credibility

Consumers view businesses with blogs as being more trustworthy and credible than their counterparts without blogs. And conventional wisdom should tell you that consumers are more likely to buy your products or services if they trust you. The key thing to remember is that you want to publish high-quality content. Tossing up dozens of low-quality posts isnt an effective way to build your businesss trust and credibility. Therefore, its recommended that you use a professional content creation service like articlez.com. Theyll help you create custom-tailored content that resonates with your businesss audience.

Paid Advertising

Finally, you can use paid advertising to drive targeted traffic to your blog in hopes of converting those visitors into customers. Whether its AdWords, Bing Ads or Facebook Ads, paid advertising is a highly effective way to drive sales. You can even set up a dedicated landing page on your blog thats designed specifically for converting visitors into customers.

As you can see, a blog can increase your businesss sales in several ways. It encourages higher search rankings, influences consumers buying decisions, attracts links, establishes trust, and it benefits from paid advertising.
Artificial intelligence startup Daisee has raised $8.8 million in a Series A funding round led by Alium Capital. Speaking with Dynamic Business, co-founder and CEO Richard Kimber explained the investment would support Daisees efforts to democratise AI and combat Australias brain drain.

Launched in August 2017, Daisee leverages AI research from within Australias university ecosystem to create software applications for companies across a variety of industries. Kimber, Googles former regional manager in Southeast Asia, explained that more than two thirds of Australian organisations have yet to adopt AI solutions, impeding their ability to compete globally.

Were helping companies accelerate the deployment of AI in their operations, he said. Our key value proposition is speed, by which I mean were able to build applications for companies much faster than they would be able to manage themselves. Due to a willingness to democratise the availability of AI, weve also been able to compete with large vendors on price point.

Another clear point of difference from our competitors has been our relationship with leading universities, driving innovation in the area of AI. Theyve given us access to fundamental research into AI, including the deep mathematics behind it, and our role has been to translate it for commercial use.

If you look at Google, they had a very tight relationship with Stanford University and leveraged their research to get started. So, weve taken a leaf out of Googles book and were working with a number of universities, each of which have their own specific area of competence. For example, UNSW is very deep in robotics while Macquarie University is very strong when it comes to natural language processing.

In addition to extracting great insights from universities, Kimber said Daisee actively seeks to work with their academics and graduates. He explained, Our ambition is to keep the best scientists in Australia and stop the brain drain by providing them with a place where they can readily work in specialised area like AI.

Commenting on the significance of securing Alium Capital as an investor, Kimber said the VC firm understands the AI space and can unlock value for Daisee through its extensive network.

Theyre a sophisticated investor, so securing their support  following a lot of due diligence  has been great validation of our team, technology and market opportunity, he said. Plus, the funding gives us the horsepower and firepower we need to hit that sweet spot where we have enough traction and market penetration.

As to how Daisee will use its Series A funding, Kimber said the company will recruit new software engineers and data scientists while continuing to build out its technology stack. He added, We currently have 22 employees across offices in Sydney and Melbourne and were looking to grow to 40 staff over the year.
Space tech startup Myriota, the 2017 Telstra South Australian New Business Award winner, has closed a US$15 million Series A funding round.

[Related: SMBs must leverage new technology and take cues from successful leaders to thrive today and Rocket science is no easy feat: Fleets CEO on paving the way for space startups in Australia]

The round was co-led by Main Sequence Ventures and Blue Sky Venture Capital, with additional contributions from Boeing HorizonX Ventures, Singtel Innov8 and Right Click Capital. Globally, it is the largest round to date for a startup using nanosatellite technology to connect Internet of Things (IoT) devices. It is also the first investment outside the United States for Boeing HorizonX Ventures.

Founded in 2015 as a spin-out from the University of South Australia, Myriota plans to use the funding to launch more nanosatellites, deliver revolutionary large-scale IoT deployments, and expand its global operations. In addition to opening new sales and customer support offices in North America and Asia, the startup plans to recruit at least 50 new staff, most of whom will be based at its headquarters in Adelaide. The expansion follows the recent announcement that Myriota will open a US$2 million Internet of Things Innovation Lab.

The internet of things has a major connectivity problem: hundreds of millions of devices that need to communicate but dont have cost-effective, battery friendly networks to do so  Myriota solves this problem, said CEO Dr Alex Grant.

The fact we have managed to engage such a stellar list of investors doesnt just underline the quality of our tech and IP  it also gives us access to highly strategic resources and capabilities as we move to the next level. We are excited to have global investors like Boeing Horizon X and Singtel Innov8 supporting our mission to deliver the internet of things for everyone, everywhere.

Atlanta Daniel, Investment Director with Blue Sky, said the investment in Myriota marked the first time the VC firm had dipped into its $50 million South Australian Venture Capital Fund.

Weve been impressed by Myriotas global outlook from day one, she said. Theyre proof that South Australia has exceptional entrepreneurs and world-class technology companies looking for investment. Over the past few months weve worked hard alongside Myriota to help the team secure foreign direct investment from North America and Asia.

Were excited to see this kind of global platform technology emerge from South Australia, where the team have effectively developed a new protocol for IoT communications, enabled by New Space technology.

Main Sequence Ventures Partner Martin Duursma said the deep tech venture fund views the Space 2.0 industry as a tremendous opportunity for Australian companies to be globally competitive in a high-growth industry.

Myriota, as a part of that new industry, has developed world leading technology for unlocking the full potential of the Internet of Things with their direct to satellite communications platform, he said.

[The startup] is a great example of Main Sequence Ventures backing technology from the publicly funded research sector, fitting with our mission (under the National Science and Innovation Agenda) to ignite a new generation of epic companies from the spark of Aussie science.

Boeing HorizonX VP Steve Nordlund said that Boeing HorizonX Ventures first investment outside of the US was compelling due to the nature of Myriotas innovation.

The Myriota team channelled its telecommunications expertise to develop a solution that simultaneously connects hundreds of millions of low-cost, low-powered transmitters to satellites, he said.

Right Click Capitals Ulric Ferner described Myriota as a great example of a startup building fundamental infrastructure for the rapidly emerging and globally pervasive Internet of Things. He added, The founders have a deep connection to the problem theyre solving, the company is delivering results at incredible speed, and we are thrilled to back and welcome them into the broader Draper Venture Network portfolio.
Cedar Valley Fashion Week brings design, community together this weekend

WATERLOO  Darvel Givens and other members of the Black Student Union at the University of Northern Iowa started Cedar Valley Fashion Week in 2013 as part of a series of events celebrating Black History Month in February.

But the event was such a huge success it outgrew two on-campus venues.

Its really become its own monster, Givens said.

Now in its fourth year, Cedar Valley Fashion Week Style, Music and Beauty Expo will be held for the first time at the Five Sullivan Brothers Convention Center in Waterloo. The Saturday showcase, beginning at 8 p.m., is expected to draw 1,000 people interested in fashion, design, music and other arts.

Theres more to Iowa than agriculture  theres a lot of culture, a lot of diversity, Givens said. You see all these amazing artists and performers, all these different scenes you didnt know were available.

Fashion Week will showcase 15 local designers, whose models will walk a runway while musicians and others perform on stage.

One of those designers is Shante Wallican-Nesbit, a 2006 textiles and apparel graduate of UNI who has designed for celebrity clients like Keshia Knight Pulliam in Atlanta and for department stores such as Target in Minneapolis. Now back living in the Cedar Valley, shell present pieces from her online boutique, Luxe Life, including her line of luxury kimonos.

Its fun to be able to showcase what Ive learned as well  its kind of full circle for me, Wallican-Nesbit said. Its a homecoming feeling.

Annette Lynch, who taught Wallican-Nesbit as the professor of textiles and apparel at UNI, said it proves you dont have to leave the area to find talent.

People dont know Iowa is a place where people create collections  and we do, and theyre really good, Lynch said.

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Students at a New Jersey high school can virtually dissect the human body, thanks to the purchase of cutting edge technology that is typically available only to medical students.

Cadaver dissection is the traditional way that medical students have learned about the human bodys parts and functions. But the practice is expensive and study cadavers arent easy to come by. The virtual dissection table has solved these problems for universities and now its a way for high schools to provide aspiring doctors with as real an experience with the body and its workings as they can get.

Hunterdon County Vocational School Districts Biomedical Sciences Academy in New Jersey recently bought a digital dissection table with an $80,000 grant from the states department of education. The high school is one of only two in the state to own the sophisticated devices, according to NJ.com , the media outlet that first reported on Hunterdons purchase. Currently, such tables are in 50 high schools in the U.S. Californias Long Beach Unified School District was the first district to incorporate the digital dissection tables into anatomy lessons.

The 6-foot-long dissection table allows anatomy students to get a close look at every muscle in the human body on a touch-screen that functions much like an iPad. With a swipe of the fingers, students can peel away skin, muscle, and bones to reveal internal organs. Using their finger like a scalpel, students can cut anywhere on the body to examine a parts insides. A cut of the heart, for instance, reveals how blood flows through arteries and veins.

If these images are disturbing to you, then we did a good job, said Anatomage CEO Jack Choi to chuckles, at a Ted Talk demonstration of the table. (See video below.) Anatomage is the 3D medical technology company that designed the digital dissection table with Paul Brown, consulting associate professor in the division of anatomy at Stanford University.

Academy freshman Damiano Palladino, who plans to study oncology after graduation, appeared sold on the new technology. Its super cool. We get to see the nervous systems and different layers of the body as if the person was laying right in front of us, he told NJ.com. The virtual aspect is a lot better than just Googling it online.

While the study of anatomy has traditionally depended on hands-on cutting into actual flesh to get a look inside the workings of humans and animals, common dissections, of frogs for instance, have gone digital in schools across the country .

Replacing hands-on dissection with technology has not come without controversy . Some biology teachers contend that hands-on dissections are the best way to connect students to what they are learning and let them know early on if they can handle a career in the medical field.

Others argue that virtual dissections are a just as good, if not better, way to teach biology and anatomy. That they save money, shield students from potentially dangerous chemicals and instruments, and dont involve sacrificing animals for science are added bonuses.

As far as operating on human cadavers is concerned, researchers at Michigan State University have found that digital dissection isnt quite as good as the real thing . Their findings are based on a semester-long undergraduate anatomy course with one group of students studying an actual cadaver, while another group studied simulations. Both groups were tested on a cadaver. The test asked them to identify parts of the body and explain how they worked. Students who learned on the cadaver scored on average about 16 percent higher than those who learned on the virtual system in identifying parts of the body and about 11 percent higher at explaining how the parts worked.

When it comes to learning actual rather than simulated human anatomy, the digital representations, even with all of their additional affordances, did not work as well as the cadaver, said Cary Roseth, an associate professor of educational psychology and one of the studys authors.

Jessica Cangelosi-Hade, the Hunterdon County vocational districts director of curriculum and academies, said the goal in acquiring the latest technology is to keep programs updated, so that the school can continue to attract top students and provide them with the best preparation for career and college.

What is your stance on virtual over hands-on dissections in class?

Photo courtesy of anatomage.com

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Funding for the new STOP School Violence Act, which funds school security and safety measures, will come at the expense of federal research about school safety.

And that is a major concern for education researchers, who say there is an urgent need for more data about how to keep schools safe.

As we reported last week, the new federal spending bill signed into law by President Donald Trump included the STOP School Violence Act , a safety bill pushed by families of Newtown, Conn., and Parkland, Fla., school shooting victims that provides funding for physical school security measures, school police, and programs that train teachers and students to recognize and respond to concerns of violence.

But to pay for that program, the spending bill effectively cancels the federal Comprehensive School Safety Initiative, a grant program developed after the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown to fund implementation and evaluation of programs that explore a variety of school safety concerns, ranging from bullying prevention to relationships between school police and students to comprehensive campus safety plans. The bill redirects all $75 million from the research program to the STOP School Violence Act, which does not emphasize research and evaluation and has a narrower list of acceptable funding uses.

After Trump signed the bill, the National Institute of Justice canceled its next round of grants under the Comprehensive School Safety Initiative . Most of the research from the earlier rounds of grants is just nearing publication. Grants funded since the start of the program in 2014 include a study of threat assessment and violence prevention, a program for identifying students at risk of misbehavior, research on school safety monitoring the determine threats to schools, and researchs on the root causes of violence in schools.

Felice Levine, executive director of the American Educational Research Association, said the move was short-sighted. She released a statement:

Our concern is not about the passage of the Stop School Violence Act, but about the de-funding and cancellation of these research efforts. Losing these programs is tragically counter-productive and short-sighted at a time when the need for evidence-based policies and practices that protect schools, students, and society has never been greater. Congress needs to invest innot slashinvestments that help school and policy leaders better understand the root causes of school violence, develop strategies for increasing school safety, and rigorously evaluate innovative efforts... We urge Congress to support and promote research-based programs and policies to reduce the risk of violence in communities, schools, workplaces, settings of worship, and other public spaces."

AERA has also urged Congress to provide dedicated funding for gun violence research.

Some school safety researchers have lamented the loss of federal funding in recent days.

CSSI is about building the evidence base on what works to make schools safer.... so we can have evidence-based programs and practices... @DrDotEspelage //t.co/KFJeDnHU55 -- Deborah Temkin, Ph.D (@DrDebTemkin) March 22, 2018

Photo: A student passes through security at the beginning of the school day at Christian Fenger Academy High School in Chicago in this 2013 Education Week file photo. -Peter Hoffman

Related reading on school safety:

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The death this week of Linda C. Brown, who as a young girl in Topeka, Kan., in the early 1950s was at the center of the Brown v. Board of Education case on racial segregation in the schools, prompted some personal reflections for a reporter who has written about the historic case many times over the last 25 years.

With Browns death at age 75 in her hometown of Topeka on March 25, I recalled my one visit to that city 14 years ago. The occasion was the approaching 50th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Courts May 17, 1954, decision holding that separate but equal education for black students violated the U.S. Constitution.

Two months before the anniversary, a number of guests were invited to tour the Monroe School , the black elementary school that Linda Brown attended when her father, Oliver L. Brown, joined the lawsuit challenging racial segregation. By 2004, the long-closed school had been restored and turned into the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site , which included a museum devoted to the Topeka case and its companion cases in the Brown decision from Delaware, the District of Columbia, South Carolina, and Virginia.

There was also a forum at the Kansas University in nearby Lawrence, where I had hoped to meet and interview Linda Brown. I met her sister, Cheryl Brown Henderson, the youngest daughter of Oliver Brown, who was now the head of the family foundation that was instrumental in restoring the Monroe School and preserving the legacy of the case. I also met Leola Brown Montgomery, the mother of the Brown girls, who was 82 at the time and poignantly recalled the day of the Supreme Courts decision in Brown.

(Oliver Brown died in 1961. Montgomery, now 96, survives her daughters death, according to obituary on the Brown Foundations website . Linda Brown is also survived by her other sister, Terry Brown Taylor; her son, Charles D. Smith, and her daughter, Kimberly A. Smith; and three grandchildren, three stepgrandchildren, and three great grandchildren.)

At that Kansas University event and the Monroe School preview, Linda Brown either was not present or was staying in the background. More surprisingly, she apparently did not attend (or stayed very much in the background) on May 17, 2004, when President George W. Bush came to Topeka to dedicate the new National Park Service site at the Monroe School. The president made no mention of Linda Brown in his remarks.

A few other recollections remain with me from my visit to Topeka for the preview look at the Monroe School historic site that March. After the event at the school in the morning, I made my way to downtown Topeka, where the citys St. Patricks Day parade was about to start. For a city with a population then of only about 122,00 people, Topeka put on a pretty impressive parade.

My main reason for going downtown was to get a glimpse of the federal courthouse, where in 1951 a three-judge federal district court conducted the trial in the lawsuit challenging racial segregation in Topekas elementary schools that had been filed by Oliver Brown and a dozen other plaintiffs.

Neither Linda Brown nor any of the other 19 black Topeka schoolchildren encompassed by the lawsuit testified during the trial. Oliver Brown was among the parents who did. Thurgood Marshall, who directed the NAACPs strategy for challenging legally sanctioned racial segregation in education and argued the Brown cases before the Supreme Court, did not come to Topeka. NAACP Legal Defense Fund lawyers Robert L. Carter and Jack Greenberg joined with several local Topeka lawyers for the trial.

My tour of Topeka continued with a visit to the area where the Browns home had once stood, near the railroad yard where Linda Brown had to cross multiple tracks and a busy road just to get to the bus stop where a school bus would pick her up to take her the two miles to Monroe School.

I also visited the Sumner School building, just a few blocks from where the Browns lived. This is where Oliver Brown had sought to enroll Linda Brown for 3rd grade in the fall of 1950, and was turned down by the principal enforcing the school districts policy of segregation. The fathers chief complaint was not that his daughter was receiving an inferior education at the all-black Monroe School, but about the distance that Linda Brown had to travel.

The Sumner School, with its ornate Italian Renaissance architecture , was no longer a public school and looked quite rundown by 2004. (I cant recall what it was being used for then.)

At some point while I was in Lawrence, I visited the university bookstore, interested in checking out what books it might have about the Brown case. Long before then, I had read and re-read Richard Klugers Simple Justice, a 780-page account of all the cases making up the Supreme Courts Brown decision. But despite Klugers exhaustive research, that daunting book left me with a few questions about the some of the details of the Topeka case itself.

At the university bookstore, I found what I was looking for. It was a concise, 230-page volume titled A Time to Lose: Representing Kansas in Brown v. Board of Education . It was written by Paul E. Wilson, who as a young assistant attorney general in the Kansas attorney generals office in the early 1950s was thrust reluctantly into the role of defending the states segregation law in the U.S. Supreme Court, both in the fall of 1952 and again in the fall of 1953 when the cases were re-argued.

Far from being a defense of legal segregation, Wilsons book tells of his own and his colleagues ambivalence about defending a Kansas law passed decades earlier that, unlike the mandatory statewide segregation required by Jim Crow laws in the Deep South, merely permitted Kansass largest city school districts to segregate white and black schoolchildren in the elementary grades only.

Wilson, who wrote the book in 1995, some 40 years after he had participated in the historic case, also gives a clear-eyed account of the Topeka case that fills in some details that Klugers book misses.

For example, Wilson spends several pages examining how it came to be that Oliver Brown ended up as the lead plaintiff in the Topeka case, and how that case led the pack among the four state cases covered by the Supreme Courts Brown decision.

Wilson concludes that Oliver Brown was listed first because he was the only man among the 13 Topeka parents who joined the suit organized by the NAACP. (As for the second question, he suggests the Kansas case was listed first by the Supreme Court because it had the lowest docket number among the consolidated cases; others have suggested the justices considered it prudent to have the divisive decision lead off with the one case that was not from a former slave state.)

After discussing the contributions of various other residents of Topeka in the local case, Wilson concludes, It does not diminish the Brown role to suggest that the victory often attributed to Oliver and Linda Brown was the successful climax to the vision and strivings of many Topekans.

For Linda Brown, one irony of her famous role in the case is that she never had the chance to attend Sumner School or integrate another former segregated school. When the Supreme Court issued its landmark decision in May 1954, Brown was finishing 6th grade at the Monroe School.

The following school term was so very different, but not for me, Linda Brown said during a talk at the Chautauqua Institution in upstate New York in 2004. I was never to benefit from the now-famous decision. For during the 54 school term, I entered junior high school, which was already on an integrated basis, as were the high schools in the city.

Integration in the city in the fall of 1954 went very smoothly, Brown added. It seemed blacks and whites had been going to school together for years. Neither I nor my family suffered the abuse or racial strife that marked integration in the latter 50s and early 60s in so many parts of the country. We were very fortunate, my father would often say. He believed very strongly that God would move people to do the right thing.

As Brown well knew, desegregation did not go as smoothly everywhere. It was a long struggle, one in which she remained active in multiple ways, including when she joined the successful effort to re-open the Topeka desegregation case in 1979, which eventually led to further court-ordered remedies.

Linda Brown the daughter, mother, grandmother, and litigant is now gone. Linda Brown the civil rights icon remains. And although this reporter did not ever get to meet her, it was meaningful to have walked in just a few of her footsteps.
Miramax Has a New General Counsel

It looks like Robert Osher, the new general counsel and chief operating officer at Miramax, has good timing.

The industry veteran returns to Miramax after seven years as president of Sony Pictures Digital Productions, and will pick up where he left off with new opportunities and direction. The company was founded by Bob and Harvey Weinstein, but Osher dodged that bullet because Miramax was sold to Walt Disney before his time.

Now Miramax is headed by Bill Block, a finance leader in the film industry, and new ownership. For Osher, that means growth and hope for more good timing.

"Pulp Fiction" to "Bad Santa 2"

The company owns nearly 800 titles from the late 1980s to present, including older favorites like "Pulp Fiction," "Good Will Hunting," and "The Crying Game," to recent releases such as "Mr. Holmes," "Bridget Jones's Baby," and "Bad Santa 2." Osher said he is excited about the company's new vision and leadership.

"The vast Miramax library has so much potential and I am looking forward to working with the team to take it to the next level," he said.

At Sony, Osher guided a digital production studio that made animated comedies such as "Hotel Transylvania," "Hotel Transylvania 2," and "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs." He left the company in 2015, and has been consulting private equity firms and media companies since then.

In the meantime, Miramax has also gone through changes. It was sold in 2016 to beIN Media Group, a subsidiary of Qatar's Al Jazeera Media Network.

Animation and More

During his first tour with Miramax, Osher was co-head of creative production and ran the television, legal, business affairs, and physical production divisions. In his new role, he will be part of an initiative to grow the company's strategies in film, television, mergers, and acquisitions.

"We are so happy to have Bob be a part of the new Miramax as someone who not only has tremendous understanding of the future of content and platforms, distributions, operations, as well as a familiarity with the extensive and prestigious library of the Miramax brand," CEO Block said.

BeIN Media Group, which owns 100 percent of the company, raised eyebrows when it acquired the company because of the controversial Al Jazeera. The state-owned news agency was accused this week of being a mouthpiece for terrorist organizations.

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Florencio Ramirez, right, came with his grandson Jacob Benn to the Clovis Veterans Affairs office for an appointment Tuesday and found a reception honoring those who served in Vietnam.

CLOVIS  More than 50 years since serving in Vietnam, Florencio Ramirez sat at the Clovis Veterans Affairs Office on Tuesday and enjoyed some light refreshments while waiting for his appointment. He came in from Logan with his grandson, and they were pleasantly surprised to find some decorations, pins and food laid out as part of an afternoon function to honor veterans of the conflict.

It may have been a subdued reception, but from Ramirez' perspective it still reflected a vast change in attitudes since he first came home a half-century back.

The National Vietnam War Veterans Day ceremony, which ran from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the local VA office, was not marked with special fanfare, programming, or speakers. But Ramirez arrived wearing his veteran cap in plain sight, which signaled quite a difference from the name-calling reception when he said he returned from serving in 1967 with the U.S. Army by Vietnam's demilitarized zone.

"I wish it could have been this way when I came back," he said. "Back then it was not a great thing to be a Vietnam veteran. Now, it's an awesome thing. Now, you probably don't see a Vietnam vet without a veteran's hat or shirt."

Ramirez said he first noticed a change in thinking in the early '90s, when other veterans organized to provide a warm welcome home at airports for soldiers returning from Desert Storm.

"Never again will another generation of veterans suffer what we did," Ramirez said Tuesday.

His grandson said he was glad to see more support for Ramirez and his generation of soldiers.

"It's nice when they're supported," said Jacob Benn. "I'm alive now because of my grandpa. I have freedom now because of my grandpa."

President Obama issued a proclamation in 2012 commemorating the 50th anniversary of the war, and on this date last year President Trump signed into law an act encouraging the display of the U.S. flag on March 29 as National Vietnam War Veterans Day.

"And one of the most painful chapters in our history was Vietnam, most particularly how we treated our troops," reads a quote from President Obama included in a brochure distributed at the Clovis VA on Tuesday. "You were often blamed for a war you didn't start, when you should have been commended for serving your country with valor."

Teresa Ross, a registered nurse and care manager at the local VA office, said staff there organized the simple reception in the past few weeks after realizing the newly minted holiday was approaching. The office provides some primary care services to veterans locally and provides a shuttle service to Amarillo for other medical appointments.

"We do everything we can for the veterans," she said. "The need is so great and we have so many veterans that live here in this community."
Taking back control of globalisation: Sovereignty through European integration

Contribution of Benoit Cure, member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, to the 2018 Schuman Report on Europe, 28 March 2018

There has been a backlash against globalisation and international cooperation in recent years[1]. In Europe, Brexit and Euroscepticism have challenged the notion of the European Union (EU) as a political construct based on shared sovereignty, freedom of movement across borders and economic integration under a common legislative framework. In the United States, meanwhile, the benefits of free trade have been openly called into question. Europe was generally believed to be under the greatest threat from this trend. Even if the United States were to retreat from globalisation, that would not undermine the integrity of the country itself. In the case of Europe, however, the EU and the commitment to shared values and an open society are in many ways inseparable.

More recently, stronger growth and falling unemployment have supported an improvement in attitudes towards the EU. According to the latest Eurobarometer survey,[2] seven out of ten Europeans now regard themselves as citizens of the EU  the highest level ever recorded for this indicator. What is more, three out of four euro area citizens now support the euro  the highest level since 2004. Meanwhile, an increasing number of Europeans are optimistic about the future of the EU, and the percentage of respondents who regard the EU as a place of stability in a troubled world now stands at 71%  up 5 percentage points since 2016.

We need to take advantage of this opportunity and help Europe to make further progress. If we do not, the European project could end up at risk again sooner or later. The reason for acting is obvious: peoples basic fears about the risks of openness have not really receded. Improved economic prospects can help to soothe such worries, but they will resurface in difficult times. Still, the EU can provide a lasting answer to those fears. Indeed, just as the EU is under threat from the backlash against globalisation, it can provide a way to manage globalisation. This is, after all, not the first time that globalisation has been on trial: the period between the First and Second World Wars showed that unregulated global markets are liable to descend into protectionism and nationalism. The lesson here is that cross-border integration is only sustainable if it is regulated and organised by institutions that safeguard the stability of the economic and financial system, ensure a level playing field, settle disputes and contribute to solidarity among members. This is what the EU gives to the people of Europe: a way of sustaining an open international order while also bending its outcomes to their will.

Taking concerns about globalisation seriously

There are four basic reasons why people in Europe and beyond are worried about globalisation and open markets.

The first concern relates to stability  i.e. the question of whether globalisation has made countries more vulnerable to harmful spillovers from abroad and to international crises. This applies in areas such as agriculture, medicines and biotechnology, but it is perhaps much more visible in the case of international capital flows (i.e. financial globalisation). From the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s to the global financial crisis of the late 2000s and the euro area sovereign debt crisis of the early 2010s, international financial integration has consistently triggered and amplified shocks. Indeed, between 1945 and 1980 an average of one in a hundred countries worldwide experienced a banking crisis in any given year, while between 1980 and 2008  a period in which international financial integration increased considerably  the equivalent figure was one in five.[3]

The second concern is about fairness  i.e. the question of whether all countries abide by the same rules and standards. This is evident at global level in relation to accusations of currency manipulation or dumping practices, or in fears of a race to the bottom in terms of environmental and social standards. Similar worries have emerged within Europe in relation to free movement of people and posted workers.

The third concern relates to inequality. Many people believe that open markets have favoured capitalists and the rich at the expense of workers and the poor. Global value chains (i.e. supply chains spread across a number of countries) are thought to have reduced workers bargaining power. There is also empirical evidence that financial globalisation has been associated with increases in income inequality within individual countries.[4] OECD data show that the labour compensation of the bottom 99% of earners, measured as a fraction of national income, has declined over the last 20 years in rich countries, while the labour compensation of the top 1%, measured as a fraction of national income, has increased by 20%.[5] Likewise, global integration has made it easier for companies and individuals to avoid taxation by exploiting international loopholes. Corporate tax bases have been eroded owing to transfer prices within value chains, and tax competition between countries has led to a race to the bottom in terms of tax rates.[6] A debate is currently raging between economists as to whether all of the unequal gains resulting from international trade can be addressed using social transfers, or whether changes need to be made to the rules of the global game.[7] However, all would agree that the revenue which has been lost as a result of tax avoidance and tax optimisation would have helped governments to at least mitigate the adverse distributional effects of globalisation.[8]

Finally, the fourth concern is about democracy. Many people are concerned as to whether the open market is truly subject to democratic control. As international markets extend further beyond the borders of nation states, it becomes less clear who governs them. Some people fear that openness has resulted in elected authorities ceding sovereignty to international investors or multinational corporations  e.g. via investor-state dispute settlement mechanisms. International cooperation between elected governments has been rekindled following the global financial crisis (particularly in the context of the G20), but beyond efforts to tackle immediate crises, the effective remit of such cooperation has largely been confined to financial regulation (and, more recently, tax cooperation). Even in the presence of clear structures allowing democratic control (as in the case of the EU), some politicians have succeeded in suggesting that those structures are too remote from the lives of voters and successfully played on the idea of taking back control by promising to repatriate powers to the national level.

Some of these concerns are based more on perception than on fact. For example, increased sensitivity to financial shocks and widening income gaps could be attributable to a number of other factors, including technological change,[9] and the two processes are increasingly interrelated.[10] Still, just as it is important not to overreact to criticism of globalisation, it is equally important to retain a sense of humility  to acknowledge that globalisation raises profound questions about fairness, stability, equity and democracy, which need to be properly debated and, where necessary, answered by means of effective public policies.

Regaining sovereignty

Some suggest that the solution is to withdraw within national borders. This option is destined to fail for two reasons. First, it deprives people of the economic advantages that trade and integration bring. According to one estimate, the EUs GDP per capita would be as much as one-fifth lower if no integration had taken place since 1950.[11] More than 30 million jobs in the EU (i.e. a total of one in seven) are dependent on exports to the rest of the world.[12] Second, the act of renationalising policies will not allow a country to evade global competition: isolating itself from global value chains will raise input prices, make its exports less competitive and make the country less attractive to investors, ultimately weakening the economy on both the supply and the demand side. Similarly, retreating from international cooperation will not allow a country to escape tax competition and is likely to make it less effective at fighting tax evasion.

History suggests that there is only one solution. Whenever globalisation has led to excesses and retreated into protectionism in the past, the lesson we have learned is that globalisation is not sustainable without strong institutions. The United Nations and its offspring (such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) were a direct response to the descent into protectionism that was observed during the interwar years. Similarly, the G5 was born of the 1970s oil crisis, while the G20 was born of the Asian financial crisis in the 1990s and was given a new role in safeguarding world trade and strengthening the global financial architecture in the aftermath of the collapse of Lehman Brothers. However, by far the most advanced and successful political construct in terms of managing globalisation has been the European Union.

The EUs founding fathers devised a means of collectively managing the challenges thrown up by open markets without retreating behind national borders. They gave its Member States a unique platform for recovering some of the state functions that had been eroded by globalisation. Rather than having to choose between openness and sovereignty, sharing sovereignty within European institutions has allowed countries to regain sovereignty.[13] In other words, the EU provides a regional answer to the political trilemma popularised by economist Dani Rodrik,[14] according to which it is not possible to pursue democracy, national sovereignty and global economic integration at the same time.

This is not to say that the EU is perfect. The multiple crises that it has faced in recent years highlighted many issues that need to be addressed in terms of its effectiveness and its legitimacy. However, the EU has sustained an open order across the European continent for over 60 years. Since 1960, cumulative growth in real GDP per capita has been one-third higher in western Europe than in the United States. Europe has also accumulated greater wealth as a percentage of annual income than the United States (more than 500%, compared with 400% on the other side of the Atlantic).[15] At the same time, it has also demonstrated greater awareness of sustainability concerns  e.g. through its leading role in brokering international agreements on climate change in the context of the UN, from the Kyoto Protocol to the Paris Agreement. Thus, where pitfalls are encountered, we should not seek to unravel the EU and its many achievements, but strive to build better political institutions at European level that directly address the concerns of EU citizens and deliver the kind of managed globalisation that they desire, on the basis of the four considerations detailed above.

Reconciling economic integration with fairness

The EU has probably been most successful in its efforts to make economic integration fair  i.e. ensure that everyone abides by the same rules and standards. Here, the fundamental factor is the level playing field established by EU legislation and the EU institutions responsible for its enforcement, particularly the Court of Justice of the European Union. This provides the strongest possible assurance that fair competition and consumer protection will not be undermined by openness. Moreover, the obligation for companies to respect EU standards when exporting products to the EU, combined with the size of the European market (with the EU representing the number one trading partner of no fewer than 80 countries), mean that the EU tends to influence standards elsewhere  the so-called Brussels Effect.[16] Rather than allowing globalisation to become an inevitable race to the bottom, the EU can, with its regulatory power, actually trigger a global race to the top. This can only be good for globalisation in the long run.

There has been growing criticism of the fairness of competition in relation to the free movement of labour. But here, too, the EU has established a framework  on which it can build further  aimed at reconciling mobility with fairness. Safeguards central to the European social model have progressively been embedded in European law, notably through the Charter of Fundamental Rights. And where there is more subtle undercutting of wages, the EU framework allows national authorities to set their own minimum wages and limits on working hours. Moreover, where there have been controversies (e.g. regarding posted workers), EU legislation has been amended following intense political debate.

Fair trade in Europe has also been supported by the single currency, which has reinforced the framework governing fair competition by removing the possibility of repeated cycles of competitive devaluations of national currencies. This has eliminated fears of currency manipulation, reduced protectionist temptations and supported the Single Market. Now that devaluation is not an option, euro area countries have to address the real root causes of any competitiveness problems that they may suffer.

This is sometimes seen as harsh medicine, since such adjustments may require a subtler form of devaluation through wage restraint. Many euro area countries adopted this approach in seeking to restore cost competitiveness following the global financial crisis, and most of those countries have now fully recovered. However, further thought could be given to the question of how European instruments could be developed in order to ensure that social safety nets prevent such adjustments from increasing poverty and undermining long-term growth. This will, contribute to support for the European project in countries undergoing such adjustments  particularly in the context of financial assistance programmes. Europes crisis-fighting toolbox is now greatly improved thanks to the establishment of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), but significant gaps remain in the absence of a grant instrument supporting social safety nets in programme countries or an option to redirect substantial funds from the EU budget.

Protecting Europeans from instability

When it comes to goods and services, the EU has contributed hugely to ensuring that economic integration is perceived as safe, and therefore sustainable. Regulatory convergence in product and services standards, coupled with a common approach for market surveillance, has underpinned trust in open markets within Europe, as has the ability of the EU to respond quickly to emerging threats to consumer protection. For example, the internal market for frozen foods was able to survive the mis-selling scandal of 2013, when horsemeat was sold as beef, in large part because it was met with an improved food labelling and EU-wide inspection regime that restored trust. By contrast, a perceived lack of regulatory convergence between the EU and third countries, especially regarding food safety, is one reason for opposition to preferential trade agreements, such as the TTIP.

When it comes to finance, until recently, the EU had less to offer in terms of making integration stable. Indeed, we learned the hard way that an incomplete monetary union, as well as integrated capital markets without similarly integrated financial regulation and supervision, can create their own forms of instability. But Europe has made important progress in this area in recent years. It has established the ESM, which has a lending capacity of 500 billion  not far short of the IMFs lending capacity for the whole world  and can come to the rescue when Member States face liquidity constraints. Equally far-reaching has been the decision to establish a banking union in order to mitigate the risk of systemic banking crises. 80% of all banking assets in the euro area are now supervised at European level, and there is a single mechanism for resolving failing banks. For the first time ever, we have genuinely supranational governance of the banking sector, based on a single rulebook. This ensures that there will be no regulatory race to the bottom.

However, there is no room for complacency in this regard. Risks to financial stability, including new risks such as cybersecurity threats, require continuous attention. The process of establishing a capital markets union remains in its infancy and faces a number of daunting legal challenges, which will need to be overcome (e.g. as regards harmonising  if not unifying  national insolvency laws). Moreover, the banking union needs to be completed by ensuring that fully robust European lines of defence are put in place to protect taxpayers, customers and depositors. There are also discussions about giving the euro area a budgetary capacity, with varying views as to whether it should primarily act as a backstop and instrument for investment protection in times of crisis, focus on stabilising the business cycle or finance the provision of public goods on a permanent basis, as well as a debate regarding the appropriate way of ensuring democratic accountability. While it is important to get this right and ensure that it is accompanied by efforts to restore fiscal buffers at national level, progress towards more central fiscal stabilisation should not be deferred indefinitely.[17]

The robustness of our crisis resolution framework will not be truly tested until the next major crisis, but we have already seen encouraging signs in this regard. Europes financial system successfully weathered the turbulence that was observed in global financial markets in 2015 and early 2016, and the shock of the Brexit vote came and went without visible damage. More fundamentally, the path that Europe has embarked on represents the most advanced attempt yet to reconcile the benefits of cross-border financial integration  in terms of risksharing and access to finance  with its potential pitfalls.

Promoting equitable integration

In the third area  making integration equitable  there has been less emphasis on policies at EU level thus far. To a large extent, this is because EU Member States already have the most comprehensive welfare systems in the world at national level. As Chancellor Merkel has often noted, Europe has 7% of the worlds population, 25% of its GDP and 50% of its welfare spending. Welfare systems need to be adjusted in many ways if they are to be financially sustainable, but they provide a strong basis for protecting people who lose out as a result of globalisation. Indeed, history shows that making globalisation sustainable has often depended on strengthening the welfare state.

The erosion of the tax base and the shifting of corporate profits are severely challenging Member States ability to engineer redistribution, but the EU has considerable latent potential in this regard, because no large corporation  not even Apple  can threaten to completely turn its back on the worlds largest market. Indeed, the European Commission is already using competition tools to address possible tax arbitrage by multinational corporations, while the proposed Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base has the capacity to eliminate opportunities for tax avoidance through profit shifting within Europe. In both areas, European institutions can establish leverage over large corporations in a way that individual countries cannot.

A key issue for the EU as time goes by will be the extent to which its direct redistributional role should increase. The European Globalisation Adjustment Fund, which was established in 2007, was set up in order to help workers and companies with the transition process, but its resources remain far too limited and its procedures too heavy. The European Social Fund has much greater resources at its disposal and has proved to be effective at helping people to get back into employment. There is an argument for expanding these two programmes further, both in scale and in scope.[18]

Ensuring democratic legitimacy

In many ways, the EU gives its citizens more democratic control over globalisation than is afforded to people in other countries. Indeed, it is far more advanced than other trade areas in terms of its political structure: decisions affecting the EU as a whole are taken jointly by nationally elected representatives sitting together in the Council of the European Union and by the directly elected European Parliament. And through the powers it has over competition and financial regulation, the EU gives its citizens greater control over multinational companies and financial markets. A united Europe, speaking with one voice at global level, also helps to communicate European preferences on trade, as well as on financial, tax, social and environmental standards.

However, governance and democratic legitimacy need to be strengthened further. For example, the ESM and decisions on financial assistance programmes are based on intergovernmental arrangements that fall outside the European Parliaments accountability remit. This may give the impression that powers have been transferred to the European level, when in fact they continue to be exercised largely by Member States.

Thus, intergovernmental institutions such as the ESM need, eventually, to be integrated into the EUs treaties in order to improve both democratic control and the means and perception of joint ownership and decision-making. Otherwise, we risk a situation where common challenges are continually seen through a national lens, which inevitably fragments Europes democratic debate and fuels divisions that undermine efforts to implement effective European policies.[19]

All of this is made more challenging by the fact that there is not yet a meaningful European public space. And yet here, ironically, globalisation could actually come to the EUs aid. The spread of digital technology, especially among younger people, could ultimately lead to a different, less nation-centric debate about the role of Europe.

***

The EUs challenge is to preserve social contracts within countries in the face of globalisation  which effectively requires a social contract across countries. This is what the EU provides at European level, through its legislative, executive and judicial powers. If those powers are well used, and if economic, social and legal frameworks are also improved at national level, the EU can make a decisive contribution to making globalisation sustainable, both in Europe and beyond.

In so doing, the EU could also go a long way towards addressing its own challenges in terms of popular legitimacy. If it can better advertise its capacity to harness globalisation to the popular will, and if it can be reformed in order to achieve its full potential, there is no reason why some of the negative perceptions that surround the EU today cannot rapidly be dispelled. It is encouraging to see European leaders working to define a vision for further integration with a view to tackling common global challenges. Despite everything we hear from the various doomsayers and naysayers, this could be Europes moment. We need to seize this opportunity  and do it soon.
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Indonesia province exports 11,500 tonnes of corn to Philippines



Indonesia's West Nusa Tenggara Province has exported 11,500 tonnes of corn to the Philippines - the second time it delivered this flagship commodity to the latter after 2016.



The export was conducted on March 20 at Badas Harbour, Sumbawa, and was observed by several officials of the Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Commerce as well as other local officials and farmers.



According to the governor of West Nusa Tenggara, TGB Zainul Majdi, the province had previously exported corn to regions outside Indonesia in 2017. West Nusa Tenggara was also established as a national food storage area by the central government.



"Thanks to the hard work of our farmers, corn production in 2017 increased by one million tonnes more than the previous year (1.1 million tonnes in 2016)... the result (was) 2.127 million tonnes (last year)," Majdi said.



- Suara Nusa


By The Hill , Mar. 26, 2018





California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D) said late Monday he is filing a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its decision to include a question on citizenship in the 2020 census.





"We're prepared to do what we must to protect California from a deficient Census. Including a citizenship question on the 2020 census is not just a bad idea  it is illegal," Becerra said in a statement.

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Trump urges Turkeys help during talk with Macron

US Donald Trump stressed 'need to intensify cooperation with Turkey with respect to shared strategic challenges in Syria' during a telephone call with French President Emmanuel Macron.

President Donald Trump emphasized the need to boost cooperation with Turkey regarding "shared strategic challenges in Syria" during a telephone call with French President Emmanuel Macron.

"President Trump stressed the need to intensify cooperation with Turkey with respect to shared strategic challenges in Syria." the White House said in its readout of the call.

The leaders also discussed recent diplomatic measures taken against Russia in retaliation for chemical attacks blamed on Moscow, as well as trade practices between the US and EU, the White House said.

The telephone call comes four days after President Erdogan discussed Turkeys operation in Afrin during a telephone conversation with Macron. Erdogan had expressed the discomfort about baseless statements on the counter-terror operation during the conversation, according to Turkish presidential sources.
Tiffany Haddish has made it clear that she does not stand with her fellow comedienne, MoNique, who called for a Netflix boycott after she said the streaming service discriminated against her during talks of a deal.

Here's Why Tiffany Isn't With Mo'Nique

Haddish spoke on MoNiques attempt to have fans end their subscriptions with Netflix in hopes of getting its attention. Haddish emphasized that she does not support MoNiques campaign.

My business runs different than her business, said Haddish during an interview with GQ recently. I dont live her life. I dont have that husband of hers. Im looking at how [Netflix] has opened up so many opportunities for black females and comedy.

Haddish added that fans wouldnt see her fight for a cause unless African-American lives are taken. She explained that she refused to boycott Netflix or protest anything simply because someone didnt get the pay they requested. She suggested that MoNique stop working with Netflix altogether.

Haddish went on to point out the ways that Netflix does support the Black community as well as other minority groups such as Hispanics and Asians despite its drama with MoNique. Haddish reminded fans that the show that scored her her big break, The Carmichael Show, is now on Netflix after it premiered on NBC.

Tiffany Joins The Netflix Squad

Meanwhile, after getting major opportunities lately, Haddish landed her own deal with Netflix. She revealed that piece of information after one fan suggested that if Haddish ever inked a contract with the streaming service, she should thank MoNiques recent efforts. Haddish explained she had already signed on to a deal with Netflix even before MoNique went public with her issues.

I already got a deal and I signed it way before she said a thing and its not legend money but its enough to take care of my family for min. #Facts  Tiffany Haddish (@TiffanyHaddish) February 24, 2018

She said while it might not be the amount the veterans are getting, its more than enough for her to enjoy and be there for her family.

MoNique responded to Haddishs deal with Netflix.

Youve done nothing wrong my sister. You KEEP SHINING! I am proud of you. You keep doing what [youre] doing. You are making it better for the next ones.

Mo'Nique Continues Her Fight Against Netflix

MoNiques battle with Netflix started after the service offered her half a million for a standup special. She however pointed out that her counterparts such as Dave Chapelle, Amy Schumer, and Chris Rock were offered well into the millions for their standup specials.

MoNique not only declined Netflixs offer but also urged the service to be fair when she called for a boycott. While not everyone agreed with MoNiques stance, she certainly has not given up on it.

Be sure to keep up with Enstars for the latest news and updates on your favorite celebrities.
Kim Kardashian has broken the internet again with another racy photo. The reality star and entrepreneur is promoting her new makeup line with a photo that bares it all.

Kardashian posted a photo on her Instagram page that show her in a tiny thong that shows off her toned buttocks, a black bra, and a towel wrapped around her hair. The reality star was seen putting on some lipstick while looking seductively in the mirror.

Kardashian announced on her Instagram that she would be collaborating with her longtime makeup artist, Mario Dedivanovic, for her KKW Beauty line. The new four-piece collection will make its debut on Kardashian's website on April 5.

This will also commemorate the first time Dedivanovic and Kardashian began working together 10 years prior. The makeup artist shared on his Instagram page that he was strongly advised not to work with the reality star as it would "tarnish" his potential career.

Kim Kardashian's Busy Schedule

The mom of three has had her hands full these days. The Keeping Up with the Kardashians star welcomed her third child, Chicago West, on Jan. 15.

Chicago was born via surrogacy. The makeup mogul expressed her desire to have another child but was advised against carrying her third child due to her difficult pregnancies and deliveries with her older children, North and Saint.

Kardashian, who is married to hip-hop artist and producer, Kanye West, stated in a recent interview that she would be open to having one more child but not anytime soon because of her already busy schedule.

The 37-year-old also visited Japan earlier this year with her two sisters, Kourtney Kardashian and Khloe Kardashian, the latter is expecting her first child in April 2018.
Abby Lee Miller is transferring to a halfway house from Victorville Federal Correctional Institution to serve the remaining two months of her one-year sentence.

The Dance Moms star has been in prison since July last year and is bound to be released on May 25. Miller is serving her sentence after she was indicted with 20 counts of fraud. The 51-year-old dance instructor was moved to the Residential Reentry Center in Long Beach, California, to finish her sentence.

After her release, Miller is set to be watched by authorities for two years. TMZ reported that the facility will give her the ample assistance she needs. She will also receive some counseling on job placement and employment as well as lectures on financial management on the halfway house. USA Today, meanwhile, describes halfway house as a means to help prisoners reintegrate back to society.

Jennifer Myers, a prison consultant, said that the center is not guarded by armed personnel but that it is still a secured location. She further added that Miller might not probably finish her sentence in the facility and will be allowed to go home after some time.

Fraud Case

Miller's sentence stems from a 2015 fraud case, which had her $755,000 in income hidden from the government. The said amount came from her earnings in her Lifetime show, Abby's Ultimate Dance Competition, the spin-off of Dance Moms, and also from other projects.

The money was hidden in multiple accounts from 2012 to 2013, and Miller finally pleaded guilty in 2016. She was convicted last year in May, where she was set to serve 366 days in prison. Apart from this, the Dance Moms host will be paying $160,000 in fines.

However, this was a far cry from what she could have faced, five years in prison and $5 million in fines. So it is easy to say that Miller got a bargain for what she is facing. Moreover, the feisty choreographer then had fame to blame for her wrongdoings.

"Somehow you got caught up in the world of fame and you lost your moral compass," Miller said.

If there is something good Miller got from her service time, it is probably evident on her health. She reportedly lost a significant amount of weight, judging from the photo circulating when friends visited her at the prison.

She has accomplished another milestone as well, as she passed her real estate class early this year. Miller shared her diploma on her Instagram account.
Kourtney Kardashian and Younes Bendjima are laying pesky breakup rumors to rest. The couple is enjoying a romantic road trip together.

Taking To The Open Road

Kardashian and Bendjima are taking some time out of the Hollywood spotlight to reconnect. They've been documenting their scenic road trip on social media, sharing photos and videos of a coastline purportedly in California.

One video finds Kardashian filming the model as he steers their car with one leg propped up casually on the dashboard.

"Keeping me safe," she captioned it.

24-year-old Bendjima subsequently shared a clip of the couple joking around during a pit stop at a gas station.

"Kourtney Kardashian is inside, if anyone wants a selfie!" he joked.

Traveling Around The World

The couple first met in Paris in October 2016. However, they didn't go public with their relationship until last May, when they were spotted together in Cannes.

They've traveled to various exotic locales in the subsequent months, including St. Tropez and Egypt. In fact, Kardashian's anxiety about leaving her three young children became one of the storylines on the hit reality show Keeping up with the Kardashians.

A January episode saw Kardashian explaining how she prefers to take trips away with her new beau, as she's not ready to mix their two worlds yet.

She felt that getting out of town was the easiest way of separating her relationship from her difficult family life with ex, and father to her three kids, Scott Disick.

"I have realized in life that I need the balance. I just think that it's really important for me to be there for them [my kids], and ... it's hard to find the balance of allowing myself to do that and not feel guilty," she explained.

A source confirmed in December 2017 that things had gotten serious between the two. Just a few days ago, rumors swirled that Bendjima was getting ready to pop the question as he was spotted shopping for an engagement ring at the jewelry store Giantto.

Old Flames, Old News

There may be a fly in the ointment though, as there are also reports Kardashian is set to reunite with Disick.

OK! Australia ran a story recently claiming the exes were getting back together, and that Disick's involvement with the kids caused trouble in Kardashian's relationship with Bendjima.

However, these rumors were soon debunked as the quoted comments from Kardashian were revealed to be over a year old, taken out of context from before she hooked up with the 24-year-old model.

Disick, meanwhile, is in a relationship with 19-year-old Sofia Richie, Lionel Richie's daughter, so it seems he isn't eager to reunite with Kardashian for the time being.
Ed Norton's production company is facing a lawsuit after a fire took place on the set of his film Motherless Brooklyn last week.

Class 5 Productions Sued

A couple who resides in the building that was engulfed in flames sued Norton's company, Class 5 Productions, alleging that they were misinformed about the deadly fire when it broke out last week

Erica and George Cruz filed the complaint against the production company on Tuesday, March 27, in New York Supreme Court. The lawsuit claimed that the company kept "highly flammable equipment" in the basement of the building and the fire was a result of their negligence and carelessness.

In the suit, Erica and George Cruz state that when representatives of Class 5 Productions found out about the fire, they misled them about the gravity of the situation instead of warning the residents of the building about the blaze. Because of this, their apartment was completely gutted.

"When representatives of Class 5, Inc., became aware of the fire, they did not warn the tenants in the building; in fact, they misled the tenants into believing there had been a fire that had been extinguished," the suit reads.

The couple also claimed that they lost all of their belongings in the blaze and are seeking $2 million in damages from Norton's production company, as well as the building's landlord Vincent Sollazzo, who is also named as a defendant in the suit.

Firefighter Killed In Fire

The fire took place in an apartment that was being used as a set for Norton's upcoming film in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City on Thursday, March 22.

The fire originated from the cellar of a former jazz club in the 5-story building at approximately 11 p.m. on the said day just as the production crew was ready to pack up the shooting.

The blaze proved to be deadly as 37-year old New York City firefighter, Michael R. Davidson, died after he got trapped while fighting the flames. Norton extended his condolences to the family of the deceased firefighter in a statement released last week.

"We watched firsthand with astonishment as they charged into the smoke to make sure all were safely out and then fought to contain the blaze and prevent it from spreading, putting their lives on the line as they do every day," Norton said.

Apart from Davidson, two other firefighters suffered burns and were rushed to a nearby hospital in a critical condition while three others were injured.
Actor Corey Feldman is currently recovering after he was rushed to the hospital following a gruesome and unexpected attack by three unidentified men.

The actor was stabbed on the evening of March 27. The Lost Boys actor stated that he was sitting in his car when with his security guard when three male strangers approached his vehicle.

As his security guard was distracted by the three unknown men, another vehicle pulled up on one side of Feldman's car. The man opened his door and stabbed him with an unknown object before fleeing the scene.

Feldman was immediately rushed to the hospital shortly after the incident and the LAPD were notified. The actor posted about the attempted murder on his Twitter page where he also alluded that he may have an idea who attacked him.

IM IN THE HOSPITAL! I WAS ATTACKED 2NITE! A MAN OPENED MY CAR DOOR & STABBED ME W SOMETHING! PLEASE SAY PRAYERS 4 US! THANK GOD IT WAS ONLY MYSELF & MY SECURITY IN THE CAR, WHEN 3 MEN APPROACHED! WHILE SECURITY WAS DISTRACTED, W A GUY A CAR PULLED UP & ATTACKED! I'M OK! pic.twitter.com/TZ0ppZeEWN  Corey Feldman (@Corey_Feldman) March 28, 2018

The former child star claimed that he has been getting threats from an online group known as the "Wolfpack."

Corey Feldman's Rough Year

The actor has had a pretty rough start at the beginning of 2018. Feldman, who has been working hard to bring his alleged sexual abusers to justice, was accused of sexual misconduct himself.

The charges against the actor were then dropped, however, it did hit a snag in Feldman's crusade for justice.

The Dream a Little Dream star has alleged that he and his friend, the late Corey Haim, were once victims of an underground pedophilia ring that preyed on young men in Hollywood.

Feldman began naming a few of his accusers on The Dr. Oz Show in 2017. He said that former co-star Jon Grissom and Alphy Hoffman, owner of Alphy's Soda Pop Club, were two of his abusers.

Since 2017, the actor has been actively promoting his documentary series The Truth Campaign where he planned to expose more sexual abusers in Hollywood.

The actor also noted that since he began speaking more openly about the sexual abuse he endured, he has received death threats and found it difficult to get a job in Hollywood.
Donald Trump Jr. is showing off his passion for firearms. The 40-year-old New York City resident just got a concealed weapon permit.

The Pennsylvania Excursion

According to Page Six, the presidential son decided to show his love of guns by getting a concealed weapon permit in Pennsylvania. Many insiders in the Trump Organization wondered why Trump Jr. chose to apply for his concealed weapon permit in the Keystone State's Lackawanna County. The permit was issued to Trump Jr. before his ex-wife, Vanessa, filed for divorce from him. The license lasts five years, but he cannot use the weapon in his home state of New York.

"It isn't clear why Don Jr. applied for the permit in Pennsylvania. But there is speculation that he didn't do it in New York because you have to supply financials," said an insider to Page Six.

The New York Police Department has strict rules regarding concealed weapon permits in the state. In addition to providing the required paperwork, there might be circumstances where the applicant needs to show their New York state tax return.

March For Our Lives Aftermath

News of Trump's concealed weapon permit comes days after hundreds of March For Our Lives movements across the country. People Magazine reported that over the weekend, at least 1.2 million people joined the march to campaign for stricter gun control policies. Countless celebrities including Kim Kardashian, Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, and Miley Cyrus participated in the marches or talked about the movement on social media.

Other celebrities at the event aimed their outrage at elected officials. Amy Schumer delivered a fiery speech at the Los Angeles rally. She accused politicians of "killing children" and twisting the words that their detractors throw at them. Meanwhile, Kendall Jenner, who was in attendance at the Los Angeles rally, wore a denim jacket that spoke volumes. The Keeping Up with the Kardashians star had a black and white photo of President Trump with the letter R and number 13 on it. The jacket also had a quote sewn on it that stated, "GOD SAVE US...HE AIN'T MY PRESIDENT."

Aubrey And Melissa

As Trump Jr. prepares to go to divorce court, several women came forward to reveal their interactions with the real estate businessman while he was still married to Vanessa. It was announced that former Dainty Kane member and The Celebrity Apprentice alum Aubrey O'Day had an affair with the oldest son of Donald Trump. Their relationship reportedly started after the show's production wrapped up in 2011, but the romance ended in March 2012.

Meanwhile, former model Melissa Stetten stated that she was not surprised when news broke regarding Trump Jr.'s divorce from Vanessa. Stetten shared several lewd tweets that the businessman sent her in 2011 on social media. The model added that he followed her and she decided to follow him back. She also revealed that it was entertaining to watch Trump Jr.'s failed attempts at flirting. On Thursday, March 15, Vanessa filed for divorce at a New York City Supreme Court. The couple has five children together.

Enstars has reached out to the Trump Organization for a comment.
Sofia Richie and Scott Disick are still going strong, despite his issues with his ex-girlfriend and baby mama, Kourtney Kardashian.

On Monday, March 26, the 19-year-old daughter of Lionel Richie took to Instagram to share a photo of her Disick as they board a private jet. This time, the pair is reportedly heading to Cabo, Mexico.

In the photo, the love birds pose on the steps of the plane as the model wraps her arms around Disick's shoulders.

My A post shared by Sofia Richie (@sofiarichie) on Mar 26, 2018 at 5:10pm PDT

"My heart," Richie captioned the shot with a heart emoji.

Those that follow the pair on social media know that this is not their first vacation together. They have been on the move ever since they linked back in May 2017. However, this trip is a little different as they are traveling with a "first-time flyer" on board with Richie's new puppy, Hershela.

Hershela Goes To Cabo

Shortly after Richie shared the photo of her and Disick, the duo took to their Instagram stories to share photos of Hershela as she sits on one of the seats in the private plane.

This might be the pup's first time venturing out, but this wasn't the first time Hersh made her appearance on social media. Richie's followers first saw the puppy when the fashion model posted an image of her inside a tent.

"How are you real," the 19-year-old labeled the image.

As per reports, Hershela or Hersh was a gift to Richie from the Keeping Up With the Kardashians star. In February, during an interview at the Issey Miyake Party at Milk Studios in Los Angeles, the model couldn't stop gushing over her new addition.

"My boyfriend named her ... I kind of just ran with it. It made me laugh. I liked Hershey and he liked Hershela, so it was like a middle ground," the model explained.

Richie further revealed that Disick has always wanted a dog, so when he gifted her the pet she decided to let him name her.

Scott And Sofia

Disick and Richie were first romantically linked after they were spotted at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2017. Neither of the two confirmed nor denied their relationship. However, in December 2017, the pair seemed to have made things official after they were caught together during Art Basel in Miami. Since then they have been sharing photos of each other on their social media accounts and have traveled together to Vegas, Milan, and Colorado.
The Brussels conference on Sahel that took place last month summarized a year of efforts to create a joint military force of the G5 Sahel nations. The meeting of the EU, the United Nations (UN), the African Union (AU) and the G5 under the auspices of Nigerian President Mahamadou Issoufou, accomplished a series of important objectives. Most notably, the idea of the joint forces operational budget gathered a whooping 414 million budget. The EU doubled its planned contribution to the force, now up to 100 million, while France raised by 40% its planned contributions to development and governance assistance to the region, now totaling 1.2 billion over the next five years.

The project of G5 Sahel force continues to progress rapidly in European capitals, but more slowly on the ground. The advancements made so far are important, but they must be kept in perspective with the regions deepening security issues. There is also a risk that an overly securitized strategy could de-prioritize equally important and needed work on governance, justice, and the protection of local communities.

At the same time, the military situation is significantly deteriorating. Insecurity and armed attacks from jihadists continue to surge in Mali as well as in northern Burkina Faso. Some military operations in G5 areas have also driven refugees into areas of Mali, which are already affected by food insecurity and growing communal conflict. In other areas along the Mali-Niger border, recent attacks against French military have triggered a major offensive.

This complicated arrangement is not very helpful as it could undermine European efforts to restore governance in conflict-ridden areas. This is particularly problematic in central Mali and the borderlands where the G5 will operate. Moreover, the deadly attack on the French Embassy and the army headquarters in Burkina Fasos capital Ouagadougou in early March points out to the limits of the G5 force in enforcing broader regional stability. Another lesson that can be taken from this incident is that both security and governance are needed to make sustainable improvements to the security situation in the region. More generally, any Sahel operation needs to be implemented with in-depth understanding of local conflict.

The EU has clearly stated that the Sahel is important. Yet, the varied and multifaceted risks of further instability and governance failures in Mali as well as in Burkina Faso continue to showcase the limitations of these missions and the need to constantly adjust the EUs policies in the region to respond to the changing circumstances. Ultimately, a continued decline in the stability of states like Mali will have serious implications for Europe and for the future of EU foreign policy.

G5 Sahel: Much Done, More to Do  Commentary by Andrew Lebovich  European Council on Foreign Relations / ECFR.

(The Commentary can be downloaded here)
Each province operates their PNP program without influence from any other province, so program will vary from province to province, so you'll have to consult each province's program to see what it requires



If the requirements for Ontario are that applicants have a job then all applicants to the Ontario PNP program must have a job, no exceptions.





Also, do not try to get to Ontario by applying for PNP in a different province and then settling in Ontario - i.e. don't apply for PEI PNP, get nominated, come to Canada and settle in Ontario - that is not what the program is for (why should the province of Prince Edward Island spend the time and money on your nomination if you don't intend to live there - it's not fair to those applicants who do want to go to PEI).



If you try to do that and are caught, you could have your visa revoked - it is very easy for the government to track where you have settled based upon information you supply in your day to day life and information that your employer supplies to the government on your behalf (i.e. if you had a PNP from British Columbia but end up filing your taxes in Ontario, the government will know that that's where you are based upon the information that your employer in Ontario supplies to the government and information that the BC government can find out about you as well: they won't have any record of you in various different databases).
DPRK imported US$6.2 billion worth of American farm products in 2016

By Diego Flammini

Staff Writer

Farms.com

Amendments to a trade agreement between the United States and South Korea will not change agricultural market access to the Asian nation.

The U.S. exempted South Korea from the tariffs on steel and aluminum imports and South Korea agreed to allow 50,000 cars into the country without meeting local safety standards as part of the updated U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement.

It appears agriculture has been left alone in the changes.

South Korea is the fifth largest importer of American ag products, according to the Office of the United States Trade Representative . The country imported US$6.2 billion worth of U.S. goods in 2016, with corn and beef making up nearly US$2 billion worth of those imports.

American farmers will still be afforded that access, but it appears unlikely South Korea will expand agricultural market access.

There will be no further opening of agricultural markets and no changes to the tariffs that had already been lifted, South Korean Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong said on March 26, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

State officials are pleased with the Trump administrations efforts to help American farmers in this trade deal.

I am pleased to see the administration has made a good trade deal with South Korea, Deb Fischer, a Nebraska Senator and member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said in a statement today . This is a step in the right direction that will expand opportunities for our producers and the state of Nebraska.

Nebraska ranks fifth in the U.S. in terms of ag exports to South Korea. State farmers exported more than US$400 million worth of commodities to the Asian country in 2015, with corn (US$80.6 million) and wheat (US$6.9 million) ranking second and seventh, respectively.

Ruskpp/iStock/Getty Images Plus photo
The two-day conference focused on the importance of increasing soil fungi and microbes, which can dramatically help improve the uptake of key nutrients, including phosphate (pH) and nitrogen (N).

More than 85 people heard from keynote speaker and New Zealand-based Integrity Soils director, Nicole Masters.

On average, our crops are only utilising about five per cent of the phosphates and nitrogen we apply, Ms Masters said.

Drawing on significant research and her passion for soil health and science, Ms Masters said the problem was many modern farming practices worked against the natural system.

If we improve our soil health by supporting and feeding microbes and fungi, we can produce a much stronger, efficient, healthier and productive plant, she said.

Ms Masters also strongly believes that by making a stronger root system, a buffer can be made against major cropping constraints in the Wheatbelt, including acidity, salinity, temperature and moisture.

Another speaker was Soils for Life chairman, Major General Michael Jeffery, who discussed the importance of looking after agricultural soils.

Case studies were also discussed at the conference with topics such as agricultural practices for the benefit of soil health, results of 15 years of liming and soil testing in the Gabby Quoi Quoi catchment, comparing tillage practices to address non-wetting soils in the Corrigin area, understanding the implications of rotations in a low rainfall zone and putting technology and science to the test to increase nitrogen use efficiency and environmental care.

The 2018 Soil Health champions were announced at the conference.

Burracoppin farmer Tony Murfit was named Wheatbelt Soil Health Champion.

Hes turned around acidic soils by using soil identification and zoning, variable rate lime and gypsum applications, fallow to control weeds, deep ripping and a cover crop.

This has helped produce yields of up to two tonne to the hectare on canola crops in the eastern Wheatbelt.

Carnamah farmer Brendon Haeusler won the title of the Northern Agricultural Regions Soil Health Champion.

He has turned around areas affected by salinity using revegetation and W drains for grazing and cropping.

A website was launched at the conference showcasing farmers who have undertaken sustainable agriculture trials.

These trials vary from wood pellets to increase soil carbon and biology, precision agriculture to improve nutrient efficiency and tackling soil acidification.

The agtrialswa.com.au site is a collaboration between the States seven natural resource management groups.

The conference continued in Katanning on Thursday, March 15 and Friday, March 16, where the guest speakers were able to educate a completely different demographic of farmers.
Ms Evans is hoping to help others across WA take up opportunities within the grains sector, as part of her new role as Careers in Grain marketing and communications officer.

The 24-year-old takes over from Manjusha Thorpe and Grant Taylor, and will transition the Careers in Grain project to its implementation phase this year.

The Grains Industry Association of WA (GIWA) Careers in Grain project is funded by growers, industry, the State government and the tertiary education sector to attract, upskill and employ people in WAs grains industry.

Having grown up on a mixed grain and cattle farm on the Darling Downs, Ms Evans has a long history with the grains sector and the broader agricultural landscape.

After completing high school in Queensland, Ms Evans moved west to complete a public relations and human resource management degree at Murdoch University.

She has since worked in various roles at Murdoch University, including student recruitment, business development and communications and events.

Ms Evans said her new position at Careers in Grain allowed her to utilise her experience in education in combination with her background in agriculture.

I guess my passion recently has become the careers space and career education and then when this job came up and it was in agriculture, having grown up in the industry it seemed like a really good fit for me, Ms Evans said.

After three weeks in her new role, Ms Evans said she was greatly optimistic about the varying opportunities available within the WA grains sector.

She said she hoped to convey that message to students studying a range of degrees.

Its overwhelmingly positive, everyone is looking to the future and at how we can keep moving WA grains ahead of our competitors, Ms Evans said.

Theres a vast range of opportunities for students studying mechatronics, students studying chemical engineering, in the data science area, marketing and communications, and food science is a huge advancing area as well.

Ms Evans met with members of the Careers in Grain Council last week, where plans for 2018 were discussed.

She said a focus for the team would be on familiarisation projects for students with little exposure to the grains sector, along with its Early Career Placement Program.

Were mostly targeting people who would have never otherwise considered themselves likely to enter the grains industry, so people with little to no understanding of what a career in grain looks like, Ms Evans said.

We see in agriculture quite traditionally activities more geared to students who are already studying agribusiness or ag science, but for students who have no idea, theyre not necessarily going to sign up to an activity that has agriculture branding all over it.

Were working to combat that stereotype that the grain industry might not be so technologically advanced, or not very innovative, or that you cant earn a lot of money working in the grain industry, or that because I studied x at university, it automatically disqualifies me from that kind of industry.

Ill be looking to get out and meet as many young people as I can, having some conversations about what a career in grain looks like and be doing lots of networking with high schools and the universities as well.
THE largest investment into mouse-related research ever made in Australia was announced by the GRDC this week.

The GRDC is injecting more than $4.1 million into mouse control research, development and extension initiatives in response to the increasing prevalence of mice in many key grain-growing regions of Australia.

GRDC managing director Steve Jefferies says the GRDC recognises the enormity of the mouse problem and the severe impact it has on our growers businesses, their families, their communities and the broader industry.

The issue with mice has escalated in recent years and we need to improve our understanding as to why that has happened so we can provide growers with innovative and more effective mouse control options and tactics, he said.

The new initiative includes three key investments that will be led by the CSIRO.

The first investment of more than $3.2 million focuses on understanding mouse ecology, biology and management, the second on increasing surveillance and the third on mouse feeding preferences.

The first investment will provide growers and industry with a greater understanding of the behaviour of mice under no-till and stubble retention systems and it will quantify the impact of various management tactics, such as strategic tillage, seeding systems, food and habitat reduction, on mouse numbers.

Until now, management strategies to control mice have been based on research conducted under conventional cropping systems which often incorporated tillage, burning and removal of stubbles, as well as more livestock than is typical of todays farming systems.

Our farming systems have changed markedly since then, Dr Jefferies said.

No-till, stubble retention and in many cases little or no livestock are the norm in many areas, so we need to know whether these contemporary, conservation farming practices are now favouring the persistence of mouse populations from one season to the next due to maintenance of year-round habitat, lack of soil disturbance or whether there are other factors at play.

We are no longer seeing a plague situation one year, followed by a sudden crash in the population and the absence of mice for extended periods of time thereafter. These days, mice seem to be a constant and our high-yielding crops and heavy stubbles appear to be providing them with an abundance of food and protection.

Technologies such as in-burrow cameras and radio-tracking devices are expected to be used during the studies to better understand mouse behaviour.

The second key investment of more than $630,000 will expand and extend GRDCs involvement in national mouse monitoring and surveillance.

The aim is to develop a more precise real-time national early warning system for potential plagues and equip growers with the ability to proactively manage increases in mouse populations to minimise crop losses and reduce economic impacts.

The third key investment commits up to $275,000 to investigate mouse feeding preferences and bait efficacy.

Broad scale application of zinc phosphide wheat bait, at the prescribed rate of one kilogram per hectare, is presently the only method available for growers to control mice in their paddocks but efficacy of this bait has become an issue.

An investment in this area will explore conditions which lead to the apparent reduction in attractiveness of zinc phosphide baits and subsequent lower efficacy.

The two key questions relate to the role of background food availability on baiting efficacy and whether there are more suitable bait substrates.

It appears mice have an aversion to the wheat-based bait in some situations, Dr Jefferies said.

This could be due to the availability of more appealing alternative food sources, such as barley and pulses, so the GRDC and its research partners will be endeavouring to determine if this is in fact the case.

Researchers will also be investigating whether mice stockpile non-baited grain and other food sources in order to survive, and if so the research will aim to determine the optimum time to bait to overcome this mouse survival technique.

GRDC manager pests Leigh Nelson said the GRDC was committed to exploring all options in an effort to provide growers with better mouse control solutions.

In addition to the new investments, Dr Nelson said the GRDC continued to support a wide range of other ongoing mouse-related RD&E.

The research investment announcement was delivered to growers, agronomists and industry stakeholders who participated in todays mouse control webinar, which was initiated by the GRDC in response to concerns about high mouse numbers ahead of sowing this years winter crops in a number of regions.

The webinar featured a panel of experts and graingrowers providing practical tips on mouse control in the paddock, as well as an update on regional threat levels, guides for effective monitoring, and different grower experiences with bait application at seeding time.
Farmers for Free Trade (FFT) which claims to be supported by thousands of farmers and agricultural businesses and leading representative groups like the American Farm Bureau says more than 20 per cent of US farm income comes from agricultural exports.

FFT launched a new campaign with targeted television advertising last week urging President Trump to protect free trade policies that support and benefit American farmers.

FFT is also launching a Voice of the Farmer campaign that will allow US farmers to record a similar type of video clip expressing support for trade and to call on their lawmakers to work with President Trump to maintain and expand export opportunities for American agriculture.

Farmers are increasingly worried about what they are seeing from Washington DC on trade, said FFT co-chairman and former Montana senator Max Baucus.

When the US engages in a tit-for-tat fight with our trading partners, farmers pay the price.

While we need tough trade enforcement, we need to be smart about avoiding global trade fights that hurt American agriculture.

FFT said President Trumps most recent trade move  to impose a 25pc tax on imported steel and 10pc on imported aluminium  would cause retaliation that will come out of the pockets of American farmers.

History shows that these types of tariff fights escalate with our trading partners and result in farmers paying the price in the form of higher tariffs on the products we export, it said.

Well also see the price of ag equipment and inputs increase.

In the weeks and months ahead, FFT will be leading the fight to show the harmful impacts of these tariffs for our farmers and rural communities.

Other groups expressed concerns about the impact of the steel and aluminium tariffs on critical export markets like China which have already signalled a retaliatory move on soybean imports and impacts on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

The US Wheat Associates (USW) and the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) said they were extremely disappointed in the decision to impose the tariffs.

In a statement, the two national farmer representative bodies said they had repeatedly warned that the risks of retaliation and the precedent set by such a policy have serious potential consequences for agriculture.

It is dismaying that the voices of farmers and many other industries were ignored in favour of an industry that is already among the most protected in the country, a statement said.

Washington Grain Commission chairman, wheat farmer and USW director Gary Baily said if the US stayed outside of the TPP, the impact on trade with the Japan market would see a phased in US$65 per tonne tariff reduction for participating countries, US market share for wheat would fall from 50pc to about 23pc, and a reduction of baseline futures prices of US$0.50 at a time when prices are already depressed.

I have been raising wheat in Eastern Washington for almost 30 years and have seen wheat fall victim to political whims several times, Mr Baily said.

Looking back, however, I have not been as anxious about the future of our industry since the financial crisis of the 1980s.

The divisive nature of the NAFTA negotiations and the conclusion of the above mentioned TPP trade treaty without the US cause concern about the long-term health of our profession.

This is especially true for young farmers who may not have the equity or financial backing to weather these storms.

Adding to the current trade environment is President Trumps announcement that tariffs on steel and aluminium imports are being considered.

The effects of those tariffs have yet to be quantified  and if enacted, agriculture exports will likely be targeted for retaliation.

It is time for the President to consider the ramifications of his proposed tariffs and acknowledge the positive contributions that our industry has for trade, and re-engage in TPP.

USW and NAWG have also written to the Trump administration highlighting that re-joining the TPP would help save the valuable Japanese market for US wheat farmers.

Once TPP is ratified, US wheat exports to Japan will be at serious risk, the letter says.

TPP will reduce the effective tariffs that Japanese flour millers pay for imported Australian and Canadian wheat over nine years from about US$150 to about US$85 per tonne.

Effective tariffs on imported US wheat would remain at about US$150 per tonne.

Loss in market share and its negative effect on farmgate prices are likely to come much sooner, as Japanese millers reformulate their product mix to avoid the need to purchase artificially expensive US wheat.

Lost market share is incredibly difficult to regain.
POOR internet connectivity has long been a battle for farm offices across the State, preventing businesses from accessing many of the latest technological developments and management tools metropolitan-based businesses enjoy.

However, connectivity challenges dont have to prevent farm offices from going paperless, according to Partners in Grain WA (PinG WA) co-ordinator Hellene McTaggart and PinG WA facilitator Tracy Minchin.

Over the next few months, the PinG WA team will roll out its first Paperless Farm Office workshop, designed for WA farm businesses.

Ms McTaggart said while poor internet connectivity was a challenge for farm offices across the State, it didnt have to be a major barrier in transitioning to the modernised practice.

Theres quite a lot of myths about having to have internet connectivity to have a paperless administration system, Ms McTaggart said.

This workshop helps dispel those myths but also explains to people the differences and a bit of background in how different programs work.

Its about setting up the systems and then find out which systems work for you.

Hopefully people are going away with a good road map and feel like they can step through their own process at home.

Ms Minchin was commissioned to develop the workshop last year, after overwhelming feedback from WA growers for more information about paperless systems.

The Esperance-based accountant runs Rural Biz Assist and transitioned to a paperless office system seven years ago.

The course will offer information about necessary equipment, security, software, storage and cloud services along with several tips to applying paperless to different farm businesses.

Ms Minchin said there were several benefits to running a paperless office, including greater protection of information, increased recall ability and greater office portability.

She said a paperless office would also free up more physical space with information stored within a computer system, rather than on paper.

You should have a more organised office because youve got less paper clutter, less files, less cabinets, Ms Minchin said.

You should have a lot less space because youre not needing to have a lot of equipment on bookshelves.

With more agricultural companies turning to paperless administration systems, Ms Minchin said there was more interest than ever from farm business looking to make the change.

There are not many farm businesses that have made the full transition to paperless, but several that are partially paperless, Ms Minchin said.

All industries are heading that way, so its something that farmers are forced to embrace.

Just this year CBH has rolled out its electronic Carters Delivery Form app that truck drivers use, so thats just one example.

She said it was all about small steps and adapting a paperless system to suit the needs of each individual business.

People need to think about just making a start and thinking about your enterprise mix, Ms Minchin said.

Some people have different requirements  its not just the legal taxation requirements  you can use it for paddock management, chemical sprays, its unlimited as to the technology thats emerging.

The first PinG WA paperless workshops will run next month in Mingenew, Mullewa and Binnu.

Ms Minchin will also be presenting at the 2018 PinG WA Inspire Summit at Fremantle next week.

More information:visit pingwa.org.au/paperless
Argentinas new law that creates corporate liability for bribery came into effect on March 1. Here are five things to know about Law 27.401 and how it impacts a compliance program.

1) The new law encourages corporate cooperation in the prevention and investigation of corruption.

Legal entities may be exempt from penalties and administrative responsibility if they have implemented an integrity program, the minimum requirements of which are defined in the law.

Entities may also be exempt from penalties if they self-reported their unlawful actions to the authorities and returned all undue benefits.

Its a demanding defense, more stringent in some ways than those of Chile, Spain, or the United Kingdom, in which an adequate compliance program is considered a sufficient defense.

However, the law also offers companies a less demanding solution: an effective cooperation agreement (acuerdo de colaboracion eficaz in Spanish). Its an agreement between the company and the public prosecutors office in which, in exchange for releasing useful and verifiable information that clarifies the unlawful event under investigation, the prosecutor can substantially reduce the sanctions imposed on the company.

2) An integrity program is mandatory for all contracts with the state that require the signature of a minister or another public official of equal rank.

According to National Decree 690/2016, as of March 1, 2018, bidders for contracts with the state that exceed 100 million Argentinean pesos (around $5 million) must prove that they have adopted, as a minimum, the following elements:

a code of conduct

controls to minimize risks emerging from interactions with the public sector, and

appropriate staff training to ensure compliance with said rules.

The success of this system will depend on whether public contracting agencies incorporate these obligations into their bidding documents. Clauses of this nature have already appeared in the bidding documents for the Highways and Safe Routes Plan (Plan de Autopistas y Rutas Seguras in Spanish), which was recently published by the National Roads Direction and the Ministry of Finance, inaugurating a new era of public-private participation contracts in the country.

3) As bribes are rarely paid directly  an OECD study shows that in more than 75 percent of cases of bribery, illegal payments are made through intermediaries  the law not only makes companies responsible for the conduct of their managers and employees, but also for any third party entities such as suppliers, distributors, and business partners that obtain an undue benefit from the company.

This third-party risk makes it paramount that integrity programs include due diligence processes that minimize risks present in the value chain, as well as controls in the onboarding process of suppliers and contractors and in contracts with potentially risky intermediaries.

4) Companies must incorporate compliance hotlines and develop internal procedures to investigate reports within their integrity programs in order to cooperate with the authorities.

These features are necessary to receive exemption from any penalties or to participate in an effective cooperation agreement.

The procedures must be compatible with the constitutional and labor rights of the individuals who are reported and placed under investigation.

Poorly designed procedures may detract from the benefits of cooperating with the authorities.

Among the most important safeguards that companies should contemplate, we highlight:

implementing rules that limit employees expectation of privacy in relation to communications channeled through company systems

delineating audit and termination rights in contracts with third parties in order to ensure access to information outside the company and minimize liability for offenses committed by third parties; and

cappropriately protecting the rights of individuals under investigation in order to guarantee the legality of the information obtained through interviews.

5) Many of the small bribes paid in Argentina daily to unlock bureaucratic or red tape procedures are not paid by companies to obtain undue benefits or to reduce competition, but rather for fear of delaying or hindering business through means of inspections, permits, import and export procedures, and the like.

However, for offenses that trigger corporate responsibility  namely bribery, influence peddling, and the use of false balance sheets to conceal those illegal acts  it is irrelevant whether the company offers the bribe or the public official demands payment.

Faced with an unethical demand from a public official, the company can pay or report the incident. However, if the company pays, both the company and the public official will be held responsible unless the company is able to prove it was a victim of extortion or an illegal exaction.

For this reason, many companies seek counsel in the face of these unethical practices and protect themselves from commercial reprisals associated with reporting a bribe request. In some cases, companies and related groups have created collective action strategies to deal with the bribe demands and how to respond to them.

* * *

As in other countries from the region that have already adopted similar legislation  Chile, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia  the incentive structure imposed by Argentinas Law 27.401 requires companies to recalculate their risks and rewards for compliance programs.

Those who see an opportunity in this new regime will adopt robust programs that, in the long term, will result not only in their benefit, but in that of society as a whole.

____

Guillermo Jorge, pictured above, ([email protected]) is a partner at Governance Latam, an advisory firm based in Buenos Aires www.glatam.com.ar.
Iman will boycott designers who refuse to feature black models.

Iman

The 62-year-old supermodel has been in the industry for over 40 years and believes the best way to combat the lack of diversity in the fashion world is for high profile models to avoid supporting designers who aren't inclusive.

Speaking to Harper's Bazaar, the Somali-born beauty said: "If a designer boycotts me, I should boycott him. I'm not going to buy a bag from someone who doesn't use black models. We should celebrate and highlight the people who actually step it up."

When Iman - who is the late David Bowie's widow - first began her career, she admitted to being treated like a "trend" because of the colour of her skin but teamed up with supermodel Naomi Campbell to advocate change for the future.

She explained: "People thought of fashion as something artistic and personal, but then it became more of a big-business machine. Casting agents have assumed an outsize power as gatekeepers. Some had the audacity to say, 'We're not seeing black models this season.' As if black is a trend.

"Funnily enough, there were more black models working back when I started than there have been recently. So Bethann Hardison, Naomi Campbell, and I got together a couple of years ago to raise awareness about the need for diversity in fashion. We talked about it in the press and to the CFDA, and I think we're seeing the change on the runways and in campaigns.

"Image is so important. People used to say to me, 'You just want to be invited to the table.' And I'm like, 'F***' the table - I can buy my own table.' But the young girls who are coming up? They need to see themselves portrayed."

And Iman lives by the advice her mum taught her when she was younger and says her tip for a successful career is to say no.

She said: "My mom always said, 'Learn to say no and to walk away from things that don't serve you.' 'No' is a complete sentence. You don't have to explain yourself."
Dublin band BARQ have already seen some big success throughout the past couple of years, with their brilliant Gentle Kind Of Lies release back in 2016, and last years Optimus Prime. Now, theyre back with a brand new double A-side single release, so we caught up with the group to find out a little bit more about their inspirations, working in the music industry, and more.

BARQ are BACK!

For those who may be new to your music, how best would you describe your sound?

We are a mega high energy four piece, shoving groove into the belly of the rock beast and creating agrosoul. Think Hiatus Kaiyote meets Erykah Badu, with a healthy dose of hip-hop influences.

What challenges have you faced in the music industry so far?

In this climate all musicians have to be multi-faceted in their skills. It takes a lot of time to build your brand and to produce an excellent show for fans, while also producing great songs that we are all proud of. Time sometimes isnt on your side, therefore it can be a challenge to maintain everything at its highest level while keeping things on schedule.

Jess: As a woman, it is hard to be perceived as an equal by your peers. Now that I am more established as a vocalist, I find it easier to be respected within creative or musical environments, but when I was younger and emerging, it was an issue. That can really take its toll on your self-esteem and put a spanner in the works of your creative endeavours. I am now in an empowering headspace where I give zero f***s, but it has taken a while to get here!

How difficult would you say this career path is in terms of making a name for yourself?

I guess we wouldnt be thinking exclusively in terms of making a name for ourselves, more so focusing on creating the best content that we can, keeping standards as high as possible and trusting/hoping that creating a name for ourselves is something that will occur as a result of our day to day work.

How important is it for you to have creative control over the work you produce?

Hugely important! We feel that weve created a sound and style that is very distinctively on our own and the fact that we have always had total creative control over our work is the main reason for that. It would be very difficult to imagine a scenario where we would have to alter our vision for reasons that werent entirely based on the quality of the music we were producing.

Where do you draw influence and inspiration from for your work?

Musically wed be hugely influenced by a lot of the fantastic music thats being released at the moment by artists like Kendrick Lamar, Thundercat, Hiatus Kaiyote, Radiohead, The Internet, etc. The ridiculously high quality of music being created by Irish acts is also a constant source of inspiration, for so many of our contemporaries to be regularly producing amazing work is definitely something that keeps us grounded as well as working hard!

Jess: Lyrically, I tend to get a lot of inspiration from dreams and personal experiences. I have a notebook by my bed, I take the legible bits and transfer them to my lyrics book and bring them into the rehearsal room. Many of my subconscious mutterings end up in our songs. Our new single Sassy Mouth was influenced by the cultural sea-change in Irish society. People are becoming more vocal about political and social change; its an incredibly exciting and inspiring time to be young in Ireland. This is naturally seeping into our own music.

If you could collaborate with anybody going forward, who would you choose and why?

We would like to Do all the music for the next Kendrick Lamar album, go on tour supporting Hiatus Kaiyote, live in a big house recording music with Radiohead, then retire to the countryside to make cheese with Blur. Or something like that!

Tell us a random, funny fact about you that not many people know.

Our bass player Neil doesnt have an opposable thumb! Its why hes such a bad ass at slapping. True story.

Do you have definitive aims or goals for your career?

Build an army of fans, tour the world, and create music were all proud of!

Where do you hope to be this time next year?

Wed hope to be listening to the final mastered tracks of our debut album and be feeling extremely happy with the results!

What should we expect from you in the coming weeks and months?

Weve got two singles coming out [they were released March 20; Sassy Mouth and Earthquakes], with a celebratory gig in Whelans of Dublin [which took place March 24]. That is going to keep us very busy for the next month or so, then its straight into the beginning of festival season. Yeow!

-

BARQs brand new double A-side release Sassy Mouth/Earthquake is out now!

by Daniel Falconer for www.femalefirst.co.uk

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Following a tradition that dates back centuries, residents of Hong Kongs Cheung Chau Island are preparing to make the yearly switch from beef balls and prawn dumplings to vegetarian spring rolls when the historic Cheung Chau Bun Festival returns from 19th to 23rd May 2018.

Brave competitors scramble up an enormous bamboo tower studded with imitation buns

Thousands of people will descend on Cheung Chau Island for the week-long festivities and, in order to keep the traditions of past alive, festival organisers encourage restaurants and visitors to stop serving and eating meat during the three days.

As a result, many of the islands restaurants and street food vendors will offer an alternative vegetarian menu instead. For the first time last year, the local McDonalds even switched to a vegetarian menu in honour of the festival.

The festival is celebrated on the tiny island of Cheung Chau where, in the late Qing dynasty, a plague devastated its residents, resulting in the islanders shunning meat as sacrifice to the god, Pak Tai.

Other celebrations include Taoist ceremonies, an unforgettable parade, colourful lion dances, atmospheric drum playing and as night falls, and an exciting Bun Scrambling Competition  where brave competitors scramble up an enormous bamboo tower studded with imitation buns, collecting as many as they can in the hope theyll be crowned the King or Queen of the competition.

Dawn Page, Director, UK and Northern Europe commented, The Cheung Chau Bun Festival is a fantastic example of why Hong Kong appeals to so many. In a city full of technology, new buildings and modern living, its residents never forget about the citys heritage and celebrate it to this day. The fact that many restaurants switch to a vegetarian menu just for the week is clear testament to that and the unique culture that we are so proud of and keen to share with the world.
BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - Hungary's unemployment rate held steady in the three months ended February, defying economists' forecast for an increase, figures from the Hungarian Central Statistical Office showed Wednesday. The jobless rate came in at 3.8 percent in the December to February period, the same rate as in the November to January period. Meanwhile, economists had expected the rate to rise to 3.9 percent. In the corresponding period last year, the unemployment rate was 4.4 percent. The number of unemployed people rose to 177,700 from 173,700 in the previous three-month period. The employment rate also remained unchanged at 59.7 percent. 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.
A developer who sought rezoning for a mixed-use development on a steep slope at Hamilton Avenue in North Chattanooga has withdrawn his request.

Councilman Chip Henderson made a motion to accept the withdrawal and it was approved by the full council on Tuesday night.

SE First Holding LLC was proposing 23-27 residential units and 4,500 square feet of retail space.

There would be 25 parking spaces.

The site at 713 Hamilton Ave. is less than half an acre.

The Regionial Planning Agency staff recommendation was:

"DENY: The rezoning of the property to E-CX-3 could allow a large scale commercial development in the future that would not be in keeping with the more residential neighborhood context of the site.

"Note: Since the proposed development primarily features a residential development with only a small-scale commercial aspect, the proposal could be in keeping with the development form of the area. The FBC could be amended in the future to allow small-scaled commercial use (under 5,000 sq. ft.) in E-RM-3 so that the mix of uses and creation of neighborhood commercial nodes may be possible and as described in adopted plans for the area."

The report also says, "The proposal is a multi-story apartment building with retail on the ground floor. Single family residential uses are to the rear on Hamilton Avenue, with an Upholstery

business to the north, and a one story residential structure to the south. While the use is somewhat compatible with the commercial building to the north, it is not compatible with the residential uses to the east and south.

"The existing development form of the area is an urban neighborhood mix that features a variety of housing types and is predominantly residential. Although, a few commercial uses and office uses exist where a neighborhood mixed-use node is envisioned for this area of N. Market St. The more intense commercial uses are planned for Frazier Ave. and Cherokee Blvd. where E-CX-4 zoning is in place and where taller buildings are more appropriate."
LONDON, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --Canvas by Instructure (NYSE:INST), has announced that it has been selected by Queen's University Belfast to provide its innovative and scalable open online virtual learning environment (VLE).

The VLE will play a central role in helping the institution meet its strategic ambition to deliver a Digital Learning pathway. By 2020, the Russell Group University - which is already in the top one percent of institutions worldwide - aims to offer an online learning element in all of its programmes. Canvas will help to meet this vision, providing a blended learning experience where students and teachers will be able to collaborate better, interact more with course material and track and measure progress in a dynamic and actionable way.

Olivia Roberts, Head of Student Services and Systems at Queen's University Belfast, said, "It is not an exaggeration to say that Canvas has the potential to fundamentally change how we deliver teaching and learning. We will improve how our students access materials, the kinds of assessments available, the types of lesson materials and multimedia we use and really give our students ownership in the process. And, of course, this is instrumental in helping deliver on our greater strategic goals as an institution."

"Even though we are in the early stages of project implementation the collaborative relationship offered by Instructure has shown the team to be a true partner through this journey. We also opted to invest in Canvas tier 1 support, which means that all of our students and staff can get round the clock help, training and support, leaving our lecturers to put their energy into creating and delivering great classes supported by the VLE."

Kenny Nicholl, VP EMEA for Canvas, said; "Following a rigorous review and user testing process, we are delighted that Queen's University Belfast has chosen Canvas as their institution-wide VLE, and that it promises to make such an impact on their digital learning strategies."

ABOUT INSTRUCTURE

Instructure, Inc. is the software-as-a-service (SaaS) technology company that makes software that makes people smarter. With a vision to help maximise the potential of people through technology, Instructure created Canvas, Arc and Bridge to enable organisations everywhere to easily develop, deliver, and manage engaging face-to-face and online learning experiences. To date, Instructure has connected millions of instructors and learners at more than 3,000 educational institutions and corporations throughout the world. Learn more about the Canvas Virtual Learning Environment at www.Instructure.com and http://www.CanvasVLE.co.uk.

CONTACTS:

Rachel Matthews

Instructure

rmmatthews@instructure.com

Dan Thompson / Emily Goodbrand-Dillon

Third City

dan@thirdcity.co.uk / emily@thirdcity.co.uk

S: 020 3657 9773

All rights reserved  2018 Instructure, Inc. Instructure, Canvas and Bridge logos are registered trademarks or trademarks of Instructure, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Other brands and names may be claimed as the property of others.

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Report Includes Data from 660 Respondents in the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain, Revealing Disparity in Industry's Readiness to Comply with Track and Trace Regulations in the U.S. and EU

NORTH READING, Massachusetts, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --TraceLink Inc., the World's Largest Track and Trace Network for connecting the life sciences supply chain and providing real-time information sharing for better patient outcomes,today unveiled the second annual Global Drug Supply, Safety and Traceability report, including results from 660 respondents across the pharmaceutical supply chain - the largest survey ever conducted on pharmaceutical track and trace.

The report highlights a massive gap in industry readiness for drug serialization, with only one-third of respondents stating that they are "very prepared" to comply with serialization deadlines in the U.S. and EU. The in-depth analysis also reports that not one survey respondent has completed all of the fundamental steps for serialization compliance.

Key Findings From the Global Drug Supply, Safety and Traceability Report Include:

Only one-third of the 146 respondents from pharmaceutical companies with U.S. Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) requirements believe they are "very ready" for serialization, a regulation that went into effect in November 2017 , which requires pharmaceutical companies to place unique identifiers, or serial numbers, on each saleable unit of product sold into the United States ;

, which requires pharmaceutical companies to place unique identifiers, or serial numbers, on each saleable unit of product sold into ; Compared to their pharma counterparts, half of the 88 respondents from contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs) serving customers with DSCSA requirements believe they are "very ready" for serialization;

In both the DSCSA pharmaceutical company and CMO groups that feel "very ready," not one respondent has completed all of the necessary basic steps for serialization;

For pharmaceutical companies and CMOs with EU Falsified Medicine Directive (FMD) requirements, only one-third of respondents believe they are "very ready" for their serialization deadline in February 2019 ;

; After applying the basic steps to serialization in the analysis, the report found that only 15 percent of the EU FMD respondents are truly ready for serialization;

The report also found that one-quarter of wholesale distributor respondents and 11 percent of hospital and pharmacy respondents are "early movers" in serialization, due to their progressive serialization preparations and ability to be ready ahead of their respective DSCSA deadlines.

"This year, serialization becomes a true reality for many pharmaceutical companies. As the leader in the market, we feel that TraceLink has a corporate responsibility to provide insight into the state of serialization as it stands today, by leveraging our unique ability to reach the entire supply chain, from end-to-end, through our 266,000+ trade partner network," said Shabbir Dahod, president and CEO of TraceLink. "These survey results are startling. Despite goodwill efforts by industry and regulators to meet compliance on time, the industry is extremely behind in being ready for serialization. In 2018, as we reach the final hours of serialization in both the U.S. and EU, the industry-wide lag in full serialization implementations remains a concern and emphasizes the criticality of trade partner connectivity within the supply chain."

TraceLink partnered with independent research firm, Penn Schoen Berland, to conduct the survey and produce the report analysis.

The 65-page Global Drug Supply, Safety and Traceability Report can be downloaded here at no charge. The full report includes global serialization readiness results, as well as industry-wide insights on differing preparation timelines between EU FMD and DSCSA, disparities between pharmaceutical companies and CMOs, and how all companies across the supply chain are managing network connectivity, data exchange, and aggregation. The report also includes a peek into the highest value-added benefits companies are looking to leverage from their serialization data.

About TraceLink

TraceLink is the World's Largest Track and Trace Network for connecting the Life Sciences supply chain and eliminating counterfeit prescription drugs from the global marketplace. Leading businesses trust the TraceLink Life Sciences Cloud to deliver complete global connectivity, visibility and traceability of pharmaceuticals from ingredient to patient. A single point and click connection to the Life Sciences Cloud creates a supply chain control tower that delivers the information, insight and collaboration needed to improve performance and reduce risk across global supply, manufacturing and distribution operations. A winner of numerous industry awards including Deloitte's Technology Fast 500 (ranked number 149 in 2016), the Amazon AWS Global Start-Up Challenge Grand Prize, and the Edison Award for Innovation in Health Management, the Life Sciences Cloud is used by businesses across the globe to meet strategic goals in ensuring global compliance, fighting drug counterfeiting, improving on-time and in-full delivery, protecting product quality and reducing operational cost. For more information on TraceLink and our solutions, visit www.tracelink.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

TraceLink is funded by Goldman Sachs, FirstMark Capital, Volition Capital and F-Prime Capital.
2m external funding round secured, Series A targeted

P2P lender inks 16m of loan deals to UK SME sector in 2017

LendingCrowd targets 40m of loan deals in 2018

Investor funds hike boosted by expanded ISA range

LendingCrowd has secured an external funding round of 2 million following a strong 2017 for the peer-to-peer (P2P) lender, with the proceeds earmarked for ramping up its sales and marketing activities.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180328005451/en/

Stuart Lunn, CEO and co-founder, LendingCrowd (Photo: Business Wire)

The round was led by angel syndicate Equity Gap and included a number of prominent private investors from Scotland's entrepreneurial and finance scene and the Scottish Investment Bank. The company is on track to scale significantly during 2018 and intends to seek Series A funding over the next 12 months.

As part of its drive to build market position, LendingCrowd this month launched its debut television advert, designed to bring the opportunities available through P2P lending to a wider audience. The advert features Geoff, who decided to "Think Outside The Bank" and invest with the platform after becoming disillusioned with the low rates of return on other investments.

LendingCrowd, the only P2P lending platform headquartered in Scotland, is eyeing a game-changing year following a 12-month period in which loan deals totalling approximately 16 million were agreed with SMEs across the UK. On the back of a record start to the year, CEO and co-founder Stuart Lunn has set a target to more than double loan deals in 2018 to around 40 million. New clients in 2017 included Summerhall Distillery, producer of award-winning spirits brand Pickering's Gin, restaurant chain Tony Macaroni and property lettings agency Umega Lettings.

Investor funds on the platform have grown rapidly, with much of the expansion attributed to the launch of one of the first Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA) products in February 2017. After a full 12 months of opening the LendingCrowd Growth ISA, 82% of investors have beaten the advertised 6% target return.

LendingCrowd, which is fully authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, has over 4,500 investors signed up to its platform and is on track to significantly increase investor numbers this year. It now offers three IFISA products the passive Growth ISA, the Income ISA and the active Self Select ISA.

Stuart Lunn, LendingCrowd CEO and co-founder, said: "Having laid solid foundations for the business over the last couple of years, we now have a position in the market that is starting to pay dividends. We have a strong pipeline of both investors and SME demand and with such a strong trajectory, we are now actively speaking to the venture capital and private equity communities about our next phase of growth."

Jock Millican from Equity Gap said: "We are extremely pleased that our syndicate members once again backed LendingCrowd, with this raise being the largest single investment by Equity Gap to date. Existing and new investors in LendingCrowd recognise the progress to date and the potential for the business to scale."

Kerry Sharp, Director of the Scottish Investment Bank, commented: "We are delighted to provide continued support to LendingCrowd who have demonstrated real market traction with their innovative peer-to-peer lending platform in Scotland."

LendingCrowd

LendingCrowd enables retail and other investors to invest in SME loans using an industry-leading technology platform. Since launching in 2014, LendingCrowd has become fully authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, launched an ISA product for investors and agreed a partnership with Scottish Enterprise whereby its investment arm, the Scottish Investment Bank (SIB), has agreed to invest 2.75m in LendingCrowd loans.

LendingCrowd has over 4,500 investors signed up to its platform. Deals range in size from 20,000 to over 1 million and in 2015 LendingCrowd helped Diet Chef complete one of the biggest ever peer-to-business deals seen in the UK in a 1.5m debt finance transaction.

Capital is at risk.

Scottish Investment Bank (SIB)

The Scottish Investment Bank (SIB) is the investment arm of Scotland's main economic development agency, Scottish Enterprise, operating Scotland-wide in partnership with Highlands and Islands Enterprise. It manages a suite of co- investment funds including the Scottish Co-investment Fund and the Scottish Venture Fund, which are partly funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), and the Renewable Energy Investment Fund on behalf of the Scottish Government.

SIB is also an investor in Epidarex Capital's life sciences fund and is a participant in the Scottish European Growth Co-Investment Programme funded by the Scottish Growth Scheme alongside the European Investment Fund.

SIB provides a team of Financial Readiness specialists to help companies prepare for new investment and access appropriate finance. SIB's activities support Scotland's SME funding market to ensure businesses with growth and export potential have adequate access to growth capital.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180328005451/en/

Contacts:

For LendingCrowd

Nick Freer, +44 07841 571871

nick@freerconsultancy.com
NEW YORK andLONDON, March28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Innovative service offers real-time machine executable regulations and instant legal traceability

Goldman Sachs Asset Management becomes first client of Adept MiFID II service for institutional investment firms

Six major global banks have adopted the first fully-digitized MiFID II trade compliance engine for the financial markets. The ground-breaking service from Droit Financial Technologies ("Droit") was launched in January ahead of the MiFID II deadline, and instantly expands the ability of financial institutions to comply with the thousands of pages of MiFID II regulations. Goldman Sachs Asset Management has also gone live as the first buy-side client.

The new platform, whose clients includeBNPParibas, CACIB, Goldman Sachs (including both its broker/dealer and GSAM entities), and UBS, is an extension of Droit's award-winning ADEPT (the Operating System for Regulation). It provides the current and complete digitized machine-readable MiFID II rule text and machine-executable implementation, enabling complete verification and auditability of every trading decision, including traceability to the letter of the law.

"Droit's ADEPT product is a central part of our eligibility architecture for MiFID II for both our broker/dealer and GSAM businesses,across a range of obligations. Droit's innovative approach to the digitisation of regulation and eligibility, and the evolution of their ADEPT product fits well with our overall strategy," said Jo Hannaford, Managing Director, Technology Division, Goldman Sachs.

"Droit has successfully implemented an innovative and exciting platform which helps us strategically respond to industry and regulatory changes, like MiFID II, in the interest of better serving our clients. It is a core part of our digital strategy to work with leading providers like Droit to complement our in-house expertise to stay at the cutting edge of digital global markets," said Cyril Cottu, Global Head of eCommerce and Digital, BNP Paribas Global Markets.

"The speed and ease with which we can implement new regulatory rule sets coupled with the flexibility of the core product integration means Droit is well placed to be the strategic regulatory eligibility platform for the Investment bank," said Simon Herbert, MiFID II Programme Lead at UBS Investment Bank.

"Digitization is much more than an exercise in tagging data; it's the complete analytic structuring of one of the financial markets' largest ever pieces of legislation. Droit provides the full stack, starting with digitising the actual legal texts into an open, standard, machine-readable format through to standard executable implementations within real-time systems," said Satya Pemmaraju, CEO of Droit. "As regulations live and breathe, so our clients' implementations and legal sources evolve in synchronicity."

Transactional compliance requires the knowledge, maintenance and automation of highly complex global rule systems. Droit's Adept platform responds to this need by generating the full global cross-regulatory implications and obligations of a trade in real-time along with unprecedented per-enquiry audit capabilities.

The corpus of digitized machine-readable legislation is represented using the open Akoma Ntoso* XML standard that is now used by numerous regulatory and legislative bodies. The machine-executable implementation is called from with trading and operational systems.

MiFID II isthe latest in the range of global regulations implemented in ADEPT which has been in live production since March 2014, and which now encompasses derivatives and securities across all asset classes,allG20 aligned regulatory regimes, global CCPs and execution platforms. ADEPT supports eligibility and scope of obligation determination for 14 critical MiFID II/MiFIR mandates.

*Akoma Ntoso ("linked hearts" in Akan language of WestAfrica) defines a set of simple, technology-neutral electronic representations of parliamentary, legislative and judiciary documents for e-services in a worldwide context and provides an enabling framework for the effective exchange of "machine readable" parliamentary, legislative and judiciary documents such as legislation, debate record, minutes, judgements, etc.

ABOUT DROIT

Droit automates global regulations and market micro-structure within real-time trading systems, creating intelligence platforms merging finance and computational law. In December 2016, Droit announced a $16 million Series A investment from Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, DRW Trading and Pivot Investment Partners. Droit is part of the "In-Residence" program at J.P. Morgan.

The firm was founded in 2012 by a team of veteran derivative traders, quants, ecommerce specialists and technologists with front-line experience and expertise with products, markets, regulations and systems.

Droit has offices in New York City and London. For more visitwww.droitfintech.com. To schedule a demo or obtain more information about Droit's products, please contact us using sales@droitfintech.com.
BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - German stocks tumbled on Wednesday after U.S. technology shares came under heavy selling pressure overnight on privacy concerns and on worries about tighter industry regulations. Trade-related tensions also kept investors nervous. The benchmark DAX was down 185 points or 1.54 percent at 11,786 in opening deals after rallying around 1.6 percent on Tuesday. Chipmaker Infineon dropped 2.3 percent while banks Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank lost 2.5 percent and 1.6 percent, respectively, after German 10-year government bond yields fell below 0.5 percent for the first time since early January. Daimler lost 2 percent after the automaker said that accounting changes will result in a changed outlook for its Mercedes-Benz Cars and Daimler Buses units. Biotech firm Evotec declined 2.3 percent on reporting a decline in 2017 net income. Volkswagen shed 1.8 percent on a Bloomberg report that its fiscal affairs in Luxembourg are under scrutiny from the European Union watchdogs. In economic releases, German consumer confidence is set to improve in April, survey data from the market research group GfK showed. The forward-looking consumer sentiment index rose unexpectedly by 0.1 point to 10.9 in April. The score was forecast to fall to 10.7. 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.
SAN FRANCISCO, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Global Frozen Food Packaging Market expected to grow at a significant CAGR in the upcoming years as the scope and its applications are rising enormously across the globe. The packaging of frozen food maintains its integrity throughout the machine filling, sealing, freezing, Storage, transportation, thawing, and cooking. Producers are developing advanced packaging that can go straight from freezer to the microwave. Various packaging options like cartons, pouches, lidded trays and pans, composite and plastic cans, crystallized PET trays, boil-in-bags, and boxes are used. Moreover, dynamic packaging extends shelf life to keep up product safety.

Prominent factors that are playing a major role in the growth of Frozen Food Packaging Market are easy availability of food products due to rising number of retail chains, dynamic lifestyle, growth in a number of nuclear families, urbanization, rising interest in international food and change in food habits, and growing disposable income. In addition, rising investments for creative and decorative packaging and development of advanced features in the existing products by the manufacturers are the factors driving overall market growth.

Frozen Food Packaging Market segmented based on food type, product type, material, and region.

Food type into Ice Cream, Frozen Meat, Poultry, and Seafood; Frozen Soup, Baked Goods, Frozen Potatoes, Frozen Specialties (Breakfast Food, Pizza, Side Dishes), and Frozen Fruits and Vegetables classify Frozen Food Packaging Market.

Access 114 page research report with TOC on "Frozen Food PackagingMarket" available with Radiant Insights, Inc. @

https://www.radiantinsights.com/research/global-frozen-food-packaging-market-professional-survey-report-2016

Product type into Cartons, Bags, Cans, Boxes, Wraps, Pouches, Tubs and Cups, Films, and Trays classify Frozen Food Packaging Market.

Material type into Wood, Plastic, Glass, Aluminum, and Cardboard classify Frozen Food Packaging Market.

Frozen Food Packaging Market segmented, geographically into America (North America, South America), Europe (Eastern Europe, Western Europe), Asia Pacific, Latin America, Middle East and Africa.

Globally, North American and European regional market accounted for the largest share of Frozen Food Packaging Market and led the overall market over the period. The reason being, high demand for frozen food and packaged food. On the other hand, Asia Pacific regional market estimated to grow at fastest pace over the period. The reason being, high demand for frozen food from developing countries like India and China, increasing hypermarkets and supermarkets, and growing urbanization in this region.

Moreover, the Middle East and African regional market estimated to account average growth over the period. This is mainly due to the, rising retail network in this region.

The key players of Frozen Food Packaging Market are Huhtamaki N.A., Printpack Inc., International Paper Company, Amcor Ltd., FLAIR Flexible Packaging Corporation, Crown Holdings Inc., Graphic Packaging International Inc., Ball Corporation, WestRock Company, Pactiv LLC, Sealed Air Corporation, and Bemis Company Inc.

This report studies Frozen Food Packaging in Global market, especially in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and India, with production, revenue, consumption, import and export in these regions, from 2011 to 2015, and forecast to 2021.

This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, covering

Ball Corporation

Crown Holdings

Genpak

Graham Packaging

Pactiv

AEP Industries

American Packaging

Anchor Packaging

Ball

Bemis

Berry Plastics

Bomarko

Cascades Sonoco

Coveris

Dolco Packaging

Exopack Holding

InterFlex Group

International Paper

Leucadia National

LINPAC Packaging

Packaging Corporation of America

Packman

Robbie Manufacturing

Sonoco Products

By types, the market can be split into

Type I

Type II

Type III

By Application, the market can be split into

Application 1

Application 2

Application 3

By Regions, this report covers (we can add the regions/countries as you want)

North America

China

Europe

Southeast Asia

Japan

India

Browse reports of similar category available with Radiant Insights, Inc.:



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About Radiant Insights, Inc.:

At Radiant Insights, we work with the aim to reach the highest levels of customer satisfaction. Our representatives strive to understand diverse client requirements and cater to the same with the most innovative and functional solutions.

Contact:

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Corporate Sales Specialist

Radiant Insights, Inc.

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Web: https://www.radiantinsights.com
BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - French stocks fell sharply on Wednesday after U.S. technology shares came under heavy selling pressure overnight on privacy concerns and on worries about tighter industry regulations. Trade-related tensions also kept investors nervous. The benchmark CAC 40 was down 63 points or 1.23 percent at 5,053 in opening deals after rising 1 percent in the previous session. Banks BNP Paribas,Credit Agricole and Societe Generale were down 1-2 percent. Food products firm Danone slid half a percent after it has sold a total of 24.60 million shares of Yakult Honsha Co., Ltd., for an aggregate amount of JPY 175 billion, representing 1.3 billion euros. Aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation dropped about 1 percent as the exercise of the option for the purchase of 12 additional Rafale fighters for Qatar came into effect. In economic releases, France's consumer sentiment remained stable in March, survey results from the statistical office Insee showed. The consumer confidence index held steady at 100 in March, matching economists' expectations. 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.
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.
BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - U.K. shares fell on Wednesday, tracking overnight falls on Wall Street and in Asia after technology stocks plunged on privacy concerns and on worries about tighter industry regulations. Trade-related tensions also kept investors nervous. The benchmark FTSE 100 was down 47 points or 0.67 percent at 6,954 in late opening deals after rallying around 1.6 percent on Tuesday. Melrose Industries shed 0.7 percent. The company said that it fully stands behind its plan to work for the improvement of not only GKN, but the U.K. economy as well. Shire jumped as much as 18 percent after Japan's Takeda said it is 'considering making an approach' to buy the Irish drugmaker. Telecom company BT Group dropped 0.3 percent after regulator Ofcom published a final statement on their recent U.K. Wholesale Local Access Market Review. 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.
BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - European stocks tumbled on Wednesday as a further fall in bond yields pulled down banking shares and technology stocks followed their U.S. and Asian peers lower on privacy concerns and on worries about tighter industry regulations. Trade-related tensions also kept investors nervous. The pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 index was down 0.9 percent at 364.39 in late opening deals after climbing 1.2 percent the previous day to rebound from one-year lows. The German DAX was losing 1.2 percent, France's CAC 40 was declining about 1 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was down 0.7 percent. Chipmaker AMS fell as much as 8 percent and Infineon dropped 1.6 percent while banks Commerzbank, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole and Barclays lost 2-3 percent. Shire jumped as much as 18 percent after Japan's Takeda said it is 'considering making an approach' to buy the Irish drugmaker. French aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation dropped about 1 percent as the exercise of the option for the purchase of 12 additional Rafale fighters for Qatar came into effect. German biotech firm Evotec declined 2.5 percent on reporting a decline in 2017 net income. Daimler lost 2 percent after the automaker said that accounting changes will result in a changed outlook for its Mercedes-Benz Cars and Daimler Buses units. Volkswagen shed 1.8 percent on a Bloomberg report that its fiscal affairs in Luxembourg are under scrutiny from the European Union watchdogs. In economic releases, France's consumer sentiment remained stable in March, survey results from the statistical office Insee showed. The consumer confidence index held steady at 100 in March, matching economists' expectations. German consumer confidence is set to improve in April, survey data from the market research group GfK showed. The forward-looking consumer sentiment index rose unexpectedly by 0.1 point to 10.9 in April. The score was forecast to fall to 10.7. 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.
Hamilton Place will host the eighth annual student art competition awards reception this Thursday, at 10 a.m. Light refreshments will be provided by Barnes & Noble Cafe and the public is invited to attend. The reception and awards ceremony will take place on the upper level near Sears, across from the new H&M.

Students were divided into three categories by grade, with first place winners receiving a $50 Barnes & Noble Gift Card; second place winners a $35 Barnes & Noble Gift Card and third place winners a $20 Barnes & Noble Gift Card. In addition honorable mentions were awarded this year.



We were so impressed with the artwork that we received for this years competition, said David Meadows, general manager for Hamilton Place. There is unbelievable talent and imagination in these young artists. We are proud to help showcase their work. All winning pieces will be on display through Sept 30.



Grades K-5



1 st Place: Tyler Gordon - Wolftever Elementary

2 nd Place: Cambria Paris - Chattanooga School for the Liberal Arts

3 rd Place: Alex Guo - Chattanooga School for the Arts & Sciences

Honorable Mention: Isabella Greene - Chattanooga School for Arts & Sciences

Grades 6-8



1 st Place: Shayanne Gaines - Red Bank Middle

2 nd Place: Camy Hodge - Red Bank Middle

3 rd Place: Shelby Massengale - Red Bank Middle

Honorable Mention: Melody Drymon - Red Bank Middle

Honorable Mention: Gracie Sanders - Red Bank Middle

Grades 9-12


SAN FRANCISCO, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

The globalrare hemophilia factors marketsize is anticipated to reach USD 336.3 million by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc., progressing at a CAGR of 5.1% during the forecast period. Several factor concentrates gaining marketing approvals from regulatory bodies such as the U.S. FDA are expected to provide a significant push to the market. In addition, growing adoption of prophylaxis treatment by patients is expected to boost the growth of the market in coming years. Patients with severe rare hemophilia factor disorders are recommended prophylactic treatment to avoid bleeding episodes and improve quality of life.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160524/371361LOGO )



Favorable government initiatives and mandates to increase diagnosis and treatment rates are escalating the growth of the market. For instance, the U.S. Congress enacted the Orphan Drug Act (ODA) in 1983. From 1983 to 2015, around 3,647 drugs were designated the status of orphan drugs and 554 drugs were approved by the U.S. FDA. Several key market players in the market are focusing on R&D to launch new products and solutions for the treatment of rare hemophilia factor disorders. For instance, in October 2015, FDA approved Coagadex for treatment of hereditary factor X deficiency. Introduction of new factor concentrates is likely to bolster market growth over the forecast period.

Browse full research report with TOC on "Rare Hemophilia Factors Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Type, By Treatment (Fresh Frozen Plasma, Factor Concentrates, Cryoprecipitate), By Region, Competitive Landscape, And Segment Forecasts, 2018 - 2025" at: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/rare-hemophilia-factors-market

Further Key Findings From the Report Suggest:

Based on type, factor VII accounted for the largest share in 2016, owing to higher prevalence of this deficiency

Factor concentrates is anticipated to be the most promising segment, registering a CAGR of 5.7% over the forecast period. This type of treatment is considered to be the safest and most effective treatment for rare hemophilia factor disorders

Fresh frozen plasma is estimated to command just over 53.0% of the market value by 2025

Asia Pacific rare hemophilia factors market is expected to exhibit the highest CAGR of over 5.5% during the same period. The growth of the region can be attributed to wide base of population and high number of consanguineous marriage

rare hemophilia factors market is expected to exhibit the highest CAGR of over 5.5% during the same period. The growth of the region can be attributed to wide base of population and high number of consanguineous marriage Some of the key players in the market are Novo Nordisk; Biogen; Bayer healthcare; Pfizer, Inc.; Baxalta; CSL Behring; and Bio Products Laboratory Ltd.

Browse related reports by Grand View Research:

Temperature Management Market - Rising ageing population along with increased incidences of cardiac arrest as well as central nervous systems disorders is expected to drive the global temperature management market growth.

Rising ageing population along with increased incidences of cardiac arrest as well as central nervous systems disorders is expected to drive the global temperature management market growth. Burn Care Market - The global burn care market size was estimated at USD 1.66 billion in 2016.

The global burn care market size was estimated at in 2016. Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) Devices/Equipment Market - The global hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) devices market size was estimated at USD 2.21 billion in 2016.

The global hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) devices market size was estimated at in 2016. Non-PVC IV Bags Market- The global non-PVC IV bags market size was estimated at USD 1.11 billion in 2016.

Grand View Research has segmented the global rare hemophilia factors market on the basis of type, treatment, and region:

Rare Hemophilia Factors Type Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025) Factor I Factor II Factor V Factor VII Factor X Factor XI Factor XIII

Rare Hemophilia Factors Treatment Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025) Factor Concentrates Fresh Frozen Plasma Cryoprecipitate Others

Rare Hemophilia Factors Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025) North America U.S. Canada Europe U.K. Germany Asia Pacific Japan China Latin America Brazil Mexico Middle East and Africa (MEA) South Africa Saudi Arabia



Read Our Blog By Grand View Research: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/blogs/healthcare

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
JZ Capital Partners Limited

Share buyback

28 March 2018

On 27 March 2018, the board of JZ Capital Partners Limited (the Company) approved share buybacks of the Company's ordinary shares which may be undertaken in line with, and before the expiry of, its current share buyback authorities received at its Extraordinary General Meeting held on 16 May 2017. The authorities authorised the Company to, amongst other things, purchase up to a maximum number of the Company's shares, being 12,577,736 ordinary shares and 1,784,967 zero dividend redeemable preference shares representing approximately 14.99 per cent of each class of those shares in issue at 19 April 2017.

The intention is for these types of authorities to be renewed annually by the Company following its Annual General Meetings and it is expected that similar announcements will be made after each renewal.

Any share buyback of ordinary shares that may be undertaken by the Company is intended to be effected within defined parameters. In particular, the Company's intention is to only use the authorities to purchase up to a number of ordinary shares for which the aggregate cost of such repurchases in any given period to which the authorities relate are not more than an amount equal to 3 per cent of the Company's net assets (before dividends) as shown by the Company's published audited accounts for the financial year prior to that period (the "percentage of NAV parameter").That amount shall, for each given period after the expiry of this being the first period, include any unused amount(s) attributable to the percentage of NAV parameter of any prior period(s) in addition to the percentage of NAV parameter for the relevant given period.

In order for the Company to undertake share buybacks of ordinary shares it will need to repurchase those shares on-market as well as to effect a number of resultant off-market mandatory repurchases from certain of the Company's large US shareholders pursuant to and as required by its Articles of Incorporation. The process of the Company buying back shares in this way reflects the implementation of the CFC Buy Back Arrangement as further described in the Company's Circular to shareholders dated 20 April 2017.

The Company has instructed J.P. Morgan Securities plc to act as its broker in respect of its on-market buyback transactions. With respect to the off-market buyback transactions, on any relevant day, the Company will carry out any such off-market repurchases resulting from the on-market repurchases pursuant to and as required by the Company's Articles of Incorporation. The price at which ordinary shares are repurchased pursuant to the off-market purchases is equal to the volume weighted average price payable per ordinary share in respect of the ordinary shares agreed to be repurchased by J. P. Morgan Securities plc pursuant to the on-market repurchases during the course of any relevant day.

The Company will announce the results of any share buyback, including any on-market and off-market mandatory repurchases of ordinary shares, by no later than 7.30 a.m. on the business day following the calendar day on which such repurchases occurred.

Although the Company retains the power to do so, it is not obliged to carry out share buybacks of its ordinary shares, and as such, the Company may undertake a buyback when it so chooses including as and when opportunities in the market permit and as its cash resources allow at the time.

Ends

For further information:

Ed Berry / Kit Dunford +44 (0) 20 3727 1143

FTI Consulting

David Zalaznick +1 212 485 9410

Jordan/Zalaznick Advisers, Inc.

Paul Ford +44 (0) 1481 745383

JZ Capital Partners

About JZCP

JZ Capital Partners ("JZCP") is one of the oldest closed-end investment companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. It seeks to provide shareholders with a return by investing selectively in US and European microcap companies and US real estate. JZCP receives investment advice from Jordan/Zalaznick Advisers, Inc. ("JZAI") which is led by David Zalaznick and Jay Jordan. They have worked together for more than 35 years and are supported by teams of investment professionals in New York, Chicago, London and Madrid. JZAI's experts work with the existing management of microcap companies to help build better businesses, create value and deliver strong returns for investors. For more information please visit www.jzcp.com.
Public Relations Department, Eisai Co., Ltd. +81-3-3817-5120

TOKYO, Mar 28, 2018 - (JCN Newswire) - Eisai Co., Ltd. and Nichi-Iko Pharmaceutical announced today that they have entered into a strategic alliance agreement as well as a share transfer agreement for a capital and business alliance, aiming to expand and grow the generic pharmaceutical business and bring about increased profit for both companies by leveraging the assets and strengths of both companies to their full potential and maximizing synergies.Under the agreement, Eisai will transfer all shares of Eisai's wholly-owned subsidiary Elmed Eisai Co., Ltd. to Nichi-Iko incrementally in accordance with progress of the strategic alliance agreement, and both companies will promote cooperation in building Eisai's Total Inclusive Ecosystem as well as collaboration on the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) business promoted primarily at Eisai's Vizag Plant in India.1. Capital and Business Alliance to Revolutionize the Generic Pharmaceutical Business ModelElmed Eisai was established as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Eisai in 1996, and with the concept of developing value-added generic drugs that are accessibly priced and easy for patients to administer, has been contributing to the uptake and expansion of generic pharmaceuticals under a co-promotion structure with Eisai.Nichi-Iko leads the generic pharmaceutical industry as one of Japan's largest generic manufacturers, and since its establishment in 1965, has been expanding its core business of manufacture and sales of cost-effective pharmaceuticals that respond to people's hopes for a healthy life. Currently, Nichi-Iko is aiming to become a top 10 global generic pharmaceutical manufacturer through initiatives such as thoroughly implementing the three core strategies of Power of Expansion, Power of Production, and Power of Development from its 7th Medium-term Business Plan "Obelisk" as well as "Profit Management Plan 2019" for sustained cost improvement.With the business environment surrounding the generic pharmaceuticals business undergoing significant changes, as one of Japan's largest generic manufacturers, Nichi-Iko will take a capital stake in Elmed Eisai, and the two companies will integrate their strengths such as Nichi-Iko's rich product lineup and Power of Production together with Elmed Eisai's techniques for manufacturing value-added generic drugs to realize Market Expansion and lower costs by expanding scale, aiming to revolutionize the generic pharmaceutical business model and reinforce business foundation.Taking this business integration as an opportunity, the two companies intend to create new generic pharmecutical business models through high quality value-added generic drugs in order to contribute to more patients.2. Establishment and Promotion of Total Inclusive EcosystemEisai is building a platform which has as its core Eisai's ability to hear the true needs of patients and design solutions to them, and ability to propose outcomes based on medical data including clinical trial data and real world data as well as access strategies. Aiming to create patient value, Eisai is loading various kind of content onto this platform and expanding its Total Inclusive Ecosystem that delivers various solutions such as pharmaceuticals to all of its stakeholders including patients.Through the agreement, Nichi-Iko, who has a wide range of generic pharmaceuticals, will be added as a content provision partner. This will enhance the Total Inclusive Ecosystem for dementia, liver disease and other diseases, as well as further expand contribution to patients in regional healthcare. With the promotion of these strategies, Nichi-Iko expects to further strengthen its Power of Development for new markets such as comprehensive community care.3. Leveraging High Quality Price Competitive APIEisai has been expanding its API supply business which focuses on high quality price competitive API by maximizing its use of the various functions of the Vizag Plant in India, including research and development, manufacturing, quality management and audit. The Vizag Plant has high quality manufacturing capacity that is already compliant not only with Japan's quality standards but also with the high quality standards of WHO, and has proven its ability to demonstrate competitiveness on price.In Nichi-Iko's Profit Management Plan 2019 as well, it is thought that Eisai's superior API supply will greatly contribute to the achievement of this plan.Under the agreement, Eisai will promote collaboration on superior API supply with Nichi-Iko on various points such as price, quality and stable supply. For Nichi-Iko's development of new products as well, Eisai's API development ability and manufacturing techniques will be utilized to further improve efficiency and reliably make submissions as well as obtain approval.Through the above, the two companies will use generic drugs that can achieve unprecedented high quality and stable supply to fulfill their conbtribution to medicine.After discussing the conditions and other details in the near future, from October 2018, Eisai will commence co-promotion of Nichi-Iko's products, and Nichi-Iko will commence co-promotion of Elmed Eisai's products.Eisai is scheduled to transfer 20% of the outstanding shares issued in its wholly-owned subsidiary Elmed Eisai to Nichi-Iko on April 2, 2018, when the strategic alliance agreement is initiated. This will make Elmed Eisai an affiliated company accounted for by the equity method for Nichi-Iko. Upon condition that certain progress has been achieved by the two companies in the aforementioned strategic alliance agreement, Eisai is scheduled to transfer 13.4% of shares to Nichi-Iko on October 1, 2018 (planned) and all remaining shares on April 1, 2019 (planned). Once all these transactions are executed, Elmed Eisai will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nichi-Iko.The impact of the agreement has no impact on the financial results for fiscal 2017 for either company.About Nichi-Iko Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd.Since the establishment of Nichi-Iko Group in 1965, Nichi-Iko has steadily developed its business to contribute to people's health and quality of life by manufacturing high-quality, cost-effective pharmaceuticals. Our mission is to provide value-added, high quality generic products which meet the needs of patients, doctors, pharmacists, wholesalers and pharmaceutical companies in the global market as one of the most respected, well established generic companies in the world. In working to fulfil this mission, we seek to earn the trust and respect of all our stakeholders and to be the first choice for our customers.More patient-friendly, more patient-choice, more high-quality. That is what we mean by Premium Quality. And Premium Quality underpins our commitment to becoming a global Top 10 leader in generic pharmaceuticals.About Elmed Eisai Co., Ltd.Elmed Eisai Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Eisai Co., Ltd., was established in April 1996 with the aim of contributing to patients through the provision of value generics. At the time of establishment, the progression in declining birthrate and aging of society as well as the steep increase in medical expenditures was the background to the goal of creating medicine that was cost-effective and easy for elderly patients to use (the company's name comes from the words "elderly medicine"), and the company has been developing and supplying value-added pharmaceuticals ever since. Currently, Elmed Eisai is working on its generic business to improve the Quality of Life of all people.About EisaiEisai Co., Ltd. (TSE:4523; ADR:ESALY) is a research-based human health care (hhc) company that discovers, develops and markets products throughout the world. Eisai focuses its efforts in three therapeutic areas: integrative neuroscience, including neurology and psychiatric medicines; integrative oncology, which encompasses oncotherapy and supportive-care treatments; and vascular/immunological reaction. Through a global network of research facilities, manufacturing sites and marketing subsidiaries, Eisai actively participates in all aspects of the worldwide healthcare system. For more information about Eisai Co., Ltd., please visit www.eisai.com.Source: EisaiContact:Copyright 2018 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved.
SINGAPORE, Mar 28, 2018 - (ACN Newswire) - CropLife Asia's 2018 Annual General Meeting was conducted for the past two days in Singapore -- bringing together leaders in the plant science industry and a host of food value chain stakeholders. This annual event provides a platform for agricultural sector experts to share insights around the topic of how best to ensure a safe and sustainable food supply in Asia as well as global and regional best practices.By 2050, the global population is projected to rise to around 10 billion. Ensuring a sustainable supply of food that is safe and nutritious is one of the greatest challenges the world faces. This challenge is particularly pronounced within Southeast Asia where critical factors suggest a deteriorating landscape. Just last year, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) released findings that food security conditions had worsened in more vulnerable parts of the world - including South Eastern and Western Asia. Also contained in the FAO data were troubling statistics indicating that the number of undernourished people globally is increasing - up from 777 million in 2015 to 815 million in 2016."With food insecurity on the rise in Asia, ensuring a sustainable supply of safe and nutritious food in our region is critically important," said Tina Lawton, President of CropLife Asia. "The plant science industry of Asia remains steadfast in its support of our region's farmers to grow more food, and to ensuring our technology is used responsibly in that pursuit."Asia is home to the smallest-sized farms and the largest number of smallholder farmers globally. It's estimated that 85% of the world's 525 million smallholder farmers live and work within our continent - around 100 million in Southeast Asia alone. With fewer resources and more unique challenges to mitigate such as access to technology, landholder rights, finance availability, and climate change, smallholder farmers in the region face a daunting task."The challenge of feeding a growing population calls for a shared solution among food and agriculture stakeholders that ensures success, sustainability and good stewardship," added Dr. Siang Hee, Executive Director of CropLife Asia. "The innovative technologies of plant science are a key component of the solution. At CropLife Asia, we remain committed to working with our fellow food and agriculture stakeholders to ensure farmers have access to the modern tools and technology they need to do the job."The advancements of Asia's plant science industry are providing invaluable tools for the region's smallholder farmer toolbox. These technologies are better enabling farmers to sustainably increase their yields, use fewer resources, and minimize the impact on our environment.Without crop protection products, almost 50% of the world's food would be lost to pests and disease. The protection these advanced pesticides provide isn't limited to the field - they also help prolong the viable life and prevent post-harvest losses of these crops while in storage as well. With arable land being converted for other uses, crop protection products help farmers to grow more food on less land.Meanwhile, biotech crops are helping increase crop productivity, conserve biodiversity and increase farmer incomes. The technology has also helped slow the advance of climate change by reducing carbon emissions. In 2015 alone, it's estimated that biotech crop plantings lowered carbon dioxide emissions by 26.7 billion kg which is equivalent to removing around 12 million cars from the road for an entire year. Farmer income gains from 1996-2015 generated globally by biotech crops amounted to about US $167.8 billion.The newly-elected Board of Directors was also officially presented during the Annual General Meeting. The CropLife Asia 2018 Board consists of:-- Ms. Tina Lawton - President, CropLife Asia (Syngenta)-- Mr. Gustavo Carneiro - Vice President, CropLife Asia (BASF)-- Mr. Jagresh Rana - Treasurer, CropLife Asia (Monsanto)-- Ms. Bethwyn Todd - Secretary, CropLife Asia (FMC)The CropLife Asia 2018 Annual General Meeting concluded today, Wednesday, March 28.About CropLife AsiaCropLife Asia is a non-profit society and the regional organization of CropLife International, the voice of the global plant science industry. We advocate a safe, secure food supply, and our vision is food security enabled by innovative agriculture. CropLife Asia supports the work of 15 member associations across the continent and is led by seven member companies at the forefront of crop protection, seeds and/or biotechnology research and development. For more information, visit us at www.croplifeasia.org.For more information please contact:Duke HippDirector, Public AffairsCropLife AsiaT: +65 6221 1615E: duke.hipp@croplifeasia.orgSource: CropLife AsiaCopyright 2018 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved.
LONDON, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --Chubb has announced one new appointment and two new role changes within its European Personal Risk Services team.

Alex Craig has been appointed as European Pricing Manager, PRS. Alex joins Chubb from Allianz, where he also held the post of Pricing Manager. Before that Alex worked as a consultant at Towers Watson. Alex will be based in London.

He will report to Tara Parchment, European Head of Private Clients, Personal Risk Services.

Jo Nixon, previously Continental Manger, PRS, has taken the position of European Risk Consulting Manager, PRS. Jo has been part of the PRS team for 20 years and has a wealth of experience in this area.

In the second PRS team role change James Ellis becomes UK&I Underwriting Manager, PRS. James started his career at Chubb in 2004 and two years later gained further experience at Zurich, before returning to Chubb in 2010. James has worked in the PRS team for a total of nine years and most recently held the post of Account Manager on the National and Program Broker Team, PRS.

The full PRS management team is outlined below:

Stephen Vaughan - European Underwriting Centre Manager, PRS

- European Underwriting Centre Manager, PRS Alan Gorman - European Underwriting Manager, PRS

- European Underwriting Manager, PRS Chris O'Rourke -European Signature Manager, PRS

-European Signature Manager, PRS David Woolard - European Head of Sales and Distribution, PRS

- European Head of Sales and Distribution, PRS Jo Nixon - European Risk Consulting Manager, PRS

- European Risk Consulting Manager, PRS Marcia White -European Operations Manager, PRS

-European Operations Manager, PRS James Ellis - UK & Ireland Underwriting Manager, PRS

- UK & Ireland Underwriting Manager, PRS Alex Craig - European Pricing Manager, PRS

Tara Parchment, European Head of Private Clients, Personal Risk Services, said: "I am delighted to welcome Alex Craig as our new European Pricing Manager - he brings with him a wealth of experience. His appointment, together with the new roles for Jo and James, further strengthen the already impressive capabilities of our PRS team."

About Chubb

Chubb is the world's largest publicly traded property and casualty insurance company. With operations in 54 countries and territories, Chubb provides commercial and personal property and casualty insurance, personal accident and supplemental health insurance, reinsurance and life insurance to a diverse group of clients. As an underwriting company, we assess, assume and manage risk with insight and discipline. We service and pay our claims fairly and promptly. The company is also defined by its extensive product and service offerings, broad distribution capabilities, exceptional financial strength and local operations globally. Parent company Chubb Limited is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: CB) and is a component of the S&P 500 index. Chubb maintains executive offices in Zurich, New York, London and other locations, and employs approximately 31,000 people worldwide. Additional information can be found at: chubb.com/uk

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STOCKHOLM, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

SAP partner, itelligence Sweden, announces its acquisition of EINS Consulting to strengthen its activities with Swedish and other Nordic companies, and consolidate its position as a leading SAP full-service provider in the Nordic region.

From April 1, 2018 EINS Consulting will become a part of itelligence. EINS Consulting is an experienced SAP partner with competencies within Enterprise Resource Planning, Analytics, and Change and Transformation. It also has a skilled Customer Experience team who support clients in streamlining CRM processes with the help of digital solutions.

"With EINS Consulting on board, we will have a powerful base in Sweden and a strong competitive offering for our Swedish clients. A strong local presence combined with our international strength is crucial to the support we provide to our clients with their global projects," says Nicolaj Vang Jessen, Executive Vice President, Managing Director of itelligence Nordic and Eastern Europe.

Norbert Rotter, CEO itelligence AG: "This acquisition marks another step in our growth journey, our strategy to become a true SAP full-service provider in all Nordic countries."

EINS Consulting serves customers all around Sweden. EINS Consulting has an office located in the World Trade Center Stockholm, which is to be the new itelligence office shared by all 65 employees.

"We are very much looking forward to becoming a part of itelligence. itelligence is one of the most successful SAP partners, as it manages to combine international strength with local presence. This fits perfectly with EINS Consulting and our strategic ambition to offer our clients a proven portfolio of industry solutions, add-ons and specialized knowledge in addition to offering our employees an international working environment with many opportunities," says the CEO of EINS Consulting, Milco Osterholm who will also take on the role of the Managing Director of itelligence Sweden.

About itelligence

itelligence is one of the leading international full-service providers of solutions in support of SAP solutions, employing about 7,000 highly qualified employees in 24 countries. As a frequently awarded SAP partner, itelligence is an SAP Hybris Gold partner and global value-added reseller. itelligence is an SAP-certified provider of cloud services and an SAP platinum partner. itelligence realizes complex projects in the SAP solution-based environment worldwide. The company's services in support of SAP solutions range from consulting and licensing to application management services and hosting services to proprietary industry-specific solutions. In 2017, itelligence generated total sales of EUR 872.2 million.

About EINS Consulting

EINS was founded in 2007 and has 38 employees. EINS focuses on SAP ERP, CRM, analytics, and change & transformation, serving customers located all over Sweden. EINS won Dagens Industri's (a Swedish financial magazine) DI Gazelle award in 2013 and 2014.

- Cross reference: Picture is available at AP Images (http://www.apimages.com) -
Theresa May has said that the expulsion of Russian diplomats from almost two dozen countries was not done out of solidarity with the UK, but as an acknowledgement by foreign capitals of the serious threat posed by Russia's behaviour. The Prime Minister also said that further sanctions were under discussion. The United States and 22 European nations took action against Russia over the nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter and are in the process of expeling Russian diplomats from ...

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.
After a chilly winter in Chattanooga, the world around us is beginning to reawaken. Dormant trees now pop with color as native wildflowers emerge from the ground. Those who are tuned in to the natural world have noticed the tiniest blooms and the growing choruses of songbirds and frogs. Theres a lot of amazing things going on outside, yet thanks to innumerable digital distractions to tempt their eyes and hog their attention, children today suffer from nature-deficit disorder. In a sense, they cant see the forest for their screens.

Fortunately, as rampant as it is, this condition is easy enough to cure, says Dr. Brooke Gorman, the Director of Science Education at the Tennessee Aquarium.



By getting them out in the world, you can really give them a different perspective on their lives and the world around them, she says. Connecting with nature is important because it helps us feel grounded and more relaxed. It helps us to step away from the screens and really engage with the world around us and with each other.



On April 6, the Aquarium will host a Backyard Scientist night. This celebration of native plants and animals could be seen as a clinic for those suffering from nature-deficit disorder by teaching them to reconnect with and better appreciate the wilderness in their own backyard.



Attendees will join experts from the Aquariums education department (and a few native animal ambassadors) for a fun-filled evening focused on showcasing the interesting behaviors of fascinating wildlife found in the Southeast.



In addition to making and snacking on a tasty treat, participants will learn how to attract animals to their homes by making their yards more wildlife-friendly. Guests also will learn about the work being done by the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute, whose scientists seek to safeguard and further our understanding of Southeastern species like the Lake Sturgeon, Southern Appalachian Brook Trout, Alligator Snapping Turtle and Spotted Salamander.



Attending an early-evening screening of the newly released giant-screen film, The Wild Around You 3D, offers the ideal introduction to this celebration of native wildlife.



Directed and produced by Academy Award nominee and Emmy Award winner Andrew Young, the film presents stunningly shot, incredibly intimate scenes of animals living in and around the home of a typical American family suffering from nature deficit disorder. Using novel techniques  including miniaturized cameras, motion-control rigs, time-lapse and high-speed photography  filmmakers present incredible scenes of amazing natural behaviors, such as the daredevil leap of Wood Duck ducklings from their treetop nests to the legion-strong march of Spotted Salamanders toward their forest-pool breeding grounds.



The Backyard Scientists night runs 5-8:30 p.m. on April 6 and is free for Aquarium members. Tickets for non-members are $14.50 for adults or $9.50 for ages 3-12. Members can purchase add-on tickets to the 5 or 6 p.m.screenings of The Wild Around You 3D for $8. Non-member IMAX tickets are $11.95 for adults or $9.95 for ages 3-12.




BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - The Swiss franc dropped against its major counterparts in the European session on Wednesday, after the Swiss National Bank Governing Board member Andrea Maechler cautioned that a premature rate hike in Switzerland could be counterproductive to the economic development.



Defending negative interest regime, Maechler said in an interview with Handelszeitung that there would be a big risk of endangering the favorable development, if the bank halts its expansive monetary policy.



'If we now end the expansionary monetary policy, so there would be a risk that we would endanger the favorable development.'



The Swiss franc remained highly valued and the situation on the foreign exchange market are still fragile, Maechler told.



The currency has been trading lower against its major rivals in the Asian session, with the exception of the yen.



The Swiss currency weakened to more than a 2-month low of 1.3486 against the pound, from Tuesday's closing value of 1.3401, and held steady thereafter. The franc is seen finding support around the 1.38 region.



The Distribution Trades Survey from the Confederation of British Industry showed that UK retail sales are forecast to rebound in April after declining for the first time since October 2017.



About 32 percent of retailers said that sales volumes were up in the year to March, whilst 40 percent said they were down, giving a balance of -8 percent.



The franc that ended Tuesday's trading at 0.9467 against the greenback declined to a weekly low of 0.9524. The franc is likely to find support around the 0.97 level.



The franc slipped to 1.1803 against the euro, a level unseen since January 16. The next possible downside target for the franc is seen around the 1.20 level.



Survey data from the market research group GfK showed that German consumer confidence is set to improve in April.



The forward-looking consumer sentiment index rose unexpectedly by 0.1 point to 10.9 in April. The score was forecast to fall to 10.7.



On the flip side, the franc bounced off to 111.62 against the yen, from an early 2-day low of 110.92. On the upside, 114.00 is seen as the next resistance level for the franc.



Switzerland's KOF Economic Institute upgraded its economic outlook citing improved economic situation of major trading partners and the depreciation of the Swiss franc against the euro.



In the Spring Forecast, the think tank said gross domestic product is forecast to grow 2.5 percent this year instead of 2.3 percent estimated in December.



Looking ahead, U.S. pending home sales for February are scheduled for release in the New York session.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de
BLACKROCK FRONTIERS INVESTMENT TRUST PLC (LEI: 5493003K5E043LHLO706)

All information is at 28 February 2018 and unaudited.

Performance at month end with net income reinvested.



One

month

% Three

months

% One

year

% Three

years

% Five

years

% Since

Launch*

% Sterling: Share price -1.8 0.9 15.9 60.7 96.7 105.5 Net asset value 0.5 9.3 18.8 54.5 90.7 106.0 MSCI Frontiers Index (NR) 1.7 5.5 16.7 37.0 66.4 65.2 MSCI Emerging Markets Index (NR) -1.6 5.2 17.9 45.1 40.7 44.6 US Dollars: Share price -4.9 2.8 28.4 43.5 79.0 82.3 Net asset value -2.6 11.3 31.7 37.9 73.5 82.5 MSCI Frontiers Index (NR) -1.5 7.4 29.2 22.2 51.0 46.0 MSCI Emerging Markets Index (NR) -4.6 7.0 30.5 29.4 27.7 27.8

Sources: BlackRock and Standard & Poor's Micropal

* 17 December 2010.



At month end

Ordinary Shares US Dollar Net asset value - capital only: 220.54c Net asset value - cum income: 221.22c Sterling: Net asset value - capital only: 160.07p Net asset value - cum income: 160.56p Share price: 163.00p Total assets (including income): 304.9m Premium to cum-income NAV: 1.5% Gearing: nil Gearing range (as a % of gross assets): 0-20% Net yield*: 3.1% Ordinary shares in issue: 189,891,108 Ongoing charges**: 1.4% Ongoing charges plus taxation and performance fee: 1.6%

*The Company's yield based on dividends announced in the last 12 months as at the date of the release of this announcement is 3.1% and includes the 2017 final dividend of 4.20 cents per share declared on 4 December 2017 and payable to shareholders on 9 February 2018 and the 2017 interim dividend of 2.70 cents per share announced on 25 May 2017 and paid to shareholders on 30 June 2017.

**Calculated as a percentage of average net assets and using expenses, excluding performance fees and interest costs for the year ended 30 September 2017.



Sector

Analysis Gross market value as a % of net assets Country

Analysis Gross market value

as a % of

net assets Financials 38.7 Argentina 17.3 Consumer Staples 12.9 Kuwait 12.2 Health Care 8.7 Vietnam 9.9 Telecommunication Services 7.5 Nigeria 7.7 Materials 7.5 Romania 7.2 Energy 6.8 Egypt 6.3 Consumer Discretionary 5.8 Saudi Arabia 6.1 Industrials 5.8 Kazakhstan 4.3 Real Estate 5.8 Morocco 4.2 Information Technology 1.9 Bangladesh 3.8 Utilities 0.7 Ukraine 3.8 ----- Sri Lanka 3.2 Total 102.1 Kenya 2.9 ----- PAN-Middle East 2.8 Short positions -3.0 Philippines 2.5 ===== Colombia 1.9 Slovenia 1.9 PAN-Asian 1.6 Tanzania 1.3 Estonia 1.2 ----- Total 102.1 ----- Short positions -3.0 =====

*reflects gross market exposure from contracts for difference (CFDs).

Market Exposure



31.03

2017

% 30.04

2017

% 31.05

2017

% 30.06

2017

% 31.07

2017

% 31.08

2017

%

30.09

2017

% 31.10

2017

% 30.11

2017

% 31.12

2017

% 31.01

2018

% 28.02

2018

% Long 112.1 108.9 105.0 103.9 106.6 107.9 107.7 113.4 111.0 113.3 110.2 102.1 Short 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 2.5 3.8 3.8 3.0 3.0 Gross 112.1 108.9 105.0 103.9 106.6 107.9 107.7 115.9 114.8 117.1 113.2 105.1 Net 112.1 108.9 105.0 103.9 106.6 107.9 107.7 110.9 107.2 109.5 107.2 99.1



Ten Largest Investments

Company Country of Risk Gross market value as a % of net assets The National Bank of Kuwait Kuwait 4.3 YPF Argentina 4.0 Halyk Savings Bank Kazakhstan 3.5 Zenith Bank Nigeria 3.3 MHP Ukraine 3.2 Banco Macro Argentina 3.2 United Bank for Africa Nigeria 3.0 Mobile Telecommunications Kuwait 2.9 Equity Group Kenya 2.9 Ooredoo PAN-Middle East 2.8



Commenting on the markets, Sam Vecht and Emily Fletcher, representing the Investment Manager noted:



In February, the Company's NAV fell by 2.6%* on a US Dollar basis with net income reinvested, after the very strong performance in January. For reference, the MSCI Frontier Index (the Company's benchmark) fell by 1.5%**, while the MSCI Emerging Markets Index down by 4.6%** and MSCI World Index was down by 4.3%**, on a US Dollar basis, over the same period.

February was marked by a sharp correction in global equities and a rise in volatility. This sell-off was triggered by a correction in the US, the epicentre of which was the volatility market. Frontier Markets outperformed both emerging and developed markets during the sell-off, once again showing their lower correlation to global markets.

Our overweight in Quang Ngai Sugar, a sugar producer in Vietnam, and an off-benchmark position in Vietnamese broker, Saigon Securities, continued to rally and contributed to Company's returns. However, our overall underweight in Vietnam detracted on a relative basis.

The Egyptian tobacco producer, Eastern Tobacco, which holds a monopoly in production in the country, was among the top contributors during the month. The company more than doubled its earnings in 2017 and we expect continued strong growth in 2018 as the company has managed to increase prices by as much as 40% after the depreciation of the local currency in early 2017.

The overweight in Romania was also among the top contributors to returns, as both BRD, a leading bank in the country, and Romgaz, an oil & gas producer, reported strong earnings backed by robust cash flow generation that was helped by the domestic strong macro-economic environment.

Our position in Acacia Mining in Tanzania detracted from performance in February, as the company's dispute with the Tanzanian government showed few signs of ending. We continue to expect a better outcome than is being priced into the current share price. Hence, we continue to hold the position in the stock.

Argentina was hit hard during the month, being down as much as 13%*** in mid-February before rallying back vigorously. The Argentinian Peso sold off during the month, correcting after strong 2017. The Company's exposure to Argentina detracted from returns on an absolute basis.

Despite the sell off and increased market concerns during February, we think that Frontier Markets continue to exhibit strong Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth, have low government debt levels, and represent an opportunity to invest in companies with strong cash flow and high dividend yields, on some of the lowest valuations in the world.

*Source: BlackRock, as at 28 February 2018.

** Source: BlackRock, MSCI, as at 28 February 2018.

*** Source: BlackRock, Bloomberg, MSCI Argentina, as at 28 February 2018.

28 March 2018

ENDS

Latest information is available by typing www.blackrock.co.uk/brfi on the internet, "BLRKINDEX" on Reuters, "BLRK" on Bloomberg or "8800" on Topic 3 (ICV terminal). Neither the contents of the Manager's website nor the contents of any website accessible from hyperlinks on BlackRock's website (or any other website) is incorporated into, or forms part of, this announcement
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 28, 2018) - Ely Gold Royalties Inc. (TSXV: ELY) (OTC Pink: ELYGF) ("Ely Gold") through its wholly owned subsidiary, Nevada Select Royalty, Inc ("Nevada Select") is pleased to announce that it has entered into a definitive option agreement with Monitor Gold Corporation ("Monitor"), a Nevada corporation and a wholly owned subsidiary corporation of Orla Mining Ltd. ("Orla"), an Ontario corporation listed on the TSX Venture Exchange, whereby Monitor has the option to acquire a 100% interest in four unpatented mining claims (the "Monitor Claims") within Orla's Monitor Gold Project, located in Nye County, Nevada (the "Option Agreement"). The total Option consideration (if exercised by Monitor) is US$677,000 and Nevada Select will retain a 2.5% net smelter returns royalty ("NSR").

The Monitor Claims are surrounded by a larger claim package previously leased by Orla. The Monitor Project is hosted by silicic volcanic rocks and is 45 km east of the Round Mountain deposit with gold production over a 20-year period. It is also 45 km southeast of the sediment-hosted Northumberland Carlin-like gold deposit. Sample results from historic exploration work throughout the Monitor Project area show zones of variable silicification with anomalous gold along the west side of a northerly-trending range-front fault. Nevada Select acquired the Monitor Claims as part of the Platoro West acquisition announced in a June 23, 2017 news release.

The Option

Under the terms of the Option Agreement, Monitor can acquire a 100% interest in the Monitor Claims by making an initial payment of US$2,000 followed by:

$5,000 on the 1 st anniversary of the Effective Date;

$10,000 on the 2nd anniversary of the Effective Date;

$15,000 on the 3rd anniversary of the Effective Date;

$20,000 on the 4th anniversary of the Effective Date;

$25,000 on the 5 th anniversary of the Effective Date;

$50,000 on each of the 6 th thru 9 th anniversaries of the Effective Date; and

$400,000 on the 10th anniversary of the Effective Date

Monitor may terminate the Option Agreement at any time without further liability for future Option payments. There are no share issuance obligations, work commitments or additional expenditures required other than the obligation to maintain the claim maintenance fees. If the Option is exercised, Nevada Select will retain a 2.5 % NSR on the Monitor Claims. There is no area of interest associated with the NSR. Monitor will have the right to buy-down 1% of the NSR for an aggregate purchase price of $1,000,000.

Trey Wasser, President and CEO of Ely Gold stated, "We are very pleased to assist Orla in the consolidation of the Monitor Project. Our continued efforts to consolidate claim packages, identified using our proprietary data base, continues to generate fresh under-explored projects in Nevada. This Option adds another exciting exploration property, with an excellent exploration partner, to our growing Nevada asset portfolio."

Stephen Kenwood, P. Geo, is director of the Company and a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101. Mr. Kenwood has reviewed and approved the technical information in this press release.

About Ely Gold Royalties Inc.

Ely Gold Royalties is an emerging royalty company with interests in 71 precious metal properties, primarily in Nevada. 41 of these properties are being explored by majors, producing mid-tiers and high quality junior exploration companies. 21 properties are in the Company's royalty portfolio and 20 properties are being purchased under option contracts. All the Company's option properties will produce royalties, if exercised. Ely Gold is also actively purchasing existing third-party royalties. Ely Gold maintains a strong cash position and a gold stock equity portfolio. Ely Gold is well positioned with its current portfolio of 30 available properties to generate operating revenue and royalties through additional option and sale transactions. The Company has a proven track record of maximizing the value of its properties through claim consolidation and advancement using its extensive, proprietary data base.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors



Signed "Trey Wasser"

Trey Wasser, President & CEO

For further information, please contact:

Trey Wasser, President & CEO

trey@elygoldinc.com

972-803-3087



Joanne Jobin, Investor Relations Officer

jjobin@elygoldinc.com

604-488-1104



Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release may contain forward-looking statements including but not limited to comments regarding the timing and content of upcoming work programs, geological interpretations, receipt of property titles, potential mineral recovery processes, etc. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and therefore, involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements.
AdTheorent's solutions leverage machine learning technology and cross-channel management capabilities to provide real-time ad optimization with improved return on investment for customers

SANTA CLARA, California, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --Based on its recent analysis of the digital advertising industry, Frost & Sullivan recognizes AdTheorent with the 2018 North American Growth Excellence Leadership Award for its suite of products that offer customers effective predictive advertising, robust cross-channel campaign management capabilities, and pragmatic advertising capabilities while addressing consumer privacy and data security needs.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/659442/Frost_Sullivan_Adtheorent_Award.jpg

"AdTheorent is the leading provider of data-driven predictive solutions for digital advertising. The company's Machine Learning-Powered Predictive Advertising Platform, combined with its cross-environment mapping solution and predictive creative capabilities, outperform other alternatives in market and help brands connect with their optimal audiences at scale," said Vikrant Gandhi, Industry Director at Frost & Sullivan.

AdTheorent leverages its Machine Learning Technology Platform and the Cross-Environment Map measurement capabilities to deliver data-driven, scalable, and transparent cross-channel advertising campaigns. The Machine Learning Technology Platform learns faster and across more data than any other solution in market, and identifies optimal audiences across various digital channels. AdTheorent's Cross-Environment Map matches user IDs across all environments and matches them to a single user, allowing advertisers to attribute activity across all environments, all delivered in a de-identified manner which adheres to best practices for user privacy and personal anonymity. Through these solutions, AdTheorent offers managed, results-driven digital advertising that consistently delivers higher value than stand-alone programmatic solutions.

AdTheorent's digital advertising solutions help customers achieve improved returns on their investments in digital advertising by incorporating innovative features, such as relationship targeting, an advanced predictive creative mechanism, and 360-degree custom video content, into its products. The company follows a performance-based pricing structure, working closely with customers to customize pricing around their unique requirements, which allows products to be both cost-effective and scalable. Examples include a Cost Per Incremental Visit (CPIV) pricing model, as well as other performance-based pricing such as a charge per vehicle registration, service signup, or pharmaceutical prescription sale. AdTheorent further improves the product ownership experience by gathering extensive feedback and reporting to improve product performance. In addition, the company pursues partnerships with leading industry solution providers to expand and improve its targeting and measurement data capabilities.

"Frost & Sullivan independent analysis indicates that annual revenue growth of AdTheorent has consistently exceeded 75%, and the company consistently beats target customer acquisition goals by 75% as well. These results are a clear demonstration of AdTheorent's successful growth strategy," said Vikrant.

Each year, Frost & Sullivan bestows this award upon the company that demonstrates excellence in growth and customer value. It recognizes the superiority of the product/service as well as the overall customer, purchase, ownership, and service experience offered, which has resulted in the recipient company seeing above-market growth and greater share of wallet. The award lauds the growth, diversification, and sustainability strategies of the company.

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 AdTheorent

AdTheorent is a machine learning-powered predictiveadvertisingcompany, utilizing machine learning and advanced analytics to connect advertisers with their optimal audiences, at scale. AdTheorent's Data Science team leverages an award-winning machine learning platform connected to a Cross-Environment Map consisting of 600MM devices across 90MM US households. AdTheorent's platform combines millions of data attributes into custom models to drive campaign results, far outperforming industry standards, to predict and identify users most likely to engage with an advertiser's message. AdTheorent's Studio A\T creative organization helps advertisers develop the most effective creative assets, content and technology solutions to engage with audiences. AdTheorent's award winning attribution division - MRC-accredited Barometric - provides attribution solutions based on real-world outcomes. For more information, please visit adtheorent.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. For more than 50 years, we have been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector and the investment community. Contact us: Start the discussion.

Contact:

Estefany Ariza

P: 210.477.8469

F: 210.348.1003

E: Estefany.Ariza@frost.com
VALLEY COTTAGE, New York, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

NMP or N-Methyl-2-Pyrrolidone is a hygroscopic, highly polar compound with great thermal and chemical stability. It is slowly oxidised by air and easily purified by fractional distillation. NMP is used for many applications, and is highly prevalent in the industry as it is biodegradable and recyclable. A new research report by Future Market Insights projects the market scenario of NMP for the years ahead. According to this comprehensive research report titled 'N-Methyl Pyrrolidone (NMP) Market: Global Industry Analysis 2013 - 2017 and Opportunity Assessment 2018 - 2028', the global NMP market is expected to reach a value of over US$ 1,200 Mn by the end of 2028, growing at a CAGR of 4.6% during the forecast period.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161020/430874LOGO )

Request a Sample Report with Table of Contents and Figures: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-625

N-Methyl-2-Pyrrolidone Market: Snapshot

With the rise in demand for NMP in the global market, many companies are adopting the strategy of innovating their product offerings. There are various companies moving strong in the market, and are forced to come up with innovative products in order to compete efficiently in the market. Innovation and sustainability initiatives are anticipated to be major factors responsible for competiveness. Consumers do not mind paying a premium for green chemistry and environmental preservation initiatives. This, along with more stringent regulatory constraints, may further increase the importance of innovation in this market. Regional expansion is another strategic move undertaken by top manufacturers to efficiently cater to consumer demands. Manufacturers are also expanding their production plants in different regions with improved capacity levels. These moves also serve as a driver for the global NMP market, boosting product supply and demand.

Our advisory services are aimed at helping you with specific, customised insights that are relevant to your specific challenges. Let us know about your challenges and our trusted advisors will connect with you https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-625

Some of the key players in the market include companies such as LyondellBasell Industries Holdings, Ashland, Eastman Chemical Company, Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation, Hefei TNJ Chemical Industry Co., Ltd, Shandong Qingyun Changxin Chemical Science-Tech Co., Ltd, Zhejiang Realsun Chemical Co., Ltd, Puyang" Guangming Chemicals Co., Ltd, Abtonsmart Chemicals (Group) Co., Ltd, Balaji Amines, Binzhou Yuneng Chemical Co., Ltd, Binzhou City Zhanhua District Ruian Chemical Co., Ltd. All these companies play a crucial role in influencing the dynamics of the global NMP market.

NMP Market Anticipated to Face Growth Restrictions in North America and Europe Due to New Regulatory Framework

According to the market analysis for the years 2018-2028, China is expected to record the highest consumption of NMP in excess of 120,000 MT by the end of 2028. However, in terms of growth rate, the SEA & Pacific region is expected to witness good growth during the forecast period. North America also holds a lucrative position with a high market value estimated by the end of 2028.

View Report Preview at N-Methyl-2-Pyrrolidone (NMP) Market By Application - Petrochemical, processing, Paints & Coatings, Industrial Cleaners, Electronics, Agrochemicals, Pharmaceutical, Others:https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/global-n-methyl-2-pyrrolidone-market

The report also highlights the fact that the application of NMP in industrial cleaners and paints or coatings will decline exceptionally in Europe and North America, due to a stringent regulatory framework. In Europe, the use of NMP in consumer products is expected to decline owing to its entry in Annex VI of the CLP Regulation including Repr. 1B H360D with a specific concentration level (SCL) of 5% (current consumer product limit). If this is applied, it will confine the use of NMP in consumer applications to less than 0.3% and would thereby prohibit NMP from being used in such products as NMP would have no functionality at this level in the current consumer applications.

Browse More: Chemicals & Materials Market Insights

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Sulphur Bentonite Market Segmentation By Application - Oilseeds, Cereals and Crops, Fruits and Vegetables, Others (Lawns, turf, trees and others): https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sulphur-bentonite-market

Metal & Metal Oxide Nanoparticles Market Segmentation By Metal Nanoparticles - Titanium, Silicon, Aluminium, Iron, Gold, Copper, Silver, Magnesium, Platinum, Zinc, Others (Nickel, Lead, Tin); By Metal Oxide Nanoparticles - Titanium Oxide, Bismuth Oxide, Zinc Oxide, Magnesium Oxide, Aluminium Oxide, Iron Oxide, Copper Oxide, Tungsten Oxide, Other (Magnese oxide, cerium oxide, indium tin oxide): https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/metal-and-metal-oxide-nanoparticles-market

Renewable Methanol Market Segmentation By Primary Source - Biomass, Municipal Waste and Industrial Waste, By End-Use Application - Formaldehyde, MTBE, Gasoline, Dimethyl Ether, Solvents and Others: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/renewable-methanol-market

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DETROIT, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Stratview Research announces the launch of a new market research report on Aircraft Potted-In Inserts Market by Aircraft Type (Narrow-Body Aircraft, Wide-Body Aircraft, Very Large Body Aircraft, Regional Aircraft, and General Aviation), by Application Type (Floor Panels, Sidewall Panels, Ceiling Panels, Stowage Bin Panels, Galley Panels, Lavatory Panels, Control Surface Panels, Fairing Panels, and Others), by Material Type (Aluminum, Steel, Plastics, and Others), by Fastener Type (Through Fasteners, Fixed Fasteners, and Floating Fasteners), by Panel Type (Nomex Honeycomb Panels, Aluminum Honeycomb panels, and Others), by End-User Type (OE and Aftermarket), and by Region (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of the World), Trend, Forecast, Competitive Analysis, and Growth Opportunity: 2018-2023.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160831/402975LOGO )

This market report, from Stratview Research, studies the aircraft potted-in inserts market over the trend period of 2012 to 2017 and forecast period of 2018 to 2023. The research report provides detailed insights on the market dynamics to enable informed business decision making and growth strategy formulation based on the opportunities present in the market.

Potted-In Inserts Market in the Global AircraftIndustry: Highlights

As per Stratview Research, the global aircraft potted-in inserts market offers sizeable growth opportunities during the forecast period and is likely to grow at a projected CAGR of 5.3% from 2018 to 2023. The author of the report stated that increasing commercial and regional aircraft deliveries, increasing share of wide-body aircraft in the total commercial aircraft deliveries, increasing commercial and regional aircraft fleet size, increasing demand for lightweight sandwich panels, and increasing demand for lightweight inserts are the key factors that are burgeoning the demand for potted-in inserts in the aircraft industry.

The research's findings suggest that narrow- and wide-body aircraft are expected to remain the growth engines of the aircraft potted-in inserts market during the forecast period. Increasing production rates of key programs, such as B737, A320 family, B787, and A350XWB; market entry of new players, such as COMAC and Irkut; and an introduction of variants of existing aircraft programs, such as B737 max, A320neo, and B777x, are likely to offer a sustainable growth platform for potted-in inserts in these segments in the coming years.

In terms of application type, floor panel is likely to remain the largest segment of the global potted-in inserts market in the aircraft industry during the forecast period. Large floor area of approximately 250 square meters (wide-body aircraft) coupled with increasing demand for potted-in inserts for panels in the aftermarket will continue to drive the growth of the segment over the next five years.

Based on the material type, Aluminum is likely to maintain its dominance in the global aircraft potted-in inserts market during the forecast period. Aluminum offers a host of advantages over competing metals including good corrosion resistance, excellent mechanical properties and lightweight, and has a widespread usage in the fuselage, control surfaces, interior, engine, and other segments.

As per the report, Nomex honeycomb panel is likely to remain the largest panel type segment of the aircraft potted-in inserts market during the forecast period, owing to superior FST performance and higher strength-to-weight ratio. It is also lighter in weight as compared to other panels, such as aluminum honeycomb and balsa wood panels.

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North America is expected to remain the largest aircraft potted-in inserts market during the forecast period, whereas Asia-Pacific is likely to witness the highest growth in the same period, driven by a host of factors including increasing commercial aircraft fleet size to support rising passenger traffic, opening of assembly plants of Boeing and Airbus in China, upcoming indigenous commercial and regional aircraft (COMAC C919 and Mitsubishi MRJ), and rising aircraft fleet size.

The key players in the global potted-in inserts market are PCC Fasteners (Shur-Lok Company), Arconic Fastening System, Lisi Aerospace, Witten Company Inc., and The Young Engineers. New product development and long-term supply agreements are the key strategies adopted by the major players to gain a competitive edge in the market.

Report Features

This report provides market intelligence in the most comprehensive way. The report structure has been kept such that it offers maximum business value. It provides critical insights on the market dynamics and will enable strategic decision making for the existing market players as well as those willing to enter the market. The following are the key features of the report:

Market structure: Overview, industry life cycle analysis, supply chain analysis.

Market environment analysis: Growth drivers and constraints, Porter's five forces analysis, SWOT analysis.

Market trend and forecast analysis.

Market segment trend and forecast.

Competitive landscape and dynamics: Market share, product portfolio, product launches, etc.

Attractive market segments and associated growth opportunities.

Emerging trends.

Strategic growth opportunities for the existing and new players.

Key success factors

This report studies the potted-in inserts market in the global aircraft industry and has segmented the market in seven ways, keeping in mind the interest of all the stakeholders across the value chain. The following are the seven ways in which the market is segmented:

Global Aircraft Potted-In Inserts Market, By Aircraft Type

Narrow-Body Aircraft (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe , APAC, and RoW)

Wide-Body Aircraft (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe , APAC, and RoW)

Very Large Aircraft (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe , APAC, and RoW)

Regional Aircraft (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe , APAC, and RoW)

General Aviation(Regional Analysis: NA, Europe , APAC, and RoW)

Global Aircraft Potted-In Inserts Market, By Application Type

Floor Panels ( Regional Analysis: NA, Europe , APAC, and RoW)

Sidewall Panels (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe , APAC, and RoW)

Ceiling Panels (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe , APAC, and RoW)

Stowage Bin Panels (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe , APAC, and RoW)

Galley Panels ( Regional Analysis: NA, Europe , APAC, and RoW)

Lavatory Panels (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe , APAC, and RoW)

Control Surface Panels (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe , APAC, and RoW)

Fairing Panels (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe , APAC, and RoW)

Others(Regional Analysis: NA, Europe , APAC, and RoW)

Global Aircraft Potted-In Inserts Market, By Material Type

Aluminum Potted-In Inserts ( Regional Analysis: NA, Europe , APAC, and RoW)

Steel Potted-In Inserts (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe , APAC, and RoW)

Plastic Potted-In Inserts (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe , APAC, and RoW)

Other Potted-In Inserts(Regional Analysis: NA, Europe , APAC, and RoW)

Global Aircraft Potted-In Inserts Market, By Fastener Type

Through Fasteners ( Regional Analysis: NA, Europe , APAC, and RoW)

Fixed Fasteners (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe , APAC, and RoW)

Floating Fasteners(Regional Analysis: NA, Europe , APAC, and RoW)

Global Aircraft Potted-In Inserts Market, By Panel Type

Nomex Honeycomb Panels ( Regional Analysis: NA, Europe , APAC, and RoW)

Aluminum Honeycomb Panels (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe , APAC, and RoW)

Others(Regional Analysis: NA, Europe , APAC, and RoW)

Global Aircraft Potted-In Inserts Market, By End-User Type

OE ( Regional Analysis: NA, Europe , APAC, and RoW)

Aftermarket(Regional Analysis: NA, Europe , APAC, and RoW)

Global Aircraft Potted-In Inserts Market, By Region

North America (Country Analysis: The USA , Canada , and Mexico )

Europe (Country Analysis: France , Germany , the UK, Spain , Russia , and Rest of Europe )

Asia-Pacific (Country Analysis: China , Japan , India , and Rest of Asia-Pacific )

Rest of the World(Country Analysis: Latin America , The Middle East , and Others)

Stratview Research has number of high value market reports in the global aerospace & defense industry. Please refer to the following link to browse through our reports:

Click Here for Other Reports from Stratview Research in the Aerospace & Defense Industry

Related market report by Stratview Research in the aerospace & defense industry:

Global Aerospace & Defense C-Class Parts Market by Aircraft Type, by Part Type, by Sales Channel Type, by End-User Type, and by Region, Trend, Forecast, Competitive Analysis, and Growth Opportunity: 2018-2023

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Ultra-luxury vodka serves as title sponsor of Best Female Chef Award at The World's 50 Best Restaurants in Bilbao, along with the regional events in Asia and Latin America

Platinum award-winning elit Vodka is the official vodka partner of The World's 50 Best Restaurants, having kicked off the collaboration this week in Macao at Asia's 50 Best Restaurants, where they also presented the elit Vodka Asia's Best Female Chef Award 2018 to Bongkoch "Bee" Satongun of Paste restaurant in Bangkok. The sponsorship continues through the entirety of the 2018 award season with Best Female Chef presentations in October at Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants in Bogota Colombia and in June at The World's 50 Best Restaurants, which is being held this year in Bilbao, Spain. elit will also participate in the Welcome Dinner, Chefs' Fest, #50BestTalks, and Awards Ceremony in each city with exclusive brand education and cocktail activations.

The elit Vodka Best Female Chef awards programme celebrates and rewards successful women who have risen to the top of the gastronomic world. Additionally, The World's 50 Best Restaurants and elit Vodka are joining forces to create the "Igniting Passion" content series exploring each of the three winning female chefs' strongest passions inside and outside of the kitchen, connecting those to their culinary approach, and sharing advice with chefs seeking similar success. These short videos will be shared via the elit Vodka and World's 50 Best social channels (details below), including on The World's 50 Best YouTube channel. They will also be featured alongside written interviews, photography and "behind-the-scenes" videos on the regional sections of 50 Best website with Bee Satongun's live on the Asia's 50 Best Restaurants site currently.

"The World's 50 Best Restaurants partnership offers us the chance to introduce elit, the highest-rated vodka in the world, to the most influential and well-traveled restauranteurs, chefs and gourmets in the industry," said Fran Gaillard, International Marketing Director at Stoli Group. "We are well-positioned in the bar scene, but believe restaurants of the World's 50 Best caliber are an untapped opportunity for elit, a spirit with an emphasis placed on care and craftsmanship."

"elit Vodka is an ideal sponsor, as we have a shared commitment to pushing gastronomy forward. Spirits plays an important role in the gastronomic experience and we've found, early on, that elit is a great complement to our menus," added William Drew, Group Editor of The World's 50 Best Restaurants. "The 'Igniting Passion' series is an exciting new content initiative that gives tremendous insight into the minds and palates of some of the world's leading female chefs."

For more information on elit Vodka, follow on Instagram at @elit_Vodka, on Facebook at elit.vodka.official and on Twitter at @elitVodka. Follow The World's 50 Best announcements on Twitter at @TheWorlds50Best, on Instagram at @TheWorlds50Best, and on Facebook at 50BestRestaurants, where the awards ceremony will be streamed, along with www.finedininglovers.com. Further details are available at The World's 50 Best elit page, where visitors can also be directed to information on the Asia and Latin America awards as well.

About elit Vodka

With a platinum score of 97 points from the Beverage Testing Institute, elit Vodka is the world's highest-rated white spirit and drinking pleasure at its most precise. Every stage in the creation of elit is a fusion of passion and precision. elit is a single-source vodka with each of its high-quality grains harvested at its estate in Russia's Tambov region before traveling to Latvijas Balzams in Riga, Latvia, where they are blended with artesian well water. The spirit then is filtered twice through super-fine quartz sand and Russian birch wood charcoal and brought down to -18 Celsius through elit's signature freeze-filtration process. The result is a luminosity as remarkable as the liquid inside and a spirit without equal. Learn more at http://www.elitultraluxuryvodka.com.

About The World's 50 Best Restaurants

Organised by William Reed Business Media, The World's 50 Best Restaurants list has been published since 2002. Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants and Asia's 50 Best Restaurants launched I 2013. William Reed Business Media is solely responsible for organising the awards, collating the votes and producing the list. To see more details on The World's 50 Best Restaurants voting process, visit www.theworlds50best.com/the-academy/manifesto

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180328005711/en/

Contacts:

Media:

Stoli Group

Alison Walsh, +1 917-301-2962

awalsh@stoli.com
LONDON, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

- A significant resurgence from Big Pharma in the top 10

The eighth annual Pharmaceutical Innovation Index, released by IDEA Pharma today, sees AstraZeneca top the industry for the first time.

The Pharmaceutical Innovation Index measures, scores and celebrates a company's ability to deliver innovation to patients, by objectively evaluating performance based on a rolling five year period (2012-2017), and operates on the simple premise: if you gave the same molecule to two different companies in early phase, which would make the best of it?

The biggest shaker this year is AstraZeneca, coming from the middle of the pack in 2017 to take the 2018 PII crown. Gilead also continued their PII ascent, to second place, advancing from 2017's 3rd. Johnson & Johnson, having ceded the top spot last year after a 4 year run on top, was able to regain some of the lost ground in 2018, landing in a joint 3rd spot with a rapidly-improving Novartis.

Pharmaceutical Innovation Index 2018 SORTED BY 2018 PII RANKING PII 2018 PII 2017 Change Ranking Company Name Ranking from 2017 1 AstraZeneca 15 +14 2 Gilead 3 +1 3 Johnson & Johnson 4 +1 3 Novartis 12 +9 5 AbbVie 2 -3 6 Bristol-Myers Squibb 9 +3 7 Merck & Co 7 No change 8 Roche 11 +3 9 Pfizer 19 +10 10 Biogen 1 -9 10 Novo Nordisk 8 -2 12 Amgen 13 +1 13 Eli Lilly 21 +8 13 GlaxoSmithKline 16 +3 15 Sanofi 20 +5 16 Allergan New 17 Celgene 10 -7 18 Valeant New 19 Bayer 18 -1 20 Otsuka 14 -6 20 Regeneron 24 +4 22 Boehringer Ingelheim 25 +3 23 Eisai 26 +3 23 Teva 30 +7 25 Lundbeck 27 +2 26 Merck KGaA 28 +2 27 Sumitomo New 28 Astellas 23 -5 29 UCB 29 No change 30 Shire 22 -8 31 Takeda 5 -26 32 Mylan New

How did AstraZeneca catapult from 15th spot in 2017 all the way to the top of the Pharmaceutical Innovation Index? A series of strategic decisions that helped generate a substantial amount of robust positive data for their pipeline began to stem the company's downward trend since the loss of several product exclusivities between 2011 and 2017. AstraZeneca managed to launch five significant new medicines in 2017, across their primary therapy areas, which is a remarkable achievement.

Commenting on the index, IDEA Pharma's CEO, Mike Rea said: "There is no gaming the Pharmaceutical Innovation Index -success is achieved by discovering and developing meaningfully great medicines and getting those medicines to market, and to patients. It is wonderful to see a company of AstraZeneca's scale and history able to turnaround its fortunes in a relatively short period of time."

For a more in-depth look at this year's Pharmaceutical Innovation Index, details of the methodology and the top 32 companies, visit http://www.ideapharma.com/pii

For more information please contact:

Sam Varney

Communications Director

IDEA Pharma

Tel: +44-1234-756-340

Email: pii@ideapharma.com


STOCKHOLM (dpa-AFX) - Ericsson (ERIC) said that it has a target to reduce costs by at least 10 billion Swedish kronor by mid-2018 compared to 2017. By the end of the year, 6 billion kronor in cost savings had been achieve.



For 2020, when Ericsson expects net sales of 190 billion kronor - 200 billion kronor, the plans now in place will bring the company to a gross margin of 37-39% and an operating margin of at least 10%, excluding restructuring charges. Over time, with the ramp up of 5G and contribution from innovation and new businesses, Ericsson's target is an operating margin of at least 12%.



Ericsson said it is well-positioned within 5G and the company has aimed to make the transition from 4G to 5G as easy as possible for its customers. This has generated a growing interest in the company's 5G product portfolio.



Speaking at the Ericsson Annual General Meeting, President and CEO Borje Ekholm summarized the company's focused business strategy, its financial performance and the measures taken to improve company performance during 2017.



Ekholm said, 'We are confident that the strategic choices we have made will create a strong and successful Ericsson over time. But as you know, we are not there yet.'



Ekholm said, '2017 was a tough year with a continued declining market. We are far from satisfied with our performance and have taken a number of actions to turn around the development and improve profitability, to build a strong Ericsson for the long term.'



Ekholm explained that Ericsson has worked to stabilize the business and simplify the organization. This work has included: 42 non-strategic contracts identified in Managed Services, of which 23 has been either exited or renegotiated during the year. In Digital Services, product roadmaps and project delivery have been stabilized, and 45 non-strategic or unprofitable contracts have been identified, of which around 50 percent should be either concluded or exited during 2018. Large cost savings in the media business, a majority of Media Solutions divested.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 28, 2018) - GoviEx Uranium Inc. (TSXV: GXU) (OTCQB: GVXXF) ("GoviEx" or "Company") today announced that it has agreed with Toshiba Corporation ("Toshiba") to extend the date of settlement under the Termination Agreement and Mutual Release (the "Agreement") to April 30, 2018. Toshiba also has agreed to extend the completion of the share purchase agreement ("SPA") with a mutually-agreed third party investor (the "Investor"). The execution of the Agreement and the SPA were both originally announced on March 2, 2018.

The Agreement sets out the terms under which GoviEx and Toshiba (collectively, the "Parties") have agreed to settle the Tranche B Bond dated April 18, 2012, as amended; terminate the Sale and Purchase of Uranium Concentrates Agreement dated April 18, 2012, as amended; and provide their mutual release to each other in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Agreement.

All parties have agreed to the extension in order to allow for the completion of various administrative procedures required to effect all of the conditions precedent to the Agreement and SPA. The Agreement and the SPA are expected to close concurrently.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

About GoviEx Uranium

GoviEx is a mineral resource company focused on the exploration and development of uranium properties in Africa. GoviEx's principal objective is to become a significant uranium producer through the continued exploration and development of its flagship mine-permitted Madaouela Project in Niger, its mine-permitted Mutanga Project in Zambia, and its other uranium properties in Africa.

Information Contacts

Govind Friedland, Executive Chairman

Daniel Major, Chief Executive Officer

+1-604-681-5529

info@goviex.com

www.goviex.com

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All information and statements other than statements of current or historical facts contained in this news release are forward-looking information. Forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties concerning the specific factors disclosed here and elsewhere in GoviEx's periodic filings with Canadian securities regulators. When used in this news release, words such as "will", "could", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "intend", "may", "potential", "should," and similar expressions are forward-looking statements. Information provided in this document is necessarily summarized and may not contain all available material information.

Forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements regarding the closing of the Agreement and the SPA, as and when anticipated, and other statements that are not facts. Forward-looking statements are based on a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by management based on the business and markets in which GoviEx operates, are inherently subject to significant operational, economic, and competitive uncertainties and contingencies.

Assumptions upon which forward-looking statements have been made in this news release include that GoviEx and Toshiba will be able to satisfy the conditions in the Agreement; that Toshiba and the Investor will be able to satisfy the conditions of the SPA; and that the Agreement and SPA will be successfully closed as and when anticipated.

Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations include, among other things, the inability or unwillingness of the Parties to complete the Agreement for any reason, and the inability or unwillingness of Toshiba or the Investor to complete the SPA for any reason. In addition, the factors described or referred to in the section entitled "Financial Risks and Management Objectives" in the MD&A of GoviEx for the year ended December 31, 2016, which is available on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com, should be reviewed in conjunction with the information found in this news release.

GoviEx has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results, performance, or achievements to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. There can be other factors that cause results, performance, or achievements not to be as anticipated, estimated, or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate or that management's expectations or estimates of future developments, circumstances, or results will materialize. As a result of these risks and uncertainties, the results or events predicted in these forward-looking statements may differ materially from actual results or events. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this news release are made as of the date of this news release, and GoviEx disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise such information, except as required by applicable law, and GoviEx assumes no any liability for disclosure relating to any other company herein.
Dr. Tim Wilson, Technology Department chair at Cleveland State Community College, did a hands-on activity at Walker Valley High School last Friday to demonstrate what mechanisms entail, while discussing the CSCC Mechatronics Honors Institute coming to the college this fall.

This approach for attaining an associate of applied science degree in mechatronics technology will be offered to new graduating seniors.

"Students who have a desire for working in a multi-skilled manufacturing position, or may be looking to move into an engineering/STEAM field, will be ideal candidates for this program. Students selected for the institute will be working not only in a classroom setting, but supplementing that learning with real-world training in a manufacturing setting, while getting paid," officials said.

Any high school student/parent who would like more information can contact Marci Reiter at 423-614-8718, or email her at mreiter@clevelandstatecc.edu.
Thomson Reuters First-Quarter 2018 Earnings Announcement and Webcast Scheduled for Friday, May 11, 2018

Conference call and webcast scheduled for 8:30 a.m. EDT

TORONTO, March 28, 2018 -- Thomson Reuters (NYSE, TSX: TRI) announced today that its first-quarter 2018 earnings will be issued via news release on Friday, May 11, 2018.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/13199/THOMSON_REUTERS_LOGO.jpg

Thomson Reuters will host a conference call and simultaneous webcast that morning at 8:30 a.m. EDT. Discussions may include forward-looking information.

You can access the webcast by visiting the "Investor Relations" section of the Thomson Reuters website. Registration for the webcast is now open. Additionally, an archive of the webcast will be available following the presentation.

Thomson Reuters

Thomson Reuters is the world's leading source of news and information for professional markets. Our customers rely on us to deliver the intelligence, technology and expertise they need to find trusted answers. The business has operated in more than 100 countries for more than 100 years. Thomson Reuters shares are listed on the Toronto and New York Stock Exchanges (symbol: TRI). For more information, visit www.thomsonreuters.com.
On 27 March 2018 the Board of Telia Lietuva, AB (hereinafter "Telia Lietuva" or "the Company") decided: - To approve the draft of the audited annual consolidated and separate financial statements of the Company for the year 2017, prepared according to the International Financial Reporting Standards, and to propose to the Company's Annual General Meeting of Shareholders to approve the draft of the Company's annual consolidated and separate financial statements for the year 2017. The audited revenue of Telia Lietuva Group for the year 2017 is the same as the revenue for the twelve months of 2017 that was announced on 26 January 2018 - the audited consolidated Telia Lietuva Group revenue for the year 2017 amounted to EUR 370,123 thousand. EBITDA excluding non-recurring items was EUR 125,234 thousand (EUR 125,284 thousand was announced on 26 January 2018) and free cash flow amounted to EUR 53,873 thousand (EUR 54,353 thousand was announced on 26 January 2018). Due to additional impairment of fixed assets charge, the audited profit for the period of January-December 2017 was lower and amounted to EUR 51,805 thousand, while EUR 54,353 thousand was announced on 26 January 2018. - To approve the Company's Consolidated Annual Report for the year 2017, prepared by the Company and assessed by the auditors, and to present the Company's Consolidated Annual Report for information to the Company's Annual General Meeting of Shareholders. - To approve the draft of the Company's profit allocation for the year 2017 and to propose for the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders to allocate the profit according to the draft of profit allocation: allocate from the Company's distributable profit of EUR 116,746 thousand EUR 40,783 thousand for the payment of dividends for the year 2017, i.e. EUR 0.07 dividend per share, and carry forward to the next financial year an amount of EUR 75,962 thousand as retained earnings (undistributed profit). For two independent members to the Board - Inga Skisaker and Rolandas Virsilas - as tantiems (annual payment) for the year 2017 to allocate in total an amount of EUR 31,280, or EUR 15,640 each. - To convoke the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders in Telia Lietuva, AB headquarters, in a room on the 23rd floor, Lvovo str. 25, Vilnius, Lithuania, at 13.00 on 25 April 2018, and to propose to the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders the following draft agenda: 1. Presentation by the Company's auditor. 2. Approval of the annual consolidated and separate financial statements of the Company for the year 2017 and presentation of the consolidated annual report of the Company for the year 2017. 3. Allocation of the profit of the Company of 2017. 4. Election of the Company's auditor. 5. Regarding the approval of a new edition of the By-laws of the Company. 6. Election of the Company's Board members. 7. Regarding the implementation of decisions. The Board proposes to the meeting of shareholders to elect UAB Deloitte Lietuva as the Company's audit enterprise to perform the audit of the annual consolidated and separate financial statements of the Company for the year 2018 and 2019, and to make the assessment of the consolidated annual report of the Company for the year 2018 and 2019. The Company received letters from independent members of the Board - Inga Skisaker and Rolandas Virsilas - regarding their resignation from the Board as of 24 April 2018. As of today, there are no proposed nominees to the Board instead of the resigning members of the Board. Following the Article 372 of the Law on Companies and based on the opinion of the Audit Committee of the Company, the Board allowed the Company to conclude the following related parties' transactions: - Loan agreement with UAB Mobilieji Mokejimai (Telia Lietuva owns a 33.3 per cent stake) regarding extension of EUR 150 thousand loan; - Agreement regarding the transfer of the Company's employees that are providing services to Telia Company Group to the subsidiary, Telia Global Services Lithuania, UAB, which is a base for establishing a shared service centre; - Agreement on the sale of a 100 per cent stake in a subsidiary, Telia Global Services Lithuania, UAB, to Telia Company AB, which is a shareholder of the Company and owns a 88.15 per cent stake in Telia Lietuva. ENCL.: - Drafts of Telia Lietuva, AB Consolidated and Separate Financial Statements, Consolidated Annual Report and Independent Auditor's Report for the year ended 31 December 2017. - Presentation of Telia Lietuva, AB Group results for the year 2017. Darius Dziaugys, Head of Investor Relations, tel. +370 5 236 7878, e-mail: darius.dziaugys@telia.lt Attachment: https://cns.omxgroup.com/cds/DisclosureAttachmentServlet?messageAttachmentId=671267
NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / March 28, 2018 / Owner and CEO of the family-run business iPark Bill Lerner learned much of what he knows today about business from his father who first created the innovative parking company, but credits much of his success with the tools he learned on his own along the way. What began as a single 25-car lot in 1960 has now grown to nearly 150 facilities, with future properties in the works as parking needs continue to increase. While iPark's achievements can certainly be attributed to sound decision-making and management, Lerner's openness to new ideas and philosophies in terms of business operations has been the driving force behind the company's consistent expansion. The American entrepreneur discusses his role as an innovator, and how these decisions have driven sustained success.

It's easy to think of innovation within a business as profound, game-changing revelations that completely alter an industry's way of thinking, but that is not always the case. 'Evolutionary changes (slight shifts in business strategy or thinking) can often be every bit as powerful as revolutionary advancements,' writes Parade contributor Scott Steinberg. 'We often forget that all it frequently takes to get ahead is just a minor shift in tactics or perspective.' For Lerner, this has often meant accommodating various trends and shifts that reflect on consumer's everyday lifestyles. 'It's become essential to be technologically capable,' he noted in an interview with Park Exec. 'Our customer base has become primarily a tech community.'

One particular example of Lerner's approach is the implementation of a user-friendly, streamlined online booking framework that became a major factor in the company's growth, especially in the New York City area. 'The amenities our clientele enjoy in other markets have to be available within ours in order to retain their business,' he pointed out. More recently, the rise in use of electric vehicles prompted Lerner to initiate a partnership with Tesla Motors, Inc. and CarCharging, resulting in the installation of charging stations at a number of iPark garages, with plans to eventually offer them at every facility. 'I feel that 10 years out, more new cars will be electric than gasoline-based,' he told CNBC. 'There's going to come a day when you can't find a place to gas up in Manhattan.' Regardless of what the future holds, Bill Lerner will continue to utilize his innovative business approach in the way his company operates, furthering its success in an ever-changing industry that relies on anticipating consumer's preferences on all levels.

Bill Lerner is the President and CEO of iPark, New York's largest family-owned parking garage entity. Upon graduating from the University of Colorado with a degree in Business, Billy officially joined his father's company, then known as Imperial Parking Systems, where he began to strategically redevelop its operational functions, eventually rebranding the business as iPark. Today, he personally oversees all technological transitions, placing the company at the forefront of the parking industry's ongoing evolution. A husband and father of three, Billy devotes his spare time to a number of charitable and philanthropic causes, most notably Billy4Kids; a nonprofit organization he founded that works to provide shoes for underprivileged children in communities throughout the world.

Bill Lerner - President and CEO of iPark: http://billlernernews.com

Billy Lerner (@billy_lerner) - Twitter: https://twitter.com/billy_lerner

Billy Lerner - Home - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/billylernerofficial/

Contact Information:

BillLernerNews.com

http://billlernernews.com

contact@billlernernews.com

SOURCE: Bill Lerner
ORANGE COUNTY, CA / ACCESSWIRE / March 28, 2018 / Social media expert and entrepreneur Nick Kohlschreiber has announced the launch of his latest digital advancement, which includes an online monetization option for advertisers reaching customers primarily in the digital sphere. Utilizing advanced technologies, the model builds upon the unprecedented growth of networking websites, namely Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram, to rapidly and cost-effectively build an engaging brand reputation that converts potential customers. 'Today, almost every business has its own Facebook profile,' stated Kohlschreiber, 'but many of them, particularly smaller to midsize companies, need assistance in order to gain visibility online and grow their business. We are here to help them achieve that.'

While many in his industry still claim that social media is too difficult and expensive to monetize, Nick Kohlschreiber is actively using a platform that can be roughly applied to any vertical, and has been doing so for years. Dating back to the successes of his first company in the solar energy sector, the entrepreneur was able to effectively drive traffic and generate growth via the Internet. After perfecting these marketing techniques and assembling a world-class team of IT experts, Kohlschreiber is now disclosing his tactics with those who need it most - small businesses and innovative entrepreneurs. 'Due to the constantly increasing number of new social media platforms, generating sales and revenues through those channels has become a science in itself,' he elaborated. 'Many clients do not realize that these networking sites can be used for much more than connecting with an existing or potential customer base.'

From building brand awareness to optimizing lifetime consumer revenue, dedicated teams construct individualized roadmaps for each client to achieve their goals and assure continued success. Without divulging any proprietary information, Kohlschreiber explained that his company gets the basics right first by creating a passionate audience of robust size across multiple platforms to learn from and engage with. Once accomplished, detailed content and media plans effectively spread promotions, advertise products, and attract customers to online stores. Accompanied by advanced metrics that track monetization efforts at every stage, the team is able to determine which channels and what consumers will provide the best return on investment for each client. Ultimately, the company's success lies in this data. The advanced analytic technology developed by Kohlschreiber allows for his client's businesses to create an authentic online customer base, leverage that audience, and then transition them to the desired product or service.

Nick Kohlschreiber is a renowned entrepreneur and the developer of creative marketing solutions that ensure the organic proliferation of new businesses. He founded his first company in 2010, and was able to grow it until a successful exit at a multiple of ten times its original value, developing it into several larger businesses that he continues to manage today. Currently the owner of a media company based in Newport Beach, Kohlschreiber is an enthusiast for originality and innovation, urging employees and clients alike to, 'Think Big, Go Far.'

Nick Kohlschreiber - Expert in Modern Marketing: http://www.nickkohlschreibernews.com

Nick Kohlschreiber - Business Entrepreneur & Founder of TeleTree: http://nickkohlschreiberreviews.com

Nick Kohlschreiber - Creative Marketing Solutions Expert: http://nickkohlschreibermarketing.com

Contact Information

NickKohlschreiberNews.com

www.NickKohlschreiberNews.com

contact@nickkohlschreibernews.com

SOURCE: Nick Kohlschreiber
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Crude oil futures tumbled Wednesday after the government confirmed a surprise build in U.S. oil inventories. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported a build of 1.6 million barrels for the week ending March 23. Yesterday, industry watcher The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a more significant build of 5.321 million barrels of U.S. crude oil inventories. Although crude oil stockpiles rose, both organizations reported declining gasoline inventories. That may suggest future demand for crude oil from refineries ahead of the summer driving season. WTI light sweet oil was down 95 cents at $64.30 a barrel. OPEC and Russia are considering a plan to extend their supply quotas beyond 2018 and up to the middle of next year, according to Bloomberg citing Iraq's Oil Minister Jabbar al-Luaibi. 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.
Revenues up 40% to 9.9mln and 40.5MW Order Intake in 2017, for 16.6mln

Gross Margin at 40% brings EBITDA close to breakeven at -1.7mln, even with R&D at 27% of revenues

2020 Strategic Plan on track: 25.1mln Project Backlog 1 and 150mln Pipeline 2 thanks to the ENGIE industrial partnership

and 150mln Pipeline thanks to the ENGIE industrial partnership Successful deployments in the Maldives, Australia, Tasmania and Italy; construction site for 20MW in Spain launched

Working Capital 5x higher than 2016 impacting net financial position, but continuous support from Intesa Sanpaolo with new credit lines

Carlalberto Guglielminotti, Chief Executive Officer of EPS, commented, "We're thrilled to report another year of continuous growth, even if the increase by 40% in revenues only partially represents that growth, because of revenue recognition shifting value to 2018. We believe that the fourfold growth in project backlog to 25 million outlines more clearly what we have done in 2017 and proves that we are on the right track toward the 2020 Strategic Plan. The gross margin at 40% is a testament to our great operational and business performance, the pipeline at 150 million confirms our strong synergies with ENGIE, and the investment of 27% of our revenues in R&D confirms our commitment to innovation and state-of-the-art technology positioning. This continuous growth, which is the result of our team's excellence and commitment, is just the first step toward establishing a driving force in energy transition and is the key cornerstone for our long-term growth within the ENGIE group."

Regulatory News:

Electro Power Systems S.A. ("EPS") (Paris:EPS), technology pioneer in energy storage systems and microgrids listed on the French-regulated market Euronext Paris (EPS:FP), today announces its 2017 full-year financial results. The accounts have been examined and approved by the Board of Directors on 28 March 2018 and audited by the Statutory Auditors. The full 2017 Consolidated Financial Statements will be available on the EPS's website www.electropowersystems.com and the full set of consolidated figures is attached to this press release.

2017 KEY FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS

Revenues increased by 40% to 9,898k, for an increase of 2,811k compared with 2016. Such result does not take into account 2,631k work in progress under the 20MW system in Spain, which would be shifted to 2018. Such growth is mainly due to the successful deployment of microgrids and off-grid solutions in emerging countries in East Africa, Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region, but even more importantly of grid-connected solutions in Europe. These positive developments were due also to the credibility of the Group established through projects with Enel, Terna, Edison, Toshiba, and other major utilities and industrial players.

1 Project Backlog means, as of the date of this press release, the estimated revenue and other income attributable to (1) purchase orders received, contracts signed and projects awarded as of the date hereof, and (2) projects secured on a Power Purchase Agreement basis, therefore where the agreed value is a price per kWh of electricity and an amount of MW to be installed.

2 Data as of the date of this press Release, in line with the announcement made with the publication of the 2016 annual results (data published on 23 March 2017)

Order intake 2017 accelerated to 40.5MW, representing approximately 16.6mln, up 37% compared to 2016, including not only utility-scale storage systems but also microgrids, smart islands and control systems for mobility and distribution applications.

Project Backlog as of the date hereof represents 25.1mln, of which 10.1mln of firm and irrevocable orders are on an EPC basis, and 15mln of projects are secured on a Power Purchase Agreement basis, for which the financing is currently being structured. Pipeline as of today is essentially stable to 150mln, meaning that projects converted into Backlog have been replaced by new opportunities under development.

The main regions where these systems have been installed or are under commissioning are Asia, North Africa, Southern Europe, and the Middle East. This result confirms the effectiveness of the EPS business model, which has been strengthened by the team and of the technology that has enabled EPS to accelerate its growth to 43 customers in 18 countries.

Despite an increase in projects' size and complexity, the gross margin stands at 40%, confirming the visibility of the business cash flow potential.

Personnel costs decreased by 5% to 3,503k compared with 3,696k in 2016, despite a 7% increase in human resources. This is essentially due to the intensity of the R&D effort constantly undertaken in parallel to the business execution, and to the related personnel cost investments aimed at implementing the potential of the EPS technology. In this respect, investments in R&D amounted to 2,693k, including both the amount accounted for in profit and loss and the one capitalised. These investments represent 27% of consolidated revenues, confirming the strong commitment of the Group to continued investing in research and development.

Other Operating Expenses decreased by 797k, amounting to 2,102k, compared to 2,899k due to cost rationalization and a more efficient internal organizational structure.

Despite the more structured industrial footprint, EBITDA loss has been reduced to -1.7mln for 2017 compared to -4.0mln in 2016. This is mainly due to the solidity of the Gross Margin generation in relative terms in parallel with the revenues' scale up.

As of 31 December 2017 net of the 3,1mln IFRS2 accounting of the EIB Warrants the Net Income was reduced by 31% compared to 2016 (from -8,557.6k to -5,923.3k). Non-recurrent items, which account for 2,576.6k, significantly affected the net income and are mainly represented by non-recurring legal, accounting and certification costs (for 986k), non-recurring distribution and business development expenses (for 1,022k) and non-recurring travel, communication and roadshow expenses (for 428k).

At the end of 2017, the net financial position of EPS, compared to 31 December 2016, decreased from -974.4k to -12,320.3k, mainly due to the growth of revenues, the backlog of orders and the related increase in working capital, as well as to continuous investments in research and development aimed at implementing the potential of EPS technology. More particularly, the change in working capital was at 5,821k on 31 December 2017, a significant increase of 454% compared to 31 December 2016. In this respect, EPS has continued to be supported by Intesa Sanpaolo, which on 6 March approved an additional 3,810k of working capital facilities to support the growth of EPS.

The Cash position, represented by liquid assets, cash and cash equivalents, amounted to 4,238k compared to 5,478k at the end of 2016.

On 31 December 2017, EPS had 1,449k in equity (before the IFRS2 adjustment) and total assets of 23,441.9k.

MAIN EVENTS IN 2017

The following principal events occurred in 2017:

Migrogrid in Australia: On 19 January 2017, the Group announced the successful delivery, the official start and commissioning phase of the storage systems sired to the Coober Pedy Renewable Hybrid Power Project's microgrid in Coober Pedy, Southern Australia. The hybrid power plant will be connected to a microgrid composed, in its final configuration, of 1MW of solar panels, 4MW of wind turbines and up to 6MVA of generators combined with a 1MW of storage system.

On 19 January 2017, the Group announced the successful delivery, the official start and commissioning phase of the storage systems sired to the Coober Pedy Renewable Hybrid Power Project's microgrid in Coober Pedy, Southern Australia. The hybrid power plant will be connected to a microgrid composed, in its final configuration, of 1MW of solar panels, 4MW of wind turbines and up to 6MVA of generators combined with a 1MW of storage system. Migrogrid in the Maldives: On 8 February 2017, the Group announced the performance results of its second microgrid in the Maldives and confirmed CO 2 reduction and that renewables coupled with the EPS storage system covered up to 63% of the resort's power requirements, enabling a reduction of diesel consumption by 423,000 litres per year, 50% more than expected at the time of commissioning in October 2016.

On 8 February 2017, the Group announced the performance results of its second microgrid in the Maldives and confirmed CO reduction and that renewables coupled with the EPS storage system covered up to 63% of the resort's power requirements, enabling a reduction of diesel consumption by 423,000 litres per year, 50% more than expected at the time of commissioning in October 2016. Migrogrid in Flinders Island: On 15 February 2017, the Group announced the commissioning of a hybrid storage system, in partnership with Toshiba, sired to Flinders Island's microgrid for Hydro Tasmania and Energy Developments, Australia's largest producer of renewable energy.

On 15 February 2017, the Group announced the commissioning of a hybrid storage system, in partnership with Toshiba, sired to Flinders Island's microgrid for Hydro Tasmania and Energy Developments, Australia's largest producer of renewable energy. Migrogrids in Sardinia: On 22 February 2017, the Group announced the realisation in Sardinia of an energy storage system microgrid for ENAS. The system is connected to the Ottana Experimental Solar Farm consisting of a concentrated solar power (CSP) farm integrated with thermal storage and with a capacity of 14MWh and a concentrated photovoltaic plant (CPV).

On 22 February 2017, the Group announced the realisation in Sardinia of an energy storage system microgrid for ENAS. The system is connected to the Ottana Experimental Solar Farm consisting of a concentrated solar power (CSP) farm integrated with thermal storage and with a capacity of 14MWh and a concentrated photovoltaic plant (CPV). Equity-linked 30mln loan with EIB: On 11 April 2017, EPS approved the equity-linked financing up to 30mln with the European Investment Bank ( EIB ), backed by the European Fund for Strategic Investments, which will support the company in its growth, continuous research, development and innovation activities, and further product commercialisation.

On 11 April 2017, EPS approved the equity-linked financing up to 30mln with the European Investment Bank ( ), backed by the European Fund for Strategic Investments, which will support the company in its growth, continuous research, development and innovation activities, and further product commercialisation. 2020 Strategic Plan: On 23 May 2017, EPS published the paper ' Energy Transition Technology Roadmap, distinguishing Hype from Reality. 2020 Strategic Technological Plan and Business Targets ', which includes the Strategy Plan 2020, describing the current stage of development of all technological challenges addressed by the Group, the business development strategy and the related financial targets to 2020.

On 23 May 2017, EPS published the paper ' ', which includes the Strategy Plan 2020, describing the current stage of development of all technological challenges addressed by the Group, the business development strategy and the related financial targets to 2020. Certified Integrated Management System: On 24 May 2017, the Company and E&Y's Sustainability Team finalised the new " Integrated Management System " of the Group, which now embodies the new quality management system (QMS) and the new environmental management system (EMS) of the Group and has been placed under the newly established Health, Environment, Safety and Quality Office of EPS.

On 24 May 2017, the Company and E&Y's Sustainability Team finalised the new " " of the Group, which now embodies the new quality management system (QMS) and the new environmental management system (EMS) of the Group and has been placed under the newly established Health, Environment, Safety and Quality Office of EPS. ISO Certification On 3 July 2017, EPS Elvi successfully overcame the certification audit held on its new Integrated Management System by RINA, the leading global certification body, resulting in compliance with ISO 9001:2015 (on 30 June 2017) and ISO 14001:2015 standards. In addition, EPS Elvi obtained the OHSAS 18001:2007 certification on 6 July 2017.

On 3 July 2017, EPS Elvi successfully overcame the certification audit held on its new Integrated Management System by RINA, the leading global certification body, resulting in compliance with ISO 9001:2015 (on 30 June 2017) and ISO 14001:2015 standards. In addition, EPS Elvi obtained the OHSAS 18001:2007 certification on 6 July 2017. Management Investment: On 8 August 2017, the capital increase reserved for the management was duly executed through the issuance of 196,932 shares with a par value of 0.20. The new shares were issued at a unit price of 7.15, representing a par value of 0.20 and 6.95 issue premium, accounting for a total increase in capital, issue premium included, of 1,408,063.80.

On 8 August 2017, the capital increase reserved for the management was duly executed through the issuance of 196,932 shares with a par value of 0.20. The new shares were issued at a unit price of 7.15, representing a par value of 0.20 and 6.95 issue premium, accounting for a total increase in capital, issue premium included, of 1,408,063.80. 34MW Order Intake : On 5 September 2017, EPS announced an order intake year-to-date of 34MW, amounting to approximately 14.3mln. According to the strategy presented in the 2020 Strategic Plan of the Group, most of that order intake is represented by EPC contracts (Engineering, Procurement and Construction), and it entails supply, installation, engineering and commissioning, as well as multi-year service agreements.

: On 5 September 2017, EPS announced an order intake year-to-date of 34MW, amounting to approximately 14.3mln. According to the strategy presented in the 2020 Strategic Plan of the Group, most of that order intake is represented by EPC contracts (Engineering, Procurement and Construction), and it entails supply, installation, engineering and commissioning, as well as multi-year service agreements. 20MW Contract with Enel: On 13 September 2017, EPS announced the agreement with Endesa, the Spanish utility part of the Enel Group, for the supply of an energy storage system (ESS) with a power capacity of 20MW and a lifetime of 8 years. EPS will deliver a unique turnkey solution for serving Endesa's thermoelectric plant Carboneras located in Almeria, Spain. The storage system will be the largest in Spain and aims to make the plant more flexible and improve its response to the load fluctuations in the current electricity system that result from the intermittency caused by an increased penetration of renewables.

On 13 September 2017, EPS announced the agreement with Endesa, the Spanish utility part of the Enel Group, for the supply of an energy storage system (ESS) with a power capacity of 20MW and a lifetime of 8 years. EPS will deliver a unique turnkey solution for serving Endesa's thermoelectric plant Carboneras located in Almeria, Spain. The storage system will be the largest in Spain and aims to make the plant more flexible and improve its response to the load fluctuations in the current electricity system that result from the intermittency caused by an increased penetration of renewables. E-Mobility Business: On 2 November 2017, the transfer of the e-Mobility and Power Electronics Lab going concern from the Italian subsidiary EPS Elvi to EPS took place. By the end of March the setup of a permanent establishment in Italy will completed, with related eligibility for PIR investments.

On 2 November 2017, the transfer of the e-Mobility and Power Electronics Lab going concern from the Italian subsidiary EPS Elvi to EPS took place. By the end of March the setup of a permanent establishment in Italy will completed, with related eligibility for PIR investments. Microgrid in Chile: On 12 December 2017, Enel Green Power signed the SAT (site acceptance test) of the hybrid power plant developed by the EPS Group in Chile (Atacama Desert 4,000m above sea level) that combines renewables with the complete set of innovative technologies: first hybrid mini-grid with hydrogen and Li-ion storage technology.

SUBSEQUENT EVENTS

On 24 January 2018, ENGIE signed of a share purchase agreement with its main shareholders to acquire a majority stake of EPS slightly above 50% of the share capital and voting rights. In order to achieve that threshold, the agreement also involved the members of the Board of Directors and the management team. A new retention and long-term incentive plan linked to the development of the company has been set-up, to secure and strengthen the full commitment of the management team until 2021.

On 7 March 2018, a new Board of Directors was appointed: Jean Rappe (Chairman), Carlalberto Guglielminotti (CEO), Massimo Prelz Oltramonti, Freideirique Dufresnoy, Sophie Mertens-Stobbaerts, Anne Harvengt, Audrey Robat and Sonia Levy-Odier.

On 8 March 2018, EPS announced the closing of the acquisition by ENGIE of a strategic ownership interest in EPS of about 51% of the share capital and voting rights. The transaction is executed at 9,5 per share and will be followed by the filing of a simplified mandatory tender offer at the same price, subject to the fairness opinion of Associei en Finance, the independent expert appointed by EPS according to the article 261-1 I of the General Rules of the AMF General Regulation.

About ELECTRO POWER SYSTEMS

Electro Power Systems (EPS) operates in the sustainable energy sector, specialising in storage solutions and microgrids that enable intermittent renewable sources to be transformed into a stable power source. Listed on the French-regulated market Euronext (EPS:FP), EPS is part of the CAC Mid Small and the CAC All-Tradable indices. Its registered office is in Paris and conducts its research, development and manufacturing in Italy. Thanks to technology covered by 125 patents and applications, combined with more than 10 years of R&D, the Group develops utility scale energy storage systems to stabilize electrical grids that are heavily penetrated by renewable sources in developed countries and microgrids in emerging economies to power off-grid areas at a lower cost than fossil fuels. As of 30 June 2017, EPS has installed and has under commissioning an aggregate of 36 large scale projects, including off-grid hybrid systems powered by renewables and energy storage that provides energy to over 165,000 customers every day, with a total capacity output of 47MWh systems in 21 countries worldwide, including Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa.

Forward looking statement

This release may contain some forward-looking statements. These statements are not undertakings as to the future performance of the Company. Although the Company considers that such statements are based on reasonable expectations and assumptions at the date of publication of this release, they are by their nature subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause actual performance to differ from those indicated or implied in such statements. These risks and uncertainties include without limitation the risk factors that are described in the 2016 Prospectus and its update, both registered in France with the French Autorite des Marches Financiers.

These forward looking statements can be identified by the use of forward looking terminology, including the verbs or terms "anticipates", "believes", "estimates", "expects", "intends", "may", "plans", "build- up", "under discussion" or "potential customer", "should" or "will", "projects", "backlog" or "pipeline" or, in each case, their negative or other variations or comparable terminology, or by discussions of strategy, plans, objectives, goals, future events or intentions. These forward-looking statements include all matters that are not historical facts. They appear throughout this announcement and include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the Group's intentions, beliefs or current expectations concerning, among other things, the Group's results of business development, operations, financial position, prospects, financing strategies, expectations for product design and development, regulatory applications and approvals, reimbursement arrangements, costs of sales and market penetration.

By their nature, forward looking statements involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to future events and circumstances. Forward looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and the actual results of the Group's operations, and the development of the markets and the industry in which the Groups operates, may differ materially from those described in, or suggested by, the forward-looking statements contained in this announcement. In addition, even if the Group's results of operations, financial position and growth, and the development of the markets and the industry in which the Group operates, are consistent with the forward-looking statements contained in this announcement, those results or developments may not be indicative of results or developments in subsequent periods. A number of factors could cause results and developments of the Group to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward looking statements including, without limitation, general economic and business conditions, the global energy market conditions, industry trends, competition, changes in law or regulation, changes in taxation regimes, the availability and cost of capital, the time required to commence and complete sale cycles, currency fluctuations, changes in its business strategy, political and economic uncertainty. The forward-looking statements herein speak only at the date of this announcement.

The EPS Group does not have the obligation and undertakes no obligation to update or revise any of the forward-looking statements.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

1. CONSOLIDATED INCOME STATEMENT

Exercise and period closed CONSOLIDATED INCOME STATEMENT

(amounts in Euro) 31/12/2017 31/12/2016 Revenues 9.898.994 7.087.993 Other Income 107.371 226.823 TOTAL REVENUES AND OTHER INCOME 10.006.365 7.314.816 Cost of goods sold (6.030.347) (4.080.960) GROSS MARGIN FROM SALES 3.976.018 3.233.856 % on Revenues 40% 46% Personnel costs (3.503.332) (3.696.249) Other operating expenses (2.102.364) (2.899.101) Other costs for R&D and construction contract losses (115.026) (614.895) EBITDA (1) (1.744.704) (3.976.389) Amortization and depreciation (1.276.156) (1.219.064) Impairment and write down (65.174) (264.343) Non recurring income and expenses (2.576.662) (1.391.870) Stock Option and Warrant Plans (331.539) (1.620.213) EBIT (5.994.235) (8.471.879) Net financial income and expenses (747.538) (45.230) Revaluation of European Investment Bank warrants liabilities (IFRS 2) (3.086.219) 0 Income Taxes 818.482 (40.493) NET INCOME (LOSS) (9.009.510) (8.557.602) Attributable to: Equity holders of the parent company (9.009.510) (8.557.601) Basic earnings per share (1,10) (1,09) Weighted average number of ordinary shares outstanding 8.155.295 7.881.807 Diluted earnings per share (2) (1,10) (1,09) (1) EBITDA is not defined by IFRS. It is defined in notes 3.5 and 4.6 (2) Considering the negative net result, Diluted earnings per share has been aligned to Basic earnings per share

2. CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF OTHER COMPREHENSIVE INCOME

Exercise and period closed OTHER COMPREHENSIVE INCOME

(amounts in Euro) 31/12/2017 31/12/2016 NET INCOME (LOSS) (9.009.510) (8.557.601) Exchange differences on translation of foreign operations and other differences (23.095) 1.171 Actuarial gain and (losses) on employee benefits 44.263 (22.439) Other comprehensive income (loss) for the year, net of tax 21.168 (21.268) Total comprehensive income for the year, net of tax (8.988.342) (8.578.869) Attributable to Equity holders of the parent company (8.988.342) (8.578.869)

3. CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEET

Exercise and period closed ASSETS

(amounts in Euro) 31/12/2017 31/12/2016 Property, plant and equipment 753.412 804.751 Intangible assets 6.264.545 4.760.511 Other non current financial assets 73.757 151.884 TOTAL NON CURRENT ASSETS 7.091.714 5.717.146 Trade receivables 7.930.919 4.806.111 Inventories 997.352 1.144.152 Other current assets 3.184.393 1.546.220 Cash and cash equivalent 4.237.540 5.477.790 TOTAL CURRENT ASSETS 16.350.204 12.974.273 TOTAL ASSETS 23.441.918 18.691.419 Exercise and period closed EQUITY AND LIABILITIES

(amounts in Euro) 31/12/2017 31/12/2016 Issued capital 1.687.926 1.576.361 Share premium 19.451.395 18.082.718 Other Reserves 6.431.264 6.009.583 Retained Earnings (20.198.389) (11.640.814) Profit (Loss) for the year before Revaluation of European Investment Bank warrants liabilities (IFRS 2) (5.923.291) (8.557.601) TOTAL EQUITY 1.448.905 5.470.247 Revaluation of European Investment Bank warrants liabilities (IFRS 2)- Impact on Net Profit (3.086.219) 0 Total Equity IFRS after European Investment Bank variation (IFRS 2) (1.637.314) 5.470.247 Severance indemnity reserve 688.821 667.507 Non current financial liabilities 13.403.102 4.834.771 Other financial liabilities Revaluation of European Investment Bank warrants liabilities (IFRS 2) 3.086.219 0 Non current deferred tax liabilities 107.285 198.076 TOTAL NON CURRENT LIABILITIES 17.285.427 5.700.354 Trade payables 3.073.080 4.566.453 Other current liabilities 1.546.769 1.236.631 Current financial liabilities 3.154.739 1.712.608 Income tax payable 19.218 5.126 TOTAL CURRENT LIABILITIES 7.793.806 7.520.818 TOTAL EQUITY AND LIABILITIES 23.441.918 18.691.419

4. CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN EQUITY

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF

CHANGES IN EQUITY

(amounts in Euro) Share Capital Premium Reserve Other Reserves Retained Earnings

(Losses) Profit (Loss) for

the period TOTAL NET EQUITY Revaluation of European Investment Bank warrants liabilities (IFRS 2)- Impact on Net Profit Total Equity after Revaluation of European Investment Bank warrants liabilities (IFRS 2) Net Equity as of December 31, 2016 1.576.361 18.082.718 6.009.583 (11.640.814) (8.557.601) 5.470.247 0 5.470.247 Previous year result allocation 0 0 0 (8.557.601) 8.557.601 0 0 Treasury shares 0 0 62.294 0 0 62.294 62.294 Stock option and warrants 0 0 338.244 0 0 338.244 338.244 Shareholder's capital increase 111.565 1.368.677 0 0 0 1.480.243 1.480.243 Loss for the period 0 0 0 0 (5.923.291) (5.923.291) (5.923.291) Actuarial gains and losses on defined benefit plans 0 0 44.263 0 0 44.263 44.263 Other differences (17.492) 0 0 (17.492) (17.492) Currency translation differences 0 0 (5.628) 26 0 (5.602) (5.602) Total comprehensive income 0 0 21.142 26 (5.923.291) (5.902.123) (5.902.123) Net Equity as of December 31, 2017 1.687.926 19.451.395 6.431.264 (20.198.389) (5.923.291) 1.448.905 1.448.905 Revaluation of European Investment Bank warrants liabilities (IFRS 2)- Impact on Net Profit (3.086.219) (3.086.219) Net Equity IFRS 2 adjusted as of December 31, 2017 1.687.926 19.451.395 6.431.264 (20.198.389) (5.923.291) 1.448.905 (3.086.219) (1.637.314)

5. CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT IN CASH FLOW

CASH FLOW STATEMENT

(amounts in Euro) 31/12/2017 31/12/2016 Net Income or Loss (9.009.510) (8.557.601) Non-cash adjustment to reconcile profit before tax to net cash flows 0 (6.264) Revaluation of European Investment Bank warrants liabilities (IFRS 2) 3.086.219 0 Amortisation and depreciation 1.276.156 1.219.064 Impairment and write down 65.173 264.343 Stock option and warrant plan accrual 331.539 1.620.213 Non-cash variation in bank debts 486.276 0 Income related to composition with creditors 0 0 Decrease (increase) in trade and other receivables and prepayments (4.684.855) (1.691.205) Decrease (increase) in inventories 146.800 (469.562) Increase (decrease) in trade and other payables (1.259.936) 2.880.574 Increase (decrease) in non current assets and liabilities 697.176 331.104 Net cash flows from operating activities (9.584.726) (4.409.334) Investments Net Decrease (Increase) in intangible assets (2.581.110) (2.220.566) Net Cash flow deriving from business combination 0 (2.740.902) Net Decrease (Increase) in tangible assets (147.741) (254.499) Net cash flows from investments activities (2.728.851) (5.215.968) Financing Increase (decrease) in bank debts 9.524.186 6.521.635 Shareholders cash injection 1.480.243 0 Purchase of treasury shares 62.294 1.478 Warrants 6.605 1.168 Receipt of government grants 0 5.000 Net cash flows from financing activities 11.073.328 6.529.281 Net cash and cash equivalent at the beginning of the period 5.477.790 8.573.811 NET CASH FLOW FOR THE PERIOD (1.240.249) (3.096.021) NET CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTS AT THE END OF THE PERIOD 4.237.540 5.477.790

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180328006101/en/

Contacts:

EPS Press contacts:

Image Building

Eps@imagebuilding.it

or

EPS Investor relations contact:

francesca.cocco@eps-mail.com
NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / March 28, 2018 / Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Cemex, S.A.B. de C.V. ("Cemex" or the "Company") (NYSE: CX) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, Southern District of New York, and docketed under 18-cv-02352, is on behalf of a class consisting of investors who purchased or otherwise acquired Cemex American Depositary Receipts ("ADRs") between August 14, 2014 and March 13, 2018, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period"). Plaintiff seeks to recover compensable damages caused by Defendants' violations of the federal securities laws and to pursue remedies under Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the "Exchange Act") and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder.

If you are a shareholder who purchased Cemex ADRs between August 14, 2014, and March 13, 2018, both dates inclusive, you have until May 15, 2018, to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll-free, Ext. 9980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and the number of shares purchased.

[Click here to join this class action]

Cemex is a global building materials company that produces, distributes, and markets cement, ready-mix concrete, aggregates, and related building materials. Cemex operates throughout the Americas, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

The Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company's business, operational and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) Cemex executives had engaged in an unlawful bribery scheme in connection with the Company's business dealings in Colombia; (ii) discovery of the foregoing conduct would likely subject the Company to heightened regulatory scrutiny and potential criminal sanctions; (iii) the Company lacked adequate internal controls over financial reporting; and (iv) as a result, Cemex's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.

On September 23, 2016, post-market, Cemex disclosed the Company's dismissal of two senior executives after an internal probe found that payments worth $20 million relating to a land deal in Colombia had breached company protocols.

On this news, Cemex's American depositary receipt ("ADR") price fell $0.17, or 2.28%, to close at $7.26 on September 26, 2016.

On December 9, 2016, Cemex disclosed receipt of a subpoena from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission seeking information about irregular payments made at the Company's Colombia unit.

Then, on March 14, 2018, Cemex disclosed that the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating the Company over payments made by the Company related to a cement plant it is building in Colombia to determine whether any violations of federal bribery laws occurred.

On this news, Cemex's ADR price fell $0.12, or 1.64%, to close at $7.21 on March 14, 2018.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com.

SOURCE: Pomerantz LLP
Biteable, a Hobart and Melbourne, Australia-based online video maker provider, raised $2.8m AUD in Series A funding.

The round was led by venture capital firms Tank Stream Ventures and Microequities Venture Capital Fund. Following the investment, Justin Lipman of Microequities Venture Capital Fund will join the Biteable board of directors.

The company intends to use the funds to drive further global growth of the platform and make up to 50 new hires this year across development, design, marketing and copywriting.

Founded in 2014 by CEO James MacGregor, Biteable is an online platform for major brands and small and medium sized businesses around the globe to create ads, infographics, animations, explainer videos, and presentations.

Today, nearly 3 million people use the online video maker.

The platform offers a freemium model or a subscription option of $99 USD per year.

FinSMEs

27/03/2018
Copyleaks, an Israeli startup specializing in plagiarism detection, closed a seed round of funding of undisclosed amount.

The round was led by Connecticut Innovations(CI), with participation from investors in China, Israel, Italy and the United States.

Founded in 2015 by Alon Yamin and Yehonatan Bitton, both former programmers in the Israeli Defense Forces in the 8200 intelligence unit, Copyleaks has created a cloud based solution for educational institutions, learning and content management systems, publishers, SEO agencies and other platforms to identify plagiarism, using advanced AI technologies to detect similar content around the web.

The software searches content on billions of webpages, sites and also online databases and then uses algorithms to find comprehensive yet accurate results for almost every language. It is currently available as an Android app and iOS app and can be fully connected to a desktop account.

With the backing of CI, the company is now making its entrance into the U.S. market with a new office in Stamford, Connecticut, expanding its sales team to work with the vast array of technology companies and universities around the world, including Microsoft Education, to help teachers and students know if the content they have submitted is original.

Copyleaks previously raised money from private investors in 2015 and ICONYC Labs.

FinSMEs

28/03/2018
At the invitation of Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and Chinese president, Kim Jong Un, chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), paid an unofficial visit to China from Sunday to Wednesday.

At the invitation of Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and Chinese president, Kim Jong Un, chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), has paid an unofficial visit to China from March 25 to 28. During the visit, Xi held talks with Kim at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Xi held a welcoming ceremony for Kim before their talks. [Photo: Xinhua/Ju Peng]

During the visit, Xi held talks with Kim at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan held a welcoming banquet for Kim and his wife Ri Sol Ju and watched an art performance together.

Li Keqiang, Chinese premier and member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Wang Huning, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, and Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan attended related activities, respectively.

During the talks, Xi expressed warm welcome on behalf of the CPC Central Committee to Kim for his first visit to China.

Xi said he appreciated that Kim sent him a congratulatory message after the 19th CPC National Congress on his re-election as general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and the assumption of office of chairman of the CPC Central Military Commission (CMC).

Xi was also grateful to Kim for congratulating him again several days ago immediately after he was re-elected China's president and chairman of the CMC of the country.

Xi said Kim's current visit to China, which came at a special time and was of great significance, fully embodied the great importance that Comrade Chairman and the WPK Central Committee have attached to the relations between the two countries and the two parties.

"We speak highly of this visit," Xi told Kim.

Xi Jinping (2nd R), general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and Chinese president, and his wife Peng Liyuan (1st R) meet with Kim Jong Un (2nd L), chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), and his wife Ri Sol Ju at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China. At the invitation of Xi, Kim paid an unofficial visit to China from March 25 to 28. During the visit, Xi held talks with Kim. [Photo: Xinhua/Ju Peng]

For his part, Kim said a series of major and happy events have taken place consecutively in China recently, as the 19th CPC National Congress was held victoriously last year, and the annual sessions of the National People's Congress and the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference were successfully held not long ago.

Kim said Comrade Xi Jinping enjoyed the support of the CPC and the people of the whole country, became the core of the leadership and was re-elected Chinese president and CMC chairman. He said it is his obligation to come to congratulate Xi in person, in line with the DPRK-China friendly tradition.

At present, the Korean Peninsula situation is developing rapidly and many important changes have taken place, Kim said, adding that he felt he should come in time to inform Comrade General Secretary Xi Jinping in person the situation out of comradeship and moral responsibility.

Xi said the China-DPRK traditional friendship, established and cultivated meticulously by the elder generations of leaders of both parties and both countries, was the precious wealth of both sides.

Sharing common ideals and beliefs as well as profound revolutionary friendship, the elder generations of leaders of the two countries trusted and supported each other, and wrote a fine story in the history of international relations, said Xi.

He said several generations of the leaders of China and the DPRK have maintained close exchanges and paid frequent calls on each other like relatives.

The two parties and countries have supported each other and coordinated with each other during long-term practices, making great contributions to the development of the socialist cause.

"Both Comrade Chairman and I have personally experienced and witnessed the development of China-DPRK relationship," said Xi, adding that both sides have stated repeatedly that traditional China-DPRK friendship should be passed on continuously and developed better.

"This is a strategic choice and the only right choice both sides have made based on history and reality, the international and regional structure and the general situation of China-DPRK ties. This should not and will not change because of any single event at a particular time," Xi said.

The CPC and the Chinese government highly value China-DPRK friendly cooperative ties, Xi stressed. It is an unswerving principle of the CPC and the Chinese government to maintain, consolidate and develop good relations with the DPRK, he said.

"We are willing to work together with DPRK comrades, remain true to our original aspiration and jointly move forward, to promote long-term healthy and stable development of China-DPRK relations, benefit the two countries and two peoples, and make new contribution to regional peace, stability and development," Xi said.

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and Chinese president, holds talks with Kim Jong Un, chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China. At the invitation of Xi, Kim paid an unofficial visit to China from March 25 to 28. [Photo: Xinhua/Yao Dawei]

Xi made four proposals concerning the development of China-DPRK relations.

Firstly, continue giving play to the guiding role of high-level exchanges. High-level exchanges have always played the most important guiding and promoting role in the history of China-DPRK relations. Under the new circumstances, I am willing to keep frequent contacts with Comrade Chairman through various forms such as exchange of visits, and sending special envoys and letters to each other.

Secondly, make full play of the time-tested valuable practices of strategic communication. It is the splendid tradition of the two parties to have frequent in-depth exchange of views on major issues. Both sides should maximize the important role of party-to-party exchanges, promote exchanges and cooperation between the two countries in various areas, and strengthen communication and mutual trust.

Thirdly, actively advance peaceful development. Socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, and the DPRK's socialist construction has also ushered in a new historical period. We are ready to make joint efforts with the DPRK side, conform to the trend of the times, hold high the banner of peace, development, cooperation and mutual benefit, continuously improve the wellbeing of the two peoples, and make positive contribution to regional peace, stability and development.

Fourthly, cement the popular will foundation for China-DPRK friendship. The two sides should, through various forms, enhance people-to-people exchanges, consolidate the foundation of popular will for bilateral friendly relations, especially enhance youth exchanges, inherit and carry forward the fine tradition of China-DPRK friendship.

Kim said he was greatly encouraged and inspired by General Secretary Xi's important views on DPRK-China friendship and the development of relations between the two parties and countries.

The DPRK-China friendship, which was founded and nurtured by the elder generations of leaders of both countries, is unshakable, he said. It is a strategic choice of the DPRK to pass on and develop friendship with China under the new situation, and it will remain unchanged under any circumstances.

Kim said his current visit aims to meet Chinese comrades, enhance strategic communication, and deepen traditional friendship, hoping to have opportunities to meet with Comrade General Secretary Xi Jinping often, and keep close contacts through such forms as sending special envoys and personal letters to each other, so as to promote to a new level the guidance of high-level meetings to the relations between the two parties and countries.

The two sides informed each other of their respective domestic situation. Xi said the 19th CPC National Congress had drawn a grand blueprint for building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects -- building a moderately prosperous society in all respects by 2020, having basically achieved modernization by 2035 and building a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful by the middle of the century.

The CPC will lead the Chinese people of all ethnic groups in keeping on working with great determination and continuously striving for the realization of the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation, Xi said.

"We have noticed that Comrade Chairman has led the WPK and the people of the DPRK in taking a series of active measures and scoring achievements in developing economy and improving people's wellbeing in recent years," Xi said.

The Chinese side expects political stability, economic development and people's happiness in the DPRK, and supports the WPK, led by Comrade Chairman, in leading the people of the DPRK to advance along the path of socialism, as well as the endeavors by comrades of the DPRK in developing economy and improving people's livelihood, Xi said.

Kim said, since the 18th CPC National Congress, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core has, with tremendous political courage and a strong sense of responsibility, developed new thinking and new ideas, put them into action, and solved many tough problems that were never resolved and accomplished many big things that were long on the agenda but never got done. These achievements fully proved that the lines of the CPC are correct lines that accord with the national conditions. In particular, Comrade General Secretary has put forward the requirements that the Party should exercise effective self-supervision and practice strict self-governance in every respect, which has contributed greatly to Party building and realized the overall Party leadership over all work. At present, the WPK is also intensifying its efforts in fighting against arrogance, bureaucracy and corruption.

Kim said he sincerely hoped that China will continuously make new great achievements in the course of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and a great modern socialist country.

Kim Jong Un, chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), visits an exhibition showcasing the innovation achievements of the Chinese Academy of Sciences since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC). At the invitation of Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Central Committee of the CPC and Chinese president, Kim paid an unofficial visit to China from March 25 to 28. During the visit, Xi held talks with Kim at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. [Photo: Xinhua/Yao Dawei]

The two leaders thoroughly exchanged views on the situation of the world and the Korean Peninsula.

Xi said that positive changes had taken place on the Korean Peninsula since this year, and China appreciates the important efforts made by the DPRK.

On the Korean Peninsula issue, Xi said that China sticks to the goal of denuclearization of the peninsula, safeguarding peace and stability on the peninsula and solving problems through dialogue and consultation.

China calls on all parties to support the improvement of inter-Korean ties, and take concrete efforts to facilitate peace talks, said Xi, noting that China will continue to play constructive role on the issue and work with all parties, including the DPRK, toward the thaw of the situation on the peninsula.

Kim said that the situation on the Korean Peninsula is starting to get better, as the DPRK has taken the initiative to ease tensions and put forward proposals for peace talks.

"It is our consistent stand to be committed to denuclearization on the peninsula, in accordance with the will of late President Kim Il Sung and late General Secretary Kim Jong Il," he said.

Kim said that the DPRK is determined to transform the inter-Korean ties into a relationship of reconciliation and cooperation and hold summit between the heads of the two sides.

The DPRK is willing to have dialogue with the United States and hold a summit of the two countries, he said.

"The issue of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula can be resolved, if south Korea and the United States respond to our efforts with goodwill, create an atmosphere of peace and stability while taking progressive and synchronous measures for the realization of peace," said Kim.

The DPRK hopes to enhance strategic communication with China during the process, jointly safeguard the trend of consultation and dialogue as well as peace and stability on the peninsula, said Kim.

Before the talks, Xi held a welcoming ceremony for Kim at the North Hall of the Great Hall of the People.

After the talks, Xi and Peng held a welcoming banquet for Kim and Ri. While delivering an address, Xi said that in the beautiful season of spring when everything is coming back to life, the unofficial visit of Comrade Kim Jong Un and Lady Ri Sol Ju to China is of great significance for the two countries to deepen communication, strengthen coordination and promote cooperation, and will push the relations between the two parties and the two countries to a new high in the new historical phase, as well as make important contributions to pushing forward the peace, stability and development in the region.

Xi said he had candid and friendly talks with Chairman Kim Jong Un. "We agreed that carrying forward the traditional friendship between China and the DPRK accords with the common interests of both sides, and is the common strategic choice of both sides."

"No matter how the international and regional situation changes, we will both firmly grasp the global development trend and the overall situation of the China-DPRK relationship, strengthen our high-level exchanges, deepen our strategic communication, expand our exchanges and cooperation, and benefit the people of both countries and the people of all countries," he said.

While addressing the banquet, Kim said that as the situation of the Korean Peninsula is undergoing unprecedented changes, he paid a swift visit to China, out of good wishes for promoting peace and stability on the peninsula, and carrying on and developing the DPRK-China friendship.

He said the fact that he chose China as the destination of his first overseas visit showed his will to carry forward the tradition of DPRK-China friendship, and how he valued the friendship between the two countries.

"I have had successful talks with General Secretary Xi Jinping on developing relations between the two parties and the two countries, our respective domestic situation, maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, and other issues," he said.

"In this spring full of happiness and hopes, I believe my first meeting with General Secretary Xi Jinping will yield abundant fruits of DPRK-China friendship, and facilitate peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula," he said.

During the visit, Xi and Peng held a luncheon for Kim and Ri in the Yangyuanzhai Room of the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. Xi said that the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse has witnessed the development of the traditional friendship between the two countries, and the close relations between leaders of the elder generations of the two parties and two countries "have set an example for us."

"We welcome Chairman Kim Jong Un and Lady Ri Sol Ju to visit China now and again," Xi said.

Kim said that the DPRK-China friendship is especially precious, adding he would like to join hands with Xi to follow the noble will of leaders of the elder generations, carry on and develop the DPRK-China friendship that remains unchanged despite winds and rains, and elevate it to a new high under new circumstances.

Kim also visited an exhibition showcasing the innovation achievements of the Chinese Academy of Sciences since the 18th CPC National Congress. Kim showed his admiration for China's accomplishments in the development and innovation of science and technology, and wrote an inscription to mark the visit.

Ding Xuexiang, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and director of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee; Yang Jiechi, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee; Guo Shengkun, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the CPC Central Committee; Huang Kunming, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee; Cai Qi, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee; and State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi attended the activities.

Choe Ryong Hae, vice-chairman of the WPK Central Committee and director of the Organization and Guidance Department; Pak Kwang Ho, vice-chairman of the WPK Central Committee and director of the Propaganda and Agitation Department; Ri Su Yong, vice-chairman of the WPK Central Committee and director of the International Department; Kim Yong Chol, vice-chairman of the WPK Central Committee and director of the United Front Department and Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, accompanied Kim Jong Un on his China tour and attended related activities.
Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE:6501, Hitachi) is to invest in a fund managed by Geodesic Capital, a venture capital firm active in Silicon Valley.

Hitachi will invest as a limited partner in Geodesic Capital Fund I-S, a supplemental fund (of a value up to US$165m) of the firms first fund which was established in 2015. By investing in this vehicle, the tech company will accelerate open innovation with startup companies in Silicon Valley using Geodesic Capitals network.

Established in 2015 by John Roos, former United States Ambassador to Japan, Ashvin Bachireddy, previously a growth stage partner at Andreessen Horowitz, and Mitsubishi Corporation, Geodesic Capital is a venture capital firm investing in rapidly growing technology companies in Silicon Valley and the broader U.S. using capital gathered from Japanese companies, supporting their entry into Japan, and connecting Japanese companies with Silicon Valley companies to support the creation of new business.

In addition to the investment, Hitachi America, Ltd., will establish its new Global Open Innovation Division on April 1 as an organization dedicated to open innovations. By utilizing Geodesic Capitals network, the division will promote open innovations with startup companies. At the same time, in Japan, Hitachi will establish its Open Innovation Division in the Future Investment Division, which was established in April 2017 to create new business and oversee strategic investments in its Social Innovation Business (which promotes the effective use of advanced technologies such as AI and robotics).

The establishment of these two divisions will accelerate business rollout and collaborations with startup companies and other outside entities.

FinSMEs

28/03/2018
Forget the angular momentum created by spinning on its axis  money makes the world go around.

Theoretically, there is a finite amount of wealth distributed across the earth  with each country offering their best services and products, taking advantage of their climates, their natural resources, and the skills of their workers to provide the greatest offering to reap the greatest reward. But, when it comes to the richest countries, how correct are we in our assumptions? Are the UK and USA top of the table or have the BRIC countries (developing economies and industries: Brazil, Russia, India, China) managed to shift the balance? Well, there are actually many answers to that question.

Wealth Per Capita

One way of measuring how rich a country is is by measuring the wealth per capita or how much each person in the country has. After all, the whole is only as great as the sum of its parts so a countrys wealth could be measured by how wealthy each member of that countrys population is. Credit Suisse S.A. published an account of each countrys wealth per capita in November 2017 figures influenced by real estate, equity market, exchange rates, resources, and tech advancements. Topping the table for wealth per adult was Iceland with $587,649, followed by Switzerland at $537,599, and Australia at $402,603. The US came next with $388,585  yet dropped to 25th place when analyzing the median wealth of each citizen and topped the table for overall wealth as a country, with $93,560 billion.

Number of Billionaires

Another way of measuring how wealthy a country is is through the amount if million/billionaires. If a country has the means to create individuals with great wealth, then the country itself can be deemed to be wealthy. Indeed, according to CNBC, the US has produced 585 billionaires (in its short time as a nation, relative to others) who boast $2.466 trillion collectively. China follows far behind with 260 at $675 billion  which is significantly lower considering the greater population. Indeed, Jeff Bezos stands at the richest billionaire in the world, according to Betway. Bezos created the Amazon empire and jumped from millionaire to billionaire in just two years, totaling a wealth of $90billion, and continued this growth with the purchase of The Washington Post. Americans Bill Gates and Warren Buffett round out the top three. Judging by this analysis, the US could be deemed the richest country. The industrial spirit of the USA shows that, for SMEs, the country provides the greatest opportunities to gain wealth and grow as a business. Bose have recently started a scheme to invest in start-ups, which reinforces the American dream way of becoming a billionaire.

State-Owned Wealth

Finally, by measuring state-owned wealth, we can also gain a picture of which countries are the wealthiest. To measure this, we can look at countries with state-owned funds or sovereign wealth funds. The USA tops the list here, with $2,911.4 billion in non-commodities, while Japan and Norway follow behind ($1328 billion and $954.1 billion respectively) in national pensions and oil tied into the country. This also explains how Kuwait and Hong Kong can be considered among the top 50% wealthiest countries due to their reserves of commodities and funds. SMEs can learn that by taking on the natural resources or the commodities native to a country, greater trade links can be made through it, which can fall back on the exchange of currency in forex.

But, Costa Rica could also be seen as the richest country  if the measure was in happiness, as it was deemed the happiest nation in the world, despite being cash-poor. Or Colombia and Argentina could be classed as wealthiest, as they have the most amount of public holidays (18). Ultimately, the wealthiest country will be down to the metrics placed upon it. Usually financial, the tables generally give a view that the USA is one of the wealthiest countries in the world.
The buyer will have to retain the 'Air India' brand for a few years.

After a long wait, the Narendra Modi government, on Wednesday, proposed to offload a 76 percent stake in troubled national carrier Air India (AI), CNBC TV18 reported. According to the report, companies with a net worth of at least Rs 5000 crore can bid for the carrier. Consortia can also table bids, provided each member of a consortium holds a 20 percent share.

Bidders need to be PAT (profit after tax) positive for at least three of the preceding five financial years from the expression of interest (EoI) deadline.

The government, which has now issued a preliminary information memorandum for the AI disinvestment, also said it is in the process of spinning off other group companies to separate SPVs (special purpose vehicles).

The bidder must ensure that only Indian nationals have control over Air India. Also, the buyer will have to retain the 'Air India' brand for a few years, the government added.

New Delhi has appointed Ernst & Young LLP as the sole transaction advisor. The Centre will notify qualified interested bidders by 28 May.

The bidding process is expected to be completed by June this year. Earlier, the Modi government said that it will kick-off the Air India stake sale with the sale of the parent airline and Air India Charters, which operates low-cost flights under the 'Air India Express' brand.

In June 2017, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) gave its in-principle approval for the strategic divestment of Air India, which has a debt burden of over Rs 50,000 crore.
Manipal Hospitals, which will be acquiring hospitals business of Fortis, will raise funds through internal accruals and debt to fund its share of the deal

Manipal Hospitals, which will be acquiring the hospitals business of Fortis Healthcare Ltd (FHL) along with TPG Capital, will raise funds through internal accruals and debt to fund its share of the deal, according to a media report.

In an interview to Moneycontrol, Ranjan Pai, Chairman, Manipal Education and Medical Group (MEMG), said his company is looking to unlock the 'value in scale', as the new entity emerges as India's biggest healthcare provider.

Fortis Healthcare on Wednesday said the merger of its hospitals business into Manipal Hospitals is expected to be completed in 10-12 months. The Fortis Board had on Tuesday approved the demerger of its hospitals business, along with the sale of a 20 percent stake in diagnostics chain SRL Ltd.

The resultant entity Manipal Hospitals will be a publicly traded company listed on the NSE and the BSE. The remaining FHL will be an investment holding company with a 36.6 percent stake in SRL

As part of the transaction, Pai and TPG will invest Rs 3,900 crore in to the merged entity. The combined entity will have a pan India presence with 45 hospitals, with over 7,658 beds. It will operate with 4,200 doctors, over 9,300 nurses and an additional 11,400-plus staffers across India.

Responding to the question on why Manipal Hospitals decided to target Fortis Hospitals, Pai told Moneycontrol, "I think Fortis has got a good footprint, great doctors and good clinical practices and they were the clinching factors. I think the complication of the whole transaction was more about what has happening in the company. That's why it took us little longer and go through this structure. The core assets and stuff, the synergies we can add to it and what Manipal can bring to the table."

Pai, in an internal communication, said that both Manipal Hospitals and Fortis Healthcare "make a compelling strategic fit, in terms of complementary geographies, clinical strengths and a shared commitment to provide outstanding patient care", reported the Business Standard.

Shares of Fortis Healthcare tanked 9.58 percent in afternoon trade on Wednesday on the BSE, hovering at Rs 128.80 apiece.

Wednesday's deal comes at a time when the promoters of Fortis - Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh - are facing intense pressure over alleged financial irregularities at FHL and Religare. The Singh brothers quit the boards of Fortis and Religare last month.

On 13 March, private lender Yes Bank announced it had acquired an over 17 percent stake in Fortis Healthcare, making the bank the largest shareholder in the healthcare firm In a stock exchange filing, Yes Bank had said the 17.31 percent equity in Fortis was acquired in lieu of a default in loan repayment by the promoters of the healthcare company.

With inputs from agencies
GSK has started a strategic review of Horlicks - a malt-based drink brand popular in India  and some of its smaller products, after buying Novartis out of their consumer healthcare venture for $13 billion on Tuesday.

London/New York: Food giants Nestle, Kraft Heinz and Unilever are expected to bid for GlaxoSmithKlines Horlicks health nutrition business, which could fetch more than $4 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

GSK has started a strategic review of Horlicks - a malt-based drink brand popular in India  and some of its smaller products, after buying Novartis out of their consumer healthcare venture for $13 billion on Tuesday.

The main asset on the block is GSKs 72.5 percent stake in its Indian subsidiary GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare. The sources said the stake was worth $3.1 billion at current market prices but GSK wanted a premium in any sale. They estimated the consumer health nutrition business, which also has smaller operations in Nigeria and Bangladesh, could fetch more than $4 billion.

Nestle, the worlds biggest packaged food company, has previously told GSK privately of its interest in Horlicks on several occasions, the people said.

Nestle already owns the malt drink Milo, but it is not a big-seller in India. The Swiss company declined to comment. Unilever, the worlds largest tea company, and Kraft Heinz, which sells the powdered drinks Crystal Light and Kool-Aid, also declined to comment.

Horlicks is more than 140 years old with origins dating back to 1873, when two British-born men, James and William Horlick, first founded a company in Chicago to manufacture the drink. It was introduced to India by Indian soldiers who had fought with the British Army in the First World War.

Associated British Foods, which owns the malt drink brand Ovaltine, could look at the business to scale up in a key emerging market, the sources said, although the size of the GSK business could be a deterrent. An ABF spokesman declined to comment.

The Indian business has an enterprise value of about 29 times core earnings, said one of the sources, meaning any deal premium will value it well above what many packaged food and drink brands fetch. The valuation is inflated by the high growth rates seen in the Indian market.

Nestle and Unilever could purchase the asset through their local Indian subsidiaries, Nestle India or Hindustan Unilever.

Other potential suitors might include Coca-Cola, PepsiCo , Suntory , Mondelez International and JAB, the coffee business owner that recently agreed to buy Dr Pepper Snapple, one of the sources said.
The GST Council, earlier this month, decided on a staggered rollout of the e-way bill starting with inter-state from 1 April and intra-state from 15 April

New Delhi: With just three days left for the e-way bill roll out, the government has asked businesses and transporters to enrol on the dedicated platform as only around 11 lakh entities have registered so far, officials said on Wednesday. Businesses would be required to present the electronic way (e-way) bill to a GST inspector (if asked) for inter-state transportation of goods worth over Rs 50,000 through road, railways, airways and vessels.

Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said the company handling the backbone of the new indirect tax regime, GST Network, is much better prepared to roll out the new system from 1 April. "...But I'm not too sure whether traders, dealers and transporters are still ready. I would like to appeal to them to register themselves on the e-way bill portal ...as early as possible; they should not then tell us that we didn't inform them," Adhia said.

GSTN CEO Prakash Kumar said, so far 11 lakh businesses and transporters have registered on the e-way bill platform and most of the registrations are likely to happen at the last minute. This compares to 1.05 crore registered businesses under the GST and about 70 lakh filing returns.

The e-way bill provision of the goods and services tax (GST) was first introduced on 1 February but its implementation was put on hold after the system developed glitches in generating permits. With several states also starting to generate intra-state e-way bills on the portal, the system developed a snag.

The Finance Ministry had then asked GSTN to develop a fool-proof system before the re-launch of the e-way bill. The GST Council, earlier this month, decided on a staggered rollout of the e-way bill starting with inter-state from 1 April and intra-state from 15 April.

The e-way bill is being touted as an anti-evasion measure and would help boost tax collections by clamping down on trade that currently happens on cash basis.

Speaking at the Foundation Day of GSTN, Adhia said e-way bill for intra-state movement of goods would be launched after 2 weeks of inter-state roll out. "We will announce the schedule at least 3 days in advance, but not immediately because we want to observe how the e-way bill portal functions for inter-state movement of goods. After that we will try to bring it for intra-state (movement of goods)," Adhia said.

GSTN Chairman Ajay Bhushan Pandey said that the e-way bill system has been designed and developed by National Informatics Centre (NIC); and he is confident that the system would be able to cater to the load.

After the 1 February snag, the e-way system was upgraded to handle 75 lakh inter-state e-way bills daily.

"Whenever you roll out such a system, there could be some issues in the initial phases. So based on our experience, this time around extensive testing has been done. Assurance has been given by NIC that this time the system should work," Pandey said.
Cognizant's accounts were frozen a week back and it had approached the High Court against the tax department

The Income Tax department has frozen Cognizant Technology Solutions Corps bank accounts and deposits in Chennai and Mumbai for allegedly evading a dividend distribution tax (DDT), according to a report on Tuesday.

A Cognizant spokesman confirmed the report and said in a statement that a court has instructed the tax department not to take further action pending further hearings.

Cognizant failed to pay the tax of more than Rs 2,500 crore in the 2016-17 financial year, the Hindu newspaper reported, citing officials from the tax department. Cognizant said it had paid all applicable taxes due on the transaction.

The companys accounts were frozen a week back and it had approached the High Court against the tax department, according to the report.

Cognizants business operations, our associates and our work with clients are not impacted by actions recently attempted by the Indian Income Tax Department, the company said. A Cognizant spokesman declined to give more details, while tax department officials could not be reached for comment outside regular business hours.

The US-listed IT services has significant operations in India where the majority of its 260,000 employees reside.
SEBI on Tuesday exempted the central government from making an open offer for the shareholders of three lenders - Dena Bank, IDBI Bank and Bank of India

New Delhi: Markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on Tuesday exempted the central government from making an open offer for the shareholders of three lenders - Dena Bank, IDBI Bank and Bank of India - following capital infusion.

According to the regulator, there would be no change in control of the banks pursuant to the proposed acquisition of additional shares by the government.

Further, there will be no change in the number of equity shares held in the target company by the public shareholders, pursuant to the proposed transactions, the SEBI said in three similar-worded orders.

SEBI has given exemption from open offer requirements with respect to the lenders through three separate but similarly-worded orders.

Following capital infusion in these listed public sector banks, the government's respective stakes would rise in them. Under SEBI norms, an entity whose shareholding in a listed company goes beyond a particular threshold has to make an open offer.

As per the orders, the infusion of additional capital by the government is stated to enable the banks to meet regulatory capital norms. It would also provide them with additional leverage for raising further equity capital at a later date as and when the need arises, the regulator said.

Following the capital infusion, the government's stake would rise by 12.19 percent in Dena Bank, 6.98 percent in IDBI Bank and 10.57 percent in Bank of India.

The acquisition is on preferential allotment basis for the financial year 2017-18.

During January and March, the three lenders had filed separate applications on behalf of the Indian government seeking exemption from the applicability of Regulation 3(2) of the SAST (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations.

Regulation 3(2) requires an acquirer to making a public announcement of an open offer for acquiring shares in case the existing stake goes beyond a certain threshold.

Earlier, the government had proposed infusion to the tune of Rs 3,045 crore in Dena Bank, Rs 2,729 crore in IDBI Bank and Rs 9,232 crore in Bank of India.

Earlier this month, SEBI had exempted the central government from making an open offer for the shareholders of six lenders - Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank, Syndicate Bank, Vijaya Bank, Bank of Baroda and Union Bank of India- following capital infusion.
Most firms pivot to a more acceptable model that can be funded, or become a services company, or succumb to greener pastures elsewhere.

Editors note: As India stands at the cusp of a new era in economic growth, it is time to ask a big question: Can a nation of one billion people build a global tech giant as new frontiers of technology arrive? The answer involves understanding global economic dynamics, innovation, ownership, management, competition, regulation, finance and intellectual property rights. Firstpost is publishing a series of stories that will seek to address these issues in a manner that helps entrepreneurs, policymakers and ordinary citizens understand what it takes to reach new highs without losing one's ground in a world where threats are as real as opportunities. Here's the fifth piece in the series.

Confidence begins at home and is the most important ingredient in building an innovative product or tech giant. Being an entrepreneur in genomics for 18 years now, I do see a shift in the confidence levels of first-time entrepreneurs, which makes me optimistic about the fact that we will see a tech giant, or two perhaps, from India in the coming years. However, the chances of creating many of them would increase greatly if we get a few things right and build an ecosystem that nurtures the right companies and the right ideas.

For an entrepreneur, what matters the most is to get ones idea in front of customers and get them to pay for it, to eventually build a successful, sustainable venture. Oh, sorry! That was so last decade. Today, we seem to build a venture with an aim to sell it to a bigger entity, without caring for profitability. Only scale matters.

If you are in the e-commerce space or in a new shared economy business that exists elsewhere in the world that should be fine, since you are just a marketplace in a different geography waiting to be acquired by the larger global player. Thats a perfectly fine situation to be in. However, if we want to create leaders in new categories, especially those that can disrupt and change the current course of the nation (forward, of course), we need to think differently.

In the current scenario, the stars have to align to make you successful, especially if you are attempting something truly metamorphic, ambitious, and disruptive (MAD). The truth is that, it is those MAD companies that are likely to help us make the transition, from being a dukandar (shopkeeper) now to becoming a disruptor.

Sadly, most firms pivot to a more acceptable model that can be funded, or become a services company, or succumb to greener pastures elsewhere. Hence, only a few passionate entrepreneurs continue to build in the face of adversity. I suppose, if consumers or buyers would believe in them early enough, those companies can escape the funding trap.

Here are my suggestions to enable the transition from dukandar to disruptor,

Boost the education system: Our education system has been changing for the better in some schools, and children are more confident. We can encourage this across the nation. The idea of the Atal Tinkering Labs is a great one, for instance. Exposure and access to innovation will continue to spark ideas.

Mold human capital: We need to create human capital that can think beyond college-grades and pay packages when looking for a job. This is a direct result of the social conditioning that exists in the country. It is acceptable to become an entrepreneur these days. But, failure still draws a lot of flak. Failure should be celebrated.

Foster innovation: Innovation that can truly disrupt the current state of affairs in the country needs to be nurtured. When I think of these problems, I can think of distribution of quality education, the cost and quality of healthcare, genomics not just in medicine but also in agriculture, food and more.

Protect data: We often hear that data is the new oil, yet our efforts to preserve and mine our own data is minimal. Only recently, with the political scams involving data privacy have we been alerted to this reality. We need privacy laws that protect our most important asset  data.

Add more VCs: A home grown venture capital industry that can truly understand risk. This would need entrepreneurs who have done it themselves to assess risk and reward. It is difficult for someone to do it without having gone through the cycle themselves.

Push lenient laws: We need laws that don't punish entrepreneurs for failing. Some of this will hopefully be addressed by the recent changes, but the harder part is dealing with the social ecosystem.

Institute proactive regulators: We need a regulatory system that keeps up with the changing pace of innovation. This is tough worldwide but getting more experts and doers involved in the process can make things easier and more efficient.

Create flat bureaucracy: The ecosystem needs a blockchain of power within the bureaucratic system, so that no single person has the power to make a demand from an individual entrepreneur without being sufficiently exposed to repercussions later.

Add more mentors: Mentoring is often discussed and I think today we have a lack of mentors who can expose entrepreneurs to opportunities that lie in front of them and nudge them towards achieving their vision without succumbing to the pressures of day-to-day challenges. What can potentially change the course of things is a team of homegrown leaders with inspiring vision, who can motivate entrepreneurs to continue on their journey.

Now, talking about our leaders who can actually make this possible, here is what I would advise the government to do,

Encourage those with idle capital to invest in the venture capital industry and let the government also co-invest and share the risks and rewards if thats possible

Simplify government processes and make them transparent, making it easy for entrepreneurs to navigate they system while also staying focused on the task at hand

Increase the number of inventors and scientists, as we are more likely to see more deep-tech ideas surfacing when those numbers go up, and thus increase the funnel

Allow for the liberal arts to combine with science, to make ideas viable with a human touch. Deep-tech requires empathy for it to become a successful giant

Public-private partnerships apart, create great examples by creating a true win-win model that incentivises stakeholders

Encourage students to be more adventurous, and pursue their dreams, and not be boxed by subjects they chose in college

While I have written mostly about MAD companies taking us to the disruptor status, it is also possible to have tech giants that are fast followers. But they may need Chinese-style protectionism to grow. Beijings moves helped Chinese industry build giants like Alibaba and Tencent.

(The writer is Founder-CEO of MapMyGenome, a personal genomics company. She tweets @anuacharya)

Read the other parts of the series here:

Part 1: Right or Left? Home or away? The time has come for India to talk double-edged tech nationalism

Part 2: Facebook crisis holds lessons for India and Aadhaar: we need multi-pronged regulation to ensure fair play and innovation

Part 3: Visionaries or 'employeepreneurs'? India's tech unicorns hide weaknesses that deserve a hard look

Part 4: Tech nationalism is a complex game; a swadeshi index may support the right Indian startups

Part 6: True tech power comes from harvesting patents: ISRO, Cipla and Biocon show the way for future entrepreneurs

Part 7: Engineered in India: Technology transformation must provide solutions for sustainable development
When women come together, it is not just about cropping or cropping patterns. It is also a social approach to farming.'

Jayalakshmi, a farmer from Athukottai, a small hill village some 15 kilometres from Dharmapuri town wakes up at 4.30 am every day. By 7 am, she sweeps the house, draws kolam (traditional art drawn using rice powder outside the house), cooks breakfast and lunch, milks and feeds the cows, gets her children ready for school and packs food for her husband. Then her work on her fields starts, and goes on till 11.30 am, when it gets too hot to work. She comes back to wash clothes and vessels, feed the cows and is back on the field by 3 pm and works till 6 pm. She then cooks dinner, helps her children with their homework and finally gets to sleep by 10 pm. My husband will kick the plate if I serve him food that I cooked in the morning, she said. I, along with every other woman in this village, do all the housework as well as 90 percent of the work on the field. But will anyone say this is Jayalakshmis house or Jayalakshmis field? Only my husbands name will be used, she said, deeply aware of the patriarchy around her. I need my husband just to plough the land and protect the fields from pigs during nights, said Valliammal, a woman farmer from another village.

Women in farming  for the most part  dont need men. Women like Jayalakshmi work nearly 18 hours a day, carry the dual burden of food security and agriculture. Yet, their roles are often ignored, they are denied land rights and yet forced to be the only ones worried about the food security of their children. Not just in Athukottai but across the state and the country, thousands of women farmers have realised that the best way to feed their children and family is to lease land together, grow hardy millets and stay away from men and a patriarchy-driven market. The Kudumbashree initiative by the Kerala state government, efforts by the Deccan Development Society in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are all examples of women coming together to form collectives to make agriculture work for them.

In Tamil Nadu, Dalit and landless women farmers in dryland areas of the state have formed groups of five to ten, to lease land and grow various kinds of crops; including pulses, vegetables, oil-seeds, and millets. While policy-makers may say otherwise, here are women who actually want to do farming. And they have found new strength by forming collectives, said co-convener of Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture (ASHA) Kavita Kuruganthi.

Instead of farming for the market, women grow crops that feed them. Our first priority is to grow food for ourselves. What is the point of buying food from the market and at a higher cost and sprayed with chemicals? We know our food is chemical-free and healthy, said Tamil Selvi, another farmer from Athukottai. Tamil Selvi and Jayalakshmi, each work on one acre of land that is registered in their husbands name. Though they have not come together as a collective officially, there is a sense of deep bonding where they take ownership of each others happiness and struggles. Labour is exchanged, and food gets bartered. Sometimes, when we have excess produce we like to sell it in the market. But going to the market either means depending on my husband to take me there or hire an expensive auto, said Valliammal. Id rather not, she added.

Tamil Nadu faced its worst droughts in 140 years in 2016-17. Coupled with demonetisation, crop procurement fell by nearly 85 percent, according to one report from The Times of India. During this time, women farmers are the ones who came on top. It is not as though they did not have a difficult time. But farmlands run by women were in a far better position than those with men. Along with the free rice from ration shops, they complimented their meals with the various types of vegetables they grew, something men could not do, said the founder of the Tamil Nadu Womens Collective (TNWC) Sheelu Francis. The fact that they are bringing resilient cropping in a rain-fed cropping system is precisely what Tamil Nadu has been grappling with and needs, especially in the last four-five years of crisis. The women are showing that the solutions are here, said Kuruganthi.

While one-third of the produce goes to the landowner, the rest goes to directly to the plates of their family. Vegetables are often an expensive commodity. Tribals and those living in poverty are prone to malnutrition if there were to depend on the market for food. By growing their food, we are trying to move women away from a man-driven economy of cash crops and debts, said Francis.

Dharmapuri is known to be prone to communal clashes. In 2012, the district was up in riots when a Dalit youth married a woman from the Vanniyar caste. Several houses and hundreds of buses were ransacked and torched. In 2014, 19-year-old Illavarasan was found dead by railway tracks in Dharmapuri. Despite communal clashes amongst men, women have found ways to work together. Valliammal from Maraavadi, a hilly village just a few kilometres from Natham (Ilavarasan's hometown) works with seven other women, all belonging to different castes and classes. The village is rain-fed, and being on a rocky-terrain gives them little luxury to grow paddy or sugarcane. This is the first time we are growing rice in three years. With no rains, the forests are drying up forcing pigs, rabbits, and peacocks to destroy our fields, said the 40-year-old. Amongst us women, there is no difference in the work we do or the caste we come from. We eat together during breaks and understand each others problems like our own, she added.

When women come together, it is not just about cropping or cropping patterns. It is also a social approach to farming. You are doing it jointly without being competitive against each other. When women do farming, there is a communitarian ethos that they bring in. It does not affect your morale or push you into suicides, said Kuruganthi.

The collective is working with 12,000 farmers across the state. Millets are not only hardy against the increasing temperatures and decreasing water availability, but are also nutritionally rich. The idea is to neither depend on the market to sell our produce nor on one crop because if it fails, we lose everything. In our fields, we grow broad beans, red gram, veggies like brinjal, ladies finger, tomato as well as millets like ragi and finger millets, said Ranganayaki, a farmer and a staff of Tamil Nadu Womens Collective. Her job involves travelling to villages in Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri districts and help other women farmers set up collectives.

This agro-biodiversity maintained by women is what ensures food security for the entire family, sometimes even during the times of drought and mounting debts from men. Globally, there is empirical evidence that women have a decisive role in ensuring food security and preserving local agro-biodiversity. Rural women are responsible for the integrated management and use of diverse natural resources to meet the daily household needs, read the Ministry of Finances latest economic survey.

Yet, only 12.8 percent of operational holdings were owned by women, reflecting a wide gender disparity. As per Census 2011, out of total female main workers, 55 percent were agricultural labourers and 24 percent were cultivators. However, only 12.8 percent of the operational holdings were owned by women, which reflect the gender disparity in ownership of landholdings in agriculture, read the report. Between 2000-01 and 2010-11, the percentage of women with less than one hectare of land increased from 11.8 percent to just 13.6 percent. Overall, it increased 10.8 percent to 12.8 percent.

The lack of landholding reflects in womens representations in unions and their demands from the state government through protests. While men fight for loan waivers and minimum support price for their crops, women want millets to be introduced in ration shops and mid-day meals. The Tamizhaga Vivasayigal Sangam (Tamil Nadu Farmers Union) is perhaps the biggest union in the state, with more than 50,000 enrolments. Yet, only around 3,000 of them are women. The president of the union does not hesitate for a second to agree that more than 90 percent of agriculture is managed by women. We cannot farm like the way women farm. Where will we get the money for our other needs? said the state president of the union SA Chinnasamy. While there are a few districts that have separate unions for women. I dont see a future in which a woman can become head of a farming union, he added.

Women with a little more land than Jayalakshmi and Valliammal have higher aspirations. R Sangeetha, heads the Amudha Sirudhaniya Mathippu Kootu Thozhil Kuzhu (Amudha Millets Collective) and works with 14 other women. Each of them has between 4-5 acres of land that they manage. With the help of Krishi Kendra Vigyan, the collective got a millet processor and an oven. The women grow millets and the collective produces various millet products like cookies, laddus, savories and health mixes. The collective manages all aspects of the business  from growing the required crops to packaging and to marketing. This area development only after women got together. They are the only ones with money. The men only have debts, said R Gobi, Sangeethas husband who was more than happy to stay away from the limelight and the adulation that the collective receives. The collective buys millets in its raw form from its members at market price. Right now, we are selling our products to nearby towns directly, said Sangeetha adding that the collective makes a monthly profit of Rs 20,000.

One way of empowering women is to give them more land. Overall, Tamil Nadu has more female agriculture labourers than cultivators, compared to other states. Therefore their need to access to land is very real. Many Dalit women farmers have been saying that there is much land to be distributed. If the government gets serious about public land distributions, a lot of temple lands that can be given to these women, said Kuruganthi.

The Tamil Nadu Womens Collective was recognised by the US Food Sovereignty Alliance in 2013. Earlier in march, the All India Millet Sisters Network, of which TNWC is part of, won a presidential award on International Womens Day for their outstanding contribution to womens empowerment in the country. By procuring millets, the state would be creating a market that would ensure sustainable farming, empower women and bring healthy meals to children and those depending on ration shops, said Francis.
The issue of data breaches from points other than the CIDR was also raised. Also, the Bench refused to extend the deadline for Section 7 benefits.

On Day 22 of the Aadhaar hearing, the CEO of the UIDAI, Ajay Bhushan Pandey, completed his PowerPoint presentation before the Supreme Court and answered the questioned posed by the petitioners. The bench posed many questions on the security of Aadhaar at the authentication and enrolment stages. The issue of data breaches from points other than the CIDR was also raised. Also, the Bench refused to extend the deadline for Section 7 benefits.

Data breaches by enrollers

Pandey commenced his presentation by sharing details of blacklisted enrollers, along with reasons for the same. The Bench questioned if any had been blacklisted for data breaches. To this, the UIDAI CEO responded that that could only be possible if the enrollers possessed the qualifications to tamper with the enrolment software, indicating that they didnt. Such tampering, in any case, is punishable under the Aadhaar Act.

He further clarified that individual packets of data received during enrolment were checked by operators. The Bench questioned if it was possible for the enrollers to make copies of the biometric data before it was encrypted. Pandey asserted that the enrollers had no access to biometrics, and this was collected only by UIDAIs software. Such retention, moreover, is also a punishable offence.

Phasing out of private enrolment agencies

Further, private enrolment agencies are being phased out and will be available only in banks and post offices. The Bench, here, stated that this was being done because these agencies were no longer needed since the enrolment process was mostly complete. Pandey responded that these facilities were still required for updating purposes.

Aadhaar related data breaches denied

Describing the CIDR as fully secure, Pandey stated that this was not even connected to the internet. When asked by the Bench to clear the apprehensions of the petitioners on the security of Aadhaar software, Pandey stated that every data breach so far had been of databases other than the CIDR. He denied various reports including The Tribune report as well as the recent Indane report.

Further, it has been made a standard practice to display only the last four digits of the Aadhaar number. The Bench pointed out that unless there was protection against breaches from other ends of the spectrum, Aadhaar remained a problem.

SC points out lack of control over possible AuA data use

The bench then asked how many of the Authentication User Agencies (AuAs) were private, to which it was stated that a few dozens were. Next, it was asked whether the AuAs could record authentication data and monetise it. Pandey again states that such sharing was prohibited under Sections 29(3) and 38(g) of the Aadhaar Act. The Bench, however, pointed out that the UIDAI does not have control over such sharing.

Profiling based on authentication data

The Bench pointed out that service providers have a record of authentication requests, which could be misused to profile the individuals. When asked previously to clarify if such profiling and aggregation of data was not possible, Pandey cited Section 32(3) of the Aadhaar Act, which prevents the UIDAI from collecting data on the purpose of authentication.

Aadhaar is privacy by design

He then conducted a live demonstration, showing the use of biometric authentication to withdraw money from a bank account. Pandey then discussed the various forms of data that are captured during authentication. This excludes Geo Codes and IP addresses. Previously, GPS coordinates and PIN codes were collected, but this had been discontinued. Pandey described Aadhaar as privacy by design, and reiterated that Aadhaar data could not be shared except for national security purposes.

Security measures in Aadhaar infrastructure

Turning to security measures, he further discussed the STQC (Standardisation Testing and Quality Certification) and Aadhaar certified biometric devices, multiple factor authentication, biometric locking, etc. The 4-minute video on Aadhaar security measures was then shown. This video stated that Aadhaar was certified by the STQC and its data centres are certified as Tier-III by Uptime. It was shown that there are three layers of security, including vehicle check, ID verification, X-ray baggage scan, physical frisking, and biometric entry at the CIDR, in addition to CRPF personnel.

Pandey then discussed Aadhaar based privacy safeguards, including Virtual IDs, UID tokens, purpose and use limitation, strict confidentiality and online access to biometric authentication history.

Authentication of data is susceptible to misuse

The Bench, here, pointed out that it could not be ruled out that authentication history could not be shared under Section 33 of the Aadhaar Act. The petitioners also pointed to similar sharing under Section 57 of the Aadhaar Act.

The Bench questioned if authentication logs were kept with authenticating or requesting entities. Pandey answered in the affirmative, with the exception of biometric information, which is not stored. He stated that the AuAs and requesting entities were audited by the UIDAI or agencies appointed by them.

Virtual ID system

Pandey then turned to Virtual IDs. He explained how the use of Virtual IDs would prevent aggregation of databases. He said that entities which need real Aadhaar number, such as for income tax, and those which dont, such as telecom companies, would be distinguished between. The Bench asked for a note to be submitted on how the Virtual ID and UID token would function.

Pandey stated that these were random numbers from which the Aadhaar number could not be regenerated. The Bench questioned how illiterate people would be taught to use Virtual IDs. Pandey also stated that from 1 July, facial recognition would be used along with fingerprints.

Smart cards will not ensure uniqueness

Lastly, Pandey discussed the difference between Aadhaar and a smart card. He stated that a centralised database was necessary to ensure uniqueness. If smart cards were used, a single person could have multiple cards with different identities and same biometrics. Further, he argued that there could be no identity theft if Aadhaar is lost, unlike with a smart card. The smart ID card system in Singapore was also discussed, where Pandey stated that too much information on a single smart card was risky.

The hearings will resume on Tuesday. The petitioners submitted a list of questions, which the UIDAI is to answer when the hearings resume.

Sources of arguments include livetweeting of the case by SFLC.in, Prasanna S and Gautam Bhatia, and LiveLaw Reports

Read our past coverage of the on-going Aadhaar Supreme court hearing:

Aadhaar hearing: UIDAIs presentation discusses Aadhaar enrolment, updation and authentication processes in detail

Why SC needs to look into technical evidence of Aadhaars surveillance capabilities

Lack of governmental ownership of CIDRs source code can have serious consequences

Will State give citizens rights only if they agree to be tracked forever, asks lawyer Shyam Divan

Coalition for Aadhaar: A collective of private companies wants to ensure that Aadhaar ID and related services continue to be offered

Petitioners argue on centralisation of data and challenge Aadhaars claims on savings

Petitioners argue for a voluntary ID card system that does not collect user data

Petitioners argue that receipt of govt benefits cannot be at the cost of compromising fundamental rights

Aadhaar is architecturally unconstitutional, argue the petitioners

Petitioners argue that Aadhaar violates dignity by objectifying and depersonalizing an individual

Petitioners seek compensation for starvation deaths and extension of March 31st deadline

Section 7 exception in Supreme Courts interim order greatly affects peoples constitutional rights

Entire Aadhaar project is beyond the stated objectives of Aadhaar Act, argue petitioners

Petitioners conclude their arguments on 'the number of the beast' Aadhaar, highlighting various issues

Aadhaar hearing: Political liberties cannot be foregone for economic and social justice, states the Bench

The author is a lawyer and author specialising in technology laws. She is also a certified information privacy professional.
Attacking the Narendra Modi government over its alleged failure to fulfil promises made to Andhra Pradesh post-bifurcation, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu accused it of playing with people's sentiments.

Amaravati: Attacking the Narendra Modi government over its alleged failure to fulfil promises made to Andhra Pradesh post-bifurcation, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday accused it of playing with people's sentiments.

"You are playing with people's sentiments. It may give you temporary political benefits, but will cause permanent damage to the nation. We may differ in politics, but if it causes damage to the nation, it is not good," Naidu said.

Making a suo-moto statement in the Assembly on the all-party meeting held on Tuesday, the chief minister flayed the Modi government, vis-a-vis fulfillment of the promises made to Andhra Pradesh post-bifurcation.

"The Centre cannot arm twist the states. It cannot happen and we will not let it happen," he asserted.

The chief minister displayed video clips of Modis speeches, made on different occasions, promising not only to honour the promises made in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 but also 'do much more' to the state.

Chandrababu questioned if it was co-operative federalism or 'Team India' spirit to not honour promises made to a state.

The prime minister owed an explanation to five crore people of Andhra Pradesh on this, he said, adding the Centre "cannot discriminate between states."

Noting that he had called for peaceful protests, seeking justice from the Centre, Naidu said the Centre would be happy if there was any violence "because it does not want Andhra Pradesh to develop".

Lashing out at BJP president Amit Shah once again over the nine-page letter he wrote to him last week, the TDP chief remarked that other states might be in the habit of diverting Central funds, but not Andhra Pradesh.

"We will account for every rupee (granted by the Centre), and demand and secure our funds. Development, welfare and good governance will not stop in Andhra Pradesh," he asserted.

Naidu also came down on BJP national spokesman GVL Narasimha Rao for terming the utilization certificates (UC) submitted by the state for the central grants, as 'fake'.

"Those who dont even know what is governance are criticizing us. How can he say the UCs are fake?" he asked.

"The Centre will try to find fault with us (over-utilization of funds), so I have directed my officials to

present clear facts," he added.

The chief minister pointed out that the economic growth of Andhra Pradesh in the last four years on an average was 10.5 percent as against the national average of 7.4 percent.

"Had the government at the Centre implemented the (Reorganisation) Act, we would have grown by 12 to 13 percent. That would have led to growth in income and eradication of poverty," he noted.

It would take at least 10 more years for Andhra Pradesh to grow better than other southern states and "we have to work hard for it", he said.
The country's apex auditor CAG has slammed the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), an agency of the Maharashtra government, over the shortage of drug inspectors in the department and a host of other issues.

Mumbai: The country's apex auditor CAG has slammed the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), an agency of the Maharashtra government, over the shortage of drug inspectors in the department and a host of other issues.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), in its report tabled in the state legislature on Wednesday, also noted that 20 percent Assistant Commissioners (Food) and 18 per cent Food Safety Officers (FSOs) were on the rolls as against the requirement assessed by the FDA Commissioner.

"The Drugs Division offices were functioning by giving additional charge to Assistant Commissioners. Drug inspectors were also given additional charge of Assistant Commissioners. There was a shortfall of 37 percent in the post of drug inspectors," the report stated.

It said the health regulator had failed to cancel the licences of 1,535 drug selling units whose licenses had expired. Possible sale of drugs by such units pose a risk to public health.

The CAG report said in some cases renewal of licences was done without inspecting the premises of drugs selling units.

Also, there were serious shortfalls in the inspection of Food Business Operators (FBOs), drugs manufacturing and selling units.

"The shortfall was to the extent of 35 percent in the case of drugs manufacturing units and 63 percent in case of selling units," the report stated.

The CAG recommended that the state government conduct a survey and create a database of FBOs which should be updated periodically so as to bring maximum FBOs within the ambit of the Food Safety and Standards Regulations Act.

The auditor asked the government to address the issue of staff shortage on priority and streamline the procedure of licencing and registration.

The CAG recommended the government establish additional food testing laboratories to meet the requirements of the entire state and ensure non-functioning ones are made operational with requisite equipment, infrastructure and manpower.
Cambridge Analytica (CA) director and whistle-blower Christopher Wylie said that the firm had worked with Indian political parties since 2003.

Cambridge Analytica (CA) director and whistle-blower in the Facebook data leak controversy, Christopher Wylie, further shed light on the nexus between the firm and Indian political parties on Wednesday, revealing a list of SCL Group (Cambridge Analytica's parent company) projects in India.

Wylie tweeted that he had been getting a lot of requests from Indian journalists to disclose SCL's past projects in India. He tweeted a picture containing the firm's 'past national experience', pointing to various elections in which political parties employed SCL's caste research and analysis. "Yes, SCL/CA works in India and has offices there. This is what modern colonialism looks like," he said.

The data disclosed in the tweet, purportedly taken from the SCL Group website, said that the firm has a database of over 600 districts and seven lakh villages. "Our services help clients to identify and target key groups within the population to effectively influence their behaviour to realise the desired outcome," it said. The desired outcome, in this case, is to sway the election in the favour of the client (political party) by targetted campaigning.

According to Scroll, the British behavioural research companys Indian arm carried out surveys of voters for Nitish Kumars Janata Dal (United) during the 2010 Bihar Assembly elections, as well as for a major political party during the 2007 polls in Uttar Pradesh.

I've been getting a lot of requests from Indian journalists, so here are some of SCL's past projects in India. To the most frequently asked question - yes SCL/CA works in India and has offices there. This is what modern colonialism looks like. pic.twitter.com/v8tOmcmy3z  Christopher Wylie (@chrisinsilico) March 28, 2018

SCL projects in India

Some of the elections in which SCL/CA was employed, as per the data in the image tweeted, are: 2009 Lok Sabha polls; Uttar Pradesh (2007, 2011, 2012); 2010 Bihar elections; 2007 Kerala, West Bengal, Assam, Jharkhand and UP polls; 2003 Madhya Pradesh elections; 2003 Rajasthan polls.

Wylie on Tuesday said that the Congress party had employed the controversial firm for certain "regional projects". "I believe their client was Congress, but I know that they have done all kinds of projects. I don't remember a national project but I know regionally. India's so big that one state can be as big as Britain. But they do have offices there, they do have staff there," the 28-year-old said.

SCL offices in India

Wylie also disclosed a location of the firm's office and regional centres, owned and operated by SCL in India. The firm's head office is located in Ghaziabad and it has regional centres in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Guwahati and seven other locations.

Caste politics and booth management

Quoting the example of caste and communally sensitive regions in Uttar Pradesh  Kairana and Kanth, Moradabad  the tweet disclosed how the firm enabled political parties to take advantage of social engineering.

"A better understanding of the influence of caste on Indian politics will open up research avenues and allow the campaign team to target the population in the most effective and efficient way," the image read.

This disclosure assumes significance as the firm has been caught in a data leak controversy, with the Congress and BJP accusing each other over the past week of being associated in 'unfair' and possibly 'illegal' practices to acquire caste data to gain an edge in elections.

Wylie had earlier accused his former employer, Cambridge Analytica, of gathering the details of 50 million users on Facebook through a personality quiz in 2014. He alleges that because 270,000 people took the quiz, the data of some 50 million users, mainly in the US, was harvested without their explicit consent via their friend networks.

Wylie claims the data was sold to Cambridge Analytica, which then used it to psychologically profile people and deliver material in favour of Donald Trump during the 2016 US presidential elections. He also criticised Cambridge Analytica for running campaigns in "struggling democracies", which he called "an example of what modern-day colonialism looks like".

With inputs from agencies.
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has decided to re-conduct the economics paper for Class XII and the mathematics paper for Class X.

In the wake of reports of paper leaks, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has decided to re-conduct the examinations for economics paper for Class XII and the mathematics paper for Class X.

The dates of the reexamination for the two board exam papers will be announced in a week. In an official order, the central board said that it has taken cognisance "of certain happenings in the conduct of certain examinations".

It further said that the dates for the fresh examinations and other details will be published on CBSE's website, cbse.nic.in. The reason for the decision was not revealed in the CBSE order.

Panic gripped Class XII students on Monday after claims were made on social media sites that the economics paper had been leaked. The CBSE had denied the claims, saying "We have checked with all examination centres and the paper was not leaked." "The source of the circulation of this information is not known yet," the board said.

Meanwhile, a case has been registered on the complaint of CBSE regional director in PS Crime Branch and a dedicated SIT has been constituted to investigate the case, ANI reported.

News18 quoted sources as saying on Wednesday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Human Resource Minister Prakash Javadekar and expressed his unhappiness with the paper leak issue. Modi also demanded strict action against culprits. Javadekar addressed the matter at a press conference, and said an internal investigation is underway.

Some parts of the paper were leaked on WhatsApp & we've made Police complaint regarding it. Investigation is underway & strict action will be taken. We have also decided to tighten security for the time when papers are being distributed: HRD Minister on X, XII CBSE paper leak pic.twitter.com/0HtqsJtB7K  ANI (@ANI) March 28, 2018

Congress communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala took a dig at the Modi government on Twitter:

 ,    ! , SSC    2           CBSE       !      !    -!    -!    ? pic.twitter.com/BwahyeEOwE  Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) March 28, 2018

The ongoing CBSE board exams have been in the news for alleged errors in the papers and reports of paper leaks.

A Class X English paper allegedly carried certain errors and spelling mistakes, which had led to confusion among students. The board responded by saying that it was undecided on providing compensation to the affected students.

The Class XII accountancy paper was reportedly leaked on WhatsApp and social media, which prompted Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia to order a probe and lodge complaint with the CBSE.

More than 28 lakh candidates appeared for the Class X and XII examinations conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education from 5 March.

A total of 16,38,428 candidates had registered for the Class X examination, while 11,86,306 candidates had registered for Class XII examination.

With inputs from PTI
The allocation for a Centre-sponsored tribal welfare scheme launched in 2014 has come down to a mere Rs 1 crore in 2016-17 from Rs 200 crore in 2015-16.

New Delhi, The allocation for a Centre-sponsored tribal welfare scheme launched in 2014 has come down to a mere Rs 1 crore ($154,000) in 2016-17 from Rs 200 crore in 2015-16 and Rs 100 crore in 2014-15, according to an RTI reply that also indicates that the lion's share of the allocations went to BJP-ruled tribal states while Congress-ruled states were ignored.

The Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojana (VKY) was launched in 2014 by the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs for overall development of the country's estimated 60 million tribal population, the indigenous people. It was included as a Central Sector Scheme in the ministry's annual plan with an initial allocation of Rs 100 crore for 2014-15.

However, the then Congress-ruled states of Meghalaya, Manipur (both predominantly tribal states), Congress-ruled Karnataka and Uttarakhand (which then had a Congress-led government) don't feature in the list provided by the ministry.

Among the National Democratic Alliance (NDA)-ruled states that did not feature in the list are Goa, Haryana and Punjab (then ruled by SAD-BJP alliance). The last two don't have any tribal population.

Andhra Pradesh received Rs 10 crore in 2014-15 and Rs 5 crore in 2015-16. Arunachal Pradesh got not even a penny in 2014-15 while in 2015-16 it got Rs 6 crore. Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal received no funds under the scheme in 2014-15. However, in 2015-16, Tamil Nadu received Rs 7 crore, Uttar Pradesh Rs 2 crore and West Bengal Rs 2.45 crore. Assam and Bihar too did not receive any amount in 2014-15, while in 2015-16, they got Rs 8.52 crore and Rs. 7.6 crore, respectively.

BJP-ruled states got the lion's share under the Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojana. Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan were allocated Rs 10 crore each in 2014-15. In 2015-16, Chhattisgarh received Rs 13.84 crore, Gujarat got Rs 17.23 crore, Jharkhand Rs 13.44 crore, Madhya Pradesh Rs 19.09 crore, Maharashtra's share was Rs 14 crore and Rajasthan got Rs 10.46 crore.

On the other hand, Himachal Pradesh was allocated Rs 10 crore in 2014-15 while it received a zero sum in 2015-16. Jammu and Kashmir and Kerala too did not receive any amount in 2014-15. In 2015-16, J&K and Kerala got Rs 5 crore and Rs 3 crore lakh , respectively. Odisha got Rs 10 crore in 2014-15 and Rs 16.50 crore in 2015-16.

Other northeastern states like Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura  all of which have substantial tribal populations  received no funds in 2014-15. However, in 2015-16, Mizoram got Rs 4.95 crore, Nagaland received Rs 7.66 crore, Sikkim Rs 3.82 crore and Tripura Rs 6.13 crore. Telangana, meanwhile, got Rs 10 crore in 2014-15 and in 2015-16, it was allocated Rs 42.7 crore.

Stressing that the Adivasis were in bad shape, Congress president Rahul Gandhi had attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi before the Gujarat election in 2017 and asked: "Where did the Rs 55,000 crore meant for the Vanbandhu scheme go?" This was Gandhi's 10th question as part of a Congress strategy wherein he would put one question daily to Modi ahead of the Gujarat Assembly polls. He had apparently got his figures wrong.

"Neglect left Adivasi society in tatters, Modiji, where did Rs 55,000 crore for the Vanbandhu scheme go?" Gandhi had asked.
China has been building major dams on Brahmaputra river to generate hydel power. It operationalised Zangmu hydroelectric project in October, 2015 and three more are under construction.

Beijing: China said on Wednesday that it will resume sharing with India the hydrological data of the Brahmaputra river as top water resource officials of the two countries wrapped up two-day talks, the first after Beijing last year stopped providing the data crucial to predict floods.

"On the basis of humanitarian spirit and our shared will to develop bilateral ties we will continue with the cooperation on hydrological information cooperation," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a media briefing in Beijing.

He was responding to a question whether China will resume sharing of the hydrological data on Brahmaputra river, which Beijing suspended last year stating that it could not share it with India due to upgradation of data collection station in Tibet.

China's announcement to not to share the data came soon after the 73-day long stand-off between Indian and Chinese troops at Dokalam over Chinese military's plans to build a road close to India's Chicken Neck corridor connecting North-Eastern states.

A team of officials of India's Ministry of Water Resources held talks with their Chinese counterparts on the cooperation of trans-border rivers in the last two days at the Chinese city of Hangzhou, the first after Beijing last year stopped providing the data.

Lu said during the talks the two sides reviewed the achievements of the previous meetings as well as bilateral cooperation on emergency and response and hydrological information.

"The two sides have agreed to continue with such cooperation. On the grounds of humanitarian principles and the basis of bilateral relations China will continue with this cooperation with the Indian side on the provision of hydrological information and emergency response cooperation," Lu said.

Asked whether China would resume the data, Lu said "since you made it quite clear", China will continue with the cooperation on hydrological information cooperation.

The two-day talks of the 11th meeting of the India-China Expert Level Mechanism (ELM) on Trans-Border Rivers concluded on Tuesday at Hangzhou, a statement from the Indian Embassy in Beijing said today.

The Indian side was led by Teerath Singh Mehra, Commissioner (B&B), Ministry of Water Resources and the Chinese side by Yu Xingjun, Consul, Department of International Cooperation Science and Technology, Ministry of Water Resources.

The meeting which was held in a "cordial and friendly"

atmosphere reviewed the progress made since the earlier meetings of the ELM and their continued cooperation on provision of hydrological information and emergency management in respect of trans-border rivers, the press release said.

The officials also reviewed the data utilisation report upon provision of hydrological information provided by China to India in flood season on Brahmaputra and Sutlej Rivers.

The institutional mechanism of the ELM was established in 2006 to discuss various issues related to trans-border rivers.

Under existing bilateral Memorandums of Understanding, China provides to India hydrological information of Brahmaputra River (Yarlong Zangbo) and Sutlej River (Langqen Zangbo) during the flood seasons.

Under the arrangement, China provides flood season data of the Brahmaputra river between 15 May and 15 October every year.

China has been building major dams on Brahmaputra river to generate hydel power. It operationalised Zangmu hydroelectric project in October, 2015 and three more are under construction.

While dams raised concerns of water shortages in India and Bangladesh, which are lower riparian states of Brahmaputra river, China said its dams were aimed at generating power and not storing water.

The data shared by upper riparian state, China, to lower riparian states, India and Bangladesh is essential every monsoon to allow anticipation of the flow of the water and take necessary measures to deal with flooding in India's northeastern States.
Kerala Assembly on Wednesday witnessed a noisy protest by Opposition UDF over what it called the 'continuous' absence of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in the House during the ongoing Budget Session.

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Assembly on Wednesday witnessed a noisy protest by Opposition UDF over what it called the 'continuous' absence of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in the House during the ongoing Budget Session.

Vijayan, who is in New Delhi on Wednesday to take part in the CPM central committee meeting, did not attend the House on Monday also.

Opposition Congress-led UDF members stood up asking 'Where is the chief minister?" when PWD minister G Sudhakaran replied on behalf of Vijayan during the zero hour.

Though both Sudhakaran and Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan said the chief minister had informed the business advisory committee of the legislature that he would be away today, the Opposition continued the protest.

UDF members said Vijayan, who holds the Home portfolio, skipped the session on Monday also when a notice for a motion was moved on the "highhandedness" of police.

He was present only for some time in the Assembly on Tuesday, they said during the brief protest.

Seeking to move a notice for an adjournment motion on the atrocities by goons and mafia gangs, K Muraleedharan (Congress) asked whether Vijayan was following the 'model' of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who he alleged, used to skip Parliament sessions.

The MLA said the chief minister, who gave a miss to the Assembly session, had taken part in a programme of CITU, the trade union outfit of the Left party, on Monday.

He wanted to know whether the Central Committee meeting and CITU programme were more important to Vijayan than the Assembly session.

Sharing his party colleague's sentiments, Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala said though the chief minister was busy, he should realise the significance of attending Assembly sessions.

However, Sudhakaran refuted the Opposition charges and said Vijayan was a "model" chief minister who had participated the maximum number of days in the assembly proceedings.

He justified the chief minister attending party Central Committee meeting.
Experts said that while it's heartening to see an increase in the state government's expenditure on education, the spending is not directed towards a permanent change

Public education in Delhi has received a huge fillip, with the state government allocating 26 percent of its Budget on the education department this year. However, experts doubt if additional funds would bring about a fundamental change in the capital city's human resource development scenario.

While tabling the 2018-19 Budget, Delhi finance minister Manish Sisodia, who also holds the education portfolio, had said funding to education increased by 2.5 percent compared to last year's allocation. He said an amount of Rs 13,997 crore has been set aside for the education department this year from a total Rs 53,000 crore Budget.

Delhi's education spending dwarfs the ratios set aside by the municipal corporations of Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Bengaluru towards this sector  which have allocated 9 percent, 1.5 percent, 5 percent and 0.6 percent respectively. It's also 13 percent higher than the spending on education under the previous Delhi state government, led by the Congress.

Speaking to the media after the Budget presentation, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said, "This Budget reflects the emphasis laid on education and health sectors by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Delhi."

However, experts said that while it's heartening to see an increase in the state government's expenditure on education, the spending is not directed towards a permanent change.

Ashok Agarwal, an activist who has been working on the education sector in Delhi, said, "The government's expenditure has certainly increased but it's a vision-less expenditure as the Budget lacks any clear direction."

He said that the Budget has no clear emphasis on how to enhance the quality of education in the city's municipal schools. "Most of the students in government-run schools in Delhi study in MCD-run schools till Class V. The Budget makes no efforts at enhancing the quality of education in these MCD schools," he said.

A study in 2016 found that 74 percent of Class XI students in state government schools couldn't read a paragraph out of their Hindi textbook. Most of these were students who studied till Class V in MCD-run schools. This compelled the state government to launch a separate programme called 'Chunauti', which was to teach these students reading and writing again.

But the state government has shied away from enhancing the quality of education in MCD-run schools. Elaborating on why it didn't want to interfere in the plans and programmes of the civic body, a source in the education department said, "Municipal corporations in Delhi are autonomous bodies under the 74th amendment of the Indian Constitution, which grants them the right to decide on their own as a local self-government. The state government cannot interfere in their running as per law."

However, Agarwal, who is also a lawyer in the Delhi High Court, said there is a provision in the law which could allow the government to regulate the running of MCD schools, but accused the AAP government of not availing of this.

MCD schools provide education till Class V after which students switch to government schools.

Professor Janaki Rajan of the Jamia Milia Islamia University said it was high time the government critically examined its policies, saying it was a "proven fact" that increased expenditure in education has not resulted in enhancement in learning. "The National Achievement Survey (NAS) has indicated that Delhi students are far less competent than the national average in subjects like English, Science and Mathematics," she said.

The NAS is conducted every year among students of every state in India, and Delhi students have fared the worst in three out of five subjects. In English, Science and Mathematics, Delhi students' scores were 241, 240 and 250 respectively, while the average was 250.

Professor Anita Rampal of Delhi University told Firspost that even the education department's records show that money spent hasn't enhanced learning. "Last year, more than 60,000 students failed in their Class IX exams and they were pushed out of the regular classrooms to correspondence courses. Even there, only 1,500 of them passed," she said.

She added that setting up of CCTV cameras in schools is not going to help enhance the learning environment. Budgetary proposes to set up CCTV cameras in classrooms came with an expenditure bill of Rs 175 crore.

Significantly, however, Agarwal asked exactly what does the Budget have in store for children who have already dropped out of school. As per a study conducted by Praja Foundation, 85,000 students dropped out of schools in Delhi in 2016. "Every year, nearly one lakh students drop out of schools. Over the years, more than 8 lakh students have dropped out. The Budget proposes no plan to bring them back to school," Agarwal said.

He also added that children with special abilities too did not receive any attention in this Budget. "They need special attention and equipment in school to prove themselves, but the government has turned its back on them," he lamented.
Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis rejected the demand for revoking the ban on plastic items, which came into effect from 18 March.

Mumbai: Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday rejected the demand for revoking the ban on plastic items, which came into effect from 18 March.

He said the government was willing to address genuine concerns of the plastic manufacturing industry.

Fadnavis said a cabinet sub-committee headed by Environment Minister Ramdas Kadam would be directed to engage with plastic industry stake-holders to find a working solution.

The chief minister said discussions had been held with the plastic industry stake-holders in the last six months and more engagement would be done to ensure they do not suffer because of the ban.

The demand for reconsideration of the ban was made by some MLAs during a debate on the Opposition-sponsored last week motion on the last day of the Budget session.

Leader of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil (Congress) said the government should ensure that plastic manufacturers don't get affected since the industry is the generator of jobs.

The state government implemented its ambitious plan to ban almost all plastic carry bags and single-use plastic, such as disposable plates and cutlery, food packaging and other items.

The government has proposed fines of Rs 5,000, Rs 10,000 and Rs 25,000 for the first three offences, with the maximum punishment for violation of the ban being a three-month jail term.

To a question, Fadnavis said the state government would fill 72,000 posts in various departments in the next two years.

"A total of 14000 posts will be filled in home department, 1500 in urban development department. The government will fill 2572 posts in agriculture department," he said.

Recently, unemployed youths had held protests against non-fulfillment of government posts.

Fadnavis also justified the reappointment of senior bureaucrat Radheshyam Mopalwar as the vice-chairman and managing director of the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) in February.

The chief minister cited a GR (Government Resolution), dated 9 February, 2000, on whose basis former bureaucrat RC Sinha was reappointed by the erstwhile Congress-NCP government.
Social media platforms which collaborate with the Election Commission will now have to follow a 'code of conduct' to ensure that their user data remains protected from manipulation which could adversely affect elections.

New Delhi: Social media platforms which collaborate with the Election Commission will now have to follow a 'code of conduct' to ensure that their user data remains protected from manipulation which could adversely affect elections.

Highly-placed sources in the poll panel said on Wednesday that the body's social media unit met on Tuesday and decided to draft the 'code of conduct'. The platforms which do not follow the proposed code will not get to partner with the Election Commission. The decision was taken in the aftermath of the Cambridge Analytica episode.

Observing that utilisation of social media cannot be stopped due to instances of "aberrations", Chief Election Commissioner OP Rawat had on Tuesday said that Facebook would remain the poll panel's social media partner during the Karnataka Assembly elections.

He also said the social media cell of the Election Commission would go into the issue of App of politicians and political parties sharing user data without the users' consent. "Any aberration won't stop the use of modern technology... banks frauds have taken place, but we don't stop banking," Rawat told a press conference while announcing the Karnataka Assembly poll schedule.

He was asked if the Facebook would continue to be the Election Commission's social media partner in the wake of reports that its user data had been harvested by a company without the users' consent.

The CEC said that the social media is a reality and the Election Commission will take all precautions at its command, to prevent episodes which adversely affect Indian elections. The Facebook data scandal erupted after a whistleblower revealed that Cambridge Analytica, a data firm with ties to Donald Trump's 2016 campaign, accessed personal data from 50 million users of the website without their knowledge, and might have kept that data even after the social media giant told the company to delete it. The Election Commission uses Facebook to encourage young people to enrol as voters.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought response of the Uttar Pradesh government on a plea challenging an Allahabad High Court order rejecting the bail plea

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought response of the Uttar Pradesh government on a plea challenging an Allahabad High Court order rejecting the bail plea of the proprietor of a firm which supplied oxygen to a government hospital in Gorakhpur where scores of children died last year.

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Manish Bhandari who is in jail for last seven months, said that it was an admitted position that the children died of Japanese Encephalitis and not due to short supply of oxygen. He referred to the stand of the state government and added that the accused has been suffering due to media trial.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice AM Khanwilkar asked the state government to file its reply within 12 weeks.

"Issue notice, fixing a returnable date within twelve weeks. Let a copy of the petition be served on Aishwarya Bhati, Additional Advocate General for Uttar Pradesh, for consideration of the prayer for bail. List the matter on 9 April", the bench said.

More than 60 children, mostly infants, had died at the hospital within a week in August 2017. There were allegations that the deaths occurred due to disruption in oxygen supply over unpaid bills to the vendor.

The Allahabad High Court had in February rejected the bail plea of Manish Bhandari, the proprietor of the firm which supplied oxygen to the government-run Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur.

The high court had on 13 February rejected the bail petition of Bhandari, saying, "the court is inclined to accept the submission that custodial interrogation of the accused may still be warranted and it would not be appropriate to grant him bail at this stage."

The counsel for the Uttar Pradesh government had opposed the petition, saying the investigation in the case was pending and Bhandari may be required for it.
India, on Wednesday, strongly condemned the missile attacks on Saudi Arabia, which targeted the capital Riyadh and other cities earlier this week, by Houthi militias in Yemen

New Delhi: India, on Wednesday, strongly condemned the missile attacks on Saudi Arabia, which targeted the capital Riyadh and other cities earlier this week, by Houthi militias in Yemen.

"We strongly condemn the renewed missile attacks targeting civilian areas in the direction of Riyadh and other cities of Saudi Arabia," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in response to media queries.

"We are deeply concerned about the escalating situation threatening the lives of innocent civilians," he said. "We reiterate our resolve to fight terrorism and violence in all its forms," he added.

Yemeni Houthi rebels fired several long-range ballistic missiles on Saudi territory on Sunday midnight.

At a press conference in Riyadh, Turki Al-Malki, the spokesperson for the Saudi-led Arab coalition, alleged the Iran-backed Houthi militias launched as many as seven ballistic missiles on 26 March "carrying the stamp of the terror-sponsor Iranian regime".

Al-Malki said three of the missiles were fired at Riyadh and one Egyptian civilian was killed when fragments landed in a suburb. One missile was fired towards Khamis Mushait in the province of Asir, another towards Najran and the other two at Jizan.

He said the scattering splinters of the missiles have dispersed over a number of Riyadh civilian-populated neighbourhoods, in a flagrant violation of the international law.

Al-Malki stressed that coalition countries have the right to legitimate self-defence as stipulated in Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations and preserved the kingdom's right to retaliate against Iran at the appropriate time and form guaranteed by international law and the inherent right to defend its territory, people and interests under international conventions, including the Charter of the United Nations.

Iran has repeatedly disavowed any link to these attacks.
So the word is out. According to a senior official quoted in a national daily, India has indicated that it would not intervene in Maldives

So the word is out. According to a senior official quoted in a national daily, India has indicated that it would not intervene in Maldives. The rider is that New Delhi expects China to show reciprocity by not crossing certain red lines or lines of legitimacy in the neighbourhood. The statement is likely to be greeted with malice by India baiters across the subcontinent and beyond. Before they pop the champagne corks however, a little disaggregation of this apparent Indian position is in order.

With regard to Maldives, there was never at any time a reasonable military option of intervention. The reasons for this have been earlier outlined by this writer but to summarise: An intervention is inevitably open-ended, expensive in multiple ways, and is highly unlikely to deliver the objectives of the operation, which is to ensure a friendly and cooperative Maldives. In fact, the end result would probably be the reverse.

Therefore when India is giving up intervention, it is giving up something that was never an option.

The decision not to intervene is not a sign of weakness per se. Neither should actual decision making on intervention be prompted by Chinese investment in the archipelago. Consider that not even the United States is able to control its neighbourhood effectively. President Donald Trumps fight to build a Great Wall on the Mexico border is one indication of just how low policy has fallen.

China is also heavily investing in Latin America. President Xi Jinping had, in fact, announced the intention to invest $250 billion in those countries several years ago, together with a target of $500 billion in trade. Though that may not have entirely fructified, it is not something that Washington can actively or publicly oppose. It would, however, use other methods to ensure that such investments did not affect its own national security concerns.

Moreover, analytical studies indicate that Chinese investment in the area was usually limited to those countries with poor access to international finance. More importantly, the study also observed that Chinese presence did not directly contribute to a lowering of political stability and erosion of democracy. That was primarily a function of domestic decision politics.

In other words, Maldives president Abdulla Yameens authoritarianism is dictated by his own domestic agenda, but may be exacerbated by the knowledge of China as a balancing power in terms of warding off Indian military intervention. But Indian pressure and subtle persuasion  which is one way of putting it  can still be applied to influence domestic decision making and restore stability.

The message to Beijing therefore is: Dont interfere in this area. We can handle it, without losses to your economic interests.

Chinas investments in our neighbourhood are, however, considerable. A key study by Gateway House totals Chinese investment in these countries at about $150 billion. A good part of this  estimated at about $62 billion  is in Pakistan, followed by Myanmar. This, again follows the pattern of Chinese investment, in that it is offered where the regime is either suspect or it has poor access to international finance.

The perils of Chinese financing are, however, now far more evident than before. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank predict that Maldivian debt will soon reach 120 percent of its GDP. An independent analysis also puts Maldives in the very high risk category. Maldivian media is cautiously beginning to highlight these risks, criticising for instance, the lack of transparency in the terms set for Chinese loans.

A turning away from Chinese financing is also apparent in Myanmar, where a democratic government has chosen to diversify its sources of investment rather than rely only on Beijing. Chinese sources observe that investment there has fallen in the last year, even as countries like Singapore and Vietnam increased their presence. China, however, still remains the largest investor.

Quoting the Chinese Directorate of Investment and Company Administration, the paper provides the figure of total investments in the country as $18.5 billion since 1988. However, recent events point to a possibility that Chinese financing offers are now being rejected not so much because of its iniquitous clauses  for instance virtual ownership in the case of a power project in Pakistan  as much as the fact that political leaders are beginning to fear the erosion of their own decision making powers.

A country that buys not only into your infrastructure but also your stock exchange is one that is likely to tread on sovereign toes.

To sum up, the crucial aspect of Indias stance seems to be the enunciation of new red lines or what is being called  lines of legitimacy  a term which is incomprehensible and unclear about our legitimate rights in the neighbourhood  and violation of strategic trust. The latter is far more comprehensible, though again vague as to what constitutes its violation. An intentionally vague statement is no bad thing. What is dangerous is if policy makers are vague themselves.

To the discerning public and certainly to Chinese policy makers, there is one clear red line for India. That red line would be crossed if China were to set up a military base in our neighbourhood, including in Pakistan. The future of Hambatota, and Gwadar will therefore need to be closely monitored, as well as the Chinese virtual takeover of parts of the Maldivian archipelago.

There are other lines that are not so clearly red at first glance, but are developments that hint at definite dangers to India. One such is the proposal by China to link Kathmandu with Lhasa. This needs to be resolutely opposed by New Delhi. But, as the Indian statement clearly indicates, the days when one could demand compliance, if indeed such days ever existed, are long over. If India opposes the rail project, it should be prepare to offer something better. The simple lesson was one we should have learned years ago: A regional sphere of influence demands a continuous and consistent policy of investment and assistance, rather than threats to close a border.

Therefore, in the final analysis, we rather desperately need two specific capabilities. First, the military ability to counter a possible move by China to cross a specific red line. This needs a close analysis on its possible overflow into other borders and areas of dispute, and resultant capabilities required. At present, it doesnt seem that this capability is being prioritised.

Second, is the quick increase of alternative financing to vulnerable states. Given large Chinese pockets, this obviously requires a group of nations acting in concert. The recent visit by Japanese foreign minister Taro Kono, bearing gifts of investment for Sri Lankas ports is one pointer to a possible push back. More is needed, and quickly.

Meanwhile, get ready with the simpler things. In 2014, India rushed 1,000 tonnes of drinking water to a parched Maldives after a massive fire broke out at its own plant. Chinese ships and aircraft arrived too. But geography has the final say. Chinese ships had to sail nearly 50 hours to do the deed. Were just a hop away. With desalination plants being prohibitively expensive, find ways to offer Male that glass of water at cheaper rates. The champagne can be popped later.
At least four militants were killed in an encounter with security forces after they tried to enter a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) camp in Rewarian Talla village, a kilometer from Sunderbani township in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir, sources said.

At least four militants were killed in an encounter with security forces after they tried to enter a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) camp in Rewarian Talla village, a kilometer from Sunderbani township in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir, sources said.

On Wednesday morning, a gunfight broke out after militants wearing army fatigues were hiding in the bushes near a CRPF camp. The sentry noticed suspicious movement, and after an initial warning, fired upon the militants.

A sentry saw militants approaching camp and he opened fire. They were few hundred meters from the camp, a senior CRPF official told Firstpost, adding that the combing operation was still ongoing in the area.

According to sources, the militants were cornered from all sides near a stream after additional forces, including Indian Army was brought in, and a massive gunfight erupted. Director General of Police, SP Vaid said four militants who looked like foreigners, were killed in the day-long operation.

Indian Army sources said the militants infiltrated from across the Line of Control (LoC) a few days ago and were attempting a Fidayeen attack on the camp. Most of the attacks in recent months by militants from across the border have been carried out along the Line of Control and International Border in Jammu.

One such attack was carried out on the Sunjuwan Army camp in which four Jaish-e Mohammad militants, and five soldiers and a civilian were killed. The encounter was one of the worst since the 2016 Uri attack in which 19 soldiers were killed.

The state government ordered authorities to close educational institutions in the Sunderbani Tehsil in view of the search operation, and the district administration asked people to inform the police about any suspicious movement in the area.

Last year, over 300 infiltrations were reported from the Line of Control (LoC), the highest in four years, according to figures available with the home ministry. The year also witnessed a tremendous increase in the incidents of firing and attempts made by the militants to sneak in. A majority of these attempts were foiled and the militants killed after entering the Indian side.

In recent months, the tension along the borders has been replicated in the diplomatic face-off between India and Pakistan. The two countries have traded charges of diplomats being harassed, prompting Islamabad to recall Sohail Mahmood, its high commissioner in New Delhi.

In January, at least 17 civilians were killed on the border while five Indian Army soldiers and four BSF personnel, including an assistant sub-inspector, died along with an intruder.

More than 6,000 people have been living in shelter homes across the Jammu region. Last week, after the firing started in the relatively calm north Kashmirs Uri region, officials said 40,000 to 50,000 residents from nearly 55 villages were impacted by the escalation.

Last Wednesday, five militants were killed and five security personnel lost their lives in a gunfight in north Kashmir's Kupwara district, when they fired at an area domination party. The militants had been hiding in the forest and recently infiltrated north Kashmir.
After a lull of ten days, Indian and Pakistan army traded fire on the line of control (LoC) in Poonch district on late Tuesday

Jammu: After a lull of ten days, Indian and Pakistan army traded fire on the line of control (LoC) in Poonch district on late Tuesday.

A defence ministry official said the Pakistan army started shelling and firing at Indian positions in Khari Karmara area of the LoC in Poonch district.

"Pakistan firing started at 8.30 pm on Tuesday and continued for nearly half an hour. Our troops retaliated effectively and strongly", the official said.

Tuesday's ceasefire violation came after ten days of lull on the borders.

On 18 March, five members of a family were killed and two others injured when a mortar shell fired from across the LoC hit a residential house in Balakote sector of Poonch district.
Two terrorists were killed in the Sunderbani area of Rajouri in Kashmir as a gunfight broke out between security personnel and some terrorists.

Four terrorists were killed in the Sunderbani area of Rajouri in Jammu and Kashmir as a gunfight broke out between security personnel and some terrorists, who had infiltrated from across the LoC.

The terrorists had reportedly moved into Rajouri sector four days ago and were traced to be in its Sunderbani tehsil after days of combing operations, the police said. However, combing operations are still underway in the area.

SSP Rajouri Yougal Manhas confirmed the death of two militants on Wednesday, ANI reported. He said that all the militants were from a group that has recently infiltrated from across the border.

Amid the ongoing encounter between the security forces and the terrorists, the authorities had refuted reports of a terror attack at a CRPF camp but had ordered the closure of all educational institutions in the tehsil as a precautionary measure.

"An encounter broke out between Nowshera-Sunderbani belt after a group of infiltrator terrorists were intercepted by the security forces today," Jammu and Kashmir director general of police SP Vaid had told PTI.

He refuted reports of a terror attack by the terrorists terming them as "totally false."

CRPF spokesperson Ashish Kumar Jha also said there was no such attack on the paramilitary force camp in Sunderbani. He said the alert troops had prevented any mishap as they raised alarm in time after they detected some suspicious movement.

Giving further details, Manhas said that three bags of ammunition and explosives were recovered from outside a CRPF camp in Sunderbani.

As per the reports, a security guard manning the gate of a CRPF camp at Sodra in Sunderbani area fired some warning shots and raised an alarm after he detected some suspicious movement near the paramilitary camp.

The police and security forces had been conducting search and combing operation to track down the suspected infiltrators since four or five days in Sunderbani.

Rajouri deputy commissioner Shahid Iqbal Choudary ordered the closure of all the educational institutions in Sunderbani sector in wake of the search operation.

Last night, two terrorists had entered the house of Bhushan Kumar Sharma in Bunpori-Yoginallah area in Sunderbani and had forced them to prepare food, which they had taken away along with them, the reports said.

With inputs from PTI
A team of officials of India's Ministry of Water Resources held talks with their Chinese counterparts on the cooperation of trans-border rivers

Beijing: A team of officials of India's Ministry of Water Resources held talks with their Chinese counterparts on the cooperation of trans-border rivers, the first after Beijing last year stopped providing the data on the flow of Brahmaputra waters.

The two-day talks on the 11th meeting of the India-China Expert Level Mechanism (ELM) on Trans-Border Rivers concluded yesterday in the Chinese city of Hangzhou, a press release from the Indian Embassy in Beijing on Wednesday.

The Indian side was led by Teerath Singh Mehra, Commissioner (B&B), Ministry of Water Resources and the Chinese side by Yu Xingjun, Consul, Department of International Cooperation Science and Technology, Ministry of Water Resources.

The meeting reviewed the progress made since the earlier meetings of the ELM and their continued cooperation on provision of hydrological information and emergency management in respect of trans-border rivers, the press release.

The officials also reviewed the data utilisation report upon provision of hydrological information provided by China to India in flood season on Brahmaputra and Sutlej Rivers.

The institutional mechanism of the ELM was established in 2006 to discuss various issues related to trans-border rivers. Under existing bilateral Memorandums of Understanding, China provides to India hydrological information of Brahmaputra River (Yarlong Zangbo) and Sutlej River (Langqen Zangbo) during the flood seasons.

Under the arrangement, China provides flood season data of the Brahmaputra river between 15 May and 15 October every year.

Last September, China said it couldn't share the data with due to upgradation of data collection station in Tibet.

China's announcement soon after the 73-day long standoff at Doklam over Chinese military's plans to build a road close to India's Chicken Neck corridor connecting North-Eastern states.

China has been building major dams on Brahmaputra river to generate hydel power. It operationalised Zangmu hydroelectric project in October, 2015 and three more are under construction.

While dams raised concerns of water shortages in India and Bangladesh, which are lower riparian states of Brahmaputra river, China said its dams were aimed at generating power and not storing water.

According to officials, the data shared by upper riparian state, China, to lower riparian states, India and Bangladesh is essential every monsoon to allow anticipation of the flow of the water and take necessary measures to deal with flooding in India's north eastern states.
Police cited possible law and order situation to deny permission to Shiv Pratishthan Hindustan to hold rallies in Pune and Mumbai in support of Sambhaji Bhide.

Pune/Mumbai: Police on Tuesday cited possible law and order situation to deny permission to Shiv Pratishthan Hindustan to hold rallies in Pune and Mumbai in support of Hindutva leader Manohar alias Sambhaji Bhide, one of the main accused in the Bhima Koregaon caste violence of 1 January.

In Mumbai, the Pratishthan wanted to hold a rally from Byculla to Azad Maidan in south Mumbai and from Shaniwarwada to the district collectorate in Pune.

However, police allowed the organisation to hold a gathering at Azad Maidan, a Mumbai police official said. "We have denied permission to the march," said Shrikant Shinde, senior inspector, Vishrambaug police station, Pune.

Pune district president of Pratishthan Sanjay Jadhar alleged the police denied them permission at the "last moment". He said Bhide's supporters would still gather at the riverbed near Shaniwarwada in the city to "express their sentiments" and hold the march. Jadhar said the outfit wanted the case against Bhide to be withdrawn immediately.

Bhide (85), who heads Shiv Pratishthan Hindustan, and another Hindutva leader Milind Ekbote were booked on 2 January, a day after the violence, under SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and under various sections of the IPC including attempt to murder as one person was killed in the clashes. Ekbote was already arrested by the police after his anticipatory bail plea was rejected by the Supreme Court.

Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh (BBM) leader Prakash Ambedkar had alleged that Hindu Ekta Aghadi and the Shiv Pratishthan were responsible for the caste clashes.

The violence had occurred at an event to mark the 200th anniversary of the battle of Bhima Koregaon in which the British Army comprising Dalits had defeated the Peshwas. A large section of Dalits view the historical battle as the defeat of the 'casteism' of upper-caste Peshwas.

Dalit activists led by Ambedkar on Monday had held protests in Mumbai's Azad Maidan demanding Bhide's arrest. Ambedkar has given a one-week ultimatum to the state government to arrest Bhide.

However, Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday told the Assembly that there was no proof of the involvement of Bhide in the violence.

Bhide, who hails from Sangli district in western Maharashtra, has been maintaining that he was not present at the spot on the day of the incident and was away to attend MLA Jayant Patil's mother's rituals.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's NaMo App' has witnessed around two lakh new downloads after the Congress alleged 'data theft' by the application, the BJP sources claimed on Wednesday.

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's NaMo App' has witnessed around two lakh new downloads after the Congress alleged 'data theft' by the application, the BJP sources claimed on Wednesday.

When the Congress Party started the #DeleteNaMoApp campaign' on social media, hardly would they have imagined that the outcome would have been so different, party sources here said.

Since the Congress campaign against NaMo App started, it has notched up more than 2 lakh new downloads. The rate of downloads has increased manifold since the Congress & Rahul Gandhi started attacking it, a senior party source said.

BJP sources said that Modi, in a recent meeting with MPs, had stressed upon the need to connect with people using the app. The party had initiated a massive outreach campaign using this app to involve booth level workers across the country.

After allegations that data from the prime minister's official app was shared with foreign firms without the consent of users, Congress president Rahul Gandhi had said the NaMo App secretly recorded audio, video and contacts. Gandhi used the hashtag "DeleteNaMoApp".

Hitting back, Union minister Smriti Irani had said even "Chhota Bheem", a cartoon character, knew that commonly asked permission on apps do not "tantamount to snooping".
Over a thousand teachers and students marched in New Delhi on Wednesday in an attempt to send a message to the government that they 'will not allow destruction of universities'

Over a thousand teachers and students marched in New Delhi on Wednesday, according to several media reports.

The "March for Education", organised by Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA) and the Federation of Central Universities Teachers Associations (FEDCUTA), insisted that the granting of graded autonomy to 60 universities will lead to "commercialisation" and "blatant privatisation" of public education, News18 reported.

The march from Mandi House to Parliament Street in the national capital, which includes teachers' associations of scores of colleges, is to protest issues such as replacement of grants by loans through Higher Education Funding Agency (HEFA), tripartite Memorandums Of Understanding (MOUs), graded autonomy to universities and grant of financial autonomy to educational institutions of repute to turn them into teaching shops, according to a report in The Hindu.

Human Resource Development minister Prakash Javadekar earlier said that 52 out of 60 higher education institutes that have been granted autonomy are universities, according to the News18 report. The central universities which have been granted autonomy include Jawaharlal Nehru University, Aligarh Muslim University, Banaras Hindu University, University of Hyderabad and the English and Foreign Languages University, Telangana, according to the report.

"We as teachers remain committed to our students. As in the past, the Delhi University Teachers Association appeals to its members to take measures to ensure that students are not adversely affected because of the strike. This struggle is a joint struggle by all sections of the university community and increasing participation of students is one of its strengths," The Hindu report quoted a DUTA statement as saying on Tuesday.

The Aam Aadmi Party also joined the march on Wednesday, and showed solidarity with the students on Twitter:

Delhi Education Minister @msisodia at #March4Education rally  BJP government is scared of education, first they destroyed education at school level now they are destroying higher education too, private schools are owned by few business houses only. pic.twitter.com/M8fMmzRt5k  AAP (@AamAadmiParty) March 28, 2018
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has named Mohammad Ashraf Sehrai, the newly elected chairman of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, and whose son recently joined the Hizbul Mujahideen, as a key man who gave fillip to anti-India activities in Kashmir.

Srinagar: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has named Mohammad Ashraf Sehrai, the newly elected chairman of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, whose son recently joined the Hizbul Mujahideen, as a key man who gave fillip to anti-India activities in Kashmir.

An NIA investigation report on the funding of the separatists and militants in Kashmir named Sehrai and some other office-bearers of the Hurriyat, including those from border districts of Rajouri and Poonch in Jammu region as remaining in the forefront of anti-India activities.

The NIA referred to the activities which were carried out by the Hurriyat, including by Geelani and Sehrai to mobilise public opinion in favour of pro-freedom protests in Kashmir. Apart from listing a seminar and some public programmes which were presided over by Sehrai, the NIA also procured letters issued by Geelani on organisational activities of Hurriyat in which Sehrai was referred to as an important office bearer.

The NIA has also referred to the letters in which Geelani and Sehrai asked the Hurriyat cadre to remain active on the ground. Though NIA also procured the letters of different separatist organisations as evidence of their anti-India activities, the activities of Hurriyat have been referred to in broader detail.

It also listed the protest calendars issued by the separatists after the killing of Hizbul commander Burhan Wani in 2016, as evidence of their involvement in anti-India activities. Also, as part of the charge sheet against the separatist leaders, the NIA also referred to the call details and e-mails between Hurriyat (M) chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, JKLF chairman Yaseen Malik, and Geelani to decide on the activities before the protest programmes were issued.

The separatists were issuing the protest calendars regularly after the death of Wani and civilian killings, through which they asked the people to follow different means of protest in 2016. Inspector General of NIA Alok Mittal said the agency was probing the case involving the separatist leaders and has charged them with different offences.

After Sehrai's son Junaid Ashraf Khan, 28, joined the militant outfit, Director General of Police SP Vaid asked Sehrai to appeal to him to lay down arms. However, Sehrai refused.

On Tuesday, Sehrai addressed a function on the death anniversary of advocate Jalil Andrabi organised by the Jammu and Kashmir Bar Association to pursue the Kashmir cause.

During the seminar entitled Right of self-determination and persistent human rights violations in Kashmir, Sehrai stressed on the broad-based unity in rank and file to pursue the cause of freedom. While pursuing the cause for realisation of right to self-determination, we must not shy away from the principled foundations of Islam. It is better to forge a unity with a purpose and for a cause in light of Hurriyat constitution of 1993 (sic), he said, at the function.

It is not only the leaders who are making sacrifices but also the common man and these sacrifices are supreme and above all other considerations. Difference of opinion is bliss in Islam but the difference should not lead to confrontation (sic), he added. While Sehrai was unavailable for comment, a senior Hurriyat leader said the charges against separatist leaders were false and without any basis.

In a recent statement, Geelani said, The entire NIA exercise as political vendetta. Instead of citing any proof, the NIA is relying on social media reports and a long list of more than 332 witnesses. He added that false cases are registered against the detainees, they are subjected to extreme physical torture and their bail applications are often turn down on false pretexts.

Sehrai, who was previously the Hurriyat general secretary, took over as the Hurriyat chief after he was elected chairman at a meeting of its executive council. Sehrai took over from Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who stepped down after 15 years at the helm. Geelani, who held the post after a split in the Hurriyat Conference in 2003, cited poor health as the reason for relinquishing office.
In June 2015, while an Indian Army convoy was en route from Chandel in Manipur to Dimapur in Nagaland, they were ambushed by the National Socialist Council of NagalandKhapalang (NSCN-K), a well-organised insurgent group operating in North East India.

In June 2015, while an Indian Army convoy was en route from Chandel in Manipur to Dimapur in Nagaland, they were ambushed by the National Socialist Council of NagalandKhapalang (NSCN-K), a well-organised insurgent group operating in North East India.

Eighteen soldiers were killed, in what was one of the deadliest attacks in North East India in a decade. And what's worse is that reports indicated the possibility of more lethal attacks by the militants.

The only way to prevent it was by launching a swift counter-insurgency operation. Out of this need was born 'Operation Hot Pursuit', for which the army's elite Paratrooper Special Forces unit's commandos were handpicked. Their objective: To seek and destroy the militant stronghold and foil imminent insurgent attacks.

Two-and-a-half years after the operation was carried out, History TV18 is able to unravel the dramatic twists and turns of what transpired as the Indian Army hunted down a determined and vicious enemy.

History TV18's report, titled Special Operations India: Myanmar, will honour high-profile speakers including National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, Chief of Army Staff General Bipin Rawat, former defence minister Manohar Parrikar, former chief of army staff Dalbir Singh, defence analyst Nitin Gokhale among others.

It will feature authentic recreations of the events, details of the operation, including its planning and execution, and first person accounts of the people who made it a reality.

The show will air on Wednesday, 28 March, at 9 pm on History TV18.

Disclosure: History TV18 is part of Network18 news media group, which is also the parent company of Firstpost.com
As per the Constitution of India, the word impeachment is not used for the removal of judges because it is explicitly used in Article 61 for the removal of the President of India.

Preparing the ground to move a motion for removal of Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra in Parliament, a group of MPs belonging to opposition parties have discreetly collected signatures and the move is on to get more numbers in the list. The group of MPs have levelled allegation of abuse of power against CJI Misra.

"More than 40 MPs have signed on the draft of impeachment motion, which was circulated among opposition MPs. Besides Congress, MPs from the Left, SP, BSP, RJD, etc have signed. The final decision on this is yet to be taken," one of the signatories, a Congress MP told Firstpost on condition of anonymity.

In an unprecedented move in January this year, Justice J Chelameswar, the second senior-most judge in the Supreme Court along with Justices Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur and Kurian Joseph apart from holding a presser, wrote to the CJI that some important cases were "assigned by the Chief Justice of this court selectively to benches 'of their preference' without rational basis".

Will the opposition succeed in the move?

According to constitutional experts, the said move is a political gimmick, and the opposition party MPs wont be successful in getting the motion through.

Even if the opposition succeeds in moving a motion against the CJI, the process would not reach closure before October, when Chief Justice Misra retires.

The opposition also does not have the required numbers to secure a two-third majority in both the Houses.

What legal fraternity says?

Supreme Court lawyer Sandeep Mahapatra said, "Its a politically motivated move by the sponsors (opposition). They want to create roadblocks for the hearing of Ram Janambhoomi case and Muslim marriage practices. In the past Congress had moved a similar motion against a sitting SC judge only to retreat later. There is no ground to bring the motion for removal of the CJI and its only an act driven by malice."

Another SC lawyer, on condition of anonymity, said, "It is aimed at creating pressure on the CJI, who will set up a few important benches. According to a section within the judiciary and in political circles, the CJI is considered as having a Right-leaning approach. They have an apprehension that the benches will be formed on those lines."

Wrong usage of the word impeachment

As per the Constitution of India, the word impeachment is not used for the removal of judges because it is explicitly used in Article 61 for the removal of the President of India.

Constitutional experts have stated the use of word 'impeachment' as incorrect and impeachment motion is not applicable in the case of judges. Its applicable only in the case of the President of India.

"There is no impeachment in the case of judges. The term has wrongly been used. The Article 124 of the Constitution mentions the procedure for the removal of a judge, whereas Article 61 deals with the procedure of impeachment of the President of India. So, in the first instance, it needs to be corrected," Subhash C Kashyap, an authority on Indian Constitution told Firstpost.

What constitutional experts say?

"A judge can be removed by moving a motion for removal of a judge on grounds of incapacity and misbehaviour. Either 100 members in the Lok Sabha or 50 members in Rajya Sabha can give a notice to the Speaker or Chairman. Its a very tedious process and so far there hasnt been a single success, though such move was made against a few judges," said Kashyap.

Another constitutional pundit SK Sharma explained, "To remove a judge, the charges against him/her have to be extremely serious in nature. If the motion is moved in the Lower House, an inquiry is set up in the Upper House to look into the charges."

He added, Its a tedious and long-drawn procedure, and may take more than a year. The opposition needs to secure a two-thirds majority to get the motion passed, which is not possible in their case. Simply, they dont have the numbers. Its more a political gimmick and aimed at creating noise. No matter how hard they try, they wont be able to do it.

A few cases in the past

Motion for removal of judges have been moved in the past as well, but none succeeded  whether it was against Justice V Ramaswami or against Justice CV Nagarjuna Reddy.

V Ramaswami:A Supreme Court judge, Justice Ramaswami was the first one against whom removal proceedings were initiated in independent India. The motion was moved in the Lok Sabha in 1993. The motion failed to secure two-thirds majority in the House. He got into a controversy of spending extravagantly on his official residence when he was Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court in 1990s. The said decision was challenged before the Supreme Court and the apex court upheld the decision of the Parliament.

Soumitra Sen: Situations were such in the case of Justice Sen of Calcutta High Court that he would have become the first judge to have got removed. The motion was first moved against him in the Rajya Sabha. There was an allegation against him of misappropriation of public fund of Rs 33.23 lakh in 1983, which he had received from the high court as a receiver in a case. An inquiry headed by the then Rajya Sabha chairman Hamid Ansari found the allegation correct. In order to save himself from indignity, Sen resigned from his office in 2011 before the motion for his removal could be initiated in the Lok Sabha.

PD Dinakaran: There were 16 charges including corruption, land grabbing and abuse of judicial office framed against Justice Dinakaran, who was the Chief Justice of Sikkim High Court. The Rajya Sabha chairman had set up a panel to look into the allegations. But, before removal motion could be initiated against him, Dinakaran resigned in July 2011.

JB Pardiwala: In 2015, 58 Rajya Sabha members moved a motion against Justice Pardiwala of Gujarat High Court for his objectionable remarks on the issue of reservation. It was against a remark made by him on reservations for SC and ST while giving a ruling in a case against Hardik Patel. But, hours after the notice was sent by the MPs to Chairman Ansari, Justice Pardiwala removed the said wordings from his judgment.

CV Nagarjuna Reddy: Despite trying twice to move the motion for removal of Justice Nagarjuna Reddy of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, it finally failed in June 2017. Nine of the 54 Rajya Sabha members who had initiated the proceeding, withdrew their signatures. The first attempt failed in December 2016, as 19 signatories backed out. The allegations against the judge include interfering in the judicial process, caste slurs and death threat against a Dalit junior civil judge.
The Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (PMSA) on Wednesday apprehended nearly 24 Indian fishermen from Gujarat in the Arabian Sea, said a fishing association official.

Ahmedabad: The Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (PMSA) on Wednesday apprehended nearly 24 Indian fishermen from Gujarat in the Arabian Sea, said a fishing association official.

"We have learnt that around 24 fishermen, who set sail from Porbandar in Gujarat four days ago, were apprehended by the PMSA near the international maritime border," said Manish Lodhari, the secretary of Porbandar-based National Fishworkers' Forum. The PMSA also seized three to four boats of the fishermen, Lodhari said.

He said the Pakistani authorities were yet to confirm the exact number of fishermen apprehended and the number of boats seized by the maritime security agency.

In February this year, the PMSA had arrested 42 fishermen from Gujarat and had seized their eight boats. Earlier in January, the PMSA had arrested 17 fishermen for allegedly fishing illegally in Pakistan's territorial waters.

In a goodwill gesture, Pakistan had in December 2017 and January this year, had released 292 Indian fishermen, imprisoned there. As per Lodhari, the PMSA had apprehended about 400 fishermen and seized around 65 of their boats last year.
12:45 (ist)

RECAP: Rajya Sabha adjourned till 2.30 pm after brief arguments between Venkaiah Naidu, Congress members

The Rajya Sabha today witnessed an abrupt adjournment following a brief argument between Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu and some Congress members soon after the House assembled for the day.

After tabling of the listed papers, Naidu expressed his anguish saying the House has not functioned ever since it resumed on March 5 after recess during the Budget session.

Before adjourning the House till 2.30 PM, Naidu said there were larger issues like banking scam, Cauvery river water sharing, demand for a special package to Andhra Pradesh and sealing in the national capital, which were agitating the minds of people and needed to be discussed.

"I am very much pained that the Upper House of Parliament is not able to transact its business for last two weeks. Dont't test my patience...We are meeting, greeting and not doing anything and adjourning," the Chairman said.

As he was making the appeal, Congress member Satyabrat Chaturvedi stood up and said he agreed with the Chair, but sought to know whether it was for the first time that he is witnessing such a scenario in Parliament.

To this, Naidu asked if somebody committed a mistake in the past, does it mean that he should also do the same.

"Do you want this sort of a thing to continue? ... Is that your suggestion. This is your party view," he said.

As some other Congress members were on their feet trying to join the issue simultaneously, Naidu adjourned the House till 2.30 PM.
A passenger has been arrested on charges of molesting a cabin crew member of an Air Vistara Lucknow-Delhi flight, according to ANI.

A passenger has been arrested for allegedly molesting a cabin crew member of an Air Vistara Lucknow-Delhi flight, according to reports. The incident occurred on Saturday.

India Today has identified the accused as 62-year-old Rajeev Vasant Dani, a resident of Pune.

An FIR was filed against the accused in New Delhi for misbehaving with the cabin crew member, after which the passenger was handed over to the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), India Today reported.

The FIR has been filed under Section 354 A of the IPC (Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty).

Passenger arrested for allegedly harassing Vistara cabin crew.#ITVideo pic.twitter.com/M79Gfr7aA3  India Today (@IndiaToday) March 28, 2018

The incident reportedly occurred when the flight UK997 from Lucknow landed in Delhi and passengers were deboarding the plane, according to News18.

The Times of India quoted sources as saying, The air hostess, who hails from Meghalaya, was touched inappropriately by the accused more than once. She reported the matter to her seniors and some passengers also saw this disgraceful act.

According to The Times of India, a Vistara spokesperson said, A member of our cabin crew operating flight number UK 997 from Lucknow to Delhi on March 24, 2018, reported an incident of sexual harassment by a passenger. Vistara does not tolerate abusive or unruly behaviour by passengers that puts the safety of its staff and other customers at risk, or compromises their dignity. We have reported the matter to the police and other relevant authorities. An FIR is registered and investigation is on. We are fully committed to providing our cooperation to all the authorities.

In 2017, Air Vistara was embroiled in a similar controversy when Dangal actress Zaira Wasim alleged that she was molested while she was flying to Mumbai with the airline. On an Air Vistara flight from Delhi to Mumbai, a "middle-aged man" reportedly brushed his feet repeatedly against the 17-year-old actress' back and neck while she was asleep.

Wasim had tried to record the man's actions, but failed due to dim lights. She had, however, managed to click a few pictures of the incident, the report said. The actress had later shared her ordeal on social media. The national award-winning actress, who has worked in movies such as Dangal had also slammed the cabin crew for inaction. "Slow claps for Vistara's crew guys! Wonderful!" she had written.

Air Vistara had tweeted in response to the controversy saying it was carrying out a "detailed investigation into the case". Later, 39-year-old, Mumbai-based businessman Vikas Sachdev was arrested for allegedly molesting the actress.
The demand for workers in Iraq has made Punjab a breeding ground for unauthorised travel agents, who are a part of international human trafficking network.

Editor's note: On 20 March, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told Parliament that 39 Indian workers, most of them from Punjab, were killed by the Islamic State in Iraq last year. Given the state's massive unemployment problem, thousands of marginalised and poor youths continue to ignore the risks and seek prospects in the Middle East. This is the second of a four-part series analysing the plight of Indian workers in the region.

Ludhiana: Gobinder Singh of Kapurthala was one of the 39 Indian workers confirmed killed at the hands of the Islamic State at Mosul in Iraq. The loan of Rs 1.5 lakh that his family took to send him to Iraq remains unpaid.

Davinder Singh, Gobinder's brother, said the Rs 1.5 lakh was given to a travel agent in Gurdaspur district after Gobinder was promised a job in a construction company in Dubai. "The travel agent had promised that my brother will be sent to Dubai, but he was taken to Iraq instead of in July 2013. We had last spoken to Gobinder in March 2014." Mosul fell to Islamic State in June 2014.

According to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), "before the Gulf war in 1991, there were more than 80,000 Indian nationals in Iraq. Most of them left Iraq before the war started. After the 2003 invasion, thousands of Indian workers were recruited by contractors to provide various services to foreign military bases in Iraq. Many of them left with the deteriorating security situation in the country."

The subsequent demand for workers in Iraq had made many places in Punjab a breeding ground for unauthorised travel agents, who work in collusion with international human trafficking network. Lawfully, only an immigration agency holding a license from the MEA can send persons with appropriate documents to other countries on a work visa.

Gobinder's family said the travel agent, a man named Rajbir Singh, has allegedly been missing for a long time and is not in contact with his family. The police have not been able to trace him so far.

As per official records, there are only 287 registered travel agents with the district administration in Jalandhar, 170 in Ludhiana and 134 in Amritsar. Most of Indians killed in Mosul (27 of the 39) belonged to Punjab's Doaba region, which includes Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala and Jalandhar districts.

While the government has formulated rules under the Punjab Travel Professionals' Regulation Act, 2012 to keep a check on travel agents in the state, its application has been lackadaisical. A senior functionary of the Punjab home department said all travel agents are required to register themselves with deputy commissioners of the respective districts, after which they get a license.

"However, there are loopholes in the Act. An unauthorised person who directly approaches a job aspirant cannot be detected unless his activities are reported to the police," the official said.

Sawinder Kaur's son Nishan Singh too was confirmed by the MEA as killed in Iraq. She said they had taken a loan of Rs 1.70 lakh to send Nishan to Dubai, where a travel agent had promised for a job in a construction company. "A total of 11 people, including my son Nishan, went to Dubai from Amritsar. There they were told that the company in which they were supposed to work has shut down its operations. They were told they can work in Iraq in another branch of the same company. They readily agreed." Nishans family also accuses a travel agent named Rajbir Singh.

Registered travel agents complain that fraudulent agents roam freely while those registered are harassed. Brij Mohan, 66, who earlier worked as a travel agent in Jalandhar, said he left the profession after seeing how authorities keep them under a tight vigil. He said licensed agents are many times summoned by district authorities to share details of clients, which becomes uncomfortable.

"Whenever an unauthorised travel agent is arrested, police become suspicious of all others, even those working with all the documents and guidelines. Police should not disturb the peace of innocent travel agents, but should formulate a policy to get hold of those working illegally," said Brij Mohan.

He said those seeking jobs in Gulf countries are sent on a visitor's visa by illegal agents to any of the nations, and from there they are trafficked to Iraq and Syria to work in different construction companies. "It is difficult to send people on an employment visa as it requires too much documentation," said Mohan.

The Travel Agents Association of Punjab agreed there is a need for of awareness and sensitisation, especially in rural areas of the state. Kuljit Hayer, president of the association, said people should be cautious of those who promise to send them abroad. "Aspirants should ask for registration number from travel agents and check if they are licensed," said Hayer.

Hayer said their association had suggested to the state government that documents of authorised travel agents be checked once and for all so that they are not harassed constantly. "Hundreds of travel agents are still working without a proper license from district administrations. Punjab police has failed to act against such agents and this raises questions over the seriousness of the government regarding the safety of those sent abroad by these agents," Hayer added.

Jalandhar deputy commissioner Varinder Kumar Sharma said action will be taken against fraudulent travel agents who send youths for work to a foreign land without proper documentation. Harpal Singh, superintendent of police (SP) investigation in Amritsar, said an inquiry has been launched to know about the agents who had sent the 27 from Punjab to Iraq. They have not been nabbed so far. "Details would come to the fore after a proper investigation," said Singh.

Read Part 1: Lack of opportunities makes state's youth ignore life-threatening risks

Read Part 3: Lack of jobs at home pushes Indians into fatal Gulf trap

The author is a Ludhiana-based freelance writer and a member of 101Reporters.com, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters. With inputs by Jagjit Dhanju from Kapurthala.
The Centre has sought a report from the West Bengal government on incidents of arson and violence during Ram Navami processions in the last two days.

New Delhi: The Centre has sought a report from the West Bengal government on incidents of arson and violence during Ram Navami processions in the last two days and offered assistance to deal with the situation, an official spokesperson said.

In a communication, the Ministry of Home Affairs asked the West Bengal government to send a report about the incident, the steps being taken to restore normalcy and the action taken against those involved in the violence.

The Centre also offered assistance of paramilitary forces in the light of reports of continuing violence and tension in some districts of the state, the MHA spokesperson said.

At least two persons were killed and nearly a dozen others injured, some of them seriously, in intermittent violence involving Ram Navami processions at various places in West Bengal, including Purulia, Murshidabad, Bardhman West and Raniganj.

The injured included several policemen with a senior police officer losing a hand after a bomb was hurled at him during a clash in Raniganj area. The state government has ordered heavy deployment of police force in violence-hit areas, besides lodging several cases of arson and rioting.
A gunfight started on Wednesday between the security forces and militants in Sunderbani area in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district, official said.

Jammu: A gunfight started on Wednesday between the security forces and militants in Sunderbani area in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district, official said.

"Following suspicious movements in Sunderbani area on Wednesday morning, a search operation was launched by the security forces," police said.

"As the security forces closed in on the hiding militants, they fired at the security forces triggering an encounter which is underway," a police officer said.

Police also said suspicious movements were first noticed by the sentry of a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) battalion headquarters in the area who fired in the air after which army, CRPF and Jammu and Kashmir Police started a search operation during which the hiding militants were spotted, police said.
The Supreme Court has rejected a petition to reopen a criminal case into the assassination of Mohandas Gandhi, saying there was 'no merit' in the plea.

The Supreme Court has rejected a petition to reopen a criminal case into the assassination of Mohandas Gandhi, saying there was "no merit" in the plea.

The court said the plea would be dismissed on grounds of maintainability since a verdict was already returned 70 years ago, and resulted in the conviction of Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte, both of whom were sentenced to death.

The petition, filed by Mumbai-based income tax professional Pankaj Phadnis, had said there wasn't enough clarity about the identity of the person who fired the fourth bullet, saying it was this that finally killed Gandhi. He had called for a thorough probe into the incident to "unearth a deeper conspiracy", and calling it "one of the biggest cover-ups" in history.

But on Tuesday, at the end of 12 hearings, Live Law reported that a bench of Justices SA Bobde and L Nageswara Rao said, "The petition is dismissed."

Even during the hearing, Live Law added, the bench was categorical that it was not going to reopen investigations, saying it "would not go by sentiments", but rely on legal submissions. The apex court said the plea seeking retrial of the case was based on academic research, but that cannot be basis to reopen the matter which happened 70 years ago.

The verdict came two months after senior advocate Amarendra Sharan, who was appointed amicus curiae in the case, had said there was "no need" for a fresh probe.

As reported by The Indian Express, Sharan told the court that "bullets which pierced Gandhi's body, the pistol from which it was fired, the assailant who fired the said bullets, the conspiracy which led to the assassination, and the ideology which led to the said assassination, have all been duly identified".
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday left for a three-day visit to Japan during which she will co-chair the Ninth India-Japan Strategic Dialogue

New Delhi: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday left for a three-day visit to Japan during which she will co-chair the Ninth India-Japan Strategic Dialogue with Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono.

"Strengthening our Special Strategic and Global Partnership with Japan! EAM Sushma Swaraj departs on a 3-day visit to Japan for the 9th India-Japan Foreign Minister's Strategic Dialogue in Tokyo," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted.

India and Japan will review all aspects of bilateral relations and exchange views on regional and international issues of common interest during the Strategic Dialogue to be held on Thursday.

India-Japan ties have been on the upswing after the bilateral relationship was elevated to a Special Strategic and Global Partnership during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Japan in 2014.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit to India in September last year for the annual bilateral summit gave fresh impetus to the ties. During that visit, the ground breaking ceremony of the Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train project, to be built with Japanese aid, was also held.

"Japan is today one of the largest investors in India, with a growing presence in infrastructure projects, manufacturing, financial markets and capacity-building, among others," an External Affairs Ministry statement said.

India-Japan trade stood at $13.61 billion in fiscal 2016-17, showing a decrease of 6.21 per cent over fiscal 2015-16, when the total trade was $14.51 billion. The bilateral trade during April-August 2017 was $6.183 billion.

The two countries are also part of the recently revived quad that also includes the US and Australia and seeks to work for peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region.
UN chief Antonio Guterres has expressed concern over the death of two journalists in India and the violence against mediapersons across the globe.

United Nations: UN chief Antonio Guterres has expressed concern over the death of two journalists in India and the violence against mediapersons across the globe.

"We, of course, are concerned about anything that would suggest harassment or violence against journalists, anywhere in the world... and would do so in this case," UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres's deputy spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters at the daily press briefing on Tuesday.

Haq was responding to a question seeking the UN's response to the recent death of two Indian journalists.

Sandeep Sharma, 35, a reporter for a local television channel in Madhya Pradesh's Bhind district died after he was mowed down by a truck. Sharma had complained about a threat to his life after he carried out a sting operation on illegal sand mining.

In Bihar, Naveen Nishchal, a journalist who worked for a Hindi daily, was among two persons who were killed when an SUV rammed into their bike in Bhojpur district, with the family alleging that it was a case of murder and that a former village head was behind it.

Advocacy group The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned the killings, and called on the Indian authorities to determine the motive and bring to justice those responsible for Sharma's death.

Sharma's colleague Vikas Purohit, who witnessed the collision, told the CPJ that he took Sharma to the local hospital where the journalist was declared dead from injuries sustained in the crash.

Purohit said both he and Sharma began receiving anonymous death threats last year after publishing two stories in July and October 2017 on alleged police corruption and illegal sand mining.

"Authorities must thoroughly investigate the killing of journalist Sandeep Sharma and determine if he was targeted because of his reporting," said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Steven Butler from Washington DC.

"This tragic incident may well be a failure of local authorities to provide adequate security to a reporter who had received death threats," he said.
Two months after India signed a revised agreement with the Indian Ocean archipelago nation of Seychelles for the building of military facilities on Assumption Island, Seychelles' Opposition has refused to let it pass in their Parliament

Two months after India signed a revised agreement with the Indian Ocean archipelago nation of Seychelles for the building of military facilities on Assumption Island, Seychelles' Opposition has refused to let it pass in their Parliament.

Leader of Opposition Wavel John Charles Ramkalawan and ruling party members told Seychelles' president Danny Faure that they would not allow the agreement to go through "in its present form", The Times of India reported. On Sunday, Faure acknowledged the Opposition's position on the agreement and said that he would not present it to the National Assembly in April, as was scheduled, the report said.

"It is not proper for me to send the agreement to the Speaker when the Leader of the Opposition, who is in majority in the Assembly, has signalled he will not ratify it," Faure said. Refuting the perception that the agreement helped create an Indian military base on the island, saying it was actually a "Seychelles Coast Guard facility".

The island in Seychelles is leased to India for the operation of a naval base and air strip by the Indian Navy. Former foreign secretary S Jaishankar and Seychelles secretary of state Barry Faure signed the agreement on 28 January.

"Relations with countries in the Indian Ocean Region and nurturing a climate of peace and stability are important cornerstones of India's foreign policy," Jaishankar had said, adding, that India seeks a future for Indian Ocean that lives up to the name of SAGAR  an acronym for 'Security And Growth for All in the Region'.

How the deal evolved

The deal was struck in principle in 2015 during a visit to Seychelles by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but progress since has been slow.

The government of Seychelles, based in Victoria on Mahe Island 1,135 kilometres northeast of Assumption, says the base will help coastguards patrol its 1.3 million square kilometres exclusive economic zone for illegal fishing, drug trafficking and piracy.

Currently, the remote coral island has a tin shack post office, an airstrip and almost no people, it is less than seven kilometres long, has a high point just 30 metres above sea level and is covered in bird excrement. But its location lends it strategic importance for monitoring shipping in the Mozambique Channel.

India plans to invest $550 million in building the base to help it ensure the safety of its vessels in the southern Indian Ocean. It also says the base will be a resource for other shipping nations. "Assumption is very close to the Mozambique Channel where much of the international trade is transiting, and not just for India but for other countries as well, and our interest is that our trading vessels are safe," India's ambassador in Victoria, Ausaf Sayeed, said.

India has had a military cooperation agreement with the Seychelles since 2003 and the deal would give it use of the Assumption base for up to 30 years. Indian soldiers would be deployed on the island and help train Seychelles' troops.

But ratification of the 2015 agreement has been slow with a new, amended pact only signed between the two countries on 27 January. "What we did in relation to the first agreement is to clarify some points that could give rise to litigation," said Frank Ally, Seychelles' attorney general.

He said these included a prohibition on any nuclear uses of the island or weapons storage. India is also not allowed to use Assumption in war.

Seeking to allay fears, the government has made available to the public some details of the classified defence agreement.

Weekly protests

Even after government efforts, the project remains controversial with small weekly demonstrations in the capital. Indian presence in Seychelles is a sensitive matter. Some fear an influx of Indian workers who, they say, might come to dominate the economy, while others consider a foreign power building a military base an affront to sovereignty and national pride.

"The Seychelles can make its own military base, I am against any foreign military presence!" said Guilmert Corgat, a businessman in Victoria who attended a town hall meeting on the plan in late February. "If this deal is so good for the Seychelles, why don't we hold a referendum?" asked Alexia Amesbury, a lawyer.

During the discussions, foreign minister Barry Faure was forced to insist the government was not giving the island away, "because Assumption belongs to the Seychelles".

Opponents of the plan also cite Assumption's relative proximity to Aldabra atoll, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that is home to the world's largest population of giant tortoises. Environmentalists worry about the possible impact of a large military presence so close to an ecosystem that has survived precisely because of the absence of people.

Despite the dissenting voices, Sayeed remains positive that parliament will ratify the new agreement when it reopens in March.

With the Opposition, like the government, broadly in favour of the base, though against too many concessions to India, the diplomat's optimism may be well-founded. "I think politicians and people who see the positive side of this cooperation will be in favour, and I am convinced that it will pass," he said.

China's shadow looms

With China acquiring its first African naval base in Djibouti and mulling more overseas bases around the Indian Ocean, New Delhi sent Jaishankar on a visit to Seychelles in January to counter Beijing's growing presence and engage with Seychelles to further its development plans.

Also, with Seychelles and China exploring new ways to expand their cooperation in defence and trade, there has been a sharp increase in the number of Chinese visitors in Seychelles over the last six years, ringing alarm bells in New Delhi, according to The Indian Express.

As part of counter-piracy efforts, India had gifted two patrol vessels to Seychelles  the Tarmugli in 2006 and the Tarasa in 2014. India also hoped to draw Mauritius and Seychelles into a trilateral regional security forum comprising Sri Lanka, India and the Maldives, according to The Diplomat. India has also provided a Dornier aircraft, two Chetak helicopters and a fast-attack craft to Seychelles, besides training the Seychelles People's Defence Forces (SPDF).

During his visit in March, Modi handed over one more Dornier aircraft to the island nation.

Assumption Island is also seen as an ideal location by the SPDF which will allow the Seychelles military to better undertake surveillance of the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The island will also help India limit China's footprint in the region. With Beijing eyeing additional overseas bases, Pakistan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and the Seychelles are the possible candidates for another Chinese facility, The Diplomat report added.

In the face of resistance from within the Seychelles government over the infrastructure development agreement, India's priority would be to engage with the island nation and counter any economic advantage that China can offer.

With inputs from agencies
This week, in our #WomenInScience series, we're profiling the work of ACTREC's cancer biologist Sonam Mehrotra

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 Sukanya Charuchandra

Sonam Mehrotra | 39 | Cancer Biologist | Tata Memorial Centre Advanced Centre for Treatment, Research and Education in Cancer (TMC-ACTREC), Mumbai

Walking through the green environs of Advanced Centre for Treatment, Research and Education in Cancer (ACTREC) in Navi Mumbai, I located Khanolkar Shodhika, the basic research wing where I was to meet Sonam Mehrotra, a cancer researcher. Her office is bare, representative of a new inhabitant, someone who is yet to make the space her own.

Ive had a little bit of a journey, began Sonam, with a smile.

A number of people in my family are PhDs in the sciences, so for me, it [a career in science] wasnt something I chose out-of-the-blue. Sonam grew up on the campus of IIT Kanpur, where her father was a professor in the metallurgy department.

She remembers fondly her time as an eight-year-old, exploring her fathers lab and weighing things in milligrams. Vacations with her botanist uncle and zoologist aunt at North Eastern Hill University, Shillong, meant hours examining biological specimens under the microscope and wandering through the campus observing the natural flora and fauna. So the interest in science just developed over time, she said.

Young Sonam moved away from her campus home to attend an undergraduate programme in human biology at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi. A Master's programme in Biotechnology at Maharaja Sayajirao University (MSU) of Baroda followed, topped by a PhD at Rutgers University and two postdocs in the US. Twelve years after leaving India, the memory of the charming campus life in India would pull her back to the country. This time to further her own research on DNA Repair.

Focused on forks

Sonam made a number of stops, but finally landed at a new lab with her research group at ACTREC in 2016. Her research could be pursued in any establishment with a molecular biology lab, but Sonam was always conscious that its ultimate application lay in tackling cancer. To meet this long term vision, she chose ACTREC. My area of research was in DNA repair and replication, so I thought it would be a good idea to be in a cancer institute rather than in a teaching environment, she said. Indeed, ACTREC provides her with access to patient samples and the opportunity to interact with clinicians.

Sonams work in cancer biology has evolved from her PhD and postdoctoral work in studying DNA replication and damage.

As cells multiply, so do our genes. This process of DNA  the genetic material  making copies of itself, is called replication. DNA is shaped by two strands wrapping around each other in a helix; a ladder of genetic code connects the two strands from the inside, much like a zipper. During the replication process, the strands are unzipped and a replication fork forms. A toolkit of proteins, enzymes and raw material, together called the replication bubble, travels up the fork to prepare copies of the genetic material.

Replication is not always error-free. And often, the fork gets stuck. But its not like every stalled fork leads to DNA damage, Sonam pointed out. There are cellular mechanisms in place  genes and their protein products  that prevent the fork from stalling for a long time. One well-known gene involved is BRCA2  a mutation in this gene is a marker for breast cancer susceptibility; another is RAD51 and the one that Sonam is most interested in is BCCIP.

During her time in Dr Zhiyuan Shens lab at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey, Rutgers, Sonam helped contribute to a discovery that BCCIP is required to maintain genome stability and plays a crucial role in repairing DNA damage. Ive asked various questions in this area since my PhD. What I do here [at ACTREC] is looking at another phenomenon called replication stress.

If the moving replication fork stops, even though molecules BRCA2, RAD51 and BCCIP try to prevent it, the cell experiences replication stress, Sonam said.

Sonams current experiments try to pinpoint BCCIPs role in this phenomenon.

Before and after replication stress

Picture two scenarios. In scenario one, a DNA molecule is being replicated. The fork moves along smoothly until at some point the fork stops. The cell experiences replication stress and in response, a machinery of proteins stabilises the fork and attempts to restart the process. The crisis is prevented. Everything resumes smoothly. In scenario two: The fork stalls for a prolonged period of time, the machinery this time is no longer effective, the fork collapses, there is DNA damage and DNA repair is necessary.

Incidentally, explained Sonam, some of the key proteins needed to prevent replication stress and those involved in DNA repair are the same. Just that their functions are different [in the different scenarios].

Sonam is inspired by the work of two eminent scientists in her field: Eva Petermanns and Maria Jasin, who discovered the roles of RAD51 and BRCA2, respectively, in replication stress response. Their work revealed that these proteins are brought to the sites of stalled DNA replication forks and DNA damage. Dr Shens work showed that these molecules are recruited to the sites of DNA damage by another molecule  BCCIP, which stands for the BRCA2 and CDKN1A Interacting Protein. In a way, Im kind of following their footsteps and Im trying to understand if BCCIP also plays a role replication stress response, she explained patiently, slowly homing in on her current research question.

Just then the interview was interrupted by a phone call. After the short call, she said happily: Oh! Our flies are here, from Hyderabad.

BCCIP and Cancer

Sonams lab at ACTREC works with two systems  fruit flies and human cells. Not much is known about BCCIP but scientists are aware that patients with cancer, such as that of the breast and kidney, have mutant forms of the BCCIP protein. Anchoring to these clues, Sonam designs her experiments:

When you mutate the BCCIP gene or decrease its level of expression in an experiment, you can see cells with a lot of genome instability, chromosome aberrations and breakage of chromosomes. My earlier work shows that BCCIP-deficient cells have a significant delay in restarting DNA replication and hence badly managed replication stress. Without BCCIP, cells have to suffer a double whammy: they cannot stabilise forks and they cannot repair. Which is what you see in a cancer cell, Sonam pointed out.

High replication stress and error-prone DNA damage repair is a feature of precancerous and cancerous cells," said Sonam. This is very interesting for scientists like Sonam. If we can find drugs which further increase replication stress, such that enough replication forks collapse in a cancer cell, the cancer cell can be made to die. This could be a key into finding new ways to target and kill cancer cells that seem to have forgotten how to die.

Sonam is currently investigating if BCCIP can be manipulated to drive a cancer cell to death. She asks: How can replication stress be modulated so that we can use it as a therapeutic avenue for cancer cells? Are there drug targets? Can we have drugs that can exacerbate replication stress? 

Making many stops

Sonam has come a long way, but she still remembers her Master's at MSU being her hardest years. Nevertheless, she is grateful for the experience. Forced to make do with limited conveniences at MSU, her mastery with the minimal changed the way she looked at lab resources while abroad. She described an episode where her PhD advisor was throwing away chipped gel plates used to run experiments. Used to improvising by taping up chipped plates at MSU, Sonam knew that this sort of wastage could be prevented. I told them its perfectly usable.

At Rutgers, Sonam met her husband, then a graduate student in the department of mechanical engineering. We met at a fire safety drill one evening when both of us were among the first residents to come out during the drill. One son, two post-doctoral positions and 12 years after she first moved to the US, Sonam returned to Indian science. What inspired their return to India? Mostly, the two-body problem, she responded. Finding positions for both husband and wife on the same coast of the US had proved difficult, prompting them to look closer home. In the late 2000s, a number of new IITs were coming up in India and in 2012, they both found roles at IIT Jodhpur, as assistant professor(s).

However, settling down in a remote area was difficult and the shift, less than ideal. For various reasons, we could not continue there. My son was not able to cope with the transition from US to Jodhpur, said Sonam. Within the year, they found themselves moving yet again, this time to Pune. Her husband had secured a corporate position at a company in Pune, and she joined him though she did not yet have a job in Pune.

Soon enough, the restlessness kicked in. It was very difficult for me to not do anything, she said. Admittedly, the subsequent hunt for a job wasnt easy, but it eventually led her to a position in Professor Sanjeev Galandes lab in the Center of Excellence in Epigenetics at IISER, Pune. Sonam considers Prof Galande's support invaluable in her scientific journey. From IISER, she moved to ACTREC in 2016, keeping in mind the long-term vision of her research.

Lessons to be learned

Its still early days for Sonam; setting up a new lab at ACTREC has not been that easy. There is a procedure to everything, she said, joking that even moving a table from here to there can be a process. Reagents and apparatus can take four to eight months to come, she added. Im still waiting for my equipment to arrive. Keeping in mind these inevitable delays, Sonam is planning meticulously.

More than the sluggish pace, the lack of proper laboratory waste management systems in India shocks Sonam. Nobody is thinking about it, she lamented. She is of the opinion that with several new institutes coming up, people need to consider the environmental impact of pouring methanol, acetic acid, formaldehyde and every other kind of chemical you can think of down the drain. All drains lead to the ocean, she reminded. According to Sonam, a network needs to be established wherein every institution contracts out the collection and removal of these chemicals to agencies that can responsibly dispose of them.

India might have much to learn from the States when it comes to waste management, however, it does seem to be more progressive than the US with regards to maternity leave. While India offers paid maternity leave, the US provides no such benefits for employees. Earning a salary during pregnancy break is dependent on how many paid leaves the employee has stored up. During her second post-doctoral position in the US, Sonam was expected to return to work just six weeks after delivering her son. Any longer, and she would have risked losing pay.

When you dont have a support system like daycare centers, you end up taking care of a lot more outside your lab and youre preoccupied with so many things, she said. Your efficiency in work is going to go down and that is why you see many women scientists not doing as well as their peer male scientists, she concluded.

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
Congress president Rahul Gandhi said that President Ram Nath Kovind has expressed his support on the concerns over the SC/ST Act dilution.

On Wednesday, a Congress-led Opposition delegation met President Ram Nath Kovind in Delhi and handed over a memorandum expressing their concern over the recent Supreme Court ruling on the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

"There is a great unease and a feeling of insecurity amongst the members of the Dalit community and other oppressed classes after the said judgment was delivered. If immediate steps are not taken by the government, then we are afraid this may turn into something not less than a national disaster," the memorandum said.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi said that Kovind expressed his support over the Opposition's concerns and assured them of action.

"Atrocities against Dalits are increasing and the Act is being weakened. So, the president was quite positive in supporting this," Rahul told reporters.

Earlier, Rahul took to Twitter to raise his concerns over the dilution of the SC/ST Act by the Supreme Court:

The Supreme Court ruling diluting provisions of arrest in the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act comes in the backdrop of growing atrocities against Dalits & Adivasis across India. Leaders from opposition parties will meet President Kovind this evening to share their concerns.  Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) March 28, 2018

Various parties have been protesting and demanding that the government seek a review of the Supreme Court judgment or bring amendments to the law.

Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan said that the government will file a review petition against the Supreme Court order. This after a delegation of Dalit MPs in the Union Cabinet met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday.

Paswan said the meeting with Modi was "positive" and the MPs apprised him of certain issues related to the SCs and STs.

With inputs from IANS
Congress has had no truck with Cambridge Analytica, party spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said, and accused Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad of 'lying' to divert the agenda

New Delhi: The Congress has had no truck with Cambridge Analytica, party spokesperson Randeep Surjewala asserted on Tuesday, and accused Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad of "lying" to divert the agenda after he cited a whistleblower's deposition to claim that the controversial data firm had worked for the Opposition party.

Surjewala used the statement of an Indian citizen, who was a partner in OBI, the Indian arm of Cambridge Analytica, that the controversial firm was hired by an NRI using undisclosed funds to bring down the Congress government, and asked whether Prasad believed more in a foreign citizen than an Indian.

He also dared the law minister to answer questions posed at him and whether he would lodge a case against Facebook, OBI and Cambridge Analytica for the truth to come out.

Christopher Wylie, a former employee of Cambridge Analytica-turned-whistleblower, deposed before the House of Commons' Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee (DCMS) in London and said that the company had worked extensively in India and believed it was employed by the Congress party.

"The Congress has had no truck with Cambridge Analytica ever or have we ever hired its services. But BJP needs to answer, who was this NRI business person who hired Cambridge Analytica in the run-up to 2014 polls to manufacture false surveys, to ask leading questions and to bring down the Congress government?" he asked.

Surjewala said the law minister and the Modi government refuse to answer these questions and "they only want to divert the agenda".

The Congress leader said they had challenged them to lodge an FIR against Facebook, Cambridge Analytica, their partner firm in India, but asked, "Why has the law minister not done so. Why is he perpetually lying? Lies, lies and lies is the only way forward for the Modi government," he alleged, saying there is a 'No Confidence Motion' pending consideration, which the Modi government is desperately trying to avoid.

It is preposterous to even assume that a company that was being used by an NRI businessman from undisclosed funds to bring down and spread canards against the Congress UPA government in 2014, would be used by the Congress party, he said.

Surjewala said Prasad did not deny when a categorical question was asked whether or not he knew that an NRI businessman was used to hatch a conspiracy against the Congress in 2014 elections and he did not deny. He alleged that privacy is being infringed on a daily basis, yet the law minister "continues to lie".

"We want to show him the mirror of truth and ask him that the same whistleblower that he continues to quote, who does not know whether or not a political party used Cambridge Analytica," he said.

The BJP cited a Cambridge Analytica whistleblower's deposition to claim that the controversial data firm had worked for the Congress and demanded an apology from its president Rahul Gandhi, saying he stood "exposed".

"The whistleblower has publicly confirmed that the Congress was indeed their client. Rahul Gandhi had been trying to divert attention. Today, he stands exposed. The Congress and Rahul Gandhi must apologise to the nation," Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters.
Pre-poll surveys predict varied outcomes ahead of the Karnataka polls, with some pointing to an easy Congress win with others predicting a hung Assembly.

The Election Commission's announcement of the dates for the Karnataka Assembly elections on Tuesday has sparked alive an already electric poll environment in the electorally contrarian state.

Such is the anti-incumbency wave in the state that no incumbent government has retained power in elections in Karnataka since 1985. The Congress, led by its local mascot in Siddaramaiah, is hoping to ward off the Hindutva plank of the BJP and beat the statistical odds.

If a pre-poll survey conducted by C-Fore is to be believed, the Congress will not only return to power in Karnataka but will improve its tally in the 224-member Legislative Assembly. According to News18, the survey, conducted between 1-25 March, covered 22,357 voters across 154 Assembly constituencies.

C-Fore, whose previous pre-poll surveys have never been off the mark, has said that the Congress is likely to get 46 percent of the votes, a positive swing of nine percent while the BJP is expected to get 31 percent votes and the JD(S), 16 percent of the total votes.

Sources told News 18 that the Congress itself had commissioned this survey. In 2013, C-Fore had predicted that the Congress would end up winning 119-120 seats and it ended up with 122.

However, a Financial Express report quoted opinion polls that suggested that, so far, both BJP and Congress may not get a majority on their own and the JD(S) may gain at their cost.

The survey, carried out by a poll agency named CHS, predicted 77-81 seats for Congress, 73-76 seats for BJP and 64-66 seats for the JD(S).

Another opinion poll quoted by the report (conducted by TV9-C Voter) had claimed the Congress would be the largest party with 102 seats, while BJP will likely win 96 seats. The JD(S) may end up with 25 seats and is likely to play kingmaker.

According to the News18 report, the opinion poll revealed that people ranked access to clean drinking water as their top-ranked problem. Other major problems included an inadequate drainage system and bad roads.

When it came to picking the most popular choice for chief minister, 45 percent chose incumbent chief minister Siddaramaiah as their first preference, 26 percent said BJP's BS Yeddyurappa was their pick and only 13 percent preferred HD Kumaraswamy, the C-Fore survey said.

The EC on Tuesday announced a single-phase election for the 224-member Karnataka Legislative Assembly on 12 May, with the counting of votes to be taken up on 15 May. Political parties welcomed the decision and said that they are "election ready", with all three players, Congress, BJP and JDS, claiming that they would come to power.

BJP president Amit Shah welcomed the announcement, saying that the party would come to power with a thumping majority under the leadership of state BJP chief B S Yeddyurappa.

Speaking to reporters at Davanagere on the second day of his tour to the central region of Karnataka, Shah said the party is all geared up to fight the election and will come to power and Yeddyurappa will become the next chief minister.

The ruling Congress, which is facing a tough challenge from BJP, welcomed the election dates, asserting that the party is poll ready.

@INCKarnataka welcomes the Election Commission's announcement. Karnataka Assembly Polls on 12th May and counting on 15th May 2018. We are election ready!" KPCC President G Parameshwara said in a tweet.

Commenting on the poll dates, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah expressed confidence about Congress coming back to power for a second term.

"Expectation was that it will be announced any time after March 23, today they have declared (the dates)," he told reporters in Chikkaballapura.

Responding to a question, the chief minister reiterated his allegation that JDS has joined hands with the BJP.

"We are contesting independently, JDS is also contesting independently, but they have a relationship with BJP," he said.

Asked about a pre-poll survey forecasting 126 seats for the Congress in the coming polls, he said "there is no doubt about it; we will come back (to power).

On the other hand, BJP too welcomed poll dates and claimed that the party was a step closer to "Congress Mukth Bharat."

"Dear Kannadigas, Our redemption from the tyrannical rule of @siddaramaiah is not far."

"On May 15th, 1.BJP will win with thumping majority 2. @BSYBJP will become 23rd CM from NDA 3. We will be a step closer to Congress Mukth Bharata," BJP said in a tweet.

With inputs from PTI
Like the Jats of Rajasthan, the Lingayats are the biggest community in Karnataka with an estimated population of 17 percent.

The ongoing movement for minority status for Lingayats in Karnataka has the potential to change the established political equations, break old bonds and create new loyalties. The socio-political churn caused by the movement could help the Congress divide the BJP vote, making it difficult for the saffron parivar to regain entry in south India.

That the movement has become a hot potato for the BJP was evident during Amit Shahs visit to a mutt in Chitradurga on Tuesday. Shah had gone to the mutt to reach out to the Lingayats, who have been promised minority status by the Siddaramaiah government. But, he faced an awkward moment when the seer of the Muruga mutt handed him a memorandum seeking minority status for Lingayats.

In his memorandum the seer said: "A Lingayat movement is on in Karnataka, pressing for minority status for the Lingayat community. Though it appears there is a conflict between Lingayats and Veerashaivas, it is just temporary as people from both sects have been issuing emotional statements. The Karnataka government has rightly recommended granting of minority religion status for Lingayats. Its not a step to divide community but a medium to unite."

Incensed by the support to the Congress move in Karnataka, the BJP chief reportedly left the venue in a huff citing a busy schedule.

Identity-based movements have had a history of causing a political churn and impacting elections. Every time a community rises in unison before an election, it generally ends up upsetting the existing caste equations and forging new loyalties. Nobody would know this better than the BJP.

In the past, the saffron party has been a beneficiary of identity politics emerging from the Ayodhya movement and suffered electoral losses because of stirs by communities like the Patidars in Gujarat and the Gurjars in Haryana. But, what comes closest to the ongoing movement in Karnataka is perhaps the way the BJP gained electorally from the quota movement by Jats of Rajasthan. Understanding the parallels between the Jat movement and the Lingayat stir could help us understand the trajectory of Karnatakas politics.

The Jats, who comprise around 10-12 percent of Rajasthans electorate, were traditional supporters of the Congress. Till the 90s, it was widely believed that the Congress entered the poll arena with the Jat vote in its back pocket, making it tough for the opposition to beat it in polls. It is precisely for this reason that even at the peak of its popularitythe Ayodhya movementthe BJP could never get a majority in the 200-member Rajasthan Assembly.

Aware of its limitations, the BJP made some calculated moves around 1998 to take the Jats away from the Congress. First, it backed a popular movement for OBC status for Jats. And then, just before the 1999 Lok Sabha elections, it announced OBC status for the community at the Centre. The result: It won 16 seats in the state against the five just a year ago in 1998.

The Congress is trying something similar in Karnataka. It knows the Lingayats are traditional supporters of the BJP because of Yeddyurappa, the partys chief ministerial candidate and a powerful Lingayat leader. In todays The Indian Express, Lingayat scholar SM Jaamdar says Yeddyurappa became a Lingayat icon because the community felt he was slighted by HD Devegowdas Janata Dal (Secular) in 2007 by denying him the chance to become the chief minister by rotation as per the agreement between the two parties. Since then, he has been the BJPs Pied Piper for Lingayat votes.

Siddaramaiah is trying to break Yeddyurappas hold on Lingayats by promising them minority status. In a closely contested election, whatever he takes away from the BJP vote bank could decide the outcome. This should be seen in the context of the 2013 Assembly elections when the BJP was routed without the support of the Lingayats, who backed Yeddyurappa, who floated his own party after being ousted by the BJP.

Nobody knows if the Congress would successfully drive a wedge through the BJP vote. Like the Jats of Rajasthan, the Lingayats are the biggest community in Karnataka with an estimated population of 17 percent. Even if a percentage of them moves away from the BJP, Shah would try to counter it by reaching out to the Vokkaligas (estimated to be 12 percent) through an alliance with JD(S), which claims to represent the community. Siddaramaiah is trying to pre-empt this by making the JD(S) irrelevant through defections and by making the contest a direct fight between the Congress and the BJP.

In this searing bid for new vote banks, expect the unexpected in Karnataka this election.
Congress party workers claim that this distribution is an eyewash and the entire region in Bengaluru is living on the mercy of water mafias.

A group of 20 odd houses behind a row of commercial outlets in Nallurahalli in east of Bengaluru have one thing in common: They all have water storage tanks outside their main entrances. Residents in at least 30 other villages in and around Nallurhalli are yet to receive Cauvery river water. Until that happens, the people here are completely dependent on these water tankers for their daily needs.

But with elections fast approaching, political parties are cashing in on the water scarcity in the city. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the ruling Congress are offering free water to residents, who otherwise would be spending anywhere between Rs 400 and Rs 1200 per tanker load of 4,000 litres. The residents say that prices vary as per demand during peak summer season. Free water is being distributed in areas like KR Puram, Whitefield, Pai Layout among others.

The water tankers bearing a BJP sticker stops by Nallurhalli at least once every day. Three words in English are placed like a halo above MLA Aravind Limbavalis face on the sticker: "Free Drinking Water". Above it, the same is written in Kannada. Beside Limbavalis picture is a picture of the BJPs candidate for the region, Chandrasekhar Reddy.

Congress party workers claim that this distribution is an eyewash and the entire region is living on the mercy of water mafias. These water mafias, with the help of party workers, are hindering work to lay out the Cauvery water pipelines.

However, the BJP doesn't think the move amounts to an election gimmick. "The BJP is distributing water for the good of people and not with the elections in mind. We are not like the Congress," said a BJP supporter.

Acknowledging that his party has been active in distributing water for utility purpose in and around Nallurahalli, and denying any electoral motive behind the distribution, Limbavali said that this is a social service that his people have undertaken.

Considering the water crisis in the city and delivering on its promises made in the state budget, the Siddaramaiah government had issued an order last year for supply of free drinking water to slum dwellers in Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) limits.

Chikka Raja, a resident of Nallurahalli, said, "As the Cauvery pipeline was approved for the area only recently, this is nothing more than a political gimmick by the Congress. Now that the elections are nearing, they have started to lay pipelines. Once the elections are over, water supply will stop again."

"The BJP party people are supplying us water that is free of cost. The party has always helped the people in our area, not the government," Raja said.

Ram Das, another Nallurahalli resident who also believes that the laying out of Cauvery pipes is a political gimmick on part of the ruling party, said, "The pipes are being laid. But we do not know when we will get a proper water supply. The BJP leaders have been helping us out for years. Now they are supplying us with free water. I think it is a good thing."

Das is one of many direct benefactors of the water tankers and believes that the party will reduce their daily cost of water consumption.

However, the Congress' Mahadevapura constituency candidate AC Srinivas believes that the whole thing is proof of the 'water mafia' receiving 'favour' from BJP leaders.

"No tanker is supplying water free of cost. The tag is put on tankers only to evade legal authorities. It is run by water mafias who do not want Cauvery water to reach the area as it will hamper their business," he said.

But residents in and around Nallurahalli find themselves lining up with buckets and plastic pots as the BJP's advertorial tractor stops to receive free water.

"I am aware that our party leaders are doing this as a social service. I don't have an objection. Yes, they are using my face with local leaders, but they are not using my money," Limbavali said.

"There are 31 villages under my constituency for which Cauvery water was recently approved. Now the plan is being materialised. It will be another one or two years before the water actually reaches them. In some places, the work is almost complete," he said.

Political blame game

The Congresss Mahadevapura constituency candidate Srinivas said that due to the hurdles created by the water mafia, the government is facing difficulties in giving water to areas from where Opposition candidates were elected. "In several parts in my constituency, I have dug borewells at my own expense as the residents there are completely dependent on tanker water. There are 10-15 water tankers in the area that sell water illegally and have been doing so for at least 10 years," he said.

In February, a BBC report listed 11 world cities that were "most likely to run out of drinking water", and put Bengaluru at number two, behind only Sao Paulo, Brazil.

But Limbavalli and Srinivas feel that Bengaluru is not reeling under any water shortage. While Srinivas blames the water mafia for lack of connectivity in parts of the city, Limbavalli blames poor management on part of the government for the same.

"There should be no political discrimination when it comes to basic facilities like water. The Cauvery basin has enough water to meet the supply requirements of the city," Limbavalli said.

The author is a member of The NewsCart, a Bengaluru-based media startup.
Union Minister Ananth Kumar blamed Congress president Rahul Gandhi for the ongoing disruptions in Parliament.

New Delhi: Union minister Ananth Kumar on Wednesday blamed Congress president Rahul Gandhi for the ongoing disruptions in Parliament, saying that the productivity of its two Houses had dipped after Rahul took over as the party chief.

Claiming that Rahul did not understand the nuances of legislative functioning, the Parliamentary Affairs minister said the Congress kept changing the goalposts. Kumar also ruled out an early end to the ongoing budget session.

"The government is not going to adjourn the House sine die before schedule. We always want to the run the House," he said.

Replying to questions on a no-confidence motion being planned by Opposition parties, Kumar said the Modi government was ready for a discussion on it and face the motion.

"Rahul does not know parliamentary nuances and therefore the Congress, following the trail of other parties, gave a no-confidence motion," Kumar said, adding that the motion had been moved by the YSRCP and TDP much before the Congress had done so.

Accusing the Opposition party of changing the goalposts, Kumar said the government had always been ready for discussions but it was the Congress which kept changing its demands for a debate in the House.

"We are ready and waiting for discussions but every other day, the Congress comes up with some new excuse to stall the proceedings of both the Houses courtesy its chief. Since he became the party president, the productivity of both houses has gone down," Kumar told reporters.

He added the motion was not taken up for consideration as the House was not in order and Congress workers were carrying placards.

Kumar said when Meira Kumar was speaker during UPA-2, she gave a ruling on 15 occasions that since the House was not in order because of disruptions, she was not in a position to bring a motion before it.

Earlier, speaking to reporters outside Parliament, Kumar said the people would give a "befitting" reply to the Congress for mocking the process of a no-confidence motion.

The minister claimed the Opposition parties lacked the numbers to move the motion and wanted to show the people that they can achieve something without the numbers.

The people will give a befitting reply across the country, and also in Karnataka, for the way they have stalled the functioning of Parliament, created a ruckus and ridiculed the process of a no-confidence motion, he added.

The Rajya Sabha on Tuesday saw a unique protest by Opposition parties with members continuing to be in their seats for over 30 minutes after Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu had called it a day and left the House.

The Lok Sabha, too, failed to take up notices for a no-confidence motion against the government after Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said the House was not in order and adjourned proceedings amid noisy protests over various issues.

In a novel way to convey they had the numbers to initiate a no-confidence motion, members of the Congress, the Left and some other parties displayed blue-coloured placards, each with a circled number  from 1 to 80  along with the words 'For no-confidence'.

At least 50 members are needed to support a no-confidence notice for the House to accept it and start a debate.
However, the Trinamool Congress government denied knowledge of any such directive from the Central government, and blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party for the unrest.

Kolkata: Tension prevailed over parts of Raniganj and adjoining areas in West Bengal's Paschim Burdwan district on Wednesday following clashes over Ram Navami rallies, even as the state government rushed a crack police team including senior officiers to prevent any breach of peace, sources said.

"We are maintaining a tight vigil. So far things are normal. We expect everybody to maintain peace", said a senior police officer posted at one of the troubled locations.

A clash broke out between two groups centering a Ram Navmi procession in Raniganj on Monday. A person was allegedly hacked to death while a Deputy Commissioner of Police lost a hand after getting hit by a bomb.

The Union Home Ministry has sought a report from the state government on incidents of arson and violence during the processions.

However, the Trinamool Congress government denied knowledge of any such directive from the Central government, and blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party for the unrest.

"Those who will break the law will have to pay for it. At this moment, the disturbed areas of Raniganj or Asansol should be brought under control. Those miscreants with BJP flags have tried to scupper peace and harmony of these places," said Education and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee.

"This is a deliberate attempt by the BJP to create disorder in the state," he alleged.

Chatterjee said he had no information about Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi planning to visit the affected area to see the condition of the injured senior police officer, but maintained that peace should be restored before any such trip.

"I do not have that information. But before going there, peace shou ld be restored in the area."

He also denied any knowledge of whether the Governor has been stopped from visiting the area.

"I don't know about any such development. But what I feel is peace and harmony should be restored in Raniganj and Asansol before he goes there. There is ample time for his visit."

Chatterjee also turned down the Central government's offer of assistance of paramilitary forces.

"We are capable enough to handle present situation. We have handle d more difficult situations before," he said.

Meanwhile, there was intense patrolling by police and Rapid action Force personnel in north Asansol, especially in the Dhadka area, where a police vehicle was vandalised and two Trinamooloffices torched over fresh violence over a Ram Navami procession on Tuesday.

Sources said a special team from Kolkata police led by Additional Police Commissioner Vineet Goel was being dispatched to Raniganj to prevent any more untoward situations.

Two other senior IPS officers, Siddh Nath Gupta and Jawed Shamim were also being sent to the troubled spot.

The BJP on its part alleged that the administration was trying to forcibly stop Ram Navami processions and lodging cases against its leaders.

"The administration is trying to forcibly stop this (processions). Cases are being slapped against BJP and Vishwa Hindu Parishad activists. This is only escalating the violence. If the administration wants peace, they should stop acting out of vengeance. Police should be restrained," said state BJP chief Dilip Ghosh.

Another BJP leader Mukul Roy lambasted Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for "whiling her time" in Delhi to try and cobble together a 'Third Front' while police personnel were getting injured in the state.

He also alleged there was a "state-sponsored terrorism" in Bengal.

Several shops and houses were vandalised and set ablaze over the Ram Navami related clashes in parts of Paschim Bardhaman district. Police have arrested 19 people so far for fomenting trouble.

On Sunday, five police personnel were injured as clashes broke out over a Ram Navami rally in an area under Arsha police station in Purulia district.

The BJP, which is trying to pitchfork itself as the main challenger to the Trinamool in the state, has been using the Ram Navami celebrations since last year to appeal to the sentiments of the majority Hindu population.

Sensing the BJP's motive, the Trinamool also resorted to celebrate the occasion massively on its own this year.
Naidu's comments came in the backdrop of the second leg of the Budget session, which began on 5 March, having failed to transact any substantial business in both the Houses of Parliament.

New Delhi: Concerned over the virtual washout of Parliament proceedings, Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday urged MPs not to further erode "the quality of polity" and make a fresh beginning by conducting themselves in a more dignified manner.

Naidu also pointed out that the representation of women in the Upper House was "very low" despite the passage of the Women Reservation Bill in 2010 and hoped all political parties would accord priority to this.

Naidu's comments came in the backdrop of the second leg of the Budget session, which began on 5 March, having failed to transact any substantial business in both the Houses of Parliament. The Upper House was only able to pass the Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) Bill 2017, while the Lok Sabha has cleared the Finance Bill 2018.

Addressing around 60 retiring members of the Upper House, he said "I have had the Honour of being the Chair for last three sessions. "During this short span of time, I have had mixed emotions. ...In this session, on several occasions, I appealed to parties, their leaders to ensure the smooth functioning of the House. I must confess that I am deeply perturbed the way we have been conducting ourselves."

One one hand, Naidu said he has witnessed very high quality of debate on several occasions, while on the other hand, "I am filled with sadness at the disorder, indiscipline and inappropriate conduct in the House."

He urged the parliamentarians not to "further erode the quality of our polity". "Whatever has happened, has happened. Let us make a new beginning and see to it that we conduct ourselves in a more dignified manner and live up to the expectations of the Constitution's framers and people of the country," he said.

Making an emotional appeal, the Chairman urged members to conduct themselves with dignity as he recounted the sacrifices of soldiers, who were posthumously honoured with the Shaurya Chakra by the President yesterday for sacrificing their lives for the nation.

"The adverse weather conditions and the situation in which they were stationed and the way they fought the enemy to protect the unity and integrity of the country is really ... you cannot measure it by words. And I was reminded of what is happening in the House. I don't want to say anything more than that," he said in an emotional tone. Stating that this reference should not become part of political tactic and the House become theatre of politics, he said, "In democracy, there is agreement and disagreement. I agree to disagree, there is nothing wrong in it. But there is a way. I would like to see a more constructive engagement on public issues in future."

Naidu said the Upper House is supposed to be a model for others and hence, "let us leave a legacy of ideas". "All parties are equal to me as chairman. I appeal to you let's conduct the House in more digified manner and take the country forward and take the House forward," he added. Expressing concern over very low representation of women in the Rajya Sabha, the Chairman said: "It is a matter of concern that despite the stellar contribution made by many women members, they still constitute only 11.7 percent of total membership of this House."

Six women members are retiring this year. Two of them are returning to the House and three new women members would be added. As against this, in the 2016 elections, 10 women members had retired while three women members got elected, he said.

"It is ironical that even though the Rajya Sabha is proud that it has passed the Women's Reservation Bill way back in 2010 seeking better representation of women, still there is very low representation of women in this House," Naidu said.

While appreciating the valuable contribution and services rendered by women members, the Chairman said all political parties need to accord priority to provide adequate representation to women in Parliament and state assemblies.

Wishing good health to the retiring members, Naidu took the names of many stalwarts including Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien and nominated members Rekha, Anu Agha, Sachin Tendulkar and K Parasaran while appreciating their contribution.

"Those members who are leaving us, I would like to mention that the farewell from Rajya Sabha should be viewed as an opportunity to promote welfare of people and not as retirement from public life. You are getting retired, not tired. Once we are in public life, in my view, there is no retirement at all,' he said.

He also mentioned that some retiring members would be remembered for raising points of order, some for their interventions and making good and valid points, while some for giving some lighter moments. "All these are part of democracy. I don't have any ill will against anybody."

Around 60 members from 17 states, including 4 nominated members, are retiring over the next few weeks.
IANS

Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams is now helping privately-held companies like SpaceX and Boeing to develop their new spacecraft systems, which will eventually provide round-trip crew transportation services to the International Space Station (ISS).

After completing two missions to the orbiting laboratory, she is continuing her career in space on Earth as a member of NASA's Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap), npr.org reported on Sunday.

She is among the four astronauts who were selected by NASA in 2015 to train and prepare for commercial space flights that will return American launches to US soil and further open up low-Earth orbit transportation to the private sector, according to the US space agency.

Since the discontinuation of NASA's Space Shuttle programme in 2011, US astronauts have had to rely on Russian shuttles to get into orbit. The goal of the commercial crew programme is safe, reliable and cost-effective transportation to and from the International Space Station from the US through a public-private approach.

NASA, Boeing and SpaceX have significant testing underway, which will ultimately lead to test missions when the systems are ready and meet safety requirements. Boeing's Starliner will launch on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 and SpaceX's Crew Dragon will launch on the company's Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A, according to NASA.

After completion of each company's uncrewed and crewed flight tests, NASA will review the flight data to verify the systems meet the requirements for certification. Upon NASA certification, the companies are each slated to fly six crew missions to the ISS beginning in 2019 and continuing through 2024, NASA said in January this year.

Williams, 52, has spent 50 hours and 40 minutes outside the ISS and part of her new job is to verify that the companies' spacecraft can launch, maneuver in orbit and dock to stationary spacecraft like the ISS, according to the npr.org report.

"This is really different from my old job, you know," Williams was quoted as saying. "She is currently assigned to the cadre of astronauts training to fly the initial test flights for America's first commercially built spacecraft the Boeing CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX Dragon," according to the biography of the astronaut at the NASA website.
Reuters

Google has won the dismissal of a lawsuit in California accusing YouTube of censoring conservative content.

In a decision, on late 26 March, US District Judge Lucy Koh said a nonprofit run by conservative radio talk show host Dennis Prager failed to show that YouTube infringed its free speech rights by placing age restrictions on its content.

The plaintiff, Prager University, said YouTubes animus toward its political identity and viewpoint led it to curb access to videos, including through its Restricted Mode setting, on such topics as abortion, gun rights, Islam and terrorism, despite its stated promise of neutrality.

But the judge said Google and YouTube, both units of Mountain View, California-based Alphabet Inc, did not qualify as state actors subject to the First Amendment by creating a public forum for speech.

Defendants are private entities who created their own video-sharing social media website and make decisions about whether and how to regulate content that has been uploaded on that website, Koh wrote.

Plaintiff has not shown that defendants have engaged in one of the very few public functions that were traditionally exclusively reserved to the state, she added.

The San Jose, California-based judge also dismissed a claim that YouTube engaged in false advertising by implying that Pragers videos were inappropriate.

Koh gave Prager a chance to amend its lawsuit, and said the case demands an analysis of Californias state constitution in the age of social media and the internet.

Peter Obstler, a lawyer for Prager, said his client will review its legal options, including a possible appeal.

In court papers, Google had acknowledged that deciding which videos to restrict may involve difficult, subjective judgment calls, but said it should not be liable for trying to keep YouTube safe and enjoyable for all users.

YouTube, in a statement, said Pragers videos werent excluded from Restricted Mode because of politics or ideology, and Kohs decision vindicates important legal principles that allow us to provide different choices and settings to users.

Google drew attention last August when it fired an engineer, James Damore, who had written an internal memo saying that biological differences led to fewer women in various technology jobs.

Damore sued Google in January, saying it was biased against white men with conservative views.

The case is Prager University v Google LLC et al, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 17-06064.
Rehan Hooda

With each progressing month, more companies are launching updated, 2018 versions of their flagship devices. Xiaomi and Huawei, two major Chinese smartphone makers launched their flagships, the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2s and the Huawei P20 Pro in the market yesterday. Both the devices now join the existing Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus to compete for the throne of the best smartphone in the market.

Talking about the latest flagship devices in the market, Huawei P20 Pro comes with a 6.1-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 1080 x 2240p and an 18.5:9 aspect ratio. It also gets Huawei's Hisilicon Kirin 970 chipset along with 6 GB RAM and 128 GB of internal storage along with a 4,000 mAh battery.

The company has focused heavily on the camera when it comes to P20 Pro as it now comes with a triple rear camera setup, which includes a 40 MP f/1.7 primary sensor, a 20 MP secondary and an 8 MP sensor. The camera optics on the phone have also been made in collaboration by Leica so its gets the 'Leica' branding on the back. The Pro also gets a 24 MP f/2.0 front-facing camera for selfies and it will also be available in four colours  Midnight Blue, Graphite Black, Pink Gold and Twilight.

Moving to the entry by Xiaomi, the company has packed a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC with an octa-core CPU clocked at up to 2.8 GHz and Adreno 630 GPU for graphics-intensive tasks. The phone will come in three variants with 6 GB RAM and 64 GB storage, 6 GB RAM and 128 GB storage and 8 GB RAM and 256 GB storage. It comes with a 6-inch display with 18:9 aspect ratio and FHD+ resolution with a pixel density of 403 PPI. The company has thankfully not opted for a display design with a notch unlike the iPhone X and other Android devices such as the recently launched Vivo V9 and the Oppo F7.

Xiaomi has packed a dual camera setup on the back of the device in a vertical setup on the top left of the device, similar to the arrangement of the iPhone X. The dual camera setup will come with 12 MP camera sensor with f/2.0 aperture and another 12 MP camera sensor with f/2.0 aperture. The sensor on the Mi Mix 2S' camera is a 1.4-micron pixel Sony IMX 363 sensor and will have dual-pixel autofocus technology along phase detection system. The front of the device will be equipped with an 8 MP camera sensor with f/2.0 aperture. Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S will come with 'multi-frame noise reduction' where the camera uses the software as well as hardware to reduce the noise. The company has added OIS to the camera this time.

With the launch of two flagships in just about a matter of hours, it seems like a ripe time to bring them to the comparison table and see how these devices stack against each other and against the competition. Unlike the last comparison of flagship devices, most of the devices in the list are updated flagships giving us a comprehensive picture of the comparison.

So, we selected Apple iPhone X, and Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus to be compared against the Huawei P20 Pro and the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2s. The reason for selecting the iPhone X is because most of the companies including Huawei and Xiaomi compared their flagships against the X. The reason we selected these smartphones is that almost all of the devices are flagship devices sold as the best a particular company can sell. These devices also pack similar (or the custom-made equivalents) of the top-of-the-line hardware.

Bear in mind that we're still not done testing some of these smartphones, so we're currently comparing them going only by their specifications on paper.

Smartphone Huawei P20 Pro Xiaomi Mi Mix 2s Samsung S9+ iPhone X Display Size (inch) 6.1 5.99 6.2 5.8 Resolution (pixels) 1,080 x 2,244 1,080 x 2,160 1,440 x 2,960 2436 x 1125 Pixel Density (PPI) 408 403 529 458 Display Type AMOLED IPS LCD Super AMOLED OLED Super Retina HDR Dimensions(mm) 155 x 73.9 x 7.8 150.9 x 74.9 x 8.1 158.1 x 73.8 x 8.5 143.6 x 70.9 x 7.7 Weight (gm) 180 191 189 174 Dual SIM Yes Yes Yes (Variant) No Connectivity Types Nano-SIM Nano-SIM GSM / HSPA / LTE LTE, SCDMA, CDMA EV-DO Rev. A, UMTS/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA, GSM/EDGE Processor Hisilicon Kirin 970 Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Exynos 9810 A11 Bionic chip with 64-bit architecture CPU Cores Octa-core Octa-core Octa-core, Octa-core Hexa-core CPU Clock Speed (GHz) 4x Cortex-A73 @ 2.4 GHz & 4x Cortex-A53 @1.8 GHz 4x Kryo 385 Gold @ 2.7 & 4x Kryo 385 Silver @ 1.8 4x Kryo 385 Gold @ 2.7 & 4x Kryo 385 Silver @ 1.7 and 4x Mongoose M3 @ 2.8 & 4x Cortex A55 @ 1.7 Hexa-core 4 x efficiency cores + 2 Performance cores GPU Mali-G72 MP12 Adreno 540 Adreno 630, Mali G72 MP18 - RAM 6 GB 6, 8 GB 6 GB 3GB Ruggedness   IP68 IP67 under IEC standard 60529 On-Board Memory 128 GB 64,128, 256 GB 64, 128, 256 GB 64, 256 GB Expandable Memory Yes, up to 256 GB No Yes, up to 256GB No Sensors Fingerprint Reader, Gravity Proximity, Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Proximity, Compass Fingerprint, Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Proximity, Compass Iris scanner, fingerprint, Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Proximity, Compass, Barometer, Heart-rate, SpO2 Face ID, Barometer, Three-axis gyro, Accelerometer, Proximity sensor, Ambient light sensor Primary Camera 40 MP f/1.8, 20 MP f/1.6 and 8 MP f/2.4 12 MP, f/1.8, 12 MP, f/2.4 12MP, f/1.5-2.4, 12 MP f/2.4 52 mm 12 MP wide-angle /1.8 aperture,

telephoto /2.4 aperture Optical Image Stabilization Yes (for 40 MP) Yes, 4-Axis Yes Yes Camera Array Triple Camera Dual Camera Dual Camera Dual Camera Autofocus System Phase detection and laser autofocus Dual pixel phase detection Phase detection Autofocus with Focus Pixels Secondary Camera 24 MP, f/2.0 5 MP f/2.0 8MP, f/1.7 7 MP, f/2.2 Video Capture 4K (30fps) 4K (30fps) 4K 60 fps, 720p 960 fps, HDR 4K up to 60 fps Flash dual-LED Dual-LED LED Quad-LED OS Version Android 8.1 Oreo-based EMUI 8.1 Android 8.0 Oreo-based MIUI Android 8.0 Oreo iOS 11 AI (Smart Assistant) Google Assistant Google Assistant Yes, Bixby Siri Wi-Fi Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, 2.4GHz + 5GHz, Wi-Fi hotspot Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, Hotspot Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, Hotspot 802.11ac WiFi with MIMO Bluetooth v4.2, A2DP, LE, EDR, aptX HD v5.0, A2DP, LE v5.0, A2DP, LE, aptX v 5.0 NFC Yes Yes Yes Yes Fingerprint Scanner Yes, Home button Yes, Rear button Yes, Rear button No 3.5mm jack No No Yes No USB Type Type-C reversible Type-C Reversible connector Type-C Reversible connector Reversible connector USB Standard USB v3.1 USB v2.0 USB 3.1 Lightning Battery (mAh) 4,000 3,400 3,500 2,716 Quick charge Yes Yes Yes Yes Colors Twilight, Black, Midnight Blue, Pink Gold Black Midnight Black, Coral Blue, Titanium Gray, Lilac Purple Space Grey, Silver Prices in India TBA TBA Rs 64,900 onwards Rs 89,000 onwards

Conclusion

There is intense competition when it comes to the on-paper hardware specifications of the devices. But on close inspection, it feels like the Huawei P20 Pro along with the three camera setup on the back of the device seems to be the winner in terms of the camera hardware. The top end variants of Xiaomi Mi Mix 2s seem to be upping the P20 Pro in terms of RAM, the design and the Bluetooth technology in the device. The pricing of the Mi Mix 2S and the P20 Pro in the Indian market is not available at the moment so we can't comment on that. But we will reserve our verdict till we actually test the new flagships. Till then, the Huawei P20 Pro and Xiaomi Mi Mix 2s are evenly matched in a fierce competition.
PTI

NASA's planet-hunting Kepler Space Telescope has helped scientists to solve the mystery of the fast and furious explosions that have bewildered astronomers for a decade.

The universe is full of mysterious exploding phenomena that go boom in the dark. One particular type of ephemeral event is called a Fast-Evolving Luminous Transient (FELT), which has a very brief duration.

Now, scientists have used Kepler to catch FELTs in the act and determine their nature. They appear to be a new kind of supernova that gets a brief turbo boost in brightness from its surroundings.

"We collected an awesome light curve. We were able to constrain the mechanism and the properties of the blast," said Armin Rest from the Space Telescope Science Institute in the US.

"We could exclude alternate theories and arrive at the dense-shell model explanation. This is a new way for massive stars to die and distribute material back into space," said Rest. Kepler's ability to precisely sample sudden changes in starlight has allowed astronomers to quickly arrive at this model for explaining FELTs, and rule out alternative explanations.

Researchers conclude that the source of the flash is from a star after it collapses to explode as a supernova. The big difference is that the star is cocooned inside one or more shells of gas and dust.

When the tsunami of explosive energy from the blast slams into the shell, most of the kinetic energy is immediately converted to light. The burst of radiation lasts for only a few days, one-tenth the duration of a typical supernova explosion.

Over the past decade several FELTs have been discovered with timescales and luminosities not easily explained by traditional supernova models. Only a few FELTs have been seen in sky surveys because they are so brief.

Unlike Kepler, which collects data on a patch of sky every 30 minutes, most other telescopes look every few days.

Therefore, they often slip through undetected or with only one or two measurements, making understanding the physics of these explosions tricky.

In the absence of more data, there have been a variety of theories to explain FELTs: the afterglow of a gamma-ray burst, a supernova boosted by a magnetar (neutron star with a powerful magnetic field), or a failed Type Ia supernova.

Keplers precise, continuous measurements that allowed astronomers to record more details of the FELT event
US president Donald Trump discussed trade practices with China in calls on Tuesday with French president Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Angela Merkel

Washington: US president Donald Trump discussed trade practices with China in calls on Tuesday with French president Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Angela Merkel, the White House said.

Trump and Merkel also discussed "joining forces to counter" Chinas economic practices and alleged intellectual property theft, the White House said, in what would be a further escalation of Trumps trade actions against China.

Trump has repeatedly criticised Chinas trade practices, and the White House has demanded Beijing reduce its trade imbalance with the United States.

Trump, in the calls with Merkel and Macron, also praised the coordinated decision on Monday with governments across Europe to expel Russian diplomats. The expulsions were intended to punish the Kremlin for a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in Britain that has been blamed on Moscow.

The US president also pushed for intensifying cooperation with Turkey on Syria in his call with Macron, according to the White House.
German authorities issued a final approval for a new gas pipeline from Russia, risking higher tensions with eastern neighbours fearful of European energy dependence on Moscow

Frankfurt am Main: German authorities on Wednesday issued a final approval for a new gas pipeline from Russia, risking higher tensions with eastern neighbours fearful of European energy dependence on Moscow.

The Federal Agency for Maritime Navigation and Hydrography (BSH) issued the approval after investigating the environmental and commercial impact of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, the authority said in a statement.

Some 85 kilometres of the 1,225-kilometre pipeline from the Narva Bay on Russia's border with Estonia to Lubmin in northeastern Germany will run through German territory.

Along with a previously issued approval from the mining authority based in Chancellor Angela Merkel's coastal Stralsund constituency, the permit lifts the final hurdle to construction on the German side.

Approvals are still needed from Russian, Finnish, Danish and Swedish authorities.

Nord Stream 2 AG, the company behind the pipeline and a subsidiary of Russian state-controlled energy firm Gazprom, said it was "pleased" with the result and hoped to secure the outstanding permits "in the coming months".

The pipeline project remains controversial in Germany as well as European Union neighbours like Poland and Baltic states Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, who fear it could be used as a tool to boost Russian influence over the bloc.

Moscow notoriously used gas prices to pressurise Ukraine during a mounting conflict with its former satellite which saw Russia annex the Crimean peninsula in 2014  prompting EU sanctions in response.

Meanwhile, a rare cross-party alliance of high-ranking German politicians from Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, the environmentalist Greens and pro-business Free Democrats in February warned against allowing Nord Stream 2 to go ahead.

It would "split the EU politically and call into question our solidarity with Poland, our Baltic neighbours, Slovakia and Ukraine, but also Sweden and Denmark," they wrote in a letter to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper.

And the European Commission said last year it sees "no need" for Nord Stream 2 as it pursues energy security and diversity of gas supply across the 28-member bloc.

Merkel has said she believes Nord Stream 2 is a purely "economic project" with no need for political intervention.
US president Donald Trump, who has agreed to meet with Kim Jong Un, said there is a now a good chance the North Korean leader will give up his country's nuclear weapons.

Washington: US president Donald Trump, who has agreed to meet with Kim Jong-un, said on Wednesday there is a now a good chance the North Korean leader will give up his country's nuclear weapons.

"For years and through many administrations, everyone said that peace and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula was not even a small possibility," Trump wrote in an early morning tweet.

"Now there is a good chance that Kim Jong-un will do what is right for his people and for humanity. Look forward to our meeting," Trump added.

His comments came as Kim completed a secretive and unprecedented visit to Beijing on Wednesday as the two countries seek to repair frayed ties before Pyongyang's landmark summits with Washington and earlier with South Korea.

On his first trip abroad since taking power, Kim and his wife were greeted by an honor guard and a banquet hosted by President Xi Jinping, according to state media, which confirmed the three-day visit on Wednesday only after Kim had returned by train to North Korea.

The two men held talks at the Great Hall of the People and Kim pledged he was "committed to denuclearization" on the Korean peninsula, according to China's Xinhua news agency.

Kim also expressed willingness to hold the summits with Trump and South Korean president Moon Jae-in, it said.

Analysts said Xi likely wanted to see Kim in order to ensure North Korea does not cut a deal with Trump that hurts Chinese interests during their summit, expected to be held in May.
North Korea's Kim Jong Un has made his first ever foreign trip as leader to meet China's president, vowing he is 'committed to denuclearisation' and willing to hold summits with the South and the US

Beijing: North Korea's Kim Jong-un has made his first-ever foreign trip as leader to meet China's president, vowing he is "committed to denuclearisation" and willing to hold summits with the South and the US.

The secretive visit was confirmed on Wednesday by Chinese and North Korean state media, which said Kim was treated to a lavish stay in a show of unity after relations were battered by Beijing's support of UN sanctions against Pyongyang.

Kim had not met China's President Xi Jinping since taking over after the death of his father, Kim Jong II, in 2011.

The young leader told Xi that he was ready to hold a summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in as well as US President Donald Trump, according to China's Xinhua news agency.

"The issue of denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula can be resolved, if South Korea and the United States respond to our efforts with goodwill, create an atmosphere of peace and stability while taking progressive and synchronous measures for the realisation of peace," Kim said.

South Korea said last month after talks with Kim in Pyongyang that he would consider abandoning his nuclear weapons in exchange for US security guarantees, and flagged a halt to all missile and nuclear tests while talks were under way.

Analysts said Xi likely wanted to see Kim to ensure North Korea does not cut a deal with Trump that hurts Chinese interests during a summit that is expected to be held in May.

Beijing had appeared sidelined by Pyongyang's approaches to Seoul and Washington, but Kim's visit puts China firmly back at the centre of the diplomatic game.

"They don't want to see a grand deal between the US and North Korea that suddenly makes them great friends," said Bill Bishop, publisher of the Sinocism China Newsletter.

But Deng Yuwen, an independent Chinese international relations scholar, said that North Korea needed to turn to its old ally ahead of the US summit, as Kim will be sceptical that Trump will guarantee the security of his regime.

"North Korea needs the big brother to protect it at a crucial moment," Deng told AFP.

And Trump's decision to draft in hawkish former UN ambassador John Bolton as his new national security adviser last week "will make Kim more vigilant," Deng said.

Confirmation of the visit ended 24 hours of speculation about the identity of the North Korean visitor after Japanese media spotted a green train, similar to the one used by Kim's father, arriving in Beijing on Monday and departing the following day.

While Chinese officials refused to confirm Kim's presence, a heavy police presence at key venues, motorcades driven under police escort, and barricades in the city centre fuelled the belief that Kim had come to pay his respects.

Frayed ties

His visit to China came as a surprise given the state of relations between the Cold War-era allies that fought together in the 1950-53 Korean War.

China chaired six-party talks on North Korea that collapsed a decade ago, but its call to revive that forum have not been heeded so far, and it appeared to be on the margins when South Korea announced that Kim had offered to meet with Moon and Trump.

Frustrated by its neighbour's nuclear weapons programme and under pressure from Trump, China has backed a raft of UN sanctions, using its economic leverage to squeeze Kim's regime.

At the same time, Beijing fears the collapse of the regime in Pyongyang and the instability it would bring, potentially sending waves of refugees into China and the possibility of US troops stationed on its border in a unified Korea.

The tensions prompted North Korea's official news agency to issue a rare critique of China last year, warning of "grave consequences" if Pyongyang's patience was tested further.

But, the Chinese foreign ministry said at the time that Beijing was consistent in its support for "good neighbourly and friendly cooperation" with the North.

In November, Chinese envoy Song Tao became the first senior Chinese official to visit North Korea in more than a year, though he did not meet Kim.

On 18 March, the Global Times published a friendlier editorial.

"A severe difference between Beijing and Pyongyang over nuclear issues is a reality, but it should not be the whole picture of ties between the two sides," the daily wrote. "North Korea is a respectable country."

While Kim Jong-un and Moon are due to meet at the border truce village of Panmunjom, the venue for the North Korean leader's meeting with Trump has yet to be announced.

The Demilitarized Zone that divides the two Koreas is the most plausible locations for the Kim-Trump talks, but Beijing could serve as a more neutral location.

High-level inter-Korean talks are scheduled for on Thursday to pave the way for the Moon-Kim meeting, and discussions have also begun for the Trump summit.
North Korea's Kim Jong-un told Chinese President Xi Jinping that it was his 'solemn duty' to make Beijing his first overseas destination as he made his maiden foreign trip as leader, Pyongyang's official news agency reported on Wednesday

Seoul: North Korea's Kim Jong-un told Chinese President Xi Jinping that it was his "solemn duty" to make Beijing his first overseas destination as he made his maiden foreign trip as leader, Pyongyang's official news agency reported on Wednesday.

The relationship between the North and its key protector has soured in recent years, with China increasingly exasperated by its neighbour's nuclear antics, and recently showing a new willingness to enforce United Nations sanctions imposed on it over its weapons and missiles programmes.

But, KCNA quoted Kim saying at a banquet in Beijing: "There is no question that my first foreign visit is to the Chinese capital."

"This is my solemn duty as someone who should value and continue the DPRK-PRC relations through generations," he added, using the countries' official acronyms.

KCNA described the visit as unofficial and said it ran from Sunday to Wednesday, implying that Kim's armoured train entered China on the weekend and crossed back into North Korea early Wednesday after leaving Beijing on Tuesday afternoon.

Kim was accompanied by his wife Ri Sol Ju and several officials and dignitaries, KCNA said, without mentioning his sister Kim Yo Jong, who acted as his special envoy to last month's Winter Olympics in the South, which have triggered an unprecedented flurry of diplomatic activity on and around the flashpoint peninsula.
Kim Jong-un made his first-ever foreign trip as leader to meet China's president in Beijing, ahead of proposed summits with Seoul and Washington.

North Korea's Kim Jong-un made his first-ever foreign trip as leader to meet China's president in Beijing, the official Xinhua news agency said Wednesday, ahead of proposed summits with Seoul and Washington that could unsettle nuclear-armed Pyongyang's sole ally.

During the visit from Sunday to Wednesday which came at the invitation of Xi Jinping, Kim held talks with the Chinese president who hosted a banquet to welcome the North Korean leader and his wife Ri Sol-ju, Xinhua said.

"I have had successful talks with General Secretary Xi Jinping on developing relations between the two parties and the two countries, our respective domestic situation, maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, and other issues," Kim said at the banquet.

Relations between China and North Korea had soured as Beijing has backed tough United Nations sanctions to punish Pyongyang for its missile and nuclear tests.

Analysts had earlier suggested Beijing had been sidelined by Pyongyang's approaches to Seoul and Washington, but Kim's visit puts China firmly back at the centre of the diplomatic scrum.

Xi said that under the new circumstances, he is willing to keep frequent contact with Kim through various forms such as exchange of visits, and sending special envoys and letters to each other, reported Xinhua. He also accepted Kim's invitation to visit North Korea, reported AFP quoting KCNA state media.

"Both Comrade Chairman and I have personally experienced and witnessed the development of China-DPRK relationship," Xi said, using the initials for North Korea's official name. "This is a strategic choice and the only right choice both sides have made based on history and reality.... This should not and will not change because of any single event at a particular time," Xi said.

Kim had not met Xi since the young North Korean leader took over after the death of his father, Kim Jong-il, in 2011.

With inputs from AFP
A video of Pakistan prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi showing him undergoing a security check at New Yorks JFK airport during a recent US visit has gone viral.

A video of Pakistan prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi showing him undergoing a security check at New Yorks JFK airport during a recent US visit has gone viral, said media reports.

In the video, Abbasi is seen picking up his bag and coat and walking out from a security check. Abbasi was on a personal visit to meet his ailing sister, reported DNA. During the visit, he also reportedly met US vice-president Mike Pence.

The move is unprecedented as usually, no head of state is subject to a security check, be it a private trip or a state visit, according to Financial Express.

#BREAKING - Embarrassment for Pakistan: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi frisked in JFK Airport. pic.twitter.com/yZjUXjIY15  News18 (@CNNnews18) March 28, 2018

The Times of India reported that the Pakistani media felt this an 'indignity' to their prime minister. "He should be ashamed for saying he went on a private visit. He is the prime minister he has a diplomatic passport there is no such thing as a private visit. He is representing the country there are certain protocols when you are representing 22 crore people," roared one panellist, insisting that Pakistan had been humiliated and Abbasi had brought shame on the country.

However, according to Geo News, Abbasi is known for adhering to simplicity in his personal life and thats the reason why he chose to follow the standard security procedures in place for all passengers during his visit to the US on Saturday. The report further said that Abbasi was previously spotted travelling alone to a railway station during his visit to Britain.

The incident comes at a time the US is considering tough measures on Pakistan, including a visa ban and other sanctions on individuals in the Pakistani government, according to News18.

Earlier in 2018, US president Donald Trump had threatened to cut aid to Pakistan for allegedly lying to the US and offering "little help" in hunting "terrorists" in Afghanistan. "The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than $33 billion in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies and deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools," Trump had said.

Relations between the two countries have deteriorated since then, with the US administration taking a hard line on Afghanistan.
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Third in a Series

In the first two articles, we explored what microplastics are, where they come from, and how we are threatened by their entry into the food chain. In this article, we will look at ways the danger has been addressed.

Policy and Legislation

As we have gained more knowledge of the detrimental effects of microplastics on the environment, many groups began advocating for the removal and ban of microplastics from various products, and Keep Lee County Beautiful, in its educational role, is doing its part to bring the topic to the forefront by discussing the issue, sharing what others are doing, and finally promoting what we in Lee County can do to address the issue.

One of the most prominent campaigns is the Beat the Microbead movement, which focuses on removing plastics from personal care products. The Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation are running a Microplastics Project that is working to pass a national ban on microbeads in household items and cosmetics. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has sponsored research and global assessment programs due to the trans-national nature of the issue. These environmental groups intend to pressure companies to remove plastics from their products in order to maintain healthy ecosystems. By all of us being advocates, and making better product choices, companies will themselves make better environmental choices.

In the United States, statewide action has been taken to mitigate the negative environmental effects of microplastics. Illinois was the first U.S. state to ban cosmetics containing microplastics, and New Jersey Congressman Frank Pallone proposed the Microbead-Free Waters Act of 2014, which calls for a nationwide ban on the creation and sale of products that contain microbeads by 2018. The Microbead-Free Waters Act of 2015 was finally enacted after being signed by the President on December 28, 2015. It went into effect July 1, 2017 with respect to stop the manufacturing of the products described in the law, and on July 1, 2018 it will go into effect with respect to introduction or delivery of these products into interstate commerce.

Sometimes the most simple products are not seen as a threat, but some scientists are now claiming that glitter itself is a hazard to the environmentBecause in fact, it is also a microbead. Some feel that these regulations are getting carried away, but the simple question to ask is this: How much glitter and plastic are you okay with eating each year? It puts the issue in perspective, doesnt it?

One would think that the microbead legislation would largely address the issue, but here are 2 sobering facts: the legislation is currently only affecting US markets and companies, and though one would think that with such a large market, that this would have a large impact, it is only a small fraction of the problem: Microbeads are only estimated to be 0.014.1% of the estimated total level of microplastics in the ocean. That leaves us to ponder the other +95%, and what we can do as environmental stewards to address this problem.

As always, the best rule to follow is first reduce, secondly reuse, and finally recycle.

This sustainability tip is courtesy of Keep Lee County Beautiful Inc. For more information, visit www.klcb.org, email info@klcb.org, or call (239) 334-3488.

By Norman Turiano for Keep Lee County Beautiful
Reeling for Autism is a unique event that gives families an opportunity to enjoy a day on Fort Myers Beach while giving others a chance to raise money and awareness of the disorder that, across a varied spectrum, affects 1 in 68 children in the United States.

Our Reeling for Autism event offers a great venue for families who have a child with autism spectrum disorder to bring their children and enjoy a day at the beach, said David Brown, of MSW Family Initiative, Inc., It also allows individuals and businesses in the community to learn more about autism, how to support individuals with ASD, and to help support local programs for individuals with ASD.

The second annual Reeling for Autism event kicks off with a fundraising Fishing Tournament and a free Fort Myers Beach day filled with fun.

Everyone is invited to join in the festivities on Saturday, April 21, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., hosted by Nervous Nellies at 1131 First St., Fort Myers Beach. There will be live music, kids fishing, face painting, silent auction, 50/50 raffle, and a whole lotta things to do and see. Even better there is no fee to attend the Saturday celebration.

With the Saturday celebration there is also an all-day fishing tournament. There will be an honor start at 7:30 a.m. and the tournament will run until 4 p.m. The tournament will consist of a photo catch and release with two trout, two redfish, and, two snook (unlimited size), wade fishing is allowed. Cost is $150 per angler. Keep your eye on the prizes which are: first place is $1,500, second place is $1,000, and third place is $500.

You must attend the Captains Dinner April 20 at 6 p.m. at Nervous Nellies. They will provide multiple appetizers with a full menu available. Deadline to register is Friday, April 20, by 5 p.m. All for a great cause, last years event raised more than $8,000 to support families and help children on the autism spectrum in Southwest Florida.

Fort Myers Beach is such a beautiful location for hosting this type of event and the Fort Myers Beach business community has been tremendously generous in support in this event, Brown said. We have been blessed to receive such amazing support from Nervous Nellies owner Tyler Lemmer plus sponsors: Professional Property Maintenance, Banks Engineering, and Burt Hill/Pollock Krieg Architects, Inc, and sponsorship opportunities are still available as well.

As the population of children and adults diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder continues to grow throughout Southwest Florida, Family Initiative, Inc., is working with ASD families to develop supports and resources for children and teens diagnosed with autism. The nonprofit offers autism play groups, art groups and parent groups. It also works with the Lee County Sheriffs Office on the ASD Band Together program, which provides ASD wristbands with identification numbers at no cost to individuals and provides training to law enforcement officers.

Autism awareness is a cause very close to our hearts here at Nervous Nellies, with members of our staff that are caring for children with autism, we are very aware that this cause is one that deserves much more attention, said Tyler Lemmer, owner of Nervous Nellies. We hope that this event brings attention to the children, parents, and families living with the challenges that autism presents.

You might be surprised by the number of families who have a loved one diagnosed on the autism spectrum. The CDC now reports one in 68 children in the US has been identified on the autism spectrum. In addition, autism occurs in all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups.

As our community continues to grow, we continue to see more individuals diagnosed with ASD, Brown said. For those unfamiliar with autism, they are sometimes surprised to see the wide range of ability across the individuals who attend.

What a great way to spend the day for a great cause, organizers say.

Our favorite part about the event is bringing the community together around these amazing kids and families, Brown said. It is awesome to see some of our families come out, have fun, and do things a typical family is able to do. We also love being able to help educate our community about individuals with autism and just how special each of these kids are!

Any anglers interested in participating in the tournament: call 239-233-5210 or email info@fi-florida.org for registration details.
The Toyota Rav4 ended the Camrys 14-year reign as the best-selling vehicle thats not a pickup last year, highlighting a market-wide shift away from sedans to utility vehicles.

Now an all-new 2019 Rav4 is on the way that embraces this trend with a bold and blocky style similar to the Toyota Tacoma pickup's that makes it look even more like a truck, while retaining many of the car-like qualities that buyers find appealing.

The new Rav4 is roughly the same size as the outgoing model, and will once again be available with a choice of a 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine or hybrid powertrain when it goes on sale at the end of this year.

The lineup will offer a wide spectrum of trims, including an Adventure model that Toyota says will have some legitimate off-road capability courtesy of all-wheel drive equipped with a special traction management system, and a sporty hybrid with the most power in the range and a suspension tuned to give it the best handling on the street.

The standard Safety Sense system  which includes automatic emergency brakes and adaptive cruise control that works between 0 and 110 mph -- is getting a lane tracing system that allows for hands-on self-steering between the lane markers, and can follow the car in front of it for the short moments that it loses sight of them, as long as you keep a hand touching the wheel to let it know you're paying attention.

Wi-Fi, Alexa integration and AppleCar play are all standard with the updated Entune infotainment system, and an 800-watt JBL sound system will be an option.

Pricing and full specifications will be revealed closer to the Rav4s launch at the end of this year.
After more than 20 years away, America got its chance to catch up with the Conners and, although precious little has changed for the family, the newly premiered revival of Roseanne proved that even theyre not immune to the changing political times.

Theyre back and then some

The revival debuted with back-to-back episodes that caught up with the family that fans grew to love, while warming them up to new characters. The premiere opened with Roseanne and Dan waking up in their master bedroom where he laments the fact that their nest is full once again. Darlene apparently quit her job to move in and take care of her parents, and she has brought her teenage daughter and young son with her.

After a little bedroom romance, Dan finds Roseanne later in the day at the breakfast table.

Soon after, Darlene comes downstairs to scold her mom for eating Marshmallow Peeps for breakfast. The first of her two children, Mark, then is introduced when he comes down wearing girls clothes. Dans eyes go wide, but Roseanne whispers that their marching orders from Darlene are to ignore it as hes going through an exploration phase. Hes reluctant, but obliges. Next, Darlenes teenage daughter, Harris, enters and asks for money. Obviously, she doesnt get it and further finds out that she has to cancel her after-school plans to babysit while her mom goes on a job interview.

Youre ruining my life, you all suck! she screams before storming upstairs.

I havent seen that movie in 20 years, a delighted Dan jokes. Wow, classics really do hold.

Thats when the conversation turns to Aunt Jackie, and the politics come into play. Its revealed that Jackie and Roseanne havent spoken since the 2016 election. Although Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are never mentioned by name, it comes out that Jackie supported the latter while Roseanne wanted to see what the former had to offer. Darlene hopes to mend their relationship by inviting Jackie over, but it proves tougher than she realized when Jackie shows up ready to debate.

Who they voted for

Why dont you fix that knee with all that healthcare you were promised? Jackie mocks.

Its good enough to kick your a--, snowflake, Roseanne fires back.

Debates aside, Jackie secures an invite to family dinner later that night. Thats when fans get their first look at a returning DJ and his daughter Mary. Its revealed that he went on to join the military and has returned recently from Syria. His wife, however, is still there.

Soon after, Becky, played by original actress Alicia Goranson, enters to announce that shes having a baby  kind of. Shes been offered $50,000 to be the surrogate for another woman. The only catch is that the woman believes her to be 33, when her actual age is 43.

The family isnt necessarily on board with the decision, especially Dan who starts to yell. Jackie interrupts and notes that its Beckys body and therefore her decision. She looks to her sister for support and a reluctant Roseanne has to agree. Dan storms into the garage to drink beer and fume.

Meanwhile, Becky and Darlene get a chance to chat and flex their age-old sibling rivalry. Becky says that she shouldnt be getting judgement for her decision to be surrogate, particularly from someone like Darlene who moved back in with her parents. As Becky storms off, Roseanne enters having eavesdropped on everything. She reveals that she knows Darlene didnt quit her job but was fired. She comforts her crying daughter who is sad because Darlene thought her life would be better. Darlene says she always hoped shed be able to buy a house that she could hold over her moms head.

Man, that would have been sweet, Roseanne admits.

Roseanne then goes to the kitchen to put out another fire, her ongoing argument with her sister Jackie.

Roseanne asks Jackie why shes encouraging Becky, but the conversation quickly becomes political as Jackie comments on the state of the world and being on the brink of nuclear war. Realizing that she may have taken the topic too far, Jackie breaks down and admits that Roseannes constant questioning of Hillary as a candidate put seeds of doubt in her head and mixed her up enough to vote for Jill Stein. She says that she blames herself for being part of the reason Trump got elected, and blames Roseanne even more for making her doubt herself.

Id rather be alone than let you bully me again, she says.

Thats when the two find common ground with their politics. Jackie gets that Roseanne is more worried about her family and her bottom line, which made Trump a reasonable option. Roseanne admits that Jackie wanting everyone to have healthcare, for example, is just a result of her being a caring person.

New kids on the block

The premiere ends with Becky getting a visit from the woman that wants her to be a surrogate. Andrea, played by Sarah Chalke, says she wants to meet the family to get a better idea of her genetic makeup.

Thats where episode two kicks off, with Becky furiously cleaning the house to look good for Andrea. Meanwhile, Darlene is getting her kids prepared for the first day of school, which forces Dan and Roseanne to break their silence on Marks clothing. Dan says that hes fine with boys doing traditionally girly things and vice versa, but his experience in school taught him that Marks personal safety could be at stake. Darlene, however, only cares that he gets good grades, and is happy for a Conner.

Roseanne takes a more subtle approach and asks Mark directly if he identifies as a boy or girl. He quickly responds that hes a boy, but feels that girls clothes make him more comfortable and are more in line with his personality. The conversation ends with her telling him that school will be hard, but shes got his back.

This whole family is weird

During Andreas visit, Darlene comes home early with Mark. Apparently, he pulled out a knife at school and was sent home early. Its revealed that Dan gave it to him, but not for the purpose of bringing it to school.

He has a pocket knife, I thought itd be a gateway to pockets! he says, doubling down on his concern for Marks safety.

When Darlene goes upstairs to talk with Mark, she learns that the other kids didnt want to play with him because hes weird. The only reason he had the knife out was to give to another boy that was threatening to hurt him.

Heres the thing, you are weird. Im weird, this whole family is weird, she says, explaining that people eventually will like them all for who they are.

The next day, hes dressed for school in traditionally female clothes again, this time with the whole familys support. Darlene notes that she packed a bag with a t-shirt and pants just in case things get too intense.

Youre still going to be you.

No, I wont.

As for the kid who bullied him, Mark shows surprising maturity saying, Hell get tired of it eventually, I like my clothes.

Tough kid, Dan jokes. Im going to miss him.
ABC is planning a show about time traveling refugees titled The Crossing.

The show premieres April 2 and follows a large number of refugees from a war-torn country, who wash up on a beach seeking asylum in a small American town, ABCs Senior Vice President of Communications Jori Arancio told the press at the Television Critics Associations Winter Press Tour.

Arancio explained the show, which stars Steve Zahn and Natalie Martinez, also has a sci-fi element in that the refugees are from the future.

Executive Producer Dan Dworkin said now the right time for a show about a refugee crisis.

With the refugee situation, there is a debate with politicsThere's a debate. I think it's fertile. I think it's good for a show to make people talk like that, Dworkin said.

Jay Beattie, who is also an executive producer on the show, added, It's all about the journey of all of those people and the people in the town that are affected by it.

Zahn plays Sheriff Jude Ellis, who is investigating the sudden influx of refugees.

I thought it was a unique role that I had not played before. I usually wouldn't be on the list for a character like that, especially in a network show. But once I read the script and I talked to these guys, I realized they were a little different, and I dug that, said Zahn, who has played goofier characters in films like That Thing You Do! and Chicken Little.

The show is set in Port Canaan, Oregon.

When I read the pilot, I loved the pilot. I thought it was really interesting, Zahn said. It was really fun to get those scripts once a week and not knowing [whats going to happen].

Dworkin is confident the pace of the show will attract viewers to it.

Each episode is going to give people something that's going to make them want to come back and that the final episode is going to give them a whole host of things that's going to make them want to come back for Season 2, he said. So we just hope that people latch onto it, and if they do, I think that it will stick around.
Christina El Moussa gushed over her new boyfriend, British TV star Ant Anstead.

The recently divorced "Flip or Flop" star met the newly single Anstead at the end of 2017, through a mutual friend.

El Moussa, 34, said she was "so grateful" for her new man in a heartfelt birthday post on Instagram.

"At the end of 2017 I was lucky enough to be introduced to this guy through a mutual friend. #Fate," the mom of two wrote on Wednesday. "He has already grounded me in so many ways and Im so grateful for him."

She added, "[Anstead] is an amazing dad to his children and also great with mine, driven and talented, humble and kind, patient and a great listener, fun and hilarious, spiritual and to top it all off hes hot AF. Happy 39th birthday gorgeous."

The pair recently took a trip to Anstead's native England before they took off for South Africa for the British star's birthday.

"Luckiest," El Moussa captioned a selfie of the duo.

Anstead is best known for his role in the U.K. series "Wheeler Dealers." He split from his wife of 12 years in July 2017. They have two children together.

El Moussa finalized her divorce from her HGTV co-host Tarek in January.
Former national security adviser and U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice now has a new role on Netflix's board of directors, appearing to follow her former boss who is in reported "advanced negotiations" to create a series of shows with the streaming giant.

The company made the announcement on Wednesday, with Netflix co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings praising her prior work on intelligence issues for former President Barack Obama.

In fact, Rice's former boss may be joining her at Netflix, as the New York Times first reported earlier this month the 56-year-old was in talks for a deal that would pay him and his wife, former first lady Michelle Obama, for Netflix-only exclusive content that would be available to subscribers of the digital streaming service.

Netflix has about 118 million subscribers globally. It was not immediately clear how many shows or episodes would be ordered or how much the Obamas would be paid.

The streaming service recently tried a talk show featuring anti-Trump comedian Chelsea Handler called "Chelsea" that lasted two seasons before getting canceled.

We are delighted to welcome Ambassador Rice to the Netflix board, Hastings said in a statement. For decades, she has tackled difficult, complex global issues with intelligence, integrity and insight and we look forward to benefiting from her experience and wisdom.

Rice, 53, said she was "thrilled" to be joining the board.

"I am thrilled to be joining the board of directors of Netflix, a cutting-edge company whose leadership, high-quality productions, and unique culture I deeply admire, she said in a statement.

Silicon Valley has come under fire from its few conservatives who say they've been shunned, as Fox Business reported. Silicon Valley is a one-party state, Peter Thiel, the billionaire investor, Facebook board member and ally of President Trump, said earlier this year at Stanford University, his alma mater. The other side doesnt care for you, and your side doesnt care for you because they dont need to.

The New York Times reported last August that Thiel was informed he would receive a negative review of his board performance by Hastings, a fellow Facebook board member.

While the head of Netflix praised Rice for her four years as Obama's national security adviser and role at the United Nations, her tenure in the positions did not come without its share of controversy.

Last month, two senators disclosed that Rice sent an unusual email to herself the day Trump was sworn in to office, documenting then-President Obama's guidance at a high-level meeting about how law enforcement should investigate Russian interference in the 2016 presidential race.

WHO IS SUSAN RICE? OBAMA ADMINISTRATION STALWART AT CENTER OF SCANDALS

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham told Fox News at the time it was "odd and disturbing." While an attorney for Rice said there was nothing unusual about the note, White House spokesman Raj Shah told Fox & Friends the email raises a lot of questions.

She also was slammed by Trump last year for efforts to "unmask" his associates identities in intelligence reports in 2016.

Tom Fitton, the president of the watchdog group Judicial Watch, said on Twitter Wednesday, ".@Netflix doubles down in support of Obama corruption -- compromised Susan Rice, who lied repeatedly on both Benghazi and the unmasking issue joins its Board of Directors."

In 2012, Rice, who was then serving as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, appeared on five different Sunday talk shows to suggest that the Benghazi terror attacks were the result of spontaneous protests over what she called a hateful Internet video.

BARACK OBAMA IN TALKS WITH NETFLIX TO PRODUCE SHOWS: REPORT

Emails uncovered after the fact revealed that administration officials knew the Benghazi attacks were the result of terrorism, not an internet video, and indicated that even folks within the State Department were stunned by Rice's appearances. One State Department employee suggested Rice had gone "off the reservation."

It was less than a year later, in June 2013, that Rice was tapped by President Obama to serve as national security adviser.

Fox News' Alex Pappas, Brooke Singman, Alex Diaz, and Kathleen Joyce contributed to this report.
A waiter in Canada was reportedly fired from his job for being too aggressive with coworkers, but the ex-staffer is claiming that the trait is just a part of his culture. According to CBC News, Guillaume Rey has filed a complaint with the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal against Milestones Restaurant and its parent company, Cara Operations, for misinterpreting his direct, honest, and professional French personality.

While restaurant leaders reportedly agree that Rey was a good worker, they maintain that he was fired for an aggressive tone and nature toward other employees, which violates the establishments code of conduct.

Rey, who worked at the Vancouver restaurant from October 2015 to August 2016, claims that he received great feedback from guests and was very friendly and professional with his tables. But according to CBC News, he was often scolded about being combative and aggressive toward colleagues until he was ultimately fired for bringing a peer to tears. Rey has reportedly denied all allegations.

The tribunal has denied an application by Milestones Restaurant and Cara Operations to dismiss the complaint.

The Daily Meal has reached out to Milestones Restaurant and Cara Operations for comment.
Heading over to a Passover Seder? Manischewitz is likely to be ubiquitous, but it's not the only type of beverage you can bring to or imbibe with your hosts.

Master bartender Kenneth McCoy, the creative director of Public House Collective in New York City, delivers some kosher mixed drink options to impress everyone at the celebration.

The first is McCoys unique take on the ever-popular Negroni. He uses El Silencio Mezcal in his version, because any un-aged, unflavored 100-percent agave mezcal, such as El Silencios Espadin, is considered kosher (as long as no non-kosher ingredients have been added).

ORIGINS OF THE MOSCOW MULE: NOT AS RUSSIAN AS YOU THINK

As McCoy takes Fox News through the process of making this Negroni, he reveals some bartending know-how along the way, such as when to stir and when to shake your mixture.

A mix would be shaken if it has some sort of juice in there  pineapple juice, lemon juice, McCoy explains. But anything with straight spirit without juice, you would stir.

The second drink McCoy demonstrates is his riff on the classic French 75 cocktail, which he calls "Call Me." McCoy uses New York Distilling Companys Dorothy Parker Gin in the mixed drink because gin, with no added flavoring, is considered kosher.

He also reminds viewers to be careful when shaking a drink, and quips, Pro tip: Dont shake in front of someones face. Oh yeah, Ive seen it happen.

The final cocktail McCoy offers is what he calls a "Wahakin." He uses Codigo 1530 Blanco Tequila, which is kosher because all unflavored and regular tequilas do not need a special certification as long as nothing is added after the distillation process.

He also uses half an ounce of simple syrup in his mixture, and reveals an easy recipe for the sweet ingredient you can make at home yourself. Simple syrup is really easy, McCoy explains. You can basically make it a two-to-one ratio, or a one-to-one ratio. Youre basically boiling some hot water and mixing in the same amount of water with your sugar if youre going one-to-one, or doubling it up and going two-to-one.

LUCA AND DANNI: BEAUTIFUL JEWELRY BORN OUT OF TRAGEDY

Watch Kenneth McCoy mix up each of his kosher cocktails in the video above, then check out the complete recipes below.

Negroni with Mezcal

Ingredients:

1 ounce El Silencio Mezcal

1 ounce Campari

1 ounce sweet Vermouth

1 orange twist, for garnish

Directions:

In a mixing glass with ice, stir all of the above for 20 seconds Pour into a chilled glass, or over crushed ice Add an orange twist and serve

Call Me

Ingredients:

1.5 ounces Dorothy Parker Gin

.5 ounces pamplemousse rose

.5 ounces fresh grapefruit juice

.25 ounces honey water

1 ounce Champagne

1 grapefruit twist, for garnish

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a mixing vessel Add ice, shake vigorously, and strain into coupe glass Top off with champagne and a grapefruit twist

Wahakin

Ingredients:

2 ounces Codigo tequila

.75 ounces pineapple juice

.5 ounces lime juice

.5 ounces simple syrup

1 ounce ginger beer

2 mint sprigs, for garnish

Directions:
Patrons of a Salt Lake City ax-throwing venue will be able to hurl sharp-bladed tools while drinking a cold beer after the states alcohol commission voted Tuesday to amend state liquor laws.

The laws will now consider ax-throwing to be similar to other recreational activities like bowling and billiards.

Social Axe Throwing became the first ax-throwing business in Utah to have a liquor license, joining a popular trend that has popped up in other U.S. states and in Canada, FOX13 reported.

Commissioners expressed concerns over mixing alcohol and hurling sharp objects at a target, asking for assurance that safeguards were in place to protect people.

"We don't want misuse of an ax that is somehow related to alcohol," Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control Commissioner Tom Jacobson told the station.

Mark Floyd, one of Social Axe Throwing's owners, said their goal wasnt to open a tavern or a pub.

"You can get a cold beer at a bowling alley, you can have a game of bowling," Floyd told FOX13. "Its the same concept." The owners have a location in Ogden as well as Salt Lake City.

While almost identical to a bowling alley, one difference was the chain link fence separating each lane for safety, Floyd told the Salt Lake Tribune.

Floyd told FOX13 that other safety measures included holstered axes, no open-toed shoes allowed in lanes and that there would be an employee monitoring people as they threw axes. Minors would also be given a wristband so they cant order a beer.

Utahs Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission granted Social Axe Throwing a recreational beer license in a 5-1 vote  with the condition that Floyd report back in six months with any safety or underage drinking issues, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.

"Its just a ton of fun! It gets people out of their comfort zone doing something that they dont know how to do, Floyd told FOX 13. As soon as they do it, its game on!
Houston's Eureka Heights Brew Company is getting ready to debut a mesmerizing, glittery new beer in honor of the citys beloved Astros: Its called Glitter Factory  and yes, its safe to drink.

To celebrate the World Champion Houston Astros kicking of their season, we brewed up something shiny, the brewery explained on Instagram. Glitter Factory is our brand new beer that dances in the sun like a majestic second baseman while mesmerizing your optic nerves like a beautiful sinker.

HEINEKEN UNDER FIRE FOR 'RACIST' BEER COMMERCIAL

Casey Motes, the co-founder of Eureka Heights, tells Fox News he first tried a glitter beer at a friends party around four years back, but only recently saw the trend gain attention at select breweries across the nation.

I thought it was so dumb and fun, Motes tells Fox News, adding that he loved the idea of bringing something goofy to his own brewery.

We figured, going into the [Astros'] season, this is a good excuse to try it.

BEER LOVER SUES PABST, SAYS HE WAS 'DECEIVED' BY FALSE ADVERTISING

According to Motes, Glitter Factory gets its otherworldly shimmer from the addition of food-grade glitter, but not just any glitter would suffice for the brewerys first stab at a shimmery, shiny beer.

We tried nine or 10 different types of glitter, all food-grade, said Motes, who tells Fox News that sterling pearl  his glitter of choice  turned out to be the one the brewers settled on.

The process of glitterizing the beer  a cream ale with an ABC of 4.2 percent  seems pretty straightforward, too: Motes says the glitter is added to the beer during kegging, though he admits his bartenders need to periodically rouse the keg in order to keep the glimmery bits from settling.

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS

Fans will have the chance to taste Eureka Heights Glitter Factory when it debuts the same day as the Astros season opener against the Texas Rangers  on March 29.

People seem to be really excited about this beer, said Motes. It definitely looks cool. [Were] already getting a great response.
An Oklahoma mans day of hunting for snakes almost turned deadly when he captured a 6-foot rattlesnake  but not because he was bitten by the venomous serpent.

Dennis Crow was catching rattlesnakes with friends Steve Booker and Robert Lutonsky on Saturday for an upcoming rattlesnake festival in Apache.

The 51-year-old from Cyril told Fox News the weather was perfect, explaining that snakes begin to come out of their dens mid-spring when the days are longer and the weather is warmer.

Crow said he gave up deer hunting after he first went snake hunting about five years ago.

Its a rush  my adrenaline gets going, he said.

Crow and his pals were searching for serpents near the Wichita Mountains in the southwestern part of the state. At first, they werent having much luck. But then, as Crow was walking through tall grass on the top of a hill, it felt like someone punched me, he recalled.

A [rattlesnake] popped out and grabs me on the side of the boot, Crow said. I jumped a little bit and turned to my side, and saw that both of his fangs were stuck in my boot.

Crow was photographed and recorded holding up the 6-foot snake on the group's Facebook page KSNAK Live Coverage shortly before he began having trouble breathing.

I became wobbly and short of breath. I looked up at Steve [Booker] and told him that we needed to leave  I thought it had to do with my lungs," he explained.

The snake hunters were in the middle of the wilderness at the time  roughly a mile from where their pick-up truck was parked. On the way down, Crow was stumbling and falling, he said, adding that it seemed like a 5-mile walk because it was hard to breathe.

I asked God to help me down the mountain  I just wanted to see my wife and kids one more time, Crow said.

Crow was able to make the hike down and Lutonsky drove him to the hospital. Doctors ran tests for the next five hours and discovered Crow had a heart attack about 20 minutes after capturing the snake.

At that point I became very scared, Crow said about hearing the diagnosis.

"I asked God to help me down the mountain  I just wanted to see my wife and kids one more time."  Dennis Crow

Crow was taken to Oklahoma Heart Hospital early Sunday morning and was prepped for surgery to repair a blockage in his heart.

He later learned that one of the main arteries in his heart was 99 percent blocked, while the other was 36 percent blocked. While Crows heart attack was most likely not caused by snake hunting, "it very well could've been the adrenaline that was released" that sparked the symptoms, he said.

Crow thanked his family, friends and followers for their well wishes, joking about the 6-foot snake being the trigger of his heart attack. Another video showed a fatigued Crow moments before the medical emergency.

Ok folks. It gets serious in this video. We catch a couple good snakes but if you look you can see in body language the heart attack starting that Dennis Crow is having. He starts appearing fatigued here. A side note. That snake that Im holding strikes and almost nails me in the arm. (Steve Booker) Whew ! the group wrote in a Tuesday post.

While hes still very weak, Crow said he feels 100 percent better  he even plans to attend his sons national robotics competition next week. The downside? His heart doctor said he cant snake hunt for the rest of the year.

As for now the great snake hunt will come to a bitter end until I can mend back up, Crow wrote on his snake hunting Facebook page.

Other snakes Crow and his friends captured Saturday will be displayed at the Apache Rattlesnake Festival, from April 19 to 22.
The former Russian spy and his daughter poisoned by a military-grade nerve agent in Britain earlier this month have a slim chance of surviving, a relative said.

Viktoria Skripal, the niece of 66-year-old Sergei Skripal, told the BBC that the prognosis for her uncle and her cousin, Yulia, really isnt good following the attack by a Soviet-developed nerve agent called novichok on March 4 in Salisbury.

Out of 99 percent, I have maybe 1 percent hope, she said. Whatever [nerve agent] was used, it has given them a very small chance of survival. But theyre going to be invalids for the rest of their lives.

The Skripals remain hospitalized and in critical condition after they were found unconscious on a park bench in Salisbury. A police officer exposed to the substance during the investigation was hospitalized and released last week.

POISONED EX-SPY LIKELY LATEST VICTIM IN LONG LINE OF KREMLIN-ORDERED HITS

Countries across the world have joined the U.K. in blaming Russia for the attack. Many, including the United States, have taken diplomatic action against the Kremlin. At least 21 countries have expelled more than 135 Russian diplomats they suspect of being spies.

"Together we have sent a message that we will not tolerate Russia's continued attempts to flout international law and undermine our values," British Prime Minister Theresa May told Parliament

Russia has adamantly denied any involvement in the nerve agent attack.

"This is an attempt on the lives of Russian citizens on the territory of Great Britain," Russia's Foreign Ministry said. "It goes without saying that this unfriendly move by this group of countries will not go unnoticed."

On Monday, May said the Skripals may never recover from the attack, saying their condition is unlikely change in the near future, and they may never recover fully.

This shows the utterly barbaric nature of this act, and the dangers that hundreds of innocent citizens in Salisbury could have faced, she said. We assess that more than 130 people in Salisbury could have been potentially exposed to this nerve agent.

The remarks from Viktoria Skripal and May echo those made by a Russian scientist, Vil Mirzayanov, who once leaked Moscows secret experimentation with novichok.

NERVE AGENT USED IN EX-SPY'S POISONING COULD AFFECT HUNDREDS FOR YEARS, FORMER SCIENTIST SAYS

Mirzayanov, 83, said earlier this month that the nerve agent, developed in the early 90s during the end of the Cold War, is 10 times more powerful that other nerve agents like sarin or VX.

The people are gone  the man and his daughter. Even if they survive they will not recover, he told AFP a week after the attack in Salisbury.

He told Reuters that the nerve agent attacks the nervous system, making it impossible for victims to breathe and causing unimaginable pain.

Its torture, he said. Its absolutely incurable.

The attack on the Skripals is reminiscent of the infamous assassination of Alexander Litvinenko, a former intelligence officer who defected to London in 2000 after publically accusing his superiors of hatching a plot against a Russian oligarch.

While living in London, Litvinenko fell ill in November 2006 and died soon after. His death was ultimately attributed to drinking tea poisoned with radionuclide polonium-210.

A judicial inquest ruled in 2016 there was a strong probability Litvinenkos death was a Russian intelligence operation that was probably approved by President Vladimir Putin.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is currently conducting a probe into the nerve agent used against the Skripals. Officials said this week it could take two to three weeks to complete laboratory analysis on the samples.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Doctors were astonished after they removed more than 2,000 gallbladder stones from a woman in Mumbai.

According to SWNS, a 50-year-old woman who was suffering from abdominal pain for 18 months decided to delay surgery when doctors diagnosed her with gallstones in November of 2016. Even though her doctors advised surgery to remove the stones, the woman opted for alternative treatments.

DOCTORS REMOVE 30-POUND TUMOR FROM MAN'S BEER BELLY

But when the pain became unbearable, she visited Mumbais Bhaktivedanta Hospital, where doctors confirmed her previous diagnosis. She was admitted earlier this month, and an ultrasound confirmed what was found in the earlier investigations," the womans surgeon told SWNS.

UNDOCUMENTED SPECIAL-NEEDS GIRL IN FEDERAL CUSTODY AFTER

EMERGENCY SURGERY



Dr. Bimal C. Shah successfully removed 2,350 gallstones. He said they measured up to 10-12 millimeters and the surgery lasted about 30 minutes.

"The patient is fine after the surgery and is recovering well, the laparoscopic surgeon said.
NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

Liberals are outraged over the Trump administrations decision to include a citizenship question on the 2020 census. The query, they say, may deter some people who are in the country illegally from participating in the decennial headcount.

So what?

The census will provide the data for how hundreds of billions of dollars in federal program funds are distributed, and also determine how many seats each state has in the House of Representatives, as well as how many Electoral College votes go to each state. None of those questions should be influenced by the presence of undocumented people.

People who are not citizens are not allowed to vote. So why should they be given representation in Congress? Should Arizona get more seats in the House because it has a large population of undocumented people, giving it more clout than Maine, for instance, that has few?

No, it should not. But it does now.

State leaders are increasingly choosing to allow a large portion of their populations to be people who have entered the country illegally.

California, most conspicuously, has made that choice, granting sanctuary to illegal residents and granting such people numerous benefits and rights. As a consequence, the state is home to about 2.5 million unauthorized people, making up about 6 percent of Californias population.

However, the inhabitants of other states that do not chose to underwrite a large undocumented immigrant population should not be penalized by the self-interested political decisions made by Californias Democratic leaders.

People who are in the country illegally are not supposed to receive food stamps, Medicaid or other federal assistance  but many do. A large number of families headed by undocumented people actually are on welfare, receiving those benefits through their U.S.-born citizen children.

The most recent survey of income and program participation from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that 62 percent of households headed by undocumented people are receiving federal welfare, more than twice the percentage for households headed by native-born Americans.

Many households without children also access welfare benefits through fraud or by accessing programs open to all residents of the country, like Emergency Medicaid. That program pays for hospital care and, in some states, long-term treatment like chemotherapy.

On the New York City Emergency Medicaid website, it advertises that the program helps eligible, undocumented and temporary immigrant New Yorkers pay for medical costs when they have an emergency. Emergencies include dialysis, giving birth and chronic pain.

Though it may sound harsh, this was not how the system was meant to work. Of course, for humanitarian reasons we need to treat anyone within our borders who is desperately ill. But as we face trillion-dollar deficits going forward, the U.S. must confront its spiraling entitlement and health care costs. Medicaid, a program that has grown way beyond its original intent, would be a good place to start.

This is not the first time a census has made political waves. In preparing for the 2010 census, President Obama organized his campaign coalition to help guarantee a fuller count of minority and illegal communities. He demanded nearly $1 billion of stimulus funds to pay community groups like the disgraced ACORN (which was finally dumped from the roster) to help with the headcount.

The upshot was an increase in House seats allocated to districts heavily populated by minorities and undocumented people  districts that just happen to mainly vote Democratic.

For instance, blue state California picked up five representatives. At the time, an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal noted that eliminating non-citizens could cost California a total of nine House seats by the end of the decade. The stakes are high.

This accounts for some of the hyperventilating on the issue of including the citizenship question in Census 2020. Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder called the inclusion of the question a direct attack on our representative democracy. As the current head of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, he knows his party has much to lose.

President Trumps Justice Department has justified the insertion of the citizenship question by saying it would help enforce the Voting Rights Act. That would seem to be a good thing. But critics of the administrations decision say the real impact would be to undercount undocumented people who might be scared to acknowledge their lack of citizenship.

That argument is undercut by the results of the Census Bureaus American Community Survey (ACS), which each year asks some 3.5 million households questions about citizenship status, place of birth and year of arrival. The Current Population Survey and other federal studies used to estimate employment levels ask similar questions.

Approximately 2.1 percent of households refuse to participate in the ACS; in states like Texas and California that have large undocumented populations the figure rises to 2 percent to 3 percent.

In other words, there is not a huge difference in states that have large unauthorized populations.

In any event, we should not care. The Founders of our nation did not envision a country containing 11 or 12 million undocumented people. Nor did they envision that population determining either fiscal or political representation.

In Article 1, Section 2 of the Constitution, they wrote: Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers. They excluded Indians from the tally, describing them as not taxed. In that era, not taxed meant not a legal citizen. We should follow the same guideline today.
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Surprise talks between North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and Chinese President Xi Jinping were held in China this week  now confirmed by Chinese state news media  could have a major impact on U.S. efforts to get North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons and avert a horrific war that could escalate into a nuclear nightmare.

What did Kim and Xi  ostensibly allies  talk about? Obviously, leaders of the two Communist nations had much to discuss, considering momentous events in East Asia over the last year. And a crucial issue is what role China will play in the upcoming talks planned between North and South Korea, as well as the hotly awaited summit between President Trump and Kim.

While we will likely never know all the fine details of Kim-Xi summit, we do know some of the major topics that needed to be discussed. Here is a rundown of why these two world leaders came together, and what could happen next:

China wants a seat at the table: While seemingly sidelined as North Korea attempts to lessen tensions with South Korea and America, Xi and his government likely wanted to make sure that Kim knows who controls the Norths fate at the end of the day.

I would argue that Kims goal in meeting with Xi was to gauge Beijings tolerance for North Koreas strategy for a summit with President Trump. It is even possible that Kim could have been asking his Chinese masters to help him get out of the summit entirely or to help delay it.

China is many times larger, wealthier, and more powerful militarily than North Korea. It is the Norths chief ally  in fact, just about its only ally. China is also the destination for over 90 percent of North Koreas exports, and sends massive amounts of fuel and natural resources to the North at subsidized prices. Beijing is determined to ensure that its interests  and investment  are well served.

By asking  or more likely demanding  that Kim come to China to meet with Xi, the Chinese wanted to make clear to Kim that he had to keep China informed and possibly get Xis OK on any deals the North cuts with South Korea and the U.S.

North Korea-South Korea talks: The item at the top of the Kim-Xi agenda was likely how the North will handle upcoming preliminary talks with South Korea, planned for Thursday, and a potential North-South summit coming in April. Xi likely wanted to have an idea of what a proposed roadmap by North Korea for detente with the South would look like.

Beijing is likely also wondering what demands North Korea might have for the South, and if the North plans to try some sort of divide and conquer strategy  pushing a soft line towards South Korea but demanding major concessions from Washington that could ultimately increase tensions.

U.S.-North Korea Summit: Will a summit actually occur between North Korea and the United States? Only Xi and Kim likely know for sure what they plan, and even if they want to go ahead, President Trump could still wind up backing out of the historic meeting.

I would argue that Kims goal in meeting with Xi was to gauge Beijings tolerance for North Koreas strategy for a summit with President Trump. It is even possible that Kim could have been asking his Chinese masters to help him get out of the summit entirely or to help delay it.

The reasons for this are clear if one digs a little deeper. For example, The Chinese state news agency reported that Kim offered to give up his nuclear weapons in Beijing, quoting him as saying: The issue of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula can be resolved, if South Korea and the United States respond to our efforts with goodwill, create an atmosphere of peace and stability while taking progressive and synchronous measures for the realization of peace.

The challenge with such a statement is what does the phrase progressive and synchronous measures actually mean? Basically, what would Kim Jong Un demand from the United States and South Korea for giving up his nuclear weapons?

Would the North demand, for example, the ending of the U.S.-South Korea alliance and the removal of all U.S. forces from the Korean Peninsula? Would Kim demand America also denuclearize, as he has demanded in the past? An absurd demand that like would show Kim had no intention of negotiating seriously.

And lets go further afield and think through what terms North Korea would seek in the denuclearization process. Would Pyongyang allow international inspectors full access to all parts of the country? Would the North allow the total destruction of all aspects of its nuclear program, including all nuclear reactors? What happens to North Koreas missile program or chemical and biological weapons programs?

As you can see, Xi Jinping and Kim Jong Un had much to talk about. And this is all just the beginning of what will be a historic few weeks in Asia. Either history will be made, or we will be back at the brink of war all over again. Stay tuned.
Federal prosecutors announced Wednesday they will not retry U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez on bribery and corruption charges.

Prosecutors filed a motion with the court to dismiss the case after a trial judge threw out several counts against the longtime New Jersey Democratic lawmaker last week.

From the very beginning, I never wavered in my innocence and my belief that justice would prevail, Menendez said in a statement. I am grateful that the Department of Justice has taken the time to re-evaluate its case and come to the appropriate conclusion.

Earlier this month, the DOJ said it had intended to retry Menendez, who is up for re-election this year, after a federal judge declared a mistrial in the high-profile bribery case in November.

In that case, U.S. District Court Judge William Walls said there was no alternative to declaring a mistrial.

The mistrial was seen as a major victory for Menendez and a blow to the Justice Department, whose efforts to go after politicians in recent years have not been successful.

Outside the courthouse after the mistrial, an emotional Menendez made clear that he would be out for political vengeance.

"Certain elements of the FBI and of our state cannot stand, or even worse, accept that the Latino kid from Union City and Hudson County could grow up to be a United States senator and be honest," said the 63-year-old son of Cuban immigrants.

Juror Edward Norris, a 49-year-old equipment operator, told reporters he didnt think the government proved anything.

Norris told reporters that 10 people on the jury wanted to acquit Menendez of all charges while two held out for conviction.

The mistrial brought an inconclusive end to the two-and-a-half month trial.

Menendez is up for re-election to the U.S. Senate this year.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has called on the Ethics Committee to investigate Menendez for possible violations of the public trust and the Senate code of conduct.

The case against Menendez marked the first time in almost a decade that a sitting U.S. senator faced a federal bribery charge.

According to the criminal complaint, Menendez greased wheels for Salomon Melgen, a Florida ophthalmologist.

Among other things, Menendez was accused of helping obtain visas for several of Melgens girlfriends as well as lobby the State Department on his behalf regarding a $500 million port security contract in the Dominican Republic.

Melgen, in turn, paid for private jets, hotel rooms and forked over nearly $75,000 in campaign contributions to Menendez.

The defense argued that the gifts were not bribes, but tokens of friendship between two men who were "like brothers."

In Menendez attorney Abbe Lowell's closing argument, he used the words "friend," "friends" or "friendship" more than 80 times.

The Menendez case was the first major federal bribery trial since the U.S. Supreme Court in 2016 threw out the conviction of Republican former Gov. Bob McDonnell of Virginia and narrowed the definition of bribery.
American photojournalist Matt Schrier, who escaped a torturous abduction by Al Qaeda in Syria, said Tuesday the FBI was monitoring his finances while he was in captivity as a way to track the terrorist organization.

Schrier, who was kidnapped in 2012 by the Al Qaeda franchise known as al Nusra, said on Fox News' The Story with Martha MacCallum that the terror network took his financial information and used his own money to buy computers. He said he knew beyond a reasonable doubt that the FBI was monitoring his finances.

And this is because the agent told me she thought I joined Al Qaeda because they paid off my Discover card. Thats what it takes to fool the FBI, Schrier said. So, because they thought I joined, and I was basically judged guilty until proven innocent, they started monitoring everything and they saw they were buying laptops, ten at once, tablets on eBay. And, you gotta think, this is a dream come true. We intercept the laptops, we get the IP addresses, maybe put some GPSs, some microphones in and we deliver them right into the hands of Al Qaeda. And they spy. And me, well Im not coming home anyway so no harm, no foul. As long as youre not me.

AMERICAN WHO ESCAPED AL QAEDA CAPTIVITY SAYS FBI, UNDER MUELLER AND COMEY, BETRAYED HIM

Schrier also claimed that the FBI misled his mother into thinking he was okay and never told his father hed been kidnapped. After Schrier started investigating, he claimed to learn that the agent handling his case was lying about a lot of things.

I know that they wronged me, Schrier said of the FBI.

In a statement to Fox News, the FBI said it wasnt able to discuss investigative details in Schriers ongoing case.

The FBI fully supports the work of the agents and victim specialists who have remained consummate professionals in working with Mr. Schrier, the statement continued. Since his return home, we have worked with our partners in the U.S. government to provide Mr. Schrier with a full range of services and guidance to help him rebuild his life, as we do for all victims; however, it is at the discretion of the victim to accept and implement these resources.

The statement concluded, We continue to work with our interagency and international law enforcement partners to gather intelligence and assess the possibility of bringing charges against those who victimized Mr. Schrier.

FORMER HOSTAGE: FBI SACRIFIED MY SAFETY TO TRACK TERRORISTS

In the interview, Schrier claimed the health benefits he received were the same things given to illegal aliens and one doctor refused to prescribe what Schrier said was an FDA-approved drug to help him sleep because the physician told him it was a narcotic and said he didnt believe in it.

He also claimed he was unable to obtain a new social security number even though Al Qaeda stole my identity. He claimed the agent on his case said the bureau couldnt help him with that.

What is the witness protection program for ... only the criminals? Schrier said.

He added that he provided the government with a trove of information he obtained from his time as a hostage.

Schrier, who told MacCallum he was able to escape captivity through a flawed window, also said throughout his ordeal he tried to stay as positive as possible.

I know it sounds crazy but I tried to keep my sense of humor, I tried to keep my mind clear, he said.

Fox News' Catherine Herridge, Pamela K. Browne and Cyd Upson contributed to this report.
A Democratic candidate for sheriff in North Carolina apologized Sunday for a joke about taking guns away from peoples cold, bare hands.

R. Daryl Fisher, who is seeking the Democratic Partys nomination in the upcoming primary election for Buncombe County sheriff, has come under criticism following his remarks at a monthly Moms Demand Action meeting for gun control earlier this month.

During his short speech, where he expressed support for banning high-capacity magazines and any weapon thats designed for use by the military, he joked about taking away guns once people are dead.

Dont believe the scare tactics, because youve heard people say, You'll have to pry my gun from my cold, dead hands, Fisher is heard saying in a video posted by his campaign at the 3:04 minute mark. OK  Whenever you pass away, we'll come get it, he quipped.

The remark prompted laughter and applause from the audience, but he added that he was joking just a little bit there.

The sheriff hopeful told North Carolinas The News & Observer on Monday that a one-sentence clip from that meeting has been taken out of context and circulated on social media with a false interpretation of what I actually said.

Fisher still issued an apology about the joke, saying it was a mistake he should not have made and affirmed his support for the Second Amendment, although he favors some gun-control measures.

There is one statement that many up to now have taken offense to  I admit the joke was a mistake and I should not have joked, Fisher wrote on his Facebook page, noting that the government cannot take away any guns or any items that were legally sold before any new laws take effect.

Responsible gun owners have nothing to worry about. We have to do something different because what has been done is not working, he added.
A lawyer for former adult star Stormy Daniels filed a motion Wednesday in federal court seeking to depose both President Trump and his attorney Michael Cohen over a $130,000 payment made to Daniels days before the 2016 presidential election.

Daniels has publicly claimed a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump and said Cohen orchestrated a payment to keep her quiet during the election. The White House has denied her claims.

At issue is whether the non-disclosure agreement that was signed by Daniels - but not by Trump - is valid.

If successful, it would be the first deposition of a sitting president since President Bill Clinton in 1998 had to answer questions about his encounter with Paula Jones.

Attorney Michael Avenattis documents were filed in U.S. District Court in California.

Avenatti wants to question Trump and Cohen for "no more than two hours." In the filing, he says the depositions are needed to establish if Trump knew about the payment, which he refers to as a "hush agreement," and if he consented to it.

In a statement to CBS, Cohen's attorney David Schwartz called the filing a "reckless use of the legal system in order to continue to inflate Michael Avenatti's deflated ego and keep himself relevant."

Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, detailed her alleged 2006 tryst with Trump in a widely watched interview with CBS' "60 Minutes" that aired Sunday. She said she'd slept with him once, shortly after Trump's wife, Melania, gave birth to the president's youngest son.

She also said that a man approached her in a Las Vegas parking lot in 2011 when she was with her infant daughter, and threatened her with physical harm if she went public with her story.

The interview prompted a new flurry of legal action, with a lawyer for Cohen demanding that Daniels publicly apologize to his client for suggesting he was involved in her intimidation. Daniels responded by filing a revised federal lawsuit accusing Cohen of defamation.

Cohen has said he paid the $130,000 out of his own pocket and that neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction. Avenatti has argued that the "hush agreement" Daniels signed in October 2016 is invalid because it was not signed by Trump.

The judge in the case is S. James Otero, a George W. Bush appointee. A hearing is set for April 30.

Fox News Ross Lee and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
As Chicago debates new measures to combat gun violence, Mayor Rahm Emanuel's police superintendent finds himself at odds with a police oversight agency -- and even with some of his supporters among the city's African-American leaders.

Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson has rejected the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA)'s recommendation that he fire an officer who fatally shot two people in 2015, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Disciplinary officials had called for Officer Robert Rialmos firing because of the deaths of Quintonio LeGrier, 19, and Bettie Jones 55. Rialmo is white and both LeGrier and Jones were black.

Johnson, who is black, found that Rialmo was justified in taking action against LeGrier, arguing that LeGrier swung a bat at the officer, rendering LeGrier an assailant, the Tribune reported. Jones was a bystander who was shot accidentally, officials have said.

Johnson "could have taken the easy way out, politically, and ruled against" Rialmo, city Ald. Nick Sposato told the Tribune. "I just want to commend Eddie johnson for doing the right thing, for having the courage to do this."



But Johnsons ruling is not the final word, and his decision could set up a "rare clash" with police disciplinary officials, the Tribine reported. He must now work with COPAs leaders to see if they can reach an agreement on the case.

If Johnson and COPA officials cannot agree, the matter goes to one member of the Chicago Police Board, who can either accept the superintendents position or side with COPA and send the case to the full Police Board for hearings on Rialmos potential firing, the newspaper reported.

Meanwhile, several African-American aldermen in the city have blasted Johnson's stand, saying that absolving the officer of responsibility in the LeGrier-Jones case would likely inflame the community.

"The reaction is going to be outrage," Ald. Roderick Sawyer, chairman of the City Council's Black Caucus, told the Chicago Sun-Times. "People are gonna be quite upset because, this is an innocent woman who got shot answering the door."

"There will be a backlash," agreed Ald. Emma Mitts, "because two people got killed -- an innocent bystander and a mentally ill person."

The Rialmo case garnered intense scrutiny because it was the first officer-involved shooting since the court-mandated release a month prior of video of a Caucasian officer shooting African-American teenager Laquan McDonald 16 times in 2014, the Tribune reported.

COPA was born out of that controversy, the newspaper noted. On Tuesday, a search committee formed by Emanuel announced it had appointed a veteran state law enforcement official as COPA's new leader.

Sydney Roberts, who has been director of the Illinois Secretary of State Police since 2010, will lead COPA, the Tribune reported.

Meanwhile, an Illinois House sommittee held a hearing Tuesday about new gun control measures, where opponents and proponents expressed their views, Fox 32 Chicago reported.

Over the weekend, I know personally of five people that were killed by gun violence while we're squabbling about who didn't do what, educator Gayinga Washington told the panel. She is mourning the death of her friend Darnell Simmons, who was fatally shot while saving his son last week.

Blood is spilling in the streets every day. I don't care anymore if you are a Republican or a Democrat or in-between, Washington said. What I care about now is we resolve this problem.
Newly uncovered text messages between FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page suggest a possible coordination between high-ranking officials at the Obama White House, CIA, FBI, Justice Department and former Senate Democratic leadership in the early stages of the investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, according to GOP congressional investigators on Wednesday.

The investigators say the information provided to Fox News strongly suggests coordination between former President Barack Obamas Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, then-Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, and CIA Director John Brennan  which they say would contradict the Obama administrations public stance about its hand in the process.

Page texted Strzok on Aug. 2, 2016, saying: Make sure you can lawfully protect what you sign. Just thinking about congress, foia, etc. You probably know better than me.

A text message from Strzok to Page on Aug. 3 described former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe as being concerned with information control related to the initial investigation into the Trump campaign. According to a report from the New York Times, Brennan was sent to Capitol Hill around the same time to brief members of Congress on the possibility of election interference.

Days later, on Aug. 8, 2016, Strzok texted Page: Internal joint cyber cd intel piece for D, scenesetter for McDonough brief, Trainor [head of FBI cyber division] directed all cyber info be pulled. Id let Bill and Jim hammer it out first, though it would be best for D to have it before the Wed WH session.

In the texts, D referred to FBI Director James Comey, and and McDonough referred to Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, the GOP investigators said.

We are not making conclusions. What we are saying is that the timeline is concerning enough to warrant the appointment of an independent investigator to look at whether or not the Obama White House was involved [in the Trump-Russia investigation], a GOP congressional source told Fox News.

An FBI spokesman did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment.

The congressional investigators pointed out to Fox News that the CIA and FBI are supposed to be independent agencies, and noted that coordination between political actors at the White House and investigators would be inappropriate, raising questions about the level of involvement of Obama White House officials.

But weeks later, on August 25, 2016, Brennan went to Capitol Hill to brief Harry Reid  and it was unclear whether FBI officials attended the briefing, a congressional source told Fox News.

Two days after the briefing, Reid penned a letter to Comey requesting an investigation into potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

The evidence of a direct connection between the Russian government and Donald Trumps presidential campaign continues to mount and has led Michael Morrell, the former Acting Central Intelligence Director, to call Trump an unwitting agent of Russia and the Kremlin, Reid, a Nevada Democrat, wrote. The prospect of a hostile government actively seeking to undermine our free and fair elections represents one of the gravest threats to our democracy since the Cold War and it is critical for the Federal Bureau of Investigation to use every resource available to investigate this matter thoroughly and in a timely fashion.

Reid cited reports in his letter, noting methods Russia was using to influence the Trump campaign and manipulate it as a vehicle for advancing the interests of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Reid added that recent staff changes within the Trump campaign have made clear that the Trump campaign has employed a number of individuals with significant and disturbing ties to Russia and the Kremlin, urging Comey to make the investigation public.

The New York Times first reported on Reids letter to Comey on Aug. 29, 2016.

The following day, Aug. 30, 2016, Strzok texted Page: Here we go, sending a link to the Times report titled, Harry Reid Cites Evidence of Russian Tampering in U.S. Vote and seeks FBI inquiry.

Page replied: D [Comey] said at am brief that Reid called him and told him he would be sending a letter.

Congressional investigators suggested that the Reid letter possibly provided cover for the fact that the FBI and Justice Department had already begun investigating the Trump campaign in mid-July on what they called questionable ethical and legal grounds.

The here we go text between Strzok and Page indicates the FBI/ DOJ knew the letter from Reid was coming, a congressional source told Fox News. This created the inference they knew it would create public calls for an investigation into Russian interference  covering them.

The source told Fox News on Wednesday that investigators were neither passing judgement nor claiming a smoking gun, but suggested that the timeline was incredibly concerning.

At some point, the amount of concerning information becomes enough for a special counsel to look into it.
Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz announced Wednesday he will review potential Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) abuses by both the Justice Department and the FBI, following requests from Congress and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

The Office of the Inspector General released a statement Wednesday outlining the start of the review.

The OIG will initiate a review that will examine the Justice Departments and the Federal Bureau of Investigations compliance with legal requirements, and with applicable DOJ and FBI policies and procedures, in applications filed with the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) relating to a certain U.S. person, the statement obtained by Fox News read. As part of this examination, the OIG also will review information that was known to the DOJ and the FBI at the time the applications were filed from or about an alleged FBI confidential source.

The OIG statement added that Horowitz also would review the DOJs and FBIs relationship and communications with the alleged source as they relate to the FISC applications.

The statement continued, If circumstances warrant, the OIG will consider including other issues that may arise during the course of the review.

Last month, Sessions directed Horowitz to probe the allegations of government surveillance abuse, in light of memos released on Capitol Hill by the House Intelligence Committee about FBI and DOJ efforts to obtain FISA warrants to surveil Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

We believe the Department of Justice must adhere to the high standards in the FISA court, Sessions said in February at a news conference. Yes it will be investigated. And I think thats just the appropriate thing the inspector general will take that as one of the matters hell deal with.

Thus far, members of Congress and Russian entrepreneurs in U.S. courts have made the greatest initial progress in getting to the bottom of Washingtons illegal influence on the 2016 election. Whereas many of these illicit schemes allegedly occurred in part within DOJ, its encouraging that members of their staff are now investigating the increasingly clear pattern of wrongdoing, Page told Fox News on Wednesday.

House Intel Republicans released a memo in late February detailing the DOJ's and FBIs surveillance of Page, saying the infamous anti-Trump dossier funded by Democrats formed an essential part of the application to spy on him.

The dossier, authored by former British spy Christopher Steele and commissioned by Fusion GPS, was funded in part by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clintons presidential campaign through the law firm Perkins Coie. It included salacious and unverified allegations about President Trumps connections to Russia.

The Republican memo stated that former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe testified that no surveillance warrant would have been sought from the FISA court without the Steele dossier information.

The memo also said Steele, who worked as an FBI informant, eventually was cut off from the bureau for what the FBI described as the most serious of violations, an unauthorized disclosure to the media of his relationship with the FBI.

The memo noted that the FBI and DOJ obtained one initial FISA warrant targeting Page and three FISA renewals from the FISC. The statute required that every 90 days, a FISA order on an American citizen must be reviewed.

Former FBI Director James Comey signed three FISA applications for Page, while McCabe, current Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein who leads the Russia probe, former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates and former Acting Deputy Attorney General Dana Boente signed at least one, according the Republican memo.

Democrats, then, released a rebuttal memo.

The White House said the GOP memo raised serious concerns about the integrity of decisions made at the highest levels of the Department of Justice and the FBI to use the governments most intrusive surveillance tools against American citizens.

Republican lawmakers and Sessions had been pressing Horowitz to probe the alleged FISA abuses.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said he was "grateful" that Horowitz had decided to review the FISA application and the FBI's relationship with Steele.

"Federal surveillance authority is an important tool to combat terrorism and keep Americans safe, but it must be used by the book in order to protect the constitutional rights and civil liberties of all Americans," Grassley said. "We need to be sure that improper political influence, misconduct or mismanagement is never a factor when federal law enforcement seeks permission to secretly surveil Americans."

In January, Grassley and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., referred Steele to the Justice Department and the FBI for criminal investigation, alleging that Steele had made false statements to authorities about the dossier.

Earlier this week, FBI Director Christopher Wray announced plans to double the number of agents handing records for the House Judiciary Committee after it subpoenaed the Justice Department for documents on FISA, the Clinton email investigation and the firing of McCabe.

Over the last year, Horowitz has been conducting a review of the FBI's and DOJs actions related to the investigation into Clintons use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. A final report on the investigation is expected in several months.

Fox News' Pamela K. Browne and Jason Donner contributed to this report.
A federal judge Wednesday allowed Maryland and the District of Columbia to proceed with their lawsuit accusing President Donald Trump of accepting unconstitutional gifts from foreign interests, but limited the case to the president's involvement with the Trump International Hotel in Washington.



U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte's ruling dismissed other sections of the lawsuit that raised concerns about the impact of foreign gifts to the president from Trump Organization properties outside of Washington.



Maryland and D.C. accuse the president of violating the emoluments clause of the Constitution, which bans the president and other federal officials from accepting gifts from foreign governments as well as U.S. states. Specifically, they allege nearby businesses have been subjected to increased competition as a result of the foreign traffic to the Trump Hotel.



"Their allegation is bolstered by explicit statements from certain foreign government officials indicating that they are clearly choosing to stay at the president's hotel because, as one representative of a foreign government has stated, they want him to know `I love your new hotel,"' Messitte wrote in his 47-page ruling.



But the judge also warned the plaintiffs that their "claims sweep too broadly," saying "it is a considerable stretch, however, to find the requisite injury-in-fact" to Maryland and D.C. from Trump properties outside of Washington.



Despite Messitte's limited ruling, a watchdog group that has joined the two jurisdictions in the lawsuit was quick to hail the judge's decision.



"This is a major step forward for the emoluments litigation," said Norman Eisen, a former chief ethics lawyer for the Obama administration and chairman of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, also called CREW. Eisen said the decision suggests that states and businesses near Trump enterprises in other parts of the country may also have legal standing to sue.



Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh said "we won the first round. It's a very clear decision that Donald Trump is not above the law and has to be held accountable to the emoluments clause."



D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine, tweeted: "We have standing to hold Pres. Trump accountable for violating the Constitution."



It was not immediately clear whether the Trump administration would appeal the ruling.



White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to address the issue during an afternoon press briefing, saying "I can't comment on pending litigation."



Kerri Kupec, a Justice Department spokeswoman, said "we believe this case should be dismissed, and we will continue to defend the president in court."



Although the Trump Organization was not a party in the litigation, the company said it was pleased that the judge did not allow the lawsuit to target other Trump properties.



"The court's decision today does significantly narrow the scope of the case," said a company spokeswoman. The court has yet to rule on several additional arguments, which we believe should result in a complete dismissal."



If the judge's ruling holds, it could allow Maryland and DC to press for documents showing how foreign government interests or U.S. states used the Trump hotel and how much money they spent there.



Late last year, a judge in New York threw out a similar lawsuit filed by CREW, ruling that the emoluments clause is an issue that Congress should address first. A third federal lawsuit has been filed against Trump on the issue by nearly 200 Democratic members of Congress.


Foundation for Moral Law Files Amicus Brief Supporting Pro-Life Sidewalk Counselor Contact: John Eidsmoe, Foundation for Moral Law, 334-262-1245, info@morallaw.org MONTGOMERY, Ala., March 28, 2018 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Foundation for Moral today filed a proposed amicus (friend-of-the-court) brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia supporting the right of Jeryl Turco, a sidewalk counselor in Englewood, New Jersey, to talk with abortion-bound women without having to navigate a maze of no-entry zones on the sidewalk in front of the local abortion mill.



Foundation President Kayla Moore explained: "An Englewood city ordinance has created a web of no-entrance zones that hinder pro-life counseling on the sidewalk in front of the local abortion mill. Meanwhile, abortion-favoring 'escorts,' known colloquially as 'deathscorts,' may ignore the zones and roam free on the sidewalk."



Foundation Counsel Martin Wishnatsky added: "Only pro-life counselors have to respect the no-go zones. The exception in the ordinance for abortion workers and agents slants the playing field in favor of pro-abortion speech. The federal district court in New Jersey found the ordinance unconstitutional. We are urging the Third Circuit to do the same."



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New Jersey Democratic lawmaker Sen. Bob Menendez, who was brought up on bribery and corruption charges last year, kicked off his re-election campaign Wednesday in front of a cheering crowd at Union City High School.

I am here because I am your vote, Menendez told a gymnasium full of cheering high school students and Democratic lawmakers.

The senator came out swinging against President Trump, calling the commander in chief out on immigration and health care.

Under (Trumps) watch, health care is getting more expensive, environmental protections are being gutted, womens rights are under attack, Menendez said.

He added that he would fight for New Jersey residents against a president who divides us, distracts us, but does not deliver for us.

Menendezs Republican rival is Bob Hugin - a political newcomer who used to run pharmaceutical company Celgene.

Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy praised Menendez as the states indispensable senator for his work on storm recovery after Superstorm Sandy as well as securing federal funds for a new Hudson River rail tunnel.

Fellow Democratic Sen. Cory Booker was the only one on hand to refer to Menendezs recent troubles with the law.

If you kick a lion when hes down, youd better be careful when he stands up, Booker said.

In late January, federal prosecutors said they would not retry Menendez on bribery and corruption charges. Earlier that month, federal prosecutors said they had intended to retry Menendez after a federal judge declared a mistrial in November.

The mistrial was seen as a major victory for Menendez and a blow to the Justice Department, whose efforts to go after politicians in recent years have not been terribly successful.

Outside the courthouse after the mistrial, an emotional Menendez made clear that he would be out for political vengeance.

"Certain elements of the FBI and of our state cannot stand, or even worse, accept that the Latino kid from Union City and Hudson County could grow up to be a United States senator and be honest," said the 63-year-old son of Cuban immigrants.

The mistrial brought an inconclusive end to the two-and-a-half month trial.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has called on the Ethics Committee to investigate Menendez for possible violations of the public trust and the Senate code of conduct.

The case against Menendez marked the first time in almost a decade that a sitting U.S. senator faced a federal bribery charge.

According to the criminal complaint, Menendez greased wheels for Salomon Melgen, a Florida ophthalmologist.

Among other things, Menendez was accused of helping obtain visas for several of Melgens girlfriends as well as lobby the State Department on his behalf regarding a $500 million port security contract in the Dominican Republic.

Melgen, in turn, paid for private jets, hotel rooms and forked over nearly $75,000 in campaign contributions to Menendez.

The defense argued that the gifts were not bribes, but tokens of friendship between two men who were "like brothers."

In Menendez attorney Abbe Lowell's closing argument, he used the words "friend," "friends" or "friendship" more than 80 times.
Former Trump campaign deputy chairman Rick Gates communicated with a person with ties to a Russian intelligence service in late 2016, Special Counsel Robert Mueller stated in a new court filing.

The revelation came during the sentencing of Alex Van Der Zwaan, an attorney connected to Gates and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who pleaded guilty last month to making false statements to the FBI.

That Gates and Person A were directly communicating in September and October 2016 was pertinent to the investigation, the Tuesday court filing, obtained and reviewed by Fox News, read.

Mueller is investigating Russian meddling and the actions of Trump campaign associates during the presidential election.

The unnamed person, cited as Person A, had lived in Kiev and Moscow up until August 2016 and worked with Manafort and Gates in connection with their Ukraine lobbying work. Person A, according to the filing, is a foreign national and was a close business colleague of both Manafort and Gates, working for Manaforts company in Ukraine, Davis Manafort International, LLC.

The communications were disclosed in what's known as the Governments Sentencing Memorandum."

The lies and withholding of documents were material to the Special Counsels Offices investigation. That Gates and Person A were directly communicating in September and October 2016 was pertinent to the investigation, the filing read. Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agents assisting the Special Counsels office assess that Person A has ties to a Russian intelligence service and had such ties in 2016.

The filing said that van der Zwaan admitted, during his first interview with the special counsels office, that he know of the connection between Gates and Person A, stating that Gates told him Person A was a former Russian Intelligence Officer with the GRU,meaning Gates was aware of the unnamed persons ties during his communications.

Just last month, Mueller motioned to dismiss a charges brought against Gates in a superseding indictment in Virginia federal court, following Gates guilty plea to the first round of charges brought forth in October 2017.

A federal grand jury returned the new charges in the superseding indictment brought against both Gates and Manafort, which included conspiring against the United States, conspiring to launder money, failing to register as an agent of a foreign principal and providing false statements. The superseding indictment was separate from the original charges brought against both Manafort and Gates in October.

Manafort continues to plead not guilty, and just Tuesday, his attorneys motioned to dismiss the superseding indictment brought against him in the same court. Manaforts lawyers asserted that Mueller exceeded the scope of their investigation, and claimed Mueller wasnt even investigating their client for any potential collusion.

Manaforts attorney Kevin Downing filed the motion in federal court Tuesday to dismiss the indictment, noting that the charges against Mr. Manafort do not arise directly from the special counsel investigation.

Indeed, the special counsel has never suggested that Mr. Manafort had anything to do with alleged coordination [with] the Russian government, or even that he is investigating Mr. Manafort on that subject, Downing wrote in the court filing.

Despite Gates guilty plea, Manafort has said that he will continue to maintain my innocence, and that he hoped and expected Gates would have had the strength to continue the battle to prove our innocence.

Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III, who is assigned to the superseding indictment in Virginia, suggested that Manafort could face life in prison, and poses a substantial flight risk because of his financial means and international connections to flee and remain at large.

Specifically given the nature of the charges against the defendant and the apparent weight of the evidence against him, defendant faces the very real possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison, Ellis wrote.

Fox News Bill Mears contributed to this report.
On Monday, the president accused of coddling Vladimir Putin expelled 60 Russian diplomats, the largest number in American history, and that includes the Cold War.

Maybe Trump had had enough after the apparent Russian poisoning of a spy in London. Maybe John Bolton is already whispering in his ear. The president, who coordinated his efforts with nearly two dozen other countries, didn't publicly scold Putin.

Trump says a whole lot of things, but in the end, actions usually speak louder than words.

The move was dutifully covered by the press, even though it contradicts the soft-on-Moscow narrative. But many outlets wasted little time returning to their preferred story line of Trumpian chaos.

There was, of course, the Stormy Daniels saga. And despite a media backlash against the porn star and her lawyer for overpromising and underdelivering, the huge platform of "60 Minutes" is helping to drive the salacious story. Many journalists noted that Trump, who rarely lets an attack go unanswered, did not respond to Daniels, while his spokesman tersely repeated that the president rejects her claims.

Much of the cable chatter, especially on liberal shows, was about the chaos on Trump's legal team, the chaos in responding to the Mueller investigation, and the broader sense of chaos in the White House. This is after the chaosnot to mention the rush to nuclear warsupposedly created by Boltons appointment last week.

At one point yesterday, MSNBC was running this banner: "Is Trump's Old Strategy His Only Strategy, Because He Can't Find Qualified People?"

At the same moment, CNN was running this banner: "More Star Lawyers Refuse to Join Trumps Legal Team."

This is rooted in what happened after Trump's top lawyer, John Dowd, resigned from handling the Russia probe. Joe diGenova, a former U.S. attorney in Washington, was announced as an addition to the legal team, and then was to be joined by his wife and law partner, Victoria Toensing, a former Justice Department official. But that ended up not happening because of conflicts related to other clients (along with the usual leaks about insufficient chemistry with the president).

After a couple of blue-chip lawyers, including Ted Olson, declined invitations to join the team, the press narrative has been that Trump can't attract talent. Obviously he'll eventually hire someone, but it's striking how even this gets blown up into a crisisalong with continued speculation about whether he'll dump the VA secretary and other aides.

By the way, you know how the press is always whacking Trump for reckless comments and Twitter taunts? Since he's kept a low profile at Mar-a-Lago during this spring break week, MSNBC ran another banner yesterday: "Trump Staying Silent As New Controversies Embroil the White House."

Since Michael Cohen, Trump's personal lawyer, paid the $130,000 in hush money in the Stormy Daniels case, some pundits are saying he might be dragged into the Mueller investigation, which seems like a stretch (CBS says that's "unlikely"). Mueller has requested some Russia-related information from Cohen, such as his making an inquiry about a potential Trump Tower in Moscow, which never went anywhere.

Of course, the president sometimes creates his own complications when he vents to advisers and friends. The New York Times reports that hes still in touch with Rob Porter, the staff secretary fired after allegations of abuse by two ex-wives, and hopes Porter "returns to work in the West Wing." This sounds tone-deaf, of course, and the same piece quotes Trump as telling people he knows he probably can't bring Porter back.

Despite the depiction of constant chaos and confusion in this stormy era, Trump's approval rating rose to 42 percent in a CNN poll yesterday, the highest in nearly a year. He hit the same figure in an AP survey. That's not a great number, but a definite improvement for a president who's been portrayed as fundamentally flawed and floundering.

And Salon's headline? "America Doesn't Hate Donald Trump As Much As It Did Last Month."
Throughout the first year of his presidency  and even as he campaigned for the office  President Trumps rhetoric regarding North Korea has been harsh.

He warned earlier this year that Americas nuclear capabilities were much bigger [and] more powerful than that of the Asian nation. And at the end of 2017, Trump designated North Korea a state sponsor of terror again  a classification that came with additional sanctions.

On the heels of a planned, historic summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Trumps tone softened, saying great progress has been made. But Trump ultimately cancelled that meeting, citing "open hostility" from North Korea.

From agreeing to meet with Kim to dubbing him Little Rocket Man, heres a look at what Trump has said about North Korea and its leader over time.

Back together again

After meeting with a North Korean official in the White House for more than an hour, Trump announced the June summit with North Korea is back on.

We'll be meeting on June 12 in Singapore," the president told reporters after the meeting.

Let's call the whole thing off

Trump announced on May 24 that he has decided to pull out of the June summit with North Korea.

"We were informed that the meeting was requested by North Korea, but that to us is totally irrelevant," Trump said in a letter to Kim. "I was very much looking forward to being there with you. Sadly, based on the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement, I feel it is inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting."

"You talk about your nuclear capabilities, but ours are so massive and powerful that I pray to God they will never have to be used," Trump said.

"I felt a wonderful dialogue was building up between you and me, and ultimately, it is only that dialogue that matters. Some day, I look very much forward to meeting you," he added. "In the meantime, I want to thank you for the release of the hostages who are now home with their families. That was a beautiful gesture and was very much appreciated."

Deal or no deal?

After speaking with the South Korean president amid threats from the rogue regime to cancel talks, Trump suggested the historic summit between him and Kim might not happen after all.

If it doesnt happen, maybe it will happen later. You never know about deals. Ive made a lot of deals, Trump said on May 22. You never really know. It may not work out for June 12.

Trump said he wants the Korean peninsula to be denuclearized in an all in one manner.

I can guarantee Kims safety. He will be safe. He will be happy, Trump said. His country will be rich.

Trump also said hes noticed a change in Kims attitude recently.

I cant say that Im happy about it, he added.

Save the date

Trump officially announced that he would meet with Kim in Singapore on June 12.

We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace! Trump said in a tweet.

The announcement came hours after Trump and the first lady welcomed the three Americans freed from detention in North Korea at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland early on May 10.

After Trump met with the three men, he publicly thanked Kim for releasing the prisoners.

Were starting off on a new footing, Trump said.

Positive gesture of goodwill

In announcing that a date and place has been set for his much-anticipated meeting with Kim, Trump also confirmed three American prisoners have been released.

The three Americans  Kim Dong Chul, Tony Kim and Kim Hak Song  are returning to the U.S. with newly-confirmed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Trump said in a tweet. The president confirmed the three men are also in good health.

WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE HISTORIC SUMMIT BETWEEN TRUMP, KIM JONG UN

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement that Trump appreciates Kim Jong Uns action to release these American citizens, and views this as a positive gesture of goodwill.

Another American detainee, Otto Warmbier, died in June 2017 after he was released back to the U.S. with severe brain damage.

Good relationship formed

Trump has confirmed that CIA Director Mike Pompeo  his pick to lead the State Department  secretly met with Kim in April and a good relationship was formed. He said the meeting went very smoothly.

The president also disclosed that the U.S. and North Korea have held direct talks at extremely high levels in preparation for the summit.

Kim will do what is right

After Kims first reported visit to China, Trump said there is a good chance that Kim Jong Un will do what is right for his people and for humanity.

For years and through many administrations, everyone said that peace and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula was not even a small possibility, Trump said in a March tweet, adding that he is looking forward to his upcoming meeting with the North Korean leader.

He also gave North Korea the benefit of the doubt earlier that month, saying he believes the country will abide by its pledge to suspend missile tests.

When Trump delivered a speech in Pennsylvania, the crowd booed the mention of Kim, but the president stopped them.

No, it's very positive ... no, after the meeting you may do that, but now we have to be very nice because let's see what happens, let's see what happens, Trump said.

Invitation accepted

Trump accepted an invitation from Kim to meet, the White House said. While a time and place has yet to be determined, the two leaders are expected to meet by June.

The invitation to convene was extended by Kim.

Kim Jong Un talked about denuclearization with the South Korean Representatives, not just a freeze. Also, no missile testing by North Korea during this period of time. Great progress being made but sanctions will remain until an agreement is reached, Trump said on social media. Meeting being planned!

The deal with North Korea is very much in the making and will be, if completed, a very good one for the World. Time and place to be determined, he later said.

Possible progress

As North Korea is reportedly willing to negotiate its nuclear weapons, Trump cautiously acknowledged possible progress.

For the first time in many years, a serious effort is being made by all parties concerned, Trump said on Twitter. The World is watching and waiting! May be false hope, but the U.S. is ready to go hard in either direction!

At a later White House news conference, Trump said he believed North Korea, which has a long history of deception and threats to target U.S. cities with nuclear missiles, is sincere.

We have come certainly a long way, at least rhetorically, with North Korea, Trump said. Of the possibility for peacefully resolving the nations deep differences, he said: Itd be a great thing for the world, would be great for North Korea, it would be a great thing for the peninsula.

But well see what happens, Trump said.

Spirit of the Olympics

At the conclusion of the 2018 Winter Olympics, North Korea sent the U.S. a message through South Korea, saying it has ample intentions of holding talks with America.

During a meeting with the nations governors at the White House in February, Trump said those talks will only occur under the right conditions.

The administrations position has been that North Korea must get rid of its nuclear and missile programs first before any talks can take place.

Relationship status: Its complicated

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Trump reportedly said he probably has a very good relationship with North Korea.

Trump also suggested that he is open to diplomacy with the country hes spent years criticizing, the newspaper reported.

I have relationships with people. I think you people are surprised, Trump said.

The Wall Street Journal released the audio and transcript of the interview after Trump denied making the comments.

'Success for the world'

Trump told South Korea that he would be open to talks with its northern neighbor under the right circumstances, the White House said.

Trump also took credit for the talks between North and South Korea ahead of next months Winter Olympics. At a January Cabinet meeting, Trump said it was his administrations pressure on North Korea that caused the rogue nation to negotiate with the South.

"Without our attitude that would have never happened," Trump said of the inter-Korean dialogue. "Who knows where it leads. Hopefully it will lead to success for the world  not just for our country but for the world, and we'll be seeing over the next number of weeks and months what happens."

Whose button is bigger?

After Kim warned Trump about North Koreas nuclear capabilities, Trump hit back on social media, arguing that his Nuclear Button is bigger [and] more powerful.

North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the 'Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times,' the president tweeted. 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!

Kim previously warned the U.S. should know that the button for nuclear war is on my table.

The entire area of the U.S. mainland is within our nuclear strike range, he said. The United States can never start a war against me and our country.

Good news or bad news?

Trump insinuated at the start of the new year that sanctions and additional pressures are having a big impact on North Korea.

Soldiers are dangerously fleeing to South Korea, Trump said. Kim now wants to talk to South Korea for the first time. Perhaps that is good news, perhaps not  we will see!

In his tweet, Trump was seemingly referring to the recent, dramatic escape of at least two North Korean soldiers across the heavily militarized border into the southern country He also alluded to Kims recent comments indicating he would send a delegation to the Winter Olympics to be hosted in South Korea.

Trump also took credit for the talks between North and South Korean leaders.

With all of the failed experts weighing in, does anybody really believe that talks and dialogue would be going on between North and South Korea right now if I wasnt firm, strong and willing to commit our total might against the North, Trump said in a Jan. 4 tweet. Fools, but talks are a good thing!

'Sick puppy'

While giving a speech on tax reform at a Missouri event in November, 2017, Trump digressed from the topic to call the North Korean leader a "sick puppy."

His comments drew hoots from the crowd.

State sponsor of terror

Trump re-designated North Korea a state sponsor of terror on Nov. 20, 2017, citing its support of international terrorism, including assassinations on foreign soil.

During a Cabinet meeting, Trump announced the designation came along with new sanctions on the murderous regime as part of the administrations maximum pressure campaign in dealing with North Korea. He said these sanctions will be the highest level of sanctions on the North.

North Korea was on the list but was taken off by the Bush administration in 2008.

Why can't we be friends?

In a series of tweets while in Vietnam, Trump said he doesn't know why the North Korean dictator would "insult" him.

Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me old, when I would NEVER call him short and fat? Trump said. Oh well, I try so hard to be his friend - and maybe someday that will happen!

The comment came after Kim referred to Trump's speech in South Korea as reckless remarks by an old lunatic.

'Dont try us'

In Asia, Trump issued a stern warning to North Korea, saying it would be a fatal miscalculation for the country to attack the U.S. or an ally.

This is a very different administration than the United States has had in the past. Do not underestimate us. And do not try us, Trump said during an address at South Koreas National Assembly.

North Korea has interpreted Americas past restraint as weakness, Trump said.

'Lets make a deal'

While on his Asia trip, Trump implored North Korea to come to the table for talks on its nuclear weapons program. Trumps request for North Korea to make a deal was in stark contrast to his previous hardline rhetoric when it comes to the rogue nation.

"It makes sense for North Korea to come to the table and make a deal that is good for the people of North Korea and for the world," Trump said during a news conference alongside South Korean president Moon Jae-in in November 2017.

Trump also said hes seen a lot of progress in dealing with North Korea but still called the country a worldwide threat.

In a joint news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo the day before, Trump repeated his assertion that the era of strategic patience with North Korea was finished.

Some people say my rhetoric is very strong but look what has happened with very weak rhetoric in the last 25 years, Trump said then.

'Rocket Man' is on a 'suicide mission'

After dubbing him Rocket Man in a tweet, Trump eventually tried out the new nickname for Kim during his inaugural address to the U.N. General Assembly.

During his speech, Trump vowed to totally destroy North Korea if the country so provokes him. He also said Kim was on a suicide mission.

No more talking

After North Korea said it successfully launched a missile over Japan, a U.S. ally, and into the Pacific Ocean, Trump initially had a subdued response.

"Threatening and destabilizing actions only increase the North Korean regime's isolation in the region and among all nations of the world," Trump said in a written statement after North Koreas missile soared almost 1,700 miles into the Pacific Ocean, triggering alert warnings in northern Japan and shudders throughout Northeast Asia. "All options are on the table."

The missile launch was said to be a precursor to North Koreas containment of the U.S. territory of Guam by Kim, according to state-run media.

But in a tweet, the president suggested the U.S. is finished talking to North Korea.

The U.S. has been talking to North Korea, and paying them extortion money, for 25 years. Talking is not the answer, Trump tweeted.

The U.S. is 'locked and loaded'

Trump took to social media in August 2017 to proclaim that the U.S. military is locked and loaded in case North Korea act[s] unwisely.

'Fire [and] fury' isn't 'tough enough'

With the threat of nuclear violence growing, Trump warned North Korea on Aug. 8, 2017 that he would unleash fire, fury and frankly power, the likes of which this world has never seen before.

But when tensions continued to rise and North Korea threatened to attack Guam, Trump said maybe that comment wasnt "tough enough."

"Lets see what [Kim] does with Guam. He does something in Guam, it will be an event the likes of which nobody has seen before  what will happen in North Korea," Trump said.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Trump was "sending a strong message to North Korea in language that Kim Jong Un can understand, because he doesnt seem to understand diplomatic language."

Kim Jong Un is 'not getting away with it'

Trump said Kim has disrespected our country greatly.

He has said things that are horrific. And with me, hes not getting away with it, Trump said. He got away with it for a long time, between him and his family. Hes not getting away with it. Its a whole new ball game.

'Strategic patience  is over'

After meeting with the South Korean president in Washington, D.C., in June 2017, Trump said that the era of strategic patience with the North Korean regime has failed.

Frankly, that patience is over, he said.

As Trump made these comments, the U.S. was rocked with the death of Otto Warmbier, the 22-year-old American college student who suffered extensive brain damage while being held captive in North Korea for more than a year.

There are 'worse things' than assassinating Kim Jong Un

In an interview with CBS News during the presidential campaign, Trump said he could get China to make [Kim Jong Un] disappear in one form or another very quickly.

When asked if he was talking about assassinating the North Korean dictator, Trump shrugged.

Well, you know, Ive heard of worse things, frankly. I mean, this guys a bad dude  and dont underestimate him, Trump said. Any young guy that can take over from his father with all those generals and everybody else that probably wants the position, this is not somebody to be underestimated.

'What the hell is wrong with speaking?'

Trump told supporters at a campaign rally in Atlanta that should Kim want to come to the U.S., he would be accept[ed].

I wouldnt go there, that I can tell you. If he came here, Id accept him, but I wouldnt give him a state dinner like we do for China and all these other people that rip us off when we give them these big state dinners, Trump said in June 2016.

What the hell is wrong with speaking? Trump said, referencing the criticism he received for being willing to talk with North Korea. Its called opening a dialogue.

'Maniac'

During a GOP presidential debate in September 2015, Trump railed on the maniac in North Korea while answering a question about Planned Parenthood and womens health issues.

Nobody ever mentions North Korea, where you have this maniac sitting there, and he actually has nuclear weapons and somebody better start thinking about North Korea and perhaps a couple of other places. But certainly North Korea, Trump said.

You have somebody right now in North Korea who has got nuclear weapons and who is saying almost every other week, Im ready to use them, and we dont even mention it, he continued.

China needs to solve the problem

Even before he was president, Trump urged China to step in and help alleviate problems with North Korea.

North Korea is reliant on China. China could solve this problem easily if they wanted to but they have no respect for our leaders, Trump tweeted in March 2013.

In April 2013, Trump continued that line of thinking, adding that North Korea cant survive, or even eat, without the help of China. He then accused China of taunting the U.S.

As president, Trump has said he is very disappointed in actions China has taken regarding North Korea, particularly allowing oil to go into the nation. He also said a Chinese envoy to North Korea had no impact on Kim.

Additionally, Trump has said hes spoken to Chinas President Xi Jinping regarding the provocative actions of North Korea as well as the planned meeting between Trump and Kim.

President Xi told me he appreciates that the U.S. is working to solve the problem diplomatically rather than going with the ominous alternative, Trump said in March 2018. China continues to be helpful!

'Wack job'

In April 2013, Trump urged then-President Barack Obama to be very careful with the 28-year-old wack job in North Korea.

At some point we may have to get very tough, he tweeted.

'Negotiate like crazy'

Trump warned that the U.S. needed to do something to stop North Korea in 1999 during an interview with the late Tim Russert on Meet the Press.

"Do you want to do it in five years when they have warheads all over the place, every one of them pointing to New York City, to Washington and every one of us, is that when you want to do it, or do you want to do something now? Trump said. You'd better do it now. And if they think you're serious  they'll negotiate and it'll never come to that.

He said then that if he ever became president, the first step he would take would be to negotiate like crazy to make sure that the country would get the best deal possible. Trump also predicted then that in three or four years, North Korea would have weapons aimed all over the world, including at the U.S.

Fox News' Adam Shaw and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
President Trump on Wednesday said his administration stands in solidarity with a California county pushing back against the states policies offering sanctuary to illegal immigrants.

Orange County has become the center of national attention after it announced a series of measures to push back against a controversial law that limits cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

On Tuesday the county's board of supervisors voted to join a lawsuit from the Department of Justice fighting policies that the administration says interfere with federal immigration policies. On Monday, the sheriff's department announced that it would be publishing the release dates of inmates as a way to improve cooperation with federal authorities.

ORANGE COUNTY VOTES TO FIGHT CALIFORNIA'S SANCTUARY CITY LAWS, JOINING SHERIFF'S PUSHBACK

On Wednesday, Trump announced that the administration stood in solidarity with what the county was doing.

My Administration stands in solidarity with the brave citizens in Orange County defending their rights against California's illegal and unconstitutional Sanctuary policies, he tweeted.

California's Sanctuary laws...release known dangerous criminals into communities across the State, he added. All citizens have the right to be protected by Federal law and strong borders.

Trumps tweet comes amid an escalating war of words with the blue state on the subject of illegal immigration. Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions blasted Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf for warning illegal immigrants in advance about an ICE raid last month. Authorities blamed Schaaf for hundreds of illegal immigrants evading capture.

California Democrats also reacted furiously this week to plans by the administration to include a question about citizenship in the 2020 census, a move that California lawmakers say could spook illegal immigrants from answering -- leading to blue states with high numbers of illegal immigrants being underfunded.

But Orange County, a rare Republican area amid a wave of blue, has been pushing back against the sanctuary law from within the state. Earlier this month Los Alamitos, a city within the county, also approved an ordinance to opt out of the law..

"This legislation prevents law enforcement from removing criminals from our community and is a threat to public safety," Supervisor Shawn Nelson said before the vote on Tuesday.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra called on the sheriff to follow the law and refused to rule out taking action against sheriffs.

"State law is state law. Its my job to enforce state law and I will do so. We want to make sure that every jurisdiction, including Orange County, understands what state law requires of the people and the subdivisions of the state of California," Becerra said at a news conference.

When asked if that meant an arrest or lawsuit against the sheriff, Becerra responded, "I think I just answered that.

Fox News Paulina Dedaj contributed to this report.


President Trump on Wednesday shared four photos of construction work along the U.S.-Mexico border, a day after reports surfaced that he'd suggested using military funds to pay for his long-promised border wall.

Trump tweeted that he had received a "Great briefing this afternoon on the start of our Southern Border WALL!" It was not immediately clear who else participated in the briefing.

Department of Homeland Security officials told Fox News the pictures Trump tweeted were taken as recently as March 15 in Calexico, Calif., some 120 miles east of San Diego. That same week, Trump traveled to San Diego to review border wall prototypes in San Diego.

According to the Border Patrol, crews in Calexico are working on replacing a 2.25-mile barrier with a "30-foot-high bollard-style wall."

"Wall in this area was built in the 1990s out of recycled scraps of metal and old landing mat," the statement said. "Although the existing wall has proven effective at deterring unlawful cross-border activity, smuggling organizations damaged and breached this outdated version of a border wall several hundred times during the last two years, resulting in costly repairs."

Over the weekend, Trump raised the possibility of using Pentagon funding on the wall after Congress passed a $1.3 trillion omnibus lspending package ast week.

"Building a great Border Wall, with drugs (poison) and enemy combatants pouring into our country, is all about National Defense," the president tweeted Sunday, adding, "Build WALL through M!"

The omnibus only directed $1.6 billion to the border wall, with a focus on repairs and additions to existing fencing. The president initially requested $18 billion in wall funding.

Fox News' Serafin Gomez contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump took to Twitter early Wednesday to defend the Second Amendment just a day after retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens called for its repeal.

Stevens, 97, wrote in an essay on the New York Times website that a repeal would weaken the National Rifle Associations ability to block constructive gun control legislation.

Trump, who has in the past appeared to change positions on tougher gun laws, took a firm stance in the tweet, and issued a warning if Republicans come up short at the polls.

THE SECOND AMENDMENT WILL NEVER BE REPEALED! he tweeted. As much as Democrats would like to see this happen, and despite the words yesterday of former Supreme Court Justice Stevens, NO WAY. We need more Republicans in 2018 and must ALWAYS hold the Supreme Court!

Repealing the amendment would be extremely difficult.

An amendment to the Constitution can be proposed only by Congress with a two-thirds vote in both houses, or by a constitutional convention called for by two-thirds of the state legislatures. The amendment then has to be approved by three-quarters of the states.

Stevens was on the losing end of a 2008 ruling in which the high court held that the Second Amendment gives individuals the right to own a gun for self-defense. He had previously called for changing the Second Amendment to permit gun control.

Stevens said the decision in that case, District of Columbia v. Heller, has provided the N.R.A. with a propaganda weapon of immense power. Stevens retired from the court in 2010, after more than 35 years.

In his essay published Tuesday, Stevens talked about the March for Our Lives events on Saturday that drew crowds in cities across the country. Stevens said the demonstrations reveal the broad public support for legislation to minimize the risk of mass killings of schoolchildren and others in our society.

He said the support is a clear sign to lawmakers to enact legislation prohibiting civilian ownership of semiautomatic weapons, increasing the minimum age to buy a gun from 18 to 21 years old, and establishing more comprehensive background checks on all purchasers of firearms.

But Stevens called on demonstrators to seek more effective and more lasting reform.

They should demand a repeal of the Second Amendment, he wrote.

Other demonstrators Saturday, in Phoenix and Salt Lake City, called for gun ownership rights to continue being protected by the Second Amendment.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The White House has denied a report claiming that a lawyer for President Trump raised the prospect of pardoning former advisers Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort as the FBI special counsel was building cases against them.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that John Dowd, who resigned last week, raised the subject with their respective lawyers last year because Trumps team was concerned about what they might reveal to FBI Special Counsel Robert Mueller as part of a deal.

Dowd, who announced his resignation last week, denied the claims to the Times: There were no discussions. Period.

I have only been asked about pardons by the press and have routinely responded on the record that no pardons are under discussion or under consideration at the White House, White House lawyer Ty Cobb said in a statement.

At the White House press briefing, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders responded to questions about the article by referring back to Cobbs statement.

The Times reported that it was not clear if Dowd had discussed the prospect of pardons with President Trump, but that Trump had asked about the extent of his pardoning power in a meeting last year with lawyers from the White House Counsels Office.

Flynn, a former national security adviser, pleaded guilty in December to lying to the FBI about contacts with the Russian ambassador and has agreed to work with the special counsel.

Manafort, a former Trump campaign chairman, has pleaded not guilty. His legal team filed a motion Tuesday to dismiss a second round of charges brought by Mueller, claiming that he exceeded the scope of the investigation into Russian meddling and potential collusion with Trump campaign associates during the 2016 presidential election.

Fox News Serafin Gomez and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
David Shulkin served as the 9th secretary of Veterans Affairs under President Trumps Cabinet, holding the position just over a year until Trump announced his replacement on March 28.

The 58-year-old, who reportedly became the first non-veteran to lead the department on Feb. 13, 2017, will be replaced by Adm. Ronny Jackson, who was previously serving as the White House physician, Trump announced in a tweet.

"I am thankful for Dr. David Shulkins service to our country and to our GREAT VETERANS!" Trump said after announcing his removal.

Shulkin, a doctor, businessman and, he added, a former volunteer fireman, told Fox News in an email on March 22 that it is a "privilege to represent the 20 million American veterans and to work every day to improve our ability to serve them."

"There isn't a day that goes by that I am not inspired by these men and women," he added. "I am honored to be carrying out the president's commitment to our country's heroes and to making a positive difference in their lives."

Read on for a look at three things to know about Shulkin.

He was a holdover from the Obama administration

In 2015, former President Barack Obama tapped Shulkin to be under secretary for health at the VA.

After he was confirmed by the Senate, he served in this role for 18 months, leading the nations largest integrated health care system, with over 1,700 sites of care serving nearly nine million Veterans, according to his official Veterans Affairs biography.

As secretary, Shulkin oversaw the entire $177-billion agency, according to the Military Times.

When he was serving as secretary, Shulkin said he wanted to give veterans greater choice in how and where they receive their care and services and modernize the VA system with contemporary facilities, systems and management practices, adding that reducing veteran suicide was [his] top clinical priority. (A 2016 study from the VA found that some 20 veterans in the U.S. commit suicide each day).

Shulkin said the VA works closely with community partners, such as the #bethere campaign, a suicide prevention and support program targeted at veterans. The VA is also working on expanding access to behavioral health services and the use of predictive analytics," he added.

Hes a doctor

Shulkin received his medical degree from the Medical College of Pennsylvania, according to his biography. He later became a medical intern at Yale University and then a resident at the University of Pittsburgh.

Before working in the Department of Veterans Affairs, Shulkin was chief medical officer of the University of Pennsylvania Health System, Temple University Hospital and also the Medical College of Pennsylvania Hospital, his biography states.

He was also president and CEO of New York's Beth Israel Medical Center from 2005 to 2009, according to ABC News.

Shulkin crossed medicine with business when he founded DoctorQuality, one of the first consumer-oriented sources of information on quality and safety in healthcare, according to his biography.

Additionally, Shulkins wife, Merle Bari, with whom he has two children, is a dermatologist in Philadelphia.

Shulkin said his experience running private sector organizations in the past helped him to bring a "new approach to government."

I've been a CEO of start-ups as well as large health systems and from each of these environments I have learned a great deal that I believe is transferable to improving the VA, he said. When seeking change, such as we are in VA, you are bound to encounter challenges and make mistakes. Most important is to learn from these experiences and not to repeat them -- that's how organizations get better and improve performance.

He comes from a military family

Shulkin may not be a veteran, but he does come from a military family.

He was born on a military base in Illinois and his father was an Army physiatrist, according to the Military Times. Both of his grandfathers served during World War I, one of whom was also the chief pharmacist at the VA in Madison, Wisconsin.

Hailing from a military family "has sensitized me to the psychological and medical needs of those who served our country, Shulkin said during his 2015 confirmation hearing, according to the Military Times.
A few days ago, accused Wasim Saeed, a resident of Pir Mahal city, raped a minor girl in his village.

Local news reports that the suspect's family had approached the victim's family for "pardon and reconciliation".

Both sides agreed to reconcile on the condition of a "revenge rape" of the suspected rapist's sister.

The two families met to sign off on the terms and the brother allegedly went on to have sex with the suspect's sister on March 21.

Per Mahal Police Sub-Inspector Shaukat Ali Javed learned about the deal when he saw the documents that agreed to the trade.

Police in Pakistan have arrested two families over a case of "revenge rape" in which parents are said to have consented to their daughter being sexually assaulted to atone for their son's alleged attack on a young woman.

All 12 people in attendance, including four women, of which one was the victim of the second rape, were arrested on Saturday. According to a police official, Naeem Yousuf, a boy was caught raping a 16-year old girl and the whole neighbourhood gathered, demanding that the boy be killed.
Defense Secretary James Jim Mattis is planning to retire in late February, President Trump announced on Dec. 20. The surprising announcement follows a handful of other high-profile departures in recent months.

"General Mattis was a great help to me in getting allies and other countries to pay their share of military obligations," Trump tweeted, adding that his replacement would "be named shortly."

In a resignation letter addressed to Trump, which was released by the Pentagon, Mattis touted his accomplishments over the past two years and discussed his views on establishing positive relationships with allies. He noted that it's clear China and Russia, for example, "want to shape a world consistent with their authoritarian model - gaining veto authority over other nations' economic, diplomatic, and security decisions to promote their own interests at the expense of their neighbors, America and our allies."

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"Because you have the right to have a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects," Mattis wrote, in part. "I believe it is right for me to step down from my position."

Mattis then pledged to make it a "smooth transition" and thanked Trump for the opportunity to serve his country.

In his position, Mattis, 67, has bucked with the administration in advocating for the U.S. to stay in the Iran nuclear deal and backed Trumps plan to restrict transgender individuals from serving in the military, according to the White House.

Mattis has a storied history serving in the U.S. Marines. Additionally, he served on the board of Theranos, an embattled health technology company. He assumed office as the nations defense secretary on January 20, 2017.

Here are five things to know about the defense secretary.

Mattis has served in the military since he was 18

Mattis served in the U.S. Marines for more than 40 years, beginning at the age of 18 when he joined the Marine Corps Reserve, according to his Defense Department biography.

Born in Richland, Washington, about 200 miles southeast of Seattle, Mattis graduated from Central Washington University in 1971 and became a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps after school, his biography said.

Hes served in Afghanistan and Iraq and led all U.S. Marine Forces in the Middle East as Commander, I Marine Expeditionary Force and U.S. Marine Forces Central Command, according to his biography. He was also in charge of the 1st Marine Division in the initial attack and subsequent stability operations in Iraq in 2003.

Additionally, Mattis served as NATOs Supreme Allied Commander from 2007 to 2009.

Obama appointed him to commander of U.S. Central Command

Mattis took over as the commander of the U.S. Central Command in 2010, according to an archived release from the Marines.

His insights into the nature of warfare in the 21st century significantly influenced my views about the shape and posture of our armed forces for a complex and unpredictable future, then-defense secretary Robert Gates said of Mattis at the time.

He was officially appointed to the position by former President Barack Obama to replace Gen. David Petraeus.

In the position, Mattis oversaw more than 200,000 service members, according to his Defense Department biography.

He retired from the Marine Corps in 2013.

Mattis needed a special waiver to lead DOD

Before he was confirmed by the Senate to lead the Defense Department, the retired general needed a special waiver.

According to the National Security Act of 1947, the secretary of defense needs to be appointed from civilian life. The law said the nominee must be out of active duty service for at least 10 years. However, Congress changed the law from 10 to seven years in 2008, NBC News reported.

The House and the Senate ultimately passed the waiver with several Democrats opposing.

Before the waiver was granted, Trump said, There are going to be a lot of angry people if it wasnt passed.

Only one senator voted against his confirmation

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., was the only senator to vote against Mattis confirmation. Jeff Sessions, then a Republican senator from Alabama, was the only member not to vote.

Gillibrand met with Mattis privately but ultimately decided to vote against a waiver that would allow him to lead the Defense Department.

He has served our country admirably, Gillibrand said, according to The Hill. He is well-regarded as an extraordinary general, and I am very grateful for that service, and Im very grateful that hes willing to continue his service for the president-elect. But I still believe that civilian control of our military is fundamental to the American democracy.

Mattis apparently isnt a fan of his iconic nickname

Known for his sometimes colorful rhetoric  called Mattisisms  the retired general has earned the nickname Mad Dog Mattis.

But during his Senate confirmation hearing, Mattis revealed that he might not be the biggest fan of the moniker.

Senator, I assure you that nickname was given to me by the press and some of you have experienced similar occasions with the press where they perhaps they didn't get it quite right, Mattis said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Experts have uncovered stunning evidence that parts of the Amazon long thought to have been almost uninhabited were once home to populations of up to a million people.

Archaeologists from the University of Exeter in the U.K. have found the remains of hundreds of villages in the vast rainforest. Intriguingly, the sites are away from major rivers, challenging the long-held theory that ancient Amazonian communities preferred to live near waterways.

The discovery fills a major gap in the Amazons history, according to the researchers. There is a common misconception that the Amazon is an untouched landscape, home to scattered, nomadic communities, explained Dr. Jonas Gregorio de Souza, a postdoctoral research fellow at the University, in a statement. This is not the case. We have found that some populations away from the major rivers are much larger than previously thought, and these people had an impact on the environment which we can still find today.

PHOTOGRAPHER CAPTURES INCREDIBLE IMAGES OF ISOLATED AMAZON TRIBE

De Souza is a member of the research team that found the remains of long-abandoned fortified villages and mysterious geoglyphs  man-made ditches with unusual square, circular or hexagonal shapes. University of Exeter researchers have spent years studying the strange markings. While the specific purpose of the earthworks is unknown, they may have been used in ceremonial rituals, according to researchers.

The discoveries were made in the state of Mato Grosso in western Brazil. By studying charcoal remains and excavated pottery, archaeologists found that a 695-square-mile stretch of Southern Amazonia was continuously occupied from 1250 to 1500 by the inhabitants of the enclosed villages.

Researchers estimate that where between 1,000 and 1,500 fortified villages, two-thirds of which are yet to be found.

STRANGE AMAZON MARKINGS BAFFLE EXPERTS

The new study, which was published in the journal Nature Communications, describes an estimated 1,300 geoglyphs across 154,441 square miles of Southern Amazonia. Some 81 geoglyphs were found in the area surveyed for the research, with villages often found near of even inside the geoglyphs. A network of causeways once linked the communities.

The population in the area surveyed was at least in the tens of thousands, and may have been as many as a million people, according to archaeologists.

Experts believe that the earthworks were probably constructed during seasonal droughts, enabling the forests to be cleared. Fertile soil was found in drier areas, they explain, allowing farmers to grow crops and fruit trees such as Brazil nuts.

MYSTERIOUS LOST MAYA CITIES DISCOVERED IN GUATEMALAN JUNGLE

Our research shows we need to reevaluate the history of the Amazon, said University of Exeter Professor Jose Iriarte, who is also a member of the research team, in the statement. It certainly wasnt an area populated only near the banks of large rivers, and the people who lived there did change the landscape.

The stunning Amazon discovery could also have modern-day implications. The Amazon is crucial to regulating the Earths climate, and knowing more about its history will help everyone make informed decisions about how it should be cared for in the future, said de Souza, in the statement.

Brazils Federal University of Para in Belem, National Institute for Space Research (INPE) and the Universidade do Estado de Mato Grosso all participated in the research, which was funded by National Geographic and the European Research Council.

'LOST CITY' REVEALED IN SOUTH AFRICA USING LASER TECHNOLOGY

There are other fascinating examples of how modern archaeology is shedding new light on ancient cultures. In a separate project, archaeologists harnessed remote surveying technology to reveal lost cities and thousands of ancient structures deep in the Guatemalan jungle, confirming that the Maya civilization was much larger than previously thought.

In Northern Iraq researchers used spy satellite imagery and drones to help identify the site of an ancient lost city. In South Africa archaeologists deployed sophisticated laser technology to locate the site of a city that was occupied until about 200 years ago.

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Scientists are set to scour the frozen wastes of Antarctica in an audacious attempt to uncover lost meteorites.

Experts from the University of Manchester are planning a bold mission to seek out space rocks on the icy continent. Meteorites, they explain, can shed light on the Solar Systems formation with iron meteorites, in particular, providing valuable information on the formation of planets.

Earth's southernmost continent could prove extremely fruitful for meteorite research. Of more-than-35,000 meteorites recorded in collections across the globe, around two-thirds have been recovered from Antarctica, according to the BBC.

METEOR CREDITED FOR BRIGHT LIGHT, NOISE RATTLING MICHIGAN

While dark-colored non-metallic meteorites are relatively easy to spot on the white expanse of Antarctic, researchers note that iron meteorite finds in Antarctica are significantly less than in other parts of the world. Experts think that the missing meteorites may be just a few centimeters below the surface of the ice. Warmed by the Sun, the iron-rich meteorites likely melt the ice around them, causing them to sink and become trapped in the ice.

Working with the British Antarctic Survey, scientists will use specialist metal detection technology to scan three sites in Antarctica. A preliminary visit to the continent will take place in 2019 with the main expedition likely to take place the following year.

We now have the opportunity to commence on a truly exciting scientific adventure, said Dr. Geoffrey Evatt, an applied mathematician at the University of Manchester and member of the research team, in a statement. If successful, our expeditions will help scientists to decode the origins of the Solar System and cement the UK as a leader in meteoritics and planetary science.

METEORITE HUNTERS FIND FIRST PIECES OF THE MICHIGAN FIREBALL

The BBC reports that the scientists technology recently underwent a successful trial on Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean.

Meteorites that land in Antarctica are gradually transported by ice movement toward the continents coast, according to the BBC. However, natural barriers such as mountains can prevent their ice-bound journey to the sea, potentially providing fruitful hunting grounds for scientists.

A research paper describing the expedition has been published in the journal Nature Communications.

ARIZONA METEORITE FETCHES RECORD-BREAKING $237,500 AT AUCTION

A meteoroid is a small chunk of asteroid or comet. When it enters Earth's atmosphere, it becomes a meteor or fireball or shooting star. The pieces of rock that hit the ground, valuable to collectors, are meteorites.

Earlier this year, a meteor made headlines when it flashed across the sky in Michigan. The blazing fireball sent meteorite hunters scrambling to find fragments of the rare space rock.

Depending on their size and material, meteorites can be lucrative finds. Because meteorites are so scarce, they are priced and sold by the gram, explains the Meteorlab website.

STUDY CONFIRMS KING TUT'S DAGGER WAS MADE WITH IRON FROM A METEORITE

Common iron meteorite prices are generally between 50 cents and $5 per gram, according to Meteorlab. Stone meteorites, however, are much scarcer and priced between $2 and $20 per gram. A type of stony-iron meteorite called a pallasite is of the greatest interest to private collectors, according to Geology.com.

Earlier this year a large 70-lb iron meteorite sold at auction for an incredible $237,500.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

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Embattled Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly going to testify in front of U.S. lawmakers regarding the Cambridge Analytica scandal, but so far has rebuffed similar calls from the other side of the Atlantic.

Now, U.K. lawmakers are turning up the heat on Zuckerberg, requesting he appear.

Damian Collins, M.P., Chair of Parliament's Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee (DCMS), has written a letter to the social networking giant requesting that Zuckerberg appear before lawmakers alongside Chris Cox, Facebook's chief product officer to discuss the scandal.

FACEBOOK THINKS IT KNOWS WHETHER YOU'RE LIBERAL OR CONSERVATIVE: HERE'S HOW TO FIND OUT

"We accept the offer of evidence from Chris Cox, Chief Product Officer," Collins wrote in the letter. "As Mark Zuckerberg's deputy we hope that Chris Cox has the sufficient authority and operational responsibility concretely to answer our questions."

Collins continued, requesting that Zuckerberg also appear. "Given the seriousness of these issues we still believe that Mark Zuckerberg himself is the right person to give evidence," he wrote.

The M.P. has asked for a response from Zuckerberg by April 9.

In a separate letter, Collins has asked suspended Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix to also appear before the committee.

Zuckerberg, who said in an interview with CNN that if he were the right person to testify he would be open to it, has so far refused to testify in front of British lawmakers regarding the data breach.

'SILICON VALLEY' TAKES A JAB AT FACEBOOK DURING SEASON 5 PREMIERE

According to a report in The Guardian, Collins said "it is absolutely astonishing that Mark Zuckerberg is not prepared to submit himself to questioning in front of a parliamentary or congressional hearing, given these are questions of fundamental importance and concern to his users, as well as to this inquiry."

So far, U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May has not backed Collins' request, saying that Mr. Zuckerberg will decide for himself whether he should testify in front of parliament.

The Guardian, along with several other U.S. newspapers including The New York Times recently published reports that Cambridge Analytica, which has ties to the 2016 Donald Trump presidential campaign, improperly accessed the data of 50 million Facebook accounts.

Cambridge Analytica, which has been suspended from using the social network, denies any wrongdoing.

Facebook has said it will explore forensic audits to investigate the data marketing company's claims.

Follow Chris Ciaccia on Twitter @Chris_Ciaccia
AirAsia is apologizing in a funny way after being called out for mishandling baggage.

Last week, CEO Riad Asmat issued a statement regarding a viral video that showed AirAsia staff poorly handling some bicycles that were coming down the ramp.

FOOD AND BEVERAGE ADS DURING SPORTS PROMOTE CHILDHOOD OBESITY, STUDY FINDS

"As a cyclist myself, I was pretty disturbed when I saw the actions of our staff. Rest assured, we've taken action. We are looking into the matter very seriously and stern action will be taken accordingly, Asmat said in a video.

But some airline staffers decided to take the apology one step further by assuring customers they truly care about their luggage. AirAsia employee Mohd Amir Izzat posted several photos to Facebook of workers kissing suitcases and other parcels being transported by the company.

DEAR BAG, DOESN'T MATTER HOW WEIGHT IS THE BAG WAS, WE WILL HANDLE WITH KISS AND CARE......LOVE YOU BAG. We all apologies from all our mistake before. Stay tuned with Airasia. #KISSTHEBAG, the post read.

The post, shared March 25, had received over 9,000 shares and 2,000 comments as of Wednesday evening.

Based on the comments, many people didnt find the stunt funny and some said their luggage still ended up damaged.

So sarcastic. No need to kiss the bag just handle it like a human being and not in an animalistic way. However, they only kiss the bag while posing taking pictures only. Right after that they will be back to their normal old ways, one person wrote.

No need to kiss. Just handle them with care! another commented.

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Is this how you called Handle with Care??? It's happened last night... someone else added, along with a photo of a cracked red suitcase. Though someone else joked it happened because they kiss and hug too hard.

As a gesture of goodwill to the original baggage mishandling, the airline is waiving all baggage fees for bicycles for the month of April, according to The Star Online.
A Texas family claims Southwest Airlines served peanuts on their flight, causing a severe reaction in their 9-year-old child, despite warning the airline of his life-threatening allergy in advance.

Chelsia and Derrick Calvert were flying with their oldest son Christian from Atlanta back to their home in Houston Tuesday morning when the incident occurred, according to CPRC Click2Houston.

WHAT TO DO IF YOU LOSE YOUR ID RIGHT BEFORE A FLIGHT

They say they notified the airline of Christians class 6 allergy (the most severe) to peanuts before their flight, both when they made the reservation and at the ticket counter before the flight.

We checked in and made sure they knew about the peanut allergy, said Chelsia told CPRC. It was also on his original ticket.

But once they were on the flight, Chelsia said, things took a turn for the worse.

She [an attendant] handed me some peanuts and that's when, as a mom, I just basically broke down  'what do you mean?' Calvert said. How many have been handed out?

The presence of peanuts was potentially life threatening to Christian, so his mom had to administer his EpiPen.

And so with his throat closing up, we're making decisions like, 'OK, we have to do this because this is life or death,' Chelsia said.

Christians dad, Derrick, said they still had about 45 minutes to go before the plane landed and they werent sure what was going to happen.

Christian ended up being OK and his parents are relieved, though they want answers from the airline, CPRC reports.

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Southwest states on its website that: Southwest Airlines is unable to guarantee a peanut-free or allergen-free flight. We have procedures in place to assist our Customers with severe allergies to peanut dust and will make every attempt not to serve packaged peanuts on the aircraft when our Customers alert us of their allergy to peanut dust.

A spokesperson for Southwest said they have "followed up with the appropriate Southwest teams in regards to the Calvert familys experience on our flight yesterday. We have communicated our sincere apologies, and our Customer Relations Department will continue to work directly with Ms. Calvert."
Like sunburn and nonstop binge-drinking, staying in a seedy high-rise hotel is apparently a quintessential element of the spring break experience.

However, American collegians are putting themselves in danger of death or permanent injury when they take their merrymaking antics to hotel balconies, a recent investigation uncovered.

Inside Edition visited South Padre Island, Texas, in mid-March  the heat of spring break bedlam  and spotted countless daredevils leaping off their balconies into hotel pools below.

While female students told reporters that they stayed safe on the trip  by not taking drinks from other guys and ensuring group members stay together  most disregarded the fact that students are tragically killed or injured year after year from falling off the enclosed platforms.

COCAINE BABE TELLS COURT SHE SMUGGLED DRUGS FOR LIKES AND ATTENTION ON INSTAGRAM

In 2017, two spring breakers died in Myrtle Beach, S.C. after falling off their 18th-floor hotel balcony. In 2015, a 21-year-old woman slipped from her perch on a South Padre Island 7th-floor balcony and passed away. In 2014, a 62-year-old man chaperoning a spring break trip fell to his death from a 12th-floor balcony in Panama City Beach, Fla. And in 2010, two young men fell to their death from balconies in Panama City Beach, ABC News reported.

Alcohol was involved in nearly all seven fatalities.

Most recently, on March 16 of this year, Fox 4 Now reported that a thief jumped off a balcony at a Fort Myers Lani Kai Hotel after stealing from a room, and staffers say it's something they've never seen before.

People seem to think they are Spiderman," said marketing director Melissa Schneider. We have very good security detail to make sure that they are keeping everybody, you know, as safe as possible.

WORLD'S NEW LARGEST CRUISE SHIP SETS SAIL

An estimated four million college students invade Floridas perennial spring break hot-spot 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.

Thousands of people  many of them in full-on party mode  descending upon new and often unfamiliar cities can be a recipe for accidental injuries, Florida-based firm Thomas & Pearl, Injury Lawyers said in a recent interview.

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Meanwhile, back in South Padre Island, students assured Inside Edition that they would be just fine having fun in the sun on their balconies.

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,' one partier said.
Two pedestrians were injured Tuesday evening at the drop-off curb outside Oakland International Airport after two vehicles crashed.

One woman suffered a head injury, Sgt. Ray Kelly of the Alameda County Sheriffs Office told the Bay Area's Fox 2. Initial reports said three people were injured, but authorities corrected the number to two, the station reported.

Authorities have arrested a 54-year-old man for being an unlicensed driver, KRON 4 reported.

According to Kelly, the accident occurred just after 6 p.m. and appears to have been accidental.

Police posted a photo on social media of a red SUV partitioned with caution tape outside Terminal 1. Kelly said the pedestrians injuries were mild to moderate.

No flights were canceled, but authorities closed off Terminal 1 and 2 and diverted vehicular traffic, which caused some delays, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

But the closures were causing traffic backups and some delays at the airport, which remained open. Traffic was being diverted at Ron Cowan Parkway.

A spokeswoman for Oakland International said the scene was expected to be cleared by Tuesday evening.

There were no further details on how the crash occurred.
A local Planned Parenthood office in Pennsylvania had some advice for the creators at Disney Tuesday after tweeting about the need for princesses who have had an abortion or are trans.

The tweet from Planned Parenthood Keystone, which was viewed by Fox News but has since been deleted, said, We need a disney princess whos had an abortion. We need a disney princess whos pro-choice. We need a disney princess whos an undocumented immigrant. We need a disney princess whos actually a union worker. We need a disney princess whos trans.

The tweet was posted around 9:30 a.m. and taken down a few hours later.

Social media users later shared captured screenshots of the post.

In a statement provided to Fox News, Planned Parenthood Keystone President and CEO Melissa Reed said "Planned Parenthood believes that pop culture - television shows, music, movies - has a critical role to play in educating the public and sparking meaningful conversations around sexual and reproductive health issues and policies, including abortion. We also know that emotionally authentic portrayals of these experiences are still extremely rare - and that's part of a much bigger lack of honest depictions of certain people's lives and communities.

"Today, we joined an ongoing Twitter conversation about the kinds of princesses people want to see in an attempt to make a point about the importance of telling stories that challenge stigma and championing stories that too often don't get told," Reed said. "Upon reflection, we decided that the seriousness of the point we were trying to make was not appropriate for the subject matter or contect, and we removed the tweet."

The tweet quickly sparked a social media backlash.

"We need a disney princess who can stop my money from going to planned parenthood where they spend it on killing future princesses," one user wrote. Another deemed the tweet "disgusting" and an attempt to "indoctrinate our kids."

The decision not to defund Planned Parenthood was amongst the criticisms leveled against the $1.3 trillion spending bill President Trump signed last week.
A Polish man living in Massachusetts will be deported once he serves up to 10 years in prison after he beat a dog so badly that officials were forced to euthanize it.

Radoslaw Czerkawski, 37, was sentenced to 8 to 10 years in prison Tuesday after he was convicted of animal cruelty.

He's in the United States illegally, the Boston Herald reported.

The dog, nicknamed Puppy Doe after it was found abandoned, was purchased by Czerkawski on Craigslist in 2013.

WARNING: PHOTO BELOW MAY BE DISTURBING

Kiya, as the dog was named by her previous owners, was found badly beaten in a park with fractures to her skull and ribs, crushing injuries to her spine, a dislocated shoulder, a stab wound to the right eye and a split tongue.

The dog was put down a month later because of her injuries.

Czerkawskis lawyer acknowledged his client owned the dog, but said it ran away and someone else was responsible for the abuse.

The Polish native, who already is in prison on two unrelated larceny charges, also will be deported once he completes his sentences, immigration officials have said. They already have lodged a detainer for him upon his release.

Czerkawski also was sentenced to two years probation after his release but Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey said the probation would not delay his deportation.

Czerkawski also is barred from owning or coming into contact with any animals, including volunteering at animal shelters, although it remains unclear if this will follow him back to Poland.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 28) -- Actress and host KC Concepcion shared her inspiration for her jewelry line on CNN Philippines' New Day on Wednesday.

"I've always been a lover of jewelry. I grew up with women in my family who love jewelry," she said.

KC attributed her love for jewelry to her grandmother.

"My first collection is the Rose collection -- it really just began as something that I did personally so I would design some pieces for myself and I would always just use my grandmother's loose stones," she said.

The actress said her grandmother always supported her.

"She would always ask me to design for her and also things that I would wear because she hated it pag wala akong hikaw [she hated if I did not wear earrings]. She would always just encourage me to design something draw something and she would make it with her alahera (jewelry maker)," she added.

The line "Avec Moi by Kristina" featured its first collection with 26 pieces of jewelry designed by KC, all of which had been sold out since it was launched on March 20.

KC said the pieces were purchased through private orders, while some were made-to-order. More than 20 orders were received especially from North America.

"The success of the first collection was so dreamy," KC said.

Her decision to start her venture was not only out of love for jewelry but was also anchored in her interest in business.

"I also grew up around plateros (goldsmith), around designers, around gemologists, and people who appreciate jewelry and I think doing a venture was but natural for me to do. It was something I knew already something about. It was very close to my heart," she said.

KC said she had to find a deeper reason for her to start a jewelry line.

"Getting into business was very intimidating for me but I knew that if I got into business seriously I knew that it had to be something that I really connected with," she added.

"Avec Moi" means "With me" in French.

"As you go through life there are so many milestones and so many stories that happen when you wear these pieces and when you pass them on it's something that you know will stay with that piece forever," KC added.

The next collection of "Avec Moi by Kristina" will be unveiled in June.

Meanwhile, KC will be auctioning off the last two pieces from the first collection through her Instagram account on Easter Sunday. The highest bidder will be announced on April 7, which is also KC's birthday.
In the wake of last months mass shooting at a Florida high school, at least 10 states across America have provisions in place giving teachers the option of carrying guns in schools, but Kansas may be taking their plans further than most other laws in place or under consideration.

Kansas schools that refuse to allow teachers to carry guns could be held legally responsible in the event of a school tragedy under a proposal drafted recently.

Gun rights advocates argue a teacher with a gun is not only a deterrent to a school shooter, but also the first line of defense in protecting students.

Rep. Blake Carpenter, a conservative Derby Republican who helped write the legislation that holds schools liable, said he is confident armed and trained teachers will save lives. Police could be minutes away, and in smaller districts where modest funding means school-resource officers arent hired, the bill would allow for next best thing, he told the House Insurance Committee in Kansas.

It is not, if our kids will be killed. It is, when will they be killed and what are we doing to prevent it? Carpenter said.

Kansas legislators started working on school safety legislation a week after a Valentines Day shooting in Parkland, Florida, left 17 students and staff dead.

There are about 10 states that allow concealed carry weapons on school campuses, such as Utah, as Fox News previously reported; and while the majority of states have laws prohibiting anyone from carrying a gun on school property, there are a select few, like Ohio and Missouri, where school districts can supersede state law and permit their staff to carry guns.

Opponents of the measure, which got its first hearing Tuesday in front of the House Insurance Committee, expressed concern it could effectively mandate arming teachers rather than allowing it, as several states have done.

It would certainly open the door for that conversation, said Democratic Rep. Brett Parker, an Overland Park school teacher. The further we go down this rabbit hole, the more chance there is for even more obnoxious legislation moving forward.

Even if that provision is stripped, as some advocates suggested during the hearing, the bill would prohibit insurers from denying coverage to a school because it lets its teachers or staff members carry weapons.

Parker said he has received 284 pieces of written testimony opposing the bill, much of it from teachers unhappy with the prospect of being armed and working alongside others who may or may not be.

Were inventing new ways, it seems, to drive people out of the teaching profession in Kansas, Parker said.

The proposal is separate from one embraced by Republican leaders in the House that focuses on improving school infrastructure instead of arming staff. That measure, which appears to have broader support, won first-round approval on Tuesday.

Gun control advocates say the portion that presumes negligence against school districts is highly unusual and seems to match closely with concealed carry laws typically applied to businesses in some states, and not schools.

Kansas law has allowed teachers to carry concealed guns since 2013 but school districts across the state have disallowed the practice after EMC Insurance Companies, the states primary school insurer, refused to provide coverage to schools with armed staff.

Kansas Association of School Boards lobbyist Mark Tallman opposed the bill. He said insurance providers could still choose to deny coverage, yet schools would have no choice but to allow staff to arm themselves regardless. Even if an insurer is willing to provide under such circumstances, Tallman said, the rates would become very expensive.

Carpenter said for an insurance company to increase rates or to outright refuse to provide coverage to a school, it would have to prove that having an armed staff creates a higher risk environment.

According to the State Department of Education, the 286 local school districts expect to spend $23.7 million on insurance in the current school year, not including health insurance. No testimony provided during the hearing predicted what that expense would become if the legislation passes.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A Texas man who was on death row for the murder of a pregnant Lubbock woman was executed on Tuesday.

Rosendo Rodriguez III, dubbed the "Suitcase Killer," was sentenced to death in the 2005 slaying of 29-year-old Summer Baldwin, a pregnant prostitute whose naked and battered body was found inside of a new suitcase in a Lubbock city landfill.

Investigators tracked down the luggage purchase to Rodriguez, a 38-year-old Marine reservist who was in Lubbock for training.

He also confessed to killing a 16-year-old girl, also from Lubbock, and similarly dumped her body in a suitcase.

Rodriguez's lawyers on Tuesday made a last-minute appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the execution, wherein they questioned the credibility of a medical examiner who testified at Rodriguez's trial about the fatal injuries suffered by Baldwin.

The Supreme Court rejected the appeal less than 30 minutes before his scheduled death.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The tragic deaths of a Wisconsin dairy farmer and his 14-year-old son last week in grain silo avalanche sent a familiar chill through America's agriculture community, whose members know too well the grim dangers of of life on the family farm.

While entanglements with machines or falls are generally seen as the most frequent cause of injury or death on farms, grain silo avalanches  whether inside the silo itself or from a structural collapse  happen almost on a daily basis, experts say.

The accident in Wisconsin over the weekend is just another wakeup call that there are inherent dangers in production agriculture, Keith Bolsen, a former professor of animal sciences and industry at Kansas State University and the founder of the Keith Bolsen Silage Safety Foundation, told Fox News. Silage and farming can be very dangerous.

The deaths of 51-year-old Daniel Briel and his teenage son David, on Saturday are an example of the most common type of accident to occur on farms with grain silos. The two, along with Briels other son, 15-year-old Caleb, were working to clear off a buildup of silage  the dense, highly moist fodder used to fed animals - on the walls inside of the silo when an internal collapse occurred and buried Daniel and David. Caleb, who was also inside, was able to escape.

Bolsen noted that silage comprises 60 to 70 percent moisture, and a cubic yard of the animal feed can weigh up to half a ton or more. During the winter, silage will freeze on the inner walls of a silo and needs to be cleaned off by hand.

Weve seen numerous fatalities because of these collapses, Bolsen said. And there are even more near misses that occur practically every day.

A study from Purdue University found that there were 29 grain entrapment cases reported in 2016  a 21 percent increase from the previous year  with 11 of the cases proving fatal. In 2018, there have already been numerous reports of grain silo collapses, including one in Ohio that dumped 200 semi-truck-size loads of grain over a local road.

The farming industry in recent years has moved away from the towering structures toward storage in bunkers and large piles. Even so, experts say, these more current practices pose risks of large chunks of the silage caving in and burying farmers  and in some cases even large farm equipment  under numerous tons of feed.

I parked the front of my pickup about 12 feet back from the face of a bunker silo that was about 14 feet high, cattle rancher Richard Porter told researchers last year. While I was standing about 30 yards away talking to an employee, the silage collapsed. It hit the hood of my truck hard enough that one could easily see the outline of the air cleaner.

Along with the avalanches, grain silos have been known to collapse and explode  causing massive fireballs as gases locked up in the silos are released. While Bolsen and other experts say these types of events are uncommon and usually occur because of faulty silo construction or metal fatigue, they are impressive to watch.

Indeed, a video of the moment a silo filled with corn toppled over and caused a flaming explosion in 2017 racked up millions of views on Facebook.

Experts say that while silo collapses and other accidents will always be a factor on farms, there are steps that can be taken to mitigate the risks.

Bolsen notes that the No. 1 way to save lives while working inside a silo is to not work alone -- and have somebody watching out for avalanches.

Follow the buddy rule, he said. It has saved countless lives.

Other rules to follow include avoiding letting the silage build up too high, and rejecting complacency. Bolsen said that while it is too early to pass judgment on last weekends tragedy, it is easy to become complacent when youre working long hours and have been doing a particular job for years.

When we get tired, we make mistakes, he said. But you can do something every day and it only takes a split second for disaster to strike.
Dozens of guns have vanished from a vault in a former California city hall building and now federal officials are offering a $10,000 reward for information on the arsenals whereabouts.

Officials from the ATFs Los Angeles division announced the reward Tuesday and said 23 Beretta and eight Glock .40-caliber pistols were taken from the old Compton City Hall building on 600 N. Alameda St. between March and August last year, according to the Los Angeles Times.

"There were several people at the time who were working who had the combination. I had access to the combination, Compton City Manager Cecil Rhambo told KABC in February, when initial reports emerged of the guns disappearance. But over the years I have no idea the number, over 17 years, who still had access to that combination.

The city of Compton began storing around 200 guns in the vault in 2000 after its police department was disbanded and its responsibilities taken over by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, the LA Times reported.

All the now-stolen guns had remained in the vault -- which had heavy metal doors and a combination lock -- until last year. The sheriffs department counted them during an inventory check in March 2017, but when they returned in August to move the guns to another location, they were missing.

"There were some police department weapons. There were some weapons with no owner on file, some weapons registered to other people, some evidence weapons there," Rhambo, a former assistant Los Angeles County sheriff, told KABC.

The station reported no cameras were operating in the building at the time of the guns disappearance, and Daryl Thomas, the resident agent in charge at the ATFs Long Beach office, told the LA Times that there was no sign of damage to the vault.
Burning bits of "dinosaur" debris fell through thick clouds of smoke and flames spewed from the mouth of a giant animatronic Tyrannosaurus Rex last week when an electrical problem caused a fire at a dinosaur exhibit in Colorado.

The fire engulfed the life-size dinosaur Thursday at the Royal Gorge Dinosaur Experience, leaving nothing behind but part of its tail and the structure itself, according to FOX31 Denver.

No one was injured in the fire.

We always knew T-Rex had a temper but, today he blew his top, Zach Reynolds, the exhibits president, told Fox 31 Denver in a statement. There was an unfortunate [and rare] electrical issue with our mighty T-Rex and he is no longer. You might even say extinct.

The robot was part of a 16-dinosaur walking trail, according to CBS Denver.

Reynolds said most of the park will still be open for business and he said he hopes another T-Rex will be ready for summer.
Uber reportedly tested its experimental autonomous vehicles in Arizona with the blessing of Gov. Doug Ducey -- and without telling residents -- months before the self-driving car program was officially announced and nearly two years before a woman was struck and killed by an autonomous vehicle in the state.

Emails obtained by The Guardian show Ducey cozying up with the ride-hailing service and allowing the company to test its driverless vehicles in the state months before he made the details public.

Its unclear if tougher state regulations on autonomous vehicles would have prevented the recent fatal crash, but in the wake of the accident, Ducey has been accused of failing to enforce stricter safety rules and not informing the public of when the self-driving vehicles hit the road.

UBER SUSPENDED FROM TESTING SELF-DRIVING CARS IN ARIZONA

The relationship between Ducey and Uber appeared to have begun shortly after the governor was sworn into office in 2014, according to The Guardian. Uber reportedly began to entice Ducey into becoming a more Uber-friendly state, despite his predecessor, Gov. Jan Brewer, vetoing legislation that could have exempted companies such as Uber from certain insurance regulations.

Months after a January 2015 meeting with Uber senior vice president David Plouffe, Ducey signed a bill legalizing ride sharing in Arizona. Officials from Uber and Lyft were in attendance and Ducey was even offered an Uber shirt to wear during the ceremony, according to The Guardian.

Uber would open its Phoenix office in June 2015 and two months later Ducey signed an executive order allowing for the public testing and operation of autonomous cars as long as human drivers were inside the vehicles in case of an emergency, according to The Guardian.

After Uber announced its plan to launch autonomous cars in Pittsburgh, an August 2016 email from the company to Duceys office reportedly showed the service offering to launch the driverless vehicles in Arizona.

UBER DISABLED SAFETY COMPONENT IN SELF-DRIVING CAR BEFORE FATAL CRASH, COMPANY ALLEGES

Danny Seiden, the governors deputy chief of staff, received an email from Uber notifying him that the driverless cars would launch that upcoming weekend and the company wanted to give Phoenix police a discreet heads up on the program, The Guardian reported.

Ducey welcomed the autonomous vehicles into the state officially in December 2016 after California refused the vehicles on its roads due to Ubers lack of testing permits. However, the governor didnt mention that it had allowed Uber to test the driverless cars in August of that year, according to The Guardian.

Last weeks fatal crash brought things to a standstill. Police and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the incident.

Ducey suspended Uber from testing the vehicles in the state Monday following the crash.

Around the time of the crash, about half of Ubers 200 autonomous vehicles were in Arizona. However, 17 days before the crash, Ducey signed an executive order allowing fully driverless vehicles on Arizonas roads, as long as companies claim that their vehicles comply with federal safety standards.

It was not immediately clear how much Arizona made by allowing Uber to test its autonomous vehicles on state roads.

Duceys spokesman, Patrick Ptak told Fox News in a statement, Allegations that any company has 'secretly' tested self-driving cars in Arizona is 100 percent false.

From the beginning, Arizona has been very public about the testing and operation of self-driving cars -- it has been anything but a secret. The Governor's Executive Order allowing for the operation and testing of driverless calls was signed a year prior to this email being sent. Additionally, it was well known that companies were operating self driving cars, Ptak said.

Ptak also said the office did comment on The Guardian's article and the story has been updated since publication.
Some officers in the Tempe Police Department are now able to drive around with AR-15 rifles mounted behind them, local authorities said.

At least eight of the departments motorcycles now have a mount on the backs where officers can place the rifle. Tempe Police Sgt. Ronald Elcock told KNXV that the department tested the mounts for a few months before deciding to implement them.

The reasoning, he said, is to equip the officers with something more powerful than a handgun, as motorcycle officers are typically the first to arrive at a crime scene.

"We dont want to go into those situations where we arent able to keep the public safe, Elcock said, adding that theres a special locking mechanism to keep the rifles locked onto the motorcycles. Fox 4 also reported that the gun barrels are pointed toward the ground when theyre on the mount.

Elcock, who said that officers in Tempe who drive regular patrol cars have been equipped with such rifles for years, acknowledged that some people may be scared to see it."

However, when we explain to them the reason why we have it I think it puts them a little bit more at ease, he said.

Elcock did not immediately return Fox News request for comment.
A Colorado womans house was ransacked last week after throngs of people were reportedly led to believe it was the site of an estate sale.

Mary Andrews told the Daily Camera she left her Longmont home unlocked Friday and, when she returned, she found people walking out with things from inside.

There were cards everywhere, and there were people coming out of my house with armloads of stuff, she said. I thought, What is going on?

Police said it was a very, very bad misunderstanding.

As it turns out, an estate sale was happening just a few doors down from Andrews home. Someone apparently got into her home and started spreading a rumor that a sale was also going on there  and everything was free.

Adding to the confusion, Andrews yard still had items in it from a recent tag sale she had.

They really did think this was an estate sale, she told the newspaper. They all argued with me, and very few people would just put anything back.

Andrews said everything from picture frames to jewelry to utensils were swiped from the home she shares with her two grandsons. She said someone even took the toilet paper and toilet paper holder from the bathroom.

They just ransacked the house so fast that it had to be because they knew it was not free, she said. They knew what they were doing. They had to have.

She added: "Just everything they could put their hands on. At least they didn't take the dogs or cats."

Andrew said the family is still trying to figure out exactly what was taken and hopes people will return some of the items.

"Every time I turn around, I notice something missing," she said. "I turn around to turn on a lamp and the lamp is gone. It's devastating."

Longmont police told the Daily Camera that the case has been closed because there are no suspects.
At least one person has died and others remain in life-threatening condition after a driver plowed his car into a group of five people on Wednesday in San Francisco, California, police said.

The San Francisco Police Department told reporters that a driver got into an altercation with five people just after 10 a.m., and struck them with his vehicle before fleeing the scene.

A person involved in the incident was arrested later Wednesday, according to Fox 2 KTVU.

Two of the victims are in serious condition, one is in critical condition and a fourth was in fair condition.

Officials said the incident appeared to be isolated and added they don't believe the public is at risk. Sources told the San Francisco Chronicle that those who were injured or killed in the incident were attempting to steal the driver's vehicle.

The incident occurred in an industrial neighborhood along the waterfront, a few miles from the city's financial district.

Fox News' Kathleen Joyce and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A Georgia elementary school teacher was charged last week with the murder of two children in a 2016 gang-related attack.

Michael DeSean White, 26, who works at Toney Elementary School in DeKalb County, was arrested Friday and charged with the killing of 11-year-old Tatiyana Coates and 15-year-old Daveon Coates.

Clayton County police Maj. Tina Daniel told WSB-TV a police sketch of a man seen at the murder scene drawn by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation helped authorities make a case against White.

It is still an open and pending investigation at this time, Daniel said, adding at least one other person also has been arrested.

Authorities believe gang members invaded the childrens home in search for another teen who wasnt there.

Daniel said the agency recovered a gun from a shootout in Tennessee the next day.

At this time, we do believe the gun in Chattanooga was involved, somehow related in the incident, she said. We are still awaiting the final ballistics information.

School district officials told WSB-TV that White had been removed from the elementary school pending the investigation. He taught fifth grade at the school since August and began with the district as a paraprofessional in March 2017.

It kicks you in the gut that someone whos responsible for our children on a daily basis could possibly be involved with a heinous crime like this, Daniel said.
Editors note: Godofredo Ramizo Jr. is a doctoral candidate at the Oxford Internet Institute (OII), University of Oxford. His dissertation is on the socio-political impact of ride-hailing apps in Southeast Asian megacities. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his.

Manila (CNN Philippines Life)  To shore up Ubers precarious global financial situation, it has sold its Southeast Asian operations to its rival ride-sharing app Grab, while earning a 27.5 percent stake in the company.

What does this mean to the commuters who rely on ride-hailing apps amid Southeast Asia? Where cities are beset with gridlock, dilapidated vehicles, grueling commutes, and crowded mass transport systems.

As an academic researcher from the University of Oxford working on ride-hailing apps in megacities such as Manila and Jakarta, I have been investigating the impact of ride-hailing apps on commuters from all walks of life, app users who described inter-city travel with warlike metaphors  bakbakan, giyera, labanan.

How can the acquisition affect everyone?

Ride-sharing app users from various backgrounds enjoy benefits from ride apps that they do not always get from conventional public transport. These benefits include increased convenience and comfort from point-to-point transport, better safety, and time savings, among others.

Due to the importance of ride-hailing apps to many people, it is all the more crucial to reflect on the implications of the acquisition. Based on emerging data from my ongoing research, it is reasonable to offer the following points:

Inevitable but advantageous?

The acquisition is said to have happened because Ubers parent company is losing money due to unprofitable operations in Southeast Asian cities where it faces competition from Grab, and GoJek (in Indonesia). To stay competitive, Uber was forced to lower fares, and thereby operate to unsustainable levels.

If Uber was going to collapse anyway due to profit loss, it is better that it be bought by Grab so that its technologies and driver base can be absorbed by Grab, and reconfigured to serve commuters.

This is much better than seeing Uber collapse and just withdraw from the market completely, without selling to Grab (although the economics involved make it unlikely for Uber to exit without selling off to Grab).

Other upsides are worth thinking about. If Ubers unsustainable business model meant it was going to exit anyway, then it is better that it happened sooner rather than later due to two reasons.

First, it allows the winning company (Grab), commuters, and government to deal with the new reality and develop new solutions sooner rather than later.

The second reason revolves around the financial situation of the winner, which may shape how it will use (or abuse) its newfound market power.

In face-offs where competing companies are willing to incur losses just to win market share, and when one company finally surrenders, the winners victory could come at a huge cost. The bigger the size of the winners losses at the point of victory, the more reasons it has to exploit the captive market and recover its losses.

If Uber surrendered much later, it is possible that Grab would have much bigger losses by then, thereby creating more pressure from Grab shareholders to exploit this newfound market power. Compared to that alternative scenario, Grab has less incentives now to exploit its dominant status in Manila.

Ironically, whereas government regulation on ride-hailing apps was not warmly received by the public before, the presence of a monopoly means it is now government regulation which can protect commuter interests.

The impact on commuter leverage

App users benefit from having multiple ride-hailing apps because it gives them options. In turn, the presence of options gives commuters leverage when dealing with other ride-hailinh apps, and with public transport. But now it looks like this leverage will be gone.

What will happen to destination-masking?

In Uber, drivers do not see the rider's destination, a feature we can call destination-masking. Uber riders benefit from this feature because Uber drivers find it harder to cherry-pick passengers based on their destination  a problem we often encounter with regular taxis.

In contrast, Grab drivers know the destination at the onset. Due to the acquisition, it is unclear whether destination-masking will be included in Grab's menu of services.

At the same time, Grab might find it difficult to include destination-masking in their services because this feature undercuts their established drivers who are used to seeing the rider destination before accepting a booking.

In other words, why will users book a normal GrabCar without destination-masking, when they can book an Uber-style GrabCar with destination-masking?

The possible rise of pseudo-competition

The Uber app will stop operations on April 8 in Manila. But if in the future, Grab reboots the Uber app under Grab management, we could potentially see an example of pseudo-competition.

This refers to the presence of several brands/service channels which create an illusion of competition, when in fact there is none due to these apps belonging to the same corporate interests.

In the book Standing on the Sun, which analyzes monopolies and capitalism, Chris Meyer and Julia Kirby find that pseudo-competition may enable companies to circumvent antitrust regulators, but it prevents society from enjoying the real benefits of true competition: innovation from competing firms, and efficient allocation of societys scarce resources.

The governments role in defending commuter interests

The loss of competition may mean that Grab becomes a ride-hailing app monopoly that may be harder to regulate due to its market power.

This could mean that riders will be at the mercy of a monopolist in cities where many have become reliant on this service. Ironically, whereas government regulation on ride-hailing apps was not warmly received by the public before, the presence of a monopoly means it is now government regulation which can protect commuter interests.

But despite all these risks to social good, we must always entertain the possibility that companies and their leaders truly aspire to ensure corporate interests also serve the public good.

It is most productive to view companies and government agencies in good faith, while cautiously yet firmly monitoring implications on social good. This is an endeavor that academic researchers, journalists, concerned citizens, government, and ride-hailing app companies must be in dialogue over.
A Florida man who owes more than $500,000 in child support vanished last week after he went paddleboarding in the Atlantic Ocean, police said.

Constantine George Theoharis, 52, was due in court on the day he vanished  March 20  to speak on charges of not paying his exorbitant child support bill, Fort Lauderdale police told the Miami Herald.

When the commercial real estate agent didnt show up for court, or for work, the judge rescheduled the hearing for Tuesday. However, Theoharis didnt show up for that, either.

Hes very capable on the paddle board so it seems fishy to me."  Richard Theoharis

There have been no signs of Theoharis since he disappeared and family members have become increasingly worried, according to the Herald.

They told the newspaper that it wouldnt be like Theoharis to vanish because hes comfortable in the water and is a licensed diver.

Hes very capable on the paddle board so it seems fishy to me, Richard Theoharis, his younger brother, told CBS Miami. He was under pressure. He owed $600,000 and he didnt have it. He was afraid the judge would throw him in jail. If hes scared, we hope he will contact us. Make a phone call. Just let somebody know youre safe so we can rest at night.

Theoharis body, fins, mask or weight belt have not turned up, the Miami Herald reported. His wallet and passport were reportedly left at home.

Theoharis has been divorced since 2008. His wife had been fighting him for child support payments for their two daughters for the last five years.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A father and daughter in Florida ended up taking an unexpected dip in the pool on Tuesday, after the man's wife reportedly failed to put the family car in park and it ended up rolling into the water.

The Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office said in a Facebook post the woman thought she put the vehicle into park when she ran back into her apartment around 2 p.m. in the town of Crestview on Okaloosa Island, located on the state's panhandle.

"New meaning to the term carpool - Mom thought she put the car in Park when she ran back in to the apartment to grab money," the sheriff's office said. "Apparently it didn't go all the way into park."

FLORIDA FAMILY DISCOVERS 8-FOOT ALLIGATOR SWIMMING IN POOL

The Honda Civic ended up rolling into a pool at the apartment complex with the woman's husband and daughter inside. The vehicle was almost fully submerged.

The sheriff's office said despite the plunge into the pool, everyone was "ok" and no injuries reported.
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Developing now, Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Californias 'sanctuary city' laws face backlash as Orange County officials join the Trump administrations lawsuit over the Golden State's immigration policies

Democrats fear immigrants will avoid the U.S. Census after the Trump administration seeks a U.S. citizenship question for the 2020 survey

President Trump considers using the Pentagon budget to pay for his long-promised U.S.-Mexico border wall

North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un met with China's leader in an 'unofficial' visit, Chinese state media says

The Supreme Court will hear its second major redistricting case of the term Wednesday, this time with an appeal coming from Maryland Republicans

The number of agents responding to a House subpoena of documents on the Hillary Clinton email probe, potential FISA abuses and the firing of FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe will double, FBI Director Christopher Wray says

THE LEAD STORY - SANCTUARY CITY BLOWBACK: Officials in California's Orange County voted Tuesday to join a lawsuit from the Trump administration fighting the state's "sanctuary city" laws, hours after the county sheriff's department announced its own methods of pushing back against the legislation aimed at protecting illegal immigrants ... Meanwhile, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra would not rule out taking action of his own against officials who fight the laws, including the sheriff. One of the laws bars police in many cases from turning over suspects to federal immigration agents for deportation. Orange County officials moved earlier this week to improve communication with federal immigration agents by publishing the release dates of inmates online.

DEMOCRATS FEAR LOSING VOTERS OVER CENSUS: The Trump administration's decision to ask people about their citizenship in the 2020 census has sparked fear among Democrats that immigrants will avoid doing the survey altogether, potentially weakening political representation for states that tend to vote Democratic and robbing many communities of federal dollars ... According to the Congressional Research Service, the Census has not collected citizenship data from the whole population, rather than just a population sample, since 1950. The state of California has already filed a lawsuit over the Trump administration's decision to reintroduce the citizenship question to the census, with California, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Massachusetts and Ohio expected to join.

Tucker: 'The Left almost lost consciousness' over census' immigration question

'BUILD THAT WALL' ... WITH MILITARY FUNDS?: Still miffed about the budget deal he signed last week, President Trump has potentially planted the idea of using the Pentagon budget to pay for his border wall with Mexico ... Last weekend, Trump tweeted the following: "Because of the $700 & $716 Billion Dollars gotten to rebuild our Military, many jobs are created and our Military is again rich. Building a great Border Wall, with drugs (poison) and enemy combatants pouring into our Country, is all about National Defense. Build WALL through M!" (In the tweet, "M" refers to the military.) Trump raised the funding plan with House Speaker Paul Ryan at a meeting at the White House last week, a person familiar with the conversation told the Associated Press. However, this shift in spending would likely require approval from Congress.

KIM JONG UN GOES TO CHINA: North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in an "unofficial visit" to Beijing, China's state-run media reported late Tuesday ... South Korea's Yonhap News Agency, citing North Korean state radio, reported that Kim had visited China between Sunday and Wednesday local time at Xi's invitation and was accompanied by his wife, Ri Sol Ju. Xi held talks with Kim at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing and he and his wife Peng Liyuan hosted a banquet for Kim and his wife, the official Xinhua News Agency said. They also watched an art performance together, the news agency said. Xi hailed Kim's visit as embodying the importance with which the North Korean leader regarded ties with China.

Mystery train rumored to carry Kim Jong Un leaves China after secretive stay

Key moments in North Korea-China relationship

MARYLAND MAP REVISIONS?: The Supreme Court will take up its second big partisan redistricting case of the term Wednesday ... The justices are scheduled to hear in an appeal filed by Republicans in Maryland. The Maryland GOP complains that Democrats who controlled the state government in 2011 drew a congressional district for the express purpose of ousting the Republican incumbent and replacing him with a Democrat. On March 19, Supreme Court rejected a request from Pennsylvania GOP lawmakers to throw out a new congressional district map drawn by the state's highest court.

FBI PICKING UP THE PACE: FBI Director Christopher Wray announced plans to double the number of agents handling records for the House Judiciary Committee after it asked for documents on the Clinton email probe, potential FISA abuses and the firing of Deputy Director Andrew McCabe ... According to a statement released by Wray, he believes the documents requested by committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., are likely in the thousands but that he agrees the current pace of production is too slow. We have dedicated 27 FBI staff to review the records that are potentially responsive to Chairman Goodlattes requests, he wrote, adding he was doubling the number of assigned FBI staff, for a total of 54, to cover two shifts per day from 8am to midnight to expedite completion of this project. But, a Justice Dept. insider told Fox News that Attorney General Jeff Sessions has voiced his concern over the unacceptable pace with which the FBI is working and is done seeing his department criticized over it.

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AS SEEN ON FOX NEWS

'DUMBEST THING I'VE EVER HEARD': "There'll be a Civil War if you take away the Second Amendment. [The government would say] surrender your weapons or else."  Jesse Watters, on "The Five," reacting to an op-ed by retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens who said "March for Our Lives" participants should seek a repeal of the Second Amendment. WATCH

FACEBOOK THE PEEPING TOM: "When you look at what the search engines and the social media companies are doing with your information, that is the equivalent of a peeping Tom."  Rep. Marsha Blackburn, on "America's Newsroom," arguing that Facebook founder Mark "Universal Income" Zuckerberg should testify before Congress on its recent privacy scandal, comparing Facebook and other social media companies to a "Peeping Tom." WATCH

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Reporter doubles down as outrage grows over alleged home invasion of Lewandowski's DC home office

In wild California Democratic primary, candidate sues over rivals' ballot entries, candidates eased out.

Spending bill passed by Congress could disarm some veterans, GOP lawmaker warns.

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Dow plunges 345 points as tech shares drag.

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FOX NEWS OPINION

Why 'GMO' is a meaningless term (and how to fix that).

Marc Thiessen: Trump's cabinet is not supposed to be a 'check' on him -- That's not how democracy works.

F.H. Buckley: Putin, Russia and the hard truth about election meddling.

HOLLYWOOD SQUARED

Harvey Weinstein's former assistant claims she tried to stop him in 1998.

Mark Hamill reveals 'Star Wars: Episode IX' ending George Lucas really wanted.

Kelly Ripa body-shamed for 'sexy' bikini picture.

DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THIS?

Walmart to remove Cosmopolitan magazine from checkout lines.

Amazing mummy discovery: 2,500-year-old Egyptian coffin was thought to be empty.

Blue moon to light up sky ahead of Easter.

STAY TUNED

On Fox News:

Fox & Friends, 6 a.m. ET: Heineken is forced to pull an ad campaign after some call it racist. We'll take a closer look. Peter Navarro, director of White House's Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, breaks down President Trump's new trade deal. The State Department's Heather Nauert talks Russia relations and Kim Jong Un's secret trip to China. Plus, we're live from the floor of the New York Auto Show.

Tucker Carlson Tonight, 8 p.m. ET: In the final installment of his monthlong "Men in America" series, Tucker looks at how schools are contributing to the war on boys.

On Fox Business:

Mornings with Maria, 6 a.m. ET: Guests include: Michelle Malkin; Marc Lotter, former special assistant to President Trump and former press secretary to Vice President Pence; Jim Farley, Ford executive vice president and global markets president; Glenn Hubbard, former chairman of the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers under President George W. Bush.

Varney & Co., 9 am, ET: Rep. Steve Russell; NYC Councilman Rafael Espinal; Pa. Attorney General Josh Shapiro; Ed Lazear, former chairman of President Bush's council of economic advisers.

Cavuto: Coast to Coast, Noon ET: U.S. Sen. John Kennedy, R-La.

The Intelligence Report 2 p.m. ET: Weight Watchers CEO Mindy Grossman on Women's Month; Peter Schweizer, author of "Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends"; Robert Wolf, CEO of 32 Advisors.

On Fox News Radio:

The Fox News Rundown podcast: Debate has flared up again over repealing the Second Amendment after retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens wrote a controversial op-ed. Shannon Bream, host of "FOX News @ Night," gives insight. China responded to President Trumps announcement of higher tariffs with threats of a trade war, which initially sent stocks tumbling. Early this week theres been some recovery. Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo joins the podcast to discuss. Also, commentary by "Fox & Friends" co-host Brian Kilmeade.

Want the Fox News Rundown sent straight to your mobile device? Subscribe through Apple Podcasts, Google Play, and Stitcher.

The Brian Kilmeade Show, 9 a.m. ET: Matthew Schrier, a photojournalist who escaped al Qaeda captivity, details his ordeal and reveals why he feels "betrayed" by the FBI; the Wall Street Journal's Dan Henninger on China tariffs and market volatility; Admiral James Stavridis on North Korea and Trump's expulsion of Russian diplomats.

The Tom Shillue Show, 3 p.m. ET: Some states are lining up to sue President Trump over his 2020 census citizenship question. Do they have a case? Judge Andrew Napolitano joins Tom.

#OnThisDay

1979: America's worst commercial nuclear accident occurs with a partial meltdown inside the Unit 2 reactor at the Three Mile Island plant near Middletown, Pa..

1898: The U.S. Supreme Court, in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, rules 6-2 that Wong, who was born in the United States to Chinese immigrants, is an American citizen.

1797: Nathaniel Briggs of New Hampshire receives a patent for a washing machine.

Fox News First is compiled by Fox News' Bryan Robinson. Thank you for joining us! Enjoy your day! We'll see you in your inbox first thing Thursday morning.
Two firefighters killed while responding to a triple-fatality highway crash in West Virginia late last week were honored Tuesday ahead of their funerals, while two other firefighters remained hospitalized.

Assistant fire Chief Michael Edwards, 46, and Lt. Thomas Craigo, 40, were honored by more than 50 people from across Kanawha County at a wreath-laying ceremony outside the Pratt Volunteer Fire Department building, West Virginia MetroNews reported.

This is a brotherhood, Pratt Deputy Fire Chief Rod Johnson told the paper.

The men were honored with a black wreath placed in front of the building and a metal sign in the shape of an American flag that read: In Honor of Our Fallen Heroes, according to MetroNews. The families of Edwards and Craigo were each given similar signs designed by a Pratt resident.

The funeral services for Craigo, a 15-year member of the department, will be held at 2 p.m. April 3, with visitation taking place 6 to 9 p.m. April 2, the West Virginia State Fire Marshal said Tuesday. Arrangements for Edwards, who had given 25 years of service, have not been announced yet.

Johnson said both men had recently gotten married, including Edwards about a week ago. Edwards and Craigo also have children, the Gazette-Mail reported.



Two of the firefighters who suffered injuries in the crash remained in the intensive care unit at Charleston Area Medical Center, Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper told the Charleston Gazette-Mail Tuesday.

Pratt Volunteer Fire Department Chief Timmy Walker remained in critical condition, while firefighter Billy Hypes condition was stable, Carper said. Firefighter Kyle Jenkins, 17, was treated for a broken arm and released, Fox 11 reported.

Johnson had told the paper Monday that the two firefighters families had seen some improvement in their conditions.

The five members of the Pratt Volunteer Fire Department were heading toward a wreck on the West Virginia Turnpike that killed three people when their fire truck careened off a road and into a ditch, striking a rock wall.

The cause of the fire truck crash remains under investigation.

As for the separate crash that killed three people, state police spokesman Capt. Reggie Patterson said in a release that a car driven by Beatrice Patrick, 77, of Salyersville, Ky., was going the wrong way in the southbound lanes when it struck another car head-on. The second car then ran off the road and struck a disabled box truck. Patrick was killed, WCHS-TV reported.

Patterson said the driver of the second car, James W. Platte, 49, of Westphalia, Mich., and his wife, Tonya Platte, 38, were killed. Box truck driver Jordan Napoleon, 40, of Greer, S.C., was taken to a hospital with minor injuries.

The cause of the fire truck crash remains under investigation.
Human remains recovered by authorities in California this week were confirmed on Wednesday to be those of missing model-actress Adea Shabani.

Shabani, 25, was last seen in Hollywood on Feb. 23. The Nevada County Sheriff's Office said Tuesday the investigators found human remains in a shallow grave in a bank of the Spenceville Wildlife Area around 8 a.m.

Sheriff's officials said Wednesday an autopsy positively identified the remains were Shabani. She suffered "blunt force trauma to her head," the sheriff's office wrote on Facebook.

A final cause of death has not yet been determined pending toxicology results, however Shabani's death has been ruled a homicide.

The Los Angeles Police Department said Tuesday that Christopher Spotz, a 33-year-old man believed to be Shabani's boyfriend, was involved in her death, but could not elaborate.

Considered a person of interest in Shabani's disappearance, Spotz fatally shot himself after leading officers on a police chase in a stolen truck Thursday. The two reportedly met in acting school.

A native of Macedonia, Shabani moved to the U.S. less than two years ago to pursue an acting career. She had been living in Los Angeles when she was last seen.

Fox News' Kathleen Joyce contributed to this report.
Illegal immigrant Luis Bracamontes smiled again Tuesday as a California jury handed him a death sentence following his conviction in the 2014 killing of two sheriff's deputies, but this time, the deputies' families gave the cold-blooded killer a taste of his own medicine.

"I was smiling back at him purposely," Jeri Oliver, Sacramento County Sheriff's Deputy Danny Oliver's mother, told The Sacarmento Bee after court. Debbie McMahon, the mother of fallen Placer County Sheriff Detective Michael Davis Jr., agreed to smile at him for a change."

The convicted cop killer made headlines during his trial in January when he smiled and went into a profanity-laced rant in court, saying, I wish I had killed more of the mother-------s, and promised to kill more, kill whoever gets in front of me ... There's no need for a f---ing trial."

He also shouted in court that he was guilty and asked to be put to death. The defense tried to convince the judge to enter a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity.

After hours of deliberation Tuesday, a Sacramento Superior Court jury ruled that Bracamontes will get what he asked for and receive the death penalty for his heinous crimes.

As the verdict was being read, the illegal immigrant from Mexico was silently clapping and smiling, sometimes at the families of the slain deputies, the Sacramento Bee reported.

Bracamontes went on a multi-county killing rampage in 2014, murdering Oliver and Davis.

The ruling comes just days after Janelle Monroy, his wife, was sentenced to nearly 50 years in prison for helping her husband to murder the deputies. The jury dismissed her argument last month that she feared Bracamontes would kill her if she did not help him.

WIFE WHO AIDED ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT HUSBAND IN SLAYINGS OF 2 SHERIFFS DEPUTIES GETS 50 YEARS

Family members and law enforcement officials were reluctant to speak out during the trial, but on the verdict day, many finally voiced their views.

"I feel free to say it now. He's a despicable and evil human being and the death penalty is totally appropriate," Placer Sheriff Devon Bell told the Bee. Sacramento Sheriff Scott Jones said the verdict is a step along the road toward justice.

Despite the sentence, however, it remains to be seen whether Bracamontes will actually be put to death. The last time California executed an inmate was in 2006. An average waiting time for the execution is nearly 18 years due to legal challenges to the states methods of execution.

The convicted cop killer will return to court in late April for a formal sentencing by the judge. Families of the killed officers will address the court and Bracamontes.
A Maryland mother was arrested for allegedly trying to saw off the head of her autistic son because she felt overwhelmed and was worried he would grow up to be a burden to society, court records say.

Kristina Petrie, 46, was charged with attempted first-degree murder, first-degree child abuse and second-degree child abuse for an incident involving her 11-year-old autistic son on March 11, according to case information from the District Court of Maryland.

An affidavit obtained by WJLA says that the incident began when Petries son came home from school and went into his room to play video games. The boys mother appeared a short while later, with a bone saw in hand, and asked why he was not doing his homework.

GEORGIA MOTHER CRASHES VEHICLE INTO POLE TO PROVE GOD IS REAL, POLICE SAY

Thats when Petrie pinned the boy down and then allegedly jammed the cutting tool against her sons neck and began moving it back and forth multiple times, WJLA reported, citing the affidavit.

The small child managed to get loose from the grip of his mother who, according to her case information, is 5-foot-6 and 175 pounds.

Petrie allegedly confessed to her husband,who admitted the deranged woman to MedStar Montgomery Medical Center where she reportedly said she felt overwhelmed and that she feared that both her sons would grow up to be a burden to society and as a result they needed to die, WJLA reported.

OKLAHOMA MOM, 45, WHO MARRIED DAUGHTER, 26, AFTER TWO HIT IT OFF GETS TWO YEARS IN PRISON

Petrie also reportedly said she tried to kill her kids again when asked why she was at the hospital but a search of her name in the District Court of Maryland records only turned up the March 12 case.

Police say they met with the boy days after the attack and noticed several thin lines with the skin broken and some scabbing, Fox25 reported, citing the affidavit. Police said they also noticed cuts on his left shoulder and red marks between his shoulder blades.

Petrie is scheduled to appear in court on April 20 at 10 a.m.
A Detroit-area man whose murder conviction was thrown out after he spent 45 years in prison was exonerated Wednesday and won't face a second trial.

Richard Phillips, 71, was upbeat, saying the criminal justice system "works  it just didn't work fast enough."

A judge granted a request to permanently drop the case against Phillips, whose conviction was erased last year. Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy said a new investigation by her office backed his claim that he had no role in a 1971 fatal shooting.

She said a key witness lied at his 1972 trial.

"There's nothing I can say to bring back 40 years of his life," Worthy said. "The system failed him. This is a true exoneration."

The case was reopened at the urging of the Innocence Clinic at University of Michigan law school after a co-defendant at the '72 trial told the state parole board that Phillips wasn't involved in the slaying of Gregory Harris.

Phillips had been free on bond since December. He likely will be eligible for more than $2 million under Michigan's wrongful conviction law.

No one in the U.S. has served more years in prison before being exonerated than Phillips, said David Moran, director of the Innocence Clinic.

"I've never carried bitterness around, so I'm not a bitter man," Phillips told reporters when asked about his decades in prison.

One of his goals: A reunion with two children who were ages 2 and 4 when he went to prison in 1972. Despite publicity about his case, Phillips said he hasn't heard from them and doesn't know their whereabouts.

"You have seen the worst and best of the criminal justice system," Judge Kevin Cox told Phillips.

Phillips has settled in a Detroit suburb and attends a church where he shares his story with others.

"His freedom truly belongs to him again," Moran said.

___

Follow Ed White at http://edwhiteap@twitter.com
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.
(CNN)  A 21-year-old journalist is making headlines in Pakistan by becoming the country's first transgender news anchor.

Pakistan's social networks were abuzz following Marvia Malik's first on-air appearance on the March 23 and in the days since she's gone viral across Facebook and Twitter, with many lauding the move as progress for transgender rights in Pakistan.

Malik, a trainee anchor at Lahore-based channel Kohenoor News, is pleased with the attention that she's received but insists more needs to be done when it comes to improving the lives of Pakistan's transgender community.

A graduate of journalism from Punjab University, Malik told CNN she applied for the position since she wanted to prove that people from the transgender community "are capable of any job, and can do anything they want."

"I want to show the country that we are more than objects of ridicule ... that we are also human," she said.

According to Pakistan's most recent census in 2017, which recorded the country's transgender population for the first time, there are close to 10,000 individuals who identify as transgender across the country of almost 200 million.

Earlier this month the country's senate passed a landmark bill to protect the rights of the country's transgender community.

The bill's provisions include enabling individuals the right to change their gender on national identity cards, inherit property and not be discriminated against if pursuing a seat in public office.

While the bill was praised by rights groups and activists, Malik insists that there needs to be a change in society's attitudes for such laws to actually be taken seriously and implemented.

Role model

Malik said she realized she was transgender "at a very young age." She is estranged from her family and has been providing for herself financially since she was 15 years old.

"I want the next generation of young transgender kids to look up to me as an inspiration that they can be accepted and that there can be opportunities for them," Malik said.

Disowned by their families and without access to job opportunities many from the transgender community are forced into prostitution and begging, eking out a living on the fringes of society, according to Naz, an NGO that provides healthcare for the LGBT community in Pakistan.

In March 2017, the Ministry of Health released data that showed that transgender sex workers are the second most-vulnerable group to HIV and AIDS in the country.

Malik's boss, Bilal Ashraf, the director news for Kohinoor News, told CNN that when going through Malik's audition he hadn't realized that she was transgender.

Ashraf said that Kohinoor News aims to be a more progressive news channel for Pakistan, providing opportunities to the "disabled, women and individuals from all sorts of background."

"We will not discriminate, everyone has dreams, everyone has goals and so much of that talent gets thrown into the dustbin, undiscovered, simply because of the biases in society," Ashraf said.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Meet Pakistan's first transgender news anchor."
Eight men were rescued Sunday hundreds of miles off the coast of Hawaii after a pair of rogue waves struck a fishing boat and caused it to sink.

The Coast Guard said in a news release the 61-foot fishing vessel, Princess Hawaii, was over 400 miles northeast of Hawaii's Big Island when it ran into trouble around 11:23 a.m., at which time an emergency position indicating radio beacon alert was received.

An aircrew was launched at 3 p.m., and a flare and lift raft were spotted from a HC-130 Hercules aircraft a little more than 2 hours later.

"The aircrew reported they located the Princess Hawaii mostly submerged with only the stern above the waterline," the Coast Guard said.

After confirming all crewmembers were accounted for, the Coast Guard said the air crew remained on scene until the 73-foot fishing vessel Commander, which was fishing nearby, arrived on scene just before 11 p.m. to rescue the crew from the lifeboat.

The owner of the Princess Hawaii told the Associated Press on Tuesday that two massive rogue waves hit the boat, swamping it and forcing the crew to abandon ship.

One wave hit the back of the of the 61-foot fishing vessel, and another hit the side, Loc Nguyen said.

"It was so big, they've never seen that before," he told the AP. There was "too much water on the top and it went down."

COAST GUARD SEIZES 36,000 LBS. OF COCAINE DURING PACIFIC DRUG PATROL

Nguyen said the fishing crew had already set about 15 miles of line when the waves crashed, knocking five workers into the water. The three other members of the crew were inside, and were able to deploy the vessel's life raft.

The boat owner told the AP he was "very happy" when he talked to the survivors and heard there were no injuries.

"I don't care very much about my boat," Nguyen said. "I lost money, OK. But if someone was dead or something, I would feel bad all my life."

Rogue waves are "extremely rare," according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration website, but there are known causes of the phenomenon.

"Rogues, called 'extreme storm waves' by scientists, are those waves which are greater than twice the size of surrounding waves, are very unpredictable, and often come unexpectedly from directions other than prevailing wind and waves," NOAA says.

Swells can travel at different speeds across the ocean, and as they pass through one another they can create "large, towering waves that quickly disappear."

When waves caused by storms go against the normal current, very big waves can also form in the open ocean.

"Extreme waves developed in this fashion tend to be longer lived," the NOAA says.

The Commander, with the eight crew members on board, is scheduled to arrive in Oahu on Friday, according to the Coast Guard.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The turbulent home life of a North Carolina infant seen smoking pot on a viral video was evident Wednesday as a second person appeared in court on charges of giving her a marijuana blunt.

Allan Maldonado, 18, is charged with helping the 1-year-old girl smoke in videos that sparked outrage after they were seen by millions on social media last week.

He made a short appearance in a Raleigh courtroom on misdemeanor charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and marijuana possession.

Maldonado, who asked for a public defender, told the judge he wanted to take a paternity test to prove that the child isn't his.

"I asked for DNA, sir, because I know that's not my child," Maldonado said.

The judge responded that was a matter for a separate hearing.

The girl's mother, 20-year-old Brianna Ashanti Lofton, was arrested last week on charges including child abuse and marijuana possession. The baby was placed with child protective services, and Lofton and Maldonado have been ordered to have no contact with the girl.

It appears that whatever relationship Lofton and Maldonado had was stormy. Both were charged last August with misdemeanor counts of assaulting each other, according to court records. The child would have been a few months old at the time.

An attorney for Lofton didn't immediately respond to an email asking about her relationship with Maldonado.

Authorities accuse Lofton and Maldonado of giving marijuana to the child to smoke multiple times over a two-month period starting last December, according to arrest warrants.

One of the videos showed the hand of an adult off-screen holding the cigarillo to the girl's lips. The child makes a cooing sound, appears to inhale and lets out a puff of smoke before turning toward the adult with an expressionless look.

Police say they were alerted a week ago to the video of the child smoking after scores saw it on social media. A Facebook user whose posting urged arrests and was seen by millions said he got it from a friend and didn't know the people involved.

___

Follow Drew at www.twitter.com/JonathanLDrew
A person in South Carolina died Wednesday following an accident in a BMW manufacturing plants paint shop, the company confirmed, according to reports.

The incident took place at the Spartanburg County plant and authorities responded after receiving a call about an injury around 10:30 a.m., Fox Carolina said, citing dispatch. Pelham Batesville Fire Department officials said they received information about an individual caught in a machine, WYFF reported.

AUTO CRASH AT OAKLAND AIRPORT INJURES 2; UNLICENSED DRIVER ARRESTED, POLICE SAY

The slain individual was not a company employee, but rather a private contractor, Spartanburg County Coroner Rusty Clevenger told WYFF. The persons identity was not released since their family had yet to be notified, he said.

A spokesman for BMW confirmed an accidental death took place in a paint shop at the facility and was being investigated by the Spartanburg County Sheriffs Office, a statement obtained by WYFF said.

ARIZONA GOV. DOUG DUCEY ACCUSED OF ALLOWING UBER TO TEST DRIVERLESS CARS WITHOUT INFORMING PUBLIC, REPORT SAYS

The paint shop has stopped operation as the investigation continues, the statement continued. When the accident occurred, BMW first responders were immediately called to provide aid. Pelham-Batesville EMS also responded. Since this is an active investigation, BMW is not able to comment further at this time."
A top Southern Baptist leader resigned Tuesday over what was described as a morally inappropriate relationship in the recent past.

Frank S. Page, 65, was president and chief executive of the Southern Baptist Conventions executive committee. His resignation came in the form of a 300-word statement released Tuesday by committee chairman Stephen Rummage, Christianity Today reported.

The exact nature of the inappropriate relationship was not disclosed.

Page announced earlier in the day that he was retiring, but later said he needed to be more forthcoming about his departure, the Tennessean reported.

As a result of a personal failing, I have embarrassed my family, my Lord, myself and the Kingdom, Page said in a statement released by the Baptist Press, a Nashville-based official publication of the denomination.

Page discussed his plans Monday night in a conference call with other executive committee members, Rummage said in a statement.

Page then admitted the reason behind his decision in a follow-up conversation Tuesday, the Tennessean reported.

"Today, I spoke with Dr. Page and learned that his retirement announcement was precipitated by a morally inappropriate relationship in the recent past," said Rummage, the senior pastor of Bell Shoals Baptist Church in Brandon, Fla.

According to the Tennessean, Page has served in his post since 2010, overseeing a $200 million annual budget for the Southern Baptists Cooperative Program.

The Southern Baptist Convention connects some 47,000 Baptist churches across the U.S. and its territories, representing more than 15 million total congregants, the denominations website says.

The executive committee will search for a replacement for Page, in keeping with the denominations bylaws, Rummage told the Tennessean.
A suspected Mexican cartel drug kingpin was charged Tuesday in the seizure of 44 pounds of fentanyl from a sting operation late last year, officials said.

Francisco Quiroz-Zamora, 41, was arrested in November after he traveled to New York City to collect a payment from an undercover agent posing as a drug dealer, authorities said. Officials charged him in connection with the opioid seizure at a Bronx hotel and a posh Manhattan apartment.

Authorities used undercover agents to track Quiroz-Zamoras shipments from Mexico to Arizona and Californian and New York, according to the New York Post.

He allegedly stashed a duffel bag filled with fentanyl above a vending machine at the Bronx hotel and five more pounds was being stored at a Central Park West apartment, according to the New York Daily News.

An investigation into Quiroz-Zamoras alleged trafficking was conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the office of Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan and other agencies.

Quiroz-Zamora is believed to be a leader of Mexicos Sinaloa Cartel, according to the New York Post. He was reportedly working under the nickname Gordo.

This investigation provides the American public with an inside view of a day in the life of a Sinaloa Cartel drug trafficker; including international travel, money pick-ups, and clandestine meetings, DEA Special Agent James J. Hunt said.

Five of Quiroz-Zamoras alleged accomplices were also charged in the smuggling ring.

Fatal overdoes of fentanyl reached an all-time high of more than 1,400 in New York City in 2017, officials said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Another suspicious package was discovered at a government mail facility in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday -- and it was sent by the same man who's accused of mailing a dozen others to different military installations around the nations capital.

The package was discovered during a routine screening and was deemed to be no threat after the FBI took possession of it, law enforcement officials told Fox News.

The FBI confirmed the package was discovered around 7:30 a.m. at a mail facility at 3300 V Street NE, in Washington.

Nearby roads were blocked to traffic for several hours while workers were evacuated as a precaution, FOX5 DC reported.

The facility was given the all-clear signal around 10:30 a.m.

The scare came one day after the FBI announced the arrest of 43-year-old Thanh Cong Phan, who was taken into custody Monday night from his home in Everett, Wash.

Phan is accused of mailing more than a dozen packages to several government agencies including the U.S. Secret Service White House Mail Screen Facility, the FBI headquarters in Baltimore and the CIA offices in Langley, Va.

Explosive materials were found inside several of the packages, but they were detected before they could be opened.

No possible motive has been disclosed.

Authorities describe Phan as emotionally disturbed and no stranger to federal and local authorities. He had written to many government agencies in the past, including members of Congress.

The office of U.S. Attorney Annette L Hayes said Phan emerged as a suspect when a U.S. Postal Service Inspector traced the tracking information on one of the packages to the Mill Creek, Washington post office self-service kiosk.

Surveillance images appeared to capture Phan at the time of the mailing.

All packages are being analyzed in the FBI forensics lab in Quantico.

On Tuesday, the FBI said that it was possible further packages were mailed to additional facilities in the Washington, D.C. area.

Fox News' Lucas Tomlinson contributed to this report.
An enigmatic North Korean leader takes a secretive train trip to China to affirm fraternal ties and declare a commitment to denuclearization.

It sounds like Kim Jong Un's visit this week, but his father and predecessor Kim Jong Il made similar declarations on a trip to Beijing, months before he died in 2011. Yet North Korea's nuclear weapons development only speeded up.

President Donald Trump expressed optimism Wednesday after the younger Kim's meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, saying there's "a good chance" that Kim will "do what is right for his people and for humanity." But there are plenty of reasons to be skeptical that the U.S.-North Korean summit slated for May will produce the breakthrough that Washington wants.

After a year of escalating tensions, Trump agreed to talks after South Korean officials relayed that Kim was committed to ridding the Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons and was willing to halt nuclear and missile tests.

That has tamped down fears of war that elevated as Trump and Kim traded threats and insults and North Korea demonstrated it was close to being able to strike the U.S. with a nuclear-tipped missile.

Kim's meeting with Xi offered some reassurance to Washington that "denuclearization" will be up for negotiation if the first summit between American and North Korean leaders in seven decades of animosity takes place.

But while Trump has elevated expectations of what that sit-down would achieve, North Korea has yet to spell out what it wants in return for abandoning a weapons program that Kim likely views as a guarantee for the survival of his totalitarian regime.

The readout of Kim's remarks to Xi as reported by China's state news agency Xinhua strongly indicates Pyongyang is looking for significant American concessions.

"The issue of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula can be resolved," Kim was quoted as saying, "if South Korea and the United States respond to our efforts with goodwill, create an atmosphere of peace and stability while taking progressive and synchronous measures for the realization of peace."

To many North Korea watchers, that sounds like old wine in a new bottle.

In May 2011, the elder Kim, who was making what would be his final trip to China, told then-president Hu Jintao that the North was "adhering to the goal of denuclearization."

That came months after North Korea had revealed a uranium enrichment plant that gave it a second path for making fuel for atomic bombs.

Abraham Denmark, a former senior U.S. defense official, said the North's latest offer to "denuclearize" still appears contingent on U.S. creating the right conditions. In the past, Pyongyang demanded that U.S. withdraw troops from the peninsula, end its security alliance with South Korea and the nuclear protection it offers its ally.

"It's possible that Kim Jong Un has a different meaning in mind," said Denmark, now director of the Asia program at the Wilson Center think tank. "So far it sounds like the same old tune."

Ending six years of international seclusion, Kim was spirited into Beijing by special train under tight security like his father before him. He met with Xi, seeking to repair relations that have been frayed as China has supported tough U.N. sanctions and slashed trade with its wayward ally in frustration over its refusal to stop its provocative behavior.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Kim's first foreign trip was a "historic step in the right direction" and proof that U.S.-led campaign of "maximum pressure" of economic sanctions was working. Trump said that the pressure would be maintained for now, but offered an optimistic view of how he could achieve peace and denuclearization that eluded past administrations.

"Now there is a good chance that Kim Jong Un will do what is right for his people and for humanity. Look forward to our meeting!"

There's another way of looking at it.

It could be North Korea not the U.S. that is calling the shots. When Kim offered an olive branch to South Korea in the new year, he also warned that the entire U.S. was within range of the North's atomic weapons. With that capability in hand, he may now going on a diplomatic offensive, using it as leverage to win aid and security guarantees rather than with an intent of giving it up.

Trump's own choice as national security adviser John Bolton is famously skeptical of diplomacy with North Korea. Just a month ago, he made the case for a pre-emptive military strike on the North. That raises questions about whether he might advocate for the same should Trump's summit with Kim fail.

Experts at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank said in an analysis that by meeting Xi, Kim may be seeking an insurance policy that "even if summit talks fail with the U.S. that North Korea could still fall back on its relationship with China."

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a close ally of the president, is worried about a less than ideal outcome.

He said Wednesday he's worried that in his talks with Kim, Trump will focus on the intercontinental missiles that can reach the U.S. mainland and not the shorter-range missiles that threaten Japan and may "end up accepting North Korea's possession of nuclear weapons."

___

Associated Press writer Alan Fram contributed to this report.
Utah Gov. Gary Herbert signed legislation Tuesday to expand Medicaid to more than 70,000 poor residents in the state and add a work requirement.

But under the stipulations of the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA), the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) must approve Utah's House Bill 472 in order for the law to take effect, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.

ACA mandated that states expand Medicaid to cover people making up to 138 percent of the poverty line income, while HB472 calls for only a partial expansion: 100 percent of the poverty line, or an annual income of $12,140 per person.

Some lawmakers worry that this provision will hinder CMSs approval of the expansion. In early March, the CMS declined Arkansas request to limit coverage for people making 100 percent of poverty incomes.

However, the CMS did approve Arkansas plan to require thousands of people on its Medicaid expansion program to work or volunteer, making Arkansas the third state allowed to impose such restrictions on health coverage.

In Utah, lawmakers like House Speaker Greg Hughes, R-Draper, believe that the state's request will look more appealing because Utah wants to grow Medicaid coverage.

Arkansas, the Utah lawmakers say, wants to limit coverage by changing the income threshold.

HB472 will be subject to a 30-day public comment period and two public meetings before being formally submitted for request, Salt Lake City's FOX 13 reported.

Officials anticipate it will be six to nine months before CMS makes a decision. The bill must gather 113,000 signatures in order to make it on a November ballot.

Similarly, in West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice signed a bill Tuesday that will impose work requirements for people receiving food stamps, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reported. Under the new stipulations, individuals between ages 18 and 49, without dependents, must work or volunteer for at least 20 hours a week in order to receive benefits.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A vehicle from Oregon carrying two women and three children plunged off a roadside cliff in California on Monday, killing all five occupants, authorities said.

None of the victims was identified. Their vehicle, a 2003 GMC, landed upside down on a large rock, the California Highway Patrol told the Press-Democrat of Santa Rosa.

The group was from West Linn, Ore., the CHP said. The accident occurred on Highway 1 between Rockport and Westport, around 20 miles north of Fort Bragg.

The children -- two boys and a girl -- were not using safety restraints and "came out" of the vehcile while the women remained inside, the Oregonian reported.

Alcohol or drugs weren't considered factors in the accident, the CHP told the newspaper.

It wasnt clear how much time had passed between when the accident occurred and when a passerby spotted the tragic scene around 3:39 p.m., CHP Officer Olegario Marin told the paper.
The wife of a Pennsylvania man who was arrested after he fled to Mexico with a 16-year-old girl filed for divorce Monday, citing infidelity and irretrievable breakdown of their marriage, a report said.

She filed for divorce just days after Kevin Esterly, 45, was flown back to Lehigh County, Penn., after his arrest in Mexico, where he was found with 16-year-old Amy Yu, The (Allentown) Morning Call reported. Esterly, a father of four, was captured by Mexican authorities in Cancun on March 17 after he disappeared from Allentown on March 5. He was charged with interfering with the custody of a child.

Stacey Esterly, who has been married to her now-estranged husband for more than 12 years, is requesting spousal support and alimony. She said shes unable to sustain herself during the course of the litigation, the divorce filing said, according to The Morning Call.

MISSING PENNSYLVANIA TEEN 'WILLINGLY' WENT TO MEXICO WITH 45-YEAR-OLD MAN, POLICE SAY

Yu was reported by her mother as a runaway. Esterly withdrew $4,000 from his wifes bank account and took personal documents before he fled. Yus mother also reported personal and jewelry items missing.

Authorities later said the teen, who was once a best friend to Esterlys oldest daughter, willingly got on a plane with the 45-year-old, taking a one-way flight from Philadelphia International Airport to Dallas, and then to Cancun, Mexico. The two reportedly had a secretive relationship.

Esterly had signed out Yu from a charter school 10 times between November 2017 and February, according to court documents.

FLORIDA MAN WHO OWES OVER $500G IN CHILD SUPPORT VANISHES IN OCEAN THE DAY HES DUE IN COURT, POLICE SAY

Yus mother, Miu Luu, said she is pursuing legal action against Esterly and others who may have been involved in her daughters disappearance. In a statement released through her lawyer, Luu called Esterlys actions predatory.

Ms. Luu is concerned for the health and safety of her daughter and is shocked and appalled by the length and depth of the depravity of this man, the lawyer said in a statement, according to The Morning Call. Ms. Luu trusted Kevin Esterly and his wife to supervise and care for her daughter when her daughter spent time with their daughter at their home.

Esterly could be forced to register as a sex offender for 15 years if he is convicted of the charges. Hes being held on $500,000 bail.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 28)  Alleged drug lords Kerwin Espinosa and Peter Lim, along with several other suspects, have been called on by the Justice Department as it begins to reinvestigate their cases.

A subpoena issued on March 22 by the Department of Justice (DOJ) directed Espinosa, Lim, and 20 others to attend the preliminary hearing on April 12.

Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Jua Pedro Navera, Assistant State Prosecutor Ann Noreen Devanadera, and Prosecution Attorney Herbert Calvin Abugan make up the new panel tasked to investigate the cases.

The subpoena stated failure to attend will be "under penalty of law."

The charges against Espinosa, Lim, and others were dropped by the first panel of DOJ prosecutors in December 2017.

The 41-page resolution announcing the decision was made public earlier this month said there was a "dearth of evidence" against those accused.

Marcelo Adoro, the sole witness in the complaint filed by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-Major Crimes Investigation Unit (CIDG-MCIU), was also deemed unreliable and that his testimonies were "rife with inconsistencies and contradictions," casting doubts on their truthfulness.

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre came under fire for the dismissal of charges, with lawmakers questioning the integrity of the administration's war against illegal drugs.

Following the revelation, Aguirre created a new prosecution panel to review the drug charges and called on the National Bureau of Investigation to look into possible wrongful exercise of authority by the initial panel.

Aguirre later apologized to the prosecutors, saying "it is not correct" for him to order the probe.

In a press conference on March 26, Aguirre said he ordered the investigation because of the public outcry against the decision, and because he wanted to show there was nothing to hide as the prosecutors decided on the case in accordance with the law.

READ: Aguirre apologizes to justice prosecutors involved in dismissal of raps vs. Kerwin Espinosa, Peter Lim

On Wednesday, the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) asked President Rodrigo Duterte to suspend the Justice Department prosecutors who cleared high profile drug personalities of charges.

PACC Commissioner Greco Belgica said they are recommending the preventive suspension pending the investigation of all the prosecutors who handled the case.

He added the members of the police who presented a weak case should be held accountable as well.

CNN Philippines' Pia Garcia, Eimor Santos, and Chad de Guzman contributed to this report.
Firefighters battled a wildfire Wednesday in chaparral and grasslands on Santa Cruz Island off the coast of Southern California, officials said.

The fire grew to about 250 acres (101 hectares) after escaping Tuesday from a prescribed burn that had been set earlier in the week, Channel Islands National Park spokeswoman Yvonne Menard said from the park's mainland headquarters in Ventura.

The blaze began in the isle's central valley near a historic main ranch on property of The Nature Conservancy, which owns most of the island and manages it cooperatively with the national park.

The 96-square-mile (248-square-kilometer) island is the largest in the chain of eight Channel Islands, five of which are in the national park.

The island's central valley has been the hub of past ranching operations dating back to the mid-1800s. Near the main ranch are other buildings including a historic chapel as well as facilities of a University of California, Santa Barbara field station.

Fire protection measures were in place and no buildings had been damaged, Menard said.

Menard said there have only been four previous fires in the central valley in the past 25 years. Rainfall this season has been less than half the normal amount, like much of Southern California.

The island has a vast array of natural and cultural resources: Santa Cruz was once home to a large population of indigenous people who first met European explorers in the 16th century. It passed through Spanish and Mexican hands before U.S. control.

It also has important fossils and unique plants and animals.

The flames were battled by air tankers from a mainland base and firefighters from the National Park Service, Los Padres National Forest and Santa Barbara County.

More firefighters were being summoned from Sequoia and Sierra national forests, along with the Mesa and Carson hotshot crews from the Southwest, Menard said.
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on an "unofficial visit" to Beijing, China's state-run media reported late Tuesday.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency, citing North Korean state radio, reported that Kim had visited China between Sunday and Wednesday local time at Xi's invitation and was accompanied by his wife, Ri Sol Ju.

Xi held talks with Kim at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing and he and his wife Peng Liyuan hosted a banquet for Kim and his wife, the official Xinhua news agency said. They also watched an art performance together, the news agency said.

Xi hailed Kim's visit as embodying the importance with which the North Korean leader regarded ties with China.

"We speak highly of this visit," Xi told Kim, according to Xinhua.

In a statement, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said: "The Chinese government contacted the White House earlier on Tuesday to brief us on Kim Jong Un's visit to Beijing. The briefing included a personal message from President Xi to President Trump, which has been conveyed to President Trump.

"The United States remains in close contact with our allies South Korea and Japan," Sanders added. "We see this development as further evidence that our campaign of maximum pressure is creating the appropriate atmosphere for dialogue with North Korea."

Kim was described by Xinhua as saying that his country wants to transform ties with South Korea into "a relationship of reconciliation and cooperation." The two Koreas are still technically at war because their 1950-53 war ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.

North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency published Kim's personal letter to Xi dated on Wednesday, where he expressed gratitude to the Chinese leadership for showing what he described as "heartwarming hospitality" during his "productive" visit.

Kim said that the first meeting between the leaders of the two countries will provide a "groundbreaking milestone" in developing mutual relations to "meet the demands of the new era." Kim also said that he's satisfied that the leaders confirmed their "unified opinions" on mutual issues.

In a speech at a banquet in China, Kim described the traditional allies as inseparable "neighboring brothers" with a relationship molded by a "sacred mutual fight" to achieve socialist ideals, according to KCNA.

"It's most proper that my first overseas trip would be the capital of the People's Republic of China as it's also one of my noble duties to value the North Korea-China friendship as I do my own life and extend it (for another generation)," said Kim, according to the agency.

The North Korean leader is expected to hold separate summits with South Korean President Moon Jae In in late April and U.S. President Donald Trump in May. Analysts say Kim would have felt a need to consult with his country's traditional ally ahead of his planned meetings.

China remains North Korea's only major ally and chief provider of energy, aid and trade that keep the country's broken economy afloat.

The North's diplomatic outreach to Seoul and Washington came after an unusually provocative year when it conducted its most powerful nuclear test to date and three ICBMs tests designed to target the U.S. mainland.

The developments were interpreted as the North being desperate to break out of isolation and improve its economy after being squeezed by heavy sanctions.

Fox News' Katherine Lam and Serafin Gomez and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A surprise meeting between North Korea leader Kim Jong Un and President Xi Jinping of China this week has prompted speculation of the immediate and long-term ramifications.

The Kim-Xi meeting is the first of several planned talks between Pyongyang and other world leaders. Kim is expected to meet with South Korea's Moon Jae in late April and President Donald Trump in May, amidst increasing pressure on the Hermit Kingdom to end their nuclear weapons testing.

Experts say that Kims visit to Beijing before other countries highlights Chinas major role in efforts to end North Koreas nuclear program.

Given Chinas standing as North Koreas chief provider of energy, Pyongyangs consultation before meeting with South Korea or the United States makes strategic sense, experts said.

Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea expert at Seouls Dongguk University, said that maintaining its traditional relationship with China would give it stronger influence over the United States.

Whatever the outcome of planned talks with Seoul and Washington may be, Yu-hwan says, North Korea still needs Chinas help.

Kim Dong-yub, an analyst from Seouls Institute for Far Eastern Studies, said he believes the Kim-Xi meeting is the logical next step after both leaders have consolidated their power at home.

During a banquet speech, Kim described China and North Korea as inseparable brothers molded by a scared mutual fight to achieve socialist ideals, North Koreas state news agency reported.

Du Hyeogn Cha, a visiting scholar at Seouls Asan Institute for Policy Studies, said he believes North Korea may be coming to grips with realities as the U.N.-imposed sanctions on Pyongyang continue to cripple its economy.

China has historically taken calculated measures on sanctions, out of fear of destabilizing their neighbors, says Andrew Hammond of the London School of Economics. But in recent months, however, China has taken a harsher stance, including restrictions on oil supply.

Cha said he believes its likely North Korea would seek Chinas commitment for future support, or at least a promise it wont hit the country too hard with more sanctions should it resume weapons tests.

However, Yang Xiyu, one of Chinas leading experts on the North, believes Mr. Kims outreach to China and South Korea, does not necessarily signal his willingness to give up North Koreas nuclear arsenal.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A U.S. drone strike killed a high ranking official in the Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb terror cell in Libya on Saturday, the Pentagon disclosed Wednesday. It marked the first American drone strike against Al Qaeda in Libya.

Musa Abu Dawud was one of two AQIM terrorists killed in the airstrike in southwest Libya near the city of Ubari in the Sahara desert.

Dawud trained AQIM recruits in Libya for attack operations in the region. He provided critical logistics support, funding and weapons to AQIM, enabling the terrorist group to threaten and attack U.S. and Western interests in the region, U.S. militarys Africa Command said in a statement.

The State Department placed Dawud on its terrorist list in 2016 for his role in carrying out terrorist attacks in Algeria and Tunisia that killed roughly a dozen soldiers.

The State Department said that Dawud headed the training and recruitment of new members for AQIM.

The American drone strike in Libya on Saturday was the second of 2018, after seven late last year. Until this past weekend, drone strikes had only targeted ISIS-affiliated fighters in Libya.

DRONE STRIKE IN LIBYA KILLS 2 'TERRORISTS,' US AFRICA COMMAND SAYS

We assess no civilians were killed in this strike over the weekend, U.S. Africa Command said.

Al Qaeda, ISIS and other terrorist groups have taken advantage of ungoverned areas in southern Libya to establish sanctuaries for plotting attacks in Africa and against the West, the statement added.

In 2016, the U.S. military carried out nearly 500 airstrikes against an ISIS enclave in the coastal city of Sirte.

The day before leaving office in January 2017, then-President Barack Obama ordered an airstrike against two ISIS training camps using a pair of B-2 stealth bombers based in Missouri.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been cut off from the web after Ecuadors government said his recent social media posts put relations with Europe "at risk."

Assange has been living at Ecuadors London embassy since 2012 when the country first granted him asylum. He has not been allowed to leave the grounds over threats from the British government that he would be arrested for escaping bail and possible extradition to the U.S. over leaked State Department documents.

In a statement released on Tuesday, government officials say that Assanges recent posts "put at risk" the good relations Ecuador maintains with nations throughout Europe and had decided as of Tuesday to suspend his internet access "in order to prevent any potential harm."

As a part of his agreement to stay the embassy, Assange is forbidden from sending any messages that would interfere with Ecuadors diplomatic relations with other nations.

Ecuadors minister of foreign affairs, Maria Fernanda Espinosa said that he violated that agreement and that a group of diplomats would meet next week with Assanges legal team in order to resolve an inherited problem.

Assanges unverified Twitter account was last active on Tuesday when he shared a Reuters report about a British official who called him a miserable little worm over his unwillingness to turn himself into British police.

Assange fired back with a Tweet, calling himself a political prisoner who has been detained without charge.

Assange is vocal on social media. He recently posted about the expulsion of Russian diplomats by the U.S. and more than a dozen more European nations, calling the move poor diplomacy.

Hs recent posts could be what Ecuadors government regards as putting its diplomacy at risk.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Austrian police say 24 people were injured when a bus carrying South Korean tourists crashed near Salzburg.

Police in upper Austria say the Croatian driver and a South Korean tourist were seriously injured, while 22 others suffered minor injuries in Wednesday's crash.

In a statement, police said the incident happened in Gosau, about 30 kilometers (19 miles) southeast of Salzburg.

According to preliminary information the bus, which was heading to the scenic village of Hallstatt, slid off the road in snowy conditions and hit a perimeter wall.

The injured were taken to hospitals in Voecklabruck, Salzburg, Bad Ischl and Gmunden.

Police say a total of 35 South Korean tourists were on board.
A Canadian teenager, who bought her first-ever lottery ticket to celebrate turning 18 won $1,000 Canadian dollars a week for life.

Charlie Lagarde claimed her jackpot prize Monday with family and friends, The Toronto Star reported. She bought a bottle of champagne and the CA$4 scratch lottery ticket at a convenience store in mid-March, BBC reported.

After winning, she had the option of accepting a lump sum of CA$1m ($780,000) or earning CA$1,000 a week for life, the report said.

Lagarde consulted with a financial adviser, and after a few weeks, she chose the CA$1,000 annuity.

"It's without taxes so it's equivalent to a salary of more than $100,000 a year, so it's a great start in life for that young lady," Patrice Lavoie, a spokesman for the lottery corporation, told The Star. "That was her first lottery ticket ever and she fell upon a winning ticket."

Lagarde said she wants to use the money for travel and her education.

"I want to study photography, she told Loto Quebec. One of my dreams would be to work for National Geographic."
The mysterious meeting Kim Jong Un was summoned to in Beijing this week likely saw China's president remind the North Korean dictator who his real patron is ahead of talks with the U.S., according to experts.

Kim and his wife, Ri Sol Ju, made a surprise visit to Beijing on Monday, arriving on a mysterious green train that sparked rumors the North Korean first family was in China. The trip was planned in the weeks after President Trump announced he had accepted the despots invitation to meet by May, Yun Sun, who runs the East Asia program and the China Program at the Stimson Center, told Fox News.

We know that China has rejected a request for a visit by North Korea in the last six years, Yun Sun told Fox News on Wednesday. It has not happened up until this point. What has changed is that this trip happened relatively quickly, after Kim reached out to Trump.

Sun said that, after the stunning announcement of a U.S.-North Korea summit, China likely demanded an explanation about why it was left out of the talks, developing anxiety the U.S. and North Korea were engaging in secrete dialogue. She said the March 9 announcement was a major catalyst for China inviting North Korea to Beijing.

If you look at the tactical level, the Chinese did not want to invite Kim to Beijing," Sun said. "Based on that technical aspect, North Korea was successful in getting an upper hand over China.

Sun, however, said China still has the strategic upper hand. North Korea remains dependent on China and could not refuse the meeting. The train ride to Beijing was also the despots first foreign trip since taking power in 2011.

Most importantly, Beijing is concerned with any concessions that North Korea might make toward the U.S. in exchange for a U.S. security guarantee, or a settlement that could lead to the unification of the Korean Peninsula by absorption and the emergence of a unified Korea as an American military ally on Chinas border, Sun wrote in an analysis on 38 North.

Ties between China and North Korea have frayed in recent months as China supported tougher U.N. sanctions against North Korea and suspended coal and iron ore imports. Pyongyang last year seemingly sought to humiliate Beijing by timing some of its missile tests for major global summits in China.

"Kim Jong Un's visit shows that China is not marginalized, but playing a leading role. This saves China a lot of face," Pang Zhongying, a North Korea expert at Renmin University in Beijing, told The Associated Press. "[Meanwhile] North Korea once again is taking advantage of China. It plays the China card, showing South Korea and the U.S.: China is still my ally."

Photos released Wednesday showed a cordial meeting between Kim, Xi and their spouses. Kim was pictured clinking glasses with Xi, dining and walking through a guesthouse complex in Chinas capital.

During the meeting, which was officially announced Wednesday, Kim said North Korea is committed to denuclearization, according to Chinas Foreign Ministry.

It is our consistent stand to be committed to denuclearization on the peninsula, in accordance with the will of late President Kim Il Sung and late General Secretary Kim Jong Il, Kim said, according to Reuters.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Police in Pakistan say gunmen riding on motorcycle shot and killed a transgender woman and her friend in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

Police officer Mohammad Tahir says the two were targeted as they traveled in a rickshaw late Tuesday night, and that the motive for the killing is unknown.

Dozens of transgender people have been killed in recent years, mainly in the conservative Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, of which Peshawar is the capital. The Trans Action Alliance, a local rights group, says 55 have been killed there in the last three years.

No one has claimed the killings, but Islamic extremists, who associated transgender people with prostitution, are active in the region.
Hundreds of journalists wearing white shirts have marched through Haiti's capital to demand an investigation into why a freelance photographer vanished two weeks earlier while on assignment.

Vladjimir Legagneur disappeared March 14 after entering the Grand Ravine area, which is considered one of the poorest and most dangerous districts in Port-au-Prince. He has not been heard from since, and none of his belongings have been found as anger and frustration grow over a lack of answers from police and justice officials.

Police said before the march Wednesday that they have started to receive specific information about Legagneur's disappearance. But authorities provided no further details except to say they don't believe he was kidnapped because there has been no demand for ransom.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 28)  President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered a crackdown on manufacturers and peddlers of fake medicine, Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo said on Wednesday.

Panelo said Duterte said distributors of fake medicine should be charged and arrested for its effect on government revenues, especially in the form of taxes. He said the President gave the instruction to Philippine National Police Chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa on Tuesday night.

"The President has ordered the Chief PNP to arrest all persons who manufacture, import, distribute, sell, administer, and dispense fake drugs. They will be charged with economic sabotage," Panelo said.

Aside from the negative economic impact, he said distributing fake medicine also endangers the health of the public.

'Those acts undermine  not only the economy because it will affect the law of supply of the demand, affect the prices  but it also threatens the security of the nation because it endangers the vast health of the people," he said.

The Food and Drug Administration on Monday warned of fake paracetamol tablets circulating in the market. Taking fake medicine may cause potential danger or injury to consumers.
A British teacher was sentenced to prison for a minimum of 25 years Tuesday after he was convicted of trying to recruit students to carry out Islamic State-inspired attacks across London.

Umar Haque, 25, was accused of radicalizing some 110 children at two schools and a mosque making them re-enact deadly attacks on London and role-play attacks on police officers; he even exposed the children to gruesome videos of beheadings, Reuters reported.

The children were paralyzed by fear of Haque, who they understood to have connections to terrorists and who essentially told them that a violent fate would befall them if they told anyone what he was doing, said Dean Haydon, the head of Metropolitan Polices Counterterrorism Command.

BRITISH TEACHER CONVICTED OF TRYING TO RECRUIT CHILDREN FOR AN ISIS-INSPIRED ARMY

Haydon said a number of exercise books were recovered from Haques home and it was evident from his notes that his plan was a long-term one.

[Haque] intended to execute his plan years later, by which time he anticipated he would have trained and acquired an army of soldiers, including children, he said.

Haydon said Haque planned to create an army of children that would help carry out attacks at multiple sites using multiple weapons.

He tried and he did, we believe, radicalize vulnerable children from the ages of 11 to 14, Haydon said.

Prosecutors said Haque wanted to use the army to attack Big Ben, soldiers who guard Queen Elizabeth II and shopping centers.

POISONED RUSSIAN EX-SPY, DAUGHTER HAVE SLIM CHANCE OF SURVIVING, NIECE SAYS

Police believe Haque was radicalized through the internet and was inspired by last years attack on the Westminster Bridge that killed four people.

Haque lacked qualifications for academic positions, however, police said he became employed under the guise of teaching Islamic studies, Reuters reported.

Fox News' Paulina Dedaj contributed to this report.
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The Latest on Kosovo-Serbia tension (all times local):

6:20 p.m.

The Kremlin says President Vladimir Putin has strongly condemned the arrest of a senior Serbian official by Kosovo police in a call with the Serbian president.

It said in a statement that Putin and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Wednesday discussed the issue of Kosovo "in the context of the provocative action by Pristina authorities" against Marko Djuric, the head of the Serbian government office for Kosovo.

The statement added that Putin expressed "resolute condemnation" of Djuric's arrest, which he said violated a U.N. Security Council's resolution.

Monday's arrest and expulsion of Djuric angered Serbia and Kosovo Serbs, who don't recognize Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia. The incident also has fueled fears of renewed instability in the region.

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4 p.m.

Kosovo's Serb minority has demanded that the country's interior minister and police chief resign over the arrest and expulsion of a senior official from Serbia's government amid soaring tensions between the bitter foes.

Kosovo police detained Marko Djuric, the head of the Serbian government office for Kosovo, in the divided northern town of Mitrovica on Monday because he entered the country without Kosovo's official approval. He was later expelled under police escort.

Monday's actions angered Serbia and Kosovo Serbs, who don't recognize Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia. The incident also has fueled fears of renewed instability in the region. The U.S. and the European Union have been trying to help resolve the

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11:20 a.m.

The United States has strongly condemned the recent friction between Kosovo and Serbia, saying it could "unnecessarily heighten tensions and threaten regional stability."

Marko Djuric, the head of the Serbian government office for Kosovo, was briefly detained in the divided town of Mitrovica on Monday because he entered the country without Kosovo's official approval. He was expelled under police escort.

The following day, Russia became involved in the dispute and the European Union sent its foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on an urgent trip to Belgrade.

A statement from the U.S. State Department on Tuesday urged all parties to avoid further escalation and resolve disputes peacefully.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia, against Belgrade's wishes, in 2008.
Increased activity at a North Korean nuclear site in recent weeks has tempered expectations among some analysts that the rogue regime will follow through on its promise to denuclearize or negotiate in good faith during a planned May summit with President Trump.

Satellite imagery taken last month suggests North Korea has begun preliminary testing of an experimental light water reactor and possibly brought another reactor online at its Yongbyon Nuclear Research Center. Both could be used to produce the fissile materials needed for nuclear bombs.

Experts said in a report released on 38 North, a website that specializes in North Korea news and analysis, that activity was detected at a reactor in the Yongbyon complex, located north of Pyongyang.

Satellite imagery from Feb. 25 showed steam coming out of a building and the ice from a nearby frozen river melting.

This shows signs that 5000 kilowatts of nuclear reactors are ongoing, the report published Tuesday stated. If the reactor is restarted as evidenced, this means that North Korea probably resumed plutonium production for nuclear development. This also means that North Korea can extend the pipes for cooling water discharge to the river (not near the river) in order to further conceal the operating condition of the nuclear reactor better and further make future monitoring activities more difficult.

A military site in the area also showed an increase in personnel. Its unclear what the station is used for, but experts said it may be used for extra security -- or the regime is building a new facility.

Another report by Janes Intelligence Review published earlier this month stated a testing program is now underway on the experimental reactor.

The reactor, which was primarily designed to generate electricity for North Koreans, could be operational with "little warning later in 2018 or in 2019." The reactor was completed five years ago and, though it's designed for civilian use, it could be used to produce plutonium or tritium, the report stated.

World officials may never know if the reactor is being used to generate electricity for North Koreans or to produce weapons-grade material for bombs, the report warned, since only international inspections -- which are not in place -- could determine the use. The reactor has been linked to the local electricity grid and is believed to be potentially able to power a city of about 50,000 if operated at full capacity.

"Further monitoring of the type and cadence of activity at the site is likely to reveal clues about North Korea's ultimate intentions," the Jane's report concluded.

The reports come just months before Kim is planning to meet Trump. The despot is expected to meet with South Korean officials in April, too. During both summits, denuclearization will be a prominent topic on the agenda.

Kim also made a surprise visit this week to Beijing -- his first foreign trip since taking office in 2011 -- to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping. During the meeting, which was officially announced Wednesday, Kim said North Korea is committed to denuclearization, according to the Chinas Foreign Ministry.

It is our consistent stand to be committed to denuclearization on the peninsula, in accordance with the will of late President Kim Il Sung and late General Secretary Kim Jong Il, Kim said, according to Reuters.

He reportedly said: The issue of denuclearization of the Korean peninsula can be resolved, if South Korea and the United States respond to our efforts with goodwill, create an atmosphere of peace and stability while taking progressive and synchronous measures for the realization of peace.

North Koreas state-run news agency, however, made no mention of the despots pledge to denuclearize.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A Peruvian official says new President Martin Vizcarra will continue to ban Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from attending a regional summit next month.

The decision to exclude Maduro from the Summit of Americas was taken by former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.

But with Kuczynski's resignation last week as he faced impeachment there was speculation his successor would look to reverse the decision. Vizcarra said Tuesday that he would leave the decision to his foreign ministry.

A ministry official later agreed to reveal the decision to The Associated Press only on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss the matter with the press.

Maduro has vowed to travel to Peru for the summit despite the ban. President Donald Trump is also scheduled to attend.
The grisly murder of an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor in Paris is stoking fears of an escalation in anti-Semitism across France and Europe, where Jewish communities in a number of countries have felt increasingly threatened in recent years.

Mireille Knoll was found dead on Friday in her home, stabbed multiple times before her apartment was set ablaze. The two suspects arrested in the case, still unidentified by officials, were both in their 20s, and had criminal records. One of the men knew the victim since he was 7, according to reports.

Thousands of Parisians marched on Wednesday to honor Knoll's memory, and to speak out against anti-Semitism across France. Among those who participated were political parties from the far right and left, some of whom have themselves been accused of fostering anti-Semitism.

But even before Knoll was killed, the Jewish community in France had expressed concerns about an anti-Semitic resurgence. Just last year, a 28-year-old Muslim man from Mali threw his Jewish neighbor, a 65-year-old doctor, to her death from the window of her third-floor apartment in Paris.

French Jews are nearly 40 times more at risk of being attacked than their American counterparts, according to a report by Jonathan Greenblatt, chief executive and national director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), and Roger Cukierman, president of the Council of Representatives of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF).

Those concerns have pushed some 28,000 of the country's estimated 500,000 Jews to emigrate to Israel in recent years, according to Robert Ejnes, CRIF executive director.

Ejnes described three distinct types of anti-Semitism in France: traditional, far-left, and that of radicalized young Muslims. And it's the threat posed by that last group, he said, that was most troubling. According to Ejnes, most of the violent anti-Semitic acts in France are being committed by young Muslim men.

A recent ADL global survey found that 17 percent of the French population harbored anti-Semitic attitudes. Of those with such attitudes, 49 percent were Muslim, 17 percent Christian and 14 percent atheist.

Jews and Muslims once lived as neighbors in France, said Ejnes, but todays younger generation of Muslims has become radicalized.

Alopng similar lines, other countries in Europe are also dealing with what some see as the rise in anti-Semitism.

In Poland, the Law and Justice Party recently passed legislation that would criminalize any mention of Polish complicity in the Holocaust, including information uncovered through scholarly historical research. The legislation inspired expressions of outrage.

The law is baseless; I strongly oppose it, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a Jan. 27 statement. One cannot change history, and the Holocaust cannot be denied.

Polish TV commentator Jerzy Talgalski fired back, Dont attack us (Poland) or we will destroy your religion of the Holocaust, which is the basis for making money."

Konstanty Gebert, an author and columnist for Gazeta Wyborcza, Polands largest newspaper, said Poland is deliberately marginalizing the nations tiny Jewish population.

In neighboring Germany, the rise of the Alternative for Germany Party (AFD), which won 13.5 percent of the vote in last fall's election, has sparked further fears of anti-Semitism. The AFD is seen by its critics as a racist, nationalist group that has praised the role of German soldiers in World War II and called upon Germans to stop feeling shame for the Holocaust.

The AFD triumph was a stinging rebuke to Chancellor Angela Merkels open-door refugee policy, under which 1.5 million refugees, mainly Muslim, entered Germany in 2015 and 2016. The AFD vehemently opposes admission of Muslim refugees.

In Germany, the problem of anti-Semitism is once again multiplying rapidly, with taboos falling, said Deidre Berger, director of the American Jewish Committees Berlin office. Berger noted that anti-Semitic stereotypes in Germany are morphing into elaborate conspiracy theories about Jewish power, and are conflated with criticisms of Israel.

The latest data available from the German Ministry of the Interior indicate there were more than 1,400 incidents targeting Jews in 2017. And according to Deutsche Welle, anti-Semitic crimes in Berlin increased 100 percent between 2013 and 2017.

Germanys new coalition government has said it is dedicated to the preservation of Western democratic values, and has no tolerance for anti-Semitism. Indeed, the government has announced plans to appoint a commissioner to coordinate the fight against anti-Semitism, something long sought by the German Jewish community.
British officials announced Wednesday it's believed a former Russian spy and his daughter who were poisoned by a military-grade nerve agent earlier this month were exposed to the poison in their own home.

Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter, Yulia, 33, remain hospitalized in critical condition and are believed to have a slim chance of survival after being found unconscious on a park bench March 4 in the English city of Salisbury.

London's Metropolitan Police said in a news release that "the highest concentration of the nerve agent" was found at "the front door" of their home, the location believed by detectives to be where the duo first came into contact with the agent.

EX-RUSSIA SPY SERGEI SKRIPAL ALLEGEDLY POISONED: WHAT TO KNOW

The revelation is significant because it's the first time police have offered any suggestion about where the Skripals were poisoned. Intelligence sources previously told ABC News the Skripals were possibly poisoned through the air vents of Sergei's BMW.

Traces of the nerve agent known as novichok, which was created by Russia in the early 1990s during the end of the Cold War, have also been found at other locations but at a lower concentration, police said.

British Prime Minister Theresa May said Monday that "more than 130 people in Salisbury could have been potentially exposed to this nerve agent."

The prime minister previously said it's "highly likely" Russia is responsible for the poisonings, but the country has adamantly denied any involvement.

POISONED RUSSIAN EX-SPY, DAUGHTER HAVE SLIM CHANCE OF SURVIVING, NIECE SAYS

Russia doesnt have such means," President Vladimir Putin said after his re-election earlier this month. "We have destroyed all our chemical weapons under international oversight unlike some of our partners.

Countries across the world have joined the U.K. in blaming Russia for the attack. Many, including the United States, have taken diplomatic action against the Kremlin. At least 21 countries have expelled more than 135 Russian diplomats they suspect of being spies.

On March 15, President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, along with May, said in a joint statement that 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 read.

Sergei's niece, Viktoria, told the BBC Tuesday that the prognosis for the Skripals "really isn't good."

Out of 99 percent, I have maybe 1 percent hope, she said. Whatever [nerve agent] was used, it has given them a very small chance of survival. But theyre going to be invalids for the rest of their lives.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is currently conducting a probe into the nerve agent used against the Skripals. Officials said this week it could take two to three weeks to complete laboratory analysis on the samples.

Fox News' Lucia I. Suarez Sang and Alex Pappas, along with The Associated Press, contributed to this report.
The United States has strongly condemned the recent friction between Kosovo and Serbia, saying it could "unnecessarily heighten tensions and threaten regional stability."

Marko Djuric, the head of the Serbian government office for Kosovo, was briefly detained in the divided town of Mitrovica on Monday because he entered the country without Kosovo's official approval. He was expelled under police escort.

The following day, Russia became involved in the dispute and the European Union sent its foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on an urgent trip to Belgrade.

A statement from the U.S. Department of State Wednesday urged all parties to avoid further escalation and resolve disputes peacefully.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia, against Belgrade's wishes, in 2008.
AVAILABLE NOW!





Rated R

114 minutes





















Award-winning actress Frances McDormand (Fargo) delivers a stunningly powerful performance in this darkly comic drama that has been hailed as one of the years best films. A murdered girls defiant mother (McDormand) boldly paints three local signs with a controversial message, igniting a furious battle with a volatile cop ( Sam Rockwell ) and the towns revered chief of police ( Woody Harrelson ).









REVIEW:

Frances McDormand, you're my spirit animal.

Seeing her in this movie, playing this fiercely-loving mother, I am so in awe! She was epic! Her role in this movie was epic! The emotions it stirred in me as a mother was epic! I can totally see why this is an award-winning film.

If you're a parent, ask yourself what you would do if someone harmed one of your kids. Now ask yourself if you would ever give up on getting justice for those crimes against your child?

Now watch the film. You will think you won't like this movie one bit. You will be wrong. I guarantee it.

You will be pulled in, and you will think this is a fan-fucking-tastic film when it's all over. I know both the hubby and myself did. I also think it's one of my favorites now. I can't wait to tell my friends and family about it.









5/5













**Compensation may be earned from the links within. A screener was provided to facilitate a review. Opinions are owned by Freda's Voice.












Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 28)  Five Filipinos were featured in this year's Forbes "30 Under 30" list for Asia.

They are pastry chef Miko Aspiras, artist Archie Oclos, Thinking Machines Founder Stephanie Sy, Youtube Vlogger Bretman "Bretman Rock" Sacayanan, and Waves for Water (W4W) Country Director Carlo Delantar.

Philippine-based company cofounder Patrick Lynch was also recognized in the list for his start-up, First Circle.

Thinking Machines is a data science consultancy with expertise in artificial intelligence and machine learning initiatives while W4W is a global non-profit organization that aims to bring clean water to communities around the world.

First Circle on the other hand, is a financial technology company that caters to small businesses in the country.

The list featured 300 young innovators among more than 2000 nominations across 10 categories.

The Arts category featured two Filipinos namely Aspiras and Oclos.

Aspiras, who began baking when he was 11 years old, used to be a commis chef in Shangri-la Manila, and later founded his own food group, Tasteless, co-owning seven restaurant concepts. He is 29 years old.

Meanwhile, Oclos is a 28-year-old artist who uses his murals and paintings to impart messages, criticizing leaders and tackling socio-political issues in the country.

Sy is the sole Filipina recognized in the Finance and Venture category. She is 29 years old and currently working with the Metro Manila Development Authority to solve traffic congestion in Manila by using the transportation app, Waze.

Known for his makeup tutorials on Youtube, Bretman Rock claims the sole Filipino spot in the Media, Marketing, and Advertising category. At 19 years old, he has over two million subscribers, and collaborations with top makeup brand, Morphe.

Delantar, a social entrepreneur at 26 years old, assisted W4W's relief efforts following Typhoon Yolanda. He later applied the W4W model to the Philippines and with his team, was able to hand out 10,000 water filters, providing clean water to one million Filipinos. His name is listed under the Social Entrepreneur category.

In an effort to support small to medium enterprises, the "life-blood of the economy", Lynch founded First Circle in 2015, the first digital lending service in Southeast Asia. They were able to raise 1.3 million dollars for its services. His achievements led him to a spot in the Retail and E-commerce category at 28 years old.

Forbes' "30 Under 30 Asia 2018" list encompasses 24 countries in the Asia-Pacific region including first-time contenders Azerbaijan, North Korea, and Fiji.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 28)  More ride-hailing companies may soon enter the Philippine market, giving more competition to Grab after it acquired Uber.

The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) on Wednesday said there will be no monopoly with Grab because three Transport Network Companies (TNCs) are applying for accreditation.

"If you say there's no competition, soon there will be. Any competition is good for any industry because it benefits the riding public," LTFRB board member Aileen Lizada said in a media briefing.

She said "Lat Go," "Owto," and "Hype" are still complying with the requirements and it may take months before they could operate.

Grab on March 26 acquired Uber's Southeast Asia operations, including ride-sharing services in the Philippines, raising concerns about potential monopoly.

Laban Konsyumer head Vic Dimagiba said transport regulators should ensure that there will be competition among ride-sharing companies to keep fares and services affordable to passengers.

Grab Philippines country head Brian Cu assured passengers will benefit most from their merger with Grab.

He said the additional 20,000 to 24,000 Uber-exclusive drivers set to transition to Grab will mean less frequent fare surges because of the increase in supply.

"You should see that the allocation times get better because the density of cars should get better. If it's easier to allocate that means the surge won't go up," Cu said.

He added, "The combining of the two largest ride-hailing companies here in the Philippines and in Southeast Asia will allow us to focus on better things, such as the best quality costumer service both to our partner-drivers and the passengers we have."

Lizada said LTFRB is the only body who can regulate TNVS fares.

"Grab on its own, just like any other public utility vehicle, cannot increase its fares on its own. The times two surge stays, yung 11 to 14 range nila stays, yung two-pesos per minute running time stays," she said.

Grab has a pending petition for a fare hike, but transport regulators have yet to decide on the matter.

Uber will accept bookings only until April 8, after that all booking requests can only be made from the Grab app.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 28)  The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) arrested several individuals on Tuesday for allegedly selling inalienable land in Boracay.

In a press release on Wednesday, it said the subjects, Gina Talapian, Lorelei Tarrosa, Atty. Jacqueline Anne Yao, Jason Lacson and Chuanlin Yang, were apprehended in an entrapment operation in a Pasay City Hotel.

Talapian had allegedly offered a 7,988-square meter property in Brgy. Balabag to a corporation in 2016 after claiming she was one of the heirs to the property.

The corporation decided to purchase the property, believing it was owned by Talapian. It paid for the property on an installment basis after it found the property had estate tax issues that had not been settled yet.

In January 2017, the heirs, represented by Talapian and the corporation executed the contract to sell the property.

However, the company discovered in March that the said property was classified as "forest lands."

By then, the complainant-corporation had already paid a total down payment of P38,500,000.00 to Talapian.

In August 2017, the corporation further discovered the land in question was "inalienable," meaning it can't be surrendered by the government, or titled to any person or private individual.

The corporation then decided to stop further payments in September, but Talapian's group still demanded another seven million pesos.

Following this, the complainant enlisted the help of the National Bureau of Investigation, which led to the subjects' arrest.

Talapian and her companions are now facing syndicated estafa charges.

Speaking to media, Talapian said her family is in possession of a tax declaration, labelling the land as "tourist zone" but added they're still "verifying" it.

She admitted, however, that even if the status of the land was already problematic, she still proceeded with the deal.

"Kasi pinaglalaban namin yung as a claimant kami. Kasi nga may tax declaration kami. Tax dec namin is tourist zone. Yun yung pinaglalaban namin," she said.

[Translation: We had argued we were claimaints since we have a tax declaration. The tax declaration says it's a tourist zone, so we're fighting for that.]

She added, they are willing to return the money to the corporation.

The NBI, meanwhile, said the buyer also had its shortcomings.

"Ang naging lapse nung complainant natin yung due diligence nila nahuli Parang lumalabas yung complainants natin masyadong bullish. Masyadong excited na mag acquire ng property," NBI Anti Organized and Transnational Division Chief Dennis Siyhian said.

[Translation: The complainant had lapses because its due diligence came later. It makes it look like the complainants were too bullish and excited to acquire the property.]

NBI Spokesperson Ferdinand Lavin warned the public to be more cautious with dealings, especially with property transactions.

The arrest comes as the government enforces stricter environmental regulations in Boracay following President Rodrigo Duterte's directive to clean up the world-famous tourist destination.

An interagency task force created to head the Boracay clean up has proposed the temporary closure of the island to make way for its rehabilitation.
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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 27)  The camp of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno said candidates for the chief justice post were required by the Judicial Bar and Council (JBC) to submit all previous asset declarations, and not just the ones for the past decade.

In a statement Tuesday, Sereno's spokesperson Josa Deinla said it is a "misconception" that the JBC imposed only a 10-year requirement for the candidates' Statements of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALNs).

"With all due respect, the claim that the JBC required only 10 years of SALNs was Justice [Teresita] De Castro's self-serving assertion that is contradicted by the JBC's own announcement and its records," Deinla said.

The candidates were filling in the post vacated by the late Chief Justice Renato Corona in 2012, who was impeached over omissions on his SALNs.

Deinla added the JBC waived this requirement because 14 candidates could not comply.

She also said if the requirement were to be followed, De Castro should have submitted 39 SALNs as she has been in government service since 1973.

Sereno's camp maintained that when they applied for the chief justice post in 2012, De Castro could only submit 15 SALNs, covering 1997 to 2011. Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio, meanwhile, could only submit three out of five SALNs as Chief Presidential Legal Counsel of then President Fidel Ramos from 1992-1996.

The certification issued by the JBC on March 23 at Carpio's request showed it has records of Carpio's SALNs from 1992 to 1994 only, and from 2001-2011, the years Carpio was in public office.

Sereno was able to submit three SALNs, covering 2009, 2010, and 2011.

Before assuming the Chief Justice post in 2012, Sereno taught at the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Law from 1986 to 2006. In past hearings, UP said they only have her 2002 SALN.

Solicitor General Jose Calida had earlier asked the Supreme Court, through a quo warranto petition, to declare Sereno's appointment invalid over her alleged failure to fully disclose her wealth.

In her March 20 comment on Calida's quo warranto petition, Sereno said the submission of all SALNs to the JBC was not an "absolute requirement" for those vying for chief justice.

She said she was not the only candidate for the position who did not submit all asset declarations to the JBC. She specifically named fellow justices, Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio and Associate Justice De Castro, and retired Justices Arturo Brion and Roberto Abad among those who failed to submit one or more SALNs.

Carpio and De Castro, like Sereno, were deemed by the JBC to have "substantially complied" to the SALN requirement, Deinla said.

She added, "The fact that JBC waived its requirement of submission of all previous SALNs proves that "there is no basis for the quo warranto petition against CJ Sereno."

At least three groups, including minority lawmakers, have filed interventions before the Supreme Court seeking the dismissal of the petition to oust Sereno.

The House Committee on Justice has included Sereno's alleged SALN violations among the articles of impeachment against her.

The embattled chief justice said she would present all her recovered SALNs before the Senate impeachment court.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 28)  The government's top lawyer claimed the embattled Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno committed a "litany of falsehoods" in her asset declarations.

In a written reply to Sereno's earlier comment, Solicitor General Jose Calida listed alleged discrepancies in the top magistrate's Statements of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALNs).

Calida said Sereno's 1998 SALN was only filed in 2003, or five years beyond the period required by law.

He added her 2009 SALN was belatedly filed in June 2012.

His reply also stated that Sereno's 2009 SALN "reflects that she was holding the position of Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, when in fact, she was only appointed on August 16, 2010."

Calida said Sereno's 2006 SALN was signed only on July 27, 2010, the same day she submitted it to the Judicial Bar and Council (JBC). He also noted it was not notarized and did not bear a stamp receipt from the University of the Philippines where Sereno was a professor.

"It appears that she fabricated her 2006 SALN in an attempt to submit a SALN to the JBC during her application for Associate Justice in 2010," Calida said.

Sereno's 2011 SALN was also not signed by her husband, he added.

Lastly, Calida said Sereno failed to declare P15,000-worth of jewelry in her 1990 SALN. She said the pieces were acquired from 1986 to 1991.

"These are perjurious acts that bolster her utter lack of integrity," Calida said. "Respondent undermined the sanctity of the SALN by regarding it as mere formality."

In the same statement, Calida said the argument that other justices also failed to file all of their SALNs is "absolutely of no relevance" to the quo warranto petition against Sereno.

READ: SolGen to Sereno: Other justices' 'missing' SALNs not relevant to your case

In her March 20 comment on Calida's quo warranto petition, Sereno said the submission of all SALNs to the JBC was not an "absolute requirement" for those vying for chief justice.

She said she was not the only candidate for the position who did not submit all asset declarations to the JBC. She specifically named fellow justices, Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio and Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo-De Castro, and retired Justices Arturo Brion and Roberto Abad as among those who failed to submit one or more SALNs.

Carpio and De Castro, like Sereno, were deemed by the JBC to have "substantially complied" to the SALN requirement, said Josa Deinla, one of Sereno's spokespersons.

Deinla added: "The fact that JBC waived its requirement of submission of all previous SALNs proves that "there is no basis for the quo warranto petition against CJ Sereno."

READ: Sereno camp: JBC required chief justice candidates to submit all past SALNs

Calida had earlier asked the Supreme Court, through a quo warranto petition, to declare Sereno's appointment invalid over her alleged failure to fully disclose her wealth.

At least three groups, including minority lawmakers, have filed interventions before the Supreme Court seeking the dismissal of the petition.

The House Committee on Justice has included Sereno's alleged SALN violations among the articles of impeachment against her.

The embattled Chief Justice said she would present all her recovered SALNs before the Senate impeachment court.
NOTE: this is an archived page and the content is likely to be out of date.

Fujitsu today announced that it is supporting the forest conservation efforts of BirdLife International Tokyo(1) in the Hutan Harapan rainforest in Sumatra, Indonesia. The organization is supporting forest patrols in Hutan Harapan, as large-scale forest fires and illegal logging has made providing a response an urgent task for many forests in Indonesia. Fujitsu has contributed 3.3 million yen for the purchase of ICT devices, with the goal of increasing the efficiency of these patrols.

The Fujitsu Group has made contributing to the mitigation of climate change one of its goals in the FUJITSU Climate and Energy Vision, the Group's medium-to-long term environmental vision through 2050, and it considers the conservation of forests, which are an important carbon sink source, as a major task in this area. Now, through BirdLife Tokyo, Fujitsu has offered to support Burung Indonesia (BirdLife International's partner organization in Indonesia) in their conservation activities in the Hutan Harapan rainforest in Sumatra, Indonesia.

The Hutan Harapan rainforest is a massive forest, about half the size of Tokyo (100,000 hectares), located on the southern side of the island of Sumatra. This is the first area in Indonesia set aside by the country's Ecosystem Restoration Concession(2), and rare animals such as wild Sumatran tigers and Sumatran elephants still exist in the area. There are also activities to restore the secondary forests that were former commercial logging sites to the original ecosystem. Such activities are important and significant in improving the forest's ability to serve as a carbon sink, thereby limiting global warming.

Forest patrols are currently being conducted as an urgent response to large-scale forest fires and illegal logging in the Hutan Harapan rainforest. Because it requires time and effort to carry out patrols and aggregate information, however, such endeavors have limited the amount of resources allocated to the original mission of forest restoration. Now, Fujitsu has made a donation for the purchase of ICT devices that will enable workers to input on-the-ground status information while still in the field, improving the efficiency of forest patrols.

Going forward, the Fujitsu Group will continue to support forest conservation and restoration efforts, contributing to the mitigation of climate change.

Related Websites

Fujitsu's Environment page

About the FUJITSU Climate and Energy Vision

Fujitsu's contributions to environmental activities outside Japan

Forests of Hope site - Harapan Rainforest, Indonesia
News

Drainage fixes in Bayridge could total $13.6 million

STUART VILLANUEVA/ The Daily News Gregory Mitchell helps his daughter, Mary Jo, 3, down from a climbing wall in the backyard of their Bayridge neighborhood home in League City on Tuesday, March 27, 2018. The family has been displaced from the home as repairs are completed after flooding from Hurricane Harvey last year. STUART VILLANUEVA/The Daily News Gregory Mitchell and his daughter daughter Mary Jo, 3, walk out of the family's Bayridge neighborhood home in League City on Tuesday, March 27, 2018. The family has been displaced from the house as repairs are completed after flooding from Hurricane Harvey last year. STUART VILLANUEVA/The Daily News AnnDee Mitchell, 7, pushes her sister, Mary Jo, 3, in a swing in the backyard of their Bayridge neighborhood home in League City on Tuesday, March 27, 2018. The family has been displaced from the house as repairs are completed in the wake of flooding from Hurricane Harvey last year. The sisters have been living with grandparents in Chicago. STUART VILLANUEVA/The Daily News Lauren Mitchell laughs with her daughter Mary Jo, 3, in the back yard of their Bayridge neighborhood home in League City on Tuesday, March 27, 2018. The family has been displaced from the house as repairs are completed in the wake of flooding from Hurricane Harvey last year. STUART VILLANUEVA/The Daily News Lauren Mitchell laughs with her daughters Mary Jo, 3, and AnnDee, 7, right, in a renovated room in their Bayridge neighborhood home in League City on Tuesday, March 27, 2018. The family has been displaced from the house as repairs are completed in the wake of flooding from Hurricane Harvey last year. STUART VILLANUEVA/The Daily News Mary Jo Mitchell, 3, turns on the light in the closet of her room in her family's Bayridge neighborhood home in League City on Tuesday, March 27, 2018. The family has been displaced from the house as repairs are completed in the wake of flooding from Hurricane Harvey last year.

LEAGUE CITY

Councilman Hank Dugie offered about 120 angry Bayridge residents something tangible Thursday when he committed to putting a temporary pump policy on the League City council agenda for April 10.

People just wanted something to be done, Dugie said.

Bayridge soaked in floodwater for four days after Hurricane Harvey hit Galveston County on Aug. 25, 2017. Residents blamed the city for not maintaining the detention pond where water did not drain in the days after Harvey. They also accused the city about not caring.

The upset residents attended the citys presentation Thursday of a preliminary engineering report that suggested near-term and long-term solutions to drainage problems, adding up to more than $13.7 million in potential fixes.

Soon after the presentation started, residents began launching questions about when the proposals would go into action and pointed out that hurricane season starts June 1.

City Manager John Baumgartner explained that the city had to gather all the information, including residents input, look at the possible solutions and find ways to pay for the most feasible fixes.

Much of the city staff was restricted from making promises at the meeting because of procedures that require them to plan options in detail  including the cost of implementing the plans  and to wait on the city council to approve the plans.

PUMPS

The neighborhoods detention pond drains into Gum Bayou which, in turn, drains into Dickinson Bayou. The preliminary engineering report included suggestions about widening Gum Bayou and improving the gullies and ditches that drain into it.

One of the claims from residents was that the city did not get out to the neighborhood soon enough to pump water out.

Getting a temporary pump policy in place is what Dugie wants the city council to approve April 10. The proposal is in the works, city staff said.

League City, like other communities, had pre-issued contracts in case of a natural disaster to ensure that debris removal companies and other disaster-related services were ready to roll when needed, Assistant City Manager Bo Bass said.

Those pre-issued contracts included water pumps. After Harvey hit, two water pumps arrived at a League City staging center, Bass said.

Harvey took everyone by surprise, Bass said. It was all hands on deck.

After much of the initial rescue of people and animals ended, Bass and other city officials drove through the city to take inventory of damage and problem areas. On Aug. 30, they drove by Clear Falls High School, 4380 Village Way, and noticed high water still standing in the Bayridge detention pond, Bass said.

We saw a citizen with a small pump, Bass said. He and the other city officials decided on the spot to get a water pump from the staging center to the levee of the pond, he said.

After struggling to get the pump to the still-sodden levees, Bass and the others got it working and the water level began to go down, he said.

The radiator on the pump started to leak, so the city crew had to shut the pump off until they resolved the problem, Bass said.

FISHBOWL

Rebekah Swiney, who lives in the neighborhood, is upset about more than the pumps. She and several other residents worry about how the newer developments surrounding Bayridge added to the drainage headaches.

The city should have known and should have fixed drainage problems before Harvey, Swiney said.

They had ample time, she said.

In August 2015, Swiney wrote the city after learning a new commercial development was planned for property behind hers. She was already concerned at the time about water not draining in her and her neighbors backyards, something they started noticing after an H-E-B store went up at 2755 E. League City Parkway, Swiney said.

After the field between H-E-B and her house was leveled, it made things worse, she said.

Water retains more in that field, causing mosquitos to be horrible, Swiney stated at the time in a letter to the city. I fear that if they build more commercial property that close to my home that my backyard will get even worse.

City staff told her they got her letter, but the zoning change for the commercial project went through.

They never got back with me about it, Swiney said.

Other neighbors are concerned about more plans for other new developments that could also make drainage in Bayridge worse, they said.

Resident Marika Fuller is worried about the future Quail Point project planned southeast of Bayridge, near the intersection of state Highway 646 and state Highway 146, she said. Quail Point would also depend on Gum Bayou for drainage, she said.

BEING HEARD

On the morning after the meeting, city workers went to the Bayridge neighborhood. Crews removed debris in gullies, Bass said.

We saw two bicycles there, he said.

Resident Lauren Mitchell saw the city crews working Friday morning, she said. She was one of the more outspoken residents at the Thursday night meeting. By Monday, Mitchell was feeling more positive, she said.

It does show me we are working toward a common goal, Mitchell said. We have to continue to keep the pressure on to get the job done.

Some of the hesitation from city officials Thursday bothered Mitchell, but now that the city council will address one drainage problem on a specific date, she feels better, she said.

We are being heard, Mitchell said.

Conceptual costs in preliminary report Houston-based LJA Engineering prepared a preliminary report of its analysis of drainage in the Bayridge subdivision and Gum Bayou area of League City. The draft of the report includes near and long-term improvements and cost estimates. All proposed improvements listed below are conceptual, the company said. Near-term improvements  Overflow swales at Seacrest Boulevard, Anchor Way, Windward and Baycrest Drive would allow for the free outfall into the detention pond should there be any clogging or a failure in the underground storm system. The estimated cost for the overflow swales is $20,000 each.  Internal storm sewer improvements would include replacing the storm sewer along the east side of the subdivision with an open channel and increasing the capacity of outfalls into the detention pond. The estimated cost for these combined improvements is $482,125. Long-term improvements  Levee, pump station and road improvements include raising the levee by at least 2 feet, improving the entrance at Bayridge Drive and rebuilding the road to a higher grade. This would keep Gum Bayou and League City Parkway floodwaters from entering the subdivision. An alternative plan would include installing an automated floodgate and installing a pump station. Rebuilding Bayridge Drive would cost $3.7 million and the alternative of an automated floodgate would cost $3.65 million.  Culvert and ditch improvements along League City Parkway and Gum Bayou would cost $868,250.  Additional culverts, expanding ditches and widening Gum Bayou would cost $3,862,000.  Creating a channel from League City Parkway to Galveston Bay would cost $4.5 million, but environmental issues could increase this cost because the path goes through wetlands.
Citing "systemic failures" with the way a Texas City dental clinic managed its infection control procedures, Galveston County's top health official said Wednesday that the facility will not reopen until the people that manage it can show competency in keeping people safe.
(CNN)  Calling the situation in Syria's Eastern Ghouta "a travesty," U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley admonished the Russian government Tuesday for "deception, hypocrisy and brutality" on behalf of President Bashar al-Assad.

"I would ask my Security Council colleagues to consider whether we are wrong when we point to Russian and Iranian forces working alongside Assad as being responsible for this slaughter," said Haley, who further accused the Russian government of exploiting UN ceasefire negotiations to help Assad advance his campaign against opposition forces.

"Russia cynically negotiated a ceasefire it instantly defied," she said.

But Haley  known for delivering blistering remarks at the council, particularly against Russia  reserved some of her strongest admonitions for her UN colleagues, who she reprimanded for not holding Russia and Syria accountable with a tougher ceasefire agreement and stronger condemnations of Assad and his allies.

"This is a travesty," said Haley. "This should be a day of shame for every member of this council, and it should be a lesson about what happens when we focus on fleeting displays of unity, instead of on what's right. "

"History will not be kind when it judges the effectiveness of this council in relieving the suffering of the Syrian people," she noted.

The Security Council met Tuesday to consider the effectiveness of previous resolutions concerning Syria.

"The last few months have been some of the worst yet for many civilians inside Syria," the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock reported to the council before Haley spoke, outlining the dire humanitarian situation in the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta, one of the last significant rebel-held areas in the country.

The Syrian regime has conducted a sweeping campaign to flush rebel fighters from key parts of the country, including Eastern Ghouta, with the backing of their powerful ally Russia and its warplanes.

Last month, the Security Council adopted a ceasefire resolution to allow for the delivery of emergency aid and the evacuation of the wounded from some of Syria's hardest-hit areas, including Eastern Ghouta.

The diplomats said the United States fought to keep language in the resolution that called for an immediate start to the ceasefire and unfettered humanitarian access without delay. But the Russian delegation kept trying to water it down to delay implementation, the diplomats said.

The resolution that was ultimately adopted provided little detail on when the 30-day ceasefire was meant to begin, how it would be enforced or even whether all the parties concerned were aware of it.

In the weeks since the resolution was adopted, the UN estimates that over 1,700 people have been killed and thousands more have been injured in military operations in Eastern Ghouta.

Last week, hundreds of rebels evacuated the city after striking a deal for safe passage with the Syrian regime.

"Siege, starve, and surrender," said Haley. "This is the awful, unceasing rhythm of the Syrian war."

In his remarks, Russian Ambassador to the UN Vasily Nebenzya insisted Russia was the only council member taking steps to advance the ceasefire, and had provided for to the voluntary evacuations of civilians from Eastern Ghouta.

He further called on the United Nations to help rebuild areas he said were "liberated from terrorists" by the Syrian regime.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Nikki Haley berates Russia, UN colleagues over Syria: 'This should be a day of shame'."
Conceptual costs in preliminary report

Houston-based LJA Engineering prepared a preliminary report of its analysis of drainage in the Bayridge subdivision and Gum Bayou area of League City.

The draft of the report includes near and long-term improvements and cost estimates.

All proposed improvements listed below are conceptual, the company said.

Near-term improvements

 Overflow swales at Seacrest Boulevard, Anchor Way, Windward and Baycrest Drive would allow for the free outfall into the detention pond should there be any clogging or a failure in the underground storm system. The estimated cost for the overflow swales is $20,000 each.

 Internal storm sewer improvements would include replacing the storm sewer along the east side of the subdivision with an open channel and increasing the capacity of outfalls into the detention pond. The estimated cost for these combined improvements is $482,125.

Long-term improvements

 Levee, pump station and road improvements include raising the levee by at least 2 feet, improving the entrance at Bayridge Drive and rebuilding the road to a higher grade. This would keep Gum Bayou and League City Parkway floodwaters from entering the subdivision. An alternative plan would include installing an automated floodgate and installing a pump station. Rebuilding Bayridge Drive would cost $3.7 million and the alternative of an automated floodgate would cost $3.65 million.

 Culvert and ditch improvements along League City Parkway and Gum Bayou would cost $868,250.

 Additional culverts, expanding ditches and widening Gum Bayou would cost $3,862,000.

 Creating a channel from League City Parkway to Galveston Bay would cost $4.5 million, but environmental issues could increase this cost because the path goes through wetlands.
Reporter

Before coming to work for The Daily News as a staff reporter, Connor worked for us as a freelance correspondent throughout 2017. He has written for other publications such as the Washington Post.
Thunder Thursday, the annual kickoff party for the Grand Prix rocked The Pike Outlets on the eve of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, which runs from Friday to Sunday, Sept. 24 to 26.
(CNN)  The Russian government is threatening retaliation over one of the largest mass expulsions of its diplomats in history after more than 20 countries, including the United States, backed action by the UK over the poisoning of a former Russian spy in southern England.

According to state media Tass, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed the United States pressured and blackmailed other countries to expel Russian diplomats.

Lavrov said Tuesday the expulsions are the "result of colossal pressure and colossal blackmail, which is Washington's chief instrument in the international scene."

He added, "Rest assured, we will respond."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the government "deeply regretted" the U.S. decision to expel diplomats, and would analyze the situation before submitting a proposal for retaliatory action to President Vladimir Putin.

"We already stated and reconfirm that Russia has never had any relation to this (poisoning). We will be guided by the principle of reciprocity as before," Peskov said.

The United States announced Monday it would be expelling 60 Russian diplomats and closing the Russian Consulate in Seattle in what is President Donald Trump's toughest diplomatic move against Moscow since taking office.

NATO also is withdrawing accreditation for seven staff at its Russian Mission and suspending application requests for three more, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said.

The maximum size of the Russian mission to NATO would be reduced by 10, bringing the total number down to 20, Stoltenberg said.

When the Obama administration expelled 35 diplomats over Russian meddling in the 2016 election, the Russian government told the United States to cut its diplomatic staff inside Russia by 755.

In response to the latest expulsion of diplomats, Vasily Nebenzia, Russia's UN representative, accused the United States of "abusing its rights and obligations" as the host of the UN General Assembly, according to Tass.

Nebenzia said the expulsion of diplomats would hamper Moscow's efforts at the international body.

"Of course this is a blow to our mission, but I think we'll mobilize," Nebenzia told Tass.

May: Mass expulsion historic

Canada, Ukraine and member states of the European Union joined the United States on Monday in expelling more than 100 Russian diplomats.

British Prime Minister Theresa May called the worldwide backlash the "the largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers in history."

"We have no disagreement with the Russian people who have achieved so much through their country's great history. But President Putin's regime is carrying out acts of aggression against our shared values," May said.

The United Kingdom and Russia have been locked in a diplomatic fight since May's government accused Moscow of organizing the March 4 poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, England.

Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were both exposed to a potentially deadly nerve agent, according to British authorities, and remain hospitalized in critical condition.

"We assess that more than 130 people in Salisbury could have been potentially exposed to this nerve agent," May said Monday, adding that the Skripals may never fully recover.

Russia has denied it was involved in the Salisbury attack and has even suggested the UK could have been behind the poisoning.

U.S. protests Russia's 'destabilizing actions'

As of Tuesday morning, 13 Russian diplomats were expelled from Ukraine, while Canada, Germany, France and Poland each expelled four.

More than a dozen other countries, including Australia, Italy and the Netherlands, have each expelled between one and three Russian diplomats or intelligence officers.

European Council President Donald Trusk wouldn't rule out the possibility of further expulsions of diplomats in the days to come.

New Zealand said it would also expel Russian spies  if it had any.

"While other countries have announced they are expelling undeclared Russian intelligence agents, officials have advised there are no individuals here in New Zealand who fit this profile," Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said in a statement Tuesday. "If there were, we would have already taken action."

The European Council has joined the United Kingdom and the United States in saying the poisoning of Skripal and his daughter was almost certainly the work of the Russian government.

Senior Trump administration officials told CNN the decision to expel the diplomats wasn't just taken in response to the attack but also in protest to Russia's "steady drumbeat of destabilizing actions."

The mass expulsion comes less than a week after Trump called Putin to congratulate him on his re-election, reportedly against the recommendations of his advisers.

Other nations decline to expel Russians

A handful of EU countries suggested they wouldn't be following suit and expelling Russian diplomats, among them Austria and Portugal.

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz tweeted that while he stood behind the European Council's decision to recall the EU ambassador from Moscow, Austria wanted to be "bridge-builders between East and West and keep communication channels to Russia open."

Similarly, Portugal expressed its "solidarity with the United Kingdom" over the Salisbury attack, though stopped short of expelling Russian diplomats in a statement.

Turkey also said it would not be taking action, with Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag telling reporters in Ankara: "There is a positive and good relation between Turkey and Russia."

China, a key ally of Russia's, has urged countries to "abandon a Cold War mentality." Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters Tuesday that "relevant countries" should "avoid taking any actions that would aggravate the conflict."

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Russia warns of retaliation after at least 100 diplomats expelled worldwide."
(CNN)  In a series of unusually candid remarks, the U.S. general in charge of the nation's nuclear arsenal has issued a stark warning that Russia and China are "aggressively" developing new high-speed, or hypersonic, weapons that the U.S. currently has no defense against.

The weapons might not be operational for several years, but General John Hyten, the four-star head of U.S. Strategic Command, is warning that changes to missile defenses are urgently needed or the U.S. will be unable to detect them when they are operational.

"China has tested hypersonic capabilities. Russia has tested. We have as well. Hypersonic capabilities are a significant challenge," Hyten told CNN in an exclusive interview. "We are going to need a different set of sensors in order to see the hypersonic threats. Our adversaries know that."

Hyten and other military officials say the current generation of missile detecting satellites and radars won't be enough to detect these new generation weapons. Hypersonic is generally defined as a speed of Mach 5 or over 3,806 miles per hour.

"We've watched them test those capabilities," Hyten told Congress last week. But with unusual public candor about potential U.S. military shortfalls, he acknowledged "we don't have any defense that could deny the employment of such a weapon against us, so our response would be our deterrent force, which would be the triad and the nuclear capabilities that we have to respond to such a threat."

Hypersonic missiles fly into space after launch, but then come down and fly at high speeds on a flight path similar to an airplane. Their lower trajectory make them more difficult for US missile defense satellites and radars to detect. Russia has openly stated it is developing high-speed air-launched missiles as well as underwater hypersonic drones.

The Pentagon is currently writing a review of its missile defenses to help determine what new capabilities might be needed to deal with new classes of attack weapons. Hyten gave Congress a hint of what may be in that review stating "the first thing we need is better sensor capability, better tracking capabilities to make sure we can characterize and then respond to that threat."

He also called for improved U.S. warheads, essentially "better kill vehicles on the top of our interceptors so that those kill vehicles become more and more lethal." The Pentagon is also working on concepts for interceptor missiles that repel a barrage of enemy attack missiles. Current U.S. missile defenses are designed to only shoot down a small number of enemy missiles.

The U.S. focus has largely been to work on hypersonic technologies across the board. But Russia is now well into testing some of its systems. Earlier this month Russia showed video of what the Kremlin said was an air-launched hypersonic ballistic missile.

When asked how far along the Russian hypersonic program is, Hyten told CNN, "I don't want to put a who's winning the race, I'll just say there is a race."

When asked how soon it could be before the Russians have an operational hypersonic weapon that could reach the U.S., Hyten said, "It's similar to the North Korea problem. If you continue to pursue that technology, you will get there. And the Russians will get there, the Chinese will get there and we'll get there  and we'll have to figure out how to deal with that."

This story was first published on CNN.com, "US general warns of hypersonic weapons threat from Russia & China."
This restaurant owner doesn't give a fuck.

Some vegan protesters are lashing out after a Canadian restaurant owner got revenge against them for demonstrating outside his business.

Toronto restaurant Antler specialises in native meat, including bison, boar, rabbit, duck and deer.

It's led to the eating place being targeted by angry animal rights activists.

But as they gathered for their fourth protest targeting the restaurant, one of the owners launched his retaliation.

He pulled out a deer leg and started butchering it right in front of the shocked vegans.

We stood peacefully on public property with our signs; less than an hour into our protest Michael Hunter, owner of Antler, brought out the leg of a deer and began to carve it in front of us,

event organiser Marni Jill Ugar wrote on Facebook post following the weekend protest.

"Once the deer was cooked Michael Hunter sat back down at the window to eat the dead deer.

"Look in the window. Look at Michael Hunter. That deer was treated like a joke. That deer was an innocent animal who did not want to die."

Mr Hunter has reacted to the protests, saying the restaurant's meat menu won't be dropped.

"We aren't surprised by the protest as it's not the first we have had," the restaurant told Yahoo7.

"At this time, we are focused on catering to our customers and remaining true to our identity as a restaurant and to Chef Michael's identity as a chef."

Newshub.
clarajancita at 28-03-2018 01:12 PM (3 years ago) (f)

A South African lady, with the handle @ZimeMsomi, took to the social media platform to share a photo with her white lover and indirectly disclosed her reason for marrying him.

A South African lady, with the handle @ZimeMsomi, took to the social media platform to share a photo with her white lover and indirectly disclosed her reason for marrying him.

@ZimeMsomis photo has since caused a frenzy on Twitter; she captioned the photo securing the will and that apparently, has caused the stir its meant to cause.



Upon seeing the tweet, tweeps had different reactions to it as one wrote;

The reverse Expropration of our women without lobola in the hope of a will going in their favour. A pensioner that young has his will concreted & in most cases excludes u, cc. Get a grip & look for a job.





Another wrote,

Some chic takes a pic with her severely old white compatriot and says waiting & or counting on inheritance & says I must chill when I criticize. Someone pliz call 911. @ZimeMsomis photo has since caused a frenzy on Twitter; she captioned the photo securing the will and that apparently, has caused the stir its meant to cause.The reverse Expropration of our women without lobola in the hope of a will going in their favour. A pensioner that young has his will concreted & in most cases excludes u, cc. Get a grip & look for a job.Another wrote,Some chic takes a pic with herold white compatriot and says waiting & or counting on inheritance & says I must chill when I criticize. Someone pliz call 911.

Post Reply I am a metro reporter on Gistmania, I have been publishing news materials for over 5 years Posted: at 28-03-2018 01:12 PM (3 years ago) | Hero
felicilin at 28-03-2018 01:52 PM (3 years ago) (f)

President Trump said on Tuesday he will end a special immigration program that has allowed nearly 4,000 Liberians to legally live and work in the U.S. over the past 25 years.

President Trump said on Tuesday he will end a special immigration program that has allowed nearly 4,000 Liberians to legally live and work in the U.S. over the past 25 years.

Liberians will now face a similar situation to thousands of people from El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Sudan who had their Temporary Protected Status (TPS) terminated by the Trump administration.



They either have to leave the country at the expiration of the deadline or risk becoming undocumented immigrants facing deportation.



Liberians were first granted TPS in March 1991 under former President George H.W. Bush due to armed conflicts that were gripping the country, and starting in 1999, Liberians were transferred into a separate program called Deferred Enforced Departure, a classification that allowed them to live and work in the U.S. without fear of deportation.



That status was approved several times by former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama as the country grappled with a civil war, ongoing armed conflicts, and an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus.



But after consulting with the departments of State and Homeland Security on Tuesday, Trump concluded that those conditions had been largely resolved, giving Liberian immigrants 12 months to get their affairs in order and return to their home country.



I have been informed that conditions in Liberia have improved, Trump wrote in a presidential memorandum.



Liberians will now face a similar situation to thousands of people from El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Sudan who had their Temporary Protected Status (TPS) terminated by the Trump administration.They either have to leave the country at the expiration of the deadline or risk becoming undocumented immigrants facing deportation.Liberians were first granted TPS in March 1991 under former President George H.W. Bush due to armed conflicts that were gripping the country, and starting in 1999, Liberians were transferred into a separate program called Deferred Enforced Departure, a classification that allowed them to live and work in the U.S. without fear of deportation.That status was approved several times by former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama as the country grappled with a civil war, ongoing armed conflicts, and an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus.But after consulting with the departments of State and Homeland Security on Tuesday, Trump concluded that those conditions had been largely resolved, giving Liberian immigrants 12 months to get their affairs in order and return to their home country.Trump wrote in a presidential memorandum. Quote Liberia is no longer experiencing armed conflict and has made significant progress in restoring stability and democratic governance. The 2014 outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease caused a tragic loss of life and economic damage to the country, but Liberia has made tremendous progress in its ability to diagnose and contain future outbreaks of the disease.



But Trumps summary comes with problems for many Liberians who have been integrated into American communities.



Rose Knuckles Bull, a Liberian who has been living in New York under the program, said his years of work for a fire department and a voter registration office will be tossed aside if hes forced to return to a country he hasnt seen for nearly a quarter century.



It would be unfair to force us to return to Liberia without anything, and start all over again at this age, he said.



Critics of the administration also point out that the decision must be viewed in the context of Trump referring to African nations as shithole countries.

he said.Critics of the administration also point out that the decision must be viewed in the context of Trump referring to African nations as

Post Reply Posted: at 28-03-2018 01:52 PM (3 years ago) | Hero
kacylee at 28-03-2018 10:25 PM (3 years ago) (f)

A Nigerian political activist and lecturer, Joshua Onokhua Okojie, has dared police officers who allegedly threatened him that they will deal with him whenever he returns to the country from Australia. The North Melbourne based man, took to Facebook to announce his homecoming ahead of the Easter festivity as he dared the police officers to wait for him at the airport and see what will happen.

A Nigerian political activist and lecturer, Joshua Onokhua Okojie, has dared police officers who allegedly threatened him that they will deal with him whenever he returns to the country from Australia. The North Melbourne based man, took to Facebook to announce his homecoming ahead of the Easter festivity as he dared the police officers to wait for him at the airport and see what will happen.

Below is what he shared on Facebook;







The effects of collecting bribe tells negatively on your children children! Karma is a birtch!



My mum only gave birth to five of us, and the five of us no doubt is doing well in our various professions. The five of us have all agreed to be in Nigeria to observe the Easter holidays with mum and dad. Those of you who are bribe collectors, saying you will get hold of me if I mistakenly come to Nigeria,this is a passing announcement for you guys. If you guys know you got the liver,just dare to come and wait for me at the airport,and see if your own fellow police officers wont even be the one to pull off your uniform,shoe, and cap!



Below is what he shared on Facebook;

Post Reply I have been reporting for several years now and I am very interested in visual news reportage with strong inclusion of photos and video multimedia. Posted: at 28-03-2018 10:25 PM (3 years ago) | Addicted Hero
My grandson just returned from an out-of-state band trip. His trip made me remember the band trips of my school days.

If you lived in the North Country, you may have gotten to take band trips out of the USA. I remember trips to Canada to take part in band festivals, but what I do not remember is crossing the border.

Today, I would bet that each instrument case, as well as any luggage, etc would have to be inspected at the border crossing. If that had been what happened many years ago, I think it would have been something we all remembered. At that time, crossing the border into Canada didnt seem to be that big of an issue.

Of course, being a teenager, I was probably oblivious to those things, but I think we may have been waved through on our return trip, as those days the border agents probably remembered us crossing over, knew many of our families and was pretty certain they were not dealing with terrorists. But then, the only concern may have been the crossing of illegal liquor.

I am going to have to dig out a map, as I just thought of all of the swimming and skating we used to do at the Post. Were we on the USA side? Hmmm.
The City Council would like to ensure the community that we have a snow removal plan in place that tries to encompass all scenarios and flexibility as possible while addressing the needs of the public.

In dealing with the recent 15-inch snow event, our Snow Removal Plan states the highest priority is to address all emergency routes first and then move to the designated snow routes. You may view the designated routes by going to the City of Glasgow website.

After the designated snow routes are made passable, we move into the other areas. Once the snow routes are open, snow removal will continue into the business district and residential areas. The residential areas will be worked during the day and the business district will be done early mornings as soon as possible after the snow routes are completed.

During this process, storm drains are continued to be cleared and then monitored.

Once all city streets have been cleaned, operations will move to the alleys.

Driveways may become impassable and mailboxes inaccessible due to snow removal operations. When this occurs, it is the responsibility of the property owner to remove the snow from the driveway and the mailbox. Once all the other snow removal operations are competed, snow will be removed around mailboxes to allow for mail delivery.

The City of Glasgow would like to thank our street shop employees who addressed the event as quickly as possible. We would also like to thank the residents that called to alert us to trouble areas.

We will continue to address how we can better serve the community in both emergency situations and in our daily accomplishments dealing with street maintenance.
SANTA MONICA, Calif., March 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- UBM and the Massachusetts Medical Device Industry Council (MassMEDIC) will partner for the fourth annual Massachusetts Medtech week, bringing together two of the regions most respected medical technology authorities to provide top educational content featuring the latest innovations in medical technology at BIOMEDevice Boston 2018 and MassMEDICs 22nd Annual Conference. The events will also host Jeff Karp, Professor of Medicine at Brigham and Womens Hospital, Harvard Medical School and MIT as the 2018 keynote speaker, providing insight into biomedical innovation and regenerative medicine.



BIOMEDevice Boston 2018 and MassMEDICs 22nd Annual Conference will take place in conjunction on April 18-19, 2018 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. To apply for a media pass, please visit: boston.am.ubm.com/2018/registrations/Media

Our partnership with MassMEDIC has been tremendously successful over the past four years and is a direct testament to the thriving medical technology industry that is ubiquitous in New England, said Nina Brown, vice president of events, UBM. We are pleased to play a large role in Massachusetts Medtech week by hosting the most important technologies and trends that will enhance this evolving industry in the coming years.

In addition to providing unprecedented educational content and a plethora of networking opportunities, the two events will host more than 4,500 industry engineers and executives and will house 450 leading suppliers across the regions thriving medical technology industry.

Were excited to again bring two well-respected industry events together to headline Massachusetts Medtech Week, one of the most important weeks of the year for New Englands medical technology industry. The partnership between MassMEDIC and UBM benefits both the local industries and the region as a whole, said Tom Sommer, president, MassMEDIC. We are also thrilled to welcome Jeff Karp, Professor of Medicine at Brigham and Womens Hospital, Harvard Medical School and MIT, to our event. Jeff is at the forefront of regenerative medicine and will share invaluable insights on the topic in his keynote presentation.

About Jeff Karp:

Dr. Jeff Karp is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Principal Faculty at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, and an affiliate faculty at the Broad Institute and at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. His work spans the fields of drug delivery, medical devices, stem cell therapeutics and tissue adhesives. In addition to his research, Karp is dedicated to the career development of next-generation bioengineers working at the forefront of regenerative medicine. Karp strives to create an educationally conducive environment that fosters the development of scientific confidence.

In his keynote presentation, Biomedical Innovation- A Report from the Frontier, Karp will share insights from his long and successful career in regenerative medicine, and also explore the latest in biology and medicine. Karps keynote presentation will take place Wednesday, April 18 from 12:00- 12:30 PM.

Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) Boston and Design and Manufacturing New England will also run alongside BIOMEDevice Boston and MassMEDICs 22nd Annual Conference.

Register as press for BIOMEDevice Boston: boston.am.ubm.com/2018/registrations/Media.

Connect with BIOMEDevice Boston: #AdvMfgExpo

Media Contacts:

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About 20 villagers questioning Christians gathered for worship in a home in Odisha state, India were animists who worshipped objects in nature and other gods, but Hindu nationalists had led them there.



"Why have you left your ancestral faith and begun following the Christian faith?" a few of them asked, in succession, accusing them of trying to convert everyone in Kendupada village, Dhenkanal District. "If everyone in the village becomes Christian, where would the village gods go?"



In an increasingly common phenomenon, Hindu nationalists trying to drive a wedge between tribal peoples and Christians had persuaded the villagers that those who had left their beliefs, sacrifices and other rituals had betrayed their ancestors, gods, and the country of India. The Hindu nationalists then obtain tribal support for political candidates and policies and introduce Hindu beliefs and practices into animist religious systems, analysts say.



"They were told that no Christian would be allowed to stay in the village and strictly instructed them not to share the gospel with anybody," said Sukanta Naik, a volunteer for the Evangelical Fellowship of India, who visited the 27 Christians after the mob attacked them that day (Feb. 20).



The villagers issued threats to the five families of the house church, pressuring them to return to their ancestral beliefs, and when the Christians refused to do so, the tribal animists and Hindu nationalists began to beat them, Naik said.



"They grabbed three women - Raibari, Sabita and Malati - and paraded them around the village while beating them severely," he told Morning Star News.



The women sustained serious internal injuries, and Raibari, 54, injured her left eye, while the 26-year-old Sabita's right hand was hurt. In all, seven Christians were reported to have sustained serious injuries as a result of the attack.



The five families, the only Christians in a village of 206 families, had all previously practiced native tribal religions, with four of them converting in the past two years and one family eight years ago.



Rango Kuldi, 52, the first in the village to become a follower of Christ, was beaten ruthlessly and still complains of pain, Naik said. His son, Guru Kuldi, an 18-year-old high school student, received stitches from a deep cut on his head. Rango Kuldi's wife, Dusama, suffered internal injuries.



Pandu Tirai, 62, was beaten badly on his right ear, which bled relentlessly, sources said. He has lost his hearing in the ear. When Naik visited him nearly a month after the attack, his ear was still bleeding.



"The doctor has advised a scan," Naik said.



Raju Chatar, 40, sustained an injury on his left leg and continues to have swelling. Uchhaba Taison, 32, the husband of Malati, sustained several blows on his back and internal injuries, besides visible external wounds.



Some of the injured were admitted at the hospital at Kamakhya Nagar, nearly 35 kilometers (21 miles) from their village, while others were treated at a local clinic.



"They got their treatment done at their own expense, even though the police station in-charge had instructed the assaulters to pay for the Christians," Naik told Morning Star News.



The five Christian families fled their homes to save their lives, taking refuge in a neighboring village for almost a week.



Arranged Agreement



After the Christians filed a First Information Report (FIR) at a local police station, officers summoned the families and the assailants and brokered an agreement, Naik said.



"The police personnel have instructed the Hindu extremists not to interfere in the Christian worship services and fellowship meetings," he said. "We wonder how long the extremists will abide with the instructions. Such warnings have been issued to them even in the past, but to no avail."



In spite of the opposition and ostracization from villagers, the Christian families remain steadfast in their commitment to Jesus, he said.



"Though they have begun to find relief in their physical bodies, fear has gripped their minds, and they need much prayer," Naik said.



Kendupada village, nearly 100 kilometers (62 miles) from Bhubaneshwar, the state capital, is an undeveloped area where most of the population follows the tribal faith with the exception of a few Hindus.



"Lately Hindu right-wing groups have been very active here in reaching out to the tribals and indoctrinating them," Naik said.



The remote Christian families are overseen by a pastor from Mayurbhanj, nearly 350 kilometers (217 miles) away. He travels regularly to offer them care.



Odisha, where Christians make up less than 2.8 percent of the total population, was known as Orissa when the worst persecution of Christians in India took place there in 2008. More than 120 people lost their lives, at least 50,000 people were internally displaced and more than 6,000 Christian homes were destroyed and damaged.



The hostile tone of the National Democratic Alliance government, led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, against non-Hindus, has emboldened Hindu extremists in several parts of the country to attack Christians since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took power in May 2014, religious rights advocates say.



India ranked 11th on Christian support organization Open Doors' 2018 World Watch List of countries where Christians experience the most persecution, up from 15th the previous year, and ahead of Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Egypt.


A North Carolina pastor has been sentenced to seven years in prison and fined a hefty charge after he allegedly "organized an illegal border crossing."



According to persecution watchdog China Aid, a court in China's southern Yunnan province handed down the sentence on March 23, one year after Pastor John Cao was detained while engaging in humanitarian work along the China-Burma border.



Officials charged both Cao and his co-worker, a Christian named Jing Ruxia, with "organizing illegal border crossing," even though they have crossed the border many times before with no previous issues.



Cao, a North Carolina pastor well-respected for building 16 schools that service 2,000 impoverished minority children in Myanmar's northern Wa State, will spend the next seven years behind bars and is expected to pay a 20,000 yuan ($3,000 USD) fine.



Jing, who was released after spending a year in custody, received a one-year sentence and a 5,000 yuan (approximately $792.00 USD).



Cao has held U.S. permanent residency since 1990 but kept his Chinese citizenship so that he could continue entering China for his mission work. He pastored a church in Greensboro, N.C. and is married to an American citizen. Cao and his wife have two sons, who still reside in the United States.



World Magazine notes that Cao's problems with Chinese authorities began last year as government scrutiny against Christians intensified. Prior to his arrest, police closed local Chinese Bible schools, questioned his co-workers, and forbade him from speaking at a conference in Hong Kong.



Last year, China Aid president Bob Fu expressed a belief that U.S. President Donald Trump should "loudly urge China to free [Cao]. It will set a bad precedent if China is allowed to deal with Pastor John in this way when he should be awarded for his work," he said.



He warned that in recent years, China has already become an "uncontrollable dragon," and under Chinese President Xi Jinping, the country increasingly resembles the police state in North Korea.



China is listed No. 43 on Open Doors USA's World Watch List, which states that church life is heavily controlled by the government. On February 2, China's amended Regulation on Religious Affairs went into effect, further tightening restrictions on Christian churches and organizations.



Under the new rules, unauthorized groups are also banned from receiving donations, providing religious information online or organizing training related to their religious beliefs.



"We can feel the control getting tighter in recent years," Su Tianfu, a pastor in Guiyang, Guizhou province, who was charged with "leaking state secrets" after his 400-member house church, the biggest in the southwestern province, was forced to shut down in 2015, told the South China Morning Post.



"Other family churches are also under tremendous pressure," Su said. "Some have been forced to close and others are being closely monitored."



Protestant Christianity has been one of the fastest-growing movements in China, with the number of followers estimated at 93 million to 115 million, according to Purdue University scholar Yang Fenggang.


Medical staff and security guards at a major government hospital in Lahore, Pakistan on Monday (March 26) killed a Christian father of four and injured five members of his family, including the pregnant sister he had brought because she was in labor, sources said.



Anil Saleem said that he, his brother Sunil Saleem and other relatives had taken their pregnant sister Kiran Kashif to the emergency labor ward of the Government Services Institute of Medical Sciences (commonly known as Services Hospital), because she was suffering labor pains.



"Kiran went to the doctor on duty, Dr. Saira, who was playing with her cell phone while sipping on tea," Anil Saleem said. "Dr. Saira told Kiran to wait outside until she finished her tea. We waited for some time, but since Kiran was experiencing severe pain, she again went inside the ward to request for immediate attention."



As soon as the woman in labor approached Dr. Saira, she started cursing her for not waiting and told a nurse to attend her, he said.



"When my sister protested against the rude behavior, the doctor started slapping her, throwing her on the floor," Anil Saleem said. "She asked my sister how dare a Chuhri [a derogatory term for Christians] question her order?"



On hearing the commotion, Anil Saleem, his brother, brother-in-law Kashif Ashiq and cousins Raza Guddu and Kashif Robin entered the ward, but as soon as she saw them, Dr. Saira shouted to the other doctors and security guards to lock the ward's doors from the inside and "teach these Christians a lesson," Anil Saleem said.



"Around 15 to 20 paramedical staff and security guards and eight to 10 young doctors, including Dr. Salman, Dr. Irfan, Dr. Hasan and Dr. Sahi lunged at us with iron rods, chairs, leather belts and other things and started beating us," he said. "Sunil, a police constable in the National Highway and Motorway Police, tried his best to placate the assailants but they continued to beat him mercilessly, kicking and punching him in the groin and chest until he fell unconscious."



Anil Saleem and the three other men tried to defend themselves, but they were greatly outnumbered and were saved only when police arrived, he said.



He said that the doctors also beat the crew of a local news channel who happened to be in the hospital at that time; published reports indicate the altercation spilled into the hospital corridor, which they caught on film.



After a delay in treatment, Sunil Saleem died for lack of timely emergency medical assistance, he said.



"Most of the doctors fled after the incident, while those who were present paid no attention to our cries to help our dying brother," Anil Saleem told Morning Star News.



Sunil Saleem leaves behind his wife and four children, the eldest son 10 and the youngest barely 3 months old.



Anil Saleem, who works for the state-owned Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Company Limited as a staff attendant, said that although police registered a First Information Report (FIR No. 163/18) under sections related to murder and violent rioting, they have not arrested any of those named in the killing.



"The police called us to the station today for conducting our medical examination but we refused to go with them as they wanted to take us to the same hospital where we had been subjected to torture and also lost our brother," Anil Saleem said. "Moreover, we have registered a murder case against the doctors and other staff members, so how could the police even think that the hospital staff will treat us fairly?"



Services Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr. Amiruddin told Morning Star News that the doctors were "innocent" as the family had attacked them first.



"I can't say anything for sure, but I've been told that the patient's family started the quarrel after they were told to wait," he said.



Amiruddin declined to comment on Sunil Saleem's death, saying a committee headed by a former principal of Allama Iqbal Medical College, Eice Muhammad, will investigate and submit a report within three days to Specialized Healthcare and Medical Education Secretary Najam Ahmed Shah.



The hospital administration has filed an application for a counter-FIR against the family for violent rioting and injuries to medical staff. Hospital officials claim that the conflict arose because doctors refused to carry out a C-section on the sister of Anil Saleem.



Anil Saleem denied this version, reiterating that the violence grew out of Dr. Saira's unprofessional remarks. He also denied that family members had injured anyone seriously, though he acknowledged they acted in self defense.



The Young Doctors Association has issued a threat to the Punjab government that it will call a strike in all government hospitals across the province if police do not withdraw the FIR registered against the hospital staff within two days.



Rights activists suspect the government will use the police to pressure the impoverished family into reaching an out-of-court agreement with the accused doctors.



Punjab Province officials released a press statement saying that Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif had taken notice of the matter and ordered authorities to arrest those involved in the rioting and murder. Despite the chief minister's orders, no arrest was made at this writing.



Sunil Saleem's sister, Kashif, had yet to give birth at this writing.



Disbelief



Expressing serious concern over religiously-motivated violence perpetrated by doctors at a government hospital, political and human rights activists told Morning Star News it reflected growing prejudice towards minority communities, particularly Christians and Ahmadis.



"We had barely overcome the Sajid Masih incident, and now we have got this lynching inside a government hospital," said Christian rights activist Napolean Qayyum. "It pains to say this, but the Pakistani government has failed to make this country safe for its minority communities, especially Christians. The government showed no interest in investigating the federal officers involved in the inhumane torture on Sajid Masih and Patras Masih, so I don't think there's any hope for justice for the Christians in this case as well."



Shunila Ruth, a lawmaker with the the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), echoed the sentiment.



"It's shocking that even doctors, who are supposedly educated and have taken an oath to save lives regardless of caste, color or faith, have resorted to such acts of religious intolerance and violence," she said, adding that had the state showed some courage against religious persecution of minorities in the name of blasphemy, the situation could have been different.



Ruth said that the Punjab government was directly responsible for the crime and should therefore compensate the family.



"All those involved in the incident should be arrested immediately, specially the lady doctor who provoked the attack on the Christians, and the state itself should guarantee punishment for each one of them," she said.



Rights activist Rufus Solomon said the harrowing ordeal had marred Easter enthusiasm among Christians.



"I am still trying to digest the fact that doctors took the life of an innocent man," Solomon said. "What hope can one have for justice to the family if police have been unable to arrest even one of the accused?"



He added that the crime shows that an anti-Christian narrative propagated by such ultra-extremist, Islamist clerics as Khadim Hussain Rizvi of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah (TLYR) is gradually gaining traction among Muslims, who make up more than 96 percent of Pakistan's population.



"Rizvi and other mullahs continue to spew hatred publicly against Christians and Ahmadis, but what is the government doing about it?" he said. "Nothing, absolutely nothing."



Pakistan is ranked fifth on Christian support organization Open Doors' 2018 Word Watch List of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian.


The marine environment is critical to Grenadas economy and closely linked to the islands income generating tourism sector. Grenadas tri-island ocean state is not just a hub of maritime activity, but also home to unique marine biodiversity
When it comes to blight removal, Detroit has made something of a name for itself. Since 2014, following bankruptcy and a large federal aid package, the city has demolished 13,340 structures, with plans to knock down tens of thousands more. The demolition has been highlighted alongside restored streetlights and a revived downtown as examples of Detroits comeback under Mayor Mike Duggan.But is demolishing a bunch of empty buildings really progress? I found myself asking this while exploring the city during a recent stay. On one hand, there are good arguments for demolition. There are still shocking levels of blight, which decreases surrounding property values, attracts criminals (including arsonists who endanger the already overburdened fire department) and can leave a psychological scar, especially for children who grow up there.On the other hand, Detroit could come back. Contrary to popular perception, the declining city sits within a generally successful region. In 2016, metro Detroit ranked 10th among the nations 20 largest metros in GDP growth rate. Of the 10 largest municipalities in Greater Detroit, six have increased their populations since 2010. So if a great inversion occurs there like it has elsewhere, thered be immediate increases in citywide wealth.This is especially true in Detroit, where many empty homes and buildings are examples of well-known architectural styles, including Midwestern Foursquare and European Modernist. If there was money to restore them, theyd sell at premiums. This has already happened with historic buildings in New York City and Washington, D.C.s formerly blighted neighborhoods. But by bulldozing its abandoned buildings, Detroit permanently eradicates a potential long-term asset.Fortunately, the city recognizes this. Much of the abandoned stock now sits with the Detroit Land Bank Authority, a public agency that, through aggressive tax foreclosure, owns nearly 97,000 parcels. While many structures are still being demolished, many others are being sold. Since 2014, the authority has sold off 2,900 homes and 8,500 vacant parcels. A majority of the buyers have been black city residents who buy the lots next to their homes, sometimes for $100. Currently, another 5,600 properties are either for sale or being prepped for future auction blocks.If we can sell a property before renovation, were going to do that, says Saskia Thompson, executive director of the authority. This approach, she says, costs less money and time. Whether a property is demolished or sold depends on its present condition, how long its been empty and where its located. Many far-out structures, for example, have sat abandoned for decades and are often the first to be razed. Blight within the bustling downtown and Midtown neighborhoods, however, usually goes untouched. While such buildings are empty now, they sit in promising neighborhoods, meaning they could have significant value if Detroit revives.
Gov. Eric Holcomb signed a measure Sunday requiring doctors to report abortion complications, even if they don't work in an abortion clinic.Senate Enrolled Act 340 requires doctors to annually report to the state 26 listed complications associated with abortions, including infections and cardiac arrest as well as psychological or emotional issues such as sleeping disorders and anxiety.The measure also requires annual inspections of abortion clinics and legalizes the use of "baby boxes" in fire departments, which allow a parent to give up an infant anonymously and without fear of penalty.Opponents of SEA 340 said the abortion complication reporting requirements are overly burdensome and view the law as the state's latest attempt to restrict abortion access.Rep. Sue Errington, D-Muncie, wondered why the same state requirements are not required for other medical care.
Last month, the Trump administration shot down a plan from Idaho to sell health insurance that doesn't comply with Affordable Care Act (ACA) regulations.If a state fails to substantially enforce the law, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has a responsibility to enforce these provisions on behalf of the State, wrote CMS Administrator Seema Verma in her rejection letter.Weeks later, another state -- Iowa -- is making a similar move.Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a bill on Monday that allows the states Farm Bureau to sell health plans that dont comply with the ACA. The Farm Bureau is the states organization representing farmers, but membership is open to anyone.The group -- which will partner with Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield to create the plans -- estimates that up to 28,000 people will be eligible for the off-exchange plans.The law will alsolet small businesses band together to sell association health plans to their employees. Association health plans are sold through a trade organization or industry group that arent subject to the same regulations as health insurance companies.Proponents of association health plans say they are a cheaper alternative for small organizations. But critics point out that they have historically taken advantage of their regulatory exemptions and offered paltry coverage and protections.Iowa lawmakers are confident that CMS will approve of their legislation because the association health plans are not technically considered "health insurance" by federal law, and they believe the Farm Bureau plan falls under that umbrella.In a statement, Republican state Sen. Dan Zumbach said that this bill is completely different from the strategy Idaho tried to use to provide affordable insurance options for their citizens, and a section of the legislation explicitly states the rules must be consistent with the U.S. Department of Labor rules.Iowa lawmakers are banking on a proposed Department of Labor rule being enacted that would make their plans more likely to be federally compliant. President Trump signed a Department of Labor rule in January that makes it easier for small employers to band together to buy association health plans and create their own. The rule is still in a 60-day comment period.Not everyone is convinced Iowa's tactic will work.If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, its a duck. This is insurance, Susan Voss, Iowas former insurance commissioner, told theIowa's health insurance market has had a tough time. It only has one insurer, Medica, and started the year with a 69 percent premium increase from 2017 -- the highest in the country. As a result, the state has one of the lowest enrollment numbers in its marketplace, with only around 53,000 people buying insurance there. Around the country, ACA marketplaces have struggled to attract young and healthy people, and as a result, insurers have abandoned the marketplace, citing high costs. That has led premiums to rise.Health policy experts, however, say this law will only exacerbate those problems.According to Peter Damiano, director of the University of Iowa's Center for Health Policy and Research, it will further destabilize the market because more people will buy insurance elsewhere.This isnt going to help things. My question is rather how much its going to hurt the marketplace, he says.If Trump's association health plan rules are enacted, it could lead to 3.2 million people leaving the individual marketplace nationwide, according to health care consulting firm Avalere Health.This debate follows a year of Congressional Republicans repeatedly trying and failing to repeal the ACA, President Obama's signature legislation. They were, however, able to get the votes to eliminate the ACA's requirement that people have health insurance or face a tax penalty. That was passed as part of the federal tax overhaul in December.
Gov. Jim Justice signed a bill into law Tuesday that will impose work requirements on certain adults receiving benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.Justice did not issue a release or convene any news conference to break the news, though the Legislature's website quietly noted the change. Butch Antolini, communications director for Justice, could not immediately be reached for comment.Starting Oct. 1, 2018, any able-bodied adult -- a person between 18 and 49 years of age without dependents -- must either work, volunteer or participate in workforce training programs for 20 hours per week to receive SNAP benefits.Specifically, the bill rescinds West Virginia's ability to allow the Department of Health and Human Resources to issue waivers to SNAP recipients from the federal work requirements for able-bodied working adults.However, people in counties with a 12-month average unemployment rate above 10 percent, a 24-month average unemployment rate 20 percent above the national average for the same period, or a "labor surplus area" as designated by the U.S. Department of Labor, can receive the waivers until October 2022.At that point, barring a change in state law, no able-bodied working adults in the state can receive waivers from the work requirement.Those who do not receive a waiver and do not meet the work requirements can receive SNAP benefits for up to three months every three years.The bill also requires DHHR to report the employment impact of the work requirements, SNAP caseload and other figures to the Legislature on a county-by-county basis.Nine counties in the state have undergone a pilot program of SNAP work requirements. According to DHHR's analysis of the pilot program, it did not have a significant impact on employment figures for the population of able-bodied adults without dependents, although it did slash the SNAP caseload.However, DHHR staffers walked back these findings at committee hearings on the bill.According to data released in February from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 14.9 percent of West Virginian households faced food insecurity between 2014 and 2016, a 5.6 percent increase from 10 years ago. Likewise, West Virginia households receiving SNAP benefits increased 50 percent between 2006 and 2016, which is the 40th smallest increase during that time period in the U.S.Additional data from WV Foodlink, a project of the Food Justice Laboratory at West Virginia University, shows just under 330,000 West Virginians received SNAP benefits in 2017, including one in three children in the state.Seth DiStefano, the policy outreach director for the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy who lobbied against the bill during the legislative session, said in a statement that Justice has reneged on his promise to not hurt people by signing the bill and ignored overwhelming opposition at a public hearing during the legislative session.Justice also signed House Bill 4015 into law, which will increase reporting requirements on the state vehicle fleet and gives the State Auditor's Office latitude to conduct spot compliance audits for compliance.He also put his signature on House Bill 4150, which prohibits telemarketers from transmitting inaccurate or misleading caller identification information to disguise an incoming call.
At least 12 states have responded with a wave of fury and legal action this week after the Trump administration announced it would add a question to the 2020 census asking respondents whether they are U.S. citizens.New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said he would lead a multistate coalition to block the decision the Commerce Department announced on Monday. The addition of a citizenship question is highly controversial, and civil rights groups have long claimed it could jeopardize the accuracy of the census.A fair and accurate count of all people in America is one of the federal governments most solemn constitutional obligations, Schneiderman said in a statement released Tuesday. The Trump Administrations reckless decision to suddenly abandon nearly 70 years of practice by demanding to know the citizenship status of each resident counted cuts to the heart of this sacred obligation  and will create an environment of fear and distrust in immigrant communities that would make impossible both an accurate Census and the fair distribution of federal tax dollars.The states of Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Washington quickly said they would join the lawsuit, with state officials condemning the citizenship question as an arbitrary one that would only do harm.
In spite of decades of fair housing laws, studies in different cities have shown that black families still face routine discrimination when they attempt to use federal housing vouchers to rent an apartment.Landlords in Washington, D.C., are more likely to deny access to housing, or to provide confusing or incorrect information, to black families seeking to use a voucher, according to a report released this week from the Equal Rights Center , which seeks to end discrimination in housing and employment.The report tracked two sets of African-American families, with one group attempting to rent an apartment using a voucher to help subsidize the cost and the other set of families inquiring about an apartment without mentioning a voucher.Discrimination based on source of income is a growing problem in D.C. and elsewhere, the report concluded."Results of this investigation indicate that source-of-income discrimination plays a clear role in maintaining, if not intensifying, racial segregation within the D.C. housing market. It also appears to be one piece of a complex confluence of factors that is leading African-American families to move out of the District altogether."Washington, D.C., like Chicago and New York City, requires all landlords to accept housing vouchers, which have been in use since Congress passed the Housing Act of 1974. The vouchers are federally funded but locally administered through a city or county's housing authority. In certain parts of D.C., vouchers may pay a property owner up to 175 percent of an apartment's market rate. Even high-end apartments are required to accept the vouchers, although their high rents are usually still beyond the reach of many families.The Equal Rights Center relied on a relatively small handful of test cases, and the report notes that the results are not statistically representative of the housing market as a whole. Still, the findings "support the conclusion that discrimination against voucher holders in the District is rampant," the report said.D.C. is special because we do have a source-of-income protection in the law. It seems even with the protection the violations are so flagrant, says Kate Scott, deputy director of the Equal Rights Center.Reports in other cities have shown similar results.The Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center conducted a similar study of housing vouchers in 2009. Ninety-nine percent of the housing voucher holders in the city are black, and according to the study, 82 percent of landlords refused to accept housing vouchers. New Orleans does not legally require landlords to accept housing vouchers.That report painted an especially troubling picture of the challenges faced by blacks in the New Orleans housing market.When questioned, one landlord told researchers he would begin to consider accepting vouchers when black ministers ... start teaching morals and ethics to their own, so they don't have litters of pups like animals, and they're not milking the system. Some landlords in New Orleans turned down prospective black renters who planned to use vouchers after agreeing to rent the same apartments to prospective white renters using housing vouchers.Nationwide, housing advocates have raised concerns about landlords discriminating against tenants using housing vouchers and have asked to expand the available slots of housing vouchers and diversifying the population who use the subsidy.
AUSTRALIAN HONOURS AND AWARDS QUEENSLAND BRAVERY RECIPIENTS ANNOUNCED  Thursday, 29 March 2018

AWARDED THE BRAVERY MEDAL (BM)

Senior Constable Stephen Ian BARLOW

Acting Sergeant Scott Ronald HILL

Senior Constable Catherine Maureen NIELSEN

Constable Brittany Rosemarie POULTON



On the afternoon of 29 May 2017, Acting Sergeant (then Senior Constable) Scott Hill, Senior Constables Stephen Barlow and Catherine Nielsen, and Constable Brittany Poulton were involved in an incident with an armed offender at Ringwood, Queensland.



The officers were travelling in Tactical Crime Squad (TCS) vehicles, in pursuit of a known offender whose vehicle had turned onto a rough dirt track. Senior Constable Nielsen and a colleague were in the lead vehicle, while Senior Constables Hill, Barlow and Constable Poulton were in the second vehicle, travelling a short distance behind.



The offender, armed with a fully automatic weapon, stopped his vehicle where he had a vantage point of the approaching police vehicles. He fired a number of shots at Senior Constable Nielsen's vehicle, injuring her colleague.



Senior Constable Nielsen returned fire and immediately called for backup. She managed to exit the vehicle and, realising she couldn't move her injured colleague, returned inside the vehicle and provided information to other police officers by radio.



Meanwhile Senior Constables Hill and Barlow, and Constable Poulton exited their vehicle and proceeded on foot towards their colleagues. When the officers reached them, Constable Poulton provided cover whilst their injured colleague was removed from the vehicle. Despite the continued gunfire, Senior Constable Barlow began first aid.



Sensing the urgency for medical help Senior Constable Barlow fetched another police vehicle and drove back to the scene. The injured officer was placed into this vehicle. Constable Poulton quickly reversed the vehicle down a steep incline and drove to a safe area.



Senior Constables Barlow, Hill and Nielsen remained at the damaged TCS vehicle as gunfire continued. Once they were aware that their colleagues were safe they moved away from the scene.





By his actions, Senior Constable Barlow displayed considerable bravery.

By his actions, Acting Sergeant Hill displayed considerable bravery.

By her actions, Senior Constable Nielsen displayed considerable bravery.

By her actions, Constable Poulton displayed considerable bravery.

The late Mr Norman Linburgh OLSEN

On the afternoon of 22 February 2016, Mr Norman Olsen went to the assistance of a young woman who was being assaulted in Toowoomba, Queensland.



Mr Olsen and his wife were driving along Bridge Street in Toowoomba when they saw a man assaulting a young woman. The woman was lying on the ground holding onto her young daughter. The attacker was known to the woman.



Mr Olsen immediately pulled his car over to the side of the street and rushed to the assistance of the woman. When he reached the pair he grabbed the offender's arm and attempted to pull him away. At this point the woman managed to get up and, holding onto her daughter, run away from the scene.



The offender then punched Mr Olsen which caused him to fall backwards from the footpath onto the road and hit his head. Soon after the police arrived and arrested the offender.



Sadly, after being transferred to a hospital in Brisbane due to the nature of his injuries,

Mr Olsen did not survive the assault.



By his actions, Mr Olsen displayed considerable bravery.

AWARDED THE COMMENDATION FOR BRAVE CONDUCT

Mr Adam John WILLIAMS On the afternoon of 10 October 2015, Mr Adam Williams was involved in the rescue of a boy who was swept into the sea at Fingal Head, New South Wales.



A woman and three young children were playing in an area known as Echidna Rock at Fingal Headland. The children were two metres from the water line when a large wave crashed onto the headland and caused one of the children, a nine year old boy, to lose his footing, fall onto the rocks and into the water. The remaining two children also lost their balance, but did not enter the water.



The woman immediately jumped into the water and swam to the boy and, on reaching him, held his head above the water. Another man quickly entered the water and made his way towards the woman who was struggling in the difficult conditions. He got hold of the boy and swam him back to shore.



Mr Williams became aware of the situation and entered the water and swam to the woman. In difficult conditions, he struggled to keep her calm as she was swallowing water and panicking. After a lengthy period of time the woman became unconscious. Mr Williams was then joined by another swimmer on a surfboard. Despite the strong currents and several attempts, they managed to get the woman onto the surfboard and commenced CPR.



Mr Williams and the man were making their way back to shore with the woman when a rescue boat arrived and took them back to shore. Sadly the woman did not survive the incident.



For his actions, Mr Williams is commended for brave conduct.

Detective Senior Sergeant Cameron John BURKE

On the evening of 19 September 1994, Detective Senior Sergeant (then Plain Clothes Constable) Cameron Burke was involved in an incident with an armed offender at Newstead in Queensland.



Constable Burke and a female colleague attended an armed hostage situation at a property in Newstead. As the officers were putting on their bulletproof vests a number of shots were fired by the gunman and another officer in attendance.



Constable Burke was at the side of the vehicle when the gunman suddenly burst out from some bushes and appeared at the rear of the car. The offender crouched and pointed his sawn-off shotgun directly at the female officer, who was standing near the driver's side rear wheel, and pulled the trigger of his weapon several times.



When the firearm failed to discharge Constable Burke moved around the car to his colleague. He simultaneously pulled his colleague out of the line of fire and moved towards the front of the car.



Both officers drew their guns and instructed the gunman to drop his weapon. As the offender began to flee he turned and again pointed his weapon directly at Constable Burke and his colleague. The offender ignored the repeated warnings and was fired upon by the officers.



For his actions, Detective Senior Sergeant Burke is commended for brave conduct.

Mrs Patricia Joan COMERFORD

Mr Robert John COOK

Mr Karl DUNBAR

Mr Nicholas Brett RAWLIN



On the afternoon of 30 June 2014, Mrs Patricia Comerford, Mr Robert Cook, Mr Karl Dunbar and Mr Nicholas Rawlin were involved in an incident with an armed offender at a supermarket in Maroochydore, Queensland.



At approximately 4pm a male customer entered the supermarket and approached the cashier. As she opened the cash register drawer the man, armed with a pair of scissors, lunged over the counter and grabbed bank notes from the till.



Mrs Comerford, an employee of the supermarket, noticed this occurring and quickly pushed the cashier away and grabbed hold of the offender's wrist. The offender threatened Mrs Comerford with the scissors who then yelled for assistance.



Mr Cook, the store manager, approached from the other side of the counter and assisted in holding the struggling offender who was making verbal threats about stabbing them with a syringe. Mrs Comerford momentarily let go of the offender and moved around to the same side of the counter to assist Mr Cook.



The struggle continued and the offender violently bit Mr Cook and Mrs Comerford suffered cuts to her hand. As Mrs Comerford and Mr Cook continued to wrestle the offender they fell to the ground.



Mr Dunbar and Mr Rawlin entered the supermarket and saw what was happening. They assisted in pinning the offender to the floor and, despite the man's continued threats, they maintained their hold on him until police officers arrived.



For their actions, Mrs Comerford, Mr Cook, Mr Dunbar and Mr Rawlin are commended for brave conduct.

The late Senior Constable Brett Andrew FORTE

On the afternoon of 29 May 2017, the late Senior Constable Brett Forte was involved in an incident with an armed offender at Ringwood, Queensland.



Senior Constable Forte, together with several other Queensland Police Officers, was in pursuit of a known offender whose vehicle had turned onto a rough dirt track. The three Tactical Crime Squad vehicles (TCS) involved in the pursuit followed the offender's vehicle. Senior Constable Forte, and another officer, was in the lead vehicle.



The offender, armed with a fully automatic weapon, stopped his vehicle where he had a vantage point of the approaching police vehicles and fired a number of shots at Senior Constable Forte's vehicle, injuring him. As he reversed the vehicle down the rough track to remove himself and his colleague out of danger, the vehicle rolled onto the driver's side trapping him inside.



His colleague immediately returned fire and called for backup. She managed to exit the vehicle and, realising that she couldn't move Senior Constable Forte, returned inside the vehicle and provided information to other police officers by radio.



Subsequently other police officers made their way on foot to their location. They were able to break the windscreen, remove Senior Constable Forte from the vehicle and commence first aid procedures. He was then placed in another police vehicle and driven away from the scene. Unfortunately Senior Constable Forte did not survive his injuries.



For his actions, Senior Constable Forte is commended for brave conduct.

Mr John Michael HEAD

Mr Darren Craig TAYLOR



On 21 March 2014, Mr John Head and Mr Darren Taylor rescued two elderly people from floodwaters at Kumerunga, Queensland.



Mr Head and Mr Taylor were driving near Kumergunga when they noticed a car floating in the rising water of a causeway. There was an elderly couple inside. The vehicle was quickly filling with water and was being pushed off the causeway by the fast flowing floodwater.



Mr Taylor immediately called emergency services. Mr Taylor and Mr Head then entered the fast flowing water and were able to pull the elderly woman through the car window, before tying a rope around her waist and carrying her to safety.



They re-entered the water, which had risen quickly, and made their way towards the elderly man who had managed to get himself out of the vehicle. He was pinned up against the vehicle by the force of the rushing water.



Mr Head and Mr Taylor were able to get the elderly man to safety and a short time later the vehicle was pushed off the road by the fast flowing water.



For their actions, Mr Head and Mr Taylor are commended for brave conduct.

Mr Brian Frederick LEMKE

In the early hours of the morning of 6 February 2015, Mr Brian Lemke went to the assistance of a woman at North Lakes, Queensland.



Mr Lemke, a Station Officer with Queensland Fire and Emergency Services, and his crew, attended an incident at a North Lakes shopping complex where a young woman was attempting self-harm.



The woman was sitting at the edge of the roof of the two storey building with her back facing outward. A short time later she turned around on the 20cm wide ledge and dangled her legs over the side. Through her actions it was evident that she was contemplating jumping.



Upon arrival Mr Lemke spoke with other emergency service personnel and, as the young woman was reluctant to speak with police officers, he volunteered to approach her. After conversing with the woman she agreed to come down.



A ladder was placed against the wall and Mr Lemke climbed up onto the roof and slowly approached the woman. He was alongside her and offered to help her down when she suddenly refused his requests and began to lean forward and attempt to fall off the roof.



Without hesitation, and despite the risk of him falling, he grabbed her and pulled her back onto the roof. He continued to hold onto her until other emergency service personnel were able to climb the ladder and assist in moving her away from the edge.



Mr Lemke stayed with the woman until she could be safely removed from the roof.



For his actions, Mr Lemke is commended for brave conduct.

Senior Constable Kevin John MAGEEAN



On the morning of 19 August 2013, Senior Constable (then Constable) Kevin Mageean intercepted an armed offender after an aggravated robbery at Kingscliff, New South Wales.



Two employees of the Kingscliff Beach Hotel were attacked and robbed by two males who then attempted to run off with a backpack containing money. The victims chased one offender and were able to tackle him to the ground and restrain him.



The second offender fled the scene before returning and producing a 25cm carving knife. He threatened the employees and began demanding that they release his accomplice.



At this time, Constable Mageean, who was off duty at the time, went to the assistance of the two victims. He was informed of the robbery and was alerted to the second offender who was fleeing the scene.



Without hesitation, he chased the absconding man through a vacant block of land and, as he neared the man, he announced that he was a police officer and challenged the offender to stop.



The offender turned towards Constable Mageean and threw a backpack in his direction. Constable Mageean then tackled the man to the ground and restrained him until further assistance arrived.



For his actions, Senior Constable Mageean is commended for brave conduct.

Senior Constable Christopher Ralph PROUDLOCK



On the evening of 30 December 2000, Senior Constable Christopher Proudlock removed a man from a burning house at Westbrook, Queensland.

Responding to a call, Senior Constable Proudlock arrived at a property in Westbrook and made his way to the back of the premises. He noticed damage to a rear window and was quickly confronted by an agitated man standing in the rear doorway.

After confronting the man Senior Constable Proudlock returned to his police vehicle to call for assistance. Whilst at the car he heard smashing glass and saw flames inside the house. He immediately went back to the premises where a large amount of thick, grey smoke was billowing from the broken window.

He made his way to the back door and heard coughing from inside the house. He could see the man inside approximately 15-20 feet away. Senior Constable Proudlock crouched down and entered the house. He grabbed the man's clothing and, despite the man continuing to kick and struggle, he was able to drag him outdoors, through debris to the driveway.

Although Senior Constable Proudlock was suffering the effects of smoke inhalation he continued to restrain the man until further assistance arrived.

For his actions, Senior Constable Proudlock is commended for brave conduct.

Mr Kenneth Lewis ROSSITER

Mr Ricky Paul WALKER



In the early evening of 16 March 2014, Mr Kenneth Rossiter and Mr Ricky Walker provided assistance to a woman following a domestic violence incident at Golden Beach, Queensland.



Mr Rossiter was at home when a neighbour knocked on his door calling for help. The woman had been physically attacked inside her home and had sustained severe injuries to her entire body. The offender was pursuing her and, as she sought refuge inside the home, the offender managed to force his way in.

A struggle ensued as Mr Rossiter attempted to stop the offender from moving through his home after the injured woman. When the offender entered a bedroom, Mr Rossiter was able to lock the door trapping the offender inside.

In the meantime the injured woman ran out of the house and sought refuge elsewhere.

Mr Rossiter attempted to call emergency services but had to flee his home when the offender broke out of the room. As he was making his way to a neighbouring property the offender chased him and on reaching Mr Rossiter a further struggle ensued.

At this time Mr Walker became aware of the commotion and saw his older neighbour struggling with the offender. He called for his wife to contact emergency services and, without hesitation; he quickly approached the two men.

He tackled the offender to the ground and restrained him. He then held onto the aggressive offender until police officers arrived.

For their actions, Mr Rossiter and Mr Walker are commended for brave conduct.
The Governors Official Program is comprised of a wide range of constitutional and legal duties and ceremonial and community engagements. Each year, the Governor hosts thousands of visitors to Government House to take part in investiture and award ceremonies, Open Days, receptions and meetings, and travels widely throughout Queensland to support the activities of Patron groups. View a chronological record of the Governors daily program below.

On Tuesday, in the morning, at Brisbane City Hall, His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC attended the announcement of the Childrens Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Shortlist, and addressed guests.

In the afternoon, at Government House, the Governor and Mrs Kaye de Jersey hosted a Reception for members of the Queensland Cruising Yacht Club to mark the 70th Anniversary of the Brisbane to Gladstone Yacht Race, and the Governor addressed guests.
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The European Committee of the Regions has adopted an opinion on the  Proposal for a European Defence Fund  lead by Rapporteur Dainis Turlais (LV/ALDE), member of the Riga City Council. The diversification of security threats  from armed conflicts to terrorism, illegal immigration and cyber-attacks- is forcing Europe to increase cross-border cooperation on defence. The new fund is to contribute to EUs strategic autonomy and maximise the market potential of the defence industry. The lack of cooperation between Member States in the field of security and defence is estimated to cost between 25 billion and 100 billion annually (European Parliament, 2003). Adopted Friday 23 March, the opinion feeds into the ongoing inter-institutional negotiation, to continue next April with a final agreement foreseen in early May 2018.

The EUs assembly of local and regional leaders has given its support to the European Defence Fund (EDF), a new instrument launched by the European Commission in June 2017 to enhance Europes strategic autonomy and the innovation capacity of the defence industry. The EDF will focus on cross-border cooperation projects. It comprises an Industrial Development Programme and a new co-financing system with Member States to incentivise further cooperation on defence products and technologies.

"This is about Europe being a united global player and a strong security and defence actor. The US spends 3.3% of its GDP on defence while we only reach 1.3%. If we want peace we need to be strong. There are no Member States smaller or weaker than others. There is just one EU, united, strong and powerful. The European Defence Fund must succeed and support Member States, regions and entrepreneurs in achieving this goal", said Rapporteur Dainis Turlais (LV/ALDE).

Local leaders consider essential that the new fund gives specific support to SMEs, in particular those developing dual-use technologies - for both civil and military use - as they are an outstanding opportunity for jobs and growth. This reinforces the need for the EDF to give specific support to strategic domains, from robotics, to space technologies, including navigation systems and high performing computing.

Cities and regions request that the EDF work programme allocates 20% of the overall budget to cross-border participation of SMEs. Members defend that consortia with a larger number of participating SMEs are given priority. Equally, award criteria should include additional points for consortia in which several undertakings and Member States are involved.

The Assembly of local and regional representatives requests to carefully examine whether contractors really come from the EU. The main contractors and sub-contractors must be EU-based and undertakings must be at least half-owned by EU Member States or natural or legal persons, and must be effectively controlled by European capital. The management and actual control of these companies must be locatable in the European Union, recalls the CoR.

The Fund includes two strands: research and development-acquisition. Members have requested the European Commission that the 500 million foreseen for 2019-2020 within the defence and industrial development strand are exclusively drawn from unallocated margins in order not to penalise already budgeted programmes.

In line with the #CohesionAlliance , the fund must not reduce allocations for cohesion policy in any way, Members insist.

On EDFs research branch, EUR90 million are foreseen until the end of 2019 with EUR25 million having already been allocated in 2017 for projects in the areas of naval environment and soldiers systems.

To ensure sufficient transparency in the management of the EDF, which may be operated by the European Defence Agency, the CoR requests the European Commission to take example of the functioning of EU executive agencies, which are responsible to the European Parliament and not to the European Council exclusively.

The opinion of the European Committee of the Regions feeds into the ongoing inter-institutional negotiation which will continue next April with a final agreement to be reached early May 2018.

Background:

The lack of cooperation between Member States in the field of defence and security is estimated to cost annually between 25 billion and 100 billion (EPRS, European Parliament, 2013). 80% of procurement and more than 90% of Research and Technology are run on a national basis (European Defence Agency, 2014). Up to 30% of annual defence expenditures could be saved through pooling of procurement (Munich Security Report, 2017).

In November 2016, the Commission adopted the European Defence Action Plan, which sets out measures to achieve greater European defence cooperation and support the competitiveness of the European defence industry.

A core proposal of the European Defence Action Plan is the establishment of a European Defence Fund to support investment in joint research and the joint development of defence equipment and technologies.

The European Defence Fund has two strands:

Research : The research aspect of the Fund is already delivering. Starting in 2017, the EU will for the first time offer grants for collaborative research in innovative defence technologies and products, fully and directly funded from the EU budget. Projects eligible for EU funding will focus on priority areas previously agreed by Member States, and could typically include electronics, metamaterials, encrypted software or robotics. This will be financed with:

90 million until the end of 2019, with 25 million allocated for 2017. A call for proposals is being launched today for projects in the areas of unmanned systems in a naval environment and soldiers systems. The signature of the first grant agreements is expected by the end of this year.

500 million per year after 2020. In 2018, the Commission will propose a dedicated EU defence research programme with an estimated annual budget of 500 million making the EU one of the biggest defence research investors in Europe.

Development and acquisition : The Fund will create incentives for Member States to cooperate on joint development and the acquisition of defence equipment and technology through co-financing from the EU budget and practical support from the Commission. Member States may for example jointly invest in developing drone technology or satellite communication, or bulk buy helicopters to reduce costs. Only collaborative projects will be eligible, and a proportion of the overall budget will be earmarked for projects involving cross-border participation of SMEs. The EU will offer co-financing with:

500 million in total for 2019 and 2020, under a dedicated defence and industrial development programme proposed today.

1 billion per year after 2020. A more substantial programme will be prepared for post-2020, with an estimated annual budget of 1 billion. The programme will leverage national financing with an expected multiplying effect of 5. It could therefore generate a total investment in defence capability development of 5 billion per year after 2020. (Source: EC).

Contact : David Crous | +32 (0) 470 88 10 37 | david.crous@cor.europa.eu
Description

GIS  28 March, 2018: There are numerous issues that would have to be addressed before considering the introduction of the Mauritian Kreol language in the National Assembly. In the event that the language is used for official purposes, it has to be spoken, written and recorded while respecting its orthography, grammar and vocabulary, in line with the published documents, that is, Lortograf Kreol Morisien, Gramer Kreol Morisien , and Diksioner Morisien.

This reply was given by the Prime Minister, Minister of Home Affairs, External Communications and National Development Unit, Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Mr Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, at the National Assembly yesterday, to a Parliamentary Question pertaining to the introduction of the Mauritian Kreol language in the National Assembly.

The Prime Minister highlighted that it is imperative that, at all levels, the standardised written system is adopted and the proper communicative as well as social linguistic and cognitive competencies acquired. He pointed out that the teaching and learning process and training should be pursued and facilitated incrementally over a period of time so that people can develop a mastery of the language.

Prime Minister Jugnauth underscored that this is precisely what Government is doing. The teaching of Kreol language has completed its 6-year primary cycle in 2017 and a formal assessment was carried out in October 2017 in the context of the Primary School Achievement Certificate Assessment. The teaching of the language has been extended to Grade 7 as from this year and will be taught up to Grade 9 by 2020. It will be assessed at the level of the National Certificate of Education Assessment in 2020, at the end of Grade 9, he said.

The Mauritius Institute of Education has trained 27 in-service Secondary Educators in 2017 and some additional 10 Secondary Educators are currently undergoing training for the teaching of language at lower secondary level, underlined the Prime Minister. The process is being sustained and Government is providing the necessary resources for the promotion of Kreol language in schools, he added.

This stage leading to the mastery of the language, emphasised the Prime Minister, is an essential pre-requisite before consideration could be given to the introduction of the language into the National Assembly. He recalled that other arrangements, both administrative and logistics, especially appropriate IT hardware and software, will have to be put in place before contemplating the introduction of the language in the National Assembly.

Moreover, Mr Jugnauth observed that there is also the need to have a specialised software platform in Kreol which would have to be compatible with the existing digital recording voice to text platform presently being used by the National Assembly which enables the posting of the unrevised version of the Hansard of a sitting within 24 hours. In addition, the officers of the Hansard Unit of the National Assembly will have to be trained in Kreol language for the purpose of transcribing and editing the proceedings of the National Assembly.

Government will consider the introduction of the Kreol Morisien in the National Assembly once all the necessary preconditions are fully satisfied, concluded the Prime Minister.
What would happen if governments consistently put technology into real-life situations before buying it?Thats the question at the core of a new Silicon Valley startup called UrbanLeap. The company, a little less than a year old, is putting together a cloud-based platform for government  especially local government  to pilot-test products and services.It appears to be one of the first, if not the first, such product on the market. And as UrbanLeap is going through the process of signing its first few customers, it has the attention of a few big-name believers in the space where local government meets technology.Those names would be Maury Blackman, the long-time Accela chief executive officer who has turned his attentions toward investing, as well as Nate Levine, the former co-founder of data and performance company OpenGov. Both have signed on as investors and advisers.Then theres Jonathan Reichental, the chief information officer and chief technology officer of Palo Alto, who heavily influenced company co-founders Arik Bronshtein and Erez Druk to head in the direction from the early days of the company.I think it will become obvious that this is a really big market and a completely unmet market, said Reichental, whose city is in the process of becoming one of the very first to enter into a paid contract with UrbanLeap.UrbanLeaps product, as of now, is built around the core focus of providing a pathway for governments to successfully test out new things. That could mean trying out a new process internally or working with third-party vendors to see how their technology works.The platform can generate a template-based legal contract to run pilot projects on and send out invitations to companies asking them to participate in those pilots. It gives both sides a way to set goals and define how to measure progress on those goals during the pilot project; creates data visualizations to represent progress on those goals; and walks the participants through the five stages of a pilot: discovery and prioritizing, planning, contracting, tracking and evaluating.The idea is that government should have an idea of how likely something is to meet their needs before they buy it.We make it very clear if this is something that is risky or something that would have a medium benefit or something that is amazing and you should scale it out, said Druk, UrbanLeaps chief technology officer and co-founder.Today, the standard approach for a government to buy new technology is to write a request for proposals that seeks to specify what it needs and what the requirements of a system should be. That procurement process is designed to create competition among vendors, lower prices and reduce the amount of risk that the government takes on.And its become something that people on all sides of the process tend to approach with hesitation, antipathy or a resigned feeling that the resulting system wont work. Many in government IT and the technology companies that serve them blame the procurement process for taking too long, sweeping up too much work into unwieldy mega-projects and failing to design for users.Druk and Bronshtein have seen that firsthand. After leaving their jobs at Facebook and the retailer technology provider Placer, respectively, they embarked on a user research journey. For about three months in 2017, Bronshtein and Druk spoke with more than 100 people who deal with the government procurement process.Both sides, the government and vendor, were complaining about the process, said Bronshtein, UrbanLeaps chief executive officer and co-founder.There have been increasing efforts to change that status quo . In California, for example, the state government has broken up a project to create a new child welfare system into chunks, asking vendors to test and iterate as they go.UrbanLeap is targeting an even earlier stage in the process. Before procurement, government could use their product to try out technology and decide what they actually want and get a better idea of how it should work.Especially for smaller, resource-strapped local governments, Reichental thinks the software will make it easier to try out new things. When he first started his job with Palo Alto, he said he ran into a lot of barriers with trying out new technology and evaluating vendors.Every time I was approached by an interesting vendor, we had to basically start from scratch. We had to figure out what we were going to do, figure out the paperwork, the metrics, the costs, he said.UrbanLeap is meant to streamline that process and cut down on redundant steps.But hes cautioned Bronshtein and Druk that they arent just selling software to government. Theyre pitching a culture change.For that reason, he thinks the company will need to invest heavily in customer success: training, onboarding and getting cities to really commit to the idea of using it regularly.Still, he thinks the company has a bright future ahead of them. A big part of that is the sheer size of their market. Buying technology is something pretty much every government does. And there are a lot of governments out there.Im optimistic, Reichental said. I think city managers do know about this, they do know how to do it, but they dont know if theres a tool to help.
(TNS)  SANTA FE, N.M.  Those in charge of a $10.5 million, federally funded project to bring broadband services to parts of northern New Mexico cant account for how almost $1 million was spent or say what happened to 12 miles of fiber optic cable, according to a new state audit.The State Auditors Office said it is still looking for missing documentation for the REDI Net project and has served several subpoenas on contractors and vendors who received significant payments from the broadband project.These federal dollars were meant to bring broadband connectivity to people throughout northern New Mexico, state Auditor Wayne Johnson said in a news release. There are some serious questions about a lack of records and controls to assure taxpayers that these funds were used effectively and responsibly.State Rep. Jim Trujillo, D-Santa Fe, is board president of a local economic development district that received the federal funding. He said he disagrees with the audits findings.We did it under federal economic development grant and we met the requirements of the grant, Trujillo said. When we finished the job, we turned it into the federal government with a list of what we had done, and they approved it.The State Auditors Office on Tuesday released the audit that was performed for the office by Jaramillo Accounting Group of Albuquerque.The REDI Net project was financed in 2010 with $10.5 million in post-recession stimulus money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The money went to the North Central New Mexico Economic Development District, a consortium of the counties.REDI Net later was set up as a separate government entity. Its website says it is run by the North Central district; Santa Fe, Los Alamos and Rio Arriba counties; Espanola and the pueblos of Pojoaque, Ohkay Owingeh, Santa Clara and TesuqueThe audit says that in 2016, Rio Arriba took over from North Central as fiscal agent. During the changeover, questions arose and information came to the attention of the REDI Net board that caused concerns about certain transactions that North Central had charged to the federal grant. Rio Arriba officials communicated those concerns to the State Auditors Office, which in March 2016 designated North Central for a special audit. REDI Net paid for the audit.The audit identified $955,792 for which North Central was unable to provide supporting documentation. The 12 miles of missing cable is valued at nearly $200,000, the state auditors office said.David Trujillo, Rio Arriba deputy county manager and vice chair of the REDI Net board, said the findings are very serious and confirm many of the concerns that the REDI Net Board has raised.Gabriel Montoya, chair of board, said it agrees with the findings and hopes that updated audit results from additional subpoenas will provide more clarity so the organization can close the books and move forward.REDI Net is providing high-speed internet to about 75 anchor institutions like schools, hospitals and government agencies. The system is set up for other internet providers to take on the role of last mile services to individual customers like homes and businesses.
(TNS) - Plano Police are going back to middle school, where most campuses in the city have been without school resource officers for more than a decade.A partnership between the city and Plano ISD calls for hiring 15 new officers who will not only provide security but also crime prevention, mentoring, safety training and a full-time presence at its campuses.Plano Police Chief Gregory W. Rushin told the city council that adding more SROs is a priority."I don't think you can really quantify the good that the school resource officers do above and beyond being security in the schools," said Rushin, who worked as a school resource officer when Plano's program began in 1983.A survey of 12 area school districts showed Plano ISD was the only one that didn't have SROs at the middle school level. The positions were eliminated during city budget cuts in 2008 and 2009.Plano ISD currently has nine school resource officers - one at each high school and senior high school except for Academy High School, which opened in 2013. And the school resource officer at Fowler Middle School in Plano is funded entirely by Frisco ISD because the school is in that school district.The plan would station a school resource officer in each of Plano ISD's 11 middle schools, add a second officer to its three senior highs and place one at Academy High. The middle school SROs would also serve the elementary schools.In 2013, Plano ISD launched a campus protection plan, which has off-duty officers from Plano, Collin County and other agencies sign up for one of seven shifts each day at middle and elementary schools.But the shifts don't always get filled. And what those officers provide compared with the duties of an SRO is night and day, Rushin said. SROs offer more consistency, they get to know the school better and they interact more with students and staff, Rushin said.The need for more school resource officers is apparent, given today's climate and the increase in school shootings across the country, Rushin said. Since Jan. 1, Plano police have responded to 26 threats involving its schools. Those threats ranged from shooting up the school to bringing a gun to killing teachers or students. Three of the calls involved weapons: one gun, one facsimile of a gun and one knife, Rushin said.The Plano City Council voted unanimously on Monday to make the budget and staffing changes required to start hiring new officers beginning April 1. Agreements with Plano ISD and Frisco ISD, which has one middle school in Plano, were also updated.Plano ISD will consider the plan at an upcoming meeting. Officers' salaries would be split equally between the city and the school district. The plan calls for Plano ISD to purchase vehicles for the middle school officers. The city has agreed to pay for half of the costs of vehicle maintenance and fuel.Costs to the city total more than $1.1 million over two years, with the bulk of the money needed for the hiring, training and equipment.Because of the lengthy hiring process for police, the city anticipates the 15 new school officers will be in place beginning August 2019.Plano City Manager Bruce Glasscock applauded the much-needed boost to the schools."When we talk about Plano being a safe community and the public saying that's a No. 1 priority, this is a piece of our safety net that has been lacking..."It's a basic service we need to be providing," Glasscock added. "Those students are our students."2018 The Dallas Morning NewsVisit The Dallas Morning News at www.dallasnews.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
TNS  The FBI's race to hack into the cellphone of slain San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook was hindered by poor internal communication, but officials did not mislead Congress about their technological capabilities, according to an inspector general's report released Tuesday.After the December 2015 terror attack, the FBI waged a high-profile public fight to force Apple Inc. to unlock the iPhone, even going to court in a case that pitted national security against digital privacy.The watchdog report opens a window into the shadowy units inside the FBI that try to hack into computers, and the internal tensions between technicians engaged in national security investigations and those working on criminal cases.One official was unhappy after the bureau hired an outside technology company to help it unlock the phone, the report said, because that undercut the legal battle against Apple."Why did you do that for?" the report quotes the official as saying.More than two years after the struggle over Farook's phone, the FBI says the problem of encrypted devices is more difficult than ever. The method used to hack Farook's iPhone 5c  which cost the FBI more than $1 million  quit working as soon as Apple updated the phones.In 2017, the FBI was unable to access data on 7,775 devices seized in investigations, according to Director Christopher Wray."This problem impacts our investigations across the board," Wray said in January at a speech at a cybersecurity conference, calling it "an urgent public safety issue."On Dec. 2, 2015, Farook, a health department worker for San Bernardino County, and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, attacked a holiday party for Farook's co-workers, killing 14 people and injuring many others. The couple was killed in a shootout with police.The FBI, trying to figure out whether anyone else was involved in the plot, thought Farook's county government-issued cellphone might have the answer. In February, the bureau announced that its technicians were unable to get into the iPhone, which they feared had been set up with a security feature by Farook that would permanently destroy encrypted data after 10 unsuccessful login attempts.The bureau asked Apple to write software that would disarm that security feature, allowing agents to keep trying codes until one worked, but the company refused. Tim Cook, the company's CEO, said such a backdoor could compromise security for Apple customers."(T)he U.S. government has asked us for something we simply do not have, and something we consider too dangerous to create," he said in a statement at the time.The dispute ended up in federal court, as the government sought an order forcing Apple to comply.Then-FBI Director James B. Comey, in testimony to Congress on Feb. 9 and March 1, 2016, said the bureau was unable to get into the phone without Apple's help. Amy Hess, then the FBI's executive assistant director in charge of the technology division, said the same thing in her testimony.But inside the bureau, even though top officials had ordered a "full-court press," not everybody was working on the problem, the inspector general found.The digital forensic experts at the bureau's Cryptographic and Electronic Analysis Unit had tried and failed to get into the phone. But the leader of another squad, the Remote Operations Unit, said he never learned about the issue until a staff meeting in February. He started contacting the unit's stable of hackers to see whether anybody had a solution.That supervisor said he believed he wasn't asked for help sooner because the FBI had "a line in the sand" that blocked the unit's classified hacking techniques from being used in domestic criminal cases."He said this dividing line between criminal and national security became part of the culture in (the technology division) and inhibited communication," the report says. Other officials told the inspector general that no such line existed.As it happened, the report found, one of the bureau's hacking outfits had been working on cracking the iPhone for months and was close to a solution.The FBI called off the court fight March 28, 2016, saying it no longer needed Apple's help.The FBI eventually found that Farook's phone had information only about work and revealed nothing about the plot.After the outside vendor surfaced, the cryptographic unit chief "became frustrated that the case against Apple could no longer go forward," the report says. Hess said the bureau had viewed the Farook phone as "the poster child case" that could help it win the larger political struggle to access encrypted devices.The inspector general's inquiry began after Hess reported concerns about the internal conflicts and said she was worried that FBI staff had deliberately kept quiet about their capabilities and allowed Comey and her to give false testimony to Congress.That wasn't the case, the inspector general found, because the bureau hadn't figured out how to crack the phone at the time of those hearings. Through a spokesman, Hess, now special agent in charge of the FBI's Louisville office, declined to comment.The FBI said it agreed with the recommendations in the report and said it is now setting up a new unit to consolidate resources and improve communication between people working on encryption issues. Communications problems also were addressed through "a change in leadership" of the units involved, the bureau said.___(c)2018 Los Angeles TimesVisit Los Angeles Times at www.latimes.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC._____
(TNS)  Uber plans to end all autonomous-car testing in California for the foreseeable future, according to a letter from the state Department of Motor Vehicles to the company.The move follows a March 18 crash in Tempe, Ariz., in which an Uber car operating in autonomous mode struck and killed a pedestrian. After that fatality, the ride-hailing company temporarily suspended its driverless car testing in Tempe, Pittsburgh, Toronto and San Francisco, the four cities where it operates the cars.In conversations between the state agency and Uber since the crash, Uber has indicated that it will not renew its current permit to test autonomous vehicles in California, said the letter from Brian Soublet, DMV deputy director and chief counsel, to Austin Heyworth, a public affairs manager for Uber. Ubers permit will expire Saturday, the letter said.Before the company can resume autonomous testing in California, it must apply for a new permit. Any application for a new permit will need to address any follow-up analysis or investigations from the recent crash in Arizona and may also require a meeting with the department, Soublet wrote.Uber said it chose not to renew its California testing permit because it knew the application would not be considered until the Tempe probe had concluded. The National Transportation Safety Board and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are working with Tempe police on that investigation.We decided to not reapply for a California DMV permit with the understanding that our self-driving vehicles would not operate on public roads in the immediate future, Uber said in a statement.Jim McPherson, a Benicia attorney and founder of SafeSelfDrive, an industry consultancy, pointed out that the federal investigation could easily take a year.Without having the benefit of NTSBs conclusions, Uber was unlikely to be able to answer the California DMVs questions, he said in an email. Whether this means Uber is folding its autonomous vehicle program remains to be seen.California requires all autonomous vehicle makers to get special registrations for their vehicles and the cars operators, to submit reports of all accidents, and to produce an annual report on disengagements, situations in which the human operator needed to take over from the robot one. Uber has not yet had to produce such a report.The New York Times reported Friday that Ubers cars were struggling to meet the companys target of one operator intervention per 13 miles in Arizona. Cars from Waymo, the self-driving unit of Google parent Alphabet, which has logged the most self-driving miles of any company, went about 5,600 miles between interventions in California, according to its disengagement reports.Uber said that concerns about having to file disengagement reports were not a factor in its California withdrawal.This is what OVER-regulation looks like! #ditchcalifornia  Doug Ducey (@dougducey) December 22, 2016 Arizona has portrayed itself as a more welcoming, less regulated environment for self-driving cars. Uber tangled with the California DMV in late 2016, when it started testing self-driving cars here without the required permits.After the DMV said it would revoke the cars registrations, Uber pulled them out of the state to shift those tests to Arizona.Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey gloated in a tweet accompanying a story about the Uber cars leaving California: This is what OVER-regulation looks like! #ditchcalifornia.On Monday, Ducey suspended Uber from testing self-driving cars in Arizona, saying a dashcam video of the Tempe collision was disturbing and alarming, and it raises many questions about the ability of Uber to continue testing in Arizona.Uber has been testing autonomous cars in San Francisco  with permits  for a year. It has about 20 self-driving Volvo XC90s housed in a warehouse at Pier 70, where some 300 employees of its Advanced Technologies Group work. Three weeks ago, it started a free robot-taxi service for those employees to commute to and from work.
Evaluating how well a parking meter is operating in San Diego may be a question for a streetlight.Overlaying data from a multitude of connected, intelligent components was the focus of one of the many panel discussions at the third annual Smart Cities Connect Conference and Expo in Kansas City, Mo., March 27.So we know when a parking meter has been paid, how long its been paid for and when its going to expire, explained Maksim Pecherskiy, chief data officer in the Performance and Analytics Department in the city of San Diego. We can combine that with our streetlight data to try to understand how well any given parking meters performing, because every parking meter has a maintenance cost to it. And every parking meter is making certain money for a parking improvement district.In addition to its 5,000 smart parking meters, San Diego has about 3,200 smart streetlights, perhaps one of the largest deployments of streetlight IoT in the country.The devices are collecting large amounts of data that can be overlaid, and otherwise analyzed, with other streams of input into the city. Its but one example of the many ways cities are zeroing in on data and then exploring how to use it to solve problems ranging from predicting when the next pothole will surface to reducing crime or improving wellness.So, how do I take this data and add it to the value of things we might be working on? said Sherri McIntyre, director of public works and assistant city manager in Kansas City, Mo.McIntyre and other city officials explored not only the possibilities behind data collection and analysis  and the larger quality-of-life improvements these efforts might lead to  but the struggles and other concerns like transparency and privacy that cities encounter.In Kansas City, for example, officials are exploring how to use crime-related data to identify problem areas and work toward reducing the citys murder rate with improvements to first responder training.The complexity of the issue is not just the outcome, said Bob Bennett, the city's chief innovation officer. When we look at fighting a murder rate, which in Kansas City right now is absolutely, positively, too high  Its not just guns go off and people get hurt. In some cases you can decrease a murder rate by improving the medical care that you provide to victims. In some cases you can decrease a murder rate by better preparing your first responders.Predicting when a pothole is likely to occur  which Kansas City does  and addressing crime or evaluating the performance of parking meters are all great-sounding projects, say officials, and should be explored. However, moving them through the myriad city processes  from budgeting to implementation  can be a slow and cumbersome road.There is certainly top-level excitement for smart cities. But a lot of the decisions, and a lot of the budget controls, and a lot of the activities are controlled at a layer or two below that. And so being able to come up with actionable data platforms that drive actions, like potholes, can be a challenge, said Bennett.Another top concern among residents and government is privacy and ensuring that the personal information of constituents is not inadvertently shared within the public domain. This work becomes even trickier when considering using data provided by a third party, like navigation app Waze.I think its a complicated thing, said Eric Roche, chief data officer for Kansas City. The companies are collecting this data, and theoretically, their users have agreed to share this information with them.It seems that our public has decided to hold private companies to a different standard when it comes to privacy. And thats okay, he added. And governments to another. And thats okay too. But it becomes an issue when you start to share it between the two.The rule in Kansas City has been to ask private companies to not share individual private information on users. We want perfect transparency, but we also want perfect privacy from our government, said Roche.
(TNS)  In a move applauded by U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, sandwiched into the $1.3 trillion Omnibus spending package signed into law by President Trump Friday is $600 million for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for rural broadband investment.It is unacceptable that millions of people in rural America currently lack access to reliable broadband, Perdue said in a news release. I have traveled extensively across the nation and everywhere I go I have heard how important increased broadband is to rural Americans. Reliable and affordable internet e-connectivity truly is the key to productivity in the 21st century and Im pleased Congress recognized this need and has provided this critical funding. The inclusion of this money dovetails nicely with President Trumps bold agenda to restore and expand the nations crumbling infrastructure, which will include massive investment in rural America.According to the release, 80 percent of the 24 million households across the country deemed to not have affordable, reliable high-speed internet are located in the nations rural areas.The USDA currently awards grants for broadband projects through its Office of Rural Developments Community Connect Program. Last year those funds totaled under $19 million for eight total projects.While increasing in amount, the FY 2018s Community Connect cycle now being accepted estimated grant availability of $30 million pales in comparison to the $600 million included in the Omnibus package.According to the release, that funding will be used for a new pilot grant and loan combination program that aims at leveraging $1 billion for new broadband projects.Since 2002, West Virginia has received eight Community Connect awards, including a project in Richwood and two projects in McDowell County.Last year, while West Virginia was not represented, four of the eight projects that received awards were in Appalachian Virginia or Tennessee.In February, Gov. Jim Justice announced 12 broadband projects that would be receiving Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) totaling $1.5 million, the first time in state history when broadband projects were considered.Not connected to the USDA, CDBG funds are state-administered, federal funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
HACKING FOR PUBLIC SAFETY

The nations two dedicated first responder networks are going live this week with private core services for members, representatives of both entities said.In a news release , officials at AT&T, the service provider for the First Responder Network Authority, announced the launch of FirstNets core network across 56 states and territories March 27. The core network, the company said, will have a controlled introduction to a limited customer set while it is tested extensively, followed by the onboarding of more customers, likely in April or May.Meanwhile, officials at Verizon announced the private core of their own dedicated network for public safety and first responders would become generally available to all members beginning on March 29.FirstNet had previously set a core completion timeframe of March 2018, while Verizon had announced its dedicated network plans in August. Members of both networks have already enjoyed unique capabilities such as priority services and pre-emption, but the core deployments further activate and securitize their separate networks, and offer enhanced communication and services.FirstNets deployment, timed to the one-year anniversary of the approval of its official contract from Congress, was billed as a major breakthrough for first responders and the arrival of a separate, nationwide broadband network certified by the authority behind the network.Were proud of the quick progress weve made in the short timeframe, said Chris Sambar, senior vice president, AT&T-FirstNet, in a statement, calling the development an exciting milestone.FirstNets evolved packet core offers trademarked First Priority designations  and two new, additional priority levels  to enable law enforcement, emergency medical services (EMS) and firefighters to better respond in real time to evolving incidents.It also debuts an Incident Management Portal designed to let personnel do more to control resources and priority levels and forms the basis for the unified, interoperable and nationwide communications that public safety envisioned, AT&T said.The core is built on separate hardware and secured with whats described as a defense-in-depth approach securitizing the network at all levels and continuously monitored by a dedicated Security Operations Center.Chris Kirk, sheriff in Brazos County, told Government Technology earlier this year that being the first agency in Texas to join FirstNet dramatically increased its coverage. In a statement, Kirk said partnering with FirstNet helped cut through the clutter and get access to the vital information we need.That was before the launch of the FirstNet network core. So, were expecting it to only get better from here, which we believe will continue to improve our operations, Kirk said.Verizons private core will feature the pre-emption capability  tested by law enforcement on New Years Day during the Rose Parade  and mobile broadband priority services, an expansion of existing priority.The core will also offer traffic segmentation, to further differentiate first responders; improved security and enhanced service management and controls.Public safety users will have their data immediately recognized as public safety with priority access at the tower and across the network, the company said.Verizons mobile broadband priority service (MBP) offers priority for data transmissions, enabling surveillance camera video transmission as well as expanded communication via tablets and from vehicles. Its pre-emption service, the company said, enables automatic reallocation of network resources from commercial data/Internet users to first responders should network capacity be reached.Nicholas Nilan, Verizons director of product development for the public sector, toldthat the network, which added its first customer last week, is an evolution of the companys more than 20 years of supporting public safety.I think from here, the point to customers is that we are working closely with them to provide a seamless experience. This isnt a major change in how they manage their accounts. Those services are really just the latest iteration of almost a decade of support for those precursor solutions, Nilan said.The networks are coming online as the tech sector is drilling down on solutions for emergency responders. The FirstNet Public Safety Hackathon , held March 23-24 in San Francisco and sponsored by AT&T, IBM, Redlands-based mapping and spatial technology company Esri and others, generated winning solutions for law enforcement, firefighters and others.The First Assist team won first prize for Best App Overall for its solution, which it said collects and sorts live data from people with mobility disabilities, to help prioritize rescue procedures based on "situational and health conditions.Second prize for Best App Overall went to the Dispatch.it team, which uses an algorithm to prioritize the urgency of at-risk 911 callers, and get crucial information for first responders.Third prize in the category went to team SRescue, which used Esri technology to create what it described as a situation commander's web app, capable of tracking rescuers and victims' movements and locations on a three-dimensional map.As we look at things geospatially, if we can help someone by looking on a map to say You are standing here and you are needed over here, its so much easier than even trying to give a description verbally and then hoping that the communication process happens. Visually, people are much quicker at making decisions when they can see them, said Mike King, global public safety manager at Esri.
The concept of shared IT services in state government triggers a lot of conversations for the benefits it can deliver. But the reality of what needs to take place and the risks involved makes it a hard concept to bring to fruition. Thats why everyone has their eye on Pennsylvania as it becomes the latest state to transform to a shared services model.Making it happen are two unique individuals who have years of experience working with IT, but also an innate understanding of what makes shared services a reality. John MacMillan, chief information officer, and his boss, Sharon Minnich, secretary of the Office of Administration, have their work cut out for them. But they also have a partnership that has resulted in a laudable plan to reduce disparities across the enterprise, from project development to delivering services, while driving down costs.One of the things that has made this initiative successful is the working relationship that John and I have, said Minnich. Johns background in both the public and private sector has helped us understand strategically where we want to go. Its a partnership that has really allowed us to collaborate in terms of strategies and execution.For MacMillan, working with Secretary Minnich, who had years of experience working in the IT sector before entering government, gives him a partner who understands the challenges and opportunities that come with technology and can convey that message to decision-makers. Her philosophy is contagious, he said. Its about identifying what can be done and making things better where its possible. She can sort through the important things and keep us focused.When it comes to shared services, knowledge about technology is just a piece of what is needed for success. Talk to the experts and they will tell you that ultimately it requires top-notch communication skills, as well as organizational and management acumen. Minnich praises MacMillan for his skills at communicating and managing at both the strategic and operational level to keep the effort on track. MacMillan is just as grateful for Minnichs ability to use the support of the governor to keep the initiative moving in the right direction, to manage the naysayers and to keep everyone focused on whats good for the enterprise.Team effort might sound like a cliche, but in the case of Pennsylvanias most transformative IT project to date, it is very real and it works.
Force India is in a race for mere survival, its deputy boss Bob Fernley has admitted.

Amid owner and boss Vijay Mallya's ever deepening legal troubles, his deputy Fernley has revealed he is scrambling to put together the team's 2018 budget.

"The next four weeks will decide if we will survive," Germany's Auto Bild quotes him as saying.

"I will have to raise a lot of money in a short amount of time."

Previously, Force India has been given a helping hand by getting an advance on its official F1 income.

Fernley said: "For that we always need the approval of the other teams, and this time Williams has put in the veto.

"I have a plan that could work in the next two to three weeks," he added.

(GMM)
Bahrain will set the scene for the next round of tensions between F1 owner Liberty Media and angry top teams Ferrari and Mercedes.

The top teams are already threatening to quit formula one after 2020, if Liberty presses ahead with plans for a budget cap and significantly altered engine rules.

Publications including France's Le Figaro now report that Liberty Media intends to unveil its latest draft of its plans for 2021 and beyond in Bahrain.

It appears that Red Bull is at least on Liberty's side for now.

"We need a reduction in costs," Dr Helmut Marko is quoted as saying. "However it happens does not matter.

"No team is making money -- the business model is not sound or healthy."

And another Red Bull official, team boss Christian Horner, urges Liberty to take a hard line rather than be influenced by pressure.

"Liberty must impose its views and take strong decisions," he said. "Clearly, you will never get all of the teams to agree."

(GMM)




Haiti - Politic : Towards a budget support of the European Union of 148 million dollars





Antonio Rodrigue, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, participated in a special meeting of the Forum of Caribbean States (CARIFORUM) in Basseterre (St. Kitts and Nevis) on March 26 and 27, 2018.



On the sidelines of this meeting, Chancellor Rodrigue had a working lunch with the Director General of International Cooperation and Development of the European Union, Stefano Manservisi. The exchanges focused on the general evolution of the situation in Haiti on the political, economic and social levels as well as on the bilateral relations between Haiti and the European Union.



Manservisi reported on progress under the new Moise-Lafontant Government, such as state reform, construction and / or redevelopment of infrastructure, strengthening of the rule of law, while recognizing that there was still obstacles to overcome. He assured of the European Union's willingness to continue to support national efforts to improve the living conditions of the population in a sustainable manner and pave the way for Haiti's sustainable development.



The relations between Haiti and the Dominican Republic have also been passed in review, insisting on the need to strengthen the dialogue between the two States, particularly through the revitalization of the Bilateral Joint Commission and to ensure peaceful coexistence between countries.



At the end of the meeting Manservisi signed a Convention for a new budget support program in Haiti, amounting 120 million Euros ( 148 million US dollars), which he handed to Chancellor Rodrigue for approval by the Haitian Executive "the consolidation of the State is at the heart of our cooperation with Haiti because there can be no effective development without efficiency, that is to say a State that is able to impulse and put strong public policies and to provide quality services to its population [...] By signing this contract Haiti and the EU are committed to public governance reforms that strengthen effective institutions and administrations, operating according to clear and transparent principles and procedures."



This new program, which will be spread over 3 years, follows the previous budget support program of 112 million euros. It will enable the State to pursue ambitious reforms in four key areas: public finances, public administration, education, reducing the country's vulnerability and improving its resilience to natural disasters.



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Haiti - News : Zapping...





Senator Marcellus is a goes a little better

On Sunday, March 25, a Senate delegation composed of Senator Wilfrid Gelin and of Director of the Cabinet of the Senate Speaker, Me Annibal Coffy, visited Senator Nawoon Marcellus at the Jackson Memorial Hospital in Florida. They had the opportunity to exchange a few words with Senator Marcellus and found that he was able to move his members. According to the doctors, it is likely that he will recover all his faculties as a result of the treatments.



French Embassy closed

The Embassy of France and its consular section will be closed to the public this Thursday, March 29th due to an internal seminar. Friday, March 30 being also a holiday, our services will re-open on Monday, April 2nd. We thank you for your understanding.



Two high school students summoned, absent

Tuesday, March 26, 2018, the two high school students of Petit-Goave, Nelson Avril and Isma Wallace, still suffering the consequences of the brutality of the police during a demonstration, did not respond Monday to the convocation of the investigating Judge, Fritzner Duclair https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23887-haiti-petit-goave-two-high-school-students-called-to-appear-in-court.html , determined, the Judge intends to summon again these two high school students accused of vandalism and criminal conspiracy. Nelson Avril and Isma Wallace have dismissed these accusations. HL/ HaitiLibre / Guyto Mathieu (Correspondant Petit-Goave)



Last hour: We have just learned that the two students of the Lycee Faustin Soulouque of Petit-Goave decided to appear before the investigating judge, , Fritzner Duclair, on April 9, 2018.



Senator Nenel Cassy wants to demobilize the army

Minority opposition Senator Nenel Cassy (Nippes, Lavalas) qualifies as out-of-law the Armed Forces of Haiti (FAd'H) remobilized by President Moise, stressing that the General Staff does not respect the democratic principles and promises to do everything to demobilize this army.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23941-haiti-politic-official-ceremony-of-installation-of-the-general-staff-of-the-army.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23829-haiti-justice-a-former-torturer-in-the-general-staff-denounces-the-bai.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23823-haiti-army-reactions-around-the-appointments-of-the-staff-of-the-fad-h.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23809-haiti-flash-appointments-of-the-staff-of-fad-h.html



Empty Chair Policy

Following the failure for lack of quorum, of the holding of the last scheduled Assembly, the Deputy Cholzer Chancy demands the strict application of the regulations of the House against those who practice absenteeism and the politics of the empty chair. The publication in a long-run newspaper of the names of absentee deputies is one of the measures provided for in the by-laws to force deputies to fulfill their mission.



Easter Orlando Consulate Closed

The Consulate of Haiti in Orlando will be closed Thursday, March 29 from noon and Friday, March 30, 2018 in full for Easter.



Haiti 1st exporter of vetiver oil to the world

The commercial section of the Canadian Embassy in Haiti visited the FRAGER factory in Les Cayes, one of the largest vetiver oil production plants in Haiti. World exports of vetiver oil are around 250 million US dollars a year and Haiti is the largest exporter of vetiver oil in the world (55-60% of world exports). Vetiver oil is one of the basic components for the production of perfumes. FRAGER is currently exporting to Europe and the United States and exploring opportunities for cooperation with Canadian perfume companies.



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Photo of PAC on Ambae covered in ash fall, which was on social media by Doh Reh Tee
Influential Italian wine pioneer Renato Trestini remembered by trade

By Andrew Catchpole

The UKs pioneering Italian wine champion Renato Trestini was remembered at his funeral yesterday (Thursday) for his role in establishing high-end Italian estates in the UK market from the early 1970s.

In a career that spanned several decades, Trestini was responsible for establishing leading names such as Masi in the UK, along with the import and sale of a roll call of greats that runs from Alighieri, Biondi Santi, Ca del Bosco and Tasca dAlmerita to Gaja, Maculan and Tedeschi, and many, many other now famous estates besides.

He also influenced and helped many leading lights in the UK trade to better understand quality Italian wines, as a founder of a club dedicated to their promotion, called Forum Vinorum, which counted people such as David Gleave MW, Philip Contini and Italian expert and writer Nicolas Belfrage MW among its members.

He organised tasting of quality Italian wines, a level which had never been seen in England, where prevailing opinion about Italian wines was that they tended to be faulty and sold cheap, wrote Nicolas Belfrage, in an extended obituary that appeared on Vinexus.co.uk celebrating Trestinis early influence on todays roster of Italian importers and specialists.

Trestini, who was born of Italian parents in the French resort of Chamonix, was working as a barman at Dukes Hotel in Londons St James in 1969 when he turned to wine, saying he had had a revelation.

His fledgling import company, Italian Wines of Distinction, soon took shape under the railway arches in what is now known as Bankside, south of the Thames, where he began shipping and selling a growing roster of Italian greats to restaurants and merchants.

As Trestinis portfolio grew, so did his customer base, with retailers such as Harrods and Oddbins, along with restaurants and hotels including San Lorenzo and the Connaught, among those that took the plunge and helped champion a new level of quality from a country that was previously perceived as cheap and not always so cheery.

According to Belfrage, Trestinis career went on to form a series of more or less successful alliances with companies as diverse as Alivini, Banfi, Hedges and Butler, Ehrmanns and Belloni.

He finally retired to his home in Bruton, Somerset, where he battled with Parkinsons disease during the latter years of his life.

It is easy to see why he is credited with really starting the Italian wine revolution in the UK, said Andrew Bewes, managing director at Hallgarten Druitt, who attended Trestinis funeral. I worked with him for several years and he remained a close friend to the end.

David Gleave MW, managing director at Italian specialist Liberty Wines, added: Renato Trestini was a huge influence on me when I first got to know him in 1983. His wine empathy and his way with people ensured he had strong and enduring relationships with his suppliers, something Ive tried to emulate at Liberty Wines. But he was also a great teacher, and he taught me a great deal about Italy and its ways. Those lessons continue to serve me well.






Hallgarten signs deal to distribute McWilliams across Continental Europe

By Lisa Riley

Hallgarten & Novum Wines has signed a deal as the exclusive distributor of McWilliams Wines Group (MWG) across Continental Europe.

Taking place with immediate effect, the partnership includes Hallgarten taking on distribution of Australian MWG's table and fortified wines and the Mount Pleasant collections in both the on and off outside of the UK.

MWG, which has been distributed in the UK by Enotria&Coe since October last year, was the exact kind of wine partner Hallgarten looked to work with, said MD Andrew Bewes.

McWilliams is family-owned and quality-driven producer whose provenance and innovation is evident in a stunning line-up of wines, he said.

Having already established an exciting international portfolio, Hallgarten looked forward to developing MWG's sales across Scandinavia and Continental Europe, he added.

MWG general manager APAC & EMEA, Garrick Harvison, said: We needed to find a skilled distributor who could articulate the provenance of our brands and the elegant wine styles the McWilliams family has been perfecting for over 140 years - no mean feat. We are sure we have found the right partner.

A founding member of Australias First Families of Wine (AFFW), MWG is the exclusive Australian distributor for Champagne Taittinger, Henkell, Mionetto and Mateus.
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Halewood bolsters craft portoflio with Glasgow distillery partnership

By Jo Gilbert

Halewood Wines & Spirits is to distribute artisanal spirits from The Glasgow Distillery Company including brands Makar Gin and G52 Urban Craft Vodka.

Distribution for The Glasgow Distillery Company has been dealt with in house since launching in 2014, with its brands finding their way on the regional grocery shelves.

The agreement with Halewood will now see its portfolio distributed nationwide, significantly ramping up supply to both the on and off-trades within as well as outside of Scotland.

Liam Hughes, CEO and co-founder of distillery, confirmed the company has been looking to expand its reach for some times, and was drawn to Halewoods specialism in innovative and artisanal spirits.

Our Makar Gin has enjoyed a lot of success in Scotland, with growth more than doubling in recent years, and working with Halewood gives us an exciting opportunity to widen the net and deliver our products to the UK and Ireland in both the on and off trade, he added.

Halewood Wines & Spirits is responsible for a number of craft brands, including Whitley Neill Gin, Liverpool Gins and Vodka and The Pogues Irish Whiskey.

The deal will see the Merseyside based distributor and producer bolster its portfolio of artisanal premium spirits with urban craft vodka G52 and Makar Gin for which it has exclusive distribution rights in the UK and Ireland.

Glasgow Distillery is a shining example of what true artisanal craftsmanship looks like and has built great regional brand equity already, John Bradbury, UK managing director at Halewood Wines & Spirits. With the addition of Makar Gin into our portfolio, we are fast becoming the go-to premium craft gin distributor in the country.








Provence wineries launch new venture to extend global reach

By Lisa Riley

A new venture housing four Provence wineries has been launched in a bid increase sales and extend the global reach of their wines.

Chateaux & Vignobles d'exception has been established by Chateau de Berne, Chateau de Bertrands, Ultimate Provence and Saint Roux - all located in the Lorgues region of Provence, with two senior appointments made to oversee the companys growth strategy.

Sebastien Latz, who joins from Med Europe where he was CEO, has been appointed as CEO to oversee the expansion of the group across domestic and export markets, while Anthony Carfantan, formerly head of sales for Nyetimber, has been brought onboard to drive international growth.

Boasting a combined 20 million turnover in 2017 - a 20% increase on 2016 (internal data), Carfantan said the new venture had long-term growth plans and was on track to significantly increase sales. A total of 15% of production was currently being exported, primarily to the UK and US, he added.

We are investing heavily in each winery to meet the increase in consumer demand and aim to make Chateaux & Vignobles d'exception the number one reference for Provencal Rose, driven by the collective clout of four distinctive vineyards, he said.

The group has a clearly defined segmentation strategy and each winery will have its own brand identity, a key element to supporting long-term growth and to drive awareness in both the on and off-trade, he added.

We have planted an additional 90 hectares of vines in the last two years, 50 hectares at Chateau de Berne and a further 40 hectares across the remaining four estates, he said.

Sustainable growth was of key importance, he added, with each of the wineries following sustainable viticulture, and the boutique St Roux winery certified organic.

The flagship of Chateaux et Vignobles d'exception is Chateau de Berne, which features a 5 star Relais & Chateau Hotel with 27 bedrooms, a Spa and a cookery school, while Chateau de Bertrands has nature at the heart of its offering  it is home to an equestrian centre and sits next to the largest nature reserve in Provence. This is complemented by the vineyard of St Roux, also an organic farm and restaurant.

Urban Provence, located just outside St Tropez, is an authentic, premium Provence brand aimed at millennials and positioned as the go to lifestyle rose brand. The estate features a rooftop bar, a small hotel, bistro restaurant and an amphitheatre.
Code red to code yellow: University of Hawaii-Manoa updates its policies to earn a better free speech rating

by Kelsey Carroll, Washington Examiner, March 27, 2018

The University of Hawaii at Manoa, a public college in Honolulu, Hawaii, just received a higher free speech rating from the Foundation of Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) after reforming their outdated policies on their website.

The University of Hawaii at Manoa had a red light rating, but has been updated to a yellow light.

According to FIRE, a red light institution has at least one policy that both clearly and substantially restricts freedom of speech. A clear restriction is one that unambiguously infringes on what is or should be protected expression. A yellow light institution is one whose policies restrict a more limited amount of protected expression or, by virtue of their vague wording, could too easily be used to restrict protected expression.

This change started in 2014, when the University of Hawaii school system was sued for their restrictive free speech policies. Two students were told that they could not pass out copies of the U.S. Constitution because they were outside of the designated free speech zone. The lawsuit was settled and changes regarding free speech and assembly policies were to be implemented system-wide.

Apparently the University of Hawaii at Manoa didnt get the memo because, until recently, their speech policy contradicted the system-wide speech policy implemented in 2014.

The administrative policy that was in question at UH Manoa designated the Campus Center Courtyard as the public forum area where individuals could assemble and engage in public speech activities. This area was the only designated place on campus that students could freely exercise their First Amendment rights.

The system-wide policy, on the other hand, states that University of Hawaii is committed to the free and open exchange of ideas and affirms the rights of members of the university community to engage in speech and other expressive activity guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and by Article I, Section 4 of the Constitution of the State of Hawaii.

When Red Alert Politics reached out to the University of Hawaii about its inconsistent policies, the schools spokesperson said they were unaware of outdated policies remaining on their website. Daniel Meisenzahl, the school's spokesman and communications director, called the speech policy change one of the many balls that are up in the air for the University of Hawaii right now, but apologized, saying, theres no excuse.

I would say with great confidence that the system policy is the one thats in place and also if we were asked by students they would be referred to the system policy, Meisenzahl told Red Alert Politics. Despite this, UH Manoa kept an old, speech-restricting policy on the books for four years after the system-wide change.

Since Red Alert Politics first contacted the UH Manoa, the contradicting policy has been taken down. They said via email that they are now following the 2014 revised policies.

"It's been nearly 4 years since Young Americans for Liberty at the University of Hawaii at Hilo won their lawsuit banning free speech zones on campus, YALs director of free speech Alexander Staudt told Red Alert Politics. What I don't understand is why UHM has taken so long to replace the policies on the website."

Despite the delayed policy change, FIRE has upgraded UH Manoas rating to a yellow light since it is now in compliance with the system-wide policy.
Italy port explosion kills two

Two people were killed on March 28 when a product tank exploded at the Neri terminal in Livorno, one of Italys biggest passenger and commercial ports. The two had been carrying out maintenance on the storage tank when the blast occurred, a port authority official said.

Livorno port - Image: Neri Srl

Photographs posted online showed a large metal tank partially crumpled and leaning sideways. It had contained ethyl acetate, a combustible liquid, La Repubblica newspapers web site said.

No fire was reported and commercial and passenger services in Livorno were not likely to be affected, the port authority official said.



The Local said they were employees of local environmental services company Labromare, one aged 52 and the other 25.



One victim died instantly, while the other was still alive when emergency services arrived but could not be resuscitated, La Repubblica said.


Finns, he argues, have no choice but to fly as they have no access to alternative means of transport. An aviation tax can reduce flying in countries with alternative means of transport, such as bullet trains. Finland is situated in the periphery of the free world, beyond the Baltic Sea. We have no alternatives to flying  except to wilt, he tweeted on Saturday.

Kimmo Gronlund, a professor of political science at Abo Akademi University, has shot down the idea of adopting an aviation tax in Finland.

An aviation tax that effectively raises fares for continental flights by six euros and those for longer, intercontinental flights by 25 or 40 euros will enter into effect in Sweden on 1 April, 2018. The objective of the controversial tax is to make airlines operating in the country accountable for their greenhouse gas emissions.

Tekniikka & Talous reported last week that the notion of introducing a similar tax in Finland is supported by perhaps surprisingly many members of the transport division of the Parliaments Finance Committee.

Two of the nine members surveyed said they oppose the idea.

Emma Kari (Greens), on the other hand, was one of the lawmakers to voice her support for the tax. Im in favour of adopting an aviation tax in Finland, she tweeted on Friday. Urgent measures are needed to combat climate change. It is justified to target taxes specifically at activities that are harmful to the environment.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Photo: Markku Ulander  Lehtikuva

Source: Uusi Suomi
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), he reminds, estimated in its latest country report that a universal credit scheme would be an effective means to reduce both poverty and income inequalities, and would serve as a great foundation for a social security reform in Finland.

Petteri Orpo (NCP), the Minister of Finance, is proposing that the government trial a universal credit scheme not dissimilar to that adopted in the United Kingdom in 2013.

Juho Saari, a professor of social and health policy at the University of Tampere, similarly proposed in a government-commissioned report last week that the current minimum-level benefits be merged into a basic security act in order to reduce inactivity traps and social marginalisation.

Orpo on Saturday echoed the assessments of several experts and policy makers by viewing that a social security reform will be the most important task of the next government.

The reform is needed to eradicate inactivity traps and ensure people find their way to the working life. Im confident that a universal credit trial would be beneficial for preparing for the overall social security reform, he stated.

The United Kingdom merged several social security benefits into a needs-based universal credit that adjusts automatically to changes in the earnings of its recipients, not dissimilarly to the universal basic income trialled in Finland. What sets it apart from the basic income, however, is that it imposes activity requirements on the recipients, such as the requirement to actively look for employment.

The most central objective of the reform is to remove obstacles to employment and [ensure] the social security system makes it possible to combine work and security in the future. Thats why also the self-employed must be taken into consideration in the assessments, said Orpo.

Another key objective should be to guarantee both work incentives and a sufficient level of financial support, according to him.

The non-gratuitous nature of social security offers an opportunity to maintain benefits at a Nordic level without reducing the incentives for work significantly, he estimated.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Photo: Jussi Nukari  Lehtikuva

Source: Uusi Suomi
Minister Jotham Napat in women to cut a cake to celebrate the launching of the Vanuatu women in maritime association. The President of VanWIMA, Mary Navaika, is standing immediately to the Ministers right.
Yes. I will do my part to conserve household energy usage, even if I'm uncomfortable in my home.

No. It is too hot to conserve household energy usage.

I already conserve, even before ERCOT requested it.

Maybe, depending on the reason ERCOT provides and whether or not I am home during that time.

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Abraham Lincoln stood atop a hill outside Council Bluffs, Iowa, looking west. The broad Missouri River valley stretched from north to south before him. It was 1859, and this was the place, an acquaintance assured him, from which a transcontinental railroad across the Western expanses ought to originate. The view and that advice turned Lincolns thoughts increasingly to the future of the American West.

Born and raised in a region considered the frontier in the early 19th century, Lincoln became intrigued with the peoples and lands beyond the Mississippi. He ultimately envisioned a union extending from sea to shining sea, a hope that broadened his vision beyond goings-on in the established Northern states and increasingly discontented Southern states.

The divisive issue of slavery, often considered an exclusively North-South problem, was also a problem of the West. In fact, in the early 1850s, the political battleground over slavery centered on the frontier. Opposition to the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act in particular boosted Lincolns profile and that of the new Republican Party. Later in the decade, Lincoln remained focused on the West as the struggle to decide the slavery question took violent form in Bleeding Kansas. For the good of that region, as well as the solidarity of the nation, Lincoln opposed the spread of slavery to the Western territories, a stand that helped propel him into the White House in 1861.

During his presidency, Lincoln drew even closer to the West, which he dared not let fall into Confederate hands. His vision of rails crisscrossing the Great Plains never dimmed, and he supported measures to build tracks to the Pacific. But a transcontinental railroad wouldnt happen overnight, especially not with civil war raging. Meanwhile, other means of transportation would carry people to the open frontier; all they needed was incentive. The president signed into law the 1862 Homestead Act and also supported legislation to launch regional land-grant colleges for the agricultural and mechanical arts. Lincoln largely deferred the so-called Indian problem in the West, though when action was required on a specific problemnamely, the fate of prisoners from the 1862 Sioux Uprisinghe did get involved (see sidebar, P. 35). Overlooked in most considerations of Lincoln are that three Western territories were created during his presidency and that he devoted major attention to patronage and political appointments in the West, to the extent he might be dubbed a Founding Father of the Political West. He also dealt with military strategies and Reconstruction policies west of the Mississippi. Ideally, as Lincoln saw it, free, hard-working Republicans would dominate the region. Many problems still had to be worked out, but his Western vision was on track at the time of his assassination.

Lincoln is considered a Man of the West largely due to his rough-and-tumble, log-cabin upbringing, but the 16th president demonstrated enough peripheral vision while confronting the horrors of civil war in the East to rate as a President Who Believed in the West.

The three states in which Lincoln was raised Kentucky, Indiana and Illinoiswere considered part of the West two centuries ago. At the time the label Man of the West carried some baggage with it, calling to mind an unpolished backwoodsman with homespun attire and unkempt hair. Indeed, one observer in New Salem, Ill., where Lincoln lived during his 20s, commented that lanky Abraham presented a rather singular grotesque appearance; another described him as ruff [sic] a specimen of humanity as could be found. Others, though, recorded positive impressions of this plain and upright Western man who worked with his hands as a farmer, flatboatman and laborer. During the May 1860 Republican nominating convention, Lincolns cousin John Hanks and a colleague dashed onto the floor with two fence rails they claimed Lincoln had split and an accompanying banner emblazoned, ABRAHAM LINCOLNTHE RAIL CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT IN 1860. The crowd broke into a loud cheer, and the Rail Splitter candidate was born.

Early in his political career, as a Whig Party member, Lincoln had followed his idol Henry Clay in championing federal- and state-funded highway, canal and railroad projects. His later support for a transcontinental railroad was a natural extension of the belief that internal improvements triggered national growth. Thats not to say Lincoln was in favor of expansion by any means. By contrast, Jacksonian Democrats and Stephen A. Douglas, Lincolns competitor from Illinois, rodesometimes even ledthe prancing stallion of expansion known as Manifest Destiny that galloped across the country in the 1840s.

In January 1848, as a freshman U.S. Representative from Illinois, Lincoln introduced spot resolutions to hold Democratic President James K. Polk responsible for bringing on the Mexican War (184648), accusing the president of the sheerest deception. Not surprising, the locos (Lincolns word for his Democratic opponents) accused him of being unpatriotic, and Douglas later painted Lincoln as something of a traitor during their famous 1858 campaign debates. Lincoln reminded their audiences that although he had roundly criticized the president for leading the country into war, he always voted for measures to support the soldiers. He would also support the Whig nominee for president, General Zachary Taylor. The truth was Lincoln opposed Polks conduct of the war but not the war itself, and he never spoke out against the territorial gains America secured with its victory.

In 1846, while Congress wrestled over how to resolve the Mexican War, David Wilmot, an obscure congressman from Pennsylvania, introduced a legislative amendment calling for the disallowing of slavery in any territory gained from the conflict. Dubbed the Wilmot Proviso, the amendment failed to pass, but it became the rallying cry for northern Whigs like Lincoln and, later, most members of the new Republican Party. Lincolns belief in restricting the spread of slavery would draw his attention westward until his death. In 1849 he nearly became a Man of the Far West, showing interest when the Taylor administration offered him the position of territorial governor of Oregon. Though Lincoln later told friends that his wife, Mary, had balked at moving their family to distant Oregon, he likely also realized that his being a Whig would not play well in that Democratic state.

From 1849 to 1854, Lincoln largely rested from his political wars and plied his lawyerly trade. But the West was on his mind again and his political life recharged after Stephen Douglas introduced the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. Passed in spring 1854, the act repealed the earlier Missouri Compromise, which for 30 years had prohibited slavery north of Missouris southern border. Now Kansas and Nebraska could be organized around the principle of popular sovereignty, allowing white male residents to decide whether or not to permit slavery there. Douglas legislation undercut Lincolns stance on the Wilmot Proviso.

Quiet at first, Lincoln exploded to the fore of the anti-Nebraska men by that fall. In October at Peoria, Ill., in one of his most powerful speeches, Lincoln for the first time denounced slavery as a moral evil. He ridiculed Douglas contention that slavery, by nature, would never expand into Kansas and Nebraska as lullaby thinking. The speech was a ringing Lincoln declaration, denouncing the repeal of the Missouri Compromise in the Kansas-Nebraska Act and pointing to the struggles that lay ahead in keeping those territories free.

His fears soon proved well founded, as a vicious border war erupted in eastern Kansas 400 miles west of Lincolns Springfieldbetween invading Missouri Border Ruffians and Free-State Kansans. The latter were importing the latest rifles, which they referred to tongue-in-cheek as Beechers Bibles, after famed abolitionist preacher Henry Ward Beecher. From November 1855 into 1858, Bleeding Kansas was in chaos. In 1857 a rigged legislature met in Lecompton and sent a proslavery constitution to Congress. The Buchanan administration accepted the constitution, but Congress, under the feisty leadership of Stephen Douglas, rejected it. In denouncing the document and breaking with President James Buchanan, Douglas opened a breech in the Democratic Party, a widening chasm that separated the Democrats into Northern and Southern factions in 1860 and boded ill for the partys future.

When Lincoln contested Douglas senatorial seat in 1858, Western and slavery issues formed the heart of their thunderous debates. In that oratorical contest of nearly 200 speeches, but especially during the seven famous debates of three hours each, the two Illinois politicians vigorously jousted on two core issues: the morality of slavery and whether it should be extended into the Western territories. Lincoln denounced slavery and attacked the pragmatic weaknesses of Douglas positions. On one occasion Lincoln declared Douglas squatter sovereignty so watered down it had become as thin as homeopathic soup that was made by boiling the shadow of a pigeon that had starved to death. Regardless, in 1858 state legislatures still selected U.S. senators, and with an unbalanced apportionment in their favor, the majority Democrats reelected Douglas.

Lincoln had lost his second Senate bid, but his performance against Douglas had persuaded Republicans to consider him as a viable presidential candidate in 1860. Accepting their nod, Lincoln began to travel widely and deliver more speeches. In 1859 he made two trips across the Mississippi. A nine-day journey in August took him to Iowa, where he spoke at Council Bluffs and discussed with engineer Grenville Dodge the best routes west for a transcontinental railroad. Lincolns second trip, also for nine days, took him through Missouri into Kansas Territory. At a speech in Southern-leaning Atchison, Lincoln declared that any attempt at secession would be considered treason, adding forcefully, If they attempt to put their threats into execution, we will hang them as they have hanged old John Brown today. But the future president also knew how to cajole his fellow Westerners. He drew laughter when he singled out from the audience one of the territorys leading citizens, former Missouri Attorney General Benjamin Stringfellow, who had declared that Kansas could never be a free state because no white man could break prairie. If that were true, Lincoln joked, then he himself must be black, for he had broken prairie many times. The onetime pioneers ability to swap yarns with free-soil and proslavery Kansans alike helped solidify a Republican base in Kansas Territory and ensure it entered the Union as a free state.

In the campaign run-up, Lincoln solidified his links to the West, earning his Rail Splitter moniker during the state and national Republican nomination conventions, both in Illinois in May 1860. Among other reforms, his platform called for regional improvements and a railroad to the Pacific. Lincoln won with 39.9 percent of the vote to Douglas 29.5 percent.

Amid the melee of a nearly all-encompassing civil war, the 37th Congress still found time to pass a clutch of bills of central importance to the American West. Although Lincoln did not guide the passage of legislation toward a transcontinental railroad, a homestead act, a college land-grant act and the Department of Agriculture, all aligned with his Western vision.

Lincoln naturally and easily swung his support behind the building of a transcontinental railroad. Hed had a longtime love affair with the rails. In 1859 he reportedly told Grenville Dodge, There is nothing more important before the nation at this time than the building of a railroad to the Pacific Coast. (As chief engineer, Dodge would help construct the first transcontinental railroad after Lincoln was dead.) So influential was Lincolns support for the massive engineering project that one wag concluded, Abrahams faith moved mountains.

When Congress passed the Pacific Railroad Act in June 1862, Lincoln immediately signed it. He also enthusiastically supported the huge land grants and financial aid given to the railroad construction company. When that act failed to attract sufficient investment, Lincoln backed Congress and initiated another act in July 1864, doubling the land grants and expanding the financing. As chief magistrate, the president claimed the privilege of determining the railroads Eastern and Western terminuses and deciding on the gauge (width) of its rails.

Lincoln wanted the transcontinental railroad to bring together the East and West coasts. Binding California to the East and keeping it in the Union were foremost on the embattled presidents mind. He also appreciated the benefit of expanded federal access to Western mineral wealth, as well as the economic possibilities that would come from opening up the Great Plains and Far West to settlement.

Three important pieces of congressional legislation forever link agriculture, Lincoln and the American West. The most significantwidely considered the most important land policy measure ever enacted in the U.S. Congress was the Homestead Act of 1862. This groundbreaking legislation provided 160 acres of land virtually free to bona fide homesteaders after five years of residence (proving up). Lincoln and most Republicans favored the legislation, convinced that free land, like a powerful magnet, would draw ambitious homesteaders west, expand the nations economy and, not least, bring farmers into the Republican ranks.

Lincoln also called for establishment of a Department of Agriculture, a research bureau that would gather statistics and provide an annual farming report. Lawmakers readily followed up on his suggestion, and Lincoln praised the departments efforts in his December 1862 annual message to Congress.

The third measure was the Morrill Land-Grant College Act. It provided each state with 30,000 acres of federally owned land per senator and representative for the establishment of a college (or colleges) to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts. Ironically, several Western congressmen unsuccessfully opposed the act, fearing that Easterners would gobble up Western lands to fulfill the grant stipulations. Lincoln signed it into law on July 2, 1862.

The most time-consuming and far-reaching of Lincolns Western responsibilities lay in the field of politics. The Constitution mandated that the president or Congress appoint officials in newly formed Western territories. Presidents had done most of the appointing. Lincoln enjoyed providing friends and acquaintances with positions, but such office seekers demands proved endless. They gathered around Lincoln like hordes of hungry ants in search of tasty morsels.

When Lincoln began his presidency on March 4, 1861, only nine states stood west of the Mississippi: Louisiana (1812), Missouri (1821), Arkansas (1836), Texas (1845), Iowa (1846), California (1850), Minnesota (1858), Oregon (1859) and Kansas (January 1861). Louisiana and Texas had seceded by Lincolns inauguration; Arkansas would two months later. Colorado, Dakota and Nevada all became territories in 1861 just before Lincoln assumed office. During his four years in the White House, Nevada became a state, and Arizona, Idaho and Montana were organized as new territories. As president, then, Lincoln was tasked with appointing officials in 11 Western territories, as well as several states. These appointments allowed the ambitious resident of the White House to expand the power of the Republican Party westward and shape early political trends in the region.

Most of Lincolns appointees were former Whigs or new Republicans. Many were political acquaintances or lawyer friends from Illinois, some were politicians Lincoln had met elsewhere, and still others were friends of cabinet members or of leading congressional Republicans. Some served well as Lincolns political missionaries in the West, some wobbled indecisively in their unfamiliar surroundings, and some were first-rate rascals, failing to show up or even running off with government funds. Altogether between 1861 and 1865, Lincoln appointed more than 200 men to Western positionsgovernors, secretaries, judges, Indian agents, surveyors-general, postmasters, etc. His vision of the West was coming together, even as the Civil War raged and the transcontinental railroad remained in the planning stages.

Two states in particular, Missouri and Oregon, best illustrate Lincolns political and personal contacts in the West. Such political connections, troubling and vexing as they were, defined his links with Missouri. Indeed Lincolns dealings with that disruptive state were unlike those with any other Western entity. Right through the closing months of his presidency, Lincoln remained troubled by the inescapable political, military and legal chaos in Missouri. Riven by conflicts between Union and Confederate diehards and convulsed by more military engagements than any other state save Virginia, Missouri boiled over with all the major issues that led to and festered during the Civil War. Even Conservatives (softs) and Radicals (hards) within the Republican Party engaged in bitter feuds. Into this bubbling caldron of discontent fell Abraham Lincoln.

The presidents links with Oregon were more personal and far less controversial. Four of his close friends from Illinois had moved to Oregon: David Logan (son of his law partner), Anson G. Henry (his doctor), Simeon Francis (his chief Whig editor) and Edward D. Baker (his closest political friend). This quartet became Lincolns political eyes and ears on the West Coast. Logan and Francis, for instance, championed his presidential ambitions. More rabidly political, Dr. Henry served, one author has written, as Lincolns junkyard dog. Henrys penchant for pugnacity quickly surfaced, and he barkedeven snarledat Lincolns opponents.

Edward D. Baker was the most influential nationally of the presidents Oregon circle. Closely connected to the Lincoln family (Abraham and Mary named their second son Edward [Eddie] after him), Baker had served as a U.S. representative from Illinois before moving to California and then to Oregon in the winter of 185960. Supported by the popular sovereignty Democrats, Baker won a U.S. Senate seat in 1860. He was the first West Coast Republican elected to Congress. Baker signaled his closeness to Lincoln by introducing the new president at Lincolns inauguration in March 1861.

Lincolns bonds with Western territories differed from his links with Western states. In such areas as Idaho, Montana, Dakota and Arizona he established territorial governments by naming their chief leaders. He did much the same in existing or new territories like Washington, Nebraska, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico. In some areas he relied heavily on the advice of political friends like Henry and Baker for patronage appointments in Washington, Idaho, Montana and the states of Oregon and California. He also broke precedent by naming Dr. Henry Connelly, a Democrat, governor of territorial New Mexico because he feared a Confederate invasion of that area and thought New Mexico resident Connelly could unite New Mexicans better than a newcomer named from the outside.

The results of Lincolns political appointments were mixed. Governors Connelly of New Mexico, James Nye of Nevada and William Henson Wallace of Washington and later Idaho served well. But Governors Caleb Lyon of Idaho and William Gilpin of Colorado, as well as dozens of nominees to the Office of Indian Affairs, were inefficient leaders, political hacks or downright crooks. Jealous territorial residents not selected referred to Lincolns appointees as carpetbaggers, importations or, in the case of one official, another drunkard from Illinois.

These manifold political connections demonstrate how deeply involved Lincoln was in Western politics. Indeed, such ties represented his most important direct links with the West. That Founding Father of the Political West label sticks when one considers his connections. In the six new territories that formed between February 28, 1861 and May 26, 1864, Lincoln saw to it Republicans would do most of the governing.

On June 19, 1862, Congress passed and Lincoln signed a measure outlawing slavery in U.S. territories, all of which lay in the West. A month later Congress enacted the Second Confiscation Act, legislatively freeing Confederate slaves. Lincoln was decidedly lukewarm about the act, as he believed Congress lacked the constitutional right to end slavery in a state. Rather than veto the measure and anger the largely Republican Congress, Lincoln charted his own course toward ending slavery: the Emancipation Proclamation. The preliminary order in September 1862 and the official proclamation on January 1, 1863, ended slavery within any state, or designated part of a state, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States. Lincoln specifically named Arkansas, Texas and parts of Louisiana. Shortly thereafter he began pushing for a constitutional amendment to end slavery in the United States.

A few months into the Civil War, Lincoln began to formulate what roles the trans-Mississippi West should play in the war. First and foremost, he sought to safeguard valuable Western mineral resources and strategic California seaports. He hoped to divide Confederate control at the Mississippi, thereby isolating the pro-slavery bastions of Texas, Arkansas and parts of Louisiana. He also vowed to control the Mississippi River, keeping it open for trade and troop movements as far north as Illinois. Finally, he wanted to ensure the two new states of the Far West, California and Oregon, stayed with the Union.

Some hopes came to fruition. Union forces blocked a Southern invasion of New Mexico Territory at the March 1862 Battle of Glorieta Pass, forcing Texan invaders to abandon most of New Mexico and Arizona and give up their designs on gold-rich Colorado Territory. General Ulysses S. Grants ambitious plan to take Vicksburg and clear the Mississippi also worked out, despite Lincolns grave doubts about that risky action. Lincoln also supported Union military suppression of the 1862 Sioux Uprising in Minnesota.

But Lincolns other Western military ventures led to mixed results or flat failures. He was never able to solve the political-military quagmire in troublesome Missouri, and though he had hoped to drive all Confederates from Texas and Louisiana, Union troops were unable to do so. And Lincoln was greatly upset when trigger-happy volunteers carried out the Sand Creek Massacre in Colorado Territory on November 29, 1864. In the end, Lincoln was too weighted down with other crises to pay sufficient attention to military planning in the West.

On the evening of April 11, 1865, two days after General Robert E. Lees surrender at Appomattox Court House, Lincoln appeared at a window over the front door of the White House to give a speech. He discussed in part the readmission of Louisiana, repeating what he had earlier advocated for that state and Arkansas: The Union had had a great fall, and now Lincoln wanted to put it back together again with a lenient policy of Reconstruction. Using these two Western states as testing grounds, Lincoln had stipulated that when 10 percent of a states qualified voters in the election of 1860 took an oath of loyalty to the Union, rewrote their constitution and disavowed slavery, they would be readmitted to the Union. Radical Republicans in Congress defeated Lincolns 10 percent plan of Reconstruction, then he pocket-vetoed their much more stringent Wade-Davis Bill. With Reconstruction at a standstill, Lincoln promised his audience that April evening future progress toward reconciliation. Those words and subsequent actions never came. Three days later, John Wilkes Booth assassinated Lincoln in his state box at Fords Theatre.

Abraham Lincoln was labeled a Man of the West because he was born on February 12, 1809, in Kentuckys Hardin County and raised on what was then considered the frontier. But his connections with the trans-Mississippi West were clearly quite substantial and have been largely overlooked. Lincoln had long opposed the expansion of slavery into Western territories. As president he supported a transcontinental railroad, homestead legislation and land-grant colleges; helped organize vast areas of the West into territories; and planted his Republican Party in the region. At the bicentennial of Lincolns birth, we rightfully celebrate the legacy of a president whose most enduring achievement was the Emancipation Proclamation. But it is important to recognize that his legacy of freedom, opportunity and nationalism extends across the continent. For Lincoln, a strong union meant the North, the Southand the West.

Richard W. Etulain is professor emeritus of history at the University of New Mexico. He is the author or editor of more than 40 books, including Beyond the Missouri: The Story of the American West (2006). This article draws on his forthcoming book, Lincoln Looks West: From the Mississippi to the Pacific. Also suggested for further reading: The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (nine volumes, 195355), edited by Roy P. Basler, et al.

Originally published in the April 2009 issue of Wild West. To subscribe, click here.
Prospectors were panning gold from the Sweetwater near South Pass (in present-day Wyoming) as early as 1842, but the first real rush came in 1865 when a detachment from Fort Bridger discovered gold in the Wind River Range. One soldier found a large vein along Willow Creek, near the future Carissa Mine site, and thousands of prospectors flocked to the Sweetwater Mining District, establishing the towns of South Pass City, Atlantic City and Hamilton City. (The latter community was later renamed Miners Delight, after a nearby mine.)

The first South Pass City, about 10 miles south of the present location, was a stage and freight station, founded in 1859 at the head of the Oregon Trails Lander Cutoff. It later served as a Pony Express station and eventually became Burnt Ranch.

Chicago Tribune correspondent James Chisholm was unimpressed with the town when he arrived in September 1868. It is a deserted village at the best, he wrote in his journal. It consists of two streets in the form of the letter T and lies in a kind of ravine between two hillsaltogether a snug, sheltered nook. Chisholm estimated the town had 50 dwellings, most of them vacant, and 50 to 60 residents. Apparently, many had moved to Green River for work on the Union Pacific Railroad. In any event, the population would soon soar.

By 1870 South Pass City boasted a population estimated at between 2,000 and 4,000. It served as Sweetwater County seat until 1873, when most of the mines played out and the county seat shifted to Green River. During the peak summers of 1870 and 1871 as many as 12,000 souls lived in the Sweetwater Mining District.

Built in 1868 using stone and locally kilned bricks, The Cave (nicknamed Fort Bourbon) was used to store liquor and perishable food. Rumor has it the building also served as a shelter during Indian raids.

Idaho House (later the South Pass Hotel and Restaurant) opened for business in 1868. Widow Janet Sherlock bought the hotel in 1873, added the post office and served as postmistress. She added a restaurant when the Carissa Mine reopened at the turn of the century.

The largest mine was the Carissa, which cycled through several booms and busts, closing for good in 1954.

The Moses Sturman Stamp Mill, one of some two dozen that crushed ore in the district, is not original to South Pass City. It reportedly operated until the late 1930s at Palmetto Gulch, east of town, before being moved for its protection.

The county built the first jail in 1870 at a cost of $2,000. In the 1880s its front room was converted into a school run by Dr. Walter Lovejoy. The White Swan, a saloon and brothel, also later housed a school.

The town played a role in woman suffrage. In 1869 William H. Bright, a South Pass City saloon and mine owner, introduced a bill during Wyoming Territorys first legislative session to grant women the right to vote. It passed and was signed into law by Governor John Allen Campbell. In February 1870, Sweetwater County commissioners appointed South Pass Citys Esther Hobart Morris justice of the peace, making her Americas first female judge. She heard 26 cases during her nearly nine-month judicial term. E. Archibald Slack, Morris son from her first marriage, published the South Pass News until 1871, later working on newspapers in Laramie and Cheyenne. Morris died in 1902 in Cheyenne, where a statue of her graces the state Capitol.

Town resident Bill Carr, recounting the difficulty of finding qualified schoolteachers, recalled a drifter who showed up one summer and asked for the job: If anything happened he didnt like, and no one would tell who was guilty, he would lock the door, take a willow and start slashing the whole roomful. The students finally escaped their tormenter when the sheriff came over from Lander with a warrant and arrested our teacher for stealing horses in some other part of the state before he came to South Pass.

In 1966 Wyomings 75th Anniversary Commission bought the town and later created the South Pass City State Historic Site. Restorers have preserved 17 of the 23 original structures, which house some 30,000 artifacts. The park is open 9 a.m. 6 p.m. daily May 15September 30.

For more on South Pass City, visit www .southpasscity.com or call 307-332-3684

Originally published in the April 2009 issue of Wild West. To subscribe, click here.
Bomber-turned-medevac pilot saved more than 5,000 lives.

Dustoff. In 1963 that was the call sign for helicopter pilots who pioneered emergency medical evacuations during the Vietnam War. About 3,000 pilots and crewmen flew unarmed air ambulances, often into heavy fire, to medevac more than 100,000 severely wounded men, and 33 percent became casualties themselves.

Michael Mike J. Novosel, a native of Etna, Pennsylvania, took a circuitous route to the cockpit of a UH-1H Huey medevac copter. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps (a predecessor to the U.S. Air Force) in February 1941 to become a pilot but was a quarter-inch shy of the 5-foot, 4-inch requirement for the aviation cadet program and found himself in a pay clerks job.

In his 1999 Dustoff: The Memoir of an Army Aviator, Novosel recounted his effort to beat the height requirement. He had read that people are tallest in the morning before they stand and the body compresses, so on the day of the measurement Novosels buddies transported him to the medical facility on a makeshift stretcher. He still came up short, but a compassionate medical officer stretched his height on paper.

After earning his wings in December 1942, Novosel became a B-24 pilot training aerial gunners in World War II. He placed a pillow behind him in the pilot seat so his feet could reach the rudder pedals. He later flew B-29s on four combat missions in the Pacific. During the Japanese surrender ceremony on Sept. 2, 1945, he was one of 500 pilots to fly in formation over Tokyo Bay.

Novosel stayed on active duty when the U.S. Air Force was established in 1947 but switched to the Air Force Reserve in 1949. Back on active duty during the Korean War, he was assigned to the Air Command and Staff School.

When the Vietnam War began, Novosel wanted a combat assignment, but the Air Force deemed the 41-year-old lieutenant colonel too old. However, he found an opportunity with an Army program that trained experienced pilots from the other services. By 1964 he was flying helicopters as an Army warrant officer and in January 1966 was sent to Vietnam for the first of two tours as a dustoff pilot. His second tour began in March 1969. He flew a total of 2,543 missions transporting more than 5,500 medical evacuees.

On Oct. 2, 1969, a large enemy force pinned down South Vietnamese soldiers in Kien Tuong province in the Mekong Delta. The South Vietnamese suffered heavy casualties, and medevacs were called in. Novosel, in the 82nd Medical Detachment, flew his Huey in low-level circuits over the battlefield to locate casualties. Six times intense enemy fire forced him out of the area, but not for long. He performed 15 extractions, saving 29 soldiers. On one flight, Novosel hovered his helicopter backward into enemy fire to reach a wounded fighter and held his position while the man was pulled aboard. Novosel was wounded during the rescue.

Two months later, a new pilot arriving in Vietnam requested assignment to the 82nd Medical Detachment. He was Warrant Officer Michael J. Novosel Jr. A month before the father was to return home, the sons helicopter came under fire, and Novosel Jr. made an emergency landing. Novosel Sr., with wounded aboard his helicopter, dropped down to pick up his son and the grounded dustoff crew. One week later, Novosel Sr. and his helicopter were grounded. He recognized the pilot coming to the rescue himit was his son. Ill never hear the last of this, Novosel recalled saying.

On June 15, 1971, President Richard Nixon presented the Medal of Honor to Novosel for his actions on Oct. 2, 1969. Novosel also received three Distinguished Flying Crosses, three Bronze Stars and 60 Air Medals. When he retired in 1985, Novosel was the last World War II pilot still on active duty. He died April 2, 2006, and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Doug Sterner, an Army veteran who served two tours in Vietnam, is curator of the Military Times Hall of Valor, the largest database of U.S. military valor awards.
They did deliver a head, but was it the right one?

When gold was first discovered in California, more foreigners than Americans worked the claims. Most were from the Mexican state of Sonora, including Joaquin Murrieta. Needing funds and fearing that too much gold was being taken to other countries, the first California Legislature passed the Foreign Miners Tax in March 1850. The law taxed each foreign-born miner $20 a month to work his claims; those who lacked money forfeited their goods, and those who lacked goods were arrested. Merciless tax collectors provoked a bitter backlash. Crime at the mines peaked in June 1850 and continued to run high throughout the decade. By August, newspapers were blaming bands of Mexican guerrillas said to be led by a notorious jefename unknown for the sudden escalation in crime.

Three years later, amid recurring rumors of Mexican guerrillas, a band of Sonoran youths in Calaveras County committed a rash of robberies and murders. Several posses pursued them. One bandit was shot dead, three lynched, two arrested, tried and hanged. Those who confessed said the leader was Joaquin (last name perhaps Murrieta). He remained on a rampage when businessmen petitioned the governor, pressuring him to offer a reward for Joaquin. Governor John Bigler, who was up for reelection that year, obliged. He published a warrant offering a $1,000 reward to the party that captured Joaquin Carillo, described as 24 years old, 5-foot-10 and of good address.

Lawmen in Calaveras County didnt catch up with Joaquin, but they did get him to quit the county. He and his band fled south, passing through Tuolumne County and stopping to gamble and steal horses in Mariposa County, where local posses took up the chase. Citizens there petitioned the California Legislature in March 1853, requesting funding for a company of state rangers, to be led by Captain Harry Love, whose primary mission would be to capture the elusive Joaquin and break up his band. The legislature approved the bill, then postponed voting on it when skepticism arose due to the lack of precise information about the wanted man.

In May the bills supporters pushed it through during a poorly attended evening session, after it had been amended: Captain Love and a company of 20 California Rangers would each be paid $150 a month for three months and were to hunt down Joaquin Muriati, Joaquin Ocomorenia, Joaquin Valenzuela, Joaquin Botillier and Joaquin Carrillo and their banded associates. The governor signed it into law that night.

Meanwhile, newspaper descriptions of the Joaquin who had been chased all over Calaveras County said he was really 21 or 22 years old, about 5-foot-8, affable but well armed and fond of gambling. Another, oft-reprinted description of Joaquin said he was a tall, swarthy and strong 34- year-old guerrilla veteran of the war with Mexico. At the time the rangers began their manhunt, Joaquin was said to head a band of 15 to 50 guerrillas who were sacking ranches in San Diego County and bound for Baja California. These reports proved erroneous, but they did not go away, for William Walker wanted to whip up support for a filibuster invasion of Baja California and Sonora, Mexico.

Walker had been in Tuolumne and Mariposa counties, recruiting followers and collecting funds for his filibuster campaign, at the same time the ranger bill was drafted. His supporters included legislators Walter Harvey and Philomen Herbert, both listed among the original California Rangers. They, and five others who never actually served, probably slipped some of the funds meant for the rangers to Walker before dropping out, leaving Captain Love to fill their spots with new recruits.

Most journalists winked at all of this. One correspondent who signed with the initials C.H.P. wrote: It is the general opinion that the banditti known as Joaquins gang, and other robbing parties, can only be exterminated by carrying the war into the enemys country, Lower [Baja] California. An expedition of 60 men could easily conquer the whole peninsula, capture San Tomas [said to be Joaquins headquarters] and hang every bandit therein. Love played along because he hoped his effort would spawn a permanent state ranger force, like the Texas Rangers. As he saw it, while Gen. Walker fought south of the border, he and his rangers would fight Mexican guerrillas north of the border.

Love had previously pursued both Joaquin Valenzuela and Joaquin Murrieta, and he knew that Mission San Juan Baptiste, near Salinas, was an outlaw rendezvous. He left a small detachment of rangers with Lieutenant Patrick Connor to round up horse thieves in Mariposa and Tuolumne counties, while he led the rest of his company across the San Joaquin River and up into the San Benito Mountains to see what they could learn. He scattered a band of Indian rustlers who outnumbered his force 4-to-1 but failed to come up with either Joaquin. Upon learning that Murrieta was in the Los Angeles area, he headed south.

At Panoche Pass on July 25, the rangers spotted campfire smoke to the southeast and headed in that direction. They surprised and arrested two lookouts and then moved in on the outlaw campsite near Cantua Creek. The bandit leader, identified as Murrieta, leaped onto his horse and took off, leaving his saddle and weapons behind. Ranger William Henderson pursued and killed him. Three other bandits escaped, but Three-Fingered Jack Garcia stood his ground and died fighting.

The weather was miserably hot and humid, which meant the corpses would swell and turn black if strapped to horses and carried to Fort Miller, some 115 miles away. So Lieutenant William Byrnes severed the heads of Murrieta and Garcia, as well as Garcias three-fingered hand, packed them in willow branches to keep them cool, wrapped them in a blanket and strapped the bundle to a horse.

The rangers headed east with their evidence and prisoners. William Byrnes and another ranger crossed the San Joaquin River by ferry, while Ranger John Sylvester and the prisoners swam their overheated horses across the cool water. One prisoner attempted to escape, turning the horse he was tied to downstream, but horse and rider were soon mired in swamp weeds and mud, where they drowned.

Byrnes and Sylvester continued to Fort Miller, arriving in the evening of July 26. Unfortunately, the surgeon there did not have enough alcohol and arsenic to preserve two heads and a hand. Before more alcohol could be acquired, Garcias head spoiled and had to be disposed of.

The remaining grizzly evidence was taken to Quartzburg, where witnesses swore out affidavits, identifying the head as that of Joaquin Murrieta. From there, the rangers rode to Mariposa, where the surviving prisoner, who gave his name as Jose Marie Ochovo (later identified by his countrymen as Salvador Mendez), confessed at a county court hearing that he was a member of the band and that the head in the possession of Captain Harry Love and his rangers was that of Murrieta.

Love left the prisoner in Mariposa and went on to Stockton, taking with him his report, a description of Joaquin Murrieta and his wounds, a copy of the prisoners testimony, several affidavits and, of course, the head. At Stockton, he exhibited the head and collected more affidavitsone from a doctor who had seen Murrieta in Calaveras County, one from a priest and others from Sonorans who had known the bandit for years.

Love brought the evidence to Benicia (state capital at that time), where he got the $1,000 originally offered for Joaquin Carillo. Afterward, Democratic Governor John Bigler hit the campaign trail. His Whig foe, William Waldo, poked fun at the Joaquin rangers. On August 17, 1853, he wrote, tongue-in-cheek: The report of the death of Joaquin is not believed here. A report was current a few days ago that he was seen swimming the Tuolumne River, carrying his head in his mouth.

California newspapers welcomed the news that rangers had killed Joaquin and Three-Fingered Jack, but politics and the sloppy way news was handled soon spawned confusion. For example, Lieutenant Patrick E. Connor said on July 28 that he thought the Joaquin the rangers killed was Valenzuela, and when he learned of his mistake, he never corrected himself in print. In August the San Francisco Daily Alta California caused more confusion by printing month-old Murrieta news from Los Angeles as if it had just happened. Meanwhile, San Diego sources continued to insist that Joaquin had actually crossed the border into Baja California, a story that suited Walkers purpose.

The rangers continued to exhibit the head, but some journalists didnt care whose head it was; they wanted to tar and feather the Bigler administration in an election year and tended to see the rangers as part of Walkers campaign. The ranger bill, plus the reward money offered by Governor Bigler, equaled $10,000, but Love only received $2,000, of which half was reward money; he appealed for $5,000 in relief funds the following year, after Walkers campaign failed. Ranger William Henderson, who killed Murrieta, received what he mockingly called the magnificent sum of $42 for his services.

A report from Los Angeles (possibly written by a legislator still angry over the ranger bill) ran in the Daily Alta California on August 23, 1853, saying: A party of Californians and Sonorans [from Los Angeles] started for the Tulare valley for the express and avowed purpose of running mustangs. Three of the party have since returned, and report they were attacked by a party of Americansthat Joaquin Valenzuela, one of them, was killed as he was endeavoring to escape, and that his head was cut off. To this, a Marysville editor responded: It is a great pity, after all that has been done and said, that the death and decapitation of Joaquin should still remain a vexed question. Maybe so, but not to those who recognized the head as that of Joaquin Murrieta. The rangers were disbanded on August 30, 1853.

Originally published in the April 2009 issue of Wild West. To subscribe, click here.
David Keenan's Irish tour, as told by the man himself. Fourth stop, Salty Dog, Drogheda.

Ill stand on a fruit box in the middle of the town and call for the end of this so called Dundalk/Drogheda feudal War, an end to the jibes to the jokes, the taunts and the septic bad blood, solidarity is what we need across county Louth for this is exactly what was felt in the body of the Salty Dog Pub last night, a true sense of solidarity.

I am humbled by the pure understanding present in the rooms which Ive frequented thus far on this tour, like minded souls are stepping out of the shadows and lending their presences to each place, rallying under the one banner, willing each other forward, laughing, nodding in recognition whilst singing in unison with emotional and passionate conversations being held after the flood.

Last night was immense, warm bodies huddled together.

I could see the whites of their eyes.

Young Harry Fennell opened up proceedings, a seventeen year old kid from Dublin who crossed my path late last year.

I was struck by his presence and blossoming ability, he has a true appreciation for the graft, for the craft and has all the eagerness to learn and grow in the universe.

He reverberated through the room, sounding colossal through the five monitors that rest on the stage.

The Salty Dog can boast a fine PA system and a sound head manning the ship in Niall.

My fellow Dundalk China David Bellew stood at the mast next, a musical magpie who proceeded to melt faces with his hyperactive guitar style and vocal wail.

A man on the cusp of releasing some music out into the ether, a man with a vocation, a lovable rogue who wouldnt do what he was told !

I busied myself during moments in between playing games of chess in a disused section of the old bar, during which I was joined by a strange apparition who after beating me for the third consecutive game in a row then succeeded in selling me a walking stick with apparent mystical qualities.

See said stick above in the photograph captured by Gerry Kane !

The ghostly form quickly evaporated when I demanded he honour the laws of the round and make his call, Ill get him in the long grass.

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I thank every beautiful being present last night!

Special thanks to Zen master Harry Hoban for distributing good vibes.

Long story short, I enjoyed every moment.

Truth be told Ive never felt more alive but I mustnt ponder just now, onwards to Cork !

Ill sleep when Im dead.

David X


A campaign supported by President Michael D. Higgins to secure posthumous pardons for innocent men hanged or imprisoned for life for the infamous Mam Trasna murders in 1882, is set to receive a significant boost with the screening of a major new drama-documentary on TG4 next week.

Murdair Mham Trasna is a new docu-drama that airs next week Wednesday night, 4 April. It details the gross miscarriage of justice that happened after the brutal slaying in 1882 of a family of five in the remote village of Mam Trasna in the west of Ireland.

In Murdair Mham Trasna (The Mam Trasna Murders), President Michael D. Higgins reveals that the Government has appointed an expert to examine the case for granting posthumous pardons to Maolra Seoighe and the innocent men convicted of the historic murders.

President Higgins says he is looking forward to hearing that experts opinion and the Governments advice on one of the most famous miscarriages of justice in British and Irish legal history.

At that stage, I will be returning to this issue to see what I can do. If it were up to me, the formalities aside, I would be happy to accept that the injustice which occurred should be recognized. My view is that the moral issue is clear, the President says.

Everything that happened at the level of the State was horrendous. There was bribery involved. The accused didnt get a proper chance to defend themselves.

"There wasnt an atmosphere of equality and there was no equality as regards legal processes at that time.

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Murdair Mham Trasna, centres on an infamous event in Irish history, the brutal slaying in 1882 of a family of five in the remote village of Mam Trasna in the west of Ireland.

A swift and severe response from the British authorities led to the conviction of innocent people, the hanging of some and the imprisonment of others as a result of perjured evidence and bribery.

The events were described by the prominent British historian Robert Kee as one of the most blatant miscarriages of justice in British legal history.

As the miscarriage of justice began to unfold and the perjury was admitted in the press, both nationally and internationally at the time, a refusal by Gladstones government to allow a public inquiry contributed to the fall of that government in Westminster in 1885.

The innocent victims have never been pardoned by the authorities but this feature length production moves that prospect significantly closer.

Murdair Mham Trasna, which has recently been selected to represent Ireland in the history category at the Celtic Media Festival, is produced by Galway based production company ROSG for TG4, with support from the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland.

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Murdair Mham Trasna is based on the book Eagoir, written by former Language Commissioner, Sean O Cuirreain and includes contributions from Senior Counsel Luan O Braonain, Professor Gearoid O Tuathaigh, relatives of the deceased and many more.

You can see the full account of the events that unfolded, when Murdair Mham Trasna is broadcast, on April 4th, at 9.30pm on TG4.
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The Humane Society of the United States is proud to announce Spayathon for Puerto Rico, a high-quality, high-volume spay/neuter initiative to alter over 20,000 dogs and cats in underserved communities across the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Each animal treated will also receive rabies, leptospirosis and other essential vaccinations.

The HSUSs Humane State Puerto Rico program worked closely with coalition partners Gov. Ricardo Rossello and First Lady Beatriz Rossello, the Puerto Rico Veterinary Medical Association and the Puerto Rico Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners to sign a memorandum of understanding to implement the initiative over an 18-month period in 2018 and 2019.

This is the first time our government has participated in such an ambitious and comprehensive sterilization mission, said Gov. Rossello. We are thankful to the Humane Society of the United States for its vision and its unwavering commitment to helping the animals of our island.

First Lady Beatriz Rossello added: "This is an initiative of the utmost importance that will allow us to work towards this administrations goal of improving animal welfare and reducing the number of stray animals on the streets of Puerto Rico. We are excited to work alongside the Humane Society of the United States, the Puerto Rico Veterinary Association and the Puerto Rico Board of Veterinary Examiners to make this vision a reality."

This initiative will also provide high-quality, high-volume spay/neuter training for Puerto Rico veterinarians to increase the number of veterinarians on the island who can implement the high-quality, high-volume spay/neuter. At the conclusion of the 18-month memorandum of understanding, The HSUS will donate equipment locally to help further the animal welfare efforts in Puerto Rico.

This initiative is a remarkable example of what can happen when government agencies, nonprofits and veterinary medical professionals come together for one cause, said Kitty Block, Acting President and CEO of The HSUS. This collaboration will make a difference and improve the welfare of Puerto Ricos animals.

Maddies Fund, PetSmart Charities, Petco Foundation, GreaterGood.org and The 20/22 Act Society, are providing the financial support necessary to carry out this initiative. Banfield Foundation, Best Friends Animal Society and Rescue Bank are providing critical supplies, such as vaccines, pet food and crates.

Veterinary teams from Emancipet, ViDAS, Veterinarians for Puerto Rico, Maddies Shelter Medicine Program at Cornell University and Helping Paws Across Borders will provide high-quality, high-volume spay/neuter services in locations across the island.

Ground support is being provided by Puerto Rico-based groups, including The Humane Society of Puerto Rico, The Sato Project, The Government of Puerto Rico, Junta Examinadora de Medicos Veterinarios de Puerto Rico, Colegio de Medicos Veterinarios de Puerto Rico, The Puerto Rico Dog Fund, Friends of Culebra Animals, Wild at Heart Foundation and Our Big Fat Caribbean Rescue.

The no-cost spay/neuter clinics will take place throughout the following dates:

Round 1: June 39, 2018 - Ceiba, Culebra, Manati, Moca, Ponce, San Juan and Vieques

June 39, 2018 - Ceiba, Culebra, Manati, Moca, Ponce, San Juan and Vieques Round 2: November 39, 2018 - Cabo Rojo, Ceiba, Culebra, Manati, Moca, Ponce, San Juan and Vieques

November 39, 2018 - Cabo Rojo, Ceiba, Culebra, Manati, Moca, Ponce, San Juan and Vieques Round 3: February 39, 2019 - Cabo Rojo, Ceiba, Culebra, Manati, Moca, Ponce, San Juan and Vieques

February 39, 2019 - Cabo Rojo, Ceiba, Culebra, Manati, Moca, Ponce, San Juan and Vieques Round 4: May 39, 2019 - Cabo Rojo, Ceiba, Culebra, Manati, Moca, Ponce and Vieques

The Puerto Rico Veterinary Medical Association and the Puerto Rico Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners will be participating in Rounds 1 through 3. The selected municipalities will announce specific clinic location and details.
The Humane Society of the United States eagerly awaits Governor Phil Bryants signature to a bill which will significantly upgrade the Mississippi dogfighting law after it passed overwhelmingly in the legislature. SB 2934 increases the maximum penalty for dogfighting and related crimes to five years imprisonment and a fine of $3,000 to $5,000. Repeat offenders would face three to 10 years of imprisonment and a fine of $5,000 to $10,000.

In addition to increasing the penalty for dogfighting, this bill will make it a felony to manufacture, possess, buy or sell animal fighting paraphernalia. Another important addition is the requirement of animal owners to post a bond to pay the cost of caring for their dogs when they are held in criminal cases. Currently, law enforcement agencies, nonprofit groups and taxpayers foot the bill in these cases.

Strong laws against animal fighting are crucial because dogfighters seek out states with the weakest laws to carry out their abusive practices. Investigations have found dogfighting rings to be intricate, illegal gambling and drug trafficking operations run by violent criminals. With dogfighting cases in Mississippi piling up one after the other, Democratic Senator Bob Dearing, who represents Natchez, and a number of other legislators decided to take action and move this common sense legislation forward.

This law will give law enforcement additional tools to fight criminal activity and the stiffer penalties will go a long way toward ending the scourge of dogfighting in Mississippi, said Julia Breaux, Mississippi legislative specialist for the Humane Society of the United States. With this vote, the legislature sent the message that these crimes are serious and will not be tolerated. We urge Gov. Bryant to sign this bill.

The HSUS thanks the bill sponsor, Senator Dearing, and Speaker of the House-Philip Gunn for guiding this bill to passage. The HSUS also applauds the work of Chief Matt Barnett of Wiggins Police Department and Sheriff Travis Patton of Adams County for their tireless effort to garner support for SB 2934 and bring dogfighting to an end in Mississippi.
Music Piracy Has Increased [New Study]

With the rise of streaming, access to music (and media in general) has become easier than ever. While one might assume that this would negate any need for illegally downloading music, it appears that piracy is actually on the rise.

_________________________

Guest post by Bobby Owsinski of Music 3.0

We live in an age where its probably the easiest it has ever been to access just about any kind of music you want, and all for free. The music business has always been driven by convenience of consumption, and its difficult to imagine how much easier it can get than joining the free tier of one of the dozens of streaming services. Thats why the declaration that music piracy rose 14.7% in MUSOs 2017 Global Piracy Report was such a surprise. Why would anyone want to even bother pirating music when its all available for such a low cost or even free?

If you read the report a little more closely however, its not measuring files that are downloaded (which is how we think of piracy), but visits to pirate websites. It states that last year there were more than 73.9 billion (yes, with a b) visits to music piracy sites worldwide. This breaks down into 5 different types: web streaming sites (30.5 billion), web download sites (21.2 billion), streaming ripping sites (15.7 billion), public torrent sites (6 billion), and private torrent sites (500 million). 87.13% of these visits were from mobile users.

The report is actually across all types of media, not just music. That said, it also indicates that the U.S. had the most pirate site visits across all categories with 27.9 billion, followed by Russia (20.6 billion), India (17 billion), Brazil (12.7 billion) and Turkey (11.9 billion).

Once again, were talking visits here, not downloads, but the fact of the matter is that when someone listens to a song online and the artist, songwriter, label and publisher doesnt receive any form of financial compensation, thats piracy. You can plug YouTube and Facebook video into that mix as well in many cases.

Then theres the fact that while most of the world has easy access to streaming, there are many regions that still havent experienced widespread adoption yet, Japan and Russia being a couple.

So piracy still exists, at least in some form, and its still robbing artists of money they deserve. That said, we all know that it will never disappear. All we can hope is to keep it in check.

[Graphic by Santeri Viinamaki]

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GoDaddy Ordered To Suspend 4 Music Pirate Domains

Domain and website hosting service GoDaddy has been ordered to suspend four domains used by music pirates. Mp3Juices-Download-Free.com, Melodiavip.net, Foxmusica.site and Fulltono.me. Each had offered unlicensed mp3 downloads.

The Copyright Commission of INDECOPI issued four precautionary measures in order that the US company Godaddy.com, LLC (in its capacity as registrar of domain names) suspend the domains of four websites, through which it would have infringed the legislation on Copyright and Related Rights, by making available a large number of musical phonograms without the corresponding authorization, to the detriment of its legitimate owners, Peru's National Institute for the Defense of Competition and the Protection of Intellectual Property (Indecopi) said in a statement.

The suspension was based on the great evidence that was provided by the Commission, on the four websites that infringe copyright, and in the framework of the policy of support for the protection of intellectual property.

H/T Torrentfreak

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Williamstown's Sand Springs Recreational Center Seeks Town Funds



Sand Springs director Geraldine Shen tells the Select Board that the pool is seeking some operating support to keep it low cost for the community. WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.  The Sand Springs Recreation Center is asking the town for financial support to help keep the pool it operates an affordable resource for residents.

Sand Springs Executive Director Geraldine Shen was at Town Hall on Monday night to explain to the Select Board the non-profit's request that the town appropriate $19,000 toward operational expenses at the facility.

"We have not been something the town has given money in the past," Shen said. "We have successfully sought support from the Community Preservation Committee. And those specific projects have gone well. Today, we're asking for general operational support."

Shen, the sole year-round part-time employee of Sand Springs, explained that its board has worked to keep membership rates as low as possible while keeping the business in the black.

"We have been doing the hard work of making up for deferred maintenance [of past owners] while also lowering the rates from the previous ownership," she said. "We have a business model that has the pool operating in a self-sufficient manner in the not-too-distant future.  In the meantime, we have been supplementing [revenue] with fund-raising and grant applications.

"This is a way for the town to take some of the pressure off."

Shen said Sand Springs Inc. in 2018 raised about $40,000 through grants and donations, and those were the only way the business can stay out of debt.

She said while the venture enjoys a lot of goodwill in town, there are a lot of other charities competing for donors' dollars.

"We're confident about the future of the organization if the town is able to step in and support it," she said. "The town has supported other organizations."

Each year, voters at annual town meeting routinely have approved expenditures to support the Williamstown Youth Center and the Chamber of Commerce. In May 2017, the former received $75,677; the latter received $48,126, 10 percent of the town's revenue from the commonwealth's room occupancy excise tax.

Shen noted that unlike some towns, Williamstown does not have a municipal pool. And aside from Margaret Lindley Park and Linear Park, it does not have much in the way of public recreation space.

Sand Springs strives to be a good citizen by offering discounted rates for school groups and scholarships for people who need financial assistance, she said.

Of the center's 140 season memberships last year, between 80 and 90 percent were people with Williamstown addresses. Sand Springs also tracks the hometowns of those who buy day passes and said about 40 percent of those go to town residents, she said.

"I think it's very much a town pool, and we'd very much like the town's support in making sure we're here forever," Shen said.

The $19,000 sought would represent about 12 percent of the center's operating budget, she said. Although the request now is for a one-time infusion of taxpayer funds, Shen said assistance in future years would be helpful.

The Select Board took no action on the request on Monday night. It will have the option to put an article on the warrant for town meeting when it sets the warrant next month.

"This feels like one we put before the town," Select Board Chairman Hugh Daley said. "Maybe we don't drive them the petition route but let them make the case to the town."

Shen is scheduled to make her case to the town's Finance Committee on Wednesday.

In other business on Monday, before the Select Board heard a lengthy list of objections to a draft zoning bylaw, Town Manager Jason Hoch informed the board that the planned expansion and renovation of the former Turner House for a new police station is at the 95 percent design level. Hoch, crediting the architect and design team, said the project is still on track to go to bid in mid-April.

Hoch hopes to ask May's town meeting for the authority to borrow $5 million toward the new police station with the expectation the borrowing will have no net impact on the tax rate. Hoch is developing a plan that will allow the town to make its payments on the note from its reserves and anticipated revenue growth through fiscal 2025, when the construction bond for Williamstown Elementary School will be coming off the books.

Hoch also announced that the town has two openings on its Sign Commission, which is appointed by the Select Board.

Coming full circle on a discussion begun last fall , Hoch said the town has completed its exploration of the feasibility of a roundabout at the junction of Water Street (Route 43) and Main Street (Route 2) and found that the design change would not meet its objective.

Hoch told the board the idea was conceived as a way to improve pedestrian and bicycle safety more than a way to ease traffic congestion.

"Until we had an engineer design it, we wouldn't know," Hoch said. "We received preliminary designs back  and found it is a reasonable traffic consideration but it's not something with significant gain for pedestrian or bicycle safety.

"If, down the road, we found there was a vehicular traffic problem, this is worth looking at. Since our primary motivation was looking at how to help bicycles and pedestrians, it's not worth it."

Hoch said the town is looking at some options related to curb cuts and crosswalk placement to see if it can address the pedestrian/bicyclist concern that way.

Finally, Hoch informed the Select Board that he is exploring a possible intermunicipal agreement with New Ashford to supply property assessor services to the neighboring community.
State Sen. Adam Hinds is running for re-election after his first term.

Hinds Launches Re-election Bid for State Senate



The senator introduced his staff to the audience. PITTSFIELD, Mass.  State Sen. Adam Hinds has set his sights on 2020.

And that starts with his election bid in 2018. The Pittsfield Democrat won election in 2016 to fill the seat being vacated by Benjamin Downing and has now launched his first re-election bid just over a year of serving in office.

"The whole objective for the last year has been based on addressing the concerning trends we have in the county  our population decline and the impact it has on municipal budgets and education budgets, and the fact that we often have health outcomes below the rest of the state, educational attainment below the rest of the state," Hinds said.

"We've been very deliberate in saying, what do we need to do to turn that corner? Because there is a lot of promise here and we are well located and we have a lot that is going right. But on those trends, we have to do something."

Joined by supporters at Hotel on North, Hinds outlined three pillars of his work over the last year  infrastructure, workforce development, and education.

For infrastructure, Hinds highlighted his work in helping to secure $45 million more to continue the rollout of broadband internet access to Western Massachusetts and the recent feasibility determination to pilot bringing trains from New York City to the Berkshires and back.

"By the end of 2019 and 2020, we should have every town lit up. That's what we're committing to, it is what we are trying to get done. It is critical," Hinds said.

The Berkshire Flyer feasibility study was just recently reported from the state Department of Transportation to be a possibility. The plan calls for a train to operate on the weekends during the summer from New York City on Fridays and then back on Sundays, fueling the tourism and visitor economy.

There are still many steps and financial to work out on that, but the report from MassDOT showed that it is feasible and the next step would be to pilot it.

"The flyer is feasible and it could happen in the next year or two. They said not earlier than 2019, I'm saying not later than 2020. By 2020 we think we will have a train from New York City to the Berkshires and back," Hinds said.

For economic development, he praised the closing of a $3 million funding gap for the Berkshire Innovation Center. The center will be a research and development facilities for area advanced manufacturing companies to test new products and for educational institutions to work closely with those employers to develop specific training programs to match the available jobs. The hope is that it will close a long documented gap between the jobs available and the skill level of the workers.

"Now we have the internet coming by 2020, hopefully, a train by 2020, the BIC is going to be hopefully done by the third quarter of 2019, up and running by 2020. Things are looking good," Hinds said.

Hinds was also able to secure funds for a "workforce czar" who would work closely with the area agencies in connecting job seekers with open positions.

The BIC was announced with the governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of housing and economic development, and a number of other state officials. Hillcrest Educational President Gerard Burke said he was particularly taken by Hinds' interactions with those in state leadership. He saw the banter and the joking between the senator and the executive leaders.

"This wasn't just political relations, this was personal, this was respect," Burke said. "You can't teach that. That is about respect,"

Burke said he talked to many in Boston who have reported similar compliments about Hinds. And Burke said Hinds' ability to grow relationships, be hard working and inclusive, is a style that has led him to become effective as the chair of tourism arts and culture, vice chair of economic development, and to later get the call to be on ways and means as a freshman senator.

"That is really an incredible statement about the confidence they have and the skills he brings to the table. It really is remarkable," Burke said.

Hinds said the work isn't quite done. He said progress has been made in education, specifically in the funding formula. He was part of the effort to have the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education take a deep look at the formulas to find out why the funding "is so mismatched in our rural parts of the state."

He said there was an event two weeks ago in which DESE officials were in Western Massachusetts hearing about the issues firsthand. And now, Hinds said he is working on a strategy to address those funding formulas.

"Our approach has been very deliberate," Hinds said, saying he and his staff  whom he introduced to the supporters one by one and praised for their efforts  strategize by setting a goal, plotting out how to get there, and developing the relationships to make it happen.



Gerard Burke introduced Hinds at Hotel on North Tuesday night. "Things are looking good. The narrative is not always in line with that in the county and in western Mass. But when you look at where we are headed and what's on track right now for 2020, it looks good that we are going to have internet by then, it looks good that we are going to have a train coming to the region, it looks good that we will have the Berkshire Innovation Center. There are many other things that will be online. Hopefully, we will have education funding so our schools are strong and on and on," Hinds said.

Hinds also cited his work on passing criminal justice reform, a massive effort to revamp how the state handles incarcerations and punishment. The bill puts a focus on giving resources to keep those coming out of jail from ending up back in, reform bail, and creates diversion programs for those with mental health and substance abuse programs.

"Something isn't right when so many folks in jail have mental health issues, something isn't right in cases where people of color are disproportionably impacted when communities of color experiencing poverty are disproportionably impacted," Hinds said.

With all of that, Burke said he still remember the worry he and others had when Downing announced he'd not seek another term. He remembers wondering who could fill those shoes. And with Hinds, he said he got more than just filling the shoes.

"We sent somebody down to represent us, to be our voice, be our voice about the Berkshires, be our voice about the issues we face, to be our voice day in and day out. We didn't know where that would all go and we were wondering how it would be filled from what was. Tonight, I think we all agree that not only have those shoes been filled, now that man is walking in his own pair of shoes," Burke said.
Mount Greylock Transition Committee member Chris Dodig helped negotiate the compromise with the sending town.

Mount Greylock Agrees to Elementary Tuition Compromise with New Ashford

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.  The Mount Greylock Regional School District Transition Committee on Tuesday voted unanimously to accept the gradual elementary school tuition increase negotiated between the district and the New Ashford School Committee.

In a 6-0 vote, all the committee members in attendance agreed to bring the tuition rate at Lanesborough Elementary School in line with the per-pupil cost at the school as published by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education over the course of three years.

For fiscal 2019, that means an increase from $8,977 per pupil to $12,477, a hike of 39 percent. Next year, the rate goes to $14,442. In the final year of the three-year contract, New Ashford would be charged the DESE published rate per child.

New Ashford's part-time school superintendent and its School Committee chair negotiated that agreement with Mount Greylock Interim Superintendent Kimberley Grady and Transition Committee member Chris Dodig, and last week, the New Ashford committee approved the deal in a 2-1 vote

"Essentially, we indicated we were open to their request that we have a graduated tuition hike at Lanesborough Elementary, similar to the tuition hike we're using at Mount Greylock," Dodig said, reporting back to the rest of his committee on Tuesday.

Grady explained some of the other adjustments that were made in the contract since the last time the Transition Committee saw it, principally around how transportation and special education costs are allocated to the sending town.

In the past, Lanesborough Elementary has charged New Ashford separately for special education expenses on top of the standard per-pupil rate, but Grady clarified that special ed costs are factored into the DESE per-pupil number.

"What will be billed back are costs that require us to add staff or purchase additional adaptive equipment," she said.

A decision earlier this year by the Transition Committee to set tuition rates at the DESE number drew a backlash from New Ashford, which sends students to Lanesborough and Mount Greylock, and Hancock, which has its own elementary school but tuitions middle and high school students to Mount Greylock.

Ultimately, the Transition Committee, which assumed control of the district on Jan. 1, decided to honor a pre-existing Mount Greylock tuition agreement that was raising the rate gradually over a five-year period. As for Lanesborough Elementary, its School Committee already had set a policy to raise tuition to the DESE published rate, currently $17,314 per pupil.

But with the advent of preK-12 regionalization in the Mount Greylock district, the Transition Committee had the option to maintain the status quo or go in an entirely different direction with all the existing tuition agreements.

On Tuesday, New Ashford parent Jennifer Welch thanked the Transition Committee for reconsidering its Jan. 2 vote and negotiating with the town.

Welch, who serves on her town's School Committee but clarified that she was not speaking for that panel, also said she hopes New Ashford supports the school budget at its annual town meeting on May 15.

"I think most of us found the arguments and pleas by the [LES parents] pretty compelling," Dodig said prior to the vote. "If we approve this, we have given New Ashford what they've asked us for, and I hope the town supports its students and parents as well."

In other business on Tuesday, the Transition Committee learned from Chairman Joe Bergeron that its two candidates for superintendent, Grady and Taconic Principal John Vosburgh, will sit for interviews at a special meeting of the committee on Thursday, April 5, at 6 p.m. Bergeron said he is scheduling one hour for each interview and expects the committee to make a decision offering the position to one of the candidates as early as that evening.

The committee also Tuesday discussed the status 2018-19 school calendars for its three schools.

Unfortunately, the calendar setting process is running behind because the district is still in the process of negotiating the first unified contract with bargaining units at Mount Greylock, Lanesborough Elementary and Williamstown Elementary.

"In terms of the negotiation over the start of the school year, teachers consider it an economic issue, so they're tying it to salary and insurance and longevity," said Dodig, who serves on the Transition Committee's negotiations subcommittee.

Dodig said he would ask the union if it would consider "carving out" the start date from the rest of the package so that the district at least could have some certainty around that.

The first day of school also came up earlier in the evening in the context of the Transition Committee's joint meeting with the Mount Greylock School Building Committee.
As Passover Nears, Israel Braces for Palestinian Protests

The Fellowship | March 28, 2018 As Passover Nears

Though Hamas says the protests against Israel it has called for on March 30 will be peaceful, Israel is taking every measure possible to protect its borders and prevent widespread violence:

Bracing for potential violence, the IDF has deployed additional troops to the border. Security forces have been ordered to prevent a breach of the border fence, but they have also been instructed to exercise maximum restraint so as to minimize the number of Palestinian casualties.

We will not allow security infrastructure to be compromised. If the Palestinians think they can organize a march and cross the fence into our territory, they are wrong, Eizenkot said Tuesday.

We will exercise a hard hand to prevent protesters from infiltrating into Israel. The responsibility [for what happens] will be on [Hamas leader Ismail] Haniyeh and whoever sent them there.
Imperial Valley News Center

The 70th Anniversary of the Marshall Plan: A Legacy Remembered

Washington, DC - The United States Diplomacy Center, in cooperation with the George C. Marshall Foundation will commemorate the 70th anniversary of the signing of the Marshall Plan into law with a program at the Center on Tuesday, April 3, at 2:00 p.m.

The program features opening remarks by Dr. Dan Hamilton, the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation Professor and Founding Director of the Center for Transatlantic Relations at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University and Dr. Benn Steil, senior fellow and director of international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of recently published The Marshall Plan: Dawn of the Cold War. A panel discussion of Perspectives on the Marshall Plan will be moderated by Ambassador Thomas Pickering. Panelists include Ambassador Henne Shuwer of the Kingdom of the Netherlands; Ambassador Peter Wittig of the Federal Republic of Germany; ambassador David OSullivan of the European Union; and Assistant Secretary A. Wess Mitchell of the Department of States Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs.

In a June 1947, speech at Harvard University, Secretary of State George C. Marshall offered U.S. assistance to a devastated Europe. Marshall enlisted popular and Congressional support for the idea that became informally known as the Marshall Plan. President Truman signed legislation to enact the European Recovery Program on April 3, 1948. This event is part of the George C. Marshall Legacy Series that interprets General Marshalls legacy through exhibitions, speakers and programs centered on key themes or episodes from his career.

The United States Diplomacy Center, a public-private partnership, is located at the U.S. Department of State. It is dedicated to telling the stories of American diplomacy. It explores U.S. foreign policy issues, introduces the people who conduct diplomacy on behalf of the country, and highlights diplomacys historical and contemporary impact on American lives.

The George C. Marshall Center, based in Lexington, Virginia, celebrates a man of towering stature. His characteristics of honesty, integrity, and selfless service stand as shining examples for those who study the past and for those generations to come. The Marshall Foundation is dedicated to celebrating his legacy and inspiring new leaders.
Imperial Valley News Center

President Donald J. Trump Sparks Renewed Focus on American Infrastructure

Washington, DC - As recently highlighted in The Washington Times, Cabinet Secretaries, Members of Congress, and State officials all agree that now is the time to rebuild and reinvest in our Nations infrastructure.

SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION ELAINE CHAO: Its Time to Invest in Our Countrys Future

The [Department of Transportation (DOT)] is already making progress in reducing the red tape that is holding back so much of our countrys infrastructure. It is vigorously implementing the presidents One Federal Decision initiative that was announced last August. DOT is working together with other cabinet departments on a new process to handle the permitting of complicated, multi-agency projects within the presidents new, expedited timeline. This means less paperwork, and more timely improvements that will better protect the environment and improve our quality of life.

SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR RYAN ZINKE: Making a Historic Investment in Public Lands Infrastructure

Unfortunately, our roads, bridges and tunnels have been neglected due to years of inaction. Our public lands have suffered a similar fate. As secretary of the Interior and chief steward of our public lands, I inherited a maintenance backlog of more than $11 billion in our national parks alone. Rebuilding our parks, wildlife refuges and [Bureau of Indian Education (BIE)] schools is not a Republican or Democrat issue  its an American issue. Having served in Congress, I know there are lawmakers from both sides of the aisle who share President Trumps vision.

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (EPA) ADMINISTRATOR SCOTT PRUITT: Infrastructure Projects to Advance Swiftly  and Safely  Under New EPA Permitting Rules

President Trump recently unveiled his plan to rebuild and revitalize our nations crumbling infrastructure. The presidents ambitious proposal calls for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to play a leading role in the administrations efforts. Through important permitting reforms and localized investments and incentives, EPA would be an integral part of initiating new projects and accelerating current endeavors to completion.

GOV. PETE RICKETTS (R-NE): 5 Principles for Infrastructure Success

Over the past year, the Trump administration has listened to states while developing policy proposals. President Trumps focus on addressing the countrys infrastructure needs will help move us forward. While decisions about investment will ultimately be made in Washington, the impacts will be experienced in the states. As Congress works with the president, I urge them to adopt his approach and to ensure that the voices of states are heard.

CHAIRMAN OF THE SENATE ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE JOHN BARRASSO (R-WY): Fixing Americas Infrastructure: The Road Forward

President Trump and Republicans in Congress agree that we need a robust, fiscally responsible infrastructure plan that works for all of America. Last month, the president released his priorities. His plan includes making a serious investment in the nations infrastructure. It also streamlines burdensome permitting requirements and makes sure Washington is working as a partner with local governments.

SEN. JIM INHOFE (R-OK): To Unleash American Building, Cut the Red Tape

The private sector is ready and eager to invest in many of these critical projects but has been hesitant to jump  most notably because our flawed and convoluted permitting process means their investment may take years and years to get off the ground. President Trumps infrastructure proposal recognizes this problem and prioritizes responsible permitting reform, an important tool in unlocking the economic potential of a major infrastructure package.

SEN. DAN SULLIVAN (R-AK): Fixing U.S. Infrastructure Requires End of Permitting Purgatory

We can do much better for our citizens, and I believe that the Trump administrations focus on infrastructure presents our nation with significant bipartisan opportunities. However, a key to the success of any infrastructure package must involve a desperately needed reform of our countrys broken public-works and environmental approval process. [F]or too long, the regulatory and permitting process has been abused by radical groups and even by federal agencies to obstruct and delay critically needed projects.

CHAIRMAN OF THE HOUSE TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE COMMITTEE BILL SHUSTER (R-PA): Infrastructure is Not a Republican or Democratic Issue  Its an American Issue

Now that the President has released his principles on infrastructure, it is up to him, as a builder who understands the role of infrastructure in our economy, to continue to lead on this issue and make it clear to the American people why such investments are so important. Our work on this critical legislation is already underway, guided by three core principles: An infrastructure plan must be bipartisan, it must be fiscally responsible and it must be forward leaning.

CHAIRMAN OF THE HOUSE ENERGY AND COMMERCE COMMITTEE GREG WALDEN (R-OR): Energy Infrastructure: Ensuring Reliability, Resiliency

Knowing that the President cares deeply about this issue and the opportunity for bipartisan progress, improving our nations infrastructure has been a focal point of the Energy and Commerce Committees work since the beginning of the 115th Congress. To date, the Energy and Commerce Committee has held 48 infrastructure-related hearings, and weve had 24 energy infrastructure bills pass the House of Representatives addressing pipeline and electric transmission lines infrastructure, hydropower licensing, Brownfields, air quality standards, and energy efficiency. While weve accomplished a great deal thus far, our efforts are far from over.

CHAIRMAN OF THE HOUSE NATURAL RESOURCES COMMITTEE ROB BISHOP (R-UT): A Lesson in Bipartisanship: Starting Small on Infrastructure to Go Big

To address this deteriorating infrastructure, a bipartisan consensus has emerged in the House, Senate and Trump administration. Swift action is essential before Americans access to and enjoyment of our national parks is further damaged. With a unified call for a robust, stable and politically viable funding mechanism to address the challenge, the political will is there.

REP. MARSHA BLACKBURN (R-TN): Putting Rural Americans First

On the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, weve made great strides to close the digital divide and increase the expansion of broadband nationwide. The Communications and Technology Subcommittee, which I chair, has been working hard on a large broadband infrastructure package. It is essential that we continue to find ways to increase access to broadband.
Imperial Valley News Center

Optimism Abounds: The American Economy is Coming Back Strong

Washington, DC - Consumer and business confidence continues to soar as President Donald J. Trumps tax reforms and policies are helping the U.S. economy take off after eight years of stagnation.

WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Pew: Economy Good-Excellent Rating Highest in 18 Years

Americans rating the economy good to excellent has surged to the highest point since former President George W. Bush took office, according to a new survey. Pew Research Center said that 53 percent rate the economy high and the best in some 18 years. Americans views of national economic conditions continue to improve, with the share saying the economy is in good or excellent condition now at its highest point in nearly two decades, said Pew.

GALLUP: U.S. Concerns About Healthcare High; Energy, Unemployment Low

Affordable energy and unemployment have been the issues Americans worry least about for the past two years, given low gas prices and low unemployment rates. Unemployment also tied for last in 2001. Levels of concern about most of the issues are similar to what they were a year ago, except for the economy and unemployment. Americans concerns about those issues continue to decline from their high points after the Great Recession. The percentage of Americans now worried about unemployment is down 36 percentage points from the high of 59% in 2010, including a seven-point decline in the past year. Worry about the economy has dropped 37 points from its high of 71% in 2011 and 2012, with about one-third of that decline coming in the past year.

THE HILL: Business Economists Optimistic About Growth: Survey

The National Association for Business Economics projected the economy will expand 2.9 percent in 2018, compared to a 2.5 percent projection in December. NABE Outlook panelists are more optimistic about the U.S. economy in 2018 than they were three months ago, especially regarding prospects for the industrial sector of the economy, Kevin Swift, the groups vice president, said in a statement. Members of the panel cited the GOP tax reductions and the cut to the corporate tax rate as upside risks, NABE noted. 

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: U.S. Consumer Confidence Hits 14-Year High

U.S. consumers confidence hit a fresh 14-year high this month, as lower-income households reported feeling more optimistic about the economy. The University of Michigan on Friday said the preliminary result of its consumer-sentiment index was 102.0 in March, up from 99.7 in February. That was the highest level since January 2004, and well above the 99.0 economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected.

FOX BUSINESS: Trump Tax Reform Spurs Workforce Investment Growth: EY Survey

According to the EY Tax Reform Dollar Deployment Survey, conducted jointly by Ernst & Young LLPs (EY) Transaction Advisory Services and tax businesses, 89% of companies plan to enhance compensation due to the new GOP tax reform law. Were seeing that the majority of the savings from tax reform is going to be put back in growth and innovation, which is great news for the U.S. economy, EY Americas Vice Chair Bill Casey said Monday during an exclusive interview with FOX Business Maria Bartiromo.

REUTERS: U.S. Job Openings Surge to Record High in January

Job openings, a measure of labor demand, increased by 645,000 to a seasonally adjusted 6.3 million. That was the highest level since the data series started in December 2000 and pushed the job openings rate up four-tenths of a percentage point to 4.1 percent. We believe employers are going to have to pay up to fill the openings, leading to stronger wage growth and sustained consumer spending increases, said Ron Temple, head of U.S. equities at Lazard Asset Management in New York.

MARKETWATCH: The Number of Americans Collecting Unemployment Benefits Drops to 45-Year Low

Initial U.S. jobless claims rose by 3,000 to 229,000 in mid-March, but they remain near the lowest levels since 1970. And the number of people collecting benefits fell to a fresh 45-year low. The number of people already collecting unemployment benefits, known as continuing claims, fell by 57,000 to 1.83 million. Thats the lowest level since December 1973.

THE DAILY CALLER: Two Million Americans Got Off Food Stamps In Trumps First Year

The number of food stamp dependent Americans hit a six-year low in President Donald Trumps first year in office, reflecting an improving economy and falling unemployment, according to a U.S. Agriculture Department (USDA) report. An average of 42.2 million Americans participated in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) program in 2017, which is an 11 percent decrease from 2013, when a record number of people used food stamps, according to USDA.
California Public Utilities Commission Heads to Imperial County to Discuss the Implementation of Garcias AB 1665, Internet for All Now Act

El Centro, California - Tomorrow, Wednesday, March 28th the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) will hold a California Advanced Services Fund Public Forum in El Centro focusing on bridging the digital divide and regional broadband deployment priorities.

As part of the implementation of Assemblymember Garcias AB 1665, Internet for All Now Act, the CPUC will be conducting a series of public workshops throughout the state to receive input on regional needs, develop partnerships and strategies to expand broadband access.

Internet access has become a passport to a myriad of critical health, public safety, economic, and educational opportunities. By extending funding into the California Advanced Services Fund, through AB 1665, we can help expand access to this modern day necessity for our states most vulnerable communities; remote rural areas like those in Imperial County, stated Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia. I am grateful that the California Public Utilities Commission has accepted our invitation to conduct a public forum in Imperial County. These connections are essential to ensuring our community gets its fair share of investments.

WHAT: California Advanced Services Fund Public Forum/AB 1665 (E. Garcia, 2017) Workshop

WHO: California Public Utilities Commission

WHEN: Tomorrow, March 28, 2018 from 10am  4pm

WHERE: El Centro City Council Chambers, 1275 Main St. El Centro, CA 92243
Former Federal Prison Lieutenant Sentenced for Using Excessive Force and Obstructing Investigation

Atlanta, Georgia - Gregory McLeod, 44, of East Point, Georgia, and a former correctional officer and supervisor at the U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta (USP Atlanta), was sentenced today in federal court to one year and eight months in prison, followed by three years supervised release, for using excessive force against an inmate in 2016, and for writing two false reports about the incident in an effort to cover up his crime.

According to information presented in court, McLeod, who achieved the rank of lieutenant, and worked as a supervisor at the prison, strip searched an inmate in his office in front of three other correctional officers. After the inmate complained that the strip search was taking too long, McLeod repeatedly punched the inmate in his face, injuring him.

Following the assault, McLeod wrote an incident report and a separate memorandum about the encounter in which he falsely claimed that the inmate swung a closed fist at McLeod and attempted to assault other officers before the officers could apply hand and leg restraints.

Correctional officers have an important duty to protect inmates from violence or any act of unreasonable force, said Acting Assistant Attorney General John Gore of the Civil Rights Division. McLeods violent actions, and attempt to obstruct justice, blatantly violated the inmates civil rights. This Justice Department will not tolerate any abuse of power by a law enforcement officer and will continue to prosecute these cases to the fullest extent of the law.

McLeod broke the law and repeatedly lied about his conduct, said U.S. Attorney Byung J. BJay Pak. The men and women who work in prisons and jails have very stressful jobs, but they must adhere to the laws that each has sworn to uphold. At the same time, inmates and detainees in our nations prisons and jails have the right to be free from the use of excessive force.

We certainly understand that detention officers have a difficult job maintaining order and protecting inmates in our nations prisons, said David J. LeValley, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta. But inherent in that job is a power that cannot be abused. It is unfortunate that the actions of this one defendant harm the reputation of the vast majority of officers who respect that power.

Violence against inmates and false reporting have no place in the federal prison system, stated Robert A. Bourbon, Special Agent in Charge of the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector Generals (OIG) Miami Field Division. The DOJ OIG is committed to ensuring that there are serious consequences for any DOJ employee who intentionally violates the rights of inmates and lies about it.

At his guilty plea on Nov. 22, 2017, McLeod admitted that he used excessive force and that he intentionally violated the inmates constitutional rights. McLeod also admitted that he intentionally impeded and obstructed the investigation of the incident by writing the two false reports.

McLeod was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Steven C. Jones to one year and eight months in prison, followed by three years supervised release.

This case was investigated by the Atlanta Division of the FBI and the Department of Justice OIG. This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Brent Alan Gray, and Department of Justice Trial Attorney Mary J. Hahn of the Civil Rights Division.
White House Press Secretary on the Expulsion of Russian Intelligence Officers

Washington, DC - Monday President Donald J. Trump ordered the expulsion of dozens of Russian intelligence officers from the United States and the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle due to its proximity to one of our submarine bases and Boeing. The United States takes this action in conjunction with our NATO allies and partners around the world in response to Russias use of a military-grade chemical weapon on the soil of the United Kingdom, the latest in its ongoing pattern of destabilizing activities around the world.

Mondays actions make the United States safer by reducing Russias ability to spy on Americans and to conduct covert operations that threaten Americas national security. With these steps, the United States and our allies and partners make clear to Russia that its actions have consequences. The United States stands ready to cooperate to build a better relationship with Russia, but this can only happen with a change in the Russian governments behavior.
Widespread Support For John Bolton As National Security Advisor

Washington, DC - Commentators agree that by appointing John Bolton as National Security Advisor (NSA), the President has made an excellent choice to confront the challenges of a dangerous world and build on the accomplishments of outgoing NSA H.R. McMaster.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIAL BOARD: John Bolton for National Security

President Trump has said he is at last assembling a Cabinet team to his liking, and late Thursday he announced that John Bolton will replace General H.R. McMaster as his National Security Adviser. It is a solid and experienced choice. Mr. Boltons first job will be to prepare the President for an historic meeting with Kim Jong Un. We may assume Pyongyang knows now that bluffing the U.S. wont work.

FORMER SENATOR TOM COBURN (R-OK) IN USA TODAY: Bolton Right Choice on National Security

The presidents decision to appoint John Bolton as his national security adviser reflects an understanding of the critical lessons of history, and the Bolton designation will greatly reduce the grave risks now faced by America during todays increasingly troubled times.

USA TODAYS JAMES S. ROBBINS: John Bolton will Finally Let Donald Trump be Donald Trump on Foreign Policy

If the president can get a better trade deal for American workers while also encouraging Beijing to make Pyongyang see reason and abandon its nuclear weapons, he could be in the running for a Nobel Peace Prize. And Bolton and Pompeo are likely to help him get there.

NATIONAL REVIEWS DAVID FRENCH: John Bolton isnt Dangerous. The World is.

Hes a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Hes on the board of trustees of the National Review Institute. Hes a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Hes a conservative hawk, yes, but hes squarely in the mainstream of conservative foreign-policy thought.

THE NEW YORK TIMES BRET STEPHENS: John Bolton is Right About the U.N.

I agree with Bolton about some things and disagree about others. But on the U.N. hes been right all along. If his presence in the White House helps to scare the organization into real reform, so much the better.

AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTES MICHAEL RUBIN IN THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Enough with the John Bolton Smears  Hell be the Best National Security Adviser in a Generation

But Bolton is a formidable intellect, a clear thinker, organized, and a team player. The purpose of the National Security Council is to coordinate the interagency process. Not only is Bolton meticulous about process, but he also has the wherewithal to do two things so many past national security advisers did not: force decisions when they needed to be made and then impose discipline on the process to ensure those decisions were carried out.

HUGH HEWITT IN THE WASHINGTON POST: John Bolton is a Great Addition to the White House

As the presidents top security aide, Bolton will be an honest broker and someone who can drive decisions through molasses-thick resistance. These qualities, plus his top-shelf intellect, make Bolton the best national security player to join Trumps West Wing team so far.

NEW YORK POSTS MICHAEL GOODWIN: White House Shake-Ups Prove Trumps Putting America First

In truth, Bolton is a hawk because the world is full of dangerous actors and some evil ones and he sensibly believes theres no point of being America if were going to roll over and surrender our advantages. Already there are rumblings that Russia, China and North Korea wont be happy to see Bolton having the presidents ear  which proves Trump chose wisely.
Ambassador Tina Kaidanow, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs, Travels to Turkey and Iraq

Washington, DC - Ambassador Tina Kaidanow, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs, will travel to Turkey and Iraq March 28-April 3.

In Ankara, Turkey, Ambassador Kaidanow will meet with Turkish officials to discuss bilateral defense trade and security cooperation. She will meet with representatives from the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of National Defense, and the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries to share U.S. perspectives on bilateral and regional security issues as part of the U.S.-Turkey Defense Trade Dialogue, and will hold a roundtable discussion with representatives from major U.S. and Turkish defense manufacturers.

In Baghdad, Iraq, Ambassador Kaidanow will meet with Iraqi government officials to discuss regional security issues and U.S. security assistance programs overseen by the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs. These programs reflect our continued commitment to helping Iraq improve its security, maintain its sovereignty, and continue the fight against remaining ISIS terrorists, while supporting the long-term development of modern, accountable, and professional Iraqi security forces capable of defending Iraq and its borders.
Arrest of Serbian Official in Kosovo

Washington, DC - The United States strongly condemns yesterdays events in Mitrovica, which unnecessarily heighten tensions and threaten regional stability.

We urge all parties to avoid further escalation of the situation, and to act calmly and resolve disputes peacefully. To create lasting peace and stability in the Balkans, both Kosovo and Serbia need to focus on normalizing relations through the EU-led Dialogue. The United States stands ready to support all parties in Dialogue negotiations.
File photo of young Indian American girls preparing for a traditional dance during the Hindu festival of Diwali, in New York City. Author Amit Roy Shah says that addressing our childrens understanding of their bicultural identity is important because the research shows that children who are able to identify with their bicultural identity  their culture (being Indian) and the culture of mainstream society (being American)  experience less confusion, isolation, and alienation in school and in life. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
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An Airbus A320 belonging to the Russian company Aeroflot takes off on Sept. 26, 2017 from Toulouse-Blagnac airport in southwestern France. Five Indian Americans were not allowed to board an Aeroflot flight from Moscow to New York. (Pascal Pavani/AFP/Getty Images)
Dr. Harmesh Kumar has removed his name from the list of candidates running for governor in 2018 and will instead focus on a supervisor seat in Contra Costa County's 4th District. The Indian American clinical psychologist, among other issues, would like to improve the state of mental health not only in Contra Costa County, but throughout California. (drkumaronline.com)
NY-25 is completely within Monroe County. It includes Rochester, the Rochester suburbs and the towns of Penfield, Henrietta, Brighton, Brockport, Greece and Irondequot. The PVI is D+8. Obama won the district by around 20 points both times he ran and Hillary beat Trumpanzee 55.5% to 39,1%, Trump's second worst performance, by one point, in upstate New York. Louise Slaughter had represented the district for 3 decades when she died last week.





The immediate frontrunner for the seat is the majority leader of the state Assembly, Joe Morelle, who officially announced his campaign yesterday. It looks like he'll be in a primary contest with Brighton Town Board Member Robin Wilt, Rochester School Board President Van White, former TV reporter Rachel Barnhart and Rochester businessman Andrew Gilchrist. Candidates have until April 12 to get 1,250 signatures from party members.





When Morelle announced Monday morning at the Plumbers and Pipefitters Meeting Hall, he said "I'm a progressive Democrat," which is borne out by his record. "I care about working men and women. I care about healthcare, making it affordable and accessible for everyone. Those are the kinds of things I've always believed in and I'm willing to go out and talk to people."





Governor Andrew Cuomo has to call a special election to fill the remainder of Slaughter's term, although he can set the special election for the same day as the November general election. The New York primary is June 26. Morelle can proudly step forward with an "F" rating from the NRA and an "A" rating from the AFL-CIO. Neurosurgeon Jim Maxwell is the only Republican in the race.
Indo-Tibetan Border Police personnel patrol snow ridges in the Himalayas. Following Chinas invasion of airspace near ITBP posts and its militarys movement towards the Siliguri corridor, the Congress party has called into question the Modi governments handling of border relations with China. (IANS/ITBP photo)
Let's Investigate John Brennan



Time to find out if CIA interfered in the 2016 election





By Philip Giraldi

March 26, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - Former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Brennan, a Barack Obama friend and protege as well as a current paid contributor for NBC and MSNBC, has blasted President Donald Trump for congratulating President Vladimir Putin over his victory in recent Russian national elections. He said that the U.S. President is afraid of the president of Russia and that the Kremlin may have something on him personally. The fact that he has had this fawning attitude toward Mr. Putin continues to say to me that he does have something to fear and something very serious to fear.

It is an indication of how low we have sunk as a nation that a possible war criminal like Brennan can feel free to use his former official status as a bully pulpit to claim that someone is a foreign spy without any real pushback or objection from the talking heads and billionaire manipulators that unfortunately run our country. If Trump is actually being blackmailed, as Brennan implies, what evidence is there for that? One might reasonably conclude that Brennan and his associates are actually angry because Trump has had the temerity to try to improve relations with Russia.

It is ironic that when President Trump does something right he gets assailed by the same crowd that piles on when he does something stupid, leading to the conclusion that unless The Donald is attacking another country, when he is lauded as becoming truly presidential, he cannot ever win with the inside the Beltway Establishment crowd. Brennan and a supporting cast of dissimulating former intelligence chiefs opposed Trump from the git-go and were perfectly willing to make things up to support Hillary and the status quo that she represented. It was, of course, a status quo that greatly and personally benefited that ex-government crowd which by now might well be described as the proverbial Deep State.

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The claim that Trump is a Russian agent is not a new one since it is an easy mark to allege something that you dont have to prove. During the campaign, one was frequently confronted on the television by the humorless stare of the malignant Michael Morell, former acting CIA Director, who wrote in a mind numbing August 2016 op-ed how he was proud to support Hillary Clinton because of her commitment to our nations security: her belief that America is an exceptional nation that must lead in the world for the country to remain secure and prosperous; her understanding that diplomacy can be effective only if the country is perceived as willing and able to use force if necessary; and her capacity to make the most difficult decision of all: whether to put young American women and men in harms way. Per Morell, she was a proponent of a more aggressive approach [in Syria], one that might have prevented the Islamic State from gaining a foothold

But Morell saved his finest vitriol for Donald Trump, observing how Vladimir Putin, a wily ex-career intelligence officer trained to identify vulnerabilities in an individual and to exploit them obtained the services of one fairly obscure American businessman named Trump without even physically meeting him. Morell, given his broad experience as an analyst and desk jockey, notes, In the intelligence business, we would say that Mr. Putin had recruited Mr. Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation. An unwitting agent is a contradiction in terms, but one wouldnt expect Morell to know that. Nor would John Brennan, who was also an analyst and desk jockey before he was elevated by an equally witless President Barack Obama.

So Morell is by his own words clearly an idiot, which explains a lot about what is wrong with CIA and is probably why he is now a consultant with CBS News instead of serving as Agency Director under the beneficent gaze of President Hillary Clinton.

Well, Trumps fractured foreign policy aside, I have some real problems with folks like Michael Morell and John Brennan throwing stones. Both can be reasonably described as war criminals due to what they did during the war on terror and also as major subverters of the Constitution of the United States that has emerged as part of the saga of the 2016 election, the outcome of which, ironically, is being blamed on the Russians.

Back in 2013 John Brennan, then Obamas counter-terrorism advisor, had a difficult time with the Senate Intelligence Committee explaining some things that he did when he was still working at CIA. He was predictably attacked by some senators concerned over the expanding drone program, which he supervised; over CIA torture; for the kill lists that he helped manage; and regarding the pervasive government secrecy, which he surely condoned to cover up the questionable nature of the assassination lists and the drones. Not at all surprisingly, he was forced to defend the policies of the administration that he was then serving in, claiming that the United States is at war with al-Qaeda. But he did cite his basic disagreement with the former CIA interrogation policies and expressed his surprise at learning that enhanced interrogation, which he refused to label torture because he is no lawyer, had not provided any unique or actionable information. He claimed that he had only raised serious questions in his own mind on the interrogation issue after reading the 525 page summary of the 6,000 page report prepared by the Senate Intelligence Committee which detailed the failure of the Agency program. Brennans reaction, however, suggested at a minimum that he had read only the rebuttal material produced by CIA that had deliberately inflated the value of the intelligence produced.

Surprisingly the subject of rendition, which Brennan must surely have been involved with while at CIA, hardly surfaced though two other interesting snippets emerged from the questioning. One was his confirmation that the government has its own secret list of innocent civilians killed by drones while at the same time contradicting himself by maintaining that the program does not actually exist and that if even if it did exist such fatalities do not occur. And more directly relevant to Brennan himself, Senator John D. Rockefeller provided an insight into the classified sections of the Senate report on CIA torture, mentioning that the enhanced interrogation program was both managed incompetently and corrupted by personnel with pecuniary conflicts of interest. One would certainly like to learn more about the presumed contractors who profited corruptly from waterboarding and one would like to know if they were in any way punished, an interesting sidebar as Brennan has a number of times spoken about the need for accountability.

Brennan was not questioned at all about the conflict of interest or ethical issues raised by the revolving door that he benefited from when he left CIA as Deputy Executive Director in 2005 and joined a British-owned company called The Analysis Corporation (TAC) where he was named CEO. He made almost certainly some millions of dollars when the Agency and other federal agencies awarded TAC contracts to develop biometrics and set up systems to manage the governments various watch lists before rejoining the government with a full bank account to help him along his way. Brennan also reportedly knew how to return a favor, giving his former boss at CIA George Tenet a compensated advisory position in his company and also hosting in 2007 a book signing for Tenets At the Center of the Storm. The by-invitation-only event included six hundred current and former intelligence officers, some of whom waited for hours to have Tenet sign copies of the book, which were provided by TAC.

Brennan certainly knew how to feather his nest and reward his friends, but the area that is still murky relates to what exactly he was up to in 2016 when he was CIA Director and also quite possibly working hard to help Hillary get elected. He was still at it well after Trump got elected and assumed office. In May 2017, his testimony before Congress was headlined in a Washington Post front page featured article as Brennans explosive testimony just made it harder for the GOP to protect Trump. The article stated that Brennan during the 2016 campaign reviewed intelligence that showed contacts and interaction between Russian actors and people associated with the Trump campaign. Politico was also in on the chase in an article entitled Brennan: Russia may have successfully recruited Trump campaign aides.

The precise money quote by Brennan that the two articles chiefly rely on is I encountered and am aware of information and intelligence that revealed contacts and interactions between Russian officials and US persons involved in the Trump campaign that I was concerned about because of known Russian efforts to suborn such individuals. It raised questions in my mind whether or not Russia was able to gain the co-operation of those individuals.

The testimony inevitably raises some questions about just what Brennan was actually up to. First of all, the CIA is not supposed to keep tabs on American citizens and tracking the activities of known associates of a presidential candidate should have sent warning bells off, yet Brennan clearly persisted in following the trail. What Brennan did not describe, because it was classified, was how he came upon the information in the first place. We know from Politico and other sources that it came from foreign intelligence services, including the British, Dutch and Estonians, and there has to be a strong suspicion that the forwarding of at least some of that information might have been sought or possibly inspired by Brennan unofficially in the first place. But whatever the provenance of the intelligence, it is clear that Brennan then used that information to request an FBI investigation into a possible Russian operation directed against potential key advisers if Trump were to somehow get nominated and elected, which admittedly was a longshot at the time. That is how Russiagate began.

So, Mr. Brennan, for all his bluster and scarcely concealed anger, has a lot of baggage, to include his possible role in coordinating with other elements in the national security agencies as well as with overseas parties to get their candidate Hillary Clinton elected. Brennan should be thoroughly investigated by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, to include subpoenaing all records at CIA relating to the Trump inquiries before requiring testimony under oath of Brennan himself with possible legal consequences if he is caught lying.

Phil Giraldi is a former CIA Case Officer and Army Intelligence Officer who spent twenty years overseas in Europe and the Middle East working terrorism cases. He holds a BA with honors from the University of Chicago and an MA and PhD in Modern History from the University of London.
Home Search ICH By Finian Cunningham March 27, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - Global insanity has taken over international relations. The British government is leading dozens of nations down a precarious path of Monty Python burlesque politics towards Russia. It's far from funny. This is how world wars are incited. Over 100 Russian diplomats are being expelled by the United States, Canada, Australia, and European countries  largely at the behest of official British claims that Russia was responsible for an alleged poison attack in England earlier this month. Moscow, as well as many other independent observers, have pointed out that not one scrap of evidence has been presented to date by the British government to support its claim that Russian state agents carried out an assassination attempt on a former MI6 double agent and his daughter in Salisbury on March 4. Britain's Last Hurrah to Vandalize EU-Russia Relations Sergei (66) and 33-year-old Yulia Skripal reportedly remain in hospital after apparently being injured from exposure to a nerve-agent substance while they were in a public space. But the exact circumstances of how they fell ill is not known. British claims of Russian state culpability are simply that: unverified claims. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter The link to alleged Russian state involvement is tenuous at best, relying on undisclosed claims made by the British concerning the hypothetical poisonous substance which the Skripals supposedly encountered. Yet on the basis of no evidence and heaps of sensational British speculation now more than 25 nations have exacted retribution on Russia, expelling up to 130 diplomats this week. The campaign to penalize Russia looks set to escalate even further. British Prime Minister Theresa May says that more punitive measures are being considered. The US and EU have also warned of further sanctions. London is gloating at its capacity to galvanize other nations into action against Russia. And so it might. For it is something of an achievement  albeit dubious  that the British have managed to whip up one of the worst diplomatic crisis since the Second World War, based solely on lurid anti-Russian innuendo. It is all the more something to marvel at given that Britain is in the throes of an acrimonious row with the European Union over its decision to quit the bloc. The Brexit referendum held in 2016 ends British membership of the European community after more than 40 years from its joining in 1973. The departure has caused an existential rupture in the EU, unleashing tensions among separatist political forces in other member states. Not so long ago, senior EU figures were fretting that the entire bloc might even collapse altogether after the British blow to leave. So, given the damage that British national politics have inflicted on the European Union it is rather astounding that now the bloc is rallying at the behest of Britain to further undermine relations with Russia. It is unbelievable that supposedly advanced democracies in Europe are indulging Britain's trashing of legal standards to make wild claims against Russia. However, on one hand we should not be surprised. Britain's historic role with regard to Europe since the Second World War has been to act as a spoiler to ensure that European states did not embrace socialist politics or develop friendly relations with Russia. After World War II, there was a strong movement across Europe to adopt socialism. That was anathema to the Americans and their always-close British ally as the custodians of international capitalism. This was one reason why the US-led military alliance, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, was set up in 1949 as a bulwark to keep Europe under Anglo-American control. NATO's first secretary-general, Britain's Lord Ismay, quipped that the function of the alliance was "to keep the Americans in, the Germans down and the Russians out". The European Union and its precursor European Economic Community was another such vehicle for American and British control over the continent to make sure it didn't establish independent, friendly relations with the Soviet Union. One of the European architects, French President Charles De Gaulle, did not want to admit Britain to the early community because he rightly envisaged the British acting as a spanner in the works. How right De Gaulle was. For most of its four-decade membership of the European bloc, Britain has been a troublesome party. It has always seemed to be out of step with the rest of Europe, using the benefits of trade, while at the same time stirring up political problems over Britain's "special status". The Brexit debacle is the outcome of decades of incorrigible British carping and spoiling with the rest of Europe. The irony is that just as this churlish European member is packing its bags to leave the bloc, Britain bequeaths a final act of vandalism on EU-Russian relations with its outlandish tale of an assassination attempt. It is particularly risible that Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has played such a prominent role in the latest saga, agitating "solidarity" among EU members against Russia. This is the same Johnson who arrogantly wants to dump Europe to pursue British fantasies of renewed "greatness". Recall his bumptious response to EU claims for financial compensation over the Brexit divorce: he advised the Europeans "to go whistle"  meaning, no reparation. British leaders must be smugly laughing up their sleeves over the collective insanity they have induced across Europe in particular. We can expect nothing better from Washington. It is only too willing to exploit an opportunity to demonize and debilitate Russia especially given its strategic goal of displacing Russian gas from European markets with its own fuel exports. What is perplexing is just how gullible European states are to adopt a British wild-goose-chase story based on no evidence, which is storing up longterm strategic problems with Russia and the continent of Europe. Have the Europeans learnt nothing from their history of wars and destruction, and manipulation by perfidious Britain? Amazing too is the timing of horrendous anniversaries. This month, it is 15 years since the Americans and British waged an illegal war on Iraq based on lies, inflicting over one million deaths and setting the entire Middle East on fire; this month, it is also seven years since the American and British principally launched the covert wars for regime change in Syria and Libya which have flooded Europe with a refugee crisis; it is three years this month since the Americans and British began supporting the Saudi war on Yemen which is described by the UN as the worst man-made humanitarian crisis in decades. All the evidence for these American-British horrors are as plain as the nose on your face. And yet the pious European states have not issued sanctions for those crimes. No. They are instead prepared to cut the nose off their face to spite their own relations with Russia  all on the say-so of the self-serving British. European political leaders may not have common morality or intelligence to see the travesty. But ordinary European citizens do. That is why the venal EU bureaucracy is in deep trouble. Its feckless leaders are betraying the real needs of the people, to pursue geopolitical charades. The people will not forgive such odious decadence. Finian Cunningham has written extensively on international affairs, with articles published in several languages. He is a Masters graduate in Agricultural Chemistry and worked as a scientific editor for the Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, England, before pursuing a career in newspaper journalism. He is also a musician and songwriter. For nearly 20 years, he worked as an editor and writer in major news media organisations, including The Mirror, Irish Times and Independent. This article was originally published by " Sputnik " - The views and opinions expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect those of Information Clearing House. ===== Join the Discussion 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. Search Information Clearing House === Click Here To Support Information Clearing House Your support has kept ICH free on the Web since 2002. Click for Spanish , German , Dutch , Danish , French , translation- Note- Translation may take a moment to load.
Home Search ICH US Dirty War On Syria By Joan Coxsedge March 27, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - I am sitting down nutting out what to write when most sensible people are going to the footie or watching sport on the telly, or going to the mind-numbing Grand Prix, or maybe trotting off to the flower show, which is as it should be, while out in the nasty world, were going down the toilet. I wish more Australians would fight back harder against all the rorts, the lies, the attacks on workers and the manipulated climate of hysteria being deliberately whipped up. Were all supposed to believe the bullshit surrounding the spy poisoning in London, with provocations multiplying to the point where they are becoming dangerous triggers for war, made more frighteningly real with the recent appointment of unhinged thug John Bolton as Trumps new National Security Adviser.



But Boltons no ordinary neo-con hawk, hes a full-on war-maker with a track record going back to George Bush Senior. Obsessed for years with plans to destroy the Islamic Republic, he has repeatedly called for the obliteration of Iran during his regular appearances on Fox News and was the major player in persuading Trump to tear up the Iran nuclear deal. In a sane society, people like Bolton wouldnt be allowed on television, much less put in charge of American security. Theyd be locked up. For the record, Iran has never had a nuclear weapons programme nor the opportunity to develop them. It has no heavy water reactor, only a small number of centrifuges and destroyed its stockpile of uranium for its medical reactor. Iran is also being actively inspected and no country under active UN arms inspections has ever developed a bomb. But truth is missing from the current dirty propaganda campaign because big corporations like wars. Wars mean they can manufacture more shiny weapons and bombs, the ultimate in planned obsolescence. Theyve made another killing after a recent visit with Trump by Saudis Crown Prince, 2nd in command to one of the worlds most repressive dictators. A $12.5bn arms sale bonanza. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter Next week marks the 3rd anniversary of Saudis intervention in Yemens civil war where US warplanes flown by US-trained pilots drop US-made bombs that have killed thousands of innocent civilians.



So you can see where all the claptrap about Russian spy poisoners is leading us, with apparently not the slightest understanding or concern about the horrific consequences. A variation of the weapons of mass deception lie all over again that was used to justify the calamitous war and invasion of Iraq that killed more than a million people and left a dysfunctional and corrupt occupied battlefield. According to peace activist Medea Benjamin the million minimises the enormity of the tragedy. Using the best information available (the US military refused to keep a tally) she estimates that 2.4 million Iraqis have died since the 2003 invasion, along with the obliteration of its history and culture. But no-one has been held accountable.



Russian spies and poisons are a ploy by Washington and its allies to conceal the fact that the Wests cant about promoting democracy and defeating terrorism is just hollow doublespeak to conceal the reality that the Pentagon is the nerve centre for a huge killing juggernaut that operates for the benefit of US capitalism, an out-of- control monster that is destroying our world. Trump is already lining up a war cabinet of madmen and has deployed warships in the Red Sea, the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf, ready to launch 400 long-range Tomahawks. On March 17, the Russian General Staff warned about an imminent attack on Syria and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov declared that the US, Britain, France and others had special forces operating in Syria that were directly engaging the Syrian Army. US instructors are training militants to stage false flag chemical attacks in southern Syria, said to be pretexts for air strikes on Syrian government troops and infrastructure, planned provocations that you can bet your bottom dollar will be widely covered in our media. But, and its a big but, Russias new suite of hypersonic weapons gives it an edge over would-be enemies and we can only hope that it might make the US and its NATO buddies think carefully before going to war. As Tim Anderson writes in his excellent book The Dirty War on Syria: Although every war makes ample use of lies and deception, the dirty war on Syria has relied on a level of mass disinformation not seen in living memory. British/Australian journalist Philip Knightley pointed out that war propaganda typically involves a depressingly predictable pattern of demonising the enemy leader, then demonising the enemy people through atrocity stories, real or imagined. Accordingly, a mild-mannered eye doctor called Bashar as Assad became the new evil in the world and according to consistent western media reports, the Syrian Army did nothing but kill civilians for more than four years. To this day, many imagine the Syrian conflict is a civil war, a popular revolt or some sort of internal sectarian conflict. These myths are, in many respects, a substantial achievement for the big powers which have driven a series of regime change operations in the Middle East region, all on false pretexts, over the past 15 years. Russias intrusion into the conflict in 2015 with its vast air power has turned the tide, which is why Americas wheels are coming off and why Rus- sophobia has peaked. It is prudent to pre- dict that the way America approaches war there will be a sensible technological re- sponse to Russia in the foreseeable future. Its track record over the past decades is a record of military and humanitarian disasters. Finally, a quirky poem from Leunig: I was radicalised by the butterflies And later by a tree. And then a word from a passing bird Put radical thoughts in me. And I am on the watch-list now With the fish and pixies too, Who call to me with a note of glee Just do what you can do.



This article was originally published by "Australia-Cuba Friendship Society " - - Melbourne Newsletter - April 2018 The views and opinions expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect those of Information Clearing House. ===== Join the Discussion 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. Search Information Clearing House === Click Here To Support Information Clearing House Your support has kept ICH free on the Web since 2002. Click for Spanish , German , Dutch , Danish , French , translation- Note- Translation may take a moment to load.
March 27, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - After a short reprieve following Jeremy Corbyns unexpected success in Britains general election last year, when he only narrowly lost the popular vote, most of the Labour parliamentary party are back, determined to bring him down. And once again, they are being joined by the corporate media in full battle cry.

Last week, Corbyn was a Soviet spy. This week were in more familiar territory, even if it has a new twist: Corbyn is not only a friend to anti-semites, it seems, but now he has been outed as a closet one himself.

In short, the Blairites in the parliamentary party are stepping up their game. Corbyns social justice agenda, his repudiation of neoconservative wars of aggression masquerading as humanitarianism  lining the coffers of the wests military-industrial elites  is a genuine threat to those who run our societies from the shadows.

The knife of choice for the Labour backstabbers this time is a wall mural removed from East London in 2012. At that time, before he became Labour leader, Corbyn expressed support on Facebook for the artist, Kalen Ockerman, known as Mear One. Corbyn observed that a famous anti-capitalist mural by the left-wing Mexican artist Diego Rivera was similarly removed from Manhattans Rockefeller Centre in 1934.

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Interestingly, the issue of Corbyns support for the mural  or at least the artist  originally flared in late 2015, when the Jewish Chronicle unearthed his Facebook post. Two things were noticeably different about the coverage then.

First, on that occasion, no one apart from the Jewish Chronicle appeared to show much interest in the issue. Its scoop was not followed up by the rest of the media. What is now supposedly a major scandal, one that raises questions about Corbyns fitness to be Labour leader, was a non-issue two years ago, when it first became known.

Second, the Jewish Chronicle, usually so ready to get exercised at the smallest possible sign of anti-semitism, wasnt entirely convinced back in 2015 that the mural was anti-semitic. In fact, it suggested only that the mural might have antisemitic undertones  and attributed even that claim to Corbyns critics.

And rather than claiming, as the entire corporate media is now, that the mural depicted a cabal of Jewish bankers, the Chronicle then described the scene as a group of businessmen and bankers sitting around a Monopoly-style board and counting money. By contrast, the Guardian abandoned normal reporting conventions yesterday to state in its news  rather than comment  pages unequivocally that the mural was obviously antisemitic.

Not that anyone is listening now, but the artist himself, Kalen Ockerman, has said that the group in his mural comprised historical figures closely associated with banking. His mural, he says, was about class and privilege, and the figures depicted included both Jewish and white Anglos. The fact that he included famous bankers like the Rothschilds (Jewish) and the Rockefellers (not Jewish) does not, on the face of it, seem to confirm anti-semitism. They are simply the most prominent of the banking dynasties most people, myself included, could name. These families are about as closely identified with capitalism as it is possible to be.

There is an argument to be had about the responsibilities of artists  even street artists  to be careful in their visual representations. But Ockermans message was not a subtle or nuanced one. He was depicting class war, the war the capitalist class wages every day on the weak and poor. If Ockermans message is inflammatory, it is much less so than the reality of how our societies have been built on the backs and the suffering of the majority.

Corbyn has bowed to his critics  a mix of the Blairites within his party and Israels cheerleaders  and apologised for offering support to Ockerman, just as he has caved in to pressure each time the anti-semitism card has been played against him.

This may look like wise, or safe, politics to his advisers. But these critics have only two possible outcomes that will satisfy them. Either Corbyn is harried from the party leadership, or he is intimidated into diluting his platform into irrelevance  he becomes just another compromised politician catering to the interests of the 1 per cent.

The sharks circling around him will not ignore the scent of his bloodied wounds; rather, it will send them into a feeding frenzy. As hard as it is to do when the elites so clearly want him destroyed, Corbyn must find his backbone and start to stand his ground.

UPDATE:

This piece in the liberal Israeli newspaper Haaretz by their senior columnnist Anshel Pfeffer sums up a lot of the sophistry (intentional or otherwise) underscoring the conflation of leftwing critiques of neoliberalism and globalism with rightwing ultra-nationalism and anti-semitism.

Pfeffer writes:

The conspiracy theories of globalist bankers utilizing mainstream media and corrupt neoliberal politicians to serve their selfish sinister purposes, rather than those of ordinary people, are identical whether from left or right. And on either side, most of the theorists will never admit to being anti-Semitic. They are just anti-racist or anti-imperialist if on the left, or pro-Israel on the right. And most of them really believe they have nothing against Jews, even while parroting themes straight out of the Protocols [of the Elders of Zion].

Notice the problem here. If you are a radical leftist who believes, as generations of leftists before you have done, that military, political, media, and financial elites operate in the shadows to promote their interests, to wage class war, then not only are you a conspiracy theorist, according to Pfeffer, but you are by definition anti-semitic as well. If you believe that an Establishment or a Deep State exists to advance its interests against the great majority, you must hate Jews.

The logic of Corbyns critics has rarely been articulated so forthrightly and so preposterously as it is here by Pfeffer. But make no mistake, this is the logic of his critics.
Life Sentences for Charity Work - Free the 5! Watch



Abby Martin Interviews Miko Peled



The Holy Land Foundation Five are Palestinian political prisoners sentenced up to upwards of 65 years in US prison for providing aid to refugees. Posted March 2, 2018 Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter The views and opinions expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect those of Information Clearing House. ===== Join the Discussion 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.
Dino Melaye, senator representing Kogi west, has been declared wanted by the he Kogi state command of the Nigeria Police Force. Ali Janga, commissioner of police in the state, disclosed this in a statement issued on Wednesday. He said four suspects who allegedly accused Melaye of supplying arms to them have escaped from custody.

The suspects were detained by the police while investigation into the allegations was ongoing. Consequently, the police declared six suspects, including Melaye and Mohammed Audu, son of the late Abubakar Audu, former governor of Kogi, wanted.

Janga said the police sought the assistance of Interpol in arresting the suspects.

The Nigeria Police Force, Kogi state police command today 28th March 2018 received a news that six suspected criminal elements namely; Kabiru Seidu a.k.a Osama, Nuhu Salisu a.k.a Small, Aliyu Isa, Adams Suleiman, Emmanuel Audu and Musa Mohammed who were under detention at the A Division Lokoja escaped from lawful custody. Investigation into the unfortunate incident is ongoing, while the 13 police officers who were on duty when the incident occurred were defaulted and detained for interrogation.

The names of Melaye, Mohammed Audu and six suspects have been sent for watchlisting and red notice by the INTERPOL for immediate arrest anywhere we see them.
Mavin Records boss, Don Jazzy has finally reacted to news of heart-throb, Linda Ikejis engagement.

Both of them were among the most talked about singles. It was not surprising that the public is trying to force them to get married. However, most rumours about them being together have been based on unconfirmed reports.

Now it appears Don Baba has finally lost his chance.

The pair had been flirting non-stop with Don Jazzy even proposing last year immediately after Adesua accepted Banky Ws proposal.

See below:

Don Jazzy took to instagram recently to share a sad photo with the caption:

Kai Linda is engaged . It is finished.

This has led to some hilarious reactions from colleagues like Rita Dominic, Peter Okoye, Dija. Comedian Elenu even offered to help him in crying. Lol.

See reactions below:
A carpenter , Nnana Ononaku , was on Monday brought before an Ebute Meta Chief Magistrates Court in Lagos , for allegedly strangling his wife to death and throwing her body into the lagoon.

The accused, 45, resident of number 89, Oke Eri Street, Oworonshoki, Lagos, was charged with murder.

His plea was not taken.

Earlier, the Prosecutor, Inspector Cousin Adams, had told the court that the accused committed the offence on February 15, at 11.00 pm at Oke  Eri in Oworonshoki.

Adams said that the accused strangled his wife , Iyabo Akinpelu, 48 , before throwing her body into the lagoon.

Her body was found floating in the lagoon with her hands tied with a rope, the prosecutor alleged.

He said the offence contravened Section 223 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015 which stipulates a death sentence for convicts.

The Chief Magistrate, Mrs . A. O . Adegite, remanded the accused at the Ikoyi Prisons, pending an outcome of legal advice from the State Director of Public Prosecutions.

She adjourned the case until April 30 for the legal advice.

(NAN)
Japan launches campaign in UK to promote sake

The Japan Food Product Overseas Promotion Centre (JFOODO) has launched a new multi-media advertising campaign to transform the way sake is served and enjoyed in the UK.

The campaign is designed to challenge and inspire wine enthusiasts and food lovers, to encourage them to fully appreciate the versatility of sake by pairing it with non-Japanese food such as fish and chips, oysters and cheese.

As part of the campaign, JFOODO, which is established by the Government of Japan, has launched a new website  www.foodandsake.com - which introduces a range of sake brands and their food harmonies, while also dispelling some of the myths around sake.

Yoku Shuto, spokesperson for JFOODO, said: Sake is enjoying a revival, with many more enthusiasts discovering new premium brands that have appeared in the UK in recent years. But there are still some misconceptions around sake, including that it should only be paired with Japanese food, and that it is best enjoyed hot, served in ceramic cups. This campaign challenges consumers to reframe their experience of sake by highlighting the many different grades and tastes of sake and how they enhance a wide range of other dishes, from Italian to classic British food.

The intensive campaign, which includes outdoor and advertising, backed by a digital media campaign, will run initially in London. Its official launch was celebrated at an exclusive tasting event A Sake Discovery, in London, hosted by JFOODO and featuring The three Wine Men, wine experts Olly Smith, Oz Clarke and Susy Atkins, and sake enthusiast Rie Yoshitake.

The gathering also included a call to action, inviting new enthusiasts to actively participate in the campaign by posting pictures of food and sake discoveries, using the hashtags #foodandsake, #food and #sake.

Related articles:
Software has advanced rapidly in the past few years to the extent that large-scale data analysis can now identify specific markers in tax filings that can help to detect companies that should be audited. Not all authorities are leveraging this technology effectively yet, but there is no doubt that they will.

"Something that's been increasingly important in the work we do here in the IRS and LB&I is the use of advanced data analytics to understand what is happening," says Doug O'Donnell, head of the large business and international tax (LB&I) division at the IRS. "It is amazing to think that we could ask a few questions of the data that could help us look across the whole filing population that we're responsible for."

How will tax authorities use taxpayer data in the future?

In the old world of cash transactions and paper documents, assets could be easily hidden and tax avoided. But in today's digital era, the tax authorities are able to use data analytics to shine a spotlight on taxpayers who may be hiding assets. So, what are tax authorities doing with the data?

"A lot of the discussion centres on what the effective ways to identify risk are," says O'Donnell. "With financial accounts, for example, you can imagine we'd be talking to one another about where we expected to see information reported, but didn't."

"You see a lot of investment by persons from the United States in 'X' jurisdiction, but very low reporting accounts from that jurisdiction," he adds. "Or you see financial institutions that are not reporting that you think should be. It's about looking for the things that aren't there."

The capability to better analyse data comes at a time when tax authorities will soon have more data available to them than ever before. Country-by-country reporting (CbCR), the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), automatic exchange of information (AEOI), the common reporting standard (CRS) and numerous other initiatives mean vast amounts of data will be at the fingertips of tax officers everywhere. Advanced data analytics tools and artificial intelligence are the only feasible options to analyse it.

Last year, accountancy firm EY ran a campaign on digital awareness entitled "Are tax authorities better at analytics than you?" The answer, in most cases, is a resounding yes. The good news is that this isn't necessarily a bad thing for taxpayers.

"In the CbCR environment the OECD countries and a number of others that are participating in the inclusive framework have begun to talk about how this information will be used, and there's a small pilot that was started in January called the International Compliance Assurance Programme  ICAP," says O'Donnell.

The idea behind ICAP is to see if it is possible to use CbCR data multilaterally, with taxpayers, to identify which areas of their businesses do not merit further enquiry by tax authorities. Remaining areas of the business could then be audited as usual, or companies and authorities could work together to forge advance pricing agreements (APAs), for example.

The notion is not so much to use data to build cases against large multinational taxpayers, but to better understand their business models and cooperate with them to minimise fruitless work. An audit of a fully compliant company is a waste of time for both parties.

"The idea is to try and improve risk detection and rapidly determine what to do about risks that are present, while stepping away from those that we believe are not worth responding to," says O'Donnell.

In the first part of our cover story, O'Donnell speaks exclusively to ITR in an in-depth interview exploring a wide range of the large business and international division's functions, and detailing how his department identifies risk.

Double-edged data sword

The problem with all of this data, once the tools to establish it and the way to use it are determined, is keeping it safe.

Tom Brandt, chief risk officer at the IRS, says data breaches at external entities is now on its risk register. The concern "manifested itself last fall with a data breach at Equifax," he tells ITR in another exclusive interview.

On September 8 2017, Equifax, a US-based credit report company, announced that it had been the victim of a criminal cyberhack. Data including social security numbers, home addresses and dates of birth were taken, with more than 145 million customers in the US, Canada and the UK affected. The company's stock dropped 35% in just six business days, as the company's core business was compromised.

"We had identified that as one of our top risks in last year's risk assessment over the summer, and then that manifested much more quickly than we expected," says Brandt.

By November, Equifax was on the receiving end of a 50-state class action lawsuit. Its potential future liabilities mean its share price has still not recovered.

In February 2018, the company announced that hackers had taken more data than initially thought, with tax identification numbers also stolen.

The IRS has also been a victim of cybercriminals. In 2015, hackers coupled information they had gleaned elsewhere with the functionality of the IRS's website to gain access to more than 700,000 taxpayer accounts and fraudulently claim tax rebates.

Learning from its mistake, the IRS is keen to present itself as a secure organisation, and its "Don't Take the Bait" campaign to keep taxpayers safe is just one example of its efforts.

In the second part of our cover story, Brandt talks through an array of risks that the IRS faces, from tight resources to US tax reform and, of course, data risks and cybersecurity.

He also speaks about his time as the head of the tax administration unit at the OECD's Forum on Tax Administration and the guidelines the IRS and OECD are putting in place to keep taxpayer data safe in the new collaborative international tax environment.

Doug ODonnell speaks to Joe Stanley-Smith about how he runs his large business and international department in the rapidly changing arenas of US and international tax.

Joe Stanley-Smith sits down with Tom Brandt, chief risk officer at the IRS, to discuss managing budget cuts, tax reform and the growing threat of cybersecurity.

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TORONTO, ON - March 28, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Patriot One Technologies Inc., (TSX.V: PAT) (OTCQB: PTOTF) (FRANKFURT: 0PL) ("Patriot One" or the "Company"), makers of the award-winning PATSCAN CMR (Cognitive Microwave Radar) concealed weapons detection system, spent the month of March updating its development center rollout with Canadian, U.S. and U.K reseller partners. In addition, outreach to U.S. Congressional leaders facilitated introductions and information sharing about the Company and its PATSCAN CMR solution. The information sessions were favorably met and will help ensure that current and future safe-school legislation remains open to all forms of detection technologies.

As outlined by Patriot One's CEO and President Martin Cronin during several recent interviews with CNET and other media outlets, the Company has advanced to Stage-3 active testing and research of the PATSCAN CMR concealed weapons detection solution in real world environments. By the end of April 2018, Patriot One will have five (5) client locations where Company engineers will be able to test and conduct further research on the radar device and software solution. In addition to the recently opened location within the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino, the next four (4) development locations are scheduled to include a Southeast U.S high school, a Midwest U.S. university, a business location in the U.K. and a law enforcement establishment in Canada. Each location offers a unique environment to support advanced testing. As confidentiality is critical to the Company's covert technology testing regime, further details about new locations will be released when deemed appropriate.

Active PATSCAN CMR technology testing has continued to advance employing a staged approach: Stage 1 encompassed years of academic research. Stage 2 combined advances in software development, radar performance studies and equipment form factor enhancements culminating in equipment certifications and advancement to Stage 3. Today our focus on extensive research involves background signal subtraction designed to capture a variety of human body types and environmental background signatures as well as feature extraction testing and research. This involves capturing signatures of a variety of weapons including guns, knives and bombs. We are amassing extraordinary amounts of data from our extensive and ongoing studies in active environments. Ultimately, it is through the concerted application of technology and diligent effort that we will achieve Stage 4, a safe and practical commercial application designed to solve the issue of random acts of public violence.

In related news, this past week saw several key members of Patriot One's Marketing, Public Policy and Business Development teams visit with members of Congress in Washington D.C. to share information about the Company, and its PATSCAN CMR concealed weapon detection solution. The team outlined and advised on current Stage-3 progress, and also asked Congressional staff members to ensure that existing and prospective "safe-school" legislation remain open to all forms of weapons detection technology.

The U.S. Congressional offices visited included:

S. Representative Stephanie Murphy (D-Florida),

S. Representative Val Demings (D-Florida),

S. Senator and U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Diane Feinstein (D  California),

S. Representative Tom Rooney (R-Florida),

S. Representative Ted Deutsch (D-Florida),

S. Representative Dina Titus (D-Nevada),

S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-Florida),

S. Senator Dean Heller (R-Nevada),

S. Representative Jackie Rosen (D-Nevada), and

S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nevada).

Immediately following an upcoming Congressional recess, the Patriot One team will return to Washington D.C. during the week of April 16th to continue efforts to introduce Patriot One, its PATSCAN CMR solution to additional Congressional staff and secure support for technology agnostic safe-school legislation.

On Behalf of the Board,

"Martin Cronin"

Martin Cronin, President, CEO & Director

About Patriot One Technologies, Inc. (TSX.V:PAT) (OTCQX: PTOTF) (FRA: 0PL):

Patriot One has developed PATSCAN CMR the next generation of its award-winning radar device and software solution. PATSCAN CMR is a first-of-its-kind Cognitive Microwave Radar concealed weapons detection system, designed as an effective tool to combat active shooter threats before they occur. Built for cost-effective deployment in weapon-restricted buildings and facilities, the Patriot One software solution and related hardware can be installed in key access points to covertly identify weapons and to alert security of an active threat. Owner/operators of private and certain public facilities can now prominently post anti-weapons policies with compliance assured. The Company's motto Deter, Detect and Defend is based on the belief that widespread use of its technology will act as an effective deterrent, thereby diminishing the epidemic phenomena of active shooters across the globe. For more information, visit: www.patriot1tech.com. Patriot One Technologies are proud winners of the 2017 Anti-Terrorism / Force Protection category of the Security Industry Association's New Product Showcase at ISC West.

For further information, please contact:

Patriot One Inquiries

info@patriot1tech.com

John Martin, Investor Relations

+1 (888) 728-1832

johnm@patriot1tech.com

www.patriot1tech.com

CAUTIONARY DISCLAIMER STATEMENT:

No Securities Exchange has reviewed nor accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the content of this news release. This news release contains forward-looking statements relating to product development, licensing, commercialization and regulatory compliance issues and other statements that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements are often identified by terms such as "will", "may", "should", "anticipate", "expects"," believes," and similar expressions. All statements other than statements of historical fact, included in this release are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations include the failure to satisfy the conditions of the relevant securities exchange(s) and other risks detailed from time to time in the filings made by the Company with securities regulations. The reader is cautioned that assumptions used in the preparation of any forward-looking information may prove to be incorrect. Events or circumstances may cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted, as a result of numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking information. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and the Company will update or revise publicly any of the included forward-looking statements as expressly required by applicable law.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news is published on the Investorideas.com Newswire  News that Inspires big ideas 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 investment involves risk and possible loss of investment. This site is currently compensated for news publication and distribution, social media and marketing, content creation and more. Contact each company directly regarding content and press release questions. 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. More disclaimer info: http://www.investorideas.com/About/Disclaimer.asp. Disclosure this news is a paid for news release on the Investorideas.com newswire by Patriot One Technologies Inc., (TSX.V: PAT) Learn more about costs and our newswire service http://www.investorideas.com/News-Upload/

Additional info regarding BC Residents and global Investors: Effective September 15 2008 - all BC investors should review all OTC and Pink sheet listed companies for adherence in new disclosure filings and filing appropriate documents with Sedar. Read for more info: http://www.bcsc.bc.ca/release.aspx?id=6894. Global investors must adhere to regulations of each country.
"If Something Seems To Be Too Good To Be True, It's Best To Shoot It, Just In Case." -- Fiona Glenanne





"Flying the Airplane is More Important than Radioing Your Plight to a Person on the Ground

Who is Incapable of Understanding or Doing Anything About It." -- Unknown





Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level

and then beat you with experience. -- Mark Twain





"Stay Strapped or Get Clapped." -- probably not Mr. Rogers




The Ames Main Street Farmers Market is a local market that has been a staple of downtown Ames for the past eight years. The market 
Tarana Burke shares her experiences helping women of color who have gone through sexual abuse or exploitation in their lives. Burke told stories about what she's been through and seen on March 26 in Stephens Auditorium.
The Apple Watch Series 3 has been available for customers in Thailand for quite some time now, but only in the WiFi + GPS model.

It looks like that will be changing in the early stages of April, though. As first reported today by MacRumors, and based on Apples own page dedicated to availability for the cellular version of the Apple Watch 3, that model will be landing in Thailand on Thursday, April 5. Customers in that region will be able to buy the new cellular-enabled smartwatch via TrueMoveH.

Once the Series 3 with LTE launches in Thailand, that means the Apple Watch variant will be available in more than a dozen countries and territories, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, Singapore, Switzerland, France, Germany, and others.

Of course, the standard WiFi + GPS model is more broadly available, as that does not necessitate the requirement of wireless carrier support in regions.

Our Take

It has been a bit of time since the Apple Watch Series 3 with LTE saw expanded availability, but, as is usually the case, this is one of those better late than never situations. There isnt any word on how much the LTE-enabled model will cost in Thailand, but considering the smartwatch will be available in a little over a week, it wont be long before that question gets answered.

If you have been able to pick one up, how are you liking the Apple Watch Series 3 with LTE? Do you think its worth the added cost, both up front and with the wireless carrier?

[via MacRumors
Today

Variable clouds with scattered thunderstorms. High near 90F. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%.

Tonight

A few clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 71F. Winds light and variable.

Tomorrow

Partly to mostly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High near 95F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph.
The Jewish Press of Tampa Bay/ Tampa Edition and the Jewish Press of Tampa Bay/Pinellas Edition are independently-owned biweekly Jewish community newspapers published in cooperation with and supported by the Tampa JCCs & Federation and the Jewish Federation of Floridas Gulf Coast.

Copyright  2009-2021 The Jewish Press Group of Tampa Bay, Inc., All Rights Reserved
Just when you thought it was safe to go back to shul Just as Jewish congregations in the Tampa Bay area were looking forward to nearly normal celebrations of the High Holidays, the delta variant of coronavirus wrecked those carefully made plans. Several synagogues converted some events to online-only or set policies to limit the number of folks who could gather for...

Local Jewish agency gears up to help Afghan refugees Gulf Coast Jewish Family and Community Services is preparing to accept evacuees from Afghanistan in the wake of the U.S. militarys withdrawal and the agency is seeking the help of the Tampa Bay Jewish community. Gulf Coast JFCS Refugee assistance programs exemplify Jewish values including welcoming the stranger from which...

Biden, Bennett focus on Iran in first meeting WASHINGTON  In his first meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, President Joe Biden said that although he prefers diplomatic means to keep Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, he is not afraid to turn to other options on the issue. The pledge captured what both men, who are...
Focus on Lisa Netz, co-owner of The Lavish Loft

Submitted by Haleh Rabizadeh Resnick, Federation Business and Community Development Director For the Voice What was your path to South Jersey? I grew up in...

Focus on Peter Hecht Partner at Magna Legal Services

Tell me about your connection to the South Jersey Jewish Community? I actually grew up in East Brunswick, Exit 9 off the Turnpike. But weve...

Focus on Abigail Dahan: Owner of the Bake School

Tell me a bit about your life in South Jersey. I grew up in Cherry Hill. We moved here from Paris when I was six...
Federal Institute of Health Sciences FIHS AJK Jobs 2018

Latest Federal Institute of Health Sciences Teaching Posts Muzaffarabad 2021 Federal Institute of Health Sciences FIHS Muzaffarabad, Pakistan required applications from experienced and dynamic candidates to fill the posts of Lecturer Physiotherapy.

How to Apply on Federal Institute of Health Sciences Job Advertisement

Apply as per details in job advertisement. In some cases, you may apply online at vacancies after registering at https://www.jobz.pk online.



Telephone: 05822-446718

Official Website: http://fihs.edu.pk/muzaffarabad-campus/

Note: Beware of Fraudulent Recruiting Activities. If the employer asks you to pay money for any purpose including processing to shortlisting, do not pay at all and report us using our contact us form. Apply as per instuctions & dates mentioned in official job ad. Govt jobs cannot be applied online here. Error & omissions excepted.
Indus Resource Centre IRC Jobs 2018 Social Mobilizer

Latest Indus Resource Centre IRC Management Posts Karachi 2021 Indus Resource Centre IRC Karachi, Pakistan required candidates for the posts of Social Mobilizer, Case Worker CPU, Database Assistant, Field Officer and Senior Finance Officer.

How to Apply on Indus Resource Centre IRC Job Advertisement

Apply as per details in job advertisement. In some cases, you may apply online at vacancies after registering at https://www.jobz.pk online.

Note: Beware of Fraudulent Recruiting Activities. If the employer asks you to pay money for any purpose including processing to shortlisting, do not pay at all and report us using our contact us form. Apply as per instuctions & dates mentioned in official job ad. Govt jobs cannot be applied online here. Error & omissions excepted.
UCOM offers affordable gadgets at bigger discount

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

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

Google Ad

Covid-19: 163 new cases in Armenia

Armenia: Remarks by Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi at the press point with Acting Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan

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The Coronavirus-Related Situation in Armenia

International aviation: Council greenlights signing of major agreements with four countries

With UCOMs level up tariff plans subscribers have unlimited access to Netflix, Duolingo and Zoom

Armenia: Statement by the Spokesperson on the early parliamentary elections

Armenias Parliamentary Elections PRESS STATEMENT

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Armenias early parliamentary elections were competitive and well run, but polarized and marred by aggressive rhetoric, international observers say

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Drop Charges Against Rights Defender Sashik Sultanyan

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Labors Job in Saudi Arabia Famous Company

Latest Multan Trade Tech Ni Test and Training Center Labor Posts Saudi Arabia 2021 Labors are required For Shirka Abdul Majeed Al Riaz in Saudi Arabia Famous Company in Saudi Arabia Through Multan Trade Tech Ni Test and Training Center.

How to Apply on Multan Trade Tech Ni Test and Training Center Job Advertisement

Apply as per details in job advertisement. In some cases, you may apply online at vacancies after registering at https://www.jobz.pk online.

Note: Beware of Fraudulent Recruiting Activities. If the employer asks you to pay money for any purpose including processing to shortlisting, do not pay at all and report us using our contact us form. Apply as per instuctions & dates mentioned in official job ad. Govt jobs cannot be applied online here. Error & omissions excepted.
Statement on inaccurate reports about U.S. budget spending

The budget agreement recently signed by U.S. President Donald J. Trump includes funding for foreign assistance programs, including those in Armenia. Recent reports that the funding plan eliminates all foreign assistance to Armenia are wrong and based on a misunderstanding of the U.S. budget process. Given the strong separation of powers in the U.S. Constitution, multiple branches of government, agencies, and lawmakers each have a role to play in setting our annual budget and spending priorities. The U.S. Congress authorizes the overall budget and allocates money to various executive agencies, such as the Department of State and USAID. In doing so, Congress provides these agencies with partial independent authority on how to spend those funds to achieve overarching goals. It is a decision made through an inter-agency process, involving a variety of stakeholders and interested parties. Through that process the Congressionally-approved amount of funding is divided between countries and programs, with the overall total not exceeding the amount originally approved by lawmakers. In certain cases, Congress uses its authority to set specific spending requirements, something called an earmark. In this years budget bill, like in past years, Congress used this power to earmark some assistance funds to specific countries (in the region these include directed earmarks for Ukraine and Georgia). The remaining $58 million in assistance funding allocated by Congress for use in Europe and Eurasia will be divided among a number of countries without earmarks  including Armenia -- with spending levels determined through the interagency process. This budget process is not a change from previous years. Funding for Armenia was not specifically required by Congress through an earmark, but it has not been so for several years. This lack of an earmark does not mean Armenia will receive no foreign assistance. The decision on how to divide funding for Europe and Eurasia  including how much foreign assistance will be allocated to Armenia and for what programs -- is currently under discussion in the State Department and USAID. For 25 years the United States has been a strong partner and friend of Armenia given our shared values. In fact, U.S. foreign assistance spending in Armenia has been rising in recent years, with funding reaching almost $23 million in 2017. USAID alone spent $1.1 billion in Armenia since its independence and is currently managing a portfolio that is valued at $70 million and spans 28 different activities. Given that the bill signed by President Trump earlier this month maintains foreign assistance spending at a level similar to last year, indications are positive that a robust level of assistance funding for Armenia will remain. We will keep the Armenian government and people informed as the spending discussions continue in Washington.
A senior human rights activist from Sweden praised a four-point peace plan for Yemen that Iran proposed to the United Nations in 2015 and deplored the UK government, which is the main backer of the Saudi regime, for blocking the plan.

(AhlulBayt News Agency) - A senior human rights activist from Sweden praised a four-point peace plan for Yemen that Iran proposed to the United Nations in 2015 and deplored the UK government, which is the main backer of the Saudi regime, for blocking the plan.

The main backer of the Saudis and the war is the UK whose power is also rapidly shrinking, losing their wars and with a desperately shaky economy based on speculation, Ulf Sandmark said in an interview with the Tasnim News Agency.

The four-point plan of Iran is appropriate and respecting the sovereignty of Yemen, he said, adding, It is blocked in the UN as the British are holding the pen for all the UN actions for Yemen.

Sandmark is a Swedish economist and human rights activist as well as a longtime collaborator of American political figure Lyndon H. LaRouche. Sandmark is a board member of the Schiller Institute in Sweden and the Stockholm Correspondent for the Executive Intelligence Review (EIR). As a child, he lived for three years with his family in Addis Ababa and became active in Third world development issues at the time of his studies at the Stockholm School of Economics. He has written many articles and proposals for development programs, including "The Phoenix program - Discussion points for the reconstruction of Syria" (coauthor Hussein Askary) about how to realize the major potential for recovery in linking up Syria to the New Silk Road. As a chairman for 20 years of the Anti-Drug Coalition in Sweden, he has written about how to dismantle the drug banks and their narco-terrorist bands. He has also delivered speeches to various international conferences, including a two-day conference held in London last year to support the Yemeni people against the Anglo-American-Saudi imperial war.

Following is the full text of the interview:

As you know, Monday marked the anniversary of the start of an ongoing devastating war on Yemen mounted by the Saudi-led coalition that has resulted in the deaths of thousands of civilians and driven the country to the brink of famine. In the meantime, the Saudi onslaught on Yemen has also led to a cholera epidemic in the Arabian Peninsula country, which is one of the worst ever recorded in the world. What do you think about the heinous crimes committed by the Riyadh regime and its backers, mainly the US? In a recent vote, the US Senate rejected an effort to end support for the Saudi-led bombing campaign in Yemen. The vote coincided with a White House meeting between Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia's crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, at which Trump lauded US arms sales to Saudi Arabia. What is your assessment of the Senate vote and the meeting?

Sandmark: The Saudi Coalition war on Yemen was launched to block the 2015 impending agreement among the Yemeni factions to unify around a new government for Yemen. The shining example of an independent republic would be impossible to contain for the artificial kingdoms of the Persian Gulf and also for regime change factions in the West. Yemen is therefore treated with a colonial style vengeance of genocidal war, famine and epidemics to crush a rebellious population.

The main backer of the Saudis and the war is the UK whose power is also rapidly shrinking, losing their wars and with a desperately shaky economy based on speculation. Their recent outburst against Russia exposed them as a barking dog. The meeting between Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) served to play up Saudi Arabia as a rich country but is doubtful if the American weapons traders will get paid as the bankrupt British need the Saudi money more than ever.

The vote in the Senate was a tremendous step forward with 44 Senators voting against the US participation in the war on Yemen. This strong faction could succeed in the next period.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has always expressed deep concern over the ongoing tragedy in Yemen and reiterated the need for implementing the four-point peace plan that Tehran submitted to the United Nations in 2015, which urges an end to conflicts, sending humanitarian aid, lifting the unjust blockade of Yemen, and launch of political dialogue with the aim of formation of a national unity government. What do you think about the peace plan and the role that the UN can play in this regard?

Sandmark: The four-point plan of Iran is appropriate and respecting the sovereignty of Yemen. It is blocked in the UN as the British are holding the pen for all the UN actions for Yemen. I think the government of Yemen is doing a skillful job circumventing the British by sending official delegations to other important nations that potentially could oppose the war and support such a peace plan.

How do you assess the political situation in Yemen? What is your prediction about the future of the country's crisis? How can Yemeni groups end the power crisis through dialogue and negotiation?

Sandmark: The revolutionary movement is stepping forward as an institutional leadership for Yemen, strengthening its institutions of the presidency, government, and ministries, recruiting and building their armed forces as a national army institution. This will make it more clear with whom to negotiate both internally and for foreign counterparts.

The more the Western geopoliticians behind the Saudis are weakened, because of the emerging East-West dialogue leading to an outbreak of peace negotiations in other main world theaters, the more the Yemenis will get maneuvering room for their crucial national dialogue to break free from the war.









/129
In the visit that is taking place at the official invitation of President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan, Dr Hassan Rouhani is scheduled to meet with his counterpart and discuss bilateral, regional and international issues.



(AhlulBayt News Agency) - President of the Islamic Republic of Iran arrived in Baku, the capital of the Republic of Azerbaijan on Wednesday to make an official visit to the country.



In the visit that is taking place at the official invitation of President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan, Dr Hassan Rouhani is scheduled to meet with his counterpart and discuss bilateral, regional and international issues.



Attending the meeting of high-ranking delegations of Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan, participating the ceremony of signing of cooperation documents and memoranda of understanding by the officials of the two countries, taking part at the Conference of Joint Economic Cooperation of Iran and Azerbaijan and opening joint projects and plans are among Dr Rouhanis plans in this visit.







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03/27/2018

Students,

As some of you probably noticed, I was up early this morning. Too early. I was responding to emails at 2 a.m. and some of you replied at 3 a.m. What could you all possibly be doing at 3 a.m.? More than likely, you were doing the same thing I was doing - thinking about the many things we need to do to recover. Well, staying up too late and not sleeping is not ideal. First and foremost, all of us need to stay healthy and take care of our needs. Thus, I want to remind you to eat healthy, get sleep and decompress as best you can. In addition, drink lots of water.

In addition, it is never too early to start talking about mental health and the recovery process. As I stated yesterday, we have counselors and social workers at the Disaster Recovery Center located at the Train Depot in Jacksonville, and we will provide the same on campus when students return. Whether you are in Jacksonville or not, this was a traumatic event and it will cause an impact of some sort in your life. Be cognizant of it and do not be afraid to seek assistance. As I always ask students, if you had a problem with your heart wouldn't you go to the doctor for medical intervention? Your brain is no different. It is an organ and sometimes it reacts to the circumstances encountered in ways that interfere with daily living. If this is happening to you now, you know it is time to speak to a professional. They are trained to guide you through these tough times.

Financial Aid and Scholarships

I know you are busy considering what academic option is best for you in each course in consultation with your advisor and professors. It is very important that you do not forget to contact financial aid about the potential impact of your choices. The Financial Aid office is monitoring phone lines and emails and can be reached at 256-782-5006 or finaid@jsu.edu. We will work diligently and as quickly as possible to get you the answers you need.

The Scholarship Office is back to work and answering questions as they arise. They are also scurrying to finish application reviews for 2018-19. Please call 256-782-8040 or email scholarships@jsu.edu for assistance.

Books

I have received many questions about books, mainly what should students do if they don't have books because of the storm? The JSU Bookstore announced today that most of the major publishers would be issuing eText access to cover materials lost to get students through the remainder of the semester. Both McGraw-Hill and Cengage Learning have confirmed that this process will be handled through Blackboard and your instructors. We do expect most of the other larger publishers to handle it in the same format. We encourage all students to email their instructors for information about obtaining textbook material. If a student has a less-used book from a smaller publisher, please contact the Bookstore. They will be working with the students on a case-by-case basis, but they will get you a book! Book rental students, please feel free to email the Bookstore at sm278@bncollege.com.

Two Student Affairs Departments Temporarily Relocating

Due to storm damage, the International House and Programs staff will relocate to Veteran Services (located in Daugette Hall basement) later this week and Career Services is moving to the historic Kitty Stone facility behind First United Methodist Church of Jacksonville. These moves are temporary; however, no timetable has been set for their return to pre-storm locations.

Housing

University Housing and Operations staff have been busy reaching out to off-campus students to assist with relocation options at JSU or Ft. McClellan. If you are an off-campus resident and need somewhere to live for the remainder of the term, please see the JSU Strong web site www.jsu.edu/jsustrong and complete an application for housing. It is relatively simple.

In addition, I received a call today from the manager at The Reserve. He indicated that he knows residents are frustrated and, if he could, he would allow students to return. He informed me that a structural engineer is inspecting buildings today and he should have an answer for returning students within 48 hours.

Need Legal Advice?

There is now an attorney at the Disaster Recovery Center at the Train Depot in Jacksonville, and we will have additional legal resources on campus April 6-7 at the One Stop Shop located in the TMB. We are meeting Thursday to set times for One Stop Shop hours of operation.

Thanks again for your continued patience, although you are probably tired of reading that sentiment. Recovery is a long process with peaks and valleys. We have made progress and the SGA has even rescheduled Cockystock for April 18th. It will be a time to connect and enjoy each other and listen to great music. I look forward to seeing you there. Until Wednesday, #jsustrong, #gamecockstrong.

Kind regards,

Tim

Timothy B. King, Ph.D.

Vice President for Student Affairs

Jacksonville State University

256.782.5020

tbking@jsu.edu
Attorneys from the Southern Poverty Law Center [advocacy website] and New York City-based firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP [firm website] filed a federal lawsuit [complaint, pdf] Tuesday arguing that Mississippis disenfranchisement laws for people convicted of particular felonies, and the extensive process for restoring voting rights, is unconstitutional.

The suit alleges the Mississippis lifetime voting ban for certain crimes was a disenfranchisement scheme carefully created to disproportionately disenfranchise black voters, and that the law violates the Eighth Amendment [text] prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment as well as Section 2 of the
Iceland on a Budget

If Iceland isnt on your bucket list, add it immediately and start saving your pennies! The glacier-blue waters, towering peaks, blustery winds, and enormously friendly locals are just a few of the reasons Ive fallen in love with the tiny island, and it appears Im not alone. In 2017, 2.2 million tourists visited this chilly neighbor to the north, and thats saying somethingconsidering the entire countrys population is barely above 300,000.

Having just returned from our second visit in the past few years {did I mention we took Liliana abroad?!}, I get why the number of tourists continues to rise. Honestly, there is really only one downside to traveling there: its expensive!

Talk to anyone and the first thing theyll tell you is, Its beautiful, but wow, is Iceland expensive! But heres the catch: you dont need to blow your bank account in order to catch the Northern Lights from near the top of the globe. Its possible to visit Iceland on a budget if you know how.

Here are a few tips Ive learned over the past years. Hopefully this well help you plan for your next Iceland adventure!

Book a Layover

In the worlds greatest tourism campaign, IcelandAir came up with an ingenious plan: book a free layover in Iceland on your way to Europe. Voila! Impressive, right?

For our trip last week, we bought RT airfare to Paris via IcelandAir with a three-night stopover in Iceland, and it didnt cost us any extra money. As an added bonus, it breaks up the flight into manageable durations, which is great if youreahemflying with a baby!

Pro tip: if you ARE traveling with a baby, look into your luggage allowance. If you buy a light fare with IcelandAir, it likely doesnt include luggage BUT your babys ticket does include a certain amount. We saved even more money by checking one of our bags underneath Lilianas name. Huge thanks to the IcelandAir employee who filled us in on that tidbit of info!

Visit in the Winter

I completely understand why most tourists visit in the summer. Its warmer, the days are longer, and there is less chance of getting caught in an absolute white-out blizzard. {After all, Iceland is the third windiest country in the world!}

But, convenience comes with a price and booking airfare during peak season is always going to cost more. Suck it up and head north during February or March. Not only is the airfare much cheaper, but so is everything else. Not only did we get our Denver-Paris RT flights for $350 each, but our campervan rental was a whopping 50% off during the winter months!

Pro tip: Northern Lights are better in the winter too! The summer months bring a lot of daylight which makes it oh-so-tricky to catch Mother Natures best light show.

Rent a Campervan

As with visiting in the winter, I can understand why most people would question my advice on this one, but hear me out. Booking a campervan for a winter trip is totally doable, and in my experience, completely recommended.

During our trip last week, we booked through a company called CampEasy {who I highly recommend!} Their prices are 50% lower during the winter months when compared to the summer, so thats an easy way to save money a whole lot of cash. Additionally, campervan living cuts out other costs. For starters, you dont need to book a tour or a rental car. In essence, a campervan is a one-stop-shop consolidation for all of your traveling needs. Easy peasy.

And, did I mention that a campervan gives you complete freedom to adjust your schedule on the fly? This came in handy for us during our recent visit when dicey weather covered 80% of the island. We had predetermined that we would fly into Reykjavik, look at the weather, and drive wherever looked best. In the end, this meant we got three days of chilly sunshine while the majority of the island took a wintery beating. FTW.

Cook Your Own Food

The price of food in Iceland seems to be a major sticking point for most tourists. At a sit-down restaurant, a basic dinner for two people will easily hit $100, so I understand the concern. But it doesnt have to be that way!

If you take my previous tip and rent a van, the cost of food dramatically drops. Cooking your meals in the van saves so much money because you can either bring food with you or just swing by a local grocery store upon arrival. Sure, the price of groceries is a touch higher than in the States, but its certainly nothing to fret over. Will and I purchased a lot of yogurt and fruit while there and it was maybe 10% more expensive than our local market back home. {Plus, the local yogurt called Skyr is freaking delightful. Its kinda thick with a lot less sugar. We ate it every.single.day.}

Avoid Sit-Down Restaurants

Maybe cooking your own meals isnt your style while on vacation? If you still want to save some cash but dont want to dine in, dont forget to look at quick meal options like Subway, or even KFC {I know, I know, its not real chicken. But if youre trying to save money, their mashed potatoes sure hit the spot!} Weve eaten at both while in Iceland and while the meals arent fancy, they also arent overpriced. You can grab a foot-long sub at Subway for less than $10. Healthy *and* budget conscious, all the days.

Pro tip: If hot dogs are your jam, theyre all over the place for less than $4 per dog. I dont do hot dogs, but the low prices definitely makes me wish that I enjoyed them!

Go Sober

And while youre at it, avoid alcohol. The cost of liquor in Iceland is OFF THE CHARTS and if youre into the bar scene, youll likely rack up $100 tab in no time. I like my wine as much as the next person, but I cant stomach paying $20 for a glass. Instead, I enjoy the cleanest water on the planet and opt to use my wine calories in Europe where its better and more affordable.

And then youre not hungover for the mornings adventures!

********************

Sound off: have you been?? What would you add to the list to help others do Iceland on a budget?

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Speaking to the reporters while visiting the monument of Imam Rezas (AS) footstep, Dr Hassan Rouhani said: Merv is a very ancient city with a special importance in the history and it has been a cultural and scientific centre and there are many great libraries in this city.



(AhlulBayt News Agency) - President Rouhani visited the historical sites of Merv city in Turkmenistan on Wednesday on the second day of his official visit to the country.



Speaking to the reporters while visiting the monument of Imam Rezas (AS) footstep, Dr Hassan Rouhani said: Merv is a very ancient city with a special importance in the history and it has been a cultural and scientific centre and there are many great libraries in this city.



Referring to the presence of Imam Reza (AS) in the city, he said: Many of the arguments, works and words that have been left from Imam Reza are related to this land and this is why this city is holy for us.



This city is both historical and holy for us, said Rouhani, wishing a year full of success, liveliness and felicity for the entire Iranian nation and Muslims.







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GRANTS PASS, Ore.  Two travelers are safe after a search and rescue operation in Josephine County. The incident occurred about three miles up Shan Creek Road, east of Grants Pass.

According to the Josephine County Sheriff's Office (JoCSO), a towing company notified them around 11 p.m. on Sunday, March 25, that there was a man and woman stranded in the Shan Creek area. The tow company said that they could not reach the couple due to heavy snow and unsafe road conditions.

The towing company said that the couple had driven over an embankment and the woman was showing signs of hypothermia. With that information, the JoCSO Search and Rescue division was brought in.

A deputy and a Search and Rescue volunteer arrived near Shan Creek and began preparing a tracked rescue vehicle to travel up the snowbound Shan Creek Road. As they were still preparing, a man came running down the road and flagged down the rescuers.

The man said that his vehicle had gone over a cliff up Shan Creek Road, and he and the woman began descending the road on foot. However, the woman had slipped and fallen down another embankment, and the man was unable to reach her.

JoCSO rescuers loaded the man into the snow vehicle and proceeded up Shan Creek Road, into the hills. They found the woman about three miles up the road, and 50-100 feet over a steep embankment, in a snow drift. The rescuers found the woman to be conscious and breathing, but she did not communicate.

The man said that the woman must have been in the snow at the bottom of the embankment for three hours. Neither he nor the woman were dressed for the frigid conditions, according to JoCSO.

Rescuers were able to improvise the means to traverse the embankment, and one of them was lowered down to assist the woman. Unfortunately, she was too weak and hypthermic to assist in the rescue.

The woman was at last pulled up the embankment, and she was then loaded into the snow rescue vehicle. American Medical Response met rescuers at the intersection of Shan Creek and Riverbanks roads to attend to provide medical attention to the woman. She was transported to Three Rivers Medical Center for further evaluation.

In a statement regarding the incident, JoCSO reminded the public to travel cautiously during winter conditions, and be prepared with proper clothing and equipment in case of emergency.
SALEM, Ore.  The chief petitioners of an Oregon initiative to ban 'assault weapons' have turned in an initial batch of sponsorship signatures to the Oregon Secretary of State's office. If 1,000 or more of the signatures are verified as legitimate by the Elections Division, the attorney general will begin drafting the initiative's ballot title.

The Elections Division will have until April 9 to verify those 1,000 signatures. According to an Elections employee, that process has not yet begun. Even if the initiative qualifies for a ballot title, it will still need 88,184 signatures in total to show up on ballots in November.

According to the Elections Division, a ballot title is an impartial summary of a petition's content and effects, which is how the initiative would appear on Oregon ballots.

Initially filed as 'Initiative 42' on March 19, the petition was withdrawn and re-filed on March 22 as 'Initiative 43.' The text of the document is substantially the same. After a line-by-line comparison, Initiative 43 fixes a small typo and adds an introduction ("Be it Enacted by the People of the State of Oregon").

What the re-filed initiative does not address is what critics of the document rail againstthe broad and extensive manner in which it categorizes banned firearms. However, a closer read of the petition's text may allay some fears.

The initiative addresses any weapons platform that can accommodate magazines of more than 10 rounds, forward pistol grips, muzzle brakes or flash suppressors, to name a few. If a rifle or pistol has a detachable magazine and any of these extra attachments, it becomes illegal. Detachable magazines are not banned outright, unless they exceed 10 rounds. This means that many gun owners can strip down or simplify their weapons and they will remain legal.

Any firearm which has a "fixed magazine" or natural capacity to accept more than 10 rounds would be illegal, as they essentially contain a "high-capacity magazine."

Semi-automatic shotguns will be illegal if they have both a forward pistol grip and a folding/telescoping stock, or if they can accept a detachable magazine.

Examining the controversial AR-15 rifle in the light of this petition reveals that even this weapon would not be banned outright. Since rifles and pistols with detachable magazines remain legal as long as those magazines accept 10 rounds or less, an AR-15 would only be illegal if it also had a pistol gripwhich, admittedly, most versions do. What the initiative specifies is that rifles with a detachable magazine and a grip that places the fingers of the trigger hand directly below the trigger finger are banned.

Language in the initiative that would imply exceptionsnamely, that individuals can register their weapons with State law enforcement after passing a criminal background check in order to keep their firearmsonly applies to a very slim portion of Oregon's population. Members of the military, law enforcement, licensed firearms dealers, or certain government agencies are the only individuals who qualify for this registration option.

CLICK HERE for our previous story on Initiative 42, when it was first announced.

SEE BELOW for the text of Initiative 43, as it stands today.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - The California attorney general's office is joining an investigation into the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man by Sacramento police to provide independent oversight.

Sacramento Police Chief Daniel Hahn announced the partnership Tuesday alongside Attorney General Xavier Becerra (HAH-vee-air Bah-sehr'-ah). He says he hopes it will build "faith and confidence" in the investigation.

The police are investigating the shooting of 22-year-old Stephon Clark on March 18 by two officers who thought he had a gun. He was holding only a cellphone.

The police had been responding to a call of someone breaking car windows.

Activists have called for greater independence in the investigation and some have argued the two officers should be charged.

Hahn promised transparency in the investigation and urged protesters to exercise calm.
MEDFORD, Ore.  Total payroll employment in Jackson and Josephine counties rose over last month, according to the Oregon Employment Department. Between the two counties, a total of 1,080 filled positions were added in February.

Jackson County saw an overall growth of 850 jobs. Most of those were in government education or leisure and hospitality, with gains in "goods-producing" industries and health care as well. The only job losses occurred in the transportation, warehousing and utilities industries.

Over the past year, Jackson County has gained 2,910 payroll jobsa growth rate of 3.4 percent. The biggest gains over the year came from private education and health services, with retail trade and professional/business services also seeing significant jobs added.

In Josephine County, total employment went up by 230 jobs in February. Over half of those jobs came from the construction industry, with manufacturing coming second. Some job losses came from government education.

Josephine County added 560 payroll jobs over the past year, for an increase of 2.2 percent. Like Jackson County, many of those jobs came from private education and health services.

Many of these gains in the private education and health services industries came from a re-classification of those jobs, according to the Employment Department. Some state government jobs were recently shifted into those categorieslargely accounting for an overall decline of 510 state government jobs over the year.

Oregon's overall job growth rate has been 2.3 percentputting Josephine very near the state average, and putting Jackson far over the top in growth.

CLICK HERE for our story on Oregon's unemployment rate, which is at its lowest level since 1976.
FILE - In this Dec. 13, 2016 file photo, Uber's autonomous car heads out for a test drive in San Francisco. Uber has decided to stop testing autonomous vehicles on California public roads by letting its state permit expire on Saturday, March 31, 2018, without renewing it. Immediately after the crash, Uber voluntarily suspended its autonomous vehicle testing in Arizona, as well as California, Pittsburgh and Toronto. The company said in a statement that it decided not to reapply for the California permit "with the understanding that our self-driving vehicles would not operate in the state in the immediate future." (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)
Provincial Finance Minister Charles Sousa takes questions from journalists during a pre-budget lock-up as the Ontario Provincial Government prepares to deliver its 2018 Budget at the Queens Park Legislature in Toronto on Wednesday March 28, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
Amalgamating the city's water system with the South East Kelowna Irrigation District will cost $22 million more than expected. Mayor Colin Basran, shown above, and other councillors will be asked to approve the extra expense on Monday.
Lawyer Greg Brodsky speaks to media outside the Law Courts in Winnipeg after his client Andrea Giesbrecht was found guilty of concealing six dead babies in a storage locker, Monday, February 6, 2017. A Winnipeg woman convicted of concealing the remains of six dead infants will ask to be released on bail today while she awaits an appeal. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Trevor Hagan
In this Aug. 15, 2015 file photograph, Bill Quinlan, President of Eversource Operations in New Hampshire, presents revised plans for the proposed Northern Pass hydroelectric project at Globe Manufacturing in Pittsfield, N.H. Hydro-Quebec will now need to go through Maine as part of a massive export deal to sell hydropower to Massachusetts. The U.S. state announced Wednesday it was dropping the $1.6 billion Northern Pass project that was set to deliver hydropower from Quebec through New Hampshire. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Paul Hayes /Caledonian-Record via AP
Ontario's Premier Kathleen Wynne and Provincial Finance Minister Charles Sousa sit in the chamber after the Ontario Provincial Government delivers its 2018 Budget at the Queens Park Legislature in Toronto on Wednesday, March 28, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
FILE - In this Aug. 22, 2017, file photo, Bill Cosby departs after a pretrial hearing in his sexual assault case at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa. CosbyAos lawyers donAot want jurors hearing about a January 2005 phone call in which accuser Andrea Constand says she first told her mom that the comedian had drugged and molested her about a year earlier. CosbyAos legal team argued in court papers on Tuesday, March 27, 2018, that what was said during the call is hearsay and shouldnAot be mentioned at his retrial. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
FILE - In this July 6, 2017 file photo, New York Police Department Commissioner James O'Neill gestures during a news conference following a swearing-in ceremony for new police recruits entering the Police Academy in New York. The NYPD special victims division, tasked with investigating rape allegations against media mogul Harvey Weinstein and many other cases, is chronically understaffed and many sexual assault cases are not properly reviewed, according to a report Tuesday March 26, 2018, by a city watchdog agency. Police officials strongly disputed the findings of the report, and O'Neill said "Our special victims unit is universally recognized as the premiere special victims unit in the world ... definitely in the country." (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, FIle)
FILE - In a Thursday, March 22, 2018 file photo, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu speaks at the America First Policies, "Tax Cuts to Put America First" event before introducing Vice President Mike Pence, in Manchester, N.H. New Hampshire middle and high school girls have been invited to apply to take Republican Gov. Chris SununuAos job for a day. Sununu on Wednesday, March 28, 2018, announced the Governor for a Day competition as part of WomenAos History Month. (AP Photo/Mary Schwalm, File)
In this March 24, 2018 photo, tourists visit Viu Manent vineyard by horse-drawn carriage in Colchagua, Chile. The tourists have paid for a hands-on experience at Chile's harvest, which draws thousands of visitors each year. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
The European Union flag flies in front of the European Union mission with the Kremlin in the background, in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, March 28, 2018. More than 20 nations have expelled over 150 Russian diplomats this week in a show of solidarity with Britain over the poisoning of a former Russian spy and Moscow has pledged to retaliate. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)
FILE - In this March 31, 2015 file photo, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence steps off the podium after discussing the state's new religious-freedom law in Indianapolis. Pence faced a firestorm of criticism three years ago after signing a "religious freedom" law critics decried as anti-gay. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings, File)
FILE - In this Feb. 9, 2018 file photo, Luis Bracamontes glares at the jury as the verdict is read in the killing of two law enforcement officers, in Sacramento Superior Court in Sacramento, Calif. Bracamontes was found guilty of shooting Sacramento County sheriff's Deputy Danny Oliver in 2014, then killing Placer County sheriff's Detective Michael Davis Jr. hours later. Jurors recommend the death penalty for Bracamontes. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)
ABC/Nicole WilderJack White is known for using some, well, interesting methods to release his music. As such, a lot of the vinyl records he's released are very rare. In a piece for the record-collecting site Discogs, White's official archivist, Ben Blackwell, details the 10 rarest records in the musician's discography.

The list starts off with a single from White's band The Upholsterers, which he formed with his former upholstery co-worker Brian Muldoon. Only 100 copies of the single were made, and each one was hidden inside an upholstered piece of furniture. So far, only two copies are known to have been found.

Another single that makes ranking is White's "Freedom at 21," which he released in 2012 by literally tying them onto helium balloons and launching them from Third Man Records headquarters in Nashville. Those copies that have been found -- some of which landed in Alabama cow pastures -- have been sold on eBay for over $4,000.

To get some of the records on the list, you'll have to be personal friends with Jack or Meg White.

Blackwell writes that the only way to get the White Stripes' 2005 "The Denial Twist" single, for example, is for "Jack White to personally hand one to you." He also claims that the "Icky Thump" picture disc is "only available from Meg."

"Rumors abound that there are hundreds of these in Megs basement, but that could be difficult to prove," Blackwell writes.

For the full list, visit Discogs.com.

Meanwhile, White's new solo album Boarding House Reach is very much available, and is headed towards a number-one debut on the Billboard 200.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
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.
ROSEBURG, OR. -- Roseburg Police are looking for a man who they believe broke in to three Dutch Bros. locations across Roseburg late Monday night.

Police said the stands on Diamond Lake Blvd., Stephens Street, and Stewart Pkwy. were all broken into late Monday night and early Tuesday morning.

Based on video evidence, it looks to be the same person breaking in.

The owner of these locations wouldnt go on camera, but said the thief went to the back of each stand and flipped the breakers.

He was then able to get inside, pry open all of the cash drawers, and make off with the money inside.

Police are still investigating, hoping to catch the criminal before he can do something like this again.

In the meantime, theyre encouraging all businesses to take extra precautions.

Obviously, redundancy with video. And varying.. not being too predictable. We always advise any business, whenever possible, to make regular cash deposit drops, said Police Sergeant Dennis Chrisenbery.

If you have any information about this crime, contact Roseburg Police.
Award certificate for Zhang Leping, March 26, 2018. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The late Chinese comic artist Zhang Leping (1910-1992), author of the San Mao comics, was given the "Special Honor" of the 2018 Silent Book Contest on Monday. He is the first Chinese caricaturist to ever receive this prize.

The Silent Book Contest is an annual event exclusively set up for unpublished wordless picture books from around the globe. Zhang, as the creator of San Mao, has enjoyed an international reputation for his authentic style and superb artistic achievement.

Sunflower from The Diary of Sanmao in the 1960s. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

San Mao is one of the world's longest-running cartoon characters, and remains a cultural landmark as one of the most adored artistic figures in contemporary China.

His name means "three hairs" in Chinese, which implies malnutrition due to childhood poverty.The story depicts the struggle of an orphan named San Mao during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1931-45)

San Mao Joins the Army by Zhang Leping. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

A Clever Way to Read Books by Zhang Leping. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Through his works, Zhang intended to express concern for the young victims, particularly orphans living on the streets, and also to highlight important qualities embodied in San Mao, such as optimism and the willingness to help others.
Ambassador Pham Anh Tuan (second from right) and delegates at the event (vov.vn)

As an annual large-scale event sponsored by Turkeys Ministry of Culture and Tourism, The Ankara International Tourism Fair this year attracts the participation of 81 provinces and cities of Turkey, 20 foreign representative agencies in Ankara, businesses and domestic and foreign travel associations, universities and famous hotels and restaurants. Turkish Minister of Culture and Tourism Numan Kurtulmus attended and delivered the opening speech.

During the four-day fair, Vietnams booth exhibited publications about the tourism, culture and people of Vietnam, documents about President Ho Chi Minh and screened a video introducing the beauty of tourism and dynamic economic development of Vietnam.

In addition, the booth also displayed beautiful landscape photos of the country, traditional handicrafts, Dong Ho paintings, lacquer paintings, water puppet show and introducing Vietnamese cuisine such as noodle soup, pancakes, spring rolls, green tea and coffee, national costumes and martial arts performance.

The booth attracted thousands of visitors, especially travel organizations and businesses paying attention to opportunities to cooperate with Vietnam in the field of tourism. Many local people spent many time to learn about tourism spots, traditional cultural features and unique cuisine of Vietnam.

Vietnams booth at the event has contributed to improving the understanding of local people about Vietnams tourism and culture, strengthening people exchange and opening opportunities for tourism cooperation development between Vietnam and Turkey./.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP)  A water park company co-owner accused of rushing the world's tallest waterslide into service and a designer accused of shoddy planning have been charged in the decapitation of a 10-year-old boy on the ride in 2016.

With the latest charges unsealed Tuesday, three men connected with Texas-based Schlitterbahn Waterparks and Resorts and its park in Kansas City, Kansas, have been indicted by a Kansas grand jury, along with the park and the construction company that built the ride. Caleb Schwab died on the 17-story ride when the raft he was riding went airborne and hit an overhead loop.

The Kansas attorney general's office said Schlitterbahn co-owner Jeffrey Henry, 62, and designer John Schooley were charged with reckless second-degree murder, along with Henry & Sons Construction Co., which is described as the private construction company of Schlitterbahn. Second-degree murder carries a sentence of 9 years to 41 years in prison.

They also were charged with 17 other felonies, including aggravated battery and aggravated endangerment of a child counts tied to injuries other riders sustained on the giant slide, called Verruckt, which is German for "insane." The indictment accuses Henry of making a "spur of the moment" decision to build the ride, and that he and Schooley lacked technical or engineering expertise in amusement park rides.

Henry was ordered held in a Texas jail without bond Tuesday, pending extradition to Kansas. The attorney general's office said Schooley is not in custody. Schooley didn't have a listed phone number and no one answered the phone at Henry & Sons Construction Co. Eric B Terry, who represented the company in an earlier unrelated case, didn't immediately return a phone or email message.

The same grand jury last week indicted the Kansas City park and Tyler Austin Miles, its former operations manager, on 20 felony charges. The charges include a single count of involuntary manslaughter in Caleb's death. Miles has been released on $50,000 bond, according to one of his attorneys, Tricia Bath.

The company has promised to aggressively fight the criminal charges. After Miles and the park were charged, it said it would respond to the allegations in the 47-page indictment "point by point."

After Henry's arrest in Texas, Schlitterbahn spokeswoman Winter Prosapio said in an emailed statement: "We as a company and as a family will fight these allegations and have confidence that once the facts are presented it will be clear that what happened on the ride was an unforeseeable accident."

According to the indictments, Henry decided in 2012 to build the world's tallest water slide to impress the producers of a Travel Channel show. Henry's desire to "rush the project" and a lack of expertise caused the company to "skip fundamental steps in the design process."

The indictment said, "not a single engineer was directly involved in Verruckt's dynamic engineering or slide path design." The indictment said that in 2014, when there were news reports emerging about airborne rafts, a company spokesperson "discredited" them and Henry and his designer began "secretly testing at night to avoid scrutiny."

The indictment listed 13 injuries during the 182 days the ride was in operation, including two concussions. In one of those cases, a 15-year-old girl went temporarily blind while riding.

Caleb, the son of Kansas Republican state Rep. Scott Schwab, was decapitated after the raft on which he was riding went airborne on a day when admission was free for state legislators and their families.

The family reached settlements of nearly $20 million with Schlitterbahn and various companies associated with the design and construction of the waterslide. The two women who rode on the same raft with Caleb suffered serious injuries and settled claims with Schlitterbahn for an undisclosed amount.

"Clearly the issues with Schlitterbahn go far beyond Caleb's incident, and we know the attorney general will take appropriate steps in the interest of public safety," the family said in a statement released Monday through their attorneys.

The indictment said Schooley was responsible for doing "the math" that went into the slide's design and signed an operations manual claiming the ride met all American Society for Testing and Materials standards. But the indictment lists a dozen instances in which the design violated those standards and says investigators could find no evidence that so-called dynamic engineering calculations were made to determine the physics a passenger would experience. The indictment said Schooley lacked the technical expertise to properly design a complex amusement ride such as Verruckt.

The indictment said Schooley admitted, "If we actually knew how to do this, and it could be done that easily, it wouldn't be that spectacular."

Prosapio said Schlitterbahn does not expect any changes to the Kansas City park's season, which is set to open May 25 and runs through Labor Day. The Verruckt slide has been closed since Caleb died.

Mike Taylor, a spokesman for the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, says it does not believe it has the legal authority to shut down a business, other than for an epidemic or contagious disease outbreak.

The company also operates water parks in Galveston, Corpus Christi, South Padre Island and New Braunfels, Texas, according to its website.
ROCHESTER, Minn.  Four people remain hospitalized and no arrests have been made as police are still piecing together what happened early Tuesday morning that left five people stabbed and one badly beaten.

A person of interest in the case, Diangelo Johnson, 19, of Rochester, is being held on drug charges and police say he was at the residence when the stabbings took place.

The condition of those hospitalized is improving, police said Wednesday morning.

RELATED:

Neighbors react to stabbings

Rochester police searching to figure out details

There were 12 people involved in the incident, according to police, and Johnson was one of the males who was at the apartment located at 2825 56th St. NW.

Three knives were recovered at the apartment and at least three people had knives. Police say they plan to use forensic evidence they found to corroborate stories from witnesses.

Johnson was taken into custody around 11:50 a.m. Tuesday near 14th Ave. and Cascade St. NW and was found to be in possession of 108 grams of marijuana and a scale.
FOREST CITY, Iowa  Three people are facing felony charges after authorities searched an apartment on March 20.

The Forest City Police Department says it executed a search warrant at 125 Cathedral Oaks Road #1 at around 7:18 pm. Authorities say multiple people were at the home and three were arrested.



Chelsea Harp Chelsea Harp

Zachary Monsen Zachary Monsen

Brian Barthollomeu Matthias, 30 of Mason City, is accused of gathering where drugs are used, possession of marijuana, and child endangerment. Police say Matthias was found with marijuana, a marijuana pipe, and hypodermic needles commonly used for injecting methamphetamine.

Chelsea Lynn Harp, 31 of Forest City, is charged with gathering where drugs are used, possession of methamphetamine, and child endangerment. Police say they found her with a blue pouch that contained a glass pipe typically used for smoking meth and a small black container of meth.

The occupant of the apartment, Zachary Allen Monsen, 29, is also charged with gathering where drugs are used and child endangerment. Police say they found evidence of drug sales on Monsens cell phone and his two children, both under the age of three, were at the apartment when police arrived.
ST. PAUL, Minn.  Governor Mark Dayton wants to spend $30 million to expand internet access throughout Greater Minnesota.

He says his proposal would affect 11,000 more homes businesses, and community institutions.

All Minnesotans need and deserve affordable, reliable high-speed internet. It is not fair that some Minnesotans have had to wait years to access the same high-speed internet as their friends and families in other areas, said Governor Dayton. If we are serious about connecting all Minnesotans to the opportunities of the 21st Century, we must increase our efforts to provide all Minnesotans with the high-speed internet access they need. I urge the Legislature to make a robust investment in rural broadband infrastructure this session.

Dayton says when he took office in 2011, only 56 percent of Minnesotans had access to high-speed internet and that was largely in urban areas. He says that number is now 88 percent, including 73 percent of rural Minnesotans, thanks to the Border-to-Border Broadband Grant Program and additional private investment.

Broadband is a critical economic development tool that not only improves the competitiveness of businesses, but also quality of life, said DEED Commissioner Shawntera Hardy. The Border-to-Border Broadband Development Program makes it possible for families, businesses, and community institutions throughout Greater Minnesota to access high-speed internet, and participate in our modern, high-tech economy. I look forward to working with the Minnesota Legislature to make additional, needed investments in broadband infrastructure this session.
KIMT NEWS 3- Kathy Kruger lives with Multiple Sclerosis and has for the last 37 years.

MS makes it difficult for the Many resident to keep her balance, among other issues, which is why she tries to stay active such as the Mason City Walk MS.

This is the largest fundraiser for the National MS Society for the whole year, she said.

The Iowa Department of Public Health released the dispensaries for where qualified patients can purchase medical cannabis: Waterloo, Sioux City, Windsor Heights, Council Bluffs and Davenport.

MS is a qualifying condition for medical cannabis oil in the state of Iowa. Some others are HIV/Aids, seizures and cancer.

Those looking to be approved for the oil do need to go through the Iowa Department of Public Health. Kruger says she isnt interested in trying the drug, but says she may have some friends who may want to seek it out.

I have friends in our support group who have so much pain they can hardly sit for more than 15 minutes, she said.

Kruger said she is reluctant to try the drug because of the lack of research that has been done for how it would help those with MS and those on the prevention side of the issue agree.

The majority of Americans want this, I think, said Kelly Grunhovd, the Prevention Specialist with Prairie Ridge Integrated Health. The research, especially the impact that could potentially have on young people, is what we need to take a step back with.

Those with the Department of Public Health say the oil would only have up to 3 percent THC, the addictivine chemical in cannabis.

There is very clear research that indicates marijuana use can impair brain development, she said.

Kruger said she doesnt have the pain which would lead her to try the drug and she wants to learn more.

You need to know exactly what the symptoms are, what the benefits of taking it are and can it be addictive, Kruger said.
ROCHESTER, Minn. - The overnight incident that left five young men with stab wounds and another beaten isn't a scene Demetrious Deal is used to in his neighborhood.

"It was shocking, you know what I'm saying, to hear something like that," Deal said. "There's a lot of teens that have been getting hurt lately and you know there's a lot of strange things going on in Rochester. When I moved here, I thought it would be kind of safe, but it's not the same no more."

He said he moved to Rochester from Chicago and lives down the street from the apartment on 56th St. NW. where the events began late Monday into early Tuesday.

Cpt. John Sherwin with the Rochester Police Department described it as "a mess." That's because as officers were on their way to the call at the apartment around 12:20 a.m. when they were also called to the Holiday gas station on 55th St. That's where they found one of the men beaten and another with several stab wounds.

The other stabbing victims ended up at St. Marys Hospital, making the number of scenes officers responded to three.

"You have officers spread out through the city trying to coordinate and determine what exactly happened," Sherwin said. "Meanwhile, you have witnesses and other people who may be leaving or trying to get away from the scene."

This left officers trying to piece together how the incident left five men stabbed and one badly beaten. It also leaves neighbors, like Deal, concerned.

"I'm always fearful for anyone's kids that walk down in this area," Deal said. "You know my babies are my everything."
MASON CITY, Iowa  A man is facing a litany of charges connected to an early-morning pursuit.

Thomas West, 23, has been booked into the Cerro Gordo County Jail on charges of third-degree burglary, operating while under the influence, felony eluding, interference with official acts, failure to maintain control and leaving the scene of an accident.

Police say at 6:02 a.m., a resident in the 1300 block of 10th St. SE reported his home was being burglarized.

WATCH: Police detain man in Hardee's parking lot.

When officers arrived, the suspect fled and led officers on a pursuit. West struck a parked vehicle near the intersection of 8th St. and S. Carolina Ave., police say.

He continued despite heavy front-end damage to the car before losing control near Hardees at 6th St. and S. Delaware Ave.

West, of Cedar Rapids, was transported to Mercy Medical Center-North Iowa before being released and transferred to jail.


Josh Smith, Soyoung Kim

SEOUL (Reuters) - State media calls North Koreas nuclear weapons a treasured sword of justice.

Pyongyang has released commemorative stamps and built monuments in honor of its ballistic missile tests, while nuclear and rocket scientists have been named national heroes.

For Kim Jong Un, fully giving up nuclear weapons would mean a dramatic reversal for an authoritarian leader who has not only staked his security on his nuclear arsenal, but also spent years publicly celebrating such weapons as an integral part of his regimes legitimacy and power.

South Korean envoys who met Kim in Pyongyang early this month quoted Kim as saying he was committed to denuclearisation, and that he expressed his eagerness to meet U.S. President Donald Trump as soon as possible.

Absent any public confirmation from Pyongyang, analysts are skeptical Kim will suddenly give up the nuclear arsenal he and his family have spent decades developing.

Instead, Kim is likely to seek a more nuanced and long-term approach that could allow him to emerge looking victorious in the minds of his people and domestic elites, they say.

Kim Jong Un does not need to sell anything to the North Korean population, particularly because denuclearisation is a process that will take at least 10 years to realistically achieve, said Michael Madden, an expert on North Korea leadership at Johns Hopkins Universitys 38 North website.

Pyongyang most likely envisions ... a series of incremental agreements around this, rather than one or two large grand bargains.

CONCESSIONS NEEDED

Former South Korean officials who have negotiated with the North in the past say such a pivot could be difficult, but not impossible - if the United States makes major concessions Kim Jong Un can take back and parade to his people.

Kim Jong Un would seek to propagate the idea that he induced the U.S. and international communitys surrender by having mastered nuclear weapons, said Kim Hyung-suk, who served as the Souths vice unification minister between 2016 and 2017.

If talks go well, sanctions are eased and the economy grows. Then the people would understand Kims denuclearisation decision and become strongly supportive of it.

That may not be the kind of deal Trump envisions as he plans to sit down with Kim sometime in May for an historic first summit between sitting leaders of the two countries.

Trumps new national security adviser, John Bolton, recently said Trump should insist any meeting he holds with Kim be focused squarely on how to eliminate that countrys nuclear weapons program as quickly as possible.

SILENCE IN PYONGYANG

The lack of comment from North Korean state media on the proposed talks between Kim and Trump was not unexpected, analysts said.

It might reflect an ongoing internal discussion about how to deal with public opinion, certainly, although I would characterize that as a broader discussion of how to proceed overall, said Christopher Green, a senior adviser with the International Crisis Group, which researches conflict.

Given the importance he has attached to the weapons, and the money poured into their development, Kim will have to tread carefully to ensure any talk of abandoning the nuclear program started by his grandfather and continued by his father wouldnt undermine his legitimacy at home, experts say.

To try to balance factions in his government, Kim Jong Un embraced a policy of byungjin, or simultaneous military and economic development, after he came to power in 2011.

Since 2013, the pro-military factions have been ascendant, but a Trump summit could lend heft to arguments by officials who prefer to prioritize economic development, Green said.

A number of military authorities and other senior elites might be less receptive to denuclearisation.

For them, its unthinkable to ensure regime security with conventional forces alone, so they could object to Kims decision and continue to argue for keeping the bombs, said Kim Hyung-suk.

FOREBEARERS TEACHING

According to South Korean officials who met in Pyongyang, Kim Jong Un told them denuclearising the Korean peninsula was forebearers teaching - a potential talking point if he does try to justify curtailing his much-vaunted nuclear program.

Kim Jong Uns predecessors, grandfather Kim Il Sung and father Kim Jong Il, both publicly promised not to pursue nuclear weapons, but secretly continued to develop the programs, culminating in the countrys first nuclear test in 2006 under Kim Jong Il.

Even after that test, Kim Jong Il insisted in a 2007 summit with his South Korean counterpart that he didnt have the intention to own nuclear weapons.

The history of failed negotiations with Pyongyang makes many observers, including former senior U.S. diplomat Evans Revere, skeptical the latest negotiations will be any different.

In past talks, North Korea had said it could consider giving up its arsenal if the United States removes its troops from South Korea and withdraws its so-called nuclear umbrella of deterrence from South Korea and Japan, a stance Washington has found unacceptable.

Those of us who have negotiated with the North Koreans know what they mean (by denuclearisation), Revere said.

About the only thing that the North Korean leader might need to sell to his people - and particularly to the military - is the idea of a freeze on some elements of his program.

Additional reporting by Hyonhee Shin and Heekyong Yang in SEOUL. Editing by Lincoln Feast.
(Kitco News) - Bitcoin and gold investors might not be that different after all  at least when it comes to art. The latest odd buy in the art world was solid gold castings of Nelson Mandelas hands, which were purchased for $10 million in bitcoin.

The four casts were owned by South African businessman Malcolm Duncan, who already tried to unsuccessfully sell them back in 2007.



Mandela was South Africa's first black President who served from 1994 to 1999 and is known as an anti-apartheid revolutionary and philanthropist.

Mandela Art is a well-known trend in South Africa, which is filled with controversy and accusations of forgery.

Many works have been destroyed under Mandelas orders, but Duncan is sure that his castings are real, according to media reports.

[Mandela] cut his thumb quite badly on Robben Island, his right thumb, and you can see it, Bloomberg quoted Duncan as saying.

The gold cast of Mandelas hand was made by Harmony Gold Mining Co. in 2002.

There are photographs showing the process of Mandela sitting in as Harmony Gold Mining Co. takes the cast of his hand.

The piece was originally bought by Duncan for 1.8 million-rand ($154,570) and came with paperwork proving authenticity, Bloomberg reported citing Harmonys Investor Relations Manager Lauren Fourie.

The controversy surrounding the original sale is that Harmony was supposed to donate half the money to charity. Whether this happened or not remains unknown.

Gold Casts of Nelson Mandelas Hands Sell for $10m in Bitcoin https://t.co/NwAuhuJAvz pic.twitter.com/TWv5RiLjLH  Bitcoin Art Gallery (@btcArtGallery) March 27, 2018

The new owner of the golden casts is the Canadian cryptocurrency exchange firm Arbitrade.

The exchange plans to showcase the Golden Hands of Nelson Mandela by organizing a global tour to educate youth about Mandela.

The sale was unique. Arbitrade made a bitcoin deposit worth $50,000 and the rest of the money has been scheduled to be paid in quarterly installments of at least $2 million beginning April 30.
BEIJING (Reuters) - Premier Li Keqiang said on Monday China and the United States should maintain negotiations and he reiterated pledges to ease access for American businesses, as China scrambles to avert a trade war.

Li told a conference that included global chief executives that China would treat foreign and domestic firms equally, would not force foreign firms to transfer technology and would strengthen intellectual property rights, repeating promises that have failed to placate Washington.

The United States asked China in a letter last week to cut a tariff on U.S. autos, buy more U.S.-made semiconductors and give U.S. firms greater access to the Chinese financial sector, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing unidentified sources.

Alarm over a possible trade war between the worlds two largest economies has chilled financial markets as investors anticipated dire consequences should trade barriers go up due to President Donald Trumps bid to cut the U.S. deficit with China.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer listed steps they want China to take in a letter to Liu He, a newly appointed vice premier who oversees Chinas economy, the Journal said, quoting sources with knowledge of the matter.

The newspaper reported that Mnuchin was considering a visit to Beijing to pursue negotiations.

Despite a steady stream of fierce rhetoric from Chinese state media lambasting the United States for being a bully and warning of retaliation, Chinese and U.S. officials are busy negotiating behind the scenes.

With regard to trade imbalances, China and the United States should adopt a pragmatic and rational attitude, promote balancing through expansion of trade, and stick to negotiations to resolve differences and friction, Li told the conference in Beijing, state radio reported.

China has offered to buy more U.S. semiconductors by diverting some purchases from South Korea and Taiwan, the Financial Times reported, citing people briefed on the negotiations. China imported $2.6 billion of semiconductors from the United States last year.

Chinese officials are also working to finalise rules by May - instead of the end of June - to allow foreign financial groups to take majority stakes in Chinese securities firms, the Financial Times said.

I anticipate that for political reason it would be logical for China to respond, because countries do, Blackstone Group Chief Executive Stephen Schwarzman told Reuters on Monday on the sidelines of the Beijing conference at which Li spoke, the China Development Forum.

Thats why I view this more as a skirmish, and I think the interests of both countries are served by resolving some of these matters.

Fears of a trade war mounted this month after Trump imposed tariffs on steel and aluminium imports, and then on Thursday specifically targeted China by announcing plans for tariffs on up to $60 billion of Chinese goods.

On Friday, China responded to the U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminium by declaring plans to levy additional duties on up to $3 billion of U.S. imports. The list of targeted goods contained no mention of soybeans or aircraft, Chinas two biggest U.S. import items.

China could also inflict pain on U.S. multinationals that rely on China for a substantial - and growing - portion of their total revenues, said Alex Wolf, senior emerging markets economist at Aberdeen Standard Investments.

This could put U.S. companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Starbucks, GM, Nike, etc in the firing line, Wolf said in a note.

China can increase the regulatory burden on U.S companies through new inspections and rules; ban travel; stop providing export licenses of key intermediate goods; raise the tax burden on U.S. multinationals in China; or block U.S. companies from the government procurement market, he said.

FLOUTED RULES

Trump unveiled the planned tariffs targeting Chinese goods after a U.S. inquiry found China guilty of intellectual property theft and unfair trade, by forcing U.S. investors to turn over key technologies to Chinese firms.

On Saturday, Liu told Mnuchin in a telephone call the U.S. inquiry violated international trade rules and China would defend its interests, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

A U.S. Treasury spokesman confirmed the call, but declined to comment on the content of any letter or on a possible visit by Mnuchin to Beijing.

Secretary Mnuchin called Liu He to congratulate him on the official announcement of his new role, the spokesman told Reuters. They also discussed the trade deficit between our two countries and committed to continuing the dialogue to find a mutually agreeable way to reduce it.

The Trump administration has demanded that China immediately cut its $375 billion trade surplus with the United States by $100 billion.

The U.S. has been wielding sticks worldwide over the past year. Washington needs to be taught a real lesson and such a lesson can only be taught by China, the worlds second-largest economy, Chinas Global Times newspaper said in an editorial.

The widely read tabloid is run by the ruling Communist Partys official Peoples Daily, although its stance does not necessarily mirror government policy.

Privately, Liu and Mnuchin exchanged letters in the past week on further opening Chinas financial services sector and cutting Chinese tariffs on imported cars, according to the Financial Times.

China has a 25 percent tariff on U.S. cars and has talked recently of lowering it.

Chinas imports of U.S. motor vehicles totalled $10.6 billion in 2017, about 8 percent of the countrys overall U.S. imports by value, according to U.S. government data.

On the reported offer to increase U.S. semiconductor imports, it is unclear how U.S. chips would replace South Korean and Taiwanese chips, since there is minimal overlap between U.S. chips and those of the two Asian producers.

China is heavily dependent on foreign semiconductors, one of its biggest import categories by value. That said, the U.S. accounted for just 1 percent of Chinas total semiconductor imports last year by value, according to Reuters calculations based on Chinese customs data.
General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong (Photo: VNA)



General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trongs visit to Cuba will be an opportunity for the two countries to reaffirm their commitment to preserving their historic legacy and strengthening brotherhood, said Cuban Ambassador to Vietnam Lianys Torres Rivera.

On the Granma, the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party, veteran female journalist Marta Rojas Rodriguez wrote an article in which she highlights the past meaningful struggle for national independence of the Vietnamese people and President Ho Chi Minhs role in the worlds progressive movements.

Rodriguez, a retired reporter who worked in Vietnam and visited the southern battlefield, also recalled the sentiments of Cuban national hero Jose Marti towards Vietnam, and her own fond memories of President Ho Chi Minh.

Prensa Latina published two interviews by Vietnamese Ambassador to Cuba Nguyen Trung Thanh and Cuban Ambassador to Vietnam Lianys Torres Rivera. The two diplomats confirmed that the visit by General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong will be a historic milestone in the bilateral relations.

Additionally, Prensa Latina also published several articles by its correspondents in Vietnams capital Hanoi, highlighting the achievements Vietnam has recorded in the Doi Moi (Renewal) process.

Cuba was the first Latin American country to establish diplomatic relations with Vietnam on December 2nd, 1960.

Havana and Hanoi strengthened their fraternity throughout the war of the Indochinese nation against the American invasion and for independence and national reunification.

This is the first high-level meeting between the two countries after the passing away of Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro Ruz in 2016.

The Vietnam-Cuba solidarity and fraternal relationship, which were fostered by Presidents Ho Chi Minh and Fidel Castro, have developed across spheres, becoming a valuable asset and a source of great encouragement for the revolutionary cause of each country./.
BEIJING/SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledged his commitment to denuclearization and to meet U.S. officials, China said on Wednesday after his meeting with President Xi Jinping, who promised China would uphold friendship with its isolated neighbor.

After two days of speculation, China and North Korea both confirmed that Kim had traveled to Beijing and met Xi during what China called an unofficial visit from Sunday to Wednesday.

The visit was Kims first known trip outside North Korea since he assumed power in 2011 and is believed by analysts to serve as preparation for upcoming summits with South Korea and the United States.

North Koreas KCNA news agency made no mention of Kims pledge to denuclearize, or his anticipated meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump that is planned for some time in May.

China has traditionally been secretive North Koreas closest ally but ties have been frayed by its pursuit of nuclear weapons and Chinas backing of tough U.N. sanctions in response.

Chinas Foreign Ministry cited Kim in a lengthy statement as telling Xi the situation on the Korean peninsula was starting to improve because North Korea had taken the initiative to ease tension and put forward proposals for talks.

It is our consistent stand to be committed to denuclearization on the peninsula, in accordance with the will of late President Kim Il Sung and late General Secretary Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Un said, according to the ministry.

North Korea was willing to talk with the United States and hold a summit between the two countries, he said.

The issue of denuclearization of the Korean peninsula can be resolved, if South Korea and the United States respond to our efforts with goodwill, create an atmosphere of peace and stability while taking progressive and synchronous measures for the realization of peace, Kim said.

NUCLEAR UMBRELLA

Kim Jong Uns predecessors, grandfather Kim Il Sung and father Kim Jong Il, both promised not to pursue nuclear weapons but secretly maintained programs to develop them, culminating in the Norths first nuclear test in 2006 under Kim Jong Il.

The North had said in previous, failed talks aimed at dismantling its nuclear program it could consider giving up its arsenal if the United States removed its troops from South Korea and withdrew its so-called nuclear umbrella of deterrence from South Korea and Japan.

Many analysts and former negotiators believe this still constitutes North Koreas stance and remain deeply skeptical Kim is willing to give up the weapons his family has been developing for decades.

At first wrapped in secrecy, the announcement of Kim Jong Uns visit soon became the third-most discussed topic on Chinas Weibo microblogging site, although many state media outlets blocked their comments sections.

Widely read Chinese state-run newspaper the Global Times praised the meeting as proving naysayers wrong about Beijing-Pyongyang relations.

China and North Korea maintaining their friendly relations provides a positive force for the whole region and promotes strategic stability in northeast Asia, it said in an editorial.

Kims appearance in Beijing involved almost all the trappings of a state visit, complete with an honor guard and banquet at Beijings Great Hall of the People.

Kim and Xi also met at the Diaoyutai State Guest House, where Kim Il Sung planted a tree in 1959 that still stands.

State television showed pictures of the two men chatting and Kims wife, Ri Sol Ju, getting a warm welcome from Xis wife, Peng Liyuan.

TRUMP BRIEFED

China briefed Trump on Kims visit and the communication included a personal message from Xi to Trump, the White House said in a statement.

The United States remains in close contact with our allies South Korea and Japan. We see this development as further evidence that our campaign of maximum pressure is creating the appropriate atmosphere for dialogue with North Korea, it said.

Analysts said the meeting strengthened North Koreas position ahead of any meeting with Trump by aligning Beijing and Pyongyang while reassuring China it was not being sidelined in any negotiations.

It seems that North Korea is not ready to deal with the United States without support and help from its longtime ally China, said Han Suk-hee, professor of Chinese Studies at South Koreas Yonsei University.

A top Chinese diplomat, Politburo member Yang Jiechi, will brief officials, including President Moon Jae-in, in Seoul on Thursday about the Beijing talks, the presidential office in Seoul said.

Kim told a banquet hosted by Xi the visit was intended to maintain our great friendship and continue and develop our bilateral ties at a time of rapid developments on the Korean peninsula, according to KCNA.

Xi had accepted an invitation with pleasure from him to visit North Korea, KCNA said.

China made no mention of Xi accepting an invitation, but Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang pointed to a line in their statement citing Xi as saying he is willing to maintain regular communications with North Korea via visits and exchanges of envoys and messages.

I have to say that China and North Korea have a tradition of high-level mutual visits, Lu told a daily news briefing.

China had largely sat on the sidelines as North Korea improved relations with South Korea recently, raising worry in Beijing that it was no longer a central player in the North Korean issue, reinforced by Trumps subsequent announcement of his proposed meeting with Kim Jong Un in May.

China is North Koreas lifeline, so the notion, from a Chinese perspective, that Kim Jong Un could have had these other two meetings before meeting with Xi Jinping, I think the Chinese just thought that is not going to happen, said Paul Haenle, director of the CarnegieTsinghua Center in Beijing and the former White House representative to North Korea denuclearization talks from 2007-2009.
BEIJING (Reuters) - Shanghai crude oil futures <0#ISC:> slumped on Wednesday, the third day of trading since their launch, after heavy selling overnight, as traders scrambled to follow cues from the main international markets.

The big volumes done in the late evening in China underscore the complexity of trading the new contract when Londons Brent <0#LCO:> and WTI in the United States <0#CL:>, are in full swing, with Shanghais relatively low liquidity exaggerating the price swings.

In the first two hours of the night session, which started at 2100 Beijing time (1300 GMT) on Tuesday and marks the beginning of a new trading day, prices sank 4.2 percent to 408.6 yuan ($65.09) per barrel.

Over 34,000 lots of 1,000 barrels each of Shanghai crude changed hands in that time, more than half the turnover for the day.

The price drop was much steeper than those seen in Europe and the United States, where prices were down under 1 percent after data showed a surprising rise in U.S. crude inventories.

It was all the more jarring for many traders in China who rushed to catch up with the overnight action on Wednesday morning as Shanghais second session was starting at 9 a.m.

That highlighted concerns among many traders about the set-up of the contract, with the exchange splitting trading into three slots punctuated by long breaks, while Brent and WTI keep trading.

Its early days for Shanghai crude exchange. Long-term, it should have a good potential, but it would probably be good if opening hours were extended, said Oystein Berentsen, director for crude oil trading at Strong Petroleum in Singapore, which specialises in Chinas oil markets.

(Graphic: Night owls in Shanghai crude oil - reut.rs/2pNo3Fp)

It was not immediately clear what caused the hefty drop, although some traders said it was due to a stronger yuan. A stronger yuan would make investing in the contract for holders of other currencies more expensive.

Other traders said the U.S. storage data also hurt sentiment.

But the relatively low open interest, which measures contracts that have yet to be settled, caused big gyrations. On Wednesday, September open interest was 6,074 lots. The exchange counts both sides of the trade, which means it was actually 3,037 lots.

That compares with half a million lots for Brent.

Given the limited liquidity and also the perception that the (Chinese) national oil companies are on the sell side, short-sellers were emboldened, said a Beijing-based trader with a western trading house. We are talking about only thousands of lots of open interest, not hundreds of thousands, that got people worried that deliveries would be an issue.

Selling continued through the morning and afternoon sessions, with the contract falling almost 3 percent to a final settlement price of 414.1 yuan ($65.86) a barrel.

Turnover was 67,198 lots, equal to 33.6 million barrels of crude. In the first two days of trading, volume each day was around 40,000 lots.

($1 = 6.2880 Chinese yuan renminbi)
OTTAWA (Reuters) - U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on Wednesday expressed optimism that talks to modify NAFTA could be wrapped up quickly, but a top Canadian official was more downbeat, saying much work remained.

The United States wants to speed up the slow pace of negotiations on the $1.2 trillion North American Free Trade Agreement, citing a need to finish before a July 1 presidential election in Mexico.

Id say Im hopeful  I think we are making progress. I think that all three parties want to move forward, we have a short window, because of elections and things beyond our control, Lighthizer told CNBC television.

But if theres a real effort made to try to close out and to compromise and do some of the things we all know we should do, ... Im optimistic that we can get something done in principle in the next little bit.

Chief Canadian negotiator Steve Verheul, though, said, Weve got quite a bit of work do yet, and noted in speaking to reporters that Washington had not yet explained what it meant by an agreement in principle.

Officials from the three countries are supposed to meet in the United States next month for the eighth round of talks, although Washington has not announced dates yet.

Only six of the roughly 30 chapters have been closed and wide differences remain on sensitive topics such as dispute resolution and how much North American content should be contained in autos produced in the three NAFTA nations.

There are obviously some significant gaps on many issues, Verheul said, citing the U.S. positions on dispute settlement, government procurement and a sunset clause that would allow one party to quit the pact after five years.

Right now we are still quite a distance away from any kind of agreement on the approach to autos, he said.

Canadian Trade Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said he was cautiously optimistic while noting a new pact would be in effect for decades.

What we want is a good deal, not just any deal. You know, its not about next Friday or next month, he told reporters.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last week said a deal was likely while stressing the challenges posed by the Mexican vote and U.S. congressional elections in November.

Trudeau spoke to U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday and underscored Canadas commitment to conclude a modern, mutually beneficial NAFTA as soon as possible, Canadian officials said.
Shenandoah, IA (51601)

Today

Partly cloudy skies this morning will become overcast during the afternoon. High 76F. Winds NNW at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low near 40F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.
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
By Yoon Ja-young



Kangwon Land, the Korea Employment Information Service and Korea Expressway Corp. failed to satisfy customers last year. KOTRA, Korail and Korea Minting, Security Printing & ID Card Operating Corp., meanwhile, were good performers in terms of customer satisfaction, a survey showed Wednesday.



The Ministry of Strategy and Finance released its 2017 customer satisfaction index of 232 state-run enterprises and public institutions. The ministry has been surveying customers of the state-run entities every year to improve their services. The top 10 percent are rated S, followed by 40 percent A and another 40 percent B. The poorest performing 10 percent are rated C.



According to the report, the Korea Employment Information Service, Korea Expressway Corp. and casino operator Kangwon Land were poor in customer satisfaction. Jeju National University Hospital, the Korea Childcare Promotion Institute and the Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety were also rated C. The Korea Meteorological Institute, Korea Institute of Origin Information and National Food Safety Information Service were among the poor performers.



Korea Airports Corp., meanwhile, was rated S, as it enhanced customer convenience using the latest technology. It set up a smart parking lot, introduced an identification system using bio information and expanded self check-in for travelers.



The country's railway operator Korail was also rated S. The ministry noted customers were especially satisfied with the opening of the new KTX route linking Seoul with Gangneung ahead of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games, which also contributed to balanced development between the regions.



Korea Minting, Security Printing & ID Card Operating Corp. won customer satisfaction by providing tailored services for the socially underprivileged, including issuing passports in Braille for the visually impaired.



The ministry also cited Korea Housing & Urban Guarantee Corporation as a success case. Customers rated it S as it made its service more accessible, launching an application that provides information for those looking for a home and diversifying channels through which one can get its housing guarantee service.



KoRoad, which is a road traffic authority, saved customers' waiting times by adopting a reservation service for reissuance of drivers' licenses and drivers' aptitude tests.



Customer satisfaction will be included in the performance evaluation of the state-run organizations, which affects their wages. Those rated C will be obligated to submit a plan to improve customer satisfaction.



"We will continue with diverse policy efforts to encourage state-run organizations to improve their customer services," the ministry noted.
By Jhoo Dong-chan











T'way Air is set to list itself to raise money for further expansion.







According to industry analysts, T'way Air will submit its preliminary application for the low-cost carrier's (LCC) initial public offering (IPO) on the KOSPI, Friday.







The move is a bid to acquire larger airplanes for long-haul routes connecting Seoul with Europe and North America, as well as new destinations in Southeast Asia.







Daishin Securities and Shinhan Investment are expected to jointly underwrite the LCC's IPO. If listed, T'way Air will become the third KOSPI-listed low-cost carrier following Jeju Air and Jin Air.







Aiming to go public by the end of the year, the company is seeking fast approval in the preliminary screening by the end of the first half.







T'way Air has been considered the most rapidly growing LCC in the market. Along with securing demands for international routes, it has successfully expanded the number of customers.







Sources said T'way Air carried 3.28 million customers on its international routes last year, up 62 percent from 2016.







It also marked 584 billion won ($546 million) in sales and 39.2 billion won in net profit last year, explosive growth from the previous year's 382.8 billion won in sales and 2 billion won net profit.







Market observers say the LCC's success in recent years is attributed to its efforts to diversify routes. T'way Air has offered flights from not only Incheon International Airport or Gimpo but also Daegu, Jeju, Muan and Sacheon.







T'way Air said it will also expand its routes into Europe for the first time as a domestic LCC by 2020.







It is currently operating 19 planes flying to 35 destinations in Asia, and plans to add eight more Boeing 737 MAX 8s by the end of 2020.







Daishin Securities and Shinhan Investment said T'way Air's IPO is expected to raise as much as 800 billion won in cash, providing financial room for the LCC's ambition to expand its services into Europe.








In this photo provided Wednesday, March 28, 2018, by China's Xinhua News Agency, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, left, and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands in Beijing, China. / Xinhua via AP



- Kim told Xi: "North Korea is committed to denuclearization."

- North Korea is "willing to have dialogue with the US"

- Xi accepted Kim's invitation to visit North Korea

- China briefed White House on Tuesday on Kim Jong-un's visit

- China to explain South Korea the results of Kim-Xi meeting

- Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi to visit Seoul on Thursday



By Park Si-soo, Oh Young-jin



North Korean leader Kim Jong-un told Chinese President Xi Jinping during a visit to Beijing that North Korea is "committed to denuclearization," the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Kim made an "unofficial" visit to China from Sunday to Wednesday, accompanied by his wife Ri Sol-ju and Choe Ryong-hae, a ranking party official, according to the North's state-run radio station. It was Kim's first foreign trip since he took office in late 2011.

"It is our consistent stand to be committed to denuclearization on the peninsula, in accordance with the will of late President Kim Il-sung and late General Secretary Kim Jong-il," Kim was quoted by Xinhua as saying.

North Korea is "willing to have dialogue with the United States and hold a summit of the two countries," he added.

"The issue of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula can be resolved, if South Korea and the United States respond to our efforts with goodwill, create an atmosphere of peace and stability while taking progressive and synchronous measures for the realization of peace,"Kim was quoted by Xinhua as saying.
State media calls North Korea's nuclear weapons a "treasured sword of justice". Pyongyang has released commemorative stamps and built monuments in honor of its ballistic missile tests, while nuclear and rocket scientists have been named national heroes.

For Kim Jong Un, fully giving up nuclear weapons would mean a dramatic reversal for an authoritarian leader who has not only staked his security on his nuclear arsenal, but also spent years publicly celebrating such weapons as an integral part of his regime's legitimacy and power.



South Korean envoys who met Kim in Pyongyang early this month quoted Kim as saying he was "committed to denuclearization", and that he "expressed his eagerness to meet U.S. President Donald Trump as soon as possible".

Chinese officials who met with Kim in Beijing this week also said he committed to denuclearization, but initial North Korean state media reports on the visit did not mention the nuclear issue. Absent any public confirmation from Pyongyang, analysts are skeptical Kim will suddenly give up the nuclear arsenal he and his family have spent decades developing.



Instead, Kim is likely to seek a more nuanced and long-term approach that could allow him to emerge looking victorious in the minds of his people and domestic elites, they say.



"Kim Jong Un does not need to sell anything to the North Korean population, particularly because denuclearization is a process that will take at least 10 years to realistically achieve," said Michael Madden, an expert on North Korea leadership at Johns Hopkins University's 38 North website.

"Pyongyang most likely envisions ... a series of incremental agreements around this, rather than one or two large grand bargains."



CONCESSIONS NEEDED



Former South Korean officials who have negotiated with the North in the past say such a pivot could be difficult, but not impossible - if the United States makes major concessions Kim Jong Un can take back and parade to his people.

"Kim Jong Un would seek to propagate the idea that he induced the U.S. and international community's surrender' by having mastered nuclear weapons," said Kim Hyung-suk, who served as the South's vice unification minister between 2016 and 2017. "If talks go well, sanctions are eased and the economy grows. Then the people would understand Kim's denuclearization decision and become strongly supportive of it."

That may not be the kind of deal Trump envisions as he plans to sit down with Kim sometime in May for an historic first summit between sitting leaders of the two countries. Trump's new national security adviser, John Bolton, recently said Trump should insist any meeting he holds with Kim be focused squarely on how to eliminate that country's nuclear weapons program as quickly as possible.













SILENCE IN PYONGYANG



The lack of comment from North Korean state media on the proposed talks between Kim and Trump was not unexpected, analysts said.

"It might reflect an ongoing internal discussion about how to deal with public opinion, certainly, although I would characterize that as a broader discussion of how to proceed overall," said Christopher Green, a senior adviser with the International Crisis Group, which researches conflict.

Given the importance he has attached to the weapons, and the money poured into their development, Kim will have to tread carefully to ensure any talk of abandoning the nuclear program started by his grandfather and continued by his father wouldn't undermine his legitimacy at home, experts say.

To try to balance factions in his government, Kim Jong Un embraced a policy of "byungjin," or simultaneous military and economic development, after he came to power in 2011. Since 2013, the pro-military factions have been ascendant, but a Trump summit could lend heft to arguments by officials who prefer to prioritize economic development, Green said.

A number of military authorities and other senior elites might be less receptive to denuclearization.

"For them, it's unthinkable to ensure regime security with conventional forces alone, so they could object to Kim's decision and continue to argue for keeping the bombs," said Kim Hyung-suk.



'FOREBEARERS' TEACHING'



According to South Korean and Chinese officials, Kim Jong Un told them denuclearizing the Korean peninsula was forebearers' teaching - a potential talking point if he does try to justify curtailing his much-vaunted nuclear program.

"It is our consistent stand to be committed to denuclearization on the peninsula, in accordance with the will of late President Kim Il Sung and late General Secretary Kim Jong Il," Kim told Chinese President Xi Jinping during a visit this week, according to Chinese state media. Kim Jong Un's father and grandfather both publicly promised not to pursue nuclear weapons, but secretly continued to develop the programs, culminating in the country's first nuclear test in 2006 under Kim Jong Il.

Even after that test, Kim Jong Il insisted in a 2007 summit with his South Korean counterpart that he didn't "have the intention to own nuclear weapons."



The history of failed negotiations with Pyongyang makes many observers, including former senior U.S. diplomat Evans Revere, skeptical the latest negotiations will be any different. In past talks, North Korea had said it could consider giving up its arsenal if the United States removes its troops from South Korea and withdraws its so-called "nuclear umbrella" of deterrence from South Korea and Japan, a stance Washington has found unacceptable.

"Those of us who have negotiated with the North Koreans know what they mean (by denuclearisation)," Revere said. "About the only thing that the North Korean leader might need to 'sell' to his people - and particularly to the military - is the idea of a 'freeze' on some elements of his program." (REUTERS)
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's surprise visit to Beijing is viewed as part of efforts to collect more bargaining chips ahead of his showdown with U.S. President Donald Trump.



Kim kicked off his full-fledged summit diplomacy with the talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday, as he's bracing for a high-risk, high-return game in May with Trump, a former businessman who styles himself as a master of negotiation.



It came as hawkish officials are gaining clout in Washington D.C., as shown in the nomination of CIA director Mike Pompeo as secretary of state and the return of John Bolton, this time in the top national security post.



Many U.S. officials remain skeptical about Kim's intentions, making it clear that they won't buy the same horse twice, given Pyongyang's record of reaching an agreement, reneging on it and going back to its provocative mode.



Kim apparently wants to restore Pyongyang's friendly ties with Beijing at a highly sensitive time for his bold diplomatic gambit amid overall regional security conditions long dogged by the secretive regime's nuclear program.



By showing off seemingly, or actually, close ties between the communist allies, Kim is sending a message to Trump that his regime is not isolated despite his "maximum pressure" strategy and upping the ante for upcoming denuclearization talks.



The young Kim is also trying to publicize that he's an audacious leader ready for a significant deal on denuclearization and a peace regime on the peninsula.



"The issue of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula can be resolved, if South Korea and the United States respond to our efforts with goodwill, create an atmosphere of peace and stability while taking progressive and synchronous measures for the realization of peace," Kim was quoted as telling Xi.



For China, Kim's first overseas trip since taking power in late 2011 was desirable and timely.



China might have been feeling left out amid Kim's recent peace offensive. There's been concern about "China passing" as Kim aggressively reached out to Seoul and Washington.



China hopes to play a significant role in deciding the future of the North's nukes and the Armistice Agreement that ended the 1950-53 Korean War. It prefers the six-way talks to any bilateral deal between the North and the U.S., like the 1994 Agreed Framework.



Close coordination between Pyongyang and Beijing means more leverage for the both sides once nuclear talks are resumed.



The South Korean government hailed the mood.



"An improvement in relations between North Korea and China prior to inter-Korean and North Korea-U.s. is seen as a positive sign," an official at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae told reporters.



Cheong Wa Dae is hoping for a concrete action plan for the denuclearization of Korea to bring lasting peace to the peninsula through the back-to-back summit talks scheduled to take place this spring.



Kim's attitude in sitting down with President Moon Jae-in next month will be another litmus test for his seriousness about a new path for his impoverished nation.



North Korea experts here said the Kim-Xi summit largely bodes well for decades-long efforts to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue.



"It's meaningful in that Kim stated his commitment to denuclearization in front of Xi. It's a thing that South Korea, the U.S. and China would welcome," said Cheong Seong-chang, a senior research fellow at the Sejong Institute.



The time has come for the international community to consider a serious option to provide the North with an irreversible security guarantee in return for the dismantlement of its nuclear program in a complete, verifiable and irreversible way, he added.



Lee Hee-ok, professor at Sungkyungkwan University, pointed out, "North Korea's typical all-round diplomacy has gotten underway."



It would serve as a chance for North Korea and China to reopen their "strategic communication," Lee added. (Yonhap)




By Kim Rahn



A ranking Chinese official is scheduled to visit South Korea and brief officials here on this week's summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Cheong Wa Dae said Wednesday.



Ahead of planned summits with the South and the United States, the North is seeking help and support from its longtime and almost only ally, China, with which its relationship has been strained. This raises expectations that China's role will become larger in resolving the issue of Pyongyang's nuclear programs.



Cheong Wa Dae said Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi will arrive in Seoul today and meet the head of the National Security Office, Chung Eui-yong. He will meet President Moon Jae-in Friday.



Yang's visit plan was announced about an hour after China and North Korea confirmed the talks between Xi and Kim.










Low birthrate forcing institutions to close



By Kim Hyun-bin

By Kim Hyun-bin





An increasing number of local universities are on the verge of shutting down in the coming years, due to the low birthrate that has been plaguing the nation.





Each university or college that could be forced to close in the suburbs will take a direct toll on the local economy and local residents fear this the most.





Their fears could come to pass just four years from now. Two year colleges will start to see a drastic reduction of students starting from 2022, and four year universities by 2024, what experts are calling a "college shutdown domino."



It has become inevitable for colleges to face low enrollment as the country's birthrate continues to fall.





The low birthrate generation began in 2002 with total newborns for that year recording 490,000 dipping below the 500,000 mark for the first time.





South Korea hit its new record low of 357,700 in 2017 down 11.9 percent from the previous year, according to Statistics Korea. It's the lowest number since the statistical agency started to compile data in 1970.





Low birthrate = Shutdown





According to research conducted by Cho Young-tae, a professor of health demography at Seoul National University there are 138 colleges and 189 universities currently operating in the country as of last year. However, due to the drastic decrease in the country's birthrate, 43 colleges in 2022 and 73 four year universities by 2024 will no longer be needed.





70 percent of the operating costs of an institution typically come from tuition fees and if enrollment tanks it will have a direct effect on the survival of the school.





"The reduction of student enrollment is becoming a threat to universities and colleges. The institutions are more aware of their situations and are asking for aid," said an official at the Ministry of Education.





"We are currently looking for ways to combine nearby universities in the future that are struggling to meet their student quotas."





Many experts point out that the decision to combine universities that are struggling to stay afloat does not solve the root problem.





"The decision to combine schools will be ineffective, the government needs to come up with a solution to tackle low enrollment," said Cho Young-tae, a professor of health demography at Seoul National University.





"Currently the nation is fixed on enrolling 18 year olds who just graduated from high school, but it should widen the enrollment age gap so people of all ages could attend."





Last year alone, three universities _ Seonam University, Hanzhong University, and Daegu University of Foreign Studies _ closed due to corruption and lack of funds to operate the institutions.





Recent statistics show that enrollment rates for higher education which include all types of colleges and universities have drastically dropped in recent years.



College enrollment hit its peak in 2008 with 83.8 percent of high school grads going to college. That number, however, continues to decline. By 2017 only 68.9 percent went to college according to recent data from Statistics Korea.

Many experts point out that with the current trend the enrollment rate will continue to fall each year.







Work vs. education







Another key factor for the decline in college enrollment is due to changes in perspectives toward higher education. Many Korean high school students are entering the workforce instead of enrolling in college.





Each year an increasing number of college grads are struggling to find jobs, which is pushing more high school students to jump into the job market right after graduation.





The college graduate unemployment rate surpassed that of high school graduates for the first time last year.



The unemployment rate for graduates with a bachelor's degree stood at four percent, doubling the jobless rate of high school graduates.





Over half a million college graduates struggled to find jobs _ 90 thousand more than high school grads.



"More people are realizing that a college degree does not guarantee a job, so more people are jumping into the workforce to make a living early on," said Cho.





In 2009 only 16.7 percent of vocational high school grads were lucky enough to get jobs, but since then that number has soared.



Just last year, 50.6 percent of vocational high school graduates landed jobs, marking the first time in 17 years since that number surpassed the 50 percent mark.


Lee Jun-won

By Lee Jun-won



The tension between the Spanish government in Madrid and the pro-independence government in Catalonia have continued to reach new stages, with Catalonia's call for independence being one of the greatest movements for self-determination over the past several years.



Since at least the 1930s, Catalonia's separatists have attempted to secede from the rest of Spain, an action which the central government of Spain has never approved. Recently, Catalans have reenergized the movement for independence, receiving support from the majority of their people, as evidenced by multiple referendums since the turn of the century.



While recent economic problems may have taken Catalonia back to the question of independence, it is also true that there are cultural and historical aspects at play. Catalans have been able to continue a distinct culture, even though they have taken part in the broader Spanish culture as well. After all, Catalans have their own language, Catalan, which contributes to the uniqueness of the Catalan identity. Catalonia's call for independence features two fundamental but underemphasized facets of history and culture.



The economic crisis in Spain has magnified historical calls for independence. Many Catalans believe their affluent region pays more to Madrid than it gets back and blame much of Spain's 2008 debt crisis on the central government.



Historically, and perhaps more importantly, Catalonia has been mistreated by the central government in Madrid. While obviously to a lesser extent, some similarities can be drawn between the current policies of Spain's central government and the rule of Franco, the fascist dictator from four decades ago. In 1939, Franco, as part of an effort to put an end to regionalism, banned all specifically Catalan institutions, such as the Government of Catalonia.



Through this emphasis on obedience, Franco completely erased the concept of autonomy for regions like Catalonia. After his death, however, it was given limited autonomy. More recently, the separatist movement was revived after a Constitutional Court decision in 2010 to reinterpret parts of Catalonia's statute of autonomy, a direct infringement on their right to self-determination.



Conflicts became even more intensified when Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy recently used special constitutional powers to remove Catalonia's president and his government. While not by any means reaching the depravities of the Franco regime, the recent infringements on Catalan autonomy have gained the appearance by their capacity to trigger memories of the Franco years. As observed in these acts of historical oppressiveness against Catalans, the call for independence in Catalonia has existed for much longer.



At this point, it is hard to tell whether Catalonia will succeed in its continued pursuit of independence, which deems it necessary to consider whether and how Catalonia can satisfactorily continue as part of Spain.



While the common characterization of the conflict lies in the economic drain, we can see that there are more fundamental causes of ethnicity and history. With these causes in mind, Madrid's current policies must be changed to encourage region-state dialogue through the creation of a joint task force to which representatives of the regional government could be invited.



Methods of submission from the central government will cause more dissent due to the Catalans' inherently different culture. Based on the past resistance to Franco's regime, we see the need for the central government to respect regional autonomy; at the same time, the central government's desire for continued political unity is understandable.



A joint taskforce offers the opportunity to balance these two opposing impulses, reflecting the unique historical circumstances at play. Even if Catalonia continues to be a part of Spain, the way to maximize harmony is to allow regional autonomy without the government imposing any culture on them. Catalans have called, and it is time for Madrid to answer with the full awareness of history.






By Kang Aa-young







One worker died and two were injured in a fire at a factory in an industrial complex in Jeungpyeong, North Chungcheong, Wednesday.







The blaze broke out early in the morning.







The victim was identified as Kim, 51.







"I saw a spark from a machine on the second floor of the building, where the fire started," a witness told police.







The fire's cause is being investigated.






/ Yonhap



By Park Si-soo



A wildfire that started on a mountain in Goseong County, Gangwon Province, early Thursday continues to spread, burning houses and public facilities, blocking roads and causing the evacuation of hundreds of people.



Nearly 2,000 firefighters, public officers and soldiers are battling the fire on the ground while 39 helicopters are attacking it from the sky. But strong winds and dry conditions are making it hard to control.



There were no reports of casualties and it will take time to assess property damage. The fire's cause is unknown.





/ Yonhap



A photo taken near the fire shows the sky a red-gray and people wearing masks. Another photo shows firefighters spraying water onto flames raging through trees.



As of 1 p.m., the fire had burned 35 hectares and eight buildings. It was heading toward a military base that had a large stock of ammunition, oil and other combat materials, but these were moved to a safe area, the military said.



Several schools called off classes early and sent students home as a precaution.




British Airways takes off from Heathrow Airport. / Courtesy of British Airways



By Kim Jae-heun





Manuel Alvarez
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Wednesday. / Reuters-Yonhap



By Lee Min-hyung



North Korean leader Kim Jong-un offered to give up his nuclear weapons during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing if Seoul and Washington take "phased" steps for peace and stability, according to Chinese media reports.



"We voluntarily offered dialogue to the South and the United States, and have since taken appropriate steps to ease tension on the peninsula," Kim was quoted as saying during the summit by China Central Television (CCTV) and Xinhua News Agency, Wednesday. Kim returned to Pyongyang the same day after a four-day visit to Beijing



"Once the U.S. and South Korea take phased and simultaneous measures in response to our peace efforts, the issue of denuclearization of the peninsula can be resolved," the young dictator said.



The remarks came after Xi expressed words of encouragement for the ongoing peace gestures from Pyongyang. Starting this year, North Korea has suspended its missile and nuclear tests, delivering its strong determination for building peace on the peninsula by offering to hold talks with Presidents Moon Jae-in and Donald Trump.



Xi said China is fully supportive of the ongoing thaw in inter-Korean relations. The Chinese leader also pledged to join hands with Kim to build lasting peace on the peninsula.



This is the first time Kim has taken an overseas trip since taking power in 2011. His Beijing visit and the summit were conducted under tight security.



For the meeting with Xi, Kim was accompanied by his wife, Ri Sol-ju, and a group of high-ranking officials. They included Choe Ryong-hae, vice chairman of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, and the regime's national intelligence head, Kim Yong-chol.



The summit came amid frayed Beijing-Pyongyang relations in the wake of China's participation in the international drive to impose intensifying sanctions on the North over its nuclear weapons programs.




A complaint has been filed against the main opposition Liberty Korea Party spokesman Chang Je-won over insulting remarks he made against police officers. / Yonhap



By Park Ji-won



Main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) spokesman Rep. Chang Je-won may face an investigation for calling police "crazy dogs" while speaking about a corruption probe into an LKP member.



A citizen surnamed Shin filed a complaint with the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, Wednesday, to call for an investigation of Chang, claiming he insulted 150,000 police officers in Korea and defamed their reputation by condemning them without clear evidence.



On his Facebook page, Shin criticized Chang saying what he did is more than an insult and defamation. "He is trying to split the country into pieces by spreading fake news ahead of the June 13 local elections."



Shin also pointed out that he filed a complaint against Chang so that he can be punished for his behavior of disappointing the police, its family members and citizens, so that this kind of incident will never happen again.



Meanwhile, the spokesman publicly apologized Wednesday for what he said about the police, but emphasized he meant to criticize "a few political police officers."



"I made slanderous remarks about the political attack of the Ulsan police. I am deeply sorry for the police officers whose feelings my remarks hurt," Chang said on Facebook.



"To make things clear, my remarks are not targeting the entire police force but a few political police officers. The political police officers should be expelled. I love the police."



However, the controversy surrounding Chang likely continues as retired police officers held street rallies against Chang and the LKP.



Retired police officers and civic activists hold a rally against Chang Je-won at the National Assembly, Yeouido, Seoul, Wednesday. They filed a petition with the Liberty Korea Party (LKP) asking for an apology from Chang and the LKP for calling the police "crazy dogs." / Yonhap
Former President Lee Myung-bak's son Si-hyung, right, goes to a detention center in Songpa-gu, Seoul, Wednesday, to visit his father. / Yonhap



Former first lady to be questioned this week at earliest



By Kim Jae-heun



Prosecutors again failed to question former President Lee Myung-bak during their second visit to Seoul Eastern Detention Center in Songpa-gu, Wednesday.



The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office sent two chief prosecutors to ask Lee to consent to be questioned at 10 a.m., two days after their first attempt.



This time, the prosecutors tried to meet with the ex-president face-to-face, and convince him to cooperate _ so they could begin questioning Lee immediately if he was willing to answer them.



However, Lee clung firm to his position and would not see them or answer any questions.



The former president refused to answer the prosecution's questions Monday, saying that the investigation of him was unfair and motivated out of political revenge.



Meanwhile, the prosecution is seeking to question former first lady Kim Yoon-ok over her part in the alleged corruption involving her husband within this week.



Prosecutors have been reportedly scheduling a time and place to meet her for questioning.



If Kim is summoned, she will be the third first lady to be quizzed over involvement in corruption.



Kim is said to have been involved in a number of Lee's suspected crimes including bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power before and after he became president.



She is thought to have taken 500 million won from the 2.25 billion won former Woori Finance Holdings Chairman Lee Pal-seung handed over to Lee through the ex-president's son-in-law Lee Sang-joo.



Kim is also suspected of spending over 400 million won on a corporate credit card issued by DAS, an auto parts company at the center of the corruption scandal and suspected of being owned by her husband, between 1997 and 2007.



DAS legally belongs to Lee's eldest brother Lee Sang-eun, and the former president has long been accused of creating a 34 billion won slush fund via the company.



He has continued to deny that he is the owner of DAS.



Considering that Lee has already been arrested and to pay respect to the former first lady, the prosecution will likely question Kim privately.



Former first ladies including Lee Soon-ja, the wife of ex-President Chun Doo-hwan; and Kwon Yang-sook, wife of former President Roh Mu-hyun, were summoned to the prosecution for private questioning in 2004 and 2009, respectively.




Park Geun-hye



By Kim Jae-heun



The prosecution said Wednesday that ex-President Park Geun-hye's administration fabricated the times she was first informed about the Sewol ferry sinking and orders she gave to take action.



According to prosecutors, Park received the first report on the incident at 10:20 a.m. on April 16, 2014, which was 20 minutes later than stated on the then-administration log.



Park also ordered former head of the National Security Office (NSO) Kim Jang-soo to begin rescue operations at 10:22 a.m., not at 10:15 a.m, the prosecutors found.



The seven minutes difference wasted time that rescuers could have used to save more of the 476 passengers onboard.



The disaster cost 304 lives, mostly high school students on a trip to Jeju Island on the 6,800-ton ferry.



Prosecutors also said that Park's confidante Choi Soon-sil _ who many consider called the shots at Cheong Wa Dae _ was called into the presidential office to discuss measures to deal with the disaster. She also accompanied the former president Park to the central disaster and safety countermeasures headquarters, despite holding no official position in the government or right to be involved in state affairs.



The prosecution indicted four of Park's aides for altering the time log of the report on the sinking. Former chief of staff Kim Ki-choon was charged with manipulating and damaging the document and abuse of power. Ex-NSO chiefs Kim Jang-soo and Kim Kwan-jin were indicted for damaging public documents; while presidential secretary Yoon Jeon-choo was charged with perjury.



The two former heads of the NSO are also suspected of having submitted falsified documents to the National Assembly.



The prosecution questioned 63 staff members who worked at the presidential office and other related government agencies at the time.



The very last text message sent by one of the Sewol's passenger was 10:17 a.m., at which point the ship was listing at an angle of 108 degrees and had virtually capsized.



However, while prosecutors suspect that Park may have ordered the changes, they did not find any evidence to prove she was involved in altering the documents, and thus was not legally responsible for this.


Students from Midong Elementary School in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, head to their classrooms wearing masks on March 26 as air pollution and fog hit South Korea hard. / Korea Times file



By Ko Dong-hwan



Seoul's tougher air pollution law bans schools from conducting outdoor classes whenever hazard levels seriously increase.



The revised law, announced Tuesday, affects the city's elementary, middle and high schools. Whenever PM2.5 (particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers or less) records 76 micrograms per cubic meter for two hours or longer, the schools cannot have classes outside. The figure that previously triggered the restriction was 90 micrograms.



The revision also included that whenever PM10 records 180 micrograms per cubic meter for two hours or longer, the schools are advised to reduce normal hours or cancel classes for the day.






By Trudy Rubin



If there were ever any checks on the erratic, impulsive Trump foreign policy, they nearly vanished last week.



President Donald Trump's replacement of national security adviser H.R. McMaster with the uber-hawkish John Bolton practically guarantees that the president will walk away from the Iran nuclear deal in May. And Bolton's call for a pre-emptive attack on North Korea makes any prospects for a Trump-Kim Jong-un summit look slimmer than they already were.



Yet, the scariest thing about Bolton is this: His deep belief in military action will strengthen the president's most macho instincts. Especially since Trump just dumped Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in favor of another uber-hawk, ex-CIA Director Mike Pompeo.



Standing alone in the breach is Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, no wimp on using force, but a believer in trying all other options first. But Mattis is now bereft of Cabinet allies.



We are about to see the real Donald Trump, unchained, in the foreign-policy arena  flexing his muscles at the world (minus Vladimir Putin). Barring some unexpected event  GOP senators waking up at the prospect of war?  the cost to America will be high.



Of course, if history is any guide, Bolton might self-destruct.



When he served in government, the walrus-mustachioed lawyer was so hard to work with that GOP senators blocked his confirmation as ambassador to the United Nations. (President George W. Bush gave him a recess appointment.) When he held a senior post at the State Department, Bolton clashed repeatedly with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and ultimately broke with Bush, whom he considered insufficiently hawkish.



But if he and Trump bond, Bolton's America First philosophy could give shape and consistency to Trump's most reckless instincts.



Bolton is a more serious and well-disciplined version of the chaotic former White House chief of staff Steve Bannon, or the president's first national security adviser, the wacko Mike Flynn. They, too, tried to channel the president's go-it-alone impulses, but neither was skillful enough.



Along comes Bolton, who believes there is a yawning divide between "Americanists" and "globalists" (a term Bannon also used) who seek to tie the United States down, as the Lilliputians did to Gulliver.










By Andrew Hammond







The European Council summit of presidents and prime ministers on March 23 signed off, in principle, on the Brexit transition deal agreed between the United Kingdom and EU-27, March 12.







This accord, which will come into play when the U.K. is scheduled to leave the EU in March 2019, was finally agreed to after Spain threatened to veto it over Gibraltar's inclusion in it.







Gibraltar, like the Irish border issue, remains a key area of dispute in Brexit talks and to secure Madrid's sign off, EU leaders asserted that the U.K. must come to a bilateral agreement with Spain over the future of the U.K. overseas territory on the southern Spanish coast. Spanish Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis has already invited the U.K. government for negotiations on the issue, including proposals for joint sovereignty.







The fact that Madrid may yet play hard-ball in Brexit negotiations over this issue is reflected in Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's previous reported remarks to his U.K. counterpart Theresa May that such a joint sovereignty model will, under a "hard Brexit" scenario of the U.K. leaving the European Single Market and Customs Union, be the only way for Gibraltar to secure continued access to the European Single Market which is key for its economy.







The scope for potential further tension between Madrid and London is underlined by the fact that Gibraltar remains strongly opposed to enhanced political ties with Spain. And U.K. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has doubled down on this with his own "completely implacable, marmoreal and rocklike resistance" to Spain's joint sovereignty proposals.







With Spain's veto on this issue withdrawn, for now, the signing off on the transition deal now sets the stage for very tough talks on a final settlement which will be the hardest stage yet of the long negotiations process. To this end, EU leaders also agreed on their first set of draft negotiating guidelines on the future EU-U.K. relationship with the big ambition of securing a final Brexit framework deal that will kick in in the 2020s after the transitional period ends.







The very limited timeframe offered by the two-year Article 50 process is exactly why the U.K. government wants a transition period to help smooth Brexit and the agreement runs through to Dec. 31, 2020, the end date of the EU's current budget. This will help give England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland time to adjust to new political and regulatory frameworks, although some leading Brexiteers, including former U.K. Independence Party leader Nigel Farage have slammed this option as pointless "backsliding" and called for May to resign.







This forthcoming stage of talks on the future encompasses not just the parameters of a newly defined U.K.-EU relationship, including a new trade deal. But they will also involve issues not fully resolved in earlier U.K.-EU divorce discussions, especially the future of the Irish border which remains a vexed issue with no clear solution in sight. So this is a massive task, not least as the EU chief Brexit Negotiator Michel Barnier has said that a final framework deal should be reached by October which appears super ambitious.







What is key now in the eyes of Barnier is London giving more clarity on the U.K.'s final negotiating positions. The most authoritative roadmap here remains the Brexit set piece speech May gave in London on March 2.







May then asserted that she does not want to keep "bits of the EU," including the Single Market and Customs Union, but would like a "bold, ambitious free trade agreement" with "the freest possible trade on goods and services"; a new customs agreement that would allow for "tariff-free trade with Europe; and cross border trade that is frictionless as possible." At the same time, she aims to take back full control of immigration policy, and move toward ending the European Court of Justice's jurisdiction in the U.K.







Even with goodwill from both sides, and the latest transition deal obstacle lifted, it is uncertain whether these collective negotiating demands can be realized from the EU given its own tough negotiating positions, and its commitment to the four freedoms of goods, services, capital and persons. This is especially so given May's weakened political standing after the U.K. general election in June where she lost her parliamentary majority.







Coming after the Dec. 8 first phase Brexit deal, May will be temporarily strengthened by the Brexit transition agreement. However, it remains possible that her government could still fall in 2018, especially with her Conservative Party potentially enduring poor results in the local elections which could leave May badly on the back foot again.







So with a significant amount now beyond her power, even more rests on whether the remaining 27 EU states will offer outlines of such a final deal on attractive enough terms to her to accept.







This is why talks could still break down in 2018, especially over the Irish issue where London, Dublin and Brussels are still scrambling to find a solution for how a harder border can be avoided between the Republic of Ireland (which will remain in the EU) and Northern Ireland (which remains in the U.K. and thus leave the Brussels-based club) without the latter remaining in a customs union with Europe, an option which May has rejected.







The economic, political and international relations stakes in play in securing a final Brexit deal are therefore big for all parties. Delivering a smooth departure will now need high level statesmanship and diplomatic ingenuity so all parties can move toward a new constructive partnership for the years to come.









Andrew Hammond is an Associate at LSE IDEAS at the London School of Economics. Contact him at

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By Shlomo Ben-Ami





MADRID  Four days before the United Kingdom's 1924 election, the Daily Mail published a letter purportedly written by Comintern Chairman Grigori Zinoviev, calling on British Communists to mobilize "sympathetic forces" in the Labour Party to support an Anglo-Soviet treaty and to encourage "agitation-propaganda" in the armed forces.



The letter was found to be fake  forged by anti-Bolshevik White Russians or perhaps Britain's own secret service  but not before it caused the defeat of the U.K.'s first Labour government.



Today's Russian disinformation campaigns, part of the Kremlin's hybrid war against Western democracies, seem to have much in common with the infamous Zinoviev letter. But is their impact really comparable? Would Western democracies really look different today without Russian subterfuge?



According to Gerard Araud, France's ambassador to the United States, Russian electoral interference and manipulation, if left unchecked, could pose an "existential threat" to Western democracies. In other words, an autocrat ruling over an impoverished country with an oil-addicted economy smaller than that of Brazil is supposed to be capable of bringing down the world's major democracies.



France's own presidential election last year seems to challenge Araud's reading. Russia's cyber-campaign against the centrist Emmanuel Macron  meant to aid the far-right candidate Marine Le Pen  included everything from the publication of baseless claims that Macron is gay to the diffusion of fake documents claiming that he has an offshore bank account. Yet, today, Macron is France's president, and Le Pen is struggling to rebrand her party.



This is not to say that Russia cannot be a dangerous spoiler. Nor is it to diminish the risks of social media warping users' view of reality by facilitating the spread of biased and even outright false news (though many experts believe that the internet is far more effective at producing "slacktivism" than actual political mobilization).



But the Western liberal order is not in crisis because of Russia. Western democracies must take responsibility for a crisis that, ultimately, is homegrown  nurtured by its leaders' own failure to confront effectively the challenges of globalization.



The most worrying feature of the 2016 U.S. presidential election was not the Russian trolls and bots that attempted to sow opposition to Hillary Clinton.



Rather, it was that 61 million American citizens blindly believed the flagrant lies of Donald Trump, the most uneducated and mendacious presidential candidate in U.S. history. It did not help, of course, that Clinton  enabled by an obstinate Democratic Party establishment  ran a weak and visionless campaign that ignored the mounting anger of millions of voters who felt left behind by globalization.



Moreover, it was not Russian President Vladimir Putin who created the ethical crisis afflicting Western capitalism. That was achieved by U.S. bankers, who, taking advantage of deregulation and financial interconnectedness, misguided the global economy to the 2008 financial meltdown.



U.S. politicians then refused to implement adequate new banking regulations, much less punish those who had caused the crisis and profited handsomely along the way. In Europe, similar ethical and political failures in response to globalization have fueled widespread support for populists of the right and left.



Populist parties once confined to the political fringe did not win nearly half the vote in Italy's recent election because of Russian disinformation campaigns. They won because of mounting anger toward a corrupt political establishment that has failed to address major economic problems, from financial instability to high youth unemployment.



Italy's persistent regional inequalities were also on vivid display: whereas the prosperous north favored the anti-immigrant League party, the more populist Five Star Movement received most of its support in the poorer south.



Putin may benefit from such electoral outcomes, but that doesn't make him responsible for them. National politicians  from the Brexiteers to Trump  are the ones espousing divisive policies, refusing to acknowledge the importance of cooperation and ethics in policymaking, lambasting traditional elites and state institutions, and praising autocrats, including Putin himself. The campaign slogan of Italy's League party  "Italians first"  could not be a more direct tribute to Trump's nationalist approach.



Media have served to reinforce these narratives. Yes, Russians have been found to be behind some of the "fake news" spread via social media. But in the U.K., for example, tabloids owned by Rupert Murdoch and Jonathan Harmsworth, better known as Lord Rothermere, did much more to sow opposition to the European Union before the Brexit vote.



History, too, has played a role. The Euroskepticism of Eastern Europe's "illiberal democracies" reflects deep-seated religious and authoritarian traditions, which have impeded these societies' internalization of the EU's post-modern culture of secular tolerance and universal values. Poland's combination of fierce anti-Russian sentiment and extreme religious nationalism illustrates this dynamic.



The fact is that the West is beset by deep social inequalities, reinforced in recent decades by poorly managed globalization. At the same time, its political establishment has become increasingly disconnected from the public, much as it did in interwar Europe  a development that fueled the rise of fascism and populist authoritarianism. This dynamic is particularly apparent in the EU, where many decisions are in the hands of a distant and unaccountable bureaucracy lacking in sufficient democratic legitimacy.



Russia does not pose an existential threat to Western democracy. The Soviet Union represented a far more formidable challenge, and it ended up collapsing under the weight of its own economic failure. Russia's internal problems  not just economic stagnation, but also demographic decline  are of a similar scale.



But this does not mean that Western democracy is safe. To protect it, Western leaders must confront their own shortcomings. That means upgrading institutions, improving democratic accountability, reducing economic and social inequality, and striving to ensure that globalization works for all.





Shlomo Ben-Ami, a former Israeli foreign minister, is vice president of the Toledo International Center for Peace. He is the author of "Scars of War, Wounds of Peace: The Israeli-Arab Tragedy." Copyright belongs to Project Syndicate (www.project-syndicate.org).


Authorities should try to minimize downside risks



The government has unveiled an ambitious plan to create jobs for young people by promoting various projects to encourage their startups and upgrade decrepit residential environments in the hearts of about 250 towns across the nation simultaneously.



The project drafted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport through consultations with the ruling Democratic Party of Korea appears to be epoch-making in that it aims at "killing two birds with one stone," namely jobs and revitalization of old undeveloped towns.



The plan, dubbed "New Deal for Urban Regeneration," deserves attention as it features efforts to prevent "gentrification" of worn-out buildings in old towns, which was one of major problems in the previous projects for city maintenance like the construction of "new towns" in old city blocks.



However, it is feared the urban regeneration project may create a bubble in the real estate market, which shows signs of regaining stability after undergoing a speculative mood.



In order to effectively and productively promote the project expected to create many jobs for the young, the government should examine closely the development of land, a potential surge in housing prices in the course of selecting candidate towns and also closely monitor real estate market trends afterwards.



Real estate prices may rise naturally if residential environments are improved but the project may prompt speculative investment. Then, the ambitious plan could go nowhere due to the downside risks.



As Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Kim Hyun-mi said, the government should keep its promise to offer more job opportunities to young people and residents of the selected towns. It also must listen carefully to the different opinions of residents because there are pros and cons to urban renewal.



The central and local administrations should not spare any effort to provide young people from the old areas with support required to help create jobs for them. This kind of project should not be politically motivated and should be continuously pushed through by the next governments _ be they liberal or conservative.






Summit with Xi should help North's denuclearization



North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's surprise visit to China this week was apparently aimed at mending frayed bilateral ties right before he meets with South Korean President Moon Jae-in next month and U.S. President Donald Trump in May. The visit will no doubt help Kim boost his bargaining power during the upcoming denuclearization talks.



There is no reason to oppose a better relationship between Pyongyang and Beijing because it can serve as a catalyst for a breakthrough in denuclearizing the North. That is why Cheong Wa Dae described Kim's China visit and improving Pyongyang-Beijing ties as positive signs.



It is worth noting Kim reaffirmed his commitment to denuclearization during the summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. This was the first time Kim has traveled to another country since taking power in 2011. It was also his first time to express his willingness to scrap the North's nuclear development program directly to a foreign leader.



But South Korea and its allies should have cautious optimism about Kim's aggressive, sudden diplomatic offensive. He offered an olive branch to the South in his New Year speech, an abrupt turn from a set of intercontinental ballistic missile launches and sixth nuclear test last year.



In this regard, it is natural to have both optimism and skepticism about Kim's summitry not only with China but also with the South and the U.S. Despite some positive aspects of his Beijing trip, critics raise concerns Kim might use better ties with China as leverage to gain the upper hand in the summits with Moon and Trump.



Kim also seems to be trying to persuade China to ease U.S.-led international sanctions against the North for its nuclear and missile programs. He may think Beijing could move toward sanctions relief once bilateral ties are back on track. If such a thing happens, it would deal a blow to Seoul and Washington which are committed to keeping up the pressure on Pyongyang until it dismantles its nuclear arsenal.



Another problem is Kim might seek a step-by-step approach to demand rewards for every measure the North takes in the denuclearization process. This approach runs counter to Trump's idea of immediate and complete denuclearization without any quid pro quo until it is complete.



The North Korean leader also appears to be considering turning to its traditional ally, China, for help if his summit with the U.S. ends up in failure and Trump opts for military options over a diplomatic solution. This could make sense because Trump appointed two hawks as national security adviser (John Bolton) and secretary of state (Mike Pompeo).



It remains to be seen whether China can play a constructive role in denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula and bringing peace and stability in Northeast Asia. China should not try to seek only hegemony over the North in its showdown with the U.S. We call for Beijing's active role in the broader peace process on the peninsula to ensure coexistence and co-prosperity.










By Kim Yoo-chul



Samsung Electronics and Apple are entwined in an "extraordinary relationship" because the two technology giants are competing for the lion's share of the evolving mobile world.



Samsung Electronics, the world's top handset vendor by shipments, is hampering the Cupertino-based outfit with global releases of new products with an improved array of features and benefits while, in contrast, Apple is sticking to its philosophy of simplicity.



Adding to the "soap-opera-like" intrigue, Samsung Electronics is also a top-tier supplier to Apple with the latter procuring displays and chips to assemble "i-somethings." Their love-hate relationship is becoming much more complicated due to the complex nature of the businesses they are involved in.



But this time, the sluggish sale of Apple's premium iPhone X is hurting the bottom line of Samsung's display business. The concern is Samsung has a whopping 97 percent global share in small- and mid-sized OLED displays and it is an exclusive OLED display panel supplier for Apple. That means Samsung's display business is in sync with the sales curve of the Apple iPhone X as this is the first Apple handset using a premium OLED panel.



"iPhone X sales failed to meet expectations. Disappointing iPhone X sales caused problems for Samsung's display business as it is attempting to find new clients for OLED displays due to a supply surplus," said an official at Samsung, wishing to remain unidentified, Tuesday.



But it's not clear what the results are for those latest attempts to find new clients, though Samsung is suggesting it will supply its high-end OLED screens below market prices.



FN Guide, a financial data tracker, said Samsung Electronics is forecast to report 61.68 trillion won in revenue for the first quarter of this year with the company expecting to generate 14.58 trillion won in profits. That is down 6.5 percent and 3.7 percent from a quarter earlier, respectively.



"We are very confident the performance of Samsung's display business during the first quarter won't be good. We aren't very positive about the company's business outlook throughout this year," said a senior hedge fund manager at a U.S.-based investment bank in Seoul, adding Samsung's OLED business is facing a major "crossing point."



JPMorgan cut its outlook for iPhone X sales during the first half of this year by 44 percent. For the final quarter of last year, Samsung's display business reported 11.18 trillion won in revenue; however, market analysts say its display business is anticipated to earn about 8 trillion won in revenue in the current quarter.



OLED (organic light-emitting diode) has long been touted as the future of smartphones as the screen doesn't need a bulky backlight and has much crisper viewing and is easier on batteries than conventional LCD screens.




Seen is a bird-eye view of Samsung Electronics' first chip-production line in Xian, China. The company began construction on the second line there Wednesday. / Courtesy of Samsung Electronics



By Jun Ji-hye



Samsung Electronics has begun construction of a second chip-production line in China in a bid to respond to increasing demand for its 3D V-NAND products, the tech giant said Wednesday.



The company said it held a groundbreaking ceremony at its factory in Xian with Liu Guozhong, governor of Shaanxi, and other Chinese officials as well as Korean Ambassador to China Noh Young-min and Samsung's CEO of device solutions, Kim Ki-nam, attending.



The construction is scheduled to be complete by next year.



NAND flash chips are used for mobile devices such as smartphones.



The world's largest chipmaker built its first memory chip line in the Chinese city in 2012.



In August 2017, the firm signed a memorandum of understanding with the regional government of Shaanxi Province to build the second line with an investment of $7 billion over the next three years.



"Through the successful operation of the second production line in Xian, Samsung Electronics will continue to contribute to the growth of the global IT market by producing the best semiconductors and offering distinguished solutions to customers," Kim said during the ceremony.



Liu also celebrated the start of construction, vowing to further enhance cooperation with Samsung and other cooperative companies.



The Korean company said its investment in the second production line will strengthen its competitive power in the Chinese market, in which production bases of global mobile technology and IT companies are concentrated.



"We expect that the second line will be able to more actively deal with the rising demand of NAND flash chips," a Samsung official said, noting that positive effects on China's regional economy are also expected.



Once construction is complete, Samsung's Xian factory will play a key role in the firm's chip-making, along with its production bases in Hwaseong and Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province.



The firm is also moving to build a second chip-production line in Pyeongtaek with the cost estimated to be about 30 trillion won ($27.8 billion).



In July, the chipmaker opened the first production line in the Korean city, which mass-produces 3D NAND-Flash chips. At the time, the firm spent 15.6 trillion won on the construction, and later decided to spend an additional 14.4 trillion won to extend the line for DRAM manufacturing. DRAM is a crucial part of computers.



The second production line is expected to mass-produce both NAND flash and DRAM chips like the first one, according to Lee Jong-wook, an analyst at Samsung Securities.




Union workers plan to stage all-out strike Friday



By Park Jae-hyuk



The possibility of Kumho Tire entering court receivership has become even higher, after the union decided to stage an all-out strike Friday, despite the Korea Development Bank (KDB) led creditors' request to agree to a self-rescue plan by then.



KDB Chairman Lee Dong-gull has reiterated that the union's stubbornness will lead to the delisting of the country's second-largest tiremaker and court receivership, citing its liquidity crisis



"We may reconsider our plan, if Samsung Electronics declares to buy Kumho Tire for 643.6 billion won ($603 million) and invest an additional 1 trillion won in the tiremaker," Lee joking told reporters Wednesday. "If not, Doublestar Tire is the only company that can afford to buy Kumho Tire."



Amid the growing concerns over the possible court receivership, conflict inside the union has intensified.



According to industry officials, one of the union members urged its leaders to disclose the names of Korean companies considering acquiring Kumho Tire, and to come up with measures to avoid court receivership.



"The union leaders should explain the reason why they still remain reluctant to disclose the names of Korean companies and an influential politician who spread the rumor," the member was quoted as saying. "The union has guaranteed the avoidance of court receivership without mentioning any specific measures."



The union member reportedly demanded the leaders hold a briefing session as well.



Former leaders of the Kumho Tire union worry about the aftermath of Friday's strike.



"The all-out strike scheduled for Friday should be delayed," they said. "The walkout should be staged after the KDB and management file for court receivership, because we need public support."



A Kumho Tire spokesman said many employees have begun to leave the company.



As a part of the self-rescue plan, Kumho Tire accepted voluntary resignations of dozens of employees earlier this year, but many more of its workers have now submitted their resignations, according to the spokesman.



The union said it opposes both a foreign acquisition and court receivership.



According to the union, more than 3,000 workers will join the walkout Friday at Kumho Tire's factories in Gwangju and Gokseong, South Jeolla Province.



They will hold a rally at the Gwangju factory at 2:00 p.m. to protest sale to a foreign company.



Kumho Tire Chairman Kim Jong-ho has urged the union to accept the Chinese company's takeover of the tiremaker, saying court receivership will deal a severe blow to the company's manufacturing and sales.



"The wait-and-see attitude toward court receivership in April is imprudent and irresponsible," he said in a notice to the company's employees. "Few companies recover after court receivership. As well as shareholders and creditors, the company's employees will have to endure hardship."


Photographers take photos of Ferrari's Portofino which is on display at its launching event at Sevit Island, in Seocho-gu, Seoul, Wednesday. The Italian carmaker on Wednesday launched the grand touring hardtop convertible in the Korean market. The car yields a maximum 600 horsepower and takes 3.5 seconds from 0 to 100 kilometers per hour. / Yonhap
Dimitris Psillakis, chairman of the European Chamber of Commerce in Korea, delivers an opening speech at the Korea-Europe Future Automotive Forum held at the Conrad Seoul, Wednesday. / Courtesy of the European Chamber of Commerce in Korea

By Park Jae-hyuk



The first fatal Uber car accident that happened in Arizona this month will not stop development of autonomous vehicles, European carmakers in Seoul said Wednesday.



Erik Jonnaert, secretary-general of the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA), said the recent accident does not mean the end of driverless cars, but it heralded the beginning of the self-driving era.



At the Korea-Europe Future Automotive Forum held in Seoul, the keynote speaker cited Jaguar Land Rover's partnership with Waymo, a self-driving car arm of Google, as an example of constant and brisk investments in technologies for automated vehicles.



He added the investigation is still underway to find out whether the Uber car really caused the accident.



Since the car-hailing service provider's vehicle killed a pedestrian in the United States, concerns have grown over the safety of self-driving cars being tested in Korea. Some expect research of related-technologies will decrease after the accident.



Uber decided to give up testing its self-driving cars in California a day before the forum.



European carmakers, however, tried to dispel consumers' worries, focusing on the topic related to autonomous cars at the forum co-hosted by the ACEA, the European Chamber of Commerce in Korea (ECCK) and the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association.



"With a long history of innovation together, the strategic partnership in automotive technologies is of great significance to both Korea and Europe," ECCK Chairman Dimitris Psillakis said. "In light of these paradigm shifts in automobility in the age of the fourth industrial revolution, it is important to deepen this partnership and turn challenges into opportunities, and find solutions to the environmental crisis together."



Sina Marek from Daimler AG and Alexander Mastrovito from Scania Asia & Oceania delivered speeches about the future of mobility and on the future of transportation, respectively, both of which are highly related to self-driving technology.



Korean government officials also supported the views of the European businesses.



"The opportunity always accompanies the crisis," said Kim Young-sam, deputy minister of trade, industry and energy. "Despite technical difficulties facing the growth of the automotive industry, there will be a chance to create the new market."



Cho Seong-woo, a leader of the K-City management team, presented the government's research on the safety of autonomous cars and its plan to establish a test bed.



The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on Tuesday said it will continue to try its best to make safe systems and infrastructure for commercialization of self-driving cars.






By Nam Hyun-woo



Hyundai Motor Group took the first step Wednesday to streamline its complex ownership structure by making its auto parts unit, Hyundai Mobis, its control tower.



Hyundai Mobis held a board meeting to approve the plan to spin-off its module manufacturing and after-sales parts businesses and merge those businesses with Hyundai Glovis, the group's logistics unit.



Under the proposed plan, Mobis shareholders will receive 0.61 of a new share of Glovis stock for each share of Mobis.



According to the group, Mobis will then focus the core function of the group's future, such as auto piloting, as well as acting as the control tower of the group. Glovis, will seek to add new revenue streams by combining Mobis' module manufacturing and after-sales parts businesses.



Mobis stands as the key affiliate of the group's four circular ownership structures. Of those structures, the core is Mobis that owns a 20.78 percent stake in Hyundai Motor. Hyundai Motor having a 33.88 percent stake in Kia Motors, and Kia Motors having a 16.88 percent stake in Mobis is the leading shareholder.



Through this structure, Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Mong-koo and Vice Chairman Chung Eui-sun could control the affiliates even with small stakes in key Hyundai affiliates. Currently, Chairman Chung holds a 6.96 percent stake in Mobis, while Eui-sun does not have stake.



To end this circular structure, the group said the board of directors of Kia Motors and Glovis has decided to sell its respective stakes in Mobis to "the principal shareholders," which means the chairman and vice chairman.



The chairman and vice chairman will sell all of their stakes in Glovis to Kia Motors to secure funds for purchasing Mobis stakes. The chairman holds a 6.7 percent stake in Glovis and the vice chairman has 23.2 percent.



This will make Mobis stand right below the chairman's and vice chairman's control. Mobis will then control Hyundai Motor company, which controls Kia Motors.



The spin-off-merger is subject to approval at the general shareholders' meetings of Mobis and Glovis, currently scheduled for May 29. Upon approval, the spin-off-merger is expected to be effective in early July.



The plans came after the country's Fair Trade Commission issued a series of "requests" to the group to have a plan to overhaul its complicated shareholding structure among affiliates by the end of March.



"The group's commitment towards a more transparent and accountable governance structure will eventually benefit all stakeholders, including shareholders, employees, regulators and customers," the group said in an English statement. "The completion of these transactions will also effectively unwind the Group's circular shareholding structure."




A Kumho Petrochemical worker inspects a product at the firm's plant in Yeosu, South Jeolla Province. / Courtesy of Kumho Petrochemical



Amid rapidly changing market conditions, Kumho Petrochemical is set to sharpen its competitiveness by analyzing the sustainability of key businesses and improving their structures.



According to the Seoul-based company, it is bracing for possible challenges in each stage of business activity from production to sales to management.



In addition, the firm will make efforts to find a new growth engine through cooperation with different industries, while retaining its competitive edge in its existing business domains.



Kumho will mainly focus on solidifying its status in the synthetic rubber products market.



It plans to increase its synthetic rubber capacity by 10 percent by readjusting production process and rescheduling manufacturing facilities for its key products, such as NB Latex and LBR. Last year, the company expanded the production capacity of NB Latex twofold with the expected rise in the demand for synthetic rubber products.



In addition, Kumho will produce more major synthetic rubber products and enhance partnerships with global tiremakers.



When it comes to synthetic resins, Kumho Petrochemical said it also expects an increase in the demand of high-functioning acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) resins, so it will expand facilities for those products, as well as coming up with marketing strategies.



Its affiliates are also seeking to expand their presence on the global stage this year.



Kumho P&B Chemicals, a chemical subsidy, plans to boost its phenol and acetone output as market conditions are anticipated to improve over last year.



To this end, Kumho P&B Chemicals is seeking to move its laboratory to Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province, to enhance competitiveness of its epoxy resin research.



Kumho Mitsui Chemicals will restructure its regional portfolio in America, Europe and Asia to diversify the global MDI market. MDI is a raw material for polyurethane.



"Currently, it can produce 350,000 tons of MDI annually, but the company considers expanding its production capacity, expecting a gradual increase of the chemical," a Kumho official said.



The chemical company has set its sights on developing technology in new businesses to fuse existing businesses.



To this end, Kumho has chosen carbon nanotubes which are compounded with synthetic rubber and resins for higher intensity and lighter weight.



As those tubes are expected to have wider applications, further expansion in manufacturing and sales is under consideration, the company said.



Its division for sealants, a substance used to glue displays, has been diversifying products as well ahead of an expected expansion of the flexible display market.



(Advertorial)


By Nam Hyun-woo





Heather Cho
Shinsegae Vice Chairman Chung Yong-jin speaks during the group's job fair at COEX convention center in Samseong-dong, Seoul. / Yonhap



By Nam Hyun-woo



Shinsegae Vice Chairman Chung Yong-jin said Wednesday the retailer will enter the U.S. market with its supermarket brand in May next year, as well as revealing a plan to build a massive facility to control the group's online shopping business.



"We are seeking to open a PK Market store in the U.S. in May of next year," Chung told reporters during the group's job fair at COEX convention center in Samseong-dong, Seoul. "We are about to sell Asian groceries that can attract U.S. citizens."



PK Market is Shinsegae's premium grocery store. Currently, it has two outlets at Starfields Hanam and Goyang in Gyeonggi Province.



Chung said the store will be located in Los Angeles and the group will seek to expand its store network in the western U.S. The store will also likely contain a restaurant.



"Unless we fix the timing of our U.S. entrance there could be delays," Chung said. "We are carrying out preparations with the goal of opening the store in May of next year no matter what happens."



"We have experienced bitter failure in China and decided to focus on an advanced market where there are no limits in entering or withdrawing," he said, adding that the Australian and European markets are also on the radar.



For domestic business, Chung said Shinsegae will build a 30-story online center that controls the retailer's online shopping businesses in Hanam.



E-Mart, Shinsegae's core supermarket unit, has recently purchased a 21,422-square meter lot in Hanam for 97.2 billion won. Chung said it will be "a landmark" of the region.



The bid is in line with Chung's initiative to enhance the group's online business.



In January this year, Shinsegae signed memoranda of understanding with two foreign investors on their investments worth more than 1 trillion won. Also, it said it will restructure its online business by establishing a new corporate body that controls the group's online sales.



Shinsegae also said it plans to separate its online mall SSG.com as an independent company and keep its core facilities and workforce in the new building.



"The success of an online business depends on the system supporting it, and many Korean online shopping companies have been falling short of coming up with such a system," he said, adding that Shinsegae is developing its own system on advice from experts including some who worked for Amazon.


By Laura Zhou, Catherine Wong





A veteran diplomat is set to take over as China's deputy special representative for Korean affairs, as Beijing seeks to avoid being sidelined on the peninsula amid plans for North Korea to hold talks with both South Korea and the United States, sources said. A veteran diplomat is set to take over as China's deputy special representative for Korean affairs, as Beijing seeks to avoid being sidelined on the peninsula amid plans for North Korea to hold talks with both South Korea and the United States, sources said.

Ning Fukui, who served as ambassador to South Korea from 2006-08, and was involved in the four- and six-party talks in the 1990s and 2000s, is expected to work under Kong Xuanyou, China's special envoy to Pyongyang and vice-foreign minister on North Korean affairs, the diplomatic sources said.





Ning Fukui

While Ning's appointment has yet to be formally announced, he started work at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs earlier this month, one of the sources said.

The post of deputy representative has been vacant since its former holder, Xu Bu, was named as China's ambassador in Chile in January.

Finding Xu's replacement was a priority for Beijing, which despite being Pyongyang's greatest ally and patron for more than seven decades, has recently found itself being edged out of the picture in light of the proposed summits between the leaders of the two Koreas next month, and planned talks between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at a date yet to be agreed.












Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is finalising details for a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump on April 18 to discuss strategy before a proposed meeting between North Korean and U.S. leaders, a ruling party official told Reuters on Wednesday.



Abe will also likely ask Trump to exempt Japan from his steel and aluminum tariffs, said the official, who has been briefed on the matter and asked not to be identified. Abe, speaking at a parliamentary committee, said Japanese steel products were helping to make U.S. auto makers more competitive and cheaper for American consumers.



"Protectionism, at first glance, appears to benefit a nation which exercises it, but it is not necessarily so," Abe said. "Japan wants to be a flag bearer to promote a free trade which will bring a win-win situation to each nation."



His finance minister, Taro Aso, echoed that view and said some of responsibility for the trade imbalance rested with the United States.



"I understand the U.S. position that it cannot continue with a trade deficit, but the United States itself should make efforts," Aso told the same committee. The meeting between Abe and the U.S. leader is expected to be held at Trump's Mar-a-Largo retreat in Florida, according to the source.



North Korea's Kim Jong Un is set to meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in in April and then possibly Trump in May. (REUTERS)




Kendallville, IN (46755)

Today

Sunny. High 72F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies early then becoming cloudy with periods of rain late. Low 54F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch.
Rome, March 28 - An Italo-Moroccan accused of belonging to the Islamic State Islamist terror group was arrested in Turin on Wednesday. Elmahdi Halili, 23, the author of the first ISIS propaganda message in Italian, was captured at the end of a probe by anti-terrorism police in the northwestern Italian city. Police carried out searches across northern Italy - in Milan, Modena, Bergamo and Reggio Emilia - and also in Naples against individuals suspected of links to extremist Islamist circles, police said. A number of Italians who have converted to Islam are also involved in the probe, as well as citizens of foreign origin, police said. Charges against them include waging a campaign of radicalization and proselytism via the Interet, judicial sources said. On Tuesday in Foggia an Italo-Egyptian was arrested on charges of teaching children to kill for jihad. In an interview with La Stampa newspaper, caretaker INterior Minister Marco Minniti said "The picture of the ISIS threat remains unchanged. "May the new government continue with the deportation of those who have been radicalised".
Rome, March 28 - Piacenza prosecutors on Wednesday sought the indictments of two alleged sex pests, former Council of State member Francesco Bellomo and suspended Rovigo prosecutor Davide Nalin, on charges of harassing young women. Specifically in this case, they are charged with stalking and grievous bodily harm against a 32-year-old Piacenza woman. The pair allegedly committed the alleged crimes at a training school called "Law and Science", prosecutors said. The alleged victim was quizzed on her past sex life and asked to draw up a table with places, frequencies and ways listed, prosecutors said. The trainee, in may 2016, was also allegedly insulted because of the 'low algorithm score' of her former boyfriends, police said. The self-regulatory body for Italian administrative magistrates, the council of president of administrative justice, in January gave the final OK to the dismissal of alleged sex pest Bellomo from the Council of State. The Council of State is Italy's top administrative court. Bellomo has been accused of using his authority to pressure female students into sex at the prestigious law school for would-be judges and for making some pupils attend the courses in mini-skirts, high heels and make-up. He is also under investigation for allegedly insisting that his trainees not be married. Investigations into the case are underway in Bari and Piacenza. photo: Bellomo
Rome, March 28 - An Italo-Moroccan accused of belonging to the Islamic State (ISIS) Islamist terror group was arrested in Turin on Wednesday and police said he had been planning to use trucks for attacks and seeking 'lone wolves' to carry them out. Elmahdi Halili, 23, the author of the first ISIS propaganda message in Italian, was captured at the end of a probe by anti-terrorism police in the northwestern Italian city. Turin Police Chief Francesco Messina said "we had to act immediately to eliminate this threat: Halili could have carried out attacks". "He had moved from self-indoctrination to trying to contact others, 'lone wolves', who could carry out terrorist actions, and he was weighing how to use knives and how to prepare trucks for attacks," Messina said. In some cases he met these lone wolves, Messina said, who were Italians converted to Islam, Ghanaians and Moroccans, often already known to police for other crimes. The head of the DIGOS special security police, Carlo Ambra, said "it was time to intervene. "We couldn't afford to let him identify a target to strike. "There was a need to act immediately". Halili was already arrested in Brescia in 2015 and plea-bargained a term of two years for apology of terrorism, police said. The probe, codenamed Balkan Connection, identified people able to enlist fighters for ISIS. These included the Brescian foreign fighter Anas El Abboubi who was arrested and then released by a parole court and went to fight in Syria. He is believed to have died. Police on Wednesday carried out searches across northern Italy - in Milan, Modena, Bergamo and Reggio Emilia - and also in Naples against individuals suspected of links to extremist Islamist circles, police said. A number of Italians who have converted to Islam are also involved in the probe, as well as citizens of foreign origin, police said. Charges against them include waging a campaign of radicalization and proselytism via the Interet, judicial sources said. On Tuesday in Foggia an Italo-Egyptian was arrested on charges of teaching children to kill for jihad. In an interview with La Stampa newspaper, caretaker INterior Minister Marco Minniti said "The picture of the ISIS threat remains unchanged. "May the new government continue with the deportation of those who have been radicalised". photo: Turin prosecutors' office
Rome, March 28 - An Italo-Moroccan accused of belonging to the Islamic State (ISIS) Islamist terror group was arrested in Turin on Wednesday and police said he had been planning to use trucks for attacks. Elmahdi Halili, 23, the author of the first ISIS propaganda message in Italian, was captured at the end of a probe by anti-terrorism police in the northwestern Italian city. Turin Police Chief Francesco Messina said "we had to act immediately to eliminate this threat: Halili could have carried out attacks". "He had moved from self-indoctrination to trying to contact others, 'lone wolves', who could carry out terrorist actions, and he was weighing how to use knives and how to prepare trucks for attacks," Messina said. Halili was already arrested in Brescia in 2015 and plea-bargained a term of two years for apology of terrorism, police said. The probe, codenamed Balkan Connection, identified people able to enlist fighters for ISIS. These included the Brescian foreign fighter Anas El Abboubi who was arrested and then released by a parole court and went to fight in Syria. He is believed to have died. Police on Wednesday carried out searches across northern Italy - in Milan, Modena, Bergamo and Reggio Emilia - and also in Naples against individuals suspected of links to extremist Islamist circles, police said. A number of Italians who have converted to Islam are also involved in the probe, as well as citizens of foreign origin, police said. Charges against them include waging a campaign of radicalization and proselytism via the Interet, judicial sources said. On Tuesday in Foggia an Italo-Egyptian was arrested on charges of teaching children to kill for jihad. In an interview with La Stampa newspaper, caretaker INterior Minister Marco Minniti said "The picture of the ISIS threat remains unchanged. "May the new government continue with the deportation of those who have been radicalised". photo: Turin prosecutors' office
Paris, March 28 - Ali Mamlouk, the head of the Syrian secret services, visited Rome in January and met Alberto Manenti, the head of Italy's external intelligence agency AISE, Le Monde reported on Wednesday. The French daily said that Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar first reported the visit in February adding that the story had been confirmed to it by "three well- informed sources on Syrian affairs". It said that the visit took place following an invitation from AISE and called it "a violation of the EU legislative acts against the regime". Mamlouk reportedly came to Rome "on a private jet made available by the Italian authorities".
Rome, March 28 - Anti-migrant Euroskeptic League leader Matteo salvini said Wednesday he would got to government-formation consultations held by President Sergio Mattarella on his own starting next week. He said this had been agreed with his centre-right allies led by centre-right Forza Italia (FI) leader and ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi. Confirming that the centre right parties will go to the president as separate delegations, Salvini said "I'm going to the president on my own. That's what the centre right has decided, for the first time it's OK...then we'll see". The other main ally in the coalition is the far-right nationalist Brothers of Italy (FdI) party led by Giorgia Meloni.
Rome, March 28 - Interior Minister Marco Minniti called for an ulterior reinforcement of security checks at crowded places "in view of the Easter holidays" at an extraordinary meeting of the Committee of Strategic Antiterrorism Analysis (CASA) on Wednesday. The meeting was called after the arrests of ISIS-linked suspects in two separate operations in Foggia and Turin over the last two days. An Italo-Moroccan accused of belonging to the Islamic State (ISIS) Islamist terror group was arrested in Turin on Wednesday and police said he had been planning to use trucks for attacks and seeking 'lone wolves' to carry them out. Elmahdi Halili, 23, the author of the first ISIS propaganda message in Italian, was captured at the end of a probe by anti-terrorism police in the northwestern Italian city. At the moment of his arrest, Halili reportedly shouted On Tuesday in Foggia an Italo-Egyptian was arrested on charges of teaching children to kill for jihad. An Italian teacher from Foggia who works in Ferrara has been placed under investigation in that probe, judicial sources said Wednesday. The teacher is said to have converted to Islam. In an interview with La Stampa newspaper Wednesday, Minniti said "the picture of the ISIS threat remains unchanged".
Representing all the artists with roots in San Diego and La Jolla  from Jim Morrison and Tom Waits to Cliff Robertson and Dr. Seuss  the latest installation in the Murals of La Jolla public art program shines a spotlight on late author Raymond Chandler, his book Playback set in La Jolla (disguised as the town of Esmeralda), and the La Jolla bar where the artists gathered.

Raul Guerreros mural, Raymond Chandler at the Whaling Bar, went up March 27 at 1162 Prospect St. It replaces the William Wegman mural, Opening, that has been there since 2014.

We have an outstanding group of artists that have emerged from the art community of San Diego, Guerrero told La Jolla Light. These include musicians, actors, authors, etc. My image of Raymond Chandler is a metaphor for all these artists.

Guerreros image depicts Chandler contemplatively sitting in the old Whaling Bar at La Valencia Hotel (the bar was renovated and renamed Cafe La Rue in 2013) where celebrities such as Gregory Peck, Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss) and the like would come to wet their whistles.

The mural includes a reference to the famed painting that hung on the back wall, which was removed with the renovation.

While sitting at the bar, smoke emits from Chandlers pipe spelling the word Esmeralda, the pseudonym the author gave La Jolla in Playback. Next to him sits a sultry woman in a copper-colored dress, a luxurious purple stole draped across her back. Is she his inspiration? Would she ultimately become a character in a future story? Is she even there at all?

I set the image around 1953, when Chandler was living in La Jolla.  Collectively, I thought of it as a noir-looking image celebrating him hanging out at the Whaling Bar with his characters, Guerrero said.

An artist rendering of Esmeralda (Courtesy )

The artist has spent nearly 20 years painting works centered in bars, so setting his Mural of La Jolla piece in a bar was a natural fit. Without knowing the Whaling Bar would close, Guerrero painted it as part of his broader series.

According to his artists statement (in 1999): I was inspired to begin a series of paintings about artist bars. Within a decade, I had created a wide variety of paintings and drawing depicting artists bars spanning from San Diego to Paris, France, which were done in a variety of media and styles all attempting to capture the muses that inspired the artists in these places.

The first series focused primarily on The Whaling Bar. This collection was eventually exhibited at the Athenaeum & Music Library in La Jolla in 2006. Later, an exhibition of the paintings was presented at Air de Paris in 2014. In a happenstance way, I now think the entire project was prescient of the yet-to-come opportunity to create an artwork for the Murals of La Jolla program with this subject in mind.

And Chandler would have approved.

Before his death in 1959, Chandler was quoted as saying: I like bars just after they open for the evening. When the air inside is still cool and clean, and everything is shiny, and the barkeep is giving himself that last look in the mirror to see if his tie is straight and his hair is smooth. I like the neat bottles on the bar back and the lovely shining glasses and the anticipation. I like to watch the man mix the first one of the evening and put it down on a crisp mat, and put the little folded napkin beside it. I like to taste it slowly. The first quiet drink of the evening in a quiet bar  thats wonderful.

Chandler, who penned many scripts for Paramount Studios in the 1940s and wrote four best-selling novels, moved to La Jolla in 1946 and spent the last 13 years of his life here.

Guerrero grew up in National City in a third-generation Mexican-American family. He went to art school in Los Angeles and studied architecture and urban planning, before moving to San Diego in 1980.

Currently teaching art at UC San Diego, Guerrero said it was an honor to participate in the Murals of La Jolla program: This is some of the best art around, and given the number of fine artists whove participated, who wouldnt want to?

Project curator Lynda Forsha said of the piece: Rauls mural image will pique interest because of its narrative content and will surely lead to lively discussions in the community regarding its very intriguing history! His image is related to Kota Ezawas recent mural Once Upon a Time in the West, in that it addresses specific people and places in La Jollas history, but the similarities stop there. In fact, they couldnt be more different in how each artist creates an image and thats really interesting in terms of the public looking and thinking about this outdoor collection of artworks.

WANT TO KNOW MORE? Murals of La Jolla was conceived in 2010 as a means to enhance the civic character of the community by commissioning public art projects on private property throughout La Jolla. It is a project of the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library initiated by the La Jolla Community Foundation. For a look-and-see list of the murals in the program, visit muralsoflajolla.com
Facebook Inc. said Wednesday it now will be easier for users to find and manage privacy control settings and see the information the social media giant has about them  moves that come in the wake of the widening Cambridge Analytica data-misappropriation controversy.

In another sign of the pressure Facebook is under, it plans to delay the unveiling of new home products, including connected speakers with digital-assistant and video-chat capabilities. The devices are undergoing a deeper review to ensure that they make the right trade-offs regarding user data, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Menlo Park, Calif., company had hoped to preview the devices at its developer conference in May, said the people, who asked not to be named discussing internal plans.

Facebook said in a blog post that a redesign of the privacy control settings menu for mobile will make it easier for users to see what information can and cant be shared with apps. After the redesign, those settings will be accessible from just one place; previously, settings were spread out across almost 20 pages, Facebook said.

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The company also said it was adding a specific menu for privacy shortcuts. That menu will include options to turn on two-factor authentication, manage ad preferences and determine who can see information on a users Facebook profile.

Weve heard loud and clear that privacy settings and other important tools are too hard to find and that we must do more to keep people informed, company executives wrote in the blog post. Most of these updates have been in the works for some time, but the events of the past several days underscore their importance.

Facebook also will add a feature called Access Your Information so users can see what theyve posted and reacted to, as well as things theyve searched for. The feature will allow users to delete items they no longer want on their Facebook page.

The company said that it will be easier for users to download the data theyve shared with Facebook  including photos, contacts added to their account and posts  and that it would make updates to the companys terms of service and data policy to better explain what data the platform collects and how it is used.

The announcement of the changes comes about a week and a half after the New York Times and British newspaper the Observer reported that Cambridge Analytica, a data analytics firm that worked with Donald Trumps presidential campaign, had gathered data from about 50 million Facebook users without their permission allegedly to try to sway voter opinions.

The data stemmed from a personality quiz app developed in 2013 by a Cambridge University researcher. Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said last week that about 300,000 users installed the app, giving the researcher access to their information, as well as data from tens of millions of their friends based on Facebooks platform settings at the time.

Zuckerberg said he learned two years later, from journalists at the Guardian, that the researcher had shared his data with Cambridge Analytica without users consent, a move that violated Facebooks policies.

Zuckerberg said the company already had changed its platform in 2014 to prevent apps from accessing such large amounts of data. But to quell the growing backlash to the controversy, Facebook has unveiled other changes, such as limitations on data access for app developers and a tool to allow users to see which apps they have authorized.

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Zuckerberg also said the company would investigate all apps that had access to large amounts of user data prior to Facebooks platform change in 2014.

But the social media company has continued to feel the heat from lawmakers, government agencies and users. The Federal Trade Commission has opened an investigation of Facebook, and the company said Tuesday it was in talks with congressional committees that had requested Zuckerberg to testify before Congress about the incident.

A #DeleteFacebook campaign recently garnered support from high-profile individuals, such as singer Cher and SpaceX and Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk.

Facebooks shares rose 81 cents, or half a point, to close trading at $153.03 Wednesday.

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Bloomberg News contributed to this report.

samantha.masunaga@latimes.com

Twitter: @smasunaga

UPDATES:

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1:20 p.m.: This article was updated with Facebook delaying introduction of consumer devices, and a closing stock price.

10 a.m.: This article was updated to include more details about the new Facebook privacy settings and more background information about the Cambridge Analytica controversy.

This article was originally published at 7:20 a.m.
L.A.s biggest stockbrokerage ignored or didnt properly investigate warning signs that one of its brokers was pushing clients to invest in a pump-and-dump scheme, the Securities and Exchange Commission alleged Tuesday.

The commission charged Wedbush Securities Inc., the largest subsidiary of downtown L.A.s Wedbush Inc., with failing to properly supervise a former broker who it alleges received kickbacks from the schemes organizers in exchange for recommending her clients invest in certain stocks and engage in trades aimed at manipulating their prices.



For the record: A previous version of the article named Wedbush Inc. as the entity charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The actual entity is Wedbush Securities Inc., a subsidiary of Wedbush Inc.

In a statement, SEC officials called broker Timary Delormes conduct abusive and called Wedbush Securities a recidivist, noting that this is the commissions second action against the firm this year.

The charges mark the latest in a spate of regulatory actions against the brokerage, which in the last six months has paid more than $1.5 million in fines and penalties related to allegations of misconduct from the SEC, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and other regulators.

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Brokerage firms play an important role in protecting retail investors from abusive conduct by brokers like Delorme, said Marc Berger, director of the SECs New York Regional Office, which is supervising the investigation. This case sends a clear message that we will not tolerate broker-dealers that fail to exercise appropriate supervision over employees.

Wedbush spokeswoman Natalie Svider said the firm would not comment on pending litigation. She said the firms president, Ed Wedbush, who founded the firm in 1955, no longer speaks to the media.

The SEC alleged that Delorme, 59, a Costa Mesa resident who had worked at Wedbush since 1976, was in cahoots with Izak Zirk Engelbrecht, an Ohio man who was sentenced last year to 12 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to securities fraud.

Their connection spanned from 2008 through 2014, the commission alleged.

Engelbrecht engaged in so-called pump-and-dumps, in which parties work to inflate the price of a stock then sell shares before prices fall. He dealt in penny stocks, thinly traded securities of little-known companies.

No specific penny stocks were named in the SECs order, which calls for a hearing on the matter and demands that Wedbush Securities answer the commissions charges within 20 days. The order does not specify potential penalties.

Delorme, according to the SEC, bought shares of companies that were part of those schemes, which helped inflate the stock prices and made it appear that the stocks were actively traded. In exchange, Engelbrecht paid kickbacks to Delormes husband, the SEC alleged.

In a separate settlement announced Tuesday, the SEC fined Delorme $50,000 and barred her from working in the securities industry, though she did not admit wrongdoing.

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Delorme told The Times on Tuesday that she cooperated with the federal investigation into Engelbrecht, was not charged with any criminal violations and received no kickbacks. She said her husband and some friends had investments with Engelbrechts companies but said, I never sold this to my clients.

Wedbush Securities knew for more than a year that Delorme was connected to fraudulent stock transactions but allowed her practices to continue, the SEC alleged in its charges against the firm.

Specifically, the commission said a supervisor in 2012 reviewed an email from Delorme to a customer involved in the pump-and-dump scheme that outlined the customers efforts to assist in inflating the price of penny stocks.

Also that year, two customers filed complaints with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, an agency that regulates broker-dealers, alleging Delorme and the firm made manipulative transactions in related securities.

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The fact that Delormes business with Engelbrecht was able to continue, according to the SEC, shows the firms supervisory systems lacked any reasonable coherent structure for investigating potential market manipulation and that there was confusion as to whose responsibility it is to conduct investigations.

Wedbush Securities has been hit with several regulatory actions of late, including one handed down by the SEC last month. In that action, Wedbush agreed to pay $1 million to settle charges that it had significantly underestimated the amount of cash it needed to hold in an account to pay customers if the firm collapsed.

The SEC in that action said the brokerage has a history of compliance problems, noting the firm has been the subject of numerous recent regulatory actions and until recently did not have adequate personnel for a regulated entity of its size and import.

Phil Aidikoff, a Beverly Hills attorney who handles securities matters and has represented clients who have sued Wedbush, said the firm has a history of failing to investigate potential problems.

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When theres a red flag that occurs, most brokerage firms take those very seriously and do what they can to investigate and control those situations, he said. For whatever reason, there seems to be a lack of that kind of diligence at Wedbush. And I think thats a business decision.

james.koren@latimes.com

Follow me: @jrkoren
With a new King Tut exhibition packing in the crowds in Los Angeles, the Getty Conservation Institute announced Tuesday that it has nearly finished a multiyear project focused on conserving the tomb of Tutankhamun and protecting it from the tourist hordes in Egypt.

The Getty Conservation Institute carried out the work in collaboration with Egypts Ministry of Antiquities. It included the conservation of wall paintings, improvements to the tombs infrastructure and environmental systems, and the training of stewards for the site.

Researchers conducted an intensive study to understand the tombs condition, assess the causes of deterioration and decide how best to address them, said Neville Agnew, the GCI senior principal project specialist who oversaw the project.

Its the preparation work that is so meticulous, he said. Its diagnostic, medical  you have to diagnose before you can treat.

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Theres no more exciting or interesting area of endeavor than preservation. Neville Agnew, leader of the King Tut tumb conservation project

The Egyptian government has long worried about the potential effects of visitors, whose presence can change the air quality and humidity inside the tomb, threatening the artwork.

GCI began work in 2009 but lost about four years because of tumultuous political events including the 2010 Arab Spring and the 2013 coup that removed President Mohamed Morsi from power.

The pharaoh Tutankhamen is depicted on the north wall of the burial chamber. Mysterious brown spots, researchers determined, are not growing. (Carleton Immersive Media Studio / J. Paul Getty Trust )

Despite all the tumult, Agnew said, to his knowledge the tomb has never closed to the public.

Our conservation work was conducted with many onlookers from the viewing ramp, he said.

The tombs contents have toured the world for years; King Tut: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh, on view now at the California Science Center in L.A.s Exposition Park, contains more than 150 objects. But many items do remain in Egypt, including the mummy of the 19-year-old ruler, the quartzite sarcophagus with granite lid, the gilded wooden outer coffin and a series of wall paintings.

Protecting those wall paintings from the accidental scratches of a visiting public was a top priority for GCI. A new barrier has been erected to keep people a safe distance from the art. Other additions include walkways, a viewing platform and an air filtration and ventilation system to control humidity and carbon dioxide levels.

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In the past, dust brought in by tourists dimmed the paint and required cleaning that posed the threat of paint loss. The Getty team removed the dust and reduced coatings from previous treatments. Protocols were put in place to monitor on future deterioration.

Signage, originally only in English, is now in Arabic as well. New lighting is slated for the fall. A January symposium will feature Egyptologists discussing the particulars of the conservation effort. A project monograph and a book for the general public are planned.

One learns a great deal about other cultures, and dealing with other cultures, and one learns history too, Agnew said of preservation work. Theres economics, science, meteorology, analysis, cultural sensitivity, chemical analysis, engineering. All these things are required.

One of the most intriguing aspects of the Tut project, Agnew said, was the evaluation of mysterious brown spots that marred the wall paintings. The spots were already present in 1922, when Howard Carter made his discovery in Egypts Valley of the Kings, after the tomb had evaded plunder for more than 3,000 years thanks to a flood that buried the entrance with debris.

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Egyptian authorities wondered if new visitors were causing those brown spots to grow. DNA and chemical analysis confirmed that the spots were created by microbiological organisms that were dead and therefore not capable of spreading. The spots were left alone because they are embedded in the paint and because they reflect the history of the site.

It tells us something archaeologically about the tomb, Agnew said. It tells us that the tomb was certainly sealed when it was wet. Tutankhamun was 19 when he died. He wasnt expected to die. They hastily overhauled a smaller tomb, hastily entombed him, and sealed it up. Not only was there wet plaster in the walls, there was lots of organic material  wood and flower offerings, all of which contain moisture and promote microbiological growth.

jessica.gelt@latimes.com

@jessicagelt

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In 1951 composer Arnold Schoenberg dictated from his Brentwood home a letter to Dial Records to protest in the most abusive language he could muster the companys recent release of his Ode to Napoleon using a female rather than a male reciter.

You are not only a bugger, Schoenberg irascibly bellowed, not only a man who discards an artists wishes but one who does not care to keep a contract.

When pianist Nicolas Hodges cleverly introduced his stupendous Monday Evening Concerts recital at Zipper Concert Hall with a video of Peter Ablingers installation work, A Letter From Schoenberg, which accompanies Schoenbergs computer-altered voice (taken from a surviving Dictaphone recording) on player piano, it was hilarious. Times have certainly changed in the last six decades.

But it was also disconcerting, because times have changed maybe even more over the last decade. Ablingers added piano part mimics with new emphases and distortions a machine voice that, compared with Siri, Alexa or the other latest advances in artificial intelligence, is already as archaic as HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

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In the recital that followed, Hodges, a British pianist who is based in Germany and is one of the leading performers of the advanced European music we seldom encounter anymore on this side of the Atlantic, did little to clarify the matter of music, voice and meaning. Instead, he made seemingly unintelligible music speak for itself. He is a pianist with a flabbergasting technique and instantly engaging musicality. It was a brilliant recital.

In selections from Ablingers Voices and Piano, Hodges provided pianistic comment to recordings of the voices of notable political or artistic figures. Angela Davis voice took on a lyrical, swinging quality. Lech Walesas Polish was choppy. Iranian poet Forough Farrokhzads reading of her Arabic verse was lush and highly decorated. The L.A. radio host and composer Bonnie Barnett had a booming presence. Understanding the words ultimately became unimportant; it was the projection that gave the pronouncements meaning.

And thus, this was an evening of transcending syntax in the effort to make the inaccessible accessible. James Clarke addressed that issue directly in his program note for Untitled No. 5 by saying that he avoids giving his pieces titles or providing descriptions to guide the listener. He trusts an audiences powers of perception to deal with the score.

My sense of his piece was of low notes and midrange sonorous chords opening up, spilling their insides like buds releasing seeds dancing into the wind, with a harmonically (in some way) filigrees in Hodges dancing right hand. Whatever Clarke had in mind, his piece gave great pleasure in freely allowing an imaginative response.

When it came to Brian Ferneyhoughs obscurely complex Lemma-Icon-Epigram, Hodges sheer determinacy was what proved gripping in its own right. You sense there may be language underneath as cogent as Davis We will have to destroy the American capitalist system, its just that the voice is taken away.

Rebecca Saunders, on the other hand, describes her Mirror, mirror on the wall as coming from imagining sounds and noises so tactile, the British composer writes in her program note, that she feels she could hold them in her hands.

Finally for the world premiere of Rolf Riehms Ciao, carrissimo Claudio, or Die Steel Drums de San Marco, his impressions of Venice became muddled by the voices from the past (Monteverdis). Riehm layered a clashing keyboard over electronic atmospherics, and nothing once more was real, altering perception of the past or place. And, pace Schoenberg, thats what happens when you actually do regard, to Hodges almost superhuman degree, an artists wishes.

mark.swed@latimes.com
It was a fall evening in 2005 in San Francisco. Michael Tilson Thomas had just begun his second decade as the San Francisco Symphony music director. He was in the midst of recording a cycle of Mahler symphonies, and expectations were high on this occasion for the Fifth, a symphony in which he had long excelled and which was being recorded live.

When the performance was over, someone sitting near me exclaimed for all to hear: That was a great performance! Im leaving out an adjective, because this is a family newspaper. But the sentiment was appreciated and others around us sagely nodded their heads. The playing embraced all that Mahler was in a vast symphony with the emotional trajectory of a classic novel.

Tuesday night, Tilson Thomas, a.k.a. MTT, brought his orchestra to Walt Disney Concert Hall to begin a three-stop Southern California tour (Santa Barbara on Wednesday and Costa Mesa on Thursday). He steps down in two seasons, and no more tours to Southern California are planned. The program at all three places is Mahlers Fifth, preceded by Bergs Violin Concerto.

Were I able to step back in time, I would have only one thing to say to that fellow in San Francisco 13 years ago: You aint heard nothing yet.

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This may sound ridiculous, but it took less than half a minute of a 75-minute symphony and only a trumpet solo to tell that MTT had the key to Mahler like never before. The composer began writing this symphony in 1901  a new century was on hand, and he embraced it. But first he bid farewell to the comforts of the 19th century with a dirge of extravagant emotion, heralded by the trumpet call.

It is an extraordinary solo, seemingly straightforward but with subtle twists and, typical of Mahler, constant changes of expression. Ask six friends who know this symphony to sing this dirge for you, Michael Steinberg wrote in the program notes for Tilson Thomas recording of the Fifth, and you may well get six versions, no two identical but all correct.

That long, exposed solo scares the you-know-what out of trumpet players. Break a note or mess up, and the whole performance is off on the wrong foot. The orchestras principal trumpet, Mark Inouye (who was a member of the section for the earlier recorded performance but not yet principal), brought to the solo something resembling but not jazz, something resembling but not soulful klezmer. He made it his own, but he also made it MTTs Mahler.

One of the hallmarks of Tilson Thomas nearly quarter century with this orchestra is the way he has fostered his players individuality. At its best, as in this performance of Mahlers Fifth, that is what makes otherwise resonant strings, robust brass, elegant winds and feisty percussion sound like what the Bay Area is supposed to sound like  bohemian, tolerant, unconventional, multicultural and artistically embracing  no matter the reality of having become an exorbitantly exclusive seat of Silicon Valley.

This makes it a perfect Mahler orchestra, and all kinds of things (including growing up in the musical melting pot of L.A.) make Tilson Thomas a perfect Mahler conductor, able to control the big picture while being alert to the symphonys multicultural inner life. While beautifully played, the beautiful playing didnt prevent him from finding a place at the raucous table for everything and everybody, the roiling and ever-changing emotions of what is a huge orchestral cast of characters.

The funeral march opening was followed by nerve-racking turbulence of torn-apart grief mixed with a sentimental new look at the miracle of life. The scherzo was allowed its craziness, San Francisco style. The famous Adagietto for strings and harp, so often played to mourn the death of an important figure but written as a love song to Mahlers wife, was very slow, as Mahler scholars say its not supposed to be. For MTT the sentiment was the slow cooking of tenderness, with each string player a distinct voice in a mass effusion of lyricism.

The last movement is a joyous rush into the new age. Again, Tilson Thomas kept it on the slow side. He was not so much after Mahler at the beginning of the 20th century as he was MTT early in 21st, knowing that Mahlers trepidations matter more to us now than his fearlessness.

The Berg concerto, written in 1935, the last year of Bergs life, set the scene for all that. The score was intended as a requiem to the daughter of Mahlers widow, Alma, and her second husband, architect Walter Gropius. It is a concerto that, like Mahlers Fifth, looks back and ahead, the ahead here being the political and artistic storm clouds hanging over Germany.

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Violinist Gil Shaham brought aching lyricism to the solo line, and Tilson Thomas, not hesitating to drown him out when Berg allowed no other choice, once more sought every ounce of expression from every line in the complex symphonic accompaniment.

mark.swed@latimes.com

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To get to Jim Putnams workspace, you have to walk through his Atwater Village home, past his cute but yappy dog and across a rustic backyard to a garage that, over the past few decades, hes transformed into a labyrinthine studio called Phase 4 Intergalactic Recording Facility.

As with many of L.A.s most beguiling spaces, his sound lab is invisible from the street, but inside is a gearheads paradise. Filled with vintage technology hes accrued over a lifetime spent in recording studios, its where Putnam recorded VGer, his new album as Mt. Wilson Repeater.

His second release under the moniker, the albums title is a Star Trek reference and travels to some sonically cosmic spaces. Issued through respected North Carolina indie Merge Records, the label that has also issued records by Putnams other band, the Radar Bros., its a snapshot of an artist in his self-constructed element who, like the Voyager probe at the center of the first Star Trek movie, can transform roughly imagined concepts into things of beauty.

Dense with fuzzed-out, effects-filled guitars and washes of distortion, Mt. Wilson Repeaters new record is perhaps the closest thing to a shoegaze album Putnams been involved in since the early 1990s, when he was a 21-year-old kid in the L.A. band Medicine.

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As one of the only American bands signed to the taste-making imprint Creation Records, which at the time was also home to My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Teenage Fanclub and Oasis, Medicine shot forth distorted melodies that hit with wall-of-noise impact.

Along with Medicines founder Brad Laner and multi-instrumentalist Eddie Ruscha (who now records as Secret Circuit), the band toured Europe opening for Smashing Pumpkins just prior to the release of that bands breakout album, Siamese Dream.

Sitting down behind an analog mixing board in his studios control room, Putnam says that his Mt. Wilson Repeater music finds him working as he did as a student at Cal Arts in the 80s and then as a San Francisco solo artist: alone.

With a bushy combo of gray hair and beard, he looks like Walt Whitman, and when he talks about process he could be discussing his Leaves of Grass: Im doing the same thing I was doing when I started making music, which is holing up by myself and just really getting into the recording process.

In a sense, Putnam has been holed up in recording studios his entire life. His father was famed sound engineer and studio owner Bill Putnam, who in the late 1950s relocated to Los Angeles from Chicago at the behest of Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby to open United Recorders on Sunset in Hollywood. Securing another compound a few doors down, the elder Putnam then added Western Recorders to his arsenal.

Within those walls and inside his renowned, custom-designed rooms, any number of pop musics most important recordings were set to tape, among them: Frank Sinatras rendition of My Way, the Beach Boys album Pet Sounds and the Mamas & the Papas song California Dreamin.

The younger Putnam and his brother Bill Jr. worked as studio runners at United and Western as they were growing up, says Jim. In 1999, the two sons revived Universal Audio, the company their dad founded, after noting the skyrocketing prices for the companys vintage gear on the used market.

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Arcade Fire, for example, tapped a rare Bill Putnam-designed UA 610 console to track its recent album, Everything Now. The revived company now has 165 employees, a European hub in Amsterdam, offices in Los Angeles and headquarters near Silicon Valley in Scotts Valley.

The younger Putnam didnt start out on the business path. He attended Cal Arts in the late 1980s and though he and his friends were studying visual art, they were also music freaks into Sonic Youth, Butthole Surfers and the bounty of American post-punk. He and peers including musicians Brad Laner and Eddie Ruscha would get together and, as he describes it, have these jams in random areas of the school.

Wed set up our instruments in a hallway or something and make music, he says before clarifying, Make noise, really.

That noise ultimately found structure as Laners band Medicine, and Putnams guitar and electronics can be heard on the groups early Creation singles and its debut album for Rick Rubins American Recordings, Shot Forth Self Living.

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After a few years Putnam left the band and formed the Radar Bros., a more restrained and quieter project that has issued seven studio albums across two decades. In 2008, he released his first solo project as Mt. Wilson Repeater.

A decade later, Putnam set out to make VGer during breaks between his gig as the Flaming Lips sound guy with the intention of checking the climate in a sonic realm where he got his start, the guitar-washed distortion of the post-punk subgenre known as shoegaze. The music has seen a revival as young artists discover and cite the sounds.

He wanted to create what he described as a really dark, sort of shoegaze-y record  sort of experimental.

What arrived was an ethereal psychedelic guitar record that suggests Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, the Eight Miles High vibe of early Byrds, the British guitar band Slowdive and, inevitably, Putnams work with the Radar Bros.

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At the instrumental center, adds Putnam, is a baritone guitar he bought from an area musician who says he used it on Donna Summer recordings. With tones that exude bottom-end warmth, it anchors the album with a comforting analog hum.

Opening song To Touch the Golden Sceptre seems to reside in a wide-open space that belies the truth that it was recorded in a converted garage and not one of his dads cathedrals of sound. Chattering is driven by synthetic rhythms, layers of sandpapered guitar textures and barely audible human voices that seem just out of reach.

Such moments are part of the records essence, Putnam says, describing themes that crept in including what he calls a lot of spiritual, afterlife stuff going on. Not so much like ghost stories, but communications between the dead and the living.

Putnam pauses. Its just cool. I like to think so, anyway.

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For tips, records, snapshots and stories on Los Angeles music culture, follow Randall Roberts on Twitter and Instagram: @liledit. Email: randall.roberts@latimes.com.
Stella McCartney is ready to fly solo. After 17 years in partnership with Kering, shes decided to buy back the French giants 50 percent stake in her brand in a bid to safeguard her name for the future and build an independent business.

An announcement from Kering and Stella McCartney is expected today.

Last month McCartney, who holds the other 50 percent stake, confirmed she was mulling her future with Kering: She has a long-standing clause in her contract giving her the option to re-purchase Kerings stake, exercisable by March 31 of this year.

In an exclusive interview with WWD, McCartney said buying out Kering and developing a stand-alone business was an opportunity she couldnt turn down. Her relationship with Kering, she added, will steam ahead: McCartney plans to remain a board member of the Kering Foundation and will continue to collaborate with the French luxury giant on sustainability in fashion.

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Asked why she wanted to separate from Kering, her companys cofounder in 2001 (through the former Gucci Group division), McCartney said that was a difficult question to answer.

Stella McCartney (Mary McCartney )

I have had an incredible relationship with Kering, and first and foremost with the Pinault family, whom I consider to be great friends. Im incredibly close to them. We had such a successful business together, an incredible partnership. We never had any hiccups, said McCartney during an interview from her airy new offices near Westfield London.

Stella McCartney takes her bow after the fall 2018 show. ( Giovanni Giannoni / WWD / REX / Shutterstock )

In the statement released Wednesday evening after the Paris and London stock markets closed, Francois-Henri Pinault, chairman and chief executive officer of Kering, said it was time for McCartney to move to the next stage.

Kering is a luxury group that empowers creative minds and helps disruptive ideas become reality. I am extremely proud of what Kering and Stella McCartney have accomplished together since 2001, he said, adding that the designer and her team brought far more than business to Kering.

Stella knows she can always count on my friendship and support, he said. Both parties have promised a smooth transition in order to maintain the brands momentum in the market.

McCartney said she and Kering had worked for a long time exploring their future options and this is where its panned out. It has been a dream to work with them. 

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As reported last month, WWD asked Pinault whether it would make sense for Kering to be a minority shareholder in Stella McCartneys company, and he said absolutely not. Either they remain 50/50 partners, or Kering would sell its stake completely.

McCartney declined to comment on how she plans to finance the buyback, although it is understood her famous father Paul McCartney will not bankroll any deal. She added there were no plans for an initial public offering and no plans to take on a new business partner right now, although industry sources say that prospective investors have been circling and McCartney has also been conducting exploratory talks.

Models backstage at the Stella McCartney fall 2018 show (Delphine Achard / WWD / REX / Shutterstock )

According to documents filed at Companies House, the official register of U.K. businesses, turnover at Stella McCartneys U.K. division rose 31 percent to 41.7 million pounds in the 12 months to Dec. 31, 2016. Profits in the period were up 42.5 percent to 7 million pounds.

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Those numbers refer solely to Stella McCartneys U.K. business and the brands worldwide licensing revenue. They do not take into account wholesale sales or turnover from the brands directly operated stores outside the U.K. The collections are available in more than 100 countries at wholesale, and through 51 freestanding stores worldwide.

Over the years, McCartney had worked closely with Kering on building values around environmental sustainability and best practice, and has been a promoter of Kerings five-year partnership with Londons Centre for Sustainable Fashion to support eco-friendly practices and innovation in the fashion industry.

Last month, Kering and London College of Fashion revealed the creation of the first open-access digital course in luxury fashion and sustainability called Fashion & Sustainability: Understanding Luxury Fashion in a Changing World.

Stella McCartney was also the first Kering brand to publish an annual environmental profit and loss account. The EP&L measures the impact of the business and supply chain on the environment.

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The company registered a loss of 6.97 million euros, with 62 percent of that figure concentrated in the raw material production stage. The overall goal of the company is to whittle its losses down as much as possible.

McCartney said that going forward she will continue to publish an EP&L and work alongside Kering on other environmental initiatives.
USC names retired aerospace executive Wanda Austin as acting president, announces Nikias departure By Harriet Ryan USC appointed a retired aerospace executive as interim president and laid out a detailed plan for selecting a permanent leader Tuesday, ending speculation about whether outgoing President C.L. Max Nikias might remain in the post. Nikias, embattled over his administrations handling of a campus gynecologist accused of sexually abusing patients, relinquished his duties after a meeting of USCs board. The trustees tapped one of their own, Wanda Austin, an alumna and former president of the Aerospace Corp., to temporarily run the university. The trustees also approved the formation of a search committee and the hiring of firm Isaacson, Miller to coordinate the selection of a successor. A second search company, Heidrick & Struggles, will also advise trustees. Read More Facebook

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Ex-student sues elite Brentwood School after teacher is charged with sexually abusing him By Richard Winton A former student sued the elite Brentwood School on Monday in the wake of a female teacher being charged with repeatedly having sex with the minor, alleging that other faculty members encouraged the unlawful behavior and failed to report it to authorities. The lawsuit accuses the private school, whose students include the children of many of Hollywoods elite and L.A.s powerful, of acting negligently and allowing Aimee Palmitessa to abuse and batter the teenager sexually. The suit alleges that the student was abused in summer 2017 after one of the schools counselors offered words of encouragement to the then-17-year-old, identified in the suit as only John Doe, to engage in an illegal relationship with the teacher. Read More Facebook

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Civil jury vindicates fired Montebello school executives in whistleblower case By Howard Blume The Montebello school district is in dire straits  at risk of insolvency and under apparent criminal investigation. An outside audit in July found some teachers earning more than $200,000 a year, as well as improper raises, excess paid vacation time and inappropriate overtime, sick leave and car allowances. Fixing the district and pinpointing blame could take time. Read More Facebook

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L.A. schools fall short on safety measures, new report warns By Howard Blume After the mass shooting at Floridas Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February, Los Angeles school officials reassured parents that much had been done to keep local schools safe. California had tougher gun laws, after all, and the school district paid close attention to students mental health. But a new report issued Monday by a panel convened to take a close look offers some cause for concern, flagging inconsistent campus safety measures, thinly spread mental health staff and inadequate coordination between the school district and other public agencies. With the stakes this high, we must strive to do better, said L.A. City Atty. Mike Feuer, who assembled the panel. Read More Facebook

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L.A. school district says more are graduating, but rate may not show it By Howard Blume The L.A. Unified School District has hopes of continuing its winning streak this year with another record graduation rate, but the official numbers may not show it. A senior district administrator warned the board Tuesday that graduation rates were likely to decline 2% to 3% across the state, even though L.A. Unified is likely doing better than ever in producing graduates, he said. The issue is that the state will now count high school students who transfer to adult school as dropouts, said Oscar Lafarga, who heads the districts office of data and accountability. Previously, schools treated these students as though they had simply enrolled in another high school, he said. Read More Facebook

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Betsy DeVos to California: Not so fast on that federal education plan By Joy Resmovits Education Secretary Betsy DeVos (Erik Lesser / European Pressphoto Agency) In April, Californias top education officials breathed a sigh of relief. After months of debate and back-and-forth with Betsy DeVos staff, they had finalized a plan to satisfy a major education law that aims to make sure all students get a decent education. The state focused on aligning its plan to fulfill the requirements of the federal Every Student Succeeds Act with Californias Local Control Funding Formula, which gives extra money to districts to help students who come from low-income families, are in the foster system or are English learners. But this week, DeVos team said not so fast. Jason Botel, the U.S. Department of Educations principal deputy assistant secretary, sent California education officials a letter asking for more information in such areas as measuring student progress, graduation rates and English learners. In an unsigned statement, the California Department of Education declared itself surprised and disappointed because officials thought  after a meeting with federal officials in Washington  that they were on the right track to get approval. Now the Every Student Succeeds Act plan will be up for discussion once again at the July meeting of the State Board of Education. The U.S. Department of Education has already approved most state plans. Every Student Succeeds is the Obama administrations 2015 replacement for the No Child Left Behind Act. Facebook

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L.A. school board sets a new goal: prepare every grad to be eligible to apply for Cal State or UC By Sonali Kohli Last month, Los Angeles school board president proposed a spate of highly ambitious mandates aimed at ensuring that every district graduate be eligible to apply to one of the states public four-year universities by 2023. By the time the L.A. Unified school board unanimously approved the resolution Tuesday, the original language had been watered down. The goal is no longer that in five years 100% of students meet the long list of benchmarks, which include not just college eligibility for graduates but first-grade reading proficiency and English fluency by sixth grade for all students who enter the district in kindergarten or first grade speaking another language. The original college-readiness goal, for example, called for 100% of all high school students to be eligible to apply to one of the states four-year universities. Now the goal seems to offer more wiggle room: Prepare all high school graduates to be eligible to apply to a California four-year university. Read More Facebook

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We have been hurt. More women say they were mistreated by USC gynecologist By Richard Winton USC student Anika Narayanan says she vividly recalls her first appointment with Dr. George Tyndall at the campus health center, alleging that he made several explicit comments during an examination she felt was inappropriate and invasive. When she came back for a second visit in 2016 after a nonconsensual sexual encounter, he allegedly chastised her, she said in a civil lawsuit and at a press conference Tuesday. He asked me if I had forgotten to use a condom again,  said Narayanan, 21. At one point, she said, Tyndall asked if I did a lot of doggy style,  she said. Read More Facebook

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L.A. Unified gives inspector general brief contract extension By Howard Blume The Los Angeles school board on Tuesday extended the contract of Ken Bramlett, its inspector general, by three months, though his job is far from secure and questions remain about the future direction of his watchdog office. Board members also unanimously promoted Vivian Ekchian, who had been the runner-up for the superintendents job, to deputy superintendent  the districts No. 2 position. Both moves had elements of peacemaking between different factions on the board. Read More Facebook

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USCs handling of complaints about campus gynecologist is being investigated by federal government By Harriet Ryan The U.S. Department of Education announced Monday that it has launched an investigation into how the University of Southern California handled misconduct complaints against a campus gynecologist, the latest fallout in a scandal that has prompted the resignation of USCs president, two law enforcement investigations and dozens of lawsuits. In revealing the inquiry by the departments Office of Civil Rights, officials rebuked USC for what they alleged was improper withholding of information about Dr. George Tyndall during a previous federal investigation. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, who has been criticized for taking a less vigorous approach to examining sexual misconduct than predecessors, called for a systemic examination of USC and urged administrators to fully cooperate. Read More Facebook

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Judge to sentence woman and her boyfriend for the murder of an 8-year-old that led to L.A. child welfare reforms By Marisa Gerber A woman and her boyfriend are expected to be sentenced Thursday for the torture and murder of an 8-year-old boy whose killing in 2013 provoked public outrage, prompted sweeping reform of Los Angeles Countys child welfare system, and led to unprecedented criminal charges against social workers who handled the childs case. Pearl Sinthia Fernandez, 34, faces life in prison without the possibility of parole for her role in the death of her son, Gabriel. A jury decided last year that her boyfriend, Isauro Aguirre, 37, should be executed. When paramedics arrived at the boys Palmdale home in May 2013, Gabriel had slipped out of consciousness. He had a fractured skull, broken ribs, burned skin, missing teeth and BB pellets embedded in his groin. A paramedic would later testify that every inch of the boys small body had been abused. Read More Facebook

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L.A. Unifieds spending out of step with similar school systems, task force says By Howard Blume The Los Angeles school district is out of step with similar school systems, spending more on teachers pay and health benefits and less on activities that could enhance student learning, according to a new report by an outside task force. The L.A. Unified School District Advisory Task Force did not make specific recommendations, but instead posed a series of questions it said the district needs to answer to make sure its funding is aimed at providing a full opportunity for all students to succeed. What were trying to say is: Lets put the data on the table. Lets look at the truth. Lets be transparent and here are the numbers, said task force member Renata Simril. This is not to say that  we should cut teachers salaries. Read More Facebook

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Top USC medical school official feared dean was doing drugs and alerted administration, he testifies By Paul Pringle A former vice dean of USCs Keck School of Medicine testified Tuesday that he feared the schools then-dean, Dr. Carmen A. Puliafito, could be doing drugs and expressed concerns about his general well-being to the universitys No. 2 administrator before Puliafito abruptly left his job in 2016. Dr. Henri Fords testimony at a hearing of the state Medical Board marks the first suggestion that any USC administrator had suspicions about Puliafitos possible drug use before he stepped down. A Times investigation in 2017 found Puliafito led a secret second life of using illegal drugs with a circle of young criminals and addicts. Puliafito testified about his behavior at the hearing Tuesday, saying he took drugs with one young woman on a weekly basis. Ford said that he decided to alert USC Provost Michael Quick after receiving reports in early 2016 that Puliafito was partying in hotels with people of questionable reputation, and that he came to worry about his mental stability. Read More Facebook

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Why L.A. Unified may face financial crisis even with a giant surplus this year By Jessica Calefati With more than half a billion dollars socked away for next school year, the Los Angeles Unified School District hardly seems just two years from financial ruin. Its a scenario that is especially tough to swallow if youre a low-wage worker seeking a raise or a teacher who wants smaller classes. But budget documents show that todays $548-million surplus cannot be sustained  and that even basic services face steep, seemingly unavoidable cuts because of massive problems barreling the districts way. Theres a disconnect between the rosy short-term picture and what we know is coming, said board member Kelly Gonez. Read More Facebook

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We have failed: Top USC officials try to reassure students amid gynecologist scandal By Joy Resmovits Top administrators at USC are reaching out to students in the wake of misconduct allegations against the universitys longtime gynecologist, acknowledging failings and vowing reforms as they try to address growing outrage over the revelations. Several USC deans have sent out messages trying to reassure students and faculty that the university is committed to changing. We have failed, wrote Jack H. Knott, dean of USCs Sol Price School of Public Policy, in a May 24 letter. What happened is antithetical to everything we know is right. Read More Facebook

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Rick Caruso is named chair of USCs trustees, vows swift investigation of gynecologist scandal By Thomas Curwen The University of Southern Californias board of trustees has elected mall magnate Rick Caruso to be the new chair of the board, giving fresh leadership as the university navigates a widening scandal involving a longtime campus gynecologist. The move marks the latest effort by USC to address the case, which has sparked a criminal investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department and dozens of civil lawsuits. More than 400 people have contacted a hotline that the university established for patients to make reports about their experience with Dr. George Tyndall. In his first act as chairman, Caruso announced that the white-shoe L.A. law firm OMelveny & Myers would conduct a thorough and independent investigation into the gynecologists conduct and reporting failures at the clinic. He set an ambitious timeline for the review, pledging it would conclude before students return for the fall semester. Read More Facebook

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UC Berkeley students persistence helps win more liberal rules for in-state tuition By Teresa Watanabe Ifechukwu Okeke thought shed be a shoo-in for in-state tuition when she was admitted to UC Berkeley for fall 2016. She had moved to the United States from Nigeria in 2012 to go to Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga. By the time she got her acceptance to transfer to UC to study molecular and cell biology, she had lived in California four years. She had a California drivers license, bank account and rental records as proof. UC Berkeley, however, ruled she was a nonresident  which meant she would have to pay nearly $27,000 more. Read More Facebook

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State medical board calls former County-USC doctor a sexual predator, suspends his license By Matt Hamilton A UCLA cardiologist has been temporarily stripped of his medical license after state regulators described him as a sexual predator who assaulted three female colleagues when he was working and training at L.A. County-USC Medical Center. Read More Facebook

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Global California 2030' aims to get more students learning more languages By Joy Resmovits Tom Torlakson (Andrew Seng / Associated Press) Outgoing state Supt. of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson on Wednesday announced a new statewide effort to encourage students to learn more languages. Called Global California 2030, its goal is to help more students become fluent in multiple tongues. Torlakson said that by 2030, he wants half of the states 6.2 million K-12 students to participate in classes or programs that lead to proficiency in two or more languages. By 2040, he wants three out of four students to be proficient enough to earn the State Seal of Biliteracy. Torlakson announced the initiative at Cahuenga Elementary School, which offers a dual-language immersion program in English and Korean. Californias public school students speak more than 60 languages at home, and 40% come to school with knowledge of a language other than English. Torlakson called his plan a call to action that invites parents, legislators, educators and community members to pool resources to expand language offerings in schools and get more bilingual teachers trained. He said the state already is working with Mexico and Spain to expand a teacher-exchange program. Fluency, the plan argues, can help students succeed economically  and language acquisition can help their overall critical thinking. The initiative builds on Proposition 58, a ballot initiative passed in 2016 that undid an earlier requirement that English learners be taught in English-immersion classes unless their parents signed waivers. Torlakson recently visited Mexico and met with that countrys education secretary. They later signed a pact to increase collaboration, particularly in language education. This [Global California 2030] is great follow-through on Toms part and very important, Patricia Gandara, a UCLA education professor who hosted the Mexico meeting, said in an email. It hands over a plan to move forward in an area in which California has a unique advantage, but must seize the opportunity. Facebook

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Jury convicts man of murder in 2015 slaying of UCLA student found inside her burning apartment By Marisa Gerber A jury on Tuesday convicted a man in the 2015 slaying of a UCLA student found dead inside her burning apartment  a gruesome stabbing case that led to a fierce rebuke of the police response amid concerns that the killing could have been prevented. The panel deliberated for about six hours before finding Alberto Medina, 24, guilty of murder, arson, burglary and animal cruelty. On Sept. 21, 2015, firefighters found the charred body of Andrea DelVesco inside her apartment after responding to the complex a block from campus. The 21-year-old student  an Austin, Texas, native known to her sorority sisters as a fearless giver who befriended others with ease  was stabbed at least 19 times, authorities said. Read More Facebook

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LAPD begins sweeping criminal probe of former USC gynecologist while urging patients to come forward By Adam Elmahrek The Los Angeles Police Department said Tuesday it is investigating 52 complaints of misconduct filed by former patients of USCs longtime campus gynecologist as detectives launch a sweeping criminal probe into the scandal that has rocked the university. LAPD detectives also made an appeal for other patients who feel mistreated to come forward, noting that thousands of students were examined by Dr. George Tyndall during his nearly 30-year career at USC. More than 410 people have contacted a university hotline about the physician since The Times revealed the allegations this month. Tyndalls behavior and practices appear to go beyond the norms of the medical profession and gynecological examinations, said Asst. Chief Beatrice Girmala. We sincerely realize that victims may have difficulty recounting such details to investigators. We are empathetic and ready to listen. Read More Facebook

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At L.A.'s only school for the deaf, parents want leaders who speak the same language By Anna M. Phillips Ever since her son was 6 months old, Juliet Hidalgo has been bringing him to the Marlton School, a low-slung building in Baldwin Hills that for generations has been a second home for deaf and hard-of-hearing students in Los Angeles. Marlton staff taught Hidalgos brother and sister, both of whom are deaf. The school was where her deaf son learned to make the signs for milk and food. Hidalgo had planned to enroll her daughter, taking advantage of a popular program that allows hearing children to learn American Sign Language alongside their deaf siblings. But after more than a decade of involvement, she and other family members are considering withdrawing their children. They are not alone. Read More Facebook

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Fueled by unlimited donations, independent groups play their biggest role yet in a California primary for governor By Ryan Menezes An unprecedented amount of money from wealthy donors, unions and corporations is flowing into the California governors race, giving independent groups  unrestricted by contribution limits  a greater say in picking the states chief executive than ever before. The groups have already spent more than $26 million through Thursday, the most ever spent by noncandidate committees in a gubernatorial primary, according to a Times analysis of campaign finance reports. California elections have always been expensive, and the future is even more expensive, said Jack Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College and a former state Republican leader. The stakes are very real. Read More Facebook

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2 hurt in Indiana middle school shooting; suspect in custody, authorities say By Associated Press Authorities say two victims in a shooting at a suburban Indianapolis school are being taken to a hospital and the lone suspect is in custody. Bryant Orem, a spokesman for the Hamilton County Sheriffs Office, said in a news release that the victims in Friday mornings attack at Noblesville West Middle School are being taken to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis and their families have been notified. He says no other information is available about the victims. Orem said the suspect is believed to have acted alone and was taken into custody. No additional information about the suspect was made public. Read More Facebook

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For new L.A. schools chief Austin Beutner, some key unions are giving no honeymoon period By Howard Blume In the less than two weeks since Austin Beutner took charge of Los Angeles schools, unions representing teachers and administrators have staged a job action and a protest. Theyve made it clear that they will not give the new superintendent the traditional honeymoon period, and they are bashing him for his wealth and lack of experience running either a school or a school district. Beutner is a billionaire investment banker with zero qualifications, local teachers union President Alex Caputo-Pearl told members in a phone alert urging them to participate in a Thursday afternoon rally in Grand Park. The board is saying that billionaires who made their money blowing institutions up and making money off it know best  not the education professionals who have dedicated our careers to working with students. Read More Facebook

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Pressure grows on Board of Trustees amid USC gynecologist scandal By Paul Pringle USCs large and powerful Board of Trustees is coming under growing pressure to provide a stronger hand as the university faces a crisis over misconduct allegations against the campus longtime gynecologist that has prompted calls for President C.L. Max Nikias to step down. Allegations that Dr. George Tyndall mistreated students during his nearly 30 years at USC have roiled the campus, with about 300 people coming forward to make reports to the university and the Los Angeles Police Department launching a criminal investigation. USC is already beginning to face what is expected to be costly litigation by women who say they were victimized by the physician. So far, the trustees to whom Nikias reports have expressed sympathy for the women who have come forward and launched an independent investigation while also publicly backing the president. Read More Facebook

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UC regents approve leaner budget for Janet Napolitano By Teresa Watanabe University of California regents on Thursday unanimously approved a leaner, more transparent budget for President Janet Napolitano, moving to address political criticism over the systems central office operations. The $876.4-million budget for 2018-19 reflects spending cuts of 2%, including reductions in staffing, travel and such systemwide programs as public service law fellowships, carbon neutrality and food security. Napolitano shifted $30 million to campuses for housing needs and $10 million to UC Riverside to support its five-year-old medical school. She also permanently redirected $8.5 million annually to help enroll more California students, as required by the state. Read More Facebook

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USCs Academic Senate calls on university president to resign after a series of scandals By Matt Hamilton The body that represents USCs faculty called on President C.L. Max Nikias to resign Wednesday in the wake of relevations that the universitys longtime gynecologist faced years of accusations of misconduct by students and colleagues at the campus health clinic. The Academic Senate took the vote late Wednesday afternoon after a fiery town hall meeting attended by more than 100 faculty members, many of whom voiced outrage over Nikias and the Board of Trustees leadership. The vote came a day after the trustees executive committee stood firmly behind Nikias, saying it has full confidence in his leadership, ethics and values. At the town hall meeting, Senate President Paul Rosenbloom said he did not think Nikias or Provost Michael Quick committed wrongdoing but that the university president deserved criticism for a lack of transparency. Read More Facebook

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Californias public universities on the way to getting a big longed-for boost in funding By Teresa Watanabe The University of California and California State University systems are poised to get major funding boosts that will help them enroll thousands of additional state students and eliminate the need for tuition increases in the coming school year. A key Assembly budget panel on Wednesday approved $117.5 million in new funds for the UC. A Senate panel approved a similar sum last week. The same committees recently approved even more funding for the Cal State system. Read More Facebook

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UC regents to scrutinize Janet Napolitanos office budget in a step toward stronger oversight By Teresa Watanabe University of California regents this week plan to scrutinize the budget of President Janet Napolitano, whose office came under political fire last year for questionable spending and murky accounting. Regents will vote on the proposed $876.4-million budget for 2018-19 during their two-day meeting, which starts Wednesday, at UC San Francisco. They also will discuss state funding, financial aid, online education and transfer student policies. Board Chairman George Kieffer said regents are stepping up to exert stronger oversight of the presidents office after a blistering state audit last year found financial problems including an unreported $175 million budget reserve. Read More Facebook

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State legislative panels approve major funding boost for Cal State By Teresa Watanabe Cal State students protest against a tuition increase outside the chancellors office (Irfan Khan) After months of intensive lobbying, Cal State University has convinced two key legislative panels to approve funding to enroll nearly 11,000 more students, hire more faculty and expand housing aid to those without shelter this fall. An Assembly budget panel on Tuesday approved $215.7 million more for Cal State, adding to Gov. Jerry Browns proposed $92.1 million general fund increase. A Senate budget panel approved a similar increase last week. The extra funding  which went beyond Cal States own request to the Legislature of $171 million  is still subject to final budget negotiations with Brown. But the actions by the Senate and Assembly panels amount to a demand from Democrats that the governor hike higher education spending. Cal State University is the workhorse undergraduate university serving hundreds of thousands of Californians, said Assemblyman Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento), who heads the Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Education Finance. We need more graduates for the California workforce and higher education is the ticket to the middle class. Cal State Chancellor Timothy P. White hailed the actions, but said it was too soon to celebrate. The CSU has a singular focus on helping students earn high-quality degrees sooner, and the entire university community has rallied to reinforce that message to our states lawmakers, he said in a statement. The actions taken thus far by the Assembly and Senate are promising and show that our message is being received, but there is still work to be done. Funding for the University of California was not taken up Tuesday as originally scheduled. McCarty would not comment on sticking points but said he was confident that a resolution would be reached this week. Were looking to provide resources above whats in the governors budget, but negotiations are ongoing, he said in an interview. State per-student funding is not what it once was, leaving both Cal State and the UC in a tough financial squeeze. Both systems raised tuition last year after a six-year freeze on higher costs. For this year, Cal State had asked for funding to enroll an additional 3,621 students, but both the Senate and Assembly panels approved three times that amount. Cal State, the largest public university system in the nation, turned away 32,000 eligible students last year because its campuses werent able to accommodate them. The panels asked that at least $50 million of the extra funding be used to hire more tenure-track faculty to help boost graduation rates. The Assembly panel also approved one-time funding of $5 million to ease hunger on campuses and $14 million for rapid rehousing pilot projects at three campuses, offering needy students rental support and short-term case management. Other items approved include $5 million to support the CSU Long Beach Shark Labs research on sharks and beach safety and $2 million for equal employment opportunity practices. This post has been updated to include comments from Assemblyman Kevin McCarty and Cal State Chancellor Timothy P. White. Facebook

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Faculty members call for USC president to step down: He has lost the moral authority to lead By Matt Hamilton Two hundred USC professors on Tuesday demanded the resignation of university President C. L. Max Nikias, saying he had lost the moral authority to lead in the wake of revelations that a campus gynecologist was kept on staff for decades despite repeated complaints of misconduct. Read More Facebook

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Gun battle, negotiations lasted 15 minutes before Texas school shooter was apprehended, sheriff says By Molly Hennessy-Fiske Minutes after a school shooter opened fire in an art class last week, killing 10 people and wounding 13, including a local police officer, fellow officers returned fire in a protracted gun battle before isolating the suspect, the local sheriff said Monday. Galveston County Sheriff Henry Trochesset praised first responders as well as Santa Fe Police Officer John Barnes, who was working as a resource officer at the school the day of the shooting. Their actions, he said, prevented the attack from spreading to other classrooms and potentially claiming additional victims. As officials continue to probe last Fridays shooting at Santa Fe High School, students are worried about returning to the scene of the attack when classes resume next week. Read More Facebook

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6 women sue USC, alleging they were victimized by campus gynecologist By Richard Winton Six women filed civil lawsuits Monday alleging that a longtime gynecologist at the University of Southern California sexually victimized them under the pretext of medical care and that USC failed to address complaints from clinic staff about the doctors behavior. One woman alleged Dr. George Tyndall forced his entire ungloved hand into her vagina during an appointment in 2003 while making vulgar remarks about her genitalia, according to one of the lawsuits. Another woman alleged that Tyndall groped her breasts in a 2008 visit and that later he falsely told her she likely had AIDS. A third woman accused the doctor of grazing his ungloved fingers over her nude body and leering at her during a purported skin exam, the lawsuit states. The wave of litigation comes as USC continues to grapple with the scandal, which legal experts said could prove costly to the university as scores of former patients come forward about their experiences with the gynecologist. Read More Facebook

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Fatalities reported in Texas high school shooting; suspect arrested, officials say By Associated Press Houston-area media citing unnamed law enforcement officials are reporting that there are fatalities following a shooting at a local high school Friday morning. Television station KHOU and the Houston Chronicle are citing unnamed federal, county and police officials following the shooting at Santa Fe High School, which went on lockdown around 8 a.m. The Associated Press has not been able to confirm the reports. The school district has confirmed an unspecified number of injuries but said it wouldnt immediately release further details. Assistant Principal Cris Richardson said a suspect has been arrested and secured. Read More Facebook

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This student followed the new L.A. schools chief on his first-day tour L.A. schools Supt. Austin Beutner is greeted by Van Nuys High School principal Yolanda Gardea. (Melissa Barales-Lopez) Melissa Barales-Lopez, a senior at Garfield High School followed Supt. Austin Beutner on his first day on the job, as he toured a variety of programs around the Los Angeles Unified School District. Heres what she took from the experience. LAUSD students and staff alike are looking for a personal champion, someone who will address and improve the difficulties afflicting their education.  What LAUSD students need is someone whos willing to listen and learn, someone who can understand the current issues affecting their schools and act to efficiently amend them, someone who can unlock the full potential of LAUSD students and enable them to reach their goals. During the entirety of his first day, superintendent Austin Beutner did indeed demonstrate a willingness to learn. Posing questions to teachers and students, Beutner engaged with the student communities he encountered to gain a better comprehension of the minutiae and nuances that distinguish each school inside an overwhelmingly large district. From inquiries about Grand View Boulevard Elementary Schools dual language program to questions regarding the services of LAUSDs after-school program, Beyond the Bell, Beutner revealed he has a lot to learn about the system. But, Beutner also showcased a willingness to tackle challenges head-on on his first day. Read More Facebook

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USC let a gynecologist continue treating students despite years of misconduct allegations By Matt Hamilton For nearly 30 years, the University of Southern Californias student health clinic had one full-time gynecologist: Dr. George Tyndall. Tall and garrulous with distinctive jet black hair, he treated tens of thousands of female students, many of them teenagers seeing a gynecologist for the first time. Few who lay down on Tyndalls exam table at the Engemann Student Health Center knew that he had been accused repeatedly of misconduct toward young patients. The complaints began in the 1990s, when co-workers alleged he was improperly photographing students genitals. In the years that followed, patients and nursing staff accused him again and again of creepy behavior, including touching women inappropriately during pelvic exams and making sexually suggestive remarks about their bodies. Read More Facebook

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Cal State trustees to discuss Browns latest budget proposal, which they say still falls $171 million short By Joy Resmovits Just how much money does California State University need to serve its students? In recent years, this question has been front and center for the nations largest public university system. Cal States leaders say that to keep their campuses quality from slipping, they need much more money than the state is giving them. This year, theyre also at odds with Gov. Jerry Brown on the question of whether any extra money should come in one-time bursts or be ongoing. Read More Facebook

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On his first day as L.A. schools chief, Beutner plans a day of visits across the district By Howard Blume L.A. Unifieds new superintendent, Austin Beutner, will kick off his first day of work on Tuesday with a choreographed tour of the nations second-largest school district, from the San Fernando Valley to Carson. His day is scheduled to begin at 5:15 a.m. at a school bus depot and end more than 12 hours later at a parent meeting at Garfield High School. Along the way, Beutner is expected to be joined by school district administrators, L.A. Unified board members and the vice president of the union that represents school bus drivers. Though he will be covering a lot of ground, Beutners tour has him skipping Tuesdays school board meeting, when board members are expected to discuss labor negotiations in closed session. Read More Facebook

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Cal State trustees to discuss Browns latest budget proposal, which they say still falls $171 million short By Joy Resmovits Just how much money does California State University need to serve its students? In recent years, this question has been front and center for the nations largest public university system. Cal States leaders say that to keep their campuses quality from slipping, they need much more money than the state is giving them. This year, theyre also at odds with Gov. Jerry Brown on the question of whether any extra money should come in one-time bursts or be ongoing. Read More Facebook

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Why a handful of rich charter school supporters are spending millions to elect Antonio Villaraigosa as governor By Ryan Menezes California voters have seen a barrage of sunny television ads in recent weeks touting former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosas record on finances, crime and education, aired by Families & Teachers for Antonio Villaraigosa for Governor 2018. But the group is, in fact, largely funded by a handful of wealthy charter-school supporters. Together they have spent more than $13 million in less than a month to boost Villaraigosas chances in the June 5 primary  at a time when his fundraising and poll numbers are lagging. Reed Hastings, the founder of Netflix, jump-started the group with a $7-million check, by far the largest donation to support any candidate in the election. Their efforts are part of a broader proxy war among Democrats between teachers unions  longtime stalwarts of the party  and those who argue that the groups have failed low-income and minority schoolchildren. Read More Facebook

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Talking schools with L.A. Unifieds new superintendent By Anna M. Phillips Al Seib / Los Angeles Times ( Incoming L.A. schools Supt. Austin Beutner talks to students at Belmont High School.) Austin Beutner, who officially starts Tuesday as the new superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, is taking on a famously difficult job at a particularly difficult time. The school board is divided and did not back him unanimously. The nations second-largest school district has deep-seated problems, including declining enrollment, lagging academic achievement and rising pension and healthcare costs that eat away at its budget. The 58-year-old former investment banker and former L.A. Times publisher has years of experience in the financial world but none as an educator. Earlier this week, he sat down with the Times education team to discuss the challenges facing the district, which has about 60,000 employees and 500,000 students in traditional public schools. He did not talk about his plans  saying repeatedly, stay tuned  but he spoke in broad terms about his mindset in approaching the tough decisions ahead. Read More Facebook

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Suspect detained, authorities search campus after reports of armed man at Palmdale high school By James Queally One person has been detained after a report of an armed man at a Palmdale high school sparked a massive law enforcement response Friday morning. The suspect was spotted at 7:05 a.m. on the campus of Highland High School in Palmdale, according to Sheriffs Department spokeswoman Nicole Nishida. The person was detained in a nearby parking lot, according to Nishida, who did not know whether that person was an adult or juvenile. Deputies at the scene are clearing the school methodically, and students will be transported home via school buses once the campus is deemed safe, Nishida said. Read More Facebook

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The education of Bertha Perez: How a UC Merced custodians disenchantment led to a political awakening By Robin Abcarian Its the third day of a three-day strike, and UC Merced custodian Bertha Perez is taking a break from a picket line at the universitys unremarkable entrance, an intersection with stop lights. Photos from other UC campuses this week have shown big crowds of striking service workers  members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees  marching and chanting pro-labor slogans as they try to force the University of California back to the negotiating table. But here, at UC Merced, whose handful of big buildings rise from a flat expanse of farmland, the picket line is tiny, maybe two dozen workers and a few students. Its not a big-city-style show of force. Then again, a union sympathizer is banging relentlessly on a snare drum, so its noisier than youd expect. Read More Facebook

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Ref Rodriguez resigns from teacher credentialing commission By Howard Blume Ref Rodriguez appears during a court appearance. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times) Los Angeles school board member Ref Rodriguez has resigned from the states Commission on Teacher Credentialing, which oversees the integrity and quality of Californias teachers. Rodriguez faces felony and misdemeanor charges for political money laundering. Separately, his former employer, a charter school organization, has accused him of improperly authorizing checks to a nonprofit under his control. Rodriguez has denied wrongdoing. Rodriguezs resignation from the state body was effective May 4, days after he cast a crucial vote as part of a narrow majority that voted to authorize contract negotiations with Austin Beutner to become superintendent of the L.A. Unified School District. Beutners first official day on the job is Tuesday. Rodriguez remains in his $125,000-a-year position on the Los Angeles Board of Education. The mission of the state body is to ensure integrity, relevance, and high quality in the preparation, certification, and discipline of Californias teachers. Critics had questioned Rodriguezs continued service on the commission, given that teachers can be suspended from work if they face criminal charges. They also can lose their jobs for lapses in personal behavior, such as excessive drinking, with the potential to affect their performance. Police in Pasadena arrested Rodriguez on a Friday afternoon in March for public drunkenness. He was not charged in the incident and has apologized. The state commission reviews teacher discipline cases and can take action to remove a teachers credential to work in a California classroom. The commission has 15 members. Rodriguezs departure was disclosed in a one-sentence announcement on the agencys website. Facebook

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School board members request for restraining order against blogger is rejected By Priscella Vega An Orange County Superior Court judge on Wednesday denied a school board members petition for a permanent restraining order against a Huntington Beach blogger. Attorney Jeffrey W. Shields filed the petition on behalf of Ocean View School District trustee Gina Clayton-Tarvin, 46, who alleged in court documents that Charles Keeler Johnson, 56, has threatened her on social media and at school board meetings, causing her to fear for my own safety and for that of my immediate family members. Johnson, who goes by Chuck and publishes HBSledgehammer.com, said the trustee tried to stifle his freedom of speech. He also contended that Clayton-Tarvin took his blog posts and Facebook comments too seriously and out of context, saying anyone who is afraid of metaphors has serious issues. Read More Facebook

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Deal with workers averts one-day strike that could have shut down L.A. schools By Howard Blume Los Angeles school district and union officials announced a contract agreement Tuesday night that averted a one-day strike planned for next week. The pact, which runs through June 2020, removes one labor problem from the desk of incoming Supt. Austin Beutner  whose first day on the job would have coincided with the strike. Plenty of other challenges remain. Read More Facebook

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UC labor strike expands with show of support from more unions By Teresa Watanabe Fong Chuu is a registered nurse who has assisted with countless liver transplants, kidney surgeries and gastric bypasses during 34 years at UCLA. Working with her are scrub technicians who sterilize equipment, hand medical instruments to the surgeon and dress patient wounds. They are a team, Chuu says, which is why she walked off her job Tuesday in support of those technicians and other members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299. The 25,000 member AFSCME local, the University of Californias largest employee union, launched a three-day strike Monday. Read More Facebook

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We are humans too: Voices of UCLAs striking custodians, hospital aides and imaging technicians By Joy Resmovits Demonstrators parade in front of Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) This week, thousands of UC employees are staging a three-day strike for better pay and working conditions. On Monday, more than 20,000 custodians, cooks, lab technicians, nurse aides and other members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299 walked off their jobs. By Tuesday, two more unions joined in sympathy strikes. The union and UC reached a bargaining impasse last year. The university has said it wont meet the workers demands. The strikers said they wanted better pay, more equity in the allocation of work, stable healthcare premiums and an end to the universitys use of contract workers. These are their stories. Read More Facebook

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Massive UC workers strike disrupts dining, classes and medical services By Joy Resmovits A massive labor strike across the University of California on Monday forced medical centers to reschedule more than 12,000 surgeries, cancer treatments and appointments, and campuses to cancel some classes and limit dining services. More than 20,000 members of UCs largest employee union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299, walked off their jobs on the first day of a three-day strike. They include custodians, gardeners, cooks, truck drivers, lab technicians and nurse aides. Two altercations involving protesters and people driving near the rallies were reported at UCLA and UC Santa Cruz. At UCLA, police took a man into custody Monday after he drove his vehicle into a crowd, hitting three staff members. They were treated for minor injuries at the scene and released, said Lt. Kevin Kilgore of the UCLA Police Department. Read More Facebook

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Sen. Kamala Harris to skip UC Berkeley commencement in support of striking workers By Teresa Watanabe Sen. Kamala Harris (Chris Dekmas) California Sen. Kamala Harris has canceled plans to deliver UC Berkeleys commencement address this weekend in support of UC workers who are on strike over wages and health benefits. Due to the ongoing labor dispute, Sen. Harris regretfully cannot attend and speak at this years commencement ceremony at UC Berkeley, said a statement from Harris office issued Monday. She wishes the graduates and their families a joyous commencement weekend and success for the future. They are bright young leaders and our country is counting on them. UCs largest employee union, the 25,000-member American Federation of County, State and Municipal Employees Local 3299, launched a three-day strike Monday and had earlier called for a speakers boycott. The union and university reached a bargaining impasse last year and subsequent mediation efforts have failed to produce an agreement. The union is asking for a multiyear contract with a 6% annual pay increase while the university is offering 3% annual increases over four years. UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ will deliver the keynote address instead, the university announced. About 5,800 students are expected to participate in the ceremony Saturday. Facebook

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School mural depicting Trumps bloody, severed head sparks controversy By Gary Warth A Chula Vista school mural that depicts the bloody, severed head of President Trump on a spear sparked a controversy that prompted officials to cover it and issue a response distancing themselves from the work. The statement also said the artist will alter the painting. We understand that there was a mural painted at the event this past weekend that does not align with our schools philosophy of non-violence, read the statement from MAAC Community Charter School director Tommy Ramirez. We have been in communication with the artist  who has agreed to modify the artwork  to better align with the schools philosophy. Read More Facebook

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New blackface incident at Cal Poly prompts calls for state investigation By Kim Christensen Cal Poly San Luis Obispo officials have asked the state attorney generals office to investigate after a new photo of a white student in blackface surfaced on a fraternity groups private Snapchat. I am outraged, Cal Poly President Jeffrey D. Armstrong said in a video address Friday to the campus. These vile and absolutely unacceptable acts cannot continue. We must not allow these acts to define us as an institution. Armstrong said the latest photo was intended to imitate an incident last month in which a white member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity was photographed at a party wearing blackface. Read More Facebook

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More than 50,000 UC workers set to strike this week but campuses will remain open By Teresa Watanabe More than 50,000 workers across the University of California are set to strike this week, causing potential disruptions to surgery schedules, food preparation and campus maintenance. The systems 10 campuses and five medical centers are to remain open, with classes scheduled as planned. UCs largest employee union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299, plans to begin a three-day strike Monday involving 25,000 workers, including custodians, gardeners, cooks, truck drivers, lab technicians and nurse aides. Read More Facebook

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New L.A. schools chief Beutner pledges to listen, learn and take action By Howard Blume New Los Angeles schools Supt. Austin Beutner proved Wednesday that hes a quick learner even without an education background. Like countless public officials before him, he appeared at an important event  his first speech and news conference  with a photogenic background of students. His message  that he would put those students first  seemed heartfelt if hardly original. Nor was it a huge surprise that he pledged to push cooperatively but unflinchingly to improve the districts academic performance and stabilize its finances. As an introduction, Beutner, a former investment banker who made a fortune on Wall Street, offered little flash, but that was partly the point. Read More Facebook

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In a school lockdown, one student takes stock of the stressful scene (Phalaen Chang) At the beginning of lunch one day late last month, Duarte High School, Northview Middle School, and California School of the Arts-San Gabriel Valley were advised by the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department to go into lockdown mode due to police activity in the immediate area. Phalaen Chang, a junior at the California School of the Arts, wrote a series of notes on her iPhone while she sat in a room with her classmates. By the time the lockdown ended an hour later, she wrote, she knew which of her friends would hold open the door for others, be the ones calming others down, be the ones barricading the doors. She knew that all of them have the potential to be such strong people. Read More Facebook

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Tale as old as time: L.A. Unified superintendent pick follows a historical pattern of outside-the-box choices By Joy Resmovits Navy Vice Adm. David L. Brewer III, superintendent from 2006-2008. (L.A. Times file photo) L.A. Unified has long gone back and forth between picking insiders and outsiders to run the nations second largest school district. The choice of Austin Beutner, announced Tuesday, places the district squarely back in the outsider camp  months after a consummate insider, Supt. Michelle King, announced that she had cancer and would not return to the job. Check out this timeline of former L.A. superintendents to see how the school board members have changed their minds, sometimes favoring leaders who come from the world of education and sometimes executives from elsewhere, recruited to shock the system into change. At one point, the district hired someone from the military  retired Navy Vice Adm. David L. Brewer III, who served as superintendent from 2006-2008. In hiring Brewer, board members had opted for a non-educator  largely because they sought a fresh thinker, unwedded to the bureaucracy, unafraid to make bold, even unorthodox moves, reads a 2008 Times story. Facebook

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Austin Beutner named superintendent of Los Angeles schools By Howard Blume Austin Beutner, a philanthropist and former investment banker, on Tuesday was named superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nations second-largest school system. His selection was the biggest move yet by a Los Angeles school board majority elected with major support from charter school advocates. The decision came after lengthy public testimony, most of it in support of the other remaining finalist, interim Supt. Vivian Ekchian, who is well known within the school system. Beutner, 58, has no background leading a school or school district. Less than 2 years ago, a school board with a very different balance of power named Michelle King, a former teacher who rose through the district throughout her career, to L.A. Unifieds top job. Read More Facebook

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Hearing delay gives both sides more time in Ref Rodriguezs potential trial By Howard Blume Ref Rodriguez and his attorneys will have more time to prepare their defense against charges of political money laundering, a judge ruled Monday. The preliminary hearing in the case had been scheduled to begin May 9, but that date will now be pushed back to July 23 per the ruling from L.A. Superior Court Judge Deborah S. Brazil. Rodriguez, 46, faces three felony charges of conspiracy, perjury and procuring and offering a false or forged instrument, as well as 25 misdemeanor counts related to the alleged campaign money laundering. Read More Facebook

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L.A. school board poised to name Beutner as superintendent By Howard Blume The Los Angeles Board of Education is poised to select philanthropist and former investment banker Austin Beutner to be the next superintendent of the nations second-largest school system. Barring a last-minute development, the only mystery is whether Beutner emerges with four or five votes from the boards seven members. Terms of his contract already have been under discussion, according to sources close to the process who requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak. The selection of Beutner, 58, who has no experience managing a school or a school district, would be a signal that the board majority that took control nearly a year ago wants to rely on business management skills instead of insider educational expertise. Read More Facebook

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Teacher walkouts in Arizona and Colorado continue national debate on money for schools By Michael Livingston Following the lead of teachers who walked off the job in other states in recent weeks, thousands of teachers and their supporters took to the streets in Arizona and Colorado for the second day in a row to demand better pay and more funding for education. Read More Facebook

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Three decades before the #MeToo movement, UC San Diego led the way against sexual assault By Teresa Watanabe When Nancy Wahlig first started her fight against sexual assault, one company was marketing a capsule for women to stash in their bras and then smash to release a vile odor. Because of the very nature of society, the only person who can prevent rape is the woman herself, read a 1981 advertisement for the Repulse rape deterrent. Ideas about how to prevent sexual violence have come a long way since then, and Wahlig has helped lead that evolution on college campuses. In 1988, she started UC San Diegos Sexual Assault Resource Center (SARC), the first stand-alone program at the University of California. Today, she remains the systems most senior specialist. Read More Facebook

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Andres Alonso withdraws from consideration for L.A. schools job By Howard Blume Andres Alonso, believed to be one of three remaining finalists to lead the Los Angeles school system, has withdrawn from consideration. The remaining known candidates in the confidential search are former investment banker Austin Beutner and interim Supt. Vivian Ekchian. Alonso, 60, announced his decision on Twitter on Thursday night, saying he had notified the L.A. Unified School District on Monday. The exit of Alonso, the former Baltimore schools chief, seems to solidify the front-runner status of Beutner, who also was a former L.A. Times publisher and a Los Angeles deputy mayor. He held each of those positions for about a year. Read More Facebook

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Heres why the apparent increase in autism spectrum disorders may be good for U.S. children By Karen Kaplan The prevalence of autism spectrum disorder among American children continues to rise, new government data suggest. And that may be a good thing. Among 11 sites across the U.S. where records of 8-year-olds are scrutinized in detail, 1 in 59 kids was deemed to have ASD in 2014. Thats up from 1 in 68 in 2012. Normally, health officials would prefer to see less of a disease, not more of it. But in this case, the higher number is probably a sign that more children of color who are on the autism spectrum are being recognized as such and getting services to help them, according to a report published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Read More Facebook

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UC shelves tuition increase for now, in hopes of getting more state funding By Teresa Watanabe University of California regents will not vote on a tuition increase next month, shelving the plan for now in hopes that state lawmakers will come through with more funding. Raising tuition is always a last resort and one we take very seriously, UC President Janet Napolitano said Thursday in a statement. We will continue to advocate with our students who are doing a tremendous job of educating legislators about the necessity of adequately funding the university to ensure UC remains a world-class institution and engine of economic growth for our state. Last week, Cal State Chancellor Timothy P. White said the 23-campus system no longer would consider a plan to raise tuition for the 2018-19 academic year. But unlike Cal State, UC officials have not taken a tuition increase off the table entirely. Read More Facebook

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A chemical spill, unchecked eyewash stations, poor training: Audit details Cal States lax lab safety By Joy Resmovits In May 2016, two bottles tumbled off a poorly supported shelf and broke, leading to a chemical spill in a Sacramento State University lab. The liquid got onto one students legs and soaked anothers feet. Five employees cleaned up the mess, even though no one knew for sure what it was and whether it was dangerous. They called fellow employee Kim Harrington, their union representative, to let her know what happened. Read More Facebook

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After blackface incident, minority students at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo say they dont feel welcome By Hailey Branson-Potts Aaliyah Ramos was walking through the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo campus last year when a prospective student approached her. Ramos was the only black person, the young woman said, that she and her mother had seen that day. They asked about the quality of education and the diversity of the student body. Ramos, a mechanical engineering student, didnt want to sugarcoat the truth: Cal Poly long has been predominantly white. But she told the young woman  who also was black  that she didnt want to discourage her from applying, because that wouldnt help with diversity at a school where only 0.7% of students are African American  the lowest percentage of any university in the California State system. Read More Facebook

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El Camino Real Charter High School in Woodland Hills wins the 2018 U.S. Academic Decathlon By Carlos Lozano El Camino Real Charter High School in Woodland Hills has won the 2018 U.S. Academic Decathlon, officials said. The winner was announced early Saturday at a ceremony in Frisco, Texas. More than 600 students from the U.S., Canada, China and the United Kingdom gathered there over the last three days to compete in the 37th annual U.S. Academic Decathlon. Congratulations to El Camino Real Charter High School for another impressive victory, said Vivian Ekchian, interim superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District. Your academic stamina and competitive spirit to win is remarkable. The entire L.A. Unified family is so proud of you. Read More Facebook

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Anticipation mounts as L.A. school board meets over superintendent selection By Howard Blume L.A. schools superintendent candidate Andres Alonso got an endorsement Friday, but Austin Beutner and Vivian Ekchian also have supporters. (Elizabeth Malby) The Los Angeles Board of Education is reconvening in closed session Friday at noon as anticipation mounts about the choice of the next leader of the nations second-largest school system. The presumed front-runner is former investment banker and philanthropist Austin Beutner, but interim Supt. Vivian Ekchian and former Baltimore Supt. Andres Alonso also are in the running. Most district insiders appear to be rooting for Ekchian, who has spent her entire career in education within the school system. After her 10 years as a teacher, her roles have included head of human resources, chief labor negotiator and regional administrator for campuses in the west San Fernando Valley. Shes managed the district since September, when then-Supt. Michelle King went on medical leave and chose Ekchian to fill in for her. King, who is battling cancer, never returned and announced her retirement in January. Numerous influential civic leaders have urged  and pressured  the board to select Beutner. Also lending their weight have been advocates for charter schools, which are independently operated, growing in number and competing for students with district-operated campuses. Four of the seven board members  enough to control the outcome  were elected with major financial support from charter supporters. Beutner has two ongoing connections with the L.A. Unified School District. The first is his leadership of an outside task force that is making recommendations on how to improve the school system. The second is his charity, Vision to Learn, which supplies glasses to low-income students. The charity and the school system are in a dispute at the moment over who is responsible for delays in providing services to students as part of a $6 million contract, half of which is paid for by L.A. Unified. Unlike Ekchian and Buetner, Alonso, who currently teaches at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, has no deep-seated local constituency, but the prospect of his selection has generated some excitement. While in Baltimore, Alonso was recognized for pushing for progress at low-performing schools, and for being willing to take strong action. While in Baltimore, he also weathered a test-score cheating scandal and occasionally rocky relations with the teachers union. But by the time he resigned, after six years, he and union leaders seemed to be working together without rancor. Leaders of some community groups have split from the pro-Beutner camp. They worry that Beutners approach to confronting the districts financial problems could shut out their voices or involve severe economic cutbacks that would undermine programs that are helping students. Some prefer Ekchian; some Alonso. Theyve been reluctant to speak out publicly because theyll have to work with whoever is selected, but they have tried to get the ear of board members. On Friday morning, one leader of a community group decided to come out in favor of Alonso. L.A. Unified has the opportunity to bring in an instructional leader of color with a history of success, said Alberto Retana, president and chief executive of Community Coalition, which works on behalf of low-income students and families in South Los Angeles. If we have a shot at that, we should go for it  because its in the best interests of our kids and of our community. Retana said his statement was not meant to criticize Beutner or Ekchian but to alert board members that there also is community support for Alonso. Facebook

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Cal State leader shelves proposed tuition hike: Its the right thing to do, but its not without risk By Joy Resmovits Cal State, the nations largest public university system, will no longer consider a plan to raise tuition for the 2018-19 academic year, Chancellor Timothy P. White announced Friday. The decision is a bet that Sacramento will come through in the end. If Cal State loses that bet, it could mean cuts to campus programs. White said in an interview that Californias economy is strong enough that families should not be shouldering the burden of higher college costs. Read More Facebook

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L.A. students to participate in national walkout activities on Friday By Joy Resmovits (Los Angeles Times) Students are taking to the streets again Friday to protest gun violence on the 19th anniversary of the Columbine school shooting. Starting at 10 a.m., students at many schools will spend 13 seconds honoring the 13 people  12 students and one teacher  killed on that day in Littleton, Colo. After that, theyll participate in a host of different activities. Within L.A. Unified, one school is having an open-mic event for students to talk about school violence, and lawmakers are visiting campuses to hear students thoughts. According to a central hub for organizing the protests  written by the students of Ridgefield High School in Connecticut  the walkouts are intended to drive the political change necessary to curb school violence. The day is also a time for students to interact on an elevated platform they have never had before, the site states. It is a day of discourse and thoughtful sharing. Bringing together communities and students to get a national discussion rolling. Organizers have suggested using the event to convey the importance of curbing gun violence to legislators. They are encouraging students to push legislation that would ban assault weapons and tighten up rules around who can buy guns and how. Over 2,500 schools nationwide are expected to participate. In L.A., some students  at campuses including Eagle Rock High School, the Ramon C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts and Bravo Medical Magnet  plan to walk out. Students from various schools expect to join area marches, including those in Santa Monica and Huntington Park. Other schools are hosting career days and voter registration drives. At 1 p.m., students plan to start a rally in front of L.A. Unified headquarters. For the record: An earlier version of this article stated that 12 teachers and one student were killed in the Columbine shooting. The opposite is true: twelve students and one teacher died. Facebook

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Stabbing of popular student devastates South El Monte High School; teen friend suspected in slaying By Sonali Kohli When administrators at South El Monte High School called Jeremy Sanchezs parents to say he never showed up for class Wednesday, his father began to worry. It was unusual for the 17-year-old junior to miss school, so his father filed a missing persons report and assembled two of Jeremys close friends to look for the popular student-athlete. Their search took them to a scenic stretch of the San Gabriel River Trail, where one of the friends  a 16-year-old boy  made a tragic discovery. Among the bushes in the riverbed near Thienes Avenue and Parkway Drive was Jeremys body, punctured with stab wounds, according to Lt. John Corina of the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department. Read More Facebook

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Racist fliers spark outrage at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo By Alene Tchekmedyian Soon after Neal MacDougall arrived on the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo campus Tuesday, the professor noticed university police standing outside a restroom near his office. A racial slur against African Americans had been scrawled in red marker on a stall wall. Later, he discovered a series of racist fliers pinned up next to his door. Someone had also slashed posters hed hung outside his office supporting students in the country illegally. The discovery was the latest controversy on the prestigious campus  which the president said is less than 55% white  that MacDougall said demonstrates a culture of racism at the university. Last week, photographs emerged of white fraternity members, including one in blackface, flashing gang signs. Read More Facebook

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The superintendent waiting game, paying for L.A.'s College Promise, Princetons slave history: Whats new in education By Joy Resmovits Acting LAUSD superintendent Vivian Ekchian is a finalist for the permanent job. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) In and around Los Angeles: The L.A. Unified school board spent 10 hours interviewing and discussing candidates for superintendent. When they adjourned after 10 p.m., they said they would reconvene on Friday. Who is paying for Mayor Eric Garcettis much-touted College Promise, a program that promises two years of community college for LAUSD grads? In California: The Legislature is considering a proposal that would boost K-12 education funding for black students. When the cost of living is taken into account, California has the highest rate of child poverty. Nationwide: The families of two children killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School are suing Alex Jones and Infowars for saying the school massacre never occurred. Princeton will name two spaces  an arch and a garden  after slaves who lived or worked on the campus. Facebook

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L.A. school board meets privately with finalists and debates choice for school district leader By Howard Blume The Los Angeles Board of Education adjourned late Tuesday after spending more than 10 hours interviewing candidates and trying to reach a decision on who would be the next leader of the nations second-largest school system. When the meeting finally recessed at 10:11 p.m., a spokesman announced only that the school board would reconvene Friday at noon. Going into the days meetings, there were apparently four finalists, according to sources who could not be named because they were unauthorized to speak. Read More Facebook

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Two Sandy Hook families sue Alex Jones and Infowars for saying the school massacre never happened By David Altimari Families of two children killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School have filed lawsuits in Texas against controversial radio host Alex Jones for continually claiming the massacre never happened. Neil Heslin, the father of Jesse Lewis, and Leonard Pozner and Veronique De La Rosa, whose son Noah Pozner died in the massacre, filed separate lawsuits late Monday in Travis County, Texas. The lawsuits allege that Jones defamed the parents by constantly calling them crisis actors and insisting the shooting was a false flag operation; they also claim Jones accusations have led to death threats against the Sandy Hook families by Jones followers. Read More Facebook

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Beutner emerges as a top pick for L.A. schools superintendent amid last-minute jockeying By Howard Blume Austin Beutner has emerged as a leading contender to run the Los Angeles school district, with backers saying he is smart enough and tough enough to confront its financial and academic struggles. Though he does not have a background in education, the former investment banker has in the last year examined some of the districts intractable problems, serving as co-chair of an outside task force with the support of then-Supt. Michelle King. Sources inside and outside the school district said Beutner appears to have more support on the seven-member board than other finalists, and his name could come up for a vote as early as Tuesday. Read More Facebook

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Challenge at Chicago school construction site: Watch for 38,000 unmarked graves By Nereida Moreno A 15-year effort to build a school in Chicagos Dunning neighborhood is underway with an unusual complication: Construction workers are taking careful steps to avoid disturbing human remains that may lie beneath the soil. The $70-million school is to be built on the grounds of a former Cook County Poor House, where an estimated 38,000 people were buried in unmarked graves. Among the dead are residents who were too poor to afford funeral costs, unclaimed bodies and patients from the countys insane asylum. There can be and there have been bodies found all over the place, said Barry Fleig, a genealogist and cemetery researcher who began investigating the site in 1989. Its a spooky, scary place. Read More Facebook

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Oklahoma teacher walkout winds down despite lawmakers failure to meet demands By Washington Post Oklahomas largest teachers union has announced an end to a walkout that has drawn thousands of educators out of classrooms and to the state Capitol demanding greater investment in the states schools, which have endured the nations steepest funding cuts. The announcement Thursday from the Oklahoma Education Assn. does not necessarily end the protests at the Capitol, as teachers not affiliated with the union vowed to stay longer. Instead of a walkout, the union and school districts across the state have said they plan to send delegations of teachers to Oklahoma City to keep the pressure on lawmakers. Teachers and their supporters have also promised to push education issues to the forefront of November elections, when the state chooses a new governor. As school districts begin to reopen, the protests may lose steam. The Legislature is not in session Friday, and observers are waiting to see what happens Monday, when lawmakers return. Read More Facebook

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Most Californians are worried about school shooting threats and oppose arming teachers, survey finds By Joy Resmovits Hamilton High School student Aiyana Dabriel holds a sign during a March 14 walkout in support of the Parkland shooting victims. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) Most Californians are worried that a school shooting like the one that occurred in Parkland, Fla., in February could shed blood closer to home, a new survey found. Some 73% percent of adults and 82% of public school parents said they were very concerned or somewhat concerned about school shootings. The Public Policy Institute of California surveyed 1,704 adults in the state by phone just after the March for Our Lives protest against gun violence. Latino and black respondents were significantly more likely to be concerned about school violence than white or Asian respondents, the institute found. Two-thirds of adults and public school parents said they opposed letting more educators carry weapons in school. The response differed across party lines, with 86% of Democrats and 69% of independents voicing their opposition, while 60% percent of Republicans said they would support a measure to arm educators. The poll, which had a margin of error of 3.2% in either direction, also asked Californians about school funding, educational issues in the governors race and the impact of immigration enforcement on students. You can find the full results here. Facebook

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Californias largest virtual charter school network agrees to contract with its teachers By Anna M. Phillips Nearly four years after teachers at Californias largest online charter school voted to unionize, they have reached a deal to increase pay and create job protections, according to a spokesman for the California Teachers Assn. The contract, which is still tentative and subject to ratification, is a victory for the teachers union. Although charter schools are publicly funded, most are privately managed and their employees arent protected by labor contracts. Under the terms of the contract  the result of years of negotiation and legal wrangling  approximately 500 teachers working for California Virtual Academies will no longer be at-will employees who can be dismissed for almost any reason. Their average salary will rise to just over $45,000, according to union estimates, a figure that remains far below the norm for traditional public school teachers. Still, it is an improvement over the previous average of $38,000. The accord also places a limit on the number of students each teacher is responsible for monitoring in online homeroom classes. Were very satisfied with the gains we made, said teacher Brianna Carroll, president of California Virtual Educators United. I think were going to see some extraordinary changes in our schools. According to Carroll, teachers at California Virtual Academies  better known as CAVA  had grown frustrated with the organizations foot-dragging and were making preparations to go on strike when CAVAs leadership agreed to the deal. CAVA and K12, the Virginia-based for-profit company linked to its schools, did not immediately respond to an email Tuesday asking for comment. The network currently operates nine virtual charter schools across California. In 2016, the charter network agreed to pay $8.5 million to settle claims of false advertising, misleading parents and inadequate instruction. The state attorney generals office had also accused K12 of controlling the charters for its own financial benefit. Neither CAVA nor K12 admitted to wrongdoing in the settlement. A year later, the state imposed a $2-million fine on CAVA after an audit found that it had misspent public funds. The network disputed the findings. Facebook

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School board approves a new formula for funding high-need schools By Sonali Kohli L.A. schools will soon get more money if they are located in neighborhoods with such problems as high levels of gun violence and asthma. The Los Angeles Unified school board voted unanimously Tuesday to adopt a new formula to determine how to dole out some funding to schools, based not only on the characteristics of the student populations but on the traumas that affect the communities around campuses. The new formula will be applied to $25 million in funding next fiscal year and about $263 million annually in future years  a small part of the districts $7.5 billion annual budget. Read More Facebook

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Protesters demand Ref Rodriguez resignation outside school board meeting By Sonali Kohli Students, parents, teachers and UTLA marching outside the board meeting chanting "Ref resign" pic.twitter.com/W0LRWZSIXY  Sonali Kohli  (@Sonali_Kohli) April 10, 2018 A few dozen parents, students and teachers marched outside the Los Angeles Unified School Board meeting Tuesday, some calling for board member Ref Rodriguez to resign the week after news broke that he was taken into custody on suspicion of being drunk in public at a Pasadena bar and restaurant. Rodriguez was not cited or charged in that incident, but was held for more than five and a half hours before being released. The school board member faces felony and misdemeanor charges for political money laundering. He is accused of getting more than two dozen people people to donate to his campaign for his school board seat with the understanding that he would reimburse them. He stepped down from his post as school board president after he was charged last fall, but he did not give up his seat on the board. He has pleaded not guilty to three felony counts of conspiracy, perjury, and procuring and offering a false or forged instrument, as well as 25 misdemeanor counts related to the alleged campaign money laundering. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for May. He cant give his full focus to our students, said Rebecca LaFond, a Highland Park parent whose three children marched with her as she chanted, Ref resign. One daughter marched in front of her, using a drum stick to hit the bottom of a gallon-size empty water jug. Our kids deserve someone who has the utmost ethical standards representing them, LaFond said. The protests continued into the board meeting, where some addressed Rodriguez directly, calling on him to step down during public comment portions of the meeting. Rodriguez, through his chief of staff, declined to comment. Some parents outside the board meeting did not know about the charges against Rodriguez but came out to protest the possibility of sharing their school campuses with charter schools. Protesters also oppose colocation  not all of the parents are here to ask Ref Rodriguez to step down pic.twitter.com/1Co8zQ9zSi  Sonali Kohli  (@Sonali_Kohli) April 10, 2018 Cynthia Martinez said her son, who goes to Christopher Dena Elementary School in Boyle Heights, has been bullied in the past by students from a charter school sharing the campus. She said she didnt know who Rodriguez was. Some parents and teachers are worried about losing computer labs, robotics rooms and fitness centers if they are required to share their campus with charter schools, said Ilse Escobar, a parent community organizer for United Teachers Los Angeles. The issues of Rodriguez and colocation are related, Escobar said. Rodriguez is part of a majority on the school board elected with financial backing from charter school supporters, and many parents, she said, feel that the school board is compromised if he is a part of it. Staff reporter Howard Blume contributed to this post. Facebook

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Delaine Eastin tries to gain momentum in the California governors race, one voter at a time By Seema Mehta Delaine Eastin was a sophomore in high school when a drama teacher urged her to try out for a part in The Man Who Came to Dinner. She hesitated until he told her: This is a metaphor for your whole life. If you never try out, you will never get the part. Eastin auditioned and won the role. Decades later, the advice sticks with the former state schools chief, this time in her unlikely run for governor. Despite calls for more women in leadership roles in state politics following sexual misconduct allegations in Sacramento, Eastin has been largely overlooked in the race, lagging far behind her Democratic rivals in fundraising and the polls. Read More Facebook

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Arizona high court rejects in-state tuition for DACA recipients By Associated Press Young immigrants granted deferred deportation status under a program started by President Obama are not eligible for lower in-state college tuition, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled Monday. The unanimous ruling will affect at least 2,000 students attending the states largest community college district and hundreds more at other colleges and the states three public universities. The Maricopa County Community Colleges District and state universities said they would begin raising tuition immediately for the coming school year. Read More Facebook

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New York high school students injured when bus strikes overpass By Associated Press A charter bus carrying teenagers returning from a spring break trip Sunday night struck a bridge overpass on Long Island, seriously injuring six passengers and mangling the entire length of the top of the bus. The crash happened shortly after 9 p.m. Sunday on the Southern State Parkway in Lakeview, according to New York State Police. One of the six injured passengers had very serious injuries, said State Police Maj. David Candelaria. Thirty-seven other passengers suffered minor injuries. Read More Facebook

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Some good news for California in national student test scores By Joy Resmovits National test scores for fourth- and eighth-graders were generally flat from 2015, but eighth-grade reading scores showed some improvement. Every two years, the nations fourth- and eighth-graders are tested in math and reading  and newly released results from last years tests give California at least a little reason to be pleased. The 2017 results  out Monday night  were mostly flat nationwide compared with 2015, though the average score in eighth-grade reading went up. But while that improvement largely came from the increased scores of the highest-performing students, California eighth-graders showed some reading progress from the lowest levels to the highest. Read More Facebook

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Under state control, Inglewood school districts financial picture worsened By Anna M. Phillips When Eugenio Villa agreed to return to the Inglewood schools for a second tour last summer, he knew the district remained one of Californias most troubled. Inglewood Unified had been nearly insolvent when it was taken over by the state Department of Education in 2012. Six years later, its enrollment was still declining. Its school buildings were tired  some edging into decrepitude. Its test scores and graduation rates were still below the state average. And the public was out of patience. Still, Villa, who had signed back on as the districts chief business official, was shocked at what he found when he arrived in June 2017. Two years earlier, he had left the school system on what he thought was firm ground. Read More Facebook

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Charter school group drops two lawsuits against L.A. Unified By Howard Blume A charter schools advocacy group last week announced that it would end two long-running lawsuits in which it was seeking more classroom space and construction money from the Los Angeles school district. The decision, the California Charter Schools Assn. said, reflects better relations between charter schools and the L.A. Unified School District. But the move also suggests that the litigation, which already contributed to significant gains for area charters, was unlikely to produce much more. It takes time, money and effort to litigate, said Ricardo Soto, general counsel for the charter group. Maybe its better to see if we can find the time and opportunity for collaboration. Read More Facebook

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L.A. school board member Ref Rodriguez is arrested on suspicion of public intoxication By Richard Winton Los Angeles school board member Ref Rodriguez was arrested recently on suspicion of being drunk in public at a Pasadena restaurant, the latest trouble for an elected official who faces political money-laundering charges. Pasadena police took Rodriguez into custody on March 16, according to city spokeswoman Lisa Derderian. Officers arrested Rodriguez at about 4:30 p.m. at the Yard House restaurant and bar at the Paseo Mall and held him in jail for more than five-and-a-half hours. Rodriguez was ultimately released without being cited or charged, Derderian told The Times. Other details about the arrest were not available, she 
A man suspected of stabbing his girlfriend in a Carlsbad Costco parking lot poured gasoline on his clothes and attempted to light himself on fire when he was pulled over by the Border Patrol in Temecula on Friday afternoon.

According to Carlsbad police, the stabbing was reported at a Costco near Legoland at 2:47 p.m.

Officers found a woman with multiple stab wounds. The suspect, later identified as 62-year-old Charles Higgins, had fled the scene. An alert was issued to law enforcement agencies in surrounding communities.

Shortly after 5:40 p.m., Border Patrol agents about 30 miles north in Temecula spotted the man and pulled him over.

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Agents said the suspect ignored all verbal commands and poured gasoline on his clothes. They were able to open the drivers door, knock a lighter out of his hand and remove him from his vehicle.

The mans clothes were heavily stained with blood, authorities said.

The man and his vehicle were turned over to the Carlsbad Police Department, which is investigating the stabbing case.

The woman was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries, authorities said. Her condition was not immediately available.

Warth and Dyer write for the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Two Huntington Beach city councilmen said they want to follow the lead of Los Alamitos and other cities in an effort to seek relief from state mandates that expand protections for undocumented immigrants.

Mayor Mike Posey said in a statement that he and Councilman Erik Peterson want Surf City to discuss Sacramentos so-called sanctuary state bills, such as Senate Bill 54, Assembly Bill 450 and AB 103, at Mondays council meeting.

Posey, who witnessed SB 54s passing in Sacramento last year, called such policies an open violation of federal immigration laws.

In a news release, he said they all represent a threat to public safety.

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In order for the city to maintain our superior record of public safety, we have been exploring options to ensure your safety and maintain local control, while at the same time, fulfill our oath of upholding the Constitution, he said.

How O.C. became a center of resistance to Californias sanctuary state legislation 

State Senate leader Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles), who wrote SB 54, warned cities going against the states sanctuary laws.

Pushing a racist and anti-immigrant agenda devoid of facts or supporting legal analysis is a pretty sad use of taxpayer resources, especially when it could result in crippling legal costs for cities that rush to join this dead-end effort, he said in a written statement.

Huntington Beachs pending discussion comes as talks pushing against the sanctuary laws mount throughout Orange County.

Earlier this month, the Los Alamitos City Council passed its own opt-out ordinance. Yorba Linda, Buena Park and Mission Viejo also have had talks.

And on Tuesday, the Orange County Board of Supervisors voted to join a federal lawsuit fighting the matter.

The Trump administration has argued that Californias sanctuary state policies blatantly obstruct federal immigration authorities and violate the Constitutions supremacy clause giving federal law precedence over a states. The case is pending.

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Zint writes for Times Community News.
Declaring a shelter crisis in the Antelope Valley, Los Angeles County supervisors agreed Tuesday to keep an emergency homeless shelter operating throughout much of 2018.

They approved a motion directing the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority to use Measure H funds for the 93-bed shelter, which is operated by the Salvation Army in a converted medical center.

The Antelope Valleys homeless population increased by 50% from 2016 to 2017  from about 3,000 to 4,500  according to latest figures released by the homeless authority. But there are no year-round facilities to house homeless people.

The 108-bed Lancaster Community Shelter, the valleys only drop-in homeless shelter, closed its doors in August after financial struggles.

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The funds from Measure H  the county tax increase approved by voters in 2017  will keep the emergency shelter open 24 hours a day through the end of October.

Tuesdays action ensures residents will not lose access to vital services that will help them permanently exit the cycle of homelessness, Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who co-authored the motion with Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, said in a statement.

The harsh winters and blazing summers in the Antelope Valley put those sleeping on its streets at risk.

Salvation Army Lt. Hector Acosta said extending operations at the emergency shelter only addresses a small aspect of the homelessness problem in the Antelope Valley.

Having around 100 beds for more than 4,500 is the very least we could do. We need to extend our efforts, he said.

The valleys distance from urban centers, such as downtown Los Angeles, makes it difficult to get services to the areas homeless people, said David Howden, director of the Corporation for Supportive Housings L.A. office.

In other parts of the city or county that are more urban, its easier for agencies to grow and expand, Howden said. We need to help people already there providing resources and bring additional groups to meet community needs.

In June, state Sen. Scott Wilk (R-Santa Clarita) accused the homeless services agency of shortchanging the Antelope Valley of federal homeless funds and called for an audit to review how the agency distributes its $100 million in federal aid.

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Acosta said county officials have recently begun collaborating with homeless-service providers in the area to address the problem.

melissa.etehad@latimes.com

Twitter: @melissaetehad
Compton officials are scrambling to explain the theft of 31 handguns from a municipal vault that contained nearly 200 weapons from the citys long-disbanded police department and a corps of formerly armed code-enforcement officers.

Theres stuff a little too loosey-goosey around here, City Manager Cecil Rhambo Jr. told a Times reporter Tuesday evening.

Rhambo, who arrived at City Hall just over a year ago, said he ordered an inventory of the citys sensitive property not long afterward.

I wanted to make sure we could account for those kind of things, Rhambo said.

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Even so, Rhambo said it was unclear to him whether the weapons belonged to Comptons disbanded police force or its disarmed code enforcement officers, or might have been purchased almost eight years ago as part of an effort to reconstitute the police department.

According to authorities, thieves made off with 23 Beretta .40-caliber pistols and eight Glock .40-caliber pistols. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is now investigating the theft and has offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible.

Ginger Colbrun, an ATF spokeswoman in Los Angeles, said a total of 198 guns were stored in a safe in a municipal building. In August, the city decided to turn the weapons over to the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department. However, when the guns arrived at the Sheriffs Department on Aug. 31, an inventory found 31 guns were missing.

Sheriffs and Compton city officials notified the ATF and an investigation began In September. The guns were last inventoried in March 2017, Colbrun said, so there is a considerable window when they could have been stolen.

None of them have shown up at crime scenes, Colbrun said. Thats in part why we decide to put out the reward.

Colbrun said agents have the serial numbers of the missing weapons to aid with identifying them once they are located.

On Wednesday, at least one weapons expert said the theft was just the latest in a long series of lapses in oversight in the troubled city.

It is fair to say, it was likely an inside job, said Charles Sid Heal, a retired L.A. County sheriffs commander and weapons expert. Few people probably knew about the storage of the firearms, and the vault combination had probably remained the same for decades.

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This is latest in a series of fiascoes in Comptons history when it comes to law enforcement, Heal said. Such incidents included the theft of a handgun that was booked into evidence at the Compton Police Department in 1986 and later used to shoot and injure a Long Beach police officer in 1997.

Heal said the serial numbers would allow any law enforcement agency to identify them as Comptons stolen weapons. Eventually these firearms will show and the persons or persons responsible will get apprehended, he said.

The stolen weapons retail for roughly $500 apiece, but fetch far higher prices on the street, Heal said.

Comptons old City Hall building, where a cache of weapons was held in a vault. Authorities say 31 handguns are missing. (Angel Jennings / Los Angeles Times )

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ATF investigators say the guns are likely left over from when Compton dismantled its police department in 2000 and contracted with the sheriffs department for law enforcement services.

On Tuesday night however, Rhambo suggested there were two other possibilities of why a city without its own police force had a safe filled with nearly 200 guns.

Rhambo said he was talking to a code enforcement officer who mentioned the city owned a stash of guns stored in the fire department and the old city hall building.

At one point, the city had 45 gun-carrying code enforcement officers, Rhambo said. The city disarmed those officers in 2014 however, citing safety and liability concerns. The city was one of only a handful in the state that issued its code enforcement officers weapons.

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He speculated also that they could have been purchased as part of an effort to bring back the citys police department.

In 2010, former Mayor Eric Perrodin and the City Council voted to revive the police force. Those plans were abandoned a year later, however, amid a massive budget deficit and the prospect of layoffs.

Rhambo, who once served as a captain at the sheriffs Compton station, said there are no longer any plans to resurrect the Compton Police Department.

The liability alone with law enforcement agencies is just cost-prohibitive, he said. I dont see how cities can afford it, quite frankly.

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The weapons heist is just the latest crisis to befall Compton City Hall.

A state audit released this month found that Compton officials overpaid themselves, charged questionable trips on city-issued credit cards and failed to safeguard taxpayer money, resulting in one staffer stealing millions of dollars over several years. Comptons weak financial oversight and rampant overspending turned a general fund surplus of $22.4 million a decade ago into a deficit of $42.7 million just three years later, the audit found. Even after officials adopted a plan to repay the debt in 2014, the deficit increased by $6.4 million the next year.

Fiscal mismanagement is not a new problem in Compton, where former Mayor Omar Bradley was convicted last year of misappropriating public funds. Current Mayor Aja Brown took office in 2013 on a good-governance platform and vowed to bring financial stability to a municipality that had run through city managers.

The investigation into the missing weapons is being conducted by the ATF. Anyone with information about the missing firearms is urged to call (800) ATF-GUNS or the agencys Long Beach office at (818) 265-3760.
Police are investigating a reported attack on actor Corey Feldman in Tarzana on Tuesday night, officials said.

Feldman, 46, was behind the wheel of a car stopped at a red light at Reseda and Ventura boulevards about 10:45 p.m. when he said an unknown subject opened the driver door and made a stabbing motion with an unknown object, according to Los Angeles Police Officer Drake Madison.

Feldman drove himself to the hospital after the incident, Madison said. A passenger in the car was not injured, he said.

He claims he was stabbed, Madison said of Feldman. There is no laceration or stabbing to his stomach.

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Feldman discussed the incident on social media early Wednesday in a series of all-caps tweets.

IM IN THE HOSPITAL! I WAS ATTACKED 2NITE! A MAN OPENED MY CAR DOOR & STABBED ME W SOMETHING! PLEASE SAY PRAYERS 4 US!  THANK GOD IT WAS ONLY MYSELF & MY SECURITY IN THE CAR, WHEN 3 MEN APPROACHED! WHILE SECURITY WAS DISTRACTED, W A GUY A CAR PULLED UP & ATTACKED! IM OK! pic.twitter.com/TZ0ppZeEWN  Corey Feldman (@Corey_Feldman) March 28, 2018

No one has been arrested in the matter, police said.

joseph.serna@latimes.com

Twitter: @JosephSerna
Authorities are investigating a police shooting in Irvine that left a car chase suspect wounded Tuesday night, officials said.

The shooting took place after Anaheim police pursued a vehicle that was driving erratically and speeding at more than 100 mph into Irvine, where the car crashed on the 405 Freeway at Jamboree Road near John Wayne Airport, police said.

The driver fled the vehicle about 10 p.m. and was spotted in a commercial district near Von Karman Avenue and Quartz Street, Irvine police said in a statement. About 20 minutes later, the person was shot by Anaheim police. No weapon was found at the scene.

ORANGE COUNTY SHOOTING: Man shot by Anaheim officers is in critical condition; police say he was driving erratically at over 100 mph on 405 Freeway - before crashing near Jamboree in Irvine... WATCH @ABC7 6:30am! LIVE: https://t.co/a8eFAqjJ8p pic.twitter.com/xx5h6A9TMg  Marc Cota-Robles (@abc7marccr) March 28, 2018

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The suspect was rushed to the hospital and was listed in critical condition, authorities said. No officers were injured.

The driver was identified Wednesday as Kenneth Yamashita-Magarro, 24, who had two no-bail felony warrants for drug-related crimes, police said.

An investigation into the chase and shooting are ongoing.

joseph.serna@latimes.com

For breaking California news, follow @JosephSerna on Twitter.

UPDATES:

11:05 a.m.: This article was updated with the suspects identity.

This article was originally published at 7:40 a.m.
A Los Angeles lawmaker wants the city to cut ties with companies that are linked to the National Rifle Assn., saying that its opposition to common sense gun safety laws is at odds with the city.

City Councilman Mitch OFarrell introduced a proposal Wednesday asking city staffers to provide a list of all businesses and groups that have a formal relationship with the NRA and lay out options for boycotting them.

Its important that we send a message as a city with an annual budget approaching $9 billion, OFarrell said, invoking mass shootings in Newtown, Conn.; Orlando, Fla.; Las Vegas; and Parkland, Fla.; as well as gun violence that happens regularly across the country.

Its time to speak with one voice and call attention to the assault weapon epidemic, the councilman said.

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The NRA did not immediately respond Wednesday to a request for comment. Last month, the group issued a statement denouncing a shameful display of political and civic cowardice from corporations that severed ties with the NRA after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

The law-abiding members of the NRA had nothing at all to do with the failure of that schools security preparedness, the failure of Americas mental health system, the failure of the National Instant Check System or the cruel failures of both federal and local law enforcement, the group said.

The California Rifle & Pistol Assn., which is affiliated with the NRA but has its own board, is proud to be fighting for the right to choose to own a firearm for sport or self-defense, and we refuse to be stigmatized or demonized by this campaign of shame, its president, Chuck Michel, said Wednesday.

OFarrell said he also had asked the City Council to hold off on approving an agreement between FedEx and the Harbor Department to operate a warehouse and office space. FedEx has faced pressure from gun control advocates to stop providing discounted shipping for members of the NRA.

We have a choice  and they have a choice, OFarrell said, arguing that FedEx could follow the path of other companies such as Delta Air Lines that have ended such discounts or other ties. They could join in this sensible movement to discourage the proliferation of guns.

The council postponed voting Wednesday on the FedEx agreement, which city officials say could generate up to $155,000 for the port.

A FedEx spokeswoman said the company was looking into the city decision Wednesday.

In a statement last month, FedEx said its corporate stand on gun policies was not in line with the NRA  it opposes assault rifles being in the hands of civilians  and stressed that the group is one of hundreds of organizations whose members get such discounts.

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FedEx has never set or changed rates for any of our millions of customers around the world in response to their politics, beliefs or positions, it said in that statement.

emily.alpert@latimes.com

Twitter: @AlpertReyes

UPDATES:

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4:35 p.m.: This article was updated with a response from FedEx.

This article was originally published at 1:35 p.m.
A body discovered in a shallow grave in Northern California earlier this week has been identified as missing Macedonian model Adea Shabani, authorities said Wednesday.

Shabani, who went missing in February, was identified by her tattoos, according to the Nevada County Sheriffs Office. She appears to have sustained blunt force trauma to the head but a final determination of the cause of death will not been made until toxicology and tissue analysis has been completed, police said. Her death has been ruled a homicide.

The monthlong search for Shabani, a model and aspiring actress, came to a close this week when her body was found in the shallow grave 50 miles north of Sacramento.

Los Angeles police said Tuesday that they believe Christopher Spotz, a 33-year-old man who police say had an intimate relationship with Shabani, was involved in her disappearance. He died last week after shooting himself during a police chase.

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On Tuesday, William Hayes, captain of the LAPDs Robbery-Homicide Division, called the case a rather complex investigation, saying it took investigators to Colorado as well as to two wildlife areas in Northern California in search of Shabani.

Something happened and I believe it to be somewhat untoward, he said at a downtown Los Angeles news conference. But until I get more specifics out of the coroners exam  I cant be definitive as to the cause and manner of death.

For now, police are combing Spotzs truck for clues, along with a rental car he recently used in Colorado, Hayes said. Theyre also trying to determine whether anyone else might be involved in Shabanis disappearance or death, he added.

Shabani, who would have turned 26 earlier this month, graduated from high school in Skopje, Macedonia, and attended college in Paris, according to her Facebook profile. She was a student at the Stella Adler Academy of Acting in Hollywood and was set to graduate in September, said Jayden Brant, a private investigator hired by her family.

Shabani was last seen alive on the afternoon of Feb. 23, when she and Spotz left her Wilcox Avenue apartment together, Hayes said. Friends reported her missing two days later, launching the LAPDs investigation.

Later that week, Spotz made a statement through an attorney saying he and Shabani were driving to Northern California together when they argued near Santa Clarita, Hayes said. Spotz said he pulled off the freeway and let Shabani out of the car  and hadnt seen her since.

But the story didnt add up, Hayes said. Investigators werent able to verify Spotzs account, he said, prompting Robbery-Homicide detectives to take over the case.

On March 1, detectives went to Northern California, where Spotzs father lived, to try and glean more information about where Spotz and Shabani might be. That same day, Hayes said, Spotz and another woman  his fiancee  drove to his familys home in Colorado.

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About a week later, detectives went to Colorado to try to talk to Spotz and look at his Toyota Tacoma  the last vehicle in which Shabani was seen alive, Hayes said. Meanwhile, detectives and sheriffs volunteers fanned out across the Lake of the Woods wildlife area, looking for any sign of Shabani.

When police couldnt find Spotz or his truck, Hayes said, they alerted other law enforcement agencies that they were looking for the vehicle.

San Bernardino County sheriffs deputies spotted it on March 22, near the 10 and 15 freeways. Spotz fled, prompting a chase that stretched from Hesperia to Corona, where authorities say Spotz fatally shot himself along the 91 Freeway.

Two days later, the LAPD sent a dive team back to the wildlife area to look for Shabani, Hayes said. Investigators also gleaned more information leading them to the Spenceville Wildlife Area in Nevada County.

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On Monday, police combing the banks of a creek found the shallow grave.
Southern Californias biggest water agency is considering picking up most of the bill for overhauling the states waterworks without any guarantee that it will eventually recoup its additional, multibillion-dollar investment.

At a board workshop Tuesday, officials of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California outlined ways in which the agency could finance the construction of two giant water tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

Underlying the plan is an assumption that the San Joaquin Valley agricultural districts that have refused to share in the upfront costs of the mammoth construction project would be willing to buy into it when the project is finished.

But those big irrigation districts have yet to commit to future water purchases, leaving open the possibility that the MWD  and by extension ratepayers from Los Angeles to San Diego  will be stuck with a roughly $11 billion bill for the project known as California WaterFix.

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The MWDs board voted last fall to invest $4.3 billion in the twin tunnel project, which proponents say is necessary to sustain water deliveries to San Joaquin Valley agriculture and Southland cities.

But after valley growers said they couldnt afford the project, the state decided to press ahead with a less costly, one-tunnel version financed by the MWD and the other, largely urban districts that get delta supplies from the State Water Project.

Not long after the states February announcement, some MWD board members floated an idea to keep alive the two-tunnel version, which they believe would be more beneficial. They proposed that the MWD pick up agricultures unfunded portion, which amounts to roughly a third of the projects total $17-billion cost.

Under the scenario outlined by MWD staff Tuesday, the agency would recover that extra investment by selling tunnel capacity to agricultural irrigation districts when WaterFix is built.

The supposition is that once supplies start flowing through the tunnels, the project will be more attractive to growers who by then will also be facing new limits on groundwater pumping they traditionally rely on to carry them through droughts.

Their problem is cash flow during the years of construction, MWD Assistant General Manager Roger Patterson told the board.

He added that the MWD is hoping those districts will soon sign purchase agreements that bind them to future buy-ins.

But its unlikely growers will do that before the board votes on whether it should more than double its investment in WaterFix.

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The staff is planning to offer two options for a board vote next month: Add $1 billion more to the MWDs 2017 funding commitment and move ahead with one tunnel, or throw roughly $5.5 billion more into the WaterFix pot and build two tunnels. The latter would push the agencys total financing to nearly $11 billion.

If the MWD is unable to eventually sell that extra project share, WaterFix would add nearly $60 a year to household water costs in the agencys service area, according to staff calculations. Paying for one tunnel would increase annual household bills by half that amount.

Financing WaterFix to the tune of $11 billion would also have twice the effect on the agencys overall budget, increasing it by 2.2% a year, compared with 1.1% for one tunnel.

Board members peppered the staff with questions about contract details and how the MWDs investment would be protected.

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The most skeptical members were from Los Angeles and the San Diego County Water Authority. Mayor Eric Garcetti, who appoints L.A.s representatives, last year said he supported one  but not two  delta tunnels.

Board Vice Chairman John Murray Jr. of Los Angeles noted that city policy calls for L.A. to reduce its use of imported water and boost local supplies, such as recycled water. Others wondered if paying so much for WaterFix would decrease investments in developing alternative sources.

MWD officials have said that Southern California needs to both maintain its delta imports and develop regional supplies, adding that the agency will continue to subsidize local programs.

In public comments, opponents repeated arguments against the tunnels. MWDs billions would be better spent developing regional water sources, they said. The project will drive up water rates. And they accused MWD of cherry picking data to exaggerate projected tunnel deliveries.

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Murray also noted that some water experts say a second tunnel is not worth the extra cost since one tunnel would provide many of the same benefits as two. The project is intended to lessen the ecological harm of massive withdrawals from the deltas southern portion by partially supplying delta pumps with tunnel water diverted from the Sacramento River in the deltas northern reach.

Patterson disagreed that one tunnel was enough. I dont think one does the job of two, he said after the workshop.

Two tunnels, he said, would provide more flexibility in operating the big government projects that export water from the delta, would be able to capture more water during storm flows and would do more to lessen the harmful environmental effects of the delta operations.

bettina.boxall@latimes.com

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Twitter: @boxall
Anaheim removed bus benches near Disneyland in response to complaints about homeless people sleeping on them and loitering nearby.

Then Orange County pushed hundreds out of an encampment along the Santa Ana River trail. Officials have also vowed to remove the tent city that has taken root at the Santa Ana Civic Center.

But as the county and some of its cities take steps to push out homeless people, the problem of where they should go remains unsolved. And it became abundantly clear Tuesday that finding places willing to host new homeless shelters is going to be a huge political challenge.

More than 1,000 people converged on the Orange County Board of Supervisors meeting to protest a plan to relocate those removed from along the river to temporary shelters in Irvine, Huntington Beach and Laguna Niguel.

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The large protest concluded with a 4-0 vote to scrap what had been the center of an ambitious plan, leaving the affluent county at square one as it faces a federal lawsuit aimed at finding more homes for the unsheltered.

Just a week earlier, the board had voted to move forward on the shelter proposal, only to face a public backlash and threats of lawsuits.

Many of the homeless people who were moved from the Santa Ana River trail are staying in motels, but the last of the remaining vouchers handed out to them will expire this week. No one is sure where they will go next.

Some protesters at Tuesdays meeting said they shouldnt have to worry about where to put the homeless.

Who cares? This is not our responsibility, said Abby Moore, a retiree from Laguna Niguel. We are not elected to handle this crisis. I just dont want to be near the homeless.

Angela Liu of Irvine said she did not know where the homeless should go. But it should not be in her city, she said.

They need to put them somewhere, maybe somewhere else in California, said Liu, who owns a legal services company. I really dont know where they can go. But Irvine is beautiful and we dont want it to get destroyed.

Others suggested the government should simply do nothing. U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Costa Mesa) criticized the spectacle of county-financed homeless compounds setting up shop in our local communities.

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As a parent who owns a modest home in an Orange County neighborhood, I join the outrage that we are assuming responsibility for homeless people, taking care of their basic needs and elongating their agony by removing the necessity to make fundamental decisions about the way they live their lives, he said in a statement.

Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, third from left, at the Orange County Board of Supervisors meeting in Santa Ana. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times )

The political drama began in January when Orange County officials began clearing out the sprawling river encampments in response to complaints from nearby residents about crime and blight. But the countys existing homeless shelters are already at capacity, and a federal judge, David O. Carter, has ordered local governments to find places for the evicted people to live.

Kenneth Batiste advocates for the homeless during the Orange County Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times )

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Carter temporarily halted the evictions and toured the camps.

Supervisor Shawn Nelson said that after Carters order we were not given time to go on a tour to talk to cities where the temporary shelters would be located.

Of course, youre criticized on having created a plan but with limitations, Nelson said. We did the best we could.

Following the vote Tuesday, Nelson said county and city officials will meet with Carter on April 3. Nelson said he expects the judge to push a lot of cities to see if we can come up with a host of emergency shelter beds.

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A large homeless encampment remains in the Santa Ana Civic Center. But Supervisor Andrew Do said last week that officials plan to eventually remove about 200 people from there soon. Its unclear where they would go.

Santa Ana City Councilman Juan Villegas said his city has taken on an outsized burden of the homeless crisis and that it was time for other cities to help out.

We have taken the brunt of this issue, he said. We have taken the brunt for decades and our residents deserve to feel safe, and we want public safety also.

Some homeless activists expressed dismay at the supervisors for changing course and bowing to political pressure.

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They lost their moral courage, said Joshua Collins, founder of Homeless Advocates for Christ.

Last weeks vote in favor of establishing temporary shelters in Huntington Beach, Irvine and Laguna Niguel marked the countys most concrete effort yet to find housing for the unsheltered. But the move immediately drew rebukes from residents of the cities, and Irvine and Laguna Niguel both sued to block the countys plan.

Huntington Beach officials contended that a site on Gothard Street proposed for a shelter is contaminated with methane.

On Tuesday, ahead of the supervisors meeting, a caravan of 22 chartered buses arrived at the Hall of Administration carrying more than 1,200 Irvine residents. They circled the building, repeatedly shouting No tent city!

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During the meeting, Supervisor Lisa A. Bartlett apologized to residents of the three cities where the temporary shelters had been proposed.

There has been a lack of clear information and that has caused unnecessary pain, she said. Nothing was approved or built and no homeless were ever relocated to any of the cities.

Orange County faces special challenges because it has a relatively sparse infrastructure of services and support for homeless people.

Last year, Anaheim removed benches from bus shelters near Disneyland after callers alerted City Hall to reports of vagrants drinking, defecating or smoking marijuana in the neighborhood near the parks entrance, officials said.

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Kelvin Hsieh, a tech company manager who has lived in Irvine since 1996, said that he and fellow demonstrators were compassionate, but we just dont want to create more problems.

They know that we are an affluent city with lots of immigrants, so they think we will automatically welcome other people, he said before the supervisors vote. They dont tell us how they will solve potential safety and environmental issues when they bring strangers here.

Hsieh attended the protest with his 10-year-old daughter, Ava, who is on spring break.

I dont feel good about this because I dont like drugs, she said. My dad says there are needles everywhere where the homeless live.

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anh.do@latimes.com

@newsterrier

cindy.carcamo@latimes.com

@thecindycarcamo
For years, Democrats have dreamed of turning Orange County, the birthplace of Richard Nixon, blue. Or at least some shade of purple.

The county  once such a GOP stronghold that Ronald Reagan dubbed it the place where all the good Republicans go to die  is changing demographically and, therefore, politically.

Growing Latino and Asian populations have placed whites in the minority. Hillary Clinton in 2016 became the first Democratic presidential candidate to win there since the Great Depression. And the party is hoping to flip several Republican-held congressional districts that voted for Clinton.

Still, Orange County proved again over the last few weeks that its conservative side is alive and well, especially when it comes to illegal immigration. On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors added a powerful voice to a growing backlash against Californias pro-immigrant policies when it voted to fight the states so-called sanctuary laws.

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In doing so, the county has become an epicenter of the resistance to the anti-Trump movement that has dominated left-leaning California politics since the president took office. The stance against efforts to protect people in this country illegally comes a generation after Orange County became the birthplace of Proposition 187, the divisive 1994 ballot measure meant to cut public benefits  such as schooling and healthcare  for such residents.

Theres no question that the demographics and politics of Orange County are changing, said Dan Schnur, a political communications professor at USC. But theres an important difference between changing and changed.  A [place] of more than 3 million people doesnt come with an on-off switch.

Fred Smoller, a political science professor at Chapman University in Orange, agreed, adding that the suburban region is slowly changing as the old white dudes are being replaced by far more tolerant young people and Latinos.

Its no doubt that Orange County is no longer a red county  its violet, he added.

The all-Republican Board of Supervisors voted to try to join the Trump administrations federal lawsuit against California over its immigration laws, including Senate Bill 54, the landmark sanctuary state law that prohibits local law enforcement in many cases from alerting immigration agents when detainees who may be subject to deportation are released from custody.

Im a legal immigrant, said Supervisor Michelle Steel, who is Korean American. We are not talking here about law-abiding immigrants but criminal aliens. SB 54 is totally unconstitutional.

Supervisor Shawn Nelson said the county is not going rogue but instead going before the court so they see it our way. Law enforcement officials, he said, should not be put into situations where talking to another law enforcement agency simply  puts them in violation of the law.

The Trump administration has sued California in an effort to invalidate three state immigration laws that it says violate the Constitutions supremacy clause, which gives federal law precedence over state measures.

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The board, which voted in closed session, will direct the countys attorney to petition to become plaintiffs in the federal case. (Of the five-person board, Supervisor Todd Spitzer was not in the closed session but later voted in support of taking the action; Supervisor Andrew Do was out of town.)

The supervisors also voted during the public meeting to formally condemn SB54, calling it unconstitutional.

Elected leaders in tiny Los Alamitos voted last week to attempt to exempt their city from SB 54. Yorba Linda voted to send a supporting amicus brief to the federal lawsuit. Other cities in the county, including Buena Park, Huntington Beach and Mission Viejo may follow suit.

California has decided to poke the president and his administration in the eye, and Id rather they just not involve us, Nelson said in an interview Tuesday on Fox and Friends.

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The issue drew dozens of people to the supervisors meeting in Santa Ana on Tuesday, including many anti-illegal immigration activists who live outside the county.

During public comments, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Costa Mesa), a longtime immigration-enforcement hawk, urged the supervisors to take a stand against California.

By making us a sanctuary city and sanctuary state, we are doing nothing more than attracting millions of more people to come to this country, he said.

Skye Wagoner, 21, of Huntington Beach, said she has seen firsthand the struggles of people who are here without legal status.

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Sanctuary cities promote safety by allowing undocumented immigrants to work with law enforcement when crime needs to be reported, she said. O.C. needs to continue to be a sanctuary.

Although the countys demographics have been shifting, the composition of local elected boards is usually a lagging indicator of change and often takes a generation or more to become more representative of a growing immigrant population, Schnur said. The Board of Supervisors, for example, has five Republicans, none of whom is Latino.

The gap between Republicans and Democrats in the county has been narrowing for years. In the mid-1990s, Republicans outnumbered Democrats 52% to 32%. Now, of the countys roughly 1.5 million active voters, about 37% are Republicans and 34% are Democrats.

Immigration has long been a hot topic here. In 1988, voters at Santa Ana polling locations were greeted by uniformed guards holding signs that said, in Spanish and English, Non-Citizens Cant Vote. The incident prompted allegations of voter intimidation and racism and spawned a lawsuit and a settlement.

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On Tuesday, state Sen. Kevin de Leon, who wrote SB 54, said in a statement that the county that gave us Prop. 187 more than two decades ago is at it again with another unconstitutional attack on our immigrant communities.

This kind of obsessive immigrant bashing is embarrassing to the county and its residents, and seems designed to court the approval of a racist president and his cronies, he wrote.

In a related move, Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens this week made the release dates of jail inmates  including those in the country illegally  publicly available online.

From Jan. 1 to March 19, the Sheriffs Department released 172 inmates who were in the country illegally into the community because state law prohibited them from notifying Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Carrie Braun, a department spokeswoman.

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Its unclear whether any of those people  some of whom were charged with domestic violence, burglary and criminal threats, and convicted of driving under the influence  have gone on to commit other crimes, said Raymond Grangoff, government relations manager of the agency.

ICE is going out and actively looking for them, Orange County Undersheriff Don Barnes said. It would be easier for everyone involved and safer for the community and law enforcement if they were relinquished to the custody of ICE rather than returned to the community.

ICE Deputy Director Tom Homan praised the sheriff and her decision on Tuesday.

She and her department have been a valued partner of ICE for many years, Homan said in a statement. Despite the severe challenges that SB 54 creates for ICE, we continue to seek cooperation with all sheriffs and local law enforcement who, like Sheriff Hutchens, share our goal of protecting public safety and ensuring that criminal aliens arent released back onto the streets.

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Gov. Jerry Browns office said it did not take issue with Hutchens decision.

What they did is explicitly permitted and envisioned by the law, said Evan Westrup, a Brown spokesman.

cindy.carcamo@latimes.com

Twitter: @thecindycarcamo

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hailey.branson@latimes.com

Twitter: @haileybranson

alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com

Twitter: @AleneTchek
President Trump appears to have finally found a part of California he likes  Orange County.

Trump has famously tweeted his anger at California, which has emerged as his political nemesis on issues such as climate change and illegal immigration.



For the record: An earlier version of this article misspelled Orange County Supervisor Shawn Nelsons first name as Sean.

But Orange County in recent weeks has pushed back at the sanctuary state movement embraced by Gov. Jerry Brown and other Democrats, and that has prompted cheers from Trump.

My Administration stands in solidarity with the brave citizens in Orange County defending their rights against Californias illegal and unconstitutional Sanctuary policies, he said on Twitter.

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The all-Republican Orange County Board of Supervisors voted to try to join the Trump administrations federal lawsuit against California over its immigration laws, including Senate Bill 54, the landmark sanctuary state law that prohibits local law enforcement in many cases from alerting immigration agents when detainees who may be subject to deportation are released from custody.

Elected leaders in tiny Los Alamitos voted last week to attempt to exempt their city from SB 54. Yorba Linda voted to send a supporting amicus brief to the federal lawsuit. Other cities in the county, including Buena Park, Huntington Beach and Mission Viejo may follow suit.

More cities now appear poised to join the movement.

Two Huntington Beach city councilmen said they want to follow the lead of Los Alamitos and other cities in an effort to seek relief from state mandates that expand protections for immigrants who are in the country illegally.

Huntington Beach Mayor Mike Posey said in a statement that he and Councilman Erik Peterson want Surf City to discuss Sacramentos sanctuary state bills Monday.

In order for the city to maintain our superior record of public safety, we have been exploring options to ensure your safety and maintain local control, while at the same time, fulfill our oath of upholding the Constitution, he said.

In Newport Beach, City Councilman Kevin Muldoon is calling for similar action. As a result of its own political posturing, Sacramento has put us in an awkward position, Muldoon said.

Orange County has long been synonymous with political conservatism, but its politics are changing.

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Trump has found a part of California he likes -- Orange County. Still pretty conservative, but backed Clinton over him-- First time a Democrat won since FDR pic.twitter.com/dUXqyIOYJ7  Shelby Grad (@shelbygrad) March 28, 2018

Growing Latino and Asian populations have placed whites in the minority. Hillary Clinton in 2016 became the first Democratic presidential candidate to win there since the Great Depression. And the party is hoping to flip several Republican-held congressional districts that voted for Clinton.

The gap between Republicans and Democrats in the county has been narrowing for years. In the mid-1990s, Republicans outnumbered Democrats 52% to 32%. Now, of the countys roughly 1.5 million active voters, about 37% are Republican and 34% are Democrat.

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But Trump found common ground on the issue of immigration.

....release known dangerous criminals into communities across the State. All citizens have the right to be protected by Federal law and strong borders.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 28, 2018

Trumps comments about California on Twitter are generally critical. He has attacked politicians such as Brown and Democratic U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank) and former Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Not to mention Steph Curry of the Golden State Warriors. Hes offered praise for allies such as Reps. Devin Nunes (R-Tulare) and Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield).

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But few issues have raised his ire about the Golden State more than immigration.

Californias sanctuary policies are illegal and unconstitutional and put the safety and security of our entire nation at risk. Thousands of dangerous & violent criminal aliens are released as a result of sanctuary policies, set free to prey on innocent Americans. THIS MUST STOP! he wrote earlier this month.

In February, Trump predicted that gang members would wreak havoc if federal authorities withdrew from Los Angeles and other parts of the state.

I mean, frankly, if I wanted to pull our people from California, you would have a crime mess like youve never seen in California, Trump said. Youd be inundated. You would see crime like no ones ever seen crime in this country. And yet we get no help from the state of California. Theyre doing a lousy management job, they have the highest taxes in the nation, and they dont know whats happening out there.

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Some Orange County officials said they are glad to back Trump.

California has decided to poke the president and his administration in the eye, and Id rather they just not involve us, Orange County Supervisor Shawn Nelson said in an interview Tuesday on Fox and Friends.

To read this article in Spanish click here

Zint and Davis write for Times Community News.

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cindy.carcamo@latimes.com

UPDATES:

2:30 p.m.: This article was updated with proposals in Newport Beach and Huntington Beach to seek exemptions from Californias sanctuary state law.

This article was originally published at 11:10 a.m.
President Trump on Wednesday fired David Shulkin, the embattled head of the Department of Veterans Affairs, the latest high-profile ouster to roil the White House.

In a Twitter message, the president named Dr. Ronny L. Jackson, the chief White House physician, as the next VA secretary. Until Jackson can be confirmed, the acting head of the agency will be Robert Wilkie, the undersecretary for personnel at the Defense Department, Trump said.

Shulkin has been besieged by allegations of ethical lapses coupled with a determined campaign against him by conservatives who favor greater privatization of the huge VA healthcare system.

In a White House statement Wednesday, Trump said Shulkin has been a great supporter of veterans across the country and I am grateful for his service.

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Jackson, who also served as White House physician for Presidents George W. Bush and Obama, is a rear admiral in the Navy. In 2005, he served with the Marines as an emergency doctor in Iraq.

Admiral Jackson is highly trained and qualified, and as a service member himself, he has seen firsthand the tremendous sacrifice our veterans make and has a deep appreciation for the debt our great country owes them, Trump said in the statement.

Jackson has no apparent experience managing massive bureaucracies like the VA. He is best known to the public for his exhaustive news briefing in January, detailing the results of Trumps recent physical.

Dr. Jackson is a good and honorable person, fine doctor and career military, but you do get the sense that this has as much to do with his boffo press conference on the presidents physical as anything else, said former Obama advisor David Axelrod in a Twitter message.

One veterans group voiced concern about Jacksons lack of management experience.

We are disappointed and already quite concerned about this nominee, said Joe Chenelly, national executive director of AMVETS. The administration needs to be ready to prove that hes qualified to run such a massive agency, a $200-billion bureaucracy.

At the news briefing where he praised Trumps health, Jackson also offered a clue to why Trump may have chosen him for the Cabinet job.

Ive seen him every day. I see him one, two, sometimes three times a day, because of the location of my office, Jackson said. We have conversations about many things, most if not  most dont revolve around medical issues at all. But Ive got to know him pretty well.

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In his other recent high-level personnel moves  replacing Rex Tillerson with Mike Pompeo as secretary of State, for example  Trump has seemed to put a premium on finding people with whom he is personally comfortable  a trait he also followed as a businessman.

Another factor in choosing Jackson may have been Trumps penchant for people who look the part. Hes like central casting, like a Hollywood star, Trump told guests about Jackson at a fundraiser at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida last month, according to audio of his remarks obtained by CNN.

Shulkin, the one Obama administration holdover in the Cabinet, was a Trump favorite early on. Trump called him the 100-to-nothing man  a reference to the unanimous Senate vote to confirm him in early 2017  and joked that Shulkin was safe from being fired because he helped push legislation through Congress last year to speed disability appeals at the VA.

But he came under fire after he took his wife on a government-paid trip to Europe last year that appeared to involve more tourism than work. He also was the focus of an inspector general inquiry into whether he used his security detail to perform personal errands.

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Shulkin ran afoul of some conservatives for his go-slow approach to expanding government-paid private care for military veterans outside the VA system. Shifting more veterans to private care is a top priority for the influential network of conservative groups funded by Charles and David Koch.

An effort to expand the existing Veterans Choice program, under which veterans can get government reimbursement for seeing a private doctor in certain circumstances, failed this month when Congress did not include it in the massive government spending bill that Trump signed into law.

The Koch-backed Concerned Veterans of America has pushed for the legislation, but most other major veterans organizations opposed it.

Concerned Veterans for America Executive Director Dan Caldwell said in a statement Wednesday that Shulkins replacement may put the agency back on track.

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We are hopeful that this change will end the recent distractions at the VA and put the focus back on advancing policy that will ensure veterans get the healthcare and other benefits they have earned, Caldwell said.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said the Senate should examine Jacksons views on privatization of VA care. Every major veterans organization in this country vigorously opposes the privatization of the VA, Sanders said. I stand with them. Our job is to strengthen the VA in order to provide high-quality care to our veterans, not dismember it.

Despite the criticism, Shulkin retained support from many traditional veterans organizations and key members of Congress, who shared his ambivalence about privatization at the federal governments second-largest department.

The disarray at the VA created a quandary for Trump, who repeatedly vowed during the 2016 campaign to improve veterans services, especially for the generation who fought in the post-Sept. 11 wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

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Trump wavered on replacing Shulkin for months, at times openly touting potential replacements while his aides insisted there were no plans to make a change.

The decision to replace him now comes after Shulkin helped broker a deal, supported by major veterans groups, that expands options for veterans to seek private medical treatment while keeping intact the VA system of government-run hospitals.

Shulkin said the deal would focus on building world class services for veterans and improving specialized care for post-traumatic stress disorder and other behavioral health issues that primarily affect members of the military.

He said he would seek partnerships, not competition, in areas where the private sector already offers high-quality services, such as maternity care.

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A physician and former hospital executive, Shulkin served as undersecretary for health at the VA during the Obama administration.

david.cloud@latimes.com

Twitter: @davidcloudLAT

UPDATES:

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3:45 p.m.: The article was updated with reaction from veterans groups.

3:05 p.m.: The article was updated with background about Dr. Ronny L. Jackson and comments from President Trump and David Axelrod.

The article was originally published at 2:35 p.m.
Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. Its Wednesday, March 28, and heres whats happening across California:

TOP STORIES

Orange County is slowly turning blue, the experts say. It backed Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump. Its now majority minority. But the county has shown in the last week that it still has a red core, and has become the center of the fight against Californias sanctuary laws. Los Angeles Times

Meanwhile: The Orange County Sheriffs Department made the release dates of jail inmates  including those in the country illegally  publicly available online, marking the latest local revolt against the states sanctuary push. Los Angeles Times

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And: State officials warn that the Trump administrations plan to ask everyone in America whether they are U.S. citizens as part of the 2020 census could cost California billions of dollars and a seat in Congress. Los Angeles Times

Plus: Where the candidates for governor stand on immigration. San Diego Union-Tribune

For Orange Countys homeless, now what?

Orange County has evicted hundreds of homeless people from camps, enacted various sleeping restrictions and, in Anaheim, actually removed bus benches to prevent sleeping on them. But it still doesnt have a solution to its homeless crisis. One thing is clear: Adding more shelters is political unviable. Heres what the collapse of Orange Countys homeless plan means. Los Angeles Times

Op-Ed: In Orange County, a textbook example of how to ignore the homeless crisis, not try to solve it. Los Angeles Times

The exception: For some formerly homeless veterans, their new home is on the water in Newport Beach. Los Angeles Times

Which way did they go?

Compton has been struggling in recent years with allegations of municipal mismanagement. So this is not going to help the citys image. A stockpile of 31 handguns from Comptons now-disbanded Police Department have vanished from a city vault, and federal authorities are now offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever stole the weapons. Los Angeles Times

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L.A. STORIES

Double double trouble: In-N-Out is trying to stop an internet prankster from roaming into restaurants, pretending to be the chains president and causing hilarity and havoc. Orange County Register

What the  ? Its the talk of the L.A. gentrification hot zone. Marc Marons Spanish bungalow, which features one of the most famous garages in the comedy world, is on the market in Highland Park for $749,000. Los Angeles Times

Lifesize LEGO-like bricks: So this is what Elon Musk wants to do with all the dirt he digs up from his tunnel project. Daily Breeze

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Hes baaack: Former President Obama will be back in Beverly Hills, but will he be bringing Obamajam with him? Politico

Yuck: The final game of the Freeway Series ended in bizarre, malodorous fashion Tuesday as a pipe burst in Dodger Stadium and flooded the area near the Dodgers dugout. Los Angeles Times

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

Private man, public debate: A Silicon Valley tech worker has inserted himself into the forefront of Californias hottest healthcare debate: whether it should adopt a statewide single-payer healthcare system. Los Angeles Times

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Headed for L.A.: Prominent female Democratic senators from across the country plan to visit Los Angeles for a star-studded fundraiser during a three-city West Coast swing. Los Angeles Times

Zuck alert: Facebook has signaled that CEO Mark Zuckerberg will testify before Congress by discussing the details of the appearance with lawmakers. Los Angeles Times

CRIME AND COURTS

The state steps in: Californias Department of Justice will oversee a Sacramento police investigation into the shooting death of Stephon Clark, the unarmed black man who was killed by officers during a vandalism investigation. Los Angeles Times

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Sad tale: Los Angeles police investigating the disappearance of a young model and aspiring actress say they believe theyve found her body in a shallow grave in a wildlife area 50 miles north of Sacramento, authorities said Tuesday. Los Angeles Times

Under review: Federal investigators are looking into a fatal Tesla crash that resulted in a fiery explosion. The companys stock dropped on the news. NBC Bay Area

One perspective: Robot cars might make us safer, but they will kill a piece of our soul. Wall Street Journal

Another perspective: California cyclists dont like self-driving cars one bit. Curbed San Francisco

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THE ENVIRONMENT

Soaring: Its bald eagle season in Southern California, and bird watchers are very excited. New York Times

Not good: Californias fishing industry is dying, and climate change is one big reason. Sacramento Bee

CALIFORNIA CULTURE

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Misplaced faith? Asian Americans are more likely than other groups to believe that attending an elite university will shelter them from discrimination. But they are finding it does not. Los Angeles Times

Legit question: After Hamilton, can musicals survive in Los Angeles? Los Angeles Times

Much ado about a spoon: How food guru Alice Waters egg spoon  and cooking a single egg over wood  fueled the culture war against elite California cuisine. New York Times

Success story: The black entrepreneur from Watts who became L.A.s undisputed quesadilla king and built a following around his African Americanized Mexican food. L.A. Taco

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Making Lanford great again: Roseanne is back, and she loves Trump. New York Times

Cityscape: Mapping San Franciscos most iconic buildings. Curbed San Francisco

Parting ways: The abrupt departure of an uber-producer at Nickelodeon. Vanity Fair

CALIFORNIA ALMANAC

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Los Angeles area: sunny and 79. San Diego: sunny and 71. San Francisco area: sunny and 68. Sacramento: sunny and 79. More weather is here.

AND FINALLY

Todays California memory comes from Larry Gundrum:

My folks moved to 249 El Camino Drive in Beverly hills in 1934 to get away from the more developed part of Beverly Hills. It was pretty underdeveloped with lots of vacant lots for forts and dirtball wars. The best experience was that each Saturday morning, my mother would give me a dime and I would join the few other kids who lived in the area with a chaperone for a walk up El Camino to Wilshire Boulevard and across to Rodeo Drive. There we would go into the Beverly Theater and watch several cartoons and a serial such as the Lone Ranger. Rodeo Drive is a little different today.

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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.
The Trump administration has announced that it will expel 60 Russian diplomats  who the administration says are really intelligence operatives  and shut down one of Russias four remaining consulates in the United States. This is not exactly a declaration of war, but it is an appropriately muscular response to the poisoning earlier this month of Sergei Skripal, a former Russian spy living in Britain, apparently by a nerve agent that the British government has traced to Russia. Skripals daughter Yulia was also poisoned.

That the United States coordinated its response with its European allies is also good news. Its another sign that someone in the administration  despite Donald Trumps repeated disparagement of the NATO alliance  recognizes the value of solidarity in responding to Russian provocations. More than 20 countries, including non-NATO members Ireland, Ukraine and Australia, have announced that they will expel Russian personnel.

Why is Trump so often silent about Russian misconduct, even as his administration takes tough action?

Yet, President Trumps continued reluctance to personally criticize Vladimir Putin muddles the message. A president who is quick to sound off on Twitter and at campaign-style rallies about matters great and small repeatedly has failed to voice significant criticism of Russia and has responded defensively to criticism of his reticence.

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For example, after he was criticized for congratulating Putin on his reelection, Trump tweeted: The Fake News Media is crazed because they wanted me to excoriate him. They are wrong! Getting along with Russia (and others) is a good thing, not a bad thing. They can help solve problems with North Korea, Syria, Ukraine, ISIS, Iran and even the coming Arms Race.

There is some truth in this. To take Trumps last point first, negotiations between Russia and the U.S. to prevent a new nuclear arms race are not only defensible but necessary. The U.S. also should be prepared to engage with Russia, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, in resolving other conflicts. (Unfortunately, two of the examples Trump cited  Syria and Ukraine  undermine his argument. Engagement with Russia has done little to check Moscows interference in the internal affairs of Ukraine or its bloody alliance with Bashar Assad.)

But even if engaging Russia on issues of global significance makes sense, that is different from Trumps version of getting along with Russia, which seems to involve refraining from criticism of Russian provocations, including meddling in the 2016 election, and lavishing congratulations on Putin for a victory in an election in which Putin faced little serious opposition and in which a key potential opponent wasnt allowed to run. Ironically, Trumps speak-no-evil policy undermines his effort to explore ways in which cooperation with Russia might be in this countrys interest. If Trump is viewed by the American public as soft on Russia, otherwise rational initiatives will be suspect.

On Monday, even as his advisors were condemning Russia, Trump remained mum. Imagine if the president himself, rather than a senior administration official speaking on background to reporters, had said this: The Russian government has shown malicious contempt for the sovereignty and security of countries worldwide. It has repeatedly sought to subvert and discredit Western institutions. These efforts are ongoing. Or if the president, rather than Press Secretary Sandra Huckabee Sanders, had said that the attack on Skripal was the latest in Russias ongoing pattern of destabilizing activities around the world.

When the presidents words dont match his administrations actions, some will assume that the president and the rest of the administration arent on the same page. Already, Russias ambassador to the U.S. has complained that the expulsions conflict with the telephone conversation between our two presidents.

Why is Trump so often silent about Russian misconduct, even as his administration takes tough action? You dont need to be a psychologist or an FBI investigator to suspect that his odd aversion to criticizing Russia is tied to allegations that Russia interfered in last years election on Trumps behalf  a fact that Trump is reluctant to acknowledge because he sees it as undermining the legitimacy of his victory.

Trumps defenders can argue that actions speak louder than words, and that the administrations actions send a clear message. But that message is inevitably muddled when the president cant bring himself to say loud and clear why those actions are necessary.

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Facebook, the worlds social media siren, has taken a beating  to billions of dollars in market value, to the incalculable chunk out of its reputation for trustworthiness. Congress has summoned CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify, and Zuckerberg has resorted to legacy media  newspaper ads  for a mea culpa. None of this may make any difference at all, and thats what worries the people at the Center for Humane Technology. These are no Luddites; theyre Silicon Valley heavy-hitters themselves who have become Paul Reveres of the tech takeover.

Aza Raskin is a co-founder and chief strategy officer, and he sounds an alarm about where tech is taking democracy and humanity  if you can hear it through all the chaff and clamor on that phone in your pocket.

Click here for the full archive of Patt Morrison Asks podcasts 

The mission statement of the Center for Humane Technology is, Technology is hacking our minds and society. Certainly in the last couple of weeks weve been given proof of that.

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Our founder, Tristan [Harris], has been talking about this since 2014, when he became the design ethicist for Google, and looked at all the ways in which our tech companies business models are designed to addict us: We make money when people spend time in our site, and this creates a whole bunch of bad incentives to us to stick around. And weve created the worlds largest persuasion machine.

When 67% of the U.S. population gets its news from social media and from tech companies, they literally are deciding what we see and what we believe is true, and what our sense of reality is.

And were now seeing that a couple of bad actors like Cambridge Analytica have used the ability of these platforms as they were designed to be used, which is to say to sell product to influence people  which is not so much different from selling an ideology.

So like Capt. Renault in Casablanca, are we shocked, shocked that this is happening, when this was in fact part of the business model all along?

Many times, when we talk to people, its like, Oh this is nothing, weve had advertising for a long time, weve had propaganda for a long time. Whats different this time  and that its hard to see when youre inside of the machine  is for the very first time, our connections with our friends are intermediated.

These companies intermediate our sense of consensus reality, which then gets hacked by Russia, which then gets hacked by Cambridge Analytica. So thats one thing thats different.

The second thing is that it is 24/7. The phone is the first thing people pick up and look at when they wake up, the last thing they use before they go to sleep, and they check it 150 times a day.

When 67 percent of the U.S. population gets its news from social media and from tech companies, they literally are deciding what our sense of reality is. Aza Raskin

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And the third thing is that these products are a little bit like tobacco. Theyre addicting. But its a tobacco that gets smarter and better at addicting us the more we use. So with just 150 likes you analyze on Facebook, a computer algorithm can predict your action and know you better than your co-workers do, than your friends do. And even than your spouse does.

And you put these three things together, and we should be shocked at how easy it is to sort of drift a population in a direction that you want. This is one of the hardest problems to communicate.

Then if anyone is to talk about blame, where does blame get assigned?

Theres always more that we as individuals can do, but this is not an individual problem. This is a community and society-scale problem. Early on in the internet, there was Section 230 of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, which said that internet companies were not responsible for content that the users posted, which is a way of saying the Internet and software was creating a space of deregulation where there were no protections for users.

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At the beginning that felt like a great thing. The web was this this wild new world where creativity could be unleashed. You could connect with people and groups that could exist here that couldnt exist elsewhere.

But what weve seen is that if software is eating the world; as [software pioneer] Marc Andreessen likes to say, deregulation is now eating the world. So if companies arent responsible for the content that gets posted, at the very least they need to be responsible for the content that they promote.

There is a [former Google engineer and] YouTube researcher, Guillaume Chaslot, whos worked on the recommendation engine for what YouTube videos get played next, and what hes discovered is that no matter where you start on YouTube, if you just let the recommended videos play four or five times, you always get pushed further and further down conspiracy roads, further and further toward radicalization. If you start on things about vegetarians or vegetarian food you end up in chemtrails [conspiracy sites] .

And Facebook seems to be acting as a kind of great radicalizer, as Zeynep Tufekci has now famously said in her New York Times op-ed. And there, I think 100% that these companies have responsibility. Facebook knew that Cambridge Analytica was using this data as of 2015. And yet they didnt really do anything, because it wasnt convenient and it wasnt good for their business model.

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So at the heart of this of course lies the business model. If we are the product and not the customer, then all of Facebooks business model relies on grabbing our data and selling it to people. And this is just one bad actor. But do we really want somebody that has all of this power over society to be unregulated?

If Facebook wanted to throw an election today I think they could. Of course they could.

We can feel our values being ripped from us, like were losing our grasp on them as the discourse, our public discourse, gets more and more vitriolic.

You are a second-generation tech person; your father was interested in the computer-human interface. Did you grow up thinking about these things, or did you have a road-to-Damascus moment yourself?

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I grew up immersed in this world. Something my father, Jef, talked about is that humans should not be subservient to computers. For him, what that meant is that we shouldnt have to learn the arcane ways of typing holding down your-left-shift-elbow-nose to get the computer to do what you want. But what were missing is the next level up. Computers can work pretty well for an individual, but theyre working terribly for society.

And just like in the 80s, when we had computer-human interaction take off as a field, what we need now is society-technology interaction, understanding how societies and technology interact, because there are a lot of dark patterns that are breaking down democracy.

Many of these companies have taken a position that theyre ethically neutral, that theyre morally neutral.

Yes, I think that the tack of saying, were a neutral platform, so we dont have to take responsibility  it feels convenient and it feels nice, but its very much like taking your hands off the steering wheel and saying, Well, Im not responsible for what happens if it crashes.

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And so [companies] have taken the course of saying, were a neutral third party. But thats not actually true because weve just outsourced our decisions to algorithms, and said, Hey, algorithms, just show users what is most popular, what gets most clicked on. But thats an editorial choice and those editorial choices can be hacked easily.

So I think its important moving forward that, especially for the recommendation system, that companies be held responsible for the content that they promote.

When systems are abused, like the 126 million American citizens who saw Russian propaganda, or the 50 million users whose data was abused by Cambridge Analytica  they should all be informed directly that they were targeted.

Because I dont think they can have it both ways, of trying to pretend to be neutral but then not taking responsibility when their platforms are used.

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Brian Acton, who created WhatsApp, said, Delete Facebook. Is that even plausible?

I would love for that to be plausible because it would set up the next round of companies try to tackle this. But I think for most people, Facebook and these other platforms have become such a part of their lives that its hard to say just get off of it.

Monopoly law was set up when all products cost money. Now, many of these products are free to use, and so our monopoly laws dont even touch that. And theres a new kind of monopoly, which is the monopoly of attention, the monopoly of network effect.

Its hard to get off Facebook because all of your friends are on Facebook, all the events happen on Facebook, and even if you got off, Facebook would still be collecting data about you inferred from your friends. And so instead I think we have to think about other regulatory mechanisms here.

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[Technology legal scholar] Tim Wu says the 1st Amendment was created in a time when speech was expensive and listening was cheap, that it was hard to get your message out, but there wasnt that much content, so you could choose what to listen to.

And now the inverse of that is true, that its easy to get a message out but its hard to hear because theres so much out there. And thats changed the way the thing that the 1st Amendment was trying to protect is being abused.

An example is that China often doesnt just do direct censorship. Instead, they pay 2 million people to post 480 million comments on their social media. And that just diverts conversation or makes the false sense of popular opinion being something else.

We need to be thinking at that society scale, because thats what we as Internet companies do  operate at society scale.

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You and the people in your group are or were also Silicon Valley moguls, and you saw some of the problems. But what about the people who may not? What, for example, is a Mark Zuckerberg thinking about retrenching, regenerating, restructuring his product to address some of these? Is that going on in Silicon Valley now?

I think what we need to be careful of and watching for is the PR moves, the too-little-too-late kind of stuff. Because to really fix these problems, youre going to have to take a hit on your revenue.

When the British Empire moved away from slavery, they took a hit of 2% of their GDP for 60 years. Doing right often comes at the expense of business models, and unless they show that theyre willing to do that, Im unconvinced theres going to be real change.

Can they do that? Will the shareholders start screaming and saying youre abdicating your responsibility to make us rich?

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I think we can all be on Team Humanity here, shareholders alike, in saying we see where this road is leading us. And its not good. If we want to remain a functioning society, we need to change. So I hope the answer is yes.

What other remedies does your group suggest?

There are a couple of simple things that individual users can do, just to fight against the effects of digital addiction. One of our favorite ones is to turn your phone into black and white mode, What weve found is that just reducing the sugariness of the colorfulness of your icons makes it a little easier for you to put down your phone.

Another one is turn off all notifications from non-humans. So, no apps, no likes, just stuff that real people said. And that immediately reduces the amount of buzzing in your pocket and reduces tech addiction.

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I suppose there are a lot of Americans who say, I dont care if Facebook knows my kids birth dates, for example. Is that the most alarming scenario for you  that people just dont care that the technology is taking them over, and that by extension it can take over the functions of democracy and consumerism as well?

That is indeed one of my biggest worries, that this just doesnt feel were under attack by the Russians. They said that theyre in an information war with us. It doesnt feel like were at war. There are no bombs exploding. Theres nothing in our felt sense that tells us that something is wrong.

And the same thing is true with all of the tech addiction and the way were being manipulated is that it doesnt feel like theres somebody walking behind us looking at everything that we do, and then crafting messages to get us to do whatever that person wants. Even though thats whats happening.

You often hear people say, I dont have anything to hide, what should it matter? But the truth is that, given these data points that we willingly give up to Facebook, algorithms that can predict your sexual orientation, the likelihood that you have a drug problem, whether youre more neurotic or open, and what kind of message will most exactly land with you to get you to vote for what politician.

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Are you and your associates talking to some of the tech companies where you used to work to say, look, this is how stuff has to change?

We do we do try to talk to these companies and in fact Tristan spent years on the inside at Google. [He] had this presentation where, in 2014, he started to talk about the vulnerabilities that our business models create.

And it became the most talked-about thing, and [he] asked that it be brought up at the next all-hands meeting  which they didnt talk about. [Center for Humane Technology adviser] Sandy Parakilas, who was at Facebook and helping to run their application programming interface privacy policy violations team, brought this stuff up to them, I believe in 2012. So weve tried from the inside and that just hasnt worked. And now it comes from being on the outside and applying public pressure.

Imagine if tomorrow, Zuckerberg were like, you know what? Youre right. These are the ways my platforms are being abused. And instead of just optimizing for time on sites and page views, which optimizes for outrage and filter bubbles, Im going to set my thousand, ten thousand engineers to try to figure out how to heal the divides between people  that could be really powerful. The question is, will they?

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And what are the odds of that?

It doesnt seem great. The thing that I start really worrying about is right now, the level of trust and shared reality is incredibly diminished. Truth is decayed. But I think its going to get much worse, because were just at the brink of cheap AI and algorithmically generated fake video.

I think very soon, were going to have bots scraping the top news and taking the [people in them] and their words, and just putting up every possible meme into them. So when scandals break, youll be like, Oh, Ive already seen everything. Ive seen every possible scandal video; every possible sex tape has been created.

[In this scenario] when the Trump Access Hollywood came out, you would be, Yeah, but I can listen to 100,000 other versions of this, with him saying other things. Anything thats within the research community now is going to be an app on your smartphone within a year.

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MORE PATT MORRISON ASKS

Dianne Feinstein on Trumps support (or not) for gun control and her non-endorsement by the state Democrats

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Ken Burns on making his Vietnam War documentary: I was humiliated by what I didnt know

Caitlyn Jenner talks Trump, being a transgender Republican and missing Bruce
To the editor: Guns are no different than drugs, alcohol, prostitution or abortion. When you have a product or service for which there is an insatiable demand, supply will follow. Outlaw them, as we did during Prohibition with alcohol, and you learn the futility of such remedies. (March for Our Lives was a powerful, galvanizing moment. We cant let its momentum fade away, March 26)

Gun control advocates are well-intentioned, but they are fighting against basic aspects of human nature. We already have more than 300 million guns extant in America, one for every man, woman and child. So go ahead and pass common-sense legislation such as strengthening background checks. Just dont be surprised when it results in no meaningful reduction in gun violence.

Robert Chapman, Downey

..

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To the editor: It is striking how editorials and even letters to the editor tiptoe around the central issue. Gun safety is a partisan issue  a point that Michael Hiltzik recognized last October when he revealed that out of the $54.6 million of the National Rifle Assn.s independent expenditures during the 2016 election cycle, only $265 went to Democrats.

In 2008, it was five right-wing Republican Supreme Court justices who ignored text, history and precedent in order to recognize, for the first time in our nations history, an individual 2nd Amendment right to bear arms that was not connected to a well-regulated militia. It is a Republican president and a Republican-controlled Congress who refuse to offer anything beyond thoughts and prayers in response to the carnage.

Come November March for Our Lives will become Vote for Our Lives. No more NRA. No more Republicans.

Ernest A. Canning, Thousand Oaks

..

To the editor: It would be nice if for once your editorial just came out and stated what you really want to happen regarding gun ownership. Im absolutely convinced that what you truly would like to see is the elimination of the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution. That will never happen in this country. Guns are here to stay. This 21st century version of the Childrens Crusade will end up accomplishing nothing more than a lot of missed hours in the classroom for the participants.

There are so many gun laws already on the books in most states that adding a few more wont make any difference. The problem is our society. The problem is our people. The problem is the way these kids are being raised. Nearly everyone who owns a gun is a responsible person. I havent seen one card-carrying member of the NRA involved in any of these school shooting massacres. What Ive seen is a lot of deranged and disillusioned young persons who were bullied and harassed by their peers taking revenge on them.

Charles Reilly, Manhattan Beach

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..

To the editor: As a society we are telling our children to die with dignity. Not on the battlefield, but in the classroom. Shame on all of us for allowing this to happen.

Ben Shaw, Chino

..

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To the editor: Your letter writer addressing the fact that the anti-gun protesters were being protected by security personnel with guns makes a fallacious argument on several levels (Without ammunition, an AR-15 is just a menacing paperweight, March 27). First, the protesters were not protesting guns, per se. They were addressing gun legislation, asking for sensible gun laws so that children can feel safe at school. Second, if the security personnel were carrying guns, they were not not mentally unstable, vengeful killers with a malicious agenda. They were there to protect. But in Phoenix, where open-carry is allowed, counterprotesters were indeed carrying all manner of guns. That should make everyone fearful.

Rebecca Hertsgaard, Palm Desert

@latimesopinion

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To the editor: Really?! Articles about the Stormy Daniels interview in every section of the paper (except Sports). With all thats going on in the world, I cannot understand why this woman and her sleazy story are worthy of so much ink. We all knew (those who voted for him and those who didnt) who Donald Trump was and who he wasnt well before he was elected. These stories are not news. They are salacious yellow journalism.

Shame on Stormy Daniels for selling her self-respect to the highest bidder. Shame on Anderson Cooper for wasting his time and talent interviewing her. Shame on 60 Minutes for capitalizing on this circus. Shame on 21.3 million people who couldnt find anything better to do than to watch it. And shame on the Los Angeles Times for over-reporting the story  four times!

Janice Blake, Manhattan Beach

..

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To the editor: For me, the most striking takeaway from Stormy Daniels interview on 60 Minutes was her verbal communication skills vis-a-vis the presidents. She was plain-spoken, yet clear, concise and articulate. Her word choices were apt, accurate and illustrative. She came across as self-aware and genuine. None of the repeated superlative adjectives that he habitually inserts because he seems unable to access a wider vocabulary. None of the tangled syntax and run-on sentences that characterize the rhetoric of our current leader. Sad.

Robert Huber, Yorba Linda

..

To the editor: There is a famous line in a Sherlock Holmes story where his first insight into a particularly baffling case is that the dog of the manor didnt bark when someone stole in and killed someone in the middle of the night. That scenario always comes to mind when something usual and ordinary doesnt happen.

In this case, President Trump is humiliated by porn star Stormy Daniels on national TV and, instead of attacking his accuser in a tweet or series of tweets, he goes completely silent. And people said he had no impulse control.

Len Gardner, Dana Point

...

To the editor: Op-ed writer Joshua C. Kendall notes (JFK may have been a worse philanderer than Trump. Does it matter? March 25) how, in President Kennedys day, the mostly male press ignored lecherous behavior of powerful men; that insulated presidents of both parties from public censure and political pratfalls.

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Thus, the press corps indifference emboldened Kennedy and others to indulge in serial philandering. That all changed by the mid-1990s, when the GOP, abetted by a media feeding frenzy, pushed President Clinton to impeachment proceedings over his dalliances.

By then, Trump was put on notice that the American public no longer would give political or financial titans passes for extra-marital indiscretions. Trumps apologists citing of Kennedys unduly burnished image to excuse his 21st century affairs rings hollow. Contemporary serial philanderers should face the music, as its a different dance now.

Glenda Martel, Los Angeles

..

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To the editor: Survival of the political elite in America is more dependent than ever on the short memories of voters. It seems like only yesterday when congressional Republicans were standing on their tallest family values podiums screaming for the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, a minor league womanizer by todays standards.

Flash forward to today, and congressional Republicans are now led by a major league womanizer. The word impeachment is no longer in their dictionary and they seem poised to enshrine President Trump as Stud of the Year. It would be difficult to find American voters who are surprised by anything this president does or by the hypocrisy of Republican politicians who faithfully stand by their man.

A small group of courageous Florida teenagers actually pose a much greater threat to President Trumps Republican administration. Their march on Washington is much more than a shot across the bow to political leaders. These remarkable teens, supported by millions of Me Too women, are on a path that could finally end politics as usual in our democracy.

Alston Jones, Boise, Idaho

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Supreme Court justices, hearing arguments Wednesday in a Maryland gerrymandering case, signaled again they are troubled when politicians draw election districts solely to give their party more seats in Congress.

But they appeared equally frustrated over the question of what  if anything  the court should do about it.

The Maryland case seemed to most of the justices to represent an extreme and obvious example of partisan gerrymandering, which, unlike racial gerrymandering, has not been outlawed.

What is this, except about politics? Justice Elena Kagan asked a state lawyer for Maryland. She said the Legislature under Democratic control had shifted 350,000 voters and transformed a strong Republican district into one that now reliably elects another Democrat to Congress. However much you think is too much, this case is too much, she said to laughter in the courtroom.

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Others agreed. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. agreed that the state has redrawn its districts to prefer one party over another.

But to a surprising degree, the justices still seemed uncertain as to how to rule. Roberts and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. said legislatures have to redraw districts after the census, and politics will invariably play some role in how the lines are drawn.

This seems like a pretty clear violation of the Constitution in some form to have deliberate, extreme gerrymandering. But is there a practical remedy that wont get judges involved in every, or dozens and dozens of very important political decisions? asked Justice Stephen G. Breyer in a question that went largely unanswered and seemed to hang over the argument.

The constitutionality of partisan gerrymandering is the most significant question before the court this term. Since the 1980s, the justices have repeatedly criticized politicians for drawing election districts that entrench their party in power. But they have also repeatedly failed to rule that such politically motivated redistricting violates the Constitution.

This decade has seen more extreme gerrymandering, particularly in battleground states such as Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. Republicans won sweeping victories in the 2010 midterm elections, and they used their power to redraw election maps so as to maintain control of the House of Representatives. Ohio, for example, has 12 Republicans and four Democrats in the House. North Carolina has a 10 Republicans and three Democrats. A three-judge federal court struck down North Carolinas map as unconstitutional, but the Supreme Court in January put that decision on hold.

Pennsylvania had steadily elected 13 Republicans and five Democrats, but the state Supreme Court struck down the map in January and had it redrawn. The Supreme Court turned down appeals from the states Republicans leaders and refused to intervene.

Regardless of how the high court rules in the Maryland case or a still pending case from Wisconsin, the rulings are unlikely to affect the 2018 elections. The justices have said they will avoid changing the rules during an election year.

But redistricting experts warned that a failure to rule against purely political gerrymandering could trigger even more partisan schemes after the 2020 election. That year, when President Trump is expected to seek reelection, could be a wave year for Democrats, said Michael Li, a lawyer for the Brennan Center at New York University. If so, they could use their control over the election maps to give Democrats a decade-long advantage in Congress.

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As is frequently the case, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy holds the deciding vote, and his comments Wednesday should give some cheer to opponents of partisan gerrymandering.

He said it would be unconstitutional for the state to say by law that it will give a partisan advantage for one party whenever it draws new election districts.

How is this case different? Kennedy asked Steven Sullivan, Marylands state solicitor.

The law did not say its intent was to ensure that a Democrat won what had been a solid Republican district, he replied.

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So if you hide the evidence of what youre doing, then youre going to prevail? Kennedy interjected with a tone of sarcasm.

The exchange suggested that Kennedy and the courts four liberal justices could form a majority, saying a purely partisan election map is unconstitutional.

But Breyers comments also suggested that the court has not settled on the right answer. What do we do? he asked one lawyer. He said the court might want to have all three casesWisconsin, North Carolina and Marylandbrought back for a re-argument in the fall. His comment seemed to signal that the justices have not agreed on a ruling in the Wisconsin case.

However, the strength of the evidence in the Maryland case could force the court to rule.

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Here the evidence is unequivocal, Michael Kimberly, a lawyer for the challengers, told the justices. The Maryland Democrats succeeded in rigging an election by changing the boundaries of a congressional district. And the court, he said, should say this violates the free-speech rights of Republicans who were moved out of the old district to ensure a Democrat would win it.

The justices heard arguments in a Wisconsin gerrymandering case in early October but have yet to issue a ruling.

In Gill vs. Whitford, the court is deciding whether Republicans went too far when they drew a statewide election map that gave the GOP a super-majority in the statehouse in Madison, even when Democrats won more votes across the state.

The Maryland case, Benisek vs. Lamone, tilts the other way politically.

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Until now, the courts conservatives have voiced the most reluctance to interfere with election maps drawn by state lawmakers.

Marylands current governor, Larry Hogan, a Republican, joined by former California governors Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, and Gray Davis, a Democrat, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a Republican, filed a friend-of-the-court brief urging the justices to take strong action.

The hyper-polarized, hyper-partisan nature of redistricting today reveals the breakdown of the political process in many states, they said.

Hogan said he would like to see a nonpartisan redistricting commission in his state, similar to one created in California.

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Major questions before the Supreme Court this year 

david.savage@latimes.com

On Twitter: DavidGSavage

UPDATES:

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1:50 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details from the arguments.

9:25 a.m.: This article was updated with arguments before the court.

This article was originally published at 3 a.m.
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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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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
In a bipartisan reproach, all 22 female U.S. senators Wednesday urged their leaders to bring to a vote measures meant to strengthen the hand of victims of sexual harassment on Capitol Hill.

The Senate has so far declined to take up any effort. The House in early February approved a bill that gave accusers the right to free legal assistance and required lawmakers to pay for any settlements, rather than taxpayers.

The House measure also made voluntary a now-mandatory mediation process that has been criticized by opponents as biased against victims and unnecessarily protracted.

The Senates inaction stands in stark contrast to the bipartisan effort in the House of Representatives that led to the passage of bipartisan [harassment] reform legislation in February, said the senators letter, addressed to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and the Democratic leader, Charles E. Schumer of New York.

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The letter cited a survey showing that four in 10 women who are congressional staff members consider harassment a problem in their workplace, and one in six said they had been harassed. The survey was conducted in July by CQ Roll Call.

No sexual harassment measures were included in the omnibus spending bill passed last week by the House and Senate and signed Friday by President Trump.

We strongly agree that the Senate should quickly take up legislation to combat sexual harassment on Capitol Hill, Schumer said through a spokesman.

An aide to McConnell suggested that a bipartisan measure was being framed but was not yet close to being proposed.

Sen. McConnell supports members being personally, financially liable for sexual misconduct in which they have engaged, his spokesman David Popp said.

The push to enact new measures to combat sexual harassment in the congressional workplace was spurred in the fall when several members were accused of unwanted sexual acts.

Two Democrats, Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota, a rising party star, and Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, the longest serving member of the House, were forced out in early December after accusations of sexual misbehavior were made against them. In Conyers case, former aides were among the women making accusations.

Republicans also came under fire: Rep. Blake Farenthold of Texas announced that he would retire at the end of the current term after news broke that a woman who accused him of harassment had received an $84,000 taxpayer-funded settlement. Farenthold, who has denied wrongdoing, promised to repay the money but has not yet done so.

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Another Republican House member, Trent Franks of Arizona, resigned under pressure from party leaders in January after two female aides said they felt uncomfortable when he asked them to serve as surrogate mothers for his child.

The spate of accusations came amid a national uproar about sexual harassment and assaults that felled, among others, producer Harvey Weinstein and news personalities Matt Lauer and Charlie Rose.

Trump has been accused by more than a dozen women of unwanted sexual aggression. One, Summer Zervos, is suing Trump for defamation after he called her a liar. She says he tried to force himself on her at the Beverly Hills Hotel in 2007.

During the campaign, Democrats pounced on the accusations against Trump while many Republicans brushed them aside. Trump says he has never harassed any woman.

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That partisanship also slowed Washingtons response to sexual harassment, as did concern among some members that voters, rather than their peers, deserved the right to judge members of Congress and senators.

The House measure passed in February was seen as a landmark rewriting of the Congressional Accountability Act, which became law in 1995. The senators  17 Democrats and five Republicans  demanded in the letter that their chamber follow suit.

Survivors who have bravely come forward to share their stories have brought to light just how widespread harassment and discrimination continue to be through Capitol Hill, the senators wrote. No longer can we allow the perpetrators of these crimes to hide behind a 23-year-old law.

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For more on politics from Cathleen Decker 

cathleen.decker@latimes.com

Twitter: @cathleendecker

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Stormy Daniels asked a federal judge Wednesday to order President Trump to testify in a deposition about the $130,000 paid to the porn star just before the 2016 election to buy her silence about an alleged affair with Trump.

In papers filed in Los Angeles federal court, Daniels attorney argued that Trump needs to be asked what he knew about the nondisclosure agreement and whether he approved it.

The attorney, Michael Avenatti, requested up to two hours to interrogate Trump.

He tried to cast doubt on the assertion of Trumps personal attorney, Michael Cohen, that he used his own money to facilitate the payment to Daniels 11 days before the November 2016 presidential election. Avenatti also is seeking to depose Cohen, who set up the shell company that paid Daniels the $130,000.

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Avenatti outlined a series of questions that he wants to explore with the president.

Did Trump reimburse Cohen?

Did Trump consent to the obligations imposed on him by the confidentiality agreement, such as his promise not to sue Daniels if she kept quiet?

If Trump was completely unaware of Cohens actions, Avenatti wrote in the court papers, the question naturally arises as to how it would be possible for a meeting of the minds to have occurred between parties where one of the parties does not even know about the existence of the agreement?

Daniels, 39, who is suing to cancel the confidentiality agreement, says Trumps failure to sign it makes the contract invalid.

She also says its void because its underlying purpose was illegal: to circumvent the federal laws that cap campaign donations and require public disclosure of their source and amount.

Daniels and the ethics watchdog group Common Cause allege the $130,000 payment was an illegal campaign donation meant to keep voters from learning about Trumps extramarital affair with the stripper and porn actress.

Trump has not spoken publicly about Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, but representatives of the president have denied her allegation that he had sex with her at a Lake Tahoe resort in 2006, the year after he married Melania Trump.

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Neither the White House press office nor Cohen responded to emails seeking comment on the request to depose the president.

michael.finnegan@latimes.com

Twitter: @finneganLAT

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UPDATES:

8:50 a.m.: This article was updated to include Stormy Daniels real name.

This article was originally published at 8:35 a.m.
An unlikely trio  a law professor, a part-time local prosecutor and a lawyer focused on advocating conservative issues  is playing an increasingly central role in representing President Trump in the Russia investigation as he struggles to find top talent for his diminished legal team.

All three are connected to Jay Sekulow, Trumps last remaining personal lawyer after John Dowd, a white-collar criminal defense attorney, resigned last week and other lawyers have declined to join up. Dowd had been leading negotiations with the office of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III about a possible presidential interview.

With Johns departure, theres obviously more on us, Sekulow said.

Trump has been hunting for another defense attorney, but hes been turned down several times. Two other lawyers who were announced just last week as joining his team, the husband-and-wife duo of Joseph diGenova and Victoria Toensing, dropped out on Sunday, citing conflicts with other clients.

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The developments have elevated Sekulow, whos best known as an advocate for conservative religious causes at the American Center for Law and Justice, to the central figure in the presidents defense strategy.

The three other lawyers have either worked for Sekulows group or alongside him on various legal issues in the past. Sekulow said that theyve been helping represent the president since he was hired in June. Their roles, however, are enhanced now.

One of the lawyers, Ben Sisney, is the centers senior counsel for litigation and public policy. He previously worked as a lawyer in Oklahoma and clerked for a U.S. District Court judge there.

Another lawyer is Mark Goldfeder, a senior lecturer at Emory University School of Law in Atlanta. According to the biography on the schools website, his work has focused on religious and international issues.

The third lawyer is Andrew Ekonomou, an Atlanta-based attorney who has the most experience with criminal cases. He previously worked as a state and federal prosecutor, at one time serving as the acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia.

Ekonomou works in private practice but also occasionally prosecutes cases for a district attorneys office in southeastern Georgia. He also has a doctorate in medieval history.

Follow live coverage of the Trump administration on Essential Washington 

Sekulow declined to specify what kind of work each lawyer is providing, saying only that our cooperation with the office of the special counsel continues and is ongoing.

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He said all of the lawyers are paid through his private law firm, the Constitutional Litigation Advocacy Group, not the American Center for Law and Justice. He would not say who pays the presidents bills, but said it was not a political party or organization. The Republican National Committee had previously covered some of the costs.

Ted Olson, a prominent Republican lawyer and former solicitor general during the George W. Bush administration, is one of the lawyers who turned down the president. He later told MSNBC that the upheaval in the Trump administration is not good for anything.

I think everybody would agree this is turmoil, its chaos, its confusion, Olson said.

More recently, two lawyers from the prestigious firm Winston & Strawn, Dan Webb and Tom Buchanan, declined to represent Trump.

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They were unable to take on the representation due to business conflicts, the firm said in a statement. However they consider the opportunity to represent the President to be the highest honor and they sincerely regret that they cannot do so.

chris.megerian@latimes.com

Twitter: @chrismegerian

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Trump personal attorney John Dowd resigns in shake-up of presidents legal team

Mueller seeks documents from Trump Organization, signaling possible scrutiny of the presidents business dealings
The U.S. and South Korea have reached an agreement in principle to amend a decade-old free-trade pact that President Trump used to call horrible and a disaster  his first such deal and a victory, albeit a modest one, for his toughened approach to Americas economic partners.

Under the deal, South Korea agreed to limit its steel exports to the U.S. and made concessions on auto imports. In return, the U.S. agreed to exempt South Korea from the 25% tariff on steel that Trump announced this month.

The deal removes a major point of friction between the two allies at a moment when theyre preparing for negotiations with North Korea about its nuclear program. Relations between the U.S. and South Korea have been strained at several points in the last year as Trump has railed against an $18-billion trade deficit and denounced the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement, known as Korus.

Trump has called Korus a horrible agreement that destroyed U.S. industry. A year ago, he threatened to terminate the whole agreement, which was negotiated under President George W. Bush in 2007 but not ratified until five years later under President Obama.

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The new amendments to the trade deal will mark modest concessions by a trading partner that is a relatively small player behind the European Union, China and Canada.

The amendments do not directly address some major trade issues between the two countries, including agriculture.

But Trump administration officials boasted of it as a major victory, one that validates President Trumps visionary approach, as a senior administration official told reporters Tuesday. The agreement is an example of the president fulfilling promises he made during the campaign, said one senior advisor, adding that it amounts to economic success across the board.

Earlier, a statement from the Blue House, the home of the South Korean president, called the deal a win-win, echoing a phrase used over the weekend by Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin.

Administration officials, briefing reporters on condition that they not be named, specifically predicted that the agreement would increase the number of American automobiles and auto parts sold in South Korea. The trade deficit in autos accounts for the lions share of the overall deficit with South Korea.

In addition to the agreement on autos, the South Korean trade ministry announced Monday that it would accept a new quota on steel shipped to the U.S. that equaled about 70% of its annual average over the last three years.

The quota, the administration officials said, was a key part of the agreement to exempt South Korea from the steel tariff. Its designed to eliminate the problem of transshipment: South Korean companies buying steel from elsewhere, especially China, and sending it to the U.S. South Korea is the third-largest exporter of steel to the U.S.

Under the agreement, South Korea will begin to recognize U.S. standards for auto parts and reduce other requirements that raised the cost of U.S. cars. The changes will make it easier for our American companies to compete on a level playing field, one senior administration official said.

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Whether the deal will live up to that promise is uncertain, however. Currently, U.S. automakers in effect face a cap on the number of vehicles they can sell in South Korea. The deal raises that cap by requiring the South Koreans to accept U.S. safety standards rather than impose their own. But U.S. vehicle sales have run far below the existing limit, so its unclear whether raising the cap will greatly change the picture.

The deal also extends until 2041 a U.S. tariff on pickup trucks. The old trade agreement called for that tariff to be phased out in 2021.

Extending the tariff reflects Trumps preference for protecting U.S. industries rather than lowering overall trade barriers. The extra 20 years of protection for U.S. manufacturers will preserve American jobs, the administration officials said.

But there too the exact impact is unclear. South Koreas big automakers, Kia and Hyundai, are not major exporters of trucks to the U.S. The tariff, however, would give the two companies a powerful incentive to base production in the U.S. rather than South Korea if they decide to expand in the U.S. truck market.

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Trump bolstered his threat to upend trade deals early on by withdrawing the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership that Obama negotiated with 11 Asian and Latin American nations. Trump said he would turn his attention to crafting bilateral deals.

As part of those negotiations, he has used the steel and aluminum tariffs, which he announced with considerable fanfare in early March, as bargaining chips.

He early on said Canada and Mexico would be exempt while the U.S. negotiates with them to revise the North American Free Trade Agreement. More recently, administration officials have said that in addition to those two countries and South Korea, they would also exempt the members of the European Union, Argentina, Australia and Brazil. What concessions, if any, those countries will make in exchange remains unclear.

The result has been to leave well over half of U.S. imports of both steel and aluminum clear of the new tariffs. Administration officials said South Korea would be exempt from the steel tariff, but not the new levy on aluminum. South Korea, however, is not a major exporter of aluminum to the U.S.

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The two countries also are closing in on a deal to limit currency manipulation, the practice of a country deliberately reducing the value of its currency to improve its trade performance.

Under the agreement, being negotiated by the Treasury Department and the South Korean finance ministry, the South Koreans would commit to new rules on transparency. But the administration officials acknowledged that because the currency agreement would be a side deal, not part of the actual trade agreement, it has no real means of enforcement.

christi.parsons@latimes.com

Twitter: @cparsons
Few states have thumbed a collective nose at President Trump more than California. But when it comes to the self-styled resistance of new federal policies, not everyone is on board.

ORANGE COUNTY: RESISTING THE RESISTANCE

The Republican-led Orange County Board of Supervisors not only disagrees with Californias new effort to limit local law enforcements communication with federal immigration officers, its willing to say so in court.

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On Tuesday, supervisors voted to join the lawsuit against the state filed earlier this month by Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions.

The decision came on the heels of an even more defiant stance from whats historically been one of Californias most conservative urban communities  a place where demographic change may be clashing with political reality.

And speaking of reality: On Monday, the Orange County Sheriffs Department began publicly releasing a list of of jail inmates  including those in the country illegally.

We have an obligation to safeguard our community, and we will use every tool available to help hold criminals accountable, Undersheriff Don Barnes said.

MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE RESISTANCE, THERES THE CENSUS

Californias attorney general and its chief elections officer both came out swinging on Tuesday at the late decision by federal officials to add a single question to the 2020 census: Are you an American citizen?

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross gave the go-ahead to the question on Monday night, even though former Census Bureau directors warned it could limit participation.

In California, state Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra quickly filed a lawsuit to block the action. At issue are federal dollars divvied up by population data and the once-a-decade apportionment of seats in the U.S. House of Representatives based on population. Smaller numbers from California could hit the state hard on both fronts.

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NO TIME TO COMMENT ON THE STORMY CLOUDS

Saying the president has a country to run, a White House spokesperson on Tuesday suggested Trump doesnt have time to comment on the allegations made by adult film actress Stormy Daniels.

The actress accusations were presented in detail Sunday on 60 Minutes and gave the show its biggest audience since 2008.

On Monday, Daniels took aim at Trumps longtime attorney, Michael Cohen. Her updated lawsuit says the pact orchestrated by Cohen was an unlawful scheme to cover up the $130,000 payment that Daniels received 11 days before the November 2016 presidential election.

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Cohen set up a shell company to pay Daniels, who says it was effectively a campaign donation to keep voters from learning of Trumps extramarital affair.

NATIONAL POLITICS LIGHTNING ROUND

-- The U.S. and South Korea have reached an agreement in principle to amend a decade-old free-trade pact that President Trump used to call horrible and a disaster  his first such deal, albeit a modest one.

-- Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens called for the repeal of the 2nd Amendment on Tuesday to allow for significant gun control legislation.

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-- Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, blamed Russia on Tuesday for supporting Syrian President Bashar Assad and playing a central role in the bombing of Syrian civilians into submission.

-- So far, 59 Capitol Hill lawmakers have announced their departures, the most since 1994, which was a tsunami of a midterm election. But is a Democratic wave really coming?

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURES INTERIM PLAN TO RELEASE MISCONDUCT RECORDS

As lawmakers in Sacramento continue to work on long-term changes to sexual harassment policies, legislative leaders have decided to be more proactive for the time being in the release of some internal records.

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In a response to concerns from the state Capitol press corps, Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood) announced on Tuesday a policy to begin a more proactive release of some records. The decision means that journalists wont have to file requests for public records on some of the investigations of lawmakers or senior staff.

TODAYS ESSENTIALS

-- Californias Department of Justice will oversee a Sacramento police investigation into the shooting death of Stephon Clark, the unarmed black man who was killed by officers during a vandalism investigation.

-- The Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to oppose state legislation allowing residential buildings of four to eight stories on streets near public transit, despite objections from business leaders and groups that favor higher-density housing.

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-- The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California will review details of a proposal to foot much of the bill to construct two delta water tunnels proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown.

-- Meet the reclusive Silicon Valley man whos behind an online effort to push California toward single-payer healthcare.

-- Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia (D-Bell Gardens) faced rebukes from fellow Democrats after she acknowledged using a homophobic slur.

-- Who stole 31 handguns from a Compton city vault? Federal authorities are investigating.

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-- Uber will not renew its permit to test autonomous vehicles on California public roads when it expires Saturday.

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While starched shirts and blouses, pinstriped ties and tailored suits may be the standard sartorial selections for members of the Burbank Chamber of Commerce, those fashion norms were discarded for Stetsons, neck scarves, boots, denim and more denim as local business leaders moseyed over to the Calamigos Equestrian Center for their annual gala this past Friday evening.

Staged under the theme Saddle Up, close to 300 representatives of the Burbank business community were welcomed to the western-themed evening by the organizations board chairwoman Gema Sanchez, chief executive Tom Flavin and event chairwoman Vickie Beckett.

The event, which serves as the chambers premier annual fundraiser, also recognizes local businesses and individuals who have made significant contributions to both the business advocacy organization and the community.

This years gala saw chiropractor Michael Williams practice honored as the Small Business of the Year.

IKEA, represented by local store manager Jeff OShaughnessy, the companys loyalty manager Mary Ann Barroso-Castanon and community and interior design manager Rachael Miller were lauded as the Community Partner of the Year.

A trio of longtime chamber Gold Star Ambassadors, Don Baldaseroni, Nancy Serpa and Jeanne Vlazny, were recognized as the 2018 Volunteers of the Year.

These honorees deserve our recognition for their contributions to the community, Sanchez said. They uphold our mission as the leading public-policy advocate for business to promote economic growth, to be a strategic partner in initiatives that enhance and preserve the quality of life in the Burbank community and to provide valued services to our members.

Among the notables who attended the gala, which was sponsored by 23 Burbank businesses led by the Cusumano Real Estate Group and the Walt Disney Co., were state Sen. Anthony Portantino (D-La Canada Flintridge), Assemblywoman Laura Friedman (D-Glendale), Vice Mayor Emily Gabel-Luddy, City Council members Jess Talamantes, Bob Frutos and Sharon Springer, chamber of commerce staff members Chris Hunter and Christina Ellixson, event committee member Darin Chase, and chamber ambassadors Nari Abramyan, Cheryl Fox, Simon Lutterbie, Patricia Nelson, Michael Nicosia, Ramona Raymer, Mike Thomas, Karen Volpei-Gussow and Romik Yaghoobimasihi.

Established in 1921, the Burbank Chamber of Commerce represents nearly 1,000 member businesses with more than 33,000 employees.

DAVID LAURELL may be reached by email at dlaurell@aol.com or (818) 563-1007.
In the wake of controversial comments made by President Trump in response to ongoing events in North Korea, an evangelical adviser to the president released a statement that argues, God has endowed rulers full power to use whatever means necessary  including war  to stop evil.

Citing the biblical passage Romans 13, Southern Baptist Pastor Robert Jeffress of Dallas, Texas, said in a later interview with the Washington Post that Trump has every right to meet with fire and fury North Koreas flexing of its burgeoning nuclear arsenal.

In the King James Version of the Bible, Romans 13 reads, Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.

Q. Are President Trump and supreme leader of North Korea Kim Jong-un leaders ordained of God? If God does choose the powers that be, and those powers are at odds, is Romans 13 a Biblical justification for war?

..

Romans 13:1 clearly states that: Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. 1 Peter 2:13-14 says: Submit yourselves for the Lords sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. So we see that God establishes all governmental leaders in the world, including President Trump and supreme leader Kim Jong-un.

But God also holds those leaders accountable to honor him with the authority he gives them. The fact that some leaders do terrible things does not make God terrible. It means those leaders are terrible. Romans 13 gives leaders the authority to lead their nation into war, but it also holds them accountable to do so in a justifiable and proper manner. Romans 13:4 states that if you [or, by implication, a foreign power] do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.

Pastor Jon Barta

Burbank

..

I dont pretend to know Gods will, but the results of the popular vote conducted by people made in his image would suggest that Trump was neither ordained by God nor the American people. In many of our lifetimes both Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton nearly got themselves disordained. Since we all have to guess, Id bet that God neither ordained Trump nor greenlit Keeping Up with the Kardashians.

What I do agree with is something my mother told me: God helps those who help themselves. I am certain she did not mean, God helps those who help themselves to the desecration of the office of president. Instead,what she meant is that fortune favors a diligent, efficient worker, and as soon as thoughtful religious types diligently and efficiently stop tripping over themselves to excuse this mockery of a president, they can wake up and join with the rest of us in diligently, efficiently reversing the beeline to entropy that has become synonymous with this administration.

The Bible justifies many things in addition to loving ones neighbor and honoring our parents. It often justifies slavery, intolerance and war.The men who wrote the Bible served their own ends in declaring their opinions had divine provenance. It is up to sober, educated people to see where wars justification lies, if at all.

Marty Barrett

Vice President Unitarian Universalist

Community of the Verdugo Hills (UUVerdugo)

Ill leave Supreme Leader Kim to the Korean experts, but Trump I can say for sure was ordained U.S. President by: 1) fewer than 80,000 votes scattered propitiously in strategic precincts of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania; and 2) an undemocratic historic relic of our countrys slave-owning past, the Electoral College.

Before I go on to our second question, please know that all the many religious believers I am close to reject any notion that their supreme spiritual beings bless war, or that anything in their holy writings justifies war.

That said, the idea of a supernatural being, even if said being is so widely shared an idea as to be the cultural norm, is still not real. Real humans, not imaginary beings, are in charge of human affairs. Religious writings should no more guide secular decisions than stories of the Easter Bunny or Santa Claus.

I am sorry if this comparison offends believers. I am offended by horrible and strategically pointless wars of choice; by our costly military occupations of numerous nations; and by our forceable interference in other countries affairs.

Roberta Medford

Atheist

Montrose

..

God is the great lawgiver; man is a lawless sinner. If God hadnt ordained government to order mankind, wed be a murderous lot of barbarians, and so he commands us to obey our laws, and refers to every governor as his minister  for good (v4). If we obey our governors, well have a good reputation and a civilized society. Now verse 3 reveals the intended nature of our governmental heads, saying rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. You see, both Americas president and Koreas chairman are to be to their people agents of lawfulness and good thriving. They are meant to be peacekeepers and maintainers of order. If, however, the leader is an enemy of good, a terror to his people, and does evil before God, he himself will be judged, and the wrath of both heaven and Earth will be upon him.

All leaders are known by God and are either permitted or specifically placed by him. Sometimes a people clamor for an evil king, and God gives them what they obviously deserve. But God can put whomever he wills in the seat of authority, so any way one looks at this, There is no power but of God. Which raises the question, what happens when a Hitler makes it to the top, or a modern example like Kim Jung-un, and what to do about them? It could be argued that the cultures behind such despots facilitated their rise to power, and from lack of resolve or concern for their fellow man, brought the awful results upon themselves. When considering how Hitler came to power, then persecuted Jews to death, and then began invading other countries to spread his poison and overtake the world, its no wonder much of the world allied to destroy his regime. Today, the Korean dictator leads an officially atheistic government that persecutes religious minorities (especially Christians) to death, massacres entire clans of perceived dissenters and threatens those outside his borders with nuclear missiles. If his threats become perceived as legitimate, war will be fully justified to end his reign of narcissistic terror.

Finally, keep in mind the strong verse of balance regarding governments authority: If we have to choose between obedience to God and obedience to any human authority, then we must obey God (Act 5:29 VOI).

Rev. Bryan A. Griem

Tujunga
Williams-Sonoma at South Coast Plaza will host chef Giada De Laurentiis from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday as the Food Network star promotes her latest book, Giadas Italy: My Recipes for La Dolce Vita.

It will be her only West Coast appearance.

Tickets are $30 and available at eventbrite.com by searching for De Laurentiis.

O.C. Market Place to have reopening event

The Orange County Market Place will hold a grand reopening event from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.

Spectra, the operator of the weekend swap meet at the OC Fair & Event Center in Costa Mesa, will host a ribbon cutting, Easter activites, music by the Costa Mesa High School band, a car show and a fundraiser.

For more information, visit ocmarketplace.com.

Grocery Outlet opens new store in H.B.

Grocery Outlet is opening a new store in Huntington Beach, creating 35 jobs, according to a news release.

The store, at 16672 Beach Blvd., is the eighth for the Emeryville-based chain.

New owners of Costa Mesa drive-through mart complete remodeling

The new owners of Eastside Mini-Mart in Costa Mesa said they have completed an interior remodel, brought in custom furniture and done a rebranding. They now call it a boutique country market with a curated offering of snacks, pantry items, lunch options and dairy, according to a news release.

Business partners Deborah Talanian and Jeanine Scalero bought the drive-through convenience store at 1712 Santa Ana Ave. in December.

Residents wanted more than another convenience store, Talanian said in a statement. The surrounding area has evolved over the last 10 years. People are eating healthier, packing more activities into their days, yet still seeking a human connection they cannot get from online shopping. We needed to deliver on all those fronts. We needed to push the mart forward to keep it relevant.

The store had been owned for years by Pat and Lila Patel as L&M Dairy. They sold it in 2015.

Festival of Arts names new security director

Laguna Beachs Festival of Arts has named Randy Querry as director of safety and security.

Querry is a retired police lieutenant in Newport Beach. He will be in charge of security for festival visitors, staff, artists, volunteers and property.

Im excited about the opportunity to work with a team dedicated to offering world-class art and stunning cultural live performances Querry said in a statement. To be able to contribute to the festival and help enhance the experience for its patrons, volunteers, exhibitors and the community is an honor.

Surfline data comes to Amazons Alexa

Amazon and Huntington Beach-based Surfline have partnered for Amazons voice-activated virtual assistant Alexa to provide Surflines daily reports, including surf conditions.

Alexa will know water temperatures and wind and tidal conditions for spots around the world.

We are excited ... to begin exploring the myriad ways Surfline and the voice interface fit together, Ross Garrett, Surfline senior vice president of corporate development, said in a statement. Working closely with Amazon has been great, and were excited to continue to evolve Surflines voice offerings.
Costa Mesa, the self-titled City of the Arts, is embarking on its first Arts & Culture Master Plan.

The public process began in earnest Tuesday with a meeting at the Costa Mesa Senior Center. It was the first of six such forums scheduled over the next two weeks.

The end result will be a document that details the citys current arts and cultural offerings and lays out a blueprint for policies, programs and physical development in those areas in coming years, said Richard Stein, president and chief executive of Arts Orange County, which Costa Mesa has retained to help develop the master plan.

Work on the plan ramped up in January and likely will take several more months to complete, Stein said. So far, he and his team have interviewed almost 60 people and launched an online survey.

We are here to listen and not to tell you what is best for Costa Mesa, for your community, Stein told the audience of about 15 people at Tuesdays forum. We want to open up your minds and have you share that with us.

Justin Martin, Costa Mesas parks and community services director, said the master plan concept has been on the back burner for a few years.

Its vital to collect comprehensive feedback from the public, he added, because the plan will help guide the development of arts and cultural efforts and resources in the city over the next 10 to 20 years.

We might be small in numbers tonight, but well be strong with our initiative and get a lot of good input, Martin said.

Over about an hour and a half, those at the meeting used sticky notes to jot down ideas for how the city can better support and grow the arts locally and suggestions on new programs or amenities to explore.

Matt Lehrman  a consultant with Audience Avenue LLC who also is working on the master plan  told the audience to dream big.

Tonight is about generating ideas, and there are no bad ideas, he said. Were just trying to get as much as we can on the table.

When participants compared their notes, common themes included the desire to install more public art, develop new outdoor artistic space  such as performance areas in local parks  and find additional ways to support art education.

Another forum was scheduled for Wednesday morning at Costa Mesa City Hall. The others are:

Thursday, noon, Balearic Community Center, 1975 Balearic Drive

April 5, 6 p.m., Kaiser Elementary School, 2130 Santa Ana Ave.

April 6, 1 p.m., City Hall, 77 Fair Drive

April 7, 10 a.m., Senior Center, 695 W. 19th St.

The online survey for the master plan is available in English at surveymonkey.com/r/2ZK5LFL and in Spanish at surveymonkey.com/r/B3NKB6F.

For more information, visit facebook.com/CostaMesaArtsPlan.

luke.money@latimes.com

Twitter @LukeMMoney
The meaning of freedom, and those who are entitled to it, has been a recurring battle throughout U.S. and world history.

To this day, countries continue to deny people their right to exist freely. Although the United States is ranked as one of the most free countries in the world, for immigrants it is one of the least free.

The United States runs the largest immigration detention system in the world, confining approximately 400,000 people a year.

Orange County is home to not one, but two, of these immigrant jails, where asylum seekers, legal permanent residents, victims of human trafficking and others are locked up, at times indefinitely. Many of them are often forced to work in these jails and prisons for $1 a day.

Now politicians are pouring salt in the wounds of detained immigrants by defending the private prison companies that run these euphemistically called voluntary work programs in immigration detention.

In fact, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Costa Mesa) recently signed onto a letter defending private immigrant prisons against lawsuits that allege that detained immigrants should not be forced to work for a $1 a day. Rohrabachers letter argues that because immigrants are not employees, they should not be able to sue to be paid for their work.

Thats right. They are not employees. They are modern-day slaves.

Immigration detention, which is a civil form of confinement, and therefore, should not be punitive, has become a modern-day form of human trafficking. Take Sylvester Owino and Jonathan Gomez, who alleged in a federal class action lawsuit that they were forced to work under the threat of additional punishment at the Otay Detention Facility in San Diego.

In a country that outlawed slavery over a century and a half ago, this is unconscionable and unacceptable. But given our countrys long, disturbing past, it is not surprising.

One of the uncanny features of immigration detention in the United States is how young and how old it is. Until the 1980s, this system didnt exist in its current scale, and yet its existence today seems predetermined by this countrys founding, when it was legal to enslave black and brown bodies for personal and commercial gain.

As under slavery, and as today, people of color are abducted from their communities and forced to work for the profits of a ruling class, contributing to the countrys prosperity at the expense of their lives.

Rohrabacher and his 17 colleagues who signed onto that letter want their constituents to remain complacent in the face of injustice. Our elected officials want us to believe that if we are part of that privileged class that has citizenship, then we have nothing to fear or to fight for. If we are not at risk for being imprisoned or thrown into an immigrant jail, then we should remain silent.

But we cannot remain silent when our neighbors are being ripped from their communities, jailed for simply not having proper immigration papers and then forced to work essentially for us.

Since its inception, immigration detention was designed to jail people of color. For example, just like the Black Codes in the 1800s led to the increase in incarceration of black people, racial profiling today means that black immigrants are disproportionately represented in immigration detention. In fact, despite only comprising 7% of the undocumented population in 2017, 20.3% of immigrants in detention are black, according to the Atlantic.

But we dont have to be part of the problem, remaining complacent as Rohrabacher wants. Complacency is complicity. We can be part of the solution to bring about and ensure freedom for immigrants.

We can start by electing officials who stand with our immigrant residents, not against them. And we can rebuild trust in our communities by closing immigrant jails and re-purposing them for services our community really needs  an opportunity that the city of Santa Ana is now considering.

More specifically, the Orange County Sheriffs Department should end its contract with ICE. The Legislature last year already prevented the county from expanding its contract with ICE for the next 10 years through a budget amendment. The sheriff should take the next step and stand on the right side of history.

Former Costa Mesa resident CHRISTINA FIALHO is an attorney and co-executive director of the national nonprofit Freedom for Immigrants, formerly Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement (CIVIC).
Two Huntington Beach city councilmen said they want to follow the lead of Los Alamitos and other cities in an effort to seek relief from state mandates that expand protections for undocumented immigrants.

Mayor Mike Posey said in a statement that he and Councilman Erik Peterson want Surf City to discuss Sacramentos so-called sanctuary state bills, such as Senate Bill 54, Assembly Bill 450 and AB 103, at Mondays council meeting.

Posey, who witnessed SB 54s passing in Sacramento last year, called such policies an open violation of federal immigration laws.

In a news release, he said they all represent a threat to public safety.

In order for the city to maintain our superior record of public safety, we have been exploring options to ensure your safety and maintain local control, while at the same time, fulfill our oath of upholding the Constitution, he said.

State Senate leader Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles), who wrote SB 54, warned cities going against the states sanctuary laws.

Pushing a racist and anti-immigrant agenda devoid of facts or supporting legal analysis is a pretty sad use of taxpayer resources, especially when it could result in crippling legal costs for cities that rush to join this dead-end effort, he said in a written statement.

Huntington Beachs pending discussion comes as talks mount throughout Orange County pushing against the sanctuary laws.

Earlier this month, the Los Alamitos City Council passed its own opt-out ordinance. Yorba Linda, Buena Park and Mission Viejo have also had talks.

And on Tuesday, the Orange County Board of Supervisors voted to join a federal lawsuit fighting the matter.

The Trump administration has argued that Californias sanctuary state policies blatantly obstructs federal immigration authorities and violates the Constitutions supremacy clause giving federal law precedence over a states. The case is pending.

Mondays Huntington Beach council meeting begins at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 2000 Main St.

Cindy Carcamo of the Los Angeles Times contributed to this report.

bradley.zint@latimes.com

Twitter: @BradleyZint
A Huntington Beach man was sentenced Tuesday to 23 years in state prison for attempting to arrange the murder of his brothers ex-wife, prosecutors said.

Joseph Jordan Taylor, 32, pleaded guilty last week to one count each of solicitation to commit murder and attempted murder in connection with the plot, according to the Orange County district attorneys office.

In May 2015, one of Taylors friends contacted authorities to report that Taylor had given him $5,000 to arrange the slaying of his former sister-in-law, Huntington Beach police Det. Trent Tunstall testified during a 2016 preliminary hearing.

That same month, two undercover detectives posing as hit men met with Taylor in a parking lot at the Westminster Mall, where he agreed to pay $12,000 for the hit, according to authorities.

He was arrested after giving the undercover officers a $2,000 cash down payment, authorities said.

Joseph Taylors father is John Taylor, who was part of the Hole in the Wall gang that was inducted into the Surfing Walk of Fame in Huntington Beach in 2011.

luke.money@latimes.com

Twitter @LukeMMoney
Newport Beach could join Orange County in backing the federal governments lawsuit against California over its so-called sanctuary state laws.

City Councilman Kevin Muldoon wants the council to discuss joining or supporting the Trump administrations challenge to the immigration laws, including Senate Bill 54, the landmark sanctuary state law that prohibits local law enforcement in many cases from alerting federal immigration agents when detainees who may be subject to deportation are released from custody.

As a result of its own political posturing, Sacramento has put us in an awkward position, Muldoon said at Tuesday nights council meeting.

Similarly, Councilman Scott Peotter said he wants the council to pass a resolution supporting the federal lawsuit.

Newport would be the latest in a wave of Orange County governments pushing back against the recently enacted laws. The resistance kicked off last week when the Los Alamitos City Council voted to exempt the small north county city from SB 54.

The Orange County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to join the federal lawsuit against the state.

hillary.davis@latimes.com

Twitter: @Daily_PilotHD
Ocean View High School hosted events Monday and Tuesday to warn about the perils of drunk driving.

The Every 15 Minutes program, which is offered annually to one of the four Huntington Beach high schools, commenced with a reenactment of a fatal traffic incident that left one student dead and four seriously injured.

Students watched how Huntington Beach police and fire officials respond to such 911 calls, including using the Jaws of Life to pry open wrecked cars.

Senior Taylor Voegelie, 17, played the role of a student who died after flying through the windshield because she didnt wear a seat belt. She lay still on the street as paramedics tried to resuscitate her before calling the coroner.

Taylor volunteered for the reenactment because she wanted to give her peers a reality check.

Before Mondays staged collision outside campus on Gothard Street, Ocean View students were pulled from their classrooms every 15 minutes by a California Highway Patrol officer and a costumed Grim Reaper. The increments symbolized about how often people die because of impaired driving nationwide.

The students, referred to as the living dead, spent Monday night at the Waterfront Beach Resort before Tuesdays mock funeral in the Ocean View gym.

Parents wrote letters to their children. One was read aloud during the funeral, a campuswide assembly emceed by Councilwoman Lyn Semeta.

Please let the last two days be a reminder that life is precious, Semeta said.

The funeral began with student pallbearers walking to a stage. Other students placed red roses on the casket.

Police Chief Rob Handy spoke about seeing the human devastation of drunk driving during his decades in law enforcement.

These visions I will never get out of my head, he said.

After reading Death of an Innocent, by an anonymous poet about a child who dies from the actions of a drunk driver, the school played a mock video showing three Ocean View girls pretending to drink vodka in Central Park.

The intoxicated girls get in a car and end up hitting another car with two Ocean View students inside.

The driver, played by senior Penelope Russ, fails a mock field sobriety test and is taken to jail, where she makes an emotional phone call to her family.

In an emotional telling of a true story, Jodie Pittenger, an Ocean View High secretary, shared how a drunk driver killed her 17-year-old brother.

Pittenger recalled being awoken with news that her brother was seriously injured. She had worried about him attending an infamous party earlier that day.

It just seemed like a nightmare, that he was going to come home any minute, she said.

Pittenger said she learned that the driver had previously been involved in another fatal car accident. She said that man recently died at age 65, as a grandfather.

He got to live, Pittenger said. I didnt get to see that from my brother.

bradley.zint@latimes.com

Twitter: @BradleyZint
As opponents of the Trump Administration look forward to a blue wave of victories in November, they cant overlook Junes Jungle Primary. Without realistic, hard-nosed strategic thinking, it is possible that the November race will be a run-off between two Republican Trump supporters.

Under the jungle primary rules, the top two vote-getters will face off in the November election. Sounds simple and fair, but heres the problem: With the advantages of incumbency, name recognition and Republican fundraising, the incumbent, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Costa Mesa), seems assured of one of the two top spots.

But who will get the other one?

The June ballot will have eight Democratic, six Republican and two independent candidates. If Mr. Rohrabacher takes one spot, 15 candidates will be competing for the other one. And with 15 competitors, anything can happen.

Right now, Democratic candidates are aggressively campaigning against each other, and early polls suggest that a second Republican is likely to sneak into the second spot.

So, even if 60% or 70% of voters cast an anti-Trump vote, the two candidates in November will likely be Trump supporters.

Yes, there are differences among the Democratic candidates. But one thing is clear: Democrats need to pick up 24 seats in order to flip the House of Representatives from Republican to Democratic control. Our congressional race represents 4% of that goal.

A Democratic-controlled House of Representative will undertake a genuine investigation of the Trump Administration. Instead of the feckless ineptitude of Rep. Devon Nunes (R-Tulare) and House Republicans, Democrats will ask real questions and will demand that witnesses answer them.

If you care about government accountability, reasonable gun regulation, healthcare, womens reproductive rights, climate change, fair taxation or a host of other issues, we need a Democratic House to counter the out-of-control Trump train.

In sum, Democrats need to settle on a candidate.

Yes, I have a favorite candidate, but right now, thats less important than having at least one Democrat face off against Mr. Rohrabacher. And, I think any of the Democratic candidates can flip the district.

So my message to Harley Rouda, Hans Keirstead, Michael Kotick and the rest of the candidates is this: The Democrat who leads the polls in June will get my vote. Longshot Democrats who fail to drop out in May will earn my disdain.

A few days ago, one of the candidates recognized this problem and withdrew from the race. She asked supporters to back the campaign of one of leading candidates. It is time for others to follow her brave and honorable example and narrow the field so that voters have a real choice.

For the rest of us, be careful. Its a jungle out there.

Tom Persky

Laguna Beach

Team Newport takes sides by not taking sides

In touting a recent Newport Beach resolution barring use of public funds to advocate for local tax hikes (Cities must stop using tax dollars to advocate under the guise of education), City Councilman Will ONeill ignores the substantial thumb that he and four of his five fellow council members placed on the electoral scale when they adopted that resolution.

If, as ONeill claims, the resolution was intended to close the loophole that enables public entities, under the guise of educating the public, to instead advocate for a particular position on an issue, it would have barred use of public funds not only to promote but also to oppose tax hikes.

By only barring the former, and implicitly permitting the latter, the ordinance violates the fundamental precept of this nations democratic process that ONeill himself describes as having been resolutely articulated by the California Supreme Court  that the government may not take sides in election contests or bestow an unfair advantage on one of several competing factions.

Confining public advocacy only to opposing tax increases may be consistent with conservative anti-tax orthodoxy, but it is most certainly unfair. And it is inappropriate in the context of what is supposed to be nonpartisan municipal politics.

James R. Percival

Newport Beach

The AR-15 is the GOPs Achilles heel

For the first time in years, I believe there is a real chance to flip the House from red to blue. All the Democrats have to do is be willing to fight like Republicans.

Democratic challengers need to be armed with the appropriate firepower to counter GOP incumbents and their talking points. For the millions of Americans who were paying attention to the March For Our Lives, this translates to gun safety.

For the past year, I have been asking gun owners if they believe the AR-15, or anything like it, should be sold or not. Almost without exception, their collective answer is no. In fact, they laugh when they hear the NRA say its a hunting rifle. My own feeling is if you have to use a weapon like that in the woods, you must be a really lousy shot.

The AR-15 is the GOPs Achilles heel. So much so, Democrats should be able to tie Republican incumbents so visibly to this hideous weapon their own children wont vote for them in November.

Hyperbole? Maybe, but, my point is this: You dont bring a knife to a gunfight, especially when you are looking for significant change.

Denny Freidenrich

Laguna Beach

How to get published: Email us at dailypilot@latimes.com. All correspondence must include full name, hometown and phone number (for verification purposes). The Pilot reserves the right to edit all submissions for clarity and length.
Full-time student enrollment at Glendale Community College has dropped by 2.3% from the previous school year, putting it at risk of losing state funding if the trend continues, according to a recent report.

The loss works out to the equivalent of 346 full-time students, reflecting the current spring semesters enrollment data.

While the numbers frustrate school officials, theyre not baffling. A nationwide enrollment downtrend has plagued community colleges for the past few years, according to reports from the U.S. Department of Education and the National Student Clearinghouse.

State funding is based on enrollment, so that number is important, said Drew Sugars, the colleges director of communications and community relations. Each full-time student brings in about $5,150 from the state.

The decline doesnt lead to an automatic loss in funding, Sugars said. The state now considers the college to be in a stabilization phase. It has one to three years to show increased enrollment before cuts kick in.

The schools enrollment decreased two years ago by the equivalent of 772 full-time students. It then increased by 556 full-time students the following year. Even though it didnt fully rebound from the loss, it avoided funding cuts by showing positive gains, Sugars said.

According to the colleges enrollment analysis and data, 2009-10 was the last so-called peak enrollment year.

For funding purposes, the number of full-time students is calculated based on how many cumulative hours all students attend classes, representing a combination of full-time and part-time students.

When a college loses students and the money they bring in, you still have to pay for everything that makes that college [run], Sugars said, pointing out that a classroom with a few less students still commands the same costs, including the instructors salary and associated utilities.

Thats where things become a challenge, Sugars said.

The school receives about $78 million to $80 million annually from the state.

Additional revenue comes from out-of-state and international students, who pay more for tuition relative to in-state students. The $215 per unit they pay goes directly to the school, according to Sugars.

Last month, the board of trustees decided to not increase the nonresidential fee in order to hopefully draw more out-of-state and international students to the college.

School officials point to two primary reasons for the enrollment dip, both based on outside forces  an improved economy and a decrease in high school students overall.

The idea is that when jobs are plentiful, as they have been for the past few years, would-be students can get by without specialized degrees or certificates, according to Armine Hacopian, president of the colleges board of trustees.

When the economy suffers, students are more likely to go back to school to improve their marketability.

Ann Ransford, the boards vice president, underscored the effect of changing demographics, including a smaller pool of high school graduates.

Weve lost that whole bubble of kids from the baby boomers, Ransford said.

One step the college has taken to address the downtrend was to hire Sugars, according to Hacopian. Sugars was brought on about seven months ago.

Having a new communications and community relations director is really focusing on our goals, and thats why we created this new position, Hacopian said.

The college has gone a decade without a dedicated communications director, Sugars said.

Another strategy to address the problem has been to add relevant classes, Hacopian said.

Trustees voted unanimously last week to approve 18 new classes and 11 new programs.

New offerings that will be rolled out in the coming months include classes on gender and sexuality and the politics of race in the United States as well as a degree in Armenian language.

Community colleges have unique challenges, in that more of the students work and have families compared to four-year colleges and universities, making it more difficult for them to take on full course loads or see a program through, Hacopian said.

Sugars called the population high risk and more prone to dropping out, relative to their four-year counterparts.

It takes everyone working to be able to maintain and to keep students on our campuses, Hacopian said. Its not an easy task and theres no straightforward answer.

While Sugars is working on marketing strategies to entice new students into the fold, he said hes also looking into how to support the schools existing students so that they see their programs through and meet their goals.

Wed rather put energy into taking care of the students we have, not preparing to have less students, he said.

Lila Seidman is a freelance writer for Times Community News.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing this week, his first known trip abroad since he assumed control of the isolated state in 2011 and his first meeting with another head of state.

Chinese state media reported Wednesday that Kim made the visit, which was not announced publicly, in advance of planned meetings with South Korean and American leaders, including President Trump.

Kim, 34, said he is willing to hold dialogue with the United States and hold summits between North Korea and the United States, according to Chinas official New China News Agency.

He also said denuclearization is possible if South Korea and the United States respond to our efforts in good faith [and] create a peaceful and stable atmosphere, and if the current situation on the Korean peninsula has begun to develop in the positive direction, the news agency reported.

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The agency published photos of Kim and Xi shaking hands against a backdrop of North Korean and Chinese flags; posing with their wives, Ri Sol-ju and Peng Liyuan; and speaking with other officials at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

At the invitation of Xi Jinping, Kim Jong Un paid an unofficial visit to China from March 25 to 28 pic.twitter.com/OG9695uZ6F  China Xinhua News (@XHNews) March 28, 2018

Several other Chinese officials were in attendance, including Premier Li Keqiang, Politburo Standing Committee member Wang Huning and Vice President Wang Qishan.

The meetings unfolded in absolute secrecy. Speculation had swirled that Kim was in Beijing on Monday night, when a mysterious, armored North Korean train was spotted in the Chinese capital.

China is North Koreas only major ally and trading partner. Yet the two countries relations have soured in recent years  Beijing has chafed against Pyongyangs nuclear and missile development and bellicose rhetoric, and North Korea has asserted its independence from its neighbor. China has backed a raft of tough U.N. sanctions that have sharply limited exports of North Korean goods to China.

Yet Kim has made several gestures in recent months to defuse long-simmering tensions between his country and the U.S., South Korea and China. Last month, North Korea sent a delegation, led by Kims sister Kim Yo Jong, to the Winter Olympics in South Korea. The charm offensive paved the way for talks with South Korean officials and, later, a historic offer to meet Trump, who quickly accepted.

Xi appeared welcoming of the thaw.

The New China News Agency reported that Xi, referring to the North by its official name, the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, said, China is willing to continue to play a constructive role in the issue of the peninsula and work together with all parties including the DPRK to jointly promote the relaxation of the situation on the peninsula.

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I think [the meeting] shows some sense of urgency on both sides, said Go Myung-Hyun, a research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul. I think Xi Jinping now understands that China was being sidelined in these discussions that were taking place between North Korea, the U.S. and South Korea.

I think the motivation for Kim is more important, he continued. Kim was definitely worried about the prospect of the U.S. imposing strong preconditions on North Korea [for talks]  and I think some of the leverage has gone to China, and Chinese support for Kims feeling over denuclearization, which is an action-for-action, step-by-step approach.

The first public indication of Kims visit came Monday night, when Japanese media reported on a 21-car train crossing from North Korea at the Chinese border city of Dandong. Other signs of a high-level visit were quickly apparent  train delays in and around Beijing, beefed-up security along a major thoroughfare and the barring of tourists from Tiananmen Square.

The Chinese government did not confirm Kims visit until after his train had left Beijing.

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By traveling on a train, Kim followed precedents set by his grandfather and father, North Koreas two previous leaders.

His grandfather Kim Il Sung, who ruled the country from its founding in 1948 until his death in 1994, and his father, Kim Jong Il, who ruled from 1994 until his death in 2011, both traveled abroad on heavily armored luxury trains.

jonathan.kaiman@latimes.com

For more news from Asia, follow @JRKaiman on Twitter

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UPDATES:

6:52 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from Xi Jinping and Go Myung-hyun.

This article was originally published at 5:10 p.m.
It had the trappings of a historic summit  a mysterious train, a motorbike convoy, a military welcome and extraordinary displays of flowers and flags.

When North Korean leader Kim Jong Un came to Beijing this week to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, it marked the first time that Kim is known to have traveled outside his country since becoming its leader in 2011, and his first meeting of any kind with another head of state. But its true significance may become apparent only after two more summits.

The first, in April, will bring together Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in. The second, should it take place, would pair the North Korean leader with President Trump.

Experts say that Kim was probably eager to shore up support from China, Pyongyangs main trading partner and ally, for additional leverage in those discussions. He may also want to drive a wedge between the U.S. and China, which have in the last year joined forces to implement draconian sanctions on Pyongyang.

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China, meanwhile, is striving to remain central to discussions  its anxious that losing a place at the table could carry vast consequences for its national security, experts say. Beijing is about 500 miles from Pyongyang, and does not want a war in its backyard.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un waves from his train as it prepares to depart from Beijing railway station on March 27, 2018. (Korean Central News Agency )

I think [the meeting] shows some sense of urgency on both sides, said Go Myung-Hyun, a research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul. I think Xi Jinping now understands that China was being sidelined in these discussions that were taking place between North Korea, the U.S. and South Korea.

China and North Korea enjoy a strong historical bond, with their communist roots and their alliance during the 1950-53 Korean War. Yet their relations have soured, especially throughout last year, as Pyongyang tested more than two dozen missiles and, in September, a nuclear bomb. Beijing fears nothing more than instability and has repeatedly warned Pyongyang over its provocations.

In the Beijing meetings, Kim, who is in his 30s, said his country could potentially denuclearize if South Korea and the United States respond to our efforts in good faith [and] create a peaceful and stable atmosphere, according to the official New China News Agency.

The meeting spotlighted a high-wire act for both China and North Korea in advance of Kims planned meetings with South Korean and U.S. leaders this spring.

What does Kim Jong Un want? Lets be clear. He wants to break what appears to be a united front between China and the U.S. on the North Korea issue, said Andrei Lankov, director of the research firm Korea Risk Group and a professor at Kookmin University in Seoul.

I can assure you North Koreans have so far managed to outsmart everybody. Andrei Lankov, director of the Korea Risk Group

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Kim has likely made a lot of promises, not all of which are going to be kept, in order to prove to his Chinese hosts that its in Chinese interests not to be harsh to North Korea, he continued. I can imagine him making promises to behave himself for a while, at least as long as Trump is in the White House. But its also possible that hell try to terrify China by the increasingly likely prospect of an American military operation in Korea.

Trump, in a morning tweet, reported he had received a message from Xi describing the visit and saying Kim looks forward to his meeting with me.

In the meantime, and unfortunately, he added, maximum sanctions and pressure must be maintained at all cost!

Trump predicted that Kim may finally be coming around and will do what is right. But Kim was clearly using the China appearance to strengthen his own hand before any talks involving the Koreas. Kim wants to include the more sympathetic posture of China, while Xi wants to continue to play the role of regional power broker.

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In their meetings, Xi was careful to treat Kim as an equal. Both men were accompanied by their wives, a sight not usually seen.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, second from left, and Chinese President Xi Jinping are flanked by their wives, Ri Sol Ju, left, and Peng Liyuan, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 28, 2018. (Associated Press )

Kim is likely to similarly parlay any meeting with Trump as proof of his international stature  a gambit that Trump may not be well-equipped to counter. Kim will probably declare that it is his nuclear arsenal that has earned him the worlds respect.

Xi and Kim may also have used their meeting to strategize in the likely event that little comes of a summit with Trump.

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We are now heading into an extremely complicated stage of diplomacy and negotiations, Paul Haenle, director of the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy in Beijing, said in an email. Trump needs to get good and competent people in place to not only do the internal strategic thinking and advise the president, but to ensure that in our external diplomacy there is cohesion. The worst outcome would be for [North Korea] to begin driving wedges between the U.S., China, South Korea, Japan and Russia to try to gain advantages.

Japan, which has taken an especially hard line against North Korea and was caught off guard by Trumps announcement that he would sit down with Kim, has so far been left out of these machinations. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is scheduled to meet with Trump next month, and he is likely to warn the president against the many pitfalls that someone as wily as Kim might put in the way of an inexperienced and unsuspecting Trump.

A mild panic seems to be setting in among Japanese leadership as it is left out not only of the Trump-Kim summit but also Kims trip this week to Beijing. Asked Tuesday about the trip, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono was reduced to saying he hoped for an explanation from Beijing.

This weeks meetings unfolded in absolute secrecy. Speculation had swirled that Kim was in Beijing on Monday night when a mysterious, armored North Korean train arrived in the Chinese capital (it left on Tuesday afternoon). Chinese state media first reported the visit on Wednesday and said that it lasted from Sunday to Wednesday, without explaining the discrepancy.

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Chinese and North Korean media made prominent shows of the visit, with the New China News Agency publishing a 2,646-word article and North Koreas Rodong Sinmun running a photo from the meeting on its front page.

The agencies showed photos of Kim and Xi shaking hands against a backdrop of North Korean and Chinese flags; posing with their wives, Ri Sol Ju and Peng Liyuan; toasting at a banquet; and speaking with other officials at the Great Hall of the People, a lush-carpeted meeting hall in Beijing.

The luncheon hall where Kim Jong Un and Ri Sol Ju sat face to face with Xi Jinping and Peng Liyuan was overflowing with a harmonious and intimate atmosphere from its beginning to the end, North Koreas official Korean Central News Agency reported.

Trump and the United Nations have imposed several rounds of sanctions on the already-isolated country  and China, breaking with years of precedent, has largely enforced them, sharply limiting exports of North Korean goods to China.

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Kim has made several gestures in recent months to defuse long-simmering tensions. Last month, North Korea sent a delegation, led by Kims sister Kim Yo Jong, to the Winter Olympics in South Korea. The charm offensive paved the way for talks with South Korean officials and, later, a historic offer to meet Trump, who quickly accepted.

The New China News Agency reported that Xi, referring to the North by its official name, the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, said, China is willing to continue to play a constructive role in the issue of the peninsula and work together with all parties including the DPRK to jointly promote the relaxation of the situation on the peninsula.

By traveling on a train, Kim followed precedents set by his grandfather and father, North Koreas two previous leaders.

His grandfather Kim Il Sung, who ruled the country from its founding in 1948 until his death in 1994, and his father, Kim Jong Il, who ruled from 1994 until his death in 2011, both traveled abroad on heavily armored luxury trains.

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Lankov, the professor, said that the three Kims have all proved remarkably adept at getting their way with foreign governments.

Ive been studying North Korea for 35 years, and Ive written books looking at their political and social history over the past 70 years, he said. I can assure you North Koreans have so far managed to outsmart everybody. They were remarkably good at playing Russia and China against each other in the 1950s and 60s. Theyve outsmarted Americans a number of times, and theyve outsmarted South Koreans too. I dont know why we shouldnt expect they wont outsmart them once again.

ALSO

Inside Yiwu, China, the Easter trinket capital of the world

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The two Koreas agree to talk again  and a Kim-Trump summit remains possible

With Xi in office for the long haul, China touts its stability  the opposite of Washington, D.C.

Kaiman reported from Beijing and Wilkinson from Washington. Kemeng Fan in The Times Beijing bureau contributed to this report.

jonathan.kaiman@latimes.com

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tracy.wilkinson@latimes.com

For more news from Asia, follow @JRKaiman on Twitter

Twitter: @TracyKWilkinson

UPDATES:

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3:35 p.m.: This article has been updated with comments from Trump and Japan.

This article was originally posted at 6:50 a.m.
The Russian former spy and his daughter left critically ill in a nerve agent attack three weeks ago were probably poisoned at the front door of their home in southwestern England, British police said Wednesday.

It was the first time police have said where they thought Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia might have been poisoned.

The highest concentration of nerve agent found so far was on the Skripals front door in Salisbury, and detectives plan to focus their investigation in the surrounding area, Londons Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

At this point in our investigation, we believe the Skripals first came in contact with the nerve agent from their front door, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Dean Haydon said in the statement.

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Police have also searched a variety of sites around Salisbury, including a pub, a restaurant and a cemetery.

Britain has blamed Russia for the attack, triggering the expulsion of about 150 Russian diplomats from Britain, the U.S. and their Western allies. Russia has vowed to respond, but a senior diplomat said Wednesday there is no hurry to retaliate.

Russia vehemently denies Britains accusation that it was behind the March 4 attack.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the RIA Novosti state news agency that Moscow is thoughtfully and thoroughly considering its response. Separately, he was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying the expulsions were directed by London and Washington, adding that other nations succumbed to their pressure. He added that all options are on the table regarding Russias response.

President Vladimir Putins spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters that Russias response will suit the interests of Russia.

President Trump spoke with British Prime Minister Theresa May about the coordinated effort by Western allies to expel Russian intelligence operatives. The White House said the leaders agreed Wednesday that dismantling Russian spy rings is a priority to curtail Russian clandestine activities and prevent future chemical weapons attacks on either countrys soil.

Skripal was imprisoned in Russia after he sold secrets to British intelligence. He was released in a 2010 spy swap and moved to Britain.

Britain says the Skripals were poisoned with a nerve agent developed in Soviet times and that it must have come from Russia. Russian officials complain that Britain hasnt presented evidence to back up the accusation.

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The Russian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that British special services could have been behind the poisoning. British officials have previously rejected such Russian claims as nonsense.
Ecuadors government said Wednesday it has cut off WikiLeaks founder Julian Assanges internet connection at the nations London embassy after his recent activity on social media decrying the arrest of a Catalan separatist politician.

Officials said in a statement that Assanges recent posts put at risk the good relations Ecuador maintains with nations throughout Europe and had decided as of Tuesday to suspend his internet access in order to prevent any potential harm.

Assange has since gone silent on social media.

Ecuador granted Assange asylum in the South American nations embassy in 2012, where he has remained cooped up ever since. Ecuador has repeatedly tried to find a solution that would allow Assange to leave without the threat of arrest, but with no success. He remains wanted in Britain for jumping bail and also fears a possible U.S. extradition request based on his leaking of classified State Department documents.

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Relations between Assange and his host nation have often grown prickly.

Ecuador suspended his internet access in 2016 after a WikiLeaks dump targeting Hillary Clintons presidential campaign. And although former President Rafael Correa hailed Assanges work, the South American countrys current head of state has called him a hacker and warned him not to meddle in politics.

As part of an agreement allowing him to stay at the embassy, Assange is forbidden from sending any messages that would interfere with the countrys diplomatic relations with other nations.

He violated that agreement, said Maria Fernanda Espinosa, Ecuadors minister of foreign affairs.

She added that Ecuadors government would be sending of a group of diplomats to meet with Assanges legal team in London next week while continuing a dialogue with British officials on how to resolve an inherited problem.

Assange frequently tweets more than a dozen times a day, sharing news stories and comments that often focus on global politics and digital security issues. In recent days, Assange had criticized Germanys detention of former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont. He wrote that the European arrest warrant system allows an abusive government to persecute its opponents across the whole of the EU.

He also chimed in a decision by the United States and more than a dozen European nations to kick out Russian diplomats on Monday after Moscows alleged poisoning of a former spy in Britain.

The manner of and timing of Russian diplomatic expulsions is poor diplomacy, he wrote.

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After Assanges remarks, a British minister called him a miserable little worm and said it was regretful that he remains in Ecuadors embassy.

Ecuador granted the Australian-born Assange citizenship in December as part of an effort to make him a member of its diplomatic team, which would grant him additional rights such as special legal immunity. But Britains Foreign Office rejected the request to grant him diplomatic status in the United Kingdom.
VFW Post 4174 will host a Welcome Home Vietnam Vets celebration on Saturday, March 31, beginning at noon. Vietnam Veterans, friends, families, veteran service organizations, and members of the community are invited to come out and join in the celebration.

This is the first year for this event. In 2017, the state of Florida passed a law to designate a day to remember the men and women who served in Vietnam, said Shannon Rousey, senior vice commander.

Last year, Gov. Rick Scott and the Cabinet issued a resolution recognizing March 30 as Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day.

The resolution was created as way to recognize those who served in the armed forces and defended our country. Scott was quoted as saying that Florida is committed to being the most military and veteran friendly state in the nation.

According to Rousey, this is the first year that their post has held the celebration, which makes it an important day for those involved.

We didnt feel like they got the treatment they deserved when they came back. They were just trying to serve their country, Rousey said.

Rousey, who served in Desert Storm, assumed the role of senior vice commander a year ago.

According to event chair Mike Sloan, this ceremony is meant to give these men and women the welcome home that they should have received more than 40 years ago.

Sloan served in the Navys Operation Ernest Will during the Iran/Iraq War.

We are doing this out of respect for our brothers and sisters who never got a proper homecoming. Its so important that they be recognized for what they did for this country, said Sloan.

The ceremony will feature several keynote speakers; a parade lined by motorcycles providing a salute and American flags following a color guard presented by local JROTC. There will also be a playing of Taps and the National Anthem.

Our local Boys and Girl Scouts will also be involved with the days events, said Sloan.

Letters from local government officials including Senator Bill Nelson will be read during the ceremony.

Following the ceremony, there will be a reenactment of the Last Patrol in Vietnam and a reception where attendees can enjoy $5, barbeque plates with beans and other sides, plus refreshments.

We will be smoking a whole pig, which was donated by Post 38, American Legions Commander, Kevin Boyd. Their post stays very active in veterans affairs, said Sloan.

Everyone in the community is welcomed to attend.

This is a big deal for us. We want to make this best experience we can for these men and women. We encourage people to bring their children as well, said Sloan.

The event will take place at the VFW Post 4174 located at 25 Homestead Rd S, Lehigh Acres. Additional parking spaces can be found inside the church parking lot.

For more information, contact the VFW Post at 239-369-5100 or the events chair, Mike Sloan at 239-246-4196.
A Lehigh Acres teen, accused of threatening a school shooting in Alabama, was taken into custody here in Lee County Tuesday.

Anthony Kessler, 19, of 1509 Sara Ave. S., made terrorist threats to conduct a shooting at a Fort Payne, Alabama school, a release from the Lee County Sheriffs Office states.

The arrest on an out-of-state fugitive from justice warrant issued out of DeKalb County was made in unison with the Federal Bureau of Investigations.

Kessler was taken into custody at a restaurant on Palm Beach Boulevard in Fort Myers where he was employed, and then booked into the Lee County jail.

We take every threat seriously, said Eric W. Sporre, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Tampa Division, in a prepared statement. The FBI Tampa Field Office continues to work with our local, state and federal law enforcement partners in assessing any and all threats. As always, we will work with our law enforcement partners to gather, share and act upon threat information as it comes to our attention.

The Lee County Sheriffs Office provided a similar statement.

We have been, and continue to be, committed to ensuring a safe environment for our children and for our residents, said Undersheriff Carmine Marceno. In addition to our own security operations, we are committed to work closely with any and all federal and state agencies in need of our assistance.

Source: Lee County Sheriffs Office
"Does Pennsylvania know what's coming?" Hardwick Township Mayor Kevin Duffy asked.

Duffy, speaking at Monday night's board of supervisors' meeting in Upper Mount Bethel Township, joined Knowlton Township Mayor Adele Starrs in claiming a proposed project on Interstate 80 in New Jersey will have a negative impact on both sides of the Delaware River.

Hardwick and Knowlton townships have passed resolutions objecting to the New Jersey Department of Transportation initiative to build a 60-foot-high rock wall and fence along the cliffs in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area.

Duffy said neighboring Blairstown and Hope townships in Warren County have also passed similar resolutions and he hopes Pennsylvania municipalities will join the call for a halt to the project.

Though initiated by NJDOT, the project is now under the purview of the Federal Highway Administration. The fence is designed to guard against potential rockfalls that could cause injuries or accidents to those driving on I-80.

However, Starrs said there is little evidence that rockfalls have historically caused many accidents on that stretch of highway. Officials who object to the project said they have asked NJDOT for a meeting where they will ask state officials for proof there is a justified need for the $50 million-plus project.

Duffy said the fence will be an eyesore and take away from the natural beauty of the national park.

How a N.J. project could affect Pa.

Duffy noted that tourism will be negatively affected for the two years of construction, which is scheduled to begin in 2020.

The large wall and fence would ruin the aesthetics of the water gap, which will harm tourism long-term, Duffy said. It won't be long before graffiti is sprayed across the wall, he cautioned.

"People say the Delaware Water Gap is the Eighth Wonder of the World and now they want to put a fence around it?" Upper Mount Bethel Township Supervisor Robert Teel asked.

Duffy also noted that many of the best places for tourists to see the water gap are from lookout points in Pennsylvania.

Plans call for I-80 to be reduced to one lane for an extended time during construction, Duffy said.

Many of those living in Upper Mount Bethel Township and Portland know the effects of what happens if an accident or some other obstruction causes traffic on I-80 in New Jersey, officials said. Drivers often use the Portland-Columbia bridge to enter Pennsylvania as a secondary route to avoid highway traffic.

Duffy said Pennsylvaina municipalities can expect two years of trucks and other drivers using Route 611 and Route 512 to find alternate routes to I-80, Route 33 and Interstate 78.

"Our infrastructure is not going to hold up," Teel said.

Starrs said the project is in the preliminary engineering phase and there is still time to halt the project and come up with a better solution like a less objectionable mesh netting.

The mayors urged Upper Mount Bethel Township and other municipalities to show "strength in numbers" by passing resolutions objecting to the project.

Several of the township supervisors said they share the mayors' concerns and they may consider a resolution at their next meeting on April 9.

Some officials from Delaware Water Gap Borough in Monroe County, who were at the Upper Mount Bethel meeting, urged anyone who has concerns about the project to attend a borough council meeting at 7:30 p.m. April 2 at 40 Main St. to express their concerns to that borough's council.

John Best is a freelance writer. Find lehighvalleylive on Facebook.
A mother condoned her older son's abuse of her younger son to get the victim to follow instructions, Upper Nazareth Township police said.

Jonathan Sweeney, 25, is accused of repeatedly hitting the boy and "tombstoning" him, a version of the wrestling move called the piledriver, only stopping after the boy's nose began to bleed.

Police are looking for Cami Sweeney, of the 7800 block of Delaware Drive in Lower Mount Bethel Township, the mother of Jonathan Sweeney and the victim.

The 50-year-old Cami Sweeney is facing charges of child endangerment, criminal solicitation of simple assault and reckless endangerment, stemming from the Feb. 18 incident at her older son's home in the township.

Jonathan Sweeney is facing the same charges, plus simple assault and reckless endangerment. He was arraigned Tuesday and sent to Northampton County Prison in lieu of $10,000 bail.

The victim, who is under the age of 18, suffered bruises on his face and arms and was taken to the hospital two days after the attack, police said. That same day, police said a caseworker contacted them to report the alleged assault.

The boy told police in an interview that the morning of Feb. 18, he got into an argument with his mother.

The boy was taken to Jonathan Sweeney's home in the 400 block of West Beil Avenue in Upper Nazareth.

There, the boy told officers he was hit several times by his brother with hands, a Nerf sword and a pillow. The older brother allegedly picked up the boy and held him upside down. The older brother then allegedly dropped to his knees, slamming the boy's head on the floor.

The boy said after the assault, his mother texted another person at the house to ask how he was doing and he responded "okish," police said.

In the first interview, Cami Sweeney reportedly confirmed she argued with her younger son and then dropped him off at Jonathan Sweeney's house at about 1:30 p.m. In a later interview, Cami Sweeney told police the victim was forced into her car by another brother, also a juvenile.

At Jonathan Sweeney's home, the older brother allegedly told the victim he should beg their mother to take him back home. Jonathan Sweeney asked his mother what she wanted to do, and she allegedly told him she wanted him to get the victim to follow instructions.

The mother and older son went to the second floor of the home, where Jonathan Sweeney took a pillow and began swinging it, asking his mother "what do you think?" according to police.

Cami Sweeney reportedly told her son that would hurt the victim, and that Jonathan Sweeney should not leave bruises on the victim.

The mother left the home with her 3-year-old granddaughter, and later texted Jonathan Sweeney not to hurt the boy, police said.

"Too late," Jonathan Sweeney responded, according to court records.

Cami Sweeney picked up her younger son at about 5 p.m., and saw bruises on his face, then brought him home, where she saw other bruises on his body, authorities said.

The boy was given an Epsom bath and Tylenol, then taken to the hospital on Feb. 20, police said.

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Telecommunications IP phone specialist Snom launches new partner program

Gernot Sagl, CEO Snom Technology GmbH: The Snom Partner Program is an effective means for us to support our resellers and partners.

28.03.2018 14:36:16 - A profitable partnership on all levels



(live-PR.com) - Berlin, 28 March 2018  VARs joining Snoms new partner program stand to benefit from a radical new concept designed to provide them with joint marketing activities, success story publication and real financial incentives. The exclusive program has three membership levels: The higher the partner engagement in the program, the more they stand to benefit.



Looking to the future

Access to support - Berlin, 28 March 2018  VARs joining Snoms new partner program stand to benefit from a radical new concept designed to provide them with joint marketing activities, success story publication and real financial incentives. The exclusive program has three membership levels: The higher the partner engagement in the program, the more they stand to benefit.Looking to the futureAccess to support and a direct contact person as well as continuous project and marketing support all feature in the newly expanded partner program, designed with the future in mind. Services helping Snom work in tandem with participating partners will contribute to increased mutual success. The new partner program offered by premium desk, DECT and conference IP phone manufacturer Snom will provide partners with a solid platform for profitable sales.



From registered to gold partner

The program has three membership levels: registered, silver and gold. Each level offers partners attractive benefits such as free demo phones through to attractive rebates per device sold. Each of the levels are defined according to how many products are purchased from official Snom distributors, successful participation in Snom training programs and brand engagement.

The main objective of the program is to encourage as many qualified and motivated partners to join as possible. On completion of the compulsory technical training, partners can then share a higher level of know-how when consulting, selling and deploying Snom solutions.



The new Snom Partner Program offers participating resellers a perfect platform for continuous revenue generation, explained Gernot Sagl, Snom CEO. This program is clear evidence of our resolve to reward our indirect sales channel with a long-term, fair and profitable partnership. We are not just supporting our resellers, but the new program will also strengthen the position of our listed distributors. The Snom Partner Program is available in Europe, Africa and in some parts of Asia with our sales teams in the main regions available as local contacts. To us, partnership means support and communication in the local language.



Available now

The Snom Partner Program is available now and interested partners can register at partner.snom.com to start to benefit from all of the advantages of participation once their registration is successfully approved.



About Snom

A leading global premium brand for innovative professional and enterprise VoIP phones, Snom is headquartered in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1997, Snom is a pioneer in the VoIP industry, launching the worlds first IP phone in 2001. Today, Snoms product portfolio meets the full spectrum of business communications requirements of call centers, conference rooms and executive management through to safety-conscious industrial environments.

A subsidiary of VTech Holdings Limited since 2016, Snom has offices in Italy, the UK, France and Taiwan and enjoys an excellent global reputation in the Voice-over-IP market. Snoms products are renowned for their technical innovation, aesthetic design, user-friendliness and outstanding audio quality. The current product portfolio is universally compatible with all leading PBX platforms and Snom products have won numerous awards around the world from independent experts.

Engineered in Germany, Snoms IP solutions also make an excellent choice for vertical markets, such as healthcare and education, when searching for specialized solutions in business communications, IoT and smart technologies.

Visit

and a direct contact person as well as continuous project and marketing support all feature in the newly expanded partner program, designed with the future in mind. Services helping Snom work in tandem with participating partners will contribute to increased mutual success. The new partner program offered by premium desk, DECT and conference IP phone manufacturer Snom will provide partners with a solid platform for profitable sales.From registered to gold partnerThe program has three membership levels: registered, silver and gold. Each level offers partners attractive benefits such as free demo phones through to attractive rebates per device sold. Each of the levels are defined according to how many products are purchased from official Snom distributors, successful participation in Snom training programs and brand engagement.The main objective of the program is to encourage as many qualified and motivated partners to join as possible. On completion of the compulsory technical training, partners can then share a higher level of know-how when consulting, selling and deploying Snom solutions.The new Snom Partner Program offers participating resellers a perfect platform for continuous revenue generation, explained Gernot Sagl, Snom CEO. This program is clear evidence of our resolve to reward our indirect sales channel with a long-term, fair and profitable partnership. We are not just supporting our resellers, but the new program will also strengthen the position of our listed distributors. The Snom Partner Program is available in Europe, Africa and in some parts of Asia with our sales teams in the main regions available as local contacts. To us, partnership means support and communication in the local language.Available nowThe Snom Partner Program is available now and interested partners can register at partner.snom.com to start to benefit from all of the advantages of participation once their registration is successfully approved.About SnomA leading global premium brand for innovative professional and enterprise VoIP phones, Snom is headquartered in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1997, Snom is a pioneer in the VoIP industry, launching the worlds first IP phone in 2001. Today, Snoms product portfolio meets the full spectrum of business communications requirements of call centers, conference rooms and executive management through to safety-conscious industrial environments.A subsidiary of VTech Holdings Limited since 2016, Snom has offices in Italy, the UK, France and Taiwan and enjoys an excellent global reputation in the Voice-over-IP market. Snoms products are renowned for their technical innovation, aesthetic design, user-friendliness and outstanding audio quality. The current product portfolio is universally compatible with all leading PBX platforms and Snom products have won numerous awards around the world from independent experts.Engineered in Germany, Snoms IP solutions also make an excellent choice for vertical markets, such as healthcare and education, when searching for specialized solutions in business communications, IoT and smart technologies.Visit www.snom.com to find out more about Snom Technology GmbH Contact information:

Snom Technology GmbH



Wittestr. 30G

13509 Berlin



Contact Person:

Heike Cantzler

Head of Marketing

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Stock Market News

Europe midday: Stocks off lows, but tech still a drag 28-03-2018 13:22



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Harvest Minerals clears Brazilian regulatory hurdle 28-03-2018 15:38



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Kim Jong-Un pays 'surprise' visit to China ahead of Trump meeting 28-03-2018 08:43



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Legendary's Virtualstock collaborates with Previse on AI invoicing tech 28-03-2018 10:10



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Melrose and GKN trade final barbs as vote approaches 28-03-2018 07:30



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Premier Oil celebrates success in Mexico licensing round 28-03-2018 10:29



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Shire surges on buy-out interest 28-03-2018 11:13



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Wednesday newspaper round-up: Philip Green, China, Tesla, Lloyds 28-03-2018 07:19



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Mercedes sponsor Wihuri is confident Valtteri Bottas will retain his seat with the Silver Arrows squad next season, but a move to Ferrari could also be in the cards for the Finn.

Bottas' defense of his coveted seat got off to a rocky start in Australia where a crash in qualifying put the driver on the back foot at the outset.

The 28-year-old is backing himself to bounce back in Bahrain next week, a message echoed by personal sponsor and long-time supporter Antti Aarnio-Wihuri.

"I think it's likely that Valtteri will continue with Mercedes, but in Formula 1 anything can happen," said Aarnio-Wirhuri, whose packaging company Wihuri followed the Finn when he moved from Williams to Mercedes in 2017.

Cooling miscalculation hindered Bottas' run

The German team will likely keep its options open for the next few months, as it closely follows Bottas' performance.

But Mercedes will also keep a watchful eye on Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo and Force India protege Esteban Ocon, two men seen as potential contenders for a plum drive with the team in 2019.

Aarnio-Wihuri, one of Finland's wealthiest men, speculated that a move to Ferrari cannot therefore be ruled out for Bottas.

"I think Raikkonen's time is coming to an end," he said. "Last year we saw that his driving started to become inconsistent. Probably his interest is starting to fade."

Ferrari has expressed interest in Bottas in the past, so Aarnio-Wihuri speculates: "Valtteri's move to Ferrari can still be quite possible.

"In the meantime, every F1 driver dreams of driving for Ferrari at some point."

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
At the invitation of Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and Chinese president, Kim Jong Un, chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), paid an unofficial visit to China from March 25 to 28. During the visit, Xi held talks with Kim at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Xi held a welcoming ceremony for Kim before their talks. (Xinhua/Ju Peng)

BEIJING, March 28 (Xinhua) -- At the invitation of Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and Chinese president, Kim Jong Un, chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), paid an unofficial visit to China from Sunday to Wednesday.

During the visit, Xi held talks with Kim at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan held a welcoming banquet for Kim and his wife Ri Sol Ju and watched an art performance together.

Li Keqiang, Chinese premier and member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Wang Huning, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, and Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan attended related activities, respectively.

During the talks, Xi expressed warm welcome on behalf of the CPC Central Committee to Kim for his first visit to China.

Xi said he appreciated that Kim sent him a congratulatory message after the 19th CPC National Congress on his re-election as general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and the assumption of office of chairman of the CPC Central Military Commission (CMC).

Xi was also grateful to Kim for congratulating him again several days ago immediately after he was re-elected China's president and chairman of the CMC of the country.

Xi said Kim's current visit to China, which came at a special time and was of great significance, fully embodied the great importance that Comrade Chairman and the WPK Central Committee have attached to the relations between the two countries and the two parties.

"We speak highly of this visit," Xi told Kim.

For his part, Kim said a series of major and happy events have taken place consecutively in China recently, as the 19th CPC National Congress was held victoriously last year, and the annual sessions of the National People's Congress and the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference were successfully held not long ago.

Kim said Comrade Xi Jinping enjoyed the support of the CPC and the people of the whole country, became the core of the leadership and was re-elected Chinese president and CMC chairman. He said it is his obligation to come to congratulate Xi in person, in line with the DPRK-China friendly tradition.

At present, the Korean Peninsula situation is developing rapidly and many important changes have taken place, Kim said, adding that he felt he should come in time to inform Comrade General Secretary Xi Jinping in person the situation out of comradeship and moral responsibility.

Xi said the China-DPRK traditional friendship, established and cultivated meticulously by the elder generations of leaders of both parties and both countries, was the precious wealth of both sides.

Sharing common ideals and beliefs as well as profound revolutionary friendship, the elder generations of leaders of the two countries trusted and supported each other, and wrote a fine story in the history of international relations, said Xi.

He said several generations of the leaders of China and the DPRK have maintained close exchanges and paid frequent calls on each other like relatives.

The two parties and countries have supported each other and coordinated with each other during long-term practices, making great contributions to the development of the socialist cause.

"Both Comrade Chairman and I have personally experienced and witnessed the development of China-DPRK relationship," said Xi, adding that both sides have stated repeatedly that traditional China-DPRK friendship should be passed on continuously and developed better.

"This is a strategic choice and the only right choice both sides have made based on history and reality, the international and regional structure and the general situation of China-DPRK ties. This should not and will not change because of any single event at a particular time," Xi said.

The CPC and the Chinese government highly value China-DPRK friendly cooperative ties, Xi stressed. It is an unswerving principle of the CPC and the Chinese government to maintain, consolidate and develop good relations with the DPRK, he said.

"We are willing to work together with DPRK comrades, remain true to our original aspiration and jointly move forward, to promote long-term healthy and stable development of China-DPRK relations, benefit the two countries and two peoples, and make new contribution to regional peace, stability and development," Xi said.

Xi made four proposals concerning the development of China-DPRK relations.

Firstly, continue giving play to the guiding role of high-level exchanges. High-level exchanges have always played the most important guiding and promoting role in the history of China-DPRK relations. Under the new circumstances, I am willing to keep frequent contacts with Comrade Chairman through various forms such as exchange of visits, and sending special envoys and letters to each other.

Secondly, make full play of the time-tested valuable practices of strategic communication. It is the splendid tradition of the two parties to have frequent in-depth exchange of views on major issues. Both sides should maximize the important role of party-to-party exchanges, promote exchanges and cooperation between the two countries in various areas, and strengthen communication and mutual trust.

Thirdly, actively advance peaceful development. Socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, and the DPRK's socialist construction has also ushered in a new historical period. We are ready to make joint efforts with the DPRK side, conform to the trend of the times, hold high the banner of peace, development, cooperation and mutual benefit, continuously improve the wellbeing of the two peoples, and make positive contribution to regional peace, stability and development.

Fourthly, cement the popular will foundation for China-DPRK friendship. The two sides should, through various forms, enhance people-to-people exchanges, consolidate the foundation of popular will for bilateral friendly relations, especially enhance youth exchanges, inherit and carry forward the fine tradition of China-DPRK friendship.

Kim said he was greatly encouraged and inspired by General Secretary Xi's important views on DPRK-China friendship and the development of relations between the two parties and countries.

The DPRK-China friendship, which was founded and nurtured by the elder generations of leaders of both countries, is unshakable, he said. It is a strategic choice of the DPRK to pass on and develop friendship with China under the new situation, and it will remain unchanged under any circumstances.

Kim said his current visit aims to meet Chinese comrades, enhance strategic communication, and deepen traditional friendship, hoping to have opportunities to meet with Comrade General Secretary Xi Jinping often, and keep close contacts through such forms as sending special envoys and personal letters to each other, so as to promote to a new level the guidance of high-level meetings to the relations between the two parties and countries.

The two sides informed each other of their respective domestic situation. Xi said the 19th CPC National Congress had drawn a grand blueprint for building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects -- building a moderately prosperous society in all respects by 2020, having basically achieved modernization by 2035 and building a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful by the middle of the century.

The CPC will lead the Chinese people of all ethnic groups in keeping on working with great determination and continuously striving for the realization of the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation, Xi said.

"We have noticed that Comrade Chairman has led the WPK and the people of the DPRK in taking a series of active measures and scoring achievements in developing economy and improving people's wellbeing in recent years," Xi said.

The Chinese side expects political stability, economic development and people's happiness in the DPRK, and supports the WPK, led by Comrade Chairman, in leading the people of the DPRK to advance along the path of socialism, as well as the endeavors by comrades of the DPRK in developing economy and improving people's livelihood, Xi said.

Kim said, since the 18th CPC National Congress, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core has, with tremendous political courage and a strong sense of responsibility, developed new thinking and new ideas, put them into action, and solved many tough problems that were never resolved and accomplished many big things that were long on the agenda but never got done. These achievements fully proved that the lines of the CPC are correct lines that accord with the national conditions. In particular, Comrade General Secretary has put forward the requirements that the Party should exercise effective self-supervision and practice strict self-governance in every respect, which has contributed greatly to Party building and realized the overall Party leadership over all work. At present, the WPK is also intensifying its efforts in fighting against arrogance, bureaucracy and corruption.

Kim said he sincerely hoped that China will continuously make new great achievements in the course of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and a great modern socialist country.

The two leaders thoroughly exchanged views on the situation of the world and the Korean Peninsula.

Xi said that positive changes had taken place on the Korean Peninsula since this year, and China appreciates the important efforts made by the DPRK.

On the Korean Peninsula issue, Xi said that China sticks to the goal of denuclearization of the peninsula, safeguarding peace and stability on the peninsula and solving problems through dialogue and consultation.

China calls on all parties to support the improvement of inter-Korean ties, and take concrete efforts to facilitate peace talks, said Xi, noting that China will continue to play constructive role on the issue and work with all parties, including the DPRK, toward the thaw of the situation on the peninsula.

Kim said that the situation on the Korean Peninsula is starting to get better, as the DPRK has taken the initiative to ease tensions and put forward proposals for peace talks.

"It is our consistent stand to be committed to denuclearization on the peninsula, in accordance with the will of late President Kim Il Sung and late General Secretary Kim Jong Il," he said.

Kim said that the DPRK is determined to transform the inter-Korean ties into a relationship of reconciliation and cooperation and hold summit between the heads of the two sides.

The DPRK is willing to have dialogue with the United States and hold a summit of the two countries, he said.

"The issue of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula can be resolved, if south Korea and the United States respond to our efforts with goodwill, create an atmosphere of peace and stability while taking progressive and synchronous measures for the realization of peace," said Kim.

The DPRK hopes to enhance strategic communication with China during the process, jointly safeguard the trend of consultation and dialogue as well as peace and stability on the peninsula, said Kim.

Before the talks, Xi held a welcoming ceremony for Kim at the North Hall of the Great Hall of the People.

After the talks, Xi and Peng held a welcoming banquet for Kim and Ri. While delivering an address, Xi said that in the beautiful season of spring when everything is coming back to life, the unofficial visit of Comrade Kim Jong Un and Lady Ri Sol Ju to China is of great significance for the two countries to deepen communication, strengthen coordination and promote cooperation, and will push the relations between the two parties and the two countries to a new high in the new historical phase, as well as make important contributions to pushing forward the peace, stability and development in the region.

Xi said he had candid and friendly talks with Chairman Kim Jong Un. "We agreed that carrying forward the traditional friendship between China and the DPRK accords with the common interests of both sides, and is the common strategic choice of both sides."

"No matter how the international and regional situation changes, we will both firmly grasp the global development trend and the overall situation of the China-DPRK relationship, strengthen our high-level exchanges, deepen our strategic communication, expand our exchanges and cooperation, and benefit the people of both countries and the people of all countries," he said.

While addressing the banquet, Kim said that as the situation of the Korean Peninsula is undergoing unprecedented changes, he paid a swift visit to China, out of good wishes for promoting peace and stability on the peninsula, and carrying on and developing the DPRK-China friendship.

He said the fact that he chose China as the destination of his first overseas visit showed his will to carry forward the tradition of DPRK-China friendship, and how he valued the friendship between the two countries.

"I have had successful talks with General Secretary Xi Jinping on developing relations between the two parties and the two countries, our respective domestic situation, maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, and other issues," he said.

"In this spring full of happiness and hopes, I believe my first meeting with General Secretary Xi Jinping will yield abundant fruits of DPRK-China friendship, and facilitate peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula," he said.

During the visit, Xi and Peng held a luncheon for Kim and Ri in the Yangyuanzhai Room of the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. Xi said that the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse has witnessed the development of the traditional friendship between the two countries, and the close relations between leaders of the elder generations of the two parties and two countries "have set an example for us."

"We welcome Chairman Kim Jong Un and Lady Ri Sol Ju to visit China now and again," Xi said.

Kim said that the DPRK-China friendship is especially precious, adding he would like to join hands with Xi to follow the noble will of leaders of the elder generations, carry on and develop the DPRK-China friendship that remains unchanged despite winds and rains, and elevate it to a new high under new circumstances.

Kim also visited an exhibition showcasing the innovation achievements of the Chinese Academy of Sciences since the 18th CPC National Congress. Kim showed his admiration for China's accomplishments in the development and innovation of science and technology, and wrote an inscription to mark the visit.

Ding Xuexiang, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and director of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee; Yang Jiechi, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee; Guo Shengkun, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the CPC Central Committee; Huang Kunming, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee; Cai Qi, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee; and State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi attended the activities.

Choe Ryong Hae, vice-chairman of the WPK Central Committee and director of the Organization and Guidance Department; Pak Kwang Ho, vice-chairman of the WPK Central Committee and director of the Propaganda and Agitation Department; Ri Su Yong, vice-chairman of the WPK Central Committee and director of the International Department; Kim Yong Chol, vice-chairman of the WPK Central Committee and director of the United Front Department and Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, accompanied Kim Jong Un on his China tour and attended related activities.

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[ Editor: Zhang Zhou ]
The beginning of the school year when you got to show off your new duds, new cars, new looks!

Sports! Playing, cheering, watching high school athletics.

The arts: Dramatic arts, musical groups and shows, graphic arts groups, debate, etc.

The prom! No dancing the night away or punch bowl antics.

The daily interactions. Just being with the group, hanging with friends and classmates.

Access to college recruiters and advisors  its harder to line up higher education.

Walking onstage to get a diploma while all the family is watching with everyone elses family.

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Marshall had a 17-point lead in the fourth quarter, but East Carolina scored 21 straight points in the final 7:31 to earn a 42-38 win over the Thundering Herd on Saturday night at Joan C. Edwards Stadium.
Chinese Vice Premier Liu He holds a symposium with representatives from international organizations and scholars attending the China Development Forum (CDF) 2018 in Beijing, capital of China, March 25, 2018. (Xinhua/Pang Xinglei)

BEIJING, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Liu He has called for rationality and joint efforts by China and the United Statesto safeguard the stability of China-U.S. trade relations.

He made the remarks at two symposia on March 24 and 25, with over 20 representatives from international organizations, entrepreneurs and scholars who were in Beijing to attend the China Development Forum 2018.

Liu said China would continue its reform and opening-up, support economic globalization, and promote the building of "a community of shared future for humanity."

Liu said the recent U.S. release of a Section 301 investigation report ran counter to global trade rules, and was detrimental to the interests of China, the United States and the whole world.

"China is ready and has the strength to safeguard its national interests," he said.

Many participants at the symposia consider the releasing of the Section 301 investigation report as politicizing a trade issue, posing a threat to the global multilateral trading system.

They believe the trade war is not the correct solution to the trade imbalance between China and the United States, and that the U.S. government should squarely face the deep structural reasons for its trade deficit, instead of blaming economic globalization and major trading partners.

They also suggested that China should take the lead in the multilateral trading system, create a favorable business environment for foreign enterprises in China through further reform and opening-up, and promote and lead economic globalization.

The participants include former director-general of the World Trade Organization Pascal Lamy, Nobel Laureate in Economics Michael Spence, Nobel Laureate in Economics Joseph Stiglitz and Nobel Laureate in Economics James Heckman.

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[ Editor: Zhang Zhou ]
Style / Fashion

Fashion house Dolce & Gabbana is heading to the Big Apple in April to show its two couture lines, Alta Moda and Alta Sartoria.

Mar 28, 2018 | By Andrea Sim

Dolce & Gabbana Goes to New York

The Italian luxury brand, Dolce & Gabbana has selected New York to hold its next fashion show to introduce its two couture lines, Alta Moda womenswear and Alta Sartoria menswear lines. However, the location of the shoot remains undisclosed until further notice.

Browsing through the previous locations of the shoots, the fashion house seems keen on the idea of travelling the world with its couture collections.

Lets take a walk down the memory lane and recall some of these hype and fashionable moments:
ZAGREB, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic said on Tuesday that her invitation to Russian President Vladimir Putin was still on the table, even though Croatia decided to expel a Russian diplomat, Croatian news agency HINA reported.

"It is very important to nurture economic and overall relations with the Russian Federation, as the European Union too has such a two-track approach, insisting on respect for international law as well as on the continuation of talks, as disputes can only be solved through dialogue, not conflict," she said.

Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic was among the first foreign leaders who congratulated Putin on his election victory. During a phone call on March 22, she invited Putin to visit Croatia.

She emphasized on Tuesday that Croatia and Russia should continue talking because there are many important topics ahead of them.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic on Monday announced that Croatia will declare one Russian diplomat "persona non grata". It will be done as a political message of solidarity with Britain over the spy poisoning incident.

Croatian opposition parties, however, slammed the government decision to expel a Russian diplomat.

They argue that the decision is harmful to Croatian interests, especially at the time when the agreement with Russian creditors on Agrokor is being finalized. Russian Sberbank is the largest creditor of Agrokor, the biggest Croatian private firm that is in debt crisis.

[ Editor: WPY ]
Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman has said that the negotiations with Israel on the free trade area (FTA) were completed and soon the respective agreement will be signed.

"In 2017, we had intensive talks on the free trade area with Israel, with which we are trading today for almost $800 million. At present, the talks have been finished. Today a joint statement of the governments and ministries of the two countries that the free trade area agreement between Israel and Ukraine reaches the final stage will be announced," the prime minister said, opening a government meeting on Wednesday.

"Last year we held 11 rounds of talks, very complicated talks," he said.

Groysman said that the document will be signed in the near future.

"Maybe, the prime minister of Israel would find an opportunity of visiting Ukraine to sign the agreement. We are arranging these issues with our international colleagues," he said.

As reported, negotiations on the FTA with Israel were intensified in 2015. After the agreement is signed, the document is to be ratified by the parliaments of Ukraine and Israel.

According to the website of the government, the entry into force of the document will allow exporting to Israel a wide range of agricultural products and food, as well as medicines, cosmetics, chemical and light industry products, construction materials, electronics and other goods.

"In three years, duties will be lifted for spices, seeds, flour, ketchup, canned goods, confectionery, clothing, furniture and glass," the government said on its website.

The agreement regulates trade disputes, sets customs procedures, rules of origin of goods, describes sanitary and safeguard measures, including anti-dumping actions, according to the report.

The volume of exports of Ukrainian goods and services to Israel in 2017 increased by 19% to $781 million
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has banned from entry to 23 Russian citizens involved in the intelligence services of the Russian Federation who were expelled from the UK in connection with the poisoning of former employee of the Russian Federal Security Service Sergei Skripal and his daughter.

"The SBU Chief Vasyl Hrytsak noted that their [Russians'] activity is a daring mockery of one of the key functions of the diplomatic mission defined by the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations dated 1961 - the encouragement of friendly relations between states," the press service of the SBU said on Tuesday evening.

Focusing on Ukraine's experience in countering the hybrid aggression of the Russian Federation, Hrytsak stressed that Russian intelligence agents, under the guise of diplomats, increasingly resort to cynical provocations aimed at undermining the foundations of international stability and security.

As reported, Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with an unknown substance near a shopping center in Salisbury, the UK, on March 4. They are still in a coma. According to British detectives, the two were affected by the Novichok nerve gas allegedly designed in Russia.

British Prime Minister Theresa May laid the blame for the poisoning on Russia and announced measures to be taken against Russia in connection with this case.

In particular, May announced that London decided to send 23 Russian diplomats in connection with the poisoning in Salisbury of former intelligence officer Skripal and his daughter.

In addition, the UK will freeze Russian state assets in case their use is proven against the security of the United Kingdom, May added. She also said that a "number of secret measures" could be adopted against Russia.

May said that as part of the response to Russia in connection with the "Skripal case", London recalled its invitation to Lavrov to visit the country with a return visit, which had been handed after the visit of British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson to Moscow.

May said about the strengthening of checks of Russian citizens and private aircraft on the borders of the kingdom. "In response to the incident with Skripal, the UK will strengthen customs checks and control of private aircraft," she said, speaking to British parliamentarians.

Moscow dismissed all allegations of its involvement in the Skripal case and said it destroyed the entire arsenal of chemical weapons in 2017.

On march 27, following the UK's actions, twenty-three countries announced the expulsion of Russian diplomats in connection with the Skripal case. Some 114 Russian diplomats will be expelled from 16 countries of the European Union, as well as the United States, Canada, Albania, Macedonia, Norway, Ukraine, and Australia.
President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has expressed condolences in connection with the death of people in a fire in a shopping center in the Russian city of Kemerovo.

"A large number of children died in Kemerovo on March 25. I want to express the most sincere words of condolences to their relatives and friends," Poroshenko said during a meeting with participants of the all-Ukrainian action "Children unite Ukraine" in Kyiv on Wednesday.
France has entered into a new phase of struggle as President Emmanuel Macron approaches a major showdown with public sector workers. The country is convulsed by a series of strikes, demonstrations and confrontations between the masses and the state authorities.

A one-day strike on 22 March brought 500,000 demonstrators onto the streets. Meanwhile, students resisting attacks on higher education have been assaulted by far-right thugs on their campuses, aided and abetted by university management. With the spectre of May 68 hovering over events, the French ruling class is determined to crush the workers and youth and impose its reactionary, pro-capitalist agenda at any cost.

Despite massive protests, Macron successfully pushed through a sweeping overhaul of labour laws in the Autumn of 2017. These counter-reforms go far further than even Francois Hollandes hated El Khomri Law in undermining the unions and placing more power in the bosses hands. The new arrangement strips the major trade union federations of a lot of their negotiating power, makes it far easier for employers to hire and fire workers, and reduces compensation for wrongfully dismissed employees.

The changes aim to promote greater flexibility, helping the French capitalists better compete in the European marketplace by shedding irksome worker protections and shrinking the state, opening up more breathing space for private sector investments. Macron also seeks to tackle Frances 9.7 percent total unemployment rate (against an 8.7 Eurozone average) and 22 percent youth unemployment. Thus, in addition to savaging employee protections, he has declared war on out-of-work citizens (whom he characterised as slackers), by slashing benefits by 50 percent (up from 20 percent) after a two-to-six-month period of unemployment.

Macron: cut, privatise and deregulate

Following his brutal labour law reform in 2017, Macron now wants to sack 120,000 public sector workers / Image: World Economic Forum

Macron has also promised to cut the number of public workers in France (of which there are 5.4m) by 120,000 over five years, reducing costs by relying more on private contractors, introducing merit-based pay and exacting voluntary redundancies. This is despite a campaign pledge for better recognition and remuneration for public sector staff. As a major step towards its ambitious target, the Macron government plans to privatise SNCF  Frances state-owned railway company  and scrap the job-for-life guarantees enjoyed by workers since the nationalisation of French railways in the 1930s.

Macrons programme of cuts and counter-reforms has been met with delight by capitalist commentators, who have long criticised Frances rigid employment laws and extensive state infrastructure as being behind the times. In 2017, the Financial Times Eurozone analysts" concluded that Macrons attempts to revamp Frances labour market will spur economic growth and boost confidence in Europe. His promise to make France a start-up nation (Silicon Valley newspeak for a playground for short-term investment by two-bit private companies) has drawn compliments from tech billionaires like Xavier Niel, who said the president "has given France a pro-startup, pro-entrepreneur image abroad that we did not really have before."

Macron has also been busy in Brussels, working on a new treaty with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to reform the Eurozone on the basis of their shared values; which include slashing state budgets through austerity, privatisation and deregulation of the labour market.

Taking on the rail workers

Macron and Angela Merkel aim to reform the Eurozone according to their "shared values" / Image: Frankfurter Buchmesse

The presidents latest move has provoked a militant response from public sector workers. Most significantly, rail workers have pledged to strike from 3 April onwards over the plan to privatise SNCF. As our comrades at Revolution explained in their recent editorial, taking on the rail workers is a dangerous gambit for Macron. They are one of the strongest layers of the working class, with power at their fingertips to bring France grinding to a standstill. These workers have also tended to lead other sectors of the working class in struggle, such as during a major strike wave in December 1995.

However, Macron hopes to defeat the workers best line of defence and thus demoralise the entire class. This would make it much easier to continue his draconian programme of reforms. Conversely, should the rail workers succeed in their strike, it would encourage and embolden the rest of the working class and put the government on the backfoot. This was confirmed by veteran political commentator, Alain Duhamel last week, who said: "If Emmanuel Macron gives ground on such a symbolic reform and so close to his election (last May) his image of a reformer will be destroyed."

The SNCF strike therefore represents a focal point in the wider class struggle. It is unlikely Macron will back down easily, for fear of the rail workers militancy spreading to other parts of the economy. It was precisely the fear of such a development that forced the Juppe government to retreat in 1995.

CGT has called for strike action from 3 April / Image: Flickr, Gwenael Piaser

The union leaders have of course been dragged along by their membership at every stage. Only the SUD Rail trade union has called for indefinite strike action: specifically, a one-day general strike, renewable every day in the General Assembly. CGT, CFDT and UNSA are instead calling for a slowdown, consisting of two days of strike action, three days of work and so on, from 3 April to 28 June. Rather than supporting their brothers and sisters in the transport sector by coordinating strike action for 3 April, other public-sector trade union leaders are simply calling for a day of action on 19 April  more than a fortnight after the commencement of the rail strike, and during the school holidays! This is a rehash of the terrible strategy applied during the fight against attacks on labour laws in 2016 and 2017.

Militant strike on 22 March

Despite the best efforts of the union tops, anger from the working class has erupted into the open  creating a highly volatile situation. On 22 March, 500,000 protesters took to the streets of France, led by train drivers, teachers, nurses and air traffic controllers from seven public sector unions. The protest resulted in hundreds of flight and train cancellations (including Eurostar), as well as the closure of many schools and nurseries. Commuter trains RER and Transilien commuter trains were also severely disrupted.

The official national turnout was smaller than previous demonstrations against Macron's labour reforms and the anti-El Khomri protests that took place under Hollande. However, the mood was more militant than in Autumn 2017, and there were many clashes between demonstrators and the police. Moreover, there were 65,000 protesters in Paris alone, compared to a height of 60,000 last year. 35 percent of striking public-sector workers from various industries took part in the demonstrations.

Des heurts ont eclate en marge de la manifestation a Paris pic.twitter.com/gzUsz97D4f  BFMTV (@BFMTV) March 22, 2018

Additionally, the police presence was nearly doubled from a peak of 26,000 in 2017 to 49,000  which reveals the anxiety of the ruling class, and their determination to crush the movement. There were many physical confrontations, and the police turned water cannon against enraged crowds near the Bastille:

#22mars Manifestation des cheminots #Paris : Jets de projectiles contre gaz lacrymogenes. A proximite de la bastille, des jeunes en marge du defile s'en prennent aux forces de l'ordre qui ripostent https://t.co/GzkU4nkZKB pic.twitter.com/aJx8XG8VVT  L'Echiquier social (@EchiquierSocial) March 22, 2018

The heavy-handed tactics failed to dampen the enormous anger and radicalism of the masses. Baptiste Colin, a 22-year-old engineering student, accused the government of wanting to "destroy public services". This sentiment was echoed by Marine Bruneau, a municipal worker: "They seem to consider that in France... the private sector can do everything and that we don't need public servants like me. But France needs us. If we're not here, the country is not ok." Francois Rauch, 65, a former SNCF rail operator, told Reuters: Were here against the government, which is only helping the rich.

The demonstrators further revealed their political stripes when they booed the new leader of the Socialist Party, Jean-Christophe Cambadelis, who spoke at the protest in Paris. By contrast, an appearance by Jean-Luc Melenchon was met with enthusiastic cheering and applause.

Students fight back

The youth have also begun to mobilise against Macrons attempted counter-reforms to the education sector, including tightened entrance requirements to French universities. At present, every student in France who passes the baccalaureate high-school exam has the right to go to university in their home area. This has led to oversubscription to popular courses like Law and Psychology, meaning a (very unpopular) lottery system is used to determine admissions where demand is highest. Under Macrons plans, the most-oversubscribed universities would be allowed to select students on academic performance, which is of course heavily influenced by one's upbringing and social class. The proposal will end Frances tradition of universal university education. Aside from this, a series of local measures have been enacted to privatise and marketize higher education, thus cutting costs.

Students at the University of Toulouse le Mirail have been in occupation for three months / Image: France Culture

Many students have staged sit-ins in protest at these measures, facing severe repression from the police and university administration as a result. Students at the University of Toulouse le Mirail have been mobilised for three months, occupying the building and blocking the entrances in protest at Macrons new admission system and an attempt to fuse the institution with a neighbouring university. Staff are on strike for a renewable, three-month period. Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer, declared the university ungovernable, and intervened by dismissing the local administration and placing Toulouse le Mirail under government control via a state-appointed minister, Richard Laganier. The state has also threatened police action if the occupation continues. Nevertheless, students and staff vowed to press on at a general assembly on 13 March, stating that while the initial demand of the movement was purely local their objectives are now for broader, social change  citing the legacy of May 68.

Uni bosses ally with far-right in Montpellier

Another incident reveals the appalling tactics employed by university administration to shut down student dissent. A group of students occupying a lecture hall in Montpellier University were attacked by a far-right militia, armed with bats, sticks and stun-guns, who screamed vile, racist abuse as they beat the occupiers and forced them out of the room. The universitys dean, Philippe Petel, allowed these thugs into the lecture theatre via a back entrance. Four of the victims ended up in hospital.

According to witnesses, the militia was made up in part by students and teachers from the university. The occupiers recognised two members of the Montpellier law faculty amongst the mob, and the dean (who has now resigned) apparently confirmed that some of the assailants were students:

They wanted to defend themselves [ed: from what?] and I cannot blame them. [...] I totally approve of them [...] I am proud of my students."

Once the students were cleared out, the gang locked itself inside the room with members of the university administration. When the police arrived, students were told that the officers could not enter the lecture theatre to arrest the assailants because they did not have the permission of the dean. The entire, shocking episode was captured on video:

After the occupiers were expelled, around 200 protesters filled the streets outside the university and clashed with 30 far-right demonstrators from the Ligue de Midi, wearing red, white and blue masks. It is very likely that this attack and fascist demonstration were orchestrated, or at least abetted, by the university bosses, who leaned on repulsive, reactionary elements in their own faculties and student bodies, bolstered by far-right groups from outside, to crush student dissent. Students across France have now called for a national day of protest tomorrow (29 March) in solidarity with the victims of the attack at Montpellier, in addition to resisting Macrons education policies.

The Times reports ministers fear this incident could turn from a low-key protest into a 1968 student revolt. Of course, the French trade union leadership has a long history of calling actions, and allowing them to exhaust themselves without achieving anything. However, the real cause for concern from Macrons point of view is the strengthening bonds of solidarity between workers and youth. Students have already called for participation in the action commencing on April 3, without questioning the unions strategy. 50 years ago, it was the solidarity and militant action of students and the organised working class that brought the De Gaulle government to its knees. If Macron and his capitalist cronies continue their assault against students and youth, they could reanimate the memory of that revolutionary chapter in French history.
SPRINGFIELD -- Public and private investment in the city since the tornado of June 2011 now totals more than $3.76 billion, Chief Development Officer Kevin Kennedy said Tuesday during a presentation at CityStage.

Kennedy gave an economic development update to the Springfield Regional Chamber of Commerce at his "The New Springfield: Now Arriving" program. The $3.76 billion number is up $453 million since Kennedy's most recent CityStage update in November 2016.

The total value of projects since 2011 includes a few once-in-a-lifetime developments like the $960 million MGM Springfield casino, the $95 million it cost to renovate Union Station and the $95 million CRRC rail car factory in East Springfield.

Such development might make it hard for Springfield to keep up the momentum with Union Station open, CRRC set to start making rail cars for the MBTA next month and the casino on track for a September opening.

But completed projects doesn't mean the city stops looking for new ones to start.

"I am always looking to reel in a big fish," Mayor Domenic J. Sarno said.

For now, spin-offs from companies like CRRC and downtown businesses taking advantage of the crowds drawn by MGM or passengers streaming through Union Station will likely be the next steps in Springfield's redevelopment.

Projects like a planned $6.9 million refresh of Main Street, a pedestrian wayfinding system of interactive kiosks and the new Valley Bike bikeshare are designed to get people downtown.

Michael Mathis, president and COO of MGM Springfield, said the casino's next step is "mass hiring" -- onboarding big groups of new employees as the casino climbs to its expected headcount of about 3,000.

The slot machines are starting to arrive, he said, and the casino floor is starting to look like a casino floor.

Kennedy singled out Jay Ash, state secretary of Housing and Economic Development, and the administration of Gov. Charlie Baker for their help. Ash helped convince MassMutual to move 1,500 jobs here rather than to another state. His department has also provided funding for projects like the planned $3.5-million rehab of Pynchon Park.

Ash, a featured speaker at the event, said the state's ability to keep on helping out rests on the success of Baker's proposed $610 million economic development bill.

It's no coincidence that Baker unveiled the bill earlier this month at another Springfield chamber event.

"What you are doing is everything that should be done," Ash said. "We are happy to continue to support the vision that is here."

The bill includes $300 million for the MassWorks Infrastructure program cities like Springfield can use for roads, sewer, water or, increasingly important, internet connectivity required to attract businesses.

Kennedy also explained public safety improvements like the new police substation that will be part of Pynchon Park. There also will be a dedicated downtown police unit with 41 officers and supervisors, new equipment and more surveillance.

The cost is $1.5 million a year.

"It will be a safer city because we won't be pulling police out of the neighborhoods to respond to calls downtown," Kennedy said.
A sexual harassment complaint lodged against John Bailey, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, will not result in his dismissal or punitive action.

In a statement on Tuesday night, the organization said, "The Committee unanimously determined that no further action was merited on this matter. The findings and recommendations of the committee were reported to the Board, which endorsed its recommendation. John Bailey remains President of the Academy."

While the Academy said "it took the complaint very seriously," its committee "unanimously agreed that no further action was merited on this matter" and passed its findings and recommendations on to the full board of governors, which endorsed its conclusions.

"The Academy respects the confidentiality of both the claimant and John Bailey, and will refrain from discussing the specifics regarding the claim," the Academy stated.

Bailey, 75, was elected to his first one-year term as president Aug. 8 by the Academy's 54-member board of governors.

He succeeded Springfield native Cheryl Boone Isaacs after she completed the maximum three one-year terms. She was the first African-American and only the third woman to hold that post.

His tenure has been marked by a historic shift in the Academy's approach to misconduct by its members. In October, the Academy voted to expel Harvey Weinstein less than 10 days after the New York Times first reported on his history of sexual harassment.

Bailey is a veteran cinematographer, who shot such films as "The Big Chill" and "Groundhog Day."
Since the outbreak of hostilities in Donbas, 242 children have been killed, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said.

"Some 242 children have been killed by Russian aggressors since 2014," he said during a meeting with participants of the action "Children unite Ukraine" in Kyiv on Wednesday.
Corey Feldman was hospitalized on Tuesday night after he was reportedly attacked and stabbed -- something Los Angeles police are questioning.

The 46-year-old actor tweeted two photos of himself lying in a hospital bed on Wednesday morning. He claimed three men approached him in his car and one attacked while his security was distracted.

IM IN THE HOSPITAL! I WAS ATTACKED 2NITE! A MAN OPENED MY CAR DOOR & STABBED ME W SOMETHING! PLEASE SAY PRAYERS 4 US! [?] [?] [?] [?] THANK GOD IT WAS ONLY MYSELF & MY SECURITY IN THE CAR, WHEN 3 MEN APPROACHED! WHILE SECURITY WAS DISTRACTED, W A GUY A CAR PULLED UP & ATTACKED! I'M OK!

Feldman, who in recent months has publicly spoken out against an alleged "pedophile ring" in Hollywood, said he believes the attack was in retaliation.

The "Lost Boys" and "Stand By Me" star claimed the Los Angeles Police Department is investigating the case an as attempted homicide.

@LAPD R CURRENTLY INVESTIGATING THE CASE AS AN ATTEMPTED HOMICIDE! I HAVE HAD MOUNTING THREATS ON ALL SM PLATFORMS BY THIS VILE "WOLFPACK" & THIS IM SURE IS A RESULT OF THOSE NEGATIVE ACTIONS! I HAVE REASON 2 BELIEVE ITS ALL CONNECTED! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! HOW SICK R THESE PPL?!?

However, the LAPD told Fox News and CBS News in Los Angeles the former child star stated an unknown male made a stabbing motion at his stomach and fled. He then drove himself to a hospital.

Upon the investigation, police determined there were no lacerations to Feldman's abdomen and he could not describe his attacker or weapon. The incident is under investigation.
Col. Kerry Gilpin addresses reporters at the Massachusetts State Police headquarters in Framingham. (Melissa Hanson)

By Dan Glaun | MassLive Staff

From no-show shifts to altered arrest reports to drinking on the job, the allegations faced by members of the Massachusetts State Police in recent months have run the gamut of professional police misconduct.

In a relatively short time, a series of scandals has led to personnel shakeups throughout the agency, from troopers responsible for patrolling the Massachusetts Turnpike to top brass.

And left to clean up the mess is Col. Kerry Gilpin, who took over command of the agency after the retirement of Col. Richard McKeon and his deputy superintendent. McKeon left his post after being accused of ordering troopers to scrub an arrest report that contained unflattering details about a Dudley District Court judge's daughter.

With multiple internal and external investigations centered on her department, Gilpin has inherited a police agency in flux. Here are the ongoing misconduct controversies that are shadowing the Massachusetts State Police this year.

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Alli Bibaud in court. (Alban Murtishi)

The Alli Bibaud arrest

On Oct. 16, Troopers Ryan Sceviour and Ali Rei responded to a car crash on Route 190.

What they found there -- and their superiors' reactions to their police report -- would end up sparking a lawsuit, investigations by Attorney General Maura Healey and the state Ethics Commission and the retirement of four senior state police officials.

Inside the car was Alli Bibaud, the daughter of Dudley District Court judge Timothy Bibaud. Records show Bibaud once worked in Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early Jr.'s office and her father is a former prosecutor for Early. When pulled over, police found she had been driving under the influence and in was possession of heroin.

Bibaud allegedly made comments to the troopers about her father being a judge and about trading sexual favors for drugs.

Sceviour put those comments in his report -- but Col. Richard McKeon ordered those salacious details struck from the record.

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Col. Richard McKeon.

Bibaud's arrest alone might not have garnered media attention, but the alteration of her arrest report at the request of top brass sparked a major scandal for the state police.

Before his retirement, McKeon argued that redactions of such information were commonplace. But in their lawsuits, Sceviour and Rei allege that McKeon and Major Susan Anderson conspired to protect Bibaud's reputation at the expense of the truth.

"The plaintiff alleges that co-defendant Major Anderson acted on orders given by McKeon as part of a conspiracy between members of the Worcester District Attorney's Office, McKeon, Major Anderson, and others, to illegally replace the plaintiff's police report, which was on file in the Worcester District Court, with a doctored version," a motion in their case states.

McKeon retired in November, and was followed by his second-in-comment Lt. Col. Francis Hughes. Anderson and Lt. Col. Dan Risteen followed suit last month, after both were implicated in the alleged cover-up by Sceviour and Rei.

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'Big Irish' in hot water

Trooper Matthew Sheehan, who shot 28-year-old Aderito Monteiro during a confrontation between police and ATV riders on I-93 last month, was suspended after the Boston Globe revealed his history of anonymous posts supporting the use of force against suspects.

Sheehan, who went by the username "BIG IRISH" on the police forum MassCops, made posts describing residents of Dorcester as "scumbags" and supporting the police shooting of a man who allegedly drove a vehicle at a state trooper.

"Young kid won't do what you ask?? Faceplant on the deck good to go!" Sheehan wrote in one post.

State police spokesman David Procopio and Gov. Charlie Baker publicly condemned the posts after they were publicized in the media.

"This is an ongoing collection of thoughts and comments that have no place in law enforcement. No place in public discussion. No place in our community, period," Baker told reporters.

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21 troopers implicated in overtime scandal

For enterprising state troopers, overtime pay can push their wages to over $250,000 per year, with extra shifts and special details supplementing their six-figure base salaries.

But some members of the agency's Troop E allegedly took it further -- and filed for overtime without showing up at all.

Twenty-one troopers in Troop E, which is responsible for patrolling the Massachusetts Turnpike, were investigated regarding a scheme to get paid for no-show shifts. The alleged misconduct took place during Accident and Injury Reduction Effort, or AIRE, patrols -- extra shifts supposed to supplement traffic enforcement on the Pike.

But some troopers allegedly clocked in for shifts they never worked, according to a state police audit. Records showed that some troopers regularly completed shifts without filing any tickets, while others falsified the dates of tickets to appear as though they were working.

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Col. Kerry Gilpin addresses reporters at the Massachusetts State Police headquarters in Framingham. (Melissa Hanson)

The investigation started with a probe of Trooper Eric Chin, who made $131,654 in overtime pay in 2016, according to the Boston Globe. It expanded under McKeon after WCVB began investigating the payroll discrepancies, and a full-scale audit of Troop E was launched after Gilpin took command of the agency.

Nine troopers were suspended and 9 retired last week, Gilpin announced Friday. Sheehan -- a.k.a, Big Irish -- was already suspended for his forum posts when the audit was released, and another trooper had retired before the scandal broke.

The remaining trooper is still on active duty.

The number of shifts skipped ranged from one to 100, state police have said, and officers ranking from trooper to lieutenant were investigated.

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Massachusetts State Police/Facebook

K-9 trooper got job after being drug defendant

Trooper Leigha Genduso was placed on administrative leave in February, following reports by the blog Turtleboy Sports that outed Genduso's past as an admitted marijuana dealer.

In 2007, Genduso testified in federal court that she had helped her former boyfriend Sean Bucci operate a large-scale marijuana operation, admitting that she frequently smoked pot, packaged the drug for distribution, and helped conceal evidence from investigators.

She escaped prosecution by cooperating with prosecutors in exchange for immunity. But her status as a co-conspirator in a federal drug case did not prevent her from being hired as a State Police dispatcher -- or becoming a full-fledged trooper in 2014.

Genduso was assigned to the K-9 unit is now facing an internal investigation. State police have declined to answer questions about the process that led to her hiring as the investigation continues.

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Photo by Don Treeger / The Repub

Trooper accused of being drunk on duty

Trooper Jonathan Brown was placed on leave March 18 after allegedly showing up drunk for an overnight shift.

Brown, who works out of the Devens barracks, allegedly slurred his words when other troopers reached him over the radio.

Procopio told MassLive that Brown was relieved of duty around 2 a.m, three hours into his shift.

While Brown is accused of arriving at work under the influence, there is no evidence he drank additional alcohol during his shift sources told MassLive.

Brown is scheduled for a duty status hearing this week.
The arrests of Texas duo Francho Bradley and Adrianne Jennings by Tewksbury Police this weekend mark one of the first violations of a bump stock ban across the country.

Bradley, 59 and Jennings, 40, were arrested Saturday after Bradley called Tewksbury Police to his hotel room at the Residence Inn, believing someone had broken in and messed with his video surveillance. He told police he had a firearm in his room that he didn't want to fall "into the wrong hands," a police report notes.

Inside the room, officers found a trove of firearms and devices, including eight magazines that appeared to be fully loaded with more than 10 rounds of ammunition.

Multiple long guns, grenades, and an assault rifle were found inside Bradley's room. Police also found a bump stock, a device that increases a weapons' rate of fire and simulating the firing capabilities of an automatic weapons.

Massachusetts became the first state in the country to ban bump stocks following the Las Vegas massacre in October, when shooter Stephen Paddock killed 58 people at a country music festival. In January, Massachusetts authorities urged any residents with bump stocks or trigger cranks to surrender their devices to police.

President Donald Trump followed suit after the school shooting in Parkland, Florida in February, when he called for a federal ban on bump stock devices.

The bump stock police found in Bradley's Tewksbury hotel room was the first to violate the ban in Massachusetts, according to a spokeswoman from the office of Middlesex District Attorney Marian T. Ryan. Due to lack of uniform jurisdiction on bump stocks across the country, authorities suspect the charge is likely the first of its kind in the country.

The couple -- who told police they had a Texas license to carry the weaponry and had come to Massachusetts on a "mission" -- faces a number of other charges, including 19 counts of possession of a large capacity feeding device, eight counts of improper storage of a firearm, eight counts of possession of a large-capacity firearm, three counts of possession of a silencer and more.

Police say they were investigating whether the pair had any plans to harm the enormous "March For Our Lives" rally in Boston on Saturday. A police report says Bradley and Jennings were dealt three parking tickets in three days in the same area of Cambridge, which could potentially indicate they were surveilling the area. There has been no proof linking the couple to the rally.
NEWPORT, Vt. -- Two Springfield, Mass. men were arrested early Saturday in this small Canadian border town and charged with trafficking heroin and fentanyl.

Police said they seized 400 bags of heroin and fentanyl, each stamped with the logo of "POISON," according to a post on the department's Facebook page.

Police urge those who come into contact with the bags to contact them immediately.

A wrong-way entrance into a gasoline station lot and the driver's erratic driving as he attempted to get onto Interstate 91 caught a police officer's attention, according to a post on the department's Facebook page.

The odor of marijuana greeted the officer who pulled the vehicle over. Later, a U.S. Border Patrol K-9 alerted to some suspicious areas of the vehicle.

Arrested were: Michael Sinquell-Gainey, 24, and David Vaz, 28, both of Springfield, Mass. Charges against the two also include transportation of fentanyl into the state.

Vaz initially gave a false name to police and made subtle threats that officers interpreted as an attempt to intimidate them, according to the post.

Police Chief Seth DiSanto made the following statement on the department's Facebook page.

"Fentanyl and heroin have killed thousands of Americans and are at the root of a nationwide epidemic that has had a measurable impact on our community. I'm enormously proud of the work of our officers in taking a significant amount of these deadly drugs off the streets. However, I urge residents to remain vigilant and be aware of the possibility that some of these drugs could already have made it into circulation."

Newport is over 220 miles away from Springfield, Mass. It has a population of less than 5,000, according to the 2010 census report.
Local and state authorities were called to a Western Massachusetts business Wednesday morning where they recovered an explosive device.

Members of the Massachusetts State Police bomb squad, assigned to the Office of the State Fire Marshal, were called to Trew Stone, an asphalt and paving business located at 901 River Road in Deerfield.

"Arriving officers were able to confirm that the device appeared to be homemade, and resembled a pipe bomb," Deerfield police said in a statement.

A 46-year-old Easthampton man has been arrested and charged with manufacturing an explosive device.

An explosive device was located in one of the business' buildings and collected into evidence by the bomb squad. It was not set off at the time of its recovery and the Department of Fire Services declined to provide further details about what type of device was found.

The matter remains under investigation by state police assigned to the Northwestern District Attorney's Office and to the state Fire Marshal's Office.
SPRINGFIELD - Gov. Charlie Baker will be honored for his efforts in addressing the state's opioid abuse crisis as one of two recipients of Mercy Medical Center's Sister Caritas Award.

The center, which is part of Trinity Health Of New England, is also honoring Daniel Keenan, Trinity vice president of advocacy and government relations, as a recipient.

"Recognizing that the opioid crisis is one of the most significant public health issues facing America, Governor Baker has mobilized efforts across the Commonwealth to tackle the issue through prevention and treatment services. He was a unanimous choice for this important award," said Mark Fulco, president of Mercy Medical Center and its affiliates that include Holyoke's Providence Behavioral Health Hospital, in a statement.

In 2016, Baker, who early in his administration made addressing the state's opioid abuse crisis a priority, signed the first bill in the country, An Act relative to substance use, treatment, education and prevention, to establish a seven-day limit on first-time opiod prescriptions. The bill passed with unanimous votes in both legislative chambers and included numerous recommendations from Baker's opioid working group.

A recent report from Massachusetts Health Department shows an estimated 8.3 percent decline in opioid-related deaths in 2017 from the previous year. It also reports that toxicology screens show a leveling off of opioid-related overdose deaths where prescription drugs were present, and drop in the number of Schedule II opioid prescriptions dispensed.

Keenan, an attorney and former state representative, is being honored for his advocacy work on behalf of patients at Mercy Medical Center and at Providence, the only dedicated psychiatric hospital in the region.

"Dan has worked tirelessly to improve access for behavioral health and addiction services and to help remove the stigma of conditions in these areas. He has also been a true partner in this work with the Commonwealth and Governor Baker," Fulco said.

The awards will be presented April 21 during the Caritas Gala, a fund-raiser for the center's substance abuse programs being held for the second year, beginning at 6:30 p.m. at the MassMutual Center.

Dr. Robert Roose, vice president of Mercy Behavioral Health Care, the largest provider of behavioral health services in Western Massachusetts, was the recipient of the award at last year's inaugural gala.

Roose had long advocated for more addiction treatment and recovery services even before his 2015 appointment to the governor's opioid addiction working group to help address the commonwealth's growing number of unintentional opioid overdose deaths.

The award being presented is named after Sister of Providence Mary Caritas Geary, former president of Mercy and vice president of the Holyoke-based Sisters of Providence who founded the hospital and what became the Sisters of Providence Health System that is now part of Michigan-based Trinity Health.
HOLYOKE -- "The Great Gatsby" will be performed by the National Players theater touring company May 5 at 1 p.m. at Wistariahurst Museum, 238 Cabot St.

Tickets are being sold in "premium seat" bundles for $75 each, which includes ticket to the show, entry to a gala and a raffle ticket to for a chance to see "Springsteen on Broadway," a press release said.

Published in 1925, the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald illustrates America's Jazz Age. The rich are partying toward the Wall Street collapse and the focus is on self-made-man Jay Gatsby whose dream of Daisy Buchanan and nights of gazing at "the single green light" shining across the bay at the end her dock might be the epitome of the tragic-romantic American story ("...he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way...")

"The Great Gatsby" has been made into movies starring Leonardo DiCaprio (2013) and Robert Redford (1974).

"In a time where success is expected and excess celebrated, Jay Gatsby is a god among men, yet without the love of Mrs. Daisy Buchanan, he is unfulfilled," the press release said. "This fast-paced adaptation of Fitzgerald's novel brings the Jazz Age of New York to life as Daisy's cousin Nick guides us through a world where love, opportunity, deception and tragedy are always just around the corner."

A performance at Holyoke High School will be held as part of this event, the press release said.

The presentation is a collaboration between OneHolyoke CDC, Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts Victory Theatre, Wistariahurst Museum and Holyoke High School, the press release said.
Local, state and federal law enforcement officials are investigating if an attack was planned on demonstrators at the March for Our Lives event in Boston.

Police believe a man was scouting locations ahead of the march over the weekend, police say.

On Saturday, a 911 call was placed to Tewksbury police reporting a possible break-in.

The caller, who identified himself as Francho Bradley, told the dispatcher he believed his hotel room had been broken into as the video surveillance he'd set up in the room was not working. Bradley told police he had a firearm in the room that he didn't want "to get into the wrong hands," according to the police report.

Five members of the Tewksbury Police Department arrived at the Residence Inn where they knocked on the hotel room door and, hearing no response, entered the room.

Inside, officers did not find any other persons but did see "what looked like a green duffle bag with several long guns sticking out of it," states the police report.

Officers also found a fully loaded black revolver in the hotel room dresser, where Bradley said he had hidden it.

In other dresser drawers, police found "a number of electronic devices," a handheld radio, "eight magazines that appeared to be fully loaded and all capable of holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition," and two speed loaders that each contained six rounds.

Elsewhere in the hotel room, police found a gun case with a large capacity camouflage colored rifle with a scope, three loaded high capacity feeding devices that matched the rifle, military style smoke grenades, tactical helmets and satellite phones and radios.

One of the guns, an AR-15, was equipped with a grenade launcher and silencer.

Officers secured the found weapons and waited for Bradley to arrive at the hotel room. When he arrived and was questioned about the weapons by police, Bradley provided a Texas license to carry and told police he and his longtime partner Adrianne Jennings drove from Texas to Massachusetts with the guns as they were needed for a "mission."

The license is not considered reciprocal in Massachusetts.

Bradley claimed he worked for "a government agency that is dealing with a virus," according to the police report, but refused to elaborate further to police claiming such information was classified.

Since arriving in Massachusetts, multiple parking tickets have been written for the couple's vehicle while parked in Cambridge.

"Two of the tickets were at the same exact location two days apart and the third was from an area a short distance away on a third day," the police report states.

Tewksbury Det. Patrick M. Connor, who authored the police report, wrote that he became suspicious due to the tickets' location and the couple stating they had no connection to Cambridge or Boston and became concerned Bradley was surveilling the area.

"There was a major demonstration 'March for Our Lives' in Boston that day," Connor stated in his report, of the day Bradley was arrested.

Bradley and Jennings are each charged with 19 counts of possession of a large capacity feeding device, eight counts of improper storage of a firearm, eight counts of possession of a large-capacity firearm, three counts of possession of a silencer, three counts of possession of an infernal machine, one count of possession of a firearm without a license, possession of a bump stock and possession of ammunition without a license.

Both were ordered held without bail pending a dangerousness hearing scheduled to be held on Friday.

So far no connection has been established between Bradley and the march, State police spokesperson David Procopio told the Boston Herald.

Local, state and federal officials are involved in the ongoing investigation. Law enforcement officials say they do not believe there is any further threat to the police.
WEST SPRINGFIELD -- Jeff Wulson, acting commissioner of the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), has approved a new charter school for West Springfield, despite the concerns of city officials and their state representatives on Beacon Hill.

Michael J. Richard, superintendent of West Springfield Public Schools, announced the news about the charter school at Tuesday evening's School Committee meeting.

The Chicopee-based Hampden Charter School of Science is expected to open a western campus at the former Immaculate Conception-St. Frances Xavier Cabrini property at 475-485 Main St. in West Springfield. The charter school could be up and running by the start of next school year, according to city officials, who are concerned the new school might siphon funds and students from West Springfield Public Schools.

The state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted 5-3 in February to approve an application by Hampden Charter School of Science for a new branch of the school in Westfield. That location fell through, however, prompting the charter school to ask the state if the application could be transferred to the West Side property owned by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield.

The charter school has signed a lease with an option to buy the former Immaculate Conception-St. Frances Xavier Cabrini site, a 3.3-acre property on Main Street that's home to a parking lot and several buildings, including a church, school, convent, rectory and two-car garage.

"We learned yesterday that the commissioner has approved that relocation, so West Springfield has some work cut out for us to make sure that we keep our students in our public schools," Richard said at Tuesday's school board meeting.

The new charter school will be located in the Merrick neighborhood, arguably the most urban and densely populated section of West Side. Many urban charter schools in Massachusetts tend to outperform public schools, making the Hampden Charter School of Science a direct threat to West Springfield Public Schools, according to city officials.

"I'm disappointed in DESE's decision, along with the limited time frame to understand the change and submit public comment," Mayor William C. Reichelt told The Republican / MassLive.com after Tuesday's School Committee meeting.

"We'll do our best to absorb costs," Reichelt said, "but this will likely result in increased property taxes, as we will not allow this charter school to negatively impact our students' educational opportunities."

Local concerns were matched by state lawmakers who represent West Springfied in Boston, including Sen. James T. Welch and Rep. Michael J. Finn, both Democrats from West Side.

"We are very concerned about the possible siting of the Hampden Charter School here in West Springfield," Welch said last week, citing public safety concerns and other issues.

Publicly funded charter schools are tuition-free, privately managed facilities that generally are staffed by non-unionized teachers and personnel.

In fall 2016, commonwealth voters rejected a state ballot question that would have raised the cap on charter schools, creating more openings for students seeking an alternative to regular public schools.

Despite opposition from teachers unions and others, charter schools remain a popular option. Some 38,000 Massachusetts children are currently on charter school waitlists, the Harvard Political Review reported last month.

Charter schools are funded on a per-pupil basis and receive the equivalent of the average spent on a student in the public school district where the charter school's located. So if a public school loses a student to a charter school, the public school also loses that amount of funding to the charter school.

Richard said West Side schools will face the challenge head on.

"I accept the challenge that we will work our tails off to make sure that we keep students in our school system and that we give them the best education possible," the superintendent said.

Reichelt, a lawyer by trade, said he was disappointed about the lack of appellate options for West Side.

"Unfortunately this decision lies solely with the acting commissioner and we have no ability to appeal," the mayor said. "We will continue to oppose the expansion of charter schools while we promote the incredible education available at our public schools."
BOSTON -- Massachusetts utilities and regulators issued their final rejection of a high-voltage transmission line that would bisect New Hampshire, and will now negotiate with developers of a competing power line through Western Maine to procure electricity from Hydro-Quebec.

The Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources said today the state's electric distribution companies "have terminated the conditional selection of the Northern Pass Hydro project" and are now concluding contract negotiations with New England Clean Energy Connect for its 100-percent hydro project.

Northern Pass, first proposed in 2010, is a partnership between Eversource Energy and Hydro-Quebec. The New England Clean Energy Connect is a project of Central Maine Power and its corporate parent Avangrid. Each would carry Canadian hydro to help Massachusetts utilities meet their clean energy requirements.

The news comes after a tumultuous period in the Massachusetts Clean Energy RFP. In late January, the Baker administration selected Northern Pass as its preferred transmission option for clean energy, and said contract negotiations would begin. Days later, the New Hampshire Site Evaluation Committee blocked the project, throwing the entire matter into disarray.

The Massachusetts selection committee, including representatives from the utilities and MassDOER, then gave Northern Pass until March 27 to make headway in New Hampshire. Those hopes were dimmed when the New Hampshire committee said it would not rush its consideration of an appeal for rehearing.

The Maine project was named the runner-up of 46 proposals in the Massachusetts clean energy procurement, launched in response to Gov. Charlie Baker's 2016 energy diversity bill.

Eversource said in a statement that the Northern Pass is not dead.

"We understand today's decision by the Electric Distribution Companies (EDCs) to terminate the conditional selection of the Northern Pass Transmission hydro proposal, given the status of the New Hampshire permitting process. Despite recent delays, we continue to believe that Northern Pass is the best project for the region and New Hampshire, and we intend to pursue all options for making it a reality," the corporation said.

Eversource and Hydro-Quebec "remain committed to the success of the project," Eversource said, adding that "no other project has obtained the necessary approvals from federal permitting authorities in the U.S. and Canada" and secured agreements with major contractors and union workers.

The $1.6 billion Northern Pass was bitterly opposed by environmentalists and many New Hampshire residents, and Eversource eventually agreed to bury 60 miles of the line through the White Mountain National Forest.

Attention now turns to the $950 million, 145-mile line from the Canadian border through an existing utility corridor to a substation in Lewiston, Maine.

On Wednesday, the Natural Resources Council of Maine came out against the line, according to the Portland Press Herald.

"Just like Northern Pass, CMP's proposed New England Clean Energy Connect power line across Maine would significantly harm Maine communities and the environment. And, just like the Northern Pass proposal, there is absolutely no evidence that the Maine power line would reduce climate-changing emissions at all," the environmental group said.

Sierra Club chapters in Massachusetts and New Hampshire celebrated the hit to Northern Pass but panned the retention of any "100 percent Canadian hydro" partnership.

"The Northern Pass project would have increased electricity costs in the state, destroyed pristine wilderness in New Hampshire and continued the destruction of traditional hunting and fishing grounds of First Nations in Quebec, all while failing to reduce climate pollution in the region," said chapter directors Emily Norton and Catherine Corkery.



The two said Baker should choose "the thousands of megawatts of new wind and solar projects in New England that offered competitive bids" instead of putting all eggs in the Hydro-Quebec basket.

The Conservation Law Foundation, which fought Northern Pass for eight years, said Eversource should "pull its plug once and for all" on the project.

The Massachusetts Petroleum Council congratulated Central Maine Power and Avangrid. Spokesman Steve Dodge said the council supports an energy "combo plate" for the state including renewables, hydropower and natural gas.

The Massachusetts RFP had called for 1,200 megawatts of new imported renewables -- such as wind, solar, hydro, or storage -- to reduce the state's carbon footprint from the power sector.

The office of Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, which previously pledged to examine the state's closed-door clean power procurement process, said Wednesday it awaits new filings with the Department of Public Utilities.



"Regardless of which company is ultimately awarded the contract, the role of the Attorney General's Office remains the same - to ensure an open, fair and transparent bidding process that results in a good deal for customers," said Healey spokeswoman Chloe Gotsis.

Mary Serreze can be reached at mserreze@gmail.com.
More than half of Ukrainians are against legalizing ownership of firearms, according to a survey conducted by the analytical group Sociostream.

Some 56% of respondents oppose legalization. Of them, 47% of respondents completely reject the idea with those somewhat rejecting the idea  9%. Only 18% of Ukrainians support legalization.

Most Ukrainians negatively viewed the march of Natsdruzhyna (National Corps), which took place on Kyiv's main thoroughfare Khreshchatyk in Kyiv. Some 34% said the march alarmed them, with 31% declining to answer the question. The remainder said they were surprised  11%, sad  7%, angry  3%, elated  2%.

According to the results of the survey, 57% of Ukrainians do not support ousting Ukrainian Institute of National Memory Director Volodymyr Viatrovych over his comments about songs by Viktor Tsoi and Vladimir Vysotskiy. Only 2% said they supported him.

The poll was conducted from February 27 through March 2, 2018. Some 1,286 persons over the age of 18 were questioned throughout Ukraine. The margin of error is 2.8%.
SPRINGFIELD -- When she left Peru 17 years ago, Gisella Collazo knew she was making a decision that would change her life forever.

"I had this dream of a better life for me and for my family. I wanted to save enough money to get my mother here and build a little house we could live in," said Collazo, who is now a wife and mother of two and facing the possibility of deportation.

"My lawyer has said it is a matter of time. My husband and I have talked with our children. We have gone over all the possible options, but they all end in sadness," she said.

Collazo was scheduled to board a flight for Peru on Tuesday, as directed by U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, after multiple attempts to become a citizen.

In a desperate attempt, Collazo said, she looked into the offer of sanctuary being offered by South Congregational Church on Maple Street.

"A lot of people had told me the church was offering it (sanctuary), but I didn't pay attention to them. Then I saw this flyer about it. I was ready to go, but I just had this gut feeling that I had to at least try one more time."

On Monday, Collazo and her children relocated to a multi-room space in the rear of the church that was converted into a living space with two bedrooms, a living room with a small table for eating and a kitchen.

Collazo must not leave the space and has to wear an ankle monitoring bracelet at all times.

"I'm not perfect, I have made mistakes like any other person, but wearing this makes me feel like the worst criminal," she said.

Collazo said all she has done since she arrived in Springfield in 2001 is try to establish a normal life. She immediately started working, first in the fields and later in maintenance. She held the same job for 16 years before starting a new job this year. She has lived in the same house since she arrived here, moving from the third floor to the second floor a few years ago.

"I had a few friends here in Springfield and I worked and saved money with the hope of bringing my mother here," she said.

A few years after arriving, she met and fell in love with an American citizen, and in 2005 they were married. They have children ages 10 and 4.

The hardest part has been explaining to her children why she is being asked to leave.

"My oldest has had a lot of difficulty with it. It took him a long time to understand," she said. "My youngest is too young to fully understand. This is their home, this has been my home for 17 years."

It's been three days since she and her children relocated to the church. Since she can't leave the premises, her husband has been working, taking the kids to and from school and going between their apartment and the church to get whatever they may need.

She said it has been difficult, but she is overwhelmed with gratitude for the people who have made it possible to spend even one more day with her husband and her children.

"I was not expecting this. Sometimes I feel uncomfortable because of all the help they are willing to give me and my family," she said.

Members of the Springfield Interfaith Sanctuary Coalition, a program of the Pioneer Valley Project, an organization that has been helping Collazo and her family, cited attorney errors as the reason she has not been able to become an American citizen.

"There were moments when I was excited about the possibility of being able to stay, especially when I would get my work permits. I was creating a life for myself here, and I thought I could achieve residency. Then it would be delayed," she said.

Although she has received sanctuary from the church, Mayor Domenic J. Sarno has said Springfield is not a sanctuary city and accused the sanctuary and its housing of individuals to be in violation of building and housing codes and proper non-taxable use of their property.

Collazo has never met Sarno. Asked what she would tell him if they ever had the opportunity to meet, Collazo paused and with tears in her eyes said, "I would just ask him to place his hand over his heart and that if he has children, he would for a moment put himself in my situation and think about how he would react."

For now, Collazo is living every moment as if it were the last she will have with her children and husband in this country, which has become her home.

"My family in Peru ... they don't know the extent of what has happened," she said. "I don't know what's going to happen next."
Activists from more than a dozen community organizations met Tuesday night with a number of state legislators trying to gauge the progress of two progressive proposals making their way through the State House.

Activists are particularly concerned that what may come out of the legislative process may not do what the framers originally intended.

Between 50 and 60 people lined the pews of South Congregational Church in Springfield to hear legislators' takes on proposals to raise the minimum wage gradually to $15.00 per hour and to mandate paid family and medical leave for workers. Raise Up Massachusetts, the umbrella organization for the groups represented at the meeting, has also thrown its support behind a tax increase for the wealthy called the Fair Share Amendment.

Raise Up Executive Director Harris Gruman said the issues have been around for a number of years and finally the minimum wage and family leave proposals will get their chance before the legislature. The two bills are packaged together for a single vote.

The minimum wage law would increase the current $11.00 per hour wage by one dollar per hour for each year until 2022 when the state minimum wage would be $15.00 per hour.

Proponents said working families paid the current minimum wage work full-time but cannot afford the pay bills and feed families.

The family and medical leave insurance program would create a fund, not unlike the current unemployment insurance fund with contributions from employers, that would allow workers to take paid time off for necessary issues such as family or worker illness or even military deployment of an immediate family member. Workers would be able to draw a percentage of their normal pay for a set period of time.

State Representatives Soloman Goldstein-Rose, Carlos Gonzales, Bud Willams through his legislative aide Marlo Brown, and State Senator James Welch all threw their support behind the proposals. The District Director for late State Rep. Peter Kocot, Diana Szynal, said her boss would have undoubtedly supported all the proposals.

The bill now sits in the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development, where Gruman said it is not a question of if it will pass, but what it will look like once it does.

"Whether or not they address these to our satisfaction remains to be seen," he said. "We reserve the right to take this directly to the ballot in November if they don't."

What concerns activists are possible amendments, or what Pablo Ruiz, director of the SEIU Community Action Committee called "carve-outs," that could alter the utility of the proposals. Ruiz said some legislators are calling for a special "teen" minimum wage, designed to allow employers to pay younger workers less than older employees for the same work.

The worker leave insurance program could become the victim of an amendment to exempt certain small businesses from participating, Ruiz said. The third proposal on the table Tuesday night is the so-called Fair Share Amendment or the "Millionaires Tax", an actual amendment to the state constitution, which would levy an additional tax on the state's millionaires. Gruman said the tax would generate up to $2 billion a year to be split between public education, and public transportation and transportation infrastructure expenditures. The additional four-percent tax would be added to the tax paid on all income over $1 million. Gruman said an earner's first million would not be taxed any more than it already is, but any amount over that million would be subject to the additional tax. Since the proposal is an amendment to the constitution the measure will go to the state's voters on the November ballot and not through the legislature.
A couple who drove from Texas to Massachusetts with a cache of weapons were arrested over the weekend.

Their planned use of the weapons remains under investigation by local, state and federal officials.

Francho Bradley called police on Saturday concerned his hotel room in Tewksbury had been broken into. Inside the room, police found numerous firearms, including an AR-15 was equipped with a grenade launder and silencer, military style smoke grenades, tactical helmets and satellite phones and radios.

Bradley claimed he worked for "a government agency that is dealing with a virus," according to the police report, but refused to elaborate further to police claiming such information was classified.

Police said that since arriving in Massachusetts, the couple has receiving three parking tickets over several days for an area in Cambridge, leading police to become concerned Bradley was surveilling the area.

"There was a major demonstration 'March for Our Lives' in Boston that day," police stated in the report, of the day Bradley was arrested.

Bradley and Jennings are each charged with 19 counts of possession of a large capacity feeding device, eight counts of improper storage of a firearm, eight counts of possession of a large-capacity firearm, three counts of possession of a silencer, three counts of possession of an infernal machine, one count of possession of a firearm without a license, possession of a bump stock and possession of ammunition without a license.

Both were ordered held without bail pending a dangerousness hearing scheduled to be held on Friday.

Read the full police report below.

Police report: Francho Bradley and Adrianne Jennings on Scribd
HAMPDEN -- Uncertainty over some Hampden town meeting articles submitted by the school board has led to a recommendation of no action on the proposals, all of which pertained to letting Hampden students cross town lines to attend schools in Wilbraham -- an unpopular idea with many Hampden voters, who have rejected similar proposals in the past.

Although the school articles will appear on the warrant for this evening's special town meeting at Thornton W. Burgess Middle School, the Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School Committee sent a letter urging Hampden to take no action on the articles, which cannot be stricken from the warrant.

"This was the result of a discussion, which was had at (a recent) public meeting, in which there were questions that arose very late in the process as far as the warrant articles and the specific wording of the articles," Dr. William J. Bontempi, chairman of the School Committee, told The Republican/MassLive.com Wednesday afternoon, just hours before the scheduled 7 p.m. start of the meeting.

The articles called on Hampden voters to allow Hampden students to be assigned to schools in either Hampden or Wilbraham. Currently, Hampden students only cross town lines to attend Minnechaug Regional High School in Wilbraham.

Passage of the articles would facilitate the school district's five-year reorganization plan, which is now the subject of a lawsuit by the Town of Hampden. The town is seeking to halt further implementation of the reconfiguration plan, which calls for closing Thornton Burgess at the end of the school year and sending its students to Green Meadows Elementary School.

A hearing on the lawsuit, which hopes to prevent this and other changes from happening, is slated for Friday at the Roderick L. Ireland Courthouse in Springfield.

With a recommendation of no action on the school articles, this evening's town meeting is expected to focus on multiple anti-recreational-marijuana articles, all of which seek to prevent retail and cultivation facilities from operating in Hampden. The proposals do not pertain to medical marijuana facilities.

Hampden was among the Massachusetts communities that rejected a state ballot question to legalize recreational pot, which is now legal in the commonwealth.
SPRINGFIELD -- The pastor of a church that is providing sanctuary to a Peruvian woman in fear of deportation and her children said Wednesday he is "afraid" for the soul of Mayor Domenic J. Sarno.

The comments from Rev. Tom Gerstenlauer, pastor of South Congregational Church on Maple Street, came after Sarno ordered city departments to inspect the church property, seek out any code violations and begin challenging the church's tax-exempt status.

"To say that I am appalled by the behavior of the mayor of Springfield regarding the sanctuary provisions of our church would be inaccurate," Gerstenlauer said. "I am afraid. I am afraid of the message his words and actions delivers to the citizens of this city. I am afraid of the effect that his representation of elected government has on the honest members of the immigrant community in our midst. And I am afraid for the soul of our mayor as well."

The church opened its sanctuary on Monday for the woman, identified as Gisella Collazo, and her two children as she was on the eve of being deported to Peru, organizers said.

Sarno declined comment Wednesday on Gerstenlauer's statement.

On Tuesday, Sarno said that he had ordered several city departments to inspect the property for potential housing code violations and to begin the process for removing the church's tax-exempt status.

Gerstenlauer said the sanctuary, organized by the Springfield Interfaith Sanctuary Coalition, will continue. The sanctuary is in a rear section of the church property including a kitchen and rooms, not the worship area.

"We will continue to do the best we can to provide shelter for the family in our midst now and, as time and space allows, for others seeking sanctuary from the oppressive powers of our time," Gerstenlauer said. "And we will pray for the elected leaders of our times, that they will come to see the light in their midst."

Collazo is a Springfield resident, and her children, ages 10 and 4, are American citizens, sanctuary organizers said. Her husband is also an American citizen, but she has not been able to achieve legal status to day.

Gerstenlauer said that Sarno's "attacks" on the coalition and specifically the church "is like an attack on the body of Christ and all who share the core faith values of love for neighbor and hospitality for the stranger among us."

The Springfield Interfaith Sanctuary Coalition is a program of the Pioneer Valley Project. The project is an organization of people and institutions which includes congregations, labor unions and other organizations.

Sarno, in a statement on Monday, said the church property is unsuitable to house families.

"Now, I am not a cold-hearted person and do have compassion for the family in question, but there must be a clear path to American citizenship, whether it's this case in Springfield or in other parts of our country," Sarno said. "Being first generation, it's simply not fair to all those immigrants, including my parents, who played by the rules and followed the legal immigration path into America."

Two candidates for state office on Wednesday also were critical of Sarno's announced crackdown.

"I'm outraged that Donald Trump is trying to deport Gisella and that Mayor Sarno is going out of his way to help him do so," said Jay Gonzalez, a Democratic candidate for governor. "This is a member of the Springfield community, a wife, a mother, a law-abiding resident. The last thing we should be doing is tearing families apart."

"Now more then ever, we need leaders in this state who stand up for every member of our community, not contribute to the divisiveness and fear Donald Trump has caused," Gonzalez said. "I stand with Gisella."

Amaad Rivera, who is a candidate for state senator, urged state protection for such immigrants regarding the mayor's plan.

"We should be applauding these faith leaders for putting their morals into action and keeping families together, instead of using government resources to unfairly target communities using their First Amendment rights," Rivera said. "Especially during a time where many people are celebrating their holy week. This is unacceptable!"

As a former Springfield City Councilor, Amaad said he led the unanimous passage of a non-binding resolution in 2011, "Opting out of Secure Communities." He described the resolution as supporting immigrants and law enforcement working together to make communities safer without the threat of deportation.
SPRINGFIELD -- Police are at the scene of a shooting on Knox Street that left two people injured.

Police spokesman Ryan Walsh said two people were rushed to the hospital. Their conditions are not yet know, he said.

The shooting was reported at about 4:15 p.m.

A large police presence has blocked off Knox Street by Smith Street.

Officers were searching in a driveway at 77 Knox St. At least one shell casing was also found in the middle of Knox Street.

Walsh said on of the injured was involved in a car crash on Chestnut Street while be driven to the hospital in a private car.

This is a developing story and more information will be posted as it is known
NORTHAMPTON - Northampton's Valley Community Development Center is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.

Long a champion of affordable housing and economic development in the Pioneer Valley, the Valley CDC will be celebrating three decades of work at an event held April 12 at the Hadley Farms Meeting House.

Charles Blow, a New York Times opinion writer, CNN commentator, and reporter and journalist will be the keynote speaker for the evening, giving a talk on social justice, the organization announced in a statement.

The organization has also met a $400,000 fundraising goal it had set to celebrate this year's anniversary, said executive director Joanne Campbell.

"Many donors this anniversary year are institutions, small businesses and individuals who have been long-time contributors to Valley Community Development," said Campbell. "They stepped up to a higher level this year, and we are pleased and honored to have their support, which will strengthen the agency financially and programmatically."

Campbell noted that $32,000 was also raised from first-time donors to the nonprofit.

The Valley CDC specializes in empowering low and moderate income individuals through housing development and home ownership encouragement.

Since it first opened in 1988, it has created 224 units of affordable housing in Northampton, Amherst, and Easthampton, and has provided counseling to more than 8,000 homebuyers and homeowners, the group announced. A number of new Valley CDC projects are currently in development, including the "Lumberyard" affordable housing complex which is expected to open its doors on Pleasant Street next year.

The event is open to the public. It will begin with a cocktail reception from 6 to 7 p.m. Dinner and the keynote speaker Blow will be offered from 7 to 9 p.m. Tickets cost $125 and are available online by visiting valleycdc.com.
WESTFIELD -- Facing a room packed with residents, many holding signs demanding clean water at no cost to taxpayers, the City Council on Tuesday revived a $13 million proposal for remediation of contaminated wells.

Three of four wells on the north side of town have been shut down due to contamination from firefighting foam used by the 104th Fighter Wing of the Air National Guard at Westfield-Barnes Regional Airport.

The city recently filed a $50 million lawsuit against three manufacturers of the foam and is seeking $46.8 million from the U.S. Department of Defense via a tort claim. But it's unlikely either of those claims will be resolved quickly, and city officials including Mayor Brian P. Sullivan are urging immediate spending to install filtration systems at the wells.

After sending the matter to a subcommittee for further review, the City Council is likely to take a first vote on the bond measure April 5.

On March 15 the council failed to approve the $13 million bond, which was not recommended by the Finance Committee. The spending proposal also would have addressed improvements to water tanks and a connection to the Springfield Water Works.

Committee members Daniel Allie, Matthew Emmershy and Andrew K. Surprise said they did not have enough information to recommend the bond despite several attempts to obtain financial documents. Councilors were given a five-line financial explanation of the bond at the time from Sullivan and the DPW, they said.

After the measure's defeat, a special meeting was called Tuesday to gather more information and discuss how to move forward.

Following a two-hour discussion, the council voted 10-2 to send the bond request back to the Legislative and Ordinance Committee. From there, the full council will have to pass two readings of the measure for it to pass.

Sullivan, Assistant Department of Public Works Director Francis Cain, City Systems Engineer Heather Miller and City Solicitor Susan C. Phillips fielded questions from councilors about the filtration system, efforts to get funding from the Air National Guard and more.

Sullivan said the bond proposal is the same one he previously submitted and there is no Plan B to get this project completed.

"The focus is to give clean drinking water back to residents," Sullivan said. "On my end, this has been a two-year process to get to this point."

The plan includes the immediate construction of a temporary filtration system at wells 1 and 2. Sullivan said this work will happen regardless of the bond vote.

"We signed a contract with Calgon yesterday," he said, referring to a Pittsburgh manufacturer of water purification products. "We should have well 2 operating by the end of July."

Some funds for the temporary fix will be paid from more than $4 million of a $5 million bond approved last fall to work on the wells. As they delved more into the process, Sullivan said, officials realized the cost would be much greater than first anticipated, which is why he proposed the additional bond.

Sullivan said a granular activated carbon filtration system will be installed with vessels that the city would purchase and use toward the permanent filtration system. Sullivan stressed that the immediate fix is temporary to get the well up and running and so that permanent filtration systems can be completed on wells 7 and 8, the first wells detected with high levels of contamination.

Councilors asked how temporary the fix would be. Miller said it would get the city through next winter if usage is at normal levels.

Miller also fielded questions about whether the one functioning well on the north side of the city is sufficient and whether water could be pumped across the river from the south side. She said the city has an interconnected system, and while water does travel across the river, it cannot travel quickly enough when there is high demand. She also addressed concerns about residents tasting and smelling bleach in water.

"Chlorination has to happen for disinfection," she said. "We test the water and make sure it is effective, but not over-chlorinated."

Emmershy and Surprise asked about costs and a breakdown of projects included in the bond that they said were not given to them after they asked. Miller said the breakdown - which Sullivan copied and handed to councilors last night - was previously shared on the City Council shared computer drive.

Emmershy noted some changes to costs and asked if the $18 million in total bonds would be enough. Sullivan said he believes it will be, but Miller said costs will change as the design work moves forward.

"The numbers will continually change because we're not at 100 percent design yet," said Miller, adding those are "the best numbers we had at the time we provided them."

Council President John J. Beltrandi III said he "appreciates that" but wanted to make sure Sullivan would not be back in a month seeking a third bond for the work.

Phillips and Sullivan addressed questions - some of 40 questions Councilor Dave Flaherty submitted to city departments through Beltrandi - about efforts to recoup funds.

Phillips pointed to the lawsuit and tort claim and urged councilors and residents to put pressure on the parties that could affect the process, rather than city officials.

Calling and emailing high-level legislators could help, and the 104th Fighter Wing needs to complete its testing to prove responsibility, she said. The first stage of this testing was completed and made public March 15. Phillips said until the government admits responsibility for the contamination there will be no federal funding for work on the wells.

The ANG is following the CERCLA (Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act) process, and Phillips said the city needs to be united.

"It's important for us to act as a city," she said.

Sullivan noted some councilors have called the Department of Defense with questions rather than the expert law firms representing the city.

Sullivan urged all councilors to work with the city after some councilors made comments about being transparent.

"We are more accessible to everybody than ever before," Sullivan said. "You 13 need to talk to each other. You get information, but you need to share."

Legislative and Ordinance Chairman Ralph J. Figy said the bond would be on the subcommittee's next agenda and is expected to go before the full council for the first reading at its regular meeting April 5.
A group of Central Massachusetts and Connecticut investors made a last-gasp offer earlier this year to purchase and preserve Worcester's long-vacant Notre Dame des Canadiens church, which is slated for demolition this spring.

The offer, whose existence was confirmed by the property's owner CitySquare II LLC and Moe Bergman, a Preservation Worcester board member and Worcester City Councilor, was rejected -- though the circumstances of that rejection are a matter of dispute between preservation advocates and CitySquare.

Pamela Jonah, a spokeswoman for CitySquare II, said in a statement that a "wholly inadequate" offer was made on Jan. 8, and was nixed for reasons beyond the purchase price.

"The offer ultimately was declined - and predestined to fail - because it was not economically viable, and without any concrete investment, development and financing plans from the developer," Jonah wrote. "Simply put, we did not have confidence the offer would result in a project that would benefit the city and the surrounding area, advancing critical economic development efforts in downtown Worcester."

But Jeff Cronin, a member of Preservation Worcester's Reimagine Notre Dame committee, said the investment group had experience rehabbing vacant mill buildings, and that the Hanover Insurance-backed developers refused to seriously engage with the proposal.

The investors, who have not disclosed their identities, made an admittedly low offer in January and followed up with an amended offer, Cronin said. Though CitySquare met last month with the investors and Preservation Worcester at a meeting brokered by the Worcester City Manager's Office, further cooperation did not materialize, Cronin said.

"After their meeting there was nothing from Hanover to them. Their offer had gone without counter proposals," Cronin said. "They won't counteroffer a proposal, they won't set a sales price. Who does that when they're trying to sell a property?"

In an email Wednesday afternoon Jonah disputed Cronin's account, writing that no second offer was ever made in writing.

The investment group planned to put restaurants and possibly a brewery in the church building, Cronin said.

Bergman, who said he participated in the February meeting between CitySquare and the investment group, told MassLive the original offer was low -- but that he believed there could have been further talks if not for time pressures on CitySquare's development plans.

"There was an offer that if there was more time could have been vetted further," Bergman said. "But the initial offer was lower than what would have worked."

The 88-year-old Romanesque church, which has been closed since 2007, lies on the edge of the CitySquare development project --a half-billion dollar effort to transform Worcester's downtown into a hub of hotels, market-rate housing and new businesses.

In 2010, CitySquare II LLC bought the church from the Diocese of Worcester for $875,000. The developers have said they spent over five years and $700,000 searching for financially viable uses for the building, but came up empty.

Any renovation that preserves the building would have to address a lack of ADA compliance, a deteriorating facade and a litany of health ahd safety code violations, CitySquare II said in a 2016 public filing. Three developers turned down chances to turn the church building into a hotel, CitySquare II said.

In a statement, CitySquare II said it had explored turning the church into performing arts venues, residential units, a restaurant and bar and a marketplace, without finding a viable project.

The company sought a demolition permit in 2016, which was delayed for a year by the Worceser Historic Commission to allow additional time to find other uses for the building. This month, a contractor working for CitySquare II filed for a demolition permit; the company plans to begin site work and environmental remediation in early April.

Despite frustrated efforts, historic preservation advocates have continued to pressure the developer and the city to preserve the building, which remains a striking architectural link to Worcester's history of French-Canadian Catholic immigration.

Preservation Worcester commissioned the Salem-based engineering consulting firm Structures North to assess the structural integrity of the building. In September, Professional Engineer John M. Wathne conducted a visual inspection of the property and found a series of issues, including deteriorated interior masonry, rusted structural elements, cracked concrete, a collapsing chimney and a leaking roof.

But he also came to an optimistic conclusion about the building's prospects, finding that it could be saved.

"My general impression of the structure is that it is in relatively sound condition, with a preponderance of specific conditions that relate to age-induced deterioration, however there do not appear to be any global 'deal breakers' that would render the building un-restorable," Wathne wrote.

In its statement, CitySquare II acknowledged that restoration is possible -- but "only at an enormous, uneconomical cost."

"Any effort to develop the building that is not extremely well funded and conducted by committed developers with experience in projects of this scope and complexity, would be predestined to fail," Jonah wrote. "Such a setback would be unfortunate for the church, and potentially disastrous for the downtown district."

When CitySquare purchased the building they found a variety of problems, including a lack of heating, air conditioning, ventilation or serviceable plumbing, no fire suppression system, crumbling interior finishes and environmental contamination including asbestos, PCBs and lead paint.

Jonah said the investment group did not state how much equity they planned to put into the project and did not produce a detailed funding plan.

"In the end, we concluded the offer was speculative, with no tenant prospects, or the capital to finance it," Jonah wrote "Even if they closed on the sale, we did not have assurances and safeguards that they would not negatively impact the downtown district, including the adjacent residential and hotel developments, as well as other aspects of the CitySquare project."

Cronin does not dispute the positive role Hanover Insurance has played in Worcester's development.

"We all know it's a difficult building to rehabilitate, we all know Hanover has done tremendous things in Worcester," he said. "They set an example across the country for investing in and improving their home city."

But he defended the investors as serious bidders who had come up with a cheaper way to use the property than CitySquare II anticipated, by using basement space instead of building a costly second floor within the sanctuary.

"Hanover agreed to allow us time to find someone to buy the building, but none of this can be in public eyes," Cronin said. "We honored that agreement every step of the way, and they only time we publicized this was after they had announced the demolition."

The demolition and land clearing process is expected to take about four months, CitySquare II said. The developers had faced an April 15 deadline to apply for a demolition permit, a step they took earlier this month.
WALES -- State police have identified Crystal Fair-Judson, 34, of Wales, as the woman who died in a single-car crash Tuesday on Stafford Road, Western Mass News reports.

Wales Elementary School Principal Richard Zinkus sent an email to all second-grade parents Tuesday, letting them know Fair-Judson was the mother of a student in that class.

Grief counselors were available at the school Wednesday morning for children who had questions, and two Wales police officers also were in attendance.

Troopers from the Sturbridge barracks responded to the crash scene at about 9 a.m. Tuesday. An initial investigation determined Fair-Judson's car drove off the side of the road and struck a tree.

Fair-Judson was airlifted to UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester from the crash scene but was later pronounced dead from her injuries.

A 31-year-old male passenger was seriously injured in the crash. He was transported to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield.

The Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Section and Crime Scene Services are continuing to investigate the crash to determine what caused the car to go off the road.
About 1,000 medical institutions have been registered in the eHealth system, Deputy Minister of Health Pavlo Kovtoniuk has said.

"There is already a lot of health institutions registered in the system. On March 28 there are 928 health facilities," he said at a briefing in Kyiv.

According to the Ministry of Health, at present there are 1,232 medical institutions of primary level in Ukraine without taking into account ambulatory clinics.

Kovtoniuk also said that all medical institutions of primary care in Kyiv are ready to sign declarations with patients.

"Yesterday we held a meeting with Kyiv medical institutions, all of them declare their readiness to sign declarations from the first week of April," he said.

At the same time, the deputy minister of health noted that "it is important not to rush" for the Ministry of Health.

"The main thing is not the speed, but the quality of selecting the doctor. We tell institutions that they must be qualitatively ready to accept declarations. The process of choosing a doctor begins on April 2 and does not end, so we do not need to run and queue, but we do not recommend postponing the signing of the declaration," he said.
From ice cream to apple pie, oysters to cranberries, Massachusetts farmers and food producers displayed their wares at the Statehouse on Tuesday as part of the annual Agriculture Day celebration.

Gov. Charlie Baker used the day to announce $500,000 in grants to 16 Massachusetts farms for projects that will "help mitigate their impacts on climate change and adapt to changing climate conditions."

"Agriculture Day is an opportunity to recognize Massachusetts' hardworking farming community and encourage people to buy fresh, environmentally safe, and nutritious foods and agricultural products from their local farmers," Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito said in a statement.

View photos from the event in the gallery above.
The Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority will end its membership in a national trade association that has been lobbying for Trump administration regulations that would eliminate Massachusetts' authority to regulate student loan servicers.

MEFA's decision came after The Republican reported that 50 state legislators were calling on the quasi-public agency to speak out against the National Council of Higher Education Resources.

"MEFA appreciates the concern expressed by the legislators, and upon review of the letter, will end its membership in the National Council of Higher Education Resources," MEFA spokeswoman Lisa Rooney said in a statement.

The issue surrounded an interpretation of federal law by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who declared that states cannot regulate student loan servicers. The memo from DeVos threatens efforts by Massachusetts lawmakers and Attorney General Maura Healey to regulate the industry.

The National Council of Higher Education Resources wrote a public letter urging the Department of Education to say that states cannot regulate the industry.

MEFA was created by the state to offer student loans and help student borrowers. It does not receive state tax dollars. MEFA pays dues as a member of the National Council of Higher Education Resources, which represents student loan servicers.

Sen. Eric Lesser, D-Longmeadow, who is leading the effort in Massachusetts to regulate student loan servicers, wrote a letter signed by 50 state lawmakers Monday that called it "troubling" that an organization formed by the Legislature to help students afford higher education "may now be helping to fund a national interest group that is lobbying against this same General Court's efforts to pass meaningful protections for student loan borrowers."

Rooney said MEFA paid $12,800 to NCHER for membership dues this past year. The trade organization provided MEFA with industry conferences, professional development opportunities and sharing of best practices.

Approximately 7 percent of NCHER's budget - or approximately $896 of MEFA's dues - is spent on advocacy work. Rooney said the sliver of funding that goes to advocacy on the student loan issue is "de minimus."

"Please understand that this important matter does not impact MEFA loan programs," Rooney said. "The issue regarding federal loan servicing by the U.S. Department of Education has no impact on MEFA or the borrowers of MEFA private loans."

Rooney said MEFA will end its membership in the national organization and continue to focus on its mission of helping Massachusetts families and students affordably finance college education.

She reiterated as she had in a previous statement that MEFA "acknowledges and appreciates the leadership" of Healey and the Legislature in advocating for student loan borrowers and their families.

Lesser said he is grateful that MEFA decided to end its membership in the organization. "A quasi-governmental agency should not be working to undo efforts by its own state government to protect consumers," Lesser said. "I'm grateful MEFA saw that and grateful they've taken this step to protect consumers and student loan borrowers."

Lesser said he hopes education financing authorities in other states will follow suit.
President Donald Trump rejected a former U.S. Supreme Court justice's call to eliminate the Second Amendment Wednesday, stressing that the constitutional right which allows Americans to bear firearms "will never be repealed."

Trump, in response to retired Justice John Paul Stevens' Tuesday New York Times op-ed, argued that there's "no way" the controversial amendment will be removed from the Constitution -- particularly ahead of the 2018 congressional mid-term elections.

"THE SECOND AMENDMENT WILL NEVER BE REPEALED! As much as Democrats would like to see this happen, and despite the words yesterday of former Supreme Court Justice Stevens, NO WAY," he tweeted. "We need more Republicans in 2018 and must ALWAYS hold the Supreme Court!"

THE SECOND AMENDMENT WILL NEVER BE REPEALED! As much as Democrats would like to see this happen, and despite the words yesterday of former Supreme Court Justice Stevens, NO WAY. We need more Republicans in 2018 and must ALWAYS hold the Supreme Court!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 28, 2018

Stevens, who left the bench in 2010 after becoming one of the longest serving justices in history, offered that activists seeking gun control policies in wake of the recent mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida "should seek more effective and lasting reform:" the repeal of the Second Amendment.

Arguing that the militia-related concerns that led to its initial adoption are a "relic of the 18th century," the former justice said the gun lobby has used the constitutional right as a "propaganda weapon."

Stevens took specific issue with the Supreme Court's 2008 landmark decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, which overturned a limited view on the Second Amendment's reach and ruled that the amendment protects an individual's right to bear arms even for non-militia purposes -- a finding which he called "wrong and debatable."

"Overturning that decision via a constitutional amendment to get rid of the Second Amendment would be simple and would do more to weaken the (National Rifle Association's) ability to stymie legislative debate and block constructive gun control legislation than any other available option," he wrote.

Trump has pledged to take action to enhance school safety and prevent future firearms-related deaths in wake of last month's mass shooting. Democrats and gun control activists, however, have criticized some of his proposed solutions, like arming certain teachers.
State Sen. Michael Brady, D-Brockton, is seeking treatment for alcohol use.

Brady, 55, was arrested over the weekend and charged with drunk driving.

Brady was caught driving erratically early Saturday morning in Weymouth. He was reported to the police by another driver, and failed field sobriety tests.

Brady was charged with operating a vehicle while under the influence (OUI), negligent operation of a motor vehicle and marked lanes violation. He pleaded not guilty in Quincy District Court.

Brady said in a statement Wednesday that he will admit himself for professional treatment. "The course of treatment requires my full attention over the next few days," Brady said. "I look forward to returning to work next week."

Brady said his staff will continue to handle his legislative business.

"I want to apologize again to my family, my constituents, and my friends and colleagues in the Legislature for the embarrassment that this incident has caused," Brady said. "I also want to thank them all for the support, advice and counsel during what has been a very difficult ordeal."

In his statement, Brady also thanked the Weymouth Police Department for their professionalism.

Brady, the co-chairman of the Legislature's Committee on Revenue, first joined the state Senate in 2015, after serving in the House since 2009.

He represents Brockton, Halifax, Hanover, Hanson, Plympton, Whitman and parts of East Bridgewater and Easton.

MassLive.com reporter Gintautas Dumcius contributed to this story.
BOSTON -- A group of Massachusetts state senators are pushing for state-level net neutrality rules, worrying industry representatives who say this will create a patchwork of state regulations.

"Our concern is this growing patchwork of laws that some states will have, some states won't, and how does an industry such as the tech industry that operates across all 50 states, how do they start to operate?" said Matt Mincieli, Northeast region executive director for TechNet. "And how do consumers benefit when traditionally what's been federal law is now being put into state law?"

A special state Senate committee was formed to respond to the federal government's rollback of net neutrality rules. Net neutrality is the concept that an internet service provider must treat all internet content the same, and cannot block or slow down particular content or websites.

The committee is proposing legislation that would protect consumers from "blocking, throttling, or paid prioritization in the provision of internet service." It would create a registry for internet service providers and require the companies to be transparent about their network management policies. The bill would prohibit internet service providers "from collecting, using or disseminating consumers' personal data without their consent."

So far, no Massachusetts internet service providers are blocking or throttling content, and senators said they were assured by the companies that internet service providers have no interest in doing so.

"We've been told this is not going to happen in Massachusetts," said Sen. Cynthia Creem, D-Newton, who chaired the special Senate committee. "If it isn't, I would think this is great legislation to make everyone feel comfortable."

Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, R-Gloucester, the special committee vice-chairman, said the future of internet blocking and net neutrality is largely unknown nationally. He said the Massachusetts bill "ensures a level playing field so if someone does try to step outside that boundary they will be penalized for it."

But technology companies worry about the consequences of the bill.

Mincieli said there could be "serious repercussions" for both technology companies and consumers if Massachusetts regulates the internet differently than other states. "You could have a totally separate set of privacy laws for Massachusetts residents that could impact a how they use the internet and the cost of using the internet," Mincieli said.

Additional costs to enforce the new rules would be paid for by a fee levied on internet service providers. Creem said she does not envision the cost being passed on to consumers.

Tim Wilkerson, vice president and general counsel of the New England Cable and Telecommunications Association, said the association supports the principles of net neutrality, but believes the internet should be regulated federally.

"We believe that the best way to achieve lasting consumer protections and continue growing our local economy is through bipartisan federal legislation," Wilkerson said in a statement. "Regulating the internet with a patchwork of state regulations will only harm consumers in Massachusetts and across New England."

CTIA, which represents the wireless communications industry, said similarly in a statement, "Congress should come together and pass bipartisan legislation, which is the best way to enshrine the principles of net neutrality, encourage investment and ensure an open internet continues to work for everyone."

Before a public hearing on the bill Wednesday, leading senators praised the bill.

"The internet we feel should be free and accessible to as many people as possible," said Senate President Harriette Chandler, D-Worcester. "In 2018, we shouldn't be throttling internet access and stifling the innovation and the communication that takes place across the web."

Sen. Eric Lesser, D-Longmeadow, who chairs the Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emergency Technology, said, "Free, unfettered access to the internet that does not discriminate and does not make distinctions based on content is at the heart of our information economy, at the heart of our innovation economy, at the heart of how jobs are created in this state."

Sen. Jamie Eldridge, D-Acton, noted that the protection against disseminating personal data has become more relevant recently with the issues surrounding Facebook exposing the data of 50 million users to a political consulting firm working for President Donald Trump's campaign.

Any action by Massachusetts is likely to bring up legal issues regarding whether federal law pre-empts state action.

Tarr said, "Obviously we have to navigate very carefully the contours of what has been done at the federal government and possible issues of pre-emption, but our first goal should be to make sure citizens in Massachusetts have free access to the internet."
The Trump administration has declared that states cannot regulate student loan servicers, an interpretation of federal law by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos that threatens efforts by Massachusetts lawmakers and the attorney general to regulate the industry.

Yet money from a Massachusetts quasi-public agency, the Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority, is going to a national group, the National Council of Higher Education Resources, that is lobbying for the new federal rules.

"I am troubled that any state agency ... is paying dues and fees to organizations that are lobbying the federal government to essentially take powers away from the states that actually enable their existence," said Bob Giannino, CEO of uAspire, a Boston-based organization that counsels students and guidance counselors on college affordability.

State Sen. Eric Lesser, D-Longmeadow, is leading an effort in Massachusetts to regulate student loan servicers. Lesser on Monday sent a letter to MEFA signed by 50 state senators and representatives. The letter calls it "troubling" that an organization formed by the Legislature to help students afford higher education "may now be helping to fund a national interest group that is lobbying against this same General Court's efforts to pass meaningful protections for student loan borrowers."

"Why is a Massachusetts agency aligning itself with the Trump administration and trying to undo protections for students passed in Massachusetts?" Lesser said. "It makes no sense."

MEFA spokeswoman Lisa Rooney said MEFA is a respected voice in Massachusetts and Washington on improving education financing and keeping college accessible. She said MEFA participates in national professional development activities as a member of the National Council of Higher Education Resources, which represents the student loan industry.

"In Massachusetts, MEFA acknowledges and appreciates the leadership of the Office of the Attorney General and the Massachusetts Legislature in advocating for student loan borrowers and their families," Rooney said in a statement.

Student loan servicers collect student loans on behalf of the federal government. Advocates for borrowers have complained that servicers often do not look out for students' interests - for example, not telling students about beneficial repayment plans or processing payments in ways that result in students owing more money.

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey sued one servicer, the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, for failing to properly administer a program that forgives student loans for borrowers who go into public service. The U.S. Department of Education sided with the student loan servicer. The case is ongoing. The issue of federal pre-emption is likely to come up in that case, and Healey's office is expected to argue that the state has authority to regulate servicers.

"Secretary DeVos can write as many memos as she wants, I will not shut down my investigations or stand by while loan servicing companies are given a free pass to cheat students and break our consumer protection laws," Healey said in a statement.

Since 2015, several states, led by Connecticut, passed laws governing the conduct of student loan servicers. Massachusetts lawmakers are considering a bill sponsored by Lesser that would set up a state licensing system.

These bills are supported by the American Federation of Teachers, whose Massachusetts chapter gave $500 contributions to Lesser's campaign in 2014, 2015 and 2016.

In early March, the U.S. Department of Education reinterpreted federal law to say that state regulation of student loan servicers is pre-empted by federal law.

This interpretation sets up a clash between the federal government and state regulators, which will likely end up in court.

Legislation is also pending in Congress to explicitly prevent states from regulating student loan servicers. Healey joined 30 state attorneys general writing a letter urging Congress to reject the provision.

One organization that has lobbied for the federal government's interpretation of the law is the National Council of Higher Education Resources, which wrote a public letter urging the Department of Education to clarify that states cannot regulate the industry.

A report by the American Federation of Teachers found that 17 state-backed student loan companies paid more than $2 million in membership fees and conference registration to NCHER. One was MEFA, which the report said paid $88,646 to the national organization between 2010 and 2017.

MEFA was established by the Massachusetts Legislature and provides tax-advantaged savings plans, low-cost private loans and educational programs to help students pay for college. The agency used to receive state tax dollars, but no longer does. MEFA's money comes from investment earnings, interest on loans, management fees and application fees. It is authorized to issue bonds that are exempt from state and federal taxes.

Rooney stressed that MEFA is not dependent on state or federal appropriations. She declined to comment specifically on the federal-state conflict.

Giannino said he understands that a member of a trade organization may not agree with all the organization's positions. But he would like to see MEFA speak out.

"I haven't heard MEFA say anything about where it stands on this issue as an organization and where they feel like their trade organization may have gone astray," Giannino said. "It bothers me, as someone who has used MEFA's products, that this is something they wouldn't come out strongly and publicly and say they're not aligned on."

Giannino said states are best positioned to protect their citizens. "It's pretty troubling that the Secretary of Education would step out in this way and effectively put a barrier between the best equipped, best aligned protectors of our citizens' rights and student loan providers, who unfortunately have a pretty shady history in terms of their friendliness to student borrowers," Giannino said.

The letter from state lawmakers asks MEFA whether any of its dues money to NCHER is used for these lobbying efforts.

"The actions of NCHER are contributing to an uncertain financial future for student borrowers, and we in the Massachusetts General Court are actively engaged in measures to protect those borrowers and their finances," Lesser's letter said. "This is why this General Court created MEFA in the first place, and we sincerely hope you are continuing to carry out that important mandate."

Healey said, "While Massachusetts students and families continue to struggle with shoddy loan servicing, we are disappointed that any trade association claiming to represent student interests would lobby to shut down state oversight."
The White House pushed back Wednesday against reports that President Donald Trump's former lawyer had considered pardoning Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort, stressing that such clemency is not currently under consideration for anyone tied to the investigation into alleged Russian election meddling.

Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders referred reporters to a statement from White House Counsel Ty Cobb, when asked if Trump administration officials have discussed offering pardons to those facing charges as a result of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe.

"I would refer you back to the statement from Ty Cobb ... in which he said, 'I've only been asked about pardons by the press and have routinely responded on the record that no pardons are under discussion or under consideration at the White House,'" she said.

Sanders, when pressed to state unequivocally that pardons have not been discussed in relation to the Russia investigation, again pointed to Cobb's remarks, adding that he's "the person that would be most directly involved in this."

"He's got a statement on the record saying that there's no discussion and there's no consideration of those at this time at the White House," she said.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that John Dowd, who recently resigned as Trump's lead attorney in the special counsel's investigation, allegedly raised the idea of the president pardoning Flynn and Manafort with their lawyers last year.

Three people with knowledge of the discussions told the newspaper that Dowd floated the idea of offering the pardons as Mueller built his cases against the former Trump advisers.

It was not clear whether Dowd discussed the proposed pardons with Trump before speaking with Manafort and Flynn's attorneys, the Times reported.

Dowd, however, denied reports that he discussed any such pardons.

Jay Sekulow, a lawyer for Trump, also dismissed the reported discussions, telling the newspaper "never during the course of my representation of the president have I had any discussions of pardons of any individual involved in this inquiry."

Flynn, who briefly served as Trump's national security adviser, pleaded guilty in December to one count of "willfully and knowingly" making "false, fictitious and fraudulent statements" to the FBI regarding his his conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in December 2016.

His admission in federal court in Washington, D.C. came as part of a plea agreement, according to Mueller's office.

Manafort, Trump's former campaign chairman, meanwhile, has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy, fraud and money laundering charges tied to his alleged work for a Russian-friendly Ukraine political party.

He is legally challenging the U.S. Department of Justice and Mueller's authority to charge him with money laundering and conspiracy counts as part of the investigation into Russian election meddling.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Red Sox ace Chris Sale grew up in nearby Lakeland and he attended the first ever game the Tampa Bay Rays played at Tropicana Field on March 31, 1998.

The Rays -- then the Devil Rays -- lost 11-6 to the Tigers in front of 45,369 fans.

"My birthday is March 30 so my uncle brought me here on March 31 of '98," Sale said. "So I was 9 years old.

"I remember I was sitting right just to the left of (section) 144," he added. "I had a Rays jersey on. Whoops.

"My uncle bought me a polo for Rays colors of the blue and the green and the white and I got mustard on it," Sale added. "So that's where the jersey came from. And I actually have a panoramic picture at my house of the first pitch being thrown here."

Sale will start here tomorrow in the regular season opener between the Red Sox and Rays at 4 p.m.

"To be able to start on Opening Day, it's cool. It's special," he said. "And being close to home, having friends and family here, it will be nice."
Today, I visited three of Montanas first ever state-funded preschool classrooms in Billings, Lockwood, and Shepherd. I listened directly to teachers, parents, and kids who are benefitting from this first-ever investment in preschool. These children now have a brighter future in classrooms that didnt exist a year ago.

Montana is finally starting to make this long overdue investment in high-quality, early childhood education. We know it works and we know it costs Montana not to invest in our kids. The economic and educational opportunities that come with preschool services will benefit our state for many years to come  and we ought to make it a reality for all of our kids in Montana.

Last year, I worked with the 2017 Montana Legislature to secure the states first-ever investment in publicly-funded, high-quality early childhood education. HB 639 passed with bipartisan support and directs $6 million over two years to implement the STARS preschool pilot program http://www.starspreschool.mt.gov/ . Until last year, Montana was one of only six states that had not invested state funds for public preschool.

Seventeen programs across the state were selected to participate in the pilot program and expand access to high-quality preschool for Montana children and families. Those selected represent a diverse group of rural and urban communities, as well as public schools, Head Start, and private child care providers. Over 300 children are now enrolled in STARS Preschool classrooms throughout the state.

Children with high-quality early learning opportunities are more likely to read at grade level, graduate from high school, and earn more money. Every $1 spent on high-quality preschool programs creates $7 in future savings to the communities and states that invest.

I will be asking the 2019 Montana Legislature to again secure funding for publicly-funded, high-quality early childhood education. Please contact your Montana legislators with your support for investing in our earliest learners HERE http://leg.mt.gov/css/About-the-Legislature/Legislative-Districts/default.asp

By increasing access to affordable high-quality preschool programs, we are investing in our economic future and supporting hardworking Montana families. Education is our nations great equalizer and Montanans care about a quality education that gives our kids the best opportunity to succeed. I look forward to continuing to work on your behalf to protect and strengthen this shared Montana value.

Sincerely,

STEVE BULLOCK

Governor
Buried more than 300 pages into the late December tax overhaul signed by President Donald Trump is what some officials think might be a route to economic prosperity for rural America.

A community development program written into the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, these so-called "Opportunity Zones" are designed to encourage long-term private investments in low-income areas by providing federal tax incentives.

"It creates a powerful tool to draw capital off the sidelines and get it into communities. We know that genius is equally distributed in the United States of America, but capital is not,"

By ADAM BENSON [email protected]

http://www.indexjournal.com/news/old-becomes-brand-new-opportunity-zones-might-unlock-rural-america/article_60f9cf48-112c-55c2-954e-881fd72c4e12.html
(Participant and contact details added)

On Thursday, March 29, at 11.00, the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency's press center will host a press conference entitled "Path to Freedom: Problems Faced by Former Captives from Occupied Donbas." The participants include coordinator of the Department for Documentation of Human Rights Violation in Donbas of the Vostok-SOS Foundation Viacheslav Lykhachov and Executive Director of the Vostok-SOS Charitable Foundation Oleksandra Dvoretska, and an activist of the All-Ukrainian Youth Organization "Foundation of Regional Initiatives", former captive, Volodymyr Fomychev (8/5a Reitarska Street). Registration requires press accreditation. Prior accreditation is required at http://bit.ly/2GdZsEU or by phone: (095) 629 1277 (Maria), (050) 611 7731 (Alevtina).
On Friday, March 30, at 11.00, the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency's press center will host a press conference titled "National List of Essential Medicines  Challenges and Opportunities". The participants will include Deputy Health Minister Roman Ilyk, Chairman of the Expert Committee for the Formation of the "National List of Essential Medicines" Oleksandr Oleschuk, Senior Technical Advisor to the Health Policy of USAID SAFEMed Oksana Lebeha, President of the Association "Producers of Medicines of Ukraine" Petro Bahriy, Head of the Trade House of InterChem pharmaceutical company Oleksandr Chumak, Marketing and Sales Director of PJSC Farmak Susana Khalilova. Representatives of the Association of Oncologists of Ukraine, Chief Physician of Kyiv City Cancer Center, other patient organizations have been invited (8/5a Reitarska Street). Registration requires press accreditation.
KYIV. March 28 (Interfax-Ukraine)  A group of Verkhovna Rada deputies has said it intends to draft changes to a law providing disciplinary and criminal penalties for violating prohibitions on conducting office searches, MP Vadym Denysenko (Petro Poroshenko Bloc), who represents Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers in the Rada, said.

"We should draft changes in the law It is necessary to include disciplinary or even criminal penalties for law-enforcement officers who violate the so-called 'masks-off' law. If you do not allow a lawyer to be present, then you are responsible for, at least, disciplinary penalties, if not criminal responsibility," Denysenko said in the Kyiv-based Interfax-Ukraine news agency on Wednesday.

According to the MP, there were more than 80,000 searches conducted in 2017.

"Starting in 2013, the number increased 2.5-fold and continues to increase by 10,000-12,000 each year since then," he said.
The group includes 13 startups from Cambodia, Lao, Myanmar, and Vietnam, as well ten international firms proposing agritech solutions for these markets. The top agritech startups plan to showcase their solutions at the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) Leaders Summit in Hanoi later this month.

MATCh is the first facilitator for agritech startups in Cambodia, Lao, Myanmar, and Vietnam. It is funded by the Australian Government and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and is co-organised by the Mekong Business Initiative (MBI), Future Food Asia, and the GMS Core Agriculture Support Program (CASP).

It aims to identify agricultural technologies and new business models with the potential to reshape agriculture towards sustainable and inclusive growth in the GMS. Among the 127 startups that applied, a panel of agriculture and food industry experts, as well as investors, evaluated the applications and selected the finalists.

Finalists will grow their businesses and technology with mentors, industry experts, and investors. They will showcase their solutions and technologies at the 2018 GMS Leaders Summit in Hanoi on March 30-31. Additionally, they will be a part of the Future Food Asia Award event on May 23 in Singapore.

Dominic Mellor from the ADB, who heads up the MBI, said that the MBI and its partners will work with the selected innovators and entrepreneurs on transforming the agricultural industry in the Mekong Region into a leading supplier of safe and nutritious food for all.

MATCh was launched on the sidelines of the Second GMS Agriculture Ministers Meeting in September 2017, in Siem Reap, Cambodia. The meeting endorsed the GMS strategy for promoting safe and environment-friendly agriculture value chains and the action plan for 2018-2022.
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The statement was made at a workshop on the industry, held in Hanoi, on March 27.

In 2017, Vietnamese forestry exports hit US$8 billion, with timber and timber products accounting for nearly US$7.7 billion, while the rest came from non-timber products such as bamboo and rattan.

With such revenue, the timber industry is now Vietnams sixth largest export earner and has met the US$8 billion goal three years ahead of schedule.

The largest markets for Vietnamese timber products are the United States, Japan, the Republic of Korea, China and the European Union.

Vietnams timber exports to the worlds largest economy alone reached US$3 billion in 2017.

Vifores General Secretary Nguyen Ton Quyen has projected that Vietnamese timber exports will bring in US$9 billion this year.
Bring traders to the fields

Paper trading is probably no longer suitable in the current business context, especially in the trading of agricultural products. Therefore, in 2017, the Department of Domestic Market (Ministry of Industry and Trade) updated some stages of the trade promotion process, bringing delegations of foreign traders to the raw material sites of mangoes, dragon fruit, and pineapples so they can witness the production process and directly discuss business with farmers. Specialists from the ministry or from the local Departments of Trade and Industry only play as facilitators.

Deputy Head of the department, Hoang Anh Tuan, said that this visual method helps to reduce costs from organising meetings and raises efficiency thanks to the direct discussion of supply - demand between the sellers and the buyers.

For example, in the past, dragon fruit farmers in Binh Thuan often had headaches because of their unstable output. However, in recent years, thanks to improvements in marketing, local dragon fruit has been traded at a stable rate and at a higher price. Director of the Department of Industry and Trade of Binh Thuan province Do Minh Kinh said that the province has more than 27,000 ha of dragon fruit, with output reaching about 600,000 tonnes per year. The amount of local dragon fruit for domestic consumption is 15%, while 85% is exported to 16 markets, of which 70% are in Asia.

Binh Thuan is concentrating on dragon fruit exports via official channels for a more transparent, safe, and sustainable market. The Binh Thuan Industry and Trade Department has invited foreign traders to farms to enjoy the flavours of local dragon fruit cultivated in the new way, while discussing business directly with farmers.

Similarly, in 2017, the Department of Industry and Trade of Ho Chi Minh City implemented a range of solutions to connect the city's businesses with other localities through bringing the citys products to other provinces and enabling local businesses to connect and expand the market for consumption. At present, there are 75 investment projects between the city and other localities with a total investment of more than VND27.4 trillion, including farming and food processing projects and building factories and farms. Of this, the linkage providing capital for farmers to run bio-farm produce reaches VND2.5 trillion per year.

Deputy Head of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Industry and Trade, Nguyen Phuong Dong, said that his department has organised field trips to introduce traders to producers and farmers in the fields. In such face-to-face meetings, the business cooperation procedure has been quicker and easier with reduced complications from third parties, and reduced risks in the commodity production chain. Moreover, it also helps improve product quality, reduce production costs, and increase products value and competitiveness.

Intensive processing is expected to improve the value of Vietnamese agricultural products. (Photo: Nam Anh)



Conquering fastidious markets

According to statistics from the General Department of Vietnam Customs, the export turnovers of fruits and vegetables reached US$383.7 million in January, up 18.3% over the previous month and up 63.6% over the same period in 2017. Vietnam's exports of fruits and vegetables to major markets increased sharply. In addition to the main market of China, in January 2018, Vietnam also exported fruit and vegetables to other big markets, such as the US, Japan, Thailand, the Republic of Korea, and Malaysia. Notably, export turnover of this agricultural product to Japan reached US$10.6 million, up slightly from last month and up 77.5% over the same period of 2017.

Statistics from the International Trade Centers Trade Map showed that in 2017, the import value of vegetables and fruits in Japan reached US$9.5 billion, up 2% over 2016. To date, Vietnam has exported red dragon fruit, mango, lychee, and shiso leaves to the Japanese market. However, Japan is a market with strict requirements on the standards and quality of goods, as well as food hygiene and safety. The import value of vegetables and fruits from Vietnam only accounts for a very small proportion of Japans import demand, reaching US$132.5 million in 2017, up 5.2% compared to 2016.

Experts suggested that to increase exports of fruits and vegetables to Japan, Vietnamese exporters must meet the strict requirements on plant quarantine and food hygiene, or during the production process, enterprises must have their raw material areas inspected and recognised by the Plant Protection Department with plant protection codes and meet the food hygiene and safety requirements.

Commercial Counsellor of the Vietnamese Embassy in Japan Ta Duc Minh said that the Japanese market highly values agricultural products from Vietnam. The first batch of chicken exported to Japan in 2017 proves that Vietnamese agricultural products have passed the test to gain access to this fastidious market. Along with that, there is even greater potential in Vietnams bananas and mangoes. However, export prices of these products are still high, making it difficult to compete with Thai products as the products are easy to damage and transportation costs are quite high.

Ensuring Vietnamese agricultural products stand firm and gain a foothold in selective markets is not an easy task. The Vietnam Institute for Economic and Policy Research recommended that the core factor is to increase the quality of products and trade promotion activities, providing regularly updated information on demand and the standards of imported products for each market.

In addition, Vietnam is heading towards sustainable agricultural exports, which requires a restructuring of the agricultural sector. Exporters should adjust towards focusing on quality rather than quantity. This task requires the right strategy on the material source. Previous raw material areas that help earn stable exports to middle and high-end markets need to be continuously invested in to improve the quality of their products. It also needs a roadmap from the business community in an effort to reduce unnecessary costs. On the part of the State, there should be more practical support in reducing the quantity and increasing the quality of agricultural products.

Vietnam seeks to improve the quality of its agricultural products to conquer selective markets. (Photo: Nam Anh)
Using RON92 petrol is a backward trend

Recently, Ho Chi Minh City One Member Limited Liability Oil and Gas Company (Saigon Petro) sent an official document to the Ministry of Industry and Trade and Ministry of Finance, saying that the consumption of E5 bio-fuel in the first two months of 2018 accounted for a very low proportion of the total petrol consumption of Saigon Petro, at over 30% of total petrol consumption, while the consumption of RON92 made up 65% of the total consumption.

In addition, the company said that many vehicles that require the petrol standards of E5 or RON92 have to switch to using RON95, with a higher price, which is a waste.

The company also recommended the reduction of the environmental protection tax on E5, as a basis for enterprises to lower E5 selling prices, thus stimulating the consumption of the product and avoiding the waste of social resources.

According to Saigon Petro, the consumption of E5 will remain low in the future despite the application of the aforementioned measures. Thus, the firm suggested the resumption of the use of RON92.

Economist Nguyen Tien Thoa, vice chairman and general secretary of the Vietnam Valuation Association, said that the government's policy on the use of types of petrol with less impact on the environment is the correct direction towards contributing to protecting the environment. Therefore, RON92 petrol should not be put into use again.

Agreeing with Thoa, Nguyen Hong Minh, General Secretary of the Hanoi Transport Association and General Director of Nguyen Minh Taxi Company, said that Vietnam has deeply integrated into the world and must comply with international regulations. The general trend in the world is to use environmentally friendly fuels. Thus, RON92 should not be used anymore as it contains a large percentage of lead, creating negative effects on the environment.

Addressing three issues

Experts said that more comprehensive measures are needed to boost the consumption of E5 bio-fuel.

Thoa noted that tax reduction is one of the solutions to create a price gap between the two types of petrol, thereby motivating consumers to use E5. However, stimulating the use of E5 should not be based on tax reductions but must come from the supply of ethanol as the raw material for bio-fuel blending as there is only one ethanol producer supplying the raw material for the domestic market.

In addition, the government should develop appropriate policies to create the price gap between E5 and RON92 in the first phase of the E5 launch to promote the consumption of E5, Thoa suggested.

In particular, it must be proven in practice that the use of E5 is safe with engines and reduces greenhouse gas as a large number of consumers remain confused about the quality and safety of E5.

Minh said that the top priority should be given to ensuring the quality of E5 if the authorities wish consumers to choose E5. "If E5 bio-fuel has good quality while protecting the environment, consumers will not refuse to use E5. Otherwise, if the quality is not guaranteed, lowered prices will not stimulate consumers to use the product, Minh said.

At the regular Government meeting in February 2018, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Do Thang Hai said that E5 bio-fuel, which replaced RON92 petrol, has been sold nationwide from January 1 this year according to the roadmap approved by the Prime Minister. According to reports by petrol wholesalers and Departments of Industry and Trade across the country, the amount of E5 consumption has increased quickly.

The Hanoi Department of Industry and Trade reported that the total petrol consumption in Hanoi was about 110,000 m3 by the end of January 2018, including 53% of E5 and 47% of RON95 petrol. According to reports of petrol wholesalers and distributers in the city, after a month of switching from RON92 to E5 bio-fuel, consumers have gradually accepted the use of E5 and made a good evaluation of the product.

Regarding businesses who want to stop selling E5, Deputy Minister Do Thang Hai affirmed that the right to do business is the right of the enterprises themselves. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Industry and Trade will coordinate with the Departments of Industry and Trade across the country to solve any difficulties for enterprises and facilitate them in the trading of petrol, Hai noted.
The aforementioned adjudication means that Vietnamese steel coils will not be subject to anti-dumping duties when exported to Australia. This is good news for Vietnamese steel manufacturers as a whole, and Hoa Phat Group in particular, as Australia is a potential market for Vietnamese steel products.

The case steamed from a request by the OneSteel Manufacturing Pty Ltd, a manufacturer of steel coils in Australia, for anti-dumping investigations into the steel wire rods imported from Vietnamese, Indonesian and RoK enterprises.

According to the World Trade Organisations (WTO) regulations and the provisions in Australias trade laws, it will not be considered an anti-dumping case if the dumping margin of imports into the country is below 2%. Meanwhile, the dumping margin of Vietnamese steel coils imported into Australia has been found to be below this threshold, compared to 20.9% and 16% for RoK and Indonesian firms, respectively.

A representative of Hoa Phat Group said that in this case, the group proactively worked with the functional agencies in providing the sufficient information and documents for the ADCs representative delegation in service of their direct examination in August 2017. Simultaneously, Hoa Phat also submitted rebuttals to the arguments of the plaintiff (OneSteel), while providing additional supporting documents as required by the ADC.

Therefore, the Australian investigators concluded that there was no assistance from the Government concerning electricity prices and input materials for the steel production at Vietnamese steel wire rod manufacturers, including Hoa Phat Group, and that there never existed the situation of a special market for the steel wire rod industry in Vietnam.

The ADC decided to terminate their investigations into the steel wire rods imported from Vietnam, as their dumping margins are below the minimum dumping margin of 2%, thus causing no damage to Australias steel production industry.
He made the remarks at his reception for Khammeung Phongthady, Chairman of the Presidential Office of Laos, who is on working visit to Vietnam at the invitation of Chairman of the Presidential Office Dao Viet Trung, in Hanoi on March 27.

President Quang spoke highly of the cooperation between the two offices, noting that visit exchanges are significant to maintaining and bolstering the special relations between the two offices.

He spoke highly of the achievements made by Lao people and expressed his belief that they will continue reaping more immense attainments to successfully build their country of peace, independence, democracy, and prosperity.

The President said he was glad to see developments in the Vietnam-Laos relations, citing the successful Vietnam-Laos Solidarity and Friendship Year 2017 and the fruitful organization of the annual meeting of the two Political Bureaus and the 40th meeting of the Vietnam-Laos Intergovernmental Committee in Vientiane in February 2018.

He said he believes that built on the productive outcomes of the 2017 Vietnam-Laos Solidarity and Friendship Year, 2018 will be favourable for the countries to reinforce their traditional friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation towards new heights.

Vietnam always gives the top priority to consolidating and enhancing the traditional friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation with Laos, he stated.

He asked the two sides to make greater effort to deepen their political ties, boost the efficiency of the exchange of visits at all levels, continue launching communications campaigns on bilateral ties targeting young generations, and increase and diversify the sharing of experience between sectors and localities.

The two countries need to speed up the implementation of reached agreements, he said, asking the two offices to do more to bolster the traditional friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation between the two countries.

Khammeung Phongthady expressed his hope that following the visit, the relations between the two offices will be tightened.

He thanked the President for his evaluations of Lao peoples achievements, saying these achievements had important contributions by Vietnam.

He expected that during the visit he would learn experience from Vietnamese officials to improve consulting services for Lao leaders.
The Vietnamese NA leader expressed pleasure at her visit to Deltares, an independent institute for applied research in the field of water, geophysics, ecosystems, and relevant policies for deltas, coastal regions and river basins.

She gave her sincere thanks to the institute director and other leaders, as well as to experts and researchers of the institute for their reception and sharing of valuable experience on adaptation to climate change, which is helpful for Vietnam.

Director of Deltares Institute Maartens Smits said that the institute employs 800 people from 36 countries around the world, including 200 doctors and 20 professors. Its researching works have significantly contributed to combating the influence of climate change.

The Vietnamese delegation was introduced to the early flood and drought warning systems that are being deployed in the delta regions around the world, including Vietnams Mekong River Delta region.

The experts from the Deltares Institute also presented the results of several projects implemented in Vietnam, including programmes related to sea, delta, and underground water management as well as for flood risk management and warning systems.

On the same day, Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Netherlands Khadija Arib hosted a banquet in La Haye for Vietnamese top legislator Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan and an NA delegation.
The meetings took place on the occasion of the official visit to France by General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee Nguyen Phu Trong, from March 26-28.

At a meeting with Minister of the Armed Forces Florence Parly on March 27, Senior Lieutenant General Vinh said Vietnams Ministry of Defence wants to expand cooperation with their French counterpart for the benefits of the two armies and people and the bilateral strategic partnership.

Vietnam hopes that France, with its significant role and position in the European Union (EU), will make active contributions to the maintenance of peace, stability, cooperation, and development, ensuring navigation and aviation safety and freedom in the region and around the world, based on a respect for international law.

Vietnam is ready to serve as a bridge for France to enhance cooperation with member countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), he said.

He described defence as a key pillar in the bilateral strategic partnership and urged the two countries armies to elevate cooperation in this field to a new height, especially in celebration of the 45th founding anniversary of Vietnam-France diplomatic ties and the fifth anniversary of strategic partnership.

The Deputy Defence Minister proposed specific measures, such as increasing all-level delegation exchanges, sharing defence strategic issues, and promoting cooperation in training, defence industry, military trade, medical military, peacekeeping activities, and post-war consequences settlement, among others.

Agreeing with the Vietnamese leaders opinions, Minister of Defence Florence Parly showed her belief in the outcomes of bilateral cooperation in the coming time. France will invite the Minister of Defence of Vietnam to pay an official visit to France this year, during which the two countries are expected to sign cooperative documents of significance to the promotion of bilateral cooperation.

Earlier, Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh had a working session with Phillippe Errera, Director General for International Relations and Strategy of the Ministry of the Armed Forces.

At the meeting, both sides discussed regional and international situations of shared concern and agreed that current issues should be dealt with through peaceful measures and strict compliance with international law.

The two sides agreed on key orientations to ratchet up bilateral defence ties, provide mutual support at multilateral forums, participation in the UN peacekeeping force, and the possibility of Frances participation in ADMM+, and more.

On the occasion, the two ministries signed a letter of intent on the signing of a joint statement on a shared vision for defence cooperation in the 2018-2020 period, and an agreement amending the cooperation agreement on hydrography, oceanography, and maritime maps.
Granma, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party of Cuba and the biggest daily in the country, ran an article by Marta Rojas Rodriguez featuring the past struggle for national liberation of the Vietnamese people and the role of late President Ho Chi Minh in the worlds progressive movements.

Rodriguez, a retired reporter who worked in Vietnam and visited the southern battlefield, also recalled the sentiments of Cuban national hero Jose Marti towards Vietnam, and her fond memories of President Ho Chi Minh.

Meanwhile, the Prensa Latina News Agency featured interviews with Vietnamese Ambassador to Cuba Nguyen Trung Thanh and Cuban Ambassador to Vietnam Lianys Torres.

The diplomats agreed that Party General Secretary Trongs visit will be a historical milestone in the relationship between Vietnam and Cuba.

The visit helps to carry forward relations while opening up new opportunities for cooperation between the two countries, especially in the economy, the ambassadors said.

Additionally, Prensa Latina published several articles by its correspondents in Vietnams capital Hanoi, highlighting the achievements Vietnam has recorded in the Doi Moi (Renewal) process.

Vietnam and Party General Secretary Trongs Cuba visit also made headlines on major television and radio channels, dailies, and e-newspapers of Cuba.

The Vietnamese leaders visit is made at the invitation of First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cubas Central Committee and President of the Councils of State and Ministers Raul Castro Ruz.

This is the first high-level meeting between the two countries after the passing of Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro Ruz in 2016, and the Vietnamese Party chiefs first visit to Latin-America following the 12th National Congress of the CPV the same year.
President of Madagascar Hery Rajaonarimampianina made the statement at a meeting with National Assembly Vice Chairman Phung Quoc Hien in Antananarivo on March 26.

He underlined the special traditional relations between Vietnam and Madagascar which has endured over historical periods.

The two countries have strengths and great cooperation potential in agricultural production, he said, adding that Madagascar boasts vast amounts of arable land and abundant labour forces, while Vietnam has experience and advanced agricultural technology.

The President called on Vietnamese enterprises to invest in Madagascar and said the Economic Development Board of Madagascar (EDBM) will be responsible for promoting investment between the two countries.

For his part, Hien thanked Madagascan people for their valuable assistance to Vietnam in the cause of national liberation, building, and development.

Vietnam always treasures its ties with Madagascar through the promotion of high-level delegation exchanges, he said, adding that this is the first time a high-ranking delegation from the National Assembly has visited Madagascar, which marks a new milestone in the bilateral traditional relations.

He also informed the outcomes of his earlier meetings with senior officials from Madagascar, including the top legislator, the minister of trade and consumption, and the foreign minister.

The two sides affirmed the sound political relations between Vietnam and Madagascar and their mutual support at multilateral forums. They also reached consensus on a number of issues, including cooperation potentials in various fields, particularly agriculture, seafood, telecommunications, and education.

Regarding trade, Hien suggested the two sides exchange commodities in which they hold strengths. For example, Vietnam will export rice to Madagascar, while importing cashew nuts and vanilla from the market.

With strength in information-technology and telecommunications, notably the military-run group Viettel, which is investing in many countries around the world, including African nations, there is plenty of room for Vietnam and Madagascar to cooperate in this field, he said.

He also proposed a number of measures to promote investment partnerships, such as signing agreements on double tax avoidance, inter-bank payments, and investment promotion and protection.

The same day, NA Vice Chairman Hien held a meeting with Madagascan Prime Minister Olivier Mahafaly Solonandrasana, in which he informed the host of Vietnams socio-economic development in the past as well as the cooperation potential for the two countries in various sectors, including the collaboration between the two law-making bodies.

The Madagascan government leader said that bilateral cooperation must be concretised by the implementation of specific plans, such as the signing of a free trade agreement between the two nations.

Earlier, the Vietnamese official held a meeting with Speaker of the Parliament of Madagascar Jean Max Rakotomamonjy on March 23. Both sides reached consensus on bolstering parliamentary ties and consideration of the establishment of the friendship parliamentarian group.

During their stay in Madagascar from March 23-27, Hien and the Vietnamese high-ranking delegation met with the President of the Senate, the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament, the Minister of Commerce and Consumption, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Minister at the Presidency in charge of Agriculture and Livestock.

The delegation paid a floral tribute to late President Ho Chi Minh at his statue in Antananarivo and visited the Vietnamese community in the country.
At a meeting with South African Ambassador Mpetjane Kgaogelo Lekgoro, President Quang expressed his hope that the diplomat would make constructive contributions to the friendship between Vietnam and South Africa.

The leader used the occasion to extend his congratulations to South Africa on the successful organisation of the presidential election and Cyril Ramaphosa on his win in the election.

The host said he believes that under the leadership of President Cyril Ramaphosa and the African National Congress (ANC), the South African Government and people would reap further achievements in national construction and development.

Vietnam always treasures the traditional friendship and the partnership for cooperation and development with South Africa, President Quang stressed.

He suggested that the two countries join hands in organising pragmatic activities marking the 25th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties and the 100th birth anniversary of President Nelson Mandela in 2018, as well as promptly organising the fourth Vietnam-South Africa Inter-Governmental Partnership Forum in Pretoria.

The President stressed that Vietnam highly values South Africas role as an economic force in Africa as well as its role and influence in multilateral organisations and forums such as the UN, the African Alliance, the Non-Aligned Movement, the group of 20 developing nations (G20), the group of emerging economies, which comprises of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS), and the South African Development Community.

He also praised South Africas efforts to promote peace and cooperation in the region and the world as a whole.

Mentioning the trade cooperation between the two countries, President Quang urged the ambassador to pay attention to promoting bilateral economic, trade and investment ties, and their affiliation in mining, education, tourism, natural resources and environment, culture and people-to-people exchanges.

In reply, the South African ambassador pledged that he will make concerted efforts to maintain and enhance the bilateral relationship, heeding the exchange of high-level visits between the two countries.

Noting Vietnams important role and position in the international arena, the diplomat said that South Africa pays due attention to stepping up its cooperation with Vietnam at multilateral forums and international organisations.

President Tran Dai Quang receives Egyptian Ambassador Mahmoud Hassan Neyel. (Photo: VNA)

At the reception for Egyptian Ambassador Mahmoud Hassan Neyel, President Quang expressed his belief that with his experience and pro-activeness, the diplomat would make significant contributions to fostering the Vietnam-Egypt ties.

President Quang conveyed his greetings to his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah Ah Sisi, while recalling the positive memories of Abdel Fattah Ah Sisis visit to Vietnam in 2017. He hoped that Egypt would have a successful election in March, 2018, a significant event in the northeast Asian nation.

Speaking highly of their bilateral cooperation at multilateral and international forums, he thanked Egypt for supporting Vietnams candidacies for the United Nations (UN) agencies, particularly the country released diplomatic notes endorsing Vietnams application to become a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for the 2020-2021 tenure.

Regarding the bilateral ties, President Quang expressed his wish that Mahmoud Hassan Neyel would work to boost delegation exchanges to fortify the friendship and mutual understanding.

Also, he recommended that the Egyptian Ambassador works to increase the two-way trade value to US$1 billion as set by leaders of both sides, hoping that Egypt would help Vietnam to build a set of Halal food standards used in the country, laying a foundation for exports to the Muslim markets.

Cooperation should be deepened in sport or art education via scholarship programmes and short-term training course to enhance people-to-people exchanges, he suggested.

Ambassador Mahmoud Hassan Neyel, for his part, said that the Egyptian President expects to welcome President Tran Dai Quang on his state visit to his country, saying that the trip will create a strong impetus for the cooperative ties between the two nations.

Egypt wants to learn from Vietnams experience in socio-economic development, he said, adding that he will focus on promoting two-way trade and facilitating conditions for Vietnamese goods to enter the EU and African markets.
Les Echos, a leading French financial newspaper, covered the talks between General Secretary Trong and President Macron on March 27, stating that the Party chiefs trip to France aimed to facilitate economic cooperation and strengthen Frances relations with Vietnam, one of the most vibrant economies in Asian with an annual growth rate of over 6% since the early 21st century.

Vietnam is currently in the process of rapid international integration, with the Vietnam-European Union (EU) Free Trade Agreement expected to be ratified by all member countries and take effect this year, as well as the countrys participation in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

Les Echos reviewed the France-Vietnam economic cooperation over the past few years, noting that France is currently the 16th largest investor in the Southeast Asian country with a total investment capital of approximately US$2.8 billion. It also touched on General Secretary Trongs meeting with the two countries businesses as part of his visit to France, during which the Party leader mentioned the cooperation fields of shared concern, such as energy, food processing, transportation, healthcare, and the digital economy.

Meanwhile, L'Humanite, the mouthpiece of the French Communist Party, published an interview granted by Hoang Binh Quan, head of the Party Central Committees Commission for External Relations, whilst covering the activities of Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong in Paris.

Lisa Sankari, a correspondent of L'Humanite, stated that the Vietnamese leaders visit took place at a critical moment as France is a member of the UN Security Council and could play a crucial role in helping Vietnam to open the door into Europe. In addition to political issues, Sankari said there remain many potential spheres for Vietnam-France cooperation, such as energy and the environment.

Le Parisien, another daily French newspaper, provided extensive coverage of General Secretary Trongs visit to Choisy Le Roi, which witnessed the five-year negotiations on the Paris Agreement on ending the war and restoring peace in Vietnam. In the city, the Party chief visited the Paris Agreement square, which was inaugurated in 2013 on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Paris Agreement, and met French friends.

Challenges, a weekly French language business magazine, and BFMTV, a news TV channel, on March 27 touched on the economic contracts signed between France and Vietnam on the occasion of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trongs visit.
Assoc. Prof Le Quoc Ly, Vice Director of the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics, highlighted the significance of refining the political system in each nation. In the past few years, Vietnam and Laos have worked step by step to renew their political systems and renovate the Partys leadership in order to build a law-governed socialist state.

In Vietnam, the functions and competence of the Partys leadership, the States authority and the surveillance of the Vietnam Fatherland Front and other socio-political organisations have been assigned in a more specific manner.

The apparatus has been streamlined to become more efficient, Ly noted, adding that Vietnam can learn from Laoss management decentralisation from central to grassroots levels and personnel work in the election and appointment of state officials.

In addition, Laos streamlined political system and its capacity to create unanimity among the Party, State and people are worth studying, he said.

Meanwhile, Assoc. Prof Samut thong Som Pa Nit, Vice Director of the Lao National Academy of Politics and Public Administration, highlighted that the organisation of the State apparatus, as well as units in the political and administrative system, depends on the working environment and living conditions in each nation. It serves as a motive to improve the strengths of the Party, State and people.

Participants at the event agreed that the political systems in both nations have changed to meet the market economys development and regional and international integration demand.

However, they should work more to identify and address the remaining shortcomings.
The documents were signed in the presence of Vietnamese Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, who is on an official visit to France, French National Assembly (NA) President Francois de Rugy, and other senior officials.

The signing of the two documents opens up new cooperation opportunities for Vietnam and France in space technology and intellectual property, while contributing to the two countries socio-economic development.

The LoI, signed between Vietnams Ministry of Science and Technology and Frances Airbus Defence and Space, maps out measures to boost the bilateral cooperation, exchange information, and share experience in earth observation, as well as drafting the organisation of science and technology events scheduled in 2018 and 2019.

Meanwhile, under the MoU, Vietnams Intellectual Property Department and Frances National Industrial Property Institute will accelerate their cooperation and information exchanges on industrial property; geographical indication protection, intellectual property commercialisation, technology transfer, and human resource training, among others.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- A church on the city's Northeast Side is hoping to sell its over-sized sanctuary and 18 acres of property to a developer who wants to build an 88-unit housing development.

Neighbors who oppose the redevelopment of the Wealthy Park Baptist Church at 2233 Michigan Street NE are hoping they can block the project, saying the property contains a valuable wetland and a rare example of a "prairie pothole."

That opposition took a hit last week when the city Planning Commission approved a request by Orion Real Estate Solutions for a land use permit. Commissioners also allowed the developer to reduce the protection area for the wetland from 75 feet to 25 feet.

Orion hopes to develop 22 four-unit townhouses on the property. Ryan Wheeler, Orion's vice president of development, said they hope to start building later this year after they get the final permits from the state and complete their building plans.

Although the townhouse will be built as market rate rental units, they are likely to be converted to condominiums in the future, he said.

Frances Neville, acting vice president of the Michigan Oaks Neighborhood Association, said the development will contribute to increasing traffic congestion on Michigan Street.

Developing the property also will contribute to water runoff problems that have plagued the neighborhood, which has a high water table, Neville said. Orion's plans will destroy a wetlands area that includes a rare prairie pothole, she said.

"We are still trying to get it identified and verified that this is a prairie pothole," Neville said. "If this is the case, it would be a huge scientific find for the city of Grand Rapids."

According to the Environmental Protection Administration, prairie potholes are "depressional wetlands (primarily freshwater marshes) found most often in the Upper Midwest, especially North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Minnesota."

Wheeler said their experts have concluded there is no prairie pothole on the property. Their development plans set aside four wetland areas and three storm water detention ponds while allowing them to develop the property.

The property has been owned by Wealthy Park Baptist Church since 1982.

Founded as a Sunday School in 1875, the church was at its height when it was led by the late Rev. David Otis Fuller, a fundamentalist preacher who helped establish a children's radio ministry and the Grand Rapids Baptist College and Seminary.

Once home to 1,500 weekly worshippers, Wealthy Park now has 86 members and averages about 100 worshipers every Sunday, according to its current pastor, William Swem.

The property includes the former Michigan Oaks Elementary School built in 1953 and a 1,200-seat sanctuary built in 1987. The property has been listed for $1.4 million for the past several months.

"Our budget is less than half of what it was 35 years ago; if this sale does not go through we will be forced to dissolve, ending 132 years of ministry in Grand Rapids," church treasurer Terry Hulsebus said in a letter to the Planning Commission.

If the sale goes through, Swem said the congregation plans to relocate to a yet-to-be-determined location.
Martin Slagter l The Ann Arbor News

ANN ARBOR, MI - The University of Michigan Board of Regents will vote on requests to rescind and remove the names on two of its buildings - the Clarence Cook Little Science Building and Alexander Winchell House - during its Board of Regents meeting on Thursday, March 29.

The requests to remove the names came in response in response to UM's announcement in January 2017 that it

in conjunction with its bicentennial.

Learn more about the cases presented for removing these names from UM buildings and why they are being recommended by UM President Mark Schlissel to the university's Board of Regents.

Don't Edit

Photos provide by the University of Michigan's Bentley Historical Library

Why C.C. Little and Alexander Winchell?

C.C. Little, who served as UM's president from 1925 to 1929, was an avowed eugenicist - someone who believes humans can be improved through controlled breeding of people with desirable genetic traits. He also supported policies such as compulsory sterilization of the "unfit" and immigration restriction, according to the university.

The case against Little, submitted by a group led by UM history professor John Carson, concluded the following:

"There is some debate about how to weigh Little's accomplishments over the course of his career, and clearly he produced some keen scientific insights, particularly with regard to mouse genetics. Just as clearly, however, he also promoted a scientific theory anchored in invidious judgments about the relative worth of different kinds of people and was a central figure in a campaign orchestrated by a PR firm to discredit public health evidence in order to protect a profitable industry. Moreover, Little's time at UM was brief and not noteworthy, whether looked at in terms of his scientific research or his contributions to the university. Thus in our view the Little building exemplifies the kind of university structure that should be renamed based on a critical and substantive reevaluation in one historical moment of a previous historical moment."

In an action request from Schlissel, the UM president noted that "The central tenet is that in the areas of eugenics and tobacco smoking."

"[Little] lent his scientific (and University) prestige to public policy campaigns supposedly based in science ... whose scientific foundations were minimal, exaggerated, or actually contradicted by mainstream scientists or the contemporary scientific consensus," the action request states.

In its decision, the committee emphasized that Little's support and participation in these campaigns had serious negative consequences noting that "his 1920s campaign for eugenic measures while University President - immigration restriction, sterilization of the 'unfit,' anti-miscegenation laws - and the 1950s campaign sowing doubt about the links between smoking and cancer negatively affected the lives of millions."

The President's Advisory Committee on University History's review also took into consideration the contents of two public forums that were held on the campus in 2017 exploring the life and career of C.C. Little.

In the case of the Winchell House, named for former professor Alexander Winchell, in the West Quad Residence Hall, a UM undergraduate student submitted a request that the name of the house be changed in February 2017, according to an action request submitted by Schlissel.

The President's Advisory Committee on University History unanimously recommended to Schlissel in September 2017 that the name be rescinded and removed.

In doing so, the committee independently considered "the content of Winchell's work, the trajectory of his life and career and the most recent findings of historians on the history of his period and his science," according to the action request.

"At the heart of the committee's recommendation is their conclusion that by both contemporary standards and even in the context of Winchell's day, his most notable work," the action request states, referencing the 1889 book "Preadamites, or a Demonstration of the Existence of Men before Adam," which was "unambiguously racist" and "out of step with the University's own aspirations in those times as well," according to Schlissel's action request.

According to the committee, portions of the book continue to be used today to support white supremacist views, thereby amplifying the negative contemporary effect of the Winchell naming, especially on "the actual building of communities" that we should aspire to in our residential housing.

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Hunter Dyke l The Ann Arbor News

What allows UM to change the names of the buildings

UM's new principles for renaming buildings and spaces on campus allow any member of the UM community to submit a proposal to the president's office for review and possible reconsideration of the current name of an officially named space.

Proposals are now considered through a set of guiding principles, outlined by an advisory committee, including pedagogy, interpretation, due diligence, commitment, revision, historical and institutional context and consistency.

, UM President Mark Schlissel said it was an appropriate time for UM to consider the people behind the names of its buildings.

"Amid all of our historical analyses, some have wondered from where the names on and within our campus buildings have come," Schlissel wrote. "Who are these people and why are university places named after them? What ideas, values, and actions were possible for namings in a particular historical context? Similar questions are being raised at a number of campuses across the nation."

The purpose of the new process, President's Advisory Committee on University History Chair Terrance McDonald explained, is not to interfere with future namings of buildings and spaces documented in the previous 2008 policy adopted by the U-M Board of Regents. Instead, he hopes the new process provides the university with a resource that can provide "a thoughtful, educated and historically accurate review of the decisions behind the existing names on or in university buildings."

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Hunter Dyke l The Ann Arbor News

Have other colleges and universities renamed buildings?

The practice of changing the names of campus buildings, spaces and landmarks has become more common in the past couple of years.

Yale University announced last February that it would rename Calhoun College, one of its 12 undergraduate residential colleges, in honor of distinguished graduate Grace Murray Hopper.



Yale President Peter Salovey said "The decision to change a college's name is not one we take lightly, but John C. Calhoun's legacy as a white supremacist and a national leader who passionately promoted slavery as a 'positive good' fundamentally conflicts with Yale's mission and values."

At Harvard University, the symbol of its Law School was changed in March 2016 after the Harvard Corporation voted to accept a committee's recommendation to remove the shield because it did not reflect the values of the school, according to the Washington Post.

The Harvard Crimson reported that the crest belonged to the Royall family, prominent slaveholders who helped endow the first law professorship at Harvard more than 200 years ago.

At Princeton University, Dodds Auditorium at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs was renamed Arthur Lewis Auditorium in honor of Sir Arthur Lewis, according to Planet Princeton.

Trustees at Princeton voted to approve recommendations for the name change in April 2017 that were made by the Council of the Princeton University Community Committee on Naming.

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Martin Slagter l The Ann Arbor News

If the regents approve, what happens next?

If the Board of Regents vote to rescind and remove the names from the buildings, there are two different processes for renaming each of the buildings.

In the case of the Winchell House, Schlissel said he will request that the Vice President for Student Life engage a process to bring forward a recommendation for renaming the house.

The C.C. Little building, on the other hand, would be renamed in accordance with the 2008 "Policy for Naming of Facilities, Spaces and Streets."

Until it is renamed, a functional designation for the space would be determined by the Associate Vice President for Facilities and Operations.

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Martin Slagter l The Ann Arbor News

Read the cases for removal

Want to read the cases for the removal of the Clarence Cook Little Science Building and Alexander Winchell House?

The proposals are included online in an action request for the UM Board of Regents. Read more about the case against Little and Winchell.
LANSING, MI -- The news on Tuesday was all about former Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine Dean William Strampel, someone the state alleges both enabled ex-Dr. Larry Nassar's sexual abuse and committed sexual misconduct himself.

Larry Nassar listens during his preliminary examination before Judge Donald Allen Jr. at Ingham County's 55th District Court Friday, June 23, 2017. Nassar faces 12 first-degree criminal sexual conduct charges in Ingham County, as well as additional charges in Eaton County and federal child pornography charges. (Neil Blake | MLive.com)

Strampel's story starts with Nassar's

Nassar, once a prominent physician employed by the university for nearly two decades, sexually assaulted women and girls, often under the guise of providing medical treatment. His story was splashed across national headlines earlier this year when more than 150 girls and women spoke out against him at sentencing hearings on first-degree criminal sexual conduct charges in two counties.

Nassar is in federal prison on possession of child pornography charges. He's also been sentenced to up to 174 years on 10 counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct.

Larry Nassar sentenced to 40 to 175 years for sexually assaulting patients

With Nassar behind bars, another level of scrutiny has turned on his boss, William Strample.

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William Strampel, the former dean of the Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine who was Larry Nassar's boss, is pictured on a TV screen as he is arraigned via video conference in 54-B District Court in East Lansing on Tuesday, March 27, 2018. (Cory Morse | MLive.com)

Who is William Strampel?

Strampel was Nassar's boss, but he is also one of his champions.

Strampel was appointed dean of the medical college in 2002, after serving as acting dean since 2001 and an internal medicine professor. His appointment was celebrated by Lou Anna K. Simon, then the university's provost.

"I join the faculty in being confident that he's the right person to lead this college," Simon said in a statement at the time.

He had a strong background in military medicine before coming to MSU, including serving as special assistant to the U.S. surgeon general.

In 2014, Strampel was involved in handling Nassar following a Title IX complaint lodged by Amanda Thomashow, who had sought medical treatment from Nassar and reported him for misconduct, including massaging her breasts and touching her vaginal area. She was seeking treatment for shoulder pain.

Nassar was suspended during the Title IX investigation but Strampel was the one who notified Nassar that he could return to work, according to an affidavit filed in support of charges filed against Strampel Tuesday. Strampel returned Nassar to work before the Title IX investigation was complete, according to the affidavit, and before the police had concluded their investigation. The police ended up recommending charges, which the Ingham County Prosecutor did not pursue.

And Strampel put a set of conditions on Nassar, including that he should wear gloves and have another person in the room when working on sensitive areas. But according to the affidavit, he failed to enforce those conditions.

Strampel stepped down for medical reasons on Dec. 14, 2017, but intended to return, according to his resignation letter.

In recent weeks, more has come out regarding Strampel's conduct. The Wall Street Journal

on March 18 that Strampel told a group of students and administrations in 2016 that he did not believe the allegations against Nassar.

on March 26 Strampel's performance reviews referenced his sexual innuendo and comments.

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Bill Forsyth, an investigator hired by Michigan's Attorney General Bill Schuette, holds a press conference at the G. Mennen Williams Building in Lansing on Tuesday, March 27, 2018. Dr. William Strampel, the former boss of Larry Nassar at Michigan State University, was arraigned later that afternoon. (Cory Morse | MLive.com)

Charges filed

Strampel was arrested on Monday and arraigned on Tuesday. He faces four charges:

one count of misconduct of a public official, a felony punishable by 5 years in prison and/or a $10,000 fine



one count of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct, a high court misdemeanor punishable by two years and/or a $500 fine



two counts of willful neglect of duty, a misdemeanor punishable by one year and/or a $1,000 fine.



The affidavit outlined inappropriate behavior ranging from asking a female student to turn around so he could inspect her body, talking with a student about women her age putting out for old men, telling a female student to dress sexier, suggesting a female student become a centerfold model and grabbing the buttocks of female medical students.

William Strampel, former MSU dean, charged with sexual misconduct

In addition, the affidavit outlined his possession of inappropriate images on his computer, including pictures of nude and partially-nude women, "bare vaginas," sex toys and pornographic videos.

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Bill Forsyth, third from left, an investigator hired by Michigan's Attorney General Bill Schuette, holds a press conference at the G. Mennen Williams Building in Lansing on Tuesday, March 27, 2018. Dr. William Strampel, the former boss of Larry Nassar at Michigan State University, was arraigned later that afternoon. (Cory Morse | MLive.com)

Tip led investigators to seize computer

Attorney General Bill Schuette has hired Special Assistant Attorney General Bill Forsyth to investigate the university in the wake of the Nassar scandal.

Forsyth led the investigation off with a document request for MSU, but got a tip specifically on Strampel's materials they believed required quick action, Forsyth said. Acting on that they seized relevant materials and that's what the affidavit and charges against Strampel are based on.

But at a press event announcing the charges, Forsyth wouldn't answer any questions from reporters.

Schuette spokesperson Andrea Bitely said he was following

against such communications "to the letter." Asked why the rule was not followed in the department's investigation of the Flint Water Crisis, where multiple press conferences were held and reporters' questions were answered, Bitely said "Different prosecutors have different styles. Mr. Forsyth was known in Kent County for his brevity"

The press conference comes on the heels of a January press event where Schuette, too, refused to take questions.

After Tuesday's announcement, here are 5 questions we're left with.

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William Strampel, left, the former dean of the Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine who was Larry Nassar's boss, is pictured on a TV screen as Judge Richard D. Ball presides over his video arraignment in 54-B District Court in East Lansing on Tuesday, March 27, 2018. Strampel, 70, faces one count of misconduct of a public official, a felony punishable by 5 years in prison and/or a $10,000 fine; one count of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct, a high court misdemeanor punishable by two years and/or a $500 fine; and two counts of willful neglect of duty, a misdemeanor punishable by one year and/or a $1,000 fine. (Cory Morse | MLive.com)

1) Why are they charging him with only one count of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct?

The felony complaint document specifies that Strampel is being charged with one count of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct for what the affidavit describes as "using force or coercion to accomplish the sexual contact" with alleged victim 2.

The contact as described in the affidavit was that at a scholarship dinner she was called up to get her picture taken with the scholarship donor and Strampel. While they were standing next to each other Strampel allegedly grabbed the victim's left buttock and "gripped it firmly."

There is a second alleged victim, alleged victim 4, whose buttock Strampel also allegedly grabbed at a public event. But there is no fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct charge associated with that alleged victim.

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Defense attorney John Dakmak talks with the media after William Strampel's video arraignment in 54-B District Court in East Lansing on Tuesday, March 27, 2018. Strampel, the former dean of the Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine who was Larry Nassar's boss, faces one count of misconduct of a public official, a felony punishable by 5 years in prison and/or a $10,000 fine; one count of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct, a high court misdemeanor punishable by two years and/or a $500 fine; and two counts of willful neglect of duty, a misdemeanor punishable by one year and/or a $1,000 fine. (Cory Morse | MLive.com)

2) When did Strampel get one of Nassar's "treatment" videos on his computer?

The affidavit associated with the charges says Strampel's work computer contained "pornographic videos and a video of Dr. Larry Nassar performing 'treatment' on a young female patient."

When was that video of Nassar's "treatment" downloaded or put on Strampel's computer? Is it possible Strampel possessed it as part of evaluating the 2014 complaint against Nassar? Why else might it be there?

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Larry Nassar sits with his attorneys during his preliminary examination at Ingham County's 55th District Court Friday, June 23, 2017. Nassar faces 12 first-degree criminal sexual conduct charges in Ingham County, as well as additional charges in Eaton County and federal child pornography charges. (Neil Blake | MLive.com)

3) What exactly does that video depict?

Nassar used to have publicly-available videos on his website of him doing different stretches and procedures. Is it one of these videos, or a video of him performing intravaginal work?

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The 54-B District Court in East Lansing where William Strampel was arraigned on March 28, 2018. (Emily Lawler | MLive.com)

4) Do prosecutors believe Strampel solicited nude photos from multiple female medical students?

One of the alleged victims cited in the affidavit claimed Strampel during a meeting commented on the difficulty of sending nude photos and said if he ever caught her taking nude photos she would be in trouble. The female student interpreted that as a request to send nude photos in exchange for special consideration.

The affidavit cited that incident and said Strampel "has solicited nude photos from at least one female medical student."

Police also found what they thought to be selfies of nude and semi-nude MSU students on his computer. Are they looking into whether some of those photos were solicited as well?

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The administration building on the campus of Michigan State University. (Emily Lawler | MLive.com)

5) Are investigators looking at who else may have been involved in putting Nassar back to work?

While the affidavit is clear in alleging Strampel was the one to send the email putting Nassar back to work during the 2014 Title IX complaint against him, it's not clear whether that was a unilateral decision or if other university employees were involved in putting him back to work.

Were more people involved in that decision? Are they being investigated?

The two misdemeanor charges against Strampel are for putting Nassar back to work before the 2014 Title IX investigation was concluded and also putting conditions on him that Strampel failed to enforce.
ANN ARBOR, MI - How's that bricklaying coming?

Some are asking that question as they pass by the northeast corner of Main and Mosley streets in Ann Arbor, where a new mixed-use apartment and retail building is rising, reusing some of the old bricks from a 19th-century buggy factory that once stood on the site.

While going through the city's development approval process two years ago, the development team vowed to preserve some of the architectural features of the former buggy factory and to try to salvage what could be saved from its facade to be reused.

In recent days, crews began laying the first of the salvaged bricks to start building up the Main Street facade at the corner of Main and Mosley, the portion of the building that will include retail spaces.

The rest of the building, now being called The Yard on South Main, will be entirely new and will include roughly 229 apartments with 588 bedrooms catering to University of Michigan students.

A rendering of the development at 615 S. Main St., incorporating the two-story brick facade of the old buggy factory building at the corner of Main and Mosley, as presented to the Ann Arbor Planning Commission on April 5, 2016. (Rendering by J Bradley Moore & Associates and Hensley Lamkin Rachel Inc.)

Architect Brad Moore said the old building and its bricks were in really bad shape, as they were old, soft and badly damaged from decades of water getting into the walls and freezing and expanding, cracking the bricks during the winter months, so only about 20 percent of the old bricks could be saved and are now being reused.

"Neglect is always deleterious to buildings," he said. "If previous owners of the building had taken care of it, then more brick could have been salvaged or damage might have been so minimal as to make disassembly of the buggy factory unnecessary."

There are now multiple stacks of bricks on the site, some from the former buggy factory and some new ones made to match.

Crews are prioritizing putting the old bricks on the main parts of the Main Street facade at the corner of Main and Mosley, while new ones are being used to build up the columns around them.

Moore said the work so far looks great and the reconstructed structure should last hundreds of years with proper care.

Collegiate Development Group took the project through the city's development approval process two years ago and it's now being marketed by Campus Apartments LLC. Take a virtual tour of the new luxury apartments and see monthly rental rates.

The Ann Arbor Buggy Company building, built in 1889 at 637 S. Main St., was home to several different businesses over the years before it came down last year as the new development moved ahead.

The property was first developed prior to 1900 and its early uses included a feed mill, residence, carriage maker and blacksmith shop.

At different points in its history, it served as home to The Ark, Neutral Zone and Firefly Club, as well as the original South Main Market before the market moved just to the north.

It also was the home of a food co-op run by the Ann Arbor Co-Operative Society, which was organized in 1933 as a coal-buying cooperative and branched out into grocery and filling station operations in 1936.

A September 1950 article in The Ann Arbor News shows the co-op had recently remodeled its store in the old building.

Another photo taken in 1957 shows the building looking much different, then occupied by the Electric Wholesale Supply Co.

Ann Arbor developer Alex de Parry of Ann Arbor Builders restored the building and converted it into a European-style market in 1981 and that was the original South Main Market.

The Ark, a popular folk music club in Ann Arbor, once operated in a space above the original South Main Market.

It was the second incarnation of The Ark, moving there in 1984 after operating out of a house on Hill Street.

The Ark continued to grow during its years above the South Main Market and eventually moved to its new home at 316 S. Main St. in 1996, where it continues to operate today.
ANN ARBOR, MI - Ann Arbor Public Schools is limiting when prospective Schools of Choice students can apply for the 2018-19 school year, but the board is not setting a specific cap on new Schools of Choice enrollment like it has in the past.

For the past four years, AAPS has opened 750 seats to new Schools of Choice students, although the actual number of students who live outside the geographical school district and choose to enroll at Ann Arbor Public Schools has been much lower.

For example, the school district received more than 700 Schools of Choice applications going into the 2017-18 school year, said Superintendent Jeanice Swift, and 460 new Schools of Choice students enrolled at AAPS this past fall, according to an enrollment report presented to the school board in December 2017.

Ninety-three of those new Schools of Choice students last fall had previously attended Ann Arbor Public Schools as district residents, and they wanted to continue at AAPS after their families moved.

Ann Arbor Public Schools enrolled a total of 1,518 Schools of Choice students this past fall, which accounts for 8.6 percent of the district's total K-12 enrollment.

On Wednesday, March 21, the AAPS board voted 5-1 in favor of accepting limited Schools of Choice enrollment periods.

"We voted to restrict enrollment periods," board President Christine Stead told The Ann Arbor News. "This allows the district to do a careful study in between periods on seat availability."

Ann Arbor Public Schools accepts transfer students only at grade levels and schools where there is space available, Swift emphasized, so the district is not hiring more staff or building more classrooms to accommodate Schools of Choice students.

Resident students are guaranteed a seat at their neighborhood school, and then any available seats are opened up to in-district transfer students before being offered to new Schools of Choice students.

"This function often improves things at a school," Swift said. "Our students don't fall into neat packages of 26. They fall rather unevenly. So sometimes a school may have 30-plus students in each of two sections, and we're able - through using in-district transfers and Schools of Choice - to go ahead and open a third section. So all of those class sizes stay lower, where we want them to be."

Board Secretary Jeff Gaynor voted against the Schools of Choice proposal on March 21. Last year when the board approved Schools of Choice seats going into the 2017-18 school year, Gaynor delivered a lengthy statement on why he thinks school choice undermines equitable quality public education.

Related: Ann Arbor school board debates Schools of Choice philosophy

He reiterated some of those concerns at last week's board meeting.

"The overall concern is how the state of Michigan is setting up the system that doesn't promote the common good," Gaynor said. "It sets up a series of competition between districts, between families, and I object to that. ... I do think we owe it to our fellow citizens to ask the larger questions rather than just how to get a win within the narrow parameters."

State law limits the property tax rate traditional public school districts can levy to raise revenue for their general funds, so accepting Schools of Choice students is the only other way public schools can attempt to increase their general fund revenue.

Michigan's school funding formula distributes state funding on a per pupil basis, and the money follows students to whatever public school they choose. Higher enrollment means more state funding.

Gaynor and other Schools of Choice critics are concerned about the damaging effects of forcing schools to compete for students.

School districts that can't compete lose students, which equates to a loss of state funding and can lead to cuts in programs and other supports. That makes the district less attractive to families, so more students leave and the downward spiral of budget cuts and declining enrollment continues.

Because most school districts - including Ann Arbor Public Schools - do not provide busing for Schools of Choice students, transportation is a factor in families' ability to choose where they send their children to school.

As a result, low-income students tend to be left at lower-performing schools while students with the means to attend school elsewhere leave.

Swift says families expect to have choices in finding the educational setting that works best for their children, which is why Ann Arbor Schools allows resident students to transfer to another school within the district as well as accepting students who live outside the school district.

"The truth is that ... families with means have always had a choice about schools, through their ability to move to any neighborhood or to pay for private or parochial school," Swift said. "Families who struggle financially don't always have those options to choose where they will live, so we do provide both the in-district transfer and the Schools of Choice option."

The first application window for Schools of Choice students runs from April 16 to May 15, and the grade levels and schools that have seats available will be posted on the district website by April 1. Two more application windows will run from May to June and in August.

If there are more applicants than seats available for a certain grade and school, a random lottery will decide who gets the seats.

AAPS will accept in-district transfer applications during the same times. In-district transfer students get first chance at available seats, and the district already has received 755 in-district transfer applications during two application windows earlier this year, Swift said.

The district publicized available space at the following schools and grade levels during the first two in-district transfer application windows:
* Brazilian President Michel Temer signed a decree on March 27 to provide 1.2 billion reais (US$360 million) for the federal security takeover of Rio de Janeiro.

*Kuwait signed two loan agreements with Bangladesh and Djibouti, about US$78 million, for financing development projects in the two countries, the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED) said on March 27.

* Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic said on March 27 that her invitation to Russian President Vladimir Putin was still on the table, even though Croatia decided to expel a Russian diplomat, Croatian news agency HINA reported.

Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic emphasized that Croatia and Russia should continue talking because there are many important topics ahead of them.

* Peru's new President, Martin Vizcarra, on March 27 made a national call for the country to come together to rebuild after torrential rains last year wiped out infrastructure and homes.

* The meeting of the India-U.S. Counterterrorism Joint Working Group was held in New Delhi, India on March 27 to coordinate bilateral efforts to counter terrorism, according to a statement released by the two governments.

*In a meeting with Foreign Minister of Morocco Nasser Bourita in the West Bank city of Ramallah on March 27, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that the Israeli measures and the unfair US policies are the main reason for bringing the Middle East peace process into a deadlock, the Palestinian state-run news agency WAFA reported.
YPSILANTI TOWNSHIP, MI - Police are investigating after a man said he was threatened with a knife during a road rage incident Monday night in Ypsilanti Township.

Authorities were dispatched about 9:30 p.m. Monday, March 26 to the area of South Huron River Drive and Textile Road for a felonious assault report, according to a press release from the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office.

Sheriff's deputies made contact with a 53-year-old Ypsilanti Township man who advised them an unknown male brandished a knife at him after a road rage incident, police say.

The suspect was described as a 5-foot-6 white male with a stocky build, black hair, scruffy facial hair and no front teeth, police say.

The suspect was driving a small, gray pickup truck and fled in an unknown direction, police say.

Further details were not immediately available.
LINWOOD, MI -- Once one of the nation's most prominent hatemongers, noted Bay County white supremacist and Nazi ally James Paul Wickstrom has died at the age of 75.

Most recently, Wickstrom lived in an apartment in Linwood, according to property records. Staff at Hyatt-Ewald Funeral Home confirmed they handled arrangements for Wickstrom. Saginaw County Clerk Michael Hanley confirmed that a death certificate was making its way to his office.

The Southern Poverty Law Center on Monday, March 26, published a piece announcing Wickstrom's death, citing sources within the white supremacist movement. An hour-long YouTube video published on March 25 entitled "Dr. James P. Wickstrom's eulogy" features a narrator stating Wickstrom "was taken by Yahweh God and died yesterday at 5 p.m."

Wickstrom, the subject of an award-winning 2003 Bay City Times series titled "The Racist Next Door," was a prominent figure in the anti-government Posse Comitatus and anti-Semitic Christian Identity movements. He led a branch of the latter, Yahweh's Truth in Linwood, preaching that Jews are the descendants of the biblical Eve and the Devil.

"Wickstrom was one of the biggest promotors of hate and violence against Jews and blacks Bay County has ever seen," said Sandra Rogers, executive director of the Temple Beth Israel in Bay City. "It was really bad. He wanted Jews and blacks killed. He would actually say that.

"It was unbelievable he lived so close," she continued. "He was one of the worst in the United States."

Wickstrom was born in Munising in the Upper Peninsula. He was recruited into the Posse Comitatus movement in 1975, at which time he worked as a salesman for Snap-On Tools. By the early 1980s, he was spreading the movement's doctrine across the Midwest and the Great Plains, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

"An effective and bombastic speaker, Wickstrom raged against Jews, the U.S. government, banks, the Trilateral Commission and other nefarious forces that he believed were bent on destroying the livelihood of farmers," the SPLC reported. "Although many rejected Wickstrom's hateful ideology, thousands of frustrated farmers, their friends and family members accepted the idea their financial problems were caused by greater powers beyond their control."

In February 1984, Wickstrom appeared on "The Phil Donahue Show," spouting Posse Comitatus rhetoric and defending then-fugitive Gordon Kahl, who murdered two U.S. marshals in 1983.

Wickstrom served two prison stints. In 1984, he was sentenced to 13.5 years on two convictions of impersonating a public official. In 1990, he was convicted of counterfeiting currency and illegally possessing firearms and received a 38-month sentence.

In the early 2000s, Wickstrom routinely held hate group meetings in Marquiss Quality Furniture store in Hampton Township. The building was destroyed by an arson fire in 2004.

Later that year, Wickstrom took a national leadership role with an Aryan Nations group based in Pennsylvania.

Law enforcement personnel from the Hampton Township Police Department and the Michigan State Police gather in front of Marquiss Quality Furniture, where James Wickstrom preached white supremacy at the store.

Rogers said that despite Wickstrom's death, his legacy of hate lives on.

"Even though one piece of evil has died, there are 20 more to take his place," she said.
MIDLAND, MI -- A Midland teenager who opened fire on police with a stolen gun was not killed by an officer's return fire. Rather, he committed suicide.

Results from an autopsy performed on the remains of 16-year-old Jaden Marsh indicate he shot himself in the head alongside Midland's East Ashman Street in the early morning of March 12. He had also suffered a gunshot wound to one of his legs, according to Michigan State Police Special 1st Lt. David Kaiser.

Investigators also determined Jaden had fired at least one additional bullet from the stolen handgun he wielded, police having recovered it from the ground. Kaiser could not yet divulge how many rounds a Midland police officer fired.

Two Midland police officers at 1:39 a.m. on March 12 responded to a 911 call of two young males trying to break into a parked vehicle in the 2000 block of East Ashman Street. The officers spotted the youths, one of whom was Jaden. As one officer spoke with the compliant teen, Jaden took off running, pursued by the second officer.

Police have said Jaden began firing a pistol, which led to the officer returning fire. The officer was uninjured. Responding medical personnel pronounced Jaden dead at the scene.

Initial reports indicated the officer had shot Jaden.

The officer, whose name has not been released, was placed on paid administrative leave, as is standard in police-involved shootings.

Kaiser said the investigation is still in the hands of the state police. Once completed, it will be sent to the Midland County Prosecutor's Office for review.

In a March 13 interview with The Bay City Times-MLive, Jaden's father, Todd Marsh, said his son suffered from mental health issues including ADHD and depression. He had previously attempted suicide numerous times and was off-and-on medication.

Todd Marsh added Jaden had left his house a few weeks prior, disappearing with some of his dad's cash and his vehicle with him. An hour or so before the shooting, Jaden had sent a Snapchat message to a brother in California indicating he had a gun and was going to end his life. Before the brothers' conversation ended, though, Jaden expressed that he was just tired and was going to bed.

Police have said the gun Jaden used had been reported stolen from an unlocked vehicle parked in the parking lot of the Holiday Inn Express, 810 Cinema Drive in Midland, on March 11.
Actor Mark Wahlberg is pledging to put his phone down and "#justdrive" in honor of a Novi teen who died in a car crash involving a distracted driver.

Wahlberg talked about Mitchel Kiefer, a former Michigan State University student who was killed at 18 years old in a car crash on Sept. 19, 2016, in a video posted online Tuesday.

Tuesday marked Kiefer's 20th birthday, and Wahlberg aims to raise awareness of the dangers of distracted driving and all associated deaths and injuries in the video, which was posted to several social media platforms.

"Distracted driving is the number one killer of young people," Wahlberg said in the video. "Ten people are killed in this country everyday by distracted drivers. Now these are terrible stats."

"We can make a difference. I pledge to put my phone down and #justdrive, and I am asking all of you watching this video to do the same. Please don't text and drive."

Kiefer was driving to his dorm on I-96 and was hit by another vehicle at 7:50 a.m.

"Mitchel's car was struck from behind with such force that it was driven across the median into oncoming traffic and Mitchel's car was broadsided by a truck. Mitchel was killed instantly," father Steve Kiefer said in August 2017, during an announcement of the planned installment of protective cable barriers on the highway.

Wahlberg connected with Steve Kiefer through a mutual friend and learned of The Kiefer Foundation, an organization the family started to end distracted driving, and wanted to help further their mission, according to a foundation spokesperson.

"He took a very keen interest in the initiatives being led by The Kiefer Foundation, and actually talked about his young children and how this message was really important to him and his family as future drivers," Kiefer said in a news release. "He said that he was absolutely willing to do whatever he needed to help the foundation and help the cause and he was fully supportive."

"We really want to use the month of April to significantly increase the amount of awareness around the dangers of distracted driving and finalize our plans for a national campaign. The goal is to engage young people to submit videos to influence all their friends to end distracted driving and provide scholarships to the best ones."

Wahlberg posted the video below to his Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Mark Wahlberg Pledges to Put Down His Phone and #JustDrive Thank you, Mark Wahlberg, for taking action and pledging to put your phone down and #justdrive. Today, on Mitchel's 20th birthday, let's all pledge to do the same. The next child saved could be yours. Posted by The Kiefer Foundation on Tuesday, March 27, 2018

The Kiefer Foundation and the Michigan Department of Transportation are investing $300,000 into a 1.7-mile-stretch of cable barriers on the portion of the highway where the 18-year-old died.

The barriers contain 97 percent of out-of-control vehicles, according to MDOT.

"It's a parent's absolute worst nightmare," Kiefer said at the announcement. "Mitchel was a man who was going to change the world and I think he still is through our foundation."
Jackson County Sheriff Steven Rand, who's been recorded making derogatory remarks about women and a lieutenant with disabilities, and is accused in a federal lawsuit of making racist comments on multiple occasions, has found a seemingly unlikely supporter: a black clergyman who sits on the state's Civil Rights Commission.

Bishop Ira Combs Jr. of the Greater Bible Way Temple in Jackson, a Republican who was appointed to the Civil Rights Commission by Gov. Rick Snyder, was sworn in Monday, the same day Jackson's mayor asked the commission to investigate Rand.

The sheriff has been described as a "multi-faceted bigot" in a federal lawsuit filed by a former lieutenant, who also made the secret audio recordings of Rand.

Rand has apologized and expressed embarrassment over the release of the recordings.

The bishop said Monday that he believes Rand's apology was sincere, that he doesn't believe the sheriff is a racist and that there is "room for redemption."

Combs has faced accusations of discrimination himself for his stances on LGBT rights and marriage.

He supports "traditional marriage values" and spoke against Jackson's passage of a 2017 nondiscrimination ordinance, which bans disparate treatment based on gender identification and sexual orientation. Combs called the ordinance overreaching and the language "severe," but said he does not support discrimination.

Combs bio on Greater Bible Way Temple website

Combs remains a supporter of the sheriff, who's been asked to resign from his elected position by both the Jackson City Council and Jackson County Board of Commissioners.

The sheriff, who may now also face a civil rights discrimination investigation, has said he intends to stay in office.

"There is a call by the (Jackson) County Commission for the governor to remove the sheriff," Combs said. "Some of us don't agree with that. We think that the work of the Department of Civil Rights would be much more beneficial and helpful in calming the attitudes and the fireworks that have erupted in that community.

"He did sincerely apologize."

Combs acknowledges that more detrimental recordings made by the former lieutenant, Tommy Schuette, could be on the way.

There are "a whole host of tapes out there that are currently still in the custody of the detective and he's threatening to reveal even more salacious details of racism and statements of discrimination," Combs said at Monday's Michigan Civil Rights Commission meeting.

Combs said his friendship to Rand's father, who was a Jackson police officer and Jackson County Commissioner, stretches back years.

"People need to stop trying to drive these people out like they're not part of the community as well," Combs said. "I've known his father. I was on his father's cabinet committee. His father is not a racist. His father's a dear friend of mine, I've known his father for years. His father is retired to Florida now.

"There's room for redemption. I don't believe" the sheriff is a racist.

Schuette's federal lawsuit claims he was discriminated against by the sheriff for having a disability -- hearing loss -- and sufered retaliation when he reported his boss.

Audio tapes released by the lieutenant show that Rand referred to a female judge as a 'scatter-brained c---,' and said he'd like to make a pornographic film in which he kills a courthouse employee while having sex with her. The sheriff has not denied it is his voice in the recordings.

The lawsuit claims Rand called a former deputy a "dumb n-----," and referred to a group black suspects as "f------ monkeys" while reviewing video of a fight.

Other allegations of racist remarks made by Rand from the lawsuit:

In an August 2017 staff meeting, during a discussion of a black deputy under internal investigation, Rand remarked: "We should step on their necks like we used to," the lawsuit states.

In September 2017, Rand allegedly asked a Hispanic Jackson police command officer: "Don't you have any gardens to go pick?"

Jackson Mayor Derek Dobies sent a two-page letter and 189 pages of media coverage to Agustin Arbulu, Michigan Department of Civil Rights director, on Monday, requesting a civil rights investigtigation.

During a three-hour Michigan Civil Rights Commission meeting Monday, Arbulu said his staff plans "to determine whether the jurisdiction standards are met" within the letter for a formal complaint to be opened. He expects a decision will be reached within 15 days.

Combs, based on his relationship with the sheriff, abstained from a vote at the meeting, during which commissioners asked the department to send a letter to Attorney General Bill Schuette asking for clarification as to whether his office is investigating the sheriff criminally.

Combs said he doesn't think a civil rights investigation is necessary, but believes the Civil Rights Commission should offer training to the county -- which it has already begun to do -- and host "sensitivity hearings" for the public to voice their concerns.

"If they're going to treat the mayor's letter as a complaint, it would be healthy, positively healthy, if they came in and heard from both sides," Combs said. "And then issue some responses that are remediation-oriented that are going to bring some solutions and bring people together."

Combs admits racism is a problem in "all of our communities, but particularly Jackson."

"Jackson could use some improvement in all areas," Combs said. "... There needs to be more fair representation and inclusion.

"(Rand) may be very well retiring," but "in my view, he has enough support ... 54,000 votes; he has enough support in the community to be effective."
A Detroit police supervisor is accused of sexual assaulting a woman, but few details are being released at this time.

"We want to get to the truth of the matter," Detroit Police James Craig said from Detroit police headquarters Thursday, March 28. The officer "has not been suspended; there is nothing to suspend him for at this point.

" ... An allegation in itself doesn't necessarily warrant a suspension."

Chief Craig speaks about an alleged CSC incident involving a member of the department. Posted by Detroit Police Department on Wednesday, March 28, 2018

The investigation was opened Feb. 15 when the woman "went in or called" the 11th Precinct and "made some allegations consistent with possible harassment."

The supervisor reported the claim to the Office of the Chief Investigator in accordance with protocol.

"The very next day, an anonymous call was made to Internal Affairs," Craig said. "It was during that call that the caller, who refused to identify themselves, said that they were the victim of a possible sexual assault."

The woman was identified using caller ID and an Internal Affairs investigator went to the woman's home to conduct a wellness check, based on concerning comments she made during the report.

"She refused to be interviewed and she said she would be fine," Craig said.

According to the police chief, there have been multiple attempts to reach the woman for an interview and she has declined.

"Right now we can't substantiate any criminality without interviewing a victim or complainant," Craig said, adding that she only spoke to police through an upstairs window of the residence.

Charlie LeDuff reported for Deadline Detroit, based on unnamed sources, that the woman was raped by a sergeant when she visited the precinct to be updated on an unrelated case.

"That's not what I'm getting," Craig said. "I don't know where and when or how this department member has initial contact with her."

Craig says the accused officer hadn't been interviewed as of Tuesday.

This is the third time criminal allegations have been made against members of the 11th precinct, but the chief refutes "any notion that the 11th Precinct is spiraling out of control."

Most recently, then-Commander Timothy Leach was accused of seriously injuring a restaurant patron while off duty and performing security detail at the Ottava Via restaurant in Corktown on the day of the Detroit St. Patrick's Day parade.

The incident wasn't initially reported by Leach, who's since been demoted to lieutenant and is on paid administrative suspension. Police who responded to 911 calls made after the man became unconscious were told by restaurant employees that he slipped and fell while apparently intoxicated, Craig previously said.

A warrant review was submitted to the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office in that case Tuesday, March 28. The prosecutor's office doesn't expect to make a ruling on criminial charges until at least next week.

Craig said warrant requests were also submitted following an embarrassing and volatile November incident following a clash between undercover officers from the 12th Precinct, who were ordered to the ground at gunpoint by Narcotics Unit officers from the 11th Precinct prior to a planned raid.

A physical fight between multiple officers ensued.

Three warrant requests were submitted in that case but "no one wanted to prosecute in that matter, so we're moving forward with the administrative" investigation," Craig said Tuesday.
FLINT, MI -- Michigan's chief medical executive has been charged with crimes related to the Flint water crisis, but a researcher has told a Genesee District Court judge that Dr. Eden Wells sought to "get to the truth of the matter."

Virginia Tech professor Marc Edwards told Judge William Crawford Tuesday, March 27, that he saw no evidence of Wells having committed crimes during her preliminary examination on potential charges including involuntary manslaughter.

Prosecutors say Wells, a member of Gov. Rick Snyder's cabinet, failed to protect the health and welfare of Flint area residents, including victims of Legionnaires' disease outbreaks in the Flint area while the city used the Flint River as its water source in parts of 2014 and 2015.

Wells is charged with attempting to withhold funding for programs designed to help the victims of the water crisis and with lying to an investigator about material facts related to an Flint investigation by the Michigan Attorney General's Office.

Edwards said he was impressed by Wells in his dealings with her, telling Crawford she responded quickly when he raised concerns about delays in releasing information about rising blood lead levels in Flint.

"I said I though there were some emails missing (and) very quickly I had the emails" from Wells, said Edwards, whose research connected the corrosiveness of Flint water with rising levels of lead.

After decades of using pre-treated water from Lake Huron, Flint's water source changed to the Flint River in April 2014.

Within 17 months, the decision, made while the city was run by state-appointed emergency managers, was reversed after outbreaks of Legionnaires' and increased levels of bacteria, total trihalomethanes and lead were found in water.

Edwards is among those who believe the city's switch to river water without proper treatment to make it less corrosive triggered both elevated lead and increased Legionella bacteria large buildings in Flint at the time.

The professor said he disagreed with the approach taken by the Flint Area Community Health and Environment Partnership, which contracted with the state to find the root cause of the Legionella outbreaks, which officials have said killed at least a dozen people in Genesee County while the river was in use.

Instead of focusing on the potential for the bacteria in water filters, for example, Edwards said FACHEP should have used its resources to investigate cases tied to large buildings, particularly hospitals, where his own testing showed very high levels were present.

Asked if Wells did anything to discourage his research, Edwards said, "To the contrary. She seemed interested, and she encouraged it."

Edwards' testimony was taken before special prosecutor Todd Flood rested his preliminary examination case against Wells, a change in normal schedule because Edwards had already traveled to Flint to testify in another criminal court case involving the water criss and Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon.

The researcher's testimony in the Lyon case Monday, March 26, and Tuesday covered similar ground -- general praise for DHHS and criticism of FACHEP and Shawn McElmurry, the Wayne State University professor, who led the group.

McElmurry was called by prosecutors in both the Wells and Lyon cases, telling a far different story than Edwards about his dealings with DHHS, including constant resistence from the state agency as his team sought to find the source of the Legionnaires' outbreaks.

Members of the FACHEP team caused more harm than good by making false claims about the cause of a six-fold increase in Shigellosis cases in Genesee County in 2016, Edwards said.

Edwards said a FACHEP member claimed on social media that Flint water was causing the increased number of cases, a claim he said has been demonstrated to be false.

"That's the wrong message at the wrong time in the wrong place," he said. "Getting the wrong message out to the public can hurt people, and I believe it did hurt people."

In an email to MLive-The Flint Journal, McElmurry said it would be inappropriate for him to comment on Edwards' testimony.

"These are matters for the court," he said.

The Wells preliminary exam is scheduled to continue to its 13th day Wednesday, March 28.
MICHIGAN -- A federal appeals court has upheld a $350,000 verdict for a former state police sergeant who claimed retaliation after she filed sexual harassment complaints against a co-worker.

Judges with the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday, March 28 in favor of Linda Mys.

Mys in 2016 won a jury verdict in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids.

She was assigned to the state police Newaygo post when she twice requested Internal Affairs reviews -- in 2005 and 2007 -- after she alleged sexual harassment from a colleague, another sergeant.

Mys, who lived in Sand Lake at the time and cared for her ailing mother, eventually was re-assigned to Detroit on order of a transfer board. She had hoped for a position in Rockford or, in the alternative, Lakeview or Reed City.

Mys, who took early retirement in 2010, argued the transfer was retaliation.

In an appeal, state police argued the jury made a mistake and there was little evidence to substantiate her retaliation claim.'

The judges at the appeals court disagreed.

"Contrary to the Department's assertion, the record contains ample evidence that supports the jury's verdict and award," according to a March 28 opinion.

The attorney for Mys, Collin Nyeholt, released a statement after today's opinion.

"We hope this will encourage the MSP to take a hard look at how it handles situations like Linda's in the future," he said.
WALKER, MI - The West Michigan Academy of Environmental Science was locked down after an email threat and later dismissed early, according to Walker Police Department.

According to the police, the threat against the charter school, located at 4463 Leonard St. NW, was reported at 11:55 a.m., but not deemed credible. However, the school decided to dismiss students.

The exact nature of the threat or who it was sent to were not immediately available. The academy serves 751 students, from preschool through 12th grade.

A local preschool was also affected by the threat.

In a 1:45 p.m. email, officials with AppleTree Early Care and Preschool, located at 53 Lake Michigan Dr., notified families it was advised to go on a precautionary soft lock down by the Walker Police Department, after being contacted about a local elementary school threat.

"We were reassured there is no direct threat to our school,'' wrote Margaret Brownell, co-director of Appletree.

"Our doors will remain locked with shades drawn but you are welcome to come pick up at any time."

However, the police had no comment regarding calls made to surrounding schools related to the threat.

Michigan has seen a wave of school threats since the 17 people - 14 students and three educators- were killed in a mass shooting Feb. 14, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Central Montcalm Schools were closed Wednesday, March 28, due to a potential threat.

Last week, a threat forced Hastings Area Schools to cancel classed on Friday, March 23. The type of threat or how it was delivered was not disclosed but it was the second this month to shutdown the district.

A 17-year-old was to charged for allegedly making a false threat against Hastings. Police say he left a note in a high school bathroom that led to classes being cancelled on March 5. Barry County prosecutors recently authorized charges.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Grand Rapids Public Schools is not among the five Michigan communities designated as Promise Zones able to provide local students tuition-free college, according to the Department of Treasury.

In November, the Promise Zone legislation expanded the number of communities that can receive such designations from 10 to 15. Two cities and two school districts were already on the waiting list.

Designation requests are reviewed by Treasury on a first come, first served basis. Grand Rapids was competing with Mason County for the fifth spot, which was designated a Promise Zone in February securing the last slot.

"I think that the community is getting excited about the opportunity,'' said Mason County Administrator Fabian Knizacky, about the ability for students within its boundaries to attend community college for free.

Mason County was able to submit a week before Grand Rapids on Feb. 8, due to an advertising error that delayed the district's required public hearing.

Grand Rapids is currently the only entity on the waiting list for a designation, according to Treasury officials.

"While we may be on the waiting list, we have clearly signaled our intent and hope for Grand Rapids to be a designated a Promise Zone,'' said Superintendent Teresa Weatherall Neal.

"There is a lot of energy and excitement about this opportunity throughout the district with our partners, and the community as a whole.''

If it was designated, graduates of any high school within the district's boundaries -- public, private or charter -- could have received a scholarship to attend at least a two-year community college tuition free or potentially a four-year university.

Neal said the district will work with the Department of Treasury to determine if any of the existing applicants on the previous waiting list may be willing to forgo their designation.

If that is not a viable option, she said school leaders will explore what other options may be available.

The other communities with high child poverty rates named Promise Zones are: the cities of Flint and Rogue River, Forest Park School District, and Covert School District.

Treasury officials say they have been in communications with all the entities and barring formal correspondence declining participation in the program, all 15 spots are now filled.

Promise zones initially rely on private contributions but after two years can capture half of the annual growth in local State Education Tax collections.

A 2009 Michigan law allowed the creation of promise zones in up to 10 Michigan communities with above average rates of childhood poverty: Muskegon Area Intermediate District, Newaygo County, Detroit, Pontiac, Saginaw, Lansing, Baldwin Community Schools, Battle Creek Public Schools, Hazel Park, and Benton Harbor Area Schools.

An eligible city, township, county, local school district, or intermediate school district can declare its intention, by resolution, to establish a Promise Zone. To be eligible, the entity seeking to establish a zone must meet or exceed the state average poverty level for families with children under 18.

Each Promise Zone is governed by an 11-member Promise Zone Authority. The local government or school system appoints nine members and the Michigan Legislature the other two members.

Once the authority is established, members will decide when the program will begin, whether it will be for a two-year or four-year degree college or technical school. The panel would also determine student criteria such as GPA requirements.

Knizacky said Mason County expects to name its board on April 10.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang meets with a U.S. Congress delegation led by U.S. senator Steve Daines in Beijing, capital of China, March 27, 2018. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing)

BEIJING, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Tuesday called on the U.S. Congress to play a constructive role and work with China to maintain the political and public opinion foundations for China-U.S. relations.

Li made the remarks while meeting with a U.S. congress delegation, led by U.S. senator Steve Daines.

Li said China-U.S. ties had gone through a tortuous journey since the establishment of diplomatic ties, and had been moving forward.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump met and communicated several times, and reached important consensus on bilateral ties and cooperation, he said.

"The two economies are highly complementary to each other and their cooperation has been continuously expanding," Li said, adding that friction and differences were inevitable.

"Some age-old trade issues cannot be settled overnight," the Chinese premier added. "To launch a trade war could never solve problems, and runs counter to the fundamental principles of trade."

"China will work towards a solution through dialogue and consultation, and is also fully prepared with counter measures," Li said.

He called on the U.S. side to meet China halfway, which will help to maintain multilateral trade rules and is good for both countries and the whole world.

Steve Daines and senators Charles Grassley, Ron Johnson, David Perdue and Ben Sasse called U.S.-China ties one of the most important bilateral relations in the world, adding that there was no reason for both countries to have conflict.

They said the U.S. Congress was ready to help resolve bilateral trade friction in a mutually beneficial way.

Later in the day, Wang Chen, vice chairperson of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) presided over talks between the NPC and the delegation, and both sides exchanged views on parliamentary exchanges and other issues.
HUDSONVILLE, MI - The Hudsonville School Board named Rockford Public Schools Assistant Superintendent Douglas VanderJagt as its next superintendent, officials announced Tuesday, March 27.

"We are excited to have Dr. VanderJagt lead our students, staff, and community in its tradition of educational excellence,'' said school board president Ken Hall, about the fast growing 6,733-student district.

Effective July 1, VanderJagt will replace Superintendent Nicholas Ceglarek, who announced in November he was leaving after eight years to become superintendent of the Traverse Bay Intermediate School District.

"Hudsonville is a strong community with an amazing student population,'' said VanderJagt, who has worked in education for 26 years, 16 in Rockford.

"The school district is doing a lot of amazing things. My job is to continue the relationships with the staff and the community to foster its continued success.''

The appointment ends a lengthy process that included site visits. There were 28 applicants for the job. This month, the field was narrowed from five to three and finally down two finalists, VanderJagt and Hudsonville Assistant Superintendent Scott Smith.

"We were fortunate to have two exceptional finalists which made our board's decision difficult,'' said Hall.

With six of the seven board members present, the vote was 5 to 1 for VanderJagt. Board member Larry Kapenga voted in opposition.

"Dr. VanderJagt currently serves as Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources at Rockford Public Schools. Based on his experience in this role and extensive background in teaching and administration, the board is confident that he will promote the attributes of servant leadership while challenging us to improve and grow as a district,'' according to the board statement.

Since November, the school board has been working in conjunction with the Michigan Association of School Board on the search process.

"A key goal of this search process was to identify a candidate who exemplified the values of the district while possessing the vision and skills to build upon our success and take Hudsonville Public Schools to the next level of performance,'' according to the school board statement.

"The board truly appreciates the input of our teachers, administrators, parents and community members during this process.''

VanderJagt, 47, a native of Jenison, has lived in Hudsonville for a decade. He and wife, Dorothy, have a child in the district.

"I am certainly looking forward to working with their staff and encouraged by the quality of the leadership they have now,'' VanderJagt said.

"The bottom line is that Hudsonville has great teachers and staff members and an amazing reputation, from how the community supports the school system to how the district supports its community.''

VanderJagt has been assistant superintendent for Rockford since 2013. He was previously principal of the nearly 8,000-student district's Freshman Center. Prior to Rockford, he taught math in East Grand Rapids Public Schools at the middle and high school level.

He earned a bachelor's degree in education from Grand Valley State University (GVSU). His master's and doctorate degree in educational leadership are from Western Michigan University. He is an adjunct professor at GVSU.

VanderJagt is curently in contract negotiations with the district.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI - A man charged with perjury in the Mujey Dumbuya homicide investigation said he had nothing to do with the crime.

Gerald Bennett, 58, of Detroit, on Wednesday, March 28, objected to his attorney's request to delay his probable-cause hearing to evaluate the prosecution's evidence.

"My due process is not being honored or respected (for) a crime I did not commit," he told Grand Rapids District Judge Michael Distel.

The judge said he appreciated Bennett's concerns, but said Bennett's attorney, Charles Clapp, could best defend him if he had a chance to review the prosecutor's case against him.

When the judge asked if he was OK with the delay, he said, "No, I'm not."

Assistant Kent County Prosecutor Kellee Koncki agreed that a delay - the hearing is now set for April 12 - was appropriate.

Clapp said he is "awaiting additional information."

He did not respond directly when the judge asked if that included "DNA test results."

Both Bennett and Daren Eckford, 50, of Detroit, have been charged with perjury, a potential life offense, related to the investigation into Dumbuya's strangulation. She went missing Jan. 24 after she left for the bus stop for school.

She was found dead four days later in a wooded area on Kalamazoo's north side.

Police in Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo have been looking at Quinn James, 42, of Wyoming, who was accused of raping Dumbuya multiple times last summer. He awaits trial in Kent County Circuit on four charges of third-degree criminal sexual conduct involving Dumbuya.

A Grand Rapids police Major Case detective said in court records that Bennett could also be linked to the killing.

"I believe (Bennett) possesses knowledge in the murder of Mujey Dumbuya and/or assisted in the planning or execution of the crime," Detective Case Weston wrote in court documents.

Weston was prepared to testify Wednesday before the hearing was adjourned.

He said in court records that Eckford, the other perjury suspect, "lied about his communication and/or contact with Quinn James and/or Gerald Bennett."

Eckford on Tuesday, March 27, waived his right to a probable-cause hearing and had his case bound over to Circuit Court for trial.

No one has been charged in the killing. Dumbuya died of "asphyxia, including strangulation," her death certificate showed.

James' attorney, Jonathan Schildgen, said prosecutors lack evidence against his client and have turned to using investigative subpoenas, which force potential witnesses to talk or face jail and fines.

"They bring in as many people as they can," Schildgen said this week. "Catch as many as possible in minor mistakes etc. Charge them with life offenses and monitor their jail calls and hope something shakes out."

Kent County prosecutors filed an unrelated sex-assault charge against James in a 2014 complaint as soon as Dumbuya was identified as a homicide victim. James had been free on $100,000 bond when Dumbuya was killed, but bond was increased to $500,000 after he was charged in the 2014 case.

Kalamazoo police confirmed that Quinn spent time in Kalamazoo growing up.

The victim, a student at East Kentwood High, was sexually assaulted by James - who worked in grounds and maintenance at Kentwood schools - last summer, previous court testimony showed.

Her boyfriend, Daquarius Daymont Bibbs, 17, was living with James, who was engaged to Bibbs' aunt, Tiara Burnett.

Burnett also has been charged with perjury but is free on $50,000 bond. The other two are held on $100,000 bonds.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Grand Rapids officials are seeking help funding an estimated $230,000 project that would make Riverside Park more accessible to park-users with disabilities.

The city commission voted unanimously Tuesday, March 27, to approve the submission of a Michigan Natural Resources recreation passport grant application for $150,000 to be used on the project.

Officials plan to cover the remaining $80,000 cost with parks millage dollars.

Improvements to the park would begin in 2019. They would include an EZ launch Accessible Transfer System for kayaks and canoes, which features guide rails for easy access in and out of the water, launch rollers for easy movement, and a transfer bench to assist in transfer from wheelchair to watercraft.

A proposed EZ Launch Kayak Dock to be added to Riverside Park in Grand Rapids as part of a 2019 park upgrade.

Other renovations would include a new picnic shelter, new Americans with Disabilities Act-approved restroom, new dock access pathway and dedicated handicap parking.

The project is in line with the city's 2017 parks and recreation strategic master plan.

Megan Kruis, executive director of the Creston Neighborhood Association, also supported the grant application, via a letter to the commission.

"The project will be an asset to our community and will make unique recreation opportunities in Riverside Park and the Grand River accessible to more residents," the letter reads.

"The accessible dock proposed in this project would be a service to those in our neighborhood with mobility constraints, not only for individuals who use wheelchairs, but also older adults or those unfamiliar with water recreation. Accessibility for residents of all ages and abilities is very important for our neighborhood and our city."

John Rothwell, a Grand Rapids resident, was the lone meeting attendee to speak during Tuesday's public hearing on the proposal. He said he supported the project "100 percent," and added that he'd like to see the removal of dead trees from the river, and the addition of a few fountains.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Grand Rapids officials expect to have the city manager job listed by mid-April with the intention of filling the position by August 2018.

The timeline was presented to the city commission Tuesday, March 27, by Art Davis, of Springsted Waters Inc. -- the group contracted for $26,500 to assist in the city manager search.

"Grand Rapids is a city to emulate if you're a local government in the United States," Davis said. "We've got to make sure we have a really strong pool of candidates for your consideration, and we've got to get it right, and we will."

The first attempt to replace retired City Manager Greg Sundstrom was deemed unsuccessful in early February after there was a divide among commissioners and the public regarding the three finalists.

Some commissioners said the short time frame and timing around the holiday season played a role in limiting candidates throughout the search.

In their second attempt, commissioners said they wanted to hold off on making significant decisions until after concluding budget talks for the upcoming fiscal year, in order to assure full focus.

Springsted Waters' timeline has the job being posted April 13 after the city commission signs off on the final draft of the job description and accompanying brochure information.

The job listing would be open for 60 days, with the recruitment agency vetting candidates to determine who is and isn't qualified. The group will intensify its background checks on the candidate pool around June 13, with the intention of providing candidate information to the commission by late June.

A subcommittee will be formed to come up with interview questions and determine the public interview process.

In the meantime, former Deputy City Manager/Chief Operating Officer Eric DeLong is filling in as the interim city manager. He has worked with the city of Grand Rapids since May 1995.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- The 113-year-old Michigan Lodging and Tourism Association has changed its name to Check In Michigan.

The new name was announced Wednesday, March 28 during the 2018 Pure Michigan Governor's Conference on Tourism, held in Grand Rapids.

President and CEO Deanna Richeson said the rebranding comes at a time when the organization, which represents hundreds of Michigan lodging and tourism-related businesses, is changing the way it operates.

"Now is a time for change," Richeson said.

A focus on inclusion is the big shift for Check In Michigan, Richeson said.



"This industry is very diverse," she said.

With its new name in place, the organization seeks input from men and women of different generations with different ethnic backgrounds.

"We want to be in conversation with you," Richeson said. "We're going to be out in your neighborhoods. We're going to have town halls. We want to hear what you have to say."

Getting younger generations involved became a specific objective for the group recently. To reflect that, three members under the age of 35 were added to the board of directors in late 2017. A new member under 35 also was added to the executive committee.

Deanna Richeson

"Younger generations -- their expectations and values are changing dramatically," she said.

Check In Michigan also is making an effort to move away from communicating only with the management of member businesses. Now, employees at all levels will be sought out for input on how the group can best represent the state's tourism industry, Richeson said.



The industry is a major source of revenue for Michigan, she added.

"The tourism industry is our third-largest industry in Michigan. There's not another industry that virtually touches every pocket of the state. It's critical to the economy."

This year's conference included a speech by Lt. Gov. Brian Calley, who called tourism "one of Michigan's flagship industries."

Anyone interested in providing input on the direction of Check In Michigan is encouraged to visit checkinmi.org after Monday, April 2, when the new website launches.
DETROIT - A Michigan man must return two antique lighthouse lenses to the United States government.

That's the ruling by Federal Judge Mark Goldsmith who said Monday, March 26 that Steve Gronow of Howell must surrender the lenses worth at least $600,000, according to the Associated Press.

Gronow called the decision a huge disappointment," the AP reported, but he will have to forfeit the lenses nonetheless.

The government sued Gronow, contesting the Coast Guard was still the owner of the lenses from the Spring Point Ledge lighthouse in Maine and the Belle Isle lighthouse in Detroit.

The Maine lighthouse was automated around 1960, and the Detroit lighthouse was replaced in 1930. Gronow bought one lens from an eBay seller and the other from the Henry County Historical Society in Indiana, the AP reported.

Goldsmith ruled that the government never gave up ownership, even if the lenses changed hands over the years.
Attorneys representing Michigan State University and more than 200 women and girls suing the university in response to sexual-abuse by Larry Nassar are renewing efforts to settle the case.

Court documents filed Tuesday evening show former U.S. District Judge Layn Philips has been selected to serve as the mediator and that talks between the parties are being scheduled.

Previous mediated talks between MSU and attorneys representing the victims fell apart.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids, says that MSU, USA Gymnastics and others enabled Nassar, a former sports-medicine doctor at the university who pleaded guilty to sexually abusing patients under the guise of medical treatment.

MSU has pushed to dismiss the lawsuits in court, arguing that Michigan law severely restricts lawsuits against state government and institutions such as MSU.

In Tuesday's filing, the attorneys representing the victims requested that they be given until May 10 to respond to MSU's latest motion to dismiss because both parties "would like to focus their primary efforts on pursuing a successful mediation," the filing says.

Nassar is expected to spend the rest of his life in prison after being sentenced in federal court for possession of child pornography and sexually penetrating women and girls in Ingham and Eaton counties.

On Tuesday, Nassar's old boss at MSU, former College of Osteopathic Medicine Dean William Strampel, was arraigned on several charges - including misconduct in office and fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct - stemming from an investigation by the Michigan Attorney General's Office into the university's response to the Nassar scandal.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Grand Rapids is no longer home to the best beer scene in America.

At least according to USA Today readers.

The Beer City was dethroned by St. Louis in the newspaper's annual 10Best poll for "Best Beer Scene." Grand Rapids had won top honors in the signature category in 2016 and 2017. It will have to settle for the silver medal in 2018.

The 10 American cities were nominated by a panel of beer experts and voted on by the public. Cities were nominated based on stellar selections of established and up-and-coming breweries, beer bars, brewpubs, beer festivals and thriving homebrew communities.

Grand Rapids finished ahead of Richmond, Va., Cleveland, Fort Collins, Colo., Tampa, Chicago, Minneapolis, Denver and Asheville, N.C.

Michigan establishments also finished strong in a slew of other categories. Brown Iron Brewhouse in Washington, Mich. and HopCat in Grand Rapids finished fourth and seventh in the "Best Beer Bar"category, respectively.

That category was won by Bulls Head Public House in Lititz, Penn. HopCat finished in fourth in that category in 2017.

Founders finished 10th in the "Best Brewery Tour" category, which was won by New Belgium Brewing Company - Fort Collins.

Jolly Pumpkin Traverse City finished in fourth place in the "Best Brewpub" category which was won by Collision Bend Brewing Company in Cleveland.

Finally, Speciation Artisan Ales in Comstock Park and HOMES Brewery in Ann Arbor finished in 10th and 8th place in the "Best New Brewery" category. That category was won by Barrel Theory Beer Company in St. Paul.
JACKSON, MI - He will never forget the day he took a life, Tanner Williams said.

"I could say sorry a million times and that would not bring her back," Williams said. "If I could, I would trade my life to bring her back. She will be with me the rest of my life. Every decision I make, she will be in my mind."

Circuit Judge Susan Jordan sentenced Williams, March 28, to 36 months of probation after he pleaded no contest to one count of reckless driving causing death for crashing into 62-year-old June Whedon while she was out on a bike ride Oct. 22, 2016.

Williams was originally charged with one felony count of operating while intoxicated causing death, records show.

"There is no good that will come out of this unless you do something to honor (Whedon), and it sounds like you want to do that," Jordan said in passing down her sentence.

Up until the crash, Williams had no previous misdemeanors, felonies or points on his driving record, and he is respected in the Concord community, his attorney Kenneth Hotchkiss said.

"He has never had any issues with the law and I doubt he will ever have any again," Hotchkiss said.

Whedon was heading west on Sears Road near Bowerman Road in Spring Arbor Township when Williams, traveling the same direction, hit her with his truck as she was riding near the white edge line of the two-lane country road, a preliminary investigation showed.

Whedon suffered life-threatening injuries in the crash and was flown to the University of Michigan Medical Center after first being taken to Henry Ford Allegiance Health.

She died 26 days later from her injuries.

Test results showed Williams had a blood alcohol content of .066 when he crashed into Whedon.

Whedon's husband, Dennis Whedon, spoke before the court, telling Williams how his decision to drive that night took away his best friend and denied her the opportunity to enjoy her retirement.

"I don't want you to go to prison," he said, holding back tears. "I want you to think about the hurt you caused for the rest of your life. She just retired and was excited to enjoy her time. We were scheduled to go to go to England eight days after the day you hit her. It breaks my heart you denied her so many opportunities."

Williams appeared remorseful listening to Whedon's husband as he described his loss.

Whedon taught English at Western High School for 18 years, presenting her methods nationally, becoming department chairwoman and earning an award from the Jackson Women's History Council in honor of activist Susan B. Anthony.

She retired in June 2016. She and her husband were to visit world capitals starting with the London trip.

A restitution hearing is forthcoming, with no dates yet scheduled.
OTSEGO, MI -- A second meeting is planned for citizens to speak with state and federal agencies over concerns about a potential link between the environment and human health.

About a month after their first meeting in Otsego on March 10, the Allegan County Health Department (ACHD), Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS), Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will meet with Otsego area concerned citizens to discuss next steps, a news release from Allegan County states.

The meeting will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, April 14, at the Otsego United Methodist Church, 223 East Allegan Street, in Otsego.

Officials will give updates about data that has been reviewed on the area's environmental conditions, the news release states, including air quality reports, past environmental investigations and cleanups, municipal water testing results and health information related to the Otsego area.

Citizens can meet with staff from the different agencies from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., according to the news release.

A presentation of data and explanation of the next steps will run from 11 a.m. to noon.

Mary Zack, a former Otsego resident who now lives in Chicago, is working with the agencies and wants to find proof if something in the environment has caused the health problems.

"I believe something's wrong," she said. "I just want to hear the words come out of their mouths."

Zack, 37, a cancer survivor who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer at age 17, said she started looking into what was causing illnesses in the area after her sister was diagnosed with cancer. She said several people who attended high school with her have been diagnosed with cancer, and she wants to know why.
Photo taken on March 27, 2018 shows the second prototype of China's large passenger jet C919 at a hangar of the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) in Shanghai, east China. C919's second prototype plane has been under tests to check its performance after modification since March 24. It will fly to Dongying in east China's Shandong Province in April. (Xinhua/Ding Ting)
KALAMAZOO, MI -- Next week, Kalamazoo County leaders will discuss joining Michigan cities and counties in a lawsuit against some of the largest drug makers and pharmacies in the world.

County Board Vice Chair Dale Shugars and Commissioner Scott McGraw, both Republicans, publicly warned against joining the lawsuit at a Tuesday, March 27 Portage City Council meeting. Both asked Portage leaders and residents to attend a county discussion scheduled for 4 p.m. April 3 at 201 W. Kalamazoo Ave. in Kalamazoo.

On Dec. 19, 2017, the Sam Bernstein Law Firm and Weitz & Luxemberg filed federal civil lawsuits on behalf of nine Michigan cities and counties. It seeks to ask the court to force companies to award damages for opioid-related deaths, treatment and law enforcement costs.

Attorney Mark Bernstein distributed information on the lawsuit to the Kalamazoo County Board of Commissioners before it was filed last December. Shugars said Bernstein indicated the county could be reimbursed "a few hundred thousand dollars" if successful.

Bernstein told MLive/Kalamazoo Gazette Wednesday that he has never spoken to Shugars, and felt the vice chairman misunderstood the case.

Injunctive relief is the most important aspect of the lawsuit, Bernstein said. The intent is to change the behavior of drug companies that are "misrepresenting the addictive quality" of opioids.

Dealing with the epidemic bears a heavy burden, he said, which requires public tax dollars.

Close to 50 Michigan communities represented by Bernstein's firm since joined the lawsuit against a number of companies, while similar lawsuits are being filed by cities across the United States.

Some of the largest companies named in the lawsuit include Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of Oxycontin, several other drug makers, and large pharmacies, including CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid and Costco.

The 156-page lawsuit alleges these and other companies knew drugs they manufactured and sold had the potential to be abused, but acted with reckless indifference.

"Defendants acted with a conscious disregard for the rights and safety of others in a manner that had a great probability of causing substantial harm," the lawsuit reads.

McGraw and Shugars worried about the impact the lawsuit could have on Portage's relationships with the pharmaceutical industry. At the same meeting, Portage officials applauded a planned $465 million expansion of Pfizer Inc. manufacturing campus -- which doesn't include opioid production.

"I think the local area has enough connections and support of the pharmaceutical industry; I hope an action like (the lawsuit) would not affect investment in this community and this county," McGraw said.

Bernstein said the notion that the lawsuit would impact econoimic development is miguided.

"Defendants are for the most part generic drug manufacturers, not traditional big pharma, so for that reason the Pfizers of the world are not involved in this litigation at all," Bernstein said.

Shugars indicated that support for joining the litigation would be split 6-5 among party lines, but said the issue is best left for the U.S. Department of Justice or Congress.

Blame could be extended to doctors who write prescriptions or hospitals, he said, and Shugars warmed of a "slippery slope" that could muddy where responsibility lies.

He said county officials are concerned about the opioid epidemic, but getting involved in a lawsuit might not be the best course of action.

From 2015-16, the number of accidental drug-related deaths in Kalamazoo County more than doubled, from 33 to 72. Opioid-related deaths also doubled, from 29 to 59.

In the first half of 2017, there were 26 accidental opioid-related deaths.
KALAMAZOO, MI -- Representatives of denominations across the spectrum of Christianity gathered in prayer outside Kalamazoo Christian High School Wednesday afternoon in the spirit of unity.

"It's an ongoing process to focus on what unites us as Christians," Bishop Paul J. Bradley of the Catholic Diocese of Kalamazoo said, noting that Easter is the main holiday celebrated by all types of Christians.

The Holy Week prayer service was organized by Kalamazoo United, which last October held its first multi-denominational gathering on the anniversary of the reformation, or the day Martin Luther denounced Catholicism, eventually founding the Lutheran Church and creating a schism resulting in the many denominations of Christianity in existence today.

The October gathering drew more than 3,000 people to Wings Event Center and Bradley and Pastor Wenke of the Bridge Church in Portage, who also took part in Wednesday's prayer service, agreed they should again celebrate in unification.

With Easter Sunday coming up this weekend, they decided to hold a brief prayer session where participants could meet and pray with members of numerous churches in the community. Bradley and Wenke both spoke to the crowd, then broke off into smaller prayer groups, and concluded with the group forming a circle for a united prayer.

Bradley said he was pleased by the outcome, noting that in his small group, multiple denominations were present.

"What it shows is people have sort of a hunger ... they want to come together," he said. "We're all aware of the divisions, and there are things that do separate us. But there's really more that unites us."
ALMENA TOWNSHIP - Authorities are searching for a person who shot a man in the neck with an arrow.

According to the Associated Press, 61-year-old Michael Downey was in a remote area of Van Buren County's Almena Township on Sunday, March 25 when an arrow went through his neck. He is recovering from surgery, the AP reported.

His wife, Janis Downey, told WWMT-TV that her husband was on a scouting trip for hunting. She added nobody should have been in the area with a bow-and-arrow because it's not hunting season.
PORTAGE, MI -- Local officials are excited about a planned expansion of Pfizer Inc.'s global manufacturing campus -- the largest building project undertaken by Portage's largest employer, taxpayer and landholder.

During a Tuesday City Council meeting, Portage Mayor Patricia Randall applauded the work of city staff and Pfizer for working together to bring the "historic" $465 million investment.

"I truly believe what's good for Portage is good for Pfizer, and what's good for Pfizer is good for Portage," Randall said.

A month after Pfizer Inc. finished expanding its global manufacturing operations, the pharmaceutical giant is moving forward with plans for a two-story, 400,000-square-foot modular sterile processing facility. In all, Pfizer will have the largest pharmaceutical manufacturing plant in the western hemisphere.

Randall said the economic impact to Portage and Southwest Michigan are "the stuff dreams are made of."

Projected revenue to the city over 20 years is estimated to total $26.7 million, she said, and economic benefit to the region is projected to total $49.2 million in six years.

Pfizer is seeking an industrial facilities tax exemption for the building, located at 7171 Portage Road. If approved by the city and state, property taxes would be cut in half for 12 years.

Tuesday, the council scheduled a public hearing for April 10 to consider the tax cut.

According to Pfizer documents, the project will create 140 jobs within two years and 450 jobs within six years -- the average income of those positions totaling $93,333 with benefits.

Pfizer representatives at the Tuesday meeting said the company is looking for skilled tradesmen, workers with specialized technical training and those without degrees but a desire to learn.

Councilmember Jim Pearson noted that the whole community will benefit from "generous" benefit packages offered to employees.

According to a Pfizer analysis, the finished project would bring $15.3 million in economic benefits to the Portage community.

By 2024, Pfizer will be paying the new employees $42 million annually. Around half of the jobs are for semi-skilled operators, which will make $316,700 including salary and benefits.

If the city decides to halve taxes on Pfizer's real property, a total of $11.53 million in revenue would be forgone by local units of government during the 12-year abatement:

City of Portage -- $4.46 million

Kalamazoo County -- $2.49 million

KRESA -- $2.48 million

Kalamazoo Valley Community College -- $1.08 million

Portage District Library -- $581,644

The Kalamazoo County and Central County transportation authorities would lose $412,773 in total tax revenue.

Pfizer Global Manufacturing in Portage makes active pharmaceutical ingredients for other Pfizer locations and other pharmaceutical makers. A variety of finished drug products are produced, in addition to sterile injectables.

The planned manufacturing facility would house multiple self-contained modules that are separated from other manufacturing processes in the main production building.

It will sit just west of a recently-completed 98,000-square-foot warehouse near the corner of Romence and Portage. Pfizer's mammoth manufacturing campus includes more than 120 buildings, with the north section focused on drug production.
NORTON SHORES, MI - Jimmy John's Sandwich Shop has relocated from Roosevelt Park to Norton Shores.

The move is essentially across the street, putting the restaurant in a newly constructed building with better street visibility and a drive thru near the southwest corner of Henry Street and Norton Avenue.

"Our team is excited to continue serving fresh, fast and tasty sandwiches to the Muskegon community and better serve them with our new easy access drive-thru location," said owner Jon Lindenbaum.

The Norton Shores store opened on Monday, March 26, after the Roosevelt Park store closed on Sunday.

The store is open daily 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. It offers counter service, delivery with phone and online ordering, and catering.

Lindenbaum is accepting applications at the store. He plans to have up to 25 employees.

Founded in 1983 by Jimmy John Liautaud in Charleston, Ill., Jimmy John's has more 2,700 locations across 43 states.

The Norton Shores Jimmy John's shares its building with an Rx Optical. It's located on the former site of a four-story Comerica Bank, which was sold to Holland-based Geenan DeKock Properties LLC for $1.8 million in December 2014. Development on the property began in 2017. The corner is also home to a Wendy's.

The 57,000-square-foot Comerica building that once stood on the property was built in 1974 on the site of the former Maple Grove School. Demolition of the building began in March 2016.
MUSKEGON COUNTY, MI - A supervisor in Muskegon County Family Court recently was suspended for making lewd remarks and harassing several employees.

The "egregious" conduct resulted in Family Court Supervisor Jason Walker being placed on administrative leave without pay for seven days at the end of February, according to disciplinary documents obtained by MLive/Muskegon Chronicle through the Freedom of Information Act. Walker also signed a "Last Chance Agreement."

He returned to work on March 1, retaining his position as supervisor of the 14th Circuit Court's Family Court division. Walker's salary is $63,845 a year.

Walker declined to comment on the complaint and subsequent suspension.

Walker was accused of making inappropriate, lewd and harassing comments to several Muskegon County and Circuit Court employees several years ago, the documents show. He was also accused of giving one employee an unwanted hug.

Circuit Court Administrator Sandra Vanderhyde said the incidents came to light after a former Family Court employee complained to the Muskegon County Board of Commissioners that a fellow employee sexually assaulted her and that she felt the county did not take appropriate action. A county investigation found her claims were not valid. An ongoing civil rights investigation looking into Ropp's claims is being handled by the state of Michigan.

A formal hearing on the other complaints against Walker was held Feb. 16. Walker admitted saying to a female employee, "Are you knocked up again? You know how us black men like them we like them big," according to a hearing summary.

The hearing summary did not detail other comments allegedly made to several county and court employees, nor did it detail the incident regarding an unwanted hug.

When asked, Vanderhyde did not say how many employees complained.

Each of the incidents occurred prior to 2015, before Walker was made a supervisor for family court, Vanderhyde said. The employees who complained were not his subordinates at the time, Vanderhyde added.

In a written statement, Vanderhyde wrote that Walker's comments were in violation of the county's personnel rules, classifying his conduct as "unprofessional conduct," according to the hearing summary. It was listed as Walker's first offense.

"While this is only a first offense ... due to its egregious nature, and because it is in violation of the County Harassment Policy, it is resulting in a seven-day suspension," Vanderhyde wrote.

In a statement to MLive/Muskegon Chronicle, Vanderhyde said the county maintains a zero-tolerance policy for harassment of any kind.

"A thorough investigation resulted in a finding that policy was violated. Therefore, appropriate action was taken," Vanderhyde said. "Behavior that amounts to harassment may result in disciplinary action, up to and including dismissal."

In addition to his suspension, Walker signed a "Last Chance Agreement" and was to complete mandatory counseling.

MLive/Muskegon Chronicle submitted a request for the agreement through the Freedom of Information Act. Although the county released Walker's disciplinary record, a request for the "Last Chance Agreement" was denied by the court based on a claim that "the judiciary is exempt from the definition of a 'public body'."

On Jan. 30, Tammy Ropp, a former Family Court employee, told the Muskegon County Board of Commissioners during public comment that a fellow employee sexually assaulted her and that she felt the county did not take appropriate action.

At the time, Ropp did not publicly name the employee, but in a separate interview with MLive/Muskegon Chronicle, Ropp alleged that Walker was the one who assaulted her.

Vanderhyde said Walker's most recent suspension was unrelated to Ropp's allegations.

Ropp said that twice in 2013, before Walker was her supervisor, he grabbed the back of her head while at work and pushed her face toward his crotch.

After Walker became Ropp's supervisor two years later he frequently bullied and intimidated her, Ropp told county commissioners.

Walker declined to comment on Ropp's allegations.

An internal investigation was conducted in 2015 looking into Ropp's claims, Vanderhyde said.

"It was sent immediately to the county's Equal Employment Opportunity Office, which is charged with the responsibility for investigating complaints of sexual harassment," Vanderhyde wrote in a statement to MLive. "Furthermore, the matter has been and is being investigated at multiple levels."

After the internal investigation, both Walker and Ropp signed employee improvement plans that required them to find a way to work together. It also detailed a stipulation that neither party would talk about the alleged incidents in front of coworkers.

Ropp was removed from her position at the county in 2017 after being transferred to several different departments due to an ongoing and progressive disability, according to Ropp's personnel file.

Muskegon County Human Resources and Equal Employment Office Director Kristen Wade said that Ropp was put on medical leave to receive a fitness-for-duty exam that found she was not able to return to work.

Wade said that if an employee does not or cannot return from a medical leave of absence, that employee is considered to have resigned. However, Ropp insists that she was fired.

Soon after Ropp left the county's employment, she filed a complaint about Walker's conduct with the Muskegon Police Department. The case was referred to the Ottawa County Prosecutor's office, which did not pursue criminal charges because of insufficient evidence, according to a memo from the prosecutor's office to MLive/Muskegon Chronicle.

Ropp said she has since retained a lawyer and filed a formal civil rights complaint with the state of Michigan, which Vanderhyde confirmed.

Since Ropp made her allegations in front of county commissioners, the county has completed anti-harassment and hostile work environment training for all employees, Vanderhyde said.

Meanwhile, a former administrator in the same 14th Circuit Court has been accused of sex and age discrimination while he worked for the county.

A former employee claims he was overlooked for a job because of an ongoing sexual relationship between former Court Administrator Eric Stevens and a female employee.

Stevens has denied the allegations.
Several people are turning to the sky as reports pinpoint sometime over the next week as the likely timeframe for when China's 8.5-ton space station will plunge into Earth's atmosphere.

The European Space Agency believes China's space station will return to Earth between Saturday morning and the morning of April 2. While it has at least some resemblance of an idea, the ESA adds that "at no time will a precise time/location prediction from ESA be possible."

The Virtual Telescope Project, which has recently captured Tiangong-1 and Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster in space, posted a live video tracking the space station early Wednesday morning, March 28. The website's video breaks everything down as it tracks the spacecraft through the sky in the nearly 25-minute video.

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Most of the Tiangong-1 is expected to burn up upon its reentry into Earth's atmosphere, but some chunks weighing as much as 220 pounds could hit the surface. Harvard astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell told The Guardian in a recent report that predicting where any could actually hit Earth's surface is next to impossible.

Both the ESA and U.S.-funded Aerospace Corporation identify northern China, central Italy, northern Spain, the Middle East, New Zealand, Tasmania, South America, southern Africa and northern states in the U.S. as regions with higher chances.

Even with a higher chance than other regions, the likelihood of a piece of debris hitting someone or something is very unlikely. The interest surrounding the free-falling doomed space station is the fact that scientists and researchers truly can't nail down when and where it will enter.

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"Video taken with Canon 5DmkIII, 10" F/5 reflector telescope, satellite tracking Paramount MX mount, remote control observatory located at Dark Sky New Mexico." (Courtesy Brian Ottum | AstroPicsDaily):

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The Guardian reports in a previous report that several space crafts or space stations have come crashing through the atmosphere to Earth without killing or injuring anyone in the past. TIME notes that Tiangong-1 is small when it comes to space stations, and that NASA made its own uncontrolled space station entry back in 1979 with its much larger 77-ton NASA SkyLab.

U.S.-funded Aerospace reports between 10 and 40 percent of a spacecraft re-entering the Earth's atmosphere is expected to make it through. China's free-falling space station weighs in at a little less than 19,000 pounds.

The space station was known as the "Heavenly Palace," originally launched in September 2011 and was viewed as a major step for the space agency in its quest to build a space station by 2020.

NASA says that when it was active Tiangong-1 largely served as a demonstration of the "vital docking technology required for a future space station."
Premier Li Keqiang talks with visiting US Senator Steve Daines in Beijing on Tuesday. Daines was leading a congressional delegation to China. WU ZHIYI / CHINA DAILY

Senators from US urged to help solve issue with pragmatism

Premier Li Keqiang called on the United States to work with China in solving trade friction through dialogue and negotiations, but China is fully prepared to respond to any possible trade war.

Li reiterated Chinas stance facing a possible trade war between the two countries for a second consecutive day when he met with a US congressional delegation headed by Senator Steve Daines in Beijing on Tuesday.

Last week, US President Donald Trump signed a memorandum for a plan that could impose tariffs on up to $60 billion of imports from China and curb Chinese investment in the US.

The two countries have made progress in bilateral relations since the establishment of diplomatic ties decades ago despite twists and turns, Li said. President Xi Jinping and Trump have met several times and maintained communications, he said.

Using a trade war to address trade friction and disputes will be irrational and not pragmatic, Li said. Trade disputes and friction can be addressed with dialogue and negotiations, but China is fully prepared to respond to such scenarios.

The premier said the trade sanctions violate fundamental rules and cannot solve the problem. As the worlds largest developing and developed countries, China and the US should maintain stable relations, because the two economies are highly com-plementary, he said.

China-US trade has grown to such a large volume over the past several decades, it is natural to see a certain amount of friction and disputes, Li said. Its important that we take a proactive approach to seek a balanced solution to existing problems. We should uphold the overall stability of China-US economic ties. Eventually, we should find a way that serves the interests of both countries and the world.

The US should work with China in a rational and pragmatic way and safeguard multilateral trading rules, he said. Li also said it is hoped the US Congress plays a constructive role in safeguarding political foundations for bilateral ties.

On Monday, he told CEOs of multinational companies who were at the China Development Forum 2018 that the two countries should achieve balanced trade by expanding trade volume and tackling friction through dialogue.

The senators said China-US ties are among the most important bilateral relations in the world and there is no reason for conflicts between the two countries. The US Congress would like to help solve trade friction in a mutually beneficial way, which is expected to bring continuous benefits to both peoples, they said.
The chronicle of a life split between urban Manhattan and rural Montana.
At the invitation of Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and Chinese president, Kim Jong Un, chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), paid an unofficial visit to China from March 25 to 28. During the visit, Xi held talks with Kim at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Xi held a welcoming ceremony for Kim before their talks. (Xinhua/Ju Peng)

BEIJING, March 28 (Xinhua) -- At the invitation of Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and Chinese president, Kim Jong Un, chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), paid an unofficial visit to China from Sunday to Wednesday.

During the visit, Xi held talks with Kim at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan held a welcoming banquet for Kim and his wife Ri Sol Ju and watched an art performance together.

Li Keqiang, Chinese premier and member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Wang Huning, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, and Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan attended related activities, respectively.

During the talks, Xi expressed warm welcome on behalf of the CPC Central Committee to Kim for his first visit to China.

Xi said he appreciated that Kim sent him a congratulatory message after the 19th CPC National Congress on his re-election as general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and the assumption of office of chairman of the CPC Central Military Commission (CMC).

Xi was also grateful to Kim for congratulating him again several days ago immediately after he was re-elected China's president and chairman of the CMC of the country.

Xi said Kim's current visit to China, which came at a special time and was of great significance, fully embodied the great importance that Comrade Chairman and the WPK Central Committee have attached to the relations between the two countries and the two parties.

"We speak highly of this visit," Xi told Kim.

For his part, Kim said a series of major and happy events have taken place consecutively in China recently, as the 19th CPC National Congress was held victoriously last year, and the annual sessions of the National People's Congress and the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference were successfully held not long ago.

Kim said Comrade Xi Jinping enjoyed the support of the CPC and the people of the whole country, became the core of the leadership and was re-elected Chinese president and CMC chairman. He said it is his obligation to come to congratulate Xi in person, in line with the DPRK-China friendly tradition.

At present, the Korean Peninsula situation is developing rapidly and many important changes have taken place, Kim said, adding that he felt he should come in time to inform Comrade General Secretary Xi Jinping in person the situation out of comradeship and moral responsibility.

Xi said the China-DPRK traditional friendship, established and cultivated meticulously by the elder generations of leaders of both parties and both countries, was the precious wealth of both sides.

Sharing common ideals and beliefs as well as profound revolutionary friendship, the elder generations of leaders of the two countries trusted and supported each other, and wrote a fine story in the history of international relations, said Xi.

He said several generations of the leaders of China and the DPRK have maintained close exchanges and paid frequent calls on each other like relatives.

The two parties and countries have supported each other and coordinated with each other during long-term practices, making great contributions to the development of the socialist cause.

"Both Comrade Chairman and I have personally experienced and witnessed the development of China-DPRK relationship," said Xi, adding that both sides have stated repeatedly that traditional China-DPRK friendship should be passed on continuously and developed better.

"This is a strategic choice and the only right choice both sides have made based on history and reality, the international and regional structure and the general situation of China-DPRK ties. This should not and will not change because of any single event at a particular time," Xi said.

The CPC and the Chinese government highly value China-DPRK friendly cooperative ties, Xi stressed. It is an unswerving principle of the CPC and the Chinese government to maintain, consolidate and develop good relations with the DPRK, he said.

"We are willing to work together with DPRK comrades, remain true to our original aspiration and jointly move forward, to promote long-term healthy and stable development of China-DPRK relations, benefit the two countries and two peoples, and make new contribution to regional peace, stability and development," Xi said.

Xi made four proposals concerning the development of China-DPRK relations.

Firstly, continue giving play to the guiding role of high-level exchanges. High-level exchanges have always played the most important guiding and promoting role in the history of China-DPRK relations. Under the new circumstances, I am willing to keep frequent contacts with Comrade Chairman through various forms such as exchange of visits, and sending special envoys and letters to each other.

Secondly, make full play of the time-tested valuable practices of strategic communication. It is the splendid tradition of the two parties to have frequent in-depth exchange of views on major issues. Both sides should maximize the important role of party-to-party exchanges, promote exchanges and cooperation between the two countries in various areas, and strengthen communication and mutual trust.

Thirdly, actively advance peaceful development. Socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, and the DPRK's socialist construction has also ushered in a new historical period. We are ready to make joint efforts with the DPRK side, conform to the trend of the times, hold high the banner of peace, development, cooperation and mutual benefit, continuously improve the wellbeing of the two peoples, and make positive contribution to regional peace, stability and development.

Fourthly, cement the popular will foundation for China-DPRK friendship. The two sides should, through various forms, enhance people-to-people exchanges, consolidate the foundation of popular will for bilateral friendly relations, especially enhance youth exchanges, inherit and carry forward the fine tradition of China-DPRK friendship.

Kim said he was greatly encouraged and inspired by General Secretary Xi's important views on DPRK-China friendship and the development of relations between the two parties and countries.

The DPRK-China friendship, which was founded and nurtured by the elder generations of leaders of both countries, is unshakable, he said. It is a strategic choice of the DPRK to pass on and develop friendship with China under the new situation, and it will remain unchanged under any circumstances.

Kim said his current visit aims to meet Chinese comrades, enhance strategic communication, and deepen traditional friendship, hoping to have opportunities to meet with Comrade General Secretary Xi Jinping often, and keep close contacts through such forms as sending special envoys and personal letters to each other, so as to promote to a new level the guidance of high-level meetings to the relations between the two parties and countries.

The two sides informed each other of their respective domestic situation. Xi said the 19th CPC National Congress had drawn a grand blueprint for building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects -- building a moderately prosperous society in all respects by 2020, having basically achieved modernization by 2035 and building a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful by the middle of the century.

The CPC will lead the Chinese people of all ethnic groups in keeping on working with great determination and continuously striving for the realization of the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation, Xi said.

"We have noticed that Comrade Chairman has led the WPK and the people of the DPRK in taking a series of active measures and scoring achievements in developing economy and improving people's wellbeing in recent years," Xi said.

The Chinese side expects political stability, economic development and people's happiness in the DPRK, and supports the WPK, led by Comrade Chairman, in leading the people of the DPRK to advance along the path of socialism, as well as the endeavors by comrades of the DPRK in developing economy and improving people's livelihood, Xi said.
March 28, 2018 Elijah Magnier - How Syria Challenges The Unipolar Order Today Elijah Magnier published a three part piece on the war on Syria and its role in the much the global political confrontation. Will America accept its defeat or will it challenge the Russian Bear and the Chinese Dragon? - Part 1, 2, 3

bigger The first part describes the current situation at the various fronts in Syria and the most likely next operations. The Syrian government is winning the conflict. U.S. CentCom General Votel admitted that the U.S. strategy in Syria has failed. Magnier concludes: The US has lost the  extremist battle - they were incapable of achieving the regime change objective in Syria. That was the awakening of the Russian bear from its long hibernation who realised how the US was trying to corner it. Moscow also relied on the Chinese dragon, which shares Russias goals to eliminate all extremists and jihadist terrorists in Syria. Both Russia and China are now working closely to put an end to the uni-polar superpower and thus end US world dominance. The second part looks at the development of U.S.-Russian relations over the last decade and the role U.S. 'regime change' policies in the eastern Europe and Middle East played in it. The U.S. attack on Syria was part of the wider challenging of Russia. It brought up a new coalition which is now countering U.S. moves: Obama saw the Islamic State growing in Iraq, moving to Syria, watched it occupying Iraq, allowed Jihadists to travel to the Middle East, opened all Saudi jails on condition jihadist extremists imprisoned are shipped to Syria. For one entire year, with 70 countries in a coalition fighting against ISIS in Syria, the group was in fact expanding and increasing its wealth by selling increasing quantities of oil. All that to stop Iran and Russia, and create failed states (as in Libya) and fight Muslims with Muslims. But Moscow, Beijing and Tehran knew that Jihadists must be stopped in the Levant before they had the chance to move to their own countries.

...

Syria is not going to be another Libya and Russia and China agreed, along with Iran, to stop once and for all the US unilateral dominance at the gates of the Levant. Part 3 takes an even wider view and describes how China, and the Russian-Chinese cooperation, succeeds in challenging U.S. unilateral domination of the globe: While the United States is selling for $110 billions weapons to Saudi Arabia to kill more Yemenis and threaten its neighbours (Qatar, Syria and Iran), Russia has signed 10 year contracts with China worth 600 billion dollars, and with Iran worth 400 billion dollars. Also, China has signed contracts with Iran worth 400 billion dollars. These contracts are aimed at economic cooperation, energy exchange; they promise an advanced economic future for these countries away from US dominance. The US believes it can corner Russia, China and Iran: Russia has a 7,000 kilometre border with China, Iran is not Iraq and Syria is not Afghanistan. In Syria, the destiny of that a world be ruled by unilateralism is over. The world is heading toward pluralism. The question remains: Is Washington prepared to accept its defeat and acknowledge that it has lost control of the world and pull out of Syria? With the recent visit of the North Korean leader Kim Yong-un in Beijing, China has challenged the dominating U.S. role in the discussions over North Korea. There will be no uni-polar U.S. solution in the conflict - neither by talks nor by war. A conflict over Korea could soon supersede the conflict in Syria in size and potential consequences. In the global context the war on Syria is just a starting point. It will likely be in Korea, and maybe in Taiwan, where the real battle between unilateral and multilateral order will be fought. Posted by b on March 28, 2018 at 18:35 UTC | Permalink Comments
Princess Diana will attend Meghan and Harry's royal wedding next month despite having been dead for over two decades, according to UK media.

British tabloids, including the Daily Star, the Mirror and the Daily Express, have reported the ghost of the late Princess of Wales will join her son's nuptials.

And they don't appear to be joking.

The story originated at the Daily Star, which was convinced after speaking with a pair of self-proclaimed psychics before sensationally reporting their claims as fact.

"On Thursday, Harry and Megs sent out 600 Royal invites for the Windsor Castle ceremony, but the shock new guest brings the total to 601," Nicholas Bieber wrote in his Daily Star article.

"And the person to reveal the news is Diana herself - who reveals she 'wouldn't miss it for thee world [sic]'."
Representatives from Chinese DJI company show Inspire 1 quadcopter during the preview media show of The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, the United States, Jan. 4, 2015. (Xinhua/Yang Lei)

BEIJING, March 27 (Xinhua) -- A "huge" trade deficit with China is reportedly behind the U.S. administration's plan to slap tariffs on up to 60 billion U.S. dollars of Chinese imports and restrict Chinese investment.

But data sometimes lies, and could shield the bigger picture.

TWISTED DATA

What the United States claims to be a "record trade deficit" with China is an inflated figure.

According to U.S. Census Bureau data, the trade deficit with China ran to a record 375 billion U.S. dollars last year, while China's customs data showed the country's surplus with the United States stood at 1.87 trillion yuan (about 298 billion U.S. dollars).

The gap resulted mainly from differences in statistical approaches, such as whether or not to include transit trade in the calculations, according to Zhang Monan, researcher with China Center for International Economic Exchanges.

Such discrepancies have inflated the U.S. calculation of its trade deficit with China by about 20 percent every year, according to Minister of Commerce Zhong Shan.

The United States is home to many multinational companies that have a global supply chain, but the current total value statistical method has distorted reality, analysts said.

An iPhone, for example, uses components made in different countries around the world and is only assembled and manufactured in China, but the calculation of trade statistics attributed most of the value to China.

"In this case, China is taking the blame for others," Zhang said.

She added that most of the profits actually went to U.S. companies but the value of the products was reflected in Chinese exports, resulting in inaccurate statistics.

What's more, when talking about the deficit with China, the United States always played down trade of services, according to Tu Xinquan, professor at the University of International Business and Economics.

Data from China's Ministry of Commerce showed that the country has a service trade deficit with the United States, and the gap has been widening.

Official data showed China's service trade deficit totaled 255.4 billion U.S. dollars last year, with the United States as a major contributor. From 2006 to 2016, China's service trade deficit with the United States increased by more than 30 times.

MADE-IN-U.S. DEFICIT

Statistical differences aside, the fact that the United States is not only running a trade deficit with China, but many other countries means the root cause of the imbalance is the U.S. economic structure, which features low savings and high consumption.

In the past decades, U.S. businesses transferred their manufacturing bases to countries with cheap labor and low costs, which helped drive up their profits and benefited consumers.

In a world whose prosperity has been built on the free flow of trade and investment, price-sensitive consumers largely decided the directions of trade, either for exports or imports.

"China has been a major market where the United States enjoyed its fastest export growth, and an important cause of the trade imbalance is the fact that many U.S. goods are less competitive in the Chinese market," said Long Guoqiang, deputy director of the Development Research Center of the State Council.

Solutions to the U.S.-China trade deficit do not come from cutting imports from China, but from U.S. enterprises making their products more competitive, he said.

Joe Kaeser, CEO of Siemens AG, held the same view.

"I believe people should not confuse the lack of competitiveness with unfair trade. If companies lack competitiveness, they need to invest in innovation and people development in order to catch up," he told reporters at the China Development Forum in Beijing.

As China has repeatedly stressed, the trade imbalance between the two countries is mainly a result of different economic structures, industrial competitiveness, and international division of labor, and China has never sought a trade surplus as the flow of trade is determined by the market.

Another factor that has often been overlooked is that U.S. control of high-tech exports to China contributed a lot to trade deficit with China, Minister Zhong said earlier this month, quoting one U.S. research report which estimated a 35-percent fall in trade deficit with China if the United States relaxed export restrictions.

UNWAVERING IN OPENING UP

When handling economic ties with other countries, a trade surplus is not what China seeks. Faced with setbacks in economic globalization and free trade, China has continued to be unwavering in opening up its economy.

Take the opening up of the service sector for example. Even though China holds a big service trade deficit with the United States, it has been taking big steps to further open the sector, and more measures are in the pipeline.

Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen said on Sunday that China will widen market access in finance, telecom, heath care, education, and elderly care for foreign investors, and will ease restrictions on foreign holdings in financial businesses including banks, brokerages, and funds.

"We will unveil timetables and roadmaps to open up sectors including finance, new energy vehicles, and gas stations," Wang said while addressing the China Development Forum in Beijing.

"We have as always supported free, fair trade," he said.

China has opened 120 industries related to service trade for foreign investors, surpassing the goal of 100 industries set when China joined the World Trade Organization nearly two decades ago.

In free trade zones, the government has fully liberalized many sectors closely watched by foreign investors, including credit ratings, accounting, e-commerce, power batteries, and railway traffic equipment, Wang said.

China has also cut red tape in foreign investment with many approval procedures simplified or scrapped, and more favorable policies can be expected, according to the vice minister. Enditem

(Xinhua reporters Yu Jiaxin, Fang Dong, Zhang Yiyi, Wu Yue, Wen Xin and Han Jie also contributed to the story)
Silicon Valley and southwest China's Chengdu City will set up a technology finance center in Chengdu, local authorities said Tuesday.

A signing ceremony for Chengdu-Silicon Valley technology finance center is held in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, on March 27, 2018. [Photo: scnews.newssc.org]

A signing ceremony for the project was held in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, on Tuesday. Management consulting company Himgroup Holding, Inc., Silicon Valley City Group (Mountain View, Menlo Park and Dublin) and Chengdu Hi-Tech Zone Administrative Committee signed the memorandum.

A total of 30 million U.S. dollars will be invested to build the Chengdu-Silicon Valley Technology Finance Center, which is scheduled to start operations this year.

The new center will strengthen cooperation in artificial intelligence, information technology, medicine and technological finance between Chengdu and Silicon Valley, as well as incorporate innovative international resources.

The center will provide services covering technology transformation, financial services and free trade.

The center is expected to enhance exchanges between Chengdu and Silicon Valley in terms of capital and talent, and promote the globalization of small and medium-sized enterprises in the two places.
Appraisal News; Utah Sinkholes; FHFA Addresses AMC's Value and Quality

Supply and demand drive markets and prices, including luxury items and especially housing. What do you give the person who has everything? How about a pretty personalized credit card? Each card takes over 100 man-hours of delicate and painstakingly meticulous work. Aurae master jewelers craft your designs into precious metal and stone; providing you a durable, functional and elegant piece of art. Maybe they could use some of those man-hours in Northern California where 5,000 residential units were destroyed last year due to wildfires. Most of those homes have yet to be rebuilt, in part because of a dearth of construction crews. As a result, rental prices have shot up by as much as 30 percent, and theres a vacancy rate of just 1.5 percent for residential structures.

Appraisal, Valuation, M&A

Narrow Gauge Capital announced it has completed the acquisition of Class Appraisal, LLC. Class Appraisal is a leading nationwide provider of real estate asset valuation and appraisal management solutions to the residential mortgage industryICG Strategic Equity and Aberdeen Standard Investments provided equity co-investment in the transaction alongside Narrow Gauge Capital. Keefe Bruyette & Woods, a Stifel Company, acted as exclusive financial advisor to Class Appraisal in the transaction, and Bass Berry & Sims PLC served as legal counsel to the Company. Berkery Noyes served as exclusive financial advisor to NGC in the transaction, and Winston & Strawn LLP served as legal counsel.

Wells Fargo Funding has removed the following appraisal requirements and aligned its Prior Approval High Balance Conforming Loan Program with Fannie Mae: Trainee appraisers and Field reviews. It is also removing duplicate appraisal age policy language from Section 841.07: Underwriting Requirements. Continue to refer to Section 820.13(a): Age of Documents.

Plaza provided the following tip of the week about Transferred Files with an Existing Appraisal: FHAs new guidelines in Handbook 4000.1 state that the lender to which an appraisal was transferred to cannot ask the appraiser to re-address or make corrections to the appraisal. If the underwriter finds deficiencies in the transferred appraisal, a new appraisal must be ordered.

Starting March 1, appraisal fees in the state of Washington increased for Mountain West Financial Wholesale clients. Updated appraisal fees are located on its website.

Effective Sunday, March 4 Flagstar Bank removed the following Appraisal Management Companies (AMCs) from Loantrac: Valuation Connect and Property Science. Additionally noted, Flagstar Bank will no longer be maintaining an approved Leasehold list. Effective Immediately, the Flagstar Approved Leaseholds, Doc. #3247 will be removed from the Sellers Guide.

Effective immediately, Flagstar Banks requirement of a field review (Form 2000 or 2000A) on properties valued at $1,000,000 or more, when the LTV, CLTV, or HCLTV exceeds 75%, has been removed.

For all properties in the city of Moab, Utah, an engineer and soil report is required to confirm that the property is not located on or near a sinkhole per Pacific Union Financial. Any property identified as being located on or near a sinkhole (as indicated by the appraisal, or engineer and soil report) is ineligible, as insurance is not available in the area for sinkholes.

FAMC Correspondent is no longer requiring a Field Review on DU High Balance Loans. Also, FAMC has made the following updates applicable to detached condominiums, provided the applicable appraisal, insurance, and priority lien requirements are met: Project reviews are no longer required for all detached condominiums. This includes detached units located in projects comprised of attached and detached units. Detached condos are eligible for construction-to-permanent financing with a DU Approve/Eligible recommendation.

In a bid to get a leg up on the competition, Better Mortgage is allowing prospective home buyers to get an appraisal on a property before actually making an offer. Ideally, this gives them the power to go head-to-head with all-cash buyers, who are often favored because of the relative risks involved with obtaining an appraisal after an offer is accepted.

New Leafs Oak products allow properties with up to 40 acres. Contact NewLeaf Oak Select QM Highlights.

Accurate Group has officially launched its real estate portfolio valuation solution for capital markets firms. The solution is designed for asset managers, hedge funds, investment banks, and other investment firms that have significant residential real estate and mortgage-related portfolio holdings. The solution combines Accurate Groups market-leading ValueNet desktop appraisal technology platform and industry-compliant appraisal processes unique to capital markets firms to provide fast, accurate valuations on portfolios that include real estate, whole loan sales, mortgage portfolios, mortgage pools and mortgage-backed securities. The solution has been reviewed by the top ratings agencies as part of Accurate Groups market validation process.

Banc of California has made a couple appraisal/value changes. One appraisal is required on purchase or R&T loan amount up to $2 million and Cash Out Refinances up to 1.5MM loan amount (Previously Banc of California required two appraisals at 1.5MM/1MM respectively). And the company will utilize a rental survey for the departing residence without a lease agreement or deposit check. If there is 25% equity, 75% of the rental survey can offset the PITIA. If there is 50% equity, we will allow positive cash flow that exceeds the PITIA. To support the equity position, a drive-by appraisal or exterior only report is acceptable (previously we required a full appraisal and would not allow positive cash flow).

When you do a rate and term refinance in the borrowers name, you can get the benefit of the landlords property value increase. Wondering how? Contact Angel Oak Mortgage Solutions for details.

The overseer of Freddie and Fannie  the FHFA  released a working paper that every appraiser, and anyone who relies on appraisals, should read. In this paper, we study whether there are any systematic quality differences between appraisals associated and unassociated with appraisal management companies (AMCs). We find that compared to non-AMC appraisals, AMC appraisals on average share a similar degree of overvaluation despite being more prone to contract price confirmation and super overvaluation.

AMC appraisals also share a similar propensity for mistakes, despite employing a greater number of comparable properties. Our evaluation employs relatively simple statistical comparisons, but the results indicate no clear evidence of any systematic quality differences between appraisals associated and unassociated with AMCs.



Capital Markets

Time to lock in some borrowers? Many lenders are seeing an uptick in biz. The 10-year yield finally dipped below 2.80% at yesterdays close, spurred on by decreasing consumer sentiment. The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index decreased to 127.7 in March, well below expectations of a 129.5 reading after a revised 130.0 from February. Granted, the February reading hit the highest level since 2000, and despite a slight moderation in business expectations, consumers have not reported major changes to their outlook. The S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index increased 6.4% YoY in January. Expectations were for a 6.3% increase after increasing 6.3% in December, so it was about as expected.

In international news, more than 140 Russian intelligence agents have now been expelled from 25 countries for Russia's alleged poisoning of a former intelligence officer living in the UK, meaning history's largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers has gotten even larger. This undoubtedly had some impact on the belly of Treasury yields, due to soaring Eurodollars and a stall to the recent rise in LIBOR. Treasuries have traded well all week in the face of supply ahead of the quarter end trade despite concerns about elevated funding levels. Yesterday afternoon, the NY Fed released a new two-week FedTrade schedule covering the March 28 to April 12 period. During the period, the Desk is expected to purchase up to $6.035 billion, a touch more than expected, with one break on April 11 resulting in a daily average target over the period of $0.5 billion per business day.

Weekly mortgage applications from the MBA for the week ending March 23 kicked off today: up nearly 5 percent with refis up over 7 percent and purchases up over 3 percent. The third and final Q4 GDP release came in at +2.9% versus expectations for 2.4% reading versus 2.5% in the previous report  stronger than expected. The release of February Pending Home Sales Index will be at 10AM ET, expected to increase 2.5% versus a 4.7% decline in January, and we also have a $29 billion 7-year note auction by the Treasury. We start Hump Day with the 10-year at 2.78% and agency MBS prices worse a tad versus Tuesdays close, so rates are slightly higher this morning on the strong GDP number.



Lender Products

With its continued growth, Bank of Hope is proud to announce the recent hiring of Nicole Thomsen as Vice President, Relationship Manager for Bank of Hopes Warehouse Lending Department. With extensive knowledge in mortgage banking and warehouse lending, Nicole will be focusing on the development and expansion of the warehouse lending business unit. Bank of Hope is a super-regional bank headquartered in Los Angeles, CA with over $14 billion in assets. Bank of Hope offers warehouse lines for mortgage bankers of all size, competitive LIBOR-based pricing, a streamlined funding process, and excellent customer service. We encourage you to consider Bank of Hope as a warehouse partner prior to obtaining a line of credit elsewhere. For more information, please call or email Nicole Thomsen (858-342-2790).

Want to maximize your return on capital? So does Phil DeFronzo, CEO and founder of Norcom Mortgage. Thats one of the reasons he and CFO Dan Humphrey selected the Alight Mortgage Lending application. Alight integrates and aggregates all of your key financial and operational data so you can keep your finger on the financial pulse of your business and make better-informed decisionsquickly. 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, Phil says. Dan adds, With Alight, well be able to quickly and easily identify sources of variance from budget or expected performance and take immediate corrective action. For more information, or to request a demo, contact Alight.

Floify, the leading end-to-end mortgage point-of-sale (POS) solution, is poised to completely change the way borrowers apply for loans with the upcoming release of their remastered interview-style 1003 application. Currently being redesigned from the ground up, Floifys updated 1003 is widely expected to be a game-changer within the mortgage industry, as anticipated by Floifys top-producing LO insiders. Slated for a May release, Floifys new 1003 promises to give your borrowers a beautiful, simple, and secure online loan application. To get a sneak peek at their new 1003, request a live demo.



Employment

Lima One Capital is looking for experienced, motivated outside sales executives to identify qualified investors in the West, Northeast, and Central & Southern Florida regions. This is a fast-paced, high-growth position for sales professionals with prior industry experience, for a true sales person wanting to expand their origination talents. The role requires travel throughout the region, representing Lima One Capital, while identifying and closing investors. Lima One Capital provides industry leading financing for fix-and-flip, rental, and multifamily investments. It is their mission to become the Nations premier lender for real estate investors. If you are in one of these markets and interested in joining the Lima One team, they want to hear from you! Visit Lima Employment to learn more about a career with Lima One Capital.

Are you an experienced salesperson looking to grow your book of business with an aggressively expanding, well capitalized company? Towne Mortgage Company is looking for an energetic individual to take the wheel to expand their production with direct access to Marketing, Underwriting and our Servicing Departments. Towne is a Direct Lender/Servicer with 37 years experience serving our community. Our focus is on supplying our salespeople with the tools they need to be successful, whether that be our Industry leading CRM, Vantage, or our product offerings of Conventional, FHA, 203(k), USDA, VA, Jumbo, and soon to be Day 1 Certainty. This salesperson can expect benefits including medical, dental, paid time off, and a 401k company match. Interested? Email Cassi Sluka for more information.

Roostify, one of the fastest growing fin-tech companies in the country, is expanding its team and looking for an Enterprise Sales Director in the Southeast US region. From the company's CEO, Rajesh Bhat, "Its an exciting time to be at Roostify. Weve rolled out at several top-tier national lenders, were expanding our platform capabilities to improve more parts of getting a loan, and weve just raised a $25M Series B with a round of prestigious investors to help us accelerate our growth and further capitalize on a fantastic market opportunity. Were looking for creative, passionate people to help us get there." Apply directly through the website, or contract Roostify's Corporate Recruiter, Jodi Hoey.
Baidu founder Robin Li has triggered an online uproar after suggesting Chinese people are happy to give up their data privacy for online convenience or efficiency under many circumstances.

"We're very aware of the privacy issue, including data protection. Over the past few years, China has also become increasingly aware of this problem, and has been enforcing relevant laws and regulations, during the process of which, I think that the Chinese people are more open, or not so sensitive, about the privacy issue. If they are able to exchange privacy for convenience or efficiency, they are willing to do so in many cases," said Li while giving his view on the use of personal data at the China Development Forum Monday in Beijing.

Baidu founder Robin Li (Right), alongside Dominic Barton, global managing partner of consultancy McKinsey &Co, attending the China Development Forum in Beijing, March 26, 2018. [Photo: VCG]

In the previous part of his comment, the CEO agreed that 80 percent of useful data "lies in the hands of enterprises," and says he believed "if more of that data can be put together, our capacity to achieve more will rise exponentially."

Li's views have set off a heated online discussion, with negative or hostile comments constituting the majority attitude of those on Sina Weibo.

Some say they doubt the credibility of Li's views.

"Who told you we are willing to give up our data?" "Who gave you the right to speak for (common) Chinese (internet users)?" asked one netizen, with some simply responded "I am not willing."

Others have criticized Li's comments as "shameless," "cheeky" and "despicable."

"It is a great sorrow that such a person is regarded as a key opinion leader in his industry," or "typical of Baidu acting with pride rather than a sense of shame (when it comes to) trampling on people's private information."

And even others expressed a sense of helplessness in protecting online privacy.

"Nonsense, it's more accurate to say (it is) impossible to defend (our privacy) effectively (rather than saying we are willing to give it up)," read a top-rated comment, followed by another one arguing that no complaint method is available for our data.

However, industry insiders are suggesting Li's comments reflect the current trend in China's Internet industry.

"I think Li's words are quite honest, expressing what most companies are reluctant to say in a public forum," said Liu Dingding, a Beijing-based industry analyst.

Jia Rui, an investment manager focused on the big data industry, says that Li's comments refer to a trend of more and more users offering their data by ticking the "agree" button before using an app or program.

"That doesn't mean users do not care about privacy or that the company can use the data however it wants. On the contrary, data protection is the most important thing for companies and the industry regulator," Jia told the Global Times Monday.

Baidu has long faced allegations of poor privacy protections or excessive data collection practices.

In January this year, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a warning to Baidu, urging the firm to do more to protect its users personal information.

CGTN and Global Times contributed to this story.
Kantar's Nishandar Named Vietnam CEO

Kantar has promoted long-time executive Nitin Nishandar to the role of Chief Executive Officer for Vietnam, taking over from Jon Foged who became Kantar Australia CEO last month. Additionally, Nishandar has been named Chief Commercial Officer for the AsiaPac Insights division.



Nishandar (pictured) has worked for the WPP group for 23 years, most recently combining the roles of Regional MD, Brand and Shopper, APAC for Kantar TNS, and Head of Brand & Communication, Asia Pacific. Before this, he led the entire Client Service division for Singapore-based local, regional and global accounts, and he was Director - Client Service for Hong Kong and Singapore. Earlier, he worked for Kantar Millward Brown, managing country operations for Taiwan, and he was a Project Director at IMRB.



As CEO of Vietnam, Nishandar will partner with Phil Worthington and Ashish Kanchan to support the continued development of the Kantar Millward Brown and Kantar TNS teams, taking over from Foged following his recent transfer to Australia. Nishandar will lead the strategy and execution for key accounts, as well as new business development initiatives.



Commenting on the appointment, Adrian Gonzalez, CEO of Kantar's Insights Division in 'North Asia, South East Asia, Pacific', says: 'Nitin exemplifies client centricity and is a trusted advisor to many of our clients regionally and globally. In his outstanding 23-year career at Kantar, he has been a great contributor to a wide range of innovation in both methods and thought leadership'.



Web site: www.kantar.com .




A bronze water vessel, known as Tiger Ying, is up for auction in Kent. [Photo: Weibo/China Daily]

A rare Chinese bronze water vessel believed to have been taken during the looting of Beijing's Old Summer Palace in 1860 has been discovered in Kent, southeast England.

The relic will go on sale at The Canterbury Auction Galleries on April 11 with an estimate of 120,000 to 200,000 pounds ($170,000 - $285,000).

According to The Canterbury Auction Galleries, only six similar archaic vessels, known as Ying, are said to exist, and five of them are in museums.

The vessel dates back to the Western Zhou dynasty (1027-771 BC). It is called the Tiger Ying because the spout and lid are both cast with models of the creature.

Three other later Qing Dynasty bronze works of art were also found by the saleroom's consultant in Chinese art, Alastair Gibson.

"When I was asked to view a small collection of Chinese bronzes in this unassuming house, I didn't imagine the door would open to an 1860s time capsule," he said. "The last thing I expected to find was this remarkable bronze."

Gibson said that there is nothing else comparable to the Tiger Ying in today's market.

"Only one Ying has ever been offered at auction before and none of the five others known is modelled with what in Chinese art is considered the king among beasts and the most powerful animal for warding off evil," Gibson added.

A thermoluminescence test on the pottery core of the handle and one foot was done in Oxford, determining the age of the bronze vessel to be between 2,200 and 3,500 years old.

The Summer Palace was looted and destroyed by British and French troops during the Second Opium War between 1856-60.

Also found was an archive of letters and photographs from Royal Marines Captain Harry Lewis Evans (1831-83), who fought in the war, gives a vivid account of his time in China.

Before arriving in Beijing, Evans had taken part in the capture of Canton in 1857 and was slightly wounded in the failed attack on the Taku Forts at the mouth of the Pei-ho River in 1859.

Letters from Captain Harry Lewis Evans describe the looting of the palace. [Photo: Weibo/China Daily]

In a letter to his mother, dated Oct 17, 1860, he detailed the looting of the Old Summer Palace or Yuanmingyuan by British and French troops under the orders from the British High Commissioner to China, Lord Elgin.

It read, "Pekin (sic) is now virtually ours, one of the gates having been surrendered to us several days ago, on the day on which we were to have opened fire

"In the morning however news came in that the French (who had also mysteriously disappeared) had, together with our Cavalry, taken possession of the Summer Palace the previous evening without opposition, there being only about 300 servants left to look after the place, and a small guard of about 50 men, who of course did not attempt any resistance."

Evans went on to described what the French took such as "valuable" watches, clocks, fur coats and silks, adding that the "General sent out for all the carts he could find, brought in as much as they could carry, and all the things were sold by auction for prize money for the force actually present on the 16th, and a considerable amount was realised as the things went at fabulous prices  I expect to get about five and forty pounds for my share."

In another letter, he wrote, "From the palace on the plain I succeeded in getting several bronzes and enamel vases that will, I hope, some day find their way to [his home in the UK], as well as some very fine porcelain cups and saucers of the Emperors imperial pattern (yellow with green dragons) but they are so dreadfully brittle that I quite despair ever being able to get them home in their present condition"

Over 150 years after the ransacking and destruction of the Summer Palace, there have been efforts from Beijing to recover the stolen art and relics.

A bronze water vessel, known as Tiger Ying, is up for auction in Kent. [Photo: Weibo/China Daily]

In 2009, China announced plans to send a team of specialists to museums and libraries - including the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London  in an attempt to catalogue items that were taken.

That same year, auction house Christie's was asked by China to withdraw two Qing dynasty bronze animal heads, one depicting a rabbit and the other a rat, from its sale of Yves Saint Laurent's collection in Paris, claiming that they were looted from the Palace.

At the time, Christie's said the sale is legal and went ahead with the auction, but the Chinese buyer refused to pay for them.

In June 2013, Francois-Henri Pinault, owner of Christie's, returned the two bronze animal heads to China in a move to strengthen diplomatic and trade ties between France and China.

The bronze statues were put in the National Museum of China in Beijing.

It is also thought many Chinese treasures have been acquired by Chinese businessmen with the aim in repatriating the objects.

In 2007, Stanley Ho, the billionaire Macau casino magnate, bought a bronze horse head, believed to have been taken from the Summer Palace, for about $9 million and donated it to China.

According to UNESCO, about 1.64 million Chinese relics are housed in more than 200 museums in 47 countries.

The Chinese Cultural Relics Society estimated that China had lost more than 10 million antiques since 1840, due to wartime looting and illegal excavations.
INCHEON, South Korea, March 28 (Xinhua) -- South Korea on Wednesday returned more remains of Chinese soldiers killed in the 1950-1953 Korean War.

The transfer ceremony was held at the Incheon International Airport in Incheon, west of the capital Seoul, to hand over the remains of 20 Chinese volunteer soldiers killed in the war.

During the ceremony, South Korean troops handed over the coffins to Chinese soldiers, which carried them, covered by China's national flag, into an airplane.

It marked the fifth transfer ceremony. Since 2014, South Korea has transferred the remains of 589 Chinese volunteer soldiers killed in the Korean War, including 20 more this year.

Every year, China and South Korea have consulted on the handover of the Chinese soldiers' remains found in South Korea. The transfer has been usually made days before Tomb-sweeping Day, the Chinese holiday for commemorating the dead, in early April.

South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo said at the ceremony that the handover of the remains of Chinese soldiers will become an important foothold for the future-oriented development of the South Korea-China relations as it symbolizes friendly cooperation and trust between the two countries.

Song said the transfer was a good example for people of South Korea and China being a heartfelt, genuine neighbor and friend.

It was the first time that South Korea's defense chief attended the handover ceremony.

The Chinese People's Volunteers (CPV) fought alongside the Democratic People's Republic of Korea army in the Korean War against the South Korean army and U.S.-led UN forces between 1950 and 1953.

Almost 200,000 CPV soldiers have been confirmed to have been killed in the war, with most of them buried on the Korean Peninsula.
An attorney and girlfriend of a man shot and killed by Largo police say officers went to a funeral home and tried to use the dead man's hand to unlock his cell phone.

Linus Phillip Jr. was shot, killed Friday in Largo

Shooting happened after traffic stop



Detectives accused of trying to use Phillip's hand to unlock phone

PREVIOUS STORY: 1 dead in Largo officer-involved shooting



Linus Phillip Jr., 30, was shot Friday at a Wawa gas station. Police said Phillip tried to flee a traffic stop and dragged an officer partially trapped in the door.

On Wednesday, Attorney John Trevena made the accusation about the officers during a news conference.



Phillip's girlfriend said she saw two detectives Monday at the Sylvan Abbey Funeral Home and said the officers were carrying a cell phone in an evidence bag.

Victoria Armstrong said she learned from funeral home staff that detectives showed up to try to unlock Phillip's cell phone with his finger.

"How do you go to a funeral home after he's been at the Medical Examiner's all weekend and pull his dead body out of a refrigerator to try to use his thumb print to get into a phone? Armstrong said. "It's disgusting and it's so disrespectful to him and our family. We just felt it was the ultimate smack in the face besides him being gunned down."



Linus Phillip Jr. and girlfriend Victoria Armstrong (photo courtesy of Victoria Armstrong)

Armstrong said that despite the detectives' efforts, they weren't able to get into the phone.

Spectrum Bay News 9 called the funeral home to confirm the incident, and Director Christopher Prouty said, "I'm not at liberty to speak about that."

Meanwhile, family members at the news conference said they've spoken to an independent witness who provided a different account of the events leading to Phillip's death. According to the attorney, the family members said the witness said the officer opened fire before the vehicle had moved at all.

Largo Police said Wednesday that because of the ongoing investigation, they are not going to comment any further at this time.

Before that, Lt. Randall Chaney said none of the surveillance cameras at the Wawa captured the actual shooting, because the camera angle was narrow and partially obstructed.

Just after dark on Wednesday, Phillip's family and close friends gathered on the sidewalk outside of the Largo Police Department for a candlelight vigil. The family stated they just want to see the Wawa surveillance camera video of the incident, so they can know for sure what happened to Phillip.

From everything that we have known so far and the way this thing looks, it smells like foul play," his father, Linus Phillip stated.

He held a sign that stated 'We want closure, release the video.'
The spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in the UK has criticized British newspaper the Daily Telegraph for its distorted report, noting that news reporting should at least be truthful.

In a letter sent to the Daily Telegraph on March 24, Zeng Rong, spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in the UK, said he was startled at the newspapers report titled China warns opponents they face bloody battle, adding that it was said in total disregard to the reality to Chinas peaceful development and contributions to the world.

China will seek to contribute Chinese wisdom, Chinese solutions and Chinese strength to the world, to push for building an open, inclusive, clean and beautiful world that enjoys lasting peace, universal security, and common prosperity. The future that China envisions for the world is a community with a shared future dedicated to all mankind, wrote Zeng.

Published on March 21, the Telegraph article called President Xi Jinpings speech a nationalist one, adding that China is to regain its rightful place in the world.

The section of President Xis speech regarding China and the world recognizes that the world we live in is full of hope and full of challenges. It goes on to stress that the Chinese people have always had a sense of justice and compassion and have stood ready to do their utmost to contribute to the peace and development of humanity, Zeng responded.

He further noted that China-watchers should replace presumptuous speculation and arbitrary defamation, with a positive and healthy approach to Chinas work for greater mutual trust and co-operation in the world.
MERIDEN  The old sinks, coolers, and coffee brewers have been thrown out, and boxes filled with shiny new ice makers and grills sat on the front sidewalk Tuesday, ready for installation.

The Starbucks at 496 S. Broad St. closed March 19 for a total renovation. Although a sign says it will reopen Thursday, one contractor, who would not identify himself, said the reopening is more likely to happen over the weekend or Monday.

Store number 10020, as its referred to in a Snagajob listing, was the first Starbucks to open in the Meriden area.

When the Silver City Commons opened for tenants in April 2007, signing the Seattle-based coffee brewer signaled promise for the new strip. It was later joined by Cold Stone Creamery, AT&T, FedEx/Kinkos, Sakimura Hibachi Restaurant, Aspen Dental, and The Cuttery. Most of the original tenants remain and a European waxing studio joined the group.

The property is owned by 99 Lafayette Ave. Realty Ent. Inc. et al. of Alpine, New Jersey, according to city records.

Starbucks representatives could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Starbucks place into Connecticut grew after the Meriden shop opened. Starbucks opened inside a Target in Southington, and on Queen Street in the same town. Another Starbucks opened at 893 N. Colony Road in Wallingford last year.

A sign at the Meriden store invites customers to visit the Wallingford location during the renovation. A strong push on mobile apps to order before picking up at Starbucks has created the need to reconfigure the tight space in most stores.

In January, Starbucks announced plans to spend nearly $7 billion to build and renovate stores, manufacturing plants and technology platforms in the U.S. over the next five years.

In addition to an upgraded interior, the Meriden location promises Nitro Cold Brew when it reopens, according to a sign on the door.

Nitro is cold coffee on tap that's infused with tiny nitrogen bubbles, giving it a foamy texture, like beer.

mgodin@record-journal.com

203-317-2255

Twitter: @Cconnbiz
MERIDEN  At Platt High School, students performing The Laramie Project have learned more than just acting skills.

Its been empowering for them (to see) how they can have a positive impact on the world around them, Director and English teacher Ethan Warner said.

Warner is referring to the heavy topics found in the 2002 docudrama, which explores the community impact of the kidnapping and murder of Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old gay university student in Laramie, Wyoming. Shepards murder has been widely considered a hate crime, but has not been acknowledged as such in court.

After Shepards death in 1998, the Tectonic Theatre Project spent two years conducting interviews in Laramie and eventually compiled the authentic words of community members into what is now The Laramie Project.

Platt Theatre will present the show April 5 through 7, at 7 p.m. each day. Only about 84 tickets will be available for each performance, so purchasing tickets online at platt.booktix.com is highly recommended.

Warner said when he took the students to see The Laramie Project at Central Connecticut State University last year, he was a little concerned about how they might handle the intense topics.

The students responded very positively...they were very inspired by it, Warner said. They immediately responded with a desire to do it themselves.

Platt students have tackled tough topics in theater performances before, including a Platt original called Wilted, which students wrote and performed last year. The show centered on group therapy session in a home for victims of human trafficking.

Warner said after every rehearsal he has the students take time for group reflection, and their insights have surprised him. Some students have related to the struggles of being LGBTQ, and most have learned how they can use art to make an impact.

Senior Julia Kudewicz, who plays a variety of roles, said this show has taught her that hatred can be found in any community.

It definitely taught me that these things can happen anywhere, its not just Laramie, Wyoming, Kudewicz said. I hope (the audience) takes away that in a community you can change something and you can grow always.

The show will be presented as black box seating, which allows for the audience to have a much more intimate experience.

Kudewicz said the seating allows audience members to make eye contact with the actors and see every facial expression, requiring more thorough acting.

This is an intimate performance about small human movements, and we want the audience to experience that close up, Warner said.

Through collaboration with The Laramie Project Project, the name and biography of Gilberto Ramon Silva Menendez will be shared at every performance. Silva was one of the victims of the Pulse Nightclub shooting last June. Because of the mature content, people are encouraged not to bring children younger than 13 years old.

bwright@record-journal.com

203-317-2316

Twitter: @baileyfaywright
WALLINGFORD  The town will cover the additional $168,000 in legal costs incurred by the Electric Division in its multimillion dollar arbitration with the towns former energy supplier, the Connecticut Municipal Electric Energy Cooperative.

The PUC needed the $168,000 transfer because it has outspent the total money budgeted for CMEEC legal fees in its 2017-18 budget  $130,000.

The Town Council approved the transfer Tuesday night with a 6-3 vote after discussing the CMEEC litigation with members of the PUC and the town attorney during a 45-minute executive session.

Republican Craig Fishbein, the only councilor who spoke before voting, criticized utility officials for not providing sufficient updates on the arbitration since a $520,000 request in February 2017. He, Republican John LeTourneau and freshman Democratic councilor Gina Morgenstein, voted against the transfer.

Im almost like the parent who has sent a child to college  Im paying for it, but my child wont show me their grades, Fishbein told Public Utilities Director Rick Hendershot and PUC Chairman Bob Beaumont. Fishbein said he was glad we got some information, but stated his problem is that, unless you needed more money, you wouldnt have come to the council. .

The town spent more than $2.6 million on the legal dispute through December 2017, according to figures provided by Hendershot. It dates back to April 2013, but town officials are hopeful for a resolution by end of June.

The town claims CMEEC is overcharging through its contract with the town. The electric division and its legal team determined "approximately $18 million in actionable costs (overcharges) over the next ten years," Hendershot said.

A trial was held last summer and the two sides recently engaged in settlement negotiations, Beaumont said at a recent PUC meeting.

CMEEC is an electric energy co-op owned by several municipal utilities in Connecticut, including Groton, Norwich, Jewett City, South Norwalk and East Norwalk. CMEEC had purchased power for Wallingford from 1994 until 2014, when the town entered a five-year contract with Energy New England, which acts as the town's agent consultant in purchasing wholesale power from the regional market. By contract, however, Wallingford and CMEEC have remained partners in several projects.

The length and cost of the arbitration has surpassed projections made by town officials since the arbitration commenced in 2015. At one point, utility officials told the council that legal fees would not exceed over $500,000, according to Fishbein.

If the full $168,000 transfer approved Tuesday is spent, the town would have paid a total of $347,000 in fees for attorneys, arbitration, and consultants this fiscal year  more than double the $130,000 originally budgeted.

Most of the money spent this year has gone to the law firm representing the town, McCarter and English. PUC member Patrick Birney said last week that the town budgeted for legal fees based on lengthy discussions with the firm about its expectation.

In speaking about the PUC exceeding its budgeted legal costs, Birney expressed some displeasure with Robert ONeil, the towns lead attorney from McCarter & English, saying that he is gravely disappointed with Mr. ONeils ability to budget.

PUC members noted some unforeseen factors that led to the increase in legal fees, including the settlement negotiations themselves and information requests from the arbitrator.

mzabierek@record-journal.com

203-317-2279

Twitter: @MatthewZabierek
Even though this years Baselworld was shortened by two days, there were still few journalists left when the organisers hastily organised a closing press conference on the final day of the show. A forgiving Kurt Kupper (CEO of Reuge) helpfully sped through my final interview so that I could get away in time to arrive at the press conference only ten minutes late.

The voicemail I received from an unnamed person at the Baselworld press office promising the presence of numerous CEOs was, unsurprisingly, wide of the mark. Intead, Sylvie Ritter, Managing Director of Baselworld, and Rene Kamm, CEO of MCH Group, valiantly fielded the questions that had been pent up over the past seven days by journalists who were not given any chance to ask them at the opening press conference.

Little change for 2019

Contrary to various rumours that circulated during the exhibition, Baselworld will remain little changed from its current format, at least as far as Hall 1.0 is concerned. Sylvie Ritter confirmed that all the major players in the industry will be present next year and that the only brand exhibiting in Hall 1.0 not to have confirmed either its presence or absence in 2019 is the family-owned independent brand Raymond Weil.

Prices cut for exhibitors, but not for visitors

Exhibitors benefit from a 10% reduction in the cost of renting their exhibition space and some of the bigger exhibitors will no doubt save money because their stands are remaining in place until next years edition of the show. But Rene Kamm said there is unlikely to be any change to the 60 Swiss franc entrance price for the public. The main reason for this is to keep visitor numbers (which remained stable this year, despite the shorter duration) at a manageable level.

Online versus print

Before the show I wrote that I would test the Baselworld Live News app and, true to my word, I did and I was very impressed. I chose Skype as my preferred direct messaging platform and browsed through the various options of searching content based on watches or jewellery, latest news or individual brands. I was always directed to appropriate content on the baselworld.com website, which led me to ask Sylvie Ritter whether there were any plans to extend the platform to external sites. She said that this is something that they will consider, but at the same time confirmed that the organisers were also reconsidering bringing back the daily print version of the Baselworld News next year.

Feedback from the exhibitors  positive overall

Despite the grumbles about the organisation and the uncertainty caused by rumours circulating during the exhibition, the overall feedback I received from around 60 individual meetings and interviews during the exhibition was positive. A number of smaller independent brands who often find it hard to entice retailers to visit them even confirmed that they were actively being approached by retailers and that, unlike previous years, there were hardly any no-shows. In general, business seemed to be good.

See you next year!

The dates for Baselworld 2019 are confirmed as March 21-26, keeping the six-day format.

See all our coverage of Baselworld 2018.
When it presented its first square diving watch in 2017, Bell & Ross confirmed its ability to produce professional underwater instruments. Following on from the Hydromax designed in 1997 and water-resistant to 11,100 meters, and the BR02 range launched in 2007, the BR03-92 Diver made a strong impression on the diving world with its iconic lines. This watch was the starting point of an entire collection, which is now expanding to include two new versions, the BR03-92 Diver Blue and the BR03-92 Diver Bronze.

 Bell & Ross

BR03-92 Diver Blue

Symbolizing the sea, blue was chosen as the color of this new version of the BR03-92 Diver. Beyond its blue dial, rubber strap and aluminum insert on the bezel, this BR03-92 Diver Blue version aims to achieve maximum legibility with indices coated in White SuperLuminova and a yellow hour hand.

BR03-92 Diver Blue  Bell & Ross

Underwater, the colors vanish one after the other due to the loss of light intensity. The yellow hour hand will therefore fade away to give precedence to the minute hand, which must be visible to ensure the divers safety. This new color combination, paired with the emblematic square shape of the BR collections, gives the BR03-92 Diver Blue a sporty yet attractive aesthetic.

BR03-92 Diver Bronze

The second new addition to the BR03-92 Diver collection evokes the historical roots of underwater exploration. Its case and bezel are made from bronze, a material used in the past for diving helmets. Although inalterable, bronze can also form a patina with time depending on its environment, gaining a unique shade over the years.

BR03-92 Diver Bronze  Bell & Ross

This allusion to the origins of underwater adventures can be seen on the case-back thanks to an engraving of a diver. The aged leather strap confirms the watchs authentic vintage spirit, but can be replaced with a rubber strap for use while diving. Boasting exceptional technical and aesthetic qualities, this model is issued as a limited edition of 999 pieces.

Case back view  Bell & Ross

Professional diving instruments

Given their military associations, Bell & Ross watches have always met the strictest requirements. Dedicated to aeronautics, the navy or special units such as GIGN (special operations unit of the French National Gendarmerie), RAID (Search, Assistance, Intervention, Deterrence Unit of the French National Police Force) and bomb disposal experts, every Bell & Ross watch is designed in accordance with its own, often extreme, environment.

In the diving world, the BR03-92 Diver Blue and BR03-92 Diver Bronze have been developed to be measurement tools perfectly capable of contending with the ocean depths. Legible, accurate and reliable, they are efficient companions to divers under any conditions and meet the specific requirements of underwater use, in addition to their Bell & Ross design.

The ISO 6425 Standard

Official regulations set out very precise criteria defining a true diving watch. The ISO 6425 standard lists a great number of obligatory technical parameters, which include water-resistance to a minimum depth of 100 meters; the presence of a unidirectional rotating bezel with a graduated scale, an operation indicator and luminescent markers; legibility in the dark, and anti-shock and anti-magnetic protection. The new BR03-92 Diver Blue and BR03-92 Diver Bronze completely meet these requirements, and go even further than the requisite minimums, featuring a waterresistance of 300 meters.
The votes are in! Get a recap of the 2021 Election.

The votes are in! Get a recap of the 2021 Election.

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Orndorffs experimental writing began when he discovered a way to take his reading automaticity (effectively used for over thirty years of grading senior students many expository essays and research papers) and use the automaticity in his writing. The errors produced add to his sense of humility that I find refreshing. He preached the rules of General Manuscript Specifications his whole career and now finds he cant live up to them himself. He may not see the humor in this, but his many former students and colleagues might sense a secret delight in his lightly buried misery of my conditional. I would not be here but for his determination and humility to see this experimental and self-imposed writing project through. Humanity is my standard in orndorff's writing, not GMS perfection.  Amorella
Egypt's Meteorological Authority issued a warning on Tuesday that a dust storm would hit the country on Wednesday.

According to the authority's statement, the weather will be unstable on Wednesday and a southeasterly wind will reach the level of dust storm in many parts of the country.

The authority also warned that navigation may be disrupted in the Red and Mediterranean Seas, as well as in the Gulf of Suez.

The authority also added that there could be rain in various parts in Egypt.

The temperature will reach a high of 35 degrees and a low of 21 in Cairo and the Nile Delta.

In Alexandria, the temperature will be a more moderate 27 degrees at high and 14 degrees at low.

In North Sinai, the temperature will reach a high of 30 degrees and a low of 15, whereas in Upper Egypt, a high of 40 and a low of 24 is forecast.

Wednesday is the last day in which Egyptians can cast their votes nationwide in the three-day presidential elections. Polling stations open their doors at 9am and close at 9pm.

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By Reuters

The Income Tax department has frozen Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp's bank accounts and deposits in Chennai and Mumbai for allegedly evading a dividend distribution tax (DDT), according to a report on Tuesday.

A Cognizant spokesman confirmed the report and said in a statement that a court has instructed the tax department not to take further action pending further hearings.

Cognizant failed to pay the tax of more than 25 billion rupees ($385 million) in the 2016-17 financial year, the Hindu newspaper reported, citing officials from the tax department.

Cognizant said it had paid all applicable taxes due on the transaction.

The company's accounts were frozen a week back and it had approached the High Court against the tax department, according to the report.

"Cognizant's business operations, our associates and our work with clients are not impacted by actions recently attempted by the Indian Income Tax Department," the company said.

A Cognizant spokesman declined to give more details, while tax department officials could not be reached for comment outside regular business hours.

The U.S.-listed IT services has significant operations in India where the majority of its 260,000 employees reside.
By ANI

NEW DELHI: Global star Priyanka Chopra impresses us with her elegant style as she features on the cover of a magazine.

The 35-year-old has posed for the cover of Elle Canadas May edition.

The official Twitter handle of the fashion magazine shared the cover as they wrote, @priyankachopra is our May 2018 cover star! To read the full interview, look out for the issue on newsstands April 9th. For now here's a sneak peek

Priyanka, who plays the role of Alex Parrish in the popular TV show Quantico, in the interview to the publication, talked about being the central protagonist.

.@priyankachopra is our May 2018 cover star! To read the full interview, look out for the issue on newsstands April 9th. For now here's a sneak peek https://t.co/bInARjSGNd pic.twitter.com/UnLdZybhq3  ELLE Canada (@ElleCanada) March 27, 2018

When you see Bruce Willis saving the world and blowing up helicopters in a crisp white shirt, men dont ask why youre setting a standard for men to look like that. Why do women have to feel that way about it?

She further said, Seeing a pretty girl shouldnt make us feel bad about ourselves. When I was younger, I didnt see people who looked like me in magazines. That doesnt mean I didnt aspire to it. I got inspired by the other achievers I saw and made myself the best version of me.

On the work front, the Baywatch star is presently in Ireland where she is shooting for Quantico.
By ANI

NEW DELHI: The Samajwadi Party (SP) on Wednesday supported Opposition's proposal to move an impeachment motion against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra.

"The Samajwadi Party stands with the impeachment motion, which is about bringing independence and unquestionable integrity to the judiciary," SP leader Ghanshyam Tiwari told ANI.

Earlier on Tuesday, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader D.P. Tripathi said that opposition parties, including the Congress, have initiated the process to impeach the CJI.

"A lot of opposition parties have signed the draft proposal for moving an impeachment motion against CJI Dipak Misra. Many parties like Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Left parties and I think TMC and Congress have also signed it," NCP General Secretary D.P. Tripathi told ANI.

CLICK BELOW TO WATCH VIDEO

The development came after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's meeting with senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan earlier in the day to discuss a possible impeachment motion against the CJI.

The impeachment motion is in relation to the CJI's handling of the matters raised by four Supreme Court judges in a press conference on January 11.

Justices Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, M.B. Lokur and Kurien Joseph had earlier this year said Misra was assigning important cases in an arbitrary manner to junior judges, ignoring these four senior judges.
Polling stations closed nationwide in Egypt on Wednesday at 10 pm, bringing an end to the three day 2018 presidential elections that started on Monday.

Shortly after 7pm, the country's National Elections Authority (NEA) decided to extend voting to 10pm instead of 9pm, due to "high voter turnout at polling stations, and to give all voters the chance to vote given the bad weather conditions in some governorates."

Televised footage broadcast on state TV and privately owned TV channels has shown longer queues of voters at some polling stations acoss the country in the evening, especially after an announcement by the NEA earlier in the day that it will be enforcing a fine of EGP 500 (approx. $28) on citizens who abstain from voting in the elections per the country's presidential elections law.

The NEA said in the afternoon that the final day of voting had seen "large participation" at polling stations across the country, saying the governorates of Cairo, Giza, Alexandria, and North Sinai, where the army is fighting terrorism, saw the biggest turnout as they did on the first day of polling.

Alexandria witnessed a terrorist car-bombing on Saturday targeting the governorate's security director. Two policemen died in the attack, but the security director was unscathed.

In North Sinai, the army and the police have been fighting trerrorist groups in the past several years and have been conducting the counterterrorism Operation Sinai 2018 for two months.

The high turnout in North Sinai shows that the security situation has not affected the election process, the NEA said.

The official turnout will be announced along with the election result on 2 April, unless there is a run-off, which would take place on 24-26 April.

Voting started on Monday at 9am at 13,706 polling stations in all 26 governorates.

The vote count will start after the polls close at 10pm.

Two candidates are running in the elections; incumbent President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and Ghad Party leader Moussa Mostafa Moussa.

Fifty-four local and nine international NGOs were authorised by the NEA to monitor the elections.

The winner will serve as Egypt's leader for the next four years.

On Tuesday, the NEA said the first two days of voting had gone smoothly across the country, with initial indications suggesting a high turnout.

"No complaints were received regarding the elections, either by judges or by voters, on the first day of elections," the NEA said on Tuesday.

The election process was supervised at polling stations by 18,000 judges, with tens of thousands of army and police personnel deployed to secure polling stations.

On the first day of the elections, a number of state officials and public figures cast their ballots in the elections, including Prime Minister Sherif Ismail, Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II, and Sheikh Ahmed El-Tayeb, the grand imam of Al-Azhar. The two contenders in the election, El-Sisi and Moussa, were also among the first to vote on Monday.

Around 59 million Egyptians are registered as eligible to vote on the NEA's database, officials have said.

The largest concentrations of voters are in Cairo, with 7.5 million voters, followed by Giza with 5.2 million, Sharqiya with 4 million, Alexandria with 3.8 million and the Nile Delta governorate of Beheira with 3.7 million voters.

In the 2014 presidential elections, where El-Sisi beat his contender  leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahi  with 96 percent of the vote, 24.5 million out of 54 million voters took part, or 47 percent of eligible voters.

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St. Patrick's Day in September with pirates?! It's happening Saturday

Pipe bands and Free Men of the Sea, a pirate reenactment group, will rotate around Newport establishments Sept. 25 in first St. Patrick's Day party.
Champaign, IL (61820)

Today

Sunshine and a few afternoon clouds. High 77F. Winds SSW at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy with occasional rain late. Low 49F. SSW winds shifting to NW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
Reporter/Columnist

Julie Wurth is a reporter covering the University of Illinois at The News-Gazette. Her email is jwurth@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@jawurth).
Reporter

Mary Schenk is a reporter covering police, courts and breaking news at The News-Gazette. Her email is mschenk@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@schenk).
The deputy head of Egypt's National Elections Authority (NEA), Mahmoud El-Sherif, said in a press conference on Wednesday that the authority has no plans to extend the country's presidential vote into a fourth day, dismissing such reports as "rumours."

Egyptians headed to polling stations for the third and final day of voting on Wednesday to choose the next president as officials continued to encourage Egyptians to turn out to the polls.

The authority also announced on Wednesday it would be enforcing a fine of EGP 500 (approx. $28) on citizens who abstain from voting in the elections, according to the country's presidential elections law.

The legal penalty was not rigorously enforced in the last presidential elections in 2014.

El-Sherif said Wednesday that abstaining from voting constitutes an "electoral crime" and that the country's prosecutors are in charge of enforcing the penalty.

The authority said the final day of voting so far saw "large participation" at polling stations across the country, reiterating that the governorates of Cairo, Giza, Alexandria and even North Sinai, where the army is fighting Islamist militants, saw the biggest turnout.

Polls across the country close at 9pm.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi is running against a sole challenger, Ghad Party head Moussa Mostafa Moussa, in this election.

President El-Sisi won the 2014 election in a landslide, gaining nearly 97 percent of the vote with a voter turnout of 47 percent.

The results are scheduled to be announced on 2 April, unless there is a run-off, which would take place on 24-26 April.

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City installs first electric vehicle charging station The City of Washington has announced the addition of an electric vehicle charger to the Downtown Square in partnership with Summerhouse Realty. In an effort to offer travelers an electrified...

Volunteer Fire Departments facing personnel shortages Having been around since the 1700s, Volunteer Fire Fighting Departments are a common staple for many rural communities. Typically consisting of members from each community, the volunteer firefighters are trained...
Bolivia will grant tourist visas upon arrival to Hong Kong Special Administrative Region passport holders, the Immigration Department announced today.

Hong Kong tourists can stay in the country for up to 30 days.

This brings the number of countries or territories that grant visa-free access or visa-on-arrival to HKSAR passport holders to 162.

Those wishing to visit the country are advised to refer to the website of the Embassy of the Plurinational State of Bolivia in Beijing.
Voting in Egypts three-day presidential election closed on Wednesday with the results expected to be announced on 2 April.

There is no doubt that President Al-Sisis achievements in his first four-year term, particularly in the area of fighting terrorism and restoring security, will have persuaded millions of Egyptians to vote for him in the last three days, says Al-Ahram political analyst Gamal Abdel-Gawad.

The only other candidate, Moussa Mustafa Moussa, is a little known figure, the head of a party, the Ghad, which has little influence in political life.

Abdel-Gawad expected the turnout would be similar to 2014 when 23.7 million Egyptians voted for Al-Sisi.

Journalist and MP Mustafa Bakri predicted a higher turnout, a result, he said, of pro-Sisi forces mobilising energetically. We viewed the vote as a challenge.

We want a record turnout to respond to those who issued boycott calls or claimed Al-Sisi had lost much of his popularity, said Bakri.

The National Election Commissions (NEC) Spokesperson Mahmoud Lasheen said on Tuesday an initial tally showed record voting was expected in Egypts most populous cities  Cairo and Alexandria  and in North Sinai.

But once President Al-Sisi is announced as the winner what comes next?

President Al-Sisis second term in office is supposed to be his last. Under the constitution he cannot remain in power after 2022, says political analyst Amr Hashem Rabie.

For political parties and other civil forces the pressing question, therefore, is how they can best prepare themselves for the 2022 presidential poll.

President Al-Sisi has a role to play in this respect, by dismissing calls for the constitution to be changed to either extend the presidential term or allow candidates to run for an unlimited number of terms.

Rabie recalls president Anwar Al-Sadat vowed in 1971  a year after he came to office  to serve no more than one term in office, but in 1980 the constitution was amended to allow him to stay in power forever.

Hosni Mubarak also promised when he came to office after the assassination of Sadat in 1981 that he would stay no more than two terms but he left power only after being ousted from office 30 years later.

We do not want the same scenario to be repeated with President Al-Sisi, said Rabie.

Shawki Al-Sayed, a leading lawyer and political analyst, told Al-Ahram Weekly that political reform should be the most dominant issue in the next four years.

Just as he adopted a package of economic reforms in his first term, President Al-Sisi should pursue political reforms in his second, allowing viable candidates to emerge before the 2022 poll, said Al-Sayed.

Without active political parties capable of fielding credible presidential candidates the only thing people can hope for is that the constitution is amended to allow Al-Sisi to remain in office beyond 2022, or for another military strongman like former prime minister Ahmed Shafik to contest the poll and win.

Conservatives Party head Akmal Qortam agrees. Now the public recognises a wrong choice for president, like the election of Mohamed Morsi in 2012, can throw the country into chaos, their only hope in 2022 is that someone like Shafik becomes president, or Al-Sisi remains in office.

Shafik, who announced early in January that he would run in this years ballot only to withdraw suddenly and announce his support for Al-Sisi, will be 81 in 2022.

Political analyst Abdel-Moneim Said noted in an article in Al-Ahram that political parties decided to support Al-Sisi in the 2018 poll with the stipulation that he leads the country towards democracy in his second term.

This means maintaining the current constitution, changing the election law to allow for a stronger parliament, amending the political parties law to help opposition forces develop their own legal forums and empowering young people.

President Al-Sisi should begin his second term by holding a national dialogue with political leaders to reach a consensus on the political reforms necessary to make Egypt a fully-fledged democracy by 2022.

Without this, we could face a big problem in four years time.

Al-Said believes combating terrorism will remain a top issue on President Al-Sisis agenda in his second term.

The Comprehensive Operation Sinai 2018 will continue to uproot Islamist militants and Al-Sisi winning the vote by a landslide will kill any hope of reconciliation with the banned Muslim Brotherhood that might allow it to re-engage in political life.

The long anticipated law forming the National Council for Combating Terrorism and Extremism will soon be issued by parliament. It will focus on reforming religious discourse, stemming radical Islamism and containing sectarian strife, said Al-Said.

These should be major priorities in the next stage because they will stop Egypt from being a breeding ground for extremists and make it safe from terrorist threats for years to come.

Al-Said also argued Al-Sisi will face a major task reconstructing North Sinai.

Injecting billions of dollars of investments into North Sinai will be needed, in tandem with security operations, to rid the peninsula of terrorists.

Gamal Zahran, a professor of political science and economics at the University of Suez, believes President Al-Sisi needs to do more to persuade Western powers to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation.

President Al-Sisi did a good job in his first term, forming an alliance with moderate Arab Gulf countries against Qatar and Turkey, and building good relationships with US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Zahran told the Weekly.

In his second term he should work to exploit Trumps hostility towards Islamist movements to have the Muslim Brotherhood designated a terrorist organisation in the US.

Political analysts also agree Egypts runaway population growth and problems posed by Ethiopias Renaissance Dam will provide headaches during Al-Sisis second term.

Zahran expects another package of IMF-inspired economic reforms is just over the horizon.

Sayed Abdel-Aal, head of the Tagammu Party, warned in a statement last week that as Egypts foreign debt in President Al-Sisis first term has ballooned to a staggering $80 billion, servicing it now takes up 38 per cent of the state budget.

Instead of seeking real revenues to pay off these debts the government chose the scenario favoured in the Mubarak era, implementing an IMF-inspired privatisation programme, said Abdel-Aal.

He further complained the programme entails privatising companies in the strategic insurance, container handling and banking sectors, warning such policy opens the door for foreign monopolies to dominate the local market.

Minister of Finance Amr Al-Garhi said in a press conference on 20 March that shares in 23 government-owned companies  including insurance, container handling, housing, tobacco, and aluminium  will be sold on the stock market, generating between LE5 billion and LE6 billion in proceeds in the first three months and LE80 billion by the end of the programme.

*This story was first published in Al-Ahram Weekly

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Turkey will not hesitate to act if Syrian Kurdish militia, seen as a terrorist outfit by Ankara, do not leave the town of Manbij, the country's top National Security Council, MGK, said late on Wednesday.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has long threatened to expand Turkey's military operation into Manbij, after already taking control of the enclave of Afrin in Syria from the People's Protection Units (YPG).

Unlike Afrin, there is a US military presence in Manbij and any confrontation between the two NATO allies would mark a major escalation.

"It has been stated that terrorists in Manbij should leave the region immediately, otherwise Turkey will not hesitate to take the initiative there as it did in other regions," the MGK, which is chaired by Erdogan, said in a statement.

Ankara launched an air and ground offensive in Afrin in January to root out YPG fighters there.

Washington sees YPG as a key player in the fight against Islamic State jihadists.

On March 18, Turkish forces and their rebel allies took full control of Afrin, with the YPG largely withdrawing without a fight.

Manbij was once held by Islamic State (IS) jihadists before they were pushed out by Kurdish militia.

The US has repeatedly warned that Turkey's campaign in Afrin has risked distracting from the fight against IS.

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Poland and the United States signed a $4.75 billion agreement on Wednesday on the sale of Raytheon Co's Patriot missile defence system to Warsaw.

"Today we are starting to equip Poland with the most modern mid-range air defence system in the world," Poland's President Andrzej Duda said at the signing ceremony.

NATO member Poland has sped up efforts to overhaul its military following Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula in 2014 and in response to Moscow's renewed military and political assertiveness in the region.

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THE Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) is investigating examination leakages that have dogged the countrys education sector leading to widespread cheating.



Zacc deputy chairperson, Dr Nanette Silukhuni, told an anti-corruption conference on Tuesday in Victoria Falls that the commission had initiated an investigation into various sectors, including the education sector.





She said the commission had since concluded a probe into the health sector and was now moving to the education sector to weed out corrupt activities in line with President Mnangagwas call for zero tolerance to corruption.





We plan to spread to other sectors and currently we are undertaking a review in the education sector as we also want to look at how best leakages in examinations can be eliminated.





We want to make sure situations that prevailed recently can be avoided hence there are a whole lot of areas we want to look into like corporate governance, said Dr Silukhuni.





She commended the new dispensation for giving Zacc the impetus and teeth to investigate without fear or favour.





Exam cheating last year saw Zimsec nullifying the Ordinary Level English Paper 2 but the High Court ordered that English Paper 1only should be used for marking.

Dr Silukhuni said in the health sector investigations were made at major referral hospitals such as Mpilo Central, Parirenyatwa, Chitungwiza and Harare Central Hospital.

She said there is rampant corruption in the selection of nurse trainees who are forced to pay bribes to secure places.





The initiative to go into institutions is driven by prevention of corruption which is our Constitutional mandate that we should advise Government on how best we can curb corruption.





We took the initiative to focus on health with special emphasis on recruitment and we covered the length and breadth primarily the four major referral hospitals looking mostly at their systems, procedures and governance applications and we are happy with the process, said Dr Silukhuni.

She said Zacc also identified corrupt activities in the procurement of drugs and a full report of findings will be released soon.





Dr Silukhuni called for a mind-set change saying Zimbabweans should embrace technology to be able to deal with corruption.





She said Zacc will soon launch the national strategy on corruption and appealed for strong political will which she said is of paramount importance. Herald
Cavers Say They Made It

to Bottom of the 'Well of Hell'
Russia will respond to the mass expulsion of Russian diplomats by Western countries in kind, Valentina Matviyenko, the speaker of the upper house of parliament, said on Wednesday, the RIA news agency reported.

It cited her as telling reporters: "Without a doubt, Russia, as is diplomatic practice, will respond symmetrically and observe parity when it comes to the number of diplomats."

Ties between London and Moscow are badly strained by the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury. Britain alleges Russia was to blame, but Moscow says it had no involvement.

The United States said on Monday it would expel 60 Russian diplomats, joining governments across Europe in punishing the Kremlin for the nerve agent attack.



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(Newser)  Once it was thought hardly anyone ventured into the Amazon before Europeans arrived in South America, instead keeping close to major rivers. But that was before satellites combed the region. Archaeologists at the University of Exeter who surveyed satellite images in areas of deforestation have uncovered 81 previously unknown Amazon settlementssome covering hectares, others as small as 100 feet widemarked by fortification ditches, sunken roads, ceramic fragments, and earth platforms on which wooden houses would've stood between 1250 and 1500, reports the Guardian. "We filled the last piece of a puzzle in Amazonian archaeology," study author Jonas Gregorio de Souza tells Live Science, describing a network of settlements believed to have covered 154,000 square miles of the Amazon's southern rim, perhaps supporting a population in the millions in the pre-Columbian era.

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Archaeologists couldn't get access to all 81 sites in the upper Tapajos Basin, but examined 24 in person and believe hundreds more exist. In addition to upending the idea that the Amazon was mostly untouched, their study in Nature Communications "definitively discredits early low estimates of 1.5-2 million inhabitants for the whole basin," they say, per USA Today, and shows settlements next to small streams and springs may have hosted large populations. Though linked to other settlements, the sites each have "a different local expression of  architectural traditions," says de Souza. "There are different kinds of site layouts and artifacts that are found in each of the regions." De Souza adds many questions remain, but "the big debate is how populations were distributed." Scientists expect to learn more as additional sites are discovered and examined. (Stonehenge-like structures were also found in the Amazon.)
(Newser)  A water park company co-owner accused of making a spur of the moment decision to build the world's tallest waterslide and rushing it into service, and a designer accused of shoddy planning, were charged Tuesday in the 2016 death of a 10-year-old boy who was decapitated on the ride when the raft he was on went airborne and hit an overhead hoop, the AP reports. The Kansas attorney general's office said Jeffrey Henry, 62, co-owner of Texas-based Schlitterbahn Waterparks and Resorts, and designer John Schooley were charged with reckless second-degree murder in the death of Caleb Schwab on the 17-story ride Verruckt, a German word for insane. The indictment also charges them with injuries to 13 other people on the slide. Second-degree murder carries a sentence of 9 years to 41 years. The company that built the ride, Henry & Sons Construction Co., which is described as the private construction company of Schlitterbahn, also was charged.

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Henry was ordered held in a Texas jail without bond Tuesday, pending extradition to Kansas. The attorney general's office says Schooley is not in custody. Henry's arrest on Monday followed a Kansas grand jury's indictment last week of the Schlitterbahn park in Kansas City, Kansas, and its former operations director, Tyler Austin Miles, on 20 felony charges. Indictments say neither Henry nor Schooley had technical or engineering expertise related to amusement park rides. Henry made a "spur of the moment" decision in 2012 to build the world's tallest water slide to impress the producers of a Travel Channel show, the indictments say. Henry's desire to "rush the project" and a lack of expertise caused the company to "skip fundamental steps in the design process." The indictment said, "not a single engineer was directly involved in Verruckt's dynamic engineering or slide path design." The indictment said that in 2014, when there were news reports emerging about airborne rafts, a company spokesperson "discredited" them and Henry and his designer began "secretly testing at night to avoid scrutiny." Click for more.

(Read more Schlitterbahn stories.)
(Newser)  A proposal to repel Asian carp with stinging, noisy bubbles won first prize Tuesday in a contest sponsored by the state of Michigan to find new ideas for keeping the invasive fish out of the Great Lakes, the AP reports. Edem Tsikata, a software consultant in Boston, was awarded $200,000 in the Great Lakes Invasive Carp Challenge, which Gov. Rick Snyder announced last year. He described it as a bid to jump-start a sluggish governmental effort to shield the lakes and their native fish from aggressive, voracious carp that have infested the Mississippi River and its tributaries, including the Illinois River, which leads to Lake Michigan. Three other contestants received cash awards. The challenge drew 353 entries from 27 nations.

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"I'm confident that the solutions presented today help take us one step closer to ensuring our waters remain free of this dangerous and harmful invasive species," the Republican governor said. The concluding round of the competition in Detroit featured live presentations from four finalists and was dubbed "Carp Tank," a takeoff on the reality television show Shark Tank. Tsikata's idea was to install specially designed underwater propellers to generate a wall of bubbles that would implode as they move into high-pressure areas, emitting high-speed water jets. The noise of the propellers should be enough to deter the carp, but those that continue forward would experience a powerful stinging sensation as the bubbles burst, causing them to turn away. Click for more on his idea.

(Read more Asian carp stories.)
(Newser)  Harvey Weinstein's former assistant says she tried to stop him abusing women two decades ago, making him sign a legal agreement that required him to seek therapy and mend his ways. Zelda Perkins, who joined Miramax in London when she was in her early 20s, quit Weinstein's film company in 1998, along with a colleague who accused the movie mogul of trying to rape her. As part of a settlement, Perkins signed a non-disclosure agreement. It kept her silent, but also committed Weinstein to attend therapy for three years. And it required the company to spill the beans to its then-owner, the Walt Disney Co., or to fire Weinstein if he made any more payouts over alleged wrongdoing.

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Perkins and her colleague, told that Weinstein couldn't be prosecuted in England because the alleged rape happened in Italy, negotiated a settlement of $177,000 each after a process Perkins says was "humiliating and degrading" and left her "trapped in a vortex of fear" because of the strict requirements for secrecy. Perkins says her hope was to "create protection for people in the future." Under the terms of the agreement, Perkins chose the therapist Weinstein was to consult. She doesn't know whether he ever went to the sessions. "I have no idea if any of the obligations were upheld," Perkins tells the AP. She said that a year after she left the company she ran into Weinstein at the Cannes Film Festival, and "he told me that everything I had done was pointless."

(Read more Harvey Weinstein stories.)
(Newser)  Theresa May predicted that ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia may never fully recover after being poisoned with a nerve agent March 4 in Salisbury, England. Now a family member tells the BBC, via the Guardian, that the outlook for the pair "really isn't good" and that her family has kept news of what happened from Skripal's own mother. "I have maybe 1% of hope," Viktoria Skripal, the ex-spy's niece, says. "Whatever it was has given them a very small chance of survival." And if they do make it, she adds, "they're going to be invalids for the rest of their lives." Still, she says that even though "we are all grown up and  don't believe in miracles," her family is still hoping for one, per Sky News. (The UK believes the poison path leads right back to the Kremlin.)
(Newser)  Facebook has been in a tailspin since Christopher Wylie blew the whistle on Cambridge Analytica's use of user data, and on Tuesday, he made a massive allegation across the pond. During his lengthy testimony before a British House of Commons committee, the 28-year-old former Cambridge Analytica employee suggested the user information gleaned from Facebook also helped swing the Brexit vote. He said Canadian political consultant AggregateIQ (AIQ) both worked on the official pro-Brexit "Vote Leave" campaign and had access to the data; he "absolutely" believes the data was used by AIQ, reports the AP. In its report, the New York Times describes Wylie colorfully: as a "a cerebral skate-rat" and a "pink-haired, nose-ringed oracle sent from the future to explain data."

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But it also picks up his strong words: "I think it is completely reasonable to say that there could have been a different outcome of the referendum had there not been, in my view, cheating." He alleges the work AIQ did was in violation of campaign financing law, reports Politico.

The Guardian explains that allegation: that Vote Leave handed 625,000 to BeLeave, money which was then paid to AIQ. Vote Leave's total spend was 6.77 million, but if that payment is taken into account, it is in excess of the 7 million limit. The BBC reports that Vote Leave contends it got the OK from the Electoral Commission to donate that sum to BeLeave.

The CBC reports the allegation doesn't pave the way for a do-over, though it could provide "some traction in the court of public opinion." Per one expert on British electoral law, overspending can result in a fine, or potentially a criminal investigation into alleged fraud.

In Wylie's telling, AIQ wasn't so much a client of Cambridge Analytica as a "department"he says it was born out of a planned expansion of Cambridge Analytica, but didn't go quite that far because the Canadians running AIQ didn't want to move to Britain. He described AIQ as "a company that can do virtually everything that (Cambridge Analytica) can do but with a different billing name." AIQ disputes the characterization.

(Read more Brexit stories.)
(Newser)  In Italy's own version of Les Miserables, a man who's fought a nearly 10-year legal battle over an eggplant finally got his reprieve from the country's court of last resort. Per AFP, the unnamed man, then 49, was nabbed by cops in 2009 emerging from private property near Lecce in southern Italy, along with a bucket holding a lone eggplant. His excuse: He had no job and needed to feed his child. The police apparently weren't swayed, and so began an almost decade-long wrangle with the justice system, which first hit him with a five-month prison sentence and a $620 fine.

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On appeal, that penalty was knocked down to just two months behind bars and a $150 fine, but the defendant's lawyers pressed to keep the case alive, bringing it all the way to Italy's Supreme Court of Cassation. It was there that the court did some head-shaking that the case had even made it this farand cost taxpayers nearly $10,000, per local paper La Repubblicaand acquitted the man, noting he "was definitely acting to satisfy the hunger of his family  there are grounds for justification." (Americans may be less apt to lift an eggplant, because apparently we don't love eggplant.)
Egypt's National Elections Authority (NEA) announced on Wednesday evening that it is extending the voting deadline on the third and final day of the country's presidential elections by one hour, saying polling stations will close at 10pm instead of 9pm, state owned MENA news agency reported.

NEA head Ibrahim Lashin said in an official statement that the deadline has been extended due to the high voter turnout at polling stations.

Lashin added that the extension is also to give all voters a chance to cast their ballot given the bad weather conditions in some governorates.

Cairo and other governorates have been hit by sand storms throughout the day on Wednesday.

Lashin expressed his gratitude for the judges supervising the electoral process and for their understanding of the decision to extend the deadline.

He also thanked Egypt's Armed Forces and police for securing polling stations.

The election process is being supervised by 18,000 judges, with tens of thousands of army and police personnel deployed to secure polling stations.

Around 59 million Egyptians are registered as eligible to vote in the presidential elections between incumbent President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and Ghad Party chairman Moussa Mostafa Moussa.

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(Newser)  A Los Angeles mom accused of running a multimillion-dollar marijuana grow operation in San Bernardino is now suing the city to overturn its pot regulation ordinance, the AP reports. Stephanie Smith, a 43-year-old real estate developer and mother of five, owns three buildings in San Bernardino that were raided by police in December. Thousands of marijuana plants were confiscated, CBS Los Angeles reported at the time. Smith was not arrested or charged, but police accused her of being in charge of the pot "fortress"; she said she was simply the landlord and that her tenants' activities were legal. In her lawsuit, she argues San Bernardino's ordinance "is a backdoor ban that continues the city's illogical campaign against a legal product," CBS reports. California legalized recreational marijuana last year, but sales did not begin until Jan. 1, CBS reported at the time.

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Smith, who says she is the biggest landlord of marijuana businesses in the state, argues that under the San Bernardino ordinancewhich was passed by the city council after Smith's buildings were raided"any person who has ever had anything to do with cannabis is banned for life from entering the legal market," per the San Bernardino Sun. That's because Smith says her tenants were in the process of being licensed when they were raided, and got approval to operate a week after authorities shut them down, but the ordinance bars anyone who has violated local or state laws related to the cannabis industry from ever entering the commercial cannabis business in the city. "San Bernardino is ... guaranteeing that anyone in the city who operated prior to this law has to remain in the black market," her attorney says. Smith says that could result in monopolies forming in the cannabis industry, and could also prevent her from renting to those in the industry. (Read more marijuana stories.)
(Newser)  "We know she left the apartment at approximately 1:15 on the afternoon of the 23rd. That's the last time shes seen alive, and so that's the last credible information we have." But now police have a likely conclusion, and a grim one: They say the remains of Adea Shabani, a Macedonia-born 25-year-old who had spent the last two years in Los Angeles working on a nascent film and modeling career, were likely recovered earlier this week. Shabani was last seen in that Feb. 23 footage, in which she's shown departing her LA apartment with her boyfriend, a man identified as Christopher Spotzwho is now also dead. He committed suicide during a police chase last week, but not before telling police a story that didn't hold up: that an argument shortly into the drive north with Shabani ended with him depositing her along the road near Santa Clarita, just 25 miles from her apartment.

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The true distance was much greater: LAPD Capt. William Hayes says remains believed to be Shabani's were found in a shallow grave by a dive team who searched the edge of a creek in the Spenceville Wildlife Area in Nevada County, Calif., some 50 miles north of Sacramento and nearly 400 miles from her home, per the New York Times. Hayes did not explain what led police to that location, though he did say the "rather complex investigation" stretched to Colorado and included a second wildlife area, reports the Los Angeles Times. A cause of death has not been determined, but Hayes' take was bleak: "Something happened and I believe it to be somewhat untoward." Police add that Spotz was engaged to another woman. The Washington Post notes Shabani appeared in an independent film called All or Nothing in 2017. (Read more missing woman stories.)
(Newser)  An emoluments lawsuit against President Trump is moving forward after a federal judge ruled Wednesday that attorneys general from Maryland and Washington DC have legal standing to proceed, the AP reports. According to the Washington Post, it's the first time such a lawsuit has ever made it past its first legal test. Two other emoluments lawsuits were tossed by a judge in New York in December, CNN reports. Attorneys general Karl Racine and Brian Frosh accuse Trump of violating the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution by receiving illegal gifts from foreign governments via the Trump Organization.

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While Judge Peter Messitte of the US District Court of Maryland is allowing the lawsuit to move forward, he's limiting its scope to just the Trump International Hotel in DC, excluding Mar-a-Lago and other properties. The lawsuit accuses Trump International of getting special tax concessions and having a competitive advantage over other hotels. Messitte noted that foreign governments have moved their business from other DC hotels to the "President's Hotel." He ruled that Trump's other properties are too far away to have any financial impact on Maryland or DC. While Messitte did not rule on the allegations themselves, he did reject an argument from the Trump camp that only Congress can decide if a president has violated the Emoluments Clause. (Read more Emoluments Clause stories.)
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New Delhi:

Air Indiaas call centre on Wednesday evening received a bomb threat call to their AI-020 Delhi-Kolkata flight from an anonymous caller, according to sources.

Currently, the AI-020 flight is docked in Delhi and following the threat all the passengers have been de-boarded safely, ANI reported.

The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel have deployed their staff for a security check in the flight. The investigation is underway. The passengers are also being checked.

A call threatening to bring down the plane was received at the Mumbai airport at about 2:45 pm, after which the flight was grounded.

"The flight has been isolated and anti-sabotage checks are in progress at the Indira Gandhi International Airport," a senior official said.

No information about the call or the caller has yet been found.

Bomb threat call received by Air India's call centre for their AI-020 Delhi-Kolkata flight. The flight is in Delhi, all passengers have de-boarded, security check underway. pic.twitter.com/chlDzDzpai a ANI (@ANI) March 28, 2018

The flight will now depart for Kolkata at 6:30 pm from remote bay 8 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi. The AI-020 was set to depart at 2:30 pm.

More details awaited.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee shall hold a meeting with senior BJP leaders Yashwant Sinha and Shatrughan Sinha, along with Arun Shourie, in New Delhi on Wednesday.

The three senior BJP leaders, on more than one occasion, have expressed their displeasure with some of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led governments decisions.

This development comes a day after Banerjee met various opposition leaders, including National Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, to discuss prospects of forming a third front.

The Trinamool Congress Chief is looking to stitch an alliance with opposition parties with an aim to forge a 'Non-Congress Non-BJP' third front.

The Trinamool Congress leader, who is on a four-day visit to Delhi, also expressed her willingness to meet BSP chief Mayawati and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow, should they invite her. "Will certainly go meet if they (Mayawati-Akhilesh Yadav) call us for a meeting to Lucknow," she told reporters.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

Persisting with their move, the Congress on Wednesday once again looked to move the no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government.

On Tuesday, Lok Sabha failed to take up notices for a no-confidence motion against the government owing the protests by the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) legislators. The Rajya Sabha too was adjourned.

Some of the Opposition MPs chose to sit on in the House even after it was adjourned for the day, as a form of protest against the adjournment.

Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan met leaders from the Congress, including its leaders in the House Mallikarjun Kharge and Jyotiraditya Scindia, AIADMK, Shiv Sena, Trinamool Congress, YSR Congress, TRS and BJD among others. Mahajan also consulted Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar over efforts to break the deadlock.

Live Updates

# 01:28 PM: Lok Sabha adjourned for the day amid continued protests; to meet again on Monday

# 12:40 PM: SC has given a verdict for the formation of Cauvery management board in 6 weeks of time & there is still time left. I believe that Centre will take appropriate steps to implement the judgment of SC & will form the board in the interest of Tamil Nadu farmers: TN CM E Palaniswami

# 12:00 PM: PM Modi bids farewell to retiring Rajya Sabha members, Disruptions finds mention in his speech

# 11:51 AM: Naresh Agarwal ji ek aise suraj hain, idhar doobe, udhar nikle, idhar nikle udhar doobe. Mujhe yaqeen hai jis party mein vo gaye hain vo unki kshamta ka poora upyog karegi: Ghulam Nabi Azad,Congress while addressing retiring MPs

# 11:51 AM: Assam Congress MPs held protest in front of Gandhi statue in Parliament over reports that the state government is trying to close down Assam Women's University

# 11:39 AM: Would have been good if you could have been a part of historic upcoming bills like the #TripleTalaqBill: PM Narendra Modi in Rajya Sabha to retiring members.

# 11:35 AM: All those who are retiring from the house (Rajya Sabha) today have their own significance and each of them tried their best to contribute to the glorious future of this country. I wish you success in future: PM Modi in Rajya Sabha

# 11:32 AM: If our PM can meet Nawaz Sharif in Pakistan then why can't we meet Mamata ji? She is an Indian and the Chief Minister of a state, she has been an important NDA member in the past: Sanjay Raut,Shiv Sena

# 11:09 AM: Lok Sabha adjourned till 12 pm as uproar continues.

# 10:47 AM: TDP MP Naramalli Sivaprasad dresses up as 'Narad Muni' to protest over demand for special category status (SCS) for Andhra Pradesh. Sivaprasad had earlier also dressed up as a woman, a cattle herder & a school boy among others.

# 10:34 AM: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu with other MLAs attended state assembly session wearing black badges in protest against the Central government over Special Category Status for the AP; decision to wear black badges was taken in an all-party meeting convened by the CM.

# 10:29 AM: AIADMK MPs continue their protest in Parliament premises demanding constitution of Cauvery management board

# 10:20 AM: I am asking for justice. Instead of giving that, the Centre and BJP are counter-attacking us.I am willing to bear any insult for the sake of people and the state: Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu in a teleconference with party MPs

# 10:11 AM: Special Category Status for AP; decision to wear black badges was taken in an all-party meeting convened by the CM

# 10:00 AM: I am asking for justice. Instead of giving that, the Centre and BJP are counter-attacking us. I am willing to bear any insult for the sake of people and the state: Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu

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New Delhi:

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on lashed out at the media for allegedly stirring hate against him with their "cunning twisting of facts". He said he was honoured they made their livelihood spinning lies about him.



Gandhi took to Twitter to express his criticism of the media and cited the 'Cobrapost' sting operation, allegedly revealing that 17 media firms were ready to push communal reports for cash without even raising a bill for it.



"I can never hate those who try to stir up hate against me, with fake stories and their cunning twisting of facts. For them it's just business; hate sold for a price, as the Cobrapost expose shows," Gandhi said on Twitter.



"I'm blessed and honoured that they make their livelihoods spinning lies about me," he added.



The Cobrapost sting operation is codenamed Operation 136.

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New Delhi:

In a shocking incident in Uttar Pradeshs Hagpur, an eight-year old girl hung herself to death by accident while copying a television crime show on Tuesday night. After hiding her body, her friends fled the scene.

The eight-year-old was upset because she had been scolded and later went to a neighbours house to play, police said, adding that the girl reached a friends house crying after which they decided to watch a crime show on TV.

"She came to our house crying after being scolded at home. We watched a crime show on TV and decided to play police-police. She then hanged herself while playing," one of the friends of the deceased told the police.

ALSO READ: HMD Global to launch new bunch of Nokia smartphones on April 4, know more about the handsets

While watching the show, the girl tried to imitate a hanging scene during which she lost her life.

"The children tried to copy it. This girl climbed on a bucket, put a dupatta around her neck and hung herself," said the police officer.

When her friends realised that the girl was not breathing, they ran away. "This is a very unfortunate incident," said the official.

The police reached the location and took over the body. They have also started an investigation into the matter.

This is the second child suicide reported since yesterday.

Earlier, an-eight-year old girl in Mumbai had committed suicide after being caught cheating in the examination. According to reports, the girl was suffering from acute tension due the cheating incident.

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New Delhi:

The King of Good Times Vijay Mallya is all set to tie the knot again. The 62-year-old liquor tycoon is reportedly ready to ring the wedding bells again with girlfriend Pinky Lalwani.

Mallya is yet to divorce his current wife Rekha Mallya. As per reports, Mallya and Pinky Lalwani fell in love when Pinky was working as an air-hostess in Mallyas Kingfisher Airlines in 2011.

Pinky has always stood by Mallya during his ups and downs, according to sources close to him.

ALSO READ: Isco blasts Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane following hattrick for Spain

Currently, they both are staying in London, after Mallyas escape in the Rs 9,000-crore bank loan-fraud scandal.

Former owner of IPL team Royal Challengers Bangalore, Mallya was married to Sameera Tyabjee previously, and then married his current wife Rekha Mallya. He has three kids from two marriages, Siddharth Mallya and two daughters Leanna and Tanya.

Mallya was arrested by the Scotland Yard in April 2017 and has been since out on bail worth 650,000 pounds. Chief Magistrate Arbuthnot is expected to pronounce her verdict in the case by May this year.

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Washington:

Women who suffer from depression, anxiety, and fatigue are more likely to be injured at work, a study has found.

The study found that these health factors significantly affected womens risk of injury but not mens risk.

The findings of our study demonstrate that keeping workers safe requires more than your typical safety program. It requires an integrated approach that connects health, well-being, and safety, said Natalie Schwatka, assistant professor at University of Colorado Boulder in the US.

Researchers examined the insurance claims data of 314 businesses from a range of industries.

Close to 17,000 employees ranging from executives to laborers were represented in the study published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

The researchers found that men were more likely to sustain a work-related injury but behavioral health factors, like poor sleep and anxiety, did not directly affect their risk of injury.

Women were more likely to report experiencing mental and behavioral health issues and these conditions increased their risk of getting hurt on the job.

Almost 60 per cent of women with a work injury reported experiencing a behavioral health condition before they were injured, compared to 33 per cent of men.

Further research is needed to understand why there are differences in womens and mens risk of work-related injuries, researchers said.

Overall, workers who had an injury in the past were more likely to be injured again, regardless of their gender.

There a number of social and cultural factors that may explain why women reported having more behavioral health concerns than men did. Men generally admit to fewer health concerns, said Schwatka.

And women may face different stresses at work and at home. Its something that is worth exploring in future research, he said.
New Delhi:

Chinas Tiangong-1 space lab is expected to fall back to Earth between March 31 and April 4. The space authorities said that the debris will be showered and may burn up in the atmosphere

In a statement issued by the China Manned Space Engineering Office said that Tiangong-1 has stopped sending data and has entered its final phase of life on March 16.

It will mostly burn up due to the extreme heat generated by its high-speed passage through the atmosphere, it said in a statement.

The European Space Agencys (ESA) Space Debris Office in Darmstadt, Germany, which issued the Tiangong-1 prediction, said the March 30 to April 2 window is highly variable, and it will not be possible to determine exactly where the space station will fall to Earth. However, the space station will re-enter somewhere between the latitudes of 43 degrees north and 43 degrees south, based on its current orbital inclination.

Areas above or below these latitudes can be excluded. At no time will a precise time/location prediction from ESA be possible," agency officials said in a statement.

In the history of spaceflight, no casualties due to falling space debris have ever been confirmed, ESA said in a blog post on its website.

According to some experts, Tiangong could crush anywhere and the exact location is not yet known.

The Tiangong is also known as Heavenly Palace is orbiting at an average height of about 216.2 kms.

It was launched in September 2011, Tiangong-1 an experimental had a design life of two years.

Owing to the geometry of the stations orbit, we can already exclude the possibility that any fragments will fall over any spot further north than 43N or further south than 43S, says Holger Krag, Head of ESAs Space Debris Office.

The European Space Agency will be providing updates as it better projects when and where the spacecraft tumbles out of space and back to Earth.

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New Delhi:

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has delayed the launch of its $8 billion Hubble space telescope successor, James Webb Space Telescope.

The announcement was made on Tuesday by NASA after analysing the remaining tasks for the highly complex space observatory. NASA administrator Robert Lightfoot said, aWebb is the highest priority project for the agency's Science Mission Directorate, and the largest international space science project in US history.a

Lightfoot added, aAll the observatory's flight hardware is now complete, however, the issues brought to light with the spacecraft element are prompting us to take the necessary steps to refocus our efforts on the completion of this ambitious and complex observatory.a

The NASA had announced that more time is needed for testing the James Webb Space Telescope, which is currently undergoing final integration. The space telescopeas previous year of launched was said to be 2019, but since more time is needed, the launch will now be targeted for May 2020.

NASA tweeted aOur @NASAWebb Space Telescope is currently undergoing final integration & test phases that will require more time to ensure a successful mission. Webb's previously revised 2019 launch window is now targeted for approximately May 2020. Details: https://go.nasa.gov/2I6760k.a

Our @NASAWebb Space Telescope is currently undergoing final integration & test phases that will require more time to ensure a successful mission. Webb's previously revised 2019 launch window is now targeted for approximately May 2020. Details: https://t.co/q0z7nK7oE9 pic.twitter.com/wYrsSK58rb a NASA (@NASA) March 27, 2018

NASA will also be setting up an external Independent Review Board (IRB) to analyse organisational and technical issues in the James Webb. The board will be chaired by Thomas Young, a NASA veteran.

The IRB will add views and confidence up NASAas approach to complete the final integration and test phase of the mission, while side by side helping it to launch the campaign by commissioning as well as deploying sequence.

NASA will then consider the boardas findings and recommendations, looking into it and then define a more specific time for the launch frame.

NASA will also work with its partner European Space Agency (ESA) to give a launch date for the Ariane 5 vehicle, which will launch the James Webb into space. Once the date is decided, the space agency will provide a cost estimate, projected to be $8 billion, to complete the final test phasing of the space telescope.

Also Read: Chinaas eight-tonne spacecraft Tiangong-1 likely to crash on Earth this week

Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASAas Science Mission Directorate, said, aConsidering the investment NASA and our international partners have made, we want to proceed systematically through these last tests, with the additional time necessary, to be ready for a May 2020 launch.a

The James Webb is yet to undergo environmental testing, which will subject it to vibrational, acoustic, and thermal environments which will be experienced by it during the launch and operations.

According to NASA, the James Webb space telescope will be athe worldas premier infrared space observatory and the biggest astronomical space science telescope ever built, complementing the scientific discoveries of NASAas Hubble Space Telescope and other science missions.a

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Beijing:

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un told his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping that he is committed to denuclearisation as the dictator made a secret trip to China ahead of his landmark meeting with US President Donald Trump.

After two days of speculation, China and North Korea both confirmed that Kim had travelled to Beijing to meet Xi, with both sides seeking to portray strong ties.

Kim paid a four-day unofficial visit to Beijing from Sunday to Wednesdayhis first journey abroad since taking power and his first reported meeting with a foreign head of stateat the invitation of Xi, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The state media confirmed the visit only after Kim had returned to North Korea.

The confirmation of the visit ended speculation about Kims secret trip after Japanese media spotted a green train, similar to the one used by Kims father, arriving in Beijing on Monday and departing the following day.

Though Chinese officials had refused to confirm Kims presence, there were also reports about heavy security on the China-North Korea border and later at a a guesthouse where prominent North Koreans have stayed in the past.

During the visit, which was kept under wraps, Kim held talks with Xi at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing during which the two leaders hailed their nations historic relations, with the North Korean leader pledging that he was committed to the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, Xinhua reported.

Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan held a welcoming banquet for Kim and his wife Ri Sol Ju and watched an art performance together, the report said.

During the talks, Xi welcomed Kim warmly and appreciated his congratulatory message greeting him for his re-election as the General Secretary of CPC and head of the military as well as president for the second five-year term, the report said.

Xi said Kims current visit to China had come at a special time and was of great significance.

We speak highly of this visit, Xi told Kim.

Xi underscored the importance of developing ties, saying it was a strategic choice and the only right choice, according to Xinhua.

The Chinese leader said he was willing to maintain frequent contact with Kim under the new circumstances.

Kim was quoted as saying that his country wants to transform ties with South Korea into a relationship of reconciliation and cooperation.

Kim also said that North Korea is willing to hold summits with Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

The issue of denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula can be resolved, if South Korea and the United States respond to our efforts with goodwill, create an atmosphere of peace and stability while taking progressive and synchronous measures for the realisation of peace, Kim said.

He said a series of major and happy events had taken place consecutively in China recently and referred Xis re-election for the second term.

Kim said it was his obligation to come congratulate Xi in person, in line with the North Korea-China friendly tradition, the report said.

There is no question that my first foreign visit would be to the Chinese capital, Kim said, according to North Koreas official KCNA news agency.

The North Korean leader said that many important changes have taken in the Korean Peninsula where the situation is developing rapidly and he felt he should come in time to inform Xi in person the situation out of comradeship and moral responsibility.

Though allies, the China-North Korean relations went through some testing times since Kim took over as the supreme leader of the country as he pressed ahead with his nuclear programme disregarding caution from Beijing.

Relations between the two countries have been strained after Beijing beefed up UN sanctions by blocking essential supplies like oil and coal following pressure from Trump.

In his talks with Kim, Xi said that China and the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK), the official name for North Korea, had traditional friendship which was the precious wealth of both sides.

Xi said that China was willing to work with North Korea to promote long-term, healthy and stable development of bilateral relations that would benefit the two countries, its peoples, and regional peace, stability and development.

The Chinese president made four proposals concerning the development of the bilateral relations: continuation of high-level exchange, including close communication between him and Kim; make full play of strategic communication; actively advance peaceful development; cement the popular will foundation for China-DPRK friendship enhancing people to people contacts.

Kim said he was greatly encouraged and inspired by Xis important views on North Korea-China friendship and the development of relations between the two countries.

Meanwhile, the White House said Trump received a personal note from Xi about Kims visit.

The Chinese government contacted the White House earlier on Tuesday to brief us on Kim Jong Uns visit to Beijing. The briefing included a personal message from President Xi to President Trump, which has been conveyed to President Trump, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said.

The US remains in close contact with our allies South Korea and Japan. We see this development as further evidence that our campaign of maximum pressure is creating the appropriate atmosphere for dialogue with North Korea, Sanders said

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TYRE, NY -- The 13-month-old del Lago Resort & Casino in the Finger Lakes, which is struggling to earn the money it forecast, now may look to New York taxpayers for a bailout.

It's another sign of trouble for the crowded Upstate casino market, which some believe is already oversaturated.

Del Lago is one of four new casinos to open in Upstate New York in the past 15 months. All are failing to earn as much revenue as they promised in their state license applications, but del Lago may be in the worst shape. Its credit rating has also been downgraded, with investor service Moody's giving it a negative outlook and warning that it may not be able to pay its debts.

"I think we need some help at this point, and what the future holds, time will tell," del Lago's principal owner, Rochester developer Thomas Wilmot, told a Rochester Democrat & Chronicle reporter in Albany today.

Wilmot said the situation isn't dire, the Democrat & Chronicle reported. "We're paying the bills," he said. "Long term, it isn't going to be sustainable without some help."

The newspaper reported that Wilmot, who was visiting the state Capitol as Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state lawmakers work on a new budget, did not specify what the "help" might be.

Other gambling venues in the state, such as the Vernon Downs racino in Oneida County and Finger Lakes Racetrack near Rochester, have won concessions on taxes from the state due to gaming competition.

Del Lago pays a 37 percent tax on its slot machine earnings and 10 percent on table game earnings. The money goes to state education/property tax relief, and some goes to its host town (Tyre) and county (Seneca).

In a statement released this afternoon, a public relations manager for del Lago referenced what it called the "unfair" competition posed by the three Seneca Nation-owned casinos operating in western New York. The Senecas stopped making payments to the state and local government last year, arguing that requirement had expired.

"As it starts its second year, del Lago faces a blatantly unfair competitive disadvantage," said Steven A. Greenberg of Greenberg Public Relations. "When del Lago sought and won its casino license, it was done based on circumstances that have now significantly changed. The Seneca Nation stopped making payments to both New York State and to the local governments last year. What are they doing with that newfound windfall? Using more than $50 million to provide additional promotions and incentives - particularly in the Rochester area - to lure customers from del Lago. And it's working. Del Lago can compete on an even playing field but not one that's tipped so heavily toward the Senecas. All del Lago is looking for is a fair, competitive marketplace. Unfortunately, the Senecas have upset that applecart and now del Lago is seeking to level the playing field. Our first year has proven how valuable del Lago is to the Finger Lakes region. We want to continue to expand and bring even more tourism and economic development to Seneca County and the surrounding counties."

The Finger Lakes Times, meanwhile, reported today that Jeff Babinski, who has been de Lago's general manager since it opened, is leaving that job at the end of this month.

Del Lago had predicted earnings of $250 million by the end of its first year. It only reached about $150 million. That's a bigger shortfall than those suffered by Tioga Downs, which opened in the Southern Tier in December 2016, and Rivers Casino & Resort, which opened in Schenectady in February 2017, the same month as de Lago. The fourth new casino, Resorts World Catskills near Monticello, is also falling short in its first months of operation.

The $440 million del Lago resort has 1,956 slot machines and 99 gaming tables, a 205-room hotel and spa, a 2,400-seat event center called The Vine and several dining options, including Portico, a high-end steakhouse developed with celebrity chef Fabio Viviani.

In addition to the four new "Vegas-style" casinos, Upstate New York is home to seven harness track/slot venues known as racinos, plus seven casinos operated by the Seneca, Oneida and Mohawk Indian nations.

Don Cazentre writes about Upstate NY casinos 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.
Bahrain will set the scene for the next round of tensions between F1 owner Liberty Media and angry top teams Ferrari and Mercedes.

The top teams are already threatening to quit formula one after 2020, if Liberty presses ahead with plans for a budget cap and significantly altered engine rules.

Publications including Frances Le Figaro now report that Liberty Media intends to unveil its latest draft of its plans for 2021 and beyond in Bahrain.

It appears that Red Bull is at least on Libertys side for now.

"We need a reduction in costs," Dr Helmut Marko is quoted as saying. "However it happens does not matter.

"No team is making money  the business model is not sound or healthy."

And another Red Bull official, team boss Christian Horner, urges Liberty to take a hard line rather than be influenced by pressure.

"Liberty must impose its views and take strong decisions," he said. "Clearly, you will never get all of the teams to agree."
Using fossils to predict the future of the Coral Triangle

To work out the reasons behind the Coral Triangle's success, researchers must search much further back in our planet's history.

Many scientists study the modern creatures that live in the area's vast reefs, but few have studied the fossils of the area.

Nadia previously worked with Museum palaeontologist Dr Ken Johnson on a large EU-funded project to collect fossils from eastern Borneo, very close to the Coral Triangle. Eight tonnes of samples were collected and are now stored in the Museum collections.

Palaeontologists found evidence of highly diverse marine life dating back 20 million years.

Ken says, 'In our previous research, we found that this area had very high biodiversity even 20 million years ago. To understand when life really began to bloom here, we need to go back even further in time, and that's one thing we hope to do in our upcoming project.'

By examining how and when corals in the Coral Triangle began to diversify, the team hope to figure out why the area continues to support so many animals and plants. They will also be able to work out how corals have responded to changing environmental conditions in the past. This includes times that were warmer than today, which might be comparable to future warm conditions.

Scientists will then have a better understanding of which other parts of the world may also do well in years to come, and which need greater protection.
Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose on Tuesday lauded his counterpart in Lagos State, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode for his innovative projects across the landscape of the State but urged him to replicate same in terms of leading the economic growth and development of the south west.Fayose, who spoke at the opening session of a two-day summit of the Western Nigeria Governors Forum held at Lagos House in Alausa, Ikeja, said though Governor Ambode had done commendably well in championing south west integration, he must, however, do more for the comfort and well-being of the Yoruba nation.As much as we want restructuring; we want true federalism; I am committed to it but talking about Nigeria, the west has potentials; we have the capacity to develop this country and with Lagos on the drivers seat, we can save the whole of this country.The states of the south-west are looking up to Governor Ambode. As Governor of Ekiti, I barely get allocation that pays my salary but when we look at Lagos being in the south-west, we are consoled and Lagos can make the whole of the south-west comfortable but we will continue to come to Lagos if you dont do something about it.We need Governor Ambode to lead South West growth and if we are able to achieve this, in another ten years, the issue will no longer be restructuring because people will begin to look at what is happening in the west, Fayose said.Fayose, who is the only Governor of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the region, said credit must also be given to the National Leader of All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu for his contribution to the growth and economic integration of the south-west.He particularly described Tinubu as a manufacturer that produces quality products, who in turn, are making giant strides for the benefit of the people.According to Fayose, When you see a product, you can tell of its manufacturer. I salute Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and I will keep acknowledging him. I am never a pretender; I have been very consistent and I will keep on saying it irrespective of political affiliation.Asiwaju Tinubu laid the foundation; nobody can deny it. I am never a member of APC and I will never be but the truth must be said at all times. The environment where we are today tells it all. I am particularly proud of his product  Akinwunmi Ambode, Governor of Lagos State, he said.Fayose specifically eulogized Governor Ambodes attitude, character, person and above all, commendable achievements in office so far, saying some of the innovative transformation already implemented in Lagos by the present administration were being replicated in Ekiti.He said: The little Governor Ambode has done within this timeframe is so encouraging. I told the Governor one day when I was building my bridge in Ekiti that I was passing through some of his projects in Lagos and I added what I saw to my own; some of them I copied in the night.When your brother is doing well, celebrate him. The problem in Nigeria is that evil is celebrated more than truth. I am openly acknowledging you and that is me. I dont care, when I am with you, I celebrate you openly.There are some lights I saw on the bridge in Lagos; I went there in the night, I studied everything and as we speak, someone is on his way out of the country to get them for me to use for our projects, Fayose said.On his part, Governor Ambode said there was no better time for states in the region to pull together to fathom ways of tackling social and economic challenges facing the people individually and collectively.He particularly emphasized the need for comprehensive, sustainable and collective food security plan, as well as collaborative efforts on issues of security, economy and well-being of the people, among others.According to him, Increased collaboration in agricultural activities is critical to sustaining the teeming population of Western Nigeria. Lagos State alone is over 23 million people and on record, 85 people migrate into Lagos from other parts of Nigeria on hourly basis.The drive towards food security is therefore not only to ensure that Lagosians have enough to eat, but that the people of the entire Western Nigeria have enough to eat and export to other States and outside Nigeria.The whole essence of food security of Western Nigeria is thus focused on our States maximizing their comparative advantages to guarantee increased food, jobs creation and the welfare of our people, Governor Ambode said.Besides, Governor Ambode thanked Governors in the region for providing land to enable Lagos activate the 32 Ton per Hour Rice Mill recently being pursued, saying apart from being the largest of its kind in Nigeria for now, the mill would generate over 200,000 jobs across Western Nigeria and produce most of the rice need of the region and beyond.He also described the admittance of Lagos State into the Odua Investment family as a significant mileage in the quest for economic integration of the Western Nigeria, just as he expressed hope that the development would help in catalyzing a momentous growth in the economic activities of the region through, but not limited to the instrumentality of Odua Investment Group.Aside Governors Ambode and Fayose, the summit with the theme: Consolidating the Legacy of Regional Integration, was attended by Governors Rauf Aregbesola (Osun), Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo), Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (Ondo), while Ibikunle Amosun (Ogun) was represented by his deputy, Yetunde Onanuga.In their respective submissions, the Governors underscored the strategic role of Lagos to the development of the South West, and called for concerted efforts to collaborate for the progress of the region.
Advocates of tenure elongation for All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman John Odigie-Oyegun and National Working Committee (N...

Advocates of tenure elongation for All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman John Odigie-Oyegun and National Working Committee (NWC) members suffered a major setback yesterday.President Muhammadu Buhari said the partys constitution and the Nigerian constitution must be respected.It was also a day of legal arguments among Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Ondo State Governor Rotimi Akeredolu and National Legal Adviser Muiz Banire, all of them Senior Advocates of Nigeria.At the end of it all, many pro-tenure elongation governors were speechless at the Conference Hall of the APC National Secretariat, it was learnt.After the fireworks, the National Executive Committee (NEC) raised a Technical Committee to work out modalities for the partys congresses and the National Convention .The President said holding congresses and an elective National Convention was the lawful thing to do. Oyegun and all NWC members could be re-elected, he was quoted as saying.According to sources at the meeting, the NWC put only two items on the agenda, namely: the report of the APC Restructuring Committee headed by Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai and amendments to the APCs Constitution.Unknown to Oyegun, the President had another matter, which he did not discuss with his aides.Shortly after the opening prayer by Lagos State APC Chairman Henry Ajomale, Oyegun gave a summary of expected amendments to the partys Constitution to accommodate provision for a caretaker management by the NWC for one year.He said the proposal might be ratified at the National Convention in June if approved by the NEC.But Buhari dropped the bombshell by opposing tenure elongation for the APC National Chairman and the NWC.There was pin-drop silence as Buhari spoke, saying tenure extension under any guise was a violation of both the 1999 Constitution and the APCs Constitution.The President diplomatically added that members of the National Working Committee were free to discuss and debate his proposal.That sparked the debate opened by Akeredolu who argued for allowing tenure extension for Oyegun and the others.A source at the meeting said: Akeredolu told the meeting that the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) and other parties could not take APC to court over tenure elongation because whatever is done by NEC is an internal affairs of the party.The governor said the PDP and others would be mere busybodies to dabble in the internal affairs of APC. He was confident that no court would allow the PDP or any other party to have its way.Banire joined Akeredolu, stressing that NEC could make provision for a Caretaker Committee to manage the affairs of the party.The source quoted Banire as saying: It is true that Article 13 of APC Constitution says that we should have new executives every four years, but NEC can propose a National Caretaker Committee for the next one year.I know some people took us to court in Lagos and Abuja. The matter in Lagos came up on Tuesday (March 27) and the case in Abuja will be on March 28.Banire said the applications before the court could not stand as long as the NEC took a legal decision to set up a Caretaker Committee.Prof. Osinbajo warned the party against taking unnecessary risks on the Caretaker Committee because it could invalidate all nominations by the APC for the 2019 general elections at all levels.Another source quoted Osinbajo as saying: I agree with all your observations that raising a Caretaker Committee is an internal affair of the APC but none of us is a judge here. The judges have final say on matters before them, not we who are the lawyers.I am a SAN, you are a SAN but as far the matters in court are concerned, they can go either way. These cases before the primaries may linger beyond our primaries.Once a case is in a court, it is no longer an internal affair of the party. The outcome of the cases in court could affect all our candidates for 2019 poll including the presidential candidate.We should abide by Article 13 of the APC Constitution by holding congresses and the National Convention of the party. Any introduction of extraneous clause to our constitution can affect our electoral fortunes.The source quoted the Vice-President as saying: We should not forget that there are many court levels. A case can run from the High Court to the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. We cannot say if we win at a High Court, it will be the same at the appellate courts.Osinbajo cited a case of a member of the APC in the Kano State House of Assembly who was nominated by a Caretaker Committee.He said: The APC laboured and won the election but when the case got to the Supreme Court, the election was nullified because he was nominated by a Caretaker Committee, which was illegal.There is a Supreme Court judgment of 2015 which precisely says parties should obey their constitutions.Overwhelmed by Osinbajos brilliant submission, governors and members of NEC clapped thunderously, such that Oyegun had to call the session back to order, the source said.A governor, who preferred not to be named, said: Many governors and leaders, who wanted tenure elongation, dropped their position instantly.We did not pay attention to the implications of violating the APC Constitution. Our intention was just to avoid going into intra-party elections which can divide us, a source said.Kano State Governor Abdullahi Ganduje was quoted to have said: The case in Kano surprised everybody. That is why I must support this Prof. (refering to Osinbajo)House of Representatives Chief Whip Alhassan Ado Doguwa faulted Akeredolu for challenging the cautionary opinion of the President.Doguwa was quoted as saying: I have been in politics for 25 years; I have not seen where the President will talk and there will be a contrary opinion.It is unfortunate that the leader of the party and a sitting President based his opinion on constitutionality and you are dragging it on the basis of rationality. You people have exposed yourselves.Akeredolu reportedly hit back at Doguwa, saying: The President did not ask you to shield him but he said we should debate his suggestion/ opinion.What of the 2018 budget with you people? Up till now, you have not passed the budget. Yet, you are talking of having respect for the President.Some of the NEC members jeered at Doguwa for his defence of the President.After the tirades, Senate Deputy Leader Bala Ibn NaAllah moved a motion asking NEC to mandate the NWC to set up a technical committee to work out the modalities for congresses and the National Convention between Tuesday and Wednesday.The party may hold another NEC meeting to ratify the modalities for congresses and the National Convention.To douse the tension which accompanied his address, the President offered some words of encouragement to Oyegun and the NWC members.He said: We still have time between now and June 13 when your tenure expires. You can win again because the APC Constitution has provided room for another term in office for you.Nobody says you should not re-contest. Instead of adding illegal one year, you can go for a fresh term of four years in office. To me a four-year term is better than one year.There was visible disappointment as some of the governors were said to have been disappointed by the outcome of the meeting.A North-West governor was just gazing at the Vice President as he marshaled his legal argument, another source said. A Southern governor left before the end of session.A pro-tenure extension governor who was billed to inaugurate the APC Press Centre, was rattled; he abandoned the assignment.
The Supreme Council for Shariah has asked the federal government to prosecute TY Danjuma, a former minister of defence, for treasonable f...

The Supreme Council for Shariah has asked the federal government to prosecute TY Danjuma, a former minister of defence, for treasonable felony.





The council said this in reaction to Danjumas statement at the maiden convocation of Taraba State University.





The retired general had asked Nigerians to defend themselves against killers, saying the armed forces have been biased in its responsibility of securing the country from attacks.





The council, however, sees Danjumas statement as unfortunate.





In a statement released Tuesday, Yusuf Rigachikun, Kaduna state chairman of the council tagged Danjumas statement as unguarded from a retired army general.





The recent call by General T. Y Danjuma on the citizens to take up arms to defend themselves and the accusation of the Nigerian armed forces colluding in the killing of Nigerians is quite unfortunate, the statement read.





It is pertinent to note that for a person of his calibre to openly call on citizens to take up arms because of demilitarisation being carried out by the Nigerian Army is a call to anarchy and also a call to treason and treasonable felony.





The council calls on the federal government to invite, investigate and prosecute the general for such a most unfortunate statement in the presence of students who are known to be volatile and prone to youthful exuberance.




A non-governmental organization known as Global Peace and Life Rescue Initiative, GOPRI has commended the Nigerian Army Chief of Civil-Military Affairs, Major Gen. N. E Angbazo for the visible transformation and innovations experienced in that arm.The NGO believes this laudable achievement by the military arm has brought about the robust relationship between the military and civil populace all over the country, a sharp departure from what it used to be in the past.Executive Director Of GOPRI, Amb. Melvin Ejeh stated this yesterday while appraising the civil military relationship across the country. The organisation strongly commended Maj. Gen. Angbazo for his selflessness and commitment to service.We are so far impressed with the current healthy relationship being enjoyed between the Army and the civilian populace.This is surely the way to go in a democratic setting as it would enhance credible flow of information among soldiers and their host communities, thus leading to a reduction in crime.Since the appointment of the current Chief of Army staff, the Civil/ Military relationship has tremendously improved and it has even gotten better under the chief of Civil-Military Affairs because of his creativity, professionalism, passion and selfless service.We cannot afford a hostile Army around the country, Nigeria. Our appraisal round the country reveals a growing confidence in its Army.We thank the chief of Army staff Lt Gen TY Buratai for appointing such a square peg in a square hole and hope that this renewed relationship will bring an end to terrorism and other forms of criminality that are bedevilling our country.We therefore call on all Nigerias to ignore insinuation of bias against the Armed Forces as this can never be the true reflection of the Armed Forces,  Ejeh stated.
Ex-Special Assistant to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Dr. Waripamo-Owei Dudafa, yesterday said he was not aware that over five sui...

Ex-Special Assistant to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Dr. Waripamo-Owei Dudafa, yesterday said he was not aware that over five suitcases given to him by former President Goodluck Jonathans Aide De Camp, Onne Adegbe, had cash in them.Dudafa denied that the suitcases were 10 in number, but admitted they were more than five.He was testifying during hearing in Mrs. Patience Jonathans suit before Justice Mohammed Idris of the Federal High Court in Lagos seeking to unfreeze her accounts with $15.5 million.Counsel for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Mr. Rotimi Oyedepo asked Dudafa during further cross-examination to confirm that Adegbe handed some bags from the President to him.Dudafa said: Its part of my duties to receive gifts on behalf of the former President and his wife.When Oyedepo told him that the suitcases were 10, the witness said: They were not 10. I think they were about five.Responding to a question, Dudafa said: The bags were heavy, but I dont know the contents.When it was suggested to him that the bags contained money, he said: Nobody told me it was money.On how he came about the bags, he said: The President called me and said the ADC would bring bags, and that I should keep them in his study downstairs. When the President returned, I handed the key to him.Dudafa said he received several of such bags on the Presidents behalf.Oyedepo asked: Will it surprise you to know that there was money in the bags?Dudafa responded: I dont know what were in the bags. The President is still alive. He can explain.Dudafa had earlier testified that Mrs. Jonathan maintained personal accounts in various financial institutions, and that she had such accounts before becoming First Lady.He admitted instructing stewards in the state house to pay dollars into Mrs. Jonathans accounts.Asked who gave the money to the stewards, he said: Sometimes other Presidential domestic aides hand over the money. At other times, I relay such instructions as given.Mrs. Jonathan sued the EFCC, Skye Bank Plc and three companies  Pluto Property and Investment Company Ltd, Seagate Property Development and Investment Company Ltd and Trans Ocean Property and Investment Company Ltd.She is praying for an order restraining the defendants from tampering with her funds in the companies accounts domiciled in Skye Bank.Asked if he knew of Pluto Properties, Dudafa said: I became aware of Pluto when the first lady invited me to a meeting with then leadership of EFCC (under Ibrahim Lamorde). She said she had some money from the family and cash gifts she received from time to time from well-meaning Nigerians.She said she was concerned with keeping such money in the house and that she wanted advice. The then leadership advised that since the source of the cash was not fraudulent, she could pay the money into personal and corporate accounts opened for that purpose.After that meeting, corporate accounts were opened. It was after that that I was directed to get in touch with Sombre Omiedi, who was a family friend. Mr. Omiedi accepted to receive and keep the money in trust for her.Afterwards, Mr. Omiedi asked if I could book an appointment for agents of Skye Bank with the First Lady, which I did. It was at the meeting that they presented the ATMs to her. Thats when I became aware of Pluto Properties.Dudafa admitted the names on the cards were not Mrs. Jonathans but those of the three companies.Justice Idris adjourned until May 2 to enable EFCC amend its statement of defence.
Black Cube, a private intelligence firm, accused of working for Cambridge Analytica, the political consulting firm alleged to have hacked ...

Black Cube, a private intelligence firm, accused of working for Cambridge Analytica, the political consulting firm alleged to have hacked President Muhammadu Buharis records ahead of the 2015 elections, has denied the allegations.





NigerianEye had reported how Cambridge Analytica allegedly hacked into Buharis medical and financial records ahead of the election.





An unnamed Nigerian billionaire was said to have contacted Cambridge Analytica for the alleged act.





On Tuesday, Christopher Wylie, a whistle-blower, told a UK parliamentary committee that Cambridge Analyticas parent company SCL worked with Black Cube to hack Buhari.





The company (Cambridge Analytica) utilised the services of an Israeli private intelligence firm, Black Cube, Jerusalem Post quoted Wylie to have said.





Black Cube on the Nigeria campaign was engaged to hack the now-President Buhari to get access to his medical records and private emails.





But Black Cube described the allegation as a flagrant lie.





Whilst we are flattered that we are seemingly being connected with every international incident that occurs, we will state that Chris Wylies testimony is a flagrant lie, the firm reportedly said.





It added that it will investigate Wylies claims to reveal the truth and the motive behind them, and will also launch a massive defamation suit against any entity that we will find involved, including Christopher Wylie, SCL or Cambridge Analytical, for any pound they still have or dont have.




Following the political imbroglio between governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State and the Chairman, Senate Committee on the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Senator Dino Melaye, APC, Kogi West, the Senate, Wednesday urged politicians, those in government, and Nigerians to protect the nations democracy.Speaking in Abuja during following a point of Order raised by Senator Melaye on his constant harassment and escape of the two accused persons from the Lokoja prison when the police ought to have produced them in court, the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki said that Nigerians must not make a mockery of the countrys democracy.Saraki said, All our institutions must do their best to ensure that we promote this democracy. Otherwise, we will be making a mockery of our selves if these issues raised by the Senator are true.Earlier, Senator Melaye who came under Order 43 of Senate Standing Orders 2015 As Amended explained that following a jail break in Lokoja, the two suspects escaped as the police could not produce them, however urged the Inspector- General of Police, IGP, Ibrahim Idris, to within the next forty- eight hours, produce them.Senator Melaye who threatened to sue the Inspector- General of Police, said, there was a jailbreak this morning, the 2 suspects who claimed that he gave them arms and money escaped. These two accused persons either have been released or killed.I will sue the IGP for intimidation, abuse of power, harassment and mental assault if these 2 suspects are not produced dead or alive.Also, the Senate referred the former Chairman, Senate Northern Caucus and former governor of Nasarawa State, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, APC, Nasarawa West and Senator Ovie Omo- Agege before the Senator Samuel Anyanwu, PDP, Imo East led Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions.Resolution of the Senate Wednesday was sequel to a point of Order raised by Senator Ibrahim Gobir, APC, Sokoto East who told his colleagues that both Senators Adamu and Omo  Agege had on Tuesday, March 20 published an advertisement in the Vanguard respectively under the aegis of Parliamentary Support Group( Senate) for President Muhammadu Buhari as Chairman and Secretary respectively.The said advertisement was a condolence message in honour of a late colleague, Senator Ali Wakili who died on Saturday, 17th March, 2018 in Abuja.Senator Ibrahim Gobir citing Order 14, drew the attention of the Senate to a publication of Vanguard, 20th March, 2018 by a group in the Senate parliamentary support group for Mr. President  for Late Senator Ali Wakili.In his remarks, Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki who presided, referred the Order to the Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions to look into the matter and get back to the Senate.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says looted funds were used for the campaign of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015.

(PDP) says looted funds were used for the campaign of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015. The Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) says looted funds were used for the campaign of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015.





The PDP said this in response to Lai Mohammed, minister of information and culture, who asked the opposition party to complete its apology to Nigerians by returning all the funds it allegedly looted from the public treasury during its 16 years in power.





But in a statement on Tuesday, Kola Ologbondiyan, spokesman of PDP, said there is no evidence of the alleged looting by PDP.





Ologbondiyan also said those who stole hundreds of billions of naira are being protected by the Buhari administration.





The APC and its federal government cannot continue to play the saints when state governors who stole hundreds of billions of naira meant for the development of their states to fund President Buhari in 2015, are still enjoying cover as members of the Buhari kitchen cabinet, despite outrage from Nigerians, the statement read.





There is no evidence that the PDP, as a party, looted any public fund. The APC and President Buhari campaigned for the 2015 presidential election with looted billions of naira meant for the provision of essential amenities for ordinary Nigerians.





The minister of information and culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, misfired in his outburst that the PDP should return alleged looted funds when the only party known to have used looted funds has always been the APC.





Nigerians are aware that prior to the 2015 election, President Buhari had informed that he was insolvent. He, however, took Nigerians by surprise as he enjoyed one of the most expensive presidential campaigns in the history of our nation, while turning a blind eye to reports of massive looting of funds from APC controlled states.





Mr Adebayo Shittu, the minister of communication, has been accused of owing his aides N13 million that he has no fewer than 12 houses across the nation; bought a N93 million printing press; bought 25 luxury cars for his personal use, among others. Even presently,Mr Adebayo Shittu, the minister of communication, has been accused of owing his aides N13 million that he has no fewer than 12 houses across the nation; bought a N93 million printing press; bought 25 luxury cars for his personal use, among others.





Yet, nothing has been heard from either the dysfunctional APC or its incompetent federal government.





Ologbondiyan asked Mohammed to direct his demand to the presidency and the APC.




The Federal Government taunted the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, asking it to complete its apology to Nigerians by returning all the funds looted from the public treasury during its 16 years in power.The PDP, on Monday, reflected on its 16 years stewardship and admitted it made mistakes and asked Nigerians to forgive its wrongdoings. National chairman of the PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, who spoke at a public discourse, said the party was sorry for its mistakes.In a statement by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the All Progressives Congress, APC-led Federal Government also challenged the party to show the genuineness of its apology through a discernible change of attitude.PDP, press the reset button. Stop sabotaging the work of this administration, which is packing the mess you left behind through your reckless statements and unfounded allegations. Play responsible opposition politics. Put Nigerias interest over and above partisan interest. Temper your desperation to return to power. Spend quality time in the purgatory and you will be forgiven, he said.He continued: The PDP presided over an unprecedented looting of the public treasury, perhaps the worst of its kind in Nigeria or anywhere else in the world. Therefore, the best evidence of penitence for such a party is not just to own up and apologise, but to also return the looted funds as anything short of that is mere deceit.However, the PDP countered and asked the APC and the federal government to end their sanctimonious stance and immediately return to the Federation |Account, all stolen funds it claimed were used to finance President Muhammadu Buharis election in 2015.The party said the APC and the federal government cannot continue to play saints when state governors, who stole hundreds of billions of naira meant for the development of their states to fund Buharis election in 2015, are still enjoying cover as members of the Buhari kitchen cabinet, despite outrage from their people.PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement yesterday said there is no evidence that the PDP looted any public fund, noting that the APC and Buhari campaigned for the 2015 presidential election with looted billions of naira meant for the provision of essential amenities for ordinary Nigerians.The party also chided the Information and Culture Minister for asking the PDP to return looted fund, saying, on the contrary, the APC should have a reckoning with its conscience.If there is any party that should refund looted funds, it is the APC, which directly used stolen money to scheme in the election of President Buhari in 2015, while known culpable persons now sit comfortably around the Presidential table, still superintending over the looting of our common patrimony.It is, to say the least, despicable that the APC and its federal government, in their arrogance, would always try to play the saint when they were elected with stolen fund and have continued to reek with filth and sleaze.Nigerians are aware that prior to the 2015 election, President Buhari had informed (the people) that he was insolvent. He, however, took Nigerians by surprise as he enjoyed one of the most expensive presidential campaigns in the history of our nation while turning a blind eye to reports of massive looting of funds from APC controlled states.This is the APC, whose government, has been rated by international bodies including the Transparency International (TI) which latest report, shows that corruption and sleaze had escalated under its watch. This is the same government where ministers and officials indicted for corruption and looting of public funds, particularly in the oil and gas sector, which is directly under the purview of Mr. President, are shielded and condoned.While the repositioned PDP maintain its unpretentious stance towards Nigerians, we charge the Minister of Information to direct his demand to the Presidency and the APC as Nigerians are expecting them to refund the stolen funds they used to scheme themselves into office in 2015, the statement read in part.Indeed, the said it apologized to Nigerians because of the need to chart a pathway to national healing, renewal of hope and re-mobilisation of the citizenry for the task of rescuing the nation from the pains inflicted on her by the ruling APC.The PDP said that as a responsible party with the interest of Nigerians at heart it is deeply saddened that our people are suffering because the nation allowed the All Progressives Congress, a movement that has neither structure nor plan, to scheme itself into governance, devastate the country, wreck our once robust economy and plunge our citizens into a situation of hunger, starvation and daily bloodletting.In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, the party said while certain mistakes were made in its internal administration prior to the 2015 general election, its new leadership has already smoothened the rough edges to ensure strict adherence to internal democracy and good governance in all processes.Said PDP: It is imperative to state that our apology has to do more with the fact that we made certain mistakes that allowed an anti-people movement to take over governance in our country. Our situation under the APC has become so pathetic that the world is now contemplating on how to help us. Under the APC misrule, the average lifespan of Nigerians has become abysmally low, purchasing power is eroded, the middle class has been wiped off, security is almost non-existent, all the economic gains of the PDP years have been destroyed, and our nation is now placed on auto-pilot.It is painful to note that under the nightmarish rule of APC, Nigerians have become so frustrated that they now consider suicide missions and slavery as options. Our apology is to ask Nigerians, once again, to put their trust in the re-branded PDP, particularly, as our party is the only platform that is committed to the national agenda of peace, unity, justice and prosperous nation.The Federal Government and PDP spoke as mixed reactions trailed the opposition partys apology.It will be suicidal for Nigerians to believe PDP  MohammedSecond Republic lawmaker, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, said it will be suicidal for Nigerians to believe or give the PDP audience.Frankly speaking, this statement coming from the PDP simply made us believe leaders of the party realised they are capable of making mistake and calling on Nigerians to forgive them. I believe their statement is hypocritical because they are not being sincere.Nigerians should not listen to them because we all knew how people like Obasanjo imposed a sick YarAdua on this country, even after his death, we all remember how he brought Jonathan into government and we all knew how the government ended in a monumental tragedy and till date, Nigeria is yet to come out fully from those experiences. So, nobody should give PDP any audience because giving them audience will be another disaster and suicidal.Its demonstration of humility, sincerity  OsuntokunHowever, Mr. Akin Osuntokun, a former political adviser to former President Olusegun Obasanjo said: I dont see anything wrong with the admission of shortcomings and inadequacies. That is a demonstration of humility and sincerity. Rectitude is a required good beginning for the potential to do well in a position for which you are representing yourself. The other need for an apology is that whoever is responsible, by default for the emergence of the disastrous APC government has got a lot of cause to apologise to Nigerians.PDP should return looted funds instead of apologizing  EtiebetOn his part, former Minister of Petroleum, Chief Don Etiebet, asked the PDP to bring back the money its members stole instead of apologising to Nigerians.Who wouldnt feel very ashamed especially with the revelations of barefaced looting that occurred during their administration. They will apologise just to save their face their faces. Everywhere you looked, their hand of looting is there. At every opportunity, they were looting, making deals and taking out money. Everybody is overwhelmed. They should thank President Buhari for being very soft on them because in other climes they would be struggling to stay out of jail than talking politics.How PDP can make its apology genuine  AmbakaderimoAlso, Comrade Joseph Ambakaderimo, the Convener, South-South Reawakening Group, SSRG, said: It is one thing to tender an apology and it is also another to know if the apology genuinely comes from the heart. Yes, apologies are good but in this case, the man tendering the apology on behalf of his party is himself a product of impunity and what makes it looks trivial to me is he calls out the ruling party in reference or comparison. What has the APC got to do with the PDP apology? Again, is the PDP now owing up to raping and decapitating our common patrimony for the past 16 years? The genuine apology will be to return the loot to the Nigerian people only then Nigerians will take them seriously. For now, it is a slap in the face of all of us.PDP made the apology to move forwardBabatopeA member of PDP Board of Trustees, BoT, Chief Ebenezer Babatope justified the apology, saying: That was a good statement by the National Chairman of our party. He knew that mistakes had been made and for the party to move forward we need to apologise. That is a sign that we are serious about winning the next election because Nigeria cannot continue under a party like the APC that has no vision. The party is just pushing Nigerians around. The next thing is for us to make Nigerians know that we offer a better alternative.
The All Progressives Congress, APC, on Wednesday, challenged the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court in Abuja to hear the suit seeking to nullify the one-year tenure extension that was granted to its National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun and other members of its National Working Committee, NWC.The party further queried the decision of the court to grant accelerated hearing to the legal action that was initiated on March 8 by four of its members who told the court that they are aspiring to run for leadership positions upon expiration of the current term of executives of the APC at various levels.It will be recalled that the National Executive Council of the APC had at a meeting it held on February 27, 2018, extended the four-year tenure of the party officials due to expire on June 30, by one year.However, the plaintiffs- Ademorin Kuye from Lagos State; Sani Mayanchi from Zamfara State and currently the Publicity Secretary of the party in the state; Are Mutiu also from Lagos State, and Machu Tokwat from Kaduna State, maintained that the action of the APC NEC was illegal.Aside Odigie-Oyegun, others that the plaintiffs, in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/237/2018, urged the court to compel to vacate their positions at the expiration of their current tenure, are officials of the party at the National, State, Local Government Area, and Ward level across the country.Meanwhile, at the resumed proceeding on the case on Wednesday, counsel to the plaintiffs, Mr. Jubrin Okutekpa, SAN, notified the court that President Muhammadu Buhari had at the National Executive Council meeting of the APC in Abuja on Tuesday, conceded that the tenure elongation was unconstitutional.He said there was need for the court to expedite hearing of the suit so as to promptly reverse the illegal tenure extension that was condemned by President Buhari.However, APC, through its lawyer, Mr. Joseph Daudu, SAN, urged the court to discountenance the submission which it said was misconceived.APC told the court that President Buhari was entitled to his personal views, saying he is an ordinary member of the party like others.Daudu, SAN, said: As far as President Buharis view are concerned, it carries no weight until the party meets and decide and deliberate on it. As far as the party is concerned, he is an ordinary member like others.He said the party was inline with Order 7 Rule 1 of the Federal High Court Civil Procedure Rules, entitled to 30 days from the date the suit was filed, to enter its defence.APC insisted that the suit raised serious constitutional issues, saying for the interest of fair hearing, we are still within time to file our processes.Similarly, Odigie-Oyegun who is also a defendant in the suit, through his lawyer, Chief Akin Olujimi, SAN, aligned himself with the position of the party, even as he opposed the abridgement of time for hearing of the suit.On his part, the National Organising Secretary of the party Osita Izunaso who is also a defendant, challenged his inclusion in the matter.Izunaso, through his lawyer, Mr. James Onoja, SAN, further contended that he was not properly served with the court processes which he said was dumped at the APC secretariat.Meantime, INECs lawyer, Mr. Idris Yakubu, told the court that the commission also raised a preliminary objection against the suit.In a bench ruling, Justice Nnamdi Dimgba said the court would adopt a procedure that would guarantee fair and expeditious hearing of the matter.He ordered all the parties to file and exchange their processes before April 16.
Internally Displaced Persons in Nasarawa State have accused security operatives deployed in Kadarko, Giza and Agyaragu in Obi Local Government Area of diverting the relief materials meant for the IDPs in the state.Governor Umaru Tanko Al- Makura had, on Thursday last week, distributed relief materials worth millions of naira to the IDPs following their displacement by the crisis in the area.But the displaced people accused riot policemen and soldiers of keeping back some of the materials donated to them by the governor.A man, who did want his name in print, told our correspondent on Tuesday that a councillor from Kadarko ward, a prominent chief from Osagade village and other non-IDPs also benefitted from the relief materials meant for the displaced persons.The IDPs called on Al-Makura to redeem the N5m pledge he made to them.The spokesperson for the camp, Mr. Victor Gwer, explained that the IDPs were being subjected to unbearable hardship since they were chased out of their ancestral homes.He said, We thank Governor Al-Makura for his gesture in giving us some relief materials last week. We want him to redeem the promise he made to us that he will give us N5m the following day. Up till now, we have not seen the money and we are facing real hardship.The items donated by the governor have been shared and it would surprise you what each person got at the end of the day. Some people were only given two or three packs of Indomie noodles because we are so many.Our people are really suffering even as Governor Al-Makura noted when he visited us here and we cannot return home now because the killer herdsmen have occupied our houses and villages. Our farm produce are now cow feeds, he added.Others, who spoke with our correspondent on condition of anonymity, urged Al-Makura to ensure that the money he promised the IDPs was released through the right channel.Similarly, some IDPs in the Kadarko camp, also accused some security personnel of benefitting from the governors donation.The police in Giza shared in the relief items as well as the riot policemen in Kadarko and men of the Nigerian Army were also given some of the items, they alleged.But the Police Public Relations Officer Nasarawa State Command, DSP Idirisu Kennedy, said the police were not involved in the sharing of the relief materials.The police officers have never been part of the committee set up by the state government to distribute relief materials to IDPs in the state, he said.
The Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, has on Wednesday disclosed what formed topic between him, Bill Gates and Yakubu Dogara, when Gates played host in Nigeria last week.Saraki who spoke much on Healthcare Act yesterday at the Public Hearing on the 2018 Budget, gave reasons for his support. According to him, When Speaker Yakubu Dogara and I met with Bill Gates last week; the emphasis was on healthcare, as we believe that providing adequate funding for healthcare would go a long way in boosting basic maternal and child health immunisation services as well as local and rural community health in this country.This is why, at yesterdays Public Hearing on the 2018 Budget, I emphasized that the National Assembly will work to ensure that Nigeria adheres to the 1% clause of the National Healthcare Act that requires that Healthcare across the country be funded by 1% of the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
President Muhammadu Buhari has advised members of the National Working Committee of the All Progressives Congress wishing to retain their positions or aspire for another to resign and re-contest in line with the partys constitution.Buhari, who gave the advice in his opening remarks during the 5th National Executive Council meeting of the APC in Abuja on Tuesday, opposed tenure elongation for the NWC members.He faulted the earlier decision of the partys NEC to grant one year extension to party executives at all levels, citing a breach of relevant sections of the partys constitution, as well as the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), as a reason for his action.Buhari asked the partys NEC to rescind its earlier decision so as not to give the opposition the grounds on which to reap from the crisis which is likely to result from the constitutional breaches.The President told the gathering of party leaders that his position was informed by the legal advice he received from the Ministry of Justice.He expressed the hope that the partys NEC would resolve outstanding issues and reposition the party to face the challenges ahead.Buhari said, I think it is important for me to speak on the contentious issues of the tenure of our national and state executive officers.As we all know, a motion was moved in the last National Executive Committee meeting of February 27 to the effect that when the tenure of the current executives expires in June this year, they should be allowed to continue for one year.This motion was duly carried by the majority of members present at the last NEC meeting, even though some of our party members have since spoken up vehemently against it; others have even taken the matter to court.On my own part, I have taken time to review and seek advice on the resolution and what I found is that it contravenes both our partys constitution and the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.While the APC constitution in Article 17(1) and 13.2 (b) limits the tenure of elected officers to four years, renewable once by another election, the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria (as amended) in Section 223 proscribes periodic elections for party executives at regular intervals which must not exceed four years.Furthermore, Article 31 of our great partys constitution provides that any principal officer wishing to re-contest, or contest for another post, must resign from his current post at least one month before the election.In this circumstance, what is expected of us is to conduct fresh elections once the tenure of the current executives approaches its end.A caretaker committee cannot remedy this situation and cannot validly act in place of elected officers.Furthermore, I think if we deviate from the constitution and provisions, we might be endangering the fortunes of our party.If the tenure of our party executive can be legally faulted, then, it means any nomination and primary election that they will conduct can also be faulted.He said apart from that, mass defections might follow considering the fact that some members of the party had taken the party to court to challenge the decision based on the understanding of the constitutional provisions.The President said, I am therefore of the firm belief that it is better to follow strictly the dictates of our party and the constitutions rather than put the APC and its activities at risk.Fortunately, we have approved a timetable for the order of congresses and the elections. I think this should be allowed to go forward and all efforts should be geared towards making the timetable a great success.We should not allow our party to be vulnerable and susceptible to the opposition.They can delay or divide us further within the party when they quote appropriate portion of the party constitution and that of the country.The APC, speaking through its National Publicity Secretary, Malam Bolaji Abdullahi, said it had set up a small committee to consider the Presidents position.He said, However, as of today, the decision taken by NEC during its last meeting in February still stands.Earlier in his address of welcome, the National Chairman of the APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, said the party was proud of President Buhari over his handling of the Dapchi schoolgirls issue.Those who attended the meeting include Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo; Senate President, Bukola Saraki; state Governors Ibrahim Gaidam of Yobe; Aminu Masari of Katsina; Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi; Yahaya Bello of Kogi; Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun; Godwin Obaseki of Edo; Rochas Okorocha of Imo; Sani Bello of Niger; Samuel Ortom of Benue; Tanko AlMakura of Nasarawa; Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano and Abubakar Badaru of Jigawa.Others are Governors Rotimi Akeredolu (Ondo), Aminu Tambuwal (Sokoto), Simon Lalong (Plateau), Nasir el-Rufai (Kaduna), Mohammed Abubakar (Bauchi) and Jibrilla Bindo of Adamawa.The deputy governors of Kwara, Osun, Oyo, Zamfara and Borno states, as well as members of the National Assembly, were also in attendance.A national leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, in a statement he personally signed, hailed Buharis address at the NEC meeting.The former Lagos State governor, in the statement titled, The President has spoken, said the address was straightforward, adding that it showed that the APC was committed to the principles of internal democracy and the rule of law.Tinubu said, President Buharis action saves the party from a serious legal turmoil. If the elongations were deemed illegal, then all subsequent party actions, including the nomination of all of our candidates for elective offices, might also be of questionable legality.Such a predicament would constitute an unnecessary and a mortal blow to the party and its role in promoting progressive governance in Nigeria.According to Tinubu, the President has affirmed that the APC is a party that adheres to internal democracy.He said, The President has spoken. Today is a good day for those who cherish democracy and legality. His action will also strengthen the party by allowing party members, including present incumbents, to seek to contribute to the party by vying for executive offices as they see fit.Also, the Edo State Chairman of the APC, Mr. Anselm Ojezua, described President Buharis call as justified and democratic.The APC national chairman hails from Edo State.Ojezua said while there had been speculation over the plan to extend the tenure of elected national and state officials of the APC, such a decision would be illegal as it was not backed by the partys constitution.He said, What the President said is justified; that is democracy at work.
United States President, Donald Trump, has said he is keen to meet Kim Jong-un after being told the North Korean leaders trip to China ...

United States President, Donald Trump, has said he is keen to meet Kim Jong-un after being told the North Korean leaders trip to China went very well.But Mr. Trump said maximum sanctions and pressure on North Korea would continue ahead of proposed talks in May.He added that denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula was now a possibility.The BBC reports that the comments followed Mr. Kims meeting with Chinas President, Xi Jinping, in his first known foreign trip since taking office in 2011.Mr. Kim and his wife were greeted with a banquet and a guard of honour, with the North Korean leader reportedly saying he was committed to denuclearisation.China is North Koreas main economic ally.On Wednesday, Mr. Trump welcomed news of progress following the talks between the two leaders in Beijing after days of speculation.Now there is a good chance that Kim Jong-un will do what is right for his people and for humanity, Mr. Trump posted, adding in the next tweet that Mr. Kim also looks forward to his meeting with me.
Former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, has said that comments made by the former Defence Minister, Gen. T.Y. Danjuma, are reechoing ...

Former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, has said that comments made by the former Defence Minister, Gen. T.Y. Danjuma, are reechoing the statements he and the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, made in the past.

Fani-Kayode, writing on his Twitter page, claimed that those that laughed at him and Kanu back then, were not laughing anymore.





There is nothing that Gen. T.Y. Danjuma said that I and others have not said before. Nnamdi Kanu said it as far back as 2014 and I said it in 2015.





Many insulted us, called us alarmists and laughed at us at the time. They are not laughing anymore! #IstandWithDanjuma, he tweeted.





Danjuma had advised Nigerians who are being killed by Fulani herdsmen to defend themselves.





Speaking at the maiden convocation ceremony of Taraba State University in Jalingo, the state capital, Danjuma called on the people of the state to rise against ethnic cleansing.









You must rise to protect yourselves from these people, if you depend on the armed forces to protect you, you will all die.




The Taraba State Government on Tuesday said the Federal Government and the military were aware of security threats, as well as soldiers misconduct in the state, but chose to do nothing about them.In a statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor of Taraba State on Media and Publicity, Mr. Bala Abu, the Taraba State Government cited few instances that the Federal Government and the military were informed about security breach and soldiers misconduct, which were allegedly ignored.The state governments statement was in reaction to the claim made by the Federal Government on Monday that although it got reports of soldiers misconduct, there was none from Taraba State.Col. Tukur Gusau, the spokesperson for the Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan-Ali, who spoke in an interview with newsmen on behalf of his principal, had said, Nigerians have been coming to report incidents and we have been taking care of them Soldiers have been put through disciplinary procedures.We have not received anything yet from Taraba State. We need to work on specific things. To my knowledge, we didnt receive anything in respect of our operations in Taraba State.But the Taraba State Government, in its reaction, warned that thousands of people might still be killed by herdsmen unless the military turned a new leaf.It said, The case against the military in Taraba is that of outright collusion against the people which has made it easy for the Fulani militia to kill and destroy property. It is also a case of disrespect for the Office of the Governor of Taraba State.Abu in the statement explained that in February 2016, the Ministry of Interior influenced the visit of military investigators to investigate an allegation against a monarch in the state, Dr. Shekarau Masa-Ibi.He stated that the military delegation had no courtesy to inform the state governor on the visit and purpose of the visitThe Taraba State Government protested this obvious act of disrespect in a letter to the Chief of Army Staff, dated February 23, 2016, he added.Abu noted that the state Governor, Darius Ishaku, also wrote the President on January 26, 2016, to complain about threat to peace and security in Taraba State.In that letter signed by Governor Ishaku himself, he lamented the devastating effects of internal conflicts involving the Fulani and Tiv, which led to the sacking of 200 settlements in the Gassol, Bali, Ibi, Donga and Gashaka local government areas by herdsmen.The governor informed the presidency about the concerns raised by some traditional rulers in the state concerning the influx of Fulani militia and about the attacks on their communities. Letters of complaints from the traditional rulers whose communities suffered from these attacks were also attached and forwarded to the presidency Copies of this letter were sent to the National Security Adviser, Chief of Staff to the President and the Inspector-General of Police, he added.According to Abu, Ishaku wrote another letter to the then Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, on July 5, 2017, drawing his attention to the precarious security situation as contained in a letter written by contractors handling the Kashimbilla Dam project and called for high level intervention. He called on the army, the Navy and Air Force to establish permanent security bases in the area. This was again ignored.The Taraba State Government said it reported the misconduct of the Commanding Officer of 93 Battallion, Ada Barracks in Takum on several occasions, but no action was taken against him by the military.For example, the Fulani militia attacked communities in Takum and Ussa on May 6, 2017. The crisis led to the abandonment of 224 cattle belonging to the Fulani herdsmen.The Taraba State Government took possession of these cows and handed them over to the Commanding Officer for safe keeping until the owners return to collect. This was meant to be a ploy to get the perpetrators of the crisis arrested. Sadly, the Commanding Officer released the cows without arresting anybody.There was another case when the commanding officer marched soldiers to attack and brutalise communities in Kashimbilla. Property of the people was damaged while many were injured.The letter said the Commanding Officer was partial and discriminatory in the discharge of his duties and requested that he should be transferred. The advice was ignored, the statement said.The governors spokesman said Ishaku had always raised the alarm on security situations in the state, but was always ignored.He said, On January 30, this year, The governor wrote another letter to the Vice President to again complain about the attitude of the Commanding Officer of 93 Battalion, Takum, Lt. Col. Ibrahim Gambari, whose soldiers always looked the other way when the herdsmen militia come to kill.The governor said the security situation in the country and in Taraba State demanded that every security officer cooperate and take directives from the chief security officer of the state which is the governor, but lamented that this has not been the case with the commanding officer.The letter listed instances of security challenges in which the military failed to live up to expectations.The letter also alerted the military authorities to a planned massive movement of Fulani and their cows into Takum LGA, adding that motive was to provoke the people and precipitate crisis. The military in-charge of security in the area did nothing.The widely publicised report on social media and which was investigated and confirmed to the effect that a chopper dropped arms in a village near Wukari was downplayed by the security agencies.Despite efforts by the Taraba State Government to get the military to act, they never did. Since then, the arms and ammunition brought into the state have been used against the people in various communities in the state by the herdsmen.The present Operation Ayem Akpatuma in the state has also been discriminatory. While cutlasses and knives have been taken away from the people, the herdsmen have been left with AK-47 rifles.Through these various acts of deliberate mischief on the part of the military thousands of people have been killed and a lot more may be killed unless the military turns a new leaf.No letter from Taraba, FG, military insistIn their reactions, the Ministry of Defence and the Nigerian Army said they had yet to receive any official complaints from the Taraba State Government against troops in the state.Spokesman for the Minister of Defence said the ministry welcomed complaints from the state government, adding that the military would work promptly on the issues.Gusau said, To the best of my knowledge, the Minister of Defence has not received any letter of such nature. Let them bring the acknowledged copy of the letters to the ministry.The operations we are conducting are joint operations; the military is working with other security agencies.We welcome anybody with grievances against how the military is conducting its operations. They should not be on the pages of newspaper. Let them write to us and we will take it up.Also, the Director, Army Public Relations, Brig-Gen Texas Chukwu, said, We have not seen any letter (fromTaraba).
A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit against Evesham Mayor Randy Brown, rejecting a claim from a school district official that his rights were violated by allegations of sexual harassment.

The court said it was unable to prove Richard Dantinne was "deprived of a right or privileges."

But Judge Joseph Rodriguez said in the decision issued Monday that the claim could go forward in state court.

Dantinne said his attorney has already filed a complaint in state superior court under a defamation claim.

"We're not finished with this," Dantinne said in a telephone interview Tuesday. "I think this is political. He has an ax to grid against the superintendent. The superintendent here is a man of integrity. He doesn't play political games and does not do the mayor's bidding."

The federal court action was filed last year after Brown held a news conference to announce Dantinne had been previously accused of sexual harassment and the mayor claimed school Superintendent John Scavelli Jr. did not investigate the complaints appropriately, according to the lawsuit.

Dantinne on Tuesday strongly denied the allegations of sexual harassment. He said there has never been a complaint against him in the three years he has been the district's personnel director.

Scavelli did not return a call and email request for comment.

Dantinne claims Brown called the press conference to use him "as a pawn in a dispute that he had personally with the superintendent of the Evesham Township School District."

Sandy Student, Nichole Stone and William McGoey, three school board members who joined Brown at his news conference in January 2017, were also named as defendants in the filing. Brown, with the board members behind him, called for an independent investigation into the allegations against Dantinne.

Dantinne had accepted a position with another school district when the allegations surfaced. After Brown held a news conference calling for an investigation of Dantinne, his job offer was rescinded, he claims. Dantinne was able to keep his position as the township school district's personnel director, even though he had already announced his resignation.

Dantinne earns $127,000 year for his position.

Township police also looked into the allegations but no action was taken, according to Dantinne's superior court complaint and published reports. The status of the independent investigation called for in the news conference was not immediately clear.

Dantinne's suit said Brown was feuding with Scavelli over a school closing and because the district hired an African-American classroom aide over the mayor's son. The filing also claimed Brown used a racial slur about the new aide during a conversation with Scavalli.

Brown referred comment on the case to his attorney, Katie Hartman.

"I'm delighted it was dismissed," Hartman said about the federal court complaint. "It should have been dismissed. I thought it was frivolous."

Hartman disputed Dantinne's allegations. She said Brown's son never sought a job in the Evesham school district and Brown never used a racial slur.

Dantinne said Brown's son did previously apply for a job with the district and his application was still on file.

Dantinne's suit said Brown and the board members knowingly broke rules that require a grievance against a school employee be kept confidential, "motivated by actual malice, willful misconduct and racial animus."

"Eventually the truth is going to come out," Dantinne said. "It's just politics at it's worse."

Staff writer Rebecca Everett contributed to this report.

Bill Duhart may be reached at bduhart@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @bduhart. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips
A man riding in the backset of an SUV died after jumping from the moving vehicle following an argument between him and the driver Monday night.

Joseph Gonzalez, 27, was in riding in the driver's side rear seat when he and the driver, Vanessa Moreno, got into a "verbal dispute," shortly before 9:30 p.m., authorities said.

Moreno was heading west on East Landis Avenue near the Landis ShopRite when Gonzalez jumped from the 2005 Honda Pilot while it was moving, and was struck by the car, according to a release from the Vineland Police Department in Cumberland County.

Gonzalez was airlifted from the scene and taken to Cooper Medical Center, where he later died.

Alexis Johnson may be reached at ajohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @alexisjreports. Find her on Facebook.
Bobbi Brown, Steven Plofker and their dog Biggie lounge in the lobby of The George. (All photos courtesy of The George Inn)

By Jessica Remo | NJ Advance Media

Bobbi Brown made a career out of bringing on the beauty, but these days, the makeup mogul has taken her talents to a beautifying a new project.

Brown teamed up with her developer husband, Steven Plofker, to remake a historic Montclair inn as a perfectly chic 32-room boutique hotel.

What's the crossover between makeup artist and hotelier?

"Having a creative eye is something I have always done," Brown told NJ Advance Media. "And I like doing things where I have no idea what Im doing, and that certainly was the case with a hotel."

The George opens April 1 and is now accepting reservations. Here, a sneak peek inside.

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A historic Georgian inn

The Georgian-style home was originally built in 1902 as a private residence for Charles Van Vleck, of the wealthy Montclair Van Vleck family, and was later converted into a hotel in the 1940s.

In 2008, after years of vacancy, the historic building was granted landmark status. Plofker bought it in 2012.

"The inn was not touched for I would have to guess like 30 years," Brown says. "[Steven] bought it, and it took a really long time to get the approvals because those things take time."

After approvals, the construction took another two years to complete.

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The foyer

Detailed wood molding, comfy seating and a grand staircase greet visitors in the entranceway.

"The idea was to maintain the integrity of the building," Brown says. "We wanted to restore it and then update it aesthetically from an old-fashioned inn to something with a bit of a more modern, cooler vibe."

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The library

Brown is right at home in The George's library.

"It's awesome," she says. "The first night we had friends and family stay and everyone was in the library in their comfy clothes with their slippers. It was really great."

Comfort is the key, she says, and hopes folks feel like they're hanging in her living room.

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Room names, not numbers

Brown says she also wanted to bring a sense of humor to the George and her husband came up with the idea of naming the rooms.

Inside each room are portraits, which Brown was in charge of curating, of the so-named celebs and historic figures.

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The Duke is named after one of Brown's three sons.

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A fireplace enchants in the Dylan room.

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Brown incorporated lots of Union jacks and red plaid, like these in the Ed room.

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A red SMEG mini-fridge and Nespresso coffee machine echo the red plaid headboard in the Ken room. Red is The George's signature color, Brown says.

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Do you know Jack? These two funnymen should be easy to identify.

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Another view of the Jack room.

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Mattresses and sheets from Casper make up the beds.

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Each room's layout was unique, creating an extra challenge for selecting furniture, Brown says. There's room for a crowd in the family-friendly Neil room.

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Georges abound, of course

Brown says curating the portraits was "a big job" with 32 different rooms.

Georges take their places in the lobby and the library, with everyone from George Washington to George Clooney to George Costanza.

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In case you were wondering, yes, there is a "Robert/Bob/Bobbi" room, Brown says. Is her photo inside? You'll have to visit to find out.

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Prices and other details

Room prices range from $200 to $400 a night. Dogs are allowed for a $75 a night pet fee. Brunch, which will be open to the public, is coming soon.

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In the meantime, Montclair Bread Company is providing daily breakfast for guests.

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Bobbi's favorite products

Brown is just fine with folks copying her style and lots of The George's signature products are for sale.

"I hope it's successful, I hope it will be well visited, I hope that people want to come back and I hope that they feel comfortable and they always find something interesting here," she says. "Everything in the hotel is for sale."

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Jessica Remo | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

A love affair with Montclair

Brown says she plans to shout out her and Plofken's favorite local businesses on the George's website so guests can have that Montclair tour-guide touch. The also plan to do projects with other local entrepreneurs.

What do she love about living in Montclair?

"Umm, everything!" Brown responds enthusiastically. "I love that it's so close to the city but it's not the city. The town is progressive, and I like the people who chose to live here. I like the artsy feel, and I love that its always evolving."

The George opens to the public on April 1.

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Jessica Remo may be reached at jremo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessicaRemoNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
The original owners of acclaimed N.J. BBQ chain Red White & Que Smokehouse have sold seven of their eight restaurants to their business partners, but will hold on to the Kearny RWQ location.

Red White & Que, named by NJ Advance Media as "New Jersey's best BBQ newcomer'' in May 2016 and the state's best BBQ joint by Thrillist later that year, made news last September by announcing plans to go nationwide. The plan was to have 55 locations, many in New Jersey, by the end of 2019.

Dan and Katie Misuraca, who opened the original Red White & Que, in Kearny, in February, 2016, will retain ownership of that location, which will keep the RWQ name.

Their former partners, Group One Investments, will own the seven other Red White & Que locations, in Scotch Plains, Randolph, Manahawkin, Barnegat, Little Egg Harbor, Wayne and Easton, Pa. Those seven locations will be re-named American Heroes Smokehouse.

Que fans, We have some pretty big news. Over the next few weeks you will start to see our locations in Randolph, Scotch... Posted by Red White & Que Smokehouse on Wednesday, February 14, 2018

"The deal worked out great for Katie and I,'' Misuraca said in an e-mail. "The reason we split with our partner was because he wanted to change and add to the menu with things that I didn't think (were) loyal to our brand.''

"We wanted to go into a different direction,'' said Ed Danberry, one of the principals at Group One Investments. "We basically had philosophical differences with the menu.''

Menu additons at American Heroes Smokehouse will include soups, tacos, vegan items and an expanded dessert and drinks selection, Danberry said.

The Randolph RWQ location has been re-named American Heroes Smokehouse; the other locations will be re-named in the next week and a half.

Danberry said plans to make American Heroes Smokehouse a nationwide chain are still in place; locations in Livingston and Monmouth/Ocean counties are being considered, along with Ohio, New York and elsewhere.

News that the Misuracas would devote all their time to the original RWQ location was well-received. Here is a comment from the restaurant's Facebook page:

In a Facebook post, Misuraca wished his former business partners "much success and support from our Que family.''

Peter Genovese may be reached at pgenovese@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @PeteGenovese or via The Munchmobile @NJ_Munchmobile. Find the Munchmobile on Facebook and Instagram.
There are employers across the state with 40,000 job openings and no qualified applicants to hire. In a program that's a first in New Jersey, there's a plan to provide employers with job-seekers.

"We need to change the way we provide education ...," said state Senate President Stephen Sweeney at the introduction of the Rowan Work & Learn Consortium Tuesday at the Rowan College at Gloucester County campus in Deptford Township.

"If you listen to manufacturers in this state there are 40,000 jobs going unfilled because we don't have the workers for them. We haven't trained them. This (program) does exactly what we want."

Officials say the employee shortage is focused in seven main areas: Advanced manufacturing; financial services industry; transportation, logistics and distribution; healthcare; biopharmaceutical life sciences; hospitality, retail and tourism and construction management.

The "bundled" consortium "will not only help to prepare our graduates with the education, experience and credentials they need to enter a high-demand field, but it will strengthen our local workforce by making it easier and more rewarding for our talented students to remain in the state after graduation," said RCGC President Frederick Keating.

"Business and labor agree this is the right way to do it," Sweeney added.

Who is involved

The new program is described as a "customizable approach to higher education," bringing together vocational schools, county colleges, four-year universities and local business partners to produce graduates ready to be hired within high-demand positions, according to officials.

The consortium includes Rowan College at Gloucester County, Rowan University, Gloucester County Institute of Technology, the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Gloucester County Chamber of Commerce and Gloucester County's Department of Workforce Development and Economic Development.

"We need to build the workforce of tomorrow," Sweeney said. "We all need to be thinking outside of the box. The partners here all are willing to do that."

"It's a simplistic idea, but the hard part was getting all six pieces into one collective vision. We have put together a complete consortium," Keating said.

He described it as "one collective vision" uniting business and education.

The program "will provide the students of the Gloucester County Institute of Technology the opportunity to continue on their career pathway while gaining valuable credentials, certificates and advanced training after high school," GCIT Superintendent of Schools Michael Dickens said.

7 industries in need

The New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development has identified seven business areas in the state where employees are in high demand.

Business partners from each of those areas will serve to provide the consortium guidance on the certifications and training needed by students in each of the work areas.

Participating industry partners include Paulsboro Refining Company, representing the advanced manufacturing industry; South Jersey Federal Credit Union, representing the financial services industry; Owens and Minor, representing transportation, logistics and distribution; Rowan Medicine, representing the healthcare industry; Wedgewood Pharmacy, representing the biopharmaceutical life sciences industry; the Marriott Glassboro, representing the hospitality, retail and tourism industry; and, Greyhawk, representing the construction management industry.

"We're really excited because it's in Gloucester County, we're in Gloucester County it's a great partnership," said Kristi M. Moore, community relations specialist at the Paulsboro Refining Company. "We are getting young adults who are coming in, finishing the program having the skills and knowledge to work in the refinery and become a valuable part of our organization."

How it all works

Officials say the program represents the first "packaged consortium" between a two-year college and a four-year university in the state.

What's unique is the concept of partnering higher-education institutions and stacking industry-valued credentials to allow students to become marketable faster while providing flexibility for "stop out" points if necessary.

Each academic year completed will result in credentials verified by industry leaders as well as the Workforce Development Board of Gloucester County and the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

All academic paths included in the consortium will support an industry-specific certification, an associate degree, a certificate of undergraduate study and culminate in a bachelor's degree, according to RCGC's official release on the program.

The students involved with have advisors to guide them. The participants will also be involved in internships at businesses in their areas of study to get real-world experience. This also, officials say, gives businesses a better look at their prospective employees.

A common need

The Rowan program is a first in the country.

"Businesses and industries are in need of a skilled labor workforce and this program provides our students, both traditional and nontraditional, with a pathway to earning affordable and accessible degrees and certificates," said Gloucester County Freeholder Director Robert M. Damminger.

"This is something we really do need," Sweeney said after Tuesday's ceremony.

Sweeney, who is credited with helping the consortium become a reality, said he plans to introduce legislation which will help create similar programs around the state.

"It's something I want to see in every county in the state," Sweeney said.

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
Vince Myers didn't have to ham it up to get his students excited about what they were about to witness.

Myers, principal of Woodbury's West End Memorial Elementary School, kissed a pig Wednesday morning to fulfill a promise he made to the kids if they read 10,000 books this school year.

"Do I really have to do this?" he asked the students filling the school's all-purpose room.

"Yes," the excited children screamed.

"Kiss the pig, kiss the pig," the students chanted.

Myers first teased the kids at Wednesday's assembly, pulling a stuffed pink pig toy out of a cardboard box on the stage in the school's all-purpose room.

As Myers tossed the fake pig into the air, the star of the show arrived.

Rosebud, a black, 3-month-old KuneKune breed, was wheeled into the room by Angus Westerby of Westerby Livestock farm in Marlton.

Westerby gently lifted Rosebud out of her cage and took her to the stage where Myers landed a kiss on her snout, creating a roar among the appreciative students.

But that wasn't the final kiss of the day.

Myers then introduced his boss, Woodbury School District Superintendent Lynn DiPietropolo, and after some nudging, she took the stage and gave Rosebud a gentle kiss on the piglet's cheek.

Rosebud, whose breed is originally from New Zealand, behaved well despite all of the commotion going on around her.

"When it comes to our students and motivating our students to have fun when learning there are no restrictions in my mind," Myers said after his morning smooch. "Our mission is to personalize education and do whatever it takes to lift up our students."

"When there is that motivating factor, that really drives our students. The excitement that you saw from the motivating factor here is an example."

The idea of the pig kiss originated last summer, Myers said, as he and staff looked ahead to the new school year and set reading goals.

Myers was immediately game.

"Let's make it happen," he remembers saying.

This isn't Myers' first time having to make good on a promise to his students in an unusual way. He's been taped to a wall and hit in the face with pies in the past.

"When it comes to our students and motivating our students to have fun when learning there are no restrictions in my mind," Myers said after his morning smooch. "Our mission is to personalize education and do whatever it takes to lift up our students."

Throughout the year as the students hits certain goals in the numbers of books read, there have been other rewards including water ice.

Myers himself reads to students each month. One of the books he selected "My Principal Promised to Kiss A Pig" which includes the theme of achieving goals and keeping promises made.

While the 10,000 mark is impressive, West End Memorial students are already far beyond that number. They've read about 12,800 books, Myers said.

When students read 15,000 books, they'll get a "movie afternoon" Myers has promised.

The goal is 20,000 books by the end of the year.

What's it like to kiss a pig?

"Just like a dog," Myers said.

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
JERSEY CITY -- A killer released from prison in November after serving 15 years was arrested on a warrant Sunday and found to have 50 bags of heroin and three vials of cocaine, authorities said.

Derrick Myers, of Ocean Avenue near Claremont Avenue, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Sept. 12, 2002 for a Nov. 19, 2000 aggravated manslaughter. He was released from prison on Nov. 25, 2017, officials said.

Myers was wanted for a violation of parole when an officer spotted him on Martin Luther King Drive Sunday. He ran south on MLK Drive and then west on Claremont, tossing some of the heroin and cocaine before being caught, the complaint says.

He was charged with possession of heroin and cocaine, possession with intent to distribute and possession with intent to distribute within 1,000 feet of school property and within 500 feet of public property, the complaint says.

He is also charged with resisting arrest, obstructing a government function and absconding from parole, the complaint says.

State Department of Corrections records show that on Monday he began serving a 5-year prison term for the violation of parole.

Myers made his first appearance on the charges on Monday in Criminal Justice Reform Court in Jersey City via video link from Hudson County jail in Kearny.

At the hearing, the state moved to detain him through the course of his prosecution. A detention hearing is set for tomorrow before Hudson County Superior Court Judge Paul DePascale in the Hudson County Administration Building in Jersey City.

Myer has gone by names including Deebo, Dozier, Dion Myers, Donald Myers, Duane Myers and Derick Myers, according to corrections records.
JERSEY CITY  The family of a 25-year-old woman who was seriously injured in a hit-and-run crash on the city's West Side is pleading for the driver to surrender to police.

Judy Tugonon was in the crosswalk at the West Side Avenue and Boyd Street intersection on March 18 when a Jeep made a left turn and plowed into her, according to police reports.

Her family says she was dragged for about 30 feet before breaking free from the vehicle.

Her aunt, Katherine Durango, said Tugonon's boyfriend called her shortly after the 8:30 p.m. crash telling her the 25-year-old was seriously injured, but he couldn't get much information from police because he was not related.

Durango, who talks to her niece every day, rushed down to Jersey City Medical Center from New York. Tugonon suffered multiple rib fractures, a head injury, pelvis fractures, broken bones in her back, a collapsed lung, and suffered burns to her stomach from the car's tires.

Video obtained by the family from local businesses along West Side Avenue show the vehicle not even slowing down as the driver made the turn and strikes Tugonon.

"This person's brake lights did not go on even once," Durango said.

Tugonon cares for her 10-year-old daughter and her disabled mother, but she remains hospitalized nearly two weeks after the crash. A GoFundMe page has been set up to help Tugonon while she undergoes months of recovery.

Her aunt, who says the driver treated Tugonon like trash by leaving her in the street, has one message to the person who was behind the wheel of the SUV that night: "Turn yourself in."

Anyone with information about the crash can contact the Jersey City Police Department at 201-547-5477.

Caitlin Mota may be reached at cmota@jjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter @caitlin_mota. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.
The Hoboken waterfront is getting a new addition.

Mayor Ravi Bhalla has announced plans for a new 17-story Hilton Hotel to be built in the parking lot behind the Sinatra Post Office, just one block from the Hoboken Terminal.

The hotel, which will comprise 270 rooms and feature a rooftop bar, will be developed by KMS Development Partners. Officials say the project will also "substantially" upgrade the 87-year-old post office "as an important landmark" within the city.

A timeline for construction will emerge after the City Council votes on the plan at its April 4 meeting, said Jason Freeman, Bhalla's deputy chief of staff.

Bhalla, who won the city's mayoral election in November, voiced opposition to a previous iteration of the hotel plan during the campaign, calling it "exhibit A of over-development" during a candidates forum in October.

"This project will bring a world-class hotel to the City of Hoboken for the benefit of residents and visitors alike," Bhalla said in a statement Friday announcing the plan. "When I ran for Mayor I promised any hotel would be consistent with the height and scale of the Hoboken's south waterfront, and with the character and charm of our community.

"I'm very pleased that KMS agrees and I look forward to working with the City Council to move this project forward," Bhalla added.

The Hilton will be Hoboken's second hotel, joining the 27-story W Hotel, also situated nearby on the city's waterfront.

First Ward Councilman Mike DeFusco, a frequent critic of Bhalla's, said the project "represents a rare opportunity to add new tax revenue to our city, create jobs, support local small businesses and bring a world class amenity to the First Ward without causing any major strain on city services or infrastructure."

Meanwhile, KMS principal Dennis Martin said in a statement that the hotel represents an opportunity for "myriad of financial and community benefits."
JERSEY CITY -- A Somerset County man already serving a 15-year prison term was sentenced to another 18 years today for shooting a woman in Kearny in June 2016.

Rhudell Cruz-Snelling, 27, maintained that he is innocent during today's hearing, arguing that Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Adam Salzer "very repetitively tried to make it sound like I'm some sociopath and the facts don't really prove that."

"I do not feel remorse for something I did not do," he added.

Cruz-Snelling said that if Young sentenced him to a lengthy, consecutive prison term, the judge would be condemning him to a continued life of crime.

"How would I assimilate into society after that?" Cruz-Snelling asked Young. "I would actually be more comfortable in jail then out on the street. It's setting me up for failure."

Young, however, was unconvinced, sentencing Cruz-Snelling to 17 years in prison for shooting the woman in the hand and neck near St. Cecilia Church on June 3, 2016. The prison term is to be served consecutive to the 15 year sentence he is currently serving for shooting at a vacant building in Jersey City in 2016.

He must serve 14 years before becoming parole-eligible.

He was also convicted of three counts of aggravated assault for pointing the gun at three people the woman was with at the time. However, Young merged them into one count because it was not clear if he had pointed the gun at all of them or one of them.

Young sentenced Cruz-Snelling to 18 months in prison for the one count of "pointing." He must serve the entire 18 months consecutive to the 17-year sentence before becoming eligible to serve three years parole.

Young noted that Cruz-Snelling has been involved in the justice system since the age of 13 and was adjudicated delinquent as a juvenile for possession of a destructive device, possession of brass knuckles, robbery, drug possession and lewdness.

As an adult, he has three prior weapons convictions, receiving stolen property, possession of oxycodone and for shooting at a building in the Jersey City Heights in 2016. The judge told Cruz-Snelling that everything in his past has shown that he will always be involved in the criminal justice system.

"You will always be violent and dangerous because that is all you know and that is your history," Young said.

The judge continued saying: "There's no doubt in my mind that if you were to remain on the street, or be eligible to live life as a free man in the near future, you would be back here, and in all likelihood, as a result of killing someone, because this is where you are heading."

In October, Cruz-Snelling was one of two men convicted of firearms offenses and resisting arrest for firing multiple rounds at a vacant building on Sherman Avenue on Oct. 2, 2016. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison for those crimes, with no chance of parole until serving seven.

Cruz-Snelling was out on bail for the Kearny shooting at the time he shot at the building.

Salzer called Cruz-Snelling "an extremely dangerous person." He noted that the bullet that wounded the woman's hand also grazed her neck, saying "an inch one way or the other and this is an entirely different case."

Cruz-Snelling had a big smile on his face when he was led out of the courtroom by sheriff's officers.
UNION CITY  U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, the two-term Democrat whose federal corruption trial ended in a hung jury in November, returned to his hometown this morning to announce his bid for a third term, pledging to fight the Trump administration's policies on immigration, climate change and health care.

Menendez, 64, received a hero's welcome at Union City High School, which was filled with 2,000 cheering students waving Menendez campaign signs and a host of fellow Democrats who sang hosannas about New Jersey's senior senator. Menendez joined the Democrats in casting himself as a bulwark against President Trump.

"There is a president in Washington who spends his days dividing us and distracting us but never delivering for us, who believes that being wealthy is the same thing as being worthy," Menendez said. "Under his watch, health care is getting more expensive, environmental protections are being gutted, women's rights are under attack."

Sen. Cory Booker introduced Menendez with a 10-minute barnburner of a speech that likened Trump's policies to the looming approach of Hurricane Sandy, concluding Menendez will "stand against the storm."

Like his fellow Democrats, Booker did not mention Menendez's corruption charges other than to describe his colleague as a survivor.

"There's an old saying, if you kick a lion when he's down, you'd better be careful when he stands up. Well I'm happy that Bob Menendez is standing up for New Jersey," Booker said. "There's an old saying that says that truth crushed to the Earth will rise again. Well I'm happy to say we have a champion fighting for the truth of New Jersey every single day."

This theme of Menendez as a fighter for New Jersey was underscored by the songs his campaign piped through the high school's gym before and after today's speeches: "I Won't Back Down," "Stronger," "The Champion."

Federal prosecutors said in January they won't retry Menendez. They had said Menendez used his position to help a wealthy donor, Salomon Melgen, in exchange for gifts. Last month Melgen, an eye doctor, was sentenced to 17 years in prison for stealing $73 million from Medicare.

Menendez, a former Union City mayor, first joined the U.S. Senate in 2006 to fill a vacancy left by Jon Corzine. He was elected to his first full term that year with 53 percent of the vote and re-elected in 2012 with 59 percent of the vote.

Menendez's Republican opponent is Bob Hugin, a retired CEO of pharmaceutical giant Celgene. Hugin, also from Union City, declined to comment today.

"New Jersey deserves a senator as good as its people, not one trying to stay one step ahead of the law," Hugin spokeswoman Megan Piwowar said in a statement. "We're confident that New Jersey voters will say enough with Menendez's failed, corrupt track record, and elect a senator we can be proud of again, former Marine and business leader Bob Hugin, who created thousands of New Jersey jobs."

The Cook Political Report has characterized this race as a likely win for Democrats.

Republicans outside today's event handed out "get out of jail free" cards with a picture of Menendez's face placed on the cartoon body of a man wearing jail garb.

Menendez and his allies leaned heavily on his biography today, touting his childhood in Union City, where he grew up the son of two immigrants in a tenement apartment.

"While some of you are not old enough to vote, I am not here to ask for your vote, I am here because I am your vote in the United States Senate," Menendez said to cheers from the city's high school students. "Every time I cast a vote, I do it for you."

Democrats, buoyed by recent victories in regions of the country Trump won in 2016, are hopeful they can retake the House of Representatives this November. Their path to regain control of the Senate is more difficult: they would need to retain 26 seats held now by Democrats and liberal independents and win at least two Republican-held seats.

Brigid Callahan Harrison, who teaches political science at Montclair State University, said Menendez has characterized himself as a fighter throughout his political career.



"It is an image that many New Jerseyans will find credible," Harrison said.

Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.
UPDATE: Video shows cops confront Domino's manager over pizza delivery dispute

JERSEY CITY -- Two city police officers have been suspended without pay after prosecutors accused them attacking a Domino's manager while on duty.

Rodney Clark and Courtney Solomon are both charged with disorderly conduct, harassment and making terroristic threats for the incident that occurred on Tuesday, Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez said in a statement.

Marina Elsamina, an employee at the Communipaw Avenue pizza shop, told The Jersey Journal in an interview that workers there received an online complaint on Tuesday evening by one of the police officers, apparently over a delivery issue.

The officers later arrived at the store and shoved him against a wall before the altercation spewed outside the building, according to Elsamina. She added that the cops threatened to lock up the manager.

The manager called 911 and the cops left, she added.

"We confront customers every day who fight with us, but he's using his police powers," Elsamina said.

Both officers, who joined the force in 2015, are due in court on the charges on April 10.

"The prosecutor's office will fully investigate the allegations against these officers and prosecute in accordance with the law to ensure that justice is served," Suarez said. "Officers who abuse their power and break the law must be held accountable for their actions."

This is the latest episode of bad news for the police department. Eleven cops, including the former police chief, have pleaded guilty in federal court to collecting pay for off-duty jobs they did not perform. Earlier this month, another officer was sentenced for striking a man with his police car during an arrest. Four others face charges related to a scheme to falsify timesheets. Four additional cops were indicted last year on charges related to a high-speed police pursuit that ended in a fiery crash on Tonnelle Avenue.

The police union declined to comment.

Caitlin Mota may be reached at cmota@jjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter @caitlin_mota. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.
JERSEY CITY  It was 50 years ago today when Martin Luther King Jr. gave a dynamic speech at the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church on Belmont Avenue to rally support for his "Poor People's Campaign."

"If you can't fly, run. If you can't run, walk. If you can't walk, crawl. But move," King said to some 2,000 people who came out to listen to him speak. Eight days later he was assassinated.

To mark the anniversary of King's visit to Jersey City and one of his final addresses before his death, a celebration was hosted at the church with the reading of some of his speeches and presentations.

His visit was part of a one-day swing through Newark, Orange, Jersey City and, finally, Paterson. The focus of the visit was raising money and awareness of the Poor People's Campaign, King's venture in the non-violent struggle for civil rights that sought to bring thousands of demonstrators to Washington that spring to protest poverty.

"What we need is persistent, insistent, nonviolence where we stand up against the evil system without destroying property," King said 50 years ago.

His standing-room only speech demonstrated all that can be accomplished in Jersey City, organizers said.

The Rev. Nathaniel Legay, president of the Jersey City branch of the NAACP, urged the several dozen people who attended the commemoration to remember the love, justice, and service of the civil rights leader.

"We're here to do something that needs to be done if not annually, but every day in our hearts," Legay said.

A proclamation was given to Metropolitan A.M.E. Zion church from the city. There were also performances by winners of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Oratory Contest.

The visit to the church was King's second visit to Jersey City in three years. In 1965, he spoke at St. Peter's College's Roy Irving Theater. He stayed in the dorms and was presented an honorary degree from the university, which helped organize today's event.

Caitlin Mota may be reached at cmota@jjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter @caitlin_mota. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.
Seated in her small home office, with a Macintosh computer, a key tool of her trade, sitting squarely on her desk, Kerry Glass talks about what prompted her to start Memories Live (memorieslive.org) in July 2010. The nonprofit organization enables people with terminal illness to relay their life stories through customized video chapter books. Glass creates the videos that preserve her clients' images, voices, reflections, advice and wisdom for loved ones.

It began after a young mother in Glass' community had died from cancer. "It really struck me because her kids were around the same age as my kids," says the Millburn resident and former nursing home art therapist. "Knowing that these kids wouldn't know the sound of their mom's voice, or stories from her point of view ... I said to myself, 'What if I could sit with someone who has a terminal diagnosis and help them leave a piece of themselves behind?' "

Glass created her first video for the mother-in-law of a good friend. She describes the experience as simultaneously nerve-wracking and awesome. Since then, she has produced more than 140 videos, typically filming clients from just days to many months before they die. She also has perfected her practice, starting with a client-information questionnaire, which she has whittled down from 20 pages to a single sheet. It asks about family and upbringing and includes such conversation starters as favorite movies and television shows.

Glass essentially allows her clients to focus on the messages they want to convey, rather than the intricacies of combing through and cutting raw footage. Through in-person taped interviews about an hour in length, she draws out the details of their lives, which sometimes come as a surprise to their family and friends.

"I've had families come back to me and say, 'Oh, I've heard this version of the story so many times, but I've never heard the version that they told you, with so much more detail,' " she says.

The final product is a 45-minute video delivered via flash drive. She uses iMovie to edit, deleting just her end of the conversation and arranging the remaining footage into chapters for easy navigation. At a client's request, she can add photo montages, home movies and song overlays. Her services and the video are free to clients. She supports her work through an annual fundraiser, donations and grants.

Ahjing Chen learned about Glass and Memories Live from her social worker at Overlook Hospital. The 45-year-old married mother of three from Short Hills was diagnosed in June 2016 with triple-negative breast cancer and experienced a recurrence following surgery and chemotherapy. She began targeted immunotherapy last spring.

At first, Chen didn't give much thought to creating a video, but then she decided to contact Glass. "I was like 'Hmm' that's something that's going to be helpful for my family ... for them to remember me if something happens," she recalled.

Chen's video includes "stories that are memorable and things that I wanted to say to the kids. What if they get married? What do you want them to know if they have kids? When people are sick, they don't usually think about these things so much."

Glass' clients, the majority of whom have cancer, come to her by word of mouth and through referrals from social workers, mostly at Barnabas Health Home Care and Hospice. Many live in New Jersey and New York, but Glass has traveled to Pennsylvania and Connecticut and one client flew in from Chicago.

Often, a "client has been wanting to do this, not knowing how to start it, what to talk about, how to put it all together. They didn't want family members filming them. They didn't want to ask a friend," Glass says.

Many are anxious at the start of Glass' visit, but it's a feeling that quickly fades, she says. "I always say I walk in as a stranger and I leave as a new friend. People hug me when I leave, and not many people get hugs when they leave their jobs."

Although Glass usually doesn't hear from a client again after she delivers the video, she has received feedback from families through handwritten letters and emails. Short Hills resident Stuart Fried is grateful for his Memories Live video, which his late wife Jackie taped before her death from ovarian cancer at age 52 in March 2016. He and their three daughters watched it the first time separately about six months after her death, not knowing what to expect.

"It was just great to hear her talking about her family and herself and her views on life, and just in her own unique way, her voice, her perspective," says Fried. "Her authenticity came through, her core of who she was, and that's so valuable for my kids. If I miss her, I can go watch that and feel her presence again."

"It's not about their illness. It's not about them leaving," says Glass about the videos. "It's about them celebrating their life and sharing their experiences with their families."

*

Editor's note: Ahjing Chen died on Jan. 4.

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A 21-year-old Jersey City man serving a sentence for five drug convictions went missing from a Newark halfway house yesterday, officials said.

James Robinson was sentenced on all five offenses on Feb. 10, 2017 and is listed as having "escaped" from the halfway house on the New Jersey Department of Corrections website.

Robinson was found guilty of possessing drugs within 1,000 feet of school property on Sept. 7, 2015 and on May 12, 2015. He was also found guilty of possessing drugs on Sept. 15, 2015, having drug paraphernalia on Feb. 10, 2017 and being under the influence of drugs on Oct. 29, 2014, corrections records indicate.

His maximum release date is Jan. 4, 2020, but he is listed as becoming eligible for parole on April 9, 2019, corrections records say.

Anyone with information on Robinson's whereabouts is asked to call the Department of Corrections Fugitive Unit at 800-523-3829.
Gov. Phil Murphy rebooted New Jersey's medicinal marijuana program Tuesday, expanding the list of qualifying diseases that patients have requested for years.

There are 18,574 registered patients in New Jersey, but advocacy groups speculate the pent-up demand, kept at bay by former Gov. Chris Christie, will double the number participants within a year.

So do you qualify? Here's the list.

The list of qualifying conditions before Tuesday, and still in effect:

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease);

multiple sclerosis;

terminal cancer;

muscular dystrophy;

inflammatory bowel disease including Crohn's disease;

any terminal illness with a prognosis of less than 12 months;

seizure disorders including epilepsy, intractable skeletal muscular spasticity, post-traumatic stress disorder and glaucoma qualify if traditional medicine has failed;

Severe or chronic pain, severe nausea or vomiting and wasting syndrome caused by HIV/AIDS and cancer.

These conditions were immediately added Tuesday:

Anxiety;

Migraines;

Tourette's syndrome;

Chronic pain related to musculoskeletal disorders, which include rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, fibromyalgia and opioid use disorder;

Chronic pain affecting of "visceral origin," which includes pancreatitis, irritable bowel syndrome and bowel dysfunction.

A medical marijuana advisory panel comprised of physicians, pharmacists and other health professionals recommended adding the new conditions last fall.

Health Commissioner Shereef Elhanal would be able to expand the list at his discretion in the future, Murphy said.

Elnahal, who submitted a report Tuesday containing the changes, urged the Legislature to rewrite the law to allow cannabis to be a "first-line treatment" for seizure disorders, intractable skeletal muscular spasticity, post-traumatic stress disorder and glaucoma.

The plan to expand the disease list was not universally praised.

"There are very limited data to support this measure's effectiveness, and we do not know if the risks associated with marijuana use outweigh the benefits of treating these conditions," said Lewis S. Nelson, professor and chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.

"The possible silver lining here is it opens the door for patients who have chronic musculoskeletal or visceral pain and are using opioids to relieve their symptoms possibly transition to marijuana, which is safer from an overdose perspective," Nelson added. "However, its risk-benefit profile has not yet been fully studied."

Studies are limited in the United States because the federal government has classified cannabis a schedule 1 controlled dangerous substance, which by definition is deemed dangerous with no medicinal value. A recent state court decision challenged that designation, however.

Patients enroll in the program by first by working with a doctor who must recommend them to the program, then applying for a membership card through the health department.

Roseanne Scotti, New Jersey state director of the Drug Policy Alliance, who was among those who lobbied to pass the medical marijuana law eight years ago, thanked the governor and commissioner for making changes quickly.

"This action will help thousands of patients for whom medical marijuana is the best option for relieving their suffering and improving their quality of life," Scotti said.

Are you interested in the N.J. cannabis industry? Subscribe here for exclusive insider information from NJ Cannabis Insider.

Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanKLivio. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.
Gov. Phil Murphy announced Tuesday several immediate changes that will allow New Jersey's medicinal marijuana program to expand far beyond the 18,500 patients who are enrolled now. The biggest change: people with specific kinds of chronic pain, anxiety, migraines and Tourette's syndrome may ask their doctor to recommend them to the program.

Here's a quick look at what's changed and how it may affect you.

Q: What are the medical conditions that qualify a person for the program?

Before Tuesday, and still in effect:

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease);

multiple sclerosis;

terminal cancer;

muscular dystrophy;

inflammatory bowel disease including Crohn's disease;

any terminal illness with a prognosis of less than 12 months;

seizure disorders including epilepsy, intractable skeletal muscular spasticity, post-traumatic stress disorder and glaucoma qualify if traditional medicine has failed;

Severe or chronic pain, severe nausea or vomiting and wasting syndrome caused by HIV/AIDS and cancer.

Since Murphy's announcement, these were immediately added:

Anxiety;

Migraines;

Tourette's syndrome;

Chronic pain related to musculoskeletal disorders, which include rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, fibromyalgia and opioid use disorder;

Chronic pain affecting internal organs, such as pancreatitis, irritable bowel syndrome, and neurogenic bladder and bowel dysfunction.

Q: Can I simply walk into a dispensary now and get medical marijuana?

A. No. You still need a recommendation from a doctor and to apply to the state. If you are approved, you will get a card saying you are enrolled in the program.

Q: Can I now go to my regular physician to get what amounts to a prescription?

A: Until now, you could only get a recommendation (technically not a prescription because pot is not FDA-approved) for medical marijuana from doctors who agreed to have their names publicly disclosed in a state registry.

That registry, which includes only about 500 doctors, will be phased out. This could encourage more physicians -- worried about a backlash from disapproving patients or medical peers -- to recommend patients to the program.

So, you can start the process by asking your treating physician whether you might benefit from cannabis. Any doctor who is allowed to prescribe controlled dangerous substances, like opioids, may recommend cannabis.

If your doctor won't participate, you can still try to find one on the public registry, which will still exist for doctors who voluntarily want to identify themselves. The list may be found here.

Q: How does the doctor determine if I should get a recommendation for marijuana?

A: A physician must be able to prove he or she has a "bona fide" relationship with a patient. That means the doctor is actively treating the person for at least a year, has conducted a comprehensive review of the patient's file, or has seen the patient at least four times.

Q: Is cannabis covered by my healthcare policy?

A: No.

Q: How much does medical marijuana cost?

A: Prices vary but an ounce is roughly $500, not including the sales tax. New Jersey has the most expensive cannabis program, a problem Murphy said he hopes will be addressed when there is greater competition. State law allows patients to buy a maximum of two ounces a month, but Murphy said he would sign a law they pass allowing as much as four ounces.

Q: If my doctor recommends cannabis, will I be protected from getting fired from my job if drug tests are required?

A: No. The law does not offer workplace protections. Patients have sued to regain their job and in most instances, have lost. Marijuana remains an illegal drug under federal law.

Q: Where can I buy my medical marijuana?

A: There are five dispensaries operating in the state, located in Montclair, Egg Harbor, Woodbridge, Cranbury and Bellmawr. A sixth, in Secaucus, is expected to open later in the spring. The governor is allowing them to open satellite locations to improve patient access, and some have already begun expansion, anticipating this decision. Other dispensaries will likely be allowed to open, but don't expect that to happen right way.

Q: What kinds of medical marijuana are available?

All five dispensaries sell various strains of smokable dried "flower." Breakwater Treatment and Wellness in Cranbury and Compassionate Sciences in Bellmawr also sell oils and topical products.

Q: Can I grow my own weed?

A: No. That continues to be illegal.

Q: May I have cannabis delivered to my home?

A: Not yet. The health department is exploring delivery models "that would ensure timely and accurate delivery of product to patients, driver safety and compliance with applicable state law," according to a program audit submitted Tuesday by Health Commissioner Shereef Elnahal.

Q: Where may I find more information about the program?

A: The state Health Department website, which has its own question-and-answer page for patients, physicians and dispensaries.

Read the report recommending changes to the medicinal marijuana program.

Are you interested in the N.J. cannabis industry? Subscribe here for exclusive insider information from NJ Cannabis Insider.

Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanKLivio. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook
Marijuana activist Ed "NJ Weedman" Forchion is one for one in his latest string of court battles.

A federal judge denied a motion last week from the Trenton City Police Department seeking to dismiss Forchion's civil suit, which accuses the department and the Mercer County Prosecutor Angelo Onofri of violating his civil rights when officers from both agencies raided his eatery and "weed temple," in April 2016.

Forchion said in the suit that he was unlawfully arrested and he accused the police of not properly training their officers.

The suit was originally filed in Mercer County Superior Court before being moved up to a District Court in Nov. 2016. Forchion now has until April 9 to submit an amended complaint.

The activist also received the news last week that his latest attempt to be released from jail was denied. Forchion has been jailed since March 7, 2017.

Forchion had filed an emergent motion with the New Jersey Supreme Court after he was denied by an appeals court.

In the original motion, Forchion argued he is being jailed in retaliation for filing three lawsuits against the City of Trenton and because he spoke out against the administration.

A judge order Forchion to be jailed in March 2017 to ensure the safety of witnesses or informants in a case of alleged witness tampering, which was connected to his 2016 marijuana dealing arrest.

He's since been found not guilty on one count of witness tampering, but faced a hung jury on the second count in November 2017, and an eventual retrial.

The new attempt to get out of jail added 57 more days to the maximum amount of days that the state can keep Forchion in jail, according to his appeals attorney John Vincent Saykanic.

Those additional 57 days are expected to push back the start of his re-trial, which was expected to begin in late April, by several weeks.

Forchion also faces 13 counts of marijuana possession and distribution, two counts of drug paraphernalia and maintaining a narcotics nuisance.

Olivia Rizzo may be reached at orizzo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @LivRizz. Find NJ.com on Facebook
A jury on Tuesday found a Piscataway man guilty of throwing a woman to her death from a third-floor window in 2016.

Beth Marie Bezek

Christopher Koller, 40, was convicted of murder following a month-long trial in the death of Beth Marie Bezek, 31, of Raritan, according to Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew C. Carey.

Koller was also found guilty of hindering his own apprehension and distribution of cocaine, the prosecutor said.

Bezek was visiting Koller on Nov. 1, 2016 in his Piscataway home when he threw her out of his third-floor window, Carey said.

After the killing, Koller drove to New Brunswick where he placed an anonymous 911 call from a payphone saying a girl was lying injured on Pond Lane in Piscataway. Police found the victim dead outside Koller's home shortly after 1 a.m., Carey said.

No motive was given for the killing.

Bezek was a lifelong resident of Raritan. She graduated from Bridgewater-Raritan High School in 2004 and attended Raritan Valley Community College. She held a variety of interests, including drawing, sketching, "anything involving the great outdoors, and spending time with her friends and family," according to her obituary.

Christopher Koller appears in a New Brunswick courtroom in 2016 shortly after the murder of Beth Marie Bezek. (Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

Public records and court testimony revealed Koller has a criminal history in three states, including assault charges in Pennsylvania and New York.

Koller faces a potential 30-year prison sentence.

Carey said the prison term is subject to the state's No Early Release Act, which requires convicted defendants to serve no less than 85 percent of their prison terms. In addition, Koller faces up to 18 months for hindering and up to five years on the drug charge.

Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Don't be so quick to toss that junk mail in the trash. There may actually be a legit $100 check made out to cash inside those familiar blue envelopes of coupons that land regularly in mailboxes.

Valpak, a major print and digital coupon company based out of Florida, is randomly placing the checks in customers' coupon books every month through the end of the year to encourage people to flip through the offers.

This is not the first time the marketing franchise has done this type of giveaway. But Valpak has opened the rewards to all 150 markets that it serves across the U.S. to celebrate its 50th year in business.

This is crazy! Im 1 in 50thousand! Thank you Valpack!  #iWon100  this is the best way to end not the best week. Here's to opening your Valpack each month and using their coupons. pic.twitter.com/dG3hKd0owv  liana bro0ke (@Liana_bro0ke) January 20, 2018

The company, which sends out 39 million envelopes with coupons every month, says there's no need for winners to submit any personal information. One in every 50,000 envelopes has a $100 check inside, the company said.

Alexis Johnson may be reached at ajohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @alexisjreports. Find her on Facebook.
The heightened sensitivity to gun violence prompted by the killing of 14 students and three staff members at a school in Florida last month has left some New Jersey parents angered by what they see as a lack of information from school districts on how alleged threats are reported to the community.

Parents say this social media post made a threat against a school in Toms River. It has been altered to remove the identity of the person in the photo, as well as offensive language used in the post. (Submitted photo)

What little information does get out about how these districts handled the report of a threat has also prompted criticism. In some cases parents insist districts overreacted, while in others they assert the district failed to take their concerns seriously enough, suggesting officials are damned if they do and damned if they don't.

In a recent case in Toms River, a middle school student posted a picture of himself on Instagram holding a pellet gun above text reading, "Toms River ouhh where we pull the trigger." District officials have said little publicly about the case, prompting some parents to demand more information on what's been done about it.

"I get that the school can't divulge details about an individual," said Stacy Buono, a Toms River parent.

"We also understand as rational adults that there are parts of the security plan that they don't want to give out," Buono said. "But they've got to give us something. We're parents. We're freaking out!"

Bound by confidentiality rules

But officials of Toms River Regional Schools and other districts say they are bound by confidentiality rules, and insist they have been the targets of unfair, sometimes withering criticism for being unable to satisfy parents' demands for information.

"On your best day, you're not going to please everybody," said David Healy, the Toms River superintendent of schools. "But you do the right thing based on the safety of your children and your staff -- without violating someone's rights.

"Generally speaking, we address any issue of safety or concerns about our kids very aggressively, and we communicate with other agencies," Healy added. "I can speak for other superintendents, and no superintendents ever dismiss concerns about their kids."

Healy said the district had been pro-active in reaching out to parents since the Parkland shooting, starting with a Feb. 16 letter outlining security measures, followed by a joint "statement of assurance" with the Ocean County Prosecutor's and Sheriff's offices, and the Toms River, South Toms River, Pine Beach and Beechwood police departments, from the four communities that feed the district.

A Toms River Board of Education meeting scheduled for Wednesday night does not include the issue on its agenda, and Heally said it would not be added. However, Buono said a large crowd of parents is expected to attend and speak.

Information is restricted

A spokesman for the New Jersey School Boards Association, Frank Belluscio, said information about disciplinary measures is restricted by federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, by state regulations governing school districts, and by the state's Uniform Memorandum of Agreement between the State Attorney General's office and the New Jersey Department of Education.

"Basically, what a school board would do is first to follow the counsel of their attorney concerning what state law and regulations say about it," Bulluscio said.

Essentially, said Toms River's school board attorney, Stephan R. Leone, his clients would be bound from talking about an investigation into a threat or a student accused of posting one.

"We would not be able to divulge any kind of action, or even recognize that student's name," Leone said.

Parents want details released

In a Gloucester County case that underscores just how eager for information parents can be, a group in Monroe Township have rallied around a popular teacher at Williamstown Middle School who now faces criminal charges for a Facebook post in which he tried to call attention to a rumor that a student had threatened the school.

The teacher, Paul VanHouten, was charged this month by Monroe Township Police with creating a false public alarm through a Feb. 16 post that police said Vanhouten, "should have known would cause public alarm." He's been suspended pending adjudication of the charge.

VanHouten, a veteran teacher with children in the district, could not be reached for comment. A Facebook page created by parents who support him said he stands to lose his job, while the student about whom VanHouten wrote the post received a 10-day suspension. VanHouten is due in court April 12.

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

Apart from their limited communication with parents, district officials have also been criticized for the nature of their reactions to reports of threats.

Accused of overreaction

In Lacey Township, district officials were accused of overreacting after two scholar-athletes pictured with guns at a local shooting range were given in-school suspensions. A large, overwhelmingly pro-gun rights crowd turned out at a Lacey school board meeting last week, when one parent was cheered after he told district officials it was "none of your damn business" what students did outside of school.

Like their Toms River counterparts, Lacey parents also demanded more information. For example, angry parents wanted to know who had ordered the suspensions and how the decision had come about.

At the meeting, Lacey's board president, Robert Klaus, repeatedly told parents that he was a gun owner himself and he would have liked to explain what happened but that he was bound by confidentiality rules. Klaus and other district officials did not respond to requests for comment this week.

A spokesman for the Lacey Township Police, Capt. Patrick Ganley, said Monday that he was also limited in what he could say, citing 2A:4A-60, the state law regarding confidentiality of juvenile matters. But Ganley did say that the matter had been brought to the attention of the department's school resource officer, who looked into it and concluded, "no further police involvement was necessary."

Parent: threat should be taken more seriously

In Toms River, critics came from the opposite direction, accusing the district of failing to take the threat seriously enough, insisting that case was more serious than Lacey's because of the menacing nature of the gun post and the circumstances surrounding it.

Buono said information being circulated by parents and students within the school community about the student, combined with the menacing language that appeared below the photo, made her and others worried, even though investigators did not share their concern.

"They had an investigation and decided that because the gun was a pellet gun that it wasn't a credible threat," Buono said.

Buono said she believed the boy has not been in the school since the threatening post was spotted on or about March 12.

"My biggest concern is, now that he's out of the school, embarrassed and angry, he can literally walk in any door without a metal detector," she said.

Toms River school officials declined to discuss the case.

"They want to know everything that's being done, some of it involving security issues as well," Leone, the school board's lawyer, said of some parents. But he added, "You don't disclose the security that someone else could work around."

Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SteveStrunsky. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens is calling for the repeal of the Second Amendment to allow for significant gun control legislation.

Stevens, 97, says in an essay on The New York Times website that repeal would weaken the National Rifle Association's ability to "block constructive gun control legislation."

Stevens was on the losing end of a 2008 ruling in which the high court held that the Second Amendment gives individuals the right to own a gun for self-defense.

Stevens retired in 2010, after more than 35 years.

In his essay published yesterday, Stevens says the "March for Our Lives" events on Saturday "reveal the broad public support for legislation to minimize the risk of mass killings of schoolchildren and others in our society."

He said demonstrators should "seek more effective and more lasting reform," saying they "should demand a repeal of the Second Amendment."

Despite public opinion, repealing any amendment is quite difficult.

An amendment to the Constitution can only be proposed either by Congress with a two thirds vote in both houses or by a constitutional convention called for by two thirds of the state legislatures. The amendment then has to be approved by three quarters of the states.

The process would be made even more difficult by the current Republican Congress. They could also fear riling up gun supporters.

Do you agree with Stevens, that the Second Amendment should be repealed?

Vote in our informal and unscientific poll and let us know why in the comments section.

Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.
Authorities have identified the man struck and killed by a NJ Transit train near Paterson last week as a 54-year-old resident of the city.

David Rodriguez was hit about 4:20 p.m., east of the Fifth Avenue crossing, according to NJ Transit spokeswoman Nancy Snyder.

NJ Transit said Rodriguez was trespassing on the tracks when he was killed by the 3:36 train from Hoboken.

Main Line train service is suspended in both directions between Hawthorne and Delawanna due to a trespasser strike near Paterson.  NJ TRANSIT (@NJTRANSIT) March 23, 2018

Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
A group that was among the earliest to endorse Gov. Phil Murphy's gubernatorial campaign is now opposing his very first budget.

The New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club, one of the nation's oldest and largest environmental organizations, broke away from Murphy over his decision to divert more than $136 million in clean-energy funds to help give more money to beleaguered NJ Transit.

"Governor Murphy spoke about important environmental issues in his budget speech however the budget does not live up to those fine words," Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, said in a statement.

"In some ways we have a new governor but with the same old budget," he said.

The group released the statement the same day lawmakers started to hear testimony on the governor's budget.

Murphy presented his budget proposal on March 13. Now it's up to lawmakers to work with him on a final budget ahead of the June 30 deadline. This is typically the time groups lobby lawmakers for funding that was left out of the governor's blueprint.

Sierra Club endorsed Murphy in March 2017, about three months before the state's Democratic primary and a full eight months before the then-gubernatorial hopeful clinched the election.

The governor was asked about the diverted funds during a radio interview last week. Murphy, a Democrat, bashed former Gov. Chris Christie, saying the state was a "house of cards financially" under his Republican predecessor. But he also admitted to the move.

"Are still some of those things going on? Yes," Murphy said. "You can't build Rome in a day."

He also promised that this is temporary.

"We will get there," Murphy said. "And we will do it the right way."

Tittel championed Murphy as the best choice to help "move the state forward" in the wake Christie at the time of the Sierra Club's endorsement.

Despite opposition from the group, Murphy has won praise from environmentalists since he took office, including when he signed executive orders to return New Jersey to a regional pact designed to fight climate change and to support off-shore windmill energy.

NJ Advance Media Staff Writer Brent Johnson contributed to this report.

Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewArco or Facebook.
If Gov. Phil Murphy is going to enact his plans to increase New Jersey's sales tax and hike taxes on millionaires here, he'll need the support of his fellow Democrats who lead the state Legislature.

But during a radio appearance Tuesday night, the state's top lawmaker, state Senate President Stephen Sweeney, said publicly for the first time he has "great concerns" about Murphy's sales tax proposal.

At the same time, the south Jersey Democrat surprisingly distanced himself from a plan he proposed just three weeks ago to increase taxes on the state's corporations in lieu of Murphy's call for a millionaires tax.

Sweeney, D-Gloucester, said he "threw that out there as a partial compromise" with Murphy.

"But again, I'm re-evaluating my whole position on this," Sweeney said during a new call-in radio program called "Ask the Senate President" on New Jersey 101.5-FM.

"I'm not excited about taxes, period," he continued. "We're gonna have to have a conversation."

Sweeney said he did have "a good conversation" with Murphy and state Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-Middlesex -- New Jersey's second-ranking lawmaker -- in a meeting earlier Tuesday. He said they agreed to "sit down more often" as they negotiate the state budget that must be finalized by June 30.

Sweeney's remarks came two weeks after Murphy unveiled his first state budget proposal -- a $37.4 billion plan that includes more than $1.6 billion in new taxes and moves to close loopholes.

That includes the millionaires tax, increasing the state's sales tax from 6.625 percent to 7 percent, and expanding the sales tax to include Uber and Lyft rides and bookings through Airbnb.

Murphy plans to use the money to increase funding to education, transportation and public-worker pensions.

"I think our real objective is that we're gonna be once again what we used to be: a good-value state," the governor said during a separate radio show last week. "Folks will say it's worth it. 'I pay a premium in New Jersey, but I get a lot back.'"

If the state Legislature doesn't agree to the increases, it will blow a hole in the budget and lawmakers would have to find money elsewhere or slash planned spending.

Removing the sales tax hike alone would leave about a $500 million gap.

Murphy says the change in the sales tax would cost taxpayers with annual income between $75,000 and $145,000 about $85 a year.

Sweeney said Tuesday a millionaires tax is still "absolutely last resort for me" -- a position he's held for months.

Asked if he supports the sales tax hike, Sweeney said: "I have great concerns with it."

Asked if he backs expanding the sales tax to include other items, Sweeney said: "I have a problem with that."

"But there's a budget process, and I can't speak for everyone," Sweeney said.

Sweeney led the push for a millionaires tax for years, but he's spoken out against tax hikes in recent months. He says residents can't afford new taxes in the wake of last year's federal tax reform, which capped the deduction for state and local taxes at $10,000.

New Jersey's property taxes are the highest in the nation, with the average bill clocking in at $8,690.

"We've hit a breaking point," Sweeney said Tuesday.

Gov. Phil Murphy (left) and state Senate President Stephen Sweeney (right) shake hands in Trenton earlier this year.

Still, a week before Murphy released his budget plan, Sweeney introduced his own proposal to increase taxes on corporations with more than $1 million in net income. He said because those companies saw a windfall in the federal tax law, they should help alleviate the burden on taxpayers.

The proposal would raise New Jersey's corporate tax rate from 9 percent to a nation-high 12 percent and bring another $657 million in revenue to the state, with much of the money going toward a school funding overhaul.

But Sweeney said Tuesday he is "absolutely" open to reconsidering that. He did not explain why.

Murphy has said he would not accept Sweeney's plan as an alternative to the millionaires tax but he would consider including both in the budget.

Sweeney said he's against that.

The Senate's top Republican, Minority Leader Tom Kean Jr., R-Union, slammed Sweeney for his "inconsistency" on taxes, first supporting a corporate tax hike and then abandoning it.

"This constant uncertainty in future costs serves to drive families and employers from New Jersey, even if the harmful taxes are never actually implemented," Kean said in a statement.

Sweeney argued that "New Jersey has too much government," and that the state should cut spending -- including through having some of the state's 565 municipalities and 21 counties share services.

"Change has to happen in New Jersey, and it's not gonna happen by just raising taxes," Sweeney said. "We have to focus on (reducing) the cost of government just as much on the revenues."

But Sweeney said he doesn't expect disagreement among Democrats to lead to another government shutdown come July.

He described Tuesday's meeting with Murphy and Coughlin as a positive step.

"The good news is: We are talking, and we had a good conversation, and I look forward to having more of them with the governor," Sweeney said.

NJ Advance Media staff writer Samantha Marcuscontributed to this report.
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: crawfish king Al Scramuzza.

The icon: Al Scramuzza.

The legacy: He didn't invent boiled crawfish, but Al Scramuzza -- part showman, part salesman and all homegrown personality -- is probably as responsible as anyone for the mid-20th-century popularization of the dish that has become synonymous with New Orleans cuisine. Whether because of Seafood City, the landmark Gentilly seafood shop he operated for decades at 1826 North Broad, or because of the kitschy commercials in the 1970s and '80s through which Scramuzza turned its address into an earworm, the self-proclaimed "emperor of crawfish" has become New Orleans' unofficial ambassador for mudbugs. What's more, it's clear that Scramuzza, a son of the French Quarter, loves that role at least as much as the city loves him.

The artist: Gabriel Flores, WhereYart.net.

The quote: "I always had plenty confidence. They wrote my commercials at the TV station, I changed the scripts. I told the director, 'Stand on the side.'" -- Al Scramuzza, in a 2001 interview with The Times-Picayune

Explore more of Gabriel Flores' work online at WhereYart.net and in person at the Where Y'Art gallery, 1901 Royal Street in the Marigny.

Scramuzza not only starred in his commercials, often as a doctor singing the virtues of eating crawfish, but he also wrote most of them. He even wrote the jingle that helped make the address of Seafood City so easy to remember. The lyrics:

Source: The Times-Picayune archive

More on 300 for 300:
The Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office is asking for the public's help in finding a man suspected of taking part in a scheme to steal vehicles from Jefferson Parish car dealerships.

Andrew Coleman, 41, was last known to be living in a New Orleans home located in the 3900 block of Hamburg St., according to Glen. T. Boyd, spokesman for the Sheriff's Office. Coleman is accused of stealing several vehicles from local car dealerships.

The Sheriff's Office did not release any other details about the crime.

But Coleman pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to commit auto theft and altering vehicle identification numbers in the Middle District of Louisiana in September 2009. Coleman was one of seven defendants charged with a scheme to steal vehicles from dealerships in Baton Rouge, Houma, New Iberia, Houston and Hattiesburg, Miss., according to court records.

The group worked with an inside man, an employee of the dealerships who would help them target certain vehicles. The employee grabbed keys, sometimes replacing them with dummy sets to avoid immediate detection, according to court records.

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The group then bought similar vehicles from scrap yards and replaced the VIN numbers on the stolen cars. They then sold the cars for profit, authorities said.

Coleman was sentenced to 30 months in prison and ordered to repay $330,068, court records said.

. . . . . . . .

Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Andrew Coleman is asked to call the Auto Theft Division with the Sheriff's Office investigations bureau at 504.364.5300. The public can also call Crimestoppers at 504.822.1111 or toll-free at 877.903.7867. Tips can be texted to C-R-I-M-E-S (274637); text TELLCS then the crime information. Callers or texters do not have to give their names or testify and can earn a $2,500 reward for information that leads to an indictment.
Results of a blood test taken from Jason Adams, the driver of a Lamborghini that crashed into a flood wall off Tchoupitoulas Street in 2016 and killed his passenger, can be admitted when his case goes to trial in May, a judge ruled Wednesday (March 28).

Criminal District Judge Robin Pittman denied a motion to suppress and exclude blood and DNA test results filed by Adams' attorneys, David Courcelle, Robert Jenkins and Scott Stansbury.

The lawyers argued in the motion that the results "are not reliable" and "are not relevant and are certainly more prejudicial than probative."

In court Wednesday, Courcelle argued the state needs to prove a qualified individual drew Adams' blood, and they "don't have that."

He said the nurse's name appearing on paperwork with the results, Stephanie Devay, is not the nurse who drew Adams' blood at the hospital. In a police-worn body camera video, Courcelle said the nurse who drew Adams' blood is heard introducing herself as Mary.

"We don't even have a chain (of custody) in this case," he said.

Assistant District Attorney David Pipes said there is nothing unconstitutional about the evidence to warrant a suppression.

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If the defense is hanging their case on who drew Adams' blood, Pipes said, this will "be a short trial."

Pittman gave Adams' defense team an April 27 deadline to take the issue up with the Louisiana Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal, should they chose to do so.

New Orleans police say Adams, 32, had a blood-alcohol level of .11, over the legal limit of .08, and was traveling at speeds up to 118 mph in a 2015 Lamborghini Huracan before crashing on May 4, 2016.

Kristi Lirette, 23, was in the passenger seat and was pronounced dead on the scene. Adams suffered a broken leg and other non-life-threatening injuries.

Several of Lirette's family members and friends were in court Wednesday for the hearing.

Pittman set a May 8 trial date for Adams' case.

Adams, who is free on a $75,000 bond, faces between five and 30 years in prison if convicted of vehicular homicide.
The state of Alabama has agreed to not set any more execution dates for an inmate who survived his February execution attempt after officials couldn't start his IV before midnight.

According to a press release from Doyle Lee Hamm's lawyer, Bernard Harcourt, he and lawyers from the Alabama Attorney General's Office entered into a confidential settlement agreement Monday that resolves all pending litigation in both federal and state courts regarding Hamm's execution.

The settlement will end efforts to set another execution date, the press release stated.

Harcourt said the settlement "comes after lengthy, fruitful discussions" with the AG's Office. "I cannot discuss the terms of the agreement, but I will say that Doyle, his family, and his legal team are extremely relieved," Harcourt said.

The Feb. 22 execution date came after months of legal battles revolving around whether Hamm's veins were able to handle the IV required for the lethal drugs. Harcourt argued that Hamm's veins had become nearly impossible to access after years of intravenous drug use and Hamm's diagnosis, and treatment, of lymphatic cancer. The AG's Office argued Hamm's cancer is in remission and there was no reason he shouldn't be executed after spending 30 years on death row.

Hamm's scheduled execution was on Feb. 22 at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore. Hamm, 61, was set to die at 6 p.m., but Alabama Department of Corrections officials did not begin preparing him for the execution until approximately 9 p.m., after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a temporary stay.

At approximately 11:30 p.m., ADOC Commissioner Jeff Dunn announced the state wouldn't be executing Hamm that night because medical personnel would not be able to prepare him for the procedure by midnight when the death warrant expired.

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Dunn did not specify what exactly the problem was and what medical personnel had been doing for more than two hours between when the stay was lifted and when medical personnel advised officials on the situation. Court records filed the next day stated the execution team couldn't find a vein to insert the catheter needed for the lethal drugs.

Filings by Harcourt in the following days said staff tried to use Hamm's peripheral veins on his lower extremities, as a previous court order directed them to, but they couldn't find a vein on either leg or either ankle. After those attempts failed, medical personnel moved on to try a central venous line in Hamm's right groin--where, days earlier, an independent doctor who evaluated Hamm said there were abnormal lymph nodes.

The settlement discussions began after that execution attempt.

Harcourt previously said Hamm was traumatized by the incident, but Tuesday called said the settlement "rewarding."

The AG's Office confirmed Tuesday evening that "the two parties have jointly filed a notice to voluntarily dismiss Doyle Hamm's federal lawsuit," but declined to comment further.

Hamm has been on death row for over 30 years, after he was convicted in the 1987 murder of Patrick Cunningham. Cunningham was shot in the head while working the overnight shift at Anderson's Motel in Cullman.

Assistant Attorney Generals Thomas Govan Jr. and Beth Jackson Hughes prosecuted the case. Harcourt was assisted by several law students from Columbia on his legal team.
A police chief from Evangeline Parish was stabbed in the face while making an arrest Wednesday evening, according to KPLC.

Turkey Creek Police Chief Robert Leggett attempted to arrest Zachery Shane Deville, 24, on a charge of criminal trespassing, but wound up stabbed in the left cheek by Deville, authorities said.

Leggett underwent emergency surgery at a nearby hospital and remains in the intensive care unit.

Deville is being held on charges of attempted first-degree murder and criminal trespassing.
A North Shore financial advisor pleaded guilty in federal court Monday (March 26) to stealing up to $1.5 million from clients, using their money on personal expenses, including jewelry and hotels, and to pay off previous clients instead of on the promised investment opportunities, according to the U.S. District Attorney's Office in Baton Rouge.

Ralph Willard Savoie, 70, of Mandeville faces a "significant" prison term along with fines, forfeitures and restitution orders following his conviction of wire fraud, U.S. Attorney Brandon J. Fremin's office said.

A sentencing date has not yet been scheduled for Savoie, who kept multiple offices in Baton Rouge and elsewhere, according to court filings. His plea was entered before U.S. District Judge Shelly D. Dick.

Savoie defrauded investors for more than three years beginning in 2013, telling his clients that he would invest their money in securities and insurance, and to develop industrial cooling towers, according to court documents. Savoie guaranteed high rates of return to his clients, describing the investment opportunities as a "sure thing."

Instead, Savoie spent clients' money on jewelry, hotels, restaurants, personal credit card bills, car payments and rent. He also used investors' money on "a risky real estate venture" and to pay off clients who had previously invested their money with him, according to federal court documents.

Savoie's scheme wound down around March 2016, after a client confronted Savoie about his investment. According to prosecutors, Savoie admitted to the client that what he did with his money was illegal.

In response, Savoie promised to return the client's money "as long as (the client) did not report the matter to law enforcement authorities," according to a federal criminal complaint filed against Savoie.

Savoie also hid from investors that in September 2015, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, an organization dedicated to market integrity and investor protection, had barred him from acting as a broker or otherwise associating with firms that sell securities to the public. Savoie concealed his disbarment from clients, court documents show.

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During the timespan of Savoie's scheme, he was "associated with" multiple brokerage firms, including Fairfield, Iowa-based brokerage firm, Cambridge Investment Research Inc.

Cambridge, with which Savoie was associated from roughly July 2013 until August 2015, is mentioned a number of times in court filings, which describe how Savoie used his association with the firm to convince victims to invest with him and, once clients began questioning their investments, to "lull them into believing he was a reputable and trustworthy financial professional who had indeed invested their money as promised."

The documents also cite examples of how Savoie sent faxes to Iowa-based Cambridge to further his scheme.

In December, a spokeswoman for Cambridge Investment Research Inc. told the Associated Press that Savoie was an independent contractor, not an employee of the company.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Louisiana and the IRS Criminal Investigation Division are handling the matter, with assistance from the Louisiana Office of Financial Institutions and the Louisiana Bureau of Investigation, a section of the Louisiana Department of Justice.

"My office, along with our federal, state, and local partners, is committed to aggressively pursuing corrupt professionals who abuse their positions of trust to fraudulently line their own pockets," Fremin said in a Tuesday news release.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A Violet man arrested this month on drug-distribution charges was on parole for a first-degree murder conviction out of Houston, according to the St. Bernard Parish Sheriff's Office.

Brene Major, 29, was booked Wednesday (March 21) with possession with the intent to distribute crack cocaine and marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia, authorities said.

Agents with the St. Bernard Parish Sheriff's Office Special Investigations Division found crack cocaine, marijuana, small packaging bags and nearly $6,000 in cash inside Major's home after "a strong aroma of marijuana" prompted a search warrant, officials said.

About 4 p.m. Wednesday, agents were patrolling Guerra Drive, where Major lives, in response to anonymous tips about "some suspected illegal activity" in the area.

While patrolling, agents came into contact with Major as he was sitting in a vehicle outside of his home. Agents noticed a marijuana odor coming from Major's vehicle and then detected the same odor emitting from Major's home.

The subsequent search turned up 52 grams of crack cocaine and 90 grams of marijuana, which was separated into small packages, along with the bags and cash, the Sheriff's Office said.

Major's arrest comes roughly a year and a half after his release from prison, where he served more than nine years on the murder conviction, according to St. Bernard Parish authorities.

Major, who was 18 at the time, confessed to shooting and killing a 21-year-old man in Houston but claimed he was acting in self-defense, officials said. Following his December 2006 conviction, he was sentenced to 17 years in prison.

According to authorities, he was released on parole in October 2016 and returned that same month to St. Bernard Parish.

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Tuesday afternoon, Major remained in the St. Bernard Parish jail in lieu of a $30,000 bond.

Earlier this month, agents with St. Bernard's Special Investigations Division arrested an Arabi man after finding marijuana and a gun inside of a duffel bag in his back yard, according to the Sheriff's Office.

Troy Russell Jr., 24, was booked with possession with the intent to distribute marijuana, possession of a firearm while in possession of a controlled dangerous substance, convicted felon in possession of a firearm and resisting an officer.

Russell's arrest occurred March 16, as agents were patrolling the 2700 block of Maureen Lane in Meraux in response to anonymous tips regarding "suspected illegal activity" at a home in the neighborhood.

Shortly after 10 p.m., agents noticed the smell of marijuana coming from a backyard in the area. After obtaining a search warrant for the home, agents found a duffel bag containing about 2 ounces of marijuana and a .45-caliber handgun, along with prescription medication and paperwork belonging to Russell, officials said.

During his arrest, Russell "became combative with officers," according to a news release from the Sheriff's Office.

Russell is wanted in New Orleans for suspected drug violations and wanted in Jefferson Parish for suspected probation and parole violations. Russell has prior felony convictions for drug violations, St. Bernard officials said.

He was taken to the St. Bernard Parish jail where he remained Tuesday in lieu of a $30,000 bond.
It's a pittance in the $4.3 trillion federal budget, but it's long been a pet peeve of U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy. So it was with some pride that the Louisiana Republican announced President Donald Trump has signed his legislation to outlaw taxpayer funding for oil paintings of government officials.

"I came to Congress to cut wasteful spending," Cassidy tweeted Wednesday (March 28). "Our debt is over $20 trillion. There's no excuse for spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on paintings of government officials."

The new law forbids spending tax money on oil paintings of the president, vice president, Cabinet members and members of Congress. Cassidy began working on the legislation when he was a member of the House in 2013.

The portraits are often underwritten by private donors and friends of painting's subject, although public funding was more common in older times. The Congressional Budget Office estimates Cassidy's bill would save less than $500,000 annually, based on fewer than 20 publicly funded portraits per year. ABC News reported in 2013 that the federal government spent almost $400,000 in the previous two years on official portraits.

At least four Louisianians who formerly served in Congress have portraits in the House art collection: Reps. Lindy Boggs, D-New Orleans; Overton Brooks, D-Shreveport; Bob Livingston, R-Metairie; and Billy Tauzin, R-Chackbay.

. . . . . . .

Drew Broach covers Jefferson Parish politics and Louisiana interests in Congress, plus other odds and ends, for NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. Email: dbroach@nola.com. Facebook: Drew Broach TP. Twitter: drewbroach1. Google+: Drew Broach.
One of the most disturbing scenes in the Oscar-winning film "12 Years a Slave" depicts the near hanging of protagonist Solomon Northup. A rope around his neck is tied to a relatively low branch, and he's able to keep himself from dying only by perching on his toes. For the hours that Northup remains tied to that tree, we see black people in the background toiling in a field. With the exception of one woman who takes the risk to rush to him with a sip of water, nobody will even look his way. And if they had looked, what could they have done to help him?

Earlier films had emphasized the physical torture -- including the whippings and amputations -- that characterized chattel slavery, but the film about Northup's kidnapping and enslavement also emphasized the torture of watching others being tortured, the torture of knowing that the reason that person is being tortured is the reason you could be tortured and, finally, the torture of knowing that there's nothing you can do to rescue that person or guarantee the safety of yourself or your loved ones.

The many videos of various American police departments killing black people leave many of us with the same helpless feeling that the characters in the background of that movie scene must have felt. We watch people who look like us get killed -- often for behavior that doesn't mean death for other people -- and we wonder what we can do to prevent ourselves and others who look like us from meeting the same fate.

Hours before Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry made Tuesday's unsurprising announcement that he wouldn't be charging the Baton Rouge police who held down and killed Alton Sterling, Benjamin Crump, an attorney for Stephon Clark's family, told those listening to the Steve Harvey Morning Show that Clark had been "executed" by Sacramento police in the backyard of his own home.

Police there say that they were in pursuit of somebody who had been breaking into cars, but 22-year-old Clark was in the backyard of a home owned by his grandmother when police shot him. "Do I believe he was the (car burglar) based on what we know now?" Sacramento Police Chief Daniel Hahn said to The Sacramento Bee. "I believe that, yeah, but can we factually say it yet? No. But when and if we can, we will put that out."

I don't know what Crump believes about Clark's role in the car burglaries, but on the radio show he noted that Sacramento police have already walked back two stories about Clark. First, they said he had a gun. Then they said no, it was a crow bar. Then they finally said the item in Clark's hand was a cell phone.

Sterling had a gun, even though as a convicted felon he wasn't supposed to have one. But the police routinely encounter people with guns. They routinely encounter people who aren't supposed to have guns, and they manage to arrest almost all of them without incident. So the relevant question isn't whether Sterling was in possession of a gun -- legally or illegally. The question is: Did he do anything that made it necessary for Officer Blane Salamoni to shoot him?

Landry says yes. From a law-and-order conservative, that wasn't surprising.

But the depressing reality is that justice has been hard to come by even from the more progressive set.

Conservatives loved to label President Barack Obama and his Attorney General Eric Holder anti-police, but an April 2015 story in The New York Times made this observation: "At the Supreme Court, where the limits of police power are established, Mr. Holder's Justice Department has supported police officers every time an excessive-force case has made its way to arguments. Even as it has opened more than 20 civil rights investigations into local law enforcement practices, the Justice Department has staked out positions that make it harder for people to sue the police and that give officers more discretion about when to fire their guns."

Take Ferguson, Missouri. Federal investigators described a toxic culture of racism and brutality in the police department. Federal investigators said Officer Darren Wilson was justified in shooting Michael Brown.

Knowing that officials who are more liberal have been as bad adds to the frustration. After Landry's announcement, it would be tempting to emphasize the importance of voting and urging black people to vote for people who will be outraged at the killings of black people by police, but the first black U.S. attorney general took the side of the police every single time. So what are people to do?

"People watch that video, especially minorities, and they cringe because they say, 'But by the grace of God there go I,'" Crump told a television station this month.

What video was Crump talking about?

It doesn't matter. His statement applies to all the videos we've seen.

And to all the videos yet to come.

Jarvis DeBerry is deputy opinions editor for NOLA.COM | The Times-Picayune. He can be reached at jdeberry@nola.com or at twitter.com/jarvisdeberry.
The Breitbart News Network, the right-wing news and opinion website, has announced it will hold its its first-ever town hall with an event in the New Orleans area next month.

To be more specific, Breitbart will bring a panel of conservative writers and commentators to Andrea's restaurant in Metairie on April 5 for a discussion on politics, technology, and media.

The event is billed as "'Masters of the Universe': Big Tech vs. Free Speech and Privacy." The discussion will be live streamed on Breitbart.com and Facebook. Tickets are free, but those planning to attend must respond to RSVP@freeourinternet.org, the website for Free Our Internet, which is sponsoring the event.

The panel includes Ann Coulter, political commentator, author, syndicated columnist, and lawyer; Peter Schweizer, president of the Government Accountability Institute and best-selling author of "Clinton Cash" and "Secret Empires" and Robert Epstein, senior research psychologist at the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology. The discussion will be moderated by Alexander Marlow, the site's editor in chief.

The New York Times painted the event as something of a desperation move by the Breitbart, which "has lately been confronting declining web traffic and turbulence in its top ranks. Stephen K. Bannon, the site's longtime executive chairman, was forced out in January. Its page views last month were down by nearly half from a year earlier, according to the data-tracking firm comScore, though Breitbart disputes the figure."

Marlow said the Louisiana event is "the latest evolution in how to consume Breitbart content."

"By branching into public forums, the site is taking a cue from one of its perennial foes: the mainstream media," The Times said. "News outlets like Vanity Fair, The Washington Post and The New York Times have long sponsored conferences and speaking events."

Breitbart described itself as "currently the 65th largest website in the United States, according to Alexa.com" with "the 13th highest-engaging Facebook page in the world. BNN also hosts 36 hours of radio programming every week on Sirius XM."

The news website was founded in 2007 by conservative commentator Andrew Breitbart, who died in March 2012. The site later became aligned with the alt-right under the management of Bannon, the site's former executive chairman. Bannon left the news organization to become an adviser to Republican President Donald Trump. After being pushed out of the White House, he briefly returned to Breitbart before being forced out there.

While New Orleans might not be receptive to Breitbart's conservative message -- Democrat Hillary Clinton won 81 percent of the vote in the parish -- Trump carried Louisiana overall with 58 percent of the vote including 55 percent of the vote in Jefferson Parish.

Tim Morris is an opinions columnist at NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. He can be reached at tmorris@nola.com. Follow him on Twitter @tmorris504.
It is a gut-wrenching thought: your loved one collapses suddenly due to cardiac arrest. You have no CPR training, or maybe you do, but your state of panic leaves your mind racing. Scrambling, you dial 911 and wait during those excruciating minutes for EMS to arrive.

When cardiac arrest occurs, every precious minute matters, but CPR administered quickly can and does work. And guidance on those lifesaving steps can be a phone call away, with "Telephone CPR."

T-CPR helps bystanders become lifesavers, and it is my hope that our state lawmakers will put this commonsense practice into law, requiring Louisiana 911 operators to be trained in offering this life-saving skill.

Sen. Troy Carter, who represents District 7 in New Orleans, has filed Senate Bill 264 to require operators to be trained to provide detailed instructions over the phone to someone assisting a victim during out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. The dispatcher and caller work together in those first critical minutes, creating a better chance of survival, especially in places where access to care is remote.

A 2014 report card from the American College of Emergency Physicians gave Louisiana a "D" grade, citing access to trauma center as particularly problematic, with the fewest Level I or II trauma centers per capita and only 59 percent of the state's population living within 60-minutes of a Level I or II trauma center. The report suggested putting policies in place that would help ensure patients receive time-sensitive and evidence-based care needed for better prognosis.

T-CPR is one of those policies. And I hope our lawmakers will give it the consideration it deserves.

Gerald Cvitanovich, M.D.

American Heart Association New Orleans board of directors

Kenner
Like Michael Corleone settling all family business in "The Godfather," Louisiana's nursing home owners killed off a piece of legislation Tuesday (March 27), while also sending a clear message of who's in charge at the State Capitol.

The nursing home lobby won a 6-2 vote in the Senate Health and Welfare Committee to reject a bill that would have given more senior citizens and disabled people access to the less expensive, more desirable home-health services instead of being forced into one of the state's more expensive and poorly rated nursing homes.

Senate Bill 357 by Sen. Conrad Appel was rejected despite evidence that it would save the state money, provide more efficient care and meet a huge demand from seniors and disabled residents who prefer to live their lives outside the control of the nursing home-industrial complex. Not even pleas from the AARP and other advocacy groups could save the measure.

It's not surprising given that nursing homes have traditionally been among the state's most generous campaign contributors, regardless of party affiliation or ideology. Nursing home interests gave more than $774,000 to former Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal and have already contributed more than $720,000 to Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards, according to an analysis by The Advocate.

And the nursing home lobby makes it clear that it is not to be trifled with.

The Advocate's Rebekah Allen noted that Tuesday's "hearing was packed with nursing home leaders, including several former lawmakers who have ties to the industry or were major beneficiaries of nursing home campaign donations, like former Speaker of the House Jim Tucker, former state Rep. Sherri Buffington -- who often carried legislation on behalf of nursing homes -- and former state Sen. Joe McPherson, who previously chaired the Senate Health and Welfare Committee.

"Rep. Bob Hensgens, R-Abbeville, who is a nursing home administrator, also sat in on the hearing, watching from the back of the room."

Appel's bill sought to move the Medicaid population into a managed care model that would allow private insurance companies hired by the state to decide whether people should be cared for in nursing homes or get assistance while remaining in their own homes. Home- and community-based care is less expensive and also preferred by many seniors.

On average, a nursing home costs the state $47,331 per resident per year. By comparison, it costs the state between $13,758 a year and $33,117 a year to care for an elderly or disabled person at home, depending on the level of care they require.

There currently are 28,000 people on a waiting list fo home-based services in no small part because nursing homes get 77 cents of every Medicaid dollar Louisiana spends on care for the elderly and physically disabled, leaving the remaining 23 cents for home-based care. The split in other states is more like 60-40.

Care in nursing home costs the state $47,331 per resident per year compared with between $13,758 and $33,117 a year for home care.

Appel said he thinks the state will eventually make the change to more home-care services.

"The number of people becoming eligible for these types of services are growing astronomically, and the model of jamming people into an institution is just going to get more and more expensive," he said. "We're not going to have a choice."

But it doesn't look like it will happen this year.

Rep. Tony Bacala, R-Prairieville, said he is unsure whether he will push a similar bill he is sponsoring because even if it gets through the House it will be killed by the same Senate committee.

Message received.

Tim Morris is an opinions columnist at NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. He can be reached at tmorris@nola.com. Follow him on Twitter @tmorris504.
Louisianians spent almost $643,000 to send the Legislature to Baton Rouge for a 15-day special session in February and March. We got nothing for all that money.

Lawmakers were supposed to come up with a way to fill the budget deficit that is looming when almost $1 billion in taxes expire June 30, but that didn't happen.

House members couldn't even agree on which bill should go up for a vote first. So, two tax measures that probably could have passed failed because lawmakers didn't trust each other. Republican leaders wanted a sales tax measure to go first, and Black Caucus members wanted a property tax revision to go first. Both bills died.

The Senate has to wait for the House to send it any legislation dealing with revenues, so senators had nothing to do. Since they didn't hold as many meetings, the cost of the session was lower than expected -- $42,865 a day instead of $50,000 or $60,000.

That is little comfort, though.

The Legislature spent almost $323,000 on per diem and mileage payments for lawmakers during the special session. They did little to nothing to earn that money, which is infuriating for taxpayers.

Legislators have had five special sessions in two years. They are meeting now in their third regular session in that timespan. They have spent millions of the public's money during that time on their compensation and staffing.

Yet the most important problem facing the state -- how to balance the budget and provide needed services -- is still unsolved.

The state is projected to have a budget deficit of $690 million for the coming fiscal year. That could affect everything from how much college students get in TOPS scholarship payments to services for disabled and mentally ill residents. The ramifications are broad.

There are 50,000 young people who rely on TOPS. Lawmakers could come up with funding later, but those students may not know how much they're getting until after they are enrolled. Some of them are looking outside of Louisiana.

Because of federal rules, the state is notifying roughly 60,000 elderly or disabled Medicaid recipients that they could lose their benefits. The state health department is required to provide a 60-day notice to patients. Lawmakers may find the funding to keep them covered, but that won't happen until mid-May.

The unproductive special session has left the budget in flux. Lawmakers are supposed to pass a spending plan during their regular session, but that will be an adventure since they haven't agreed on what taxes will be in place.

They still can have a meaningful budget debate, though. "Is there a constructive outcome that could happen in this session? Yes. One critical one could be that lawmakers have a serious discussion about the budget and make a real decision about how much they want to spend and, if they want to cut, where that would be," the Council for a Better Louisiana said in a pre-session memo. "Despite the rhetoric to the contrary, they can do it."

Lawmakers' behavior makes it seem as if there is deep disagreement over how much the state should spend on services. But CABL points out that they already have defined that amount.

"By using gimmicks to support spending levels during the Jindal administration and raising temporary taxes to do the same in the Edwards administration, they have by default established the levels of spending that a majority in both chambers believe is acceptable," CABL said.

Now lawmakers just need to acknowledge what that level of spending is and come up with a rational way to pay for it.
The state will soon be pushing the locally elected officials of Powhatan out of the way to administer the finances of the northwest Louisiana village that in mid-July had only $105 in its general fund and is hiring a cop to drum up some money from
Saturday will mark the 40th anniversary for one of the state's most popular road races as runners take to New Orleans streets for the Allstate Sugar Bowl Crescent City Classic at 8 a.m.

Thousand's of runners will take to the 6.2-mile Crescent City Classic course, which begins at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome at 8 a.m. and concludes in front of the New Orleans Museum of Art at City Park.

"2018 is a huge year for the Crescent City Classic as it marks the 40th anniversary," said CCC race director Eric Stuart in a news release. "We've experienced tremendous growth since the race started in 1979, and we're already planning for the next 40 years."

Last year's male winner was first-timer Jake Robertson of New Zealand, who finished with a time of 27 minutes, 52 seconds, beating Kenyan runner and two-time winner, John Muritu.

The top female finisher was Ethiopian runner, Mamitu Daska who clocked a time of 32:17, good for ninth overall.

The top American finishers were Kevin Castille of Lafayette and Becky Wade from Boulder, Co.

Organizers expect more than 25,000 runners in this year's race, which will benefit the Crescent City Fitness Foundation (CCFF). Since 2013, the program has partnered with local charities to raise more than $2 million for 23 charities.

Following the race, runners can head to the Michelob Ultra RaceFest at City Park featuring Boogie Wonder Band for drinks, food and live music. Spectators can purchase tickets in advance for $15 or $20 on race day.

Anyone interested in running this year's CCC can visit www.ccc10k.com to register through March 30. Runners who attend the Expo can pick up their race bibs and T-shirts at the 2018 Health & Fitness Expo on Thursday from noon to 8 p.m. or Friday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency.
The figure in gold may have not actually been Zeus, but for partygoers to Children's Hospital's Sugarplum Ball at the Hellenic Cultural Center on March 3, the figure on a raised stage gave the impression of him high on top of Mount Olympus bestowing a bevy of desserts that surrounded him below.

Zeus wasn't the only god who made his presence known at this party themed the Grecian Gala. Other golden Greek gods and goddesses were in repose throughout adding a whimsical touch to the decorative transformation the organizers made, including Greek columns placed throughout and draping the main room in white, creating an elegant setting. Of course, outside the views of Bayou St. John were a natural backdrop for festivities.

The patron party got things going with the Harry Hardin Jazz Trio performing with food from Brennan's and Ralph's on the Park being served. The gala portion of the night had partygoers sampling their way through food from 46 restaurants or caterers including Carrollton Market, Clancy's, Vincent's Italian Cuisine, Drago's, Nirvana, and Catering by Laura Arrowood. A silent auction of more than 120 items proved popular as was the raffle for a pearl, diamond and sapphire bracelet from Valobra Jewelry. The Boogie Men entertained those inclined to dance.

Among the many hospital supporters this night were event co-chairs Cherie Moore and Jessica Schulman, accompanied by husbands Ryan Moore and Jordan Schulman, hospital President and CEO John Nickens and Marye Nickens, board Chair Elwood Cahill, Sarah and Greg Feirn, Lisa and Charles J. Balaly II, Candace and Will Lemoine, Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser and Cher Nungesser, Ashley and Ben Gootee, Denise Buford, Tommy Centanni, David Roussel, Ann Heslin, J.T. and Quincy Crawford, and Emily Lane.

The party, presented by the Lemoine Company, has a serious intent too: it honored Marriott International for its decision to support Children's Miracle Network in 1983 and the local Marriott hotels' support of Children's Hospital since 1987. And, the money raised this night funds a ROSA Stereotactic robot for the neuroscience department. The robot uses computer-guided, minimally invasive technology to treat children with severe epilepsy conditions.

******

To reach Sue Strachan, send an email to socialscene@nola.com or call 504.450.5904. Find her on Twitter and Instagram as @suestrachan504, with the hashtag #nolasocialscene. Visit her on Facebook. And, come back to NOLA.com/society for more New Orleans area event and party news and photos.
To the editor:

Many around the world are mourning the recent passing of Sudan, a rhinoceros being lovingly cared for at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. Sudan was the last male Northern White rhino on the planet. There are only two female Northern White rhinos left: Najin, Sudans daughter, and Fatu, his granddaughter, both at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy.

My wife, Bev, and I visited Ol Pejeta in September 2016. We had the privilege and pleasure of meeting Sudan. Its a memory we will treasure forever.

Sudan began his journey in 1973 in his namesake country, Sudan, Africa. At 2 years old he was captured and transported to the Dvur Kralove Zoo in the Czech Republic where he remained in horrid conditions in a small concrete-floor enclosure for 34 years until 2009 when he was transferred to the Ol Pejeta Conservancy where he had been well taken care of, and where he had achieved celebrity status. Sudan had described himself as the most eligible bachelor in the world on the Tinder dating app.

Sudan, weighing in at nearly two tons, was 45 years old, about 97 in human years, so some would say it was his time to go. But was it time for the entire Northern White rhino subspecies to go? With only two Northern White rhinos left, both female, well, that tells the story, ends the story really, of the Northern White rhino subspecies. Its a story of human neglect, ignorance, arrogance, and greed. Its a story that is sadly being told over and over for creatures big and small who are being exploited, abused, and driven into extinction by humans.

The ultimate irony is that, in showing such little regard for our planet and the once abundant life that it cradles, we humans are destroying what makes life for humans such a blessing. Theres still time to reverse course, but Im concerned that were now accelerating in the wrong direction. But dont worry, well all be gone before Planet Earth dies, at least Im pretty sure well be gone.

Russell Moody

Cape Coral
Student safety is the School District of Lee Countys No. 1 goal, Superintendent Dr. Greg Adkins told those attending a joint media conference held in conjunction with the Lee County Sheriffs Office last week.

Its a heartbreaking commentary on our times, indeed, when keeping our children safe must take priority over educating them, but that is our new reality, one which both the school district and the Sheriffs Office take seriously.

We thank them for this.

For a variety of reasons reaching deep into our social fabric, there are no easy or simple answers in the wake of school shootings such as the one in Parkland where 17 were killed and 14 wounded.

But The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act is a start as is the local effort to put a first implementation component into effect immediately here in Lee County.

When students returned to school Monday from spring break, there were additional school resource officers on campus.

The Sheriffs Office Youth Services Division will grow to 100 members by immediately reassigning supervisors, lieutenants, sergeants and patrol deputies, Lee County Undersheriff Carmine Marceno said, adding, Our goal is to have a deputy assigned to each and every school as quickly as possible in the all hands on deck effort.

In addition, the Sheriffs Office will increase its presence at Lee County Schools by directing: patrol deputies to use school facilities to complete reports; detectives to use school facilities as a base of operations whenever possible and patrol deputies to increase their already frequent area checks of schools during every shift.

I want that omnipresence, Undersheriff Marceno said. I want people to see our deputies everywhere possible, as much as possible, and as often as possible.

We understand this is no panacea.

We  and public safety personnel and educators unlike  understand that much more needs to be done.

But as recent events have tragically taught us, the days of soft duty in the schools where being Officer Friendly was pretty much the job description are long past.

Todays SROs face a responsibility as heavy as that carried by those on patrol for, unfortunately, on patrol they must be.

Law enforcement is, and has been, the tip of the spear when it comes to public safety.

Reassigning 100 personnel from the top down while adding another 40 officers to schools to make our campuses safer is an appropriate start.

We thank those responsible for their speed.

We thank them for being proactive.

And we thank those who protect and serve.

 Neighbor editorial
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A special committee set up by the inspector general of police (IGP) Martin Okoth-Ochola to investigate the operations of Nalufenya has cleared the dreaded facility of any allegations of torture.



The committee chaired by the police director human rights and legal services, Erasmus Twaruhukwa, is supposed to present it's recommendations to the police policy and advisory committee (PAC) today Wednesday.

According to a committee, Nalufenya treats suspects well According to a reliable source who is privy to the working of the committee, in its report, the special committee praised the Jinja-based detention facility for treating its suspects well. They also highlight that there is no evidence that any suspect has ever been tortured from Nalufenya.



"They say that even though some suspects have been receiving treatment from Nalufenya, they are brought with injuries to the facility, " the source told URN.



When contacted, the police spokesperson Emilian Kayima, who is also a member of the seven-man committee, refused to divulge the details of the report.



"I will not say anything about it until when an official communication has been made, " Kayima said.



PAC on which the IGP, deputy IGP, all directors and undersecretary sit, will discuss the report and make a conclusive decision on the future of Nalufenya.



The special committee was constituted last week on Wednesday after PAC resolved to send a team out and assess the operations of the facility. On Thursday, the team visited the facility and later sat to make a report.



Nalufenya has since 2014 attracted bad publicity for the police with the first group of suspects detained there on allegations that they had been working with the Allied Democratic Front (ADF) to commit terrorism in Uganda accusing police of torture. According to a reliable source who is privy to the working of the committee, in its report, the special committee praised the Jinja-based detention facility for treating its suspects well. They also highlight that there is no evidence that any suspect has ever been tortured from Nalufenya."They say that even though some suspects have been receiving treatment from Nalufenya, they are brought with injuries to the facility, " the source told URN.When contacted, the police spokesperson Emilian Kayima, who is also a member of the seven-man committee, refused to divulge the details of the report."I will not say anything about it until when an official communication has been made, " Kayima said.PAC on which the IGP, deputy IGP, all directors and undersecretary sit, will discuss the report and make a conclusive decision on the future of Nalufenya.The special committee was constituted last week on Wednesday after PAC resolved to send a team out and assess the operations of the facility. On Thursday, the team visited the facility and later sat to make a report.Nalufenya has since 2014 attracted bad publicity for the police with the first group of suspects detained there on allegations that they had been working with the Allied Democratic Front (ADF) to commit terrorism in Uganda accusing police of torture.

The allegations were shortly after followed by others from suspects arrested in connection with the murder in March 2017 of assistant inspector general of police (AIGP) Andrew Felix Kaweesi.

Most prominent among the alleged torture cases, was that of the Kamwenge mayor Geoffrey Byamukama, whose pictures went viral having been hospitalised at Nakasero hospital with deep wounds on his knees and ankles. His knee caps appeared to have been brutally scooped out.



Nalufenya which is gazetted as a police station has existed since 1954, initially as police post, then as a police station under Kiira policing region before it was made a special operations Unit centre.



Before it was turned into a special operation centre, high profile suspects were being detained at the special investigations division headquarters in Kireka. The Kireka facility was introduced in 2006 after it became overwhelming to detain high-profile suspects at Central police station Kampala.
Many of us are fuming over the news that some hepatitis B vaccines were recently found to be fake.

I can imagine the frustration of those who have been reminding me to go for vaccination and assuring me how they were now safe; suddenly feeling worse off. That feeling when a rescue boat develops a huge hole!

I should have taken that jab by now but, because of some shameful carelessness on my part, I was still procrastinating.

Given where I was considering to be vaccinated from, this turned out to be one of the rare occasions where my carelessness saved me. Yet there is nothing to really smile about. Just like a cock that survives a wild cat, only to end up in a saucepan.

When the ugly news broke, I was really sympathetic to the several victims and country. But somewhat I wasnt really shocked. Such is the cold cynicism I have developed over this governments initiatives that I can now only be shocked by a highly successful benevolent intervention.

The misadventures they cause only sadden me for their effect on our lives, but they are often as predictable as January heat. Not even a magician can work out success from a combination of incompetence, indifference, greed, and imagination exhaustion.

I really sympathise with optimists in this era; they must be in the habit of taking painkillers before watching news! At least, in my pessimism, most of what I hope for from government comes to pass as anticipated.

Going back to the fake vaccines that are making us shout like a hen that has just laid an egg near a snake, when did fakes start to bother us as a country?

I thought we had now experienced enough fakes that no fake shaped against us can prosper anymore. Through our long exposure to them, we should by now have developed immunity against fakes.

What fake havent we seen? Fake drugs, fake hospitals, fake doctors, fake schools, fake teachers, fake electronics, fake milk, fake meat, fake water, fake shoes, fake make-up, fake hips, fake opposition, fake men of God, fake miracles, fake phones, fake police, fake news, fake toys, fake friends, fake dates of birth, fake members of parliament, fake academic qualifications, fake land titles, fake agro-chemicals, fake governments!

Chances are high that most Ugandans, if not all, have interacted with a fake at some point. If anyone tells you they havent, then they are either faking it or they are among the few that somehow managed to escape our everyday realities.

For every Phillips, there is a Phillibs here; for every Sony, we have a Sonq; for every Panasonic, there is a Pansonic; show us a Gucci, and we shall get you a Guci; and many more.

For those originals whose labels we cant shrewdly mutilate, then we shall go to some home-based manufacturer in China with a sample and ask them to make for us Number 2 (read fake). And all this we can clear with Uganda Revenue Authority without any encumbrance. All that matters is to pay taxes.

The Uganda National Bureau of Standards you would expect to help is itself created in the image of a fake. Wait for the next time they try to speak and you count the teeth in their mouth. Only molars for chewing curd! What is it if it cannot size up to what it is meant to do? Its offices need to be closed too until it has raised itself to acceptable standards.

In many of our downtown shops, its now standard practice that when you enter them, the attendant (if honest) will ask you if you want Number 1 or Number 2 of an item. This is skimpily dressed euphemism for original (Number 1) or fake (Number 2). It is not done in hiding. Anyone concerned cannot pretend not to know.

Some may say that allowing fakes on our market is a way of ensuring that everyone can find something to buy, in their pockets range.

But is it really to protect them when they have to keep buying one fake to replace another every other time? This, not considering the fact that many fakes are sold to unsuspecting clients at the price of originals!

We swallowed Adam Smiths idea of a free market more naively than he could have imagined. Dear consumer, you are on your own.

One of the survival tips that every Ugandan (and visitor) needs now is how to tell a fake from an original. So, dont blame us for turning items in all angles and inside-out before we buy. Yes, even watermelons! You have to first cut out a piece, or else you take a fake (raw).

Its a market where business ethics is optional: where groundnut paste is mixed with maize flour; where mineral water bottles are counterfeited and other water is injected in from the bottom; where honey is mixed with sugar and water; where foods and drugs expire and they are moved into new packaging material from Nasser road with extended dates!

We are no longer ashamed of identifying with fakes in public, as long as we benefit from them. By extension, it shouldnt surprise us that the Fountain of Honour can stand at a public rally and preach that an NRM MP that sleeps in parliament but wakes up to vote is better than an active opposition one.

Perhaps nowhere is our affinity for fakes reflected than in the quality of leaders we choose  for which we shall continue to pay the price.

Good Lord, when we finally die and get to Your gates, please receive us with kindness  for if it is hell, we have already tasted. Dont let us burn twice!

jsssentongo@gmail.com

The author heads the Centre for African Studies at Uganda Martyrs University, Nkozi.


Mark Cowan

Taiwan has hired Potomac International Partners, the shop of longtime PA pro Mark Cowan, to lobby for a bilateral free trade agreement with the U.S. and a bolder partnership on national security.

On the trade front, Potomacs objective is to gain support from White House key advisors and then President Trump for trade talks with Taiwan.

The DC-based firm also will attempt to persuade the Administration to look at Peoples Republic of Chinas water/air/land grabs through the lens of national security.

Potomac, which describes itself as an action-oriented firm, will advocate a more regular schedule of arms sales (to Taiwan) as something that advances the Presidents call for peace through strength, according to its letter of agreement with the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative in the US.

The firm anticipates the prospect of closer military ties with Taiwan will pressure China on the trade front. We also would characterize that display of America First in national security as a strategic move that, as a side benefit, also will reap benefits in the 'America First trade talks with the PRC, says its pact.

Potomacs retainer for the one-year campaign is $360K.

Under the one-China policy, the US maintains unofficial relations with Taiwan, which China regards as a breakaway province.

Trump broke with that policy on March 16 by signing the Taiwan Travel Act to encourage visits between officials from the US and Taiwan.

China called the TTA a mistake that needs to be fixed.

Cowan, who founded The Jefferson Group, also served as vice chairman of Cassidy & Assocs., senior VP at Hill and Knowlton and senior partner at Patton Boggs.
Music education non-profit Education Through Music is calling on public relations professionals who can lend their services for a pro bono project.

The New York-based organization partners with inner-city schools to provide music education as a core subject to students as a means of supporting their learning in music and improving academic achievement. The non-profit currently serves 30,000 students in 57 New York City schools.

ETM is seeking a PR partner for help with the organizations signature Childrens Benefit Gala event, to be held on June 25, at Cipriani on 42nd Street in New York.

Scope of the work would include promoting ETMs Childrens Benefit Gala, securing media placements in print, TV, radio and Internet outlets, and generating buzz in the New York City area regarding the Gala as well as ETM.

ETM envisions the project commencing in April 2018 and terminating in June.

Contact is Tim Lemberger, ETM director of marketing and communications, tlemberger@etmonline.org.

Download the RFP (PDF).


Mark Zuckerberg

Hurray! The grateful nation thanks you, Zuck

Mark Zuckerberg has deemed it worthy of his time to testify before the US Congress about how the profiles of 50M Facebook users fell into the hands of Cambridge Analytica and ultimately may have put Donald Trump in the White House.

Earlier, the Facebook chief told CNN that hed be happy to chat with Congress if its the right thing to do.

Growing pressure from politicians, media, public and the nascent #DeleteFacebook movement has made it the right and only thing to do.

On the deletion front, Playboy Enterprises today announced it's stripping its accounts from the social media site, joining luminaries such as Teslas Elon Musk and WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton, the guy who sold the mobile messaging application to Facebook for $19B.

In a bid to regain PR traction, Facebook today promised new tools to give people ways of seeing and deleting the data that it collects on them.

Weve heard loud and clear that privacy settings and other important tools are too hard to find and that we must do more to keep people informed, Erin Egan, chief privacy officer, and Ashlie Beringer, deputy general counsel, posted on FBs website.

Their blog is titled, Its Time to Make Our Privacy Tools Easier to Find.

A better headline: Its About Time We Made Our Privacy Tools Easier to Find So You Can Delete Private Information That We've Been Sharing With Others to Monetize Your Data Without You Knowing About It. Granted, its a little lengthy.

Last week, Zuckerberg faced intense PR pressure for his tardy response to the initial news that Cambridge Analytica had the trove of Facebook user data.

Hes already stiffed British lawmakers, who wanted his testimony about the privacy scandal, by promising to dispatch two underlings to London. In contrast, Cambridge Analyticas suspended chief Alexander Nix has agreed to make his second appearance before Parliaments Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee.

Zuckerberg has few friends in DC these days. He should have jumped at the chance to face Congressional inquisitors. Zuck though finds it hard to relate to people outside Facebook headquarters. E.g., Remember Zuckerberg's "listening tour" of America, which was touted as the prelude to a future presidential run. Geez.

Trump is the only person in Washington mum on the Facebook scandal.

Axios reported today that the president is obsessed with taking on Amazon. That report initially drove the price of Amazon stock down more than seven percent.

Trump reportedly is upset about Amazons growing influence and its impact on mom and pop retailers.

Where's he been for the last decade? Protection of mom and pop stores is a pretty lame cover. He wants to take on Amazon because its founder Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post, which has been a thorn in the side of the tweeter-in-chief.

Trump owes Zuck a lot. His silence on Facebook speaks volumes.
iStock/Thinkstock(HARRIS COUNTY, Texas) -- A Texas sheriff's deputy is under investigation for fatally shooting an unarmed black man last Thursday.



Part of the encounter between Harris County Deputy Cameron Brewer and Danny Ray Thomas, 34, was captured on dashcam video, which was released Monday.



Brewer was in his car when noticed Thomas in a physical altercation with another man, according to a press release from the Harris County Sheriff's Office.



The video shows Brewer get out of his vehicle and give Thomas, who has his pants around his ankles, orders to get on the ground, with which he does not comply.



As Thomas advanced toward Brewer, Brewer fired one shot from his weapon, killing Thomas, the press release states. Brewer had a Taser with him at the time of the fatal shooting, according to the release.



The dashcam video does not show the moment the shooting happened.



According to the press release, Brewer had been issued a body-camera "less than two hours" before the shooting happened.



"The cameras battery was charging in the deputys vehicle and the camera was not in use," the release states.



The sheriff's office also said it will review its policies and training on the use of non-lethal and lethal force.



Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez described Thomas as foaming at the mouth right before the deputy shot him, according to ABC Houston station KTRK.



We hold the publics trust as sacred, and we know that this trust must be earned every single day, Gonzalez said in the press release. I will personally see to it that our investigation is conducted fairly, thoroughly, and expeditiously.



Brewer is currently on administrative duty pending an internal investigation, according to the press release. An independent criminal investigation is being conducted by the Houston Police Department.



Thomas sister demanded answers in an interview with KTRK.



"We've been through everything. He had my back through everything and he promised me he wouldn't leave me," Thomas' sister said, according to KTRK. "He didn't leave me, somebody took him from me."



Brewer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.





Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
The Rajneeshees ramped up security after the 1983 Hotel Rajneesh bombing. (The Oregonian)

The Rajneeshees' bizarre 1980s escapade in the Pacific Northwest, the subject of the sensational new Netflix documentary "Wild Wild Country," is mostly an eastern Oregon story, set on a remote, sprawling ranch in Wasco County.

But the Rajneeshees were in the Rose City too. The followers of free-love-espousing guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh ran a Southeast Portland meditation center, where an isolation tank was a popular attraction. The Rajneesh Investment Corp. also owned the downtown Zorba the Buddha Nightclub & Restaurant at Southwest Ninth Avenue and Salmon Street (Southpark Seafood's current location), and the Zorba the Buddha Bakery at 901 S.W. Alder Street.

And, as viewers of "Wild Wild Country" know, the guru's company owned a downtown hotel that suffered a bomb attack.

The 1983 bombing of the Hotel Rajneesh may have been what tipped the Rajneeshees into militancy. In the wake of the terrifying blast, which injured only the perpetrator, Rajneesh followers bought a cache of guns. They began target-shooting practice at their headquarters, the former "Big Muddy" ranch in eastern Oregon. The commune also launched a private security operation, complete with guards wielding automatic weapons.

Don't Edit

The Oregonian

Three small bombs went off inside Portland's 127-room Hotel Rajneesh in the early hours of Friday, July 29, 1983. The first one exploded at 1:22 a.m. and blew a hole in the bathroom wall of Room 405. The second and third bombs, under the room's beds, detonated a little more than an hour later.

Stephen P. Paster, who lost some of his fingers from the initial blast and later was linked to a Muslim fundamentalist group, would be convicted of the bombing. He spent five years in the Oregon State Penitentiary.

Authorities never firmly established a motive for the attack.

"We find it appalling, disgusting and disappointing people have to resort to these kinds of tactics to express themselves," the eastern Oregon commune's mayor, Swami Krishna Deva, said after the bombing.

Don't Edit

Oregonian coverage of the Hotel Rajneesh bombing. (The Oregonian)

He added: "For us, this [bombing] is not a surprise when you have people inflaming others and expressing religious bigotry."

The Rajneesh commune, known for its "if it feels good, do it" ethos, would eventually collapse amid murder plots, illegal wiretapping and other wayward initiatives launched by its leadership. More than two dozen people were convicted of or implicated in the illegal activities. The guru was deported in 1985.

You might assume that the Hotel Rajneesh, built in the 1920s as a residence for young single women, is long gone as well, replaced by a new development as downtown Portland has grown and remade itself over the past few decades.

Don't Edit

The Zorba the Buddha Bakery in Portland. (The Oregonian)

But that's not the case. The building, at 1115 S.W. 11th Avenue, is still very much with us. It's now retaken its original name, The Martha Washington. The property, which offers public-housing apartments, heralds its "historical charm" and its location near downtown restaurants, shopping and a Portland streetcar line.

Also still around, of course, is the building that housed the Rajneeshee nightclub. Most Portlandlers may have considered the Bhagwan's movement a cult, but that doesn't necessarily mean they wanted to stay away from his followers.

Don't Edit

The front desk at the Hotel Rajneesh. (The Oregonian)

In 1987 an Oregonian columnist, with tongue planted not all that firmly in cheek, lamented the demise of the Zorba the Buddha, "the Rajneeshee nightclub where lonely guys could wander in for a late nightcap and suddenly find themselves doing the boogie-woogie with that most elusive of all breeds -- women who actually said 'Yes' when asked whether they might care to dance."

-- Douglas Perry

Don't Edit
By Don Moore

Oregon is a wildlife wonderland. The misty spout of a gray whale, a summer evening flutter of bats and the squeak of a pika in the Columbia Gorge are priceless.



All of these animals need our help. But for most of Oregon's wildlife -- nearly 90 percent of all species living here -- there is no dedicated stream of conservation support. Funding comes largely from license fees used to manage species that are hunted or fished.



Conservation organizations like the Oregon Zoo help make up for the lack of state resources by working to restore imperiled species such as the western pond turtle and the Oregon silverspot butterfly. Metro, the regional government that manages the zoo, has also preserved and restored thousands of acres of wildlife habitat through its voter-supported natural area programs.



But these efforts are still not enough. Too often, conservation action comes only after a species is listed under the Endangered Species Act. By that time, recovery is more challenging and costly, with greater human impacts.



Thankfully, a panel of leaders representing outdoorspeople, energy industries and conservation organizations has advanced a pragmatic and logical solution to help protect species. And, even better, it can be done without raising taxes.



The bipartisan Recovering America's Wildlife Act, co-sponsored by Rep. Suzanne Bonamici and Rep. Kurt Schrader, would provide critically needed funding for wildlife conservation by reallocating $1.3 billion in existing federal revenues from fees generated through the use of non-renewable natural resources. Funds would be distributed to all states, largely to support underfunded conservation programs.



Many species that the Oregon Zoo works to protect, including the mighty California condor, would greatly benefit from increased state conservation funding. The Recovering America's Wildlife Act is a potential game-changer for Oregon's people and wildlife.



As a scientist, angler and wildlife advocate, I support a permanent source of federal funding to protect species in the greatest need of conservation action. The Oregon Zoo is asking our Congressional delegation to support this legislation, and I encourage all Oregonians to do the same.



Please take a moment to send a friendly email to Oregon lawmakers, expressing your support for this effort to protect wildlife.



-- Don Moore, Ph.D., is director of the Oregon Zoo and senior science advisor at the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. More information is available at OurNatureUSA.org.


By Danielle Tudor

Last week, I filed a complaint against Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Kenneth Walker challenging his fitness to be a judge. The complaint was filed for Judge Walker's refusal to allow a domestic violence victim to finish delivering her victim impact statement at the sentencing of a felon convicted of repeatedly abusing her. Audio from the hearing records a shocking move by Judge Walker: He interrupted the victim, Dana Parks, on three separate occasions before abruptly rising from the bench and exiting to his chambers, slamming the door behind him.

The right of a victim to give an impact statement was enshrined in the Constitution by Oregon voters in 1999. Judge Walker's actions in the courtroom clearly violated the right of this crime victim to be heard. If he had acted similarly toward a defendant making his or her statement before sentencing, the defense attorney would likely object or even appeal the sentence.

From the perspective of a crime victim, a victim impact statement is a chance to let offenders know how their actions affected your life and their enduring effects. It's giving life to your thoughts and your words - spoken and uninterrupted. It takes courage to give an impact statement. That courage should not be destroyed by being embarrassed and demeaned in front of your abuser. Make no mistake: the next victim to consider giving a victim impact statement is watching and taking note.

Judge Walker chose to respond to his egregious behavior on March 20, after learning of the judicial fitness complaint ("Complaints filed about Oregon judge's treatment of domestic violence victim"). But the fact that he had already let three weeks pass before responding to Samantha Swindler's Feb. 25 column exposing his behavior in The Oregonian is very concerning. In his March 20 remarks, Judge Walker took mild responsibility for his actions and acted as if he was merely offering fatherly advice to steer the victim to what "he" wanted to hear. He then stated that all judges should be reminded to treat crime victims with respect. And yet, Judge Walker couldn't handle 20 minutes of a victim impact statement.

I cannot help but make the comparison to Judge Rosemarie Aquilina who listened to over 140 women and girls as they gave victim impact statements during the sentencing phase of former U.S.A. Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar. Judge Aquilina's vow to let every victim speak as long as they needed provided a cathartic forum.

In the words of Judge Aquilina after hearing days of testimony, "Leave your pain here and go out and do your magnificent things." She profoundly understood the healing power of taking the first step to facing your offender and speaking your truth. It's the crucial first step in leaving your pain behind and reclaiming the shattered pieces of your life.

Judge Walker has set a dangerous precedent - victim impact statements are dictated on his terms and on his time. If he doesn't approve, he will redirect or cut them off. In light of this victim mistreatment and his lack of remorse for his actions, it is time for Judge Walker to resign.

Danielle Tudor is a rape survivor, advocate and activist. She is also a member of Oregon Gov. Kate Brown's Joint Interim Task Force on Testing of Sexual Assault Forensic Evidence Kits. She recently moved to Oklahoma from Oregon.
There are those leaders who seek to shed light on a controversial issue, and there are those who seek to shed heat.

Count Rep. Bill Post, R-Keizer in the latter category.

Post, fired up by an initiative petition to ban assault weapons in Oregon, lashed out at the three religious leaders behind the effort, sharing their home addresses and phone numbers on Facebook. Post, as The Oregonian/OregonLive's Hillary Borrud reported, put up a screen shot of the petitioners' information that had been filed with the state. According to Borrud's piece, he posted the photo with the suggestion "should anyone want to make a phone call or send a note...." The original wording appears to have since been deleted although the screenshot remains.

Not surprisingly, the three backers have been getting plenty of colorful feedback with varying degrees of civility. One caller left a message for one of the petitioners to "burn in Hell." Others have sent nasty emails and Facebook messages. But the group remains focused on securing the necessary signatures to qualify IP 43 for the November ballot, Pastor W. J. Mark Knutson, one of the three petitioners, told The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board.

To be clear, Post did not break any laws by sharing that information, which is publicly available. And realistically, anyone who files an initiative petition - particularly on something as controversial as gun control - should be prepared for the possibility that those who disagree will focus their ire on them.

But sharing such information on a Facebook page for people vehemently against such a measure is hardly an innocent act. Post is clearly encouraging opponents to flood the petitioners with calls and messages. As an experienced politician, Post should be well aware that that's not how you defeat initiative petitions which, ultimately, are decided by voters. In fact, the only thing that you might achieve is intimidating or harassing the petitioners into pulling the initiative back. Is that what he was aiming to do?

Unfortunately, Post did not respond to an email or phone call from The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board to answer that.

Oregonian editorials

Editorials reflect the collective opinion of The Oregonian/OregonLive editorial board, which operates independently of the newsroom. Members of the editorial board are Laura Gunderson, Helen Jung, Mark Katches and John Maher.

To respond to this editorial, post your comment below, submit an OpEd or a letter to the editor.

If you have questions about the opinion section, email Laura Gunderson, editorial pages editor, or call 503-221-8378.

Post's sharing of the information is poor judgment, through and through. It's unfortunate that a legislator would somehow mistake inciting mass harassment for leadership. If he wants to defeat this petition, he should put forward a thoughtful, rational and defensible argument that focuses on any shortcomings of the policies or raises questions about their consequences. He can encourage people to refuse to sign the petition, in hopes it will fail to qualify for the ballot, or to vote against it if it does. But his tactic of obliquely encouraging opponents to directly dial the three initiative backers smacks of middle school.

It's comforting to know that some callers showed the maturity that Post failed to exhibit. Rabbi Michael Cahana, one of three petitioners behind IP 43, told The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board of one phone message he received. The man, Cahana recalled, said that he absolutely disagreed with the initiative petition but that he also absolutely defended Cahana's right to put it out there. They have since traded a few text messages about the issue, even though it's unlikely either will convince the other to change his mind.

A calm disagreement about an intensely emotional issue. Perhaps Post will take a page and try that himself.

- The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board
Updated 6:30 p.m.

Devonte Hart, a boy who in 2014 was at the center of a viral photo showing his tender embrace with a Portland policeman, is missing and at least five family members are dead after their SUV plunged off a cliff along the Northern California coast.

Devonte, now 15, is believed to have been in his family's vehicle as it went off a Pacific Coast Highway cliff Monday, killing his parents and at least three siblings.

Authorities continued late Wednesday to scour the crash scene, including the ocean, in search of the children believed to have been in the car, the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office said.

The victims, former West Linn residents who had moved to Woodland, Washington, plunged to their deaths when their 2003 GMC veered off Route 1 near the town of Westport and fell 100 feet, eventually landing on its roof on a large rock at the shoreline.

The three children killed weren't using seat belts and "came out" of the vehicle at some point, the California Highway Patrol said. The women were found inside wearing safety restraints.

Authorities on Wednesday identified the adults as Jennifer Jean Hart, the driver, and Sarah Margaret Hart, both 38. The Hart children killed were Markis, 19, Abigail, 14, and Jeremiah, 14.

The sheriff's office said they can't find siblings Devonte, Hannah, 16, and Sierra, 12. All six kids were adopted by the married couple, the sheriff's office said.

The crash occurred days after authorities in Washington tried to visit the family home multiple times after receiving reports of abuse and neglect concerning the children.

At a news conference Wednesday, Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman said officials have "every indication to believe" all six children were in the vehicle when it went off the cliff.

"We have no evidence and no reason to believe this was an intentional act," Allman said. He also said there are no skid marks or brake marks indicating why the vehicle went off the cliff. He said an investigation is ongoing.

The sheriff appealed for the public's help in retracing where the family had been in recent days.

In 2014, a photograph of a tear-streaked Devonte hugging Sgt. Bret Barnum during a tense "Black Lives Matter" demonstration in downtown Portland garnered global attention.

The photo, originally published by The Oregonian/OregonLive, was featured in national media, reached No. 1 on the social-sharing website Reddit and drew widespread Facebook attention.

"Jen and Sarah were the kinds of parents this world desperately needs," said Portland photographer Zippy Lomax, who had known the family since 2012. "They loved their kids more than anything else."

The Hart family was a regular at Oregon festivals and shows, Lomax said, including the Beloved festival in Tidewater. They also joined presidential candidate Bernie Sanders onstage during a 2016 rally in Vancouver.

"They weren't plugged in to the technology," she said. "They preferred to lay [around] and read books and hang out with their chickens."

Devonte frequently wore the "Free hugs" sign that produced the famous photograph. Lomax said the sign prompted other memorable interactions as Devonte and strangers embraced.

But the reaction to that 2014 moment overwhelmed the family, Lomax said, with much negative attention focused on the multiracial family with lesbian parents.

"They got a lot of negativity from that, and they kind of closed off for a while, honestly," Lomax said.

The family frequently traveled together, Lomax said, taking scenic routes to explore new places and new vistas. She imagines that's what they were doing when the fatal crash occurred.

Court records and recent neighbors, however, portray a family that was at times strained.

The Harts and their children left their home Friday shortly after no one answered the door for a visit by the authorities, according to neighbors and the Clark County Sheriff's Office.

Bruce and Dana DeKalb, who lived next door, said they rarely spoke with the family, which about 10 months ago moved to the remote wooded area in northern Clark County.

Dana DeKalb said Devonte had come to their home a dozen times to ask for food, saying his parents had withheld it as a form of punishment. The teen would ask the couple to leave the food by the fence they shared so his parents wouldn't know, she said.

Such interactions prompted the DeKalbs to contact authorities, they said Wednesday outside their home.

A Clark County deputy accompanied Cowlitz County Child Protective Services to the Hart family's home Friday but nobody answered the door, Sgt. Brent Waddell, a Clark County Sheriff's Office spokesman, told The Oregonian/OregonLive on Wednesday.

The family and its SUV were gone the next day, Bruce DeKalb said.

Norah West, a spokeswoman for the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services, on Wednesday said the agency attempted to contact the family three times after receiving reports of abuse or neglect but was unsuccessful.

Court records in Minnesota show Sarah Hart received a 90-day suspended jail sentence and a year of probation in 2011 after her six-year-old daughter arrived at school with bruises on her stomach and back. The girl told a teacher, "Mom hit me," according to records.

Shortly after, the family moved to West Linn, where they lived until relocating to Woodland.

Bill Groener, who lived next door to the family in West Linn, said they kept to themselves and the kids mostly stayed indoors  even in good weather. Groener said the only contact he had with the family is when they went out to get the mail.

"Something," Groener said, "just didn't seem right."

Oregonian/OregonLive staff writers Eder Campuzano, Tom Hallman, Jr., Mike Rogaway and Molly Young, along with The Associated Press, contributed to this report.

-- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh

skavanaugh@oregonian.com

503-294-7632 || @shanedkavanaugh
A Woodburn police officer quit his job last week after admitting to sexually abusing a child and reaching out to her online for sex.

Daniel A. Kerbs pleaded guilty last Tuesday in Washington County Circuit Court to first-degree online sexual corruption of a child and second-degree sexual abuse. He is scheduled to be sentenced May 23.

Kerbs resigned as a patrol officer from the Woodburn Police Department last Thursday, according to a city spokesman. Kerbs, 29, had worked for the agency since January 2015.

He worked as a corrections officers at the Santiam Correctional Institution and the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in 2014 before joining the police agency, state records show.

According to Tigard police, an 18-year-old contacted the agency last summer reporting she'd been abused by Kerbs in Tigard years earlier. Kerbs was a family friend, police said.

An indictment in the case said the abuse occurred between September 2013 and November 2014, which includes Kerbs soliciting the girl online for sex and taking steps to meet her.

Kerbs was placed on paid leave from the Woodburn Police Department on July 26, arrested the next day at the department after a three-week investigation and posted bail the day after that. The city said he began unpaid leave Aug. 2.

Kerbs was arrested again in January on suspicion of violating the terms of his release agreement by living with his girlfriend and her children while out on bail, Oregon court records show. He was released from jail after posting bail a second time.

-- Everton Bailey Jr.

ebailey@oregonian.com

503-221-8343; @EvertonBailey
Early Wednesday morning, someone broke into a Salem dog boarding facility and when officers responded to the scene, they found a shattered window and an open door. Nearly a dozen of the 26 dogs boarding at the facility had escaped outside. The Dog Bark, located on Hoyt Street, Northeast Salem, continues to search for two remaining lost dogs.

Salem police said in a statement that most of the loose dogs were retrieved by passersby and officers. The two remaining lost dogs are Sonny, a white and brindle mix and Kalua, a gray shorthaired mix. Staff at The Dog Bark say the lost dogs are friendly with staff members, but are probably frightened from their ordeal.

Any help in locating the above pictured dogs would be much appreciated. The public can call the business owner directly with any information on the location of the dogs; 503-883-1452. Tips on the break in can be directed to the Salem police; 503-588-8477.

Salem police Lieutenant Treven Upkes said that as of Wednesday late morning, no items have been reported missing from the boarding facility.
Just as the costs, the politics and administrative complexity of Oregon's underfunded public pension system are set to reach a painful new peak, the system is facing turnover at the top that will be difficult to backfill.

The longtime executive director of the Public Employees Retirement System, Steve Rodeman, who's been an encyclopedic resource for lawmakers, employers and employee groups alike, will retire June 1.

Meanwhile, the PERS board will lose its chair, John Thomas, and possibly one other member, Krystal DeAsis, whose term expires in September. They are the longest serving among the panel's five members, and two of the three members with no financial connection to the system.

The brain drain comes as Gov. Kate Brown is under enormous pressure to "do something" about the system's runaway costs. PERS is actually four separate retirement programs, and so complicated that even a seasoned financial professional would need some time to reliably navigate and make meaningful contributions to policy discussions. After decades of tweaks by the Legislature, the board and successive court decisions, it has become the financial equivalent of a Rube Goldberg machine.

It is deeply underfunded, with a deficit of $22 billion that is bringing successive rounds of painful cost increases to schools, state and local agencies and other public employers. And it is highly political.

The governor's first choice to succeed Thomas, who's termed out, has already bowed out. It's not clear whether there is an internal applicant ready to step into Rodeman's shoes, and the pay may be too low to attract a qualified external candidate.

Krystal DeAsis

The board will take up the question Monday at its regular meeting, the last before Rodeman and Thomas leave the building, making a seamless transition nearly impossible to achieve.

Debate over the system will return in the 2019 legislative session as Brown and lawmakers try to alleviate the next spike in required contributions from employers. That means wrestling with the now perennial question of whether it's fair to reduce benefits for current employees -- particularly younger ones -- to help pay for a deficit that is mainly due to retirees.

It will be up to the PERS director and board to educate and advise the governor and legislators on the fairness, legality and economic consequences of their options.

Greg Hartman, the Portland lawyer who has represented the PERS Coalition of public employees for decades, said the loss of the director and board chair is a "sea change" for the system. He said Rodeman was an outstanding director, and whoever replaces him will likely be walking into the capitol cold.

"One of the things that has been invaluable is that everyone has seen the agency as an honest fact broker," Hartman said. "There's no spin. It's just the facts, in a situation where everything is contentious. ... It's going to take a new leader some time to build credibility with the legislature and all the other players who get involved. This is a tough job."

The Legislature piled more work on the agency during its short session. It passed one bill to incentivize employers to make extra contributions and reduce their respective funding deficits. It is up to PERS to help those employers develop their individual plans.

Lawmakers also passed a bill that will give public employees the ability to make some investment choices starting in January. That's a fairly standard option in a retirement program. But it's not clear that the investment management division at the Treasury Department can legally or functionally make it happen without major implications for the current investment portfolio.

Even if it can, PERS doesn't currently have the staff to provide investment advice to employees, which might require licensed investment advisers, according to Rodeman. Nor does it have the information technology to record their choices, or the back-office accounting that would track the investments and their earnings.

Running PERS, in other words, is not just another agency director job. It requires all the standard skills to manage the agency's personnel, budgets, planning, and projects. But you're also looking for fluency in actuarial science, the history of Oregon's byzantine plan design, and the ability to accurately explain the system and the implication of any policy changes to the board, the governor, lawmakers and various stakeholder groups without being tagged as partisan.

"I hope they don't just stick in someone who is a good state manager," said Jim Green, executive director of the Oregon School Boards Association. "When you get into PERS, it's a whole different animal. The agency's decisions impact everything across the state of Oregon."

Elana Pirtle-Guiney, the governor's workforce and labor policy adviser, said last week that there were about a half-dozen applicants. The application window closed Monday. She said it's unlikely the state will see someone with the experience of Rodeman or his predecessor, Paul Cleary, so anyone who comes in will have a learning curve.

Thomas, the current board chair, says he's not sure there's anyone in house with the ability to fill Rodeman's shoes. He's also concerned that the posted salary range, $150,000 to $185,000, is insufficient to attract a candidate with all the requisite experience.

The board is tasked with filling the job by the June 1 meeting, which will be Rodeman's last. Thomas and board member Lawrence Furnstahl will serve on the subcommittee weeding through the applicants.

Meanwhile, the governor's office is searching for a replacement for Thomas, a Eugene businessman who has served on the board since 2012. According to emails obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive under a public records request, the candidate will likely be a direct appointment as chair.

"There's staff support but it is a Chair-run board with a lot of eyes on it," Pirtle-Guiney said in a February email soliciting potential ideas for board candidates. She listed the following qualifications: "Background in wealth management, financial planning, or related field; other understanding of retirement systems and retirement planning - Poise in a position that faces a lot of political pressure."

Brown's office had hoped to tap Richard Solomon, a Portland accountant who served for years on the citizens panels that oversee the system's investment portfolio, the Oregon Investment Council. But Solomon told the governor's staff he was apprehensive about the job, and on Monday, he sent notes out saying he would not be joining the board.

Thomas said he had forwarded two names for the governor's office to consider, both Eugene financial professionals. But he said "normally a newbie is not going to be board chair.

"It took a long time until I was up to speed and conversant. ... I would not bring someone new in and say, 'you're the chair,' not with this board and all the issues the system is facing."

The current term for DeAsis, a former financial analyst for Portland General Electric who has served on the board for six years, will also expire in September. She said Tuesday that she hadn't made a decision whether to serve another term, though the board positions typically rotate after two, three-year terms.

Since 2003, the number of members on the PERS Board was downsized to five, including one employee representative, one employer representative, and three independent board members with no financial connections to the system.

Bob Livingston, a Salem firefighter and lobbyist who has spent years tracking PERS issues, said that reconfiguration makes the situation challenging.

"It makes that total population of people available and willing to serve a lot smaller. It's a challenging set of circumstances to meet the qualifications of the statute."

- Ted Sickinger

503-221-8505; @tedsickinger
Authorities are asking for help identifying the suspect in a Southeast Portland arson.

The fire broke out at a mobile home community on Division Street near 168th Avenue on Aug. 9, 2017, according to Crime Stoppers of Oregon.

The nonprofit on Tuesday released surveillance video of the suspect, who's believed to be a man.

Crime Stoppers offers rewards for information reported to the nonprofit that leads to arrests in unsolved felonies. Tipsters are eligible for up to $1,000 in unsolved, non-homicide felony cases.

People can submit anonymous tips online, using a mobile application or by calling 503-823-4357.

 The Oregonian/OregonLive
Portland police still keep an informal list of active gang members despite purging a more formal directory of "designated" gang members last fall under fire from community critics, a new city audit has found.

The bureau's Gang Enforcement Team also lacks records to explain why its officers pull over so many African American people during traffic stops or if their tactics work, auditors said.

The two main findings come at a critical time when community and police relations are strained amid a breakdown in public oversight of police reforms required by federal investigators.

Mayor Ted Wheeler, who serves as the city's police commissioner, said he was particularly troubled by the team's dearth of records on most of its encounters with the public.

"The audit correctly notes that it is difficult to demonstrate to the community that the (team) is not engaging in racial profiling if there is inadequate data collection and analysis of stops," Wheeler said in a response included with the audit.

Auditors set out to analyze the Gang Enforcement Team's investigations and patrol operations and discovered that the team has kept a list of "Active Portland Gang Members & Associates" since 2015  but without accountability or transparency.

It's a monthly compilation of about 30 people that goes out on the bureau's intranet to other officers. It contains names, addresses, gang affiliations and whether the person is on probation or supervision.

No police supervisor oversees the list, auditors said. It has no written criteria and includes no public notice.

That's much different than the bureau's two-decade-old gang designation system discontinued last fall. Under that program, police had to document "clear and convincing evidence" that people met certain criteria, notify them and provide a chance for them to appeal the designation.

For the active list, for example, auditors asked for information on how officers came up with the names in 2016. But police had deleted the details despite bureau rules that say they must keep criminal intelligence records and bulletins for five years.

The bureau did have the information supporting the 2017 active list, saying it ranked people based on whether they were named as suspects in shootings or in recent police reports, the number of contacts they had with police, if police seized guns from them and if they were victims of gang-related shootings.

Documents:

--Gang Enforcement Investigations audit

--Gang Enforcement Patrol audit

City Auditor Mary Hull Caballero said the bureau must have tighter controls, especially given that a federal judge in 1994 prohibited Portland police from designating gang members without due process.

Hull Caballero, however, stopped short of asking police to do away with the list, calling it a bureau policy decision.

"The Police Bureau last year gave itself a big pat on the back when it discontinued its gang designations. So it's incredibly disappointing to hear all the while they're using this other list with absolutely no supervision,'' said Mat dos Santos, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon.

Police Chief Danielle Outlaw said police will draft written guidelines by July for the active gang member list, which the bureau has renamed the "Most At-Risk Persons'' report. The guidelines will set out how police identify people for the list and how it will be used and kept, with input from the city attorney's office.

"As a police agency, we remain committed to transparency and are willing to always pursue enhancements that benefit the bureau's efforts in ensuring public safety in our service of the Portland community,'' Outlaw wrote in her response to the audit.

When asked if the city attorney's office has evaluated the legality of the active gang member list, Andrea Barraclough, a deputy city attorney, said she couldn't comment about "legal work on behalf of my client.''

POLICE DEFEND LIST

Police said the list is no different from fliers that narcotics enforcement officers develop identifying suspects in drug trafficking cases. It's simply a synthesis of police reports and compiled for officer safety, they said.

They distinguish it from the long-standing past practice of designating gang members, which sometimes rested on a suspect's admission of ties to a particular gang, the presence of a gang tattoo or the flashing of a gang sign in a photo.

"The purpose is to identify people who have demonstrated that they are at risk for being involved in gang-related violence, based on recent involvement in such incidents,'' said Sgt. Pete Simpson, a bureau spokesman and former gang enforcement team investigator.

"It will provide investigators and officers information on potential leads in investigations and will allow for potential intervention and disruption to prevent potential victimization and/or violence,'' he said.

Auditors noted that the bureau loosely based its active gang member list on the Chicago Police Department's "strategic subjects list,'' but the Chicago list is governed by a written directive and evaluated and monitored with public awareness.

'MERE CONVERSATIONS' PROVE CONTROVERSIAL

Poor record-keeping and lax practices made it impossible to analyze or explain the overrepresentation of African Americans in gang enforcement team traffic stops, auditors said.

They also couldn't determine if the team's stops or patrols have been effective in identifying dangerous criminals or reducing gang violence.

The team now has 26 officers and a nearly $7 million annual budget. Six officers and one sergeant patrol in uniform in the afternoon and evening and concentrate on places where they expect gang violence, including certain neighborhoods, parks and bars. They pull over cars or people they recognize or make a stop if a driver acts suspiciously, according to the audit.

Of 1,300 encounters with people in 2016, the team's patrol officers made 800 traffic stops. The majority, or 59 percent, of the traffic stops involved African American drivers. They recovered guns in only 2 percent of those, the audit found.

The rest of the encounters were classified as "mere conversations,'' and the bureau had little to no information to share on them.

Police define "mere conversations'' as contacts with people who are free to leave at any time. They can turn into a "stop'' if police decide to detain someone, according to police and the audit.

With "mere conversations,'' officers aren't required to write a report, explain the reason for the encounters or record demographic information on the people they talked to.

The number of the gang enforcement team's "mere conversations'' has increased since 2013, and the team engages in "mere conversations'' at a much higher rate than general patrol officers assigned to precincts, the audit found. In 2016, ''mere conversations'' represented 12 percent of precinct patrol officers' interactions, compared to 41 percent of gang enforcement team interactions.

The Black Male Achievement initiative has long been concerned about the bureau's use of "mere conversations'' to avoid documenting encounters with the public, said C.J. Robbins, the group's program coordinator. The "mere conversations'' drive disproportionate stops of African Americans, he said, and the bureau needs to address the problem.

'LACK OF DATA ... SHOULD BE A CONCERN'

Auditors also identified inconsistencies between the team's records and dispatch records.

In more than 400 of the team's "mere conversations'' in 2016, officers told dispatchers that they issued warnings. But that would require them to identify a violation of law. Why wouldn't that then be recorded as a stop, asked senior management auditor Minh Dan Vuong.

''The lack of data for a large portion of the team's encounters with community members should be a concern to police managers who would get an incomplete picture if they analyzed the data or used it in public reporting," the audit said.

The racial disparity of the team's traffic stops doesn't surprise police because they said most gang-related shootings involve African Americans as shooters and victims.

But the racial disparities remain stark when auditors narrowed their analysis to specific neighborhoods on the city's east side where the team patrols, finding African Americans were stopped at rates more than two times higher than the African American populations in those areas.

Rarely did the team's officers cite an investigative reason for a stop, beyond noting a traffic violation, such as failure to signal a turn. And officers didn't record for the vast majority of stops whether they involved gang members or associates.

While the team officers may believe they're doing important work suppressing potential violence, it's not hard to see why African Americans might feel that they're facing police oppression, Hull Caballero said.

"We're not saying there's not a gang problem. We're not saying this unit should be disbanded,'' she said. "If these are the appropriate tactics, you need to show that they really are and are effective.''

While the Police Bureau has released three years of annual traffic stop data since 2013 to address potential racial profiling concerns, the reports haven't included stops by the gang enforcement team. The team's stops will be included in the next report, covering traffic stops from 2016, according to the bureau.

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212

@maxoregonian
Wednesday 28 March 2018 1:54pm



Children who are fed yoghurt as part of their regular diet (not as a topical application) in their first year of their life have a better chance of avoiding developing eczema and other allergies, University of Otago, Wellington, has found. Photo: Creative Commons.

Yoghurt given to infants in the first year of life may protect them from developing eczema and allergy, researchers from the University of Otago, Wellington, and the University of Auckland have found.



The effects are striking says Dr Julian Crane from the Department of Medicine at the University of Otago, Wellington, who led the Health Research Council-funded study, published in the journal Clinical and Experimental Allergy this week.



Dr Julian Crane, Department of Medicine at the University of Otago, Wellington.

We found up to 70 per cent reduction in eczema and allergy in the first year of life for daily consumers, Dr Crane says. The more regularly yoghurt was given, the greater the effect.



The study involved 390 mothers in Wellington and Auckland who were asked about various foods they gave to their infants in the first year of life and the infants were seen regularly for signs of eczema and had a skin prick test for allergy at one year.



The researchers say the results should encourage parents to consider feeding their infants yoghurt, especially if they are worried about a risk of eczema or allergic disease.



Full fat, plain, unsweetened yoghurt is already recommended by New Zealands Ministry of Health, the World Health Organisation and other groups for infants from 6 months of age as an excellent food. The researchers believe this finding about allergy protection in infants eating yoghurt may provide an added benefit.



We found that regular consumption of yoghurt gave stronger protection, but what we dont know yet, is what type of yoghurt is best or how much is protective, Dr Crane cautions.



The researchers also do not know whether the effect will last into later childhood.



In addition, our study does not provide proof that it is the yoghurt that is responsible. This would require a trial in which some infants get yoghurt and some dont. No such trial has yet been done, says Dr Crane.



What we have found is an association  i.e. infants who were fed yoghurt had less eczema and were less likely to be allergic. At least two other things could explain this.

These are, that parents who give yoghurt to their infants also do other things that might be reducing the chances of allergies that the researchers are not aware of.



Or, if parents whose children are at increased risk of eczema and allergy deliberately avoid yoghurt, this may make it appear that yoghurt is giving protection.



We dont think this is the case, but only a trial where parents cant choose yoghurt could prove this, Dr Crane explains.

In the meantime, plain unsweetened yoghurt is recommended for infants from 6 months of age as it may reduce allergies.



Link to full study: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/cea.13121

For further information contact



Professor Julian Crane

Department of Medicine,

University of Otago, Wellington

Tel: 0274 519 725

Email: julian.crane@otago.ac.nz
Produced by World of Wonder, the company responsible for RuPaul's Drag Race, Leave Britney Alone: Chris Crocker Goes to Hollywood is a 20 minute presentation reel that WoW shot in 2007 for a prospective television series. It is a curious, free-floating document of a moment in culture when it was still unclear how Internet fame would translate into more traditional success. The fact that nothing further in the form of a series came from this pilot speaks to the limitations of both its subject and reality television in general.

WoW has always had an eye for pop culture personalities, having produced successful documentaries on Tammy Faye Bakker (2000) and Michael Alig (1998). It's not surprising then that they got this footage of Crocker, one of the earliest YouTube stars, who gained mainstream attention in September 2007 when his video appeal on behalf of a certain beleaguered pop star went viral. By that time he already had a huge following on MySpace and YouTube for his bizarre confessional videos, which had amassed millions of views. A lonely femme raised by his grandparents in Bristol, Tennessee, Crocker flaunts his queerness throughout these videos, speaking candidly about sex and America's treatment of gays and lesbians from deep within a red state. He is also frequently insensitive, putting on characters that embody tired stereotypes of women and Black people for laughs  performances that would likely attract backlash today. But in 2007, this outrageousness drew a crowd, and WoW's cameras catch Chris as he considers a move to Los Angeles to make something bigger of his viral success.

A highlight is a brief scene early on in Bristol that shows Crocker's relationship with his mother, who had him at 14. In their conversation they sound like peers, with him cautioning her against having another kid with someone who she doesn't love. Still, she seems genuinely caring, a rare source of affection for Chris in an otherwise unkind town. "Ever since you were little you were my rock," she assures him. In an episode of his new web series on WoW Presents Plus, the studio's new streaming network, Crocker explains that his emotional reaction to the world's treatment of Britney in that famous video stemmed from seeing his own mother suffer from PTSD following military service in Iraq. This is striking not only because it adds a geopolitical dimension to the Chris Crocker saga, but because it demonstrates how diva worship for young gay boys can be tied to our relationships with the real women in our lives.



All tenderness evaporates once the show moves on to Hollywood, where Chris travels with only $500 in savings. We see him crash a Britney Blackout CD release party at the Virgin Megastore, where he basks loudly in the attention he receives from the fans present only to instigate a verbal altercation with them over who loves Britney the most. Inside he purchases 10 copies of the album: "Five for me. Five for the homeless... Because Britney is food for the soul." The clip that follows depicting him handing out these copies to real homeless people is as cringeworthy as it sounds, and highlights Crocker's discomfort transitioning from his own videos to something as produced as a reality show.

Elsewhere the video shows the limitations of Internet fame for those who are unwilling to put in the hard work to "turn friends into cash," as Crocker puts it, referring to his Myspace friend pool. The strategies for capitalizing on an online following as laid out by Mike the branding specialist, whom Crocker is filmed meeting with, have since become standard practice for thousands of people on Instagram, but they weren't so obvious in 2007. That Crocker doesn't follow Mike's advice, choosing instead to return to Tennessee, seems more to do with his being broke and overwhelmed than his being lazy. "Too many people telling me what they want and too many people with their expectations," he explains, "right now I feel like a walking talking typical LA person." Making videos from the safety of his room provided a source of escape for Crocker from bleak surroundings and circumstances. While fame is desirable to many, few would envy his suddenly having to transform a coping mechanism into a source of income to survive  how fraught.

Above all this video puts a spotlight on the flimsiness of the platforms that catapult personalities like Crocker into prominence. YouTube of course persists, but MySpace would go on to lose all relevant social currency by 2008, when Facebook surpassed it as the most popular social network. Today, having been famous on MySpace is about as valuable as having been famous in vaudeville. Crocker has nonetheless survived and maintains an audience of over a million followers between Twitter and Instagram, where he broadcasts the same kinds of videos that made him famous in the first place. Instagram today seems about as bulletproof now as MySpace did in 2007. What new platform waits in the wings to usurp its place on our home screens? Who on your feed will survive the crunch?

The scenes that follow, showing Crocker making a paid appearance at a straight club in Boston, are pretty bleak save for the presence of Nick, Crocker's ex-online boyfriend of two years whom he meets in person for the first time on camera. In addition to hearing Crocker ask questions that highlight the struggle of femme-presenting boys  "What kind of guy likes a guy like me?"  we witness affectionate moments between him and Nick that would have surely been unprecedented on television in 2007. The reality tv landscape at that time, when the most popular shows included I Love New York 1 & 2, Big Brother 8, and The Hills, was hardly a fertile ground for nuanced conversations about gender identity and queer relationships.



A more thoughtful document would arrive 5 years later in Chris Moukarbel and Valerie Veatch's excellent film Me at the Zoo (2012), which dives into the more striking aspects of Crocker's story that are only touched upon here. If nothing else, Chris Crocker Goes to Hollywood shows how reality TV, which has always prioritized nastiness and mess, would have only brought out the worst in a character as turbulent and untested as Crocker. Maybe we're all better off that we were spared a full series. Maybe it represents a missed opportunity. Regardless, Crocker's pilot captures a fascinating shift in celebrity, before today's sea of Internet-bred personas became the norm.

Photo via YouTube
Remember those early-aughts dramatic paternity test episodes of Maury where some guest would appear for the 48th time to test the 300th man (stats that were probably, scratch that, most definitely made up to slut-shame the female guest seeking said test results)? It was always the same script. Maury Povich would sit there calm and collected, and pull test results from a manila envelope saying "you are/are not the father" to some unfortunately bum-ass dude, and the questioning mother would run backstage amid audience boos and jeers and collapse into a puddle of reality-show shame and tears. Isn't America wonderful?

I think it's fair to say that this nonsense was all scripted, which makes it art? Well, as the saying goes life imitates art, and now that you're with us, here is a real life-Maury story that couldn't be made up if we tried. You're probably well familiar with it by now:

In 2014, Jeremy Meeks was serving time for possessing a firearm, grand theft, and not to mention his gang afffilation with the Crips, when the then-30-year-old thirst trap's mugshot was posted to the Stockton Police Department's Facebook page and, promptly went viral, hence the nickname Hot Felon, because we all have eyes and can identify and confirm objectively the hotness of the subject in question. Aware of his own beauty and ability to leave mouths everywhere salivating, Meeks began a modeling career upon his release in 2016, after signing with Hollywood talent agents and a fashion agency called White Cross Management. He made his New York Fashion Week debut for the last spring's shows, and was called a "buff bad boy" by Vogue.

Somewhere in the middle of all this, Meeks met Topshop billionaire heiress Chloe Green, and they began dating. Meanwhile, his actual wife was giving teary interviews about how he'd left her and his first child behind to chase Green (literally) and fashion dreams. The Meekses officially split in October. Part of me doesn't knock Meeks' hustle, and part of me seriously wants to launch that Men Ain't Shit fashion line of hazmat suits I spoke of recently.

Anyway, Green is pregnant with her first child (Meeks' second). And that's the news. Yay to them! This entire Days Of Our Lives-esque saga be amazing tabloid fodder if it weren't true... oh wait.

Photo via Getty
Queen of high-drama pop Lorde is currently gracing the world with a tour supporting her album Melodrama. Last night, at a show in Chicago, she paid homage to another musical genius, Kanye West.

Related | Kanye West: In His Own Words

She covered two of his songs, "Love Lockdown" and "Runaway" during her 18-song set. Lorde performed "Love Lockdown" a cappella, and mashed up "Runaway" with her own track, "Liability." Pitchfork reports that she said, "It must be nice to come from the same place as Kanye West."



Check out her performances of "Love Lockdown" and "Runaway," below:





Image via Getty
At the height of the '90s, the Spice Girls were a cultural tour de force, influencing our catch phrases ("Girl Power!"), films (Spice World predicted fake reality TV), music (hello Fifth Harmony!) and of course, fashion. Now more than ever, '90s fashion is back in style, transformed from an ironic statement about nostalgia to a full-on revival that's taken over our closets and Instagram feeds. So it makes sense that the ludicrously tall platform Buffalo London shoes the women of the Spice Girls made famous have been re-launched  and be available for the first time ever in the United States.

"We are seeing such a distinct revival of everything that was cool in the '90s  from footwear to swimwear and athleisure, even the influential models of the 90's seem to be making a comeback," Alexandra Preusche, Global Marketing Director of Buffalo said. "Buffalo London was a premiere classic brand in that era, and with market demand at an all time high globally, re-introducing our limited iconic platform sneakers in this moment feels right."

First founded in 1979, Buffalo released its first sneaker in the early '80s and dropped the first Buffalo Classics platform sneaker (aka "sole 14") in 1995, a golden era for sneakerheads. The Buffalo "Hightower" and classic platform quickly became a signature look for the Spice Girls, and while more outrageous fashionistas may have rocked the look, platforms were largely relegated to the underground worlds of goths and ravers. Importantly, in the '90s Buffalos were only available in Europe, and eventually they were withdrawn from the market altogether (though a pair was exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum in New York).



Recognizing the resurgent popularity in platforms (and the piles of knockoffs littering our Instagram feeds), Buffalo's global re-introduction will be celebrated with a series of special edition drops of their classic sneakers, including the iconic platform.

Getty Images

"Style is an evolving form of art that borrows concepts and requires inspiration, so trends are almost always recycled from decades past," Preusche said. "Buffalo London was the original platform sneaker, and with major fashion brands like Balenciaga and Alexander Wang interpreting the trend we created in the '90s in their latest collections, I think we still own the trend."



Related | Spice World Was Peak Pop Culture Fandom

Recently, the brand has collaborated with the likes of Junya Watanabe and Comme des Garcons for Paris Fashion Week, Opening Ceremony and Patrick Mohr. The new special edition sneakers will drop each month in limited quantities and won't be re-stocked once they're sold out, so get yours soon at FarFetch, Luisa Via Roma and Opening Ceremony.

You can also check out this short film shot by Brian Scully in the NYC subway, starring Ruby Aldridge and Alieli May:

Photography by Soraya Zaman


Even if you haven't heard of The Wing, you've likely unwittingly come across their feminist memes on social media or recognize Jennifer Lawrence. The exclusive social club-cum-coworking space, which boasts 1,500 members, and its emphasis on women first has recently raised suspicion from the government.

The New York City Commission on Human Rights has announced they're investigating the club's policy for not only women-only membership but the fact the policy also extends to members, Jezebel reports. Founders Audrey Gelman and Lauren Kassan will have to make their case, given Title 8 of the Administrative Code of the City of New York prohibits discrimination in New York City with relation to employment, housing, and public accommodations. Discrimination, naturally, protects men and women.

There has reportedly only been three exemptions in the past decade, and considering The Wing's steadily rising profile (it recently raised $32 million in funding from WeWork and New Enterprise Associates and Jennifer Lawrence also stopped by last month), they might not get off so easily considering "refusing, withholding from or denying to such person the full and equal enjoyment, on equal terms and conditions, of any of the accommodations, advantages, facilities or privileges of the place or provider of public accommodation" violates New York law.

The Wing has also been criticized for its gender segregation policies, given that many individuals today identity as femme or non-binary.

Law professor at U.C. Berkeley, Melissa Murray, told Jezebel she thinks The Wing will survive the HRC's hot seat. "I think it's patently absurd for New York's human rights commission to be focusing on The Wing when we've had, over the last six months, numerous complaints about workplaces being absolutely hostile to women in terms of pervasive and endemic sexual harassment."

She continued: "Leaving aside the fact that so many workplaces seem to be rife with incidents of sexual harassment, now, after #MeToo, I think there are a lot of men in positions of authority who are going to be really skeptical and afraid to mentor women and that might make a space like this even more necessary."



Image via The Wing


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Today

Sunshine to start, then a few afternoon clouds. High 76F. Winds SSW at 10 to 20 mph..

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Showers this evening, becoming a steady rain overnight. Thunder possible. Low 47F. SSW winds shifting to NW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 80%.
Attorney Blocked From Taking on Human Rights Cases in Iran Calls For Revision of "Flawed" Law

03/28/18

Source: Center for Human Rights in Iran

A lawyer representing the family of an Iranian Canadian academic who recently died in an Iranian prison has joined the growing list of attorneys in Iran who have criticized the judiciary's decision to force citizens held on politically motivated charges to pick their lawyer from a list.



Iranian attorney Arash Keykhosravi



"Unfortunately, the law is flawed and we need to try to change it," attorney Arash Keykhosravi told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) on March 22, 2018.

"In several cases in recent months, my colleagues and I have been told that our names are not on the list, or they say our credentials need to be approved and eventually we have been rejected," he added.

"This is a problem in our laws and legislators should try to nullify or remove the exclusions in Article 48 because it's preventing fairness in the judicial process," said Keykhosravi.

In January 2018, judicial offices in several Iranian cities received lists of lawyers that have been allowed by the judicial branch to take on cases involving national security charges at the preliminary investigation stage.

Iran's Constitution sets no limits or conditions on the right to legal counsel.

Article 35 states, "Both parties to a lawsuit have the right in all courts of law to select an attorney, and if they are unable to do so, arrangements must be made to provide them with legal counsel."

According to Article 48 of Iran's Criminal Procedures Regulations, people have the right to ask for and have a meeting with a lawyer as soon as they are detained. However, the "Note to Article 48" makes exceptions: "In cases of crimes against internal or external security...during the investigation phase, the parties to the dispute are to select their attorneys from a list approved by the head of the judiciary."

"We [lawyers] are unable to take on security cases, although I've noticed that many of these cases have nothing to do with national security because the country's security has not been harmed or threatened," Keykhosravi told CHRI.

"Many of these cases have been pointlessly labeled as security cases. This has roots in our history and authoritarian culture and the authorities have no tolerance for listening to opposing voices," he added.

Keykhosravi's clients include the families of Kavous Seyed-Emami and Mohammad Raji, two of the five victims who died in state custody in Iran between January and March 2018.

Keykhosravi has been blocked from officially representing human rights lawyer Mohammad Najafi, who is facing several national security charges for telling media outlets that local police were concealing the real cause of his client's death in custody.

"In response to our inquiries regarding Mr. Najafi's case, we were told that we are not on the judiciary's list of authorized lawyers," Payam Derafshan, Najaf's other lawyer, told CHRI on March 10, 2018.

"The judicial authorities showed me a list of seven lawyers who have been approved to take these cases in Markazi Province," he added. "Now we are requesting that the Parliament investigate why, out of thousands of licensed lawyers, only seven have received approval?"

On March 12, 2018, Ali Mojtahedzadeh, the counsel of an imprisoned Telegram news channel administrator, also said he had been denied the right to defend his client due to the Note to Article 48.

"When I went to Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran, the presiding judge told me that he needs to check my credentials and later I was told that the judiciary chief had rejected me," he said.

In March 2018, three human rights lawyers based in Iran explained to CHRI why the Note to Article 48 impedes justice in the Islamic Republic.

"It's like telling someone you can get an operation from only three surgeons selected by us, not any of the thousands of other doctors in the city," prominent human rights defender Nasrin Sotoudeh told CHRI.

"The judiciary chief's [Sadegh Larijani's] ill-conceived action is a dangerous precedent," she added. "In a big province such as West Azerbaijan, where there are more than 3,000 lawyers, only 32 have been put on an approved list."
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Dalex Finance, Ken Thompson, has given his plain diagnosis of the state of Ghana's macroeconomy, describing it as frail.



Speaking at the CIMG-hosted event, Ken Thompson engaged in a hypothetical conversation with the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta where he sought to show that the cedi was overvalued using the Big Mac Index -- published by The Economist to measure purchasing power parity (PPP) between two currencies.



According to the Dalex Finance CEO, the overvalued cedi made Ghanaian exports expensive and non-competitive, while imports were relatively cheap.



He notes that this development results in stunted economic development and unemployment.



Ken Thompson makes the case that the trickle-down effect of the overvalued cedi will jeopardize most, if not all government policies including thePlanting for Food and Jobs programme.



He said the polices are likely to be non-competitive because of the overvalued cedi.



Ken Thompson argues that the state of Ghanas economy started experiencing challenges since 2017.



We spent almost 100% of all our revenue including grants on three line items as follows: compensation to employees, interest payments, and, statutory payments, example GETFund, District Assemblies Common Fund, and NHIS."



Mr Thompson also raised concerns over the rise in government expenditure which he described as worrying.



Since we spend over 100% of our revenue on these 3 items, all our other expenditure is done from monies borrowed. We are borrowing to fund consumption and not to fund investment.



"Our debt is piling up (70% of GDP), and, we may not be in a position to repay in future. Even before then, any natural or man-made disaster could send us into a default tailspin of government obligations causing intolerable hardship, widespread business failures, and mass unemployment, he stated.



Solutions



Touching on the solutions that the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Attah, should take to rescue the sinking ship, Ken Thompson stated that increasing taxes and reintroducing property rates could deal with the issues of revenue generation once and for all.



We are not likely to reduce our expenditure on salaries in the short term, and even though there has been some capping of statutory obligations the net effect is negligible. Our only hope is to increase revenue in the short to medium term in order to fund consumption expenditure, he stated.



He is, therefore, expecting the government to get the informal sector to start paying individual taxes, enforce evidence of tax payment on property registration, for example, vehicle registration, company registration, land title registration and increase taxes across board especially property taxes.



"That is our hope in the short term, and reduction in profligate spending, example stopping the purchase of numerous Toyota Land Cruisers that cost over GHC 600,000 each, he admonished.

Source: JFM/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.

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Former COCOBOD CEO, Dr. Stephen Opuni, has been granted bail by an Accra High court hearing 27 charges against him including causing financial loss to the state.



His self-recognizance bail is to the tune of 300,000 cedis, the judge ruled and directed he deposits his passport with the CID Headquarters in Accra.



He is also to report himself to the CID any time he wishes to travel outside the country.



Second accused, Seidu Agongo, was also granted self-recognizance bail to the tune of 300,000 cedis and is to follow the same directives given Dr. Opuni.



His counsel Samuel Cudjoe told a packed Accra High Court his client's entitlement to bail is a settled matter in law and several cases.



Samuel Cudjoe explained Dr. Opuni has been very cooperative with the prosecution since EOCO began investigating him in 2016.



"He is ever willing and ready to appear before the court".



Dr. Opuni, he said, although the Monday start of the trial was given him at very short notice, his client still showed up.



He continued that investigators know his home in Accra including his ancestral home in Dormaa Ahenkro.



In a trial that lasted close to three hours, the legal counsel said his client will be in a race against time to complete the normal bail procedure if the court granted the bail.



After 2pm, he prayed the court Cudjoe that if granted bail, his client be allowed to go home although the bail procedure has not been completed.



The lawyer said he would continue the process Tuesday.









Source: Joy News









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.

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National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for the Odododiodoo Constituency, Edwin Nii Lante Vanderpuije is alleging that New Patriotic Party (NPP) Majority Members of Parliament approved the Ghana-US military pact under serious compulsion.



He also claimed that all NPP MPs were called to the seat of government, the Flagstaff House, to meet with President Akufo-Addo to deliberate on how to execute the plan ahead of laying the Bill in parliament for approval.



The said meeting according to Nii Lante Vanderpuije took place on Monday before President Akufo-Addo left Ghana to Rwanda to attend the African Union Summit.



He said some of the NPP MPs who did not agree to the approval of the deal because it was not in the best interest of the country were threatened that the presidency will ensure they lose their parliamentary seats come election 2020.



The Odododiodoo lawmaker was speaking in an interview with Samuel Eshun on the Gold Power Drive Tuesday.



A one-sided parliament on Friday, March 23, 2018, ratified the 2018, controversial Defence Cooperation agreement between Ghana and the US.



It comes after the Minority side stormed out of the Law Chamber, leaving the ruling NPP MPs to rubberstamp the pact late in the night before parliament rose for recess.



This is despite the massive public protest against the deal which many including the largest opposition described as dangerous and a sale of Ghanas sovereignty.



The Government of Ghana, according to a leaked document, has approved the agreement with the US to set up a military base in Ghana and also allow unrestricted access to a host of facilities and wide-ranging tax exemptions to the United States Militarya claim the government of Ghana and the US denied.

Source: radiogold905.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.

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The General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia has said that the party does not trust that the head of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) to conduct a clean investigations into the arrest of the Deputy General Secretary of the party, Koku Anyidoho.



According to him, the party lost confidence in ASP Tiwaah Addo-Danquah after an audio that made rounds on social media suggested that she is in that position to protect the government of Nana Akufo-Addo.



Our problem is that Maame Tiwaa Addo-Danquah has already compromised herself in an investigationwe have a bigger problem which is that the one who will lead investigations has already compromised herself, he said on Asempa FMs Ekosii Sen Tuesday.



The tough-talking NDC politician was picked up at the Accra International Press Center by plain-clothed officers.



The NDC was holding a press conference to react to the controversial Ghana-US Military Cooperation agreement when the personnel in police uniform sought to arrest Koku Anyidoho.



Asiedu Nketia and NDC Chairman, Kofi Portuphy, however refused to hand him over to the men and rather escorted him to the Police Headquarters.



According to Asiedu Nketia, the leadership of the NDC upon arrival at the Police headquarters handed Anyidoho over to the Police CID.



Interestingly, Asiedu Nketia said the NDC does not trust the head of the CID as she has proven to be a sympathizer of the NPP government.



Reacting to the comments of Asiedu Nketia, the Youth Organiser of the NPP, Sammi Awuku, said the claims of the NDC scribe lacks merit as according to him, the CID Boss is a professional police personnel.



Maame Tiwaah is one of the most decorated Police that we have currently, she joined the police service when the NPP was not in power and won awards under Rawlings, she said.

Source: ghanaweb.com









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Dr Stephen Opuni, a former Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) and any other persons suspected to have caused financial loss to the state, should be granted amnesty and made to refund the monies they allegedly acquired fraudulent, to be used for developmental projects, Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong has said.



Mr Agyapong, who has been advocating the arrest of Dr Opuni for alleged corrupt practices, has, in a U-turn disclosed that he is not happy with his arrest.



Im not happy that hes [Dr Opuni] going to court, Mr Agyapong stated.



In my opinion, they should have given amnesty to everybody they suspect has caused financial loss to the state to refund some of the money which we can use for development. If you jail the person for even 25 years as they are saying, when he comes back from jail, hes still rich and you havent done anything. So, for me, if they were first granted amnesty and then if you are stubborn and refuse to refund the money or part of it, then you can be jailed, the lawmaker said on Ekosii Sen, a current affairs programme on Accra-based Asempa FM on Tuesday, 27 March 2018.



Dr Opuni, businessman Seidu Agongo and AgriCult Ghana Company Limited, are facing 27 charges of willfully causing financial loss of GHS217million to the state, through three separate fertiliser supply contracts between 2014 and 2016.



The contracts were GHS43.1million (2013/2014 cocoa farming season), GHS75.3million (2014/2015 cocoa farming season) and GHS98.9million (2015/2016 cocoa farming season) totalling GHS217million through sole-sourcing, the state claimed, adding that procurement procedures for sole-sourcing were not followed.



According to the charges, the consignments of Lithovit Foliar were produced locally, contrary to an agreement between COCOBOD and AgriCult Ghana Company Limited that it be sourced from Germany.



Also, the Attorney General claims the fertilisers were manufactured without registration, thereby, flouting the Plants and Fertiliser Act 2010.



The two men have pleaded not guilty to the charges levelled against them. They will reappear at the Accra High court on 11 April 2018 to continue the case.







Source: classfmonline.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.

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Outspoken Assin Central MP and business mogul, Hon. Kennedy 'Akompreko' Agyepong has declared his full support for Henry Nana Boakye (Nana B) in the NPP's National Youth Organizer contest.



Kennedy Agyepong was speaking on 'Boiling point', a flagship political program on Oman fm when he gave this huge endorsement to Nana B.



He attested to Nana B's hard work and huge popularity among the grassroot, his charisma and communication skills.



He also indicated that the 'NYAME NSA WOMU' fever has caught up with the youth in every part of the country he had been recently.



"I listen to the grassroot all the time and everywhere I go, I hear the party people say *NYAME NSA WOMU,* and all they say is we are for Nana B Indeed, Nana B you shall be the next NPP youth organizer."



Kennedy AGYAPONG said this on Oman FM's boiling point.



Political pundits, particularly those following the NPP's National Youth Organizer contest say this is great boost for Nana B's campaign. They cite Ken Agyepong's huge appeal among the NPP's grassroots and his overwhelming influence in the NPP for this assertion.



Nana B has over the period received widespread endorsements from many stalwarts of the NPP. Former General Secretary of the the NPP, Lawyer Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie popularly known as Sir John and Hon Maxwell Kofi Jumah recently declared their support for Nana B.



The latest endorsement from Kennedy Agyepong is coming on the heels of Nana B's health Walk in Kwahu this Easter, starting on Saturday 31st March from Obomeng through Mpraeso to Atibie and back to Mpraeso palace for the health screening exercise.

Attachments area





Source: Peacefmonline









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It used to be some parents asked their children to get newspaper routes. But a dad in western Pennsylvania stands accused of telling his 14-year-old daughter to sell marijuana in a public park.

According to the Observer-Reporter, Kevin Lee Mick, 43, of Washington County, Pa., allegedly asked his daughter to sell a bag of pot to a man in a park for $150.

The plot was uncovered when Mick's 14-year-old daughter bragged about her new job to two other girls in the Burgettstown Community Park. The girl allegedly pulled several bags of the drug from a book bag, the newspaper reports, citing police.

At one point, the girl allegedly threw a bag of suspected marijuana on a dirt trail off Plum Run Road, which was later found by police when the two young witnesses told the whole story to the cops and took them to the location.

But by then, police say five children between the ages of 7 and 14 had eaten some marijuana at the park.

The girl's book bag was later found in Mick's vehicle, and inside it were a pipe and a bag of suspected marijuana, police said.

Mick faces charges of endangering the welfare of children, possession, possession with intent to deliver marijuana, and corruption of minors in the case.

Police told the Observer-Reporter similar charges were pending against the girl's mother, as well.
The partial meltdown of the Unit 2 reactor at Three Mile Island nuclear generating plant in Londonderry Township happened on March 28, 1979.

According to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, "This was the most serious accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant operating history, although its small radioactive releases had no detectable health effects on plant workers or the public. Its aftermath brought about sweeping changes involving emergency response planning, reactor operator training, human factors engineering, radiation protection, and many other areas of nuclear power plant operations. It also caused the NRC to tighten and heighten its regulatory oversight. All of these changes significantly enhanced U.S. reactor safety.

A combination of equipment malfunctions, design-related problems and worker errors led to TMI-2's partial meltdown and very small off-site releases of radioactivity."

The accident began about 4 a.m. on March 28.

Here is a timeline of the significant events published by PennLive in 2015:

March 28, 1979: 4 a.m.

A minor malfunction in the non-nuclear part of Unit 2 occurs, triggering a series of automated responses in the reactor's coolant system, including the opening of a relief valve on top of the pressurizer to relieve pressure.

The relief valve fails to close automatically when the pressure drops. Control room operators misread the situation, and mistakenly believe coolant is being pumped into the system. Meanwhile, the valve remains open for 2 1/4 hours as precious reactor coolant spews out. An automated emergency cooling system also is turned off.

March 28, 1979: 6:48 a.m.

High radiation levels exist in several areas of the plant, and evidence indicates as much as two-thirds of the 12-foot-high core has stood uncovered. A partial meltdown of the fuel bundles occurs. Shortly before 7 a.m. a site emergency is declared - a requirement when some event threatens 'an uncontrolled release of radioactivity to the immediate environment.'

State authorities, the Dauphin County Office of Emergency Preparedness, other nearby counties and the state police are alerted.

March 28, 1979: 7:24 a.m.

A general emergency is declared. This is defined as an 'incident which has the potential for serious radiological consequences to the health and safety of the public.' At 8:25 a.m., WKBO, a Harrisburg Top 40 music station, is the first to broadcast news of a potential problem at Three Mile Island but one which, the station's reporter was told, presented no danger to the general public.

March 28, 1979: 12:45 p.m.

State Police close Route 441 to traffic near TMI at the request of the state Bureau of Radiation Protection. An hour later, the U.S. Department of Energy begins its first helicopter flight to monitor radiation levels.

March 28, 1979: 1:50 p.m.

A noise described as 'a thud' is heard in the Unit 2 control room. The 'thud' was the sound of a hydrogen explosion inside the containment building. At the time, however, the noise was dismissed as the slamming of a ventilation damper.

News media flood into the area throughout the afternoon. Metropolitan Edison Company officials are unprepared for the media barrage; the media is unprepared to cope with the complicated technology.

March 29, 1979: Morning

The initial alarm gives way to a wait-and-see attitude. The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency is told periodically throughout the day that the situation is improving. Lt. Gov. William P. Scranton III tours the Unit 2 control room and auxiliary building in the afternoon. Members of the local congressional delegation are briefed by the NRC and Metropolitan Edison officials. Gov. Dick Thornburgh holds a news conference at which an NRC official says the danger for people in the area of Three Mile Island is over.

March 29, 1979: 6:30 p.m.

NRC officials are told that the core damage is far more substantial than expected. At 10 p.m., the governor's office is told of the new information by the NRC, which indicates that a greater possibility of radiation releases exists.

March 30, 1979: Morning

Bureaucratic snafus, vivid imaginations, poor communication among officials and overeager news reporting are later determined to be responsible for reports that there had been high radiation releases. The NRC recommends Thornburgh order an evacuation, but soon afterward NRC Chairman Joseph Hendrie assures Thornburgh that no evacuation is needed. However, Hendrie suggests that all people within 5 miles downwind of the plant be urged to stay indoors.

March 30, 1979: 10 a.m.

A siren is mistakenly activated in downtown Harrisburg. A short time later, Gov. Dick Thornburgh issues an advisory that all people within 10 miles of the plant stay inside.

March 30, 1979: 12:30 p.m.

Gov. Thornburgh, receiving conflicting information, advises pregnant women and preschool children to leave the area within a 5-mile radius of Three Mile Island. Schools in the area close after the advisory is issued. Penn State Harrisburg cancels classes for a week. Many residents decide to leave the area.

Thornburgh asks President Carter to dispatch a single expert upon whom he can rely for advice and technical information.

Police are placed on alert and residents are told to stay indoors with windows closed and ventilation systems turned off. Local EMA officials go on the radio to tell people what they should take with them if an evacuation is ordered.

March 30, 1979: 2 p.m.

Harold Denton, the NRC troubleshooter dispatched by President Jimmy Carter, arrives at Three Mile Island. By now, NRC officials have realized that a hydrogen bubble has formed in the Unit 2 reactor. Officials say there is a 'remote' possibility that the bubble could force down vital cooling water, exposing the reactor core and causing a meltdown.

March 31, 1979: 2:45 p.m.

Joseph M. Hendrie, then NRC chairman, says at a news briefing that a precautionary evacuation of residents within a 20-mile radius might be necessary if engineers are to attempt to force the bubble out of the reactor. Later in the day, President Carter announces he plans to visit TMI the following day. The same day, people being to leave the area.

March 31, 1979: 8:23 p.m.

The Associated Press reports, based on information from several NRC sources, that the hydrogen bubble might become a potentially explosive mixture within a matter of days. Denton assures reporters at a late evening news conference that there 'is no imminent catastrophic event foreseeable.'

March 31, 1979: Evening

One-quarter of the area's 950,000 residents have packed suitcases, withdrawn money from banks and fled the area.

April 1, 1979

President Jimmy Carter tours TMI and addresses Middletown residents in the Middletown Borough community building. Carter, center and his wife, Rosalynn Carter, far left, leave the borough building escorted by the Secret Service.

On the same day, area parish priests grant general absolution during Sunday Mass. Granting of such absolution is usually restricted to war or other circumstances when it may be impossible for people to make individual confessions of their sins to a priest.

Area hospitals are accepting only emergency admissions to clear beds in the event an evacuation is required.

April 2, 1979

Harold Denton, the NRC troubleshooter announces that the hydrogen bubble has shrunk dramatically.

April 3, 1979

Harold Denton announces that the hydrogen bubble has been eliminated. Later studies show the bubble had probably been eliminated two days earlier. The Federal Reserve announces that it has dispatched large sums of cash to area banks that had seen a large number of people withdraw cash.

April 4, 1979

Thornburgh, appearing on the NBC 'Today' show, announced that the 'threat of any immediate catastrophe is over.'

A Senate subcommittee begins investigating the accident.

April 9, 1979

The precautionary evacuation advisory for pregnant women and preschoolers is lifted.

The current status of TMI, according to the NRC, is:

"Today, the TMI-2 reactor is permanently shut down and all its fuel had been removed. The reactor coolant system is fully drained and the radioactive water decontaminated and evaporated. The accident's radioactive waste was shipped off-site to an appropriate disposal area, and the reactor fuel and core debris was shipped to the Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory. In 2001, FirstEnergy acquired TMI-2 from GPU. FirstEnergy has contracted the monitoring of TMI-2 to Exelon, the current owner and operator of TMI-1."

Last year Exelon announced that TMI would close in September 2019.
WASHINGTON -- Still angry about the budget deal he signed last week, President Donald Trump has floated the idea of using the military's budget to pay for his long-promised border wall with Mexico, despite the fact that such spending would likely require approval from Congress.

Trump raised the funding plan with House Speaker Paul Ryan at a meeting at the White House last Wednesday, according to a person familiar with the discussion who spoke on condition of anonymity.

And he's publicly tweeted that building "a great Border Wall" is "all about National Defense," and called to "Build WALL through M!", meaning the military.

Departments, however, have limited authority to reprogram funds without congressional approval. Pentagon spokesman Chris Sherwood referred all questions on the wall to the White House, where spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders deflected them, saying she was "not going to get into the specifics of that."

Trump threw Washington into a tizzy on Friday when he threatened to veto the omnibus spending bill, in part because it didn't include the $25 billion he'd tried to secure for the wall in a last-minute bargaining spree.

READ MORE: Trump views designs for border wall that would stop '99 percent' of illegal immigration

The $1.3 trillion funding package did include $1.6 billion in border wall spending. But much of that money can only be used to repair existing segments, not build new sections. Congress also put restrictions on the types of barriers that can be built.

Trump has tried to justify signing the deal by pointing to the boost in funding it provides for the military. But he nonetheless remains frustrated, according to people familiar with his thinking, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Trump first publicly floated the idea of having the Pentagon pay for the rest of construction in an obscure tweet that left many confused.

"Building a great Border Wall, with drugs [poison] and enemy combatants pouring into our Country, is all about National Defense," he wrote Sunday. "Build WALL through M!"

He retweeted his message again Monday night.

Some people close to the president have also suggested creating a GoFundMe campaign that Trump could use to raise money from the public to fund construction. The White House did not immediately respond to questions about the idea, and it's unclear whether it has gained any serious traction.

Congress, under the Constitution, has the power to determine federal appropriations, and the administration has little authority to shift funding without congressional approval. The Senate Appropriations Committee was not aware of any authority that would allow the Defense Department to fund the wall without congressional approval, said a GOP aide.

Sanders said Tuesday that Trump would work with the White House counsel to make sure any action taken was within his executive authority. And she insisted the "continuation of building the wall is ongoing and we're going to continue moving forward in that process."

Building the wall was one of Trump's top campaign promises, and the idea that drew the loudest cheers from supporters at his rallies. Trump also insisted he'd make Mexico pay for the construction. But Mexico has made clear it has no intention of doing so directly.

Trump has also proposed making Mexico pay for the wall indirectly through measures such as increasing visa fees, imposing new tariffs and targeting remittances.

__

Jill Colvin of the Associated Press wrote the story. Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro and Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report
Dr. H. Fred Walker on Tuesday told the Board of Governors of Pennsylvania's State System of Higher Education that he will resign as president of Edinboro University of Pennsylvania effective Friday.

He has served as Edinboro's president since July 2016 but recent comments in a story published in The Chronicle of High Education generated calls for his removal from staff and students.

That article, according to a followup story, quoted Walker as describing the university's unionized professors both as allies to be won over and as obstacles to be worked around. Walker did this, he told the reporter, by a "boot camp" strategy that was designed to break the institution down to its lowest level before trying to build it back up.

One student started a petition calling for his resignation that drew more than 700 signatures in a couple of days, according to a story on edinboronow.com

"We thank Dr. Walker for his service to Edinboro University over the past two years," State System Interim Chancellor Dr. Karen M. Whitney said in a press release. "I respect his decision and wish him well."

Dr. Michael J. Hannan, the university's provost and vice president for academic affairs, will serve as acting president at Edinboro following Walker's departure and pending further action by the board, which is responsible for hiring the presidents of the 14 State System universities.

"We are pleased that Dr. Hannan is both willing and well prepared to lead Edinboro," Whitney said. "It is my intention to recommend that he be named interim president to ensure stable, consistent leadership for the university."

Hannan has been at Edinboro for almost 30 years, first joining the faculty in 1988. He later served for eight years as chair of the Department of Business and Economics before being appointed associate dean of the College of Arts & Sciences and the School of Science, Management & Technology, the release said.
Can a broom be a deadly weapon?

Of course it can, a state appeals court has ruled, especially if you use it to beat a woman after breaking into her friend's apartment.

That was the scenario Judge Jack A. Panella cited in a Superior Court opinion that swept away an appeal by Ricky Ridell Washington, who is serving 8 1/2 to 17 years behind bars on convictions for burglary, aggravated assault and possessing an instrument of crime.

According to Panella, Washington broke into the Chester County home of his female cousin Renee Byrd in January 2016 and beat her and her friend Chekesha Pate with his fists.

Washington threatened to kill Byrd, then "he picked up a broom with a hollow metal handle and repeatedly struck Pate on her thigh with the handle," Panella wrote.

"The force of the blow bent and split the handle in two. Pate suffered a large bruise to her thigh. She had difficulty for walking for several days," the judge added.

Washington, 37, of Coatesville, claimed on appeal that his aggravated assault conviction isn't valid because he didn't possess a deadly weapon. The broom didn't fit that description because it wasn't capable of causing death or serious injury, he argued.

Panella called Washington's argument "well crafted," but found it to be futile nonetheless.

"We conclude the jury was justified in finding that the manner in which the broomstick was used...was 'calculated to' cause serious bodily injury," Panella wrote.
The Pennsylvania Office of Open Records has ruled that autopsy reports and other records that county coroners must file in the county Prothonotary's office each year are open to the public.

The ruling came after the Lancaster County coroner's office directed PennLive to a website to view statistics from the coroner's report, but denied the news organization access to 2017 autopsy and toxicology reports. PennLive appealed the denial.

County officials maintained that autopsy and toxicological reports are exempt from disclosure under the state's Right to Know Law. The coroner's office said the records contain "health information not suitable for release to the public."

But the Open Records Office said that's trumped by the state Coroner's Act, which requires coroners each year to "deposit all of his official records and papers for the preceding year in the office of the prothonotary for the inspection of all persons interested therein."

The state Supreme Court has held that records pertaining to a coroner's duties, including autopsy reports, are among the "official records and papers" that must be filed annually, the Open Records office noted.

The Lancaster district attorney's office also argued that the coroner reports include 13 homicide deaths that are under investigation, and for that reason are exempt from the Right to Know Law.

While documents in criminal investigations in the hands of law enforcement agencies may be exempt from disclosure, information in the coroner's reports must be provided, said the Office of Open Records ruling.

The Open Records Office said the Coroner's Act also makes the documents immediately available to any member of the public willing to pay a fee to obtain them.

The office ordered Lancaster County to make the records available within 30 days. The county has the right to appeal the decision within that period.
SUNBURY - A former Sunbury police officer who gave her department-issued cell phone to her son to use for 45 days has been found guilty of conspiracy to tamper with evidence.

A Northumberland County jury of 10 men and two men Tuesday evening returned its verdict that also acquitted Jamie L. Quinn of a theft count.

Earlier in the day, Senior Snyder-Union County Judge Harold F. Woelfel Jr. dismissed charges of tampering with evidence and another theft count.

After the verdict, Quinn's father profanely lashed out at Deputy Attorney General Nicole Forzato, who prosecuted the case. John Quinn had to be escorted from the courtroom.

Woelfel had him brought back into the courtroom, held him in contempt and fined him $1,000.

Jamie Quinn, 45, was charged after state police found on the cell phone her son David had at Line Mountain High School on Dec. 1, 2016, an explicit picture of a 17-year-old girl.

"I was kind of taken back," Trooper Nathan Messner responded when asked his reaction when he learned the phone belonged to Sunbury police.

During the two-day trial there was testimony Quinn had instructed her son to delete the image and tell police he had not viewed it.

The picture had been deleted before police seized the phone, but text messages between Quinn and her son were recovered and he read them for the jury.

In a Nov. 28, 2016, text he asked his mother for advice about the photo, which was of his former girlfriend. The picture was sent to him by someone else, David Quinn said.

When he spoke to Quinn on Dec. 1, 2016, to seek permission to question her son at the school, she said she was aware of the explicit picture, Messner testified.

Quinn admitted she gave the police-issued phone to her son so she could contact him after his father took the teen's phone.

Sunbury police Capt. Steven Bennick testified Quinn, who joined the force in 1995, did not have permission to give the phone to her son.

He and Chief Timothy S. Miller said they detected deception when Quinn came to police headquarters to surrender the phone at state police request.

She changed her version twice on whether she had told her son to delete the image and text messages, they said.

After she turned in the phone, she was suspended and escorted from the building, they said.

Woelfel dismissed the tampering charge after defense attorney Tim Bowers argued his client could not have deleted anything from the cell phone because her son was the only one to have it for 45 days.

Quinn remains free pending sentencing, the date of which has not been set.

Quinn, who joined the force in 1995, was demoted in December 2016 from corporal to officer when she refused a direct order from Bennick to turn in her Taser weapon.

All members of the force were told to turn in their stun weapons when it was discovered the certification to use them had lapsed, Miller said.

Then Mayor David L. Persing fired Quinn last August for violating department rules and regulations.

Reasons he cited included letting her son use her city-issued cell phone and refusing to return her Taser when ordered.

Quinn has a gender discrimination complaint pending with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission.

She accused the city of wanting to exclude females from supervisory positions in the police department after she was not considered for promotion to captain.
WILLIAMSPORT - State police did not break the federal wiretap law when they recorded personal conversations a trooper had with his wife while he was on desk duty.

That was the decision Tuesday of U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan E. Schwab, who dismissed a complaint filed by Darrin Ott by granting a defense motion for summary judgment.

A provision of the wiretap law excludes recordings made by law enforcement, the judge wrote.

Ott's suit filed in 2014 also raised the issue of the disclosure of the contents of his conversations because others listened to the recordings.

A violation occurs only if a person intentionally discloses contents knowing they were obtained through a wiretap law violation, Schwab wrote. There was no wiretap violation in this case, she said.

The basis of the suit were conversations that Ott, then a corporal and patrol supervisor, had with his wife while he was assigned to desk duty at the Coudersport station on March 16, 2012.

He claimed he was unaware calls on the line he used were recorded.

Sgt. Larry E. Goodwin, then station commander, stated in a deposition the recorded calls were reviewed in an attempt to identify the sender of an anonymous letter sent to the home of a clerk at the station.

The clerk got the letter on March 29, 2012, after she and others at the barracks had received hang-up calls.

During a conversation Ott had with his wife they discussed the need for an envelope and to have something in the mail before the Coudersport Post Office closed.

That led to allegations the couple might be involved in the anonymous letter, but an investigation showed that was not the case.

Ott had sued Goodwin, who retired in 2016, the clerk and two troopers, who listened to the recordings because they had received hang-up calls.

Schwab pointed out state police on occasion had reviewed recordings of telephone conversations to confirm information and to finish a written report.

She declined to accept jurisdiction of Ott's claims of violation of the state wiretap law and intentional infliction of emotional distress. If he wants to pursue them, he will have to do it in state court.
David Chartrand, president of the Manitoba Metis Federation, takes part in a press conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Friday March 8, 2013. The Manitoba Metis Federation says it is planning legal action over a proposed $67-million deal with Manitoba Hydro that was quashed by the provincial government last week . THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
Manon Marchand and Raymond Bissonnette, left, the parents of Alexandre Bissonnette, leave the courtroom under escort after their son Alexandre Bissonnette pleaded guilty for the 2017 mosque shooting, Wednesday, March 28, 2018 at the hall of justice in Quebec City. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot
A Meissner Radio Recorder used by musicologist Ida Halpern to document and preserve First Nations language and music at the BC Archives during a ceremony for the first inscriptions to the Canada Memory of the World Register at the Royal BC Museum in Victoria, B.C., on Tuesday, March 27, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito
Researchers check out a dead right whale in the Gulf of St.Lawrence in a handout photo. Ottawa is changing the dates of the snow crab season and making a speed limit in the Gulf of St. Lawrence permanent in a bid to protect the heavily endangered North Atlantic right whales. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Department of Fisheries and Oceans MANDATORY CREDIT
Brandon Phillips sits the in Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador in St. John's on Thursday Dec. 1, 2016. A Newfoundland man found guilty in the fatal shooting of a Good Samaritan who tried to intervene in a bar robbery has filed an appeal of his murder conviction. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sue Bailey
Premier Stephen McNeil, right, chats with Geoff MacLellan, government house leader, before he delivers the state-of-the-province speech at a business luncheon in Halifax on February 7, 2018. The Nova Scotia government has introduced legislation that would make it easier for Acadian and black candidates to get elected in certain provincial ridings. Government house leader Geoff MacLellan tabled the amendments to the House of Assembly Act today in the provincial legislature. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan
FILE - This file photo released Saturday, March 24, 2018, by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows Syrian government forces overseeing the evacuation by buses of rebel fighters and their families in Arbeen, in the eastern Ghouta region near Damascus, Syria. In the spring of 2015, the Army of Islam rebel group held a massive military parade that included thousands of opposition fighters marching in formation and a striking display of tanks and armored vehicles in the town of Douma, at the doors of the Syrian capital. Now, the Army of Islam stands alone in eastern Ghouta, its fighters facing a stark choice: Surrender or die. (SANA via AP, File)
FILE - In this April 30, 2014, file photo, retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens testifies on the ever-increasing amount of money spent on elections as he appears before the Senate Rules Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington. Stevens is calling for the repeal of the Second Amendment to allow for significant gun control legislation. The 97-year-old Stevens says in an essay on The New York Times website that repeal would weaken the National Rifle Association's ability to "block constructive gun control legislation." (AP Photo)
Three North Korean soldiers look at the South side as a South Korean soldier stands at the border village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone, South Korea, Wednesday, March 28, 2018. (Shin Jun-hee/Yonhap via AP)
FILE - In this Feb. 4, 2018, file photo, New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski answers questions during a news conference ahead of the Super Bowl, in Minneapolis. Police have arrested a second suspect in connection with a burglary at Gronkowski's Massachusetts home while he was at the Super Bowl. Authorities say 28-year-old Eric Tyrell, who was wanted on two counts of receiving stolen property, turned himself in Tuesday, March 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)
FILE- In this Feb. 9, 2015 file photo Harvey Weinstein speaks during a press conference for the film "Woman in Gold" at the 2015 Berlinale Film Festival in Berlin. Weinstein's former assistant Zelda Perkins said during an interview with The Associated Press Tuesday March 27, 2018, she tried to stop him abusing women two decades ago, making him sign a legal agreement that required him to seek therapy and mend his ways. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn, FILE)
FILE - In this May 19, 2017 file photo, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange closes a window after greeting supporters from the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Ecuadorean officials announced Wednesday, March 28, 2018, that they are cutting off Assange's communications to the outside. Assange has been living in Ecuador's embassy for more than five years. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, File)
In this March 26, 2018, photo provided March 28, 2018, by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, left, and his wife Ri Sol Ju, rear right, are greeted on arrival at Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing. North Korea's leader Kim and his Chinese counterpart Xi sought to portray strong ties between the long-time allies despite a recent chill as both countries on Wednesday, March 28, 2018, confirmed Kim's secret trip to Beijing this week. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
A Beijing lab is developing a smart system for military vehicles that researchers believe could revolutionize driving in all kinds of terrain and conditions, reports said Tuesday.

A microchip a few centimeters in size empowers the system to realize accurate real-time sensing of the driving environment, researchers at the Second Academy of the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation told Science and Technology Daily on Tuesday.

Its deep neural network can help the driver to detect blurry objects and obstacles ahead by filtering out distractions such as backlighting and shadows, the Beijing-based newspaper reported.

The team is working on an intelligent sensor to enable military vehicles to move at night without lighting or in changeable lighting, the paper said.

The sensor will also perform in all weathers by combining and computing algorithmic data about visible light, infrared and millimeter wave radar, the report said.

"The sensor can help reduce driver misjudgment in extreme conditions such as a dark environment and complex terrain, which can greatly improve the movement speed," Song Zhongping, a military expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times.

Drivers should still attain a high capability to judge a complicated situation, Song noted, and should not rely on the assistance even though the smart system should boost safety.

The system will enter small-scale production by the end of 2018, project team leader Guo Rui was quoted as saying.

The accuracy of the intelligent driving system was 90.05 percent and it took 0.03 seconds to process an image whereas the record is 90.55 percent and 4 seconds, the report said.

The technology could improve safety in civilian vehicles, Jia Xinguang, executive director at the China Automobile Dealers Association, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

"For example, the car can automatically stop when it encounters a pedestrian or barriers even in bad conditions such as dark night where a human possibly might not notice."

Jia suggested research begin on cutting costs for civilian use.

The market for advanced driver assistance will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 10.44 percent from 2016 to 2021, according to MarketsandMarkets, an India-based market research firm. The market is expected to reach $42.40 billion by 2021.
Win Myint, newly elected president of Myanmar, left, and Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi leave the parliament in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Wednesday, March 28, 2018. Myanmar's parliament has elected Win Myint, a loyalist of Aung San Suu Kyi, as new president. Suu Kyi, who formal title is state counsellor, has retained her executive authority over the government. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo)
A man dances as women sing national songs in front of a polling station during the second day of the presidential in Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday, March 27, 2018. Egyptians were voting Tuesday on the second day of a lackluster election that President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi is virtually certain to win after all serious rivals were either arrested or intimidated into dropping out of the race ahead of balloting. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
Pirates play to win against Blackcats Perryville football has had a flair for the dramatic this season. This past week was no different as they held on late for a 21-14 victory over Fredericktown on Friday at Pirate Stadium. Perryville 

St. Vincent keeps foot on the gas in victory St. Vincent made quick work of Herculaneum in week four. The Indians got off to a quick start and kept it rolling as they dispatched of the Blackcats 49-0 on Friday at Herculaneum High School. That 
Oil will set Guyana to become Middle East of the Caribbean

By Kaieter News



GEORGETOWN

Petroleumworld 03 28 2018



With 280,000 barrels of oil per day during the 70s and 80s, Trinidad and Tobago was called the Saudi Arabia of the Caribbean. But Guyana is going to hit 500,000 barrels of oil and even more by 2025.



With such production figures, this ethnically diverse nation is set to become the Middle East of the Caribbean.



But even with such a bedazzling picture of wealth and prosperity, Trinidadian Engineer, Richard Small, is urging the authorities here to begin meaningful dialogue on local content. According to Small, there is need for a serious conversation that will lead to locals being significantly employed and their services given priority in the oil industry.



Small made the comments yesterday at the launching of the Innov8 Business Expo which was held at the Marriott Hotel. There, Small delivered a 15-minute presentation on the oil industry from a technological perspective while incorporating important aspects of local content.



The Trinidadian said it is important for Guyana to take advantage of the glorious opportunity it has for maximizing local content. He noted that the nation would be wise in going this route as others have learnt the hard way that billions of dollars in oil revenue only last for a while.



In this regard, he pointed to Venezuela, which failed to maximize opportunities for transfer of skills and technology. By looking to maximize tax benefits, Small noted that such nations have nothing much to show for their oil money, except corruption and millions of dollars in expenditure.



Small asserted that Guyanese must seek to understand the technological aspect of the oil industry. He reminded that works are already taking place converting the oil tanker to a Floating Production Storage and Offloading vessel, called Liza Destiny. Small said, This is going to be a metal island at sea. As you know, you now have two metal islands at sea which are drilling operations going after more oil for the Guyanese people. Those things rent at US$250,000 a day, at least.



So the first thing to grab out of that conversation is that in the oil and gas industry, time is money Having said that, you need to understand the role of technology.



The Trinidadian Engineer noted that the ICT or technological environment of a drill ship is vastly different to that which exists in an office.



Small said, Because the technology is different on a drill ship, the Liza Destiny or FPSO being constructed in Singapore or wherever, should have Guyanese nationals there. They should be involved in the engineering, design and fabrication. They should be involved in all aspects of the construction.



The engineer also noted that there are opportunities for investment by locals in the sector. He said that Guyanese entrepreneurs can begin to look at provision of drones, robotics, CCTV solutions, mobile computing, cyber security and safety systems for equipment and humans.



FINISHING TOUCHES



After several months of consultations, the Guyana's Local Content Policy is still not completed. Dr Small noticed this shortcoming.



According to Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman, there are still some finishing touches, which need to be added.



Trotman said that several consultation sessions were held with stakeholders nationwide. He noted that the stakeholders included; the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI); the Private Sector Commission (PSC); Chambers of Commerce in Essequibo, Berbice, and Linden; and the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA).



From those meetings, the politician said that the Ministry of Natural Resources received valuable feedback on how to improve the Local Content framework.



Trotman said that at the end of 2017, the Ministry of Natural Resources received the latest iteration of world-renowned expert, Mr. Anthony Paul on the Local Content draft. He said that some in-house work is still to be done. He said that after that process, it will be sent back to the various Chambers for further comment with the intention of finalizing it within the first quarter of this year.



DRAFT POLICY



Guyana's draft Local Content Policy has been criticized in recent months for lacking provisions, which would safeguard against exploitation by companies.



The draft speaks nothing of how to avoid procurement fraud, conflict of interest and favouritism, among other crucial areas.



Instead, the Local Content Policy framework seeks to address, the suite of opportunities that may arise and the approaches to be taken in selecting and developing opportunities related to enhancing the capabilities of Guyanese nationals and businesses.



The Policy articulates that this will be done through training, development and employment initiatives (Capacity Development), ensuring availability of ownership participation for qualified Guyanese equity interest (Ownership Value), supplier development provisions for goods and services by locals to support sector operations (Local Content); and well-tailored social contributions for greater impact and benefits (Societal Benefits).



It also describes what will be done to ensure that the activities in the petroleum sector are conducted in a manner that transparently secures the maximum benefit for the people of Guyana, while recognizing the limitations of the country and holding all actors accountable to the present and future generations of Guyanese who are the owners of the nation's petroleum resources.



Additionally, the draft policy recognizes that the petroleum resources of Guyana belong to all its citizens, and represent an asset of significant intrinsic value, which once removed diminishes the wealth of the nation, unless there is transformation in value from resources below the ground to improve quality of life above it for current and future generations of Guyanese.



The draft says, Guyana will approach the development of its petroleum resources, people and businesses in a pragmatic, transparent and accountable manner. This will be conditioned by existing circumstances and an analytical approach to understanding the resource, the activities it engenders and our input capabilities. We shall pursue strategic opportunities for local capacity development and participation that give us the maximum possible benefit now and in the future.



The Policy also states that Guyanese will participate in a manner that gives preferred access and opportunities to improve and enhance the country's capabilities so that it can become internationally competitive and in the end, the country will progressively provide a greater amount of future services

Story from Kaieter News



Kaieteurnewsonline.com 03 28 2018

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Guyana arrangement with Tullow/Eco-Atlantic, CGX and Ratio  1 % royalty subjected to cost recovery is absurd

By Abena Rockcliffe-Campbell



GEORGETOWN

Petroleumworld 03 28 2018



Because of the trickslike gold plating, transfer pricing and transfer mispricingmost often played by oil companies in the calculation of profit oil, many countries consider royalty to be the fixed revenue once oil prices are stable. This is simply because royalty is off the top.



Azerbaijan, Nigeria, Qatar, Indonesia, Trinidad and Tobago, Canada, Uganda, Chad, Ghana, Papa New Guinea, the United States of America, England, and Norway all have contracts stipulating that royalty will be paid off the top.



Guyana has dared to be the exception.



Guyana's royalty, based on the agreements signed with at least three companies, is being lumped with the country's share of profit oil, which makes the royalty subject to cost recovery. This is extremely unusual in the oil industry.



An examination of Production Sharing Agreements (PSA) that two Governments of Guyana signed with different oil companies revealed that these contracts were signed with Eco-Atlantic and Tullow, CGX Energy Inc. and Ratio Energy Limited.



One of the many common clauses in these contracts states, The Government's share of Profit Oil specified in Article 11 includes royalty payable by the Contractor at the rate of one percent (1%) of Crude Oil produced and sold, and delivery to the Minister, pursuant to Article 14 of his share of Profit Oil equivalent to royalty shall constitute payment of such royalty in kind.



Within one hundred and eighty (180) days following the end of each year of assessment receipts evidencing payment of Contractor's royalty shall be furnished by the Minister to the Contractor stating the amount and other particulars customary for such receipts.



Kaieteur News revisited the 1999 agreement that the government had signed with ExxonMobil, which has the same oppressive clause. However,

the clause was omitted from the 2016 contract with ExxonMobil.



It is now clear that in negotiating the one percent royalty increase in 2016, the clause was removed.



This reality gives credence to what Kaieteur News learnt which is that all of the oil contracts, which have been signed by APNU+AFC government as well as the PPP/C government are similar. In fact, this newspaper understands that the model that was being used over the years dates back to the 1970s. Guyana has just about 10 existing contracts with various oil companies, which are being released periodically.

|

These have all been modeled from a contract that the country had with Mobil, a company that had a presence in Guyana during the time of former President, the late Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham.



It was that same template that was reportedly used to formulate the ExxonMobil 1999 PSA.



However, when ExxonMobil announced that it found oil in commercial quantities offshore Guyana in 2015, and the APNU+AFC government took another look at the contract, a decision was taken by government to review and renegotiate the contract.



In fact, this newspaper carried an article back in 2016 that quoted Minister Raphael Trotman, expressing government's desire to do same. That article can be read here: https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2016/06/29/govt-reviews-17-year-old-contract-with-exxon-mobil-but-agrees-it-provides-relative-protection-as-constituted-2/.



ExxonMobil, knowing the advantageous provisions of the 1999 contract, took a firm stance that it was not willing to renegotiate that contract. The company had grounds for that position. Nevertheless, the government manoeuvered a one percent increase in royalty, which in ExxonMobil's view, was negligible; it does not hurt the company in anyway.



But, that meagre increase and the inclusion of a signature bonus, which is also trifling in the grand scheme of things, were predicated on an agreement to extend the life of the contract beyond 2018. Government also managed to negotiate the removal of the lumping. ExxonMobil's only lien on Guyana's two percent is an uncapped transportation cost.



Story by Abena Rockcliffe-Campbell from Kaieter News



Kaieteurnewsonline.com 03 28 2018

Copyright 1999-2018 Petroleumworld or respective author or news agency. All rights reserved.



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American Arlines to star direct non-stop service Miami - Guyana, in April



By PW



PHOENIX, AZ.

Petroleumworld 03 28 2018



American Airlines, one of the major United States scheduled carrier, will this year-end begin flying to Guyana in the Miami - Georgetown route, on April 2, 2018

The airline said it is expanding its service this year to Guyana and other additional South American destinations.

The company said next winter, customers looking for history, culture and warm climate will have access to three new cities in South America: Georgetown, Guyana (GEO); Pereira, Colombia (PEI) and Cordoba, Argentina (COR); and one new city in Mexico: Oaxaca (OAX).

Reacting to the news, Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson said, I am delighted that American Airlines will commence flying to Guyana in December. This will coincide with the launch of the newly expanded Cheddi Jagan International Airport and demonstrates a confidence in Destination Guyana not only as a desirable tourist destination but as an emerging oil economy as well. The government has been working at various levels to provide more options to travelers to and from Guyana, to North America, with increased airlift, and American Airlines' commitment to destination Guyana is a recognition of government's work since coming into office in 2015.

For his part, Minister of Business, Dominic Gaskin noted that this is good for tourism, good for business and good for Guyana. Only last week LIAT announced direct flights to POS from ECIA (Ogle) so this will give Guyanese and visitors to Guyana two additional travel options in this year alone.

American is also introducing service to Buenos Aires, Argentina (EZE), from its West Coast hub at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), making American the first and only airline to offer nonstop service between these two major cities.

We're creating a world-class customer experience and as the largest U.S. carrier in Mexico and South America, we are committed to offering more choices with the best schedules for our customers in the region, said Vasu Raja, vice president, Network and Schedule Planning. As we look to strengthen our network, we're excited to add more nonstop flights to places like Buenos Aires, maximizing connections across our network.

The new routes will be available for sale starting in April.

New Routes:

Route Aircraft On Sale Flights Begin LAX-EZE Boeing 787-9 April 2 Dec. 19 DFW-OAX Embraer E175 April 2 Dec. 19 MIA-GEO Airbus A319 April 2 Dec. 20 MIA-PEI Airbus A319 April 17 Dec. 20 MIA-COR Boeing 767-300 May 7 Apr. 2, 2019 All routes are subject to government approval.

American also recently announced new service between its hub at Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) and Mexico City (MEX) beginning July 5, which will enhance trans-Atlantic connectivity from Mexico. By expanding its footprint in MCLA with these new routes, American will offer up to 270 flights per day to the region

Source: GlobeNewswires






Dutch government allow 5 new offshore wind turbines generating 7 gigawatts in wind energy

By Reuters



AMSTERDAM

Petroleumworld 03 28 2018

The Dutch government on Tuesday said it will allow five new offshore wind turbine farms capable of producing 7 gigawatts (GW) of electricity in the 2024 to 2030 period.

The Netherlands is lagging other European countries in renewable energy investments and has launched a programme to speed up renewable energy projects, including tenders to build 4.5 GW of offshore wind farm capacity in the period up to 2023.

The Dutch government has capped the amount of gas that can be produced from its offshore Groningen field because of related earthquakes and wants to continue winding down output as part of its emissions-cutting plan

Our industry will have a competitive advantage because of the availability of ever cheaper renewable energy, the government said in a statement, adding that the move would also help related industries, including transport, storage and conversion to other forms of energy such as hydrogen gas.

The government said the projects would bring in up to 20 billion euros ($24.9 billion) worth of investment and create 10,000 jobs.

Once completed, the Netherlands will have 11.5 GW of offshore wind capacity, enough to meet 40 percent of the country's electricity needs, the government said.

The news follows the announcement last week that Sweden's Vattenfall had won a contract to build a 700 megawatt wind farm off the Dutch coast without receiving any subsidy.

The government laid out three locations for the five farms, above the northern island of Schiermonnikoog, and off the western coast by Petten and Ijmuiden. ($1 = 0.8024 euros)




Chinas stealth fifth-generation fighters J-20 are ready for combat at any time, said Yang Wei, academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences and chief designer of the aircraft.





A J-20 stealth fighter is seen at a 2016 air show in Zhuhai, Guangdong province. (Photo/China Daily)

The fifth-generation fighter jet was officially commissioned into China's air force last September, significantly improving the countrys air combat capability.

According to Yang, the fighter jet has been well accepted by the pilots, and they all expressed their liking for the aircraft.

After coming into service, the J-20 has shown its high performance in stability, stealth capability and fire control. Yang noted that the aircraft will be serialized in the future, which conforms to scientific laws and meets the demand of the country.

He said that J-20 is a flagship aircraft of Chinas air force, and is on par with the fifth-generation fighter jets from both the US and Russia. He hopes that the fighter jet can fulfill its mission when the country needs it.

Yang also disclosed that the next-generation fighter jet will be highly mechanized, informationized and intelligentized.

After developing a series of major weapons such as J-20, large military transport aircraft Y-20, as well as fighter aircraft J-15 and J-16, China has established a research and development system for digital aircraft, Yang said.

Now China is in exploration of new technical paths, hoping to establish its own standards, he added.
No criptocurrency payment offer has been made by Venezuela to Russia -Finance ministry

By Reuters



MOSCOW

Petroleumworld 03 28 2018

Venezuela has not offered to repay part of its debts to Russia using the country's cryptocurrency, Konstantin Vyshkovsky, head of the finance ministry's state debt department, told reporters on Tuesday.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said last month that the newly launched oil-backed petro cryptocurrency had raised $735 million in the first day of a pre-sale. The new tool is aimed at pulling the country out of an economic tailspin.

Russia and Venezuela last year signed a debt restructuring deal allowing Caracas to make minimal payments to Moscow over the next six years. Under the deal, Venezuela will pay Russia back a total of $3.15 billion over a 10-year period.




European big oil winners in mexican oil auction ahead of election

CNH



Shell, BP, Total, Repsol, Eni, Lukoil among auction winners. Mexico awards development licenses for 16 shallow-water blocks.

By Amy Stillman and Adam Williams



MEXICO CITY

Petroleumworld 03 28 2018

European oil majors are swarming the shallow-waters of the Gulf of Mexico as the country races to attract investment before an election.

Anglo-Dutch giant Royal Dutch Shell Plc , the U.K.'s BP Plc, France's Total SA , Italy's Eni SpA , Spain's Repsol SA , Russia's Lukoil PJSC and DEA Deutsche Erdoel AG of Germany all won blocks -- a number of them in partnership with state-owned Petroleos Mexicanos . Among notable absentees were U.S. majors like Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. , which have grabbed deep-water prospects in a previous round.

Mexico is trying to lure as much oil investment as possible before the president who overhauled the country's energy industry, Enrique Pena Nieto, is replaced in December. The country has awarded more than 100 oil development contracts since his 2013 energy reforms, which ended Pemex's monopoly.

It was a successful tender given that it was possible to award blocks in multiple basins, said Pablo Medina, vice-president at Welligence, a Latin America-focused oil consultancy in Houston. Even though the large amount of competition was seen in the south, half of the blocks awarded were in other regions.

Mexico's national hydrocarbons commission awarded 16 production-sharing contracts in the tender on Tuesday. They cover prospective resources estimated at the equivalent of 513 million barrels of crude, according to the energy ministry.

Eight blocks in the oil-rich Southeast basin along the coasts of Veracruz, Tabasco and Campeche states were awarded to groups that included Shell, Eni, Lukoil, Pemex, Total, DEA Deutsche, Pan American Energy, Premier Oil Plc and Malaysia's Sapura Energy Bhd .

In the oil-rich Burgos basin off the Tampico port, two blocks were awarded to Repsol, while another two went to Premier Oil. A group comprised of Pemex, DEA Deutsche and Cia. Espanola de Petroleos, or Cepsa, won two blocks that form part of the Tampico-Misantla and Veracruz basin off the coast of Veracruz state, and another two in that area were won by Pemex and Cepsa jointly.

We are very happy to see Pemex advancing in the direction of partnerships to improve crude production, said Energy Minister Pedro Joaquin Coldwell. Mexico hopes to exceed a 25 percent success rate in the next two auctions for shale oil and gas exploration blocks and other onshore areas, he said.

Leftist Candidate

The next tenders will be held prior to the completion of Pena Nieto's administration, a move that comes ahead of July 1 presidential elections that could see leftist opposition candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador win the vote. The firebrand presidential front-runner has said he'll stop holding oil auctions if elected.

It's not possible to rescind the contracts that have already been won without the presence of extraordinary circumstances, Juan Carlos Zepeda, head of Mexico's hydrocarbons commission, said during the bid round in Mexico City.

Mexico has 138 wells committed for drilling as a result of the oil auctions, he said. So far this year, Mexico has awarded 35 blocks, including 19 deep-water areas in January that was widely seen as the crown jewel of Mexico's energy reforms, with a large number of major international oil companies winning blocks.

The results demonstrate that even when there's fierce competition for capital at the regional level, the industry trusts Mexico's attractiveness as an investment destination, Welligence's Medina said.






Petrobras to participate selectively on Thursday onshore and offshore auction round in Brazil -CEO

epmag



Twenty-one companies including Chevron, BP, Exxon, Royal Dutch Shell, Statoil, and Total have registered to bid in a round where 70 blocks are being offered.

By Marta Nogueira and Rodrigo Viga Gaier



RIO DE JANEIRO

Petroleumworld 03 28 2018

Brazil's Petroleo Brasileiro SA will participate selectively in an oil auction later this week as the state-controlled oil company seeks to boost its exploration portfolio, Chief Executive Officer Pedro Parente said on Tuesday.

An onshore and offshore auction round in Brazil on Thursday will be one of the last chances for companies to compete for some of the world's biggest oil reserves ahead of elections that could slow private energy investment in the sector.

We will go in selectively, Parente said at an event in Rio de Janeiro, adding that Petrobras would form consortia with other firms to bid for blocks that require big investments.

Majors are likely to vie for a handful of blocks in the prolific offshore Campos and Santos basins on Thursday, with minimum signing bonuses of up to $575.5 million. Some are rumored to have desirable presalt geology.

Twenty-one companies including Chevron, BP, Exxon, Royal Dutch Shell, Statoil, and Total have registered to bid in a round where 70 blocks are being offered.

Parente also said Petrobras should at a minimum reach a net debt goal of 2.5 times earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization this year. Petrobras, he added, could even achieve net debt of 2 times EBITDA if oil prices remain around $70 per barrel this year.

Petrobras continues to work to regain fuel market share and expects good results, especially in diesel, Parente added.






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."
At the invitation of Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and Chinese president, Kim Jong-un, chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), paid an unofficial visit to China from March 25 to 28. During the visit, Xi held talks with Kim at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Xi held a welcoming ceremony for Kim before their talks. [Photo/Xinhua]

BEIJING, March 28 - At the invitation of Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and Chinese president, Kim Jong-un, chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), paid an unofficial visit to China from Sunday to Wednesday. During the visit, Xi held talks with Kim at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan held a welcoming banquet for Kim and his wife Ri Sol Ju and watched an art performance together.

Li Keqiang, Chinese premier and member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Wang Huning, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, and Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan attended related activities, respectively.

During the talks, Xi expressed warm welcome on behalf of the CPC Central Committee to Kim for his first visit to China.

Kim said, since the 18th CPC National Congress, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core has, with tremendous political courage and a strong sense of responsibility, developed new thinking and new ideas, put them into action, and solved many tough problems that were never resolved and accomplished many big things that were long on the agenda but never got done. These achievements fully proved that the lines of the CPC are correct lines that accord with the national conditions. In particular, Comrade General Secretary has put forward the requirements that the Party should exercise effective self-supervision and practice strict self-governance in every respect, which has contributed greatly to Party building and realized the overall Party leadership over all work. At present, the WPK is also intensifying its efforts in fighting against arrogance, bureaucracy and corruption.

Kim said he sincerely hoped that China will continuously make new great achievements in the course of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and a great modern socialist country.

The two leaders thoroughly exchanged views on the situation of the world and the Korean Peninsula.

Xi said that positive changes had taken place on the Korean Peninsula since this year, and China appreciates the important efforts made by the DPRK.

On the Korean Peninsula issue, Xi said that China sticks to the goal of denuclearization of the peninsula, safeguarding peace and stability on the peninsula and solving problems through dialogue and consultation.

China calls on all parties to support the improvement of inter-Korean ties, and take concrete efforts to facilitate peace talks, said Xi, noting that China will continue to play constructive role on the issue and work with all parties, including the DPRK, toward the thaw of the situation on the peninsula.

Kim said that the situation on the Korean Peninsula is starting to get better, as the DPRK has taken the initiative to ease tensions and put forward proposals for peace talks.

"It is our consistent stand to be committed to denuclearization on the peninsula, in accordance with the will of late President Kim Il Sung and late General Secretary Kim Jong Il," he said.

Kim said that the DPRK is determined to transform the inter-Korean ties into a relationship of reconciliation and cooperation and hold summit between the heads of the two sides.

The DPRK is willing to have dialogue with the United States and hold a summit of the two countries, he said.

"The issue of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula can be resolved, if south Korea and the United States respond to our efforts with goodwill, create an atmosphere of peace and stability while taking progressive and synchronous measures for the realization of peace," said Kim.

The DPRK hopes to enhance strategic communication with China during the process, jointly safeguard the trend of consultation and dialogue as well as peace and stability on the peninsula, said Kim.

Before the talks, Xi held a welcoming ceremony for Kim at the North Hall of the Great Hall of the People.

After the talks, Xi and Peng held a welcoming banquet for Kim and Ri. While delivering an address, Xi said that in the beautiful season of spring when everything is coming back to life, the unofficial visit of Comrade Kim Jong-un and Lady Ri Sol Ju to China is of great significance for the two countries to deepen communication, strengthen coordination and promote cooperation, and will push the relations between the two parties and the two countries to a new high in the new historical phase, as well as make important contributions to pushing forward the peace, stability and development in the region.

Xi said he had candid and friendly talks with Chairman Kim Jong-un. "We agreed that carrying forward the traditional friendship between China and the DPRK accords with the common interests of both sides, and is the common strategic choice of both sides."

"No matter how the international and regional situation changes, we will both firmly grasp the global development trend and the overall situation of the China-DPRK relationship, strengthen our high-level exchanges, deepen our strategic communication, expand our exchanges and cooperation, and benefit the people of both countries and the people of all countries," he said.

While addressing the banquet, Kim said that as the situation of the Korean Peninsula is undergoing unprecedented changes, he paid a swift visit to China, out of good wishes for promoting peace and stability on the peninsula, and carrying on and developing the DPRK-China friendship.

He said the fact that he chose China as the destination of his first overseas visit showed his will to carry forward the tradition of DPRK-China friendship, and how he valued the friendship between the two countries.

"I have had successful talks with General Secretary Xi Jinping on developing relations between the two parties and the two countries, our respective domestic situation, maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, and other issues," he said.

"In this spring full of happiness and hopes, I believe my first meeting with General Secretary Xi Jinping will yield abundant fruits of DPRK-China friendship, and facilitate peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula," he said.

During the visit, Xi and Peng held a luncheon for Kim and Ri in the Yangyuanzhai Room of the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. Xi said that the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse has witnessed the development of the traditional friendship between the two countries, and the close relations between leaders of the elder generations of the two parties and two countries "have set an example for us."

"We welcome Chairman Kim Jong-un and Lady Ri Sol Ju to visit China now and again," Xi said.

Kim said that the DPRK-China friendship is especially precious, adding he would like to join hands with Xi to follow the noble will of leaders of the elder generations, carry on and develop the DPRK-China friendship that remains unchanged despite winds and rains, and elevate it to a new high under new circumstances.

Kim also visited an exhibition showcasing the innovation achievements of the Chinese Academy of Sciences since the 18th CPC National Congress. Kim showed his admiration for China's accomplishments in the development and innovation of science and technology, and wrote an inscription to mark the visit.

Ding Xuexiang, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and director of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee; Yang Jiechi, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee; Guo Shengkun, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the CPC Central Committee; Huang Kunming, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee; Cai Qi, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee; and State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi attended the activities.

Choe Ryong Hae, vice-chairman of the WPK Central Committee and director of the Organization and Guidance Department; Pak Kwang Ho, vice-chairman of the WPK Central Committee and director of the Propaganda and Agitation Department; Ri Su Yong, vice-chairman of the WPK Central Committee and director of the International Department; Kim Yong Chol, vice-chairman of the WPK Central Committee and director of the United Front Department and Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, accompanied Kim Jong-un on his China tour and attended related activities.

Xi Jinping (2nd R), general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and Chinese president, and his wife Peng Liyuan (1st R) meet with Kim Jong Un (2nd L), chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), and his wife Ri Sol Ju at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China. At the invitation of Xi, Kim paid an unofficial visit to China from March 25 to 28. During the visit, Xi held talks with Kim. (Xinhua/Ju Peng)
Under Ronald Rubin's watch, PREIT acquire the Gallery at Market East shopping mall and invested in the Cherry Hill Mall. Read more

Ronald Rubin plans to step down as a trustee of Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, severing his formal link to the company that he's helped define since it acquired his Rubin Organization in 1997.

PREIT said in a statement Wednesday that Rubin has opted not to stand for reelection at the retail landlord's next annual shareholders' meeting on May 31.

Rubin, 86, said in an interview that he was leaving PREIT's board to focus on his family real estate holdings, such as the historic Bellevue hotel and office building on South Broad Street.

Rubin became chief executive of what had initially been called PREIT-Rubin following the acquisition of his Rubin Organization real estate firm. PREIT's current chief executive, Joseph Coradino, took over the role in 2012, when Rubin became executive chairman, a position he held until January 2016.

It was under Rubin's leadership that PREIT purchased the Gallery at Market East shopping mall, which is in the process of being redeveloped into a new retail destination to he called Fashion District Philadelphia.

The company also spent extensively on renovations to Cherry Hill Mall under Rubin's watch, cementing its place as a regional retail powerhouse and the crown jewel of the company's suburban shopping-center empire, which also includes Willow Grove Park, Moorestown, and Plymouth Meeting Malls.

"I want to thank Ron for his many years leading the company and on the board," Coradino said in the Wednesday statement. "As a mentor to me, personally, I learned a lot from Ron and know the lessons will stay with me for life. We wish Ron continued to success in future endeavors."
Thomas Jefferson University has struck a preliminary deal to acquire Einstein Healthcare Network, marking the sixth acquisition by Jefferson since chief executive Stephen K. Klasko took over in 2013 and one that would reunite all but one of the components of the former Jefferson Health System.

Klasko on Tuesday called Einstein,with hospitals in North Philadelphia and East Norriton, Montgomery County, the "missing piece" in his bid to create a health system with "the kind of scale where we could become the place that starts to get care out to where people are."

"The way health care is being financed is being changed 180 degrees," Klasko said, maintaining that Jefferson's growing size will be an advantage going forward. "We're going to be a very big winner in this."

Driving consolidation nationwide is the belief that insurers are changing the way they pay for health care, going from a system that pays based on the amount of care provided to one that pays for results. That is expected to put more financial risk on health systems. A popular way to deal with that risk is by spreading it over more patients through consolidation.

But the deal poses major risks for Jefferson, which would grow from three to 18 hospitals with Einstein, and like many systems, struggles to get better prices from insurers.

In a series of deals, Jefferson, based in Center City, has expanded its reach throughout much of the Philadelphia region. It acquired Abington Health in 2015 and Aria in 2016. Philadelphia University and Kennedy Health followed last year. In addition, Jefferson bought a controlling stake in Rothman Orthopaedic Specialty Hospital, in Bensalem. This year, Jefferson completed its deal for Magee Rehabilitation Hospital.

Main Line Health is the former Jefferson Health System component that remains independent.

Including Einstein, Jefferson would be approaching $6 billion in annual revenue. The University of Pennsylvania Health System is at about $7.8 billion in annual revenue, including the recently acquired Princeton HealthCare System and Penn's medical school.

If Einstein, which celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2016, reaches a definitive agreement to become part of Jefferson, that will end years of wrestling with the possibility of throwing its lot in with a larger organization. The nonprofit has a hard time operating profitably because 70 percent of its revenue comes from Medicare and Medicaid, government programs that don't pay as well as private insurance.

Temple University Hospital is in a similar position of serving a largely poor patient population of North Philadelphia and being in constant conversations with potential partners. Temple officials declined Tuesday to comment on what an Einstein-Jefferson deal might mean for Temple.

Stuart H. Fine, a professor of health policy and management at Temple University's College of Public Health, wondered whether Jefferson and Einstein were "committed to staying on North Broad Street, where there is no room for both Temple and Einstein in their current forms."

Einstein had additional suitors but chose Jefferson because of a similar approach to the health-care market, said Barry Freedman, Einstein's chief executive, who plans to stay during a transition and integration.

"We need to redefine the way patient care is delivered in a major metropolitan market," he said. "They are committed to the underserved, as are we, which was an important element and of course their size and scale and financial well-being will give Einstein opportunities for growth and expansion that we could not do on our own."

The deal would bring together two leading rehabilitation hospitals, Magee, in Center City, and MossRehab, in Elkins Park. "The ability to coordinate if not integrate rehabilitation services will translate into better quality, better research, and better access," Freedman said.

In the first half of the fiscal year that ends June 30, Jefferson had an operating loss of $27.9 million, but Freedman said he was convinced that Jefferson will make needed changes. "We've looked at that carefully," he said.

Standard & Poor's and Moody's, two major credit rating agencies, recently reviewed Jefferson's operations and both noted the challenges of translating Jefferson's expansion from three hospitals to 14 since 2015 to better financial performance. Neither ratings agency considered the acquisition of Einstein, which had an operating loss of $23 million in fiscal 2017 and whose credit rating was recently downgraded to "junk" by Fitch.

Klasko said Jefferson was in the midst of an integration that includes a massive and costly consolidation of electronic medical records, which is crucial to getting patients to the right place in the network.

"That integration takes incredible investment. It's not just IT," Klasko said. "The fact is that even as we increase our revenues, which we will continue to do, we're not going to have the breakout net operating income while we're doing all that investment."
Saint Joseph University Psychology and Criminal Justice professor Maria Kefalas giving a lecture to her class who's assignment it is to raise money to fund a scholarship for a student at the Boys Latin school. Tuesday afternoon at Saint Joseph University Merion Hall, Philadelphia. Read more

Around the time that funding was drying up for her antiviolence center, Maria Kefalas began raising money to support research for the rare and incurable disease afflicting her youngest daughter.

Her 8-year-old, Calliope Joy Carr, was diagnosed in 2012 with metachromatic leukodystrophy, a form of a degenerative neurological disease so uncommon that by one estimate it strikes one in 40,000 to 160,000 children.

Kefalas was struck by people's generosity. But as a longtime antiviolence advocate, she also couldn't help but recall all the hours spent trying to get people to care about the gun violence affecting thousands of children in Philadelphia, all but begging them to put their efforts and money where their flashes of empathy were.

Last year, more than two dozen of Philadelphia's 77,000 young men between the ages of 13 and 19 were murdered. That's about 30 times the mortality rate of the leukodystrophy that Kefalas' daughter is battling.

But people didn't open their wallets to wage war on violence.

The St. Joseph's University professor of sociology and criminal justice and director of the now-defunct antiviolence Richard Johnson Center was characteristically blunt:

Her fund-raising techniques hadn't changed  she was using the same lessons learned raising money for antiviolence efforts as she was on her cupcake fund-raisers for her daughter's disease.

"It was the issue," she concluded. "People just didn't care."

At least not in the way they've started to after the Parkland, Fla., school shooting.

Like many advocates in cities where gun violence has long been treated as the norm, Kefalas has watched the recent protests with awe and hope, and, frankly, a good measure of ambivalence.

The world is now paying attention in a way she and other advocates only dreamed of, and thanks to the Parkland teens who are sharing their spotlight, some of that attention is now, finally, miraculously, on cities and children of color whose voices have mostly gone unheard.

How long it will last is anyone's guess. Here in Philly we need to take advantage of the momentum, do things differently, listen a lot less to adults whose paychecks are tethered to the epidemic and a lot more to the kids whose lives are.

Kids who, like those in Florida, will tell any adult who asks, and listens, point-blank:

We failed them.

This is our chance to do something about it.

As I write this, I'm about to head out to South Philadelphia High School to listen to young people from across Philadelphia talk about gun violence  I'll let you know how and where that goes.

But right now, at least, attention is being paid.

I had originally called Kefalas this week to talk about a scholarship fund that students in her "Social Problems" course are working on in the name of Richard Johnson, the teenager whose name her antiviolence center once bore. Johnson was a promising 17-year-old, killed in 2005 by a 15-year-old the summer before he was to enter St. Joseph's on a full scholarship.

The scholarship is in honor of another promising young man, Jahsun Patton, an 18-year-old senior at Boys Latin of Philadelphia Charter School, shot and killed in Harrisburg over Thanksgiving weekend in 2017. His brother is a freshman at the school.

As part of the annual fund-raiser, students in Kefalas' course raise money to support a project that will benefit students in the Philadelphia School District. Last year's Ludlow School Technology Fund raised more than $10,000 and purchased 33 computers for the North Philadelphia elementary school.

But this year, after Kefalas talked to her university students about helping the students at Boys Latin still reeling from their loss, they saw an opportunity  the same kind of opportunity Kefalas and I hope will lead to something concrete.

"Gun-control issues have been plaguing black communities for decades now," said Jaulie Cancave, one of Kefalas' university students. The violence, she said, has been as systemic as the nation's negligence to the shooting deaths of people of color.

Amen. While the violence we witnessed in Parkland garnered headlines and sparked protests nationwide, Kefalas said, the reality is that the typical victim of gun violence looks more like Richard and Jahsun.

Put more starkly, as gun-violence educator Scott Charles reminded me after one of my recent columns about the effects of gun violence:

"You could take the number of people killed in every mass school shooting since Columbine  then double it  and it still wouldn't equal the number of people killed by guns in Philly last year alone."

That's one of the realities Kefalas hopes will stick with people, for once.

Gun violence is a disease, she says, and "right now we're talking about treating [its] most rare form."
People in Moscow stand in front of the word Kemerovo, made up of candles to commemorate the victims of a fire in a shopping mall in the Siberian city of Kemerovo. Several Russian cities held rallies to commemorate the dead. Read more

I was on the phone this week with my Russian friend Val, trying to plan a trip to Moscow, but all she wanted to talk about was Sunday's tragedy in Kemerovo  and how disgraceful it was that CNN International ignored this disaster because of nonstop coverage of Stormy Daniels.

Kemerovo is a Siberian city where at least 64 people, two-thirds of them kids, died from a fire in a mall cinema because the doors had been locked and the fire alarm shut off. The children were frantically text-messaging their parents and screaming for help into cellphones. One fifth-grade student, Maria Moroz, posted: "We're burning. It's probably goodbye."

No rescue workers came to her rescue, and her whole class died.

So, my friend Val was correct; the Kemerovo fire does deserve serious attention here, not only because it is a gripping human story, but because it reveals so much about Russians and about Vladimir Putin  at a time when our two countries are increasingly at odds.

The fire occurred only 10 days after Putin's huge fourth-term "victory" (in a presidential election where the chief opposition candidate was barred). State-run news channels initially tried to ignore the fire in favor of tirades at Europe's expulsion of Russian diplomats. But TV news soon had to turn to condolences  and coverage of Putin's rushed trip to Kemerovo.

"Russia saw Putin, unfamiliar to her, gloomy, stunned, short-lived, aged, and frankly avoiding communication with people," wrote Fedor Krasheninnikov in the independent Russian newsmagazine New Times.

When the Russian leader arrived in Kemerovo, people were entirely banned from the streets (and sidewalks) as his motorcade sped through. He never met with the crowd of enraged families and friends who gathered outside the cinema. He referred to the tragedy as "a demographic problem" because kids died.

And no wonder they were outraged. According to news reports, the private mall was a substandard product of a typical local city bureaucracy that behaves worse than in Soviet times, forcing companies to pay endless bribes  sometimes for evasion of safety rules.

In cases such as the mall fire, the welfare of individuals is usually treated with indifference by officials. "There is nothing new about Kemerovo," says Yevgenia Albats, editor of New Times, referring to terrorist attacks on a Moscow theater and a school in the city of Beslan. In these cases, official rescuers killed hundreds of terrified hostages by launching a gas attack inside the theater and a shooting attack on the school.

In this case, asks Albats, "when it became known that the doors were locked, why did no one [of the cinema staff or rescue teams] run to unlock the kids or give the keys to the firemen? We have nuclear cruise missiles, but we don't have what is needed to save kids from jumping from the fourth floor?"

Anton Gorelkin, a member of the Russian parliament from Kemerovo, bitterly accused the mall's financier and an unnamed deputy mayor of bribery: "People whose pockets this shopping center filled with millions, I believe, knew that this money might someday smell of blood," he wrote on Facebook.

And Igor Vostrikov, a father who lost three children, his wife, and his sister, furiously attacked Putin on his VKontakte page (the Russian equivalent of Facebook), saying: "My family is no more. The ruling regime is to blame in my country. Every official dreams to steal like Putin. Every civil servant treats people like dirt."

In other words, Vostrikov was blaming the system. But the regional governor accused this bereft father of being a self-promoter. National TV never even covered the angry demonstration of 1,500 people that gathered outside the cinema.

Here is where we come to the wider meaning of Kemerovo.

You might think that the national anger sparked by this needless tragedy might even lead to a drop in Putin's sky-high popularity ratings (which he is very attuned to) or to public pressure for long-delayed reforms at home rather than foreign ventures such as Syria.

But scan through the 6,400 comments on Vostrikov's post and you mostly find resignation. "Hold on, find the strength to live in yourself. We are powerless," writes one woman.

Vostrikov himself rails that Putin's government will "find a scapegoat and close the topic. The threats, negligence, total corruption, total degradation of the population, will go nowhere."

Albats says: "It's not that people love Putin. It's that they fear things getting worse." Russia, she told me by phone, "is a nation of survivors that lost 60 million people in the 20th century." Even with dropping incomes, after the oil-price plunge, many Russians feel better off than they have in decades, she adds.

In other words, neither domestic tragedies such as Kemerovo nor a stagnant economy will turn Putin from his course, which is to reestablish Russia as a global power equal to America. Nationalists will cheer on his foreign adventures; other Russians will tolerate them.

And U.S. officials, with or without support from President Trump (we don't yet know if the U.S. expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats means a new direction), must take this reality to heart.
Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, announcing anti-hazing legislation last week outside the Centre County preliminary hearing for former Penn State fraternity brothers charged in Tim Piazzas death. (Abby Drey/Centre Daily Times/TNS) Read more

BELLEFONTE, Pa.  A judge on Wednesday for a second time threw out involuntary manslaughter charges against five Pennsylvania State University fraternity brothers accused in connection with the February 2017 hazing death of sophomore pledge Tim Piazza.

Ending a three-day preliminary hearing, Centre County Judge Allen Sinclair also dismissed dozens of other charges against the former members of Beta Theta Pi, drastically scaling back a prosecution he had first sought to limit last year.

Some of the defendants still face other charges that the judge had held for trial from the last hearing. But his ruling deals a blow to a case that not only has rocked Penn State's campus but added to the growing national scrutiny of misconduct and alcohol-soaked hazing by fraternities.

Attorney General Josh Shapiro, whose office took over prosecution of the case this year and refiled 300 counts against onetime Beta Theta Pi members, suggested Sinclair's rejection of many of those might not be the final word.

In the end, Sinclair allowed just 30 of the refiled charges to stand. Among them were a conspiracy-to-commit-hazing charge against fraternity president Brendan Young, of Malvern, and member Daniel Casey, of Ronkonkoma, N.Y.

That heartened Piazza's parents, Jim and Evelyn, of New Jersey, who also noted that hazing and reckless endangerment charges still stand against some members, including Young and Casey, from the last hearing.

"These charges carry with them significant penalties, including substantial jail time," said their lawyer, Tom Kline.

Gary DiBileo of Scranton, was bound over on five counts of furnishing alcohol to minors; Luke Visser, of Encinitas, Calif., on seven counts of the same; and Michael Bonatucci, of Woodstock, Ga., on two counts. They also were bound over on multiple counts of unlawful acts related to liquor.

Theodore Simon, a lawyer for Visser, said the ruling again showed the most serious charges against his client were "unfounded, unwarranted, and unjustified."

"This was a sad and tragic loss of life," Simon said, "but not every unfortunate tragedy should result in serious criminal charges."

Defendants who saw all the refiled charges dismissed include Jonah Neuman, of Nashville; Joseph Sala of Erie; Nicholas Kubera of Downingtown; Lars Kenyon of Barrington, R.I.; Michael Angelo Schiavone of Yardley; and Parker Jax Yochim of Waterford, Pa. All of them, however, were bound over on hazing charges during the hearing last summer and several of them on reckless endangerment.

The prosecution, this time led by Chief Deputy Attorney General Brian Zarallo, argued that fraternity members planned and executed a hazing ritual in February 2017, deliberately got Piazza drunk, and then failed to get him medical care after he was seriously injured. Piazza consumed 18 drinks in 82 minutes, then fell down the stairs at the fraternity house. No one called for help for nearly 12 hours, and Piazza later died of head, spleen, and lung injuries.

"A failure to act in and of itself is reckless," Zarallo argued.

If Piazza's fall that rendered him unconscious had happened anywhere other than a fraternity house, it would have been expected that 911 would be called, he said.

Defense attorneys maintained that their clients didn't and couldn't know the severity of Piazza's injuries and that Piazza's drinking was voluntary.

Philadelphia attorney Michael Engle, representing DiBileo, said there's "simply no evidence he's the direct cause of Piazza's death."

Some of the testimony this month broke new ground, including video shown of drinking that went on in the fraternity basement. Prosecutors alleged a fraternity member deleted the video, but the FBI was able to recover it. But much of the evidence also retreaded or expanded on ground covered last summer when the first preliminary hearing was held for 18 defendants.

That hearing culminated with a surprising Sept. 1 ruling by Sinclair to throw out the most serious felony charges against eight of the fraternity members and remove all charges against four others.

Then-Centre County Prosecutor Stacy Parks Miller refiled the charges in October and charged 12 additional members of the fraternity in Piazza's death after recovering footage from a basement video camera, for a total of 26. After she lost a bid for reelection, new Centre County District Attorney Bernie Cantorna, citing a conflict of interest, asked the Attorney General's Office to take the case.

Shapiro declined this month to press aggravated-assault charges against the fraternity members but charged five of them with involuntary manslaughter. In addition to the 11 facing the hearing Friday, three others previously waived their right to a preliminary hearing and were held for trial. The 12 others charged face a preliminary hearing in May.

Penn State closed the fraternity in the wake of Piazza's death and has since intensified its scrutiny on parties and socializing at the fraternities.
With fewer than 300 students occupying a hulking complex built for 1,700, Strawberry Mansion High School's days as a comprehensive school are numbered.

Come September, there will be no new ninth graders at the school, which counts the rapper Meek Mill among its alumni. Strawberry Mansion will graduate its final class in 2021.

But the building will not close, the Philadelphia School District says. Instead, it will get repurposed as an alternative education center, with a night school and accelerated school locating there beginning in the fall. In the future, other programs could land there as well, including workforce development and those patterned after the district's Workshop School, which encourages project-based learning, and YouthBuild, a program that reengages students who have dropped out.

The community, which is now seeing signs of gentrification, will be briefed on the project Wednesday night at a meeting at the school.

The project has a powerful ally: Council President Darrell L. Clarke, who five years ago joined the community to fight against a planned closure of Strawberry Mansion.

"I think it's a reasonable approach," said Clarke. "I relish the fact that we can have more successful programs in the Strawberry Mansion community."

One thing is clear, said Clarke, who attended Strawberry Mansion for junior high: "There's no way in the world that I'm going to let it close."

But continuing the school in its current state is not possible, district officials said. "A comprehensive high school program at Strawberry Mansion is no longer sustainable," reads a slide to be presented to the community Wednesday.

Built in 1964, the school that once graduated hundreds had 394 total students in 2015-16, and was down to 294 as of Oct. 1. And despite some academic interventions  it was a "Promise Academy" for a time, and then was placed in the district's "Turnaround Network," with more supports and scrutiny  it has struggled. Last year, it scored just 5 out of 100 on the School Progress Report, an internal measure of academics, climate and culture. Its graduation rate hovers around 50 percent. About 87 percent of its students live in poverty.

In 2013, it was featured in an ABC World News report with Diane Sawyer, and decried as one of the most dangerous high schools in the country.

Seventy-five percent of high school students in Strawberry Mansion's catchment area go to other high schools, and because enrollment is so low, "there is not access to a full set of high school opportunities," according to district documents.

Students who would have attended Strawberry Mansion, at 31st Street and Ridge Avenue, for their freshman year will be routed to other options in consultation with their families, and feeder patterns will be redrawn, officials said. The School Reform Commission is scheduled to vote on a resolution in June to eliminate ninth grade at Strawberry Mansion.

Joe Antonio, the school system's director of school transitions, said the plan would be the least disruptive to students while still recognizing the building's important role in the community.

"The overall vision is to bring more academic and community programming into the Strawberry Mansion complex," Antonio said. "It's currently way underutilized."

Antonio said the district was close to locating an accelerated school provider for the complex and would work in the future to attract appropriate tenants for other parts of the space.

The coming end to her school program saddens Novilette Jones, a 1993 alumna of Strawberry Mansion.

"It was a great all-around school," said Jones. "I would love for it to stay open as it was."

Judith Robinson, a North Philadelphia community activist, said she's a realist, but she believes not enough was done to try to salvage the current Strawberry Mansion program.

"We understand change, and we understand that the school is large and needs to be filled up," she said. "But they set us up for failure. They've not done much to support the efforts of trying to turn the school around."

Robinson is frustrated that a proposal was formulated behind the scenes and then presented to the community as fact before it had been widely aired. But still, her ears are open. She'll attend the Wednesday meeting, and will be part of the plan if she thinks it has merit.

"But many projects are going on, and they had better not want to shut down our history as the community is gentrifying," said Robinson.

Andria Moore, president of the Strawberry Mansion alumni association, has been very involved at the school, with her organization paying for class dues, prom expenses, and even college deposits for a dwindling number of seniors  no more than 50 this year, fewer than 70 last year.

Still, Moore said, "this was a shock."

"Our focus," she said, "is, how do we continue to help our students? What is the picture going to look like for current Strawberry Mansion students? How does this benefit the community?"
An Tso Sun, 18, has been charged with threatening to shoot up a Delaware County school. Read more

An 18-year-old foreign exchange student has been arrested for allegedly threatening to "shoot up" a Roman Catholic high school in Drexel Hill.

An Tso Sun, who is from Taiwan and has lived with a host family in Lansdowne, allegedly made the threat against Bonner and Prendergast Catholic High School, where Sun has been a student, according to the Upper Darby Police Department.

Sun allegedly warned a 17-year-old male classmate on Monday not to come to school on May 1, saying he planned go on a shooting spree that day, police said. The classmate reported the statement to a school social worker. The school notified Upper Darby police at 9:38 a.m. Tuesday and Sun was arrested at the high school after voluntarily speaking with a detective.

Sun told police that he was kidding about the threat and had told the classmate that he was "just joking."

A search of Sun's school-issued iPad, however, showed he had searched for information on how to purchase an AK-47 or an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, police said.

Officers executing a search warrant in Sun's bedroom Tuesday night found a military-style ballistic vest, crossbow with scope and light, 20 rounds of 9mm ammunition, military ski mask, ammunition clip loader, a strangulation apparatus known as a garrote, and other equipment, Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood said at a news conference Wednesday. No firearm was found.

"When you add it all together, we believe that he was planning something horrible," Chitwood said.

Chitwood said a person would have to "be blind" to not spot the items found in the bedroom. Chitwood said Sun's host was a woman who works as a lawyer.

Enrique A. Latoison, a defense lawyer in Media retained by Sun's host, said Sun had the equipment because he was interested in a law-enforcement career and was planning to major in criminal justice at a university Latoison declined to name. He said Sun's host family viewed the items in that context.

Latoison said it was not illegal for Sun to possess any of the items found in his bedroom. Sun had brought the ballistic vest with him from Taiwan, Latoison said, and had dressed in some of the gear on Halloween at Bonner and Prendergast.

"He's not charged with any weapons offenses," Latoison added.

Sun was charged with one misdemeanor count of making terroristic threats and was being held at the Delaware County prison on $100,000 bail.

Latoison said Sun had only been in the United States for about five months and did not grasp the gravity of making such a statement  even as a joke, as Sun claimed  with school shootings currently being an extremely sensitive subject.

There is no indication that the host family, which Chitwood described as American, had a relationship with Sun before he obtained a student visa in July 2017.

Sun was set to undergo a psychiatric evaluation, Chitwood said.

Police were investigating allegations that Sun showed off a high-caliber bullet at school in February and also showed a video of him demonstrating a flamethrower while wearing a mask.

In a statement, Kenneth A. Gavin, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, said: "Archdiocesan schools take the safety and security of every student, teacher, and staff member very seriously. Thankfully, no one was harmed. Incidents such as this demonstrate the importance of all members of the school community working together to maintain a safe environment."

He added that parents had been asked to remind their children to report any suspicious activity and had been encouraged to contact police if they had information related to the investigation.

Chitwood said the high school had no history of disciplinary issues or other problems with Sun.

A spokesperson for Taiwan's equivalent of an embassy in Washington, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office, could not be reached for comment late Wednesday.

Staff writer Robert Moran contributed to this article.
A 250-square-foot, 3-D sidewalk mural has popped up at Fourth and Market Streets depicting a Google Maps pin and currents of electricity "under" the sidewalk. It was commissioned by Deardorff, a branding studio, to mark its move to Philadelphia from Delaware.

Despite the occasional shower, the artists worked diligently to fill the mural in with 75 different colors of chalk with the help of a tarp. They started before dawn, projecting the design onto the sidewalk and tracing it with white chalk to make sure that the 3-D effect would be captured.

"We really want the mural to show us tapping into the energy of the city," Wes Richards, associate creative director of Deardorff, said. "We're trying to electrify the block."

The mural will be visible for as long as the elements allow. With the drizzle Wednesday, the artists believe it can be seen until noon Thursday.

Richards, who designed the artwork, reached out to Alysia Mackenzie, a graduate of the University of the Arts, to help fine-tune the design. They extended it on a computer and angled it into a grid before taking to the sidewalk. After chalking the design, the two artists began filling it in with a mixture of chalk and paint, adding dimension.

This project, which cost $5,000, was not without its challenges. The damp weather made it hard for the artists to work on the sidewalk for long stretches of time, and they had to take occasional breaks and cover the artwork to prevent it from being ruined.

"Peco showed up this morning, just when we were starting, and told us that they had a permit to dig up this section of the sidewalk," Richards said. "But after talking to us, they were nice enough to say that they'll just come back tomorrow. I totally thought we were done after that."

Jill Deardorff, president and CEO of Deardorff, said that it was important to her to bring something artistic and engaging to the community the firm was moving into.

"People walking by get to see art in the making, and we wanted to mark our new location with the mural," Deardorff said.

Although no one on the team had completed a chalk mural before, they powered forward with the idea, hoping to complete it by 4 p.m. Wednesday.

"It's not easy," Richards said. "But we're going to go big or go home."
On a chilly Monday in Washington, Mickey Melchiondo is coughing and laughing while discussing the fortunate life he's led. The 47-year-old New Hope native known as Dean Ween is charmed, not only because his longtime band  Ween  reunited after several years apart, but because his solo career is in full swing with a sharply cohesive jam-punk effort, Rock, Vol. 2, a completed home studio of his own in Lambertville, N.J., and a live Dean Ween date at the Theater of Living Arts on Friday to show it off. "I haven't felt this strong and good about everything I'm doing since I was 18 years old," says Melchiondo.

Much of that vigor comes from the studio Ween has constructed. This sonic man-cave is his private spot where he can do anything. "My wife goes to bed early, as does my son when in school, so I can go there, smoke cigarettes, play guitar loud, and experiment without worrying about bothering them or it costing tons of money. And I always come out with a song. Maybe two." Having a studio of his own allows Melchiondo to remain close to the area he loves. "I dig being near the water [Delaware Canal] and the ocean of the Jersey Shore," he says. "It's beautiful."

Melchiondo, an avid fisherman with a captain's license and his own charter operation  Mickey's Guide Service  did nearly nothing but fish when Aaron "Gene Ween" Freeman splintered Ween in 2012 to go solo. "I all but burned myself out on fishing when Ween first broke up," he says. "When it came time for me to get my head together and make music, I went for that full-force. I tend to take things to the extreme." By the time Melchiondo's solo debut was released in 2016 (The Deaner Album), Ween had just reunited and toured, as they will again this summer.

Melchiondo's first solo album was nervous and all over the place. His new one is confident, cohesive, and more direct  easily applicable to his stage show. "It's cliche that you have your whole life to make a first record. Well, I spent a lot of time with Deaner trying not to sound like Ween while at the same time acknowledging that I had been half of that writing team. So I was probably insecure," says Melchiondo.

Melchiondo now has life balance. "That's weird to hear me say, huh?"

There were two secret weapons up Melchiondo's jam-band dolmen sleeves on Rock, Vol. 2. First, he called old Studio Red producing pal and Philadelphia expatriate Adam Lasus (Sonic Youth, Lilys, Helium) to engineer the album. "Mickey wanted me to keep everything flowing with his big cast of musicians and friends," Lasus says from Los Angeles. "When I arrived at Mickey's studio, I was super-psyched to see amazing recording consoles and a ton of cool vintage recording gear. Mickey made me feel right at home in his clubhouse vibe studio. Plus, it hit me as I was making the record: I'm recording one of the few guitar heroes of my generation. It's as close to recording Hendrix or Jimmy Page as I will ever get."

Then there is the co-songwriting contribution of Low Cut Connie's wiggly frontman, Adam Weiner, on the doe-eyed ballad "Don't Let the Moon Catch You Crying," a song Melchiondo originally demoed for Ween's 2003 album Quebec. Melchiondo had tinkered with it obsessively before handing lyrical duties to Weiner, who contributed to two songs to Deaner. "It was a good song to take a stab at, what with its look at the ups and downs of Mickey and Aaron's relationship, as well as Mickey's relationship with his fans, and what I imagined he was going through at that particular moment in his life," Weiner says while prepping Connie's new album, Dirty Pictures 2, and a Union Transfer release party for May 17. "That new song we cowrote has heart and a snide sense of humor  just like the best Ween stuff  I love working with Mickey. We work ridiculously fast together  wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am."

Melchiondo concurs by calling Weiner "Johnny on the Spot" before mentioning how he, along with another new cowriting partner  guitarist Kurt Vile, with whom he's written four songs for the next Dean Ween album  form a circle of local pals who appreciate what it means to be Philly rockers. "I love those guys and I love my band and I love the fact that we're getting the chance to play for my hometown on Saturday," says Melchiondo. "Philly  we're coming for your ass."
Charles Santore, The next moment it seemed as if she were flying through the air (1991), watercolor and ink on paper. Illustration for The Wizard of Oz Read more

In one of the more memorable images from "Charles Santore: Fifty Years of Art and Storytelling," at the Woodmere Art Museum through May 13, we see the Cowardly Lion as we've never seen him before.

First of all, it's a real lion we're seeing, not the sort of businessmanish figure created by W.W. Denslow for the original Wizard of Oz book, or the characterization by Burt Lahr in the movie. Santore's watercolor shows him leaping across a ravine, with a bonneted Dorothy astride his back. He is outlined against a sky that looks blue above and sunny below.

He is fierce and strong, but his eyes are closed. That's how we know he's afraid. He can ferry his three companions across the chasm, but he can't stand to look. The picture foreshadows one of the lessons he will eventually learn  that he has all the courage he needs, but he just needs to recognize it.

Santore, a celebrated illustrator who was born in Philadelphia in 1935, has spent the last three decades illustrating children's books that revisit familiar stories: Paul Revere's ride, Noah's Ark, Alice in Wonderland, Snow White, and others. Before that, he was a successful freelance magazine illustrator who frequently did covers for TV Guide.

De-Disneying kids books

In his children's books, Santore seems preoccupied with de-Disneying the imagery of childhood literature. Though his style is detailed and maximalist, like the Disney animators, he eschews the cute. His pictures are often filled with animals that appear to be zoologically accurate depictions, even when, as with Oz's flying monkeys, we know they're not. Even Snow White's dwarfs, an unattractive lot, were drawn from life.

Santore is really at his best with animals. His wonderful picture of the tortoise crossing the finish line in the famous race shows a menagerie in attendance. A fox and a lamb hold the finish line ribbon, while other animals  including a wild boar, an owl, a bear, a lip-licking wolf, a monkey in royal robes, and a lion with a donkey coming out of its mouth  look on. If you don't look carefully, you might miss the hare straggling in so far behind that one of his feet is out of the picture.

In his earlier work, and especially when he had only the tiny area of a TV Guide cover to work with, he was more minimalist, doing the least necessary to evoke a star or a whole group of characters in a tiny area. His 1972 painting of Peter Falk as the aggressively shambling detective Columbo incorporates the character's sidelong look, ratty raincoat, and cigar, and it gives him an impressive mane of hair. But he has no shoulders.

Once you notice this absence, you might question where, exactly, the hand that's in the foreground is coming from. But, really, it's something you're not supposed to notice consciously. The portrait is a distillation of a character, not a photograph. It makes the Columbo character a little more ghostly. He doesn't merely investigate evildoers, he haunts them.

Santore has donated a selection of these TV Guide covers to the Woodmere, and they are really fun. I particularly like the 1973 Streets of San Francisco cover that shows Karl Malden and Michael Douglas shoulder to shoulder. Malden's hat and dark suit and Douglas' flowing hair and plaid sports coat mark them as members of different generations. But the wit of the picture is in the contrast between Douglas' symmetrical facial features and Malden's well-worn mug and bulbous nose.

These and most of Santore's earlier commercial works are shown on Woodmere's balcony, which is off-limits to small children. All the children's book illustrations are on the main level, which most viewers are likely to see first. Thus the show gets Santore's life backward, chronologically at least.

I think there is actually a value  provided you are over 10 years old and allowed on the balcony  in seeing the earlier work first. That's not because we are looking at the achievement of an important artist, but rather because the show documents the talents and tactics of a skilled visual storyteller. His magazine illustrations and posters are more obviously stylized than the pictures for children's books. Because they offer less dazzle, the designer's intention is more apparent.

Vertigo, in ads and adventures

One of Santore's 1980s advertisements  for a drug to treat vertigo  directly foreshadows an illustration he made just last year of Alice falling through the hole into Wonderland. She is falling through a spatially distorted classical library or gallery, her gold hair flying upward as she plummets downward. It is a scary picture that demands and rewards a second and third look.

It also gave a partial answer to an obvious question about Santore's work. The original illustrations for Alice in Wonderland by John Tenniel are a masterpiece, though by most accounts, Lewis Carroll didn't like them. Creating a new set of illustrations for the work seems unnecessary, sort of like getting Elton John to write new music for Aida.

Detail from Charles Santore's "Down, down, down, would the fall ever come to an end?" (2017),

watercolor on paper, illustration for "Alice in Wonderland."

Still, Tenniel did not produce a drawing like this one, which gives us a sense of the bookish culture from which the story emerged, along with the fear of a venture into the unknown. Santore's illustrations for Alice are mostly based on Tenniel's. Some show the same scene. Tenniel's caterpillar is better than Santore's, but when Alice upsets and shows her mastery over the Red Queen and other playing cards, Santore wins.

The important thing Santore does not take from Tenniel is the character of Alice herself. He says in the show's online catalog that other versions of Alice show her as a bystander to whom things happen, rather than as a participant in her story. Actually, the issue with Tenniel's Alice is that while the grotesque and comic characters he drew are ageless, his Alice looks stuck in the 19th century.

Making Alice feistier, more modern, and less English is the right commercial move. And it is a decision that will ultimately make Santore's work look archaic and ready for a reboot.
The pictured is China's first home-built aircraft carrier at a shipyard in Dalian, Northeast China's Liaoning Province on Monday. Photo: IC

China's first domestically built carrier, known as the Type 001A, is undergoing preparations for its first sea trial, while discussions about its name show that Chinese people hold high expectations of the carrier's ability to resolve the Taiwan question.

According to the latest online photos from the Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Company (DSIC) construction site in Liaoning Province, where the carrier was launched and outfitted, the scaffolds on the carrier have been completely removed, and a phased array radar has been installed.

"All the equipment and devices on the carrier are in the joint debugging stage, and the main engine has been powered. In 2018, we will present a surprise to the Chinese people," DSIC Chairman Liu Zheng said, according to a report on cctv.com, the official website of China Central Television, on March 13.

Liu, who is also the general director of construction of the Type 001A and a member of the National People's Congress (NPC), made the comments to cctv.com when he was attending the Two Sessions.

"This all proves that the Type 001A is getting ready for its first sea trial, and the exact timing will depend on factors like the weather and sea conditions. April 23 is Navy Day, the founding day of the PLA Navy [April 23 1949], so this might also be taken into consideration," Li Jie, a Beijing-based naval expert, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

"After the sea trial, which normally takes about 6-12 months, it will be ready for delivery to the PLA Navy, so it's very likely we will see the carrier enlisted by the end of 2018," said Song Zhongping, a military expert and TV commentator.

Full speed

The Type 001A was launched in Dalian on April 26 2017, three days after Navy Day, and the outfitting work only took about one year.

The speed with which the Type 001A was built was the fastest in the history of aircraft carrier construction, as it only took two years from the laying of the foundation in the shipyard to its launch, and more importantly, everything from the ship's body to its devices is domestically built, Liu said.

"The quality of our construction is also world-class. For example, the world-class standard for the flatness of the flight deck is not more than 4 percent, and we made it lower than 3 percent," Liu noted.

All in the name

During the Two Sessions, Yuan Maorong, an NPC deputy from Taizhou city, East China's Zhejiang Province, suggested naming the carrier "Wei Wen", after a military general from the Three Kingdoms period (AD 184/220-280) who was the first man in history to arrive at Taiwan, according to cctv.com on March 13.

Yuan said naming the carrier Wei Wen would show the historical fact of Taiwan being an integral part of China, and push the development of Cross-Straits relations.

The discussion of how the ship should be named has also been spreading in social media. Many Chinese netizens suggested simply naming the carrier "Taiwan," while others suggested naming it "Shi Lang", an admiral who recaptured Taiwan for the Qing Dynasty.

"This displays the high expectations among the Chinese people over solving the Taiwan question, because they want the country to use the first domestically built aircraft carrier as a symbol to announce its determination and ability to achieve this aim, and also send a tough warning signal to the secessionists in Taiwan," Li noted.

However, the carrier is not targeting Taiwan, according to a military expert from a Beijing-based military academy who requested anonymity. He explained that if Beijing decided to use military measures to solve the Taiwan question, the PLA is fully capable of doing so without an aircraft carrier, and Type 001A was made for a greater purpose.

"The PLA Navy has regulations for naming large vessels like aircraft carriers, which generally use the names of provinces and municipalities," Song said.

"Liaoning is primarily a platform for training personnel and collecting data through testing, while Type 001A is China's first carrier made for combat missions, so its name could be more special. It's impossible to name it with a person's name, for only vessels used for scientific research can use a person's name in China," said the anonymous military expert.
HUD Secretary Ben Carson, left, speaks to Norma Cuevas, right, a Pathways to Housing participant who found housing through the organization, during a roundtable discussion on March 29, 2018 at the organizations offices. Read more

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson smiled Wednesday as he listened to a woman tell of how she escaped homelessness after two years on the streets  thanks to a HUD-funded Philadelphia program designed to rapidly house people with opioid addiction.

"What's really encouraging," he said, "is to see how many people are willing to reach out and extend a helping hand. If we just learn how to help each other, my goodness, I can't even begin to imagine how wonderful things could be. We just have to learn how to do it."

It was the kind of upbeat message he would repeat throughout a round-table session with participants and staffers from Pathways to Housing, which follows a housing-first model. It does not require that its participants enter treatment or get sober before they can move into an apartment. Pathways will help residents get into treatment if they want, as well as assisting them with their finances, obtaining health care, getting therapy, and integrating into the community.

Carson's remarks were light on policy  he spoke mostly about the importance of community ties and working together  but full of praise for the program. He said housing security was one of his agency's major priorities: "We're starting to learn it costs less to society to take care of people than not to take care of people." After a tour of Pathways' offices in Logan, he spoke for about 20 minutes with participants and left without taking questions from reporters.

Matt Tice, Pathways' clinical service director, said the staff had been pleasantly surprised when Carson's team asked for a tour. They welcomed the opportunity to show off a program that they say is one of just a few like it in the United States.

In the year that it's been in operation, about half of program participants have entered treatment or abstained from using drugs. The city is hoping to expand the program as part of a plan to address the four heroin encampments along Lehigh Avenue in Kensington, the epicenter of Philadelphia's opioid crisis.

"If it wasn't for them, I might be dead," Norma Cuevas told Carson on Wednesday. She had been homeless for two years, and got her key to a new apartment on the day she finished a prison sentence. "What a feeling, when they showed me that key," she said, and spoke of the pride, security, and hope her apartment has given her. She's been in treatment for opioid addiction for a year, and said she was beginning to feel like "her old self" again.

Carson's visit is his second to the city in the last six months; during his September trip to an elementary school in Sharswood and a veterans' housing program in Center City, he also touted housing-first practices. Though President Trump's proposed budget includes deep cuts to HUD, it called for a slight increase in funding to the grant program that funds Pathways to Housing for fiscal year 2019. The spending bill Congress passed last week, which funds the government through September, also increased that line item.

Carson praised Trump for declaring the opioid crisis a national emergency. But city officials have said the declaration hasn't meant additional funding on the local level. Trump's plan to fight the epidemic, released this month, doesn't mention housing-first programs. The president has largely focused on addressing the crisis through harsher sentencing laws, including the death penalty for some drug dealers.

Tice said he hopes housing-first policies become part of the wider conversation on addressing the opioid epidemic.

"Having something that is inclusive and thoughtful and supportive is going to be a really important way to counter the crisis. If we're restricting people, if we're eliminating things, if we're throwing out people that are stigmatized, it's only going to push people to the margins," he said.
Cecilia Ortiz, who lives in Kensington, speaks against a safe injection site during a meeting with city officials in Kensington on Tuesday, March 27, 2018. Read more

In a community center in the neighborhood at the heart of the opioid crisis, Kensington residents and advocates took to the microphone Tuesday night as city officials arrived there, for the first time, to discuss a planned safe injection site somewhere in the city.

Neighbors voiced concerns that have long plagued their community: open drug dealing and drug use, the neglect during previous drug epidemics, and the decades of trauma that have resulted.

Others spoke of the reality visited upon the neighborhood as the current epidemic has worsened: An estimated 1,200 people died in Philadelphia last year, a large number of them in Kensington.

One advocate told the story of a man who had planned to come to the meeting from the heroin encampments on Lehigh Avenue. He was absent. He had died of an overdose the night before.

About 100 people attended the 1-hour meeting, and while emotions occasionally ran high about the prospect of a site, the meeting was marked more by nuance than contentiousness. A similar meeting in Fox Chase earlier this month devolved into a shouting match.

Residents who took the microphone Tuesday night in Kensington, the most likely location for a safe injection site, expressed concerns and asked detailed questions about how it would work.

City officials gave what answers they could. But everyone in attendance seemed to be operating on the assumption that if sites open in Philadelphia, the first one will most likely be in their backyard. The city said that no site had been selected, that no city dollars will fund it, and that when a site is selected, more community meetings will follow.

"In the spirit of candor, some of the factors that will contribute to selecting a site will include looking at things like a high number of people who are using illicit drugs and the number of people who die of opioid overdose," said David Jones, the commissioner of the city's Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services.

"That's this community!" a woman shouted when she took the mic. "We don't want it here."

But some in the room did, even if their support sometimes came with reservations.

One man called the city's initiatives "noble" but questioned what he felt was a sudden concern over problems his community has dealt with for decades. "Nobody cared 30 years ago when it was blacks and Hispanics dying," he said. "When it hit middle America, it became a problem. Now that an area's being gentrified, now it's a problem."

Others spoke of generations who had watched Kensington struggle with drug sales and drug use, and worried that a safe injection site would only bring more of it to the community. "We're tired of our kids being exposed to the same environment over and over," one woman said. "I totally feel the pain of everyone that is going through the epidemic. But we don't want it for our kids. We're tired of the cycle."

At the meeting, city officials said they believed a safe injection site, while not a panacea, would address some of those concerns. Research shows the sites do not increase or decrease crime in the area.

"This is not going to end drug selling on the streets and it's not going to end drug use. It is going to save lives," Health Commissioner Thomas Farley said.

Studies have also shown the sites increase treatment rates and reduce litter and public disorder in neighboring areas.

"What we are doing isn't working. Twelve hundred people lost their lives last year," said Jose Benitez, executive director of Prevention Point, who spoke on Tuesday night's panel and runs the city's only needle exchange, on Kensington Avenue. "We as a community have to be able to talk about really hard subjects, and this is one of the most difficult ones."

Benitez, Jones, and Farley fielded dozens of questions and comments, from hopes the site would be open to all drug users  not just those in opioid addiction  to concerns that the city has failed to educate citizens on basic facts about the sites.

Jessica Ramirez, a treatment provider from Kensington, said she disliked the idea of the sites but wanted the city to expand access to medication-assisted treatment, the gold standard for opioid addiction treatment.

Some told the stories of their own recoveries, and their own initial ambivalence about the sites.

Bill Kinkle, five months sober, lives in Glenside but grew up in Kensington  and, years later, ended up homeless there. The father of three spoke of how he sought shelter in his childhood home, now abandoned. He found his family photos in the decrepit basement. He's not sure if he would have used a safe injection site while he was in addiction, though he now supports the idea. His wife, Trish, cut in: She would have wanted him to go. Whenever her husband left the house, she said, she worried that he would never come back. She addressed the other mothers in the crowd: She knew it was a hard idea to wrap your head around, she told them.

"But if the safe injection site means that my children have a father that comes home to them, it's worth it," she said.
The American Dental Association said it is pressing for seven-day prescription limits and mandatory education that encourages using other painkillers. Read more

Dentists are the newest group of clinicians being asked to double down in the effort to fight the opioid epidemic by cutting back on prescriptions.

The American Dental Association announced Monday an interim policy that supports a seven-day limit on prescription drugs for treatment of acute pain.

In addition, the ADA, which represents about 161,000 dentists, supports mandatory continuing education in prescribing narcotics, limits on dosages, and the use of prescription-drug monitoring programs.

The new position puts the group in line with federal guidelines which suggest clinicians prescribe the lowest effective dose of immediate-release pain killers. They also suggest three days of medicine to manage acute pain, but no more than seven days.

Pennsylvania dentists and oral surgeons have been complying with the recommendations for about a year.

"It's the law," said Elliot Hersh, professor of oral surgery and pharmacology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine. Pennsylvania was one of the last states to adopt the requirement that doctors look up a patient's history on the state drug monitoring program before writing a prescription, an effort to detect signs of doctor-shopping for multiple scripts.

Opioids should not be the first line of pain relief, Hersh said. Many patients can be treated with a combination of ibuprofen, like Advil or Motrin, plus acetaminophen or naproxen sodium such as Aleve or Anaprox plus acetaminophen, he said.

About 85 percent to 90 percent of patients who take an opioid will develop undesirable side effects like drowsiness, nausea, and constipation, he added.

However, there are some challenges when it comes to prescribing for pain after dental surgery  like impacted third molars  while the patients are still numb, said Hersh.

"We have no idea precisely what the level of post-operative pain will be," he said. "We often prescribe for the worst-case scenario."

According to the Journal of Preventive Medicine, most of the opioid prescriptions in the United States are written by physicians and other medical professionals, not dentists. In 1998, dentists prescribed 15.5 percent of opioid pain relievers in the U.S. By 2012, that number dropped to 6.4 percent, the journal reported.

The largest increase for opioid prescriptions was among dental patients 11 to 18 years, researchers at the ADA Health Policy Institute found. They reviewed data from about 1.1 million privately insured dental patients from 2010 to 2015. In all age groups in the same time period, prescriptions increased by 17 per 1,000 patients, the data showed.

Hersh said there are generally three types of doctors that overprescribe opioids  the outdated doctors who haven't kept up with changes, the duped doctors who fall victim to patients looking for narcotics, and the dishonest doctors. These doctors are in all fields, not just dentistry, he said.

While there are no hard numbers, agents do not see a lot of pill mills at dentist offices, said Patrick Trainor, a public information officer for the Philadelphia Drug Enforcement Agency.

"I think the fact they are doing this is a step in the right direction and certainly can help," said Trainor.
Pennsylvania ranks second in the nation in the number of excessive pollution discharges sent into waterways by industrial and commercial facilities, according to a report released Tuesday by PennEnvironment.

The report looked at data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as well as state agencies on discharges by major industrial facilities during a 21-month span in 2016 and 2017.

Texas was first in the number of discharges exceeding permitted limits, with 938 instances. Pennsylvania followed with 633, based on data supplied to PennEnvironment by the state's Department of Environmental Protection. Statewide, the discharges ranged from ammonia nitrogen, styrene, copper, and aluminum to oil and grease. Such discharges can alter water chemistry and impact aquatic life.

"Not only did many major industrial facilities exceed their permit limits  sometimes frequently  but some of those exceedances were particularly severe," the report states, "with facilities releasing multiple times the amount of pollution permitted under their Clean Water Act Permits."

New Jersey was not included in the report because its records were missing from the EPA database used by the researchers. The state has failed to report data since 2012, but is working with the EPA to upload missing records this year.

Locally, excessive discharges from major facilities were monitored at:

U.S. Steel Corp. in Fairless Hills, Bucks County, where discharges impacted the dissolved oxygen in the water going into the Delaware River. Dissolved oxygen levels are used as a barometer of water purity.

Graterford Prison, Montgomery County, where monitoring showed releases into a tributary of Perkiomen Creek. Discharges included ammonia nitrogen, iron, suspended solids, and fecal coliform.

Monroe Energy Trainer Refinery in Marcus Hook, Delaware County, where releases flowed into Stoney Creek near the Delaware River. Discharges included suspended solids and phenolics, which also impacted dissolved oxygen.

A representative for U.S. Steel could not be reached immediately for comment. The Graterford discharges likely occurred during construction. Graterford is being replaced by the $400 million State Correctional Institution Phoenix in Skippack Township, set to open in June. Representatives for Monroe Energy had no comment.

To derive its data, PennEnvironment pulled records from the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, which was authorized under the Clean Water Act. The act prohibits facilities from sending pollutants into a waterway unless it has a permit to do so. The permits contain limits on how much can be discharged, as well as how a site is monitored. So it examined which facilities exceeded those permitted limits and over how many days. It did not include all violations  some of which could have been bureaucratic in nature. In some cases, state level data were more complete, as was the case in Pennsylvania.

PennEnvironment, a statewide advocacy organization, said enforcement of the Clean Water Act is often weak and getting weaker. It worked with the Frontier Group to compile the report.

"Decades after the Clean Water Act was signed into law, nearly 20,000 miles of rivers and streams in Pennsylvania are still considered unsafe for fishing and swimming," said Stephanie Wein, clean water advocate at PennEnvironment. "And instead of ratcheting pollution down to zero, facilities are still dumping chemicals and other pollutants into our waters beyond the legal limits set to protect health and the environment."

EPA records show, according to PennEnvironment, that most violators don't get punished. Most years, tens of thousands of facilities are out of compliance. Less than half faced any EPA or state enforcement action. Those that did received wrist slaps, such as warning letters.

The organization said enforcement is further eroding under the Trump administration and EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, who has been widely criticized by environmentalists as favoring business.

The administration is attempting to roll back some clean water protections on wetlands and streams, loosen regulations on pollution from coal-fired plants. and discharge limits for steam electric plants, PennEnvironment noted. It was also seeking to repeal the Clean Water Rule, a 2015 provision of the Clean Water Act, and replace it with a more permissive rule.
Graffiti tributes to Alton Sterling surround the convenience store where he was shot. The Justice Department has decided not to charge any officers involved in the 37-year-olds death. Read more

Black Lives Matter.

I make that statement firmly, because America has told me the opposite.

In one ruling after another, in one jurisdiction after another, in one case after another, America has taken my face in its hands, looked me squarely in the eye, and screamed at the top of its lungs that black lives have no value.

The latest message was delivered on Tuesday. That's when Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry announced the decision not to indict Baton Rouge police officers Blane Salamoni and Howie Lake II in the 2016 shooting death of a black man named Alton Sterling. Landry's decision, which he claimed was a difficult one, was the latest indication that black lives have little value in the country of my birth.

However, that wasn't the only message in Landry's announcement. The larger and more significant meaning was this: If African Americans desire equal treatment, we must forever fight to get it.

For Sterling, his final fight for respect was against the hood of a car in front of a convenience store where he was selling CDs. A homeless man called 911 to say Sterling had threatened him with a gun. Two officers responded and told Sterling to put his hands on the hood of a car. Sterling initially did so, but when he removed his hands, he was wrestled to the ground and Tasered.

"I'll kill you, bitch!" Salamoni yelled, his words captured on cellphone video as he and his partner tussled with Sterling.

Moments later, as Sterling lay on his back, his arms pinned to the ground, Salamoni did just that. He shot three bullets into Sterling's chest, and as Sterling sat up, Salamoni pumped three more bullets into Sterling's back.

Police said they recovered a gun from Sterling's pocket, and Landry, in announcing his decision not to file charges, called the officers' actions in Sterling's case "reasonable and justified."

In an earlier investigation, the U.S. Justice Department, which declined to bring civil rights charges in Sterling's death, said there was "insufficient evidence" to prove that Sterling's civil rights were violated.

But the public doesn't know if that's true. That's because we've only seen the two cell phone videos that captured the killing, but footage from the nearby convenience store was confiscated by police, who detained the owner to get it. And footage from the officers' body cameras has also been kept from public view.

Baton Rouge Police Chief Murphy Paul said Tuesday that "relevant" bodycam footage can be made public after a disciplinary hearing is held for the officers.

But who determines what's "relevant" in a case like this?

Is it relevant that Salamoni declared his intent to kill Sterling before he did it? Is it relevant that Lake was involved in the shooting of another black man two years before? Is it relevant that Louisiana has a long and sordid history of racial discrimination? Is it relevant that blacks are nearly three times more likely to be killed by police use of force than white men, according to research by Dr. James Buehler of Drexel University?

I'm not sure anymore what's relevant in the eyes of a criminal justice system that is more likely to arrest, charge, convict, and even execute people who look like me. But I do know what I see.

I see a black man named Alton Sterling  who was armed, but hurt no one  shot and killed by police. I see a white man named James Holmes taken alive after killing 12 and injuring 70 in a movie theater shooting. I see a white man named Dylann Roof kill nine black parishioners in a church, get arrested by police without incident, and then get a trip to Burger King courtesy of police officers who thought he might be hungry.

The racial disparities in our law enforcement system are many. They are obvious. They are wrong.

And those disparities are the reason I must now take America's face in my hands, look my country in the eye, and scream at the top of my lungs that black lives matter.

We cannot sit by in silence while we are unjustly killed by police officers whose salaries we pay. We cannot abandon our expectation of equal justice. We cannot accept America's false notion that black people are monsters to be feared.

Black lives matter.

It is a fact that we will fight to make you accept. Because we cannot watch another video of a black life extinguished. We cannot watch as another officer is unjustly acquitted. We cannot tell our children that their lives are of little value.

Black lives matter. That is our truth. And it must become America's truth as well.

Solomon Jones is the author of 10 books. Listen to him weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon on Praise 107.9 FM. Email: sj@solomonjones.com Twitter: @solomonjones1
The Amish are a kind, peaceful people.

That being said, let dread's cold hand grip your spine as you gaze into the soulless eyes of 40 life-size Amish wax models for sale in a Lancaster County Craigslist ad.

Dana DiCicco, who's selling them, said they didn't seem "creepy at all" when she was a kid in Pennsylvania Dutch country.

Now, she can't deny it. Even the dog feels off.

"When I went to see them in storage, they definitely looked creepy," she said. "It looked like a scene from the Gettysburg battlefield."

DiCicco is putting them up for sale on behalf of her uncle, a longtime manager of the Amish Farm and House, a tourist attraction in Lancaster. The adult figures are going for $350 apiece, the children and dog for $250, and DiCicco said they'd like to sell them as a set.

"He would definitely love to see them used for historical reasons," DiCicco said.

The wax figures, each standing 5 feet, 5 inches, once were part of the Lancaster County Wax Museum, which was opened in 1969 by Dutch Wonderland founder Earl Clark adjacent to the amusement park along Route 30. The museum featured dioramas of local history, including the burning of a Susquehanna River bridge to thwart the Confederate Army and also one about pretzel-making. William Penn was there. Ben Franklin, too. The centerpiece of the museum was the Amish barn-raising scene.

According to Lancaster Online, nearly all of the figures were auctioned off when the venue closed for good in 2006. Ben Franklin went for $4,100. Nathaniel Lightner, Lancaster's second mayor, sold for $550.

Dutch Wonderland, according to Lancaster Online, held on to the Amish scene and was going to re-create it in the park. DiCicco said that never happened because the park was sold to new owners.

The whole crew went instead to the Amish Farm and House about a mile away, but the tableau was never resurrected and all the figures sat in storage.

"Some are mechanical. Some move," DiCicco said. "The one with the hat and a beard, he would speak."

Pennsylvania's wax-figure population had already been plummeting. Last year, Gettysburg's Hall of Presidents and First Ladies auctioned off all its wax figures.

"I don't have good intentions," a man who bought Hillary Clinton told the online magazine Slate.

DiCicco didn't use the word creepy in her Craigslist ad, but she gets it. Halloween isn't too far off and haunted attractions abound in Pennsylvania.

"I was thinking maybe the Field of Screams would be interested," she said of a nearby attraction.

She said she noticed other Amish wax figures being sold in recent years by a woman from Bird-in-Hand whose collection went viral for being "creepy."

DiCicco said those wax figures were photographed in poor lighting.
Darryl Carroll (left), a Philadelphia Streets Department line striper crew chief, repaints a bicycle lane line on Spruce Street as fellow worker Jose Gonzalez follows his progress. The restriping in December, which was previously scheduled, took place days after a bicyclist was killed in a crash at 11th and Spruce Streets. Read more

Philadelphia is seeking to swap bike and parking lanes to opposite sides of the street on Spruce and Pine Streets in Center City.

The change would be a safety improvement on streets where a cyclist died last year, city officials said. Emily Fredricks, 24, was biking to work on Nov. 28 when she was hit by a garbage truck turning right from Spruce onto 11th Street.

Fredricks' family attended a safe streets conference this month in the city and has organized a bike ride and brunch in April to raise money to improve safety and help riders replace bicycles damaged in crashes. On Tuesday, they applauded Philadelphia's latest proposal, which bike advocates say might prevent crashes similar to Emily's.

"At the end of May, she had moved to the city," said Laura Fredricks, recalling that her daughter, a pastry chef, had come back to Philadelphia from Naples, Fla., to be closer to family. "I'd rather have her in Florida."

The crash is still being investigated, police said. Vehicles, particularly large trucks, have a larger blind spot on the right than on the driver's side, something that may have contributed to Fredricks' death. Switching bike lanes to the left side from Front to 22nd Streets would make bicycles easier to see, officials said.

"They're going to be able to see the bicyclist better because the blind spot is going to be much narrower," said Sarah Clark Stuart, president of the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia.

Her organization has pushed for barriers to protect cyclists along those two streets, but the city's proposal wouldn't make that happen. The organization supports the proposal because switching the lanes provides some safety benefits quickly, and additional protections can be added later, Clark Stuart said.

If approved by City Council, the lanes would be painted in a new configuration during scheduled repaving over several weeks by October. The roads would not be closed to traffic during the process.

"It really improves safety at the intersections," said Kelley Yemen, the city's Complete Streets director. "When we look to repaving, it's our opportunity to look for safety improvements across the board."

The switch was not directly prompted by Fredricks' death, Yemen said. Road repaving was already scheduled for this year on both streets, she said, and it's become city policy to redesign streets with bike lanes painted on the left. The switch also has the advantage of keeping bikes away from buses, which generally travel and stop on the right, Yemen said.

The changes have been made to Walnut, 10th, and Chestnut Streets in recent years.

Spruce and Pine are among the most heavily biked city streets, carrying 500 to 1,000 cyclists a day, officials from the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia have said. Twenty-one of the 185 crashes on those streets from 2012 to 2016 involved bicyclists, data from the city showed.

A separate study from the bicycle coalition found 61 percent of crashes from 2009 to 2016 on those roads were angle crashes, Clark Stuart said.

Shifting bike lanes to the left does help motorists see bicycles, the National Association of City Transportation Officials reported. The configuration is used in Boston, New York City, Chicago, and Washington.

Philadelphia officials are presenting the proposal in community meetings on April 4 and 5, but the change has already drawn criticism. The Society Hill Civic Association recently commissioned its own safe streets study and said the bike lane switch shouldn't be a priority on Spruce and Pine, which typically carry slow-moving car traffic. The group called for a study of traffic patterns to determine how many cyclists make right turns rather than left, saying cyclists could be in more danger turning to the right from a bike lane on the left. The group is also concerned about the proposed configuration forcing drivers to exit parked cars into the street, rather than sidewalks.

"The problem is that they have failed to collect the data to make their case," said Rosanne Loesch, the civic association president. "There's also a risk to pedestrians created by the plan, obvious risks."

Spruce and Pine are central east-west arteries for bike travel, Yemen said, with riders turning off them in both directions more or less equally. Making a right turn from a left lane would be no more unsafe than it is to do the opposite, so the city is looking at designs that would create a safe space for cyclists to get from one side to the other for turns.

Yemen also noted many streets in Philadelphia already have parallel parking on the right side without risking drivers' safety.

Fredricks' family has embraced the cause of improving street safety to prevent another family from suffering a similar loss.

"The five of us  it was always the five of us," Laura Fredricks said. "That's completely broken and destroyed. We're so sad. She was lovely."
A group of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force bombers have recently conducted a long-range real combat drill, a move aimed at further enhancing its capability in warfare, the PLA Air Force announced on Tuesday.

The PLA Air Force has sent a total of 12 H-6K bombers from its historically elite Shenwei Unit (Divine Might) from China's Guanzhong Plain region for the maneuver, read an article posted on the PLA Air Force official Sina Weibo account on Tuesday.

The article did not disclose the exact objectives for this latest maneuver, but the post came after reports that Taiwan on Monday claimed to have scrambled aircraft to shadow military planes from China's mainland as they flew through the Bashi Channel to the south of the island.

Historically, the PLA Air Force has carried out missions including surveying and mapping Mount Qomolangma, known as Mount Everest in the West, as well as dropping atomic and hydrogen bombs, read the post.

At the beginning of the the 2018 Chinese New Year, H-6K bombers from the Shenwei Unit overcame two weeks of freezing and rainy weather in the Guandong Plain region and practiced maneuvers including emergency response at night and long-endurance flights night and day.

The force's all-weather long range combat capability was verified and enhanced from the training, the article said.

It also noted in the article that the unit flew over the Bashi Channel and Miyako Strait near the island of Taiwan for the first time in March 2015.

The PLA Air Force unit also performs missions including routine high-sea drills in the West Pacific, regular patrols in the East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone and military patrols in the South China Sea, as well as "island circling" missions.

The pilots of the H-6K bombers from the Shenwei Unit had inherited the red gene from Red Army, flying toward the goal of "arriving at all territories, assaulting at all times and places, and full-fledged attacks," the article quoted PLA Air Force spokesperson Shen Jinke as saying.
Last year's movie about WWI, also known as Wonder Woman, made $1 billion around the globe, and that's probably not a realistic outcome for Journey's End.

In part because there are no superheroes in Journey's End, only men. And doomed men at that, English soldiers stuck in a trench about to be doused in poison gas, and overrun by German soldiers. It's hallmark is a dogged realism  it's based on material written 90 years ago by World War I veteran R.C. Sherriff, who turned his experiences into the play, which opened in London starring a young Laurence Olivier, and went on to become a West End smash and a hit across the pond as well.

Audiences were intrigued by the novelty of Sherriff's then-modern take on the unprecedented horror of industrial-age mechanized warfare  conflict on a mass scale, conducted with weapons of mass destruction (machine guns and nerve gas) that had turned combat into pointless, numbing slaughter  the battle featured here would claim 700,000 men, and accomplish nothing, not even a disgusted desire to end the war.

Journey's End plops us into Year 3 of the madness, when the futility and insanity of the situation had left soldiers shell-shocked and cynical. On a parade ground, troops drill and sing: "We're here because we're because we're here because we're here," a bitter strain of esprit de corps.

Soldiers are fighting to preserve monarchies and a class system that views them as little more than cannon fodder. This debased situation, increasingly obvious, has unnerved even the officers.

Among them is Stanhope (Sam Claflin), who in Journey's End is informed that the Germans are preparing to mount a major assault, and that he will receive no reinforcements. At this inopportune moment, he "welcomes" a new officer named Raleigh (Asa Butterfield), a friend from home.

Stanhope struggles to conceal from Raleigh what we would now recognize as PTSD  three years of war have driven him nearly mad (another officer is already there), and he now gets by on alcohol and cathartic bouts of rage (often directed at the poor cook, Toby Jones).

Stanhope relies on friend and fellow officer (Paul Bettany), but even this consolation is threatened when Stanhope is forced to select officers for a suicidal patrol to snag German prisoners.

Journey's End makes no attempt to disguise the stage origins of the script. Instead, director Saul Dibb shows the physical dimension of the situation in a new way  much of the action occurs in the tunnels  it's shot imaginatively in extreme low light, where the officers live, eat, and decide which men are to live and which are to die.

And aspects Sherriff's drama retain their appeal  including the way it reflects the unparalleled British gift for understatement. When a sergeant (Stephen Graham) grasps the suicidal lunacy of the unit's latest assignment, he describes the orders as a "nuisance."

Indeed.

The play wears well, even if it's ending is a bit dated  a family member receives a letter home from one of the men, who is essentially lying about what he's seen, and preserving illusions of gallantry and honor for the sake of the folks back home.

War is no longer able to keep those kinds of secrets. But that hasn't made it any less ineradicable.
In a drug bust described as the first of its kind in Montgomery County, two men were arrested Monday night and charged with ordering an extremely potent synthetic opioid through the mail from China and distributing it locally, authorities announced Wednesday.

Jamil Chapman, 26, and his nephew Nasai Chapman, 23, of Collingdale, Delaware County, are accused of ordering and distributing fentanyl and its deadlier cousin carfentanil, a narcotic powerful enough to tranquilize elephants. Prosecutors said that 300 grams of fentanyl were seized and that the pair could be linked to 400 to 500 grams of carfentanil shipped to the United States from China.

Carfentanil has been linked to recent deaths in Montgomery and Chester Counties as well as Philadelphia. Authorities say that some dealers will add it to narcotics, including heroin and cocaine, to increase potency and provide a more intense high.

"I can't overstate how deadly carfentanil is," Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon in Norristown.

"This is the first time we have seen evidence of carfentanil trafficking in Montgomery County," he added in a separate statement.

Steele said that up to two-thirds of that county's 245 fatal drug overdoses last year were linked to fentanyl or carfentanil, and that even tiny amounts of the latter can prove deadly. The district attorney said police officers have even begun carrying naloxone, an overdose treatment medication, to treat drug-sniffing dogs who may come into contact with carfentanil.

Steele said that even Jamil Chapman had to be treated for an overdose in June 2017  before authorities had begun investigating him  and that detectives believe he overdosed simply from contact with the drugs he had been packaging for sale in his apartment.

"This stuff is killing people," the district attorney said of carfentanil.

According to the arrest affidavit, detectives were able to zero in on the Chapmans' distribution business due in part to prison phone calls recorded after Jamil Chapman was picked up in September 2017 on an unrelated charge of credit card fraud. In the calls, the document says, he and his nephew frequently discussed checking on the status of a package from Hong Kong bound for New York.

Detectives previously had seized a computer from Jamil Chapman's Bala Cynwyd apartment and found that he had searched on Google for terms including "buy fentanyl," "buy carfentanil online," and "carfentanil cutting agent," the affidavit says.

In October and November 2017, the affidavit says, federal officials in New York recovered packages bound for a King of Prussia apartment also rented by Jamil Chapman, and tests showed that the packages contained about 300 grams of fentanyl.

Detectives later received a warrant for Jamil Chapman's email address, the affidavit says, and found conversations dating back to April 2017 in which Chapman allegedly sought to have drugs, including fentanyl and carfentanil, shipped to him. In total, it says, Chapman had conversations about nine purchases with several suppliers.

Steele declined to offer details on who the alleged suppliers were, or to provide a street value of the amount of carfentanil the Chapmans allegedly imported, saying it is inexpensive to acquire.

"The fact that it was this easy for people to order this and get it shipped here is really scary," he said.

Jamil and Nasai Chapman were each being held on bail at Montgomery County Prison, according to court records. The records did not say whether they had obtained attorneys. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for next month.
The Frank Rizzo statue in front of the Municipal Services Building in Center City was defaced late Thursday, Aug. 17, 2017. Read more

Charges are expected to be dropped against a former mayoral candidate accused of spray-painting the words Black Power Matters on a statue of former Mayor Frank L. Rizzo near City Hall last year, if he completes 50 hours of community service.

Under an agreement between the prosecution and defense, all four misdemeanor charges against Wali Rahman, 40, of Germantown, will be withdrawn despite an earlier indication of a plea deal from the District Attorney's Office.

Assistant District Attorney Noel Walton told Municipal Court Judge Thomas Gehret during a brief proceeding Wednesday that both sides had reached a "Rule 546 agreement" in which Rahman would complete the community service.

Michael Coard, Rahman's attorney, said afterward that the community service would be done with the Pennsylvania Prison Society, which has its office on South Broad Street in Center City. He declined to comment on the case, or on why the prison society was chosen for the service.

Rahman, who also uses the name Diop Olugbala, was accused of spray-painting the Rizzo statue about 11 p.m. Aug. 17. Video of the act recorded by Fox29 cameras was used to identify Rahman.

He also was accused of writing "The Black community should be their own Police" on the steps beneath the statue in front of the Municipal Services Building.

He faced misdemeanor charges of criminal mischief, possession of an instrument of crime, institutional vandalism, and intentional desecration.

On March 16, Walton told Municipal Court Judge William Austin Meehan Jr. that the charges against Rahman would be resolved with a plea to a summary offense of criminal mischief, signaling that the three other charges would be dropped.

That had displeased Meehan, who told the prosecutor that day: "Why don't you just give a free pass to everybody in town?" Meehan didn't mention District Attorney Larry Krasner, but was clearly referring to the new DA's goal of seeking lighter sentences.

In court Wednesday, Gehret made no comment about the case, and the allegations in the case were not discussed.

After the hearing, Rahman said he had spray-painted Black Power Matters on the statue because "Frank Rizzo is one of many icons or symbols of the repression  against the black community" in the city. He expressed satisfaction with the outcome in his case.

A May 3 hearing date was scheduled for the status of Rahman's community service, which he is expected to complete in 30 days. If he does so, the DA's Office is expected to drop the four charges.

Rizzo's statue has stoked heated debate, often along racial lines. Critics of the former mayor have demanded it be removed, saying he targeted communities of color. His supporters say he was a hero who made the city safer.

>> READ MORE: Mural Arts gets more than 1,000 responses on Rizzo mural's future

The Kenney administration in November announced it would move the bronze statue from the spot where it has stood for nearly two decades. That has not happened.

Rizzo served as police commissioner from 1967 to 1971 and as mayor from 1972 to 1980. He died of a heart attack at age 70 in July 1991.

In 2011, Rahman ran for mayor of Philadelphia. He got 3.6 percent of the vote.
Shakira Wilson-Burroughs, sister of the late Sgt.Robert Wilson, and Constance Wilson, grandmother, front, at their home in Cobbs Creek, Philadelphia. Thursday, March 22, 2018. JOSE F. MORENO / Staff Photographer Read more

Relatives of slain Philadelphia Police Sgt. Robert Wilson III said Wednesday that they are outraged at the way District Attorney Larry Krasner has handled the prosecution of Wilson's accused killers and called for the state Attorney General's Office to take over the case.

Their frustration boiled over after Common Pleas Court Judge J. Scott O'Keefe announced that the trial of Carlton Hipps and Ramone Williams, which had been scheduled for April, was being delayed until November because defense attorneys had requested more time to investigate. Prosecutors did not oppose the request. Neither side specified why the additional time was needed.

Wilson's family said there was "no reason" for Krasner's office to agree with defense attorneys on an extension just weeks before trial  and they questioned whether Krasner could be objective in handling the case given his relationship with Michael Coard, an attorney for Hipps. Coard was a key ally of Krasner's during the campaign and served on Krasner's transition team.

"It's appalling what they're doing," Shaki'ra Wilson-Burroughs said outside the Criminal Justice Center while surrounded by her family. "What else is needed for [Wilson] to get justice?"

Krasner's office issued a statement Wednesday saying that it "is committed to fighting for justice in the horrific murder of Sgt. Wilson. DA Krasner, who already met with some members of Sgt. Wilson's family, understands their trauma and continues to extend his support and condolences during this difficult time."

The office added that Coard was one of many people on the transition team.

"Larry has not spoken to Mr. Coard about this case or any other criminal cases since becoming district attorney. Mr. Coard has no formal or informal role in the DA's Office. Our prosecutors will continue to operate in an independent and ethical manner on all cases," the statement said.

Police Commissioner Richard Ross, who attended the hearing, said he understood the family's disappointment over the postponement. Wilson was shot dead in 2015 at a GameStop store in North Philadelphia during a robbery attempt. His actions were described by the mayor and former commissioner as heroic.

"They're visibly upset, for good reason," Ross said. "I can't imagine how frustrating this must be."

John McNesby, president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5, who also attended, called the trial's delay "a disgrace." He said the union was exploring whether it could take action to seek to have the case prosecuted by another office.

Left unsaid at Wednesday's hearing was whether Krasner's office will continue seeking the death penalty against Hipps and Williams, who are brothers. Krasner said on the campaign trail that he would never seek capital punishment, but his office's statement in the Wilson case said a final decision had not been made.

"As of today, the office is continuing to review the case through the office's Homicide Sentencing Committee. It remains a death penalty case at this time," the statement said.

Wilson's relatives, along with McNesby and Ross, believe the accused gunmen should be tried in a capital case.

Staff writer Julie Shaw contributed to this article.
On March 26, the US, Canada, and several European Union countries expelled Russian diplomats from their respective foreign embassies and consulates in retaliation against Russia's alleged poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter. As of this writing, 19 countries, including 15 EU member states, have shown their support to Great Britain by enforcing such measures.

On March 4, Skripal and his daughter Yulia were rushed to a hospital after they were found unconscious at a park in Salisbury. It was later reported the father and daughter had come into contact with an obscure nerve agent. UK government officials said the Skripals were attacked by "Novichok," a powerful Soviet-era chemical nerve agent used by the military.

The British government did not provide evidence that linked Russia to the crime but was confident from the beginning there could be no other "reasonable explanation" for the attempted assassination. Great Britain was so convinced of their Russia theory, they wasted no time taking the lead in levying sanctions against the country by quickly expelling Russian diplomats from London. Shortly afterwards, UK capital officials reached out to NATO and their European allies who provided immediate support.

The accusations that Western countries have hurled at Russia are based on ulterior motives, similar to how the Chinese use the expression "perhaps it's true" to seize upon the desired opportunity. From a third-person perspective, the principles and diplomatic logic behind such drastic efforts are flawed, not to mention that expelling Russian diplomats almost simultaneously isa crude form of behavior. Such actions make little impact other than increasing hostility and hatred between Russia and their Western counterparts.

The UK government should have an independent investigation conducted into the Skripal poisoning by representatives from the international community. An effort such as this would provide results strong enough for those following the case to make up their minds on who should or shouldn't be accused of the crime. Now, the majority of those who support Britain's one-sided conclusion happen to be members of NATO and the EU, while others stood behind the UK due to long-standing relations.

The fact that major Western powers can gang up and "sentence" a foreign country without following the same procedures other countries abide by and according to the basic tenets of international law is chilling. During the Cold War, not one Western nation would have dared to make such a provocation and yet today it is carried out with unrestrained ease. Such actions are nothing more than a form of Western bullying that threatens global peace and justice.

Over the past few years the international standard has been falsified and manipulated in ways never seen before. The fundamental reason behind reducing global standards is rooted in post-Cold War power disparities. The US, along with their allies, jammed their ambitions into the international standards so their actions, which were supposed to follow a set of standardized procedures and protocol, were really nothing more than profit-seizing opportunities designed only for themselves. These same Western nations activated in full-force public opinion-shaping platforms and media agencies to defend and justify such privileges.

As of late, more foreign countries have been victimized by Western rhetoric and nonsensical diplomatic measures. In the end, the leaders of these nations are forced to wear a hat featuring slogans and words that read "oppressing their own people," "authoritarian," or "ethnic cleansing," regardless of their innocence.

It is beyond outrageous how the US and Europe have treated Russia. Their actions represent a frivolity and recklessness that has grown to characterize Western hegemony that only knows how to contaminate international relations. Right now is the perfect time for non-Western nations to strengthen unity and collaborative efforts among one another. These nations need to establish a level of independence outside the reach of Western influence while breaking the chains of monopolization declarations, predetermined adjudications, and come to value their own judgement abilities.

It's already understood that to achieve such international collective efforts is easier said than done as they require foundational support before anything can happen. Until a new line of allies emerges, multi-national associations like BRICS, or even the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, need to provide value to those non-Western nations and actively create alliances with them.

What Russia is experiencing right could serve as a reflection of how other non-Western nations can expect to be treated in the not-to-distant future. Expelling Russian diplomats simultaneously is hardly enough to deter Russia. Overall, it's an intimidation tactic that has become emblematic of Western nations, and furthermore, such measures are not supported by international law and therefore unjustified. More importantly, the international community should have the tools and means to counterbalance such actions.

The West is only a small fraction of the world and is nowhere near the global representative it once thought it was. The silenced minorities within the international community need to realize this and prove just how deep their understanding is of such a realization by proving it to the world through action. With the Skripal case, the general public does not know the truth, and the British government has yet to provide a shred of evidence justifying their allegations against Russia.

It is firmly believed that accusations levied by one country to another that are not the end results of a thorough and professional investigation should not be encouraged. Simultaneously expelling diplomats is a form of uncivilized behavior that needs to be abolished immediately.
Forensic scientist Antoinette Campbell founded the Association for Women in Forensic Science and Club Philly Forensics for kids. Read more

"'You don't look like a scientist,'" Antoinette T. Campbell has been told more than once  and she's felt it, too.

"I think there is still a stereotype as to what scientists look like," said Campbell, 42, who is black. "When I was majoring in chemistry, it was very lonely. A lot of conferences and trainings I would go to, I would see a lot of white men and I wouldn't see any African American women."

Even today, while Campbell's chosen field  forensic science  is increasingly popular among women, she says she still often notices a disparity when it comes to race.

And she wants to change that. When she's not working her day job as a civilian chemist with the Philadelphia Police Department's Office of Forensic Science, she's running her nonprofit, the Association of Women in Forensic Science, and Club Philly Forensics, a series of hands-on forensic workshops for kids.

She founded both in 2010 to give people considering forensic science as a career something she never had as a child  mentors.

"I didn't have anyone to guide me into the field," Campbell said. "My goal was to create a network to open up the whole gated community of forensic science and make it accessible to people so they could understand what we do."

While growing up in West Oak Lane, Campbell's mother instilled in her the importance of a higher education. But as the first in her family to attend college, Campbell didn't have anyone to show her the way.

Since she's always been an analytical thinker, Campbell chose chemistry as her major at Temple University. When she graduated in 2001, she interviewed for a chemistry job with the city and chose to work with the Police Department.

She learned about forensic science on the job and spent years analyzing street drugs and illegally obtained prescription narcotics before moving to the quality-assurance unit.

When she'd mention her job to others, she found that many people were intrigued by what she did, but their interest was largely informed  not always accurately  by television.

"People ask, 'Oh, are you like CSI?' " she said. "It's one of those fields that's broad and encompasses so many disciplines  and I think the biggest misconception is that everything is done by one person, but it's a team."

Campbell's Association of Women in Forensic Science is a team, too. The group is made up of Philly scientists from a variety of forensic disciplines, including DNA and firearms analysis. It's a small nonprofit that Campbell runs out of her Germantown home, but it's the type of support network she never had.

As part of Club Philly Forensics, Campbell also holds monthly workshops to teach kids about the forensic sciences.

"I have the club in Mount Airy, not far from where I grew up, because I want to get more African American kids to think of forensic science as a career option," she said.

The workshop, which is also mobile, serves as both an introduction to the field and a drug and violence education program. Campbell uses her background in drug analysis to educate kids about what they might encounter on Philly's streets.

"I feel the more that they know about the type of drugs that are out there, the more likely they are to abstain from it," she said.

A recent workshop focused on "purple drank," a mixture of cough syrup and soda that's also known as "lean" and "sizzurp."

"Purple drank is very popular. Some people don't think it's still around, but we see it on the forensic side because it's a drug submission," she said. "It's really, really popular in Philadelphia  and I wanted to de-glamorize it."

The Philly native said she feels a duty to share what she's learned.

"I was born and raised here. I live here. My family still lives here. How can I not take what I'm seeing and what I know and share it with the community?" she said. "I feel like I have a responsibility."

Why Philadelphia?

"Because I was born and raised here, I've been here all my life so I haven't lived anywhere else but in Philadelphia."

Whats been a classic Philly moment for you?

"Oh my goodness. I have so many  I like going down to Penn's Landing in the summer. I like going to the Dell for concerts. It's just everything about me is Philly. That's why my organization is Club Philly Forensics. I'm always referring to myself as a Philly girl. Everything I do, I still walk up the Art Museum steps so I can look at the skyline. It sounds typical of Philly but that's really what I do."

If you had a wish for Philly, what would it be?

"To fix the potholes. That's my wish. No, honestly the potholes here in Philadelphia are just horrible."

Know someone in the Philadelphia area whose story deserves to be told  or someone whose story you'd like to know? Send suggestions for We the People profiles to Stephanie Farr at farrs@phillynews.com or call her at 215-854-4225. Send tips via Twitter to @FarFarrAway.
As flames devoured the North Philadelphia rowhouse beneath her last week, Alita Johnson cowered in a small third-floor bathroom with her father and 3-year-old son, pleading with 911 to send someone to their rescue.

Firefighters responded. They extinguished the blaze and rescued other tenants. But when they cleared the scene and packed up to leave, Johnson and her family remained behind  missed and overlooked.

It wasn't until 72 hours later that their bodies were discovered  and only then after relatives say they made repeated calls to officials to report that the Johnsons still were missing.

As those family members continued to demand answers Tuesday, Fire Commissioner Adam Thiel offered a heartfelt apology and said that his department would continue to investigate what went wrong.

"While we can never share the family's pain, this is extremely upsetting to us," he said at a news conference at Fire Department headquarters at 240 Spring Garden St. "Every fire death is tragic.  The circumstances here make this even worse."

In an update on the ongoing probe, Thiel confirmed for the first time that investigators believe it was Alita Johnson who first reported the blaze at what city officials have described as an illegal boarding house at 1855 N. 21st St., and that she had remained on the phone with dispatchers for nearly 10 minutes before her death.

He said investigators still were sorting out how firefighters could have missed that Johnson, her 64-year-old father, Horace, and her son, Hashim, had not been rescued or accounted for before they left the scene early last Wednesday.

But even as Thiel and other city officials expressed their condolences and confusion on Tuesday, they also sought to blame the property's owner for unsafe conditions that may have contributed to last week's tragedy.

Brian Abernathy, first deputy managing director, told reporters that he planned to meet with the District Attorney's Office in the coming days to discuss potential criminal charges against the building's management company, Granite Hill Properties, and the business' owner, Tyrone Duren.

Although investigators believe that as many as 10 people resided in the house at the time, the building did not have an active rental license and was not zoned to be a multifamily dwelling.

In fact, said David Perri, commissioner of the Department of Licenses and Inspections, his office previously had sued Granite Hill for running an unlicensed boarding house in 2014  a case that was resolved with Duren's pledging he would vacate the building. Sometime between then and last week, Granite Hill began renting the property again.

"Boarding houses, especially those that are not run very well, provide a heightened safety concern because [tenants] add microwaves, they add hot plates and things that can overload the electrical circuits," Perri said.

Neither Duren, a 47-year-old former agent with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, nor his lawyer, John Kirby, returned calls for comment Tuesday.

However, court records show that Granite Hill and its owner have a lengthy history of run-ins with the law.

Granite Hill has been sued more than 20 times for various code violations or unpaid tax bills on the more than 30 properties it manages in largely low-income neighborhoods across the city.

Duren himself faces federal charges in California, accused of stealing money from drug dealers while working for DHS  money that prosecutors say he laundered through his Philadelphia property holdings and used to purchase some of the properties Granite Hill continues to rent to tenants in the city, including the one in which the Johnson family was living.

Perri said Tuesday that his office had launched a full inspection of all properties owned by Duren and Granite Hill in response to the fire.

The cause of the blaze, which began on the second floor, remains under investigation.

Thiel described a chaotic scene when firefighters arrived at the property. Two residents managed to escape on their own. The body of a third tenant, who apparently died in a jump from a window, was found outside. His name has not been released.

As responders ascended a staircase to the third floor, where the bodies of the Johnson family later would be found, the floor collapsed beneath them, sending firefighters plummeting to the ground floor and causing injuries that sent two to the hospital.

Fire officials later were able to drag a ladder inside the building to search as much of the third floor as they could. But at the time, they found no one in the areas to which they could reach, Thiel said.

When investigators asked one of the tenants who had escaped whether anyone was still in the building, Thiel said, they were told no.

Quoting one of the occupants who made it outside, the fire commissioner said that his responders were told: "The last time I [saw] those people was a month ago. They moved out, and I haven't seen those people in a little while."

But all that came as little comfort Tuesday to the Johnsons' relatives, who are left to plan their funerals, with services scheduled for Friday at Pathway Evangelistic Church in Frankford.

Fire Commissioner Adam Thiel speaks during a news conference about a fatal fire on North 21st Street at the Philadelphia Fire Department administration building on Tuesday, March 27, 2018.Family members have said that it took them nearly three days to persuade the Fire Department to return to the scene to search for their missing relatives.

Thiel said Tuesday that his department's records revealed no trace of such a phone call until the one Friday that prompted investigators to return to the site and discover the Johnsons' bodies.

Still, as he met with the family Tuesday, he said, he offered his condolences and shared in their heartbreak and frustration.

"Despite giving it our best, we couldn't save these folks," he told reporters afterward. "We know we can't save everybody, but I promise you, we tried."
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner had a major stake in a company that owed more than $37,000 in back taxes in 2015. The image on the right, showing Krasners law office being served, is from a court document. Read more

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner has fallen behind on his taxes not once, not twice, but multiple times over the last decade.

In the latest example, the Inquirer and Daily News have learned that a Krasner-owned company was so behind on its taxes that city lawyers attempted to seize control of its property via a receiver in order to collect the debt. The business, which Krasner had a major stake in, failed to pay more than $37,000 in overdue real estate taxes.

The unpaid bills spanned multiple years, dating to at least 2009, according to public records.

During the 2017 district attorney's race, one of Krasner's primary opponents made headlines because more than $190,000 in tax lien judgments were filed against him. The overdue bills carried extra weight because then-DA Seth Williams had recently announced that he wasn't running for reelection after making "regrettable mistakes" involving his finances and personal life.

Krasner's tax issues were not uncovered by the media until this year. Williams later pleaded guilty in a federal bribery trial.

Krasner's most recently exposed debt originated at a Center City building, owned by his company, where his now-closed law office was located. The property, recently valued at $910,000, also served as Krasner's campaign's headquarters in 2017.

Before being sworn in this year as the city's highest-ranking law enforcement official, Krasner worked as a defense attorney and had a stake in several real estate companies.

To collect back taxes on the Center City building, the city attempted to use a rarely used tool meant to fight tax delinquency: It filed a petition asking for a judge to appoint a "sequestrator" to manage the property and direct any potential rental income toward the tax debt.

"Tax revenue is essential to the recovery of the city of Philadelphia's economy, and, in particular, to the future well-being of its school district," municipal lawyers wrote in the case. "The city has continued to seek collection of the subject taxpayer's real estate tax delinquency without success."

Ben Waxman, a spokesman for the District Attorney's Office, said Krasner and other business partners have owned companies whose properties have "at times" fallen into arrears "due to vacancy, late payment of rent by tenants, or economic downturn."

He added that Krasner's wife "was not an owner in these commercial properties and was not involved in or aware of the details of those activities. Those details, including any lateness in payment, belong to Larry and the other owners  not her."

Krasner's wife, Lisa Rau, is a judge in the city's Court of Common Pleas.

Waxman said Krasner's company, known as 239 S. Camac St. LP, entered into a payment plan with the city to pay off the debt of about $37,000 in April 2015, shortly after the city filed its sequestration petition. The city discontinued its case the same month.

Waxman said the balance was fully paid off by 2017, the year Krasner won the city's DA election. Krasner used his personal funds to satisfy the back taxes, his spokesman said. Waxman did not respond to a question about whether Krasner's company negotiated a final sum lower than $37,000 for the Center City property.

Financial records, which Krasner filed during his campaign, showed that his interest in 239 S. Camac St. LP "varied between [approximately] 49 percent and 98 percent during 2016." The document lists Krasner as an "owner/partner" of the business.

Asked if Krasner has any financial problems, Waxman said, "No."

"Larry ran a successful law firm for over 25 years and has never declared bankruptcy either in business or personally," he said. "The real estate tax was an oversight that was corrected with a personal check. The other issues are related to commercial properties that were owned by multiple partners for more than a decade."

The city also filed numerous judgments against Krasner's company because it apparently did not pay the Center City property's gas bills. They were subsequently caught up.

WHYY reported earlier this month that the property where Krasner's law office was located was behind on its 2017 property taxes as well. Krasner and his wife moved into the building, which they now own personally, after selling their longtime home in Mount Airy for $416,000 last year.

Krasner paid the $10,000-plus debt from 2017 after WHYY's inquiry. His spokesman called it an "oversight."

Last week, City & State Pennsylvania reported that another real estate company tied to Krasner, named Tiger Building LP, previously owed the School District more than $130,000 in unpaid use-and-occupancy taxes. Waxman said Krasner's business is currently in a payment plan with the city to pay down the debt, which it negotiated down to about $89,000.

Waxman said the DA currently "only has an ownership stake in one active commercial property": the "Tiger Building" in Center City.

Krasner is paid $175,000 annually. His wife's salary is in the six figures.
In this March 23, 2018, file photo, President Trump walks across the South Lawn of the White House in Washington. Read more

WASHINGTON  President Trump, who repeatedly insisted during the 2016 campaign that Mexico would pay for a wall along the southern border, is privately pushing the U.S. military to fund construction of his signature project.

Trump has told advisers that he was spurned in a large spending bill last week when lawmakers appropriated only $1.6 billion for the border wall. He has suggested to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and congressional leaders that the Pentagon could fund the sprawling project, citing a "national security" risk.

After floating the notion to several advisers last week, Trump told House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., that the military should pay for the wall, according to three people familiar with the meeting last Wednesday in the White House residence. Ryan offered little reaction to the idea, these people said, but senior Capitol Hill officials later said it was an unlikely prospect.

Trump's pursuit of defense dollars to finance the U.S.-Mexico border wall underscores his determination to fulfill a campaign promise and build the barrier despite resistance in the Republican-led Congress. The administration's last-minute negotiations with lawmakers to secure billions more for the wall failed, and Trump grudgingly signed the spending bill Friday after a short-lived veto threat.

Four days later, Trump continued to express regret over signing the $1.3 trillion package, which funded the government and averted a shutdown, saying it was a mistake and he should have followed his instincts.

In another interaction with senior aides last week, Trump noted that the Defense Department was getting so much money as part of the spending bill that the Pentagon could surely afford the border wall, two White House officials said. The Pentagon received about $700 billion in the spending package, which Trump repeatedly lauded as "historic."

Meanwhile, the $1.6 billion in the bill for some fencing and levees on the border not only fell far short of the $25 billion that Trump was seeking, but it came with tight restrictions on how the money could be spent.

The individuals and officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk freely about private discussions.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders deflected a question Tuesday about money dedicated to the military being used to fund construction of the wall. "I can't get into the specifics of that at this point, but I can tell you that the continuation of building the wall is ongoing, and we're going to continue moving forward in that process," Sanders told reporters.

"Build WALL through M!" Trump recently wrote on Twitter. He retweeted those words Tuesday, noting that "our Military is again rich." Two advisers said "M" stood for "military."

The president has suggested to Mattis that his department, instead of the Department of Homeland Security, could fund the construction, two Trump advisers said. But the military is not likely to fund the wall, according to White House and Defense Department officials.

The Pentagon has plenty of money, but reprogramming it for a wall would require votes in Congress that the president does not seem to have. Taking money from the current 2018 budget for the wall would require an act of Congress, said a senior Pentagon official.

To find the money in the 2019 defense budget, Trump would have to submit a budget amendment that would require 60 votes in the Senate, the official said.

Democrats in Congress would probably chafe at military spending going to the construction of a border wall, and military officials may also blanch, White House advisers said.

Defense hawks in the Republican ranks would balk at taking money now dedicated to the Pentagon for aircraft, weapons and improvements to the armed forces' readiness and instead steering it toward construction of the wall.

"First Mexico was supposed to pay for it, then U.S. taxpayers, and now our men and women in uniform? This would be a blatant misuse of military funds and tied up in court for years. Secretary Mattis ought not bother and instead use the money to help our troops, rather than advance the president's political fantasies," Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement to The Washington Post.

Trump has grown frustrated watching constant TV criticism of the spending package and is determined to find a new way to fund the wall, several advisers said, privately grousing that his political supporters could become disenchanted without progress. After a recent trip to see prototypes of the wall in California, Trump has grown more animated by the issue, advisers said.

The president's comments raising the possibility of using Pentagon funds to build the wall came after the collapse of negotiations with Democrats to secure $25 billion in long-term wall funding in exchange for protections for young immigrants at risk for deportation because of Trump's cancellation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

The White House offered three years of protections for DACA recipients, according to multiple congressional aides, but Democrats demanded protections for a larger group of "dreamers," including those who never applied or are ineligible for DACA. The negotiations fell apart before the spending bill was drafted and passed last week.

The urgency to strike a deal reflected the growing sense that the spending bill represented the last chance for the Trump administration to secure substantial wall funding, at least in the president's first term. Top Republicans believe it is all but certain that Democrats will gain House seats in November's midterm elections  and perhaps take the majority  greatly enhancing their bargaining position in future spending negotiations.

Only $641 million is earmarked for new primary fencing in areas that currently have no barriers, and most of the money can be spent only on "operationally effective designs" that were already deployed as of last May. That means the prototype designs the Trump administration is exploring cannot be built, except along a stretch of the border near San Diego where a barrier is already in place.

The Washington Post's Greg Jaffe contributed to this report.
Laura Ellsworth, a Pittsburgh-area lawyer and community leader, is one of three candidates running for the Republican nomination for governor. Read more

HARRISBURG  When Laura Ellsworth stepped to the microphone Wednesday at a Press Club luncheon here, she said she hoped to talk about policies, economic development and compromise in more detail than she could at recent Republican gubernatorial debates.

In a race where her opponents  State Sen. Scott Wagner (R., York) and former healthcare consultant Paul Mango of Allegheny County  have drawn attention for their boisterous jabs at one another or at Democratic Gov. Wolf, Ellsworth has consciously decided to strike a different tone.

"I don't believe in it," she said Wednesday, noting that she thinks voters want "decency, candor [and] honesty" rather than "30-second attack ads."

And Ellsworth thinks that's one reason she'd have the best shot at winning the November general election, though even she acknowledges some don't agree with that assessment. Recent polls have shown Ellsworth trailing the other candidates but also suggest a large number of Republican voters are still undecided ahead of the May 15 primary.

Ellsworth, an attorney who lives in the Pittsburgh suburbs, said she believes Philadelphia  which came in 73rd out of 75 in one recent ranking of the economic health of major cities  has room to grow and develop. She cited Pittsburgh as an example of a city that transformed to become among the most "livable," according to some rankings. Asked about criticism by advocates who argue that gentrification has kept that growth from benefiting people equally, Ellsworth said she believes in programs that encourage developers to create a range of housing options that could work for people of differing income levels.

She said she thinks that if a woman were elected governor "all the #MeToo stuff that is going on in Harrisburg will stop." Afterward, she explained that the state's sexual harassment policies should be reviewed and updated, with one clear process for handling such allegations across state government. Currently, the processes vary.

But Ellsworth also said Wednesday that she doesn't want being a woman to be the deciding factor when people are mulling whether to support her.

"Absolutely no one should vote for me because I'm a woman any more than they should vote for those guys because they're guys," she said.
The outreach worker went to the train bridge on Tulip Street on Friday morning, looking for people who needed to be heard. People in addiction.

She saw the thin man in a gray hoodie by the end of the tunnel, sweeping the sidewalk with single-minded intent. He called himself Johnny.

Brooke Feldman, a social work student and an advocate for people in addiction, talked with him for an hour by the tunnel, one of the four heroin encampments in Kensington. And though he looked to be only in his 40s, he told her a story that tread a familiar path: one of years of addiction and trauma and loss. He had overdosed before, up on the hill above the train tunnel. She knew he was struggling.

There was a meeting about safe injection sites Tuesday: places where people in addiction could use drugs under medical supervision and get into treatment. Johnny said he'd heard of them and liked the idea. He wanted to tell people about it. He said he'd come to the meeting. Brooke would pick him up.

The weekend passed. Johnny slept on his pallets and kept his routine. Pushing his orange shopping cart to nearby bars, where sympathetic bartenders collected cans for him. Sweeping the sidewalk in the afternoon and late into the night, as the fog hung in the tunnels, to the point where he woke people up.

"Guy stayed up all night sweeping," said Mike Hannon, who pitched his tent next to Johnny's pallet on the sidewalk. "He'd sweep nothing after a while." That was Johnny's way.

Mike had been sleeping in the tunnel for three months. He and Johnny had been friends of a sort, companions in a misery no one should know, surviving in addiction in a tunnel in Philadelphia.

Tulip Street is the newest encampment in Kensington, and in Mike's telling, the calmest. And that's where we are now in Philadelphia. As the city debates a safe injection site and tries to open more shelters, our heroin encampments are rated for cleanliness, friendliness and relative safety.

And still Johnny would find himself in trouble with his neighbors. His routine bothered some people. Sometimes they got in his face. Sometimes he apologized to the point of tears.

But on Sunday night, on the pallet, he and Mike stayed up late, and for once, Johnny wasn't sweeping. They talked about their lives, and Johnny told stories, the sort that drift between what is real and what their teller wants to be real. And Mike thought maybe all Johnny needed was someone to talk to. It seemed to calm him.

Brooke arrived at the tunnel on Tuesday, ready to drive Johnny to the meeting. His cart was empty, his mattress stripped of blankets, his pallets propped up across the street. Mike had found the body. At first he thought Johnny was sleeping. His head was slumped into his chest. The spray of Narcan didn't work.

Mike started cleaning up Johnny's stuff, but soon there wasn't much left. After the coroner's office took Johnny, the people in the tunnel took nearly everything else. Wednesday morning, he remained a John Doe. No one in the tunnels knew his last name.

Brooke's eyes welled. She had lost a mother to addiction in Kensington and had gotten sober herself in Kensington. Now she stood in a train tunnel, and the man whose voice deserved to be heard was gone, too.

The meeting would start in a few hours. She would have to try to speak for him.
BEIJING - A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson called on countries concerned to avoid taking actions that could escalate tensions, after the United States joined Britain in expelling Russian diplomats.

"Relevant countries should abide by the international laws as well as norms of international relations, and avoid taking actions that could escalate tensions," foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said Tuesday at a daily press briefing.

Over 135 Russian diplomats have been expelled by at least 22 countries in wake of the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a former Russian intelligence officer, and his daughter in London earlier in March.

"China is opposed to the use of chemical weapons. Meanwhile, we also believe that the poisoning incident should be addressed properly through dialogue between Britain and Russia based on finding out the truth," Hua said.

She called on all countries to abandon the cold-war mentality, stop the policies of confrontation, and work jointly to safeguard peace and stability of the world.
Beatrice Sharpless Moore, 96, of Philadelphia, whose zest for world travel was surpassed only by her love of teaching English, died Thursday, March 22, of dementia at the Terrace at Chestnut HillMeridian Senior Living.

Dr. Moore was the youngest of 10 children born to Paul James and Florence Rebecca Sharpless in Wilmington, N.C. In a June 9, 2004, oral history on file with the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, she was interviewed as an alumna of a Southern high school about her recollections of childhood.

"My father passed when I was very young," Dr. Moore said, "so I really don't remember him, but I grew up where I was born, so my roots have been here for years. Of course, as they say, you spoil the baby, and they probably spoiled me, because I really didn't have to do anything."

She enrolled in Willistown Industrial High School, and very soon realized she had an affinity for reading and English.

"The thing about it was, the teachers in those days came to visit your parents," Dr. Moore said in the oral history. "Many of my teachers had taught my sisters and brothers, so they knew me. I was the best reader in the class.

"Sometimes the teacher would begin to read a story, and I'd get called up to read it. I would sit at the desk, and I just loved that. I wanted to be a teacher."

Dr. Moore was intent on getting a college education. "I did my work, I studied. I got a scholarship to Knoxville College when I graduated. That's why I went there," she said.

The Tennessee college was run by Presbyterians. "During those days, the schools were not integrated, but we had good teachers, teachers who really cared," Dr. Moore said in the oral history. "I learned a lot because after I left here, I was able to compete in any venue I found myself."

In 1942, Dr. Moore received a bachelor's degree in education at Knoxville. While there, she met and married Samuel E. Moore Jr. In 1944, she received a master of arts degree from the University of Illinois, and much later, in 1983, she earned a doctorate in education from the University of Pennsylvania.

"Bea," as Dr. Moore was known, moved with her husband to Philadelphia, where they raised three children.

In the 1950s, Dr. Moore began teaching at Shoemaker Junior High School. She transferred to Lincoln High School, Gratz High School, and Northeast High School. While at Gratz and Northeast, she was head of the English department.

In 1985, Dr. Moore left Northeast for a job teaching English as an adjunct professor at St. Joseph's University. She established a scholarship fund for minority students and an endowment for the college, both in her name, before retiring in 2001.

As much as Dr. Moore loved teaching, she also had a passion for travel. One summer, she conducted a missionary trip to Israel so her students could experience another country's religion and culture. That was the first of many trips she chaperoned to places such as Egypt, Africa, China, Japan, Spain and Greece, although later she traveled with her girlfriends.

"Many of her St. Joseph's students would eagerly wait to hear of her travel ventures, both national and overseas," her family said.

Dr. Moore was a member of the National Council of Teachers of English and the Modern Language Association of America.

At various times, she was a member of Calvary Episcopal Church, St. Paul's Episcopal Church, and St. Luke's Episcopal Church.

Dr. Moore, who "could dress to the nines," her family said, enjoyed touring art museums, and attending opera and the theater. She donated money to the Barnes Foundation, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the National Constitution Center.

She also liked brain teasers. "I'm a big Scrabble player, and I like to do crossword puzzles," Dr. Moore said in her 2004 oral history. "Those things keep your mind sharp, so they say."

Dr. Moore's husband died in 1983 at age 64. She is survived by children Samuel E. III, Monica, and Terence, and three grandchildren.

A viewing beginning at 8 a.m. Saturday, March 31, at St. Luke's Episcopal Church, 5421 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia, Pa. 19144, will be followed by a 10 a.m. funeral service. Interment is in Ivy Hill Cemetery.

Donations in Dr. Moore's name may be made to St. Luke's Episcopal Church at the address above.
Raymond Palmer Jefferis III, 79, of Wayne, a professor of electrical engineering at Widener University for more than a half-century, died Sunday, March 25, of a stroke at Paoli Hospital.

"Professor Jefferis had a profound impact on thousands of students in his more than five decades at the university," said communications director Mary E. Allen. "He was our longest-tenured faculty member and had a unique perspective on our history, having joined Widener when it was Pennsylvania Military College. Ray was a devoted teacher, mentor, and friend. We join his family in grieving his loss."

Dr. Jefferis was a lifelong teacher and tinkerer whose idea of fun was making engineering improvements to the satellite mapping of radio towers, or changes to make metal detectors stronger. His tweaks had practical applications  the enhanced metal detectors were used at archaeological digs in the Brandywine Valley and at similar sites in Delaware.

Dr. Jefferis founded and ran Hieronetics Inc., a home business, for 25 years. The firm was a designer and manufacturer of testing and calibration equipment for the pharmaceutical and coal refining industries.

He held two patents, one on a way to sterilizing medical instruments with chlorine gas, and the second for removing impurities from coal particles during the coal refining process.

But Dr. Jefferis was best known as a faculty member at Widener, where he served in the School of Engineering from 1965 until retiring last December. His only hiatus was the two years he spent in the mid-1970s as a Fulbright Scholar at the Institute of Microbiology in Braunschweig, Germany.

"I am an interdisciplinary engineer with published work in modeling and control of fermentation, freeze drying, enzyme extraction, and coal purification," he wrote on the Widener Engineering School's website. "I believe that students should be exposed to the applied side of engineering and be able to do meaningful engineering designs integrating multiple disciplines."

Born in Syracuse, N.Y., Dr. Jefferis was raised in Media. He graduated from Friends' Central School in Wynnewood and earned bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

His son-in-law Matthew Levitties said that for Dr. Jefferis, "everything was a teaching opportunity." His life was also a study in do-it-yourself learning.

While in middle school, he taught himself Morse code and obtained an amateur radio license. He had a radio setup in his basement, from which he talked with radio buffs around the world.

"He would emerge from his workshop with great excitement to tell his siblings and parents who he had spoken with and what he had learned," his family said.

Dr. Jefferis joined a volunteer group that supports the Chester County Department of Emergency Services with backup communication when there are lapses in service due to phone outages or other problems. The group is Chester County ARES / RACES, or Amateur Radio Emergency Service / Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service.

Joe Vilardo, a friend and fellow group member, said: "One day I asked Ray how he became involved in amateur radio emergency communications. He told me he was driving in Manhattan to visit his daughter on Sept. 11, 2001.

"In the midst of the chaos that followed the attack on the World Trade Center, while trying to reach his daughter to make sure she was safe, and extracting himself from Manhattan, he vowed that he wasn't going to be a bystander in future emergencies."

Dr. Jefferis took every emergency-preparedness course he could find.

"No one had completed more courses than Ray," Vilardo said. "The trunk of his automobile was the model 'go kit' for emergency communications preparedness. He lived and practiced our mission statement of being self-sustaining for 72 hours."

Most important, Dr. Jefferis responded whenever the group was activated. "Everyone knew Ray was always prepared and was always ready to answer the call for volunteers, and he did many times," Vilardo said.

Dr. Jefferis responded in Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and during an ice storm in 2014. He also did volunteer work in communications for the American Red Cross.

A Quaker, he was a descendant of Robert Jefferis, who arrived in Pennsylvania in 1683 and settled in the Brandywine Valley. Dr. Jefferis was a trustee of Providence Friends Meeting in Media, and served on the board of directors for both the Media-Providence Friends School and the Williamson Free School of Mechanical Trades.

In 1967, Dr. Jefferis married Sibylle Bierhals. They raised two daughters in Wayne.

In addition to his wife, Dr. Jefferis is survived by daughters Anja Levitties and Elga Killinger; four grandchildren; and a brother and sister.

There will be a memorial meeting for worship at 11 a.m. Friday, March 30, at Providence Friends Meeting, 105 N. Providence Rd., Media. A visitation will begin at 10 a.m. Burial is private.

Memorial donations may be made to the School of Engineering, Widener University, 1 University Place, Chester, Pa. 19013.
TEHRAN, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Iran's ambassador to the United Nations on Wednesday denied that his country has supplied missiles to the Yemeni Houthi militants who target Saudi Arabia's inner posts.

Gholamali Khoshrou dismissed the Saudi allegations as "baseless," urging the kingdom to engage in dialogue with the Houthis.

The three-year Saudi war on Yemen is not legitimate, Khoshrou said, adding that the war on Yemen has achieved nothing but massacre, hunger, diseases and destruction of its infrastructure.

"It is not the first time Saudi Arabia enters into correspondence against Iran in order to cover up its defeats in Yemen, and the international community is well aware of this fact," Khoshrou was quoted as saying by Iran's state TV.

"With adventurism and inexperience, the Saudis have helped inflict cholera on millions of Yemeni people and targeted children and civilians in the course of their bombardments," he said.

In a letter issued on Tuesday, Saudi envoy to the United Nations, Abdullah al-Muallami, urged the UN Security Council to hold the Islamic republic accountable for the alleged missile supply to Yemen's Houthis.

The Saudi-led coalition revealed on Monday "evidence" of the Iranian role in trafficking weapons to Yemen.

The coalition spokesperson Turki al-Malki said an Iranian made missile with Persian writing was confiscated in Yemen, and a shipment of missiles from Iran were seized before they were used by Houthi militias.

Khoshrou said that Saudi Arabia should "abandon adventurism and warmongering and engage in constructive political dialogue with Yemen, which is its neighbor, while respecting the people's rights."

Iran basically believes in no other solution than a political one to the conflict in Yemen, he said.

Saudi Arabia is leading a mostly Arab military coalition to fight Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen since March 2015.

Houthis have been controlling much of Yemen's north by force, including the capital Sanaa since 2014.

The war has killed more than 10,000 Yemenis, mostly civilians, and displaced over 3 million, according to humanitarian agencies.
The second of four Town Hall meetings was held Thursday night at the Pine Island Community Church. The purpose of the meetings is to gather residents feedback on the proposed charter for the proposed Village of Matlacha/Pine Island. A completed charter and a feasibility study are required to begin the process voters will ultimately vote on.

The two-hour meeting was chaired by Joe Mazurkiewicz, the president for BJM Consulting Inc. BJM is a firm that specializes in local government activities. Mazurkiewicz served as mayor of Cape Coral from 1983 to 1993 before forming BJM Consulting.

Early last year, shortly after the annexation of 6 lots on Matlacha, BJM Consulting was hired by the Greater Pine Island Civic Association to conduct a study on the financial feasibility of incorporating Pine Island and Matlacha.

Florida statutes mandate that any community requesting incorporation submit a written municipal charter, along with a feasibility study to state representatives (Ray Rodriguez, Lizbeth Benequisto and Dane Eagle).

This also gives the voters of Pine Island and Matlacha something specific to vote either for or against, Mazurkiewicz said. The charter establishes the form of government, the number of council people and method of voting and many other things in black and white. Instead of voting on the idea of a city without really knowing what that means, the charter covers everything.

A number of people attending the second meeting did not attend the first Town Hall meeting and Mazurkiewicz answered numerous questions about material already discussed and voted upon.

Home rule is treasured by local governments and what is accomplished with incorporation. Mazurkiewicz said. All three forms of government have the same level of home rule.

There are three main forms of government in the state of Florida: The first a strong mayor, who is the chief elected official and runs the city council. The mayor and city council are elected by the people. The second is a city council with a town manager. The council hires a city manager to manage the city. The third is a city commission elected by the people.

One of the first issues discussed and voted on was the form of government. The form of government in the proposed charter will be council/manager.

One central concern heard from Matlacha residents is the under representation Matlacha would receive because of the smaller population.

Mazurkiewicz suggested that issue could be overcome by the type of government and the number of voting districts for council members to offer Matlacha a more equitable vote.

This concern was addressed by deciding there would be five members on the council elected by their respective districts and two at-large council members elected to represent all of Pine Island and Matlacha.

Mazurkiewicz summarized the meeting into issues decided, issues to be researched further, issues to be included in the proposed charter and language to be included in the preamble.

Issues decided:

Form of government will be council/manager

Council Makeup

Number of council members  7 member hybrid with 5 members elected from single member districts and 2 members elected at large.

Issues to be included in proposed charter:

Primary funding for capital improvements and maintenance will be by special assessments from improved properties based on a prorate share or taxable value. Comp plan changes will need a super majority vote to be adopted.

Language to be included in Preamble

Items of importance are: Land use, clean water and maintaining present lifestyle (quality of life)

FEMA

Concerns over the impact of incorporation on flood insurance will need to be studied further.

The subject of an ombudsman was addressed where ombudsman would be appointed by each of the community civic associations who would have a voice on the municipal council. The concept was discussed and rejected.

Separate and Joint Referendum

Neither the people of Matlacha nor the people of Pine Island wish to impose a new government on the other without their consent.

Land Use in Charter

Comprehensive Land Use plan can only be changed by a referendum of the registered voters.

Ordinance adoption process

It was proposed that all ordinances would be adopted only after a period of time to allow for citizens to petition for a referendum vote to confirm support. This will be discussed further at the next meeting.

GPICAs third town hall meeting is Thursday, March 29, at 6 p.m., at Pine Island Community Church, 5320 Doug Taylor Circle, St. James City.
The Matlacha Civic Association held its monthly meeting Wednesday evening to discuss the impact of incorporation for Matlacha and Pine Island. The guest speaker was Lynn Tipton, the director of FLC University, a Florida League of Cities program.

Public service is at the heart of what municipalities do every day and FLC University helps with tools, educational programs, resources and best practices for the many tasks cities are faced with. FLC University holds regional summits, webinars, workshops, etc., at its Orlando location.

The league does not take a position on whether a community should or should not incorporate, Tipton said. The league is like Switzerland were neutral.

Tipton stated there are 412 municipalities in Florida ranging in size from 5 persons to 891,207 persons with a median of 5,800 persons.

Today, the biggest driving issue for seeking incorporation is the issue of the comprehensive plan in order to make land use decisions, Tipton said. The issues of controlling density and future growth can be fixed. If residents feel the county is not listening to them, then residents can form a city.

Cities wishing to incorporate must have a common vision, Tipton said. What are the common issues that are driving the movement? We have about a dozen application every year and many reach a point where they dont want to continue. Also without a consensus, the incorporation will likely dissolve.

Steps required for an unincorporated area to become a city are: a feasibility study must be completed (along with a proposed charter); the local delegation of elected officials to the statehouse must give approval prior to filing for incorporation; the special act is filed in the state House of Representatives and then the state Senate; the governor must sign it and Legislature approves the special act; and finally it goes to the citizens for a vote for or against incorporation.

The delegation can be the first hurdle, Tipton said. The delegation is the sponsor and if the delegation does not give their approval, then usually the incorporation is withdrawn. Once the delegation approves then the Legislature will give it intense scrutiny by going through the feasibility with a fine tooth comb.

In the state of Florida, only registered voters can vote for or against incorporation, Tipton said. I have people say, But Ive owned a business here for 25 years!, unfortunately, if youre not a registered voter, thats the law.

In other business, the meeting concluded with Woodstock Road resident Ndakhte Ndiaye announcing that the attorneys for both sides of the Woodstock airstrip lawsuit must present a recap of their case to the judge before April 6, 2018.
The Pine Island Eagles March 14 edition featured a letter to the editor titled Arsenic on Pine Island? that implied that Lee County staff and elected officials were not properly addressing the situation at the Pine Island Flatwoods Preserve, and that we were not being transparent and honest with the public.

In fact, there is no such cover up occurring. The county has and continues to work with the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to identify the source of arsenic and assemble an acceptable mitigation plan.

Prior to Lee Countys purchase of the property  which lies about five miles south of the islands four-way stop sign  Lee County Utilities (LCU) had an agreement with the property owner for a reuse water spray field. It also was being used for cattle grazing. In 2005, the county bought the property for a Conservation 20/20 preserve.

Utilities are required to have reuse water monitoring plans. In 2010, LCU started identifying increases in total coliform that were not representative of the reuse water. In 2012, LCU started working with the DEP to identify the cause of the total coliform level, and, as a result, DEP agreed LCU would change the monitoring well location.

LCU testing also had shown some arsenic levels in 2012, but the data didnt rise to the level at which it triggered concern from DEP. Arsenic is a natural metalloid that occurs in soils in Florida and is found in manmade sources, many of which are now banned or regulated. Since 2012, LCU has not had a spike in arsenic levels in effluent. Also, LCU has not used the Pine Island Flatwoods Preserve property as a spray field since January 2017.

In the process of reviewing Pine Island Flatwoods Preserves management plan (2015-16), a community member came to the county and said he had concerns about past LCU data from the site. Lee County decided to install three monitoring wells to examine whether arsenic levels were consistent with prior information. Preliminary data collected in February 2017 showed that the levels were similar to the past.

Of the countys three current monitoring wells at the spray field site, two have not tested above drinking-water standards for state and federal regulations. Although drinking-water is the standard, it should be noted that no water from this site is used for human consumption. One sole well continues to show higher arsenic levels, and its the well adjacent to the original LCU site that also showed elevated arsenic levels.

The county self-reported this to DEP and collaboratively we have come up with next steps. The county is installing three additional monitoring wells in the area so as to gather more information. The preserve land that is the subject of this recent attention is not part of the preserves recreational area.

The process to determine a source of arsenic is methodical and takes time. Once the county determines the size of the plume, it will work with DEP to mitigate the situation. The county is committed to monitoring all of the wells quarterly for at least the next two years.

Dave Harner is Assistant Lee County Manager.
Last week, Congress passed, and President Trump signed, an Omnibus bill to fund the government for the rest of fiscal year 2018. (Only six months late! Fiscal year 2018 started back on October 1.) NASA ended up with a crazy-good $20.7 billionits highest total since 2009, the year President Obama and Congress passed the economic stimulus package.

Not only did NASA get a lot of money, Congress outright rejected most of the White House's controversial cuts. The four Earth science missions targeted for cancellation survived, the education office wasn't axed, and the planetary science division got its biggest budget this century. To quote my colleague, Casey Dreier: "Every Planetary Society member should be elated with this news." He's not exaggerating!

And it wasn't just NASA that scored big. Just look at this breakdown of federal science funding: It's stunning. Many of the agencies Trump's White House wanted to cut got increases instead. And ones that didn't get increases, like NOAA and the EPA, at least managed to avoid proposed cuts. Heck, the budget even gives the National Science Foundation three new ocean research vessels!

When the White House's 2018 budget proposal came out, it was seen as nothing less than a War On Science. The question was: Would a Republican-held Congress go along with the plan? There is a well-documented history of Republican disdain toward regulatory agencies like the EPA, and the climate change research conducted by programs like NASA's Earth science division. Trump gave the GOP a big chance to dramatically scale back some of these programs.

But a year later, none of that came true. In fact, the reverse occurred: This budget matches or exceeds many of the requests the Obama administration made during its final year in office.

So how did it happen?

Defense spending opened the door for non-defense spending

The government has, until now, been limited on defense spending due to across-the-board caps enacted during the Obama administration. Trump and many defense-oriented Republicans wanted those caps removed. The same 2018 budget request that proposed gutting all those science agencies also asked for a 9.4 percent increase in defense spending, to $603 billion. Some members of Congress, like Arizona Senator John McCain, pushed for even more.

But in order to increase the defense budget, Congress needed to raise those spending caps, and also increase the debt ceiling. And Republicans don't have enough of a majority to break a filibuster, so they need the Democrats' help. Democrats, in turn, insisted that if caps were raised for defense, they had to be raised for non-defense as well. This led to a $300 billion, two-year debt ceiling and spending cap deal passed in February, with roughly $165 billion allocated to defense and $131 billion allocated to non-defense. After a month and a half of deciding how to spend that extra money, Congress passed a final 2018 Omnibus deal last week, and Trump signed it.

Fiscal conservatives were livid at this near-parity between defense and non-defense spending. The conservative Heritage Foundation was strongly against it, the National Review called it an embarrassment and disgrace, and in one of the more colorful Republican takes, Louisiana Senator John Kennedy called it "a Great Dane-sized whiz down the leg of every taxpayer."

Voters don't care about debt

Why would Trump and Republicans put themselves in a situation where they had to make a deal with Democrats and open a new flood of spending? After all, the GOP party platform says having a large national debt "is the path to bankrupting the next generation," and advocates for a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget!

Historically, the party that's out of power tends to be the party that cares more about debt. Furthermore, voters don't really care about debt, either. A recent Pew survey showed just 48 percent of respondents felt the federal deficit was a top priority for lawmakers, down from 72 percent during the Obama administration. The deficit ranked fourteenth in voters' top issues currently facing government, far behind other concerns like jobs, terrorism, and education.

This lack of voter concern certainly explains other deficit-busting moves, such as the GOP tax overhaul, which is estimated to add $1.8 trillion to the national debt over the next ten years. If research shows tax cuts are more appealing to voters than lowering the debt, it makes sense that Republicans would choose tax cuts.

Why buck Trump's science cuts?

But that still doesn't explain why Republicans and Democrats alike bucked so many of Trump's proposed science cuts.

First of all, it sounds like the Trump administration wasn't watching Congress closely to make sure all its budget priorities were enacted. An Atlantic article by Marina Koren provides some insight on this by AAAS policy expert Matt Hourihan, who said that unlike the Obama and Bush administrations, Trump's White House doesn't get involved in the nuts and bolts of congressional committees and subcommittees. That's likely to their lossthese committees are where the real wheeling and dealing occurs.

Furthermore, Hourihan said that when Congress historically has extra financial wiggle room, they tend to fund science programs, "regardless of whoever's in the White House and whatever they propose."

There are also district-level interests to consider. Members of Congress are protective of programs important to the regions they represent. Even before the spending cap deal, there were signs a number of Trump's science cuts would be rejected.

Take, for instance, the National Institutes of Health. The White House wanted to cut the NIH budget by 22 percent. But Senator Roy Blunt, a Republican from Missouri, championed a Senate bill that increased NIH funding instead. Why? Because Missouri receives more than half a billion dollars in NIH funding annually, and Blunt's bill supported other priorities for Missourians: rural healthcare, combating the opioid epidemic, and making college more affordable. Blunt was in a position to do all this because he chairs the subcommittee that sets the NIH budget. In the final Omnibus bill, the NIH received $37 billionan 8.3 percent increase rather than a 22 percent cut.

Bringing it back to NASA: During House and Senate hearings in June, there was bipartisan opposition to the White House's proposal to cut the education department, especially from representatives of rural states like Kentucky and West Virginia served by those programs. Congress easily restored the program.

The four Earth science missions the White House wanted to cancel were an interesting case to watch. During House hearings, only Democrats objected. But during a Senate appropriations subcommittee hearing, Alabama Senator Richard Shelby, the Republican known for his staunch support of the Space Launch System, appeared neutral, and borderline unsupportive, on the topic of Earth science cuts.

Shelby's Democratic counterpart in this subcommittee used to be now-retired Maryland Senator Barbara Mikulski, who probably would have defended the Earth science missions because two are operated by the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. Mikulski's replacement, Democrat Chris Van Hollen, now serves on that same subcommittee. Democrats can filibuster appropriations bills, so Shelby may have respected the fact that funding those four missions was a top priority for his colleagues across the aisle.

Whatever the reason, the Senate's NASA funding bill restored the Earth science missions. Later, during Omnibus negotiations, Van Hollen again worked to ensure they stayed alive.

President Trump, who considers dealmaking an art form, was not happy to sign the Omnibus bill that rejected so many of his priorities. He declared he "would never sign a bill like this again," and called on Congress to give him line-item veto power or change the filibuster rules so a simple majority vote can pass future bills.

Together, the tax overhaul and spending increases comprise the largest financial stimulus since the actual stimulus bill of 2009. That stimulus came during the worst recession in a century, whereas the Trump administration's actions come during a time of peak employment. This could lead to a financial sugar rush, bolstering the economy through the mid-term elections but, ironically, leading to a recession around the time of the next presidential election.

February's debt ceiling and spending cap deal puts in place a broad spending plan for fiscal year 2019. But the specifics of that deal may wind up waiting until after the mid-term elections. How NASA and America's science agencies fare next is still hard to predict.
Stephon Clark, 22, was shot to death by two police officers in circumstances that were in every way tense, uncertain, and rapidly evolving. On the night of March 18, two officers from the Sacramento Police Department responded to a radio call regarding a man who was seen breaking car windows in the citys Meadowview neighborhood. The officers were on foot and checking the area when deputies overhead in a Sacramento County Sheriffs Department helicopter directed them to a possible suspect, later identified as Clark.

Clark was seen running through a backyard and jumping over a fence, then looking into a car parked in the driveway of what was later revealed to be his grandmothers house, where Clark himself lived. The events that followed were captured on the two officers body-worn cameras and by the infrared camera in the helicopter. The Washington Post edited the videos and the accompanying audio, putting them together in a concise presentation that can be seen here.

As shown in the videos, an officer approaches Clark and at gunpoint orders him to show me your hands. Clark flees, running toward the backyard. The officer follows, soon joined by the second officer. Clark is ordered to stop, but instead he runs around the corner of the house and out of the officers view. The officers round the corner, then quickly retreat as one of them shouts, Show me your hands! Gun!

Both officers peek around the corner, at which time one of them shouts, Show me your hands! followed immediately by Gun, gun, gun! Both officers open fire, killing Clark.

It was later found that Clark, who was black, was carrying a cellphone, not a gun. His death has sparked protests in Sacramento.

Clarks death falls into the category of shootings known unofficially among prosecutors as awful but lawful. It is true that he did not have a gun, but it is also true that the officers believed he did at the time they fired.

Read More at PJ Media.
A man is dead and an Alaska State Trooper sustained serious injuries after an officer-involved shooting Saturday evening. Troopers say 42-year-old Nikolai Yakunin was shot after he assaulted an officer, but it's unclear how the altercation happened and if Yakunin was armed, reports Alaska Public Media.

Troopers in Anchor Point received a report that 42-year-old Nikolai Yakunin was in contact with a female who he was prohibited from speaking to under his probation conditions.

Troopers received the report at 2:17 p.m. Saturday afternoon and responded to Yakunin's residence off Nikolaevsk Road on the south side of the small village of 350 people about five hours later at 7:07 p.m.

According to a trooper dispatch, the responding trooper was incapacitated after Yakunin attacked him and additional troopers were dispatched for backup. Troopers say Yakunin continued his "assaultive behavior, and he was shot to prevent further assaults on any Trooper or bystander."

According to court records, Yakunin has been indicted on several assault charges dating back to late 2013, including a charge for threatening to hit troopers with a metal pipe in May of last year.

A release said the trooper was transported to the hospital with serious injuries. Troopers spokesperson Tim DeSpain said the trooper was still hospitalized late Monday afternoon.

The trooper who fatally shot Yakunin has not been identified. Troopers say the investigation is ongoing.
Baton Rouge Mayor Sharon Weston Broome and Police Chief Murphy Paul held a joint news conference Tuesday to explain to the public the next steps in the investigation of the Alton Sterling shooting following the state attorney general's announcement that his office will not charge the officers.

Broome began by expressing condolences to the Sterling family. She said it was "unfortunately lengthy, bureaucratic process" leading up to Louisiana Attorney Jeff Landry's decision to not charge the two police officers involved in the shooting. She added Landrys decision is "not the last word" in the case.

Broome promised citizens they will act swiftly as the Baton Rouge Police Department begins its internal investigation into the case, WAFB TV reports.

"The people of this parish have been civil in their reaction to a long and frustrating process from federal and state authorities and now of course citizens of this parish have every right to peacefully and publicly protest," she said. "Calmly and legally exercising first amendment rights is always acceptable in this parish but acts of violence and lawlessness are not."

"It is the Baton Rouge Police Departments turn to review this case," Paul said. "Our examination will determine if any policies or procedures were violated during the incident. It is our goal to have a disciplinary hearing completed by this Friday."
California's Department of Justice will oversee a Sacramento police investigation into the shooting death of Stephon Clark, a suspect who reportedly led two officers on a foot pursuit, refused police commands to show his hands, and was shot and killed because officers thought he had a gun. A cellphone was found at the scene after the shooting and it apparently was mistaken for a gun by the officers.

Speaking at a news conference, state Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra and Sacramento Police Chief Daniel Hahn announced the agreement Tuesday.

"I have complete confidence in my detectives, but due to the nature of this investigation, the extremely high emotion, anger and hurt in our city, I felt it was in the best interest of our entire community, including the members of our Police Department," Hahn said. "Our city is at a critical point right now, and I believe this will help build faith and confidence."

The agreement calls for the state Justice Department to play two roles: to provide independent oversight into the investigation into the shooting of Stephon Clark and to review Sacramento's police training and policies on the use of force.

Clark's killing has sparked days of protests in Sacramento, the Los Angeles Times reports. Activists and Clark's family are calling for criminal charges against the involved officers.
Embed from Getty Images

On Monday, Connecticut U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal and U.S. Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) announced that they introduced the Ammunition Background Check Act of 2018. The proposed bill would require instant background checks for the sale of gun ammunition.

Right now under federal law, felons, domestic abusers or people who are deemed mentally dangerous are banned from buying a gun or ammunition. However, because federal law does not require a background check to buy ammunition, those people may slip through the cracks when they try to buy it. Blumenthal said this would fix that loop-hole.

Ammunition checks serve all the same reasons as checks for purchases as guns. People who are dangerous to themselves or others, people who are in crisis, people who are convicted law breakers should undergo background checks, Blumenthal said.

If the bill passes, the law would use the FBIs Instant Background Check System, which is the same one used for firearms purchases, Fox 61 reports.

California will require background checks for ammunition buyers beginning July 1. New York also will soon require background checks for ammunition sales. Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts and New Jersey require background checks to obtain licenses to buy or possess ammunition.
BEIJING, March 28 (Xinhua) -- China hopes Japan will learn lessons from history and adhere to the path of peaceful development, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Wednesday.

Spokesperson Lu Kang made the remarks at a routine news briefing when asked to comment on Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's proposal to amend the country's war-renouncing Constitution and add an explicit reference to the Self-Defense Forces in Article 9 at the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's convention.

"Due to historical reasons, Japan's intentions for constitutional reform have drawn much attention from the victimized countries of World War II," Lu said.

Article 9 of Japan's pacifist constitution prohibits the country from possessing military forces and other "war potential."

Lu said that China hopes Japan will listen to the appeals for peace from people both in Japan and abroad, and win the trust of neighboring countries and the international community with concrete actions.
Richter drug wins 2017 Innovation Grand Prize in Hungary

The Hungarian Innovation Foundation has awarded Gedeon Richter Plc the Innovation Grand Prize for its tender proposal entitled Cariprazine (Vraylar/Reagila), a new original Hungarian drug on the global market".

Innovation has always played a key role in Richter's strategy with a special focus on the research and development of original drugs. In the course of its 117-year history, Richter has given over 10 proprietary medicines to the Hungarian pharmaceutical industry, making a significant contribution to improving the health of people all over the world. The laudatory address praising cariprazine highlighted the following: The key result of the product innovation honoured by this award is an original drug primarily manufactured in Hungary that was developed by Hungarian scientific researchers and developers, and which has a marketing authorisation for over 70% of the global pharmaceutical market.

The success of cariprazine is of historic importance not only for Richter but also for the entire Hungarian pharmaceutical industry. This is the first drug licensed in the United States that was invented by the researchers of a Hungarian-based pharmaceutical company and pre-clinical research and development were carried out by the same Hungarian company. As the clinical development stage incurred high costs, we involved a partner, so we were able to get to the final stage of obtaining the marketing license by joint funding and management. I believe that this recognition is the outcome of the great teamwork and exceptional knowledge base that have always characterised Richter since its foundation

, said Richter's Chairman Erik Bogsch upon receipt of the award.

Erik Bogsch, Chairman of Richter, receives the Innovation Grand Prize in Parliament on 28 March 2018. Photo by Gabor Bodo
Calls are growing to reinstate France's state of emergency and crack down further against suspected Muslim extremists after last week's terror attack that left four dead in southern France -- and as the country prepares to bury the victims.

President Emmanuel Macron will be presiding over a national ceremony Wednesday in Paris to honor Arnaud Beltram -- the policeman killed after trading places with a hostage during last week's terrorist attack in southern France.

The nation will come together again on Thursday to mark the burial of Beltram and the three others gunned down by 25-year-old French-Moroccan radical Redouane Lakdim during a shooting spree last Friday.

The political fallout is growing as center and far-right politicians call for restoring a state of emergency in France, which ended last November.

During a National Assembly debate Tuesday, the parliament's center-right Les Republicains party head Christian Jacob said the state of emergency, put in place after the 2015 Bataclan attacks, should never have been lifted. It was time, he said, to lock up those radicalized and tracked under France's so-called 'S' file of potentially dangerous suspects. He said those of foreign origin should be expelled.

That would have included Moroccan-born Lakdim, whom police shot dead, ending a hostage-taking standoff at a southern French supermarket. Lakdim's 18-year-old girlfriend is being detained, and the Paris prosecutor has requested she be placed under formal investigation.


In 1747 Samuel Johnson announced the plan to write what became his Dictionary of the English Language. Johnson had hoped to get the job done in three years. His friend Richard Adams questioned his ability to complete such a massive undertaking in such a short time. It had taken the 40 members of the French Academy 40 years to compile their Dictionary, Adams reminded him. Boswell reported Johnsons famous response: Sir, thus it is. This is the proportion. Let me see; forty times forty is sixteen hundred. As three to sixteen hundred, so is the proportion of an Englishman to a Frenchman. (In the event it took Johnson nine years.)

I think of Johnsons gibe whenever the Star Tribune publishes a column by Katherine Kersten. Kathy makes an argument solidly grounded in fact and analysis. Within a day or two, the editorial pages are weighed down with the groans and shrieks of outraged Twin Cities leftists. They invariably make me wonder, with enemies like this, does Kathy need friends?

The Star Tribune, however, is something else. The Star Tribune hosts the shrieks. To play on the old joke, the shrieking will continue until morale improves.

Most recently, the Star Tribune published Kathys column (March 18) on litigation threatened by state officials over racial disparities in student discipline. Kathy decried the threats and predicted dire consequences based on her study of the St. Paul public schools.

Cue the ritual condemnations. Over the past week the Star Tribune has carried three columns responding in a fashion to Kathys column.

Counterpoint column one (March 19) overflowed with a profusion of shibboleths presented as deep thoughts by Julia Hill and Dana Bennis. It served therapeutic purposes. It only lacked an argument.

Counterpoint column two (March 20) by Minnesota Education Commissioner Brenda Cassellius put up an argument that tacitly confirmed the gravamen of Kerstens column while exploding with disparaging adjectives and denouncing Kathy as flat-out racist. Casselliuss column inadvertently exposed a scandal. It is a scandal that this woman is Minnesota Commissioner of Education.

Counterpoint column three (March 26) is by parent and advocate Laura Gilliam. Gilliam too condemns Kathys damaging and blatantly racist rhetoric. She also condemns Kathys rhetoric as in-your-face racist. Is there an echo in here?

Nobody knows the troubles shes seen, sort of: When journalists rush to break the story about the latest assault against a teacher, yet show little interest in student stories of mistreatment and being pushed out, theyre reinforcing racist stereotypes. One who looks for facts or analysis in Gilliams column will search in vain. Her purpose is incantatory and ritualistic.

As one to 1600  so is the proportion of Katherine Kersten to the Twin Cities left.
Russian President Vladimir Putin promised to harshly punish those responsible for what he called criminal negligence in a fire Sunday at a Siberian mall that killed 64 people, many of them children.

The newly re-elected president made the promise Tuesday after flying to the scene of the fire in the industrial city of Kemerovo. Putin laid flowers at a memorial for the victims before chairing a meeting declaring Wednesday a national day of mourning.

Thousands of angry residents gathered in the city's main square, demanding an independent investigation and accusing authorities of attempting to conceal the entire scope of the fatal fire.


In the memoir Cardiac Arrest: Five Heart-Stopping Years as a CEO on the Feds Hit List (written with Stephen Saltarelli), Howard Root tells the story of his experience as chief executive officer of Vascular Solutions caught in the crosshairs of the federal government when prosecutors sought to put his company out of business and to send him to the big house. Howard touched on one aspect of his story in the Wall Street Journal column Sally Yatess legacy of injustice at the Department of Justice.

Howard is one of the most amazing people I have ever met. Among other things, he is a corporate lawyer turned entrepreneur, inventor, and corporate executive.

Howard faced down the government. The jury didnt think much of the governments case. It returned with a verdict of acquittal on all charges after a day of deliberations, and that includes the time spent electing a foreman.

Howards case is important in its own way. The crimes charged were bogus. The government procured testimony through serious prosecutorial misconduct. The prosecution represented fruit of the poisonous Yates Memo tree. Howard had the resources to fight the governments case against him and his company, but it exacted an enormous toll. The case cries out for study and reform.

Howard has thus sought to engage prosecutors in discussion of the case in person before professional audiences of lawyers and businessmen for whom it holds immediate relevance. The prosecutors and their superiors in the department have sought to keep Howard from speaking to such audiences. When I wrote the Department of Justice to request its explanation for what it was doing, it declined to comment (a week after I asked the question).

Former Assistant United States Attorney Andrew McCarthy was more forthcoming. He called out the Department of Justices behavior as a disgrace.

The Department of Justice declines to answer to Howard or me, but it might answer to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and Utah Senator Mike Lee. Senators Grassley and Lee have now sent a letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein seeking an update on the Justice Departments inquiry into professional misconduct committed by prosecutors and higher-ups who brought the charges against Howard and have since sought to prevent him from being heard.

In the letter Senators Grassley and Lee note that reports suggest a pattern of threatened and actual retribution against defendants and witnesses borne out of the Departments disappointment with the outcome of a particular case. This not only casts doubt on the Departments ability to accept the results of judicial proceedings in a professional manner befitting the nations preeminent law enforcement agency, but it significantly undermines our confidence in its commitment to hold government attorneys accountable for questionable actions that may have occurred in the course of this case or other cases. The letter poses seven questions and asks for response by April 5, 2018. Im guessing the department will not decline to respond.

Senator Grassleys press release is posted here along with the text of the letter. Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar is resting on her right to remain silent.

I have embedded the letter below via Scribd. We will continue to follow this matter closely.

2018-03-22 CEG + MSL to DOJ (Vascular Solutions 2.0) by Scott Johnson on Scribd
The Left has enlisted Big Tech to help suppress conservative activism and conservative ideas. We are seeing this on a number of fronts, one of the more recent (March 1) being Microsoft. Microsoft announced a new Service Agreement effective May 1 that applies to the companys consumer products, websites, and services. Those include the Office suite, Xbox and Skype, among others.

The new Service Agreement includes a Code of Conduct:

a. By agreeing to these Terms, youre agreeing that, when using the Services, you will follow these rules: i. Dont do anything illegal. ii. Dont engage in any activity that exploits, harms, or threatens to harm children. iii. Dont send spam. Spam is unwanted or unsolicited bulk email, postings, contact requests, SMS (text messages), or instant messages. iv. Dont publicly display or use the Services to share inappropriate content or material (involving, for example, nudity, bestiality, pornography, offensive language, graphic violence, or criminal activity). v. Dont engage in activity that is fraudulent, false or misleading (e.g., asking for money under false pretenses, impersonating someone else, manipulating the Services to increase play count, or affect rankings, ratings, or comments). vi. Dont circumvent any restrictions on access to or availability of the Services. vii. Dont engage in activity that is harmful to you, the Services, or others (e.g., transmitting viruses, stalking, posting terrorist content, communicating hate speech, or advocating violence against others). viii. Dont infringe upon the rights of others (e.g., unauthorized sharing of copyrighted music or other copyrighted material, resale or other distribution of Bing maps, or photographs). ix. Dont engage in activity that violates the privacy of others. x. Dont help others break these rules.

Some elements of this Code are uncontroversial, while others obviously are subject to abuse. Inappropriate content or material could cover just about anything. I would put pretty much the entire contents of the New York Times in that category. Offensive language is similarly broad. Offensive to whom? David Hogg? Or me? I think we know how Microsofts censors will answer that question.

Likewise, Microsofts ban on false or misleading content sounds like an attack on fake news, but again, I might consider much of what the Washington Post publishes as false or misleading. I dont think that is what Microsoft has in mind, however. And does Microsoft seriously intend to police conversation on Skype to ensure that no one says anything that is false or misleading? Good luck with that.

Similarly with the ban on hate speech, a concept beloved by the Left but otherwise undefined. One thing you can be sure of is that nothing anyone says about a conservative, or about President Trump or any member of his administration, can be hate speech. Beyond that, its open season.

And finally: Microsoft says it may enforce laws against unauthorized sharing of copyrighted material and improper distribution of photographs, among other things. On its face, that may seem reasonable. But the extent to which copyrighted material can be quoted under the doctrine of fair use is up for grabs, with little guidance in the case law. People like us quote copyrighted material all the time.

Similarly, photographs and other images are promiscuously disseminated on the internet. Google Images, by far the main source of photos and other images, has recently added a disclaimer to each image that it displays: Images may be subject to copyright. Good luck with that! Probably a large majority of uses of Google Images, of which there must be billions annually, at least arguably violate someones copyright. This is an area of the law that is in flux, where the boundaries are unknown. The opportunity for selective enforcement is obvious.

Microsoft proposes to enforce these rules through its access to your Content, as defined in the Code.

The problem, of course, is that Microsofts censors inevitably will be liberals. Liberals will decide what is offensive, or inappropriate, or false or misleading, or hate speech, or a violation of copyright laws, the parameters of which, in the relevant context, no one knows. You can see where this is going.

Happily, Microsoft doesnt have a large presence on the internet. (My impression is that just about all the money Microsoft earns comes from Windows, Word, Excel and Power Point licenses paid for by companies. Pretty much everything else Microsoft has tried has been a failure.) But the trend is consistent: the Big Tech firms are lining up behind the Left to enforce a less-than-free speech regime that draws on the insanity we see on todays college campuses.

Nothing about this is good. The question is what to do about it. Some, like Glenn Reynolds, say the Big Tech companies should be broken up under the antitrust laws. Others advocate diversity, in the form of spontaneously-arising conservative or neutral tech companies. Maybe the courts will intervene, at some point, to treat Big Tech companies as utilities. My own preference is for diversity, but network effects have inexorably driven online services toward monopoly. (In another universe, maybe MySpace could have been a conservative alternative.) For the foreseeable future, conservatives will need to be alert to efforts by the Left to use friendly tech companies to tilt the playing field in favor of the Left.
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It is a unique and historic moment that ushers Poland into a new world of ultra-modern technology and weaponry, Polish President Andrzej Duda said of the Poland-US Patriot air and missile defence system deal signed on Wednesday. The value of the deal is USD 4.75 billion.

Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak signed a contract for the purchase of US Patriot air and missile defence systems as part of the Polish Wisla (Vistula) air defence programme. Present at the signing ceremony were President Andrzej Duda, PM Mateusz Morawiecki, National Security Bureau head Pawel Soloch, government officials and army commanders.

See also: Address by the President of the Republic of Poland at the ceremony of signing the Patriot supply contract "Today we start equipping Poland with the most modern defence system (...) in the world, and what is most important, one that has been tested many times," Andrzej Duda stressed.

"It's a huge step forward for the whole Polish armed forces when we speak of building a modern and well-equipped army (...)," the President said. "What we are saying is that we will equip it with such weaponry," Andrzej Duda stressed.

Patriot batteries and other elements of Poland's defence will create "a protective shield against an air assault of any kind," he added.

The Polish President said that the cost of the US Patriot air and missile defence systems is huge, but "we know that security has no price."

"This is a lot of money, but we know, also from our historical experience, that security has no price. Let me express my gratitude to the negotiating team, Minister Blaszczak and former Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz," the President said.

The Patriot system is to constitute the basis of Poland's air defence for decades, the President said. "We enter the ranks of the elite states that own it," he declared."

Speaking to reporters after the ceremony, Andrzej Duda commented on his meeting with US President Donald Trump. "Being aware of the how expensive this purchase may be, I told the president that we need a good price and the right conditions to carry it out," he reported, adding that Trump had assured him it would be possible to negotiate good conditions. "And we've managed to do it," he concluded. (PAP)
President Andrzej Duda sent condolences to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday in connection with a shopping mall fire in the Siberian city of Kemerovo.

The Polish President expressed his sympathy for all those who had lost their loved ones in the fire and wishes for a speedy recovery of those injured.

Andrzej Duda wrote in the condolence message to Vladimir Putin that he had heard of the fire and its effects with great sadness. "On behalf of the Polish Nation and myself, I convey to you, Mr President, expressions of the deepest sympathy to all those who lost their loved ones and wishes of a speedy recovery for those injured in the fire," the President wrote. (PAP)
"This is an entirely new chapter in the history of Poland, and in particular, an entirely new chapter in the history of the Polish armed forces", President Andrzej Duda stressed

Honourable Prime Minister,

Honourable Minister,

Honourable Ministers,

Excellencies, Ambassadors,

Dear Generals,

Madame Secretary,

Officers,

Men and Women in Uniforms,

All our Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen!

This is a unique moment, I daresay a historic moment. By signing the deal, a moment ago the Minister of National Defence, Mr. Mariusz Baszczak, has ushered the Polish armed forces, but even more broadly: has ushered us, the Republic of Poland, into an entirely new world; the word of truly ultra-modern technology, the world of modern weaponry and, importantly, of modern defences.

See also: President: Patriot deal a historic moment Today, we are launching the process of equipping Poland in the state-of-the-art missile defence system: the most advanced medium-range missile defence that is available world-wide. What is most important is that on many occasions, the system has stood the test in the countries where it is deployed. You might have heard that Patriot missiles protect Israel, protect other locations in the world which suffer from armed conflicts. The system has always proved effective. Even if some may say: Well, in some locations a single missile has sneaked in and has engaged the target Ladies and Gentlemen, there are no systems available which would us a 100-percent interception guarantee. However, if a system is capable to intercept 80 up to 90 percent of a potential missile strike or any other assault from the air, it must be clearly described as an exceptionally effective one. And this is precisely the case with Patriot, additionally integrated with the IBCS command system, it is an unquestionably ultra-modern system.

It is expensive; indeed, it is. But as the Polish saying goes: whatever comes cheap, will prove expensive; whatever comes expensive, will be operational and solid, to function for many years to come. And this is precisely the case with this system: it is meant to underpin Polands missile defence for decades to come. Obviously, with the lapse of time, it will need to be updated, which is only natural. But the most crucial point is to have it launched, so that we join the elite of the nations who have Patriot-based missile defence in place. And we are joining this family right now. This is an entirely new chapter in the history of Poland, and in particular, an entirely new chapter in the history of the Polish armed forces.

The system might be wrongly dismissed as a one which benefits only air defence: it is not true. For the armed forces in general this is a massive step forward. If we speak about building a modern, well-equipped army and about the modernisation of the Polish armed forces as a whole, what we mean by that is that we are going to supply them with such weaponry, such systems: modern and compatible with the ones operated by our Allies from the North Atlantic Alliance, and also operated by the United States Armed Forces.

I heartily welcome this development. We are building a comprehensive multi-layered complex air and missile defence system in the country. As rightly pointed out by the Minister of Defence, it is more than the Vistula Defence programme and the Narew programme, it is an overarching ballistic missile defence system which is right now delivered by the US Army in Redzikowo. All of those added together make up a protective shield able to fend off a variety of air assaults. I am delighted to see Poland gaining this protective shield. This is the first stage. Upon its completion, we will proceed with next ones.

As I was saying, enormous money is involved. But we will all appreciate, also bearing in mind our historical experience, that security has no price. Last summer, during President Donald Trumps visit to Warsaw, I was also raising the subject of this deal which has been finalised today.

What I said back then was: Mr President, by all means, we want to procure that system, it matters great deal to us; we are looking at that system in particular, but also at other offers of American weaponry. This system we want to have in place as a first step, to underpin all our future cooperation. To this end, we will need a decent price offer, we are a country which is still developing, so many needs arise, so much expenditure must be incurred. This must be a sum of money which is affordable. We realise that security is priceless, but we need to operate within our budget, we need to meet our conditions. Please, come up with an affordable price.

And this is the price that we have managed to negotiate. My warm thanks go to the negotiating team, to the Minister of Defence, for the last stage of negotiations was closed under his stewardship; but I also thank the former Minister of Defence, Mr Antoni Maciarewicz. He embarked on this extremely ambitious task of procuring this particular system, paired with the IBCS command system. A challenging task is in store for us and I am confident we will manage to accomplish it; through a concerted effort and smooth cooperation we will make it.

Let me reiterate: I am extremely pleased about the signing of the contract between the Polish and the US Government. I am happy to see us entering a completely new era of defence: truly this is the 21st century, if not the 22nd.

Thank you.
While China and the United States seem to be negotiating in an effort to avert a trade war, Washington is unlikely to relent in its determination to stop advanced technology from leaving America for China.

"I think there is a growing consensus in the United States that Chinese firms should be blocked from certain types of acquisitions of U.S. firms, of getting certain types of U.S. technology," said AlexCapri, an international trade scholar at the National University of Singapore.

China has come up with a list of U.S. products it will target as part of a retaliatory action against Washington's plan to raise tariffs on Chinese products. But it has been silent about restricting technology companies.

 International Action

The European Union already is considering a law that would scrutinize and block Chinese purchases of local firms for the purpose of acquiring new technology. China is worried any U.S. action would embolden European politicians and hasten the process of prohibiting Chinese acquisitions.

"I don't know that is unique just in the United States. I think there are other European countries, Australia ... so, I expect to see a lot more interference, a lot more blockage of acquisitions by either Chinese-owned funds or Chinese-owned tech firms that are looking to grow through acquisitions," said Capri.

That has been evident in recent months as the U.S. put limits on China's Huawei technology company and clamped down on Singapore-based Broadcom because it is connected with Chinese companies and can work as a conduit to supply technology information.

"Even in situations where you have tech firms that may not be flying a Chinese flag, if these companies are in fact doing business with other companies, then those acquisitions may be blocked," Capri said.

It is this concern that led to Chinese Premier Li Keqiang's announcement last week that foreign companies no longer are obliged to share their technology with local partners when they invest in China. Obligatory knowledge-sharing by foreign companies has been the bulwark of China's technological development in past decades, and also a sore point with western companies and governments.

"China needs some foreign inputs, and to attract ... high-end foreign companies," said Xu Bin, CEIBS (China Europe International Business School) professor of finance. The country also "needs to open more in the areas where China has not been open that much," he added.

Li's offer also is colored by the Chinese parliament's recent decision to remove presidential term limits, which could give President Xi Jinping perpetual rule, Xu said.
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Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor shall destroy human and natural life: Sukhdev SinghDr.H.S.ChandaliaUdaipur. The industrial culture which relies on the exploitation of natural and human beings will not only hurt the interest of the people but will also cause an unprecedented loss to nature leading to global warming and serious ecological imbalance. India, which was an agrarian economy has now taken a turn to become a capital-centered economy. This shift has destroyed our agriculture and caused large-scale misery among peasants leading to thousands of suicides every year. This can be changed by making a provision of fifty percent of the outlay in the budget for agriculture. This was stated by Sardar Sukhdev Singh Bhupal, Member of the All India Committee of Prakriti - Manav Kendrit Jan Andolan from Punjab who was addressing a meeting of farmers at Mohta Park, Udaipur, Rajasthan on Monday, 26th of March, 2018. This meeting was held in a series of meetings held in different towns and villages during a march named " Prakriti -Manav Kendrit Krishi Abhiyan " which started on 21st March 2018 at Abu Road and passed through the districts of Sirohi, Pali, Ajmer, Bhilwara, Chittorgarh, Udaipur, and Dungarpur. Sardar Sukhdev Singh said that Rajasthan should be made a chemical -fertilizer free state because the land and air of this state is still free from the polluting effect of these. The meeting was addressed by Sajjan Kumar, former President of Prakriti Manav Kendrit Jan Andolan. He said that the world is on the verge of destruction. Delhi has become a gas chamber. The fallacious development model in the whole world has made air, water, and food poisonous. The Delhi - Mumbai Industrial Corridor is yet another mindless move taken by the government to appease and benefit the capitalists at the cost of tribal and rural people. He said that the border disputes with Pakistan and China are projected to misguide people while the capitalists are thriving and there is no check on trade relations between India and these countries. He urged upon the peasants to unite and prepare for a long struggle. Addressing the meeting Prof. H.S.Chandalia said that the peasants should also unite with the tribes since they are the worst hit any such development projects. He said that the tribal people protect forests and the forests cause rains. If there are no forests there will be no rain and hence there can be no agriculture. To save forests tribes should be saved. He maintained that international corporate capitalists have conspired with the right-wing government in India to appropriate and exploit its natural and human resources. Therefore an enlightened struggle to fight against these forces is necessary. The meeting was convened by Advocate Manna Ram Dangi who apprised the audience about the core issues of the movement. Coordinator of Prakriti -Manav Kendrit Krishi Abhiyan Arun Karande of Maharashtra described his experiences of the movement and called upon people of all walks of life to unite with the movement. Mr. Zakir Hussain, President of Local Unit of the Abhiyan offered the vote of thanks.
Girl group Black Pink will have their first Japanese tour in July, their management agency said Tuesday.

They will kick off their concert in Osaka on July 24 and then tour Fukuoka and Chiba, holding six shows in total.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un secretly visited China on Monday to hold a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Both North Korean and Chinese state media officially confirmed the visit after waiting until Wednesday morning when Kim returned to Pyongyang after the summit. "It was believed that Kim traveled to Beijing aboard his personal train, met with Xi and returned to North Korea aboard the same train," a government official here said earlier on Tuesday. The two leaders apparently wanted to lay some groundwork and steal the thunder ahead of the U.S.-North Korea summit set for May. Observers believe China is attempting to improve frayed relations with North Korea and try to influence U.S.-led efforts to get the North to abandon its nuclear weapons program.



Chinese President Xi Jinping (2nd from right), his wife Peng Liyuan, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (2nd from left) and his wife Ri Sol-ju pose during their meeting in Beijing on Tuesday in this grab from China Central Television on Wednesday. /AFP-Yonhap

This was the first time that the North Korean leader has traveled outside of his country since rising to power in 2012. Amid growing international isolation as sanctions bite, Kim made his diplomatic debut on the international scene through his visit to China. The last North Korean leader to visit China was Kim Jong-il in 2011. Kim crossed the border with China aboard a special train on Sunday night and arrived in Beijing on Monday. He met with Xi there for about three hours. Beijing apparently wanted to have a summit with Kim shortly after the U.S.-North Korea summit was announced in early March. "It appears that China is seeking to improve its ties with North Korea ahead of the U.S.-North Korea summit and gain leverage in negotiations with the U.S.," said Hwang Jae-ho at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.

A train believed to be carrying North Korean leader Kim Jong-un leaves a railway station in Beijing on Tuesday. /Reuters-Yonhap

China's relations with North Korea chilled quickly after Beijing joined U.S.-led efforts to intensify sanctions against the North. Kim snubbed Chinese President Xi Jinping's envoy Song Tao, who visited the North in November last year. Now there are concerns that the China-North Korea summit could lead to a weakening of international sanctions against the North. The North Korean leader stayed in Beijing only for 24 hours, but experts said the entire framework of the upcoming talks with North Korea could change according to the agreements that may have been reached between them. Frayed relations between the U.S. and China due to a trade dispute between the two sides could also affect the talks.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's visit to China caught the entire world by surprise, but the Chinese government and state-run media were slow to acknowledge it after drawing a proverbial bamboo curtain around the trip.

The Chinese government had said that it intends to treat North Korea like any other country and do away with the tradition of secret visits by a North Korean leader as seen during the days of former leader Kim Jong-il. But the first thing Beijing did when Kim Jong-un visited China was to set up a huge fence screen at Dandong railway station when Kim's personal train passed by.

On Monday, when Kim started his visit to Beijing, China's Foreign Ministry said it had no knowledge of the North Korean leader's visit. The external liaison office of China's Communist Party apparently hung up the telephone when diplomats from foreign embassies called to ask about the rumored visit.

China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying denied knowledge of Kim's visit on Tuesday when foreign news media reported that the trip had taken place. Hua merely added that she would make an announcement at an "appropriate time" if necessary.

And only on Wednesday morning did the official Xinhua news agency and CCTV report on the visit after the North Korean leader returned home.

China's diplomacy is often dubbed preposterous when it comes to North Korea. Beijing has been calling for the resumption of multilateral talks to discuss the North's nuclear weapons program, but it resorted to keeping other countries entirely in the dark about the latest visit by the North Korean leader.

The South Korean government was utterly transparent about a trip by Kim's sister, Yo-jong, to the South during the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang and even briefed reporters about what was discussed during her meeting with President Moon Jae-in.

National security adviser Chung Eui-yong even traveled to Beijing to brief Chinese officials about his trip to North Korea as Moon's envoy.

Still, China opted to hold a secretive meeting with the North Korean leader. Experts say China will only lose its credibility in spearheading six-party talks through such behavior.
MUMBAI, India, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- House of Rose Professional Pte. Ltd. announced that the 2018 India Edition of Break the ceiling touch the sky  the success and leadership summit for women will be held on May 8, 2018 in Mumbai. Coca-Cola, FleishmanHillard, Google, Hogan Lovells Lee & Lee, SC Johnson & Son, Coty and Tata Sampann have stepped up as early sponsors for the 2018 India Edition. Registration for the summit is open at www.houseofroseprofessional.com.

Early speakers listed for the 2018 India Edition include Christina Ruggiero, Chief Executive Officer, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt. Ltd; Al Rajwani, President, P&G India; Richa Singh, CEO, Philips Home Healthcare; Sam Balsara, Chairman, Madison World; Mohit Anand, Managing Director, Kellogg India Pvt. Ltd; Stephanie Keen, Singapore Managing Partner, Hogan Lovells Lee & Lee Singapore; P.K. Hariharan, General Manager -- India Consumer and Professional Beauty Coty Inc.; Richa Arora, Chief Operating Officer, Consumer Products Business, Tata Chemicals; Lynne Anne Davis, President and Senior Partner, FleishmanHillard Asia Pacific; Priyanka Aggarwal, Partner and Director of BCG India; Shumone Chatterjee, General Manager, South Asia, SC Johnson, Annurag Batra, Chairman, BW Businessworld and exchange4media Group, Praveen Jakarte, Former Chairman and Managing Director, Hershey's India. The full list of speakers will be out on April 20, 2018.

Julie Hamilton, Chief Customer and Commercial Leadership Officer, The Coca-Cola Company shared, "Diversity is at the heart of our business. We strive to create a work environment that provides all our associates equal access to information, development and opportunity. We have seen great contributions via gender diversity. Our business is honored to be a world sponsor of Break the ceiling touch the sky which will give participants a tremendous opportunity to learn from others, share best practices, network with peers and chart their own individual courses for success."

"Winning companies know that women in positions of power are good for business. At our agency, we recognize the power of diversity to focus our view of the real world and be a true force for change for our clients," said Lynne Anne Davis, President of Asia Pacific for FleishmanHillard, one of NAFE's 'Top Companies for Executive Women' for multiple years. "This summit fuels conversations and strategies around development of women as leaders at all levels, with the aim of keeping them on track to the top. We applaud initiatives like this one to fast-forward gender-balanced boardrooms across Asia Pacific. In the battle for top talent, embracing diversity and inclusion is today's smartest, most rewarding competitive advantage."

Richa Arora, Chief Operating Officer, (Consumer Products Business), Tata Chemicals, said, "Our brand Tata Sampann celebrates the spirit of Indian women, as they orchestrate their lives around the varied roles they play, and the challenges they face. Being healthy is key for women to realize their full potential, & Tata Sampann supports that through nourishing food solutions that are inspired by traditional Indian wisdom, backed by science.Tata Sampann and House of Rose Professional share a common objective of helping tap the phenomenal potential of women as leaders-at home, in business & society. We are delighted to be a part of Break the ceiling touch the sky."

Break the ceiling touch the sky -- the success and leadership summit for women is based on research done for the best-selling book "Break the ceiling touch the sky: success secrets of the world's most inspirational women" and further leadership insights gathered from interaction with over 7000 women leaders since 2012. This one-day summit consists of action-focused panel discussions, keynotes and a special speed mentoring segment led by C-Suite leaders sharing the latest techniques for success and leadership. Companies can enhance the leadership skills of their women leaders at a fraction of the cost of other expensive training programs; delegates can leverage the day as a way of connecting with top leaders from the world's best organization and network for success. While the content is customized for women, male leaders are welcome. Since 2015 the summit has helped empower and train over 2450 leaders for success from close to 200 organizations from 27 countries. Most recently the summit held its 2018 Australia Edition in Sydney on March 13, 2018. The summit will now go to Dubai on April 11, Mumbai on May 8, Singapore on Sept 10 and close the 2018 year with editions in the USA and UK.

GRIPS PROEVENTS will serve as event manager for the summit in India. Network partners include GS1, the National HRD Network (NHRD) and BWBusinessworld.

Commented Anthony A. Rose, Founder Chairman and CEO, House of Rose Professional and best-selling author of the book Break the ceiling touch the sky: success secrets of the world's most inspirational women which inspired the summit, "The 2018 India Edition of Break the ceiling touch the sky enables us to contribute to developing Indian women leaders and male leaders who support gender diversity and helps enable the progress of gender diversity in the country. We welcome participation from female and male professionals and organizations intent on enhancing their success, building their leaders and sharing and learning from the best practices of other great Companies."

To register for the summit please visit www.houseofroseprofessional.com.

House of Rose Professional Pte.Ltd. is based in Singapore and operates in the areas of Public Relations, Publishing and People.

Media/Sponsors contact:

Email: [email protected] or call +65 83322017.

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Related Links

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SOURCE House of Rose Professional Pte. Ltd.
According to a new market research report "Automotive Fuel Cell Market by Components (Fuel Stack, Fuel Processor, Power Conditioner), Electrolyte Type (PEMFC, PAFC), Power Output (<100KW, 100-200KW, >200KW), Vehicle Type (PC, LCV, Bus, Truck), H2 Fuel Station, Region - Global Forecast to 2025" published by MarketsandMarkets, the market is estimated to be 7,785 Units in 2018 and is projected to reach a market size of 268,786 Units by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 65.86% during the forecast period. The market is driven by factors such as better fuel efficiency, longer driving range than other electric vehicles, fast refueling time, no greenhouse gas emission and government initiatives pertaining to hydrogen infrastructure.

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Browse 55 market data Tables and 77 Figures spread through 183 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Automotive Fuel Cell Market"

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/automotive-fuel-cell-market-14859789.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report

The Proton Exchange Membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is estimated to be the fastest growing and the largest market in Automotive Fuel Cell Market during the forecast period

PEMFC is estimated to witness fastest growth and is estimated to have the largest market share in Automotive Fuel Cell Market, by electrolyte type. The fuel cell produces zero emissions and can help in reducing the greenhouse gas emissions. PEMFC are used in passenger and commercial vehicles due to their high-power density, suitable operating temperature, small size, high efficiency, and light weight. Hence, PEMFC segment is expected to dominate the Automotive Fuel Cell Market during the forecast period.

Ask for PDF Brochure @https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownload.asp?id=14859789

Passenger car segment to be the largest segment in the Automotive Fuel Cell Market, by vehicle type

Due to the ease of application of fuel cell technology in passenger cars, increased driving range, cost effectiveness of fuel cell passenger cars, and high focus of OEMs to implement fuel cell technology in passenger cars are boosting the growth of the passenger car segment. There are several FCEV passenger car models, such as Toyota Mirai, Honda Clarity, and others, available in the market. Due to the high demand for passenger cars, large passenger car production capabilities, stringent emission norms, comparatively low fuel cell production costs, and increasing investments by leading fuel cell manufacturers such as Ballard Power Systems, the passenger car segment of the Automotive Fuel Cell Market is projected to lead the market.

Asia Pacific is projected to be the fastest growing regional market for Automotive Fuel Cell

Asia Pacific represents the biggest market for green technologies in the world. The governments are setting renewable energy targets, backed by favourable policies such as the Kyoto Protocol. Currently, the largest markets for fuel cells in Asia Pacific are Japan and South Korea. This has been the dominant region for fuel cell adoption since 2009 due to the commercial deployment of Japanese fuel cell micro-CHP products. Japan, the first nation to commercialize fuel cells, is supporting a project on residential and automotive applications. Asia Pacific is projected to be the largest market for Automotive Fuel Cell by 2025 due to the high acceptance of electric vehicles, increasing hydrogen infrastructure, and commercialization of fuel cells in the countries in this region.

The ecosystem of the fuel cell market consists of fuel cell manufacturers such as Ballard Power Systems (Canada), ITM Power (UK), Hydrogenics (Canada), Plug Power (US), and AFCC (Canada). The OEMs considered include Toyota (Japan), Honda (Japan), Hyundai (South Korea), Daimler (Germany), and Nissan (Japan).

Know more about the Automotive Fuel Cell Market:

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/automotive-fuel-cell-market-14859789.html

About MarketsandMarkets

MarketsandMarkets provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies' revenues. Currently servicing 5000 customers worldwide including 80% of global Fortune 1000 companies as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across eight industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets for their painpoints around revenues decisions.

Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve.

MarketsandMarkets's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "RT" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets.

Contact:

Mr. Salgarkar

MarketsandMarkets INC.

630 Dundee Road

Suite 430

Northbrook, IL 60062

USA: +1-888-600-6441

Email: [email protected]

Visit Our Blog @ http://mnmblog.org/market-research/automotive-transportation

Connect with us on LinkedIn @ http://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsandmarkets

SOURCE MarketsandMarkets
LONDON, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Commenting on the fusing of BMW's and Daimler's DriveNow and car2go car-sharing companies into a joint entity, Frost & Sullivan Industry Principal Shwetha Surender reports that the scope of the merger is much more extensive than originally anticipated.

"For over a year, the two behemoths have been contemplating combining their car-sharing operations. From the perspective of the car-sharing market, this makes perfect sense. Operating in an industry that is struggling to achieve profitability, it would allow them to gain economies of scale and tip the balance in their favour," Surender notes.

The merger raises the stakes for the competition. As a combined company, car2go and DriveNow would now become one the largest operators in the space, accounting for a global market share of over 30%, allowing them to go head-to-head with market leaders such as Zipcar.

Surender adds: "What makes this 50:50 joint venture much more interesting is the consolidation of all their mobility operations across the areas of Car-Sharing, Ride-Hailing, Parking, Charging and Multimodality. This is a clear indication of their intent to offer a 'holistic ecosystem of intelligent, seamlessly connected mobility services, available at the tap of a finger.' The merger is likely to set the trend for further consolidation as participants realise they can't go it alone  partnerships will be the magic word."

It certainly drives home the fact that services are the future. Frost & Sullivan expects the value for total mobility services to cross the $2 trillion mark by 2030. It would prove to be the perfect vehicle for their CASE (Connected, Autonomous, Shared and Electric) strategy.

The merger, however, raises very interesting questions as to brand competitiveness. Both BMW and Daimler will continue to compete in the passenger vehicle space. Will they learn to play nicely within the same service ecosystem?

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, works in collaboration with clients to leverage visionary innovation that addresses the global challenges and related growth opportunities that will make or break today's market participants. For more than 50 years, we have been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector and the investment community. Contact us: Start the discussion

Contact

Kristina Menzefricke

Corporate Communications  Frost & Sullivan, Europe

P: +44 (0)208 996 8589

E: [email protected]

http://www.frost.com

Related Links

http://www.frost.com



SOURCE Frost & Sullivan
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Globee Services is set to transform how businesses deliver customer experience through multilingual omni-channel customer support, coupled with artificial intelligence (AI). Located in Kuala Lumpur, it will house over 2,000 staff, catering to the APAC region.

Globee is a joint venture between South Korea's largest BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) service company, UBASE and Everise, which owns C3/CustomerContactChannels, a large global BPO, based in USA.

The launch was officiated by Datuk Yasmin Mahmood, CEO of Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation who welcomed Globee's establishment in Malaysia. "We believe Globee will elevate the customer experience aspect in Malaysia's Global Business Services (GBS) sector," she shared.

Sudhir Agarwal, CEO of Everise stated that companies need to partner with their clients and leverage technology to offer differentiated business models, forming the overall customer experience that brands need to achieve to compete globally.

Sudhir also shared more on how Globee uses the convergence of technology and multilingual experience to offer solutions. "We have set up a Globee Lab within the center, tapping on AI's power to incubate and innovate products, further enhancing the customer experience that is delivered."

"It's the very first investment by a Korean BPO targeting global /digital clients," said Daegun Hur, CEO of UBASE.

He added that with Malaysia's multi-cultural society, great work ethics, excellent infrastructure and friendly government policies, Globee will bring the best they have and create synergy in Malaysia.

About GlobeE

GlobeE is a BPO service company established in 2018. Based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, they offer multilingual omnichannel customer support, by native speakers. GlobeE is a joint venture between Everise (which owns US based BPO C3/CustomerContactChannels) and UBASE, South Korea's largest BPO. The company houses GlobeE Lab, a division focused on innovation and incubation of technologies that are disrupting BPOs' approach and managing customer experiences. Visit www.globeebpo.com

Related Links

http://www.globeebpo.com



SOURCE Globee
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Browse 83 market data Tables and 38 Figures spread through 164 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Incident and Emergency Management Market"

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/incident-emergency-management-market-1280.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report

Increasing incidents of terrorist and biohazardous attacks and unpredictable natural disasters due to ever changing climatic conditions, and stringent government regulations and norms are expected to drive the market.

Emergency/mass notification system is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period

The Incident and Emergency Management Market by system includes web-based emergency management system, emergency/mass notification system, surveillance system, traffic management system, inventory/database management system, safety management system, remote weather monitoring system, tsunami warning system, earthquake/seismic warning system, and CBRNE/HAZMAT detection system. Among various systems, the emergency/mass notification system is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. The growth can be attributed to the increasing adoption of emergency/mass notification system by enterprises to send or receive real-time sensitive emergency message notifications in the form of texts, emails, or voicemails, before or during emergencies.

Download PDF Brochure@ https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownload.asp?id=1280

The telecom and IT industry vertical is expected to grow at the highest CAGR in the Incident and Emergency Management Market during the forecast period

The telecom and IT industry vertical is expected to be fastest growing, as it is considered as an important element in the economic and social growth of a country. The loss of data and valuable information can severely hamper the operations of the telecom companies. Thus, there is a huge need to protect such data and information.

North America is expected to hold the largest market share in the Incident and Emergency Management Market during the forecast period

North America is expected to have the largest market share and dominate the Incident and Emergency Management Market from 2018 to 2023, due to the presence of major incident and emergency management solution vendors and Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs). The organizations in this region are increasingly adopting advanced incident and emergency management systems, solutions, and services to protect public and assets from disasters. The other drivers for the increasing demand for incident and emergency management systems, solutions, and services include the need for regulatory compliance and to avoid huge monetary losses due to disasters.

The major incident and emergency vendors include IBM (US), NEC Corporation (Japan), Hexagon (Sweden), Esri (US), NC4 (US), Intermedix Corporation (US), Eccentex (US), The Response Group (US), Haystax Technology (US), Alert Technologies (US), Crisisworks (US), EmerGeo (US), Veoci (US), and MissionMode (US).

Know more about Incident and Emergency Management Market:

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/incident-emergency-management-market-1280.html



About MarketsandMarkets

MarketsandMarkets provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies' revenues. Currently servicing 5000 customers worldwide including 80% of global Fortune 1000 companies as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across eight industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets for their painpoints around revenues decisions.

Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve.

MarketsandMarkets's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "RT" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets.



Contact:

Mr. Salgarkar

MarketsandMarkets INC.

630 Dundee Road

Suite 430

Northbrook, IL 60062

USA: +1-888-600-6441

Email: [email protected]



Visit Our Blog @ http://www.marketsandmarketsblog.com/market-reports/telecom-it

Connect with us on LinkedIn @ http://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsandmarkets

SOURCE MarketsandMarkets
IWG, the global operator of leading workspace providers, has surpassed 50m sq ft of office space globally - reflecting soaring demand as businesses embrace a 'workspace revolution'.

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IWG added 314 new office buildings to its network in 2017, for a total of 5.5m sq ft of workspace in 2017. The amount of space added was 36% higher than in 2016, taking IWG's global reach past the 50m sq ft marker. That's the equivalent of 116 Wembley Stadiums, 261 Sydney Opera Houses or 3,718 Olympic swimming pools.

Demand for flexible workspaces is now truly global, with IWG expanding in regions across the world including the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific. IWG also opened workspaces for the first time in Angola, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iceland, Iran, Kazakhstan, and Trinidad and Tobago in 2017, as well as adding to its existing presence many other countries, helping more than 2.5 million people to work more productively.

IWG - through its diverse brands Regus, Spaces, No18, Basepoint, Open Office and Signature - can now offer businesses a base in almost 3,300 locations across 1,000 cities and towns in over 110 countries. Growth is continuing in 2018, with plans to open even more workspaces across the world.

Mark Dixon, IWG Founder and CEO, said that the increased appetite for flexible workspaces reflected that business leaders are seeing the benefits that they offer - and that 2018 could be a tipping point in attitudes to work globally.

"Businesses around the world are increasingly recognising that flexible workspace can create competitive advantage, cut costs, boost productivity, and help attract and retain talent. We are at the tipping point - and the results of this will transform the working experience for millions of people."

Mr. Dixon added: "This revolution is driven by technology and the increased ability for people to plug in and work from anywhere. It's also important to note that flexible workspaces provide real advantages to organisations. All businesses - from start-ups to multi-nationals - can gain cost benefits, increase their strategic flexibility, and be more agile in today's fast moving and competitive digital environments."

About IWG

IWG is the global operator of leading workspace providers. Our companies help more than 2.5 million people and their businesses to work more productively. We do so by providing a choice of professional, inspiring and collaborative workspaces, communities and services.

Digitalisation and new technologies are transforming the world of work. People want the personal productivity benefits of living and working how and where they want. Businesses want the financial and strategic benefits. Our customers are start-ups, small and medium-sized enterprises, and large multinationals. With unique business goals, people and aspirations. They want workspaces and communities to match their needs. They want choice.

Through our companies we provide that choice, and serve the whole world of work: Regus, Spaces, No18, Basepoint, Open Office and Signature. We create personal, financial and strategic value for businesses of every size. From some of the most exciting companies and well-known organisations on the planet, to individuals and the next generation of industry leaders. All of them harness the power of flexible working to increase their productivity, efficiency, agility and market proximity.

We're reaching a tipping point. The workspace revolution is coming.

Join us at http://www.iwgplc.com.

SOURCE IWG
Cloud computing, data analytics, and crowdsourcing platforms create growth opportunities, finds Frost & Sullivan

SANTA CLARA, California, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Frost & Sullivan's recent analysis, Urban Logistics OpportunitiesLast-Mile Innovation finds that global logistics spending is expected to reach $10.6 trillion in 2020, with transportation accounting for the majority at 70%. Emerging technologies such as cloud computing, big data, and crowdsourcing, coupled with an influx of tech-savvy start-ups, are unbundling the value chain and transforming delivery models.

About two fifth of the overall logistics costs are associated with the last mile that are forcing providers to come up with newer innovative solutions to deliver packages within cities. Frost & Sullivan predicts the market will rapidly move toward mobile freight brokerage-type, on-demand deliveries and autonomous technology, such as the use of drones and delivery bots which are set to solve the last mile delivery challenge by being more cost effective to end users with lesser regulatory mandates.

For further information on this analysis, please visit: http://frost.ly/2bd

The study highlights the trends, drivers, new business models, technology scenarios, opportunities and innovations within e-commerce, omnichannel, retail, courier, and post that are set to disrupt the last-mile delivery market. Congestion and emission reductions, policies and regulations, as well as regional perspectives and case studies of key players such as UPS, Amazon, DHL, TNT, and Ocado Logistics are also provided. In addition, it reveals cleaner forms of deliveries and provides a regional perspective in terms of countries such as United Kingdom and Germany that are considering ultra-low economic zones to facilitate the objective of sustainable and green transportation by 2020.

"Spiraling last-mile delivery costs and changing customer demands are causing retailers to rethink their strategies and look toward new business models such as click-and-collect, locker boxes, on-demand, and autonomous solutions," said Vijay Narayanan Natarajan, Visionary Innovation Senior Research Analyst at Frost & Sullivan. "Moreover, the influx of start-ups in logistics has enabled innovative solutions that not only provide value-creation customized solutions for the consumer, but also tackle the inefficiencies currently witnessed."

Further trends and developments driving growth include:

Digital freight brokering platforms reducing empty miles by 8% to 10%;

Shift toward low-emission and zero-emission solutions, such as use of low-carbon vehicles or bicycles;

Fleet operators expanding their strategies by developing urban distribution centers for effective logistics management; and

Retailers focusing on compact stores to reduce capital expenditure and bring products closer to a growing urban customer base.

"Rapid proliferation of connected technologies and solutions, and further advancements in autonomous applications could well usher in new innovations in logistics with delivery bots and drone solutions all set to be the future of urban deliveries," noted Archana Devi Vidyasekar, Visionary Innovation Global Research Manager.

Urban Logistics OpportunitiesLast-Mile Innovation is part of Frost & Sullivan's Visionary Innovation Growth Partnership Service program.

About Frost & Sullivan

For over five decades, Frost & Sullivan has become world-renowned for its role in helping investors, corporate leaders and governments navigate economic changes and identify disruptive technologies, Mega Trends, new business models and companies to action, resulting in a continuous flow of growth opportunities to drive future success.

Urban Logistics OpportunitiesLast-Mile Innovation

K229_MT

Contact:

Mariana Fernandez

Corporate Communications  North America

P: 210.348.1012

E: [email protected]

http://www.frost.com

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SOURCE Frost & Sullivan
MUMBAI, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

First e-tailer to be profitable on direct cost basis for 2 consecutive years

Key highlights

Vertical focused e-tailer is processing 6,000 orders per day

More than 250,000 visitors on the website per day

Touched the milestone of 300,000 loyal customers

One million orders from loyal customers

Mobile and tech accessories e-tailer LatestOne.com , retains its position as India's largest online retailer for mobile and tech accessories, by crossing the 5 million mark, in terms of number of orders shipped since October 2014. The site receives more than 250,000 visitors per day on an average. The customer base of LatestOne.com has crossed 3.5 million of which 300,000 loyal customers have placed over one million orders. In the recently announced Q3 results, the company announced revenue increase of 19% on year-on-year compared to same period FY 16-17 while the losses have come down from 21% to 12%.

Notably, LatestOne.com is the only Indian e-tailer (owned by Indian shareholders) and the legal entity is owned/ operated by a public listed company.

LatestOne.com, which started operations in late 2014, has the distinction of being the first player focused on mobile and tech accessories vertical in the country. Today, it processes more than 6,000 orders a day on an average. With the addition of 18,000 sq. ft. facility in Kurnool (Andhra Pradesh ) earlier this year, this is projected to increase to 10,000 orders per day for the upcoming financial year.

Apart from Kurnool, LatestOne.com has a fulfilment center in New Delhi too. From these fulfilment centers, LatestOne.com shipped 39% orders to south zone, 24% to west zone, 22% to north zone, 12% to east zone and 3% orders to central zone of the country for the period April 2017 - Feb 2018. Owing to complete control of inventory through its own fulfilment centers and stringent three-level quality check, the company enjoys loyal customer base of 3 lakh customers - a commendable feat by industry standards.

Mr. Ameen Khwaja, CEO of Palred Online Technologies Pvt Ltd(LatestOne.com) said, "It is the trust of our customers, which has helped us achieve the milestone of 5 million orders. We are grateful to our loyal customers who have displayed their trust in our products. While quality comes at a cost, it need not be exorbitantly priced and unreasonably expensive - that is the core belief driving our business. We are in the business of democratizing fast tech accessories, by making high quality mobile accessories available to everyone."

About LatestOne.com:

LatestOne.com is India's only e-tailer specializing in tech and mobile accessories such as bluetooth speakers and headsets, mobile covers, tablet accessories, cables, power banks, headsets, smart watches, mini android TV, fashion accessories etc. It stocks over 10,000 different products in its inventory and operates through its own fulfilment centers in Delhi and Kurnool. It is owned by Palred Online Technologies Pvt. Ltd (POT) which is a subsidiary of Palred Technologies Ltd (PTL), a listed company on BSE and NSE since 2004.

Media Contact:

Nidhi Jobanputra

[email protected]

+91-8976440856,

Adfactors PR



SOURCE LatestOne.com
Kathmandu, March 28

The Ministry of Finance of Nepal government is planning to dissolve the reconstruction fund it established a couple of years ago with an objective to expedite reconstruction works after the 2015 earthquake.

The Ministry is mulling over discontinuation of the fund after realising that it could not function when the budget for reconstruction is released through regular budgetary channels. On the other hand, the government is yet to finalise a guideline for the procedure of the fund.

The Act on Reconstruction of Earthquake-affected Structures has a provision for such fund. In the first year of its establishment, Rs 28 billion money was deposited in the fund. The money is yet to be utilised for the want of guideline.

The Act said that funds received from the government, the Prime Ministers Natural Disaster Rescue Fund, donations from individuals and organisations including those from Nepal and abroad will be collected in the reconstruction fund.

Earlier, Finance Minister Yubaraj Khatiwada while assuming his office yesterday had told journalists that he would utilise the fund.

But with the preparation for dissolution, the money now will be send back to the state coffers.
Funding To Support Product Innovation and Expansion of Clinical Support Team

DUBLIN and NEW YORK, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- LetsGetChecked, the medical health testing platform that allows customers to access regulated laboratory testing and self-test from the comfort of home, today announces the closing of $12 million in Series A funding. Led by Optum Ventures, the independent venture fund of health services leader Optum, and Qiming Venture Partners, a leading Chinese venture capital firm, the funding will be used to scale the company, fuel development of the technology platform linking customers to laboratories, and grow the full clinical support team.

LetsGetChecked was founded in 2014 by Peter Foley with the idea of using technology and logistics to bridge the gap between traditional lab testing and consumers. Since inception, the company's portfolio of testing options has expanded to include lifestyle testing, cancer screening, sexual health testing and fertility and hormone testing.

"Support from investors with proven track records of helping to modernize healthcare like Optum Ventures and Qiming Venture Partners is a true testament to the work we're doing," said Peter Foley, founder of LetsGetChecked. "With easier access to testing, individuals can change how and when they are diagnosed, leading to better clinical outcomes. Our goal is to provide individuals with greater control of their health through accessible technology and to continue partnering with more labs and health systems, to bring more specialized testing direct to consumers."

The LetsGetChecked platform connects users with a wide range of medical professionals, as well as a global network of laboratory partners and logistical support all from a personal health account. With its patient-led approach, a user can order a physician approved laboratory test without having to deviate from their day to day. The test-kit is dispatched directly from a LetsGetChecked ISO accredited facility and will arrive at the patient's home within a matter of days. The test-kits are completely anonymised, containing only a patient identifier to maintain privacy and confidentiality.

All patient requests and results are reviewed by a board-certified physician thereby mirroring what happens in a doctor's officeonly in the virtual sense. If a patient receives 'positive' or 'out of range' results, a member of the nursing team contacts the patient to provide support. Only after that call has been completed will results be released to the patient's dashboard where they can track and manage their results over time.

"At-home lab testing is the next logical step in building a consumer-friendly, patient-centric system," said AG Breitenstein, Partner at Optum Ventures. "LetsGetChecked is poised to become a leader in bringing easy-to-access and powerful lab testing to consumers everywhere, and we look forward to helping them achieve that."

"At Qiming we are dedicated to investing in companies that solve real-life problems and have international scale," added Mark McDade at Qiming Venture Partners. "We're excited to help the company grow at a time when people want more control over their own health."



For more information about LetsGetChecked, please visit www.letsgetchecked.com.

About LetsGetChecked

Founded in 2014 by Peter Foley, LetsGetChecked is a medical technology platform linking customers to regulated laboratory testing to better manage and control their personal health. LetsGetChecked is making healthcare and diagnostics open and patient-led, empowering people to use technology in a simple but powerful way by providing greater control of personal health. LetsGetChecked is based in Dublin and New York with more than 30 tests for general health, sexual health, cancer screening and fertility checks available in the US, Canada and 14 European countries.

About Optum Ventures

Optum Ventures is the independent venture fund of Optum, a leading information and technology-enabled health services business dedicated to helping make the health system work better for everyone, and part of UnitedHealth Group. Optum Ventures invests in digital health companies that use data and insights to help improve consumers' access to health care services and how care is delivered and paid for, and that make the health care system more reliable and easier to navigate. For more information, visit www.optumventures.com.

About Qiming Ventures

The Qiming U.S. Healthcare Fund, LP is a new US healthcare venture fund headquartered in Seattle, WA with offices in Palo Alto, CA and Cambridge, MA. As part of a broader family of Qiming venture funds, this new fund seeks to invest in US-based private human healthcare companies with potential market opportunities in China. Focused areas of interest are bio-therapeutics, medtech and digital health technologies, with equity investments of up to $12 million.

Related Links

http://www.letsgetchecked.com



SOURCE LetsGetChecked
CHENNAI, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Prodapt, today announced the launch of Prodapt Ventures, a business division with an initial allocation of Rs.100cr for investing in early-stage ventures. Prodapt Ventures will focus on transformative business ventures impacting the Telecommunications/Digital Service Provider (DSP) vertical and agri-tech and agri-distribution industry.

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Prodapt and its associate companies today announced the formation of Prodapt Ventures. Prodapt Ventures will invest an initial allocation of Rs 100 crores across early-stage companies and also help incubate transformative businesses in selected industry verticals. The focus areas of investments will be technology and service businesses in the communications industry and transformative ideas in agri-tech and agri-distribution in India.

Prodapt is a global leader in providing IT, product, network and operational services for the digital service provider (DSP) vertical. With offices across Europe, USA, Africa and India, Prodapt employs over 2000 telecom and DSP technology and domain specialists.

Prodapt's associate companies, Tropical Agro Systems and JU Agri Sciences form one of India's leading manufacturing and distribution businesses in agricultural inputs. The Agri inputs businesses have a network of over 10,000 dealers and distributors and over 1000 marketing personnel. Prodapt Ventures will be able to accelerate companies in the Agriculture sector and their businesses with the support of Prodapt's associate companies.

Vedant Jhaver, Group President said, "The telecommunications industry globally is consolidating into multi-channel operators, which creates tremendous opportunities in next-generation technology adoption and industry shifting business ideas. Similarly, agriculture in India is set for a revolution. The agricultural industry in India will see a huge transformation over the next decade with the combination of technology, connectivity and further boosted by government initiatives. Leveraging our business platforms in telecom and agriculture distribution, our investments will focus on these verticals. Prodapt Ventures will be able to provide our portfolio companies deep insights, guidance, connections and help them to build quicker go-to-market partnerships through our group of operating businesses."

About Prodapt:

Prodapt Solutions, a global leader in providing IT, product, network and operational services for the digital service provider (DSP) vertical. Many leading DSPs have been associated with Prodapt to strengthen their business and gain a competitive edge. Headquartered in Chennai, Prodapt has delivery centers in North America, Europe, India and Africa and is an ISO 9001:2008, ISO 27001:2013, SSAE16, and CMMI Level 3 organization. Prodapt is part of a 120-year-old business conglomerate, The Jhaver Group and employs over 16,500 people across 64+ global locations.

Media Contact:

Raghavendra Madi G

[email protected]

+91-9677040468

Director - Marketing

Prodapt



SOURCE Prodapt Solutions Pvt Ltd
According to the new market research report "Wireless Data Radio Modem Market by Product (General-Purpose Data Modem (Application: SCADA & Telemetry, Precision Farming), UAV Drone Data Modem (Application: Precision Farming, Transportation)), Operating Range, and Geography - Global Forecast to 2023" , published by MarketsandMarkets, this market is expected to grow from USD 594.4 Million in 2018 to USD 724.1 Million by 2023, at a CAGR of 4.03% between 2018 and 2023. The growth of the wireless data radio modem market is driven by the growing demand for radio modems in agricultural drones and surveys, dominance of radio modems in SCADA and telemetry applications, and low operational costs and more power-efficiency of private radio networks using radio modems. Moreover, increase in the number of exemptions for the use of UAV drones in the commercial applications is the major opportunity for the growth of the market.

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Browse 35 market data Tables and 57 Figures spread through 210 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Wireless Data Radio Modem Market - Global Forecast to 2023"



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General-purpose wireless data radio modems expected to hold larger size of wireless data radio modem market between 2018 and 2023

The long life cycle of radio modems in the enterprise, due to dedicated spectrum and longer battery life, is expected to propel the growth of the general-purpose radio modem market during the forecast period. Moreover, the demand for radio modems is increasing as these modems require minimal infrastructure for facilitating communication and ensuring the delivery of data, in the form of voice and video, in the most cost-effective and reliable manner.

Wireless data radio modem market for long range to grow at higher CAGR between 2018 and 2023

The long-range wireless radio data modem for 910 MHz/2.4 GHz is designed with unmatched radio frequency (RF) performance and for extremely robust long-range frequency hopping. It is the most robust and cost-effective means of the industry for providing embedded long-range data communications between industrial serial communication devices.

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Wireless data radio modem market in APAC to grow at highest CAGR between 2018 and 2023

This report segments the market into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), and Rest of the World (RoW). The growth of the wireless data radio modem market in APAC is attributed to the increasing adoption of radio modems with the development of the transportation infrastructure, and mining and utilities industries in the region. The major countries in APAC such as India and China have started recognizing ITS as a crucial tool to solve social, economic, and environmental problems caused by traffic congestion, air pollution, and increased greenhouse gas emissions.

The major players in the wireless data radio modem market include SATEL OY (Finland), Motorola Solutions (US), Schneider Electric (France), Digi International (US), Pacific Crest (US), Advantech B+B SmartWorx (US), FreeWave Technologies (US), Cohda Wireless (Australia), Campbell Scientific (US), and Harris Corporation (US).

Know more about the Wireless Data Radio Modem Market:

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/wireless-data-radio-modem-market-29689326.html



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Godrej Aerospace, a unit of Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd, launched its Center of Excellence (CoE) located in Mumbai on the 21st of March, 2018. This world-class facility further enhances Godrej's manufacturing capabilities in the aero engine industry.

(Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/615498/Godrej_Aerospace.jpg )



Recognizing Godrej's technical expertise, Rolls-Royce had recently expanded its partnership and awarded contracts worth INR 2000 million (USD 30 million) spread over next five years. The contract is for manufacturing products like Unison Rings, Complex Fabrication and external brackets commodities which once in manufacturing, will result in shipment of 600 different parts spread across various Rolls-Royce Civil Aerospace Engine portfolio.

The newly inaugurated CoE will be one of the best aerospace facilities in India for manufacturing of aerospace brackets. This facility's metallurgy capability includes inconel, stainless steel and titanium. It will commence manufacturing in bulk to prove the production readiness within the next two-three months. With an investment of INR 500 million towards this facility, Godrej Aerospace opens itself to a global market size in excess of INR 15000 million.

Emphasizing upon the importance of this partnership and the new CoE, Mr. Jamshyd Godrej, Chairman and Managing Director, Godrej & Boyce stated, "Godrej has been a pioneer in developing advanced capabilities in Aerospace Manufacturing in the country and has very ably served the domestic programme for close to three decades. We have an integrated facility meeting diverse demanding requirements of Fabrication, Machining, Assembly and Testing with all associated capabilities for special processes for making precision components and assemblies for aerospace applications. In line with our vision to expand our footprint and partner with global majors, we have established this center of excellence. I am confident that this will strengthen and deepen our wonderful partnership with Rolls-Royce and establish Godrej as their preferred partner."

Kishore Jayaraman, President, India and South Asia, Rolls-Royce, added, "The expansion of partnership with Godrej & Boyce for manufacturing of aero engine components showcases our commitment to developing an aerospace ecosystem in the country. We are constantly developing and rationalising strategic partnerships across our supply chain. With the expansion of this partnership with Godrej & Boyce, our focus will be to meet our customers' strategic requirements in quality, cost and delivery."

Rolls-Royce and Godrej signed their first contract in 2014 for the manufacture of unison rings. Since then, Godrej Aerospace has also started executing complex sheet metal fabrication. At the recently held Global Aerospace Supplier conference in London, G&B has been awarded as the 'Best New supplier 2017' by Rolls-Royce.

Godrej Aerospace started contributing to the global aircraft industry in 2005 with simple machine components and over a period of time has partnered with several global OEMs for the supply of complex components such as sheet metal and tubing assemblies, actuators, and other complex structures.

Video link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zAj1t0dPkA&feature=youtu.be

Image link - http://www.godrej.com/Rolls-Royce-PR.html

For further information please contact:

Godrej Industries

Smita Basu Roy

+91-9930457801

Smita.roy@godrejinds.com



SOURCE Godrej
Kathmandu, March 28

Police have fired teargas and water cannon at protesters rallying against various road expansion projects in and around Kathmandu.

Protesters, who gathered at the Maitighar Mandala, chanted slogans against the government and demanded that it correct its approach in projects such as the Kathmandu-Terai Fast-track and Outer Ring Road.

Police fired teargas at the protesters as they tried to march towards the Parliament building, about a kilometere away from Maitighar. Some of the protesters laid down on the street to disrupt traffic and call everyones attention at the demonstrations. It was then that the police fired water cannon at the protesters.

A total of 16 protesters were arrested. They have been sent to Baneswhor Police station. Kathmandu Police chief Biswa Raj Pokhrel told Onlinekhabar that the protesters vandalised two police vans. Meanwhile, Ganapati Shrestha, who was leading the demonstrations said that the police intervened during peaceful protests.
Bitcoin 2018: New Cryptocurrency Realities

In March, the BTC exchange rate dropped by almost 3000 dollars. Some experts predict a further downtrend in the near future, Market Leader reports.

Last Friday, the average BTC exchange rate dropped all the way down to 8360 USD/BTC. A day before, the price used to be above 9000 USD/BTC and then dropped down to the mentioned level. This means that the worlds first and most expensive cryptocurrency has actually failed to consolidate close to 10000 USD/BTC, not to mention breaking above this psychological level.

The price started retracing further down after several attempts to recover. At this point, CoinDesk experts predict a further move down to 8000 USD/BTC and maybe even lower.

At the same time, some other experts believe that Bitcoin may break and consolidate above 9000 USD/BTC once the price starts moving up. However, first Bitcoin will have to consolidate above 8700 USD/BTC, which seems to be the closest major level of resistance. Judging by Reddit comments, most users think the bullish scenario to be unlikely at this point. Most of them are bearish on Bitcoin in the short-term perspective.

At the same time, international experts say that the market started going down amid some news coming from Japan. In particular, the Bank of Japan warned Binance, which is a major cryptocurrency exchange. The thing is Binance has been rendering services to Japanese traders and investors without the corresponding license. So, if the exchange wants to continue doing so, they will have to get the license from the BoJ.

According to Ethereum World News, such headlines have been seriously affecting the global market of digital currencies. The international community has been concerned that other online exchanges worldwide may see pressure and are likely to be either forced to get license or suspend their services. Apparently, as international investors are getting more cautious and reducing their exposure to the cryptocurrency market, the trading volume keeps on going down and affecting digital currencies.

Bitcoin Tries to Recover

Bitcoin has made several attempts to recover this week. It overcame the $9K threshold but failed to consolidate about it. Needless to say that cryptocurrencies have been extremely volatile over the recent months, especially the top ones like Bitcoin. After rallying for a while, the BTC exchange rate reversed on March 25th and started retracing. More and more experts share the same opinion that Bitcoin will eventually be able to consolidate at new local highs for a long time if it manages to set them.

NordFX experts report that a couple of days ago, Bitcoin came close to 8900USD/BTC but then retraced back to 8000USD/BTC. Now it seems to be trying to recover a bit but those attempts have been unsuccessful so far.

You are free to discuss this article here: forum for traders and investors
Stock and commodities markets

OPEC+ Conditions May Get Tougher

The participants of the OPEC+ deal have recently discussed the efficiency of the deal. Having discussed the results, they decided to change a range of criteria. To do so, they may well have to extend the OPEC+ deal, Bloomberg reports. th, in the OPECs headquarters in Vienna,



The biggest change offered during the meeting has to do with changing the basic period of commercial oil inventories. The current agreement is based on 5 years, and the period is offered to be extended up to 7 years. Over the last 5 years, the crude oil inventories have been extremely high, which was one of the reasons why the crude oil prices crashed in 2014. By the way, this is something that Russia and Saudi Arabia previously mentioned.



If the offer is accepted, the OPEC+ participants are expected to take more time than expected (late 2018) in order to cut down on their oil inventories. If the offer is denied, the OPEC+ goals will be reached in Q2 or Q3 2018. The OPEC+ summit took place on March 19, in the OPECs headquarters in Vienna, Austria . The meeting was held behind the closed doors. So, the reporters didnt manage to find out the details of the meeting. However, Bloomberg managed to get some info about the topics discussed there from anonymous sources participating in the OPEC+ summit.The biggest change offered during the meeting has to do with changing the basic period of commercial oil inventories. The current agreement is based on 5 years, and the period is offered to be extended up to 7 years. Over the last 5 years, the crude oil inventories have been extremely high, which was one of the reasons why the crude oil prices crashed in 2014. By the way, this is something that Russia and Saudi Arabia previously mentioned.If the offer is accepted, the OPEC+ participants are expected to take more time than expected (late 2018) in order to cut down on their oil inventories. If the offer is denied, the OPEC+ goals will be reached in Q2 or Q3 2018.

Also, the OPEC+ participants were offered to change the system monitoring their commercial oil inventories by taking into account all of their oil inventories worldwide. The next summit of the OPEC+ ministers is scheduled for April 15th. You are free to discuss this article here: forum for traders and investors 



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Goldman Sachs is back in the game 20 years ago, Goldman Sachs used to be a Wall Street legend and a dream company to work for graduates with a financial degree. Over the last few years, the bank has been a loser with thousands of disappointed employees, managers, and investors. However, the other day Goldman Sachs made an attempt to get back in the game. Read more 

European ETFs - Decent Alternative to American ETFs The mentioned PRIIP rules are forcing the financial service providers and brokers to publish a specific set of info documents including the so-called KID with the key info on certain investment and insurance products. Since the funds coming from outside of Europe do not conform to these requirements, they cannot be offered to EU residents as investment products. Read more 

Warren Buffett Keeps Loading Up On Bank of America's Stock Berkshire Hathaway keeps loading up on Bank of America's stock. This time, during the period of July 31st - August 4th, they purchased over 13,6 million shares, which cost 337 million dollars. The average prices was 24,81 dollars per share. With that being said, Berkshire Hathaway now owns 1,03 billion shares of the stock, which is 26,15 billion dollars in dollar terms. As for the Federal Reserve, they agreed to increase the fund's share to 24,9%. Read more 

WTI Price Drops After US Oil Inventories Report Today, another crude oil inventories report has been released by the USA: Read more 

Is Gold Worth Investing Amid Crisis? Securing assets has always been number-one goal during crises. This is something that worries borth financial experts and plain folks who are far from the peculiarities of the financial world but who are still witnessing their savings vanish amid inflation and devaluation. Read more 

Remember the Key Rules of Investing in Stocks Without further ado, let's consider a bunch of principles of investing in stock, which will put the odds of succeeding in this business in your favor: Read more 

Apple Patents iPhone Without Ports And Holes, Device Expected In 2021 It seems that the release of the long-awaited iPhone without any ports or holes is getting more and more portable. Apple has always favored minimalistic designs, especially over the last 5 years. In 2015, almost all of the classic ports were deprecated in MacBooks in favor of a single one - USB-C Thunderbolt 3. In 2017, iPhone 7 got rid of the 3.5mm audio jack. Read more 

Gold Sets New Records The gold market is insane. The gold futures price set a new major high in New York. In particular, the dollar price of the precious metal set a new 7- year high. With that being said, maybe you should add gold to your investment portfolio along with BTC? Well,lat's ponder upon this question. Read more 

Brent Prices Drop Down To $61/b The concerns over the global demand for crude oil are getting back to the market again. The current trading week has been a week of discounts. Earlier today, Brent oil saw its price drop down to 61 dollars per barrel. The WTI price dropped all the way down to 56 dollars per barrel. The supply side has got an upper hand. Read more 
Bhubaneswar, March 23 : Pandemonium prevailed in the Odisha Assembly on Friday as members of the Congress and BJP created a ruckus over the distress sale of tomatoes in the state.

As soon as the House met, the opposition members went to the Speaker's podium shouting slogans against the government.

Unable to run the House, the Speaker adjourned the proceedings till 11.30 a.m. and then till 3 p.m. as the members again resorted to sloganeering when the Zero Hour began.

"Media reports have said that at some places, people were not ready to purchase tomatoes at Re 1 per kg. It shows that the government has failed to understand the problems of farmers. Therefore, we demand that the government should stop the distress sale and ensure the right prices for farmers," said Leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra.

He also castigated the government for its lackadaiscal attitude towards the plight of farmers.

Opposition chief whip Tara Prasad Bahinipati demanded that the Speaker should call an all-party meeting over the issue.

Meanwhile, the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) criticised the opposition for disrupting the House proceedings.

"Such move by the opposition members on a day when the Budget is scheduled to be tabled is not acceptable. The issue could have been raised by them during Zero Hour," BJD MLA Sanjay Das Burma said.
Washington, March 23 : The US State Department has approved the sale of an estimated $670 million in anti-tank missiles to Saudi Arabia, just hours after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met US Defence Chief James Mattis.

A statement from the State Department on Thursday confirmed approval of "TOW 2B (BGM-71F-Series) missiles for an estimated cost of $670 million" to the Kingdom. Congress was notified of the proposed sale and lawmakers have 30 days to try to stop it, the New York Times said.

The proposed package included up to 6,700 missiles made by Raytheon Missile Systems as well as spare parts for American-made tanks and helicopters that Saudi Arabia already owns.

The statement said the sale "will support US foreign policy and national security objectives by improving the security of a friendly country which has been and continues to be an important force for political stability and economic growth in the Middle East".

The proposed sale is bound to be questioned by Congress where the Senate this week rejected a bipartisan effort to halt US military support for the bombing campaign in Yemen.

The Trump administration strenuously protested the effort and sent Pentagon and State Department officials to Capitol Hill last week to lobby against its passage.

In the end, the administration prevailed and lawmakers from both parties shelved the measure for further debate by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, according to the Times.

Hours earlier, Prince Mohammed met Mattis, who characterized Saudi Arabia as "part of the solution" in Yemen, which has been ripped apart by civil war.

He said Saudi Arabia supported the government in Yemen's capital Sana, which is recognized by the UN. "We are going to end this war. That is the bottom line," Mattis said.

"And we are going to end it on positive terms for the people of Yemen but also security for the nations in the peninsula."

Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said Mattis did not bring up the mounting civilian casualties in Yemen during his discussion with Prince Mohammed.

Instead, she said, the Defence Secretary discussed the continued cooperation between the US and Saudi Arabia through additional training and military education.
Chennai, March 23 : The CBI has filed a case against Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd (DCHL)and its Chairman T. Venkatram Reddy for allegedly causing a wrongful loss of Rs 30.54 crore to United India Insurance Co Ltd (UIIC), an official said on Friday.

The FIR registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday also named Mumbai-based private firms CARE Rating Ltd and Infrastructure Development Finance Co Ltd and two former officials of UIIC.

The UIIC officials -- Deputy General Manager A. Balasubramanian and Chief Manager K.L. Kunjilwar -- made suspicious investments in the "privately placed short term unsecured redeemable non-convertible debentures issued by DCHL in 2011 in violation of the regulations".

Balasubramanian and Kunjilwar entered into a criminal conspiracy at Chennai and other places to cheat UIIC and abused their official position as public servants by making the investments which was not repaid by DCHL, causing loss of Rs 30,54,25,350, said the CBI FIR.

"It is revealed that UIIC was investing the premium collected from the policy holders during the ordinary course of business in the form of shares, debentures, commercial papers, term loan etc in the public and private sector companies as per the investment policy guidelines based on the rules of Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDA)," the FIR said.

These investments are based on the rating made by Security and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) approved rating agency CARE Rating Ltd, it said.

The FIR said the overall borrowing powers of DCHL was increased from Rs 700 crore to Rs 1,000 crore on the Board of Directors' annual general meeting held on September 29, 2007 and from Rs 1,000 crore to Rs 5,000 crore in a similar meeting on February 28, 2013.

"As on the date of issue of debentures, DCHL's total borrowings was Rs 3,755.70 crore."

According to the FIR, in the pursuance of the criminal conspiracy between July to October 2011, three office notes were put up by Kunjilwar for investment of Rs 10 crore each in 11.25 per cent unsecured non convertible debentures issued by DCHL for purchase of short term unsecured debentures with 364 days maturity without analyzing the proposal in detail and the same was approved by Balasubramanian.

"The investments were made in three different occasions deliberately in order to by-pass the investment committee of UIIC. Thus UIIC invested Rs 30 crore in DCHL. UIIC relied on the rating awarded by CARE Ratings Ltd.

"At the time of investment in 2011, the rating awarded by CARE Rating Ltd was PR1+ and at the time of redemption in 2012, the rating was drastically downgraded to D within a short span of one year.

"On the date of maturity in 2012, the principal amount with interest was not repaid by DCHL. DCHL had issued three cheques of Rs 10 crore each but when presented through encashment, they were dishonoured. Regarding which UIIC lodged a complaint against DCHL which is peding before court," the FIR said.
Kathmandu, March 28

To celebrate the launch of Qatar Airways inaugural flight to Thessaloniki, the second largest city in Greece, Qatar Airways Nepal hosted a media interaction session with the Honorary Consul of Greece Bikram Pandey and Country Manager Jayaprakash Nair.

At the briefing, Nair highlighted the award-winning airlines robust expansion plans, as well as its commitment to bringing more travelers to Nepal to Greece, and to connect Thessaloniki to its extensive global network via the award-winning Hamad International Airport (HIA) in Doha.

We are tremendously excited to launch our four weekly flight service to Thessaloniki, our second destination in Greece. Having three daily flights to Athens, we realised the growing demand in Greece and what better place than the Thessaloniki? This new four weekly flight service will, without doubt, offer our Greece passengers more convenience and alternate choice in addition to Athens, said Nair.

Honorary Consul Bikram Pandey said, We appreciate Qatar Airways strong support for Greece. An airline of this stature will further boost Thessalonikis reputation as a leading tourist destination. Greece economy will certainly go up by 2020 and once again the country will flourish.

The four flights to Thessaloniki will be made on the Airbus 320 aircraft.
Mumbai, March 23 : A Mumbai-based businessman was arrested after a leading actress of yesteryears, Zeenat Aman, lodged a complaint accusing him of rape, cheating and forgery, a top police officer said here on Friday.

"The complaint was lodged by the victim late on Thursday with Juhu Police Station and the accused has been arrested," Mumbai Police spokesperson Deepak Deoraj told IANS.

Deoraj said the case had been transferred to the Crime Branch for further investigations.

The accused, identified as Sarfaraz Mohammed,38, alias Aman Khanna, was arrested late on Thursday from Versova and has been remanded to police custody till March 28, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Nisar Tamboli told IANS.

This is the second complaint registered by the 69-year old actress against Sarfarz in the past two months.

According to the actress' complaint, between 2011-2015, the accused had taken cash and gold-silver jeweleries worth Rs 15.4 crore from her for business purposes and despite repeated pleas made by her, he refused to return it.

Instead, he offered to give her four flats in a government colony and a flat in Santacruz of which he prepared fake documents and cheated her, she said in her complaint.

Simultaneously, he prepared a forged 'anikaahnama' (certificate of marriage as per Islamic laws) document in her name on the basis of which he used to threaten and rape her.

He has been booked for various offences under Indian Penal Code Sec. 376, 420, 406, 465, 467, 468, 469, 471, 506.

Incidentally, on January 30 this year, the actress had lodged a complaint of stalking and harassment against Sarfaraz.

The police arrested him after carrying out a detailed investigation, officers said.
Barcelona, March 26 : Mass protests broke out across Spain's Catelonia region after its former separatist leader Carles Puigdemont was arrested in Germany, media reports said.

The former Catalonian regional president's lawyer said he was being held at a police station in Neumunster, Germany and was arrested on Sunday as he was returning from Finland to Belgium, the country he fled to in October after the Spanish judiciary announced it would be investigating him for his alleged part in organising a separatist referendum and the subsequent declaration of independence.

A spokesperson for the Kiel city criminal police told Efe news that Puigdemont was picked up at 11.19 a.m., on a road that connects Germany and Denmark.

Judicial sources have said that Germany now has up to 90 days to decide whether to extradite Puigdemont to Spain, a move to which he is opposed as he believes he would not get a fair trial there.

Puigdemont will appear before a German judge on Monday.

The biggest protest took place in Barcelona where over 55,000 pro-independence protesters took to the streets on Sunday night, carrying Catalonian flags and banners with slogans emblazoned across them, reports CNN.

Footage posted on social media shows crowds meeting with police wearing helmets, but the protests appeared to be peaceful.

A spokesman for the regional police force, the Mossos d'Esquadra, said four people were arrested during the demonstrations, and the Catalan Emergency Services said about 50 people received medical attention for mild injuries.

Smaller demonstrations were held in Girona, where Puigdemont once served as mayor, Tarragona and Lleida. Some protesters also formed road blocks in various locations, the BBC reported.

Tensions in Catalonia are very high and its separatist leaders abandoned plans to name a new President after the arrest on Friday of the latest candidate, Jordi Turull.

Spain's Supreme Court has ruled 25 that Catalan leaders should be tried for rebellion, embezzlement or disobeying the state. They all have denied the allegations.

The charges Puigdemont faces in Spain could result in up to 30 years in prison.
San Francisco, March 27 : Stormy Daniels, the porn star who alleges of having an affair with Donald Trump, has filed a lawsuit for defamation against the US President's personal attorney Michael Cohen, the media reported.

The suit, filed on Monday by her lawyer Michael Avenatti in California, comes a after CBS News aired a tell-all interview with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, regarding the affair more than a decade ago, and which the White House continues to deny, reports CNN.

Monday's legal maneuver is an additional move in an ongoing suit by Daniels against Cohen, Trump and the limited liability company Cohen has said he established to facilitate a payment to Daniels ahead of the presidential election.

Cohen has denied Daniels' claims but admitted to making the payment. The additional claim that Daniels filed on Monday states that Cohen's denial is a defamatory statement.

"It was reasonably understood Cohen meant to convey that Clifford is a liar," the complaint reads.

Avenatti added: "Cohen made the statement knowing it was false or had serious doubts about the truth of the statements."

Daniels' story came to light in a Wall Street Journal article earlier this year, and the ensuing attention has prompted legal complaints and a whirlwind of questions for Daniels, a porn star who alleges she had sex with Trump and signed a non-disclosure agreement in exchange for the payment from Cohen, CNN.

Lawyers for Cohen and Trump have fought back against Daniels and Avenatti in turn, and Cohen in an article published last week quipped about taking "an extended vacation" with the money he anticipates getting from Daniels in court over what he says are violations of the non-disclosure agreement.

In the interview that aired Sunday, Daniels said she was also threatened in 2011 to keep quiet about the alleged affair.
Mumbai, March 27 : Actor Varun Dhawan, who starred in the remake of Salman Khan starrer "Judwaa", says the superstar is the best and the most helpful human being.

Varun on Monday treated his fans to a question and answer session, where a user asked him to describe Salman.

"Bhai (Salman) is the best and most helpful human being," Varun said.

When a fan complimented Varun's work, he said he does not want to limit himself.

"Trust me I'm still me. I just won't limit myself just because some people think that I can only do certain type of cinema," commented the actor, who has featured in films like "Student of the Year", "Badlapur" and "Badrinath Ki Dulhania".

Varun currently awaits the release of his latest project "October", directed by Shoojit Sircar.

Asked how different "October" is from his other films, he said: "It's very different. Everything was real. I was living dan rather than playing him. If he was sad, I became sad."

Co-produced by Ronnie Lahiri and Sheel Kumar, "October" celebrates love, nature and the autumn season.

Varun plays a hotel's housekeeper who is in love with the idea of love. The girl whom he follows into the ICU of a hospital barely acknowledges him at their workplace. Yet he clings to the idea of love.

The film also stars Banita Sandhu and is slated to release on April 13.

The actor will also be seen with actress Anushka Sharma in the upcoming movie "Sui Dhaaga - Made in India". He described the "Pari" actress as "superb", "nice" and "very funny".

"Sui Dhaaga - Made in India" is a story of self-reliance aimed to connect with every Indian. The film also stars Anushka Sharma and is produced by Yash Raj Films (YRF) banner.

The "Badlapur" actor will turn 31 on April 24.

Talking about his birthday plans with a fan, Varun said: "God knws might be shooting something special".
Ramallah, March 28 : Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday held both Israel and the US responsible for the deadlock in the Middle East peace process, Palestinian media reported.

Abbas' remarks were made in a meeting with Foreign Minister of Morocco Nasser Bourita in the West Bank city of Ramallah, saying that the Israeli measures and the unfair US policies are the main reason for bringing the peace process into a deadlock, Xinhua reported.

Abbas stressed the importance of holding an international peace conference that prepares for a mechanism to resolve the Palestinian cause based on the international resolutions and lead to establishing a Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital.

The Palestinian state-run news agency (WAFA) reported that President Abbas briefed the Moroccan FM on the latest developments in the Palestinian territories as well as the peace process, which is stalled due to the Israeli and the US policies.

Abbas also renewed the his calls on the importance of the Arab position that backs the Palestinians who are sticking to their legitimate rights and who oppose the language of dictation and threats, which aim at liquidating the Palestinian cause.

Meanwhile, Bourita stressed the importance of his visit to the Palestinian territories to express the supportive positions on Morocco towards the Palestinians and express solidarity with them.

He informed Abbas that King Mohamed the 6th "is deeply concerned in the issue of Jerusalem and is always interested in coordination with President Abbas on this respect and other issues related to the Palestinian cause."

Earlier on Tuesday, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) announced that it had agreed with Morocco on forming a joint ministerial committee that will convene before the end of this year.

The PNA minister of foreign affairs Reyad al-Malki announced in a joint news conference with Bourita that the formation of the joint committee "is to express the strong and joint ties between the two countries."

"The visit of the Foreign Minister of Morocco is a clear sign that expresses the desire of the Moroccan kingdom to keep in contact with the Palestinians and express its interest in the historic and political position of Jerusalem," al-Malki told reporters.

He unveiled that he agreed with Bourita to ask the ambassadors of both countries to start working together on the formation of the joint committee "in order to come up with the expected positive results."

Bourita, who visited earlier al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem told reporters that his country rejects any action that influence the Arab or Islamic identity of the city of Jerusalem, adding that his country follows up various projects to support the Palestinians steadfastness.
Berlin, March 28 : German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called for talks on trade policy between the European Union (EU) and the US in a telephone call with US President Donald Trump.

"The Chancellor called for a dialogue process between the EU and the US on trade policy, taking into account the rules-based international trade system," German government spokesperson Steffen Seibert said in a statement on Tuesday, Xinhua reported.

The US has decided to grant a temporary exemption to the EU and six other economies from the steel and aluminium tariffs signed off by Trump earlier this month.

Despite widespread dissent from business groups and trading partners around the world, Trump signed proclamations two weeks ago to impose a 25-per cent tariff on imported steel and a 10-per cent tariff on aluminium, which took effect last Friday.

Merkel and Trump reaffirmed the desire for continued close cooperation between the two governments, according to Seibert.

In light of Salisbury's nerve gas incident, Merkel and Trump underscored their solidarity with Britain, according to Seibert's statement.

Britain blamed Russia for the incident but Russia denied.

The US, Germany, France and some other European countries and NATO have followed Britain in expelling Russian diplomats as retaliation.
Washington, March 28 : China told the US that North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un visited Beijing this week, the White House has said.

The communication on Monday between Beijing and Washington also included a message from Chinese President Xi Jinping for his US counterpart, Donald Trump, a statement said on Tuesday, Efe news reported.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said the US has discussed Kim's visit with South Korea and Japan.

"We see this development as further evidence that our campaign of maximum pressure is creating the appropriate atmosphere for dialogue with North Korea," she said.

Kim Jong-un travelled with his wife Ri Sol-ju on Sunday to Beijing making it his first overseas visit since coming to power in 2011.

During the visit, Kim met Xi and expressed his commitment to achieve the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.
Sydney, March 28 : The Russian ambassador to Australia denied the presence of spies from his country in Australia, a day after the Australian government expelled two alleged intelligence agents in response to the Sergei Skripal poisoning case in Britain.

"My best wish is that what is happening won't cause serious damage to our relations because we have spent quite serious efforts together with Australian colleagues within the last two years to gain some positive momentum," Ambassador Grigory Logvinov told reporters, Efe news reported on Wednesday.

When asked how many Russian spies are in Australia and how many remain after the alleged two were expelled, the diplomat responded "zero minus zero is still zero".

Australia's decision to deport the spies is part of a coordinated measure of several governments worldwide, which led to at least 150 Russian diplomats being expelled in response to the nerve agent attack on Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter earlier in March in the UK.

The British government blamed Russia for the attack.

"What's happening is a well-orchestrated campaign," Logvinov said in reference to the allegations against Russia, and criticised the press for believing the British and overlooking the facts, as well as denouncing the lack of evidence linking the incident to Moscow.

"If the West would follow this line, I'm afraid we will be deeply in a Cold War situation," said the Russian ambassador, who avoided commenting on possible reprisals.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop earlier said she expected reprisals to happen, according to an interview with Channel 9.

Bishop, who is scheduled to meet with Logvinov on Wednesday, said that although the Russian government has not responded to Australia's decision yet, the ambassador said he would consider all possible options.

Australia imposed economic sanctions on Russia in 2014 over the Russian annexation of Crimea, and hardened the punitive measures after a Malaysian Airlines aircraft was shot down in eastern Ukraine by pro-Russian rebels.
New Delhi, March 28 : The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Wednesday asked for a report from the West Bengal government on incidents of arson and violence during Ram Navami processions in the last two days, officials said.

According to the Ministry, the Central government also offered assistance of paramilitary forces in the light of reports of continuing violence and tension in some districts of the state.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Asansol, Babul Supriyo on Tuesday accused the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government of destroying communal harmony by practising "appeasement politics" and called on Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi to apprise him of the situation in Raniganj.

A clash broke out between two groups over a Ram Navami procession in Raniganj on Monday. A person was allegedly hacked to death while a Deputy Commissioner of Police lost a hand after getting hit by a bomb.

Tension soared high as several shops and houses were vandalised and set ablaze during the Ram Navami procession. The police have arrested 19 people for fomenting trouble.

A heavy police force has been deployed and police pickets put up in the area since Monday evening to prevent any untoward incident.
New Delhi, March 28 : It was the perfect photo-op when Prime Minister Narendra Modi hugged Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg during a town-hall meeting at the social media giant's sprawling headquarters at Menlo Park, California, in September 2015.

With Facebook now embroiled in a massive data breach controversy, the bonhomie appears to be over, with India warning Zuckerberg of "stringent action", including summoning him over the "misuse" of data to allegedly influence the country's electoral process.

Zuckerberg has recently said Facebook will ensure that its platform is not misused to influence elections in India and elsewhere, but after witnessing how social media platforms were infiltrated during the 2016 US presidential election and the Brexit vote in the UK, nothing can be predicted at this point of time.

While governments the world over are fast formulating new laws that deal with users' data security and privacy, and the spread of false news, India lags far behind on this front.

Is the country prepared in case a huge data security or privacy breach hits its people?

According to top cyber law experts, India as a nation has missed the broader point in the ever-changing tech landscape.

"The moot point here is: How do we regulate mobile app providers, social media players and intermediaries in terms of handling and processing the users' data? We don't have a data protection law in place. We neither have a national law on cyber security nor a national law on privacy," Pavan Duggal, the nation's leading cyber law expert, told IANS.

The absence of these critical laws has created a very fertile ground for the misuse and unauthorised access of users' data by the service providers.

"On top of it, India has not revisited its stand on intermediaries' liabilities since 2008. Also, the service providers have been given a great fillip by a judgement of the Supreme court, where the service providers are directed not to take any action till such time they get a court or a government agency order," Duggal informed.

In such a scenario, service providers are using the "Indians' data with impunity".

"They are transferring them outside the territorial boundaries of the country because we as a nation are sleeping. Once the data goes outside the country, the government loses all control. This has a detrimental impact on the protection and preservation of people's data privacy and personal privacy," Duggal stressed.

India has to learn from the European Union (EU) when it comes to formulating a legal framework to secure data.

The EU has asked businesses and service providers globally to comply with its new privacy law -- the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) -- that comes into force from May 25 this year.

The EU GDPR has been designed to harmonise data privacy laws across Europe -- to protect and empower all EU citizens' data privacy and to reshape the way organisations across the region approach data privacy.

After four years of debate, the GDPR was finally approved by the EU Parliament on April 14, 2016. Organisations that fail to comply with the new regulation will face hefty fines.

Although a white paper on data security has been published by the Indian government for all the stakeholders to deliberate upon, the country is still working on drafting a data protection bill.

"India is woefully under-prepared to address issues of data protection and cyber-security. We need a data protection law that protects citizens from misuse of data with strict liability and extremely high statutory damages that must be awarded within a strict period of time," said Mishi Choudhary, President and Legal Director of New Delhi-based Software Freedom Law Centre (SFLC.in), a not-for-profit organisation.

According to Duggal, also a noted Supreme Court lawyer, India should not cut-paste any other country's law as it has to deal with a different set of problems.

"India's social realities are entirely different. The country has to deal with the huge issue of Aadhaar which is reeling under variety of cyber attacks because we have failed to apply cyber security as an integral part of the Aadhaar architecture," Duggal told IANS.

India's approach has to be based from its soil and the country must strive for data localisation.

"India should not allow its data to be stored outside its boundaries. Service providers must (be made to pay) high penalty if they are found to be misusing the data of Indians irrespective of if they are physically located in the country or not," Duggal said.

(Nishant Arora can be contacted at nishant.a@ians.in)
Los Angeles, March 28 : Human remains found in a shallow grave are believed to be of missing Hollywood actress Adea Shabani, police said.

On Tuesday morning, the Nevada county sheriff's Office and their coroner's division discovered the remains of a woman in a shallow grave in the Spenceville Wildlife Area in Penn Valley, California, reports people.com.

At a press conference on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) told the media: "At this point in time, we believe that those remains are the body of Adea Shabani.

"We cannot say that conclusively at this point in time because the condition of the remains prohibited positive identification," he said. He said police believed Christopher Spotz, a man authorities identified as Shabani's boyfriend, was "somehow involved in her death".

An autopsy on the body will be performed in which the identity, cause and manner of death will be determined.

"We believe it to be a homicide. However, until the conclusion of the autopsyA we won't be able to determine that definitively," the spokesperson added.
New Delhi, March 28 : The Lok Sabha could not take up the no confidence motion once again on Wednesday amid protests and a ruckus, with AIADMK members protesting near Speaker Sumitra Mahajan's podium.

Angered over the protests, Mahajan said she would have to adjourn the House sine die midway through the budget session if the protests and disruptions did not stop.

Disruptions in the Lower House started as soon as it met for the day, and within minutes, it was adjourned to meet at 12 p.m.

Mahajan tried to conduct the Question Hour, but her efforts went in vain. An angry Speaker then said she may have to draw curtains on the budget session if protests continue to stall the proceedings of the House.

"You are wasting everyone's time. All MPs are saying they want the House to run or end the session... I will have to adjourn the House sine die," she said.

When the House met at 12 p.m., the scene was no different, and members from the AIADMK trooped near the Speaker's podium.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar, however, blamed the Congress for the bedlam.

"Since the first day, the main opposition party Congress is stalling the House," Kumar said.

The Congress, however, does not have a Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, as it does not have the minimum required numbers.

As the Minister slammed the Congress, the Opposition MPs protested with a loud 'no'.

He also criticised the Congress for bringing numbered placards in the House on Tuesday, and said it was also against the rules.

"Congress has made a joke of the House," Kumar said, adding that the government is "waiting to debate" the no confidence motion.

Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge immediately responded saying the Opposition wanted to debate the no confidence motion as well.

"We are ready for a debate... At least 80 people have stood and supported the no confidence motion, I request the Speaker to take it up..." Kharge said with his voice drowning in the din created by protests from the Opposition benches, and the sloganeering by AIADMK MPs.

Speaker Mahajan once again expressed her inability to count the number of MPs supporting the around half-a-dozen no confidence notices, and said that in the din she cannot decide if leave can be granted to take it up.

"Why should we run the House like this," the Speaker said before she adjourned the House for the day.

The next sitting of the Lok Sabha will be held on April 1, as Thursday and Friday are government holidays.

The Lok Sabha has been witnessing a washout in the second part of the budget session which started on March 5, and is scheduled to conclude on April 6.

No business has been transacted by the Lower House which has witnessed continued protests on a host of issues, ranging from the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud, special economic package for Andhra Pradesh and a board for management of the Cauvery water, along with other issues.

The Lower House also saw the Budget, as well as some important bills being passed amid the din, without any debate.
New Delhi, March 28 : The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Delhi High Court to decide on a plea challenging the Election Commission order recognizing the AIADMK faction led by Deputy Chief Minister O. Pannerselvam as the real AIADMK and granting it the "two leaves" election symbol.

Putting the March 9 interim order by a single judge in abeyance, Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice A.M. Khanwilkar asked the Acting Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court to set up a two-judge bench that will hear the matter and decide by the end of April.

"The Division Bench so constituted is requested to dispose of the main matter by the end of April, 2018, as this matter requires immediate attention," they ordered.

The top court order came on a plea by the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K. Palaniswami, Deputy Chief Minister O. Pannerselvam and E. Madhusudhanan who had challenged the March 9 order by the single judge.

The top court, meanwhile, has asked the Election Commission not to pronounce any order in the matter relating to the AIADMK.

Saying that the "interim order passed by the learned Single Judge on March 9, 2018 shall remain in abeyance", the court said: "As we have kept the order in abeyance, the Election Commission shall not pronounce its order."

The single judge of Delhi High Court on March 9 asked the Election Commission to consider allotting Dinakaran's breakaway outfit Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) an election symbol, preferably the pressure cooker.

Dinakaran won the R.K. Nagar Assembly by-election as an independent candidate with pressure cooker as the symbol. The seat was held by late Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa.

The apex court on Wednesday also gave liberty to the parties to approach it in case there was any notification for the holding of local bodies polls in Tamil Nadu.
Washington, March 28 : The US and South Korea have agreed in principle on revisions to a free trade agreement which first entered into force in 2012.

Senior White House officials on Tuesday said Washington will exempt Seoul from its steel tariffs and maintain the 10 per cent tariffs on imports of South Korean aluminium, the New York Times reported.

According to the officials, the US can maintain a 25 per cent tariff on imported pickup trucks until 2041. Under their original trade deal, Washington must gradually reduce the 25 per cent tariff to zero by 2021.

South Korea agreed to double the import quota for American-made cars meeting US safety rules to 50,000 per manufacturer each year, up from the current 25,000 units.

Seoul also agreed to include American pharmaceutical manufacturers in its national health programme's premium reimbursement plan.

In addition, both sides were working on a currency agreement dealing with currency practices, which will be finalized by robot provision that will prohibit a competitive currency devaluation and ensure transparency and accountability of monetary policy, said the officials.

In exchange, South Korea will be exempted from the 25 per cent tariff on its steel exports to the US. However, it agreed to limit the amount of steel it can export each year to the US to 70 per cent of its annual average from 2015 to 2017.

The agreement represented the first renegotiation of an existing trade deal in the Trump administration, part of a central campaign promise he made as a candidate.

On March 8, vowing to protect the US steel and aluminium industry in the name of national security, Trump signed proclamations to impose a 25 per cent tariff on imported steel and a 10 per cent tariff on aluminium.

But he has given temporary exemptions to Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, South Korea and the European Union in view of the ongoing negotiations with these economies.

French President Emmanuel Macron lashed out at Trump's approach, saying he was frustrated by the seemingly coercive negotiation tactics coming from Washington.

"We talk about everything, in principle, with a friendly country that respects the rules of the W.T.O.," Macron said. "We talk about nothing, in principle, when it is with a gun to our head."
New Delhi, March 28 : India has increased its annual contribution to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) from $1.5 million to $5 million from 2018-19 for a period of three years, the External Affairs Ministry said on Wednesday.

According to a ministry statement India made the announcement of this substantive increase in annual contribution at the extraordinary ministerial conference held in Rome on March 15 following a flash appeal made by the UNRWA, which is faced with a major funds crunch.

"This enhancement was made in the backdrop of the unprecedented financial crisis being faced by UNRWA, which has been delivering valuable public services to Palestine refugees around the world," the statement said.

It also said that the four-fold increase in India's contribution is based on External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's commitment to enhance support to the UNRWA at the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) ministerial meeting on Palestine on September 19 last year.

It stated that this is also part of India's enhanced engagement with Palestine, particularly in the wake of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's historic visit to Palestine on February 10, the first ever by an Indian Prime Minister to the West Asian nation.

The UNRWA's present predicament came about after US President Donald Trump last month withheld more than half of the US-pledged aid to the agency.

The White House informed the UNRWA of the dramatic funding cut, meaning it will receive approximately $60 million in US aid. The US has been UNRWA's single largest donor for decades.

Trump last year unilaterally announced that the US recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and that his country's embassy will be shifted to that city.

However, a majority of countries, including India, voted against Trump's decision in the UN General Assembly in December last year.

US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley had warned that the UNGA vote would have repercussions.
Panaji, March 28 : A Romanian national has been arrested for installing skimming devices at bank ATMs, Goa Police said on Wednesday.

The accused has been identified as Alex Patrica, 28, a police spokesperson said.

"The accused was in Goa on a tourist visa and was arrested while he was installing the data skimming device in a Punjab National Bank ATM here. He has confessed to installing skimmers in other ATMs in the past."

The spokesperson said after installing the skimming device and stealing debit/credit card details, the accused would withdraw money from the duped customers accounts.
Thiruvananthapuram, March 28 : The Congress-led opposition on Wednesday accused Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan of giving the Assembly a miss, a charge promptly denied by the ruling CPI-M.

Moving an adjournment motion on what he said was the deteriorating law and order situation, Congress leader K. Muraleedharan urged Speaker P. Sreeramakrishnan to ensure that Vijayan was present in the Assembly.

"Today is the third day he is absent... We feel he gives scant respect to the legislature as he is more keen on attending party meetings," he said.

State Minister for Public Works G. Sudhakaran said it was not fair to target the Chief Minister.

"It's unfortunate that the opposition is raising issues of his absence when he had informed the opposition the need for him to be in Delhi to attend a party (CPI-M) meeting," he said.

"It has now become a habit with you (opposition) to come with a leave for an adjournment motion and then link it to the Chief Minister and attack him."

The Speaker too pointed out that the Chief Minister had on Tuesday informed the business advisory committee of the legislature that he would be away in Delhi.

Muraleedharan said there were rising incidents of crime because police were not doing what they should be doing.
New Delhi, March 28 : Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel, AAP MLAs and ministers wore black bands in the House on Wednesday to protest against Lt. Governor Anil Baijal's contention that the Speaker cannot accept questions on reserved subjects.

On Monday, Goel cited a letter from Baijal that said the Speaker cannot accept any question on reserved subjects, where reserved subjects are land, law and services, among others.

"The officers should realise that legislation on reserved subjects and seeking replies on matters of public interest are two different issues," the Speaker had said, adding that officers were duty bound to provide replies to all questions admitted by the House.

The Lt. Governor's letter to the Law Department of Delhi government stated that he had consulted the Legal Affairs Department of the Central government, which said the Speaker cannot allow such reserved subject questions.

On Wednesday, initially it was the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs and ministers who came to the House wearing black bands.

During the question-answer session, responding to the first question, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said that the answer to the question had not been provided by the officials.

Goel also said that written answers to 17 out of 40 questions were not provided by the officials.

As the House became agitated over the issue, the Speaker referred the question to the Question and Reference Committee of the assembly.

Later, he said that he would also tie a black band as a mark of protest against the Lt. Governor's decision, and subsequently did so.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Manjinder Singh Sirsa said the BJP MLAs were also of the opinion that all questions should be answered, but the Speaker should not wear a black band and added that he was breaking a tradition by doing so.
New Delhi, March 28 : Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar on Wednesday ruled out an early end for the Budget Session while blaming the Congress and its President Rahul Gandhi for the disruptions in the two houses.

"The productivity of Parliament has gone down since Rahul Gandhi became Congress President," he said.

Stressing that the government wanted the Parliament to run, he ruled out an early end to the session.

"We are not adjourning the Houses sine die before schedule. We want to run the House, it is Congress that is disrupting," he said, also accusing Opposition leaders of spreading rumors about an early conclusion to the Budget session.

On Wednesday morning, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan had said in Lok Sabha that several MPs were telling her to adjourn the House sine die if the logjam continues.

Ananth Kumar said: "I hold Congress squarely responsible for this situation. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the government wants the Houses to run. We don't want to adjourn the Houses sine die ahead of schedule," he said.

He also rejected Opposition's allegation that the logjam was being stage managed by the government, saying: "AIADMK and TRS... both have been in the well of the house (before the Speaker's podium since day one, no confidence motion came much later."

He also took a dig at the Congress for following the trail of other Opposition parties in giving a no confidence motion notice.

"Usually, it is the main opposition party that gives a notice of no confidence, here Congress is following the lead of smaller parties. Under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi, Congress has become a marginal party," he said.

Both Houses of Parliament have been marred by protests since the second half of Budget Sesion started on March 5. The session will conclude on April 6.
Chennai, March 28 : Belgium-headquartered $3.3 billion WABCO Holdings continues to be on the lookout for a suitable acquisition in India while its acquisition of Bengaluru-based AssetTrackr is expected to get regulatory approvals soon, top company officials said.

They also said the Indian company would expand its production capacity at Mahindra World City near here so as to meet the increased export demand.

"We continue to scan the Indian market for acquisition," WABCO Chairman and CEO Jacques Esculier told reporters here.

He was here to launch the company's Intelligent Trailer Programme - safety and efficiency technologies for tractor-trailers, including anti-lock braking function, roll stability support and others for commercial vehicles and trailers.

Queried about the status of AssetTrackr acquisition, WABCO India Managing Director P.Kaniappan said permission from the Reserve Bank of India is expected soon.

Last year, WABCO announced the acquisition of AssetTrackr, a fleet management solutions company for an undisclosed sum, saying it is expanding its global fleet management solutions business to India by this.

Founded in 2013, AssetTrackr helps commercial vehicle fleets track, analyse and optimise their transportation resources and assets in real time.

Esculier said WABCO India will start making the anti-lock braking systems and others in India once the volumes justifies this.

Queried about the volume that would justify a new line, Christiaan Verschueren, Vice President, Trailer Systems & Off-Highway said an annual volume of 25,000-30,000 would be sufficient.

He said WABCO globally makes 500,000 units per year.

Kaniappan said the total trailer market size in India is around 33,000 units and many of the units are in the unorganised sector.

He said the trailer production is expected to grow 14 per cent till 2022 and the demand for anti-lock braking systems will grow as the government has made these systems compulsory in trailers.

According to him, the signs are good for good demand post implementation of Goods and Services Tax.
Mumbai, March 28 : As Christopher Nolan sets out on an India trip to draw attention to the importance of celluloid in the digital age, Indian filmmaker and archivist Shivendra Singh Dungarpur hopes the globally acclaimed and commercially successful filmmaker encourages shooting and projection of films in the good old format.

Dungarpur, founder of the Film Heritage Foundation (FHF), is hosting Nolan at a three-day event 'Reframing the Future of Film' here from March 30 to April 1. They will be joined by celebrated visual artist Tacita Dean to also talk about preserving on film, and the necessity of determining new archival and exhibition standards that secure a film's future.

"Nolan is coming to India to talk about the advent of celluloid and shooting films in celluloid, something that he prefers. He is also going to talk about how the celluloid medium can co-exist with the digital mode. Nolan and Tacita Dean are coming to support the cause of celluloid film.

"With their visit, along with the participation of some of the who's who of our Indian film industry, hopefully, the talk and encouragement of shooting and projecting film in celluloid will start," Dungarpur told IANS.

With titles like "Batman Begins", "The Dark Knight", "The Dark Knight Rises", "Inception", "Interstellar" and "Dunkirk", Nolan is regarded as one of the most influential filmmakers of the 21st century. He continues to use the traditional film for his movies.

Nolan is impressed by India's cinema.

"India has such wonderful cinema and such a rich history of art that everything needs to be done not only to encourage its proper preservation for future generations but also to re-introduce the film medium to the younger artists and filmmakers in the country," he said in an earlier statement.

Helping out in this endeavour, Nolan and Dean will be a part of a round table conversation, alongside iconic Indian film personalities like Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Kamal Hassan, Shah Rukh Khan, Santosh Sivan, Shyam Benegal, Anurag Kashyap and Farhan Akhtar.

"We are delighted to know that two of world's greatest filmmaker and visual artists are coming to our country to support a cause for cinema. The irony is, as a Foundation, we did not receive as much support as needed within the country, with the film industry. But a great man like Nolan is coming to our country to support us," said Dungarpur.

Since the idea is to create awareness about films among the common people, there will be a few public events in different parts of the city.

Dean will hold a public lecture at the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum on Friday. A day later, there will be a 70 mm IMAX film screening of "Dunkirk", followed by a 35 mm film screening of "Interstellar" -- both to be introduced by Nolan himself.

"The projectors are coming from the US," Dungarpur said.

On April 1, 'Reframing the Future of Film: In Conversation with Christopher Nolan, Tacita Dean and Shivendra Singh Dungarpur' will be held at the NCPA here.

It was in Los Angeles in 2015 that Dean and Nolan staged the first in this series of events highlighting the necessity of preserving photochemical film in the digital age.

In India, Dungarpur has been an active voice in preservation and restoration of film. He started FHF in 2014.

"From the time we started FHF, at least the awareness of film preservation started. It is unfortunate that by 1950, we had lost almost 70 per cent of the films that were a part of our film history and cinematic heritage.

"So more than restoration, we need to preserve films of our olden days. Our old films are getting destroyed everyday. In the US, the restoration work is going on because they have their old films in the right condition, its prints and film negatives are in good condition to restore. But in India, the first and utmost important thing is to preserve film."

With Nolan's visit, talk about returning to the virtues of shooting on film are likely to get a boost. However, isn't shooting in a film camera much more expensive than a digital camera?

"No, that is a misconception," Dungarpur said.

"Processing the digital footage to get the final film also is a huge cost. So it is not about the cost, it is about the practice."

But these days, films are being shot even on digital cameras, isn't it?

"Well, our idea is not to fight on digital versus celluloid, but we are encouraging the practice of celluloid film shooting. These days, youngsters are only shooting in digital, but they should also have the choice of celluloid film. For that, they should know the advent of celluloid to reframe the future of film."
New Delhi, March 28 : The Rajya Sabha was on Wednesday adjourned till Monday soon after it met after the lunch break.

As soon as the House was reconvened at 3.40 p.m., Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien tried to take up a short duration discussion on banking fraud to be moved by BJP's Roopa Ganguly and Janata Dal United's Harivansh.

However, senior Congress leader Anand Sharma objected to it, asking the Chair as to why the notices given by the opposition leaders on the same topic (bank fraud) were not being accepted.

"Why are our notices on bank fraud not being accepted though notices from the members of the ruling party are accepted? As per the rules, we must be informed, the House must be informed, as to why our notices were not in order," he said.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Vijay Goel said that if the members did not want the short duration discussion, then other government business can be taken up.

Meanwhile the AIADMK, TDP and the opposition members trooped near the Chair's podium. Earlier, AIADMK member A. Navaneethakrishnan said that back in Tamil Nadu, people were asking AIADMK MPs to resign from Parliament since they could not do anything about the Cauvery water issue.

Amid the pandemonium, Kurien adjourned the House till Monday - as Thursday and Friday are holidays.

Earlier, the upper House bid farewell to its retiring members.
Mumbai, March 28 : Actor Annu Kapoor picked up some French lines for his role in the upcoming psychological thriller "Missing".

"Annu Kapoor is a studious actor and a perfectionist. After spending years in the industry, he still studies his role very minutely. When I offered him the role of a Mauritian cop, he requested if he can travel with us a few days prior to the shoot. Normally, actors don't travel with the technical crew but he did.

"The five days he had on his hand, he used to regularly visit the police station to understand how police there handles a crime scene. For the role, he learnt some French lines to bring authenticity to the role," director Mukul Abhyankar said in a statement.

Annu will be seen portraying an investigating police officer who is assigned to solve the case of a missing three-year-old child called Titli in the movie.

"Missing", which also features Manoj Bajpayee and Tabu, is scheduled to release on April 6.

Shatrughan lauds Ajay's 'Raid'

Actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha has praised actor Ajay Devgn and his latest release "Raid", which he feels is a realistic film.

"My earlier tweets about Income Tax remind me of the film "Raid", a beautifully made, well directed, socially relevant, gripping movie with an almost authentic story. Congrats to our dear hero/actor Ajay Devgn worthy son of Veeru Devgan for a restrained and brilliant performance," Sinha tweeted.

He further congratulated Ajay for "encouraging such a realistic social commercial film and giving a chance to brilliant director Rajkumar Gupta", as well as lauded the performances by Saurabh Shukla and Ileana D'Cruz.

In "Raid", Ajay essays the role of an income tax officer hailing from Uttar Pradesh.

KJo scores 15 mn Twitter followers

Filmmaker Karan Johar has garnered an over 15 million fan following on Twitter. He is grateful for all the love.

"Grateful for all the social media love, hate and even the indifference! All of these feelings keep me on my feet," Karan tweeted on Wednesday.

Karan is currently seen as a mentor in Star Plus' "India's Next Superstar".
New Delhi, March 28 : An agreement on protecting classified data was signed by India and France on March 10, 2018, replacing an earlier agreement signed in 2008, Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre said on Wednesday.

"An agreement between India and France regarding the Exchange and Reciprocal Protection of Classified or Protected Information was signed on March 10, 2018, during the visit of President of France to India," Bhamre said in the Lok Sabha.

"This agreement defines the common security regulations applicable to any exchange of classified and protected information between the two countries."

Bhamre was responding to a question by Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MP Muttamsetti Srinivasa Rao, who sought to know if India and France had signed any new confidentiality agreement replacing the 2008 pact.

The Minister's statement becomes significant in the backdrop of the opposition demanding details of the Rafale fighter jets deal from France, while the government has been sticking to its stand that it cannot reveal the price of the fighter jets in the interest of national security and because of a confidentiality agreement signed by the two countries in 2008 under the UPA government.

The Congress alleges that there are irregularities in the deal for buying 36 Rafale fighter jets off-the-shelf from France.

It also claims that the fighter jets are being bought from France at a price higher than what was negotiated in the previous multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) deal under which 126 fighter jets were to be bought.

The government has, however, been maintaining that the price India is getting under the Inter-Government Agreement is lesser than the MMRCA deal.
New Delhi, March 28 : The CBSE on Wednesday said it will re-conduct examination in the maths and economics papers for Class X and Class XII respectively following the leak of question papers even as a Delhi Police probe is underway.

"The CBSE has decided to re-conduct the examination to uphold the sanctity of board examinations and in the interest of fairness to the students," said a Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) statement.

The new dates for the examinations and other details will be hosted on the CBSE website within a week.

The CBSE held the exam for the Class XII Economics paper on Monday and the Class X Maths paper on Wednesday.

The board move comes after a handwritten note with the same questions as the CBSE question papers was found circulating on social media message application days before the exams in these papers were conducted.

Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar admitted to the paper leak and said a special team of the Delhi Police is investigating.

He said a gang is responsible for the paper leak and assured of a better mechanism to prevent more leaks from Monday onwards.

"The CBSE will issue the new dates for the re-examination very soon. We are devising a new system from Monday which will be leak-proof," Javadekar told reporters here.

"I have full confidence that police will apprehend the criminals. We will not let injustice happen to anyone... we are saddened by whatever has happened," he said, adding that an internal investigation is also underway to trace the source of the leak.
Chandigarh, March 28 : The Haryana government has directed the closure of all slaughter houses in the state on March 29 in view of Mahavir Jayanti.

The sale of meat, fish and eggs will also be restricted, state Urban Local Bodies Minister Kavita Jain said on Wednesday.

Jain said in a statement here that the decision was taken as Mahavir Jayanti was observed every year as non-violence day.

"Different religious organizations of the state had met me and demanded prohibition of killing of animals on this significant day. Keeping in view the religious sentiments of the Jain community, the proposal to close down slaughter houses on March 29 and also restrict the sale of meat, fish and eggs has been approved," she said.

Jain said that officers have been instructed to ensure strict compliance of the orders in the municipal areas and also submit a report of the same.
Patna, March 28 : Authorities in Bihar on Wednesday appealed for calm after communal tension gripped parts of the state during Ram Navami celebrations.

Munger District Magistrate Uday Kumar Singh said he had urged people to ignore rumours and maintain peace.

"The district administration is keeping a close watch on the activities of anti-social elements to keep the situation under control," he told the media.

Samastipur District Magistrate Parnav Kumar said a peace committee meeting comprising people from both communities was organised on Wednesday in a bid to bring communal tensions in Rosera under check.

Additional security forces were deployed in sensitive areas and senior police officials camped and supervised in Rosera in Samastipur as well as in Aurangabad and Munger districts.

"Hundreds of additional security forces have been deployed in Rosera. Two battalions of Rapid Action Force were called in. Police are patrolling the town and Internet services have been suspended to check rumours," Samastipur Superintendent of Police Dipak Ranjan said.

Over 100 persons, including police personnel, were injured and dozens of shops and vehicles were torched over the last three days of stray violence.

According to reports, trouble started on Sunday in Aurangabad when some local leaders from a particular party spread rumours that some persons allegedly stoned a Ram Navmi procession. Similar reports came from Rosera too on Monday.

Communal tension gripped Munger district on Tuesday night following violent clashes during immersion of Goddess Durga idols.

Bihar Rural Works Minister Shailesh Kumar has also appealed for peace.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has been attacking Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for allegedly failing to thwart communal trouble.

RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav has demanded the arrest of Union Minister Ashwani Choubey's son Arijit Shashwat for allegedly stoking communal passion in Bhagalpur.

A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Bihar, Ashwani Choubey is a Minister of State in the Modi government.

Last week, a case was lodged against BJP leader Shashwat for taking out a procession without prior permission, inciting communal sentiments and roaming on the streets with weapons.
Jammu, March 28 : Four militants were killed in a gunfight with the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district on Wednesday, police said.

The gunfight broke out in Sunderbani area of Rajouri in the morning when heavily-armed militants opened fire on troops of 16 Raj Rifles, 6 Jat Regiment, as well Border Security Force troopers and state police personnel sent to check the area after suspicious movements were reported from there, the officer said.

AK rifles, magazines, hand grenades and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were recovered from the possession of the slain militants, and the exact identity of the slain militants is being established, the officer said.

"Search operation is still going on in the area," police said.
Brussels, March 28 : Luxembourg announced on Wednesday that it has decided to call back its ambassador to Moscow for consultations in the context of Moscow's alleged role in a nerve agent attack against a former double agent in the UK.

"The Luxembourg government strongly condemns the attack and agrees with the UK government's analysis that it is highly probable that the Russian Federation is responsible for this act and that no other plausible explanation exists," Luxembourg Minister for Foreign Affairs Jean Asselborn was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.

Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia suffered the chemical attack in Salisbury on March 4 and were in a serious but stable condition in hospital.

British officials identified the chemical as Novichok, a nerve agent developed by Russia during the Cold War.

Following the incident, the UK announced the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats which led Moscow to retaliate with a "like-for-like" expulsion of British diplomats.

Russia is now facing a cold front from the US, the EU and a large list of countries expelling 140 Russian diplomats in retaliation for the nerve agent attack. On Tuesday, NATO announced that it had expelled seven diplomats from Russia's mission to the alliance.

Luxembourg maintained the position of the European Union, which demanded that more light be shed on the case and showed solidarity with London since the attacks.

But the Luxembourg government, according to Asselborn, will not expel Russian diplomats because they were not numerous enough and did not represent a serious threat to Luxembourg interests.
Cairo, March 28 : Egyptians continued to head to the voting booths on Wednesday on what was the third and final day of the presidential elections in which incumbent President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi is widely expected to ease to victory.

The country's nearly 60 million eligible voters have the chance to choose between Al-Sisi and Chairman of the liberal Ghad Party Moussa Mostafa Moussa, Efe news reported.

Emad al-Zarif, one of the voters lining up at one of the polling stations in Cairo's Zamalek district, said the voting process was "very easy," adding that his entire family went to cast their ballots.

The Egyptian National Electoral Authority confirmed that no incidents were recorded during the three-day elections so far. The final results are expected to be officially announced on April 2.

The elections, which were held under tight security, were supervised by nine Arab and international organisations and 50 local civil organisations, as well as the Arab League and the African Union.
New Delhi, March 28 : An Air India Delhi-Kolkata flight was aborted here on Wednesday after a bomb threat call and all 228 passengers were evacuated, police said. Police said the call turned out to be a hoax.

The police said the incident was reported around 2.25 p.m. as the 'Dreamliner' flight was set to take off from the Indira Gandhi International Airport.

"An unknown person called the airline's call centre in Mumbai to say a bomb had been planted on the flight. The passengers were offloaded to carry out the security drills," Deputy Commissioner of Police Sanjay Bhatia said.

The aircraft was taken to a bay to be searched.

"Efforts are on to identify the caller. Prima facie, it appears to be a hoax call," he added.

The passengers were later flown to Kolkata on another aircraft.
New Delhi, March 28 : Order returned briefly to Rajya Sabha on Wednesday for the first time since March 5 as the upper house of Parliament assembled to bid farewell to its retiring members.

However, the truce lasted only for the duration of farewell speeches and the members who have been agitating for the last few weeks were again on their feet as soon as the House reassembled after the lunch break.

Interestingly, a majority of the retiring members in their short farewell speeches stressed that there should be more discussion and less disruption in the House. Some even advocated tweaking of the rules of conduct to make the House disruption-free.

The retiring members also recalled their experiences as members and fondly remembered their associations with various colleagues, cutting across party lines.

Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu appreciated the contribution of women MPs, who constitute only 11.7 per cent of the total membership, in the proceedings.

"Six of our women members are retiring this time and two of them are returning to the House. Besides, three new women members would be entering the House. It is ironical that even though the Rajya Sabha is proud that it passed the Women's Reservation Bill way back in 2010... there is still a very low representation of women in this House," he said.

Naidu rued that disruptions have become a part of "political tactics" and the house has often "become the theatre of protest politics".

"In democracy, there is agreement and there is disagreement. If you agree to disagree, there is nothing wrong in it. But there is a way. Let us not further erode the quality of our polity," he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that what happens in the Lok Sabha (disruptions) need not be followed in the upper house.

He said that thanks to disruptions, the retiring members missed the opportunity to contribute towards a crucial legislation like the triple talaq bill that was listed to be taken up in the current session.

Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad tried to justify the protests by members, saying they raise issues of public concern and not of their private concern.

Congress MP Renuka Chowdhury did rake up the "Soorpnakha" jibe made against her by the Prime Minister, saying as an old member of the upper house, she had "seen it all from Shah Bano to Shoorpanakha" as Modi looked on.

She also took a subtle jibe at Modi, citing the conduct of earlier Prime Ministers like Rajiv Gandhi, Chandrashekhar and Manmohan Singh.

"Rajiv Gandhi was so charismatic that when he sat in the House, all the galleries above (public and press galleries) used to be full.

"Chandrashekhar was the Prime Minister who would pick phone when a junior member like me called to tell him that riots were happening in my state. Those were the days when we said (the government was) by the people and for the people. I learnt from Manmohan Singh ji how silence speaks much more than the loud noise on many fronts," she added.

Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien, of the Congress, who is also retiring, said that earlier when MPs were angry with the government, they would walk out. Nowadays, he said, people "walk into the well" (front of the presiding officer's podium).

"Earlier, Minister were grilled by the Mmebers. Today only slogan shouting. Sloganeering is not going to do any harm to the government...MPs are killing democracy for their politics," he said.

Former Samajwadi Party MP Naresh Agrawal, who has joined the BJP, lamented that the media presented his words in a twisted form on several occasions merely for the sake of their TRPs. He also thanked Prime Minister Modi and BJP President Amit Shah for "accepting" him in the party despite his often saying things which he "should not have said".

Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) member Tapan Sen said that in the last 12 years he saw two governments functioning and could now see a "pattern" in the disruptions.

"I took note of Deputy Chairman's remarks about grilling of Ministers. But sometimes the most efficient grill fails to pierce into the sensitivity of the government.

"We should collectively try to come out of this negativity," he said.

Sixty members from 17 states, including four nominated ones, are retiring between April and July.
Kathmandu, March 28 : Several protesters were detained and some were injured in Kathmandu on Wednesday as Nepali police used water cannon to disperse a demonstration against a planned road expansion project.

Hundreds of local residents, including members of the Newar community, one of the first groups to settle in Nepal centuries ago, clashed with riot police as they voiced their opposition to the construction project.

The project would see an expressway built between Kathmandu and the southern Terai region, Efe news reported.

The new road, which would replace a smaller route, would threaten various religious and Newar cultural heritage sites, as well as encroach on farmland, affecting the livelihoods of locals.

Efe news cited police sources as saying that five protesters were arrested and three were injured during the clashes.

The Nepal Army, which is overseeing and administering the government project, assured residents that the new road would be "a win-win for all stakeholders", an Army spokesperson had said in January.

The proposed Kathmandu-Terai expressway would reduce travel time from the Nepali capital city to the southern plains from five hours to just one hour.
New Delhi, March 28 : Union Minister Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday said West Bengal is burning due to violence during Ram Navami while Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is busy playing politics in Delhi.

"The whole of Bengal is burning and Mamata ji is busy doing politics in Delhi. We strongly deplore this," Javadekar said at a press meet called by his Bharatiya Janata Party.

"Mamata Banerjee is enacting 'Nero fiddled while Rome burned' in Delhi. You may play politics if you so wish, but first douse the fire in Bengal which the goons of your own Trinamool Congress (TMC) have ignited," the senior BJP leader said after making a presentation of the images of violence from the state.

A clash broke out between two groups over a Ram Navami procession at Raniganj in Asansol on Monday. A person was allegedly hacked to death while a Deputy Commissioner of Police lost a hand after being hit by a bomb. Several shops and houses were vandalised and set ablaze during the procession.

Javadekar blamed the Mamata-led TMC for the attacks on 'Ram bhakts'. "People had come out in large numbers for the procession and this did not go down well with the TMC goons. Police could not take any action and instead were attacked by the TMC workers," the Union Minister said.

"Law and order has failed in West Bengal. (General) Election is next year. First go to Bengal and bring the situation under control and then do whatever politics you want to do. We will surely reply to that politics," said Javadekar.

BJP's Bengal leader Rupa Ganguly claimed that Mamata Banerjee had come to Delhi after telling reporters in Bengal that she would go there and seek central help and meet Ministers but once in the national capital she is busy playing politics for the Third Front. "She is not able to handle her work," Ganguly said.

Ganguly, a former TV actress, said the violence in Bengal was pre-planned and it began with an official ban order on carrying of firearms/weapons during the Ram Navami procession, which was resented by many.

Earlier in the day, the Ministry of Home Affairs asked the West Bengal government for a report on the violence.
Edinburgh (Uk), March 28 : A Catalan politician and academic wanted by Spain for her alleged role in a secessionist referendum ruled illegal by the judiciary handed herself to Scottish police on Wednesday as authorities began to deliberate over whether to execute an extradition order lodged by Madrid.

Clara Ponsati, former regional Education Minister in Catalonia and Professor of Economics at the prestigious St. Andrews University in Scotland, arrived at St. Leonard's police station accompanied by her lawyer Aamer Anwar, Efe news reported.

"After we enter the police station, my client will be formally placed under arrest. The European arrest warrant will then be served upon and Ponsati will be transferred to Edinburgh Sheriff Court where she will appear from custody," said Anwar, who is also the rector at the University of Glasgow.

"The Spanish authorities wish to extradite Ponsati on charges of violent rebellion and misappropriation of public funds for helping to organise the referendum," he said.

"She does not believe that the Spanish Courts can guarantee independence, human rights or justice. Ponsati remains defiant, resolute and is determined to fight back," he added.

Ponsati was a close associate of Carles Puigdemont, the former Catalan President, who is currently held in a German jail awaiting a final decision on his extradition back to Spain.

Puigdemont could face the same fate as several former Catalan political figureheads currently retained in pre-trial detention on the same potential charges.

The former Education Chief, who could face decades in prison, travelled back to Scotland via Brussels to avoid a Spanish arrest warrant issued in relation to her alleged role in the independence referendum in October.

The Principal of St. Andrews University, Professor Sally Mapstone, criticised the action taken by the Spanish judiciary as "an attack on free speech".

Ponsati was due to retake her economic research post at the University.

The Scottish government, led by separatist Nicola Sturgeon, said it would raise the issue of the European arrest warrant with the European Commission.

Shortly before she entered the police station, a crowdfunding initiative in support of Ponsati raised over $1,00,000 in a matter of hours.
Mumbai, March 28 : The injured woman co-pilot of an Indian Coast Guard helicopter which had crash-landed in Maharashtra's Raigad on March 10, has succumbed to her severe head injuries, an official said here on Wednesday.

The body of Assistant Commandant Penny Chaudhary is being sent to her home in Haryana's Karnal where the last rites will be performed on Thursday.

Earlier, a large number of her colleagues and Coast Guard officials paid homage to her body draped in the national tricolor which was kept for some hours at the ICG offices this afternoon.

Chaudhary, 27, was on life support system after she sustained severe trauma injuries, and breathed her last on Tuesday evening at the INHS Asvini naval hospital where she was undergoing treatment since the past 17 days, said ICG Deputy Commandant and spokesperson Avinandan Mitra.

She had sustained severe head injuries coupled with internal bleeding after the helicopter crashed near Murud in Raigad and the rotor hit her head.

At that time, before it developed a technical snag, the chopper was on a routine sortie with Deputy Commandant Balwinder Singh and two divers also board.

Using sheer presence of mind and professionalism, Chaudhary manoeuvred the chopper away from a populated area of Murud town, to make a safe landing in a rocky portion of the beach.

Not only did she save the lives of the other crew members on board, but also averted what could have been potential disaster if the chopper had crashed on the populated regions of Murud, famed for its beaches, seafood, forts and resorts.

Though the unmarried pilot managed to escape from the crashed chopper, she was hit on her helmet by the slow-moving rotor blade soon after it landed on the rocky Nadagram beach. The other passengers on board escaped with minor injuries.

Chaudhary had joined the ICG in December 2013 and recorded 555 hours of flying to her credit.

"She was a brilliant, soft-spoken officer, who was popular among her colleagues for her professionalism and social conduct. The young officer will be deeply remembered for by the ICG fraternity for her commendable devotion to duty and selfless service towards the nation," said Mitra in a tribute.
Gadchiroli (Maharashtra), March 28 : Five top Maoists, including two women, collectively carrying a Rs 24 lakh (Rs 2.4 million) reward on their heads, have surrendered before the Maharashtra security forces, officials said here on Wednesday.

The Maoists were identified as: Saini alias Mirgu Zuru Velda, 36 with a reward of Rs 12 lakh, Arjun Naresh B. Poya, 25, and Vinu alias Bijavu Sunder Kovachi, 22, both carrying rewards of Rs 2 lakh each.

The two women Moaists who laid down arms are: Roopi alias Zuri Kaandi Narote, 36 with a reward of Rs 6 lakh on her head and Chhaya alias Raje Devu Kulyeti, 23 with a Rs 2 lakh reward.

Incidentally, Velda and Narote and Poya and Kulyeti are married couples, said an official spokesperson.

Velda was an active Maoist since 2001 and served in various Maoist jungle platoons and was promoted to Commander. He participated in 63 gunfights with police, and was wanted for 17 murders, 11 blasts, four arson and three kidnapping cases.

Poya became a Maoist in 2011 and since 2014 was part of the media team of the organization. He was wanted for five gunfights, one murder and one arson case.

Kovachi became a rebel and joined Maoist forces in 2011 and was serving as the security guard for district division chief Joganna. He had cases registered against him for six gunfights, two murders and seven arson incidents.

Among the women, Narote turned rebel in 2003 and was subsequently appointed as Platoon Commander with 42 gunfights, seven blasts, eight murders and two arson cases lodged against her.

Kulyeti joined the Maoist forces in August 2011 and was an active member with five police gunfights, three murders and eight arson cases pending against her.

The security forces have termed the development as "a major boost" in the ongoing anti-Maoist war in the Vidarbha region of eastern Maharashtra.

In the current year 2017-2018, so far 27 most wanted Maoists have surrendered, including area committee members, company members and commanders at various levels, dealing a severe blow the rebel activities in the region.
Mumbai, March 28 : Amid controversy on ICICI Bank's exposure to Videocon group, the private lender on Wednesday said its board reposed full "confidence" and "faith" on its MD and CEO Chanda Kochhar and after reviewing the bank's internal credit approval processes, concluded that there is no question of any favouritism, nepotism or quid-pro-quo.

"...the Board has come to the conclusion that there is no question of any quid pro quo/ nepotism/conflict of interest as is being alleged in various rumours. The Board has full confidence and reposes full faith in the Bank's MD & CEO, Chanda Kochhar," it said in a statement.

According to the lender, in 2012, a consortium of over 20 banks and financial institutions sanctioned facilities to the Videocon group (Videocon Industries Ltd and 12 of its subsidiaries/ associates as co-obligors) for a debt consolidation programme and for the group's oil and gas capital expenditure programme aggregating approximately Rs 40,000 crore.

The private lender's current exposure to the Videocon group was a part of this syndicated consortium arrangement.

"ICICI Bank was not the lead bank for this consortium and the Bank only sanctioned its share of facilities aggregating approximately Rs 3,250 crore which was less than 10 per cent of the total consortium facility in April 2012," it said.

The bank also said its credit approval authorisation framework is laid down by the Board of Directors and the the larger exposures are approved by the board's Credit Committee.

The majority of Credit Committee members are independent directors of the Bank and the Chairman of the Credit Committee, till as late as June 2015, was always a non-Executive Director.

"Based on the above, it can be concluded that there are adequate checks and balances in loan appraisal, rating and approval processes within the Bank, both from the control as well as from a governance perspective," it added.

The bank further said after the preparation of the Information Memorandum and the initial due diligence for the financing programme by the lead arrangers and after the sanction of the facilities by the lead bank, the Credit Committee of ICICI Bank in 2012 sanctioned its share of facilities in the syndicated arrangement to the Videocon group.

"This Committee was chaired by the then Chairman of ICICI Bank and it included independent and working Directors of the Bank. It is important to note that Chanda Kochhar was not the Chairperson of this Committee," it said.

Noting that there have been "some malicious and unfounded rumours" in the past few days casting insinuations on ICICI Bank Ltd and its MD & CEO, the bank said that "similar rumours had first surfaced in the mid-2016 and had been appropriately responded to".

"Nevertheless these have resurfaced in the recent past to malign the bank," it added.
Bengaluru, March 28 : Karnataka's ruling Congress on Wednesday complained to the Election Commission against the BJP President Amit Shah's alleged violation of the election code by terming Chief Minister Siddaramaiah "anti-Hindu" on Monday.

"We have brought to the notice of the poll panel and the state's chief electoral officer that Shah had violated the poll code by accusing Siddaramaiah of being Ahindu (anti-Hindu) instead of being pro-Ahinda," party's state unit vice-president V.R. Sudarshan told reporters here.

Ahinda is a Kannada acronym for the socio-political movement Siddaramaiah launched in 2006 the betterment of minorities, backward classes and Dalits, after he quit the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S). Later he joined the Congress.

"Shah had stated at Shivamogga on March 26 that he (Siddaramaiah) should look at how the Karnataka government is dividing Hindus and Lingayats, let alone other religions. In reality, he is not pro-Ahinda but Ahindu," said Sudarshan.

Terming Shah's charge as a violation of the Representation of the People's Act and an offence under the Indian Penal Code, he urged the poll panel to investigate the complaint and take action against the BJP chief.

State CEO Sanjiv Kumar has directed the Shivamogga Deputy Commissioner, who is also the returning officer for the May 12 assembly election to the constituencies in the state's Malnad region's district, to order an inquiry into the complaint and submit a report on the action taken by Thursday.

Shah was on a two-day visit to the region to campaign for the party ahead of the poll.
Shimla, March 28 : Raising questions pertaining to the CBI probe so far into the gang rape and murder of a schoolgirl and the subsequent custodial death of an accused, the Himachal Pradesh High Court on Wednesday summoned the agency's Director.

A Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Sandeep Sharma also directed the Central Bureau of Investigation chief to file an affidavit on the probe status.

The court listed the case for April 18.

"It has been more than eight months that this court entrusted the investigation to the CBI... we are only reminded of the fact that the crime relates to the rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl child, which evoked great anger and pain. Are we to understand that CBI officers are not competent enough to unearth the crime of such nature within eight months?"

The court further said: "After all, as we understand, it is not a case of destruction of evidence. It is also not that investigation is to be conducted in a foreign land or offshore. There is also no inkling that the crime may have been committed by a foreign national.

"Now, if the investigation is to be carried out within the state, why is it that such process cannot be hastened by deputing more persons with greater experience and expertise? Let the CBI Director file a personal affidavit indicating fresh status."

The bench expressed surprise and dismay over the CBI's status report and wondered if it was worth granting more extensions to the agency team camping in the state capital Shimla since July 22 last regarding investigations.

Both the gang rape and the murder case and that pertaining to the subsequent custodial death of an accused are being monitored by the High Court and are being investigated by the CBI.

Police said the schoolgirl was offered a lift in a vehicle by the accused on July 4 last year while she was returning home from school in Kotkhai town, 56 km from here.

On the way, the accused and his associates raped and murdered her in a nearby forest. Her naked body with injury marks was found two days later.

The arrested accused were prime accused Rajinder Singh, who offered her the lift, Ashish Chauhan, Subhash Bisht, Deepak Kumar, Suraj Singh (since deceased) and Lokjan. Currently, all the accused are on bail.

However, there was a new twist in the case after Rajinder Singh allegedly murdered Suraj Singh in the police lock-up on July 19. After the CBI took over, nine policemen, including Inspector General of Police Z.H. Zaidi and former Shimla Superintendent of Police D.W. Negi, were arrested on the charge of custodial death. They are in judicial custody.

Zaidi was head of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up to probe the case before the CBI took over.
New Delhi, March 28 : Disgruntled BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha on Wednesday indicated he may contest the next Lok Sabha election on a different party ticket, saying leaders like him were "unfairly treated" from the day the Modi government was formed.

But the Bollywood-actor-turned politician also made it clear that he would not shift from the Patna Sahib constituency seat in Bihar from where he has been elected to the Lok Sabha.

"I have offers from other parties. Whether I serve through my party or some other parties or even contest independently, it hardly matters," he told TimesNow.

"There were rumours in the last elections too that I will not get ticket from the BJP. But I got the ticket. (In 2014) My name was announced at the last moment from the same seat. Now, I am again hearing these rumours," Sinha said.

The former minister said he won from his seat with a record margin. "I broke previous records and got the highest vote share in the country. Why will I not be given ticket?"

Asked if he was being "ill-treated" in the BJP, Sinha replied in the affirmative.

"As they are my own people, I can't speak about their behaviour to outsiders in detail... My party knows it hurt me. Not just now but from day one when this government came to power."

Asked why he was not quitting the party, Sinha said: "Why doesn't the party quit me? I did not join the party to leave it. Several people were unfairly treated in the party.

"Look at our friend, philosopher and ultimate guru Lal Krishna Advani. From two seats to almost 200 seats, the party grew mainly under his leadership. Where is he today? He could have been anything. He has been like a guardian of the party."
Kolkata, March 28 : Amid the ongoing battle for taking over insolvent Binani Cement, UltraTech Cement on Wednesday said it has obtained the Competition Commission of India's (CCI) approval on its bid for the debt-laden company while rival bidder, Dalmia Bharat said the reasons cited by the former for its bid were "misleading".

"A lot of apprehensions were raised by the Resolution Professional about UltraTech obtaining the CCI clearance on its bid for Binani Cement. CCI has today (Wednesday) cleared it. The company was rated the H2 bidder instead of H1 (highest bidder), for this reason," the Aditya Birla group company said in a regulatory filing.

According to it, the CCI clearance validates its contention that "they were wrongly and unjustifiably rated H2 instead of H1".

Rejecting this, Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Limited's Group CEO Mahendra Singhi said: "The reasons cited by the unsuccessful bidder for its failed bid, in stock exchange filings and press interviews, are misleading. We have made the highest financial bid and had also obtained the highest score in the evaluation."

He said the evaluation criteria for the bids was fair and made known to all the bidders before the bids.

"We state emphatically that the likelihood of obtaining the CCI approval by a bidder was not at all a criterion in bid evaluation. In fact, CCI approval was contemplated to be a post NCLT approval step and hence had been made a carved-out condition precedent to the resolution plans of all the resolution applicants," Singhi said.

He also said "the only criteria involving regulatory orders was whether any adverse regulatory order including an adverse CCI order imposing penalties had been passed against the bidder over the last 5 years".

"No evidence has been cited to show that the COC (Committee of Creditors) and its advisors did not make a correct assessment of bids," Singhi said.

During the ongoing insolvency proceedings of Binani Cement, Resolution Professional Vijaykumar V Iyer, submitted the resolution plan of Dalmia Bharat-controlled Rajputana Properties before the Kolkata bench of National Company Law Tribunal as the "highest bidder" to take it over.

Binani Industries, the parent company of insolvent company, had submitted the application before the tribunal seeking termination of insolvency proceedings against its cement manufacturing subsidiary and the company's counsel had said on Tuesday it could pay all its creditors within two weeks.

The move came after the company concluded a commercial understanding with the UltraTech Cement to sell its entire 98.43 per cent stake in its cement manufacturing subsidiary at a consideration of Rs 7,266 crore.
New Delhi, March 28 : Even as there was no response from the central government to his demands, the health parameters of social activist Anna Hazare deteriorated on Wednesday, the sixth day of his hunger strike in support of his demands.

Hazare's blood pressure was high and sugar levels low, making him feel exhausted, his doctor Dhanajay Pote told reporters.

"When Anna ji's check-up was done at 3 p.m., his blood pressure had gone up to 186/100. Also, the blood sugar level was low, as per Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital doctors," Pote said who has come from Ralegan Siddhi in Maharashtra to monitor the social activist's health.

Hazare's routine press conference fixed for 5 p.m. was called off as he faced difficulty in speaking, Pote added.

Though Hazare said on Tuesday that the Centre would come up with an action plan on his demands on Wednesday, there was no formal communication from authorities during the day, said Sushil Bhatt, a core committee member of Team Anna.

Hazare has been pressing for the setting up of a Lokpal at the Centre and Lokayuktas in the states to probe corruption cases, bring in new electoral reforms and implementation of the M.S. Swaminathan Committee report to address the agrarian crisis in the country.

According to informed sources, the government is ready to accept almost all of the demands but it has reservations about the implementation of the demands in a time-bound manner.

A former Bharatiya Janata Party leader Nana Patole, who resigned from the Lok Sabha last year and joined the Congress, called on Hazare on Wednesday.

After a surge in the number of protesters a day earlier, there was a visible drop on Wednesday as roughly 2,000 persons were seen at the protest site at the Ramlila Maidan here.

Bhatt said the numbers will increase to 10,000 on Thursday when many farmers will arrive in Delhi to join the hunger strike.

Also, members of Team Anna said they tried to hold a march at Connaught Place in central Delhi on Wednesday evening to sensitise people about the ongoing protest but were detained by police.
Kolkata, March 28 : Tension prevailed over parts of Raniganj and adjoining areas in West Bengal's Paschim Burdwan district on Wednesday following clashes over Ram Navami rallies, even as the state government rushed a crack police team including senior officiers to prevent any breach of peace, sources said.

"We are maintaining a tight vigil. So far things are normal. We expect everybody to maintain peace", said a senior police officer posted at one of the troubled locations.

A clash broke out between two groups centering a Ram Navmi procession in Raniganj on Monday. A person was allegedly hacked to death while a Deputy Commissioner of Police lost a hand after getting hit by a bomb.

The Union Home Ministry has sought a report from the state government on incidents of arson and violence during the processions.

However, the Trinamool Congress government denied knowledge of any such directive from the Central government, and blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party for the unrest.

"Those who will break the law will have to pay for it. At this moment, the disturbed areas of Raniganj or Asansol should be brought under control. Those miscreants with BJP flags have tried to scupper peace and harmony of these places," said Education and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee.

"This is a deliberate attempt by the BJP to create disorder in the state," he alleged.

Chatterjee said he had no information about Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi planning to visit the affected area to see the condition of the injured senior police officer, but maintained that peace should be restored before any such trip.

"I do not have that information. But before going there, peace shou ld be restored in the area."

He also denied any knowledge of whether the Governor has been stopped from visiting the area.

"I don't know about any such development. But what I feel is peace and harmony should be restored in Raniganj and Asansol before he goes there. There is ample time for his visit."

Chatterjee also turned down the Central government's offer of assistance of paramilitary forces.

"We are capable enough to handle present situation. We have handle d more difficult situations before," he said.

Meanwhile, there was intense patrolling by police and Rapid action Force personnel in north Asansol, especially in the Dhadka area, where a police vehicle was vandalised and two Trinamooloffices torched over fresh violence over a Ram Navami procession on Tuesday.

Sources said a special team from Kolkata police led by Additional Police Commissioner Vineet Goel was being dispatched to Raniganj to prevent any more untoward situations.

Two other senior IPS officers, Siddh Nath Gupta and Jawed Shamim were also being sent to the troubled spot.

The BJP on its part alleged that the administration was trying to forcibly stop Ram Navami processions and lodging cases against its leaders.

"The administration is trying to forcibly stop this (processions). Cases are being slapped against BJP and Vishwa Hindu Parishad activists. This is only escalating the violence. If the administration wants peace, they should stop acting out of vengeance. Police should be restrained," said state BJP chief Dilip Ghosh.

Another BJP leader Mukul Roy lambasted Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for "whiling her time" in Delhi to try and cobble together a 'Third Front' while police personnel were getting injured in the state.

He also alleged there was a "state-sponsored terrorism" in Bengal.

Several shops and houses were vandalised and set ablaze over the Ram Navami related clashes in parts of Paschim Bardhaman district. Police have arrested 19 people so far for fomenting trouble.

On Sunday, five police personnel were injured as clashes broke out over a Ram Navami rally in an area under Arsha police station in Purulia district.

The BJP, which is trying to pitchfork itself as the main challenger to the Trinamool in the state, has been using the Ram Navami celebrations since last year to appeal to the sentiments of the majority Hindu population.

Sensing the BJP's motive, the Trinamool also resorted to celebrate the occasion massively on its own this year.
New Delhi, March 28 : The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Wednesday approved enhancing the scope of Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Protsahan Yojana (PMRPY).

Under the scheme, the government will now contribute the employer's full admissible contribution for the first three years from the date of registration of the new employee for all sectors including existing beneficiaries.

"The informal sector workers would get social safety net and there would be more job creation," an official statement said.

Started in August 2016, under the PMRPY scheme, the government so far pays the 8.33 per cent contribution of employers to the Employees' Pension Scheme (EPS) in respect of new employees who have joined on or after April 1, 2016 and with salary up to Rs 15,000 per month.

The government said that till now, the scheme has added about 31 lakh beneficiaries to the formal employment involving an expenditure of more than Rs 500 crore.

On one hand, the employers are incentivized for increasing the employment base of workers in the establishments, and on the other hand a large number of workers will find jobs in such establishments, it said.

"A direct benefit is that these workers will have access to social security benefits of the organised sector," it added.
New Delhi, March 28 : Leaders of several opposition parties met President Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday and sought his intervention to press the government to file a review petition before the Supreme Court over its verdict diluting the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities Act) 1989.

The delegation included leaders from the Congress, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the Samajwadi Party, the DMK and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

Talking to reporters later, Congress President Rahul Gandhi said that atrocities against the Dalits were increasing but the Act was being weakened.

"On the one hand, atrocities are increasing against the Dalits and tribals and on the other hand the Act is being diluted. The President has supported and said he will take action," he said.

Asked what action will be taken, he said the President has stated that he will assess it and take relevant action.

BSP leader Satish Chandra Misra said they told the President that the government had not fought the case effectively.

"Hence a review petition should be filed, hearing should take place in open court," he said.

CPI-M leader T. K. Rangarajan said they urged President to ask the government to file a review petition.

"We think that he will take some immediate action and some justice will be done. We told him that conviction rate is very low, atrocities against Dalits, Adivasis, and women are increasing," he said.

DMK leader T.K.S. Elangovan said dilution of the Act will embolden offenders. "Media is coming out with stories on attacks on Dalits and weaker sections. This is not a good sign. They should see that the law is not diluted. We want the President to intervene."

NCP leader Vandana Chavan said the government should safeguard the weaker and the vulnerable sections of the society.

She said that the provisions under the Atrocities on SC and ST Act were quite stringent and these should not be diluted.

"Therefore, we all made a presentation to the Hon'ble President that there has to be a review petition. He seemed to be very positive," he said.

The opposition parties also gave a memorandum to the President which accused the government of being double-faced.

"Even on merits it is quite surprising that instead of fighting for the rights of Dalits, as claimed by the Union government, the Centre submitted that anticipatory bail could be allowed in cases of atrocities against Dalits, if no prima facie case was made out. This shows a double-faced character of the present government, one inside courts and the other outside before public and media," the memorandum said.

The memorandum cited data of National Crime Records Bureau and said a crime is committed against Dalit women every 15 minutes in the country and six Dalit women were raped every day.

"Rape cases against Dalit women have doubled from 2007 to 2017 and a 66 per cent increase in atrocities against Dalits have been reported in the last 10 years. This situation has only worsened in the last 3-4 years under the regime of the present government at the Centre," it said.
New Delhi, March 28 : West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday made it clear that Congress cannot be excluded from any anti-BJP formation in the next Lok Sabha polls in which parties dominant in a state will take the lead in putting a one-to-one fight against the ruling alliance.

Banerjee, who has been camping here for the last two days, drove to the 10 Janpath residence of UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and inquired about her health and discussed the political situation.

Praising Gandhi, Banerjee, also the Trinamool Congress supremo, said Gandhi is a senior leader of the country and continues to play a role in politics. "There has always been a good relationship. Whenever I come to Delhi I always meet her. I came to see her. She is fine now."

"I told her that in 2019 elections there should be one-to-one (contest) from everywhere. In all states those parties which have stronghold in their own area they should fight from there.

"We want Congress to be with us. Congress should also help in this one-to-one fight. We have spoken to other parties. All states regional parties, in a kind of conclave, should work together," she added.

Referring to poll-bound Karanataka, she said Congress was in the government and should return to power.

"In Karnataka, we want Congress to win because it is strong there... In Bihar, (RJD chief) Laluji (Prasad) and Congress will fight together. In Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh and Mayawatiji should do it."

Banerjee's remarks assume significance in the context of a statement made by Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, who heads the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, recently after meeting her that the two discussed formation of a federal front against both Congress and the BJP.

She said BJP should be voted out of power in the country and it will be defeated if opposition parties come together.

"BJP will be removed only if there is one-to-one (contest). I am 100 percent sure. We want that whichever party is stong in a state, they should fight one-is-to-one to defeat the BJP."

Banerjee said she also discussed "political vendetta" of the BJP goverment with Gandhi.

"To destroy democarcy, the kind of atrocities that is going on..we have discussed about it as well. BJP has only promoted political vendetta in the country. They have not done anything for the people."

She said an alliance will depend on the concerned parties.

"Whereever there is an alliance, it will depend on the parties there. Any political party can decide," she said, adding that Congress must build alliances like it has with the Rashtriya Janata Dal.
New Delhi, March 28 : The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday approved signing of an MoU intending to promote closer cooperation between India and other maritime nations of the South Asian region - Bangladesh, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka - for protection and preservation of marine environment.

"The Union Cabinet has approved signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and South Asian Cooperative Environment Programme (SACEP) for cooperation on the response to oil and chemical pollution in the South Asian Seas Region," an official release said.

It said that Indian Coast Guard (ICG) will be the competent national authority and national operational contact point for implementation of "Regional Oil Spill Contingency Plan" under the MoU and shall respond to oil and chemical spills on behalf of the goverment.

The ICG Maritime Rescue Coordination Centres (MRCCs) will be the national emergency response centre for marine incidents.

The governments of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka had established the SACEP in 1982 in Sri Lanka to promote and support protection of environment in the South Asian region.

The SACEP along with International Maritime Organisation (IMO) developed a "Regional Oil Spill Contingency Plan" to facilitate international co-operation and mutual assistance in responding to any major oil pollution incident in the seas around Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
New Delhi, March 28 : Teachers and students of various universities on Wednesday held a march here to protest against the government decision to accord 'autonomy' to institutions of higer education, calling it a "ruse to privatise government-funded higher education".

The protesters from Delhi University, Jamia Milia, Aligarh Muslim University, and Jawaharlal Nehru University and other educational institutes, apart from politicians, marched from Mandi House to the Jantar Mantar in central Delhi.

The protesters were led by leaders of DU Teachers' Association and Federation of central Universities' Teachers' Association (FEDCUTA), who were joined by teachers from JNU.

Present at the protest was Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia, who accused the central government of bringing privatisation through the back door.

"This fight is our fight... this is not just a battle to save the universities and colleges. With the safety of universities and colleges lies the safety of the nation. Who will you invest in if no universities and colleges are left in the country?" Sisodia said.

"You are fond of organising investors' summits. If you cannot run collges and universities then shut down this business of investors' summit," the Aam Aadmi Party leader said.

The decision to grant autonomy to 62 higher education institutions was the main grievance of protesters who feared it will make higher education off-limits for the poor.

"A majority of students were, anyway, not able to take admission in the Delhi University with 54,000 seats. Now, with the decision that 30 per cent of non-teaching staff expenses will be borne by the university, it will be forced to raise fees. How will the poor be able to afford such fees?," DU graduate Bheem told IANS.

Autonomy means educational institutions are free to start new courses, departments, centres, and schools without seeking permission from the University Grants Commission -- the principal funding body for higher learning.

The government note regarding the decision, however, didn't mention from where the funding will come for the new infrastructure, if any institute desires to create it.

These apprehensions led to protests by stakeholders, who fear universities will shift the financial burden of creating new infrastructure to students through increased fees.

Other issues raised by protesters were absorption of ad-hoc teachers as permanent. There are about 4,000 Delhi University ad-hoc teachers.
New Delhi, March 28 : In wake of the leak of CBSE question papers necessitating a re-exam, the Congress on Wednesday said Modi government should be renamed as "paper leak government".

"Modi government should be renamed as 'Paper Leak government'," tweeted Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala.

"SSC Scam jeopardised the future of over 2 crore Youth. CBSE Xth and XIIth class paper leak has road hit the aspirations and hard work of lakhs of toiling students.

"Modiji, Your government has imperiled the future of our 'Exam Warriors'!" he said in further tweets.

The CBSE on Wednesday said it will re-conduct examination in the maths and economics papers for Class 10 and Class 12 respectively following the leak of question papers even as a Delhi Police probe is underway.
Kolkata, March 29 : The West Bengal government on Wednesday advised Governor K. N. Tripathi not to visit injured Deputy Commissioner of Police, who got injured in a bomb attack during the violence at a Ram Navami procession in Raniganj.

A statement from the Raj Bhawan said the state government expressed its inability to arrange for adequate security for Tripathi.

The Governor wanted to see for himself the condition of Asansol-Durgapur Deputy Commissioner of Police Arindam Dutta Chowdhury, said the statement issued by the Governor's press secretary.

The police officer lost a hand in the bomb attack.

"The state government informed that in view of deployment of police in the area, it will be difficult to provide adequate security to the Governor during the visit," said the statement.

The government said the situation was tense in the violence-hit region, including the nearby areas of Raniganj and Asansol and it was not "advisable for the Governor to visit Durgapur".

A clash broke out between two groups centreing a Ram Navmi procession in Raniganj on Monday. A person was allegedly hacked to death while Chowdhury is still critical at the hospital.
The Incredible Life of Vera Laska

Vera Laska joined the Czech resistance and saved Jewish lives as a teenager.

Vera Laska joined the Czech resistance and saved Jewish lives as a teenager

This post originally appeared on the USC Shoah Foundation blog

Vera Laska was born Vera Oravec on July 21, 1928, in Kosice, Czechoslovakia.

Vera was not Jewish, but she went to an all-girls public school and had many Jewish friends. She originally wanted to be a professional athlete and later dreamed of becoming a teacher. She recalled being angry and heartbroken when the German Army marched in to her country a few months before World War II began.

Vera unwittingly joined the resistance when she and her friend, both expert skiers, agreed to lead from Slovakia to Hungary two men who lacked proper identification papers. Over the next several years, Vera made about a dozen such trips leading political and Jewish refugees as part of an underground railroad from Slovakia to Hungary to Yugoslavia and beyond.

In spring 1943, Vera was arrested after being caught with false papers she had used during her trips across the border. After being jailed in her hometown for about a month, Vera was deported to Auschwitz II-Birkenau as a political prisoner.

After her arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau in early summer 1943, Vera made friends with some other women in the barracks. She recalled that they formed a cooking club in which, although they were starving, they would gather to discuss food and recipes to try to sustain morale.

Relying on a theory that few people die on their birthdays, in 1944 on her birthday, Vera made the difficult decision to volunteer for an unknown assignment that would take her out of Auschwitz but might as easily result in her death. Along with some of her friends, Vera was transferred to work at a textile factory at Gross-Rosen. To impede production, Vera and other workers would participate in slowdown strikes and acts of sabotage when the guards were not looking.

In early 1945, as the Soviet Army approached Gross-Rosen, the Nazis evacuated their prisoners to the concentration camp Dora-Mittelbau in central Germany. Vera then worked in a tunnel, measuring parts used in the German V-2 missile program. Her task was to divide the good rings from the bad, but she sabotaged the contents by arbitrarily dividing the parts.

In March 1945, this camp too was evacuated and the prisoners were forced on a death march to the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria. Vera seized her chance to escape in a moment of confusion, when hundreds of starving prisoners descended on a cauldron of soup. She fled into a nearby barn where she hid for the next four days. On the fifth day, a Ukrainian forced laborer who apparently knew of her hiding place, came into the barn and told her to come down because the war was over. She subsequently went to Prague and worked for the Czech War Crime Commission while also studying at the citys Charles University.

In 1946, Veras professors at Charles University decided Vera should go to America to study American history, so Vera chose to attend the University of Chicago. Here, she met her future husband, Andy Laska, and the couple was married in 1949. They had a son, Thomas, in 1952, and later adopted a son, Paul, from Costa Rica. Vera continued her education and earned her doctorate in American history from the University of Chicago in 1959 and went on to be a professor and author of a number of books, including some about women and resistance during the Holocaust.

At the time of Veras interview in 1996, she and her husband were living in Massachusetts. She died in 2006.

Veras story is included in the online lesson Living Histories: Seven Stories from the Holocaust.

Visual History Archive

Survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust and other genocides have shared their stories and experiences in a collection of more than 55,000 two-hour audio-visual interviews with USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History. ProQuest is honored to be in partnership with USC Visual History Archive to offer this material in its entirety to a broader audience and to contribute archival-quality transcripts of all of the testimonies. Watch the videos and learn more.
L.L.Bean's Iconic Bean Boots Being recognized by The Foundation for using fabric with a UPF 50+ rating is just another way were being acknowledged for developing functionally innovative products that help to further peoples overall enjoyment of the outdoors.

Internationally recognized outdoor retailer L.L.Bean, best known for its Bean Boot, and legendary customer service has recently earned The Skin Cancer Foundations Seal of Recommendation for several dozen styles of womens, kids and mens swimwear, including swimsuits, swim shorts, swim shirts and more.

The Skin Cancer Foundation is the only international organization solely devoted to the prevention, early detection and treatment of the worlds most common form of cancer. Their Seal of Recommendation is granted to sun protection products that have been reviewed by and meet the stringent criteria of an independent Photobiology Committee. One of the first programs offered by the Foundation in 1981, it quickly gained acceptance from consumers for sunscreen products, sunglasses, specially treated auto and residential window film, umbrellas and clothing.

Part of making the most of your time outside means doing it in a way that is safe, smart and comfortable, said Tom Armstrong, Senior Vice President and Chief Merchandising Officer at L.L.Bean. Being recognized by The Foundation for using fabric with a UPF 50+ rating is just another way were being acknowledged for developing functionally innovative products that help to further peoples overall enjoyment of the outdoors.

About L.L.Bean, Inc.

L.L.Bean, Inc. is a leading multichannel merchant of quality outdoor gear and apparel. Founded in 1912 by Leon Leonwood Bean, the company began as a one-room operation selling a single product, the Maine Hunting Shoe. Still family owned, Shawn Gorman, great grandson of Leon Leonwood Bean, was named Chairman of the Board of Directors in 2013. While its business has grown over the years, L.L.Bean continues to uphold the values of its founder, including his dedication to quality, customer service and a love of the outdoors. In the past five years, L.L.Bean has donated over $6 million toward conservation and land stewardship. L.L.Bean currently operates 39 stores in 17 states across the United States, along with 25 stores in Japan. The 220,000-sq. ft. L.L.Bean retail store campus in Freeport, ME, is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and welcomes more than 3 million visitors every year. L.L.Bean can be found worldwide at http://www.llbean.com, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Google+ and Instagram.

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Dr. Amarik Singh Treats Gum Disease in Downers Grove, IL Dr. Singh is skilled in treating all stages of gum disease, and offers minimally invasive, virtually pain-free laser gum therapy.

Dr. Amarik Singh, of Periodontal Implant Associates, now offers treatment consultations to new patients with signs of gum disease from Downers Grove, IL, without a referral. Dr. Singh is skilled in treating all stages of gum disease, and offers minimally invasive, virtually pain-free laser gum therapy as an alternative to traditional treatment protocols. As a well-respected periodontist, he is committed to providing excellence in periodontal specialty care through the latest cutting-edge technology. Dr. Singh proudly serves the Chicago area from his state-of-art practice in Oakbrook, Terrace, IL.

Gum disease is a progressive oral infection, with the potential to cause significant bone and tooth loss, along with other health concerns. Traditionally, gum disease has been treated with osseous surgery, a method involving retraction of the gums to reach deep areas of infection and tissue damage. Laser dentistry offers a modern alternative to traditional treatment. A minimally invasive procedure, laser gum therapy gently eradicates harmful bacteria and diseased tissue through the use of a precise handheld laser. Patients and doctors alike often prefer laser therapy over traditional treatment. The procedure is reported to be more comfortable, involves no incisions or sutures, and significantly reduces healing time, among other benefits.

Patients with signs or symptoms of gum disease, such as bleeding or inflamed gums, gum recession or tooth mobility, are encouraged to schedule a gum disease consultation with a periodontist. Dr. Singh recommends treating gum disease as early as possible, and extends his services to new patients with gum disease in Downers Grove, IL. He has extensive experience in laser gum disease treatment, and is the specialist many referring dentists and patients turn to for excellence in advanced periodontal and laser care. Dr. Singh remains dedicated to improving the health and lives of Chicago-area residents by offering the latest in innovative procedures from his modern Oakbrook Terrace, IL, practice.

Anyone experiencing the signs of gum disease in Downers, Grove, IL, or those seeking laser gum treatment from an experienced periodontist, are invited to call 630-424-9404 to schedule a consultation with Dr. Singh, or visit http://www.pidentists.com to learn more about his services.

About the Practice

Periodontal Implant Associates is a periodontal practice offering personalized dental care for patients in Oak Brook, IL and the Chicago area. After graduating from Northwestern University Dental School, Dr. Amarik Singh went on to obtain his Specialty Certificate in Periodontics and earn his Masters from Northwestern University. Dr. Singh is deeply committed to continuing education and prides himself on remaining on the cutting-edge of the newest techniques and technology in dentistry. Dr. Singh has placed over 15,000 dental implants using minimally invasive techniques and is part of an elite group of dental professionals at the forefront of the Chao Pinhole Surgical Technique (PST), a revolutionary new approach to repairing gum recession. To learn more about the periodontal services available at Periodontal Implant Associates, please visit http://www.pidentists.com or call 630-424-9404.
From Riches to Rags: a success story about someone who must lose it all to gain what is most important. From Riches to Rags is the creation of published author, Jaclyn Howell. Jaclyn was born in upstate New York before her family moved to South Florida when she was two years old. She headed North in middle school, but came back to South Florida to graduate from high school and college in 2003. Jaclyn has been teaching for over thirteen years. She enjoys reading literature and writing stories with her students. Even when she was a young girl, Jaclyn was always a voracious reader and writer. She has always passionately pursued journaling, creating fictional stories, and writing expository essays. She is blessed immensely with loving support from her husband, parents, sisters, friends, and her one-year-old baby boy who gave her the motivation and drive to write her first book.

How will she turn from her vacant and selfish ways if she doesnt have God in her life? Does she need to lose everything and go from riches to rags to find her purpose in the life that God intended for her? --Jaclyn Howell

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Jaclyn Howells new book introduces readers to Serendipity. Her family and friends call her Serene. Serene was born with a silver spoon in her mouth. She feels entitled to whatever she wants. She looks down on others who have less than her or who do not meet her expectations. She ruthlessly bullies others at school and gets away with it, because her father knows how to pull the right strings. Serene is someone who needs humbled in the worst way.

Most people anticipate a success story that follows a characters triumph from rags to riches. The tables are turned in From Riches to Rags as the very lucky Serene loses everything. Lacking God in her life, she struggles to turn away from her hollow and selfish ways. As she goes from riches to rags, however, she discovers the life God intended her to live.

View a synopsis of From Riches to Rags on YouTube.

Consumers can purchase From Riches to Rags at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about From Riches to Rags, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.
A Miracle of Life: the story of a mother and a newborn baby girl who overcame the multiple heart defects she was born with. A Miracle of Life is the creation of published author, Tonya Mills. Tonya graduated from Albemarle High School. Upon graduation, she went on to the International Beauty School and received her certification as a cosmetologist. She is the youngest daughter of James and Elsie Mills. Growing up in Keswick, Virginia, Tonya was a bodacious country girl. She was what one might call a risk taker. She enjoyed playing with her sisters, her cousins, and the neighborhood children. They did what a lot of country children did: rode bikes through neighborhood trails, made mud pies, chased after her great uncles pigs, and built club houses, just to name a few things. She also enjoyed singing on the youth choir at her home church. On May 21, 2006, at 6:26 PM, her life would forever be changed when she was blessed with a beautiful baby girl.

I heard him say my baby girl was still alive, still with me and my family, still fighting for her life. The tears of sorrow turned into tears of joy, unspeakable joy! He went on explaining to me Tytiannas condition, and even though her condition was life threatening, she was still alive, and that was all that mattered to me at that time. --Tonya Mills

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Tonya Millss new book is a testimony to a mothers unconditional love for her child.

When giving birth, a mother would never take the opinion of one doctor telling her, We have done all we can do. You can take your baby home with meds to keep her comfortable until she passes. Upon hearing these words after the birth of her own child, Tonya Mills requested the opinion of another doctor who actually specialized in her daughters condition: congenital heart defect. Ty was, however, born with four defects, not just one. Her first surgery took place when she three days old and it was just the start of many more to come. The hospital would become a home away from home for the newborn and new mother.

Every doctor appointed after Tys first surgery seemed to discover yet another issue. Ty was going to need feeding tubes for the rest of her life. She could not hear, talk, see, or walk on her own. At one point, Tonya thought she would lose her mind, so she turned to alcohol. That was only a temporary fix. The problems were always still there the next day. Tonya did not think she could take any more bad news. After a great deal of prayer, family support, and support from her church family, her daughter beat all the odds, thus becoming her moms miracle.

View a synopsis of A Miracle of Life on YouTube.

Consumers can purchase A Miracle of Life at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about A Miracle of Life, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.
By combining innovative technology and slick, clean design, LooLoo directly addresses the source of the smell issue on the inside of your toilet.

Today, Utah air care brand LooLoo launched its patent pending automatic toilet freshener. The LooLoo is now available for preorder on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter.

LooLoo, the worlds first automatic toilet freshener, addresses the most common complaint that people have with their toilet: it smells after someone uses it, especially after their No. 2 business.

You have to admit, none of us likes entering a bathroom after another person has just finished their business, said Taylor Wood, LooLoo Co-founder and inventor. Lighting a match or spraying an air freshener after use is not only inconvenient, but its ineffective. They are used after the gnarly stench has permeated throughout the room and into the nostrils. Furthermore, most bathrooms leave it up to the user to attempt to get rid of the nasty. Being a pooping human myself, I created LooLoo to first stop the stench at the source and to automate it so the user can just focus on their business and do what we all do while sitting on the toilet  play on our phones.

By combining innovative technology and slick, clean design, LooLoo directly addresses the source of the smell issue on the inside of your toilet. Using infrared technology to sense the heat of the body as a user is sitting down on the toilet, LooLoo sprays its thin film of proprietary essential oils on the water. The fragrance blend not only traps the odor under the water, but also counteracts the odor by absorbing all smelly nitrate molecules  and accomplishes all of this both before the user does their business and without the user having to do a thing.

LooLoo also comes equipped with LED lights that softly illuminate the toilet bowl, with a choice of nine colors, when you make those late-night journeys, so theres no more blinding yourself with a bright light during those 2-AM trips to the bathroom, Wood said.

LooLoo was created with a very clear and simple vision of automatically freshening everyones lifein the bathroom. With LooLoo, no one has to ever touch a dirty deodorizer again, and without even lifting a finger, LooLoo works its magic leaving the bathroom smelling better than when they arrived.

For more information and to purchase LooLoo at early-bird discounts during crowdfunding, visit the LooLoo Campaign Page on Kickstarter.

About LooLoo

LooLoo is a product of Homemation LLC, a Salt Lake City-based innovation company. Taylor Wood, the co-founder and inventor of LooLoo, was previously with Deloitte Consulting- Strategy & Operations, where he worked with an array of fortune 500 companies. Bryce Johnson, a co-founder of LooLoo, previously was CEO of Zarbees Naturals, where he helped build the Number-1 pediatrician-recommended cough syrup. LooLoo not only cares about freshening toilets, but also about improving the worlds sanitation. For that reason, a portion of the companys revenues are dedicated to solving sanitation problems in developing countries. For more information, visit https://looloo.us/.
Safety must always come first, but still, Im noticing two trends. First, drug use remains a common roadblock between job seekers and jobs. Second, some employers are hungry enough for workers that they are questioning longstanding practices. - Bob Funk, Express CEO

With unemployment falling and the demand for workers rising, employers have had to rethink recruiting and hiring practices to find the talent they need to grow their businesses. As a result, some employers are overhauling their drug testing practices based on the belief that overly broad testing eliminates valuable talent from the applicant pool, particularly in states where marijuana has been legalized in some form.

While Express Employment Professionals continues to drug test pursuant to all federal, state and local laws regarding drug testing, Express franchise owners report some companies in their regions are among those rethinking their procedures, while others are not, despite the labor market pressures.

There is no one-size-fits-all policy. In each case, the same question arises, How do I deal with medical marijuana and recreational use? said Andrea Owens of HourGlass Testing Solutions, drug screening experts who have worked with Express franchise owners like Janis Petrini in Grand Rapids, Michigan. We have several clients that have multiple locations throughout the U.S. evaluating their drug testing policy.

Its easy to see why companies might be evaluating their policies. According to a recent Express survey, the majority of businesses (65 percent) lose job applicants because of drug test failures.

Overall, 37 percent said less than 5 percent of applicants do not pass a drug test. Thirteen (13) percent said 5 to 9 percent do not pass. Six (6) percent said 10 to 14 percent do not pass, and 9 percent said 15 percent or more do not pass. In other words, at 15 percent of businesses, one in 10 applicants does not pass a drug test.

Anne Woods, an Express franchise owner in Santa Fe Springs and Covina, California, remarks that she is actually a bit surprised that more companies in her area have not stopped testing for tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the chemical compound found in marijuana. Recreational marijuana sales began in January 2018 in California.

Ronnie Morris, an Express franchise owner in Jackson, Tennessee, regularly sees job seekers miss out on opportunities because of drug testing.

We see a lot of people who could be put to work but are ineligible due to the results of drug screens, he said. This is especially true for jobs that do not require extensive technical expertise or the use of equipment.

Ultimately, the problem has to be addressed somehow. As Morris sees it, In a tight employment market, something has to give. With less than 4 percent unemployment and an economy growing at 3 percent, its hard to operate under the same requirements we did when unemployment was 6 percent and economy was growing at 1 percent.

Safety must always come first, but still, Im noticing two trends. First, drug use remains a common roadblock between job seekers and jobs. Second, some employers are hungry enough for workers that they are questioning longstanding practices, said Bob Funk, CEO of Express, and a former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. Theres no perfect answer, and given the ongoing opioid crisis, employers also have to keep their focus on solutions like prevention, treatment and care.

The survey of 462 businesses, which are current and former clients of Express Employment Professionals, was conducted in December 2017.

***

If you would like to arrange for an interview with Bob Funk to discuss this topic, please contact Sheena Karami, Director of Corporate Communications and PR, at (405) 717-5966.

About Robert A. Funk

Robert A. "Bob" Funk is chairman and chief executive officer of Express Employment Professionals. Headquartered in Oklahoma City, the international staffing company has more than 800 franchises in the U.S., Canada and South Africa. Under his leadership, Express has put more than 6 million people to work worldwide. Funk served as Chairman of the Conference of Chairmen of the Federal Reserve and was also the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

About Express Employment Professionals

Express Employment Professionals puts people to work. It generated $3.4 billion in sales and employed a record 540,000 people in 2017. Its long-term goal is to put a million people to work annually. For more information, visit ExpressPros.com.
FlexXray inspects finished food products for all types of contaminants. We can detect most foreign material down to 0.8 mm or smaller and test for metal, bone, rubber, plastic, gasket material, stones

FlexXray, the nations leading X-Ray inspection and recovery service for food companies, announced today that it has acquired Connecticut-based Total Quality Corporation (TQC), a top provider of inspection solutions for food producers throughout the U.S. and Canada. The combined company will operate as FlexXray effective immediately.

FlexXray helps food plants quickly and cost-effectively detect and recover foreign material contamination that can occur during production or packaging. The company works with more than 500 production plants in the U.S., including 90 percent of the top protein and processed-food producers in the country.

Along with in-house inspection, TQC also provides manufacturers with mobile product-inspection equipment to deliver frontline protection against contamination events. By inspecting products and avoiding the costs associated with recalls and potential lawsuits, both FlexXray and TQC save customers millions of dollars annually.

This acquisition is a vital step toward our strategic vision of providing the food industry with a national network of inspection facilities, said FlexXray CEO Kevin Fritzmeyer. In combining the efforts, experience and capabilities of these two industry leaders, we further our mission to provide cost-effective solutions with 100% customer satisfaction.

We are proud of FlexXrays growth and are excited that it allows us this opportunity to better serve our customers by expanding our services and national footprint with locations in Texas, Connecticut, and California., said Chris Keith, Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Customer Service for FlexXray. We are pleased to welcome the Total Quality team of professionals into the FlexXray family. With a shared dedication to customer service and growth, the future is bright for our new, combined team.

With the acquisition, FlexXray can now provide customers with more cost-effective inspection solutions; at one of FlexXrays USDA registered and temperature controlled facilities or at the clients facility. The acquisition also means that customers of the newly combined company will now be closer to an inspection facility, leading to better response times as well as lower shipping and transportation costs.

About FlexXray

Based in Arlington, Texas, FlexXray is the nations leading foreign material inspection company, serving a majority of the largest food companies in North America. With customers all over the U.S. and Canada, FlexXray inspects food products for all types of potential contaminants and foreign materials such as metal, plastic, rubber, gasket, and bone. Its custom-built direct x-ray technology detects issues before products go to market, saving clients millions of dollars each year. Inspections take place in the companys newly built, temperature-controlled 60,000 square foot warehouse.

About Total Quality Corporation

Total Quality Corporation (TQC) provides clients across the U.S. and Canada with outstanding inspection services and mobile equipment for a fast, safe and cost-effective alternative to the disposal of contaminated and defective products. For more than 30 years, TQC has been a leading provider of inspection solutions for manufacturers, resolving a wide range of product contamination and quality control issues. TQC customers save millions of dollars annually by removing contaminants and defects from their manufactured goods.

Media Contacts

FlexXray

Chris Keith

VP of Sales, Marketing and Customer Service

817-453-3539 (Office)

3751 New York Ave. #130

Arlington, TX 76014

madison/miles media

Melanie Medina

Marketing Strategist

(817) 908-7827 (Office)

(972) 800-0963 (Cell)

624 Six Flags Drive, Suite 226

Arlington, TX 76011
CampusTours clients have persistently indicated a desire to integrate three-dimensional, walkable campus experiences into their interactive maps and video tours.

CampusTours Inc. (http://www.CampusTours.com) announced today that all three CampusTours products (AnyMap, AnyTour & WalkingTour) will now integrate with Matterport (http://www.matterport.com), an immersive media technology company, to create True3D tour experiences for their University clients.

Matterports True3D walkthroughs are fully immersive, and allow a visitor to self-navigate through a space in a very realistic way. The unique 3D dollhouse provides an additional perspective so you can get an overview of an entire building and quickly navigate to where you want to go. With Matterport, CampusTours will enable their clients to welcome visitors to a virtual experience of their campus as if they were actually there, via the Web, a mobile device or a VR headset. The existing video guides (part of the current offering) can be integrated directly into Matterport creating an interactive tour of a campus.

CampusTours clients have persistently indicated a desire to integrate three-dimensional, walkable campus experiences into their interactive maps and video tours, said Chris Carson, president of CampusTours Inc. The integration of Matterports category-defining immersive 3D technology gives CampusTours clients the opportunity to create walkable 3D environments to showcase their campus structures to the widest possible audience.

"We are excited that CampusTours has chosen Matterport to help students experience and choose the right school, said Bill Brown, CEO of Matterport. Selecting a college is a very personal experience, yet many students do not have the opportunity to visit all of the schools they are considering. Matterport provides an opportunity for them to get a feeling for the schools they are considering and make better decisions without incurring the expense or having to take time off of school.

About CampusTours Inc.

CampusTours Inc. is an interactive media and software company specializing in meeting the marketing, Web and multimedia needs of academic, health care, non-profit, corporate and government organizations. CampusTours specializes in developing virtual tours, video tours, and interactive maps that entice visitors and facilitate direct and meaningful contacts with audiences. CampusTours Inc. is the owner and operator of CampusTours.com, the Internet's virtual college tour directory and CampusMaps.com, the Internets university campus map directory.

CampusTours Inc. is based in Maine. For more information, visit http://www.CampusTours.com or call 207.753.0136.

About Matterport

Headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA, Matterport is creating a True3D image of the physical world with its innovative, end-to-end platform for capturing, experiencing, and modifying digital copies of every real world places on Web, mobile devices, and VR headsets. The company uses its proprietary machine-vision and deep learning platforms to fuel ongoing product innovation. Matterports Cameras and Cloud Services make it quick and easy to turn real-world places into immersive virtual experiences. Matterport customers have produced almost 800,000 models across 80 countries; these models have been visited nearly 300 million times.

More information about Matterport is available at http://www.matterport.com.
With the support of the WBENC, we hope to inspire other women to take the leap into entrepreneurship.

Aliius, Inc., a business specializing in total talent management, is proud to announce national certification as a Womens Business Enterprise by the Women's Business Enterprise Council PA-DE-sNJ, a regional certifying partner of the Womens Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC).

We are so excited to be a part of this incredible organization and everything it has to offer. The WBENC is committed to connecting Women-owned businesses with opportunities, resources, and connections that we would not otherwise have access to. We want to thank WBENC for everything they do to elevate women in their professions, from the seedling to growth phases and into maturity. With the support of the WBENC, we hope to inspire other women to take the leap into entrepreneurship. Jamie Salvucci Stansfield - CEO of Aliius, Inc.

WBENCs national standard of certification implemented by the Women's Business Enterprise Council PA-DE-sNJ is a meticulous process including an in-depth review of the business and site inspection. The certification process is designed to confirm the business is at least 51% owned, operated and controlled by a woman or women.

By including women-owned businesses among their suppliers, corporations and government agencies demonstrate their commitment to fostering diversity and the continued development of their supplier diversity programs.

Aliius is currently accepting new staffing partners, contact us for details.

For more information on Aliius, Inc., please visit http://www.aliius.com.

About Aliius:

Aliius delivers total talent management expertise to build a bridge between strategy and execution. Were here to validate your recruiting plan, bring it to life, and elevate results to the next level. Whether you need an independent evaluation or complete managed staffing, we take the guesswork out of your hiring strategy so that you can get on with your business.

Weve been on both sides of the equation, so were always rethinking the MSP to make it more collaborative, productive, and profitable for all parties. Weve earned our reputation as an exceptional partner and supplier advocate by creating a level playing field that benefits everyone.

Aliius delivers broad-based access to new revenue streamsacross small, mid-market and large enterpriseswithout the expense of an expansive sales structure. Were a conduit to high-profile, high-impact recruiting opportunities.

About WBENC:

Founded in 1997, WBENC is the nations leader in womens business development and the leading third-party certifier of businesses owned and operated by women, with more than 13,000 certified Womens Business Enterprises, 14 national Regional Partner Organizations, and over 300 Corporate Members. More than 1,000 corporations representing Americas most prestigious brands as well as many states, cities, and other entities accept WBENC Certification. For more information, visit http://www.wbenc.org.
Nastel Technologies, a premier global provider of enterprise-grade middleware and Application Performance Monitoring (APM) solutions, announced the implementation of its flagship Nastel AutoPilot at specialist bank and asset manager Investec for their Corporate & Institutional Banking (ICIB) business units in South Africa and the U.K.

ICIB trading and treasury operations span FX trading, equity derivatives trading, equity derivatives sales and structuring, interest-rate trading, money market, and other financial products. Trade origination messaging traffic represents 133,000 daily transaction flowsinvolving settlements, CRM, ECM (Enterprise Content Management), payments, and reconciliation applications, relies upon a middleware messaging backbone in a distributed systems environment.

According to Jason Ho, ICIB Infrastructure Manager (South Africa), in 2016 the ICIB DataServices team was enduring administration and audit challenges. Visibility into overall transaction flows across mission critical applications was missing, along with in-depth tools for operational monitoring and management capabilities for their middleware stack. In addition, a foolproof means of accessing message payloads and tracking wayward transactions was needed. From a compliance perspective, the lack of a comprehensive message audit capability to satisfy both internal and external auditors represented a pressing operational risk.

To address Investecs challenges and assure high availability and reliability of transactional functionality, which is the foundation of their capital markets trading and other processes, a fast implementation of a robust highly scalable solution was needed. The bank engaged Blue Turtle Technologies, a respected South African technology consulting firm with a vendor agnostic approach to solutions. After a survey of all available options, Nastels AutoPilot was selected to replace several well-known APM vendors and freeware products.

AutoPilot delivered missing in-depth message tracking and application monitoring, covering middleware management and audit compliance capabilities, plus an integrated single-pane-of-glass view of all critical metrics and functions. Along with fault detection, problem resolution, and reporting tools, AutoPilot with its built-in analytics also provided proactive round-the-clock alerts via SMS text and email.

At Investec, high availability and reliability is absolutely critical because of the amount of money each transaction carries within our integrated trading environment. AutoPilot plays an instrumental role ensuring these transactions are delivered on time, with any breaks in continuity caught and corrected instantly. With Autopilot, the middleware infrastructure supporting our trading operations runs securely, efficiently, effortlessly, and we meet the stringent data security requirements of internal and external auditors, said Jason Ho, Infrastructure Manager at ICIB.

Following on the success of the AutoPilot implementation in South Africa, Investec Bank plc UK has chosen Nastel AutoPilot to monitor their middleware infrastructure across the Corporate & Institutional Banking (ICIB), Wealth & Investment and Asset Finance business units.

Within ICIB UK Autopilot is used across IT functions covering Enterprise Service Bus, SWIFT and Meridian payments systems. This provides crucial oversight of the IT infrastructure and key applications (supporting trade and payments systems). These are high transaction value systems and in-depth visibility into applications including IBM MQ and IBM Integration Bus estate is crucial to supporting the business.

About Investec:

Investec provides financial products and services, imbued with a personal approach, to a select client base in three principal markets: the UK and Europe, Southern Africa and Asia-Pacific. Investec was founded in South Africa in 1974. Investec entered the UK in 1992, and have since expanded through a combination of substantial organic growth and strategic acquisitions.

About Nastel:

Founded in 1994 and headquartered in Plainview, NY, Nastel Technologies provides IT organizations and business executives with the tools and insights they need to understand and manage their digital environments. Nastel is a privately held company headquartered in New York, with offices in the U.S., the U.K., France, Germany and Mexico, and a network of partners throughout Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia. Nastel is privately owned and profitable since inception.
Only ELO meets the needs of SME customers with solutions that are affordable, easy-to-implement, and simple-to-use while providing a growth path for evolving requirements.

ELO Digital Office USA, enabling businesses to improve collaboration and streamline information management in a digital economy, announced its expansion into the Caribbean market with the addition of HSS Barbados as an ELO Digital Office Certified Partner. HSS Barbados, headquartered in St. Michaels, is a full-service information technology provider serving small to large enterprises throughout the Caribbean region. The company will resell and implement the entire portfolio of ELO solutions including ELOoffice, ELOprofessional, and ELOenterprise to a range of industries spanning construction, healthcare, and financial and legal services. HSS Barbados joins a global partner network of more than 1000 ELO Business Partners.

ELO - Affordable and Easy-to-Use Content Management Solutions

We pride ourselves on being a one-stop technology provider for SMEs and multi-national companies in the region, and we sought a content management solution that would round-out our offerings, said Kevin Knight, managing director of HSS Barbados. There are plenty of ECM providers, but only ELO meets the needs of the SME customer with solutions that are affordable, easy-to-implement, and simple-to-use while still providing a growth path as customer requirements evolve. We are excited to bring the ELO solutions to our customers in Barbados and throughout the Caribbean.

While HSS Barbados will resell and implement the entire portfolio of ELO content and information management solutions, it will focus on ELOprofessional for SMEs. Delivering all the functionality required to effectively manage, quickly access, and securely control information throughout its life cycle, ELOprofessionals comprehensive capabilities include:



Information capture with options for automated scanning to bulk imports

Workflows to manage processes across all departments

Document processing for fast, automated processing of paper-based and digital documents in mailroom

Integration with interfaces that extract information from difference sources and integrate them into a central system

Collaboration for improved project transparency and communications

Navigation and search allowing customers to find information and documents quickly and effortlessly

2018 is developing into a banner year for ELO USA with the continued growth of our partner network, noted Szilvia Horvath, CEO pf ELO Digital Office USA. The addition of HSS Barbados highlights the broad appeal and value that ELO solutions bring to businesses regardless of size, industry or region. We are delighted to have HSS join the ELO family and have ELO an integral part of their solution portfolio.

About ELO Digital Office USA

ELO Digital Office USA provides innovative digital content management solutions for organizations of all sizes and industries throughout the United States. ELOoffice, ELOprofessional, and ELOenterprise give businesses an electronic and secure way to easily capture, archive, and manage business documents and information  both paper-based and digital. A subsidiary of ELO Digital Office GmbH (founded in 1998), ELO USA is headquartered in Boston, MA and is part of a network of global ELO offices throughout Asia, Australia, Europe, and North and South America. ELO Digital Office GmbH has an extensive network of global business partners and maintains technology partnerships with industry leaders such as IBM, Microsoft, and SAP. Visit ELO USA. Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

About HSS Barbados

HSS Barbados offers a suite of business solutions to address the needs of SMEs and multinational corporations in Barbados and the Caribbean alike. Our team comes well-equipped with professional foresight, industry experience and technical knowledge. We are a ONE-STOP service provider offering solutions in unified communications, access control, document and enterprise content management software, web development and printer hardware. HSS Barbados guides its clients on best-fit business solutions for desired results. HSS Barbados. Follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram.

All product and service names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.
Adventure Travel Vacations "Set your Compass to a Lifetime of Adventures!"

The Big Buzz in the Travel Industry nowadays is Adventure Travel Vacations! Look no Further!

African Safaris and Travel, under the leadership of Louis van Tonder and Terri New is expanding their safari adventures from to include worldwide Adventure Travel Vacations!

Louis has been in the safari industry since the late seventies both as safari guide, as well as, camp owner in both Zambia and South Africa. He is an adventure travel specialist who knows both the terrain and numerous languages spoken in different parts of Africa. Terri has been a world traveler and multimedia producer for 30 years. Their combined experience brings a plethora of adventures to folks who have set their compasses to a lifetime of adventures!

The saying goes that once the travel bug has bitten you, there is no escape from it, and along with the expansion of their services and new company, there is a new comprehensive website to use as a source of information - See http://www.adventuretravel.vacations .

The website is easy to navigate, it is visually appealing and an informative source of adventure travel, including Culinary Travel, Polar Bear Trips, Luxury Train Trips, Amazon River Cruises, Adventures to the Galapagos Islands, and many more! If your envisaged adventure trip is not listed on the website, dont despair  it can be custom designed for you! In fact, the majority of their trips are arranged for fully independent travelers, couples and friends - and not just for larger groups!

In addition to arranging custom adventure travel vacations, Louis and his wife Terri also offer escorted adventure trips for those more comfortable traveling with expert guides.

Terri has travelled the world most of her adult life, and brings a wealth of experience to Adventure Travel Vacations!

Visit the website and explore the exciting possibilities offered by Adventure Travel Vacations. You can do adventure travel in the lap of luxury, or do it on a budget. Either way your dream Adventure Travel Trip will be the greatest adventure of your life!
Diana Roberts features her native Hungary in her video blog, 'Budapest Stories' I truly believe your heritage is what makes you unique. My mindset since coming to the US has been to learn from others, improve myself and follow my dreams.

Fueled by a record number of newly-hatched womens movements, many believe the time is ripe for women to move into leadership roles. Diana Roberts believes that the time has been ripe since she was 20 years old, when she left her native Hungary with 350 deutschmark, her parents blessing, and the belief that there were opportunities waiting for her in America that she could not find in her homeland.

Fast forward 17 years and she has proven her younger self to be correct. As President of Pier to Pier Brokers, a successful boutique real estate firm in the highly competitive South Bay market of Los Angeles, she exemplifies the fearless, entrepreneurial spirit found in women leaders. "I truly believe your heritage is what makes you unique. My mindset since coming to the US has been to do learn from others, improve myself and follow my dreams, says Roberts.

In addition to being agent and owner of Pier to Pier, Diana is a mother to two young California-born boys who speak fluent Hungarian. Her fondness for her native country draws Diana and her husband Blake back to Europe every summer to immerse their sons in the culture she grew up in.

It was during their last summer trip that Diana felt compelled to share the beauty of her native Hungary on video. She spontaneously bought a plane ticket for Brian Hawkins, Video Director for Pier to Pier, and with him filming, she improvised 2-3 minute clips at various landmarks and cultural draws around Budapest. The result was Budapest Stories - an 11 episode video series that quickly went viral after being discovered by social media travel sites. To date the series has over 500,000 views.

Dianas no stranger to talking in front of the camera - she and Blake have firmly embraced video and digital technology as part of their regular marketing strategy at Pier to Pier. Pier to Piers video content is stylized and progressive, utilizing professional video techniques and introducing unique storytelling, music, and creative choices more often seen in advertising agencies.

The timing was perfect for the release of Budapest Stories. The country is currently experiencing a surge in tourism, in part thanks to Andy Vajna, the well-known Hollywood movie producer (Terminator, Rambo) who recently established Origo Studios there, attracting international production companies and quickly boosting the nations film industry from $5m to $280m. Additionally, the popularity of Airbnb has increased interest in tourism abroad.

Dianas videos feature her perspective on the food, culture and lifestyle she grew up enjoying as a child. As a Hungarian-American, she has a unique viewpoint on what western tourists might want to know about when visiting Hungary. The clips convey her love for her homeland and are gorgeously shot, resulting in a visual love letter to her native country that has resounded with people internationally.

About Pier to Pier: Pier to Pier Brokers is a fast-growing, innovative creative agency that breaks the real estate brokerage mold by utilizing storytelling, technology, and innovative communication to promote and create a personal connection with the properties they represent.
Finding zen at Cave Point County Park.

The birds chirping, wild flowers peaking out of the ground, and the smell of dew on an early morning means spring is here. April in Door County is filled with activities to enjoy the outdoors. Whether visitors are into hiking, biking, or fishing there is something for everyone.

April Events

Reel in the prize-winning catch at the Brown Trout Tournament in Baileys Harbor, April 19-22.

Girlfriends unite for Sassy Sisters Weekend in Sturgeon Bay, April 20-22.

Get a taste of traditional Belgian cuisine at Booyah and Bread at the Belgian Heritage Center, April 22.

Visit DoorCounty.com for seasonal lodging packages along with spring retail, dining, and activities deals.

Did you know?

The Brussels area of Door County is the largest Belgian-American settlement in the United States.

On-Going Spring Activities

Door County Trolley- Enjoy blossoms across the peninsula along with wine tasting, a quaint carriage ride, and lunch.

Crossroads at Big Creek-View the sucker run. Hundreds of suckers spawning throughout the creek at this 115-acre preserve.

Door County Land Trust- Grab the binoculars and go birding.

White Gull Inn- Enjoy the award-winning Door County Cherry French Toast with 100% pure Door County maple syrup. Syrup season in Door County runs roughly March through early April.

Flour Pot LLC- Learn how to make a traditional Belgian Pie. Take home the recipe and the finished product.

Potawatomi State Park- Climb to the top of the 75-foot observation tower for a great view of the park and the bay of Green Bay.

Cant Miss Arts & Culture Event

April 5-22, 2018  Get lost in the mind of Spalding Gray in Grays Anatomy performed by Doug Mancheski at Third Avenue Playhouse in Sturgeon Bay.

Stay Connected at DoorCounty.com

Door County is located in the northeast corner of Wisconsin. Surrounded by Lake Michigan, it is one of the top leisure travel destinations in America. Door County features 300 miles of shoreline, 34 named islands, 11 lighthouses and 5 state parks. It is known for its natural beauty, artistic offerings, outdoor recreation and local cuisine and offers scenic seaside experiences in the heart of the Midwest.
Telecom Council's Service Provider Forum members, who scout for new companies and technologies all year long, chose these 30 companies as startups to watch.

The Telecom Council is excited to announce the Innovation Showcase Class of 2018.

In support of Telecom Councils ongoing mission of discovering and promoting innovative communications companies, our annual Innovation Showcase matches high-potential, early-stage communications start-ups with strategic-fitting telcos, vendors, investors and potential partners.

Our Service Provider Forum members reviewed applications from 11 countries across solutions from AI to UX, and everything in between, and only selected companies who exceeded the judging member's expectations for innovation, momentum, viability and management to be named to the Innovation Showcase.

Congratulations to these exceptional companies.

Learn more about them and how to meet them on our Innovation Showcase Class of 2018 web page. https://www.telecomcouncil.com/forums/innovation-showcase/innovation-showcase-2018/



Averon US Inc

Biowatch

CB2.0 Communications Inc

Cog Systems

Collinear

Dimensional Mechanics Inc

Everest Networks

Interactor

INVOLI

IoTium

Kentik

Kiana Analytics

LotaData

LotusFlare

Meograph

Morro Data

Nebbiolo Technologies

NGCodec Inc.

Notion

PayJoy Inc

Plasmatic Technologies Inc

Qredo Ltd

Rivetz Corp

RunEL

Sherpa Europe

SIEMonster

SmartAxiom Inc

Spectrum Effect

Trillium

Unmanned.Life

Meet the Class of 2018:

Showcase companies working on new partnership opportunities will be showing demos and taking meetings at the Innovation Showcase Demo Day in Silicon Valley on May 22nd 2018, where tech scouts from global telcos, communications vendors, and corporate innovation teams meet with select showcase companies in pre-arranged, one-on-on meetings.

Members of the communications ecosystem and the media are invited to meet the startups and see their demos during a public session from 3pm - 5pm on May 22. Details online: https://www.telecomcouncil.com/innovation-showcase/

About Telecom Council:

The Telecom Council of Silicon Valley is Where Telecom Meets Innovation. We connect the companies who are building communication networks, with the people and ideas that are creating them  by putting those companies, research, ideas, capital, and human expertise from across the globe together in the same room. Last year, The Telecom Council connected over 2,000 executives from 750 telecom companies and 60 fixed and wireless carriers across 40 meeting topics. By joining, speaking, sponsoring, or simply participating in a meeting, there are many ways telecom companies of any size can leverage the Telecom Council network. For more information and to join our invitation list, visit: https://www.telecomcouncil.com.
GovSense, a leading cloud-based software solution provider for state and local government, has added the City of Alpharetta, Georgia, to its family of clients. The City of Alpharetta, which proclaims to be the technology city of the south*, uses the GovSense Economic Development platform to manage business expansion and retention.

The City of Alpharetta is home to over 640 technology-based businesses*. As companies start looking for a more technology-friendly location for their offices, that number is only expected to increase in coming years, leaving the citys Economic Development department with new tasks that werent an issue two years ago.

The citys biggest challenge was managing new opportunities and projects coming into the city. They needed a solution that makes it easy to communicate with site selectors while ensuring fair and valuable incentives for new businesses, explained Gary McTall, co-founder of GovSense. With the GovSense solution, the process becomes much easier, as employees can go to one place to review all the information for the project and details about the potential company. They can also track the marketing materials they need to provide and manage outstanding, declined and accepted incentives.

Over the past several years, the City of Alpharetta has opened its doors to some of the largest and most innovative companies on the planet, becoming the number one city to relocate to according to Forbes Magazine, and the sixth fastest growing city in the U.S., according to their Economic Development website.* Through the adoption of the GovSense solution, the city can now easily manage project information for business expansion while also focusing on business retention by encouraging streamlined, transparent communication with existing businesses.

Paul Cammisa, co-founder of GovSense, understands the importance of having the right software for Economic Development management. Because Alpharetta is the location of our headquarters, we have seen the city grow firsthand and are excited to be a part of their progress, he said. Through our software, the city will now be able to focus on business retention and expansion while improving interdepartmental communication. We provide a data platform that lets them have all the information in one place, allowing users to work with one version of the truth, benefitting both business owners and city workers.

The last stage of the software implementation took place recently, and GovSense continues to work with the city to provide support and ongoing training for users.

*Source: http://www.growalpharetta.com

About GovSense

GovSense built the first unified, true-cloud solution designed specifically for local government. GovSense empowers jurisdictions with flexible, easy-to-use software that enables collaboration in finance and accounting, budgeting, utility billing, fund and project management, economic development, asset management, GIS, inspections and enforcement, planning, and permitting and licensing. In addition, the companys implementation approach is driven by business processes, not technology. GovSense utilizes the agile implementation methodology that results in rapid time to value for all jurisdictions, regardless of what challenges specific departments face. The company delivers user-friendly software solutions tailored to jurisdictions requirements in weeks, not months or years.

For more information, visit http://www.govsense.com.
San Francisco Bay Area Discrimination Law Firm Our blog is a great way to educate San Francisco Bay Area clients who have an interest in history and the law.

California Civil Rights Law Group, a San Francisco Bay Area law firm specializing in discrimination litigation including wrongful termination and sexual harassment law at http://www.civilrightsca.com/, is proud to announce a new blog post on "Federal Protections for LGBT People."

"Our blog is a great way to educate San Francisco Bay Area clients who have an interest in history and the law," explained Larry Organ, principal attorney at the Bay Area-based law firm. "Our latest post walks through the history of LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, or Transgender) rights through the prism of the federal courts."

To read the new post on LGBT discrimination, visit http://www.civilrightsca.com/2018/03/15/lgbt-discrimination/. Any person who may believe that they are experiencing workplace discrimination in the San Francisco Bay Area because of their sexual orientation, should also read the informational page at http://www.civilrightsca.com/practice-areas/gender-identity-and-sexual-orientation/ and reach out to the law firm for a consultation. As no two situations are alike, it is imperative to have a confidential consultation with an attorney to determine possible courses of action.

MORE ON LGBT DISCRIMINATION ATTORNEYS IN THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA

The California Civil Rights Law Group is well known not only in San Francisco and the Bay Area but throughout California as one of the States' leading law firms for workplace discrimination issues, such as racial discrimination, sexual harassment, and LGBT discrimination. The new post is an historical discussion of how federal law around Title VII has evolved over time, gradually expanding protections to include lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and transgender persons. The post concludes:

"Despite decades of resistance, a growing number of federal court decisions have indicated an emerging consensus that federal law prohibits both sexual orientation and gender discrimination. Some courts have resisted this trend but it seems that LGBT people will soon be able to vindicate their right to be free of discrimination, under Title VII, everywhere in the United States."

That said, journalist, bloggers, and other media representatives who are looking for experts to discuss LGBT discrimination are urged to reach out to the law firm for interview opportunities. Persons who may be experiencing such discrimination are urged to reach out for a confidential consultation. With law firm offices in both San Anselmo and Oakland, the firm is convenient to many residents of the Bay Area. Those living in San Francisco, Santa Clara, Palo Alto, or other cities in the Bay Area are welcome to have a phone consultation at a convenient time.

ABOUT CALIFORNIA CIVIL RIGHTS LAW GROUP

Headed by renowned trial lawyer Larry Organ, California Civil Rights Law Group (http://www.civilrightsca.com/), is a leading employment law firm with San Francisco Bay Area offices in Oakland, Alameda County and San Anselmo, Marin County, California. Employees experiencing sexual harassment, race harassment, disability discrimination, LGTBQ discrimination, pregnancy discrimination, whistleblower retaliation and/or wrongful termination should reach out for an attorney consultation in either our Oakland/East Bay or San Anselmo/Marin County office.

Media Relations.

Tel. 415-453-4740
Kabbage is pioneering this shift in lending by making it a priority to meet small business owners where they are and integrate seamlessly into how theyre already running their businesses.

Kabbage, Inc., a global financial services, technology and data platform serving small businesses, analyzed the lending behavior of nearly 150,000 small businesses, uncovering an increasing growth of mobile lending. The total number of loans accessed through mobile increased by more than 360 percent between April 2014 and February 2018. In the same period, the total dollars accessed through mobile increased over 1,220 percent.

The growth demonstrates a new trend that small business owners expect a simple, no-wait process to apply for and access working capital. Today, 17 percent of all small business loans and nearly 15 percent of total dollars accessed via Kabbage are through mobile. At this rate, Kabbage predicts one of every five dollars funded to small businesses will be through a mobile device by the end of 2018.

The growth of mobile lending is evidence of an enormous change occurring in this industry, said Kabbage Chief Revenue Officer, Victoria Treyger. Small business owners are increasingly digitally savvy and are adopting new technologies faster than ever before. Lending is no different. Kabbage is pioneering this shift in lending by making it a priority to meet small business owners where they are and integrate seamlessly into how theyre already running their businesses.

I run my entire company from my phone. Its how business works today, and I can no longer afford to be stuck in one place handling one issue at a time, said small business owner, Kevin Hennessey, President of Brabo Payroll in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The ability to access capital through Kabbages mobile app whenever and wherever I am has saved me innumerable hours of paperwork and, frankly, makes the most sense. My numbers are good. I know my numbers are good. They should be all a lender needs to see my business is worthy of funding  not all the traditional paperwork and delay.

Kabbage uniquely offers the ability for small businesses to apply, qualify and withdraw funds from a mobile app, which is available in the App Store and Google Play store. The app provides customers on-the-go access to lines of credit up to $250,000. There are no up-front costs to apply, no annual fees to hold the line of credit, and customers may withdraw funds at any time.

About Kabbage

Kabbage Inc., headquartered in Atlanta, has pioneered a financial services data and technology platform to provide access to automated funding to small businesses in minutes. Kabbage leverages data generated through business activity such as accounting data, online sales, shipping and dozens of other sources to understand performance and deliver fast, flexible funding in real time. With the largest international network of global-bank partnerships for an online lending platform, Kabbage powers small business lending for ING, Santander and Scotia Bank across Canada, Mexico, Spain, the U.K., Italy and France. Kabbage is funded and backed by leading investors, including SoftBank Group Corp., BlueRun Ventures, Mohr Davidow Ventures, Thomvest Ventures, SoftBank Capital, Reverence Capital Partners, the UPS Strategic Enterprise Fund, ING, Santander InnoVentures, Scotiabank and TCW/Craton. All Kabbage U.S.-based loans are issued by Celtic Bank, a Utah-Chartered Industrial Bank, Member FDIC. For more information, please visit http://www.kabbage.com.

The App Store is a trademark of Apple, Inc. Google Pay is a trademark of Google, Inc.
Lauren Kwedar Cockerell has announced that she has launched a public relations firm, Kwedar PR, LLC. The Fort Worth, Texas-based company serves small to medium-sized businesses and non-profit organizations.

Prior to establishing her own firm, Ms. Cockerell was the director of public relations for Consuro Managed Technology for over four years. She started her career with Paige Hendricks Public Relations Inc., working her way from intern to vice president in her 10-year tenure with the firm.

Since starting Kwedar PR, the firm has been hired by organizations in a variety of industries, such as restaurants/fine dining, fine art, consulting, oil and gas, non-profit, architecture, and finance.

I love engaging with smart, passionate people as we work to share their stories in a meaningful, strategic way, said Ms. Cockerell. It is a joy to help our communitys leaders reach for their dreams, and Im honored by their trust.

A Fort Worth native, Ms. Cockerell is a graduate of Rhodes College in Memphis, Tenn., where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in business administration with emphases in marketing, finance, and English Literature.

About Kwedar PR, LLC

Lauren Kwedar Cockerell founded Kwedar PR to help share the stories of Fort Worths small to medium-sized businesses and non-profits. The boutique public relations firm specializes in a range of services, such as PR/marketing strategic planning and implementation, branding, digital and social media, copywriting, and more.

For more information, visit http://www.kwedarpr.com, or follow on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/kwedarpr/), Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/kwedarpr), or Instagram (@KwedarPR).
The American Association of Private Lenders (AAPL) is offering the Certified Fund Manager (CFM) designation class May 9, 2018, at the Geraci Activate Conference, located at the Sofitel Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. AAPL members are eligible for the CFM designation and may register for the class at http://www.aaplonline.com or http://www.geracicon.com/activate. The CFM designation class requires a separate registration from the Geraci Activate Conference.

CFM designation bridges industry practices, investment theory, ethical and professional standards to provide investment analysis and portfolio management skills. The intensive four-stage course, taught by Kevin Kim from Geraci Law Firm, will prepare members to answer the increasingly common client question, Is a mortgage fund my next growth opportunity?

Topics of the CFM designation class at the Geraci Activate Conference include: mortgage pool fundamentals, vision and execution, how to structure, capitalize and administer a mortgage pool fund, creation and launching of the fund and on-going fund administration.

The CFM designation is an important demonstration of fund management proficiency, said Linda Hyde, executive director of AAPL. Geraci Law Firm is a strategic partner of AAPL, so we are pleased to offer this opportunity to AAPL members at the Activate Conference.

This is only the third time the CFM designation is being offered outside the AAPL Annual Conference.

American Association of Private Lenders (AAPL) is the national organization representing the private real estate and peer-to-peer lending industry. Its three core principles  Excellence, Ethics & Education  provide a foundation for the next generation of real estate capital: private lending. AAPL serves as a catalyst for industry growth by fostering awareness, promoting best practices and encouraging a standardized code of ethics for its membership. AAPL is a part of Affinity Worldwide, a constellation of companies created to empower and support investors in the residential real estate industry. More information can be found at http://www.aaplonline.com and http://www.affinityworldwide.com.

For additional comments or questions please call or email

Chrissey Breault, Director of Marketing and Member Services

American Association of Private Lenders

816-398-4047

cbreault@aaplonline.com
The Inn at Longwood Medical, Best Hotel near Boston Colleges by Fodor's Travel The staff and I are appreciative and look forward to sharing this award with all of our guests visiting the area schools.

Fodors, the leading name in travel guides for over 80 years, has announced that The Inn at Longwood Medical - Boston has been awarded a Fodors Best as one of the Hotels near Boston Colleges.

Every year, the editors and experts of Fodors evaluate thousands of hotels across the globe. While every hotel listed in a Fodors guide is deemed worthy of a travelers time, only those offering a truly distinctive experience are given the Fodors Best designation. The Fodors Best hotel recipients are the best of the best providing a remarkable experience in their category.

As a Fodors Best recipient, The Inn at Longwood Medical - Boston will receive special recognition on Fodors.com in the Hotels near Boston Colleges list and on Fodors.com which 5 million unique visitors use to plan their trips each month.

We are grateful to be recognized by a prestigious organization such as Fodors. We appreciate them recognizing our relationship and partnership with our neighborhood Boston Colleges. The staff and I are appreciative and look forward to sharing this award with all of our guests visiting the area schools, said General Manager, Brian Stiglets.

The Inn at Longwood Medical  Boston is located in the Fenway area of Boston. The Inn is surrounded by the Colleges of the Fenway including Emmanuel, Simmons, Wheelock, Wentworth and Mass College of Pharmacy, they are also walking distance to Boston University, Northeastern University, Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health. The Inn also offers preferred university rates. They are a full-service hotel including a conference center, food court, and The Longwood Grille & Bar restaurant.

About Fodors Travel

Fodors Travel has been sharing travel advice and recommendations with travelers for over 80 years and is one of the most trusted voices in the travel industry. Covering over 7,500 worldwide destinations, Fodors guidebooks and Fodors.com have provided the most up-to-date and accurate information for travelers since 1936. Written by a vast team of global correspondents, Fodors provides travelers with engagingly written, locally reported, and indispensable travel guidance. Visit http://www.Fodors.com.

###

Photos upon request
Buzzbox Beverages Inc., an innovative beverage company manufacturing ready-to-drink, buzzbox premium cocktails, announced earlier this year an agreement with Republic National Distributing Company of Louisiana, a distributor and broker of premium wine and spirits, to distribute buzzbox premium cocktails throughout the state of Louisiana. The agreement brought buzzbox premium cocktails to Mardi Gras 2018, the city of New Orleans, spirit retailers and festivals throughout Louisiana.

The partnership with Republic National Distributing Company of Louisiana came at a perfect time, just ahead of Mardi Gras, said Rod Vandenbos, founder and CEO of buzzbox premium cocktails. Mardi Gras attracts roughly 1.2 million people to New Orleans every year, so we were excited to get buzzbox in the hands of festival visitors and residents of Louisiana early".

The single-serve, handcrafted cocktails are in recyclable, eco-friendly packaging with no preservatives or artificial flavors. The proprietary packaging allows for its beverages to be poured over ice or consumed directly from the box with an attached straw, making it the first ready to drink cocktail in a eco -friendly and energy efficient package.

buzzbox premium cocktails are made with premium spirits and fresh ingredients. Award winning traditional cocktails include the Perfect Margarita, Classic Greyhound, Long Island, Extreme Coconut, Classic Cosmo, Cuban Mojito, Bloody Mary and Whiskey Lemonade. To find a retailer, visit: http://www.buzzbox.com

About Buzzbox Beverages Inc.

Buzzbox Beverages Inc. was founded in 2013. The first-of-its-kind beverage manufacturing company, manufactures buzzbox premium cocktails, a single-serve, ready-to-drink cocktail in a recyclable, eco-friendly and energy efficient package. buzzbox premium cocktails are handcrafted premium drinks, made with only natural ingredients. There are no preservatives or artificial flavors. buzzbox premium cocktails are produced in aseptic packaging, giving products a shelf life of over 18 months. Buzzbox Beverages, Inc. is headquartered in Palm Desert, California, with warehouses in Palm Desert, California and Chicago, Illinois. For more information or to become a distributor, visit http://www.buzzbox.com

About Republic National Distributing Company

RNDC is one of the nations leading wholesale beverage alcohol distributors, specializing in wine and spirits. As the preferred partner for alcohol producers who value the three-tier system, RNDC creates branded products and productivity for all parties involved. RNDC serves as a product liaison between suppliers and those who sell alcoholic beverages  defined by its impeccable customer service, unrivaled expertise in beverage education, and a broad product portfolio. RNDC operates a total of 42 U.S. office and warehouse locations across 21 states and the District of Columbia.

Media Contact:

Brad Kinney

VP Brand/Events

buzzbox premium cocktails

brad(at)buzzbox(dot)com

510-409-7225 cell
Effective communication skills for sustained corporate success "Filled with useful stories and practical tools and tips, The Bullseye Principle is a must-read for anyone wanting to be a more confident and compelling communicator. -- Ken Blanchard, coauthor of The New One Minute Manager and coeditor of Servant Leadership in Action

The Bullseye Principle is the definitive how-to guide for communicating, collaborating, and executing as a leader in the corporate arena. With soft skills trending above technical knowledge in executive wish lists, this book provides invaluable guidance, critical insight, and actionable communication skills tips, based on award-winning methods, for new and experienced leaders alike.

The ability to communicate with purpose and clarity and purpose is the key to personal and professional success. Effective communication is not something that happens easily though. Without a firm grasp of the elements needed to be a good communicator, there is no guarantee it will happen at all. This book shows you everything you need to know to start communicating more effectively, starting today.

The success of any communication rests more on how the information is conveyed versus what that information actually is. It all comes down to delivery. The same set of tools actors have used for centuries to appear more confident, credible and captivating apply to someone in the corporate arena.

Polish your presence, use intention, influence emotion, engage workers, build relationships, make connections, and leverage the power of storytelling. Effective leaders strive to master key skills to inspire, empower, motivate, and more, at every level, in every sphere.

This book gives you a solid blueprint for effective communication in nearly any business situation, merging the practical and theoretical to help you:



Master the most challenging business interactions

Become more persuasive as a leader and communicator

Adopt a 3-step methodology to influence more effectively

Build your personal brand and executive presence toward sustained success

Read The Bullseye Principle sequentially or in a modular way. Read the first chapter to understand the 3-step process for influential communication and the concepts of intention and objective and then jump to specific chapters in any order.

Communication in the corporate arena needs to be better for teams and organizations to thrive. In business, everyone has a role to play and an audience to influence. The role or topic of discussion does not matter. If a message does hit its intended bullseye, communication will fall short of the mark.

"Mills and Lewis have taken techniques frequently taught to actors and developed them into simple and effective methods of communication in the business world. Michael Scott should read The Bullseye Principle!"--Jenna Fischer, Emmy-nominated star of The Office and author of The Actors Life: A Survival Guide.
Ben Franklin Plumbing A sump pump is one of those things homeowners dont think about until their basement begins to flood.

Ben Franklin Plumbing, Wichita's Leading Plumbing Company, is proud to announce that its informational page for sump pump installation and repair has received seventeen positive votes from the Kansas community. The new page provides helpful information about different types of sump pumps such as battery-powered and water-powered to Wichita residents.

A sump pump is one of those things homeowners dont think about until their basement begins to flood. Then its a priority, explained Jason Clark, Manager of Ben Franklin Plumbing of Wichita, Kansas. The new page is dedicated to information about sump pumps and the best systems to keep a basement dry, just as we enter the wet spring and early summer months.

Interested persons can review the informational page on sump pump installation and repair at http://www.benfranklinwichita.com/sump-pumps. To see the 17 reviews, scroll to the bottom of the page. Those seeking to understand Ben Franklin Wichita's philosophy of being the best plumbing company in Wichita, can visit http://www.benfranklinwichita.com/best-plumbing-company.

SUMP PUMP INSTALLATION AND REPAIR CAN KEEP A KANSAS BASEMENT HIGH AND DRY

Here is the background for this release. A flooded basement may not be a concern for Wichita homeowners until the rainy season arrives. Light spring rains might not cause Wichita homeowners to worry unless the storm becomes a downpour. Many Kansas residents may live in a home high above ground with little threat of a river washing it away, yet flooding could still occur. Basements can take on water if a sump pump has not been installed to prevent flooding. If a sump pump installation and repair has occurred, it can be important to understand whether it is battery-driven or water-driven. Contacting an expert plumbing service before the next storm could help keep a basement water-free. A sump pump installation, inspection, or repair is a must for every Wichita homeowner with a basement.

Seventeen reviews of the informational page on sump pump indicates the popularity of this topic. Details regarding sump pump systems can be reviewed on the new page. A sump pump as well as a backup could be the answer to keeping a room dry during a storm. The newly reviewed page provides information about various battery-powered and water-powered sump pumps options, but the best next step is to reach out for an estimate from Wichita's best plumbing company, Ben Franklin Plumbing.

ABOUT BEN FRANKLIN PLUMBING OF WICHITA, KANSAS

Ben Franklin Plumbing is a top-rated plumbing service at http://www.benfranklinwichita.com/, serving greater Wichita, Kansas and located at 2825 E. Kellogg Avenue. The company offers 24 hour, emergency plumbing service and sewer line repair not only to Wichita but to surrounding communities such as Derby, Andover, and Haysville, Kansas. Professionally licensed Wichita, KS plumbers are ready for plumbing problems such as: drain service, sump pump installation and repair, sewer line clean-outs and faucet repair. The company also replaces and installs faucets, garbage disposals and toilets. When searching for sewer line repairs, sewer repair and unclogging drains in Derby, Andover, Haysville or Wichita, Kansas, Ben Franklin Plumbing is available.

Tel. 316-858-5985
Demand for LPWA solutions is accelerating as competition intensifies among IoT network operators, infrastructure vendors and service providers, according to a recently published report by global IoT research firm ON World.

There are dozens of LPWA network operators in various stages of development today up from a handful just a few years ago, said Mareca Hatler, ON Worlds research director. This has resulted in disruptive pricing for network connectivity and lower component costs for IoT developers.

Unlicensed LPWA Networks

ON Worlds analysis of nearly 100 LPWA network operators found that unlicensed networks such as Sigfox and LoRa make up two-thirds today. Unlicensed networks have grown rapidly over the past few years with simple star networks, ease of installation and free spectrum. LoRa provides the added benefit of installation flexibility and adaptability where customers need private networks.

Sigfox and LoRa networks cover much of Europe and many parts of Asia Pacific with IoT services offered by telecom operators such as Arqiva, Bouygues, Orange, KPN, Proximus, Swisscom as well as a growing number of IoT independent operators such as Senet, Thinxtra and UnaBiz.

Licensed LPWA Networks

Licensed LPWA networks such as LTE-M and NB-IoT are growing even faster than unlicensed networks and make up nearly 1 in 3 of the LPWA operators we evaluated. NB-IoT network operator activity has accelerated over the past year and will grow 1800% this year. Licensed IoT network operators are offering ultra-low connectivity plans such as Deutsche Telekoms 10 (~$12) for 10 years and 500 MB.

Mobile operators such as Deutsche Telekom, China Telecom and Vodafone are aggressively rolling out their licensed NB-IoT networks in Europe, China and Australia. In the U.S., all major operators including AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile have fast-tracked their licensed IoT networks and most of these are providing both LTE-M and NB-IoT services. By the end of 2018, most of the U.S., Europe and Asia Pacific will be covered with licensed IoT networks.

ON World has identified 40+ unique LPWA applications and the largest and fastest growing LPWA markets include the following:

Smart Cities

A third of the announced LPWA applications focus on smart city applications such as streetlight monitoring, parking solutions, waste management as well as air quality and noise pollution monitoring. Some of the largest commercial LPWA deployments are for municipals and transportation agencies such as Telensas millions of connected streetlights and 12,000 parking spaces in Moscow, Russia.

Smart Energy

Already deployed in >5 million meters, LPWA metering solutions are growing rapidly with the fastest growth projected for gas and electric metering. Sigfox and LoRa are the most active smart grid LPWA technologies currently but LTE-M and NB-IoT solutions are quickly catching up. NB-IoT metering pilots are underway by Vodafone with partners Huawei, Diehl Metering and Janz CE in Europe and Australia as well as numerous pilots in China.

LPWA technologies also well suited to monitoring renewable energy sources. For example, SK Telecom provides LoRa enabled solar inverters to provide real-time energy usage information. ZTE has also launched an electric vehicle charging system using NB-IoT in China.

Smart Water

In addition to water metering, LPWA technologies are being tested for other smart water network applications. LoRa technology has been commonly used for water management applications in Europe. Birdz (previously Homerider Systems) has millions of LoRaWAN devices installed for water metering and related water management applications. Switzerlands Eawag Dept. of Urban Water Management is conducting tests on water management using LoRa-enabled ultrasonic sensors with Loriot. In addition, South East Water (SEW) in Australia is testing NB-IoT and other LPWA networks for smart metering as well as monitoring devices in sewers, manholes and fire hydrants.

Smart Tags

Low cost/long range asset trackers or smart tags will be the largest and fastest growing LPWA market in the next 5-10 years. LPWA network technologies such as LoRa enable localization capabilities to complement or even replace GPS that will lower service fees and enable wide area tracking, locating and monitoring of people, animals, vehicles, bicycles and other mobile assets.

In 2022, LPWA revenues from equipment and associated services will reach $56 billion.

For more information about ON Worlds report, LPWA Markets, go to: https://www.onworld.com/lpwanmarkets

About ON World:

ON World (http://www.onworld.com) provides global business intelligence on Internet of Things markets for Fortune 1000 companies, investors and IoT developers worldwide.

*The LoRa Mark is a trademark of Semtech Corporation or its subsidiaries.

Contact:

Mary Purvis

p: 858-259-2397

e: purvis@onworld.com
Open Lending We help more individuals get approved for car loans while simultaneously giving financial institutions the safety net of A rated insurance carriers and higher net ROAs than a typical prime loan portfolio, stated John Flynn, President, CEO, and Co-Founder of Open Lending, LLC

Founded in 2000, Open Lending, LLC, is pleased to announce a record breaking year with its 2017 results and accomplishments. The company works exclusively with automotive lenders providing over 365 financial institutions nationwide with loan analytics, risk-based pricing, risk modeling and automated decision technology.

In 2017, Open Lending experienced revenue growth of 45% over the prior year. The companys total portfolio of insured automotive loans more than doubled across the prior two years, increasing from 20,000 in 2015 to 43,000 in 2017. The company has helped lenders Say YES to over 200,000 insured automotive loans totaling approximately $4.5 Billion in originations to date.

The Lenders Protection Program is doing exactly what we designed it to do. We help more individuals get approved for car loans while simultaneously giving financial institutions the safety net of A rated insurance carriers and higher net ROAs than a typical prime loan portfolio, stated John Flynn, President, Chief Executive Officer, and Co-Founder of Open Lending, LLC.

Through its proprietary technology, the Lenders Protection Program, financial institutions leverage powerful tools with custom analytics to underwrite direct and/or indirect loan approval decisions in seconds. Lenders are empowered to increase near and non-prime automotive loan volumes and yields with the protection of A rated insurance carriers, preventing additional risk to their loan portfolio.

During 2017, Open Lending significantly upgraded its technology along with expanding insurance partners to support the monumental growth. The company re-architected its software platform and added a second live datacenter to double the application flow capacity. Using global server load balancing (GSLB) and GeoDNS, the company has implemented full redundancy protocols to eliminate downtime resulting from unforeseen outages. Open Lending added CNA, the eighth largest commercial insurer in the United States, as an insurance partner. Now with two A rated carriers, AmTrust and CNA, the company has expanded its capacity to mitigate risk for clients. The company also reported that loss ratios from the Lenders Protection Program continue to be lower than expected.

The company was named to Austin Business Journals 2017 FAST 50 list, for the fifth consecutive year, a list comprising the fastest growing private companies in Central Texas. Additionally, the company was awarded Austin Business Journals 2017 Best Places to Work in Central Texas for the third consecutive year, an award driven primarily by employee feedback.

The company success is a direct result of driving profitability for our clients themselves. We value our clients and partners for their continued trust and support as we live the vision that started 18 years ago, stated Ross M. Jessup, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operating Officer, and Co-Founder of Open Lending, LLC.

ABOUT OPEN LENDING, LLC

Founded in 2000, Open Lending, LLC works exclusively with automotive lenders by providing loan analytics, risk-based pricing, risk modeling and automated decision technology. Based in Austin, Texas, the company services over 365 financial institutions nationwide. Through its proprietary technology, the Lenders Protection Program, financial institutions leverage powerful tools and customized analytics to underwrite direct and/or indirect loan approval decisions in seconds. Lenders are empowered to increase near and non-prime automotive loan volumes and yields with the protection of A rated insurance carriers, preventing additional risk to their loan portfolio. Lenders Protection, LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Open Lending, LLC.

To learn more about Open Lending, visit http://www.openlending.com.

Follow Open Lending on LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Instagram

OPEN LENDING CONTACT

John Flynn, President/CEO, 512.892.0400 ext. 226, jflynn(at)openlending(dot)com

MEDIA CONTACT

Cami Gueguen, CAMIO PR, 512.415.5460, cami(at)camiopr(dot)com
It was impressive this year to see so many new companies enter the leadership ranks for the first time. This shows that even smaller companies can make a big impression.

CRM magazine has selected the recipients of this years CRM Service Awards and highlighted them in its April 2018 issue. The 15th annual CRM Service Awards honor the leading vendors across nine customer service technology segments, four client companies that have used those solutions to reap very impressive rewards, and six Rising Starsboth emerging and established vendorsthat have left an indelible mark on the industry in the past year.

In total, 30 vendors are honored this year across the nine Service Leader Award categories evaluated: customer case management, contact center infrastructure, interactive voice response systems, web support, workforce optimization, contact center search, enterprise feedback management, contact center analytics, and contact center outsourcing. In each category, the magazine names one winner, denoting the company receiving the highest overall score; four CRM Service Leaders; and a One to Watch. Recipients of the CRM Service Leader Awards are determined through an extensive process and proprietary rating formula. The editors survey leading industry analysts and consultants for their impressions of the vendors offerings, company direction, customer satisfaction, and overall cost. Company financial data is also factored into overall scores.

Additionally, CRM magazine this year honored six Rising Stars for their innovative technologies and four customer companies with CRM Service Elite Awards for their customer service technology deployments.

Our CRM Service Awards have become the industry standard, providing a comprehensive snapshot of the entire vendor landscape in the customer service/contact center arena. In this, our 15th year of presenting these awards, we are pleased to recognize all of the vendors that have performed at the highest levels, reshaped the industry, and used technology to dramatically benefit their operations, and ultimately, their customers, said CRM editor Leonard Klie. It was impressive this year to see so many new companies enter the leadership ranks for the first time. This shows that even smaller companies can make a big impression."

2017 will stand out for the industrywide advancements in machine learning, artificial intelligence, natural language processing, cloud computing, and real-time capabilities that have combined to make contact center applications smarter, faster, and better able to help customers help themselves. We congratulate all of this years winners and thank them for their contributions to the industry, Klie said.

Recipients of the 2018 CRM Service Awards are listed below in their respective categories. Leaders in each category are listed in alphabetical order:

Customer Case Management

Winner: Microsoft

Leaders: Oracle, Pegasystems, Salesforce.com, and Zendesk

One to Watch: Verint Systems

Contact Center Infrastructure

Winner: NICE

Leaders: Aspect Software, Cisco Systems. Five9, and Genesys

One to Watch: Avaya

Interactive Voice Response

Winner: Genesys

Leaders: Aspect Software, Cisco Systems, NICE, and Verint Systems

One to Watch: Avaya

Web Support

Winner: Microsoft

Leaders: Nuance Communications, Oracle, Salesforce.com, and Zendesk

One to Watch: Freshworks

Workforce Optimization

Winner: NICE.

Leaders: Aspect Software, Calabrio, Genesys, and Verint Systems

One to Watch: ZOOM International

Contact Center Search

Winner: Oracle

Leaders: Coveo, IBM, Salesforce.com, and Verint Systems

One to Watch: eGain

Enterprise Feedback Management

Winner: Qualtrics

Leaders: Maritz, Medallia, SurveyMonkey, and Verint Systems

One to Watch: NICE

Contact Center Analytics

Winner: NICE

Leaders: Aspect Software, Calabrio, Genesys, and Verint Systems

One to Watch: CallMiner

Contact Center Outsourcing

Winner: Teleperformance

Leaders: Alorica, Sitel, Sykes Enterprises, and TTEC Holdings

One to Watch: Convergys

The six companies named as Rising Stars for the year were the following:

Amazon

CallDesk

Clarabridge

noHold

UJET

Zendesk

This year, the four customer companies that won CRMs Service Elite awards for their customer service technology deployments are the following:

Athenahealth, a healthcare management company, which deployed Salesforce.coms Service Cloud and Agent Console technology to streamline agent processes;

Boscovs Department Stores, which implemented Moxie Softwares Concierge digital engagement suite and Kbot to allow customers to interact with it through digital channels;

TechStyle Fashion Group, which installed workforce management technology from NICE; and

Vegan foods producer Vega, which turned to Conversocial to engage its customers on social media.

The 2018 CRM Service Awards have been published in the April 2018 issue of CRM magazineavailable in print and online at http://www.destinationcrm.com/Issue/7844-April-2018.htm.

About CRM Magazine

CRM magazine is the leading publication of the customer relationship management industry, covering sales, marketing, and customer service strategies. The magazine also produces the annual CRM Evolution conference. For more information about the magazine, its editorial calendar, or CRM in general, please visit http://www.destinationcrm.com. The magazine and the destinationCRM.com website are properties of CRM Media, a division of Information Today, Inc.
ZIFF Overview ZIFF aims to help you pave a path toward greater automation within your organization.

ZIFF, Inc. announces an Unstructured Ai Database for image, audio, and video data with built-in indexing, search, training, and inference. ZIFF anticipates data consumption by automatically building out Ai models using the image, audio, video, and metadata you feed into it. An alpha release is already used in several deployments and will be made generally available in the second half of 2018.

ZIFF is unique in its approach to Ai. By focusing on empowering product visionaries and software engineers, ZIFF can help organizations fully unlock the insights and automation trapped within their unstructured data.

Previous to starting ZIFF, Ben Taylor [Co-founder] and I had front-row seats to watch our previous CEOs fall in love with their businesses again when Ai freed them to think expansively about opportunities in the marketplace. At ZIFF we want to continue to help CEOs transform their business with Ai. We want visionary leaders to feel empowered to unlock the potential of their business using the data, talent, and skills their organizations already possess. Thats why v3 of ZIFF is literally a database; something all engineering folks know how to use, something so practical and useful that it can almost be forgotten, said David Gonzalez, CEO of ZIFF.

He continued, We have a problem in machine-learning, especially around unstructured data and deep-learning. In 2018 there are only two paths to Ai: pre-built models or point-and-click platforms. Pre-built models do not provide enough value to transform an organization, and point-and-click platforms still require too much expertise to manage the ceremony around generating accurately labeled datasets, training and validating Ai models, and figuring out APIs and deployment.

If you stop and think about it for just a second you know that most of the data running your business are unstructured and the highest value data in your products are unstructured. Think conversations, images, documentsdata used by real people to do real work. ZIFF aims to help you pave a path toward greater automation within your organization. Because with Ai its conceivable that you could cost-effectively QA everything. If you could QA every important touchpoint what new opportunities would open up for you in your organization? Ai also holds the keys to making your best workers faster and more accurate. We want CEOs considering how Ai will transform their businesses when their teams move at 2x, 10x, or even 100x their current rate. Finally, Ai allows your products to do even more work for your customersletting you remove friction points that impede product growth and adoption.

We have been working with product teams for a year now and watching them work to integrate Ai and what we find is no surprise; there is a dyad of productivity for getting Ai to deliver value within an organization, and they are the same folks who have been shipping value for decades and decades: product visionaries plus software engineers. These folks know how to deliver value, and we want to get out of their way. Most teams do not have a dedicated DBA [database administrator] because that role is not needed to create world-class applications and we are seeing that same trend play out with Data Scientists especially in the context of building products and core-services on unstructured data. Thats why this next version of ZIFF gets rid of everything that gets in the way of product or engineer productivity.

The situation with machine-learning and structured data is encouraging but structured data and machine-learning have a history of successes especially when you think about financial data, clickstream or e-commerce data, and transactions plus it is building off of 15 years of BigData efforts. Unstructured data is essentially BigData 2.0, and it almost feels like starting from scratch. Efforts to organize and pull value out of it are not very mature. Deep-learning makes it possible, but it is easy to feel overwhelmed. Even skilled Data Scientists get bogged down trying to figure out the GPU hardware, drivers, frameworks, and network architectures required to do deep-learning, and most projects never see the light of day, said Ben Taylor, Chief Ai Officer at ZIFF.

Taylor continues, Since were dealing with BigData 2.0 then we need Data Mining 2.0; that looks like deep indexing, search capabilities, clustering and grouping, scalable architectures; everything we count on today for structured data but able to digest terabytes or even petabytes of image, audio, and video data. ZIFF v3 finally addresses all the major pains weve encountered in delivering value with Ai in our careers, and we couldnt be more excited.

At ZIFF we want to help executives push their business toward the transformations they dream about and to do that confidently. In my previous role as Chief Data Scientist, I had to address how to prevent models trained on biased data from propagating that bias. Thinking about Ai at that level does not happen on the first or second attempt in an organization, and we can help organization short-circuit that learning curve as well; this version of ZIFF is super flexible while enforcing best practices for training and validation.

This new version of ZIFF will build on the success the company has had working with product companies and teams.

ZIFFs deep-learning based data curation is the indispensable tool I never knew I needed, said Caroline Rowland, CEO New Moon

HireVue has a world-class AI team and, HireVue's pre-hire assessments are a market-leading AI solution for identifying the very best talent  built from the ground up  but we regularly find opportunities to scale out our AI efforts using ZIFF. We have been able to do more iterations on problems and explore new ideas using Ziff that would otherwise be delayed, said Loren Larsen, CTO HireVue

"Chatbooks helps people hold on to their memories by offering an easy way to turn digital images into photo books. Thanks to ZIFF, were able to make our apps so much more intuitive, smarter, and user-friendly. ZIFF has been helping our users quickly turn mountains of photos into beautiful books containing the images they most want to remember, and almost effortlessly. Together, were helping people celebrate all those little everyday moments that add up to an extraordinary life in print," said Nate Quigley, CEO & Co-Founder Chatbooks

"Chatbooks strives to simplify the otherwise complex task of creating photo books. ZIFF helps our engineering team create a fantastic user experience that powers next-generation applications, keeps us ahead of the competition, and perfects the details that matter most to our customers. With ZIFF, photo books are now built so seamlessly within the app that the experience can only be described as magical, said Steve Bentz CTO & Co-Founder Chatbooks

With v3 of ZIFF, all the frustrating ceremony required to deliver value with Ai will be done automatically when you insert data or query it out. As a database, organizations can look to leverage ZIFF similarly to how they use their existing databases. Additional functionality specific to improving Ai time-to-value include:

Ai Assisted Curation

Product leadership can turn to existing domain experts to catalog and label massive datasets more securely, quickly, and accurately with Ai Assisted Curation than by turning to the crowd

Deep-Indexing & Unstructured Search



Deep-indexing does for an organization's unstructured data what standard indexing does for structured data; it makes finding exact records or similar records fast

Unstructured Search APIs give software engineers the ability to surface robust Image/Frame or Audio search with exact match or rank-ordered results

Image, Audio, Video + Metadata

Adding data to ZIFF is simple and all data ingested can be easily labeled with ground-truth/fact metadata (e.g. one or many target objectives) as well as structured metadata (e.g. relevant context) supported metadata types include:



Binary, Multiclass, Continuous, or mixed targets

Localization:

Spatial for image data

Temporal for audio data

Auto-tagging with pre-built Ai models

every instance of ZIFF comes with pre-built models that provide accurate tags for Faces, Things, even English Speech automatically and auto-tags can be used to filter queries and add additional value to your unstructured data.

SQL or JSON API with Real-Time, Batch, and Pub/Sub



ZIFF Ai components work in the background presenting engineers with a familiar SQL interface compatible with existing software tools like their favorite ORM

Data can be inserted real-time or batch

Results can be queried real-time or asynchronously

Model Insight



Network-layer heat mapping allows you to see and understand what is driving Ai models so you can better diagnose unwanted biases, facilitate human-in-the-loop efforts, or to create plain text or even unstructured data reason codes

Fully managed model training & validation ensures best practices will be followed to train Ai algorithms

Unstructured anonymization

Image/frame and audio data can be intentionally anonymized through Ai managed downgrading that still allows for targets to be learned

With this release, ZIFF becomes the worlds only Unstructured Database. ZIFF is powered by Real Intelligence and Ai.

If you would like more information about this topic, please contact David "Gonzo" Gonzalez, CEO at ZIFF, Inc. - 801.669.2617 or email at gonzo(at)ziff.ai.

About ZIFF

ZIFF is the worlds only Unstructured Database. Powered by Real Intelligence and Ai ZIFF empowers organizations to rapidly deliver the insight and automation trapped in their unstructured image, audio, and video data. ZIFF does not capitalize the i in Ai (Artificial Intelligence) because Ai still has little intelligence and at ZIFF we trust that when Ai earns it, it will capitalize itself. Previous to starting ZIFF Co-Founders David Gonzo Gonzalez and Ben Taylor worked automating machine-learning for Citizen Data Scientists and delivering superhuman HR insight with Ai at Big Squid and HireVue Respectively. Headquartered in lovely Utah, ZIFF is in the heart of Silicon Slopes. ZIFF was founded in 2017.
Buan Consulting announces the hiring of Dave Piotrowski as the company's Chicago-based, Senior Director of Business Development. Dave will be responsible for Buan's business development and sales, and will be instrumental in developing and executing the company's continued growth strategy with Configure Price Quote (CPQ) and Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) professional services.

"I was drawn to Buan Consulting's unique position within the Salesforce.com partner ecosystem  they're a focused team of experienced Salesforce.com experts with a fresh, inspired perspective. They believe in hard work, innovation and genuine customer collaboration to truly help their clients' businesses grow," said Dave. "I look forward to leveraging my business development experience with Apttus to extend Buans reach to more enterprise-level organizations."

With 20+ years' experience in the software industry, Dave has a broad background in Software & Services Sales, as well as consulting expertise with global companies such as SAP, Apttus and NetSuite. Dave earned a bachelor's degree in Engineering from Penn State University and an MBA in Finance and International Business from the University of Notre Dame. He will utilize his knowledge and business experience to solve complex business issues for customers while growing the SpringCM and Salesforce CPQ practice at Buan.

"Dave brings a significant amount of CPQ & CLM business process expertise and Best Practices to Buan, along with his successful sales background, said Dan Buan, CEO of Buan Consulting. "We're excited to welcome Dave to our team, and look forward to introducing him to our customers and partners at Salesforce.com and SpringCM."

About Buan Consulting

Buan Consulting is an experienced, award-winning team of Salesforce CRM, CPQ & CLM experts headquartered outside of Washington, DC in Annapolis, MD. As a Salesforce Silver Consulting Partner, Buan offers strategic CRM, CPQ & CLM consulting, development and implementation services to businesses looking to streamline processes, track data and garner powerful insights. In their 12+ years as a partner, Buan Consulting has implemented more than 800 Salesforce solutions for clients in industries that span the commercial, government, economic development, IT and construction sectors. For more information, visit http://www.buanconsulting.com
Launching our E-Commerce solution is an exciting milestone for Indecomm, said Rajan Nair, CEO, Financial Services, Indecomm Global Services. It provides both our new and existing clients with an additional means to acquire the tools and resources they need to excel in their mortgage business."

Indecomm Global Services, a leading provider of business process as a service (BPaaS), software as a service (SaaS) technology, and learning solutions for the mortgage industry, has launched a custom E-Commerce website allowing online purchase of and access to mortgage training, resources, and services. These products are delivered through Indecomm Mortgage Learning, the mortgage education division formerly known as Mortgage U.

Launching our E-Commerce solution is an exciting milestone for Indecomm, said Rajan Nair, CEO, Financial Services, Indecomm Global Services. It provides both our new and existing clients with an additional means to acquire the tools and resources they need to excel in their mortgage business, whether in the office or on the go.

The E-Commerce website is delivered through the Indecomm Mortgage Learning platform, powered by Indecomms Yellow Platter Learning Suite. Over 70 mortgage training products are currently available for online purchase with immediate access to course materials and assets. Products include:



eLearning courses, with topics ranging from general mortgage industry, production, operations, regulatory compliance, quality assurance, and more

Live Learning courses, including the new Business Builder: Loan Origination Sales Tactics course with dates and locations across the country, including:

May 10, 2018 in Ann Arbor, MI

June 5, 2018 in Dallas, TX

September 20, 2018 in Irvine, CA

October 3, 3018 in Charlotte, NC

November 7, 2018 in Fairfax, VA



Webinars, including Avoiding Digital Disruption  Navigating Social Media and Mortgage Compliance on April 11, 2018

To view the product catalog or to enroll in a course, visit the online store at https://mortgageu.indecommlearning.com/eCatalog/List. To learn more about Indecomm Mortgage Learning, visit http://mortgage.indecomm.net or email marketing(at)indecomm.net.

About Indecomm Global Services

Indecomm was founded in 2003 as a technology-enabled services company focused on high-speed document imaging technologies and automated data capture from structured and unstructured forms, with an innate ability to apply these technologies meaningfully to improve operational efficiency and client experience. We have been consistently ranked among the Global Top 100 IT and ITeS providers. With over 3,800 associates in 21 locations, Indecomm services its clients from global delivery centers and offices in the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica, the United Kingdom, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Mauritius, and the Cayman Islands. We have active business engagements with over 300 global clients, including 20+ Fortune 500 companies. Visit http://www.indecomm.net or call (732) 404-0081 to learn more.

About Indecomm Mortgage Services

Indecomm Mortgage Services is a leading provider of business services and technology for the US mortgage industry. With solutions for every stage of the mortgage lifecycle, Indecomm Mortgage Services provides outsourcing services, software as a service (SaaS) technology, and learning solutions to support the various needs of mortgage industry clients. With a proven track record of over 25 years in the mortgage industry, Indecomm partners with large and mid-sized lenders, servicers, and title companies as a trusted partner with a singular focus - helping them grow. Visit http://mortgage.indecomm.net or call (732) 404-0081 to learn more.
Cory Watson attorney F. Jerome Tapley speaks at the litigation press conference on Wednesday, March 21, 2018. Tapley is leading the legal team that includes lawyers from Rainwater, Holt & Sexton. "This is an attempt by Arkansas counties and cities to pay to clean up the Arkansas opioid epidemic that the complaint alleges the opioid directly caused, said Cory Watson attorney F. Jerome Tapley.

Cory Watson Attorneys is leading the charge on groundbreaking opioid litigation, working with county, city and state officials to represent the people of Arkansas in the fight against the opioid epidemic.

In an unprecedented approach, hundreds of county, city, state officials and employees gathered Wednesday on the steps of the Arkansas State Capitol to announce that they have filed a lawsuit against the opioid drug industry.

The lawsuit seeks damages from more than 50 drug companies. The money recovered would fund remediation of the opioid epidemic in Arkansas. This unified litigation is unlike any others in the country and will represent 90 percent of Arkansass population, with 72 counties and 210 cities participating.

The lawyers at Cory Watson will help combat the opioid manufacturers who have raked in billions in profits at the expense of devastated families and communities across the country. The attorneys argue that it will cost Arkansas cities and counties billions to stop the Arkansas opioid epidemic, and that the companies that aggressively marketed the opioids should foot the bill instead of the taxpayers.

"This is an attempt by Arkansas counties and cities to pay to clean up the Arkansas opioid epidemic that the complaint alleges the opioid industry directly caused, said Cory Watson attorney F. Jerome Tapley, who is leading the legal team that includes lawyers from Arkansas firm Rainwater, Holt & Sexton.

City and county leaders agree the opioid lawsuit is the best way to handle the ongoing crisis. Don Zimmerman, Executive Director of the Arkansas Municipal League said, Arkansass one-voice approach to this lawsuit is one that gives us a seat at the table. Neither the state or any country or city is big enough alone; this litigation approach ensures that recover damages remain in Arkansas.

The opioid epidemic has ravaged Arkansas communities for years. While the U.S. experiences more than 42,000 fatal overdoses a year, Arkansas experiences over 400, a number that has increased nearly 300 percent since 2000 and coincides with opioid sales quadrupling. Additionally, Arkansas ranks second in the nation in misuse of opioids behind Alabama, which is the only other state with a higher opioid prescribing rate than Arkansas according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Chris Villines, Executive Director of the Association of Arkansas Counties said, "Instead of fighting and competing with each other on critically needed settlement dollars for our cities and counties, all of the cities and counties are working together to do whats best for Arkansas.

Cory Watson Attorneys, a premier national litigation firm, is working with county, city and state officials in Arkansas to help fight the opioid epidemic. The case is pending in the Circuit Court of Crittenden County, Arkansas. The case number is: CV-2018-268. For more information, please visit http://www.corywatson.com.
2017 BCBSM Project of the Year Award - Technosoft Corp. They consistently show integrity and innovation while completing projects within short timeframes and adhering to cost savings initiatives. Technosoft truly goes above and beyond.

Technosoft Corporation (Technosoft), a Southfield, MI based provider of Information Technology solutions, was recognized by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan at the 13th Annual Supplier Diversity Achievement Awards on March 6, 2018. Technosoft received the prestigious Team Project Award for its role in responsive design enhancements to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigans innovative web Member Portal. This application allows Blue Cross Members convenient access to insurance plan information, claims, healthcare providers and much more.

We are deeply honored to receive our third award from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, said Radha Krishnan, President and CEO of Technosoft. We share their relentless pursuit of excellence in delivering a superior experience to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan members.

Technosoft was previously recognized by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan as its 2015 Minority Business Enterprise Supplier of the Year and 2016 Team Project Award for the Digital Services Mobile Application. The mobile application is actively used by Blue Cross members. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan members can download the application at http://www.bcbsm.com or through Apple iTunes or Android Google Play by searching for "BCBSM.

Technosoft is a company that Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan has trusted for over 10 years in the areas of application development and modernization said Chris Maier, Vice President Claims Enrollment & Program Management. They consistently show integrity and innovation while completing projects within short timeframes and adhering to cost savings initiatives. Technosoft truly goes above and beyond.

About Technosoft Corporation

Technosoft is an award-winning provider of Information Technology and Healthcare Business Process Management services. The company has deep expertise in application development and support, Cloud services, product engineering, ERP/CRM support, data science projects, and Artificial Intelligence innovation (machine learning, robotic process automation). Technosoft has been serving Fortune 500 customers for more than 21 years. Headquartered in Southfield, Michigan, Technosoft has 4,400+ employees and operates global delivery centers in the US and India. Learn more at http://www.technosoftcorp.com.
 Krisanne Johnson. Before receiving the Smith Grant in 2011, Krisanne Johnson studied journalism at the U. of Colorado and post graduate work at Ohio University. The student grant was created to encourage students to utilize the photographic medium as a form of humanistic observation and social activism.

The W. Eugene Smith Fund has announced it is establishing an annual Student Grant in photography. Open to all collegiate-level students (any student registered for a full time degree, diploma or certificate program is eligible, on both undergraduate and graduate levels) in any field of study, the new grant encourages students to share photographs which promote social change, embrace new image-sharing technologies, and seeks to integrate the tradition of photography and social change with contemporary practice.

The annual $4,000 Grant can be used by the recipient to complete a work-in-progress. Students can apply online at SmithFund.org/StudentGrant through May 31, 2018. Applicants will be required to pay a $1.00 fee (U.S.) and include a copy of their student ID card to qualify.

The Smith Fund is truly excited to add a new student grant for outstanding documentary photography in the name of W. Eugene Smith, explains Lauren Wendle, president of the Smith Fund. The grant provides a special category for collegiate-level students to submit their documentary photography and tell their stories.

The student grant was created to encourage students to utilize the photographic medium as a form of humanistic observation and social activism, explains Stephen Frailey, Chair of the BFA Photography and Video Department at SVA in New York City, and Smith Fund board member who initiated the Student Grant. In our self-absorbed culture, it is particularly important to renew the commitment to foster cultural dialogue through photography, and to embrace new technologies, image dissemination, and protocols borrowed from other aspects of our visual culture.

Now in its 39th year, W. Eugene Smith Funds annual Grant in Humanistic Photography has awarded over one million dollars to photographers who have demonstrated an exemplary commitment to documenting the human condition in the spirit of Smiths concern and compassion. In addition to the new Student Grant, The Smith Fund will present one recipient with a $35,000 grant, and separate Fellowship Awards will be dispersed at the discretion of the jury. Moreover, the annual Howard Chapnick Grant will honor an individual for his or her leadership in any field ancillary to photojournalism.

Photographers, students, and other industry professionals interested in submitting applications for the 2018 grants (or interested in learning more about the grants and fellowship), should visit SmithFund.org. The deadline for submitting applications to all grants is May 31, 2018.

All Smith Fund Grants and Fellowships will be presented at an annual ceremony at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) Theater in New York City on October 17, 2018. Attendance is free and open to the public.

The W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund is supported by generous contributions from The Incite Project, Herb Ritts Foundation, Canon USA, and The Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation. Additional support is provided by Aperture, Brilliant Graphics, Center for Creative Photography (CCP), the International Center of Photography, MediaStorm, Photo District News (PDN), the School of Visual Arts BFA Photography, MFA Photography, Video and Related Media Department, and Synergy Communications.
Mercy Ships volunteer Nathan Claus examines potential patients to see if they are candidates for surgery on the Africa Mercy. Mercy Ships, credit: Timmy Baskerville For the past 15 years, I have been immensely passionate about caring for the needs of each person that comes to the ship hoping for a free, life-changing surgery.

Mercy Ships, a global nonprofit that provides life-saving surgeries in some of the worlds poorest countries, announced today that Nathan Claus has been appointed hospital director of the Africa Mercy, effective April 1, 2018. In his new position, he will lead the Mercy Ships team of hospital volunteers including surgeons, nurses and other medical professionals, who provide free surgical services and training to support the local healthcare systems in the countries they serve.

Claus, a licensed nurse born and raised in River Forest, Illinois, began volunteering with Mercy Ships in 2003, when the organizations hospital ship, the Anastasis, was docked in Sierra Leone. Since then, he has participated in numerous field service programs on the Anastasis and the Africa Mercy in countries including Benin, Cameroon, Madagascar, Togo, Guinea, the Republic of Congo and Liberia. In 2016, he was appointed as the screening supervisor, overseeing the team that recruits and selects the patients who will receive surgical care onboard the hospital ship.

For the past 15 years, I have been immensely passionate about caring for the needs of each person that comes to the ship hoping for a free, life-changing surgery, Claus said. I look forward to continuing my work with this amazing team of volunteers that makes the work of Mercy Ships possible.

Claus brings with him a wealth of knowledge and personal experience working closely with surgical patients in nations across Africa. Having recently completed a postgraduate degree in global health and currently working on his Master of Science, Claus is well equipped to lead the internationally based medical staff. The Africa Mercy has been docked in Cameroon, Africa, since August 2017 and it will sail to Guinea later this year.

Claus was preceded in this position by Corne Blom, who has been promoted to vice president of international programs.

Individuals interested in learning more about Claus experience can read his blog at http://www.nateclaus.com/. Claus was also featured in National Geographics series, The Surgery Ship, which aired in Australia and the United Kingdom last year and highlighted the work of Mercy Ships.

About Mercy Ships

Mercy Ships uses hospital ships to deliver free, world-class healthcare services, capacity building and sustainable development to those without access in the developing world. Founded in 1978 by Don and Deyon Stephens, Mercy Ships has worked in more than 70 countries providing services valued at more than $1.3 billion, treating more than 2.56 million direct beneficiaries. Each year Mercy Ships has an average of 1,000 volunteer crew from up to 40 nations, serving onboard the Africa Mercy. Professionals including surgeons, dentists, nurses, healthcare trainers, teachers, cooks, seamen, engineers and agriculturalists donate their time and skills to the effort. Mercy Ships seeks to transform individuals and serve nations one at a time. For more information, visit http://www.mercyships.org.
Field59: A service of TownNews.com Integration of Field59's video platform within BLOX CMS allows our customers to have broadcast quality video available for their desktop, mobile, and OTT applications.

TownNews.com, creator of the media industry's leading multimedia content management platform, announced today that it is acquiring Field59, producer of acclaimed video management and streaming solutions for media organizations.

"We are thrilled to have Field59 join the TownNews.com team," said Brad Ward, CEO of TownNews.com. "Field59 has been a strong and trusted partner for several years. Integration of Field59's video platform within BLOX CMS allows our customers to have broadcast quality video available for their desktop, mobile, and OTT applications."

"I'm extremely excited. Our partnership with TownNews.com has been very rewarding," said Derek Gebler, CEO of Field59. "We're bringing to the table more than 15 years of experience working with broadcasters and their digital video workflows. Field59's video solutions are the perfect fit for TownNews.com's complete digital media offering."

The acquisition will help clients of both companies navigate a market facing upheaval from changing media consumption habits and overhauled regulatory guidelines.

"We've strived for nearly 30 years to bring our customers emerging technology that can help them successfully evolve their business models," said Marc Wilson, Executive Chairman of TownNews.com. "The FCC's recent change in cross-ownership rules makes it easier for media companies to deliver their news and advertising content in new ways. As consumer habits continue to change, TownNews.com is pleased that we can, with this acquisition, provide another set of elegant yet inexpensive tools to create better communications channels between media companies and their audiences."

Gebler sees joining TownNews.com as an opportunity for the Field59 team to continue their core mission under the umbrella of a strong technology partner.

"Video is such a big piece of the digital media puzzle," Gebler said. "We've always focused on making the video workflow as seamless as possible. With TownNews.com, we will be able to continue and expand on that philosophy."

About TownNews.com

TownNews.com was founded as the International Newspaper Network (I.N.N.) in 1989 to help community newspapers with developing technology. Today, our integrated digital publishing and content management solutions power some of the most distinguished media organizations in the industry. More than 1,700 newspaper, broadcast, magazine and web-native publications rely on us for their web, print, mobile and social media products. Our complete solutions suite includes add-ons for data management, content exchange, over-the-top (OTT) video, business directory and more, helping you boost revenue, improve efficiency and grow your audience. Lee Enterprises of Davenport, Iowa, became majority partner in 1996. We are headquartered in Moline, IL.

About Field59

Field59 is a premier online video management system for news, media companies and premium content creators. They offer cloud-based video management, distribution, integration, and live streaming solutions for desktop, mobile and OTT devices. Their solutions also include video-on-demand, real-time frame-accurate editing, automated syndication, smart playlist technology, customizable players, closed captions support, full API tools, analytics, and advertising solutions.

Field59 is headquartered in Madison, WI, and is a trusted partner of Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc. (CNHI), GateHouse Media, Raycom Media, Woodward Communications, Rockfleet Broadcasting, Morris Multimedia, Block Communications, Steinman Communications and Exact Sciences Corporation.
Lorain Day of Giving Thank you for providing your time and resources during this difficult time in our life...

It was an amazing day full of amazing patients and an even more amazing team.  Tammy Basnett, Smile Brands Inc. Director of Market Operations for Cleveland and Midwest Cities.

Volunteers from Smile Brands affiliated Bright Now! Dental offices all around the Northern Ohio area came together on Saturday morning to provide free dental services to the local low-income community. Patients served include underserved youth, adults overcoming hardships, victims of domestic violence, and even the homeless. [It was] very rewarding, truly an Everyday Miracle day that will stay with us for a lifetime! Tammy continues.

Providers and support staff who volunteered their time this past Saturday were able to provide services to almost 70 patients. Procedures include checkups, cleanings, oral cancer screenings, fluoride treatments, fillings and extractions. Services provided during this Day of Giving amounted to nearly $80,000 in donated dentistry.

Elizabeth and Kaleb Williams have been working to overcome some personal challenges and have not had the time or resources to care for their teeth for a while. Although this was a free event, Elizabeth said the care she received was at the level of excellence she would have expected at a paying dental appointment. She thinks the Bright Now! Dental team was very caring and compassionate. Thank you for providing your time and resources during this difficult time in our life; your care and genuine concern are so much appreciated, she says.

At only 28 years old, Jesse Tarson was experiencing serious decay on all of his upper teeth and some of his bottom teeth as well. Dr. Imad Nouneh identified Jesses problem and wanted to do more than extract the decaying teeth. With the partnership of the Smiles for Everyone Foundation, and the generosity of both Dr. Nouneh and Dr. Jose Jabboure, Jesse will be transferred to the Foundations Smile Makeover program and receive a full top and partial bottom denture at no cost to him.

When the team told him that the doctors wanted to volunteer their time to give him his smile back, he could not stop crying. Its been so long since Ive smiled, he says. The Foundation looks forward to sharing more of his story, plus his before and after photos, once the procedures are complete.

Smiles for Everyone Foundation will be back in Ohio delivering Smiles to the Huber Heights community in August. The next Day of Giving for this year will be in partnership with Monarch Dental in Burleson, Texas, on Saturday, April 7, 2018.

About Bright Now! Dental

Bright Now! Dental provides general dentistry, childrens dentistry and, in select locations, specialty care services such as orthodontics, oral surgery, periodontics and endodontics at over 150 offices across Colorado, California, Washington, Oregon, Utah, Arizona, Florida, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana. Bright Now! Dentals Cleveland offices are operated by Dental Professionals Cleveland  Nouneh, Inc. (the Group). The Group is affiliated with Smile Brands Inc., one of the largest providers of business support services to dental groups in the United States.Smile Brands Inc. provides comprehensive business support services through exclusive long-term service agreements with affiliate dental groups, so dentists can spend more time caring for their patients and less time on the administrative, marketing and financial aspects of operating a dental practice. Smile Brands is a portfolio company of Gryphon Investors (Gryphon), a leading middle-market private equity firm based in San Francisco, Calif. For more information, visit smilebrands.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:

Bright Now! Dental

Jody Martin

PR@smilebrands.com

714.427.1299

Smiles for Everyone Foundation

Crystal Strait

crystal.strait@smilesforeveryone.org

714.824.5037
Furia Rubel Communications, Inc. President and CEO, Gina Rubel, will present Effective & Ethical Use of Social Media for Law Firms for the Association of Legal Administrators National Conference on May 3 in National Harbor, MD.

Rubel will teach law firm administrators how to design, execute, manage and measure an effective law firm social media presence with relevant and regular content in order to boost client retention and acquisition.

Social media offers law firms efficient and effective ways to engage and inform their target audiences on a myriad of topics but it is important to understand the benefits of social media and how manage the risks, she said. Lawyers in all areas of practice are using social media tools for content marketing, reputation management, and to communicate with their clients and prospects. It is imperative for legal administrators to understand how to guide lawyers in social media marketing and content marketing endeavors.

During this program, legal marketing and crisis management expert and attorney, Gina Rubel, will address how legal administrators can work with lawyers to develop a social media strategy and implement a social media campaign ethically and effectively for long-term success.

Rubel founded Furia Rubel Marketing and Public Relations, an award-winning strategic planning and integrated marketing agency, in 2002. A strategic marketing expert, social media enthusiast, attorney and author, Rubel teaches audiences nationwide how to implement ethical, integrated and measurable communication strategies that help their organizations to meet their business objectives.

Her agency is ranked No. 1 in Pennsylvania by The Legal Intelligencer and among the top three nationwide by The National Law Journal. In addition, Rubel has been honored by The Justinian Society with the Lisa A. Richette Woman in Law Award and has been named a Woman of Distinction by The Legal Intelligencer and Philadelphia Business Journal. She has been included among Pennsylvanias Best 50 Women in Business and is a SmartCEO magazines Brava Award winner. She often is quoted by Law360 and has appeared on various news programs as a communications expert. She contributes regularly to various publications including The Legal Intelligencer and occasionally writes for The Huffington Post and National Law Review.

While actively practicing law, Rubel served on a Supreme Court of Pennsylvania Disciplinary Board Hearing Committee where she conducted legal ethics reviews of other lawyers. Rubel is a graduate of Drexel University and Widener University Delaware Law School.

You can follow her on Twitter at @ginarubel or connect with her on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/in/ginafuriarube l.

About Furia Rubel Marketing and Public Relations: Furia Rubel Marketing and Public Relations is an integrated and strategic marketing and public relations agency based in Bucks County, Pa. The certified woman-owned agency provides strategic planning, marketing, public relations, media relations, graphic design, website design, content marketing, blog production and social media services to a wide array of professional clients. Furia Rubel represents law firms, technology companies, educational organizations, accounting firms, nonprofits, municipalities, and manufacturing, behavioral health and elder care organizations. For more information, visit http://www.furiarubel.com.
Small batch barrels at Nahmias et Fils distillery contain aging rye, bourbon and single malt whiskies. David and Dorit have kept their heads down for years, perfecting the family Mahia recipe Davids ancestors have made for generations in Morocco, says TJ Allan - Brand Manager for Nahmias et Fils.

Nahmias et Fils Distillery (Nahmias et Fils" or the "Company"), distillers of Mahia Fig eau de vie and Legs Diamond Whiskeys, announced today the launch of its newly revamped website. The newly redesigned website allows the Companys customers quick and easy access to product information while offering a more dynamic user experience. The new website offers quick access to recipes, news, and distillery processes allowing users to enjoy a deeper understanding of Nahmias et Fils products and how to use them in their cocktail experience.

The new website has a new spirited design, improved functionality and enhanced content focused on the Company's mission to provide the world's first commercially available Mahia. Nahmias began distilling the spirit in 2012, and currently is the only commercial producer of the spirit in the United States with distribution in New York, Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Washington D.C., Maryland, California and Rhode Island. Nahmias et Fils is in conversation with several distributors in other U.S. states with eyes on international distribution by the end of 2018. The new website goes live today, March 27, 2018 and is located at the same address: http://nahmiasetfils.com

David and Dorit have kept their heads down for years, perfecting the family Mahia recipe Davids ancestors have made for generations in Morocco, says TJ Allan - Brand Manager for Nahmias et Fils. The company and entire Nahmias community share excitement around this new website We have all worked feverishly to bring these products forward to our customers, and now we have a vehicle for exposure and engagement that is commensurate to the quality of the spirits we produce.

ABOUT THE COMPANY:

Founded in 2012 in Yonkers, NY, Nahmias et Fils distills and distributes Mahia and Legs Diamond 100% Rye Whiskey, with new bourbon and single malt whiskeys to be released Spring 2018.

David and Dorit Nahmias decided to end successful careers in banking and technology to pursue their dream of owning a distillery, and began making the traditional Moroccan spirit called Mahia, adding the Rye Whiskey to their catalogue in 2013 rounding out their offerings for restaurants, bars and liquor stores throughout the New York Metro area. Nahmias began shipping to other states late 2014 and continues to foster relationships with customers throughout the U.S. and abroad.

Mahia, best known as the national spirit of Morocco, is an Eau de Vie distilled from figs and just a hint of anise seed. In English-speaking countries, eau de vie (Water Of Life), refers to a distilled beverage made from any fruit other than grapes.

Master Distiller, David Nahmias, was raised in the small Moroccan town south of Taznakht. A 7th generation Master Distiller, David is following his families long tradition of hand crafting Mahia in Morocco. His parents, Joseph and Tamou, and grandparents, Saada and Moshe, were also distillers and they created Mahia, made entirely from figs, dates, or grapes for their community. For 25 years, David worked as a computer-software engineer in the banking, accounting, collections and home-loan industries.

Company president, Dorit Nahmias, former Foreign Exchange Trader with Bank Leumi and a Financial Institutions Relationship Manager with OCBC Bank, oversees production of the Nahmias et Fils line of spirits while managing the companies distribution and business dealings. She is a graduate of the Levin Institute and Carnegie Mellon University.

Nahmias et Fils distillery is located just a few miles north of New York City, and has garnered acclaim from press, bloggers and mixologists worldwide.

David and Dorit have with three children, and a passion for green living, choosing organic, locally-grown ingredients for the Legs Diamond Whiskey and clean ingredients for the Mahia.

Nahmias new website will be updated on a regular basis with news of new partnerships, recipes, corporate milestones, events, business activity, investor and financial information and new product launches. Visitors are encouraged to explore the website and sign up for direct emails from the Company at http://nahmiasetfils.com.

Instagram:

@nahmiasetfils

Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/nahmiasetfils
Donnabella Mortel Narrates Elaine Castillo's First Novel, "America Is Not the Heart" I'm thankful for being able to be apart of such a beautifully written story.

Donnabella Mortel (How to Get Away With Murder, NCIS, The Young and The Restless) is back at it, releasing another audio book narration, this time with author Elaine Castillo. Mortel recently narrated "This Shattered World: A Starbound Novel & Illuminae", by Amie Kaufman and "Wild Cards IV: Aces Abroad", by George R. R. Martin.

Castillo is a San Francisco, California native and she graduated from the University of California, Berkeley. "America Is Not the Heart" is her first novel, and is published by Penguin Random House publishing.

The novel is about a young woman haunted by the political upheaval in the Philippines, disowned by her parents, and essentially already on her third life. She's welcomed with open arms by her uncle in the Bay Area, no questions asked. His younger wife knows enough about the might and secrecy of the De Vera family to keep her head down. But their daughter  the first American-born daughter in the family  can't resist asking Hero about her damaged hands.

An increasingly relevant story told with startling lucidity, humor, and an uncanny ear for the intimacies and shorthand of family ritual, "America Is Not the Heart" is a sprawling, soulful debut about three generations of women in one family struggling to balance the promise of the American dream and the unshakable grip of history. With exuberance, grit, and sly tenderness, here is a family saga; an origin story; a romance; a narrative of two nations and the people who leave one home to grasp at another.

Mortel was nice enough to sit down with us to answer a few questions about her narration experience:

Chris: "Thank you for taking the time. What made you want to get into doing audio books?"

Mortel: "No problem at all. Thank You. I always thought it could be a fun way to express yourself through such a unique medium: your voice. My very first audio narration was 'This Shattered World.' The book was so well written and told in the first person. I was able to explore and explain my world in real-time in a new way that was really fun."

Chris: "How was it like narrating an entire book? Tiring I bet? "

Mortel: "Long sessions and a lot of words, but fun! It was a great way to exercise my creativity and delve into a part of my own life that I had not touched based with in a long time, that being my filipino side. A lot of personal memories and attachments came up in the process, which was cool. I'm thankful for being able to be apart of such a beautifully written story."

Chris: "Any other audio books or projects on the horizon that we can look out for? "

Mortel: "I do thankfully. I'll be on an episode of NBC's Reverie, and another show I can't mention any specifics on yet. I'm also currently working on a few creative ideas with Kevin L. Walker. Just working towards putting some awesome work out for people."

The audio book is currently available for Pre-Order and is currently scheduled to be released on April 3, 2018.

For more information on the 'America Is Not The Heart' and/or to pre-order a copy visit Penguin House Random's website: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/549486/america-is-not-the-heart-by-elaine-castillo/9780525529552

For more information on Donnabella, check out her Official website: https://donnabellamortel.com/
CRM and Marketing Automation anchor a stack of MarTech and SalesTech solutions that together with a unified marketing and sales team form the front line for managing engagements with prospects and customers throughout their lifecycle.

Revenue Marketing consulting firm, The Pedowitz Group (TPG), announces Principal Partners Bruce Culbert and Debbie Qaqish will co-present a session on talent and organizational design during CRM Evolution 2018, April 9-11 at the Renaissance Washington DC Hotel. Chief Service Officer Bruce Culbert and Chief Strategy Officer Debbie Qaqish will deliver an Expert Perspectives track on Talent and Organizational Design Considerations for the Engagement Economy," on April 10, 4:30  5:15pm. Register here for the conference and to attend their session.

Todays customers expect vendors to predict, meet and exceed their expectations 24/7  One misstep in todays hyper digital, social media obsessed world can be a death knell for companies who fall short. Having the right talent and processes in place to meet these escalating expectations is key to survival and prosperity.

Successful B2B companies operate in an agile environment, adapting readily to changing industry conditions and customer demands. CRM and Marketing Automation anchor a stack of MarTech and SalesTech solutions that together with a unified marketing and sales team form the front line for managing engagements with prospects and customers throughout their lifecycle.

During their session, Talent & Organizational Design Considerations for the Engagement Economy, Bruce and Debbie will address these burning questions:



What are the roles, responsibilities, skill sets to execute a companys engagement strategy?

How should marketing & sales operations and support be structured and organized?

Presenters will share results from recent research, which analyzes trends, case studies, and interviews with dozens of companies of different sizes and industries facing these same challenges. Attendees will learn what these companies are doing to develop and support leaders in todays customer-driven engagement economy.

CRM Evolution 2018 Highlights

Other highlights of this years conference include the keynote address by Brian Solis, principal analyst at Altimeter Group on Designing Customer Experiences that Matter to a New Generation of Accidental Narcissists. Constellation Research Founder and Principal Analyst, Ray Wang will deliver The Future of CX: Infinite Ambient Orchestration. Amazons Pasquale DeMaio will discuss how AI is changing customer service and an expert panel will discuss GDPR), which begins on May 25, 2018. David Raab, founder of Customer Data Platform Institute will talk about Customer Data Platforms for Business Marketing. And a panel of CRM heavy-hitters including Salesforce.com and SAP will reveal the mega trends that will completely disrupt the industry by 2020.

About CRM Evolution 2018

CRM Evolution 2018 features over 60 speakers in more than 40 sessions. Attendees will learn from the brightest and most influential thought leaders in the CRM space. Conference Co-chairs are Paul Greenberg, the Godfather of CRM and managing principal of The 56 Group and Brent Leary, CRM Essentials co-founder and partner. Together they and the editors of CRM magazine have assembled some of the top CRM analysts and consultants, project leaders, and vendors in the industry. This years conference will be held in Washington DC, April 9-11, at the Renaissance Washington DC Hotel. For more information visit here. Twitter #CRMEvolution

About The Pedowitz Group  Connecting Marketing to Revenue

The Pedowitz Group wrote the book, and is the undisputed thought leader on Revenue Marketing. As your partner, The Pedowitz Group (TPG) helps you operationalize business accountability, digital transformation and the customer experience through marketing operations. We believe that Marketing is the driver of customer engagement that fuels the revenue engine. The Pedowitz Group customers have won over 50 national awards for their Revenue Marketing excellence. To discover how we can help your organization become successful Revenue Marketers, visit http://www.pedowitzgroup.com, or call us at 855-REV-MKTG or visit Revenue Marketer Blog.

Media/Analyst Contact

Elizabeth Fairleigh

thE Connection, Inc.

404.874.4562

Elizabeth@EConnectionPR.com
Mike York, CEO, PracticeMatch PracticeMatch Career Fairs are a highly effective method for physicians and advanced practice clinicians to expedite their job search process.

Physicians and advanced practice clinicians from across the state of New York will convene at the Westin New York Times Square, Saturday April 7, to meet with representatives of top healthcare employers from around the northeast. The professional physician career fair and recruiting event is hosted by PracticeMatch, a leading physician database of pre-interviewed physicians for healthcare employers. Hiring managers from more than 19 healthcare systems will attend the event to recruit top talent in clinical practice including a variety of medical specialties.

"We look forward to a very successful event in New York City," states Mike York, CEO of PracticeMatch. "Our weekend recruiting fairs are always very busy, and New York City is often a popular, desired location for many candidates, including new and experienced physicians and clinicians," York adds. "New York is home to a plethora of top health systems and academic centers, many of which will be represented at this event to recruit for multiple medical career opportunities throughout the area."

Several leading healthcare systems from around the state of New York are scheduled to attend the PracticeMatch physician career fair in New York City on April 7, including HCA, Acadia Healthcare, SSM Health, and many more. Complimentary dinner and drinks will be provided to attendees and their significant others, who are also welcomed to attend the networking and recruiting event.

"PracticeMatch Career Fairs are a highly effective method for physicians and advanced practice clinicians to expedite their job search process," York states. "For those healthcare professionals who can make it to New York City for the event, it will be well worth the time and travel. There is no better way to obtain valuable face-time with your desired employers than to attend a career fair where you can meet with representatives from several top health systems in one day."

Since 2010, PracticeMatch has offered a series of physician career fairs. Over the years, many cities, additional dates and new features have been added, based on attendee feedback, as the attendance and demand for career fairs continually grew. These well-organized recruiting events provide healthcare professionals an invaluable opportunity to network directly with multiple healthcare employers in a convenient location and professional atmosphere for engaging with recruiting representatives. The annual schedule of PracticeMatch Career Fairs and recruiting events now includes 16 onsite recruiting events, and 13 virtual career fairs annually, plus several regional and national virtual (online) career fairs. Employers and candidates can streamline their search efforts by connecting with multiple professionals from a variety of top healthcare employers, in one event.

Candidates may register online to attend. Healthcare professionals who are interested in working in or near New York, but are unable to attend the live event, may also register their information online to be shared with the New York employers participating in the career fair.

Event Details:

What: PracticeMatch Physician and Advanced Practice Career Fair  Recruiting, Networking, Dinner, and Drinks.

Where: Westin New York Times Square  270 West 43rd St. New York, NY 10036

Who: Physicians, residents, fellows, NPs, PAs of all specialties who are interested in networking with healthcare employers in NYC and surrounding areas. Significant others are welcome to join.

When: April 7, 2018, 11:00am-3:00pm Eastern Time

How: Register online, PracticeMatch website

About PracticeMatch:

PracticeMatch is one of the most established companies serving healthcare employers with recruiting resources, including one of the nations largest pre-interviewed physician databases. Other services and products include job boards, career fairs, a scholarship, among many other resources for healthcare job seekers and employers. Established more than 25 years ago, its Pinpoint physician database includes over 345,000 interviewed, pre-screened physicians. Based in St. Louis, MO, the company hosts more than 30 physician career fairs annually, across the country. For media inquiries, or to schedule an interview with a PracticeMatch executive, please contact Andrea Clement  aclement@usa.M3.com. For more information regarding healthcare recruiting resources provided by PracticeMatch, please contact Mike York (800) 489-1440, or email mike.york@practicematch.com.

# # #

If you would like more information about this topic, please contact Andrea Clement, Media Relations at 404.990.3614 or email at aclement@usa.m3.com.
CertainTeeds products are a great addition to our approved vendor repertoire.

CertainTeed, a leading North American manufacturer of exterior and interior building products, and Mosaic, the nation's leading residential solar lending platform, announce the addition of CertainTeeds US Series solar modules to Mosaics lending platform.

Were delighted to partner with a truly innovative leader in solar financing, said CertainTeed Solar Director Mark Stancroff, Mosaics financing expertise and first-class loan products are a perfect complement to our high-performing solar modules and systems. This partnership offers homeowners the ability to make a long-term investment in solar with attractive returns, strengthened by CertainTeeds stability in the marketplace.

CertainTeeds products are a great addition to our approved vendor repertoire, remarked Ted Fawcett, EVP of Sales and Marketing at Mosaic. We pride ourselves on being able to offer high-quality equipment options to our channel partners as they help homeowners across the US go solar.

Featuring 60 cell power outputs of 300W+, CertainTeeds US Series modules are American-made using domestic and foreign components, and continually ranked among the most efficient domestically-assembled products in the solar industry.

US Series modules are also available in a 72 cell format with power output up to 365W.

In addition, homeowners who have CertainTeed solar modules installed as part of a Solstice system are afforded the confidence of CertainTeeds comprehensive system warranty. This single-source warranty covers all major system components, as well as the workmanship on the installation of the system, for up to 25 years.

###

About CertainTeed

Through the responsible development of innovative and sustainable building products, CertainTeed, headquartered in Malvern, Pennsylvania, has helped shape the building products industry for more than 110 years. Founded in 1904 as General Roofing Manufacturing Company, the firm's slogan "Quality Made Certain, Satisfaction Guaranteed," inspired the name CertainTeed. Today, CertainTeed is a leading North American brand of exterior and interior building products, including roofing, siding, fence, decking, railing, trim, insulation, drywall and ceilings. A subsidiary of Saint-Gobain, one of the worlds largest and oldest building products companies, CertainTeed has more than 6,300 employees and more than 60 manufacturing facilities throughout the United States and Canada. The group had total sales of approximately $3.7 billion in 2017.

About Mosaic

Mosaic is the nation's leading residential solar lending platform, enabling thousands of people to prosper from the benefits of clean energy by owning their own solar panels. Honored by Fast Company as a Top Ten Most Innovative Company in Energy for two consecutive years, Mosaic is also a U.S. Department of Energy SunShot award recipient, a Sierra Club Trailblazer Company of the year, and was the Sustainability category winner of Verizons Powerful Answers Award. For more information, visit http://joinmosaic.com Solar Mosaic Inc., CFL Lic. #6054631
Constellation HomeBuilder Systems "The goal of this event is to equip builders with strategies to overcome the latest challenges of labor shortages and decreased land availability."

Constellation HomeBuilder Systems, the largest provider of home building software solutions and services, will be supporting the victims of Hurricane Harvey by hosting a live educational event on April 19, 2018 in Houston, TX.

Constellation HomeBuilder Systems will be donating all proceeds from the event to Habitat for Humanity, a charity that works to ensure everyone has a decent and affordable place to call home. Proceeds will be put towards the rebuilding of family homes damaged by Hurricane Harvey. Its important that we support communities in their time of need, says Chris Graham, Vice President of Constellation HomeBuilder Systems. Supporting the building community is extremely important to us as a company and many parts of greater Houston are still in a state of need.

The half day event itself will feature panelists from Meyers Research, Woodland OBrien and a few top home building companies in the Texas area. Scott Davis, Senior Vice President of Meyers Research will be one of the experts weighing in on the current Texas home building climate and how recent events such as Hurricane Harvey will impact residential development opportunities. The challenge is managing to build and rebuild homes with limited trade labor and materials, while the demand continues to climb. The goal of this event is to equip builders with strategies to overcome the latest challenges of labor shortages and decreased land availability, said Charlie Scott, Director of Woodland OBrien & Scott. With the latest data and figures available, attendees will better understand how to position their business for long-term success.

After hearing the research, a panel of home builder executives will discuss how the market trends are impacting their day-to-day business. A networking lunch will allow attendees to discuss challenges and strategies to meet these trends.

Seats are very limited in this live event. To learn about new opportunities to thrive in the Texas market, save your spot now.

About Constellation HomeBuilder Systems

Constellation HomeBuilder Systems is the largest provider of software and services in the building industry. Their innovative software solutions, available as standalone or integrated systems, empower builders with information to drive business objectives and simplify the process of building homes and condos. Constellation HomeBuilder Systems is the home building software division of Constellation Software Inc., an international provider of market-leading software and services for specialized industries, which is traded publicly on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

SOURCE Constellation HomeBuilder Systems
Yes! Student Ambassadors The purpose of Learning Ally's YES! Program is to help students with dyslexia recognize their strengths and weaknesses, build confidence and learn about tools to become strong self-advocates.

Harvey Hubbell V, winner of four Emmys for documentaries, will be headlining a career workshop sponsored by the Massachusetts YES! Program. The workshop, Dyslexia Spells Success: Career Exploration, will feature Hubbell and other professionals discussing their journeys with dyslexia. It will also include a screening of Hubbells 2013 film "Dislecksia: The Movie" for parents.

During the workshop, students will participate in a series of small-group sessions with mentors from such varied fields as chemistry, pediatrics, plumbing, and consulting, as well as speak with a two-time U.S. Olympian.

The focus will be on sharing individual stories of how dyslexia impacted and influenced career development, as well as giving participants some hands-on experience of what careers in these various fields entail.

YES! Ambassadors will team up with participants to build connections with mentors and to encourage discussion about career interests.

The workshop will take place on Saturday, April 7th, from 9:30am-12 pm at the Chapel Hill-Chauncy Hall School (379 Lexington Street) in Waltham. Cost is $10 for YES! members, $15 for non-members.

Register online via the Learning Ally website: https://1in5.learningally.org/YES-Program/YES-Massachusetts

About the YES! Program: The YES! Program stands for Youth Examples of Self Advocacy and is sponsored by the Learning Ally organization. The purpose of YES! is to help train students with dyslexia to recognize their strengths and weaknesses, build confidence and provide them with the tools to become strong self-advocates. Student Ambassadors (ages 12-18) are trained in advocacy and communications skills to help mentor younger dyslexic students.

Here's a link to the YES! Program (click on Massachusetts state icon for more info): http://explore1in5.org/YES-Program

About Dislecksia: The Movie

What do Billy Bob Thornton, Stephen J. Cannell and Joe Pantoliano have in common with 1.4 billion children and adults worldwide? Dyslexia. Harvey Hubbell explores issues surrounding dyslexia through a very personal lens, weaving his own lifelong experience with the research of scientists, the practice of educators, and the life experiences of celebrities, politicians, and adults and children living with dyslexia. Dislecksia: The Movie is a powerfully touching and entertaining documentary that mixes humor and perspective with insight and analysis. The film educates and illuminates many misconceptions about dyslexia, while underlining the need for raised awareness, early identification and social change. Watch the trailer at: vimeo.com/75438185

About Learning Ally

Learning Ally is a leading nonprofit ed-tech organization delivering a comprehensive learning solution for struggling readers in elementary, middle and high schools. Our proven solution includes an extensive library of human-read audiobooks that students want and need to read at home and at school, along with a suite of teacher-focused resources that ensure student success. This reading experience helps accelerate learning, enables a new level of access to knowledge and powerfully increases confidence and self-belief.

Learning Ally successfully partners with more than 13,000 U.S. schools, districts and leading state education systems across the country to empower over 300,00 students with improved comprehension, vocabulary, fluency and critical thinking skills. For over 70 years, the organization has helped to transform the lives of struggling readers by bridging the gap between their reading capability and their academic potential to become confident, lifelong learners who thrive in school and beyond.

Learn more about Learning Ally. 800-221-1098. http://www.learningally.org.
In making the announcement, President Hall said, I couldnt be more excited that Adam Castro is joining the Mercy senior team. His energy, his knowledge of enrollment strategies, and his commitment to Mercys transformational mission will take the colleges admissions to a new level.

Mercy College has appointed Adam J. Castro as Vice President of Admissions. He will join the College on June 1 and will oversee the Colleges admissions and marketing efforts. Currently the Vice President for Enrollment Management at Bloomfield College, Castro has 15 years of experience in higher education.

Castro was selected by Mercy College President Tim Hall following a comprehensive search that produced a highly qualified applicant pool. In making the announcement, President Hall said, I couldnt be more excited that Adam Castro is joining the Mercy senior team. His energy, his knowledge of enrollment strategies, and his commitment to Mercys transformational mission will take the colleges admissions to a new level.

I am blown away by Mercy Colleges commitment to college access, affordability, and developing cutting-edge programs, said Castro. From the second I stepped on-campus, I felt at home. The amazing facilities are only outmatched by the talented and dedicated people moving the institution forward. I see incredible potential and I cant wait to get started.

While at Bloomfield College, Castro lead the effort to enroll the five largest freshman classes in the Colleges history, increased enrollment for academically aspirant freshmen by 30 percent, developed the first Early Action Program and recently lead the College in its move to a test-optional admission policy. Complementing traditional strategies with technological solutions, Castro possesses broad expertise in key areas including predictive modeling, digital marketing, and customer relationship management systems. Known for his leadership and mentoring, Castro expresses that he is most proud of the energetic, collaborative, and cohesive work environment that he has helped foster and which he plans to make a hallmark of his tenure at Mercy.

Castro is an active member of numerous organizations including the National Association of College Admission Counselors (NACAC), the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO), Association of International Educators (NAFSA) and the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in New Jersey (AICUNJ). He is also co-host of Admissions Live, a monthly professional development program on the Higher Ed Live network.

A New Jersey resident, Castro received his masters degree in Public Administration from Kean University and holds a bachelors degree in Journalism and Media Studies from the Rutgers University School of Communication and Library Studies.

About Mercy College

Mercy College is the dynamic, diverse New York City area college whose students are on a personal mission: to get the most out of life by getting the most out of their education. Founded in 1950, Mercy is a coeducational and nonsectarian college that offers more than 90 undergraduate and graduate degree and certificate programs within five schools: Business, Education, Health and Natural Sciences, Liberal Arts and Social and Behavioral Sciences. With campuses in Dobbs Ferry, Bronx, Manhattan and Yorktown Heights, the vibrancy of the College culture is sustained by a diverse student body from around the region.
Kleber & Associates (K&A), a full-service marketing and public relations agency, has been selected as the agency of record by Reliance Worldwide Corporation (RWC). RWC is one of the largest plumbing manufacturers in the North American; the companies brands include SharkBite Plumbing Solutions, Cash Acme , and Holdrite as well as Streamlabs, which is RWCs smart home water technology division.

Sharkbite Plumbing Solutions, a pioneer of push-to-connect plumbing solutions, has appointed K&A to strategically promote the companys new EvoPEX plumbing solution which helps professionals cut down on job time and improve efficiency. In addition, SharkBite recently introduced more than 100 new plumbing products and during the launch, K&A conducted a media tour in Chicago to promote all the products.

While vested with a primary responsibility for advertising and PR, Kleber & Associates has exceeded our expectations on a regular basis. In fact, the agencys SharkBite PR program delivered much more than the valuable earned media impressions they promised, said Chris Carrier, U.S. Marketing Director  USA of Reliance Worldwide Corporation, SharkBite Plumbing Solutions.

K&A understands the industry and the importance of influencers by delivering vital project profile testimonials and case studies from trade professionals as well as blogger engagement activities. Their tradeshow support and media tours are as essential as is their overall thought leadership, added Carrier.

Following 30 years of specialization in the construction and home remodeling industry, we remain confident of continued growth for 2018 with the strong commitment to future marketing efforts demonstrated by RWC, said Steve Kleber, president and founder of Kleber & Associates.

For more information on K&A and its marketing services, visit http://www.kleberandassociates.com.

About Kleber & Associates:

Kleber & Associates (K&A) is a leading full-service marketing agency specializing in the home and building products industries. Based in Atlanta, K&A has more than 30 years of experience delivery compelling, creative and measureable results. The agencys mantra is Right at Homes, which is brought to life by promoting brands that build better homes. K&A is a privately owned agency run by company founder Steve Kleber, who is the president of the National Remodeling Foundation and the immediate past president of the National Kitchen & Bath Associations Center for Kitchen and Bath Education and Research. For more information on K&A, visit http://www.kleberandassociates.com.

About Reliance Worldwide Corporation

Reliance Worldwide Corporation (RWC) is a global manufacturer of water control systems and plumbing solutions for residential, commercial and industrial applications. From the innovative SharkBite Push-to-Connect system to the advanced line of Cash Acme water control valves to the innovative Holdrite pipe support and firestop systems, RWC develops, manufactures and delivers trusted solutions for the plumbing trade.
"The Director of Major Accounts position is critical to implementing strategies that best serve our customers in 2018 and beyond, and we are thrilled to have Allen joining our team - Amanda Ayala, Divisional Vice President of Trader Commercial Solutions

Trader Commercial Solutions, a division of Trader Interactive, has announced the addition of industry expert Allen Ewing to their team as they continue to grow their Equipment Trader brand.

Ewing joins the organization as Director of Major Accounts. In this role, he will be responsible for serving the Equipment Trader brand by maintaining & expanding relationships with large, multi-location customers. Ewing will develop and implement strategies for retention and growth, coordinating with the Sales, Product, and Marketing teams to create unique packages and incentives.

The Director of Major Accounts position is critical to implementing strategies that best serve our customers in 2018 and beyond, and we are thrilled to have Allen joining our team, stated Amanda Ayala, Divisional Vice President of Trader Commercial Solutions.

Ewing brings extensive knowledge and experience building and leading high-performing sales and marketing teams that drive value for their customers. Ewing has over 14 years within the commercial sales industry, notably as Sales Director for Major Accounts with Autotrader, and most recently as Executive Director with Valassis. He has earned multiple awards for his high performance.

I am extremely excited to join the team at Trader Interactive, said Ewing. The culture of transparency and collaboration facilitates the building of strong customer relationships. I look forward to working with the entire team to help our clients succeed.

About Equipment Trader

Equipment Trader is the industry leader serving sellers of construction, earthmoving, agricultural, forestry, mining, and industrial equipment and trailers. With over 800,000 monthly unique visitors to EquipmentTrader.com, our main purpose is to bring equipment buyers and sellers together. Additionally, Equipment Trader is committed to providing innovative products to ensure that manufacturers and dealers generate connections, drive sales, and maximize profits. For more information about Equipment Trader, please visit http://www.EquipmentTrader.com.

About Trader Interactive

Trader Interactive, headquartered in Norfolk, Va., is the leading online classifieds marketplace and marketing software solutions provider to commercial and recreational vehicle dealers. The company, building on decades of success as a marketplace for buyers and sellers, joined a private equity portfolio in 2017 led by Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking and Eurazeo Capital. Trader Interactive has a robust group of business-to-consumer brands including Cycle Trader and RV Trader, and a suite of industry-leading business-to-business brands including Commercial Truck Trader and Equipment Trader. Trader also represents a growing segment of commercial and recreational vehicle dealers through its Commercial Web Services and RV Web Services platform. Trader Interactives marketplace sites attract more than seven million unique visitors monthly. The company supports dealers and manufacturers by providing innovative products that generate leads, drive sales and maximize profits. Trader Interactive has 11 businesses and approximately 300 employees in 26 states.
Donald Gibson Joining Manhattan College as dean is a dream come true, said Gibson. With its dynamic combination of cutting-edge business skills and liberal arts thinking in the context of global New York City, this is the kind of business school students need in an ever more complex world.

Following a national search, Donald E. Gibson, Ph.D., has been named dean of Manhattan Colleges OMalley School of Business, effective July 1.

Gibson comes to Manhattan College following leadership roles at Fairfield University as vice provost for academic affairs and dean of Fairfields Dolan School of Business. As dean, Gibson raised the schools profile through substantially higher enrollments, increased recognition on national ranking lists, and program launches in entrepreneurship and business analytics.

We are delighted to have Don join our community to serve as dean of our OMalley School of Business, said Brennan ODonnell, president of Manhattan College. His vision and experience will help to strengthen our programs and provide our students and faculty with the support and resources they need to succeed. This is an exciting time not only at the College, but at our OMalley School of Business.

The OMalley School of Business was recently transformed thanks to a $25 million gift from Thomas D. OMalley 63, former chair of Manhattan Colleges board of trustees. The gift will increase student scholarships and grants, making a Manhattan College education accessible to students from all backgrounds, while strengthening the Colleges connections with the New York City business world through hands-on, experiential opportunities. The gift will also support teaching and research focused on the present and future economics of energy.

Joining Manhattan College as dean is a dream come true, said Gibson. With its dynamic combination of cutting-edge business skills and liberal arts thinking in the context of global New York City, this is the kind of business school students need in an ever more complex world.

A professor of management at Fairfield, Gibsons research has examined emotional responses to organizations, anger in the workplace, and conflict management. He has articles published in a range of leading journals, including Organization Science, Journal of Management, and Academy of Management Perspectives, and a book for practicing managers, Managing Anger in the Workplace.

Gibson received his MBA and Ph.D. from UCLA, and was previously a professor in organizational behavior at Yale. He also has served as program chair and executive director of the International Association for Conflict Management. Prior to entering academia, Gibson worked in television and film post-production in Los Angeles.

Don brings amazing experience as a transforming academic leader, a world-class scholar, and a highly successful representative of his school to the business community, said William Clyde, Ph.D., executive vice president and provost at Manhattan College. He's the right person to lead our O'Malley School of Business at this time of great opportunity. We are delighted to have him join our team.

Recent OMalley School of Business graduates have secured jobs at many of the largest and most prestigious organizations in the country and worldwide. Manhattan College also provides a strong return on investment for its graduates: a 2015 Brookings Institution study rated Manhattan 9th out of more than 7,000 two- and four-year schools in an analysis that examined how well schools prepare students for successful careers.
Elastic Path Names Accenture Interactive Partner of the Year The Accenture Interactive team furthered its development of solutions with Elastic Path as the foundation, to deliver business agility and accelerate transformational commerce journeys for clients in the communications, media, technology and retail industries in 2017.

Elastic Path has recognized Accenture Interactive as its 2017 Partner of the Year for the second year running. The award recognizes their outstanding contribution to Elastic Paths customer success, software revenue, and delivery of transformational solutions for enterprises that seek to deliver convenience through intuitive, deeply personalized experiences.

Accenture Interactive continues to build its global Elastic Path commerce practice to deliver uniquely interactive brand experiences that delight and win over customers having expanded its team of Elastic Path-certified professionals by 40% year-over-year. Elastic Path Commerce is a key component in what Accenture Interactive calls Adaptive Commerce Experiences, which meld together API-based architecture and cognitive computing to create an ecosystem that anticipates consumer needs and delivers uniquely tailored experiences across all digital devices.

Our partnership with Accenture Interactive continues to be a major driver of our triple-digit year-over-year growth, said Harry Chemko, CEO, Elastic Path Software. The Accenture Interactive team furthered its development of solutions with Elastic Path as the foundation, to deliver business agility and accelerate transformational commerce journeys for clients in the communications, media, technology and retail industries in 2017. Elastic Path and Accenture Interactive continue to partner with leading brands looking to monetize their customers demand for immersive and connected experiences.

Consumer expectations of brands commerce capabilities are growing significantly every day, and Accenture Interactive is at the forefront of reinventing how brands meet these new customer expectations, said Brian Walker, global lead, commerce strategy at Accenture Interactive. We are very pleased to be once again recognized by the Elastic Path team for our efforts and investments.

The Elastic Path and Accenture Interactive alliance is helping world-renowned brands in their digital transformation efforts, which are reshaping their industries. Examples of joint customers include:



Global provider of digital and printed communication services

Iconic Italian luxury fashion retailer

One of the worlds largest vacation travel giants

A US-based Fortune 1000 software provider in the financial services industry

One of the worlds largest global telecommunications and wireless providers

About Elastic Path

Defining the future of commerce, Elastic Path develops the worlds most sophisticated enterprise commerce solutions. The companys flagship product, Elastic Path Commerce, has helped the worlds top brands generate over $60 billion in over 170 countries. Customers from industries as diverse as travel, telecoms, publishing, software, and retail enjoy the benefits of a flexible, open architecture that drives brand-defining customer experiences, facilitates business agility, and eliminates sales channel silos. Elastic Path is a private company based in Vancouver, Canada with sales offices in the UK and US. For more information, visit http://www.elasticpath.com.
We are excited to offer the Skrill community the ability to purchase digital gift cards for hundreds of brands that dont yet accept Skrill directly.

eGifter, the eGifting Company, announced that it now accepts Skrill as a payment method in its consumer gift card Marketplace. Skrill is one of the worlds largest digital payments solutions.

eGifter has been an innovator in the gift card market since 2011, offering advanced gift personalization features, group gifting capabilities, and a variety of emerging payment options. With the integration of Skrill, eGifter opens its large digital gift card portfolio of more than 250 brands to millions of Skrill users.

eGifter continues to add payment options to give its members flexibility, whilst tapping into new communities of users. Today, consumers have many ways to pay, so having a consumers preferred payment option reduces friction and improves the customers experience.

We are pleased to add Skrill to our growing list of payment methods, and think many of our existing members may discover it as a new payment option, said Tyler Roye, eGifter Co-founder & CEO. We are also excited to offer the Skrill community the ability to purchase digital gift cards for hundreds of brands that dont yet accept Skrill directly.

For more information on the on how eGifter provides a best-in-class gifting experience, or to see a full list of brands in the eGifter marketplace, visit http://www.eGifter.com.

About eGifter

eGifter, the eGifting Company, revolutionizes gift giving with a social and mobile gifting platform designed to create a fun experience for consumers, while helping retailers and service providers grow their gifting businesses. Based in New York, eGifter was founded in 2011 by a group of proven tech entrepreneurs. To learn more about eGifter and their social, mobile and group gifting platform, visit the eGifter Corporate Site at corporate.eGifter.com or go to the eGifter consumer site at eGifter.com. You can also download eGifters Mobile app available for iOS and Android.
Enjoy beer and cider and you're whiskey-curious? Taste, tour and learn about the best Scotch and Irish Whiskey in a fun, relaxed setting this Friday and Saturday, March 30 & 31. Featuring the last kegs in the entire world of Bale Breaker's Ossifier Jameson Whiskey Barrel-Aged Double IPA!

Hunting for Easter eggs filled with candy is childs play; hunting for new favorite Scotches, whiskeys, and craft beers is another story. On March 30 & 31, Seattle Scotch & Beer Fest is celebrating Easter weekend by throwing an Easter Egg Hunt for grown ups. Fremont Studios transforms into a backyard hunting ground as guests search for their new favorite tastes. Tickets are now on sale to Americas largest Scotch and Beer Tasting event at http://ScotchBeerFest.com.

The Grand Tasting Room is where the hunter will find the largest quantities of Easter eggs, with 50 craft beers, cocktails featuring Jameson Irish Whiskey and The Glenlivet Scotch Whisky, served 2 ways, and wine waiting to be discovered. Hunters must be strategic in their use of tasting tokens. Try an approach of variety; unveiling tastes of local craft beers from the likes of newcomers Bale Breaker Brewing or Jellyfish Brewing, alongside heavyweights like Fremont Brewing, Lagunitas Brewing, and Schilling Hard Cider.

In the Spirit Room, hunters will discover two golden eggs  the Scotch Flight and the Irish Whiskey Flight. Hunters may sample both the Scotch flight, featuring The Glenlivet Founders Reserve, The Glenlivet 15 Year French Oak, The Glenlivet 18 Year, The Glenlivet Nadurra First Fill, The Glenlivet Nadurra Peated Cask Finish, and The Glenlivet Nadurra Oloroso; and the Irish flight, featuring Jameson Original, Jameson Caskmates Stout Edition, Jameson Caskmates IPA Edition, Jameson Black Barrel, Jameson Coopers Croze, and Jameson Blenders Dog. Or they may choose to sample one of the two.

Then hop on over to the Barrel Room featuring offerings of Bale Breaker Brewings extremely limited Ossifier Jameson Whiskey Barrel Aged Double IPA, Dormancy Breakfast Stout and more. These craft beers pair beautifully with Jameson Caskmates IPA edition and Jameson Caskmates Stout edition. But dont doddle on touring the Barrel Room as the last Ossifier IPA kegs in the entire world will be tapped and enjoyed til the last drop at Seattle Scotch & Beer Fest.

Once the hunters have fully exhausted the Easter egg hunt for grown ups, they can fill the remainder of the Easter basket in the Seattle Scotch & Beer Fest Bottle Shop, sponsored by Celebrity Cruises. Full bottles of the spirits sampled will be available for purchase  TAX FREE!

Seattle Scotch & Beer Fest is a fundraiser for Seattle Humane, helping local pets find their forever home around the region.

Tickets to Seattle Scotch & Beer Fest are now on sale. Guests can choose from three admission types and have the option to purchase admission to limited-seating Top Shelf Seminars. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit http://www.ScotchBeerFest.com.
Luis Robbio spoke at the annual assembly of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), held in Mendoza, Argentina Mendoza is recognized on the international stage as a province which is highly attractive for investment and for developing knowledge-based services

Luis Robbio, CEO and Co-founder of Belatrix Software, a leading software development company, has been selected by Argentinas President as one of the top 20 business and economic leaders of the future, and will form part of a new Knowledge Commission. Robbio is the only entrepreneur selected from Mendoza. The objective of the Knowledge Commision is to boost economic growth via the knowledge-based economy and technology innovation.

The Argentine government is seeking to grow what it calls knowledge-based services, which incorporates areas from software development to professional services. The purpose is to build a new Argentine economy, one that is characterized by technological innovation, and high-value services. The Commission will be tasked with finding ways of making this a reality within the next 10 years.

Meanwhile, last week Luis Robbio spoke at the annual assembly of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), held in Mendoza, Argentina. Nearly one thousand businessmen and women attended the event, along with leading politicians from across the Americas, including Alfredo Cornejo, the Governor of Mendoza.

The event focused on measures to increase the amount of infrastructure investment throughout Latin America, as well as how best to promote the region internationally in order to achieve sustainable growth. Alfredo Cornejo, outlined the attractiveness of Mendoza to international businesses.

Luis Robbio spoke on the panel together with Rogelio Frigerio, Argentinas Interior Minister, and several other international executives from organizations including Walmart. He highlighted how knowledge-based services have become a core part of regional economies, in particular in Mendoza. He also spoke about the impact of technology and the importance of developing high-value services. On the discussion of technology, Luis Robbio stated that technology both destroys and creates jobs. The question is where do you stand?. He highlighted the potential of technology, and software in particular, to drive economic growth and create new opportunities, particular in new areas ranging from the internet of things to blockchain. However, for Argentina to be prepared to take advantage of these opportunities it must invest more in education.

Luis Robbio, CEO and Co-founder of Belatrix, commented after the event I am delighted to be part of President Macris Council to grow the knowledge-based economy in our country. I believe we must emphasize education, and better prepare young people for careers in the knowledge economy. I was also delighted to share Belatrixs international experiences with the fellow attendees of the IDB conference, and am very positive about the future development of the region. Mendoza is recognized on the international stage as a province which is highly attractive for investment and for developing knowledge-based services.
Desti and Michele

Haute Residence welcomes Desti Centineo-Mabee and Michele Losey to its invitation-only network of top brokers. As Haute Residence partners, Desti and Michele exclusively represent the high-end real estate market in Oxnard, California.

Long-time Oxnard residents with vast knowledge of the area, Desti and Michele provide truly extraordinary personalized attention to every aspect of purchasing or selling luxury residential or commercial property. From innovative, customized marketing, cutting-edge technology, up-to-date and accurate market reports to home staging, they execute every activity with utmost confidentiality and attention to customers specific needs.

At Remax Gold Coast, Desti and Michele complement their white-glove services through an experienced team of marketing specialists, a commercial broker with 40 years of experience and legal counsel that specialize in all aspects of Ventura County Real Estate.

Desti and Michele hold designations in the luxury, resort and second-home markets, distressed property representation, negotiations as well as ethics training.

About Haute Residence:

Designed as a partnership-driven luxury real estate portal, Haute Residence connects its affluent readers with top real estate professionals, while offering the latest in real estate news, showcasing the worlds most extraordinary residences on the market and sharing expert advice from its knowledgeable and experienced real estate partners.

The invitation-only luxury real estate network, which partners with just one agent in every market, unites a distinguished collective of leading real estate agents and brokers and highlights the most extravagant properties in leading markets around the globe for affluent buyers, sellers, and real estate enthusiasts.

HauteResidence.com has grown to be the number one news source for million-dollar listings, high-end residential developments, celebrity real estate, and more.

Access all of this information and more by visiting: http://www.hauteresidence.com
These specific ongoing improvements are covered under our five year, state-of-the-art guarantee  all enabled by our Living Technology

Mindray, a developer of next generation ultrasound technology, featured a significant new upgrade for its premium Resona 7 ultrasound system at the annual American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM) conference held March 24-28, 2018 in New York. The Sapphire edition features multiple new transducers and applications, making the Resona 7 an excellent solution for general imaging, vascular, womens imaging and shared service applications.

The Resona 7 Sapphire edition significantly broadens the scope of applications and addresses a wide array of imaging needs, said Mark Miller, vice president of sales and marketing, Mindray. There are several new transducers and advanced capabilities including Sound Touch Elastography, Contrast Enhanced Ultrasound (CEUS), and several tools for OB/GYN imaging. It is testimony to the power of Mindrays Living Technology, which is enabled by ZONE Sonography Technology (ZST+).

Sound Touch Elastography (Shear wave) utilizes Mindrays exclusive Ultra Wide Beam Tracking technology to provide comprehensive quantification metrics and dynamic visual display of tissue stiffness for enhanced diagnostic confidence. Mindrays second generation CEUS imaging uses both harmonic and fundamental signals to improve contrast and temporal resolution during CEUS studies. Also ZST+ enables the systems Advanced Acoustic Acquisition to allow longer duration of perfusion in tissue and organ assessment during CEUS exams.

Smart Face provides one-touch 3D fetal face optimization while Smart Pelvis offers 2D/3D automated gynecological measurements. Smart Planes enables a robust and user-friendly solution to automatically detect planes and calculate frequently used measurements of the central nervous system (CNS) in fetal brain and heart plane evaluations.

The new upgrade delivers additional performance and workflow enhancements, said Miller. These specific ongoing improvements are covered under our five year, state-of-the-art guarantee  all enabled by our Living Technology.

In addition to the Sapphire edition, Mindray is also introducing the Emerald edition for the Z.One PRO ultrasound system. This new upgrade has several performance and workflow enhancements including the industrys first transducer tracking technology, Z-Tracking. With the growing demand to employ measures for reducing health care-associated infections and the spread of infectious diseases, Z-Tracking provides the ability to keep track of the transducers used on each exam and attach to the patients medical record.

About Mindray

Mindray is a leading developer, manufacturer and marketer of medical devices worldwide. Its global headquarters are located in Shenzhen, China, North American headquarters in Mahwah, New Jersey, a technology innovation center (formerly ZONARE) in Silicon Valley, California and multiple sales offices in major international markets. From the main manufacturing and engineering base in China, the company supplies, through a worldwide distribution network, a broad range of products across three primary business segments, which include patient monitoring and life support, in-vitro diagnostics and medical imaging systems. For more information, please visit http://www.mindray.com
Blue Sky Vision, a management services organization providing world-class support to leading providers of eye care services, has launched a new brand identity fulfilling its vision to be the model for unsurpassed patient experience, inspiring and empowering their team through innovation, dedication to excellence, and the creation of opportunity through growth. Changing the name from Great Lakes Management Services Organization to Blue Sky Vision reflects the organizations commitment to industry leadership, innovation, and quality vision care.

A blue sky represents optimism and possibility, said Bill Hughson, Blue Sky Visions CEO. The sky truly is the limit when it comes to the efficiencies and advantages we can bring, working together with our partners to thrive in todays ever-changing healthcare landscape. 

Created in 2017, through a collaboration between Grand Rapids Ophthalmology and Sterling Partners, Blue Sky Vision has established partnerships with five highly-reputable eye care practices in Michigan, including Michigan Optical, Shoreline Vision, Walker Surgical Center, Lakeshore Eye, and Grand Rapids Ophthalmology. There are plans for additional partnerships in Michigan and the Midwest.

Since its inception, Blue Sky Vision has been embraced by eye health professionals as the optimal way to continually improve high-quality eye care services while operationalizing the economies of scale, said Dr. David Barrett, an ophthalmologist with Grand Rapids Ophthalmology.

Blue Sky Vision brings its doctors management resources, including improved technology, expansion of services, revenue cycle management, recruiting, and administrative support so they can focus on what they do best: delivering superior eye care.

This is a strategy to enhance personalized patient care and to bring our communities broader access to specialized eye care services, said Dr. John Oltean, an ophthalmologist with Shoreline Vision. Blue Sky Vision, Sterling, and all of our partners represent the clinical and operational expertise necessary to elevate todays quality of care and patient outcomes.

About Blue Sky Vision

Blue Sky Vision (MSO) is dedicated to providing world-class support to leading providers of eye care services. Blue Sky Vision was created in early 2017 through a partnership between Grand Rapids Ophthalmology and Sterling Partners. Our Purpose is to Lead the Way, Improve Sight, and Change Lives; our Vision is to be the model for unsurpassed patient experience, inspiring and empowering our team through innovation, dedication to excellence, and the creation of opportunity through growth. If you are interested in learning more about a partnership with Blue Sky Vision, contact Dan Hosler at dhosler@BlueSkyVision.com or visit http://www.blueskyvision.com.

About Sterling Partners

Sterling Partners is a private equity firm with a distinct point of view on how to build great companies. Founded in 1983 and having invested billions of dollars, Sterling is guided by its stated purpose, INSPIRED GROWTH, which describes Sterlings approach to investing in differentiated businesses and growing them in inspired ways. Sterling provides valuable support to the management teams of the companies in which the firm invests through a deep and dedicated team of professionals, including a strong network of outside directors and advisors. The people at Sterling believe in ideas and ideals, in people and in partnerships that drive long-term success. For more information, visit http://www.sterlingpartners.com.
IT managed services provider SDI Presence LLC announces that it has been named a finalist for the 2018 Best Places to Work in Chicago. The growing firm brings over 20 years of IT managed services programs, consulting and hybrid infrastructure expertise to government, utilities, and real estate clients. SDI is a certified Minority Business Enterprise (MBE).

This honor is a testament to SDIs commitment to being present for our clients, colleagues, and community. Our presence-based culture is a core tenet of the firms strategy and daily operations, and fuels the companys growth, said SDI CEO David A. Gupta. I thank the SDI Team for their outstanding contributions to our firms success, and positive feedback to make this ranking possible.

The Crains Chicago Best Places to Work program is designed to identify, recognize, and honor the 100 best companies to work for in Chicago. Thousands of Chicagoland employees were surveyed across core focus areas including: Leadership and Planning, Corporate Culture and Communications, Role Satisfaction, Work Environment, Relationship with Supervisor, Training, Development and Resources, Pay and Benefits, and Overall Engagement.

SDIs employee engagement revolves around placing our Team on rewarding projects that are critical to the operations of our customers, as well as providing a way to have a direct impact on our communities. From 5Ks, our annual polar plunge, to our team HUDDLEUP outings, SDI balances challenging project work with a great culture to create a fun, family-oriented workplace, states Technical Recruiter Cory Wormmeester, part of SDIs in-house recruiting team.

Professionals interested in joining the SDI team can visit the companys career page for open positions and job opportunities at https://www.sdipresence.com/view-openings/.

About SDI (SDI Presence LLC)

SDI Presence LLC is an IT managed services provider (MSP) that leverages its strong team presence to provide industry-leading IT services while advancing our clients to a secure digital enterprise. With a 20-year corporate resume, SDI delivers strategic managed services, IT consulting and hybrid infrastructure solutions using its proven ITIL-based SDIPathTM methodology. SDI is a certified Minority Business Enterprise (MBE), with a portfolio of clients that includes some of the nations largest airports, utilities, commercial real estate portfolios, and government agencies. SDI delivers a deep technical presence through a local delivery model to achieve customer confidence and success. Visit us at http://www.sdipresence.com and connect with us on Twitter and Instagram.

For media inquiries, please contact Dawn Nash Pfeiffer at 312.580.7516 or dpfeiffer(at)sdipresence(dot)com.
Copyleaks, an Israeli startup specializing in plagiarism detection, today announced that the company has closed a seed round of funding from investors in China, Israel, Italy and the United States. The funding round was led by Connecticut Innovations(CI), the leading source of financing and ongoing support for Connecticuts innovative, growing companies.

Founded in 2015 by Alon Yamin and Yehonatan Bitton, both former programmers in the Israeli Defense Forces in the 8200 intelligence unit, Copyleaks has created a solution for educational institutions, learning and content management systems, publishers, SEO agencies and other platforms to identify plagiarism, using advanced AI technologies to detect similar content around the web. With the backing of CI, Copyleaks is now making its entrance into the U.S. market with a new office in Stamford, Connecticut.

We are excited to work with the biggest companies in the education and educational publishing space to make a positive impact on academic integrity in universities, even as young as elementary school, said Yamin. Our ability to understand the meaning of the text, rather than just comparing words to words, helps teachers easily determine if a student is struggling when it comes to creating work of his or her own.

Copyleaks is in the process of expanding its sales team to work with the vast array of technology companies bettering the learning space. The company is working with leading companies and universities around the world, including Microsoft Education, to help teachers and students know if the content they have submitted is original. With easy access to online information, plagiarism rates have soared over the years, and teachers are looking for a way to help their students help themselves when it comes to writing original essays.

Copyleaks previously raised money from private investors in 2015 and ICONYC Labs before joining CIs portfolio.

About Copyleaks:

Copyleaks is an advanced cloud platform for tracking and tracing content online. Copyleaks can benefit anyone who ever published or wrote textual content, providing protection for content from plagiarism. Copyleaks software searches content on billions of webpages, sites and also online databases and then uses algorithms to find comprehensive yet accurate results for almost every language. Copyleaks is currently available as an Android app and iOS app and can be fully connected to a desktop account. For more information, please visit http://www.copyleaks.com.
Lucas Group Victoria understands the significant benefits that contract employees bring to their employers.

Lucas Group, the leader in North American executive search, announced the promotion of Victoria Westerfield to Practice Manager for Accounting and Finance contract practice in Dallas, Texas.

With more than twenty years of accounting and finance recruitment experience, Westerfield is uniquely qualified to help companies bridge talent gaps while sidestepping the danger of costly hiring mistakes.

Rather than settling for a less-than-perfect hire or letting a position go unfilled, forward-thinking companies are choosing a new option: contract talent, said Westerfield. With contract talent, companies gain access to highly specialized accounting and finance skills that might otherwise be unavailable. Opting for contract talent also mitigates the risk of a bad full-time hire and provides companies with needed flexibility in todays rapidly changing marketplace.

Westerfield will oversee all Dallas Accounting and Finance contract placements.

Victoria understands the significant benefits that contract employees bring to their employers, said Dallas Managing Partner Don Wylie. Todays contract talent does much more than crunch numbers. These specialized contractors play a critical role in turning data into actionable insights that shape business strategy and give organizations a competitive edge.

In addition to Accounting & Finance, Lucas Group specializes in executive recruitment for Human Resources, Information Technology, Legal, Manufacturing, Military Transition, and Sales & Marketing. Taking pride in the professional growth and career advancement of its Associates, Lucas Group provides clear career path trajectories together with the industrys most sophisticated onboarding and ongoing educational programming. Working throughout 15 offices in the U.S., Lucas Group recruiters are able to source leading talent that no one else can.

About Lucas Group

Lucas Group is North Americas premier executive search firm. Since 1970, our culture and methodologies have driven superior results. We assist clients ranging in size from small to medium-sized businesses to Fortune 500 companies to find transcendent, executive talent; candidates fully realize their ambitions; and associates find professional success. To learn more, please visit Lucas Group at http://www.lucasgroup.com and connect with us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.
"Million Dollar Quartet" The vision and determination of the Henderson Arts Commission has made a huge impact on our area. Its thrilling to see the City of Henderson, Chester County and area businesses come together to make their vision a reality, contributing to the rich and full life we enjoy in our West Tennessee home.

The Henderson Arts Commission has planned an ambitious, diverse season for the region with the support of the City of Henderson, Chester County and area businesses. Kicking off in April, plans include a performance of the Million Dollar Quartet, a Fathers Day Festival, Summer Saturday Arts Academy, childrens theatre experience and an interactive showing of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

The outdoor showing of the classic Willy Wonka movie is planned for the Chester County Courthouse Lawn Saturday, April 21, at sunset. Admission is free, and Brad and Kristi Montague of Montague Workshop have several surprises in store for leading the interactive movie-viewing experience for children of all ages.

Described by HAC President Jason Bramblett as Arts in the Alley on steroids, a Fathers Day Festival is scheduled for Saturday, June 16, in Hendersons Gene Record Park. Musicians will provide the centerpiece for the celebration, festival food will be served, artists will display and sell work and childrens rides and games will be on site. We want this to be a regional event that celebrates the good things in life  family, time with friends and neighbors and making memories, Bramblett explained.

Throughout the summer, area artists will conduct Summer Saturday Arts Academy sessions. Free to members, these seminars will help them learn more about areas such as photography, knitting, performing and painting.

Building on the past success of Disneys The Lion King Kids and Aladdin Kids, the HAC will work with Becky Hartle and her team for a childrens summer camp theatre experience. It will culminate with June 28-29 performances of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

Planned for the night before the 41st Annual Chester County BBQ Festival and building on the lore of the Rockabilly Highway, the HAC will host the Tony Award-winning smash-hit musical, Million Dollar Quartet Thursday, Sept. 27, in Freed-Hardeman Universitys Loyd Auditorium. The show is inspired by the famed recording session that brought together rock n roll icons Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins for the first and only time Dec. 4, 1956. It tells the story of the day these four young musicians gathered at Sun Records in Memphis for what would be one of the greatest rock n roll jam sessions ever. Million Dollar Quartet features timeless and enduring hits, including Blue Suede Shoes, Fever, Thats All Right, Sixteen Tons, I Walk the Line, Great Balls of Fire, Folsom Prison Blues, Whole Lotta Shakin Goin On, Hound Dog and more.

Emily Johnson, executive director of the Henderson/Chester County Chamber of Commerce, discussed the 2018 season announcement, saying, The vision and determination of the Henderson Arts Commission has made a huge impact on our area. Its thrilling to see the City of Henderson, Chester County and area businesses come together to make their vision a reality, contributing to the rich and full life we enjoy in our West Tennessee home.

The Henderson Arts Commission exists to recognize, educate, enrich and entertain through the arts in Henderson, Chester County and the surrounding area. Individuals may find information about memberships, sponsorship opportunities and event details at http://HendersonArtsCommission.org or by following http://facebook.com/HendersonArtsCommission.
Cari Elofson, Assistant Director, OSHA Programs, OSHA Training Institute Education Center It is vitally important that employers take advantage of OSHAs written guidelines in order to fully understand their responsibility to limit worker exposure to these harmful particles.

The OSHA Training Institute Education Center at Chabot-Las Positas Community College District, the only OSHA authorized OTI Education Center headquartered in Northern California, is drawing attention to resources available from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to support employer compliance with the recently updated Respirable Crystalline Silica standard for construction. OSHA is providing extensive outreach materials, including a compliance guide and detailed fact sheets, to help employers in the construction industry protect their workers from exposure to respirable crystalline silica.

When construction workers cut, grind, drill or crush materials containing crystalline silica, a common mineral found in sand, stone, concrete, brick and mortar, very small 'respirable' particles can penetrate into workers lungs and cause serious respiratory diseases, says Cari Elofson, Assistant Director of the OSHA Training Institute Education Center at Chabot-Las Positas Community College District. It is vitally important that employers take advantage of OSHAs written guidelines in order to fully understand their responsibility to limit worker exposure to these harmful particles.

OSHA's Respirable Crystalline Silica standard for construction requires employers to take very specific steps to limit worker exposure to respirable crystalline silica. Employers can either use the control methods laid out in Table 1 of the construction standard, or they can measure workers' exposure to silica and independently decide which dust controls work best to limit exposures to the permissible exposure limit (PEL) in their workplaces. Regardless of which exposure control method is used, all construction employers covered by the standard are required to:



Establish and implement a written exposure control plan that identifies tasks that involve exposure and methods used to protect workers, including procedures to restrict access to work areas where high exposures may occur.

Designate a competent person to implement the written exposure control plan.

Restrict housekeeping practices that expose workers to silica where feasible alternatives are available.

Offer medical exams, including chest X-rays and lung function tests, every three years for workers who are required by the standard to wear a respirator for 30 or more days per year.

Train workers on work operations that result in silica exposure and ways to limit exposure.

Keep records of exposure measurements, objective data and medical exams.

Compliance requirements for all aspects of the Respirable Crystalline Silica standard for construction have been in effect since October, 2017, except requirements for laboratory evaluation of exposure samples, which begin in June, 2018. Click here for access to OSHAs compliance guide, fact sheets outlining key aspects of the crystalline silica rule and other important information and resources.

About the OSHA Training Institute Education Center

The OSHA Training Institute Education Center at Chabot-Las Positas Community College District offers high quality Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) standards-based training for the construction, maritime and general industry in Dublin, California, conveniently located in the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as locations throughout California, Nevada and Hawaii. Programs offered include OSHA safety standards, Outreach Trainer courses, Cal/OSHA standards and customized on-site safety training. For more information, including a complete course schedule, visit the OSHA Training Institute Education Center website, email otc@clpccd.org or call (866) 936-OSHA (6742).
We are very pleased to announce our new relationship with Watlow as we can now bring its exciting thermal system technology to our customers and Watlows across the Western United States.

Valin Corporation, a privately held, employee-owned company providing technical solutions for the technology, energy, life sciences, natural resources, and transportation industries, announces its expanded distributor relationship with Watlow. Watlow is a leading manufacturer of complete thermal systems, and this expanded relationship with Watlow allows Valin to offer a broader range of solutions to its customers and Watlows.

Our responsibility is to continue seeking out the best possible solutions for our customers, said Joseph Nettemeyer, President and CEO of Valin Corporation. Through continuous analysis of our product portfolio, we remain proactive in seeking new strategic partnerships. We are very pleased to announce our new relationship with Watlow as we can now bring its exciting thermal system technology to our customers and Watlows across the Western United States.

Watlow designs and manufactures complete thermal systems consisting of industrial heaters, temperature sensors, controllers, supporting software and assemblies. Watlow aims to optimize thermal performance, decrease design time and improve efficiency of its products and applications. The enhanced relationship with Watlow allows Valin to provide higher quality, more innovative thermal system solutions than ever before.

Were excited about the opportunity that this new expanded relationship represents to Watlow to help accelerate our growth in our targeted markets, said Peter Desloge President and CEO of Watlow. Valins capabilities and market expertise combined with Watlows technology and product leadership allow us to continue providing thermal systems that enable our customers to thrive.

About Valin Corporation

Valin Corporation is the leading technical solutions provider for the technology, energy, life sciences, natural resources, and transportation industries. For over 40 years, Valin has offered personalized order management, on-site field support, comprehensive training, and applied expert engineering services utilizing automation, fluid management, precision measurement, process heating, filtration, and fluid power products.

To learn more about Valins solutions and capabilities, please visit http://www.valin.com, or to browse our product portfolio please visit http://www.valinonline.com.

About Watlow

Watlow provides best in class engineering expertise and leading thermal products that enable customers to thrive. Watlow brings its experience to numerous industries, including semiconductor processing, environmental chambers, energy processes, diesel emissions, medical and foodservice equipment. Since 1922, Watlow has grown in product capability, market experience and global reach. The company holds more than 450 patents and employs 2,000 employees working in nine manufacturing facilities and three technology centers in the United States, Mexico, Europe and Asia. Watlow also has sales offices in 50 countries around the world. The company continues to grow, while the commitment remains the same  to provide its customers with superior products and services for their individual needs.
Learn about world destinations at Alpha's Travel Talks

As the owner of Alpha Voyages, my background is a Special Education Pre-School teacher for 33 years. Therefore, first I am a teacher. My major reason for becoming a travel agent was to travel myself. I am a passionate world traveler. As I work with clients trying to decide where they should go, I realize how lost they are at times on knowing their options. What better way to assist my friends, then to develop a monthly travel forum called Travel Talk inviting the many destinations I work with to Winchester to present their travel specialty, said Mary June Williams, owner of Alpha Voyages Travel Agency.

Travel Talk began in January 2018. We have had Sandals Resort, Club Med and to celebrate St Patricks Day, Celtic Tours. This April, Disney World Resort will be here.

From the Celtic Travel Talk - Lots of information to consider as we plan our 2018/2019 next adventure,  B. Merriner, guest.

Exploring Walt Disney World -

The magic is endless at Florida's Walt Disney World Resorts. Purchase Hopper passes for four theme parks. Come face to face with the beloved Disney characters. Dive into imaginatively theme Disney Water Parks. Learn from the Disney World Resort expert the best way to explore the parks for the ages of your children or for an adult only vacation.

On Disney cruises, its all about the little extras that add up to a magical vacation. Enjoy Broadway-style musicals, themed deck parties, their private island paradise Disney Castaway Cay.

Perhaps the least known Disney product is Adventures by Disney. Want to go to Iceland or Montana or Italy, these land adventures are branded as Disney Difference #1. Created with families in mind. Imagine visiting the most amazing places on the planet without any of the stress and worry that normally accompanies family travel. Every destination has active and immersive adventures, including special activities for the Junior Adventures as well as time off for parents.

Travel Talks help us focus on fine details for our clients. We can attend with our clients and listen to their questions to the expert, said Beth Drummonds, Inside Travel Sales, Alpha Voyages.

This years Travel Talks upcoming calendar includes:

May - Princess Cruises The Alaskan Experience

June - Avanti Individual Travel Itineraries

July - Viking Cruises River Cruises

August - G Adventures Back Packing 35 and under

September - Princess Cruises Caribbean and Europe

October - Sandals - Destination Weddings

November - Globus River Cruises and Independent Tours of Europe

December - Royal Caribbean Drivable Cruise Options

January - Sandals Honeymoons

The forum is an open house from 5:30  7:30 with presentations beginning at 6:00. Enjoy a beverage. Eat some light snacks and add a destination to ones bucket list. Register today. Seating is limited. Questions  email mj(at)alphavoyages(dot)com or text 540.327.6599.

Alpha Voyages needs to meet with you in person to best support your travel experience. Appointments are available 7 days a week.

Alpha Voyages Travel Agency has been in business for 22 years in Winchester, Virginia. With seven independent travel agents who specialize in different world destinations, the agency is a preferred Sandals Agency. It's sister agency, Go Blue Ridge Travel promotes the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and West Virginia.

Contact: Mary June Williams, Owner

Phone: 540-662-6279 opt 1

Email: mj(at)AlphaVoyages(dot)com
DiscoverLehighValley.com Lehigh Valleys brewery scene has seen a second coming of age thanks to the rise of locally-grown ingredients and exceptional flavor profiles that will surely lift your spirits, said Alicia Quinn, strategic brand manager for Discover Lehigh Valley.

Discover Lehigh Valley the destination marketing organization dedicated to promoting tourism in Pennsylvanias Lehigh and Northampton counties, also known as the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton area, welcomes visitors to raise a glass of Lehigh Valleys finest local brews on April 7, 2018, in celebration of National Beer Day, and to start planning their next escape to discover the regions homegrown and delicious libations.

Lehigh Valleys brewery scene has seen a second coming of age thanks to the rise of locally-grown ingredients and exceptional flavor profiles that will surely lift your spirits as we usher in the warmer weather, said Alicia Quinn, strategic brand manager for Discover Lehigh Valley. If enjoying locally crafted beers at one of our award-winning breweries or brew pubs isnt your preferred way to unwind, then check out Lehigh Valleys remarkable wine and spirit attractions  each of which are home to unique tours and tasting rooms.

To plan the perfect beer tour during your next bachelor or bachelorette party, or spring outing, Discover Lehigh Valley recommends these locally-owned, craft breweries:



Fegley's Bethlehem Brew Works  Established in 1998 by the Fegley Family, Bethlehem Brew Works captures the essence of Bethlehem's steel industry in a 250-seat brew pub thats open all week. When the weather is warm, opt to sit outside along Main Street to enjoy Bethlehem's charm first-hand.

Two Rivers Brewing Company  Offering up tasty craft beers and top-notch options to satisfy your hunger, Two Rivers Brewing Company proudly serves 10 varieties of their own award-winning, house-brewed beers on tap. With a full-service bar, that also features a prohibition era cocktail list, Two Rivers is a favorite among locals and visitors.

Weyerbacher Brewing Company  The largest brewery in Lehigh Valley, Weyerbacher is widely known for their big, bold beers. If youre stopping for a tour or sample at the tasting room, locals would recommend the Blithering Idiot, Last Chance IPA, Sunday Morning Stout or Merry Monks  just to name a few.

HiJinx Brewing Company  Born out of a fierce passion for great beer, HiJinx Brewing Company is known for experimenting with flavors. Whether you're craving a Citra Squeeze IPA, a Wicked White Witbier, or a Barista's Choice Porter, you'll find something to satisfy your taste buds.

Yergey Brewing  Owned and brewed by retired chemist Jim Yergey, Yergey Brewing has a comfortable environment and diverse styles of beer. Known for its award-winning beer, Hoptileitious, Yergey Brewing has become a staple in Lehigh Valley.

Looking for even more local beers? Lehigh Valley breweries also include Sle Artisan Ales, Funk Brewing Company, Hop Hill Brewing Company, Lost Tavern Brewery, and Bonn Place Brewing Company for over fifteen locations.

If beer isnt the drink of choice, Discover Lehigh Valley recommends tasting these wine and spirit offerings:

Lehigh Valley Wine Trail  Become a wine connoisseur while visiting eight family-owned vineyards and wineries along the Lehigh Valley Wine Trail. Sample a collection of award-winning wines made from a variety of grapes, including Lehigh Valleys signature Chambourcin grape.

Eight Oaks Craft Distillers  With all of their grains grown and products crafted on-site, Eight Oaks Craft Distillers is a favorite of Lehigh Valley locals. Relax in Eight Oaks tasting room and sip on applejack, the signature spirit of Lehigh Valley.

For more information on Lehigh Valleys libations scene, visit DiscoverLehighValley.com or for photos of these locations, click here. Follow @LehighValleyPa on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Tweet it: #LiftYourSpiritsDLV on #NationalBeerDay at @LehighValleyPas favorite, local craft microbreweries! Learn more: https://goo.gl/auDUyj

About Discover Lehigh Valley

Established in 1984, Discover Lehigh Valley makes Lehigh and Northampton counties a premier destination through marketing and image building that increases the number of visitors, the number of nights they stay and the number of things they do in the region.

Discover Lehigh Valleys official visitor website and blog, DiscoverLehighValley.com and LehighValleyInSite.com keeps locals and visitors abreast of all things happening in region. Visitors can explore things to do, upcoming events, themed itineraries and hotel packages. Compelling photography and videos, brochures and detailed visitor information make the sites effective trip-planning tools. Along with Discover Lehigh Valleys social media channels, the online platforms communicate directly with consumers. Travelers can also call and stop into one of the many visitor centers for additional information.

About Lehigh Valley, Pa.

Set amid gentle hills and charming country sides, Lehigh Valley, Pa. is home to Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton, as well as dozens of small towns and picturesque boroughs.

The region is steeped in pre-Colonial, Early American and industrial history. Lehigh Valley has an impressive range of tourist attractions including nationally-recognized events like Musikfest, wineries and breweries, the Lehigh Valley Zoo, outdoor activities, world-class sporting events, 10 colleges and universities, and is home to Americas favorite brands such as Crayola, Peeps, Mike & Ike, Martin Guitars and Mack Trucks. The region offers a diverse array of memorable things to do and plenty of dining options to fit every budget and taste.

And, its easy to get to and around. Lehigh Valley is located approximately 60 minutes north of Philadelphia and 90 minutes west of New York City by car.

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The beautiful and majestic Park City, Utah. Events are where Leaders are born and where everyday heroes decide to go beyond mediocrity to greatness. Attendees will Learn to Earn and to Be Well. Do Good and Have More with Well Beyond, said Co-Founder and CEO Jeremy Reynolds.

Well-Beyond, a new direct sales company, is hosting the two-day event to provide education on its growing line of targeted health & wellness and weight management solutionswhich includes the worlds only healthy chocolateas well as to deliver direct sales leadership training. Learn to Earn will take place at one of the most beautiful mountain resorts in the world, Hotel Park City.

Events are where Leaders are born and where everyday heroes decide to go beyond mediocrity to greatness. Attendees will Learn to Earn and to Be Well. Do Good and Have More with Well Beyond, said Co-Founder and CEO Jeremy Reynolds.

In addition to acquiring new strategies for business success from leading industry entrepreneurs, attendees will have the chance to sample Well-Beyond products and understand the science behind their effectiveness. Well-Beyonds Founders, Executive Team, and top company Field Leaders will also be on hand to meet and network with participants.

Learn to Earn is nearly sold out with early bird pricing still available through March 31. You can purchase your tickets here.

Pricing

Early Bird: $159

April 115: $179

After April 15: $197

Ticket Includes

Admission for 1

Registration Gift

90-Day Success, Ready Go-Beyond Manual

Additional Training Materials

Venue

Hotel Park City

2001 Park Ave

Park City, UT

84060

About Well-Beyond

Well-Beyond develops targeted health & wellness and weight management solutions to change lives. Along with the worlds only healthy chocolate, we deliver nutritious products for better sleep, enhanced focus, and endless energy. At Well-Beyond, we believe health and happiness go hand in hand. We exist to elevate the world from mediocrity to greatness by holding ourselves and others to our highest potential. This inspires us to go well beyond every day.

Contact

Well-Beyond

Jeff Graham

Chief Products Officer

775-971-9903

jg(at)well-beyond.com
We decided we needed to partner with someone who could handle our growing transportation needs. We had equipment in place, but needed a specialized firm to manage hiring and training drivers, shuttle maintenance, monitoring, scheduling and other aspects of providing shuttle service.

The TransPar Group of Companies, a partnership of three leading organizations from across the transportation industry that offers a diverse portfolio of products and services, announced that representatives will be attending the 10th Annual InterFace Student Housing Conference, April 4-6 at the JW Marriott Hotel in Austin, Texas. Over 1,200 top industry players from both off- and on-campus are expected to attend and participate in the industry's most important and well-attended event.

The TransPar Group of Companies has had recent success in the student housing market delivering customized transportation solutions. When The Scion Group, the largest, privately-held owner/operator of college and university student housing communities in the U.S., decided to turn their shuttle services over to transportation experts, they partnered with TransPar.

Partnering with Scion has been a tremendous opportunity for us to implement a comprehensive, innovative solution, stated Doug Martin, President of TransPar. Included in that solution is also the SafeStop tracking app that allows the students at Scions properties to track where the shuttles are and their expected arrival times which has been well-received. Overall, I think there is a mutual respect between Scion and us and a good understanding of each others core business expertise, and we were able to put together an approach that allows the client to maintain considerable control over their operation while divesting their risk exposure.

The challenge was to seamlessly outsource campus shuttle services during a time of fast-paced expansion in order to better focus on property management. Offering transportation services is very different than managing real estate; its not our principal business or core competency, stated Bryan Curley, Scions Vice President of Operations. We decided we needed to partner with someone who could handle our growing transportation needs. We had equipment in place, but needed a specialized firm to manage hiring and training drivers, shuttle maintenance, monitoring, scheduling and other aspects of providing shuttle service.

TransPar came in with a comprehensive solution that included recruiting, hiring and training drivers, inspecting vehicles, performing needed maintenance and then marketing the shuttle service to residents. TransPar also helped locate new vehicles for purchase in areas where Scion had not acquired shuttles from previous owners. TransPars services were completed in an efficient and expeditious fashion resulting in The Scion Group being able to focus on what they do best while providing added value to its residents and gaining a competitive edge in the marketplace.

TransPars willingness to take on what was, by any standard, a daunting task and do it in a very tight timeline really set them apart, said Scions Vice President of Legal Affairs, Michael Weaver. I highly value the overall professionalism they bring to the job, as well as their responsiveness; theres never a situation in which I cant get hold of somebody. Whenever we need something, theyre always right there for us.

Representatives from the TransPar Group of Companies will be available to discuss student housing transportation and answer questions at Booth #802 at the InterFace Student Housing Conference.

For more information about the TransPar Group of Companies and their portfolio of products and services, please visit http://www.TransParGroup.com and follow on Twitter at @TPGoC.

About TransPar Group of Companies

The TransPar Group of Companies is a partnership of three leading organizations from across the transportation industry that offers a diverse portfolio of products and services which represent the most comprehensive and responsible offering in the industry. And this is done while keeping students safe and improving the cost and quality of school transportation operations. The three business units include TransPar, which provides Management and Staffing Services to develop solutions for difficult operational questions and problems; School Bus Consultants which offers Advisory Services to deliver resources and expertise that transportation contractors and organizations often cannot access on their own; and Transportation Services Co. providing Fleet Management Services and Training Products to help customers create the strong foundation necessary to support effective service delivery. So no matter the needs, the TransPar Group of Companies is the all-inclusive solution to creating a successful, reliable, and profitable student transportation program. For more information, please visit http://www.TransParGroup.com.
A VIP Preview Party and Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony will be held for Silver Birch of Michigan City, a new affordable assisted living community for older adults that opened this month.

The event will be held from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursday at the community, which is located at 4400 E Michigan Blvd. in Michigan City, Indiana.

This multimillion-dollar development was designed for seniors who have a financial need and need some help to maintain their independence.

We will be providing older adults with a wonderful alternative to a nursing home or to struggling alone at home, said Silver Birch of Michigan City Administrator Rebecca Arthur.

The community will combine residential apartment-home living with the availability of personal assistance, help with medications, and a variety of convenience and support services, such as meals, housekeeping, laundry and transportation.

Residents will live in private apartments that they will furnish and decorate to their tastes. Each of the apartments will feature a kitchenette, spacious bathroom with shower and grab bars, individually controlled heating and air conditioning and an emergency alert system.

In addition, Silver Birch of Michigan City offers several areas for residents to enjoy, including an activity room, beauty salon/barber shop, convenience store, fitness room, library and computer room, TV lounges, a recreation room and theater.

Certified nursing assistants, working under the direction of a licensed nurse, will be on-duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

"Residents also will benefit from all of the opportunities that will be available to socialize with friends and neighbors and to participate in activities and special programs," says Arthur.

When fully occupied, the community will provide 63 full-time and part-time jobs. Annual payroll with benefits is projected to be nearly $1.5 million.

Silver Birch of Michigan City will be certified to operate through the Division of Aging and regulated by the Indiana State Department of Health.

"Our focus," says Rod Burkett, CEO of Gardant Management Solutions, the company that will manage the community "is to provide Silver Birch residents with the love, compassion and dignity they deserve and the help and assistance they need. Our emphasis is on helping each resident achieve and maintain as much independence as possible for as long as possible."

Another Silver Birch community is expected to open in Kokomo later this year. Two other Silver Birch communities are open in Hammond and Muncie.

Indiana communities managed by Gardant include Belvedere Senior Housing in Merrillville, Oasis at 30th in Indianapolis and The Lodge at Summers Pointe in Winchester. Other Gardant-managed projects under development in Indiana include Evergreen Village at Bloomington, Glasswater Creek of Lafayette and Hellenic Senior Living of Indianapolis and New Albany.

Individuals interested in reserving apartments at Silver Birch of Michigan City should call (219) 879-6115.

For more information about the community, visit https://silverbirchliving.com/location/silver-birch-michigan-city/, http://www.facebook.com/silverbirchmichigancity/ or send an email to administrator(at)silverbirch-michigancitycom.
Their commitment has helped shape the face of todays industry and the success of ISPA.

The International Sleep Products Association honored Gerry Borreggine, president and CEO of Therapedic International, and Bob Steelman, vice president of sales and marketing of Carpenter Company, for their outstanding industry service, during the 2018 ISPA EXPO Industry Breakfast in Charlotte, NC on March 16, 2018.

Borreggine received the Abolt Exceptional Service Award, the highest honor bestowed upon an individual member on behalf of ISPA. Borreggine was nominated by his peers for exemplifying outstanding devotion to the well-being and betterment of the bedding industry. Borreggine has demonstrated  within his community, industry, and his business  extraordinary personal integrity and perseverance in the pursuit of his individual and our common goals. His exemplary involvement with the industry includes serving as chair of the ISPA Board, as a member of ISPAs Executive Committee and Board of Trustees, and on the Better Sleep Council and Finance Committees, as well as other key bedding industry events and programs.

This award means a lot to me because ISPA means a lot to me. I am proud to be associated with ISPA, and receiving the Abolt Award is a treasured honor. said Gerry Borreggine.

Steelman received the MacMorran Memorial Award in recognition of his outstanding service to the mattress industry. The award recognizes those individuals in active pursuit of commendable service to the sleep products industry as well as the Association.

I love the bedding industry. More importantly, I love the people in this industry. I am very honored to be recognized by ISPA this way. ISPA, has been an important advocate for the bedding industry during my entire 40-plus year career, said Bob Steelman.

The mattress industry is blessed with many dedicated, creative and hard-working individuals who have devoted their careers to not only their own companies, but also to making the bedding industry and the world around them better, said ISPA President, Ryan Trainer. We are fortunate to have the opportunity to learn from and work with these leaders. Their commitment has helped shape the face of todays industry and the success of ISPA. We are honored today to recognize Gerry and Bob for their contributions and service to the industry and the Association.

oOo

Established in 1915, the International Sleep Products Association (ISPA) is dedicated to lead and advance the interest of the sleep products industry by helping the world sleep better. As the industrys trade organization, ISPA represents the sleep products industry with members in countries around the world.

ISPA provides a wide range of services that benefit its membership. These include exclusive industry surveys and statistics, government advocacy support, educational offerings, the industrys ISPA EXPO trade show, safety research through its Sleep Products Safety Council, consumer research and education through its Better Sleep Council, BedTimes and Sleep Savvy publications.

To learn more, visit http://www.sleepproducts.org or contact info@sleepproducts.org.

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Students join NEA members at a March For Our Lives rally against gun violence in Washington on March 24, 2018. Photo by Patrick G. Ryan/NEA. Our students deserve better than hollow words and an insincere, closed and secretive commission. --NEA President Lily Eskelsen Garcia

The Federal Commission on School Safety met for the first time today behind closed doors at the White House without students, teachers or parents at the table and away from the publics scrutiny. The National Education Association, which represents 3 million educators working in Americas public schools and on college campuses, was not invited to attend the meeting.

The following can be attributed to NEA President Lily Eskelsen Garcia:

Donald Trump appointed Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to lead the Federal Commission on School Safety. This commission is meeting just days after hundreds of thousands of students held marches in Washington and across the country to demand meaningful action to prevent gun violence in our schools and communities. Yet, todays meeting purposefully excludes the voices of students, educators and parents. In the past, Trump has consistently mocked the idea of commissions to solve the nations problems. Trumps own words undermine his intent to do something to protect our students, educators and communities. Our students deserve better than hollow words and an insincere, closed and secretive commission.

Given the previous actions of DeVos, were not surprised that todays meeting is closed to the media and happening away from the eyes of the public. The commissions clear purpose is to push an agenda that is focused on a dangerous and misguided plan to put more guns in schools by arming teachers and other school personnel.

All of this is a distraction from the real problem: Very dangerous people have very easy access to very dangerous weapons. Our students need fewer guns in schools  not more of them  and bringing guns into our schools does absolutely nothing to protect our students and educators from gun violence. We must listen to the students, educators and parents, who have unequivocally stated they do not want more guns in schools and overwhelmingly have rejected the idea of arming educators.

NEA surveyed 1,000 members nationwide March 15, and the results showed that members support a range of commonsense solutions to address school shootings, but arming teachers is not one of them. Among the surveys findings, an overwhelming majority, 82 percent, say they would not carry a gun in school, including 63 percent of NEA members who own a gun. Sixty-one percent of gun owners oppose arming teachers. Sixty-four percent of those in gun households oppose arming teachers. Two-thirds, 64 percent, say they would feel less safe if teachers and other educators were allowed to carry guns. Seven in 10, 69 percent, say arming school personnel would be ineffective at preventing gun violence in schools.

Follow on twitter at @NEAmedia and @Lily_NEA

Keep up with the conversation on social media at #ProtectOurSchools and #NotOneMore
Veteran Movers Powered by Roadway Veteran Movers mirrors my own passion of building businesses and growth through integrity and trust. Its essential for me to truly believe in whomever Im joining forces with from a vision and principles perspective, and Jesse Gartman and his team of veterans deliver this.

Roadway Moving Company, Inc., the #1-rated, full-service residential and commercial moving company in New York, has announced the acquisition of Veteran Movers NYC. Re-branded as Veteran Movers, Powered by Roadway, the company was founded in 2011 in Brooklyn, by a former Marine and is staffed by U.S. armed forces veterans. The move demonstrates Roadways ability to merge an aggressive growth strategy with its ethos of corporate social responsibility, with plans to hire additional veterans from the Metro NY area. The new company will maintain its current staff and move to the Bronx headquarters of Roadway. The company is also implementing a 10% discount program for veterans and current members of the armed forces, throughout the remainder of the year.

A positive corporate culture and commitment to employees and clients is the cornerstones of our company, explained Roadway President Ross Sapir. This wasnt just about buying a company for the sake of an acquisition. Veteran Movers mirrors my own passion of building businesses and growth through integrity and trust. Its essential for me to truly believe in whomever Im joining forces with from a vision and principles perspective, and, Jesse Gartman and his team of veterans deliver this.

Jesse Gartman is the founder of Veteran Movers and a four-year marine who served in Iraq. He will stay on as the GM of Veteran Movers Power by Roadway, reporting directly Sapir.

We have big things planned for Jesse. For the next few months, hes going to train in each of the Roadway departments, learning every aspect of our business, much like I did in my early career. The two-year business plan includes Gartman opening a Veteran Movers Powered by Roadway in Texas.

Ross and his team truly saw the value of my companys brand and the level of importance that it is on a personal level to employ more vets and help them stay employed, said Gartman. Ross honestly saved my life, too, putting me and the company which I care for so deeply, in a position to succeed with his mentorship and Roadways far-reaching reputation and resources.

With the acquisition, the award-ranked Roadway will continue to be a separate company. Both companies will provide exceptional service delivered by a team of efficient, experienced, and reliable movers. Through the utilization of modern moving technologies, including air-conditioned storage, Roadway Black (white glove services for high-end valuables), eco-friendly moving container options and properly equipped trucks, Roadways delivers on its Nice Way Promise, ensuring customers belongings are transported safely and without compromise.

About Roadway Moving Company

Established in 2008, Roadway Moving Company is one of the highest-rated moving companies in the NY Metro area (#1 on Yelp and Angies List, A+ BBB rating) and provides residential and commercial local and long-distance moving. Roadway has more than 170 employees and does nearly 6,000 moves per year. The company offers storage services, as well as Roadway Black, a premier luxury moving service for valuable items such as priceless art, electronics and fine china. Roadway President and Owner Ross Sapir also created CityBins, an eco-friendly, rentable moving bin company and recently acquired RedBin, an on-demand storage company. For more information, visit http://www.roadwaymoving.com.
With the successful LNG tank container loading at the Eagle LNG Partners Maxville Facility, Crowley can offer even more flexible services and sourcing locations to supply customers with LNG as a cleaner, safer fuel source.

Crowley Maritime Corporations LNG group has successfully executed the first loading of nearly 11,000 gallons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) into an ISO tank container at the new Eagle LNG Partners liquefaction facility located near Jacksonville, Fla.

Crowley loaded LNG into the ISO container and delivered it over the road to the Port of Jacksonville for ocean transport to support customers in Puerto Rico. With the addition of the new plant, Crowley and Eagle LNG have expanded the supply and availability of LNG services to customers in the U.S., Caribbean and Latin America.

With the successful LNG tank container loading at the Eagle LNG Partners Maxville Facility, Crowley can offer even more flexible services and sourcing locations to supply customers with LNG as a cleaner, safer fuel source. The new plant location means LNG can be easily produced and transported to the port all within the Jacksonville area, said Crowleys Matt Jackson, vice president, LNG. Not only will Crowley and Eagle LNG Partners provide a fuel source that decreases environmental impacts, Crowley can provide supply chain and engineering solutions that are resilient alternatives to traditional energy sources in Puerto Rico and other markets.

The plant, which is in the Maxville area of west Jacksonville, has the capacity to produce up to 200,000 gallons per day of LNG, which offers lower emissions than other fuels and has diverse industrial and commercial capabilities. The Maxville LNG Facility has a 1-million-gallon storage tank and a modern system to load fuel into ISO containers for truck delivery to the port quickly.

We are very pleased that the first commercial load of LNG from the new Maxville LNG Facility is destined for Puerto Rico via ISO container. This LNG plant is the embodiment of Crowley and Eagle LNGs commitment to the community in the North Florida region and Puerto Rico. Having the first commercial load sold to Crowley for routing through the Port of Jacksonville to Puerto Rico is only appropriate, said Sean Lalani, president of Eagle LNG Partners. The new Maxville LNG Facility is the first LNG plant to be operational in Jacksonville and features numerous design enhancements to allow us to send out LNG to the Port of Jacksonville and throughout the region safely and efficiently. LNG continues to become the fuel of today and Jacksonville is the epicenter of this transition.

After receiving the LNG, the ISO containers are transported by truck and loaded onto vessels in Jacksonville. Crowley then provides ocean transportation and delivers the LNG to various customers in Puerto Rico and other locations in the Caribbean. To date, Crowley has successfully transported more than 6.5 million gallons of LNG as well as provided engineering and other services for pharmaceutical and other companies.

LNG from Eagle LNG's new plant also will power Crowleys two new Commitment Class, combination container/roll-on roll-off ConRo ships for the U.S. mainland to Puerto Rico trade. The use of LNG in the ships El Coqui and Taino will result in a significant reduction of emissions as compared to existing fossil fuels.

To support fueling the ships, Eagle LNG Partners and Crowley have constructed a dockside LNG fuel depot on Crowley-leased property at the JAXPORT Talleyrand Marine Terminal on the St. Johns River. The marine terminal, which uses cutting-edge technology, was engineered to feature a compact footprint specifically for ship bunkering operations. Crowleys LNG engineering team has partnered with Eagle LNG for the successful completion of the port fuel depot.

For more than 65 years, Crowley has been a leading provider of ocean transportation and supply chain services between Puerto Rico and the U.S. mainland. In addition, the Crowley LNG group, which operates under the Crowley Fuels business unit, offers supply, transportation and distribution of LNG in the U.S. mainland, Alaska, Caribbean and Latin America.

About Crowley

Jacksonville-based Crowley Holdings Inc., a holding company of the 126-year-old Crowley Maritime Corporation, is a privately held family and employee-owned company that provides marine solutions, energy and logistics services in domestic and international markets. Six operating lines of business provide logistics and supply chain management, including liner container shipping; government services; contract marine towing and transportation; ship assist and tanker escort; offshore engineering and upstream project support; deep sea petroleum and chemical transportation; liquefied natural gas (LNG) transportation, distribution, engineering and consulting services; Alaska fuel sales and distribution; vessel management; vessel construction and naval architecture through its Jensen Maritime subsidiary, and salvage and emergency response through its 50 percent ownership in Ardent Global. Additional information about Crowley, its subsidiaries and business units may be found at http://www.crowley.com.

About Eagle LNG

Eagle LNG Partners is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ferus Natural Gas Fuels LP and privately-held by The Energy & Minerals Group. Eagle LNG Partners is building LNG infrastructure across the United States to supply clean-burning, competitively-priced fuel for the marine, remote power, rail, oil and gas, and trucking industries. Eagle LNG Partners is based in Houston, Texas. For additional information, please visit http://www.eaglelng.com.

# # #
Ayuda Media Systems (Ayuda), an out-of-home ad tech company announced today at the 2018 Digital Signage Expo that Val Morgan Outdoor (VMO), one of Australias leading out-of-home media owners, has selected Ayudas software as the backbone for all ad operations including sales, digital ad serving, and customer-facing enablement tools. As part of the HOYTS Group of companies the VMO network includes more than 10,000 digital advertising screens across 100 locations in Australia and New Zealand, engaging high-value audiences where they work, shop and commute & live VMO has already migrated more than half of its extensive national advertising network to Ayudas digital CMS and player since officially signing the partnership in late 2017.

Anthony Deeble, HOYTS Group Chief Commercial Officer & VMO Founder, commented: We chose Ayuda due our shared culture of innovation and drive to connect advertisers with the right audiences at the right time. VMO has led the industry with innovation since its inception and in particular the launch of DART (Digital outdoor Audience in Real Time) and similarly Ayuda has repeatedly demonstrated that it is a company of firsts.

VMO will continue to implement Ayudas end-to-end advertising business platform over the coming months, which will further enhance the companys ability to offer the industry-leading responsive service and advertiser engagement capabilities for which it is renowned. VMOs DART is already fully integrated with Ayudas digital ad serving platform, making it easy for advertisers to target and engage with more than 20 different demographic types automatically. VMO will also offer advertisers the convenience of managing their campaigns autonomously with Ayudas self-serve software tools for media buyers.

Daniel Fleischer, Ayudas Global VP of Business Development & Marketing, commented: VMO is recognized as one of Australias most pioneering media companies. In selecting Ayuda as technology partner to power all advertising sales business operations, VMO has made a commitment to continue its track record of excellence and innovative offerings to market. In a very short amount of time, Ayuda and VMO together have already run several programmatic campaigns that offer advertisers high value, while streamlining VMOs operating efficiencies. Media owners such as VMO who choose to run the entire Ayuda Platform have maximum flexibility in how media campaigns are planned and optimized. As Ayuda unveils more optimization-centric offerings this year, I have no doubt that VMO will be among the first of our partners when going-to-market. Ayuda loves working with smart media companies who live, as we do, on the bleeding edge  VMO is without a doubt, one such company.

About Ayuda Media Systems

Ayuda is an ad tech company specializing in OOH business optimization. The Ayuda Platform is used globally by some of the worlds largest OOH companies to manage day-to-day business operations. It includes an end-to-end ERP specially built for OOH, a fully native ad-based digital signage platform, and programmatic integrations that enable OOH media companies to tap into new digital revenue streams and modernize their trading models. Ayuda is a proud member of the DPAA, OAAA and FEPE.

For more information, visit http://www.ayudasystems.com

About Val Morgan Outdoor

VMO is a leading provider of digital Outdoor advertising across Australia and New Zealand across 10,000 screens in 1000 locations. The network reaches over 10 million consumers each week. VMO is part of the HOYTS Group of companies.

For more information, visit http://www.valmorganoutdoor.com
I am thrilled to have Habib join the VIA team. We can take our portfolio management abilities to new levels of quality and capacity, as we further scale up our portfolio management expertise, and serve a greater number of ETF clients with excellence. Denise Krisko, President & Co-Founder, VIA

Vident Financial, LLC is proud to welcome Habib Moudachirou as Senior Portfolio Manager to Vident Investment Advisory, LLC (VIA).

Mr. Moudachirou brings over seventeen years of cross-asset trading, risk and portfolio management experience in both active and strategic beta indexation internationally. He specializes in managing factor-based investment strategies across the four major asset classes as well as creating and implementing bespoke research, structuring, and trading solutions. Mr. Moudachirou will be responsible for overseeing day-to-day portfolio management of VIA sub-advised ETFs. He will also further strengthen the operational efficiency of VIAs trading and investment management operations and bring additional expertise to the team.

We are excited to have Habib join our team. Mr. Moudachirous background in portfolio management of multi-factor and smart beta portfolios in a variety of fund structures globally will be invaluable in helping to guide VIAs efforts to further enhance our performance, as one of the leading sub-advisory firms in the ETF industry. Vince Birley, CEO & Co-Founder Vident Financial.

Prior to joining VIA, Mr. Moudachirou was an Executive Director and Portfolio Manager at J.P. Morgan, where he was responsible for building and managing smart beta and alternative risk premia strategies; employing cost-effective and liquid replacement solutions for hedge fund exposure and utilizing risk factor investing. While at J.P. Morgan, he also developed reporting and trading models for clients while optimizing strategies around various products, including ETFs. Before joining J.P. Morgan, Mr. Moudachirou was an equity Portfolio Manager at Emerging Global Advisors (EGA), where he was responsible for $1.8 billion in emerging markets equity ETFs. Prior to that, he spent over a decade at the quantitative arm of HSBC Global Asset Management in Europe and in the U.S., where he served in various investment roles. He is also an Adjunct Professor at New York University SPS.

Leading the company is Denise Krisko, who has over twenty years of portfolio management and trading experience, with an expertise in ETF management from more than a decade of managing ETFs. She has served in various leadership roles with Mellon Capital Management (MCM), Bank of New York (BNY), Northern Trust Deutsche Asset Management and The Vanguard Group. She has worked with dozens of ETF sponsors and has overseen the management of more than 150 ETFs.

I am thrilled to have Habib join the VIA team. We can take our portfolio management abilities to new levels of quality and capacity, as we further scale up our portfolio management expertise, and serve a greater number of ETF clients with excellence. Denise Krisko, President & Co-Founder Vident Investment Advisory.

Mr. Moudachirou holds BS in Physics from Pierre and Marie Curie University as well as an MS in Quantitative Finance from the University of Rennes, France. Additionally, he holds an MSE in Statistics from the French National School of Statistics University and Information Analysis, ENSAI. Mr. Moudachirou holds a Financial Risk Manager (FRM) designation.

Vident Investment Advisory provides sub-advisory services for quantitative strategies with a focus on ETFs. Vident Financial established VIA in 2014 to improve trading efficiencies and better control costs associated with the portfolio management and trading of their ETFs. VIA currently sub-advises 33 ETFs and one UCITS across a variety of asset classes with approximately $5.6B in AUM.

Vident Financials index strategies and ETFs seek to utilize time-tested economic and investment principles to identify environments where human productivity can thrive long-term. Principles-based investment metrics are incorporated into rules-based processes, which helps to limit the emotional decision-making bias present in many active strategies.

End

Vident Investment Advisory, LLC (VIA) provides asset management and sub-advisory services for index-based assets. The Firms capabilities and experience include domestic and global equities, fixed income and commodities. The extensive experience and innovation for a variety of ETF sponsors has made ETF management VIAs specialty. The Firm endeavors to utilize its unique experience and state of the art technology to fulfill client objectives and exceed expectations.

Vident Financial is a financial services innovator that develops and licenses transparent investment market indices based on a distinct framework and rigorous global research. Based in Atlanta, GA, Vidents indices utilize sophisticated risk-balancing methodologies, economic freedom metrics, valuation, and investor behavior with a systematic, structured, and rules-based investment process. In short, Vident was founded with the purpose of applying timeless wisdom and established principles to todays complex investment decisions. The name Vident comes from a Latin word meaning, they oversee, they care for. The company is wholly owned by the Vident Investors Oversight Trust and is solely focused on serving the needs of investors.

Disclosure: Information in this document should not be considered legal or investment advice. Nothing in this message shall be considered a solicitation/offer to buy/sell any security or other financial instrument or to offer or provide any investment advice.
Apostle Islands National Lakeshore Quarter

WHAT:

The United States Mint (Mint) and the National Park Service will launch the America the Beautiful Quarters Program coin honoring Apostle Islands National Lakeshore in Wisconsin on Wednesday, April 11, 2018, at 10 a.m. CDT. The ceremony will take place at the Legendary Waters Resort in Red Cliff.

The Bayfield High School Choir, Red Cliff VFW, Wigwamm Express, Red Cliff Youth Drum Group and Washburn High School Jazz Band will perform.

Additional event highlights include the exchange of $10 rolls of newly minted Apostle Islands National Lakeshore quarters after the ceremony. Richard Masters, designer of the quarter, will also attend.

WHO:



Rick Peterson, Tribal Chairman, Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa

Mike Wiggins, Tribal Chairman, Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa

Henry Buffalo, Elder, Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa (Descendant of Chief Buffalo)

Bob Krumenaker, Superintendent, Apostle Islands National Lakeshore

Marc Landry, Acting Associate Director, Numismatic and Bullion Directorate, United States Mint

Richard Masters, Apostle Islands National Lakeshore quarter designer, United States Mint Artistic Infusion Program

Larry MacDonald, former Mayor of Bayfield, Wisconsin

WHEN:

Wednesday, April 11, 2018, 10 a.m. CDT

WHERE:

Legendary Waters Resort

37600 Onigamiing Drive

Red Cliff, WI 54814

COIN FORUM

The United States Mint will host a coin forum the evening before the launch ceremonyTuesday, April 10, 2018, 67 p.m. CDTat the Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center, 29270 County Hwy G, Ashland, WI 54806. The coin forum is an opportunity for the public to learn about upcoming United States Mint coin programs and initiatives, and express their views about future coinage.

The Apostle Islands National Lakeshore quarter is the 42nd release in the United States Mint America the Beautiful Quarters Program. Authorized by Public Law 110-456 and launched in 2009, the 12-year program honors 56 national parks and other national sites. Each year until 2020, the public will see five new national sites depicted on the reverses of the America the Beautiful Quarters coins. A final coin will be released in 2021. The Mint is issuing these quarters in the order in which each honored location was first established as a national site.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:



Apostle Islands National Lakeshore Contact:

Julie Van Stappen

Chief, Planning and Resource Management

(715) 779-3398, ext. 1601

julie_van_stappen@nps.gov

# # #

United States Mint  Connecting America through Coins
ThunderCat Technology announced today that CRN, a brand of The Channel Company, has named ThunderCat Technology to its 2018 Tech Elite 250 list. This annual list honors an exclusive group of North American IT solution providers that have earned the highest number of advanced technical certifications from leading technology suppliers, scaled to their company size. This represents ThunderCats fifth appearance on the prestigious list.

To compile the annual list, The Channel Companys research group and CRN editors work together to identify the most customer-beneficial technical certifications in the North American IT channel. Companies who have obtained these elite designations which enable solution providers to deliver premium products, services and customer supportare then selected from a pool of online applicants.

ThunderCats dedication to technical innovation is evident in our expansive engineering team. Our highly experienced team of engineers remains at the forefront of the technology curve through a commitment to ongoing education, training, and networking. By focusing on attaining industry certifications we can strengthen our relationships with our partners and prove our ability to provide novel solutions to our clients.

Being named to CRNs Tech Elite 250 list is no small feat, said Bob Skelley, CEO of The Channel Company. These companies have distinguished themselves with multiple, top-level IT certifications, specializations and partner program designations from the industrys most prestigious technology providers. Their pursuit of deep expertise and broader skill sets in a wide range of technologies and IT practices demonstrates an impressive commitment to elevating their businessesand to providing the best possible customer experience.

We are honored to be recognized by CRN within the Tech Elite 250 as it demonstrates our continued commitment to providing top tier services to our clients and partners. As our clients needs have evolved to include cloud based services, software defined data center, and cybersecurity, we at ThunderCat have transformed our product portfolio to provide cutting edge solutions that allow our customers to achieve their mission. said Kyle Langdon, ThunderCat Technologys VP of Engineering.

About ThunderCat Technology

Currently ranked #69 on the Solution Provider 500, the award winning ThunderCat Technology is a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) that delivers technology solutions and services to government organizations, educational institutions, and commercial companies. Specifically, ThunderCat is a systems integrator that brings an innovative approach to solving customer problems in and around the datacenter by providing strategies for Data Storage, Networking, Cyber Security, and Cloud Transformations. A proven leader, ThunderCat Technology provides and optimizes technologies from best of breed manufacturers. Clients include DOD, HHS, DHS, VA, Treasury, FBI, State of Virginia, Hawaii Health Systems, and Avery Dennison. http://www.thundercattech.com.

About the Channel Company

The Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education, and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers and end users. Backed by more than 30 years of unequaled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace. http://www.thechannelco.com

The Channel Company, LLC. CRN is a registered trademark of The Channel Company, LLC. All rights reserved.
HNTBs Fellows designation is our way of recognizing individuals who have truly distinguished themselves at HNTB and in their professional careers.

HNTB Corporation named five new Fellows, the highest technical honor within the company. HNTBs Fellows Program distinguishes HNTB employees who are recognized experts in their respective fields.

With these latest additions, HNTB calls 23 of its current top technical experts, Fellows:

Sanja Zlatanic, PE, tunnel services practice chair and senior vice president; Ron Deverman, CEP, principal environmental planning manager and associate vice president; Chuck Miller, Ph.D., PE, PTOE, senior project manager; John Szturo, RG, PG, senior project manager; and Doug Woodbury, PE, senior program manager and vice president; earned the accolade.

These significant factors were considered in the selection process for each Fellow:



Strategic importance of nominees technical contributions

Critical impact to HNTBs technical excellence

Ability to market technical expertise to clients

High degree of technical and design leadership, outreach and collaboration with colleges and universities, and staff development skills

Leading role played in design of HNTB award-winning projects

High levels of innovation and originality

Technical excellence is the foundation of everything we do  it has been a hallmark of HNTB since our founding more than 100 years ago and it is steadfastly rooted in our corporate culture, said Rob Slimp, HNTB Chairman and CEO. HNTBs Fellows designation is our way of recognizing individuals who have truly distinguished themselves at HNTB and in their professional careers.

HNTBs newest Fellows have achieved remarkable results for the firms clients in a variety of markets across the U.S. and internationally, as well as significant career achievements:

Zlatanic, based in New York, New York, is an internationally renowned tunnel engineering expert on the leading edge of her profession. In her role, she directs the firms tunneling and underground projects and leads HNTBs global marketing and business development for tunneling and complex underground structures within the transportation and water resources markets. Some of HNTBs most complex underground projects have benefited from Zlatanics award-winning planning, design and support services, including the Crenshaw/LAX transit corridor in Los Angeles, Presidio Parkway in San Francisco, Istanbul Strait Road Tube Crossing, the SR 99 Alaskan Way Viaduct in Seattle, and Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authoritys Bay Area Rapid Transit Silicon Valley Extension Project.

Deverman, based in Chicago, is a nationally recognized environmental planning expert. Since 2012, he has served as HNTBs program manager leading the delivery of the Chicago Regional Environmental and Transportation Efficiency Program, which will increase efficiency, safety and reliability of passenger and freight rail systems in the Chicago region. Additionally, Deverman played an integral role on projects in Ohio, Georgia and Illinois that have earned multiple industry awards.

Miller, based in Kansas City, Missouri, is an expert on intelligent transportation systems and a leader in truck parking information management systems. With his contributions, HNTB helped secure a federal grant to fund an eight-state truck parking deployment  the Mid America Association of State Transportation Officials Regional Truck Parking Information and Management System. Miller currently serves as technical task lead for the program.

Szturo, also based in Kansas City, has served HNTBs geotechnical engineering department since 1977 and participated in more than 500 projects. One of his most notable involved orchestrating the first design and construction of a large interchange over abandoned lead and zinc mines in southwest Missouri. Serving as resident engineer, Szturo oversaw the ground remediation without a single contractor claim. Currently, Szturo serves as geotechnical constructability consultant on the Walk Bridge Program in Norwalk, Connecticut.

Woodbury, based in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, specializes in transit and rail. His expertise has led to success for numerous transit and rail clients throughout the U.S., including the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, Long Island Rail Road, Dallas Area Rapid Transit, and Metro Transit in Minneapolis. Currently, Woodbury serves as project manager on the MBTAs Cabot Yard and Maintenance Facility Improvement project in Boston.

About HNTB

HNTB Corporation is an employee-owned infrastructure firm serving public and private owners and contractors. With more than a century of service in the United States, HNTB understands the life cycle of infrastructure and addresses clients most complex technical, financial and operational challenges. Professionals nationwide deliver a full range of infrastructure-related services, including award-winning planning, design, program management and construction management. For more information, visit http://www.hntb.com.
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Posted Tuesday, March 27, 2018 11:10 am

Whittaker gives talk March 29

The 2018 Community Read ends Thursday, March 29 with a meet the author event with Leif Whittaker. Join Whittaker, who presents a talk and reading from his memoir, My Old Man and the Mountain, this years 13th Community Read for the Port Townsend Public Library.

The event is set for 6:30-8 p.m. at the Port Townsend High School auditorium, 1500 Van Ness. A book signing follows, with books available to purchase from Imprint Books. The event is sponsored by Friends of the Port Townsend Library and the Port Townsend School District.

Geology group addresses hazards of landslides

Engineering geologist Tom Badger gives an illustrated presentation about landslide hazards in Washington state at 4 p.m., Saturday, March 31 at Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 2333 San Juan Ave. The presentation is hosted by the Jefferson Land Trust Geology Group.

Predictions of landslides are difficult, said Badger, and human tragedies associated with them have spurred Washington state to make advancements in forestry practices, risk-management programs, streamlined emergency management procedures and landslide-hazard mapping.

Badger served as an engineering geologist for the Washington State Department of Transportation for 32 years and has published and lectured widely on slope hazards and risk management. This presentation, sponsored by Jefferson Land Trusts Geology Group, is free and open to the public. For more information about the Geology Group and this upcoming presentation, go online to

quimpergeology.org.

Buddhist talk, retreat presented April 6-8

Buddhist teacher Tuere Sala gives a presentation on Friday, April 6, followed by a weekend retreat. All events take place at the Port Townsend Yacht Club, 2503 Washington, near the Boat Haven. Fridays free presentation begins at 7 p.m. and is open to the public.

Sala is a retired prosecuting attorney. Currently, she is one of the coleaders at Seattle Insight Meditation Society. She has practiced vipassana meditation for more than 25 years and has completed extensive training to become a Buddhist teacher of the dharma. For more information about the retreat, which is sponsored by the Port Townsend Sangha, visit

ptsangha.org.

Used-book sale benefits county library

The Friends of the Jefferson County Library host a sale of used books, DVDs and CDs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, April 14 at the library, located at 620 Cedar Ave. in Port Hadlock. Early entry for Friends members is at 9:30 a.m.

Compiled by Leader staff writer Katie Kowalski.
Posted Tuesday, March 27, 2018 8:00 pm

Donations to help pay for the south jetty project, whether the new jetty should be a mound of rubble or a steel wall, and the idea of parking a Navy destroyer for wave protection were a few of the ideas proposed by members of the public during the public comment period at the March 20 Port of Port Townsend meeting.

More than 130 people attended the meeting after the Northwest Maritime Center (NWMC) sent out a mass email and created several Facebook posts that stated the Wooden Boat Festival was in jeopardy and urged people to email port commissioners and to attend the meeting.

The NWMC pressed people to support either a fall start date or a summer start date with wave protection.

Port Commissioner Steve Tucker said he spent two days responding to a deluge of emails.

Boy, theres a lot of you. Im really glad you came out. I knew there would be a lot of people, Tucker said of the crowd of people that filled the Port Townsend Yacht Club.

LITTLE GIRL VOICE

Several members of the audience yelled at commissioners to speak more loudly so everyone in the hall could hear.

Louder  stand, please, audience members yelled. Staff spent a few minutes figuring out how to turn on the PA system so the audience could hear better.

When Kaci Cronkhite, former director of the Wooden Boat Festival, stood up to speak during public comment, Tucker interjected and asked, Can you hear her? Shes got a little girl voice.

The crowd booed in response to Tuckers comment.

A few minutes later, when Tucker was speaking, someone in the audience asked Tucker, Can you use your big girl voice, please? and the audience broke into laughter.

NAVY DESTROYER, ALEXAS

George Yount said the NWMCs pledged donation of $80,000-$100,000 was interesting and suggested maybe the City of Port Townsend or the Main Street Program could help defray project costs. Yount also suggested probably the most harebrained thing youll ever hear.

I would suggest that you go down to the Bremerton shipyard, get a surplus destroyer, bring it up here, anchor it out just beyond where the breakwater is now, but enough room for the construction to occur, and that could be the wave deflection while this construction is going on.

Carol Hasse of Port Townsend Sails said businesses would suffer economically without the Wooden Boat Festival. Additionally, Hasse said she was deeply concerned that the design for the new jetty was not a rubble-mound breakwater like the one that presently exists.

The replacement is slated to be a 6-foot-wide vertical steel combi wall made of cement and Chinese steel  very unattractive, Hasse said.

Instead, Hasse urged commissioners to use a rubble-mound jetty using granite boulders from Tenino, Washington.

I urge you  to take a hard look at Mott MacDonalds steel combi wall proposal, including how it would hold up to a tsunami. I think that following the example of the Columbia River jetties by repairing them with granite boulders from Washington state is a better investment for our economy and our environment, she said.

Sam Gibboney, executive director of the port, said later that because of the permit requirements from various government agencies, a rock jetty could not be used.

Melinda Bryden said, The port has very limited resources. This jetty is going to max them out.

Bryden said it would be financially irresponsible to pay an additional $250,000-$500,000 for the fall start date.

Sorry, but your $80,000 isnt enough, Jake, just to save the festival, Bryden said, referring to Beattie and the NWMCs donation pledge.

Since the main financial beneficiaries of the festival are the city of Port Townsend and the NWMC, Bryden said both of them should provide $150,000 to mitigate the higher cost of a fall start.

Ron Hayes thanked the NWMC for offering $80,000-$100,000.

Thats a ton of money to the Maritime Center, and I thank you, Hayes said, adding that he thought the city and port should also contribute $120,000 each to help pay for a fall start date.

Mari Mullen, director of the Main Street Program, said downtown businesses were already suffering from the Water Street Enhancement Project, and by the time summer comes, we really need a super-strong summer and a super-strong fall to make up for it. We ask you to consider the economic impacts of the south jetty replacement project across our community, which employs so many locals, Mullen said.

The Wooden Boat Festival was crucial to businesses, Mullen said.

Kris Nelson, owner of Alchemy Bistro, Sirens and the Old Whiskey Mill, and board president of Main Street, said the ports decision would impact small businesses like hers.

Seventy percent of our income comes from the business that we do in the summer. Its critical to us to survive through the winters, Nelson said.

Tom Aydelotte, owner of Docs Marina Grill at Point Hudson, thanked the NWMC and said, Well kick in $20,000 if youll start in September. All of our money is made in the summer. We lose money all winter, Aydelotte said.

Morgan Conrad suggested a long shot idea to raise money through naming rights.

If it could be the Costco Pier [or] the Amazon Pier, covered with Alexas that you could order stuff from  my buddy works for the Giants, and they name everything in Giants stadium, Conrad said.

Chris Hanson, owner of a local dive shop, said his business was the smallest tenant at the port.

Youll kill us with a summer start, Hanson said. I think you should wait. Hanson offered to help pay for the new jetty but did not specify how much he would give.
Posted Tuesday, March 27, 2018 8:00 pm

Jamie Maciejewski, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of East Jefferson County, recently joined more than 340 Habitat for Humanity leaders, homeowners and volunteers from across the country in Washington, D.C. to advocate for affordable housing.

Too many people in our county are already struggling between making their housing payments and buying food for their family, Maciejewski stated in a press release.

The budget proposed by the White House would worsen the affordable housing crisis currently facing communities across the United States, including Jefferson County, said Maciejewski. That budget would drastically cut funding, and in some cases, eliminate it entirely.

We were in Washington, D.C, to ask our representatives on Capitol Hill to make greater investments in affordable housing, not less.

Maciejewski and other Habitat leaders met with Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray, Rep. Derek Kilmer and others to call upon Congress to set aside the budget proposal and instead prioritize solutions that would end the affordable housing crisis.

The White Houses proposed budget also would eliminate the AmeriCorps program through the shuttering of the Corporation for National and Community Service, Maciejewski said, noting that AmeriCorps is a vital component of the Jefferson County Habitats work to partner with more families working toward homeownership.

More than 10,000 AmeriCorps members have worked with Habitat to help build homes and rebuild in disaster-stricken areas.

There is no question that we are in an affordable housing crisis, stated Habitat for Humanity International CEO Jonathan Reckford. More than 18 million families are paying more than half of their paychecks on their housing. Leaders in cities and towns across the country are sounding the alarm, because even middle-class workers like teachers can no longer find housing that fits their budgets. We will make sure those voices are heard in Washington this week as we meet with members of Congress.

Since its founding in 1998, Habitat for Humanity of East Jefferson County has built 40 houses, repaired 21 and currently has four more under construction.

For more information, or to apply for the program, call 360-379-2827 or email

homes@habitatejc.org.
Posted Tuesday, March 27, 2018 8:00 pm

Port of Port Townsend commissioners voted 2-1 in favor of a fall start date for construction of a replacement south jetty at Point Hudson, should that project move forward.

Before construction begins, the commission is to vote on authorizing a $3.2 million bond package that is to fund most of the project. Additionally, bids for the project must come in at a price the port can afford.

Port Commissioners Bill Putney and Peter Hanke voted in favor of the later September start date. Commissioner Steve Tucker voted against it.

The later start date means construction on the south jetty would begin after the Wooden Boat Festival, scheduled for Sept. 7-9. Earlier, Jake Beattie, executive director for the Northwest Maritime Center (NWMC), had said a summer start date would force the festival to be canceled because of a lack of wave protection resulting from construction activity.

Tucker said he favored two bid dates: one in the summer, but with wave protection added for the festival; and also for the later, September start date.

SINCE 2014

The port has been working on this project with lots of discussion and lots of public meetings for more than four years now, Tucker said.

The jetty replacement project began in 2014. Federal grant dollars were applied for and awarded in 2015. In 2017, the scope of the project was reduced, from replacing both jetties to replacing the more vulnerable south jetty first. Permitting and engineering work was also done in 2017.

Tucker said the festival and the economic vitality it brings was important to commissioners, and thus, The project scheduling and bid documents have always  ever since the inception  made concessions to stop construction work for a minimum of five days so the festival could go on.

What was unanticipated, however, was that the NWMC would need special wave protection or special construction sequencing, Tucker said.

THREE OPTIONS

Prior to the vote, the port had considered three options for bid scheduling:

Bid schedule A: Cost estimated at $3.67 million ($3.92 million including the cost of steel tariffs). Work would have begun in July to avoid inclement weather and thus prevent damage to the marina, which would temporarily be exposed to wave action due to the work. The NWMC said this option would force it to cancel the Wooden Boat Festival.

Bid schedule A  alternate: Cost estimated at $3.87 million ($4.12 million with steel tariffs). Identical to schedule A but with construction sequencing to allow for wave protection.

Bid schedule B: Cost estimated at $4.04 million ($4.29 million with steel tariffs). Work to begin in September, after the festival.

Tucker said that by getting two bids, the port could boost its odds of being able to afford the jetty replacement project.

The port is already all in on this project. Thats a gambling reference. I dont gamble, so I didnt know what it meant. That means everything we have is in it, Tucker said, adding that project bond financing of $3.2 million represented about 70 percent of the ports entire debt capacity.

AFFORDABILITY IN QUESTION

The higher costs associated with the later start date are a concern for commissioners.

Tucker said that during an earlier boat ramp project at the Boat Haven, bids came in almost double what had been expected.

My concern with a September start date  is that the bid will come back, it will be too high and well say, We cant do it. We dont have anything to fall back on because we didnt get any other bids. It would be done. It would be dead in the water, Tucker said.

We would be fiscally irresponsible to not include a bid estimate that includes an early start date, Tucker said.

July and August have the calmest weather, and November and October weather is more intense; thus delaying the project would expose Point Hudson marina to the worst storms of the year, Tucker said.

At previous port meetings, commissioners had expressed concern that the Point Hudson Marina could turn into a flower pot and no longer be usable as a marina.

In January, Eric Toews, director of planning for the port, said engineers had advised that the jetty could fail at any time, and theres no predicting it.

Total failure of the jetty would eventually require portions and eventually all of the marina to be vacated, according to port documents.

Id really hate to say, I told you so, Tucker said of that possibility.

Tucker said the only reasonable thing to do would be to host the festival at the Boat Haven this year.

Hanke favored the later start date, even if that meant delaying replacement of the south jetty for another year. Hanke said the port should follow the example of the City of Port Townsend, which scheduled its large Water Street Enhancement Project to be finished before the summer business season began.

Hanke said his own Point Hudson business  Puget Sound Express  had about 80 percent of its business in the summer, and that his business would help pay for the jetty.

I will make a contribution of $50,000 toward paying for the project, Hanke said. Its important to us. Were in the same boat that everybody else is in.

Putney favors a later start, stating that marine activities are only half of the ports obligation, and that the other half is boosting overall economic development across the community.

RISKING $1.12M GRANT

Toews said delaying the jetty project until 2019 meant the port would have to ask the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office (RCO) to extend the $1.12 million grant the port received for the jetty, and that there was a good chance the extension request would be granted, but that it was not without risk.

Tucker said, Losing $1.12 million is a big risk that Im not willing to take with the taxpayers money.

Steve is right, this is a dicey thing to do, Hanke said, adding that if the bids came in too high, the port could simply reject them.

This is a $4 million chunk of hardware were going to put in the ground for a small little marina that doesnt do much in terms of the financial ability of it to pay back what were putting on the ground, Hanke said.

STEEL TARIFFS

Toews said an additional problem for the project was that The Trump administration announced on March 8 of this year that it would issue tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum. Those tariffs go into effect this Friday the 23rd [of March] with a 25 percent steel tariff announced, but exemptions for Mexican and Canadian steel.

Our engineers had advised that the majority of steel for in-water construction on Puget Sound is being sourced from China presently. So with a 25 percent tariff, we have about $1 million worth of steel in this project, and costs could go up $250,000 as a result of the tariffs.

So you can see that this adds considerable risk, Toews said.

Toews said that with all three bid options, there was a risk that the bids could come back with higher costs than the port is able to pay.

Toews said commissioners could authorize a bond package larger than the $3.2 million package already planned to cover higher costs.

DONATIONS

During the meeting, six local businesses and individuals said they would donate a combined total of about $155,000-$175,000 to help pay for the higher costs associated with a fall start date for construction of a new south jetty at Point Hudson. (See sidebar.)

Members of the audience gasped and applauded after Beattie said the NWMC would offer $80,000-$100,000 toward the cost of the $3.67 million-$4.29 million south jetty project.

Hanke said he would contribute $50,000. Tom Aydelotte of Docs Marina Grill said he would donate $20,000. Chris Bakken of Sea Marine said he would give about $5,000. Diving shop owner Chris Hanson and port tenant Dan McRae both pledged unspecified amounts.

Donations pledged to jetty project

During the March 20 Port of Port Townsend special meeting, six local businesses and individuals said they would donate funds to help pay for the higher costs associated with a fall start date for construction of a new south jetty at Point Hudson, should that project move forward. The estimated cost for the project is about $4 million. Those businesses are:

Northwest Maritime Center: $80,000-$100,000

Peter Hanke of Puget Sound Express: $50,000

Tom Aydelotte of Docs Marina Grill: $20,000

Chris Bakken of Sea Marine: approximately $5,000

Chris Hanson, owner of a diving shop: unspecified amount

Dan McRae, port tenant: unspecified amount

Total: $155,000-$175,000
Posted Tuesday, March 27, 2018 8:00 pm

Ten sexual predators who targeted children, including a number in Jefferson County, were taken off the streets in a multiday operation run by law enforcement, county prosecutors and victim advocate specialists. Additionally, seven children were identified as potential victims of sex abuse crimes.

The operation, called Net Nanny, was launched in August 2015 by the Washington State Patrol.

Since the original operation, there have been 10 additional operations in the state. The WSP Missing and Exploited Children Task Force spearheads the multiagency coordination of these operations, which includes partners in federal, state and local law enforcement.

The Net Nanny series, conducted throughout the state of Washington, has netted a total of 170 arrests and rescued 24 child victims identified during the operations.

I am proud of the teamwork of our partner agencies for this operation, Jefferson County Sheriff David Stanko said. Our men and women in law enforcement showed their courage and tenacity to protect the most vulnerable of our society to take these predators out of our communities.

Chief Criminal Deputy Art Frank clarified that this is the first time the Jefferson County Sheriffs Office has participated in Net Nanny.

For the four-day operation, law enforcement officers, acting in an undercover capacity, communicated on the internet through various websites with individuals interested in having sex with children. The operation generated hundreds of responses. The would-be perpetrators who were arrested in the operation traveled to meet with undercover detectives posing as young girls and boys with the intent to engage in sexual activity with them.

All cases are to be presented to the Jefferson County Prosecutors Office, according to the Washington State Patrol. Child Protective Services and other victims advocates are coordinated through the prosecutors office to support the victims as they are identified, according to Frank.

These are troubling cases and remind us just how vulnerable our children are to predators, Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney Michael Haas said. I am very proud of the members of the law enforcement community, and the Jefferson County and Clallam County deputy prosecutors, that participated in this investigation.

The primary crimes included the attempted rape of a child in the first and second degree, commercial sexual abuse of a minor, communication with a minor for immoral purposes, and unlawful controlled substance transaction and distribution involving persons under the age of 18.

The 10 individuals arrested during the operation included Thomas E. Gale, 53, of Port Townsend, and Timothy J. Rondeau, 48, of Quilcene.

The success of this operation was a collaborative effort involving more than 60 dedicated law enforcement and staff members from agencies that included the Jefferson County Sheriffs Office and the Port Townsend Police Department.
Posted Tuesday, March 27, 2018 8:00 pm

Larry Dunbar is set to start work as the Jefferson County Public Utility Districts new general manager April 23. However, PUD staff and customers can meet him earlier than that, during the PUDs Fifth Anniversary of Public Power open-house celebration on Friday, April 6.

Dunbar was officially hired after the PUD commissioners voted unanimously to appoint him to the position during their March 20 regular meeting. Jeff Randall, District 1 commissioner and president of the PUD Board of Commissioners, joined PUD legal counsel Joel Paisner in describing the contract negotiations as remarkably smooth.

Dunbar, a former utility manager for the City of Port Angeles who is currently wrapping up his job with the City of Ellensburg, wants to be here and is ready to get started, according to Paisner.

Randall noted that Dunbar was the only general-manager candidate from Washington state, and the only one who had lived on the Olympic Peninsula, adding, He knows the area, and culturally, hell be a good fit.

Dunbar and the PUD signed a three-year contract with a $175,000 annual salary, which Randall described as in line with those of other PUD managers of utilities of similar size.

If we still had Puget Sound Energy as our utility, wed be paying a CEO salary, Randall said. The nice thing about what were paying our new general manager, as well as the rest of our PUD staff members, is that the money stays here and gets reinvested many times over in our community.

PUD communications manager Will ODonnell noted that the previous general manager, Jim Parker, who signed a separation agreement in September 2017, started working for the utility in the early 1990s.

I dont know what his salary was, but I do know it was not comparable, given that, even up to almost 2012, he only had eight employees, and a budget of $2 million or less, ODonnell said. During his tenure, the PUDs staff went from under 10 to almost 50, and the annual budget went from $2 million to $39 million, all of which occurred in the last five years. Jim Parker was the captain during some tremendous growth and change.

Kenneth Collins, District 2 commissioner and board secretary, echoed Randalls sentiments regarding Dunbar, and pointed out that Dunbar not only intends to buy a home in Jefferson County, but has also already leased a residence here.

Wayne King, District 3 commissioner and board vice president, acknowledged that hed been unable to attend recent board meetings because of illness, but reported that hed spoken with Dunbar on the phone and met him for lunch.

I think hell be a good fit, said King, who also commended Kevin Streett, PUD assistant general manager, for the work hed done as acting general manager during the search for Parkers replacement.

King also credited Streett with building up the PUDs electrical division from nothing, not even a spool of wire or a screwdriver, when Streett was first hired in 2012.

The PUD took over ownership and operation of Jefferson Countys electrical service from Puget Sound Energy during the first week of April in 2013. To celebrate that anniversary, PUD commissioners plan to grill hot dogs and veggie sausages for all who come by the PUDs operations center between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., Friday, April 6. The center is located at 310 Four Corners Road.
US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis strongly condemned Russia's escalating provocations during a press conference at the Pentagon on Tuesday, following the Trump administration's move to expel 60 Russian diplomats on Monday.

When asked how he viewed Russia's latest aggressions, Mattis said, "Attempted murder of a man and his daughter, how's that for starters," referring to the poisoning of the former Russian spy

Several countries have kicked out Russian diplomats over the attack."The brazen and criminal attack was an attack on all of us," Australian Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull said Tuesday, after expelling two Russian diplomats from his country.

Russia has denied any wrongdoing.

Mattis suggested on Tuesday that he is not convinced: "They point out that it can't be proven who had tried to kill the person in Salisbury," Mattis said. "They're doing things they believe are deniable."

"They take insignia off soldiers' uniforms and they go into Crimea," Mattis continued. "They say they have nothing to do with what's going on with the separatists in eastern Ukraine; I'm not sure how they can say that with a straight face."

Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, triggering a military conflict with Ukraine and economic sanctions from the European Union and the US. Russian President Vladimir Putin denies his troops were in the country, but analysts have long suspected Russian forces of disguising themselves with tactics that include removing identifiable markings from their uniforms.
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Kim Jong Un's visit to China this week may have been motivated by US President Donald Trump.

The visit first trip outside North Korea since becoming leader in 2011 came just weeks after Trump agreed to face-to-face talks, for which President Xi Jinping may be able to help Kim prepare.

told Business Insider that from North Korea's prospective, China can give Kim crucial insight into the US administration.

"Kim Jong Un wants two things: to request a reduction of China's sanctions enforcement, and advice about how to handle Trump, especially if he gets tough," Dittner said.

And China knows well how to impress the Trump. The US president showered China and Xi with praise after the country quite literally rolled out the red carpet for Trump during a carefully-orchestrated and extravagant "state visit-plus" in November.

Trump has been known to respond well to flattery and personal attention, which North Korea may use in its bilateral negotiations.

China is also potentially being previewed as a potential venue for the historic talks between the leaders, who have not been quiet about their distaste for one another.

Although President Trump has scaled back on his insults against Kim in preparation for the historic talks, Trump has previously referred to Kim as a "little rocket man" and has considered preemptive strikes against the country.
EIB vice president, Ambroise Fayolle, made this announcement at the 6th African CEO Forum in Abijan, Cote Ivoire.

Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria and Uganda are the countries of focus and EU believes the project will boost power delivery to both rural and suburban populations.

The bank will be working with d.light Design to supply energy through solar kits rather than through grid connection. The kits are inexpensive for users and utilise a pre-payment system.

Fayolle said the EU financing would enable d.light design to develop the installation of solar kits, including the panels and lamps, as well as low-energy equipment such as radios and TVs, in sub-Saharan Africa with the ambitious goal of reaching 10 million solar installations within five years.

I am delighted that the EIB has signed this new financing with d.light in Africa for an off-grid solar project that will have a major economic and social impact on people and micro-entrepreneurs.

The EU bank is determined to implement the Paris climate agreement and to cooperate to achieve the sustainable development goals, particularly when it comes to ensuring access to affordable, reliable and sustainable energy for all. With its unique technical and financial expertise in the support of solar projects, the EIB will mobilise new investments to develop renewable energies in Africa, Fayolle said.
According to the Ghana National Association of Poultry Farmers (GNAPF), over 135,000 metric tonnes of frozen chicken was imported from the European Zone to Ghana in 2017, and this represented a 76% increase over 2016 imports.

But the importers have often justified their move, saying that the local poultry industry is not able to meet the demand.

Dr Gyiele Nurah, the Minister of State at the Presidency in charge of Food and Agriculture has therefore thrown a challenge to the local producers to meet the demand of the market as failure to do so means the restriction on imports will be reversed.

Now that we have reduced importation of frozen chicken, domestic producers must be prepared to feed the people. But if we see that it is not working, then we have to reverse it  because government has the responsibility to feed the people as well as support local poultry producers.

Ideally, government would want to feed the consumers with locally-produced chicken. Local producers must cut themselves away from the era of marketing birds with feathers to marketing processed birds and chicken meat products, including sausages and barbecue.

We must develop value chains that will make all the difference in our earnings from the poultry industry. And the time to begin to do that is now, the minister was quoted by local media, the Business and Financial Times.

He was speaking at the opening session of the 2nd Poultry Value Chain (POVAC) fair held in Brong Ahafo regional capital, Sunyani.

Africas population is growing and with it comes the increasing demand for the consumption of meat. Chicken which is the first choice of meat for most Africans is, however, migrating from European countries like Germany and Brazil to the continent as African countries are not able to produce enough birds to feed themselves.
Their teacher, Owura Kwadwo went viral on social media as pictures of him drawing a computer on a blackboard to teach pupils surfaced.

READ ALSO: Microsoft to equip man who teaches ICT on blackboard without a computer

The help has finally arrived as Microsoft provided computers and has fully furnished the laboratory of the school.

Microsoft Africa responded saying "Supporting teachers to enable digital transformation in education is at the core of what we do. We will equip Owura Kwadwo with a device from one of our partners, and access to our MCE program & free professional development resources on education.microsoft.com."

This was disclosed by the teacher, Owura Kwadwo on Facebook.
Surprisingly actress Victoria Lebene has also been spotted in a picture with her alleged new boyfriend which his name is not yet known. These are photos from her recent Dubai vacation with her alleged new boyfriend.

She uploaded the photos herself with captions that suggested that she might be in love yet again.

.

This follows earlier reports that she broke up with ex-boyfriend, Kofi Adjorlolo, an actor.
The Festival which is the thirteenth (13th) in series and is being organised under the aegis of the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture which is under the theme: YOU TOO CAN FLY, with inspiration drawn from two physically challenged persons, a blind man from Ghana and a deaf and dumb lady from Germany, who flew to the amazement of all at the 2017 edition of the festival.

The Paragliding Festival which is one of the flagship events on the tourism calendar is organised to coincide with the Easter festivities and draws domestic and international tourist to the Kwahu area.

READ MORE: Has actor

The take-off area at the Odweanoma Mountain in Kwahu  Atibie has been expanded to accommodate four (4) flights at ago instead of one (1) flight previously done, and pavilions have been provided for the comfort of patrons. The refurbished area will be opened on Thursday, March 29, 2018.

The festival plays a vital role in boosting domestic tourism thereby creating opportunities for job creation such as the selling of artefacts by the local residents. Moreover, facilities like home lodges, drinking bars, traditional catering units and transportation service among others, will also generate revenue to boost the local economy.

Ten (10) paragliding tandem pilots from the USA, Germany, Japan, Peru and Romania will fly passengers during the festival. The rate for a flight is two hundred and fifty Ghana cedis (GH 250) only.

READ ALSO: Dancehall artiste

Other activities lined up for the event include health walk, fun games, and, indoor games. There will also be live music to entertain patrons and sale of food, and souvenir, and tour packages.
This is the second shutdown in the year and the fourth since the vessel started working. The first for this year was done in February.

Past shutdowns resulted in some shortfalls. However, a Deputy Minister of Petroleum, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam said the current plan would be well covered and the country would not feel the effect.

READ ALSO: NPP government extends Karpower deal by 10 years

I must say that with the current plan, we are safe. In the previous shutdown, although gas was available from TEN, the main processor, Ghana Gas, unfortunately, shut down for its mandatory planned maintenance and, therefore, could not receive and process gas, he added.

This situation, he said forced the national power generator, the Volta River Authority (VRA), to resort to expensive light crude oil for power generation.

Currently, Mr Adam said, the Ghana Gas plant was ready to receive gas from TEN.

I can assure the nation that there will be a seamless shift from the day of the shutdown to the day of restoration of production, he stressed.
The Accra Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) George Alex Mensah told Daily Graphic that a number of their victims have reported the robberies to various police stations causing the police to be on the lookout for them.

READ ALSO: Serious fight breaks between KMA decongestion team and hawkers

They are said to have been harassing their victims and taking money from them at gunpoint.

DCOP George Alex Mensah narrated that most of the victims were accosted after withdrawing various amounts of money from their bank accounts. They said the security personnel falsely arrested them on allegations that they (the victims) had obtained their money through fraud.

Mr Mensah said one of the victims had reported to the police that four military men in uniform who were using a taxi had dragged her from a public commercial vehicle, claiming they were arresting her for cashing money she had obtained through cybercrime from a bank.

He added that the suspected robbers allegedly collected GH4,000 from the victim at gunpoint and later abandoned her at a place.

Another victim also reported to the La-Bawaleshie Police that 4 men in security uniforms robbed him of GH2,265 at gunpoint at about 3:30 p.m. on February 2, 2018.

DCOP Mensah said the police arrested the three suspects, based on intelligence, at the Mile 7 Goil Filling Station while they were trying to take money from one of their victims.

READ ALSO: NPP government extends Karpower deal by 10 years

He said the police had since commenced investigations into the matter.

Meanwhile, this is the second time that Corporal Tsagli has been arrested in connection with a similar crime.

His first arrest was on May 14, 2017. He was arrested, together with a taxi driver, when he pulled over a taxi at the Nhyiraba Kojo City Night Club, near the Sakumono Community 18 Global Access Bank in Accra after he had allegedly collected GH1,500 from one of his victims.
His modern equipment are imported from Europe, America and Japan due to the types of vehicle used in Ghana, he added.He further explained that the company will offer services to both private and commercial vehicles at very affordable cost with quality services."The company is aware of income of drivers and car owners hence the move to make services affordable to all. Adding that, the company also upgrade old vehicles into new by replacing it with new model spare parts".The company according to him has employed over Twenty 20 workers which five of the workers will work on day and five will work at night with two at administration and seven as interns. This he believes would help the government to reduce unemployment in the country.
Despite the seemingly tough economic conditions, the young men and women in this part of the country are defiant, tirelessly trying to make ends meet. Take a drive through the city and you will immediately realise that vendors and traders are commonplace.

But somewhere around the Korle-Bu mortuary road, a group of energetic young men are also busily going about their duties.

What do they do?

They carve, they saw logs, they hit nails into planking  they simply make coffins!

In this part of Accra, the most common job you would find is coffin making. About seven different coffin making shops can be found on the stretch of the road. Intriguingly, a glance at the working atmosphere clears every doubt that coffin making is for the hapless and crestfallen, as widely held.

These men seem to enjoy what they do: they look happy, chatting and cracking jokes in unison as they try to shape the logs into the preferred coffin size.

Heck! These are not your archetypal corporate workers; neither are they engineers nor doctors. These are coffin makers, yet their demeanors  effusive with radiance and cheer  suggest contrary to the perception the public holds about their craft.

Some have called it a job for the brave, while others believe only evil minds will ever engage in such an occupation since proceeds in this field can only be made when someone else is dead. But for these coffin makers  and they prefer to be called carpenters  it is a big business, a full-time job for that matter.

Joseph Lamptey is the Secretary of the Korle-Bu Coffin Makers Association. He has been in this business for more than a decade, and he explains how he found himself in this oft-maligned field.

I never thought of becoming a coffin maker, but now I find myself in this field because I grew up in a family that embraces coffin making. You could say I inherited it because I come from a family that took coffin-making as a business, Lamptey narrates in an exclusive interview with Pulse Ghana.

My father used to make caskets and sell, so growing up, any member of the family who wished to tow the same line was allowed to. It was like a family business, so lets just say my father passed it on to me.

Coffin makers in this part of the world face a lot of stereotypes from the people around them. From being labeled as people who rejoice in the death of others to being tagged as insensitive humans; one must have a thick skin to be able to thrive in such a field. But what should they expect when death has become their business?

Lamptey insists his own nuclear family kicked against him going into casket making. And for someone who took up this job at a very tender age, he was not spared of the stigma that people in this field normally attract.

It was tough when I first decided to venture into coffin making, he recalls, looking somewhat fixated. By then I was a student, and I combined school with whatever I was doing. My classmates used to laugh at me all the time due to the work I engaged in. I was a young boy making coffins!

Then it became even tougher when my immediate [nuclear] family also started to criticize my work. Apparently, my wife and children were also being subjected to the same stigma as I was. Perhaps, they didnt feel comfortable being called the wife, daughter or son of a coffin maker.

However, as time went on they had to understand me. I had to make them understand that making of caskets is also a job like any other.

In a profession where very few would want to venture into, Lamptey believes people must begin to realize that coffin making is also carpentry. To him, the profession falls within the category of artistry, and must rightly be given its place in society without any prejudicial sentiment.

He accepts that death has become his business, but he strongly rejects claims that coffin makers pray for others to die so their businesses can blossom.

You see, it depends on the perception out there, he says with a wry smile. Some people think we [coffin makers] are happy when others die because we will then make money. But the truth is that coffin making is just like any other job.

We never pray for anyone to die. We are also carpenters. Just like a carpenter carves and makes tables and chairs, we also design and make caskets. Its virtually the same and theres no spiritual string attached. So you can refer to us as carpenters as well. People must begin to appreciate our work and stop condemning us because we have done nothing wrong. We are just working as anyone else.

He adds that casket making is a full-time job, further explaining that he caters for his family through the money he makes from this business.

Checks from Pulse Ghana indicate that coffins in the capital cost between GHc250 and GHc4,000, depending on the preferred shape, size and quality.

Although Lamptey refused to disclose the exact prices of the caskets at his shop  except for one looking to make a purchase  he was sure that it is a rewarding job.

I have taken coffin making as a professional job. I enjoy the work I do and its paying off. You see, Im doing better than some of my friends who even have higher educational qualifications, Lamptey proudly remarks, pointing to a boutique just adjacent, as if to say hey I make more money than the owner of that shop.

He re-emphasises that he means every word when he says the job pays, disclosing that the sustainability of his family over the years has been through the coffin making business.

Im able to cater for my family through this business. Im married with five children  two of whom are currently in the university  but I look after all of them well. Not many of my colleagues in the so-called better jobs can boast of such stability, but here I am, a common coffin maker [like they say], catering for my family through this business.

Like in every business there are the good, not so good and, the bad days. According to Lamptey, there comes a season when the caskets are bought in fast times, likening the situation to that of the cocoa season for a farmer. He insists that those times are the heydays for all coffin makers, but was quick to add that there are also times when sales of caskets witness diminishing returns.

Like I said, there is money in coffin making. But there are seasons when you gain and times when business becomes dull, he says casting his mind to some months back when he could barely sell a single coffin. Especially during festivals like Christmas and Easter, there is no market. This is because many people are in party mode in those times and that relegates all funeral activities.

Most funerals are postponed during such times, so it reduces the number of coffins that are bought. However, there are also times when you sell so many coffins that you are even left amazed. So its just like any other business. We also have good and bad seasons.

Lamptey is aware that many of todays youth would not want to even conceive the idea of taking to coffin making, let alone make it a point to learn the trade. However, he believes the current state of the nation  with unemployment levels very high  should be enough reason for the upcoming generation to start looking at other alternative occupations.

In his view, the youth must begin to venture into businesses like coffin making because it is not as bad a job as many perceive it to be.

Obviously, not everyone has the courage to go into this business [of coffin making], but I advise the youth to start looking at this field. There are no jobs in town so if you find yourself here you should not reject it, Lamptey suggests, adding that people do not know that it is a lucrative job so they shun it. But coffin making is just like construction or carpentry and the youth must embrace it.
Koku Anyidoho is in custody at the police headquarters for making treasonable comments against President Akufo-Addo.

Lawyer Ndebugri believes the arrest is a just a mere cover up by government to shy away from the ire of Ghanaians on the US military deal.

He said, "This is a mere attempt to cover up the nonsensical US military base agreement. Koku can never go to Nsawam. A person is not criminally liable for an offence unless the prosecution can establish Actus Reus (physical act or omission) and the mens rea (mental state) unless the actus Reus and mens rea coincide in point and time."
Parliament of Ghana last week ratified an agreement between Ghana and the US that gives the Americans unfiltered access to military installations in Ghana.

The deal also grants the US tax waivers for any military equipment to Ghana.

In a related development, the General Secretary of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah has said the demonstration is expected to be massive due to the arrest of the deputy General Secretary of the party, Koku Anyidoho for comments he made towards the deal.
Speaking on Accra-based Peace FM, Mr Baako said he cannot say what information the Police has aside from the coup comments he made. However, he would have ignored him if he was the Police Chief.

Ive become so liberal in my thinking that to be honest, I would have loved if the gentleman had been ignored. Honestly, my immediate take on the matter instinctively is to ignore this buffoonery.

Im not in charge of state security, Im not part of the police network, so, they, perhaps, based on the information they had and the perception they had, acted. But if I had the opportunity to advise, I would have said ignore him because first of all, he is an empty barrel. What I mean is that that threat is so empty its of public nuisance, he added.

His comments follow the arrest of the National Democratic Congress Deputy General Secretary who has been charged with treason.

Koku Anyidoho threatened to carry out a coup detat to topple the Akufo-Addo-led government for signing an agreement with the United States government which will give them unhindered access to some of Ghanas security installations.

READ ALSO: Mahama declares support for demonstrators against US military deal

He was arrested by the Criminal Investigative Department of the police at a press conference on Tuesday, 27 March 2018.

In a related development, Ghanaians have been reacting to the development.
Anyone who is conversant with the escapades of the German military bases in Mali will attest to the fact that Mali is struggling with security. The terrorists being targeted in Lybia by the Germans have turned their anger against Mali for allowing Germany to set up its base in that country. Now, who can measure what threat there is to our country if the US is allowed to carry out the same activity as the Germans are doing in Mali? Do we even know exactly what the US will be doing with the base, where their targets are and the nature of their targets? We will grope in darkness if this agreement is allowed to be ratified, he added.
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The NDC stalwart last week claimed in an interview that President Akufo-Addo could be overthrown through a coup due to the ratification of the US-Ghana military agreement.

In an interview with Accra-based Happy FM, Mr. Anyidoho said: On the January 13, 1972 a certain Col. Ignatius Kutu Acheampong led a movement that removed the Progress Party from power. Busia was the Prime Minister and Akufo-Addos father was a ceremonial president. Somebody should tell Nana Akufo-Addo that history has a very interesting way of repeating itself.

He then added: Therell be a civilian coup detat; therell be a social revolution and the movement is starting on Wednesday. He [Akufo-Addo] will be fed up at the Presidency.

Days after his comments, Mr. Anyidoho was picked up by the Police at the International Press Centre Tuesday afternoon, and has subsequently been charged with treason.

The Ghanaian public have also had their say on the matter, with many taking to social media to air their views.
Koku is being held the police headquarters for his comments regarding the US/Ghana military deal. Anyidoho said, ""On the 13th of January 1972, a certain Colonel Ignatius Kutu Acheampong, led a movement that removed the progress party from power. Busia was the Prime Minister; Akufo-Addos father was the Ceremonial President. Somebody should tell Nana Akufo-Addo that, history has an interesting way of repeating itself".

Lawyer Chis Ackumey, one of the counsels of Anyidoho described the house raid as hostile by the police. He said, "Koku's house is in a mess as we speak because the officers moved everything in their way to do a thorough search".

"Before the search officers entered Koku's house, I searched them to be sure they had nothing that could be planted on them", he added.

Koku was initially charged with causing fear and panic then it was changed to high treason and which was also later changed to treason.
Anita Desosoo's challenge comes days after Kennedy Agyapong threatened to beat the NDC's Deputy General Secretary, Koku Anyidoho who has been detained and charged by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) pending investigations into his statement that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was likely to suffer the fate of his father who was overthrown as President by a military coup in 1972.

READ MORE: Mahama declares support for demonstrators against US military deal

He said he will deal with Anyidoho if he doesn't desist from making incendiary comments that can destabilize the country.

He added: "If you misbehave, I will be forced to deflate your stomach so that you can make sense when talking on national issues. I will discipline you if you continue that nonsense and I will take action and you will know that I am indeed mad.

"Your threats wont do anything so shut up Koku. Ghana is a very nice country and we dont need insane people to make useless comments. Koku should stop making unnecessary comments about this US military issue."

But Anita Desosoo in an interview on Accra-based Adom FM said she was ready for Kennedy Agyapong to fight him.
His arrest caused an uproar amongst his party supporters and the press, who were gathered at the International Press Center in Accra. He was picked up by the police after addressing the press at the Press conference he had called concerning the Free Ghana demonstration that took place today.

His party members including the General Secretary, Asiedu Nketia throng to the CID Headquarters where, he was taken for questioning. Amongst NDC bigwigs to storm the place is the Ex-president John Mahama.
The demonstration, organised by a group calling itself the Ghana First Patriotic Front (GFPF), is against the military pact, and a one-sided Parliament for ratifying it.

The Ghana  US defence cooperation agreement gives American soldiers unimpeded access to certain key installations and in return the West African country will earn $20 million by way of training of its soldiers and equipment.

Parliament of Ghana last week ratified an agreement between Ghana and the US that gives the Americans unfiltered access to military installations in Ghana.

The deal also grants the US tax waivers for any military equipment to Ghana.

The demonstration began at the former Obra Spot at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra.
There was chaos in front of the Police Headquarters on Tuesday after some supporters of the NDC besieged the place to demand the release of their Deputy General Secretary.

Mr. Anyidoho, in an interview with Accra-based Happy FM, had suggested that President Akufo-Addo could be overthrown thrown through a civil coup due to the ratification of the controversial US-Ghana military agreement.

The NDC stalwart said: On the January 13, 1972 a certain Col. Ignatius Kutu Acheampong led a movement that removed the Progress Party from power. Busia was the Prime Minister and Akufo-Addos father was a ceremonial president. Somebody should tell Nana Akufo-Addo that history has a very interesting way of repeating itself.

He then added: Therell be a civilian coup detat; therell be a social revolution and the movement is starting on Wednesday. He [Akufo-Addo] will be fed up at the Presidency.

Days after his comments, Mr. Anyidoho was picked up by the Police at the International Press Centre Tuesday afternoon when the NDC was preparing to have a press conference over the US military deal.

His arrest caused huge uproar among the NDC faithful, with some party supporters and bigwigs storming the Police Headquarters to demand his release.

The supporters refused to leave the Police premises until Mr. Anyidoho was released and even blocked the main road preventing free flow of traffic.

The Police then had to use rubber bullets and water tankers to disperse the crowd after several attempts to persuade them proved futile.

Unfortunately, though, one of the bullets hit a lady who was not part of the demonstration on the leg.

Starr News reports that the victim had closed from work and was going home before the unfortunate incident, which led to her being rushed to the hospital.
The demonstrators, in their thousands, carried placards that had inscriptions like 'Nana Bin Hole', 'Ghana is a s**thole country' amongst others.

Ghana signed an agreement with the United States government in a military deal that will allow the US have an unfiltered access to military installations in Ghana.

The deal, which has been widely condemned by a lot of Ghanaians will also grant the US tax waivers on military equipment they bring to Ghana

Bernard Mornah, former Trade Minister, Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, former Transport Minister, Dzifa Ativor, Deputy Minority Leader, James Klutse Avedzi, Hassan Ayariga among others joined the demonstration.
Budgets were slashed, the school system was scrapped and studies were shelved as Attorney General Jeff Sessions brought to bear his tough-on-crime philosophy and deep skepticism of Obama-era crime-fighting policies.

Now, nearly a year and a half later, the White House has declared that reducing recidivism and improving prisoner education is a top priority  echoing some of the policies it helped dismantle.

This whiplash approach to federal prison policy reflects the tension between Jared Kushner, the presidents reform-minded son-in-law and senior adviser, and Sessions, a hard-liner whose views on criminal justice were forged at the height of the drug war. It has left both Democratic and Republican lawmakers confused and has contributed to skepticism that the Trump administration is serious about its own proposals.

On Capitol Hill, a wholesale reconsideration of U.S. sentencing laws and prison policies has bipartisan support. Dozens of senators have sponsored a bill to change mandatory-minimum sentences and ease drug laws that have been used to seek lengthy sentences for nonviolent offenders. The bill also includes provisions to expand education, worker training and drug rehabilitation programs in prison.

Kushner, administration officials say, supports such sweeping change. Sessions is adamantly opposed. The two men reached a compromise in recent months: Kushner could push for the prison changes, but Sessions would position the administration strongly against a broader overhaul.

In a letter to Congress last month, Sessions excoriated the bill, predicting it would reduce sentences for a highly dangerous cohort of criminals, including repeat dangerous drug traffickers and those who use firearms.

The letter enraged the Senate Judiciary Committees Republican chairman, Chuck Grassley of Iowa. Twenty-five senators, split nearly evenly between the two parties, have sponsored his bill, which reform advocates in both parties regard as the best chance to undo the strict laws that contribute to the United States containing the worlds largest prison population.

Sessions promised last fall that he would work with the Senate to address those laws. Weve never had any dialogue since, said Grassley, one of President Donald Trumps most important Capitol Hill allies during his first year in office. I resent the president not helping me more, when I worked so hard to push along his judicial nominees.

Instead, the White House is backing Kushners push to overhaul just prisons. We can change the way the country thinks about prison and the job of prisons in this country, he said during an interview in the West Wing. I think that will save a lot of lives.

The White House released seven principles it hopes to see in legislation. Some are specific, like expanding job-training programs in prison. Others are purely generic: Effectively use government resources to reduce crime, enhance public safety and increase opportunity, thereby improving the lives of all Americans.

Kushners father served prison time for tax evasion, witness tampering and making illegal campaign donations. His son has convinced advocates for an overhaul, even those who are not natural allies, that he personally cares about the issue.

I do believe that Jared Kushner is earnest in his desire for criminal justice reform, said Inimai M. Chettiar, of the liberal-leaning Brennan Center for Justice. But Jeff Sessions is still stuck in 1980. He hasnt moved along with everyone else, including top prosecutors and police chiefs, who realize that tough-on-crime doesnt work.

Chettiar said she was not convinced that Kushners support was enough to get the administration behind real change  even in the narrow area of prisons.

The Justice Department said Sessions fully supported the White House principles and was committed to helping inmates develop the skills needed to return to society. But Sessions is not rushing to promote those efforts: Over two weeks, the Justice Department refused to make anyone available to discuss them and would not identify which prison education programs have been cut and which remain.

Theyre not going to talk to you about this, said Joe Rojas, a teacher at the federal prison complex in Coleman, Florida. He said the Justice Department could not answer those questions without acknowledging that the Trump administration had cut more than 6,000 prison jobs.

Staffing is so short that teachers around the country are regularly reassigned to cover routine guard duties, he said.

One of the White House priorities is to offer incentives to encourage inmates to enroll in programs to prepare them for life outside prison. Rojas and others are quick to note that incentives are not the problem: Educational programs are so popular that more than 15,000 federal inmates are on waiting lists for high school equivalency diploma and literacy programs, according to a 2016 Justice Department report.

It sounds pretty on paper, said Rojas, who is the president of his American Federation of Government Employees union local. But when you cut staff, you cant do anything.

Administration officials say it is unfair to view the White House initiative through a lens of what has been cut. Kushner got involved only after those cuts were made. As for broader overhaul efforts, he has made his case to advocates that it is better to address prison problems than do nothing.

And some longtime advocates agree, even if begrudgingly. Koch Industries, for example, lobbied hard for sweeping criminal justice changes, including more lenient sentencing. But Mark Holden, the groups general counsel, said he saw an opportunity to improve prisons  even if it was not everything advocates wanted.

This is something that pretty much everyone agrees with, so lets start where theres a consensus and build, he said.

Grassley said that he while appreciated Kushners desire to get something done, he did not support any effort to try to address prisons without fixing what he saw as fundamental unfairness in sentencing laws. And he believes Kushner shares his views. But he sees a chance of getting half a loaf, and hes willing to settle for a half a loaf, Grassley said. Im not going to.

The White House argues that Grassleys argument is moot because the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, will not allow a vote on a broad criminal justice bill that divides Republicans.

Grassley sees that as an excuse. If the president would start tweeting about it every other day like he tweets about everything else, McConnell would come along, he said.

Kushner believes that the White House can forge consensus around prison reform. He wants the federal government to look to states for proven ideas to reduce recidivism. The White House recently hired Brooke Rollins, a conservative lawyer who advocated such changes in Texas, a state that is often held up by both conservatives and liberals as a leader in reducing recidivism.

Amy Lopez, a former teacher in the Texas prison system, agreed that the federal government could learn from states. More data exists than ever before, she said, and it shows that education reduces the chance that a former inmate will be arrested again.

The Justice Department hired Lopez in 2016 to replace the patchwork prison education system with a centralized school district that offered diplomas, technology training and vocational education.

It was interesting to have this focus at the federal level on education, she said. That was new.

Within months, she was fired, the school system axed. She took a job overseeing education in Washingtons city corrections system.

Trump administration officials say that, as part of the new focus on prisons, if the school idea turns out to have been a good one, they can always reconsider it.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Gates also told an associate the person was a former Russian Intelligence Officer with the G.R.U., the Russian military intelligence agency.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating numerous contacts between President Donald Trumps advisers and Russians leading up to and after the November 2016 election. The document, filed in Muellers name, stated that the communications between Gates and the individual were pertinent to the investigation.

The individual is identified only as Person A, and the document describes him as someone who worked for Gates and Paul Manafort, Trumps campaign chairman, as part of their earlier lobbying efforts in Kiev, Ukraine, on behalf of the former pro-Russian president of Ukraine. The description of the person matches that of Konstantin V. Kilimnik, who for years was Manaforts right-hand man in Ukraine.

Manafort has told associates that he does not believe that Kilimnik has ties to Russian intelligence, but the document released Tuesday shows that Gates told others of his history in the intelligence services.

At the time of the calls, Gates was the Trump campaigns liaison to the Republican National Committee and, before that, he was the campaigns deputy chairman. Manafort served as the campaign chairman until August 2016, when he resigned amid the growing controversy about secret payments he had received for his lobbying in Ukraine.

Both Manafort and Gates were indicted last year for money laundering and other financial crimes committed while, the charges said, they tried to hide the money they received for their Ukraine work. Last month, Gates pleaded guilty to financial fraud and lying to investigators and has agreed to cooperate with Muellers investigation.

Manafort has vowed to fight the charges. In February 2017, he told The New York Times he had never knowingly spoken to Russian intelligence officers, and I have never been involved with anything to do with the Russian government of the Putin administration or any other issues under investigation today.

But, he added, Its not like these people wear badges that say, Im a Russian intelligence officer.'

Kilimnik was born in Ukraine when it was still part of the Soviet Union, and he served in the Russian army as a linguist. Last year, as scrutiny mounted of his work with Manafort and Gates in Ukraine, he steadfastly denied any association with Russian intelligence. An investigation by Ukrainian prosecutors into Kilimniks possible links to Russian spy agencies was closed late last year without charges.

Kilimnik has maintained residences in Moscow and Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, and has traveled regularly between them during years of working for Manafort and Gates on behalf of various Russia-aligned oligarchs and political parties.

The new document is a sentencing memorandum for Alex van der Zwaan, a lawyer who pleaded guilty in February to lying to federal investigators about his conversations with Gates in 2016 about work the two men did in Ukraine.

Van der Zwaan was an attorney at a firm that worked with Manafort and Gates to prepare a report used to defend Viktor F. Yanukovych, the former Ukrainian president, from international criticism over the prosecution and incarceration of one of his political rivals.

Van der Zwaan originally told Muellers investigators that he had not spoken to Gates since August 2016, but subsequently admitted he had lied after prosecutors confronted him with evidence of conversations.

The sentencing document describes an observation by one unidentified witness in the investigation who said van der Zwaan had gone native.

That is, he had grown too close to Manafort, Gates, and Person A, the document stated.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
You will see us open in some countries we are not in, in the sub saharan Africa region you will be hearing about some of that stuff, Alain told BISSA on the sidelines of the Africa CEO Forum meeting in Abidjan.

The bank whose operating income rose by 6.1% to reach $105 million for the last quarter of 2017 is targeting Ghana and Cote D'Ivoire, two countries which the CEO believes hold great potential for their business.

The bank has 45 percent market share in Mauritius.

On the back of local banks folding up in Ghana, the CEO advised local financial institutions to focus on products made to suit specific needs of clients.

Mauritius Commercial Bank (MCB) is licensed by the Bank of Mauritius,the country's central bank and the nation's banking regulator.

MCB has been investing in tech since the early 80s. In those days the initial focus was on operational efficiency but now the bank is leveraging on tech to enhance customers interaction with the bank and to improve the customers experiences.

Alain told BI SSA that his bank offers a multi-channel experience with ATMs, branches, bank kiosks, mobile app, SMS banking, customer contact centre and internet banking.

"In fact, weve had internet banking now for the past 15 to 20 years and a customer base of 130,000".
President Obama had on July 28, 2015, at the Mandela Hall, African Union Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, reiterated the statement he made that African doesn't need strongmen, it needs strong institutions.

Obama further explained that those institutions can be the Africa Union but former Nigeria's president, Olusegun Obasanjo said he disagreed with the former United States president.

Obasanjo made this remark at the closing session of the presidential panel at the 2018 Africa CEO Forum in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire on Tuesday alongside the Zimbabwe president, Emmerson Mnangagwa.

The former Nigerian leader said: "President Obama said we need big institutions not big men and I dont agree with him. We, in Africa, we need effective leadership. We need strong institutions, but first adequate leadership."

"If you have a strong institution and a weak leader, the institution that you have will be weakened by the leader."

'Five years ago, if you had told me that an election would be declared and that the judiciary would come out and say the result is null and avoid, I would have said that sounds far-fetched. But it has happened.'

"I want to tell my brothers and sisters of Africa, let us not underestimate the progress we have made. Where we must pat ourselves on the back, let us pat ourselves on the back." Obasanjo said at the panel discussion.'

On his part, President Mnangagwa said Africa needs leaders with vision who can dream for the future of their nations.
The VC made this known while receiving a team of newsmen from the Independent Newspapers on Monday, March 26, 2018.

The hostel project, which is said to be under a public-private partnership (PPP) arrangement is expected to be completed in the next 18 months.

According to Fagbohun, the proposed model accommodation for the students will change the off-campus policy of the university that was reviewed not too long ago.

ALSO READ: 4 courses secondary school leavers are advised to study

We are now going to have our students coming as residents on the campus. The first phase of the project is looking at having 6,000 students having accommodation on the campus and what we did was to advertise that we want to have the building constructed using the PPP arrangement because the university does not have the fund and we dont want it to be a project that will continue to be in the pipeline.

We opted for the PPP arrangement and we have chosen PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) as our financial advisers because we wanted a situation where we will be transparent and insulate ourselves from pressures from the public without ending up with non-performing contractors and eventually dotting the campus with uncompleted building scattered all over the premises, the VC said.

LASU to flag off its TV station soon

In November, 2017, Lagos State University School Management asked students to design a logo for the proposed LASU TV.

The TV station according to to the management is a digital television designed to offer Cable Television users an inside view of happenings in Nigerias Best State University.
A crime comedy, the series follows a wacky inspector, who through unconventional ways solves crimes in the city of Lagos.

After the heist and the major drug burst in the first episode, inspector K is put on the case.

In collaboration with his team and a new, very distracting recruit; a discovery that both cases might be linked has come to light and the magnitude of the case has attracted help from the abroad.

In the first episode, a group of robbers broke into Imperial Fund, the 'second most popular place' where affluent Nigerians store their wealth.

In the first season, Inspector K, who had put his division on the map through the immense success he has in solving unsolvable cases, was tasked with solving a murder case.

He was supported by two clueless but surprisingly intelligent Police officers.
A report has been filed at a police station in Onikan in respect to the killing of the deceased who was slaughtered late in the evening.

Suspects, Tunde Tigana and Ajayi, have been named on suspicion of his murder.

Frustration blamed for murder of kindergarten pupils in Ogun

In Ogun State, a mad man, Lekan Adebisi who reportedly slaughtered two kindergarten pupils, has blamed frustration for the murder.

The victims, Mubarak Kalesowo and Sunday Obituyi, who went to learn at St. Johns Anglican Primary School, Agodo, were attacked during lunchtime report says.

It appeared the suspect had a good idea of the likely consequence of his actions having stated this while answering questions posed by newsmen.

"It was due to frustration. When hunger gripped me and it became unbearable, I thought of my life and concluded that it was a bad life.

Then I grabbed a machete. I was prepared to face the consequence," Adebisi was quoted in a Punch News report.

It had required the efforts of policemen and some local hunters to capture him.

How Adebisi was apprehended

Earlier reports confirmed that the victims, Mubarak Kalesowo and Sunday Obituyi, died in a school attack on Monday, March 12, 2018.

The deceased both aged four years old, were killed at the St. Johns Primary School, Agodo, where they study.

Abimbola Oyeyemi, the Police Public Relations Officer for Ogun State, confirmed that the suspect was arrested two days after the attack.

According to Punch News, the efforts made by policemen and some local hunters had proved successful in apprehending the suspected lunatic.

Their efforts paid off in the early hours of today (Wednesday) when the suspect was seen in a bush around the community.

When they wanted to arrest him, the suspect, who was brandishing a sharp cutlass, attacked them, consequent upon which he was shot and injured on the leg, Oyeyemi told Punch.

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Eighty-two bags of Indian Hemp (Cannabis) were reportedly found in his ceiling.

I studied Geophysics at Ambrose Ali University Ekpoma and completed my National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in January 2018.

"I started selling cannabis in 2011 when I gained admission into the university because I have no one to help me financially.

After my graduation, I stopped selling cannabis but the temptation arose when I purchased form for my masters degree programme at the University of Port Harcourt.

"This is the largest quantity of cannabis I have bought," Austine revealed while being paraded.

State commander of the NDLEA, Buba Wakawa, confirmed the arrest of the suspect who will soon be charged to court according to reports.

NDLEA ruins supply for drug users addicted to codeine

In a bid to combat a widespread use of drugs, the Nigeria Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), has seized 24,000 bottles of cough syrup containing codeine in Katsina State.

The seizure was confirmed by state commander, Maryam Sani. Two suspects, Christian and Obiora Chukwuma, were named in connection with the incident.

They are a pair out of six persons arrested in respect to a drug trafficking business that saw a discovery of a warehouse filled with the intoxicants.

Efforts made by a joint task force had ensured their capture says an online report.

One of the drug peddlers reportedly revealed that his involvement is limited to transportation of substance.
A post shared on Wednesday, March 28, 2018, bore evidence of her grief.

Along with her comments came a note of warning concerning suspect, Sandra Doo, who she described as a devil.

Wang who also bashed her late brother's girlfriend on her Facebook, hoped for God's intervention in hope of a fatal consequence for Doo.

"Please Facebook be careful with this devil in human form. She stabbed my brother to death, she stood nd watched him died in pain, he struggled for over 7 to 9 hours before dying nd this devil stood right there watching the guy she claimed she loves die in pain and slowly.

"Be careful of these girls u date nowadays kuz u dunno who is really a human amongst them. My God of vengeance not gonna let this evil act go jst like dat. He must revenge for my brother.

"If humans were God(hmmmmmmm) Winnie wont wait a second before taking an action but as God isnt human we all gonna wait for His will to be done in this case.

"I dunno but I believe that my brother not gonna rest until justice is done. He gonna fight for himself nd this devil not gonna hv peace untill she kills herself too.....I call for justice dear Lord, untill my brother's death is avenged.

"I hv no powers of my own but I so much believe You on this nd I also believe u gonna do it for me. (Her name is Sandra doo on Facebook).....Please bookers, share this untill it gets to the last person on Facebook," she writes.

On Doo's Facebook timeline, comments accusing her of murder came in droves.

A desire to have her share a similar faith with the deceased seemed the ultimate goal for angry visitors.

Babcock student commits suicide after killing girlfriend

News reports have revealed that a 30-year-old Nigerian man identified as, Onoseta Oribhabor, has committed suicide after taking the life of his 27-year-old girlfriend, Essozinam "Martine" Assali, in Toronto, Canada.

According to the reports, the police were called to a condo building in the north end of the Toronto, on Thursday, March 6, 2018, where Oribhabor was found dead on the building's balcony.

Following a search of the apartment, a woman was found inside a unit with obvious signs of trauma.

She was reportedly treated for injuries after being rushed to a hospital, where she eventually died.

Instablog9ja reports that the deceased Oribhabor graduated from Babcock University, Ogun State, before leaving for Canada.
The event occurred in Akowonjo where Kasumi, an indigene of Kano State, offers protection to residents at night.

According to the PM Express News, his heroics had no meaning to community members who blamed him for the 'attack' on the 'victim' identified as Adekunle Popoola.

Kasumi, who has been arraigned at the Ejigbo Magistrate's Court, pleaded not guilty to a charge related to inflicting injury on a person.

He was given an offer of bail by presiding judge, Mr. T.O. Shomade, who requested the accused to surrender a sum of N100,000, and two-sureties expected to pay an equal amount.

Man who stole 400k from Ibadan rice dealer beaten black and blue

In Ibadan, Oyo State, a man who was accused of stealing N400,000 from a rice dealer has received the beating of his life.

The thief, captured in a video, was seen glued to a bare ground while a group of men gave him a pummeling. He seemed helpless in the hands of the mob who gave him hits on different parts of his body.

Loud chatters heard at the scene reflected a mood of anger over the alleged theft but some social media users felt the violent reaction was a step too much.

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The incident occurred at his mum's house on Sunday, March 25, 2018, according to Okoroatsegor, in a Facebook post.

An encounter with hoodlums in the wee hours of the morning, had ensured a damage to property, as well as injuries to family members and friends.

"Hoodlums came to my mum's Residence destroy properties shot and injured my mum and her Husband as well as my Brother.

"This happened in Sapele Delta state Nigeria on the 25th of March 2018 they operated for close to 3hours without response from police or vigilantes from 12:00AM to 3:30AM.

"They came with guns cutlasses and iron cutter which they used on the burglary proof.

"What gave them tough time was the iron door else they would have wreck more havoc and they made away with some money and valuables destroying our vehicle, but while leaving they left behind a cut to sized gun which obviously fell when they where running out of the compound.

"Funny enough My younger one a Boy was able to sneak out to call neighbors but nobody came out he further ran to Ghana road Police station in Sapele which was the closest to us at Anigboro Rd around Owumi/abeke and they said its not their Business( in their words they said: e no concern us) asking him my younger one to go to the main Police station after stadium far off.

"Its poor the state of Nigeria with no security and from what I heard its becoming a normal thing in Sapele as people are be robbed on a daily basis.

"Advice please don't rely on fancy doors use those iron doors constructed by welders it helps cos if it was to be the fancy one it wont take time to break in.

"I thank God for Life as my mum survived the gun shot at her," Okoroatsegor expressed on Facebook.

No escape for lady married to violent police husband

There is no obvious escape route for a woman married to a South African policeman who has physically abused her.

An intervention from brother, Moreki Mo, who tweeted about the violence appeared to be only resistance the victim could pull.

In the tweet, the cop Bruce Mathebula, reportedly threatened to kill his wife who had already suffered a serious injury to her face.

Her looks following various assault was a sharp contrast when compared to her actual appearance.

ALSO READ: Pastor ordered to pay 15k to wife who deprived him of sex

Responses from followers expressed displeasure over the alleged assault on the South African woman.
For when it comes to spirituality, which is the sole purpose of every religion, the depth and wisdom of African spirituality supersede all others.

Yet, through distorted concept, weve been made to believe that the deities of our ancestries are demonic. And living in the faith of such beliefs, we grope in ignorance with less regard to value and cultural heritage.

"Creative thinking and art are not measurable since they're testimony of the truth and inherent in all that exists. And this truth, the only truth, has many faces.

Who can count the faces of truth? All religion are ultimately the religion of mankind. Art is ritual."

-Susanne Wenger

Born on July 4, 1915, Susanne Wenger attended the School of Applied Arts in Graz and the Higher Graphical Federal Education and Research Institute. She also studied, alongside, at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna.

From 1946, Susanne Wenger was an employee of the communist children's magazine "Our Newspaper," of which she designed the cover of the first edition.

She would co-find the Vienna Art-Club the following year and after living in Italy and Switzerland in 1949, she moved to Paris.

It was there she met the world-renowned Ulli Beier, a German researcher, and linguist who had just accepted an offer to teach phonetics at the University of Ibadan.

They married in London and migrated to Nigeria.

After spending a couple of years in the university compound, Ulli Beier shifted his work to promoting art, drama, and music in the Universitys Extramural Department.

They would move from Ibadan to Ede (a village near Oshogbo) the following year.

It was here in Ede, continuing her artwork, that Susan Wenger became friends with Ajagemo, one of the very last priests of Obatala, who became her mentor and a great friend.

And although not a single word of Yoruba she understood at the time, she took a magnetic interest in the activities and rituals of the priest.

However, Susanne and her husband would move again from Ede to Oshogbo. But it didn't take long before their union came to an end.

They divorced.

And while Ulli Beier relocated to Europe, Susanne remained in Oshogbo engaging herself in the activities of Yoruba Religion as well as Yoruba arts like Adire making.

Being a lover of nature, she soon found out that the Yoruba culture and art aligns with her interest. And as a result, she converted to the Yoruba traditional religion.

But the turning point of Susanne Wengers life came when she was seriously ill of tuberculosis. It is said that science couldn't help the situation at the time and she was left to die of the disease. However, she was given herbal mixtures provided by Yoruba medicine men and in no time, she became well.

Upon recovery, the white artist from Austria dedicated her life to the worship of Orisha whom she believed had saved her from death.

She was initiated and later became a priestess of Osun, after going through spiritual training.

And as a priestess, Susanne Wenger tried to interpret the mysteries and truth of Yoruba traditional religion through her art: She would make countless murals and a series of sculptures and carvings in the process.

Along with local artists like Adebisi Akanji, Kasali Akangbe and Buraimoh Gbadamosi, Susanne Wenger built phenomenal shrines and dotted the forest of the Sacred Groves with works of art creating a new art Movement known as New Sacred Art for over 40 years.

During this time, Adunni Olorisa as she also known, became the leading advocate to protect the sanctity of the Sacred Groves from contamination.

She ensured that the pristine rainforest was preserved by stopping loggers and farmers from felling trees.

And apart from the Osun Sacred Groves, Susanne Wenger alongside other local artists helped restore many shrines in need of repair as a result of disuse.

"The groves of Oshogbo were doomed to death, but my conviction of the Yoruba religions inner truth was so strong that I, as a lively and modern person not subordinate to traditions, felt that I had to build a power centre to protect these groves.

"I was able to achieve this just by means of my expression because I was so deeply involved. After all, I was not an employee, a construction worker or architect; my devotion to this philosophy was not subject to any question; it was a fact for me and others. (Chesi, p. 20 f.)

Unarguably, it was her dauntless effort, in preserving the sacred forest, that made it possible for Osun grove to be declared a national monument 1965 and recognised by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) as a world heritage site in 2005.

As a result, the annual Osun festival has become not only a very popular event, it has also become a world-renowned festival; with many Africans in the Diaspora and other people from all parts of the world undertake a pilgrimage to Osogbo every August.

However, Susanne Wenger did marry a local drummer, late Chief Ayansola Oniru Alarape, in 1959, but later divorced him because of his attitude.

Decided to live alone for the rest of her life, she adopted over 12 Yoruba kids of which one of them is the well-known Yinka Davies-Okundaye.

It is important to note that Susanne Wenger was constantly faced with endless criticism by Christians and Muslims in the name of promoting idolatry, Susanne Wenger did say:

"Orisha (spirit or deity) is merely a name which represents the supernatural forces which are basic expressions of life.

"It does not matter what you call it. It is a sacred force that represents the experience of life that informs human beingness.

"And as with all religions, there is no true way to explain it along rational lines without leeching it of its meaning and intensely personal quality.

You are a part of it and it is a part of you. You may, as so many have done, push it aside, but it remains in youin all of us."

Adunni Olorisa tried as much as she could to make people understand this truth until she passed away on January 12, 2009, at the Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Hospital, Osogbo.

And upon her instruction, Susanne Wenger was buried quietly at the Osun Oshogbo Sacred Groves that same day.

Ore yeye, ooh!!!
I am dating an HIV positive babe. I do not mind her health status because she is on treatment. It is a long distance relationship. I am in Kano while she is in Ogun.

We have dated now for six years out which we did not see each other for three years consecutively but during this period she dated two other guys in Ogun state.

She told me this when I was opportuned to travel home though she parted ways with them.

When I returned to Kano, she declared to me during our phone conversation that she's no longer interested in the relationship, that she does not love me again and emphasizing the fact that I am not serious about the wedding.

I was shocked. I begged her to reverse her decision but she stood her ground. I sought the assistance of her sister & her mum but all to no avail.

What do I do?______________

Dear reader,

Six years is a long, long time to be with someone without making up your mind on what you want.

Shes right, in my opinion, to stand her ground on the marriage thing.

Well, you said you are not concerned about her health; so what else could the issue be holding you back from giving her the level of commitment she demands from you?

I think you should let sleeping dogs lie unless you have and you're willing what shes asking for._______________Do you want to talk about your love life, marriage or family issues?

Do you have burning questions that you would love to get answers to?

Just send a mail to relationships@pulse.ng and I'll provide the most honest answers to them anonymously.

Note; the chances of getting a quick response reduces if the text in your email has a lot of abbreviations. So, please write as properly as possible.

So, why not send that mail today and let's talk about it?
The South West Zonal Coordinator of NEMA, Alhaji Yakubu Suleiman, made the disclosure while receiving a new set of 166 returnees who arrived from the volatile North African country.

Suleiman noted that the Nigerians were assisted back to the country by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the European Union (EU).

He said the Federal Government, some state governments and the IOM had set up various schemes to rehabilitate and reintegrate the returnees back into the society.

Suleiman urged the returnees to focus on the task of getting back on their feet and contributing their quota to national development.

You have seen it all and you are in the best position to sensitise and create awareness against the evils of human trafficking, as you have seen the dangers of seeking greener pastures in foreign lands,  he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the returnees arrived aboard a chartered Nouvelair Airbus aircraft with registration number TS-INA.

The aircraft landed at 8.08pm at the Cargo Wing of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.

The returnees comprised 101 male adults, two male children, 56 female adults, three female children and four female infants.
Nwabunike made the plea when he visited the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Office in Lagos.

NAN reports that the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) said in February, this year, that only eight agencies were allowed to operate at the ports.

The agencies allowed representation at the ports are: NPA, Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), the Nigeria Police and the Department of State Security (DSS).

Other agencies include: the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), Port Health and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), he said.

NPA said that the decision was based on the directive of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) which directed the NPA to ensure strict compliance with the Oct. 26, 2011 Presidential directive on agencies permitted to operate at the ports.

NAN also reports that in 2011, government reduced the number of agencies operating at the ports from 14 to six, in order to reduce the hurdles encountered in the cargo clearing processes.

Nwabunike said that it was important to know that bringing in many government agencies into the ports would not help matters.

The Customs agent advised the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, to revisit the position paper of a former Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who reduced the number of government agencies at the ports.

He described Iwealas position paper as a master piece and an appropriate guideline for port procedures.

Nwabunike said that the presence of so many government agencies at the ports is becoming a very big problem in cargo clearance.

He said that the Customs Service was facilitating trade, saying that few weeks ago, the service introduced the Nigeria Integrated Customs Information Service (NICIS 11).

Nwabunike said that the association would have a close relationship with the Nigeria Customs Service, to ensure that the service worked effectively.

He also said that the new executives would sit down with colleagues in the profession to chart out an appropriate way forward.

Nwabunike talked about mergers, saying that  I think the earlier we begin to merge for the less-privileged clearing and forwarding companies to come up, the better for us.

He also advised the Federal Government to encourage the establishment of dry ports and bonded terminals in the Eastern part of the country, to attract more cargo.

According to him, there is a bonded terminal under construction near Onitsha in Anambra  the Anambra Container Bonded Terminal.

He suggested that the Federal Government should assist by providing rail, making the roads motorable, providing infrastructure and dredging the River Niger the more.

Nwabunike said that these were things that would help effectively for easy movement of Eastern cargo.

He, however, said that his mission as president of the association was to ensure effective workings of the ports, to make sure that members of the association were professionalised, ensure that foreigners would not take over their jobs and to check touting.
This is coming after President Buhari said the extensionof the tenure of the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Working Committee (NWC) is illegal.

According to reports, the elongation of the NWCs tenure was approved by the National Executive Committee (NEC).

In its reaction, the PDP said that the confusion in the APC is as a result of the partys cluelessness.

According to the partys spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, The confusion in the APC also directly explains why our country has been in shambles in the last three years.There is no way a party which cannot conduct its affairs in a democratic norm will be able to function in government.

We are therefore not surprised that President Buhari went back to his partys NEC and ordered members to reverse earlier decisions, which they had claimed conformed with the provisions of their constitution.

PDP blames APC for Nigerias problems

The PDP spokesman also said that the problem in Nigeria is as a result of the gross incompetence of the APC led administration.

Ologbondiyan said It is amazing that a party, which boasts of belonging to the progressive bent, does not even understand its own rules or the applications thereof. In one breath, the party sought the elongation of tenure for its officials and then in another breath it reversed itself.

Nigerians are no longer at loss as to the reasons for failure of governance, policy summersaults and gross incompetence that have brought our nation to its knees in the last three years.

Our takeaway in all these is that the APC is a complete disaster and we urge all democrats still trapped in this sinking ship to immediately exit and join other good-spirited Nigerians in the rebranded and repositioned PDP to make life better for our people."
The Lagos State government on Tuesday declared Thursday, March 29 as work free day in the State, a statement from the Commissioner for Information and Strategy in Lagos, Kehinde Bamigbetan, read.

The work free day, Bamigbetan announces, is so that Lagosians will come out enmasse to welcome President Buhari who is on a historic two-day visit to the State.

Roads will be closed around Lagos as Buhari visits and this will cause plenty of inconvenience for Lagosians, the State has gleefully announced.

To ensure smooth, security free visit of the president, we would need to do some diversions. Certain roads will be closed at certain times; some diversions will be made but I want to use this opportunity to appeal for the support and understanding of Lagosians that this temporary road closures and diversions might cause a little inconvenience, the statement added.

Logistical nightmare

A little inconvenience?

Lagos is a logistical nightmare at the best of times. You cant step out of your office for a quick snack on normal days because the citys traffic management ranks up there amongst the worst in the world. For a so-called mega city, the roads around Lagos are pothole ridden and narrow. Theres always bedlam and chaos all over Lagos when roads arent closed to traffic. Commuting in Lagos isn't for the faint-hearted. You've got to possess balls of steel to move from point A to B in Lagos.

A little inconvenience? Gimme a break!

Essentially, Lagos will be closed for two days, business activities in the nations commercial capital will be grounded, everyone has to sit their butts at home when they should be out there making a quick buck for themselves and their families, banks will be shuttered, markets will run skeletal services and courts wont hear cases just because Buhari is visiting town to commission a bus terminal and attend a public lecture!

Protocol

I understand all that gibberish about presidential protocol. Trust me, I do get it. I know that Presidents and Governors arent mere mortals like the rest of us. I get that these VIPs dont use the bathroom or fart and dont inhale through their nostrils like the rest of us. I get it. I get that a president shouldnt be subjected to the agony of sitting in traffic in a chaotic city like Lagos because slow moving traffic is beneath him.

I totally get it.

What I do not get is declaring a public holiday and stopping everyone dead in their tracks because the president is coming to town. Which other "smart city" in the world would pull a stunt like this?

How do you even rationalize shutting down the 5th largest economy in Africa--a city that accounts for 90 per cent of Nigerias foreign trade inflow, which contributes 30 per cent to the countrys GDP and which is home to 65 per cent of Nigerias manufacturing activity; because a president is visiting? Like, who does that?

It is little wonder that Bill Gates has been calling us a bunch of unserious people who dont know the value of our human resource. We are shutting down a city of 20 million and more people for one man; shutting down the nations livewire and business hubfor one man?

And you bet Ambode wont take Buhari through the Ikorodu-Apapa road where tankers have been stationed on federal government bridges for months now, worsening traffic flow for everyone and weakening bridges--because the federal government cant fix the port road where these articulated vehicles should have been stationed.
The meeting ended in a deadlock on Tuesday because the committee could not approve the allocation for the month of February to the three tiers of government owing to what was described as discrepancies in revenue figures presented to the committee by NNPC.

After the meeting at the headquarters of the Ministry of Finance on Tuesday, the Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, told reporters that the revenue would not be distributed until all outstanding issues were resolved.

He said, "Let me be quick to tell you that the meeting was inconclusive because issues around reconciliation of figures are on the table. Obviously, you are all aware that anything that has to do with the federation revenue is statutory and therefore constitutional. And we must always verify our figures to the last kobo, failing which we will be committing illegality and unconstitutionality.

"It is on that note that we observed some issues in the figures given by one of the major revenue-generating agencies, namely the NNPC. And the committee is of the opinion that until and unless these figures are reconciled, corrected, verified and are factual, we cannot distribute the revenue as the case is.

"We will look at the revenue figures as submitted by the NNPC and reconcile such figures, and upon the conclusion of the reconciliation of that figure, we will share the revenue accordingly.

"We have to explain this to Nigerians, bearing in mind that as civil servants, workers in the federal, state and local governments deserve to have their salaries and all other commitments of the government."

"It's not about the quantum of amount that is being distributed; it's about reconciliation. In finance and accounting, when you hear reconciliation, it means figures don't tally as presented by different sections and once figures do not agree, they must be made to agree.

"Unless we get to the bottom of it, have clarity and some level of certainty, we remain where we are."

The meeting, presided over by the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, will reconvene on Wednesday, March 28.

Other members of the committee are AGF Idris; commissioners for finance from the 36 states; representatives of revenue-generating agencies such as the Federal Inland Revenue Service, the Nigeria Customs Service and the NNPC, among others.

Adeosun meeting Baru for intervention

According to a statement signed by Adeosun's spokesperson, Oluyinka Akintunde, the minister will meet with the NNPC's Group Managing Director, Maikanti Baru, next week over the discrepancy.
The IGPs decision was sequel to the announcement by Janga that the two suspects who indicted Kogi lawmaker, Senator Dino Melaye had escaped from Police custody.

Subsequently, Jangla declared Senator Melaye and seven others wanted.

In a statement signed by Police spokesman, Jimoh Moshood on Wednesday, March 28, 2018, IGP Idris ordered CP Esa Sunday Ogbu to immediately replace Janga.

The IGP expressed displeasure over the circumstances surrounding the escape of the two suspects.

The statement reads:

"The Inspector General of Police, IGP Ibrahim K. Idris, is dissatisfied with the circumstances surrounding the escape of six (6) suspects including two (2) Principal Suspects (Kabiru Seidu a.k.a Osama, Nuhu Salisu a.k.a Small) who indicted Senator Dino Melaye and Mohammed Audu in a case of Conspiracy and Unlawful possession of Prohibited Firearm already filed at the Federal High Court, Lokoja which came up in court today, 28 March, 2018, has ordered the immediate removal of Commissioner of Police, Kogi State Command, CP Ali Janga.

The Commander FSARS in the State, the Divisional Police Officer A Division, Lokoja and other Police officers implicated in the escape for negligence, dereliction of duty and gross misconduct in the escape of the six (6) suspects have also been transferred out of the State and are facing serious disciplinary action. Thirteen (13) other Police officers are currently being detained and investigated for their roles in the escape.

CP Esa Sunday Ogbu, Commissioner of Police, Federal Operations, Force Headquarters, Abuja has been directed by the IGP to immediately proceed and take over as the new Commissioner of Police, Kogi State Police Command.

Furthermore, on the order of the IGP, the IGPs Intelligence Response Team and Special Tactical Squad, Personnel of the Force Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department have already arrived in Kogi State to work with the Police personnel in the State for immediate re-arrest of the escaped suspects. They are to also carry out detail investigation into the escape and bring all those involved to justice.

The Force wishes to implore the good people of Kogi State to remain calm and assist with useful information to the Joint Police Investigation Team. They can report any information they have on the escaped suspects to the nearest Police Station in the State or any other State in the Country.
The company was alleged to have hacked into Buhari's medical and financial records before the election.

Last week, the BBC had reported that an unidentified Nigerian billionaire paid Cambridge Analytica $2 million to carry out the alleged act.

The mystery billionaire was reportedly loyal to former president Goodluck Jonathan, who was seeking a re-election at the time. The Jonathan camp allegedly asked the firm to dig up implicating information about Buhari, with the goal of using it to nail him.

Whistle-blower

On Tuesday, March 27, 2018, the Jerusalem Post quoted a whistle-blower, Christopher Wylie to have told a UK parliamentary committee that Cambridge Analytica's parent company SCL Elections worked with Black Cube to hack Buhari.

"Wylie was quoted as saying; The company (Cambridge Analytica) utilised the services of an Israeli private intelligence firm, Black Cube.

"Black Cube on the Nigeria campaign was engaged to hack the now-President Buhari to get access to his medical records and private emails."

But Black Cube reportedly dismissed the whistle-blower's testimony, describing it as "flagrant lie."

"Whilst we are flattered that we are seemingly being connected with every international incident that occurs, we will state that Chris Wylie's testimony is a flagrant lie," the firm was quoted as saying.

It added that it will investigate Wylie's claims to "reveal the truth and the motive" behind them, and will also "launch a massive defamation suit against any entity that we will find involved, including Christopher Wylie, SCL or Cambridge Analytical, for any pound they still have or dont have."
The lawmaker inaugurated the ICT block with computer facilities at Ajah Olomu Junior Secondary Schools, borehole water projects at Ilaje, Ajah and Gbara Towns in the constituency.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that inauguration of the projects, economic empowerment and the Town Hall meeting came barely five months after Adams replaced the late Mr Kazeem Alimi, who died on July 18, 2017.

NAN reports that Adams was elected in a by-election conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission on Sept. 30 and sworn in on Oct. 23, 2017 to fill the vacant position.

Adams said: To address the non-availability of water in our community, we provide borehole facilities in Ikeja, Gbara Communities and Iru Market to all.

This is to balance the distribution of infrastructure across the three council areas in our constituency.

We also prioritise human capacity development to meet the challenges of the 21st century by establishing an ICT centre at Olomu Junior Secondary School, Ajah.

My genuine desire to bring the greatest gains of our democracy to our people through quality representation and people based legislation has guided my action.

He said that it would take a collective efforts for the constituency to attain greater heights.

In his remarks, Chief Tajudeen Olusi, an APC leader in the Lagos Central Senatorial District, said the project showed that Adams was representing the people well.

Olusi, however, called on the beneficiaries not to sell the items, but create fortunes for themselves.

The Deputy Speaker of the House, Mr Wasiu Eshinlokun-Sanni, commended Adams for being a good representative of the area, urging the residents to return him in 2019 elections.

You are a worthy representative in the House; we are impressed on your contributions on the floor.

I am happy about this empowerment. I pray the beneficiaries make good use of the items, he said.

Earlier, Mr Saheed Bankole, the Chairman, Eti-Osa Local Government Area, said he was overwhelmed with the sense of commitment for the sustainable development of the council.

I look forward to all stakeholders to emulate the laudable gesture of partnering with the government, Bankole said.

He urged the beneficiaries to ensure adequate maintenance of the projects for the good of all.

Also, Mr Andori Hafeez, the Principal of Ajah Olomu School, who commended Adams for the provision of ICT centre, said that the project would add value to studies.

One of the beneficiaries of hairdressing machine, Miss Motunde Oshodi, said that she would start her life with the gesture.
The schoolgirls had been kidnapped by the terrorists on February 19, 2018, during an attack on their school but 107 hostages were released on Wednesday, March 21 to wild jubilation in Dapchi.

One of the released schoolgirls, Khadija Grema, reported that five of her schoolmates died of heart attack and stress as a result of the long trip while the terrorists have held on to 15-year-old Leah for religious reasons.

"There's one of the girls that wasn't freed because she is a Christian, she was held back," Khadija said.

Leah was not released with the other hostages because she refused to renounce her Christian faith and convert to Islam like the terrorists demanded.

In an interview with Vanguard, Nathaniel pleaded with the Federal Government to secure the release of his daughter as his family continues to suffer due to her absence.

The police officer said, "I really have nothing much to say now except that Leah is not yet back to join the rest of the family. Till now I have not heard anything and no authority has told me anything about the whereabouts of Leah.

"Only my loved ones were calling to congratulate me that my daughter is on the way home. But until now I have not seen anything yet. I am feeling so sad and very weak.

"Right now the school is not functioning. It's very sad if we are going to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ without Leah.

"It will be very unfortunate but I know that with the prayers going on across the globe I believe she will join us before the Easter proper."

He also told Vanguard that Leah's mother, Rebecca, is getting better due to the support and prayers of Nigerians.

"The mother is getting better now, knowing well that the nation and the whole world are praying for the safe return of her daughter. She fainted earlier when the daughter's classmates were returned on Wednesday," he said.

Dapchi abduction

Boko Haram militants invaded Government Girls Science and Technical Secondary School in Dapchi, Bursari local government area of Yobe on Monday, February 19, 2018, and abducted 110 schoolgirls.

According to accounts by residents, the terrorists invaded the town around 7 pm in over 18 gun trucks mounted with high caliber weapons.

The abduction was a repeat of another Boko Haram attack that happened when militants invaded Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok and kidnapped 276 female students in April 2014.
Speaking at plenary on Wednesday, March 28, 2018, Senator Melaye accused the Nigeria Police of releasing the two suspects allegedly linked to him in a criminal case bothering on illegal possession of firearms.

The Police had threatened to issue a warrant of arrest on Senator Melaye should he fail to appear in court today.

But, speaking at plenary, Senator Melaye alleged that the two suspects had been released in a purported jail break.

His words: "Just yesterday, Senator Isah Misau brought my issue of my persecution and harassment by the Nigeria Police to the fore. This morning, the social media has been awashed and I have made confirmation that the two suspects in my case who said I gave them guns and money have escaped in a reported case of jailbreak in Lokoja and the two suspects have escaped.

"We were all supposed to appear before the court in Lokoja this morning but lo and behold, my lawyers were in court by 9am this morning and the case was called up. The prosecutor  the Nigeria Police  could not produce the two accused persons. Instead of producing the two accused persons, the asked the judge to issue a bench warrant for my arrest. But the judge refused to grant their prayers. The matter was adjourned to May 10, 2018.

ALSO READ: Angels of the Lord rescued me from SARS

"Rumours have it that the two suspects were moved at about 8pm yesterday from detention. Also, rumours have it that they may have been killed because two international agencies were in Lokoja yesterday to investigate what is happening based on my petitions. There was also the fear of the vigorous investigation of the Senate which starts today. Surprisingly, these two accused have now been declared as escapees.

"I want to use this opportunity on the principle of justice that the Police must produce the two accused persons within 48-hours because they are presumed innocent until proven guilty. They also have right to life. Failure of the Police to produce them, I will sue the IGP for intimidation, harassment and mental assault. Nigeria is not a banana republic. They cannot escape, the Police must produce the accused," he added.

Soon, Melaye started singing a popular gospel song.

In his remarks, Senate President Bukola Saraki urged Senator Melaye to maintain decorum while presenting his cases at plenary.

Saraki called on all institutions of government to ensure the promotion of justice.

Dino Melaye wanted

Meanwhile, the Kogi state police command has declared Senator Melaye wanted.

The Kogi state commissioner of Police, Ali Janga, made this known in a statement made available to on Wednesday, March 28, 2018.
Ahmed told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the teachers would be trained on the rudiments of managing classroom situations to acquaint them with effective skills to cope with students and pupils.

The training will last for two weeks; it will focus on building capacities for effective service delivery.

Most of those recruited are just fresh from schools; there is a differences between what they were taught in school and the experience in class.

As trained teachers, most of them did teaching practice while in school, but they were not in charge of the classes because of the presence of the permanent teachers, he said.

The commissioner disclosed that the newly engaged teachers were offered one-year employment.

After the one year probation period, the ministry will interview them again and offer permanent and pensionable appointments to those qualified, he said.

He said that teachers with degrees would be paid N25,000 per month, while those with NCE would be paid N20,000.
For Lagosians who are wondering what the president would be up to when he shows up in their city heres what Buharis itinerary will look like.

PS: The schedule below is subject to slight changes, but hey, we tried.

Thursday, March 29:

1. Lagos will be observing a public holiday.

2. President Buhari touches down in Ikeja and then clambers into a waiting motorcade.

3. This motorcade takes Buhari to the Ikeja bus terminal which sits pretty at the intersection of Airport Road and Simbiat Abiola way. Sorry Computer Village, you won't be in business this once.

4. Buhari commissions Ikeja bus terminal and heads for the Eko Convention Centre (Eko Hotel) in Victoria Island.

5. The Eko Convention Centre is where the 10th Bola Tinubu Colloquium would be holding in honour of Asiwajus 66th birthday.

6. Buhari is Chairman of the event which runs on the theme: '

7. The event starts at 10:30am which means expect certain major roads to be closed to traffic; from the Mainland to the Island.

8. The Commissioner of Police in Lagos, CP Imohimi Edgal, says there would be temporary road closure and diversions in the following areas: Ikeja, Maryland, Agege Motor Road, Victoria Island and Ikoyi axis".

Thats basically the spine of the nations commercial capital shut down.

9. But not to worry, Edgal says traffic will be managed so well, you wont even notice the disruption the president's visit will bring.

10. "Security engagements are in top gear, as we are working with the Federal Road Safety Corps, Nigerian Navy, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) and the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA).

We have done threat assessment and engaged all stakeholders such as the National Union of Road Transport Workers and commercial bike riders. We are appealing that they abide by our agreement at the meeting.

This is to ensure that Mr Presidents visit to Lagos is smooth, safe and hitch-free,  Edgal says.

11. All blocked roads will be immediately re-opened as soon as the presidents motorcade breezes past, they say.

12. So, there you have itdont lose any sleep. This will all be over before you know it.

Friday, March 30

13. Buhari is probably chilling at the Lagos House in Marina or somewhere more exquisite and upbeat, to receive visitors.

14. Later in the day, he heads out to tour the Eko Atlantic City on Ahmadu Bello Way, Victoria Island.

15. Remember, there are still traffic restrictions on Day 2 of Buharis visit to Lagos.

Its a Friday and a public holiday so, sitting that butt at home and going through your social media feed is going to be your best bet, trust us.

16. Buhari heads for the official flag-off ceremony of the construction of the Lekki Deep Sea Port Project in Epe.

17. And then as evening nears, he begins to pack his bags to leave Lagos for Abuja.

18. Buhari is chauffeur driven to the airport in Ikeja and off he goes until the next election campaign season.
These presidency sources often cite Buharis decision not to intervene in the politics of the 8th national assembly in the early days of the APC administration; and not handing sufficient powers to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu after he won the 2015 election, as proof that for all his years in the army and governance, he remains a political neophyte.

Well, at the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the APC which held on March 27, 2018, Buhari proved hes been taking political notes and listening to his political advisers by putting a stop to the tenure elongation plans of APC chairmanJohn Odigie-Oyegun.

Tenure elongation

The current APC executive is of course led by Oyegun and it is called National Working Committee (NWC).

At the time, the argument put forward by party faithful was that since the APC will be facing a fierce election contest in a few months, changing the national executive midway would amount to rocking the partys boat.

'Why not wait till after the general election to hold an elective congress to change the NWC?' was the prevailing argument.

Holding elective congresses at this time would have led to some acrimony and division within our party before the 2019 general elections. We thought it was best to leave the team as it is and hold elective congresses immediately after the 2019 contest, one top ranking APC official disclosed to Pulse in February.

Of course Bola Tinubu wasnt happy with the decision to retain the party executives for another year. And for obvious reasons as well.

Tinubu and Oyegun are sworn enemies.

Public letters

Tinubu has written two public letters in which he took Oyegun to the cleaners and warned him against destroying the governing party.

In September of 2016, Tinubu unequivocally asked Oyegun to leave his position.

Oyeguns transgressions are a warning. He is but the mercenary of forces that seek to return the nation to the old ways, Tinubu had written.

If they get away with this infraction, no telling what or whom they will undermine tomorrow. Much is at stake. On the chopping block, lies the future of the political party in which the majority of voters had placed their confidence.

To rescue the party, Oyegun must go. He has shown that he and democratic fair play cannot exist in the same party at the same time, the Jagaban wrote.

Fall out

After back in February, the Jagaban Borgu (as Tinubu is fondly called) accused Oyegun of frustrating the presidential directive.

Disappointment greeted me when I discovered that you had swiftly acted in contravention of the spirit of our discussions. Instead of being a bulwark of support as promised, you positioned yourself in active opposition to the goal of resuscitating the progressive and democratic nature of the APC, Tinubu wrote to Oyegun this year.

Tinubu fell out with Oyegun in 2016 when the party Chairman backed Rotimi Akeredolu for the Ondo governorship seat against Segun Abraham who was Tinubus handpicked candidate.

Akeredolu would go on to win the primary and the general election in that Southwest State, much to Tinubu's chagrin.

Checkmate

By opposing the tenure elongation of Oyegun and his team, Buhari is essentially aligning with Tinubu and ditching Oyegun.

And its smart politics. Buhari needs the Southwest now more than ever before--for re-election purposes. Tinubu is lord and manor of Southwest politics. Any close watcher of the political game in recent times, would have noticed that Buhari has been pandering a lot to Tinubu lately.

The president has been holding regular talks with Tinubu at the Villa, hes handed Tinubu the task of uniting the APC; and this week, Buhari will be in Lagos to attend the 10th Bola Ahmed Tinubu colloquium.

The president is increasingly sucking up to Tinubu and at the moment, thats deft, pragmatic politics.

Tinubu reacts

Of course Tinubu, who was spectacularly absent at this weeks Abuja meeting, wasted little time hailingBuharis decision to overturn Oyeguns tenure extension.

In Tinubus words: President Buharis action has saved the party from serious legal turmoil.

If the elongations were deemed illegal, then all subsequent party actions, including the nomination of all of our candidates for elective offices, might also be of questionable legality.

Such a predicament would constitute an unnecessary and mortal blow to the party and its role in promoting progressive governance to Nigeria.

Moreover, President Buhari has affirmed for all to see that our party is one based on the rule of law coupled with a firm adherence to internal democracy.

While it would have been easy to allow the ill-conceived motion of 27 February to stand, President Buhari showed principle and courage by steering the party back to its original and correct path.

It may have been Buharis voice at the APC NEC meeting this week, but it was no doubt Tinubus hand. And the biggest loser here is Oyegun who will be kicked out of the leadership of the party in June without mercy. He has become a bargaining tool or make-weight in the larger scheme of things.
The plaintiff, Mr Ademorin Kioye led some other members of the party to file the suit after the party extended the tenure of NWC by one year.

The defendants are the INEC, APC and its National Chairman and the National Organising Secretary, Sen. Osita Izunaso.

The plaintiffs on March 15, obtained an ex parte order directing the defendants to show cause why members of the NWC of the APC should not be barred from parading themselves as national officials of the party.

When the matter was called, counsel to the plaintiffs, Mr Jibrin Okutepa (SAN), told the court that all the defendants had been duly served with the court order of March 15.

Counsel to INEC, Mr Idris Yakubu said that the commission had filed a preliminary objection to the suit on Wednesday.

APCs counsel, Mr Joseph Daudu (SAN), said the party was served with the clear court order and it was clear that the court did not cut short the time within which the respondents were to file their processes.

According to Daudu, the suit raises serious constitutional issues and it will be only fair to allow them file their processes as allowed by the rules since they are within time.

For the interest of fair hearing, we are still within time to file our processes and we have a preliminary objection to the jurisdiction of this court, he said.

Mr Akin Olujimi (SAN) counsel to Oyegun aligned himself with the submissions of Daudu and added that the order of the court said nothing on the abridgement of time.

He argued that the process filed was not ripe for hearing since they had 30 days to respond.

On his part, Mr James Onoja (SAN) counsel, Izunaso also objected to the immediate hearing of the matter on the grounds that the matter was not yet ripe for hearing.

Okutepa, in his reply, disagreed with the defendants counsel that the rule of the court allowed them 30 days to respond.

According to him, Order 13 rule 35 of the court provides 14 days for them to respond to the originating summons that was served on them on March, 14, adding that Wednesday was the 15th day so it was ripe for hearing.

He further argued that they were served with the motion on notice for interlocutory injunction on the same day and they ought to have replied within seven days.

Okutepa said that President Muhammadu Buhari had on Tuesday at a meeting at the Presidential Villa, conceded that the NWC tenure elongation was unconstitutional, so the defendants should allow the matter to be heard.

In his ruling, the trial judge,Justice Nnamdi Dimgba held that the court would follow a road map that would guaranty fair hearing of the matter expeditiously.
He appealed to the traditional ruler to prevail on his subjects whose PVCs were still in INEC custody to collect them.

According to him, 648,840 unclaimed PVCs are still in the custody of the commission.

He urged the Oba to use his position as father of all to reach out to other traditional rulers in the kingdom to sensitise their people on the need to collect their voter cards.

Agboke reiterated the commitment of the commission in conducting free, fair and credible elections in 2019.

The REC assured the Alaafin and the people of Oyo State that the commission would continue to be unbiased and impartial umpire.

He said it now behooves on eligible voters to collect their PVCs, which is their voting power to elect those that will govern them.

He urged eligible voters who had yet to register to visit INEC offices in their respective local government areas to register, saying the second phase of the exercise would begin on April 3.

Adeyemi assured INEC of effective support to ensure that people participated fully in the electoral processes.

The Oba promised to mandate other traditional rulers in his kingdom to create awareness for the collection of voter cards.

He urged the REC and his management team to fullfil its pledge in conducting free, fair and credible elections.

He also urged Nigerians to cooperate with INEC for credible elections come 2019.

We must support the commission to give us credible polls, your vote is power and you must not sell it.

My appeal also goes to women to participate actively in the elections because of the future of your children.

Your participation will give way to credible leaders that will provide good governance.

Youths should abstain from hooliganism or anything that can cause disturbance to the electoral processes.
Rep. Abdulraman Danburan (Kano-APC) had drawn the attention of the house to a media publication that the lawmakers were being given.

Danburan said that the report was worrisome as it was dragging the house to disrepute.

He added that his constituents had started calling him on the grounds that he had collected bribe.

All my life, I have tried my best to remain reputable and maintain my integrity, so I want the house Committee on Ethics to investigate the matter.

Let us know what they are trying to tarnish our image in the public for, he said.

Rep. Tajudeen Yusuf (Kogi-PDP) said the news was not only in the newspaper but that the entire social media was awash with the news.

He stressed the need to expose those behind the fake news and the fallacy in the report, adding that no transaction of that nature existed.

Yusuf said that the public needed to know that the report was an attempt to smear the parliament and insisted that the house must not allow it go.

In his contribution, Rep. Hassan Saleh (Benue-APC) said that the continuous attack on the parliament had to stop.

He said that there was need by the National Assembly to sensitize the public and make them understand that we are not what they say we are.

Saleh described the reports as irresponsible journalism, saying that the publication ought to have investigated the matter before going public.

If after investigation, we are not found wanting, we should sue, so as to stop this continuous attack, he said.

Rep. Aliyu Madaki (Kano-APC) said that questions begging for answers included who is giving the bribe and for whose interest?

Madaki said should the parliament decide to override the Presidents veto on the bill seeking to change the sequence of election, the action would not be against the Constitution.

According to him, if the writer and the sponsor are corrupt, we in the parliament are not like them.

Madaki added that provided that what the parliament was doing was the will of constituents and it was being done it in clear conscience, anybody who was not happy was on own.

Also speaking, Rep. Mark Gbillah (Benue-APC) said that the sequence being proposed by the parliament was the most used in the history of Nigerias elections.

He said the media had allowed themselves to be used to cast the image of the parliament, which remained the backbone of the democracy, in bad light.

Gbillah suggested that the house should bring some of the institutions smearing the image of parliament to justice to serve as deterrent to others.

In his contribution, Leader of House, Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila (Lagos-APC) said that bribery and corruption were criminal and punishable by imprisonment.

He said the report had indicted governors, ministers and all members of parliament.

We cannot leave this matter to ethics committee for the members have also been indicted and they cannot be judges in their own case.

We should take a class action on it by filing a suit in court; you cannot speculate on such a matter that is so injurious.

When you are defamed, you go to court; I think this matter should be taken to court.

This is fake news and we need to take a class action on it; we need to do a re-accreditation of those press organisations we allow into the chambers.

The Chairman, Committee on Rules and Business, Rep. Emmanuel Okereke-Jev (Benue-APC) urged the house to focus on its duties and not be distracted by false publications.

He said the house should ignore those behind the publication as it was a ploy to drag parliament into controversies.

In his ruling, Speaker of the House, Mr Yakubu Dogara, referred the matter to the Committee on Ethics and Privileges to determine if the privilege of the house was breached.
"There is no humanitarian solution for humanitarian problems," Guterres said after receiving the check, which also came from the United Arab Emirates.

The Emirates plays a major role in the coalition, which intervened militarily three years ago to support Yemen's government against Iran-backed Huthi rebels.

Civilian casualties from coalition air strikes have drawn criticism from rights groups, and in October the UN placed the alliance on a "blacklist" for killing and maiming children.

Riyadh insists the coalition respects its obligations under international humanitarian law.

"The solution is political and we are entirely at your disposal to work to find a solution" that will "end the suffering in Yemen," Guterres said.

The United Nations is making a fresh push for peace talks in Yemen, where the coalition acted to support the internationally-recognized government after the Huthis seized the capital.

About 10,000 Yemenis have been killed in the war.

The UN calls it the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with 22.2 million people in need of aid, a growing risk of famine, and a severe outbreak of cholera.

'Stupid war'

It was the second meeting between the UN chief and the crown prince, who has bristled at Guterres' description of Yemen as a "stupid war" that is harming the interests of the countries involved.

Prince Mohammed said Saudi Arabia was working to uphold UN principles which he said meant "not interfering in the affairs of other countries," an apparent reference to Iran's support for the Huthis.

"We try as much as we can to solve the problems of the Middle East politically and if things get out of control, we try as hard as we can to avoid all the other impacts," said the crown prince, speaking through a translator.

"We will continue to comply, as we always have, with international law," he said.

The UN chief has appointed a new peace envoy, Martin Griffiths, who was in the rebel-held capital Sanaa this week for talks on kick-starting the political process, following a first round of meetings in Riyadh.

UN diplomats believe the new effort could succeed because Iran has sent signals that it is willing to pressure the Huthis to seek a settlement.
Moloney initially claimed that he had found the gun when it was another officer  a sergeant  who had discovered it, prosecutors said. Ultimately, he came clean, but that did not help him. Prosecutors charged him in a 24-count indictment that includes perjury in the first degree and official misconduct.

He pleaded not guilty Tuesday to the charges before Justice Danny K. Chun in state Supreme Court in Brooklyn.

Our police officers are expected to be truthful and honest at all times because peoples fates and the integrity of the justice system depend on that, said Eric Gonzalez, the Brooklyn district attorney. We allege that the officer in this case failed to do that and instead repeatedly gave false testimony under oath. Such conduct diminishes public trust and is, in fact, criminal. We intend to now hold the defendant accountable.

Last week, The New York Times published an investigation into police perjury within the New York Police Department that found that false testimony by the police, known as testilying, remains a problem. This year, a Queens detective, Kevin Desormeau, has been convicted of perjury and a Brooklyn detective has been charged with fabricating a photo lineup.

Even as Moloney was arraigned, prosecutors offered little explanation about why they believe he lied. They also did not say if they suspect it had been his idea to lie or if he been instructed to lie by superiors. At the time of the gun arrest, Moloney had been a police officer for three years. As contradictions in his account were exposed, Moloney cited his inexperience as the reason for the error, prosecutors said.

The charges against Moloney stem from an arrest he and other officers made May 6, 2016, in the public housing apartment building where they had been seeking to arrest a man on a warrant for low-level charges. The officers knocked on the door of an apartment, and arrested the man when he answered the door, prosecutors said.

Because it was early in the morning, the man was not properly dressed. The officers followed him into a bedroom to allow him to put on clothes. Moloney and a second officer left with the man to process the arrest, prosecutors said, but about 15 minutes later a sergeant who had stayed behind told the officers to come back.

Inside the apartment was an open black box containing a gun as well as a few bags of marijuana, prosecutors said. At that point, the sergeant told Moloney to go get a search warrant. But when Moloney went to the Brooklyn district attorneys office to apply for the warrant, he claimed that he  not the sergeant  discovered the gun.

He also insinuated that the arrested man had tried to hide the gun.

As I was assisting Mr. (redacted) to get dressed, Mr. (redacted) kicked a black plastic box under the bed where the baby was sleeping. I then opened the black plastic box and observed a silver pistol inside the box, Moloney wrote in a search warrant affidavit, the indictment said.

His story came under scrutiny when photographs from the apartment showed that the bed was set on the floor. At that point, Moloney then said the suspect had been trying to push the box away from the bed  rather than toward it, prosecutors said.

When we were getting him dressed were noticing hes pushing the box away from the actual bed and we realize that its open a little and we see that theres also a firearm in the box, Moloney testified Feb. 1. in a family court hearing.

Asked about the discrepancy, Moloney said it was an error based on a lack of experience. It was, he said in Supreme Court, a mistake on my part, being my first search warrant that Id sworn out alone, and just a rookie mistake.

In July 2017 Moloney admitted that he had not been the one to open the black box, prosecutors said. He also said that he did not observe the moment that the box was being opened, prosecutors said.

I want to come clean to you, he told officials, according to the indictment. I did not open the black plastic box. I did not see the box being opened by someone else. I wasnt in the room.

Based on this, prosecutors dismissed the gun charges against the man, whom prosecutors did not identify. The Brooklyn district attorneys office referred the matter to the Police Departments Internal Affairs Bureau, which led to perjury charges being filed against Moloney.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Some of them died as they banged on locked exit doors and screamed into cellphones for help from their parents.

How could this ever happen? Putin asked local officials, echoing a question now being asked across Russia by a population that just recently voted overwhelmingly to re-elect a president who, during his previous 18 years in power, repeatedly boasted of making Russia strong and safe.

Public anger at the fire  and claims that official bungling and corruption played a part  drowned out the Kremlin's fury over Mondays expulsion of Russian diplomats by 23 countries. Even on state-controlled television, news about the fire pushed aside routine denunciations of the West just as four more countries ordered out diplomats over a nerve-agent attack for which London has blamed Moscow.

Normally, the Kremlin would have used the diplomatic crisis to stoke patriotic fervor and promote its view of Russia as a fortress besieged by Russophobic foreigners.

Russia-24, a round-the-clock state news channel, tried early Monday to stick to its usual fare of patriotic programming, broadcasting a panel discussion featuring fiery tirades against the West. But even that exercise had to pause to give the announcer time to express condolences over the deaths in Siberia.

By afternoon, however, the coverage was focused almost entirely on the shopping mall tragedy and a tightly choreographed visit by Putin to Kemerovo, more than 2,000 miles east of Moscow.

Putins comforting words in Siberia, where he harangued officials and visited the memorial, had to compete with a rival narrative of corruption spread on social media and on the website of Alexei Navlny, the anti-corruption campaigner who was barred from running in the March 18 election against Putin.

Eager to keep control of the story, Putin warned people to stick to official information. You know it very well that social media is a murky source unfortunately, he told officials and relatives in Kemerovo. We need to rely on the results of the actual inquiry.

That Russia is far from being a monolithic one-party state, despite Putins lopsided re-election, was clear Tuesday evening in the two events organized to mourn the dead in Kemerovo.

One was state-sponsored, near the Kremlin; the other was held in Pushkin Square, by Muscovites who wanted no part in the official gathering. The alternative wake began as a solemn vigil with mourners burning candles and laying flowers, some of them in tears, but gradually turned into a small-scale political rally with chants of Russia without Putin! Corruption kills! Shame on television! and Silence means death.

Instead of fuming at the United States and its allies, Putin, during his Siberia trip, used another tool in his repertoire of responses to most problems: He set the security apparatus to work, telling relatives of the victims that the Investigative Committee, Russias answer to the FBI, had deployed 100 investigators and would find those responsible for the fire and punish them.

He blamed criminal negligence and slovenliness for the blaze, which started in a childrens play area and then swept through nearby cinemas crowded with young people.

The regional governor, Aman Tuleyev, a relic of the Soviet era, begged for forgiveness and accused opposition activists of trying to exploit the tragedy for political ends. Its sacrilege when theres grief and you use it to solve your own problems, the governor said.

Putin avoided mention of what many, including those who lost family members, believe was the real cause of the fire: a state system, including multiple agencies responsible for limiting fire and other risks, eaten away by corruption and incompetence.

Russia has strict building codes and elaborate safety regulations but, instead of being enforced, they are frequently skirted with the help of corrupt officials willing to turn a blind eye to violations in return for cash bribes and favors. Law enforcement officers, who are supposed to prevent this, are themselves often on the take or under pressure from powerful political barons not to investigate.

In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Anton Gorelkin, a member of Parliament from Kemerovo, gave a list of possible reasons the fire started  a prank by children, a short circuit, arson  but he said the real cause of the tragedy was greed.

Asserting that the mall, called Winter Cherry, should never have been allowed to open because of blatant safety issues, he accused an unnamed deputy mayor of signing off on the shopping centers opening in 2013 after receiving a bribe. His eyes were closed by money, the legislator contended.

Igor Vostrikov, who lost his wife, three children and a sister in the fire, also blamed rapacious officials in an enraged message on social media. I no longer have a family, Vostrikov wrote. The ruling regime is guilty. Every bureaucrat dreams of stealing like Putin. Every state functionary treats people like garbage.

Government investigators, added Vostrikov, will find a scapegoat, and the issue will be done with, but the threats  incompetence, widespread corruption, alcoholism and total degradation of society  will go nowhere.

Just a few yards from the regional government offices where Putin met local officials, thousands of people gathered in Kemerovos central square and called on the governor to resign, pouring scorn on those who repeated an official death toll that many believe undercounted the real number of victims.

Putin and the governor, Tuleyev, stayed away from the square. The governors deputy, Sergei Tsivilev, did visit and, according to the news website Znak, was met with cries of The truth! Resign! and demands that Putin come and address the throng.

Putin knows from bitter experience how easily a tragedy can rebound against him. In 2000, his first year in office, he traveled to a naval port in the Arctic Circle in a disastrous attempt to calm the grief of the widows and relatives of the 118 crewmen who perished in the sinking of the submarine Kursk, an episode during which Moscow declined foreign help to save the crew despite not having equipment of its own needed to conduct a rescue operation.

The Kursk fiasco was quickly followed by a Kremlin push to take control of NTV, a privately owned television station that had given voice to grieving widows and contributed to a public relations disaster that looked for a time like it might cripple Putin, then a newly installed leader. NTV, now firmly under state control, is today one of Putins loudest cheerleaders.

Public distrust generated by the Kursk tragedy was then reinforced by multiple disasters involving authorities incompetent and brutal response to hostage takings by terrorists at a Moscow theater in 2002, during a performance of a musical called Nord-Ost, and at a school in the southern Russian town of Beslan in 2004.

Increasingly tight control of the news media, ratcheted up after each such tragedy, has done little to dissipate this distrust and may even have aggravated it.

Even if the official death toll reflects reality, at the end of the day people know how the government lied in Beslan, Nord-Ost, Kursk and many other places. So they have themselves to blame for the spiraling level of distrust, said a post on Twitter by Kaloy Akhilgov, a lawyer and former government official.

State television largely ignored Tuesdays gathering in Kemerovos central square, focusing instead on Putins visit to a hospital ward and his solemn expressions of condolences. It also showed him pointing a finger at lowly local officials and strenuously avoiding the question of whether a system addled by corruption might be the real problem.

Despite draconian fire regulations and an army of inspectors to enforce them, Russia has one of the worlds worst fire safety records. Between 2001 and 2015, according to a study by International Association of Fire and Rescue Services, Russia had an average of 7.5 deaths per 100,000 people from fires, compared with 1 in the United States, 2.7 in Kazakhstan and 0.5 in France and Germany. Russia, where fire inspectors are notorious for extorting bribes, had the worst death rate of 41 countries covered by the study.

Putin made no mention of Russias lamentable and well-known fire safety record, but instead expressed puzzled outrage that the shopping mall had gone up in flames and killed so many people.

Whats happening here? Putin said in a highly scripted meeting with Kemerovo officials. This isnt war, its not a spontaneous methane outburst. People came to relax, children. Were talking about demography and losing so many people.

The crowd on the square, however, had no interest in the official script. When Tsivilev, the deputy governor, announced that a total of 64 deaths had been recorded, one man shouted: Why are you lying? A livestream by the video service Ruptly showed another clambering onto the platform to confront Tsivilev.

Instead of calming the throng, the deputy governor only inflamed it by suggesting that some people were exploiting the tragedy to attract attention. This drew a furious retort from Vostrikov, the author of the social media post denouncing corruption.

I have lost my sister Sabadash Alyona Igorevna; my wife, Vostrikova Elena Sergeevna; three children  5, 7 and 2 years old, he said. I came here for self-promotion, did I?

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
On Tuesday, retired Justice John Paul Stevens wrote an op-ed in The New York Times calling for the repeal of the Second Amendment.

Rarely in my lifetime have I seen the type of civic engagement schoolchildren and their supporters demonstrated in Washington and other major cities throughout the country this past Saturday, Stevens wrote. These demonstrations demand our respect. They reveal the broad public support for legislation to minimize the risk of mass killings of schoolchildren and others in our society.

Repealing the Second Amendment would have to be approved by Congress, and there are no signs that such a move is underway.

It is unequivocally not the Democratic caucus position to repeal the Second Amendment, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the top Democrat in the Senate, said in a statement to The New York Times on Wednesday. The president has to tweet this because he and the Republicans are reeling.

Schumer said the student marches are having an impact on the traditional argument about gun safety. The choice, he said, is not between gun rights and no gun rights.

Reasonable proposals that adhere to the Second Amendment but improve gun safety such as universal background checks, protective orders and a debate on the assault weapons ban are the way of the future, Schumer said.

Stevens retired from the Supreme Court in 2010. He wrote a major dissent about the Second Amendment in one of the courts hardest-fought decisions. Stevens argued that the amendment does not protect an individuals right to own firearms.

That decision  which I remain convinced was wrong and certainly was debatable  has provided the NRA with a propaganda weapon of immense power, Stevens wrote on Tuesday, referring to the National Rifle Association, the powerful gun lobbying group. Overturning that decision via a constitutional amendment to get rid of the Second Amendment would be simple and would do more to weaken the NRAs ability to stymie legislative debate and block constructive gun control legislation than any other available option.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, indicated the administration was not considering a repeal of the Second Amendment.

The president and the administration still fully support the Second Amendment, Sanders said on Tuesday in response to a question about Stevens op-ed. We think that the focus has to remain on removing weapons from dangerous individuals, not on blocking all Americans from their constitutional rights.

In his tweet, Trump also said that Democrats support repealing the Second Amendment, but that has not been the case in Congress, which is only considering modest policy changes on guns. In the 1990s, a Democratic congressman from New York introduced legislation for a repeal, but it did not get any traction. Trumps opponent in the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton, did not campaign to repeal the Second Amendment.

We can uphold Second Amendment rights while preventing senseless gun violence, Clinton tweeted in May 2016.

Trump had the support of the NRA early in his campaign for president and has said he is the biggest fan of the Second Amendment. After the deadly mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, last month, Trump proposed stricter controls on access to guns, particularly raising the age to purchase an assault weapon to 21 from 18. After a meeting with the NRA, Trump no longer advocated for an age increase.

Instead, the White House  with the support of the NRA  says appropriately trained teachers should be armed to respond to future mass shootings.

Gun free zones are proven targets of killers, Trump tweeted on March 1.

Arming teachers has been widely criticized, recently by people who gathered for marches for more gun control.

At a March for Our Lives demonstration in Anchorage, Alaska, on Saturday, Melanie Anderson, a 44-year-old middle school teacher, held up a sign that said teacher, not sharp shooter.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Taking to twitter Wednesday morning after over 30 hours of scuffle at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), Mr Abdullahi told Miguna to instead go to one of the Kenyas neighbouring counties and gain entry using a Kenyan passport (identification card), which he has been brandishing since Monday.

Miguna just wants publicity & useless drama. If he is serious about coming to Kenya and he is lawfully entitled to, let him go to Mogadishu, or Addis or Kampala or Juba & enter Kenya through border points like Mandera, Moyale, Namanga or Busia. Let him spare us this rolling drama, he tweeted to his half a million followers.

ALSO READ: Tuju reveals unfortunate things that happened during presidential campaigns

Miguna was on Tuesday allegedly locked up in a tiny and filthy toilet at one of the JKIAs terminal 2 and by the time of publishing this story, it was not clear where he spend the Tuesday night.

The barrister, who landed on Monday afternoon, has been denied entry into Kenya despite two court orders directing his return after he was illegally deported to Canada. The government on Monday night attempted to force him on a flight to Dubai, a move which made him cause a scene at the East Africas largest airport.

Toilet cell

In a statement, Dr Miguna on Wednesday said police had locked him inside a tiny and filthy toilet without access to basic hygiene and necessities of life.

The media could not immediately confirm his allegations because police have since blocked lawyers and journalists from accessing him.

The respondents havent provided me with food, water and medical attention in addition to not according me my right to counsel, he said.

I have no access to a bathroom and I have not taken a shower since Sunday, March 25th. The toilet where I am being held has no shower or bathtub, he said in the statement.

He added: There is only hot water in the toilet, hence, I am also unable to wash my face and brush my teeth.

Justice Roselyn Aburili on Tuesday ordered Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi, Director of Immigration Gordon Kihalangwa, and Inspector-General of Police Joseph Boinett to release the lawyer and present him in court on Wednesday morning.

Other officials targeted by the court order are Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti, head of the Flying Squad Said Kiprotich, the OCPD for JKIA, and the Attorney-General.

Despite the court order, and as they have done consistently before, the respondents have not released me, Dr Miguna says.
Itumbi attempted to explain why the government would not obey a court order that was issued on Tuesday evening, requiring the unconditional release of the outspoken NRM General.

According to the State House official, Kenyan courts have jurisdiction that is limited to Kenyan soil.

He further argued that since Miguna had not been cleared at the JKIA immigration clearance desk, the vocal General could not be said to be on Kenyan soil - even arguing that the orders could only be implemented by the military.

"The orders are in the category of absurd. How does a Judge order that a person who has yet to get to Kenya to be produced in court. Technically no such persons exists on Kenyan soil. The jurisdiction of the High Court is our boundaries. They court cannot order that Government go out of the borders to get anyone. Only, Parliament can do that for the Military," Itumbi stated.

The explanation appears to have been part of a coordinated government explanation that included a claim that the immigration department could not produce Miguna because "they only had an unidentified male adult in their custody".

A section of the Kenyan online community reacted with anger and bewilderment, many questioning Itumbi's intellectual capacity.

@Justindante wondered, "Miguna is not yet in Kenya ! but police officers who attempted to shove him into a Dubai bound plane were in Kenya. Did the officers get visas to reach him in that 'country'?"

Munene Nkanata stated," Court orders are just that, court orders; and it is the obligation of every person to whom a court order is directed to to comply with it no matter how absurd such orders seem. see Hadkinson vs. Hadkinson (1952) 2 All ER 56".

Patrick Wamalwa was more blunt, "Those boundaries include miguna miguna and all citizens of the country wherever they may be. If these are the kind of people who advice I government then stupidity at its highest is displayed here. Facts don't become facts by shouting "facts".
Making the ruling, judge George Odunga gave Interior and Coordination Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi two hours to appear in the same court.

Judge Odunga also instructed Inspector General Joseph Boinnet and PS Immigration Gordon Kihalangwa to appear in person over the Miguna saga.

Mr. Mutinda I will not accept affidavits or people coming to stand here in their place. They have to appear before me at 2.30pm in person, Justice Odunga said.

The three senior official are set to answer questions regarding his citizenship case and his current detention at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).

Also Read: The police officer secretly helping Miguna inside JKIA

On Tuesday, Lady Justice Roselyn Aburili directed the Government to release the Canadian-based lawyer from detention at JKIA but the order has not been obeyed.

This is after his lawyer moved to court demanding that he be allowed in the country.

Mr. Odunga asserted that Judge Aburili orders must be obeyed failure to which the court will not give the State audience.

"For avoidance of doubt, Aburili Js orders must be complied with by 2.30pm today and the respondents are denied the right of audience before this court.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Chinese soybean imports from the U.S. could drop by as much 71 percent if China were to impose trade restrictions on U.S. soybeans in response to U.S. tariffs on Chinese products, according to a study for the U.S. Soybean Export Council conducted by Purdue University agricultural economists Wally Tyner and Farzad Taheripour.

Using an advanced version of the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) model developed at Purdue, Taheripour and Tyner projected the outcome of several prospective scenarios in which the Chinese government were to adopt tariffs ranging from 10 to 30 percent on U.S soybeans. China is the worlds largest soybean importer, buying 93 million metric tons of soybeans in 2016, mostly from Brazil, the U.S. and Argentina. Nearly two-thirds of all U.S. soybean exports - 62 percent - go to China.

Currently, the soybean trade is relatively unrestricted by tariffs or other border measures, Tyner said, but that could change if the Chinese decided to retaliate for tougher U.S. trade policies targeted at China.

The analysis by Taheripour and Tyner produced a wide range of results under different assumptions of protection rates, model parameters, and product coverage. Their best estimates of possible impacts of Chinses tariffs on soybean imports form U.S. show that if the Chinese were to adopt a 10 percent tariff on U.S. soybeans, U.S. exports to that country could fall by a third - 33 percent. Total U.S. soybean exports could decline by 18 percent, and total U.S. soybean production could drop by 8 percent, the study showed.

In a scenario where China imposed a 30 percent tariff, Chinese imports of U.S. soybeans could drop by 71 percent, total U.S. soybean exports could fall by 40 percent, and total U.S. soybean production could decrease by 17 percent.

Taheripour said Chinese tariffs could sharply decrease the producer price of U.S. soybeans in the short term while over a few years prices would fall by 2 and 5 percent under the respective 10 and 30 percent tariff scenarios.

Tyner said an escalating trade war could hurt both countries.

The annual loss in U.S. economic well-being would range between $1.7 billion and $3.3 billion, he noted. Chinese economic well-being also falls if they impose a tariff, in some cases as much or more than for the U.S. The reason for that is that soybean imports are very important to their domestic economy.

Writer: Darrin Pack, 765-494-2722, dpack@purdue.edu

Sources: Wally Tyner, 765 494-0199, wtyner@purdue.edu

Farzad Taheripour 765 494-4612, tfarzad@purdue.edu

Agricultural Communications: (765) 494-8415;

Darrin Pack, Manager/Media Relations and Public Information, dpack@purdue.edu

Agriculture News Page
Friday

 City and county officers will close at noon in observance of Good Friday

Saturday

 Quay County Wellness Fair, 7:30 a.m.-1 p.m., Tucumcari Convention Center

 Great American Clean up, 9 a.m.-2 p.m., Tucumcari

April 9

 Quay County Commission, 9 a.m., Quay County Courthouse

April 10

 Logan Village Council, 4:30 p.m., Logan Village Hall

April 14

 Quay County NRA Banquet, 6 p.m., Tucumcari Convention Center

April 17

Tucumcari Ranch Supply Lot Party, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Tucumcari Ranch Supply

April 19-21

 National Active and Retired Federal Employees Associations, Tucumcari Convention Center

April 23

 Quay County Commission, 9 a.m., Quay County Courthouse

Service clubs

 Altrusa Club of Tucumcari: Noon, first and third Wednesday of each month, Pow Wow Restaurant, 801 W. Route 66. Call 575-461-1377.

Support groups

 Alcoholics Anonymous unity group: 7 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays,1704 S. Fourth St.

 Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous: 7 p.m., Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays 1704 S. Fourth St.

To list items in the calendar, email Thomas Garcia at [email protected] or call 575-461-1952. The deadline is 10 a.m. Monday.
Donations get school's marimba band equipped.

The Tucumcari Elementary Nyoka Marimba Band prepares to play at the New Mexico State Capital on March 16 in Santa Fe.

The generosity of area organizations and Tucumcari Public Schools has provided a musical gift for a group of elementary students who performance venues have included the State Capital Roundhouse.

"On behalf of the children, I would like to thank Altrusa, the McMullen Foundation and Tucumcari Public schools," said Andrew Kesten, TES music teacher.

The three entities each donated $5,300 for the purchase of a three marimbas, a percussion instrument much like a xylophone.

Kesten said the instruments, that were constructed by Peter Bush in Michigan, are based on those used in Africa by the residents of Zimbabwe. He said the instruments origins inspired the band's name, the TES Nyoka Marimba Band.

"There is no Zimbabwean word for Rattler, so we decided on their word for snake," Kesten said.

The band recently performed in the Rotunda at the State Capital building in Santa Fe, and have also performed at New Mexico Highlands University.

Kesten said the band's next concert will be April 27 at the Tucumcari Train Depot.

"The students would love for the public to come out and help them thank the Train Depot, City for supporting them through the years," Kesten said. "The depot has always provided a wonderful venue for the students."

Kesten said to thank Altrusa, the band will perform for their state convention in May that will be held in Tucumcari. He said recordings of all the performances will be submitted to the New Mexico Music Educators' Association.

"We are hoping to be selected as the home group to perform for the NMMEA's 75th convention," Kesten said.

Kesten said the TES ORFF Ensemble had the honor of performing during the 2016 convention. He said a group must wait three year's before they are eligible again for such an honor. If selected the students will perform at Popejoy Hall at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, Kesten added.

"The students, as always, have shown a lot of dedication learning to play these instruments," Kesten said. "With the help of Paul Gibson, assistant director, these students put on an amazing concert."
March 1965

On this date ...

 John J. Kelt's home at 1624 S. Fifth was badly damaged in a fire that started in an electrical outlet under a bed. Firefighters needed 20 minutes to extinguish the blaze. One bedroom was destroyed and heavy smoke damage was reported throughout the house.

 Construction on the new Saint Michael's Episcopal Church was expected to begin in two weeks. The church was to be located on the east side of South Second Street, between Estrella and Mesa Vista.
ROSWELL  On Tuesday, U.S. Senator Tom Udall visited Roswell to kick off the first of six planned Rural Resource Roadshows, which he is holding in rural communities across the state..

A second roadshow is scheduled for 9 a.m. today at Mesalands Community College. The first took place at Eastern New Mexico University-Roswell. Future roadshows are planned in Las Vegas, Farmington, Truth or Consequences, and Los Lunas.

The events are an opportunity for elected officials, their staff, and others in the community to hear directly from federal and state agencies and nonprofits that support economic development and infrastructure initiatives in their area, learn about grants and other funding and support opportunities and how to apply for them.

As a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, I work hard to do everything I can to connect New Mexicos rural communities to critical federal funding sources  like grants  for everything from broadband internet to downtown development to wastewater treatment plant construction and repairs. Lots of resources are available to help rural communities make big improvements in their communities, but it can be difficult and very time-consuming to find the resources and apply, Udall said in a release from his office. I have learned that we are strongest when we work together, and thats why Im bringing local, state, federal, nonprofit and economic development officials together to share information about needs and funding resources. My goal with these Rural Resource Roadshows is to make sure communities know what opportunities are available from federal agencies, strategies for successfully applying for them, and how to leverage those resources to boost the economy in New Mexico's rural communities."

Participants at the events will hear from the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Rural Development, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the U.S. Economic Development Administration, the N.M. Finance Authority, Grow New Mexico, and the National Center for Frontier Communities.

The Tucumcari roadshow will be co-hosted by the Eastern Plains Council of Governments.

For information on the Rural Resource Roadshows, call 505-346-6791.
Anti-drug program calls on high school students to advocate.

Tucumcari High School students reached out to school board officials advocating to make school grounds truly tobacco-free and encouraged younger students to avoid using tobacco products.

"We are trying to get tobacco completely out of our schools," said Jordan Marquez, THS ninth grader.

Marquez, along with several high school students gave a presentation on Monday to the Tucumcari Schools Board of Education.

Marquez said the presentation outlined how the board could amend, change their existing tobacco-free policy to eliminate all forms of tobacco at school functions and campuses.

"This includes e-cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products," Marquez said.

The students participated in the National Kick Butts Day event, sponsored by The New Mexico Department of Health's 24/7 campaign.

Marquez said the event is designed for the high school students to interact with the middle school students, to advocate a tobacco-free lifestyle.

"The middle school students respond well to the input from their peers," said Ahlivia Mattocks, 24/7 Youth Evolvement.

Mattocks said the middle school students are more receptive when someone they know talks to them about issues like tobacco. She said the youth often look up to the high school students, this creates an environment of trust where the message has a higher chance of being absorbed.

"This also gives the high school students a chance to combat the tobacco industry's targeted advertising of their siblings and friends," Mattock said. "These youth are the demographic tobacco companies are trying to reach."

Marquez said it is important to reach out to the students while they are young. He said there are so many gimmicks being used to attract the youth.

"It's easy to get taken in by the advertising," Marquez said. "Only by raising awareness, encouraging a tobacco-free lifestyle can we ensure the health of our youth."
Group works on plan with future possibilities of shuttered truck stop.

Tim Hagaman, left, eastern area representative for the New Mexico Economic Development Department, talks with Tucumcari's Bob Hockaday and his son Bobby Hockaday Friday at a visioning conference for the Shell Truck Stop property in Tucumcari.

By Steve Hansen

QCS Correspondent

Before local officials can get help in cleaning up underground pollutants at the old Shell Truck Stop on the west side of Tucumcari, they need to show funding sources what happens next.

With guidance from professors Oral Saulters, Kansas State University, and Moises Gonzales, University of New Mexico, and Gonzales's graduate students, city, county and regional government officials and business leaders held a "visioning conference" at the Tucumcari Convention Center Friday. Saulters is an engineering professor at Kansas State. Gonzales teaches community and regional planning at UNM.

The conference's goal was to gather information that leads to a plan - a vision - for what the old truck stop and nearby properties will host after the pollution problems are corrected.

After considering community needs and priorities, the conferees developed a variety of outcomes for the site.

They ranged from warehouse facilities, to a drive-in movie theater to a fueling station for alternative fueled vehicles.

Longtime residents remembered when the site hosted a drive-in theater, before the truck stop was built, and the days when the truck stop was delivering 20,000 gallons of fuel on even a slow day.

At the end of Friday's conference, the graduate students gathered up the lists, maps, charts, and crude drawings that the conference attendants had produced in four randomly selected groups.

They hope to process this information into a recommendation for an April 18 meeting of the visioning group, Omega Delgado, one of the graduate students said, and their time is short.

"Most of us graduate in May," she said.

The old Shell Truck Stop and an area that includes two fire-damaged, abandoned motels, have been adopted for expert advice on cleaning up environmental hazards, then developing the property through a program called Technical Assistance to Brownfields (TAB), sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

A "brownfield" is an area that has some environmental problems, like ground contamination from underground fuel leaks at the truck stop or asbestos at an old building site, according to TAB literature.

TAB marshals the forces of the two universities and resources of the New Mexico Environment Department and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to focus on restoring brownfield property to useful purposes.

The Greater Tucumcari Economic Development Corporation and the Eastern Plains Council of Governments applied for technical assistance through TAB last summer.

The site's location near the city's westernmost exit from I-40 gives the site plenty of potential for development, Vanderpool has said.

Before coming up with possible uses for the truck stop property, the group heard status reports on the community and the truck stop site.

Graduate student presentations noted that Tucumcari has a 1.2-percent unemployment rate, but only 55 percent of its working-age population is in the workforce, and the city has a 20 percent poverty rate.

Food service and accommodations and educational services are the areas with the highest employment among Tucumcari residents, he said, and 48 percent of Tucumcari residents who are employed travel more than 50 miles to get to their jobs, the graduate students reported.

About 13,000 tourists visit the Tucumcari area every year, and more than 5,000 vehicles a day make a stop in Tucumcari.

Health care and education are strengths, the students noted, the graduate students noted.

The community has a hospital and four primary care clinics and about 12 percent of the city's jobs are in this area.

Graduate student Chris Sanders talked about the truck stop site.

There is some groundwater contamination at the site, and 29,000 gallons of water, diesel fuel and lubrication oils, Sanders said.

In addition, the abandoned buildings on the site contain asbestos in floor tiles, window caulking and other areas.

Before anything else can be built on the site, these conditions must be corrected, he said.

Saulters said the site's owners are working with the New Mexico Environment Department, and the plan for future use that could result from visioning exercises and planning increases the likelihood that the owners and others may receive assistance for the cleanup effort.

Quay County Commissioner Sue Dowell said the project is needed, especially after city fathers persuaded highway officials to place five exits at Tucumcari when Interstate 40 was built.

"It bothers me that a couple of exits don't entice anyone to get off," she said.
Editors note: The following letters were submitted by students at House High School as part of a class project

Gun owners should meet standards

The Second Amendment of the US Constitution reads, A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

Some states, such as California, require background checks for all firearm sales, including those between private individuals. This was stated by the California Gun Law.

Now in my opinion, I think that our people should have a right to own guns, but they should be required to have a background check before being able to purchase a gun.

I think that a good way that we can control guns without taking them away from the public would be to require individuals to have a gun license; therefore, having to teach individuals how to use a gun.

Individuals should also be checked for mental-health issues before being able to purchase a gun. This way of going about things could possibly give better protection to the people.

Ninety-five percent of U.S. gun owners believe that children should learn about gun safety. So, if we also teach children how to protect themselves with a gun and how to use it, this could help the gun problem as well.

In conclusion, maybe we should all consider that guns are not the problem, people are; therefore, we should act, instead of taking guns.

Ellie Aikman

House

Americans shouldnt ignore Syrian deaths

I am a sophomore at House High School, and I was wanting to tell you about the Syria deaths.

I am really disappointed and sad about how many people are dying and why its still going on. There have been so many deaths going on, and I want to end this situation and make the world better.

From January 2017 to June 2017, 5,381 civilians were killed, according to iamsyria.org. Of these deaths, 1,159 were children, 742 were women.

I think that we need more people to contact the American leaders and try to get them to talk to the other leaders in Syria.

We need people all over to tweet our American leaders. Ask for help and post the death rates and so forth as much as possible.

Children are dying. We need to do something big.

I think that people should make a bigger deal about this. Imagine this is your own kid that got shot or blown up.

Trinity Cruz

Fort Sumner

Homework: A stress we can do without

One of the largest causes of stress in young students lives is homework. Students also struggle with a lack of social lives, since all of their time is spent on homework.

Students are more likely to have trouble understanding the next days lesson because they are lacking sleep if they have excess homework, as stated by Craig Canapari, a former Yale student.

A Stanford University study shows that 56 percent of students considered homework as a primary stressor.

Homework is a primary source of stress for students and reduces test scores, as shown in multiple studies. If the amounts and hours of homework were reduced, students would have more time to spend with family and friends and develop a social life.

You can talk to your schools administration and try to find ways to make learning more fun and less time-consuming by working on homework in class so that students can get help from the teachers who assigned the lessons.

One of every five students suffers from rising levels of stress, anxiety and depression when assigned excess homework.

Also, 72 percent of parents claim that homework is one of the major causes of household stress, as stated in an Oxford University study.

Students lives have become greatly controlled by school and homework that has to be done. Students dont have time for extracurricular activities because they have as many as two to four hours of homework per night. This harms students abilities to become better leaders in being involved in organizations. These organizations develop the leaders of the young world. Without students developing leadership, they cannot be responsible for running the economy after they graduate.

Dylan Reed

Melrose

Global warming needs our attention

Global warming is an important problem that we should not ignore; even though many people do not believe in it, it has been proven to exist and gradually is getting worse.

According to NASA Climate, the planets average temperature has risen about 2 degrees Fahrenheit (1.1 degrees Celsius) since the late 19th century. Data from NASAs Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment show Greenland lost 150 to 250 cubic kilometers (36 to 60 cubic miles) of ice per year between 2002 and 2006, while Antarctica lost about 152 cubic kilometers (36 cubic miles) of ice between 2002 and 2005.

If this continues, it may get worse and cause many problems; therefore, we should take action as soon as possible.

To help our planet, we should minimize our use of coal, fossil fuels, and transportation such as cars and trucks.

Other data from NASA show that most of the warming occurred in the past 35 years, with 16 of the 17 warmest years on record occurring since 2001. If we refuse to take action on global warming, then it may get to the point where we cannot help our planet, and it may cause even more species to become extinct.

For more information about climate change, visit

https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/

Alexis Smith

Taiban
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SPAIN: Development Minister Inigo de la Serna has unveiled plans for the second phase of a capacity expansion programme at Madrid Atocha station, designed by architect Rafael Moneo.
CROATIA: Proposed EU co-financing for the electrification and upgrading of the route from Vinkovci to the River Danube port of Vukovar has been backed by the JASPERS technical assistance partnership of the European Commission, the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development.
Potanins ex-wife denied review of $17.5 billion claims

10:26 28/03/2018

MOSCOW, March 28 (RAPSI)  The Supreme Court of Russia has denied review of two claims for a total amount of more than one trillion rubles ($17.5 billion) to Natalia Potanina, the former wife of billionaire Vladimir Potanin, the courts press service has told RAPSI.

According to the courts representative, Potanina attempted to appeal refusals of Moscows Presnensky District Court to collect 850 billion and 215 billion rubles in her favor.

In May 2017, the court dismissed a lawsuit lodged by Potanina seeking to collect 215 billion rubles (about $4 billion) from her ex-husband. She asked the court to divide the property acquired during their marriage by recovering financial compensation for shares of KM Invest company.

In July, the court dismissed another claim to recover 849.2 billion rubles (about $15 billion) from Potanin.

The lawsuits were rejected because the statute of limitation expired.

The businessman was granted a divorce from his wife in February 2014.

In July 2015, the Presnensky court issued a ruling in a case on dividing the assets of the former spouses. According to a source familiar with the lawsuit, the court ruled that Vladimir Potanin keep a 406.9 square meter luxury apartment on Skatertny Pereulok (central Moscow) and a church, St. Blessed Tamara in the village of Anosino, in the Moscow Region.

Natalya Potanina received 380 million rubles ($6.8 million) in compensation for her share in the apartment as well as three plots of land in the Moscow Region.

In the fall of 2015, the court dismissed Potaninas claim for ownership of 50 percent of her ex-husbands stake in Norilsk Nickel and half of Interros International, which holds their other assets. She has appealed the ruling, only for the Moscow District Court to uphold it on January 22, 2016.
Russian nationalist Potkin gets 3.5 years for extremism after case review

 RIA Novosti, Alexei Kudenko

18:00 28/03/2018

MOSCOW, March 28 (RAPSI)  The Moscow City Court on Wednesday reviewed an appeal filed by Russian nationalist Alexander Potkin (also known as Belov) against his sentence for extremism and gave him 3.5 years in prison, RAPSI reported from the courtroom.

Potkin was also prohibited from performing public activities for 6 years.

In August 2016, the Meshchansky District Court of Moscow sentenced Potkin to 7.5 years in prison and fined him 600,000 rubles (about $10,500 at the current exchange rate). Moreover, the court granted a 4.9 billion-ruble lawsuit ($85 million) filed by the injured party against Potkin.

In April 2017, the Moscow City Court reduced his prison term to 3.5 years, cancelled part of the sentence related to embezzlement charges and returned that part of the criminal case to prosecutors. The Presidium upheld the April decision of the Moscow City Court and ruled to reconsider parts of the sentence related to other charges. In January 2018, the Presidium of the Moscow City Court ruled to reconsider the case.

According to the original indictment, Mukhtar Ablyazov, ex-chairman of the Kazakh BTA Bank, who allegedly wanted to destabilize the constitutional order in Kazakhstan, asked Potkin to help him with organizing an extremist group.

Potkin allegedly agreed and used funds embezzled from BTA Bank to spread the nationalist ideology in Kazakhstan. Potkin has pleaded not guilty.

Potkin was arrested on October 15, 2014 at the Hotel Intourist Kolomenskoe in Moscow on charges related to the embezzlement of $5 billion from BTA Bank. At the time of the arrest, Potkin allegedly had documents on him that effectively tied him to the embezzlement. In December 2016, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) awarded 2,500 in compensation to Potkin for withdrawal of his complaint over long stay in detention from the court.
Probe opened into Ukrainian pranker over Kemerovo tragedy

 Imago/TASS

12:14 28/03/2018

MOSCOW, March 28 (RAPSI)  A criminal case was opened against Ukrainian national Nikita Kuvikov known as pranker Yevgeny Volnov, who allegedly disinformed people of the death toll in the blaze in Kemerovos Zimnyaya Vishnya (Winter Cherry) shopping mall, Russias Investigative Committee reported Wednesday.

Kuvikov (Volnov) is suspected of inciting hatred and enmity.

According to investigation, the pranker distributed false information on the death toll in the accident through mass media and the Internet trying to destabilize the situation. Reportedly, he said that about 300 people were killed by fire.

Investigators are determined to petition a court for issuing an arrest warrant for the suspect in absentia. He will be put on the wanted list soon, the statement reads.

The fire in the mall occurred on March 25. Investigators reported that 64 persons including children were killed in the accident. A criminal case has been launched over involuntary manslaughter, violation of fire safety regulations that left more than two persons dead and provisions of services that dont meet safety requirements.

Five persons were arrested and questioned, including a formal head of the malls owner company, a renter of a place where the fire allegedly began, a head and an employee in an organization maintaining the fire alarm and a guard who allegedly turned off the emergency notification system when he received a fire signal.

Investigators note that 70 persons were questioned as witnesses and allegedly numerous violations made during the mall construction were found. It was also revealed that fire exits were blocked.

According to the Investigative Committee Chairman Alexander Bastrykin, the two main versions of the tragedy are an electrical short circuit and arson. Technical, electrical and construction examinations would be conducted as part of the investigation, he said during the meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

President Putin, who arrived in Kemerovo on March 27, said that negligence and slovenliness were the reasons for the tragedy. He declared March 28 a national day of mourning.
Russian authorities block 650 online drug stores in 2017

 Fotolia/ Ruslan Grumble

16:59 28/03/2018

MOSCOW, March 28 (RAPSI)  Russias Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev said during the meeting of the parliaments upper house on Wednesday that 650 online stores selling drugs were blocked in 2017.

According to Kolokoltsev, the Interior Ministry is also authorized to restrict access to websites used for distribution of banned information about drugs. In 2017, about 50,000 e-mail complaints were sent to the ministry; 20,000 of them were granted and the content in question was blocked, he noted.

Law enforcement officers annually reveal over 200,000 acts of crime connected with illegal drug trafficking, 70% of them are serious and very serious, the ministry reports.

Moreover, Kolokoltsev advocated for creating a mechanism of drug proceeds confiscation in favor of the state on the analogy of the procedure of recovering assets got from corruption-related crimes. An appropriate proposal was considered and approved by members of the State Duma, Russia's Presidential Executive Office and federal agencies earlier in March, the minister said.
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By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 03/28/2018



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featured two couples getting stronger and one self-destructing during the latest episode of the Lifetime show's sixth season on Tuesday night.The six strangers who agreed to marry at first sight were Jaclyn Schwartzberg , a 29-year-old teacher turned sales representative; Ryan Buckley , a 29-year-old firefighter; Molly Duff , a 25-year-old commercial insurance adjuster; Jonathan Francetic , a 28-year-old U.S. Army veteran and former financial associate; Shawniece Jackson , a 29-year-old entrepreneur and cosmetologist; and Jephte Pierre , a 26-year-old second grade teacher.Matched by experts Dr. Jessica Griffin, Dr. Pepper Schwartz, and Pastor Calvin Roberson, Jaclyn married Ryan, Molly walked down the aisle to Jonathan, and Shawniece became a wife to Jephte.The episode kicked off on Day 39 of the marriages, with Ryan taking Jaclyn over his parents' house for dinner. Ryan admired his parents' marriage and hoped to have the same love and teamwork in his own union.Jaclyn loved feeling like she was a part of Ryan's family, as his parents welcomed her with open arms.Ryan and Jaclyn admitted to Ryan's parents their journey as a married couple had been challenging, and Jaclyn told the cameras their romance had been a roller-coaster. But Ryan's parents made it known their issues can't be solved in a few short weeks, as marriage will always have its ups and downs.Meanwhile, Shawniece and Jephte discussed their expectations of being married, and Jephte admitted he learned about what marriage should be like by watching sitcoms on television starring African American families, such as The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.Jephte didn't really have anyone in his personal life to look up to relationship-wise, but the couple agreed their children will be their first priority when it becomes time to start a family.On Day 40 of the marriages, Molly brought Jonathan to her mother's house to help paint her living room. The pair was joined by two of Molly's sisters, and the fact Jonathan was "pumped" to help and do chores with her family won him some major points in Molly's eyes.Jonathan said the gathering felt "natural" and there was "no forced conversation," and although painting wasn't a fun activity, Molly said Jonathan made the day fun.Once Jonathan left to grab dinner, Molly talked to her sisters about her husband and revealed every day was so different."Honestly, I don't think I'm going to know for sure until a couple of days before [Decision Day]," Molly confessed of whether she'd want to stay married or get divorced at the end of the process."I know he really likes me and is attracted to me and stuff. I think the only reason why he'd say 'no' is if he checks out at that point because I'm not at a certain point by Decision Day."Molly and Jonathan were still missing physical intimacy in their relationship, as they had yet to consummate their marriage, but Molly was hopeful they could get to that point and sex would feel natural because they both shared the same opinion of what a marriage should be.On Day 41 of the marriages, Ryan, Jonathan and Jephte met up at a bar to play some pool while Jaclyn entertained a little gathering for Molly and Shawniece at her home.While Ryan was out, he vented to the guys about how Jaclyn expected him to give up his old apartment -- but he wanted to keep it in order to not screw over his old roommates and good friends.Ryan acted like Jaclyn's request was controlling and a bit ridiculous, as he was willing to give it up six months from that point. Ryan claimed he couldn't back out of his lease and it was his decision to make since it was his own money and friends on the line.But Jephte and Jonathan seemed to take Jaclyn's side. Jonathan thought Ryan's story sounded "fishy" and he didn't know how to be in a relationship.The two guys warned Ryan that his actions were probably sending a message to Jaclyn that he wasn't fully committed to the process or their marriage. Jephte pointed out that Jaclyn probably assumed Ryan was keeping his apartment in the background in case their relationship didn't work out.Meanwhile, Shawniece revealed to the girls Jephte -- being an extremely picky eater -- has taught her a lot of patience; however, she admitted she had "the biggest crush ever" on him and found him very handsome.Molly then confessed she needed to work on blowing things out of proportion, but she realized she's a great communicator.Jaclyn said she envisioned herself living in Europe for a year or two, but her self-described "gypsy soul" terrified Ryan, as he was a Boston boy who had no intention of traveling much or living elsewhere."I'm not going to change who I am just because we're married... I don't even know why she'd want me to. It goes against everything I believe in," Ryan told the cameras.Once Ryan returned home, Jaclyn seemed annoyed because Ryan had been drinking. Jaclyn compared their romance to Jonathan and Molly, which really bothered Ryan since the other pair didn't even have sex yet.Ryan then brought up how Jephte questioned whether Jaclyn "respected" him, and Jaclyn didn't understand why that was even a topic of discussion. Ryan explained that conversation stemmed from talk over whether he should sublease his apartment or not, and Jaclyn immediately appeared frustrated.Jaclyn therefore walked away from Ryan, who was left in the kitchen alone speaking to cameras.Jaclyn could be heard mocking Ryan in the background about how he never stopped talking, and she said in a confessional if they couldn't find common ground and compromise, their marriage probably wouldn't work out.On Day 42 of the marriages, Jonathan and Molly bonded through a rock-climbing date.Molly "felt lucky" to be married to someone she has "so much in common with." Molly never felt closer to Jonathan than when they were doing adventures or activities together, and they even shared a couple of kisses that day."We're so similar and we get along so well, and hopefully over time, our physical connection will grow and we'll have a successful relationship," Jonathan told the cameras.That night, Ryan went to dinner with his friend Brian to vent about his feelings and seek some advice. Ryan explained Jaclyn had done "a total 180" the previous night -- that she got mad at him for no reason."Our ideas of an ideal marriage don't line up... Right now, I don't know if I want to get a divorce and I don't know if I want to stay together [with Jaclyn]," Ryan said in a confessional. "I was sure as ever that I wanted to stick it through. I always had those feelings, and now I don't even know."Brian told Ryan that women want to understand the motivation and thought process behind men's decisions and he needed to explain himself better to her so that they could be on the same page.The episode concluded with footage of Shawniece and Jephte cuddling, flirting and laughing.Jephte could say, at this point in the process, he was "really happy" with his wife, and Shawniece told her husband that she was falling for him "more and more every day." It was clear this couple was falling in love with each other.
Porterville, CA (93257)

Today

Sunny. Areas of smoke and haze are possible, reducing visibility at times. High 97F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Clear skies. Low 62F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph.
'We have here the world's largest economy and dominant superpower thrashing about as it wrestles with its own decline.'

'It has become everything that China was supposed to be: A threat to the world order, and as a country that is not playing by the rules on trade, on climate change, international commitments and nuclear deals,' says T N Ninan.



IMAGE: US President Donald J Trump and China's President Xi Jinping at a state dinner at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, November 9, 2017. Photograph: Thomas Peter/Reuters

Zillions of articles and hundreds of books have been written, focusing on the problem of managing the rise of China.

The more urgent problem, it would seem, is managing the decline of the United States.

China has been presented and analysed (also damned) as a threat to the world order, as a country that has not been playing by the rules either domestically or internationally, and as a country that should 'normalise' but may not do so.

Hence the problem, often viewed through a particular prism of history: The failure to manage the rise of Germany a century ago, and its consequences.

It is time to flip the viewing glass and consider the whole thing from a different perspective.

We have here the world's largest economy and dominant superpower thrashing about as it wrestles with its own decline -- which is still only relative, and by no means absolute.

Confronted with even that limited challenge, it has become everything that China was supposed to be: A threat to the world order, and as a country that is not playing by the rules on trade, on climate change, international commitments and nuclear deals.

The 'exceptional country' displays a worrying level of unpredictability in its conduct, including in its electoral behaviour.

At its centre, consequently, is a man not prepared for high office, behaving like the Red Queen as he shouts 'off with his head' at all and sundry.

When he can't, he rails at the restraints that the system imposes on him.

No one knows what he will do next, on North Korea or Mexico.

So, sure, speculate on what Xi Jinping's search for all-encompassing power means for China, but what about the erstwhile rule-maker becoming the rule-breaker?

Managing decline is more difficult than managing success.

Companies have to downsize, get rid of employees and trim costs or go bankrupt.

Rarely does this process produce happy outcomes, or corporate heroes.

But what of entire economies? Domestically, the burden of loss (of manufacturing, in the US case) is always borne unfairly, creating social and political pressures that break the mould and pose fresh questions.

If good answers are found, the system acquires a new balance. What if not? We get Mr Trump.

Economically, the urge to protect primacy has led to the revival of bad old ideas. Internationally, there is a progressive loss of control -- as Rome saw.

Then as now, decline encourages challengers, like Russia today.

Mistakes have paved the way to this point. China was misread as a country that would normalise (that is, become democratic) as it grew prosperous and acquired a middle class -- and on that basis given trade concessions that have come back to bite the US.

Beijing played a clever hand, promising a 'peaceful' rise, but has started behaving like any other hegemon -- a very different kind of normalisation from the one hoped for.

Iran was misconstrued as a country that put cause before country, and therefore mishandled.

Iraq was a comprehensive botch-up, and Russia might have been more cooperative if the West had honoured its agreements a quarter century ago, or given it a little space around its periphery.

As with companies experiencing hubris, so with countries: The unipolar moment was too heady for diplomatic restraint.

It is not just the US that confronts decline. So do some of its key allies, like Saudi Arabia which has lost control of the oil market and faces also the regional risk of a rising Iran.

It responded first with a stab at regaining control of the oil market through over-production, but that proved self-defeating.

Now, as technological developments threaten the decline of oil, and therefore an end to easy Saudi prosperity, it attempts long-ignored domestic reform, but in the personalised way that countries without the required institutional strengths try to manage change.

As Gorbachev discovered when he tried to manage Soviet decline without fully comprehending what his proposed changes would mean, success is not guaranteed.
'With this amendment, permanent employees will cease to exist.'

'The government should give a human touch and human face to labour reforms.'

'Ideas like survival of the fittest, might is right, etc, are rules of the jungle.'

'They cannot give new terms like hire and fire to jungle law.'



IMAGE: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd employees protest at the Central Telegraph Office in Kolkata. Archive Photograph: Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters

The Narendra D Modi government recently issued a notification amending the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Rules, 1946, extending fixed-term employment to all the industrial sectors, after introducing this rule only to the textile sector in 2016.

According to the latest rules, no notice of termination is needed, irrespective of whether the workers are contracted for a month, week or the duration of a specific project.

The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, which is affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, has come out very strongly against this amendment.

"With this new proposal, general category employees will be turned to contract employees," BMS President Saji Narayanan C K, below, tells Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier.

The central government has decided to amend the Industrial Employment (Standing) Rules, 1946 to provide fixed term employment to contract labour. Why is the BMS against this move?

We are against this move because this will change the nature of labour in this country.

Once implemented, those companies who have 100 workers will reduce the number to 50.

An employer can employ people for 2 years, 3 years or 5 years and once the contract period is over, they can be terminated.

This will create a kind of uncertainty in the life of a worker.

And this is going to affect semi-skilled and unskilled workers more.

Till now, contract labour did not enjoy any benefits. Won't they get all the benefits of a permanent employee after this amendment?

Fixed-term employment and contract labour are totally different.

Fixed-term employment comes under the Industrial Employment Standing Order Act while contract labour comes under the Contract Labour Abolition and Regulation Act.

So, they should have amended the Contract Labour Act instead of the Industrial Employment Act.

If they had done so, it would have been a welcome move. Instead, they have amended the general law.

Does that mean companies can turn permanent employees into fixed-term employees?

Exactly. Contract labour is a category where workers are employed on a temporary basis.

With this new proposal, general category employees will be turned to contract employees.

Do you feel this will result in the hiring and firing of employees?

This is actually legalising hire and fire.

With this amendment, a company can easily hire and then fire. Even two weeks' notice is sufficient to terminate an employment.

This is the first time in India that such a labour law is being implemented.

What the government says is, fixed-term employment will eliminate the exploitation of middlemen or contractors and in the end, it will be beneficial to employees.

If that was their intention, they should have amended the Contract Labour Act!

What they are tampering with is the general law dealing with permanent employees.

Do you feel the concept of having permanent employees will slowly vanish from the industrial sector itself?

Yes, that is our concern. With this amendment, permanent employees will cease to exist.

Companies have welcomed the amendment while the employees unions are against it. Who is going to win in the end?

In a world where there is jungle law and might is right rules, those who have the muscle power will naturally win.

We are more in number and hence have more muscle power! If there is jungle law, the outcome will be gory reaction.

That was what happened in Middle China when lakhs people lost their jobs one fine morning. And there were no trade unions except the one sponsored by the government.

There was no rule or law to help the employees. The sacked employees turned violent and many managers were killed. This is gory reaction.

This kind of gory reaction was unknown in the history of Indian labour till recently. But we are slowly seeing the results of the changes in the labour law.

Look at what happened at Maruti Suzuki's Manesar plant near Delhi, the Allied Nippon factory in Ghaziabad, the Assam plantation and the Yanam plant of Regency Ceramics near Pondicherry.

This is happening because of the increase in contract labour and uncertainties.

So, it is necessary to bring in the rule of law in the labour sector to stop this unrest among the labour.

This is labelled as labour reforms. Why are reforms anti-human beings?

That is what we also say. The human face or human element is missing in all the labour reforms.

Not only labour reforms, even in economic reforms, the human element is missing.

It is not labour reform; it is Shylockian reform!

It is done only to extract the blood and flesh of labour.

The earlier complaint against the Modi Sarkar was that it was for big businessmen. Do you also feel so?

We do not know who is behind the labour reforms. But these kinds of reforms will benefit only the big corporates and the international companies coming from outside.

There is a lot of pressure from the European countries and importers and they are the ones who decide the labour policy now.

But trade unions are strong in Europe and the labour laws are also strong. There is a strict adherence to these laws.

But once they come to India, they want a union-free workforce. They want all the corporate laws to be relaxed.

They want no flexibility and no job security, while both are there in Europe.

Here, when one loses a job, there is an army of people waiting to take that job. In such a condition, it will only create havoc.

Do you feel they are exploiting a situation where there are more job-seekers than jobs?

The employment crisis is the most worrying crisis in the economic sector. That is why job creation is the priority for the government.

At the BMS we demand: Jobs with quality.

Jobs without quality are distress jobs and that's not what is expected from a civilised nation in the name of job creation.

The ILO (International Labour Organisation) has advocated jobs with quality and decent jobs, that's what we also talk about.

The problem is: India is an economic failure.

The largest employer, the agricultural sector, is in crisis.

The second largest sector, manufacturing, is wiped out and the Indian market has become an extension of the Chinese market.

Other sectors like construction, textiles, etc are also in crisis.

There is unrest in the country with farmers committing suicide, workers agitating and youth jobless. These are all symptoms of the disease.

Unless these sectors are revived through best economic reforms, the labour and job sector will be in crisis.

Do you hold Prime Minister Modi responsible for the economic crisis?

We attribute the economic crisis to the LPG (liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation) reforms started in the early 1990s.

To these capitalist reforms, labour is only a commodity. The term labour market itself is wrong; it looks at labour as a commodity.

That is why we are repeatedly asking the government to come with a white paper on the LPG reforms, our working with the WTO, our free trade agreements with various countries, now that we have completed 27 years of these reforms.

What we are doing is blindly following these capitalist reforms. This does not suit Indian conditions.

What suits Indian conditions?

We have repeatedly said the economy is going in the wrong direction. The labour reforms are going in the wrong direction.

The government should give a human touch and human face to the reforms.

Ideas like survival of the fittest, might is right, etc, are rules of the jungle. They cannot give new terms like hire and fire to jungle law.

Without labour, no industry can function. How can labour reforms be anti-labour?

In capitalist reforms, labour has no place.

What we want is, labour also should be treated as capital.

The BMS wants all the three partners -- employers, employees and the government representing society -- to sit together and talk.

The ideal way of solving the problem is protecting the interests of all the three.

At the 2016 ILC (Indian Labour Conference), this was discussed and a compromise was arrived at.

India should have sustainable industries protecting the interests of labour to have industrial harmony.

But by bringing the fixed term employment amendment, the harmony will be lost.

I would say, they are bringing Syria in labour reforms.

You said industrial growth will be affected if fixed-term employment is implemented. How?

Today, fixed-term employment and contract labour are rising which means below quality labour.

No industry can progress with below quality workers. These workers will have no commitment or relationship with industry as they are not permanent employees.

Can any industry progress with such workers? So, this is going to destroy the entire industrial structure in the country.

For example, 80% of textile workers are temporary employees. That is why textile production has shifted to Bangladesh.

The government says this has been done for ease of doing business...

Hire and fire will result only in ease of closing business, not ease of doing business.

If you look at a study done in Germany on fixed-term employment, the study concluded that it had increased unemployment and helped the employer close his business easily.
'There is a law that prevents the government from diluting its equity in the PSBs below 50 per cent.'

'That law has to be amended and given the parliamentary arithmetic of the political parties, it is not as simple to do that.'



Photograph: Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters

NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar favours the setting up of a bank investment company that would hold government shares in public sector banks, an idea suggested by the P J Nayak Committee.

"Ideally, each of these banks should be restructured around a digital backbone," Rajiv Kumar, left, bottom, tells Indivjal Dhasmana.

Now, there is a chorus of demands for privatisation of public sector banks in the aftermath of the Punjab National Bank fraud. What advice will you give to the government on this issue?

This is not such a simple issue.

First, there is a law that prevents the government from diluting its equity in the PSBs below 50 per cent.

That law has to be amended and given the parliamentary arithmetic of the political parties, it is not as simple to do that.

It is easier said than done.

Former finance minister Yashwant Sinha considered it in the previous NDA (National Democratic Alliance) government.

I don't see this happening, given its practicality and due to the fact that all stakeholders of PSBs are not up for it.

I think the solution to improve the functioning of these banks has to be found within the framework that we have got.

So, what is your idea of a solution? Is it the recommendation by P J Nayak committee to set up the Bank Investment Company?

That is one part of the solution.

BIC will at least mean you have a body of domain experts who can supervise the PBSs on a day-to-day basis.

I am in support of BIC.

That will help make an arm's length distance between the government and the operations of banks, improving corporate governance.

Secondly, what has come out in the PNB fraud is that there is not a complete grasp of digital banking.

So, we should set up a group of well-known information technology experts who can do IT audit of banks.

Ideally, each of these banks should be restructured around a digital backbone.

At the moment, the digital framework is laid over the existing structure.

Now, there are new banks such as one from Singapore, which is opening all digital branches.

You need that kind of restructuring for PSBs to be in sync with current technologies. IT audit would not require much time.



IMAGE: 'Days of 'What America does today, the world does tomorrow' have gone,' says NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar. Photograph: PTI Photo

Experts say we are reverting to protectionism ourselves by increasing customs duties in the Budget while posturing that we are anti-protectionists.

I don't think that is true. After all, import duties were hiked on only a few commodities at a disaggregated level.

We are very much abiding by free trade agreements that we have signed.

The WTO's mini-ministerial showed India's commitment to a rule-based world trading system.

The Budget measure is intended to give breathing space to those industries that have been facing an onslaught.

The breathing space was given to enable them to meet infrastructure, logistics, skill requirements so that they can face global competition and indigenous capacities are created.

You have to give some breathing space to industries such as electronics, but you don't do the same for the auto industry.

In the auto industry, local preferences being given in the past has enabled the players to export.

Similar success can be achieved in electronics as well. We still are the liberal and open economy.

What about US President Donald J Trump's reciprocal tax? Won't it lead to protectionism and a trade war?

I don't think so. Days of 'What America does today, the world does tomorrow' have gone.

Days when America had overwhelming dominance in the world, the markets and trade are no longer there.

As I see it, Europe, China and Japan will not follow suit of what Trump is doing.

It's not that we are entering into a protectionist world. This has been the old American habit. It settles issues bilaterally.

They want to correct the trade surplus in favour of China. China will have to relent a little bit.

What about India?

Our trade surplus with the US is hardly anything compared to what China has with that country.

I don't think we will negotiate bilaterally.

Though the US is a large market for us, what will we relent on?

I don't see India retaliating, buckling down or relenting.

We have taken a stand that we are for a multilateral trading order and not for such measures. I think we will stick to our stand.

But, this undermines WTO. Does it not?

The US has done it in the past. The liberal world order is there. This is a blip. I don't think this has a lasting impact on the world.

Critics take on the government for not creating enough jobs. However, recent job data in a survey by the Labour Bureau show a jump in jobs in the manufacturing sector. What is the exact job situation in the country?

I have never believed in the charges of less jobs.

I am a strong believer in the results that Ghosh and Ghosh have come out in their study by analysing EPFO data.

However, I want to add that even that data doesn't include figures from new employers such as Ola, Uber and Amazon.

These are not covered in any job data.

Therefore, NITI Aayog is trying to put together a unit that will collect payroll data from new employers.

Labour Bureau data that you people believed in the past when it showed a decline in jobs should be believed now as well as labour intensive and manufacturing sectors are showing a rise in jobs.

There is a lot of upsides left in labour-intensive sectors because of which you would see growth in these sectors in coming months.

NITI Aayog is also involved in designing the MSP for farmers. What kind of design will it be? Will it be the Bhavantaran Yojna on the lines of the Madhya Pradesh government's initiative or the Centre's existing model?

We had called a big meeting of all the states agriculture secretaries.

We are in the process of designing the packages as soon as possible.

There are three packages one of which is Bhavantaran, which has been tried.

Another is the market assurance scheme and then private participation along with a price stabilisation scheme.

All the three are being examined. We will present them as options to the states because agriculture is primarily the states' responsibility.

The Cabinet has cleared ModiCare. When do you think it will be rolled out across India?

Will it be introduced in a phased manner? What will be the premium and the Centre-state funding pattern?

Please don't call it ModiCare and make it appear like a copy-paste of ObamaCare. It is certainly not that.

The scheme is designed to cover over 400 million persons -- the scale is quite staggering.

Due to this, its premium levels will remain relatively lower at less than Rs 1,200 per family a year.

It includes hospitalisation and will substantially cover a large number of protocols and treatments.

Details of these are being worked out and will be rolled out by the proposed National Health Authority Agency.

Costs of the premium will be shared on the well-established existing model for centrally sponsored schemes.

This will be a historical shift. Henceforth, the poor will not have to suffer the trauma that presently comes with a medical emergency.
With a loan book of $268 billion, India's retail banking is now ahead of Russia, Malaysia and Mexico but behind China, Brazil and Thailand.

Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com.

A boom in credit-fuelled consumption has made India's retail banking one of the biggest among emerging markets outside of China.

Going by banks retail loans outstanding, worth $269 billion at the end of September 2017 quarter, India's retail banking is now bigger than Russias ($248 billion), Malaysias ($211.3 billion) and Mexicos ($190 billion).

However, Brazil ($439.4 billion) and Thailand ($310 billion) remain ahead of India, according to data from Bank for International Settlement (BIS).

China, however, leads the pack with total retail banking assets worth $5.8 trillion at the end of September 2017 quarter.

The numbers for all countries are in US dollars, based on exchange rates in respective quarters.

The size of India's retail loan market would cross the $400-billion mark if the loan book of retail non-banking financial companies like Housing Development Finance Corporation, Bajaj Finance, Indiabulls Housing Finance and Shriram Transport Finance were to be included.

India has one the largest NBFC segments among emerging markets with retail NBFCs account for 55 per cent of banks retail lending in FY17, with a total loan outstanding worth $139 billion at the end of last financial year.

The data are based on loans of listed retail NBFCs.

The share of NBFCs in total credit extended by banks and NBFCs together increased from 9.5 per cent in March 2008 to 15.5 per cent in March 2017.

"NBFCs credit intensity -- credit as a percentage of GDP -- has also increased at a steady pace, reaching 8 per cent at the end of March 2017, observed Reserve Bank of Indias Trend and Progress Report released in December 2017.

India's retail banking sector is also one of the fastest-growing among emerging market assets, with banks retail loan book expanding at a compound annual growth rate of 16.1 per cent in dollar terms in the past three years.

During the same period, retail banking assets in overall emerging markets increased at 9.3 per cent CAGR, while it expanded at the annualised rate of 16.9 per cent in China during the period.

Analysts expect retail loans to sustain their growth trend, given their low penetration in India and a growing network of retail banks and NBFCs, "Retail loans are likely to sustain their current pace of growth in the foreseeable future, driven by the income effect of higher government spending and low penetration, says Dhananjay Sinha, head of research, Emkay Global Financial Services.

Total retail credit to households accounted for an equivalent of 11.1 per cent of India's Gross Domestic Product during 12 months ended September 2017, against emerging market average of 34.4 per cent.

In China, retail credit is now equivalent to 48 per cent of GDP, while the ratio is 21.6 per cent in Brazil.

Indias retail banks added $43.4 billion worth of assets during the 12 months ended September 2017, the second-highest among emerging markets after China, whose banks retail assets were up nearly $1.1 trillion during the period.

Russian banks were slightly behind, as their retail loan book increased by $40 billion during the 12 months ended September last year.

The corresponding number in other major emerging markets like Brazil, Thailand and Mexico was $2.1 billion, $22.9 billion and $27.8 billion, respectively.

Analysts, however, see a risk to Indias retail banking from the rising loan-to-income ratio and slower-than-expected income growth in India.

The number for listed companies suggests that income is growing at an annualised rate of 6-7 per cent, while retail loans are growing at 15-20 per cent a year.

"This hints at a rising leverage ratio among households which might not be sustainable for long, unless economy and income pick up, says G Chokkalingam, MD, Equinomics Research & Advisory.
With the entire fraud amount becoming a non-performing asset, around 25 per cent of the banks estimated net worth of Rs 40,000 crore could be affected.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had agreed in principle to a request by Punjab National Bank (PNB) to spread its losses related to the Nirav Modi-Mehul Choksi fraud over four quarters, sources said.

However, we are still awaiting a written communication from the regulator, a source at the Delhi-based public sector bank said.

PNB is staring at losses on account of fraud worth Rs 14,500 crore (Rs 145 billion) in 2017-18 after letters of undertaking worth Rs 12,900 crore (Rs 129 billion) were issued by its employees to the companies owned by Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi.

PNB had declared both accounts fraudulent after reporting the matter to investigating agencies.

According to RBI guidelines, banks have to make a provision for the amount related to fraudulent accounts in their books.

The fraud amount in the two cases stood at Rs 13,600 crore (Rs 136 billion), for which provisioning would have to be made in PNBs books in the quarter ending March.

The bank has said these transactions were contingent in nature.

The decision will provide relief to PNB, which would otherwise have to put a quarter of its net worth at risk.

PNBs profit and overall asset quality are expected to take a hit.

Analysts pointed out that with the entire fraud amount becoming a non-performing asset, around 25 per cent of the banks estimated net worth of Rs 40,000 crore (Rs 480 billion) could be affected.

To smoothen the effect of such provisioning on quarterly profit and loss, banks have the option to make the provisions over a period, not exceeding four quarters, commencing from the quarter in which the fraud has been detected, the RBI guidelines on provisioning related to fraud accounts issued in April 2016 say.

PNB will have to make deductions from its reserves as the full provisioning will be made in more than one financial year.

The deductions will be made for the amount remaining un-provided at the end of the financial year by credit to provisions, according to the RBI.

PNB executives said the bank would honour bona fide commitments to other banks related to the LoUs before the amount to be repaid turned into NPAs.

The LoUs, if not repaid, will start turning into NPAs beginning May.

There is no way the bank will become a defaulter in other banks books, even if the amount related to LoUs is not repaid by the end of this quarter.

"Concerns over becoming a defaulter, if at all, will arise once the LoUs turn into NPAs, which will happen only after 90 days from the deadline. Banks can never be treated as a defaulter, sources in PNB said.

UCO Bank has the highest exposure of around Rs 3,000 crore (Rs 30 billion) in the alleged scam, followed by Union Bank and Allahabad Bank with exposure of around Rs 2,500 crore (Rs 25 billion) each, according to sources.

Photograph: PTI Photo
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The amount for which free check-up is offered can be quite low, while in some policies it comes only after a considerable waiting period, reports Priyadarshini Maji.

Nowadays, many insurance companies advertise free health check-up as one of the key attractions of their policies.

Regular check-ups can help in the early detection of ailments, and are especially valuable in a country where people don't go for regular check-ups on their own.

However, before you buy a policy for its free checkup feature, examine the details closely.

Treatment of any illness at a later stage costs a lot more than if it is detected at the initial stages. Regular health check-ups can help in early detection.

"Keeping in mind the increased occurrence of lifestyle-based ailments, it is advisable to undergo a health check-up at least once every year," says Anuj Gulati, MD and CEO, Religare Health Insurance.

Such check-ups can also make you more aware of your health situation.

Says Naval Goel, CEO, PolicyX.com: "They help you understand how your healthcare needs are changing due to growing age, and allow you to make changes to your existing health insurance policy at the right time."

You could, for instance, hike your sum assured with growing age.

According to the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), health insurance penetration in India currently stands at 3.49 per cent.

An industry expert informed that less than 10 per cent of policyholders avail the free health check-up benefit from their insurers.

Normally a full body check-up from a clinic or hospital costs around Rs 1,600 to Rs 3,000. Policyholders should follow up with their insurance companies once a year or during renewal and avail of this benefit.

The amount for which free health check-up is offered varies between an individual and a family floater policy, and also from one insurer to another (see table). Often, this feature comes with a waiting period.

HDFC Ergo General Insurance, for instance, provides it after a waiting period of four years.

Religare Health Insurance, on the other hand, offers it from day one.

Sometimes the value up to which the free check-up is provided can be quite inadequate for all the insured members of the family.

A family floater policy by Star Health insurance, with a sum insured of Rs 300,000, provides health check-up of a meagre Rs 750 for all the members of the family.

Another catch is that the amount of free health check-up that insurers provide depends on your initial sum insured.

If the sum insured rises due to no-claim bonus, it doesn't result in the value of the free health checkup also rising commensurately.

In some policies, this may not be an annual feature but may only be offered once every two years.

Apollo Munich, for instance, provides free checkup worth one per cent of the sum insured, up to Rs 5,000 per insured person, once after every two continuous years.

Experts suggest that though this feature provides the much-needed health check-up free of cost, it shouldn't be a major determinant while buying a health insurance policy.

Other features such as exclusion of pre-existing diseases, claim process, waiting period, network of hospitals, pre- and post-hospitalisation cover, and lifetime renewal should play a bigger part in making this decision.

"This may be an essential feature for young families and aging elders who need regular check-ups. For others it is just a perk to encourage regular checkup without having to worry about burning a hole in their pocket," says Vaidyanathan Ramani, head-product and innovation, Policybazaar.com.

The basic coverage provided by a health insurance policy should be the primary consideration while choosing a policy, adds Ramani, whereas additional benefits such as free health check-up should be given only secondary consideration.

Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com
The new facility that would house Wipro's US cyber security centre would also serve as a hub for advanced analytics

Wipro, Indias third-largest information technology services company, on Tuesday said it had opened a technology centre in Plano, Texas, and planned to grow its headcount to 2,000 in the US state over the next few years.

The Bengaluru-headquartered firm has around 1,400 employees working in Texas alone.

The Texas technology centre, which initially employed around 150 people, is focused on developing capabilities in new and emerging technologies.

The new facility that would house Wipro's US cyber security centre would also serve as a hub for advanced analytics, the company said.

With more than 1,400 employees in Texas and major operations now in Plano, Dallas, and Houston, Wipro is playing an important role in the Texas economy," said Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who on Tuesday visited Wipros facility in Electronic City, Bengaluru, along with senior officials of the state's administration.

In addition, Wipro has major operations in Dallas and Houston in Texas.

The company has a 26,000-square feet facility in Houston, which serves as a hub to drive digital business transformation for its clients from the energy sector.

Wipro also plans to develop a digital pod at its Houston facility, where its clients can leverage design thinking to foster innovation.

With rising protectionism across markets like the US, Singapore and now Australia, Indian IT firm are adjusting their business models to reduce dependence on visas, hiring more locals instead.

These firms are also setting up newer centres in the US, which accounts for about 60 per cent of Indias IT export basket.

Infosys, for example, has said it will set up 4 technology and innovation hubs in the US and hire about 10,000 locals in the US.

Our technology centre in Plano is the latest milestone in our growing operations in Texas and is a testament to local talent pool and the robust support offered by the state to the technology sector, said Abidali Z Neemuchwala, chief executive officer, Wipro.

During the last decade, Wipro has invested over $2 billion in the US where the company has over 40 facilities spread across 23 states.

The company employs over 13,000 people in the country, 55 per cent of which are local Americans.

Photograph: Abhishek N Chinnappa/Reuters
Several institutional investors were ineligible to invest in these companies as they failed to meet the disclosure norms

The decision of Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) and Bharat Dynamics, both defence public sector undertakings (PSUs), to withhold material information from public shareholders on security grounds is the key reason for tepid demand for their shares, particularly from overseas investors.

Several institutional investors were ineligible to invest in these companies as they failed to meet the disclosure norms. Big-ticket foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) had to stay away from participating in these public offers even though pricing was reasonable, bankers said.

Both the issuances had failed to garner any applications from FPIs and had to be bailed out by state-owned Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC).

US-based qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) are allowed to invest in non-US initial public offerings (IPOs) only in two situations.

First, when the company registers with US market regulator Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

This applies to the issuances where companies list simultaneously in their home country and the US market.

For all other purposes, companies would have to comply with Section 144A of the US Securities Act.

The law specifies some basic requirements, including reporting standards that the companies have to meet to be eligible to receive subscriptions from US-based QIBs.

Both HAL and Bharat Dynamics failed to meet the disclosure standards of the act.

US investors were unable to participate in the IPOs due to regulatory issues.

"Since US investors are the biggest clients for all major FPIs, they decided not to participate in these offers.

"However, we expected strong demand from domestic institutions such as mutual funds (MFs) to offset the tepid response from FPIs. It could not happen because MFs decided to adopt a wait-and-watch stance as the sector is new for the listed space, a banker said.

FPIs will be able to deal in the shares of HAL and Bharat Dynamics from the secondary market as Section 144A applies only to unlisted companies.

The law applies only to those cases where a company has discretion to market the product to select institutional investors. Since the company is publicly traded after listing, Section 144A wont apply, said a lawyer.

Experts said the development is nothing unforeseen as the government had essentially structured the deal for non-US investors.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) had provided several exemptions to both the companies in terms of disclosure of sensitive data. HAL had mentioned the same in its offer document.

As a result of national security-related concerns, the Indian Defence Services and we have determined certain material documents and information as secret and confidential such as board minutes and committee minutes, agreements we executed with our suppliers, segment-wise reporting, demand and supply forecasts, HALs offer document read.

Both HAL and Bharat Dynamics were priced around 16 times their one-year forward earnings estimate, which is considered reasonable. Also, retail investors were eligible for a 5 per cent discount.

Photograph: Anindito Mukherjee/Reuters
'Kim has once again shown astuteness and statesmanship by securing China's support precisely just when it matters most to him,' points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.



IMAGE: Seoul, March 28, 2018: South Korean television broadcasts a report on North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's meeting with China's supreme leader Xi Jinping in Beijing. Photograph: Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters

Just as a hypothesis was appearing that the United States 'marginalised' China in the processes surrounding the North Korean situation, it gets blown to smithereens.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's 'unofficial' three-day visit to Beijing is a stark reminder that China is becoming even more central than before in the resolution of tensions on the Korean peninsula.

A profound reset of the power dynamic in the Asia-Pacific and internationally has taken place between Sunday, March 25 and Wednesday, March 28.

Questions arise as regards the exquisite timing of Kim's first-ever visit to Beijing, its rich symbolism in this being his first-ever journey abroad after taking the reins of power seven years ago, and what it means.

Both Beijing and Pyongyang must be acutely conscious of the timing.

The Xinhua dispatch on the visit cited both Chinese President Xi Jinping and Kim openly noting the regional backdrop.

Xi noted that this is 'a special time' when 'positive changes had taken place on the Korean peninsula'.

Kim noted that 'the Korean peninsula situation is developing rapidly and many important changes have taken place' while 'a series of major and happy events' have occurred in China too.

The three key elements discernible from the unusually long 2,600-word Xinhua report are:

Both China and North Korea sense that an open display of fraternal ties is necessary and can be advantageous.

The ties by far exceed a friendly inter-State relationship.

Xi pointedly recalled the past when the two leaderships 'maintained close exchanges and paid frequent calls on each other like relatives.'

Equally, ideological affinities were stressed. Kim recalled his father and grandfather.

There is an attempt to hark back to the past fervour in the relationship which is thought to have been a bygone era.

Most important, Kim committed himself to the 'denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.'

But he added the expectation that Seoul and Washington, DC should also responded with goodwill and create an atmosphere of peace and stability on the basis of 'progressive and synchronous measures for the realisation of peace.'

In return, he secured Xi's assurance of support 'no matter how the international and regional situation changes.'

No doubt, Kim received an exceedingly warm welcome. Kim said 'he felt he should come in time to inform Comrade General Secretary Xi Jinping in person the situation out of comradeship and moral responsibility.'

Xi remarked, 'I am willing to keep frequent contacts with the chairman through various forms such as exchange of visits.'

Xi and Kim personally pledged to mentor the relationship and a line of communication opens directly between them.

Xinhua made no reference to President Donald J Trump or his tentative plan to meet Kim in end-May (although surely, the topic would have figured in the talks).

On the other hand, Xi voiced support for the improvement of inter-Korean ties and peace talks. China's support strengthens Kim's hands in the upcoming negotiations with his South Korean counterpart President Moon Jae-in.

Kim has once again shown astuteness and statesmanship by securing China's support precisely just when it matters most to him.

Significantly, Kim's visit to Beijing comes at a time when US-China relations are buffeted by adverse currents -- Trump's threat of trade war, the Taiwan Travel Act (designed to encourage high-level contacts between Washington and Taipei), and the US navy's freedom of navigation operation last weekend within 12 nautical miles of Mischief Reef in the Spratly archipelago.

Kim's visit to Beijing coincided with China's Liaoning carrier strike group of more than 40 other warships and submarines conducting drills off the coast of Hainan in the South China Sea in a substantial show of force.

Even as Xi and Kim were holding talks, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang called on a visiting US Congressional delegation to 'play a constructive role and work with China to maintain the political and public opinion foundations for China-US relations.'

The US faces a dilemma in the weeks ahead.

The recent reshuffle in the state department and the national security council has added to the disarray within the Trump administration.

The huge uproar in public opinion over John Bolton's appointment as the NSA is not helping matters either.

On the other hand, US-Russia tensions are cascading. No one knows whom to dial in Washington.

Beijing is plainly disdainful of Trump's attempts last week to flex muscle.

The signs are that Trump is already backtracking.

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying was rather 'forceful' in her remarks on Tuesday, March 27: 'I must stress that negotiation is by no means an occasion for one party to make requests in an arrogant and condescending way.'

Having extended a big hand of support, Beijing is enabling Kim to approach the negotiating table from a position of advantage.

An editorial in the Global Times notes that the 'friendly relationship between China and North Korea is an important strategy to protect their interests... which can enhance regional balance and eliminate some unrealistic motives.'

Kim isn't going to be a pushover for Trump.

There is speculation among US analysts that Trump may not want to square up to Kim just yet. But then, wriggling out of an engagement may not be easy if the inter-Korean summit in April creates a new momentum for peace.

How Trump gets filled in on Xi's talks with Kim may show which way the wind is blowing.
'Due to lack of understanding or patriarchal misinterpretation, a common notion was generated that if you are a Muslim man you can marry four times.'

Nearly seven months after banning the practice of instant triple talaq, the Supreme Court on March 26 decided to examine the Constitutional validity of prevalent practices of polygamy and nikah halala among Muslims.

The apex court issued notices to the Union ministries of law and justice and minority affairs as well as the National Commission of Women after taking note of the plea filed by Nafisa Khan, a Delhi-based woman, challenging the practice of polygamy and nikah halala, and said the matter would be taken up by a five-judge Constitution bench.

While the Shariah, the Muslim civil law based on Quranic principles, allows a Muslim man to have four wives, nikah halala deals with the process in which a Muslim woman, who wants to remarry her husband after divorce, has to first marry another man, consummate the marriage and then divorce him.

The Supreme Court's notice come after four petitioners -- Sameena Begum, Nafisa Khan, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay and Moullim Mohsin Bin Hussain Bin Abdad Al Kathiri -- filed a PIL in the matter.

"The Muslim community is in denial about the condition of women," Zakia Soman, founder of the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan who has waged a lonely battle for gender equality in Muslim society and scored a victory in the Supreme Court over the instant talaq issue, tells Rediff.com's Syed Firdaus Ashraf.

Why has this new petition on polygamy and nikah halala come about now in the Supreme Court?

Before coming to this petition you must remember that our petition and all others too had prayed for three things -- outlawing instant triple talaq, nikah halala and polygamy.

This person who has filed (this plea) is a new petitioner, but even we had filed the same petition earlier.

The Chief Justice of India had then said that due to paucity of time he would only take up the issue of instant triple talaq.

Additionally, we have been demanding a comprehensive reform of Muslim personal law.

We need a Muslim family law based on the Holy Quran and in keeping within the Constitutional parameters that would regulate every aspect of marriage and family.

What this petition is saying is nothing new as it is already in front of the court.

Wasn't your fight only against instant talaq?

You look at the draft of Muslim family law which we have prepared.

It lists halala as a criminal offence.

It also lists polygamy as illegal because in our understanding it was allowed at that time (7th century Islam) in that context.

And today that context never prevails.

Polygamy was never encouraged (in Islam) and it was permitted only under strict conditions. And those conditions are normally not fulfilled.

When a man engages in a second or third marriage he does not fulfill those conditions.

Allah says you will not be able to do 'just' to all your wives even if you wish so. Therefore, marry only one (woman).

So it is not at all encouraged (in the Quran).

Due to lack of understanding or patriarchal misinterpretation, this common notion was generated that if you are a Muslim man you can marry four times.

Are you saying the Quran does not permit polygamy?

I will say it does not encourage polygamy.

However, it permits it under strict conditions, in certain contexts.

As far as I know, the second marriage can only take place with the permission of the first wife.

Yes. That is true.

Even today, in Pakistan, the law says that a man has to get written permission from his first wife, then he has to prove in front of a family council that he has a valid reason for marrying a second time.

Even if he proves that he needs to marry a second time, getting permission from the first wife is next to impossible.

Unlike instant triple talaq -- which had a number of cases among Muslims -- is polygamy a common practice in Indian Muslim society?

As I was saying, it is complex and linked to instant triple talaq.

When a man utters triple talaq, he feels he is free and can go and marry another woman as his status is now single.

But the first wife has not accepted triple talaq as it is unilateral.

The wife runs from pillar to post to save the marriage whereas the husband marries another woman and starts enjoying his second married life.

That is a big anomaly.

Your fight against instant triple talaq was on the basis that it was not written in the Holy Quran, but in the case of polygamy it is there in the holy book. So don't you think you are going against the Holy Quran?

Not at all.

First of all, every Quranic principle has a context in life.

In today's context where the sex ratio is so adverse, where we have fewer females than males and we are not living in a time of war.

We have fewer females today while in Prophet Mohammed's time, 1,400 years ago, there used to be wars and men would get killed.

There were fewer men then and in that condition polygamy was sort of regularised because of that.

Those conditions do not prevail today.

The Quran cannot be read like that. It has to be read in context and there are contextual principles and normative principles.

Normative principles are about justice and contextual principles will always be secondary to normative principles.

What about nikah halala?

After a woman gets a divorce from her first husband, she marries another man.

In the second marriage, if she realises that she was better off with her first husband, she can divorce her second husband and then remarry her first husband.

That is halala.

Here (in India) husbands divorce their wives and then let the women go through this horrendous process.

A woman is not cattle, goat or cow. What they are presently doing is very wrong.

When a Muslim man divorces his wife, she then has to go through halala if she wants to come back to her first husband. That is the twist Indian clerics have given.

This is just not called for and is inhuman.

Can Islam practise such an inhuman and dehumanising custom?

Many Muslim women say they do not want the triple talaq bill which was passed by the Lok Sabha.

These women are protesting at the behest of the All India Muslim Law Board.

At the time of Padmaavat's release a lot of Rajput women came out on the streets and said they would perform jauhar.

These protests by Muslim women are something like that, where they are using women to further their own injustice.

The All India Muslim Personal Law Board has never educated men or women about Quranic teachings.

They have never created an understanding about women's rights.

It was Muslim women who fought against triple talaq and to counter that, they started bringing out these women.

These women were silent in rallies. It was only the male clerics who spoke.

How come these women never spoke?

They don't know what they are coming out for as they have been told by their husbands or family members to come out for the rally.

In legal terms, there is something called informed consent and this is (an example of) not informed consent.

There has been considerable criticism of the instant triple talaq bill. Will making instant talaq a criminal offence lead to problems in Muslim marriages?

We have also suggested amendments to that bill.

(Muslim clerics) have never taken pains to educate women and now they want to use them.

We have to work hard to educate politicians and parliamentarians too. That is also our job.

The Muslim community is in denial about the condition of women.

When they see Muslim women fighting against triple talaq, they try to match that by bringing out (other) Muslim women in large numbers (to target them).

It is not going to help.

None of those women have been given an opportunity to empower themselves or educate themselves.

Bigamy is practised by Hindus too even though it is illegal for them to do so. Given that, how will a ban on polygamy help Muslim women?

There is a bigamy law in which a Hindu wife can always take her husband to court if he is in another relationship.

The punishment is up to seven years for Hindu men in this case.

But the law is just one part of reform and gender justice.

We need to enlighten, educate and empower women.

Does section 494 of the Indian Penal Code, outlawing a second marriage when the first spouse is alive, not apply to Muslim men in India?

No, it does not apply to Muslim men.

This current petition on polygamy by Sameena Begum is about Muslim women being denied the benefits of bigamy law under this section.

Do you think political parties will try to make an issue out of polygamy as this comes just months ahead of the 2019 general election?

It is bound to be interpreted like that.

But the fact is that there are inequalities and denials (to Muslim women).

Any political party will try benefit from it, and it is not at all surprising.

We have been saying for the last 10 years to give Muslim women the rights that were given by Allah to them 1,400 years ago.

But Muslim clerics are not willing to listen, and therefore this kind of situation is bound to arise.

Kindly note: The lead image has only been published for representational purposes. Photograph: Amit Dave/Reuters
The Central Board of Secondary Education on Wednesday announced re-examination in the Class 10 mathematics and Class 12 economics subjects in the wake of reports of paper leaks even as Union Human Resource Development minister Prakash Javadekar said a new leak-proof system would be put in place for conducting the board exams.

Seeking to reach out to parents and students worried over the alleged incidents of repeated leaks, Javadekar said he has spoken to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and apprised him about the developments.

He also said that the HRD ministry had initiated an internal probe into the matter.

The Delhi Polices Crime Branch has also begun investigating the alleged leak of the CBSEs Class 12 economics paper and registered a separate case in connection with the alleged leak of the Class 10 mathematics paper.

Top police officials, this evening, also discussed the further line of investigation.

In a circular, the CBSE said that dates for the re-examination would be posted on its website within a week.

The board has taken cognisance of certain happenings in the conduct of certain examinations as are being reported. With a view to uphold the sanctity of the board examinations and in the interest of fairness to the students, the board has decided to re-conduct the examinations for the following subjects, it said.

Panic had gripped Class 12 CBSE students on Monday after claims were made on social media sites that the economics paper had been leaked on WhatsApp.

On March 15, social media was abuzz with reports that the Class 12 accountancy paper had been leaked with the Delhi government saying it had received complaints about it.

This came after the CBSE had denied the claims, saying, We have checked with all examination centres and the paper was not leaked.

The source of the circulation of this information is not known yet, the board had said.

The Union HRD minister told reporters that a new leak-proof system would be put in place from coming Monday onwards for conducting CBSE exams.

It seems some kind of gang is behind this and it is doing it deliberately. A special team is already investigating the matter and the guilty will not spared, the minister told reporters as he faced a barrage of questions about the repeated leaks.

We will ensure no injustice is caused. I just want to tell the parents and children that it is extremely unfortunate that this incident(s) happened, Javadekar said.

He said that the with the help of technology, put in place a system which is so foolproof that there is no leak.

We have also decided to tighten security for the time when papers are being distributed in the examination centres, the minister said but did not elaborate the details of the proposed new system.

Refuting charges against the CBSE, he said it has a solid system in place and conducts 24 exams annually for 1.2 crore students.

But if someone is leaking it or there is some loophole in it and taking that into consideration, a new system will be put in place from Monday which will ensure there is no such leakage, he underlined.

Meanwhile, Alok Kumar, joint commissioner of police, crime, confirmed a case was registered on Tuesday following a complaint by the Board.

Special Commissioner of Police (Crime) R P Upadhyay and Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Alok Kumar also held a meeting with Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik in the evening to discuss the future course of investigation.

Another officer privy to the probe said the case has been registered under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including cheating.

Twitter users went berserk on Wednesday, with some of them venting their anger and displeasure vented their anger as the CBSE announced re-examination in the Class 10 mathematics and Class 12 economics papers amid reports claiming paper leaks.

Delhi Congress president Ajay Maken tweeted about how his son and many other students have been left dejected because of these reports.

My son Aujaswi studied really hard for #CBSE Class X Board Math Exams held today. His joy of finishing Board Exams was short lived. He is extremely dejected as the Math paper got leaked& this #LeakingGovt will hold the Exam again. I feel sorry for him as lakhs of other students! (sic), he tweeted.

Lawyer and activist Prashant Bhushan questioned whether any exam or selection is scam-proof in India.

#Vyapam,AIIMS, #SSC & now #CBSE exam leak through WhatsApp. Is there any exam or selection which is safe&scam proof in India? Even after PMs app leaks our personal data to US firm, our govt tells us that Aadhar data is safe behind thick walls! Incredible! he posted on the micro-blogging site.

Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala attacked the Modi government and said that it should be renamed as Paper Leak Government.
In a bid to forge opposition unity, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday met United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi and stressed the need for the Congress to be part of a front to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The Trinamool Congress leader also met a host of other opposition leaders during her two-day visit to the national capital.

Banerjee had on Tuesday met Nationalist Congress Party supremo Sharad Pawar and leaders of some regional parties, including National Democratic Alliance partner Shiv Sena, to explore possibilities of a federal front to take on the BJP in the next Lok Sabha polls.

Banerjee on Wednesday met disgruntled BJP leaders Yashwant Sinha and Shatrughan Sinha, besides having a telephonic conversation with Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav, with whom she talked of a one-to-one fight in states.

Wednesdays meeting with Sonia Gandhi took place at her 10, Janpath residence and lasted for around 20 minutes.

During the meeting, the two leaders are understood to have discussed the present political scenario and the strategy to defeat the BJP in the next general elections and in various state elections due this year.

I told Sonia ji, we want the Congress to be part of the united opposition, Banerjee told reporters after the meeting.

She also said that she wanted the Congress to win Karnataka, as it was strong there.

I am 100 per cent sure, when there is one single fight, the BJP will go, she said.

I have told Sonia ji what the country wants is that there should be a state-wise one-to-one fight against the BJP. Whichever party is the strongest in the state, that party should contest in that state against the BJP.

I have also discussed this issue with Sonia ji. The talks which we are having with the regional parties, we are trying to work together....We want the Congress also to be part of that, Banerjee said.

After Wednesdays meeting, she also alleged that in a bid to finish democracy in the country, the BJP is spreading atrocities.

Apart from political vendetta, the BJP does not do anything for the people of the country, she claimed.

The West Bengal chief minister said the Congress should also help the one-on-one fight in the states and added that parties which had an alliance with the Congress would carry on with the tie-ups.

Lalu (Yadav) ji and Sharad (Yadav) ji have an alliance with the Congress. Their alliance will continue, she said, adding that the opposition party which was the strongest in a state should be supported by the others to oust the BJP.

Banerjees meeting with Sonia Gandhi was earlier scheduled for on Tuesday, but could not take place as the UPA chairperson was indisposed.

The chief minister is in Delhi to hold talks with various parties in a bid to form a united front against the BJP and bring together opposition parties on one platform.

The TMC leader had met many opposition leaders on Tuesday, but had not met any leader of the Congress.

Banerjee, who has been meeting leaders of various opposition parties and some allies of the ruling BJP here, also held discussions with former Union minister Arun Shourie.

After the meeting, Shourie, who has been critical of the Modi government, said the Tranamool Congress chiefs theory of putting up a one-on-one fight against the BJP in every state was the right path to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

If the one-on-one formula is implemented, the opposition will be able to corner 69 per cent of votes, Shourie said.

Though Yashwant Sinha did not clarify on whether he or Shatrughan Sinha would join a united force against the BJP, he said, Mamata is our old cabinet colleague. Her personality is known to everyone. The role she has taken to save the country is appreciable. In future also, we will support her.

The Trinamool Congress supremo sought to rally the regional parties against the NDA, even as Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, who mooted a non-Congress, non-BJP coalition in national politics, said the alternative being proposed by him would be a peoples front of India.

The BJP was critical of Banerjee, with Union minister Prakash Javadekar slamming her for the incidents of violence during Ram Navami processions in West Bengal.

Javadekar alleged that while her state was burning, she was doing politics in the national capital.

Peaceful Ram Navami processions were attacked by Trinamool Congress thugs in the state, Javadekar told reporters here.

Bengal is burning and Mamata is doing politics in Delhi. It is like Nero fiddled while Rome was burning, he said and showed pictures of alleged violence that took place during the processions.
Sajid Khan drove a burning petrol tanker for 5 km, averting a major disaster.

Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar reports.

Sajid Khan, a 30-year-old truck driver, drove a burning fuel tanker for around five kilometres, averting a tragedy and saving many lives in Gotegaon town, Narsinghpur district, Madhya Pradesh, on Sunday, March 25, night.

Without fearing for his life, the driver -- a resident of Seoni district in Madhya Pradesh -- drove the burning vehicle through residential areas in Gotegaon, a town of 25,000 people about 250 km from Bhopal, towards the Gotegaon-Narsinghpur Road.

The tanker left behind a trail of fire caused by leaking petrol that gutted a few shops and vehicles, but did not cause any human casualty.

The tanker was refilling fuel at a petrol pump in the crowded market in Gotegaon when the petrol caught fire, possibly due to an electrical short circuit.

"I got the petrol from Vittoni depot which is about 25 km from this petrol pump. I was emptying the tanker and filling up the petrol pump, and had just turned on the valve when the fire broke out," Sajid tells Rediff.com

"My employer was there, we both tried to put out the fire with the fire extinguishers available on the truck, but we could not."

"I didn't know what to do, so I decided to remove the burning truck from the pump."

"I knew if the petrol in the underground pump caught fire it would be a disaster, as that might explode. I did not hesitate. There was no fear. I knew I had to put out the fire or get away from there."

"It has been my truck for 10 years, it responded as usual and we were on our way. Thankfully, people got out of the way and I could pass all the residential and commercial areas without any problem," Salim recalls of that night.

"Once I reached outside the town I stopped the truck and again tried to put out the fire. I then called the fire brigade and they came very quickly."

"I told them where the belly of the fire was, and they put it out. The hull of my tanker did not collapse, but withstood the fire."

"The truck owner's hands were burnt," says Sajid, "my own hands and legs got burnt. My right hand is burnt the worst, but it will heal."

"After my hands and legs heal I am going back to drive the same truck. That is my job," he says.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan has described Sajid Khan's brave act as that of a 'real hero'.
Donald Trump's new CIA pick hasn't been greeted with the avalanche of media gush that inevitably follows a woman who becomes the first among her gender to get a top job, says Shuma Raha.

Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com

What's your idea of a female spy?

A smouldering double agent?

A ruthless femme fatale as good at seducing men as she is at putting a bullet through them?

Or a chilling tactician, a high priestess of spydom, who presides over lesser spooks and stops at nothing to get the job done?

Well, popular culture just got some fresh grist for its many-splendoured image of the female spy.

US President Donald J Trump announced that his pick for the next CIA director was Gina Haspel, an award-winning intelligence officer who has spent most of her career in undercover operations.

Once the US Senate confirms her nomination, Ms Haspel will become the first woman to head the CIA.

Cause to bring out the brass band and sing hosannas to woman power? Certainly.

Yet, Ms Haspel hasn't been greeted with the avalanche of media gush that inevitably follows a woman who becomes the first among her gender to get a top job.

The reason lies in the CIA director designate's somewhat murky past. After 9/11 she is said to have played a major role in the US' controversial, and much reviled, use of 'enhanced interrogation techniques' of terror suspects.

She ran the CIA's detention site in Thailand where she reportedly supervised the interrogation of high profile suspects by such charming methods as waterboarding -- an extreme torture technique which President Barack Obama later outlawed.

Ms Haspel's alleged exploits conjure up visions of a cold-blooded female spymaster (or should we say spymistress?) who will commit any crime against humanity to secure her objective.

It's a pretty compelling vision: A woman who unleashes unspeakable torture and sundry murders in the service of her country -- a sort of Lady Macbeth of spookery...

One can almost hear the screen writers rolling up their sleeves to bang out a spy yarn with just such a female lead. The audience would eat it up.

In truth, audiences have always devoured the spectacle of the female spy.

Ever since Greta Garbo did her memorable turn as Mata Hari -- the exotic dancer who snooped for the Germans during the First World War -- in a 1931 film of the same name, popular culture has been replete with spies who use their feminine wiles to lethal effect.

Many are double agents because a double-crossing sexy siren fits neatly into the misogynistic idea of a woman as a wicked, untrustworthy, being.

The James Bond films cemented the stereotype of the oomphy spy girl. Whether it was the meltingly beautiful Tatiana Romanova (From Russia With Love), the fiendish Fiona Volpe (Thunderball), Miss Taro (Dr No), Helga Brandt (You Only Live Twice), or the luminous double agent Vesper Lynd (Casino Royale) and many others, female spies, nefarious or not, existed to provide eye candy -- either coming a cropper or falling in love with the womaniser Bond or both.

Again, while a male spymeister could be a donnish George Smiley, the unassuming hero of John Le Carre's spy thrillers, a woman had no such luck.

If she didn't have a hot bod, all she could be was someone like the mannish, cartoonishly evil Rosa Klebb (From Russia With Love), with ugly shoes that sprouted poisoned blades.

Of course, the spy girl narrative has changed considerably since then. Angelina Jolie is an empowering watch as the kick-ass female spy-cum-action hero in movies such as Mr And Mrs Smith and Salt.

In fact, ever since Judi Dench assumed the role of 'M', the head of MI6 and James Bond's boss, in GoldenEye (1995), there has been a marked shift in the balance of power between male and female spies as depicted in the movies.

Inspired by the real life figure of Stella Remington who became the first director general of MI5 in 1992, Ms Dench's M is a steely spymeister who looks motherly but does her job with icy efficiency.

In GoldenEye she ticks off Bond as a 'sexist, misogynist dinosaur' and tells him: 'If you think for one moment I don't have the balls to send a man out to die, your instincts are dead wrong.'

The spy-seductress may still be a thing -- witness Jennifer Lawrence in this year's Red Sparrow -- but clearly, the spy girl as sex object is no longer de rigueur.

In recent years, movies and television have thrown up some fairly complex female spy characters. In the hit US television series Homeland, CIA operative Carrie Mathison is bipolar, unstable and morally ambivalent.

Her decisions send scores of innocent people to their deaths, a fact she has to shrug off as 'collateral damage'.

In the 2012 film Zero Dark Thirty, which charts the hunt for Osama bin Laden, Jessica Chastain plays a CIA counterintelligence officer who unflinchingly participates in violent torture sessions to extract information that might lead her to bin Laden.

Zero Dark Thirty was panned for its portrayal of extreme torture and its apparent moral vacuum.

One wonders if Ms Haspel's appointment as CIA director will spur many more chillingly realistic depictions of the female intelligence officer as a professional who carries out her job, no matter what the human cost.
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.
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Case No. 428/6579/17

Publisher Ukraine: Supreme Court Publication Date 30 January 2018 Citation / Document Symbol Proceedings No. K/9901/3099/17 Other Languages / Attachments        428/6579/17 Cite as Case No. 428/6579/17, Proceedings No. K/9901/3099/17, Ukraine: Supreme Court, 30 January 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/cases,UKR_SC,5abb5d974.html [accessed 24 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.



Case category No.

428/6579/17

: Administrative cases; Cases on disputes over the implementation of public policies in the

areas of labour, employment and social protection of citizens and disputes in the area of

public housing policy, namely, disputes regarding: management, supervision and other

administrative functions (assignment, recalculation and implementation of insurance

benefits) in the area of the corresponding types of obligatory state social insurance,

including: obligatory state pension insurance, including pension insurance for persons

dismissed from the public service (military service).

Sent by the Court: 31.01.2018. Registered: 31.01.2018. Published: 01.02.2018.

Date of entry into force: 30.01.2018

THE SUPREME COURT

JUDGMENT

IN THE NAME OF UKRAINE



30.01.2018, Kyiv

Case No. 428/6579/17

Proceedings No. K/9901/3099/17

The Supreme Court consisting of the chamber of the Cassation Administrative Court:

Chief Judge  A.Yu.Buchyk (judge-rapporteur),

judges: M.M. Gimon, L.L. Moroz,

participants in the case:

Claimant  PERSON_1,

Defendant  Directorate of Pension Fund of Ukraine in Sievierodonetsk, Luhansk Oblast,

Third Party  Directorate for Labour and Social Protection at Sievierodonetsk City Council in

Luhansk Oblast.



Having considered the cassation appeal of the Directorate of the Pension Fund of Ukraine in

Sievierodonetsk, Luhansk Oblast against the Judgment of August 4, 2017 of Sievierodonetsk City

Court in Luhansk Oblast consisting of Judge D.B. Baronin, and the Judgment of October 10, 2017

of Donetsk Administrative Court of Appeal in the Judicial Panel: A.A. Shyshova, I.V. Sivachenko,

A.A. Chebanova,

the Court found that:

PERSON_1 appealed to the court with an administrative claim to recognize the unlawful inactivity

of the Directorate of the Pension Fund of Ukraine in Sievierodonetsk, Luhansk Oblast, regarding

the suspension of pension, the obligation to renew the payment of pension effective April 1, 2017,

and pay the backlog.

By Judgment of August 4, 2017 of Sievierodonetsk City Court in Luhansk Oblast, which was left

unchanged by Judgment of October 10, 2017 of Donetsk Administrative Court of Appeal, the

actions and inaction of the Directorate of the Pension Fund of Ukraine in Sievierodonetsk, Luhansk

Oblast, were recognized as unlawful. The Directorate of the Pension Fund of Ukraine in

Sievierodonetsk, Luhansk Oblast, was bound to resume the payment of pension to PERSON_1

effective April 1, 2017 and pay the backlog in the payment of the pension.

In its cassation appeal, the Directorate of the Pension Fund of Ukraine in Sievierodonetsk, Luhansk

Oblast, requests that the appealed court judgments be cancelled and a new one that completely

refuses PERSON _1 in satisfying the claims be accepted. The Directorate of the Pension Fund

points out that since the Claimant did not apply to the Directorate of the Pension Fund of Ukraine

in Sievierodonetsk, Luhansk Oblast, for renewal of the pension payment according to the

Procedure for Assignment (Renewal) of Social Payments to Internally Displaced Persons and

Order 22-1, the respondent had no legal grounds to decide whether to resume or refuse to renew

the payment of the Claimant's pension, and the defendant did not take any decision on this matter.

The Claimant did not file a response to the cassation appeal within the time period established by

the Court.

The cassation appeal is not subject to satisfaction.

The courts of previous instances established that since March 1, 2016, PERSON _1 has been

registered with the Directorate of the Pension Fund of Ukraine in Sievierodonetsk, Luhansk Oblast

and receives the retirement pension.

According to the copy of Certificate on Registration of an Internally Displaced Person No.

919054024 of May 05, 2016, issued by the Directorate for Labour and Social Protection at

Sievierodonetsk City Council, PERSON _1 who had been permanently residing at ADDRESS_1,

on February 25, 2016 moved from temporarily occupied territory to ADDRESS_2 in

Sievierodonetsk. The term of validity of the certificate is unlimited.

According to written explanations of the representative of the Directorate of the Pension Fund of

Ukraine in Sievierodonetsk, Luhansk Oblast, PERSON _1 the payment of pension to PERSON_1

was suspended effective April 1, 2017, since PERSON_1 was reported absent at the place of

residence.

Disagreeing with the termination of payment of pension, PERSON _1 submitted this

administrative claim.

While satisfying the claims, the court of first instance, the conclusions of which were

accepted by the court of appeal, referred to the groundlessness of the respondent's reference to the

receipt of information on the absence of the Claimant at the place of residence as the ground for

suspending the payment of pension, since the law in force does not envisage such basis for the

suspension of pension.

The Panel of Judges agrees with such arguments of the courts of previous instances, based on the

following.

On 22.11.2014, the Law of Ukraine No. 1706-VII of October 20, 2014 "On Ensuring the Rights

and Freedoms of Internally Displaced Persons", providing guarantees according to the

Constitution and laws of Ukraine, international treaties of Ukraine, the consent to be bound by the

Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, confirms guarantees for internally displaced persons.

Particularly, in accordance with Article 7 of the said law, for a registered internally displaced

person, the realization of the right for pension and social services is carried out in accordance with

the legislation of Ukraine. Ukraine undertakes all possible actions aimed at solving issues related

to social protection, including the renewal of all social payments to internally displaced persons.

Citizens of retirement age, persons with disabilities, disabled children and any other persons in

difficult life circumstances who are registered as internally displaced persons, have the right to

receive social services in accordance with the legislation of Ukraine at their registered actual place

of residence.

Clause 1 of the Resolution No. 637 of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine of 05.11.2014 "On the

Exercise of Social Payments to Internally Displaced Persons" specifies that internally displaced

persons are assigned and continue to receive their pensions (lifelong monthly allowance), lifelong

state scholarships, and all types of social assistance and compensation, material support, provision

of social services at the expense of the state budget and funds of obligatory state social insurance

at the place where such persons are registered, as evidenced by a certificate issued in accordance

with the Procedure for Issuance of Certificate of Registration to Internally Displaced Persons

approved by Resolution No. 509 of the Cabinet of Ministers of 01.10.2014. Payment (continuation

of payment) of pensions (lifelong monthly allowance), lifelong state grants, all types of social

assistance and compensation, material support (hereinafter - social payments) intended for these

persons, shall be carried out exceptionally to the accounts and via the network of offices and

devices of the Public Joint-Stock Company "Derzhavnyi Oshchadnyi Bank Ukrainy".

That is, according to the requirements of the abovementioned provision, the following conditions

for assignment and continuation of payment of pensions to internally displaced persons shall be

observed: presence of internally displaced persons at their place of stay, as evidenced by the

certificate; presence of an account at an office of PJSC "Derzhavnyi Oschadny Bank".



According to Paragraph 6 of the Procedure for Issuance of Certificate of Registration to Internally

Displaced Persons approved by Resolution No. 509 of the Cabinet of Ministers of 01.10.2014

(amended by Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers No. 352 of 08.06.2016) (hereinafter referred

to as Procedure No. 509), the Certificate of Registration of an Internally Displaced Person shall

be valid for an indefinite period, except in cases stipulated by Article 12 of the Law and the sixth

section of this paragraph. A certificate issued before June 20, 2016, which has not been cancelled

or expired, is valid or an indefinite period, except as stipulated in Article 12 of the Law.

The courts found that the Certificate No. 919054024 of 05.05.2016 that confirms the

registration of the Claimant as a person who was displaced from the temporarily occupied territory

of Ukraine or the area of the antiterrorist operation, is valid.

According to Article 12 of the Law of Ukraine "On Ensuring of Rights and Freedoms of Internally

Displaced Persons", the grounds for cancelling the certificate of registration of an internally

displaced person and making entries on this into the Unified Information Database on Internally

Displaced Persons are the circumstances where an internally displaced person has: 1) submitted

an application to renounce the certificate; 2) committed a crime: actions aimed at violent change

or overthrow of the constitutional order or seizure of state power; encroachment on the territorial

integrity and inviolability of Ukraine; terrorist acts; involvement in the commission of a terrorist

act; public call for terrorist acts; creation of a terrorist group or terrorist organization; assistance in

the commission of a terrorist act; financing of terrorism; genocide, crimes against humanity or war

crimes; 3) returned to the place of permanent residence; 4) moved to a permanent place of

residence abroad; 5) submitted knowingly false information.

According to the requirements of Section 71 of the Procedure No. 509, if there are grounds

stipulated by Article 12 of the Law, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the National Police, GTN, the

Security Service of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service and the Ministry of Finance shall

submit the appropriate information to the authorized body to decide on deregistration of an

internally displaced person.

The decision on cancellation of the certificate in accordance with Article 12 of the Law shall be

made by the head of the authorized body at the place of residence of the person and shall be given

to him within three days from the date of adoption of such decision or sent to the address of

residence indicated in the IDP certificate.

There is no evidence in the case materials regarding the cancellation of the Claimant's Certificate

No. 9190054024 of an Internally Displaced Person issued 05.05.2016 by the body that issued it -

the Directorate for Labour and Social Protection.

Considering the above, the Panel of Judges considers the reference of the defendant to a letter No.

3147/02 of 27.03.2017 from the General Directorate of the Pension Fund of Ukraine in Lugansk

Oblast reporting absence of pension recipients from among internally displaced persons at their

place of residence and announcing suspension of the pension effective April 1, 2017 to the

indicated persons including the Claimant.



Section 2 of the Procedure for Monitoring the Realization of Social Payments to Internally

Displaced Persons at Their Actual Place of Residence / Stay, approved by Decree No. 365 of the

Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine of June 8, 2016, stipulates that the realization of social payments

to internally displaced persons shall be monitored by structural units on social protection at district

administrations, district administrations in Kyiv, executive bodies in cities, district councils in

cities (in case of formation) (hereinafter - structural units on social protection of the population)

by visiting the actual place of residence / stay of an internally displaced person at least once every

six months, which shall be recorded in the Housing Inspection Report in accordance with the form

established by the Ministry of Social Policy.

According to Subsection 2 of Section 12 of the said Procedure, social payments are suspended in

case of establishing the fact of absence of an internally displaced person at the actual place of

residence / stay in accordance with the Housing Inspection Report.

The respondent did not provide any Housing Inspection Report for this internally displaced person

at the actual place of residence / stay.

Article 49 of the Law of Ukraine "On Compulsory State Pension Insurance" specifies the grounds

for suspension and renewal of pension payments. Paragraph 1 of this article determines that the

payment of pension by decision of the territorial bodies of the Pension Fund or by a court decision

shall be suspended: 1) if the pension is assigned on the basis of documents containing inaccurate

information; 2) for the whole period of pensioner's stay abroad, unless otherwise envisaged by

Ukraine's international treaty accepted by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine; 3) in case of

pensioner's death; 4) in case of non-receipt of the assigned pension for 6 consecutive months; 5)

in other cases stipulated by law.

The defendant has not submitted any evidence of existence of grounds for termination of the

pension payment to the Claimant.

The courts have correctly noted the priority of application of the requirement of Article 49 of the

Law of Ukraine "On Compulsory State Pension Insurance", and therefore the defendant's

arguments about the need to apply the standards of the Decrees of the Cabinet of Ministers

decisions are groundless.

Considering the above, the Panel of Judges considers that the courts of the first and appeals

instances established the circumstances of the case correctly and fully, and took judicial decisions

in compliance with the rules of substantive and procedural law, and therefore there are no grounds

for its cancellation.

According to Part 1 of Article 350 of the Administrative Procedure Code of Ukraine, the court of

cassation leaves the cassation appeal without satisfaction, and the judicial decisions shall remain

unchanged, if it recognizes that while taking judicial decisions or exercising procedural actions,

the courts of the first and appellate instances did not commit an improper application of substantive

law or violations of procedural law rules.



Guided by Articles 349, 350, 355, 356 and 359 of the Administrative Procedure Code of Ukraine,



the Court decided:

The cassation appeal of the Directorate of the Pension Fund of Ukraine in Sievierodonetsk,

Luhansk Oblast, is left without satisfaction, and Judgment of August 4, 2017 of Sievierodonetsk

City Court in Luhansk Oblast, as well as Judgment of October 10, 2017 of Donetsk Administrative

Court of Appeal, remain unchanged.

This judgment is final and is not subject to appeal.

Chief Judge A.Yu. Buchyk

judges M.M. Gimon

L.L. Moroz
Prince Charles pays tribute Sanjeev Gupta during the prince's visit to Liberty UK's Rotherham steelworks in February.

THE boss of Rotherhams Liberty UK steelworks has been appointed as a royal ambassador for his work in fueling a new generation of metalworkers.

Sanjeev Gupta, who is also executive chairman of metals, industrials and energy group, the GFG Alliance, has been invited by the Prince of Wales to help nurture a new generation of skilled manufacturing workers.

He has been appointed as an official HRH Ambassador for Industrial Cadets, the flagship programme designed to give children and young people direct structured experience of industry while still at school or college.

The programme which currently involves more than 15,000 youngsters across the UK, was set up at the behest of the prince seven years ago after he visited steel plants and heard how the manufacturing and engineering sectors were struggling to recruit young people to their ranks.

Industrial Cadets provides young students with high-quality accredited work experience during their years of education in order to give them a real exposure and understanding of industry, with the aim of encouraging them to choose careers in this field.

GFG Alliance companies including Liberty House and SIMEC, will be supporting up to 5,000 cadets from schools across the UK over the coming year, including three schools in Rotherham.

Mr Gupta's appointment as an official ambassador for the programme was announced during the Industrial Cadets annual awards event in central London earlier this month, during which high-performing participants in the programme were personally congratulated by Prince Charles.

Mr Gupta said: Its a great honour to be invited by His Royal Highness to contribute to one of the most important tasks facing modern society  the task of ensuring our next generation has the motivation and skills to enable us to remain competitive and successful on the world stage in manufacturing.

That was the fundamental reason why my wife Nicola and I set up the GFG Foundation and why GFG Alliance businesses are so actively involved in supporting the scheme.
TAGS record breaking Dubai tender to be held from 6 to 12 October Trans Atlantic Gems Sales (TAGS) record-breaking rough diamond tender is being held at the Dubai Diamond Exchange in Dubai from the 6th to the 12th October 2021, says a press note from the company.

CIBJO releases precious metals special report With fewer than six weeks to go to the opening of the 2021 CIBJO Congress on November 1, 2021, the third of this years CIBJO commissions' Special Reports has been released.

iTraceiT to help the diamond and jewelry industry become more transparent iTraceiT, a new and independent technology and service provider, will soon launch a robust and user-friendly traceability solution for the diamond and jewelry industry.

Chinese diamond miner apologises to Marange headman  report Anjin Investment, a joint venture between Chinas Anhui Foreign Economic Construction Company (AFECC) and Matt Bronze, an investment vehicle controlled by Zimbabwes military, has apologised to Headman Chiadzwa for resuming operations in Marange...
The import of polished diamonds into India is likely to come down drastically following the doubling of duty on cut and polished diamonds from 2.5% to 5% by the Indian government, says a TOI report.

GJEPC authorities termed the governments decision to increase import duty on cut and polished diamonds as a stumbling block in Indias chances of becoming an international diamond trading hub. The move, according to the GJEPC, will not provide a level-playing field vis-a-vis other peers such as Belgium, Dubai and Israel.

Moreover, it will have a negative impact on the shut out business from the US, which has been growing fast.

Industry sources told TOI that the Americans sell the old diamond studded jewellery and that broken and other diamonds are imported by India. In India, the diamonds are recycled and exported once again. With 5% import duty on cut and polished diamonds, the cost of imported diamonds will increase phenomenally.

Talking to TOI, GJEPCs regional chairman, Dinesh Navadiya reportedly said, The council is continuously in touch with the finance ministry and other departments to revise the decision on increasing import duty on cut and polished diamonds. We had supported the central governments decision on imposing 2.5% duty on diamonds to stop round tripping. In past few years, the round tripping has completely stopped and diamonds imported in the country are of the jewellery sold by the Americans.

Aruna Gaitonde, Editor in Chief of Asian Bureau, Rough & Polished








Get-Diamonds, the official B2B e-commerce platform of the Israeli Diamond Industry, has signed an official partnership agreement with Rock & Trade, a diamond website especially for Chinese jewelers and suppliers. Through this agreement all goods offered on Get-Diamonds will automatically be offered on the Chinese language site.

The Israel-based Rock & Trade offers access to hundreds of Chinese-speaking jewelers and suppliers throughout mainland China and Hong Kong.

IDI Chairman Boaz Moldawsky hailed the agreement as an important step in expanding the reach of Get-Diamonds in one of Israels leading markets. This partnership will enable us to trade directly with Chinese jewelers easily and efficiently and in their own language, he said.

Near Kella, Rock & Trade co-founder, said, "Our Chinese jewelers will now have direct access to the Israeli stock and they will be able to benefit from the high quality, special cuts and rare fancy colored diamonds that can only be found in Israel.

Aruna Gaitonde, Editor in Chief of Asian Bureau, Rough & Polished
Severe Weather Alert From The National Weather Service In Glasgow

The National Weather Service in Glasgow has extended the

 Flood Warning for...

An Ice Jam in...

Southeastern Richland County in northeastern Montana...

 Until 1215 PM MDT Friday

 At 730 PM MDT, the Savage Fire Department Chief reported the main

ice jam is now on the move and they will monitor it around the S

curves as it travels downstream. The other ice jam remains at

County road 130 south of Fairview in Richland County, causing

flooding of nearby lowlands and roads.

 The additional ice will likely cause further flooding concerns,

and the potential for rapid water rises on the Yellowstone river.

Local officials advise people living on the Yellowstone River in

southern Richland County to have a plan and be prepared to

evacuate if needed.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

Please report flooding to your local law enforcement agency when you

can do so safely.

--------

The National Weather Service in Bismarck has issued a

 Flood Warning for the Missouri River near Williston

 Until further notice

 At 08AM Wednesday the stage was...25.8 feet

 Flood stage is 22.0 feet

 Impact...At 24.0 feet...Water begins to cover oil well location

south and east of Williston. Wildlife management areas are flooded.

City of Williston does not flood.
Bitcoin is back above $9,000 after market sentiment improved as the news from the G-20 meeting in Argentina was seen constructive. Also, a Bitcoin bull predicted that the alt-coin bear market was almost nearing its end. However, results of a study that found links to child abuse on blockchain was more damaging to the image of the promising . Further, a report from Time magazine that Russia secretly helped Venezuela to launch its cryptocurrency and another news that the NSA is tracking Bitcoin transactions raised eyebrows.



Here is a wrap up of the main news from the cryptocurrency and blockchain space over the past 24 hours.



Bitcoin Back Above $9,000 On G-20 News

The price of Bitcoin climbed back above $9,000 after finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 nations meeting in Buenos Aires in Argentina reportedly agreed to take a constructive approach to cryptocurrencies rather than banning them altogether. The group decided to submit specific recommendation on cryptocurrency regulation by July. Read more...

Bitcoin Bull Tom Lee Predicts End of Alt-coin Bear Market

Bitcoin bull Tom Lee predicted the bear market for alt-coins, which are small-cap cryptocurrencies, is over. The head of Fundstrat Global Advisors also said that investors should stick to larger cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin as the alt-coins are likely to go through a purgatory period before starting a bull market.



Study Finds Links To Child Pornography Within Blockchain

German researchers have found illegal content, including hundreds of links to child pornography within the blockchain, which is required to participate in Bitcoin. The report, published by RWTH Aachen University, Germany, noted that the findings especially endangers the multi-billion dollar powering cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, making it illegal in at least 112 countries in which possessing content such as child pornography is unlawful. Read more...

Russia Secretly Helped Venezuela To Launch Petro Cryptocurrency: Report

Petro, the cryptocurrency launched by Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro government, was the result of a hidden collaboration between officials and businessmen from the South American country and Russia, to evade the economic sanctions imposed by the United States, the Time magazine reported, citing sources familiar with the effort. U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday had issued an executive order banning U.S. persons from using, purchasing and selling Venezuela's digital currency, Petro. Read more...

Snowden Leak Reveals NSA Tracking Bitcoin Users

US National Security Agency has been tracking Bitcoin transactions as early as 2013, online news outlet The Intercept reported citing classified documents made available by whistle-blower Edward Snowden. Citing an internal NSA report dating to March 2013, The Intercept reported that the watchdog had at least one source which helped it "harvest and analyze raw, global internet traffic while also exploiting an unnamed software program that purported to offer anonymity to users." Read more...

IBM Developing Crypto-anchors In Products To Check Counterfeit

IBM said its researchers are developing tamper-proof digital fingerprints known as crypto-anchors, which can be embedded into products to tackle issues such as counterfeit and food safety. Cryptographic anchors will be used in tandem with blockchain's distributed ledger technology to ensure an object's authenticity from its point of origin until it reaches the hands of the customer, the tech giant said in a statement. Read more...

Switzerland's Growing ICO Market

Switzerland is becoming the center of activity for Initial Coin offerings after the country's financial regulator became the first to set out an impressive framework for ICO issuers in mid-February. The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, on February 16, became the first regulator to issue ICO-specific guidelines about applying of Swiss laws to ICOs. Read more...

Russians To Turn Off Mining Equipment To Observe 'Crypto Hour'

Cryptocurrency miners in Russia will observe "Earth Hour" on March 24 in their own way. They have named it "Crypto Hour", and will turn-off their mining equipment for one hour - from 8.30 pm to 9.30 (local time). The campaign is led by Peter Dvoryankin, founder of International Investor Network CryptoLife. He made the call to all crypto miners in the world to create awareness about ecological mining, Russian news outlet Rambler reported. Read more...

Canada's VersaBank To Launch Blockchain-based Safety Deposit Box

Canadian lender VersaBank is set to launch a blockchain-based safety deposit box for securely storing digital property such as cryptocurrencies that will have a combination of banking integrity and blockchain security. The initiative was initially announced on January 23. "Bitcoin and other crypto currencies are quickly gaining popularity and holders have already experienced their valuable holdings vanish from the less secure 'digital storage' options," said David Taylor, President & CEO of VersaBank. Read more...

Whisky-backed Cryptocurrency CaskCoin Launched

The world's first whisky-backed cryptocurrency has officially been introduced through an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) that gives investors a share in a 40-million pound Scotch whisky portfolio. CaskCoin is created on the Ethereum blockchain, that combines with a physical asset investment in the form of maturing Scotch Whisky. Read more...

Current Prices

As of 8 am ET on Wednesday, Bitcoin was up 6.47 percent at $9,075 and Ethereum was higher by 9.06 percent at $581.10 on Coinbase.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Forex News
Japan will on Thursday release February figures for retail sales, highlighting a modest day for Asia-Pacific economic activity.

Retail sales are expected to add 0.6 percent on month and 1.7 percent on year after falling 1.8 percent on month and rising 1.6 percent on year in January. Large retailer sales are expected to gain an annual 0.9 percent after adding 0.5 percent in the previous month.

Australia will see February data for private sector credit and job vacancies. Credit is expected to hold steady at 0.3 percent on month and 4.9 percent on year. Vacancies were up 2.7 percent on month in January.

Singapore will provide February numbers for producer prices; in January, producer prices were down 0.5 percent on month and up 2.1 percent on year.

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.
Editors Pick

Twitter has rolled out the tipping feature called "Tips" for everyone around the globe using the microblogging site with more payment options to choose from, including cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. This is a new way for people to receive and show support on Twitter with money. The feature is currently available on iOS and will be available on Android over the coming weeks.

Amazon.com has launched weekly Max-Your-Vax Sweepstakes to encourage their employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19. The sweepstakes began on August 6, 2021 and ends on October 21, 2021, with six draws during the sweepstakes period for 18 prizes worth nearly $2 million, including cash prizes, new vehicle or cash and vacation plus 40 hours of Paid Time Off.

Target Corp. announced its plans to hire 100,000 seasonal team members at its stores across the country for this holiday shopping season, though fewer than previous years. With this, the company aims to invest in more flexible scheduling, training, pay and benefits for its existing team members. In a statement, the company said it is also offering around 5 million more hours to its existing staff.
German stocks tumbled on Wednesday after U.S. shares came under heavy selling pressure overnight on privacy concerns and on worries about tighter industry regulations. Trade-related tensions also kept investors nervous.

The benchmark DAX was down 185 points or 1.54 percent at 11,786 in opening deals after rallying around 1.6 percent on Tuesday.

Chipmaker Infineon dropped 2.3 percent while banks Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank lost 2.5 percent and 1.6 percent, respectively, after German 10-year government bond yields fell below 0.5 percent for the first time since early January.

Daimler lost 2 percent after the automaker said that accounting changes will result in a changed outlook for its Mercedes-Benz Cars and Daimler Buses units.

Biotech firm Evotec declined 2.3 percent on reporting a decline in 2017 net income.

Volkswagen shed 1.8 percent on a Bloomberg report that its fiscal affairs in Luxembourg are under scrutiny from the European Union watchdogs.

In economic releases, German consumer confidence is set to improve in April, survey data from the market research group GfK showed. The forward-looking consumer sentiment index rose unexpectedly by 0.1 point to 10.9 in April. The score was forecast to fall to 10.7.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Market Analysis
Cryptocurrency major Ripple played a genie to students and teachers across the US on Tuesday, as the company funded every single live classroom request on the crowdfunding platform for schools, DonorsChoose.org.

The San Francisco-based Ripple runs a global real-time settlement network for the large financial institutions on which the cryptocurrency currency of the same name, carrying the XRP symbol, works.

Ripple funded 35,000 classroom projects on DonorsChoose.org with a donation of $29 million in XRP, the non profit and the company both announced on their websites.

The cryptocurrency is the third largest by market capitalization, on CoinMarketCap, after Bitcoin and Ethereum.



The donation was first made public on Tuesday by television host Stephen Colbert on his "The Late Show".

DonorsChoose.org was founded in 2000 by a Bronx school teacher Charles Best. The website of the non profit said it now supports over 400,000 public school teachers representing 76 percent of public schools across the US.

Related Stories:

Ripple Revealed

UNICEF Unveils Blockchain Ethereum Fundraising To Help Syrian Children

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the Ripple funding was kept under wraps for days to prevent a run on the DonorsChoose.org website. The newspaper also said it was the largest single virtual currency gift to a charity.

Best said this was the first time that all project requests on the platform was fulfilled in one go. Requests would include those for books, , infrastructure, field trips, and other things to support education.



"As a company, we're focused on removing the friction from cross-border payments to promote more inclusion and accessibility within the global ," Ripple said on its website.

"DonorsChoose.org applies the same principles of inclusion and accessibility to education."

Monica Long, SVP of Marketing at Ripple, said in a video post with Best that the Ripple team was thanking teachers for the education they gave with the donation.

Only teachers from verified schools can take part in the funding program. DonorsChoose.org does not send cash to teachers, but procure the items they request and ship it to them.



The group aims to get 1 million people give $100 million to classroom projects from 100 percent of the country's high-poverty public schools over the next five years.

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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.
European stocks tumbled on Wednesday as a further fall in bond yields pulled down banking shares and stocks followed their U.S. and Asian peers lower on privacy concerns and on worries about tighter industry regulations. Trade-related tensions also kept investors nervous.

The pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 index was down 0.9 percent at 364.39 in late opening deals after climbing 1.2 percent the previous day to rebound from one-year lows.

The German DAX was losing 1.2 percent, France's CAC 40 was declining about 1 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was down 0.7 percent.

Chipmaker AMS fell as much as 8 percent and Infineon dropped 1.6 percent while banks Commerzbank, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole and Barclays lost 2-3 percent.

Shire jumped as much as 18 percent after Japan's Takeda said it is "considering making an approach" to buy the Irish drugmaker.

French aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation dropped about 1 percent as the exercise of the option for the purchase of 12 additional Rafale fighters for Qatar came into effect.

German biotech firm Evotec declined 2.5 percent on reporting a decline in 2017 net income.

Daimler lost 2 percent after the automaker said that accounting changes will result in a changed outlook for its Mercedes-Benz Cars and Daimler Buses units.

Volkswagen shed 1.8 percent on a Bloomberg report that its fiscal affairs in Luxembourg are under scrutiny from the European Union watchdogs.

In economic releases, France's consumer sentiment remained stable in March, survey results from the statistical office Insee showed. The consumer confidence index held steady at 100 in March, matching economists' expectations.

German consumer confidence is set to improve in April, survey data from the market research group GfK showed. The forward-looking consumer sentiment index rose unexpectedly by 0.1 point to 10.9 in April. The score was forecast to fall to 10.7.

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Market Analysis
Concho Resources Inc. (CXO) announced Wednesday that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire RSP Permian, Inc. (RSPP) in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $9.5 billion, inclusive of RSP's net debt.

The consideration will consist of 0.320 shares of Concho common stock for each share of RSP common stock. This represents consideration to each RSP shareholder of $50.24 per share based on the closing price of Concho common stock on March 27, 2018.

The consideration represents an approximately 29% premium to RSP's closing price of $38.92 on March 27. Upon closing of the transaction, Concho shareholders will own approximately 74.5% of the combined company, and RSP shareholders will own approximately 25.5%.

The transaction was unanimously approved by the board of directors of each company. It is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2018, subject to the approval of both Concho and RSP shareholders, the satisfaction of certain regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

Upon closing, Concho's board will be expanded to 11 directors, to include one independent member of the RSP board. Concho will continue to be headquartered in Midland, Texas.

The acquisition is expected to be accretive in the first year to Concho's key per-share metrics, including net asset value, earnings, cash flow and debt-adjusted growth. In addition, the transaction is expected to enhance Concho's three-year outlook for annualized production growth on a capital program within cash flow from operations.

With the deal, Concho expects to realize over $60 million in annual corporate level savings. The present value of corporate and operational synergies is expected to exceed $2 billion.

The acquisition would expand Concho's strategic portfolio in the Permian Basin to approximately 640,000 net acres. The combined company will run the largest drilling program in the Permian Basin with 27 rigs.

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Business News
A newly founded Blockchain Association is planning to file a lawsuit against the ongoing ban of cryptocurrency-related advertisements by social media giants, reports said citing Russian news outlet TASS. The move follows the recent announcements by Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Yandex to ban ads related to cryptocurrencies and Initial coin offerings or ICOs.

The Eurasian Blockchain Association or EBA, comprising Russian, Chinese and South Korean associations for cryptocurrency and Blockchain, at a meeting in Moscow reached a deal to file a class action challenging the ban in a US court.

EBA representatives include Russian Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Association or RACIB, the Korea Venture Business Association or KOVA and the Chinese Association of Cryptocurrency Investors or LBTC.

Citing misleading or deceptive promotional practices, social media giant Facebook, the second largest ad provider in the world, had initiated the move in late January, banning all adverts promoting cryptocurrencies. Facebook's announcement was after the significant growth in adverts for cryptocurrency-related investments. Many of these adverts were feared to be scams. Misleading or deceptive ads have no place on Facebook, the company then said.

Google, the world's largest online ad provider, followed with the announcement in mid-March of an impending ban, citing consumer protection. The search engine giant said it would ban ads promoting cryptocurrencies and related content including ICOs from June, as part of its policy to restrict the marketing of high-risk financial products.

Twitter started banning crypto-related ads, specifically for ICOs and token sales, from Tuesday. Russia's biggest search engine Yandex reportedly would enact its own set of prohibitive measures. As per reports, social media platform Snapchat has also banned advertisements of ICOs.

During the BlockchainRF-2018 congress in Moscow, Yury Pripachkin, the president of RACIB, said the companies' decisions to ban the ads negatively affected the crypto market in the last few months.

"We believe that this is a use of the monopoly position of these four companies, which have entered into a cartel agreement with each other in order to manipulate the market. The ban from these four organizations has led to a significant drop in the market in recent months," Pripachkin said.

He added that the association will also file suit against the companies' shareholders or managers if they have crypto wallets used for personal gain.

The lawsuit is expected to be filed in the US, as some US states, mainly Wyoming, are loyal to cryptocurrencies. Wyoming recently passed laws to exempt crypto from state property taxes and relax securities regulations.

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Litecoin, the fifth largest cryptocurrency by market cap, was attempting to regain some lost momentum Wednesday morning after it was hit over the last two days by the news of the shutdown of a much hyped start-up that claimed it was developing a payment processing system that uses the cryptocurrency. Social media giants who banned cryptocurrency related ads on their platform are likely to face a class action lawsuit from a Eurasian blockchain industry group. Meanwhile, Ripple, the third largest crypto, has made what is apparently the biggest single virtual currency gift to a charity working to meet the needs of public schools.

Here is a wrap-up of the main news from the cryptocurrency and blockchain world over the last 24 hours.

Litecoin Hit After Payment Processor LitePay Shuts Down

Litecoin, the fifth largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization on CoinMarketCap, tumbled on the news that payment processor LitePay has ceased all operations. The San Francisco-based LitePay was launched in the middle of February as a merchant payment processor accepting Litecoin. The cryptocurrency rallied mid-February on the LitePay news. Read more...

Eurasian Blockchain Association May File Lawsuit Against Crypto Ad Ban

A newly founded blockchain association is planning to file a lawsuit against the ongoing ban of cryptocurrency-related advertisements by social media giants, reports said citing Russian news outlet TASS. The move follows the recent announcements by Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Yandex to ban ads related to cryptocurrencies and Initial coin offerings or ICOs. The Eurasian Blockchain Association or EBA, comprising Russian, Chinese and South Korean associations for cryptocurrency and blockchain, at a meeting in Moscow reached a deal to file a class action challenging the ban in a US court. Read more...

Ripple Donates $29 Mln To DonorsChoose.org To Fund Classroom Requests

Cryptocurrency major Ripple played a genie to students and teachers across the US on Tuesday, as the company funded every single live classroom request on the crowdfunding platform for schools, DonorsChoose.org. The San Francisco-based Ripple runs a global real-time settlement network for the large financial institutions on which the cryptocurrency currency of the same name, carrying the XRP symbol, works. Read more...



Steven Seagal, Founders Exit After Bitcoiin ICO Period Ends

Brand Ambassador Steven Seagal and unnamed Founders of cryptocurrency investment company Bitcoiin B2G have exited after the controversial initial coin offering (ICO) period ended for the B2G token. Bitcoiin said it would now function within its ecosystem and become a genuinely anonymous cryptocurrency with no individual or individuals having control over the entity. Read more...

Travel Startup Cool Cousin Offers Crypto Incentives

Blockchain-based travel startup Cool Cousin is incentivizing locals with their crypto token CUZ for providing travelers with personalized guidance, travel recommendations, and assistance for their locality. The company allows users of their travel app to connect with locals in the proposed city of travel to gain localized information. The locals are termed as "Cousins" by the company and are offered incentives in the form of CUZ tokens for providing content. Read more...

Current Prices

As of 6.35 am ET on Wednesday, Bitcoin was up 1.15 percent at $8,044.85, while Ethereum was lower by 0.14 percent at $461.89 and Litecoin was down by 2.19 percent at $138.44 on Coinbase.

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Forex News
Ireland's retail sales declined for the third straight month in February, preliminary figures from the Central Statistics Office showed Wednesday.

The volume of retail sales dropped 0.2 percent month-over-month in February, following a 0.4 percent decrease in January.

The sectors with the largest monthly volume decreases were books, newspapers & stationery and food, beverages & tobacco.

Excluding motor trades, the volume of retail sales registered an increase of 0.6 percent.

On a yearly basis, retail sales growth accelerated to 2.0 percent in February from 1.6 percent in the prior month.

The value of retail sales fell 2.0 percent monthly in February, while it rose 0.4 percent from a year earlier.

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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.
Canadian stocks are poised for a lackluster session Wednesday morning amid lower oil prices and problems for numerous tech giants.

The TSX Composite Index was down 82.38 points to 15,216.18 on Tuesday.

Facebook may steady after announcing some measures to streamline its privacy settings, but the driverless car industry may remain under pressure due to regulatory issues.

Hudson's Bay (HBC.TO) turned in another disappointing quarterly result. The company said it is "not pleased" with its recent performance.

BlackBerry (BB.TO) shares are set to open higher after upbeat quarterly results.

"We achieved another record quarter in software and services revenue as we grew across all three of our software businesses. We also generated positive non-GAAP EPS and cash flow from operations for the fiscal year," said John Chen, CEO, BlackBerry.

WTI light sweet crude was down 37 cents to $64.89 a barrel, having recently touched a 7-week high. Analysts say traders took some profits after the strong rally.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) has reported a significant build of 5.321 million barrels of U.S. crude oil inventories for the week ending March 23.

However, gasoline stockpiles plunged 5.8 million barrels.

In economic news, Canada's average weekly earnings of non-farm payroll employees were C$996 in January, little changed from the previous month. Earnings were up 3.2% compared with January 2017, largely the result of gains in the second half of 2017.

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Market Analysis
Pebblebrook Hotel Trust (PEB) reported that the Board of LaSalle Hotel Properties (LHO) has unanimously rejected the company's proposal. The Board determined that the proposal is insufficient from both a price and mix of consideration perspective and is therefore not in the best interests of LaSalle Hotel Properties shareholders. Pebblebrook said the company is prepared to engage in discussions around price and mix of consideration as warranted by due diligence.

Pebblebrook also released two letters, dated March 6, 2018 and March 20, 2018, to LaSalle Hotel Properties in which the company proposed a share-for-share merger. The proposal represented an implied merger price of $30.001 per LaSalle common share, based on the proposed fixed exchange ratio of 0.8655 Pebblebrook common shares for each LaSalle common share.

Jon Bortz, CEO of Pebblebrook Hotel Trust, said: "We believe the shareholders of both of our companies should know about this proposal, and it is our hope that LaSalle will decide to engage with us to reach a mutually beneficial agreement."

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Business News
Kansas Attorney General has indicted two more officials in connection with the death of a 10-year-old boy in August 2016 and injuries sustained by others while riding the Verruckt waterslide at Schlitterbahn Waterpark of Kansas City.

Reckless second-degree murder charge has been slapped against Jeffrey Henry, a co-owner of Schlitterbahn companies and a designer of the waterslide; John Schooley, another designer of the waterslide; and Henry & Sons Construction Company, Inc., a corporation involved in the design and construction of the waterslide.

The three defendants also were indicted in connection with injuries sustained by 13 other persons while riding the waterslide.

Henry was arrested March 26 in South Padre Island, Texas, by the U.S. Marshals Service.

The 17-story ride is touted as the world's tallest waterslide.

Former director of operations Tyler Miles has already been charged with involuntary manslaughter charges and several counts of aggravated battery, aggravated endangering a child and interference with law enforcement.

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Business News
Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX,ABX.TO) announced the passing of the Company's Founder and Chairman Emeritus, Peter Munk. Munk passed away peacefully in Toronto today, surrounded by his family. He was 90.

Munk, an iconic Canadian entrepreneur and philanthropist, was born in Budapest in 1927. When the Nazis invaded Hungary in 1944, he escaped with his family, ultimately arriving in Toronto in 1948 at the age of 20.

Munk founded Barrick in 1983 and built it into the world's largest gold mining company in less than twenty-five years.

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Business News
Canadian stocks were continued to drift lower Wednesday amid lingering weakness in the tech sector.

Falling crude oil prices also had Bay Street in an anxious mood ahead of the Easter Break.

On Wall Street, falling shares of Facebook, Tesla, Apple and Amazon have generate significant risk aversion in the broader market.

The TSX Composite Index dropped 46.24 points to 15,169.94.

WTI light sweet oil was down 95 cents at $64.30 a barrel.

OPEC and Russia are considering a plan to extend their supply quotas beyond 2018 and up to the middle of next year, according to Bloomberg citing Iraq's Oil Minister Jabbar al-Luaibi.

Gold prices also fell sharply today, easing from a recent 5-week high.

Barrick Gold founder P. Munk has passed away at the age of 90.

Hudson's Bay (HBC.TO) turned in another disappointing quarterly result. The company said it is "not pleased" with its recent performance. Shares rose 1.5 percent, however.

BlackBerry (BB.TO) shares inched lower on pessimism about the tech sector despite upbeat quarterly results for the smartphone maker.

In economic news, Canada's average weekly earnings of non-farm payroll employees were C$996 in January, little changed from the previous month. Earnings were up 3.2% compared with January 2017, largely the result of gains in the second half of 2017.

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Market Analysis
(Agencia CMA Latam) - Mexico's government awarded 16 contracts for oil and gas exploration and extraction in Gulf of Mexico's shallow waters to 14 companies in the first call of the Round Three of oil area auctions.

The contracts awarded amount to approximately US$ 8.6 billion in investments, tapping on a reserve of 513 million barrels of oil equivalent.

The Mexican state should receive, on average, between 72% and 78% of the profits generated in the awarded contracts. Likewise, it would receive US$ 124 million derived from the winning bids, in which the state-owned oil company Pemex obtained a total of seven contractual areas, six of them in a consortium and one individually.

Through the subsidiary production company Pemex Exploracion y Produccion, the state company won four blocks in the Southeast Basins: two in consortium with the French Total, one with the Anglo-Dutch Shell and one individually.

It also obtained three blocks corresponding to the province of Tampico-Misantla-Veracruz: two in association with the Compalla Espa?ola de Petroleo (CEPSA) and the German Deutsche Erdoel AG (DEA) and one more in partnership with CEPSA.

by Agencia CMA Latam

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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.
Team Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag is heading towards the coast of the Chile, as the team attempt to recover from the devastating loss overboard of John Fisher on Monday.

At this point, the team has not confirmed its plans, but the west coast of Chile represents the closest landfall and a relatively safe passage for the strong conditions the team is still facing.

The rest of the fleet continues to push on towards Cape Horn.

As of the 1300 UTC position report on Wednesday, Team Brunel skipper Bouwe Bekking and his crew had opened up a lead of 65-miles since jumping to the front of the pack four days ago.

The teams have been battling heavy winds gusting more than 40 knots and monstrous seas as they sail downwind towards Cape Horn, where the Southern Ocean is forced through the narrow gap between South America and Antarctica.

The famed Cape marks the passage into the South Atlantic Ocean and means the end of Southern Ocean sailing for the fleet. The ETA for rounding Cape Horn is near midday (UTC) on Thursday.

Behind Brunel, Vestas 11th Hour Racing, MAPFRE, and Dongfeng Race Team are within 20 miles of each other, with Turn the Tide on Plastic and team AkzoNobel a further 30 miles behind.

The loss of Scallywag's John Fisher is still weighing on the minds of many sailors. Turn the Tide on Plastic skipper Dee Caffari offered this moving tribute, describing the atmosphere on board after she told her crew what had happened to her friend 'Fish':

"Many tears were shed both openly and privately. Fish was a friend, a fan and a true supporter of our project. He was a gifted sailor who was doing what he loved and that gives us solace at this difficult time. We now look to the skies above and sadly see another spirit of a lost sailor take flight in an Albatross watching over the rest of us out here.

"Our hearts and prayers go out to his family and friends and even more so to Team SHK/Scallywag and the rest of the Volvo Ocean Race family that have lost a loved one."



For more on the Volvo Ocean Race, visit our website:www.volvooceanrace.com
PR - Citizens of Samoa, Tonga, Kiribati, Tuvalu and Fiji are encouraged to register for this years ballot under the Samoan Quota and Pacific Access Category, which takes place between 3 and 30 April.

Immigration Instructions recognise the special relationship between New Zealand and Samoa and the Pacific Access Category countries of Tonga, Tuvalu, Kiribati and Fiji.

Each year up to 1100 Samoan citizens, 250 Tongan and Fijian citizens and 75 Kiribati and Tuvaluan citizens are selected by ballot to be considered for the grant of residence in New Zealand.

Eligible citizens of these five countries must be aged between 18 and 45 to register under the ballot. The successful registrants selected from the ballot process will have eight months to lodge their resident visa applications; the principal applicant must also have an acceptable job offer from a New Zealand employer.

Prospective ballot registrants are reminded to make sure that they have the required forms and necessary documents. Only one ballot registration form is needed for each family. Photocopies of birth certificates must also be provided for everyone named on the registration form.

Immigration New Zealand will contact each ballot registrant via a mobile text message or email to acknowledge receipt of their ballot registration form including their Client Registration Number.

Ballot registrants will need to hold on to this number to check the status of their registration after the ballots are drawn.

Pacific Access Category quota ballots will be drawn on 8 June and results will be announced on 15 June.

This year the Samoan Quota ballot will again be drawn later to manage the significant number of registrations traditionally received. It will be drawn on 29 June and results will be announced on 6 July.

The relevant ballot registration forms and guides can be found at the following link https://www.immigration.govt.nz/new-zealand-visas/apply-for-a-visa/tools-and-information/forms-and-guides/live-permanently.

Limited numbers of forms will be available at the INZ offices in Nukualofa and Apia.

Applicants are strongly encouraged to register their interest as early as possible.
Dear Editor,

How would you like to be the Night Watchman that guards those while theyre asleep and has the master key to open and close any doors for their so called security?

Who in this case will watch the Night Watchman that has the master key to open and to close these doors? While everyones asleep, which most people are, the govt. is slowly picking our pockets with every penny we have by raising taxes and changing the laws to compromised our land and no one seems to know because they have the master key to the Justice System  with this new law to have one of their implant. to control the integrity of the Judicial System.

Socrates a great philosopher of antiquity was put to death by the govt. because he was accused of corrupting the youth, but in point of fact, he was teaching the youth how to use logic with critical thinking and asking questions about everything to find the truth.

Why is it important to know the truth? It is the only way that will set us free. The point is, the problem with todays world is that too many people believe in anything their govt. and their churches tells them instead of doing their own homework and research to get to the bottom to know of how the world really works and how things came about.

They have been conditioned too long to follow like a good sheep and churches labeling us as sinners instead of leading the way through enlightenment of ourselves through knowledge and understanding and knowing who we really are, as Socrates so adamantly suggest for man to Know Thyself first before you venture out to know the world.

Trust in ourselves that we have been endowed by the Divine Presence of the Universe that for lack of a better term some people called God to have all the rights and privileges to declare ourselves as a sovereign human being with human rights to think independently and without being coerced otherwise.

I came in this world naked as anybody else and Im going back naked as well. The naked truth is ugly because theres nothing to hide we are totally exposed to the truth, thats why people cant handle the truth. What else thats left when you found naked and being exposed? Nothing, but out of that nothingness is freedom.

Pardon me for relating this story to illustrate my point. But the story goes that one Pastor pose a question. O ai le tagata? no one seems to get the answer until one sokaimiti stop up and drop his ie lavalava and said,  Ole tagata atoa lena, hahaha, just a little humor but the point was driven to the heart of the question.

We were given equal rights under the law to uphold and adhere to it without preconditions and that no one is exempt from it but to serve the justice thereof. So long as they make a believer out of us instead of to know as in knowing through knowledge they can easily blind folded our conscious eyes to accept anything they told us and not knowing that we have been manipulated to go along to get along, we will never find the truth and the justice we so adamantly deserve.

Our beautiful country of Samoa were empowered by great men during the Mau Movement with great stature that stood against Colonialism and the women as well that held the highest honor of serving our people with their Matai titles in the past were memorialized by their courage and finesse only to be cast in the shadows by those that were enticed by money and power.

Corruption has infested the world because the color of money has superseded integrity and honesty, and Im concerned that our govt. have yielded to this dark side of history when more countries are susceptible of losing their sovereignty through bribery and back door dealings that we are now facing with our debt.

Do we really need the wealth of the outside world that brings destruction and catastrophe to our beautiful paradise? The answer is no. We were better off with the CASH economy we once have, you pay as you go, no bills no head aches and now the introduction of the CREDIT corrupt system that the western world introduced to us that ties up our land in return for money is more prevalent now than ever.

People live under the false pretenses that we have equity with our land that we can borrow from it using a promissory note that we can pay it back with interest later on but only to find out that we dont have the type of job to pay this money back and as a result, our land is swallowed up by the banks.

True freedom comes from owning our own land out right instead of paying taxes on it. The Torrens System was devised to do that. Once we regis as in registration we are entitled to give up our land rights to the king unknowingly in this case the government. They will then give us the carbon copy of your title while they keep the original. In other words its a trickery law to enslave us to pay them taxes on our own land.

Only time will tell when they will institute this tax law in effect, but its coming. Is there a relationship between Govt., Banking and Religion here? You bet your life on it is. Who founded the govt. systems of the world? All roads lead to Rome.

The Romans with their religion Dogma, that said render unto Caesar which is Caesar and render unto God which is God is a farce, the Caesars and God are synonymous . Since God is not here on earth according to their dogma, the Potifex Maximus who is the Pope is over seeing the affairs of the world on behalf of God.

Since the Roman Caesars families the Flavians, Julians and the Antonies were the ruling elites of the new era AD and to preserve their blood line throughout history they have created a system that said they were ordained by the divine to rule over the people of the world and to preserve their status throughout history and the churches supported this notion because then State and Church were of the same entity.

We are still living under the same old Roman Canon Law and Ecclesiastical law today. Theyve created laws of the land and laws of the high seas called Maritime Admiralty Law which are the banking laws to enslave humanity and for total control. We dont literally own anything, we are slaves in the eyes of the elites and guess who funded 30 thousand Christian churches to dumb more people down, the elites and their masterful plan to keep people believe in their literal story of Jesus when in fact the story is a metaphor for spiritual and intellectual enlightenment of mankind.

Thats why politicians are very comfortable in using Gods name to hide behind when its convenient for them for political reasons. The Zionist Christians with their Zionist Jewish counterfeit counterpart are a Geopolitical construct circumventing their grand control of the world through their secret society establishment because when it boils down to the system of secrecy they created, it is difficult for the uninitiated mind to comprehend the ocult system they created. ocult means hidden, the hidden knowledge that they know is not shared with the rest of the world but they want to keep it to themselves so they can get the upper hand against anyone dare threatened their supremacy.

So the key to the kingdom is rested upon those that are in control of our world today, not the Capital G God but the lower g god. Hope we understand the grand plan our masters has planned for us because I dare you to think out of the box rather than to think within the confine of a slave.

As one of my favorite philosopher by the name of Hypatia of Alexandria the greatest minds ever existed in the 4th century AD once said;  Reserve your right to think, for even if you think wrongly is better than not to think at all. manuia le weekend.

Leituala Roger B.
Samoa Airways is set to finalise the upgrades to their computer reservation system in two weeks.

The airline is using Radixx, which is a computer reservation that caters to low cost airlines from all over the world.

However, after six months of waiting, Samoa Airways will be upgrading to the global distribution system  Amadeus.

One of the main criticisms about the Radixx system from travel booking agents was its processing times. In an interview with the Samoa Observer, C.E.O of Samoa Airways, Seiuli Alvin Tuala, explained why they are moving to a more comprehensive booking system.

One of the problems that travel booking agents have voiced to us is that Radixx is very slow. Its a system that some travel agents have had to be retrained on because they work with other systems that are faster and broader, Seiuli said.

Radixx is a system that low cost airlines use. We used it because we were just starting out and it was affordable.

Radixx has been around for a while and its used by low cost airlines because it helps them to develop their business. Once they are developed then they can move onto bigger more complex systems and as an airline, we are moving towards Amadeus, a global distribution system and a more preferred system by travel booking agents.

One of the things we need to do is to get on the Global Distribution System (G.D.S), so that everyone can see us worldwide. There are over 90,000 agents and airlines who are on there, its a system where everybody goes in and are able to see the many different routes that airlines have from anywhere in the world. We cant do that until we get on G.D.S which is in another two weeks.

The C.E.O acknowledges the delay must be frustrating for travel agents, but there are constraints that the airline had to work within and they are working through the processes slowly, but steadily.

We always planned to go to G.D.S. Amadeus but the timing was not in our favour with the airline being approved by Cabinet in May/June 2017 and then launching it November of the same year.

Weve been trying to get on G.D.S. and it takes six months on lead time and you have to pay a certain amount because its not cheap. They have to develop and integrate systems with our systems, the systems have to talk. To get in there, you have to wait your turn in the queue.

There are hundreds of airlines trying to get on there and if youre a one plane airline, youll have to wait behind airlines like Emirates or Qantas who have big fleets. We just have to be patient.
Police are still investigating the death of a young man, identified as Vaepaa, at Tiavea Village yesterday.

Police Media Spokesperson, Auapaau Logoitino Filipo said the matter was reported from Lalomanu Police Station yesterday night.

For now, we are still working on this matter. The Police are still at the scene now to find more information on this matter.

That means no one has been charged.

Village Mayor, Tuiavii, told Samoa Observer they had no knowledge of the said incident.

Weve just finished our meeting, but if this happened early this morning (last night), then we have to look into it because the village has its own rules to follow as well for any wrongdoing.

But for now, I have nothing much to say about it because I havent heard it, maybe if thats what happened then well get more information about it some time today (yesterday).

An official at the National Health Services at Motootua said Vaepaa died upon arrival at the hospital.

There were wounds on his chest up and down the left side of his body.
Three young men were sentenced to jail on the charge of manslaughter.

They are Mikaele Siaosi, Viliamu Ieti and Faatoa Simani.

The decision was handed down by Supreme Court Justice, Tafaoimalo Leilani Tuala  Warren, on Monday morning.

Mikaele was represented by Leafa Donald Kerslake, Viliamu was represented by Diana Roma and Leiataualesa Komisi Koria represented Faatoa.

All defendants appeared for sentence on one joint charge of manslaughter pursuant to section 102 and 108 of the Crimes Act 2013.

The maximum penalty is life imprisonment.

They were all found guilty on 21 November, 2017, by a panel of assessors after a defendant hearing.

According to the evidence, on 27 April, 2017, some time in the evening, the deceased was at home with his wife and children.

The deceaseds wife heard someone yelling from the road, she and her other son ran to the road to see what was happening because she suspected it was her other son who was yelling.

The wife of the deceased was running behind his son, but her son ran back and took his mothers hand and told her to run back to their house.

The other son came too and told his mother and his other brother to go back to their house.

At the time, the defendants car arrived.

Some of the defendants were walking in front of the car.

According to Justice Tuala, there was evidence that the defendants were swearing and uttering threatening words.

The two brothers began fighting with the defendants and thats when the deceased came running from their home and then the first named defendant, Mikaele, punched the deceased and the deceased fell.

The deceased got back up and continued to fight with the defendants, while the deceaseds wife and two sons ran to their house.

A little while later, when the defendants had left, the two sons went and carried the deceased to their faleoo, he was unconscious. He was taken to hospital where he passed away on 29 April, 2017.

A post-mortem examination was carried out on the deceased.

The cause of death, as determined by the pathologist, was complication of intra cerebellar haemorrhage because of blunt force trauma.

In reading out the aggravating features, Justice Tafaoimalo said this was a group attack.

This was a group attack on the deceased at the point when his sons and wife left, leaving the deceased alone with the defendants and this made him vulnerable, she said.

There was violence involved because the deceased suffered numerous injuries, apart from that which caused his death, such as abrasion with laceration on left side neck region, linear lacerations along and below the left mandible region, laceration and haematoma on the left side lips, two incisors teeth missing on left upper side and left lower side, bruising on the left side chest and bruising on the left of the abdomen.

Although none of these injuries were the cause of death, these were the injuries inflicted by the defendants on the deceased, which indicate a severe beating of the deceased by the defendants.

I find a level of premeditation on the part of the defendants to get into an altercation with the deceased as the evidence points to the defendants swearing and uttering threatening words.

I find it aggravating that the defendants left the scene without rendering assistance, leaving the deceased with injuries to his body.

She took eight years recommended by prosecution as a starting point for her sentencing.

Having therefore taken into account the aggravating features of the offending, I take eight years as a starting point for sentence for all defendants, she said.

I have departed from Nepa guidelines for an unprovoked group attack.

The previous conviction of Viliamu is not relevant to uplift given it was for a minor offence of insulting words five years ago.

The mitigating factors for each defendant will be deducted as follows:

Mikaele, from the eight years, I will deduct one and a half years for his contribution to his village, church and family, and his personal circumstances.

I deduct one and a half years for the ifoga carried out to the matai of the deceased family, his apology and the forgiveness by the wife of the deceased.

I deduct six months for the level of provocation which was present, and finally I deduct six months for his remorse.

Mikaele Siaosi is therefore convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to four years imprisonment, less any time spent in custody.

Viliamu Eti, from the eight years starting point, I deduct one and a half years for his contribution to his family in particular and the testimonials in his favour.

I deduct one and a half years for the ifoga carried out to the matai of the deceased family, his apology and the forgiveness by the wife of the deceased.

I deduct six months for the level of provocation which was present, and finally I deduct six months for his remorse.

Viliamu is convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to four years imprisonment, less any time spent in custody.

For Faatoa, from a starting point of eight years, I deduct one year for his age, being only 20 years old. I deduct one year for his personal circumstances and good character.

I deduct one and a half years for the ifoga carried out to the matai of the deceased family, his apology and the forgiveness by the wife of the deceased.

I deduct six months for the level of provocation which was present, and finally I deduct six months for his remorse.

Faatoa Samani is convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to three years and six months imprisonment.

Justice Tafaoimalo also issued a coronial ruling.

I issue a coronial finding to certify that Konelio Peteru, born on the 28 April, 1972, of Vaoala, died on 29 April, 2017, at T.T.M. Hospital Motootua as a result of complication of intra cerebellar haemorrhage due to blunt force trauma to the back of the head.

The perpetrators have been dealt with according to the law.
Sexual connection cases were presented before Chief Justice Patu Tiavaasue Falefatu Sapolu during the criminal mention on Monday.

In one of the matters, a young man from one of the villages in the Faleata District and Aiga Le Tai District, pleaded guilty to one charge of attempted rape and two charges of burglary.

A suppression order was issued in the Supreme Court against the victim as well as the defendant.

Chief Justice Patu asked the defendant whether he wanted to engage a counsel, but the accused replied no.

Prosecution was Lucy Sio of the Attorney Generals Office.

In reading out the charges, the incident occurred in one of the villages in the Faleata districts where the defendant tried to rape the victim.

The other incident occurred on 13 April, 2017, where the defendant unlawfully entered the home of the complainant.

On the second incident, he again illegally entered the home of the complainant at night.

The Court has noted down your guilty pleas to the charges against you, he told the defendant.

This matter is adjourned to 30 April, 2018, for the summary of facts from the Police and a pre-sentence report from the probation officer.

This matter will be called before Supreme Court Justice Mata Keli Tuatagaloa.

In a different matter, a step-father also appeared before Court on 12 criminal charges.

Prosecution was Lucy Sio while Defense counsel was Leota Tima Leavai.

Leota told the Court that there are 12 charges against her client.

An order of name suppression was issued against the defendant as well as the victim given their relationship.

Ms. Sio told the Court that the defendant has pleaded guilty to five charges of sexual connection, but not guilty to the charges of sexual violation.

Your honour, after speaking to my client, he has pleaded guilty to five charges and not guilty to the rest of the charges.

Your Honour, we will still proceed with the charges that the defendant has pleaded not guilty to, she told the Court.

Ms. Leavai also made an application for the Chief Justice to grant bail for her client.

However, prosecution Ms. Sio strongly opposed bail, saying the victim is the defendants step daughter and he should be out on bail.

We strongly opposed bail your honour because the accused is the stepfather of the victim, she said.

So the victim is not safe when the defendant is granted bail.

But Ms. Leavai didnt buy it. She told the Court the step daughter is now in the care of the Samoa Victim Support Group.

I have been informed that the victim is under the care of the Samoa victim Support, shes away from the presence of my client, she said.

So the victim is safe and my client does not have any previous convictions as well, so he is a first time offender.

And the hearing is in August, so its too long for my client to be remanded in custody.

Chief Justice Patu adjourned the matter for next week Tuesday for a bail hearing.

The accuseds plea of guilty to five charges has been noted down and his not guilty plea to the remaining charges is also noted, said Chief Justice Patu.

This matter is adjourned on the week commencing the 20th August 2018 and you will still be remanded in custody for the time being until next week Tuesday, so that your counsel can provide the Court with a written application and reasons you should be granted bail.

In another matter, an 18-year-old pleaded guilty to two charges of sexual connection against a girl under 16 years old.

A suppression order was also issued for the defendant as well as the victim.

The incidents occurred on different dates.

The first incident was on 19 February, while the second incident occurred on 4 March, 2018.

Chief Justice Patu adjourned the matter to 30 April, 2018, for a report from the probation office as well as a Police summary of facts.

The matter will be called before Justice Vaepule Vaemoa Vaai.
Heart and brain activity are routinely measured through the skin with adhesive electrodes. But diagnosing gastric diseases may require patients to endure a tube stuck through the nose, down the throat and into the stomach.

Scientists led by UC San Diego researchers say they have a better option for these patients. Theyve invented a stomach-monitoring device worn like a fanny pack.

The prototype picks up the stomachs electrical signals through 10 electrodes stuck to the belly. Stomach activity changes with meals, sleep and other daily routines. Interruptions of these normal patterns can signal disease.

Because it can be worn for up to 24 hours, those being monitored can go about their day without being confined to a hospital or doctors office. Its paired with a smartphone app, so wearers can record their activities to associate with the devices readout.

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More work is being done to refine the device to improve patient care, said Todd Coleman, a UCSD bioengineering professor. This perhaps could be done by licensing it for commercialization.

Children who wouldnt tolerate getting a tube through their nose without sedation are prime subjects for this technology, Coleman said. He led the study with Armen A. Gharibans, a bioengineering postdoctoral researcher in Colemans lab.

The device was tested on 11 children who had simultaneously undergone monitoring via a catheter inserted through the nose, and one adult. The wearable device yielded useful and reliable data on stomach activity, the study found. Published March 22 in Nature Scientific Reports, it can be found at j.mp/stomachmonitor.

Adults can also benefit from the continuous monitoring the device provides, he said.

A lot of these disorders are transient, Coleman said. Pains are not always there, and likewise for nausea.

In addition, it may not be easy to tell if gastrointestinal problems are what they appear on the surface, or a manifestation of mental stress.

Is this basically a brain problem manifesting in the gut? Or do you have something fundamentally wrong with your gut? Coleman said. We think that our technology has the potential to disambiguate that, which is huge because the treatments are very different.

Doctors and engineers

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Researchers included pediatrician Hayat Mousa of UCSD and Rady Childrens Hospital in San Diego; gastroenterologist David Kunkel of UCSD School of Medicine; along with UC Berkeley neurobiology scientist Benjamin Smarr. Their work is documented online at gi2.ucsd.edu.

This marriage of engineering and medical specialists was necessary to make a workable prototype, Coleman said. By working side by side, engineers and physicians can identify and overcome obstacles in developing solutions to medical problems, he said.

Personal motivation also made the project possible, said Coleman, whose father died of pancreatic cancer.

It turns out he lost his mother, who passed before I was born, to stomach cancer, Coleman said. So it was rather personal.

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That motivation also fueled research funder Larry Smarr, a prominent UCSD physicist-futurist and father of Benjamin Smarr. The elder Smarr underwent a resection of his colon in 2016, having first assisted his surgeon by developing a high-resolution map of the region.

Coleman said he had bonded with Smarr over the years, sharing a common interest in applying data and engineering principles to medicine, and the gastrointestinal system in particular.

When I first got to UCSD, a lot of people looked to me as a person who builds these miniaturized sensors, Coleman said.

Larry came to realize that my original background is really data science and data analytics. And so when he saw some of the innovative things that we were doing, he and I just realized that were two birds of the same feather.

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Meeting challenges

Starting around 2012, Coleman researched previous attempts to develop noninvasive gastrointestinal monitoring. Knowledge of why these attempts failed helped the team solve these pitfalls, Coleman said.

While the GI system is controlled by detectable electrical impulses, these are far fainter than the hearts electrical signals. That makes readouts prone to interference by the bodys other electrical signals. So extracting enough usable data proved to be a challenge.

Armen Gharibans was a new PhD student in my group and I made him aware of this high-risk, high reward idea of trying to modernize assessment of the gut by monitoring its electrical rhythms, Coleman said.

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Coleman said he had a hunch that previous efforts had failed because there was not a close cohesion between engineers and physicians. A seamless team encompassing those disciplines might address the problem, he said.

Keep in mind that at the time, this was not a sexy research area and virtually no one in the clinical community was using this readout. I applaud Armens willingness to nonetheless take this risk, congratulate him on his outstanding work, and am relieved that the bet paid off, Coleman said.

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Science Playlist  On Now In a first, scientists rid human embryos of a potentially fatal gene mutation by editing their DNA On Now Space station flyovers visible from San Diego this week 0:55 On Now UCSD's 'ghost drivers' begin testing people's reaction seemingly empty cars 1:29 On Now 10 interesting facts about Mars On Now Kids can add years to your life On Now LA 90: SpaceX launches recycled rocket On Now Big passions, big giving: Malin Burnham 2:30 On Now Big passions, big giving: Darlene Shiley 2:40 On Now Big passions, big giving: Joan and Irwin Jacobs 2:45 On Now Ocean temperatures warming at rapid rate, study finds

bradley.fikes@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1020
After months of doubt, the federal government has agreed to boost 2018 funding for the U.S. share of the worlds largest and most ambitious nuclear fusion project.

That means what may be the endeavors most important piece  a massive magnet being assembled by San Diego-based General Atomics  will continue this year without interruption.

A small portion of the enormous omnibus spending bill passed by Congress and signed into law last week by President Donald Trump included $122 million for the U.S. contribution to the ITER Project, short for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor.

I think its fantastic and shows a new commitment to fusion we havent seen from the government in some time, said Mickey Wade, director of advanced fusion systems at General Atomics. I think this bodes well for fusion research in the U.S. and specifically here in San Diego.

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Some 45 full-time General Atomics employees are building what is called ITERs Central Solenoid in a giant warehouse at the companys Poway facility. The seven 250,000-pound circular modules will eventually be shipped to Europe, where they will be inserted into the center of the ITER facility under construction in France.

The United States is one of seven countries participating in the project and is responsible for a portion of ITERs costs, which have ballooned in the decade since construction began.

The U.S. has contributed about $1 billion and continued participation in ITER will cost about $100 million to $125 million a year for more than two decades.

The price tag generated opposition from some members of both parties in Congress, with the House of Representatives this year proposing that funding be cut in half and the Senate going so far as to call for no funding at all.

But the last-minute budget bill averted the cuts, coming two months after ITERs director-general, Bernard Bigot, made a lobbying push on Capitol Hill.

This is a very positive signal  it will prevent ITER having to announce project delays in 2018, Bigot told Reuters on Monday.

The news came as a huge relief for General Atomics.

It had been a very uncertain time as far as fusion funding was concerned and a lot of negative things had happened from the point of view of funding so we were certainly elated to see it, Wade said.

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While ITER (pronounced eater) has run into many delays, the directors of the General Atomics say the Central Solenoid project in Poway is right on schedule and meeting its milestones.

The first module will be ready to be shipped next year and the last one is scheduled to head to Europe in 2021. ITERs first operational test is slated for 2025.

Construction site in Cadarache, France for the ITER project. (Image from ITER website )

For more than six decades, scientists have talked about the awesome potential of nuclear fusion  producing a virtually unlimited amount of energy without any greenhouse gas emissions.

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Were talking millions of years of fuel, Wade said.

But fusion power has been generated only for short periods in the laboratory and no fusion reactors exist.

Even if successful, ITER will not directly result in the construction of a commercially viable power plant. Instead, the project is designed to figure out if fusion can be harnessed for practical applications.

I think we can conquer these challenges and be able to make fusion a realty, Wade said. I tell students its not a matter of if well have fusion, its a matter of when well have fusion.

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But while funding has been met for this year, the annual price tag for the U.S. share of the project is expected to go up to about $200 million in fiscal year 2019.

I think we may have turned a corner but theres still a lot of hard work ahead of us, Wade said. I think the members of Congress for the first time really understood this is a real project and is on solid track to be successful.

The seven countries taking part in the ITER project are the European Union, the U.S., Russia, China, South Korea, Japan and India. The EU has a 45 percent stake in ITER, with the other six countries contributing 9.1 percent each.

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rob.nikolewski@sduniontribune.com

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Nuclear fusions clean energy dream meets budget reality

For General Atomics, smaller nuclear plants are beautiful
Inside the small boathouse at Lake Cuyamaca, about 1,200 small trout busily swim in six aquarium tanks.

They represent a small-scale, fish-farming experiment with lofty goals. If the lakes staff can make it work at Cuyamaca, General Manager Butch Paddock said, perhaps larger lakes in the county with greater resources can do the same, but on a much bigger scale.

In about a month, the two- to three-inch trout will be transferred to a holding pen by the dock. A couple months later, when they are larger, theyll be released into the lake where they are destined to be caught by fishermen or eaten by other fish or fowl.

The lake has a problem thats been getting worse for several years.

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The amount of trout the states Fish & Wildlife Department provides them under the terms of a contract has been declining due to hatchery problems. At the same time, the cost of trout the lake buys from vendors has continued to go up.

A pound of farmed trout used to cost under $2. Now it costs more than $4.

Lake Cuyamaca Ranger Jay Blaylock explains how the trout farming system works. (J. Harry Jones/U-T )

Not too long ago, 40,000 pounds of trout would be dumped into the lake annually. Thats down to about 19,000 pounds now because thats all the lake can afford.

Although located in Cuyamaca-Rancho State Park, the lake is independent of the state park system and gets almost all its revenues from the sale of daily fishing permits.

That severely limits the amount of money they have to buy from fish farming vendors, yet its the trout that fishermen most want to catch at Cuyamaca.

Were looking for ways to augment our trout, Paddock said Tuesday. We used to be a trout mecca. Were trying to build that back up now.

Which is where the fish-farming experiment kicks in. A couple years ago, on a very small scale, the lake began trying to raise its own trout. There were failures at first as they figured out the intricacies.

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They got better at it and then early this year they were the beneficiaries of a decision by the owners of Lakeside Bait & Tackle to move back to Texas. They sold everything in the store, including a system to Lake Cuyamaca that included the tanks and filtration system they had used to raise bait fish.

We were very fortunate, Paddock said. They sold everything off. Thats where we got our system and we got it for a song and a dance.

The idea is to raise their own fish, show others in the county that it can be done, and then hopefully inspire others to copy what they are doing.

Up at Big Bear Lake, they are soon going to be putting in their own hatchery, Paddock said. They are going to raise their own trout. They are going to be in a position in another year or two to be able to not only provide themselves with all the trout they will want, but also to distribute trout to other lakes in the area.

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In the future I see that happening in San Diego, he said. If our little operation can do what were doing right now, then I believe these larger organizations that do have tax-based revenues  can provide all the trout for all the lakes in the county.

Ranger Jay Blaylock said farmed trout are not a self-sustaining species. They are genetically bred not to reproduce. They grow faster that way, he said.

That means the only way trout can exist in the lake is to put them there.

Paddock said if the experiment doesnt work, the lake may be forced to concentrate less on the popular trout and more on fish that can reproduce and are already in the lake like catfish, blue gill, sturgeon and crappie.

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What were trying to do is show what can be done, Paddock said.

All you have to do is be diligent about keeping them clean and keeping them fed, he said. If larger organizations with a few bucks behind them try it, I believe they can absolutely provide fish for many, if not all of the lakes in the county.

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jharry.jones@sduniontribune.com; 760/529-4931; Twitter: @jharryjones
The parents of a Chula Vista elementary school student are suing the district, alleging their son was sexually assaulted by a classmate.

Both of the boys were in the third grade and the victim was 8 years old at the time of the incidents, said Anna Yum, the lawyer who filed the suit for the family.

The district, which is accused of failing to supervise the children and not communicating with the parents, said it disagrees with the allegations that are being made, but does not feel it is appropriate to discuss these types of allegations involving minors with the media.

Two assaults are alleged to have happened in a bathroom at Enrique Camarena Elementary School after lunch on July 25 and July 27, according to the complaint, which uses fictitious names to protect the privacy of both minors. It says that one boy followed the other into the bathroom on the 25th, asked if he wanted to have sex, shoved him to the ground and forced him to perform oral sex. Afterwards, the victim threw up and the other boy said, dont tell anyone or I wont be your friend or Ill beat you up, according to the complaint.

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The boy told his parents about throwing up but not about the assault, the suit says, and two days later, he was assaulted again.

That night, the victim told his parents and showed them a hickey on his chest. The following morning, the parents reported the incidents to the schools principal and vice principal. The victim was taken to Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center and the Chula Vista Police Department was notified, according to the lawsuit.

The schools principal, Jonathan Strout, wrote a letter to parents last week after the Union-Tribune asked the district to comment.

Please be assured that the parents of the involved students were immediately notified of the incident and there is no information that any other students were involved, Strout wrote in the letter, a copy of which was posted on a Facebook group last week.

Strout encouraged parents to talk to their children about personal space and personal safety. Specifically, he said, Your child can and should provide important information that may prevent harm to him or her, or to another student. He emphasized that schools are safe spaces where local law enforcement agencies help keep students safe, according to the letter.

The complaint alleges that in both cases, school staff noted that the two boys were alone, unsupervised, for 15 minutes and late for class and that the school did not notify the parents or investigate.

My clients perspective was that if she had known the first time around that they were left alone together, maybe the second time it wouldnt have happened, Yum said.

The District disputes many of the allegations in the lawsuit, but takes these matters very seriously, Anthony Millican, the districts spokesperson, wrote in a statement. Student privacy laws prohibit the District from sharing specifics regarding this particular situation. However, we can confirm that the District was made aware of the allegations at the time they occurred and responded appropriately by immediately notifying law enforcement and Child Protective Services.

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Millican did not answer follow-up questions about what policies the school has in place to keep children from being left alone and unsupervised during school hours.

After the schools principal and vice principal met with the victims mother, the alleged perpetrator had an expulsion hearing.

The victims family never found out if the boy was expelled. When Yum asked the district, their lawyer said he could not disclose that information because of privacy rules.

The school district cited student privacy laws in declining to say if the student was ever disciplined.

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The victim no longer goes to Enrique Camarena Elementary School, according to the lawsuit.

Yum seeks unspecified damages for her client, including all legal costs, civil penalties, and possible medical costs for the alleged victim.

Contact Gustavo Solis via Email or Twitter
Last year, a self-published cookbook by pastry chef Jason Licker was a surprise finalist for the James Beard Award.

Thats a long way to come from a self-confessed former chubby kid from Long Island who hid Twinkies under his bed and mini-Snickers in his socks.

Its rare for a self-published cookbook to earn a James Beard nomination. But thats not the only reason the New York culinary organization took notice.

Licker, 41, not only crafted an unusually artistic and personal cookbook. The winner of Iron Chef Thailand is also on the cutting edge of pastry design with his signature Asian-accented desserts, a skillset he honed working at resorts in China, Macau, Bangkok and Hong Kong over the past 12 years.

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Licker is back in the U.S. this year doing dessert pop-ups, cookbook signings and restaurant consulting around the country. His latest event is now under way through Sunday, April 1, at Maestoso restaurant in Hillcrest. Beginning Wednesday, March 28, hell be presenting a menu of three Asian and three Italian-accented desserts at the 3-week-old modern Italian restaurant.

Among the Italian items hes planning to serve are a Lemon Cappucino, which will have lemon cake croutons, lemon curd vanilla mousse in a cappucino cup topped with a Limoncello foam. On the Asian side, hes developing a passion fruit/guava creme brulee, among other items.

Red fruit and white chocolate dessert by Jason Licker. (Jason Michael Lang )

Lickers signature is to create desserts that reach all four taste centers on the tongue  sweet, sour, salty and bitter.

When you create a well-balanced dessert, you wont slide into a sugar coma, he said. I think American culture just knows heavy desserts. Mine create a dynamic flavor profile with multiple flavors, textures and temperatures.

Licker grew up in a family where the prevailing food philosophy was the more the better and no doughnut was safe. But in seventh grade, a girl told him he was funny but fat and he immediately changed his ways.

When he was in college studying to become a high school English teacher, his mom was diagnosed with cancer. He kept her spirits up by devising healthier low-sugar, low-fat desserts that they could bake and eat together.

When his mother passed away, he coped with his loss by writing poetry. And when he stopped writing poetry, he started making pastry to fill the creative void, discovering his passion in the process.

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He started his career doing stages (unpaid internships) in New York City. First, he worked and trained six days at a week at Union Square Cafe, then he moved to the prestigious Jean-Georges.

Strawberry consomme with vanilla udon by pastry chef Jason Licker. (Jason Michael Lang )

By 22, he landed a paid pastry chef position at Charlie Palmers Metrazur. Two years later, he was hired as the executive pastry chef at the Shore Club in Miami, where he oversaw multiple restaurants, including Nobu.

That was his first exposure to Japanese ingredients and a love affair was born.

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Two years later, he returned to New York as the executive pastry chef of the Peninsula Hotel, where in 2004 he earned a Rising Stars Award from StarChefs.com.

Eager for a change, he sent out resumes to resorts around the world and in 2005 was hired as executive pastry chef at the Westin Bund Hotel in Shanghai, China, where he oversaw a team of 32 pastry and chocolate workers.

That was the beginning of a dozen-year odyssey in Asia, where he says he relished every opportunity to travel to different countries and visit farmers markets to discover native ingredients to incorporate into his pastries.

People are used to having yuzu in sushi but not a dessert. I take pride in taking ingredients youve had before and morphing it into a style all its own, he said. Asian ingredients are my favorite because theyre so dynamic, but no matter what genre of cooking you do, you can tweak it and make it your own.

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Jason Lickers white chocolate Junmai with sake cream. (Jason Michael Lang )

Some of his signature creations are vanilla udon noodles, molten matcha tarts, calamansi cubes, Thai tea smores, Chinese five-spice chocolate mousse and white chocolate Junmai, with sake cream, yuzu-scented fruit and shiso gelee cubes.

In 2016, he was looking to open his own restaurant with some friends. But when that deal fell apart, he used his savings to publish his first cookbook, Lickerland: Asian-Accented Desserts by Jason Licker.

The 350-page cookbook, which took nine months to create, features 56 recipes, each accompanied by a story of the dishs creation and Lickers own experiences in Asia.

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The rock n roll-inspired book has dazzling photos by Jason Michael Lang and a dedication to his late mom. The day after its publication, and two days after the entry deadline for the 2017 James Beard Awards, Licker shipped seven copies of Lickerland to New York and then promptly forgot about it.

A little over two months later, he learned he was one of just three nominees in the Cooking from a Professional Point of View category. He didnt win last spring, but was honored to lose to Pierre Koffman, a London-based chef whose most recent restaurant had three Michelin stars.

Lickerland has also been nominated in two categories for the upcoming World Gourmand Cookbook Awards this summer in China.

The cover of Jason Lickers cookbook Lickerland: Asian-Accented Desserts by Jason Licker. (Jason Michael Lang )

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Licker said his cookbook has been a good entree back into the U.S. after so many years away.

Its been a weird, wild ride, he said, he said. Over there, youre the talented foreigner. Over here, Im just a guy. So coming off the James Beard nomination Ive landed some big consulting jobs and am doing the pop-ups.

Over the next year, Licker said his schedule includes more pop-ups and a teaching assignment in China. Hes also planning to start on his second cookbook, which will be home cooking-oriented. But eventually his goal is to open his own dessert shop and San Diego is on the shortlist of places hes considering.

Back in 2007, Licker spent six months in San Diego as the opening pastry chef for the Nobu restaurant at the Hard Rock Hotel in the Gaslamp Quarter.

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Ever since then, hes had a love for the region, and in the 11 years since his last visit he said hes noticed a rise in San Diego diners sophistication and adventurousness.

Hes enjoying meeting diners while prepping for this weeks desserts at Maestoso, where hes working side-by-side with friend and founding chef Marco Maestoso. He loves the new restaurants concept, where chefs interact heavily with the customers. That suits his own gregarious personality, because he loves meeting local diners and hopefully selling a few cookbooks.

I love the concept at Maestoso, he said. Its so in your face. If youre a social person, you just walk around and meet everyone.

Jason Licker dessert pop-up

What: Six Asian and Italian-inspired desserts ($12 each). Autographed copies of Lickerland: Asian-Accented Desserts by Jason Licker available for sale ($30)

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When: 5 to 10 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday

Where: Maestoso restaurant, The Hub Hillcrest, 1040 University Ave., Suite B101, San Diego

Online: jasonlicker.com

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pam.kragen@sduniontribune.com. Twitter: @pamkragen
I write this sentence with a dog staring at me, wondering when Ill slip her another slice of apple. There are no cats in the house. There never have been. My canine sympathies are clear.

Wes Andersons latest, Isle of Dogs, is worth seeing and often very droll, as well as exactingly, rigorously, fastidiously composed, stop-motion frame by frame. The films blatant anti-cat prejudice  Im fine with that. Well get to the questions of cultural appropriation and plurality of perspectives in a minute.

This is writer-director Andersons second stop-motion animation feature, the first being Fantastic Mr. Fox nine years ago. Cool in affect and fantastically dense in its detail, its set 20 years in the future. The fictional Japanese metropolis of Megasaki City is run with an iron fist by a mayor (voiced by Kunichi Nomura, who receives story credit along with Anderson, Roman Coppola and Jason Schwartzman). The mayor, the latest in a long line of feline-loving warlords, has banished all dogs to Trash Island. Looking like Toshiro Mifune from Kurosawas High and Low, from the boxy suit to the caterpillar mustache, the scowling authoritarian rationalizes the quarantine by spreading fears of a potentially fatal dog flu crossing over to the human population.

Spots (Liev Schreiber), the loyal dog of the mayors 12-year-old ward, Atari (Koyu Rankin), is the first to be exiled. Many others follow. Andersons interest lies primarily with the ragtag alpha-dog pack whose leader is Chief, voiced by Bryan Cranston, and who romances the deadpan show dog, Nutmeg, voiced by Scarlett Johansson. Jeff Goldblum is Duke, the resident gossip; the mascot, Boss, is lent the dry distinction of Bill Murray; and Bob Balaban and Edward Norton portray King and Rex, respectively.

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Scientists are close to a cure for the dog flu, but this does not suit the mayors political agenda. When Atari hijacks a plane and crash-lands on Trash Island, in search of Spots, Chief and his comrades assist. Eventually, compelled both by idealism and her helpless teen crush, so does the American foreign exchange student Tracy, voiced by Greta Gerwig. Three taiko drummers pop in and out of the action for brief interludes; composer Alexandre Desplat samples a variety of Japanese musical influences, although his primary theme is Russian, a re-orchestrated version of Prokofievs Troika from the rousing Lieutenant Kije film score.

The jolly drive of that theme contrasts the bleak environment. Trash Island is part Wall-E, part abandoned nuclear power plant. The dogs fight over maggoty scraps of food, and dream of their old lives. The dogs voices are predominantly American; Ataris spare dialogue is rarely if ever subtitled; the character of Tracy carries a whiff of the white savior, though Anderson would no doubt argue shes just another victim of cultural dislocation and a different sort of exile in a story full of exiles.

Anderson is one of American films most artful magpies, pulling ideas into his storybook from all over. The acknowledged reference points for Isle of Dogs include Akira Kurosawas Seven Samurai; the Rankin/Bass stop-motion TV specials (Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer); and (less so, I think) Hayao Miyazakis melancholic animated fantasies. The mayors palace resembles Frank Lloyd Wrights Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. Filmed over a painstaking two years in London, where he shot Fantastic Mr. Fox, Anderson assembled a tiptop collection of artists, among them production designers Paul Harrod and Adam Stockhausen; art director Curt Enderle; and puppetmeister Andy Gent. When you realize the time required, for example, to fashion the precise contours of Kings princely mustache, you smile in admiration.

Before the end, however, the script starts chasing its tail and its limitations become more apparent. Several critics have already weighed in on the perceived cultural appropriation going on in Isle of Dogs. The charge goes back to The Darjeeling Limited, which concerned three American brothers making their way through India. (Privileged Anglos abroad, carrying an improbably fabulous collection of designer luggage is how I put it back in 2007.) Just as limiting: Andersons relative disinterest in the female characters, who exist only in relation to how they feel about the more prominent male characters, human or canine.

To be sure, none of Andersons films take place in the real world as we know it. Megasaki City is a fictional creation, real world-adjacent, as was the island of New Penzance in Moonrise Kingdom and, more grandly, in Andersons finest work, the land of Zubrowka in The Grand Budapest Hotel. The filmmakers sense of humor relies on establishing an exquisite artificial universe and then puncturing the artifice with familiar, deadpan American voices and attitudes for comic effect. It works, most of the time. But marginalizing the Japanese characters within a Japanese setting invites the cultural appropriation charge.

Its tricky: So much of the popular culture I grew up loving, and love still, trades in this sort of casual colonialism. Anderson and company set out to make their own kind of movie in the Japanese manner, as Jim Broadbent says in Topsy-Turvy, Mike Leighs wonderful account of how Gilbert and Sullivan came to write The Mikado. Its a manner destined to be divisive, no matter how great the dogs look.

In The Guardian recently, columnist Steve Rose wrote: If we police boundaries too strictly, were stifling the possibility of cross-fertilization and invention. If you do it well enough, its not appropriation, its conversation. Whats frustrating about this worthwhile movie is pretty simple: All Anderson needed to do, really, was to let more of the characters, dog and human, female and male, have a say in how the story gets told. Also, using Tokyo Shoeshine Boy on the soundtrack (heard, indelibly, in Robert Altmans M*A*S*H) seems pretty glib. But alongside the cultural appropriation rap, Wes Anderson has heard that song before.

Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.

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mjphillips@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @phillipstribune

Isle of Dogs -- 3 stars

Rating: PG-13

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When: Now playing

Where: AMC La Jolla, Angelika Carmel Mountain, Cinepolis Del Mar, Edwards San Marcos Stadium, Landmark Hillcrest, The Lot La Jolla

Running time: 1 hour, 41 minutes

RELATED: Michael Phillips on The Grand Budapest Hotel, one of Andersons cleverest and most gorgeous movies 

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From Cannes, 2012: Michael Phillips talks Moonrise Kingdom with Wes Anderson, Jason Schwartzman and Bob Balaban 

Cannes Film Festival bans Netflix films from competition. Also, no more selfies. 
A work by the longtime head of the University of California San Diegos graduate playwriting program will receive its world premiere next month as the next project in La Jolla Playhouses Without Walls program.

Naomi Iizukas What Happens Next will run April 19-29 at the Challenged Athletes Foundation in Sorrento Valley.

The Playhouse-commissioned piece, produced in association with L.A.s Cornerstone Theater Company, will feature San Diego-based actors as well as military veterans in its cast.

What Happens Next is directed by Cornerstone artistic chief Michael John Garces. Heres how the Playhouse describes the work:

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In What Happens Next, Bonnie, an idealistic but inexperienced acting teacher, finds herself paired with a group of veterans as part of a drama therapy program. As she is confronted with the reality of her reluctant new students, Bonnie struggles to find a way to build trust and find common ground.

Inspired by stories shared by the military community, this riveting new play mixes professional actors and San Diego veterans in an exploration of the complexities of sacrifice and resilience of those who have served.

Iizuka has headed UC San Diegos MFA playwriting program for a decade, and received her own graduate degree from the program.

Her plays include 36 Views, Polaroid Stories, Anon(ymous), Language of Angels, Aloha, Say the Pretty Girls and Skin. Her play Good Kids, staged last October at California State University San Marcos, was commissioned by the schools of the Big Ten Conference and deals with sexual assault on campus.

The CSUSM production was directed by Judy Bauerlein, an associate professor who is now part of the cast of What Happens Next. Shes joined by Parnia Ayari, Nick Borrelli, Bruce A. Lemon Jr., Nico Marcolongo, Jennie McFarling and Kionte Storey.

The Playhouses Without Walls program, launched in 2011, showcases site-specific, immersive and otherwise unconventional modes of live performance, and has spawned three festivals so far.

In the show announcement, Playhouse artistic director Christopher Ashley said the theater has proudly expanded its outreach to San Diegos military community in recent years, and What Happens Next is a fantastic next step in that relationship, allowing us to perform Naomi Iizukas powerful, insightful new play at the Challenged Athletes Foundations headquarters.

It also represents a chance to partner with Cornerstone Theater Co., whose transformative and often immersive work incorporates community members into their productions, making it a great fit for our WOW series.

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Performances of What Happens Next are at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays; and 2 p.m. Sundays. The Challenged Athletes Foundation is at 9591 Waples St.

Tickets are $20 for adults, $10 for students and military; call (858) 550-1010 or go to lajollaplayhouse.org.

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jim.hebert@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @jimhebert
Critics of Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski reveled this past week in what must have seemed a rare and fitting political demise: his resignation amid allegations of vote buying, illegal campaign contributions and other corrupt practices.

The former World Bank economist and Wall Street banker had been on trial after revelations that a consulting firm he co-owned received an estimated $700,000 in contracts from a disgraced Brazilian construction firm while Kuczynski held several high political posts.

But Kuczynskis case was not that rare. Charges of political misconduct, financial indiscretion and just plain dishonesty have ushered in the downfall of a surprising number of state leaders in recent years, and left others under investigation and battling to defend their reputation  even after leaving office.

In February, Israeli police recommended that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu be indicted on suspicion of bribery, fraud, favor trading and breach of trust, casting doubt that his government could survive. Netanyahu, in office since 2009, has rejected the accusations.

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This month, authorities detained former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who left office in 2012, and questioned him about allegations that he received more than $60 million in illegal campaign funds from the late Libyan dictator Moammar Kadafi. The right-wing politician has denied the charges.

Also this month, a South Korean court issued an arrest warrant for former President Lee Myung-bak on charges of financial misconduct during and after his time in office. Prosecutors charge that Lee, who held office from 2008 to 2013, accepted about $10 million in bribes from business groups and his intelligence agency and established $33 million worth of slush funds.

In just the last two years, charges of committing or being associated with political misdeeds have led to the fall of at least five world leaders.

Heres a look at the lineup:

Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, above at Parliament in Reykjavik, resigned as Icelands prime minister in April 2016. (European Pressphoto Agency )

Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson  Iceland

Icelands prime minister, Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, resigned in April 2016 after revelations in the so-called Panama Papers, leaked documents detailing private financial information about thousands of offshore entities, appeared to show that Gunnlaugsson and his wife concealed millions of dollars worth of investments in an offshore company that served as a tax haven. The prime minister, who had described foreign creditors as vultures, has insisted he and his wife are innocent.

Then-Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff was impeached in August 2016. (Nelson Almeida / AFP/Getty Images )

Dilma Rousseff  Brazil

In August 2016, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff was impeached after the countrys Senate voted overwhelmingly to remove her from office. The countrys first female president and onetime guerrilla fighter-turned-economist was convicted of violating budgetary rules by shifting money around to cover short-term deficits. A year later, Rousseff and her predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who served from 2003 to 2011, were charged with diverting funds from the state-run oil company Petrobras and from other public institutions to their Workers Party. Prosecutors estimated the loss to Petrobras was $9.33 billion.

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Prosecutors have demanded a 30-year prison term for Park Geun-hye, who was charged with bribery, abuse of power and other crimes in a landmark corruption case that marked a stunning fall from grace for South Koreas first female leader. (Ahn Young-joon / Associated Press )

Park Geun-hye  South Korea

Last March, Park Geun-hye, South Koreas first female president, was ousted after the countrys constitutional court confirmed her impeachment, which had taken place three months earlier. Parks downfall came amid allegations that she participated in a bribery scheme with tech giant Samsung Group that aimed to ensure the merger of two of the companys affiliates. Months of massive street protests were staged to call for her impeachment, after four years in office. Although her attorneys charged that the case against Park was politically motivated, she repeatedly apologized. In February, prosecutors demanded a 30-year prison term and a $110-million fine for Park, who is charged with bribery, abuse of power and other crimes.

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif speaks to reporters outside the premises of the Joint Investigation Team in Islamabad on June 15, 2017. (B.K. Bangash / Associated Press )

Nawaz Sharif  Pakistan

In July 2017, Pakistans Supreme Court ordered the dismissal of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif after investigations revealed that his children were linked to offshore companies that he had not declared in financial disclosures. The findings were revealed in the Panama Papers. Also disqualified from serving in Parliament, Sharif resigned as prime minister  a position he had held for a third time. He and his family have denied any wrongdoing.

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Bowing to pressure from his ruling African National Congress party, South African President Jacob Zuma resigned in February. (Sipa USA )

Jacob Zuma  South Africa

With his almost nine-year tenure beset by corruption scandals and charges of fiscal and administrative mismanagement, South African President Jacob Zuma bowed to pressure from his African National Congress party and resigned in February. This month, state prosecutors announced that charges against Zuma, stemming from a controversial bribery-tinged $2.5-billion arms deal from the late 1990s when he was deputy president, would be reinstated. Zuma has denied committing any transgressions.

Times staff writers Robyn Dixon in Johannesburg, South Africa, and special correspondents Matt Stiles in Seoul, Chris Kraul in Lima, Peru, and Christina Boyle in London contributed to this report.

ann.simmons@latimes.com

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To read this article in Spanish click here

For more on global development news, see our Global Development Watch page, and follow me @AMSimmons1 on Twitter
In the past couple of months, Mayor Kevin Faulconer won approval for a homeless service center and a separate facility where homeless residents can store their belongings.

His recent appointment of a new police chief was met with widespread approval. And the city has continued to make some incremental moves to address the housing crunch.

The mayor has some big things still on his plate: reaching an elusive agreement on short-term vacation rentals, and his never-ending quest to expand the downtown convention center among them.

But Faulconer has been on a bit of a roll in early 2018, at least compared with 2017, much of which he would probably just as soon forget.

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The homeless problem grew and morphed into a hepatitis crisis that attracted national attention. His proposed hotel-tax increase to fund the convention center project, homeless programs and road improvements collapsed. The short-term rental dispute reached the boiling point, but City Council couldnt fashion a solution.

Oh, and the Chargers left town.

At his State of the City address in January, Faulconer promised action on some of these festering problems, even at the expense of ruffling feathers. There was a bit of a get-tough tone uncharacteristic of the mayor.

While he hasnt made overt heavy-handed moves, he has sought to forge coalitions among stakeholders and City Council members toward solutions on some issues that not everybody might like.

A case in point was the homeless storage facility in Sherman Heights. The proposal was strongly opposed by the neighborhood, where residents say they already deal with more than their share of impacts from homelessness. That kind of opposition might have delayed or killed the idea in the past. But a compromise was reached to reduce the scale of the storage operation, and the proposal was approved on an 8-1 council vote.

Less controversial was moving ahead with a one-stop center designed to include space for homeless services providers, and representatives from the Social Security Administration, county Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs, and job training and housing programs.

Faulconer first proposed a homeless assessment center during his State of the City address in January 2017. Council approval of a site came a year later. What happened in between was not pretty. A hepatitis outbreak mushroomed and the citys lack of public restrooms for the homeless was blamed for creating unsanitary conditions on streets that may have exacerbated the problem.

Eventually, the mayor shifted gears  with the help of pressure from various groups. Late in the year the city created a temporary camp for the homeless on the edge of downtown and then agreed to have three large tent shelters erected. None of that was in his plans.

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A street-cleaning operation was launched and the city became more aggressive ticketing people living on sidewalks. Questions were raised about the cost of the former and compassion of the latter, but both moves had support from business leaders and many residents.

Those actions combined with securing storage and services facilities for homeless residents represent clear progress for the mayor. But concerns linger about why these took so long and whether they were the best way forward.

Several years ago the city essentially was forced to provide storage for the homeless through litigation, and the initial facility ran into financial problems. Currently, theres one existing location downtown, with stable operation provided by the nonprofit Think Dignity. But theres a long waiting list for the 400 storage bins there. The new one will offer 500 additional bins.

The downtown homeless navigation center is envisioned as a one-stop shop to help coordinate regionwide services in a way that has been lacking for years. But some homeless advocates questioned why the city didnt try to expand the operation at PATH Connections Housing, which was launched on Sixth Avenue five years ago with a similar-sounding mission.

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Faulconers choice of a new police chief is arguably his most important decision so far this year. The department faces an ongoing staff shortage and lingering questions about whether the race of motorists factored into traffic stops.

Judging from the reaction, Faulconer hit the right note by elevating Assistant Chief David Nisleit to replace the retiring Shelley Zimmerman. The selection was widely lauded by community groups and civic leaders. The three-decade veteran of the SDPD was confirmed by the City Council by unanimous vote.

But only weeks after taking the top job, Nisleit ran into his first controversy. Earlier this month, ABCs 10News broke a story about an internal department email that discussed a rewards system for making drug arrests in communities near the border.

Nisleit said he had been unaware of the email and the program was never implemented. He launched an investigation to find out how it all came about. While the public awaits the results of the probe, for now Nisleit seems to have nipped the controversy in the bud.

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These successes under the mayors watch coincides with big staff changes. The issues hes addressed were evolving before some of the key new people arrived, but the timing is hard to ignore.

In June, the mayor announced a new chief of staff, Aimee Faucett, who had been a top executive at the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce and earlier worked as Faulconers chief of staff when he was a council member.

Faucett was touted for her attention to policy when she came on board and replaced Stephen Puetz, who was more recognized for his political work. The Republican mayors statewide political stock rose following his election in 2014 as he helped usher through a climate action plan and a healthy budget, not to mention putting City Hall back on an even keel after the disaster of Mayor Bob Filner.

But as Faulconer was giving speeches to prestigious state civic organizations and interviews to out-of-town publications, the homeless and hepatitis problems festered.

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Faulconer eventually made made it clear again last year that he would not run for governor and double-downed to show he was tending to the problems at home.

In the fall, the mayor hired another former City Hall hand, Downtown Partnership leader Kris Michell, who had been chief of staff to Mayors Jerry Sanders and Susan Golding. Her initial job was to oversee special projects but then she became the chief operating officer, giving Faulconer stronger control over the city bureaucracy.

Both Faucett and Michell were hired to get things done, big things. Theres been progress on the homeless front and agreement on short-term rentals and convention center expansion seem on the cusp.

If Faulconer can take care of such things, his political future may take care of itself.
San Diego Youth Services will receive $2.5 million from the state this year for programs aimed at reducing youth homelessness.

State Assemblyman Todd Gloria requested and secured $10 million in the state budget to fund homeless youth services last year. He recently announced San Diegos share of the funds, which is $2.5 million.

I am proud that these dollars are coming to San Diego Youth Services, Gloria said. Together with their community partners, I know they will be able to make a profound difference in the lives of some of our young people currently experiencing homelessness.

The $10 million is a significant increase in the states investment for homeless youth programs, which previously had received $2 million annually.

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Following last years budget process, $10 million was provided to the Office of Emergency Services as part of the Homeless Youth Emergency Services and Housing Program.

Nonprofits in San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Santa Clara were asked to submit requests for proposals to compete for the money.

Organizations were asked to submit an RFP detailing their proposed use in providing

homeless youth with housing options that include rapid rehousing, rental assistance, transitional housing and/or supportive housing.

San Diego Youth Services is excited about being the lead agency for the Homeless Youth Emergency Services and Housing Program, said Walter Philips, CEO for the nonprofit.

This funding will be the catalyst for the development of a youth focused coordinated entry system that will be regionally implemented to ensure housing and services are available for youth experiencing homelessness anywhere in San Diego, he said.

Philips said the money will significantly expand services provided by its partners, which include South Bay Community Services, YMCA Youth and Family Services, The Center, Home Start and the Regional Task Force on the Homeless.

A statewide count of homeless youth show an increase of 7 percent this past year, and the latest count in San Diego showed homeless youths made up 19 percent of the countys homeless population.

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The number could be even higher, however, as people who work in the field have said it is difficult to accurately gauge the number of homeless youth because they tend to shy away from shelters and often are not recognized as being homeless.

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Homeless Playlist  On Now San Diego hepatitis outbreak continues to grow: 481 cases On Now Homeless entrenched in booming tent city along Santa Ana River On Now San Diego mayor agreed to homeless hub, then delayed, advocates say On Now Homeless outreach in San Diego On Now Video: Street Art: Portraits of San Diego's Homeless #8 On Now In poverty himself, 'Water Man Dave,' is the fearless saint of San Diego's homeless 5:41 On Now Video: Homeless living in cars find safe havens 2:21 On Now Street Art: Portraits of San Diego's Homeless #7 On Now Pitching a tent plan for San Diego's homeless On Now Homeless efforts get $80M boost for various services

gary.warth@sduniontribune.com

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Asylum officers have documented at least 100 cases, including some in San Diego, where border officials may not have followed U.S. law for processing asylum seekers, according to public records obtained through a request by Human Rights Watch.

Under U.S. law, border officials are required to ask people arriving at the border who dont have documents for entry if they are afraid to go back to their home countries. If the migrants say, Yes, then officials must process them as asylum seekers and allow them to speak with asylum officers to determine whether their fears are credible.

Reports of border officials dismissing such migrants or, in some cases, intimidating asylum seekers into giving up their claims before theyre processed into the system, have surfaced from advocacy organizations and immigration attorneys in the San Diego area since at least the summer of 2016. According to the records obtained by Human Rights Watch, asylum officers have documented allegations of such behavior since at least 2012.

Human Rights Watch said the documents it received, a combination of emails and reports, were heavily redacted and missing files, so it sued U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services this week for a more complete response.

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There seems to be records of a group of [asylum officers] going back and forth and trying to collate a large number of cases to determine exactly what the percentage of problematic behavior is that theyre finding, said Clara Long, senior researcher for Human Rights Watchs U.S. program, describing the documents that she does have.

Emails between asylum officers indicated that they created a spreadsheet in 2014 to track mistreatment of asylum seekers by border officials, Long said. While the spreadsheet wasnt included in the records released to Human Rights Watch, Long said the emails suggested that it includes at least 100 cases.

She hopes that the lawsuit will force the government to turn over the spreadsheet as well as more recent documents. The records she received go from 2012 to 2016.

Some asylum seekers reported being physically assaulted by officials at the border. A minor who came to the U.S. somewhere in Texas  its not clear from the redactions exactly where  reported that hed been knocked down by an official who punched him in the forehead.

An Ecuadorian man told his asylum officer that he was afraid to claim fear of returning home after he saw a border official use some type of weapon to zap two other migrants with electricity to force them to sign a document that would return them to their home countries.

At least three of the cases mentioned in the documents happened in the San Diego area. In one case out of the San Ysidro port of entry, an asylum seeker told the interviewing officer that, in January 2016, the migrant did not understand the questions that a Customs and Border Protection officer asked in Spanish, and the exchange brought the migrant to tears. The officer then threatened to deport the person.

A second case documented by an asylum officer occurred at the same port in August 2014. The report suggests that the CBP official used legal jargon rather than asking questions in a way the asylum seeker could understand, making it difficult for the migrant show a fear of returning home.

Another asylum officer raised concerns about an incident at the Otay Mesa port in June 2015 where the migrant said CBP officers threatened to take away her children.

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Human Rights Watch filed the records request in 2015 and received the initial response last year. The organization filed an appeal to push for a more complete response from the agency, and after accepting the appeal, USCIS has not responded further, according to Human Rights Watch.

Maria Upson, spokeswoman for USCIS, said that the agency doesnt comment on pending litigation. A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, which houses both USCIS and Customs and Border Protection, similarly declined to comment on the allegations in the documents that have been released.

Prior to lawsuits questioning agency practices, Customs and Border Protection has defended its policies for asylum seekers, saying its officials follow U.S. law.

Human Rights Watch has monitored treatment of asylum seekers at the U.S. border for years.

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In 2014, it released a report that found Hondurans were particularly unlikely to be referred from CBP to the asylum process. It also found that the majority of people who entered the asylum process did not come from a CBP referral but rather on an ad-hoc basis from other agencies who learned of the hopeful-immigrants fears.

Organizations that advocate for asylum seekers filed a series of complaints in 2017 alleging that border officials were illegally turning away asylum seekers without allowing them to talk to asylum officers. Those complaints culminated in a federal lawsuit filed in July in Los Angeles that was later transferred to San Diego.

All but one of the plaintiffs in the suit had tried to request asylum in the San Diego area.

One asylum seeker in that lawsuit reported being told, Donald Trump just signed new laws saying there is no asylum for anyone.

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A couple of the plaintiffs alleged that border officials threatened to take their children away if they asked for asylum.

Michael Knowles, president of the union that represents asylum officers, said that his union members have been concerned about reports of asylum seekers being denied access to the process since the mid 90s. Thats when Congress created expedited removal, which allows border officials to remove new arrivals without taking them to see immigration judges unless they say theyre afraid to go home.

He said the union hasnt tracked data on how often asylum seekers say that border officials mistreated them, but he hears about it anecdotally from union members.

It is an ongoing concern for our members, Knowles said. Were very committed to our job, which is to adjudicate asylum applications. Its part of the homeland security mission. It concerns us when theres anything that gets in the way of us doing our job, just like Border Patrol or ICE complains that the previous administration hindered them from enforcing immigration laws.

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We understand they have to control the borders, Knowles added, but people ought to be fairly treated, and they ought to have access to the asylum process.

Human Rights Watch researcher Long said these anecdotes are more worrisome under the Trump administration because the president has suggested expanding the scope of expedited removal from the border region to throughout the country.

If there are already documented problems in the application of expedited removal, in that it gives enormous amounts of power to immigration agents who are apparently not exercising it in appropriate ways, then we could see an enormous expansion of these kinds of problems, Long said.

Human Rights Watch plans to release a full report on its findings later this year.

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Immigration Videos On Now New developments in family separation case 9:53 On Now A San Diego woman volunteered as a medic in Texas helping migrant families 2:35 On Now Immigration policy protests in Carlsbad nearly cancelled after permit issue 1:38 On Now When children are separated from their parents at the border, here is where they go next On Now Prospects of a deal for 'Dreamers' may hinge on separating Trump from hard-liners on his staff On Now What is DACA? On Now Border wall prototype contractors selected On Now Video: Ukrainian boxer wins asylum in U.S. On Now 30 apprehended after Border Patrol agents discover tunnel On Now Video: Kurdish diaspora prepare to vote on independence

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kate.morrissey@sduniontribune.com, @bgirledukate on Twitter
A man suspected of sending homemade explosive devices to 11 government facilities in the Washington, D.C., area has been charged in the case.

Thanh Cong Phan, 43, was arrested Monday evening at his home in Everett, Wash., by local and federal law enforcement agencies. He appeared Tuesday in a federal courtroom in Seattle, charged with one count of shipment of explosive materials. The criminal complaint alleges that he sent them through the U.S. mail on March 16 from Mill Creek, a Seattle suburb.

Phans next scheduled court appointment is a detention hearing Friday afternoon.

Several of the suspicious packages arrived Monday morning at government installations in and around the nations capital, including Ft. Lesley J. McNair, Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, Ft. Belvoir, the Naval Surface Warfare Center, FBI headquarters and CIA headquarters.

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Each package contained what appeared to be a homemade device built from a glass vial or bottle, an explosive powder, a fuse and a small GPS unit, according to the complaint. The FBI said in a statement the packages were potential destructive devices.

The National Defense University, located at Ft. McNair, was evacuated after a suspicious package arrived there around 8:30 a.m. Monday, according to a statement from Army spokesman Michael Howard.

Attached to the packages were incoherent notes that resembled writings Phan had mailed in the past, authorities said.

The packages contained typewritten letters with ramblings about neuropsychology, mind control and other subjects including terrorism, the complaint said.

No injuries or explosions were reported. A motive for the incident has not been disclosed, though officials ruled out any connection to terrorism. The packages were recovered and taken to the FBI laboratory in Quantico, Va.

It is possible that further packages were mailed to additional mail processing facilities in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, said a statement from the FBI, which is continuing its investigation with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

Defense Secretary James N. Mattis said Tuesday: Weve had nobody injured and all those packages and all the evidence is accessible and in the hands of the FBI right now.

The suspicious packages arrived a week after Hafiz Kazi, an immigrant and longtime legal U.S. resident who lived in the Bay Area, drove a burning minivan with tanks of propane and cans of gasoline through the gates of Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, Calif. He died in the van, and his motive remains a mystery.

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The swiftness of Phans arrest stood in sharp contrast to the three-week hunt for a serial bomber who terrorized the Austin area for three weeks this month, killing two people and injuring five others.

The suspect in that case, Mark Anthony Conditt, 23, killed himself with an explosive device March 21 as he evaded police in a car pursuit.

michael.livingston@latimes.com

@Livingston_LAT

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UPDATES:

6:40 p.m.: This article was updated with the suspects name, the charge against him and additional details.

This article was originally published at 9:55 a.m.
San Diego City Council President Myrtle Cole got a key endorsement this week from the San Diego County Democratic Party in her race for re-election against two challengers from the left.

The party on Tuesday night chose not to make endorsements in three other council races being contested in the June 5 primary, choosing instead to rate three Democrats in each of those races as qualified.

Local party leaders chose to endorse Cole over fellow Democrats Monica Montgomery and Neal Arthur in the race for District 4, which covers much of southeastern San Diego. A fourth candidate, Tony Villafranca, has also qualified for the ballot.

In District 2, which includes the citys beach areas and western Clairemont, party leaders rated as qualified Democrats Jordan Beane, Jennifer Campbell and Bryan Pease. They are challenging incumbent Republican Lorie Zapf.

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Other candidates who will appear on the ballot are Randy Hahn, Kevin Melton and Daniel Smiechowski.

In District 6, which includes Kearny Mesa and Mira Mesa, the party rated as qualified Democrats Tommy Hough, Fayaz Nawabi and Matt Valenti. They are challenging incumbent Republican Chris Cate.

Other candidates who will appear on the ballot are Jeremiah Blattler and Kevin Lee Egger.

In District 8, which includes Barrio Logan and communities along the border, the party rated as qualified Democrats Antonio Martinez, Vivian Moreno and Christian Ramirez.

A fourth candidate vying to replace termed-out Councilman David Alvarez is Zach Lazarus.

The four contests could shift City Hall further to the left with two Republicans up for re-election in swing districts and the two Democratic seats at stake in districts where no Republicans have entered the races.

Democrats have a 5-4 majority on the council over Republicans, and that could rise to either 6-3 or 7-2 if Zapf or Cate lose.

The June primaries will be less consequential in this election cycle because of a voter-approved rule change that requires a November runoff among the top two finishers even if one gets more than 50 percent of the vote in June.

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That will prevent Zapf and Cate from clinching re-election in June when the electorate typically leans more Republican because of lower voter turnout among Democrats in primaries.

david.garrick@sduniontribune.com (619) 269-8906 Twitter:@UTDavidGarrick
Work is scheduled to begin early next month on $4.35 million in upgrades to Tijuanas waste water system aimed at reducing sewage-contaminated flows into the Tijuana River that risk flowing across the border into San Diego, Mexicos federal government has announced.

This is an effort to put an end to the health crisis that the municipality has been facing, Roberto Ramirez de la Parra, the director general of Mexicos National Water Commission, said in a statement.

The largest of the projects involves the replacement of a 2.6-mile stretch of a large sewage pipeline known as Colector Poniente at a cost of more than $3 million. The cost of the project is being shared by Mexicos National Water Commission, the Baja California public service commission, CESPT, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, through its border infrastructure fund that is administered by the North American Development Bank.

Certified by the bank in November, the project includes the replacement of about 1,000 feet of smaller sewage lines that connect to the larger pipe.

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The other projects involve some $1.35 million in upgrades to two key pump stations near U.S. border, according to the CESPT. The funding, shared by Mexicos federal government and the state of Baja California, would pay for a backup generator and new engines for the CILA Pump Station, which diverts water in the Tijuana River Channel away from the border.

The money also would pay for upgrades to Pump Station One, considered the heart of Tijuanas wastewater system. One of its main functions is to send untreated sewage to the San Antonio de los Buenos plant near the Pacific Ocean six miles from the border.

Authorities say these projects are immediate measures that can minimize the risk of dry-weather spills that contaminate beaches on both sides of the border.

A plan presented by the Baja California government estimates that the system requires some $330 million in upgrades and new infrastructure. A key project, which has not been funded, involves the expansion and upgrade of the San Antonio de Los Buenos treatment plant.

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Days after demonstrators around the world demanded action against gun violence, county authorities said they will look into placing bleeding control kits in public places to help save victims of mass shootings and other emergencies.

The kits, which would include gloves, gauze for packing wounds and a tourniquet to stem bleeding, are just one component of a national awareness campaign called Stop the Bleed, which encourages bystanders to become trained and empowered to help should someone suffer a traumatic injury during an emergency.

The county Board of Supervisors considered the issue at a meeting Tuesday.

Mass shootings have dominated headlines for years, most recently when a gunman opened fire at a Florida high school last month, killing 17 people and wounding others.

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While law enforcement officers typically respond to active shooting situations in minutes, it can take much longer for medical professionals to arrive, leaving bystanders in the best position to render aid immediately.

While the nation debates how to handle these horrible, horrible incidents, theres one step that we can take right here in San Diego County to improve the odds of staying alive after a mass shooting or any other traumatic incident that may take place, and its a program called Stop the Bleed, county Supervisor Dianne Jacob said at the meeting.

The kits would also be useful in other kinds of traumatic events. Falls, motor vehicle crashes and assaults are among the top causes of trauma-related injuries in San Diego County, officials said.

County staff members were given 120 days to come up with a plan to place the kits in county facilities and parks and to train employees to use them. The action comes several days before the first national Stop the Bleed Day on March 31.

The Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the item on Tuesday, but other government officials were more critical of the move.

I think we need to do more than put a literal Band-Aid on mass shootings, said Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher (D-San Diego.) I have not seen a single instance where an individual would have lived through a mass shooting if they had emergency Band-Aids. I have seen instances where there would not be mass shootings if there were adequate gun control measures and background checks.

Perhaps the county supervisors should start by encouraging their GOP leaders in D.C. to do something about that.

A spokesman for the San Diego Chapter of the Brady Campaign, a national organization that has pledged to cut gun deaths in half by 2025, said while bleeding control kits are likely as good of an idea as fire extinguishers, it should not be seen as a replacement for passing gun control measures.

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I think its very important not to get distracted from what we feel is an urgent need to put some common sense gun restrictions on the books, said spokesman Ron Marcus. One is not a substitute for the other.

Those restrictions include universal background checks, a ban on all semi-automatic, AR-15-style rifles and bump stocks, and a limit on the number of bullets a magazine can hold, Marcus said.

Many gun rights advocates have long said that further regulation wont prevent mass shootings.

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Medical professionals said Tuesday that bleeding control kits could save lives.

After the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, when a 20-year-old man shot and killed 20 children between 6 and 7 years old and six employees, medical professionals, members of law enforcement and government officials got together to discuss what could be done to try to save more people during mass casualty incidents.

The Stop the Bleed program was the result.

When we go back and look at these events, we know theres a lot of death from extremity hemorrhage, said Dr. Todd Constantini, the trauma medical director at UC San Diego Health. In 2018, people shouldnt bleed to death from their arms or their legs. We should be able to provide very basic first aid to stop the bleeding until help arrives.

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He said the program consists of two components: training people to recognize and assist during a life-threatening bleeding situation and the placement of bleeding control supplies in public places.

Depending on the type of injury, that could mean applying pressure to a wound, packing an injury with gauze or cinching a tourniquet around a bleeding limb.

Uncontrolled bleeding can lead to death in five to ten minutes... Time is of the essence, said Supervisor Ron Roberts. Thats why its critical to be able to control this bleeding as soon as possible. ...Providing bleeding control kits can be a life saver.

Constantini said that while the program was born out of a desire to improve survival rates during mass casualty incidents like school shootings, traumatic bleeding events happen every day.

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We see this in our trauma centers all the time, he said. I had a young child come in from a playground injury with hemorrhage from an extremity from an arterial injury that we treated. (Bystanders) didnt have the supplies there. They didnt have the training to respond appropriately until medical professionals arrived.

The county Board of Supervisors also directed county lobbyists to support legislation that would help place bleeding control kits in all public buildings throughout the state.

In 2017, Assemblyman Marc Steinorth (R-Rancho Cucamonga) co-authored Assembly Bill 909, with more than half a dozen other California assembly members, that would have required bleeding control kits to be placed in locations where automated external defibrillators are present.

State law requires defibrillators to be placed in many large commercial buildings.

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Steinorth said he helped author the bill after hearing from first responders in his district, some of whom responded to the San Bernardino terrorist attack, which left 14 dead and 22 injured.

They found that a majority of people who are dying in an active shooting situation are bleeding out, and if civilians can be given the tools to assist victims, they have a greater chance of survival, Steinorth said. These trauma kits will save lives.

The bill died in the Committee on Appropriations, which is chaired by Gonzalez Fletcher. Steinorth said he and the other bill authors recently submitted a similarly worded bill in the hopes of helping it move forward.

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Dianne Feinstein was settling into her office at San Francisco City Hall after a two-week vacation in the Himalayas. A former colleague passed by but didnt respond when she called out. She heard gunshots. And then silence.

The year was 1978, and Feinstein was president of the county Board of Supervisors. She was the first person to discover Supervisor Harvey Milk on the floor of his office.

I could smell the gunpowder. Harvey was on his stomach, Feinstein told The Times in an interview. I tried to find a pulse; I put my finger in a bullet hole.

A few hours later she became the face of a national tragedy, announcing on a balcony of the City Hall that former supervisor Dan White had killed Milk, one of the nations first openly gay elected officials, and Mayor George Moscone.

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I became mayor as the product of assassination, Feinstein said.

The violent experience shaped her views and career. Now a U.S. senator, she is perhaps best known for her quest over 25 years in Congress to enact stricter national gun control, including authoring the now-expired original assault weapons ban.

Clockwise, Sen. Dianne Feinstein at the March for Our Lives rally in San Francisco; Feinstein stands with Marjory Stoneman shooting survivor David Hogg in Washington DC; Feinstein delivers remarks on gun control legislation in DC; Feinstein at gun safety event in Los Angeles. (Associaiated Press / AFP / Getty Images / EPA / Los Angeles Times )

Its an issue that has framed and really bookended her career, said Jerry Roberts, a former San Francisco Chronicle editor and author of Dianne Feinstein: Never Let Them See You Cry. It definitely speaks to her perseverance and endurance, which are two of the strongest characteristics she has as a politician that have served her and really enabled her longevity.

Gun control is rarely a top issue for California voters but has new relevance this year as Feinstein, 84, seeks reelection. She has directly challenged President Trump to support legislation banning bump stocks and assault-style weapons that enable mass killings such as what happened at a country music festival in Las Vegas last fall and at a high school in Parkland, Fla., this year. And Feinstein has tried to seize on the energy created by students in the aftermath of the tragedy in Florida, pointing to the hundreds of thousands of young people who marched Saturday. She was among the speakers at the protest in San Francisco.

It was an amazing day with the march, Feinstein told reporters Tuesday after meeting with gun violence survivors and their family members, activists and medical personnel at UCLA Medical Centers Mattel Childrens Hospital. Ive been doing what I do for a substantial period of time and Ive never seen anything like it.

The focus on gun control comes at an opportune time for Feinstein. In her bid for a fifth full term, she is facing a challenge on her left flank. Her moderation has irked the most liberal members of her partys base, as seen in her failure to come close to obtaining the California Democratic Partys endorsement last month.

Her rival, fellow Democrat Kevin de Leon, has championed tighter restrictions on guns and ammunition as a state senator and has touted his record on the issue on the campaign trail.

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De Leon, who is challenging Feinstein from the left and argues she is too centrist, has little to quibble about with her stance on guns. This is an area where we have much common ground and much shared accomplishments, he said. We complement each other.

Feinstein has seized upon the issue as she asks for support.

I have been a woman on a mission to ban assault weapons, the senator said, to applause, at a gathering of union members at the California Democratic Party convention this year. She said a pilot had told her earlier that day that his 7-year-old was afraid to go to school. This is not our America, and we need to change it, she said.

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This may sound like naked opportunism in the midst of a campaign, but gun control has been the through-line of Feinsteins political career.

Two years before the Milk and Moscone assassinations, the anticapitalist group New World Liberation Front planted a bomb in a flower box outside her daughters bedroom window. It failed to explode. The group also shot out windows at her vacation home.

In response, Feinstein was trained by police to use a Smith & Wesson .38 five-shot revolver and obtained a permit to carry a concealed weapon.

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I made the determination that if somebody was going to try to take me out, I was going to take them with me, Feinstein told the Associated Press in 1993.

Feinstein carried the gun in a snapped leather holster in her purse until one day she wondered how quickly she could access it if she needed it.

Two pairs of glasses, a wallet, a notebook, a pen, a pencil, a little cosmetics case  it took me a while to get to it in what was a pretty good-sized purse, Feinstein said. I thought, Hmm. This isnt going to do me much good. 

In 1982, she presented Pope John Paul II with a 10-inch-tall gunmetal blue cross at the Vatican that was created from 15 melted-down firearms, including her own, that were turned in during a gun buyback program in San Francisco.

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That same year, Feinstein signed a local gun-control ordinance that banned most residents from owning pistols, leading a different fringe group to try to oust her from the mayorship in a recall.

In an uncharacteristic display of emotion, Feinstein told the Chronicle that she shed a few tears.

I guess I dont have as much of a shell around me as some people think. I was hurt by it. I still am, she said at the time.

The ordinance was later invalidated by the courts, but Feinstein retained her job in the recall election.

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The following years were rife with gun violence, including in California. A 1989 school shooting in Stockton led the state to become the first in the nation to ban military-style assault weapons.

In 1993, a gunman killed eight people at a San Francisco law firm, leading Feinstein to write the federal assault weapons ban that was signed into law the following year.

It was a landmark piece of legislation, though critics argue that provisions included to ease its passage  notably the grandfathering of 1.5 million such weapons already in Americans possession and a sunset clause  undermined its effectiveness.

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When Congress allowed the law to expire in 2004, part of the debate centered on its effectiveness.

University of Massachusetts researcher Louis Klarevas, the author of Rampage Nation: Securing America from Mass Shootings, said his study of a half-century of mass shootings found that their number was rising prior to the ban and declined during the ban, including a five-year period when there was not a single shooting with six or more fatalities. The numbers increased and grew more frequent, he said, after the laws sunset.

Feinstein has attempted to reenact the assault weapons ban, including in the aftermath of the attempted assassination of then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in 2011 in Tucson and the mass killing at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut in 2012.

On the wall in Feinsteins Senate office is a framed copy of the New York Daily News with photos of the slain first-graders and the headline: Shame on U.S.

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Im looking at the picture right now, 20 beautiful 6- and 7-year-olds, all with a smile, Feinstein said in the phone interview. How can we let this go on?

It got even more personal for Feinstein last year when a gunman opened fire at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival in Las Vegas. Her daughter Katherine and some friends were supposed to attend the concert and canceled at the last minute, selling the tickets. One of the people who bought them suffered a graze wound.

After the massacre, Feinstein introduce the latest version of her expired assault weapons ban, including the elimination of some of provisions that gun-control advocates argue created loopholes in the original bill.

President Trump and Sen. Dianne Feinstein. (Alex Wong / Getty Images )

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The National Rifle Assn., which didnt respond to a request for comment, called the proposal a 125-page firearm prohibition fever dream [that] is perhaps the most far-reaching gun ban ever introduced in Congress.

Seeing the teenage activists mobilize thousands and companies restrict their policies toward gun and ammunition sales has led Feinstein to think the moment might have arrived, at long last. But its an open question whether President Trump will back her call for legislation solidifying that cultural change.

Feinstein said she was cognizant of the presidents record but hopeful that Trump would stay true to the views he expressed during a recent meeting, where she handed him a letter about her experiences and he surprised her by appearing to agree with her views.

I hope he doesnt waffle on what he said because human life in this country depends on it, she said.

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Times staff writer Sarah Wire contributed to this report.

seema.mehta@latimes.com

For the latest on national and California politics, follow @LATSeema on Twitter.

ALSO

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California Democrats snub of party icon Dianne Feinstein could be a speed bump  or a signal

Feinstein shakes with glee after Trump suggests adding assault weapons ban to background check bill
One male worker sent a female co-worker a sexually explicit picture, then later grabbed her and tried to kiss her. Another woman was the subject of suggestive comments about her appearance from a male colleague as she walked down a courthouse hallway. And a third male workers reputation was so poor, female co-workers warned against sitting young interns next to him.

In the past decade, three employees of the San Diego Superior Court have been the subject of sexual harassment complaints, court officials said in response to inquiries from The San Diego Union-Tribune. All the employees were fired, and the court didnt pay out any money to settle complaints.

The court did not identify the employees, other than to say they were not management. It also released only those complaints that it said were substantial and well-founded, citing both the courts own rule regarding public release of administrative records of the court, and case law. The court has about 1,150 employees total.

At the same time, court officials declined to release any information about sexual harassment claims made against San Diego judges and commissioners from 2008 to 2017. Executive Officer Michael Roddy said that such information about judges is exempt from public disclosure under the same court rule.

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In addition to the claims, the newspaper asked for any settlement agreements or payouts made to settle sexual harassment claims. Roddy responded that the court has no such agreements and has paid no money to settle the type of matters you describe.

The newspaper sought the information in January as part of an effort to document instances of sexual harassment in the state judiciary in the wake of the increased attention on the issue from the #MeToo movement.

Last week the Judicial Council  the policy making and administrative agency for the states massive court system, which has more than 2,200 judges and justices  revealed it had spent more than $600,000 to investigate, defend and settle sexual harassment claims against judges and court employees statewide.

The agency declined to identify the judges or employees, citing attorney-client privilege and the rule of court.

The amount the Judicial Council spent was more than the $584,000 that the state Legislature shelled out since 2006 to investigate and settle sexual harassment claims against legislators and staff. That information was released after pressure from media outlets, and identified the individuals who had been accused.

The three complaints of sexual harassment released by the San Diego Superior Court employees are from 2008, 2012 and 2013. The records are summaries or emails prepared by supervisors, who are not identified in the released documents.

In February 2008, a female court clerk told her supervisor that a male co-worker had emailed her a sexually explicit photograph on her work email account. The man was on a leave of absence at the time. In addition to sending her the photo as well as numerous other emails, the woman said that the man parked his car in front of the womans vehicle in an employee parking lot. When she went to her car, the man asked her to get into his car, and when she got in he tried to touch her breast and kiss her without permission. The woman got out of the car and later sent him an email never to contact her again.

In 2012, a woman told her supervisor a male co-worker was making her uncomfortable and she did not want to be around him. She reported that in February of that year the man was walking behind her down a courthouse hallway whe he remarked, The view looks good from back here. A few weeks later, when he was in her work area, he said about her in front of co-workers, Id whistle, but I cant.

In December 2013, a court official was discussing where a group of interns would be seated. When it was suggested they sit in an empty cubicle space near an unidentified male co-worker, several women clerks discouraged that, saying it wouldnt be a good idea because the interns were cute. Asked what that meant, the clerks said that everyone knows how (the man) is and they dont want him to bother the interns. They also said the man was commenting how hot a new worker was.

The male employee involved in the 2008 incident was later terminated, court officials said. The others were also disciplined but the court did not say how.

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The 8 million Californians living within 50 miles of the shuttered San Onofre nuclear power plant have long been unnerved by Southern California Edisons decision to store the plants 3.55 million pounds of radioactive waste at the site along the north San Diego County coast because of a lack of other options. Thats why The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board has written repeatedly about the need for Congress to revive plans the Obama administration put on hold to build a national depository in remote Yucca Valley, Nevada, to help California and 34 other states deal with nuclear waste.

Now there is new reason to worry. Earlier this month, San Onofre officials discovered a design defect in one of the new versions of a nuclear waste container designed by Holtec International of New Jersey. Work ceased for 10 days and has now resumed with other containers. But Edison says it cant check to see if there are defects with the four new containers it had already filled with waste.

The news is also troubling for another reason. Holtec, which says the defect wont impact storage safety, is the same company that proposed building a nuclear waste storage facility at a New Mexico desert site that could take care of San Onofres waste. The local officials who had welcomed such a plant may now have second thoughts. This again suggests that Yucca Mountain is the best solution.

Twitter: @sdutIdeas

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Amid a wave of angry protests, law enforcement officials and community leaders in Sacramento pleaded for time and patience Tuesday as multiple investigations are being launched into last weeks fatal shooting of an unarmed black man in the backyard of his grandparents house, where he lived.

Time? Stephon Clark, only 22, had mere seconds to live when two police officers responding to a report of someone smashing car windows found him in his backyard and fired 20 shots at him. Gun! one officer yelled. Show me your hands! Gun, gun, gun! One officer had already drawn his gun as they followed Clark into his yard. Clark had a cellphone.

In 2016 in Baton Rouge, African-American Alton Sterling had just 90 seconds to live when two officers saw him outside a convenience store while responding to a call about a man who had threatened someone with a gun. Before fatally shooting the 37-year-old amid a struggle, one officer reportedly put his gun to Sterlings head and said, Ill kill you, b----.

Anecdotes about black men being killed by police could take up this entire editorial. A database compiled by the Washington Post shows fatal shootings by police have continued at about the same pace in recent years, but as the Post reported Tuesday, they have drawn less national attention recently and largely faded from the national political debate.

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The nations eyes are now on Sacramento, where a call for calm is a reasonable request, especially now that state Attorney General Xavier Becerra has agreed to conduct an independent investigation into the Sacramento Police Department shooting of a black man holding a cellphone  and a related state probe into the departments training policies.

But that announcement came within hours of one from Louisianas attorney general that the Baton Rouge police officers who had shot and killed Sterling two years ago wont be charged with any crimes. There is speculation those officers may lose their jobs, and the attorney for one officer is already planning to appeal his firing. Sterling did have a loaded .38-caliber handgun in his right front pocket.

These are tense situations for officers entrusted with a difficult job, balancing public safety with an expectation of the safest outcomes. But its time for all police departments to do more to combat growing distrust. New San Diego Police Chief David Nisleit said before his City Council confirmation that having a diverse police force and building trust in communities of color are top priorities in a city where a research study found African-Americans and Latinos are more likely to be searched and questioned following traffic stops. Nisleit can certainly be proactive in San Diego.

He should start by re-evaluating policies on everything from use of force and conflict de-escalation to the release of officer-involved shooting videos. When law enforcement officials from across San Diego County released a new joint policy in 2016, Nisleits predecessor, Shelley Zimmerman, emphasized that video by itself may not provide the conclusive information that we are all looking for.

Of course. Yet in Sacramento, body-worn camera and helicopter footage of Clarks shooting was released three days after the shooting. Transparency and trust are interchangeable. A commitment to release videos in a timely fashion if such a tragedy occurred here would go a long way to building trust.

Twitter: @sdutIdeas

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On Wednesday, California took a pause from its legal battles against President Donald Trumps administration to announce a new appointment in Gov. Jerry Browns office: A bordoodle named Cali Brown.

The dog, a Standard Poodle mixed with a Border Collie, instantly won the internet with many Californians fawning over the governors new Deputy First Dog.

Cali Browns arrival comes less than two years after one of the governors two dogs, Sutter Brown, died in 2016. At the time, Sutter Brown had been diagnosed with cancer.

In announcing the new dog, Browns press office said the dog has already shown promise in her engagement with horses, donkeys, goats, sheep and chickens at his familys ranch.

This position does not require Senate confirmation  though the Deputy First Dog will gladly appear almost anywhere there are treats  and the compensation is per diem belly rub, the statement read.

But what really set the internet abuzz was this small detail at the tail end of its announcement: Cali is a Doggocrat.

The announcement also comes at a time California finds itself in the midst of legal battles with the Trump administration.

Earlier this month, the justice department filed a lawsuit against California over its so-called sanctuary state laws. Then this week, Orange County leaders in Southern California voted to join the federal government in that lawsuit. And then, state Attorney General Xavier Becerra on Tuesday announced a lawsuit of its own against the Trump administration over a citizenship question added to the 2020 Census.

Issues like immigration and taxes have made California a battleground for Democrats and Republicans in the upcoming midterm elections. How those hairy issues will play out in the elections is up to anyones guess.

What is certain is that dogs are awesome.

Email: luis.gomez@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @RunGomez

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The clash between California and President Donald Trump over the states so-called sanctuary laws and immigration in general has been portrayed as a conflict pitting the entire state against the president, but now pockets of California are making it clear that their leaders do not agree with laws that shield unauthorized immigrants.

California laws that went into effect on Jan. 1 restrain how federal agents go about detaining unauthorized immigrants for deportation in cities throughout the state. Trumps justice department has since sued the state over its three laws  Senate Bill 54 or the California Values Act, Assembly Bill 450 or the Workplace Raid law and Assembly Bill 103 or the Detention Review law  arguing that they are unconstitutional.

In recent weeks, some cities and at least one sheriffs department in California are also pushing back against the laws. Heres who is opposing them, and how.

Orange County Supervisors

On Tuesday, the Orange County Board of Supervisors voted to join the federal lawsuit against the states sanctuary state laws, the Los Angeles Times reported. Before that vote, Orange County Supervisor Shawn Nelson told Fox News that sanctuary status is unconstitutional and that the supervisors do not want to be affiliated with those laws.

California has decided to poke the president and his administration in the eye and Id rather that they just not involve us, Nelson said.

The move comes after other leaders in cities in Orange County, even its Sheriffs Department, voted to opt out of Californias sanctuary state laws. Other cities that have not yet taken action but are considering it include Huntington Beach and Mission Viejo  both in Orange County, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Orange County Sheriffs Department

The Orange County Sheriffs Department on Monday said in a statement that it will publish the date and time when inmates are to be released. The agencys goal is to help U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents remove dangerous offenders from our community.

SB 54 makes local law enforcements job more difficult and requires bureaucratic processes that could allow dangerous individuals to fall through the cracks of our justice system, said Sheriff Sandra Hutchens, adding that the new policy applies to all inmates and therefore does not violate Californias sanctuary laws.

City of Los Alamitos

Earlier in March, Los Alamitos  a Southern California city in Orange County  voted to opt out of Californias sanctuary state laws, the Orange County Register reported. The City Council also voted to direct its city attorney to join a federal lawsuit against California that argues that its sanctuary state laws are unconstitutional, the paper reported.

Its mayor, Troy Edgar, even set up a GoFundMe campaign to help fund the citys fight against the state. On Fox News, Edgar said the states new laws are in conflict with his oath of office to defend the Constitution.

City of Aliso Viejo

The mayor of Aliso Viejo, Dave Harrington, said the city also plans to take similar action at its upcoming city council meeting, the Orange County Register reported. That meeting is set for April 4.

In an interview on Fox News, Harrington said that what California is doing with its sanctuary laws is unconstitutional and is making citizens less safe.

City of Buena Park

Another Orange County city, Buena Park, might also join that movement. Beth Swift, a member of its City Council, told the Orange County Register that she plans to bring up the issue at a future City Council meeting, although she did not specify a date.

This budding movement against Californias sanctuary state status has resonated with conservatives in Southern California  including with members of Congress and the states legislature. But as the movement gains steam, it is also drawing criticism.

In an opinion column for the Times, long-time Orange County writer Gustavo Arellano says the local leaders argument that they want to keep their citizens safe from illegal-immigrant criminals is all a show because the county has low crime rates.

Anti-immigrant measures may still play in the tiniest parts of Orange County or the reddest parts of the state, but they will eventually founder in the new California, Arellano wrote.

Others, including state Sen. Kevin de Leon, also weighed in.

Email: luis.gomez@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @RunGomez

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The internet fact-checked President Donald Trump on Wednesday.

And many Twitter users took issue with a presidential tweet boasting about the start of our Southern Border WALL, calling it inaccurate because the images he attached to his tweet showed upgrades to old Vietnam War-era fencing with a new, taller fence  and not a wall  in its place, a fact reported by The San Diego Union-Tribune.

The U.S. Border Patrol last month touted the construction of a 30-foot fence that is slated to replace the decades-old barrier in Calexico, a small border town some 117 miles east of San Diego in California.

The new barrier upgrade is made up of bollards, or metal posts planted close together but with enough of a gap to see through the barrier. Still, the Border Patrol is insisting on calling it a border wall.

We are calling this a border wall, Border Patrol agent Justin Castrejon told the Union-Tribune in February. It is not a new wall. Its a replacement wall.

But an expert said there is a technical difference between a fence and a wall. Ken Walsh, a professor of construction engineering at San Diego State University, told the Union-Tribune that a fence is a barrier that you can see through and one that has posts. Walls are opaque and have a continuous base, he said.

Trumps tweet is also inaccurate because it suggests that construction on the U.S.-Mexico border wall that he promised during his campaign has begun. Congress has yet to approve that project, which is estimated to cost $21.6 billion.

Many people on Twitter called Trumps tweet inaccurate, but a few Twitter accounts from conservatives and from the Republican Party seemed to have taken him at his word  and enjoyed what he had to say.

Everyone else? Not so much.

Email: luis.gomez@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @RunGomez

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A city staff-prepared report recommends the increasing of fees charged residential developers who dont want to include affordable housing in their projects.

The report will be considered by the City Council at Tuesday nights meeting.

Since 2010 the city has been charging $500 per for-sale residential unit, regardless of home size. The fee was lowered at the time from a 2008 maximum rate of $2,250 per unit by a council concerned over the impact of the Great Recession and drought-related costs on development in the city. A consultants study prepared at the time recommended the fees be increased to a maximum of $9,000 per unit.

A report submitted by Bob Manis, the citys director of development services, recommends going back to the 2008 rate. The new schedule would also include rental housing  now permitted by the state. The proposed schedule starts at $500 for a multi-family dwelling unit under 1,000 square feet, up to a maximum of $2,250 for a single-family house over 2,250 square feet.

Poways in-lieu fee dates to 1993, when a maximum rate of $4,500 per unit was established. That was cut in half in 2008.

Fees collected would be used by the city to provide affordable housing opportunities in the city.

Prior to the 2012 dissolution by the state of the citys redevelopment agency, Poway was receiving between $400,000 and $1.3 million annually in property taxes specifically earmarked for affordable housing-related projects, according to Manis. In the six years since the agency went away, there have been 78 dwelling units built in the city, resulting in approximately $30,000 in revenue.

The proposed inclusionary housing in-lieu fees would remain the lowest in the county, Manis wrote in his report. The City of San Diego charges $6,679 per multi-family rental unit, he noted, while single-family housing fees range from $4,515 per unit (Carlsbad) and $9,300 per unit (San Marcos) to $18,981 per unit (San Diego).

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.

The council will also consider approving a Chick-fil-A restaurant with a drive-through where the vacant Cocos Restaurant now stands.

The meeting will start at 7 p.m. in the council chambers, 13325 Civic Center Drive.

Email: editor@pomeradonews.com
Reject LMD proposal

You are never betrayed by an enemy, but only by a friend or acquaintance. A good example of betrayal is what the city wants to do to the Poway residents who live in Landscape Maintenance District 83-1.

For 30-plus years, the city knew the landscaping on Twin Peaks Road was a problem, but officials put their heads in the sand and hoped it would go away. The city has grown and made a lot of money by the building of Twin Peaks Road and officials know by traffic flow studies that over 87 percent of traffic using Twin Peaks Road is going through the area and does not live in LMD 83-1.

First, I urge all residents in this area to vote no on this proposal. If you read the ballot notice or attended the recent City Council meeting, you would note it contains some outright lies and other very misleading information, which is clearly politically-driven. Second, since the city never presented a proposed landscaping plan, a resident committee should be formed to develop said plan.

I have lived in Poway for over 40 years and I love our city, but I am sorry to say I no longer trust our mayor, City Council or the staff that is associated with this proposal.

Don C. Stonecipher

Poway

More parkland needed

The Poway City Council has just kicked off a frenzy of new development along Poway Road. This new development will increase the demand for parkland around Poway Road because the new units will lack backyards.

The city has a responsibility to provide these new residents with adequate recreational space and to maintain the quality of life of existing residents in that area.

Increasing the size of Poway Community Park would be one way to handle this problem since the park is located at the center of this new development zone. Unfortunately, the city is considering selling the only suitable land to local developer Meridian-Sudbury. If this happens, the options for new parkland in that area will be severely limited.

Therefore, the city should suspend negotiations with Meridian-Sudbury so it can determine the new parkland requirements created by all the new development authorized along Poway Road. Poway should then dedicate a sufficient amount of its publicly-owned land to the expansion of Poway Community Park before agreeing to sell any remaining portion to Meridian-Sudbury.

This is the very least the City Council can do to maintain the quality of life of both the existing residents along Poway Road, who will be impacted by this massive increase in development, as well as the future residents who will need ample space to walk, play and gather near their homes.

Brian Edmonston

Poway

Supports Trump

I was not impressed by columnist Harvey Levines Doubling Down on Trump (March 15) a left-wing, progressive anti-Trump diatribe. It would probably take several pages to do a proper response, but I will offer at least a few words.

Mr. Levine thinks Donald Trump is the most dangerous person on this earth. I would suggest that he is the most powerful person on this earth, properly elected by the vote of 62 million Americans.

I am a supporter of the Second Amendment and our Constitution, so I would not support taking away the self-defense weapons from people who should not have them without a warrant.

I would offer the fact that President Trumps statements about creating tariff structures to attempt to create a fair trading environment were not a spur-of-the-moment declaration, but the result of many discussions which prompted Gary Cohn to resign when he did not prevail.

The people who run our government are not used to a successful businessman who actually has the backbone to make decisions and change positions on arrangements (like the TPP) and create a management team that works for him and our country.

Finally, if you did a Google search for empty suit, it would bring up a picture of one of the members of the Obama team who weaponized the CIA, John Brennan.

Richard G. Taylor

Poway
The super bloom of wildflowers that sprouted from the desert to the sea last year wont make a return appearance this spring due to a serious shortage of rain, especially along San Diego Countys coastal bluffs.

Twice in recent weeks it appeared that the county would get soaked by a river of moisture flowing into California from the sub-tropics.

But most of the rain either didnt materialize or it cycled away from the county, deepening the regions rain deficit.

Since the rainy season started on October 1st, San Diego International Airport has recorded 3.18 inches of precipitation, which is 5.82 inches below average. Ramona has received 5.56 inches, which is 7.86 inches below average. And Oceanside Airport has recorded 4.68 inches, which is 6.98 inches below average.

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There are few vibrant patches of wildflowers across the county, and the situation is only marginally better in Southern California deserts, according to the latest weekly review by the Theodore Payne Foundation for Wildflowers and Native Plants.

At this time last year, the super bloom had peaked and was fast fading, the foundation says on its website. This year, we are still waiting for any kind of bloom. Reports are hopeful for at least a moderate bloom in April and May. Timing is everything when it comes to our California wildflowers.

Probably shouldnt give up yet on Anza Borrego Desert State Park. There has been no rain in the low elevations, but in some of the higher elevation canyons, there has been some rain recorded.

The website, which can be found here, will have an update on Friday.
Weather in San Diego County through Friday should be near perfect: temperatures in the 70s near the coast, approaching the 80s inland, very little wind or clouds.

Its really a benign kind of quiet pattern right now, National Weather Service forecaster Joe Dandrea said. Its actually quite pleasant.

But that doesnt mean weve seen the last of the storms and are headed into San Diegos annual long dry spell, which often lasts from spring to mid fall. Last year, the period from mid-May through the end of December was the driest in city history.

Were not forecasting anything will happen, but the (storm) door is not closed, Dandrea said.

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A ridge of high pressure will keep the region dry and warm through Friday. That ridge should keep coastal low clouds away.

But unlike much of the winter, when a ridge set up shop and blocked storms from reaching California for weeks straight, this ridge appears to be short-lived.

By next week, without a ridge in a place, the pattern across the Pacific should be zonal, meaning the flow will basically be from west to east, Dandrea said.

Im encouraged to see stuff (storms) still coming into Northern California, he said. We just need something to sag south. Were not out of it yet.

April is usually a transition month in San Diego. The storms become less frequent, but they usually still arrive. The city averages 0.78 of an inch of rain during the month. After April, the monthly averages drop way off and dont pick up again until October.

Additional precipitation across the state would be welcomed by state water managers. A wet and snowy March in Northern Californias mountains has helped fill reservoirs and closed a huge precipitation deficit built up over the fall and early winter, but the entire state remains below its normal snow and rainfall levels. San Diego has had less than 40 percent of its normal rainfall since Oct. 1.

Friday should be the warmest day this week. The coast should reach the mid 70s, and valley locations such as El Cajon, Valley Center and Ramona are expected to be in the low 80s.

By Saturday, that ridge starts to lose influence, and a trough of low pressure takes the upper hand. The trough is too far north to bring rain, but forecasters expect it to pull in high clouds on Saturday, which should knock temperatures down a few degrees. Sunday should be noticeably cooler, with coastal highs dipping below 70 and the valleys staying in the low 70s.

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rob.krier@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: sdutKrier


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Philadelphia, PA -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/28/2018 -- Capsicum Group, LLC, a technology consulting firm specializing in digital forensics, cybersecurity, and e-discovery, has relocated its New York, New York computer forensics office to 1359 Broadway, in the heart of Herald Square.



Capsicum Group has been located in the New York City area since 2011, offering clients computer / digital forensics analysis and reporting, technology consulting, cybersecurity and data breach response, electronic discovery, media recovery and paper discovery. The new office space provides Capsicum Group with an enhanced facility to better serve and collaborate with our clients.



Capsicum Group's team of experienced computer / digital forensics professionals in NYC are equipped to take on the most complex technology projects, from devising cybersecurity compliance testing or response, forensically investigating electronic fraud to facilitating e-discovery solutions. Learn more at http://www.capsicumgroup.com.



Capsicum Group's updated New York address is 1359 Broadway, Suite 1110, New York, NY 10018.



About Capsicum Group, LLC

Capsicum Group, LLC, is a Philadelphia, PA-based consulting company that assists law firms and in-house counsel as well as companies in the technology, manufacturing, healthcare, financial, retail and educational fields succeed in legal, regulatory compliance, and technology projects. Since 2000, they have helped clients with digital forensics, cybersecurity, e-discovery, data recovery, restoration, and compliance cases. In addition to their Philadelphia headquarters, Capsicum has offices in New York and Florida. For details on cybersecurity, digital forensics, technology consulting and e-discovery services available from Capsicum Group, visit the Capsicum Group website at http://www.capsicumgroup.com or call 212-575-9565.
Pune, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/28/2018 -- MarketResearchFuture.com published a Half-Cooked research report on "Global Chromoblastomycosis Treatment Market Research Report - Forecast to 2023" reports to its database.  Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2023.



You can get easy access to samples from the report here: https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/5685 .



The global market for chromoblastomycosis treatment is expected to grow at a CAGR of approximately 6.3% during the forecast period, 2017-2023.



The report titled "Chromoblastomycosis Treatment Market -Forecast to 2023? is a direct appreciation by Market Research Future of the market potential of the Chromoblastomycosis Treatment Market. The report intends to provide accurate and meaningful insights, both quantitative as well as qualitative. It can be said with high confidence level, that this report will satisfy the need for comprehensive insights needed to compete and beat other players in today's winner takes all market!



Market Scenario:



Chromoblastomycosis is a fungal infection caused by species such as Fonsecaea pedrosoi, Cladophialophora carrionii, Phialophora verrucosa, Fonsecaea compacta, Rhinocladiella aquaspersa, Chaetomium funicola and others. This disease mostly affects the skin and the subcutaneous tissues. Globally, there is about a million type of fungal species, yet nearly 300 are capable of causing infections or disease in humans. Most of these cases are seen in people with compromised immune systems and can occur almost in any part of the body.



A type of fungal infection known as systemic mycosis is affecting the internal organs of the body. During this, fungal infection can spread and affect other organs of the body. The rising cases of immunological diseases is a reason for increased probability of systemic mycosis. Thus, the developing novel treatment for chromoblastomycosis with fewer side effects is the primary objective of manufacturing companies.



The newly launched azoles such as voriconazole and itraconazole, are the gold standard drugs for antifungal therapy. Chromoblastomycosis infections need to be treated with antifungal medication such as itraconazole, terbinafine, posaconazole, amphotericin B. Often, the treatment for chromoblastomycosis requires surgery to scrape off the infected tissue. The growth of the market is primarily driven by increasing incidents of fungal infections, rising prevalence of immunological diseases, availability of wide range of products, and increasing awareness about the fungal infections. However, the existence of misbranded drugs and their side effects may slow the growth of the market. The treatment of fungal infections is available in multiple dosage forms such as oral and intravenous medicines. Furthermore, the medications are also available in the form of sprays, creams, solutions, and shampoos.



Key Players:



Some of key the players in the global chromoblastomycosis treatment market are Astellas Pharma (Japan), Biocon Limited (India), Abbott Laboratories (U.S.), Merck Sharp and Dohme (U.S.), Gilead Sciences (U.S.), Mylan Labs (U.S.), Bristol Myers Squibb (U.S.), Bayer AG (Germany), Lonza Group (Switzerland), Sanofi (France), F. Hoffman La Roche (Switerzland), Cadila Pharmaceuticals Limited (India), Johnson & Johnson (U.S.), Pfizer Inc. (U.S.), Novartis AG (Switerzland), and others



Regional Analysis:



The global chromoblastomycosis treatment market consists of countries namely the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East & Africa.



The Americas dominate the global chromoblastomycosis treatment market owing to a huge patient population for chromoblastomycosis and well-developed healthcare sector. This disease commonly affects the agricultural workers in rural regions of South America, Central America, and North America.



The European region is the second largest market for the global chromoblastomycosis treatment owing to the rising occurrence of fungal infections among the patients, and advancements in the surgeries procedure and the use of surgical devices. It was estimated that about 20% of these cases were found in countries such as the Czech Republic, Romania, and Finland.



Asia Pacific is the fastest growing region for chromoblastomycosis treatment market due to increasing prevalence of fungal infections, and regional expansion for the development of this market. Japan is considered to exhibit the highest prevalence rate for chromoblastomycosis in the Asia Pacific region.



The Middle East & Africa region contributed the lowest share of the global chromoblastomycosis treatment market, in 2016. Several different Latin American and the African countries, such as Colombia, Gabon, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba, have high prevalence rates for this condition.



Access Complete Report Here: https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/chromoblastomycosis-treatment-market-5685 .



Segmentation:

The global chromoblastomycosis treatment market is segmented on the basis of species, types, diagnosis, treatment, and end-users.



On the basis of the species, the global chromoblastomycosis treatment market is segmented into Fonsecaea pedrosoi, Cladophialophora carrionii, Phialophora verrucosa, Fonsecaea compacta, Rhinocladiella aquaspersa, Chaetomium funicola, and others.



On the basis of the disease type, the global chromoblastomycosis treatment market is segmented into nodular type, tumoral type, verrucous type, plaque type, and others.



On the basis of the diagnosis, the global chromoblastomycosis treatment market is segmented into blood test, immunodiagnosis, histopathology and mycological examination, tissue biopsy, and others. The immunodiagnosis is classified into enzyme-linked immune sorbent assay (ELISA), and immunodiffusion, and others.



On the basis of the treatment, the global chromoblastomycosis treatment market is segmented into surgery, antifungal drugs, amphotericin B therapy, thermotherapy, laser therapy, photodynamic therapy, adjuvant therapy, and others. The surgery is classified into cryosurgery, curettage, electrodesiccation, surgical excisions, and others. Furthermore, the antifungal drugs are categorized into oral itraconazole, oral terbinafine, posaconazole, isavuconazole, and others.



On the basis of the end-user, the market is segmented into hospitals & clinics, medical institutes, research organization, and others.



MAJOR TOC OF CHROMOBLASTOMYCOSIS TREATMENT MARKET:



Chapter 1. Report Prologue



Chapter 2. Market Introduction



Chapter 3. Research Methodology



Chapter 4. Market Dynamics



Chapter 5. Market Factor Analysis



Chapter 6. Global Chromoblastomycosis Treatment Market, By Species



Chapter 7. Global Chromoblastomycosis Treatment Market, By Disease Type



Chapter 8. Global Chromoblastomycosis Treatment Market, By Diagnosis



Chapter 9. Global Chromoblastomycosis Treatment Market, By Treatment



Chapter 10. Global Chromoblastomycosis Treatment Market, By End User



Chapter 11. Global Chromoblastomycosis Treatment Market, By Region



Chapter 12. Company Landscape



Chapter 13. Company Profiles



Chapter 14. MRFR Conclusion



Chapter 15. Appendix



CONTINUED FOR TOC



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Pune, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/28/2018 -- Market Overview:

Globally, the demand for cocoa ingredients has been increasing from the food and beverages industries. Market Research Future, a firm which specializes in market reports related to the Food, Beverages & Nutrition sector among others, recently forecasted in its report on Global Cocoa Ingredients Market Research Report- Forecast to 2027 that the market will demonstrate an exceptional CAGR during the forecast period.



Potential applications of cocoa in food, pharma, neutraceuticals, and personal care industries have a positive impact on its market growth. Based on the applications, personal care based application of cocoa ingredients will experience the highest growth rate during the forecast period. However, confectionery and bakery based application will dominate the market and will capture more than two-third of market share in overall cocoa ingredients market.



Recently, production of cocoa in Ghana has declined which will impact on overall cocoa exports to create huge supply and demand gap globally. According to the International Cocoa Organization, the 2016-17 surplus amounted to 371,000 tons, more than making up for the 174,000-tonne output shortfall the previous season. Higher demand and lower supply will increase the prices in the coming period. However, cocoa stocks are still relatively high, making rising price escaping unlikely.



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Major Key Players:

Key players are focused majorly on acquisition of small players to expand their business and penetrate the global cocoa ingredients market. Expansion is also one of the key strategies followed by acquisition. Expansion will help in capturing the major market and increasing the production capacity to meet the rising demand from consumer's end thereby further contributing to increasing revenue.



The key players profiled in the global cocoa ingredients market are Archer Daniels Midland Company (U.S.), Cargill Inc. (U.S.), Barry Callebaut (Switzerland), Blommer Chocolate (U.S.), Cocoa Processing Company Ltd (Ghana), Mars Inc. (U.S.), Agostoni chocolate (U.S.), and Olam International Limited (Singapore) among many others.



Latest Industry Updates:

Jan 2018 Farmers raise the alarm: Cocoa production will be low this year. COCOA farmers across the Nigeria have predicted low production this year if the federal government failed to address the issue of "sub-standard and fake inputs" allegedly procured for them last year.



Jan 2018 Thousands of cocoa farmers have fled violence between separatists and security forces in Cameroon's Southwest Region, which grows more than 100,000 tons of beans, nearly half of the country's output, farmers, and buyers.



Jan 2018 NEPC is ready to partner with state governments, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), farmers and exporters of cocoa to bring the desired value chain in the sector.



Jan 2018 Compounds in cocoa powder may help alleviate arthritis pain.



Market Segments:

The global cocoa ingredients market has been divided into type, application, and region.



On The Basis Of Type: Cocoa butter, Cocoa powder, Cocoa liquor, and others.



On The Basis Of Application: Bakery & Confectionery, Dairy products, Beverages, and Others.



On The Basis Of Region: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and ROW.



Access Report Details @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/cocoa-ingredients-market-1380



Regional Analysis:

Among the regions, Africa will continue to dominate the cocoa ingredients market with more than half of the market share. In Africa region, the Ivory Coast is the leading cocoa supplier across the globe. Key players like Nestle and Cadbury collect much of their cocoa from the Ivory Coast and Cocoa alone is responsible for almost two-thirds of the trade revenue coming into the nation. In upcoming years, cocoa production in Ivory Coast will fall as recently, serious concerns have been raised about cocoa production here due to increasing concern over child laborers, physical abuse and excessive working hours.
Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/28/2018 -- Market Research Hub (MRH) has added a new report to its research repository on digital marketing in automotive in China. The report has been titled, "Digital Marketing in Automotive-China-March 2018."Client conduct when inquiring about and buying products has moved at incredible pace over late years, and the utilization of digital media in this adventure is ceaselessly expanding.



Request For Sample Report: https://www.marketresearchhub.com/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1669916



Albeit most vehicle buys are still completed in dealerships, the examination did online previously is rising. Since there is an enormous measure of substance internet covering everything from item details and client audits to item examinations and estimating, numerous buy choices have been made before the client visits the dealership. These choices are altogether impacted by the marketing content shoppers are given amid the purchasing procedure.



Digital Marketing Trends Pertaining in the Automotive Industry



Uses of Social Media Platforms



Hyundai as of late utilized Instagram to display a scope of picture based inquiries to clients to enable them to pick the best Hyundai SUV for their requirements. The video beneath indicates how basic and quick the procedure is for the client.



Expanded utilization of VR and AR



According to a recent research, most auto purchasers detest dealerships and are upbeat to buy a vehicle on the web. In this way, it's nothing unexpected that producers are progressively utilizing enlarged reality and virtual reality to exhibit their models' highlights to potential clients. Audi and Volvo are two brands that have utilized this innovation as of late yet in various ways. Audi has acquired immense show dividers and touchscreen tablets to modernize and change the dynamic of their showrooms. Volvo adopted a marginally unique strategy and collaborated with Google Cardboard to enable clients to see their most recent models from wherever they are.



Know your crowd and how they act on the web



It's vital that makers and retailers have a decent comprehension of their crowd and how they carry on the web. They shouldn't simply center on past clients and their run of the mill target market however should intend to comprehend the individuals who are devouring data and drawing in with brands digitally.



Browse Full Report with TOC- https://www.marketresearchhub.com/report/digital-marketing-in-automotive-china-march-2018-report.html



Make content for expanded natural perceivability



Throughout the most recent year and a half, web indexes (especially Google) have changed how they show data in the outcomes pages. This has enabled organizations to involve certain spaces where their data can be shown. With a specific end goal to accomplish this current, it's essential that you have a comprehension of how Google sources and shows data, and that you're consistently making the substance that meets these prerequisites.



Be available on the important web-based social networking



The automotive industry is probably going to have run of the mill touchpoints over every single social medium. For instance, Facebook is a center point of distributed dialog, where individuals discuss the decisions they have made, or are going to make, with regards to huge buys. Twitter houses exchanges on the relative advantages and disadvantages of generally vehicles. For instance, devotees of BMW can be seen examining the brand utilizing #BMW.



Report Offerings



The report provides an overview on the market scenario in China along with highlighting the requirements of the audience, the type of ads for cars, the opinions of the consumers, the comment and reaction of the peer, consumer engagement, futuristic goals, and the use of different social media platforms such as WeChat, Weibo, and Zhihu. Other information on the market data, target age groups, and methodology has also been provided in the report.



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Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/28/2018 -- Market Research Report Search Engine (MRRSE) recently announced the addition of a new research study to its comprehensive collection of research reports. The research report, titled "Global Market Study on Neonatal Hearing Screening Devices: Asia Pacific Regional Market Forecasted to Lead the Global Market in Revenue Terms During 2017 - 2025" offers a detailed analysis of the market, providing insights into the market dynamics that are expected to influence the overall market positively in the next few years. Furthermore, the product segmentation, drivers, barriers, key geographical segments, and the competitive scenario of the global Neonatal Hearing Screening Devices market have been elaborated upon in the research report.



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High birth rate in developing and under developed regions creates a huge potential for neonatal hearing screen devices market



According to a list published by the World Bank, several countries exhibited very high birth rates in 2010. These include the Republic of Niger, Mali, Zambia, Chad, and Uganda. Since many African nations exhibit very high birth rates, they also face an increased risk of neonatal problems. Many children in the Middle East and Africa are born with bilateral or permanent hearing loss. Hence, these nations would require extensive investments in neonatal care. Many Asian countries such as Afghanistan, Yemen and Iraq have also exhibited high birth rates, therefore requiring high neonatal care. Developing countries such as India have large population out of which 75% people live in rural areas who need more care and screening. Several developing countries such as Saudi Arabia, India, South Africa, and Mexico witness moderate birth rates, which would again contribute extensively towards the growing demand for neonatal care equipment. Most of these regions still lack new and advanced neonatal care equipment. There is a huge potential for neonatal hearing screen devices market in such regions.



Initiatives towards improving neonatal care boosting the market growth



Several countries across the world have undertaken various initiatives to improve neonatal hearing screening. For instance, the U.S. government is pursuing health activities through its early hearing detection and intervention (EHDI) programs, which is responsible for developing and operating a newborn hearing screening system and for providing diagnosis, early intervention and family support. This strategy was developed in consultation with partner countries, the U.S. Congress, civil society organizations, other governments and donors, multilateral and international institutions, and private sector partners.



Complete Outlook of Report @ https://www.mrrse.com/neonatal-hearing-screening-devices-market



Many non-profit organizations around the world have started different programs to impart knowledge and information to the public, especially hearing screening programs. Various governments along with private firms have set up hospitals and healthcare facilities to make pediatric and neonatal care more accessible. These measures have brought the expenditures down for price sensitive consumers. Such initiatives by governments and other organizations are likely to increase the number of people availing these services and contribute to the growth of this market.



Technological advances in screening and intervention modalities in the United States



Recent technological advances have made universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS) feasible and have led to a radical revision of screening methods and opened the door to scientific evaluation for the benefit of early intervention. Use of portable and handheld devices and accuracy in the diagnosis of the hearing screening of infants in the U.S. drives the overall neonatal hearing screening devices market. With the improvement in OAE and ABR Technique, federally funded projects and clinical screening programs have combined to demonstrate the practicality and efficacy of UNHS programs.



Global Neonatal Hearing Screening Devices Market Analysis and Forecast, By Region



As per the forecasts provided by Persistence Market Research, the North America neonatal hearing screening devices market was estimated to be valued at US$ 6.7 Mn in 2017 and is anticipated to reach a valuation of US$ 9.2 Mn in 2025, exhibiting a CAGR of 4.1% during the period of assessment 2017-2025. The Europe neonatal hearing screening devices market was estimated to be valued at US$ 7.4 Mn in 2017 and is likely to reach a valuation of US$ 10.9 Mn in 2025, exhibiting a CAGR of 4.9% during the period of forecast.



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San Francisco, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/27/2018 -- The Internet of Things (IoT) is impacting everything, right from bandwidth requirements to cloud capacity. It is expected that the number of everyday objects that can connect to the Internet will surpass PCs and smart phones by 2020. According to trade analysts, a majority of organizations have still not implemented Internet of Things technology but are either in the process of beginning its conception or will adopt the technology in the next few years. In addition to this, Wi-Fi, mobile computing, and real-time location tracking are important for firms to implement Internet of Things. Organizations continue to demand system integration and security, factors which continue to push companies in the field to come up with better solutions.



Most executives opine that no major change is needed in security protocols to handle the implementation of Internet of Things (IoT). Companies expect the technology of Internet IoT to enhance customer satisfaction and resource optimization. Additionally, the power, healthcare, and logistics sectors are anticipated to record significant adoption of IoT in the next few years.



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The report provides an in-depth analysis of the expected timeframe for implementation of IoT solutions, in terms of both physical installation of the systems and raising awareness about the technology. As a nascent technology, global awareness about the Internet of Things is less than optimum and there is massive scope for expansion. Moreover, the report delivers an evaluation of technologies that are crucial for growth of IoT within organizations and potential business gains from Internet of Things (IoT) solutions.



Global Internet of Things Market: Overview



Internet of Things (IoT) refers to an advanced technology featuring intelligent network that connects everyday devices and objects ranging from light switches and door bells to self-driven cars. It is aimed at enhancing user experience and efficiency, using data-gathering sensors, machine-to-machine communication, and cloud computing.



By technology, RFID, Zigbee, Wi-Fi, near field communication (NFC), and Bluetooth low energy can be the key segments of the global IoT market. Whereas, by application, the major segments can be energy management, manufacturing, consumer application, media, energy management, medical and healthcare, and others.



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Global Internet of Things Market: Key Trends



Increasing use of smart devices such as smartphones, smart cars, and smart home appliances will ensure that the global market for IoT will keep flourishing over the forecast period. A rising number of business organizations and industries are increasingly deploying IoT solutions for enhancing their efficiency via process optimization. With the emergence of numerous low-cost smart devices such as media players, video cameras, portable navigation devices, and smart watches, the demand for IoT is likely to witness an upsurge. Increased need for efficiency and cost reductions, government initiatives, and technological advancement in healthcare are some key growth drivers of the market.



On the contrary, prospective security and privacy threats, along with concerns related to increased reliance of technology might restrict market growth. However, as big data analytics is being increasingly used across a number of industries such as transportation, energy and utilities, manufacturing, and healthcare, the market is likely to expand further.



Global Internet of Things Market: Market Potential



Several new products and services have been launched recently in the global IoT market. For instance, in March 2017, Express Logic announced the launch of the first-ever industrial grade IoT device-to-cloud solutions, which boast high performance and small footprint.



Smartron, an India-based startup, announced that it will introduce as many as eight new smart IoT products during the forthcoming period, with a view to strengthening its Tronx platform. This platform is primarily concerned with verticals such as personalized health, enterprise, smart home, smart energy, infrastructure, agriculture, and intelligent vehicles.



Global Internet of Things Market: Regional Outlook



Based on geography, the global market for IoT has been segmented into the Middle East and Africa, Europe, Latin America, Asia Pacific, and North America. The advanced nature of healthcare, automotive, and industrial sectors in North America has been contributing towards the expansion of the market in this region. The U.S. might lead this regional segment. The government regulations in countries such as Sweden, France, Spain, Italy, and Germany are triggering the growth of the IoT market in Europe.



Asia Pacific exhibits vast potential for expansion, with countries such as Singapore, India, Taiwan, Japan, Malaysia, China, and Indonesia accelerating market growth. The booming manufacturing industries in these countries, rising adoption of technology, and growing economies are the key market drivers of this region.



Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @ https://www.tmrresearch.com/internet-of-things-market



Global Internet of Things Market: Competitive Analysis



The market appears to be highly fragmented on account of the presence of a large number of players, indicating the intense level of competition among them. A few new firms might enter the global market for IoT, further heightening the competition between the players. Several leading companies, core M2M vendors, and Internet and network service providers are engaging in mergers and acquisitions in order to extend their customer base.



Some of the major companies operating in the global market for IoT are Amazon, Qualcomm, Alcatel- Lucent, Google Inc., Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp., Intel Corp., Cisco Systems Inc., AT&T, Rockwell Automation, Dell, Schneider Electric, GE, PTC, Tech Mahindra, National Instruments, Texas Instruments, Huawei Technologies, Oracle, Tieto, Bosch Software Innovations, Zebra Technologies, Broadcom, Accenture, Ericsson, Samsung Electronics, HP, Telefonica, Siemens, Echelon, and Juniper Networks.



About TMR Research

TMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in today's 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.
New York, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/27/2018 -- Description:



The majority of luxury jewellery sales are still supported by tourists who find it more difficult to get these brands in their home country or because they are less expensive in Singapore. Locals who go for luxury jewellery still prefer real jewellery for its value rather than paying a premium for luxury costume jewellery.

The Luxury Jewellery in Singapore report offers a comprehensive guide to the size and shape of the Luxury Jewellery market at a national level. It provides the latest retail sales data, allowing you to identify the sectors driving growth. It identifies the leading companies, the leading brands and offers strategic analysis of key factors influencing the market and their effects on Luxury Jewellery retailing along with the development of consumers' shopping patterns. Forecasts to 2021 illustrate how the market is set to change



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Product coverage: Luxury Costume Jewellery, Luxury Fine Jewellery.



Data coverage: market sizes (historic and forecasts), company shares, brand shares and distribution data.



Why buy this report?

* Get a detailed picture of the Luxury Jewellery market;

* Pinpoint growth sectors and identify factors driving change;

* Understand the competitive environment, the market's major players and leading brands;

* Use five-year forecasts to assess how the market is predicted to develop.



It has over 40 years' experience of publishing market research reports, business reference books and online information systems. With offices in London, Chicago, Singapore, Shanghai, Vilnius, Dubai, Cape Town, Santiago, Sydney, Tokyo and Bangalore and a network of over 800 analysts worldwide, Euromonitor International has a unique capability to develop reliable information resources to help drive informed strategic planning.



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Table Of Contents  Major Key Points



Headlines

Trends

Competitive Landscape

Prospects

Category Data

Table 1 Sales of Luxury Jewellery by Category: Value 2011-2016

Table 2 Sales of Luxury Jewellery by Category: % Value Growth 2011-2016

Table 3 NBO Company Shares of Luxury Jewellery: % Value 2011-2015

Table 4 LBN Brand Shares of Luxury Jewellery: % Value 2012-2015

Table 5 Distribution of Luxury Jewellery by Format: % Value 2011-2016

Table 6 Forecast Sales of Luxury Jewellery by Category: Value 2016-2021

Table 7 Forecast Sales of Luxury Jewellery by Category: % Value Growth 2016-2021

Louis Vuitton Singapore Pte Ltd in Luxury Goods (singapore)

Strategic Direction

Key Facts

Summary 1 Louis Vuitton (Singapore) Pte Ltd: Key Facts

Internet Strategy

Competitive Positioning

Summary 2 Louis Vuitton (Singapore) Pte Ltd: Luxury Goods Brands by Category 2016

Summary 3 Louis Vuitton (Singapore) Pte Ltd: Competitive Position 2015

Tiffany & Co in Luxury Goods (singapore)

Strategic Direction

Key Facts

Summary 4 Tiffany & Co: Key Facts

Summary 5 Tiffany & Co: Operational Indicators

Internet Strategy

Competitive Positioning

Summary 6 Tiffany & Co: Luxury Goods Brands by Category 2016

Summary 7 Tiffany & Co: Competitive Position 2015

Executive Summary

Economic Decline and Drop in Chinese Tourists Negatively Impact Luxury Goods

Changing Consumption Patterns Impact on Luxury Goods

Luxury Goods Remains A Fragmented Market But Growing Competition From Niche Brands

Emergence of Omnichannels Despite Ongoing Preference for Bricks and Mortar Stores

Slow But Steady Growth Expected for Luxury Goods Over the Forecast Period

Key Trends and Developments

Consumers Still Spending To A Certain Extent Despite Slow Economic Growth

Growing Number of Consumers Are Accustomed To A Luxury Lifestyle

Luxury Goods Becomes A More Competitive Market in Singapore

Distribution Favours An Omnichannel Approach To Luxury Retailing

Distribution

Summary 8 Select Luxury Shopping Centres: 2016

Summary 9 Select Luxury Department Stores: 2016

Market Data



Continue



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Northbrook, IL -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/28/2018 -- According to a new market research report "Wealth Management Platform Market by Advisory Model (Human Advisory, Robo Advisory, and Hybrid), Business Function (Reporting; Portfolio, Accounting, and Trading Management), Deployment Model, End-User Industry, and Region - Global Forecast to 2022", published by MarketsandMarkets, it is expected to grow from USD 1.70 Billion in 2017 to USD 3.20 Billion by 2022, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 13.4% during the forecast period. The constant rise in the High Net Worth Individuals (HNWIs) is expected to be one of the key factors in driving the growth of the wealth management platform market. Moreover, the robo advisory model is expected to gain traction in the overall wealth management market, due to the increasing digitalization that facilitates process automation. These new technologies provide comprehensive technical infrastructure solutions and offer numerous benefits, such as risk management, cost-effectiveness, workflow automation, and data protection. This, in turn, is helping attract various end-users, such as banks, investment management firms, trading and exchange firms, and brokerage firms that demand for critical wealth management solutions.



Browse 66 Tables and 40 Figures spread through 139 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Wealth Management Platform Market by Advisory Model (Human Advisory, Robo Advisory, and Hybrid), Business Function (Reporting; Portfolio, Accounting, and Trading Management), Deployment Model, End-User Industry, and Region - Global Forecast to 2022"



https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/wealth-management-platform-market-125425147.html



The trading and exchange firms end-user industry is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period



The trading and exchange firms offer wealth management services for capital markets and risk management. The HNWIs and enterprise groups are the major customers for the trading and exchange firms. The firms offer online trading services to their customers for conveniently processing the wealth management tasks. This end-user industry is expected to grow at the highest CAGR, owing to the increased inclination of customers toward trading and exchange to improve their financial gains.



Robo advisory model is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period



The robo advisory model is expected to gain traction during the forecast period, as it has emerged as an effective low-cost alternative for retail investors and it has better benefits than that of the human advisory segment, such as low-cost fee structure, ease of use, low minimum investments, and diversified services.



North America is expected to hold the largest market share, while APAC is estimated to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period



North America is expected to continue its dominance during the forecast period. This can be attributed to the developed economies, such as the US and Canada, which are emphasizing over innovating the existing solutions. North America is expected to contribute a major share of the rising mergers and acquisitions, partnerships, and other business deals. Hence, data security and secured sharing solutions are in great demand in this region. On the other hand, Asia Pacific (APAC) is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. The rapid expansion of domestic enterprises as well as the higher development of infrastructure are expected to drive the growth of the wealth management platform market in APAC.



Request to Get PDF Brochure @ https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownload.asp?id=125425147



The major vendors offering wealth management platform solutions and services include SS&C (US), Fiserv (US), FIS (US), Profile Software (UK), Broadridge (US), InvestEdge (US), Temenos (Switzerland), Finantix (Italy), SEI Investments Company (US), Comarch (Poland), Objectway (Italy), Dorsum (Hungary). These players have incorporated various strategies to expand their global presence, thus increasing their market shares. Partnerships, mergers and acquisitions, product upgrades, and expansions are some of the major strategies embraced by these players.



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.



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New Zealands government may not have evicted any Russian spies this week but its Privacy Commissioner today joined international allies blasting Facebook for a lax attitude to data privacy.

Not Cambridge Analytica this time. Instead, Privacy Commissioner John Edwards is accusing Facebook of refusing to release information it holds on a particular individual, despite being obliged to do so under the Privacy Act (which gives New Zealanders the right to find out what information an agency holds about them).

Facebook argues it doesnt have to provide the information because as an Irish company (the 2.5 million or so Kiwi Facebook users are supplied with their service by Facebook Ireland) it isnt subject to the provisions of the New Zealand legislation.

Facebook also says the Privacy Commissioners request for records amounts to little more than a fishing trip.

We are disappointed the Privacy Commissioner asked us to provide access to a year's worth of private data belonging to several people and then criticised us for protecting their privacy. We scrutinize all requests to disclose personal data, particularly the contents of private messages, and will challenge those that are overly broad.

We have investigated the complaint from the person who contacted the Commissioner's office but we haven't been provided with enough detail to fully resolve it. Instead, the Commissioner has made a broad and intrusive request for private data.

So whats this all about?

The impasse started with a non-Facebook user (well call him Peter purely for ease of identification) who became concerned that a group of Facebook users were posting defamatory information about him online. Unable to get Facebook to release the posts and messages he believed concerned him, Peter made a complaint to the Privacy Commissioner. John Edwards asked Facebook for any posts or messages concerning Peter, so he could make the call whether the information should be released. Facebook refused, arguing it has a responsibility to keep contents of its users private communications safe and secure, and not share them with third parties.

Facebook and the Privacy Commissioner are now at an impasse, Edwards says. Because he cant get access to the documents hes asked for, he cant decide whether Facebook was justified in withholding the information from Peter. And he hasn't got any powers to make Facebook change its position.

Stalemate, unless Peter chooses to escalate the case to the Human Rights Review Tribunal. The trouble is, the tribunal is overloaded and under-resourced, according to a Privacy Commission briefing to Justice Minister Andrew Little late last year. Long delays are common.

Meanwhile, Facebooks arguments about being under Irish jurisdiction are nonsense, Edwards says.

This is about 2.5 million New Zealanders on Facebooks platform, who entrusted them with their personal information. How can they say they arent doing business in New Zealand when you arrive in Christchurch and straight away the app sends you advertisers offering you coffee in Christchurch.

Facebook is offering New Zealand services in New Zealand to New Zealanders. They are obliged to comply with the Privacy Act."

And the law says if says if the Privacy Commissioner asks you for information, you have to give it to him - like you would to a judge or a regulatory body like the Commerce Commission.

Edwards is also frustrated that under the present legislation he cant do anything to force Facebook to release the information or apply any penalties. Hes calling on Andrew Little, whose new Privacy Bill was introduced into Parliament this week, to toughen the legislation to give his office more teeth.

Government should consider empowering the Privacy Commissioner to apply to the High Court for a civil penalty to be imposed in cases of serious breaches (up to $100,000 in the case of an individual and up to $1 million in the case of a body corporate). [We should also have] a power to require an agency to demonstrate its ongoing compliance with the Act."

(BusinessDesk)

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Finance Minister Grant Robertson has been quick to rule out scrapping the government's Budget Responsibility Rules after the Council of Trade Unions said today they were too restrictive to allow necessary investment in public services and infrastructure.

In a statement, CTU president Richard Wagstaff said: "Our political leadership must now reconsider the restrictive Budget Responsibility Rules plan and whether their revenue is sufficient to gut and repair the rot thats built up in public services", as pressure mounts for substantial public sector pay claims and new evidence emerges of rundown public health and education facilities.

However, in a statement to BusinessDesk, Robertson held firm on the pre-election commitment to Budget Responsibility Rules that seek to reduce net Crown debt to 20 percent of gross domestic product by 2022, a two years slower path than the previous National Party-led government's forecast for reaching that point.

The government is confident that it will meet the Budget Responsibility Rules while being able to begin the process of rebuilding our social and physical infrastructure, said Robertson, who is putting final touches on his May 17 Budget, which may end up raiding some of the $1 billion a year Provincial Growth Fund in order to fund urgent regional social service requirements.

The rules, which have sparked criticism from the left of the Labour Party and elements of their support partner, the Greens, were adopted before the 2017 election as part of Labour's bid to establish credibility as a prudent economic manager and featured in its coalition agreement with New Zealand First.

"The responsible way to deal with any crisis is to reassess your game plan," said Wagstaff in a statement, leveraging Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's comments this week that the capital needs in the public health sector were larger than the government had anticipated following reports of previously undisclosed major maintenance required on parts of Auckland's Middlemore Hospital.

His comments come also as nurses, teachers and the police force seek catch-up pay claims under a new government that they expect will be more sympathetic to the argument that their wages were screwed down hard during nine years of the National-led administration.

The New Zealand Nurses Union this week rejected a 2 percent wage increase offered by their district health board employers, leading Ardern to suggest government involvement in a process of independent mediation to try and avoid industrial action.

In his statement, Wagstaff said: "The prime minister has realised that underfunding in health goes even deeper than she expected when taking office. Mould is a visible symptom in our buildings, but its also visible in the unmet need for care in our community and the stress and burnout visible in health staff.

"This Government has committed not to present rosy budget figures at the expense of our people and our public assets."

Labour has also promised to continue running budget surpluses, albeit smaller than those projected under the previous government, and to keep government spending at around 30 percent of GDP, reversing the declining trend forecast under National.

(BusinessDesk)

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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Police arrested four teen suspects in a knifepoint robbery where a cell phone and headphones allegedly were stolen at Mahoney Playground in New Brighton on Tuesday.

Charged with robbery and assault are suspects Jaquan Stokely, 18, and Deangelo Garrison, 19, both of Cassidy Place in New Brighton, a 16-year-old boy who lives on North Burgher Avenue in West Brighton and a 14-year-old boy from Orange City, N.J., said a spokesman for the NYPD's Deputy Commissioner of Public Information.

The incident happened at about 3:30 p.m. at Mahoney Playground at the corner of Crescent Avenue and Jersey Street, the police spokesman said.

The suspects allegedly brandished a knife and punched and kicked a 15-year-old boy and another male victim whose age was unavailable. The culprits snatched a Samsung Galaxy S6 cell phone worth about $300 and Beats headphones with a value of about $350, the police spokesman said.

The victims, who refused medical attention, had visible bruises and pain, according to police.

Cop recovered the stolen items and the suspects were identified by the victims, police said.

A number of crimes have committed in the playground in recent years. An Italian tourist was shot and wounded by a stray bullet near the playground last August.
NEW YORK -- An alleged drug trafficker was accused Tuesday of flooding the New York City area with large quantities of fentanyl from Mexico at a time when overdoses related to the powerful opioid have skyrocketed.

Francisco Quiroz-Zamora faced drug-trafficking conspiracy charges following an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the office of Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan and other law enforcement agencies.

Quiroz-Zamora, 41, was arrested in a sting operation late last year after he traveled to New York City to collect a payment from an undercover agent posing as a drug dealer, authorities said. An indictment in state court charges him in connection with the seizure of more than 44 pounds of fentanyl last year at a hotel in the Bronx and at an apartment in upper Manhattan used as a stash house.

A judge in State Supreme Court in Manhattan ordered Quiroz-Zamora held without bail Tuesday. His attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Last year, seizures of fentanyl in cases brought by the narcotics prosecutor increased from 35 pounds to 491 pounds. At the same time, fatal overdoses tied to fentanyl reached an all-time high of more than 1,400 in New York City in 2017, officials said.

The drug is far stronger than heroin and cheaper to produce, making the potential profit margin much higher for traffickers who usually mix it with heroin for sale to users who often don't know what they're getting, officials said.

According to U.S. authorities, Quiroz-Zamora, who lived in San Jose del Cabo in Baja, had the drugs smuggled by cars, trucks and couriers over the border into Arizona and California before the supplies reached the New York City area. Last year, an undercover officer posing as a drug dealer reached Quiroz-Zamora by phone and struck a deal with him to buy the fentanyl for between $45,000 and $50,000 per kilo, authorities said.

In November, Quiroz-Zamora traveled to New York to collect a payment from the undercover officer, authorities said. Agents intercepted him as he arrived by train at Penn Station in Manhattan.
WASHINGTON -- The Trump administration's decision to ask people about their citizenship in the 2020 census set off worries among Democrats that immigrants will dodge the survey altogether, diluting political representation for states that tend to vote Democratic and robbing many communities of federal dollars.

Not since 1950 has the census collected citizenship data from the whole population, rather than just a population sample, says the Congressional Research Service. The decision to restore the question after decades prompted an immediate lawsuit from California -- already tangling with Washington over immigration -- and moves by other states with large immigrant populations to engage in a legal fight.

The population count, a massive effort taken every 10 years, is far more than an academic exercise. It's required by the Constitution and used to determine the number of seats each state has in the House as well as how federal money is distributed to local communities. Communities and businesses depend on it in deciding where to build schools, hospitals, grocery stores and more.

The political stakes of undercounting segments of the population are high.

NEW YORK FIGHTS DECISION

Mayor Bill de Blasio and the Association for a Better New York warned that the decision by the Trump administration to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census will have a "serious, negative impact on New York City."

They said the question is likely to depress response rates among immigrant communities and result in an inaccurate count that will "hurt New York State's representation and federal funding, and, fundamentally, our American democracy."

"New York City is joining (state) Attorney General (Eric) Schneiderman's lawsuit to stop President Trump from this unprecedented move to politicize the census. A fair and accurate 2020 count is constitutionally mandated to ensure political power and resources remain with the people - where they belong. President Trump's decision puts our amazing city of immigrants in jeopardy and threatens federal funding for infrastructure, health care and public safety in New York," said de Blasio.

In addition to New York, several states that have slowing population growth or high numbers of immigrants such as California, Illinois, Massachusetts and Ohio are typically at risk of losing U.S. House seats when their congressional districts are redrawn every 10 years -- depending on how fully their residents are counted.

OTHER STATES TAKE ACTION

California struck quickly, with Attorney General Xavier Becerra filing a federal lawsuit Tuesday that seeks to block Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross' decision to add a citizenship question in 2020. Officials from New York and New Jersey, also Democratic-led states, were also planning on leading or participating in lawsuits. Massachusetts signaled interest, too.

"The census constitutes the backbone for planning how and where our communities will invest taxpayer dollars," Becerra said. "California simply has too much to lose to allow the Trump Administration to botch this important decennial obligation.

The Justice Department said in a statement it "looks forward to defending the reinstatement of the citizenship question, which will allow the department to protect the right to vote and ensure free and fair elections for all Americans." The Commerce Department said the benefits of obtaining citizenship information "outweighed the limited potential adverse impacts."

Their argument in essence: Enforcing voting rights requires more data on the voting-age population of citizens than current surveys are providing.

Democratic lawmakers had been bracing for the decision. A bill sponsored by Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y. would block the addition of a citizenship question, or any major design change, unless it has undergone a certain level of research and testing, but it faces dim prospects with no Republicans signing on.

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday that adding such a question "will inject fear and distrust into vulnerable communities and cause traditionally undercounted communities to be even further under-represented, financially excluded and left behind."

Some Republican lawmakers hailed the decision on Tuesday. GOP Sens. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Ted Cruz of Texas had sent a letter to the Commerce Department asking Ross to add the question.

"It is imperative that the data gathered in the census is reliable, given the wide ranging impacts it will have on U.S. policy," Cruz said in a press release issued by the three lawmakers. "A question on citizenship is a reasonable, commonsense addition to the census."

The Census Bureau separately conducts an ongoing survey called the American Community Survey that provides citizenship data on a yearly basis. But it only samples a small portion of the population.

Before that, citizenship or related questions were asked of about 1 in 6 households on the census "long form," which has since been retired. The Congressional Research Service said it has been 1950 since all households were asked about citizenship.

Alabama Attorney General Steven Marshall said the American Community Survey is so small, with a correspondingly large margin of error, that it is an ineffective tool for understanding lightly populated rural areas of the country.

"It just makes sense that government has a more accurate record for the census and reinstates the practice of including a citizenship question in the next census," Marshall said.

A joint fundraising committee for Trump's re-election campaign and the Republican National Committee highlighted the addition of a citizenship question in a fundraising pitch last week. The pitch said Trump wants the 2020 Census to ask people whether or not they are citizens, and that in another era, this would be common sense.

"The President wants to know if you're on his side," the solicitation asks.

Census counts are taken by mail and by workers walking neighborhoods. The Census Bureau says the 2010 census drew a massive response, with about 74 percent of the households mailing in forms and remaining households counted by workers in neighborhoods.

Information is only released publicly in the aggregate, although the government has the details. In 2010, the Obama administration offered assurances that the census data would not be used for immigration enforcement.

The Census Bureau states on its website that personal information obtained through its surveys cannot be used against respondents by any government agency or court. And the disclosure by an employee of any information that would personally identify a respondent or family can lead to up to five years in prison or a fine of $250,000, or both.

Critics of the decision seemed far more focused Tuesday on the potential for intimidation and an inaccurate count than the prospect that the information could be used to target participants for deportation.

"I can only see one purpose for why this question is being added," said Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund, an organization that seeks to advance Latino political engagement. It's to "scare Latinos and others from participating in the 2020 Census."
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A former cop from Staten Island lost his job, his reputation and now his freedom for the foreseeable future for his role in the shakedown of Queens businessmen.

Besnik Llakatura, 38, was sentenced Tuesday in Brooklyn federal court to 171 months - 14 and a quarter years - in prison, for teaming up with two co-defendants to threaten and violently extort money from the victims.

Llakatura must also fork over $10,000 in restitution and forfeit a similar amount of cash.

The disgraced cop, along with Denis Nikolla, 37, of Brooklyn, and Redinel Dervishaj, 41, of Queens, extorted $24,000 in "protection" money from an Astoria restaurateur between May and November of 2013, said prosecutors.

Authorities said Dervishaj and Nikolla repeatedly threatened the victim with violence and intimidation to ensure his compliance.

When the man sought help from Llakatura, then assigned to the 120th Precinct in St. George and with whom he was friendly, the cop dissuaded him from reporting the incidents to police and advised him to pony up the cash, said prosecutors.

Llakatura told the man Dervishaj had ties to dangerous Albanian organized crime figures, including his brother, Plaurent Dervishaj, then Albania's most wanted fugitive, said Brooklyn federal prosecutors.

Llakatura did not reveal to the victim his relationship to the other defendants, prosecutors said.

When the man failed to shell out the cash, Nikolla, accompanied by Dervishaj, chased the victim down a Queens street at gunpoint, but the victim managed to escape, prosecutors said.

The three defendants took turns collecting the $24,000, said authorities.

During the same time period, the defendants also tried to extort another victim of the proceeds of two social clubs in Astoria where gambling occurred, allege prosecutors. They sought $1,000 in weekly "protection" payments, said prosecutors.

The man fled the country for a time to avoid the defendants' threats -- after they had attacked and pulled a gun on one of his friends -- prosecutors said.

In April 2016, Dervishaj was convicted of extortion conspiracy, attempted extortion, threatening and committing physical violence in furtherance of an extortion plan and related charges involving brandishing firearms.

Dervishaj made headlines in March 2012 when he fatally stabbed Antonio (Anthony) Lacertosa, 27, in a wild melee outside the former Espana restaurant in Annadale. Dervishaj claimed self defense and a grand jury declined to indict him.

Not long afterward, he went to work with his buddies, Llakatura and Nikolla, said prosecutors.

Nikolla previously pleaded guilty to three counts of extortion and one firearms count and was sentenced in March of last year to 18 years in prison.

Llakatura was suspended from the NYPD after his arrest in December 2013. He was dismissed from the force in December 2015 after pleading guilty in this case to two counts of extortion conspiracy and one count of brandishing a firearm in relation to extortion conspiracy.

In a pre-sentencing interview with federal Probation Department officials, Llakatura admitted he "made a big mistake" by involving himself with "the wrong people," according to a memorandum filed by Eric Franz, his lawyer.

"It was the wrong thing to do, and that it cost him his 'beautiful life,'" Franz, in his memorandum, recalled Llakatura saying.

But William F. Sweeney Jr., assistant director-in-charge of the FBI New York Field Office, said Llakatura's actions had stripped him of his "shield of honor."

In a statement, Richard P. Donoghue, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said the sentence imposed by District Judge Eric N. Vitaliano "drives home the message that no one is above the law, and a police officer who commits crimes against the community he serves will be held fully accountable."
Animals such as horseshoe crabs that have been around for millennia without seeming to change much are sometimes referred to as "living fossils." Among plants, the ginkgo tree could be given the same name. Indeed, the ginkgo has been relatively unchanged for 200 million years.



Ginkgo trees (Ginkgo biloba) are native to China, but are commonly grown as street trees in cities throughout the world. While ginkgoes are planted somewhat randomly around Staten Island, they are extremely common in Manhattan and the other boroughs. Part of their adaptability to urban environments is that their leaves and wood are not particularly appealing to our native insect pests and that their roots can survive with low oxygen. Apparently, they are very resistant to high salt and the many other pollutants that city trees must deal with to grow successfully.



Ginkgoes, also known as maidenhair trees, are attractive as well as resilient and provide shade, which helps abate heat in urban environments. Growing to heights of 60 feet or more, they generally have one or two main trunks with branches angled upwards. The bi-lobed leaves are fan-shaped with veins radiating outward from the base in a pattern that is unique to this tree alone. In the autumn, the leaves turn a bright saffron yellow.



Most street trees are males



One feature of the ginkgo that is less than appealing is the smell of the seed, which has been compared to the odor of vomit. Since only female trees produce seeds, most nurseries only sell male trees to avoid the unpleasant odor. Nonetheless, there are still some female trees on the streets that were planted before sales were limited only to males.



The unpleasant smell is produced by the outer part of the seed. Although there does not appear that any animals are particularly attracted to the smell, it is likely that there were animals in the past that liked the smell and helped distribute the seeds when they ate them. Like the Osage orange, the range of the ginkgo may have declined when its natural dispersers became extinct.



Ironically, the use of ginkgoes as street trees in urban environments may actually be helping the species survive since it is rare in the wild.



A long lonely history



The earliest of the ginkgo's ancestors first evolved when giant ferns and mosses were the main plants on earth. A variety of species evolved at first, but their diversity declined after flowering plants came to dominate the earth. By the time dinosaurs became extinct, ginkgoes were down to only one or two species.



During the next 60 million years, the range of ginkgoes continued to decline until its distribution shrank back to central China by two million years ago. Only a few populations still exist in the wild. Had it not been for its propagation by monks in China beginning approximately 1,000 years ago, the species might well be extinct by now.



Our present species is the only member of its group surviving and is not closely related to any of the other plant groups that exist today. Its closest relatives are the cone-producing gymnosperms such as conifers.



Cultural differences



Extracts from the leaves of the ginkgo are popular as a medication to help with memory. Scientific studies have not confirmed the effectiveness of ginkgo, however.



While the reputed uses of many plants reflects long-standing cultural folk medicine, this is not the case with the ginkgo.



In China the ginkgo seed was the focus of attention, not the leaves and its uses were largely culinary. It has only been used as a folk medicine there for the past five hundred years.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Authorities charged nine individuals on Tuesday in connection to a drug ring in the Park Hill section of Clifton.

Staten Island District Attorney Michael E. McMahon said the defendants were connected to at least one fatal overdose, and sold heroin, fentanyl, cocaine and suboxone across the North Shore.

"My office and the NYPD will continue to relentlessly pursue drug dealers who destroy lives and terrorize communities, and investigate each tragic overdose through our Overdose Response Initiative to hold these individuals accountable," McMahon said.

The 15-month, joint Staten Island Gang Squad-D.A.'s office investigation, dubbed "Operation Sugar Hill," began in December 2016 amid what authorities say was a spike in violence in the area. To date, the NYPD has seized approximately 19 grams of heroin and 185 grams of crack cocaine through undercover buys, according to a media release.

A search warrant executed Monday found 200 glassines of heroin and five bags of crack cocaine.

Thomas "Coop" Edwards, Clint "Trap" Callender, Eric "Chop" Johnson, Ricko Callender, Alfred Demby, Najma "Maggie" Sanders, Rasean "Eugene" Julien, Darnell Brown and Steven Dambra were all charged Tuesday afternoon in Richmond County Supreme Court.

A law enforcement source said two other individuals were arrested in New Jersey in connection to the drug ring.

Several grand jury indictments allege each of the defendants participated in various facets of the drug business.

The District Attorney's media release indicates most of the defendants have also had numerous misdemeanor and felony convictions for drug-related charges.

Clint Callender, 27, was already in prison for an attempted robbery conviction, according to records from the State Department of Corrections. He was arrested on March 23 at an upstate prison, where he'd been staying since Feb. 26.

All other defendants were arrested Tuesday, according to the city Department of Correction.

Authorities allege that Callender acted with his relative Ricko, 23, Edwards, 32, and Johnson, 43, to package and sell cocaine from September 2017 to January of this year.

The indictment lays out how the four men would drive across the North Shore to sell the cocaine to various customers. They even spoke cryptically over the phone in an effort to mask their actions, accoridng to the indictment.

The four men are facing over 20 drug-related charges. Edwards is also facing a reckless endangerment charge, in relation to a Jan. 2 incident in which he allegedly drove into oncoming traffic.

He also sold heroin and fentanyl to police offciers between June and August of 2017, according to authorities.

Attorney Mario Gallucci, who is representing Edwards, said he is currently reviewing the case to determine how best to defend his client.

The elder Callender also worked with Dambra, 37, to sell buprenorphine in the borough, according to authorities.

Assistant Chief Kenneth Corey, the NYPD borough commander for Staten Island, attributed the arrests to precision policing.

"Collaborating with the community, we identify those individuals who are causing the most harm in the community, and then ensure we deliver a prosecutable case to our partners in the district attorney's office," Corey said.

NYPD Commissioner James P. O'Neil thanked the detectives and prosecutors, who worked on the case.

"These arrests deal a serious blow to those who peddle narcotics in our neighborhoods," he said.
More than half of employers drug test job candidates, but many say it's unfair to test applicants for cannabis in states where it's legal. Labor law experts warn that even if cannabis is legal in your state, employers can still drug test and fire you if they find THC in your bloodstream. Even if it's medicinal, the plant is still illegal under federal law. Activists argue states are choosing to end prohibition and workplaces need to respect that and evolve accordingly. What do you think?

PERSPECTIVES

Labor law attorney Todd Scherwin warns there may be some exceptions for medicinal use, but says even medicinal and recreational users need to be very wary.

Poll reveals half of employers conduct drug tests on final job candidates

Several cases involving employees with permits to use medical marijuana have reached the courts, and most have been decided in employers' favor.

Five things for employees to know in states with marijuana laws

The ACLU said drug testing is a violation of personal privacy -- and this was before numerous states pass laws legalizing some form of cannabis. It's not your employer's business what you do in your spare time if it doesn't affect your work. Activists say drug testing and punishing cannabis users is big business for some.

Why is it so difficult to pass medical cannabis laws? Lobbyists from big pharma, private prisons and the for-profit drug testing/treatment corporations might have something to do with it.... pic.twitter.com/o1158kKoD7  William (@waksmf) March 25, 2018

Some states are taking steps to change the laws so cannabis can't be included in employee drug tests. There are numerous circumstances under which cannabis is legal, why would you punish your job candidates or current employees for using it in their spare time?

Maine Law Requires Employers to Stop Drug Testing for Marijuana and Ignore Use Out of Workplace - Em... https://t.co/AOwaRaAQR3 #cannabis  Cannabis Biz News (@CannabisBizNews) March 14, 2018

State Introduces Bill Prohibiting Employers From Requiring Drug Tests. https://t.co/vbRQnj9Uv1 pic.twitter.com/Ztl3LAmZqL  High Times (@HIGH_TIMES_Mag) February 21, 2018

Others argue that for certain professions, such as health care workers, pilots and drivers, testing for any drug use should be legal and maybe mandatory.

Just one more reason why we need drug testing. Safety workers like Amtrak employees are failing drug tests in huge numbers....  Michael Gedigk (@DrugTestComplNY) October 2, 2012

The Tylt is focused on debates and conversations around news, current events and pop culture. We provide our community with the opportunity to share their opinions and vote on topics that matter most to them. We actively engage the community and present meaningful data on the debates and conversations as they progress. The Tylt is a place where your opinion counts, literally. The Tylt is an Advance Digital, Inc. property. Join us on Twitter @TheTylt or on Facebook, we'd love to hear what you have to say.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- So, it seems that a 9.4-ton Chinese space station is heading toward Earth, and some of its debris could land on Staten Island this weekend, but scientists tell us there's nothing to worry about.

According to the non-profit Aerospace Corporation in California, the Tiangong-1, the first space station built and launched by China, is predicted to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere sometime between March 30 and April 2. It was launched back in September 2011 and is unmanned.

It's predicted to re-enter somewhere between 43 degrees North and 43 degrees South latitudes. That's a band that encompasses northern California and cuts across the United States, including New Jersey and New York City, along with southern sections of Europe and much of China and Japan.

Aerospace Corporation scientists acknowledge that predicting the location is extremely uncertain, because of constant changes in the atmosphere's density and changes in the spacecraft over time.

INJURY HIGHLY UNLIKELY

But, they do know one thing: "It is highly unlikely that debris from this re-entry will strike any person or significantly damage any property.''

The analysis says that the odds of the debris hitting a person are "about one million times smaller than the odds of winning the Powerball jackpot.''

In the history of spaceflight, no known person has ever been harmed by re-entering space debris. Only one person, a woman in Tulsa., Okla., was hit by a small piece of debris in 1996, and she was not injured, Aerospace engineers said.

YOU MIGHT SEE IT

You might be able to see bright streaks in the sky, though, especially if the re-entry occurs at night, but don't touch anything if you find it on the ground. There might be a highly toxic and corrosive substance called hydrazine on board the spacecraft. If you see anything, report it to the Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies.

And, of course, reach out to SILive.com! You can send an email to Tips at tips@siadvance.com.
Kim says China visit is 'solemn duty', invites Xi: KCNA



Seoul, March 28 (AFP) Mar 28, 2018



North Korea's Kim Jong Un told Chinese President Xi Jinping that it was his "solemn duty" to make Beijing his first overseas destination and invited him to visit Pyongyang, the North's official news agency reported Wednesday.

The relationship between the North and its key protector has soured in recent years, with China increasingly exasperated by its neighbour's nuclear antics and recently showing a new willingness to enforce United Nations sanctions imposed on it over its weapons and missiles programmes.

But KCNA quoted Kim as saying at a banquet in Beijing: "There is no question that my first foreign visit is to the Chinese capital.

"This is my solemn duty as someone who should value and continue the DPRK-PRC relations through generations," he added, using the countries' official acronyms.

The North's leader invited Xi to make an official visit to Pyongyang "at a convenient time and the invitation was accepted with pleasure", KCNA added.

Such a trip by a current Chinese Communist Party general secretary and national president would be extremely unusual.

The last such visitor was Hu Jintao in 2005, and the last top Chinese leader to go was the then premier Wen Jiabao in 2009 -- although Mao Zedong's son Mao Anying was killed fighting for the North during the Korean War.

In his speech Kim said the North Korean and Chinese peoples have "sacrificed lives and shed blood in their common struggles for decades, have experienced that their lives are inseparable, and realise how important regional peace and stability is for these two neighbours separated only by a river".

He pledged to "strengthen and elevate" the relationship between the two countries, calling it "a noble heritage passed on by past predecessors".

KCNA described Kim's visit as unofficial and said it ran from Sunday to Wednesday, implying that Kim's armoured train entered China at the weekend and crossed back into North Korea early Wednesday after leaving Beijing on Tuesday afternoon.

Kim was accompanied by his wife Ri Sol Ju and several officials and dignitaries, KCNA said, without mentioning his sister Kim Yo Jong, who acted as his special envoy to last month's Winter Olympics in the South, which triggered an unprecedented flurry of diplomatic activity focused on the flashpoint peninsula.
N. Korea's Kim shows unity with China's Xi in first foreign trip



Beijing, March 28 (AFP) Mar 28, 2018



North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was given a lavish welcome by Chinese President Xi Jinping during a secretive trip to Beijing as both sides seek to repair frayed ties before Pyongyang's landmark summits with Seoul and Washington.

On his first trip abroad since taking power, Kim and his wife were greeted by an honour guard and a banquet hosted by Xi, according to state media, which confirmed the "unofficial" visit on Wednesday only after Kim had returned by train to North Korea.

The two men held talks at the stately Great Hall of the People during which they hailed their nations' historic relations, with Kim pledging he was "committed to denuclearisation" on the Korean peninsula, according to China's Xinhua news agency.

Kim also expressed willingness to hold the summits with US President Donald Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, it said.

"There is no question that my first foreign visit would be to the Chinese capital," Kim said, according to North Korea's official KCNA news agency.

"This is my solemn duty as someone who should value and continue the DPRK-PRC (North Korea-China) relations through generations."

KCNA said Xi accepted an invitation to visit Pyongyang, which would be his first trip to the North Korean capital since he took power in 2012.

The two men had not met since Kim took over after the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, in December 2011, and relations have been strained as China has backed a series of UN sanctions against Pyongyang over its nuclear and missile tests.

But Xi underscored the importance of developing ties, saying it was "a strategic choice and the only right choice" and that he was willing to maintain frequent contact with Kim "under the new circumstances", according to Xinhua.

Xi and Kim shook hands and sat across from each other at a long conference table, both flanked by officials, at the Great Hall of the People, according to television images which showed the North Korean leader taking meticulous notes.

Later, Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, waved goodbye while Kim and his spouse, Ri Sol Ju, smiled as they left in a black car.

Chinese and North Korean state media said the visit started Sunday and ended Wednesday.

Analysts said Xi likely wanted to see Kim to ensure North Korea does not cut a deal with US President Donald Trump that hurts Chinese interests during a summit expected to be held in May.

Kim's visit puts China back in the diplomatic game after appearing sidelined by Pyongyang's approaches to Seoul and Washington.

"It shows that at this crucial juncture, Kim and Xi believed that it was time to seize the opportunity to consult," Bonnie Glaser, a China expert at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, told AFP.

"Both likely concluded that further deterioration in relations would be harmful."

Deng Yuwen, an independent Chinese international relations scholar, said North Korea needed to turn to its old ally ahead of the US summit, as Kim will be sceptical that Trump will provide his regime with security guarantees.

"North Korea needs the big brother to protect it at a crucial moment," Deng said.



- Trump informed -



"The issue of denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula can be resolved, if South Korea and the United States respond to our efforts with goodwill, create an atmosphere of peace and stability while taking progressive and synchronous measures for the realisation of peace," Kim said, according to Xinhua.

South Korea said last month after talks with Kim in Pyongyang that he would consider abandoning his nuclear weapons in exchange for US security guarantees, and would halt weapons tests while talks were under way.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said Trump received a personal note from Xi about Kim's visit on Tuesday.

"We see this development as further evidence that our campaign of maximum pressure is creating the appropriate atmosphere for dialogue with North Korea," Sanders said.

Chinese special envoy Yang Jiechi will travel to Seoul on Thursday to brief Moon about the Kim-Xi summit, the South's presidential office said.

Confirmation of the visit ended 24 hours of speculation about the identity of a mysterious North Korean visitor after Japanese media spotted a green train, similar to the one used by Kim's father, arriving in Beijing on Monday and departing the following day.

Despite the news blackout a heavy police presence at key venues, barricades and mysterious motorcades hinted at his presence.

North Korea's official Rodong Sinmun newspaper on Wednesday featured photos of Chinese officials greeting Kim and his wife with flowers at the train station, and his motorcade being escorted by police motorbikes in front of the Forbidden City.



- Frayed ties -



His visit to China came as a surprise given the state of relations between the Cold War-era allies, which fought together in the 1950-53 Korean War.

China chaired six-party talks on North Korea that collapsed in 2009, but its calls to revive that forum have not been heeded so far and Beijing appeared to be on the margins when South Korea announced that Kim had offered to meet Moon and Trump.

Frustrated by its neighbour's nuclear weapons programme and under pressure from Trump, China has used its economic leverage to squeeze Kim's regime.

At the same time, Beijing fears the collapse of the regime in Pyongyang and the instability it would bring, potentially sending waves of refugees into China and the possibility of US troops stationed on its border in a unified Korea.

But Kim's visit appears to have put relations back on track, with Xi inviting Kim and his wife to visit China again.
US says others should pay bigger share of UN peacekeeping bill



United Nations, United States, March 28 (AFP) Mar 28, 2018



US Ambassador Nikki Haley told countries at the United Nations on Wednesday they need to "step up" and pay a bigger share of the multi-billion-dollar bill for peacekeeping operations.

The largest financial contributor to UN peacekeeping, the United States last year negotiated a $600 million cut to that budget, but Haley made clear the administration wants to further trim the bill.

The United States will remain the number one financial supporter, Haley told a Security Council debate on peacekeeping, but it will cap its contribution to 25 percent, down from the current level of 28.5 percent.

"One country should not shoulder more than one quarter of the UN peacekeeping budget, and we look forward to a more equitable distribution of the budget among member states," she said.

"Moving forward, the United States will not pay more than 25 percent of the peacekeeping budget."

"All of us have a role to play, and all of us must step up."

After complex negotiations among the UN's 193 countries, the peacekeeping budget for 2017-2018 was set at $6.8 billion with 10 countries paying the lion's share.

After the United States, China is the second biggest contributor, covering 10.25 percent of the budget followed by Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Russia, Italy, Canada and Spain.

Negotiations on changing the UN scale of assessments for these payments are expected to be tough-going.

The cap of 25 percent of the US contribution has been in US law since the 1990s, but Congress has in the past waived that requirement at the administration's request.

President Donald Trump's administration has taken a hard line on UN funding, cutting contributions and pushing for cost-saving reforms.



- Unrealistic expectations -



The push for US funding cuts came as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres launched a bid to modernize peace missions following a sharp increase in attacks that killed 59 blue helmets last year.

The UN's largest missions in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, the Central African Republic and South Sudan are struggling to protect civilians caught in fighting that shows little sign of abating.

"Peace operations cannot succeed if they are deployed instead of a political solution, rather than in support of one," Guterres told the council.

"We are damaging the instrument of peacekeeping, and indeed multilateralism itself, in creating unrealistic expectations. Lives and credibility are being lost," he said.

The United Nations has also been shaken by a wave of sexual abuse allegations against its peacekeepers in many of its 15 missions, which Guterres has vowed to root out.

A strong global player in peacekeeping, China said it will actively take part in an overhaul of the peace missions and backed efforts by the African Union to carve out a bigger role.

"China supports the peacekeeping funding proposal from the AU and hopes to see details of the AU-owned peacekeeping operations," said Chinese Ambassador Ma Zhaoxu.

France also said it would back a future request from the African Union for funding of its peace operations.

More than 100,000 troops from 120 countries serve under the UN flag in missions worldwide.
Page Content

Top economist Ryan Peterson at CIIEF: St. Maarten Orange economy can grow to triple in next 5 years





On Wednesday March 21st the Belair Community Center was transformed into a creative landscape in image, movement, sound, texture and gastronomical delight at the first ever Creative Industries Interactive Exchange Forum (CIIEF). The forum, hosted by the Minister of Education Culture Youth and Sport Jorien Wuite in collaboration with the Culture Department, brought together under one roof the luminaries of the creative industries of St. Maarten to dialogue, brain storm, explore, engage, and be introduced to the concept of the Orange Economy.





Beginning with an installation work created by artist Charisse Piper encompassing rocks, stones and pebbles of various sizes colors shapes and dimension set in swirling patterns and cascading down the steps of the foyer leading into the great hall at Belair Community Center set the tone that something special was about to happen.





During her opening speech at the forum Minister Wuite expressed that seeing the impact of Hurricane Irma on the tourism industry the importance of diversifying the islands tourism product was never more critical. As the Minister of Culture I see this as a unique opportunity for artists and our island to explore the possibilities that can be sourced through the Creative Industries. Through this forum, I hope that we can together organize, share our ideas, build on them and create the seedlings from which the Creative Industries can blossom and thrive. Minister Wuite further expressed her hope that, the work done today will benefit us and those that follow as we take significant steps towards establishing St. Maartens Creative Economy. She further emphasized that In order to expand on the creative industries we need to create a conducive environment that retain, attract, reproduces and rewards creative talent of highly mobile youth, a group that is often undervalued socially and poorly rewarded economically in our societies.





The forum included a riveting key note address delivered by Dr. Ryan R. Peterson, General Manager for Economics Policy at the Central Bank of Aruba. Dr. Peterson started his presentation by dispelling some myths of the creative industry. He discussed how innovation and creativity went hand in hand and how the creative economy was moving away from the traditional creative arts and moving towards digital artistry and as a way to offer great experiences to consumers. That experience, Dr. Peterson explained, combined with digital technologies is an extremely powerful tool that needs to be better utilized by especially the smaller islands that now need to do more with less. Dr. Peterson indicated in a follow-up discussion with the Minister the next day that with the right guiding the creative economy on St. Maarten could grow from its estimated 1.7% contribution to the economy now, to an impressive growth to 5-7 % in the next five years once the right incentives and support would be provided. He stressed the need for an economist in the Culture Department to help develop the monetizing of our creative industry.





The keynote was followed by an in-depth panel discussion featuring Jude Houston Acting Department Head of Economic Affairs, Alston Lourens President of the St. Maarten Carnival Development Foundation, Melisa Boasman pageant coordinator and co-founder Kalaboom Events, Rolando Bryson Director of the St. Maarten Tourism Bureau and Head of the Department of Culture Clara Reyes. Each Panelist was tasked with delivering a presentation that elucidated on how their industry intersected with the creative arts and how collaboration could further support the idea of an orange economy in St. Maarten. All presenters agreed that St. Maarten had the enormous potential to develop a vibrant creative industry that would greatly add to the economic GDP. Kicking off the panel discussion was a special video presentation from Lisa Harding, coordinator of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Development at the Caribbean Development Bank in Barbados. The CDB recently established a special fund to promote the creative industries on Caribbean Islands.





The afternoon session at the CIIEF saw vigorous, stimulating and sometimes quite passionate participation in workshops lead by Fabian Badejo, Marlene Mingo and Josian Artsen Fleming. The workshops explored the vision and possibilities of the establishment of an artist guild as well as building toward a national culture prize. In the workshop guided by Fabian Badejo and Marlene Mingo the gathered artists discussed the different configurations that a guild could develop, from a completely private association with artists as members to a public/private type composition with the possibility to generate income that can support the development and interests of artists. Notary Marlene Mingo shared practical steps on how a proposed guild could be incorporated and structured and was met with an enthusiastic round of applause when she offered her complimentary services in the setting up of the proposed guild. Josian Artsen Fleming led talks on how the Culture Prize on St. Maarten could be further developed into a yearly award given on a consistent basis. She challenged the audience to gather into smaller groups and discuss their ideas which culminated in the sharing of their collective visions. Many ideas were shared including the expansion of the prize into multiple categories, turning the recipient into a regional and international cultural ambassador and awarding lifetime achievement awards. Both workshops were closed with a call to action where interested persons were asked to identify themselves to attend a smaller follow-up session to spearhead the development of both discussion points.





The day concluded at 6pm with an inter-disciplinary digital arts exhibition featuring notable artists living and creating their work on St. Maarten. The works ranged in varied disciplines from digital mix media to animators, visual artists, sculptors, fashion designers to poets. The highlight of the night was the awarding of the 2018 Culture Prize. Young Xochiquetzal Li Gonzales Toro an 18-year-old student of the Charlotte Brookson Academy, was awarded the prize for her digital art piece. She was presented by Minister Wuite a plaque designed by local artists and a cash prize of NAF 2,500.





Minister Wuite ended the evening by extending her appreciation to the organizing committee, Dr. Ryan Peterson and Lisa Harding, the workshop panelists, moderators, contributing artists and all vendors. Today is an important day for our island. It is my sincere hope that the ideas, enthusiasm and vision displayed here today is carried on in the weeks and months to come so that at next years forum we would have made a significant impact in furthering St. Maartens Orange Economy.





The Orange Economy, identified by Paulo Buitrago and presented in the book Orange Economy written by Felipe Buitrago Restrepo and Ivan Duque Marquez have identified the creative industries as an economic power and a vehicle for empowerment as it encompasses the immense wealth of talent, intellectual property, interconnectedness, and cultural heritage of the Latin American and Caribbean region.




Page Content

On March 7th, 2018 an allegation of inappropriate behavior was launch against a teacher of the Marie Genevieve de Weever School. By request of the Minister as School Board said teacher was asked to remain at home pending the outcome of an investigation. An inquiry has been completed by the Court of Guardianship and the Public Prosecutors Office where it was determined that the information gathered did not find any evidence that supports the alleged accusation. As such, the teacher was asked to resume their duties on Wednesday, March 21st, 2018. The Minister thanks everyone for their corporation in this investigation as matters related to child safety are considered the highest priority and any alleged accusation is fully investigated. The Minister encourages the healing process to take place in the interest of all concerned.




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State of Ohio sues DuPont for dumping toxic chemicals in the Ohio River

Ohio has had enough of the chemical companies who have been polluting local waterways for decades. The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that the states attorney general is suing chemical company DuPont for dumping perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) into the Ohio River.

Also called C8, PFOA is one of the chemicals known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). They are used to make metal plating, computer semiconductors, water-resistant coatings, and fire-fighting foam.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established that PFOAs are no longer being produced in the U.S. (Related: Exchanging one poison for another: Its costing the military millions to clean up chemicals from toxic firefighting foam, but the new formula isnt any safer.)

Attorney General Mike DeWine stated that DuPont was fully aware of the health risks posed by PFOA. He also noted that the company discharged the toxic chemical into the Ohio River for close to 60 years.

We believe the evidence shows that DuPont kept releasing this chemical even though it knew about the harm it could cause, DeWine stated, who called upon DuPont to pay for any damage it caused to the state, citizens, and natural resources of Ohio.

The federal lawsuit filed against DuPont described PFOA as a known toxic carcinogen in animals that takes an inordinate amount of time to be broken down through natural means.

Human Exposure to PFOA  even at very low levels  has been linked to kidney and testicular cancer, thyroid disease, pregnancy-induced hypertension and low birth weight, high cholesterol and ulcerative colitis, it read.

The lawsuit accuses DuPont of negligence that led to PFOA contamination of Ohios environment.

Conscious disregard for the right of Ohio and the safety of its citizens has caused and continues to cause substantial harm to Ohio, and the property and natural resources it holds in a trust for its citizens and will likely cause substantial harm in the future, it said.

Attorney General DeWine asked DuPont to pay damages for injuring the natural resources of Ohio, compensate the state for contamination-related expenses such as clean-up efforts, and pay restitution damages for any profits that the company made by dumping PFOA into the Ohio River.

UC study says DuPont discharged PFOAs into the Ohio River from 1950s to 2015

Ohios legal action comes on the heels of a recent study on PFOA conducted by the University of Cincinnati (UC) that warns DuPont had been dumping PFOA since the 1950s.

Researchers looked at the blood samples of more than 900 residents of the mid-Ohio River Valley from 1991 to 2012. They compared the historical PFOA levels to the general population median.

The UC research team reported that the likeliest origin points of the contamination are the DuPont Washington Works manufacturing plant and two associated landfills in West Virginia. Both locations are upriver of Ohio.

Furthermore, they reported that PFOA plays an important part in the production of Teflon non-stick coating at the DuPont facility. Researcher Susan Pinney said that DuPont released PFOA into the Ohio River from the 1950s until 2015.

DuPont facing thousands of other PFOA-related lawsuits

Ohios federal lawsuit is just the latest case faced by DuPont since the company was first accused of dumping PFOA years ago.

By 2016, DuPont faced 3,500 lawsuits filed by Mid-Ohio Valley residents in Parkersburg, West Virginia, where its Teflon plant and dumping grounds are located.

In addition, USA Today reported that the New Jersey city of Carneys Point filed a $1.1 billion lawsuit against the company. The lawsuit stated that DuPont sold off the Chambers Works facility in Deepwater, New Jersey to avoid paying the costs of cleaning up the area.

PFOA was invented at Chamber Works in 1938. The site is now owned by Chemours.

Stay informed about water pollution in the U.S. by visiting Pollution.news.

Sources include:

Cincinnati.com

HealthNews.uc.edu
Oracle's big-money case against Google gets new life



San Francisco, March 27 (AFP) Mar 27, 2018



An appeals court on Tuesday gave Oracle another shot at wringing billions of dollars from Google in a keenly watched legal battle over the use of freely available Java software code.

A federal appellate court revived Oracle's case, ruling that the application programming interface (API) code at issue is protected by copyright law and sending the case back to the original judge to figure out how much Google owes the business software titan.

A trial two years ago ended with a jury deciding that Google did not unfairly use Java code, saving the internet giant from a possible multibillion-dollar verdict.

The appellate court on Tuesday disagreed, saying the software is entitled to copyright protection.

Oracle, a major business software and cloud firm, sought billions in damages from Google over the search engine company's use of Java programming language in its Android smartphone operating system.

But Google and its allies argued that extending copyright protection to bits of code, called application programming interfaces, or APIs, would threaten innovation.

The case was closely watched by the tech industry because of its implications for software innovation and copyright law.

Google, at the time, said that its victory at trial was "a win for the Android ecosystem; for the Java programming community and for software developers who rely on open and free programming languages to build innovative consumer products."

Oracle, which obtained Java when it acquired Sun Microsystems in 2009, had been seeking some $9 billion in damages.

Dorian Daley, Oracle's general counsel, welcomed the latest decision, saying it "upholds fundamental principles of copyright law and makes clear that Google violated the law."

She added in a statement, "This decision protects creators and consumers from the unlawful abuse of their rights."

Google said it was reviewing its options, which could include an appeal to the US Supreme Court.

"We are disappointed the court reversed the jury finding that Java is open and free for everyone," a Google spokesperson told AFP.

"This type of ruling will make apps and online services more expensive for users. We are considering our options."



- 'Devastating effects' -



The case dates back to 2012, and Google prevailed at an initial trial.

Oracle appealed, and an appellate panel ruled in 2014 that the lower court had erred, sending the case between the two Silicon Valley titans back for a new trial at which Google again triumphed.

Silicon Valley watched the case closely, since weaving open source code into software programs is commonplace and often eliminates a need to reinvent commands considered fundamental.

APIs are seen as snippets of code that simply direct one program to another, almost the way a restaurant menu points diners to meal options.

Public Knowledge policy counsel Meredith Rose lambasted the appellate court, saying it has erred in ruling twice against Google in this case.

"Taken together, these decisions -- which run counter to decades of software industry practice -- could have devastating effects on the competitiveness, openness, and development of the technology industry," the nonprofit public interest group counsel said in a release.

"This could lead to higher prices, fewer choices, and worse products for consumers."
Canada to miss 2020 climate target: audit



Ottawa, March 27 (AFP) Mar 27, 2018



Canada will likely miss a 2020 interim carbon emissions reduction target and will need to take strong measures if it further hopes to meet its Paris agreement commitment, said an audit released Tuesday.

Canada had set a target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions linked to global warming by 17 percent by 2020, from 2005 levels, and by 30 percent by 2030.

But Environment Commissioner Julie Gelfand said in a report that emissions are expected to be nearly 20 percent above the target for 2020.

Based on current efforts by the provinces and territories tasked with implementing the cuts, she said, "Canada is not expected to meet its 2020 target."

She added that "meeting Canada's 2030 target will require substantial effort and actions beyond those currently planned or in place."

The audit looked at nine of Canada's 10 provinces as well as its three Arctic territories. Quebec was excluded, but a similar recent audit found comparable results.

Gelfand said most of the governments in question either had an adaptation plan that lacked basic details, such as timelines, or had no plan at all.

Only the Atlantic Maritime provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia appeared to be on track to meeting their objectives.

Environment Minister Catherine McKenna welcomed the report, but said it is "backwards looking" and does not take into account a federal climate plan unveiled last year.

"We're already seeing measurable results, but it takes time," she told reporters.

The minister cited measures including the closing of coal-fired power plants, multi-billion dollar investments in public transit, and the pricing of CO2 emissions at Can$10 (US$7.80) and rising to Can$50 per tonne in 2022.

The Paris pact, adopted in 2015 by almost 200 nations, calls for capping the global warming rise at well below 2 C (3.6 F) to avoid a climate-addled future of extreme drought, deadly heatwaves and superstorms made more destructive by rising seas.

US President Donald Trump announced last year that his country would withdraw from the Paris pact.
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South Korea repatriates remains of 20 Chinese soldiers



Seoul, March 28 (AFP) Mar 28, 2018



Seoul repatriated the remains of 20 Chinese soldiers killed during the Korean War on Wednesday, its defence ministry said, reflecting warming ties between the former Cold War foes.

South Korean soldiers handed over lacquered wooden caskets covered with red Chinese flags to Chinese honour guards at Incheon airport, west of Seoul, where they were loaded onto a Chinese air force cargo plane.

The transfer brought the total number of Chinese remains repatriated since a 2013 agreement to 589.

The repatriations took place ahead of China's annual Qingming -- tomb-sweeping -- festival, when many people visit and clean the graves of their ancestors.

An estimated three million Communist Chinese troops played a crucial role in support of the North during the 1950-53 conflict, known in China as the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea.

They saved the North from defeat as US-led United Nations forces drove Kim Il Sung's army back towards the Chinese frontier in late 1950, before the two sides ended up in a stalemate along what is now the Demilitarized Zone dividing the peninsula.

Casualty figures remain disputed but Western estimates commonly cite a figure of 400,000 Chinese deaths, while Chinese sources give a death toll of about 180,000.
Croatia set to buy Israeli fighter jets



Zagreb, March 28 (AFP) Mar 28, 2018



Croatia is set to buy a squadron of F-16 fighter jets from Israel to modernise its military, after the country's top defence body backed the deal.

Zagreb launched a tender offer last year to acquire military jets to replace its outdated Russian-made MiG-21s.

Apart from Israel, the countries invited to submit bids included Greece, South Korea, Sweden and the United States.

"The defence council... has accepted that Israel made the best offer and gave a recommendation to the government to decide on acquiring" the Israeli planes, the defence council said in statement late Tuesday.

The deal to buy 12 already used F-16 jets, worth $500 million (403 million euros) according to media reports, has yet to be confirmed by the government, but the approval is believed to be just a formality.

"It is a historic decision... a project guaranteeing Croatia's security and sovereignty," Defence Minister Damir Krsticevic told the state-run HR radio Wednesday .

The minister has said he expected the first jets to arrive in 2020, and the remaining ones by 2022.

Top Croatian officials have voiced concern over the condition of the country's MiG-21s.

Media reports said that only four of the 12 were fully operational.

Croatia joined NATO in 2009 and the European Union four years later.
EU tackles tank transport troubles in face of Russia threat



Brussels, March 28 (AFP) Mar 28, 2018



EU to make it easier to move troops, tanks in face of Russia threat

The EU will on Wednesday present detailed plans to make it easier to move troops and equipment around the bloc as Europe seeks to boost its defences in the face of the growing threat from Russia.

Officials want to create a "military Schengen zone" similar to the EU's civilian passport-free travel area by simplifying customs checks and bureaucracy that currently cause hold-ups for NATO forces and vehicles trying to cross borders.

Top NATO commanders say the changes are essential if Europe is to have a serious deterrent to potential Russian aggression, warning that cumbersome checks are hampering their ability to move resources quickly.

The European Commission, the bloc's executive arm, will present an action plan for reducing bureaucratic hurdles and improving infrastructure to make sure roads and bridges are able to carry heavy military equipment.

Tensions with Moscow have been high since the Ukraine crisis and Kremlin's annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the current diplomatic spat over the nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in Britain has done nothing to calm matters.

"There is a practical dimension to these proposals, but the end purpose is obvious as soon as tensions rise with Russia," a European diplomat said.

Another warned that "we can no longer say that conflict in Europe is impossible".

US General Ben Hodges, commander of US ground forces in Europe at the time, in October last year said that to create an effective deterrent to Moscow, NATO needed to move forces "as quick or quicker than Russian Federation forces".

"What we have called for is something similar to a military Schengen zone. To have that same sort of freedom of movement a truck full of Polish apples has," Hodges said.



- Erratic delays -



The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, annexed and ruled by the Soviet Union for decades and deeply aware of the threat from their giant neighbour, have already created a military mini-Schengen among themselves, Elisabeth Braw of the Atlantic Council think tank said.

NATO has deployed around 4,000 troops along with tanks and artillery in Poland and the Baltic countries -- the biggest reinforcement in Eastern Europe since the end of the Cold War -- both as a sign of determination and to be ready in the event a crisis erupts.

Elsewhere the pattern is erratic. Some countries have streamlined procedures for moving vehicles and dangerous goods such as ammunition, others not.

"If you want to take a military truck with general cargo into Italy you only have to give 48 hours notification, whereas in other countries you have to give up to 14 working days," Braw told AFP.

"If you want to travel through Italy you'll get to where you need to go very fast but if you want to travel through the Czech Republic you'll be waiting."

In some cases, military convoys have to be registered months in advance in exacting detail, down to number plates and drivers' names, severely restricting commanders' ability to adapt their plans.



- Roads, bridges, tunnels -



While troops can be moved by air, moving an armoured brigade's worth of tanks needs roads and railways and other infrastructure.

Under the action plan, the EU will determine which parts of the continent's transport network are suitable for military vehicles and which need upgrading. Dedicated EU funding could be devoted to projects that can be used for both civilian and military purposes.

"We need to make sure the necessary infrastructure exists -- the tunnels are passable, the roads are wide enough and the bridges can carry the weight of the equipment," a diplomat explained.

After the end of the Cold War, the need for military movement around Europe declined as there was no longer thought to be a danger of invasion, but the events in Crimea and Ukraine in 2014 once again brought the threat from the east back into sharp focus.

"We need to focus on territorial defence again -- we can have all the equipment in the world but if it can't travel to where it needs to go efficiently it's absolutely useless," Braw said.
Poland buys US Patriot anti-missile system for $4.8 bn



Warsaw, March 28 (AFP) Mar 28, 2018



Poland signed on Wednesday a $4.75 billion (3.8-billion-euro) contract to purchase a US-made Patriot anti-missile system, a move that is likely to irk Russia as East-West tensions rise.

"We are signing today a contract to deliver a modern system that has proven itself in numerous countries and thanks to which we are joining an elite group of states which have an efficient weapon that guarantees security," said Polish Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak.

The first deliveries are expected in 2022.

The Patriot is a mobile air-defence system made by US defence firm Raytheon and designed to intercept tactical ballistic missiles, low-flying cruise missiles and aircraft.

Moscow was reported to have deployed nuclear-capable Iskander missiles for exercises in its Kaliningrad exclave in 2016, rattling nearby NATO members.

Tensions with Moscow have been high since the Ukraine crisis and Kremlin's annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the current diplomatic spat over the nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in Britain has done nothing to calm matters.

Russia has complained about the prospect of the deployment of Patriot anti-missile systems in Poland and Romania, which it says violates a 1987 arms treaty.

via/rl/wdb
Trump says 'good chance' Kim will give up nukes



Washington, March 28 (AFP) Mar 28, 2018



US President Donald Trump, who has agreed to meet with Kim Jong Un, said Wednesday there is a now a good chance the North Korean leader will give up his country's nuclear weapons.

"For years and through many administrations, everyone said that peace and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula was not even a small possibility," Trump wrote in an early morning tweet.

"Now there is a good chance that Kim Jong Un will do what is right for his people and for humanity. Look forward to our meeting!," Trump added.

His comments came as Kim completed a secretive and unprecedented visit to Beijing on Wednesday as the two countries seek to repair frayed ties before Pyongyang's landmark summits with Washington and earlier with South Korea.

On his first trip abroad since taking power, Kim and his wife were greeted by an honor guard and a banquet hosted by President Xi Jinping, according to state media, which confirmed the three-day visit on Wednesday only after Kim had returned by train to North Korea.

The two men held talks at the Great Hall of the People and Kim pledged he was "committed to denuclearization" on the Korean peninsula, according to China's Xinhua news agency.

Kim also expressed willingness to hold the summits with Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, it said.

Analysts said Xi likely wanted to see Kim in order to ensure North Korea does not cut a deal with Trump that hurts Chinese interests during their summit, expected to be held in May.
German far-right activist held in Hungary over arms sales



Berlin, March 28 (AFP) Mar 28, 2018



A German far-right activist was arrested in Hungary Wednesday on suspicion of illegally selling weapons through a website that urged citizens to defend themselves against migrants, Berlin prosecutors said.

The suspect, 34-year-old Mario Roensch, was detained in an early morning raid on his Budapest home by Hungarian anti-terror officers.

Prosecutors said he is "strongly suspected" of running the far-right website Migrantenschreck (Migrants' fright) between May and November 2016, which according to German media called on citizens to "arm themselves against refugees".

"He is believed to have illegally sold 193 permit-requiring firearms to buyers in Germany," the statement from the Berlin prosecutor's office read.

They added that Hungarian police searched two properties in connection with the probe, and seized computer hard drives as evidence.

Public broadcasters NDR and WDR said Roensch, who had been on the run from German authorities, was detained under a European arrest warrant.

They also reported that the weapons allegedly sold by the suspect -- earning him around 100,000 euros ($124,000) -- fired rubber bullets of the kind "that could cause serious injuries and kill people".

German media said Roensch was also thought to have close links to the notorious far-right Anonymous.Kollektiv Facebook page and the online portal Anonymousnews.ru, known for spreading anti-Islam and anti-Semitic content.

The Berlin prosecutors said their investigation was ongoing and that they were now awaiting Roensch's transfer to Germany.

mfp/dlc/wdb
EU tackles tank transport troubles in face of Russia threat



Brussels, March 28 (AFP) Mar 28, 2018



The EU on Wednesday launched plans to make it easier to move troops and equipment around the bloc as Europe seeks to boost its defences in the face of the growing threat from Russia.

Officials want to create a "military Schengen zone" similar to the EU's civilian passport-free travel area by simplifying customs checks and bureaucracy that currently cause hold-ups for NATO forces and vehicles trying to cross borders.

Top NATO commanders say the changes are essential if Europe is to have a serious deterrent to potential Russian aggression, warning that cumbersome checks are hampering their ability to move resources quickly.

Working with EU member states, over the next year the European Commission, the bloc's executive arm, will carry out an assessment of existing bureaucratic hurdles and transport infrastructure to see where and how improvements can be made.

"We must be able to quickly deploy troops either within the EU or rapidly launch military operations abroad and to do so we need infrastructure that is fit for purpose," EU transport commissioner Violeta Bulc told reporters.

The EU plans do not mention Russia specifically but tensions with Moscow have been high since the Ukraine crisis and Kremlin's annexation of Crimea in 2014 -- and the current diplomatic spat over the nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in Britain has done nothing to calm matters.

"There is a practical dimension to these proposals, but the end purpose is obvious as soon as tensions rise with Russia," a European diplomat said.

Another warned that "we can no longer say that conflict in Europe is impossible".

US General Ben Hodges, commander of US ground forces in Europe at the time, in October last year said that to create an effective deterrent to Moscow, NATO needed to move forces "as quick or quicker than Russian Federation forces".

"What we have called for is something similar to a military Schengen zone. To have that same sort of freedom of movement a truck full of Polish apples has," Hodges said.



- Erratic delays -



The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, annexed and ruled by the Soviet Union for decades and deeply aware of the threat from their giant neighbour, have already created a military mini-Schengen among themselves, Elisabeth Braw of the Atlantic Council think tank said.

NATO has deployed around 4,000 troops along with tanks and artillery in Poland and the Baltic countries both as a sign of determination and to be ready if a crisis erupts.

Elsewhere, the pattern is erratic. Some countries have streamlined procedures for moving vehicles and dangerous goods such as ammunition, others not.

"If you want to take a military truck with general cargo into Italy you only have to give 48 hours notification, whereas in other countries you have to give up to 14 working days," Braw told AFP.

In some cases, military convoys have to be registered months in advance in exacting detail, down to number plates and drivers' names, severely restricting commanders' ability to adapt their plans.



- Roads, bridges, tunnels -



While troops can be moved by air, moving an armoured brigade's worth of tanks needs roads and railways, and boosting European infrastructure is a key part of the plan.

The EU is already in the process of upgrading key transport corridors around the continent and plans to adapt the projects to take military needs into account.

EU countries -- working with NATO -- will draw up a list of military requirements by the middle of this year which will then be compared against existing transport infrastructure and plans to upgrade it.

Then a list will be drawn up of "dual use" projects -- situations where improvements can be made that will satisfy both military and civilian needs.

"Concrete examples could include upgrading a bridge that is currently unable to support military vehicles or heavy trucks transporting civilian goods," Bulc said.

After the end of the Cold War, the need for military movement around Europe declined as there was no longer thought to be a danger of invasion, but the events in Crimea and Ukraine in 2014 once again brought the threat from the east back into sharp focus.
Ghana protestors rally against US military deal



Accra, March 28 (AFP) Mar 28, 2018



Hundreds of people took to the streets of Accra, Ghana's capital, on Wednesday to protest against a controversial military deal with Washington which was passed by parliament last week.

The agreement was approved by President Nana Akufo-Addo's government on Friday but has come under heavy criticism from the opposition who say it undermines the country's sovereignty.

Ghana and the United States are working to forge closer ties between their armed forces but both have denied rumours that Washington is planning to set up military bases in the West African nation.

"This is an insensitive government," said protestor Yaa Yaa Abban. "We'll resist this deal with the US because it does not favour us."

Protestors wearing the black and red of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) carried signs reading: "Akufo-Addo must not sell Ghana," and "Incompetent government, incompetent agreement".

In a tweet supporting the protest, former president John Mahama said: "I join in declaring #GhanaFirst as my compatriots and other democratic forces converge to demonstrate their opposition to the Ghana/US military agreement."

On Tuesday a high-ranking NDC member, Koku Anyidoho, was reportedly called in for questioning by police after a radio interview on Monday in which he said there would be a "civilian coup d'etat" over the deal.

Such remarks are "treasonable", Information Minister Mustapha Abdul-Hamid said in a statement on Tuesday.

Last week, the US Embassy in Accra said Washington had "not requested, nor does it plan to establish a military base or bases in Ghana".

It added: "This year, the United States of America is investing over $20 million (16.3 million euros) in training and equipment for the Ghanaian armed forces."

Joint exercises were planned for this year "which require access to Ghanaian bases by US participants and those from other nations when included," it added.

In the past decade, the United States has expanded its military presence in Africa, ostensibly to stop the spread of Islamist extremism by groups such as Islamic State, Boko Haram and Al Shabab on the continent.

Ghana, a major producer of gold and cocoa, prides itself as being a beacon of stability in a region blighted by coups, dictators and corruption.
Pentagon confirms Qaeda higher-up killed in Libya strike



Washington, March 28 (AFP) Mar 28, 2018



A senior Al-Qaeda operative and another jihadist were killed in a US air strike in Libya, the Pentagon confirmed Wednesday.

The March 24 strike near Ubari in southern Libya killed "two Al-Qaeda terrorists, including Musa Abu Dawud, a high-ranking Al-Qaeda in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) official," the US military's Africa Command said in a statement.

Officials said the strike, the second by the US this year and the first targeting AQIM, had been coordinated with the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) of Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj.

As is the case in Somalia, the Pentagon has the authority to conduct plane and drone strikes in Libya, provided it has the support of the local government.

"Dawud trained AQIM recruits in Libya for attack operations in the region," the Africom statement read.

"He provided critical logistics support, funding and weapons to AQIM, enabling the terrorist group to threaten and attack US and Western interests in the region."

The US State Department said Dawud was a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in 2016.

He began engaging in terrorist activity as early as 1992, the State Department said at the time.

"As a senior leader for AQIM, Dawud is responsible for multiple terrorist attacks, including the February 4-5, 2013, attack on the military barracks in Khenchela, Algeria, that injured multiple soldiers and a July 2013 attack on a Tunisian military patrol in the Mount Chaambi area that killed nine soldiers," officials said.

Libya has been gripped by chaos since a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011, with rival administrations and multiple militias vying for control of the oil-rich country.

Jihadists and people-traffickers have taken advantage of the chaos to gain a foothold in the North African country.
Reporter Podcast Visiting the Last of the Mayans

The culture of the Lacandons in the Mexican jungle is dying out. In an interview, photographer Martin Engelmann and journalist and filmmaker Katja Dohne talk about how rapidly the lives of the descendants of the Maya are changing.
Mark Wilson/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort is asking a federal judge to dismiss the most recent charges against him, arguing that special counsel Robert Muellers additional indictment in Virginia surpassed the scope of his mandate to investigate Russia meddling in the 2016 election.



The 18-count indictment Mueller filed in Virginia charges Manafort with money laundering and tax evasion, among other counts, and comes after Manafort was indicted on similar charges in Washington, D.C.



Manafort faces multiple felony counts handed up by grand juries in Washington, D.C., and Alexandria, Va., where he lives.



One of Muellers prosecutors said during Manaforts arraignment earlier this month that the defense had chosen to fight the additional charges in Virginia instead of having them be consolidated in the Washington court.



Manafort has pleaded not guilty to all counts in both Washington and Virginia. His longtime business partner and former Trump deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates pleaded guilty last month to reduced charges and is cooperating in the Mueller probe.



In Tuesdays motion to dismiss, lawyers for Manafort claim that Muellers appointment as the special counsel and his broad mandate  to investigate any matters that arose or may arise directly from his Russia investigation -- are tantamount to a blank check.



The superseding indictment does not focus in the slightest on alleged coordination between the Russian government and the Trump campaign, lawyers for Manafort argue, adding that, the charges in the superseding indictment go well beyond that scope, covering alleged acts that politically accountable prosecutors already knew about and had not prosecuted for years.



Manafort argued a similar claim against Mueller in federal district court in Washington on March 14, seeking to dismiss charges there.



In the Washington case, Manafort is accused of hiding tens of millions of dollars in income from lobbying work for the former government of Ukraine and failing to pay taxes on it in the U.S.



Unless Judge T.S. Ellis grants his motion to dismiss, Manaforts trial in Virginia is set to begin July 10.



Manaforts trial date in Washington is slated for September 17.



Ellis wrote earlier this month that Manafort, 68, faces the very real possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison, if convicted.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Chahid El Hafed (Sahrawi refugee camps) March 28, 2018 (SPS) - The Council of Ministers strongly condemned Wednesday the brutal repression of peaceful demonstrations in the occupied city of Dakhla, after the cowardly assassination of young Sahrawi Abdel Fattah Ahmed Zein dubbing it as a Moroccan systematic policy to discourage the Sahrawis from their legitimate demands for their just rights to self-determination and independence, in statement concluded its meeting today under the chairmanship of the President of Republic, Secretary General of Frente POLISARIO, Brahim Gali.

The President of Republic has called in his intervention UN and all concerned organizations to intervene urgently to put an end to the seriousness health situation of Sahrawi political detainees due to the conditions of detention and their continued hunger strikes.

The Council appealed the United Nations and all concerned organizations to intervene to immediately release all Sahrawi political prisoners specially the Gdeim Izik group, the Eluali comrades known as the students group and Mubarak Daoudi, Yahya Mohamed Hafed Azza SPS

125/090/TRA
HRH visited the Colleges state-of-the-art Sheep Husbandry Centre its hill farm, Low Beckside, Mungrisdale, to see how Cumbrian farmers are preparing themselves for the future.

Students demonstrated how they use the latest technology, such as how handheld scanners can record animal data, from the sheeps ear tag number, to its weight and any health issues the animal may have. They also displayed more traditional skills, such as lambing and sheepdog training.

HRH then joined in with a discussion as part of the Funds Preparing for Transition activity. Cumbrian farmers who have been supported by the Fund were brought together to share how they planned to create businesses that were fit for future generations.

Claire Saunders, Director of The Princes Countryside Fund said:

Today has demonstrated the many diverse and important ways that farmers are preparing for the future. It was heartening to hear the conversation between local farmers on their aspirations and plans for their businesses.

The Fund is committed to help bring farming families together in local networks to encourage these discussions, to create a thriving and resilient farming sector.
Bountiful man reports relief after treatment for peripheral artery disease

BOUNTIFUL  Ralph Wright was having numbness and swelling in his legs. The muscles were so weak, he could barely walk. I was having a lot of trouble walking and I was also having a lot of pain, said the 91-year-old Bountiful resident. I had been diagnosed earlier with peripheral neuropathy and the symptoms were very similar. After reading an article about peripheral artery disease, however, Wright scheduled an appointment with the doctor and was diagnosed with the common but little known problem. They did an ultrasound and were able to tell the blood flow was not ...
A more recent publication of this set of statistics is available. Latest publication: Energy supply and consumption 2021, 1st quarter

Published: 28 March 2018

Use of renewable energy continued growing in 2017

Figures were corrected on 29 March 2018

Text was corrected on 6 April 2018. The correction is indicated in red.

Figure were corrected on 15 May 2018

According to Statistics Finland's preliminary data, total consumption of energy in 2017 amounted to 1.36 million terajoule (TJ), which corresponded to a drop of one per cent compared with the previous year. Electricity consumption amounted to 85.5 terawatt hours (TWh), which is almost the same as one year earlier. The use of renewable energy sources continued growing and their share was record high, 36 per cent of total energy consumption. The share of renewable energy in total consumption has risen by nearly 10 percentage points in the 2010s. The use of fossil fuel and peat decreased by five per cent, and correspondingly carbon dioxide emissions from energy production decreased by five per cent in 2017.

Total energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions 19902017* (The unit of the left vertical axis has been corrected on 14 May 2018)

In 2017, the consumption of renewable energy sources grew by nearly 6 per cent and their share of total energy consumption was record high, 36 per cent. The consumption of wood fuels grew by 3.5 per cent and they remained the most important individual energy source in Finland with a share of 27 per cent. The growth was due to an increase in the burning of by-products and waste wood from the forest industry. Of renewable energy sources, wind power grew relatively most as its production rose by as much as 57 per cent. In total energy consumption, the share of wind power is still low, 1.3 per cent. The use of biofuels in road transport started to rise again after decrease in the preceding year.

EU targets for renewable energy are calculated relative to final energy consumption. Calculated in this manner, the share of renewable energy sources in Finland rose to more than 40 per cent in 2017 according to Statistics Finlands preliminary data. Finland's target for the share of renewable energy is 38 per cent of final energy consumption in 2020, and this share was reached for the first time in 2014. Share of renewable energy in final consumption in Finland is the second largest in the EU.

The use of fossil fuels decreased by six per cent from the previous year and their share in total energy consumption was 36 per cent. Of fossil fuels, the consumption of coal (including hard coal, coke, and blast furnace and coke oven gas) and natural gas both decreased by eight per cent. Finland's first liquefied natural gas terminal was for the first time in year-round use in 2017. The consumption of oil fell by three per cent, but it retained its position as the second most important individual energy source in Finland with its share of 23 per cent in total energy consumption. The consumption of energy peat remained almost unchanged from the year before.

Domestic production of electricity was 65 TWh in 2017, which was around two per cent less than one year ago. Around one-third of electricity was produced with nuclear energy. Combined heat and power production had the second biggest share in electricity production, 32 per cent. Hydro power accounted for 23 per cent of electricity production. The water situation in Finland has been weaker than usual in the past few years and the production of hydro power went down by six per cent in 2017. The production of wind power continued its yearly growth by an increase of 57 per cent and its share of electricity production reached seven per cent last year. According to preliminary data, the production of solar power grew by 49 per cent, but its share of Finlands electricity production was still under half a per mil.

Net imports of electricity to Finland amounted to 20.4 TWh, which corresponded to 24 per cent of total electricity consumption. Compared with 2016, net imports of electricity grew by eight per cent, which was mainly caused by a 44 per cent fall in exports of electricity. Finland's largest electricity import countries in 2017 were Sweden and Russia. Most electricity was imported from Sweden, 15.3 TWh. Electricity imports from Russia were 5.8 TWh. Almost all exports of electricity from Finland were directed to Estonia, amounting to 1.7 TWh.

Last year, diverse energy products were imported into Finland to the value of EUR 8.8 billion, which was 21 per cent more than one year earlier. Most energy products were imported from Russia, whose share of the value of imports was around 61 per cent. Respectively, energy products were exported from Finland to the value of EUR 4.7 billion, which was seven per cent up on the year before.

Final consumption of energy went up by one per cent. Of final consumption sectors, the change in manufacturing was biggest with a growth of two per cent and its share of total final consumption was 46 per cent. Nearly the same amount of energy for space heating was consumed as in the previous year, which corresponded to a share of 26 per cent in final energy consumption. Energy use of transport remained nearly unchanged with a share of 17 per cent.

Total energy consumption by source (TJ) and CO2 emissions (Mt)

Energy source, TJ 4) 2017* Annual change-%* Percentage share of

total energy consumption* Oil 314,169 -3 23 Coal 1) 116,319 -8 9 Natural gas 66,074 -8 5 Nuclear energy 2) 235,367 -3 17 Net imports of electricity 3) 73,532 8 5 Hydro power 3) 52,712 -6 4 Wind power 3) 17,286 57 1 Peat 56,123 0 4 Wood fuels 361,432 4 27 Others 62,693 4 5 TOTAL ENERGY CONSUMPTION 1,355,707 -1 100 Bunkers 43,064 11 . CO2 emissions from energy sector 41 -5 .

1) Coal: includes hard coal, coke, blast furnace gas and coke oven gas.2) Conversion of electricity generation into fuel units: Nuclear power: 10.91 TJ/GWh (33% total efficiency)3) Conversion of electricity generation into fuel units: Hydro power, wind power and net imports of electricity: 3.6 TJ/GWh (100%)4) *Preliminary

Source: Statistics Finland, Energy supply and consumption

Inquiries: Ville Maljanen 029 551 2691, energia@stat.fi

Director in charge: Ville Vertanen

Publication in pdf-format (589.8 kB)

Updated 28.3.2018

Referencing instructions: Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Energy supply and consumption [e-publication].

ISSN=1799-7976. 4th quarter 2017. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 24.9.2021].

Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/ehk/2017/04/ehk_2017_04_2018-03-28_tie_001_en.html
A more recent publication of this set of statistics is available. Latest publication: General government financial accounts 2021, 1st quarter

Published: 28 March 2018

General government net financial assets increased in all quarters of 2017

General government net financial assets, that is, the difference between financial assets and liabilities, amounted to EUR 130.9 billion at the end of 2017. Net financial assets went up by EUR 1.1 billion from the third quarter. The net financial assets of employment pension schemes and other social security funds grew by a total of EUR 2.7 billion. Central government's net financial assets remained almost unchanged but local government's net financial assets declined by EUR 1.8 billion. These data derive from general government financial accounts compiled by Statistics Finland.

General governments net financial assets

According to preliminary data, general government's total net financial assets grew by EUR 16.1 billion over the whole year 2017. The annual change of 14.0 per cent is considerable when comparing with the 3.1 per cent growth of the year before.

Central government's net financial assets grew by EUR 0.2 billion from the previous quarter's level, amounting to EUR -64.2 billion at the end of 2017. Central government's assets increased by EUR 2.3 billion, which was mainly caused by an increase in the value of quoted shares. Liabilities increased by EUR 2.1 billion mainly because the stock of bonds grew. These factors resulted in a slight growth in central government's net financial assets.

Local government's net financial assets contracted by EUR 1.8 billion. Transferable deposits declined by EUR 0.65 billion, while other liabilities grew by EUR 1.4 billion. At the end of the last quarter, the stock of long-term loans stood at EUR 17.0 billion. Growth amounted to EUR 0.4 billion from the previous quarter.

Employment pension schemes' net financial assets grew by EUR 2.6 billion in the last quarter of 2017. The stock of mutual fund shares increased by EUR 4.1 billion of which holding gains accounted for EUR 1.2 billion. The stock of share investments increased by EUR 0.4 billion mainly thanks to holding gains. The amount of assets invested in debt securities decreased by EUR 0.3 billion. The net financial assets of other social security funds remained almost unchanged at EUR 1.8 billion.

Source: General government financial accounts, Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Aaro Hottinen 029 551 3231, Henna Laasonen 029 551 3303, rahoitus.tilinpito@stat.fi

Director in charge: Ville Vertanen

Publication in pdf-format (233.3 kB)

Updated 28.03.2018

Referencing instructions: Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): General government financial accounts [e-publication].

ISSN=1798-1964. 4th quarter 2017. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 24.9.2021].

Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/jyrt/2017/04/jyrt_2017_04_2018-03-28_tie_001_en.html
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Notice of the Annual General Meeting of Nokia Corporation

Nokia Corporation

Stock Exchange Release

March 28, 2018 at 9:30 (CET +1)





Notice of the Annual General Meeting of Nokia Corporation

Notice is given to the shareholders of Nokia Corporation (the "Company") of the Annual General Meeting to be held on Wednesday, May 30, 2018 at 2:00 p.m. at Helsinki Messukeskus, Messuaukio 1, Helsinki, Finland. The reception of persons who have registered for the Meeting will commence at 12:30 p.m.

A. Matters on the agenda of the Annual General Meeting

At the Annual General Meeting, the following matters will be considered:

1. Opening of the Meeting

2. Matters of order for the Meeting

3. Election of a person to confirm the minutes and a person to verify the counting of votes

4. Recording the legal convening of the Meeting and quorum

5. Recording the attendance at the Meeting and adoption of the list of votes

6. Presentation of the Annual Accounts, the review by the Board of Directors and the auditor's report for the year 2017

- Review by the President and CEO

7. Adoption of the Annual Accounts

8. Resolution on the use of the profit shown on the balance sheet and the payment of dividend

The Board proposes to the Annual General Meeting that an ordinary dividend of EUR 0.19 per share be paid for the fiscal year 2017. The dividend would be paid to shareholders registered in the Register of Shareholders of the Company on the record date of the dividend payment, June 1, 2018. The Board proposes that the dividend will be paid on or about June 13, 2018. The actual dividend pay date outside Finland will be determined by the practices of the intermediary banks transferring the dividend payments.

9. Resolution on the discharge of the members of the Board of Directors and the President and CEO from liability

10. Resolution on the remuneration to the members of the Board of Directors

The Board's Corporate Governance and Nomination Committee proposes to the Annual General Meeting that the annual fee payable to the Board members elected at the same meeting for a term ending at the close of the Annual General Meeting in 2019 remains at current level: EUR 440 000 for the Chair of the Board, EUR 185 000 for the Vice Chair of the Board and EUR 160 000 for each Board member. In addition, the Committee proposes that the Chair of the Audit Committee and the Chair of the Personnel Committee will each receive an additional annual fee of EUR 30 000 and other members of the Audit Committee an additional annual fee of EUR 15 000 each. In addition, the Board has informed the Corporate Governance and Nomination Committee that it is planning to establish a Technology Committee following the Annual General Meeting. Accordingly, the Corporate Governance and Nomination Committee proposes to the Annual General Meeting that EUR 20 000 is payable to the Chair of the Technology Committee as an additional annual fee subject to the Board establishing the Committee. The fee is payable from the establishment of the Committee until the close of the Annual General Meeting in 2019.

The Committee also proposes that a meeting fee for Board and Committee meetings be paid to all the other Board members, except the Chair of the Board, based on travel required between the Board member's home location and the location of a meeting. The meeting fee would be paid for a maximum of seven meetings per term and remain on the following levels: EUR 5 000 per meeting requiring intercontinental travel and EUR 2 000 per meeting requiring continental travel. Furthermore, the Committee also proposes that members of the Board of Directors shall be compensated for travel and accommodation expenses as well as other costs directly related to Board and Committee work.

The Corporate Governance and Nomination Committee proposes that approximately 40 per cent of the annual fee be paid in Nokia shares purchased from the market, or alternatively by using treasury shares held by the Company. The meeting fee would be paid in cash. In line with the current Nokia policy, the directors shall retain until the end of their directorship such number of shares that corresponds to the number of shares they have received as Board remuneration during their first three years of service in the Board (the net amount received after deducting those shares needed to offset any costs relating to the acquisition of the shares, including taxes).

11. Resolution on the number of members of the Board of Directors

The Board's Corporate Governance and Nomination Committee proposes to the Annual General Meeting that the number of Board members be ten (10).

12. Election of members of the Board of Directors

Jean C. Monty has informed that he will no longer be available to serve on the Nokia Board of Directors after the Annual General Meeting. Accordingly, the Board's Corporate Governance and Nomination Committee proposes to the Annual General Meeting that the following current Nokia Board members be re-elected as members of the Board for a term ending at the close of the Annual General Meeting in 2019: Bruce Brown, Jeanette Horan, Louis R. Hughes, Edward Kozel, Elizabeth Nelson, Olivier Piou, Risto Siilasmaa, Carla Smits-Nusteling and Kari Stadigh. In addition, the Committee proposes that Sari Baldauf, who is a non-executive director, be elected as a member of the Board of Directors for the same term.

13. Resolution on the remuneration of the Auditor

The Board's Audit Committee proposes to the Annual General Meeting that the auditor to be elected at the Annual General Meeting be reimbursed based on the invoice of the auditor and in compliance with the purchase policy approved by the Audit Committee.

14. Election of Auditor

The Board's Audit Committee proposes to the Annual General Meeting that PricewaterhouseCoopers Oy be re-elected as the auditor of the Company for the fiscal year 2018.

15. Authorization to the Board of Directors to resolve to repurchase the Company's own shares

The Board proposes that the Annual General Meeting authorize the Board to resolve to repurchase a maximum of 550 million Nokia shares by using funds in the unrestricted equity. Repurchases will reduce funds available for distribution of profits. The shares may be repurchased in order to optimize the capital structure of the Company and are expected to be cancelled. In addition, shares may be repurchased in order to meet obligations arising from debt financial instruments that are exchangeable into equity instruments, to settle equity-based incentive plans for employees of Nokia Group or of its associated companies, or to be transferred for other purposes such as financing or carrying out acquisitions.

The shares may be repurchased either through a tender offer made to all the shareholders on equal terms or in another proportion than that of the shares held by current shareholders (directed repurchase).

It is proposed that the authorization be effective until November 30, 2019 and terminate the corresponding authorization granted by the Annual General Meeting on May 23, 2017.

16. Authorization to the Board of Directors to resolve to issue shares and special rights entitling to shares

The Board proposes that the Annual General Meeting authorize the Board to resolve to issue a maximum of 550 million shares through issuance of shares or special rights entitling to shares under Chapter 10, Section 1 of the Finnish Limited Liability Companies Act in one or more issues during the effective period of the authorization. The Board may issue either new shares or treasury shares held by the Company.

The Board proposes that the authorization may be used to develop the Company's capital structure, diversify the shareholder base, finance or carry out acquisitions or other arrangements, settle the Company's equity-based incentive plans, or for other purposes resolved by the Board.

It is proposed that the authorization includes the right for the Board to resolve on all the terms and conditions of the issuance of shares and such special rights, including to whom shares or special rights may be issued as well as the consideration to be paid. The authorization thereby includes the right to deviate from the shareholders' pre-emptive rights within the limits set by law.

It is proposed that the authorization be effective until November 30, 2019 and terminate the corresponding authorization granted by the Annual General Meeting on May 23, 2017. The authorization does not terminate the authorization by the Extraordinary General Meeting held on December 2, 2015 granted to the Board for issuance of shares in order to implement the combination of Nokia and Alcatel Lucent.

17. Closing of the Meeting

B. Documents of the Annual General Meeting

The proposals of the Board of Directors and its Committees relating to the agenda of the Annual General Meeting as well as this notice are available on the Company's website at www.nokia.com/agm. The "Nokia in 2017" annual report, which includes the Company's Annual Accounts, the review by the Board of Directors and the auditor's report, is available on the above-mentioned website. The proposals and the annual report will also be available at the Meeting. Copies of these documents and of this notice will be sent to shareholders upon request.

C. Instructions for the participants in the Annual General Meeting

1. The right to participate and registration

Each shareholder, who on May 18, 2018 is registered in the Register of Shareholders of the Company, has the right to participate in the Annual General Meeting. A shareholder, whose shares are registered on his/her Finnish book-entry account, is automatically registered in the Register of Shareholders of the Company. If you do not have a Finnish book-entry account see section 4. Holders of Nominee registered shares.

A shareholder, with a Finnish book-entry account, who wishes to participate in the Annual General Meeting, must register for the Meeting by giving prior notice of attendance no later than on May 23, 2018 at 4:00 p.m. (Finnish time) by which time the registration needs to be received by the Company. Such notice can be given:

a) through the Company's website at www.nokia.com/agm;

b) by telephone to +358 20 770 6870 from Monday to Friday at 09:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. (Finnish time); or

c) by letter to the Register of Shareholders, Nokia Corporation, P.O. Box 226, Fl-00045 NOKIA GROUP.

In connection with the registration, a shareholder is required to notify his/her name, personal identification number, address, telephone number, the name of a possible assistant and the name and the personal identification number of a possible proxy representative.

2. Advance voting service

A shareholder, who has a Finnish book-entry account, may vote in advance on certain items on the agenda of the Annual General Meeting through the Company's website from March 28, 2018 until 4:00 p.m. (Finnish time) on May 23, 2018. Unless a shareholder voting in advance will be present in person or by proxy in the Meeting, he/she may not be able to exercise his/her right under the Finnish Limited Liability Companies Act to request information or a vote in the Meeting and if decision proposals regarding certain agenda item have changed after the beginning of the advance voting period, his/her possibility to vote on such item may be restricted. The conditions and other instructions relating to the electronic advance voting may be found on the Company's website www.nokia.com/agm.

The Finnish book-entry account number of the shareholder is needed for voting in advance.

3. Proxy representatives and powers of attorney

A shareholder may participate in the Annual General Meeting and exercise his/her rights at the Meeting by proxy. A proxy representative shall produce a dated proxy document or otherwise in a reliable manner demonstrate his/her right to represent the shareholder at the Annual General Meeting. Should a shareholder participate in the Meeting by means of several proxy representatives representing the shareholder with shares in different book-entry accounts, the shares by which each proxy representative represents the shareholder shall be identified in connection with the registration for the Annual General Meeting. Powers of attorney should be delivered in original to Nokia's Register of Shareholders at the above-mentioned address or via email to agm@nokia.com before the last date for registration.

4. Holders of nominee registered shares

A holder of nominee registered shares is advised without delay to request from his/her custodian bank the necessary instructions regarding registration in the Register of Shareholders of the Company, issuing of proxy documents and registration for the Annual General Meeting. The account management organization of the custodian bank shall register a holder of nominee registered shares, who wants to participate in the Annual General Meeting, to be entered in the temporary Register of Shareholder of the Company at the latest on May 25, 2018 at 4:00 p.m. (Finnish time). Further information on these matters can also be found on the Company's website www.nokia.com/agm.

5. Other instructions and information

On the date of this notice of the Annual General Meeting the total number of shares in Nokia Corporation and votes represented by such shares is 5 631 506 659.

Doors of the meeting venue will open at 12:30 p.m. The shareholders, their representatives and possible assistants are required to prove their identity at the entrance. Coffee will be served before the Meeting. The Meeting will be conducted primarily in Finnish, and simultaneous translation will be available into Swedish and English, and as necessary, into Finnish.

Pursuant to Chapter 5, Section 25 of the Finnish Limited Liability Companies Act, a shareholder who has given prior notice of attendance and is present at the Annual General Meeting has the right to request information with respect to the matters to be considered at the Meeting.

March 26, 2018

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

About Nokia

We create the technology to connect the world. Powered by the research and innovation of Nokia Bell Labs, we serve communications service providers, governments, large enterprises and consumers, with the industry's most complete, end-to-end portfolio of products, services and licensing.

Nokia is enabling the infrastructure for 5G and the Internet of Things, and shaping the future of technology to transform the human experience. www.nokia.com

Media Inquiries:

Nokia

Communications

Tel. +358 (0) 10 448 4900

Email: press.services@nokia.com

Minna Aila, Vice President, Corporate Affairs

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

It should be noted that Nokia and its businesses are exposed to various risks and uncertainties and certain statements herein that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, those regarding: A) our ability to integrate acquired businesses into our operations and achieve the targeted business plans and benefits, including targeted benefits, synergies, cost savings and efficiencies; B) expectations, plans or benefits related to our strategies and growth management; C) expectations, plans or benefits related to future performance of our businesses; D) expectations, plans or benefits related to changes in organizational and operational structure; E) expectations regarding market developments, general economic conditions and structural changes; F) expectations and targets regarding financial performance, results, opeRating expenses, taxes, currency exchange rates, hedging, cost savings and competitiveness, as well as results of operations including targeted synergies and those related to market share, prices, net sales, income and margins; G) expectations, plans or benefits related to any future collaboration or to business collaboration agreements or patent license agreements or arbitration awards, including income to be received under any collaboration or partnership, agreement or award; H) timing of the deliveries of our products and services; I) expectations and targets regarding collaboration and partnering arrangements, joint ventures or the creation of joint ventures, and the related administrative, legal, regulatory and other conditions, as well as our expected customer reach; J) outcome of pending and threatened litigation, arbitration, disputes, regulatory proceedings or investigations by authorities; K) expectations regarding restructurings, investments, capital structure optimization efforts, uses of proceeds from transactions, acquisitions and divestments and our ability to achieve the financial and operational targets set in connection with any such restructurings, investments, capital structure optimization efforts, divestments and acquisitions; and L) statements preceded by or including "believe", "expect", "anticipate", "foresee", "sees", "target", "estimate", "designed", "aim", "plans", "intends", "focus", "continue", "project", "should", "is to", "will" or similar expressions. These statements are based on management's best assumptions and beliefs in light of the information currently available to it. Because they involve risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from the results that we currently expect. Factors, including risks and uncertainties that could cause these differences include, but are not limited to: 1) our strategy is subject to various risks and uncertainties and we may be unable to successfully implement our strategic plans, sustain or improve the operational and financial performance of our business groups, correctly identify or successfully pursue business opportunities or otherwise grow our business; 2) general economic and market conditions and other developments in the economies where we operate; 3) uncertainty related to the amount of dividends and equity return we are able to distribute to shareholders for each financial period, as well as the risk factors specified on pages 71 to 89 of our 2017 annual report on Form 20-F published on March 22, 2018 under "Operating and financial review and prospects-Risk factors" and in our other filings or documents furnished with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Other unknown or unpredictable factors or underlying assumptions subsequently proven to be incorrect could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. We do not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent legally required.

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: NOKIA 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.
Visitors at the Cheyenne County Visitor Center were greeted last weekend with a vast array of art by local artists.

The Cheyenne County Art Guild held its annual spring show March 22-24 at the Center. The show started with an opening reception Thursday with artists available to meet with the public. The show included a wide variety of visual intrigue. There were penciled drawings that invited viewers into the scene, photographs as crisp as experiencing the view for the first time on the prairie, artists with the soft touch that implies wind whistling through the sandhills, visions of people working in blue collar environments and abstract visions brought to life in oils and acrylics.

One feature that sets this year's show apart is the display memorializing past Guild members. Artwork from past members Hank Jessen, Muriel Glanz and Catherine Borgens were on display. Jessen died Feb. 4, 2018, and Glanz and Borgens died in 2017. They were known as active supporters of the Cheyenne County Art Guild. Borgens also painted portraits of medical professionals in Sidney.

The memorial wall displays works depicting nature, farm life of the past and relationships between generations. They are renditions of what each artists sees in those moments: the textures, brush strokes, colors chosen and scenes painted.

The show included other local artists displaying works in various forms as well, each by a Guild member.

"This is our 46th art guild show," said local artist Cindi Egging. "We've always had it in the spring."

The Cheyenne County Art Guild started in the early 1970s. The Guild is a member of the Association of Nebraska Art Clubs (ANAC).

The show was judged by an artist from Imperial. The Cheyenne County Art Guild will send 11 of the works picked by the judge to the state show.

The ANAC traveling art show will be in Sidney in early May.

Winners of this year's show are:

BEST OF SHOW:

Cindi Egging

OIL PAINTING:

Professional:

1st Place: Ben Darling

2nd Place: Jane Easterly

Amature:

1st Place: Sheila Kaczmarek

2nd Place: Richard Kaczmarek

ACRYLIC:

Professional:

1st Place: Ron Nordyke

2nd Place: Ron Nordyke

PASTEL:

Professional:

1st Place: Chuck Borcher

2nd Place: Jane Easterly

PHOTOGRAPHY:

Professional:

1st Place: Margaret Evans

2nd Place: Margaret Evans

WATERCOLOR:

Professional:

1st Place: Tish Treinen

2nd Place: Tish Treinen

PENCIL

Professional:

1st Place: Ben Darling

2nd Place: Ron Nordyke

PRINTMAKING

Professional:

1st Place: Ben Darling

2nd Place: Ben Darling

MIXED MEDIA

Amature:

1st Place: Mary Moor

DOOR PRIZE: Chris Douglas

RAFFLE WINNER: Leslie Biggs

PEOPLE'S CHOICE: Ron Nordyke

All winners will have an opportunity to send their paintings to the Association of Nebraska Art Clubs state show, which will be in Scottsbluff this year in June.

Winning artwork will be displayed at The Coffee Corner.
A Sidney nursing home and assisted living center are among a group of facilities across Nebraska affected by a move by the State of Nebraska. The state has taken control of 21 nursing homes around Nebraska because their owner couldn't make payroll.

Affected are Sidney Care and Rehabilitation Center skilled nursing center and assisted living center. The homes' owner, Cottonwood Healthcare, also known as Skyline, which is headquartered in New Jersey, notified the state about its financial crisis, so the state took action.

A Lancaster County judge approved a plan Friday to put the homes in receivership and under the management of Klaasmeyer and Associates while a plan for the homes' future is prepared. The receiverships were ordered after Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson filed court proceedings seeking receiverships at the request of Courtney Phillips, the Chief Executive Officer, of the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).

State officials also are working to ensure that residents of the facilities are receiving proper care.

Ken Klaasmeyer of Klaasmeyer Associates told the Sun-Telegraph Monday that local residents were at no time in danger through the action.

"This has nothing to do with patient care," Klaasmeyer said. "It's all financial."

Klaasmeyer said at this point his team is working to keep staffs in place to continue properly caring for facility residents, "and to be encouraging to both residents and staff."

Klassmeyer said he feels the action gives a light at the end of the tunnel for staff members, residents and families.

"I think they should feel better under receivership than they did before," he said. "Things will be getting paid."

Klaasmeyer didn't have any idea this soon after the action how long the receivership might last, saying it would be "until a long-term solution is found."

Klaasmeyer & Associates will oversee operations of the facilities as a new owner is identified and/or residents are relocated to another facility. DHHS will provide oversight throughout the process to ensure a safe and orderly transition and maintain the safety and well-being of residents. If needed, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services provides funds for the facility operations to ensure the safety and well-being of residents.

Other facilities, under the same ownership, are spread across 19 counties in Nebraska. With the exception of Scottsbluff, most are in the eastern half of the state.

The Sidney Care and Rehabilitation Center's Facebook page had the following message on it to address the issue:

"Good afternoon to the families, loved ones of our residents, staff, and concerned citizens of Sidney, surrounding area, and Sidney Care and Rehab.

"First of all, we want to thank you for entrusting us with the care of your family; we continue to be the same staff that has always taken care of, and loved your family members. Our focus will continue to be on our residents.

"We want to assure you the only thing that has changed is the payor source to our company. We will now be overseen and managed, at this time, by a company owned and based out of Omaha, Nebraska.

"The Medical director, CEO, DON, and all of our department managers are working hard with our staff and your loved ones to maintain a calm and care-enriched environment."

The message further directs anyone with questions to contact Klaasmeyer & Associates.
Keep Life Simple is the theme of the annual Women in Agriculture Conference, which will feature information and advice about simplicity and excellence, making meals with a multi-cooker, forage production, youth loans, farming with disabilities, and more.

This years conference is scheduled for Friday, April 13, at Sidney. It will run from 8:15 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. at Buffalo Point Restaurant, 638 Cabela Drive.

The conference is intended to help women who are involved in agriculture improve their decision-making, increase understanding, and enhance their well-being in relation to their farm, ranch or agriculture-related business.

The $35 registration fee covers conference materials, breaks, and lunch. Advance registration is due by April 6, after which the fee is $45. Registration forms and more information are available at the Nebraska Extension office at 920 Jackson St. in Sidney; by phone (308) 254-4455; by email to Karen DeBoer, Extension Educator at [email protected]; or browse to http://ckb.unl.edu/.

Simplicity with Excellence is the theme of keynote speaker Tami Lambertson of Scottsbluff. She was born and raised in the Midwest and she and her husband, Tyson, have been married for 18 years and have three children, ages 15, 13, and 11. They serve as lead pastors of The Rock Church.

Balancing the demands of family, work, and community involvement have taught her a lot over the last decade and she has come to live by the motto: Simplicity with Excellence. Simple doesnt have to mean cheap, or lacking thought or care. Keep things simple, but do it well.

Other topics at the conference will include:

Nebraska Rainfall Assessment: Presenter Shelly Gerk of the South Platte Natural Resources District will explain the Nebraska Rainfall Assessment and Information Network, a Nebraska-based project designed to study the patterns of rain, hail and snow across the state. Data collected from this project provides important daily decision-making information for both ag and non-ag related industries.

How Much Forage Might Grow? Every spring, ranchers face the same challenge  trying to guess how much forage will be available on the range for grazing that summer. Grass-Cast, the Grassland Productivity Forecast, is a new product that indicates whether your county is likely to have more or less rangeland vegetation than average. Presenter is Dannele Peck of the USDA Northern Plains Climate Hub at Fort Collins, Colo.

Quick and Easy Meals: Extension Educator Nancy Frecks will demonstrate how, with just a little planning and preparation, its possible to have meals on the table in less time than it would take to order and pick up take-out meals. Advanced preparation, cooking once and eating twice ideas will be discussed along with information and recipes for using the newest kitchen appliance, the multi-cooker.

Agrability: Nancy Frecks will tell how Nebraska AgrAbility works to enhance the quality of life for farmers and ranchers with disabilities or health conditions so that they, their families and their communities continue to do what they love.

FSA Ag Youth Loans: Presenter Lori Hamaker of the USDA Farm Service Agency at Scottsbluff will explain how Farm Loan Programs offer opportunities to family-sized farmers and ranchers as well as youths to start, improve, expand and strengthen family farming and ranching operations. Types of assistance FSA can offer are annual operating loans (annual expenses), intermediate operating loans (breeding livestock and machinery purchases) and real estate loans to those who are eligible.

The Mechanics of Estate and Business Transition: Attorney Pam Olsen of Cline Williams Wright Johnson & Oldfather will discuss the issues that can and should be considered as part of developing a generational or business transition plan, and the types of tools that may be utilized by owners/operators in creating a transition plan to best accomplish their goals.

Spring is Coming: Time to think of those beautiful flowers to brighten up any corner of the yard, patio or deck. Wanda Talich of Sidney Feed and Supply will talk about how to plant those beauties in anything laying around the yard, or that perfect pot waiting to be filled.

Conference sponsors include American Bank, Sidney; Farm Credit Services of America; Farm Service Agency; FirstTier Bank, Kimball; Great Western Bank, Sidney; Kimball State Bank & Insurance; Natural Resource Conservation Service; Points West Community Bank, Kimball; Points West Community Bank, Chappell; Points West Community Bank, Sidney; Points West Insurance, Kimball; South Platte Natural Resources District; and Nebraska Extension in Cheyenne, Banner and Kimball counties.
Wednesday night will see a convicted drug trafficker from Fuengirola able to walk free when he is released during the Holy Week procession of the El Rico brotherhood in the centre of Malaga.

The tradition of freeing a prisoner for good behaviour goes back 257 years and is a key part of the city's week-long religious Easter parades. Last year this ritual was dramatically cancelled when it emerged that the Spanish Cabinet, who must agree who will be freed, rejected the proposed name and it was too late to chose another person. In the end a prisoner was released but not until July and away from the ceremony of Holy Week.

This year the government is taking no chances and the name has been approved well in advance. And to show support for the tradition, the ministers for Justice and Interior will be in the city for the event.

The man to be freed is currently serving a three-year sentence. Several other places around Spain also release prisoners before Easter.
Walmart is pulling Cosmopolitan magazine from the checkout line amid concerns the publication is too sexy.

The nation's largest retailer announced Tuesday that it was pulling Cosmo from all checkout aisles at its 5,000 stores across the country.

"Walmart will continue to offer Cosmopolitan to customers that wish to purchase the magazine, but it will no longer be in the checkout aisles," the company said in a statement. "While this was primarily a business decision, the concerns raised were heard."

NPR reports those concerns were raised by the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE), which has criticized Cosmopolitan for years, comparing it to porn. According to USA Today, the group previously known as Morality in Media successfully campaigned for Rite Aid stores and Food Lion owner Delhaize America to put the publication behind blinders.

"Cosmo sends the same messages about female sexuality as Playboy," NCOSE said in a statement. "It places women's value primarily on their ability to sexually satisfy a man and therefore plays into the same culture where men view and treat women as inanimate sex object."

Past issues of Cosmopolitan magazine are shown with Kate Upton, left, and Kim Kardashian on the cover.

The group also said the "hyper-sexualized" magazine targets young girls by placing former Disney stars, such as Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez, on the covers alongside headlines about sexual activity in detail.

The New York Post suggests Walmart's decision may be more about business than concerns amid the #MeToo and Time's Up movements. Cosmo has long been publisher Hearst's most profitable magazine, but single-copy sales at newsstands and checkout counters have fallen 67 percent from 576,550 copies a month in December 2014 to just 190,487 at the end of 2017.

Single-copy sales of all young women's magazines have also declined more than 20 percent a year since 2015, according to the Post.

Cosmopolitan, which says it reaches 17 million adults per month worldwide, has not commented on Walmart's decision. The magazine was first published in 1886 as "The Cosmopolitan," eventually evolving into a literary magazine and then, in 1965, as a women's magazine "for fun, fearless females."
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- A man was seriously injured Wednesday after a stabbing near the Rescue Mission in Syracuse.

The Syracuse Police Department rushed to the Rescue Mission's Food Service Center at 7:42 a.m. A 40-year-old man had been repeatedly stabbed in the back by another man, said Sgt. Richard Helterline, a police spokesman.

Officers were told the attack took place outside the Gifford Street center's cafeteria, Helterline said, but could not confirm where it happened.

The Rescue Mission was getting ready to serve breakfast when the wounded man ran inside the cafeteria, said Dan Sieburg, the Rescue Mission's chief executive officer. Workers called 911 for help, he said.

American Medical Response and the Syracuse Fire Department also responded to the Rescue Mission. Officers photographed the scene.

Paramedics wheeled a shirtless, bloodied man out of the cafeteria on a gurney. The wounded man closed his eyes and bowed his head, clenching the gurney's metal rails as he was placed in an ambulance.

The man was taken to Upstate University Hospital. He is in serious but stable condition, Helterline said.

Sieburg said the people involved were not staying at the Mission.

A detailed description of the suspect was not available.

Detectives are continuing to investigate the stabbing. Police asked anyone with information to call (315) 442-5222 or submit tips anonymously through the Syracuse PD app.
MEXICO, N.Y. -- A 16-year-old was arrested after posting a school threat against Mexico High School on Snapchat, according to New York State Police.

The student was charged with endangering the welfare of a child, aggravated harassment and falsely reporting an incident, police said.

A picture was posted to Snapchat of two students, with one holding a gun, police said. The caption on the photo read "Next School Shooter," police said. The students were interviewed by state police investigators, police said. Police were notified of the threat at 3 p.m., police said.

A Mexico Middle School student was recently arrested for falsely reporting a threat, police said.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Van Duyn nursing home will hire more staff and train employees to be more considerate of residents as part of a plan to turn around the troubled 513-bed facility.

"It's no secret they've had some problems," said Dan Detor, Van Duyn's new interim administrator.

Van Duyn is taking "pretty swift large actions to make some corrections," he said.

The actions come five weeks after a malfunctioning heating system left some elderly residents shivering. It also comes as the state investigates a complaint Van Duyn did not keep a cooler cold enough to slow decomposition of a deceased resident.

Complaints by residents and their families about the heating problem that lasted four days in February prompted Van Duyn's for-profit owner, Upstate Services Group, to oust the nursing home's former administrator. Upstate Services Group bought the nursing home from Onondaga County in 2013.

"When the heating thing developed a lot of other things came to light," Detor said. "Ownership was disturbed because this does not represent their values."

State and federal data show there have been persistent problems at Van Duyn for years.

The rate of complaints and deficiencies over the past four years at Van Duyn are about three times higher than the average New York nursing home, according to the state Health Department.

The federal government gives Van Duyn its lowest rating. The average resident gets care from a registered nurse 26 minutes a day, significantly less than the state average of 46 minutes, according to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

A January 2017 state Health Department inspection report cited Van Duyn for not having enough nurses and certified nurse assistants to care for patients.

One resident complained of having to lie in her own feces for hours because no one answered a call bell. A certified nurse assistant told inspectors there was not enough staff to shave residents and clip their fingernails. The report noted on one day a single certified nurse assistant was assigned to care for 53 residents.

Since 2015 at least six lawsuits have been filed against Van Duyn alleging negligence and medical malpractice.

Van Duyn has nearly 500 employees and wants to fill 50 vacant positions, mostly certified nurse aides and licensed practical nurses.

Inadequate staffing is a problem for many nursing homes, according to Detor. "Staffing is the 800-pound gorilla in the room," he said.

To recruit and retain more employees Van Duyn is increasing wages by more than $1 million. It's also offering tuition assistance to help certified nurse assistants who want to become licensed practical nurses, and licensed practical nurses who want to become registered nurses.

Improving communication is another element of Van Duyn's improvement plan.

"Part of what blew up on us was when people were reaching out with issues and concerns and we didn't respond timely," Detor said.

Van Duyn is creating a new executive level position, chief experience officer, to oversee resident quality of life issues and improve communication.

The nursing home also will train all staff, including management, on how to be more compassionate and hospitable.

Detor's mother was a resident at Van Duyn.

"I know Van Duyn from both sides," he said. "My goal every day is to ensure all our loved ones are cared for with professionalism and compassion."

Contact James T. Mulder anytime: Email | Twitter | 315-470-2245
Syracuse, NY -- Richard Thibodeau, acquitted of Heidi Allen's kidnapping, passed a polygraph test this month, maintaining that neither he nor his convicted brother Gary had anything to do with the teen's 1994 disappearance.

Thibodeau appeared on "The Steve Wilkos Show" this afternoon with Tonya Priest, who told authorities in 2013 that another man had confessed to the crime. Priest also took a polygraph test and passed.

The show was taped March 15, according to the show's website.

Thibodeau and his wife embraced Priest on-air after Wilkos announced the polygraph results.

Richard Thibodeau was acquitted of kidnapping Allen from a New Haven convenience store. But his brother, Gary, was convicted despite the fact authorities had said the two men acted together.

Gary Thibodeau is serving a 25-year-to-life sentence.

Richard Thibodeau has always maintained that his brother was innocent, too.

Daniel Ribacoff, a Downstate polygraph examiner, found no deception when asking Thibodeau directly about the case. Ribacoff is a frequent contributor to Wilkos's show, which focuses on criminal justice issues.

A transcript of the polygraph was provided to Syracuse.com | The Post-Standard.

Here's what Thibodeau was asked:

Q: Did you participate in any way in Heidi Allen's disappearance?

A: No.

Result: No deception indicated

Q: Did your brother Gary participate with you in any way in Heidi Allen's disappearance?

A: No.

Result: No deception indicated

Q: Do you know where Heidi Allen is now?

A: No

Result: No deception indicated

The show also focused on Priest's assertion that another man, James Steen, had confessed to her that he and two others, Roger Breckenridge and Michael Bohrer, had kidnapped and killed Allen.

Priest also answered two questions during a polygraph test (Steen's name was removed from the on-air show):

Q: Is it true that James Steen confessed to kidnapping Heidi Allen from the gas station?

A: Yes

Result: No deception indicated

Q: Is is true that James Steen confessed to killing Heidi Allen?

A: Yes

Result: No deception indicated

Priest's information set in motion further investigation that ultimately led to a prolonged court hearing in 2015 to determine whether to overturn Gary Thibodeau's conviction.

Interestingly, Priest was not called to testify in the hearing itself, which included testimony from the three new alleged suspects and other purported witnesses.

Judge Daniel King ruled against Thibodeau in March 2016, saying the new evidence was either unreliable or inadmissible.

King's ruling was affirmed by an appellate court in 2017, but the case was taken up by the state's highest court.

Gary Thibodeau's case will be argued before the Court of Appeals -- the court of last resort -- next month. Meanwhile, he remains very weak and in hospice care.

Polygraph exams are controversial -- with some saying they can be fooled -- and are not admissible during trial. However, police authorities use them during investigations.

One recent example was a polygraph test given to former DeWitt doctor Robert Neulander, who failed the lie detector test when asked about the murder of his wife, Leslie. At trial, the polygraph examination was described to the jury as an interview, and the results were not admitted into evidence.

Neulander's case is currently being reviewed by the same appellate court that affirmed Gary Thibodeau's conviction last year.
Colgate University is investigating an incident in which an anti-Asian racial slur was left on a decoration on two college students' dormitory door Tuesday night.

At about 9 p.m. Tuesday, university officials were made aware of the "racist and discriminatory graffiti," according to Paul McLoughlin, vice president and dean of the college. Campus safety officers were dispatched and an investigation began, he said.

Faculty members and staff returned to the campus later that night and met with students to offer support, he said.

"Vile and racist statements will not be tolerated by our community and are the compete antithesis of Colgate's steadfast values of diversity and inclusion," McLoughlin said.

The racial slur, which read "Ching Chong Mother F*****," was written in pencil on a door decoration put up by two Chinese students to celebrate the Lunar New Year, said a student in contact with the students' whose door was vandalized. The new year is a major holiday in China. (The student asked not to be identified; the Chinese students also did not want to be identified.)

A Facebook post with the photo of the slur has been shared online several hundred times. Many people commented on the post:

"I don't care what your upbringing or neighborhood is like, you should know how to respect other people because it is basic human decency. Nothing could be a reason or justification for perpetuating hate crimes,'' one student wrote.

Another student wrote: "Something needs to be changed. Colgate should not be like this. Actions, not apologies."

In May 2017, a report of a shirtless African-American holding what authorities said was possbily a gun in one hand prompted a lockdown at Colgate University. The "weapon" later turned out to be a glue gun.

The small private liberal-arts college in rural Madison County, has about 3,000 undergraduate students. Total cost to attend runs about $65,000 a year.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- On Monday, just hours before he planned to release an audit showing irregularities in the parks department's finances, City Auditor Marty Masterpole met in private with the Common Council.

He briefed councilors -- Democrats and the council's lone Republican -- on the findings of that audit. By then, Parks Commissioner Lazarus Sims had been suspended based on the findings in the audit.

Also Monday, Masterpole notified the district attorney's office about potentially criminal activity uncovered in his audit. The DA put a gag order on the audit, Masterpole said. He said he was told release would interfere with the DA's investigation.

Syracuse.com learned of Sims' suspension late Monday evening, after the mayor sent a memo to top-ranking city staff. Later that night, Masterpole confirmed his audit had led to the suspension and the DA's investigation.

The exact findings of the audit, and any possible criminal activity, have been withheld from the public since then. A top state watchdog said that portions of how and why information has been withheld may violate state law.

Masterpole's meeting with the council Monday was not advertised, nor did the council vote to enter executive session. It took place in the council office, not the council chambers, after a public session was adjourned.

Some councilors said Tuesday they believed it was an open meeting, since the door to the office was left open. Others, including Majority Leader Steven Thompson, said it definitely was not an open meeting.

Robert Freeman, executive director of the Committee on Open Government, said that meeting appears to have violated the state's Open Meetings Law.

"If the council was there, clearly the gathering would constitute a meeting covered by the Open Meetings Law," Freeman said. "If the world doesn't know about it in advance, it's like a tree falling in the forest and nobody being there to hear."

Masterpole said he consulted with the city law department before the briefing to make sure he was in compliance with the law. He disagreed with Freeman's opinion, citing the DA's criminal investigation.

"When a criminal investigation is present (which it is now and was when the council was briefed) you can take all Bob Freeman's rules and throw them out the window," Masterpole said in a text message Wednesday.

"Freeman's rules" are New York State law, which outlines strict guidelines for how public business should be conducted, including in the event of a criminal investigation. Such investigations can be discussed privately by lawmakers, but there must be a record that the discussion occurred.

All meetings are supposed to be held in public, except in the case of executive session. The full body must vote - during a public meeting - to enter executive session.

According to the law, executive session can be used when discussing "information relating to current or future investigation or prosecution of a criminal offense which would imperil effective law enforcement if disclosed..."

This case would seem to meet that criteria. Except there was no mention of the meeting during the public session Monday and no vote to enter executive session.

Councilors and Masterpole have declined to reveal the details discussed in the meeting, or release a copy of a document distributed in that meeting. All have cited the district attorney's request that the information not be public.

The city law department said Wednesday afternoon it did not consider Masterpole's briefing to be a "formal meeting," and, therefore, the law should not apply.

District Attorney William Fitzpatrick could not be reached Wednesday morning regarding why public release of the audit would interfere with an investigation.

Council President Helen Hudson did not return a message Tuesday.
WASHINGTON - The Trump administration's decision to add a question about citizenship in the 2020 Census was met with fierce pushback from its critics Tuesday, launching a legal and political battle with enormous stakes in a fight that pits the administration against many Democratic states.

The decision announced late Monday night by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has already triggered legal challenges from California and New York, with the latter promising a "multi-state" lawsuit challenging the administration.

Democratic lawmakers, who stand to lose political power if undocumented immigrants decline to take part in the decennial survey, attacked the decision Tuesday, but there is little they can do to immediately counter the move. The massive spending bill lawmakers passed last week would have been the best chance the minority party had this year to try to block the Census Bureau from moving forward with its plan, with congressional Republicans so far showing little appetite to protest the decision.

The confrontation now becomes another key factor hanging in the balance during the upcoming midterm elections, with Democrats gaining considerable leverage to scrap the Census decision should they win control of either chamber.

Critics of Commerce's move said it is part of a broader pattern of systematic attacks by the Trump administration against Democratic parts of the country on issues ranging from health care to immigration and one with major ramifications on decisions such as how congressional districts are drawn and how federal funding is spent nationwide.

"We're talking about a decade of consequences," Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., who has introduced legislation trying to block the Census Bureau from asking about citizenship, said in an interview Tuesday. "There's few things you can put your finger on directly that has a decade of consequences - in this case, a pejorative consequence."

Opponents of asking the citizenship question argue that it will reduce the response rate for the census and undercount the population in areas with high numbers of undocumented immigrants, who could fear participating. As a result, opponents say, states with significant immigrant populations, which are mostly controlled by Democrats, could stand to lose seats in Congress, along with electoral college votes in presidential elections and federal funding based on census counts. Democrats could also lose seats in those state legislatures.

Administration officials defended the change to the decennial census, which hasn't asked a question about citizenship of the entire population since 1950, although citizenship status has been asked on surveys among a sample of U.S. households, such as the American Community Survey (ACS). Getting an accurate count of the voting-eligible population through the Census, the administration contended, would help identify potential voting-rights violations by providing more accurate information than now available about the proportion of a congressional district's population that is eligible to vote by holding citizenship.

"I would argue that this has been practice of the United States government," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Tuesday when pressed on the decision. "The purpose is to determine individuals that are here. It also helps to comply with the Voting Rights Act. Without that information, it's hard to make those determinations."

The administration's congressional allies also defended the proposal.

"Counting the number of U.S. citizens in the country should be a high priority of the census," Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said in a statement Tuesday. "The only way to get an accurate count is to add a question about citizenship to the census itself."

Critics of the decision, including California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, were bullish Tuesday on the prospects of winning their legal challenge, noting that the Constitution requires a census, or "actual enumeration," every 10 years to apportion representation in Congress, based on the "number of free persons" in each state.

"It doesn't say all white people, it doesn't say all men, it doesn't say all property owners, it doesn't say all citizens, it doesn't say all voters," said Arturo Vargas, the executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund. "It says all persons."

The administration is almost certain to face more legal challenges. Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder Jr., who serves as chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, threatened a suit to halt the decision. And Dale Ho, the director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Voting Rights Project, said his organization is evaluating all options.

Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said Tuesday in response to the California lawsuit that DOJ "looks forward to defending the reinstatement of the citizenship question, which will allow the Department to protect the right to vote and ensure free and fair elections for all Americans."

Justice requested that the question be added to the Census and Ross was not enthusiastic about the idea, according to two people who had conversations with him about it and spoke on the condition of anonymity since the discussion were private. The Commerce secretary, however, said he kept an open mind, carefully studying the issue before coming to his decision.

"When the request came in from the Department of Justice I directed the analysis to begin and took a hard look at the question. After careful consideration, I came to my conclusion," Ross said in a statement. "During the whole time we were studying the issue, no one in the administration put pressure on me."

On Capitol Hill, Democrats were furious at the administration's decision but acknowledged they had little recourse, for now, to kill the Census move legislatively. There are a handful of Democratic bills circulating in Congress, but they stand almost no chance in the GOP-controlled chambers.

Rep. Jose Serrano of New York, the top Democrat on the House panel that oversees Commerce funding, said he will introduce language that will prevent funding from being spent to ask the citizenship question, or print the Census with the question included. The House Appropriations Committee will began drafting spending bills for the next fiscal year in the coming weeks.

Technically, the next leverage point for Democrats is Sept. 30, when current government funding expires, but Congress in recent years have instead passed stopgap spending measures, punting big spending and related policy decisions until past the election.

"This certainly would be a top priority for many of us" if Democrats win control of the House, said Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., the chairwoman of the congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. "Remember that our Democratic caucus is majority-minority now . . . we all have a stake in making sure that there is an accurate count for the Census."

Democrats are pressuring their GOP counterparts to conduct more oversight of Commerce's decision now. Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, called for hearings into the issue. The panel's chairman, Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., has set up a briefing with Commerce and Census officials on the issue in April, his spokeswoman, Amanda Gonzalez, said.

Even successful litigation or a move by Congress might not be able to address issues that arise from the administration's decision, experts and critics warned, noting that the controversy over adding a citizenship question at a time when many immigrants are already leery of being targeted could have a lasting impact.

"We also know that there are people in this country - citizens and noncitizens - who fear questions from the federal government," Serrano said Tuesday. "Why would you take this time to ask questions that could bring fear to people, or keep them away from reporting that they're here, that they want to be counted?"

Questions about citizenship appeared on the decennial count in varying forms in the 19th century and into the 20th. The disappearance of the citizenship question after 1950 caused no outcry, said Margo Anderson, a professor of history and urban studies at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee and author of "The American Census: A Social History."

"By 1950, there wasn't a great foreign-born population anymore, so the issue wasn't that important," she said. "I cannot find anyone kicking up a fuss, saying, 'Oh my gosh, we're taking this off?' . . . That's an indication that this was not a very important issue. There were a lot of issues that were on the agenda in the 1960s, but this wasn't one of them."

In an attempt to minimize any impact on response rates, Ross directed the Census Bureau to place the citizenship question last on the census form. But critics of the plan say that making substantive changes to the decennial survey this late in the cycle is unprecedented in modern history.

The sample survey being tested in Rhode Island has no citizenship question. The consequences of not testing a question would be grave, Anderson said.

"You're flying blind," she said. "You don't know whether there are unforeseen issues."

Anderson said even if Congress and the administration were to provide additional funding at this late date to test the effect of a citizenship question on response rate, "They might not like the results they get."
The New York State Department of Transportation will finally begin removing more than 500 "I Love New York" signs next month, according to a new report.

Federal Highway Administration spokesman Doug Hecox told Newsday that NYSDOT will take down the controversial signs in April. Removal was originally scheduled to begin in March, but delayed due to snowy winter weather.

DOT spokesman Joe Morrissey declined to confirm removal plans, telling Newsday on Monday that the agency continues talks with the Highway Administration to "identify the best possible resolution to this matter."

State officials said last month that it would remove and replace hundreds of "I Love NY" tourism signs along the Thruway and other New York highways after the federal government threatened to withhold $14 million in funding if they weren't removed. No project date was announced, but federal officials said New York must comply by June 30.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration said it plans to install new signs this summer, but will consult with Washington, D.C., on the designs. The new theme is expected to be "NY has it all!"

"As the current campaign and signs are entering their fifth year, this message has run its useful course and we already plan to launch a new 'I Love NY' campaign this summer," state Department of Transportation Commissioner Paul Karas and Thruway director Matthew Driscoll said in a joint statement.

According to the Associated Press, the Empire State spent more than $8 million on the "I Love NY" signs in recent years. Federal officials complained they were unsafe, but Cuomo refused to remove them. State officials say the signs helped drive tourism.

The blue-and-white signs are generally put up in groups of five, with a main sign followed by four signs touting the state's various tourism program. Many can be seen along the Thruway and other major highways in the state.
TYRE, NY -- The del Lago Casino & Resort's request for a state financial bailout in the face of ongoing financial shortfalls is meeting a chilly response from state lawmakers.

Among the most outspoken is Assemblyman Gary Finch, an Auburn Republican.

"If this wasn't such a serious matter, I would've thought this was an early April Fool's Day joke," Finch posted in a Facebook statement. "Asking hardworking families to bail out a casino would be absolutely unacceptable. .. The paint on this place isn't even dry, and they want a bailout? It's absurd."

Del Lago, which opened in February 2017, fell about $100 million short of the first-year revenues it promised when it applied for a casino license in 2012. (The other new non-Indian casinos that opened within the last 15 months are also falling short in what is widely considered to be a crowded or even saturated market).

Del Lago's credit rating has also been downgraded by the investor service Moody's, which gives it a negative outlook and has warned it may not be able to cover its debts.

On Tuesday, del Lago's principal owner, Rochester developer Thomas Wilmot, went to Albany Tuesday seeking help.

Although Wilmot did not specify what he was seeking, state Sen. Joseph Griffo of Rome says it is "a tax break somewhere around $14 million."

Griffo, a Republican who is a member of the Senate's Racing, Gaming and Wagering Committee, is also opposed to a break for de Lago.

"The news that del Lago is struggling with revenue is disappointing, concerning and unsettling," Griffo said in a statement. "When gaming expansion began, New Yorkers were told by the Governor that the new casinos would support tourism, bring more jobs and more revenue to support schools and lower taxes. It now appears that that is not the case and this is another illustration of bad planning, bad siting and bad decision making."

State lawmakers and Gov. Andrew Cuomo this week are working to wrap up a new state budget for the fiscal year that begins April 1.

Sen. John DeFrancisco, a DeWitt Republican who is seeking the GOP nomination to run against Cuomo, is also opposed to any concession for del Lago.

"This is a developer who has been trying for years, begging almost, to build a casino," DeFrancisco said. "They (del Lago) did projections on what they expected to make -- they took the risks in the hope they ended up with a profit. To try all those years, when he finally gets what he asks for, to say his projections were wrong and he needs help from the taxpayers of this state -- that is absurd. It's not economic development, it's just a waste of taxpayers' funds."

Don Cazentre writes about Upstate NY casinos 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.
Since leaving office in 2005, former Mayor Anthony M. Masiello has donated to lots of politicians and charities from his leftover campaign fund. But now a thief has made his way into the account.

Authorities are probing the theft of $18,500 from his Friends of Masiello account, which still lists almost $164,000 in assets, according to the state Board of Elections.

The former mayor said Tuesday it is "very unnerving" to discover that someone visited three Connecticut bank branches and somehow withdrew the money from his campaign treasury.

"You don't realize the severity of something like this until it happens to you personally," Masiello said.

Thief raids Masiello campaign account https://t.co/m8aZvOpZXj  The Buffalo News (@TheBuffaloNews) March 28, 2018

Joanne Cavalieri, the former mayor's long-time campaign treasurer, said she had sent a check for income tax on the account to the Internal Revenue Service several days ago when the bank returned it for insufficient funds.

"I told them that couldn't be, but they said I was overdrawn by $2,000," she said.

After discussing the situation with bank officials, Cavalieri said she reported the missing money to Buffalo police. She added it appears someone with a New Jersey driver's licence issued to an Anthony Masiello somehow convinced a bank teller in Connecticut of its legitimacy and obtained an account number. The thief then made three withdrawals at three KeyBank branches.

Police said bank officials have launched an investigation.

Retired office holders are permitted in New York State to keep their campaign treasuries for certain purposes, which Masiello -- a lobbyist -- has used for donations to various political and charitable causes.

He said the experience has made him more vigilant.

"This can happen to anyone, and I want to make people aware they have to be diligent in watching their accounts," he said.

- By Robert J. McCarthy, The Buffalo News, N.Y.
BEIJING - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made a surprise trip to China this week, meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping ahead of planned summits with South Korean and U.S. leaders, Chinese and North Korean state media confirmed Wednesday.

The journey, which is believed to be Kim's first foreign trip since he came to power in 2011, adds a new piece to a complex diplomatic puzzle over the future of North Korea's nuclear program.

The announcement ends a mystery that started on Monday, when a mysterious train chugged into central Beijing, spurring reports of a high-profile visitor from North Korea.

The North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) confirmed that the visitor was indeed Kim, along with his wife, Ri Sol Ju, arriving for an "unofficial" visit at the invitation of the Chinese president, Xi Jinping. The confirmation came sometime after the North Korean group is believed to have departed China.

Kim traveled with all his top aides, KCNA said, including Choe Ryong Hae, often called the No. 2 leader of North Korea and the head of the powerful Organization and Guidance Department, and Ri Su Yong, the former ambassador to Switzerland and foreign minister, who is now a top official in the Politburo.

China and North Korea have had close ties for decades, but in recent years, the relationship has been stressed. Kim's visit suggests an effort to repair relations ahead of Kim's planned meetings with the South's president, Moon Jae-in, and then U.S. President Donald Trump.

Chinese and North Korean accounts of the meeting struck a positive tone. "We speak highly of this visit," Xi told Kim, according to Chinese state media.

Kim's toast to Xi: "It is appropriate that my first trip abroad is in China's capital, and my responsibility to consider continuing NK-China relations as valuable as life," according to KCNA.

The question of who was on the armored train had gripped the Chinese capital for days. The train arrived unannounced. Passengers disembarked and boarded limos. After nightfall, a motorcade drove to a state guesthouse where foreign dignitaries often stay.

But Chinese officials and media and the South Korean government were initially quiet about the identities of those who had been aboard.

Chinese netizens looking for answers hit a wall. On Tuesday, three of the top 10 blocked terms on Weibo, a microblogging site, were "Kim Jong Un," "North Korea" and "Fatty the third," a popular Chinese nickname for Kim, according to freeweibo.com, a website that tracks censorship.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders responded to the news of Kim's visit by saying that the Chinese government had briefed the Trump administration about the visit on Tuesday. The briefing included a "personal message from President Xi to President Trump," she said.

The Trump administration sees the development "as further evidence that our campaign of maximum pressure is creating the appropriate atmosphere for dialogue with North Korea," Sanders said.

Chinese experts said a visit by a senior North Korean leader before the meetings with Moon and Trump made sense.

"At a possibly historic moment, before the start of a dramatic play on the Korean Peninsula, China was losing the spotlight," said Cheng Xiaohe, a North Korea expert at Beijing's Renmin University. A visit would restore Beijing's leading role, he reasoned.

Zhang Liangui, a retired professor and Korea scholar at the Central Party School in Beijing, said, "The North Korea nuclear issue cannot be solved by solely relying on negotiations between North Korea and the United States, because, essentially, the nuclear issue is a regional security issue, not an issue of the relationship between North Korea and the United States."

Experts also said secrecy was standard for North Korean visitors. "Kim Jong Un's father, Kim Jong Il, employed a similar approach in the past," said Lu Chao, a Korea expert at China's Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences. "It's usually a secret visit and then publicized after the North Korean leader has left."

It was the example of Kim Jong Il's 2011 visit that provided early clues that something was up.

The detective work started Monday when train spotters and North Korea watchers noticed two suspicious developments: tight security at the China-North Korea border and train delays across the northeast.

On Monday afternoon, Japanese broadcaster NTV spotted an unusual train pulling into a station in the heart of the capital. It was green and yellow and looked a lot like the trains used by Kim Jong Il in 2011.

As the news started to spread, so did unverified videos of a motorcade speeding through the Chinese capital. Soon, unconfirmed reports of Kim sightings were spreading in chat groups.
President Donald Trump says the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution will "never be repealed" after retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens called for its repeal.

"THE SECOND AMENDMENT WILL NEVER BE REPEALED! As much as Democrats would like to see this happen, and despite the words yesterday of former Supreme Court Justice Stevens, NO WAY," Trump tweeted Wednesday morning. "We need more Republicans in 2018 and must ALWAYS hold the Supreme Court!"

Stevens, 97, said Monday that the Second Amendment should be repealed to allow for "constructive" gun control legislation. In a New York Times op-ed, he called the "right to bear arms" a "relic of the 18th century" designed to protect states' rights rather than individuals' gun rights.

Stevens previously disagreed with a 2008 ruling in which the high court said the Second Amendment gives individuals the right to own a gun for self-defense. He said the decision in that case, District of Columbia v. Heller, "has provided the N.R.A. with a propaganda weapon of immense power."

The NRA, also known as the National Rifle Association, joined Trump in criticizing Stevens.

"Do you see that? The repeal of the 2nd Amendment. From a man who once took an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution now admits he wants it dismantled!" NRATV host Grant Stinchfield said Tuesday. "I have long said the ultimate goal of the left is the complete repeal of the 2nd Amendment. This is proof, my friends."

"Your words and your ultimate wish list is a disgrace to America and the values that we all hold dear."

According to the Washington Post, Stevens was appointed by Republican President Gerald Ford but later became known as one of the Supreme Court's liberal leaders. He commended the March for Our Lives protests of school shootings over the weekend, calling it "a clear sign to lawmakers to enact legislation prohibiting civilian ownership of semiautomatic weapons, increasing the minimum age to buy a gun from 18 to 21 years old, and establishing more comprehensive background checks on all purchasers of firearms."

Stevens, who retired from the court in 2010, said the best way to weaken the NRA's influence on government is to repeal the Second Amendment.

According to the Associated Press, repealing the amendment would be extremely difficult. An amendment to the Constitution can only be proposed either by Congress with a two thirds vote in both houses or by a constitutional convention called for by two thirds of the state legislatures. The amendment then has to be approved by three quarters of the states.
WASHINGTON - A 43-year-old man was arrested Monday outside Seattle and charged with sending 11 packages containing explosive black powder to federal addresses in the District of Columbia area, including the White House and several military installations.

Investigators said they do not have a clear motive in the case. They said each package contained a glass vial or small bottle filled with powder, a fuse and a global positioning device. The packages also had typewritten letters that the FBI described in a criminal complaint as containing "ramblings about neuropsychology, mind control and other subjects including terrorism."

Authorities identified the suspect as Thanh Cong Phan, who lives in Everett, Washington. He was arrested at his trailer by Snohomish County sheriff's deputies and federally charged with interstate shipping of explosive materials.

Many of the packages were intercepted at screening facilities on the receiving end. None exploded, and no one was harmed. But federal authorities said buildings were evacuated and law enforcement scrambled at each location, such as on Monday at the National Defense University on the grounds of Fort McNair in Southwest Washington.

Authorities said packages allegedly sent by Phan also were addressed to the FBI headquarters, Fort Belvoir, Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, the CIA in Langley and the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, Virginia.

Phan appeared briefly Tuesday in federal court in Seattle.

His relatives could not be reached for comment after the appearance, and his federal public defender, Ashwin Cattamanchi, declined to comment.

Phan was ordered detained until a hearing on Friday.

The FBI alleged in the criminal complaint filed Tuesday that Phan has sent hundreds of letters over the past three years to government agencies "containing similar incoherent ramblings" as were in the letters accompanying the most recent packages.

Officials cautioned Tuesday that additional packages may have been sent to mail-processing facilities in the District area and said they remain on alert.

The FBI said it is working with local law enforcement agencies and reminded the public to "remain vigilant and not touch, move or handle any suspicious or unknown packages."

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Washington said a U.S. Postal Service inspector traced one of the packages from an FBI mailing facility in Baltimore where it had been received back to a post office in Mill Creek, Washington. Surveillance photos at the post office's self-service kiosk appeared to show Phan mailing the package, the statement says.

The package was addressed to "FBI Head Quarter" and had a return address of "NAVAL Cpt Mark, 200 W. Marine View, Everett Wa."

The criminal complaint says investigators found a letter, a fuse, a GPS device and a half-ounce vial containing black powder that tested positive for the flammable compound nitrocellulose in the package that arrived in Baltimore. The vial had a screw-on metal capwith a hole in it; the fuse went through the hole and into the powder, the court filings show.

Authorities said that the vial or jar "would provide sufficient confinement to make the powder detonable" and could have caused "significant injury to a person who was in proximity to the object" if it had been detonated. It was unclear whether the device could have been activated remotely.

U.S. Postal Inspector Justin Lothyan used the package's tracking number to determine it had been sent from Mill Creek, the criminal complaint said.
Syracuse, N.Y. -- It looks like we'll have to wait a little longer for that spring weather we've been so patiently waiting for this month in Upstate New York.

The latest outlook from the Climate Prediction Center says there's a very good chance the first week of April will be colder than normal across the northern U.S., including Upstate New York.

"Multiple outbreaks of cold Canadian air are expected across the central and eastern (U.S.)," the climate center said.

"One thing we're fairly confident in is that temperatures will continue to run below normal for late March into early April," said the National Weather Service's Binghamton forecast office. "Daily highs will generally range from the 30s to mid 40s, with overnight lows mostly in the 20s."

Normal temperatures for the first week of April are highs in the low 50s and lows in the low 30s.

Upstate New Yorkers are growing tired of cold temperatures as spring enters its second full week. Every day in Central New York since March 8 has been colder than normal; Buffalo had 18 days in a row below normal until it finally broke the pattern Monday.

March, in fact, will likely end up being colder than February.

The good news is that the low pressure sitting south of the Hudson Bay that will keep temperatures cool next week will also keep heavy rain to the south of New York. While showers could come every couple of days for the next week or so, they won't add up to much, the weather service said.

"Each of these potential showery periods should feature very light, inconsequential precipitation amounts," the weather service said.

Contact Glenn Coin: Email | Twitter | Google + | (315) 470-3251
Redistricting proposal places Tama County outside Rep. Hinsons district

New maps could lead to a remaking of the political landscape in Iowa  Tama County included. What is now a quadrant of four U.S. ...
Cobham Wireless has delivered a critical communications system on Beijings New Airport metro line, marking the companys 100th deployment in China. Cobham Wireless TETRA products are now providing coverage for driver and public safety communications across an estimated 77% of the countrys metro system.





Cobham Wireless deployed its first 800MHz TETRA system in Chinas underground public transport system in 2005, when the Nanjing line 1 opened. Since then, the companys technology has been installed on metro lines across 30 cities in mainland China, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Wuhan, and Chengdu etc . Cobham Wireless equipment has been installed in over 70% of the worlds metro systems.





The 100th project, for Beijings New Airport line, incorporates an 800MHz TETRA system, which provides essential communications for the metro lines train drivers. Previous deployments have included both this system and a 350MHz TETRA public safety communications system.





Cobham Wireless TETRA products are able to extend the reach of a base station into underground environments. The company has provided a cost-effective solution to delivering coverage throughout Chinas metro system, as its technology reduces the number of base stations needed to operate a network, reducing CapEx and OpEx.





Deploying connectivity on the 100th metro line in China is a landmark moment for Cobham Wireless, commented Bret Li, Sales Manager, China, Cobham Wireless. China presents a unique set of challenges for comms technology; temperatures can soar to 50 degrees in the summer and plunge to minus 30 in the winter! To guarantee passenger and driver safety, equipment must be robust and reliable, and able to run 24/7 throughout the year. Cobham Wireless repeaters can withstand this tough environment, and thanks to this latest deployment, well be helping to ensure the safety of the 12 million or so passengers which use Beijings metro daily.





Cobham Wireless software-based technology allows new features and capabilities to be easily installed, future-proofing the system and lowering CapEx. The technology can reduce noise transmitted to the base station, improving overall network performance. Systems are easily configured either locally or remotely via a simple graphical user interface or using the Cobham Wireless Active Element Manager system.





Housed in secure, robust and weatherproof IP65/NEMA 4 cases, the coverage solution can withstand the toughest extremes of weather in China.





Many cities in China have populations exceeding five million, so efficient, reliable, and safe public transport is a key government concern. The coming years will see continued investment and rapid construction of metro lines across the Republic and, due to Cobham Wireless experience and expertise in TETRA, as well as the strength of our service team, we look forward to delivering further projects in the future.




Organised by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), the Hong Kong International Lighting Fair (Spring Edition), Hong Kong Electronics Fair (Spring Edition), and the International ICT Expo will kick off during the peak April season for exhibitions and sourcing. The Spring Lighting Fair will take place from 6-9 April, while the Spring Electronics Fair and the concurrent International ICT Expo will be staged from 13-16 April. The three fairs will gather a total of about 4,900 exhibitors from around the world to showcase a range of innovative products and cutting-edge technologies.





- Exports for electronics, ICT and lighting products go up





"As the global economy improves, Hong Kong's exports figures for electronics, ICT (computers and parts) and lighting products in 2017 saw significant growth," said Benjamin Chau, Acting Executive Director, HKTDC. "The Spring Lighting Fair, Spring Electronics Fair and International ICT Expo offer a quality sourcing and marketing platform for the industry and international buyers to build on their success and grasp opportunities in this economic revival."





The HKTDC will organise about 240 buying missions, comprising representatives from some 12,500 companies from around the world to visit the three fairs. The hktdc.com Small Orders zone returns to the Spring Electronics Fair, offering a convenient platform for buyers to source in smaller lots. More than 250 showcases featuring around 2,000 products will be available in minimum order quantities of between five and 1,000 pieces. The zone works in conjunction with an online trading platform (http://smallorders.hktdc.com) to facilitate negotiation and buyer sourcing.





Mr Chau added that innovation and technology are a huge driving force behind Hong Kong's economic growth. The recent Hong Kong Government Policy Address and Budget speech proposed strengthening the innovation and technology industry, promoting smart city development as well as supporting innovation and technology and start-up enterprises. "The HKTDC is keeping up with the trend and is committed to creating business opportunities for Hong Kong," said Mr Chau. "We are strengthening start-up and smart living elements at the Spring Lighting Fair, Spring Electronics Fair and ICT Expo. Besides staging the Startup zone at the Spring Electronics Fair and the ICT Expo to enable start-ups to reach more potential suppliers, buyers and investors, the HKTDC is also spotlighting a wide range of smart products and technologies at the fairs, allowing global enterprises to leverage Hong Kong's exhibitions as a platform to promote innovative ideas and drive global economic and social developments."





- Startup zone at the Fairs fosters start-ups





The 15th edition of the Spring Electronics Fair and ICT Expo will be held from 13-16 April at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC). The Startup zone, which debuted last year, will return with more than 100 start-ups from Hong Kong, the Chinese mainland, Canada, Japan, Taiwan and the United States to present innovative technologies to global buyers.





To help start-ups gain entrepreneurial insights from experts, a series of start-up themed events, including Smart Launch sessions, sharing sessions and mentoring sessions, will be organised in collaboration with several start-up accelerators and incubators, including Angel Investment Foundation, Backer, Hello Reporter, Hong Kong Business Angel Network, HSBC, Inculab, Jumpstart, Qianhai International Liaison Services, StartHub and Techstars. Pitching sessions, Media Pitch Day and Investment Matchmaking will also be staged to help start-ups gain exposure and meet potential investors.





- Previewing the latest tech trends at the Spring Electronics Fair





As the largest spring electronics event in Asia, the Hong Kong Electronics Fair (Spring Edition) this year will feature some 2,950 exhibitors from 23 countries and regions, with new exhibitors from Canada, Denmark, Hungary, Malaysia, Mexico and Poland. Key electronics production centres such as the Chinese mainland, Korea and Taiwan will set up group pavilions. The Hall of Fame will showcase more than 570 internationally renowned brands, including Bourgini, Desay, Greatwall, HKC, Latitude, Roadrover, SKROSS, and Polaroid.





The Tech Hall returns with four thematic zones: Connected Home, which will showcase Internet of Things (IoT) applications for home automation; Robotics & Unmanned Tech, displaying the latest aerial cameras, electric scooters, industrial and household robots; Virtual Reality, which will feature a range of VR headsets, video cameras and related technology; as well as Wearable Electronics, showcasing a range of products such as smart watches and smart wristbands.

During the first three days of the fair (13-15 April), a series of seminars will be held under the "2018 Tech Trends Symposium," featuring industry experts who will examine issues such as the application of AI and robotics, smart home, wearable electronics, as well as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR). Other events include Tesla electric vehicle test drives, robot demonstrations, launch pads and buyer forums to showcase the latest industry developments and product trends.





Hong Kong's electronics industry is the city's largest merchandise export earner, comprising 66.2 per cent of total exports valued at HK$2,567.4 billion in 2017, up nine per cent year on year. Most of the exports are high tech products, such as telecommunication equipment, semi-conductors and computer-related products.





- International ICT Expo explores smart city development





Running concurrently with the Spring Electronics Fair, the ICT Expo gathers products and business solutions in information, communication and technologies, featuring about 600 exhibitors from eight countries and regions.





Under the theme "Smart City: The Way of the Future," this year's Expo will debut a Smart City zone to showcase related solutions and applications. The Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) will present the government's Hong Kong Smart City Blueprint at the zone, mapping out development plans for the next five years. Exhibitors include Alicloud, Cisco, Hong Kong Airport Authority, Microsoft, NEC, PwC, Smart City Consortium, ZTE as well as top local research institutes, such as the Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI), Hong Kong R&D Centre for LSCM Enabling Technologies (LSCM), and the Automotive Parts and Accessory Systems R&D Centre (APAS).





The HKTDC will organise the Smart City Seminar Series with industry experts exploring hot topics, such as Internet security, Fintech, smart home, electronic ID, developing smart business through IoT applications, and how disruptive technology is driving smart city development.





SME IT Clinic will return to the ICT Expo, providing complimentary professional consultation services on ICT systems and solutions to help SMEs enhance business efficiency. The award winners of the Hong Kong ICT Awards 2018, organised by the OGCIO, will showcase quality products and solutions at the fair.





Hong Kong's total exports of information technology (computer and parts) totalled HK$404.1 billion, up 11 per cent year on year.





- Spring Lighting Fair showcases smart lighting products with four new zones





The 10th edition of the Hong Kong International Lighting Fair (Spring Edition) will be held from 6-9 April, with more than 1,350 exhibitors from 13 countries and regions expected to take part this year, including new participants from Canada, India, Macau and Malaysia. Companies from Jiangmen, Henglan, Shunde, Gaoyou and the Zhongshan Semiconductor Lighting Industry Association in the Chinese mainland will set up group pavilions. Four new thematic zones will launch this year, namely Horticultural Lighting, Residential Lighting, Technical Lighting and Urban & Architectural Lighting.





With the advent of IoT, governments have been keen to promote smart city development, including smart lighting. The Smart Lighting & Solution zone, launched last year, returns to highlight the latest trends and showcase smart lighting systems, remote control, accessories and fixtures. The Hall of Aurora will feature top-notch brands to showcase their high-quality lighting fixtures and solutions. Leading brands taking part in the zone include Tuya Smart, TCL and MLS Co. Together with other thematic zones, the fair gathers a wide range of lighting products, technology and solutions to cater for the various sourcing needs of global buyers.





The Asian Lighting Forum 2018, to be held on the first day of the fair (6 April), will gather experts and professional organisations, including Bluetooth Special Interest Group, Microsoft, CREE, Phillips, OSRAM, and Highways Department, to discuss the daily-life applications of smart lighting, connected lighting and IoT, as well as the latest technologies and industry outlook. Another conference on Artificial Intelligence and Smart Lighting (7 April) will gather experts from companies, such as Alibaba AI Labs, iFLYTEK, JD Smart, Tuya, Yeelight and ZTE, to share insights. A series of seminars, launch pads and buyer forums will also be organised to facilitate industry exchange.





Hong Kong's total exports of lighting products exceeded HK$9.7 billion in 2017, up 2.6 per cent year on year. A number of markets recorded satisfactory performance, including the United States, the Chinese mainland, the Netherlands and Thailand.
Toyota's 2019 Corolla Hatchback model will feature Apple CarPlay and even come with Amazon Alexa built in. The move comes as a drastic departure from the automaker's principles, which has famously abstained from adapting third-party infotainment systems.

Apple CarPlay And Amazon Alexa

Toyota typically likes to use its own in-house infotainment systems for its cars, but it seems the company has softened around such policies. Thus, CarPlay and Alexa will now be standard features in the brand-new Corolla. It's worth mentioning, however, that Google's Android Auto platform isn't included, and Toyota has yet to confirm whether it plans to include support for it in the future.

The new Corolla is powered by the company's Entune 3.0 infotainment system, which includes an 8-inch touchscreen, support for eyes-free Siri, AUX, USB 2.0, and the ability to answer hands-free phone calls. Of course, music playback via Bluetooth is also possible. Surprisingly, the car also gets a specialized Qi-based wireless charging tray for compatible iPhones.

The new model is also the first to use the company's latest Toyota Safety Sense, a safety technology software that is able to detect pedestrians, brake in case of emergencies, cruise-control via radar, trace lanes, and assist with steering.

2019 Toyota Corolla Hatchback Price

Toyota has yet to provide information on pricing for the new Corolla Hatchback, but the vehicle is poised to go on sale in North America this summer. Just for perspective, the 2018 Corolla iM starts at $18,850, and there's reason to believe that the new model will be priced higher than that, especially since automakers have the habit of gradually increasing vehicle price points over time. However, it likely won't cost beyond $20,000.

As for the design, here's how Toyota likes to describe its new car:

"Corolla Hatchback has flair extraordinaire. With a theme of Shooting Robust, along with a design goal of Agile, influencing their every pen stroke, designers created a form that is simultaneously distinct, dynamic, muscular, and sophisticated. Shooting references the design's sport coupe traits implemented in all facets."

Below are the full multimedia features for the 2019 Corolla Hatchback:

 Standard Entune 3.0 Audio with 8-inch touchscreen

 Six speakers

 Apple CarPlay

 Amazon Alexa integration

 Entune 3.0 App Suite Connect

 Safety Connect

 Wi-Fi Connect

 Scout GPS Link Compatible

 Siri Eyes Free

 Auxiliary audio jack and USB 2.0 port with iPod connectivity and control

 AM/FM; MP3/WMA playback capability

 Voice Recognition training and tutorials

 Hands-free phone capability

 Voice recognition and music streaming via Bluetooth

 Customizable Home Screen

 Weather/Traffic info via Entune 3.0 App Suite

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The American Dental Association makes its stance on America's opioid crisis clear: it supports the statutory seven-day limit for opioid prescriptions.

Its renewed position on opioids comes as a drastic departure from a time when dental prescriptions were on the rise as opioid prescriptions were declining across the board, according to a new study. It's also one of the first major health associations to advocate support for the initiative, with the American Medical Association still in resistance.

"As president of the ADA, I call upon dentists everywhere to double down on their efforts to prevent opioids from harming our patients and their families," said Joseph P. Crowley, American Dental Association president. "This new policy demonstrates ADA's firm commitment to help fight the country's opioid epidemic while continuing to help patients manage dental pain."

The new study also brings to light increased dental opioid prescriptions between 2010 to 2015, which was particularly sharpest among the 11 to 18 demographic, an age group believed to be the most vulnerable for opioid addiction. Meanwhile, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that from 2012 to 2016, opioid prescriptions were on a decline.

Dentists Against Opioid Addiction

The American Dental Association is committed to do the following to help overcome the country's widespread and pernicious opioid epidemic:

 Require dentists to expand their education on opioid prescriptions and other controlled substances.

 As mentioned, limit prescriptions to a seven-day period for acute pain.

 Encourage dentists to register with Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs.

One doctor, Craig Janssen, of the Janssen Dental Clinic, says staff checks the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program for each patient that comes to the clinic. The staff has access to a database to see whether a patient is obtaining opioids from multiple providers.

While Janssen supports the initiative, he think it won't singlehandedly solve America's deadly opioid crisis.

"It's a societal problem that will require more," he said.

America's Opioid Crisis

The CDC recently provided a harrowing report of the country's worsening opioid situation, which saw a 30 percent jump in overdose cases in just a year. In its analysis, only a few states reported declining cases of opioid overdoses.

"The fast-moving opioid overdose epidemic continues and is accelerating," said Anne Schuchat, acting director of CDC.

We might not be getting the whole picture, though, since many of those who overdose on opioids never make it to the emergency room and are thus not added to the overall tally.

"It might be even worse," said Shuchat.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The fatal accident involving an Uber's self-driving vehicle and a pedestrian in Tempe, AZ over a week ago has called for the suspension of its public testing.

Uber's testing operations on public roads are temporarily on hold until further notice after Doug Ducey, governor of Arizona, instructed the department of transportation to ban all testing for the meantime.

According to reports, Ducey wrote a letter to Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber CEO, to talk about the video of the accident, which caused the death of one person.

Public Safety Concerns

Reports stated that the governor finds the footage of the fatal collision "disturbing and alarming," ultimately leading to the suspension of all autonomous driving tests in the state.

"Improving public safety has always been the emphasis of Arizona's approach to autonomous vehicle testing, and my expectation is that public safety is also the top priority for all who operate this technology in the state of Arizona," wrote Ducey in the letter.

"The incident that took place on March 18 is an unquestionable failure to comply with this expectation."

People Weigh In On The Incident

A quick glimpse of the footage visibly shows the Rafaela Vasquez, who was the one behind the wheel of the Uber self-driving vehicle, was continuously distracted by another activity.

Meanwhile, the 49-year-old victim Elaine Herzberg was reportedly walking with her bike loaded with bags as she crossed the dark road, as seen on the video furnished by Tempe authorities during the investigation.

The ride-hailing company's testing methods are now questioned as the accident marks the first ever recorded fatality caused by a car autonomously driven by the new technology.

Furthermore, the company confirmed that it has likewise suspended all testing of the aforementioned technology in cities like San Francisco, Toronto, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, and of course, Tempe.

"We proactively suspended self-driving operations in all cities immediately following the tragic incident last week," said the firm. "We continue to help investigators in any way we can, we'll keep a dialogue open with the Governor's office going forward."

Taking An Unwanted Step Back

Prior to the Uber self-driving vehicle incident, the governor of Arizona was known for his welcome stance on the technology behind autonomous cars. Companies such as Uber were supposedly invited to try out their prototypes with minimal regulations and even went as far as allowing tests without a safety operator onboard the vehicle.

Further investigations revealed that Uber's documents show problems with the programming used by the computer-controlled vehicles. Data taken from the papers confirm that human intervention is required most of the time.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Scientists have studied the cleanliness of rubber duckies and have found that they're not clean at all. They found that the rubber ducks were home for tons of bacteria that can be harmful to children's health.

It's the water that lingers inside of this toy that creates a haven for bacteria.

Microbes In The Toys

Swiss and Americans researchers from Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, ETH, and the University of Illinois published a study in the journal Biofilms and Microbiomes regarding the risk that bath toys can pose on the user's health.

Researchers found that the water that stayed inside of a bath toy, such as a rubber duck, contained potentially pathogenic bacteria. They found four out of five toys contained the bacteria when squeezed.

Bacteria found inside of the toys includes Legionella and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Inside of the rubber ducks, scientists found a high volume of bacteria and fungi, up to 75 million cells per square centimeter.

There are differences in the bacteria that could be found due to the variation of tap water in separate locations. Nutrients in tap water don't contribute to excessive microbial growth. The main source of the microorganisms in the bath toys is bath water.

In the bath water, the water comes into contact with the human microbiome and with environmental contamination. Bath water has nutrients for microbial growth, they can come from the soap and shampoo being used and from the human body.

Effects On Users

The study says that even though exposure to bacteria and fungi isn't bad for health, it can also help strengthen the immune system. The problem is that the majority of bath toys are being used by children, and children tend to be more sensitive and vulnerable to disease.

When children play with these toys and squeeze the water onto their face, this could lead to eye, ear, wound, or gastrointestinal tract infections.

Scientists recommend that the toys be thoroughly cleaned in order to avoid exposure to these infections. Recommendations include boiling the toys and removing water from the toys after using them in the bath. Scientists also recommended just closing the hole to make children safe from the water getting inside and avoid it altogether.

They have also recommended that there should be increased regulation on polymeric materials that are used to make bath toys. There are some bath toys being sold that are advertised as watertight.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
On Feb. 24, there was something in the sky that pilots and air traffic control could not identify. High above the Arizona and New Mexico border, they saw a UFO.

A bizarre incident happened to pilots of a Phoenix Air Learjet 36, an American Airlines Flight 1095, an Airbus A321, and the Albuquerque Air Traffic Control last month.

They reported an unidentified flying object cruising at an altitude of 40,000 feet above the area between Sonoran Desert National Monument in Arizona and border of New Mexico.

The sighting was reported in conversation of the pilots with the Air Route Traffic Control in Albuquerque. The recording of the mile-high chatter was submitted for investigation to the Federal Aviation Authority.

Flying Object With Big Reflection

It was pilot codenamed N71PG of the Learjet that first reported the sighting to air traffic control at around 3:30 p.m.

"Was anybody above us that passed us like 30 seconds ago?" the Learjet pilot was heard asking in the audio recording. The air traffic control responded with a no, but the Learjet pilot assured that something did. It was then that another pilot on the frequency joined the chatter.

"UFO," the other pilot was heard saying.

"Yeah," confirmed the Learjet pilot.

The report from the Learjet pilot prompted FAA air controllers to alert the pilot of American Airlines Flight 1095 to be on the lookout for an aircraft.

"Affirmative. We had an aircraft in front of you at 37 [thousand feet] that reported something pass over him and we didn't have any radar targets, so just let me know if you see anything pass over you," air control told the American Airlines pilot.

The Learjet pilot said he doesn't know what the flying object was, but he is certain that it wasn't a plane. After a minute, the American Airlines pilot said something also passed over their plane at more than 3,000 feet above.

Another pilot chimed in the conversation and said he couldn't make out if the object was a giant balloon. He said it was beaming light or had a big reflection.

An unidentified pilot suggested that it could just be a Google balloon, but another pilot expressed doubt.

Based on the conversations, the UFO hovered above the eastern-bound airplanes in the opposite direction and was located a few thousand feet above the aircraft.

What Could It Really Be?

A spokesperson for the FAA did not confirm anything or gave a comment about the reported UFO sighting.

"Other than the brief conversation between two aircraft, the controller was unable to verify that any other aircraft was in the area," Lynn Lunsford of the FAA Public Affairs Office said.

Lunsford said the FAA is closely working with several agencies, including military and civilian aircraft and even high-altitude weather balloons.

Roswell And Other Stories

The location of the unusual incident encountered by the aircraft pilots further fuels speculation that the thing that flew above the aircraft is a UFO.

The said UFO sighting was located some 500 miles west of Roswell, New Mexico, where the original UFO theory originated in 1947.

More than 50 years ago, a rancher named William Branzel discovered unusual debris in his pasture outside Roswell. The U.S. military said the debris was from a crashed weather balloon, but many speculated that the scraps were from a crashed alien flying saucer. That incident made Roswell a favorite place for alien stories enthusiasts and UFOlogists.

All year round, the internet is abuzz with stories of UFO sightings.

In January, a video clip of an oddly-shaped UFO went viral as the first UFO sighting of 2018. The said UFO was reportedly seen hovering the sky in Mexico.

In early March, an image a UFO that crash landed in Antarctica was captured by Google Earth, according to UFO hunters.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
There is still hope in saving the Great Barrier Reef from an impending demise as conservationists invented a film-like shield to protect corals from the sun.

Previous marine studies indicate that the Great Barrier Reef, located off the coast of Queensland, Australia, has been categorized as being in a critical state. The world's largest coral reef system is already on the brink of destruction where thousands of underwater flora and fauna cohabitate.

However, researchers from the University of Melbourne and Australian Institute of Marine Science think they may have found a way to save the Great Barrier Reef. It's by deploying the so-called sun shield on the surface of ocean water.

The sun shield is a film-like material that is 50,000 times thinner than the human hair, which is designed to block harmful UV rays from penetrating into the reefs. The shield is made of biodegradable calcium carbonate, the same component present in corals.

The project was formally announced by the Great Barrier Reef Foundation through a press release published on March 27. Scientists said that the shield can block as much as 30 percent of the sunlight that penetrates the reef.

In Absence Of A Long-Term Solution

"The surface film provided protection and reduced the level of bleaching in most [coral] species," said Anna Marsden, managing director of the Great Barrier Reef Foundation.

Marsden clarified that the sun shield is not a permanent or long-term solution to cover the 348,000 square kilometers of the Great Barrier Reef. However, the team is using the instrument to salvage high-risk or critically-endangered areas of the reef system.

"The concept needs more work and testing before it gets to that stage, but it's an exciting development at a time when we need to explore all possible options to ensure we have a Great Barrier Reef for future generations," Marsden said.

A study published in the journal Science in January this year concludes that there is limited time to save what is left from the Great Barrier Reef. Marine experts said that bleaching is happening more frequently than ever, giving the corals less time to heal.

In response, the United States announced that it is allotting a $1.6 million funding for projects related to the conservation and protection of the coral reefs.

This is not the first time that sun shields were deployed in the ocean. In 2013, the Obama administration donated $9 million to fund a project called "Resilient Coral Reefs Successfully Adapting to Climate Change" for four years. The program included sun shields in their list of activities.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Production house Partizan has brought director Olivier Gondry back onto its directing roster.

Olivier Gondry made his breakthrough with commercials for HP, featuring his brother Michel and Vera Wang. Since then, the Paris-based director has gone on to collaborate with brands including Audi, YouTube, Fiat, Microsoft, Starbucks, Nissan, Canon, Gillette, True Religion, Etsy and Trip Advisor.

He has also created promos for artists Daft Punk, OK Go, and The Vines.

Originally known as a visual effects artist, Gondry first turned to directing at Partizan.

Partizan has been part of my life since forever, remarks Olivier. First as a brother watching Michel climbing the steps. I can still remember him telling me, I met this producer [Georges Bermann] I was proud and curious already! It was here that I first transitioned from special effects to directing. Im so happy to return to Partizan, to be back home and back with my brother.

Olivier Gondry is also currently in development on a long-form narrative project.

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Asked about President Trump's reaction to the Alton Sterling shooting case, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Wednesday it's a "local matter" that should be left to local authorities, according to a CNN report.

The question about the Baton Rouge case came up at the press secretary's daily briefing.

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry announced Tuesday the decision not to charge two officers involved in the fatal shooting of Sterling during a confrontation in the summer of 2016.

Asked about the President's reaction after Louisiana's decision not to charge the officers who fatally shot Alton Sterling, WH press secretary Sarah Sanders said it's a "local matter ... that we feel should be left up to the local authorities" at this time https://t.co/fDoffedWjb pic.twitter.com/neVDk8JjCq  CNN (@CNN) March 28, 2018

"Certainly we want to make sure that all law enforcement is carrying out the letter of the law," Sanders said, adding that "the president is very supportive of law enforcement."

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Sanders also said the administration wants "to find ways to bring the country together, certainly not looking for any place of division. I think you've seen that in the policies that he's put forward."

Alton Sterling shooting: What lies ahead, plus Tuesday's biggest developments in case Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry ruled out criminal charges Tuesday against two white Baton Rouge police officers in the shooting of a b

In July 2016, then the presumptive GOP nominee for president, Trump indicated that he had watched the widely-circulated video of Sterling's deadly encounter with police.

"I mean, the one man who was being stepped on and then shot in particular, I looked at that and I said wow, that's bad. That's bad," Trump told host Bill O'Reilly on The O'Reilly Factor when asked about the deadly shooting in Louisiana.

See the full CNN story here.
GB Sciences, which operates a cultivation center in Nevada, is licensed to produce medical marijuana in Louisiana by the LSU AgCenter. GB has started a growing operation in Baton Rouge and already is planning phase two, based on an expansion of treatable conditions recently approved by the Legislature and governor.
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A proposal that would send embattled Baton Rouge state Judge Trudy White from the criminal bench to the civil bench was discussed in private Wednesday by the judges of the 19th Judicial District Court, but no decision was reached.

When a decision is reached, the court will issue a statement as to that decision, according to a written statement released by Ann McCrory, the courts judicial administrator.

The sole item on the agenda for Wednesday's special full judges meeting of the 19th JDC was discussion of a "proposed swapping of dockets" between White and Judge Don Johnson, a former criminal court judge who now sits on the court's civil bench.

+3 Trudy White, embattled EBR criminal court judge, expresses interest in move to civil bench Embattled 19th Judicial District Court Judge Trudy White, of Baton Rouge, could be moving from the criminal bench  where some of her actions 

Judge Chip Moore, a colleague of White and Johnson who sits on the criminal bench, said in an interview last week that if there is an opening on the civil bench, he would like to fill it. Moore has more seniority than White.

Johnson declined comment as he left the closed-door meeting on the 11th floor of the 19th Judicial District Courthouse. After the courts statement was released about 40 minutes later, both Moore and Chief Judge William Morvant declined to elaborate on its contents. White could not be reached for comment.

Since taking the 19th JDC bench in 2009, White has often found herself on the hot seat.

During her successful 2014 re-election campaign, she appeared in a video with a man promoting her candidacy while wearing orange prison clothes inside a courtroom.

Judge Trudy White apologizes to colleagues for 2014 campaign video State District Judge Trudy White, who returned to the bench in February following an unexplained three-month hiatus, has apologized to her col

The man, comedian Jomo Jenkins, stated in the video, "I'm down here at the 19th, but check this out. I ain't gonna be here that long because Judge Trudy White is fixing to send me back home. So if you want somebody to show you some love, vote for Trudy White on November the Fourth."

White apologized to her colleagues and the public last March for appearing in the video. Her apology came a month after she returned to the bench following an unexplained three-month hiatus. The Louisiana Supreme Court appointed a retired judge to handle Whites docket in her absence.

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White also ruffled more than a few feathers in 2015 when she reduced a unanimous second-degree murder verdict to negligent homicide, which carries up to only five years in prison. A state appellate court reversed the judge and ordered her to sentence the convicted killer to a mandatory term of life in prison for second-degree murder.

The 1st Circuit Court of Appeal in Baton Rouge labeled White's overturning of the jury's unanimous verdict "clear legal error" and an "injustice." The victim's family called her actions a "slap in the face."

Earlier this month, after convicted felon Albert Franklin Jr. allegedly killed Christopher Lawton, a Zachary firefighter and reserve police officer, in the parking lot of the Baker Walmart, it was revealed that Franklin had a previous bail on drug and gun charges reduced by White in November from $88,000 to $9,000.

The bail reduction infuriated Zachary Police Chief David McDavid, as did the killing of Lawton.

The system failed Chris Lawton, McDavid said the day after Lawton was killed. This guy shouldnt have been on the street.

Franklin is being held without bail on a first-degree murder count.

A reporter with The Advocate was not allowed into Wednesdays judges meeting. McCrory previously forwarded the reporter a copy of a 1996 state Attorney General's Office opinion that concluded the meetings of district judges are not public meetings under Louisiana law. The opinion cited a 1981 state Supreme Court ruling that said Louisiana's open meetings law "is not intended to apply to the judiciary."

"This reasoning applies even when judges are acting in the performance of their rule making or administrative functions," the high court's ruling stated.

The attorney general's opinion also concluded that the minutes and notes from judicial meetings likewise "are not subject to public inspection. ..."
WASHINGTON  The sudden and mysterious death of whole tracts of a marsh grass along the Louisiana coast have raised alarm among scientists and prompted fears of speeding erosion of the state's already shrinking coast.

Now federal scientists, armed with $500,000 in new research money set aside by Congress last week, will join state researchers in trying to understand what's decimating the Roseau cane and fight off the prime suspect, a small invasive insect known as the Phragmites scale or Roseau cane mealy bug that is believed to have arrived in Louisiana from Asia sometime in the last several years.

The federal research funding, slipped into the $1.3 trillion federal budget package by Louisiana's congressional delegation, will roughly double the amount of cash set aside to address the devastation of the Roseau cane.

The new funding for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to battle back against the scale infestation comes amid growing concern about the impact the bug could have on the state's troubled coast  and whether it could spread to commercially grown grasses like sugarcane, sorghum and rice that play a major role in Louisiana's agricultural economy.

Tiny insect thought to be killing coastal cane might only be part of problem, scientists say When scientists began noticing Roseau cane dying near the mouth of the Mississippi River last year, it took months to find the likely culprit.

"This federal (funding) really adds some stability," said Hampton Grunewald, director of governmental affairs for the LSU AgCenter, which has led research on the Roseau cane die-off. "It allows us to really expedite the research that were currently doing."

It wasn't exactly clear Wednesday how APHIS plans to deploy the newly allocated funding, which Congress signed off on last Thursday. A spokesperson for the agency didn't respond to questions about its plans.

Some debate remains over whether the scale is solely  or even primarily  responsible for the rapid death of huge tracts of Roseau cane. But scientists say the scale appears to play at least a role in killing the cane.

"Everywhere there is die-off, scale has been detected, but there are areas where there is scale where the cane has not died," said Grunewald. "Is that because its early stage or is it not the full factor thats causing the die-off? We dont know, but we know the scale is having an impact."

+5 Latest scourge for Louisiana's struggling coast: a swarm of ravenous, mystery bugs A tiny bug with an enormous appetite has invaded the Louisiana marsh, and it is sucking the life out of vegetation that helps keep the state's

"Certainly this scale bug is the most likely suspect," said Andy Nyman, a wetlands wildlife professor at LSU, in a phone interview Wednesday afternoon as he drove back from marshlands in Cameron Parish.

There's no evidence yet that the scale  or whatever else may be ailing the Roseau cane  has spread to other plants. But scientists and state officials are worried that the die-off might start hitting key agricultural commodities and not just Roseau cane.

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Louisiana Agricultural Commissioner Mike Strain declared an emergency quarantine over much of south Louisiana on Tuesday in an attempt to control the spread of the scale.

The quarantine, which Strain said was necessary in part to prevent the scale from potentially eating away at crops, imposes strict limits on movement of marsh grasses in part or all of 36 parishes affected by the order.

The AgCenter and state agencies  including the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority  have together put up more than $500,000 to fund further studies and responses to the Roseau cane die-off. The AgCenter is also trying to pull together another $150,000 from parish governments along the coast, Grunewald said.

Efforts to control the scale's spread have faced limitations. Burning the marshes to kill off the bugs, one way the bug is controlled in China, could cause its own problems because of the thick web of oil wells and pipelines across the coast.

Some researchers have considered introducing a specific Asian species of wasp that feeds on the scale, but bringing in another invasive species carries its own potential complications. Spraying insecticides, meanwhile, risks further damage to an already fragile ecosystem.

Nyman, the LSU professor, said it's possible that other species of marsh grass more resistant to what's killing Roseau cane could be planted along the coast to take its place.

The rapid death of Roseau cane along the coast raises a number of pressing concerns. The deep-rooted grasses, which grow in freshwater and brackish marshes, play a key roll in holding down soil and preventing or slowing erosion.

The state's coast is already shrinking and the death of Roseau cane could speed the rate at which the state's shoreline disappears into the Gulf of Mexico.

Nowhere is Roseau cane more prevalent or important to prevent erosion than along freshwater navigation channels, said Nyman. Along the Mississippi River's bird's foot delta  the slender shoot of land where the river juts out into the Gulf  Roseau cane makes up a large portion of the vegetation.

If the cane were to die off there, Nyman said, the navigation channel might silt in rapidly or erode, potentially causing massive economic damage to the shipping traffic that heads up and down the river.

"Its not just a Louisiana issue," Grunewald said. "This could impact the entire Mississippi River watershed if (ships) cant get out of the mouth of the river."
Lucie Titus' 92-year-old mother mysteriously suffered a black eye and a serious back injury while under the care and supervision of a Slidell nursing home last year.

Titus' mother, Ann Graff, who had Alzheimer's disease, couldn't explain how it happened. Neither could anyone who worked at the nursing home. And the unanswered questions left doctors guessing for several weeks about the best way to treat Graff's serious pain, Titus said.

Concerned for her mother's well-being, Titus tried to install a small video camera in the room, so she could keep a watch on her mother to ensure her well-being. But administrators from the nursing home banned the camera.

State Rep. Helena Moreno, D-New Orleans, said Wednesday she wants to ensure nursing homes are required to allow residents and their families to place surveillance cameras in their rooms if they choose.

"What's wrong with having an extra set of eyes to check on our loved ones?" Moreno said. "This is our mothers and fathers, and one day this will likely be us. I would want a camera to make sure I'm OK."

Slidell nursing home patient's lawsuit seeks to have video camera in room after unexplained injury After Ann Graff, a 92-year-old nursing home patient with severe dementia, ended up with a black eye and couldn't explain how she got it, her d

The bill advanced out of the House Health and Welfare Committee, 9-1, and heads to the full House, over the objections of the nursing home industry leaders, who raised concerns about privacy and internet hackers who could try to access webcams.

"I strongly contend that if there was video I would have been able to get my mother treatment immediately, instead of guessing for three weeks and watching her suffer in pain," Titus said in her testimony to the committee.

Titus sued in federal court on behalf of her mother for the right to have a camera. But Graff passed away recently, which effectively ended the lawsuit.

Dozens of nursing home owners submitted red cards to the legislative committee, a signal of opposition. But keeping his comments brief, Mark Berger, Louisiana Nursing Home Association executive director, only asked that Moreno be amenable to working together to improve security provisions tied to the bill.

Moreno pointed out that while her bill had a long list of opponents, every single one was the owner of a nursing home.

"Who are we trying to protect here in the state of Louisiana?" she asked. "None of the opposition here was a resident or a family member of a resident."

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Moreno noted that to address privacy and liability issues, her bill requires that the nursing home resident who has a camera in their room to sign a waiver. If the patient shares a room, then the roommate would also have to sign a waiver for the camera to be allowed.

The camera would also have to be set up and purchased by the resident's family or guardian.

She said the bill also protected the nursing homes.

"If it was truly an accident, then you can see there is no wrongdoing," she said.

Moreno is set to leave the Legislature before the session ends because she will be sworn into her new office in the New Orleans City Council. She amended the bill to name Rep. Kirk Talbot, R-River Ridge, as the main sponsor, in her absence.

Two other nursing home bills scheduled for Wednesday were deferred, and are not expected to come back up this session.

Rep. Tony Bacala, R-Prairieville, deferred a bill that was expected to create more access to nursing home alternatives in the form of home-health programs. He said he decided to abandon his bill after watching a Senate committee reject the same thing earlier this week.

"I'm deferring this bill because it's dead," he said. "I hate to say it but it's dead."

But Bacala urged his colleagues to address the issue of improving home and community based care in the future.

"I hope the conversation continues and we do not turn a blind eye," Bacala said. "We have to do better."

Another bill to change the rate formula that determines the way nursing homes are reimbursed by the state was also deferred.
State lawmakers have again rejected an effort to set a minimum wage in Louisiana, for the first time, that is higher than the federal rate.

Then the state Senate rejected legislation meant to address pay disparities between men and women.

The proposal to ultimately increase minimum hourly pay to $8.50 was shot down in a 17-21 vote Tuesday after a brief discussion of Senate Bill 162. Minimum-wage workers in Louisiana make the federal $7.25 an hour rate.

"What I'm asking for today is a very modest increase  $1.25 over two years," said Sen. Troy Carter, a New Orleans Democrat who has unsuccessfully sponsored minimum-wage legislation for the past three years. "We are all Louisianians, and there is not a single one of us in this chamber  not one  that doesn't have people in our district that would benefit from an increase in the minimum wage."

SB162 would have automatically increased the minimum wage to $8 an hour in 2019 and $8.50 an hour in 2020. A separate bill from Carter that has not made it to the Senate floor, Senate Bill 252, would allow voters to decide whether the minimum wage should be increased to those levels.

"Minimum wage is an issue we've all talked about for a long time in this chamber," Carter said.

Influential business interest groups, including the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry and the National Federation of Independent Businesses, have opposed attempts to increase the minimum wage in Louisiana, arguing that it takes decision-making abilities from business owners.

The minimum wage went up in 18 other states at the start of 2018, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The previous year, 19 states saw minimum wage hikes.

Louisiana is one of five remaining states that automatically default to the federal level because they have never adopted their own state minimum wage laws.

Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, campaigned on advocating a minimum wage increase and has put the issue on his legislative agenda for this session and two previous.

Unfortunately, the full Senate missed an opportunity to stand up for working Louisianans who overwhelmingly support a modest, but meaningful increase the minimum wage Edwards said in a statement Tuesday. Not advancing this legislation is a step backwards for our families and our children who live in poverty but want to work."

Edwards has said he believes Congress has not increased the minimum wage in nearly a decade because the federal government is relying on states to tailor the rate to their own circumstances.

"Thousands of Louisianians are struggling to live off of $7.25 an hour, and unfortunately, while the cost of living has increased over the years, their wages have not," Edwards said.

The state Senate on Tuesday also rejected legislation meant to address pay disparities between men and women  another priority and campaign issue for Edwards.

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The Senate voted 18-20 against Senate Bill 117, which would require any company that contracts with the state to comply with the Equal Pay Law that currently applies to state workers.

The chamber then quickly voted down a separate bill also aimed at equitable pay that would have protected employees from being fired just because they discuss pay. That vote was 15-23.

"We passed (the existing) bill because we said public dollars should be held to a higher standard," said Sen. J.P. Morrell, a New Orleans Democrat who sponsored the bill to extend the state employment requirements to contractors.

He argued that companies worried about having to comply with the requirement are not obligated to contract with the state.

"If you do choose to do work with the state of Louisiana, this is another requirement you will have to meet," he said.

His bill would have set up an administrative grievance process for complaints.

But lawmakers said they worried implementation of such a law could create onerous regulations on businesses.

Minimum wage, equal pay bills advancing to Senate floor at Gov. John Bel Edwards' urging State lawmakers are again trying to set a minimum wage in Louisiana, for the first time ever, that is higher than the federal rate, but the pr

Sen. Danny Martiny, R-Metairie, said he worried it would be up to interpretation whether people are performing similar work or have similar qualifications and said it could tie employers hands in business decisions. He described a hypothetical situation of an employee being approached by a competitor with a higher paying job offer. To keep that employee, the employer would have to ensure that others received pay hikes, even if they were not also being poached.

"Anybody who doesn't want to adhere to this can figure out a way to get around it," he said.

Morrell said he saw the so-called "pay secrecy" bill that later failed as a small gesture toward equal-pay efforts. It offered no assurance for employees to get pay increases to address disparities, but Morrell argued that if employees could discuss pay with their coworkers then they could discover how they compare and whether they should look for jobs elsewhere.

"I'm trying to reach you where you are at. I don't even think I can begin to express my disappointment that we aren't even here yet," Morrell said.
President Donald Trump recently lauded the American worker as the best in the world.
Wendy Vitter, who has been the general counsel for the Archdiocese of New Orleans since 2012, attends the Red Mass at St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans, La. Monday, Oct. 2, 2017.
Gov. John Bel Edwards, right, speaks about community health centers losing their funding since Congress has not re-authorized the federal funding that goes toward these health centers that mostly treat low-income, Medicaid patients across the state during a press conference at Southeast Community Health Systems Tuesday Feb. 6, 2018, in Zachary, La.
As Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome watches, left, Baton Rouge Police Chief Murphy Paul, right. announces that his office will now conclude its internal affairs investigation into the two officers involved in the fatal shooting of Alton Sterling Tuesday March 27, 2018, in Baton Rouge, La.
WASHINGTON (AP)  An attorney for an adult film star claiming a sexual encounter with President Donald Trump filed a motion Wednesday seeking to depose the president and his attorney.

In documents filed in U.S. District Court in California, Michael Avenatti seeks to depose Trump and Trump attorney Michael Cohen about a $130,000 payment made to Stormy Daniels days before the 2016 presidential election.

Avenatti wants to question each for "no more than two hours." In the filing, he says the depositions are needed to establish if Trump knew about the payment and if he consented to it.

"We're looking for sworn answers from the president and Mr. Cohen about what they knew, when they knew it and what they did about it," Avenatti told The Associated Press.

While he noted that "in every case you always have to be open to settlement," Avenatti said that "at this point we don't see how this case would possibly be settled."

Cohen has said he paid the $130,000 out of his own pocket, while asserting Trump never had sex with the porn actress.

In a statement to CBS, Cohen's attorney David Schwartz called the filing a "reckless use of the legal system in order to continue to inflate Michael Avenatti's deflated ego and keep himself relevant."

A hearing before Judge S. James Otero in the federal court's Central District in Los Angeles is set for April 30.

'He knows I'm telling the truth:' Louisiana porn star Stormy Daniels describes threat over alleged Trump encounter WASHINGTON (AP)  Adult film star Stormy Daniels says she was threatened to keep silent about an alleged sexual encounter with Donald Trump in

As precedent, the motion references the fact that former President Bill Clinton was deposed while in office in 1998 during the Paula Jones sexual harassment suit. That came after the Supreme Court ruled that a sitting president was not immune from civil litigation on something that happened before taking office and was unrelated to the office.

Jones' case was dismissed by a judge, then appealed. The appeal was still pending when Clinton agreed to pay $850,000 to Jones to settle the case. He did not admit wrongdoing.
For a team of 22 volunteers, spring break is a time to pack duffle bags and head to the jungles of Central America. The team is part of the Dos Amigos Dental Medical Mission that was founded 30 years ago in Slidell to provide dental and medical services to people in the Toledo District of Belize.

It started when dentist Joe Lindsay heard two missionaries to Belize speak at his Slidell church.

I asked if they needed a dentist, he said. When they told him there were no dentists in the remote area, Lindsay volunteered.

My wife called my daughter to see if she could talk me out of it, but she wanted to go, too, he recalled.

He conducted the first Dos Amigos Dental Medical Mission in 1989, and many of his children and grandchildren have accompanied him over the past three decades.

Slidell orthodontist Mike Guevara also helped found the mission, and Guevaras children have all gone, as well as his father, brother and nephew who are medical doctors, Lindsay said.

The first mission team consisted of nine people. They slept on cots under a thatched roof and bathed in a nearby stream. Since then, more than 400 volunteers have participated, with many going multiple years.

Lindsay said the mission has shaped some of their careers, as many of the volunteers have become nurses, doctors, dentists and physicians assistants.

Dos Amigos built a clinic in 2009, and the teams now sleep in bunks on the second floor. There is a freezer, electricity and a deep well to provide clean water. The mission is based at the clinic, but teams still travel to six or eight remote villages each year, going as far as the Guatemalan border.

This years team will include three dentists, two medical doctors, three nurses, students from local high schools and others. Whether in the clinic or in the villages, they help set up an area for intake, dental cleaning, dental procedures, a medical area, a pharmacy to provide antibiotics and over-the-counter medications and areas to distribute reading glasses, sunglasses, flips flops and other items donated for the mission.

Each volunteer pays his way.

Many churches, community groups and people also contribute to the success of the mission. It was recently able to buy portable generators that can be taken into the villages to run drills, fans and other equipment to do good dental work and clean teeth, he said.

Lauryn Jones, 18, a senior at Slidell High School, soon will make her second trip with Dos Amigos. She said the experience has caused her to rethink what she wants to do with her life.

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It was my first time anywhere, she said.

The people were friendly, she added, and most spoke Quiche, the local Mayan language. The younger people spoke English as well. They live in huts and sleep in hammocks, and the women still make their traditional clothes and materials.

During the mission, Jones helped with the dental cleanings and taught children how to use toothbrushes.

I helped Dr. Joe write down what dental work they needed, she said.

After her return, Jones changed her senior internship to a local dental clinic. She plans to attend medical school and hopes to continue on to dental school to follow in the footsteps of the dentists she met on the mission.

Dos Amigos is like a new family you get to be a part of, she said. Going there completely changed my life, 100 percent.

Lindsay, now 77 and retired, said he will continue going on the mission as long as he is able.

I enjoy seeing my friends down there and seeing how the team comes together, Lindsay said.

In Central America, there are fewer distractions, including little cellphone service. That provides time for people to actually talk to each other, he said.

Dos Amigos means two friends, signifying the friendship the mission has built with the people of Belize.

I have learned we are here on Earth to serve God by helping others with the gifts God has given to each of us," Lindsay said. "Thats what matter most.

For information, visit dosamigos.org.
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Sexually transmitted disease (STD) prevention is HIV prevention, but the inverse doesn't necessarily hold true, and we must clear up any lingering confusion about that.

Condoms still work. Serosorting is applicable. Injectables and microbicides are being researched and developed. Treatment as prevention is phenomenal (say it with me, "U=U"). And, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is an amazing tool for preventing HIV transmission. We have many tools; however, one strategy in the arena of STD/HIV prevention needs to be bolstered a bit: three-site STD testing.

Three-site STD testing, also known as extragenital testing, entails appropriate screening of the throat, penis, and rectum. Simply put, wherever you sex it is where you should test it. This applies to oral and anal sex. You know better than anyone else what kind of sex you're having, and some doctors may not ask specific questions about it. This could be a helpful guide:

Related: How to Make Your Next Sexual Health Check Less, Erm ... Awkward

If your penis has been in someone's butt, throat, or vagina, then you should pee in a cup.

If someone's penis has been in your vagina, you should pee in a cup.

If another person's penis has been in your mouth, then you should get your throat swabbed.

If someone's penis has been in your butt, then you should get your butt swabbed.

Three-site STD testing should be a routine part of your sexual health care. Considering that most STDs do not have obvious symptoms, a test every three to six months is recommended (every three months if on PrEP). Providers should perform a thorough sexual history, including discussion of the 5Ps: partners, prevention of pregnancy, protection, practices, and past history of STDs. Of course, this needs to be done in an affirming, sex-positive, non-judgmental manner. It's understandable and well known that many people may feel uncomfortable talking with their doctors about their sex lives.

Three-site STD testing is especially important for gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM) -- regardless of HIV status or whether on PrEP. Three-site testing is not limited to MSM, though. Women and transgender and gender non-conforming folks, and frankly, anyone having oral and/or penetrative sex (anal and/or vaginal) should consider getting screened.

Our sexual health conversations would benefit from going beyond the disease narrative. Sexual health includes both HIV and STDs, along with consent, pleasure, kink, and many more facets.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported the third consecutive year of record-high rates for all STDs, including gonorrhea, chlamydia, and syphilis. We need an urgency rooted in sex-positivity and not slut-shaming stigma. So, without the judgement, you should ask yourself the following:

When was your most recent STD test? Did you pee in a cup? Was there a throat and/or rectal swab? Did you also have blood drawn for HIV and/or syphilis testing?

Yes, that's right. Collecting urine is insufficient alone. If you used your mouth or anus during sex, an oral and/or anal swab is called for. Depending solely on urine results, active infections go undetected in the butt and throat. In fact, for gay and bisexual men, more 70 percent of gonorrhea and more than 85 percent of chlaymdia go undetected if three-site testing isn't used. Many clinics will allow you perform your own throat and butt swab with a kit you take into the bathroom, if you're uncomfortable with your provider doing it. And urine tests and throat/butt swabs don't count for syphilis testing -- you need to have your blood drawn. With rates of syphilis rising nationally, especially for gay and bisexual men, you should be getting regular syphilis screenings, as well.

Three-site STD testing isn't going the "extra mile"; this is the basic standard of care, and it's what you should expect from your provider. This is what health equity looks like.

Routine STD testing can be a wise strategy in addressing rising STD rates and could possibly stem emerging concerns, such as antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea or meningitis.

And make no mistake: STD prevention is HIV prevention. STDs are far too often parceled off from HIV conversations. Addressing HIV prevention within a holistic sexual health framework has the potential to reduce these record-high STD rates. Providers miss a vital opportunity when they don't broach the topic of PrEP upon informing people of a positive STD result. Absent undetectable HIV status and condoms, what caused a person to contract rectal gonorrhea could lead to contracting HIV. By taking these steps, we can mobilize more people to become engaged in PrEP.

If we return to the premise that STD prevention is HIV prevention, a positive chlamydia, gonorrhea, or syphilis test could be the most ideal launchpad into PrEP recruitment. According to research, one in 15 MSM diagnosed with rectal gonorrhea or chlamydia and one in 20 with infectious syphilis acquired HIV within one year of their STD diagnosis.

A renewed push for three-site STD testing should be in full effect. Community can demand that this service happens at its local STD clinics, and you can even ask your own doctor during your next visit. With concentrated efforts, we could turn the tide in rising STD rates and be deliberate in ensuring that the sexual health needs of everyone, especially our most disproportionately affected communities, are being met.
Jose Alejandro Rodriguez Jazz No doubt about it Big leagues They are the best baseball playing scene in the world, but the real action movies are starring on the field. And the thing is, all the time, especially when there
ChipsAway employee Callum Green wins silver at national finals

Many talented individuals, including Callum Green from ChipsAway North Tyneside, recently competed against each other at the Skill Auto national finals held at the NEC, in categories such as Automotive Technology, Refinishing, Body Repair and Heavy Vehicle Engineering!

Callum performed brilliantly even under intense pressure and scrutiny from the judges, to go on and win Silver, and also a place in the World Skills UK Squad!

Callum firstly had to complete an online test, then he took part in a 1-day national qualifier in the 'Auto refinishing' category, where he became 1 of just 6 to get through to the national final for that category!

The 3-day national final saw them tested in all areas of their particular specialism  from prepping and painting panels, blend and plastic panel repairs - to masking, colour matching and mixing, as well as applying specialist finishes. For part of his entry, Callum also completed a bonnet painted with 'The Angel of the North', showcasing his painting skills brilliantly!

Winning silver and being selected as part of the World Skills UK Squad is a fantastic achievement and one Callum is extremely pleased about. "I'm over the moon with winning silver at the competition. This has been one of the best experiences I have taken part in and I can't wait for the next stages with the World Skills UK squad."

Employer Garry Charlton of ChipsAway North Tyneside, who cheered Callum along from the side-line over the competition weekend, couldn't be prouder! "Callum has shown a clear talent for auto refinishing from the start, so I'm so pleased his skill is being recognised in this way, and know he has exactly what it takes to go on and compete internationally in Russia 2019!"

Published: 28 March 2018

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Was you ancestor a Pole or a Spaniard or a Russian who came to France in the late nineteenth century and was then expelled? Or, are you aware only of the fact that he or she passed through France during that period but you do not know when? In fact, you know little? The archives of documents concerning expulsions of foreigners are scattered throughout France's many facilities. There are probably such files in every Departmental Archive. None of these files is online. If you did not know where your ancestor stayed while in France, the research prospect can be daunting.

Historians are wanting to research the same documents in order the better to understand policies of exile, asylum and expulsion of the past and, now, their work can benefit your genealogical research. The University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne is running a project called AsileuropeXIX (e.g. European Asylum in the Nineteenth Century) and the researchers have made their database available to the public and able to be searched on many different criteria. It is a work in progress, with data from the:

National Archives of France, out at Pierrefitte-sur-Seine

Departmental Archives of Bas-Rhin

Departmental Archives of Somme

Departmental Archives of Nord

Departmental Archives of Rhone

Departmental Archives of Calvados

One expects that data from other archives will be added. It is a very nice website, with more than just the database. There are interviews with academics on the subject of asylum and exile, there is a budding lexicon of the somewhat rarified vocabulary used to discuss political exiles, asylum seekers, expelled migrants and other such. Very interestingly, there are a few maps that show the routes followed by some exiles, beginning with that of a Prussian student who, after much journeying through France, ended up in the United States.

Naturally, the section of primary interest to you, Dear Readers, will be the database search page, on which you can search on:

Surname

Sex

Whether or not the arrival in France were for political reasons

Country of birth

Profession

Whether or not the expulsion were for political reasons

The year or range of years of the expulsion

The reason (motif) for the expulsion

The country to which the person was sent

The authority that ordered the expulsion

The source of the data

This is pretty comprehensive. What we particularly like is that it is possible to search on any of the criteria without having to give a surname (Filae and Geneanet, take note!) This means that spelling issues can be avoided. It also means that the data can be searched in more interesting ways, such as seeking all the women who were artists from Russia, or all the students from Prussia, or all the thieves expelled from Bas-Rhin, or simply all the glassmakers. Think of all of those vague family stories that could be tested here.

There are minor flaws:

The itineraries of migrant routes could have more identification and dates at each point

The countries lists need to be cleaned and organised. Currently, there are both Empire de Russie and empire russe, Hesse Cassel and Hesse-Cassel, Grande Bretagne and Royaume-Uni. This means that you must read the drop-down lists of possibilities and search on each one that you find suitable.

This is a wonderful resource. We have reported on other such academic databases that have withered and died at the end of the project, finally falling off the edge of the Net altogether. This project ends in 2020 and we do so hope that the database will continue to be maintained afterward. (Or, again we ask Filae and Geneanet to take note, it could be purchased and added to a commercial genealogy company's collection?)

We hope that this may help you to confirm that family story about your political exile ancestor.

2018 Anne Morddel

French Genealogy
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Linkedin EDITORIAL (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, March 28, 2018 07:58 1276 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cbda007 4 Editorial #Editorial,steel,steel-production,#steel,trade-war,US,China,international-trade Free

Indonesia will unlikely feel any immediate direct impact from the threatened trade war between the United States and China caused by US President Donald Trump unilaterally slapping punitively high tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from China, which could effectively block an estimated US$60 billion worth of Chinese products from entering the American market.

But the risk of an escalated and prolonged trade war between the worlds two largest economies, which happen to be Indonesias first- and second-largest export destinations, deserves close monitoring as the dispute could affect the global economy and more Chinese goods might inundate the Indonesian market.

Indonesian steel producers have long complained about what they allege to be unfair competition from dumped steel from China, which because of its much slower economic growth, has been building up an annual steel surplus of more than 100 million tons.

Given this threat, the government may have to postpone its plan to ease import restrictions on steel by shifting the customs check from border to post-border checks.

Even now with import restrictions still in place, steel imports already account for about 55 to 60 percent of our annual steel consumption of around 12 million tons, while the domestic steel industry operates only at 40 percent of its capacity, according to the industry association.

Trade Ministry data shows Indonesia is now the worlds third-biggest net importer of steel and the steel trade deficit last year exceeded $6 billion, the secondlargest after the oil and gas trade deficits.

Before resorting to punitive tariffs, the Trump administration should have first taken its case to the World Trade Organization (WTO), which is tasked with policing the overall system and punishing cheaters. But the Trump administration has accused the WTO of being biased against the US in its trade judgments, saying the WTO has proven to be wholly inadequate in dealing with Chinas version of a state-dominated economy that rejects market principles. This could have a negative impact on the credibility and position of the global trade body.

Trumps ignorance of the WTO and his accusation that the trade body is biased against the US could signal that the US is retreating from leadership on trade from a basic commitment to play by the rules that previous US administrations did so much to create. Such a perception could in the long term prompt other countries to react in kind, thereby undermining the global trading system.

We are still convinced, despite the WTOs shortcomings, that disputes should be discussed and resolved in a multilateral framework and that unilateral decisions are dangerous. Multilateral negotiations are especially better for such developing countries with weak bargaining positions as Indonesia.

Instead of immediately retaliating against the imposition of the American import tariffs, China needs to look into the allegations that its companies have flooded the US market with metal goods sold at artificially low prices. China also should look into ways of reducing its trade surplus with the US, which was reported to be over $375 billion last year.
Theatergroep Plankgas came all the way from The Hague in the Netherlands to Indonesia in order to perform a cabaret play that tries to convey the unique characteristics of the Dutch as a nation.

The name of the play is Dealing with the Dutch and the group recently performed it in the auditorium of the Dutch cultural center Erasmus Huis in Rasuna Said, Jakarta.

With an ensemble of three actresses, the troupe acted out the way the Dutch live their daily lives in front of an audience consisting of Indonesian youths, Dutch university alumni and people who have families in the Netherlands.

Michael Rauner, head of the Erasmus Huis, said the cultural center could have given a lecture or shown some movies to let people learn about the Dutch, however, he and his team thought that humor could be more powerful.

The best way is to make people laugh about the little things that make Dutch people special, he said.

According to Rauner, the performance was not a complete depiction of the Netherlands and its people. He explained that the people in the northern part of the country are quiet.

Meanwhile, the people in the central part of the country are funny and like to party. Those in the south of the Netherlands are friendly and have an eating culture.

The main thing he liked about the performance was the exaggeration of Dutch peoples little idiosyncrasies. Since it is a cabaret, it needs to be little bit extreme in order to make it bigger and funnier.

Dealing with the Dutch tells the story of a foreigner going to the Netherlands, and becomes a kind of reflection of how the Dutch behave.

The whole performance takes around an hour, starting off with a scene on a plane in which two Dutch actresses  Mechteld Schelberg and Anna Nicolai  play flight attendants and British actress Camilla van Doorn plays a passenger.

The premise is taking the audience on a flight from Jakarta to the Netherlands. The show used the flight scene to display a number of stereotypes about the Dutch.

One of the most common stereotypes about the Dutch is that they can be very stingy, which is portrayed when Camilla asks for some free water from the flight attendants.

Mechteld tells Camilla that if she wants free water, she has to go to the restroom. However, Anna then adds that it costs 50 cents to access the restroom.

In another scene, the performers show the typical bluntness of the Dutch. In this scene, Camilla asks Anna about her new colored hair, the Dutch flight attendant simply answers, I dont like it. Makes you really washed out.

The answer strikes Camilla as being too blunt and she responds by singing a line, I miss when people dont say exactly what they mean.

Comical: Dutch actresses Mechteld Schelberg (left) and Anna Nicolai (right), along with British guest artist Camilla van Doorn, perform a play about the Dutch people. (Erasmus Huis/File)

The auditorium was filled with laughter throughout the play, and Mechteld admitted that this show was about Dutch humor and could be pretty tough and a little bit over the top.

Sometimes, it actually goes too far. But we like that because it makes some things clear, she said.

While preparing for the roles, Camilla admitted that the team had a detailed questionnaire with around 40 questions for expatriates living in The Hague. The questionnaire served as a means to kick off the conversation.

We talked to a lot of our friends, a lot of our international community in Holland, Camilla, who is married to a Dutch man, told The Jakarta Post.

We did a lot of research, asking very, very specific things about daily life in Holland. What they liked, what they didnt like, what irritated them, what they found annoying, what they appreciated,

We spent about a year preparing for the show [] The main thing we wanted to do was not make it cliched. That took a long time because its easy to fall into stereotypes.

Meanwhile, Suni Wijogawati, project leader of the cabaret from the Erasmus Huis said the play did not have any ill intention toward the Dutch as a nation.

Certainly every nation has its own shortcomings, Suni said.

But in this performance, the shortcomings and uniqueness and peculiarity [and] characteristics of the Dutch people are delivered or packaged in a funny way. So that could be accepted more easily,

Suni, who lived the first 32 years of her life in the Netherlands, defined such shortcomings as how the Dutch would act due to cultural differences with Indonesians.

For instance, she said, the Dutch were straight to the point while Indonesians generally did not get their point across quickly.

Its red or white. What do you want? Like it or you dont like it? Suni said, referring to how the Dutch would communicate.

You have to read between the lines with Indonesians.

The cabaret was intended as a cultural exchange in hopes that mutual understanding and mutual respect would be created between the two nations.

Indonesia was once a colony of the Netherlands and this history can never be erased, according to Suni. However, she added, both countries should see what lies ahead in terms of what could be done together for the future.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, March 28, 2018 15:30 1276 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cbf0751 1 City Big-Bad-Wolf,2018,opening-ceremony Free

The sound of turning pages was filling the halls as Indonesias bookworms geared up for the biggest book sale in the country.

The Big Bad Wolf book sale officially opened on Wednesday, returning for a third year to the Indonesian Convention Exhibition (ICE) in Serpong, Banten, and targeting 750,000 visitors.

The event, claimed to be the largest book exhibition in Southeast Asia by its organizer PT Jaya Ritel Indonesia, will feature approximately 5.5 million books on sale, 80 percent of which are imported from publishers in the United States and Europe, sold at discounts of 60 to 80 percent.

Approximately 350,000 attended the first Big Bad Wolf event in Indonesia in 2016, with 2.5 million books on sale. In its second run, the event featured 5 million books on sale with 720,000 attending.

The Big Bad Wolf will run for 12 days or 280 hours non-stop, meaning prospective customers looking to snag a good deal can come at any hour of the day.

PT Jaya Ritel Indonesia president director Uli Silalahi said on Wednesday that the event was intended to increase public interest in reading, citing a UNESCO study stating that only one of 10,000 Indonesian children had any interest in reading.

Coordinating Human Development and Culture Minister Puan Maharani, who attended the events opening ceremony, said interest in reading was hampered by the high price of books.

According to past studies, Indonesians only read three to four times a week, and only 30 minutes to 59 minutes per day, she said. (jlm)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, March 28, 2018 16:57 1276 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cbf65fc 1 City arson,Pemuda-Pancasila,Bekasi Free

The local branch office and a car of the Pemuda Pancasila youth organization were set on fire by unknown assailants on Wednesday in Pondok Gede, Bekasi.

Pemuda Pancasila's Bekasi branch head, Ariyes Budiman, said the incident occurred after midnight.

Around 30 people riding 15 motorcycles arrived at the location, which intimidated two of our members who happened to be passing by, Ariyes said.

The two Pemuda Pancasila members later returned to find the office and its Daihatsu Feroza car on fire, with no sign of the individual or individuals who had started the fire, although immediate suspicion fell on the motorcycle group.

The police have yet to release an official statement on the incident.

The previous week, a group of youths claiming to be Pemuda Pancasila members assaulted an Indonesian Air Force personnel for refusing to give them nine durians. The police made a single arrest in connection with the incident.

According to Ariyes, a truce had been reached between the organization and the parties involved, but the Bekasi Police were pursuing criminal proceedings. (jlm)
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Linkedin Andy Sharp (Bloomberg) Beijing, China  Wed, March 28, 2018 12:59 1276 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cbe90d9 2 World trump,Xi-Jinping,kim-jong-un,nuclear-arsenal Free

Kim Jong Un is willing to talk with US President Donald Trump about giving up his nuclear weapons, China said, after the North Korean leader made a surprise visit to Beijing to patch up ties with his neighbor.

Kim expressed an openness to US talks during meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the official Xinhua News Agency said Wednesday, in what was his first foreign trip since taking power in 2011. North Korean state media reports also confirmed Kims visit -- and his return to Pyongyang -- without mentioning denuclearization or the potential Trump summit.

North Korea sees an opportunity with these summits to message to the world that its not isolated and that it has diplomatic options, Mintaro Oba, a former US State Department official who worked on North Korean issues, said by email. The Kim-Xi summit is the latest step in that game.

Kims clandestine visit -- Chinese officials refused for two days to confirm reports of his motorcade and train movements -- shakes up the diplomatic landscape ahead of a potential meeting by the end of May with Trump. Chinese media reports included Kims first public remarks indicating hed discuss his nuclear arsenal with Trump, who has upended decades of US policy by agreeing to meet the North Korean leader without a clear disarmament plan.

The issue of denuclearization of the Korean peninsula can be resolved, if South Korea and the United States respond to our efforts with goodwill, create an atmosphere of peace and stability while taking progressive and synchronous measures for the realization of peace, Kim said, according to Xinhua.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, March 28, 2018 18:19 1276 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cbfa133 1 City Alexis-Hotel,closure,employees Free

Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan said on Wednesday that the city administration would not accommodate the needs of Alexis Hotel workers who lost their jobs after the city revoked the hotels business permit.

Anies asked the former employees to not play victim.

Dont act as if the hotel closure has caused them to suffer and theyre the victims of the closure. Everybody that worked there realized that there were violations committed by the business, which means they were all committing the violations together, he said as quoted by wartakota.tribunnews.com on Wednesday.

If theyre really thinking about how they will live their lives, they should have considered that before working at a problematic company, the former education and culture minister added.

The city administration has officially revoked PT Grand Hotel Ancols business license on March 22 on accusations of prostitution. The company operated Alexis Hotel along with several of its other business units, like 4Play Club and Bar Lounge, restaurant, spa, karaoke and music lounge.

Alexis Hotel declared the closure their business on Wednesday, the deadline of the closure set by the administration. (vla)
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Linkedin Anton Hermansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, March 28, 2018 17:33 1276 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cbf720e 1 Business omnibus,bill,DarminNasution,license,issuance Free

The government plans to draft an omnibus bill -- a single bill aimed at amending several laws -- as part of an effort to speed up the business licensing process.

Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution said on Wednesday the omnibus bill was needed to amend at least 11 laws related to the issuing of licenses.

Currently, the existing laws require license applicants to finish one license before moving to the next, while the government wants to process several licenses simultaneously.

"To get a building permit (IMB), investors need to make an environmental impact analysis (Amdal) and to make Amdal they need to make a detailed spatial plan (RDTL)," he said in Jakarta during a meeting between representatives of the central government and regional heads -- regents and mayors from across the country.

Now, we want investors to start construction only with RDTL as long as they pledge to arrange Amdal and IMB documents within one year.

Through the conventional way, it needed to amend at least 11 laws so that the government could significantly speed up the licensing process, but the process could be simplified by drafting one omnibus bill, Darmin added.

He said President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo would talk to House of Representatives leaders to discuss the omnibus bill.

Darmin added that to prepare the bill, the central government needed to issue a government regulation to freeze a number of ministerial regulations related to licensing issuance and bylaws that were derived from the related laws. (bbn)
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Linkedin Jon Afrizal (The Jakarta Post) Jambi  Wed, March 28, 2018 18:37 1276 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cbfab36 1 National tiger,Sumatran-tiger,Jambi Free

The shrinking habitat of the critically endangered Sumatran tiger has pushed the black-striped carnivore out of its living areas, leading to increased human-tiger conflicts, an activist has said.

The habitat centers of the Sumatran tiger on the island shrank to 23 pockets in 2016 from the previous 29 recorded in 2010, tiger conservation project manager at the Indonesian office of the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), Yoan Dinata said.

The tiger population now faces bigger threats such as the declining area for them to live in and massive poaching, he said in Jambi on Wednesday.

There are four Sumatran tiger habitats in Jambi, they are Kerinci Seblat, Bukit Tigapuluh, Berbak-Sembilang and Harapan Forest.

Their habitats have been disrupted and narrowed due to the massive expansion of palm oil plantations in Sumatra, pushing them to roam outside their habitats.

The latest human-tiger conflict made headlines following the brutal killing of a tiger in North Sumatra earlier this month after residents attacked the big cat believing that it was a siluman (shapeshifter). Residents in a village in Riau province also declared they were hunting a tiger after it had killed two residents this month.

An official estimate from the Environment and Forestry Ministry suggests that the Sumatran tiger population currently stands at no more than 600. Yoan urged all stakeholders to work hand-in-hand to protect the critically endangered animal and maintain its existence in the wild. (rin)
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Linkedin N. Adri (The Jakarta Post) Balikpapan  Wed, March 28, 2018 18:58 1276 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cbfb8ec 1 National Tito-Karnavian,Hadi-Tjahjanto,National-Police,TNI,Indonesian-Military,2018-regional-election,elections Free

Indonesian Military (TNI) commander Marshall Hadi Tjahjanto and National Police chief Gen. Tito Karnavian reiterated that both forces would maintain neutrality during the regional elections and national election held this year and next year.

Soldiers and police personnel dont have voting rights. We stand with all groups to keep the security and order, Hadi said in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, on Wednesday.

Both Hadi and Tito delivered a speech to thousands of military and police personnel during a work visit in Balikpapan ordering them to strengthen unity and cooperation between the two institutions.

With solid cooperation, the two forces can do well in securing the 2018 concurrent regional elections and 2019 legislative and presidential elections.

We can guarantee that the elections can run smoothly and successfully, Tito said.

After the meeting in Balikpapan, Hadi and Tito continued their trip to Tarakan to visit Indonesias border posts in Nunukan and Malinau.

President Joko Jokowi Widodo had previously ordered the TNI and the National Police in a joint meeting in January to maintain neutrality in the upcoming elections and to map potential conflicts that might rise during the elections.

This year, 171 regions will vote for their leaders, while next year, the legislative and presidential elections will be held concurrently for the first time. (rin)
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Linkedin Laurent Thomet (Agence France-Presse) Beijing, China  Wed, March 28, 2018 08:35 1276 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cbdc7b9 2 World kim-jong-un,Xi-Jinping,China,North-Korea Free

North Korea's Kim Jong Un has made his first ever foreign trip as leader to meet China's president, vowing he is "committed to denuclearisation" and willing to hold summits with the South and the US.

The secretive visit was confirmed Wednesday by Chinese and North Korean state media which said Kim was treated to a lavish stay in a show of unity after relations were battered by Beijing's support of UN sanctions against Pyongyang.

Kim had not met China's President Xi Jinping since taking over after the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, in 2011.

The young leader told Xi that he was ready to hold a summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in as well as US President Donald Trump, according to China's Xinhua news agency.

"The issue of denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula can be resolved, if South Korea and the United States respond to our efforts with goodwill, create an atmosphere of peace and stability while taking progressive and synchronous measures for the realisation of peace," Kim said.

South Korea said last month after talks with Kim in Pyongyang that he would consider abandoning his nuclear weapons in exchange for US security guarantees, and flagged a halt to all missile and nuclear tests while talks were under way.

Analysts said Xi likely wanted to see Kim to ensure North Korea does not cut a deal with Trump that hurts Chinese interests during a summit that is expected to be held in May.

Beijing had appeared sidelined by Pyongyang's approaches to Seoul and Washington, but Kim's visit puts China firmly back at the centre of the diplomatic game.

"They don't want to see a grand deal between the US and North Korea that suddenly makes them great friends," said Bill Bishop, publisher of the Sinocism China Newsletter.

But Deng Yuwen, an independent Chinese international relations scholar, said that North Korea needed to turn to its old ally ahead of the US summit, as Kim will be sceptical that Trump will guarantee the security of his regime.

"North Korea needs the big brother to protect it at a crucial moment," Deng told AFP.

And Trump's decision to draft in hawkish former UN ambassador John Bolton as his new national security advisor last week "will make Kim more vigilant," Deng said.

Confirmation of the visit ended 24 hours of speculation about the identity of the North Korean visitor after Japanese media spotted a green train, similar to the one used by Kim's father, arriving in Beijing on Monday and departing the following day.

While Chinese officials refused to confirm Kim's presence, a heavy police presence at key venues, motorcades driven under police escort, and barricades in the city centre fuelled the belief that Kim had come to pay his respects.

His visit to China came as a surprise given the state of relations between the Cold War-era allies, which fought together in the 1950-53 Korean War.

China chaired six-party talks on North Korea that collapsed a decade ago, but its call to revive that forum have not been heeded so far and it appeared to be on the margins when South Korea announced that Kim had offered to meet with Moon and Trump.

Frustrated by its neighbour's nuclear weapons programme and under pressure from Trump, China has backed a raft of UN sanctions, using its economic leverage to squeeze Kim's regime.

At the same time, Beijing fears the collapse of the regime in Pyongyang and the instability it would bring, potentially sending waves of refugees into China and the possibility of US troops stationed on its border in a unified Korea.

The tensions prompted North Korea's official news agency to issue a rare critique of China last year, warning of "grave consequences" if Pyongyang's patience was tested further.

But the Chinese foreign ministry said at the time that Beijing was consistent in its support for "good neighbourly and friendly cooperation" with the North.

In November, Chinese envoy Song Tao became the first senior Chinese official to visit North Korea for more than a year, though he did not meet Kim.

On March 18, the Global Times published a friendlier editorial.

"A severe difference between Beijing and Pyongyang over nuclear issues is a reality, but it should not be the whole picture of ties between the two sides," the daily wrote.

"North Korea is a respectable country."

While Kim Jong Un and Moon are due to meet at the border truce village of Panmunjom, the venue for the North Korean leader's meeting with Trump has yet to be announced.

The Demilitarized Zone that divides the two Koreas is the most plausible locations for the Kim-Trump talks, but Beijing could serve as a more neutral location.

High-level inter-Korean talks are scheduled for Thursday to pave the way for the Moon-Kim meeting, and discussions have also begun for the Trump summit.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, March 28, 2018 15:15 1276 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cbefc0f 1 Business pertamina,takeover,Mansouri-oil-field,May,2018 Free

The Iranian government has set a deadline of early May for Indonesias state-owned energy giant Pertamina to seal the deal for developing Irans Mansouri oil field.

Pertamina claims it has secured the Iranian governments nod to be the operator of the Mansouri field, in which the company is expected to control an 80 percent interest, while the rest will be owned by an Iranian partner.

However, Pertamina upstream director Syamsu Alam said his side was still looking for partners to jointly develop the field, as it would be too risky to control the 80 percent interest alone.

We want to seal this deal as soon as possible, but we need to find partners first, Syamsu said Wednesday.

The Iranian government then gave us leeway by allowing us to sign the contract first [as the 80-percent owner] in early May, before letting other partners join in the project later. One thing is for sure, the deal should be done before the start of the Muslims fasting period [in mid-May].

Syamsu said there were several prospective partners to team up with Pertamina in developing the Mansouri field, though he shared no further details about this.

After taking over the operatorship of the Mansouri field, Pertamina expects to gradually increase the fields oil production to 250,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd) within five years from only around 60,000 bopd at present.

Syamsu previously said Pertamina would need to spend around US$6 billion to develop the field over a 20-year period. (bbn)
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Linkedin Tama Salim (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, March 28, 2018 12:13 1276 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cbe6377 1 World UNSC-non-permanent-seat,Indonesia,diplomacy Free

Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi is rallying support for Indonesia's bid to become a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, just months ahead of the crucial vote in Jun.

Retno hosted a flurry of meetings with ministerial counterparts and foreign ambassadors to the UN on Tuesday and will host many more bilateral talks during her visit, Indonesian Ambassador to the UN Dian Triansyah Djani said.

"In addition to giving a speech at the [UN] Security Council tomorrow, the minister will basically meet with groups of countries for the UNSC bid," Triansyah told The Jakarta Post late on Tuesday.

Trian said the minister had already met with the new Dutch Foreign Minister, Stef Blok, and Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the UN undersecretary-general for peacekeeping operations (PKO), as well as a number of permanent representatives to the UN from Africa and the Caribbean.

Retno took to Twitter to announce her Dutch counterpart's plan to visit Indonesia this year and commended the Netherlands' presidency at the UNSC this month.

With Lacroix, Retno exchanged views on how to strengthen UN PKOs in the face of complex challenges.

"Indonesia offered the Indonesian Peacekeeping Center in Sentul to be the hub for the UN Peacekeeping Training Center in the region," the minister tweeted, using her Twitter handle @Menlu_RI.

She also documented her meetings with ambassadors to the UN from Grenada, Burkina Faso, Togo and Gabon.

Besides attending talks hosted by other countries, Trian said Indonesia itself hosted other UN member states at breakfast and lunch meetings at its permanent mission offices just a few blocks away from the UN headquarters, as it had done in the past.

Retno left for New York earlier this week to attend Wednesday's high-level open debate session of the UNSC, where she is to make a speech about peacekeeping operations.

Indonesia has pledged to send 4,000 peacekeeping troops to overseas UN missions by 2019 as part of its UNSC campaign. (ahw)
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Washington, United States  Wed, March 28, 2018 09:12 1276 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cbdd6a2 2 World US,Russia,poisoning Free

Russia's poisoning of a former spy in Britain is part of a strategy of conducting operations, and then denying responsibility for them, that is designed to divide the West, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Tuesday.

A day after Washington announced it was expelling 60 Russians in a show of support for Britain, Mattis said President Vladimir Putin's denials of responsibility for the poisoning of Sergei Skripal in southern England could not be taken seriously.

And he said it carried echoes of Russia's 2014 invasion and subsequent annexation of Crimea carried out by armed men dressed in military fatigues but who were not wearing insignia.

"They're doing things that they believe are deniable," Mattis told reporters.

"And so they're trying to break the unity of the Western alliance, NATO and -- and that sort of thing," he said.

"They take the insignia off soldiers' uniforms and they go into Crimea. They say they have nothing to do with what's going on with the separatists in eastern Ukraine," Mattis added.

"I'm not sure how they can say that with a straight face."

While most Western countries have pointed the finger firmly at Moscow, Britain's opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn has raised doubts that Putin was behind the poisoning, suggesting it might have been the work of "mafia-like groups" in Russia.

US President Donald Trump has been accused by his opponents of being too friendly towards Putin, criticizing him for failing to confront the Russian leader over the poisoning in a phone call last week when he congratulated him on his re-election.

However the banishing of the 60 Russians was the largest ever mass expulsion to be ordered by Washington.

It was accompanied by a warning from the White House that ties between Washington and Moscow could only improve "with a change in the Russian government's behavior."
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, March 28, 2018 17:39 1276 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cbf7d11 1 City underpass,South-Jakarta,trial Free

Jakarta Bina Marga road agency is ready to conduct a trial for the Mampang-Kuningan underpass connecting Jl. Mampang Prapatan Raya and Jl. HR Rasuna Said in South Jakarta. The agencys intersection construction division head Hananto Krisna said the trial would take place on April 7.

The [underpass] construction has been 97 percent completed; the trial will be conducted on the same day the construction contract will end, he said as quoted by kompas.com on Wednesday.

There was still some work that need to be done before the trial, Hananto added, such as the installation of the underpass walls, lighting and pumps for its drainage system.

Earlier this month, Jakarta Deputy Governor Sandiaga Uno said the Mampang-Kuningan underpass was expected to alleviate traffic congestion in the area by 30 percent. (vla)
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, March 28 2018

Amid dwindling land availability and deteriorating fertility and water levels, improving the productivity of existing farmland through sustainable methods may serve as a means of meeting the worlds future food needs, including in Indonesia.

Speaking during the opening of the fourth Resp...
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, March 28, 2018 15:55 1276 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cbf1fff 1 City pirates,Tangerang,factory,DVD Free

The Tangerang Police raided on Tuesday a factory located in the Pantai Indah Dadap warehousing complex in Kosambi, Banten, that was suspected of producing pirated DVDs.

Tangerang Police general crimes chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Dedy Supriyadi said the raid was organized following the arrest of a man transporting thousands of pirated DVDs by car on Jl. Perancis nearby.

The [car carried] some 16,400 pirated DVDs of numerous movies, mostly cartoons and foreign films. The DVDs were being delivered to Glodok [West Jakarta], Dedy said as reported by kompas.com on Wednesday.

He added that the driver of the car told the police that the pirated DVDs were produced at the Pantai Indah Dadap complex.

We then immediately raided the production [factory] and confiscated 372 other pirated DVDs. So weve seized a total of 16,772 pirated DVDs, Dedy said.

The owner of the factory will be charged under Law No. 8/2014 on copyright. (vla)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, March 28, 2018 13:43 1276 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cbeace6 1 Business Telkomtelstra,data-center,cloud-computing,business Free

Managed services provider PT Teltranet Aplikasi Solusi (Telkomtelstra) plans to open several more data centers in a bid to expand its cloud services across the country.

Currently, the company has one data center for its cloud business in Serpong, Banten, which started operations in December, 2017.

We will have one new data center in Sentul, West Java. Its expected to be ready by the end of next month, Agus F. Abdillah, Telkomtelstra chief of product and synergy, said on Tuesday, adding that another data center would be opened in Surabaya in July.

Telkomtelstra is a joint venture company established by state-owned Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) and Australia telecommunication giant (Telstra) to provide network application and services to Indonesian enterprises, multi-nationals and Australian companies operating in Indonesia.

The company started to tap into Indonesias growing cloud services market in August last year, when it launched Azure Hybrid Cloud with Azure Stack Platform in collaboration with PT Microsoft Indonesia.

Cloud technology allows individuals and businesses to access or process data via the internet from anywhere anytime.

On Tuesday, Telkomtelstra introduced several cloud-based products, including a cloud-based video analytic product that can help businesses analyze customers characteristics to get a better idea of who visits their sites.

The company also introduced a cloud-based desktop, Citrix, allowing users to remotely access a desktop environment with software from any device.

Agus said Telkomtelstra was eyeing customers in several segments, including private enterprises, banks, government agencies and education institutions. Three companies have signed contracts with us after we gave trials to 14 companies since December last year, said Agus. (roi/bbn)
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Linkedin Adam Minter (Bloomberg) New York, United States  Wed, March 28, 2018 12:13 1276 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cbe576c 2 Business Uber,Competition,Southeast-Asia Free

Anybody who commutes via ride-share in one of Southeast Asia's traffic-choked cities knows that Uber Technologies has always been an also-ran in the fast-growing region. Compared with Grab Taxi Holdings, the dominant ride-sharing company in Southeast Asia, it consistently had fewer cars available and was perpetually behind in offering localized services. When Uber announced Monday that it was selling its Southeast Asian operations to Grab, it merely confirmed the worst-kept secret in Southeast Asian business.

Uber, however, might be holding on to an even bigger secret. As data sharing and online privacy become key concerns for governments worldwide, Uber and its competitors will be forced to invest in the locals rather than compete against them. Multinational ride-sharing companies like Uber will have to become regional players expert in local preferences, and in managing the governments who regulate them.

In many ways, Uber's failure in Southeast Asia reflects its struggles in other regions -- especially fast-growing developing ones. The first problem it faced was its lack of a first-mover advantage. The global availability of smartphones, mapping technology, and tech talent allowed companies to develop Uber-like services for local markets before Uber itself could arrive. In Southeast Asia, Grab was that company; it started offering rides a year ahead of Uber.

But even without that head start, Grab's founders had the advantage of knowing the locals better. For example, Grab offered a cash payment option as early as 2012 in order to expand the service to the millions of Southeast Asians who don't have credit cards. Uber, which entered the market in 2013, didn't offer a cash option until much later. And by the time Uber had caught up on cash payments, Grab and GoJek Indonesia, Indonesia's ride-share leader, were building their platforms into nascent financial service providers for unbanked consumers across their emerging markets. Uber's single-minded focus on ride-sharing meant that it could never develop as deep a relationship with local consumers and drivers.

Similar localization problems have dogged Uber elsewhere. In Nigeria, drivers are known to use a fake GPS itinerary app to boost Uber's discounted, unrealistic fares; in Kenya, Uber is playing catch-up with local ride-sharing players that have expanded services to offer tuk-tuks, motorcycles, and the ability for companies to hail vehicles for employees; and in India, Uber is trailing home-grown Ola, which provides services in a dozen languages, allows users to hail rides via text message (crucial in countries where connectivity is poor and expensive), and -- like its Southeast Asian counterparts -- has moved past Uber into digital payments.

But the biggest threat to Uber -- and anyone else aspiring to create a multinational ride-sharing company -- is growing concern about data privacy. In the course of its brief history, Uber has been plagued by several scandals related to its handling of user data. So far, none of those have risen to a level of existential threat on the order of Facebook's recent privacy travails. But that's been a matter of luck more than planning. Ride-sharing companies gather and store massive amounts of the kinds of user data that other entities are keen to use, and that governments are determined to control and regulate.

Access to that data is becoming an issue in several markets in which Uber operates. Last year, the Egyptian government requested that Uber and its chief competitor, Dubai-based Careem, provide access to the company's live data on customers and their journeys in exchange for preferential treatment in the country. Both companies refused the request in the interest of customer privacy. It was a principled stand, but it may have carried a price: Last week, an Egyptian court ordered Uber and Careem to halt operations in Egypt. A local company with better government relations may not have faced the same penalty.

Meanwhile, even before Uber sold out to China's Didi Chuxing Technology, the government's interest in securing Chinese data was clearly going to make it difficult for Uber to operate independently. In the last year, China has required all internet companies to store data collected on Chinese users within China -- a regulation which, presumably, makes that data easier for the government to access. At the same time, China is restricting the ability of foreign companies to produce the high-definition digital maps of China necessary to operate autonomous vehicles in the country. If autonomous vehicles are the future of ride-sharing -- and Uber believes they are -- then it will be difficult for all but Chinese companies to offer ride-sharing services in China.

Of course, these sorts of data sovereignty concerns aren't confined to China. Just as the Chinese government is wary of Uber collecting data on Chinese consumers, regulators in the EU and the US will be wary of Chinese ride-sharing companies collecting and storing data on EU and US consumers. So far, emerging markets like Southeast Asia and Africa aren't showing the same concerns over privacy. But local players, seeking a marketing advantage, could certainly use it as a wedge to encourage governments to regulate Uber and other interlopers.

For Uber and other aspiring multinational ride-sharing companies, that leaves a shrinking map of possibilities in which to operate and succeed. In the long term, the best option might be the one taken by Uber in Russia, China and now Southeast Asia: exchange its current business for a minority stake in the local player, and hope that it prospers. That's a far less ambitious outlook than the one Uber envisioned. But in a world where local differences and privacy concerns are ascendant, it may be the only route to international ride-sharing success.
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, March 29 2018

The Iranian government has set a deadline of early May for Indonesias state-owned energy giant Pertamina to seal the deal for developing Irans Mansouri oil field.

Pertamina claims it has secured the Iranian governments nod to be the operator of the Mansouri field, in which the company is expected to control an 80 percent interest, while the rest will be owned by an Iranian partner.

However, Pertamina upstream director Syamsu Alam said his side was still looking for partners to jointly develop the field, as it would be too risky to control the 80 percent interest alone.

We want to seal this deal as soon as possible, but we need to find partners first, Syamsu said Wednesday.

The Iranian government then gave us leeway by allowing us to sign the contract first [as the 80-percent owner] in early May, before letting other partners join in the projec...
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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Naypyidaw  Wed, March 28, 2018 16:19 1276 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cbf4142 2 SE Asia Myanmar,president,Aung-San-Suu-Kyi Free

Myanmar's parliament on Wednesday elected a staunch ally of Aung San Suu Kyi as the country's new president, allowing her to maintain a tight grip on top-level decision-making.

Win Myint, 66, had been tipped for the role after former president Htin Kyaw suddenly stepped down last week, citing the need for rest.

Suu Kyi is barred by the military-drafted constitution from the presidency because she was married to a foreigner and has two sons who are British citizens. She has instead served as state counsellor since her party's landslide 2015 election victory, declaring she would work "above" the president.

But her position has no official constitutional role.

That makes it crucial for her to have a compliant friend as president as she manages an often fraught power-sharing arrangement with the still powerful military, which ruled the country for almost half a century.

"I will do my best to carry out my duties for the people," Win Myint told reporters as he left parliament after the vote.

Win Myint, who resigned as lower house speaker last week, swept up nearly two thirds of the votes in a parliament dominated by Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party.

He beat two opponents, including the military-backed acting president Myint Swe.

The former lawyer hails from Suu Kyi's inner circle -- the pair fought side-by-side during the 1988 democracy movement that was violently quashed by the junta and saw Win Myint, alongside many others, being taken political prisoner.

As Myanmar emerged from outright military rule, Win Myint won his seat in 2012 by-elections, the same vote that elevated Suu Kyi to parliament after a combined 15 years of house arrest.

She is still widely regarded as a heroine in Myanmar even though her reputation lies shattered globally for failing to speak up on behalf of the country's Rohingya Muslim community.
The 15th installment of the Jakarta Fashion & Food Festival (JFFF) is set to return for almost a month from April 5 to May 6 at Summarecon Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta.

After previously promoting noodle dishes, this year's event will highlight soto (aromatic soup) by presenting 10 different types of soto from across the archipelago at Kampoeng Tempo Doeloe (KTD), the center of the food festival. The theme also aims to support the Creative Economy Agency (BEK) progam called "Soto, A Spoonful of Indonesian Warmth".

Were currently in the phase of curating and finding which soto establishments will be featured at KTD, said JFFF chairman Soegianto Nagaria during a press conference at the National Museum in Central Jakarta on Tuesday.

Around 72 eateries will be among those curated by the committee.

Read also: Local fashion, food galore in annual Kelapa Gading festival

Soegianto said JFFF seeks to serve as a platform for the local businesses. Here, they will know which dishes sell the most and how people perceive [their food]. Hopefully they can then expand to other cities."

Set to open from April 5 to May 6, KTD will feature more than 100 food stalls offering different dishes, including rujak juhi (combination of vegetables and salted cuttlefish) and kerak telor (Betawi omelette).

For fashion enthusiasts, JFFF will also present over 60 designers who will showcase their work at the fashion festival from April 11 to 29, including Marga Alam, Eddy Betty, Jenahara, Patrick Owen and Hengky Kawilarang.

Other events prepared at the festival are the Wine & Cheese Expo from April 5 to 29 and the JF3 Run on April 22. (kes)
More popular South-east Asian islands will be off limits to visitors this year as officials seek to protect eco-systems crumbling from warming seas and unchecked sprawl, despite the risk to tourism revenues and tens of thousands of jobs.

Thailand will shut Maya Bay, which famously featured in The Beach, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, for four months a year, from June. In the Philippines, officials plan to close Boracay island for six months at the end of April.

"Islands have very fragile eco-systems that simply cannot handle so many people, pollution from boats and beachfront hotels," said Thon Thamrongnawasawat, a marine expert in Bangkok.

Read also: Picture-perfect Indonesian sand islands you can visit

"Coral reefs have been degraded by warmer seas and overcrowding. Sometimes, a complete closure is the only way for nature to heal," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

More than three-quarters of Thailand's coral reefs have been damaged by rising sea temperatures and unchecked tourism, said Thon, who last week recommended limiting visitors to its 22 marine parks to 6 million a year to enable their recovery.

Currently, they number about 5.5 million, he said.

Thailand closed dozens of dive sites to tourists in 2011, after unusually warm seas caused severe damage to coral reefs in the Andaman Sea, one of the world's top diving regions. It also shut some islands in 2016.

The country's sandy beaches helped draw record numbers of tourists last year, with revenues contributing about 12 per cent of the economy. The government expects 38 million visitors this year.

South-east Asia is expected to bear the brunt of rising damage to coral reefs, depriving fishermen of incomes and leaving nations exposed to incoming storms and damage from surging seas, recent research showed.

Duterte won't hesitate to send in soldiers, use dynamite to clean up Boracay, says spokesman

Residents and businesses in Philippines' resort island of Boracay upset with Duterte calling it a 'cesspool'.

In the Philippines, which is among the most vulnerable to climate change, about 2 million people visited Boracay last year, celebrated for its white-sand beaches.

On a visit last month, President Rodrigo Duterte called the island a "cesspool" because of sewage dumped directly into the sea, and warned of a looming environmental disaster with buildings constructed too close to the shore.

Government agencies have recommended closing the island for six months to fix the problems.

Tour operators say more than 36,000 jobs are at stake.

Read also: Transformation looms at Baron Beach, Yogyakarta

"We support the government in adopting responsible and sustainable tourism practices ... but not in shutting down the whole island," the Philippine Travel Agencies Association said.

But Thailand's Thon warned against short-term fixes.

"Tourism is important, but we need to preserve these spaces for our future generations, for future livelihoods," he said.
Image via LagganOutdoor.co.uk

It may not sound like the most relaxing of Easter weekend activities, but trust me when I say itll be fun. At Laggan Outdoor in Dumfries & Galloway, you can strap yourselves in for a whirlwind ride from 0-60mph in a matter of seconds. Youll be catapulted over the rolling green hillside of the Solway Firth straight into a new, rejuvenated and re-energised life.Courtesy of Brazilian street artists, Kelburn Estates 13Century castle has had a proper zero to hero moment. Its a true standout feature in the 3,500 acres of Scottish greenery and offers some alternative fun over the Easter period. Head down to Largs, North Ayrshire for egg hunts on horseback, (very serious) duck racing, and a Mad Hatters tea party hosting the infamous Kelburn Panda.

Image by Mark Harkin via Flikr.

tarted

For over three decades, the Yorkhill Easter Egg Run has been a regular Glaswegian fixture. With all proceeds going directly to Yorkhill Childrens Charity, the event sees a thousand-person convoy of motorbikes, scooters, Vespas and trikes on an eight-mile parade route across the city. Head to the finishing line at Yorkhill Hospital to sample the finest homemade Scottish snacks and locally-brewed beer.Spring is a season for renewal, reformation and restoration. And what better way to transform yourself than with a retreat in the great Scottish outdoors? The Dhanakosa Buddhist Retreat Centre, situated in the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park, offers a wide array of activities; including hillwalking, Tai Chi, yoga and meditation. The rain never bothered you anyway.

Image by Dave Conner via Flikr.

To commemorate the 695anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Arbroath (the first document to assert Scottish independence), the Scottish celebrate the most Scottish thing they could think of. Tartan. Ten days of events across the country will see storytelling and costumed re-enactments of the historical event, loud and colourful parades and parties, and a full display of Scottish culinary and musical heritage.While other countries may be enjoying sweeter eggs, Scotland will be putting on a show of a more prehistoric nature. No, Im not talking pickled eggs, but dinosaur eggs. Both Edinburgh Zoo and Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow will be enticing visitors to their exclusive dinosaur exhibitions. Head to Edinburgh for 14 life-sized, animatronic dinosaur replicas residing in their new hilltop home, or swing by Glasgow to get your hands on real fossilised eggs and casts of complete dino skeletons.
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TEMECULA, Calif., March 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Heroin Detox Clinics release new Philadelphia post illustrates drug addiction and treatment in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. Some areas are so bad that librarians are assisting in helping with overdose victims. Librarians are one more group of first responders using Narcan to revive the growing number of opioid overdoses in cities like Philadelphia. The heroin drug rehab Philadelphia post shows the issues related to opiate or heroin abuse and drug treatment center opportunities.



McPherson Square Library, located near a drug infested poverty area, used to be called the Cinderella Steps and now the park right out front is called Needle Park. Philadelphia is known to drug users as having the purest heroin and so it draws many users to experience the purity only to end up overdosing on the grass or in the library bathroom.

Libraries used to be a place for children to enjoy hearing stories read, a haven for book lovers to find the next great read, and students doing their research and homework. Today, libraries are increasingly becoming daytime hangouts for the homeless and addicts. There have been overdose deaths in libraries in many cities. McPherson Square Library has a librarian, Chera Kowalski, that has saved six lives using Narcan to revive overdosing patrons, both inside the library and out of the lawn in front. Librarians are being trained in how to use Narcan, the lifesaving overdose antidote. At the request of Chera Kowalski, Prevention Point, a neighborhood nonprofit that provides harm reduction services gave the staff two workshops on opioids and substance abuse disorder. In February 2017, 26 library staff from 6 Philadelphia librarieslibrarians, librarian assistants, and guardswent through overdose reversal training. There is a sign on the bathroom door that there is a 3-5 minute time limit due to the bathroom drug use and overdose activity. They have been dealing with overdoses so often they can tell the type of overdose just by the sound coming from the bathroom. Heroin victims slide down into the unconscious state of overdose while the users who overdose on fentanyl collapse on the floor that can be heard throughout the library. Librarians walk up and down the aisles and check for anyone passed out at the tables. They are having to add a very serious duty to their jobs. Julie Todaro, president of the American Library Association, told CNN, "We have to figure out quickly the critical steps that people have to take so we can be partners in the solution of this problem," Training the librarians and the library security staff on how to administer Narcan is one of the first steps right now. Read CNN article here https://www.cnn.com/2017/06/23/health/opioid-overdose-library-narcan/index.html

Philadelphia lost 900 people to opioid related overdoses last year and is on track to lose 1200 more this year. Opioids attach themselves to the body's natural opioid receptors, numbing pain and slowing breathing. Naloxone kicks opioids off the body's receptors and can restart regular breathing. Naloxone, or Narcan, is squirted into the nose or injected into a muscle when someone overdoses. Philadelphia Fire and EMS used Narcan approximately 4200 times last year according to Captain William Dixon. Entering a Philadelphia addiction treatment center and receiving proper care can be the difference between staying alive or falling victim to an overdose.

Along with the Narcan training, the McPherson librarians, along with Impact and Angels in Motion, worked with Prevention Point Philadelphia on plans for needle-disposal boxes in the park. They are working on having a full-time outreach worker to be stationed at the library. The creation of safe-injection sites is still controversial and has not been an adopted program. Other cities have had success with a reduction in overdoses as well as a reduction in the spread of needle related diseases being passed on, so safe-injection sites may be introduced in the near future. Find out more about heroin drug rehabs and the help they can provide by contacting a recovery helpline and speak with an addiction specialist.

Author: William Leonard

Organization: HeroinDetoxClinics.com

Address: 27420 Jefferson Ave, Temecula, CA 92590

Phone: 888-325-2454

http://heroindetoxclinics.com/

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/867488cd-d4fb-4af2-b0ed-6efc8416dc91




NEW YORK, March 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Chimaera Capital Partners, LLC, a special purpose investment vehicle funded by significant investors announced today that it has the commitment capital for U.S. real estate investments. The company also went on to say that it is exploring various acquisitions, in the States.



A company spokesperson said, There have been no formal real estate purchase agreements signed to date for any hotel. All of the companies current acquisitions are being funded with conventional capital and not by any token sales or any ICO.

For more information on Chimaera Capital Partners, LLC, please visit www.chimaeracapital.com

Press Contact:

Veronica Welch

VEW Media

veronica@vewprmedia.com
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pacific Rim Cobalt Corp. (CSE:BOLT) (FRANKFURT:NXFE) (OTCQB:PCRCF) (the Company or Pacific Rim Cobalt) a resource company with assets located proximal to the worlds largest cobalt market, announces it has in place all requisite environmental and mining permits to advance its previously announced 2018 workplan.



During the last two months, the Company has remitted the necessary fees applicable for maintaining all permits and licenses in good standing covering its 100% controlled TNM cobalt project, Papua Province, Indonesia. As part of todays announcement, the Company advises that operations have begun onsite.

As background, previous operators retained a certified consultant to ensure development planning met the threshold of an Environmental Impact Analysis (AMDAL), which includes an environmental management plan and an environmental monitoring plan. This environmental study was then submitted and accepted by the relevant government bodies and based on this a Production/Mining Permit was issued (IUP Production). The TNM project has all the requisite permits allowing two separate phases of development including exploration for the performance of general surveys, exploration and feasibility studies, and continuation into phase two operations including construction, mining, processing, refining, hauling, and sales activities within the approved mining region.

The TNM project has been extensively studied, with 856 drill holes and 26 test pits documented by previous operators. A Historical Estimate*, which dates from before the requirement for uniform regulatory compliance and therefore fails to meet the current standards of National Instrument 43-101, has been referenced as a guide for further exploration. This early data employed measurements still in use today and indicates mineralization from surface with estimated potential mineralization of 37 million tonnes of 0.11 per cent cobalt and 1.31 per cent nickel at a 0.8-per-cent-nickel-cut-off grade*. The Company believes the potential to significantly expand upon the Historical Estimate is possible, as only 5 of the 9 known cobalt/nickel occurrences were the subject of the estimate. For clarity, and to provide transparency and integrity of the research in question, please see the attached footnote regarding the Historical Estimate. The Company affirms this data in no way implies an estimated resource valuation but is offered as a basis for an advanced exploration business case.

As previously announced, the Company has begun detailed drone-operated topographic and photographic surveys as an initial step to guide the 2018 work plan. The resulting data will provide control for exploration planned activities, including geological mapping, sampling, test pitting and diamond drilling, to confirm historically reported cobalt-nickel-bearing laterite zones as detailed in the Historical Estimate*.

Mr. Ranjeet Sundher, Pacific Rim Cobalts President and CEO, states,"We are in the enviable position of controlling a highly prospective project in close proximity to China, which has a voracious appetite for battery metals. We will aggressively advance exploration and development activities in pursuit of readying the TNM cobalt project for a future successful cobalt operation. We have assembled a top-notch team to manage development of our world class asset, have fully funded the 2018 work program, and are committed to adding shareholder value on an ongoing basis.

Pacific Rim Cobalt's TNM cobalt project is strategically located on the northern coast of Papua Province, Indonesia which provides direct shipping access to China, the worlds largest consumer of cobalt. Detailed bathymetric studies have identified three locations along the coast which appear to be favourable for the construction of a deep-water port site within the license area.

Sealed roads enable year-round access to the TNM project area and connect it with the large town of Sentani located about 15 km to the east and with Jayapura, the capital city of Papua Province, located about 40 km to the east.

Cobalt, a key ingredient in electric car batteries, has quadrupled in price in the last two years. Chinese new electric vehicle subsidies prioritize pure electric vehicles with higher driving ranges and energy density  two of the main advantages of cobalt and nickel. According to Bloomberg, "China is leaving the West behind in the race for electric-car raw materials. China is first out of the blocks in the global race to secure raw material supplies critical for the batteries that will power the electric vehicles of the future.

*Historical Estimate

Pacific Rim Cobalt considers the cobalt and nickel tonnage and grade estimates contained herein to be historical estimates. The historical estimates are contained in the Summary Geologic Investigations, PT. Pacific Nikkel Indonesia 1969  1979 (Reynolds 1979). These historical estimates do not use categories that conform to current CIM Definition Standards on Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves as outlined in National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") and have not been redefined to conform to current CIM Definition Standards. These estimates were prepared in the 1980s prior to the adoption and implementation of NI 43-101. A qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimates as current mineral resources and Pacific Rim Cobalt is not treating the historical estimates as current mineral resources. More work, including but not limited to, drilling, will be required to conform the estimates to current CIM Definition Standards. Investors are cautioned that the historical estimates do not mean or imply that economic deposits exist on the Companys project. Efforts to obtain any additional information regarding relevant historical work is ongoing, although there are no assurances that this original data will be found. Pacific Rim Cobalt believes that the historical estimates are relevant to continuing exploration on the project. For more information please refer to our technical report, filed on SEDAR on December 8, 2017 and available under the Companys profile at www.sedar.com.

Qualified Person

Mr. Garry Clark, P. Geo., Independent Director of Pacific Rim Cobalt, is the qualified person as defined in NI 43-101, who has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical content in this presentation.

About Pacific Rim Cobalt (CSE:BOLT) (FRANKFURT:NXFE) (OTCQB:PCRCF )

Pacific Rim Cobalt Corp. is a Canadian publicly listed company currently focused on the development of cobalt projects within Indonesia. Its TNM cobalt project encompasses cobalt and nickel mineralization as well as excellent infrastructure for year-round development activities. The Company believes cobalt will be the next dominant investment trend related to the critical components of lithium-ion batteries. Cobalt is currently in a global supply deficit, has a vulnerable supply chain, and is part of an emerging sector with extraordinary potential. Pacific Rim believes that the quality of our assets and our proximity to markets give us the opportunity to be a leader in the cobalt development space. For more information, visit: www.pacificrimcobalt.com.

CONTACT

Pacific Rim Cobalt Corp.

Ranjeet Sundher  President and CEO

(604) 922-8272

rsundher@pacificrimcobalt.com

Steve Vanry  CFO & Director

(604) 922-8272

steve@vanrycap.com

Sean Bromley  Director & Investor Contact

(778) 985-8934

sean@theparmargroup.com

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Statements in this news release that are forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties concerning the specific factors disclosed here and elsewhere in both Pacific Rim Cobalts periodic filings with Canadian securities regulators. When used in this news release, words such as "will", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "intend", "potential", "should," and similar expressions, are forward-looking statements. Information provided in this document is necessarily summarized and may not contain all available material information. Forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements regarding future oriented events and other statements that are not facts. Forward-looking statements are based on a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by management based on the business and markets in which Pacific Rim Cobalt operates, are inherently subject to significant operational, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. Such forward-looking statements should therefore be construed in light of such factors. Although Pacific Rim Cobalt has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements, there can be other factors that cause results, performance or achievements not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate or that management's expectations or estimates of future developments, circumstances or results will materialize. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this news release are made as of the date of this news release, and Pacific Rim Cobalt disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise such information, except as required by applicable law, and Pacific Rim Cobalt does not assume any liability for disclosure relating to any other company herein.
Also a general warning that this book is actually being released.

Source: Dark Horse Comics

Dark Horse Comics thought it was wise to warn readers that Frank Miller's Xerxes will contain nudity. An unspoken rule of a post-9/11 Miller comic is that it'll either contain nudity or terrorism, more often than not, both. So the fact that Dark Horse needed to warn readers about Xerxes must mean there's a lot of graphic nudity in the series. We're expecting each page to look like a map of sporting goods stores across America, just covered in dicks.

On the plus side for those of you still interested in this dickstravaganza, the price has also dropped from $5.99 an issue to $4.99 an issue. So there's that.

Miller's 300 prequel Xerxes is set to release April 4, 2018.
Unity between law enforcement, public is focus of Faith and Blue

Faith and Blue event at Mount Marty University helps build stronger, safer communities. Unifies relationships between the police and the public.
English Finnish

GOFORE PLC COMPANY ANNOUNCEMENT 28 MARCH 2018 AT 10:00 EET



Resolutions of Gofore Plc's Organization Meeting of the Board of Directors

Appointed by the Annual General Meeting, the Board of Directors of Gofore Plc was organized immediately after the Annual General Meeting. At the meeting, the Board of Directors resolved upon members of its committees. At the same meeting, the Board decided to establish a new Audit Committee.

As the Chairman of the Board will continue Ali U. Saadetdin.

The Board of Directors resolved upon the composition of the Board committees as follows:

Nomination Committee

The Board of Directors decided to change the composition of the Nomination Committee so that the four largest shareholders choose among its members one representative instead of the former two representatives. The other members of the Nomination Committee are still the Chairman of the Board of Directors and the current member of the Board appointed by the Chairman of the Board.

As members of the Nomination Committee of the Board of Directors were elected Ali U. Saadetdin (Chairman), Sami Somero and Mika Varjus.

Remuneration Committee

As members of the Remuneration Committee of the Board of Directors were elected Ali U. Saadetdin (Chairman), Sami Somero and Anne-Mari Silvast.

Audit Committee

As members of the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors were elected Kristiina Michelsson (Chairman), Sami Somero, and Mika Varjus.

The Board of Directors estimates that its members are independent of the company's major shareholders, except for Mika Varjus. In addition, the Board estimates that, apart from Mika Varjus and Anne-Mari Silvast, all members of the Board are independent of the company.



Further enquiries:

Ali U. Saadetdin, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Gofore Plc

tel. +358 40 844 4201

ali.saadetdin@saadetdin.com



Timur Karki, CEO, Gofore Plc

tel. +358 40 828 5886

timur.karki@gofore.com



Certified Adviser: Evli Bank Plc, tel. +358 9 4766 9926



Gofore Plc is a digitalisation specialist operating since 2002. We offer modern services that help operators in the private and public sectors to face digital change. Our mission is to change the world for the better through digitalisation and by renewing ways of working. Our services cover the entire value chain, from management consultation to service design and implementation as well as cloud services. Staying on top and ahead of development requires us to be fast-paced, regenerative and competitive. We have 15 years of expertise in this. Our operations are characterised by top expertise, alacrity and genuine interaction. We believe that we are the best partner for our clients on the path to digital change. Gofore currently employs nearly 390 people in Helsinki, Jyvaskyla, Tampere, Swansea, Munich and Madrid. Gofore was chosen as the best workplace in Finland and the second-best workplace in Europe in the Great Place to Work survey in 2017. More information: www.gofore.com.
WARSAW, Poland and BRUSSELS, Belgium and SAN FRANCISCO, March 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Orange Polska and Orange Belgium announced today that they signed an agreement with Salesforce, the global leader in CRM, and Vlocity, a leading industry cloud company. Salesforce and Vlocity will help Orange achieve business agility faster and reduce time to market by leveraging cloud-based solutions across Oranges digital and assisted channels.



Given todays digital landscape, its become imperative for Orange to strengthen its position in mobile and convergence markets with a customer-centric focus. Thanks to the expertise of Salesforce and Vlocity, Orange can further improve the quality of its customer experience by introducing a robust omnichannel experience for its customers. In addition, Orange sales teams and channel partners will be able to sell new innovative products and services smarter, helping them go the extra mile for Orange customers.

Orange Polska takes a significant step in its digital transformation

Orange Polska is moving a step further in its digital transformation. Having reached a significant level of consolidation of its digital and sales channels, Orange Polska now targets to offer a differentiating customer experience. said Jean-Francois Fallacher, CEO of Orange Polska. We choose Vlocity and Salesforce for their deployment speed but also for their advanced products and journey management capabilities. This partnership will enable us to meet our customers expectations for simple, transparent, easy-to-use and easy-to-manage offers. Innovation and customer experience are significant cornerstones of the Orange strategy.

Orange Belgium continues to digitalize the Orange customer journey

Orange Belgium continues its digital transformation. Next to renewing certain levels of our order management, we will now start strengthening our CRM capabilities and unifying our digital channels. In this perspective, we partnered up with Vlocity and Salesforce, said Michael Trabbia, CEO of Orange Belgium. We chose Salesforce and Vlocity because they demonstrate advantages on multiple fronts, including speed to deployment, accelerated time-to-market and streamlined service delivery. This collaboration will indeed enable us to further digitize our customer journey and to be even more relevant for our customers, who remain at the heart of the Orange Belgium strategy.

Salesforce and Vlocity empower Orange to fully engage in digital transformation

By embracing the cloud, Orange has taken an important step in its core mission to achieve outstanding customer connectivity and make its services easier to access and sell, said Jo Buvens, Country Manager Salesforce Belgium and Luxembourg. Were thrilled to be working with Vlocity on this important project. By leveraging Vlocitys industry specific cloud solutions and omnichannel applications, Orange can now fully engage in its digital transformation.

Were incredibly excited about this opportunity to join forces with Salesforce to provide Orange with the industry-focused digital software that they need to transform the way they do business, said Dominic Dinardo, EVP and Managing Director EMEA, Vlocity. Were thrilled to be selected as Oranges digital transformation technology and look forward to helping Orange capture more value from the cloud, reach more customers, sell smarter and sell more efficiently.

Vlocity Communications takes advantage of the omnichannel capabilities of Salesforce Service Cloud and includes comprehensive Enterprise Product Catalog, CPQ (Configure-Price-Quote), Contract Management, Retail Clienteling and Order Management functionality, and a comprehensive library of pre-built sales, service and billing inquiry management processes. Engineered specifically for communications service providers, Vlocity Communications conforms to TM Forum industry standards, and integrates flexibly with third-party systems through pre-built APIs and web services. For more information on Vlocity Communications, please click here.

Salesforce and others are among the trademarks of salesforce.com, inc.

About Vlocity

Vlocity, a Forbes Cloud 100 company and strategic Salesforce ISV, delivers industry-specific cloud and mobile software that embed digital, omnichannel processes for customer-centric industries. Built in partnership with Salesforce, the world's #1 CRM company, Vlocity is one of Salesforce's fastest growing partners. Vlocity Industry Cloud Apps embed industry-specific functionality, best practices and business processes for the Communications & Media, Insurance & Financial Services, Health Insurance, Energy and Public Sector industries. Vlocity enables companies to achieve faster business agility and time to value from the cloud across digital and traditional channels. Learn more at www.vlocity.com and follow us at @vlocity.

About Orange Polska

Orange Polska is Polands leading telecommunication provider, operating in all segments of the telecom market. We have the largest technical infrastructure in Poland, enabling us to provide services and convergent offers based on cutting-edge technologies, including fiber internet, 4G/LTE mobile data transmission and 4K TV. We invest intensely in both mobile and fixed networks, our ambition is to cover more than 5 million households in Poland with fiber by the end of 2020. Our mobile 4G/LTE network now covers almost the entire population of Poland. Orange Polska is one of the most socially committed companies in the country. The programs of Orange Foundation counteract digital exclusion and develop digital skills.

Orange Polska is listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. We are part of the global Orange Group.

More information on: https://www.orange.pl; follow us on Twitter: @Orange_Polska

About Orange Belgium

Orange Belgium is one of the leading telecommunication operators on the Belgian market, with over 3 million customers, and in Luxembourg through its subsidiary Orange Communications Luxembourg. As a convergent actor, we provide mobile telecommunication services, internet and TV to private clients, as well as innovative mobile and fixed line services to businesses. Our high-performance mobile network supports 2G, 3G, 4G and 4G+ technology and is the subject of ongoing investments. Orange Belgium is a subsidiary of the Orange Group, one of the leading European and African operators for mobile telephony and internet access, as well as one of the world leaders for telecommunication services to enterprises. Orange Belgium is listed on the Brussels Stock Exchange (OBEL). More information on: corporate.orange.be, www.orange.be or follow us on Twitter : @pressOrangeBe.

Press Contacts

Orange Polska

Wojciech Jabczynski - wojciech.jabczynski@orange.com

Orange Belgium

Annelore Marynissen  annelore.marynissen@orange.com - +32 (0) 479 01 60 58

Jean-Pascal Bouillon  jean-pascal.bouillon@orange.com  +32 (0) 473 94 87 31

press@orange.be

Contact investors

Siddy Jobe  ir@orange.be - +32(0)2 745 80 92

Vlocity

Bhava Communications for Vlocity

Rachel Austin

vlocity@bhavacom.com

979-324-7905


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39.27 line km seismic survey completed on Jama salar

Salar surface area extended under adjacent alluvial fan from 2,900ha to 5,400ha

Seismic data indicates the Jama Salar is developed up to 300m below surface

OPERATIONS UPDATE

Mobilisation of drill rigs to Pozuelos and Pastos Grandes ongoing

Seismic survey on Rio Grande started

Mobilisation and building of a Camp at Pozuelos started

Testing of lithium bearing brines from Pozuelos in process

Selection of engineers for the Pozuelos-Pastos Grandes Project ongoing

Local presence established in San Antonio de los Cobres for community engagement

TORONTO, March 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- LSC Lithium Corporation (LSC or together with its subsidiaries, the Company) (TSXV:LSC) is pleased to announce that the results for the recently completed high resolution seismic refraction tomography survey carried out on its Jama lithium project indicate that there could be significant depth to the brine bearing formations on the project. The Jama Salar is one of LSCs five major development projects and forms part of a joint venture in which LSC holds a 51% ownership and is the operator. Although LSCs focus is on developing its Pozuelos-Pastos Grandes Project, LSC plans to drill exploration holes in the second half of 2018 to investigate the potential of Jama to host lithium bearing brines at depth.

The Companys President and CEO, Ian Stalker, commented, It is very pleasing to note that Jama could host brine bearing formations at 300m below surface. The originally interpreted surface area of the salar of ~2,900ha is clearly significantly larger than first thought.

It's equally positive to note that our drive towards production from the Pozuelos-Pastos Grandes Project currently expected in 2021 is demonstrated by the commencement of membrane pilot plant test work on brines from this project - a vital and important first step for LSC.

This high resolution 39.27 line km seismic refraction tomography survey was conducted over the Jama Salar area and surrounding alluvial deposits located in the Jujuy province, northern Argentina. The main survey objective was the identification and detailed definition of brine bearing formations. The survey was also intended to map stratigraphy indicated by previously acquired CS-AMT data to be brine hosting which could also contain lithium.

Interpretation of the results indicates the potential for lithium bearing formations. Secondly, the results also indicate the presence of salar lithologies extending below the alluvial fan on the eastern side of the salar. The seismic lines which traverse the alluvials indicate the development of salar type lithologies extend east of the current end of lines. Mapping of the surface expression of the alluvial fan and interpretation of the eastern edge of the salar in this area suggests that a possible additional 2,500ha of salar could be present below the alluvials. LSC plans to drill exploration holes to collect and evaluate data from the brine and the hosts.

LSC, as the operator of the JV company Cuper S.A., maintains a good relationship and continues to work with the surrounding communities to ensure a complete information process and participation of the community throughout the development program, in coordination with the relevant authorities in the province of Jujuy.

Data Acquisition Parameters

The seismic field data was stored on hard disk of the central recording station during the daily production. A backup of the seismic field data was made on a Pendrive in SEG-2 format daily. The main recording parameters of the p-wave refraction tomography survey are listed as follows:

Geophone spacing: 6m

Source spacing: 36m inline

Outline Offsets: 90m, 180m, 360m, 648m (both ends)

Geophone type: 14 Hz Geospace (single) geophones with spike

Spread layout: 96 active channels

Seismic source: 150kg trailer mounted accelerated dropweight

Recording length: 250  1,000ms

Sample rate: 0.25ms

UPDATE ON OPERATIONS

The Company continues to advance its main projects, the Pozuelos-Pastos Grandes Project and Rio Grande with the mobilization of personnel and equipment. The Company has also commenced the planned seismic survey on Rio Grande. The mobilization and construction of a new 40 person camp has started for the Pozuelos-Pastos Grandes Project which will be built on site at Pozuelos and is targeted for completion by the end of May, 2018.

Furthermore, testing of brines from Pozuelos and Rio Grande is ongoing in order to understand the evolution of the brines' chemistry and assess the suitability of various extraction options. This will provide key input for an effective design and implementation of the necessary field test works that LSC plans to deploy this year.

LSC has also confirmed the employment of Paul Kluge as Vice President, Projects and is assembling a strong engineering team for the completion of a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) in its Pozuelos-Pastos Grandes Project this year leading into a full Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) in early 2019. An Expression of Interest request has been circulated to a selection of engineering companies that will be followed by a Scope of Services for the PEA and PFS.

LSC has recently confirmed the appointment of Pacha, an experienced Salta based company, for the generation of the Environmental Base Line study on the Pozuelos-Pastos Grandes and Rio Grande Projects. The work has commenced under the supervision of LSC's Environmental Coordinator and with the support of LSC's CSR team.

LSC has also opened an office in San Antonio de los Cobres, located at the core of the Puna region and located in close proximity to the local communities with whom LSC is intensely working. This emphasizes the commitment of LSC to the development of the communities and improves the required process of information dissemination to and participation by these communities.

LSC has also engaged Bay Street Communications (BSC) to provide strategic investor relations and capital markets communications services at a cost of CAD$3,500 per month. BSC is a private firm specializing in investor and public relations and strategic communications, assisting companies in achieving a full and fair valuation of their publicly traded securities. Either party may terminate or amend the terms of the engagement after six months upon 30 days written notice. To the knowledge of LSC, BSC does not have any interest, directly or indirectly, in the Company or its securities, or any right or intent to acquire such an interest. The appointment of BSC is subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval.

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 data underlying the information contained in this press release.

ABOUT LSC LITHIUM CORPORATION:

LSC Lithium has amassed a large portfolio of prospective lithium rich salars and is focused on developing its tenements located in five salars: Pozuelos, Pastos Grandes, Rio Grande, Salinas Grandes, and Jama. All LSC tenements are located in the Lithium Triangle, an area at the intersection of Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile where the worlds most abundant lithium brine deposits are found. LSC Lithium has a land package portfolio totaling approximately 300,000 hectares, which represents extensive lithium prospective salar holdings in Argentina.

For further information please contact:

LSC Lithium Corporation

Ian Stalker

President & Chief Executive Officer

151 Yonge Street, 11th floor

Toronto ON, Canada M5C 2W7

(416) 304 9384

Email: info@lsclithium.com

Web: lsclithium.com

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this news release constitute forward-looking information. These statements relate to future events or future performance, including statements as to the interpretation of the seismic results, results of brine testing, the likelihood of brine bearing formations existing at significant depth, the overall size of the Jama Salar, timing and ability to drill exploration holes in the future, timing and ability to complete the camps at Pozuelos, timing of completing the PEA, PFS and scope of services, and ongoing support from the communities. The use of any of the words could, anticipate, intend, expect, believe, will, projected, estimated and similar expressions and statements relating to matters that are not historical facts are intended to identify forward-looking information and are based on LSC's current belief or assumptions as to the outcome and timing of such future events. Whether actual results and developments will conform with LSC's expectations is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties including factors underlying management's assumptions, such as risks related to: title, permitting and regulatory risks; exploration and the establishment of any resources or reserves on LSC properties; volatility in lithium prices and the market for lithium; exchange rate fluctuations; volatility in LSCs share price; the requirement for significant additional funds for development that may not be available; changes in national and local government legislation, including permitting and licensing regimes and taxation policies and the enforcement thereof; regulatory, political or economic developments in Argentina or elsewhere; litigation; title, permit or license disputes related to interests on any of the properties in which the Company holds an interest; excessive cost escalation as well as development, permitting, infrastructure, operating or technical difficulties on any of the Company's properties; risks and hazards associated with the business of development and mining on any of the Company's properties. Actual future results may differ materially. The forward-looking information contained in this release is made as of the date hereof and LSC is not obligated to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. Because of the risks, uncertainties and assumptions contained herein, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The foregoing statements expressly qualify any forward-looking information contained herein. For more information, see the Company's filing statement on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

It is important to note that the information provided in this news release is preliminary in nature. There is no certainty that a potential mine will be realized. A mine production decision that is not based on a feasibility study demonstrating economic and technical viability does not provide adequate disclosure of the increased uncertainty and specific risks of failure associated with such a production decision. While no production decision has been made, there are inherent risks in proceeding with the development of the project and the companys planning for the project and these include, gold price forecasts, capital cost overruns, availability of skilled labor, environmental compliance and restrictions, community matters, potential operating cost estimates, mining costs, development costs, underground mining and geotechnical risks, metal recoverability, milling costs, and related matters.

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.
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Im sat with a gin and tonic in hand in the open sided communal lodge in Sable Alley. This is the newest lodge (opened in 2017) within the Khwai Private Reserve.

The scene beyond was of a muddy lagoon with a pod of a dozen or so hippos who were now making quite a racket.

Earlier they were quiet, lounging, semi-submerged in the water. But now dusk was falling, they were stretching their legs and their lungs coming out onto drier ground to graze. Im on safari without even having to move off the sofa.

Its a lovely way to start a safari, but it wasnt all this lazy. In the early morning, I wake just before dawn with a knock on the proverbial door: Im in a tented suite (a luxurious safari suite built on wooden platforms and with a four poster bed), so theres no door as such; but my human alarm clock is delivering tea, and for that Im always grateful.

At home Id almost never be up this early, but the Okavango becomes exceedingly hot later in the day, so I need to be up and about at daybreak if Im going to catch a glimpse of the animals before they sensibly retreat into the shade.

The lagoon in front of the lodge doesnt have a navigable inlet or outlet, so I hop in a 44 with Cristina, a retired solo traveller from Spain, and we drive a short distance through the reserve to a point where we can enter the water. Two polers  guides trained and licensed to paddle punt the mokoro (a type of canoe typical of the Okavango)  are waiting for us on the river bank.

In fact boat travel is very much the way to go. The rains from the Angolan Highlands flow from the mountains down the Okavango creating a massive sprawling seasonal wetland. Its a vast oasis in what would otherwise be desert.

What is a mokoro?

The mokoro is the traditional river craft in the delta. Its a flat bottom canoe originally carved out from the trunk of a sausage tree, though ours are fibreglass as Botswanas government has become concerned about the number of sausage trees being cut down.

The poler stands at the back, much as he would do on a punt, and theres space for one or two passengers inside. In my case, my co-passenger is a cool box filled with thermos flask of tea and coffee, plus a few mid morning snacks.

Safari from the water

We cast off from the riverbank with the slightest of shoves. The mokoro scarcely creates a dent in the surface of the water; it feels as though were skimming along on top. This is a good thing as the water level is low  its the end of the dry season  and theres not much depth between us and the clearly visible sandbanks.

Floating along at water level, Im on par with the water boatmen-like insects flitting across the channels and with the lilac coloured water lilies that somehow remain pristine, regardless of the mud and silt in the river.

Now and then a kingfisher spots a fish and dives straight and fast as an arrow into the water. More often than not, he is unsuccessful in actually catching his lunch, but hes persistent, hovering 20 feet or so in the air until he fixes on a replacement target. Maybe this time he will get lucky.

The mokoro safari is a sedate way to travel; we paddle along at no more than walking pace. Its a completely different perspective than that you get when walking as Im so low down. I cannot see over the reeds and grasses which fringe the channel, and as a result am totally oblivious to the fact that theres a herd of elephant up ahead until the first of them begins to ford the river.

We wait at a respectful, unthreatening distance, and watch as a dozen or so elephants cross in single file, trunk to tail. One of the smallest calves is up to his armpits in the water, struggling a little until his mother gives him a gentle push from behind.

We continue our journey once the elephant have passed, pulling up at a bend in the river. I clamber, slightly wobbly, ashore, and as I do so, spook the handful of flighty impala nearby. Theyre skittish at the best of times, and especially when they are with their young. But if you can get close enough to see them properly, they have the most beautiful, delicate markings.

The sun is already much higher in the sky, and though the heat of the day is not yet searing, the polers still set up the tea table in the shade of a sausage tree. There are buffalo grazing a short distance away, and every now and then a giraffe saunters into view gazing lazily at the scene ahead.

If there is another group of people in the Khwai Private Reserve today, they must be miles away. Im in a watery Eden, and its a pristine wilderness.

Fact File

Getting there: Flights from London are via Johannesburg to Maun (Botswana). The shortest route is with South African airlines  they have recently launched the new Airbus A330-300. From there catch a charter flight with Mack Air.

Accommodation: Sable Alley, Khwai Private Reserve, Accommodation is in luxury tents constructed on wooden stilts. They have uninterrupted views of the lagoon where hippo, elephants and buffalos come to drink.

Package: Africa Exclusive offer a seven night Botswana safari, including three nights at Sable Alley, international and internal flights, from 5,209 per person

Tip: You tend to get quite close to the animals, but keep binoculars (you can borrow them there) to spot the birds.
Belarus is an ideal short break. Spend a day or two in Belarus lively capital, Minsk and check out the museums, restaurants and nightlife. But then move on to the fairytale Castles of the famous Radziwill family and the surrounding enchanted forests.

You may know it as Belorussia but thats passe. Instead, refer to this ex-Soviet country as Belarus, a name that rolls off the tongue as easily as it is to visit these days. This authoritarian destination, dubbed The last dictatorship in Europe is now opening its doors 26 years after the fall of the Iron Curtain (it fell in 1991) that shrouded it in secrecy and mystery. Belarus is, at last, coming out of the cold.

Five-day Visa-waiver for tourists to Belarus

The visa-waiver program introduced by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in February 2017 offers visa-free travel for citizens of 80 countries, including the United Kingdom. The visa waiver covers a five-day stay as long as you enter via Minsk National Airport (also known as Minsk-2). This open doors policy for travellers makes entering the country  once a labour of love  into a trouble-free process. In short, Belarus wants to boost tourism.

About Belarus

This landlocked country, at 80,151 square miles (207,591 km) is the size of two of its neighbours  Lithuania and Latvia. It is also hemmed by three more countries: Poland, Russia and Ukraine. It is a modern country that still has echos of the past evident within its wide streets and in its architecture that rose up in the style of the Stalinist Empire. Theres a good standard of living and a well-thought out infrastructure that means getting around is easy.



There are four national parks Narochansky, Pripyatsky, Belovezhskaya Pushcha and Braslav Lakes, as well as two reserves: Berezinsky Biosphere Reserve and Polesie State Radio ecological Reserve. The 700,000 hectares of forests, swamps and lakes act to purify the air which means you can breathe easy.

Weekenders, city breakers, nature lovers, hikers, anglers and birdwatchers would love it.

Belarus in five days

Belarus is an ideal short break. Spend a day or two in Belarus lively capital, Minsk and check out the museums, restaurants and nightlife. But then move on to the fairytale Castles of the famous Radziwill family and the surrounding enchanted forests. Be sure to visit Belovezhskaya Pushcha National Park and the Brest Fortress  a place connected with the Second World War.

Incidentally, if you should cross the border from Brest and Grodno, you can stay in these territories for up to 10 days.

Accommodation

Stay in the wilderness and try your hand at home cooking. Its tremendous value at 77 euros. A room in a hotel in a forest location not too far from the capital would set you back around 33 euros. As would a night spent in the Bialowieza Forest National Park, the most ancient and largest forest in Europe.

What to buy

If you have a sweet tooth consider buying their natural honey, condensed milk, cranberries in sugar, rye beer and chocolate, as well as zephyr  a type of soft confectionary. All of these are popular in Belarus.

Currency

The local currency is the Belarusian ruble and you will find it easy to exchange euros and dollars. Pound Sterling is not on the radar and hard to exchange. You can of course chose to pay by credit or debit card and you can use your plastic at ATMs to withdraw cash. TIP: inform your credit card supplier of your trip to Belarus.
Job Title: Senior Programme Assistant

Organisation: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

(UNHCR)

Position No.: 10028896

Vacancy Notice: 032/2017

Duty Station: Uganda

Reports to: Senior Programme Officer

Post Grade: GL5

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.

Job Summary: The Senior Programme Assistant will receive guidance

from more senior programme staff in the operation. S/he will receive indirect

guidance from other sections and units relevant to the country programme(s).

UNHCR Manual, Operations Plans, UN and UNHCR financial/budgetary rules and

regulations will guide the work of the Senior Programme Assistant. The

incumbent will have contacts within the organization and outside the duty

station, as well as with partners and other stakeholders to collect

information, monitor programme activities and implement administrative

requirements.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

The incumbent

collects, registers and maintains information on project activities.

Prepare status and

progress reports, prepare tables and draft routine correspondence.

Prepare background

material for use in discussions and briefing sessions.

Undertake proper

collection, monitoring and use of baselines, standards and indicators

needed to measure and analyse programme performance, trends and target

interventions.

Keenly review the

implementation and performance of IPs agreements through appropriate

physical monitoring to evaluate the projects by reviewing work plans,

progress reports, budget, financial reports and expenditures. This may

include field visits for specific monitoring and evaluation issues.

The Programme

Assistant will apply UNHCR corporate tools (e.g. Global Focus, Focus

Client) to assess the technical soundness of the operation and generate

data for evidence-based decisions at the country-level.

Assist in ensuring

compliance in issuance of audit certificates for Implementing

Partners.

Perform any other

duties as required.

Key Result Areas:

UNHCR country office

has sufficient administrative assistance and support in routine services

and activities within Programme Section thus better able to meet the needs

of persons of concern.

IP agreements are

established in a timely manner, regularly monitored and reported on in

compliance with established guidelines and procedures.









Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

The ideal candidate

for the United Nations Senior Programme Assistant career opportunity

should have completed secondary education courses/ training/ certificate

in Business Administration, Social Science, International Law or related

field

At least four years of

previous job experience relevant to the function

Prior exposure to

UNHCR refugee operations and functions relating to office administration

and programme activities

Good computer skills

(in MS office)

Fluency in English and

working knowledge of another relevant UN language

Completion of the

UNHCR Learning programmes or specific training relevant to functions of

the position is desired

Good knowledge of

UNHCR financial rules, procedures and processes.

Working knowledge of

UNHCR specific programmes (MSRP, Focus, etc.).

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: 28th March 2018
Job Title: WASH Program Manager

Organisation: Catholic Relief Services (CRS)

Duty Station: Uganda

Reports to: Emergency Coordinator

About US:

Catholic Relief Services (CRS) carries out the commitment of the

Bishops of the United States to assist the poor and vulnerable overseas. Our

Catholic identity is at the heart of our mission and operations. We welcome as

a part of our staff and as partners people of all faiths and secular traditions

who share our values and our commitment to serving those in need. CRS is an

international non-governmental organization (NGO) supporting relief and

development work in over 93 countries around the world. CRS programs assist

persons on the basis of need, regardless of creed, ethnicity or nationality.

CRS has worked in Uganda since 1965, initially providing emergency assistance

to Sudanese refugees living in the north. Over the years, CRS has expanded its

programming to also address development needs in western, central and eastern

Uganda. CRS projects in Uganda currently include agricultural livelihoods,

health and social services and emergency response and recovery. CRS implements

its programs through partnerships with local organizations, including the

Catholic Church, other faith-based organizations and community entities for

maximum impact and sustainability.

Job Summary: The WASH

Program Manager will oversee the implementation and lead the CRS WASH

operations across Bidi Bidi Refugee Settlement in Yumbe district. The Program

Manager will represent CRS in Sector Coordination Meetings and manage

relationship with other WASH partners, private sector partners, UNHCR, and OPM

representatives to build synergies and promote coordination in WASH

programming. In addition, the Program Manager will work closely with the

Emergency Coordinator and Business Development Manager to seek and respond to

WASH-related fundraising opportunities aimed at increasing access to

sustainable WASH services to South Sudanese Refugees and Host communities.



Responsibilities: Key Duties andResponsibilities:

Program Implementation Role

Manage and implement all WASH activities

throughout relevant project cycles  project design, start-up,

implementation and close-out  to ensure efficient and effective

implementation in line with CRS program quality principles and standards,

donor requirements, and good practices.

Ensure that Field Engineers and Senior

Project Officer Hygiene Promotion monitor CRS Field activities and

contractors adheres to Health and Safety standards during construction

activities.

Staff Management

Effectively manage talent and supervise

the WASH team. Manage team dynamics and staff well-being.

Provide coaching, strategically tailor

individual development plans, contribute to the recruitment process of

project staff, and complete performance management for direct reports.

Coordinate the identification of staff

capacity gaps and technical assistance needs for capacity strengthening

and required interventions to support quality project implementation

Budget Management Role:

Coordinate and monitor financial and

material resources relevant to project needs. Through planning and oversight

ensure efficient use of project resources

Monitor project development/implementation

and identify deviation from approved project plans and implement

corrective measures when necessary to ensure that the partners meet the

project objectives.

Reporting Role:

Support the Emergency Coordinator to

prepare and submit quality monthly Sit Reps, quarterly and annual donor

reports.

Help identify, assess and strengthen

partnerships relevant to the WASH sector, applying appropriate application

of partnership concepts, tools and approaches.

Ensure the integration WASH across other

program areas including Livelihoods, Shelter and private sector

engagement.

Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning Role:

Ensure the development and implementation

of a strong Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL)

system using appropriate CRS tools and resources to maximize project

impact on beneficiaries.

Promote MEAL and knowledge management by

leading program/project reviews and reflections with staff and partner

representatives and documentation of good practices and lessons learned

for assessments, to adjust strategies and implementation plans, to inform

future programming initiatives and approaches, and to contribute to

organizational learning.

Business Development and Growth: Act as a key resource person

in project design and proposal development in WASH programming area,

gap-filling and taking on growth responsibilities, as needed. Act as a key resource personin project design and proposal development in WASH programming area,gap-filling and taking on growth responsibilities, as needed.

Coordination and Partnership Role:

Closely work with WASH Technical Sector Working Group and other

Coordinating mechanisms at Zonal and District level Closely work with WASH Technical Sector Working Group and otherCoordinating mechanisms at Zonal and District level









Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

The ideal candidate for the Catholic

Relief Services (CRS) WASH Program Manager job placement should preferably

hold a Masters Degree in Civil Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering,

Hydrogeology or Construction Engineering or Masters Degree in Public

Health, the Social Sciences with experience in WASH infrastructure and

social and behavioral change interventions

Additional experience may substitute for

some education.

Project management experience in WASH is

highly desirable

Five years work experience in WASH

programming; experience in management positions in donor funded WASH projects

is an added advantage;

Demonstrable experience in budget

management

Previous experience in business

development/fundraising in the WASH sector.

At least three years experience working

with INGOs in the field of Emergency WASH or other infrastructure WASH

programs.

Implementation experience of water supply:

gravity fed systems and distribution networks, motorized systems,

experience in repairing hand pumps, tap stands, etc.

Previous implementation experience in

sanitation: construction experience especially different types of latrine

and toilet technologies

Experience using MS Windows and MS Office

packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Web Conferencing Applications,

information management systems.

Directly supervise two Field Engineers and

a Senior Project Officer WASH

Well-developed interpersonal and team

skills and proven ability to be flexible in demanding situation

Assessment, analytical and planning skills



A capacity and desire to pass on skills

and information, a confident communicator and willing to work in a

collaborative and respectful way with the beneficiaries.

Knowledge of and commitment to

humanitarian principles (NGO / Red Cross code of conduct) and with Sphere

humanitarian charter and minimum standards

Fluent English language (speaking and

writing) and knowledge of the local language in Yumbe district, Arabic is

an added advantage.

Previous experience of working with local

partners including local authorities/settlement leadership

Proven experience in gender analysis and

integrating gender & diversity into the emergency program

Flexibility and ability to work under

pressure and meeting deadlines in changing emergency contexts/ situations

Communicates strategically under pressure

Manages stress and complexity

Actively promotes safety and security

Manages and implements high-quality

emergency programs

Willingness to be based in Yumbe

Agency-wide Competencies (for all CRS Staff): These

are rooted in the mission, values and principles of CRS and used by each staff

member to fulfill his or her responsibilities and to achieve the desired

results.

Serves with Integrity

Models Stewardship

Cultivates

Constructive Relationships

Promotes Learning

How to Apply:

All candidates should email a cover letter and updated CV only

to ug_recruitment@crs.org

NB:

Large files and/or

scans of documents will lead to rejection of your application

All applications that

do not contain this exact subject line will be rejected and not read

In the subject line of

the email, copy and paste WASHPROGRAMMANAGERYUMBE

Deadline: 13th April 2018
SPARTANBURG, S.C., March 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In September 2017, Mexico suffered destructive earthquakes of magnitudes 8.1, 7.1, and 6.4. Mexican national civil defense, alumni of the National Defense College, businesses, and countless other groups activated to help with recovery. More large quakes occurred in southern Mexico in February of 2018.



Despite extensive experience and preparation, these organizations immediately faced an overwhelming challenge. They needed to identify who required emergency medical assistance, who needed food and shelter, who needed help rebuilding, and for how long a time  quickly and securely.

Identity becomes exponentially more difficult to establish after earthquakes and other natural disasters. Paper records might no longer exist or never existed in the first place. Government or non-governmental organization (NGO) facilities may not be accessible, safe, or structurally sound. It might take weeks to re-establish telecommunications and electricity. The potential for fraud, theft, or misuse is immense.

Una Torre de Ayuda (A Tower of Help) set out to overcome these obstacles and accelerate recovery through mobile identity management, using lessons learned from previous earthquakes in Mexico. The organization, based in Mexico City, reached out to Integrated Biometrics for fingerprint scanners that operate under extreme environmental conditions, such as those that were far too prevalent in the affected Mexican regions.

Integrated Biometrics rugged, portable Kojak 10-finger units run for hours off the power provided by a smartphone or similar device connected to a cellular or satellite communications network. They handle wide ranges of temperatures and finger conditions and operate in direct sunlight, making them ideal for use in the field.

Una Torre de Ayuda will combine Kojak biometric fingerprint scanners with advanced identity management software to enroll individuals and families for essential services delivery across the affected areas. Kojak's ability to operate without developed infrastructure will enable Una Torre de Ayuda to enroll survivors at the onset of recovery operations. Aid workers will use this system to verify identity as long as assistance is needed, ensuring that people who need help receive it and fraudulent requests are denied.

We are very grateful that Integrated Biometrics understood the importance of our need and had the technology to help us assist victims in rebuilding their lives, said Luis Vidales, Chief Executive Officer of T.C. Vilsa and founder of Una Torre de Ayuda. Even better, they donated their Kojak fingerprint scanners so that we can use more of our limited funds to help people in need rather than purchase hardware.

We are proud to help organizations such as Una Torre de Ayuda, added Stephen Thies, Chief Executive Officer of Integrated Biometrics. Identity is so much more than just law enforcement or border control. It also provides a foundation that betters peoples lives. Were glad our scanners can help make a difference in Mexico, both now and in the future.

For more information on Integrated Biometrics or the companys comprehensive line of rugged, low-power, compact EL optical fingerprint scanners, visit www.integratedbiometrics.com or email sales@integratedbiometrics.com. For more information about Una Torre de Ayuda, contact T.C. Vilsa at id@vilsa.com.mx or on the web at www.tcvilsa.com

About Integrated Biometrics

Integrated Biometrics, LLC designs and manufactures FBI-certified fingerprint sensors for law enforcement, military operations, homeland security, national identity, election validation, social services, and a wide range of commercial applications. The companys patented light-emitting sensor (LES) technology enables lightweight scanners that outperform traditional prism-based devices in size, power consumption, portability, and reliability. Identity management solutions providers, government agencies, and corporations around the world rely on Integrated Biometrics products to enroll and verify individual identity quickly and accurately, even in remote locations.

About Torre de Ayuda

Una Torre de Ayuda (A Tower of Help) is a private humanitarian aid organization that provides disaster support for families and individuals in Mexico, wherever assistance it is most needed. Founded 22 years ago by Mexico businessman Luis Vidales, Chief Executive Officer of T.C. Vilsa, a leading provider of security and high technology solutions to the Mexico marketplace, Una Torre de Ayuda uses technology to accelerate recovery efforts and help individuals and families rebuild their lives when earthquakes and other major calamities damage civil infrastructure and severely disrupt essential social services.

Media Contact:

David Wright

Integrated Biometrics

+1-408-363-2843

david.wright@integratedbiometrics.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/0796db89-0182-4a25-9d7b-82c1c79dff0c




Paul Weldin isnt a crook. Yet youd be forgiven for thinking he was given the way Ageas has treated him over a disagreement about whether his family home in East Devon had five or seven bedrooms before it burnt down last April.

Paul, as Ageas rightly points out, made a mistake when he filled in his insurance forms.

Even if the 42-year-old sales manager didnt consider his two basic attic rooms as bedrooms, he should at least have tried to list these somewhere else on the forms. Without this information, the insurer argues, it had an inaccurate impression of the size of his house.

Nightmare: Paul and Sophie Weldin, pictured with children Daisy, ten, Woody, eight, and twins Albie and Dexter, five, face a big bill to rebuild their East Devon home

But whether the blame lies with baffling online forms on price comparison websites, a moment of absent-mindedness on Pauls part, or something else  even the Ombudsman agrees that he was careless rather than deliberate in making an error.

Paul had no idea, of course, that this seemingly minor detail would result in Ageas refusing to pay a single penny when a freak fire destroyed the house.

It left him and his wife Sophie, 44, facing a 460,000 bill and relying on the generosity of their friends for clothes and toys for their four young children.

You should never cut corners on an insurance policy.

But what I find astonishing in the Weldins case is that the Ageas policy Paul took out actually covered rebuild costs up to 650,000, plus 65,000 for contents  far more than they need.

So should the number of bedrooms bear any relevance to their claim?

If the company wanted, it could easily deduct the cost of rebuilding two of the bedrooms from its payout.

Refusing any cover at all seems wildly disproportionate. As we all move to buying insurance online, these types of wrangles may become more commonplace, so its vital that customers can rely on a strong safety net when disputes arise around claims being treated unfairly and with prejudice.

The Ombudsman is starting to look woefully unfit for this purpose. Reports suggest staff are too inexperienced and too poorly-trained to cope with the amount of cases theyre asked to tackle.

Did the Weldins case fall foul of these failings? A spokesman insists not.

Whatever the truth, Paul and Sophies terrifying story is a reminder of how easy it is to trip up when buying insurance online.

Make certain all your details are 100 per cent accurate and check with the insurer over the phone if youre unsure.

If you dont, you can expect short shrift should the worst happen.

Stop the snoopers

If you're a fan of Facebook, Twitter and the rest, youre effectively saying youre happy to give up some privacy. Fair enough  thats your prerogative.

But bear in mind that banks, insurers, mobile phone firms and even the taxman now think that what you post online is somehow their business, too.

As we reveal today, social media giants are letting financial firms access sensitive information about your life  if they stump up a load of cash and you give permission.

Facebook and others now have serious questions to answer.

For example, just how easily are social media firms granting access to your data? Can they be sure youve given your permission?

And how do they know the information isnt used for nefarious purposes? It also troubles me that insurers and banks think they can work you out from an online post  for instance, that youre more likely to crash if you use exclamation marks on Facebook.

What utter cobblers. Until social media giants start acting as online policemen for your data, the snoopers must be reined in.

Meter bullying

Keep sending me examples of firms using bullying tactics to make you install a smart energy meter. Remember, you do not need to have one of these devices in your home.

They send readings direct to your supplier, so you dont get inaccurate estimated bills and you can see how much gas and electricity youre using minute-by-minute.

But youre giving up privacy and are unlikely to be able to switch the meter to another supplier for a cheaper deal.

Just say no if you feel pressured, and tell us if the bullies wont leave you alone.

d.hyde@dailymail.co.uk
Flight drama: EasyJet chief executive Johan Lundgren

Drama over Germany yesterday where EasyJets Mr Whippy-haired chief executive Johan Lundgren, 51, was accompanying journalists on a flight to Berlin.

A passenger was restrained after attempting to smoke in the lavatories. Witnesses say when cabin staff escorted him back to his seat, a bottle of vodka was discovered on his person.

The high-spirited ruffian was last seen being frogmarched through the terminal by polizei.

His fate remains unknown, but a period of self-reflection in the airport drunk tank was a distinct possibility.

Was Deutsche Banks swoop for Goldman Sachss suave European chief Richard Gnodde, 56, as a replacement for droopy-faced chief John Cryan, 57, a tad ambitious?

Gnoddes massive 13.4million pay is surely way beyond their reach, for starters.

He and elegant wife Kara are also heavy hitters on the London charity circuit, which theyd be unlikely to swap for boring old Frankfurt.

Most pertinently, whod drop Goldman for dead duck Deutsche?

Is there no end to Financial Times editor Lionel Barbers grandiosity? Hes spent almost a year as acting interim chairman of the Tate, charged with finding someone to take the role full time.

But with the brazenness of an increasingly dotty Roman emperor, hes decided to confer the illustrious position on himself.

Since hell be seeking large donations from wealthy business figures, hes going to be waddling through a conflict-of-interest minefield.

But fearless Lionel, 62, informs underlings: I believe I can do both jobs. An acquaintance whispers: Lionels pomposity is now almost unbearable.

Spotted in the audience of Jacob Rees-Moggs speech on Brexit. Melroses perma-tanned vice-chairman David Roper, 67. Light relief, perhaps, from the bloody boardroom battle over GKN?

Re GKN, its contribution to the war effort was to construct 800 Spitfires. The firms heroic late chairman, Sir Barrie Heath, flew one during the Battle of Britain, which his parents had donated to the RAF.

When his squadron commander once criticised the way Heath landed, he responded: This is my Spit and Ill fly it any bloody way I like.
New York, NY, March 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Zion Market Research has published a new report titled IoT Healthcare Market: Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and forecast 2016 - 2022.

The global IoT Healthcare Market was valued at around USD 5,800 million in the year 2014 and it is expected to reach approximately USD 14,660 million by 2022. The global IoT Healthcare market is expected to exhibit a CAGR of more than 11.0% between 2017 and 2022.

Browse through 95 Tables & 69 Figures spread over 160 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Global IoT Healthcare Market Size & Trends 2016: Industry Research & Forecast Up to 2022.

Request Free Sample copy of Global IoT Healthcare Market Report @ https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/sample/iot-healthcare-market

Report Brief:

 The report covers forecast and analysis for the Global IoT Healthcare Market on a global and regional level.

 The report includes the positive and the negative factors that are influencing the growth of the market.

 Detailed information about the market opportunities is discussed.

 The key target audience for the market has been determined in the report.

 The revenue generated by the prominent industry players has been analyzed in the report.

 The market numbers have been calculated using top-down and the bottom-up approaches.

 The Global IoT Healthcare Market has been analyzed using Porters Five Forces Analysis.

 The market is segmented on the basis of Component, applications, connectivity and end user, which in turn bifurcated on a regional level as well.

 All the segments have been evaluated based on the present and the future trends

 The report deals with the in-depth quantitative and qualitative analyses of the IoT Healthcare Market.

 The report includes the detailed company profiles of the prominent market players



Ask The Analyst: https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/ask-to-analyst/iot-healthcare-market



Global IoT Healthcare Market is a part of IoT industry. The sensors used in IoT healthcare devices provide interconnectivity and sharing of data for better and in-depth analysis of healthcare reports. In developed countries, where IoT devices are used extensively, remote monitoring and telemedicine like advanced healthcare facilities are being practiced.

The global IoT Healthcare Market was valued at around USD 5800.0 million in the year 2014 and it is expected to reach approximately USD 14000.0 million by 2024. The global IoT Healthcare Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 12.2% between 2017 and 2024.

The major factor driving the growth of IoT Healthcare Market is the increasing implementation of cloud computing across the healthcare facilities. The cloud computing provides access to the patient data to the manufacturer of the devices and also to the services provider. Hence the analysis of the patient data can be done from a remote location as well. Owing to increasing adoption of IoT in healthcare, the services are becoming more cost-effective. These factors are likely to boost the growth in the IoT healthcare market over the forecast period.

Browse the full " IoT Healthcare Market by Component (Medical Devices, Services, Systems & Software); for Application (Clinical Operations & Work Flow Management, Telemedicine, Connected imaging, Medication Management, Inpatient Management and Others); by Connectivity (WiFi, Bluetooth Low Energy, Zigbee, Near Field Communication (NFC), Cellular and Satellite); by End User (Clinical Research Organization (CR), Government and Defense Institutions, Hospitals, Surgical Centers and Clinics and Research and Diagnostics Laboratories) Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and forecast 2016 - 2022" report at https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/report/iot-healthcare-market

Reduction in the cost of connected devices is the opportunity for the market. The lack of consistency in interconnectivity, interoperability, and security issue is the challenging factors for the growth of the IoT devices market.

Systems and Software is one of the important component type segment which is growing with a CAGR of 12.6% over the forecast period. The systems and software consist of IoT sensor and required software for the functioning of the medical devices. There are several types of sensors available in the market such as temperature sensor, heart rate sensor, blood pressure sensor etc. Heart rate sensors enable individuals to obtain real-time data and allow tracking their heart rate from anywhere anytime.

Telemedicine sector is dominating the IoT Healthcare Market by application type segment which is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 12.7% over the forecast period. As Telemedicine allows rapid deployment of healthcare to a developing population through relatively low-cost clinics, it is likely to grow at higher CAGR and reach USD 4164.3 Million by 2022. Remote Patient Monitoring which is an application subtype of telemedicine is estimated to reach USD 2297.7 by end of 2022 owing to higher adoption in the developed countries.

Inquire more about this report before purchase @ https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/inquiry/iot-healthcare-market

Wifi is growing at a CAGR of 12.0% from 2017 to 2022, owing to its cost-effectiveness. As Wifi offers major benefits of coverage, ease of use and capacity, it is being widely used in the Healthcare IoT devices. Wifi is estimated to reach USD 4612.6 Million by end of 2022. Hospitals, Surgical Centers, and Clinics end-user type segment is like to contribute a maximum share of the Global IoT healthcare market over the forecast period. It is likely to cross a benchmark of USD 5473.4 million by end of 2022.

North America contributes a share of 40.3% of the total IoT healthcare Market in 2016, owing to the advanced healthcare facilities. In the region of North America, U.S. holds the maximum share of 73.7% in 2016.followed by North America, Europe holds the maximum share of the global IoT healthcare market and is likely to grow at a CAGR of 11.7% over the forecast period.

The report includes detailed profiles of the prominent market players that are trending in the market. The list of the players that are compiled in the report is Cerner Corporation., Diabetizer Ltd. & Co. KG, Infosys Limited, Medtronic Public Limited Company, Microsoft Corporation, Proteus Digital Health, Inc. among others.

The prominent market players maintain the competitive edge in the global market by making investments in the mergers and acquisitions and by increasing their product portfolio. In October 2017, Medtronic care and American Well announce the strategic partnership to integrate Telehealth capabilities. In April 2017, Castlight Health, Inc. announced that it has completed its acquisition of Jiff to create the most comprehensive health benefits platform in the industry.

Request customized copy of report @ https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/custom/1393

The global IoT Healthcare market is segmented on the basis of the component type, application, connectivity, end user, and the geographical regions.

Global IoT Healthcare Market: Component Segment Analysis

Medical Devices Implanted Medical Devices Wearable External Medical Devices Stationary Medical Devices

Services Professional Services System Integration Services Maintenance and Support Services

Systems & Software Data Analytics Remote Devices Management Network Bandwidth Management Network Security Application Security



Global IoT Healthcare Market: Application Segment Analysis

Clinical Operations & Work Flow Management

Telemedicine a. Remote Patient Monitoring b. Store & Forward Telemedicine c. Interactive Telemedicine

Connected imaging

Medication Management

Inpatient Management

Others

Global IoT Healthcare Market: Connectivity Segment Analysis

WiFi

Bluetooth Low Energy

Zigbee

Near Field Communication (NFC)

Cellular

Satellite

Global IoT Healthcare Market: End-User Segment Analysis

Clinical Research Organization (CR)

Government and Defense Institutions

Hospitals, Surgical Centers, and Clinics

Research and Diagnostics Laboratories

Global IoT Healthcare Market: Regional Segment Analysis

North America The U.S.

Europe UK France Germany

Asia Pacific China Japan India

Latin America Brazil

The Middle East and Africa

Related Reports:

Telehealth Market: https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/report/global-telehealth-market

Medical Education Market: https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/report/medical-education-market

Telemedicine Market: https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/report/telemedicine-market

Home Infusion Therapy Market: https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/report/home-infusion-therapy-market

Intraocular Lens Market: https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/report/intraocular-lens-market

About Us:

Zion Market Research is an obligated company. We create futuristic, cutting-edge, informative reports ranging from industry reports, company reports to country reports. We provide our clients not only with market statistics unveiled by avowed private publishers and public organizations but also with vogue and newest industry reports along with pre-eminent and niche company profiles. Our database of market research reports comprises a wide variety of reports from cardinal industries. Our database is been updated constantly in order to fulfill our clients with prompt and direct online access to our database. Keeping in mind the clients needs, we have included expert insights on global industries, products, and market trends in this database. Last but not the least, we make it our duty to ensure the success of clients connected to usafter allif you do well, a little of the light shines on us.

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Savers have just ten days to use up this years 20,000 Isa allowance  so where should you invest for the best returns?

Money Mail analysis of the best-selling Isa investments found star fund managers such as Terry Smith and Neil Woodford are proving most popular among savers as the tax year comes to an end on April 5.

But experts say following the crowd isnt necessarily the smartest option at this time of year.

Bubbling: Fevertree Drinks, which makes tonic water and ginger beer, has seen its share price rocket since it listed on the stock exchange in 2014

Laith Khalaf, senior analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, says: We always see a final flurry of activity at the end of March as investors look to make use of their Isa allowances  and sometimes they can find themselves short of time to choose their investments.

In these circumstances its tempting to simply go for well-known names, but sometimes talented fund managers lie off the beaten path, too.

Importantly, once youve put your money in the Isa, you dont have to invest it straight away  so you can take your time over picking funds and make sure you get a good spread of skilful fund managers running your portfolio.

The most bought funds through Chelsea Financial Services are Terry Smiths 14 billion Fundsmith Equity fund and Neil Woodfords flagship Woodford Equity Income fund.

The two funds also feature in the top ten most popular investments made through fund supermarket A.J. Bell.

Mr Smith and Mr Woodford have attracted a loyal following after building stellar investment track records.

Fundsmith Equity has turned 10,000 into 22,330 over the past five years by investing in huge brands such as Microsoft and PayPal. Mr Smith rarely changes his picks. The return compares to 15,620 on average for rival global funds.

Mr Woodford made a name for himself investing in big UK businesses such as cigarette maker Imperial Brands and up-and-coming names such as online estate agent Purplebricks.

He left Invesco Perpetual to launch his own fund management group in 2014. His flagship Equity Income fund has struggled in recent months and is down 13 per cent over the past year, but is still popular with investors who expect him to turn a corner.

Mr Khalaf says: Investors might be surprised at the gems they can find by looking at lesser-known names.

Jason Hollands, managing director at Tilney Bestinvest, is looking to the fast-growing economies of emerging markets such as Brazil, India and China to use up his Isa allowance.

He likes the Fidelity Emerging Markets fund, which has turned 10,000 into 16,200 over the past five years.

In demand: Fund managers such as Terry Smith and Neil Woodford (pictured) are proving most popular among savers as the tax year comes to an end on April 5

Among its largest investments is Chinese dairy company Mengniu  a leading maker of baby formula.

Parents in the country are particularly picky about which baby formula they use after a contamination scandal in 2008 which killed six children, and Mengniu has established a solid reputation.

Another of his top picks is Lindsell Train Global Equity, which backs businesses across the world that make some of our favourite products.

One of these is Unilever, which makes PG Tips teabags and Hellmans Mayonnaise and sells more than one billion Magnum ice creams every year.

The fund has turned 10,000 into 21,600 over the past five years. Darius McDermott likes the JOHCM Asia ex Japan fund, which finds firms in Taiwan, China and South Korea and has turned 10,000 into 14,440 over the past five years.

One of its biggest investments is Indonesian convenience store chain Alfamart which has more than 10,000 stores across southeast Asia.

Some investors are avoiding funds which focus on the UK because they are worried about the Brexit negotiations having a negative impact on the stock market.

For example, many of the most popular funds among Hargreaves Lansdown customers invest overseas, with First State Asia Focus second on the list, Crux European Special Situations third and JP Morgan Emerging Markets fifth.

But Mr Khalaf says that now could be a good time to back out-of-favour UK funds while share prices are cheaper.

He likes Standard Life UK Smaller Companies, which would have doubled 10,000 to 19,860 over the past five years.

It invests in Fevertree Drinks, which makes tonic water and ginger beer and has seen its share price rocket more than 17 times since it listed on the stock exchange in November 2014.

Mr McDermott likes the Livingbridge UK Micro Cap fund, which specialises in small, fast-growing British businesses such as sportswear store Foot-asylum.

The up-and-coming retailer was launched by one of the founders of rival High Street group JD Sports. The fund has turned 10,000 into 23,930 over the past five years.

Mr McDermott says: Investors shouldnt make the mistake of just buying what everyone else is buying  you need to invest in a fund that fits your own needs and goals. The important thing is to take advantage of your Isa allowance because its use it or lose it.

money.mail@dailymail.co.uk
The former chief executive who took Lloyds to the brink of collapse has won a legal battle to receive a 1.4million bonus it withheld.

A judge ruled Eric Daniels had earned the money for overseeing a tie-up with toxic rival HBOS, which was bought under his leadership during the financial crisis.

Lloyds had insisted he did not deserve the payment because the tainted deal later brought the bank to its knees and forced a 20.3billion taxpayer bailout.

A judge ruled Eric Daniels had earned the money for overseeing a tie-up with toxic rival HBOS, which was bought under his leadership during the financial crisis

But in a blow to shareholders who have seen their shares fall from 360p to 60p, the bank has now been ordered to pay Daniels in full within a month.

Campaigners and MPs blasted him for demanding the cash, saying he has been rewarded for a debacle that cost millions of shareholders their life savings when the lenders stock price crashed.

Labour MP John Mann, who is a member of the Treasury select committee, said: This man has got no shame.

A troubled tenure Eric Daniels is the American who ran Lloyds from 2003 to 2010 He oversaw the disastrous merger with HBOS in 2008 at the height of the financial crisis Weeks later, the bank needed a 20.3billion taxpayer bailout He lost a 2.3million bonus after bank sunk to a 6.3billion loss The bank also took away his 1.4million bonus relating to the merger

I trust hell be donating all of this money to charity. I suggest Sport Relief. Hes simply being rewarded for failure.

Fran Boait of banking reform group Positive Money said: A decade on from the financial crisis, ordinary people are still paying the price for banks reckless behaviour.

But instead of being held to account for their disastrous decisions, bosses like Eric Daniels have been rewarded with eye-watering salaries and bonuses.

Daniels, 66, had been promised a payout of shares in 2012 if he oversaw cost-cutting targets by combining Lloyds with HBOS.

He hit these goals but the bank refused to pay the money given the huge crisis the deal had caused.

Mrs Justice Cockerill has ruled in the High Court that the bank did not have the power to do this and that Daniels must get the shares  worth 1.4million at todays prices.

Lloyds former investment bank head Truett Tate, who had also sued over withheld shares, will get stock worth 933,000.

Lloyds has been ordered to pay them what they are owed in lost dividends, and to cover their legal costs.

American Daniels left Lloyds with a 5million pension pot and now works for small City investment bank Stormharbour.

Lloyds, Daniels, Tate and other directors are being sued by furious investors over the HBOS deal, which sent the banks stock price crashing and left shareholders nursing huge losses.

A Lloyds spokesman said yesterday: We accept the courts decision and now consider this matter closed.
Glaxosmithkline is selling its iconic malt drink Horlicks to help fund a 9.2billion buyout of its joint-venture partner's healthcare arm.

It has teamed up with Swiss firm Novartis for the past three years to produce cold remedies and Sensodyne toothpaste.

But now GSK is to take over Novartis's stake, buying the 36.5 per cent of the partnership it does not already own for 9.2billion.

Glaxosmithkline is selling its iconic malt drink Horlicks to help fund a 9.2billion buyout of its joint-venture partner's healthcare arm

But it has also pledged to review the company's healthcare nutrition arm  which makes most of its money from sales of 145-year-old drinks brand Horlicks in India  with a view to selling it.

In India, Horlicks is popular with sporty children, as it is seen as good for fitness.

Glaxo no longer owns the UK brand for Horlicks, after selling it to Aimia Foods in 2017 and closing a plant in Slough where it was made.

Bedtime favourite: Horlicks Horlicks was invented in Chicago in 1873 by two British businessmen

It was popular on early voyages to the North and South poles  and even has an Antarctic mountain range named after it  Horlicks tablets were sold as sweets to British and US soldiers in the Second World War

All athletes were given the powder in the 1948 London Olympics  At its height, the firms Slough factory produced 15,000 tons of Horlicks a year

But it still has a 72.5 per cent stake in the Indian business which produces Horlicks, and this is the key business it is now considering selling.

The Novartis deal is part of a wider push by Glaxo to simplify its business so it can focus on research in the cut-throat pharmaceuticals market.

Last week, the British firm pulled out of a race to buy assets from Pfizer to focus on this tie-up.

GSK chief executive Emma Walmsley said: 'We believe the consumer healthcare business is well-positioned to deliver future sales growth and continued operating margin improvements.'

Shares in Glaxo rose 4.9 per cent, or 67.8p, to 1351p on news of the deal.
Investors in online trading websites brushed aside a clampdown on high-risk investments by the EU markets watchdog.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) made a long-awaited intervention to stop amateur investors losing thousands of pounds making risky punts on financial markets.

As part of the crackdown, firms will not be able to sell inexperienced investors so-called binary options  bets on the movements of shares and other assets  for at least three months.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) made a long-awaited intervention to stop amateur investors losing thousands of pounds making risky punts on financial markets

ESMA has also introduced tighter rules on what are known as contracts for difference, which allow investors to bet on price movements of currencies, metals and stocks.

But the complicated way they are structured means savers can lose a lot more than they put down.

IG Group, Europe's largest online trading site, lashed out at the watchdog, arguing the clampdown was 'disproportionate'.

It shares held up well despite warning the new rules would hit its revenues for 2019, ending the day up 0.5 per cent, or 4p, at 820p.

Rival CMC said it was 'well-prepared' for the measures, which were first suggested in December, adding that 'fair client outcomes have always been the focus of the group'. Its shares ended the day down 0.6 per cent, or 1p, at 158.2p.

Stock watch - Quadrise Fuels Shares in Quadrise Fuels International crashed after it warned a key project in Saudi Arabia might not go ahead. The company was preparing to trial the manufacture of MSAR in the country, a low-cost alternative to heavy fuel oil used in the marine and energy sectors. However, it has been unable to nail down the agreements with the partners that are needed for the trial to start. Its shares tanked 38.6 per cent, or 2.12p, to 3.38p.

Fellow trading site Plus 500 rose by 7.3 per cent, or 76p, to 1119p after claiming it had already complied with the rules.

The FTSE 100 ended higher for the first time in four days as worries over a trade war between the US and China faded. It ticked up 1.6 per cent, or 111.45 points, to 7000.14.

Plumbing supplies firm Ferguson topped the blue-chip index after reporting rising profits and an appetite for acquisitions.

It reported a $598million (422million) profit in the six months to January 31, up from $556million (392.6million) the year before.

It has also reportedly earmarked a 280million war chest to snap up businesses in the US and Canada, where most of its revenues are made, over the coming year.

Shares jumped 6.7 per cent, or 344p, to 5478p as it announced a $1billion (710million) dividend for investors.

AG Barr has managed to increase profits despite a public backlash over its switch to a healthier recipe for its flagship drink Irn-Bru before April's sugar tax is introduced.

There had been concerns that sales would be hit by its move to halve the sugar content of its famously orange drink so it would avoid the tax.

But sales of Irn-Bru were up 8 per cent in the year to January 27 while pre-tax profits were up 4.2 per cent at 44.9million.

The FTSE 250-listed firm also managed to increase its final dividend by 8 per cent to 15.55p a share. At closing, AG Barr's shares were up 1.8 per cent, or 11p, at 626p.

On AIM, shares in tech firm Telit Communications dived after it revealed it was the subject of an investigation by the City watchdog.

Details are light, but the firm said the Financial Conduct Authority is investigating the 'timeliness of announcing certain matters' in the internet-of-things company's August profit warning.

Telit said it 'has co-operated fully with the FCA in its enquiries to date and will continue to do so'.

It has been a difficult year for Telit, in which it was forced to sack its chief executive Oozi Cats, who was linked to a string of scams carried out in Boston in the early 1990s. Shares yesterday slumped 8.1 per cent, or 12.8p, to 145p.

A record half-year for AIM-listed flooring manufacturer James Halstead boosted its shares.

Revenue in the six months to December 31 was up 5.4 per cent to 126million while pre-tax profits increased 2 per cent to 23.7million.

Its shares ticked up nearly 3 per cent, or 12p, to 415p.
Melrose Industries has made the bold claim its 8.1billion hostile takeover of GKN stands to improve the UK economy, as well as the automative and aerospace company itself.

The turnaround group said its discussions and letters with Business Secretary Greg Clark and his department showed 'a commitment to GKN that its current board sadly lacks.'

GKN's shareholders have until 1pm on Thursday 29 March to cast their vote on the controversial deal.

Optimistic: Melrose Industries claims its 8.1billion hostile takeover bid for GKN stands to improve the fortunes of the UK's economy

50.01 per cent is the level of support needed for the deal to go ahead.

Politicians have expressed concern about a future break-up of GKN and offloading to foreign buyers.

In a bid to allay concerns and win over GKN's investors, Melrose this week pledged to keep the combined group's headquarters and share listing within the UK and not to sell the company's aerospace division until 2023.

In a stock market update today Melrose said this commitment not to sell the division is 'legally binding.'

Christopher Miller, Melrose's chairman added: 'Since we made our approach, GKN has repeatedly changed its strategy and contradicted itself.

'We believe this lack of candour and strategic vision indicates more than simply a management team in denial about its own abilities. We believe shareholders need to question the validity of the GKN board's promises to increase shareholder value and meet its targets.'

Exchanges: Business Secretary Greg Clark had written to Melrose demanding 'binding' commitments ahead of the potential deal

He said Melrose had repeatedly 'over-delivered' on its promises and is 'offering GKN shareholders an immediate and certain value in addition to a 60 per cent majority of the considerable upside.'

Anne Stevens, GKN's boss, has said Melrose's undertakings 'leave considerable uncertainty and do not adequately address the need for long-term shareholder value creation.'

She added: 'The Melrose offer remains the low-value, high-risk option for shareholders'.

Holding firm: Anne Stevens, GKN's boss, said Melrose's undertakings ' leave considerable uncertainty'

Stevens said the fact Melrose felt it necessary to make the undertakings showed it would be an 'unsuitable' owner of GKN.

As an alternative to the Melrose deal, GKN has proposed a spin-off of its automative business with US-based Dana, which would leave GKN to focus on its aerospace operations.

Globally, GKN has 59,000 employees, with 6,000 based in the UK. Its share price is down 1.07 per cent or 4.6p to 426.9p today.
Firms have been banned from luring customers into risking life savings on financial bets known as binary options.

In a victory for Money Mail, new Europe-wide rules will bar companies from flogging the deals to savers in the UK.

Ban: New Europe-wide rules will bar companies from flogging binary options deals to savers in the UK

We exposed how people with little or no investing experience lost thousands of pounds from this type of activity.

The City of London Police say binary trading is one of the biggest UK fraud risks.

It allows investors to bet on whether shares, currencies or commodities such as oil or gold will rise or fall over a certain period of time  often as little as a few seconds.

Trading like this is highly risky: if the bet comes in, you may win big, but if it goes down, you may lose everything.

Often, customers forge a relationship with a personal broker, who will place bets for them.

In many cases seen by Money Mail, savers have struggled to get their money back after theyve handed it over.

Many say they were cajoled into investing much more than they had wanted.

The European Union ban is set to come into force over the next few months.

r.lythe@dailymail.co.uk
Mobile phone giants and banks are using private companies to root through customers' social media profiles before issuing contracts and loans.

A major Money Mail investigation found that firms are using data from Facebook and other social media websites such as Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter to find out about customers' spending habits and earnings as well as to confirm their age, address and employment.

Insurers and even the taxman also rely on this data to make life-changing decisions about our finances.

Firms are using data from Facebook and other social media websites such as Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter to find out about customers' spending habits

Our investigation also found:

Mortgage lenders are turning down applications because of how borrowers describe their job on LinkedIn.

Insurers are using information on customers' social media profiles to refuse claims.

Tax investigators are grilling workers about their earnings after trawling through photographs online.

Some car insurance deals are only available to drivers who agree to receive quotes via Facebook.

The findings come as Facebook battles to salvage its reputation after 50 million users had their personal data harvested without their knowledge or permission.

There is no suggestion that any firm named in our investigation has broken any rules or laws, or has misused data.

Dr Tom Fisher, researcher at campaign organisation Privacy International, says: 'The financial sector is exploiting social media to learn about your habits, personality, political beliefs and more.

'They are using companies, many of whom you've never heard of, to analyse this data and judge your credit worthiness and other attributes.'

App reads emails for shop receipts

One of the most startling findings from our investigation was the emergence of a new breed of credit scoring companies that rely on social media to help banks, mobile phone giants and even car finance companies make lending decisions.

Ordinarily, a firm would use your credit score to determine how much risk you pose as a borrower. The higher your score, the more likely you'll be accepted for a loan or credit card.

Traditional credit reference firms such as Experian and Equifax calculate this by looking at how many credit cards and bank accounts you have, if you pay your bills on time and whether you're on the electoral roll.

But newer companies claim they can use social media to verify someone's identity and predict whether they will be a good borrower.

Friendlyscore claims to work with banks, car finance companies and mobile phone firms, including Carphone Warehouse's iD Mobile.

It says it can build a picture of your financial health by analysing anything from social media and emails to mobile phone activity.

Crucially, you have to agree to let the company access these accounts by setting up an account online or downloading the mobile app.

Then you can choose which accounts the company can access. If you select Twitter, for example, it will build a picture of your interests by looking at who your followers are and what you write in direct messages.

If you have Gmail, it can monitor your emails to get an idea of how you spend your money via receipts for online shopping, or tickets for events or flights.

A new breed of credit scoring companies rely on social media to help banks, mobile phone giants and even car finance companies make lending decisions

From LinkedIn, it can check you haven't lied about your education and employment history.

If you sign up for the mobile app, the firm can also monitor your whereabouts via its GPS tracker to see the sorts of places you visit and where you live and work.

The app also has access to your contacts and advises you only to store the details of creditworthy friends and family on your phone.

'Choose the friends and family that you keep in your contact book wisely,' it says on the app.

Carphone Warehouse's iD Mobile says it is working with Friendlyscore to trial its technology as an alternative way of verifying someone's identity.

This should help people who have not yet built up a traditional credit history, perhaps because they are young or new to the country. Friendlyscore adds that it doesn't see any of the data collected and says it does not assess the creditworthiness of customers.

Loubna Bazine, chief executive of Friendlyscore, says: 'All of the data analysis is done by machines. No humans look at it. We then pass the company a score and a short report of our findings.'

She says around 10,000 people have signed up to its service in the UK and that the firm has created scores for 1 million people worldwide.

Friendlyscore, which has a London office, is applying for a licence from the financial regulator to be able to view your bank account spending under the new Open Banking rules.

Some customers may have used this type of credit scoring system without even hearing of Friendlyscore, as firms can choose to brand the service as their own.

Data analytics company Hello Soda, based in Manchester, said on its website that it has worked with Visa Europe and payday lender peachy.co.uk. It said its software system 'Profile'  which can be integrated into a firm's sign-up or application process  can analyse the digital 'footprint' of a consumer to verify their identity and personalise marketing.

On the Peachy website, for example, you can sign up for a loan through your Facebook account.

If you do this Peachy will receive access to your posts, birthday, education and work history, email address and even photos and posts you have 'liked'. Again, customers must first give their permission for firms to access their data.

A report published two years ago by Visa Europe, which no longer works with Hello Soda, says: 'It is much harder to fake a genuine social media footprint than it is to falsify alternative means of identification.'

It adds that this type of technology could reduce fraud as the more firms know about customers and their behaviour, the more likely it is that they will spot out-of-the-ordinary spending.

This type of information also allows firms to personalise advertisements and products based on your hobbies and interests.

Facebook checks for car cover

Insurers keep a close eye on their customers' social media profiles to weed out suspected fraud.

In one case dealt with by the Financial Ombudsman last year, an insurer tried to stop making payments to a customer who had claimed on their income protection policy.

The insurer, Unum, had found posts on a social media site that showed the customer, who had been diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, taking part in activities that 'were inconsistent with his reported limitations'.

In 2016 car insurer Admiral said it intended to use Facebook posts to help it price premiums

However, the Ombudsman ordered Unum to continue paying, with 8 per cent interest as well as 500 compensation, because the customer had been advised by his doctor to stay off work.

In another case, Axa refused to pay a car insurance claim following an accident on the basis that the customer had failed to mention that her vehicle had been modified.

The woman claimed she hadn't disclosed the alterations because she didn't know about them.

But Axa discovered posts on a social media website where the woman's family discussed the car in great detail. It said this was proof that the woman should have known that the vehicle had undergone major changes  and the Ombudsman took the insurer's side.

Insurers are also looking at ways they can use social media to work out how much customers should pay.

In 2016 car insurer Admiral said it intended to use Facebook posts to help it price premiums. It planned to use techniques pioneered by scientists which involve analysing customers' language for clues as to whether or not someone is a good risk.

The theory is customers who write short, concrete sentences, make lists or use exact mentions of time are likely to be conscientious and therefore a safe driver.

Repeated use of exclamation marks, on the other hand, could indicate that someone was over-confident and so more likely to speed. The project ran into trouble after Facebook barred the firm from using people's data in this way.

Admiral has since launched First Car Quote, an insurer for new motorists who are typically charged much higher premiums.

Customers must sign into the website via their Facebook profile to get a quote. They will then receive details of their policy through Facebook's private messaging service. Admiral told Money Mail that the only personal data it uses is your name, email address and date of birth.

It says that signing in through Facebook speeds up the application process as this information is automatically filled in.

A spokesman for First Car Quote says: 'We don't have access to any other customer Facebook data. We do not use personality quizzes nor do we use data scoring cookies on our website to set prices for customers.'

However, in First Car Quote's privacy policy it states that customers are agreeing to the firm collecting 'lifestyle and other behavioural information' about them.

Social media credit scoring

Experts say lenders and brokers are increasingly looking at homebuyers' social media profiles  particularly new borrowers with a limited credit history.

Ray Boulger, of mortgage brokers John Charcol, says: 'First-time buyers are in a tricky situation because their credit rating is often low, simply because they haven't had a mortgage before.

'This is when a lender is most likely to turn to other sources to judge their eligibility and check what kind of lifestyle they lead.'

Experts say lenders and brokers are increasingly looking at homebuyers' social media profiles  particularly new borrowers with a limited credit history

If you claim to spend a modest amount of money on holidays, but post pictures from expensive trips overseas you could find you're turned down. One borrower was recently turned down because of how he described his job on LinkedIn.

He had been self-employed for more than a decade and made a minor change to his profile saying he had stopped freelancing for an agency.

The lender spotted the change and became suspicious that this meant the borrower had worked on staff for the agency and had only just become self-employed. It refused the loan application, despite evidence that the borrower still had a steady income.

Frazer Horton, managing director of mortgage broker Edward Frazer, says: 'I find this a very worrying development. LinkedIn is effectively a dating site for people looking for work or trying to 'big up' their careers. Information is presented in such a way as to drum up business.

'To give the information anything other than the most passing regard or to draw the conclusions that the lender has seems ludicrous.'

The taxman is watching too

HM Revenue & Customs inspectors regularly snoop on social media websites to check people are paying the correct amount of tax.

They are looking for people whose lifestyles do not match their declared earnings.

If they see someone who claims to be on a low income posting pictures of flashy cars or luxury holidays, it raises a red flag.

Fiona Fernie, a tax partner at London accountancy firm Blick Rothenberg, says one of her clients was questioned by the taxman after posting pictures of a Ferrari parked in their driveway.

In fact, the client had inherited  not bought  the car and planned to sell it because they couldn't afford the cost of upkeep.

Fiona says tax inspectors are most interested in the two main indicators of wealth  the value of someone's house and their car.

Anything the taxman finds is plugged into HMRC's database, Connect, which contains data about you from government records, banks and building societies, the Land Registry and DVLA details.

Ms Fernie says that misinformation posted online can be damaging.

She had one client who was named in a local newspaper which said they had been living in the UK for decades.

In fact, they had only recently returned after living abroad. HMRC grilled the client to check they hadn't actually been living in the UK and failed to declare earnings.

In 2016, HMRC gained powers to spy on eBay and Airbnb customers' accounts to find out what they buy and sell. It means investigators can get users' names, addresses and bank account numbers.

If someone is selling the odd piece of second-hand furniture, the taxman will pay no notice. But if you are trading full-time, it will check whether your earnings have been declared. HMRC can also see customers' online shopping and sales receipts with payment firms such as PayPal and Worldpay.

Dawn Register, a tax partner at BDO, says HMRC uses Google Earth to spy on properties to check if you're building on your property.

'If you've forked out for a massive extension but are declaring a low income, that'll raise a red flag. And if you've built a granny flat, they could ask why you're not declaring a rental income,' she says.

A spokesman for the taxman says: 'HMRC collects and analyses data from a range of sources to understand and manage risks to the tax system. Sometimes this includes the use of publicly available data.'

HMRC adds that while it often checks the social media profiles of people whose tax affairs they are looking into, this information would not be the starting point of any investigation.

v.bischoff@dailymail.co.uk
The Yorkshireman who runs Deutsche Bank could lose his job after alarming its German board with plans for drastic cuts.

John Cryan is known for his direct approach and the tough demands he places on staff.

But the 57-year-old chief executive is facing the sack over his efforts to transform the German bank's fortunes through deep cutbacks.

Deutsche Bank boss John Cryan is known for his direct approach and the tough demands he places on staff

Cryan has reportedly fallen out with chairman Paul Achleitner, 61, who is opposing his plans for major restructuring and a huge overhaul of its investment banking arm.

Another bone of contention is rumoured to be the lender's approach to HNA Group, a Chinese firm which is its largest shareholder, that Cryan wants to keep at arm's length.

Deutsche's board is even said to have already sounded out candidates to replace him  including Goldman Sachs's European head Richard Gnodde, who turned down the offer.

Others in the frame are claimed to include Jean Pierre Mustier, head of Italian bank Unicredit, and Bill Winters of Standard Chartered.

The row is likely to reinforce concerns over Germany's deeply conservative business establishment, which has a reputation for resisting new ideas and preferring parochial insiders to figures with experience of international capitalism.

Cryan became Deutsche's co-chief executive in June 2015, sharing the role with Jurgen Fitschen until May 2016 when he became sole CEO.

Cryan's lawyer wife Mary is part of America's wealthy Du Pont dynasty, but he is known for his austere attitude, and when in London often takes the Tube to work from his home in Holland Park.

How Cryan's comments annoyed the Germans I will not work any harder or any less hard in any year, in any day, because someone is going to pay me more or less

We didnt apply common sense in the banking crisis

Accountants spend a lot of time being an abacus

In our banks, we have people behaving like robots

We employ 97,000 people. Most big peers have more like half that number

The idea of 74,000 jobs being at risk is ridiculous, its more like 74  on the Citys euro clearing jobs being threatened by Brexit

Much too high  on what he thought of claims that Deutsche could move 4,000 jobs out of London

He announced a bonus freeze at the bank in 2017 but this has since been lifted to try to stop an exodus of staff.

He is axing 9,000 permanent jobs and 6,000 contractors, and is cutting 800million from Deutsche's retail banking network by closing thousands of branches.

However, none of this has been enough to prevent three successive annual losses amid multi-billion-pound fines for past bad behaviour and speculation about the lender's stability.

Deutsche's stock has fallen 11 per cent in the past week after it warned that profits will be hit by the strong euro.

Cryan  born in Harrogate to a jazz musician father, and nicknamed Mr Grumpy for his pessimistic outlook  has often found himself at odds with Frankfurt's financial elite.

He shocked them last year by branding many of Deutsche's accounting staff as no better than robots and warning he could sack as much as half of its 97,000 workforce.

The banker has also refused to toe the German line on Brexit, which is seen by many as a golden opportunity to steal business from the City.

But Cryan, who earned 3million last year, has dismissed claims that 4,000 of Deutsche's staff could be shifted out of the City and rubbished the idea that 74,000 jobs are at risk if London is stripped of its valuable euro-clearing business after Brexit.

The alleged plot to oust Cryan follows the departure of disgraced German stock exchange chief Carsten Kengeter, 50.

He left in disgrace over an insider trading scandal but has always denied wrongdoing. It is rumoured his Anglophile outlook and background in global investment banking irritated German powerbrokers.
PHILADELPHIA and BELGRADE, Serbia, March 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hill International (NYSE:HIL), the global leader in managing construction risk, announced today it has received a contract from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to provide Technical Assistance for Infrastructure Project Facility 7 (IPF 7). IPF 7 will improve infrastructure across the Western Balkans. This includes priority projects in the transportation, environmental, energy, and social infrastructure sectors. Countries benefiting from these projects include Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, Albania, and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. These projects will enhance the quality of life for citizens across the region, generate economic activity among and between Western Balkans, and further integrate local and national economies with the European Union (EU).



Hill International NV is leading a consortium of firms, including Hill International (Bucharest) SRL, Gopa Infra GmBH, Gopa International Energy Consultants GmBH, Planet SA, DB Engineering and Consulting GmBH, SYSTEMA Consulting Limited, Cestra doo, and Trenecon Consulting and Planning Ltd. The consortiums technical assistance will support the preparation and implementation of IPF 7s projects, helping the EIB to confirm the investment of European taxpayers is spent efficiently, effectively, and sustainably, and that the projects will create added value for all EU members. Specific services will include feasibility studies, preliminary and detailed designs, tendering process support, supervision of works, preparatory sector studies, preparation of Terms of References, and reporting to the Western Balkans Investment Framework.

The contract has a value of more than EUR 20.7 million (USD 25.6 million) to the total consortium, and a value of EUR 8.9 million (USD 11 million) specific to Hill.

Our consortium brings innovative approaches and award-winning techniques in managing and monitoring programs like IPF 7, said Panayiotis Methenitis, Hill International Vice President & Managing Director Balkans. Combined with our regional project successes and strong partnerships in the local communities, we will make certain the IPF projects directly contribute to the continuing work of bringing the Western Balkans infrastructure up to European standards and improving the lives of everyday citizens.

Hill International, with more than 3,000 professionals in more than 50 offices worldwide, provides program management, project management, construction management, and other consulting services to clients in a variety of market sectors. Engineering News-Record magazine recently ranked Hill as the eighth-largest construction management firm in the United States. For more information on Hill, please visit our website at www.hillintl.com.

Certain statements contained herein may be considered "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and it is our intent that any such statements be protected by the safe harbor created thereby. Except for historical information, the matters set forth herein including, but not limited to, any projections of revenues, earnings or other financial items; any statements concerning our plans, strategies, and objectives for future operations; and any statements regarding future economic conditions or performance, are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations, estimates, and assumptions and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties. Although we believe that the expectations, estimates, and assumptions reflected in our forward-looking statements are reasonable, actual results could differ materially from those projected or assumed in any of our forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from estimates or projections contained in our forward-looking statements are set forth in the Risk Factors section and elsewhere in the reports we have filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including that unfavorable global economic conditions may adversely impact our business, our backlog may not be fully realized as revenue, and our expenses may be higher than anticipated. We do not intend, and undertake no obligation, to update any forward-looking statement.

Hill International, Inc.

Elizabeth J. Zipf, LEED AP BD+C

Senior Vice President

Hill International, Inc.

One Commerce Square

2005 Market Street, 17th Floor

Philadelphia, PA 19103

Tel: 215-309-7707

elizabethzipf@hillintl.com

Hill International, Inc.

Marco A. Martinez

SVP & Interim Chief Financial Officer

Tel: 215-309-7951

marcomartinez@hillintl.com

InvestorCom

John Glenn Grau

President

Tel: 203-295-7841

jgrau@investor-com.com

(HIL-G)


SANDTON  The ability of a revenue authority to collect tax depends on peoples willingness to pay.



The African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) has observed that attitudes towards tax remain very different from one country to another and were also shaped by levels of taxation and the way revenue is used.

It was pointed out that the Afrobarometer survey afforded insights into such attitudes in 34 African countries, which included 18 ATO countries (such as all of them except Gambia, Rwanda or Seychelles).



The first question that Afrobarometer asked respondents was whether they agreed with the statement, Citizens must pay their taxes to the government for (their) country to develop.

The greatest compliance came from Liberia and Senegal, where 80.5 per cent respondents agreed or agreed strongly.



In Lesotho, where only 32.2 per cent said yes, willingness to pay taxes was by far the lowest.

Interestingly, both Lesotho and Senegal had high tax-revenue-to-Growth Domestic Product (GDP) ratios, so attitudes towards taxation could not be the main explanation of differences in tax-to- GDP ratios.

It was also stated that Ali, Fjeldstad and Sjursen (2014) used the 2011/12 Afrobarometer to examine factors determining citizens tax-compliance attitudes in Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa and Uganda.

It was found that they were positively correlated with the provision of public services and peoples knowledge and awareness of tax, noted ATAF.



Swaziland Revenue Authority (SRA) Director, Communications Vusi Dlamini concurred that that it was possibly true that willingness to pay was a key element.

He mentioned that willingness to pay just does not come by itself, someone needs to encourage the taxpayer to pay, meaning many other elements were important.

As revenue administration, our core role is to educate and ensure that its easier for the taxpayer to pay, that is removal of all impediments affecting voluntary compliance.

The attitude of the tax officials should be the right one, and the systems should be there to facilitate payment.

On the flip-side of the coin, of course governments need to demonstrate what the tax does, said Dlamini.
MBABANE  The Crown contends that the High Court does not have authority to conclusively decide on a matter that is pending before another jurisdiction (South Africa).



It was the Crowns contention that the matter of Sipho Shongwes alleged escape from lawful custody could not be properly ventilated by the High Court, as it was still under investigation by the Hawks.

During Shongwes last appearance, Judge Sipho Nkosi ordered his attorney and that of the State to make written submissions in respect of the issue pertaining to his alleged erroneous/fraudulent release by authorities at the Barberton Maximum Prison on March 25, 2008.

On Thursday, Judge Nkosi is expected to make a ruling as to whether Shongwes release from prison was through fraudulent means or not.



Judge Nkosi previously made it clear that in the event he finds that Shongwe was fraudulently released, he would not be admitted to bail and that would be the close of the bail hearing. The Crown, however, holds a different view as it was adamant that the court does not have the authority to deal with that aspect of the matter, as it was pending in the Republic of South Africa.



In its written submission filed yesterday, the Crown pointed out that it was common cause that the Republic of South Africa has forwarded an extradition request to the Kingdom of Swaziland, for Shongwe to come and answer on the following offences; escaping from lawful custody, forgery and uttering.

According to the State, it was also common cause that the request was pending before a court of committal in Swaziland for determination using the relevant legislation (Extradition Agreement between the Republic of South Africa and the Kingdom of Swaziland of 1962).



It is our submission that this honourable court does not have jurisdiction to conclusively decide on a matter that is pending in another jurisdiction, submitted the Crown.

The Crown further averred that the information before the High Court was insufficient for it to reach a just decision, as clearly it was not the trial court in respect of the offences of escaping from lawful custody, forgery and uttering.



Principal Crown Counsel Absalom Makhanya informed the court that, it was revealed in court that the original documents which were referred to by Thulani Myeni, were taken by the Hawks for further investigation. Makhanya pointed out that Myeni further explained in court that the reason he certified the copies was that the documents were required by the Royal Swaziland Police, and there were no originals.
MAZNINI  Funeral parlour, Dups, had to call for the intervention of the police following a commotion that some of its employees had with an aggrieved family, regarding one of their own who had been declared dead at the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial (RFM) Hospital.



The family was of the view that the hospital may have wrongly declared their loved one dead and they called the funeral home to take her to the morgue while allegedly still alive.

As a result, police were called to intervene as the family members were causing a scene at the funeral home, demanding to see their loved one.



The incident took place at Dups Funeral Home about a fortnight ago, when the body of the deceased person was taken to the mortuary from RFM.

Ncamsile Malindza (52) of Maliyaduma, whose body was swelling, was admitted to the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial (RFM) Hospital around midnight on Monday March 12, 2018, where doctors presumed that she was suffering from heart failure.



Paramedics



According to Bonakele Langa, a daughter to the deceased woman, on the night in question, they called paramedics after seeing the condition of their sickly mother getting worse, and she was rushed to the hospital by an ambulance.

When they arrived at the facility, Langa said the staff members at the emergency ward asked them why they brought her at night.

They informed us that there was nothing they could do at that time because there was no doctor available, my mother would not pay as she was classified as an elderly.



She said this was after they (staff members) had incorrectly recorded her mothers age. She said they were left with no choice but to take it upon themselves to take care of their mother until morning, so that she could be seen by a doctor.

In the morning, Langa said her mother was again attended to by nurses who informed them that a doctor would only be available on Wednesday.

At around 8am on the Wednesday, a doctor finally came to check on their mother and the family was chucked out of the ward and told that it was the doctors time.



About two hours later, a nurse came to notify us that our mother has passed on, Langa said.

She said when they asked to see her body, they were told that they would only be given that opportunity when Dups Funeral Home personnel arrived to collect the corpse, something that concerned them because they did not even see the doctor and had no idea what was done to their mother while they were waiting outside.



In fact, she said they believed they should have been allowed to be in the ward when the doctor attended to her, so that he could tell them what was wrong with their mother.

Thereafter, Langa said they notified other family members at home in Maliyaduma about the sad news, and they asked that the funeral homes personnel should not be called until they arrived at the hospital.



However, she said the staff members told them that a deceased person was not allowed to be on the hospital bed for more than an hour after passing on, and they made the call to Dups Funeral Home to make the pickup.

She said the pickup was finally made at around 1pm and by that time, the other family members were in Manzini preparing to board a public transport to the hospital. She said they stopped them and asked them to go and wait for them at the funeral home.



She claimed that when the body of their mother was taken out of the vehicle, the family members who were waiting for them at Dups Funeral Home heard their mother yelling once.



Shocked



She said when they enquired about what they heard, they were told that it was not their mother as she was dead, instead it was a staff member who was shocked by the body size of the deceased, who was obese.

They apparently let this slide, though they were concerned that her body was still warm as if she was still alive.



Langa said a day later, they went to the funeral home to make quotations for a coffin and asked to wash and dress their mothers body as their initial plan was to bury her on that very same weekend.

To our surprise, we were denied that opportunity, she alleged.



She said the reason forwarded to them was that they would not be allowed to do it as they would see bodies of other people in the mortuary.

The family then decided to postpone the funeral to the following weekend.



Then on Friday, when they went to collect their mothers body home, they alleged to have found it with bloodstains on the face and on her back, yet a post-mortem was never conducted. Also, Langa said there was blood coming out of her mouth.



She said they debated over the matter and eventually decided to cancel the funeral until the matter was properly investigated, but later had a change of heart and agreed to let it go and continue with the funeral.

Langa emphasised that even though they had buried their mother, they were not happy at the manner in which her matter was handled at both the hospital and leading to the funeral home. She said as a result, they reported the matter to the police on the day.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., March 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Blue Jeans Network, Inc., the first cloud service to connect desktops, mobile devices and room systems in one video meeting, today announced its new Technology Partner Program which enables innovative companies to use BlueJeans APIs to build new solutions with BlueJeans support. Working with its strategic partners, BlueJeans customers are taking an important step to realize a modern workplace where communication and collaboration are seamless across the enterprise. From any endpoint or device, BlueJeans brings video, audio and web conferencing together with the collaboration and messaging tools people use every day. The new Technology Partner Program makes the BlueJeans platform even more accessible with development and go-to-market support providing an integrated, automated experience for BlueJeans customers.



BlueJeans Technology Partner Program is unique in the industry, both for the openness of its development team and the ease of use of its API, said Ruston Vickers, VP of Engineering at Vyopta. The team at BlueJeans recognizes the important role partners play in enhancing the companys meetings platform, and that is a critical first step in working together.

BlueJeans has received strong support from some of the most influential companies in the industry, developing key product advancements with companies like Facebook, Microsoft, Dolby, Samsung, Marketo and Amazon. Companies can now leverage our APIs to gain access to our meetings platform and to help BlueJeans create an ecosystem of modern, simple and trusted applications, said Steve Weinstock, Sr. Manager of Business Development and Integration Partnerships at BlueJeans.

BlueJeans is currently working with several companies as part of the Technology Partner Program to develop new solutions in areas such as: education, scheduling, collaboration, AI and advanced analytics. Depending on the scope of the project, size of the application and other key indicators, technology partners will receive tiered product development and go-to-market support. Several recent technology partners include:

CirQlive offers web conferencing integrations into 90 percent of the EDU and corporate Learning Management Systems (LMS) by enabling simple scheduling, joining sessions, viewing attendance records and recordings all from within the LMS.

offers web conferencing integrations into 90 percent of the EDU and corporate Learning Management Systems (LMS) by enabling simple scheduling, joining sessions, viewing attendance records and recordings all from within the LMS. FreeBusy schedules meetings with people inside and outside of your company in 60 seconds through a scheduling assistant that works with all existing corporate, school and personal calendars.

schedules meetings with people inside and outside of your company in 60 seconds through a scheduling assistant that works with all existing corporate, school and personal calendars. Kaptivo  s whiteboard camera system improves remote visual collaboration by automatically digitizing and live streaming content created on any dry-erase whiteboard.

whiteboard camera system improves remote visual collaboration by automatically digitizing and live streaming content created on any dry-erase whiteboard. Voicera connects meetings to your collaboration systems with Eva, an in-meeting virtual assistant who listens, take notes and gives you a recording, transcript and highlights of your meeting that can be edited or shared.

connects meetings to your collaboration systems with Eva, an in-meeting virtual assistant who listens, take notes and gives you a recording, transcript and highlights of your meeting that can be edited or shared. Vyoptas comprehensive monitoring and analytics helps organizations improve user experience, increase adoption and optimize the efficiency of video collaboration.

Key Technology Partner Program benefits include:

Self-service process enabling easy integration

BlueJeans development support

Formalized set of go-to-market activities

BlueJeans has long been recognized for its commitment to interoperability and integrations with the applications, tools and technologies that productive teams use to work where and how they want.

To become a BlueJeans Technology Partner or to learn more, please visit: https://www.bluejeans.com/partners/become-technology-partner

Additional information on the new BlueJeans experience can be found on our blog at: https://hub.bluejeans.com/blog/bluejeans-apis-available-via-technology-partner-program

About BlueJeans Network

BlueJeans is the meetings platform for the modern workplace and the first cloud service to connect desktops, mobile devices and room systems in one video meeting. Thousands of companies from growing businesses to Fortune 500 leaders use BlueJeans every day for video, audio and web conferencing meetings and large interactive events, so people can work productively where and how they want. For more information, visit www.bluejeans.com.
Beverly Hills, Calif., March 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- John Stippick, CEO of MC Endeavors, Inc. ( MSMY ), an innovator in social commerce platforms, announced today that it has appointed Robert Munck as the Executive Vice President of Network Content.



Robert comes from a 30 year pedigree of national experience in the day-to-day operations of purchasing, structuring, and selling real estate and high-tech equipment asset backed securities in various underlying conformity and quality to the investment banking and the private hedge fund community. He has proficient knowledge in the management of risk analysis, credit and underwriting, due diligence, and quality control on a departmental and on a transaction basis generating superior results, while maintaining high-targeted profit margins.

Mr. Munck spent 7 years as a managing director of First City Bancorp. January 2007 to May 2013, 5 years as a managing director of Great Western Home Loan from December 2001 to December 2006 and 3 years as Director of Acquisitions for Amersco from January 1998 to November 2001. Robert has been responsible for developing and negotiating private banking, hedge funds, and private capital and the sale of assets to portfolio buyers. He has transacted and negotiated as much as $200 million annually. His history of developing and negotiating with investors instruments (A credit enhancement, AA, AAA) for corporate bonds, asset-backed securities, and private placements. He has transacted and negotiated over $200 million annually.

In addition to his extensive business experience, from 2004-2006 Robert created, wrote, produced, hosted, capitalized, and researched all show content and guests in his Recovery Addiction Treatment Industry radio show in Orange County, CA. This was a natural progression of his desire to make a difference in the world of recovery that he has spent decades leading, mentoring, and shepherding untold numbers of those in need. The project required Robert to develop the programming format, lead the efforts in advertising sales, budgeting, and developed international streaming and terrestrial radio relationships. Bob doesnt like to talk about the lives hes changed and saved while volunteering in the world of treatment and recovery, but it is this aspect of his character and heart that perfectly rounds out his years of practical business experience and makes him a perfect fit for us said Stippick.

Personal: Robert is married with 3 sons and 12 grand-children, he is active in outreach mission work for the homeless & motel families in orange county with Crossline Church Food pantry, he supports The Global Mission orphanage in Haiti, and is the Director of Celebrate Recovery at Crossline Church.

Over next several days, our management will be releasing information regarding additional leadership additions, company acquisitions, product launches, distribution partners, and anticipated revenue streams for MC Endeavors, Inc./Room 21 Media.
[March 27, 2018] Heads up Indonesia! Here Comes Honor and Three of its Top Killer-Smartphones!

Honor 9 Lite  a Quad-lens Fashion Icon

Honor View 10  the AI-powered Flagship Smartphone

Honor 7X  the Ultimate FullView Gaming Handset JAKARTA, Indonesia, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Honor, the fast-growing, young, trend-setting smartphone e-brand, launched the Honor 9 Lite, Honor View 10 and the Honor 7X today in Indonesia. The launch event received overwhelming support from over 400 business partners, media, influencers and Honor fans, marking Honor's official entry into Indonesia. The products that Honor brought to Indonesia are three of its top killer smartphones. The Honor 9 Lite features segment-leading quad-lens camera and an exquisitely designed 2.5D glass with mirror-like effect. Honor View 10 delivers state-of-the-art artificial intelligence (AI) while the Honor 7X features Honor FullView Display with ultimate performance. The three smartphones are offered at extremely competitive price points with Honor 9 Lite available at Rp 2.499.000, Honor View 10 at Rp 7.299.000 and Honor 7X at Rp 3.499.000. "We are thrilled to be setting foot in yet another market in Southeast Asia, where we see tremendous potentials and opportunities," said George Zhao, President of Honor "We look forward to surprising, impressing and fulfilling the Indonesia market with Honor's unrivalled product quality, service and technology innovation. Honor will influence and infect the young community here with our unique brand spirit, and grow continuously with them." "Indonesia welcomes Honor's highly accessible devices with premium performance. We are honored to see our entry celebrated by our partners and fans community," said James Yang, President of Honor Indonesia. "Honor's products are manufactured locally. We are determined to continue bringing more exciting products and experience to our consumers here." Honor Forges Exciting Collaboration with Young Lifestyle Co-creators Honor believes in the power of co-creation. Today, Honor announced its partnerships with e-commerce platform Shopee, music streaming app Joox, short music video social platform Tik Tok, fun selfie sticker camera app Camera 360, live-streaming app Bigo Live, Live.me, Nonolive and popular battle royale game Rules of Survival. Working closely together with its strategic partners and the Honor community, Honor will continue to co-create a brand experience like no other for digital natives in Indonesia.



Three Unrivalled Smartphones at Unbeatable Price Point Honor 9 Lite  A quad-lens fashion icon

Beautiful inside out, the Honor 9 Lite is ultra-thin, sleek, and stylish, featuring exquisitely designed 2.5D glass back that shines bright like a diamond. The beautiful device is more than just a pretty face. The Honor 9 Lite features dual-lens 13MP + 2MP cameras on both the front and rear, coupled with upgraded, customizable, in-depth beautification feature, perfect for capturing your individuality. Powered by the latest EMUI 8.0 update, the Face Unlock function will be available on the Honor 9 Lite for an enhanced user experience. Honor View 10  The AI-powered Flagship Smartphone Bringing to life a productive yet entertaining and fun lifestyle, the Honor View 10 offers AI technology and superb performance. Equipped with Kirin 970-powered Neural-Network Processing Unit (NPU), the Honor View 10 delivers AI features, including AI-powered Real-Time Scene and Object Recognition technology and 500% faster performance than other smartphones. To ensure extreme performance, the handset is powered by an octa-core ARM Cortex CPU and a first-to-market Mali-G72 12-core GPU. Honor 7X  The Ultimate FullView Gaming Handset The Honor 7X is powerful yet accessible. At a highly competitive price-point, the handset offers uncompromised performance powered by an octal-core Kirin 659 processor, delivering better and smoother experience. The Honor 7X also features an edge-to-edge, bezel-less FullView Display with 18:9 screen ratio to maximize your view while gaming. Mark your calendars and get your hands on these premium devices! The Honor 9 Lite, priced at Rp 2.499.000, will be sold exclusively on Shopee flash sale on April 5th for a special price of Rp 2.299.000. at https://shopee.co.id/Honor+9+Lite+3-32+GB+Garansi+Resmi-i.61648718.1015611174. The Honor View 10 can be pre-ordered exclusively on Shopee starting April 9th priced at Rp 7.299.000. Open sale will start from April 16th. The Honor 7X preorder begins on April 18th on Lazada at Rp 3.499.000 with Rp 300.000 voucher. Open sale starts from April 25th with the price Rp 3.499.000. About Honor Honor is a leading smartphone e-brand. In line with its slogan, "For the Brave", the brand was created to meet the needs of digital natives through internet-optimized products that offer superior user experiences, inspire action, foster creativity and empower the young to achieve their dreams. In doing this, Honor has set itself apart by showcasing its own bravery to do things differently and to take the steps needed to usher in the latest technologies and innovations for its customers. For more information, please visit Honor online at www.hihonor.com or follow us on: Honor Indonesia social media platforms:

https://www.facebook.com/HonorID/

https://twitter.com/Honor_Indonesia

https://www.instagram.com/honor_indonesia/ Honor global platforms:

https://www.facebook.com/honorglobal/

https://twitter.com/Honorglobal

https://www.instagram.com/honorglobal/

https://www.youtube.com/honorglobal Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20180327/2088718-1-a

Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20180327/2088718-1-c

Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20180327/2088718-1-d

Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20180327/2088718-1-e

SOURCE Honor

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[March 28, 2018] The Salt Lake Tribune Names Boostability a Winner of the Utah 2017 Top Workplaces Award

SILICON SLOPES, Utah, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Online marketing company Boostability has been awarded a 2017 Top Workplaces honor by the Salt Lake Tribune. The Top Workplaces lists are based solely on the results of an employee feedback survey administered by Energage, LLC (formerly WorkplaceDynamics), a leading research firm that specializes in organizational health and workplace improvement. Several aspects of workplace culture were measured, including alignment, execution, and connection, just to name a few. "The Top Workplaces award is not a popularity contest. And oftentimes, people assume it's all about fancy perks and benefits," says Doug Claffey, CEO of Energage. "But to be a Top Workplace, organizations must meet our strict standards for organizational health. And who better to ask about work life than the people who live the culture every daythe employees. Time and time again, our research has proven that what's most important to them is a strong belief in where the organization is headed, how it's going to get there, and the feeling that everyone is in it together." Claffey adds, "Without this sense of connection, an organization doesn't have a shot at being named a Top Workplace." With multiple awards for workplaceexcellence over the years, including Glassdoor's "Best Place to Work" and Comparably's "Best Company Leadership" awards, Boostability has earned a reputation as an elite employer in Utah.



"We are a service-oriented company so our employees are at the very heart of who we are," said Johanna Fawson, Director of Human resources at Boostability. "We couldn't make the difference that we do for our clients without all of the talent, innovation, and customer focus that our employees bring to work every day. We all work hard to make Boostability a great place to work. We are honored to be ranked as one of the 2017 Top Workplaces in Utah." About Boostability:

Established in 2009, Boostability began with the idea that effective SEO services should be accessible and affordable for all businesses. And it's worked. Thanks to its unique approach to SEO fulfillment, Boostability now serves more than 26,000 small businesses, helping them elevate their digital presence and succeed online. It primarily works with reseller partners that offer Boostability's award-winning SEO services to their own SMB clients. It has grown to more than 400 employees based in two offices across the Silicon Slopes of Utah with satellite locations in Amsterdam and Berlin. Boostability has been ranked in the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in America for four straight years.

About Energage, LLC

Headquartered in Exton, PA, Energage specializes in employee feedback surveys and workplace improvement. This year alone, more than two million employees in over 6,000 organizations will participate in the Top Workplaces campaigna program it conducts in partnership with more than 40 prestigious media partners across the United States. Energage also provides consulting services to improve employee engagement and organizational health. Energage is a founding B Corporation member, a coalition of organizations that are leading a global movement to redefine success in business by offering a positive vision of a better way to do business. Contact

Kelly Shelton

kshelton@boostability.com

2600 W Executive Parkway

Suite 200

Lehi, UT 84043

P: 800-261-1537 x7254

F: 801-228-2546 View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-salt-lake-tribune-names-boostability-a-winner-of-the-utah-2017-top-workplaces-award-300620450.html SOURCE Boostability

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English Finnish

Municipality Finance Plc

Stock exchange release

28 March 2018 at 5:00 p.m. (EET)

Resolutions by the Annual General Meeting of Municipality Finance Plc held on 28 March 2018

The Annual General Meeting of Municipality Finance Plc held on 28 March 2018 adopted the company's financial statements and discharged the members of the Board of Directors, the CEO, and the Deputy to the CEO from liability for the financial year 2017.

Use of profit shown on the balance sheet

The Annual General Meeting decided that dividend amounting to EUR 0.16 per share, totalling EUR 6,250,207.68, shall be paid out, and that the remainder of distributable funds of EUR 89,206,444.47 be retained in equity. Dividends will be paid on 9 April 2018 to each shareholder recorded in the company's list of shareholders on 4 April 2018.

Remuneration and composition of the Board of Directors

The Annual General Meeting decided the following remuneration for the members of the Board of Directors for the term 2018-2019: annual remuneration of a Board member EUR 20,000; annual remuneration of the Vice Chairperson of the Board EUR 23,000; annual remuneration of the Chairperson of the Board EUR 35,000; to the members, a fee of EUR 500 per Board and committee meeting attended; and to the chairpersons, EUR 800 per meeting attended. The annual remuneration with respect to the Chairperson, Vice Chairperson as well as the members was raised by EUR 5,000 in comparison to the annual remuneration for the preceding term. Further, the Annual General Meeting decided that such fees shall also be paid per each meeting required by the authorities.

The Annual General Meeting decided that eight members will be elected to the Board of Directors for the term 2018-2019 and that the following current members will be re-elected: Mr. Fredrik Forssell, Ms. Minna Helppi, Mr. Jari Koskinen, Ms. Vivi Marttila, Ms. Tuula Saxholm and Ms. Helena Wallden. The Annual General Meeting confirmed the election of Mr. Markku Koponen and Mr. Kari Laukkanen as new members of the Board of Directors.

The CEO's review

Esa Kallio, the President and CEO of Municipality Finance, noted in his speech that the Finnish municipal sector and non-profit housing entities are currently going through a period of steady growth and that the need for reasonably-priced housing is constantly increasing in the growing Finnish cities. After the Regional government, health and social services reform enters into force it is the long-term goal of MuniFin to offer financing also for the investments of the counties, Mr Kallio said.

Operations of the Shareholders' Nomination Committee

The Annual General Meeting decided that with respect to forthcoming general meetings the Shareholders' Nomination Committee shall provide the Board of Directors with the Committee's proposal on a date agreed separately with the Chairperson of the Board of Directors, in order to appropriately include the proposal to the summons to the general meeting.

Election and remuneration of the Auditor

KPMG Oy Ab, Authorized Public Accountants, was elected as the company's auditor with Marcus Totterman, Authorized Public Accountant, as the principal auditor. The auditor's fees will be paid against the invoices approved by the company.

Constitutive Meeting of the Board of Directors

At its constitutive meeting, the Board of Directors appointed Helena Wallden as the Chairperson and Tuula Saxholm as the Vice Chairperson of the Board. The following persons were appointed to the Remuneration Committee: Helena Wallden as the Chairperson, and Tuula Saxholm, Markku Koponen and Jari Koskinen as members. The following persons were appointed to the Audit Committee: Markku Koponen as the Chairperson, and Kari Laukkanen and Vivi Marttila as members. The following persons were appointed to the Risk Committee: Fredrik Forssell as the Chairperson, and Minna Helppi and Kari Laukkanen as members.

Additional information on the company's operations in 2017 is available in the company's Annual Report, which can be downloaded in PDF format from the company website at www.munifin.fi.

MUNICIPALITY FINANCE PLC

Esa Kallio

President and CEO

tel. +358 50 337 7953

Measured by the balance sheet, MuniFin (Municipality Finance Plc) is Finland's second largest credit institution: the company's balance sheet totals nearly EUR 35 billion. The company is owned by Finnish municipalities, the public sector pension fund Keva and the Republic of Finland.

MuniFin's mission is to build a better future in line with the principles of responsibility and in cooperation with its customers. MuniFin's customers are Finnish municipalities, municipal federations, municipally controlled companies and non-profit housing corporations. Lending is used for environmentally and socially responsible investment targets such as public transportation, sustainable buildings, hospitals and healthcare centers, schools and day care centers, and homes for people with special needs.

MuniFin's customers are domestic but the company operates in a completely global business environment. It is the most active Finnish bond issuer in international capital markets and the first Finnish green bond issuer. The funding is exclusively guaranteed by the Municipal Guarantee Board.

The Municipality Finance Group also includes the subsidiary company, Financial Advisory Services Inspira Ltd.

Read more: www.munifin.fi
[March 28, 2018] Ziyen Inc. Announces 2 Additional Oil Lease Acquisitions in the Illinois Basin

SAN DIEGO, March 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ziyen Inc.s Energy Division is proud to announce it has acquired the mineral rights to two more oil fields in Gibson County, Indiana. The total now stands at 7 oil (assets) fields held by the company. These acquisitions represent 77.4 acres and 25.2 acres and are in close proximity previously acquired leases.

Ziyen Inc. Oil Intelligence Director, Shane Fraser said, "By centralizing our operations in the one area, this will allow us to enhance our cost efficiencies. The geology we have for both of these oil leases is outstanding. Importantly, we know from our original Petroleum Reserve Report, we have proven high reserves in the area. Alastair Caithness, CEO, stated, This is yet another important milestone for Ziyen. We continue to strategically add vital leases to our portfolio. These most recent acquisitions are adjacent to our first lease which we secured in June of last year. For information on investing in Ziyen, please visit the company website at www.ziyen.com, or for a copy of the latest company overview, please email marketing@ziyen.com



About Ziyen Inc. Founded in 2016, Ziyen Inc. is a Scottish-American company focused on delivering 100% Energy Independence to the USA. Initially launched as a software company providing information on oil and gas related procurement contracts, Ziyen Inc. diversified in 2017, instating Ziyen Energy Division with intent to produce oil in the U.S. with advanced extraction methods and technology implemented and guided by career experts in the oil and gas industry. In 2017 Ziyen acquired the mineral rights to its first oil field in Indiana, and now has seven oil assets. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently qualified Ziyen Inc. in November 2017 for our second round of funding, with a pre-IPO share price of $1.50. More information may be found in its Offering Circular filed with the SEC, or on their website www.ziyen.com

Forward Looking Statements: Certain statements in this press release including, but not limited to, statements related to anticipated commencement of commercial production, targeted pricing, performance goals, and statements that otherwise relate to future periods are forward-looking statements. These statements involve risks and uncertainties, which are described in more detail in the Company's periodic reports filed with the SEC- specifically the most recent reports which identify important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are made and based on information available to the company on the date of this press release. Ziyen Inc. assumes no obligation to update the information in this press release. Contact: Josh Berg Berg Capital Markets josh@bergcapitalmarkets.com Dean Holter, Esq. Berg Capital Markets dean@bergcapitalmarkets.com

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[March 27, 2018] Sangfor HCI's Latest Release Introduces Integrated Data Protection

Running Mission Critical Application and Don't Want to Pay a Huge Premium to VMware? KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Sangfor is the first Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) vendor that introduces built-in Continuous Data Protection (CDP) that delivers near zero Recovery Point Objective (RPO) for customers. This release also offers a simple Virtual-Machine-level backup solution for customers running VMware platform. In today's digital transformation, organizations of all sizes and industries must provide adequate data protection for their applications from hardware failure, data corruption, data breach, malware and plenty of human errors. For mission critical applications, data protection needs to be near real-time to avoid any data loss. However, only a small portion of organizations can afford this as existing solutions from vendors such as VMware are either none-existing, too complex, or too costly to implement. "Many of my customers have standardized o VMware across their organizations. However, most of them found themselves pushed to a corner when they need to offer data protection", says Jason Yuan, VP of Product and Marketing at Sangfor. "VMware DR demands a significant number of licenses that often doubles the infrastructure investment. For mission critical applications, VMware does not have its own CDP solution for their 24x7 operation. Not having CDP means a day old or even an hour old data back-up exposes business or customer data lost that they cannot afford. However, traditional CDP solutions for VMware require a significant investment that includes additional servers, storage and software licenses. The design to implementation often takes up to three months. The complexity of the project often requires expensive certified VMware and storage experts to be involved."



Sangfor's CDP and VMware backups are simple to deploy, customers only need two traditional servers to get started. In addition, this capability is integrated and managed via the intuitive HCI platform. The design and implementation can be done by most IT engineers without specialized training. And the total cost is a fraction of that using traditional or VMware alternatives. Sangfor is a leading vendor of HCI. More than 2,000 customers chose Sangfor HCI to build their datacenter since 2015. Before introducing to the international market, data protection has already been successfully implemented by fifteen customers in government, ecommerce and hospitals since February 2018.

To learn more, go to http://go.sangfor.com/hcifm583my or mail to sales@sangfor.com. SOURCE Sangfor Technologies

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[March 27, 2018] Prodapt to Launch Prodapt Ventures, an Investment Entity That Focuses on Startups and Mid-sized Ventures

CHENNAI, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Prodapt, today announced the launch of Prodapt Ventures, a business division with an initial allocation of Rs.100cr for investing in early-stage ventures. Prodapt Ventures will focus on transformative business ventures impacting the Telecommunications/Digital Service Provider (DSP) vertical and agri-tech and agri-distribution industry. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/659245/Prodapt_Ventures_Logo.jpg )

Prodapt and its associate companies today announced the formation of Prodapt Ventures. Prodapt Ventures will invest an initial allocation of Rs 100 crores across early-stage companies and also help incubate transformative businesses in selected industry verticals. The focus areas of investments will be technology and service businesses in the communications industry and transformative ideas in agri-tech and agri-distribution in India. Prodapt is a global leader in providing IT, product, network and operational services for the digital service provider (DSP) vertical. With ofices across Europe, USA, Africa and India, Prodapt employs over 2000 telecom and DSP technology and domain specialists.



Prodapt's associate companies, Tropical Agro Systems and JU Agri Sciences form one of India's leading manufacturing and distribution businesses in agricultural inputs. The Agri inputs businesses have a network of over 10,000 dealers and distributors and over 1000 marketing personnel. Prodapt Ventures will be able to accelerate companies in the Agriculture sector and their businesses with the support of Prodapt's associate companies. Vedant Jhaver, Group President said, "The telecommunications industry globally is consolidating into multi-channel operators, which creates tremendous opportunities in next-generation technology adoption and industry shifting business ideas. Similarly, agriculture in India is set for a revolution. The agricultural industry in India will see a huge transformation over the next decade with the combination of technology, connectivity and further boosted by government initiatives. Leveraging our business platforms in telecom and agriculture distribution, our investments will focus on these verticals. Prodapt Ventures will be able to provide our portfolio companies deep insights, guidance, connections and help them to build quicker go-to-market partnerships through our group of operating businesses."

About Prodapt: Prodapt Solutions, a global leader in providing IT, product, network and operational services for the digital service provider (DSP) vertical. Many leading DSPs have been associated with Prodapt to strengthen their business and gain a competitive edge. Headquartered in Chennai, Prodapt has delivery centers in North America, Europe, India and Africa and is an ISO 9001:2008, ISO 27001:2013, SSAE16, and CMMI Level 3 organization. Prodapt is part of a 120-year-old business conglomerate, The Jhaver Group and employs over 16,500 people across 64+ global locations. Media Contact:

Raghavendra Madi G

raghavendra.mg@prodapt.com

+91-9677040468

Director - Marketing

Prodapt





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[March 28, 2018] Clinical Decision Support Systems Market Worth $791.25 Million by 2024: Grand View Research, Inc.

SAN FRANCISCO, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The global clinical decision support systems (CDSS) market size is estimated to reach USD 791.25 million by 2024, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc., progressing at a CAGR of 6.7% during the forecast period. Surging demand for quality care is one of the primary factors augmenting the market. Constant lookout for reliable technology solutions by care providers is also expected to work in favor of the market. Growing interest in enhanced medical care and efficient decision-making is projected to fuel adoption of CDSS and EHR. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160524/371361LOGO ) CDSS industry includes products that provide knowledge-based and evidence-based solutions to practitioners. Decision support in critical health situation proves to be of significant importance. Furthermore, these systems analyze patient medical records and provide a list of possible solutions from which the most appropriate is to be selected. Easy compatibility and interoperability of systems with different platforms have enhanced growth prospects of the market. Collaborative efforts of researchers and software developers to make medical knowledge available to users are anticipated to contribute towards lucrative revenue generation over the forecast period. Furthermore, collaborations intended by market participants for availing licensed product platforms for CDSS is likely to influence the growth of the market positively. Browse full research report with TOC on "Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS) Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Product, By Application (Allery Alert, Dosing Support), By Delivery Mode (On-premise, Cloud, Web), By Component, And Segment Forecasts, 2013 - 2024" at: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/clinical-decision-support-system-market Further Key Findings From the Report Suggest: Standalone CDSS accounted for the largest share of market revenue in 2016 owing to its low cost. The segment is estimated to hold approximately 36.0% of the overall market by 2024

The CDSS integrated with CPOE segment is poised experience noteworthy growth over the coming years due to rapid adoption of healthcare IT solutions by clinicians

Drug allergy alert made the highest contribution to market revenue generation in 2016. The segment is expected to expand at a CAGR of 6.4% between 2017 and 2024

Domicile of a large number of key players and high adoption of advanced technologies are anticipated to contribute to the dominance of North America . However, Asia Pacific is estimated to witness the highest CAGR of 7.8% during the forecast period

. However, is estimated to witness the highest CAGR of 7.8% during the forecast period Key players operating in this industry include Agfa healthcare; McKesson Corporation; NextGen Healthcare Information Systems; Medical Information Technology Inc; Carestream Health Inc.; AthenaHealth; Philips Healthcare; Wolters Kluwer NU; Cerner Corporation; and Siemens Healthineers. Collaboration with IT companies to develop innovative products and enhance existing platforms is likely to help key players to stay ahead in the market.



Browse related reports by Grand View Research: MicroRNA Market - The global microRNA market worth is expected to exceed USD 1.7 billion by 2024 and is estimated to grow at a CAGR of over 18% from 2016 to 2024.



The global microRNA market worth is expected to exceed by 2024 and is estimated to grow at a CAGR of over 18% from 2016 to 2024. Bioinformatics Market - The Global bioinformatics market size was valued at USD 3.51 billion in 2013. Growing demand in the process of novel drug research.



The Global bioinformatics market size was valued at in 2013. Growing demand in the process of novel drug research. eHealth Market - The global eHealth market size was valued at USD 85.44 billion in 2014 and is expected to increase at the rate of 15.8% over the forecast period.



The global eHealth market size was valued at in 2014 and is expected to increase at the rate of 15.8% over the forecast period. Healthcare Payer BPO Market - The Global healthcare payer BPO market size was valued at USD 15,084.6 million in 2014 and is expected to grow at CAGR of over 10% over the forecast period. Grand View Research has segmented global clinical decision support systems (CDSS) market on the basis of product, application, delivery mode, component, and region:

Clinical Decision Support Systems Product Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2013 - 2024) Standalone CDSS Integrated CPOE with CDSS Integrated E.H.R. with CDSS Integrated CDSS with CPOE & E.H.R.

Clinical Decision Support Systems Application Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2013 - 2024) Drug-drug interactions Drug allergy alerts Clinical reminders Clinical guidelines Drug dosing support Others

Clinical Decision Support Systems Delivery Mode Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2013 - 2024) Web Delivery Cloud Delivery On Premises Delivery

Clinical Decision Support Systems Component Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2013 - 2024) Hardware Software Services

Clinical Decision Support Systems Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2013 - 2024) North America U.S. Canada Europe Germany U.K. Asia Pacific Japan China Latin America Brazil Middle East and Africa (MEA) South Africa

Read Our Blog By Grand View Research: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/blogs/healthcare About Grand View Research Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare. Contact:

Sherry James

Corporate Sales Specialist, USA

Grand View Research, Inc

Phone: +1-415-349-0058

Toll Free: 1-888-202-9519

Email: sales@grandviewresearch.com

Web: https://www.grandviewresearch.com

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[March 28, 2018] Inkstone, a Digital News Brand and Platform Launched by South China Morning Post, Offers a Daily Look into China

A daily digest designed to provide insight into China's politics, society and culture NEW YORK and HONG KONG, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Inkstone, an English-language news brand and platform covering China, was introduced today by the South China Morning Post, a global media company reporting on China and Asia for over a century. Available on the web (www.inkstonenews.com), via mobile app (Apple, Google) and through a daily curated newsletter, Inkstone provides a new perspective on today's China, its relationship with the United States and why this all matters. Led by Senior Editor Juliana Liu, an alumnus of BBC News and Reuters, the daily brief covers a range of topics -- including politics, business, technology and human interest -- delivered via editorial and visual storytelling. Readers can also follow Inkstone on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. Inkstone's editorial staff features a team of veteran reporters embedded in Mainland China and Hong Kong providing first-hand, on-the-ground coverage of the latest happenings and developments. Additionally, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Mei Fong, a former staff writer for the Wall Street Journal's China bureau, will contribute a regular column. "Inkstone is part of the Suth China Morning Post's mission to lead the global conversation about China," said SCMP Chief Executive Officer Gary Liu. "It's designed for the globally curious who are seeking a variety of perspectives on China's evolving role on the world stage and also want to understand the country from within."



"I'm thrilled to be leading a daily platform dedicated to covering so many different facets of the China story, with a plurality of voices and views," said Inkstone Senior Editor Juliana Liu, who has reported on China from three different continents for more than 15 years. "What sets Inkstone apart is our network of locally based journalists, who can deliver personal, authentic and close-to-the-ground views on what's happening. If you want the inside scoop on China, this is where to get it." "Inkstone is designed as a daily briefing of China-focused news and stories," said Malcolm Ong, Head of Product at SCMP and Inkstone. "With clear and concise analysis, it compiles what you need to understand about China that day into a consumable package. Make it a part of your daily routine, and stay on top of China -- a rising potential superpower."

Inkstone is SCMP's second news product delivering China stories to U.S. and global audiences. Earlier this month, the company launched Abacus, a news brand covering the China tech industry. Led by Executive Producer Ravi Hiranand, formerly of CNN, Abacus offers an insider's look at the China tech revolution, highlighting the key players, emerging companies, hottest gadgets, and more. Quick facts about today's China China plans to become a global leader in political, economic, military and environmental issues over the next three decades

China will have the world's largest economy by 2030

China purchased $165 billion in goods and services from the United States in 2015, representing 7.3 percent of all US exports and about 1 percent of total US economic output

in goods and services from in 2015, representing 7.3 percent of all US exports and about 1 percent of total US economic output By 2030, US exports to China are expected to rise to more than $520 billion

China is the second-largest spender on research and development (R&D) after the US, accounting for 21% of the world's total of nearly $2 trillion in 2015

(Sources: World Economic Forum / US-China Business Council) ABOUT SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST South China Morning Post is a leading news media company that has reported on China and Asia for more than a century with global impact. Founded in 1903, SCMP is headquartered in Hong Kong, where it is the city's newspaper of record. The SCMP teams span across Asia and the United States, working together to connect with news consumers around the world. SCMP is committed to informing and inspiring through journalism of the highest standards. The company's vision is to "Elevate Thought" and its mission is to "Lead the global conversation about China". SCMP develops news content 24/7, driven by world-class journalists, editors, visual artists, photographers and videographers, all guided by the principle of "Truth and Fairness". Its editorial teams are powered by emerging digital technologies to create innovative ways to tell Asia's most important and compelling stories. Against the backdrop of shifting discovery and consumption behaviours, SCMP reaches users across distributed media platforms including scmp.com, smartphone and tablet apps, social media and messaging platforms, as well as our flagship newspaper. Additionally, SCMP is Asia's leading magazine publisher with a portfolio of premium lifestyle and fashion titles including Cosmopolitan, ELLE, Esquire, Harper's BAZAAR and The PEAK. SCMP is also home to cpjobs.com, a big data-powered recruitment platform that matches jobseekers with their dream jobs. For further information please contact: communications@scmp.com SOURCE South China Morning Post

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[March 28, 2018] Poland signs agreement with U.S. government for Patriot Integrated Air and Missile Defense system

WARSAW, Poland, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The government of Poland signed an agreement to purchase Raytheon's (NYSE: RTN) combat proven Patriot from the U.S. Army. The agreement, formally referred to as a Letter of Offer and Acceptance, paves the way for Poland's Patriot force to rapidly reach Initial Operational Capability, and sets the stage for the U.S. government to begin contract negotiations with Raytheon and its industry partners. "Poland joins the now 15 nation strong group of countries which trust Patriot to defend their citizens, military and sovereignty," said Wes Kremer, President of Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems. "Poland's procurement of Patriot strengthens Trans-Atlantic partnership and security by enabling a common approach to Integrated Air and Missile Defense, and creating jobs in the US and Poland." Patriot is the backbone of NATO and Europe's defense against ballistic and cruise missiles, advanced aircraft and drones. NATO Nations with Patriot: The US, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, and Spain currently have Patriot. On Nov. 29th, Romania signed an LOA for Patriot, making it the 6th NATO member state to procure Patriot. Additionally, a Congressional notification regarding a potential Patriot sale to Sweden has been completed. Patriot in Poland: Prior to signing the LOA, Poland agreed to an industrial-participation proposal offered by Raytheon and its industry partners. To facilitate Poland's self-sufficiency, which is required by Polish law, Raytheon will transfer technology to the extent permitted by US law and regulations. This LOA is for Phase I of "WISLA," Poland'stwo-phase medium-range Integrated Air and Missile Defense procurement. Under Phase II, Poland has stated it intends to acquire additional Patriot fire units, Gallium-Nitride-based 360-degree Active Electronically Scanning Array Radar, and SkyCeptor, a low-cost interceptor missile.



About Raytheon Raytheon Company, with 2017 sales of $25 billion and 64,000 employees, is a technology and innovation leader specializing in defense, civil government and cybersecurity solutions. With a history of innovation spanning 96 years, Raytheon provides state-of-the-art electronics, mission systems integration, C5ITM products and services, sensing, effects, and mission support for customers in more than 80 countries. Raytheon is headquartered in Waltham, Mass. Follow us on Twitter.

Note to Editors The 15 Patriot Nations are: United States of America

The Netherlands

Germany

Japan

Israel

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Kuwait

Taiwan

Greece

Spain

Republic of Korea

United Arab Emirates

Qatar

Romania

Poland Media Contact

Mike Nachshen

+ 1.520.269.5697

idspr@raytheon.com Official DoD photos of U.S. Army Soldiers familiarizing Polish Soldiers with Raytheon's Patriot Integrated Air and Missile Defense System may be downloaded here: https://www.dvidshub.net/image/285888/patriots, https://www.dvidshub.net/image/285156/patriots-poland, https://www.dvidshub.net/image/285147/patriots-poland View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/poland-signs-agreement-with-us-government-for-patriot-integrated-air-and-missile-defense-system-300620857.html SOURCE Raytheon Company

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[March 28, 2018] Mechanics on Demand Website, GoWrench Auto, Adds Pros Across the Country

Autoservice disruptor now active in 45 cities across Canada HAMILTON, ON, March 28, 2018 /CNW/ - Leading on-demand automotive service startup, GoWrench Auto, announced today that it is now available in over 45 cities across the country. The platform, which was founded in Hamilton, Ontario, connects mechanics to customers in person, in real-time, eliminating the negative nuances that are often associated with a visit to the mechanic. Founded in 2015 by entrepreneur Joshua Lombardo-Bottema, GoWrench aims to make automotive services more accessible for all Canadians. After successfully launching in key markets in Ontario and British Columbia, GoWrench is pleased to begin ofering their services to more Canadians coast to coast.



"The idea for GoWrench came from a personal experience," said Joshua Lombardo-Bottema, CEO and founder of GoWrench. "My car broke down in the middle of a busy workday, and when I called my mechanic and asked him to come to me, I was laughed at. It was a lightbulb moment. There's clearly a divide between what consumers want and what mechanics are offering. GoWrench was created to close that gap." A seasoned entrepreneur, Lombardo-Bottema started his first company  a landscaping business -- when he was only 18 years old. In eight years, he turned it into a multimillion-dollar operation with over 80 employees and 25,000 customers and later sold it to a large property maintenance company Canadian Property Stars.

GoWrench Auto provides its fully-vetted, certified mechanics more autonomy when it comes to workflow and scheduling. GoWrench mechanics have more flexibility, independence and freedom to work on projects that they are interested in. For more information on availability in your area, or to use GoWrench, please visit GoWrenchAuto.com. About GoWrench Auto

Based in Hamilton GoWrench Auto is a mobile automotive maintenance service that was started in early 2015. Customers request the service they need via the GoWrench platform and after receiving a quote, they can proceed with booking an appointment time for mechanics to complete the job. SOURCE GoWrench Auto

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[March 28, 2018] Transport for London's Lauren Sager Weinstein Named U.K. Chief Data Officer of the Year 2017 by CDO Club

NEW YORK and LONDON, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Lauren Sager Weinstein, Chief Data Officer at Transport for London (TfL), was today recognized as the U.K. Chief Data Officer of the Year 2017 by the CDO Club, the world's largest community of C-suite digital and data leaders. Sager Weinstein was presented with the award today after her keynote on "Delivering Better Transport with Big Data" at the 3rd U.K. CDO Summit in London, England, by CDO Club founder David Mathison. Lauren became Chief Data Officer at Transport for London in January 2017, driving TfL's decision-making and improving customer services through the provision of data products and services. She is responsible for TfL's business intelligence/data science strategy, TfL's technical platform design, development, and support for data products and services. In a single day, TfL collects 19 million smartcard ticketing transactions, 4.5 million bus location events, and 5.2 billion records from SCOOT traffic detectors. Lauren and her team of developers and data scientists transform that flow of data into analytic tools to better run and plan the transport network, improving the experience for customers. Lauren joined TfL in 2002 as a Senior Business Planner and has held a variety of roles, including Head of Analytics for their Customer Experience Directorate from 2012-2016; Head of Oyster Development from 2007-2012; and Chief of Staff, Finance, and Planning from 2004-2007. She was also part of the team that developed and introduced ticketing using contactless bank cards on London's buses, Tube and trains from 2012. More than 1.5 billion journeys have now been made using this innovative technology, which is now being introduced in other world cities such as New York, Boston and Miami. Prior to TfL, Lauren worked for the City of Los Angeles and for at RAND, a non-profit institution that hels improve policy and decision making through research and analysis.



Originally from Washington, DC, USA, Sager Weinstein earned her A.B. degree from Princeton University in 1995, and her Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University in 2002. "Lauren's academic and vocational experience has been dedicated to making cities better and smarter, and providing practical benefits for citizens through the intelligent application of data and insights," remarked Mathison.

"Lauren and TfL also understand the importance of privacy, and safeguarding personal customer data. Therefore I am delighted to name Lauren as the U.K. Chief Data Officer of the Year," said Mathison." Lauren Sager Weinstein, Chief Data Officer at TfL, said: "I am thrilled to be recognised by the CDO Club as the UK Chief Data Officer of the Year. It's a huge honour and I love that I am able to use data to make a difference to people's lives every day." Mike Brown MVO, London's Transport Commissioner, said: "It's fantastic that Lauren has received this award, which is a testament to the work that Lauren and her team do to improve customers' journeys in London. She is an inspiring role model and I hope this will encourage more people, particularly women and other under-represented groups of people, to explore the career opportunities on offer working with data." This is the first-ever Chief Data Officer of the Year awarded in the U.K. In 2016, the CDO Club gave the first-ever U.S. Chief Data Officer of the Year award to Dr. D.J. Patil, former Chief Data Scientist at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; and the first-ever Australian Chief Data Officer of the Year award to Simon Bligh, CEO of Dun & Bradstreet ANZ. In 2017, the CDO Club gave the U.S. Chief Data Officer of the Year award to Dr. Inderpal Bhandari, Global Chief Data Officer for IBM. In addition to the Chief Data Officer of the Year award, the CDO Club has also given the Chief Digital Officer of the Year award to a dozen leading executives in the U.S., U.K., the EU, ANZ, and Japan since 2013. About the CDO Club

The CDO Club is the world's largest community of C-suite digital and data leaders. Its 5,000+ registered members receive access to breaking news, original research, career development support, and networking opportunities. For more information, visit: http://CDOClub.com. About the CDO Summit

The CDO Summit has been addressing the challenges and opportunities arising from big data, the cloud, digital disruption, and social and mobile media. CDO Summit gatherings include the very best digital and data strategists and practitioners on Earth, speaking in intimate, collegial, and supportive environments designed to encourage networking, learning, and knowledge-sharing. The next CDO Summits are in NYC on May 30, 2018 and San Francisco, CA on June 27, 2018. For more information, visit http://CDOSummit.com. Media Contact:

Michelle Oster

Communications Manager

CDO Club

Email: 192464@email4pr.com

Tel +1 516 488-1143 x. 7 View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/transport-for-londons-lauren-sager-weinstein-named-uk-chief-data-officer-of-the-year-2017-by-cdo-club-300620935.html SOURCE CDO Club

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[March 28, 2018] 3D Signatures Collaborates with MDxHealth to Evaluate Telo-PC Test in Prostate Cancer

TORONTO, March 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- 3D Signatures Inc. (TSX-V:DXD) (OTCQB:TDSGF) (FSE:3D0) (the Company or "3DS"), a personalized medicine company with a proprietary software platform (TeloViewTM) based on the three-dimensional analysis of chromosomal signatures, is pleased to announce that it has signed a collaboration agreement with MDxHealth SA (Euronext: Brussels MDXH.BR) (MDxHealth), a world leader in molecular diagnostics for urological cancers, to evaluate 3DS prognostic test candidate for prostate cancer (Telo-PCTM), using 3DS proprietary TeloView software platform.

3DS and MDxHealth will share the costs of conducting the collaborative study. Pursuant to the agreement, 3DS has also granted MDxHealth an exclusive option to negotiate a license agreement for the Telo-PCTM test. This is an excellent opportunity, combining our expertise in urological diagnostics with the innovative 3DS software platform, to evaluate an exciting technology that may improve the clinical management of patients with prostate cancer, said Dr. Jan Groen, CEO of MDxHealth. MDxHealth is constantly evaluating new opportunities that might allow us to increase our commercial footprint and we look forward to collaborating with 3DS to explore the potential of this partnership. There is a significant unmet need for accurate and minimally invasive diagnostic and risk-assessment tools that allow clinicians to make more informed treatment decisions for prostate cancer patients. Traditionally, the diagnosis of prostate cancer has involved repeated invasive tissue biopsies, which can easily miss cancerous cells or misinterpret benign conditions as being dangerous, leading to unnecessary surgeries. This system needs urgent improvement as seen by the sheer number of people across the world affected by prostate cancer. According to the World Health Organization1, there were over 570,000 new cases of prostate cancer in the U.S. and Europe in 2012. The U.S. National Institutes of Health2 estimates there were over 3 million men living with prostate cancer in the United States in 2014. Currently, prostate cancer patients are often faced with the difficult choice of either living with the cancer under active surveillance, or pursuing treatment which has a significant risk of devastating side effects such as erectile dysfunction, incontinence, bowel complications and infection. We look forward to expanding the evaluation of our TeloViewTM platform in prostate cancer through a collaboration with MDxHealth, as they are recognized world leaders in molecular diagnostic testing for patients with prostate cancer, commented Jason Flowerday, CEO of 3DS. We hope this study will continue to build on the evidence observed to date which indicates that our Telo-PCTM test is able to predict the stability and aggressiveness of prostate cancer through three-dimensional nuclear telomeric profile analysis. About MDxHealth MDxHealth is a multinational healthcare company that provides actionable molecular diagnostic information to personalize the diagnosis and treatment of urological cancer. The Company's tests are based on proprietary genetic, epigenetic (methylation) and other molecular technologies and assist physicians with the diagnosis of urologic cancers, prognosis of recurrence risk, and prediction of response to a specific therapy. The Company's European headquarters are in Herstal, Belgium, with laboratory operations in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, and US headquarters and laboratory operations based in Irvine, California. For more information, visit mdxhealth.com and follow us on social media at: twitter.com/mdxhealth, facebook.com/mdxhealth and linkedin.com/company/mdxhealth. About 3DS 3DS (TSX-V:DXD) (OTCQB:TDSGF) (FSE:3D0) is a personalized medicine company with a proprietary software platform, TeloView, that is designed to predict the course of certain diseases and to tailor treatment options for the individual patient. The technology is based on the three-dimensional analysis of telomeres, the protective caps at the ends of chromosomes. 3DS TeloView software platform measures the organization of the genome and its correspondence to; the stage of a given disease, the rate of progression of the disease, how different diseases will respond to various therapies, and a rugs efficacy and toxicity. 3DS proprietary imaging software is designed to go beyond identifying whether a patient suffers from a specific disease or condition. Instead, the TeloViewTM platform is designed to inform clinicians and patients with respect to how to personalize treatment and best manage an individuals disease based on their unique TeloView ScoreTM. As healthcare moves increasingly toward better informed, patient-centric approaches, the Company intends for the TeloViewTM platform to deliver personalized medicine that allows for better treatments, leading to better outcomes.



The TeloViewTM platform is supported by 25 clinical studies involving more than 3,000 patients and 20 different cancers, plus Alzheimers disease. 3DS benefits from twenty years of research, $25M of non-dilutive investment into its platform and more than 130 supporting publications, and holds a portfolio of patents related to three-dimensional telomere analysis for proliferative diseases, including (but not limited to) hematological disorders such as Hodgkin's lymphoma, multiple myeloma, and chronic myeloid leukemia. 3DS intellectual property portfolio also covers prostate cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, melanoma, colorectal cancer, and Alzheimer disease. For more information, visit the Companys website at: http://www.3dsignatures.com.

The information concerning MDxHealth contained in this news release has been provided by MDxHealth. Although 3DS has no knowledge that would indicate that any statements contained herein concerning MDxHealth are untrue and incomplete, the directors and officers of 3DS assume no responsibility for the accuracy and completeness for such information. For further information, please contact: Jason Flowerday

CEO & Director

416-673-8487

investors@3dsignatures.com Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking statements which constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation (Forward-Looking Statements). All statements included herein, other than statements of historical fact, are Forward-Looking Statements and are subject to a variety of known and unknown risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those reflected in the Forward-Looking Statements. Often, but not always, these Forward-Looking Statements can be identified by the use of words such as "estimates", "potential", "open", "future", "assumes", "projects", anticipates, believes, may, continues, expects, "plans", "will", "to be", or statements that events "could" or "should" occur or be achieved, and similar expressions, including negative variations. Statements with respect to MDxHealths option to negotiate a license agreement for the Telo-PCTM test, 3DS future collaboration with MDxHealth and the studys ability to build on previous evidence in respect of 3DS Telo-PCTM test, among others, are Forward-Looking statements. Such Forward-Looking Statements reflect the Companys current views with respect to future events, are subject to risks and uncertainties and are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by 3DS as of the date of such statements, are inherently subject to significant medical, scientific, business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties and contingencies. Many risk factors could cause the Companys actual results, performance, achievements, prospects or opportunities to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements that may be expressed or implied by such Forward-Looking Statements, including risks related to the failure of 3DS and MDxHealth to execute successfully on the collaboration agreement or at all; the risk that the Telo-HLTM test may not be commercially launched for research use or as an LDT by the first quarter of 2018, or at all; uncertainties related to 3DS clinical trials and test development; risks related to the volatility of the price of 3DS common shares; risks related to the possibility that 3DS shareholders may experience dilution; risks related to 3DS requirements for additional financing and future access to capital, including the risk that the proceeds raised under the Private Placement may be insufficient to finance 3DS business objectives; the risk that a positive return on an investment in 3DS common shares is not guaranteed; risks related to 3DS intention to retain earnings and not pay cash dividends on its common shares in the foreseeable future; risks related to 3DS early stage of development; the risk that 3DS tests will not be successfully deployed; risks related to 3DS dependence on third parties, including collaborative partners, licensors and others; risks related to 3DS clinical trial recruitment; that there is currently no market for 3DS products and that such market may be slow to develop if at all; risks related to 3DS reliance on key personnel; risks related to the competitive nature of the biotechnology industry; risks related to 3DS limited operating history, lack of revenue, history of losses and inability to assure that it will earn profits in the future or that profitability will be sustained; risks related to government regulation; risks related to rapid technological change; risks related to the fact that 3DS software may now or in the future contain undetected errors, bugs or vulnerabilities; the risk that 3DS or its directors and officers may be subject to a variety of civil or other legal proceedings, with or without merit, including product liability claims; risks related to the protection of 3DS intellectual property rights; risks related to 3DS limited sales, marketing and distribution experience; risks related to the possibility that 3DS directors and officers may be placed in a conflict of interest as a result of their employment or affiliation with third parties, risks related to 3DS use and storage of personal information and compliance with applicable privacy laws, as well as those risks discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's annual managements discussion and analysis dated October 23, 2017 and filed on SEDAR. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in the Forward-Looking Statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended. In making the Forward-Looking Statements, the Company has made various material assumptions including, but not limited to, that 3DS and MDxHealth will collaborate successfully, obtaining positive results from 3DS current and planned clinical trials and research and development initiatives, including the study with MDxHealth; that the Telo-HLTM test will be commercially launched for research use or as an LDT by the first quarter of 2018; obtaining regulatory approvals with respect to 3DS clinical trials which are now ongoing or may in the future be commenced; 3DS ability to successfully develop its tests; assumptions regarding general business and economic conditions; that 3DS current positive relationship with third parties will be maintained; the availability of future financing on reasonable terms; 3DS ability to attract and retain skilled staff; assumptions regarding market competition and the products and technology offered by 3DS competitors; and 3DS ability to protect patents and proprietary rights. 3DS believes that the assumptions and expectations reflected in the Forward-Looking Statements in this press release are reasonable, but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-Looking Statements should not be unduly relied upon. This information speaks only as of the date of this press release, and 3DS will not necessarily update this information, unless required to do so by securities laws. 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. http://globocan.iarc.fr/old/FactSheets/cancers/prostate-new.asp https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/prost.html

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[March 28, 2018]

Globee Launches World's Largest Transformative Multilingual BPO

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Globee Services is set to transform how businesses deliver customer experience through multilingual omni-channel customer support, coupled with artificial intelligence (AI). Located in Kuala Lumpur, it will house over 2,000 staff, catering to the APAC region.

Globee is a joint venture between South Korea's largest BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) service company, UBASE and Everise, which owns C3/CustomerContactChannels, a large global BPO, based in USA.

The launch was officiated by Datuk Yasmin Mahmood, CEO of Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation who welcomed Globee's establishment in Malaysia. "We believe Globee will elevate the customer experience aspect in Malaysia's Global Business Services (GBS) sector," se shared.







Sudhir Agarwal, CEO of Everise stated that companies need to partner with their clients and leverage technology to offer differentiated business models, forming the overall customer experience that brands need to achieve to compete globally.

Sudhir also shared more on how Globee uses the convergence of technology and multilingual experience to offer solutions. "We have set up a Globee Lab within the center, tapping on AI's power to incubate and innovate products, further enhancing the customer experience that is delivered."

"It's the very first investment by a Korean BPO targeting global /digital clients," said Daegun Hur, CEO of UBASE.

He added that with Malaysia's multi-cultural society, great work ethics, excellent infrastructure and friendly government policies, Globee will bring the best they have and create synergy in Malaysia.

About GlobeE

GlobeE is a BPO service company established in 2018. Based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, they offer multilingual omnichannel customer support, by native speakers. GlobeE is a joint venture between Everise (which owns US based BPO C3/CustomerContactChannels) and UBASE, South Korea's largest BPO. The company houses GlobeE Lab, a division focused on innovation and incubation of technologies that are disrupting BPOs' approach and managing customer experiences. Visit www.globeebpo.com
FORM 8.3

PUBLIC OPENING POSITION DISCLOSURE/DEALING DISCLOSURE BY

A PERSON WITH INTERESTS IN RELEVANT SECURITIES REPRESENTING 1% OR MORE

Rule 8.3 of the Takeover Code (the "Code")

1. KEY INFORMATION

(a) Full name of discloser: Elliott Capital Advisors, L.P. (for itself and related general partners and investment managers) (b) Owner or controller of interests and short positions disclosed, if different from 1(a):

The naming of nominee or vehicle companies is insufficient. For a trust, the trustee(s), settlor and beneficiaries must be named. Elliott International, L.P.

Liverpool Limited Partnership

Elliott Associates, L.P



(c) Name of offeror/offeree in relation to whose relevant securities this form relates:

Use a separate form for each offeror/offeree Sky Plc (d) If an exempt fund manager connected with an offeror/offeree, state this and specify identity of offeror/offeree: (e) Date position held/dealing undertaken:

For an opening position disclosure, state the latest practicable date prior to the disclosure 27th 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" No

2. POSITIONS OF THE PERSON MAKING THE DISCLOSURE

If there are positions or rights to subscribe to disclose in more than one class of relevant securities of the offeror or offeree named in 1(c), copy table 2(a) or (b) (as appropriate) for each additional class of relevant security.

(a) Interests and short positions in the relevant securities of the offeror or offeree to which the disclosure relates following the dealing (if any)

Class of relevant security:







Interests Short positions Number % Number % (1) Relevant securities owned and/or controlled: 75,000 0.0044% (2) Cash-settled derivatives:



48,171,962 2.8023% (3) Stock-settled derivatives (including options) and agreements to purchase/sell:



TOTAL: 48,246,962 2.8067%

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 ORD CFD







Increasing a Long position



1,115



GBP 13.056

(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: 28h March 2018 Contact name: Michael Cross Telephone number: 0203 009 1305

Public disclosures under Rule 8 of the Code must be made to a Regulatory Information Service.

The Panel's Market Surveillance Unit is available for consultation in relation to the Code's disclosure requirements on +44 (0)20 7638 0129.

The Code can be viewed on the Panel's website at www.thetakeoverpanel.org.uk.
[March 28, 2018] Sarah Wilkinson, CEO of NHS Digital, Named U.K. Chief Digital Officer of the Year 2017 by CDO Club

NEW YORK and LONDON, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Sarah Wilkinson, CEO at NHS Digital, was today recognized as "U.K. Chief Digital Officer of the Year 2017" by the CDO Club, the world's largest community of C-suite digital and data leaders. Ms. Wilkinson was presented with the award after her keynote on "Digitising the National Health Service" at the 3rd U.K. CDO Summit in London, England, by CDO Club founder David Mathison. In 2017, Ms. Wilkinson became CEO of NHS Digital, the executive body of the Department of Health, which provides information, data, and IT systems for health and social care nationally. Prior to joining NHS Digital, Sarah was Chief Digital, Data and Technology Officer (CIO) at The Home Office, with responsibility for the delivery of technology services for the UK Border, Visas and Immigration, Asylum, Policing and Counter-Terror. Prior to The Home Office, Sarah spent 23 years in financial services during which time she held CIO roles at Credit Suisse, UBS, Deutsche Bank, and Lehman Brothers. Sarah is a Non Executive Director of Kings College London and a member of their Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee; a Non-Executive Director of the Police ICT Company; a member of the Tech Partnership Board; and a member of the advisory boards of the Department of Computing at Imperial College and the Department of Maths at Oxford University. She has also worked as an advisor to various technology start-ups. Sarah read Mathematics at Imperial College, and earned an MBA from the London Business School. She also holds a Financial Times Non Executive Director Diploma and is a CEDR-certified mediator. In December 2017, Sarah was voted No 2 in the TechUK 50, Computer Weekly's poll of the Top 50 Most Influential Leaders in the UK IT Industry, having been voted No 3 in the December 2017 list. In April 2016, she was named No 26 in the CIO 100, CIO Magazine's ranking of the most transformative and disruptive CIOs in the UK. In October 2017, June 2016 and July 2015 she was recognised by Computer Weekly as one of the Top 50 Most Influential Women in IT.



"Sarah has two decades of experience in running complex IT organisations in both the financial services sector and in government. As CEO of NHS Digital, she is now dedicated to spearheading digital transformation of their IT capabilities, and to modernising health and care to provide maximum value to patients and the public, remarked David Mathison, CEO of the CDO Club and CDO Summit. "Sarah has also made the strategic transition from CDO to CEO, and undertaken numerous Non Executive Director roles, demonstrating the strategic value she provides to organisations and stakeholders in both the public and private sectors. It is my distinct honour to name Sarah as the U.K. Chief Digital Officer of the Year 2017," said Mathison.

The CDO Club is the only organization tracking the CDO to CEO career path, and has identified more than 100 CDOs who have become CEO, President, or Non Executive Director since 2007. Sarah Wilkinson said "I am very honoured to receive this accolade from the CDO Club. It's a huge privilege to be working in the digital, data, and technology space at such an incredibly exciting point in time. Digital has radically transformed many sectors since the start of the internet era, but in many sectors, including healthcare, the transformation still has a very long way to run. The next few years will be a time of accelerating digital transformation delivering incredible opportunities and benefits. I, and all my colleagues at NHS Digital, look forward to delivering these opportunities and benefits across the NHS." The CDO Club has given CDO of the Year awards since 2013 in the U.S, U.K., EU, ANZ, and Japan. Previous U.K. Chief Digital Officer of the Year award winners include Bertrand Bodson, Chief Digital and Marketing Officer at Sainsbury's Argos (2016); Tanya Cordrey, former Chief Digital Officer at Guardian News and Media (2015); and Mike Bracken, former Chief Digital Officer at U.K.'s Government Digital Service (2014). About the CDO Club

The CDO Club is the world's largest community of C-suite digital and data leaders. Its 5,000+ registered members receive access to breaking news, original research, career development support, and networking opportunities. For more information, visit: http://CDOClub.com. About the CDO Summit

The CDO Summit has been addressing the challenges and opportunities arising from big data, the cloud, digital disruption, and social and mobile media. CDO Summit gatherings include the very best digital and data strategists and practitioners on Earth, speaking in intimate, collegial, and supportive environments designed to encourage networking, learning, and knowledge-sharing. The next CDO Summits are in NYC on May 30, 2018 and San Francisco, CA on June 27, 2018. For more information, visit http://CDOSummit.com. Media Contact:

Michelle Oster

Communications Manager

CDO Club

192358@email4pr.com

Tel +1-516-488-1143 x. 7 View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sarah-wilkinson-ceo-of-nhs-digital-named-uk-chief-digital-officer-of-the-year-2017-by-cdo-club-300620944.html SOURCE CDO Club

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[March 28, 2018] Maricopa Region 911 Calls on Corvil to Bolster Emergency Response Services

NEW YORK, March 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Maricopa Region 911, servicing the Phoenix metro area, which includes the fifth largest city in the US, has enlisted Corvil to provide real-time visibility and analytics to assure the quality, performance, and availability of critical emergency communications services across its existing Emergency Services IP network (ESInet), part of Maricopa Region 911s Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG911) deployment.

Delivering nearly 2.5 million wireless calls each year for police, fire, and medical assistance to 27 Public Service Answering Point (PSAP) locations across the region, Maricopa Region 911 provides potentially lifesaving technologies including 911 call delivery and advanced mapping to provide location intelligence using internet-based imagery to hundreds of 911 call taking positions. Maricopa Region 911 has been moving towards VoIP call delivery, with continuity of operations as a prerequisite. This replaces analog emergency call services with digital communications services and allows for additional NG911 applications, provided over a converged network with increased service assurance requirements. Maricopa Region 911 deployed Corvil to gain the operational intelligence required to support consistent end-to-end quality of service, with Corvil now providing visibility into the more than 70 percent of calls that have already migrated to VoIP. Corvil is providing analytics and actionable insight into our network traffic that previously wasnt available, said Dave Dansevicus, 911 Integrated Systems Administrator. Right out of the box, Corvil identified a vendor configuration issue, enabling us to proactively improve performance. Now, these insights allow one person to get data needed to troubleshoot in minutes, where previously it would require multiple entities and could take over a day. It seems we find a new use case enabled by Corvil every week. Corvils real-time network analytics empower Maricopa Region 911 with the insight required to meet their zero tolerance objective for poor caller experience such as jittery, choppy or garbled calls. Offering live and retrospective quality metrics such as mean opinion scores, jitter, and packet loss by caller number, time of day, call volumes and other call record details, Corvil delivers advanced, data-driven anlytics to proactively identify service degradation, optimize performance, and respond to issues.



We are proud and delighted to be working with Maricopa Region 911 to support such an important public safety service, said Dan Kennedy, Corvil VP and General Manager, Americas. Working together to deliver a quality service outcome, we have established a strong partnership that we believe will continue to deliver value well into the future. Corvil is also delivering operational efficiencies. Through seamless integration with the existing IT Operations Analytics (ITOA) ecosystem, Corvil allows Maricopa Region 911 to maintain the single user interface with which all technical team members are already familiar, thereby extending Corvil intelligence to the broader team, minimizing the learning curve for expanded adoption, and shortening troubleshooting times. Using the Corvil VoIP Performance App for a leading machine data platform, for example, Maricopa Region 911 operational team members use single-click workflows to contextually navigate to further explore more granular details and analysis within Corvil Analytics or export Corvil data to enable offline investigation or sharing with others.

By supplying near-real-time access to accurate data that can be shared with our partners - using the tools with which we are already familiar - Corvil has already allowed us to eliminate process bottlenecks and shorten troubleshooting times. This information also validates our data network is performing as we expect  all to ensure the highest level of 911 service to our community, said Dansevicus. Our partnership with Maricopa Region 911 exemplifies the important role operational analytics play in supporting the quality delivery, assessment, and improvement of critical services, said David Murray, Corvil Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer. It also highlights the value and importance of our seamless integration with existing customer ecosystems to accelerate improved responsiveness, mean time to repair, staff productivity and customer return on investment. 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 Media Contact

Press Office at Corvil

+353 1 859 1040

pressoffice@corvil.com

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[March 28, 2018] Orion Biotechnology Canada Announces Partnership with Nanjing University

OTTAWA, March 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Orion Biotechnology Canada Ltd, a developer of novel medical treatments for chronic illness and life-threatening diseases, today announced a strategic partnership with the Center for Public Health Research (CPHR) and the State Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry (SKLAC) of Nanjing University. The partnership will focus on supporting the development of Orions China sourced biopharmaceutical solutions, including the companys unique multipurpose microbicide candidate (OB-001) - a non-antiretroviral microbicide designed to be a contraceptive which also prevents the transmission of HIV. We are delighted to work with Nanjing University, one of the top academic centers in China, said Mark Groper, President & CEO of Orion. Orion is committed to sourcing and developing solutions for the China market. Our partnership with Nanjing University is an important step forward for our China program and we look forward to developing a strong and mutually beneficial relationship. Orion has established a series of collaborations with leading universities and research institutes around the globe to facilitate more rapid identification and development of novel treatments for emerging health issues. Nanjing Universitys SKLAC and CPHR will collaborate with Orion in conducting research and development, pre-clinical testing and IND-enabling studies. Dr. Allen Wu, Professor and Associate Director of the SKLAC, expressed otimism and excitement about this collaboration. Academic and industry collaborations help tackle the gap between fundamental scientific discovery and commercial application. We are pleased to be working closely with Orion, a very promising biotechnology company with excellent management and a strong R&D team. Our collaboration will focus initially on Orions unique HIV prevention solution  a large and growing unmet need medical need in China.



About Orion Biotechnology Canada, Ltd.

Orion Biotechnology Canada Ltd, is a privately held pharmaceutical company founded on the vision of radically improving the health of the global population through successful treatment and prevention of the most serious chronic illnesses and life-threatening diseases. Since 2011, Orion has been developing a robust pipeline of potential products based on novel formulations discovered in different parts of the world. Our close ties to diverse institutions and experts around the globe continue to stimulate the rapid discovery of promising new treatments. With operations in North America, Europe and Asia, Orion brings together innovative technologies from some of the worlds leading research institutions such as the Mintaka Research Foundation and the Center for Public Health Research at Nanjing University. Learn more at www.orionbiotechnology.com. Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking information, which reflects Orions current expectations regarding future events. Forward-looking information is based on a number of assumptions and is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond Orions control, that could cause actual results and events to differ materially from those that are disclosed in or implied by such forward-looking information. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release and, except as expressly required by applicable law, Orion assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Contact: Ross MacLeod

Orion Biotechnology

Canada Ltd

Phone: +1.343.291.1032

info@orionbiotechnology.com



343 Preston Street

11th Floor, Ottawa, Ontario

www.orionbiotechnology.com

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[March 28, 2018] Tufin Signs Mayor Walsh's 100% Talent Compact to Eliminate the Gender Wage Gap

BOSTON, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Tufin, the market-leading provider of Network Security Policy Orchestration solutions, has recently signed on to The Boston 100% Talent Compact, a first-in-the-nation, business community-driven effort to level the playing field for working women. By signing the 100% Talent Compact, Tufin joins forces with the Boston Women's Workforce Council, a public-private partnership between the City of Boston and Boston University, as well as more than 220 other Boston-area employers who are working to close the gender wage gap. Earlier this month, Tufin held an office opening event for its first U.S. headquarters at 2 Oliver Street in downtown Boston. The company, which expanded from its global headquarters in Tel Aviv, Israel, was drawn to Boston's growing community of Israeli-founded cybersecurity companies, as well as its emergence as a global hub for technology talent. "Tufin considers diversity and inclusion as two of its most important principles," said Ruvi Kitov, CEO, Tufin. "By signing the 100% Talent Compact, we pledge to bring these values to our new location by raising awareness of the need for fair pay and increasing the number of equal opportunities in the workforce for all of Boston's women." Accoring to the Boston Women's Workforce Council's 2016 report, women who work in Greater Boston earn significantly less than their male colleagues, while women are the majority of both Boston's residents and workforce. Tufin recognizes that this pay discrepancy poses consequences on the company's talent pool and that women are one of Boston's assets: when women thrive, companies and communities thrive.



"We are pleased to have Tufin as a signer of the 100% Talent Compact," said Cathy Minehan and Evelyn Murphy, Co-chairs, Boston Women's Workforce Council. "The Boston Women's Workforce Council welcomes a company who shares our dedication to addressing the barriers to gender equity in the workplace. We look forward to working with leaders like Ruvi to create workplace culture changes that are crucial to making real progress." The Council's mission is to work with the businesses in the Greater Boston area in a private-public endeavor to eliminate the gender wage gap, remove the visible and invisible barriers to women's advancement and ensure that 100 percent of the talent pool is used to make Boston the best area in the country for working women. As a signer of the 100% Talent Compact, Tufin will work with the Council to take concrete, measurable steps to eliminate the wage gap within its own company and to report progress anonymously every two years.

For more information or to join the 100% Talent Compact, please visit: www.bostonwomensworkforcecouncil.com. About Tufin

Tufin is the leader in Network Security Policy Orchestration for enterprise cybersecurity. More than half of the top 50 companies in the Forbes Global 2000 turn to Tufin to simplify management of some of the largest, most complex networks in the world, consisting of thousands of firewall and network devices and emerging hybrid cloud infrastructures. Enterprises select the company's award-winning Tufin Orchestration Suite to increase agility in the face of ever-changing business demands while maintaining a robust security posture. The Suite reduces the attack surface and meets the need for greater visibility into secure and reliable application connectivity. Its network security automation enables enterprises to implement changes in minutes with proactive risk analysis and continuous policy compliance. Tufin serves over 2,000 customers spanning all industries and geographies; its products and technologies are patent-protected in the U.S. and other countries. Find out more at www.tufin.com, follow Tufin on Twitter at @TufinTech and read more on Tufin's blog, Suite Talk. Contact:

McKenna Bloomquist

fama PR for Tufin

(617) 986-5016

tufin@famapr.com View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/tufin-signs-mayor-walshs-100-talent-compact-to-eliminate-the-gender-wage-gap-300620804.html SOURCE Tufin

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[March 28, 2018] Electric Vehicles and Smart Phones Continues to Fuel Massive Demand for Lithium

PALM BEACH, Florida, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- MarketNewsUpdates.com News Commentary Mining industry professionals in the lithium industry are optimistic about the precious metal's future as demand for the resource continues to climb at high rates due to the increasing global demand for electric vehicles and smart phones. For instance, it's currently predicted that 1/5th of vehicles sold in China by the year 2025 will be electric as the country introduces electric vehicle quotas next year. In turn, data extracted from statista illustrates that global demand for lithium will surpass 400,000 metric tons by 2025. According to data provided by Technavio, the global lithium-ion battery market is expected to reach USD 81.65 billion by 2021, at a CAGR of over 11%. The increased usage of lithium is due to not only rising demand for electric vehicles (EVs ) but batteries to power everyday portable consumer electronics and so much more. As demand rises, so too has competition in the industry which has also influenced innovation and aggressive mining operations. Active companies in the markets this week include Quantum Minerals Corp. (TSXV:QMC) (OTC:QMCQF), Lithium X Energy Corp. (TSXV: LIX), Lithium Corporation (OTC: LTUM), Millennial Lithium Corp. (OTC: MLNLF) (TSXV:ML), Rio Tinto plc. (NYSE: RIO).

Quantum Minerals Corp. (TSX-V:QMC.V) (OTC:QMCQF) BREAKING NEWS: QMC is pleased to report that North Face Software Ltd. has completed compilation of all historical data derived from past drilling and underground work and imported these data into an interactive 3-dimensional Leapfrog model of the Irgon Dike. The Irgon Dike is located at the company's 100% owned Irgon Lithium Mine Project, within the prolific Cat Lake-Winnipeg River Pegmatite Field of S.E. Manitoba that hosts the nearby TANCO rare-element pegmatite.



The 3-D model clearly demonstrates that to date, exploration and underground development has been only undertaken on the central portion of dike leaving significant potential to quickly increase tonnage as the Irgon Dike is open both along strike and to depth. The 2017 channel sample locations and surface exposure of the dike are also indicated on the model. Sampling results of these surface channel cuts were listed in the company's news release of March 05, 2018.



The upcoming drilling program will confirm extensions to the strike length of the Irgon Dike and test mineralization to depth below the current level of historical drilling within the dike; both which will rapidly increase the resource tonnage above the currently reported historical tonnage of 1.2 million tons. Data received from the proposed drill program will be used in preparation of a NI-43-101 report.



All historic data and recent surface geologic mapping are presented in the interactive 3-dimensional model of the deposit which permits the viewer to easily visualize the pegmatite, the underground workings, the 25 drill holes and to view the historic assay results of the mineralized drill intersections. This interactive model will be expanded as results from ongoing and future exploration programs on the property are received by the company. The interactive model can be viewed by following the link to the company's website (https://qmcminerals.com). A perspective model of the Irgon Dike looking towards the southwest is shown as well as more news for QMC at:http://www.marketnewsupdates.com/news/qmc.html

In other mining industry developments in the markets of note:





Lithium X Energy Corp. (TSX-V:LIX.V) recently announced completion of the previously announced plan of arrangement (the "Arrangement") between the Company and NextView New Energy Lion Hong Kong Limited ("NextView") whereby all of the issued and outstanding common shares (the "Shares") and common share purchase warrants (the "Warrants") of Lithium X were acquired by NextView's wholly-owned British Columbia subsidiary, NNEL Holding Corp. ("NNEL Holding"). The Arrangement was completed under the Business Corporations Act of British Columbia and was approved by the Supreme Court of British Columbia in its final order dated February 7, 2018. Each shareholder of the Company received cash consideration of CAD$2.61 for each Share held and each warrantholder of the Company received cash consideration of CAD$0.01 for each Warrant held. Immediately prior to the Arrangement, NextView and NNEL Holding did not own or control any Shares or Warrants of Lithium X.

Lithium Corporation (OTCQB: LTUM) recently announced that on March 15, 2018 Judge Wanker of the Fifth Judicial District Court in Tonopah Nevada ruled in favor of Lithium Corporation's partly owned subsidiary Summa, LLC. This ruling reaffirmed that the title to Summa's mineral lands in Nye County is sound, and that there is no reasonable challenge in law to our ownership (through Summa) of these lands. As previously mentioned in our press release dated May 18, 2015, "The Nye county lands include the Tonopah project, where feasibility studies done in the 1980's on behalf of Houston Oil and Minerals Corporation (HIMCO), and their successor Tenneco Minerals determined that our current property package contains an indicated resource in the order of 1,458,235 tons of tailings containing 2,067,461 ounces silver, and 15,137 ounces of gold, and a further 2,175,630 tons on various dumps containing 3,453,398 ounces of silver and 28,534 ounces of gold." Millennial Lithium Corp. (OTCQB: MLNLF) (TSX-V:ML.V) recently announced an update on its activities at its flagship lithium project, Pastos Grandes, and its Cauchari East project in Argentina. Farhad Abasov, President and CEO of Millennial commented, "Millennial is now well funded with approximately CDN $65,000,000 in its treasury allowing us to fast track our pilot studies and the exploration work on the Remsa ground. Millennial has a strong technical team in Argentina which is expected to expand in the coming months to undertake pond construction and pilot plant construction and commissioning. A Feasibility Study will commence in Q2 2018 and we look forward to continuing to develop and advance the Pastos Grandes Project." Upon completion of its most recent financing (see press release dated March 13, 2018) Millennial has focused on fast tracking work at Pastos Grandes including process test work being undertaken by SGS Lakefield, alongside on-site pilot pond and pilot plant engineering studies. Requests for Quotations (RFQ) for pond construction have been circulated to qualified firms in Argentina. Rio Tinto plc. (NYSE: RIO) recently sold its remaining coal asset Kestrel in Australia to private equity manager EMR Capital and Indonesia's Adaro Energy Tbk (ADRO.JK) for $2.25 billion (1.59 billion pounds), the major said on Tuesday, making good on a pledge to exit the fuel. The sale is Rio's third coal deal this month. In total, the assets have raised $4.15 billion, which it said would be used for "general corporate purposes". CEO Jean-Sebastien Jacques said in a statement the latest sale, combined with Glencore's (GLEN.L) purchase of Hail Creek mine and the divestment of undeveloped coal projects would make Rio's portfolio stronger and more focused. Tuesday's deal to sell Rio's 80 percent stake in the underground coal mine in Queensland, Australia, is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to be completed in the second half of 2018. DISCLAIMER: MarketNewsUpdates.com (MNU) is a third party publisher and news dissemination service provider, which disseminates electronic information through multiple online media channels. MNU is NOT affiliated in any manner with any company mentioned herein. MNU and its affiliated companies are a news dissemination solutions provider and are NOT a registered broker/dealer/analyst/adviser, holds no investment licenses and may NOT sell, offer to sell or offer to buy any security. MNU's market updates, news alerts and corporate profiles are NOT a solicitation or recommendation to buy, sell or hold securities. The material in this release is intended to be strictly informational and is NEVER to be construed or interpreted as research material. All readers are strongly urged to perform research and due diligence on their own and consult a licensed financial professional before considering any level of investing in stocks. All material included herein is republished content and details which were previously disseminated by the companies mentioned in this release. MNU is not liable for any investment decisions by its readers or subscribers. Investors are cautioned that they may lose all or a portion of their investment when investing in stocks. For current services performed MNU has been compensated forty nine hundred dollars for news coverage of the current press releases issued by Quantum Minerals Corp. by a non-affiliated third party. MNU HOLDS NO SHARES OF ANY COMPANY NAMED IN THIS RELEASE. This release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended and such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. "Forward-looking statements" describe future expectations, plans, results, or strategies and are generally preceded by words such as "may", "future", "plan" or "planned", "will" or "should", "expected," "anticipates", "draft", "eventually" or "projected". You are cautioned that such statements are subject to a multitude of risks and uncertainties that could cause future circumstances, events, or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements, including the risks that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, and other risks identified in a company's annual report on Form 10-K or 10-KSB and other filings made by such company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You should consider these factors in evaluating the forward-looking statements included herein, and not place undue reliance on such statements. The forward-looking statements in this release are made as of the date hereof and MNU undertakes no obligation to update such statements.

Media Contact

email: info@marketnewsupdates.com

+1(561)325-8757

SOURCE Marketnewsupdates.com

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[March 28, 2018] Veristor Named Tech Elite Solution Provider by CRN for Eighth Consecutive Year

ATLANTA, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Veristor Systems, Inc., a leading provider of transformative business technology solutions, today announced that CRN, a brand of The Channel Company, has named Veristor to its 2018 Tech Elite 250 list, for the eighth consecutive year. This annual list honors an exclusive group of North American IT solution providers that have earned the highest number of advanced technical certifications from leading technology suppliers, scaled to their company size. To compile the annual list, The Channel Company's research group and CRN editors work together to identify the most customer-beneficial technical certifications in the North American IT channel. Companies who have obtained these elite designationswhich enable solution providers to deliver premium products, services and customer supportare then selected from a pool of online applicants. "Our technical team of Veristor architects and experts have been recognized by our partners with one of the most extensive lists of certifications and designations in the industry," said Ashby Lincoln, CEO, Veristor. "It's this commitment to education and training excellence, along with our passion for customer success and our innovative view into top IT industry trend and developments, that sets us apart. We're honored to be recognized by CRN, for the eighth time, as a Tech Elite solution provider."



"Being named to CRN's Tech Elite 250 list is no small feat," said Bob Skelley, CEO of The Channel Company. "These companies have distinguished themselves with multiple, top-level IT certifications, specializations and partner program designations from the industry's most prestigious technology providers. Their pursuit of deep expertise and broader skill sets in a wide range of technologies and IT practices demonstrates an impressive commitment to elevating their businessesand to providing the best possible customer experience." Coverage of the Tech Elite 250 will be featured in the April issue of CRN, and online at www.crn.com/techelite250.

Follow The Channel Company: Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook About Veristor Systems, Inc.

A leading provider of transformative business technology solutions, Veristor helps its customers accelerate the time-to-value for the software, infrastructure and systems they deploy. We do this by harnessing deep expertise in today's most advanced data center, security, networking, hybrid cloud, and big data technologies and guiding businesses to the right solutions for their most pressing challenges. And with a full suite of design, deployment, support, and managed service offerings, we work shoulder-to-shoulder with our customers at every step of their technology journey to make technology truly work for them. IT's just who we are. Learn more at veristor.com. About the Channel Company

The Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education, and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers and end users. Backed by more than 30 years of unequaled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace. www.thechannelco.com The Channel Company, LLC. CRN is a registered trademark of The Channel Company, LLC. All rights reserved. View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/veristor-named-tech-elite-solution-provider-by-crn-for-eighth-consecutive-year-300620963.html SOURCE Veristor Systems, Inc.

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[March 28, 2018]

U.S. News & World Report Highlights the Future of Work at Annual STEM Solutions Conference, April 4-6

WASHINGTON, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- U.S. News & World Report, publisher of the Best STEM High Schools, A Parent's Guide to STEM and Best STEM Jobs, will host a range of in-depth conference sessions examining the complex challenges and scalable solutions in developing a future workforce skilled in science, technology, engineering and math at the STEM Solutions Presents Workforce of Tomorrow conference. The annual forum is scheduled for April 4-6, 2018, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C.

"Understanding the future of work  from filling the new collar pipeline to developing successful private and public partnerships  remains one of the greatest challenges in workforce development," said Brian Kelly, editor and chief content officer at U.S. News. "The Workforce of Tomorrow conference emphasizes finding ways to cultivate the next generation of talent."

Following the theme of "Skills, Jobs and the New Collar Economy," this year's program focuses on understanding and filling the jobs of the future, developing effective partnerships and policy and spurring innovation in education. Featured sessions include:

Wednesday, April 4

Opening Reception and Workshops with the STEM Learning Ecosystems Initiative, American Institutes for Research, San Diego Workforce Partnership and more

Thursday, April 5







Friday, April 6

Conference speakers include Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, Jeff Weld, Senior Policy Advisor and Assistant Director for STEM Education at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Northeastern University President Joseph Aoun, National Science Foundation Director France A. Cordova, Host and Executive Producer of Science Friday Ira Flatow and leaders at ZipRecruiter, the College Board, IBM, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, ExxonMobil, Microsoft, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and more.

For the seventh annual conference, Workforce of Tomorrow has partnered with the STEM Funders Network's STEM Learning Ecosystems Initiative and the USA Science & Engineering Festival to champion the STEM cause by incorporating real-world perspectives from the industry leaders, educators, nonprofits, parents and students who are a part of those efforts.

To register or to learn more about the conference, please visit http://usnewsstemsolutions.com, read news coverage and connect with U.S. News STEM Solutions on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+. Media interested in attending should contact Enxhi Myslymi at emyslymi@usnews.com.

About U.S. News STEM Solutions

The U.S. News STEM Solutions Presents: Workforce of Tomorrow conference is focused on improving America's science, technology, engineering and math skills. Produced by U.S. News & World Report, the conference highlights STEM issues on a national stage and assembles major corporations, leading educators and top policymakers to advance the development of a STEM-focused workforce in the new-collar economy. The seventh annual conference will take place in Washington, D.C., in 2018. For more details and updates, please visit http://usnewsstemsolutions.com/updates/.

About U.S. News & World Report

U.S. News & World Report is a digital news and information company that empowers people to make better, more informed decisions about important issues affecting their lives. Focusing on Education, Health, Personal Finance, Travel, Cars and News, USNews.com provides consumer advice, rankings, news and analysis to serve people making complex decisions throughout all stages of life. More than 30 million people visit USNews.com each month for research and guidance. Founded in 1933, U.S. News is headquartered in Washington, D.C.

View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/us-news--world-report-highlights-the-future-of-work-at-annual-stem-solutions-conference-april-4-6-300620837.html

SOURCE U.S. News & World Report
[March 28, 2018] Confirmit Hits Record for New Customers in 2017, Continues Momentum into 2018

NEW YORK and OSLO, Norway and LONDON, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Confirmit closed out 2017 with an exceptional year of achievements, most notably securing a record number of new customers and continuing relationships with long-standing accounts. Companies such as BuzzBack, ICM Direct, LexisNexis, Mathematica, RS Components and Virgin Money are among the organizations entering 2018 with Confirmit. Confirmit also rolled out innovative new products and technology to better serve their customers' needs, appointed new leaders and achieved several awards along the way. Ken streng, President and CEO said, "2017 was a strong new business year for Confirmit, and most importantly has put us in an excellent position for an exceptional 2018. I'm particularly pleased that we achieved double-digit growth in the dynamic Asia-Pacific market. It's also gratifying to note that scores of clients signed multi-year contracts to secure Confirmit as a long-term partner. We rounded out the year with the company's largest sales quarter in our history for Q4 which is a real testament to our continued innovation." Technology Milestones

In 2017, the company launched Confirmit Survey Designer, an intuitive survey creation tool that removes the complexity of advanced survey generation and enables questionnaires to be created in half the time of competing solutions. Confirmit also released Version 23 of award-winning Confirmit Horizons. With Version 23 of Confirmit Horizons, the company offered new machine-learning powered text analytics in Confirmit Genius, and powerful new features in Confirmit SmartHub. Some impressive figures regarding Confirmit Horizons include: Over 1,500,000,000 surveys have been completed on the platform since 2010

25,000,000 text fields were processed through Cnfirmit Genius in 2017

More than 10,000,000 CAPI (face to face) interviews were completed on the Horizons platform during the year



"We have worked closely with Confirmit on our CX program for several years and the results have been significant both in terms of Net Promoter Score and overall impact on the business," explains Linette Myland, Manager, Customer Excellence at Siemens Corporation. "We've been able to take advantage of many of Confirmit's constantly-evolving capabilities, including text analytics, and our partnership with the team at Confirmit is critical to the work we do to ensure Siemens offers an excellent and consistent customer experience in every phase of the customer journey."

Recognition and Industry Presence

Confirmit continued to celebrate excellence in its key industries in 2017 with the 12th annual Confirmit ACE Awards which recognize businesses committed to enhancing the customer experience. Winners of the 2017 ACE Awards included, AIG, Bupa, Erie Insurance, Grant Thornton, Moore Medical, Philadelphia Insurance Companies, Siemens Building Technologies and Ulta. During 2017, Confirmit was cited as a leader in The Forrester Wave: Customer Feedback Management Platforms, Q2 2017. In addition, and validating its position as an industry leader in CRM and Customer Experience, Confirmit earned several notable awards in 2017 including: "2017 CRM Excellence Award" by TMC's CUSTOMER Magazine for Confirmit Horizons for the eighth consecutive year

"2017 CX Impact Outstanding Provider Award"

"2017 Product of the Year" from CUSTOMER Magazine

"Service Leader: Enterprise Feedback Management" by CRM Magazine Service Leaders

"50 Most Innovative Companies in Market Research Q1-Q2 2017" by Greenbook GRIT Report

Finalist in the Voice of the Customer (VoC) Innovation category of the UK National Innovation Awards 2017

CUSTOMER 2017 Contact Center Technology Award

TMCNet 2017 Tech Culture Award

Confirmit also achieved AAA rating from Dun and Bradstreet for the ninth consecutive year For more information about Confirmit's news in 2017, please visit the link here. About Confirmit

Confirmit is the world's leading SaaS vendor for multi-channel Customer Experience, Employee Engagement, and Market Research solutions. The company has offices in Oslo (headquarters), Grimstad, London, Moscow, New York, San Francisco, Sydney, Vancouver, and Yaroslavl. Confirmit's software is also distributed through partner resellers in Madrid, Milan, Salvador, and Tokyo. Confirmit powers Global 5000 companies and Market Research agencies worldwide with a wide range of software products for feedback / data collection, panel management, data processing, analysis, and reporting. Customers include Aurora, British Airways, British Standards Institution, Copart, Cross-Tab, Dow Chemical, GfK, GlaxoSmithKline, GMO Research, KeepFactor, Morehead Associates, Nielsen, Research Now, RS Components, QRS, SSI, Sony Mobile Communications, and Swisscom. Visit www.confirmit.com for more information. Media Contact: Sara Beth Fahey, sfahey@matternow.com View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/confirmit-hits-record-for-new-customers-in-2017-continues-momentum-into-2018-300620951.html SOURCE Confirmit

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[March 28, 2018] Casio America, Inc. Showcases Innovative Projection Technology At Digital Signage Expo 2018

LAS VEGAS, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Casio America, Inc. is pleased to announce it will showcase its latest projection technology, along with unique solutions at the Digital Signage Expo. Casio's LampFree projectors continue to be a versatile, eco-friendly and durable product line for consumers, from educators to business owners. These innovative products will be on full display at the Company's booth (#1131) throughout the show from March 28-29 at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. Full LampFree Lineup

Casio's full line of LampFree projectors will be on display at the Expo. The lineup provides eco-friendly data projection by combining a laser and LED light source to create a high-brightness, mercury-free tool that uses half the amount of power per unit than other lamp-based projectors. Additionally, Casio's LampFree projectors' extended operating life eliminates the process of replacing costly lamps. The projectors reach maximum brightness in as fast as eight seconds from the time the power is switched on and can immediately power off with just a touch of the button and then be used again right away, without the need for a cool-down period. All of this makes Casio's projectors a safer and more affordable choice for organizations that are looking to not only go green but save money at the same time. "The innovation and technological progression of our products is the key to our continued growth and development," said Joe Gillio, Senior Director Strategic Planning and Marketing of Casio's Business Projector Division. "At Casio, we strive to continue to be a leader in the LampFree projection space, giving consumers the quality, urability and reliability, they've come to know with our products."



Innovative Solutions

In addition to showcasing its full suite of LampFree projectors, Casio will also highlight use cases for its technology. Working with Glass-Media, Inc. (booth #1936), Casio will showcase a projection-based digital storefront. Designed and developed for a range of uses including retail, convenience, fast casual - QSR, hospitality services, and much more, the new projection-based digital storefront helps brick-and-mortar retailers boost store traffic, build brand awareness, and increase both engagement and conversion. Glass-Media, Inc. utilizes both the Casio XJ-V10X and the Casio XJ-V110W LampFree projectors that provide up to 20,000 hours of continuous use, giving store owners an uninterrupted digital storefront experience. These storefront solutions will be shown at both the Casio and Glass-Media booths. For additional information on Casio's full portfolio of LampFree projectors, visit www.CasioLampFree.com.

About Casio LampFree Projectors

Casio's portfolio of LampFree projectors combines a laser, a fluorescent element and an LED light to deliver a mercury-free hybrid light source that lasts up to 20,000 hours while sustaining a high brightness and keeping maintenance costs to a minimum. Casio has a full assortment of LampFree solutions available for home, business, education and commercial applications  Core, Advanced, Slim, 4K Ultra HD, and Ultra Short Throw. For additional information on Casio's projector series and LampFree technology, please visit www.CasioLampFree.com. About Casio America, Inc.

Casio America, Inc., Dover, N.J., is the U.S. subsidiary of Casio Computer Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, one of the world's leading manufacturers of consumer electronics and business equipment solutions. Established in 1957, Casio America, Inc. markets calculators, keyboards, digital cameras, mobile presentation devices, disc title and label printers, watches, cash registers and other consumer electronic products. Casio has strived to fulfill its corporate creed of "creativity and contribution" through the introduction of innovative and imaginative products. For more information, visit casio.com/home. About Glass-Media

Glass-Media, Inc. is the industry change leader advancing end-to-end, digital point-of-presence marking solutions for Fortune 1000 brands with physical footprints. Through its proprietary, projection-based, digital storefronts, Glass-Media makes the offline-online retail experience more seamless through the merging of physical and digital. Presently, it takes brands on average between 4 and 9 weeks to refresh storefront messaging whereas online, these same brands are continuously optimizing content and campaigns on a day to day basis. Glass-Media is determined to effectively bridge the gap between online and physical commerce through a digital storefront and align the physical-digital content/news calendars, so brands can effectively leverage cross-channel marketing. View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/casio-america-inc-showcases-innovative-projection-technology-at-digital-signage-expo-2018-300620836.html SOURCE Casio America, Inc.

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[March 28, 2018] OncBioMune Returns Protocol to Scientific Review Committee Overseeing Phase 2 Prostate Cancer Clinical Trial

BATON ROUGE, La., March 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- OncBioMune Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTCQB:OBMP) ("OncBioMune" or the "Company"), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company engaged in the development of a proprietary immunotherapy cancer vaccine technology and targeted cancer therapies, is pleased to provide an update on the planned Phase 2 clinical trial of ProscaVax for early-stage prostate cancer to be hosted at a teaching hospital of Harvard University Medical School in Boston, MA. The Company earlier this week completed and returned the revised study protocol based upon comments from the Scientific Review Committee (SRC) providing oversight on the trial.

As announced last Thursday, March 22, 2018, the SRC had minimal comments regarding the protocol. We didnt foresee any issues with getting the revisions completed and back to the SRC ahead of their request by the end of the month, commented Dr. Jonathan Head, Chief Executive Officer at OncBioMune. The suggestions from the experts on the committee were greatly appreciated and easily dovetailed with the greater body of work. Again, Im pleased to continue to move towards the start of this very important trial. ProscaVax is OncBioMunes lead immunotherapy candidate consisting of a combination of prostate cancer associated prostate specific antigen (PSA) with the biological adjuvants interleukin-2 (IL-2) and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF). The Company has successfully completed a Phase 1a clinical trial of ProscaVax in hormone-naive and hormone-independent recurrent prostate cancer patients with increasing PSA. The planned Phase 2 study at the teaching hospital of Harvard University Medical School is being designed to treat prostate cancer patients in the active surveillance group, representing the first-ever clinical study of a therapeutic vaccine for patients in this goup to the Companys knowledge. Active surveillance is a disease management option for patients with localized prostate cancer that elect to work with their doctor to monitor the disease for progression before taking any intervention measures, such as surgery or radiotherapy.



Sign up for OncBioMune email alerts at: http://oncbiomune.com/email-alerts/. About OncBioMune Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

OncBioMune Pharmaceuticals is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company engaged in the development of novel cancer immunotherapy products, based on their proprietary vaccine technology designed to stimulate the immune system to attack tumor cells without damaging healthy tissue. Our lead pipeline product, ProscaVax, has successfully completed enrollment and vaccination of the prostate cancer patients and is collecting long-term follow-up results for the 1a portion of their Phase 1a/1b clinical trial. Due to the impressive results and proven safety profile of ProscaVax, OncBioMune is forgoing the 1b portion of the trial to advance ProscaVax into Phase 2 studies. A Phase 2 trial is scheduled to commence at Harvard University teaching hospital evaluating ProscaVax as a front-line therapy in prostate cancer patients in the active surveillance category, representing the first mid-stage trial of an immunotherapeutic vaccine in this patient population. OncBioMune also has a portfolio of targeted therapies, some of which are biosimilars and generics to blockbuster drugs. OncBioMune is headquartered in Baton Rouge, LA. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause OncBioMune Pharmaceuticals' actual results and experience to differ materially from anticipated results and expectations expressed in these forward-looking statements. OncBioMune Pharmaceuticals has in some cases identified forward-looking statements by using words such as "anticipates," "believes," "hopes," "estimates," "looks," "expects," "plans," "intends," "goal," "potential," "may," "suggest," and similar expressions. Among other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in forward-looking statements are OncBioMune Pharmaceuticals' need for, and the availability of, substantial capital in the future to fund its operations and research and development; the fact that OncBioMune Pharmaceutical's vaccines and therapeutics may not successfully complete pre-clinical or clinical testing, or be granted regulatory approval to be sold and marketed in the United States or elsewhere. A more complete description of these risk factors is included in OncBioMune Pharmaceutical's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. OncBioMune Pharmaceuticals undertakes no obligation to release publicly the results of any revisions to any such forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this press release or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by applicable law or regulation. Contact: OncBioMune Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Jonathan Head, Phd

Chief Executive officer and Chairman

Jhead@oncbiomune.com

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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: Davidson Kempner Capital Management LP (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 27 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, 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



Interests Short positions Number % Number % (1) Relevant securities owned and/or controlled: (2) Cash-settled derivatives:



304,600 0.1003 2,252,688 0.7421 (3) Stock-settled derivatives (including options) and agreements to purchase/sell:



TOTAL: 304,600 0.1003 2,252,688 0.7421

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 Decreasing long position 1,567,000 9.3350 GBP Euro 0.01 ordinary CFD Decreasing short position 1,567,000 9.3350 GBP

(c) Stock-settled derivative transactions (including options)

(i) Writing, selling, purchasing or varying

Class of relevant security Product description e.g. call option Writing, purchasing, selling, varying etc. Number of securities to which option relates Exercise price per unit Type

e.g. American, European etc. Expiry date Option money paid/ received per unit

(ii) Exercise

Class of relevant security Product description

e.g. call option Exercising/ exercised against Number of securities Exercise price per unit





(d) Other dealings (including subscribing for new securities)

Class of relevant security Nature of dealing

e.g. subscription, conversion Details Price per unit (if applicable)





4. OTHER INFORMATION

(a) Indemnity and other dealing arrangements

Details of any indemnity or option arrangement, or any agreement or understanding, formal or informal, relating to relevant securities which may be an inducement to deal or refrain from dealing entered into by the person making the disclosure and any party to the offer or any person acting in concert with a party to the offer:

Irrevocable commitments and letters of intent should not be included. If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings, state "none"



NONE





(b) Agreements, arrangements or understandings relating to options or derivatives

Details of any agreement, arrangement or understanding, formal or informal, between the person making the disclosure and any other person relating to:

(i) the voting rights of any relevant securities under any option; or

(ii) the voting rights or future acquisition or disposal of any relevant securities to which any derivative is referenced:

If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings, state "none" NONE









(c) Attachments

Is a Supplemental Form 8 (Open Positions) attached? NO

Date of disclosure: 28 March, 2018 Contact name: James Gange Telephone number: 212-446-4029

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.
[March 28, 2018] Tier1, Inc. Celebrates 15 Years

PITTSBURGH, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Tier1, Inc., a Pittsburgh-based enterprise technology consulting and services firm, celebrates its fifteenth anniversary this week, an exciting milestone for the company. Tier1 credits its success the past 15 years to the technical and functional expertise of its consulting staff, a collaborative corporate culture, and its obsessive focus on customer satisfaction. Since its founding in 2003, Tier1 has organized its consulting services and solutions around the goal of simplifying infrastructure, operations, and enterprise-IT functions for its clients. Established to meet the need in the mid-market for expert Oracle consulting services, Tier1 focused on giving their clients a competitive advantage by maximizing the performance and processing of their clients' enterprise-IT environment, providing upgrades, configurations, and integration support, offering development and customization, and handling backup and disaster recovery planning. In 2014, in response to their clients' growing need for affordable hosting solutions, Tier1 began offering full-service hosting options for Oracle customers with the Tier1 Private Oracle Cloud. Tier1 has since expanded their cloud hosting solutions, with Microsoft Azure, as a Microsoft Cloud Solutions Provider. With a focused partner for the complex ERP, BI, and IT projects required for success in any industry, Tier1 clients can focus on managing their business while Tier1 focuses on the technology that supports it. Built on a foundation of technical and functional expertise, all of Tier1's consultants have a minimum of 10 years of experiencewith the technologies and applications for which they provide services. Tier1's supported technologies include E-Business Suite, Hyperion, Analytics, Banner, Microsoft Azure, Operating Systems, Database support for Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, and My SQL. This diversity in expertise helps Tier1 design and implement IT solutions for a variety of industries, including manufacturing, financial services, higher education, retail, distribution, and non-profits, with a client base of over 300 customers nation-wide.



Tier1's team of consultants are full-time, permanent employees - a structure that fosters internal collaboration and strong relationships with customers as the team remains present and dedicated. In fact, the collaborative corporate culture at Tier1 means that Tier1 clients get the expertise of the whole consulting operation that Tier1 has built, not just the expertise of their particular Tier1 team. This model of internal collaboration and partnership translates to long-lasting commitments between Tier1 and its clients. Commitment to its clients is Tier1's founding principle. As evidence of this mission-critical priority, Tier1 CEO Rob Guidarelli cites the longevity of employee and customer relationships at Tier1. "We have and value repeat business from our customers," Guidarelli reports. "A lot of our customers have been with us for over 10 years. In fact, our very first customer is still with us. The same is true with our employees. Many have been with us for over 10 years, some from our first year of operation." In a rapidly changing marketplace, that kind of longevity is a testament to the culture of the company and the quality of its services.

In fact, Tier1 customers often cite the quality of partnership that defines their relationship with Tier1 services. Evan Rosa, of Crossmatch Technologies, has experienced Tier1's commitment to customer service. Says Rosa of Tier1, "They invested in a long-term relationship with [us]. They're wise enough to understand that if we succeed, they succeed. It's just a good partnership." Proud of their world-class consulting services, their cost-effective cloud hosting solutions, and the customer relationships they've formed over the last 15 years, Tier1 anticipates ongoing expansion, the evolution of their solutions for new and existing clients, and the growth of their role as a strategic advisor giving clients a competitive advantage through IT services and simplification. About Tier1

Founded in 2003, Tier1 is a forerunner in providing consulting and outsourcing services for enterprise technology applications and databases. With 50+ employees that have a minimum of 10 years experience and over 300 clients, Tier1 has built a world-class consulting, support, and hosting organization. Based in Pittsburgh, but serving clients across the United States, Tier1's services - to an extensive range of industries - include managed services, implementations, upgrades, development services, cloud hosting, cloud services, and staffing needs. View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/tier1-inc-celebrates-15-years-300620293.html SOURCE Tier1, Inc.

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[March 28, 2018] eSystems, Inc. Volunteers at The Rescue Mission of Trenton

PRINCETON, N.J., March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- eSystems, Inc., a leading provider of business and IT services in the Health & Human Services industry, recently volunteered at The Rescue Mission of Trenton, serving hot lunches to their 175 residents, and sorting dozens of bags of clothing donations for the needy. This project is part of a month-long program of service, with eSystems also leading a building-wide drive to collect hygiene and toiletry items for the Mission. eSystems has also volunteered for "The Arkansas Gleaning Project", a joint project with Accenture to benefit the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance. Gleaning is the age-old practice of hand-gathering crops left after harvest. The gleaning was done in fields and orchards donated by growers, and the produce was given to food banks, local pantries, soup kitchens and shelters that feed and distribute food to citizens in need. To find out more about how these projects have benefited needy citizens, and how your own organization can get involved in a similar initiative, email us at: marketing@esystems-inc.com, or call our corporate headquarters at 609-945-7437. About The Rescue Mission of Trenton

Since its founding in 1915, the Rescue Mission of Trenton has been working together to rebuild lives. The Mission is the agency in the city of Trenton that serves the truly needy men and women who have no place to turn for food, shelter, and clothing. The Mission provides a safe, clean, warm refuge for the hungry, the homeless, the transient, and the addicted. The Mission also provides services and counseling to encourage individuals to reach their greatest potential. The Mission creates an environment where one can live with dignity, build self-esteem, and experience love, responsibility, and hope. Please visit www.rescuemissionoftrenton.org for more information.



About The Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance

Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance, lead partner in Arkansas for the No Kid Hungry campaign, is a non-profit collaborative network of more than 550 hunger relief and advocacy organizations across Arkansas. Our founding members include the Arkansas Foodbank in Little Rock, the Food Bank of Northeast Arkansas in Jonesboro, Harvest Regional Food Bank in Texarkana, Food Bank of North Central Arkansas in Norfork, Northwest Arkansas Food Bank in Bethel Heights and River Valley Regional Food Bank in Fort Smith. The Alliance is dedicated to reducing hunger through direct relief, education and advocacy. We invite you to visit www.ARhungeralliance.org for details on hunger relief programs, donor and volunteer opportunities. About eSystems, Inc.

Founded in 1999, eSystems' roots are grounded in helping Public Sector and private organizations better serve their stakeholders  members, citizens, providers, & employers  through developing business and technology solutions that are scalable and robust. eSystems is headquartered in Princeton, NJ, with offices in several U.S. states, Canadian provinces, and India. eSystems is a technology and people-centric professional services firm with experience in systems integration, IT solutions, and application support services. We specialize in providing configurable and sustainable solutions for thriving organizations worldwide. Our clients include Fortune 500 corporations, government agencies, small and mid-sized local businesses, and non-profit organizations. Our employees, customers, and partners are the pillars of our success. For additional information visit www.esystems-inc.com.

View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/esystems-inc-volunteers-at-the-rescue-mission-of-trenton-300621159.html SOURCE eSystems, Inc.

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[March 28, 2018] Canada and Nunavut make significant investments that will improve the lives of Northern Canadians

$566 million available for projects that build prosperous communities and transition to a clean growth economy OTTAWA, March 28, 2018 /CNW/ - The governments of Canada and Nunavut 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 Northern Canadians. Today, the Honourable Amarjeet Sohi, Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, and the Honourable Lorne Kusugak, Nunavut Minister of Community and Government Services, announced the signing of a bilateral agreement that will provide more than $566 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 territorial government, municipalities and other partners. The Government of Canada is providing up to 75% of eligible expenditures for projects in the territories and for projects with Indigenous partners. To access this funding, the Government of Nunavut will contribute more than $188 million to meet its 25% cost sharing requirements, bringing the total impact of this agreement to more than $754 million in direct infrastructure spending for Nunavut. The new funding will see the Government of Canada make unprecedented investments in small and rural communities, green infrastructure, and recreational and cultural infrastructure. Also included in this funding is $175 million under the Arctic Energy Fund that will address energy security in the territories. These investments will support the Government's plan to create well-paying jobs and economic growth from coast-to-coast-to-coast while building inclusive communities that provide the opportunities Canadians want and need. These investments will have benefits for people in communities across the territory, including: Cleaner air and water

Reduced greenhouse gas emissions

Smarter and more efficient communities

Sustainable water management

Cultural spaces, recreational facilities and other spaces that make communities great places to live

Better transportation and digital infrastructure for people living in remote communities

Energy security and reduced reliance on diesel in the North 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 "I am pleased that Nunavut and the Government of Canada have reached an agreement that will benefit communities across the territory for years to come. Today's agreement will provide the long-term, predictable, and sustainable funding needed to help address the unique challenges of life in the North. I look forward to continuing to work with territorial, municipal, and Indigenous partners to make strategic investments in Nunavut that will build inclusive and resilient communities where everyone has opportunities to succeed." The Honourable Amarjeet Sohi, Minister of Infrastructure and Communities "The Government of Nunavut welcomes this renewed investment in Nunavut's infrastructure under the federal Investing in Canada plan. We are pleased with the structure of this new funding that supports long-term planning and enhances our engagement with our Inuit and municipal stakeholders. We must also continue the ongoing dialogue that has brought us here today, so that we can work to truly overcome Nunavut's growing infrastructure needs." The Honourable Lorne Kusugak, Nunavut Minister of Community and Government Services 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 billion for wide-ranging infrastructure needs in rural and northern communities. In addition, the $400 million Arctic Energy Fund will be delivered under this stream to support energy security in the territories.

for wide-ranging infrastructure needs in rural and northern communities. In addition, the Arctic Energy Fund will be delivered under this stream to support energy security in the territories. This marks the fourth new long-term infrastructure bilateral agreement the Government of Canada has signed with provincial and territorial partners. Related product Backgrounder Canada and Nunavut make significant investments that will improve the lives of Northern Canadians

$566 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: Green infrastructure;

Community, culture, and recreation infrastructure;

Rural and northern communities; and

Public transit. Nunavut's Funding Allocations The table below shows the allocations for Nunavut by funding stream from 2018-2028 which amounts to $566,761,621.







Funding Stream Allocation Expected Outcomes at Project Completion* Green Infrastructure $207,079,637 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 $26,021,405 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 $327,592,915 to support projects that improve the quality of life in rural and northern communities by responding to rural and northern specific needs. This includes $152,592,915 under the rural and northern component and $175,000,000 under the Arctic Energy Fund that will address energy security in the territories. Given that Nunavut does not have public transit systems, an additional $6,067,664 (the territorial allocation based on population) will be managed under the Rural and Northern Communities Infrastructure stream. Improved food security

Improved and more reliable road, air and marine infrastructure

Improved broadband connectivity

More efficient and reliable energy (The Arctic Energy Fund can only be applied to this outcome.)

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 Nunavut 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 Investing in Canada plan project map: http://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/gmap-gcarte/index-eng.html Federal infrastructure investments in Nunavut: http://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/map-carte/nu-eng.html Toward a new Arctic Policy Framework: www.canada.ca/arctic-together Twitter: @INFC_eng Web: Infrastructure Canada SOURCE Infrastructure Canada

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[March 28, 2018] Glance Provides Additional Details on Investor Relations Consultants

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Glance Technologies Inc. (CSE:GET.CN) (OTCQB:GLNNF) (FKT:GJT) (Glance) today provided additional details on its recent announcement of the appointment of Vincic Advisors as its investor relations consultants.

Glance has retained Vincic Advisors for an initial term of three months, commencing on March 20, 2018, to provide investor relations and communications services. The fee will be $12,500 per month. Neither Vincic Advisors nor any of its associates holds an equity interest in Glance Technologies. We are excited by the opportunities available to us in the mobile payments market and we look forward to continuing to share our vision for the company with current and potential investors, said Glance CEO Desmond Griffin. About Vincic Advisors Vincic Advisors is a leading international consultancy focused on the delivery of investor relations, communications and capital markets outreach services. Founded in 2014, Vincic Advisors has helped clients from a broad cross section of industries navigate the nuances and complexities capital markets communications. Based in Toronto, the company leverages the collective experience of its seasoned practitioners to provide bespoke solutions for its clients aimed helping enhance long-term shareholder value. About Glance Technologies Inc. Glance owns and operates Glance Pay, a streamlined payment system that revolutionizes how smartphone users choose where to shop, order goods and services, make payments, access digital receipts, redeem digital deals, earn great rewards and interact with merchants. Glance offers targeted in-app marketing, geo-targeted digital coupons, customer feedback, in-merchant messaging and custom rewards programs. The Glance Pay mobile payment system consists f proprietary technology, which includes user apps available for free downloads in iOS (Apple) and Android formats, merchant manager apps, a large-scale technology hosting environment with sophisticated anti-fraud technology and lightning-fast payment processing. Glance has also recently purchased an end-to-end blockchain solution and is working on a rewards-based cryptocurrency intended to be integrated into the Glance Pay app.



More information about Glance can be found at www.glance.tech. For further information:

Jeff Codispodi

Senior Advisor

Vincic Advisors

T: 647 278 9376

E: jeff@vincicadvisors.com

www.vincicadvisors.com Laura Burke

Glance CFO

604-694-6502

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: may, believe, thinks, expect, exploring, expand, could, anticipate, intend, estimate, plan, pursue, potentially, projected, should, will and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. These forward-looking statements, which involve risks and uncertainties, relate to, among other things, the integration of a rewards-based cryptocurrency into the Glance Pay app. Although Glance considers these forward-looking statements to be reasonable based on information currently available to it, they may prove to be incorrect, and the forward-looking statements in this release are subject to numerous risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause future results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements. Such risk factors include, among other things, risks related to the development of a rewards-based cryptocurrency and integration into the Glance Pay app. Forward-looking information and forward-looking statements are in addition based on various estimates, forecasts and projects as well as expectations, beliefs and assumptions, including, without limitation, the successful integration of a rewards-based cryptocurrency into the Glance Pay app. For additional information with respect to these and other factors and assumptions underlying the forward looking statements in this press release, see the section entitled Risk Factors in the most recent Prospectus of Glance, which may be accessed through Glances profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Glance cautions investors that any forward-looking information provided by Glance is not a guarantee of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Undue reliance should not be placed on such forward-looking information, as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are based will occur.

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Denver, Colo., March 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Trustees of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation have approved a grant of $2.024 million to the American Indian College Fund to continue support for graduate degree completion fellowships for Tribal College and University faculty. The three-year program, titled Growing Our Own: Faculty Professional Development at Tribal Colleges and Universities, is geared to invest in tribal college and university (TCU) faculty members and address the recent changes to TCU accreditation guidelines.



Most TCUs are located on American Indian reservations and in Alaska Native villages. They provide access to a higher education for students who reside in remote and rural areas and often cannot afford to relocate to attend college. TCUs are fulfilling a role that no other institution of higher education is capable of doing. These innovative institutions of higher education are serving as a pipeline for social and economic change, revitalizing the fabric of Native communities, and producing new generations of Native scholars, while preserving, nurturing, and perpetuating the culture and heritage of the communities they serve.

Growing Our Own: Faculty Professional Development at Tribal Colleges and Universities will provide professional development opportunities to TCU faculty and staff, giving them the chance to grow as leaders and to better serve their students. The program has three components: a Ph.D. Completion Program, a Masters Degree Completion Program, and a Graduate Honors Program.

The Ph.D. Completion Program will provide one-year, $40,000 fellowships to eight TCU faculty who are all but dissertation in a terminal degree program, ensuring that they have the resources and time needed to complete their degrees. To qualify faculty must serve at the TCU for three years after earning his or her Ph.D.

The Masters Degree Completion Program will provide two years of funding for 30 TCU faculty or staff (divided into three cohorts of 10 fellows each year) who hold bachelors degrees and are working towards or wish to complete a masters of arts degree.

The Graduate Hours Program will provide funding for up to 40 TCU faculty members seeking to complete 18 graduate credit hours in their fields to meet recent accreditation requirements for highly qualified faculty, with priority given to faculty teaching at TCUs accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. The primary content areas to be funded are in the humanities (including English, music, art, language, and history). The College Fund also will award to up to 10 Fellows who choose disciplines other than the humanities, including education and public health.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has worked with the College Fund to develop the qualifications to strengthen TCU faculty leadership to help position these institutions for future growth since 2004.

Cheryl Crazy Bull, former President of Northwest Indian College and current President and CEO of the American Indian College Fund, says, Education is one of the most influential ways that Native people and American society provide a framework for history and for contemporary life. For tribal people, education is how we affirm our identities, build the esteem of our citizens, and share our values with the rest of society. This investment by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is phenomenal because it not only removes a significant barrier to access, financial support, it brings new and better knowledge and qualifications to our most valued assets  our teachers. The College Fund appreciates both our long-time relationship with the Foundation and its ability to approach education in our communities in more timely and creative ways.

Armando Bengochea, the Program Officer for Diversity and Director of the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship (MMUF) program at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, says, This is a very important ongoing effort of the Mellon Foundation to build academic capacity at these vital institutions. Professionalization efforts at TCUs not only provide necessary and ongoing training for faculty but they build the leadership assets of the institutions, tribal nations, and local community.

About the American Indian College Fund

Founded in 1989, the American Indian College Fund has been the nations largest charity supporting Native higher education for more than 28 years. The College Fund believes Education is the answer" and provided 6,548 scholarships last year totaling $7.6 million to American Indian students, with more than 125,000 scholarships totaling over $100 million since its inception. The College Fund also supports a variety of academic and support programs at the nations 35 accredited tribal colleges and universities, which are located on or near Indian reservations, ensuring students have the tools to graduate and succeed in their careers. The College Fund consistently receives top ratings from independent charity evaluators, and received a four-star rating from Charity Navigator and is one of the nations top 100 charities named to the Better Business Bureaus Wise Giving Alliance. For more information about the American Indian College Fund, please visit www.collegefund.org.

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WARSAW, Poland, March 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The government of Poland has signed a Letter of Offer and Acceptance (LOA) with the U.S. government to purchase the Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC)-developed Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) Battle Command System (IBCS).



The LOA allows the U.S. government to start contracting with Northrop Grumman for production and delivery of IBCS that enables Polands modernized air defense capabilities.

Poland becomes the first international partner country to purchase the IBCS. By implementing IBCS, Poland will transform its IAMD capabilities in a manner consistent with how the U.S. Army is revolutionizing IAMD. Poland will also ensure seamless integration of its air defense forces in allied operations.

We congratulate Poland on its recent anniversary of accession to NATO, said Dan Verwiel, vice president and general manager, missile defense and protective systems, Northrop Grumman. With IBCS, Poland sets a new standard for NATO for the most cutting edge IAMD capabilities possible.

Northrop Grumman looks forward to working with the Polish Ministry of National Defence and Polish industry to help produce and sustain IBCS for the WISA program, said Tarik Reyes, vice president, business development, missile defense and protective systems, Northrop Grumman.

IBCS continues to confirm the effectiveness of a net-centric, enterprise approach to IAMD for getting capabilities to the warfighter that make a pivotal difference on the battlefield. IBCS replaces stove-piped legacy C2 systems to deliver a single integrated air picture and offer the flexibility to deploy smaller force packages. By integrating sensors and interceptors, IBCS provides wider area surveillance and broader protection areas. With its truly open systems architecture, IBCS enables incorporation of current and future sensors and weapon systems and interoperability with joint C2 and the ballistic missile defense system.

Key to IAMD transformation and the Army IAMD portfolio, the IBCS is managed by the U.S. Army IAMD Project Office, Program Executive Office for Missiles and Space, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama.

Northrop Grumman is a leading global security company providing innovative systems, products and solutions in autonomous systems, cyber, C4ISR, strike, and logistics and modernization to customers worldwide. Please visit news.northropgrumman.com and follow us on Twitter, @NGCNews, for more information.

Contact:

Sudi Bruni

858-592-3407 (office)

858-337-3779 (mobile)

Sudi.Bruni@ngc.com

Ken Beedle

+44 (0) 207 747 1910 (office)

+44 (0) 7787 174092 (mobile)

Ken.Beedle@euro.ngc.com
The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) revived Oracles lawsuit against Google, arguing that Oracle was in the right all along and that Google must pay for infringing on Oracles copyrights. The case was sent to a California federal court to determine how much Google needs to pay to Oracle.

How It All Started

Back in 2005, Sun Microsystems, which was later purchased by Oracle, was licensing the Java programming language to 700 million PCs and the Java SE platform for mobile devices. In the same year, Google acquired Android and started discussions with Sun about a license so it could customize a Java platform for Android.

The two parties didnt reach an agreement because, according to Oracle, Google wanted to use the Java APIs for free while also planning to break backwards compatibility with Oracles mobile platform. Oracle also claimed in the previous lawsuits that Android eventually devastated its platforms chances in the mobile market. The smartphone makers would no longer license Java SE, preferring the open source and free Android OS instead.

Oracle vs Google

In 2010, Oracle sued Google and accused the company of patent and copyright infringement. The case was assigned to Judge William Alsup, who split the case into three stages: patents, copyright, and damages.

In 2012, the jury found that Google didnt infringe on either of the patents that Oracle mentioned. However, the jury found that Google infringed on small parts of Oracles API, such as using the nine-line rangeCheck function or copying Oracles API organizational structure, but couldnt decide whether or not it was fair use.

Judge Alsup declared that the jurys verdict of copyright infringement was overblown, considering how small and technically insignificant the violation was. Alsup also said that:

So long as the specific code used to implement a method is different, anyone is free under the Copyright Act to write his or her own code to carry out exactly the same function or specification of any methods used in the Java API. It does not matter that the declaration or method header lines are identical.

In 2013, Oracle appealed to the CAFC and Google filed a cross-appeal on the literal copying claim. The CAFC didnt agree with Alsups ruling and overturned it. The CAFC believes that Oracles API organizational structure was a creative work of its programmers, and therefore anyone who copies it (such as when using it in their programs, along with the Java language) is infringing on Oracles copyright. The case was then sent to the district court to rule whether or not Googles copying of the API was fair use.

In 2014, Google petitioned the Supreme Court to hear the case, but the Supreme Court refused until the fair use issue could be determined.

In 2016, another jury determined that Googles use of Oracles APIs was fair use, and because of that Google didnt infringe on Oracles copyright.

Oracle then appealed for the second time at the CAFC, and now were seeing the results of that appeal, with the CAFC siding once again with Oracle. In its ruling, the CAFC said that the fact that Android is free of charge does not make Googles use of the Java API packages noncommercial".

Whats Next?

The Oracle vs Google lawsuit has been one of the most watched in the tech industry, because if its finally settled that APIs can be copyrighted, then it could affect the entire industry. Much of the software that is used today is built using old APIs from other companies. Even Oracle may be infringing on some of IBMs APIs from the old days of the personal computer, and Linux could also be at risk due to its use of POSIX APIs.

Some argue that the CAFC has simply misunderstood what APIs are, and that APIs are more like recipe for how software should function rather than actual software. Recipes cant be copyright and for similar reasons judge Alsup argued before that APIs cant be copyrighted either. Additionally, the CAFC was never even supposed to hear this case, because it typically doesn't cover copyright cases, but only patent cases. However, because Oracle sued Google over both patent and copyright infringement, the case ended-up at the CAFC.

The Supreme Court may yet hear the case, now that the patent, copyright, and fair use issues have been ruled upon by the lower courts. The Supreme Court has a track record of overturning CAFCs patent cases, so as long as the case can reach the Supreme Court again, this issue may be yet to be closed.
According to a recent New York Times report, a London-based Palantir Technologies employee named Alfredas Chmieliauskas worked closely with the data scientists building psychometric or psychological profiling technology for Cambridge Analytica that would later be used to target electoral voters.

Palantirs Connection With Cambridge Analytica

Palantir is a Silicon Valley company that specializes in providing surveillance tools to intelligence agencies and the Pentagon. The company recently won a $876 million contract with the U.S. Army.

Its co-founder, Peter Thiel, is also a Facebook board member who was outspoken about supporting Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election and was even invited to speak at the Republican National Convention. Thiel was later considered to chair the Presidents Intelligence Advisory Board (PIAB), whose role would is to oversee the intelligence communitys compliance with the Constitution and all applicable laws.

One of the first links between Thiel and Cambridge Analytica is that he donated $1 million to the Super PAC Make America Number 1," and out of that sum $231,352 went towards Cambridge Analytica, as an FEC filing shows.

The recent NYT report also said that Chmieliauskas, who has been working on business development for Palantir for the past five years, was the one to give Cambridge Analytica the idea that the company could harvest peoples friends data from Facebook through an app, such as the quiz app that Cambridge Analytica later ended up building.

Christopher Wylie, the Cambridge Analytica whistleblower and co-founder, revealed yesterday in a testimony to a UK committee that senior employees from Palantir were working with Cambridge Analytica. Additionally, he claimed that Palantir was also using the data Cambridge Analytica harvested, which could mean that Palantir was also violating Facebook's platform policies. Facebook recently committed to auditing all companies that are suspected of abusing its platform terms, so it remains to be seen if the company will keep its promise.

We've contacted the company and asked whether or not it intends to audit Palantir, a company founded by one of its board members, to check whether or not Palantir was also abusing its policies. We'll update the post with the company's response as soon as we receive it.

Palantir Responds To Allegations

In an initial statement, Palantir said that it never had a relationship with Cambridge Analytica, nor have we ever worked on any Cambridge Analytica data.

However, Palantir later revised the statement, saying the following:

We learned today that an employee, in 2013-2014, engaged in an entirely personal capacity with people associated with Cambridge Analytica. We are looking into this and will take the appropriate action.

Palantirs statement seems to contradict Wylies own statements, which say that multiple Palantir employees were working with Cambridge Analytica:

There were Palantir staff who would come into the office and work on the data. And we would go and meet with Palantir staff at Palantir.

The first discussions between Palantir and Cambridge Analytica started in 2013. They were primarily pushed by an SCL Group director, Alexander Nix, who later became Cambridge Analyticas CEO, and Palantirs Chmieliauskas. The SCL Group, a British company specializing in military intelligence, also owns Cambridge Analytica, and it sought to use military intelligence tactics in electoral campaigns.

Palantir seems to have eventually declined to work together with Cambridge Analytica, but only after they had helped Cambridge Analytica engineer its psychographic models, according to Wylie.

Eric Schmidt And Cambridge Analytica?

In an email obtained by the NYT, Sophie Schmidt, the daughter of Eric Schmidt, who was then Googles executive chairman, also urged the company to link with Palantir, back in June 2013. Sophie Schmidt was previously an intern for SCL Group.

In the email, two employees were discussing about Sophie Schmidts encouragement to link with Palantir:

Ever come across Palantir. Amusingly Eric Schmidts daughter was an intern with us and is trying to push us towards them?

In 2016, Eric Schmidt became a chairman at the Pentagons Defense Innovation Advisory Board, but stepped down as Executive Chairman for Alphabet, Googles parent company, only at the end of 2017. It's not clear whether or not there is any connection between Eric Schmidt and Palantir or Cambridge Analytica. The NYT said that both Schmidt and Cambridge Analytica refused to respond to these questions.

Palantir said that it would continue to investigate how its employees worked with Cambridge Analytica. However, it seems that Palantir would also be a good candidate to participate in the upcoming Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on data privacy, so Congress can get more direct answers from everyone involved in the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Sony today revealed a new price for the PlayStation VR headset. Starting tomorrow, the HMD should be available for as little as $299 across the U.S. and $379 in Canada.

The Sony PlayStation VR hit the market in October 2016 in two different bundles. You could get the Core package for $399, which included the PSVR headset, the cables to hook it up, and a demo disk with more than a dozen titles to try. The Core package did not include a PlayStation Camera, which is a necessary component to operate the headset. Sony also offered a packed called the PlayStation VR Worlds bundle, which included the camera, a pair of Move controllers, and a game called PlayStation VR Worlds. Originally, the complete package was $499.

Last August, following price drops from Oculus and HTC on their Rift and Vive headsets, Sony made some price and bundle adjustments to stay competitive, including adding a camera to the Core bundle at no extra cost and reducing the price of the PlayStation Worlds bundle by $50. Later, Sony replaced the Core bundle with the PSVR Doom VFR bundle, and the PlayStation VR Worlds package with the PSVR Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR bundle, which include the respective Bethesda titles. It also rolled out a slight revision to the HMD late last year.

Recently, the value of Sonys PlayStation VR has begun to come into question. With several affordable VR headsets from Microsofts Windows MR partners on the market, Oculuss permanent $399 Rift with Touch bundle, and last weeks HTC Vive price drop, which brought it to $499, the question becomes; why is Sonys HMD so expensive, comparatively? Its resolution is much lower than every other tethered VR HMD on the market today, and its tracking system isn't as robust.

With the mounting pressure from the market players around it, Sony is once again adjusting the price of the PSVR to compensate. Starting tomorrow, both PSVR bundles will get a permanent $100 price reduction, which puts the Doom VFR bundle at $299, and the Skyrim VR bundle at $349.



Sony also revealed the Canadian pricing for its PSVR bundles. Our neighbors to the north are looking at $379 for the Doom bundle, and $449 for the Skyrim bundle, which are down from $499 and $579, respectively.
Trans Candidate Focusing Smithville School Board Campaign On The Issues, Not Her Gender Carmen Xavier, a candidate for the Board of Education in Smithville, Missouri, has been very deliberate about letting voters know she is transgender. But she's also been very clear that she believes her decades of public service qualify her for the job.

I'm sure this lady will make a find School Board denizen or whatever . . . But the public radio "journalism" hypocrisy is kinda obvious and deserves to be smacked down not just for a lack of objectivity but also just because it's just clumsy and hackneyed . . .You decide:
"The Local Democratic honchos who gave Bechthold grief during his last run were none other Crissy & Reba of the KC Women's Caucus. Meanwhile, Patty of the union and our favorite half pint from Burns & Mac were also pressuring him to drop out. They all preferred Republican Ryan Silvey over an old school democrat."

J RANEN BECHTHOLD IS NOW RUNNING AS A REPUBLICAN IN A NORTHLAND RACE FOR MISSOURI HOUSE!!!

J Ranen Bechthold House Dist 15

We are facing an environmental catastrophe of great proportions. We suffered from the longest and one of the worst sustained recessions in our national history. The ills we suffer have come upon us over several decades. They will not go away shortly, but they will go away. They will go away because we will do whatever it takes to preserve our freedoms and securities.





The political, cultural and corporate elites distort our economic decisions, penalize thrift and crush the struggling young and the fixed-income elderly alike. They mock and disdain our faith and values, daring to call us things like deplorables. They threaten to shatter the lives of millions of our people cutting the services we paid for with our hard-earned tax dollars and taking away the means to free express and defend ourselves.





Idle industries across Missouri have thrown workers into unemployment, human misery and personal indignity. Those who do work are denied a fair return for their labor, their success penalized, and full productivity hindered. Our government has piled deficits, mortgaging our future and our children for the present.





To continue this long trend is to guarantee tremendous upheavals. I am running make sure that poor and middle-class Missourians are no longer cheated by corporate interests and ensure that they can live lives that are safe and secure. We must act to preserve the future. And let there be no misunderstandingwe're going to act, beginning today.

impressed a great many of locals during his first run for office and even meritedInsiders tell us there was even more going on behind the scenes . . .And so, rather than wallow in disillusionment with the Democratic Party establishment . . . The former military intelligence analyst and Afghanistan combat veteran had a political reawakening of sorts . . .Here's a presser that explains more about ideas and perspective . . .J Ranen Bechthold has filed to enter the Republican Primary for Missouri House District 15 covering Gladstone in Clay County. Bechthold is running to advance ideas of maximizing individual freedoms and eliminating the influences cultural and corporate elites have over the lives of middle and lower income Missourians.J Ranen Bechthold is a former military intelligence analyst and combat veteran of Afghanistan. He grew up in Clay County and earned a Bachelors of Political Science from UMKC before serving in the US Army from 2009-2016. He is a proud married father of four daughters.##########Developing . . .
Cities that Fail to Become Smart Could Be the Next Digital Rust Belt KANSAS CITY, Mo. - In a decade, there may not be Smart City conferences like the one unfolding this week in Kansas City, Mo.

Advocates of costly civic spyware claim that this town will be destroyed without their gadgetry. It's a bold statement backed up with little evidence but a lot of consultants wearing snappy designer gear support the thesis because they got the day off real work in order to do so. Read more:
Kobach's Behavior During Recent Trial Prompts Ethics Complaint From Overland Park Lawyer Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach committed ethical violations during the just-completed trial over the state's voter registration law, a Kansas immigration lawyer alleges in a bar complaint. Matthew Hoppock, who practices in Overland Park, said he was duty-bound to file the complaint as an officer of the court.

Legal push back from a Kansas colleague contends the leading right-wing Guv contender "violated at least four of the Kansas Rules of Professional Conduct, the canons governing attorney behavior." Read more:
"A series of car break-ins made for a harsh wake-up call for people in Waldo and Brookside on Tuesday morning. It has homeowners frustrated and police investigating. Now, several people said they're beefing up security in hopes of catching the culprits."

Along with increasing violence & murder, Kansas City property crime continues to spike.Checkit:Deets:highlighting a triple car break-in spree in the past 48 hours along with thousands of dollars worth of damage in the aftermath of Mayor Sly making vague promises about reducing local crime.Developing . . .
Former President Barack Obama will appear at a Beverly Hills fundraiser for Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) in May, according to an invitation obtained by POLITICO  a sign Obama is edging into the midterm elections.





Obama is listed as a special guest at the May 6 fundraiser hosted by the actress Katie McGrath, film studio executive Jeffrey Katzenberg, filmmaker Steven Spielberg and others Los Angeles-area heavyweights. This is his first post-presidential fundraising event for an individual candidate  and it goes to the female senator who very notably backed him early over Hillary Clinton in 2008.

Republicans across the nation and throughout Missouri arebut we notice that Kansas City metro "political journalists" are staying mum about a HOLLYWOOD shin-dig that offers a somewhat valid reason to give up on Democracy altogether.Just a bit of TKC pettiness . . . As of this posting, there's not a single word or insight about thisfrom any other local outlet whilst TKC is shunned by lesser local media and that Shawnee douche blogger gets a front row seat for reprinting press releases about Prairie Village trash pickup.But I digress . . . Because the 50 views on YouTube that public TV earns isn't that big of a deal.Again, this tidbit has sparked outrage among jerks in Conservative circles i.e. right wing circle jerks (???) . . . Checkit:Deets:You decide . . .
English Dutch German

Zwolle - 28 March 2018

RoodMicrotec N.V., the leading independent company for semiconductors supply and quality services, publishes today its Annual Report 2017. You will find the report which is available in English and only as an electronic version on our website:

https://www.roodmicrotec.com/en/investor-relations-en/financial-publications

Certain adjustments were made compared to the unaudited preliminary figures that were published on the 08 March 2018. The Plentum bonds have been reclassified from financial assets to plan assets within the pension obligation. In the past months, the Plentum Luxembourg fund provided more evidence to support a fair value calculation of these bonds under IAS 19. Therefore, in 2017 these Plentum bonds are netted with the pension liabilities. The impairment of financial assets that was earlier reported in the P&L are now recognized through OCI.

The adjusted net loss for 2017 is EUR 44,000 compared to a net loss of EUR 1.6 million in 2016 and the adjusted solvency is 36% compared to 28% in 2016.

Please refer to the key figures table in this press release and the complete information in the annual report.

After launching our modern, innovative and attractive new website end of last year the Annual Report 2017 is the first document showing the modernized and face lifted RoodMicrotec-logo still underlining our technical and technological image.

Annual General Meeting of Shareholders 17 May 2018 at 3 pm, EURONEXT Amsterdam, Beursplein 5

The Annual General Meeting of Shareholders will be held on Thursday 17 May 2018.

Key figures

(EUR x 1,000 unless stated otherwise) 2017 2016 Sales and result Net sales 12,127 10,465 Gross margin 10,157 8,615 EBITDA 949 -310 EBIT (operating result) -69 -1,339 EBT -327 -1,587 Net result -44 -1,578 Cash flow from operating activities 628 -452 Capital, debt & liquidity ratios Total assets 13,416 14,711 Group equity 4,767 4,053 Net debt 2,451 2,428 Capital (=net debt + equity) 7,218 6,481 Gearing ratio (net debt / capital) 34% 37% Solvency (group equity / total liabilities) 36% 28% Debt ratio (net debt / EBITDA) 2.6 -7.8 Net working capital 452 540 Working capital ratio (current assets / current liabilities) 1.17 1.23 Assets Tangible and intangible fixed assets 8,451 7,684 Investments in (in)tangible fixed assets 1,199 1,879 Depreciation of (in)tangible fixed assets 1,018 1,029 Issue of nominal shares At year-end (x 1,000) 66,716 63,411 Number of FTEs (permanent) Average 91 91 Sales / FTE 133 115

Financial agenda

17 May 2018 Annual general meeting of shareholders 18 May 2018 Annual bondholder meeting 5 July 2018 Publication sales figures first half 2018 02 August 2018 Publication interim report 2018 02 August 2018 Conference call for press and analysts

About RoodMicrotec

With more than 45 years' experience as an independent value-added service provider in the area of micro and optoelectronics, RoodMicrotec offers Fabless Companies, OEMs and other companies a one-stop shop proposition. With its powerful solutions RoodMicrotec has built up a strong position in Europe.

Our services comply with the industrial and quality requirements of the high reliability/space, automotive, telecommunications, healthcare, industrial and electronics sectors.

Our integrated quality management system is based on international DIN EN ISO 9001:2015 standards. In addition, our quality management is broadly consistent with the Automotive Specification ISO/TS 16949. The company also has an accredited laboratory for test activities and qualification to the ISO/IEC 17025 standard.

Its value-added services include (eXtended) supply chain management and total manufacturing solutions with partners, failure & technology analysis, qualification & burn-in, test & product engineering, production test (including device programming and end-of-line service), ESD/ESDFOS assessment & training and quality & reliability consulting.

RoodMicrotec has branches in Germany (Dresden, Nordlingen, Stuttgart), United Kingdom (Bath) and the Netherlands (Zwolle).

For more information visit https://www.roodmicrotec.com

Further information

Martin Sallenhag - CEO, Reinhard Pusch - COO, Arvid Ladega - CFO

Telephone: +31 38 4215216

Email: investor-relations@roodmicrotec.com Web: www.roodmicrotec.com

This press release is published in English, Dutch and German. In case of conflict between these versions the English version shall prevail.

This communication contains information that qualifies as inside information within the meaning of Article 7(1) of the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The company's managing director and CEO Martin Sallenhag, is responsible for arranging for the release of this document on behalf of RoodMicrotec.
THE CURRENT DEADLY KCMO CRIME SPIKE

A big focus of the mayors speech was on rebuilding the city from the ground up. He touted the voter-approved $800 million in GO bond funding and the many projects now getting underway to improve infrastructure from sidewalks to streets, bridges and flood control. And of course, he highlighted another huge voter-approved measure: a new single terminal KCI.





Hes hoping that trend continues with upcoming voter approvals for expanding the streetcar line and extending a 1 percent sales tax that pays for neighborhood projects citywide and would help finance a new Buck ONeil Bridge.





But the mayor didnt shy away from some of the citys challenges, including expanding opportunity to struggling sectors of the community.





He also said 2018 must be the year Kansas City gets off the most dangerous cities list and noted it will take all of us to make it happen.

IS MAYOR SLY'S COMPLETE LACK OF ANY SPECIFIC ANTI-CRIME EFFORT DURING A HORRIFIC HOMICIDE SPIKE A DERELICTION OF DUTY?!?!?

Just aspredicted, Mayor Sly spent most of today bragging about development and only gavepassing mention.Check the deets:Again, there was absolutely no detail provided on how he intends to accomplish that bold statement.After more than 6 years it's clear that Mayor Sly's "development trickle down strategy" doesn't work. Meanwhile, the begging for increased taxpayer subsidy continues.Like it or not . . .that's being shared with the public the only thing in writing on the table for local voters is more taxes.You decide . . .
3 people, 2 companies now indicted in boy's death at Schlitterbahn Waterpark Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said a Wyandotte County grand jury has indicted two more people and a corporation in connection with 10-year-old Caleb Schwab's death in August 2016 and injuries sustained by others while riding the Verruckt waterslide at Schlitterbahn Waterpark of Kansas City, Kansas.

Today's update in an ongoing saga that directs blame away from the dearth of Kansas amusement park regulations. Read more:
The influence of politics on visitor flows can be observed very clearly in the development of tourism in Greece and Turkey, according to the following report by fvw.com:

Greece, whose hotel sector was hit by international politics in recent years, seems to have profited in particular from the exodus of German tourists from Turkey. Whereas visitor numbers dropped dramatically during the financial crisis, today hoteliers are seeing good growth figures in their books. The German market grew by 18 per cent in 2017 compared to 2016. However, Greek hoteliers and also major tour operators used the tough crisis years to improve their products and value for money. In addition, the number and scale of strikes that previously brought the country to a halt have fallen significantly since the beginning of the decade.

Dramatic drop in demand for Turkey

Regarding Turkey, where the holiday product is held in high esteem and has barely changed, the policies of the government are blamed for the dramatic drop in demand. The country experienced its biggest slump in 2016 as the number of German tourists fell by 30 per cent to 3.9 million. A slight recovery appears to have taken place in 2017, as officials have estimated about four million visitors from Germany. The German tourism industry needs this destination. With its excellent value for money, Turkey is virtually irreplaceable, emphasises DRV president Norbert Fiebig.

Spain has grown once more, both in the German source market as well as among international visitors. After a slight drop in 2015 when interest from Germany weakened slightly by 1.2 per cent, the country performed much better in the following two years. In 2017, nearly 11.9 million Germans headed for Spain, which was a rise of 6.1 per cent compared to the previous year. A glance at the long-term trend reveals an increase in the number of visitors of more than one fifth since 2013. However, this growth from Germany remained moderate in international comparison. Overall, the total number of tourists in Spain increased by 35 per cent to 81.8 million over the same period of time. Most Germans organise their Spain trip themselves. More package holidaymakers than individual travellers were counted only in the months of September and October.

Italy, the second best Mediterranean destination for German holidaymakers, is even more strongly characterised by individual tourism than Spain. The majority of the estimated 12 million German visitors make their own travel arrangements. Only in the far south have package holiday destinations established themselves and been prominently presented above all in FTIs programme. But not only. Dertour recently added 70 more hotels in southern Italy to its programme.

However, volumes from the German market appear to have stabilised at a high level after a boost seen in 2016 (+7.7 per cent). Total international numbers grew strongly in 2017 with an increase of 5.2 per cent. The Italian tourism association Assoturismo believes that the figures can rise even higher in 2018. Assoturismo president Vittorio Messina sees a further increase of 5 per cent as possible from last years figure of nearly 60 million international visitors. At the same time, the top official is urging more commitment from politicians. We need a tourism ministry again, he says.

Croatia, Portugal and Bulgaria catch up

From a summer destination to an all-year destination: that is the challenge posed by Croatian tourism minister Gari Cappelli to the tourism industry. The country on the Adriatic coast has grown into an international trend destination. The number of foreign visitors increased by 43 per cent between 2013 and 2017 to 16.4 million arrivals. Germany remains the top source market with more than 2.7 million arrivals. Further growth can be expected this year as all major tour operators have expanded their Croatia programmes. Minister Cappelli already sees the good results of the early and late seasons as an important reason for this increase. The worldwide interest in the TV blockbuster Game of Thrones may well have played into the hands of tourism officials. At least, the visitor numbers to Dubrovnik, which plays the role of the fictional city of Kings Landing in the series, have quadrupled since the fantasy saga was broadcast.

With Portugal and Bulgaria, which each generated about six per cent growth last year, two other European countries can count themselves among the winners of the Turkey crisis on the German source market. Portugal, which hosted 1.3 million German visitors in 2017, has recorded a continuous upward trend for more than five years. In contrast, Bulgaria has repeatedly had to cope with strong fluctuations. A fall of nearly 13 per cent in both 2014 and 2015 was followed by a 33 per cent rise in 2016. Moderate growth of about 6 per cent followed in 2017. In 2018, tour operators are increasingly selling the Black Sea country as an inexpensive family destination. TUI, for example, has increased capacity in this area by a quarter.

The trends for the two island states of Malta and Cyprus are more complex to assess. In 2017, Cyprus, with 188,000 German visitors, lay at nearly the same level as Malta (193,000). However, the special effects of the role of Paphos as European Cultural Capital and the related publicity should be taken into account. This year it is the turn of Maltas capital, Valletta, to be the Cultural Capital.

How long will the upward trend in North Africas holiday countries continue?

There is a collective sigh of relief as far as business with the North African holiday destinations is concerned. Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia ended last year with significant growth in some cases. Egypt outpaced all other major destinations with growth of 88 per cent to 1.23 million German holidaymakers and celebrated a strong comeback. Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab Spring, is recovering gradually. There was an increase of 40 per cent to 181,000 German visitors last year. But the country is still a long way away from its former levels, such as 2014 when 425,000 German tourists came. But at least TUI has expanded its summer programme with an additional 25,000 seats. The situation is very different for Morocco which, with an increase of 14.5 per cent, more than made up for the slight drop in 2016.

Read more here.

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report

Photo Source:pixabay.com

Source: fvw.com
The Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (Enec) and its operating subsidiary Nawah Energy Company (Nawah) offered a wide range of scholarships and showcased unique career opportunities to Emiratis at the recently concluded National Service Career Fair.



The fair was held from March 25 to 27, at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (Adnec), in Abu Dhabi, UAE.



Enec and Nawah presented a wide range of scholarship courses for Higher Diplomas in a variety of fields, for those who are interested in pursuing a career in nuclear energy, said a statement.



The UAE Peaceful Nuclear Energy Program offers an exciting, challenging and rewarding career, it said.



National Service graduates were given the opportunity to apply for a scholarship, and work towards delivering safe, clean, efficient and reliable electricity through nuclear energy to the UAE, it added.



Eng Mohamed Al Hammadi, chief executive officer, Enec, said: Developing our people and expertise is one of the main priorities at our company and its subsidiary Nawah Energy Company, and is central to the long-term sustainability of the programme.



Since our establishment in 2009, more than 500 UAE Nationals have benefitted from our scholarship programme, he said.



It is an exciting time for young Emiratis to choose a career in nuclear energy; National Service graduates joining us today will be the UAEs energy pioneers of tomorrow. As always, our commitment to safety, security, and continuous learning makes nuclear energy a challenging and rewarding career choice for our countrys best students, he added.



The fair aims to open communication channels between graduates of the National Service program and exhibiting companies and institutions from both government and private sectors, it stated.  TradeArabia News Service
MAN Truck & Bus Middle East highlighted its latest customer experience concept, CustomerFirst, at its recently concluded 2018 After-Sales Conference, which was marked by the strong participation of MAN partners from 14 countries in the Middle East.



The concept topped the agenda of the event, which was held from March 11 to 14, in Muscat, Oman, and attended by representatives of MAN Truck & Bus headquarters in Munich, Germany, and its regional office in Dubai, UAE, said a statement.



The conference highlighted that exploring the fundamentals of better and effective customer experience is key to the success of businesses of all shapes and sizes across industries, it said.



The attendees emphasised that enhancing customer experience is more relevant in the automotive industry as needs and expectations of consumers continue to evolve along with advancements in technology, it added.



Dr Richard Brown, head of after-sales, MAN Truck & Bus Middle East, said it is important to derive deeper insights from customer interactions to design and deliver products and services that create value and exceed the expectations of users.



Brown said: The innovative customer-centric programme records the perceptions of our customers with regard to service quality using a measuring system that tracks information from start to finish along the most significant customer journeys.



Modern-day customers are more empowered and are looking for integrated and end-to-end solutions. We are convinced that integrated offering is the key for future service contracts, he added.



Franz Freiherr von Redwitz, managing director, said: After we implement our programme, we will be better positioned to offer peace of mind with every vehicle we deliver so our customers can focus on running their businesses.



The comprehensive customer service programme was awarded the German Awards for Excellence 2018 in the Products and Services - Customer Support category by the German Institute for Service Quality and DUB Unternehmer magazine in February this year.



During the three-day conference, the representatives of MAN Truck & Bus headquarters and the regional office briefed the attendees about the latest developments in the world of business and marketing.



Furthermore, members of after-sales team of the regional office hosted workshops on four themes, such as Close Cooperation and Steering; Fighting the Competition; Commitment and Focus on Customer.



In addition, participants representing six importers in the region gave presentations on customer service initiatives they have implemented over the past year and highlighted their achievements.



During the event, the Floating Trophy for the Middle East Market of the Year was awarded to Integrated Automotive, the MAN Truck & Bus importer for Jordan. The winner was chosen on the basis of regularly submitted KPIs and the quality of business conducted over the previous year, it stated.  TradeArabia News Service
More than a dozen high-profile speakers and over 100 industry leaders, advisors, and regulators discussed Saudi Arabia's vision and strategic outlook in developing its defence industry at a key forum in Washington this week.



Technology and security was a special focus at the Defense Technology and Security Conference, organised by the Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI) in collaboration with the US-Saudi Arabian Business Council.



As Saudi Arabia advances its historic Vision 2030 initiative to create a stronger, more stable business environment and greater opportunities for corporate partnerships, the kingdom will experience transformational economic and social reform designed to unlock the potential of the Saudi people and ensure a prosperous future for both the country and region, said a statement.



Comprising three panel discussions and held under the theme 'Reinforcing Partnerships, Creating Value,' the conference comes as part of the visit of HRH Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister, and Minister of Defense of Saudi Arabia to the US, which aims to further cement the US-Saudi historical partnership and open up new vistas of opportunities.



Ahmed Al Khateeb, chairman of Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI), welcomed the guests and underscored the importance of the conference theme 'Reinforcing Partnerships, Creating Value,' to embody the depth of the historic and robust relationship between the US and Saudi Arabia  a relationship based on mutual commitment, trust, drive, and value.



Titled 'Realizing the Vision, Developing the Defense Ecosystem,' the second panel featured a stellar lineup of speakers, including Khalid Al Falih, Saudi Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources; Dr Majid Al-Qasabi, Saudi Minister of Commerce and Investment; and Ahmed Al Khateeb, chairman of SAMI.



The discussion outlined how Saudi Arabia is developing the defence ecosystem in the kingdom and how this will ultimately realise the Saudi Vision 2030.



Featuring Dr Andreas Schwer, CEO of SAMI; Leanne Caret, CEO of Boeing Defense, Space, and Security; Kurt E Amend, CEO of Raytheon Saudi Arabia; and Colin Mahoney, senior vice president of International and Service Solutions at Rockwell Collins, the first panel addressed how to create a value chain for a sustainable future, citing the tremendous progress Saudi Arabia has been witnessing and building on the historical US-Saudi ties.



Moderated by John Hamre, CEO of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the third and final panel explored 'The Strategic Outlook and the Road Ahead' and featured a prominent lineup of panelists, including Mohammed Al-Athel, secretary general of the board of directors ? of the General Authority for Military Industries (GAMI); Kenneth J Krieg, former undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (AT&L); and Maj Gen Arnold L. Punaro, immediate past chair and nominating and governance committee chair of the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA).



Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI) is a state-owned military company launched in May 2017 by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF). SAMI was established to provide military products and services and to reduce the country's reliance on foreign purchases of military products. Its reported targets include the contribution of SR14 billion ($3.7 billion) to the Saudi economy by 2030, SR6 billion ($1.6 billion) investment in research and development and the creation of 40,000 jobs, it stated.  TradeArabia News Service
Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Korea Energy Agency (KEA) for renewable energy collaboration and investment between South Korea and the UAE.



Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi, Masdars chief executive officer, and Dr Nam Hoon Kang, president and CEO of KEA, signed the agreement, which coincided with the President of South Korea Moon Jae-ins four-day visit to the UAE and his first to the Middle East since his election last year, said a statement.



Under the terms of the agreement, Masdar and KEA aim to establish a potential strategic partnership to encourage renewable energy investment in Korea and to develop a number of renewable energy projects using solar, wind, energy storage, floating solar power and waste-to-energy technologies, among others, it said.



Al Ramahi said: We are proud to collaborate with industry leaders and like-minded companies that share the same values and goals as us.



Our partnership with KEA will allow us to strengthen our relationship with Korea and accelerate the deployment of renewable energy and new energy industry projects to improve energy security and spur innovation in smart urban development, he added.



Both parties have also agreed to the possibility of expanding the scope of the collaboration in the future and will exchange expertise in the renewable energy and new energy industry fields covering energy auditing, smart grids, energy storage and other related areas.



Dr Kang said: We are pleased to enter into this partnership with Masdar, which will lay the foundation for mutually beneficial cooperation. Utilising Masdar and our specialist knowledge and expertise will enable the Republic of Korea to advance its renewable energy goals.



The signing of the agreement follows the Korea-UAE bilateral Economic Cooperation Council meeting in March, where Masdar and KEA initiated the development of the partnership.



The agreement builds upon Masdars current ties with the Republic of Korea following the signing of a strategic agreement during Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week 2018 with global infrastructure and energy development company Daewoo Engineering and Construction Co., Ltd. to support the commercialisation of low-energy reverse osmosis seawater desalination plants in the Middle East, North Africa and Asia.



Masdars Clean Energy division is a leading developer and operator of utility-scale, grid-connected projects, as well as applications providing electricity access to communities away from the grid.



The division also engages in research and development of sustainable technologies, from seawater desalination to solar photovoltaics, biofuel and energy storage to enhance current capabilities of renewable energy technologies and boost local, regional and global renewable energy power generation capacity.  TradeArabia News Service
Saudi Arabia and SoftBank Group have signed a memorandum of understanding to build the world's largest solar project in the kingdom at an investment of $200 billion, said a report.



SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son, known for backing ambitious endeavors with flair, unveiled the project on Tuesday in New York at a ceremony with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. The powerful heir to the throne of the worlds largest crude exporter is seeking to diversify the economy and wean off a dependence on oil, reported Bloomberg.



The deal is the latest in a number of eye-popping announcements from Saudi Arabia promising to scale up its access to renewables, said the report.



While the kingdom has for years sought to get a foothold in clean energy, its was only in 2017 that ministers moved forward with the first projects, collecting bids for a 300-megawatt plant in October, it stated.



At 200 gigawatts, the Softbank project planned for the Saudi desert would be about 100 times larger than the next biggest proposed development and a third more than what the global photovoltaic industry supplied worldwide last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg New Energy Finance.



Its a huge step in human history, Prince Mohammed was quoted as saying in the report. Its bold, risky and we hope we succeed doing that, he added.



If built, the development would almost triple Saudi Arabias electricity generation capacity, which stood at 77 gigawatts in 2016, according to BNEF data. About two thirds of that is generated by natural gas, with the rest coming from oil. Only small-scale solar projects working there now.



Son said he envisions the project, which runs the gamut from power generation to panel and equipment manufacturing, will create as many as 100,000 jobs and shave $40 billion off power costs.



The development will reach its maximum capacity by 2030 and may cost close to $1 billion a gigawatt, he stated.



The kingdom has great sunshine, great size of available land and great engineers, great labour, but most importantly, the best and greatest vision, Son told reporters at a briefing.



The agreement deepens SoftBanks ties with the Saudi Arabia, and advances the crown princes ambition to diversify its economy.



SoftBank was said to be planning to invest as much as $25 billion in Saudi Arabia over the next three to four years. Thats a boost for Prince Mohammed, whos been at the forefront of the Vision 2030 campaign to diversify the kingdoms economy away from oil by that year. SoftBank is said to have aimed to deploy as much as $15 billion in a new city called Neom, which the crown prince plans to build on the Red Sea coast.



The Japanese companys Vision Fund is also said to plan investments of as much as $10 billion in state-controlled Saudi Electricity Co. as part of efforts to diversify the utility into renewables and solar energy.



Son, who is known as a savvy investor with a flair for the spotlight, has been promoting clean energy since the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster and recently completed a 50-megawatt wind power farm in Mongolia.



He has also pushed a plan dubbed Asia Super Grid, a plan to connect Asian nations by grids and undersea cables to distribute clean energy.



The kingdoms deal-making has quickened as it pursues Prince Mohammeds diversification goals. Saudi Arabias sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, which has more than $224 billion in assets, spent about $54 billion on investments last year, said the Bloomberg report.



The sale of about a 5 per cent stake in oil giant Saudi Arabian Oil Company is expected to provide more funds, stated the report.



Saudi Arabia also plans to build at least 16 nuclear reactors over the next 25 years at a cost of more than $80 billion, it added.
Qatar Airways has boosted its operations to Greece with the launch of its inaugural flight to the countrys second-largest city, Thessaloniki.

The airlines Airbus A320, which landed at the Thessaloniki Makedonia Airport on March 27, was welcomed with a traditional water cannon salute followed by a welcome ceremony for VIP delegates.



The new four-times-weekly service from Doha to the airlines second gateway in Greece commenced just one month ahead of the launch of its third destination in Greece, the beautiful island of Mykonos.



The VIP delegation on board the flight, led by Qatar Airways Group representative, Captain Jassim Al-Haroon, vice president operations Amiri Flight, included Constantinos Orphanides, ambassador of the Hellenic Republic in Qatar, and was welcomed by Abdulaziz Ali Al-Naama, ambassador of the Qatar to the Hellenic Republic; Yiannis Boutaris, mayor of Thessaloniki; and Fraport Greece executive director of commercial and business development, George Vilos.



Qatar Airways Group chief executive, Akbar Al Baker, said: Qatar Airways new service to Thessaloniki will help reinforce links between Qatar and Greece, and deepen the friendship and co-operation between our two great countries. Our second gateway in Greece, Thessaloniki is a major tourist destination all year round offering access to some of Greeces most famous resorts. We are delighted to support Greeces tourism industry by providing more global travellers the opportunity to visit this iconic city.



Alexander Zinell, Fraport Greece chief executive officer, said: I am delighted to welcome Qatar Airways to Thessaloniki Makedonia Airport and the first scheduled flights to and from Thessaloniki and Doha. The decision by our new airline partner, Qatar Airways, is a clear indication of the Thessaloniki Makedonia Airport growth potential. Passengers from Northern Greece and the Balkans can now benefit from direct flights linking Thessaloniki with the international hub of Doha and beyond. We look forward to working closely with Qatar Airways and support them in ensuring the success of the new route.



Qatar Airways has been operating to Athens since June 2005, and in 2015 increased its service to the Greek capital from twice daily to three times daily to meet growing demand. The Athens route is operated by a mix of the airlines state-of-the-art aircraft, including the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. In January 2018, Qatar Airways was also the first airline to bring the Airbus A350 to the city. The first flights to Thessaloniki will be operated by an Airbus A320 aircraft, featuring 12 seats in Business Class and 132 seats in Economy Class.



Qatar Airways robust growth strategy in Europe continues, with service to Mykonos commencing in May. The launch of these additional two gateways into Greece confirms the airlines strong commitment to boosting tourism in Greece, especially from regions with strong Greek populations such as Australia and the Middle East. With the launch of service to Mykonos, the award-winning airline will operate 58 times a week between the five-star Hamad International Airport (HIA) and Greece.



The new gateway will connect Thessaloniki to Qatar Airways global network, through its state-of-the-art hub in Doha, to more than 150 business and leisure destinations including Qatar, Australia, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Maldives, Singapore, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Vietnam.



In 2018-19, Qatar Airways will be adding many more exciting new destinations to its network, including London Gatwick and Cardiff, United Kingdom; Lisbon, Portugal; Tallinn, Estonia; Valletta, Malta; Cebu and Davao, Philippines; Langkawi, Malaysia; Da Nang, Vietnam; Bodrum, Antalya and Hatay, Turkey; Mykonos, Greece and Malaga, Spain. - TradeArabia News Service
Royal Jordanian (RJ) has expanded its codeshare agreement with Qatar Airways, giving its guests access to Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Qatar Airways flights.



RJ will market Qatar Airways route to Dhaka International Airport (DAC) from April 1. The route will be sold in connection with RJs Amman-Doha sector.



Royal Jordanians codeshare agreement with Qatar Airways took effect on August 6, 2015. Since then, RJ has been giving its customers access to various global points including Muscat, Colombo, Karachi, Singapore, Perth and now Dhaka.



RJ president and CEO, Stefan Pichler, said: Our codeshare agreement with Qatar Airways is opening up a larger number of weekly flights between Doha and Amman, in addition to numerous new connections beyond Hamad International Airport. We invite our guests to make use of these convenient connections and travel to many points they desire. We always work on enhancing our route network by partnering with other airlines through codeshare agreements to offer our passengers the best travel options they could possibly find.



RJ operates nine weekly flights to Dohas Hamad International Airport.



RJ has 15 codeshare agreements with global airlines, including with Oneworld carriers and with other international airlines. Besides Qatar Airways, codeshare agreements are signed with: American Airlines, British Airways, Iberia, Siberia Airlines S7, Malaysia Airlines, Turkish Airlines, Oman Air, Middle East Airlines, Alitalia, Tarom, Gulf Air, Sri Lankan Airlines, Syrian Air and Meridiana Fly Airlines. - TradeArabia News Service


TORONTO, March 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- With a provincial election on June 7, The Campaign for Public Education and Fix Our Schools are launching a pledge initiative, aiming to have all MPP candidates commit to safe, healthy, well-maintained schools in this province. Ontarians have ten weeks to ensure that their local MPP candidates sign the Fix Our Schools pledge (copy attached) to demonstrate their commitment to eliminating the $15.9-billion of disrepair that has accumulated in Ontarios schools over the past twenty years.



Regions covered by the 10 school boards with the worst building disrepair in the province include: Ajax, Akwesasne, Brampton, Brockville, Caledon, Hamilton, London-area, Mississauga, Oshawa, Ottawa-Carleton, Windsor-area, and the Greater-Toronto-Area.

List of Top 10 Ontario School Boards with the greatest disrepair backlog:

TORONTO - The 758 schools in the Toronto and Toronto Catholic District School Boards face a combined repair backlog of $4.6-billion. MISSISSAUGA, BRAMPTON, CALEDON - The 251 schools in the Peel District School Board face a repair backlog of $1.02-billion. OTTAWA-CARLETON - The 147 schools in the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board face a repair backlog of $841-million LONDON, INGERSOLL, ST. THOMAS, TILLSONBURG, WOODSTOCK - The 159 schools in the Thames Valley District School Board face a repair backlog of $756-million. WINDSOR, LASALLE, AMHERSTBERG, ESSEX, LEAMINGTON  The 70 schools in the Greater Essex County District School board face a repair backlog of $390-million. AJAX, OSHAWA, PICKERING, VAUGHAN - The 128 schools in the Durham District School Board face a repair backlog of $369-million. HAMILTON-WENTWORTH - The 107 schools in the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board face a repair backlog of $337-million. AURORA, MARKHAM, NEWMARKET, RICHMOND HILL, VAUGHAN - The 209 schools in the York Region District School Board face a repair backlog of $329-million. HALTON HILLS, MILTON, OAKVILLE - The 103 schools in the Halton District School Board face a repair backlog of $312-million. BROCKVILLE, CLARENCE-ROCKLAND, CARLETON PLACE, CORNWALL, AKWESASNE  The 90 schools in the Upper Canada District School Board face a repair backlog of $299-million.

PDF attachment:

Fix Our Schools Pledge

http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/e9fbb845-1f44-445d-93b7-676bc482014d



Quotes



In 2015, Ontarios Auditor-General confirmed that provincial funding for school repairs had been grossly and chronically inadequate for decades  in some years, only ONE-TENTH of what it ought to have been. Our provincial governments approach to funding education has seen disrepair accumulate to an appalling $15.9 billion. I hope people across Ontario take advantage of the opportunity we have in the coming ten weeks to ask all our MPP candidates to sign the Fix Our Schools Pledge and ensure that Ontarios KIDS win on June 7.  Krista Wylie, Co-Founder of the Fix Our Schools Campaign

During my twelve years as an Ontario student, Ive experienced freezing cold classrooms, boiling hot classrooms, leaking ceilings and disgusting washrooms. It makes me wonder if the adults in charge really do value our education.  Sarah Dueck, Grade 11 Student

We need a province-wide Standard of Good Repair for schools and adequate, stable provincial funding for school boards to meet those standards within a set timeline of four years.  Stephen Seaborn, Campaign for Public Education

The provincial government has made a mess of funding for school facilities; we cant fix our schools without fixing the way we pay for them.  Hugh Mackenzie, economist.

Fix Our Schools , founded in 2014, is a non-partisan, parent-led, province-wide campaign working to ensure that every publicly funded school in Ontario is a safe, healthy, well-maintained building that provides an environment conducive to learning and working. * fixourschools.ca
Silvermont Opportunity Center is pleased to be partnering with Vaya Health in Asheville to provide free seminars to Transylvania County residents. The monthly seminars will be led by a member of Vayas Geriatric and Adult Specialty Team, which travels throughout western North Carolina providing community outreach in an effort to educate the community on various topics. The next seminar will be held on Monday, April 9, from 10 to 11 a.m.

The topic is When and How to Make a Referral for Behavioral Health Issues. Participants learn about Vaya Health and the behavioral health system...
Steve Owen of Steve Owen & Associates has been named the 2017 Main Street Champion by the Heart of Brevard and is celebrating his 40th year in local real estate.

The NC Main Street program is dedicated to historic downtown communities focused on economic revitalization and historical preservation. Each year, Heart of Brevard designates the title Main Street Champion to a community member who has shown dedication to the stability and revitalization of downtown Brevard. This individual is honored at a special event held each year in one of the NC Main Street communities.

Owen built a...
Brevard- Davidson River Presbyterian

Join Brevard-Davidson River Presbyterian Church this Sunday at 8:30 or 11 a.m. as they celebrate the resurrection of the Lord. Keith Thompsons sermon for the morning will be The Joke is on Death.

This Thursday, March 29, at 7:30 p.m., will be a Maundy Thursday Communion and Tenebrae Service where participants hear in word and music the story of Christs passion.

Beginning on April 3, the Rev. Tom Lewis will guide people through a series of spiritual practices and combine them with observations and experiences outdoors through an approach...
PUBLIC NOTICE

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA-Part B, Public Law 108.446) Project is presently being amended. The Project describes the special education programs that Brevard Academy proposes for Federal funding for the 2018-2019 School Year. Interested persons are encouraged to review amendments to the Project and make comments concerning the implementation of special education under this Federal Program. All comments will be considered prior to submission of the amended Project to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction in Raleigh, North Carolina. The IDEA-Part B Project is open to the public for review and comments during the week of April 30 through May 4, 2018, in the office of Ted Duncan located at 1110 Hender-sonville Hwy, Pisgah Forest, NC 28768.

MT/3/26/2TC-68163

_______________________________________________

IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE

OF North CAROLINA

SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION

Transylvania COUNTY

17SP109

IN THE MATTER OF THE FORECLOSURE OF A DEED OF TRUST EXECUTED BY ANGELYN B. DAVENPORT AND EDGAR DAVENPORT DATED AUGUST 17, 2009 AND RECORDED IN BOOK DOC 511 AT PAGE 230 IN THE Transylvania County PUBLIC REGISTRY, North CAROLINA

NOTICE OF SALE

Under and by virtue of the power and authority contained in the above-referenced deed of trust and because of default in the payment of the secured indebtedness and failure to perform the stipulation and agreements therein contained and, pursuant to demand of the owner and holder of the secured debt, the undersigned substitute trustee will expose for sale at public auction to the highest bidder for cash at the usual place of sale at the county courthouse of said county at 10:00AM on April 5, 2018 the following described real estate and any other improvements which may be situated thereon, in Transylvania County, North Carolina, and being more particularly described as follows:

Situated in the City of Brevard Township, Tran-sylvania County, North Carolina and more particularly described as follows:

Tract 1:

Beginning at a stake in the South margin of Cemetery Road (formerly Third Avenue) of the Mackey Estate Subdivis-ion, the Northeast corner of Lot No. 36 and runs thence along the Southern margin of Cemetery Road, South 88 deg. East 240 feet to a stake; thence, South 16 deg. 31 min. West 497 feet to a stake (post), Jacksie Wolfes corner; thence, along Jacksie Wolfes line, North 86 deg. West 106 feet to a stone (iron rod), the Southeast corner of Lot No. 36; thence, along the line of Lot No. 36, North 1 deg. East 473 feet to the beginning.

Being all of that certain piece, parcel or lot of land, situate, lying and being in Brevard Township, Tran-sylvania County, North Carolina, and more particularly described according to a Plat thereof prepared by T. N. Davis, Registered Land Surveyor, on January 28, 1947.

Being the same parcel conveyed to Angelyn B. Davenport and Edgar Davenport from Clarence D. Burns, Executor of the Estate of Corine S. Burns, and Clarence D. Burns and Barbara C. Burns and Charles H. Stepp and Angelyn B. Davenport and Edgar Davenport, Heirs of Corine S. Burns (94-E-180), by virtue of a Deed dated 2/3/1995, recorded 2/9/1995, in Deed Book 384, Page 633, County of Transylvania, State of North Carolina.

And Being more commonly known as: 244 Cemetery Rd, Pisgah Forest, NC 28768

The record owner(s) of the property, as reflected on the records of the Register of Deeds, is/are Angelyn B. Davenport.

The property to be offered pursuant to this notice of sale is being offered for sale, transfer and conveyance AS IS, WHERE IS. Neither the Trustee nor the holder of the note secured by the deed of trust, being foreclosed, nor the officers, directors, attorneys, employees, agents or authorized representative of either Trustee or the holder of the note make any representation or warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at or relating to the property being offered for sale. Any and all responsibilities or liabilities arising out of or in any way relating to any such condition expressly are disclaimed. This sale is made subject to all prior liens and encumbrances, and unpaid taxes and assessments including but not limited to any transfer tax associated with the foreclosure. A deposit of five percent (5%) of the amount of the bid or seven hundred fifty dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, is required and must be tendered in the form of certified funds at the time of the sale. This sale will be held open ten days for upset bids as required by law. Following the expiration of the statutory upset period, all remaining amounts are IMMEDIATELY DUE AND OWING. Failure to remit funds in a timely manner will result in a Declaration of Default and any deposit will be frozen pending the outcome of any re-sale. If the sale is set aside for any reason, the Purchaser at the sale shall be entitled only to a return of the deposit paid. The Purchaser shall have no further recourse against the Mortgagor, the Mortgagee, the Substitute Trustee or the attorney of any of the foregoing.

SPECIAL NOTICE FOR LEASEHOLD TENANTS: If you are a tenant residing in the property, be advised that an Order for Possession of the property may be issued in favor of the purchaser. Also, if your lease began or was renewed on or after October 1, 2007, be advised that you may terminate the rental agreement upon written notice to the landlord, to be effective on a date stated in the notice that is at least 10 days, but no more than 90 days, after the sale date contained in the notice of sale, provided that the mortgagor has not cured the default at the time notice of termination is provided. You may be liable for rent due under the agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination.

The date of this Notice is March 15, 2018.

Grady I. Ingle or Elizabeth B. Ells

Substitute Trustee

10130 Perimeter Parkway, Suite 400

Charlotte, NC 28216

(704) 333-8107

http://shapiroattorneys.com/nc/

16-087790

T/3/22/2TC-68114

_______________________________________________

STATE OF North CAROLINA

COUNTY OF TRANSYLVANIA

IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE

SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION

FILE NO. 18-E-99

EXECUTORS  ADMINISTRATORS NOTICE

Having qualified as Executor of the Estate of Carl Morris Jackson of Transylvania County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons having claim against the Estate of Carl Morris Jackson to present them to the undersigned on or before June 29, 2018 or the claim will be forever barred thereafter.

All persons indebted to said estate please make immediate payment.

Dated: March 29, 2018.

Attorney:

Brian P. Philips

Daniel Page Jackson

48 Round Page Jackson

Greenville, SC 29607

T/3//29/4TP-68185

_______________________________________________

STATE OF North CAROLINA

COUNTY OF TRANSYLVANIA

IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE

SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION

File No: 18-E-102

EXECUTORS  ADMINISTRATORS NOTICE

Having qualified as Executor of the Estate of Marie T. Johnson of Transylvania County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons having claim against the Estate of Marie T. Johnson to present them to the undersigned on or before June 29, 2018 or the claim will be forever barred thereafter. All persons indebted to said estate, please make immediate payment.

This the 29th day of March, 2018.

Mary M. Burkhardt, Exec.

125 Southview Drive

Brevard, NC 28712

Attorney:

The Neumann Law Firm, PLLC

David C. Neumann, Atty.

9 Park Place West, Ste. 102

Brevard, NC 28712

828-884-6575

#13630

T/3/29/4TC-68171

_______________________________________________

STATE OF North CAROLINA

COUNTY OF TRANSYLVANIA

IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE

SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION

FILE NO. 18-E-75

EXECUTORS - ADMINISTRATORS NOTICE

Having qualified as Administrator of the Estate of John S. Ebaugh, Jr. of Transylvania County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons having claim against the Estate of John S. Ebaugh, Jr. to present them to the undersigned on or before June 8, 2018 or the claim will be forever barred thereafter.

All persons indebted to said estate please make immediate payment.

Dated: March 8, 2018.

Attorney: Brian P. Philips

Beth Renae Bolin

2513 Alleghany Loop

Virginia Beach , VA 23456

T/3/8/4TP-68027

_______________________________________________

STATE OF North CAROLINA

COUNTY OF TRANSYLVANIA

IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE

SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION

FILE NO. 18-E-97

EXECUTORS  ADMINISTRATORS NOTICE

Having qualified as Executors of the Estate of Hale Siniard, Jr. of Transylvania County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons having claim against the Estate of Hale Siniard, Jr. to present them to the undersigned on or before June 22, 2018 or the claim will be forever barred thereafter.

All persons indebted to said estate please make immediate payment.

Dated: March 22, 2018.

Linda S. Nelson

64 Blue Bird Ln.

Brevard, NC 28712

David Siniard

302 Heath Rd.

Penrose, NC 28766

Claudia S. Bradley

1627 Little River Campground Rd.

Pisgah Forest, NC 28768

T/3/22/4TP-68138

_______________________________________________

NOTICE OF PRIMARY ELECTION

Transylvania COUNTY, North CAROLINA

Notice is hereby given pursuant to GS 163-33(8) that t a primary election will be held on Tuesday, May 8, 2018 in Transylvania County, North Carolina to vote on the candidates for the offices of: US House of Representatives District 11 for the Democrat ballot. US House of Representatives District 11, District Attorney District 42, Board of County Commissioners, and Clerk of Superior Court for the Republican ballot.

Polls will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on the day of the election, Tuesday, May 8. One-stop early voting will be held at the Election Center conference room, 150 South Gaston Street, Brevard. One-stop early voting will be open from Thursday, April 19 until 1:00 p.m. Saturday, May 5. The site will be open weekdays from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and Saturdays from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.. Canvass will be held in the Election Center at 11:00 a.m. on Friday, May 18.

Absentee voting by mail is available. Requests for an absentee ballot must be made on an absentee request form (available on the State Board of Elections website, on the Transylvania County Board of Elections website, at the Election Center office and where one-stop voting is offered), and must be received in the Election Center office or any one-stop early voting site by 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, May 1. Absentee voting requires the voter to complete an application on the return envelope that must be witnessed by two qualified persons or a notary public. Completed absentee ballots must be returned to the Election Center by 5:00 p.m. on Election Day (ballots received by mail after this time will be timely if received within three business days and postmarked by Election Day). Voters may receive assistance voting a mail-in absentee ballot from a qualified person of their choice. If the voter lives in a facility such as a nursing home, and the voters near relative or legal guardian is not available, the voter or the facility can arrange to have the county board of elections schedule a visit by a Multipartisan Assistance Team to provide assistance and serve as witnesses.

All residents of Transylvania County who have resided in the county for at least 30 days prior to Election Day and are registered to vote with the Democrat, Republican or Unaffiliated party in Transylvania County may vote in this election. Persons who are not already registered to vote in the county must register by Friday, April 13 to be eligible to vote in this election. Voters who are not registered in the county by that deadline may register and vote during one-stop early voting only, and will be required to provide documentation of their identity and residence. Voters who wish to change party affiliation or who have changed name or address must do so by the registration deadline. Voters who fail to timely make a change in name or address in the county must update the information when presenting to vote, and may be required to vote a provisional ballot.

Voters voting in person are entitled to assistance by an election official, or, if assistance is needed due to disability or illiteracy, by a qualified person of their choice. Voting sites are accessible to all voters. Curbside voting is available for voters who are not able to enter voting sites.

Persons with questions about registration, polling places, early voting, absentee ballots, a Multipartisan Assistance Team visit to a facility, or other election matters may call the Transylvania County Board of Elections Office at 828-884-3114 or visit the website at http://www.transylvaniaelections.org.

David P. Morrow, Chairman

Transylvania County Board of Elections

T/3/22/4TC-68141

_______________________________________________

STATE OF North CAROLINA

COUNTY OF TRANSYLVANIA

IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE

SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION

FILE NO. 18-E-81

EXECUTORS - ADMINISTRATORS NOTICE

Having qualified as Executor of the Estate of Melba Earlene Palmer McBride of Transylvania County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons having claim against the Estate of Melba Earlene Palmer McBride to present them to the undersigned on or before June 22, 2018 or the claim will be forever barred thereafter.

All persons indebted to said estate please make immediate payment.

Dated: March 22, 2018.

Gloria Dawn McBride

439 Kings Creek Rd.

Brevard, NC 28712

T/3/22/4TP-68154

_______________________________________________

NORTH CAROLINA

Transylvania COUNTY

IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE

SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION

BEFORE THE CLERK

FILE: 18 E 87

IN THE MATTER OF THE ESTATE OF HOWARD K. REESE, DECEASED

NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND DEBTORS

Having qualified as Limited Personal Repre-sentative of the Estate of Howard K. Reese, deceased, late of Transylvania County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons, firms and corporations having claims against the said Estate to present such claims to the undersigned on or before June 22, 2018, or this Notice will be pleaded in the bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said Estate will please make immediate payment.

This the 22nd day of March, 2018.

Genis Sue Reese, Executor

Estate of Howard K. Reese

Erica M. Erickson, Attorney at Law

Strauss Attorneys, PLLC

104 N. Washington St.

Hendersonville, NC 28739

(828) 696-1811

T/3/22/4TC-68143

_______________________________________________

STATE OF North CAROLINA

COUNTY OF TRANSYLVANIA

IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE

SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION

FILE NO. 18-E-104

EXECUTORS - ADMINISTRATORS NOTICE

Having qualified as Administrator CTA of the Estate of Roger Lee Queen of Transylvania County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons having claim against the Estate of Roger Lee Queen to present them to the undersigned on or before June 29, 2018 or the claim will be forever barred thereafter.

All persons indebted to said estate please make immediate payment.

Dated: March 29, 2018.

Christie DeMoss

430 Old Toxaway Rd

Brevard, NC 28712

T/3/29/4TP-68182

_______________________________________________

STATE OF North CAROLINA

COUNTY OF TRANSYLVANIA

IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION

FILE NO. 18E95

EXECUTORS  ADMINISTRATORS NOTICE

Having qualified as Co-Administrators of the Estate of James Michael Furgerson of Transylvania County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons having claim against the Estate of James Michael Furgerson to present them to the undersigned on or before June 22, 2018 or the claim will be forever barred thereafter.

All persons indebted to said estate please make immediate payment.

Dated: March 22, 2018.

Sandra Kaye Furgerson

5221 Whitewater Road

Sapphire, NC 28774

William Dan Furgerson

5221 Whitewater Road

Sapphire, NC 28774

T/3/22/4TP-68132

_______________________________________________
Ron and Leslie Wingard and I set out for Washington, D.C., on March 23 in separate cars. We were all headed to the March 24 "March for Our Lives" organized by the survivors of the Parkland mass shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Fourteen students and three teachers were killed when an ex-student open fired with the controversial AR-15 military-style rifle.

About one month earlier, the Wingards' and I expressed an interest in going to the march. But none of us spoke about it again. Each of us left our neighborhood on Friday at different times in two separate cars.

On Sa...
Michele Pilon, the president of Transylvania Regional Hospital, talked Monday about the why, how and what concerning the possible sale of the nonprofit Mission Health to HCA Healthcare, a for-profit company based in Nashville.

Pilon made her remarks Monday during the Transylvania County Board of Commissioners meeting. Board Chairman Larry Chapman invited Pilon to talk at the meeting after it was announced last week that Mission had signed a letter of intent (LOI) to enter discussions with HCA.

Transylvania Regional Hospital (TRH) is a member of the Mission Health s...
With the arrival of spring comes the planning of budgets for the upcoming 2018-19 fiscal year. With that planning comes the negotiations between the Transylvania County Board of Commissioners and the Transylvania County Board of Education as to how much money the school system will receive from the county.

According to the North Carolina Constitution, state government is supposed to provide funding for everyday operational needs while local governments are supposed to provide money for capital projects. But in the past several years, the amount provided by state government has failed to me...
PHILADELPHIA, March 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The peril that Facebook finds itself in must surely resonate with many companies whose business models depend on relatively free disposition of data harvested from customers behavior. This is particularly true of platform businesses, those that offer a means for their users to interact with an ecosystem of third-party products and services. Platform businesses include the likes of eBay, Uber, Google, Amazon, Salesforce, Twitter, and Baidu. Indeed, it is increasingly difficult to find a Fortune 500 company that doesnt offer platform business features.



What platform businesses can learn from the Facebook data breach story is that they must worry not only about data that they themselves capture but must also worry about the disposition of data captured by the thousands of third-parties that participate in the ecosystems they have created. This so far has been an ungoverned space. At the very least, it must become a self-governed space for reasons that go beyond simply complying with regulations.

The publics diminishing trust of data-hungry apps like Facebook makes platforms an easy target for mob outrage and investor distaste when data issues arise, whether or not the app provider themselves are actually at fault. In Facebooks case, their third-party ecosystem is made-up of companies as varied in interest and intent as Cambridge Analytica and companies like Zynga, the makers of the popular game FarmVille. Like all large platform companies, Facebook has relied on after-the-fact accusations that its terms of service were violated when third-parties misused data collected through Facebook services. Its March 28 decision to give individuals more control over privacy settings addresses some of these issues. But it also is akin to closing the barn door after the horses have fled: too little, too late.

Facebooks contention that third party bad actors overstepped their data rights may yet carry water in the court systems, but the precedents suggest otherwise. For instance, US courts already hold US companies liable under the Foreign Corrupt Practice Act (FCPA), an anti-bribery statute, for the actions of third-party contractors. Third party risk has become a serious issue in the C-suite of multinational firms. Outside the courts, of course, legal niceties about such leaks will fail to impress the eyes of the wary public. The huge hit to Facebooks market capitalization clearly demonstrates that the court of public opinion is both swift and severe. The tech savvy may not know it, but in September the US Justice Department assessed a record $965 million fine against the Swedish telecoms firm Telia for third party FCPA abuses in its overseas operations. Even Facebook cant afford to ignore that figure.

Platform business models offer too much value to the entire ecosystem to simply go away, Ron Rock, CEO of Microshare Inc., says. The companies, the consumers, and the third-parties all benefit greatly. The market needs to find a way forward that gives each party assurances that their data is in good hands.

Large corporate entities have long struggled with distrust and public unrest. In the physical world, the appointment of an ombudsman signals a corporations interest in preserving the trust of their customers by providing a dedicated pressure relief valve. An ombudsman, is a person within an organization charged with interceding in corporate affairs on behalf of a consumer, an ally, a problem solver. In the digital world, the assignment of human ombudsmen is simply not scalableyet the need for reestablishing trust between service-provider and consumer has never been greater. In a recent white paper we introduced the concept of a digital ombudsmen in the context of the EUs trend-setting General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR), which when it takes effect on May 1, will assign individuals the right to much greater control over ownership and subsequent uses of their data. Our recent whitepaper described a digital ombudsman as a scalable infrastructure that would offer to a typical end-user both continuous visibility of and immediate impact on activities that relate to the disposition of data collected about them.

In order to be effective, a digital ombudsman must:

Scale in a sublinear manner with volume of data and number of stakeholders;

Express complex and personalizable policies in executable form;

Allow policies to change easily and immediately;

Ensure that policies apply unilaterallyall data is covered, all transactions are enforced;

Prove proactively that policies are in-force (stress test) and actively seek non-compliance;

Provide transparency on-demand to regulators AND to the general public;

Ensure that transparency is all-encompassing, and .

Allow data-centric platform business models to continue to generate revenue largely unhindered but with the added value of protecting and preserving the data intrinsic to its business.

To break that down, platform companies like Facebook deal with massive volumes of data and users through innumerable channels. A solution to data problems should neither impinge on the volume of activity nor drive-up the costs of continued activities appreciably. A proper solution would allow for a close to zero marginal costa target that is achievable only with the power of cloud-enabled information technology. No human solution could scale. But, the digital ombudsman must also allow for the expression of privacy policies and preferences at the macro and micro scales to address the evolving regulatory and personal requirements respectively. Policy must be changeable and allow for very granular controls. The variety, volume, and velocity of granular policy actions will be truly challenging to any current system of governance.

And no system of governance will be adequate to avoid disaster if it cannot be proven to apply verbatim to every piece of data, from every channel, through every partnership, at every time of day. Bad actors - and we seem to see plenty of them in both the Facebook example, and in other recent data breaches - invariably will find a way. But that does not excuse complacency. Policies must be immediately executable and every data transaction must pass through them. Terms of service for end-users and third-party developers must insist that all data access and any data usage be performed through a standard set of APIs so that the application and auditing of activities may be uniform. Only through the uniform auditing may complete transparency be achieved without excessive costs in time, money, and human capacity. Compliance needs to be smooth, continuous, and self-serve, just like all of the other social media services offered by platform companies.

Underlying this model of radical transparency and unprecedented consumer control is a simple notion: most people wont bother to interact. People are too busy to care that much. It is enough that they know that they could. But, make no mistake, episodic events in popular media will drive huge spikes in demand for adoption of the digital ombudsman. The offering must be real or the distrust and cynicism will only grow. We believe that these tools will allow business practices to continue largely uninterrupted. We also believe that these tools will unlock entirely new business models that may involve consumers-as-creators in monetizing transactions as partners rather than as prisoners.

Our IP is critical to making the digital ombudsman real. But, it needs trusted brands to bring it to the market, says Microshare CTO Tim Panagos. The right software makes it possible but the proper brand makes it powerful.



At Microshare, we have focused on the creation of the key missing component of the digital ombudsman: a multi-owner/multi-party data management product that forms the core of the allocation of rights, the expression of policy, leading to the universal enforcement of intent across all data interactions. The policy fabric underneath the digital ombudsman must leverage the wealth of data and evolving machine learning tools to automate the ongoing analysis and enrichment of data-at-rest with co-ownership metadata. At the same time, it must capture the intent of individuals, corporations, governments, and other digitally-expressed collectives in a clear and flexible fashion. Clear so that it is understandable. Flexible so that rules may evolve over time; keeping up with regulation and consumer sentiment seamlessly. And, in doing so, the digital ombudsman must allow data management to remain compliant without the need for constant updates and exhaustive scrutiny of software and infrastructure.

Our Rules create an executable language of intent, at the core of the Microshare product, allowing for the distribution and exchange of policies across the evolving global data sharing ecosystem. That language is capable of expressing intent in both simple and complex terms with relationship context such as allow read-only access to my current location to all members of my immediate family as well as environmental context such as all read-only access to my location to first responders only when I have signaled an emergency. Naturally such expressions need to be executable at high-speed and high-volume in a distributed world. Microshares purpose-built rule engine makes the comparisons quickly with minimal computing resources to allow for the massive scale on even computational limited devices. The rules engine makes granular decisions and logs all decisions in a way that allows for the introspection of each decision: what Rule was applied, what was the result of the Rule, and, most importantly, what context was used in the evaluation of that Rule. This allows for compliance analysis and reporting in real time where necessary.

Our Robots create a swarm of micro-services that examine events that introduce data to the system and automatically apply business logic, applied as lambda functions authored in simple JavaScript, to use data lookups and apply both static logic and machine learning to create attributions for both primary and secondary owners of a datum. This occurs at the record level in a streaming fashion so that the real-time processing of the data is not significantly impacted by the insertion of compliance considerations.



While different implementations of the digital ombudsman will vary, the combination of ownership metadata and the privacy rules to make immediate decisions on the disposition of data at granular levels is crucial to striking the balance between value-generation and compliance. It will require a new language concerning data and the web of interwoven rights that surround its use.

We know how to make these problems go away. Facebook can have its cake and eat it too, concludes Ron Rock. Just as, improvements in paving technology made the business models of shipping sustainable, scalable with radically altering business practices, the digital ombudsman offers data-centric, platform businesses a viable path forward. Business-as-usual is still possible but it requires a better underlying infrastructure.

The advent of a digital ombudsman would provide concerned consumers the ability to opt-out of data-involved activities at a granular levellike unsubscribe on steroids. These tools can be used by platform companies and individuals independently or in partnership to preserve and protect both parties and their data. At this point it should be clear that platform companies have a requirement to look at issues and potential abuses at a scale far beyond those of the individual and they must proactively protect their platforms from abuse to protect themselves and their members. It is also clear that doing so without the direct involvement of the individual and their more vigilant, activist proxies will only result in further skepticism and distrust. Transparency is a crucial ingredient in the new recipe. For most, it will be enough to know that the right exists and that the option to exercise is ever-present. Few will exercise their newly available rights. The digital ombudsman will shift the onus of data awareness and privacy away from the data collector and onto the consumer. If such systems became prevalent, it is our view that government intercession would no longer be necessary as the air is let out of the outrage powered balloons that is sending these issues aloft today.

For more information or to arrange an interview with Ron Rock, email us at info@microshare.io or contact Michael Moran at mmoran@microshare.io

Microshare Contact:

Michael Moran

+1 (201) 264-5751

mmoran@microshare.io
Toronto, March 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ontario Community Support Association (OCSA) welcomes todays provincial budget investments in the home and community care sector.



These investments will have positive impacts on peoples lives, in our sector and help alleviate the current shortage of personal support workers (PSWs) across the province, said Carol Annett, president of the OCSA Board of Directors, following the Ontario governments announcement this afternoon.

She said the budget delivered on many OCSA recommendations, including ensuring that there is enough service expansion to meet growing client needs and strengthening of its members workforce of 22,000.

The association is very pleased that the budget invests in increasing service volumes and improving working conditions for front-line workers, which will result in higher quality care for the one million clients served by the sector every week.

While we would have appreciated a greater focus on the organizations that deliver these services, the budget does invest significant amounts in the sector that will help address a number of its challenges in serving people with disabilities and seniors, Annett said.

We are also concerned for the future as more baby boomers (born from 1946 to 1960) will need and want home and community care, rather than being prematurely hospitalized or institutionalized. We would have hoped for a base funding adjustment for community support services, as was allocated for home care, she said. The lack of base-funding increases have limited OCSA members ability to better meet current and future needs in their local communities across the province. It has been more than eight years since many community support services organizations have received an increase to their base funding from government.

Annett said, Investing in a much more robust home and community health sector now will mean that todays baby-boom generation will have the supports they need and want to live healthier, more independent lives in the near future.

With the election fast approaching, OCSA will continue to advocate ensuring that the right community and home health services will be in place.

About OCSA

Ontario Community Support Association (OCSA) is the voice of the home and community care sector. Its 240 member not-for-profit organizations employ 22,000 people who enable nearly one million seniors and people with disabilities to live independently at home and in their communities across the province. OCSA members make clients' and their families' lives better, while preventing unnecessary or premature hospitalization and institutionalization. www.ocsa.on.ca

Contact

To arrange an interview with Carol Annett on OCSAs budget reaction and for more information, please contact:

Attachment:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c05c471a-3365-4ae6-a036-db953a9c7ae1


Putins Russia



By George Friedman





Vladimir Putin has been re-elected as president of Russia. This is not the kind of Russia nor the kind of president Western liberal democrats expected when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.



They wanted and expected the values and institutions of the European Peninsula to become Russian values and institutions, and expected Russia to align itself with the West.



In retrospect, it is not clear why this was expected. Russia is in many ways fundamentally different from the West, and has been so for centuries. And it hasnt been apologetic about it.



Apart from small groups of Westernizers  intellectuals enamored by the West  the Russian public has embraced, or at least accepted, Russia for what it is. This is shown by the fact that Putin is enormously popular, in spite of Russias economic difficulties. Western liberal expectations have been disappointed by Czarist reformers, Soviet rulers and now Putin. The problem is that liberal reformers see Russia, and other countries, as nations eager to become like them. It is a form of Western narcissism that leads to a misunderstanding of the world.



An Irresistible Force



Russia is geographically fundamentally different from the rest of Europe. The rest of Europe is a maritime region, with extensive rivers leading to ports and where no one is more than 400 miles (650 kilometers) from the sea. Russia is essentially landlocked. The ports on the Arctic Ocean are frequently frozen and the ports on the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea could have their access to the oceans blocked by enemies that control narrow straits. All of these ports are distant from most of Russia.



Thucydides distinguished between Athens, a maritime power whose inhabitants lived in wealth and had time for art and philosophy, and Sparta, a landlocked territory whose people lived a hardscrabble life with limited opportunities for self-indulgence but were able to survive conditions that would break Athenians. Both were Greek, but they were different.



The same can be said for Russia and Europe. As a landlocked power, Russias opportunities for international trade or even efficient internal development are limited. The lives of its people are hard, and they can endure privation that would (and did) break other European countries. A vast country with a dispersed population, Russia can only be held together by a powerful central government, controlling an internal political and security apparatus that manages the centrifugal tendencies inherent in any country. It requires a regime that not only has ultimate authority over the whole country but also has the appearance of authority  an irresistible force that cannot be challenged.



There have been massive disruptions in Russia of course, including the Russian Revolution and the fall of the Soviet Union. But the West continually confused the collapse of institutions as liberalization, and failed to recognize this as both disastrous for Russia and alien to Russian culture.



The West was always surprised when Russia returned to what it was, blaming Stalin or Putin for re-establishing the institutions that stabilized Russia, and regarding this as a misfortune due to the wickedness of one man. Wicked they might have been, but they understood the Russian problem better than those who thought Russia might become like Italy or France.



Russia has also experienced terrible wars that taught the Russians that war is always a possibility, and that the greatest defense was strategic depth. The Swedes, the French and, twice, the Germans taught them this lesson. Westerners feel that Russia should get beyond ancient history. But much of the rationale behind the European Union is the memory of the two world wars, and the desire that they never be repeated. In the United States, the Civil War is still the prism through which much of its history and many current debates are framed. Wars that have been fought haunt the memories of nations, and the wars the Russians fought shape the thinking of all Russians. They look for a state and a leader strong enough to prevent another such war or, if it must come, strong enough to lead Russia to victory. If Europeans fear the return of nationalism, and Americans fear racism, Russians fear weakness.



A Weak Country



If Vladimir Putin had been hit by a car in 2000, he would have been replaced by another Putin with a different name. Holding Russia together  preventing insurrection and protecting the homeland  is the task facing any successful Russian ruler. Putin  through his intimidation of enemies, both foreign and domestic  is what Gorbachev and Yeltsin were not. He is governing a weak country, wracked by low oil prices and increasing defense costs, a combination that triggered the collapse of the Soviet Union. He is well aware of the weaknesses, and knows that acknowledging them and showing fear, as Gorbachev did, can create havoc. It is important to see Russia for what it is: a weak country led by a ruler who understands that the appearance of weakness is more dangerous than the weakness itself.



Russian history is filled with bluffs. Take, for example, the stories of Potemkin villages in which what looked like impressive, reconstructed structures were really just the fronts of buildings with nothing behind them, to make it appear as though Russia was more developed than it was.



There is much behind the facade now, but not as much as Putin wants us to think.



Russia must be understood as Russia is, not as the West wants it to be. It is important not to delude ourselves into believing that reconciliation with Russia is possible, or that the interests of other countries are the same as those of Russia. That is another Western illusion: the belief that understanding adversaries leads to peace. Sometimes, it leads to an understanding that a country is truly and irrevocably an adversary. But for the moment, it is necessary to grasp that Putin has not taken Russia to an unfortunate condition, but that Russia has returned to the mean, and Putin has presided over the return. He did not create Russia; he merely faced the Russian reality and didnt flinch.
editorial@tribune.com

Nikhila Pant Dhawan

Tribune News service

Bathinda, March 28

The Central Board of Secondary Educations announcement declaring that Class X mathematics and Class XII economics board examinations will be conducted again has left the students in a tizzy.

The CBSE made the announcement on Wednesday late afternoon following reports of possible paper leaks of the two examinations.

Students who have been in stress through the examination days have a cause to worry as the CBSE is yet to announce the re-exam dates.

Punkush Bansal, a student of humanities at St Xaviers School, said, I am shocked to know that economics paper will be conducted again. The paper was already quiet complicated and now there is a possibility that the re-examination will be even tough. If the CBSE had inkling that the paper had been leaked it should have cancelled it before it was conducted.

Another student of St Xaviers School, Rishabh Sharma, said, The economics paper was tough and lengthy. In the re-exam, I see another opportunity to perform better and have one more chance to score higher marks. Students had studied for the earlier examination as well and need to revise the syllabus once rather than fretting over it.

Manav Singla, a student of St Josephs Convent School, said, All students were very happy with the mathematics paper conducted on Wednesday. We were hoping for good scores as all questions had been taken from NCERT textbooks. If the paper is conducted again, there are chances that the paper may not be that easy and our scores may go down. We were happy that the exams had finished but now, we have to wait for appearing for there-exam.

Principal of Delhi Public School, Dr Arunjee, said, The students need not worry and just relax as the CBSE will announce the dates within a week. Students may revise their syllabus without anticipating that the examination will be tough.

He added that there were three students from Thailand studying in the school and had taken flight back to the country after their Class XII examinations got over.

After I got the news of the re-exam, I contacted their guardians and told them about the same. The students will now have to come back to appear for the examination. It will also cost the families a lot, he said.
ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Girja Shankar Kaura

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 28

Kick-starting the process for the disinvestment in debt-ridden Air India, the government on Wednesday invited Expression of Interest for national carrier Air India (AI), along with the airlines shares in Air India Express (AIXL) and Air India SATS Airport Services (AISATS).

The Preliminary Information Memorandum document brought out by the government said, The Government of India has given in-principle approval for the strategic disinvestment of AI by way of the transfer of management control and sale of 76% equity share capital of Air India held by GoI, which will include AIs shareholding interest in the AIXL and AISATS.

The last date for expressing interest is May 14 and shortlisted bidders will be intimated on May 28.

Minimum net worth requirement to bid for Air India is Rs 5,000 crore.

Ernst & Young LLP India has been appointed as transaction adviser by the government for advising and managing the proposed strategic disinvestment of Air India.

The government has decided to retain the remaining 24% stake in Air India and Air India Express, as part of its divestment in the state-owned airline. The government also proposes to divest 50% of its stake in Air India Sats Airport Services. The divestment is to be carried out through an open competitive bidding process.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, in his Budget speech, had said the government had initiated the process of strategic divestment in 24 CPSEs, which included the strategic privatisation of Air India.

Reports have emerged that IndiGo in consortium with Qatar Airways was likely to table a bid for the ailing national carrier.

In addition to this, a consortium of Jet Airways, Air France-KLM and Delta Airlines has reportedly expressed its interest in bidding for Air India. Reports also said Tatas may also enter the race for Air India.

The government is likely to include a clause in the share purchase agreement to ensure Air India employees do not lose jobs.

Contours of disinvestment process
ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

New Delhi, March 28

The value of the entity resulting from the merger of Fortis Healthcare and Manipal Hospital Enterprises will be Rs 15,000 crore, a top Fortis official said on Wednesday. The merger is expected to be completed in 10-12 months, he added.

When you look at value of Fortis, when you look at value of Manipal and when you look at money being infused that is Rs 3,900 crore, that adds up to Rs 15,000 crore, Fortis Healthcare CEO Bhavdeep Singh said in a conference call on Wednesday. The value of the resulting entity thus will be 15,000 crore, he added.

The companys Board had on Tuesday approved the demerger of Fortis hospitals business, which will be acquired by Manipal Hospitals and TPG Capital, along with the sale of 20% stake in diagnostics chain SRL Diagnostics Ltd.

Ranjan Pai and TPG will invest Rs 3,900 crore into Manipal Hospitals. The funds will be utilised for financing the acquisition of 50.9% stake in SRL (20% from FHL and 30.9% from other investors for which discussions are currently underway), Fortis Healthcare had said on Tuesday.

In addition, the investment will support the proposed acquisition of hospital assets owned by RHT Health Trust and the growth of the hospitals and the diagnostics businesses, it added.

The merger will take time. The merging of Fortis into Manipal will take between 10 to 12 months, Singh said.

When asked about the investigations by Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) in the company over alleged financial irregularities in the company involving its promoters, Singh brothers, Bhavdeep Singh said: We are cooperating with the ongoing SFIO investigations. However, the completion of the deal is not contingent upon the conclusion of the ongoing investigations, he added.  PTI

Deal dynamics

The merger is expected to be completed in 10-12 months

The companys Board had on Tuesday approved the demerger of Fortis hospitals business

Ranjan Pai and TPG will invest Rs 3,900 crore into Manipal Hospitals

The funds will be utilised for financing the acquisition of 50.9% stake in SRL (20% from FHL and 30.9% from other investors)

Fortis Healthcare shares plunge over 13%
amansharma@tribunemail.com

Mumbai, March 28

Ushering in a range of reforms, market regulator Sebi on Wednesday accepted most of the Uday Kotak panel's recommendations on corporate governance as well as decided to reduce mutual fund costs, strengthen algo trading framework and amend norms for companies undergoing insolvency proceedings.

Besides, the markets regulator would bring in amendments to norms for angel funds, buyback of shares, takeovers, registrars and bankers to issues apart from boosting the framework for equity derivatives segment.

To put in place stricter framework for capital markets, the watchdog would revise listing regulations that would allow stock exchanges to freeze promoter holdings, suspend trading and initiate other strong measures against non-compliant companies.

These proposals were approved by the Sebi board during its meeting here today.

Sebi chairman Ajay Tyagi said it has partly accepted the 80-odd recommendations of the panel. Of these, 40 were accepted without modification, 15 with certain modifications and eight have been referred to the government and other departments.

According to him, around 18 recommendations, including those related to sharing of information with promoters and significant shareholders, have been rejected.

Among other recommendations, the separation of CEO/MD and chairperson positions has been accepted. This would come into effect initially from April 1, 2020 for the top 500 listed entities in terms of market capitalisation.

Besides, the firms should have at least one woman independent director by April 1, 2019. The rule will be applicable for top 1,000 listed entities by April 1, 2020.

In a bid to reduce cost for investors, the additional expense on mutual funds would be reduced to 5 basis points from the current 20 basis points of assets under management, Tyagi said.

Amid concerns over high frequency or algo trading, Sebi approved a number of measures to boost the framework in this regard by mandating the exchanges to offer shared co-location facilities and providing some services for free.

The board also gave its nod for providing tick-by-tick data feed free of charge to all trading members.

The regulator has decided to amend regulations related to minimum public shareholding and other provisions as well as put in place additional disclosure requirements for listed firms undergoing insolvency resolution process.

According to the watchdog, it would rationalise and strengthen the framework for equity derivatives market by facilitating greater alignment with the cash and derivative market.

Besides, physical settlement for all stock derivatives should be carried out in a phased and calibrated manner. - PTI
editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Mohali/Kharar, March 27

Two youths, driving a Mercedes car, were held with 80 gm of heroin by a joint team of the Mohali CIA wing and the Kharar City police at a naka in Kharar on Monday.

According to police sources, the accused have been identified as Lakhvir Singh (26), alias Lakha Baba, a resident of Salana village, Fatehgarh Sahib, and Ramandeep Singh (22), alias Ramna, from Niamian, Kharar.

The police said the accused were riding a Mercedes car with a Delhi number (DL 2 CM 3833) when they were stopped for inspection at the naka on the main road in Sunny Enclave. During the search, 50 gm of heroin was recovered from Lakhvir Singh and 30 gm from Ramandeep Singh.

The police have registered a case against them under Section 22/61/85 of the NDPS Act, 1985, at the Kharar City police station.

Police officials said during investigation, it was revealed that another case in connection with possessing opium had been registered against Lakhvir Singh at Fatehgarh Sahib and he was out on bail in that case.
editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Mohali, March 27

The Mohali police claim to have nominated Col BS Sandhu (retd), owner of Forest Hill Resort, in the case of criminal conspiracy and murder of CTU employee Abhishek, a Burail resident, whose body was found dumped along the Pinjore-Baddi road.

On Tuesday, the police arrested three persons  Gurwinder Singh Bains from Bainsa village, Nurpur Bedi, Balwinder Singh from Markian village and Tarsem Lal from Nada village, all employees of Forest Hill Resort at Nayagaon. The police also added three more Sections  302 (murder), 120 B (criminal conspiracy) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information) of the IPC to the FIR registered in connection with the Abhishek missing case at the Nayagaon police station on a complaint of the victims brother, Rahul.

Mohali SSP Kuldeep Singh Chahal confirmed the development and said Col Sandhu had been nominated in the case after the confession by his employees that they had dumped the body on the directions of their employer.

The SSP said Colonel Sandhu had been directed to join police investigation immediately.

He said during preliminary investigation, the police came to know that Abhisheks body was earlier lying in a drain, located along the boundary wall of Forest Hill Resort. The accused later dumped it in the Haryana area.

We have recovered two vehicles, a Scorpio and a pick-up van, used in dumping the body and both vehicles are the property of Forest Hill Resort, said the SSP.

The maggot-infested body of Abhishek was found tied with ropes in a sack, which was wrapped in a plastic bag.

The postmortem report will reveal the exact cause of Abhisheks death, but certainly there was some foul play, said the SSP.

He said the accused had confessed to having dumped the body in the Haryana area at night a couple of days ago. They had noticed the body in the drain the same morning. We are investigating why they didnt inform the police if they were innocent and why they waited for the whole day and dumped it at night, said the SSP. Abhishek had gone missing from Nayagaon on March 13 where he had gone to have fun with his acquaintances, including his cousin. There, they took liquor. A missing person case was registered on March 21, said Inspector Bharat Bhushan.

All three accused were employees at Forest Hill Resort. We have confiscated their identity cards, said the SHO.

The accused were produced before a court at Kharar on Tuesday, which remanded them in police custody till March 29.

Colonels phone found switched off

Despite repeated attempts, Col Sandhu could not be contacted. His mobile phone was first found out of coverage area and then switched off.

Postmortem to be conducted today

As Abhisheks body was highly decomposed, the postmortem could not take place at the Kharar hospital on Tuesday. Now, the body has been referred to Government Rajindra Hospital, Patiala, where the postmortem would be conducted on Wednesday.
editorial@tribune.com

Chandigarh, March 27

A 79-year-old pedestrian was killed after being hit by a speeding motorcycle at Sector 50 on Monday night.

The victim has been identified as Shyam Sunder, a resident of Sector 50. The motorcycle was being ridden by Pawan (27), a resident of Sector 24.

The victim was on an evening walk when the motorcycle hit him. The police said both the victim and the motorcyclist were injured in the accident. Passersby informed the police after which both of them were rushed to the GMCH, Sector 32. The victim later succumbed to his injuries. The accused was arrested and later released on bail. TNS
ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Chandigarh, March 28

The Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh, has decided to open the property tax branch from March 29 to 31 (during holidays) for collection of residential property tax.

Anil Kumar Garg, Additional Commissioner, who heads the branch, said property tax could be deposited in cash at the MC office in Sector 17.

The exempted categories and those who have already deposited their tax need not come to the office, he added. Davesh Moudgil, while appreciating MC officials efforts, said since he took over as Mayor, about 7,600 returns had been filed and more than Rs 11 crore as tax arrears collected.

Former MP, Cabinet Minister pay tax

Satya Pal Jain, former MP and Additional Solicitor-General of India, visited the MC office on Wednesday and paid five-year tax arrears amounting to Rs 29,482. I paid the tax as I wanted to set an example for others to support the MC and pay their taxes, said Jain.

Similarly, Dr DS Cheema, former Cabinet Minister, Punjab, also deposited his dues amounting ot Rs 5,600 through Hardeep Singh, councillor and president of Chandigarh SAD.  TNS

Banks closed on Monday

Chandigarh: All banks, financial institutions and organisations will remain closed on April 2 (Monday). The administration has issued the order after making a partial modification in the notification declaring public holidays within the meaning of Section 25 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881, in Chandigarh during 2018. Now, April 2 will be observed as a public holiday instead of April 1 in all banks, financial institutions and organisations under the Chandigarh Administration on account of annual closing of bank accounts.
ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 28

Three persons were arrested for attacking bouncers at a night club in Sector 26 and vandalising the club on Tuesday night.

Sources said around five persons, residents of Bapu Dham Colony, Sector 26, had an altercation with the bouncers over entry in the club - Purple Frog. All of them were in an inebriated condition. The youths left the place and returned after sometime with their accomplices.

The sources said the accused attacked the bouncers standing outside the club. The accused also pelted stones at the club as well as the bouncers and also broke glass windows.

After getting information about the incident, the police rushed to the spot. The police arrested three accused identified as Vishal (22), Balbir (46) and Amarnath (48).

A case has been registered against 10 persons at the Sector 26 police station and an investigation has been initiated. The police said the remaining accused would be arrested soon.

Purse snatched in Sec 34

A motorcycle-borne man escaped after snatching the purse from a woman in Sector 34 on Wednesday. The incident happened near the office of Electricity Department in Sector 34.

The victim, Jasbir Kaur (67), a resident of Sector 34, said the purse contained Rs 2,000, a mobile phone and important documents.

The police visited the spot after being informed. A case has been registered at the Sector 34 police station and investigation launched.

A total of 81 incidents of snatching have been reported in the city so far.
Shreenath A. Khemka

Shreenath A. Khemka

King's Law Scholar, University of Cambridge

With the petition in the case of Ashwini Kumar Upadhyaya v. UoI before the Supreme Court (SC), it has become clear that court must rule on law rather than meting out remedies. Taking lead from the triple talaq verdict, Ashwini Kumar has approached the SC to declare the practices of polygamy and Nikah halala as discriminatory and therefore unconstitutional. The plea is not a new one; however, the implications are.

Religion under the Constitution is broadly split between what comprises 'belief' and what comprises 'custom'. Whilst the former is protected as a fundamental right of faith and worship under Articles 25 and 26; the latter as personal law has been immune from a fundamental rights challenge because of not being under the purview of Article 13. A reading of Articles 25 and 26 yields the view that the right to faith and worship is subject to other safeguards of public safety and health, and therefore is not absolute. 'Personal Law' on the other hand, is omnipotent.

Courts since 1951 have kept away from personal law reform, arguing in the Narasu Appa Mali case that personal law was not amenable to a writ jurisdiction. The Bombay HC was faced with a writ challenge to the Islamic practice of polygamy as being discriminatory under Articles 14 and 15. The HC held that matters of marriage were covered under the customs as per the Personal Law of the Muslims which was not 'law' as defined under Article 13. Because only 'law' could be struck down in a writ challenge, therefore, the Shariat practice was intact.

Any question of reform was entrusted onto the legislature to enact suitable legislations to codify and reform the personal laws. The partial success (or failure) of the Hindu Code was gradually followed by reforms in the Christian and Parsi personal laws. However, the biggest elephant in the room was ignored  the Muslim personal law; specifically, the glaring disparity between the genders. An attempt by the SC in Mohd Ahmed Khan v. Shah Bano Begum was overturned by a speedy legislation of the Rajiv Gandhi government; and the judicial momentum was lost, until last year.

The triple talaq judgment in Shayara Bano v. UoI was much celebrated across the nation  it gave most a sense of victory. Women were happy to be free of a discriminatory practice, and the government moved closer to its promise of uniform civil rules. The court met out the remedy but frittered away on the legal position. The law remained unabashed, personal law was immune to judicial action. The ruling in the 1951 Bombay HC decision was not undone as the majority opinions of Justices Kurian, Nariman, and Lalit did not revisit Narasu Appa Mali. On the other hand, Justices Khehar and Nazeer made it clear that personal law had the same stature as Fundamental Rights, therefore strengthening the 1951 ruling.

Both these instances reflect personal law reforms in the country; something which keeps coming back to the courts. With the current petition before the SC, the question has been thrown open again. How do we reform the personal law through the judicial route, given that personal law is still not amenable to a Fundamental Right challenge? The splits in the triple talaq judgment point to judicial interpretation. Justices Khehar and Nazeer had used discretionary powers under Article 142 to order an interim injunction, understanding the need for justice beyond writ measures. Justice Kurian on the other hand, interpreted the precepts of the Koran to hold triple talaq as arbitrary against the tenets of Islam, by stating that what was bad in theology must necessarily be bad in law.

In the past few decisions, Article 142 had been used to hold an irretrievable breakdown of marriage to afford parties the option to divorce even though the one-year limitation stood under the Hindu Marriage Act 1955. Regardless, using Article 142 was more political than legal, simply because the remedy was given even though the law stood otherwise. However, reforms must come from the law, not from the remedy. On the other hand, interpreting the precepts of religious practice has been mired in political controversy. The five-judge Bench verdict in Shah Bano case was criticised for reading into the religious texts. It was argued that the courts were no authority to interpret religious text, as much as they were no authority on the 'Laws of Motion'. Wary to such outcry, the US Supreme Court in Wisconsin v. Yoder was led to uphold Amish testimonies of their religious practice in a case challenging State policy for compulsory education of children as being opposed to their religious freedom under the First Amendment. The scope for judicial enquiry is, therefore, limited to fact-finding of what the community claims to be bound by. The courts must take the personal law as lex lata (as it is), rather than lex ferenda (as it should be). Yet these approaches do not address the real quandary  are personal laws immune from the rule of law?

In some ways, the answer is a yes. The line of precedents reaffirms time and again that one cannot use a writ to challenge personal law. In fact, the 1951 Bombay HC decision is, perhaps, the most authoritative text even for the SC. It stands resolute. Either it is reaffirmed, or carefully evaded (like in the triple talaq case); but the SC is yet to take up the judgment for re-discussion. This is the most puzzling aspect of our Constitution. Although personal law has the ability to effect civil rights under the Constitutional framework, it is absolutely immune from it. This is akin to allowing a two-way movement on a one-way street.

If personal law has the ability to effect civil rights, then it should be amenable under the rule of law; or like the western democracies, personal law should not have the ability to effect civil rights if it wants to avoid engagements with the law. The Indian model is irksome. We believe in the 'salad-bowl theory' and not the 'melting-pot theory'. Yet, our salad (personal law) can choose to squander off the bowl (rule of law). It is not the case that we must lose the sui generis character of our personal law under a common civil code, but that we must create parity and equability within each personal law. Someone who doesn't want their civil rights to be governed by personal law has the option to adopt a secular legislative route; but for those who want to, the courts should step up to create just outcomes.

Narasu Appa Mali is a bad precedent. Not because it places personal law equal to the fundamental rights, but because it curtails the rule of law in a society where the Constitution is paramount. If the basic structure of our Constitution is the rule of law (as per Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala), then Narasu Appa Mali should have been jettisoned. Religion must have complete freedom in matters of conscience (Articles 25 and 26), but it cannot be allowed to play truant with the civil rights of people within the same faith.
KC Singh

KC Singh

Human life has transient value in huge nations like India as news gets swept away by new and juicier distractions. The death of 39 missing Indians, mostly from Punjab, raises questions about Indian power and effectiveness in rescuing its citizens caught in civil strife abroad. India has had successes in the past, but the Mosul tragedy needs investigation. Great powers fight for every citizens life and security. The US has been known to even negotiate despite stated policy of non-negotiation with abductors. Even Israel, with a similar stance, has compromised for the release of captured soldiers.

The Mosul tragedy resulted from the sudden collapse of Iraqi forces in northern and western Iraq as the IS captured many cities, including Mosul, the second largest Iraqi city. It was known that the Shia-led Iraqi regime had been alienating Sunnis and letting this sectarian approach degrade the US trained Iraqi military and its command and control structure. President Barack Obama, unwilling to re-enter the Iraqi morass, watched from the sidelines as the security conditions deteriorated. But even the US could not anticipate its suddenness or extent. The geographical reason for this is that Iraqi cities are on the two great rivers of Tigris and Euphrates. The former runs south from the Turkish border and on it lies major northern cities like Mosul and Tikrit, the hometown of Saddam Hussein. It flows through the Turcoman and Sunni parts of Iraqi population. The Euphrates comes from the west, from Syria. To the west of Mosul is sparsely populated land providing little density to resist a quick assault like that of the IS. Undoubtedly, the local Sunni population initially welcomed rather than resisted the IS ingress.

Should India have foreseen this and urged its workers to move south or blocked them well before the tragedy unfolded in the region? In hindsight, the answer is in the affirmative, but in real time, it is impossible to monitor the flow of workers, who may initially go to one Gulf nation and then move where jobs beckon. It is also difficult to dissuade persons whose families have borrowed huge sums to send them abroad, chasing dreams of prosperity, to abandon jobs, particularly when their employers flee and wages remain unpaid. The Ministry of External Affairs needs to rejig its strategy and have its political divisions coordinate better with those monitoring consular issues to anticipate flashpoints well before crises. This century has seen more intra-state conflict than regular wars.

Mosul abductions occurred in June 2014. Interestingly, 46 nurses, who were in Tikrit, south of Mosul, were caught in the same upsurge. It is unclear how they were extracted, but not the 39 held in Mosul. The argument that they were detained by a group to which Iraqis or Indians had access does not square with the route adopted for their release. They were taken north to Mosul for handing over near Kurdish-controlled Erbil, thus transiting the IS-controlled territory. Similarly, Turkish diplomats and truck drivers were released by Turks. Even Bangladeshi workers were released once their religion was known. Did ransom and influential Malayali Gulf contacts play a role in the release of nurses? Contrariwise, did the Akali-BJP government keep dilly-dallying while Delhi approached West Asian and Gulf capitals for help, rather than devising a direct strategy?

The cold-blooded killing of 39 Indians  the 40th Masih having escaped and returned to India  needs thorough investigation to ensure no Indian Government ever dissimulates to conceal its helplessness. Knowing that the IS was ruthless in eliminating non-Muslims in its custody, particularly if they were not Christians, time was of the essence. Each day passed was a day too many to rescue the abductees. Some self-congratulatory stories appeared about the nurses getting released due to the efforts of an adviser in PM Narendra Modis office using his intelligence assets in West Asia. It seems those assets had less interest in poor workers from Punjab.

The only players with some leverage with the IS at that stage were Turkey, Qatar and, to a lesser extent, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Turkey was first going to get its own diplomats and citizens released before running errands for others, particularly India with which it had functional, but not outstanding relations. India must have asked the others. But the primary responsibility would have fallen on the Indian mission in Iraq as it needed to invoke relationships it should have built outside the Baghdad bureaucracy with non-Shia sources in northern Iraq. Some senior military advisers with the IS were former Saddam military brass. Did India bother to revive links to them or rested on its oars in Baghdad? That is the kind of parallel intelligence network that all nations maintain. Excessive dependence on the US or its surrogates in Baghdad, or other capitals, leads to the very geostrategic swamp where Obama and the Gulf nations found themselves once the Islamic caliphate was announced by Baghdadi in Mosul.

The Modi government having failed to get any link to the IS that was reliable set about selling the they are alive story. Masih the escapee was dubbed unreliable and as it turns out now, when the bodies of the unfortunate have been found and identified, was speaking truth all along. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj altered the message as Mosuls liberation approached and there was still no sign of the boys. It is a sin, she proclaimed to declare someone dead without proof. What do we call raising hopes of families unrealistically to only dash them after four years of assurances? A modified story was floated post-Mosul liberation that abductees are probably in Badush prison. An Indian television channel, within hours, showed the prison reduced to dust. The US, with its eyes in the skies and electronic intel, should have been able to provide answers about the missing Indians long before Mosul was reduced to rubble.

These questions need answering and unless lessons are learnt, the deaths of these poor souls would have been in vain. At the very least, the government should compensate the families for their pain and material loss.

The writer is a former Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs
shalender@tribune.com

In normal times, the meeting of the Permanent Indus Commission (PIC) would have caused no ripples in the waters of the Sutlej. The treaty and its associated structures have withstood the vicissitudes of Indo-Pak relations for 57 years. Brokered by the World Bank, it is perhaps the only accord that did not need revisiting after it was resolved. That is why statesmanship prevailed over pique and PM Narendra Modi prudently stepped back from his threat to stop excess river waters from flowing to Pakistan. Both countries wore lightly this attempt to link Indus waters with historic grievances and Kashmir-related issues and have permitted the PIC to hold its deliberations as per its annual cycle and requirements.

The last-minute public announcement about the meeting shows how both countries are walking on eggshells, careful about publicly laundering their intent to normalise relations for fear activating the spoilers. Recently, the Indian side narrowly missed this odium when Cabinet Minister Nitin Gadkari threatened to construct dams to stop water from flowing to Pakistan. However, the moment passed as Gadkari got the location of the rivers wrong, hence provoking more mirth than consternation. It may not be misplaced to view this meeting in the large scheme of both countries reaching out to each other. The tentativeness on tackling issues of core importance to both sides is reflected in their choice of soft subjects  water sharing and prisoner exchange  for the initial reach out.

India and Pakistan, however, need to change tack from their standard approach of building trust and domestic opinion by soft power approach and then moving on to core issues such as terrorism, J&K, Siachen, etc. There has been scant progress when both sides try to simultaneously tackle all issues because of resistance by the entire spectrum of entrenched interest groups. Instead, the Indus Treaty needs to be further deepened, especially because hydropower dams are fast becoming the new bone of contention. Wednesdays meeting should train its sights on a mutually-verified monitoring process in order to preclude the inevitable squabbling over live storage in dams proposed by India.
editorial@tribune.com

Ravinder Saini

Tribune News Service

Jhajjar, March 28

Rohtak MP Deepender Hooda on Wednesday called on Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in Delhi and urged him to meet long-pending demands of paramilitary personnel, besides resolving their problems. Deepender also urged him to ensure the execution of BSF and CRPF group centre projects in Sura Kalio and Ukhalchana Kot villages in Jhajjar.

Paramilitary personnel here have to go to Delhi and other places to avail of health facilities. Following their demand, I had got approved BSF and CRPF centres wherein a provision of a hospital and a central school was made for the children of paramilitary personnel. the then Union Home Minister for State RPN Singh had laid the foundation stones of the centres at Sura village on March 3, 2014, but the BJP government has put the projects in cold storage, said Deepender.

The MP said the Union government should not confine the health facilities to group centres and should extend the facilities of empanelled hospitals and CGHS dispensary in every district across the nation so that paramilitary personnel could avail of their maximum benefits.

It is unfortunate that the Canteen Stores Department (CSD) has been given exemption from the Goods and Service Tax (GST) while the Central Police Canteen (CPC) has not been granted the exemption. The government should exempt the CPC from the GST so that lakhs of retired and serving paramilitary personnel could get its benefits, Deepender added.

He said Rajnath Singh listened to the demands sympathetically and assured him of taking firm action on them.
editorial@tribune.com

Vishal Joshi

Tribune News Service

Kurukshetra, March 28

An audio clip that purportedly linked Sonu Malik, a resident of Sarsa village in the district, with the murder of his three minor children has evoked questions from the investigators and the bereaved family.

The 2.55 minute recorded conservation surfaced after the crime was committed on November 21 last year. The recorded voices are alleged to be of the main accused, Jagdeep Malik, and his wife Reena.

In the clip, Jagdeep, who later committed suicide in jail, is heard claiming that his cousin Sonu had provided arms and ammunition for the crime.

Jagdeep was further heard allegedly informing his wife that Sonu wanted his children to be killed as the latter had an extramarital relationship.

The male voice can also be heard admitting killing three young children in the Morni forest range allegedly at the behest of Sonu.

A close relative of Reena was posted in the CIA staff of the Kurukshetra police. He had masterminded to prepare the audio to mislead the investigators. I have brought it to the notice of the special investigation team (SIT) probing the case, said Jeeta Ram.

He said after his feedback, the cop was pulled out of the CIA and posted at Ismailabad police station to ensure that influential policeman did not try to influence the probe.

The policeman in question later died under suspicious circumstances in Kaithal district. It appears to be a planned conspiracy to target my family for our 11 acres of highly fertile land, said Jeeta Ram.

Sonu, who was released on bail on Monday night from the local jail, also wanted an investigation in the audio clip that points fingers at him.

Subhash Yadav, IGP Karnal range, said the audio clip could not be relied upon as clinching evidence.

While the main accused Jagdeep has committed suicide, other person named behind the recording has also died. In the absence of both persons allegedly involved in the audio clip, it is tough to verify the contents, he said.

The IGP clarified that the investigation was underway and no one had been given a clean chit.
editorial@tribune.com

New Delhi, March 28

After a 13-year legal battle, the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (HPTDC) on Wednesday retained the right to operate the two landmark restaurants  Ashiana and Goofa  on The Ridge, with the Supreme Court setting aside the High Court orders on leasing them out afresh.

Ashiana restaurant and Goofa bar and restaurant on The Ridge are famous among tourists due to their open space and scenic view.

The top court, after 13 years of litigation, set aside the two orders of the state High Court of May 24, 2005, and July 5, 2005, by which it had directed the Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) to invite bids from interested parties for giving the property on lease/licence basis.

A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice AM Khanwilkar said the High Court order of May 24, 2005, transcends beyond the relief claimed by the writ petitioner and more so, is a mandatory order passed at an interlocutory stage without recording any just and tangible reasons.

As a result, besides setting aside the impugned judgment and orders dated May 24, 2005, and July 5, 2005, respectively, we are inclined to dispose of the writ petition with the aforementioned observations. Thus, the...filed in the High Court of Himachal Pradesh in Shimla, be deemed to have been disposed of accordingly, the bench said.

It, however, said the issue of outstanding dues payable by the HPTDC to the Shimla MC could be resolved with the intervention of the state.

In that, if the HPTDC is financially incapable of settling the claim/demand of the Municipal Corporation, the state may have to provide financial assistance to the HPTDC to the extent necessary, failing which the Municipal Corporation will be left with no other option but to take recourse to statutory remedies for recovery of its dues from HPTDC in relation to the subject premises, the bench said.

It said that since the state had also challenged the order of the High Court, it must take initiative to find out a suitable solution in accordance with law, expeditiously and within a reasonable time, failing which it might be open to the SMC to resort to recovery proceedings against the HPTDC and including its eviction from the suit premises.

The apex court said the High Court had not even adverted to the efficacy of the subsisting contract between the Municipal Corporation and the HPTDC and if it had felt that rent payable by the HPTDC was on the lower side, it should have first authoritatively hold that the HPTDC was not legally entitled to remain in occupation of the subject premises.

It is unfathomable as to how the High Court could have passed the order dated May 24, 2005, to straightway direct the Municipal Corporation to issue tender notice. There is no indication in the order passed by the High Court on May 24, 2005, of having quashed the subsisting contract between Municipal Corporation and HPTDC, the bench said.

It said that without deciding on the issue of validity of the subsisting contractual terms and conditions between the Municipal Corporation and HPTDC, the High Court could not and should not have ventured to pass the order, such as dated May 24, 2005 and the July 5, 2005, order which was a consequential order.  PTI

SMC told to pay Rs 10 lakh to bidder

The apex court set aside the two orders of the High Court by which it had directed the Shimla MC to invite bids from interested parties for giving the property on lease basis. It also directed the SMC to refund the earnest money of Rs 10 lakh deposited by N&S Resorts which was the highest bidder in the court directed tender process.
editorial@tribune.com

Pratibha Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, March 28

Even as amendments to Section 118 of the Tenancy and Land Reforms Act remains a contentious political issue, permission was given by the previous Congress regime to 853 individuals and institutions to purchase land while 124 violations were detected during the last three years.

Amendments have been made in Section 118 of the Tenancy and Land Reforms Act on five occasions in 1976, 1987-88, 1994-95, 1996-97 and 2005-06. The issue of simplification of the Act is under the consideration of the government, stated Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, in the written reply.

Complete details of the permissions given by the previous Congress regime in relaxation of Section 118 of the Tenancy and Land Reforms Act for different purposes were furnished by the state government in the Vidhan Sabha on Wednesday in reply to a query by MLAs  Suresh Kumar, Vinod Kumar and Inder Singh.

As per Section 118 of the Tenancy and Land Reforms Act, non-Himachalis cannot purchase land in the hill state without permissions and that too only up to limited area. Those Himachalis, who belong to Himachal but do not own agricultural land, too have to seek permission living in the state for decades.

The Chief Minister virtually opened a Pandoras Box when on assuming power he said there was need to simplify the Act to facilitate industrial development and big investment. The Congress accused the BJP regime of trying to protect the interest of the capitalists at the cost of the interest of the state and the farmers.

As per data furnished by the government, permission was granted to 187 industrial units, including three stone crushers, to purchase land under the Act. Besides, permission was granted in 57 cases for education, 53 for tourism, 25 for commercial, 24 for religious purposes, 12 for hydro-projects, seven for horticulture and five for hospitals.

Besides this permission was granted to 460 individuals from within and outside for purchase of land for residential purpose. A large number of these cases are from Solan, Shimla and Kangra, which seem to be the favoured destination for people from outside the state. During the last three years, the Revenue department detected 124 cases of violations with the highest number of 60 being in Solan district, followed by 18 in Kangra and 13 in Sirmaur.
ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Hamirpur, March 27

Sunil Mehta, MD and CEO of Punjab National Bank, said the bank had launched Parivartan mission to provide the best facilities to the clients.

He said the bank would focus on three points, commitment, collaboration and communication, by bring together all internal stakeholders.  OC
editorial@tribune.com

Samaan Lateef

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, March 28

On his seventh visit to the state, Centres special representative for Kashmir Dineshwar Sharma continued his efforts to bring the separatists to the dialogue table.

No separatist leader has, however, met him so far.

Why is everyone here after my meeting with separatists? Everybody is a stakeholder in Kashmir, Sharma told The Tribune.

Sharmas four-day visit started on Tuesday when he visited north Kashmirs Bandipora district. He met activists of mainstream political parties in Bandipora. However, prominent trade bodies and civil society members refused to meet Sharma.

Sharma stayed overnight in Bandipora and also took stock of the Kishan Ganga power project in the district.

The interlocutor met six delegations at Hari Niwas in Srinagar on Wednesday.

Sources said PDP youth president Wahid Para and independent legislator Engineer Rasheed also met Sharma in Srinagar.

The Central government should not discredit separatists. Steps should be taken to initiate a political dialogue, said one of the delegation members who met Sharma.
editorial@tribune.com

Azhar Qadri

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, March 28

The mother of a new militant recruit  a teenager from Srinagar who appeared in a photograph armed with an assault rifle  made a desperate appeal on Wednesday to him to return home.

Mymoona, the mother of 19-year-old Fahad Manzoor Waza, urged her son to return home in an appeal before cameras at the citys Press Colony.

For the sake of God, the distraught mother said, return home. I am your mother and I beg you with folded hands.

Fahad, a resident of citys Khanyar locality, had left home on the pretext of attending few days with a group of proselytisers. His picture, however, appeared on the social media on Tuesday evening signalling that he had, instead, joined militant ranks.

In the photograph, the teenager is seen brandishing an assault rifle and is identified by his name, residence and a new name, Abu Usama. Fahad is the tenth youth from Srinagar to join militant ranks in the last three years and the second this month after senior separatist leader Ashraf Sehrais son Junaid Khan joined militants.

The family of Fahad, however, appeared desperate and pinned hopes on the last measure to secure his safety  the appeal. At least four militants across Kashmir have returned home following similar appeals from their families.

Did you take my permission? What have you done to me? Fahads mother said.

A relative, who accompanied Mymoona, said Fahad had left home Friday last week and the family got to know he had joined militant ranks when the picture appeared on the social media.

When we saw his photo on Facebook, we were crestfallen. We appeal that he should be allowed to leave. His father is in hospital and his mother will die. We all will die, the relative said.

A police official said the family had approached them and a missing case had been registered earlier this week. The official said two cases of involvement in stone-throwing stood registered against Fahad in 2016 and 2017.

The official said it is evident from the picture that Fahad has joined militants.

A small number of militants from the summer capital  which was declared a zero-militancy district in the last decade  has broughtSrinagar back on the insurgency landscape. Four militants from Srinagar have been killed since last year. Five surviving militants from the city include Dawood, Mehraj, Fayaz, Junaid and, now, Fahad.
editorial@tribune.com

Srinagar, March 28

It was a proud moment for the J&K Police as Constable Manzoor Ahmad Naik was posthumously conferred with Shaurya Chakra for his gallant action during an anti-militancy operation in south Kashmir last year.

On Tuesday, President Ram Nath Kovind presented Shaurya Chakra to Constable Naik (posthumous), which was received by his widow at the Defence Investiture Ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi. Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu, PMNarendra Modi and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman were also present at the event.

A resident of Dachina village at Salamabad, Uri, close to the LoC, Naik was killed on March 5 last year in a fierce gunfight in Tral, Pulwama, which also left two militants, including a local commander Aqib Bhat, an aide of Burhan Wani and a Pakistani militant, dead.

The Shaurya Chakra is awarded to a policeman rarely. Manzoor Naik displayed sheer grit and unflinching devotion to duty in engaging the terrorists and made the supreme sacrifice for the nation, a police spokesman said. He fought the enemy and attained martyrdom. Manzoor Ahmad displayed gallantry by volunteering for a lead role in the operation, which resulted in successful completion of it, he added.

The spokesman said Naik without caring for hissafety and besides being seriously wounded continued to fight till his last breath. The supreme sacrifice made by the policeman has made all of us proud, he added.

Manzoor Ahmad joined the force in 2003 and had led several anti-militancy operations during his service. He is survived by his father Fakir Mohammad Naik, wife Nasreena Akhter and son Ariz Manzoor.
editorial@tribune.com

Mona

Its no routine life. No one knows where the next adventure is coming from. And thats what Nandita Karan, executive chef at The Lalit Chandigarh, loves about her job!

While kitchens at home have been a womans prerogative, professional kitchens are an all-male bastion. Yet, there are few who have broken those barriers. Women chefs from the tricity share excerpts from their journey that has been fairly sprinkled with challenges.

No excuses

Studying at IHM, Patna, it was during training that Nandita fell in love with the big kitchens and the bhasad thats an integral part of it. Her first job assignment was at Rajvilas, Jaipur, and her team was pretty proud to have a girl with them. Nandita ensured it remained the same by giving in her best and more. I have been fortunate to get accepting teams and I have reciprocated by never using being a woman excuse to shirk tough tasks.

The last 16 years that Nandita has spent in the industry, she has been the lone woman in all-men kitchen and very comfortable at it. I rarely come across a woman, that too if at all is in the bakery section. And, why? A chefs life is tough. Long hours, late shifts, ones got to sacrifice personal and family time, says Nandita.

One perk of being in this profession, she considers is working with celeb chefs like Jamie Oliver and Sanjeev Kapoor. For any girl hoping to tread her path, Nandita tips, You got to be physically and mentally strong. There are heavy loads to be hauled, long hours standing; take into consideration all this, and once you have decided, dont stop.

Dream zone

Unrealised dreams and a funny joke that ran for years made Richa Johri don a chefs hat. Aiming to be a fighter pilot (in those days that was not an option in the Indian Air force) and not been able to clear medical for commercial pilot course, led Richa to plan B. Meanwhile, her family, obsessed with adolescent daughters skin, banned anything fried or spicy from home. To counter that, Richa banked on Sanjeev Kapoor shows and learnt to cook when alone and clear any signs before her folks returned. Once a measurement failure led to too much food and tired of keeping pretences, she let her family discover her skill. What followed was a tussle between father and daughter that ultimately led to the latters victory to do a chefs course at IHM, Aurangabad.

The struggle had just started for her though. With four girls in the full batch, Richa learnt it the hard way. Winning them over was a tough one, she admits. From doing basic chores just to show she was one of them  chopping onions to hauling big loads, using rough language to mingle in - she did it all along with covering their shifts. And that has continued over the last 14 years.

A tough task-master, Richa, who mans the kitchen at WD House, Delhi, and is corporate chef at Whistling Duck-26, is looking for more women to expand her team. I didnt so far because I am such a tough taskmaster that even men under me end up in tears. Over the years I have mellowed and guess am ready to mentor women chefs now.

Baking wonders

Baking is Nipun Vermas first love. After pursuing her bachelors in commerce, her parents had to give in to her demand of pursuing a diploma in baking from Chandigarh Institute of Hotel Management & Catering Technology. It was only post training that she realised that the hotel industry isnt as glam as it looks. As a fresher, one starts from the scratch and has to do it all  catering to stores to standing long hours at banquets, says the girl who trained at Hyatt.

A chefs life entails huge demands. Hotel industry isnt everyones cup of tea. Minimum shift is 12 hours and pressures immense. Exposed to so many, one has to meet and greet all kinds of people. Not that this Ludhiana girl is deterred by it. Currently commis 3 at the Crown Patisserie, Chandigarh, Nipun is loving her stint. Encouraging or prejudiced, you will find all kind of people in any field. Restaurant kitchens are increasingly becoming gender-neutral places where your work speaks for you.

No excuses

Studying at IHM, Patna, it was during training that Nandita fell in love with the big kitchens and the bhasad thats an integral part of it. Her first job assignment was at Rajvilas, Jaipur, and her team was pretty proud to have a girl with them. Nandita ensured it remained the same by giving in her best and more. I have been fortunate to get accepting teams and I have reciprocated by never using being a woman excuse to shirk tough tasks.

The last 16 years that Nandita has spent in the industry, she has been the lone woman in all-men kitchen and very comfortable at it. I rarely come across a woman, that too if at all is in the bakery section. And, why? A chefs life is tough. Long hours, late shifts, ones got to sacrifice personal and family time, says Nandita.

One perk of being in this profession, she considers is working with celeb chefs like Jamie Oliver and Sanjeev Kapoor. For any girl hoping to tread her path, Nandita tips, You got to be physically and mentally strong. There are heavy loads to be hauled, long hours standing; take into consideration all this, and once you have decided, dont stop.

mona@tribunemail.com
pardeepdhull@gmail.com

Ahmedabad, March 28

The Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (PMSA) on Wednesday apprehended nearly 24 Indian fishermen from Gujarat in the Arabian Sea, said a fishing association official.

We have learnt that around 24 fishermen, who set sail from Porbandar in Gujarat four days ago, were apprehended by the PMSA near the international maritime border, said Manish Lodhari, the secretary of Porbandar-based National Fishworkers Forum.

The PMSA also seized three to four boats of the fishermen, Lodhari said.

He said the Pakistani authorities were yet to confirm the exact number of fishermen apprehended and the number of boats seized by the maritime security agency.

In February this year, the PMSA had arrested 42 fishermen from Gujarat and had seized their eight boats.

Earlier in January, the PMSA had arrested 17 fishermen for allegedly fishing illegally in Pakistans territorial waters.

In a goodwill gesture, Pakistan had in December 2017 and January this year, had released 292 Indian fishermen, imprisoned there.

As per Lodhari, the PMSA had apprehended about 400 fishermen and seized around 65 of their boats last year. PTI
shalender@tribune.com

London, March 28

A UK-based whistleblower, who is at the centre of a storm over alleged data breaches by Cambridge Analytica (CA), on Wednesday posted information on social media that claims to expose the British consultancys work in India dating back to 2003.

Christopher Wylie, a former employee of CA, had told MPs during his evidence before the UK Parliaments Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee on Tuesday that the company had worked extensively in India and that he believes Congress was one of its clients.

On Twitter on Wednesday, the 28-year-old also named the Janata Dal (United) as a client during the 2010 Bihar elections and brought up some caste surveys carried out in Uttar Pradesh by SCL India  the parent company of CA.

Ive been getting a lot of requests from Indian journalists, so here are some of SCLs past projects in India. To the most frequently asked question  yes SCL/CA works in India and has offices there. This is what modern colonialism looks like, Wylie tweeted.

His message includes documents which indicate that SCL India boasted a database of over 600 districts and 7 lakh villages, which is constantly being updated.

Its reach in India is said to include a head office in Ghaziabad, with nine regional offices in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Cuttack, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Kolkata, Patna and Pune.

SCL India was asked to provide research and strategy for the 2010 state elections for the JD-U. SCL undertook a behavioural research programme targeting over 75 per cent of households to assist the client in not only identifying the correct battlegrounds, but also the right audiences, messages and most importantly the right castes to target with their campaigns, Wylies document notes. The JD-U went on to win the 2010 state elections as part of an alliance with the NDA.

Wylies document also showed caste census and caste research campaigns carried out in UP in 2011-2012 on behalf of a national party.

The research included analysis of caste structure and dynamics within the state leading to conclusions regarding the identification of the partys core voters as well as likely swing voters, it claims.

Other aspects of the document cover the companys work across different states, including during the 2003 Rajasthan election for a major state party; Madhya Pradesh in 2003 for a national party to identify swing voters; a full political survey for a major party during the 2007 UP elections; and managing the campaigns of a number of Lok Sabha candidates for the 2009 national elections.

Our services help clients to identify and target key groups within the population to effectively influence their behaviour to realise a desired outcome, the SCL India material claims. It also highlights some work on countering recruitment into and support of violent Jihadism in Kerala, West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand and UP in 2007, in support of a trans-national programme for countering non-desired behaviour (NDB).

The House of Commons committee probe into fake news will resume next month after the Parliaments Easter recess, when a senior Facebook executive is expected to give evidence on what the social media giant knew about the alleged misuse of its data by CA.

JD-U rejects allegations
amansharma@tribunemail.com

New Delhi, March 28

Disgruntled BJP leaders Yashwant Sinha and Shatrughan Sinha on Wednesday met West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, and appreciated her efforts to bring together all regional forces against the Modi government ahead of coming Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.

Banerjee, who has been meeting leaders of various opposition parties and some allies of the ruling BJP here, today also held discussions with Arun Shourie, a former Union minister in the NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

The West Bengal CM also stressed the need for the Congress to join a united opposition front against the BJP at a meeting with UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

After the meeting, Shourie, who has been critical of the Modi government, said the Tranamool Congress chief's theory of putting up a one-on-one fight against the BJP in every state was the right path to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"If the one-on-one formula is implemented, the opposition will be able to corner 69 per cent of votes," Shourie said.

Though Yashwant Sinha did not clarify on whether he or Shatrughan Sinha would join a united force against the BJP, he said, "Mamata is our old cabinet colleague. Her personality is known to everyone. The role she has taken to save the country is appreciable. In future also, we will support her."

Banerjee was part of the Vajpayee government.

After meeting Sonia, Banerjee said the two leaders discussed the current political scenario and strategies to oust the BJP in Assembly and Lok Sabha elections at the 20-minute meeting at Gandhi's residence.

"I told Soniaji that we want the Congress to be a part of the united opposition," she told reporters later.

The Trinamool Congress leader said she stressed that the opposition had to come together to fight the BJP in the states.

"I told her what the country wants is that there should be a state-wise, one-on-one fight with the BJP. The party that is the strongest in the state should contest against the BJP there," she said.

"We want the Congress to win Karnataka because the Congress is strong there," she added.

Banerjee said she also discussed with Gandhi the talks that she has been holding with the leaders of regional parties.

"We are trying to work together...We want the Congress also to be part of that," she said.

The chief minister's meeting with Gandhi was to have been held yesterday, but was postponed because the UPA chairperson was indisposed.

The TMC leader had met several opposition leaders yesterday, but did not have talks with anyone from the Congress.

The West Bengal chief minister said the Congress should also help the "one-on-one fight" in the states and added that parties which had an alliance with the Congress would carry on with the tie-ups.

"Lalu (Yadav) ji and Sharad (Yadav) ji have an alliance with the Congress. Their alliance will continue," she said, adding that the opposition party which was the strongest in a state should be supported by the others to oust the BJP.

She also lashed out against the BJP while talking to reporters.

"To finish democracy in the country, the BJP is committing atrocities. Apart from political vendetta, the BJP does not do anything," she said.

Banerjee added, "I am 100 per cent sure that when there is one fight, the BJP will go."

The chief minister is in Delhi to hold talks with various parties in a bid to form a united front against the BJP and bring together opposition parties on one platform.  PTI
rchopra@tribunemail.com

Beijing, March 28

China said on Wednesday that it would resume sharing with India the hydrological data of the Brahmaputra river as top water resource officials of the two countries wrapped up two-day talks, the first after Beijing last year stopped providing the data crucial to predict floods.

On the basis of humanitarian spirit and our shared will to develop bilateral ties we will continue with the cooperation on hydrological information cooperation, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a media briefing here.

He was responding to a question whether China would resume sharing of the hydrological data on the Brahmaputra, which Beijing suspended last year stating that it could not share it with India due to upgrade of data collection station in Tibet.

Chinas announcement not to share the data came soon after the 73-day-long stand-off between Indian and Chinese troops at Doklam over Chinese militarys plans to build a road close to Indias Chicken Neck corridor connecting north-eastern states.

A team of officials of Indias Ministry of Water Resources held talks with their Chinese counterparts on the cooperation of trans-border rivers in the last two days at the Chinese city of Hangzhou, the first after Beijing last year stopped providing the data.

Lu said that during the talks the two sides reviewed the achievements of the previous meetings as well as bilateral cooperation on emergency and response and hydrological information.

The two sides have agreed to continue with such cooperation. On the grounds of humanitarian principles and the basis of bilateral relations China will continue with this cooperation with the Indian side on the provision of hydrological information and emergency response cooperation, Lu said.

Asked whether China would resume the data, Lu said since you made it quite clear, China will continue with the cooperation on hydrological information cooperation.

The two-day talks of the 11th meeting of the India-China Expert Level Mechanism (ELM) on Trans-Border Rivers concluded on Tuesday at Hangzhou, a statement from the Indian Embassy here said on Wednesday.

The Indian side was led by Teerath Singh Mehra, Commissioner (B&B), Ministry of Water Resources, and the Chinese side by Yu Xingjun, Consul, Department of International Cooperation Science and Technology, Ministry of Water Resources.

The meeting which was held in a cordial and friendly atmosphere reviewed the progress made since the earlier meetings of the ELM and their continued cooperation on provision of hydrological information and emergency management in respect of trans-border rivers, the press release said.

The officials also reviewed the data utilisation report upon provision of hydrological information provided by China to India in flood season on the Brahmaputra and Sutlej rivers.

The institutional mechanism of the ELM was established in 2006 to discuss various issues related to trans-border rivers.

Under existing bilateral Memoranda of Understanding, China provides India hydrological information of the Brahmaputra (Yarlong Zangbo) and the Sutlej (Langqen Zangbo) during the flood seasons.

Under the arrangement, China provides flood season data of the Brahmaputra between May 15 and October 15 every year.

China has been building major dams on the Brahmaputra to generate hydel power. It operationalised Zangmu hydroelectric project in October 2015 and three more are under construction.

While dams raised concerns of water shortages in India and Bangladesh, which are lower riparian states of the Brahmaputra, China said its dams were aimed at generating power and not storing water.

The data shared by upper riparian state, China, to lower riparian states, India and Bangladesh, is essential every monsoon to allow anticipation of the flow of the water and take necessary measures to deal with flooding in Indias north-eastern states. PTI
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Tribune News Service

Kolkata, March 28

Fresh clashes were on Wednesday reported from the riot-affected Asansol in West Burdwan district of West Bengal, even as the Centre sought report from West Bengal government on the continuing communal violence while offering additional Central forces. The state government, however, refused the offer.

Two groups of people pelted each other with stones at the Railpar area of the city and a police team sent to control the riotous mob was found to be hugely inadequate. The cops fled the spot following which a police vehicle abandoned by its occupants was set on fire. Later, a huge posse of policemen and the RAF reached the spot to bring things under control.

Asansol Durgapur Police Commissioner Laxmi Narayan Meena said Section 144 had been imposed in both Asansol and Raniganj.

Clashes took place at Raniganj on Monday in which one person lost his life while a DCP got seriously hurt by a bomb thrown at police.

Alarmed by the violence, a senior Home Ministry official said, In a communication to the West Bengal Government, we have asked it to send a report about the incident, the steps being taken to restore normalcy and the action taken against those involved in the violence. He added that the Centre had offered assistance of paramilitary forces in the light of reports of continuing violence and tension in some districts of the state.

Education Minister Partha Chatterjee, however, said the state government had turned down the offer. The state police would be able to effectively handle the situation, he said.

In view of the volatile security situation, the West Bengal Government on Wednesday prevented Governor Kesari Nath Tripathi from visiting Durgapur to see IPS officer Arindam Dutta Chowdhury whose right hand was seriously injured in a crude bomb explosion in Raniganj on Monday during a Ram Navami procession. Doctors at Mission Hospital in Durgapur are trying to save the affected hand of Chowdhury.

Tripathi, who does not share the best of relations with the Mamata Banerjee government, had received a representation from Asansol BJP MP and Union Minister Babul Supriyo on Tuesday about the Raniganj riots, even as the Home Ministry sought a report from the state government while offering to send central forces.

Meanwhile, besides seeing the injured IPS officer, Tripathi also wanted to acquaint himself about the situation of the riot-torn area. But the plan was scuttled by the state government. Since Sunday, three persons reportedly lost their lives  one each in Purulia, Kankinara in North 24 Parganas and Raniganj in Asansol  in the riots triggered off by the Ram Navami rallies taken out by the BJP. Meena denied that anyone was killed in the violence in Raniganj. However, unofficial sources said a young man was hacked to death by rioters.

Bengal burning, Mamata busy politicking, says BJP
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United Nations, March 28

India and other G-4 nations have called for transparency in negotiations on UN Security Council reform, underlining that countries and groups making proposals, specifically on veto and regional representation, should be named in the documents framed for the discussions.

Indias Permanent Representative to the UN Syed Akbaruddin, delivering a statement on behalf of the G-4 countries, said that at the informal meeting on intergovernmental negotiations on Security Council reform several proposals listed in the papers circulated for discussion are without any attribution of who made the suggestions.

He said there is a a need for utmost clarity and openness specifically in the sections of veto and regional representation.

Currently, we see several unattributed propositions. Serious proposals made with genuine intent are not orphans without support. Or is it that those who have initially suggested these no longer desire to be associated with them. If that is so, we need to know. If not, we should not be selective in attributing, Akbaruddin said yesterday as member states discussed the circulated paper on Revised Elements of Commonality and Issues for Further Consideration.

He asked why countries and groups making a certain proposal are not named.

Why are some the children of a lesser God? What possible harm can come if we reflect the names of countries/groups proposing a certain position? Cant all aspire to being equally treated?, he said in his statement on behalf of the G-4 nations.

Attribution is not a luxury. It is a necessity, he said.

He expressed hope that the co-chairs of the process will treat all proposals pending consideration on par, calling for the need to embrace and implement transparency.

Japan, India, Brazil and Germany - commonly known as G-4 - are seeking expansion of the permanent and non-permanent seats of the Security Council. They support each others bids for permanent seats on the UN Security Council.

The G-4 also welcomed the induction in the paper, in its entirety, of the work done in the 70th session under Ambassador Sylvie Lucas in the clusters relating to Relationship of the General Assembly with the Security Council and Size and Working Methods of the Council.

Akbaruddin also pointed out that while the co-chairs have taken on board some suggestions made in the last meeting by several member states from the floor, there are other reasonable suggestions that await implementation.

One such suggestion made by the G4 was the grouping together in each cluster of all the issues in which there is an understanding, as being commonly agreed and following it with another section, grouping the issues that still need to be resolved in the same cluster.

He further said member states have heard many times how an agreement on principles can speed up the process.

We had many times talked about abstract principles in previous sessions. Now, we need to transform these principles into concrete options for a modernised composition of the Security Council. All of us adhere and believe in the principles of democracy, transparency, accountability, representativeness and reforms that help making the Security Council more legitimate, more effective and more efficient, he said. PTI
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Chandigarh, March 28

The billing data of Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN), one of the two power discoms catering to nine Haryana districts, has been hacked.

Sources said the Automatic Meter Reading System (AMR) with the billing data of 4,000 industrial consumers was targeted shortly after March 21 midnight. The following morning, computer screens at the UHBVN head office in Panchkula flashed a message from hackers, demanding Rs 1 crore in Bitcoin from the state government to retrieve the data.

The UHBVN monitors billing in Panchkula, Ambala, Kurukshetra, Karnal, Panipat, Yamunanagar, Sonepat, Kaithal and Rohtak districts. A spokesman claimed the data had not been lost and the consumers would not be affected.

"A system study was carried out by experts. The database was found encrypted. The backup of the encrypted database was taken for further retrieval. The Nigam has already initiated steps to replace the system with a technologically advanced one which would be operational by the end of May, " he added.

Last year, about 100 countries, including India, saw a cyber attack. "Cyber weapons stolen from the US National Security Agency were used to lock computers and hold users files to ransom.  TNS
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United Nations, March 28

India has emphasised the importance of timely reimbursements to nations for their contributions to UN peacekeeping operations, saying success of such missions depends on addressing structural challenges of timely payments, adequate resources and well-trained troops.

UNs Peace Operations have changed drastically. Peacekeepers are increasingly charged with implementing complex mandates, they have to frequently perform in challenging environments, in integrated and multi-dimensional missions, First Secretary in Indias Permanent Mission to the UN Mahesh Kumar said here on Tuesday.

Kumar was speaking at a session on financing of UN peacekeeping operations.

He said while the troops and police contributing countries had been asked to provide well-equipped and trained troops, the recognition of the importance of reimbursement to the peacekeeping partnership needed to be strengthened.

Operationally, while the importance of clear mandates, most contemporary guidelines and policies from the secretariat and also leadership and accountability at all levels are critical, the success of our efforts here would largely depend on well-trained and equipped troops, adequate resources, full and timely reimbursement. We hope that these structural challenges are addressed, he said.

As on March 31 last year, the UN owed a total of USD 777 million to member states for peacekeeping operations. The UN had to pay a total of USD 55 million to India for its contribution to the world bodys peacekeeping operations, the second highest outstanding payment to any member country.

India is the largest cumulative troop contributor to UN peacekeeping operations, having provided almost 200,000 troops in nearly 50 of the 71 peacekeeping missions mandated over the past six decades, including 13 of the current 16 missions.

With 168 personnel having paid the supreme sacrifice in the line of duty, Kumar said India is deeply conscious of the complexities and challenges involved in UNs peace operations.

Highlighting two crucial elements related to peacekeeping reimbursement, Kumar stressed that there is an urgent need to review the death and disability compensation package since the last such review was undertaken long ago.

Given that there is a drastic increase in the incidence and intensity of targeted attacks against UN peacekeepers, addressing this concern is of paramount importance, he said.

Further, given that the UN owes a significant amount of outstanding reimbursement for active and closed missions to troops and police-contributing countries, India called for early and fast settlement of such dues.

He added that India welcomed the increase in the number of female uniformed peacekeepers from about 3,800 in January 2014 to almost 4,300 in December 2017 and urges their increased participation in peacekeeping operations.

India provided the first ever Female Formed Police Unit to UN peace operations in Liberia. In this regard, we support the call for inclusion of cost data from aspects specific to the deployment of women peacekeepers in future determination of troop costs, Kumar said.

He added that future survey exercises should also incorporate costs associated with post-deployment such as demobilisation expenses, medical examinations and procedures, tests and counselling that are specific to service in the peacekeeping operations. PTI
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Beijing, March 28

A team of officials of Indias Ministry of Water Resources held talks with their Chinese counterparts on the cooperation of trans-border rivers, the first after Beijing last year stopped providing the data on the flow of Brahmaputra waters.

The two-day talks on the 11th meeting of the India-China Expert Level Mechanism (ELM) on Trans-Border Rivers concluded on Tuesday in the Chinese city of Hangzhou, a press release from the Indian Embassy said here today.

The Indian side was led by Teerath Singh Mehra, Commissioner (B&B), Ministry of Water Resources and the Chinese side by Yu Xingjun, Consul, Department of International Cooperation Science and Technology, Ministry of Water Resources.

The meeting reviewed the progress made since the earlier meetings of the ELM and their continued cooperation on provision of hydrological information and emergency management in respect of trans-border rivers, the press release.

The officials also reviewed the data utilisation report upon provision of hydrological information provided by China to India in flood season on Brahmaputra and Sutlej Rivers.

The institutional mechanism of the ELM was established in 2006 to discuss various issues related to trans-border rivers. Under existing bilateral Memorandums of Understanding, China provides to India hydrological information of Brahmaputra River (Yarlong Zangbo) and Sutlej River (Langqen Zangbo) during the flood seasons.

Under the arrangement, China provides flood season data of the Brahmaputra river between May 15 and October 15 every year.

Last September, China said it couldnt share the data with due to upgradation of data collection station in Tibet.

Chinas announcement soon after the 73-day long standoff at Doklam over Chinese militarys plans to build a road close to Indias Chicken Neck corridor connecting North-Eastern states.

China has been building major dams on Brahmaputra river to generate hydel power. It operationalised Zangmu hydroelectric project in October, 2015 and three more are under construction.

While dams raised concerns of water shortages in India and Bangladesh, which are lower riparian states of Brahmaputra river, China said its dams were aimed at generating power and not storing water.

According to officials, the data shared by upper riparian state, China, to lower riparian states, India and Bangladesh is essential every monsoon to allow anticipation of the flow of the water and take necessary measures to deal with flooding in Indias north eastern states. PTI
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Smita Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 28

India has condemned the missile attacks targeting the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. According to the Saudi government, one person was killed on Sunday in at least seven missiles intercepted from Yemen by Houthi militants backed by Iran.

The missiles had reportedly targeted four places, including the capital city of Riyadh and Khamis Mushait to the southwest of Saudi.

Responding to media queries, Raveesh Kumar the MEA (Ministry of External Affairs) official spokesperson said on Wednesday, We strongly condemn the renewed missile attacks targeting civilian areas in the direction of Riyadh and other cities of Saudi Arabia. We are deeply concerned about the escalating situation threatening the lives of innocent civilians.

The death of a civilian on Sunday was the first instance of loss of life in the kingdom since the Saudi-led coalition began aerial and ground military intervention in strife torn Yemen in early 2015 that have claimed thousands of lives in the last three years and displaced tens of thousands.

India, which enjoys good ties with countries in the region, including Iran and Saudi, is concerned about any possible escalation in the volatile Gulf situation. Some 8.5 million Indians in Gulf send back home an annual remittance of almost 62.7 billion dollars. Indians form the largest expatriate community in Saudi with 3.2 million diaspora members working and living in the kingdom.

We reiterate our resolve to fight terrorism and violence in all its forms, added Raveesh Kumar.
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Smita Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 28

India and Pakistan will discuss water-related issues in a two-day meeting of the Permanent Indus Commission (PIC) in Delhi, starting Thursday amid continuing bilateral tensions.

The 114th annual meeting of the PIC will be attended by a six-member Pakistani delegation led by Syed Muhammad Mehar Ali Shah and by Indias Indus water commissioner PK Saxena along with technical experts and representatives from the Foreign and Water Ministry.

The PIC is an established mechanism under the Indus Waters Treaty to promote cooperation between the two neighbours in development of the Indus Water Systems. The treaty mandates the PIC to meet at least once a year alternately in India and Pakistan. The 113th meeting of the PIC was held in Pakistan in March last year.

Ahead of talks, Union Minister for Transport and Water Resources Nitin Gadkari said the Centre would take steps to stop the Indian share of water that flows into Pakistan and remains unutilised.

Addressing the concluding session of Agri Leadership Summit in Rohtak on Tuesday, Gadkari said: During the Partition, India got three rivers but we could not utilise our share of the waters, which kept flowing back to Pakistan. Now, the Centre has decided to stop the flow of the countrys due share into Pakistan and utilise it to feed our parched lands. Gadkari further added that three dams would be constructed in Uttarakhand to divert unutilised share of India in the river waters flowing back into Pakistan to resolve problems of dry lands in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.

Sources say issues on Kishanganga hydroelectric project and Wullar Barrage are not on the PIC agenda this week following Indias refusal for an inspection of the projects. The last round of India-Pakistan talks held at the World Bank headquarters in 2017 on Kishanganga and Ratle hydroelectric projects yielded no result.

Talks on Ratle, Pakul Dul projects
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Smita Sharma

Tribune News Service



New Delhi, March 28

India and Pakistan will discuss water-related issues at a two-day meeting of the Permanent Indus Commission (PIC) in Delhi starting Thursday, amid continuing bilateral tensions.

The 114th meeting of the PIC will be attended by a six-member Pakistani delegation led by Syed Muhammad Mehar Ali Shah. Indus water commissioner P K Saxena will lead the Indian delegation along with technical experts and representatives from the Foreign and Water Ministry.

According to sources, the issues relating to Indias Ratle (850 MW) hydroelectricity, Pakul Dul (1000 MW) and Lower Kalnai (48 MW) projects, located in Jammu and Kashmir, are likely to figure in discussions. Located in the Chenab Basin, Pakistan objects to these projects as these violate the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT). However India dismisses the objection arguing the designs do not flout the treaty that was signed in 1960 after nine years of negotiations with the World Bank as a signatory.

Ahead of the talks, Union Minister for Transport and Water Resources Nitin Gadkari said the Centre would take steps to stop the India share of water that flows into Pakistan and remains unutilised.

Addressing the concluding session of Agri Leadership Summit-2018 in Rohtak in Haryana on Tuesday, Gadkari said, During Partition, India got three rivers but we could not utilise our share of the waters, which kept flowing back to Pakistan. Now, the Centre has decided to stop the flow of the countrys due share into Pakistan and utilise it to feed our parched lands.

Gadkari further added that three dams will be constructed in Uttarakhand to divert the unutilised share of India in the river waters flowing back into Pakistan to resolve problems of dry lands in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.

According to Pakistani official sources, issues relating to Kishanganga hydroelectric project and Wullar Barrage are not on the PIC agenda this week following Indias refusal for an inspection of the projects.

The last round of India-Pakistan talks held at the World Bank headquarters in Washington DC in September 2017 on Kishenganga and Ratle hydro electric projects within the framework of IWT yielded no outcomes. The agreement allows control of the water flowing in the eastern rivers of Beas, Sutlej and Ravi to India, while Pakistan has control over waters in the western rivers of Indus, Chenab and Jhelum.
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Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 28

Indicating the indispensability of Congress for an anti-BJP front, Trinamool Congress president Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday met past Congress president Sonia Gandhi, urging her to come aboard.

In a 20-minute meeting at Gandhis 10 Janpath residence late this evening, Banerjee sought Congress support for one-on-one fight with the BJP in states.

One on one fights should be held in states and whichever party is the strongest should take on the BJP. The other parties should jointly support the one that is in the strongest position to defeat the BJP, Banerjee said as having told Sonia Gandhi. In the recent UP byelections, the BSP and SP came together and defeated BJP but the Congress had gone alone.

Banerjees suggestion to Gandhi effectively translates into a death knell for the Congress in West Bengal where the TMC is ruling and is, therefore, in a strong position to oust the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

"I told Sonia ji, we want the Congress to be part of the united opposition. What the country wants is state-wise one-to-one fight against the BJP. Whichever party is the strongest in a state should be the one to take on the BJP. I have discussed this issue with Sonia ji. We are holding talks with regional parties, Banerjee said, choosing to meet Sonia Gandhi instead of Congress chief Rahul Gandhi.

Banerjee had yesterday met a range of Opposition parties to position herself as the principal architect of any anti-BJP platform ahead of General Election. Banerjee said the existing alliances of parties could continue, like the alliance that Congress had with the RJD.

She also said, We want Congress to win Karnataka as it is the strongest there.
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Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 27

The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a set of preventive, remedial and punitive guidelines to check honour killings and unlawful interference in the lives of inter-faith and inter-caste couples by khap panchayats.

Edit: SC rap to khap, again

The khap panchayats or such assemblies should not take the law into their hands and further cannot assume the character of the law implementing agencies, for that authority has not been conferred upon them under any law. Law has to be allowed to sustain by the law enforcement agencies, said a three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra.

In fact, it has to be condemned as an act abhorrent to law and, therefore, it has to stop. Their activities are to be stopped in entirety. There is no other alternative. What is illegal cannot commend recognition or acceptance, said the Bench  which had earlier asked khap panchayats not to act like conscience keepers of society and refrain from interfering in any marriage between two consenting adults.

The order came on a PIL filed by Shakti Vahini (an NGO) in 2010, seeking protection of inter-faith and inter-caste couples from honour killings. As many as 288 cases of honour killing were reported between 2014 and 2016. According to the data of National Crime Records Bureau, 28 honour killing cases were reported in 2014, 192 in 2015 and 68 in 2016.

If a khap panchayat issued a diktat against a couple/family of an inter-caste or inter-religious marriage or any other marriage, the police shall immediately lodge an FIR under IPC, the Bench said, adding that the SP/DSP concerned shall ensure effective investigation and it shall be taken to its logical end with promptitude.

It also directed that immediate steps should to be taken to provide security to the couple/family and, if necessary, they should be removed to a safe house.

The top court asked state governments to consider establishing a safe house at each district headquarter for that purpose. Such safe houses can cater to accommodate young bachelor-bachelorette couples whose relationship is being opposed by their families/local community/khaps and young married couples of an inter-caste or inter-religious or any other marriage being opposed by their families/local community/khaps.

Such safe houses may be placed under the supervision of the jurisdictional District Magistrate and Superintendent of Police, it added. It ordered state governments to create special cells in every district comprising the SP, District Social Welfare Officer and District Adi-Dravidar Welfare Officer to receive petitions/ complaints of harassment of and threat to couples of inter-caste marriage.

Such cells shall create a 24x7 helpline to receive and register such complaints and provide assistance/advice and protection to the couple.

Criminal case trials pertaining to honour killing or violence have to be conducted on a day-to-day basis and concluded preferably within six months from the date of taking cognisance of the offence even in pending cases.

Asking the states to implement its directions in six weeks, the Bench directed them to file compliance reports.

There cannot be any assault on human dignity as it has the potentiality to choke the majesty of law. Therefore, we would recommend to the legislature to bring law appositely covering the field of honour killing.

The intolerant groups who subscribe to the view of superiority class complex or higher clan cannot scuttle the right of a person by leaning on any kind of philosophy, moral or social, or self-proclaimed elevation, said the Bench.

The top court said, The consent of the family or the community or the clan is not necessary once the two adult individuals agree to enter into wedlock. Their consent has to be piously given primacy. If there is an offence committed by one because of some penal law; that has to be decided as per law which is called determination of criminality.

It does not recognise any space for informal institutions for delivery of justice, the top court added.
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New Delhi, March 28

Vociferous protests by AIADMK members led to adjournment of Lok Sabha proceedings for the day, with the House failing to take up the no-confidence notices given by several Opposition members.

As the House convened at noon after a brief adjournment, members of the Congress, TDP, the Left and other Opposition parties pressed for their demand for taking up the no-confidence notices.

AIADMK members trooped into the Well, raising slogans and demanding setting of the Cauvery water management board to implement water sharing between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

Slogans such as We want justice drowned the voice of other members who wanted to raise their issues.

Attacking the Opposition, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar held the Congress responsible for the impasse.

Referring to placards brought by the Congress and other Opposition parties yesterday to display the number of members supporting the no-confidence motion, Kumar said the act was against proceedings of the House.

We are ready for the no-confidence motion whenever the House in the order, Kumar said.

To this Mallaikarjun Kharge, Congresss Leader of the House, said even the Opposition was ready for the no- confidence motion.

Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said she could not bring the no- confidence notices till the House was in order.

I have received no-confidence notices by several members. I am duty bound to bring these notices. But how can I if the House is not in the order. I will not be able to bring the notices, the speaker said.

Earlier in the day, the proceedings of the Lok Sabha were once again rocked by noisy protests by AIADMK members and the Speaker adjourned the House till noon, warning that if the din continues, she may have to adjourn sine die.

She said other members want the AIADMK to end their protest.

Mahajan said if the din continued, I may have to adjourn the House sine die (brining to an end the Budget session). PTI
ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

New Delhi, March 27

Only 8 per cent schools across the country comply with the provisions of the Right to Education (RTE) Act, according to a study by a civil society group on implementation of the Act.

The RTE Forum, a civil society coalition working on right to education, on Tuesday organised the 8th National Stocktaking Convention with over 10,000 NGO members from across 20 states.

According to the study, Indias spending on education is less than 3 per cent of the GDP, compared to its obligation of spending 6 per cent; and its per capita spending on education is around four times less than that by middle-income countries. While vacancies for the posts of teacher remain a serious issue, the study suggests around 20 per cent of teachers in India are untrained.

The event, which brought together over 500 persons from 15 states to discuss the status of education in the country, saw a national campaign being launched by the forum to make education a critical issue in the forthcoming elections.

There is a need of education for development and while India has a range of progressive legislations, governments are lethargic in their implementation. While much effort has gone into framing right to education, its slow implementation risks depriving a generation of children of the basic right to education. I regret that quality of education in India is poor and improvement in learning outcomes is unlikely without filling existing vacant posts of teacher, said Justice Madan B Lokur.

Kishore Singh, former UN special rapporteur on the Right to Education, emphasised the need for India to adhere to its international human rights obligations of delivering universal quality public education and stop profit making from education.

Former Foreign Secretary Muchkund Dubey also expressed disappointment on the poor implementation of the Act.  PTI

NCERT to take experts help to update books

Chandigarh: For closing the chapter of outdate syllabus in schools, the NCERT has undertakenbefore the Punjab and Haryana High Court to seek expert opinion in the process of publishing books. The council also assured a Division Bench of the HC that it would publish updated books containing latest information. The undertaking and the assurance before the Bench of Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice BS Walia came during the hearing of a petition by Jyoti Sehgal against the Union of India and other respondents. TNS
rchopra@tribunemail.com

New Delhi, March 28

A 62-year-old Pune businessman has been arrested on a complaint of sexual harassment lodged against him by a cabin crew member of the Air Vistara Lucknow-Delhi flight on March 24, the police said on Wednesday.

Confirming the incident, an Air Vistara spokesperson said, We have reported the matter to the police and other relevant authorities. An FIR has been registered and the investigation is on.

Air Vistara did not tolerate abusive or unruly behaviour by passengers that put safety of its staff and customers at risk or compromised their dignity, the spokesperson added.

Accused Rajeev Vasant Dani was arrested by Delhi Police from the airport itself after the complaint was lodged.

The police said the incident happened when the passenger was de-boarding the aircraft after it landed at T3 terminal here on March 24. The airhostess told the police that she had been touched inappropriately when he was getting down.

A case under Section 354A of the IPC (sexual harassment, punishable with a maximum term of three years and a fine) has been registered, the police said in a statement. PTI
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Shahira Naim

Tribune News Service

Lucknow, March 28

With the arrest of four persons, an interstate gang has been busted which manipulated the online Staff Selection Commission (SSC) examination with the help of solvers.

Using the software tools like Team Viewer and Ammy, around 150 solvers engaged by the gang wrote the online SSC examination on behalf of the candidates for a payment of Rs 15 lakh. The Staff Selection Commission conducts the examination for subordinate services.

A joint operation of the UP Polices special task force and their Delhi counterpart arrested four accused  alleged gang leader Sonu Kumar, a Ghazibad resident, Ajay Kumar Jaiswal, Paramjit Singh, both from Bahadurgarh, and Gaurav Nayyar of Delhi.

The gang was based in Delhi and the FIR has been registered under various sections at Timarpur police station in North Delhi. The police have recovered three laptops, 10 mobile phones, five bluetooth devices, a hard disk, four pen drives, a Jio dongle, one router, three luxury vehicles and Rs 51 lakh in cash from the accused.

Following inputs about irregularities in the online examinations in the NCR, Haryana, Rajasthan and western UP STFs had put several suspected persons on surveillance.

The modus operandi was simple. The gang charged a large amount of money from SSC aspirants and illegally used Team Viewer and Ammy software tools to access their computers where professional solvers wrote the paper from their laptops sitting far away.

On a tip-off, the STF raided the house of one Harpal in Timarpur and found a group of four young men solving SSC ongoing examination of CHSL (Combined Higher Secondary level) and LDC data entry operator being conducted in three shifts.

Many SSC contenders had been protesting through demonstrations and dharna in many cities, demanding a CBI enquiry into the irregularities in conducting the examinations including leaking of papers. They had been demanding a CBI probe into the alleged leak of questions of the Combined Graduate Level (Tier-II) Examination 2017 held from 17 to 22 February.

On March 4, SSC Chairman Ashim Khurana had recommended a CBI inquiry into the alleged paper leak but the enquiry was yet to begin.
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New Delhi: The government will come out with a Rs 350 commemorative coin to mark the 350th birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh, the 10th and last Sikh Guru. The coin with a standard weight of 35 grams will have 50 per cent silver, 40 per cent copper and 5 per cent each of nickel and zinc. The reverse side will bear the picture of Takht Sri Harimandir Patna Sahib. The years 1666 and 2016 in international numerals will be on the left and right periphery. PTI
ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 27

Ruckus created by the AIADMK on the Cauvery water issue forced adjournment of the Rajya Sabha for the day on Tuesday. The protest was so strident that even the customary farewell speeches could not be made by 40 retiring members.

The Congress and other Opposition members protested against the adjournment by staying put in the House even after Chairman Venkaiah Naidu had left after calling off the proceedings.

Naidus appeals and persuasions to the members to take their seats and restore order in the House went unheard. His cautionary note that he was left with only two optionsTo name the Members concerned and initiate action against them, or to adjourn the Househad no effect on the recalcitrant AIADMK benches. They demanded that PM Narendra Modi must make a statement on the issue on the floor of the House.

Before adjourning the House, Naidu said the occasion was solemn and dignity should be accorded to the retiring members by allowing them to make farewell speeches.

When Naidu cautioned that he would be forced to adjourn the House, Congress and other members said they wanted the House to function. When Naidu sought opinion of Leader of Opposition and Congress member Ghulam Nabi Azad, the latter said it was the Chairs call. Azad also expressed unhappiness at the disruption.

After the House was adjourned, and Naidu had left, Congress members, including former PM Manmohan Singh, and others remained seated for over 30 minutes.

Leader of the House Arun Jaitley, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Vijay Goel and other ministers also stayed put in the House. Members from Treasury and Opposition Benches were seen engaged in informal discussions among themselves in small groups.

Jaitley walked up to the seat of Azad and was seen in discussion with a group of Congress members.
amansharma@tribunemail.com

Syed Ali Ahmed

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 28

The CBI has issued lookout circular (LOC) against Gurpal Singh, son-in-law of Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amrinder Singh, and three others who were accused in Rs 110-crore Simbhaoli Sugar Mill loan default case, sources said.

The three others to whom the CBI have issued lookout circular are G.S.E. Rao, Chief Executive Officer in the Mill; Sanjay Thapario, Chief Finance Officer and Executive Director, Gursimran Kaur, the sources added.

The CBI registered the case against the accused on February 25 for alleged bank loan fraud of Rs 97.85 crore and default of Rs 110 crore.

According to the FIR, there were two loans, both from the Oriental Bank of Commerce, under probe  a Rs 97.85 crore loan which was declared fraud in 2015, and a corporate loan of Rs 110 crore used to repay the previous loan.

The second loan was declared NPA (non-performing asset) on November 29, 2016, nearly three weeks after demonetisation of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes was announced.

The bank had complained to the CBI on November 17, 2017 but the agency registered the case only on February 22 this year.

Among the 12 accused booked in the case, Simbhaoli Sugar Mills Limited Chairman Gurmit Singh Manns name was also included. The mill is located in Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh.
amansharma@tribunemail.com

Ravi S.Singh

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 28

The government for the first time on Wednesday accepted that the name of The Tribune reporter Rachna Khaira figures in the case registered by Cyber Cell of Delhi Police in the alleged Aadhaar data leak case.

Union Minister of State for Home Hansraj Gangaram Ahir informed Rajya Sabha in a written reply that the FIR has been registered on the complaint of Deputy Director (Logistics and Grievance Redressal), Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).

He said the case has been registered vide FIR No 09/2018 dated January 5, under Sections 34/37 of the Aadhaar Act 2016, under Sections 419, 420, 468, 471 of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and under Section 66 of Information Technology Act at Police Station Crime Branch.

The name of journalist of Tribune Newspaper finds a mention, Ahir said.

He added: During the course of investigation, information related to the case has been asked from UIDAI.

The query in the matter was jointly made by Samajwadi Partys Rajya Sabha members Neeraj Shekhar and Ravi Prakash Verma.

The information sought, include: 1) Whether Delhi Police Cyber Cell has registered an FIR for reports on leakage of millions of Aadhaar details on Whatsapp for Rs 500 only on January 5, 2018 and; 2) The details of the progress and newspaper against whom FIR has been filed and the details of the progress of investigation in the allegations against accused since January 5 till March 12, 2018.

Earlier, Union Minister for Information Technology Minister, and for Law and Justice, Ravi Shankar Prasad, had tweeted on January 8, 2018: The government is fully committed to freedom of Press as well as to maintaining security and sanctity of Aadhaar for Indias development. FIR is against unknown.

Subsequently, Prasad while responding to a question in Rajya Sabha on the matter affirmed that no individual has been named in the case.

Meanwhile, Joint Commissioner of Delhi Police (Crime Branch) Alok Kumar told Tribune that the FIR has been lodged against the newspaper and and its reporter.

Anil Kumar, Sunil Kumar and Raj -- all of whom were mentioned in the Tribune report as the persons the reporter had contacted in the course of the her investigation have also been named in the FIR.

Delhi Police Cyber Cell is investigating the Aadhaar data access case against the newspaper, the reporter and others, including unknown persons. The investigators have already tracked the three outside persons named in the news report, he added.

Kumar further said the role of the police is viewing the role of the reporter in a positive manner and would soon ask her to join the investigation, if needed.

The case is being investigated by a team headed by ACP Sandeep Lamba, who said exercise to arrest the three persons who sold unauthorised access details is afoot.

Lamba said the probe team sought details from UIDAI in regard to the FIR but the information provided was inadequate. Another senior probe official said it does not necessarily mean that everyone in the FIR is a culprit alluding to the role of the reporter.
rchopra@tribunemail.com

United Nations, March 28

UN chief Antonio Guterres has expressed concern over the deaths of two journalists in India and the violence against mediapersons across the globe.

We, of course, are concerned about anything that would suggest the harassment or violence against journalists, anywhere in the world andand would do so in this case, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterress deputy spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters at the daily press briefing here on Tuesday.

Haq was responding to a question on the UNs response to the recent deaths of two Indian journalists in the line of duty.

Sandeep Sharma, 35, a reporter for a local television channel in Madhya Pradeshs Bhind district, was mowed down by a truck. Sharma had complained about threats to his life after he carried out a sting operation on illegal sand mining.

In Bihar, Naveen Nishchal, a journalist who worked for a Hindi daily, was among two persons killed when an SUV rammed into their bike in Bhojpur district, with the family alleging that it was a case of murder and that a former village head was behind it.

Advocacy group The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned the killings, and called on the Indian authorities to determine the motive and bring to justice those responsible for Sharmas death.

Sharmas colleague Vikas Purohit, who witnessed the collision, told the CPJ that he took Sharma to the local hospital where the journalist was declared dead from injuries sustained in the crash.

Purohit said both he and Sharma began receiving anonymous death threats last year after publishing two stories in July and October 2017 on alleged police corruption and illegal sand mining.

Authorities must thoroughly investigate the killing of journalist Sandeep Sharma and determine if he was targeted because of his reporting, said CPJ Asia Programme Coordinator Steven Butler from Washington DC.

This tragic incident may well be a failure of local authorities to provide adequate security to a reporter who had received death threats, he said. PTI
rchopra@tribunemail.com

Shahira Naim

Tribune News Service

Lucknow, March 28

With the arrest of four accused an interstate gang has been busted which manipulated the online Staff Selection Commission (SSC) examination with the help of solvers.

Using the software Team Viewer, around 100 to 150 solvers engaged by the gang wrote the online SSC examination on behalf of the candidates for a payment of Rs 15 lakh.

The Staff Selection Commission conducts the examination for subordinate services.

In a joint operation, the UP Special Task Force (STF) Meerut unit and Delhi Police arrested four accusedSonu, reportedly the gang leader, Ajay Jaiswal, Param and Gaurav.

Two of the accused belong to Delhi while one each is from Haryana and Delhi. The gang was based in Delhi and the FIR has been registered at Timarpur police station in North Delhi.

The police have recovered three laptops, 10 mobile phones, Rs 50 lakh, three luxury vehicles, pen drives, hard disks and several documents from the accused.

Following inputs about irregularities in the online examinations the STF had put several suspected people on surveillance.

For a long time reports of irregularities in conducting the online SSC examinations have been doing the rounds not only of Delhi but the entire country.

Aspirants had been protesting through demonstrations and dharnas in many cities demanding a CBI inquiry into the irregularities in conducting the examinations, including leaking of papers.

They had been demanding a CBI probe into the alleged leak of questions of the Combined Graduate Level (Tier-II) Examination-2017 held from February 17 to 22.

On March 4 SSC Chairman Ashim Khurana had decided to recommend a CBI inquiry into the alleged paper leak but the inquiry was yet to begin.
editorial@tribune.com

Dover (Delaware), March 28

The US State of Delaware has declared April as the Sikh Awareness and Appreciation Month in recognition of the contribution of the religious minority community.

Throughout this month, the public will be educated on what Sikhism truly is and what it stands for. Delaware Governor John Carney in a proclamation declaring April as Sikh Awareness Month said the community has earned respect and appreciation through exceptional service to the community.

The State of Delaware seeks to further the diversity of its community and afford Delawareans the opportunity to better appreciate the rich history of Sikh Americans, the proclamation read. The State Assembly  House of Representatives and Senate  simultaneously passed unanimous resolutions proclaiming April as Sikh Awareness and Appreciation Month.

The move gains significance as Delaware has a small Sikh population. Sikhs and Indian Americans are welcome in the state of Delaware with open arms, Carney said after signing the proclamation.

Several legislators sported turbans during the unanimous passage of the Sikh legislation in the Delaware House of Representatives. Wearing turban shows that we are also part of America. Because of this resolution, for the second consecutive year, identity and awareness about the Sikh community has increased in the state, local Sikh leader Charanjeet Singh Minhas said.  PTI
editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 27

Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh said on Tuesday that the Congress government would stick to its commitment of Rs 9,500-crore farm debt waiver, even as a provision of Rs 4,250 crore has been made in the 2018-19 Budget for the purpose.

Speaking on the Governors Address, he reiterated that free power to farmers would continue. He also announced to take over the debt of families of farmers who had committed suicide. A scheme for the same will be notified after the Vidhan Sabha Committee  set up to study such deaths  submits its report, Capt Amarinder added.

The CM announced to soon amend the Punjab Settlement of Agriculture Indebtedness Act, 2016, to provide farmers an effective forum for reconciliation of their non-institutional (arhtiyas) loans.

Dismissing the allegations that Justice Ranjit Singh (retd) had been denied an appointment for the submission of his report into the sacrilege cases, the CM said the commission was yet to complete the probe.

He said the commission had finished a probe into the Behbal Kalan and Bargari incidents, while cases pertaining to holy books such as Bhagavad Gita, Gutka Sahib and Quran were still under investigation. He rejected Akali leader Bikram Singh Majithias request that the investigation into these cases be handed over to a retired Supreme Court judge since Justice Ranjit Singh (retd) was related to Leader of the Opposition Sukhpal Singh Khaira.

Of the 32 cases of sacrilege, 22 had been solved, he said, adding that the fact that no such incident had taken place since the Congress took over suggested the involvement of the previous ruling party.
editorial@tribune.com

Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 27

The Aam Aadmi Party and the Shiromani Akali Dal on Tuesday tore into the Budget proposals made by Finance Minister Manpreet Badal for 2018-19. Legislators of both parties accused the government of fudging figures in the sacrosanct Budget document, and not making enough budgetary allocations for the marginalised sections.

Though the Business Advisory Council of the Vidhan Sabha had decided that the Budget discussion would be concluded on Tuesday, the government decided at the last minute to postpone the FMs reply to Wednesday.

The three Opposition parties claimed that the discussion was being put off as most MLAs from the treasury benches had left the House before it was adjourned till Wednesday. As against 30 MLAs from the Congress, the total number of Opposition members present was 31. As the Opposition parties demanded that the Budget discussion be concluded, missives to party MLAs were sent by the Congress MLAs in the House. Some of the MLAs and two ministers returned to the Vidhan Sabha.

Bikram Singh Majithia (SAD) said the ruling party MLAs present were fewer than the Opposition ones and voting on the Budget would have seen the proposals being rejected. However, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Brahm Mohindra later told The Tribune that the schedule for the day did not include voting on the Appropriation Bill, so there was no question of voting on the demands. The discussion has been carried forward to the next day only for convenience, he said. Speaker Rana KP Singh, too, said the voting on the Budget was not scheduled for Tuesday.

Former Finance Minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa said the actual revenue gap in the Budget was Rs 13,400 crore, and not Rs 4,150 crore, as claimed by Manpreet.

The FM has fabricated the document by showing enhanced revenue receipts and suppressing expenditure, he added.

Aman Arora (AAP) said the unproductive debt was mounting. He, too, alleged that the Budget figures were fudged, especially considering the slow year-on-year growth in the states non-tax revenues till now, and the 100 per cent jump projected in the next fiscal. Kanwar Sandhu (AAP) said: The situation in Punjab reminds me of how Nero was caught fiddling while Rome was burning.

Badal vs Badal

Chandigarh: During the Budget discussion on Tuesday, estranged cousins Manpreet Badal and Sukhbir Badal took potshots at each other. Sukhbir called Manpreet the Raj Kavi and Maskhara. The Akali Dal president dubbed Manpreet the most incompetent FM who had no defined goals for Punjab. The FM was quick to respond, Je mard ho taan meri vi gal sunn ke jaayeo (Be man enough to listen to my reply). However, the FMs reply was put off to Wednesday. Later, Sukhbir said Manpreet had been forced to beat a retreat. TNS

Wont spare guilty

Chandigarh: Capt Amarinder said all scams committed during the previous SAD-BJP government were under probe. "Those found guilty will face stern action," he said. He warned that his government would deal with gangsters with an iron hand if they failed to surrender. He added that transport permits auctioned by the previous government in a "non-transparent" manner would be cancelled. TNS
editorial@tribune.com

Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 28

The Badal family saga turned into a "no holds barred and bare all" tale in the Vidhan Sabha on Wednesday, with Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal hitting out at his estranged uncle and cousin.

As he rose to give his reply on the Budget discussions, Akali MLAs started a protest, carrying banners that read, "Jojo tax band karo" (referring to allegations of "goonda tax" being collected by Manpreet's brother-in-law). The otherwise suave Manpreet reacted sharply: "Mard de bachche ho tan meri puri gal suno".

From taking up the issue of drug taint on Bikram Singh Majithia (by calling him "chitta vechan wala") to highlighting how his estranged uncle (former CM Parkash Singh Badal) used the state money for his heart treatment in February 2017, besides accusing him of using the SGPC money for langar served at the bhog of his wife.

Manpreet alleged that his uncle got land in Gurgaon as a gift from a former Haryana CM for selling Punjab's interests on SYL canal. "They say I don't know how to run Finance Department. But what I dont know is how to run a transport business, a hotel business or sell chitta," he retorted.

Later in a press release, SAD MLAs Sharanjit Singh Dhillon, Gurpratap Wadala and Pawan Kumar Tinu said Manpreet forgot to answer why the farm loan of farmers had not been waived and why "Jojo tax" was being imposed.

Why new taxes

Manpreet said it was imperative to impose new taxes to get cheaper loan worth Rs 975 crore from Asian Development Bank. "In fact, those who oppose the tax now (referring to the Akalis) are the ones who had signed the deal with ADB," he said.

Budget passed

The Budget proposals were passed in the House on Wednesday. Trashing fudged figures charge, Manpreet said he had shown rise in non-tax revenue by Rs 5,152 crore in 2018-19 because it included the loan of Rs 4,200 crore taken by the Mandi Board and the earnings of PIDB which were now being routed through the state's consolidated fund.

Digital libraries

Manpreet announced a grant of Rs 50 crore for setting up digital libraries in Amritsar and Patiala, and a tertiary cancer care centre in Hoshiarpur.
amansharma@tribunemail.com

Ravi S.Singh

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 28

Suspended AAP MP from Patiala Dharamvira Gandhi staged a dharna in Parliament complex on Wednesday demanding compensation to Punjab for sharing waters of Ravi, Beas and Sutlej with non-riparian states of Haryana, Delhi and Rajasthan.

He also batted for review in the present pattern of Centre-State relation to usher in federalism in true sense of the word.

The Patiala MP sat on dharna near Mahatma Gandhi's statue for about two hours before Lok Sabha convened for the day's business in the morning. He wore a T-shirt and held placards with slogans on them.

He said Punjab's financial condition is in the red. "It is not in a position to carry out welfare projects for people. On account of Centre's decision Punjab has been pushed into sharing its rivers waters with other states."

The state's water table has depleted alarmingly affecting daily lives of the people, he said, adding either the beneficiary states should pay the compensation, or the Centre must step in.

Gandhi said Punjab was once the number one state on all parameters. "It has been the food bowl of the country by ushering in the Green Revolution. In the process it has degenerated its agriculture and land resources due to overuse."

The state has now been relegated to 26th position on development index, Gandhi said.

He alleged that the presently the system is such that Centre has overriding powers over the state. This militates against the spirit of federal structure, he said, adding the diversity of the country has to respected, if unity of the country is to be protected.
editorial@tribune.com

Ruchika M Khanna and Rajmeet Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 28

There is need to regulate and fix the per acre credit limit that banks sanction to loanee farmers and bring in a legislation to act against those banks and financial institutions that extend credit to farmers higher than the limit.

These are among the 69 key recommendations made by the five-member fact-finding committee of the Vidhan Sabha, set up last year to find the reasons for high incidence of suicide by farmers and farm workers.

The setting up of a debt settlement and reconciliatory commission, fixing minimum price for majority of crops, having an agriculture policy on the lines of industrial policy to help improve share of agriculture sector in state's GDP, strengthening the cooperative banking sector, which provides cheaper loans to farmers, by shifting all government bank accounts and salary accounts of government staff in cooperative banks are some of the other key recommendations.

It has also been recommended that the government come up with a policy to restrict expenditure on social functions; set up agro industry; and provide better career opportunities to children of farmers. The committee, headed by Congress MLA Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria, presented its report in the House on the last day of the Budget session on Wednesday.

Akali Dal MLA Harinder Pal Singh Chandumajra, who was also part of this committee, demanded a debate on the issue. When Speaker Rana KP Singh overruled his plea on the ground that the MLA's dissenting note was included in the report, and that debates on the Vidhan Sabha committee reports are not held, Akali MLAs rushed to the well of the House and raised slogans against the government.

Chandumajra later told The Tribune, that in the final meeting of the committee on March 22, he had asked the chairman to include the reasons for the sudden spurt in the suicide cases after March 2017. "The Congress government had gone back on its promise of a complete debt waiver to farmers. The farmers had stopped repaying their loans in hope of a debt waiver," he said, adding that defaulter farmers became ineligible for more loans for fertilisers from cooperative societies.

The committee also recommended the following steps to ameliorate the lot of indebted farmers and farm labourers: The families of farmers should be given all social security pensions from the date of suicide; their debt be taken over by the government; Rs 1 lakh should be immediately given to the families; the remaining aid be given in the form of fixed deposits; the condition of minimum 2.5-acre landholding and annual income of over Rs 60,000 for widow pension and dependent pension be waived; and the government should ensure that the education of the victims' children is not affected due to financial reasons.

Those families who do not have pucca houses and have no wherewithal to construct these should be included in government schemes to facilitate their housing need. No condition of time should be kept for seeking compensation from the government.

Commitee suggests
editorial@tribune.com

Nikhila Pant Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, March 27

Hundreds of students of Central University of Punjab, Bathinda campus, on Tuesday came out in the open against the university authorities for not acting in a case of sexual harassment of a female student of the university.

Raising slogans, the students alleged that Prof Deepak Kumar Chauhan, faculty member of the Department of Law of the university who was also a member of the Gender Sensitisation and Committee against Sexual Harassment, used derogatory language against the victim in front of her friend.

The protesting students alleged that they had brought the matter to the attention of Vice-Chancellor Prof RK Kohli, but no action was taken against the faculty member.

A day after a female student was harassed by cook Arvind in the mess of the university on February 27, a friend of the victim was called by the member of the committee Prof Deepak Kumar Chauhan. He made derogatory comments against the victim and also against the state of Punjab. The victims friend has also testified against the teacher in front of the VC. We were promised action against the teacher, but nothing has been done for a month now, the students said.

The faculty member denied the allegations levelled against him. Demanding the removal of Dr Chauhan from all the committees related to students affairs, the students also demanded that the Gender Sensitisation and Committee against Sexual Harassment be reconstituted as per UGC norms in which inclusion of students in the committee is a must.

The students gheraoed the VC following which he assured them that a special committee would be constituted to look into the matter and the university would take action by April 25. He also assured that three students would be made members of the committee to maintain transparency in the probe.

Meanwhile, the police have not been able to arrest cook Arvind against whom a case was registered at Kotfatta police station on March 20. After the incident, the cook had been dismissed by the university.
editorial@tribune.com

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, March 28

SAD president Sukhbir Badal visited bypoll-bound Shahkot Assembly constituency on Wednesday. He announced Naib Singh Kohar, son of late ex-minister Ajit S Kohar, as the official candidate of his party.

He also roped in Aam Aadmi Party leader Amarjit Thind, who represents the Kamboj community in the constituency, into the SAD fold.

Then, Sukhbir tried his best to convince the voters that the Congress government in the state would be in power for just another year as the Assembly elections would be held alongside the next parliamentary poll.

The PM has already made up his mind that the two elections will be held together throughout the country. Even the Election Commission has hinted in this direction. Congress will be in power only for one more year and not four years, he said.

SAD takes up turban row with Sushma

New Delhi: The SAD has taken up the issue of screening of Sikhs in Italy by removing their turban at the time of taking their proofs during biometric identification with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. She has been requested to take quick action in this regard. In a statement, DSGMC general secretary Manjinder Singh Sirsa said during a meeting with Swaraj, Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh was also present. TNS
amansharma@tribunemail.com

Phagwara, March 28

Parminder Bhullarai is unhappy with the move to dilute the stringent provisions of a law dealing with cases of atrocities against Dalits. And he has found a novel  but striking  way to show his disapproval.

Near the main bus stand on the busy National Highway 1 in Punjab's Phagwara city last evening, Bhullarai took off his shirt, placed his shoes on his head and stood alone in protest.

His action drew the attention of everyone passing through the area, especially thousands of bus passengers.

The lone protester also displayed a banner that read scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and religious minorities were not safe in India.

He told reporters that he had to resort to this distinct way of protest to draw public attention to the issue of the Act's dilution, which, he added, will increase atrocities against Dalits.

The Supreme Court in an order on March 20 diluted the provisions of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, in a bid to protect honest public servants discharging bonafide duties from being blackmailed with false cases under the Act.

The court said government servants should not be arrested without prior sanction and private citizens too should be arrested only after an inquiry under the law.

But Dalit organisations, including the Dalit Shoshan Mukti Manch, and opposition political parties fear the dilution of the provisions might lead to increase in violence against Dalits. They have urged the Union government to seek an immediate review of the Supreme Court judgement.

Calling the Modi government "anti-Dalit", Bhullarai also alleged that ever since it took over the reigns at the Centre in 2014, the situation in the country has been getting vitiated.

"Cow vigilantes are killing people in the name of cow protection and Hindu nationalists are beating people under the garb of (patriotism)," he said.

He accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of intentionally not seeking a review of the Supreme Court order.

Surinder Dhanda, president of Ambedkar Sena (Punjab), came out in support of Bhullarai at the protest venue. Though he did not remove his shirt, he displayed a banner against the BJP-led Union government and demanded its removal.  PTI
editorial@tribune.com

Our Correspondent

Abohar, March 27

A private schoolteacher was on Tuesday caught appearing in the PSEB Class X science paper on behalf of a student.

Some students and their parents, who claimed to have earlier tried to bring the scam to the notice of the authorities also, informed the city police about the unfair practice at the centre allocated to Singh Sabha Senior Secondary School for Girls (Kanya Pathshala) located in Street-15. As parents and their wards protested, a police team arrived.

Gobindgarh village resident Banwari Lal, a teacher in a private school who was allegedly spotted appearing on behalf of a student, Charanjit, failed to produce a copy of Aadhaar card, which is mandatory. The student was to reappear for science exam.

Mediapersons also reached the examination centre. Banwari Lal reportedly confessed that he was paid Rs 3,500 to impersonate as Charanjit to appear in the exam. For him, this was nothing new. He had reportedly appeared on behalf of some other students also  most of them reappear or compartment cases  at the same centre, but no one checked. His statement was recorded in the presence of the police on different devices.

Some educationists, too, arrived and shared their concern with the police and other authorities over the manner in which the exam centre is being run. The police have taken Banwari Lal into custody. The centre staff later prepared a case of unfair means.

A senior school management official refuted any involvement of the school staff arguing that they were not at all responsible. The superintendent and invigilators had all the freedom to conduct exams in the centre, he claimed. Some persons are trying to malign the image of our school, he alleged.
editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, March 27

A one-day Kisan Mela was organised by Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) at the Regional Research Station, Bathinda, on Tuesday. Farmers from Bathinda and neighbouring areas thronged the fair whose theme was Reduce agricultural expenditure, use water and fertilisers judiciously and adopt subsidiary occupations to make farming profitable.

Governor and Chancellor of PAU VP Singh Badnore inaugurated the fair, while Dr Mohan Paul Singh Ishar, Vice-Chancellor, Maharaja Ranjit Singh Punjab Technical University, Bathinda, was the guest of honour. Those who were present on the occasion included Dr Baldev Singh Dhillon, Vice-Chancellor, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, JM Balamurugan, Secretary to Governor, and PAU officials.

In his inaugural address, the Governor said the prime objective of such fairs was two-way interaction between agricultural scientists and farmers. He hailed the farmers for toiling hard to make the country food secure. He also advocated a two-pronged strategy for ensuring a lucrative agricultural enterprise-judicious expenditure and adoption of subsidiary ventures.

Badnore commended the whitefly management by PAU and advocated the use of Happy Seeder to curb stubble burning.

Dr Ishar congratulated farmers and attributed success to their hard work. He said different stalls and new varieties showcased in mela spoke volumes of hard work put in by scientists and farmers collectively. Distress in agriculture, be it due to vagaries of weather or manmade reasons, could not be overlooked, he added.

Dr BS Dhillon asked farmers to stay in consonance with Central governments theme of doubling farm income in the near future. He suggested that the farming community must look at mushroom cultivation, bee-keeping, dairy and horticulture as income-generating sources.

Highlighting the research achievements of the PAU, Dr Navtej Singh Bains, Director of Research, apprised the farmers with the new varieties launched by the university. He emphasised on economic stability of farmers along with the increased productivity of crops. He advocated judicious use of limited resources like water, fertilisers and insecticides in order to cut the expenses on farming.

Badnore hails farmers
shalender@tribune.com

REFERRING to Mr. Gandhi's vow in connection with the Ahmedabad mill strike, the Englishman wrote:-"One of these days somebody will refuse to eat until India is given Home rule. If all the Home rulers went on hunger strike it might simplify matters a good deal in the end." A hunger strike on the part of all the Home Rulers would doubtless simplify matters a good deal to the writer and men of his class; but not to a great and civilised Government like ours. The brutal humour of the writer does even less justice to his own countrymen than to the strong and practically unanimous feeling that exists in India in favour of a substantial measure of self-government.
ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, March 28

Chief Minister Trivendra Rawat has praised the Indo-Tibetan Border Police role in safeguarding countrys frontiers. He has also appreciated their role in assisting in the conduct of Char Dham yatra in the state.

The Chief Minister was addressing Himalaya-ke-Veer, a tattoo show-2018 organised by ITBP at Police Line Race Course here. He said the ITBP was a big source of motivation for the youngsters.

The ITBPs role was unparalleled when it comes to Uttarakhand in the conduct of Char Dham yatra and also in the case of exigencies and natural calamities.

Earlier, the Chief Minister was witness to the march past, himveer daredevil motorcycle display, rifle drill, women pipe band, brass band amongst others that were centre of attraction during the function. Artists also performed different kinds of folk dances like Yak dance, Ladakh Jabro dance, Kumaoni, Bedo Pako, Lapcha, Bihu, Bambo and Galo dance and and songs during the function.

ITBP Director General R K Pachnanda and other senior officers of the force were also present on the occasion.
ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, March 28

Seeking seventh pay commission benefits, Uttarakhand state employees have resented the steep hike in salaries of MLAs.

State government employees, who have been on an agitation for quite some time, on Wednesday came out in strong opposition to the hike in salaries of MLAs in the state. The hike was approved in the recently concluded Assembly session.

Officiating president, Uttarakhand State Employees Federation Nandkishore Tripathy, pointed out that it was strange that there was no discussion in the Assembly session and 120 per cent hike was given to the legislators. He further said that while the ruling party introduced the Bill for hike in legislators salary, opposition MLAs did not oppose it and gave their prompt consent.

This is not acceptable and if the state government does not provide seventh Pay Commission benefits to the employees of the state latest by April 13, we will be forced to stage an agitation from April 14 in the entire state, Tripathy announced.

Joining the issue, Uttarakhand State Employees Federations general secretary Pradeep Kohli alleged that the state government was least concerned about genuine concerns of government employees.

Whenever it comes to increasing pay and perks of state government employees, the state government makes an excuse of financial constraints but in case of increase the salaries of ministers and MLAs, there is no such excuse, Pradeep Kohli asserted.
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Riyadh, March 28

A missile attack this week on Riyadh has raised the risk of an escalation in the Yemen war in a region riven with interwoven conflicts, but a direct confrontation between arch-foes Saudi Arabia and Iran still appears unlikely.

Saudi Arabias powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, now touring the United States, must balance animosity towards Iran with the need for stability as he pitches the kingdoms economic transformation plan to foreign investors and drums up support for containing Irans regional influence.

However, Iranian authorities - facing the prospect of a more hawkish U.S. administration with Donald Trumps appointments last week of John Bolton and Mike Pompeo as national security adviser and secretary of state - might crank up pressure in the Yemen war as a form of deterrence, diplomats and analysts say.

Saudi Arabia sharpened its rhetoric against Tehran after Saudi forces shot down a flurry of missiles launched by the Iran-aligned Houthis on Saudi cities late on Sunday. One of the missiles caused the wars first casualties in the Saudi capital Riyadh when falling debris struck a home and killed an Egyptian man and injured two others.

Saudi King Salman, in comments carried by state media, pledged on Tuesday to firmly and decisively thwart any hostile attempts targeting the kingdoms security and stability.

A day earlier, the spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthi movement accused it of using Iranian-made missiles and said that Saudi Arabia reserved the right to respond to Iran when and how it deemed appropriate.

The coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 in a campaign to restore its internationally recognised government after it was driven into exile by Houthi forces.

Iran is the appendicitis in the body of the world and should fix itself or else the world will fix the Iranian situation, spokesman Colonel Turki al-Malki said.

Iran has repeatedly denied giving missiles to the Houthis.

Few military options

Analysts said that in the short term, the Saudi leadership is unlikely to respond aggressively amid increased international scrutiny of the three-year-old Yemen conflict, which has given rise to the worlds most urgent humanitarian crisis.

Prince Mohammed would like to be viewed as a more restrained and composed leader while touring his closest Western ally, the United States, according to Ehsan Khomen, MENA strategist at MUFG consultancy.

(He) may leverage the recent Houthi missile attacks to strengthen his narrative that Irans encroachment is undermining regional stability and that a more concerted international effort is needed to contain Iran.

The Yemen conflict pits a coalition of Western-friendly states led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates against the Houthis, who are sympathetic to Iran but deny being a pawn of its Shiite Muslim theocracy.

Yemens war fits into a broader decades-long struggle for supremacy between Middle East powerhouses Iran and Saudi Arabia, which fund and train proxy forces in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon and accuse each other of backing terrorism.

Military escalation in response to the latest rocket salvo could mean more coalition air strikes - which have been widely criticised for killing civilians - or mobilising the Saudi National Guard from a mostly static position along the border to undertake a concerted ground assault inside northern Yemen.

Diplomats and analysts say that the coalition has few other options short of direct action against an Iranian target, something that remains unlikely unless a Houthi rocket takes out a valuable Saudi asset.

Last year, when the Houthis fired missiles at Riyadh that were intercepted, the coalition responded by shutting Yemens airports and ports. The United Nations said that blockade raised the danger of mass starvation, and it was partially lifted.

They may make similar moves in order to be seen to be doing something, but it wont really change the dynamics of the conflict, said Jane Kinninmont, Middle East expert at Chatham House in London.

My concern is that they could be tempted to take some action directly against some Iranian target, and that any such course of action could escalate further. Consultancy Eurasia Group said that a successful Houthi strike on a prized Saudi target would probably prompt a firm military response from Riyadh to try to deter Iran.

Analysts said that while a direct Saudi-Iranian showdown is unlikely, miscalculation remains a risk.

Mediation efforts

Western countries have urged Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Arab allies to protect civilians and find a quick end to Yemens war.

But they also support Riyadhs argument that it needs to defend itself from cross-border strikes and limit the spread of Irans imprint in territory overlooking important trade routes.

The United Nations says more than 10,000 people have died in the war, and 22.2 million Yemenis - three-quarters of the population - need relief aid. More than 1 million cholera cases have been reported, the worst outbreak in modern history.

Analysts said that while Saudi Arabia will probably double down on its military campaign in Yemen to oust the Houthis from the capital Sanaa and reinstate President Abd Rabbu Mansour al-Hadi, it may continue to support mediation efforts.

However, the appointments of Bolton and Pompeo in Washington could encourage Iran to ramp up activities in Yemen to signal its ability and willingness to undermine the United States and its partners, Eurasia Group said.

Economists have played down the impact of the Houthi attacks on the Saudi economy, which Prince Mohammed is trying to wean off oil exports with a slate of reforms that include cutting energy subsidies and expanding the private sector.

Investors may have already largely priced in risks from Houthi missile strikes. But an intensification of the Yemen conflict and certainly an escalation to direct conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia could scare off foreign investors. Reuters
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Tokyo, March 28

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is finalising details for a summit with US President Donald Trump on April 18 to discuss strategy before a proposed meeting between North Korean and US leaders, a ruling party official told Reuters on Wednesday.

Abe will also likely ask Trump to exempt Japan from his steel and aluminum tariffs, said the official, who has been briefed on the matter and asked not to be identified.

Abe, speaking at a parliamentary committee, said Japanese steel products were helping to make US auto makers more competitive and cheaper for American consumers.

Protectionism, at first glance, appears to benefit a nation which exercises it, but it is not necessarily so, Abe said.

Japan wants to be a flag bearer to promote a free trade which will bring a win-win situation to each nation. His finance minister, Taro Aso, echoed that view and said some of responsibility for the trade imbalance rested with the United States.

I understand the US position that it cannot continue with a trade deficit, but the United States itself should make efforts, Aso told the same committee.

The meeting between Abe and the US leader is expected to be held at Trumps Mar-a-Largo retreat in Florida, according to the source.

North Koreas Kim Jong Un is set to meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in in April and then possibly Trump in May. Reuters
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Beijing, March 27

A train believed to be carrying a senior North Korean delegation left the Chinese capital on Tuesday following a dramatic whirlwind visit that some reports said included the countrys leader, Kim Jong Un.

The conservative South Korea Chosun Ilbo newspaper, citing an unnamed senior intelligence official, said the delegation had included Kim and that he had since left to return to North Korea. Kim is reported to have held talks with the top Chinese leadership ahead of his planned summit with US President Donald Trump.

While the Foreign Ministry here parried questions over his reported visit which threw the road and rail traffic in Beijing out of gear, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post quoted Chinese sources confirming that Kim visited Beijing. It wasnt his sister, it was Kim himself, the paper quoted a source as saying.

Kim is reported to have left by the distinctive green train to Pyongyang by which he had arrived earlier.

A beaming Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying parried a volley of questions about Kims visit at a packed daily briefing today, saying that she is not aware of his visit and would get back in due course if she gets the details. If we have information, we will publish it, Hua said.

The first hint that the mystery guest was Kim was the appearance of the green train of the type favoured by North Koreas senior leadership, which was seen travelling from the border city of Dandong to Beijing, the Post reported.

Earlier, media personnel rushed to the plush Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, where foreign dignitaries usually stay as it was cordoned off with heavy security. Local people were told to avoid the area.

While reporters were held back behind a cordon a few hundred metres away, a motorcade reportedly carrying Kim was spotted passing by Tiananmen Square, apparently en-route to the Beijing railway station, it said.

North Korean leaders preferred to visit China, their closest ally, secretly or without much publicity through selective leaks by the Chinese officials. Kims late father Kim Jong-il too used to visit China secretly. This is Kims first overseas visit since he took over power in 2011 after his fathers death.  PTI

South Korea: Watching events closely
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Brussels/Tashkent, March 27

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday said the alliance was expelling seven Russian diplomats and denying accreditation to three more as part of international measures over the poisoning of a former spy in Britain.

I have withdrawn the accreditation of seven staff of the Russian mission to NATO. I will also deny the pending accreditation request for three others, Stoltenberg said at NATO headquarters in Brussels. This will send a clear message to Russia that there are costs and consequences for their unacceptable pattern of behaviour.

Meanwhile, Moscow alleged that Washington had put colossal pressure on allies to expel scores of Russian diplomats, and vowed to retaliate. This is the result of colossal pressure, colossal blackmail which is the main instrument of Washington on the international arena, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Uzbekistan. Well respond, have no doubt! No one wants to put up with such loutish behaviour and we wont.

At least 116 alleged agents working under diplomatic cover were ordered out by 22 governments on Monday, dwarfing similar measures in even the most notorious Cold War spying disputes.

The expulsions were a response to the poisoning of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with a nerve agent in Salisbury on March 4.

Expulsions of Russian diplomats were ordered by the US, Canada and Australia as well as a number of EU nations, Albania and Ukraine. The row has plunged Russias relations with the West to new lows amid the ongoing tensions over Ukraine and Syria.

Speaking on the sidelines of a conference on Afghanistan in Tashkent, Lavrov said the expulsions justified Russias view that there are few independent countries remaining in Europe.  AFP
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Johannesburg, March 28

A South African parliamentary panel has said a full-scale investigation would be initiated into the citizenship status of the Gupta family members, who are closely linked to former President Jacob Zuma.

The move comes after the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) wrote a letter to the chairperson of the South African Parliaments Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs, requesting a probe following Home Minister Malusi Gigabas controversial remarks about the citizenship of the Gupta family members.

The committee will institute a full-scale parliamentary inquiry into the Gupta familys citizenship, sources said.

The House Chairperson of Committees in Parliament, Cedric Frolick, had instructed the chairpersons of portfolio committees to institute inquiries into alleged state capture probes on June 15 last year already, but these have been delayed for various reasons.

The DA had alleged that more Gupta family members were granted South African citizenship but this was never reported to Parliament.

Home Minister Malusi Gigaba and his department only explained the circumstances surrounding the naturalisation of five Gupta family members, when there was in fact a further six members of the Gupta family that are South African citizens and registered as voters on the IEC database, the DA was quoted as saying by the Independent Online.

Gigaba had earlier said that Ajay Gupta, one of three India-born brothers who are at the centre of state capture allegations, was not a citizen of South Africa as he had declined to renounce his Indian citizenship.

He had said that Ajays wife, mother and two children were only granted the countrys citizenship, but when Ajay and his four other family members were denied naturalisation in 2013, they had appealed against the decision.

But after local media printed copies of identity documents and proof that the Gupta brothers had voted in an election here, Gigaba issued another statement saying neither Ajay nor Atul were citizens, but they had permanent residency permits.

The Guptas and Duduzane Zuma, the son of former president who was forced to resign on February 14, have not appeared at various enquiries into allegations of their involvement in state capture and irregular deals with parastatal bodies running into billions of rands.

The Guptas, who arrived in South Africa from their home town of Saharanpur in India about two decades ago, amassed a huge fortune through companies in the IT, media and mining sectors, allegedly through their closeness to Zuma.

Their property interests in India have also come under the scanner by tax authorities there. PTI
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Naypyidaw, March 28

Myanmars parliament today elected a staunch ally of Aung San Suu Kyi as the countrys new president, allowing her to maintain a tight grip on top-level decision-making.

Win Myint, 66, had been tipped for the role after former president Htin Kyaw suddenly stepped down last week, citing the need for rest.

Suu Kyi is barred by the military-drafted constitution from the presidency because she was married to a foreigner and has two sons who are British citizens. She has instead served as state counsellor since her partys landslide 2015 election victory, declaring she would work above the president.

But her position has no official constitutional role.

That makes it crucial for her to have a compliant friend as president as she manages an often fraught power-sharing arrangement with the still powerful military, which ruled the country for almost half a century. I will do my best to carry out my duties for the people, Win Myint said as he left parliament after the vote.

Win Myint, who resigned as lower house speaker last week, swept up nearly two thirds of the votes in a parliament dominated by Suu Kyis National League for Democracy (NLD) party. He beat two opponents, including the military-backed acting president Myint Swe.

The former lawyer hails from Suu Kyis inner circle-the pair fought side-by-side during the 1988 democracy movement that was violently quashed by the junta and saw Win Myint, alongside many others, being taken political prisoner.

As Myanmar emerged from outright military rule, Win Myint won his seat in 2012 byelections, the same vote that elevated Suu Kyi to parliament after a combined 15 years of house arrest.  AFP
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Hi, my name is Scott C. Waring and I wrote a few books and am currently a ESL School Owner in Taiwan. I have had my own UFO sighting up close and personal, but that's how it works right? A non believer becomes a believer when they experience their first sighting. You witnessed it, your perceptual field changes, so now you need to share it.





I created this site to help the UFO community get a little bit organized. I noticed that there was a lot of chaos when searching for UFO sighting reports, so I hope this site helps. I wanted to support those eyewitnesses who have tried to tell others about what they have seen, yet were laughed at by even closest of friends.





More and more each day the governments of the world leak bits and pieces of UFO information to the public. They have a trickle down theory in hopes of slowly getting citizens use to the idea that we are not alone in universe and never have been. The truth is being leaked drop by drop until one day we look around and find ourselves neck high in it.





The discovery of alien species in existence is the most monumental scientific event in human history, suppression of that information is a crime against humanity.





About me:

I live in Taiwan. I OWN MY OWN ENGLISH SCHOOL, AND ONCE HAD 5 SCHOOLS.

Am Former USAF at SAC base (flight line).

Age: 42

Educ: BA in Elem ed. Masters in Counseling ed.





I had two UFO sightings, (30+bus size orbs) in military and in 2012 personally saw the UFO over Taipei 101 building on New Years Day (and recored it).
Applying for UM Scholarships

The University of Montana administers most scholarship funds through the UM Scholarship Portal. The portal is accessible to all incoming and continuing UM students and offers one centralized general application, regardless of a students major or program of study.

New students pursuing their first bachelor's degree do not need to complete the General Application to be considered for the UMAAS, WUE, or Non-Resident UMAAS merit scholarships. Awarding for those is based on their application for admission.

If a new student wants to be considered for a departmental or renewable scholarship, they should complete the General Application in the UM Scholarship Portal.

The application deadlines vary by department. New and continuing students who submit a completed General Application by March 1 receive first consideration for the scholarships administered by the Financial Aid Office.

Information about departmental scholarships is available at departmental websites and/or in the UM Scholarship Portal.
Uganda: Transforming the lives of refugee women

Uganda has begun a massive biometric data verification exercise to help fix any discrepancies in refugee data and allow for greater efficiency and transparency. With support from UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency and partners, the government is conducting biometric data verification of all refugees. The process will assist the government to better assess refugee data in the country, ensuring greater accuracy and efficiency to get refugees the support they need.
Wood shavings fall softly to the ground as Maritha moves a plane swiftly over a plank of wood. Her brow is furrowed in deep concentration as she works in the carpentry training centre in Nduta camp, Tanzania.

As one of only two women in a class of 30 students, the 20-year-old clearly stands out.

I always wanted to be a teacher, she says, taking a break from the lesson. But the conflict back home forced me to abandon my studies and escape.

Maritha fled to Tanzania in 2016 when political turmoil in Burundi resulted in mounting insecurity across the country. Faced with a new life in the camp, she tried to find work so that she could take care of her young son. She was not successful. Her frustrations increased when she realized that she couldnt even afford the furniture sold in the camp.

"I decided to take matters into my own hands  I was going to become a carpenter.

I decided to take matters into my own hands  I was going to become a carpenter.

She signed up for carpentry classes at the vocational skills training centre funded by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency and managed by its partner agency, Plan International.

She recalls how people tried to dissuade her and laughed at her for wanting to train in a male dominated sector.

People laughed at me when I signed up, she notes wryly. They said carpentry is a mans job and I couldnt do it.

But she was undeterred and remained determined to learn the craft.

People laughed at me...they said carpentry is a mans job and I couldnt do it.

This is an unusual thing especially here in the camp, to find women exploring vocations that are regarded as male professions, explains Takaaki Miura, UNHCRs Associate Livelihood Officer.

She has also proved to be a fast learner and is among the top students in her class.

She is one of my most promising students, says Ndikumana Pierre, one of the vocational trainers. She learns fast and makes an effort to understand everything in class.

Maritha works on a piece of furniture during a carpentry class in Nduta camp, Tanzania.  UNHCR/Winnie Itaeli

Maritha works on a piece of furniture during a carpentry class in Nduta camp, Tanzania.  UNHCR/Winnie Itaeli

Maritha works on a piece of furniture during a carpentry class in Nduta camp, Tanzania.  UNHCR/Winnie Itaeli

Juggling motherhood with her new found passion has not been easy though, especially when her son falls ill.

I cant leave him alone at home because my husband also works. When he is sick, I cant attend classes, she adds.

Despite these challenges, she remains undeterred. She is one of less than ten women interested in learning and exploring this opportunity since the carpentry programme started in the three camps in Tanzania.

She is one of my most promising students.

Now in its second year, the programme has already trained 59 men whove graduated from Nduta and Mtendeli camps. The training runs for six months with classes five days a week. After successfully completing the course, students form groups of five and receive start-up kits and US$49 worth of carpentry tools and materials to set up their own businesses.

The programme aims to provide the students with economic independence, says Jerry Mlembwa, the Youth Coordinator of Plan International. They are able to meet their basic needs.

With a population of 110,000 refugees, Nduta camp has a potential market for quality goods and services in high demand like furniture.

This is why we offer skills training for youth like Maritha who are so keen to learn, explains UNHCRs Miura.

Other livelihood programmes include bread making, hairdressing, tailoring, catering, phone repairs and ICT. However, job opportunities for refugees are very few limited due to lack of freedom of movement, right to work and access to financial services. UNHCR continues to advocate for policy change while also supporting vocational and business trainings across the camps in Tanzania.

The programme aims to provide the students with economic independence.

Marithas class, which has 60 men, will graduate in a few weeks. She is hopeful that after graduating she will finally have the economic independence she has been yearning for.

I will be able to buy food and clothes for my child, she says.

She also sees its potential to not only make a huge difference for her and her family but for other refugees.

I want to not only make my own furniture and have a source of income but to teach other refugees, she adds.
Kenya-Ethiopian refugees flee fighting to neighbouring Kenya

About 10,000 Ethiopian refugees have fled to Kenya since early March. Most are women and children. 55-year-old Darmigalma Boru was reunited with her daughter, Malicha and her new-born grand-daughter, Nuria when she arrived in Kenya. Separated by the fighting, the family didn't think they would see each other again. They are finally safe but like many other refugees, they need basic necessities like food and water.
In the baking heat of a tent in Oruchinga refugee settlement, Uganda, seven-year-old Gloria Mutamba giggles as her mother holds a pair of goggles up to her eyes.

It takes a second for the computer to scan her irises, and all of Glorias self-control not to lean over for a peek.

Glorias 32-year-old mother, Jenipher, is among the first to be screened as part of a nationwide project by the Uganda government to collect fingerprints and scan the irises of more than 1 million refugees.

For the children, the biometric verification exercise is a curiosity. For Jenipher, it is the key to a future.

The problem refugees face is that they have nowhere to call home, she says, sitting at one of the processing desks. This is why we support the verification. UNHCR should make it a global system so that if a refugee comes to Uganda they know this is their home and they can settle.

"This is why we support the verification."

The computer records data such as Jeniphers fingerprints and refugee status but takes no account of the strength that saw her through years of war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the spirit that drives her to help thousands of women every day.

Held captive and repeatedly raped in a forest for two weeks before she escaped, Jenipher fled the DRC in 2011 and crossed into Uganda. Here, like all refugees, she was given a plot of land. A small hut took shape and Jenipher planted crops  spring onions, potatoes and spinach.

I had prayed to God, she recalls, and said if you help me Ill make it my lifes mission to help others. Finally safe in Uganda with a place to call home, she was determined to keep her word.

It took the single mother less than a year, with support from the UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and a local non-government organization, Hijra, to create a community savings group that is transforming refugee womens lives.

Jenipher, her daughter and a niece and nephew wait to be verified.  UNHCR/Michele Sibiloni

A UNHCR staff member helps to verify Jenipher and her daughter.  UNHCR/Michele Sibiloni

Jenipher is verified along with her daughter, Gloria.  UNHCR/Michele Sibiloni

With their own businesses, the women have a source of income.  UNHCR/Michele Sibiloni

The group meets to pool money and discuss business opportunities.  UNHCR/Michele Sibiloni

Jenipher helps to manage the crowd at the verification exercise.  UNHCR/Michele Sibiloni

After escaping her captors, Jenipher fled the DRC in 2011 for Uganda.  UNHCR/Michele Sibiloni

Each woman brings whatever they can and puts it into the kitty, she says. We use the money to help women in need, or if they need a loan. What we do is we fund their business and they pay us back from the profit they make.

Every Friday, she and a group known as the "Angels meet to pool money and discuss business opportunities. Their savings box has three padlocks. Three women, who live some distance from one another, each has a key.

When Jenipher arrived at the settlement, many in the group had been forced into sex or raped while searching for firewood across the border in Tanzania. Now, with their own businesses, they have a source of income.

Refugees dont just need food, they need to be empowered, like my women who are now running their own businesses, says Jenipher, who runs a business buying and selling charcoal briquettes for fuel. They can be given training and new skills, so they can rebuild their lives.

We use the money to help women in need."

The group plans to use some of the money in the kitty to open a hair salon and employ local youths.

We have bought plastic chairs and a solar panel for the salon. Well even pay someone to train the youths. Many of them have finished school and I dont want the same thing that happened to us in Tanzania to happen to them.

Besides the income from her charcoal business, Jenipher is also earning 15,000 Ugandan shillings (about four US dollars) per day by helping to manage the crowd at the verification exercise. This money will not only help her. By pooling a percentage, she helps other women and children in the refugee community.

The women are entrepreneurs now. They no longer sell their bodies. They were only doing it because they were poor. We help women to get jobs so they can be busy  without work, people lose their dignity.

With support from UNHCR and the World Food Programme, the Ugandan government is collecting biometric data from more than 1 million refugees. The goal is to ensure that all refugees are properly registered and receive the protection and assistance they need. UNHCRs biometric registration software has already been used to register some 4.4 million in 48 countries worldwide.

The women are entrepreneurs now."

Uganda treats refugees humanely because they are people, says Douglas Asiimwe, the head of refugee protection in the prime ministers office. They are brothers and sisters. They are neighbours. Our approach has been to treat refugees with dignity and to do that you must give them rights.

This verification exercise will benefit you and your families, UNHCR Representative Bornwell Kantande told refugees. We want to have better services for all refugees and host communities, and the basis of that is verification.

See also: Uganda launches major refugee verification operation

After Jeniphers own verification is complete, with those of her daughter and her late brothers two children, she returns to work, pulling on a high-visibility vest and ushering refugees inside the tent.

After all, she has a promise to keep.

I remember my parents, I remember my family. I cant forget them but you have to accept it, you have to keep moving forward.

After everything that happened, look at my life now. Look at my house, look at my business, see how far Ive come. But there are lots of women who are going through the same thing I did. I really want to help them.
Malicha Doyo, a 36-year old mother of six from Ethiopia, cradles her five-day-old baby daughter Nuria in a temporary reception centre in Moyale, in northern Kenya on the border with Ethiopia.

Malicha arrived heavily pregnant and hungry from the town of Tuqa five days ago, after an outbreak of violence in Ethiopia. Refugees say several people were killed when Ethiopian troops attacked their villages in a raid on opposition areas.

The Ethiopian government said its soldiers mistakenly killed nine civilians and wounded a dozen others. The soldiers involved had been disarmed and a delegation had been sent to the region to investigate the killings, it added.

Forty-eight hours after arriving in Moyale with her husband and five children, Malicha went into labour with her sixth child.

She is emotional and a little tearful, delighted to have delivered baby Nuria safely, but worried about the situation at home and how long she might have to stay in Kenya.

I was really afraid that the baby would come while she was on the way."

Sitting right next to her is her mother, Darmigalma Boru, 55, who arrived a few days after her daughter.

I was really afraid that the baby would come while she was on the way, but I just thank God that she waited until she arrived to safety, she said.

They are among about 9,600 Ethiopians estimated to have crossed the border into Kenya in the past two weeks.

More than 80 per cent were women and children, nearly 1,500 of them children under five. The influx included more than 600 expectant mothers, as well as disabled and elderly people.

Darmigalma,55, holds her grandchild Nuria born just 48 hours after they crossed into Kenya from Ethiopia 

Sitting next to her daughter Malicha, Darmigalma cradles her grand daughter, Nuria. Only 48 hours after arriving in Moyale, Malicha went into labour with her 6th child.  UNHCR/Will Swanson

"We left all our things and ran away with just the clothes we are wearing now." Ethiopian mother, Malicha Doyo, 36, from Tuqa village fled with five of her six children when violence erupted in her community. They are sheltering at a refugee camp in Sololo, Marsabit County, Kenya.  UNHCR/Will Swanson

Women carry water to their temporary shelter at a refugee camp in Sololo, Marsabit County in Kenya.  UNHCR/Will Swanson

UNHCR staff register newly arrived refugees at a camp in Sololo, Marsabit County in Kenya.  UNHCR/Will Swanson

The identities of those who were killed in the attack are not known, or how they died. The Ethiopian authorities say they are taking steps to restore peace.

Families like Malichas are dependent on the Kenyan government and humanitarian agencies. UNHCR, The UN Refugee Agency is working with other agencies sych as UNICEF, the World Food Programme, the Kenya Red Cross, Save the Children, World Vision, and Concern to meet the most urgent needs.

We are grateful for the assistance we have received."

Water, food, and shelter materials are being distributed, and medical care is being provided by humanitarian organizations. Sanitation and hygiene facilities are under construction to prevent disease.

We left with nothing and ate nothing during the two days it took us to get to Moyale, says Darmigalma. We are grateful for the assistance we have received, the plastic sheeting which we used to make our house, food, and other basic items such as kitchen utensils.

The Kenyan government, with the help of UNHCR, is carrying out biometric registration of those who have arrived. Registering the asylum seekers will help the government and humanitarian agencies cater for the displaced and identify those with specific needs that UNHCR and other agencies can help to meet.

Local people in Moyale have also proved to be a lifeline. Halakano Rare who lives nearby, offered Malichas family a place to stay after Nuria was born.

"Although they are living in another country, if they come to us for security, then we have to assist.

I told them that baby needs a safe environment, he told UNHCR. So I decided to help them with shelter until they can find a better place to live. We are neighbours and the same community. Although they are living in the other country, if they come to us for security, then we have to assist

Malicha and Darmigalma say they are happy and feel safe Kenya. However, they hope to go back home once it is safe to do so.

Ethiopia is our country and, as long as there is peace, we will go back.
March 28 2018

The developers behind the redevelopment of the former Ravenscraig steelworks near Motherwell have submitted their latest masterplan for the sprawling brownfield regeneration site.Spurred by a commitment from North Lanarkshire Council to commit 190m towards a road building programme in the area next year the plans call for 550 homes, twin primary schools, a 17-acre park, community and commercial facilities to be delivered in phases through to 2021.This follows on from a 2006 masterplan which largely stalled with the onset of the global financial crisis.Des Murray, assistant chief executive for housing and enterprise at North Lanarkshire Council, commented: The Council has always recognised the need to redevelop the site as part of our wider ambition for local communities and the area as a whole. Ravenscraig is not just a symbolic site for North Lanarkshire; its also of significant strategic importance. Thats why we have committed to the groundbreaking 190million pan-Lanarkshire Orbital roads investment which will make development at Ravenscraig easier.A key part of the Cooper Cromar masterplan is the formation of a new town centre that will include a convenience store and other shops next to a newly built 40-bed hotel.
William Dupont teaches Architectural Conservation Theory and Historic Preservation Seminars at UTSA.

(March 28, 2018)  UTSA architecture professor William Dupont, who is perhaps best known for leading historic preservation efforts at Ernest Hemingways estate in Cuba, will be honored this week by the San Antonio Conservation Society with the Texas Preservation Hero Award.

Dupont began his professional career in Philadelphia in 1986 following the completion of his architectural education at the University of Pennsylvania. He spent four years working as a historical architect for the New Jersey Historic Trust, where he administered the states $47 million preservation grant program. From 1996 to 2007, he served as chief architect and Graham Gund Architect of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, where he led exemplary stewardship of the organizations historic sites. The number of sites increased from 15 to 28 in 15 states during his tenure, ranging from an American Indian pueblo to presidential sites and masterpieces of American architecture.

Dupont came to San Antonio in the late 1990s to work on the preservation of San Antonios Walter Mathis home in the King William district for the National Trust. He met Julius Gribou, then dean of the UTSA College of Architecture (CACP) and, in 2007, joined the UTSA faculty as the San Antonio Conservation Society Endowed Professor to teach graduate courses and establish the colleges graduate certificate program in historic preservation.

The UTSA professor teaches Architectural Conservation Theory and Historic Preservation Seminars, which take students to local historic sites as well as sites out-of-state to explore contemporary practices of historic preservation through experiential learning. He has guided graduate students on academic projects in places as diverse as the New Orleans Lower 9th Ward; American Indian pueblos in New Mexico; Havana, Cuba; and the San Antonio Missions. These projects provide important, real-life learning opportunities for students and introduce them to leaders, best practices and new developments in the global preservation community.

Professor Dupont has continued to increase his sphere of influence in the cultural and architectural conservation arena. He represents UTSA and the College of Architecture, Construction and Planning at the highest level, and we are fortunate to have his expertise in our studios and classrooms and in leading our scholarly pursuits, said John D. Murphy, Jr., Ph.D., professor and dean of the CACP.

Dupont envisioned and founded the UTSA Center for Cultural Sustainability in 2011 and serves as its director. The center is unlike any in the nation; its research extends beyond the building fabric toward an understanding of the continuity from past to future, and the connections between place and people. Dupont focuses the work on the larger context of cultural identity, traditions and heritage, viewing the built environment as a manifestation of culture. Economic and natural sustainability are considered as part of cultural sustainability.

The center provides academic research and services to benefit communities, completes large-scale research projects, provides opportunities for graduate students and convenes leaders in the field. Dupont believes UTSA and San Antonio are ideally suited for the center because of UTSAs position as a Hispanic Serving Institution and the citys rich heritage as a place of historical significance.

Duponts most significant work in San Antonio involves the citys five Spanish colonial missions. His efforts were integral in helping the San Antonio Missions achieve UNESCO World Heritage Site status. Since that designation was conferred in 2015, Dupont has helped the city of San Antonio and its neighborhood leaders understand the value of the designation and its importance to the growth of the city.

To that end, Dupont began coordinating with the National Park Service in 2016 to convene annual workshops regarding preservation issues at the missions. The events have drawn local, national and international experts in materials conservation, cultural resource management and architectural history. The third annual workshop is coming up in a matter of weeks. The opening sessionMonday, May 21, 2018, at 7 p.m. on the UTSA Downtown Campusis free and open to the public.

Currently, Duponts research agenda includes multiple initiatives related to his expertise in heritage conservation. With great support from faculty colleagues, he has led work regarding energy retrofits of older residences, recently completed a project to assess reuse of historic buildings at Bryce Canyon National Park, and in 2015 completed an Economic Feasibility Analysis for reuse of Lermas Nite Club in San Antonio. Additionally, Dupont and his team have begun technical reports to prescribe treatments for convento structures at Missions Concepcion and San Jose. Past work included Inventory, Assessment and Evaluation of Historic Resources in HemisFair Park, completed for the parks Master Plan.

Internationally, Duponts most visible project is leading the U.S. Technical Team advising Cuban colleagues on conservation issues at Finca Vigia, Ernest Hemingways estate in Havana for the last 22 years of his life. He has led this team in work sanctioned by both governments since 2005, and the collaboration has won a Cuban National as well as an International award. Hes twice been accepted to lecture at the Colloquium of Hemingway Scholars in Havana.

The Conservation Society is one of the most highly regarded preservation organizations in the nation, and the amazing heritage we have in San Antonio is a testament to their efforts spanning multiple generations, so this award is a very special honor for me. Im deeply grateful for the recognition of my work.
Rehan Akbani earned three degrees from UTSA and now conducts cancer research at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

(March 28, 2017) -- Meet Rehan Akbani 02, 05, 09. Hes using his UTSA computer science education to fight cancer and save lives.

Born in Pakistan, Akbani enrolled at UTSA straight out of high school. He received his bachelors degree, summa cum laude, in 2002 then went on to complete his masters and doctoral degrees in computer science in 2005 and 2009, respectively.

This three-time Roadrunner enjoyed being part of the UT System so much that he joined the faculty at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center after earning his doctoral degree. Today, hes an associate professor in MD Andersons Department of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, where he has published more than 70 peer-reviewed papers that have been cited over 26,600 times.

Akbanis field of interest is bioinformatics. Hes currently the principal investigator on four active grants with applications in cancer research. Overall, his work spans the biology of 33 types of cancer.

I was always interested in basic sciences, especially computer science, electronics and biology, Akbani recalled. I used to read biology books on my own for the love of the subject. Bioinformatics seemed like the perfect juxtaposition of the two subjects and it was an emerging field of research at the time I graduated.

When I entered the field, there was a natural demand for bioinformaticians that spoke both languages  computer science and biology  and the research field was wide open at the time.

Notably, the UTSA alumnus is a major contributor to The Cancer Genome Atlas, the largest cancer research project ever funded by the National Cancer Institute and National Human Genome Research Institute. Through the project, researchers around the nation are studying cancers at a molecular level to learn more about the biology of those cancers and to identify new molecular targets for therapy to explore in future research.

In one of Akbanis current projects, Pan-Gynecologic and Breast Cancers, hes studying molecular similarities and differences among breast and gynecologic cancers such as ovarian, uterine and cervical cancers.

Through his research, he expects to apply therapies that are successful in one gynecologic tumor type to other gynecologic tumor types with the same vulnerabilities. He also expects the findings to potentially help in locating the source of a patients tumor (e.g. cervix vs. lower uterus) so clinicians can tailor therapies to their patients.

Its a line of work that Akbani is thrilled to pursue.

I wanted to do research that would have a real impact, and cancer research felt like it was worth spending a lifetime on.
Most of the 110 Nigerian School children kidnapped by Boko Haram Islamist militants were released on March 21, 2018. (AFP or licensors)

The Catholic Bishops' Conference of Nigeria has described Leah Sharibu as a symbol of the suffering and persecution Christians face in the country, today.

By Paul Samasumo

When Nigerias Boko Haram militants returned the abducted Dapchi schoolgirls to their families, last week, they held-on to Leah Sharibu. The Nigerian government negotiated the release. The freed schoolchildren then told her parents that Leah had been held-back because she had refused to renounce her Christian faith and convert to Islam. Five other students died during the five-week-long captivity at the hands of Boko Haram.



Catholic Church in Nigeria wants government to secure Leahs release



On Wednesday, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Nigeria, (CBCN) urged the government to double its efforts and secure Leahs freedom.

We use this medium to appeal to the Federal Government (of Nigeria) to go the extra mile in re-negotiating the unconditional release of Leah without further delay, CBCN Secretary General, Fr. Ralph Madu told Vatican News.

Leah - a symbol of persecution



Fr. Madu added that the abductions, death of the five Dapchi learners and Leahs current ordeal were a stark reminder of how difficult it has become to be a Christian in Nigeria.

The 15-year old Leah has indeed become a symbol of the suffering, persecution, challenges and intimidation Christians face daily in Nigeria for expressing their faith especially in public, Fr. Madu said.

The Christian Church in Nigeria praying for Leah and her family



Leahs father, Nathaniel Sharibu, a Police officer who is a member of the Evangelical Church Winning All has also pleaded with the government to secure the release of his daughter before Easter. Nigerian media quoted Nathaniel Sharibu as saying, I am very sad, but I am also jubilating because my daughter did not renounce her faith.

The Evangelical Church Winning All is one of West Africas largest Protestant denominations.

Following in the footsteps of Christ



Some media commentators in Nigeria have described Leahs stand in the face of danger as unwise. However, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Nigeria describes her as following the footsteps of Jesus the Messiah whose passion, death and resurrection Christians commemorate this week.
An opposition gathering was held in downtown Moscow on Wednesday in tribute to the victims of the Siberian shopping mall fire. (Photo: AFP/Mladen Antonov)

Russian President Vladimir Putin took the unusual step - for him - of visiting the Siberian industrial city of Kemerovo, where the tragedy occurred, and faced emotional questions about how so many could have died "because of criminal negligence".

The current toll is at least 64 dead, including 41 children.

Safety exits were blocked, cinema doors were blocked, the fire alarm system was not working and a security guard failed to trigger the public warning system, investigators said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited some of the injured and blamed "criminal negligence" for the deaths. (Photo: AFP/Alexei Druzhinin)

The regional authorities appeared to have turned a blind eye to violations by the owners of the complex, which included cinemas, a bowling alley and children's play areas, as well as shops and restaurants.

The shopping centre opened in 2013 despite the emergency services having pointed out problems with fire safety. The owners did not make improvements after a 2016 inspection.

It was registered as a business with less than 100 staff in order to reduce official checks.

"Any businessman can tell you how much it costs to make a fire inspector turn a blind eye to violations," wrote popular blogger Ilya Varlamov.

PROTESTS

Opposition leader Alexei Navalny was among several thousand mourners who came to leave flowers on a Moscow square on Tuesday evening.

Some there shouted slogans calling for the sacking of Kemerovo's regional governor Aman Tuleyev and for a "Russia without Putin!"

In Kemerovo, thousands of people spent more than ten hours at a rally on the main square, both confronting officials and mourning the victims.

The shopping centre included a bowling alley, a multiplex cinema and play areas. Most of the victims were children. (Photo: AFP/STR)

"Who is really responsible?," "What is the real number of victims?" and "Pawns will be jailed, kings will get away with it" were some of the slogans on placards held by protesters.

The announcement that five people had been arrested, including the owner of the building and the head of the company that managed it as well as one of those in charge of security, was not enough to assuage public anger.

Many in Kemerovo voiced fears that no senior figures would be punished and called for the sacking of top officials including the region's governor Tuleyev.

Rumours swirled that the true total of victims was much higher than had been announced, even prompting the city mayor Ilya Seredyuk to allow a group of protesters to inspect morgues.

Deputy regional governor Sergei Tsivilev went to talk to protesters and confronted one, asking him: "Young man, you're talking to people calmly. What do you want? To get publicity from grief?"

The man, who gave his name as Sergei Vostrikov, then told him he had lost his wife, three children and his sister in the fire and accused him of treating people like "cattle".

Tsivilev then kneeled down to ask for forgiveness for the mistakes that led to the fire.

Vostrikov urged Kemerovo residents to hold another protest on Saturday.

At mourning ceremonies in central Moscow and Saint Petersburg on Tuesday evening, people shouted protest slogans such as "Put Putin on trial, put Tuleyev on trial!"

BLAMING OPPOSITION

The region's governor Tuleyev, in office since 1997, has failed to visit the scene of the tragedy or meet protesters.

On Monday, his first public reaction was not to speak to the public but to thank Putin for personally phoning him to give instructions.

Putin arrived in Kemerovo on Tuesday where he visited the improvised memorial set up by the public and laid flowers. He also held a televised meeting with Tuleyev, the emergency services minister and the country's chief investigator, Alexander Bastrykin.

Tuleyev thanked Putin again and apologised to him personally for what happened. He promised to meet each affected family and to pay off any outstanding debts from loans taken out by victims.

He accused the "opposition" of taking advantage of the situation to feed on "people's grief" and of posing as relatives of the victims.

Russia's main opposition leader Navalny, in his blog, condemned the Kemerovo authorities, who have also put pressure on his supporters in the city, as "a criminal conglomerate, real bandits who think only of personal profit".

He said that rescue workers had used outdated equipment and that there was a lack of proper coordination at the site of the blaze.

Journalist Oleg Kashin, writing on Republic.ru news website, said the tragedy showed the "real - very low - price of human life in Russia."
Cross ownership in financial institutions soon to hit finish line

In late 2017, Vietcombank, one of the largest state-owned commercial banks in Vietnam, finished its divestment of a 4.3 per cent stake at Saigonbank and 10.91 per cent stake at Cement Finance JSC (CFC). The bank has also put 6.6 million OCB shares on public auction at the price of VND13,000 ($0.57) per share.

Previously, the commercial bank announced the public auction of its 18.9 million OCB shares, also at the starting price of VND13,000 ($0.57).

The bank acquired over VND171 billion so far from the divestment of over 13.16 million shares in the auction. Currently, Vietcombank still possesses an 8.19 per cent stake in Vietnam Export Import Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Eximbank) and 6.97 per cent in Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank (MB).

The total outstanding credit that commercial banks and branches of foreign banks extend to clients for stock investment and business is not allowed to exceed 5 per cent of the charter capital and the allocated capital of these financial institutions.

Nghiem Xuan Thanh, chairman of the Board of Directors (BOD) at Vietcombank, asserted that, "The bank has been actively boosting divestment activities in order to comply with Circular No.36/2014/TT-NHNN dated November 20, 2014, stipulating the minimum safety limits and ratios for transactions performed by credit institutions and branches of foreign-invested banks."

Thanh further added that, "The bank had planned to shrink its shareholding in MB and Eximbank to the required 5 per cent. In addition, Vietcombank also plans to trade 350 million shares, equivalent to a 10 per cent stake, to foreign investors in 2018."

Le Van Quyet, CEO of Eximbank, stated that the bank managed to downsize its shareholding in Sacombank from over 165.22 million shares to just over 50 million shares in late 2017, securing about VND400 billion ($17.56 million) from the divestiture. Currently, the bank's divestment is still in progress.
Former director of Eximbank, Le Nguyen Hung, has escaped from Ho Chi Minh City

The three defendants are Nguyen Thi Ngoc Tram, Tran Nguyen Xuan Lan, and Cao Lan Phuong. All three of them are currently out on bail.

Previously, on March 26, the Ministry of Public Securitys Police Investigation Agency decided to execute the research warrant and order the confinement Nguyen Thi Thi and Ho Thi Thuy, who were working as bank clerks at the branch. The agency will investigate their complicity in the crime of deliberately acting against the state's regulations on economic management, causing serious consequences.

So far, six people are prosecuted over the loss of $10.8 million, including Ho Thi Thuy, Nguyen Thi Thi, Nguyen Thi Ngoc Tram, Tran Nguyen Xuan Lan, Cao Lan Phuong, and Hung who has escaped the locality and is currently wanted.

On February 24, the Police Investigation Agency issued an arrest warrant for Le Nguyen Hung, deputy director of Eximbanks Ho Chi Minh City branch for obtaining property by fraud by falsifying documents to withdraw customers money and appropriate nearly VND245 billion ($10.8 million).

Specifically, since 2007, VIP customer Chu Thi Binh has been depositing large amounts of money at Eximbank. On behalf of the bank, Hung and the bank staff many times visited her home to hand over the interest on her deposits at the bank.

Taking advantage of Binhs trust, Hung falsified her letter of authority to withdraw money from her savings account.
H&M logo, Photo: AFP/Eric Piermont

Net profits for the three months from January were down 44 percent to 1.37 billion Swedish kronor (135 million euros, $168 million) from 2.46 billion this time last year.

In Germany, H&M's main market, sales were down six percent. In France, the high-street fashion giant's fourth market, they plunged 10 percent.

"The start of the year has been tough," CEO Karl-Johan Persson said in a statement.

"The high level of clearance sales combined with unusually cold winter weather had a negative impact on the sales of the spring garments," he added.

The company, one of the hardest hit by what analysts have termed the "retail apocalypse" sparked by the online shopping revolution, is doing its utmost to ride out the storm.

"2018 is a transitional year for the H&M group, as we accelerate our transformation so that we can take advantage of the opportunities generated by rapid digitalisation," Persson said.

As it teams up with social media giants for a better digital presence, the Swedish group says it expects its online sales to grow more than 25 percent in 2018.

"We take a long-term view that together with our knowledge and experience enable us to navigate through times such as this," Persson added.

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Defining the new business concept for retail and franchise at Shop & Store 2018

Vietnam is considered a fertile land to develop the retail market, Kantar Worldpanels study has revealed incredible growth in Vietnam, with the market share of mini-stores growing by 32 per cent from 2015 to 2016, while online shopping grew by a remarkable 61 per cent.

At the same time, Vietnam ranked 9th among the top 12 markets identified by the members of the International Franchise Association as the markets most valuable for international expansion. Additionally, Vietnam was profiled in the Top Markets Report.

Suttisak Wilanan, deputy managing director of Reed Tradex, pointed out that Vietnam has all the necessary elements to rise, such as a large consumer base, rapidly rising incomes, and a generation of educated, young, and growing professional population. This offers great prospects for national and international brands to expand on the retail and franchising industry in the next five years.

Vietnam will continue to be the potential destination for international brands

Shop & Store Vietnam 2018, organised by Reed Tradex, is taking place at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Centre (SECC) on March 28-30. With the presentation of 70 brands from 18 countries and regions, and three international group pavilions from Thailand, Singapore, and Japan, Shop & Store Vietnam 2018 provides a unique platform for business development with three comprehensive profiles: retail, franchise, and shop fitting.

Among the exhibitors there are franchise brands like Miniso and Tupperware, as well as master franchises like Redsun ITI introducing King BBQ, Hotpot Story, and Khao Lao; Somy with Blackball; Vy Ha with Chabayom; and Global Notes presenting SIC, Renmi, and Nishio, among others.

Beside large players who provide retail solutions like Happy Move, Senior Soft, Can Innovation, Paneles, and Suzhou Hongyua, Shop & Store Vietnam also introduces new technologies to apply in retail business, such as retail devices and digital signage solutions from Samsung or Hologram technology presented by Worldline or an e-commerce platform for retail from Haravan.

It is inevitable that more and more Vietnamese businesses are now exploring new business opportunities via franchising. Nevertheless, there are a number of risks that a franchisor should investigate carefully before engaging or expanding in business in Vietnam.

At its first edition, Shop & Store Vietnam focuses on developing content that helps entrepreneurs prepare to the most effective business strategy in Vietnam, as well as reach out to the world with the Retail & Franchise Conference in Vietnam in corporation with Retail & Franchise Asia, and Legal Aspects in Franchising in corporation with VF Franchise Consulting.

Cashless Showcase activity, Smart Shopping Competition, and Hologram 3D demonstration are the highlights fo the three-day event
British artist Dan Kitchener made his third visit to Hong Kong this month to depict atmospheric urban scenes with spray paint in its narrow and steep streets. (Photo: AFP/Anthony Wallace)

The commercial high end of the art world is at the fore in March, with gallerists, collectors and celebrities descending on Hong Kong for the annual Art Basel fair.

But English mural artist Dan Kitchener, drawn to the city's unique geography and energy, made his third visit to Hong Kong this month to depict atmospheric urban scenes with spray paint in its narrow and steep streets.

"Hong Kong's got that feel to me - the epic scale and the skyscrapers, and then it's got these little tiny alleyways," Kitchener told AFP while balancing on bamboo scaffolding as he painted on the outside wall of a city bar.

Hong Kong lacks a world-class art museum but the city's once largely underground street art scene has exploded in recent years. (Photo: AFP/Philip Fong)

Trained for many years in watercolour and acrylic painting, 43-year-old Kitchener is particularly fond of portraying neon lights, reflections and rain - sights that first captivated him in Tokyo.

He had just finished a detailed mural of a street market in the bustling Wan Chai district, before moving on to paint outside a watering hole in downtown Central.

Just opposite the bar is a mural by graffiti artist Alex Croft said to be the city's most photographed wall, featuring rows of old townhouses on a bright blue background.

Hong Kong lacks a world-class art museum and marquee exhibitions rarely make a stop in the southern Chinese city, where it can be difficult to secure permission for public shows.

But street art has enjoyed a boost from growing demand in Asia and an increasing number of exhibitions in recent years, giving it a higher profile and more commercial spin in the city.

In 2015 a mosaic of 1970s American cartoon character Hong Kong Phooey by French artist Invader sold at auction in Hong Kong for HK$2 million (US$258,000).

The popular piece of street art had been destroyed by the city's authorities, infuriating residents, and was later recreated for sale.
Thon Nu Bac Ky (Peasants of Tonkin) by painter Nguyen Nam Son (Photo: VNA)

The auction was held by the Aguttes company at the Drouot auction centre in Paris, France, on March 26. The painting, titled Thon Nu Bac Ky (Peasants of Tonkin), is an ink and watercolour work on silk, measuring 65x52.5cm, with the painters signature on the upper right and lower left and the title on the lower left. It was auctioned at an initial price of 35,000 Euros and was expected to be sold for 50,000 Euros at the most. The painting is believed to have been made in 1935. The painter, whose real name is Nguyen Van Tho, was a co-initiator of the Indochine Fine Arts College in Hanoi with Victor Tardieu (1870-1937). At the same auction, 18 other paintings by Vietnamese artists were sold at high prices. A lacquer painting, titled Thieu Nu Mo Mong (A Dreamy Young Girl), by Le Pho (1907-2001), 60x91cm, was sold at 100,000 Euros, though it had been expected to be sold at 30,000 Euros at the most. Another painting by Le Pho, titled Mau Tu (Maternity), ink and watercolour on silk, measuring 59.5x48cm, was sold at 300,000 Euros, while his Thieu Nu Ben Hoa Hong (A Young Girl by a Rose), also ink and watercolour on silk, 41x32.2cm, was sold at 160,000 Euros. Both the paintings had been expected to get a maximum of 200,000 Euros. Vu Cao Dams (1908-2000) painting, titled Chuyen Tro (Conservation), ink and watercolour on silk, 60x45cm, was sold at 170,000 Euros though it was expecting to fetch 50,000 Euros. A painting by Mai Trung Thu (1906-1980), titled Khoanh Khac Am Nhac (Instant Music), ink and watercolour on silk, was sold at 230,000 Euros.
VIR and the Vietnam Real Estate Association handing out the awards to the 17 winners

This morning, the ceremony to honour Vietnams 20 most outstanding living spaces and a roundtable discussion with the developers has taken place at VIR's headquarters.

Speaking at the ceremony, Le Trong Minh, VIR's editor-in-chief, said that in 2015-2017 the Vietnamese real estate market has seen remarkable changes in product structure, policies and mechanisms, as well as the mindset of developers and customers. These provided the foundation for the market to move towards sustainable development and focus on the quality of living.

In 2017, the Vietnamese real estate market was pressured by tightening control over real estate credit flows, and some concerns about supply-demand imbalance. However, hundreds of projects have been kicked off, launched for sale, and their liquidity is at a very high level.

According to the Housing and Real Estate Market Management Agency under the Ministry of Construction, there were over 23,000 successful apartment transactions in 2017 in Hanoi, up 12 per cent compared to 2016, which is the highest liquidity level over the last five years.

In Ho Chi Minh City, there were 32,905 successful apartment transactions in 2017, which is the first time that more apartments were sold than launched. Numerous other active markets such as Quang Ninh, Haiphong, Thanh Hoa, Danang, Nha Trang, Phu Yen, and Phu Quoc are becoming attractive destination for investment.

All consultancy organisations stated that the 2017 real estate market marked a move from strong growth to sustainable development with the participation of big developers and huge high-quality projects.

Le Trong Minh, VIR's editor-in-chief

In order to determine the quality of real estate projects, VIR holds A new benchmark for living space poll annually to find the best living spaces for people.

The award also lauds the efforts of real estate developers t achieve the highest international standards and meet all demands of residents, Minh emphasised. A new benchmark for living space polled readers on numerous criteria, including design style, utility system, environment-friendliness, resident relations, legal standards, and transparency in communications."

VIR and the Vietnam Real Estate Association handing out the award to Vingroup's representative

17 developers were honoured today for their 20 projects. Vingroup dominates the rankings with four leading projects, Vinhomes Riverside, Vinhomes Times City-Park Hill, Vinhomes Imperia, and Vinhomes Central Park, which affirmed customers trust in this brand.
Greenpeace supporters held a protest against Volkswagen over the emissions scandal as a hearing got under way in London AFP/Tolga AKMEN

Thousands of British Volkswagen car owners took their compensation battle to London's High Court on Tuesday (Mar 27) over the emissions-cheating"dieselgate" scandal that has plagued the German carmaker.

Law firm Slater and Gordon began a three-day hearing for a group litigation order in what could be the largest consumer action in British legal history, it said.

"It has been over two years since the scandal was exposed and UK consumers have waited in vain for Volkswagen to respond to their complaints fairly," Gareth Pope, lawyer at Slater and Gordon, said in a statement.

The firm represents more than 40,000 current and past owners of Audi, Seat, Skoda and Volkswagen vehicles, making it the largest group of claimants in the collective legal action, it added.

The scandal that erupted in 2015 when Volkswagen admitted to installing cheating devices in millions of cars, secretly spewing far more nitrogen oxide than legally allowed, affected some 1.2 million cars in Britain.

Slater and Gordon on Tuesday added that more than one million of the affected car owners in the UK have yet to join its legal action.

But it noted that should the litigation order be granted, all affected British car owners would be able to have their claims managed by the same court, rather than every owner being forced to take individual legal action.

About 11 million vehicles worldwide were fitted with the cheating device.

The High Court could by Thursday also decide whether to issue a deadline for complaints - and appoint a lead lawyer to manage the class action.

Outside the court, supporters of environmental group Greenpeace gathered to protest against Volkswagen as the hearing got under way.

"VW: Clean air cheats," read a banner carried by the supporters.

"FIX" DISPUTE

The law firm, citing its own survey data, also argued that Volkswagen's technical remedy does not work - a claim denied by the company.

"Volkswagen's only response has been to offer consumers in the UK a 'fix' that our clients are telling us doesn't work," Pope said.

"The survey results are deeply troubling but confirm what clients have been telling us that many have suffered technical problems following the fix."

Volkswagen has argued that such survey data provided by Slater, which it has not seen, has "not been reliable or representative of the experience of owners of affected vehicles in the UK or elsewhere in Europe".

"We have implemented the technical measures in over 840,000 vehicles in the UK and in over 6.4 million vehicles across Europe, and the overwhelming majority of customers with these vehicles are satisfied," said a spokesperson.

VW has set aside more than 22 billion euros ($27 billion) to cover repairs, buy-backs and legal costs linked to the scandal, but experts believe the final bill will be much higher.

The scandal sparked an avalanche of compensation demands from customers, investors and regulatory authorities.
Over 15 cars and 150 motorbikes have been burnt in Carina Plaza fire

Four days after the Carina Plaza fire, which killed 13 people and injured nearly 100, 577 Investment Corporation (NBB) has just sent a letter to the State Securities Commission of Vietnam (SSC) and the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HSX) to explain its role in the project.

In the letter, chairman of NBB Doan Tuong Trieu confirmed that Hung Thanh was the sole developer of Carina Plaza, according to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Constructions decision approving the project. Accordingly, NBB is only a shareholder with 95 per cent of capital contribution in Hung Thanh.

Meanwhile, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction has just specified the violations of Hung Thanh. The department recommended the Ho Chi Minh City Peoples Committee to handle the violations, as well as requested Hung Thanh to quickly fix the apartment building.

Carina Plaza was put into operation in 2012. The Ho Chi Minh Fire Department approved the fire prevention and fighting tests of the apartment building, but the developer has yet to submit the test results to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction.

In October 2015, residents sent a letter to provide feedback on establishing the management board as well as poor security and hygienic circumstances. Thereby, the Department of Construction asked District 8s governance and Carina Plazas developer to hold a meeting, elect a management board, and handle violations. Up to date, the department has yet to receive any report on these issues.

In December 2016, Hung Thanh rented Saigon Real Estate JSC (SEJCO) to manage and operate Carina Plaza. However, there were no terms on the regular maintenance of the elevator system, fire alarms and firefighting system or firefighting equipment.

When the fire started in Carina Plaza several days ago, the fire alarms did not go off, the automatic sprinklers in the building did not start and the emergency lighting did not turn on during the fire.

According to newswire plo.vn, between 2012 and 2017, Ho Chi Minh Citys firefighters checked the fire safety of this apartment building 21 times and three times detected that the automatic fire alarms were not active, the firefighting water supply system and the fire hydrant outdoors were not working, and emergency lights did not turn on.

At the end of 2017, when firefighters checked the building, no violations were detected. However, when the fire started in Carina Plaza several days ago, the fire alarms did not go off, the automatic sprinklers in the building did not start and the emergency lighting did not turn on during the fire. The fire doors in the building had also been wedged open with bricks, allowing smoke to billow up to residential floors, causing the deaths of most of the 13 victims.

Therefore, the Ho Chi Minh City Fire Department has been appointed to check and review the entire fire prevention and fighting system and test the fire safety of Carina Plaza. The police in Ho Chi Minh City have just launched a criminal investigation into alleged violations behind the fire.
Andrew David Johnson died unexpectedly on Thursday, September 16, 2021, at the age of 23. A Celebration of Life will be held at 11:00 AM on Thursday, September 23, 2021, at Calvary Lutheran Church in Alexandria. Visitation will be held from 4-7 PM on Wednesday, September 22, 2021, at the And
61-year-old Sousanna Petrosyan dreams that one day the Hrazdan Mash machinery plant will once again provide jobs to area residents.

Once a center of Soviet industry employing thousands, 21,200 of Hrazdans 59,500 residents are unemployed today.

Most, like Sousanna Petrosyan are women. Most jobless men have left to seek work overseas.

28% of residents live below the poverty line.

Periodic rumors that the plant will reopen buoy her spirits, and shes convinced that despite her age, shell get a job at the factory if it does. Her husband will be able to return from working overseas and her son will also find work at Hrazdan Mash, she says.

Petrosyan worked at Hrazdan Mash from1982 until it closed its doors in 1989, when the Soviet Union collapsed. In 1988, she was transferred to the companys Dvin factory at Kotchorni. Her husband also worked at Hrazdan Mash. The couple spent their best years working at this industrial giant located in the town of Hrazdan.

Petrosyan says they were able to purchase their apartment and furnish it while working at the factory. They havent worked since the plant closed. She stayed at home, and her husband started to travel to Russia for work. He now drives a taxi in St. Petersburg.

In our day they would tell us live children, but not like us. I now say, live children, and live like us, says Mrs. Petrosyan referring to the Hovhannes Tumanyan poem.

In Soviet Armenia, Hrazdan, the provincial capital of Kotayk, was the fourth largest manufacturing center in the country. Hundreds worked here - town residents, people from neighboring villages, and those from Yerevan.

Ashot Grigoryan has worked at HrazJek OJSC (Hrazdan Energy Company) for 44 years. Hes a shift manager at the plant and remembers that in the 1980s special buses and trains would ferry workers from Yerevan.

There were 120,000 people in Hrazdan during the Soviet years. The plants then closed, and many left. Not even a half of Hrazdan is left today, Grigoryan recounts.

72-year-old Mher Arakelyan witnessed the construction of Hrazdan, He worked at HrazdanShin Trust from 1968-1994 as a truck driver transporting building material to construct large apartment houses in Hrazdan. The plant no longer operates.

There were several other factories that operated in Hrazdan until 1990, including the Djarati Milk Complex, The Kechark and Hrazdan Mekena production units, the Panel Home Construction Combinat, and the Hrazdan Cement Plant.

24 businesses now operate in the town. The Hrazdan Energy Company and the Hrazdan Cement Plant are the only two Soviet-era survivors.

The Hrazdan Municipality provided Hetq with a list of the top ten manufacturers in the town and the annual taxes they pay the town.

Gazprom Armenia pays 60.03% of Hrazdans municipal taxes, followed by Mika Cement CJSC (23.46%), Patnesh CJSC (5.65%), Hrazdan Road Construction OJSC (3.5%),Vil-Line LLC (2.88%), Kechark OJSC (1.67%), Mining Richness (1.57%), Green Farmer LLC (0.95%) and Investment Media Group (0.30%).

Hrazdan Mash: From 17,000 Workers to 82 Today

Hrazdan Mash, which was founded on the remnants of the Hrazdan Mining Chemical Plant of the 1970s, was supposed to serve as a regional center for the repair of military equipment and radio electronics; i.e., a leading air defense plant. Its various units produced a range of items  agricultural equipment, consumer goods, and specialized goods. Most of the work contracts came from the Soviet defense apparatus. When the Soviet Union collapsed, so did Hrazdan Mash. It racked up large debts and declared bankruptcy. In 1998, Armenias parliament privatized the plant which was then divvied up and reorganized.

The largest company formed due to the reorganization is Patnesh CJSC, founded in 2001. The Armenian government owns all its shares, and management is in the hands of the defense ministry.

Economist, Ashot Ohanyan, a former Hrazdan Mash payroll supervisor whos now the director of the Clean Armenia NGO, recounts that the plant employed 17,000 at its peak in 1987 when it produced 176 million Russian Rubles worth of goods. Patnesh CJSC, its successor, employs 82.

Hrazdan Cement Plant: In Bankers Hands

In Soviet Armenia, 80% of Hrazdan Cement Plants output went towards the construction of military facilities throughout the Soviet Union.

The Hrazdan Cement Plant began operating as a division of the Hrazdan Mining Chemical Plant in 1970. It was then restructured into the Hrazdan Cement Plant in1977.

For many years the plant was operated by Mika Cement, the company owned by Mika Baghdasarov. When Baghdasarovs business empire floundered, the cement company went belly up and wound up in the hands of its creditor, VTB Bank. It was declared bankrupt on November 30, 2017 and was put up for sale. Its debt amounted to AMD 933 million.

A company called Hrazdan Cement Corporation, registered on December 19, 2017, became the new owner. The company was founded in Artsakh by G M Holding Ltd. which is said to build gas supply facilities. GM Holding was founded by Vitali Grigoryan and Arsen Mikayelyan. Grigoryan, who lives in Russia, owns HayBusinessBank. Mikayelyan is president of the banks board of trustees and a confidant of Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan.

Samvel Karapetyan Transfers Hrazdan Energy Offshore

In 1969, the Hrazdan Thermal Power Plant produced 300 megawatts of electricity, increasing output to 810 and 1,110 megawatts, becoming the largest electricity producer in Armenia.

Construction on the power plant began in 1963 and started operating in 1966. It has strategic significance for Armenia since it provides most of the countrys domestic electricity needs when the Metsamor nuclear power plant is shut down for repairs or fuel recharge.

The Hrazdan thermal power plant now produces electricity for domestic consumption when there is a shortage  mostly in the fall and winter, and when the nuclear plant is idle. The plant also produces electricity that is exported to Iran and Georgia.

In 2004, the plant (then operating under the name State Regional Electric Station of Hrazdan) was turned over to the Russian government in 2004, as part of a package deal to pay off Armenias national debt to Moscow. It was then renamed HrazJek (Hrazdan Energy Company). Ashot Manukyan, Armenias current Minister of Energy Infrastructures and Natural Resources, served as its director from 2011-2015.

Inter RAO Group, a diversified energy holding that manages assets in Russia, Europe and the CIS, obtained 75% of the plants shares on December 31,2015. 25% went to Liorman Holding Ltd. Inter RAO has since sold all its shares to Liorman Holding.

Hrazdan Thermal Power Plant

Liorman Holding was also a shareholder of Energy Networks of Armenia until April of 2017. 70% of its shares then was transferred to Tashir Capital, owned by Samvel Karapetyan. Liorman Holding has various offshore company links with Karapetyan.

Hrazdan Energy now employs 600.

5th Energy Block Leaves Hrazdan Energy in the Dust

Construction of Hrazdans 5th Energy Block is directly connected to the construction of the Armenian-Iranian gas pipeline. The electricity is produces is exported to Iran, in return for Iranian gas imports.



The largest manufacturer in Hrazdan today is Hrazdan Energys 5th Energy Block, that is operated by Gazprom Armenia CJSC. All of Gazprom Armenias stock is owned by Russias Gazprom. The Russian government controls over 50% of the companys shares.

The decision to build Hrazdans 5th Energy Block, which opened in December 2013, was taken in the late 1970s. Soviet Armenia was granted permission to build the facility by the Soviet Council of Ministers at an estimated cost of 343.7 million Soviet rubles.

Construction on Hrazdan-5 was halted in the early 1990s. Newly independent, Armenia faced an energy crisis. Work recommenced in 1993, when a $57.5 loan was granted by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Work was again halted in 1997 due to insufficient funds.

In 2006, as part of an agreement between the Armenian government and Gazprom CJSC, HayRusGazArt CJSC acquired the assets of Hrazdan Energys 5th Energy Block, assuming the obligation to modernize and finish its construction. Some $465.2 million was invested in the project.

Data released by Armenias Public Services Regulatory Commission in 2017 shows that the 5th Energy Block had outstripped Hrazdan Energy in terms of electricity output. Hrazdan Energy produced 316.9million kilowatts per hour, while the 5th Energy Block produced 992.6 million.

One-Third of Hrazdan Residents are Unemployed

Hrazdan was registered as a town in 1959

Thousands of workers once walked down Hrazdans Factory Street to reach the towns industrial section. The one-kilometer street, once in good shape, is now difficult to traverse, especially during the spring pot hole season. Today, only 2,000 workers use the route to get to their jobs.

Replying to a Hetq inquiry as to whether the municipality has any programs in place to reenergize industry, Hrazdan Mayor Aram Danielyan stated: We will renovate the streets leading to the factories, allocate land to newly created legal entities to build solar power stations and a green house, and issue new building permits.

All this falls within the purview of the municipality; its the job of local government. Factory Street, however, remains in a state of disrepair.

None of the industrial giants still operating in Hrazdan conduct any social programs for town residents. Mayor Danielyan also confirms this.

Danielyan named some new businesses that have opened shop in Hrazdan during the past five years  Mining Richness, Green Farmer LLC, Solar Station, Investment Media Group, and several that make bread, pastries, clothing, rugs, cement bricks, aluminum roofing and stone items.

These are small enterprises that dont employ many people.

With on-third of its population unemployed, a diminishing tax base, and no prospects of large-scale businesses setting up shop in the area, Hrazdan faces an uncertain future.
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University Appoints Parasol Librarian

The University of Gibraltar have announced the appointment of its Parasol Librarian. Caroline Moss-Gibbons joins the University in May and will take on responsibility for learning resources including the Gibraltar Repository and associated resources.

Her specialist background within both public and academic information sciences will undoubtedly enhance the experience of students at the University. After starting her career in public libraries and the UK Civil Aviation Authority, Caroline was appointed in 1990 first as Collections Librarian, then later as the Institute Librarian & Web Manager of the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research (IGER). As well as being responsible for the library service as a whole (including developing the e-resources collection) she maintained IGERs scientific publications and projects repository.

Caroline currently works as part of the Research Development team at the University of Sussex, supporting the research strategy and applications for external funding for the Brighton & Sussex Medical School (BSMS). She is the internal team lead for matters relating to Open Access and Research Data Management in the Research Office.

Her new post is funded in totality by The Parasol Foundation Trust who recently donated 600,000 towards the Universitys curriculum development and learning resources. The University will be hosting a reception to launch the newly-renamed Parasol Library once Caroline takes on the new role.
University of Gibraltar to Host Prestigious Research Grant

The University of Gibraltar have said it is delighted to host a prestigious 120,000 euro research grant from the Gerda Henkel Foundation. The grant will support the research of Dr Kevin Lane, an accomplished Gibraltarian archaeologist and academic who is currently undertaking field research in Argentina and Peru.

This latest award will fund his new project An Archaeology of Mobility, which aims to track human and animal mobility in the Andes. The funds will include two additional post-doctoral awards.

Dr Lane, an Associate Researcher of the University of Gibraltar, completed his PhD in Archaeology at the University of Cambridge, Trinity Hall in 2006. He was appointed a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Manchester (2007-2009), a Sainsbury Visiting Research Fellow at the University of East Anglia (2010), and a Research Fellow of the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Free University, Berlin, 2011-2012), before co-directing a large Leverhulme Research Project (University of Cambridge, 2012-2015). Between 2014 and 2016 he was archaeological officer for the Department of Heritage of HM Government of Gibraltar. He is now a Senior Researcher of the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Argentina.

The Gerda Henkel Foundation was established in June 1976 by Lisa Maskell in memory of her mother Gerda Henkel as a private, non-profit grant making organisation. The sole object of the Foundation is to promote science at universities and research institutes, primarily by supporting specific projects in the field of the humanities.

This grant is one of several international and competitive awards currently hosted by the University of Gibraltar, all of which enable valuable, high-profile research projects that have far-reaching benefits. The University is developing its research capability across a number of priority areas and already hosts 12 local PhD students. Their research reflects issues faced by our society including climate change, marine biodiversity, technology in schools and dementia care to name a few.
Edward Norton. Photo: ANGELA WEISS/AFP/Getty Images

Edward Nortons production company Class 5 Films is facing a multimillion-dollar lawsuit after a fire destroyed the building in Harlem where he was filming Motherless Brooklyn, reports Deadline. The March 22 fire killed FDNY firefighter Lt. Michael Davidson.

Erica and George Cruz, a couple that lived in the building, is suing Class 5 and the buildings owner for damages, including the loss of personal possessions and their rent-controlled apartment. According to their suit, the fire began in the basement where certain equipment, including highly flammable equipment was kept. The couple also claim that the company knew about the flames but did not accurately communicate the emergency. The suit states, When representatives of Class 5, Inc. became aware of the fire, they did not warn the tenants in the building; in fact, they misled the tenants into believing there had been a fire that had been extinguished.

In an earlier statement given to People, the production company claimed, As soon as we noticed smoke coming up into our set, our crew immediately alerted the fire department and began alerting residents of the building even as we evacuated our cast and crew. The statement continued, To our great sorrow, we now know that a NYC firefighter lost his life battling the blaze that grew, and our hearts ache in solidarity with his family.
Photo: Getty Images

If youre familiar with Jasmin Savoy Browns work on The Leftovers, you may not immediately recognize the 24-year-old actress on ABCs new Shondaland drama For the People. For starters, her character talks this time  a lot. Freed from the silent and creepy Guilty Remnant, Brown now plays Allison Adams, a young public defender working in the Southern District of New York, whos best friends with Britt Robertson and ends up on the opposite side of the courtroom from her boyfriend turned ex (played by Ben Rappaport). Vulture caught up with Brown to find out how shes adjusting to her new show, the acting lessons she learned from The Leftovers, and that time her mom predicted that shed get a starring role in Shondaland.

I first saw you in The Leftovers, where your character didnt do a ton of talking. Whats it like to go from that to a Shondaland-style show, where its so fast and quippy?

It was exactly what I wanted. I really loved working on The Leftovers and I would have done it for ten years, gladly, if they kept going  but since they didnt, I really wanted to go to the complete opposite for the next few roles that I chose. It was really exciting and a fun challenge to come over to Shondaland, with all these monologues.

Are the scripts thicker because theres so much dialogue?

Yeah, one thing thats unfortunate is that scenes have to get cut constantly because theres so much going on, but I come from a theater background, so Im always excited to see monologues and pages. Im actually much more intimidated by one line than I am by huge monologues.

You were in one episode of Greys Anatomy a while back. Did you feel like that prepared you?

It definitely took out some of the intimidation, since I already knew what its like on set. But funny story: I did that episode of Greys, and because moms are superfans, my mom was like, Oh, that was so good, I bet that Shondas going to make you your own show. And Im like, Thats not how it works. And then I got this show!

What was her reaction when you told her youd gotten For the People?

Im pretty sure she cried, she was so excited. She was like, Oh, well, youre welcome.

Did you learn about the lives of public defenders while shooting the show?

Fortunately for me, theres a federal public defender in New York, in the Southern District, who has been kind enough to Skype with me and text with me on occasion. We were Skyping over Christmas, which should have been her holiday break. We Skyped for an hour and she probably got six phone calls from clients, like it was nonstop. That was in the evening, it was pretty late for me over in Oregon, so it was even later for her in New York. That was incredible insight to the reality of what that life is like.

Allison breaks up with her boyfriend Seth, who works for the prosecutors office, because they end up on opposite sides of a case. Whats it like to play that?

For me, it deepens the respect for the other side to hear that perspective and how much he is committed to the government. Obviously, Allison has a completely different viewpoint. It definitely has given me more respect for both sides of the law, which I think this whole show does really well by showing both perspectives of each case and every conversation that happens. I always favor the defense side and I always will, but at least I can have a little more respect for the other side than I could before.

Were you interested in these kind of issues before joining the show?

Not really. Especially because of our political climate, I was kind of just thinking, Eff you! to our whole system, but this show has given me much more interest now that Im understanding the inner workings of everything better. Im becoming passionate about things I was, maybe, more passively interested in before. For example, weed becoming legalized in so many states. Yeah, its really great for these white people who are opening shops and making all this money, but what about all of the black men and Latino men who are stuck in prison for doing the same thing?

Within the show, theres a team of public defenders  you and Britt Robertson and the others  set away from the prosecutors. Whats that group dynamic like?

We joke around that were on two different shows, because the public defenders are always together, the prosecutors are always together, and some of us have never even crossed paths on set. Over on our side, on the public defender side, we have a blast. We are just pranking each other on set and telling goofy stories and cracking up. We all go to karaoke together. Britt has become a good friend of mine in real life, as has Wesam [Keesh, who plays Jay].

In shooting The Leftovers, what was it like to go on location in Australia?

I only shot four days, I think, but there were two episodes in between them, so I had about four-and-a-half weeks off. Rather than flying back to L.A., I just stayed in Australia and my girlfriend went with me. We just rented a car and put 6,000 miles on it in 30 days. We drove into the outback and went to the beaches and we ate all kinds of good food and played with kangaroos.

There were so many impressive actors and writers and directors on that show. What did you learn on the set?

It felt like a master class in acting for me. Before I booked the show, I was watching season one and I specifically remember watching Amy Brenneman and Ann Dowd  everything they were doing silently  and just thinking how difficult and exciting that must have been. To then join them and get to do that, it was incredible. Kevin Carroll, who played my dad, we talked a lot about acting. It was like a big acting class.

In that episode in Melbourne, Evie shoots such incredibly withering glares at Kevin Garvey when shes haunting him. Did you spend much time perfecting that look?

I more did a lot of work on Evies anger. I just let it happen on the day.

How do you tap into that?

At that time in my life, I hadnt been in L.A. that long, I was going through my own stuff, so it wasnt that hard for me to get that anger. I understand that feeling of everyone around you lying and being the odd one out. I very much relate to that feeling, so it was really quite therapeutic, actually, to express all of that to the world. It was very healing. Afterwards, I felt less angry.

Youve gone between these two extreme types of acting. Are there other styles that you want to do?

I want to do more comedy. I would really love to do a female-driven comedy. Thats something I havent done very much of, but that I love to do. I want to explore just other sides of filmmaking, apart from acting. I am writing right now and I would love to direct and produce something  Ive been looking for ways to do that. And I miss theater. I would love to go and work on Broadway or Off Broadway.

What do you tend to write?

Theyre definitely not comedies. Theyre dark dramas. The thing that Im working on right now, that I plan on directing later this year, is a historic psychological thriller.

You said you just moved to L.A. when you were doing The Leftovers. You grew up in Oregon, right? What was it like to go out there and try to get into acting?

I moved here when I was 19. I was just very fearless. When I think about the move now, its more intimidating that it was at the time. It was just the next step, the thing to do, and I wasnt scared at all. In fact, it was very refreshing and exciting to be here, to see so many different types of people and to see a plethora of people of color because its not like that in Oregon. When I think about it now, Im like, Wow, that was crazy to just pick up and move, but it wasnt a big deal to me at the time. I had $2,000 and I was like, Thats so much money! Now Im like, What? Who moves with $2,000? But at the time, it was a lot, you know?

Was there a moment when you felt like youd figured things out?

Id say thats happening now. I just got a car. A month or two after I booked The Leftovers, my car completely died  since then, I havent had a car, but I just got one. Thats a big step for me. Im not worried about making rent for the first time in a while, so thats nice. Im at that spot now and it feels very good.
Braun. Photo: C Flanigan/FilmMagic

Scooter Braun  best known as the manager of Justin Bieber and Kanye West  is now dipping his toes into the comics water. Specifically, superhero comics. As reported in the New York Times, Braun has partnered with David Maisel, the founding chairman of Marvel Studios, to form Mythos Studios, which aspires to make its own hit comic-book movie franchises in live-action and animated formats. In addition to being in the midst of adapting the cult Soulfire and Fathom comic books for the big screen, the creative duo said theyre also looking for original material that can be readily found in the public domain. And, yes, the chance of one of Brauns musical prodigies popping up in his projects is very much a possibility.

If any of the talent we work with wants to be a part of the projects were doing, we welcome them to join us on this journey, Braun explained to the Times. Ive already had conversations with certain talent that are very excited about being a part of this  if you tell a great story, people will care. He added that he knows people might be wary of his interest in the film industry, but he welcomes the opportunity to prove people wrong. He built a career, he joked, out of peoples skepticism. I was second-guessed on Ariana Grande, Gangnam Style, Call Me Maybe. Thats usually the direction we ran in. The duo hope to have a time table for their projects soon.
Meet the Roses! Photo: CBC/ITV/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock/CBC/ITV/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock

In the very first scene of Schitts Creek  perhaps the finest Canadian comedy import of the past decade  Catherine OHaras character is aghast at the prospect of being removed from her precious wigs. Not the wigs, she pleads, anything but the wigs! She and her family are being evicted from their mansion, thanks to their business managers pesky tax-evasion scheme, and theyre soon banished to a motel at their only remaining asset: the quirky boondocks of Schitts Creek, a town that was purchased by her husband Johnny (Eugene Levy) for their scion David (Dan Levy, his real-life son) as a joke many years prior. Four seasons in, the small-town shenanigans of Schitts Creek continue to delight on Pop TV, but comedy aside, one of the shows most defining characteristics is its use of fashion. Including the wigs.

Its continually reminding our audience where these people came from, Dan Levy, the co-creator and star of Schitts Creek, explained to Vulture on a recent afternoon. (Levy supervises the costume department alongside seasoned designer Debra Hanson.) The juxtaposition of designer clothes against the backdrop of this town is able to tell a story. When we starting putting the show together, one of the fundamental building blocks of the wardrobe was making sure were not only creating an aspirational aesthetic, but also creating dimensions to these characters. Any way we can squeeze as much character out of these people as possible, the better.

Moira, in one of her many fabulous wigs. Photo: CBC/ITV/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock/CBC/ITV/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock

That aesthetic is best personified with OHaras character, Moira. She is never without a severe or sculptural outfit, strongly favoring monochromatic looks by Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga, and Givenchy. Her wardrobe is stunning, yet a humorous contrast to the achingly mundane town. When Catherine first signed onto the show, I met with her to discuss what she thought the character would wear and how she carried herself, Levy explained, noting how OHara brought a photo of Daphne Guinness for inspiration. We collectively thought, This is a really great jumping-off point. But how do you translate someone like Daphne Guinness, who wears couture on the streets of London and New York, into a character on television whos slightly more palatable and easy to grasp?

The resulting outfits and accessories brim with brazen black-and-white designs, which also helped to craft the style of Moiras son, David. We thought it would be funny if he adopted the elements of her aesthetic as his own, Levy said. Davids very much his mothers son, so it made sense he would look up to her sartorially in his own way and try to reinterpret what shes been doing.

David in a slightly more casual look. Photo: CBC/ITV/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock/CBC/ITV/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock

But in order to set Moira apart as much as possible, OHara believed she had to incorporate one more element for maximum style: those beloved wigs. The idea was she would have these wigs on the wall because she previously had a wig room in her mansion, Levy said. Its been a defining element of what makes this character tick, and also how shes able to express herself. Catherines really brilliant when it comes to understanding the minutiae of a character and really squeezing every last laugh. (Sometimes, OHara even wears a wig or dress backwards to evoke Moiras oft-frantic mood.)

As for the characters of Johnny (the elder Levy) and daughter Alexis (Annie Murphy), the same mandate applied for their wardrobes, even if they arent as in-your-face as the other Roses: Alexis enjoys a rotating bohemian aesthetic from Isabel Marant and Derek Lam, while Johnny is almost always in a well-tailored suit from Hugo Boss or Ermenegildo Zegna. I needed the clothes to be authentic. We cant be doing knockoffs, Levy said. In the chance someone working in fashion in Europe or New York was to sit down and watch this show, I want it to speak to them in the same way it would to someone in middle America.

Johnny and Alexis, while simpler in their wardrobes, still have the most prominent designers on rotation. You can also see Moiras wig wall. Photo: CBC

The challenge of obtaining a carousel full of ready-to-wear items every season was easier than expected, thanks to Levys savviness at scouring eBay, consignment stores, and sample sales for potential items. That, and hed been preparing his entire life for such a gig. Its really fun for me, he said with a laugh. I get to play around with all of these amazing clothes Ive admired from afar and bring them to life in new and different ways.
BEIJING (AP) - South Korea and Chinese media have confirmed that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has visited China.



It was Kim's first known visit to a foreign country since he took power after his father's death in late 2011.

China's official Xinhua News Agency said Wednesday that Kim made an unofficial visit to China and met with President Xi Jinping at the Chinese leader's request.

The short trip saw a North Korean train enter China on Monday but was otherwise cloaked in secrecy.

The train looked like one used by Kim's father, former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.
WATERFORD is marking time with a new museum in the Viking Triangle. The Irish Museum of Time is the first of its kind in the...
... but you will need to show proof of jab get into bars STUDENTS heading to college in September will not have to be vaccinated...
THE road to the classroom is to be made safer and easier for four Waterford primary schools. They have been selected for inclusion in...
WHILE there is no guarantee of sunshine on the Sunny South East as we move into the autumn/winter season, revellers will nonetheless be thrilled...
Two Russian spies will depart Australia this weekend as the relationship between the two countries further deteriorates after an extraordinary face off yesterday between Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and the Russian Ambassador.

Ms Bishops office invited the media to the first few minutes of her afternoon meeting with Ambassador Grigory Logvinov, where she expressed Australias outrage over the latest poisoning of former Russian agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Britain.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop meets with Russian Ambassador Grigory Logvinov at Parliament House. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

She also invoked Australia's lingering resentment towards Russia over its role in the downing of flight MH17, which killed 38 Australians in 2014.

Ms Bishop said Mr Logvinovs claims of a western conspiracy were standard Russian propaganda.
Learning salsa is as important as mastering calculus, a leading international education expert says.

Sir Ken Robinson knows his views are provocative but says theres plenty of evidence to back them up.

Dance is just as important as mathematics in schools, he said.

Some people, they start to hemorrhage at that point. Its too much...Someone tweeted at me and said so are you are saying salsa is as important as calculus?... as it turns out, yes, it is.
And I just want to sob like my little one this morning. Teachers warn some schools are moving away from appropriate play-based learning programs. Teachers from all over Western Australia reach out on almost a daily basis to a group of early childhood professionals who have decided to advocate for our littlest learners. These teachers approach the group to ask for advice on what to do when their school administrations tell them play is a waste of time. They believe some school principals are pushing early childhood specialist teachers to move away from the evidence-based appropriate play-based learning towards developmentally innappropriate direct explicit instruction. This group believes not much has changed since 2010 when a review of educational practice in kindergarten, pre-primary and year one was undertaken.

Department of Education director general Sharyn O'Neill said in 2011 the study: "found a lack of clarity about what constituted a high quality early years program, that practice was inconsistent across schools, with no clear expectations". She introduced the Early Years Learning Framework, a document designed to clarify what schools should be doing. Concerned teachers complain there is still no database kept that demonstrates exactly how much play-based learning kindergarten and pre-primary children are exposed to. And there is no transparency or accountability to the WA community on how schools are delivering on the child's right to play. Kindy should be about protecting, valuing, nurturing and enhancing childhood but in some cases were not just stealing their childhood but crushing it WA early childhood teacher

A mum of a four-year-old boy attending a WA public school said her son was already expressing worries about not wanting to get into trouble, giving the wrong answer in class and failing to make his parents proud. When she went to find out why he was not enjoying school she noticed there was no home corner in his classroom. The class teacher directly told me that play-based learning does not work, the mother said. The teacher admitted there was no time allocated in the childrens daily schedule for play, other than recess and lunch. There would be no other free play time, with the teacher warning this was not kindy anymore. He is feeling that pressure because its so intense, the mother said of her child.

Theyre asking so many questions of them all day. And there is no let-up; no chance for their little minds to refresh. She had tried to find another school that valued play-based learning for her son, but said parents were powerless as she had been told there was no room for him elsewhere.

Some kids in kindy at WA public schools are being given nightly homework including name and number tracing sheets, sight words and reading books. And in one school, this started in week two of term one. One kindy teacher put it this way: it seems like the current policy is that principals are free to make any decisions they want in their schools with no accountability except for Naplan scores, which then pressures them to look at academics over play. Sue Briggs spent a 40-year career in education working in pre-primary and then at the departments central and district offices as an early childhood consultant, among other senior positions. She recently resigned in disgust at the direction WAs public schools were headed in early education, describing the changes as horrifying. Early childhood teachers in the public school system were being directed by principals to cut out play-based learning in favour of formal and developmentally inappropriate teaching styles, she said.

I sit crying at some of the things people are being asked to do, Mrs Briggs admitted. She said there was a push for academic achievement earlier, a focus on NAPLAN scores, and too many schools were forcing young children into sitting at desks earlier. It is paradoxical that many educators and parents still differentiate between a time for learning and a time for play without seeing the vital connection between them. Special education professor Leo Buscaglia The National Quality Standard - a policy which details seven areas of quality schools should satisfy - enshrined the right to play, but it was left up to principals to ensure this was happening in the classroom. She said years ago the department would regularly visit schools to see play-based learning in practice but now they had no idea.

In the past, schools and teachers could have somone with expertise from a district or central office level available for advice on early childhood teaching, she said. District office staff would visit schools, observe classrooms in practice. They would talk with the teacher and principal to ensure best practice. "That resource is no longer available," Ms Briggs said. The move to more formal and rote learning in more schools saw even some kindy children sitting at desks. Outdoor learning time was being cut to fit into recess and lunch in order to spend more time in formal learning. Young children are naturally eager to learn, but now we are turning a lot of children off learning, Ms Briggs said.

They start to feel theyre not worthy, that they're incapable of learning. And its worse even for boys, whose fine motor skills develop more slowly, and they start to feel that they are failures." WA Department of Education director of early childhood education Rosemary Cahill said play provided opportunities for rich learning and schools had an obligation to maximise childrens learning through the use of high quality teaching programs. The NQS was put into place because across the nation it was realised schools could do better. But play-based learning was one aspect of quality, and schools must satisfy the NQS' seven areas. Rather than just saying 'do more play', the department aimed to help kindergarten teachers to optimise the learning out of these play-based moments, with explicit teaching and play-based learning working together.

Dr Cahill said all schools must engage in an internal audit about how they are performing to the National Quality Standard every year. Early childhood educators reflected on how they were performing in relation to the NQS areas. The principal was required to conduct an internal audit and must record their determinations about how they were travelling on specially designed software. Passionate teachers are getting together to ensure best practice teaching happens in WA schools. Credit:Catherine Yeulet In addition to that, once every three years schools were reviewed by consultants with expertise in early childhood who were employed through the government agency previously known as the Department of Education Services which now was part of the DOE. The culture of schools is extremely compliant, they are not driven by a profit motive or a wish to run a business. They are run with a deep commitment to childrens learning. The vast majority of educators are really committed to learning, Dr Cahill said.

The schools say they really want to make sure were doing this properly. We offer a verification service. Our teams...were made available to schools to engage in the verification. Schools could also invite the department in to assess their teaching programs. The first year this was offered 200 out of 650 public schools did so. In 2017 a similar number did too. "Already this year, theres another 50-60 on our books," she said. A big stick is not the way to achieve ongoing improvement.

If we started saying and we are going to come back and check then its very likely the schools will start fudging, or they may not be as candid about how theyre actually travelling. Play provides rich opportunities for learning. If after two to three years a school had not requested a verification but were claiming they were meeting all seven quality areas, the school was given a blue flag on the software system, which was visible to senior DOE staff. Then they were encouraged to have the consultants come in for verification. No-one likes a blue flag, Dr Cahill said. I think the reality is that we have a clear structure and plan in place to improve everything across the organisation in terms of the quality of the learning experiences of children across the state.

Schools dont like having a blue flag, they dont like having a red flag if theyre not meeting the quality areas, then they come up. And schools actively seek support. Edith Cowan University early childhood studies Associate Professor Lennie Barblett recently completed several case studies at WA schools for the DOE, to determine how well they were implementing the NQS. She said her research showed schools were tough on themselves and wanted the best for their students. She was aware of "anecdotal evidence" that innappropriate teaching pedagogies were being applied in the early years in some schools but believed improvements were being made across the state. We are calling it the ripple effect," she said. "Yes there are teachers using different pedagogies, and perhaps not what we would call age appropriate.
Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg plans to testify before US Congress, a source briefed on the matter said on Tuesday, as he bows to pressure from lawmakers insisting he explain how 50 million users' data ended up in the hands of a political consultancy.

It comes after Zuckerberg turned down British lawmakers' invitations to explain to a British parliamentary committee what went wrong. Credit:AP

Lawmakers in the United States and Europe are demanding to know more about the company's role in consultancy Cambridge Analytica's use of the data to target US and British voters in close-run elections.

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Facebook said on Tuesday the company had received invitations to testify before Congress and that they were talking to legislators.
More than 120 prison staff have been assaulted in WA jails in the past 12 months, new figures have revealed.

It comes as disturbing details emerge of a recent incident at a regional WA prison where a potential hostage situation involving a female prison officer was narrowly avoided.

Figures tabled in state parliament show there have been 125 assaults against staff in prisons since the middle of March last year.

Fourteen of the 125 cases were classified as 'serious assaults'.

The figures were provided following questions from One Nation MP Charles Smith in the Legislative Council.
"I couldn't breathe properly and I was covered in my own urine," Ms Foster said. "At the time I couldn't have cared less, I was so unwell. When I got up to complain, I had to hold everything along the way or I would have fallen over, because I was so dizzy." When she reached the counter, Ms Foster said she told the clerk she would call the police and have someone charged if she was not seen immediately. "My name was called within minutes," she said. "They had to help me through the door ... drips went in to me and I was hooked up to oxygen ... I was in there for eight days."

Ms Foster said her daughter found out she was in hospital four days after she had been admitted, despite being her next of kin. "I called my daughter four days later, and she could not believe I was in hospital," she said. "I had ticked the box for her to be called and had written her details down. She was really upset she had not been contacted." Prior to being discharged, Ms Foster attempted to apply for home care, but a staff member told her it would take "up to six weeks" for the service to be organised. Ms Foster later found out that she was eligible for the service to commence the day she was discharged.

'Responsive and very apologetic' Ms Foster told the Mandurah Mail she was angry she had to make a threat in order to be seen by a doctor in that state, and said she would now purchase ambulance insurance so she could be transferred to a Perth hospital in a future emergency. A Peel Health Campus spokesperson said they were sorry for the issues Ms Foster experienced at the hospital. "At the time of her attendance to the emergency department, it was an extremely busy time for Peel Health Campus," the spokesperson said. "However, once we realised her situation, the staff were responsive and very apologetic."

The spokesperson said about 3500 patients presented to the emergency department each month and the hospital received "relatively few complaints". After lodging a complaint about her treatment in September, Ms Foster received a letter from the hospital saying a "full investigation" had been conducted. It said Ms Foster's complaint had prompted a review in to the hospital discharge process and consequently staff were educated on ensuring next of kin were contacted. Under-resourced and struggling to keep up On average, 43 per cent of Peel Health Campus patients arriving by ambulance were handed over to emergency department staff within 20 minutes of arrival, between March 19 and 26, 2018, according to the Department of Health.

PHC has also fallen behind other West Australian hospital departments in meeting the "four-hour rule", that requires 90 per cent of all emergency department patients to be treated in less than four hours. More than 30 per cent of patients who attended the Peel Health Campus emergency department between October and December in 2017, had an episode length exceeding four hours, according to the WA quarterly report. This was the highest episode length percentage of all West Australian hospitals during this period. Peel Health Campus statistics disclosing emergency department daily wait times and the amount of ambulance diversions to other hospitals is not made available to the public. It is the only metropolitan hospital that does not have these results accessible online. A Department of Health spokesperson said this information was not available because the data provided to the department from the hospital was "not consistent with the minimum specifications necessary for inclusion".

"The Department of Health is working with the Peel Health Campus to include emergency department data in the emergency department activity public reports," the spokesperson said. The spokesperson told the Mandurah Mail a timeframe for the provision of this information to the public was not available. Not the first, and not the last In recent months, the Mandurah Mail has uncovered a number of patients who feel they were let down by the Peel Health Campus service. Earlier this year, 42-year-old Halls Head mother Mandii Tennick had a heart attack after she was sent home from Peel Health Campus complaining of neck, back and jaw pain.

She presented to the emergency department with "excruciating pain" in her back, neck and jaw, shortness of breath and a tingling sensation in her arms. The mother-of-four said she was made to wait for about 30 minutes before she asked a staff member to be seen because of her pain, and the attending doctor handed her painkillers and said she could go home. Mandii said the doctor told her they could do an electrocardiography test to check her heart, but they were not going to because they did not think she needed one. She went home, but hours later, went to the Fiona Stanley Hospital emergency department due to ongoing pain. Doctors then informed her she was in the process of experiencing a heart attack.

While she is recovering, Mandii said she had lost faith in the health system and believed Mandurah needed a better hospital. "I was let down," she said. In another instance, a Mandurah man's health deteriorated after he was sent home twice from Peel Health Campus, only later to discover he had blood cancer. Reginald Whiu, 73, from Greenfields, said he was diagnosed with degeneration of the spine at a GP early last year, after complaining of back pain. Mr Whiu was admitted to the hospital for three days and received blood tests and an ultrasound, she said.

He was discharged by a doctor who advised Mr Whiu to drink water and laxatives, take pain relief medication and follow up with his GP in one week. However he returned two days later and began a five day stint at the hospital. He was again discharged. However after the pain continued and worsened, he was taken to Fiona Stanley Hospital where it was revealed he had was suffering from blood cancer. Within days, Mr Whiu was treated with chemotherapy for multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer, and for his spinal cord compression.
A Perth schoolgirl left seriously injured and fighting for life after an electric shock at her home has started saying the word 'mum'.

Nine News Perth reports Denishar Woods has defied the odds, surprising doctors who have told her family she could be discharged from hospital in just three months.

Denishar Woods looks like making a miraculous recover from an electric shock.

The 11-year-old was given little chance at surviving by doctors at Princess Margaret Hospital after touching the tap at the Beldon property earlier this month.

Doctors informed her family she had sustained brain damage and was unlikely to survive her catastrophic injuries, with her distraught mother Lacey Harrison prepared to take her daughter off life support.
Beijing: China says it has won a pledge from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to denuclearise the Korean peninsula during a meeting with President Xi Jinping, who pledged in return that China would uphold its friendship with its isolated neighbour.

After two days of speculation, China announced on Wednesday that Kim had visited Beijing and met Xi during what the official Xinhua news agency called an unofficial visit from Sunday to Wednesday.

The trip was Kim's first known journey abroad since he assumed power in 2011 and is believed by analysts to serve as preparation for upcoming summits with South Korea and the United States.

Beijing has traditionally been the closest ally of secretive North Korea, but ties have been frayed by North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons and China's backing of tough UN sanctions in response.
London: Ecuador's government is cutting off WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's communications outside the nation's London embassy.

The Australian has been living at the embassy since June 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden to face questioning over allegations of sex crimes, which he always denied.

Officials announced on Wednesday they were taking the measure in response to Mr Assange's recent activity on social media.

As part of an agreement between Mr Assange and the Ecuadorean government, he is not permitted to send any messages that could interfere with the South American nation's relations with other countries.
Washington: A federal judge ruled that the District of Columbia and Maryland may proceed with an unprecedented lawsuit against President Donald Trump alleging that Trump's business dealings have violated the Constitution's ban on receiving "emoluments" or improper payments from individual states and foreign governments.

The ruling, by US District Judge Peter Messitte, marks the first time that a lawsuit of this kind has cleared the initial legal hurdle - a finding that the plaintiffs have legal standing to sue President Trump in the first place.

The Trump International Hotel at 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue Credit:AP

In this case, Messitte found that both District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine and Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh, both Democrats, have legal standing to sue Trump over the business of the Trump International Hotel in downtown Washington.

As part of that ruling, Messitte said he rejected an argument previously made by critics of the lawsuit - that, under the Constitution, only Congress may decide if the president has violated this clause.
As part of the West African Customs Administrations Modernization (WACAM) Project, funded by Sweden, the World Customs Organization (WCO) organized a Capacity Building Workshop on the Harmonized System and Advance Rulings for 20 Customs managers from the Burkina Faso Customs Administration.

The Workshop, which took place from 19 to 23 March 2018, was held in French and was led by a Technical Officer from the WCO Secretariat and an Accredited Expert on the Harmonized System.

In his opening address, the Director General of Customs, Mr. Adama Sawadogo, expressed his thanks to the WCO and to the donor country for their work in supporting his Administration in establishing a national mechanism for advance rulings on classification and origin of goods. He added that the Workshop formed a crucial procedural step in implementing the advance rulings mechanism and that the capacity building for the Customs managers would contribute significantly to the smooth implementation of the mechanism.

Presentations on tariff classification work allowed the Workshop participants to broaden their experience and update their knowledge about the classification of goods.

The Workshop included exercises and case studies which cleared up several difficulties in interpreting the legal and interpretative provisions of the HS. Emphasis was also placed on the techniques for describing goods and the drafting of structured and reasoned HS advance rulings.

At the closing ceremony of the Workshop, the Director General of Customs stressed the willingness of his Administration to adopt WCO instruments and tools and to deploy all human and organizational resources necessary to make the launch of the advance rulings mechanism effective. He also reiterated the determination of Burkina Faso Customs to work closely with the private sector in developing the process for the national advance rulings mechanism.

For more information about this activity or the WACAM Project funded by Sweden, please contact the WCO-Sweden Programme Director, Richard Chopra (Richard.Chopra@wcoomd.org).
At the invitation of the OECD, the WCO participated in the OECDs Global Anti-Corruption & Integrity Forum held on 27-28 March 2018 in Paris at its Headquarters.

The opening ceremony of the Global Forum was attended and contributed by the Prime Ministers of Norway and Iceland, the Vice-President of Argentina, the First Vice-President of the European Commission and the Secretary General of the OECD.

The theme of the global forum was Planet Integrity: Building a Fairer Society. The Forum debated on the impact of integrity on business, how it reduced socio-economic inequalities, and made public policies more effective. Discussions also concentrated on the governance of globalization and its crucial role in fighting against corruption and unethical practices in areas such as trade, competition, infrastructure, development co-operation, and revenue collection.

WCO Capacity Building Director, Ernani Checcucci participated as a panelist at the Forums panel session on Integrity & Trade: No Need to Grease the Wheels bringing the WCO perspective on trade performance, trade facilitation and integrity.

During the panel session the OECD presented preliminary findings on measuring countries' trade facilitation performance using the OECD Trade Facilitation Indicators. These findings were based on perception and experiential data to map border-related corruption and better understand the links between the trade facilitation policy environment and integrity. One of the main findings was the positive relationship between integrity and transparency.

WCO Director of Capacity building argued that transparency plays indeed a crucial role in trade facilitation. However, there are some other factors that could explain the different impacts of trade facilitation measures on the incidence of corruption, which assist for secure business environment and should be developed in customs and other border agencies:

Strong capacity in internal control and its relationship with external control;

Human resources management (e.g., professionalization of workforce, higher standards for recruitment process etc.);

Performance management;

Strong leadership and political commitment.

There is also a need to capture not only Customs in terms of measuring trade facilitation performance, but also the other border agencies and key stakeholders of the supply chain such as immigrations and border control, customs brokers, logistics operators, port administrations and many others. Other panelists and participants of the session agreed on the need of applying the Collective action concept and advised this as to go forward with research on this area.

On the margins of the Forum, the WCO delegation also held a special meeting with the OECD Public Sector Integrity division and Trade and Agriculture Directorate representatives to discuss the potential advancement of technical cooperation in the area of Integrity development.
by Richard Coulson

Published in The Tribune March 27, 2018

The Oban Saga: Not all Black

Light is beginning to appear dimly at the end of the tunnel  the dark and murky tunnel that we entered a little over a month ago. On February 19th Prime Minister Minnis used the full panoply of his office to celebrate the ceremonial signing of a Heads of Agreement (or something) calling for a $5.5 billion refinery project on Grand Bahama to be created by an unknown Florida company incorporated less than two years ago as Oban Energies LLC.

That inept ceremony , performed hastily to satisfy the PMs hero hubris , soon unraveled into public catastrophe. Our vigilant press discovered the Oban signatory, the rotund Chairman Peter Krieger, had many legal blackballs in his past. He promptly denied his importance: he was nothing more than Obans non-executive ambassador. His name was scrubbed from the company website, with resignation shortly following.

A week later the PMs office released a 41-page document said to be the real  HOA, bearing the signature of President Satwal Dhunna. Real or not, it was denounced by every reader as a slipshod effort that left many questions floating and put our environment at risk. The Bahamas National Trust, guardian of our national parks and natural beauty, emphasized that it had not been informed of the projects exact location and could not envisage a scenario under which it would be acceptable.

Nevertheless, Mr. Dhunna took a full page defensive ad in both our periodicals citing all his own efforts and unnamed oil industry titans as backers, and making extravagant claims of technical and financial support. One Bahamian reader called it an insult to our intelligence. Mr. Dhunnas own background came under sharp scrutiny, showing an employment record of only five years in a low level job that his own PR inflates to Managing Director, with ambiguous other ventures until he surfaced in 2016 on Florida state records as a manager of Oban, jointly with Krieger.

Finally, on March 21st during the House budget debates, Dr. Minnis admitted his initial missteps in announcing the project prematurely without due diligence, but blaming much of the fault on the former PLP government. His only answer to the many open questions was the disclosure that Oban is owned by the K Family Irrevocable Trustwhich of course tells us nothing.

Last week, new light began to glimmer. Mr. Dhunna faced a contentious Freeport town-hall meeting to give the hard news that Oban had leased 690 acres of Crown Land two miles east of the Statoil Terminal, with the refinery well inland to avoid marine pollution. The crowds reaction was a mixture of positive and negative. Also, a new Florida company, Oban Energy Management LLC, was incorporated to run the project. The updated Oban website reveals the important changes: Mr. Dhunna continues as President, but for the first time executives of impeccable credentials are identified as Senior Advisory Directors: John J. Lipinski, recently retired CEO of CVR Energy, owned by prominent US investor Carl Icahn together with a NYSE-listed refiner; and George Matelich, a Managing Director and Senior Partner of Kelso & Company, a major New York private investment firm that has committed billions to business ventures over its 40-year life.

With men like this in charge, Obans eventual success is feasible. But it will require meetings with our Government that will be long and difficult. The most shocking omission in the present HOA is the total absence of any Government share in the refinerys operations. A refinery is simply a through-put deal for buying crude petroleum and selling refined products. As a new company, Oban must find both its own its own suppliers and customers, and make a profit on the intermediate refining process. Our country, like any sovereign host, is entitled to participate . We must have either equity ownership, or better, a percentage royalty on revenues which could far exceed the piddling $1.2 million annual Crown Land rent.

Dr. Minnis should recuse himself from all negotiations about royalties and the other complex issues that are sure to arise under the HOA. Although well-intentioned and an expert physician, he has shown himself as incompetent in this field. The Cabinet should turn over the responsibility to a new Sovereign Wealth Authority, chaired by Minister of Trade & Industry Brent Symonette, with Deputy Mike Maura of the Arawak Cay Port and members including a senior lawyer, accountant , merchant and civil engineer, whose careers have trained them in state -related business affairs..

From day one I have wondered why this project is named Oban. Research shows the word only attaches to the Scottish resort town where once I took a ferry to the Hebrides and where the incomparable Oban Single Malt Whisky is distilled. Is there a quiet group of Scots investors, canny and secretive as ever, who will appear as the ultimate backers? I will ask Mr. Dhunna if, as expected, he visits Nassau this week. There could be plenty of worse outcomes.

Who is being Job-Hunted?

Surprising features about our economy can be learned from reading Help Wanted ads. We dont employ just bankers, check-out clerks and hotel staffers. A recent ad by Grand Bahama Shipyard listed thirteen positions that needed filling, describing jobs that I had never heard ofnot cushy management slots but tough, demanding tasks like Marine Scaffolders (no fear of heights), Steel Plate Fitters (must be able to lift 50 lb. night shift will be required), and Diesel Engine Specialist (technical diploma in Mechanical Engineering). Although so-called blue-collar jobs, these are not for dummies; reading of plans or blue prints is required, or operation of specialized equipment like welding arcs or acetylene torches. And many demand 5-10 years experience.

I imagine a fair portion of these needs cannot be filled locally. For the necessary foreigners, is management blocked by six months of bureaucratic paperwork to get work permits, while vessels wait for desperately needed repairs? I hope that a modus operandi has been arranged with the Immigration Department so that we can match the efficiency of Rotterdam or Newport News.

As our shipyard seems to be booming by serving the ever-growing fleets of monster cruise ships, can it encourage spin-off businesses to bolster the Grand Bahama economy? Could our technicians repair the myriad delicate electronics that infest every modern ship, or even manufacture replacement items? Could we mix the special paints applied to acres of bottom and topsides? Stock the spacious freezers with produce from our super-markets rather than wait for return to Miami or Port Everglades? Maybe Bahamian art reproductions could be adapted for staterooms and public spaces. Or Bahamian designs used for curtains, bedding, toweling and upholstery. We should be able to capitalize on these huge floating hotels sitting immobile in our drydocks for month-long periods. We have plenty of smart young entrepreneurs willing to take a risk for a reward.

___________________________________________________________

Mr. Coulson has had a long career in law, investment banking and private banking in New York, London, and Nassau, and now serves as director of several financial concerns and as a corporate financial consultant. He has recently released his autobiography, A Corkscrew Life: Adventures of a Travelling Financier.
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Commercial Vehicle Checks Today in Trooper's Honor

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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Mar. 27, 2018 | SOUTHERN ILLINOIS

By West Kentucky Star Staff Mar. 27, 2018 | 07:43 PM | SOUTHERN ILLINOIS

Illinois State Police will be conducting a special statewide enforcement detail today.



The effort is being conducted for the 5th straight year, and is dedicated in honor of fallen Trooper James Sauter, who was killed in the line of duty on March 28, 2013, when his cruiser was struck by a tractor semi-trailer on I-294 near Willow Road in Cook County.



The 24-hour-long detail will start at midnight and will focus on motor carrier safety checks and commercial motor vehicle (CMV) enforcement. State troopers will ensure CMV drivers are properly licensed; their equipment is safe; and their logbooks are completed. CMV long-haul drivers are restricted to 70 hours of driving per week and are required by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to maintain a logbook documenting the number of hours they have driven each day.



With each motor carrier inspection completed, we are not only identifying safety violations and removing unsafe equipment and drivers from the roadways; we are making ourselves visible, which ultimately changes unsafe driving behaviors, said ISP Director Leo P. Schmitz.



On September 8, 2015, the Willow Road Overpass was dedicated as the Trooper James Sauter Memorial Overpass in Trooper Sauters memory.



State Police remind everyone to give emergency vehicles proper space as you pass. Scotts Law, also known as the Move Over law, states that when approaching a stationary authorized emergency vehicle, other drivers shall yield the right-of-way by making a lane change and reducing speed and proceeding with due caution. Effective January 1, 2017, Scotts Law was expanded to require motorists to move over for all stationery vehicles.
By: Paige Cline The hills are still green for the most part, but a little[Read More]
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Do well. Do good. Do your job

"Doing your job means that when you start climbing the ladder, help others along their way," Advocate Michelle le Roux tells graduands.

Graduation address by Advocate Michelle le Roux

Thank you for the opportunity to celebrate with you this morning. Despite being a graduate of the other best Law School in the country, it is a privilege and a pleasure to be with you this morning.

The combination of faculties at Wits and the fact that this mornings ceremony will confer academic qualifications and honours on law, commerce, economics and information scientists reminded me of my first day at UCT Law School  now a horrifying 23 years ago.

The then Dean, Danie Visser, came in to welcome us and put us firmly in our place. He congratulated us for being smart enough to get into Law School, and then pointed out that we were probably there because we were too squeamish to be doctors and not numerate enough for commerce or engineering.

Congratulations to each and every one of todays graduates  and to your families, partners, friends and the hundreds that are your unseen supporters that got you to this day  the cooks and coffee makers who kept you fed and caffeinated, the makers of post-it notes, highlighters, beats to study to and beds to collapse onto.

When I was asked to speak this morning, an understandable panic set in. Graduation speeches are the stuff of legend. A cursory Google search turns up viral videos with millions of views of celebrities dispensing advice about wearing sunscreen, following your bliss to live your authentic life, leaning in and making your bed every day.

I have no ambition to go viral. But it did strike me that what they all had in common was a simple message that you could take with you, that captures what youve achieved, what is celebrated today and all of the promise, opportunity and effort that lies ahead.

The best graduation speeches seemed to dish out pithy advice and words of wisdom from someone whos a little further down the road than most of you, to give you the benefit of their hindsight.

In that grand tradition, my message to you today is: Do your job.

Today shows that you already have done some of the jobs youll have in this life.

Youve persevered through at least 15 years of education to get to today.

You went to primary school, learnt your ABCs and your multiplication tables and the history of our world and its geography and some of its languages and how chemistry produces everything we see and how physics explains everything we dont.

Then you went to high school and did the job of laying the foundation for this further study, but also of leading your peers, testing the limits of discipline and authority, securing a date for the matric dance and getting into an excellent university.

Once you were here, you did the work required on your course outlines, but also, hopefully, expanded your view of the world, and build friendships with people who dont look like you, dont think like you and dont come from your kind of home.

Given that it would have been impossible to remain unaffected, I also assume that being at Wits in the past few years meant that you did the difficult work of understanding and confronting the widening, persistently racially-skewed inequality that plagues our country, creating understandable seething resentment.

That you wrestled with diagnosis, explanations, complexity, the polycentric consequences of choices made or neglected.

That you came to see the roles played by both privilege and populism in obstructing efforts at redress. And deepened your understanding of the nature of power and the dynamics of representation, legitimacy and spectacle.

Now you go out into the world. Armed with a new qualification, some more letters behind your name. And you are asked now to find and do your next job.

As a lawyer, you will no doubt do the job with integrity, diligence and competence, of course. But you must also understand what lawyers are asked to do in our society.

I am often asked why I came back to South Africa since Id been on the path of a New York litigator for 8 years by then. My glib answer was that it was home.

But the longer answer was that I co-authored a book about the landmark cases under apartheid and in our constitutional era for which we interviewed the lawyers and some of the judges involved in cases that pushed our society closer to justice, equality and freedom.

Our book introduced the concept of lawfare, where issues were displaced into the courts for resolution because politics had failed to resolve them  in the words of the John and Jean Comaroff who coined the term lawfare, class struggle became class actions.

And I was struck by how we are engaged as a nation in a daily job of transforming our society and how law is one of the instruments we are using in that lifes work. I hoped that by coming home I could play some small part in that project.

Apartheid criminalized, regulated and legislated racism  and sexism. Law was used to negate the humanity of the majority of our people. It obliterated opportunity and mobility.

In our constitutional democracy that is only as old as some of you, law is a primary instrument that we are using to transform our society.

Starting with the constitution, of course, and some of you will be social justice warriors in public law, vindicating the rights of the poor, and giving voice to the voiceless.



But in every area of our lives as South Africans, our law requires lawyers to recognise the context in which they work and to work every day to realise our constitutional vision.

We repealed the worst of apartheids laws, but, to use the conceptual framework announced by Hale, some of its background rules remain unaltered.

Law is a distributive and allocative mechanism  its express provisions distribute and allocate rights, duties, obligations and claims. But its background rules reinforce and reproduce our societys distribution of power, knowledge, agency and wealth. It structures and protects, as much as it can deconstruct and hold accountable.

As a result, all law can either reinforce and entrench power, or redistribute and harness it in transformative and progressive ways.

I hope you will all use the law in positive, constructive and dynamic ways.

My other plea to the lawyers is to do your job by first establishing the facts and following the evidence. Procedural opportunism is rampant. Our job is not just to tell our clients how to do something, its also to advise them on whether they should.

This is true whether it is tax law, the structuring of empowerment deals, environmental law, intellectual property law, labour law, family law, or competition law.

All of this means that none of us -- law or commerce or economic graduate -- cannot do the work of advising clients or building businesses without a profound understanding of the social, economic and political context we are all in, and what we all need to do to transform our society into one that is non-racial, non-sexist, inclusive, diverse, productive. A society of active, engaged citizens.

As a commerce or economic graduate, you job similarly demands that you tackle South Africas low growth business environment in a way that will be jobs-rich to do your part in reducing our horrific unemployment levels, that will access the talents of all South Africans when you make staffing choices, not because it cynically earns you BEE points but because building teams and partnerships amongst our people makes business sense, that you will create wealth responsibly, recognising that your stakeholders include workers throughout your supply chain, your customers, your regulators, and your communities in which you operate.

Doing your job means that when you start climbing the ladder, help others along their way.

Mentor, drawing on your experience.

Support other women in the workplace.

Greet everyone, treat them with dignity and respect their perspectives.

Help build the South Africa promised in the Constitution.

To sum it all up in a 3 part job description: Do well. Do good. Do your job.

Thank you, and congratulations again!

About Michelle le Roux

Advocate Michelle le Roux is a member of the Johannesburg Bar who practices in the areas of general commercial and regulatory law, competition law and administrative law. She has experience in class action litigations and other complex litigations. She also has an interest and extensive experience in public interest, human rights and constitutional litigation.

Le Roux is an Adjunct Professor at the Law School of the University of Cape Town where she lectures in competition law. She also serves as the Chairperson of the Ministerial Advisory Panel regarding amendments to the Competition Act.

The co-author of Precedent and Possibility: the (ab)use of law in South Africa and several published articles and opinion pieces, Advocate le Roux is currently working on a second book on Lawfare.

Le Roux is also a member of the New York Bar. In 1999, whilst working toward her Masters at the New York University School of Law, she worked for a law firm in New York City. She went on to work at a number of other firms, successfully arguing cases in the US Circuit Court, the US District Court and the New York Supreme Court.

Whilst in the US, she won a multimillion-dollar verdict against a major retailer who was found to discriminate against people with disabilities. She has also undertaken extensive work to stamp out gender discrimination in some of the largest Wall Street institutions.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Republican Sen. John McCain is coming out with a new memoir this May that promises to reveal his no-holds-barred opinions on President Donald Trump, his administration, and the divisive 2016 election.



The frequent Trump critic is battling brain cancer in Arizona, but McCain has not shied away from pummeling the president on various foreign policy blunders since his diagnoses.



Candid, pragmatic, and always fascinating, John McCain holds nothing back in his latest memoir, his publisher, Simon and Schuster, announced on Monday.



In his forty years in politics McCain has never been afraid to buck trends or ruffle a few feathers. His words are more important today than ever, the publishing company said.



McCains memoir, "The Restless Wave," is expected to be released May 22.



In recent days and weeks, McCain has made no secret that despite his absence on Capitol Hill, he is keeping a close watch on the administration.



Last week, McCain admonished Trump for offering his congratulations to Russia's President Vladimir Putin on his "electoral victory."



An American president does not lead the Free World by congratulating dictators on winning sham elections. And by doing so with Vladimir Putin, President Trump insulted every Russian citizen who was denied the right to vote in a free and fair election to determine their country's future, including the countless Russian patriots who have risked so much to protest and resist Putin's regime, McCain said in a fiery statement.



Earlier this year, McCain slammed Trump for his political hits on the Department of Justice and the FBI. Trump accused the beleaguered agencies of bias against Republicans and maligned the top leaders he himself appointed.



Our nations elected officials, including the president, must stop looking at this investigation through the warped lens of politics and manufacturing partisan sideshows, McCain said in a statement.



McCain has also hit out at the president over his attacks on the fake news media.



President Trump does not seem to understand that his rhetoric and actions reverberate in the same way. He has threatened to continue his attempt to discredit the free press by bestowing fake news awards upon reporters and news outlets whose coverage he disagrees with, McCain wrote in an op-ed published in the Washington Post in January.



Whether Trump knows it or not, these efforts are being closely watched by foreign leaders who are already using his words as cover as they silence and shutter one of the key pillars of democracy, he wrote.



And in July, McCain helped tank the Republican-led effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act  or Obamacare  much to the chagrin of his colleagues in the Senate, and Trump.



Despite McCain's illness, Trump blasted him at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February.



"Except for one senator, who came into a room at 3 oclock in the morning and went like that, we would have had health care too, we would have had health care too, think of that," Trump said, imitating the thumbs-down motion McCain made during the late-night vote on the measure.



Most recently, McCain called into question the nomination of Gina Haspel to head up the Central Intelligence Agency. Last week, he wrote a letter to Haspel, the CIA current deputy director, requesting information about the nature and extent of her involvement in the CIAs detention and interrogation program.



Trump has accused McCain, held prisoner and tortured by North Vietnam for more than five years, of not being a war hero, saying I like people who werent captured.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Tempers and emotions flared in Sacramento on Tuesday as the brother of an unarmed black man killed by police interrupted a City Council meeting and protesters again blocked the entrance to an NBA arena nearby.

The doors of the Golden 1 Center, where the Sacramento Kings play, closed as protesters arrived, preventing some fans from getting in. But the game went off as scheduled.

Last week, protesters upset over the fatal shooting of Stephon Clark, blocked the arena entrance, forcing the Kings and Atlanta Hawks to play in a nearby empty arena.

The emotional council meeting and protests illustrated how the fatal shooting more than a week ago has sparked anger and caused pain in this Northern California city. Frustrated residents and Black Lives Matter activists at the meeting urged accountability for the shooting.

"Stephon Clark. Stephon Clark," Clark's brother, Stevante Clark and others chanted in the first council meeting since the fatal shooting on March 18.

"Louder. Louder," said Stevante Clark, who hopped on the dais before the council took a brief recess.

Standing in front of the council chambers with others, Stevante Clark said: "The mayor and the city of Sacramento has failed all of you," citing high rent, gang violence and poverty in the city.

"The chief of police got my brother killed. He doesn't care. He shows no emotion at all. And y'all get mad at me for not crying on the news," he said.

Clark, 22, was shot and killed in his grandmother's Sacramento backyard by officers who believed he was pointing a gun at them, according to police.

No weapon was found at the scene. The only item discovered was a cellphone, police said.

At the council meeting, activist Berry Accius asked everyone to stand up and hold up their cellphones, directing it to the council members.

"Does this look like a gun to you?" he said.

"We are at our moment Sacramento and we, Sacramento, must change Sacramento together," Accius said.

Mayor Darrell Steinberg ended the council meeting Tuesday night, two-and-a-half hours earlier than planned.

'Our city is at a critical point'

Hours earlier, citing the "extremely high emotions, anger and hurt" in Sacramento after Clark's death, police Chief Daniel Hahn said that California Attorney General Xavier Becerra will hold an independent investigation.

Hahn, surrounded by community leaders at a news conference, called last week's shooting "a tragedy that no one wants to see or experience" and said he requested the oversight of state prosecutors even though he was confident in the impartiality of his detectives.

"Due to the nature of this investigation, extremely high emotions, anger and hurt, I felt it was in the best interest of our entire community to ask the attorney general to be an independent part of the investigation," Hahn said.

Officers fired 20 shots, hitting Clark multiple times, police told CNN affiliate KOVR.

"Our city is at a critical point right now and I believe this will help build faith and confidence in the investigation from our community," Hahn said.

The shooting has led to protests in California's capital. Community and religious leaders stood with local elected officials in appealing for calm.

"I understand the community is concerned about the integrity of the investigation but I would remind you we are not some of the other major cities in the country that have had challenges," said Pastor Anthony Sadler, referring to disturbances following police shootings in other cities.

"We are all one here in Sacramento," said Sadler, pastor at Shiloh Baptist Church. We are one of the most diverse cities in the nation. ... We know that feelings and emotions are high but we need to do this, again, as one city."

Steinberg said Becerra's investigation would provide the community "extra assurance" of a fair and impartial process.

"We're going to make sure every stone is turned," Becerra said, noting that his involvement came at the request of the police chief.

"That's pretty big. I believe he's showing trust and respect," he said of Hahn.

Becerra said his investigators will also evaluate law enforcement policies, procedures and practices.

"We take on this responsibility in full recognition of the importance of getting it right -- because there is nothing more important than respect and trust between law enforcement and the communities that they are sworn to protect as we work to keep all Californians safe," he said.

Becerra stressed that his office was "not taking over" the investigation but merely "providing independent oversight."

Activists say police used 'excessive force'

Hours after the news conference, Black Lives Matter Sacramento founder Tanya Faison said activists want an independent civilian-led investigation instead.

"There needs to be civilian investigators, people that are regular citizens that pay the salaries of these police officers. They need to be the ones in charge," she said. "We're their bosses, and it needs to look like that."

Activists wore black to represent mourning. They said Clark's name out loud.

"This young man should not have been murdered. It was excessive force that was being used," Accius said. "These police had nonlethal weapons that they could have used before they used lethal weapons to end his short life."

Sacramento County Coroner Kim Gin determined Clark's cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds and classified his death as a homicide.

A spokesperson for the coroner's office said the exact number of rounds that struck Clark is not being released at this time. The full autopsy report will be held until the case is adjudicated in court.

Sacramento police released body camera video of the incident that showed the officers did not immediately provide Clark with lifesaving efforts, instead waiting until other units arrived at the scene.

Two officers -- one of them black -- have been placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of a use-of-force investigation.

The shooting happened March 18 after 9 p.m., when Sacramento officers responded to a report that a man had broken car windows and was hiding behind homes. They pursued a man who hopped a fence and was in a backyard.

The shooting was captured on video by the two officers' body cameras and a police helicopter. That footage was released last Wednesday in an effort to be transparent.

The body camera videos show the brief encounter between police and Clark, lasting less than a minute.

Police said the officers entered the front yard and saw the suspect along the side of the home. The man "turned and advanced toward the officers while holding an object" extended in front of him, according to the police account.

"Show me your hands!" one of the officers yelled. "Gun, gun, gun."

Seconds later, officers opened fire as they took cover near a wall.

As more police arrived at the scene, someone could be heard asking, "What did he have on him?"

An officer responded "... something in his hands. It looked like a gun from our perspective."

Clark's family has disputed the police account.

The family has hired attorney Benjamin Crumb, who has previously represented the families of other African-Americans fatally shot by police, including Michael Brown and Tamir Rice, as well as Trayvon Martin, a Florida teenager killed by George Zimmerman.
President Donald Trump has his first trade deal.

Senior US officials on Tuesday gave details on an agreement in principle with South Korea to revise a trade deal that originally went into effect in 2012.

The officials said the agreement was an example of Trump delivering on his promise to voters to negotiate better trade deals for the United States.

"This agreement is visionary and innovative," one senior administration official, speaking on background, told reporters.

The US officials made their case for why the revised deal is an improvement on the one that's currently in effect, which Trump has slammed as "horrible" and a "job killer." The South Korean government first announced details of the agreement on Monday.

Related: US and South Korea revamp trade deal that Trump called 'horrible'

Some economists have suggested the new deal isn't significantly different from the old one. South Korean exporters will be relieved that none of the tariffs that were lifted under the original agreement have been brought back, according to Krystal Tan, an economist at research firm Capital Economics.

Experts point out that the negotiations lasted only a few months, far shorter than trade talks typically take. Striking a deal quickly, they note, has the advantage of removing a potentially divisive issue between the two military allies at a time of tensions and delicate talks with North Korea.

Here are some of the main takeaways from the new agreement:

Auto exports

The Trump administration says some of the key changes affect the auto industry, which accounts for a big chunk of the trade deficit the United States runs with South Korea.

Under the revamped deal, each US carmaker will be allowed to export 50,000 vehicles per year to South Korea that meet American safety standards, up from 25,000 previously. Beyond that threshold, cars shipped from the United States will have to comply with South Korean safety rules, which American companies say put them at a disadvantage.

But analysts say the increased quota is unlikely to make much difference anytime soon. No US automaker sold more than 11,000 cars in South Korea last year.

Related: America's automakers won't get much help from new South Korea deal

Trump administration officials argue, though, that US car companies should benefit from an agreement by South Korea to ease "burdensome" auto regulations more broadly. That includes reducing additional tests and getting rid of labeling requirements that, the administration argues, hinder American automakers' ability to sell in South Korea.

The revised deal also postpones the phasing out of a US tariff of 25% on pickup trucks from South Korea. It will now end in 2041 rather than 2021. Capital Economics says no Korean automaker exports pickup trucks to the US at the moment.

Steel and aluminum

The agreement will limit South Korean steel exports to the United States. The cap will be set at 70% of what South Korea sends over in an average year now. After 70%, South Korea can't export more steel to the United States in any year.

South Korea will not be subject to the broad 25% tariff that Trump has imposed on most other countries. He has granted temporary exemptions to several other US allies, including Canada, Mexico and the European Union.

South Korea will still be subject to the 10% tariff on aluminum that was imposed on most nations.

Related: Trump grants tariff exemptions for EU and others on steel and aluminum

Currency clause

The United States and South Korea also agreed to try to make sure neither country devalues its currency intentionally to gain an unfair advantage on trade. But the measure lacks teeth.

When a currency is weaker, it makes exports cheaper -- and more attractive -- to foreign buyers. It also makes foreign imports more expensive for local consumers. On the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly railed against other countries that he accused of purposely devaluing their currencies to get an unfair edge over the United States.

Related: Trump's low-profile trade leader gains more power

The United States has never included a provision on currencies in a trade negotiation before, according to Trump administration officials.

But the devil is in the detail. The currency provision is not actually in the official agreement and has no enforcement mechanism. Including it in the text of the deal would have required a lengthy legislative approval process, a path that administration officials indicated they did not want to go down.

In effect, both countries are just agreeing to act in good faith with their currencies.

- An earlier version of this story incorrectly characterized how the trade agreement treats South Korean steel exports.
On Tuesday, Korea-watchers were surprised by the news that North Korean President Kim Jong Un had made the 24-hour journey to Beijing on his armored train to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. While Kim attended a German-speaking school in Switzerland as a boy, this was his first trip abroad since becoming North Korea's leader in 2011.

The context of the visit is important: in just a few weeks, Kim will meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in for the first time. Soon after that, he will sit down with US President Donald Trump for the first ever meeting between sitting American and North Korean leaders.

The meeting comes not long after both Kim and Xi have successfully consolidated power at home -- Xi by having term limits abolished and effectively becoming president-for-life; Kim through the likely successful development of a nuclear deterrent.

North Korea has been a thorn in China's side in recent years. Beijing is concerned that North Korean provocations could restart hostilities with South Korea and the United States. By making North Korea less reliant on Chinese protection, Pyongyang's nuclear program reduces China's ability to influence North Korean policy.

Nevertheless, North Korea has few friends and it would be a sign of disrespect to meet with his formal enemies -- the Korean War never formally ended -- before meeting with his formal ally.

KCNA, North Korea's state news agency, reported that Kim toasted Xi by saying: "It is appropriate that my first trip abroad is in China's capital, and my responsibility to consider continuing North Korea-China relations as valuable as life."

It is possible that this visit's purpose is nothing more than to show Seoul and Washington that China and North Korea remain friends and that China's concerns must not be ignored in subsequent negotiations. But it is more likely part of a cunning strategy on the part of Kim Jong Un.

China's Xinhua news agency reports that Kim told Xi: "It is our consistent stand to be committed to denuclearization on the peninsula."

This seems like an important statement because it will both show Trump that denuclearization is on the table -- making it less likely that the US finds a way to back out of talks -- and makes it highly unlikely that Kim will reverse himself with Moon or Trump, which would be a sign of disrespect to Xi.

But, alas, these matters are never so simple. What Kim means by "denuclearization on the peninsula" is unlikely to mean the unilateral disarmament of North Korea, to which Kim will probably never agree.

Kim went on to say: "The issue of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula can be resolved, if South Korea and the United States respond to our efforts with goodwill, create an atmosphere of peace and stability while taking progressive and synchronous measures for the realization of peace." This statement could easily mean that Kim interprets "denuclearization on the peninsula" as the withdrawal of the US nuclear umbrella and perhaps the withdrawal of American forces as well.

Kim is no doubt aware of Trump's many statements, over a period of years, denigrating the US-South Korea alliance. He has complained that South Korea does not pay the US enough protection money and that Seoul takes advantage of the US. It is possible that Kim sees an opportunity to get Trump to agree to a withdrawal of United States Forces Korea in such a way that Trump can claim a major victory. And while Trump may be able to claim victory, the real winners would be North Korea and China.

This strategy may be clever, but it is not without risk. Kim has no reason to trust the United States -- after all, he knows what happened to Libya and Ukraine. But he may believe that Trump's desire for a "win," combined with his utter disregard for US alliances and complete ignorance of the region, makes him an easy mark.

But with the appointment of John Bolton as the new national security adviser -- whose goal is not only denuclearization, but regime change -- and Trump's past talk of "fire and fury," it could be that the Trump administration is angling for a failure and an excuse for war.

And stuck in the middle is Moon, who needs to avoid both an unnecessary war and a destabilizing withdrawal -- and do so without alienating China or antagonizing Trump.

The hall is rented, the orchestra engaged. And in a matter of weeks, we'll know if the players can dance.
Following reports that the del Lago Casino & Resort in Seneca County is struggling with revenue and is seeking a bailout from the state, Sen. Joseph Griffo, a member of the Senates Racing, Gaming and Wagering Committee, Sent a letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York State Division of Budget Director Robert Mujica.

In the letter, Griffo said he doesn't believe a bailout is appropriate use of taxpayer money.

Rochester NBC affiliate WHEC is reporting that the del Lago Resort & Casino said in a statement that the Seneca Nation has had an unfair advantage ever since they stopped making payments to state and local governments.

The article reports that casino spokesman Steven Greenberg said that even since the Seneca Nation stopped making payments to New York State and local governments, it has been using more than $50 million to create additional promotions and incentives to lure customers from del Lago.

According to Greenberg, this has greatly changed the circumstances compared to when del Lago first sought and won its casino license, and they are simply looking for a "fair, competitive marketplace."

Senator Griffo said he had concerns with the rapid pace of gaming facilities throughout the state and had urged the state Gaming Commission to reconsider some of the decisions. He said there are more pressing needs in areas such as health care, education and infrastructure. He said the state should not devote public revenues to a private casino corporation.



Sen. Griffos full letter is below:

March 27, 2018

Gov. Andrew Cuomo

State of New York

Albany, NY

Dear Gov. Cuomo,

The purpose of this letter is to outline concerns that I have following reports that the del Lago Casino & Resort in Seneca County is struggling with revenue and is seeking a bailout from New York State.

From the very beginning, I have had concerns with the site selection process and the rapid pace and the proliferation of gaming facilities throughout the state and previously urged the New York State Gaming Commission to reconsider some of the decisions made by the Gaming Facility Location Board that I believed would be economically detrimental to Upstate New York.

The news that del Lago is struggling with revenue is disappointing, concerning and unsettling. When gaming expansion began, New Yorkers were told by the Governor that the new casinos would support tourism, bring more jobs and more revenue to support schools and lower taxes. It now appears that that is not the case and this is another illustration of bad planning, bad siting and bad decision making.

Del Lago is not generating as much revenue as promised and the casino is seeking a bailout with taxpayer money after not meeting its revenue projection in the casinos first year. Del Lago has been a recipient of a number of local tax breaks and economic incentives. It is paying approximately $43 million in gaming taxes annually, already far below the original projections of the payments they were going to make to State Education Aid and their surrounding localities. Now, del Lago wants a tax break somewhere around $14 million, which is almost a full one-third of the already lower-than-expected amount they are currently paying in taxes to the state and localities.

I do not believe that bailing out this casino with peoples hard-earned tax dollars is the appropriate way to go about addressing this issue, especially given the fact that there are other gaming facilities with video lottery terminals who continue to struggle as a result of casino decisions and have not received the same level of support now being requested.

Our state has more pressing needs in areas such as health care, education and infrastructure. It would be inappropriate to devote public revenues to a private casino corporation when the people of New York were promised after the casino referendum that these casinos would be generating revenue for their local economies and would become economic engines themselves.

I look forward to a response from you.

Sincerely,

Joseph A. Griffo

State Senate, 47th District
It's time to meet the newest member of our morning Mug Club, brought to you by Holland Farms Bakery and Deli.

Just Teasin' will be hosting a St. Baldrick's Foundation event in memory of Mya Coriglianos on March 31st from 3-5pm at 310 E. Chestnut Street in Rome.

Mya passed away from cancer this past December when she was only 19 months old. People are encouraged to be #myastrong and "rock the bald" by getting their heads shaved for a monetary donation.

All of the money raised will go toward the St. Baldrick's Foundation to support childhood cancer research.
UTICA  A Syracuse man is facing charges after he allegedly sexually assaulted a child in Utica and tried to abduct her, according to the Oneida County Sheriffs Offices Chief Deputy Joseph Lisi, director of the Oneida County Child Advocacy Center.

Utica police responded to an address in the city of Utica in the early morning on March 21 after a 911 call reported the sexual assault and attempted abduction of an eight-year-old female child.

Lisi says Utica police then contacted the Child Advocacy Center, who began a criminal investigation and learned that 37-year-old Raoul Baldwin of Syracuse was the alleged offender. Officials with the Child Advocacy Center confirmed to NEWSChannel 2 that Baldwin was familiar with the family, and he was in the family's Utica home when the alleged assault occurred.

Baldwin is currently on NYS Parole and Lisi says he violated his parole by being in Utica instead of Syracuse. A parole warrant was issued and Baldwin was taken into custody on the afternoon of March 21 by members of NYS Parole and the U.S. Marshalls NY/NJ Regional Fugitive Task Force. Baldwin was held at the Utica Police Department and then transferred to the Oneida County Jail.

Lisi says the Child Advocacy Center and the Oneida County District Attorneys Office continued the investigation into the alleged sexual assault, and Baldwin was ultimately indicted on many charges, with the most serious one being felony predatory sexual assault against a child.

According to the NYS Department of Corrections and Community Supervision website, Baldwin was released from prison in December 2017 after serving his sentence for second-degree attempted kidnapping.

CNY Central reports that Baldwin pleaded guilty to that crime in 2010, admitting that he lured an 11-year-old girl into his home by asking her to get a bag of toys in his basement. Once she was inside the house, prosecutors say Baldwin grabbed the girl by her neck and held her in the basement against her will until other children came looking for her.

Baldwin was arraigned in Oneida County Court on Wednesday, March 28 and sent to the Oneida County Jail without bail.

Lisi says the victim has been offered services through the Child Advocacy Center.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP)  A high-level Republican staffer in the Indiana House of Representatives has been appointed by Gov. Eric Holcomb to lead the state's purchasing and property management agency.

The Republican governor announced Tuesday that former House GOP chief of staff Lesley Crane will start her new job next week leading the Department of Administration. Current commissioner Jessica Robertson is joining Purdue University as an assistant director of auxiliary operations.

House Speaker Brian Bosma praised Crane's 12-year tenure with the Indiana House. Crane has worked for the House Republican Caucus since in 2006 and was chief of staff from 2012 to 2017.

Then-Gov. Mike Pence appointed Robertson in 2013 to lead the department that oversees state purchasing, its vehicle fleet, real estate matters and the Government Center complex in downtown Indianapolis.
William & Mary celebrates For the Bold in Richmond

For the Bold: The Main Street Station is lit up in green and hold in honor of W&M. Photo by Nathan Romans Photo - of - Hide Caption

Home to nearly 23,000 alumni, parents and friends, greater Richmond was ignited with Tribe pride last night as the William & Mary community gathered together at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts to celebrate For the Bold. The Richmond Main Street Station also dazzled in green and gold and illuminated the nights sky while the university's family and friends were left inspired by the impact of the W&Ms most ambitious campaign.

Sue Hanna Gerdelman 76, chair of For the Bold, shared the news that in greater Richmond alone, more than $71 million has been raised toward the universitys $1 billion campaign goal. She also boasted that the Richmond area last year had one of the highest alumni participation rates in the nation  at more than 32 percent and our alumni continue to be highly engaged with their alma mater both on and off campus.

Since the start of the campaign, the number of alumni engaging in new and expanded program offerings, including career networking opportunities and special affinity group events, has increased by 110 percent.

Jean Berger Estes 75 and Rob Estes 74, co-chairs of the Richmond regional campaign committee, stood before the crowd  which included more than 400 attendees  and stressed that although William & Mary has a solid financial foundation now, alumni, parents and friends of the university must remain vigilant.

"We must all continue to engage with William & Mary so that our campus can remain a vibrant community of exceptional minds and diverse perspectives. Scholarships are key to this effort, said Rob Estes. "Generations before us have passed the torch so that we can build on our legacy of achievement and advance another 325 years of excellence in the classroom and beyond. It is incumbent upon us to do so.

Terelle Robinson 17, who currently works for Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney, told the audience about the life-changing impact of the scholarship he received to attend William & Mary.

"I never would have thought in my wildest dreams that this abandoned child from Ashland, Virginia, reared by his grandmother, would be afforded so many opportunities. It is not that I did not think I was deserving, but I did not always see a clear path. My William & Mary experience fortified for me how valuable our community is and how we look out for and propel each other forward, Robinson said.

He added, "The people of William & Mary are forever etched in my head and heart. I am already doing what I can to help other students achieve their dreams. I will be forever boldly involved in the life of William & Mary with my time, talent and treasure. It is just that important."

Richmond is the hometown to many in the William & Mary community, including President Taylor Reveley. In remarks at the celebration, Reveley said he was glad to be back in Richmond, the city where he and his wife, Helen, raised their four children and where he practiced law for 28 years. While providing an update on the progress of For the Bold, he reiterated, We are achieving greater preeminence by pushing toward what we seek to become, not simply what we want to maintain.

At the conclusion of the celebration, Gerdelman added, Friends, it is the time for us all to be bold, to act boldly and to inspire the entire Richmond region and William & Mary community to show the world that our time is now and our future is today. This is our moment to make history together.

Impact

The impact of the For the Bold campaign can be felt on campus and around the globe. Here are just a few examples:




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Court approves Westinghouse reorganisation plan

28 March 2018

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Westinghouse Electric Company's reorganisation plan - including its sale to Brookfield - has been approved by the US Bankruptcy Court. Westinghouse said the court's approval of the plan is a "significant milestone in the company's strategic restructuring".

Westinghouse filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection with US courts in March 2017 to enable it to undergo strategic restructuring. The company's bankruptcy filing affected only its US operations, including projects to construct a total of four AP1000 reactors at two projects, Vogtle in Georgia, and VC Summer in South Carolina.

On 4 January, it was announced that Brookfield Business Partners, together with institutional partners - collectively known as Brookfield - had agreed to acquire 100% of Westinghouse from Japanese parent company Toshiba for about $4.6 billion.

"Confirmation of our plan of reorganisation is one of the final steps in the completion of our strategic restructuring."



Jose Gutierrez,

Westinghouse president and CEO

Toshiba said on 18 January that it had signed a share purchase agreement under which it will also sell to Brookfield all shares it holds in Westinghouse-related assets - Toshiba Nuclear Energy Holdings (US) Inc and Toshiba Nuclear Energy Holdings (UK) Limited - for $1.

On the same day, Toshiba said it had signed an assignment and purchase agreement with Brookfield and Nucleus Acquisition - a consortium controlled by the Baupost Group - under which it will sell its rights to assert claims against Westinghouse related to the parent guarantees in the amount of $5.788 billion, and on account of other claims Toshiba holds against Westinghouse in the amount of $2.284 billion to Nucleus, for the sale price of $2.160 billion.

Toshiba also entered into a Plan Support Agreement with key stakeholders in Westinghouse's Chapter 11 reorganisation proceedings, including Westinghouse, the Statutory Committee of Unsecured Creditors, Brookfield and Nucleus. Under that agreement, Toshiba's equity interests will be subordinated to payment of all other Westinghouse claims in the proceedings. The stakeholders also agreed to support the reorganisation plan and the acquisition of Westinghouse by Brookfield.

Westinghouse announced yesterday that its reorganisation plan had been approved by the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.

The company said it expects the transactions to close in the third quarter of 2018, "subject to customary closing conditions including, among others, regulatory approvals".

Westinghouse president and CEO Jose Gutierrez said: "Confirmation of our plan of reorganisation is one of the final steps in the completion of our strategic restructuring. Our customers, employees, suppliers, vendors, and other important constituencies overwhelmingly supported our plan of reorganisation. We are on track to fulfil our promise to emerge from this strategic restructuring process as a stronger business partner while retaining our primary focus on safety."

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News

Related topics
A man was jailed after killing his own mother while driving her car.

28-year-old Teakaura Tapaki of Australia pleaded guilty to driving in a dangerous manner causing death after he mowed down his 64-year-old mother, Amelie Ura Tapaki, at her home in Cairns on New Years Day.

According to prosecutors, Teakaura was drunk and he was under the influence of meth when he ran over his mother with her own car. He reversed over her body and ran off.

Tapaki had visited his mothers property with a backpacker he met the night before.

He was backing into his mothers driveway with the headlights off when he ran over something.

A camera from inside the car recorded the backpacker shouting: I think you ran over your mother.

Tapaki replied that it was a dog. Tapaki than drove out of the driveway and ran over his mother again. She was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Tapaki was devastated over his actions of killing his mother while high. Sorry is not enough for what I have done. I took our best friend, my mom, Tapaki said in court.

Judge Tracy Fantin told him: You will have to find a way of living with yourself before sentencing him to 8 years in prison.

Back in 2010, Tapaki was jailed for three years with a parole release date after 12 months and was disqualified from driving for five years for dangerous driving. He apparently did not learn his lesson.
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry announced yesterday that there will be no murder charges against the two policemen who shot 37-year-old Alton Sterling to death as a third officer held him down. The decision comes on the heels of protest over the police slaying of Stephon Clark in Sacramento, California in his own yard.

Sterling was murdered on July 5, 2016, when Officers Blane Salamoni and Howie Lake II responded to calls alleging that a man with a gun had been seen outside a Baton Rouge convenience store.

When Salamoni and Lake approached him, Sterling was selling CDs in front of the store. The officers demanded that he place his hands on the hood of a car before wrestling him to the ground. Lake and Salamoni held Sterling down as he struggled against the attack. Salamoni fired three shots into Sterlings chest before rolling off of him. As Sterling struggled to sit upright, Salamoni shot him three more times in the back.

In his report on his investigation and decision not to charge Salamoni and Lake, Landry wrote, We have concluded that the officers in question acted as reasonable officers under existing law and were justified in their use of force.

Cellphone videos of the murder were circulated widely on social media and engendered widespread outrage. Popular protests surged throughout Baton Rouge almost immediately following Sterlings murder.

Government officials rushed to quell the protests and seething discontent. Democratic governor John Bel Edwards and the Baton Rouge Police Department each held press conferences, with each vowing that Sterlings murder would be investigated thoroughly and impartially. Edwards specified that the US Department of Justice would conduct an investigationan entity that has had a long history of siding with police in cases where civilians have been killed, as they did in the murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

True to form, the DoJ announced in May 2017 that they would not be charging Salamoni and Lake for violating Sterlings Fourth Amendment protection against the use of unreasonable force. Justice Department prosecutors cited Sterlings large physical size and his struggles against Salamonis and Lakes manhandling as evidence that the two officers had used reasonable force, as well as the fact that they tasered him seconds before wrestling him to the ground.

The Department of Justices announcement alluded also to Salamonis assertion that the officers believed Sterling to be reaching for a gun, notwithstanding the fact that it is lawful to carry a gun in Louisiana, as well as the fact that Sterling was restrained when Salamoni fired the first three bullets into his chest. Sterling was face down on the pavement, struggling to move with bullets lodged in his chest, when Salamoni shot him three more times in the back.

Attorney General Landry drew upon the Department of Justices decision in his deliberations. He stated that Salamoni and Lake made well-founded and reasonable attempts to restrain Sterlings hands until Lake claimed he saw Sterling reaching for a gunby which point he had already been shot. According to Landry, Salamoni had warned Sterling not to move. What he actually said was, If you move, I swear to God...

Sterlings family has also claimed that video shows Salamoni telling Sterling that he would shoot him in the head and calling him bitch.

Landry attempted to deflect the anticipated anger over his decision by adding that Salamoni and Lake could still face repercussions for Sterlings killings. Sterlings family has filed a wrongful death suit in civil court against Salamoni and Lake.

Baton Rouge Police Chief Murphy Paul, who is African American, stated on Tuesday that Salamoni and Lake would be facing administrative investigations later this week and urged the public to have just a little more patience, no doubt mindful of the protests that erupted after Sterlings murder and again after the Department of Justice concluded its investigation. If Salamoni and Lake are terminated from the Baton Rouge Police Department, it will be nothing more than a public hand-washing ploy by the city.

Baton Rouge Mayor Sharon Weston Broome urged the public not to protest Landrys decision, saying, Im confident the chief will act expeditiously and fairly in his own investigation. Regardless of what happens to Salamoni and Lake, the decision not to prosecute them is a signal to police officers nationwide that they can continue to kill and brutalize with impunity.

Paul, who was installed by Broome last year, has spoken about being unfairly targeted by police in the past, as if he, as a black man, is peculiarly situated to address the murder of civilians by his employees. In fact, his calls for patience reveal him, like Broome, to be an instrument of state repression.

As the World Socialist Web Site wrote in 2016, Whatever role racism may play in particular acts of police violence, the explosive growth of police killings is a class, not a racial question. It is the consequence of a deliberate policy of bolstering the repressive powers of local police departments. American police forces have been virtually transformed into paramilitary groups that view the population as a hostile force, armed to the teeth with hi-tech weaponry, including billions of dollars worth of military hardware loaned to them for free by the Pentagon.
Amid a relentless drive to censor the Internet, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has reportedly agreed to demands by leading Democrats to testify before Congress.

Zuckerbergs upcoming testimony is the result of an ongoing campaign, led by the New York Times and the Guardian, together with leading Congressional Democrats, to bring the company closer into alignment with the demands of the US intelligence agencies to carry out sweeping Internet censorship measures.

On March 18, the two newspapers simultaneously published revelations that the Trump campaign purchased data on some 50 million Facebook users, harvested by Cambridge Analytica.

The revelations raise serious questions about the vast amounts of data at the disposal of technology giants such as Google, Facebook and Twitter. But the media firestorm generated in the wake of the revelation is entirely out of proportion with what has been revealed. In 2012, the Obama reelection campaign did essentially the same thing as Cambridge Analytica but on an even larger scale, and was praised by the press for its savvy use of social media.

The media, at the direction of figures such as Democrat Mark Warner, a leading spokesman of the intelligence agencies in the US Congress, has used the scandal to whip up a pressure campaign aimed at bringing Zuckerberg into line, or even threatening a boardroom coup against him.

To gain traction with a broader public, the media campaign against the companys leadership is structured as an amalgam. It combines a factthat the Trump campaign received Facebook data collected without users consentwith an untruth: that the Russian government used Facebook to sow division in American society and was responsible for the election of Donald Trump.

The campaign thus seeks to exploit genuine opposition within the American population to the vast and unchecked power of the major technology giantswhich treat users most private data as their own personal property, to be analyzed, monetized and shared with the intelligence agenciesand tie it to a right-wing campaign to censor the Internet.

Since the release of the Cambridge Analytica story, Facebooks stock price has fallen by more than 15 percent, wiping $80 billion out of its market value.

Zuckerberg, the fourth-richest man in America and the owner of 35 percent of Facebooks stock, has been in the crosshairs of Warner and his fellow propagandists for censorship since his statement, in November 2016, that the idea that fake news on Facebook, of which there is a very small amount of the content, influences the election is a pretty crazy idea.

Zuckerberg quickly changed his tune, and Facebook has since rushed to the forefront of the drive to censor the Internet. It has hired over 15,000 staff to censor users content and plans to boost this number to 20,000 by the end of the year. Earlier this year, the company announced plans to promote trustworthy news sources, such as the New York Times, to the detriment of independent news sites and citizen journalists.

But this has not been enough. Speaking on NBCs Meet the Press on Sunday, Warner declared, I dont think Facebook has been fully forthcoming. He said he called out Facebook back in December of 16, but the company blew that off.

He added, What we saw in 2016 was the broad weaponization of information by Russians I think the whole industry has been reluctant to accept the fact that were seeing the dark underbelly of social media.

Threatening the company, Warner declared, I think there will be appropriate penalties. But I think it raises the bigger question. All of these social media platform companies have said they have no responsibility for any of the content. I think we have to relook at that.

Taking up Warners remark, Meet the Press host Chuck Todd added, I think if youre a social media company, you can drop the word social. Youre a media company.

That same day, Warner told CBSs Face the Nation: Facebook, unfortunately, and all the social media companies, were really slow to respond. He continued, I think Mr. Zuckerberg needs to come and testify before Congress, not just put an advertisement in his paper. He said he would if he was the right guy. He is the right guy. He cant send a staff.

The aim of this campaign is to fundamentally alter the basic legal framework within which technology companies operate. Under the present law they are treated, roughly, like libraries instead of newspapers, and therefore not legally responsible for the content of their users communications.

By making technology companies legally liable for content posted by their users, Warner and his political allies hope to force the technology giants to implement even more heavy-handed censorship measures, with the aim of blocking all forms of political opposition.

The moves to censor the Internet have been spurred on by the growing emergence of social opposition within the United States. Last month, teachers in West Virginia defied their union in a strike movement to defend their health care, and educators throughout the country are planning to follow suit. And last weekend, millions of young people marched in opposition to the violence that pervades American society.

Under conditions of soaring social inequality and rising war threats, the drive to censor the Internet is aimed at criminalizing these and all other forms of social opposition.
Claims that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has presided over a growth of anti-Semitism in the party, and is himself a closet anti-Semite, are baseless. They mark a return to efforts to remove Corbyn as leader, steering the party onto the favoured political course of the Blairite right.

This makes all the more damning Corbyns swift capitulation to the provocation launched by the Board of Deputies of British Jews (BoD), the Jewish Leadership Council and a clique of over a dozen Labour MPs. In addition to betraying his supporters, it facilitates the efforts of the UKs political establishment, together with the State of Israel and the United States, to proscribe left-wing opposition to Zionism as extremism to justify its political suppression.

Monday night saw an unprecedented protest by no more than 200 people outside Parliament, mobilised by the BoD and JLC, dominated by Labour MPs who played a central role in 2016 in efforts to remove Corbyn as leader. Leading Zionist Labour MPs Luciana Berger, Ruth Smeeth and Louise Ellman were joined by the well-known crew of coup plotters. They included John Mann, who demanded Corbyn must go amid provocative chants of Jeremy Corbyn is a racist, along with Wes Streeting, Chuka Ummuna, Stella Creasy, Liz Kendall, Ian Austin and John Woodcock.

Jewish Voice for Labour staged a counter-protest involving relatives of Holocaust survivors, opposing the vilification of their party as anti-Semitic. Yet the filthy display of right-wing venom by upper-middle-class protesters carrying Israeli flags and anti-Corbyn placards was universally portrayed in the media as the voice of the mainstream Jewish community.

Neither this claim nor the accusations against Corbyn and the Labour Party stand up to genuine scrutiny.

The resurrection of charges of Labour anti-Semitism and of Corbyn being an apologist for anti-Semites, or even being instinctively hostile to Jews, signals that the partys right wing will no longer be constrained by Corbyns popular support. Forced to temper its attacks on Corbyn after Labours gains during last Junes snap general election, the right-wing wants Corbyns scalp.

The prelude to this latest offensive was the vicious anti-Russian campaign triggered by the poisoning of double agent Sergei Skripal, during which the Labour leader was denounced as an appeaser, unfit to hold office. The Blairites are convinced that the time is now ripe for a fresh assault on Corbyn, especially after his sacking of frontbencher Owen Smith on Friday for proposing the second referendum on Brexit they have long demanded. Denouncing his weakness on Russia, on Brexit and on Israel, Corbyns opponents are demanding his anti-Western views on war, NATO and nuclear weapons be silenced.

Writing in the Guardian, Rafael Behr made explicit these connections stating, On antisemitism, Russia and Brexit, [Labour] centrists might feel theyre in the wrong movement.

With pro-European Tory rebel MPs unhappy with Theresa May, Labour MPs have been stirred awake  If they think vital skills in a prime minister include recognising antisemitism at first sight, trusting UK security services over Vladimir Putin, and fearing that a hard Brexit is bad for Britain, they might be in the wrong party. Inevitably there is chatter about alternatives.

The Tory Daily Telegraph suggested to Labour MPs that the question for the party was how another such scandal would play out with Corbyn sitting in 10 Downing Street.

The scandal is based on a tweet by Corbyn from October 2012 unearthed by Berger. Corbyn had responded to an appeal by street artist Mear One, protesting plans to paint over an East London mural, accused by some of utilising anti-Jewish tropes with representatives of banking families playing monopoly on a table supported by the naked backs of workers.

Corbyn tweeted, You are in good company. Rockerfeller [sic] destroyed Diego [Riveras] mural because it includes a picture of Lenin.

At the same time, right-wing Tory blogger Guido Fawkes revealed that Corbyn had been signed upby supporters and without his knowledgeto two pro-Palestinian Facebook pages and had himself joined another, Labour supporter, which included some posts accused of anti-Semitism.

Whatever might be said of the mural in question, this served as the flimsy pretext for an open letter by the BoD and JLC to the Labour Party. The thrust of their letter was to make an amalgam between anti-imperialist criticism of Israels repression of the Palestinians and right-wing anti-Semitism.

Corbyn, as usual, first retreated to placate his critics, and when this failed abandoned the ideological field of battle altogether. He first said he had been wrong to support Mear One before studying the mural, pronouncing it to be deeply disturbing and apologising for the pain caused by pockets of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party.

But Corbyns initial mea culpa only emboldened the self-described leaders of British Jewry to declare in their open letter that they were tired of hearing that Jeremy Corbyn opposes anti-Semitism, complaining of repeated institutional failure to tackle anti-Semitism, with the Chakrabarti Report being the most glaring example of this.

The Chakrabarti Report, led by the former director of human rights group Liberty, had in fact rejected claims of widespread anti-Semitism in the Labour Party. But Corbyn issued no defence of Chakrabarti who now serves as the partys shadow attorney-general. In similar vein, he abandoned long-time ally and former Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, after he was smeared as an anti-Semite. Livingstones suspension from the Labour Party was renewed this month.

Corbyn, the letter continued, did not invent this form of politics, but personifies its problems and dangers. The type of politics identified was a far-left worldview that is instinctively hostile to mainstream Jewish communities. At best this derived from the far lefts obsessive hatred of Zionism, Zionists and Israel. At worst, it adopted a conspiratorial worldview in which mainstream Jewish communities are believed to be a hostile entity, a class enemy.

The BBC concisely summarised the open letters definition of what is to be considered anti-Semitic as holding a view of Israel as a sort of neo-colonialist, Imperialist power oppressing Palestinians, associated with America 

Faced with the BoD and JLC open letter, Corbyn abased himself still further, declaring that anti-Semitism in the Labour Party had often been wrongly dismissed as a matter of a few bad apples. Action was promised to deal with all cases of anti-Semitic abuse.

The organisations and Blairite MPs involved in this latest provocation have deep connections to Israel and the US and British intelligence services.

Labour Friends of Israel, of which most of the MPs at Mondays protest are members, is dominated by the partys right-wing. Its repeated charges of anti-Semitism during the attempt to remove Corbyn were levelled against his supporters and invariably focused on Internet posts opposing Israels treatment of the Palestinians. Their witch-hunting led to summary suspensions, part of a broader purge of tens of thousands of Corbyn supporters from the party by the National Executive Committee and the Compliance Unit.

Months later, in January 2017, a sting conducted by undercover reporters for Al Jazeera exposed just how extensive the intervention conducted by Israel in the Labour Party was.

Shai Masot, an Israeli embassy staffer in London, was secretly filmed explaining how he was plotting to take down MPs perceived as hostile to Israel. The main undercover reporter posed as a Labour Friends of Israel member. Masot told the reporter of his plans to set up pro-Israeli groups within the Labour Party to undermine Corbyns leadership, in an operation allotted 1 million by Tel Aviv to wine and dine 60 Labour MPs.

The initial anti-Semitism campaign was tied to efforts to eliminate opposition to the international adoption of a new legal definition of anti-Semitism, drawn up by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. This criminalised political criticism of Israel by including as examples of anti-Semitism, Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a state of Israel is a racist endeavour and any comparison between contemporary Israeli policy and that of the Nazis.

The formula advanced is that Zionism is integral to the Jewish faith and culture, which is in turn inseparable from the State of Israel.

The treatment meted out to Corbyn and his supporters is intended to ensure that the Blairite right and the Board of Deputies and related groups, elected by a handful of synagogues, will assume the role of judge, jury and executioner over the Labour Partys half a million members.

Jonathan Arkush, BoD president, told the Guardian he intends to set out his plans to drain the political sewer when he accepts an invitation to meet with Corbyn. These include the permanent expulsion of Livingstone from the party (He will have to go, Arkush decreed) along with Jackie Walker, the former vice-chair of the pro-Corbyn group Momentum, who is half black and half Jewish, and, as the Guardian comments, scores of other long-running cases which have been mired in the partys compliance procedures for many months.

Arkush would also like action to be taken against those who minimise reports of antisemitism, including the Unite general secretary, Len McCluskey, who suggested it was mood music to undermine the leadership.

Chillingly, he added that antisemitism on social media, i.e., criticism of Israel and, by extension, of the campaign now waged against Corbyn, must be properly and energetically shut down.
The US Senates passage of the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) on March 21 is the latest step in the American political establishments drive to censor the internet. The bill was passed by an overwhelming majority of 97-2, with one Democrat and one Republican voting against, and now awaits President Donald Trumps signature.

The legislation alters Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA). This law, which was passed as the internet was emerging in 1996, protects internet service providers, websites and other platforms from being held legally responsible for content that is posted by users. FOSTA modifies the act to prohibit construing section 230 to limit state criminal charges for facilitating prostitution or child sex trafficking. It is necessary only that the platform knowingly assisted or facilitated such activity, or that it was in reckless disregard of the fact that such activity was taking place.

Underscoring the chilling effect of the bill, internet companies have already responded to the Senate vote by pulling down forum pages in order to avoid prosecution. Craigslist, which publishes classifieds and advertisements, removed its Craigslist personals section, which is used by people seeking romantic relationships and sexual encounters, as well as for prostitution. Craigslist stated of the removal, Any tool or service can be misused. We cant take such risk without jeopardizing all our other services, so we are regretfully taking craigslist personals offline.

On March 21, Reddit updated its policies to ban any forums allowing users to solicit or facilitate any transaction or gift including not only paid service involving physical sexual conduct, but also firearms, drugs, and a range of other illicit goods. It has shut down a number of subreddits.

The purpose of the legislation is to provide a precedent for holding internet platforms legally accountable for the content posted by users. At present, the bill targets prostitution and sex trafficking to provide an apparently benevolent veneer to the change in policy. Sooner rather than later, an ever-broader number of other activities will be added to the list. The ending of Section 230 will allow for government authorities to place even greater pressure on internet platforms to censor and control what content is published online.

Comments by Democratic lawmakers in the wake of the vote make clear that they see FOSTA as only the thin end of the wedge. Senator Mark Warner, who has led the Democrats McCarthyite campaign to censor the internet in the name of combating Russian influence, declared that if internet companies did not collaborate with the government, you will see whole changes that will require some responsibility [for] the content.

Senator Brian Schatz stated, When they were a nascent industry they received special statutory carve outs and special dispensation from the Congress and that made sensebut youre now looking at a mature industry. Senator Kamala Harris stated that she would be interested in seeing what would be proposed specifically for adding other possible caveats to Section 230.

The political establishment views with fear the fact that billions of people in the US and around the world are now able, through the internet, to access and share information independently of the corporate-controlled media, which function as propaganda outlets for the government.

Internet rights advocacy organizations have responded to the FOSTA bill by warning that it will significantly undermine online freedom.

The Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit which publishes Wikipedia, currently used by hundreds of millions of people every day, published a statement in November in opposition to the legislation, noting, The Wikipedia we know today simply would not exist without Section 230. User-driven projects could not thrive if websites were subject to greater liability for user content.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation released a statement in response to the Senate vote declaring that the bill silences online speech by forcing Internet platforms to censor their users. The statement noted that the criteria that companies act in reckless disregard of sex trafficking activities was worded so broadly that it could even be used against platform owners that dont know that their sites are being used for trafficking.

Underscoring the reactionary character of the law, it states that the changes to the CDA will apply retroactively, irrespective of whether the alleged crime occurred before or after the passage of the bill, potentially making it unconstitutional. It was left to the Justice Department of Donald Trump to note in a memo on February 27 that this raises a serious constitutional concern.

The bills passage has been supported by technology company Oracle, as well as 20th Century Fox, which sees the restriction of the internet as advantageous to its business interests.

It is particularly notable that the big social media and technology companies, including Facebook, Google, Twitter and Amazon, have all endorsed FOSTA, despite the fact that it potentially opens them up to legal prosecution. Having previously opposed the FOSTA bill, these companies publicly reversed their position last September.

For years, these companies have opposed any restriction on their ability to host user-created content and any alteration to Section 230 in particular. They are now completely integrated into the campaign by the Democratic Party and intelligence agencies to censor the internet.

Google, which revealed this month that it provides software used by the US military as part of its drone assassination program, changed its search result algorithms last April to prevent users from reaching left-wing, progressive and anti-war websites, including the World Socialist Web Site. Facebook has similarly announced a series of changes to its News Feed since the start of the year to block alternative news sites and promote pro-government outlets such as the New York Times and Washington Post.
The fraudulent nature of the public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire was exposed once again during last weeks session laying out the structure and timetable for questioning witnesses.

It was revealed that vital documents have been withheld from lawyers representing relatives of the 71 people who died in the inferno on June 14 last year, the survivors and local residents.

Richard Millett QC, lead counsel for the inquiry chaired by Sir Martin Moore-Bick, opened the procedural hearing by saying that phase one of the inquiry, dealing with how the fire started, would begin May 21. Phase two, covering why it occurred, will take place at an unspecified time in the future.

Phase one will open with tributes (pen portraits) to those who perished, followed two weeks later by questioning the first witnesses by inquiry lawyers.

Lawyers for the bereaved, survivors and local residents will only be allowed to question witnesses, with Moore-Bicks permission, on a case-by-case basis. They will be prevented from raising issues of a social, economic and political nature.

For the same reason, no campaigning organisations or political bodies were included in the list of core participants (CPs) published last week. On the list were 504 individuals, who were bereaved due to the fire, survivors and local residents.

Also included are 18 companies involved in the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower, two fire service unions, and seven state organisations, including the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea council (RBKC), the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisationthe tenant management organisation which managed the Tower on behalf of the council, the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) and three government ministries.

The narrow remit given to the lawyers of the bereaved, survivors and local residents by Moore-Bick makes a mockery of the claims that allowing core participants in to monitor the conduct of proceedings was a great advance in accountability and inclusiveness.

Following Milletts introduction and claims that disclosure of documents was proceeding smoothly, it became clear that the opposite was the case. Pete Weatherby QC, representing 73 of the bereaved and survivors, declared that only two months before the questioning of witnesses begins, of the 330,000 documents gathered by the inquiry, [W]e have had only 1,962 documents disclosed to us, mostly individual photos of the building or the inside of the building. This amounts to just one half of one percent of the total.

According to Weatherby, none of the mass of the material gathered by the MPS in their criminal investigations had been disclosed, nor had the documentation sent to the inquirys nine experts four months ago. He called for the release of film footage, emergency 999 calls, statements from firefighters and their commanders, emergency service radio communications, firefighting documents and post-mortem reports.

Weatherby explained that without effective disclosure it puts us in a position where our clients, bereaved and survivors CPs are simply not going to be in a position to effectively participate or their effective participation in the whole process is going to be severely diminished.  To question witnesses we need the material.

Weatherby noted the failure to disclose the 415 statements made by firefighters, who will be the first witnesses to be questioned in June. It transpires that the MPS, who took the statements, have held up their release for months claiming they could jeopardise its own investigations and demanding to vet each one and redact information. However, to date no one has been questioned, let alone charged, by the police in relation to the fire and there is no likelihood of this happening in the foreseeable future. The forensic stage of the criminal investigation is unlikely to be completed until 2019 and the full investigation could take years to complete.

Weatherby stated that it is difficult to see how the disclosure of firefighters statements could have any adverse impact on the criminal process.

As to the position statements, in which the corporate and state CPs were supposed to list the key issues and provide them to the inquiry by February 9, Weatherby said not only had some been delayed or not been produced at all, but to describe them as position statements maybe is going a little too far.

In almost none of the position statements to date has any real assistance to the inquiry [been given] beyond the processes and contractual arrangements.

As to key issues, why the fire spread, what caused or contributed to such terrible loss of life it seems to us, with one notable exception, thats absent from all of the position statements received so far.

Danny Friedman, speaking for five legal firms representing 277 CPs, added, As of today, we are yet to see any public admissions by the council or the various contractors that any features of the refurbishment were causative of the deaths and that the position statements are silent on this point.

Another lawyer, Sam Stein QC, criticised the governments Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety set up after the Grenfell fire, chaired by Dame Judith Hackitt and due to report soon. He said the review committees had been populated by the corporations and state organisations and that there was no Grenfell Tower group or expert on them.

In other developments last week, RBKC sought to increase its external legal services budget from 3.5 million to 5 million, primarily to protect councillors and officers in the Grenfell inquiry and criminal investigation.

It was revealed that Rydon, the lead construction company, paid 8.7 million to refurbish Grenfell Tower between 2014 and 2016, saw its profits rise 50 percent last year. Also, the salary of its highest-paid director increased by 8 percent to 459,000.

Rydon decided not to set aside money to cover potential losses or expenses related to the fire, confident of the result of the inquiry. The firms accounts for the year to September 2017, said, Rydon has reviewed the specific work carried out by Rydon Maintenance Limited and given the limited nature of the work commissioned, the approvals received in relation to it and the interrelationship with work undertaken by other parties, no provision has been made in the accounts for any matters arising from these tragic events.

Figures released last week show the government will probably fail to permanently rehouse all those made homeless by the Grenfell Tower fire within a year as it promised. Of the 209 households needing rehousing, only 62 have so far moved into permanent new accommodation.

At the same time as the Grenfell inquiry was holding its procedural hearing, and in a warning to those taking part, scores of core participants walked out of the Undercover Policing Inquiry (UCPI), objecting to the chair granting anonymity to undercover police officers. The UCPI was set up four years ago and still hasnt started hearing evidence from police officers or those directly affected by spying.

The events of last week are proof that everything is being done to ensure that the guilty in political and corporate circles evade justice. They confirm the ongoing state-orchestrated cover-up of the real causes of the social murder that occurred at Grenfell Tower, at the centre of which is the Moore-Bick inquiry.

The Grenfell Tower fire symbolises everything that is rotten in a social order dominated by the selfish concerns of a corrupt financial oligarchy, contemptuous of the broad mass of working people and youth. The entirely avoidable loss of life was the result of the devastation capitalism has created in Britain and internationally, due to a deliberate and historically unprecedented transfer of social wealth from the working class to the super-rich.

The Grenfell Fire Forum, initiated by the Socialist Equality Party (UK), will be holding the next of its regular meetings on Saturday, April 21, at the Maxilla Social Club in North Kensington, London. All are welcome to attend. Details below:

Grenfell Fire Forum meeting

Saturday April 21, 4 p.m.

Maxilla Social Club, 2 Maxilla Walk

London, W10 6SW (nearest tube: Latimer Road)

For further details visit facebook.com/Grenfellforum
Written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson

Phantom Thread is the eighth feature film by American writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love, There Will Be Blood, Inherent Vice). Set in London in the 1950s, it concerns the relationship between a celebrated fashion designer, Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis), and a young woman, Alma (Vicky Krieps), who when we first meet her is working as a waitress in a small restaurant in the countryside.

Vicky Krieps and Daniel Day-Lewis in Phantom Thread

Woodcock and his unmarried sister, Cyril (Lesley Manville), who manages the business affairs, preside over a successful fashion house, patronized by wealthy women and even European royalty. Reynolds is an obsessive, demanding, idiosyncratic individual, with daily rituals and habits accumulated over years and years that he strongly insists upon.

Alma is also quite strong and independent. If you want to have a staring contest with me, she tells Woodcock early on, you will lose. We believe her. But he is older and has the more settled existence. So inevitably, perhaps, she enters into his house and business, apparently the latest in a series of women incorporated into the couturiers well-regulated life.

We briefly meet Almas predecessor, Johanna (Camilla Rutherford), to whom, when she complains at breakfast about his lack of interest, Reynolds responds coldly, I cannot begin my day with a confrontation.  Im delivering the dress todayand I cant take up space with a confrontation. I simply dont have time for confrontations.

Here too there appears to be a well-established pattern: Reynolds grows tired of each of his companions after a while, the businesslike Cyril delivers the bad news (Well, what do you want to do about Johanna? I mean, shes lovely, but the time has come. And shes getting fat sitting around waiting for you to fall in love with her again), and he takes himself off to the country to avoid any unpleasantness.

Will it be different with Alma? Soon after she moves into the house, but with her own separate room, Reynolds finds her presence disruptive. The way she butters her toast irritates him greatly: Please, dont move so much, Alma.  Its very distracting.  Its as if you just rode a horse across the room. And these distractions disturb his entire routine, including his work: The interruption is staying right here with me.

All in all, Reynolds is rather a stifling, repressive man, who dreams of his Mama and sews secrets, coins, words, little messages into the lining of his garments. He is also a designer of beautiful clothes with an acute artistic sense. He would like to impose his sensibilities on Alma, but she resists in certain ways. (Maybe one day you will change your taste, Alma. Maybe not. Maybe you have no taste. Maybe I like my own taste. Yeah, its just enough to get you into trouble. Perhaps Im looking for trouble.)

Almas entirely legitimate efforts to carve out space for herself and to have some say in the character and direction of their relationship lead inevitably to confrontations and even explosions. A surprise dinner she organizes for Woodcock goes terribly wrong. They quarrel bitterly. What am I doing here? she bitterly wonders out loud. Im standing around like an idiot waiting for youto get rid of me. He says horrible, defensive things to her. This is my house, isnt it?  Or did somebody drop me on foreign soil?  Who are you? Do you have a gun? Youre here to kill me?

In response, Alma expresses disgust for All your rules and your walls and your doors and your people and your money and all these clothes and everything! This! This! This game! Everything here!  Nothing is normal or natural.

In the end, she takes drastic actions to render Reynolds helpless...tender...open...with only me to help. Not once, but twice.

Anderson is a talented and conscientious filmmaker, also possessed of a genuine artistic-visual sense. Phantom Thread is one of his more integral works. There is a genuine complicity between the camera work, acting, music and design. As the reader will perhaps have already gathered, the dialogueon which the director worked closely with Day-Lewisis intelligent, sharp and often amusing.

The relationship between Reynolds and Alma is believable, at least until the final melodramatics. This may be a small thing, but its a step forward for Anderson. One of the drawbacks to Punch-Drunk Love, for example, was that the love relationship was largely unconvincing, as we argued in 2002. This inability to recount a history of love from its origins, to make sense of it, was in line with the general inability [of contemporary filmmaking] to work through any problem historically.

The early scenes of Reynoldss and Almas meeting and their first date, are strikingly and even memorably done. At the end of their first evening together, at his place in the country, he says, Id like to take your measurements. Is that all right?, and proceeds to do just that, with the help of his sister.

Alma later encourages his one act of social rebellion, when he insists that a very wealthy woman, who passes out in one of his gowns at her own wedding, give the garment back. Alma tells him, She doesnt deserve it. Its your work!, and he agrees.

All these moments, and others, are fine. Day-Lewis, Manville (known best for her work with Mike Leigh) and Krieps, a relative newcomer from Luxembourg, are obviously committed to the film and to making it as true and honest as possible.

Phantom Thread

Critics and audiences have responded to Andersons latest film in part because of what it is not: childrens fare, violent bombast, superhero and comic book nonsense. Phantom Thread stands out to that degree.

In the end, however, the film is an elegant, careful work that does not leave a strong enough impression. Why is that so?

One of the principal difficulties is that Phantom Thread never develops a sufficiently critical attitude toward its own goings-on. Despite Almas occasionally pointed comments and even temper tantrums, Anderson and his film accommodate themselves far too much to the suffocating atmosphere. They remain within the claustrophobic bounds even while identifying them. Anderson wants to have his cake and eat it too. The director allows himself misguidedly to be mesmerized by what is stylish and pleasing to the eye, secondary elements. One has to disagree sharply with this.

Woodcock is gifted, but his life and attitudes and his exquisite, tedious good taste are dreadful and oppressive in the end. As Brecht once noted, There are times when you have to decide between being human and having good taste. His ways are not normal or natural. But Alma does not make war on them. Unfortunately, she learns to navigate her way, albeit spectacularly, among them. This seems to be Phantom Threads advice as well. The ending is horrible and evasive, in that sense, and demoralizing, a bad compromise, a worship of the accomplished fact. Why should anyone agree to live under these conditions, with this happy ending?

Lesley Manville, Daniel Day-Lewis and Vicky Krieps

The problems in Phantom Thread are larger than Anderson himselfto repeat, one of the more intriguing figures in American movies. Born in 1970, he suffers from some of the same general problems as the rest of his generation, coming to artistic maturity as they did during years dominated by political reaction and cultural regression. A few years ago, in a review of his Inherent Vice (2014), we wrote that like his slightly older contemporary Steven Soderbergh, Anderson is non-committal on all the great issues. He can vividly and convincingly reproduce any number of individual settings, vocations, milieus, etc., but he has been incapable to this point of reaching or communicating any important conclusions about American social life as a whole.

The disjointedness and narrowness remain, even though Phantom Thread does not exhibit the same hysteria that fatally damaged There Will Be Blood (2007), Andersons golden and seriously missed opportunity to say something about the origins of modern American capitalism.

Moreover, in this society, fashion design is one of those art forms inevitably oriented toward those able to buy elaborately and expensively created garments, the very rich. This choice sets Anderson in a direction whose implications he may not have thoroughly thought through. Phantom Thread is a work concerned with the artist and those around him, but not about the other half of the equation, frankly, the more important half, the audience for art works. A novelist, a filmmaker is under some obligation, generally speaking, to consider those who will read or watch his or her work. Woodcock is making dresses for an exclusive clientele, many of them return customers, thoroughly under his thumb as far as fashion and taste go. This only increases the claustrophobic, self-referential character of things. Art for the artists sake? Its not so interesting.

Emotional life and psychology are connected to history and society, otherwise they would never undergo any changes. Phantom Thread is set in London in the 1950s, but it says next to nothing about the general character of British society at the time, including its overall mood. Andersons work is not fed by an interest in that kind of understanding or insight. This would not have to take the form of direct or overt commentary. Certain circumstances may block that path to the artist. But no important work is without the presence of powerful currents indicating the hic et nunc, the here and now, of a given society or epoch. Something important about his or her day must have consciously entered into the artists thinking at some point, whatever trace it leaves.

Paul Thomas Anderson in 2007 (Photo credit: Jurgen Fauth)

Anderson made clear his attitude toward social life and history in a recent interview. Speaking of Warren Beattys Reds (1981), about American journalists John Reed and Louise Bryant and the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, he observed, I was thinking about how great a film that is, but how deeply confusing and uninteresting all the facts about the Russian Revolution are. You know? Im not smart enough for it. Its over my head. But, boy,  when he finds her and they hug and they kiss and, you know, youre like, tears streaming down, cue the music, cue the two-shot where they find each other and hug, and Im a goner. You know? 

Of course, Anderson is more than smart enough, but for objective social and ideological reasons, his generation has been steered away from such problems and events. They have been made to believe that the Russian Revolution and all the complex issues bound up with iti.e., the great struggles and traumas of the twentieth centuryare not for them, so to speak, and that art is about something else entirely. The debilitating results of that process are plain to see, including in Phantom Thread .

It is not pleasing to be vindicated in this particular manner, because of the high artistic cost entailed, but this is how we began a review of There Will Be Blood in 2008, Histrionic, fatally confused and socially evasive, Paul Thomas Andersons There Will Be Blood is all the worse for its touching upon important subjects, oil and religion in American life. Putting the best interpretation on it, Anderson is simply way in over his head, with ultimately disastrous artistic consequences.

This remains a problem.
Our people suffered mass atrocities in different places and times, but we are united in our shared humanity -- and our desire for action to stop ongoing atrocities in Syria. Ms. Kor is a survivor of the Auschwitz death camp during the Holocaust, in which German dictator Adolf Hitler launched a systematic campaign to annihilate the Jewish people. Mr. Ghanem lived almost all his life in the Syrian capital Damascus, where some of the worst atrocities in the world today are ongoing.

The Ghouta suburbs of Damascus have been particularly devastated recently by the ongoing crisis in Syria. It may not compare in death toll to the vastness of the slaughter that took place in the Holocaust, but there are a number of hallmarks that bear striking resemblance.

Like Hitler, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad uses poison gas against civilians, most famously in the 2013 Sarin massacre in Ghouta and most recently, it's suspected, in a strike in the same area. Like Hitler, Assad uses starvation as a weapon against civilians, having placed over 400,000 people in Ghouta under siege. Assad also uses Blitzkrieg-style scorched earth tactics, along with his brutal partner, Russian President Vladimir Putin, to target hospitals, bakeries and schools.

Assad has even learned torture tactics from Alois Brunner, Hitler's right-hand man who gained shelter and escaped justice by joining his fellow war criminals in the Syrian capital. International humanitarian and legal experts who surveyed photos of regime prisoners tortured to death compared them to scenes from the Nazi death camps. Assad has even taken to burning murdered detainees in crematoria; we may never know how many bodies were disposed of in this way, but we know that tens of thousands of civilians have been forcibly disappeared and never heard from since.

Such chilling details of torture hit home for us. Ms. Kor herself was tortured as a child and experimented on by the maniacal Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, after being walled in and starved for nine months in one of the most infamous Nazi death camps.

Mr. Ghanem nearly became one of Assad's torture victims when he was arrested by the Syrian military police for protesting the beating of an orphan, only escaping indefinite detention after a last-minute intervention by family members prevented his transfer to the infamous Adra Prison.

Hitler's murder of millions of Jews, Gypsies and other groups deemed "undesirable" was all the more chilling because deaths were recorded using industrial-style precision, as would be seen on a well-oiled factory floor.

Yet all the horrors in Syria today are also available for viewing on the prized products of Silicon Valley: Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and other social media channels are sources of fun and pleasure for children across the Western World, but in Syria, the internet is used by children to cry for help. They pray someone in the outside world will hear.

Ms. Kor spent many hours at Auschwitz only wishing she could send a message beyond the electrified barbed wires of the concentration camp. Social media allows ordinary Syrians to document their suffering for the world -- yet we do nothing.

The Nazis' precise records were self-incriminating; they showed the perpetrators knew they were committing genocide. The videos from Syria incriminate all of humanity; they prove beyond a doubt that policymakers across the world are aware of the killing that is happening there. Why does the world continue to allow mass atrocities to occur? Why have declarations of "Never Again" turned into "Never Mind"?

We implore the public not to allow their senses to be dulled and to reject the idea that the torture and killing of children is an inevitable fact of life. The starvation, the torture, the siege and the chemical attacks in Syria can be stopped. Assad's military is far from invincible; the Israeli strikes on Syrian air defenses last month showed that. After years of appeasement-style diplomacy have yielded only more body bags by an emboldened Assad, grounding Assad's air force is the last option left to stop the slaughter.

History does not look kindly on world inaction during the atrocities of the Holocaust even though the Nazi war machine was far stronger and the evidence less readily available. Surely, we do not want to be remembered as the generation that allowed such atrocities to continue and become normalized.
WASHINGTON  Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens is calling for the repeal of the Second Amendment to allow for significant gun control legislation.

The 97-year-old Stevens says in an essay on The New York Times website that repeal would weaken the National Rifle Associations ability to block constructive gun control legislation.

Stevens was on the losing end of a 2008 ruling in which the high court held that the Second Amendment gives individuals the right to own a gun for self-defense. He had previously called for changing the Second Amendment to permit gun control.

Stevens says the decision in that case, District of Columbia v. Heller, has provided the N.R.A. with a propaganda weapon of immense power. Stevens retired from the court in 2010, after more than 35 years.

In his essay published Tuesday, Stevens talks about the March for Our Lives events on Saturday which drew crowds in cities across the country. Stevens said the demonstrations reveal the broad public support for legislation to minimize the risk of mass killings of schoolchildren and others in our society.

He said the support is a clear sign to lawmakers to enact legislation prohibiting civilian ownership of semiautomatic weapons, increasing the minimum age to buy a gun from 18 to 21 years old, and establishing more comprehensive background checks on all purchasers of firearms.

But Stevens called on demonstrators to seek more effective and more lasting reform.

They should demand a repeal of the Second Amendment, he wrote.

Repealing the amendment would be extremely difficult. An amendment to the constitution can only be proposed either by Congress with a two thirds vote in both houses or by a constitutional convention called for by two thirds of the state legislatures. The amendment then has to be approved by three quarters of the states.

The NRA issued this statement:

The 97-year-old retired justice has long held the opinion that American citizens do not have the individual right to own a firearm for self-protection. Emboldened by the mainstream media, the gun-control lobby is no longer distancing themselves from the radical idea of repealing the Second Amendment and banning all firearms. The protestors in last weeks march told us with their words and placards that the current debate is not about fake terms like commonsense gun regulation. Its about banning all guns. The men and women of the National Rifle Association, along with the majority of the American people and the Supreme Court, believe in the Second Amendment right to self-protection and we will unapologetically continue to fight to protect this fundamental freedom.

TRADEMARK AND COPYRIGHT 2018 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan has invited victims of gun violence to tell their stories at a legislative hearing.

The House Judiciary-Criminal Law Committee will take testimony Tuesday afternoon in Chicago.

Madigan says he wants discussion on the effort to end illegal firearms sales. The Chicago Democrat noted the General Assembly approved a plan for state licensing of gun dealers last month.

Gov. Bruce Rauner vetoed the plan two weeks ago. He called it "burdensome" and noted federal law enforcement agencies already regulate dealers.

Madigan is gauging support for an override vote.

Online:

The bill is SB1657 .

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
VIGO COUNTY, Ind. (WTHI) - Local doctors say a second wave of the flu is hitting Vigo County. The cases are influenza B. This strain is more severe for children.

More than half of flu cases are the considered the B virus right now, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Darren Brucken with the Vigo County Health Department expects this flu season to be one of the deadliest years for children.

The CDC reports 133 children have died from the flu this year. Indiana is one of the few states that's still seeing widespread flu activity.

We've seen a lot of B reported like in February and March. Again the good news is the virus incidents is on the decline right now, week by week so that's the good news, said Dr. Imad Koj with Internal Medicine at Regional Hospital.

Doctors suggest avoiding crowded areas to protect yourself. This includes the gym or a school. They also say to cover your mouth and above all make sure you wash your hands.
SoftBank and Saudi Arabia are planning to cash in on Middle Eastern sunshine by building a $200 billion solar power project in the oil-rich kingdom.

The Japanese tech company's billionaire CEO, Masayoshi Son, and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced plans late Tuesday in New York for what they say is the world's biggest solar project.

The huge project will be partially bankrolled by the massive $93 billion SoftBank Vision Fund, of which Saudi Arabia is the biggest backer.

The initial investment is $5 billion, of which $1 billion will come from the SoftBank fund. The rest will come from loans that will be paid off through revenue generated by selling electricity from the vast solar project, Son said.

Related: Saudi Arabia is the hottest emerging market right now

The project is so big that it's expected to take more than a decade to finish. The current target is for it to be completed by 2030. Its massive scale will create entire industries in Saudi for the manufacturing and installation of solar equipment.

That will include training facilities and a research and development center "so the new technology will continue to evolve," Son said.

The project will eventually generate 200 gigawatts of energy, far more than any existing solar project. It would provide enough electricity to simultaneously power about 20 billion LED light bulbs.

The plans aren't set in stone, though. Son and bin Salman signed a memorandum of understanding for the project on Tuesday rather than a formal, binding agreement.

The Saudi crown prince has been trying to wean the country off its addiction to oil and diversify the economy into new areas. Those efforts have included high-profile investments in technology and plans for a vast new $500 billion city.

Last year, Saudi Arabia pledged $45 billion to invest in technology companies around the world. It's also trying to create a thriving startup scene at home.

Related: Saudi Arabia wants its own Amazon or Google

The new solar project will involve the construction of solar parks throughout Saudi Arabia and a large battery to store the energy generated by the panels.

Son estimated that the project will create 100,000 jobs and save Saudi Arabia $40 billion in power generation costs. He also predicted it would add $12 billion to the country's gross domestic product, although he didn't say over what period.

Installation of the solar panels is planned to start this year, and the project should start producing electricity by the middle of next year.

The first solar panels will be imported from an established manufacturer, Son said, but all the equipment for the project will be manufactured in Saudi Arabia after the first couple of years.
For a brief moment, it looked as if there really was a new sheriff in town. A little more than two months into Donald Trump's presidency, Syria's dictator, Bashar al-Assad, unleashed one of his trademark chemical attacks on the town of Khan Sheikhoun in northwestern Syria. Scores of civilians were killed, and Trump saw images of children choking to death. He then appeared determined to show the world that the new presidency would be nothing like the old one.

Within 48 hours, Trump spoke to the nation. "My fellow Americans," he said gravely, "Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad launched a horrible chemical weapons attack on innocent civilians. ... It was a slow and brutal death for so many. Even beautiful babies were cruelly murdered in this very barbaric attack."

Trump, who had endlessly criticized Barack Obama for failing to enforce his "red line" in Syria and said he would not "let [Assad] get away with what he's tried to do," drew his own red line. He ordered a missile attack on the airbase from where the attack was launched, and declared, "It is in the vital national security interest of the United States to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons."

The notion that Trump was bringing a new and coherent policy to America's role in Syria quickly evaporated. In an interview describing the events a few days later, he recalled having dinner with Chinese President Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago. We had the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake that you've ever seen and President Xi was enjoying it."

He proudly told Xi the United States had "just fired 59 missiles ... heading to Iraq," mistaking the name of the target country.

The strike in Syria, it soon became apparent, was not the opening salvo of a new and coherent policy. It was more reminiscent of a rich kid playing with a new toy.

I was never a fan of Obama's approach to the war in Syria. I wrote about it repeatedly, and I take no satisfaction in noting that events proved me right. Everything about the Syrian civil war turned into a worst-case scenario for the Syrian people, for the Middle East and for a surprisingly large part of the world.

Hundreds of thousands have been killed and millions displaced. Mass flows of refugees, coupled with the brutality of ISIS, contributed to the rise of the anti-immigrant far right in Europe. The war removed the taboo over the use of chemical weapons, and it fortified the worst players in the region, Iran and Hezbollah, while opening the doors to Russia's re-entry as a major actor in the Middle East.

Obama declared in 2011 that Assad should step down, but then did little to help those who wanted to make it happen. When Obama acted, he did so hesitantly.

His warning that the United States would respond if Assad used chemical weapons -- his famed red line -- turned into an embarrassment when it was not enforced after Russia secured a phony deal to remove Assad's banned weapons. In my view, Obama failed miserably in Syria.

But while Obama's approach was bad. Trump is much worse.

Trump's Syria policy is a muddle, but somehow the deaths of "beautiful babies" no longer prompt a reaction from Trump.

And Syrians are still dying. By one count, 39,000 were killed last year.

If Obama made the United States take a step back as a major player in the Middle East, Trump all but surrendered much of the country to Russia and Iran, countries that have saved Assad -- ensuring he will remain their loyal, deeply indebted ally.

On ISIS, Obama promised to "degrade and destroy" the terrorist organization. Trump followed that plan, carrying out more aggressive bombings facilitated by a diminished concern with civilian casualties. ISIS has been removed from the territory it controlled, as the policy that Obama launched and Trump intensified yields results.

The United States keeps about 2,000 troops in northeastern Syria, but America is concerned only with terrorism, while Russia, Iran, and now Turkey, throw roots into Syrian soil.

Under Trump, Washington betrayed the Syrian Kurds, the fighters that made it possible to crush ISIS. The United States worked with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, commanded by the Kurdish militia. But when Turkey -- which views these Kurds as enemies -- launched its forces along with rebel groups to remove the Kurds from areas they controlled, the United States did little to stop it. Trump meekly urged Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to "de-escalate." Erdogan ignored him.

Some Kurdish fighters left their US-supported positions in the anti-ISIS campaign to try to save their people. But now Erdogan is triumphant about Turkey's victory over the Kurds in the city of Afrin, while civilians flee by the thousands and the city is looted by the victors.

Sure, the choice between a NATO ally and a Kurdish rebel group presented a challenge. But you can be sure the impact of America's betrayal will be a lasting and harmful one.

The rest of Syria, meanwhile, is steadily being conquered by Assad, who is bombing hospitals in East Ghouta and elsewhere, still using banned weapons.

And the worst may be yet to come. This war has made Iran and its ally, Hezbollah, a much more influential and hardened force on the border with two US allies, Israel and Jordan. And it has made Russia, a country flouting international norms, the main non-Middle Eastern power broker in the region.

The rise of Iran and Hezbollah means there is an extremely high likelihood that another war will break out in the Middle East, this one involving Israel and Iran.

At this stage, the minimum that America should be doing is deploying a smart, well-planned, diplomatic offensive to help shape a stable Middle East in the aftermath of the Syrian war. But under Trump, American diplomacy is in shambles. The State Department has shriveled, and those working in the administration are busy protecting their careers.

If Trump's Syria policy has seemed inconsistent until now, it is likely to take yet another turn with his new choices for secretary of state and national security adviser, Mike Pompeo and John Bolton, respectively. They are both hawkish on Iran and Russia and may well disagree with Trump's apparent willingness to relinquish US influence to Tehran and Moscow. But Trump, of course, is the President.

Trump was right that Obama failed on Syria. But, so far, this new sheriff has proven much worse than the old one.
FORREST COUNTY, Miss. (WTVA) - Officers were able to capture an inmate who failed to return to the Forrest County Community Work Center.

The Mississippi Department of Corrections identifies the man as 42-year-old James Robert Keel. MDOC says he did not return to the center Monday following a weekend pass.

He was arrested without incident Tuesday in the Water Valley area and is being returned to prison.
JACKSON, Miss. (WTVA) - The Southern Poverty Law Center filed a federal lawsuit to restore the voting rights of convicted felons.

Tuesday the SPLC held a news conference in front of the Secretary of State's Office who is named in the lawsuit.

The organization is representing six plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit.

Anyone convicted of a felony in the state is banned from voting for life. It affects an estimated 40,000 Mississippians.

Mississippi is one of four states with lifetime ban for all disenfranchising offenses.
TUPELO, Miss. (WTVA) - Tupelo police are still investigating a shooting that injured three people last week. Residents say they are worried and a councilman agrees there is an uptick in crime in the community.

"Certainly anytime there's a shooting in Tupelo, Mississippi we're all concerned and we should be concerned but particularly when it's in your ward," said Councilman Buddy Palmer. "Right where you live and where you go everyday it's even more concerning."

Police were called to a home just off South Veterans Memorial Boulevard, but authorities have not confirmed what led up to the incident.

"I think there is a rise on these shootings," Palmer said. "I really don't know why, it's never an answer to anything. Maybe family values, something is amiss."

Witnesses to the incident say they saw people get in a car and drive off after the shooting. Neighbors who didn't want to go on camera, say they need to think about staying safer.

"I used to come down from Milwaukee and hear of shootings everyday and then I come down here and started hearing it," said Mark Witherspoon, who grew up in Tupelo. "It really disturbs me."
BAY COUNTY, Fla. (WTXL) - A man was arrested in Bay County after Florida Highway Patrol found multiple drugs and a firearm inside his car.

Jordan Young, 20, was arrested by Florida Highway Patrol.

On March 27, an FHP Trooper was on patrol in Lynn Haven. The trooper saw a traffic violation and initiated a traffic stop on the car.

The trooper made contact with Young and observed signs of criminal activity. Probable cause was developed and the car was searched.

The search revealed 80 pills of hydrocodone, a small amount of Marijuana, drug paraphernalia, and a firearm.

Young was charged with trafficking hydrocodone, possession of a firearm while in commission of a felony, possession of marijuana, and possession of drug paraphernalia.
MIAMI, Fla. (WTXL) - The Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR - FL) expressed concern Wednesday that a recent cross-burning in front of a home in Harbor Point, Fla., is not being investigated as a hate crime.

The Jacksonville Sheriffs Office is investigating the incident in which a wooden cross was set on fire in front of the residence of Dr. Mohamed Omar Saleh, a local psychiatrist.

The Florida Times-Union reported that, Officer Melissa Bujeda, a Sheriffs Office spokeswoman, confirmed a cross was burned at the scene and said an intelligence unit and evidence technician were assigned to the case. But it cannot be classified as a hate crime yet.

Cross-burnings have been associated with racist sentiments.

CAIR-FL is assigning resources to ensure that hate crimes against the community are investigated as such.

CAIR-Floridas Civil Rights Department and our regional coordinators are actively contacting the parties affected and urging the Jacksonville Sheriffs Office to treat and investigate this incident as a possible hate crime, said CAIR-FL Communications Director Wilfredo Amr Ruiz.

CAIR-Florida is the states largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization.
OKALOOSA COUNTY, Fla. (WTXL) - Deputies say one Florida mother gave a new meaning to the term 'carpool' when her car rolled into a swimming pool with her husband and daughter inside.

The Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office shared a picture of a car submerged in a pool.

They say it happened on Okaloosa Island Monday afternoon.

Deputies say the mother, who they chose not to identify, thought she put the car into park when she ran upstairs to her apartment to grab some money.

However, the car apparently didn't go all the way into park and rolled into the pool with her husband and their 14-year-old daughter inside.

Thankfully, deputies say "all parties are O.K."

According to a Florida Highway Patrol report, the car rolled downhill and hit a fence before ending up in the pool.

When FHP spoke with the husband and daughter, they said the car started moving downhill before they could stop it.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - As gubernatorial candidates discuss gun reform, Democratic candidate Philip Levine says he will push for a ban on assault weapons, including a ballot referendum, if necessary.

Speaking to the Capital City Tiger Bay Club, Levine listed accomplishments he achieved during eight years as Mayor of Miami Beach.

If elected Florida's next governor, Levine said a top priority would be a ban on assault weapons.

He said if the Republican-controlled Legislature won't approve the ban, he'll back an initiative to put the prohibition on the 2020 ballot.

Levine is in a hotly contested primary against Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, former U.S. Congresswoman Gwen Graham and Orlando entrepreneur Chris King.

They're vying for the Democratic nomination in the race to succeed Governor Rick Scott, who can't seek re-election due to term limits.
EVANGELINE PARISH, LA (KPLC) - A police chief in Louisiana underwent emergency surgery after being stabbed in the face while making an arrest Wednesday evening, officials say.

Turkey Creek Police Chief Robert Leggett was attempting to arrest Zachery Shane Deville, 24, on a charge of criminal trespassing when the arrest turned into a physical altercation, according to information from the Evangeline Parish Sheriff's Office. Deville brandished a knife and stabbed Leggett across the left cheek.

Leggett was transported to a hospital in Alexandria, Louisiana, where he underwent emergency surgery and is now in Intensive Care.

Deville is being held without bond on charges of attempted first-degree murder and criminal trespassing.

Copyright 2018 KPLC. All rights reserved.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - It was a packed house at the Moon Saturday night for the 2018 Tally Awards!

It's all about recognizing Tallahassee's favorite businesses, but the real winners are Capital City Youth Services.

The event is a fundraiser for CCYS.

"This is our opportunity to try to raise money for our organization, for all our programs," said Kevin Priest, the CEO and president of Capital City Youth Services. "But at the same time to really market our organization to the community itself."

Priest says, CCYS has received $40,000 in donations in past years. He hopes to match that again this year.
WORLAND  The Wyoming FFA Association has announced the recipients of the 2018 Wyoming State FFA Degree, the highest award the state can bestow on its members

WORLAND  The Wyoming FFA Association has announced the recipients of the 2018 Wyoming State FFA Degree, the highest award the state can bestow on its members.

A total of 194 members representing 45 Wyoming FFA chapters earned the degree. These members will receive their degrees on April 19, as part of the Wyoming FFA Convention, held in Cheyenne each year.

Local recipients are as follows:...
COLOMBO, March 27 (Xinhua) -- The Sri Lankan government is planning to achieve the target of attracting 2.5 million international tourist arrivals to the country this year, a minister here said on Tuesday.

Tourism Development Minister John Amaratunga told Xinhua that while receiving 2.1 million tourists last year, Sri Lanka was confident of attracting more than 2.5 million in 2018.

He said Sri Lankan Airlines, the national carrier of Sri Lanka would increase the frequency of flight operations to regional destinations to facilitate tourism growth.

"We are in talks with some budget airlines in the region for flight operations to Sri Lanka. We will also develop our domestic airports to operate small aircraft," he said.

Sri Lanka received as many as 474,542 international tourists during the first two months of this year. It is an increase of 13.8 percent compared with the corresponding period of last year.

China, India, Britain, France and Germany are the five key international tourist markets.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 01:47:45|Editor: Xiang Bo

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Zhao Leji, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), visits the home of villagers in Sanmai Village of Menghai County, southwest China's Yunnan Province, March 25, 2018. Zhao made an inspection tour in Yunnan from March 25 to 27. (Xinhua/Ding Lin)

KUNMING, March 27 (Xinhua) -- China's anti-graft chief has urged comprehensive supervision over all state functionaries.

Zhao Leji, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), made the remarks during a three-day inspection tour in southwest China's Yunnan Province, which ended Tuesday.

He asked for "faithful fulfillment of the supervisory personnels' responsibilities empowered by the Party Constitution, the Constitution and the newly-adopted Supervision Law, and the resolute safeguard of 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."

"They should thus continue to make unremitting efforts to battle corruption, and address corruption and bad conduct that occur on the people's doorsteps," Zhao said.

During the tour, Zhao went to a village in Menghai County and visited several impoverished families. Zhao asked the Party cadres at the grassroots level to draw a clear line between public and personal interests, be clean-handed and do a good job in poverty alleviation, so that the impoverished people could lead better lives as soon as possible.

He also underlined the focus on major issues that concerned the people the most, and the rectification of conduct that damaged the people's interests.
LISBON, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Portugal's Minister for Foreign Affairs Augusto Santos Silva on Tuesday defended the government's decision not to expel Russian diplomats.

"At every moment we take whatever measure shows itself to best comply with Portugal's national interests, Europe's interests and NATO's interests," Santos Silva told Portuguese Lusa News Agency.

Some 25 countries, including 16 members of the European Union (EU), expelled Russian diplomats on Tuesday, in a show of solidarity with the British government.

Sergei Skripal, a former Russian spy, was poisoned in Salisbury, England, on March 4. The British government blames Moscow.

Portugal issued a statement saying: "Portugal immediately condemned the attack in Salisbury and vehemently expressed its solidarity with the United Kingdom."

But the statement added, "Portugal believes collaboration through the framework of the EU is the most efficient method for responding to the gravity of the current situation."

As things stand, Portugal lines up alongside Austria and Greece as EU member countries that have not expelled Russian diplomats, though all have condemned the poisoning.

Santos Silva argued that Portugal's Socialist Party (PS) government had thus acted "without haste, with autonomy, with prudence, and with firmness too."

He had the backing of Catarina Martins, leader of the Left Bloc (BE), an informal coalition partner of the PS.

"The poisoning of a spy as a weapon of external politics must be vehemently condemned," said Martins, but she disapproved of Europe's will to escalate tensions. "It seems prudent to us that the Portuguese government did not wish to take part in this escalation and we hope it maintains this position."

Rubina Berardo, vice-president of the opposition Social Democratic Party (PSD), was also cautious in offering her party's response.

"The PSD is a responsible party and we await clarification on the part of the government regarding the decision not to expel Russian diplomats," she told TSF radio.
LONDON, March 27 (Xinhua) -- London is at "immediate risk" of a hugely damaging 22 billion British pounds (31.17 billion U.S. dollars) economic hit in the event of a worst-case scenario hard Brexit, a report warned Tuesday.

The British capital is more exposed than the rest of Britain to a chaotic cliff-edge departure from the European Union because of its heavy dependence on the service sector, particularly financial services, and its reliance on skilled workers from the European continent, the report said.

Brexit is arguably one of the most urgent and pressing issues facing London and the British economy.

The report, entitled "Brexit and the Metropolitan Areas," was commissioned by the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry. It said that the economy of London "is at immediate risk from Brexit if not handled carefully."

This means a "no-deal" scenario next March would see the capital's economic growth slump into the slow lane compared with the rest of the island country, said the report from the city forecasters, the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), one of British leading economics consultancies.

Failure to secure a Brexit deal with the EU could leave more than 2.5 million jobs vulnerable or at risk, a separate report warned earlier this year, adding that sectors such as professional, scientific, administrative and technical services are likely to be the hardest hit in such a scenario.

Brexit could cost London 5.5 percent of growth, equivalent to 22 billion pounds (31.17 billion U.S. dollars) of output, over 15 years, the report said.

The effects would be mitigated by new trade deals and by cutting red tape, according to the report, which also said that these "highly speculative" gains have to be compared with the "relatively certain" losses from lost EU trade and reduced migration.

Whereas London's growth has easily surpassed that of Britain as a whole for most of the past 30 years, it would lag behind until at least 2024 after Brexit, said the report, which also looked at the impact on Manchester and Bristol.

London Fashion Week, which brings designers and their fashionista followers flocking to the capital, could become one of the most high-profile victims of Brexit, news reports said earlier this year.

Fashion industry bigwigs, politicians and lawyers say Britain's withdrawal could make must-have fashion styles on London's catwalks vulnerable to design theft, news reports said.

The British fashion industry's exports are thought to total 9.1 billion pounds, or 12.9 billion U.S. dollars, a year, and the industry supports around 177,000 jobs.

Concerns centre on complex but vital rules known as "EU unregistered community design rights." These protections mean designs first presented within the European Union (EU) -- currently including Britain -- cannot be copied by others in the bloc for three years.

They say the issue needs urgent attention or risks designers deserting London for Paris and Milan -- already powerful rivals.

A survey of 500 designers by the British Fashion Council in 2016, before the Brexit referendum, found that 90 percent of the 290 that responded wanted to remain within the EU. Just 4.3 percent wanted to leave.

The British Fashion Council has also raised concerns in a report sent to the Parliamentary Culture Committee.

London was the only region in England that voted to remain in the EU referendum, but the British public as a whole voted to leave, and London has to respect the majority will to leave the regional bloc.

"I am optimistic about London, London's future and the future of our country," Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, once said in response to the outcome of the Brexit vote. "In the long term, our capital will continue to thrive, continue to be open and continue to be a world leader."

"But at the same time, we should be under no illusion about the scale of the challenges that lie ahead - and the potential consequences of a badly managed Hard Brexit," he said. "These are risks we simply can't ignore."

"London is the economic engine of our country, accounting for a third of national growth," the mayor said. "When London succeeds, Britain succeeds. But the (British) government's negotiation position ... puts London's and Britain's economic prosperity at risk."
PRAGUE, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Paul Ryan was in Prague on a 3-day unofficial visit with his family since Monday.

On Tuesday afternoon, Czech Speaker Radek Vondracek and Ryan signed a Jubilee Declaration as a recognition the centennial Czechoslovakia founding and the start of U.S.-Czech diplomatic relations in 1918.

It was the first time a high-ranking American politician paid a visit to the Czech Republic since April 2010 when former U.S. president Barack Obama came to Prague.

Also, Paul Ryan was one of the first foreign politicians to address a special session at the Lower Chamber of the Czech Parliament devoted to the role of the U.S. over European security in the past 100 years.
HARARE, March 27 (Xinhua) -- The Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) has expressed concern over the prolonged industrial action by doctors and urged the government to ensure that an agreement is reached to ease the suffering of the sick.

"ZHRC has taken note of and is concerned about the impasse between the Government of Zimbabwe and members of the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors' Association (ZHDA) who have been on strike since the 1st of March 2018.

"The stalemate in negotiations has led to a prolonged job action by the doctors, leading to compromised health care. This in turn has led to serious suffering and pain by patients and unfortunate loss of lives in the country," the commission said.

Doctors in all state hospitals went on strike demanding better conditions of service, including provision of basic working tools in hospitals.

ZHRC said the doctors were exercising their right to engage in collective job action as enshrined in the country's constitution.

"In light of the above, the ZHRC implores the Government of Zimbabwe through the Ministry of Health and Child Care and the Health Services Board to engage the striking personnel to ensure that their grievances are resolved without compromising the right to health, the right to life and access to health care services at government hospitals," it said.

The commission also criticized government leaders for seeking medical treatment outside the country because of poor service delivery back home.

"This practice, in our view, displays a clear lack of confidence in the public health delivery system by our leaders and compromises commitment and resoluteness in ensuring the recovery of the system.

"Further, it relegates such services to the poor who have to contend with the deteriorating health standards, which fly in the face of the rights-based approach to development," it said.

ZHRC urged the parties involved in the impasse to expedite engagements and ensure an immediate and lasting solution.

"The Government of Zimbabwe in particular as the duty-bearer in the fulfillment and enjoyment of the right to health is encouraged to show leadership in the face of this national crisis, and ensure that the public health institutions are functional," it said.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 06:59:00|Editor: Lifang

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BRASILIA, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Brazilian President Michel Temer signed a decree on Tuesday to provide 1.2 billion reais (360 million U.S. dollars) for the federal security takeover of Rio de Janeiro.

Temer said via social media that, with this money, "we will win this battle against organized crime."

General Walter Braga Netto was named by Temer to oversee the security takeover of Brazil's most popular tourist destination, after crime and homicides in the city skyrocketed in recent years.

The federal intervention transfers command over all public security forces in the state, including the prison system, to Netto.

Last week, Temer indicated that extraordinary financial resources would be made available for the federal intervention and that more could follow if necessary.

The intervention was announced by Temer in February as an "extreme measure" that was necessary to fight organized crime.

Thousands of soldiers and police have been deployed across the city and are set to remain there until Dec. 31, when Temer's term in office comes to an end.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 06:59:02|Editor: Liu

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RABAT, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Morocco's BMCE Bank of Africa (BOA) will open a branch in the Chinese city of Shanghai, local media reported Tuesday.

The financial daily L'Economiste reported that the branch is expected to open in September. The BOA has opened a representative bureau in China since the early 2000s.

The Moroccan bank has been involved in several projects with Chinese institutions and firms, including the establishment of an industrial park in northern Morocco and the building of the tallest skyscraper in Africa in the capital Rabat.

Moreover, BOA inked a Memorandum of Understanding with the China Development Bank on Friday to enhance bilateral trade and investment.

The deal aims to boost joint ventures in infrastructure programs, transport, car manufacturing, technology parks, investment and trade, and sustainable development projects.

It offers a solid basis for the Sino-Moroccan cooperation in the private sector, with a view to consolidating Morocco's position as a major gateway to Africa and creating new momentum for the development of the bilateral ties.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 07:09:04|Editor: Liu

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RABAT, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Morocco and China signed Tuesday a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the establishment of the Silk Road business council.

The MoU was signed by Morocco's Employers Association (CGEM) and China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) in Morocco's economic capital Casablanca.

CGEM Vice President Faical Mekouar and CCPIT Chairman Jiang Zengwei inked the deal at the Morocco-China Forum, which was attended by a number of Moroccan and Chinese officials and business people.

This council aims to serve as a "platform for the industrial and commercial sectors of the two countries," said the forum.

It will provide information on investment opportunities and help solve problems that hinder commercial cooperation at the international level.

Permanent exchanges of updated information on the economic situation of the two countries, the regulatory evolution, commercial data, and industrial and commercial policies will also be available on this platform.

Under the deal, both CGEM and CCPIT are committed to creating the necessary mechanisms for the holding of regular meetings to examine and evaluate the cooperation between the two sides.

Apart from the signing of this agreement, the forum was also an opportunity for the business communities from both countries to meet and explore means to boost bilateral cooperation.
CHICAGO, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Apple on Tuesday introduced a new iPad with a digital pencil to draw and write plus greater performance at a high school in Chicago.

The new 9.7-inch iPad goes with an Apple Pencil, which delivers a remarkably fluid and natural drawing experience. iPad's palm rejection technology even allows users to rest their hands on the screen while using Apple Pencil.

The new iPad is a stunning, large viewfinder for immersive AR experiences. Its Retina display, powerful chip, enhanced cameras and advanced sensors, including a gyroscope and accelerometer for accurate motion tracking, are designed to support the next generation of AR apps.

It also features the Apple-designed A10 Fusion chip with 64-bit desktop-class architecture, delivering 40 percent faster CPU and 50 percent faster graphics performance for seamless multitasking and graphics-intensive apps.

"iPad is our vision for the future of computing," said Greg Joswiak, Apple's vice president of Product Marketing at the news release at Lane Tech College Prep High School. "This new 9.7-inch iPad takes everything people love about our most popular iPad and makes it even better for inspiring creativity and learning."

By choosing a prestigious high school to release its new iPad, Apple is commemorating its 40th anniversary of participating in education and showing its commitment to education.

More importantly, Apple has recently developed a brand new "everyone can code" curriculum, which helps student learn coding skills easily in classrooms or at home. It is also rolling out Schoolwork app that personalizes learning, sparks students' creativity and inspires them to succeed.

Addressing the news release, Apple CEO Tim Cook hailed "it is an important day for school," as Apple will "help students to create in a powerful new way."

According to the company, the new iPad is available to order on Tuesday and starts delivering to customers and arriving in stores later this week in more than 25 countries and regions. China will have the new iPad for sale in April.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 07:24:08|Editor: Xiang Bo

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RABAT, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Morocco and China vowed on Tuesday to strengthen cooperation between their business communities.

The pledge was made during a meeting between Morocco's Prime Minister Saad Eddine El Othmani and Jiang Zengwei, chairman of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade. Jiang is leading a large economic delegation on a working visit to Morocco.

The two parties highlighted the need to boost the communication between their economic communities, the Moroccan Prime Minister's office said in a statement.

It added that the two sides agreed to establish permanent exchanges between the communities, with the aim to take advantage of all available investment opportunities.

They also commended the long-standing friendship between Morocco and China, the statement said, noting that the kingdom is one of the first Arab and African countries to establish diplomatic relations with China.

The two sides expressed satisfaction with the remarkable development of the Sino-Moroccan cooperation in a number of areas, notably after Moroccan King Mohammed VI's official visit to China in 2016, which was marked by the establishment of a strategic partnership between the two countries. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 07:39:12|Editor: Lifang

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BRASILIA, March 27 (Xinhua) -- The Brazilian government will maintain its current economic policy should its praised finance minister, Henrique Meirelles, leave his post to run in October's presidential election, the government's chief of staff Eliseu Padilha said Tuesday.

Speaking to the Senate's economic affairs commission, Padilha said the current economic policy does not hinge on Meirelles, but is directed by President Michel Temer.

He added that if Meirelles leaves office, the government will retain many of its economic staff, along with the same priorities. And Meirelles might continue to be consulted.

Brazilian media published articles on Monday about Meirelles' imminent exit from the government. However, no official confirmation has been made.

Meirelles said he would wait to decide whether he would run in the presidential election until April 3.

While Meirelles has long been spoken of as a presidential frontrunner, there has been speculation that he could join the ticket of President Michel Temer as a potential vice-president.

Meirelles' fame has been rising in Brazil as he is credited with improving the economy after two years of severe recession. He also has a measure of cross-party appeal as he was governor of the central bank during the left-wing government of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 08:20:56|Editor: Xiang Bo

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At the invitation of Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and Chinese president, Kim Jong Un, chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), paid an unofficial visit to China from March 25 to 28. During the visit, Xi held talks with Kim at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Xi held a welcoming ceremony for Kim before their talks. (Xinhua/Ju Peng)
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 09:45:19|Editor: Lifang

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Apple CEO Tim Cook introduces a new iPad in Chicago, the United States, on March 27, 2018. Apple on Tuesday introduced a new iPad with a digital pencil to draw and write plus greater performance in Chicago. (Xinhua/Xinhua)

CHICAGO, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Apple on Tuesday introduced a new iPad with a digital pencil to draw and write plus greater performance at a high school in Chicago.

The new 9.7-inch iPad goes with an Apple Pencil, which delivers a remarkably fluid and natural drawing experience. iPad's palm rejection technology even allows users to rest their hands on the screen while using Apple Pencil.

The new iPad is a stunning, large viewfinder for immersive AR experiences. Its Retina display, powerful chip, enhanced cameras and advanced sensors, including a gyroscope and accelerometer for accurate motion tracking, are designed to support the next generation of AR apps.

It also features the Apple-designed A10 Fusion chip with 64-bit desktop-class architecture, delivering 40 percent faster CPU and 50 percent faster graphics performance for seamless multitasking and graphics-intensive apps.

"iPad is our vision for the future of computing," said Greg Joswiak, Apple's vice president of Product Marketing at the news release at Lane Tech College Prep High School. "This new 9.7-inch iPad takes everything people love about our most popular iPad and makes it even better for inspiring creativity and learning."

By choosing a prestigious high school to release its new iPad, Apple is commemorating its 40th anniversary of participating in education and showing its commitment to education.

More importantly, Apple has recently developed a brand new "everyone can code" curriculum, which helps student learn coding skills easily in classrooms or at home. It is also rolling out Schoolwork app that personalizes learning, sparks students' creativity and inspires them to succeed.

Addressing the news release, Apple CEO Tim Cook hailed "it is an important day for school," as Apple will "help students to create in a powerful new way."

According to the company, the new iPad is available to order on Tuesday and starts delivering to customers and arriving in stores later this week in more than 25 countries and regions. China will have the new iPad for sale in April.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 10:14:41|Editor: Xiang Bo

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SAN FRANCISCO, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Alaska State Governor Bill Walker's upcoming trade mission to China in May will present an opportunity for the U.S. state to tap China's tremendous economic potential, Alaska business leaders said Tuesday.

"Discouraging outside investment will not build a stronger Alaska, but prevent our resources getting to world markets and to Alaskans," Doug Griffin, executive director of the Southwest Alaska Municipal Conference, and Tim Dillion, executive director of the Kenai Economic Development District, said in their article published by the Alaska daily The Juneau Empire.

Alaska-China trade is something to value as China has been Alaska's largest export partner for the last seven years, they said.

The U.S. northwesternmost state of Alaska exported 4.93 billion U.S. dollars of goods in 2017, with over 1.32 billion dollars going to China, and "disparaging our customers shrinks our economy at a time when we desperately need growth," they asserted.

China is the biggest customer of Alaska seafood, buying over 796 million dollars last year, more than any other country and an increase of 27 percent from 2016, they said.

Alaska has profited from selling other resources to China, including over 355.8 million dollars worth of metal ores and millions of dollars of forest products in 2017.

"China's purchase of these resources adds significantly to a healthy and diversifying statewide economy across Alaska without ceding control or management of these resources," said the two business leaders.

They also mentioned an immediate increase of Chinese tourists to the U.S. state featuring its unique winter beauty after Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit with Walker last April.

Regardless of what happens at the federal level, the opportunities for Alaska and the Asian economic powerhouse to partner together are clear, they said, adding that "we envision a future where we see more and more headlines telling a positive Alaska-China story."

"China's longstanding consumption of Alaska products has been creating benefits across the state for years, and the upcoming trade mission to China is a clear opportunity for us to strengthen this bond and continue to grow our economy," said the Alaska business leaders.

Their comments came at a time when the United States and China are locked in a trade dispute after U.S. President Donald Trump announced last week his plans to impose high tariffs on up to 60 billion dollars of Chinese imports.

China responded, planning to slap retaliatory tariffs on 3-billion- dollar U.S. imports including dried fruit, wine, steel pipes, and pork products.
TRIPOLI, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Libya's UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez Serraj on Tuesday issued a decision to form a committee to address suspended construction contracts, especially those with Chinese companies.

"The committee will handle all outstanding and suspended construction contracts and other related contracts with Chinese companies, through discussion and consultation with the relevant authorities of the People's Republic of China to reach a comprehensive vision that would rebalance the contractual relationship," the decision said.

The committee, led by Libyan Minister of Planning Taher Jehaimi and consisting of several government officials, will continue its work for two full months, and will present a report on the results of its work to the prime minister.

During the rule of late leader Muammar Gaddafi, Libya signed major contracts with Chinese companies to execute infrastructure, housing and railway projects. However, the political and security situation following the 2011 uprising in the country prevented the completion of the projects.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 10:29:44|Editor: Lu Hui

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Civilians arrive to government-controlled Wafidin area, northeast of Damascus, Syria, on March 27, 2018. Hundreds of civilians evacuated the Douma district in the capital Damascus' Eastern Ghouta on Tuesday, according to state news agency SANA. (Xinhua/Ammar Safarjalani)

DAMASCUS, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Over 6,000 people, including rebels and their families, evacuated from Eastern Ghouta area in Syria's capital Damascus after Wednesday midnight, according to state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).

A total of 6,432 people, including 1,521 rebels, formed the forth batch of evacuees to leave areas in the central towns of Eastern Ghouta, after a total of 13,000 rebels and their relatives had left that area in three batches since Saturday and moved to rebel-held areas in the northwestern province of Idlib.

The evacuees refused to reconcile with the Syrian government, whose forces have captured 90 percent of Eastern Ghouta since a massive assault on an array of rebel groups was launched there late last month.

The latest evacuation took place in the towns of Arbeen, Jobar, Zamalka and Ayn Tarma, as all of these towns are largely controlled by the Failaq al-Rahman rebels, who agreed last Friday to negotiate their withdrawal under the Syrian military operation.

The group has asked to be allowed to leave the central areas in Eastern Ghouta after the Ahrar al-Sham rebels did the same earlier this month in the town of Harasta in Eastern Ghouta.

The deal, brokered by the Russians and reached on Friday between the rebels and the Syrian army, also demands the trapped residents be released from the rebel-held Douma district in Eastern Ghouta area.

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.

UN humanitarian agencies have sounded the alarm about the worsening humanitarian situation for 400,000 people in that region, where activists said around 1,000 people have been killed since late last month by the heavy bombardment and a military showdown.

As the Syrian army advanced in Eastern Ghouta, tens of thousands of civilians have fled toward government-controlled areas for the first time in six years, with activists confirming at least 120,000 civilians have fled to safety so far.
WASHINGTON, March 27 (Xinhua) -- The United States and South Korea have agreed in principle on revisions to a free trade agreement, said senior White House officials at a press teleconference on Tuesday.

They said the United States and South Korea agreed to make revisions to the U.S. -Korea Free Trade Agreement which entered into force in 2012, and in return, South Korea will be exempted from the steel tariff imposed by Washington.

According to the officials, the United States can maintain a 25- percent tariff on imported pickup trucks until 2041. Under their original trade deal, the United States should gradually reduce the 25-percent tariff to zero by 2021.

South Korea agreed to double the import quota for American-made cars meeting U.S. safety rules to 50,000 per manufacturer each year, up from the current 25,000 units.

Seoul also agreed to include American pharmaceutical manufacturers in its national health program's premium reimbursement plan.

In addition, both sides were working on a currency agreement dealing with currency practices, which will be finalized by robot provision that will prohibit a competitive currency devaluation and ensure transparency and accountability of monetary policy, said the officials.

In exchange, South Korea will be exempted from the 25 percent tariff on its steel exports to the United States. However, it agreed to limit the amount of steel it can export each year to the United States to 70 percent of its annual average from 2015 to 2017.

The Asian country is still subject to the 10-percent tariff on its aluminum exports to the United States, said the officials.

The agreement represents the first renegotiation of an existing trade deal in the Trump administration, part of a central campaign promise Trump made as a candidate.

On March 8, vowing to protect the U.S. steel and aluminum industry in the name of national security, Trump signed proclamations to impose a 25-percent tariff on imported steel and a 10-percent tariff on aluminum.

But he has given temporary exemptions to Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, South Korea, and the European Union in view of the ongoing negotiations with these economies.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 11:29:55|Editor: Lu Hui

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UNITED NATIONS, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok demanded here Tuesday the need to reaffirm international norms and enforce relevant resolutions on Syrian crisis.

The minister, whose country holds the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) presidency, made the announcement when referring to a photo album featuring 48 Syrian children - all seven years old - by a Dutch photographer.

"Images of children affected by war should leave no one unmoved. We should at least have one thing in common: the belief that protecting children should come first," he said.

The UNSC has adopted Resolution 2401 four weeks ago, said Blok, which urged warring parties to lift sieges in populated area of Syria immediately, as well as demanded they grant unimpeded humanitarian aid access to those in acute need.

"We call on all parties to the Syrian conflict, including the Syrian regime, Russia, Iran, Turkey and armed opposition groups, to respect and implement our Council's resolutions," Blok said.

Blok said the international community has "expressed our determination to prevent conflict ... and where conflict cannot be prevented, we have agreed to regulate the conduct of warfare," he adding that the minimum standard of human decency in warfare needs to be protected, but "such protection is lacking" now.

"We urge all states to increase their support for the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism, which aims to ensure that information about serious crimes is collected, analyzed and preserved for future prosecutions," Blok said.

He added that for any credible, stable and lasting peace in Syria, the current culture of impunity must end and all those guilty of crimes be brought to justice.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 11:45:01|Editor: Lu Hui

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WASHINGTON, March 27 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. and China are not predestined to clash, a renowned historian at Yale University has said.

As Washington increasingly ramped up rivalry policies against Beijing, Paul Kennedy, the author of the 1987 epic book "The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers," highlighted the value of patience and mutual understanding for more productive bilateral ties.

NO SINGLE MAGIC WAND

"Can we avoid the Thucydides trap?" asked Kennedy, a 72-year-old Yale professor, in a recent interview with Xinhua.

The Thucydides trap, a catchphrase coined by Harvard professor Graham Allison, refers to the notion that when a rising power challenges an established one, conflict may ensue.

As China has become a major player in the world, the assumption of an unavoidable collision between Washington and Beijing has prevailed.

However, for Kennedy, an Oxford-trained Briton, the big clash is not inevitable, and recognizing the trap is the first and a significant step in avoiding conflict.

"If you have leadership on both sides which recognizes that the single most important issue in big world power affairs is to avoid a serious China-America confrontation, then yes, we avoid it," the professor said.

"At least one side has understood the Allison thesis (the Thucydides trap)," Kennedy added, referring to a speech made by Chinese President Xi Jinping about three years ago.

In a 2015 trip to Washington, Xi said that China and the United States should keep their relations from falling into the trap.

Xi also noted that the two sides should expand cooperation and manage and control their differences to benefit more people of the two countries and the world at large.

Meanwhile, the Yale scholar cautioned that it is really difficult, "politically, emotionally, instinctively," to get the relations between the great powers right.

In fact, U.S. President Donald Trump's administration, under the "America First" slogan, has already rolled out adversary plans and laws in the past months against China, ranging from the widely-criticized China tariffs, to the signing of the denounced "Taiwan Travel Act," and the warship provocation in the South China Sea.

The tariffs are counterproductive to the American economy, and the simplistic win-lose view will be derided "by every economist we know," said Kennedy.

"Let's have this policy of patience and mutual understanding," the historian suggested.

Considering how "vast and complicated" the U.S.-China relationship is, Kennedy said there is "no single significant magic wand" that can suddenly transform the bilateral ties.

If the overall world cake is bigger, then "there is less prospect of a structural clash," the professor added.

EXAGGERATED CHINA THREAT

Referring to the latest advocation of China threat in the West, Kennedy said that it could be a "too colorful" portrayal which failed to understand China's worries and weaknesses.

"We can produce all sorts of data which shows that China is 50-foot high and we could produce a lot more data which shows that China is four-foot high," he said. "So be careful which facts are being offered."

"All of the threat from China could be too exaggerated," Kennedy added.

Meanwhile, the professor also pointed out that, as China has been steadily taking a larger share of global production in the past 30 years, it's natural that the Americans would be concerned about China's rise and the United States' relative decline.

The professor noted that a lack of mutual understanding could lead to mistrust.

"If one thing that China has a problem understanding current United States, then I would say in fairness, Americans, including clever Americans, have a problem understanding and trying to really measure the size of the American competitiveness challenge," Kennedy said.

LIVING IN DAMAGING TIMES

In the final chapter of his book in 1987, Kennedy predicted a possible relative shrinking of the United States' power in the world affairs, seeing it as a challenge for the U.S. leadership to manage "cleverly this relative decline."

Commenting on the current "chaotic and turbulent and confusing policies" coming out of the Trump administration, Kennedy said that it is a case of "profound mismanagement and failure to understand the world as it is."

"We live in damaging times," Kennedy said.

Meanwhile, Kennedy noted that so far Trump's presidency with policies out of "instinct" and "emotion" has "probably not yet" permanently damaged the relative U.S. position in the world.

"If there are further rash and counter-productive decisions by the White House, then it could so inflict damage on America's competitiveness, internal social fabric on cohesion, that it would weaken the country's position," said Kennedy.

"It would make it more difficult for Mr Trump's successor, when it comes ... to repair(ing) the damage," the scholar added.

Meanwhile, Kennedy pointed out that in the future, the United States may lose its number one title without losing a great power stage, as "it's too strong and too resilient."

Thirty-one years on, Kennedy said he still believes that the economic foundation of a great power determines and influences its relative position, the key argument in his 1987 book.

"There is nothing in the larger argument, in my humble view, which needs changing," the professor said.

Related:

Xinhua Headlines: Truth behind China-U.S. trade "imbalances"

BEIJING, March 27 (Xinhua) -- A "huge" trade deficit with China is reportedly behind the U.S. administration's plan to slap tariffs on up to 60 billion U.S. dollars of Chinese imports and restrict Chinese investment. Full story

Commentary: Chinese economy resilient enough to cope with trade war

BEIJING, March 24 (Xinhua) -- History tells that trade wars are a losing game. No one benefits, and everyone ends up a bit bruised.
CANBERRA, March 28 (Xinhua) -- By signing up to Facebook users may be unwittingly signing unfair contracts, the head of Australia's competition watchdog has warned.

Rod Sims, chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), said that the Cambridge Analytica scandal was good "in a sense" because it brought "how much data Facebook has" and how they can use it.

Facebook's shares have been in decline since it was revealed in March that 50 million user records had been improperly acquired by political consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica, which the firm in turn used to help elect Donald Trump as U.S. President.

Prior to the scandal emerging, the ACCC launched a world-first probe into the Australian digital media market amid concerns that tech giants had created an uneven playing field.

"To what extent do Facebook, Google and other platform developers damage their competitors through the way they do business?" Sims said in a speech at News Corp Australia's Global Food Forum on Tuesday night.

"To what extent do users know how the data is being used? To what extent the contracts they're signed up to are fair?

"Did they know that when they connected to another website, that Facebook was gathering data on that? It's all in the terms and conditions if you want to have a look at them but I'm not sure many of us do.

"There are a whole lot of issues there. We're just starting on this exercise but it will be a fun journey."

In particular, the ACCC inquiry will focus on Facebook and Google and their "bargaining power" with publishers and the influence of their algorithms on "quality news" and journalism.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 13:10:13|Editor: Xiang Bo

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BEIJING, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) reported solid profit growth in the first two months of 2018 as the economy kicked off the year with better-than-expected performance, official data showed Wednesday.

Combined SOE profits rose 25.3 percent year on year to 367.3 billion yuan (around 58.5 billion U.S. dollars) for the January-February period, the Ministry of Finance said.

The growth was higher than the 23.5-percent increase seen in 2017.

SOE business revenue totaled 8.3 trillion yuan during the period, up 11.2 percent from a year earlier. Operating costs went up 10.6 percent to 8.1 trillion yuan.

By the end of February, total SOE assets stood at 163.6 trillion yuan, while their liabilities reached 107 trillion yuan, up 9.7 percent and 9.3 percent, respectively.

SOEs in petrochemical, steel and power generation enjoyed relatively large profit increases, but non-ferrous metal firms suffered significant declines.

China has thousands of SOEs, but many have stagnated due to lack of competition. The government is improving their performance through a series of reforms, moving toward mixed ownership and market-oriented management.

China has undertaken several rounds of mixed-ownership reform, including one covering telecom giant China Unicom, to bring in private investment mainly by issuing shares.

Earlier this month, policymakers vowed to make Chinese SOEs front runners in pursuing high-quality development through reform and innovation.

China welcomes all types of enterprises, including foreign ones, to participate in mixed-ownership reform of SOEs, the state assets regulator has said.
LOS ANGELES, March 27 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has delayed the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope until no earlier than May 2020 due to the need for more time to "ensure a successful mission," the space agency announced on Wednesday.

After an independent assessment of remaining tasks for the NASA's next highly complex space observatory, Webb's previously revised 2019 launch window is now targeted for approximately May 2020, nearly a year later than planned.

"Webb is the highest priority project for the agency's Science Mission Directorate, and the largest international space science project in U.S. history," NASA Acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot said in a statement.

"All the observatory's flight hardware is now complete, however, the issues brought to light with the spacecraft element are prompting us to take the necessary steps to refocus our efforts on the completion of this ambitious and complex observatory."

NASA said it will work with its partner the European Space Agency (ESA) on a new launch readiness date for the Ariane 5 rocket that will launch Webb into space.

Because of the launch delay, the telescope's 8.7 billion U.S. dollars price tag could rise. Once a new launch readiness date is determined, NASA said it will provide a cost estimate that may exceed the projected development cost to complete the final phase of testing and prepare for launch.

Additional steps to address project challenges include increasing NASA engineering oversight, personnel changes, and new management reporting structures.

Webb was considered the successor to NASA's 26-year-old Hubble Space Telescope. According to NASA, the space telescope will be the world's premier infrared space observatory and the biggest astronomical space science telescope ever built.

Once launched, it will complement the scientific discoveries of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and other science missions. It may solve mysteries of our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of the universe and the Earth's place in it, said NASA.
MEXICO CITY, March 27 (Xinhua)-- U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen reached agreements with Mexican officials on strengthening bilateral cooperation on economic and national security issues during her two-day visit to Mexico on Monday and Tuesday.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and Nielsen reached consensus on "the need to face common challenges in terms of security in a coordinated manner and with full respect for the sovereignty of both countries," said a statement released on Tuesday by the president's office following his meeting with the U.S. secretary at Los Pinos, his official residence in central Mexico City.

The president's office also said the priority of the Mexican government is to ensure "that the rights of Mexicans in the United States are respected," adding that Pena Nieto has been very clear about Mexico's stance concerning the interests of its citizens in its northern neighbor.

They also spoke "about the importance of maintaining a respectful, frank and constant dialogue," as well as the potential for the common border to be an area of opportunity, exchanges and meetings, the statement said.

Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray also attended the meeting, who met with Nielsen on Monday to revise bilateral agenda and sign three agreements on improving bilateral customs procedures and expediting the flow of agricultural produce across their almost 2,000-mile (3,220-km) border.

During her trip, Nielsen recognized that the United States and Mexico need to cooperate to improve their bilateral relations, and tackle challenges such as organized crimes, illegal drug trade and gun sales.
KUALA LUMPUR, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak Wednesday tabled a redelineated electoral map to the Parliament, amid fierce protests from the opposition that the map, which saw a large portion of the electoral districts changed, is in favor of the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition.

Among the 222 seats listed in the report by the Malaysian Election Commission, only constituencies in the northern state of Perlis and Putrajaya, the Malaysian administrative capital, remained unchanged.

The boundaries of many constituencies were redrawn to change the number of voters. For instance, the constituency in Sungai Buloh will see a reduction of voters from 128,000 to 73,000, according to a report from the Star newspaper.

Hundreds of protesters, including Mahathir Mohamad, a former Prime Minister-turned opposition leader, gathered outside the Parliament in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday, calling for the redelineated maps to be withdrawn.

A heavy police presence, including riot police, were also seen outside the parliament.

The tenure of the current Parliament will end by June and it is widely expected that Najib will call an election in the next few weeks.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 13:55:22|Editor: Xiang Bo

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By Alexis Hooi

SYDNEY, March 28 (Xinhua) -- A global import expo in China later this year will offer unprecedented opportunities for Australian businesses to tap the Chinese market and reap the mutual benefits of maintaining free trade and open economies, participants of a major business forum in Sydney heard on Wednesday.

"Recent years have witnessed twists and turns of globalization, with the multilateral trading system being challenged and protectionism on the rise. Against such a background, China's decision to host the expo is to demonstrate its strong commitment to globalization and free trade, as well as our steadfast determination to further opening-up," Chinese Ambassador to Australia Cheng Jingye said at the forum on the China International Import Expo, which is scheduled to be held in Shanghai in November.

"The message we hope to convey is clear, that is China welcomes other countries to board the fast train of China's economy and take a free ride. In the coming five years, China is estimated to import over 8 trillion U.S. dollars of goods and services. The expo will undoubtedly provide a new opportunity for other countries to expand their exports to China."

More than 100 countries and regions are expected to take part in expo, which is set to give them access to business networks boasting 150,000 purchasers and a Chinese consumer goods retail sales market that has consistently risen 3 trillion yuan year-on-year, according to expo organizers.

Australian businesses can look forward to new and further opportunities in goods and services including the food, agriculture, tourism, education, healthcare, medical equipment and emerging technologies sectors. Trade, Tourism and Investment Minister Steven Ciobo is also set to lead the Australian delegation to the expo.

Wang Hongbo, economic and commercial counsellor of the economic and commercial section of the Consulate General of China in Sydney, said at least 89 major Australian companies have so far registered to take part in the expo.

Businesses at the expo will also not be competing with Chinese exporters, said Wang. "All the Chinese companies will only be able to register as buyers. The Chinese companies are not going to showcase their industries or their exports at this event," she said.

At the Sydney business forum, which was organized by the China Chamber of Commerce in Australia and the Australia China Business Council, more than 250 leading representatives from the public and private sectors discussed these latest developments of the Shanghai import expo and explored the benefits it presented.

"The forum today provides a great opportunity for Australian business leaders and government to discuss ways for further strengthening economic cooperation and trade between our two countries," said Chen Huaiyu, chairman of the China Chamber of Commerce in Australia.

"In the spirit of shared prosperity, it is incumbent on us to ensure that the true potential of our trade relationship is realized," he said.

"This is an incredibly unique expo ... that a country has organized an expo around imports. We see this as an extremely important opportunity for Australian businesses to sell not just products, but importantly, services into China," David Landers, general manager, global, for the Australian Trade and Investment Commission, told Xinhua.

"We have quite a significant commitment to China. It's our largest market in terms of commitment of resource. For us, we just keep focused on identifying opportunities for Australian business.

"This expo is a very important opportunity to work with exporters in a diversity of areas," said Landers.

"I'm delighted that the Chinese leadership, through this expo, is putting an emphasis on imports because we live in an era where people are asserting, claiming, that exports are good but imports are bad," Dr Craig Emerson, president of the Australian China Business Council, New South Wales branch, told Xinhua.

"What China is doing is recognizing that the living standards of both countries can be improved not only by exporting but, in China's case, by importing from countries that perhaps have goods and services that are desired in China but may not be able to be produced at that level of quality or price or availability. It sends a very good signal from the Chinese leadership in terms of opening up ... started all those years ago."

Health supplements giant Blackmores is one of the leading Australian companies that have committed to the import expo.

"We expect to see distributors, consumers and retailers engaging with the brand at the event. So we see it as a really important function," Blackmores chief executive officer Richard Henfrey told Xinhua.

"The Chinese market is enormously important for us ... we think there's huge opportunity to grow our business ... but also to contribute to the developing healthcare system in China."

Addressing the recent concerns about trade barriers and protectionism, Henfrey said it was very fortunate that both the Chinese and Australian governments "are both committed to open, free and globalized, multilateral trade. And that genuinely creates win-win situations for both countries."

"For us in Blackmores, we see the developing consumer landscape in China as a great opportunity. But also we see Australia as an increasingly important trade partner for China in that world."
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 13:55:22|Editor: Xiang Bo

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KUNMING, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Researchers launched a survey on the population and habitats of green peafowls in southwest China's Yunnan Province this week, local authorities said Wednesday.

Researchers will visit 53 counties in Yunnan, where they will collect information on the distribution areas, population, and habitats of green peafowls, according to the local forestry department who launched the survey.

"The survey aims to provide scientific and complete data support for green peafowl protection," said Yang Xiaojun, researcher with Kunming Institute of Zoology.

Green peafowl are under top national-level protection in China and are listed as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.

Found in the tropical forests of South and Southeast Asia, the species has an estimated total population of between 20,000 and 30,000.

Based on a survey conducted by the institute in 2016, in China, the green peafowl is only found Yunnan Province, with a wild population of less than 500.

A total of 122 researchers are participating in this year's survey, which will run until May.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 14:15:26|Editor: Xiang Bo

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BEIJING, March 28 (Xinhua) -- More than 200 Taiwan compatriots will attend a ceremony held on the mainland to pay homage to Huangdi, also known as the Yellow Emperor, on Tomb-sweeping Day which falls on April 5.

Hung Hsiu-chu, former chairperson of the Kuomintang (KMT) party, and New Party chairman Yok Mu-ming will participate in the event, along with residents from the island, An Fengshan, spokesperson for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, said at a press conference on Wednesday.

The legendary emperor is considered the founder of the Chinese civilization and the ancestor of all Chinese.

The annual gathering at the emperor's mausoleum in Huangling County, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, occurs on Tomb-sweeping Day, a holiday when Chinese mourn their deceased family members.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 14:40:32|Editor: Lifang

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RIO DE JANEIRO, March 27 (Xinhua) -- The entourage of Brazil's former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was hit by gunshots on Tuesday in southern Brazil, his Workers' Party said.

One of the buses in a caravan for Lula's campaign tour was shot at four times in Brazil's southern state of Parana. No one was injured, and reportedly Lula was not in one of the buses.

Lula, president of Brazil from 2003 to 2010, has been traveling around the country seeking support for another presidential run in October. However, the buses in which Lula's campaign group travels have already been hit at with rocks and eggs along the tour.

On his Twitter account, the former president called the attackers "fascists."

"Our caravan is being stalked by fascist groups. They have thrown eggs and rocks. Today they even shot at the bus," the tweet read.

"A bus was hit, and President Lula might have been in there. Congressmen could have been there. Journalists, both Brazilians and foreigners, are in the group. We cannot accept that. This is a political attack in an escalation of violence in Brazil," said Federal Representative and formerly Human Rights Minister Maria do Rosario.

The local police are investigating the case, which the Workers' Party's President Gleisi Hoffmann called an ambush. Public Security Minister Raul Jungmann said he asked the local authorities to double their efforts on the case.

The Workers' Party is considering the case an attempt against Lula's life. The former president has the lead in the polls for the upcoming presidential election, but he may not be allowed to run, as he has been recently found guilty of corruption and money laundering.

Lula's lawyers are currently appealing the decision in order to keep him out of jail until all possible appeals are judged.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 14:45:33|Editor: Xiang Bo

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BEIJING, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Wearing a pair of red boxers and holding a crutch in his hand, Li Yunxin sits in a classroom as students paint pictures of him.

"I don't care what others think of me," said Li, 38. "I care about making a living and surviving in society."

Li, who lives in Xining City in northwest China's Qinghai Province, used to be a beggar on the street. An acquaintance introduced him to the world of figure modeling, which helps him eke out a living as a disabled person. He suffers from cerebral palsy and cannot walk properly.

In a video that has gone viral in China, Li is seen eating noodles alone inside a street restaurant, his crutch lying on the ground. In the classroom where he poses as a figure model, paintings of him in red boxers and holding crutch are everywhere, and students carefully sketch his body.

Li's story was shared by Pear Video on microblogging site Sina Weibo, gaining 700,000 views as of Wednesday noon.

Many Weibo users expressed their sympathy as well as admiration for Li.

"Life is tough, but you are such a strong person," wrote Weibo user Bojiekemake. "I hope that the world will treat you kindly."

"He relies on himself to make money, and he is quite responsible for his family," read another comment. "I think what he does is great."

Figure modeling is still considered a disgraceful job by many Chinese, and conservative attitudes prevail as the "naked models," as they are known in China, are required to remove their clothes in public.

It is not the first time that figure models have stirred discussion in China. In January, Wang Suzhong, an 88-year-old from Chengdu, gained media attention for his job as a "naked model" at a university in Sichuan. Wang said in a viral video that he can make 70 yuan a day with his clothes on, and 100 yuan naked.

"This is for art, and I am not ashamed," he said.

Models usually pose for students in art schools, especially those studying painting and sculpture, but the number of figure models is quite limited, partly due to traditional views about the job and the low wages it brings.

According to a 2012 report by Chengdu Economic Daily, up to 1,000 art students in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, work with fewer than 20 older models. The models receive about 20 yuan (3 U.S. dollars) per class, almost the same as a decade ago.

Li said he accepted the job for financial reasons.

"I have three other family members, and my parents are too old to take care of all their expenses," he said. "So that's why I came here, to relieve their pressure."

Li said he usually makes 90 yuan for each class in which he poses naked.

"The most difficult thing is climbing up the stairs in the schools," Li said. "Climbing from the first floor to the fifth floor makes me sweat a lot."

In his spare time, Li also sings for people to make some extra cash.

"I just want to tell my mom and dad that I'm doing pretty well," he said in the viral video. "Don't worry too much about me."

China has more than 85 million disabled people. More than 70 percent of them live in the countryside, and many are struggling to make ends meet as they are unable to work.

According to an official survey in 2015, of more than 15 million working age people with disabilities in both rural and urban areas, just over 40 percent were employed.

China has been striving to protect the rights of the disabled. In 2016, the central government released a plan vowing greater support for the disabled, outlining how their lives will be improved over the next five years.

From 2012 to 2015, 4.96 million impoverished people with disabilities in rural areas were lifted out of poverty and 3.17 million poor disabled residents in rural areas received training, according to a government report reviewing human rights during the period.

Yan Can, a lawyer in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, said that due to the influence of traditional culture, negative attitudes toward figure models still permeate society.

"I hope that self-reliant people like Li can get more support and understanding," Yan said. "They deserve a life of respect."
BRUSSELS, March 28 (Xinhua) -- The European Commission plans to exclude Britain from its Galileo satellite program after Brexit due to security concerns, British media reported Tuesday.

In a letter from the commission to the British government, the EU said British businesses may no longer be able to bid on the Galileo project, and the British military might also not be able to use the system, according to online tech publisher The Register.

Galileo aims to build a European rival to the American GPS system, or possibly, Russia's Global Navigation Satellite System -- also known as GLONASS -- by Russia.

European Commission spokesman Alexander Winterstein said it was "the right time to start thinking about adjusting co-operation" on Galileo, as Britain will no longer be a part of the EU on March 29, 2019.

British Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said the commission's approach was "deeply disappointing".

He said the decision "not only will be detrimental to Britain but will also be highly detrimental to European security".

British Prime Minister Theresa May has said she wants a full defense and security treaty with the EU, but negotiations are far from complete.

Britain has contributed expertise as well as fund to Galileo. It is also preparing for a rift with the EU with plans to launch its own spaceport, British media reported.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 14:55:37|Editor: pengying

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U Win Myint (R), former speaker of the House of Representatives (Lower House), attends a session of Myanmar Union Parliament in Nay Pyi Taw March 28, 2018. U Win Myint has been elected as Myanmar's new president, according to a parliament announcement. (Xinhua/U Aung)

NAY PYI TAW, March 28 (Xinhua) -- U Win Myint, former Speaker of the House of Representatives, was elected as Myanmar's new president in the presidential run on Wednesday, the Union Parliament announced.

U Win Myint became the country's 10th president since 1948.

The presidential run was hosted by the Union Parliament to fill the presidency vacancy left by U Htin Kyaw, who announced resignation last week, citing health as reason.

The presidential election was contested among three vice presidents, namely U Myint Swe, U Henry Van Thio and U Win Myint.

U Win Myint won the election with 403 votes as a total of 636 MPs cast their votes in the Union Parliament. Of the votes cast, four were cancelled.

U Myint Swe won 211 votes and U Henry Van Thio gained 18 votes.

In the election, U Myint Swe and U Henry Van Thio remained as the first and second vice president respectively, according to their votes received.

The parliament is expected to announce the date of the swearing-in to office of the elected president and two vice presidents on Thursday when the parliament session continues.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 15:25:41|Editor: Mengjie

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by Xinhua writers Qu Junya, Zhang Xingjun

VISAKHAPATNAM, India, March 28 (Xinhua) -- "Here I work to make money, so that I can help my sisters to marry more decently with a better dowry," said Sri Lakshmi, a 20-year-old Indian woman.

Lakshmi said she has four older sisters, and her family has to prepare a dowry worth 500,000 rupees (7,700 U.S. dollars) for each of them in accordance with the local tradition.

In Visakhapatnam, a port city on the eastern coast of India, Lakshmi is one of several hundred local women working at the Ribest company, the Indian branch of the YAMA Ribbons and Bows company based in Xiamen, southeastern China, which opened here in August 2014.

The company's products, colored ribbons and bows, sell well in the Indian market. Merely by creating jobs, the Chinese-run Ribest presents a miniature version of mutually beneficial economic cooperation between China and India, and contributes to local economic empowerment by changing the lives of many women.

Lakshmi got a job at Ribest in 2016, long after she graduated from school. The job, making decorative ribbons by hand, is her very first job.

Enjoying company welfare including commuter buses and medical insurance that can partly cover family members, Ribest's female employees, aged about 20 and mostly with no higher education, usually love and value their jobs, according to Lin Jun, Ribest's general manager.

"You can see this in their work," he said.

It is a delightful sight -- artificial "blossoms," or ribbon decorations, rapidly start to bloom under the moving hands and nimble fingers of the Indian women wearing colorful sarees. For middle-aged Naga Jyothi, this job is her only means of support.

"The job is so very important to me, it enables us to survive," said Jyothi, who was left to raise two children by herself after her husband passed away.

Ratna Kumari, Ribest's human resources director, said the Ribest workers now can make 117 kinds of ribbons, and that they have a monthly pay of some 7,000 rupees (108 dollars).

"Over less than four years, some 300 of our Indian employees have become senior skilled workers, and we have also promoted some to management," Ribest's head Lin said.

But the Ribest story will not end here, as the enterprise is preparing for greater success stories.

The strong market demand in India for Ribest products in addition to qualified, low-cost labor have prompted a big investment plan by the parent company YAMA, which has signed an agreement with the local government on investing close to 32 million dollars to upgrade its Indian plant.

Related projects are planned to be completed in 2019, and Ribest will then be 10 times its size in production, and make more complicated products involving higher-level techniques.

Mohammed Saqib, founder and secretary general of the India-China Economic and Cultural Council, said Chinese enterprises can have more expansion opportunities in such an emerging market economy as India.

Meanwhile, he said, they thus contribute to the implementation of India's "Made in India" and other economic development plans.

Data show the trade between China and India totaled a record 80 billion dollars in 2017. A high complementarity brings bright prospects for closer economic and trade ties to the world's two important emerging market economies, who are also neighbors in Asia.

The Ribest success is just such an example.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 15:50:49|Editor: Mengjie

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Chinese guard of honor carry the remains of Chinese volunteer soldiers killed in the Korean War in Incheon, South Korea, March 28, 2018. South Korea on Wednesday returned more remains of Chinese soldiers killed in the 1950-1953 Korean War. (Xinhua/Wang Jingqiang)

INCHEON, South Korea, March 28 (Xinhua) -- South Korea on Wednesday returned more remains of Chinese soldiers killed in the 1950-1953 Korean War.

The transfer ceremony was held at the Incheon International Airport in Incheon, west of the capital Seoul, to hand over the remains of 20 Chinese volunteer soldiers killed in the war.

During the ceremony, South Korean troops handed over the coffins to Chinese soldiers, which carried them, covered by China's national flag, into an airplane.

It marked the fifth transfer ceremony. Since 2014, South Korea has transferred the remains of 589 Chinese volunteer soldiers killed in the Korean War, including 20 more this year.

Every year, China and South Korea have consulted on the handover of the Chinese soldiers' remains found in South Korea. The transfer has been usually made days before Tomb-sweeping Day, the Chinese holiday for commemorating the dead, in early April.

South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo said at the ceremony that the handover of the remains of Chinese soldiers will become an important foothold for the future-oriented development of the South Korea-China relations as it symbolizes friendly cooperation and trust between the two countries.

Song said the transfer was a good example for people of South Korea and China being a heartfelt, genuine neighbor and friend.

It was the first time that South Korea's defense chief attended the handover ceremony.

The Chinese People's Volunteers (CPV) fought alongside the Democratic People's Republic of Korea army in the Korean War against the South Korean army and U.S.-led UN forces between 1950 and 1953.

Almost 200,000 CPV soldiers have been confirmed to have been killed in the war, with most of them buried on the Korean Peninsula.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 15:50:49|Editor: pengying

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KUWAIT CITY, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Kuwait is ready to hire about 2,000 expatriate medical personnel for new hospitals and clinics, the daily newspaper Kuwait Times said Tuesday.

The Ministry of Health (MoH) of Kuwait has prepared a memo on its needs of doctors and technical medical staff who should be hired to operate new hospitals and clinics, the newspaper quoted an informed source as saying, noting that the memo has been sent to the Kuwaiti Civil Service Commission (CSC) for approval.

The memo shows that MoH needs more than 500 doctors and over 1,500 nurses, radiology technicians and other support medical staff members from India, Philippines and other Asian countries.

MoH has started laying off expats working in administrative positions to replace them with citizens, leaving only a few expats in such positions until they become 100 percent Kuwaitized within two years, the source said.

MoH had informed CSC that it will take at least 10 years for Kuwaiti graduates to meet the need of medical and nursing staff.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 15:50:49|Editor: Mengjie

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GUIYANG, March 28 (Xinhua) -- China's top alcohol brand Kweichow Moutai saw its sales revenue jump by 49.81 percent year on year in 2017, reflecting robust growth in the country's liquor industry.

Moutai's net profit reached 27 billion yuan (4.3 billion U.S. dollars), up 61.97 percent year on year. Its sales revenue during the period reached 58.2 billion yuan, the company said Tuesday.

In 2017, Moutai saw its output reach around 63,787 tonnes.

Distilled in the town of Maotai in southwest China's Guizhou Province, Moutai is one of the country's leading liquor brands and often served at state banquets.

The company said in 2017, the country's liquor industry entered a new round of growth. Distillers have tapped e-commerce retail channels to help boost sales. Moutai is eyeing a 15-percent growth in revenue this year.

China's alcohol industry earned about 1 trillion yuan in revenue in 2017. The total profits rose by 36 percent year on year to over 100 billion yuan, according to China National Light Industry Council.
NEW DELHI, March 28 (Xinhua) -- India will launch its latest communication satellite GSAT-6A on Thursday, a space official said Wednesday.

"The state-owned Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch GSAT-6A into space via its Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle from the southern spaceport of Sriharikota," he said.

The launch will take place around 5:00 p.m. local time on Thursday and the satellite will be put into orbit some 20 minutes later, the official added.

GSAT-6A is a powerful S-band communications satellite and the second in the so-called series, the first being the GSAT-6. It will help provide seamless mobile communication for India.

The space agency has said that the satellite's life span will be around a decade.

ISRO had in January successfully launched as many as 31 satellites in a single mission from the southern spaceport of Sriharikota.

In 2017, it launched 104 satellites in a single mission. All but three of the satellites were from foreign countries, most of them from the United States.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 16:46:00|Editor: Mengjie

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BEIJING, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Any outside forces that attempt to "play the Taiwan card" will find their efforts "futile," a Chinese mainland spokesperson said at a press conference Wednesday.

"It harms the interests of all Chinese, including Taiwan compatriots, and it is duping Taiwan compatriots," said An Fengshan, spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, in response to recent visits to Taiwan made by U.S. officials.

An urged the United States to abide by the one-China policy and the principles of the three Sino-U.S. Joint Communiques, and avoid any form of official contact with Taiwan.

"We sternly warn Taiwan authorities that relying on foreigners to build you up will only draw fire against yourself," An said.

Asked about the possibility of using force against Taiwan, the spokesperson said that the mainland will make every effort in all sincerity to strive for peaceful reunification.

"However, we are staunchly determined to safeguard China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and will not allow any attempt to split the country," An said.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 18:01:18|Editor: pengying

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TEHRAN, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Defense Minister will visit Russia's capital Moscow next week to take part in the 7th Moscow Conference on International Security (MCIS), Tasnim news agency reported on Wednesday.

The visit by Brig. Gen. Amir Hatami will be made at the invitation of Russia's Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu.

Hatami is scheduled to hold talks with his Russian counterpart on bilateral, regional and international issues.

On the sidelines of the event, Hatami will also meet the defense ministers and security and military officials of a number of other countries attending the conference.

The 7th Moscow Conference on International Security will be held on April 4-5. Defense ministers and military officials from over 80 countries are expected to partake in the two-day event.
MANDERA, Kenya, March 28 (Xinhua) -- At least six people were killed and others injured in a suspected militia attack in Kenya's northeast Mandera county near the Ethiopian border, officials said.

North Eastern regional coordinator Mohamud Saleh confirmed the incident in Banisa village, saying most of the victims come from Degodia clan which has been having disputes with Garre community.

"There is fighting between Garre and Degodia communities in the area but we have sent police to quell the situation," Saleh said.

Local residents said the assailants were revenging the killing of two men inside Ethiopia.

Both Garre and Degodia have communal presence and have sophisticated armed militia in Ethiopia who has been used in clan fighting in the region.

The two warring clans of Degodia and Garre have over the years been fighting for supremacy and control of the county something that has degenerated into clashes.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 18:06:19|Editor: pengying

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JERUSALEM, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Israeli tanks shelled two Hamas posts in the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday morning after two Palestinians set fire near the fence between the Palestinian enclave and Israel.

The tanks targeted two observation posts belonging to Hamas, a Palestinian Islamist organization that runs Gaza, the Israeli military said in a statement.

Earlier, two suspects were seen setting fire to an elevated surface adjacent to the Karni Crossing, an old cargo terminal.

"The suspect did not cross the security fence and did not infiltrate Israel," the statement read. "The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) views with great severity any attempt to damage the security fence, as well as security infrastructure."

The incident came a day after three Gazans crossed into Israel and strolled for hours in southern Israel before they were caught and arrested. The army said they were armed with knives and grenades.

Tensions between Israel and Gaza were on the rise ahead of Friday, when mass demonstrations are expected to begin along the fence. Gazans plan to hold big marches towards the fence. The army said it will deploy 100 snipers authorized of using live fire to prevent attempts to cross the fence.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 18:16:23|Editor: Mengjie

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BEIJING, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping's special representative Yang Jiechi will pay a visit to the Republic of Korea (ROK) from Thursday to Friday.

Yang, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the head of the General Office of the Central Committee for Foreign Affairs, will visit at the invitation of the ROK government, foreign ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said Wednesday at a daily press briefing.
WASHINGTON, March 28 (Xinhua) -- The United States on Tuesday called for setting up a joint mechanism to probe the nerve-agent attack on an ex-Russian spy and his daughter in Britain, amid escalating diplomatic confrontation with Russia.

U.S. State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert said in a press briefing that Washington looks forward to the completion of investigation by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which was invited by Britain to collect and analyze the samples of the poisoning.

Former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal, aged 66, and his daughter Yulia were found unconscious on a bench outside a shopping center in Britain's southwestern city of Salisbury on March 4. They remain in critical condition in hospital.

Britain claims the pair was exposed to a nerve agent and holds Russia responsible, while the Russian government has denied any involvement in it.

Nauert told the press "We also hope, at the same time, that Russia will return to the UN Security Council and will agree to some sort of a mechanism like the joint investigative mechanism."

"We hope they (the Russians) will get back to that in the future. That would certainly be a good start for them," she added. "We would support what the UN agrees to go along with in putting something together that is just as strong as the joint investigative mechanism."

Last Wednesday, Russian Foreign Ministry official Vladimir Yermakov accused Britain of denying Russian access to the investigation at a briefing for foreign diplomats in Moscow.

Noting that the incident was "a terrorist attack against two Russian citizens," Yermakov said Russia will not accept conclusions of foreign experts, adding that it needs to carry out its own investigation.

Following the incident, Britain expelled 23 Russian diplomats, with Moscow expelling an equal number of British diplomats in response.

In the fallout, by Tuesday, at least 144 Russian diplomats were ordered out by 24 western nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, including 60 Russians from the United States, which Nauert said is "the largest single expulsion of Russians ever ordered" by the U.S. government.

In his protest, Russia Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said Monday that Moscow will give an adequate response to each case in the coming days.

Russian Foreign Ministry said later that the West's expulsion of its diplomats is an unfriendly step, and vowed to react to it accordingly.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying called on countries concerned to avoid taking actions that could escalate tensions on Tuesday at a daily press briefing.

"China is opposed to the use of chemical weapons. Meanwhile, we also believe that the poisoning incident should be addressed properly through dialogue between Britain and Russia based on finding out the truth," Hua said.
JUBA, March 28 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan's telecom regulator has shut down mobile phone firm Vivacell's network, accusing the operator of not complying with the country's laws and regulations.

Ladu Kenyi, Director General of the National Communications Authority (NCA), effected the shutdown on Tuesday midnight following the expiration of a one-week ultimatum.

"We are shutting down all the traffic of Vivacell because of non compliance. We are tackling one company at a time. If we are finished with Vivacell, we shall come to others," Kenyi said in a statement broadcast on state radio Tuesday evening.

The South Sudanese authorities had earlier suspended Vivacell's international traffic and ordered it to close within a week. The company's local and international traffic services have all been disconnected.

Kenyi said Vivacell -- a joint venture between Lebanon's Fattouch Investment Group and South Sudanese traders -- has been operating without a license in disregard of the country's communications law.

The official said the government would ensure that Vivacell customers would get compensation for losses caused by the shutdown.

"We are asking the public to bear with us and be patient because we are showing that this country is sovereign because no body will come here and play with our regulations," Kenyi said.

Vivecell is yet to respond to its closure. But last week, the telecom company said in a statement that it regretted the suspension order and said was working with authorities to settle the matter.

Two operators, Kuwait's Zain and South Africa's MTN, remain operational in South Sudan.
LONDON, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Britain's Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced on Wednesday that the government will fund the National Health Service (NHS) 760 million British pounds (about 1 billion U.S. dollars) to modernize and transform 40 hospitals.

Described it as the biggest investment of its kind in the NHS in over 10 years, Hunt said "As the NHS approaches its 70th birthday, we are backing it with one of the largest capital programs in NHS history."

According to Hunt, the money will be spent on programs to meet local demand, such as new urgent care centers and refurbishing mental health facilities.

Hunt said further major projects are also under consideration across the country and the government.

The government said it is also releasing 213 million U.S. dollars to support the NHS's work to become more efficient.

The announcement came just hours after Prime Minister Theresa May told a committee of MPs in the House of Commons that she would come up with a blueprint later this year to allow the NHS to plan for the future with a multi-year funding plan.

Labour's Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth said years starving the NHS of funds has resulted in the worst winter crisis on record, the ongoing drastic shortage of healthcare staff and the abandoning of minimum legal standards of care which patients are entitled to.

Ashworth said Labour would fund the NHS by an extra 5 billion pounds (7 billion U.S. dollars) this year, end privatization of NHS services, and secure a sustainable future for social care.
BRUSSELS, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Luxembourg announced on Wednesday that it has decided to call back its ambassador to Moscow for consultations in the context of the Salisbury attack.

Luxembourg Minister for Foreign Affairs Jean Asselborn said in a statement that "The Luxembourg Government strongly condemns the attack and agrees with the United Kingdom Government's analysis that it is highly probable that the Russian Federation is responsible for this act and that no other plausible explanation exists."

Luxembourg maintains the position of the European Union, which demands that more light be shed on the case and has shown solidarity with London since the attacks.

But the Luxembourg government, according to Jean Asselborn, will not expel Russian diplomats because they are not numerous enough and do not represent a serious threat to Luxembourg interests.
Source:Xinhua| 2018-03-28 19:07:25|Editor: Mengjie

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Performers stage a folk dance during a performance to mark Tibet's Serfs' Emancipation Day in Lhasa, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, March 28, 2018. Wednesday marks the 59th anniversary of the emancipation of Tibetan serfs. (Xinhua/Jigme Dorgi)
ROME, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Italy on Wednesday arrested a 23-year-old Moroccan with Italian citizenship for terrorist propaganda and proselytism on behalf of the Islamic State (IS) extremist group, police said.

The suspect was arrested in the northern city of Turin after a two-year investigation. Police are conducting searches in cities across Italy.

Anti-terrorism investigators "have identified other foreigners and Italians converted to Islam and engaged in a campaign of proselytism on the internet," police tweeted.

The man arrested in Turin "hailed terrorist attacks and shared sermons by 'preachers of hatred'... that spread the IS order to unleash a terrorist campaign in Europe," the police explained on twitter account.

In a televised press conference, Turin Police Superintendent Francesco Messina said the young man, a loner who was rejected by his family, "translated jihadist material into Italian".

Police decided to step in and arrest him once he made the transition from internet propaganda to meeting terrorist recruits in real life, the superintendent explained.

Earlier this month, Italy deported a 35-year-old Moroccan national who praised the 2016 truck attack in Nice, France, in which 86 people were killed.

That was the 27th deportation "for reasons of national security" carried out so far this year. Italy has expelled 264 "individuals involved in religious extremism" since Jan. 1, 2015, according to the Interior Ministry.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 19:11:37|Editor: Mengjie

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BEIJING, March 28 (Xinhua) -- A court in Beijing rejected an appeal by convicts in a cross-border telecom fraud case Wednesday.

The Beijing Higher People's Court upheld the first-instance verdict issued by the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court in Dec. 21, 2017, which sentenced 85 people to prison for terms ranging from 21 months to 15 years.

A total of 66 offenders made an appeal after the first-instance verdict. The higher people's court heard the case and affirmed that the original verdict was legal and the sentences were appropriate.

The offenders, pretending to work for courier services, health insurance bureaus, police and procuratorate authorities, falsely informed victims they were suspected of crimes due to leaked personal information and persuaded them to transfer money or to make others transfer money to appointed accounts, according to the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court.

The convicts pleaded guilty to cheating 185 victims out of more than 29 million yuan (4.3 million U.S. dollars).
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 19:11:37|Editor: ZD

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JERUSALEM, March 28 (Xinhua) -- An Israeli army spokesperson announced Wednesday that a 10-day closure will be imposed on the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, starting on Thursday, ahead of the Jewish holiday of Passover.

All points of entry between the West Bank, Gaza, and Israel will be closed beginning on Thursday at 12:01 a.m. until next Saturday, April 7, at midnight, the military said.

The blockade was decided after "an evaluation of the security situation and the approval of the political echelon," a military spokesperson said without elaborating.

"During the closure, only passage of exceptional medical humanitarian cases will be allowed, subjected to the approval of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories," the spokesperson added.

Violence between Israel and Gaza has been on the rise since U.S. President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel on December 6.

On Friday, mass demonstrations are expected to begin in Gaza. The protest is planned to culminate with a march to the fence separating between the besieged Palestinian enclave and Israel on May 15, Israel's Independence Day and the Palestinian's day of "the Nakba," or the catastrophe.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 19:16:37|Editor: ZD

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TEHRAN, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Iran's ambassador to the United Nations on Wednesday denied that his country has supplied missiles to the Yemeni Houthi militants who target Saudi Arabia's inner posts.

Gholamali Khoshrou dismissed the Saudi allegations as "baseless," urging the kingdom to engage in dialogue with the Houthis.

The three-year Saudi war on Yemen is not legitimate, Khoshrou said, adding that the war on Yemen has achieved nothing but massacre, hunger, diseases and destruction of its infrastructure.

"It is not the first time Saudi Arabia enters into correspondence against Iran in order to cover up its defeats in Yemen, and the international community is well aware of this fact," Khoshrou was quoted as saying by Iran's state TV.

"With adventurism and inexperience, the Saudis have helped inflict cholera on millions of Yemeni people and targeted children and civilians in the course of their bombardments," he said.

In a letter issued on Tuesday, Saudi envoy to the United Nations, Abdullah al-Muallami, urged the UN Security Council to hold the Islamic republic accountable for the alleged missile supply to Yemen's Houthis.

The Saudi-led coalition revealed on Monday "evidence" of the Iranian role in trafficking weapons to Yemen.

The coalition spokesperson Turki al-Malki said an Iranian made missile with Persian writing was confiscated in Yemen, and a shipment of missiles from Iran were seized before they were used by Houthi militias.

Khoshrou said that Saudi Arabia should "abandon adventurism and warmongering and engage in constructive political dialogue with Yemen, which is its neighbor, while respecting the people's rights."

Iran basically believes in no other solution than a political one to the conflict in Yemen, he said.

Saudi Arabia is leading a mostly Arab military coalition to fight Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen since March 2015.

Houthis have been controlling much of Yemen's north by force, including the capital Sanaa since 2014.

The war has killed more than 10,000 Yemenis, mostly civilians, and displaced over 3 million, according to humanitarian agencies.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 19:21:38|Editor: ZD

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LHASA, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Two hours of drive southeast from Lhasa, capital of Tibet Autonomous Region, brings one to Khesum village, situated amongst the mountainous landscape along the Yarlung River valley.

Small as the village is, with a population of just 700, Khesum was the starting point of sweeping democratic reform in 1959, which ended feudal serfdom under theocracy and began a new chapter for the plateau region in southwest China.

On June 6, 1959, 302 serfs in the village, clad in rags, elected the preparatory committee for the first association of peasants in Tibet. The day marked the beginning of community-level democracy in Tibet.

Serfs' Emancipation Day is celebrated in Tibet on Wednesday. During the reform, more than one million people, or 90 percent of the region's population at that time, were emancipated from the feudal serf system in 1959.

In Khesum, there are about 100 elderly villagers who lived through the reform period and all of them had been serfs. The dark pages of history have turned, but they should never be forgotten, the elderly villagers said.

Sonam Dondrup was a serf until the age of 16, and his memories of the old days have barely faded. "I got up before the sunrise to work in the fields. I could never be late. If I was late, I would be whipped," he said.

"After the landowners ran away, no one had any idea what the future would bring. It was not until my family burnt the land contract and the debt papers that the idea of liberation finally sank in," the now 75-year-old man said.

Sonam Dondrup now lives in peaceful retirement. Every morning, he takes his great-grandson to kindergarten and then goes to the nearby Changzhu Monastery to pray.

Penpa Tsering, Communist Party secretary of the village, said Khesum is one of the most developed villages under the jurisdiction of Changzhu Township in the city of Shannan.

It has 55 students attending the local kindergarten and school. Over half of the families have cars. Per capita annual income in 2017 was around 17,000 yuan (about 2,700 U.S. dollars). No one lives under poverty line.

PAST, NOT FORGOTTEN

A bare-footed man suffering from extreme starvation stole a plate of dog food. When the theft was discovered by a steward, the man received a whipping. This scene was everyday life in Khesum about 59 years ago. Now it only exists on stage.

In Shannan, actor Tsewang Lodro, 37, plays Trilai, the serf, in the one-hour play "The Tears of Serfs", which was staged on Tuesday.

"I've spent a lot of time rehearsing this month. It satisfies me that my acting makes the audience cry at the destruction and despair, and laugh at the ridiculous and funny," Tsewang Lodro said.

Director Basang Tsering said writing the script for the play was easy. Almost every family had memories. "My job was to collect the stories and guide the actors and actresses to render them in an artistic form," he said.

Conditions of serfs and slaves in Tibet have been documented in many historical records and traveler's tales.

"Young people may feel uncomfortable seeing the scene on stage, but the history of Tibet was more cruel than what is shown here," said Sonam Londrup, an audience member.

NEW GENERATIONS

Grandmother Chiga was one of the first few females to become Communist Party members in Khesum in 1959. Until she passed away in 1995, she was one of the revered villagers.

"Mother was shy. She was elected to the village committee to represent the interests of women. She was a serf, and used to say 'I did not grow up eating tsampa [dough made from barley flour], but eating bitterness, being beaten and cursed,'" said Losang Qozom, her daughter.

"When the committee convened meetings in the hall where the master previously resided, my mother hesitated before entering. It was dark and a forbidden space for women," Losang Qozom said.

Losang Qozom, 56, still lives in Khesum. She has three daughters and proudly shares their achievements. Two of them hold university degrees and the youngest works as a doctor at a local clinic.

Second daughter Baima Tsenyi, 26, graduated from Yunnan Normal University last year and is now studying to become a kindergarten dance teacher. Over 130 people in the village hold university degrees, and another 50 are currently studying in universities around China.

DEVELOPMENT

The Yarlung River flows near the village, and nurtures fertile farmland. Khesum has about 93 hectares of land in the river valley and farming is highly mechanized.

Village official Penpa Tsering said they plan to expand corn fields to raise earnings for farmers. The village has built 89 vegetable greenhouses.

Many people work in the tourist sector, taking tourists to Yumbulagang, Tibet's first temple.

"Khesum will see new opportunities with the rural revitalization strategy. We will continue to protect the environment, while developing the local economy," said Nima Tsering, Communist Party Secretary of Nedong District in Shannan.

About 370 people from the village work in nearby towns. "We are also faced with an aging society. We will try to build good businesses in the village and keep the young people here," said Penpa Tsering.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 19:21:38|Editor: Mengjie

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Soldiers carry coffins containing remains of the Chinese People's Volunteers (CPV) killed in the Korean War, at the Taoxian International Airport in Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province, March 28, 2018. The remains of 20 Chinese soldiers killed in the 1950-53 Korean War were returned to China from the Republic of Korea (ROK) Wednesday. A ceremony was held at the airport to welcome back the remains. (Xinhua/Yang Qing)

SHENYANG, March 28 (Xinhua) -- The remains of 20 Chinese soldiers killed in the 1950-53 Korean War were returned to China from the Republic of Korea (ROK) Wednesday.

Two Chinese fighter jets escorted a plane carrying the remains and the belongings of the fallen soldiers. They landed at an airport in Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province, at around 11:20 a.m.

A ceremony was held at the airport to welcome back the remains.

More than 200 representatives from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Liaoning provincial government and the military attended the ceremony.

The remains will be buried in a "martyrs' park" in Shenyang, where the remains of 569 soldiers were sent back from the ROK between 2014 and 2017.

The Chinese People's Volunteers (CPV) fought side by side with the army of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in the Korean War against the South Korean army and U.S.-led UN forces.

Tens of thousands of CPV soldiers died on the Korean Peninsula during the war, which ended in 1953.
BERLIN, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Germany's economic momentum is propelling consumer sentiment to record heights, a regular study published on Wednesday by the GfK market research institute finds.

The Nuremberg-based institute's consumer sentiment barometer rose by 0.1 points to 10.9 points in April. The closely-watched findings were based on a representative monthly survey among 2,000 consumers.

"The growth engine is running hot at the moment. Consumers expect this to hold true for the coming months as well," a statement by GfK expert Rolf Buerkl read.

Consumers assessment of the prospects for the economy in general, as well as for their individual incomes once again improved in April. As a consequence, the GfK barometer measuring respondents' propensity to commit to larger purchases, such as cars and furniture already rose to 59.1 points after 56.3 points in February.

The market research institute pointed to the "excellent situation of the labor market" in particular as underpinning greater optimism among German consumers. Strong demand for labor was reflected in rising wages and a positive outlook for future employment and unemployment figures.

According to a recent study published by the Institute for Employment Research (IAB), the research institute of the Federal Employment Agency, employment prospects in Germany could hardly be any better. "2018 will most likely be a record year for the German labor market," a statement by IAB expert Enzo Weber read.

Nevertheless, GFK noted on Wednesday that domestic consumers' spending mood could still be dampened by exogenous shocks. "Should the protectionist tendencies in the U.S. lead to a trade war, Germany would be disproportionately affected as an exporting nation and this would in turn also influence consumer sentiment," the monthly study warned.
BERLIN, March 28 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) competition is investigating whether a taxation agreement signed between the German carmaker Volkswagen and Luxemburg breaches the bloc's strict competition rules, German media reported on Wednesday.

The reports cited information obtained by "Bloomberg" that competition authorities at the European Commission were assessing whether the Wolfsburg-based firm currently benefited from a tailored agreement with the low-tax destination Luxemburg which was not permissible under antitrust regulations.

Neither the finance ministry of Luxemburg nor Volkswagen have responded to the reports.

The preliminary query filed by the Commission is part of a wider offensive against so-called "sweetheart" tax deals which has embroiled several major corporations.

As a consequence, the likes of AbInbev, Fiat Chrysler and Starbucks have already been ordered to pay back taxes worth millions of euros to national tax authorities.
BENI, Democratic Republic of Congo, March 28 (Xinhua) -- At least 10 people were killed in an attack by rebel group Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) on Tuesday night in the city of Beni, North Kivu province in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

According to the spokesman of the army's operations in the area, Captain Mak Azukayi, all the victims are civilians killed by the assailants that the army pushed back a few hours after the attack. Several other wounded are also registered among the civilians.

Local sources in Beni told Xinhua that the UN force in the area has deployed troops to secure the attacked neighborhood, while the army continues with its operation to repel the assailants who retreated into the forest.

After several months of calm, the ADF, a rebel group in Uganda and the DRC, remains active in eastern DRC despite several military operations launched by the regular forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC).
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 20:01:50|Editor: Mengjie

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Li Zhanshu, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), meets with a U.S. congress delegation led by U.S. senator Steve Daines in Beijing, capital of China, March 28, 2018. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing)

BEIJING, March 28 (Xinhua) -- China's top legislator Li Zhanshu on Wednesday called on China and the United States to view and handle bilateral ties from a strategic height and an overall perspective to ensure their development goes along the right track.

Li, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), made the remarks while meeting with a U.S. congress delegation, led by U.S. senator Steve Daines.

The relationship between China and the United States is of great importance to both countries and the international community, Li said.

Just as Chinese President Xi Jinping has pointed out, cooperation is the only viable choice for China and the United States and a better future would only be achieved through win-win cooperation, he said.

He called on both countries to enhance strategic communication, focus on dialogue and cooperation, and manage differences and sensitive issues so as to ensure the development of bilateral ties along the right track.

Hailing the sound cooperation between the legislative bodies of both countries, Li said China's NPC stands ready to work with the U.S. Congress to give full play to the exchange mechanism, conduct candid dialogues, respect each other's core interests and major concerns, strengthen in-depth understanding at different levels and promote cooperation in wide-ranging areas.

Daines said the U.S.-China relationship is of vital importance, expressing the willingness to do more work to boost mutual trust and bilateral cooperation.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 20:06:51|Editor: pengying

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DAMASCUS, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Ali al-Zatari, the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator in Syria, has expressed concern over the growing number of displaced people in northern and southern Syrian areas.

Speaking in a press conference Wednesday, al-Zatari said the possibility of another Turkish military offensive in Tal Rifat town in the northern countryside of Aleppo province could exacerbate the displacement rate of civilians, following the Turkish capture of the city of Afrin in northern Syria earlier this month.

"We are concerned about the expansion of the military action to Tal Rifat and that could result in a double displacement of the people who live in difficult circumstances. We are talking about 180,000 displaced people from Afrin to Tal Rifat and surrounding villages, namely Nubol and Zahra," he said.

The Turkish forces and allied Syrian rebels captured the former Kurdish-controlled Afrin enclave in northern Syria, with recent estimates saying around 200,000 people fled Afrin to nearby areas, including Tal Rifat, as a result of the Turkish offensive.

The Turkish side, however, said it was expanding its operation to other Kurdish-controlled areas in northern Syria and Tal Rifat is believed to be their next target, which sparks more concern as many more civilians could flee.

On the situation in the capital Damascus' Eastern Ghouta countryside, where thousands of civilians are fleeing to government-run shelters on daily basis, al-Zatari said the departure of civilians in large numbers also sparks concern due to their many needs.

"Around 80,000 people from Eastern Ghouta have been relocated to Damascus and we are also concerned about the evacuation of more of them due to their large number and their many needs," he said.

Still, the UN official said humanitarian workers of several humanitarian organizations are doing their utmost to meet the demands of people.

"Either way, the United Nations, and the (Syrian) Red Crescent are carrying out a massive work with the Red Cross and other humanitarian partners to render all help to those Syrian civilians with all they need," the UN official said.

This comes as thousands of civilians are leaving areas in Eastern Ghouta on daily basis, seeking refuge in government-run shelters in the countryside of Damascus.

The civilian evacuation was made possible after the Syrian army advanced in Eastern Ghouta and captured 90 percent of that area from an array of rebel groups, which have been entrenched in that key area since 2012.

Also, thousands of rebels and their families are leaving Eastern Ghouta toward rebel-held areas in Idlib province.

Local reports suggest that the Syrian government will return the displaced people to their homes in Eastern Ghouta after the situation there settles, with the fact that civilians in many areas in Eastern Ghouta remained in their homes when the army entered.
ADDIS ABABA, March 28 (Xinhua) -- The decision by Ethiopia's ruling coalition to elect a new leader shows a commitment to reform, an Ethiopian analyst said on Wednesday.

The Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) on Tuesday elected Abiy Ahmed as its new chairperson, effectively making him the next Prime Minister of Ethiopia.

Ahmed, chairman of Oromo People's Democratic Organization (OPDO) which rules over Ethiopia's largest and most populous regional state of Oromia, will replace the outgoing Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn who has ruled Ethiopia after the death of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi in August 2012.

Desalegn comes from another EPRDF coalition member party, the Southern Ethiopian People's Democratic Movement (SEPDM).

The confirmation of Abiy Ahmed as the new chairperson of EPRDF and soon to be new PM ends more than a month of political uncertainty ever since Desalegn offered his resignation on February 15.

Speaking to Xinhua, Abebe Aynete, senior researcher, Ethiopia Foreign Relations Strategic Studies (EFRSS), local think tank, said EPRDF with this decision showed that it is capable of making reform minded decisive steps to solve Ethiopia's political crisis.

In recent months, internal political wrangling among four coalition partners of EPRDF, including Tigray People's Liberation Front, Amhara National Democratic Movement, South Ethiopia People's Democratic Movement and Oromo People's Democratic Organization (OPDO), has cast fears about the stability of the nation of about 100 million people.

Ethiopia is also reeling from persistent deadly protests since 2016, especially in the two most populous regional states of Amhara and Oromia over alleged political and economic marginalization.

The political crisis led the Ethiopian government to declare a martial law on February 16, the second the East African country imposed since the second half of 2016.

Ethiopia imposed the martial law, saying it was to protect the country's constitution, citizens and their property from the ongoing violent demonstrations in some parts of the country.

Ethiopia had previously witnessed a 10-month long martial law imposed in October 2016, later lifted in August 2017.

Aynete, said for a party known for its strict adherence to ideology and hierarchical power decision, the decision to appoint Ahmed shows a willingness to adapt to popular pressures.

"EPRDF has shown its not a party of the few, rather it can act in the best interest of the majority and even be a party of the masses," he told Xinhua.

Aynete's assessment was shared by Abera Tekele, 32, a resident of Addis Ababa who said he hopes Ethiopia's new leader in particular will address youth unemployment and political reform.

"I hope Ahmed is able to use wisely the two years before the next general election in May 2020 to address mass youth unemployment and create space for political opposition," said Tekele. Currently EPRDF and allied parties control all the 547 seats in the Ethiopian parliament.

Speaking at various public events in recent months, Ahmed has urged Ethiopia to embrace modern knowledge and tap into the potential of youth population.

Ahmed previously served in various capacities in Ethiopia starting as a member of Ethiopian Defense Force with a rank of Lieutenant Colonel, before helping establish Ethiopian Information Network Security Agency (INSA), an organization tasked with securing Ethiopia's digital network.

He also served as a Minister of the Ethiopia Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST).
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 20:16:54|Editor: Mengjie

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BEIJING, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Congratulations have been pouring in from around the world since Xi Jinping was elected Chinese president by a unanimous vote on March 17 at the annual session of the National People's Congress, China's national legislature.

Xi was also unanimously elected chairman of the Central Military Commission.

In their congratulatory messages, leaders of foreign countries, political parties and organizations expressed confidence that under Xi's leadership, China will achieve greater prosperity and make more contributions to world peace and development.

The following is an edited version of some of the messages.

President of Madagascar Hery Rajaonarimampianina said Xi's election represents the Chinese people's recognition of and support for Xi.

Under Xi's leadership, China has entered a new era, he said, wishing Xi success while fulfilling the sublime mission and leading the Chinese people to build China into a great modernized country.

Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi extended warm congratulations and sincere wishes to Xi on his election.

He said he believes that Xi will continue to lead China to achieve greater advancement and development.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel and China have established a solid partnership. He said he expected the two sides to expand cooperation further in the future and wished that China could realize sustainable development and prosperity.

Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah wished that a friendly China would continue to prevail.

President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago Paula-Mae Weekes said she believes that her country's relations with China will enter a new era and benefit the two peoples.

King of Norway Harald V extended his most sincere greetings and best wishes to Xi on his election as Chinese president, saying he wishes China peace and prosperity.

Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen said this year marks the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Denmark-China all-round strategic partnership. He said he believes that the productive and energetic partnership will be further promoted.

Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Guy Ryder said China has made great contributions to promoting people's rights in workplaces, creating opportunities for decent employment, pushing forward social security and strengthening social dialogue.

The ILO expects to continue enhancing sound cooperation with China, he added.

Mongolian President Khaltmaa Battulga, King of Bhutan Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, and Prime Minister of Bhutan Tshering Tobgay are also among those who sent their congratulatory messages or letters to Xi.
ADDIS ABABA, March 28 (Xinhua) -- The Council of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), Ethiopia's ruling party, on late Tuesday elected Abiy Ahmed as the party's new chairperson.

Ahmed (PhD), who is also chairman of the Oromo People's Democratic Organization (OPDO), is expected to be the next prime minister of the East African country as the outgoing Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn's resignation was accepted by the party last month, days after a crippling strike in parts of Ethiopia.

The confirmation of Abiy Ahmed as the new chairperson of EPRDF and soon to be new PM ends more than a month of political uncertainty ever since Hailemariam Desalegn offered his resignation on February 15.

WHO IS ABIY AHMED

Ahmed, 41, former Ethiopian Minister of Science and Technology, is the current chairperson of the Oromo People's Democratic Organization (OPDO), which represents Ethiopia's largest Oromia regional state.

Ahmed replaced the former chairperson of OPDO, Lemma Megerssa, as Chairman of OPDO on February 22. OPDO is one of the four member parties of Ethiopia's ruling EPRDF, which represents Ethiopia's largest Oromia regional state.

Ahmed, who is from Ethiopia's largest ethnic group - the Oromo people -, has PhD in Peace and Security, Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Management and Leadership and earned first degree in Computer Engineering.

Prior to serving as the Ethiopian Minister of Science and Technology, Ahmed had served as the Director General of the Federal Science and Technology Center of Excellence.

Ahmed, who has also a military background in the Ethiopian defense force, had also served as the Deputy Director of the Ethiopian Information Network Security Agency (INSA).

Within the Oromia regional state administration, where he is currently serving as the Chairperson of OPDO, Ahmed had previously served as the head of the Urban Development and Housing Bureau of the regional state administration.

AHMED AS THE NEW PM

As the four EPRDF coalition members and its affiliate parties currently control all active 547 seats in the Ethiopian parliament, Ahmed's appointment as the next Ethiopian Prime Minister is expected to be approved by the Ethiopian parliament in the next few days.

Analysts are currently tipping Ahmed's election to the premiership position to end, or at least reduce, the recurrent mass anti-government demonstrations in parts of the East African country, particularly in Ethiopia's Oromia regional state where Ahmed has a strong support.

The mass anti-government demonstrations in the Oromia regional state had particularly forced the Ethiopian government to impose a six-month state of emergency rule.

Ahmed, who is relatively the youngest contender to the party's leadership position at the age of 41, is also backed by the East African country's younger generation.
MANDERA, Kenya, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Six people were killed and two others seriously injured in a militia attack near Kenyan border with Ethiopia early Wednesday, government officials said.

North Eastern regional coordinator Mohamud Saleh confirmed the incident in Banisa Sub County, saying most of the victims come from Degodia clan which has been having disputes with Garre community.

"The deaths today are as a result of a revenge mission against Garre community," Saleh said by telephone. Local government officials said the six were killed in two separate incidents in a Chiroqo, a remote village in Banisa Sub County in Mandera.

Banisa Deputy County Commissioner Mathias Chishambo said the six -- five from Degodia and one from Garre communities -- were killed while a father and his son were injured in the fighting.

Chishambo said five people were killed by suspected militia from the Garre clan when they raided the village at 3 a.m. on Wednesday.

"Attackers from the Garre clan raided Choroqo village and killed five villagers, injuring two others on Wednesday," the government official said.

The attack, he said, was a revenge mission after two men from the Garre clan riding a motorcycle were killed in Ethiopia on Tuesday.

"The attackers were revenging killing of two men inside Ethiopia and I cannot understand how happenings in another country can be brought on our land," he said.

Chishambo said after the killing of five at Choroqo, armed Degodia militia killed one man at Domal, a village inhabited by the Garre clan.

"We are sending more police officers to quell the situation that seems to be getting out of hand," he said.

The government official said the attackers are known and an eyewitness can identify them. "They are Kenyans and we shall be arresting them soon," Chisambo added.

Adan Ali, 40, and his nine-year-old son Abdullahi Adan are recovering from wounds inflicted by the attackers. Ali was shot in his left leg, while his son was shot in the chest.

"We received two patients with gunshot wounds but they are in stable condition," said Mohamed Adan, the Medical Superintendent at the facility.

"The man is in stable condition and an X-ray showed the bullet went through the leg and he is improving well," Adan said.

"The boy was lucky as the bullet went through his flesh and did not cause any fractures," the doctor added.

The feuding pastoralist communities in Kenya's north where clashes have been occurring have easy access to illegal weapons since the regions are close to porous borders with neighboring countries that are either war-torn or are emerging from conflict.

Both Garre and Degodia have communal presence and have sophisticated armed militia in Ethiopia who has been used in clan fighting in the region.

The two warring clans of Degodia and Garre have over the years been fighting for supremacy and control of the county something that has degenerated into clashes.
BANGKOK, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Six males were on Wednesday sentenced to death on charges of perpetrating last year's massacre in southern Thailand, police said.

Krabi Provincial Court ruled Surikfat Bannopwongsakul, 41, and five accomplices guilty of manslaughtering eight people, including children, at the house of the victims in Ao Luk district of Krabi province, about 780 km south of Bangkok, last July and delivered them the death penalty.

Surikfat and his men in camouflage clothing cold-bloodedly killed village headman Worayut Sanglang and the seven members of his family with the victim's handgun following an unsettled dispute over a costly land deal.

The murderers used Worayut's gun in a cover-up to make it look as if he had killed his own family members and committed suicide under extreme stress, the police said.

Two other accomplices, including a female, were sentenced to 21 months and 12 months in jail respectively.

Surikfat's lawyer has planned to refute the Krabi court's verdict in the Appeals Court at a later date.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 20:42:01|Editor: Lifang

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French Republican guards carry the flag-draped coffin of the hero officer Arnaud Beltrame in Paris, France on March 28, 2018. Amid rains, a ceremony was held on Wednesday at the military museum Les Invalides in Paris to pay tribute to the hero officer Arnaud Beltrame, who died of serious wounds he got when he voluntarily swapped himself for a female hostage during an attack on a supermarket in Trebes, southern France, on Friday. (Xinhua/Jack Chan)

PARIS, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Amid rains, a ceremony was held on Wednesday at the military museum Les Invalides in Paris to pay tribute to the hero officer Arnaud Beltrame, who died of serious wounds he got when he voluntarily swapped himself for a female hostage during an attack on a supermarket in Trebes, southern France, on Friday.

About 2,000 people, citizens, government members, politicians and police officers, gathered at the nuseum to express their respect and gratitude for the "veteran soldier" and "elite policeman".

Presiding over the official ceremony, French President Emmanuel Macron said Beltrame "knew surely that he had an appointment with death, but even more with his truth of man, soldier, leader."

"To accept to die so that innocent people live, such is the commitment of the soldier. That's the grandeur that stunned France. This grandeur worth of his leaders, his colleagues' esteem," he added.

Macron told the gathering that the killed gendarme "embodies France's resistance spirit", which mirrored an "inflexible determination" to preserve the country's freedom.

Beltrame was one of the gendarmes that rushed to the supermarket in Trebes, where a gunman held about 50 people as captives.

The 44-year-old officer offered himself up unarmed to the attacker in exchange for the woman who was taken as a human shield, and managed to leave his phone on a table with an open line so that police could hear what was going on inside the supermarket.

Once gunshots were heard, police launched the assault and killed the gunman.

The gendarme, who once served in Iraq, was seriously injured in the attack and succumbed to his injuries in hospital where he was rushed once the siege ended.

In the Islamic State-claimed assault, the attacker killed four people and injured 15 others.

Facing extremism which he called "an insidious enemy that requires ... a renewed vigilance and civism," French president stressed "the glow that Arnaud Beltrame ignited in us did not go out with him. On the contrary, it has spread. "

"May his commitment nourish the vocation of all our youth," he said, inviting French to show unity to overcome the underground extremism "that is progressing through social networks, that works in an invisible way, that acts clandestinely on weak or unstable minds."

At the national tribute to Beltrame who "fell as a hero", a minute of silence was observed in the country's prefectures, gendarmerie and police stations. And the flags were half-mast early Wednesday.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 20:47:03|Editor: ZD

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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 spy in Britain at the UN headquarters in New York. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

BEIJING, March 28 (Xinhua) -- The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on Tuesday joined 25 governments around the world to expel Russian diplomats over a nerve-agent attack on a former spy in Britain, an unprecedented collective action which London labeled as a "turning point" in the West's relations with Moscow.

However, underneath the moment of unity between the United States and its European allies, there are longstanding discord and distrust between the two sides of the Atlantic on strategies, interests and policies.

A RARE SHOW OF UNITY

The United States announced Monday that it would expel 60 Russian diplomats and close the Russian Consulate in Seattle to retaliate for the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a former Russian intelligence officer, and his daughter in London earlier in March.

On March 15, the United States, Britain, France and Germany issued a joint statement condemning Russia over the incident, which was followed by the European Union (EU). The EU said last week it was recalling its ambassador to Russia.

At least 24 nations, including the United States and 17 EU members, have pledged to expel Russian diplomats.

On Tuesday NATO joined the alliance, declaring it would withdraw the accreditation of seven staff members at the Russian Mission to NATO and to deny pending accreditation requests for three other Russian diplomats following the "attack in Salisbury" against Skripal and his daughter.

"Those consultations have resulted so far in the expulsion of over 140 Russian officials by over 25 NATO Allies and partners," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in a statement.

"This is a broad, strong and coordinated international response. And as part of that response, NATO is unified in taking further steps," the statement added.

Despite NATO's support of Britain and its urge for Russia to address Britain's questions on March 14 and 15, Stoltenberg said that the alliance remained committed to a dual-track approach of strong defense and openness to dialogue, including by working to prepare the next meeting of the NATO-Russia Council.

Skripal, 66, and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia were found unconscious on a bench at a shopping center in Salisbury earlier this month.

They remain in critical condition after exposure to a nerve agent, which, according to the British authorities, could have originated from Russia.

Moscow has denied any involvement in the incident.

After European Council President Donald Tusk's announcement that a total of 14 EU countries would be teaming up with fellow member Britain in ordering out Russian diplomats, British Prime Minister Theresa May praised the "great solidarity" with Britain shown by the EU, North America, NATO and beyond.

She also warned that the West needs to develop a long-term response to the "renewed Russian threat."

DISCORD UNDERNEATH

In spite of the seemingly unified confrontational stance on Russia, there have been voices within these countries calling for dialogue.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said "we remain open to constructive dialogue with Russia, which remains necessary on many international issues."

Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said on Monday that resources should be now focused on mending the widening rift between the East and the West. Meanwhile, Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila told a separate press conference on the same day that the decision to expel a Russian diplomat was not easy for the country.

The coordinated actions were not merely a response to the poisoning attack, U.S. officials said. "It's also part of a broader set of actions that the Russians have taken for quite some time internationally: a steady drumbeat of destabilizing any aggressive actions."

Dan Mahaffee, senior vice president and director of policy at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, a U.S. think tank, told Xinhua that the number of Russian agents has been viewed with growing concern in the United States and allied countries.

The U.S. moves "are far more than symbolic as they are an attempt to hinder Russian intelligence gathering in these countries," he said.

Moscow has denied the accusation, calling the deportation of its diplomats "a provocative gesture."

The Trump administration has been under pressure from inside the country and the West. The mid-term elections urge it to "play tough" against Moscow, and Western allies have been disheartened by its reluctance to attack Moscow directly over the poisoning attack, as required by the NATO treaties, observers said.

The White House's ambiguity in dealing with Russia has also sparked rage and dissatisfaction inside the United States, where doubts of Trump' s "collusion" with Russia in the 2016 elections still linger.

Mahaffee said that it will continue to be a challenge for Trump to deal with Russia.

END OF TRANSATLANTICISM?

Since Trump took office, his "America First" policy has frequently collided with those of his European partners. He called NATO "obsolete," opposed the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, withdrew from the Paris Agreement on climate change, threatened to scrap the Iranian nuclear deal and announced moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

There has been increasing dissatisfaction in Europe towards the United States, with European mainstream media holding the view that even staunch Atlanticists can no longer deny the crisis in transatlantic relations and blaming Washington for posing threats to the common values shared across the Atlantic.

In the wake of Trump's announcement to impose a 25-percent tariff on steel imports and a 10-percent one on aluminum imports amid global opposition, the European Union (EU) planned "a whole arsenal" of countermeasures.

Europe "wants to avoid escalation" but "must keep the multilateral framework" because "protectionism is never the answer: protectionism is nationalism, nationalism is war and the war only makes losers," European Financial Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici told a French television news channel earlier this month.

Trump has torn the mask off the U.S. face and shown the true face of an unscrupulous and self-reliant world power, German politician Rolf Mutzenich wrote in his article entitled "End of Transatlanticism?"

The apparent solidarity between the United States and its European allies in expelling Russian diplomats could not cover up their differences on strategies, interests and policies which has been tearing the two sides apart.

The poisoning incident is just a small issue Washington is taking advantage of to show solidarity with its allies amid the escalating rift, analysts said.

(Xinhua reporters Zhu Dongyang, Liu Chen in Washington contributed to the story.)

(Video editors: Zhu Jianhui, Gao Shang)
Abiye Ahmed, newly appointed Chairperson of Ethiopia's ruling coalition, Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), is seen during a meeting in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, March 28, 2018. (Xinhua/Michael Tewelde)

ADDIS ABABA, March 28 (Xinhua) -- The Council of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), Ethiopia's ruling party, on late Tuesday elected Abiy Ahmed as the party's new chairperson.

Ahmed is expected to be the next prime minister of the East African country as the outgoing Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn's resignation was accepted by the party last month, days after a crippling strike in parts of Ethiopia.

The confirmation of Abiy Ahmed as the new chairperson of EPRDF and soon to be new PM ends more than a month of political uncertainty ever since Hailemariam Desalegn offered his resignation on February 15.

WHO IS ABIY AHMED

Ahmed, 41, former Ethiopian Minister of Science and Technology, is the current chairperson of the Oromo People's Democratic Organization (OPDO), which represents Ethiopia's largest Oromia regional state.

Ahmed replaced the former chairperson of OPDO, Lemma Megerssa, as Chairman of OPDO on February 22. OPDO is one of the four member parties of Ethiopia's ruling EPRDF.

Ahmed, who is from Ethiopia's largest ethnic group - the Oromo people -, has PhD in Peace and Security, Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Management and Leadership and earned first degree in Computer Engineering.

Prior to serving as the the science minister, Ahmed had served as the director general of the Federal Science and Technology Center of Excellence.

Ahmed, who has also a military background in the Ethiopian defense force, had also served as the deputy director of the Ethiopian Information Network Security Agency (INSA).

Within the Oromia regional state administration, Ahmed had previously served as the head of the Urban Development and Housing Bureau.

AHMED AS NEW PM

As the four EPRDF coalition members and its affiliate parties currently control all active 547 seats in the Ethiopian parliament, Ahmed's appointment as the next prime minister is expected to be approved by the parliament in the next few days.

Analysts are currently tipping Ahmed's election to premiership to end, or at least reduce, the recurrent mass anti-government demonstrations in parts of the East African country, particularly in Ethiopia's Oromia regional state where Ahmed has a strong support.

The mass anti-government demonstrations in the Oromia regional state had particularly forced the Ethiopian government to impose a six-month state of emergency rule.

Ahmed, who is relatively the youngest contender to the party's leadership position at the age of 41, is also backed by the country's younger generation.
BERLIN, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Reiner Hoffman, president of the Federation of German Trade Unions (DGB), on Wednesday voiced his support for a proposal which would allow long-term unemployed Germans to earn a "basic solidarity income".

Speaking to the newspaper "Handelsblatt", Hoffman said that a recent call by the Berlin Mayor Michael Mueller (SPD) on the government to pass legislation towards this end was a "step in the right direction."

Mueller's suggestion is similar to a plan enshrined in the "grand coalition" agreement to create a so-called "social labor market" for 150,000 long-term unemployed individuals who were struggling to find work.

Hoffman, however, spoke out against a universal basic income which would be paid to all citizens regardless of their respective socio-economic status.

Earlier, the new labor minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) also reacted positively to the idea of a solidarity income, telling the newspaper "BILD" that the debate sparked by Mueller's comments was "necessary".

By contrast, Ingo Kramer, president of the Confederation of German Employers' Associations (BDA), rejected the new initiative.

"The basic idea of a basic solidarity income is nothing other than to massively create artificial employment which would not persist in entrepreneurial competition," Kramer said.

Given record low unemployment figures and strong growth, governments should instead focus on assisting firms in the reintegration of long-term unemployed workers into the regular labor market, according to Kramer.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 20:57:06|Editor: Mengjie

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NAIROBI, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Kenya is committed to strengthening partnership with China in a bid to build a critical mass of highly skilled youth who can propel the country's industrial transformation agenda, senior officials said on Tuesday evening.

The officials who spoke during an award ceremony for winners of season four of Africa Tech Challenge (ATC) sponsored by Chinese firm, AVIC International, proposed enhanced ties with China to promote youth empowerment through skills and knowledge transfer.

Amina Mohamed, Cabinet Secretary for Education, noted that a partnership with Chinese firms has revolutionized skills development targeting Kenya's burgeoning youthful population.

"Initiatives like Africa Tech Challenge provide opportunities for youth to participate in manufacturing sector while enhancing their entrepreneur skills," Mohamed remarked.

Liu Xianfa, Chinese Ambassador to Kenya, and senior executives from AVIC International joined Kenyan officials to witness the award of certificate of recognition to participants who excelled at ATC season four.

The 2017 edition of ATC which focused on skills development in carpentry, brick laying and steel works attracted 103 youthful participants countrywide.

AVIC International promised to employ 25 youth who demonstrated outstanding competence in the three construction based skills.

Mohamed said Kenya has reached out to bilateral partners like China in its quest to revamp technical and vocational training programs that are key to alleviating youth unemployment.

Speaking during the occasion, Liu said Beijing has placed skills development for the youth at the heart of its bilateral ties with Kenya.

"We encourage more Chinese companies to create win-win outcomes through transferring technology and know-how among the youth in Kenya. We continue to place emphasis on skills development," said the ambassador.

"The Africa Tech Challenge that we are here to celebrate, is one such initiative that is an important driver of economic development as it inspires solutions to challenges inherent in the national economy that require multidisciplinary application of science and technology," he added.

Chinese firms have partnered with Kenyan institutions to improve technical and entrepreneur skills of the country's youth grappling with high unemployment rate estimated at 40 percent.

Liu Jun, the Executive Vice President of AVIC International Holding Corporation, noted that the Africa Tech Challenge has enabled Kenyan youth to become part of their country's quest to become an industrial hub.

"We not only believe and understand the power of the youth to drive the industrialization of Kenya in line with Vision 2030 goals, but we work to ensure that they are well trained and equipped with the necessary skills to do so," said Liu Jun.

He hailed a manufacturing contract signed between AVIC International and Technical University of Kenya worth 100,000 U.S. dollars, saying it will contribute to the attainment of President Uhuru Kenyatta's transformation agenda.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 20:57:08|Editor: Mengjie

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BEIJING, March 28 (Xinhua) -- China hopes Japan will learn lessons from history and adhere to the path of peaceful development, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Wednesday.

Spokesperson Lu Kang made the remarks at a routine news briefing when asked to comment on Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's proposal to amend the country's war-renouncing Constitution and add an explicit reference to the Self-Defense Forces in Article 9 at the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's convention.

"Due to historical reasons, Japan's intentions for constitutional reform have drawn much attention from the victimized countries of World War II," Lu said.

Article 9 of Japan's pacifist constitution prohibits the country from possessing military forces and other "war potential."

Lu said that China hopes Japan will listen to the appeals for peace from people both in Japan and abroad, and win the trust of neighboring countries and the international community with concrete actions.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 21:07:09|Editor: pengying

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KIEV, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine and Israel have concluded their free trade talks after nearly four years of negotiations, paving the way for a free trade agreement (FTA), the Ukrainian Government said Wednesday.

The FTA will be signed after both sides do a legal review of it.

Once it takes effect, duties on Ukraine's export of agricultural products, food items, medicines, cosmetics, chemicals, construction materials and electronics will be removed, the statement said.

Within three years, tariffs on Ukraine-made clothes, furniture and glass exported to Israel will also be eliminated.

Ukrainian First Deputy Prime Minister Stepan Kubiv said the deal will contribute to the development of Ukraine's industrial sector and boost exports.

"It is an opportunity to diversify markets, expand the prospects for business and industry, and attract investment," Kubiv said.

Last year, trade between Ukraine and Israel stood at 772.5 million U.S. dollars, with Ukrainian exports amounting to 604.6 million dollars.

Ukraine and Israel launched the free trade talks in 2013.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 21:07:09|Editor: Mengjie

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RABAT, March 28 (Xinhua) -- More than 40 Moroccan students sat quietly in the classroom and listened carefully to the Chinese conversation recording.

They were taking the HSK (Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi), or Chinese language proficiency test, in Tangier Confucius Institute in northern Morocco.

After finishing the 30-minute HSK Level 1 exam, 21-year-old Moroccan student Othmane told Xinhua that he was satisfied with his performance because he felt he did a good job in the listening and reading part.

Othmane started to learn Chinese one year ago. He said: "I am very happy that I can learn Chinese because Chinese is the language of the future. I hope to obtain a certificate of HSK which gives me a great advantage in job market."

Most of these candidates came from Tetouan in the north of Morocco. Their motivation for learning Chinese mainly came from interests in Chinese culture, hope of gaining employment advantages, desire to travel and study in China.

Rouda told reporters that she has been learning Chinese since 2016 and hopes to study e-commerce in China to complete her doctoral thesis.

The 28-year-old Moroccan girl chose to take the oral test this time. "I hope to pass the exam to prove my Chinese proficiency and fight for the opportunity to participate in the summer camp in China."

Said, a 22-year-old student in Teouan, went to the Confucius Institute of Tangier every week for Chinese language training courses. After one year's study, Said memorized more than 300 Chinese characters. His biggest dream after graduating from university is to obtain a MBA degree in China.

Fatima, a 19-year-old Moroccan student, has been studying Chinese for a year and a half. She believes that learning Chinese will allow her to better understand and experience Chinese culture.

She also believes that mastering Chinese will add points to her resume. "The teachers of Confucius Institute are very patient. I have already recommended them to many friends," she said.

Tangier Confucius Institute is the only HSK test center in northern Morocco. Dean Tu Yuehua said that this exam was the fifth HSK test held in Tangier with a total of 87 participants, most of whom were Moroccan students.

Tu Yuehua said that since the establishment of Tangier Confucius Institute in September 2016, it has attracted a large number of students from northern Morocco to come to learn Chinese. The number of candidates taking the HSK examination has increased year by year. A total of 44 candidates took the first exam, and the fifth exam attracted 87 students.

Morocco has three Confucius Institutes located in Rabat, Casablanca, and Tangier.
JOHANNESBURG, March 28 (Xinhua) -- South Africa's Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) said 22 people have died in the country's mining sector in the first quarter of 2018 and called for safety measures to be improved.

The Department of Mineral Resources said this in a statement on Wednesday. They called on stakeholders in the sector including government, labor and business to work together to end fatalities and long term sustainability of the sector.

"Mineral Resources Minister Mr Gwede Mantashe has called for increased vigilance on health and safety in the sector. This follows three fatalities which have been reported at mines this week. Health and safety is among the Minister's key focus areas and immediate priorities since assuming office," said Ayanda Shezi, DMR head of communications.

The Department of Mineral resources called on employers and labor to continue to work with them in finding solutions to health and safety matters at the mines, through established structures including the Mine Health and Safety Council (MHSC).

In 2017, a total of 88 miners died which was the first increase in the last 10 years. In 2016 the mining sector lost 73 people at work.
ROME, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Two workers died and one was critically injured in the explosion of a fuel tank in the Tuscan port city of Livorno, Italian media reported Wednesday.

The blast took place around 14:00 local time in a fuel tank in the industrial port, which was evacuated as a result, ANSA news agency reported.

The workers were doing maintenance work when the explosion occurred, according to ANSA.
NAIROBI, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Barely six months after elections, Kenya's political scene is slowly changing as succession politics starts in earnest.

President Uhuru Kenyatta is serving his second and final term and would therefore not be eligible to run again.

Come 2022, the year when the next general election would be conducted, it would be an open race for anyone with ambitions to be president.

The winning strategy for the politicians, it seems, hinges on the phrase, "The early bird catches the worm."

This is despite the fact that Kenyatta has asked the politicians, both in the ruling party Jubilee and the opposition, to stop campaigns and focus on development.

His desire to secure his legacy saw him make peace with his main rival in last year's polls Raila Odinga to cool political temperatures.

Their truce on March 9 is among the developments that are shaping the political scene, having led to the split of opposition coalition National Super Alliance (NASA) which Odinga was its presidential candidate in 2017 polls.

Those who have started the race for the top seat in 2022 include Deputy President William Ruto, senators Gideon Moi and Moses Wetangula, NASA leaders Musalia Mudavadi and Kalonzo Musyoka and Odinga's name is being bandied around by supporters.

Ruto leads the pack as he holds dozens of fundraisers across the country, meets politicians from various regions and launches development projects.

However, even as he builds his political base quietly, he had publicly dismissed the succession debate.

"The debate of who will get what post in 2022 is not necessary currently. Our agenda as leaders should be to concentrate on fulfilling the pledges we made to the people last year," said Ruto recently.

The other leaders are making declarations mainly through proxies as they play it safe.

An opinion poll released on Tuesday by Ipsos-Synovate ranked Ruto ahead of the rest.

The poll shows he was the most preferred candidate to be president in 2022 by 33 percent, followed by Moi. Odinga ranked four.

Tom Wolf, the chief researcher, said the poll was conducted before Odinga-Kenyatta truce, thus, the political terrain had changed.

Henry Wandera, an economics lecturer in Nairobi, noted that while it looks too early to start 2022 politics, it's not.

"In my view, this would be a tough political race. Since the incumbent would not be vying, it is wide open therefore the earlier started the better," he said on Wednesday.

He noted that from those interested in the seat, about four would emerge as serious contenders, but added that there would be realignments that include formation of coalitions as time goes by.

"I see Ruto, Odinga, Moi and another person, either Kalonzo or Mudavadi vying for the presidency but how they play their politics from now going forward would matter," he said.

He observed that with claims of betrayal having led to the collapse of NASA, the opposition outfit would not front a united candidate in the polls but leaders would seek other cooperation.

The political analyst, however, acknowledged 2022 political talk is currently not palatable to ordinary Kenyans.

"People want jobs, houses, better education and good income and this cannot happen if politics takes center-stage," he said.

A majority of ordinary Kenyans have dismissed the early campaigns even though they are keen on having those they support run come the time.

"I believe we should wait for at least two years from now to start succession politics but it is their right," said furniture maker Duncan Onyango, adding he would love to see Odinga run again for presidency in 2022.

"We want to see leaders work for the common person by coming up with programs and policies that change lives. Politicking all the time derails a country," noted Herbert Muriu, a public service vehicle driver.

On social media, Kenyans are divided on the 2022 politics debate, with some welcoming it while a majority dismisses it.

"We should not allow opinion pollsters to derail the country's development. We are barely six months after elections and already someone is fronting candidates for 2022. It is their right but we should not be caught into their games," said Raphael Musinzi on Twitter, where the issue was a hot debate on Tuesday.
NAIROBI, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Kenya plans to introduce tax incentives in order to boost the film sector, the country's film marketing agency said on Wednesday.

Chris Foot, Chairman of Kenya Film Commission (KFC), told Xinhua in Nairobi that the industry stakeholders have already drafted regulations on tax rebates have already been developed.

"We hope by the end of September, Kenya will be able to offer 35 percent tax refunds on cost of production of films made domestically by both local and foreign film makers," Foot said during the Kalasha International TV and Film Market.

The three-day event brought together players in the film industry from East Africa to review latest technology in the film sector.

Foot said the tax incentives together with other measures should help to lure film makers to choose Kenya as their location.

Foot noted that the National Treasury has already approved duty remission on film equipment brought into the country.

"However, Kenya Revenue Authority has not developed regulations to exempt imported film equipment from paying taxes," he added.

Latest statistics from the government indicate that the film sector comprising of audio visual sector contributes about two percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Foot said that once the tax incentives are operational, Kenya will be able to compete with other African countries for international films to be produced in Kenya.

KFC also plans to begin location mapping for films so as to assist film makers choose the best locations for their film.

He added that an online directory of all players in the film sector will soon be launched in order to give more visibility to the film sector.
NAIROBI, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta will on Thursday make a state visit to Mozambique to promote trade, enhance bilateral relations and especially on the blue economy, his office said on Wednesday.

Monica Juma, the Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs and International Trade, said ahead of Kenyatta's visit that discussions in Mozambique will revolve around value addition in a number of areas, top among them being the blue economy -- all aimed at benefitting the people of the two countries.

"Mozambique is a sea-facing country as we are. There has been a growing interest in the Indian Ocean Rim, which both Kenya and Mozambique are members. And so some of the discussions that are going to take place will be on how we can connect trade, how we can add value on our ocean, particularly on the blue economy," Juma said in a statement issued from Kenyatta's office.

The East Africa nation will in November host a High-Level Conference on Sustainable Blue Economy which has been highlighted as a key sector in manufacturing, which is one of the pillars of Kenyatta's Big Four Agenda.

Juma said bilateral talks will feature cooperation between the two countries in boosting transport links to promote trade as well as people to people interactions.

According to government statistics, trade between Kenya and Mozambique has continued to register steady growth over the years, with Kenya's total export to Mozambique increasing from 6.61 million U.S. dollars in 2007 to 11.8 million dollars in 2017.

"But despite the two countries having signed a Joint Permanent Commission for Co-operation agreement in 1991, trade volumes have remained below potential. It is expected that President Kenyatta's visit to Mozambique will stimulate new impetus for increased trade between the two countries," said Juma.

The Kenyan leader is also scheduled to give a public lecture at one of the special institutes of international relations in Mozambique's capital, Maputo.

Juma said Kenyatta will also visit a number of key installations including the Maputo Port with a view to expanding areas of cooperation between the two countries.

She expressed optimism that Kenyatta's State visit to Mozambique will bring significant returns to Kenya in terms of both Government to Government relations and boosting people to people interactions.

Mozambique is part of the Indian Ocean Rim Association, an international organization comprising 21 coastal nations bordering the Indian Ocean.

Its objectives include promoting sustainable growth, balanced development and removal of impediments to the free flow of goods, services, investment and technology among member states.

Kenya's major exports to Mozambique include prefabricated buildings, plastic items, animal and vegetable fats, tableware, kitchenware, fruit and vegetable juices among others.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 21:47:21|Editor: pengying

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BEIRUT, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese President Michel Aoun expressed Wednesday appreciation for the role played by the Estonian battalion of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in maintaining peace and stability in south Lebanon.

Lebanon is commited to strengthening relations between the two countries, Aoun said during meeting with Estonian Prime Minister Juri Ratas, according to the National News Agency (NNA).

For his part, Ratas expressed his satisfaction about current stability in Lebanon, and the role assumed by the president in leading the country towards further progress and prosperity.
ROME, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Two maintenance workers were killed when a fuel tank exploded in the Tuscan port city of Livorno, rescue services said Wednesday.

"Explosion in a large tank in a deposit in the coastal area," the national fire fighter service tweeted, along with a photo of a blackened cylindrical metal tank leaning over and with twisted metal components.

"Two workers involved in the blast are deceased. Intervention underway," the service said.

Initial reports about a third worker critically injured appear to be unfounded.

The explosion took place around 14:00 p.m. local time as the workers were doing maintenance in the industrial section of the port, which was evacuated as a result, ANSA news agency reported.

The tank contained highly flammable gas, according to RAI News 24 public broadcaster.

It is unclear whether it had already been emptied or was being emptied when the blast occurred.
BERLIN, March 28 (Xinhua) -- The wanted far-right extremist Mario Roensch has been arrested by a Hungarian special forces unit following a corresponding request by German authorities, the newspaper "Sueddeutsche Zeitung" reported on Wednesday.

Roensch stands accused by the chief public prosecution office in the state of Berlin of illegally dealing with weapons and is believed to be the operator of the notorious far-right internet portals "Migrantenschreck.ru" and "Anonymousnews.ru" which were both registered outside of Germany to escape prosecution.

The 35-year-old allegedly sold unlicensed weapons to hundreds of German customers via the internet in order to arm them against recently-arrived refugees.

Additionally, the racist posts and fake news articles distributed by Roensch's foreign-registered websites reportedly reached millions of readers.

According to a press statement by state prosecutors, the volume of sales concluded by Roensch through his online store was "frightening".

Back in July 2017, customs authorities first discovered 13 firearms in the states of Berlin, Brandenburg and Thueringen, which were purchased from the right-wing extremists' e-commerce business.

Investigations into the case are still ongoing in Germany and have so far produced 14 suspects aged between 16 and 66 years.
BRUSSELS, March 28 (Xinhua) -- The European Commission on Wednesday presented an action plan to improve military mobility within and beyond the European Union (EU).

The action plan identifies a series of operational measures to tackle physical, procedural or regulatory barriers which hamper military mobility, according to the Commission's press release.

Under the plan, the Commission will identify the parts of the trans-European transport network suitable for military transport, including necessary upgrades of existing infrastructure.

The Commission will also seek to simplify customs formalities for military operations and transport.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said, "By facilitating military mobility within the EU, we can be more effective in preventing crises, more efficient in deploying our missions, and quicker in reacting when challenges arise."

"It will be another step in deepening our cooperation at EU level, also in the framework of the permanent structured cooperation we have formally launched recently, and with our partners, starting with NATO," she added.

The action plan is submitted to the EU member states for consideration and endorsement.
ROME, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Italy cannot afford to indulge in wishful thinking that would derail the country's economy just as it leaves its worst post-war recession behind, outgoing center-left Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni warned Wednesday.

Gentiloni's comments appeared to be directed at the two relative winners of Italy's inconclusive March 4 general election: the right-wing League, which made huge gains in the wealthier north with promises of drastic tax cuts, and the populist Five Star Movement, which swept the impoverished south with pledges of a generous universal income.

"The Italian economy and society can't afford an exhibition of wishful thinking, which would drive us off the road," Gentiloni told a press conference on anti-poverty measures passed by his government in September 2017. "We must not throw overboard the work that has been done so far," Gentiloni cautioned.

Both the Five Stars and the League pledged to break European Union rules on public spending if necessary -- policies that would drive up Italy's already bloated public debt, exposing the country's fragile economy to financial speculation and the risk of default.

However their campaign promises resonated with Italian voters, many of whom are yet to experience the benefits of Italy's sluggish economic recovery. Indeed, according to a recent report by CGIA think tank, the number of Italians at risk of poverty has risen from 15 million to 18.1 million people in a decade.

Italy has population of about 60 million, including just over five million legal immigrants, according to 2017 data from ISTAT national statistics bureau.

Gentiloni resigned as prime minister last Saturday, and his administration is staying on to handle day-to-day affairs until a new government is sworn in.

League leader Matteo Salvini and Five Star chief Luigi Di Maio both claim the right to be the next prime minister of Italy. President Sergio Mattarella is set to begin formal government talks in the first week of April.
ATHENS, March 28 (Xinhua) -- A rescue operation was underway on Wednesday to locate up to 20 refugees and migrants who were reported missing at Evros River at the land border separating Greece with Turkey, according to Greek national news agency AMNA.

No official announcements have been made yet. But according to AMNA, Greek authorities were alerted after a call received by the European emergency number 112 on late Tuesday.

Weather conditions in the area were adverse on Wednesday. Due to heavy rainfall this week, the level of water in the river has risen above the alert threshold.

Deputy Regional Governor of Evros region Dimitris Petrovic told AMNA that approximately 4.5 hundred hectares are under water and local authorities consider declaring municipalities in the area in a state of emergency.
KIEV, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman on Wednesday expressed their condolences over the death of 64 people in a blaze at a Russian mall.

"It is particularly unfair when children lose their lives," Poroshenko was quoted as saying by his press service.

The fire, one of the deadliest in Russia in recent years, devastated the Winter Cherry shopping mall in downtown Siberian city of Kemerovo Sunday. The victims included 41 children.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 22:22:37|Editor: pengying

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GAZA, March 28 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinians in the Gaza Strip started on Wednesday to prepare for the Great March of Return, which will kick off on Friday and last until May 15, Israel's Independence Day and the Palestinian's day of "the Nakba," or the catastrophe.

Activists erected tents along the border with Israel to prepare for the demonstration starting on Friday.

The Great March of Return, aimed at defying the Israeli blockade, is organized by a joint Palestinian committee, which comprises Palestinian political factions, right groups, youth and public sectors and organizations.

The organizers built up little hills of sands before the tents that will be erected in six major areas from southern to northern Gaza Strip, just 700 meters far from the fence of the borders with Israel, as a protection for the participants from any Israeli army gunfire, according to the organizers.

They said the main goal of the march is to remind the world of the Palestinian refugees' right to return back to their homes they were forced to leave in 1948, as well as defying a tight Israeli blockade that has been imposed on the coastal enclave since 2007, when Islamic Hamas movement had violently seized control of the territory.

Spokesman of the march, Ahmed Abu Rteima, told Xinhua Wednesday that "The march is a peaceful sit-in, where tents are to be erected along the border with Israel."

The demands of the demonstrators are legitimate and fair, which include returning to their homes in accordance with UN resolution 194, lifting the unjust Israeli siege and the rejection of American attempts to liquidate the Palestinian cause, he said.

He called on the UN to bear its responsibilities over obliging Israel to implement its Security Council resolutions, mainly the ones related to the right to return home, lifting the Israeli blockade and ending the suffering of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

"We want to return to our villages and cities so we will seek to embody our legitimate rights," said Abu Rteima, adding "if we cannot return we will stay on the eastern border in the event of a peaceful protest that will continue to send a message regarding the Israeli occupation's illegal presence on our land."

The Israeli army warned in a statement that "These demonstrations might be used as a cover to damage the security infrastructure or harm the Israeli citizens or soldiers."

An Israeli army spokesperson announced Wednesday that a 10-day closure will be imposed on the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, starting on Thursday.

All points of entry between the West Bank, Gaza, and Israel will be closed beginning on Thursday at 12:01 a.m. until next Saturday, April 7, at midnight, the military said.

The blockade was decided after "an evaluation of the security situation and the approval of the political echelon," a military spokesperson said without elaborating.

Violence between Israel and Gaza has been on the rise since U.S. President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel on December 6.

On Friday, mass demonstrations are expected to begin in Gaza. The protest is planned to culminate with a march to the fence separating between the besieged Palestinian enclave and Israel on May 15, Israel's Independence Day and the Palestinian's day of "the Nakba," or the catastrophe.
MOMBASA, Kenya, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Two Kenya Defense Force (KDF) pilots were on Wednesday injured after their military aircraft crashed in southern county of Taita-Taveta.

Taita-Taveta County divisional police commander Francis Mwangi said the two officers were on a training mission when their Kenya Air-force light aircraft developed mechanical problem and crashed.

Mwangi said the two sustained injuries and were transferred to Voi referral hospital for treatment.

"It is not immediately clear what caused the accident but reports indicate that the engine developed mechanical problem and it crashed after hitting a post," said Mwangi.

One wing of the aircraft was damaged. Mwangi said the pilots where flying the aircraft registered KAF 720 from Mombasa to Nairobi when the accident occurred.

A team of investigators from the military have joined local detectives in conducting the investigation to establish the cause of the accident.

Mwangi said the scene of the accident has been sealed off to enable the investigators to conduct a thorough probe.
SOFIA, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Bulgarian opposition on Wednesday wanted the country's Prime Minister Boyko Borissov to present the parliament information related to the massive expulsions of Russian diplomats by Britain and its allies.

"We are worried about the developing diplomatic crisis. We can call it a diplomatic war that resembles the Cold War period," Kristian Vigenin, secretary of the parliamentary group of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, told reporters.

Borissov had to come to the National Assembly and inform MPs about the situation, said Vigenin, who was a member of the European Parliament from 2007 to 2013, and Bulgaria's foreign minister from May 2013 to August 2014.

In particular, Borissov had to explain why on Tuesday he summoned Bulgaria's ambassador to Moscow for consultations, Vigenin said.

"To date, we have not seen convincing evidence, not to say any evidence that Russia was directly involved in the Scripal case," he said.

More than 20 Western countries have announced the expulsion of Russian diplomats, in response to the poisoning of a Russian ex-spy with a nerve agent.

Russia has denied any involvement in the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia at a shopping center in Salisbury, Britain, on March 4.

On Tuesday, the Bulgarian Government Information Service said in a statement that Borissov made a telephone conversation with Bulgarian Ambassador to the Russian Federation Boyko Kotsev.

"The two discussed the Scripal case, as well as the reactions to it in Russia, in the European Union, and within the international community," the statement said, adding that Borissov commissioned Kotsev to return to Sofia for consultations with the Bulgarian government.
PRISTINA, Kosovo, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Political representatives of 10 Serb-majority municipalities in Kosovo sent an ultimatum to Pristina authorities on Wednesday to urgently start the work for establishing an association of Serb-majority municipalities.

Serb political representatives made the call during a meeting of local assemblies in Kosovo. They warned that if Kosovo authorities do not start the work immediately, they would establish the association on their own.

The establishment of the association is envisaged with an agreement reached between Pristina and Belgrade in 2013 during the EU-facilitated dialogue in Brussels. Almost five years later, the effective work for establishing it has not started yet.

Ivan Teodosijevic, minister of local government administration in the Kosovo government, blamed Pristina and the European Union for the delay.

Serbs consider the association as a crucial mechanism for their future in Kosovo, but Pristina insists its establishment should be followed by the implementation of other agreements reached in the Brussels dialogue. One of those pending agreements is the opening of the bridge in Mitrovica which is blocked by Serbs.

Goran Rakic, the leader of Srpska List, the main Serbs political party in Kosovo, said that they've informed Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic that if Pristina does not establish it, then on April 20, they will establish it and in that way implement the Brussels agreement.

In addition, Serb political representatives set also two other requests towards Kosovo and international institutions.

They want the minister of interior affairs of Kosovo and the director of Kosovo police to be dismissed for the police operation in Mitrovica North.

On Monday, the director of the Office for Kosovo in the Serbian government Marko Djuric was detained and then deported to Serbia.

They also asked the international military and police missions in Kosovo, KFOR and EULEX respectively, to ensure the safety of Serbs in Kosovo.

In the meantime, the Kosovo government said no initiative will be implemented and respected if not in line with the Kosovo laws. "The association is an obligation for Kosovo stipulated in the Brussels process and which will be implemented in a near future," the government said in a statement.

Kosovo, a southern province of Serbia, unilaterally declared independence in 2008, which Serbia refuses to recognize.
By Levi J Parsons

SYDNEY, March 28 (Xinhua) -- A groundbreaking new cancer drug with the power to shrink tumours could soon provide an alternative to chemotherapy.

Known as PENAO, the drug developed by a company called Cystemix at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney, has shown extremely promising results in earlier testing.

On Wednesday, Chinese biotech firm, the Beroni Group, signed an agreement to fund phase two human trials and advance the clinical development of the potentially life-saving treatment.

"We know that this drug is going to benefit people," founder of the Beroni Group Jacky Zhang told Xinhua.

The collaboration between UNSW and the Tianjin based firm was made possible by the Torch innovation program to promote China-Australia ties in the technology space.

Zhang considers it a mission of the Beroni Group to promote cooperation between Australia and China in biotechnology, in order to draw on the widest possible range of medical expertise.

"We're great in Australia at coming up with novel ideas and novel therapies but we don't have the funding or the support or the expertise to take it from the laboratory through commercialisation to market," director of knowledge exchange at UNSW Warwick Dawson explained.

"Public funding of research only gets technologies to a certain point, but to prove efficacy in human trials we typically need private support."

"That's why today is so exciting, we have found a commercial partner who will enable us to hopefully get these technologies out of the laboratory and into the clinic for therapeutic use."

For the creator of the breakthrough medicine, Wednesday's event to confirm the next phase of testing was the culmination of 15 years of dedicated work.

"To take a molecule from that inception through all the development in the laboratory, through all the processes that you need to go through to actually test it in humans, it's been a hell of a ride!" Professor Philip Hogg said.

"It's an enormously challenging and difficult process, from really just an idea in the lab, now to really being able to test whether this idea is going to help patients."

Hogg explained that the way the drug works is by preventing tumor cells from dividing.

"Healthy cells in our body, they use sugar mostly to make energy," he said.

"Tumour cells are not fussed about making energy, what they want to do is make new tumour cells."

"So what this molecule that we've made does is it stops the tumor cells from metabolising the sugar in the way that they want and as a result, they can't divide and then if that block goes on for long enough they die."

The trial will likely be performed on 15-20 pancreatic cancer patients to find out whether it improves their survival and wellbeing.

"We are hoping this will form an effective therapy in a space where there really currently isn't any," Hogg said.
JUBA, March 28 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) on Wednesday launched the road safety campaign in which it distributed protective gear to hundreds of commercial motorcyclists in a bid to prevent accidents.

The UNMISS head David Shearer told journalists that commercial motorcyclists, the common means of transport in Juba and surrounding towns in South Sudan, are critical to the economy of the country.

"It is great pleasure to be supporting the boda boda (commercial motorcyclists) in Juba. Without you Juba would come to a standstill and nobody would be able to travel around. And we understand that you do a big service to the economy of Juba and South Sudan," he said in Juba.

Shearer noted that most families are being sustained by this business amid ongoing economic hardship.

Many accidents around Juba have been blamed on reckless motor cycle riders, coupled with the incessant robberies that are aided by use of motorcycles.

Taban Michael 27, a commercial motorcyclist since 2008 and still pursuing studies in clinical medicine said the 1,500 helmets and reflector jackets donated by UNMISS will improve their protection during work and help distinguish them from criminals.

"The helmet protects me when I get accident and the reflector jacket will identify me at night," he said he and host of colleagues marched through Juba streets in a campaign dubbed ride of peace and safety.

Another commercial motorcyclist Vuni Kennedy Wani, 26, said they now feel more secure at work and will no longer spend their hard earned money on purchasing the expensive helmet, adding they are free from being harassed and arrests by police authorities.

"These days even riding a motorcycle is a problem especially at night, people (robbers) will just attack and you don't know where they are coming from. So we need peace," he said.

He disclosed that some of their workmates have died due to persistent insecurity and several have had their motorcycles stolen.
Photo taken on March 14, 2018 shows a general view of United Nations Security Council's meeting on the poisoning of a former spy in Britain at the UN headquarters in New York. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

BEIJING, March 28 (Xinhua) -- The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on Tuesday joined 25 governments around the world to expel Russian diplomats over a nerve-agent attack on a former spy in Britain, an unprecedented collective action which London labeled as a "turning point" in the West's relations with Moscow.

However, underneath the moment of unity between the United States and its European allies, there are longstanding discord and distrust between the two sides of the Atlantic on strategies, interests and policies.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley (R, 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. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

A RARE SHOW OF UNITY

The United States announced Monday that it would expel 60 Russian diplomats and close the Russian Consulate in Seattle to retaliate for the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a former Russian intelligence officer, and his daughter in London earlier in March.

On March 15, the United States, Britain, France and Germany issued a joint statement condemning Russia over the incident, which was followed by the European Union (EU). The EU said last week it was recalling its ambassador to Russia.

At least 24 nations, including the United States and 17 EU members, have pledged to expel Russian diplomats.

On Tuesday NATO joined the alliance, declaring it would withdraw the accreditation of seven staff members at the Russian Mission to NATO and to deny pending accreditation requests for three other Russian diplomats following the "attack in Salisbury" against Skripal and his daughter.

"Those consultations have resulted so far in the expulsion of over 140 Russian officials by over 25 NATO Allies and partners," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in a statement.

"This is a broad, strong and coordinated international response. And as part of that response, NATO is unified in taking further steps," the statement added.

Despite NATO's support of Britain and its urge for Russia to address Britain's questions on March 14 and 15, Stoltenberg said that the alliance remained committed to a dual-track approach of strong defense and openness to dialogue, including by working to prepare the next meeting of the NATO-Russia Council.

Skripal, 66, and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia were found unconscious on a bench at a shopping center in Salisbury earlier this month.

They remain in critical condition after exposure to a nerve agent, which, according to the British authorities, could have originated from Russia.

Moscow has denied any involvement in the incident.

Photo taken on March 14, 2018 shows a general view of the exterior of the Russian Embassy in London, Britain. (Xinhua/Stephen Chung)

After European Council President Donald Tusk's announcement that a total of 14 EU countries would be teaming up with fellow member Britain in ordering out Russian diplomats, British Prime Minister Theresa May praised the "great solidarity" with Britain shown by the EU, North America, NATO and beyond.

She also warned that the West needs to develop a long-term response to the "renewed Russian threat."

Britain's deputy UN ambassador Jonathan Allen (R, 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. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

DISCORD UNDERNEATH

In spite of the seemingly unified confrontational stance on Russia, there have been voices within these countries calling for dialogue.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said "we remain open to constructive dialogue with Russia, which remains necessary on many international issues."

Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said on Monday that resources should be now focused on mending the widening rift between the East and the West. Meanwhile, Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila told a separate press conference on the same day that the decision to expel a Russian diplomat was not easy for the country.

The coordinated actions were not merely a response to the poisoning attack, U.S. officials said. "It's also part of a broader set of actions that the Russians have taken for quite some time internationally: a steady drumbeat of destabilizing any aggressive actions."

Dan Mahaffee, senior vice president and director of policy at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, a U.S. think tank, told Xinhua that the number of Russian agents has been viewed with growing concern in the United States and allied countries.

The U.S. moves "are far more than symbolic as they are an attempt to hinder Russian intelligence gathering in these countries," he said.

Moscow has denied the accusation, calling the deportation of its diplomats "a provocative gesture."

The Trump administration has been under pressure from inside the country and the West. The mid-term elections urge it to "play tough" against Moscow, and Western allies have been disheartened by its reluctance to attack Moscow directly over the poisoning attack, as required by the NATO treaties, observers said.

The White House's ambiguity in dealing with Russia has also sparked rage and dissatisfaction inside the United States, where doubts of Trump' s "collusion" with Russia in the 2016 elections still linger.

Mahaffee said that it will continue to be a challenge for Trump to deal with Russia.

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. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

END OF TRANSATLANTICISM?

Since Trump took office, his "America First" policy has frequently collided with those of his European partners. He called NATO "obsolete," opposed the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, withdrew from the Paris Agreement on climate change, threatened to scrap the Iranian nuclear deal and announced moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

There has been increasing dissatisfaction in Europe towards the United States, with European mainstream media holding the view that even staunch Atlanticists can no longer deny the crisis in transatlantic relations and blaming Washington for posing threats to the common values shared across the Atlantic.

In the wake of Trump's announcement to impose a 25-percent tariff on steel imports and a 10-percent one on aluminum imports amid global opposition, the European Union (EU) planned "a whole arsenal" of countermeasures.

Photo taken on March 26, 2018 shows a view of the Russian Embassy in Berlin, capital of Germany. (Xinhua/Shan Yuqi)

Europe "wants to avoid escalation" but "must keep the multilateral framework" because "protectionism is never the answer: protectionism is nationalism, nationalism is war and the war only makes losers," European Financial Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici told a French television news channel earlier this month.

Trump has torn the mask off the U.S. face and shown the true face of an unscrupulous and self-reliant world power, German politician Rolf Mutzenich wrote in his article entitled "End of Transatlanticism?"

The apparent solidarity between the United States and its European allies in expelling Russian diplomats could not cover up their differences on strategies, interests and policies which has been tearing the two sides apart.

The poisoning incident is just a small issue Washington is taking advantage of to show solidarity with its allies amid the escalating rift, analysts said.

(Xinhua reporters Zhu Dongyang, Liu Chen in Washington contributed to the story.)
OTTAWA, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Two persons traveling from Jamaica were arrested at the Toronto Pearson International Airport for carrying cocaine disguised as coffee, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) said on Wednesday.

During a routine baggage inspection on March 22, CBSA officers found each of the two passengers were carrying six containers, declared as coffee.

The officers opened the containers and found a white powder, which after being tested was found to be cocaine. Over 7 kilograms of cocaine was seized and the two were turned over to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

This year, CBSA has seized 25 consignments of cocaine weighing over 145 kilograms.
TOKYO, March 28 (Xinhua) -- A bigger trade picture is far more beneficial than trying to overly-protect a single sector and protectionism is raising risks of setting back global trade, Japan-based experts said Wednesday.

Japan has learned through the exhaustive and now defunct Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that not playing by the rules while expecting everyone else to not only obstructed the huge potential for direct domestic economic growth, but also stifled a broad consensus on trade deals that would have had wide-reaching benefits, which Japan also stood to gain from, experts maintained.

"It was never going to be one rule for us and another rule for them and that's partly why the TPP deal, which has now been replaced by the lesser Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), was more than five years at loggerheads," Akihiro Hoshino, a senior quantitative strategist at Nomura Holdings Inc. told Xinhua.

"But perhaps it was through that dragged out and finally unsuccessful process that Japan conceded that the bigger trade picture was far more beneficial than trying to overly-protect a single sector," Hoshino said.

He went on to explain that during that time, Japanese trade negotiators had the tough job of trying to persuade the politically powerful Central Union of Agricultural Cooperatives, who advocated tariffs of more than 700 percent being slapped on foreign imports of rice, to vastly lower the bar, for the sake of the broader deal.

"Regional trade pacts, Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and bi and multilateral deals are the way forward for the global economy and, in my opinion, the recent protectionist moves by some countries really go against the grain," Hoshino continued.

Generally speaking, in term of expertise and labor, intellectual property, natural resources and finished goods, many countries are abundant in some areas and scarce in others. And herein lies the fundamentals of trade, he explained.

"We will give you X in exchange for Y. But when Y comes with additional costs there's an imbalance ... And as we're seeing recently, this could have huge ramifications, not just for the exporters but for all concerned," said the expert.

Recent protectionist moves by some countries, as well as being unilateral and potentially not in line with World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, have been founded on the premise of safeguarding industries and protecting jobs as well as addressing perceived trade imbalances.

But as analysts here have highlighted, such unilateral moves and related discourse, not only send international stock markets haywire as globally risk averse moods lead to equities routs, but also threaten to severely disrupt global supply chains, and ultimately end up damaging the very industries in the country the move is purportedly trying to protect.

And, of course, there are other repercussions which could be equally devastating, such as "targeted" countries refusing to rollover and deciding to retaliate, as is their inalienable right.

Makoto Sengoku, a market analyst at the Tokai Tokyo Research Institute, said of recent moves towards protectionism that the impact may not have been fully calculated and that "protectionism is raising risks of setting back global trade."

Other market strategists here have concurred, pointing out that no country exists in a bubble and global trade in the developed world is all interconnected and countries advocating rigid protectionism or using wheeler-dealer-type tactics to bully a competitor would, rather than helping said country's economy, negatively impact the global economy to which said country is inextricably linked.

Norihiro Fujito, a senior investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities suggested recently that if such a scenario were to occur between two major economies, then there would certainly be a negative impact on the global economy.

"...who is not worried about the impact on the real economy?" he quizzed.

Japan, a reformed wielder of the "exponentially high import tariff baton," would itself as a major economy become ensnared in the fallout of targeted protectionism in myriad ways beyond those of mere economics, as its government seniors have pointed out.

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono on the subject said that such "regrettable" protectionist maneuvers by some countries could have a major influence on their economic and cooperative relations with Japan ... both in alliance and even the world economy.

Japan's top government spokesperson Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, for his part, speaking on the matter said recently that certain exports from Japan, far from posing any risks, had actually and quantifiably helped boost industry and employment in the recipient country.

Many other countries have voiced similar and valid arguments amid a potentially turbulent time of protectionism, tariffs and reprisals.

Suffice to say such a scenario would "affect a lot of countries, including Japan," Masakazu Satou, a senior analyst at Gaitame Online, said of the thorny issue.
Photo taken on March 14, 2018 shows a general view of the exterior of the Russian Embassy in London, Britain. (Xinhua/Stephen Chung)

BEIJING, March 28 (Xinhua) -- The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on Tuesday joined 25 governments around the world to expel Russian diplomats over a nerve-agent attack on a former spy in Britain, an unprecedented collective action which London labeled as a "turning point" in the West's relations with Moscow.

However, underneath the moment of unity between the United States and its European allies, there are longstanding discord and distrust between the two sides of the Atlantic on strategies, interests and policies.

A RARE SHOW OF UNITY

The United States announced Monday that it would expel 60 Russian diplomats and close the Russian Consulate in Seattle to retaliate for the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a former Russian intelligence officer, and his daughter in London earlier in March.

On March 15, the United States, Britain, France and Germany issued a joint statement condemning Russia over the incident, which was followed by the European Union (EU). The EU said last week it was recalling its ambassador to Russia.

At least 24 nations, including the United States and 17 EU members, have pledged to expel Russian diplomats.

On Tuesday NATO joined the alliance, declaring it would withdraw the accreditation of seven staff members at the Russian Mission to NATO and to deny pending accreditation requests for three other Russian diplomats following the "attack in Salisbury" against Skripal and his daughter.

"Those consultations have resulted so far in the expulsion of over 140 Russian officials by over 25 NATO Allies and partners," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in a statement.

"This is a broad, strong and coordinated international response. And as part of that response, NATO is unified in taking further steps," the statement added.

Despite NATO's support of Britain and its urge for Russia to address Britain's questions on March 14 and 15, Stoltenberg said that the alliance remained committed to a dual-track approach of strong defense and openness to dialogue, including by working to prepare the next meeting of the NATO-Russia Council.

Skripal, 66, and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia were found unconscious on a bench at a shopping center in Salisbury earlier this month.

They remain in critical condition after exposure to a nerve agent, which, according to the British authorities, could have originated from Russia.

Moscow has denied any involvement in the incident.

After European Council President Donald Tusk's announcement that a total of 14 EU countries would be teaming up with fellow member Britain in ordering out Russian diplomats, British Prime Minister Theresa May praised the "great solidarity" with Britain shown by the EU, North America, NATO and beyond.

She also warned that the West needs to develop a long-term response to the "renewed Russian threat."

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley (R, 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. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

DISCORD UNDERNEATH

In spite of the seemingly unified confrontational stance on Russia, there have been voices within these countries calling for dialogue.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said "we remain open to constructive dialogue with Russia, which remains necessary on many international issues."

Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said on Monday that resources should be now focused on mending the widening rift between the East and the West. Meanwhile, Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila told a separate press conference on the same day that the decision to expel a Russian diplomat was not easy for the country.

The coordinated actions were not merely a response to the poisoning attack, U.S. officials said. "It's also part of a broader set of actions that the Russians have taken for quite some time internationally: a steady drumbeat of destabilizing any aggressive actions."

Dan Mahaffee, senior vice president and director of policy at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, a U.S. think tank, told Xinhua that the number of Russian agents has been viewed with growing concern in the United States and allied countries.

The U.S. moves "are far more than symbolic as they are an attempt to hinder Russian intelligence gathering in these countries," he said.

Moscow has denied the accusation, calling the deportation of its diplomats "a provocative gesture."

The Trump administration has been under pressure from inside the country and the West. The mid-term elections urge it to "play tough" against Moscow, and Western allies have been disheartened by its reluctance to attack Moscow directly over the poisoning attack, as required by the NATO treaties, observers said.

The White House's ambiguity in dealing with Russia has also sparked rage and dissatisfaction inside the United States, where doubts of Trump' s "collusion" with Russia in the 2016 elections still linger.

Mahaffee said that it will continue to be a challenge for Trump to deal with Russia.

END OF TRANSATLANTICISM?

Since Trump took office, his "America First" policy has frequently collided with those of his European partners. He called NATO "obsolete," opposed the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, withdrew from the Paris Agreement on climate change, threatened to scrap the Iranian nuclear deal and announced moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

There has been increasing dissatisfaction in Europe towards the United States, with European mainstream media holding the view that even staunch Atlanticists can no longer deny the crisis in transatlantic relations and blaming Washington for posing threats to the common values shared across the Atlantic.

In the wake of Trump's announcement to impose a 25-percent tariff on steel imports and a 10-percent one on aluminum imports amid global opposition, the European Union (EU) planned "a whole arsenal" of countermeasures.

Photo taken on March 26, 2018 shows a view of the Russian Embassy in Berlin, capital of Germany. (Xinhua/Shan Yuqi)

Europe "wants to avoid escalation" but "must keep the multilateral framework" because "protectionism is never the answer: protectionism is nationalism, nationalism is war and the war only makes losers," European Financial Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici told a French television news channel earlier this month.

Trump has torn the mask off the U.S. face and shown the true face of an unscrupulous and self-reliant world power, German politician Rolf Mutzenich wrote in his article entitled "End of Transatlanticism?"

The apparent solidarity between the United States and its European allies in expelling Russian diplomats could not cover up their differences on strategies, interests and policies which has been tearing the two sides apart.

The poisoning incident is just a small issue Washington is taking advantage of to show solidarity with its allies amid the escalating rift, analysts said.

(Xinhua reporters Zhu Dongyang, Liu Chen in Washington contributed to the story.)
ISTANBUL, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Dozens of models on Wednesday presented the latest collection of Kadir Kilic, a Turkish fashion designer, on a runway at Zorlu Performance Art Center in Istanbul.

The biggest fashion show in Turkey attracted fashion icons, bloggers, buyers and international media representatives, including fashion publications such as Vogue Italia, vogue.com, GQ Spain, The Issue Magazine and Fashion Unfiltered.

They flocked into the city at the beginning of the week to see the creations of over 30 Turkish fashion brands and designers for the Fall/Winter 2018 season with Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Istanbul.

As a young designer, Kilic has created ergonomic and comfortable clothing for the next cold season by using fur pieces in his designs. He described his collection as rough, timeless, avant-garde and functional.

"Unlike previous seasons, this year I used many colors other than black," he said, noting that his creation came as a surprise not only in pattern but also in color.

The designers this year are showcasing their collections in the format of 17 runway shows, six mini runway shows plus four presentations in a studio area, while Mercedez-Benz is set to exclusively present a runway show of a young Turkish designer, Sansim Adali, and her brand Sudi Etuz.

As part of an international fashion exchange program, Atelier Kikala, a young brand from Georgia, is attending the Istanbul fashion week for the first time to display its latest.

Mercedes-Benz will also present a book titled "Story of X Seasons" to mark the past ten seasons, featuring the most memorable moments of the runway shows in Istanbul.

Adam Katz Sinding, a well-known street photographer, will take photos in the streets of Istanbul to take a glimpse into the city's street styles throughout the week.

In total, 140 buyers representing more than 100 companies and retailers from all around the world are expected to follow the fashion event that will last until this Friday.

Mercedes-Benz has been a partner of the world's fashion weeks for over 20 years and added Istanbul to its program five years ago.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 23:38:02|Editor: yan

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BEIJING, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), presided over the first meeting of the central committee for deepening overall reform Wednesday.

"The launch of deeper reform of the Party and state institutions marks a new stage for deepening reform in all areas," said Xi, also Chinese president, chairman of the Central Military Commission, and head of the central committee for deepening overall reform.

Deputy heads of the committee Li Keqiang, Wang Huning and Han Zheng attended the meeting.

"The reform will further touch upon profound adjustment of interests patterns and changes of the system of institutions," Xi said.

With the reform becoming more complex, sensitive and onerous, Xi called for efforts to strengthen and improve the Party's coordination and leadership over deepening reform in all areas, and incorporate the reform of institutions with the advancement of reform tasks.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the reform and opening-up drive.

Transforming the former central leading group for deepening overall reform to the central committee for deepening overall reform is an important measure to improve the institutions and mechanisms by which the Party exercises leadership over major work, read a statement issued after the meeting.

Participants at the meeting approved a number of documents:

-- work rules of the central committee for deepening overall reform as well as its special groups and general office;

-- a guideline on further streamlining approval procedures;

-- a plan to set up a financial court in Shanghai;

-- a document on establishing a mechanism for China's participation in international macro-economic policy coordination to improve international economic governance structure;

-- plans for deepening reform and opening-up in pilot free trade zones in Guangdong, Tianjin and Fujian;

-- a guideline to regulate the asset management businesses of financial institutions;

-- a guideline on strengthening regulation over the investment of non-financial enterprises in financial institutions;

-- a document on wage reform in state-owned enterprises;

-- pilot reform plans on the sequence of on-duty police officers and technical police personnel;

-- a document on deepening reform in review and evaluation of projects, talent and institutions;

-- a document on improving integrity in scientific research;

-- a document on strengthening Party building at public hospitals;

-- a document on strengthening team building for mediators.

Attendees at the meeting also discussed a report on deepening reform of the disciplinary inspection and supervision system and the institutions of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the national supervisory commission, as well as a report on the first round of inspection over environmental protection led by central authorities.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 23:38:03|Editor: yan

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BEIRUT, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Estonian Prime Minister Juri Ratas lauded Lebanon on Wednesday for hosting the Syrian refugees, the National News Agency (NNA) reported.

According to NNA, Ratas held separate talks Wednesday with President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Saad Hariri.

Speaking to reporters from the Grand Serail, Ratas said his country fully supports Lebanon's security, stability and sovereignty.

The visiting premier lauded Lebanon's hosting of Syrian refugees and its efforts in this regard, revealing that he invited Hariri to visit Estonia.

Describing his visit to Lebanon as good, fruitful and interesting, Ratas hoped "to see improvement in the ties between the two countries, especially in the economic field."

The Estonian premier had on Tuesday inspected his country's troops who are serving within the UNIFIL peacekeeping force and also visited the UN-demarcated Blue Line on Lebanon's border with Israel.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 23:48:05|Editor: yan

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SHANGHAI, March 28 (Xinhua) -- A Shanghai court on Wednesday heard a case of Wu Xiaohui, former chairman and general manager of Anbang Insurance Group, one month after China's insurance regulator took control of the private insurer.

Wu's trial began Wednesday morning at the Shanghai Municipal No. 1 Intermediate People's Court, where prosecutors accused Wu of fundraising fraud and embezzlement by taking advantage of his post.

Wu was accused of defrauding Anbang of 65.25 billion yuan (10.4 billion U.S. dollars). The funds were transferred to companies he personally controlled for overseas investment, debts payment, or personal spending, the court said.

The court was also told that as of January 2017, Anbang had sold investment-purpose insurance products that exceeded approved fund-raising amounts by 723.9 billion yuan (115 billion U.S. dollars).

Wu was also accused of taking advantage of his position to illegally take company capital as his own.

The court said Wu transferred 10 billion yuan of insurance funds to companies he personally controlled for individual investment, and debts and interests payment in January and June of 2007 when he was deputy chairman of Anbang Property and Casualty Insureance.

Wu contested all charges against him at the court but showed repentance. A verdict has yet to be delivered.

The trial came after China took over Anbang for a year, in February. During the takeover, Anbang will continue to operate as a private insurer, while social capital will be introduced to complete the company's shareholder restructuring, according to the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC).

China's insurance law stipulates that an insurance firm can be taken over by regulators if it is insolvent, or illegal activities hurt the public interest, and threaten its solvency.

The CIRC has had teams at Anbang conducting on-site checks and supervising operations since June 2017.

Established in 2004, Anbang has total assets of nearly 2 trillion yuan, with more than 30,000 employees and over 35 million clients globally, according to the company's website.
by Maria Spiliopoulou

ATHENS, March 28 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. government's recent decision to impose tariffs on imports from China and the trade tensions between the world's two largest economies will not benefit anyone, Greek experts told Xinhua here on Wednesday.

U.S. President Donald Trump signed last week a memorandum opening the way to impose tariffs on up to 60 billion U.S. dollars of imports from China and restrictions on Chinese investment in the United States.

The announcement sent markets across the world sliding to the red, reflecting widespread concern over the repercussions on global economy.

"U.S.-Chinese commercial warfare will not be to the benefit of anyone since the victims will be many, particularly world trade and sea-going merchant shipping, while even the metal commodities have been affected, since their prices have been cut over the last few weeks," Vassilis Korkidis, president of the Hellenic Confederation of Commerce and Entrepreneurship (ESEE) and the Piraeus Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), said.

Despite initial fears of retaliation by the United States, EU countries were excluded from U.S. tariffs. President Donald Trump left Europe out of this conflict, Korkidis noted.

But in his opinion, no one can really be exempt from the impact of a trade war between the world's first and second economies.

"The phrase that comes to my mind is 'when buffaloes are fighting by the lake, frogs pay the price,'" he said.

Constantinos Michalos, president of the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) and the Central Union of Greek Chambers of Commerce, shared the view that a U.S.-China trade war will harm global economy.

"The series of trade measures against China announced in the past days by the United States is a step backwards in global trade, while at the same time encapsulates risks for an escalation of a trade war between the two most powerful countries, the United States and China, triggering negative developments globally," Michalos said in a written statement to Xinhua.

"At a time extremely difficult for the international economy, each move made on the world chessboard should be studied with great care," he added.

In this context, the new decree signed by President Trump should be put up for consultation between the two countries so as to minimize the duties on imports of Chinese products to the United States, the Greek business leader suggested, pointing to the image of the stock markets last week which were pushed into the red due to fears of retaliation from China.

"In any case, there is still room for rational resolution of any problems that obscure the trade relations of the two countries, which will undoubtedly, should they worsen, they will have a negative impact on global economy, and of course on the European Union," Michalos underlined.

Odin Linardatou, director of Foreign Affairs of Greek socio-liberal party To Potami (The River), believes that the U.S. government's policy will leave nobody unaffected.

"Can the U.S. President Donald Trump win a trade war against China? For many years, Donald Trump has argued that Chinese trade is a threat to the United States. And he does not hesitate to claim that China is using unfair methods that are supposed to be harming the U.S. economy. The truth is very different," Linardatou told Xinhua in a written comment.

In fact to each U.S. company that is in favor of Trump's duties on Chinese products, there are another 3,000 U.S. companies that fully disagree with the U.S. president's tariff policy, she noted.

"What Donald Trump cannot understand is that free trade is significantly helping to improve people's living standards globally," she stressed, referring to a remark made by Steve Odland, CEO of the Washington-based think tank "Committee for Economic Development" that the United States needs the financial products of other countries.

"We account for just 5 percent of the world's population and our open markets allow us to also sell our products to the rest of the 95 percent and thus to expand our economy," Odland has commented.

In the eyes of Linardatou, a trade war will have only losers.

"There is no way to impose heavy tariffs on up to 60 billion U.S. dollars of imports from China without having extremely negative consequences for the citizens of the United States," Linardatou warned.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 23:58:08|Editor: yan

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CAIRO, March 28 (Xinhua) -- The Egyptian leadership seeks a high voter turnout on the final voting day as a sign of popular support as incumbent President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi is expected to win a landslide victory for a second four-year term.

Government officials and top judges have urged Wednesday the Egyptian citizens to extensively take part and cast their votes as "a national duty" to back the current leadership for further security, stability and development.

"Participation in the election is actually a national duty of each citizen, not just a right," said Egyptian Foreign Ministry's spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid in a statement Wednesday.

"Participation is a responsibility at this time, due to the challenges the nation is going through, whether internally or externally," he added.

Nearly 60 million Egyptians out of the country's 104-million population are eligible to vote in some 13,700 polling stations nationwide.

Sisi came to power in mid-2014, a year after he, as the army chief then, led the military overthrow of former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in response to mass protests against his one-year rule and his now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group.

The voter turnout in the 2014 presidential elections, in which Sisi won by nearly 97 percent of votes against leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahi, was about 47.5 percent of some 53.8 registered voters.

Since Morsi's ouster, Egypt has been facing a wave of terrorism that killed hundreds of policemen and solders, as well as civilians, with most of them claimed by a Sinai-based group affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) regional terrorist group.

"The state efforts in development and fighting black terrorism require all citizens at this stage to show solidarity and keenness on massively going to polling stations to cast their votes," Chairman of the National Election Authority (NEA), Counselor Lashin Ibrahim, said on Wednesday.

For his part, NEA spokesman Mahmoud al-Sherif said in a press conference later that the Egyptian people proved to the whole world that "Egyptians are able to determine their own destiny through their will, rejecting any interference in their domestic affairs."

He added that Egyptian voters disregarded the calls for boycotting the polls, referring to those boycotters as "haters" of the nation.

Sherif said that the voter turnout over the three election days so far was "high," noting that a fine of 500 Egyptian pounds (about 28 U.S. dollars) would be charged against those who did not vote according to the election law.

State-run MENA news agency quoted governors and senior officials in several provinces nationwide describing voter turnout as "huge."

The election is held amid intense security presence and tight security measures taken by the army and the police around polling centers throughout Egypt.

The Egyptian security forces have killed hundreds of terrorists and arrested thousands of suspects during the country's anti-terror war declared by Sisi following Morsi's ouster.

Egypt's Army Chief of Staff Mohamed Farid told a private TV channel Wednesday that "the election is a civilized scene that reflects stability and security in Egypt."

He added that Egypt is heading towards a better future after the past stage dedicated for development, stressing that the soldiers are fighting terrorism in the Sinai Peninsula "to maintain the country's stability."

In a state TV interview ahead of the election, Sisi himself urged all eligible voters to take part in the polls regardless of whom they would vote for, expressing his wish to have had more competitors in the bid.

Sisi's sole rival in the polls is little-known politician Moussa Mostafa Moussa, head of liberal Ghad Party, after a couple of possible strong challengers have either withdrawn or been disqualified over violations.

On March 19, the most populous Arab state wrapped up the three-day voting process of Egyptian expatriates in about 124 countries across the world.

The election final result will be announced on April 2, according to the NEA.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 23:58:09|Editor: yan

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BEIJING, March 28 (Xinhua) -- The international community paid high attention to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) leader Kim Jong Un's unofficial visit to China, which is widely thought to have a positive impact on the further detente of the situation on the Korean Peninsula.

At the invitation of Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Chinese president, Kim, chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK, paid the unofficial visit to China from Sunday to Wednesday.

Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it welcomes the meeting between the Chinese and DPRK leaders, and it reiterated willingness to continue to work in close coordination with China towards a comprehensive settlement of problems in Northeast Asia via political and diplomatic means through a direct dialogue among all the parties concerned.

South Korean Foreign Ministry hailed the talks between Xi and Kim and anticipated Kim's visit to China would contribute to the denuclearization and peace on the Korean Peninsula.

DPRK's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Russia's state-own news agency Rossiya Segodnya, the Associated Press, South Korea's Yonhap, Japan's Kyodo, Reuters, Agence France Presse and some other major global news outlets reported Kim's visit to China and his talks with Xi.

The KCNA said Kim was "accorded cordial hospitality with utmost sincerity" during his historic visit to China. The visit provides a significant opportunity to maintain the historical tradition of DPRK-China relations and develop the friendship to a higher level.

Rossiya Segodnya said in a commentary that Kim's visit demonstrates the friendship between China and the DPRK is unbreakable. It is the DPRK's strategic choice to inherit and develop the friendship with China under the new situation. The visit's main aim is to coordinate with China on the Korean Peninsula issue against the backdrop of positive changing on the peninsula situation.

Russia's Kommersant newspaper said Kim made his maiden visit abroad as DPRK top leader to China to show the solid China-DPRK relations. He also briefed China the latest changes of the situation on the Korean Peninsula and sought to coordinate their positions, which manifests that China plays an important role in the settlement of the nuclear issue on the peninsula.

South Korea's daily newspaper The Hankyoreh said the visit has sent a positive signal -- China's constructive role is indispensible in the settlement of the nuclear issue through the inter-Korean and DPRK-U.S. summits and the construction of a system enjoying lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula.

U.S. news network CNN said Kim's first foreign trip to China is designed to promote the development of bilateral ties. During his talks with Xi, Kim expressed his willingness to maintain the traditional bilateral friendship. He also pledged to work towards the denuclearization and peace of the Korean Peninsula.

Japan's daily newspaper Sankei Shimbun said Kim's visit is the first foreign trip by the DPRK leader, highlighting that China's role in resolving the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue can not be neglected.
ISLAMABAD, March 28 (Xinhua) -- At least 10 people, including six women and two children, were killed and dozens trapped under debris after the roof of a warehouse collapsed in Pakistan's southern city of Sukkur in the Sindh province on Wednesday, local media reported.

Raheem Buksh, Deputy Commissioner of Sukkur, said over 13 injured labourers have been rescued from the rubble so far, adding that a rescue operation is underway to recover other trapped people.

The incident took place in the Khajoor Mandi area of Sukkur.

The official said that the roof collapsed due to a gas explosion. The warehouse operated an illegal kiln to roast the date-palm fruit. The gas leakage occurred because of certain chemicals used during the production process.

All the injured have been shifted to a nearby hospital. More casualties are expected due to the serious condition of the injured, said the reports.

Personnel of Pakistan Army and Rangers also took part in the rescue operation. They are assisting local authorities by participating in the operation and rescuing lives.

Governor of Sindh province Muhammad Zubair has expressed grief and sorrow at the loss of precious lives and directed relevant authorities to provide the best-available medical treatment to the injured.
WARSAW, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Polish defense minister Mariusz Blaszczak on Wednesday signed a contract in Warsaw to buy U.S. Patriot air and missile defense systems.

The contract was formally signed in a ceremony, which attended by Polish president Andrzej Duda and prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki. Polish News Agency (PAP) reported that Poland will pay 4.75 billion U.S. dollars for the systems.

Duda said that the cost of the U.S. Patriot air and missile defense systems is huge but "the security has no price". He added that the Patriot systems are to constitute the basis of Poland's air defense for decades.

Morawiecki announced on Tuesday that "the first Patriot systems will reach Poland in 2022, followed by further systems two years later, in 2024".

In November last year, the U.S. State Department approved the sale of the Patriot System to Poland and said that the deal will give Poland "greater flexibility to conduct air and missile defense operations" with the United States and other NATO members.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-29 00:13:15|Editor: yan

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GAZA, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) Pierre Krahenbuhl warned Wednesday of a dramatic and unprecedented deterioration of humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip.

Speaking to reporters in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, Krahenbuhl said that no one in the world could reduce the situation in the Gaza Strip, which is ruled by Islamic Hamas movement.

He said his agency is observing the serious humanitarian consequences in Gaza in light of the significant increase in unemployment rates and the inability of families to meet the needs to continue normal life.

There are tremendous psychological pressures that people in Gaza are experiencing, the UN official said, warning of the future of the educational process in UNRWA schools due to the Agency's financial deficit.

Gaza has been placed under a tight Israeli blockade since Islamic Hamas movement seized the territory by force after routing forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007.

In the recent 10 years, Israel and Hamas movement have been engaged in three major wars that claimed the lives of thousands of Palestinians and Israelis.

The blockade has pushed Gaza's 2 million population deeper into poverty with inflating unprecedented unemployment rates.

Krahenbuhl said that the world must listen to the depth of the suffering and concern of the people there, stressing it is time to move seriously to find a political solution and deal with the consequences of the Israeli blockade sand occupation.

He stressed that the mandate of UNRWA is protected by the United Nations and will never be for sale, calling for a political commitment to protect the rights of Palestinian refugees.

The UNRWA Commissioner-General added that the additional pledges of 100 million U.S. dollars his agency received at the Rome International Conference, which was held on 15 of this month, was a good step, but still not enough.

The United States decided in January to decrease its contribution to UNRWA in 2018 from 125 million U.S. dollars to 65 million dollars.

The U.S. administration has also announced it will not provide the agency with 45 million dollars for aid that it pledged in December last year.

More than five million registered Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, West Bank and the Gaza Strip will suffer if the agency is shut down or financial aid is suspended, he added.
MAPUTO, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Senior figures and politicians in Mozambique have made outraged and denouncing statements after the prominent journalist and human right activist Ericino de Salema was kidnapped, beaten up and left unconsciously lying on the Maputo Ring Road on Tuesday.

Mozambican Prime Minister Carlos Agostinho do Rosario said Wednesday morning in parliament that the government is outraged by the abduction and torture against the journalist and will do everything to find the criminals.

"We want to reiterate our full confidence in the police authorities to continue working hard and bring criminals to justice," he said.

"The government condemns all kinds of acts that violate freedom of expression," he added.

The spokesman for the ruling Frelimo Party Caifadine Manasse said that all Mozambican citizens have the right of life and other fundamental rights.

"We thought what happened was a bad act. We expect the authorities to do their job and find those responsible," he said.

Salema was a regular commentator for a Sunday night chat show on the country's main private television STV, on which he often boldly criticizes the policy of the government.

On last week's show Salema made denunciations of the improprieties by the son of the President of Mozambique, who has been making wealthy shows at several locations in the city of Maputo.

This is the second time in the southern African country that a political commentator on the same television program is abducted, tortured and abandoned in the same area.

The indignation was also expressed by journalists and members of the Renamo and MDM party.

Renamo party leader, Afonso Dhlakama, said that President Filipe Nyusi should do something to bring the responsible to justice.

"No doubt that the Frelimo party members are the perpetrators of such crimes. This is happening because in Mozambique there is no separation of powers, if it was there those criminals should have been caught," he said.

From the bush, Dhlakama told the press that these criminals are doing bad thing with police's help. "We have death squads here in the country linked to Frelimo party," he concluded.

Salema was hospitalized yesterday in a private hospital in Maputo and according to the doctors he is now out of danger of life.
Trump tweets to dismiss a call to repeal the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. (Xinhua)

WASHINGTON, March 28 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday dismissed the call by a retired Supreme Court justice to repeal the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

"THE SECOND AMENDMENT WILL NEVER BE REPEALED" Trump said in an emphatic tweet.

"As much as Democrats would like to see this happen, and despite the words yesterday of former Supreme Court Justice Stevens, NO WAY. We need more Republicans in 2018 and must ALWAYS hold the Supreme Court!"

File Photo: U.S. President Donald Trump answers questions from the press before departing the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, on March 13, 2018. (Xinhua/Ting Shen)

John Paul Stevens, 97, authored an op-ed that was published in The New York Times Tuesday, calling for a repeal of the Second Amendment. The call came after the nationwide "March for Our Lives" protests by students Saturday urging action to end gun violence and beef up school safety.

People take part in the "March for Our Lives" rally in Chicago, the United States, on March 24, 2018. (Xinhua/Wang Ping)

"Rarely in my lifetime have I seen the type of civic engagement school children and their supporters demonstrated in Washington and other major cities throughout the country this past Saturday," the former judge wrote, adding, "They should demand a repeal of the Second Amendment."

The amendment states that "a well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

The powerful National Rifle Association dismissed it as a "radical idea" while White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said the president and his administration "still fully support the Second Amendment."
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-29 00:23:18|Editor: Liangyu

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Grant Kimberly, marketing director of the U.S. Iowa Soybean Association, receives an interview with Xinhua in Des Moines, state of Iowa, the United States, on March 27, 2018. Soybean farmers in Iowa are concerned about a possible trade war between the United States and China, which will see no winner, the official of the Iowa Soybean Association (ISA) said. (Xinhua/Wang Ping)

by Xinhua writers Wang Ping, Miao Zhuang

DES MOINES, United States, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Soybean farmers in Iowa are concerned about a possible trade war between the United States and China, which will see no winner, an official of the Iowa Soybean Association (ISA) said.

Last Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump signed a memorandum that could impose tariffs on up to 60 billion U.S. dollars of imports from China, the latest unilateral move that is likely to cause trade retaliation.

"We were disappointed to see that these actions have been taken. Of course we did not want to see any kind of trade disruptions," Grant Kimberly, marketing director of ISA, told Xinhua.

PRIME MARKET

Global soybean imports are expected to reach 151 million tonnes this year, of which China will import 97 million, or 64 percent, according to Peter Meyer, senior director of agricultural analytics at S&P Global Platts.

The United States provides close to 60 percent of the global soybean production and Iowa provides approximately 39 percent of China's soybean needs.

"China is our number one market and it's our most important market. It's a market that the U.S. soybean industry has been working in and been involved with long-standing relationships over 35 years when ... (it) first established office in China back in the 1980s," Kimberly said.

China is also the second-largest purchaser of U.S. pork.

A retaliatory tariff on U.S. agricultural products would hurt U.S. farmers at a time they are already struggling financially. Earnings are expected to fall 6.7 percent this year to 59.5 billion dollar, the Department of Agriculture projects. It would be about half of the nation's 2013 record high earnings.

"U.S. farmers would be very concerned that a trade war would be a negative. It would reduce prices (for) farmers. We're already in a downturn in the U.S. agriculture economy. So that would make things worse," Kimberly said.

NEGATIVE IMPACT

Kimberly thinks the import tariffs announced by the Trump administration would dent the U.S. agricultural market, and domestic soybean prices could suffer the most.

"It already has a negative impact. We've already noticed that soybean prices have dropped from where they were about a month ago, that's partially due to trade war fear," he said.

The official said farmers will soon go to the field as the spring planting season starts. If prices remain weak, that might influence the types of crops they would grow. "They may choose to not grow as many soybean acres if the prices are not looking as positive long-term," he pointed out

Kimberly, who owns a farm of over 4,000 acres (16.19 sq km) in Des Moines, pre-sold some of his crops at the Chicago agricultural futures market as a hedge to get a better price.

"But I have not sold all. So if we do have a ... trade war, the market will probably go down and that will affect my income," Kimberly's father Eric Kimberly told Xinhua.

Iowa and U.S. agricultural officials have long warned the White House about the negative implications for the soybean industry if sanctions and tariffs are imposed. In just five years, farm income in the United States has declined 50 percent while crop prices have dropped 40 percent.

REASONABLE SOLUTION

The Chinese embassy in the United States said "any disputes and differences between the two countries should be solved through dialogues and consultations."

The Chinese ambassador, Cui Tiankai, said there is great potential for China-U.S. cooperation "but the key is that both sides have to take a cooperative and constructive approach; a confrontational one will not help anybody."

"Our message is that nobody wins in a trade war, especially when food and nutrition is involved. So ... hopefully both sides will come together and work out a solution that's beneficial to both sides," Grant Kimberly said.

As the two largest economies in the world, the United States and China must work together and get beyond trade disputes, he said.

"We as an industry continue to voice our concerns to the U.S. administration and make sure that they realize that we want to maintain free and fair and open trade between our two countries," he said.
ROME, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Anti-terrorism police in Italy's northern city of Ferrara have raided the home of an Italian schoolteacher who converted to Islam, local media reported Wednesday.

The man is a relative of the 79-year-old Italian wife of 59-year-old Egyptian national Mostafa Omar Abdel Rahman Mohy, who was arrested Tuesday in the southern city of Foggia for affiliation with the so-called Islamic State (IS) group.

Abdel Rahman Mohy indoctrinated young children at an Islamic center called Al Dawa, which outgoing Interior Minister Marco Minniti has called "the heart of darkness" in an interview with La Stampa newspaper.

The Italian suspect, whose home was searched overnight between March 26 and 27, is married with children and teaches at a school for kids aged 6-12 years, according to ANSA news agency.

The news came after the arrest in the northern city of Turin earlier on Wednesday, in a separate anti-terrorism investigation, of Elmahdi Halili, a 23-year-old second-generation Moroccan-Italian, on charges of being an IS militant.

Other foreign residents and Italian converts to Islam are being investigated in connection with Halili, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

Wednesday's news prompted anti-immigrant, rightwing League leader Matteo Salvini, who could become the next prime minister of Italy following the March 4 general election, to call for "strict controls at our land and sea borders and a suspension of all further arrivals (of migrants) on our coasts."

A total of 6,161 migrants from North Africa and the Middle East have reached Italy's shores so far this year, compared to over 23,000 such arrivals in the same period last year, according to the Interior Ministry.

Italy is on high terrorism alert ahead of the Easter holiday weekend.
KAMPALA, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Two vehicles belonging to a non-governmental organization working with refugees in Uganda's Yumbe district have been burnt down by a rowdy mob.

The vehicles were on Wednesday found parked in the compound of Dan Church Aid offices in Yumbe, located about 522 km north of the capital Kampala.

Yumbe is home to one of the biggest settlement camps for refugees who escaped bloody skirmishes that have ravaged South Sudan for more than 10 years. Bidibidi camp is home to about 272,206 South Sudanese refugees. It is the world's largest settlement camp.

The Uganda Police spokesperson, Emilian Kayima, confirmed the attacks in a press statement.

"The rioters burnt two motor vehicles as well as one motorcycle. The riot was sparked off by a previous operation carried out by the Uganda Revenue Authority that aimed at cracking down on boda bodas that were doing business without paying taxes," Kayima said.

Boda bodas are commercial motor cycle riders commonly used in Uganda to transport thousands of travelers for short distances.

Dan Church Aid from Denmark has been supporting refugees through its livelihood programs where the settlers are helped to start up self-help projects such as agriculture among others.

Robert Baryamwesiga, the settlement commandant from the Office of the Prime Minister in charge of Yumbe, told Xinhua "the criminals rammed into the NGO's compound where they set them ablaze."

He added that the situation was under surveillance as more reinforcements of soldiers had been brought in from the nearing districts.

"All the workers are safe and no one has been injured," he said.
BOLOGNA, Italy, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Six publishers from around the world were honored the Prize for the Best Children's Publishers of the Year (BOP) at the Children's Book Fair running in the Italian city of Bologna from Monday to Thursday.

The 2018 winners were announced by an international panel of publishers, which made its selection on the base of "their creativity, courage, and the quality of their editorial choices over the last year", according to a jury's statement.

The BOP Award acknowledges different winners according to six areas in the world: as such, the South-African Jacana Media publisher was bestowed the prize for Africa, the Japanese Fukuinkan Shoten Publishers for Asia, and the Polish Dwie Siostry publishers for Europe. In North American, the award was honored to Canadian Editions D'eux, and in Central and South America to Mexican Ediciones Tecolote. The OneTree House from New Zealand was the winner for Oceania.

The Bologna Children's Book Fair has reached its 55th edition in 2018, and is seen as a major event for publishers, authors, illustrators, and scholars involved in children's literature, and for addressing the newest trends concerning children's books.

This year, it involved 1,390 exhibitors from 77 countries distributed on 20,000 square meters of the BolognaFiere Exhibition Center, lying at the outskirts of the city.

Named as the Guest of Honor, China has taken the stage at the 2018 Bologna Children's Book Fair running in the central Italian city this week.

With a pavilion stretching over 900 square meters, almost 100 publishers attending, and some 5,000 titles of books, the Chinese presence was indeed the largest at the international event devoted to books and reading for childhood.

An image featuring a little girl and a panda reading -- under the word "Dream" -- made the Chinese logo, evoking both the endless charm of children's literature and the bright energy of China's publishing industry today.
LONDON, March 28 (Xinhua) -- A senior government official on Wednesday announced that Britain is to hire 1,000 new border guards to cope with the demands of Brexit.

British Home Secretary Amber Rudd told MPs on the Home Affairs Committee that it will bring to 1,300 the number of extra people drafted in after 300 were announced last October.

She said that Brexit preparation is costing more than 450 million pounds (634.88 million U.S. dollars) over two years.

"I can announce today that we are launching a national advertising campaign for another thousand border force staff in order to improve the quality of our border and prepare specifically for Brexit," she said.

Asked whether guards would be put at Welsh ports Fishguard and Holyhead, which have ferry links to Ireland, Rudd said, "They will be placed across the country. We need to make sure that every area is made secure."

European Union leaders on Wednesday piled pressure on the UK to put forward "serious" ideas to solve the Irish border issue by summer, or risk scuppering a transition deal.

The Dutch have already announced that hey are recruiting 750 new customs agents, and France 250.

However, a British Home Office official later clarified that although 1,300 people were being recruited, some would simply replace staff who were leaving through natural wastage.

The official was not able to say the exact number of extra positions being created due to Brexit.

"We think it's going to be enough," Rudd added. "We have done a careful analysis. If we need more we will make that decision as we go forward."
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-29 01:23:34|Editor: yan

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UNITED NATIONS, March 28 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday called for strong collective action to deal with the serious challenges to UN peacekeeping.

UN peacekeeping faces serious challenges, particularly in four of its largest deployments: Mali, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, and South Sudan, Guterres told the UN Security Council in a high-level debate on peacekeeping.

"UN peacekeeping missions now operate in far more dangerous, complex and high-risk environments. They are under threat from armed groups, criminals and terrorists, who have access to powerful modern weapons," he said.

"UN peacekeepers are often under-equipped, under-prepared and unready for the dangerous environments in which they now operate. There are gaps in command and control, in culture, in equipment and in training," he said.

UN peacekeepers are vulnerable and are targeted for attack, said Guterres. Last year, 59 UN peacekeepers were killed in malicious acts, a sharp increase from 2016, when the figure was 34.

"We are damaging the instrument of peacekeeping, and indeed multilateralism itself, in creating unrealistic expectations. Lives and credibility are being lost," he said. "These challenges require strong, collective action."

He asked to refocus peacekeeping with realistic expectations, to make peacekeeping missions stronger and safer, and to mobilize greater support for political solutions and for well-structured, well-equipped, well-trained forces.
CHICAGO, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Apple will team up with renowned Northwestern University to offer free training to computer science teachers across the U.S. city of Chicago, the mayor said on Wednesday.

Through this partnership, teachers in public schools of America's third biggest city will receive the training they need to effectively bring coding, computer science and problem solving into their classrooms, said Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

"When you combine the brainpower of Chicago Public Schools, Northwestern University and Apple, the possibilities are limitless," Emanuel said in a statement.

Chicago Public Schools, Apple and Northwestern University will establish a Center for Excellence at Lane Tech College Prep High School, where Apple unveiled on Tuesday its latest iPad, aiming at regaining ground in U.S. education with an enhanced but cheaper version.

The center will serve as a teaching and learning hub to introduce and train teachers in Apple's Everyone Can Code curriculum. Professors from Northwestern University will lead the sessions.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-29 01:28:36|Editor: yan

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TEHRAN, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Iran's ambassador to the UN on Wednesday urged the sides involved in Yemen conflicts to settle the crisis in the Arab state through dialogue.

Gholamali Khoshrou said that Saudi Arabia should "abandon adventurism and warmongering and engage in constructive political dialogue with Yemen, which is its neighbor, while respecting the people's rights."

Iran basically believes in no other solution than a political one to the conflict in Yemen, Khoshrou said.

He denied that his country has supplied missiles to the Yemeni Houthi militants who target Saudi Arabia's inner posts.

Khoshrou dismissed the Saudi allegations as "baseless," urging the kingdom to engage in dialogue with the Houthis.

The three-year Saudi war on Yemen is not legitimate, Khoshrou said, adding that the war on Yemen has achieved nothing but massacre, hunger, diseases and destruction of its infrastructure.

"It is not the first time Saudi Arabia enters into correspondence against Iran in order to cover up its defeats in Yemen, and the international community is well aware of this fact," Khoshrou was quoted as saying by Iran's state TV.

"With adventurism and inexperience, the Saudis have helped inflict cholera on millions of Yemeni people and targeted children and civilians in the course of their bombardments," he said.

In a letter issued on Tuesday, Saudi envoy to the United Nations, Abdullah al-Muallami, urged the UN Security Council to hold the Islamic republic accountable for the alleged missile supply to Yemen's Houthis.

The Saudi-led coalition revealed on Monday "evidence" of the Iranian role in trafficking weapons to Yemen.

The coalition spokesperson Turki al-Malki said an Iranian made missile with Persian writing was confiscated in Yemen, and a shipment of missiles from Iran were seized before they were used by Houthi militias.

The Islamic Republic wants Saudi Arabia to immediately join a peace process in Yemen and stop actions that have failed to bring peace to Yemen, Khoshrou said.

He expressed concerns at what he called the sale of U.S. weapons to Saudi Arabia.

Khoshrou called on the Muslin world and the international community to pressure Saudi Arabia to stop war in Yemen.

In a Tuesday statement, Iran's Foreign Ministry said that the Saudi rulers cannot cover up their repeated defeats in Yemen by levelling accusations against others.

The Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi said that the Saudis are seeking to cover up their failures despite being equipped with a huge collection of cutting-edge weaponry worth tens of billions of dollars.

"The reality is that the Saudis and their allies have faced the resistance of Yemeni people and experienced a scandalous defeat in the unfair war on impoverished nation," Qasemi said.

Qasemi also referred to the recent "threatening" remarks of a Saudi military commander about Iran and said it goes without saying that "such warmongering and irresponsible statements can be supported legally and internationally."

Saudi Arabia is leading a mostly Arab military coalition to fight Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen since March 2015.

Houthis have been controlling much of Yemen's north by force, including the capital Sanaa since 2014.

The war has killed more than 10,000 Yemenis, mostly civilians, and displaced over 3 million, according to humanitarian agencies.
LONDON, March 28 (Xinhua) -- As Britain marks the first anniversary of triggering the mechanism leading to it quitting the European Union (EU), a leading British expert said it would take an unexpected blow or catastrophic happening to reverse Britain's decision.

In a recent exclusive interview with Xinhua, Professor Iain Begg, with the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), said he believed Britain would have eventually decided to leave the EU, even without the referendum called by former prime minister David Cameron.

SHOCK RESULT

Begg, a professorial research fellow at the LSE's European Institute, underlined Cameron was fulfilling an election pledge, but even the leave campaigners were stunned by the shock result.

On March 29 last year, Britain handed a letter to the European President Donald Tusk triggering what is known as Article 50, the so-called irreversible article to start the process of ending its membership of a trading bloc it joined in 1973.

Prime Minister Theresa May told MPs in the House of Commons hours later it was a moment for the country to come together. A new word was added to the English dictionary, Brexit -- six letters that sum up Britain's intention to part company from its 27 neighbors in the EU.

The past year has witnessed bitter political battles between politicians in the leave and remain camps. There have been calls for a re-run of the 2016 referendum when Britain voted by a 52-48 margin to quit Europe, an unexpected result that continues to send shockwaves around the world.

IRREVERSIBLE ACTION

With recent talks between British and European negotiators paving the way for a negotiated agreement on a future trading relationship, the big question for the coming year is whether it is too late to reverse Brexit.

Begg said he would sum up the past year as one in which Britain made concessions, adding this was something he had expected.

"There were initial red lines drawn by May, stating things Britain was not going to budge on, and this was unrealistic," said Begg.

What has emerged in the past year as a potential deal breaker is the question of the Irish border, added Begg.

The republic of Ireland joined the EU at the same time in Britain 45 years ago. It meant there was no need for a land border between Ireland and Northern Ireland. Britain leaving the EU will create the only UK-EU land border between the two parts on the island of Ireland.

Begg described the border situation as a "trilemma", with three options.

"If Britain exits from the customs union there would need to be a border between Northern Ireland and Ireland. It is basic logic," said Begg.

"There is a potential fudge but it would still mean a breaking of the Belfast Agreement which restored peace to Northern Ireland after decades of troubles.

What has been settled is the question of citizens' rights, the status of Europeans in Britain and British people in the EU post-Brexit. A transition or implementation period will continue until December 2020 to give both sides time to reach a permanent trade deal.

QUESTION OVER FINANCIAL SECTOR

"What it does not resolve is we don't yet know if the UK will accept what is on the table. What it also leaves is the future of Britain's financial services," added Begg.

"A trade deal is all about the movement of goods and tariffs; there is no concept for financial services."

Although there is talk of regulatory equivalents, Begg senses there is no real willingness at the moment by the EU to give Britain the full access it wants. But there is talk of regulatory equivalents

The final answer will determine the future status of Britain's vital financial services sector, one of the country's biggest money-spinners.

The concern, said Begg, is whether Britain will be bypassed with institutions setting up in Frankfurt or elsewhere.

Michel Barnier, the EU's chief Brexit negotiator, has made the point of saying no existing EU trade deal has a model to cover Britain's financial sector.

"The UK's view is saying: well, let's invent one," added Begg.

"The financial business in Britain has created jobs, more than in any other country, and anything that hit that would be damaging to the UK. It is also a major exporting sector with a high net surplus (invisible exports), and it is also a major contributor to Britain's public finances," added Begg.

Also at risk without a good deal would be complimentary services, such as accountancy, law and consultancies.

Begg said there were latent risks that could undermine the size of the sector and the scale of its exports.

"There are now two and three quarter years to negotiate a new trade deal which is not a lot of time in historical terms," said Begg.

He described as pretty well certain that Britain's exit from the EU would continue, with a final divorce coming in December 2020.

"I can't see a pathway to stop it. It would take 326 MPs to vote for a new referendum in the House of Commons. It is hard to see, as it would have to be done within months for an act of parliament to take place. To do that by March, 2019 is implausible," said Begg.

"It would take something dramatic, something like a wild card that has not been anticipated."
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-29 02:03:41|Editor: yan

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ADEN, Yemen, March 28 (Xinhua) -- At least 11 Yemeni soldiers were killed after al-Qaida gunmen ambushed a military convoy in the southeastern province of Hadramout on Wednesday evening, a security official told Xinhua.

The deadly attack was carried out by a group of al-Qaida gunmen in Hajar Valley of Hadramout province and targeted a military convoy composed of three vehicles, the security source said on condition of anonymity.

Most of the killed soldiers were belonging to the newly-recruited Yemeni forces backed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and some members of the Special Operations Forces in Hadramout, the source said.

He added that additional UAE-backed Yemeni forces were dispatched to the attack site in Hajar Valley just a few hours after the terrorist attack.

A tribal source in the area confirmed to Xinhua that a number of soldiers went missing after the attack.

"The al-Qaida attackers rained the convoy with a barrage of heavy gunfire from different directions and soldiers couldn't survive," the tribal source said anonymously.

During the past two years, the al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and other terrorist groups including the Islamic State had an active presence in Yemen's southern part.

Both the al-Qaida militants and Islamic State group often launch suicide and roadside bombings against Yemeni security forces based in several provinces of the country.

The impoverished Arab country has been locked into a civil war since the Iranian-backed Shiite Houthi rebels overran much of the country militarily and seized all northern provinces, including capital Sanaa, in 2014.

Saudi Arabia leads an Arab military coalition that intervened in Yemen in 2015 to support the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after Iran-backed Houthi rebels forced him into exile.

The United Nations has listed Yemen as the world's number one humanitarian crisis, with seven million Yemenis on the brink of famine and cholera causing more than 2,000 deaths.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-29 02:18:43|Editor: yan

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KUWAIT CITY, March 28 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese Embassy in Kuwait said Wednesday that China hopes to integrate its Belt and Road Initiative with Kuwait's development strategy to promote beneficial cooperation.

In a lecture at the Australian College of Kuwait (ACK), Cheng Yongru, economic and commercial counselor at the Chinese Embassy in Kuwait, explained in details the concept and content of the Chinese initiative, as well as the broad prospect of the Sino-Kuwait cooperation within the framework of the initiative.

"Through this lecture... I would like to share and exchange with the audience some of our ideas and practices with an aim to enhance communication and promote mutual understanding," said Cheng.

"We also want to promote the integration between the Belt and Road Initiative and Kuwait's development strategy so as to promote mutually beneficial cooperation in trade and infrastructure," he noted.

The audience, including teachers, students and local businessmen, expressed the hope to further understand how the initiative will integrate resources and promote China's cooperation with countries along the ancient trade routes.

Arther Seakhoa-king, assistant professor at the ACK Business School, said it was the first time for him to know what the Belt and Road Initiative really means.

"It was very pleased to understand that the initiative involves everybody, wherever they are, in Africa, the United States or Europe. The Belt and Road Initiative is an opportunity for everybody," he said.

Li Biao, secretary general of the Association of Chinese Companies in Kuwait, said Kuwait is an important market for Chinese enterprises, many of which have entered the Kuwaiti market since the initiative was put forward in 2013.

"At present, many Chinese companies are dedicated to the construction of large roads and bridges in Kuwait and the planning and construction of new cities. Under the framework of the initiative and 'Kuwait 2035,' there will be a very good development prospect for Chinese companies," Li said.

The initiative, proposed by China in 2013, aims to build a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along ancient trade routes.

In February 2010, the Kuwaiti government unveiled the "Kuwait 2035," a national development strategy to turn the traditionally oil-dependent country into a trade and financial hub.
ACCRA, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of Ghanaians led by the 'Put Ghana First Movement' poured into the streets here on Wednesday to protest the approval by parliament of a Defense Cooperation Agreement (DCA) between Ghana and the United States.

Bernard Mornah, Chairman of the People's National Convention (PNC), told protesters that the risks for Ghana were too high.

"The Americans' presence here will give them access to our radio spectrum. All of us are at risk. Above all, America has interest in our oil. They will bring their warships into our sea. They will control our naval bases. Our navy will not be able to check what they are taking out of our shores. They will take our oil away. Akufo-Addo has sold our sovereignty for a mere 20 million dollars," the leading politician insisted.

He emphasized that just as Ghanaians lived under the laws of the land, any foreigner who sought to live and work in Ghana, including American soldiers, should abide by the laws of the land.

The National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS), the official grouping of all university students in the country, was also part of the Wednesday protest.

The NUGS President, Elisha Oheneba Essumang, cautioned that the protests would continue till the agreement was withdrawn.

The crowd, numbering about 3,500 (according to police records), marched from the Obra Spot adjacent the Kwame Nkrumah Circle interchange and took more than three hours to reach the Hearts of Oak training pitch along the Accra High Street where they were addressed by the organizers.

Some of the placards bore inscriptions such as "Ghana is not for sale"; "Incompetent government-Incompetent Agreement"; "Trump, take your military base away"; and "419 (fraudulent) Agreement", among others, with protesters chanting patriotic songs .

Member of Parliament for Osu Korley-Klottey in the capital, Zanetor Rawlings, who is also the daughter of Ghana's former president Jerry John Rawlings, called for the withdrawal and renegotiation of the pact.

"The president asked us to be citizens and not spectators. Today, we are proving that we are citizens. We will defend the constitution of this nation forever and ever. We will not allow people to use funny tricks to deceive the people of Ghana. We know the content of this agreement. And any agreement that is for cooperation must be beneficial for all," she said.

A former Ghana Ambassador to the US, Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, noted that the agreement had been condemned both at home and abroad as not being in the interest of Ghana.

"I can speak as a former ambassador of Ghana to the United States and I assure all Ghanaians that when I was Ambassador to United States, it would not have been possible for such an agreement to leave the United States for Ghana," he said.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-29 02:53:51|Editor: yan

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TEHRAN, March 28 (Xinhua) -- An Iranian deputy foreign minister said that the withdrawal of foreign forces will help restore peace to Afghanistan, Tasnim news agency reported on Wednesday.

Abbas Araqchi, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs, rejected the effectiveness of any military approach to security issue in the country.

Military approaches have failed in Afghanistan in the past and so will be the case in the future, he said.

The ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan are the outcome of foreign military forces' presence in the South Asian country, he stressed.

The Iranian official added that the withdrawal of the foreign troops from Afghanistan would be "a prelude to peace" in the country.
ADDIS ABABA, March 28 (Xinhua) -- The Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources revealed on Wednesday that it is currently treating some 18,000 hectares of maize production from the fall armyworm.

Tewabe Chane, communication expert at the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, told Xinhua on Wednesday that the fall armyworm, which was first spotted in Ethiopia in late February last year, has currently stretched its presence into seven maize harvesting regions of the east African country.

According to Chane, more than 130,000 hectares of land is presently covered by maize production in the seven maize producing regions of the East African country, mainly through irrigation schemes.

The fall armyworm was spotted in 18,000 hectares of the total 130,000 hectares of production, Chane said.

Chane further noted that the Ministry, in its response to the pest, was able to treat more than 7,000 hectares of maize production together with its partners, while the remaining 11,000 hectares of the production is currently under treatment as the pest was spotted recently.

According to Chane, even though more than 80 varieties of cereals and other plants are vulnerable to the fall armyworm, the pest has not been so far spotted in any other cereals other than maize in Ethiopia.

The ministry has previously told Xinhua that 617,056 hectares of maize production was saved from the armyworm during Ethiopia's main harvesting season as of March last year.

Currently dealing with the fall armyworm's impact in the country's second harvesting season, the ministry asserted that the nature of the insect and its unknown character in the East African region has made the fight against the pest difficult.

Fall armyworm, the larva of night-flying moth, is a pest indigenous to the Americas. It was first detected in Africa in 2016 in Nigeria, South Sudan, Sao Tome and Principe, Benin, and Togo.
Soybeans being sorted according to their weight and density on a gravity sorter machine at Peterson Farms Seed facility in Fargo, North Dakota, U.S., Dec. 6, 2017. (Xinhua/REUTERS)

by Xinhua writers Wang Ping, Miao Zhuang

DES MOINES, United States, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Soybean farmers in Iowa are concerned about a possible trade war between the United States and China, which will see no winner, an official of the Iowa Soybean Association (ISA) said.

Last Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump signed a memorandum that could impose tariffs on up to 60 billion U.S. dollars of imports from China, the latest unilateral move that is likely to cause trade retaliation.

"We were disappointed to see that these actions have been taken. Of course we did not want to see any kind of trade disruptions," Grant Kimberly, marketing director of ISA, told Xinhua.

PRIME MARKET

Global soybean imports are expected to reach 151 million tonnes this year, of which China will import 97 million, or 64 percent, according to Peter Meyer, senior director of agricultural analytics at S&P Global Platts.

The United States provides close to 60 percent of the global soybean production and Iowa provides approximately 39 percent of China's soybean needs.

"China is our number one market and it's our most important market. It's a market that the U.S. soybean industry has been working in and been involved with long-standing relationships over 35 years when ... (it) first established office in China back in the 1980s," Kimberly said.

China is also the second-largest purchaser of U.S. pork.

File Photo: People take part in the Annual Pork Festival in Kouts, Indiana, the United States, Aug. 25, 2012, during which there are all kinds of activities like parade, Porkburge Eating Contest, guessing the weight of a pig and Truck show. (Xinhua/Jiang Xintong)

A retaliatory tariff on U.S. agricultural products would hurt U.S. farmers at a time they are already struggling financially. Earnings are expected to fall 6.7 percent this year to 59.5 billion dollar, the Department of Agriculture projects. It would be about half of the nation's 2013 record high earnings.

"U.S. farmers would be very concerned that a trade war would be a negative. It would reduce prices (for) farmers. We're already in a downturn in the U.S. agriculture economy. So that would make things worse," Kimberly said.

NEGATIVE IMPACT

Kimberly thinks the import tariffs announced by the Trump administration would dent the U.S. agricultural market, and domestic soybean prices could suffer the most.

"It already has a negative impact. We've already noticed that soybean prices have dropped from where they were about a month ago, that's partially due to trade war fear," he said.

The official said farmers will soon go to the field as the spring planting season starts. If prices remain weak, that might influence the types of crops they would grow. "They may choose to not grow as many soybean acres if the prices are not looking as positive long-term," he pointed out

Kimberly, who owns a farm of over 4,000 acres (16.19 sq km) in Des Moines, pre-sold some of his crops at the Chicago agricultural futures market as a hedge to get a better price.

"But I have not sold all. So if we do have a ... trade war, the market will probably go down and that will affect my income," Kimberly's father Eric Kimberly told Xinhua.

File Photo: An early wheat crop in the Central Valley in Davis, California, U.S., May 1, 2017. (Xinhua/REUTERS)

Iowa and U.S. agricultural officials have long warned the White House about the negative implications for the soybean industry if sanctions and tariffs are imposed. In just five years, farm income in the United States has declined 50 percent while crop prices have dropped 40 percent.

REASONABLE SOLUTION

The Chinese embassy in the United States said "any disputes and differences between the two countries should be solved through dialogues and consultations."

The Chinese ambassador, Cui Tiankai, said there is great potential for China-U.S. cooperation "but the key is that both sides have to take a cooperative and constructive approach; a confrontational one will not help anybody."

An attendant cleans the carpet next to U.S. and Chinese national flags before a news conference for the 6th round of U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, July 10, 2014. (Xinhua/REUTERS)

"Our message is that nobody wins in a trade war, especially when food and nutrition is involved. So ... hopefully both sides will come together and work out a solution that's beneficial to both sides," Grant Kimberly said.

As the two largest economies in the world, the United States and China must work together and get beyond trade disputes, he said.

"We as an industry continue to voice our concerns to the U.S. administration and make sure that they realize that we want to maintain free and fair and open trade between our two countries," he said.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-29 03:14:01|Editor: Lifang

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Participants attend the reconciliation meeting in Zintan of Libya on March 28, 2018. The Libyan city of Zintan on Wednesday hosted a reconciliation meeting with representatives of the rival city of Misurata for the first time since armed groups from the two cities fought in 2014 in Tripoli. (Xinhua/Hamza Turkia)

TRIPOLI, March 28 (Xinhua) -- The Libyan city of Zintan hosted a reconciliation meeting on Wednesday with representatives of the rival city of Misurata for the first time since armed groups from the two cities fought in 2014 in Tripoli.

The meeting was hosted by the Zintan military council, and was attended by military and tribal representatives of both cities.

"This meeting came after years of war and separation between the two cities. It is time to adopt reconciliation as an option to resolve differences and to deny opportunity for those who want to continue the differences between us," Mukhtar al-Akhdar, an official of the Zintan military council, told Xinhua.

"We have reached the stage of peace and renunciation of violence and weapons. No return to fighting between Libyans. Instead, we will work to promote reconciliation, especially with our brothers in Misurata," al-Akhdar added.

"Our presence today is to show good intentions with our brothers in Zintan. We remember well how they played a major role in the revolution of Feb. 17, 2011," Ibrahim Ben Rajab, head of the Misurata military council, told Xinhua.

Rajab also invited Zintan representatives to attend a similar meeting in Misurata to come up with a road map for reconciliation in the country.

"The people of the city believe that comprehensive national reconciliation leads to the protection of Libya from negative interventions. This meeting is a building block of reconciliation and continuation of Zintan to bridge gaps and support stability efforts between us," Mustafa Al-Baruni, mayor of Zintan, told Xinhua.

"Zintan and Misurata learned the lesson well and will not allow anyone to differentiate between them in the future. There is no way for weapons to resolve any conflict. Instead, we resolve our differences through peaceful dialogue," Al-Baruni added.

Sha'ban al-Marhani, head of the tribal reconciliation committee of Zintan, said that "the Libyan people have reached a stage of hatred for hostility between them, because war and fighting have disrupted life in many cities."

The meeting between Zintan and Misurata is the first of its kind since violence erupted in July 2014 between armed groups from the two cities in Tripoli, which created the current political division in the country.

After a month of fierce fighting that killed and injured hundreds of both side, the Misurata forces took over Tripoli and expelled Zintan forces.

The fighting caused major destruction in the city, mainly the Tripoli International Airport, and also forced all foreign missions and embassies to flee the country.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-29 03:29:06|Editor: yan

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GAZA, March 28 (Xinhua) -- In the Gaza Strip, preparations are underway for a massive anti-Israel rally scheduled next Friday along the border fence with Israel, the first to involve all Palestinian factions, including the Islamic Hamas movement.

The "Great March of Return," which will last until May 15, coincides with Israel's Independence Day and the Palestinian Day of "the Nakba," or the catastrophe.

It is organized by a joint Palestinian committee, which comprises Palestinian political factions, rights groups, youth and public sectors and organizations.

In preparations for the march, a number of tents were erected hundreds of meters away from the fence to embrace large crowds.

Organizers said the main goal of the march is to remind the world of the Palestinian refugees' right to return home they were forced to leave in 1948, as well as defying a tight Israeli blockade that has been imposed on the coastal enclave since 2007, when Hamas had violently seized control of Gaza after routing forces loyal to the Palestinian Authority.

The blockade has pushed Gaza's population deeper into poverty with a surging unprecedented unemployment rate.

So far, organizers have built up little mounds of sands before the tents in six major areas from southern to northern Gaza Strip, just 700 meters away from the fence, as a protection for the participants from any Israeli army gunfire.

Gaza's two million residents have been urged to take part in Gaza's largest ever anti-Israel peaceful rally.

Friday, the day when the rally kicks off, coincides with the Palestinian "Land Day", an annual occasion marked by the Palestinians since 1976 to protest against the Israeli confiscation of Palestinian lands.

"The march of return aims to emphasize adherence to Palestinian rights, with right to return as their priority," Islamic Jihad leader Khaled al-Batsh told Xinhua.

Batsh explained that specialized committees formed by the factions and civil society organizations will work to ensure the success of the march and its objectives.

On the official Facebook page of the rally, organizers said the march is going to be a massive peaceful event that will be observed in Gaza, the West Bank, Jerusalem, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Egypt.

Mohammed Faraj al-Ghoul, head of the legal committee in the Palestinian Legislative Council, said that the rally is a legal tool for Palestinians to obtain their right of return.

He added that the march represents a popular Palestinian response to "the U.S. so-called deal of the century" and Washington's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

"It is a practical move to confront the attempts to eliminate the Palestinian cause," he stressed.

U.S. President Donald Trump is racing against time to firm up his initiative, publicly known as the deal of the century, which aims at ending the prolonged Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

However, Trump's plan is not welcomed by the Palestinian Authority, which rejected the plan after the U.S. president recognized the disputed city of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in December last year.

Palestinians now seek an international multilateral mechanism to overlook the Palestinian-Israeli peace process, once sponsored by the United States and stalled since 2014.

On the other hand, Palestinian observers have raised concerns over a military escalation in Gaza once the rally is violently targeted by Israel.

Adnan Abu Amer, a Gaza-based political observer, warned that the issue of the march of return occupied in recent days the headlines of Israeli news.

"The Israeli press published the positions of Israeli army generals regarding the situation in Gaza as some called for a military strike against Hamas, while others preferred providing practical solutions to the humanitarian crisis in the territory," he said.

The expert explained that Israeli estimations highlight the possibility that Palestinian demonstrators will approach the Israeli crossings with Gaza, which may lead Israeli army snipers to fire at them, causing a large number of victims.

"Thus, Palestinian factions will fire missiles on Israel in response, which may cause a new military confrontation," he pointed out.

In the past 10 years, Israel and Hamas movement have been engaged in three major wars that claimed the lives of thousands of Palestinians and Israelis.

Days before the rally, Hamas armed wing, Qassam Brigades, staged large defensive drills in Gaza.

Hundreds of Qassam militants, carrying light machine guns, were deployed on main streets over the past two days across the Gaza Strip.

Explosions were heard in different parts of the coastal enclave, while tank-like military vehicles were also observed, in addition to firing a number of missiles into the sea.

The return rally comes amid deep stalemate in the process of national Palestinian reconciliation, with Hamas and Fatah rivals trading accusations over the deterioration of the Egyptian-mediated unity talks.

Akaram Attallah, a Palestinian political observer from Gaza, said neither negotiation, nor armed conflicts have resulted in any good outcomes for the Palestinian cause.

"The only remaining way for Palestinians to get their rights is holding such mass rallies," Atallah told Xinhua.

He added that Israel has also prepared itself for the Palestinian protests as Israeli bulldozers set up sand mounds along the borders with Gaza, pointing out that Israeli drones equipped with tear gas will be used to disperse protestors.

"What is really important is to keep these rallies peaceful," he said.
MOSCOW, March 28 (Xinhua) -- The Russian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday condemned the expulsion of Russian diplomats by Ukraine over an ex-spy poisoning case, saying that Moscow will certainly respond with harsh retaliation.

It said in a statement that the Ukrainian government took a "thoughtless" stance in the incident.

"It should also be noted that Kiev has orchestrated its moves in unison with Western nations, including France and Germany, which is creating a negative backdrop for talks on the Ukrainian settlement, including in the Normandy format," the ministry said.

It warned that Kiev's unfriendly step would be followed by a fitting and painful response from Moscow.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced Monday that Ukraine had decided to expel 13 Russian diplomats due to the poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal in Britain.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-29 03:54:10|Editor: Liu

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by Xinhua writers Xu Yang, Zhu Sheng

BERLIN, March 28 (Xinhua) -- For centuries, endless river steamers run on the Rhine river, making their whistles as the symbol of the prosperity of German city Duisburg.

Today the sirens of trains coming from thousands of miles away and the sound of whistles converge here. Like a cheerful symphony, new vitality is being brought to the city.

Duisburg, Germany's biggest inland port and one of the important slots of China Railway Express (CRE), has witnessed fruitful results of the Belt and Road Initiative over the past few years and harvested its own urban economic growth.

WITNESS: FROM FEW TO MANY

Amelie Erxleben, of DIT Duisburg Intermodal Terminal, showed us recently around the terminal, where containers labeled with "China Railway Express" were seen everywhere. Large equipment machines were busy loading and unloading.

"About one third of our business now is related to China," Erxleben said, adding that "around 25 west- and eastbound CRE trains are expected here every week."

DIT, one of the nine large freight yards, is also a main railway container distribution center in the region. Only four years ago, DIT only handled seven to eight CRE trains weekly.

The soaring business volume makes dit appear more crowded. Even the road in front of its gated is often congested.

In order to deal with new situation, management of the terminal has recently bought another 200,000 square meters of land, according to Erxleben.

Duisburg is on one end of the Chongqing-Xinjiang-Europe rail line which started operation in 2011 from the Chinese southwest city of Chongqing. In recent years, more and more trains operated by the CRE from Zhengzhou, Wuhan, Yiwu, Shenyang and other Chinese cities are arriving here.

Statistics showed that 78 Chongqing-Xinjiang-Europe trains, a year-on-year increase of 66 percent, have been operated since this January. More than 1,000 trains are planned this year.

PARTICIPATION: UNLIMITED OPPORTUNITIES

Chen Si, a native woman from China's western province of Sichuan, is exploring the huge market brought by CRE trains, together with her husband Klaus Hellmann, member of the supervisory board of the German logistics company Hellmann.

The transport between Germany and China takes CRE trains approximately 14 days, much faster than by sea and much cheaper than by air. Therefore, it has certain comparative advantage, according to Chen.

"Last year, the total volume of our business by rail from Europe to China amounted to 160,000 tonnes, almost equaling the weight of the Cologne Cathedral," said Matthias Magnor, chief operating officer of Rail and Road at Hellmann, during an interview with Xinhua.

CRE trains has made a great contribution to that volume. Meanwhile, the business is growing very fast, Magnor added.

Many industries have benefited from the Europe-China freight trains.

"For example the fashion industry, the sales would be very much affected by seasonal reasons. Before the operation of CRE trains, it would take around 40 to 50 days to transport. But now 14 to 15 days are needed, which will sufficiently ensure the sales," Magnor said.

In fact, when Hellmann began its CRE train business five years ago, some German companies were not very optimistic.

"I managed to persuade them that it is a viable transport option," Hellmann said.

Facts speak louder than words. CRE trains under the Belt and Road Initiative have become the "third pillar" for the transportation between Europe and Asia besides air and sea ways.

WIN-WIN: NEW SAIL FOR OLD SHIP

In recent years, Duisburg has also faced the problem of traditional growth momentum decline and is in search for new growth engines. It is just like an old ship opening a new sail. With CRE trains, another gold time will be presented to Duisburg.

Johannes Pflug, responsible for China affairs in the Duisburg municipality, said that the volume of the Port of Duisburg grew by 30 percent in 2017, making itself the fastest growing port in Germany.

CRE trains play an important role and more than 6,000 jobs in the area of logistics for the city have been created, Pflug told Xinhua, adding "we are the beneficiary of CRE trains."

In Pflug's opinion, CRE trains connect the Europe and Asia more closely, achieving a win-win situation. Not only Chinese goods, but also Chinese capital and companies are attracted to Duisburg. More than 100 Chinese companies have so far settled in the region.

"A Chinese company is constructing a 18-story hotel; Chinese company Huawei is responsible for the lighting project of the city," Pflug said.

As the Mayor of Duisburg Soeren Link said, CRE trains have brought unlimited opportunities to the city. They bring not only the development of local logistics, but also the improvement of supporting services.

The Belt and Road Initiative sees Duisburg usher in a second spring, according to a commentary of German newspaper Sueddeutsche.

The Rhine crosses Duisburg and enters the North Sea. The world economy is just like the sea that can not return to the lake. Protectionism can not create current prosperity in Duisburg either. The new movement on the Rhine is precisely the pulse of this great new era.
KHARTOUM, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Wednesday issued a decree to extend the ceasefire in all conflict zones for three months, official SUNA news agency reported.

"Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir issued a Republican Decree Wednesday, extending the declared ceasefire until June 30, 2018," the report said.

For the past few years, the Sudanese government and the armed opposition have kept on renewing the ceasefire at the conflict zones.

In June 2016, al-Bashir declared the first ceasefire for four months to avail the opportunity for the rebel movements to join the national dialogue and then the ceasefire has been extended for many times.

The Sudanese government has been fighting the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM)/northern sector in South Kordofan and Blue Nile areas since 2011.

Many rounds of peace talks held in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa failed to end the conflict.

The Sudanese government has also been fighting armed groups in the Darfur region since 2003.
TRIPOLI, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Libya's UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez Serraj on Wednesday called on the Netherlands to help Libya "partially" lift the arms embargo imposed by the UN Security Council since 2011.

Serraj made his remarks during a meeting with Sigrid Kaag, Dutch minister for foreign trade and development cooperation, in the capital Tripoli.

"The Prime Minister stressed the close ties between the two friendly countries, praising the support provided by the Netherlands to the government's programs in several areas, such as empowerment of women and the High Commission of Elections and local governance," the media office of the Prime Minister said in a statement.

The Prime Minister expressed hope for developing this support to include other areas, pointing to the current membership of the Netherlands in the Security Council and the importance of supporting the Libya's demand to enable it to manage its frozen assets to stop its losses.

He requested a partial lifting of the arms embargo to enable specific military sectors to carry out their work, such as the Coast Guards, the Counter-terrorism Force and the Presidential Guards, the statement added.

Serraj also called on Dutch companies to "contribute to support the government's programs to provide employment opportunities for young people through small and medium enterprises."

Kaag welcomed cooperation between the two countries, stressing the legitimacy of Libya's demands to manage its frozen funds and partially lift the arms embargo.

She also revealed that Dutch companies are willing to return to Libya, confirming that her future visit to Libya will include representatives of Dutch companies.

The Dutch minister welcomed Serraj's proposal to hold an international forum in Tripoli for companies and financial and economic institutions of friendly countries.

The UN Security Council has imposed a ban on the sale and supply of arms to Libya since 2011.

Libya is suffering from a security chaos and a political division, with authorities in the east and west of the country.

The deteriorating security situation in Libya forced foreign companies to flee the counties and suspend their projects.
U.N. peacekeepers carry the coffins of the three United Nations soldiers from Bangladesh, who were killed by an explosive device in northern Mali on Sunday, during a ceremony at the MINUSMA base in Bamako, Mali Sept. 27, 2017. (Xinhua/REUTERS)

UNITED NATIONS, March 28 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday called for strong collective action to deal with the serious challenges to UN peacekeeping.

UN peacekeeping faces serious challenges, particularly in four of its largest deployments: Mali, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, and South Sudan, Guterres told the Security Council in a high-level debate on peacekeeping.

"UN peacekeeping missions now operate in far more dangerous, complex and high-risk environments. They are under threat from armed groups, criminals and terrorists, who have access to powerful modern weapons," he said. "UN peacekeepers are often under-equipped, under-prepared and unready for the dangerous environments in which they now operate. There are gaps in command and control, in culture, in equipment and in training."

Chinese UN peacekeeper Yang Shupeng's son, accompanied by Yang's wife Zou Lina, holds his portrait during a ceremony at Zhengzhou Xinzheng International Airport in Zhengzhou, capital of central China's Henan Province, July 20, 2016. A ceremony was held for the returning of the bodies of Corporal Li Lei, 22 and Master Sergeant Yang Shupeng, 33 who were killed in the recent fighting in the conflict-hit South Sudan, and other injured soldiers on Wednesday. (Xinhua/Yin Gang)

UN peacekeepers are vulnerable and are targeted for attack, said Guterres. Last year, 59 UN peacekeepers were killed in malicious acts, a sharp increase from 2016, when the figure was 34.

"We are damaging the instrument of peacekeeping, and indeed multilateralism itself, in creating unrealistic expectations. Lives and credibility are being lost," he said. "These challenges require strong, collective action."

He asked to refocus peacekeeping with realistic expectations; to make peacekeeping missions stronger and safer; and to mobilize greater support for political solutions and for well-structured, well-equipped, well-trained forces.

The United Nations is working to improve the safety and security of peacekeepers, he said. "We have already started to implement measures to improve the preparedness and response of missions at high risk by strengthening training, reviewing medical support, and addressing performance issues."

Ghanaian peacekeepers of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) patrol on March 7, 2018 in Leer, where famine has been declared since February 2017. (Xinhua/AFP)

The world body is conducting independent reviews of the peacekeeping missions in a bid to refine their priorities and configuration, while assessing the viability of mandates and political processes. The goal is to ensure that the peacekeepers are well-trained, well-equipped and better postured for challenges and threats. "Too often in the past, our troops have been reduced to waiting in a defensive posture, giving hostile forces time and space to plan attacks," he said.

Soldiers of Tanzania People's Defence Force (TPDF) stand beside the coffins of Tanzanian peacekeeperes who were killed by suspected Ugandan rebels, at the headquarters of Tanzania People's Defence Force in Dar es Salaam on Dec. 14, 2017. (Xinhua/AFP)

Guterres said he has launched a new approach to sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers so that victims have a clear way to report allegations, and the United Nations can work with troop- and police-contributing countries to address the allegations, end impunity and prevent future cases.

He stressed that efforts on the side of the United Nations, although critical, are not enough to meet the challenges. "Our chances of success increase dramatically when we work together with member states and share burdens, risks and responsibilities. We urgently need a quantum leap in collective engagement."
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-29 04:44:20|Editor: yan

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GENEVA, March 28 (Xinhua) -- The assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union passed a declaration Wednesday calling on members through their parliaments to transform the aspirations of two UN-led Global Compacts, one on migrants and another on refugees.

The Assembly Declaration was part of the agenda of the 138th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly in Geneva from March 24-28 as it called on legislators to bring the compacts into their national laws.

IPU President Gabriela Cuevas Barron, a 38-year-old Mexican senator, the youngest person to hold this office, reiterated the spirit of the Assembly Declaration when she addressed a press conference here.

She said in her opening remarks, "We have the power, as members of parliament, to turn the tide. As a starting point, we should stop considering migration as a 'problem.'

"Let us think of it as both a challenge and an opportunity for all parties involved," she said noting that as a Mexican she is made deeply aware of the issue of migration.

"The 22.5 million refugees around the world, and more comprehensively the 65.6 million forcibly displaced people worldwide, are not only people in need of assistance but also agents of change both in their home and recipient countries."

The IPU emphasized the critical role of parliaments in transforming the aspirations of the two Global Compacts.

The declaration asserts that migration when properly managed contributes to greater well-being and prosperity of people in host countries.

Likewise, it says that the flight of refugees from persecution and conflict is not new.

When refugees flee, those who provide them with the protection and assistance they need represent the power of humanity and must be supported in their efforts by the international community.

During the assembly the IPU and UN refugee agency, UNHCR launched a major publication on refugee protection and building state asylum systems in support of one of the UN-initiated Global Compacts.

Among the many issues covered in the publication is mobilizing parliamentary support for establishing and maintaining fair and effective national asylum systems.

Members of Parliament also tackled sustainable development issues related to health, renewable energy, and conflict prevention and resolution throughout the five-day assembly.

They reminded governments of their responsibility to "leave no one behind" in their development efforts, said the IPU in a statement.

"The actions taken, and the statements made during this assembly clearly show that the parliamentary community is playing a pivotal role in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)," explained IPU Secretary General Martin Chungong.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-29 04:49:21|Editor: yan

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UNITED NATIONS, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Moussa Faki Mahamat, chairperson of the African Union Commission, said Wednesday that unilateralism could be a serious threat to global peace and security.

Speaking at the "Collective Action to Improve UN Peacekeeping Operations" open debate of the UN Security Council via teleconference from Nouakchott, capital and largest city of Mauritania, Mahamat said he advocated that everything should be done to protect multilateralism.

Noting that peacekeeping operations mandated by the Security Council are a cornerstone of international efforts to promote peace and security, they illustrate the value of multilateralism and symbolize global solidarity.

Africa is profoundly attached to multilateralism and its institutions, viewing them as the only way to ensure a lasting response to peace and security challenges, he said.

Noting that about half of all peacekeeping operations are in Africa, with the goal of ridding the continent of war by 2020, he said many are deployed in volatile environments amid the absence of an effective political process, testifying to the challenges at hand.

As such, peacekeeping missions must be endowed with resources needed to properly and fully deliver on their mandates, he said.

"It seems we are overly focused on budgets and financing, but that should not distract from the over-arching goal of peace," he said, stressing that spending on peacekeeping is a mere fraction of global arms expenditures.

In addition, there must be closer cooperation between the United Nations and the African Union, he said, adding that peacekeeping operations risk being long-term in the absence of political processes. Solving political issues take time and the mere presence of a peacekeeping operation helps stabilize a situation.

By the same token, it is morally reprehensible to challenge the presence of such an operation, he said.

In that context, he emphasized the importance of partnership between the Security Council and the African Union Peace and Security Council, through joint field visits and sending a single unified message to the parties in a conflict.

He said the Security Council must also take on board the views of the African Union and openly receive its input.

He suggested that the African Union Commission and the UN Secretariat ramp up joint field visits at the highest possible level with the aim of taking a joint stance.

There is a need for complementarity between UN peacekeeping and AU missions, he said, stressing that the bloc and its regional mechanisms have demonstrated their determination to take risks for the cause of peace.

Given financial and logistical shortfalls, the Security Council must ensure sustained and predictable funding for the operations it authorized.

Whatever the criticism of peacekeeping, the international community must not "throw out the baby with the bathwater" when addressing the issue.

The debate was chaired by the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres briefed the meeting. Fatimata Toure, director of the GREFFA (Groupe de Recherche d'Etude de Formation Femme Action), a Malian non-governmental organization, also spoke.

The objective of the debate was to discuss ways to improve engagement of all actors in support of UN peacekeeping operations.
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. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

MOSCOW, March 28 (Xinhua) -- The Russian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday condemned the expulsion of Russian diplomats by Ukraine over an ex-spy poisoning case, saying that Moscow will certainly respond with harsh retaliation.

It said in a statement that the Ukrainian government took a "thoughtless" stance in the incident.

"It should also be noted that Kiev has orchestrated its moves in unison with Western nations, including France and Germany, which is creating a negative backdrop for talks on the Ukrainian settlement, including in the Normandy format," the ministry said.

It warned that Kiev's unfriendly step would be followed by a fitting and painful response from Moscow.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced Monday that Ukraine had decided to expel 13 Russian diplomats due to the poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal in Britain.
ARUSHA, Tanzania, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Tanzania is in final stages to transforming mode of operation for the country's wildlife and forest institutions into paramilitary in a bid to reinforce anti-poaching battle, a senior official said on Wednesday.

Japhet Hasunga, Tanzania's Deputy Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism said that the institutions which are to be operated under paramilitary system include Tanzania National Park, Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority, Tanzania Wildlife Authority and Tanzania Forest Services.

"We [are] finalizing all essential procedures to run the paramilitary," he said, noting that once the paramilitary system is in full swing, management of the east African nation's natural resources will be improved.

According to Hasunga, non-military staffs of the wildlife and forest institutions are currently undergoing training in a camp located in western Tanzania's district of Mlele.

The official said that reckless killings of wildlife particularly large mammals like elephants and wantonly tree felling remained a serious challenge to the country's natural resources.

He said that the destruction of forest in the country is highly attributed to the increase of human activities beyond the procedures and laws of the forest.

He said that recently about 108 non-military staffs have been trained on the paramilitary system. "The paramilitary training encompasses a wide range of skills such as wildlife and forest conservation skills, proper use of weapons to curb poaching incidents as well as leadership, and ethics," he said.

At independence, Tanzania had 350,000 elephants. During the first wave of intense poaching between 1970 and the 1980s, there were only 55,000 elephants left in 1987.

A recent census at the Selous-Mikumi ecosystem, one of the country's biggest wildlife sanctuaries, revealed the elephant population had gone down to just 13,084, from 38, 975 in 2009, representing a 66-percent decline.

The current deforestation rate in Tanzania is approaching 373,000 hectares per year, making it among the highest in East Africa.
RABAT, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Morocco's largest investment holding company, Societe Nationale d'Investissement (SNI), has drastically expanded in Africa, the company source said on Wednesday.

It made 26 percent of its profits in 2017 from its business activities in Africa compared to 11 percent in 2013, the source said.

The increase of the African contribution in the company's revenues was made in a statement issued after a meeting of SNI's board of directors on Wednesday in Morocco's economic capital Casablanca.

The company said that expansion in Africa was a decision taken in 2014, noting that it has invested some 650 million U.S. dollars in the other countries of the continent in 2017.

It noted that it has now presence in 24 African nations in addition to its branches in Belgium, France and the United Arab Emirates.

SNI announced also that it has decided to change its name to Al Mada and its motto to "Positive Impact".

The Moroccan holding company is the main shareholder in some of the country's biggest firms, including AttijariWafa Bank, miner Managem, energy firm Nareva, cement company Lafarge Maroc and Marjane, Morocco's leading supermarket chain.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-29 05:24:28|Editor: Lifang

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Staff members count ballots at a polling station in Cairo, Egypt, on March 28, 2018. Egypt's 2018 presidential election came to an end on Wednesday, as the polling stations closed nationwide at 10 p.m. local time. (Xinhua/Meng Tao)

CAIRO, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Polling stations in Egypt closed Wednesday at 10 p.m. local time (0800 GMT) , bringing an end to the three-day presidential elections which kicked off on Monday.

Incumbent President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi is expected to make an easy win on his sole rival, a little-known politician, for a second four-year term.

The Egyptian leadership seeks a high voter turnout as a sign of popular support for President Sisi's reelection and the people's confidence in his leadership for a better future.

On March 19, the most populous Arab state wrapped up the three-day voting process of Egyptian expatriates in about 124 countries across the world.

Nearly 60 million Egyptians out of the country's 104 million population are eligible to vote in some 13,700 polling stations nationwide.

Judge Yossif Jamal, head of Hadayek al-Maadi polling station in Cairo told Xinhua the turnout in his station was medium, adding that it increased notably on the third day.

"Around 25 percent of voters in this station cast their votes," he said, adding that during the three days of elections the polling station witnessed a medium voter turnout, with mostly women and old people approaching the ballots.

The judge said the percentage registered at this station could not be an indication as many stations across the country witnessed a high turnout that exceeded 50 percent.

"After counting the ballots, the results will be sent to the National Elections Authority which will announce the final results later next week," he pointed out.

The election's final result will be announced on April 2, according to the National Election Authority.

Right after polling stations were closed, President Sisi hailed the Egyptians for participating in the elections.

"The scenes of the Egyptians before the polling stations will remain sources of honor and pride for me, and a shining proof of the greatness of our nation," Sisi posted on his Facebook page.

The polls are held amid intense security presence and tight security measures taken by the army and the police around polling centers throughout Egypt.

Voters cast their ballots at some 13,706 polling stations nationwide, with about 18,000 judges overseeing the voting process that is also monitored by at least 53 local organizations and nine international ones, besides more than 680 foreign reporters.

Hours before the election kicked off, the police announced the killing of six terrorists during a raid in Beheira province north of the capital Cairo.

The interior ministry said the terrorist cell was involved in Saturday's car bomb attack in the nearby coastal province of Alexandria that killed two policemen and wounded at least four others.

Terror activities in Egypt have killed hundreds of security men and civilians since the military toppled Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in July 2013 in response to mass protests against his one-year rule and his currently outlawed Brotherhood group.

The country's elections authority announced on Wednesday that the governorates of Cairo, Giza, Alexandria, and North Sinai, which suffer the most from terrorist attacks, witnessed the highest voter turnout throughout the three days of elections.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-29 05:34:31|Editor: yan

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BRASILIA, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's President Michel Temer on Wednesday condemned the attack Tuesday on a convoy of former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, on a highway in the southern state of Parana, with two buses being hit by bullets although nobody was hurt.

"It is a shame that this happened because it creates a climate of instability in the country, of a lack of peace, which is crucial at the current time," he said in a radio interview with the press.

According to the president, the "rabid sentiment" which has taken hold in the country is very dangerous to democracy.

On Wednesday, Lula released a video on social networks, which denounced the attack as intimidation to get him not to run for president.

In his message, the former president said he had participated closely in every Brazilian presidential election since 1989 and had never seen such a level of violence.

Temer also condemned the threats received by justices on the Supreme Court (STF), including Edson Fachin, the rapporteur of Operation Lava Jato, whose security has been reinforced.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-29 05:49:34|Editor: yan

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QUITO, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Ecuador's government on Wednesday said it suspended WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's access to all outside communications, including the internet, where he maintained an active political presence.

Some of his recent pronouncements risked impacting Ecuador's ties with other countries, the government said.

"The government of Ecuador cautions that Assange's behavior, via messages on social networks, put at risk the country's good relations with Britain, with the other countries of the European Union and other nations," the National Communications Ministry (Secom) said in a statement.

The ministry added that Assange had previously agreed to refrain from publicly making politically sensitive statements.

"The decision (to suspend access) was made after Assange failed to fulfill an agreement he signed with the government at the end of 2017, which obligates him to refrain from issuing messages that could be presumed to interfere in (the affairs of) other states," according to the statement.

On Sunday, Assange posted several messages on Twitter criticizing the arrest of Carles Puigdemont, Spain's former Catalan leader, sparking the decision to suspend his access to all communications.

"To prevent potential damage, on March 27 the London embassy suspended Assange's access to communications with the outside," the ministry said.

Ecuador granted Assange political asylum in 2012, but the anti-secrecy activist has been living in virtual captivity at its embassy in London, as the British government has refused to give him safe passage to leave the country.

Assange's lawyers are to meet with Ecuadorian envoys in London next week to discuss the measure, Foreign Affairs Minister Maria Fernanda Espinoza said later in the day.

"We will explore options within the framework of international law and our own legislation and the Ecuadorian Constitution," Espinoza told reporters.

"The important thing is to continue to dialogue with Britain to find a definitive and lasting solution to this situation that the current government has inherited from the previous administration," she said.

Assange, who after six years in confinement is reportedly in ailing health, was granted asylum by former president Rafael Correa.

In December, Moreno's government granted him citizenship in a bid to break the diplomatic and legal deadlock with Britain over Assange's fate. The idea was to give him diplomatic status and immunity, but Britain refused to go along with the plan.
DUBLIN, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Another 222 families became homeless in Ireland in February, bringing to 1,739 the total number of such families in the country as of the end of last month, said an official here on Wednesday.

Eoghan Murphy, Irish Minister for Housing, told local media that the February figure for homeless families in the country represented a 40 percent increase compared with a year ago.

The latest homeless figures showed a "very worrying trend" of continued increases in the number of families in emergency accommodation, he said, adding that the homeless families involved nearly 10,000 people including 3,755 children.

Out of the 222 homeless families recorded in February, 138 were in the country's capital Dublin with the balance to be held in other parts of the country, especially the country's southwest, said the minister.

Murphy said that the government has put a huge amount of work to both prevent people from entering emergency accommodation and to exit people into sustainable tenancies as quickly as possible.

He said that over 2,000 families were moved out of emergency accommodation hotels last year as a result of the government's efforts in dealing with the homeless issue in the country.

The minister vowed that the government will continue to make all necessary resources available to homeless people.

Eoin O Broin, housing spokesman of the opposition party Sinn Fein, said that contrary to the claims made by the government, the rate of "child and family homelessness is spiralling out of control."

Another opposition party Fianna Fail said in a statement that the party is dismayed by the latest figures and they demanded the government to offer immediate explanation for this continued rise.

The rise of the homeless family numbers in Ireland is believed to be partially related to the recent rapid increase in the country's house rents, especially in Dublin where house rents have reportedly surpassed the peak time level prior to the financial crisis by nearly 30 percent.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-29 06:09:37|Editor: Liangyu

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Ma Zhaoxu (L, front), China's permanent representative to the United Nations, speaks at the "Collective Action to Improve UN Peacekeeping Operations" open debate of the UN Security Council in New York, March 28, 2018. The Chinese envoy said Wednesday that United Nations peacekeeping missions must strictly adhere to UN Charter principles and fully respect the sovereignty of host countries. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

UNITED NATIONS, March 28 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy said Wednesday that United Nations peacekeeping missions must strictly adhere to UN Charter principles and fully respect the sovereignty of host countries.

"Member states and the Secretariat must adapt peacekeeping operations to changing situations on the ground," said Ma Zhaoxu, China's permanent representative to the United Nations, at the "Collective Action to Improve UN Peacekeeping Operations" open debate of the UN Security Council.

"Secretariat support for peacekeeping must be enhanced, with priority given to troop security," he said.

"It was imperative to enhance the capacity of troop-contributing countries, particularly developing countries, and to reinforce partnerships with regional organizations," he added.

Emphasizing that China was the second largest troop-contributing country among Security Council members, and the second largest contributor to the peacekeeping budget, he said China had established an 8,000-strong peacekeeping standby force, and had deployed its first helicopters to a mission in Africa.

The debate was chaired by the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte. The objective of the debate was to discuss ways to improve engagement of all actors in support of UN peacekeeping operations.
RABAT, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Morocco criticized French authorities Wednesday for not sharing their information on the Moroccan-French gunman who carried out deadly attacks in southern France.

"French authorities had been monitoring Radouane Lakdim, but we were not informed about his extremist behaviour. I think it was a miscommunication," Abdelahk Khiame, Director of Morocco's Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations, said in a statement.

The 25-year-old attacker went on a rampage in the towns of Carcassonne Trebes in southern France, killing three people as he hijacked a car, opened fire on police and took hostages in a supermarket before he was killed by the police.

The Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for the attack.

Khiame said Lakdim left Morocco along with his family when he was six months old, adding that he used to visit his family members and spend vacations from time to time in the kingdom, adding that during his visits "he never raised suspicions of security services."

He noted that his last visit to his country of origin was in February 2012 "before even the creation of the so-called Islamic State group."

Lakdim was known to police for small crimes and drug-dealing. French counter-terrorism prosecutor Francois Molins said Lakdim had also been listed by the police as radical people since 2014 and was under intelligence monitoring in the days leading up to the attack.

He added that the surveillance did not detect any warning signs that he was going to commit a violent action or any intention to go to Iraq or Syria.
NEW PORT, NEW JERSEY, March 28 (Xinhua) -- A 37-storey residence tower building constructed by a Chinese company celebrated its topping out Wednesday in Jersey City, adding a new touch to the landscape of Hudson River waterfront and the skyline of New York City.

Named Park and Shore, the new landmark building has been developed by Strategic Capital, a wholly owned subsidiary of China Construction America (CCA), which has been operating in the U.S. construction market for more than 30 years.

"Having an international presence here in Jersey City is really a great thing to the entire city," said Steven Fulop, mayor of Jersey City, when interviewed by Xinhua. "It's great to have investment from all over the world, particularly partners like CCA."

He said that there has been a little learning process in the relationship with CCA. "Initially I didn't know CCA's ability and their resources, as we build the relationship in the last four years, they've surprised in every way, on performance, involvement and commitment. We're looking forward to doing more projects with them."

Zhang Qiyue, Chinese consul general in New York, said at the ceremony that this is a very good example of win-win cooperation. "CCA and Strategic Capital have developed very well in Jersey City, but at the same time, I think they have contributed so much to local business and to the local community."

She said trade by nature is mutually beneficial, when talking about trade and investment issues, people must have a broad view and should all be convinced of the importance of partnership and cooperation.

"Especially today, we are living in a globalized world, everyone is depending on the well-being and development of others, we should all be supportive to each other," she said. "In today's globalized world, there are so many opportunities for win-win cooperation, why do we opt for lose-lose possibility?"

According to Ning Yuan, chairman and president of CCA, Park and Shore represents the first condominium development within the predominantly rental driven area in eight years. In less than a year, more than half of its 358 apartments have been sold. Closings of the main building and the whole project are slated for October 2018 and July 2019, respectively.
PRESIDENTS OF the Ironwood Kiwanis, Hurley Lions and Ironwood-Hurley Rotary Clubs hosted responders to the February downtown Ironwood fire Tuesday at the Elk and Hound restaurant in Ironwood. From left are Bernie Hibbeln, of the Kiwanis club; Peter Sturgul, of the Rotary club; Gerald Pisani, of the of the Hurley Lions, and Ironwood Public Safety Department Director Greg Klecker, who spoke on behalf of all of the first responding agencies.

By RALPH ANSAMI

[email protected]

Ironwood - About 40 people who fought the March 9 downtown Ironwood fire that claimed three lives were honored with a luncheon Tuesday at the Elk and Hound restaurant.

Members of the Ironwood Kiwanis, Hurley Lions and Ironwood-Hurley Rotary clubs gathered to say thank you to all the people who responded to the fire at 102-104 E. Aurora St. that destroyed the Chelsi's Corner business and the apartments above it.

"We appreciate this day," said Ironwood Public Safety Department Director Greg Klecker. He praised the coordinated response to the fire and efforts of IPSD fire officer Brandon Snyder, the lead investigator.

Mark Verrette, 57; Patrick Somerville, 51, and Levi Watkins, 27, died in the blaze. The cause has still not been determined.

"We decided to pick up the tab for all who fought the fire," Jim Mildren, Ironwood City Commission member and also a Kiwanis Club member, said Monday at a commission meeting.

Mildren said it was a "historic" gathering of the three clubs.

In the past, he said an annual appreciation day honored farmers, but since there are now so few farms remaining in the area, that event has ended.

Club members noted the fire could have burned down the entire city block of the downtown had not the intense blaze been fought successfully. Other nearby downtown businesses were damaged in the fire.

A proclamation thanking all who fought the fire says, "It is with sincere pride and humble prayers that we thank each of you, both today and every day, for this heroic effort and for putting your life and safety on the line."

In a related matter, Ironwood City Manager Scott Erickson said Monday that Fahrner Excavating has been hired by the owner of the demolished building to continue clean-up efforts that could extend through the end of April.

The downtown street was reopened on March 9, but the rubble of the building remains.

Erickson said the burned out area will eventually be seeded for a grass surface.
KIMBALL, Wis. - Raymond Don Kivi, 80, a lifelong resident of Kimball, passed away Sunday evening, March 25, 2018, at his residence.

Raymond was born on Aug. 24, 1937, in Kimball, the son of Louis and Tyyne (Maki) Kivi.

On Dec. 5, 1970, he was united in marriage to Frances D. Williams at St. Ambrose Catholic Church in Ironwood.

Raymond owned and operated Northern Drywall and Painting Contractors for 25 years. He then went to work as a heavy equipment operator for various local companies. Raymond concluded his working career at the Iron County Forestry Department.

Raymond was very proud to be the supervisor for the town of Kimball for 25 years.

He was a past president of the Saxon Harbor Boating Club and a past member of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary.

His hobbies included fishing and hunting. Raymond spent many happy hours fishing on Lake Superior. In his free time, he was a mechanic on boat motors at Saxon Harbor and at his home.

Raymond is survived by his loving wife, Fran; children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren; a sister, Eileen Rantanen, and several nieces.

In accordance with Raymond's wishes, cremation will take place.

A memorial service will be held Saturday, March 31, at 1 p.m., preceded by visitation at noon, at Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church, 100 W. Midland Ave., Ironwood, with the Rev. Lisa Ubbelohde officiating.

At the family's request, please, no flowers.

Funeral arrangements have been entrusted to Jerald Rocco, owner and manager of Lakeside Memorial Chapel Inc., in Wakefield, Mich. Condolences may be expressed online at lakesidememorialchapel.com.
This has been a long time in the making, but in our continuing pursuit to bring only the best of firearms, 2nd Amendment and defence related news to our readers, we are very excited to announce the next step in our evolution as a company.

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Washington, DC - President Donald J. Trump today announced his intent to nominate the following individual to a key position in his Administration:

Rebecca Kelly Slaughter of Maryland, to be a Member of the Federal Trade Commission for the remainder of a seven-year term expiring September 25, 2022. Ms. Slaughter is currently chief counsel to Senator Charles Schumer of New York. A native New Yorker, she has worked for Senate Minority Leader Schumer since 2009, advising him on legal, competition, telecom, privacy, consumer protection, and intellectual property matters, among other issues. Prior to joining Senator Schumers office, Ms. Slaughter was an associate in the D.C. office of Sidley Austin LLP. Ms. Slaughter received her B.A. in Anthropology magna cum laude from Yale University. She received her J.D. from Yale Law School, where she served as an editor on the Yale Law Journal. She currently resides in Maryland with her husband, Justin, and their daughter and son; they are expecting their third child in early April.

President Donald J. Trump Announces Intent to Appoint Personnel to Key Administration Post

President Donald J. Trump today announced his intent to appoint the following individual to a key position in his Administration:

Julie E. Cram of Maryland, to be the Senior Coordinator of United States International Basic Education Assistance. Ms. Cram is the Deputy Assistant Administrator in the Bureau for Economic Growth, Education and Environment (E3). Her portfolio includes the Offices of Education and Local Sustainability. In this position, she oversees the development and implementation of USAIDs strategy and policies in the education sector, as well as the implementation of USAID grant programs aimed at promoting locally-owned and led development efforts. Prior to joining USAID, Ms. Cram was an advocacy and public affairs expert with more than 18 years of experience in issue advocacy, communications, and government affairs from high-level posts in both the federal government and the private sector. From 2007- 2009, Ms. Cram served as Deputy Assistant to President and Director of Public Liaison for President George W. Bush.
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Washington, DC - The National Security Advisors of the United States of America, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates met at the White House on Friday, March 23, to discuss issues of strategic importance to the three countries, including joint efforts to counter the Iranian regimes malign influence and provocative behavior.

Senior officials from the Department of State, the Department of Defense, the Department of the Treasury, and the intelligence community participated in the meeting. The leaders agreed to meet trilaterally on a regular basis to develop and implement joint frameworks to mitigate threats to regional security and to bring greater peace, stability, and prosperity to the Middle East. Additionally, the National Security Advisor of Afghanistan joined a session focused on discussing ways the United States, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates can partner with Afghanistan to support the Afghan government and set conditions for an enduring peace settlement.
Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-28 07:43:07|Editor: Xiang Bo

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At the invitation of Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and Chinese president, Kim Jong Un, chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), paid an unofficial visit to China from March 25 to 28. During the visit, Xi held talks with Kim at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Xi held a welcoming ceremony for Kim before their talks. (Xinhua/Ju Peng)

BEIJING, March 28 (Xinhua) -- At the invitation of Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and Chinese president, Kim Jong Un, chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), paid an unofficial visit to China from Sunday to Wednesday.

During the visit, Xi held talks with Kim at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan held a welcoming banquet for Kim and his wife Ri Sol Ju and watched an art performance together.

Li Keqiang, Chinese premier and member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Wang Huning, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, and Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan attended related activities, respectively.

During the talks, Xi expressed warm welcome on behalf of the CPC Central Committee to Kim for his first visit to China.

Xi said he appreciated that Kim sent him a congratulatory message after the 19th CPC National Congress on his re-election as general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and the assumption of office of chairman of the CPC Central Military Commission (CMC).

Xi was also grateful to Kim for congratulating him again several days ago immediately after he was re-elected China's president and chairman of the CMC of the country.

Xi said Kim's current visit to China, which came at a special time and was of great significance, fully embodied the great importance that Comrade Chairman and the WPK Central Committee have attached to the relations between the two countries and the two parties.

"We speak highly of this visit," Xi told Kim.

For his part, Kim said a series of major and happy events have taken place consecutively in China recently, as the 19th CPC National Congress was held victoriously last year, and the annual sessions of the National People's Congress and the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference were successfully held not long ago.

Kim said Comrade Xi Jinping enjoyed the support of the CPC and the people of the whole country, became the core of the leadership and was re-elected Chinese president and CMC chairman. He said it is his obligation to come to congratulate Xi in person, in line with the DPRK-China friendly tradition.

At present, the Korean Peninsula situation is developing rapidly and many important changes have taken place, Kim said, adding that he felt he should come in time to inform Comrade General Secretary Xi Jinping in person the situation out of comradeship and moral responsibility.

Xi said the China-DPRK traditional friendship, established and cultivated meticulously by the elder generations of leaders of both parties and both countries, was the precious wealth of both sides.

Sharing common ideals and beliefs as well as profound revolutionary friendship, the elder generations of leaders of the two countries trusted and supported each other, and wrote a fine story in the history of international relations, said Xi.

He said several generations of the leaders of China and the DPRK have maintained close exchanges and paid frequent calls on each other like relatives.

The two parties and countries have supported each other and coordinated with each other during long-term practices, making great contributions to the development of the socialist cause.

"Both Comrade Chairman and I have personally experienced and witnessed the development of China-DPRK relationship," said Xi, adding that both sides have stated repeatedly that traditional China-DPRK friendship should be passed on continuously and developed better.

"This is a strategic choice and the only right choice both sides have made based on history and reality, the international and regional structure and the general situation of China-DPRK ties. This should not and will not change because of any single event at a particular time," Xi said.

The CPC and the Chinese government highly value China-DPRK friendly cooperative ties, Xi stressed. It is an unswerving principle of the CPC and the Chinese government to maintain, consolidate and develop good relations with the DPRK, he said.

"We are willing to work together with DPRK comrades, remain true to our original aspiration and jointly move forward, to promote long-term healthy and stable development of China-DPRK relations, benefit the two countries and two peoples, and make new contribution to regional peace, stability and development," Xi said.

Xi made four proposals concerning the development of China-DPRK relations.

Firstly, continue giving play to the guiding role of high-level exchanges. High-level exchanges have always played the most important guiding and promoting role in the history of China-DPRK relations. Under the new circumstances, I am willing to keep frequent contacts with Comrade Chairman through various forms such as exchange of visits, and sending special envoys and letters to each other.

Secondly, make full play of the time-tested valuable practices of strategic communication. It is the splendid tradition of the two parties to have frequent in-depth exchange of views on major issues. Both sides should maximize the important role of party-to-party exchanges, promote exchanges and cooperation between the two countries in various areas, and strengthen communication and mutual trust.

Thirdly, actively advance peaceful development. Socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, and the DPRK's socialist construction has also ushered in a new historical period. We are ready to make joint efforts with the DPRK side, conform to the trend of the times, hold high the banner of peace, development, cooperation and mutual benefit, continuously improve the wellbeing of the two peoples, and make positive contribution to regional peace, stability and development.

Fourthly, cement the popular will foundation for China-DPRK friendship. The two sides should, through various forms, enhance people-to-people exchanges, consolidate the foundation of popular will for bilateral friendly relations, especially enhance youth exchanges, inherit and carry forward the fine tradition of China-DPRK friendship.

Kim said he was greatly encouraged and inspired by General Secretary Xi's important views on DPRK-China friendship and the development of relations between the two parties and countries.

The DPRK-China friendship, which was founded and nurtured by the elder generations of leaders of both countries, is unshakable, he said. It is a strategic choice of the DPRK to pass on and develop friendship with China under the new situation, and it will remain unchanged under any circumstances.

Kim said his current visit aims to meet Chinese comrades, enhance strategic communication, and deepen traditional friendship, hoping to have opportunities to meet with Comrade General Secretary Xi Jinping often, and keep close contacts through such forms as sending special envoys and personal letters to each other, so as to promote to a new level the guidance of high-level meetings to the relations between the two parties and countries.

The two sides informed each other of their respective domestic situation. Xi said the 19th CPC National Congress had drawn a grand blueprint for building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects -- building a moderately prosperous society in all respects by 2020, having basically achieved modernization by 2035 and building a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful by the middle of the century.

The CPC will lead the Chinese people of all ethnic groups in keeping on working with great determination and continuously striving for the realization of the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation, Xi said.

"We have noticed that Comrade Chairman has led the WPK and the people of the DPRK in taking a series of active measures and scoring achievements in developing economy and improving people's wellbeing in recent years," Xi said.

The Chinese side expects political stability, economic development and people's happiness in the DPRK, and supports the WPK, led by Comrade Chairman, in leading the people of the DPRK to advance along the path of socialism, as well as the endeavors by comrades of the DPRK in developing economy and improving people's livelihood, Xi said.

Kim said, since the 18th CPC National Congress, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core has, with tremendous political courage and a strong sense of responsibility, developed new thinking and new ideas, put them into action, and solved many tough problems that were never resolved and accomplished many big things that were long on the agenda but never got done. These achievements fully proved that the lines of the CPC are correct lines that accord with the national conditions. In particular, Comrade General Secretary has put forward the requirements that the Party should exercise effective self-supervision and practice strict self-governance in every respect, which has contributed greatly to Party building and realized the overall Party leadership over all work. At present, the WPK is also intensifying its efforts in fighting against arrogance, bureaucracy and corruption.

Kim said he sincerely hoped that China will continuously make new great achievements in the course of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and a great modern socialist country.

The two leaders thoroughly exchanged views on the situation of the world and the Korean Peninsula.

Xi said that positive changes had taken place on the Korean Peninsula since this year, and China appreciates the important efforts made by the DPRK.

On the Korean Peninsula issue, Xi said that China sticks to the goal of denuclearization of the peninsula, safeguarding peace and stability on the peninsula and solving problems through dialogue and consultation.

China calls on all parties to support the improvement of inter-Korean ties, and take concrete efforts to facilitate peace talks, said Xi, noting that China will continue to play constructive role on the issue and work with all parties, including the DPRK, toward the thaw of the situation on the peninsula.

Kim said that the situation on the Korean Peninsula is starting to get better, as the DPRK has taken the initiative to ease tensions and put forward proposals for peace talks.

"It is our consistent stand to be committed to denuclearization on the peninsula, in accordance with the will of late President Kim Il Sung and late General Secretary Kim Jong Il," he said.

Kim said that the DPRK is determined to transform the inter-Korean ties into a relationship of reconciliation and cooperation and hold summit between the heads of the two sides.

The DPRK is willing to have dialogue with the United States and hold a summit of the two countries, he said.

"The issue of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula can be resolved, if south Korea and the United States respond to our efforts with goodwill, create an atmosphere of peace and stability while taking progressive and synchronous measures for the realization of peace," said Kim.

The DPRK hopes to enhance strategic communication with China during the process, jointly safeguard the trend of consultation and dialogue as well as peace and stability on the peninsula, said Kim.

Before the talks, Xi held a welcoming ceremony for Kim at the North Hall of the Great Hall of the People.

After the talks, Xi and Peng held a welcoming banquet for Kim and Ri. While delivering an address, Xi said that in the beautiful season of spring when everything is coming back to life, the unofficial visit of Comrade Kim Jong Un and Lady Ri Sol Ju to China is of great significance for the two countries to deepen communication, strengthen coordination and promote cooperation, and will push the relations between the two parties and the two countries to a new high in the new historical phase, as well as make important contributions to pushing forward the peace, stability and development in the region.

Xi said he had candid and friendly talks with Chairman Kim Jong Un. "We agreed that carrying forward the traditional friendship between China and the DPRK accords with the common interests of both sides, and is the common strategic choice of both sides."

"No matter how the international and regional situation changes, we will both firmly grasp the global development trend and the overall situation of the China-DPRK relationship, strengthen our high-level exchanges, deepen our strategic communication, expand our exchanges and cooperation, and benefit the people of both countries and the people of all countries," he said.

While addressing the banquet, Kim said that as the situation of the Korean Peninsula is undergoing unprecedented changes, he paid a swift visit to China, out of good wishes for promoting peace and stability on the peninsula, and carrying on and developing the DPRK-China friendship.

He said the fact that he chose China as the destination of his first overseas visit showed his will to carry forward the tradition of DPRK-China friendship, and how he valued the friendship between the two countries.

"I have had successful talks with General Secretary Xi Jinping on developing relations between the two parties and the two countries, our respective domestic situation, maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, and other issues," he said.

"In this spring full of happiness and hopes, I believe my first meeting with General Secretary Xi Jinping will yield abundant fruits of DPRK-China friendship, and facilitate peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula," he said.

During the visit, Xi and Peng held a luncheon for Kim and Ri in the Yangyuanzhai Room of the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. Xi said that the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse has witnessed the development of the traditional friendship between the two countries, and the close relations between leaders of the elder generations of the two parties and two countries "have set an example for us."

"We welcome Chairman Kim Jong Un and Lady Ri Sol Ju to visit China now and again," Xi said.

Kim said that the DPRK-China friendship is especially precious, adding he would like to join hands with Xi to follow the noble will of leaders of the elder generations, carry on and develop the DPRK-China friendship that remains unchanged despite winds and rains, and elevate it to a new high under new circumstances.

Kim also visited an exhibition showcasing the innovation achievements of the Chinese Academy of Sciences since the 18th CPC National Congress. Kim showed his admiration for China's accomplishments in the development and innovation of science and technology, and wrote an inscription to mark the visit.

Ding Xuexiang, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and director of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee; Yang Jiechi, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee; Guo Shengkun, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the CPC Central Committee; Huang Kunming, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee; Cai Qi, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee; and State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi attended the activities.

Choe Ryong Hae, vice-chairman of the WPK Central Committee and director of the Organization and Guidance Department; Pak Kwang Ho, vice-chairman of the WPK Central Committee and director of the Propaganda and Agitation Department; Ri Su Yong, vice-chairman of the WPK Central Committee and director of the International Department; Kim Yong Chol, vice-chairman of the WPK Central Committee and director of the United Front Department and Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, accompanied Kim Jong Un on his China tour and attended related activities.
There was no immediate comment from the police on Wednesday as to why Miguna was not brought to court.

The self-declared National Resistance Movement General has been detained at the airport since Monday when he arrived in the country from Canada where he was deported in February following his participation in the mock swearing-in of NASA Leader Raila Odinga as "The People's President". Government critics say authorities defy court orders in cases involving politics and opposition politicians.

Opposition Sen. James Orengo told Reuters that an hours-long standoff ensued before several dozen plainclothes officers dragged Miguna onto an Emirates airline plane bound for Dubai.

Appearing before Justice Aburili, lawyers John Khaminwa, Nelson Havi and Julie Soweto representing Miguna argued that that the Immigration Department refused to comply with the court order directing them to issue Miguna with travel documents to enable him to re-enter and remain in the country. Miguna was then removed from the airliner and taken to an airport police station.

On Tuesday, Mr Orengo and Otiende Amollo stuck court orders demanding the release of Dr Miguna Miguna at the Immigration Department's offices at JKIA. "I have not been given access to my lawyers, family members and physicians".

Weekend weather: Warmer temperatures, some rain and wind expected

If you are going to the Gulf Coast this week, the wettest and stormiest weather arrives on Thursday into Friday . Snow showers were expected to continue till Monday evening in Spearfish, Sturgis, Belle Fourche and Newell.

The Canadian lawyer landed at the JKIA on Monday 2.30pm aboard an Emirates flight.

The rights official said that up to 100 police officers beat up journalists and opposition supporters during the confrontation.

Ninety-two people have been reported killed during protests over Kenyatta's election and there had been fears of further violence.

It was unclear whether the dispute over Miguna would affect the reconciliation pact.

An interior ministry statement released early Tuesday said Miguna became "unruly and threw a tantrum" at the airport and that he had demanded to be allowed to enter Kenya without being cleared through immigration.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has asked all political parties in the state for 'constructive agitation' to press their demand for special category status. Naidu's appeal came at an all-party meeting called by the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) to discuss the demand.

Naidu told the leaders gathered for the all-party meet that Andhra Pradesh's struggle for special category status was 'dharma yudh'. He also trained his guns at both the Congress-led UPA and the BJP-led NDA for failing to fulfil their promise to grant special status to Andhra Pradesh.

"The then UPA government had assured five years of special status to Andhra and the then opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) demanded ten years. But after the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) came to the power, they did not fulfil their promises," Naidu said, according to news agency IANS.

Naidu also refuted the claim made by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, that the Centre is unable to grant special status to Andhra Pradesh because such a provision has been done away with under the 15th Finance Commission. He quoted the special status given to the states in the Northeast to substantiate his criticism.

Naidu's TDP had first quit the Union Cabinet and subsequently exited the ruling NDA over the demand for special status. It had said it would support the no-confidence motion against the Centre by the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP), which is the main opposition party in Andhra Pradesh.

The YSRCP for its part, repeatedly attempted to bring the no-confidence motion in the Budget Session of Parliament. It had announced last week that at the end of this Parliament session, all of its MPs would resign from the Lok Sabha. The YSRCP had also appealed to the TDP to do the same.

The issue of special category status, which would bring more Central funds to the state, has seen the ruling party and the opposition on the same side. The all-party meet called by the TDP is seen as an attempt to forge a common platform, at least as far as the demand goes.

(With inputs from ANI)
HYDERABAD: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday asked Andhra Pradesh assembly members to go on a 'constructive agitation' against the Centre's decision to not give special status to the state. "We are going on constructive agitation. From today until April 6, everybody in the state should wear a black badge, work one extra hour and show their protest," Naidu said while speaking in the state assembly.

Naidu had on Tuesday convened an all-party meeting to discuss the next course of action for securing the state's rights under the AP Reorganisation Act,2014. However, the principal opposition party YSR Congress and BJP maintained a distance. "BJP, YSRCP and Jana Sena Party not attending the all-party meeting exposes their true colors," Naidu said.

Earlier in the day, Naidu had said that his party will not make any compromise with state's interest and they would not step back on protecting people's rights. While addressing Telegu Desam Party (TDP) MPs via teleconference, the Naidu also said that he is willing to bear any insult for the sake of people and the state. "I am willing to bear any insult for the sake of people and the state," he said.

He cried foul over Centre "counter-attacking" them instead of giving justice. "Even though MPs displayed their strength by showing blue coloured number signs for admitting No-Confidence motion, it is very undemocratic to adjourn the House like this. I am asking for the justice. Instead of doing that, the Centre and the Bharatiya Janata Party are counter-attacking us," Naidu said.

The TDP president also demanded that the Centre must fulfil 19 aspects in AP Reorganisation Act and assurances made in Rajya Sabha including Special Category Status. "It is a fight concerning 5 crore people of Andhra Pradesh. It is linked to sentiments of AP people. I have faced several problems in my life and overcame them efficiently. It was Telugu Desam Party which got Sarkaria Commission's recommendations implemented. TDP redefined centre-state relations," the CM added.
PATNA: In the wake of the violence in Bihar's Aurangabad that broke out on the occasion of Ram Navami, police on Wednesday said that more than 125 people have been arrested so far in connection with the communal clashes. The situation has returned to normalcy, police added.

Requesting people to not to pay heed to rumours, Aurangabad DG (BMP) Gupteshwar Pandey said, "I will request people not to pay attention to rumours. Goons will not be spared by the administration. More than 125 people have been arrested. More arrests will be done. Situation has returned to normalcy."

Pandey assured that the goons will not be spared and more arrests will be done.

On Monday, Section 144 was imposed in Aurangabad after clashes broke out between two communities on the occasion of Ram Navami. As per reports, clashes occurred when stones were thrown at a group taking out a march to celebrate Ram Navami in Nawadih area on Sunday.

Many are said to have been injured in the incident. In the ensuing violence, shops were burnt and properties damaged at Ramesh Chowk by agitating mob. Internet services have been suspended in the city as a result of the violence.

Aurangabad DM Rahul Ranjan Mahiwal had said that the procession was authorised and was passing through pre-determined route, as per media reports. Patna zonal IG Nayyar Hasnain Khan too had said that district armed police personnel were deployed in the area and the situation was under control.

Reports of violence were also reported from other parts of Bihar like Gaya and Siwan. In Gaya, stones were reportedly pelted on a Ram Navami procession under Kothi police station area on Sunday, which led to clashes between two communities.

In Siwan too, 'communal' clashes are said to have taken place when a group of people stopped a Ram Navami procession at Nizampur village on Saturday night.

The state home department and state police's special branch had earlier urged people not to share objectionable posts on social media on the occasion of Ram Navami. They had also taken out advertisements in newspapers asking people not to raise slogans which would hurt religious sentiments.
New Delhi: ABB India has inaugurated one of the first smart factories in Bangalore for the production of electrical protection and connection solutions. The facility will be located on the existing factory premises of Nelamangala in Bangalore.The smart factory enables continuous monitoring of the production process through visualization of operational data, to increase efficiency and flexibility of the manufacturing process.

The smart production line can track and display operational performance parameters across the entire manufacturing chain in real time. The factory also has digital lifecycle management with interconnected automation components, machines as well as data about processes and products. Real-time feeds monitor the entire manufacturing process.

Remote access and wireless communication with Radio Frequency Identification Devices (RFID) manage the production process, work orders and testing parameters.

ABB has continued to invest in building capacity to cater to the evolving trends in the Indian market and bridging them with best in class global technology. At ABB, we use smart technology to make solutions that help our customers get digital-ready, said Sanjeev Sharma, Managing Director of ABB India.

The smart factory, which is part of ABBs manufacturing 19-acre Nelamangala campus, will house the production line for the entire range of ABBs protection and connection business, which helps to protect power systems from surges and enables a reliable power supply for various installations.

The Bangalore facility will manufacture ABBs range of air and molded case circuit breakers, electronic and thermal relays, contactors, pilot devices and ABBs latest range of plug and play low-voltage circuit breaker, Emax 2.

Emax 2, includes product line features such as product assembly on track guided vehicles (TGV) powered by electric motors on a closed loop track.

The products are key in optimizing resources, reducing energy and life-cycle costs and boosting the productivity of industrial installations across sectors like process industries (cement, textile, chemicals, and metals), marine, data centers and automotive.

As digitalization gains traction across Indian industries, ABBs smart factory will take the production of power equipment to the next level. Digital technologies enabling the manufacturing of various next-generation plug and play solutions will cater to a rapidly evolving market. Such world-class, smart facilities will be the stepping stone for the next level of growth for the nation, Sharma said.

This smallest and feature-rich power circuit breaker results in space savings of about 25 percent and a reduction in assembly time by 10 percent with network analysis and preventive diagnostics powered by cloud connectivity for any installation, Sharma added.
New Delhi: Fortis Healthcare Ltd. (FHL) board has approved demerger of its hospitals business, which will be acquired by Manipal Hospitals and TPG Capital, along with the sale of 20 percent stake in diagnostics chain SRL Ltd., in a Rs 3,900-crore deal.

In a late night announcement yesterday, the healthcare chain said its board has given nod for the demerger of its hospital business into Manipal Hospital Enterprises Pvt. Ltd.

"The Board has also approved sale of its 20 percent stake in SRL Ltd. To Manipal Hospitals. The resultant entity Manipal Hospitals will be a publicly traded company listed on NSE and BSE. The remaining FHL will be an investment holding company with 36.6 percent stake in SRL," the company said in a statement.

The company further said, "As part of the proposed transaction, Dr Ranjan Pai and TPG will invest Rs 3,900 crore into Manipal Hospitals. The funds will be utilised by Manipal Hospitals to finance the acquisition of 50.9 percent stake in SRL (20.0 percent from FHL and 30.9 percent from other investors for which discussions are currently underway)."

Manipal Hospitals, part of Manipal Education and Medical Group (MEMG), is owned by Dr Ranjan Pai and has been backed by TPG, a leading global alternative asset firm and experienced healthcare investor since 2015.

"In addition, the investment will support the proposed acquisition of hospital assets owned by RHT Health Trust (RHT) and the growth of the hospitals and the diagnostics businesses," it added.

As part of the deal, when the demerger becomes effective, for every 100 shares of FHL held by a shareholder, the shareholder will receive 10.83 shares in Manipal Hospitals -- the resultant combined hospitals business.

Commenting on the development, Fortis promoters Malvinder Singh and Shivinder SIngh said in a joint statement, the transaction "will unlock significant value for all stakeholders and will further accelerate and expand access to high quality healthcare services in India".

"Keeping the interest of the company and stakeholders foremost, we continue to support the Management and the Board to successfully transition to the new joint entity. We want to thank everyone involved in the deal for reposing faith despite challenging circumstances," they said.

FHL CEO Bhavdeep Singh said, "Much has transpired over the past 12 -18 months at Fortis and in the healthcare industry at large; it's now time to get back to working with our doctors and nurses to saving and enriching lives. We believe Manipal has built a terrific franchise and team and the coming together of our two organisations will be transformational for the healthcare industry.?

MEMG chairman Pai said the companies make a compelling strategic fit in terms of complementary geographies, clinical strengths as well as a shared commitment to providing outstanding patient care.

"As the largest hospital operator in India, this will be a platform benefiting all, from the communities we serve, to our capable employees and our investors," he added.

FHL said the combination of Manipal Hospitals and Fortis Hospitals will "result in the creation of the largest provider of healthcare services in India by revenue with 41 hospitals in India and 4 hospitals overseas and over 11,000 installed bed capacity, including teaching hospital beds of Manipal Hospitals.

It will have over 4,200 doctors, more than 9,300 nurses and 11,400-plus other employees across India, the statement added.

The proposed transaction is subject to shareholders' approval, creditors' approval, applicable regulatory approvals (including Competition Commission of India, SEBI, stock exchanges and National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) and other customary conditions precedent, it added.

Earlier, Malaysia's IHH Healthcare Berhad was also in the race to acquire Fortis but talks did not fructify.

The sale of Fortis to Manipal-TPG combined comes at a time when the promoters, Singh brothers are facing intense pressure over alleged financial irregularities at Fortis and Religare, which the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) has been reported to be initiating.

Both Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh had quit from the boards of Fortis and Religare last month.

The Delhi High Court had on January 31 upheld an international arbitral award of Rs 3,500 crore passed in favour of Japanese pharma major Daiichi Sankyo, which had alleged that the former promoters of erstwhile Ranbaxy Laboratories had concealed information about proceedings against them by the US Food and Drug Administration.

Moreover, on February 15, the Supreme Court lifted its stay on sale of shares of Fortis Healthcare Ltd. Pledged with banks by the Singh brothers before August 31, allowing financial institutions, including Axis Bank and Yes Bank, to sell the pledged shares.

Subsequently, the stake of promoter firm Fortis Healthcare Holdings along with promoters Malvinder Mohan Singh and Shivinder Mohan Singh and other family entities have come down to 5.87 percent from 34.43 percent earlier.

Credit rating agencies ICRA and CARE have also downgraded ratings on Fortis Healthcare.
London/New York: Food giants Nestle , Kraft Heinz and Unilever are expected to bid for GlaxoSmithKline`s Horlicks health nutrition business, which could fetch more than $4 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

GSK has started a strategic review of Horlicks - a malt-based drink brand popular in India  and some of its smaller products, after buying Novartis out of their consumer healthcare venture for $13 billion on Tuesday.

The main asset on the block is GSK`s 72.5 percent stake in its Indian subsidiary GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare . The sources said the stake was worth $3.1 billion at current market prices but GSK wanted a premium in any sale.

They estimated the consumer health nutrition business, which also has smaller operations in Nigeria and Bangladesh, could fetch more than $4 billion.

Nestle, the world`s biggest packaged food company, has previously told GSK privately of its interest in Horlicks on several occasions, the people said.

Nestle already owns the malt drink Milo, but it is not a big-seller in India. The Swiss company declined to comment.

Unilever, the world`s largest tea company, and Kraft Heinz, which sells the powdered drinks Crystal Light and Kool-Aid, also declined to comment.

Horlicks is more than 140 years old with origins dating back to 1873, when two British-born men, James and William Horlick, first founded a company in Chicago to manufacture the drink. It was introduced to India by Indian soldiers who had fought with the British Army in the First World War.

Associated British Foods , which owns the malt drink brand Ovaltine, could look at the business to scale up in a key emerging market, the sources said, although the size of the GSK business could be a deterrent.

An ABF spokesman declined to comment.

The Indian business has an enterprise value of about 29 times core earnings, said one of the sources, meaning any deal premium will value it well above what many packaged food and drink brands fetch. The valuation is inflated by the high growth rates seen in the Indian market.

Nestle and Unilever could purchase the asset through their local Indian subsidiaries, Nestle India or Hindustan Unilever .

Other potential suitors might include Coca-Cola , PepsiCo , Suntory, Mondelez International and JAB, the coffee business owner that recently agreed to buy Dr Pepper Snapple, one of the sources said.
New Delhi: The health parameters of noted anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare deteriorated on Wednesday - the sixth day of his ongoing hunger strike in support of a strong Lokpal. However, there has been no response from the Narendra Modi-led government to his demands as yet.

According to his doctor Dhanajay Pote, Hazare's blood pressure was high and sugar levels low, which made him feel exhausted.

"When Anna ji's check-up was done at 3 pm, his blood pressure had gone up to 186/100. Also, the blood sugar level was low, as per Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital doctors," Pote said.

Pote has come from Ralegan Siddhi in Maharashtra to monitor the social activist's health.

Hazare's routine press conference fixed for 5 pm was also called off as he faced difficulty in speaking, Pote added.

Hazare had on Tuesday indicated that the Centre would come up with an action plan on his demands soon, but no formal communication from authorities during the day took place, said Sushil Bhatt, a core committee member of Team Anna.

Hazare has been pressing for the setting up of a Lokpal at the Centre and Lokayuktas in the states to probe corruption cases, bring in new electoral reforms and implementation of the MS Swaminathan Committee report to address the agrarian crisis in the country.

According to informed sources, the government is ready to accept almost all of the demands but it has reservations about the implementation of the demands in a time-bound manner.

A former Bharatiya Janata Party leader Nana Patole, who resigned from the Lok Sabha last year and joined the Congress, called on Hazare on Wednesday.

After a surge in the number of protesters a day earlier, there was a visible drop on Wednesday as roughly 2,000 persons were seen at the protest site at the Ramlila Maidan here.

Bhatt, however, said the numbers will increase to 10,000 on Thursday when many farmers will arrive in Delhi to join the hunger strike.

Also, Team Anna also held a march at the Connaught Place in central Delhi on Wednesday evening to sensitise people about the ongoing protest but were detained by police.
New Delhi: West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday met Congress leader Sonia Gandhi.

"Whenever I come here I meet her, we share a good relation. I enquired about her health, also had a political discussion, I said that the country wants it to be one-is-to-one in 2019, parties should fight from where they are strong," she said after the meet.

Mamata added, "We want Congress to help the regional parties' front that is being talked about, so as to facilitate a one-is-to-one fight. This one-is-to-one fight will eliminate BJP politically," as per ANI.

Earlier on Wednesday, she met Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for about half-an-hour. She also met disgruntled BJP leaders Yashwant Sinha and Shatrughan Sinha. Mamata also held discussions with Arun Shourie, a former Union minister in the NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Mamata Banerjee met Arun Shourie, Shatrughan Sinha and Yashwant Sinha in #Delhi; TMC MP Derek O'Brien also present. pic.twitter.com/4bo1L1Qys1  ANI (@ANI) March 28, 2018

After the meeting, Shourie, who has been critical of the Modi government, said the TMC chief's theory of putting up a one-on-one fight against the BJP in every state was the right path to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "If the one-on-one formula is implemented, the Opposition will be able to corner 69 percent of votes," Shourie said, PTI reported.

Though Yashwant Sinha did not clarify on whether he or Shatrughan Sinha would join a united force against the BJP, he said, "Mamata is our old Cabinet colleague. Her personality is known to everyone. The role she has taken to save the country is appreciable. In future also, we will support her."

Mamata was part of the Vajpayee government.

The West Bengal CM, who arrived in the national capital on Monday, had met NCP chief Sharad Pawar and MPs of BJP`s ally Shiv Sena on Tuesday. She had also met Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief K Chandrasekhar Rao`s daughter K Kavitha and Lalu Prasad`s daughter Misa Bharti besides MPs from Biju Janata Dal, Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and DMK.

(With Agency inputs)
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and other MLAs attended the state Assembly wearing black badges in protest against the Narendra Modi government at Centre. The mark of protest was over demand of special status for Andhra Pradesh.

The decision to wear black badges was taken at an all-party meeting convened by the Andhra Chief Minister earlier.

Meanwhile, Naidu also addressed members of Parliament of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) through tele-conferencing, saying he was willing to bear any insult for the sake of people and the state. He said, I am asking for justice. Instead of giving that, the Centre and BJP are counter attacking us.

The ruling TDP and the opposition YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) have found themselves on the same side of the demand for special status to Andhra Pradesh. The Assembly may be expected to unanimously pass a resolution formally making the demand to the Centre. It should be noted that while such resolutions are powerful tools for state governments, they are not binding on the Centre.

The all-party meet was held hours after the YSRCP announced that all of its MPs would resign their seats in the Lok Sabha at the end of the ongoing Budget Session of Parliament. The YSRCP also urged the Andhra Pradesh's ruling TDP to also quit the Lok Sabha. YSRCP has 7 seats in the Lok Sabha and the TDP has 11.

Naidu's TDP has had a fraught year in its relationship with the BJP and its coalition, the NDA, over the 2014 poll promise of granting special category status for Andhra Pradesh. The move was meant to ensure that the state would gain access to additional fund allocations from the Centre.

However, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said that the Centre is unable special category status to Andhra Pradesh, since the category itself has been done away with under the 15th Finance Commission. He had however promised to make the same amount of Central money available to Andhra Pradesh.

This statement had pushed the TDP to pull out of the Union Cabinet and, a week later, withdraw from the ruling BJP-led NDA. The BJP's ministers in the TDP-led Andhra Pradesh government had quit their posts in reciprocation. The move did not destabilise the NDA government.
Congress MP Renuka Chowdhury can't seem to catch a break. In the middle of her farewell speech in the Rajya Sabha, the outgoing MP was asked to lose weight. The quip, from Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu, seemed to be in jest.

The jibe at Chowdhury follows a light-hearted retort from Prime Minister Narendra Modi in February, that Chowdhury's mocking laughter during his speech reminded him of Soorpanakha from the Ramayan television series. The comment had been met with intense criticism.

Ironically, Naidu's jibe came on a day when Chowdhury and another outgoing woman MP - Rajni Patil - spoke of the low representation on women in the Upper House and the need for change in mindset that led to what they alleged was discrimination against women in Parliament.

As part of her farewell address to the House, where she is finishing a six-year term. ""He (Naidu) knows me from many kilos before. Sir, many people worry about my weight but in this job, you need to throw your weight around," Chowdhury said, reported news agency PTI.

To this, Naidu quipped, "My simple suggestion is, reduce your weight and make efforts to increase the weight of the party". The comment was met with laughter from the members present.

Chowdhury continued with her speech, going on to say she has witnessed much in the Rajya Sabha, from Shah Bano to Soorpanakha. However, she did express a grouse on the role of women in the Upper House. "The lot of women has not improved tremendously. It is a pathetic 11 per cent even now (women's strength in Rajya Sabha). I really think we need more women," she said.

Rajni Patil, also of the Congress, too touched on issues concerning women in Parliament in her farewell speech. She alleged discrimination against women members and calling for a change in mindset. She also urged the ruling dispensation for early passage of the Women's Reservation Bill.

(With inputs from PTI)
New Delhi: As the Congress-led Opposition continues to attack the Centre over alleged irregularities in the purchase of Rafale fighter jets, the Government on Wednesday said the details of the deal between the two countries could not be shared as India and France signed a secrecy pact this year.

''An agreement on protecting classified data was signed by India and France on March 10, 2018, replacing an earlier agreement signed in 2008,'' Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre said on Wednesday.

"The agreement between India and France regarding the Exchange and Reciprocal Protection of Classified or Protected Information was signed on March 10, 2018, during the visit of President of France to India," Bhamre told lawmakers in the Lok Sabha.

"This agreement defines the common security regulations applicable to any exchange of classified and protected information between the two countries," he added.

Bhamre said this while responding to a question by Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MP Muttamsetti Srinivasa Rao, who sought to know if India and France had signed any new confidentiality agreement replacing the 2008 pact.

The statement from the MoS Defence assumes significance in the backdrop of the Opposition attack on the Government as it sought details of the Rafale fighter jets deal with France.

The government has so far maintained that it cannot reveal the price of the fighter jets in the interest of national security and because of a confidentiality agreement signed by the two countries in 2008 under the UPA government.

Rahul Gandhi-led Congress has alleged that there were irregularities in the deal for buying 36 Rafale fighter jets off-the-shelf from France.

Training guns on the government over the Rafale fighter jets deal, Rahul Gandhi had alleged that it had caused a loss of Rs 36,000 crore to the state exchequer even as the Army "begs" for more money.

He also alleged that Dassault Aviation, the French company that manufactured the fighter jets, had called the "lie" of "RM" (Raksha Mantri or Defence Minister) Nirmala Sitharaman by releasing the price of the aircraft.

It also claimed that the fighter jets are being bought from France at a price higher than what was negotiated in the previous multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) deal under which 126 fighter jets were to be bought.

The government has, however, been maintaining that the price India is getting under the Inter-Government Agreement is lesser than the MMRCA deal.

Despite a controversy over the deal in India, French President Emmanuel Macron described the fighter jet programme as a key aspect of the bilateral defence cooperation.

"India had made a sovereign decision in this respect (Rafale fighter jet) and we are monitoring the progress in the field. We very much want to continue the programme.''

"It is a long-term contract which is mutually beneficial. I personally consider it as the heart of the strategic partnership," French President Macron said in a statement to media after talks with PM Modi earlier this month.

(With IANS inputs)
New Delhi: Social media platforms which collaborate with the Election Commission will now have to follow a 'code of conduct'. PTI quoted sources in the poll panel as saying on Wednesday that the body's social media unit had met on Tuesday and decided to draft the 'code of conduct'.

The platforms which do not follow the proposed code will not get to partner with the EC. The decision was taken in the aftermath of the Cambridge Analytica episode, it said. The new move is to ensure that their user data remains protected from manipulation which could adversely affect elections.

Observing that utilisation of social media cannot be stopped due to instances of "aberrations", Chief Election Commissioner OP Rawat had said on Tuesday that Facebook would remain the poll panel's social media partner during the Karnataka Assembly elections. He had also said the social media cell of the EC would go into the issue of App of politicians and political parties sharing user data without the users' consent.

"Any aberration won't stop the use of modern technology. Banks frauds have taken place, but we don't stop banking," Rawat had told a press conference while announcing the Karnataka assembly poll schedule.

He was asked if the Facebook would continue to be the EC's social media partner in the wake of reports that its user data had been harvested by a company without the users' consent.

The CEC said that the social media is a reality and the EC will take all precautions at its command, to prevent episodes which adversely affect Indian elections.

Meanwhile, a former employee of Cambridge Analytica turned whistleblower Christopher Wylie said on Wednesday that the controversial British firm had an Indian arm and had conducted election research on behalf of some political parties, among other things.

He said that SCL group, the parent organisation of Cambridge Analytica, has its office headquartered in Indirapuram in Ghaziabad and its regional offices in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Cuttack, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Kolkata, Patna and Pune.

I've been getting a lot of requests from Indian journalists, so here are some of SCL's past projects in India. To the most frequently asked question - yes SCL/CA works in India and has offices there. This is what modern colonialism looks like. pic.twitter.com/v8tOmcmy3z  Christopher Wylie (@chrisinsilico) March 28, 2018

Wylie has also accused the controversial UK-based firm of gathering the details of 50 million users on Facebook through a personality quiz in 2014. He had alleged that because 270,000 people took the quiz, the data of some 50 million users, mainly in the US, was harvested without their explicit consent via their friend networks.

Wylie has claimed the data was sold to Cambridge Analytica, which then used it to psychologically profile people and deliver material in favour of Donald Trump during the 2016 US presidential elections. He has also criticised Cambridge Analytica for running campaigns in "struggling democracies", which he called "an example of what modern-day colonialism looks like".

Cambridge Analytica denies any of the data acquired was used as part of the services it provided to the Trump campaign.

(With Agency inputs)
A man has been arrested at Delhi Indira Gandhi International airport for allegedly molesting a cabin crew member of an Air Vistara flight. According to media reports, the incident took place when the flight landed at Terminal 3 of Delhi IGI airport and passengers were de-boarding the aircraft.

Releasing a statement in this regard, Air Vistara said, "A cabin crew member on Lucknow-Delhi flight on 24th March reported incident of sexual harassment by a passenger. Vistara does not tolerate abusive or unruly behaviour by passengers that puts safety of its staff and other customers at risk, or compromises their dignity."

This comes just months after a Bollywood actress was allegedly molested onboard an Air Vistara flight. The actress had alleged that she was molested by a co-passenger on a Delhi-Mumbai flight. Mumbai Police had registered a case in connection with the incident.

Air Vistara had also apologised to the actor for the incident and said it was carrying out a probe into it, while asserting that it has "zero tolerance" for such behaviour.

The actor had said that she was on a Vistara flight from Delhi to Mumbai when a co-passenger sitting behind her put up his feet on her armrest. "So, I was in a flight travelling from Delhi to Mumbai today and right behind me one middle-aged man who made my two-hour journey miserable. I tried to record it on phone to understand it better because the cabin lights were dimmed, I failed to get it...," she had said.

"The lights were dimmed, so it was even worse. It continued for another five to ten minutes and then I was sure of it. He kept nudging my shoulder and continued to move his foot up and down my back and neck."

Based on her statement, a case was registered at the Sahar police station against the unknown person under IPC section 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, since the actor is a minor, Sahar's senior police inspector Lata Shirsat had said.
New Delhi: The year 2017 saw significantly more voluntary retirement and resignations in paramilitary forces than ever before, the Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday. Border Security Force and Central Reserve Police Force, in particular, has seen the most outflow of personnel.

While a total of 909 BSF personnel either voluntarily retired or resigned in 2015, the number spiked by more than seven times to 6415 in 2017. The same is true for CRPF which saw the exit of 1376 personnel in 2015 but 5123 left in 2017.

The trend is similar in the case of Indo-Tibetan Border Police, Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), Central Industrial Security Force and Assam Rifles as well. While 76 personnel quit or voluntarily retired from ITBP in 2015, the number rose to 305 in 2017. SSB (183 in 2015 and 548 in 2017), CISF (768 in 2015 and 1560 in 2017) and Assam Rifles (113 in 2015 and 636 in 2017) have all reported similar trends.

Assam Rifles, in particular, has reported that personnel have left citing several reasons including personal, family, health, social as well as enhanced pensionary benefits after 20 years in service.

A career in India's paramilitary forces is mostly seen as one which requires enormous determination and sacrifice. Home Minister Rajnath Singh too recently said he recongnises the efforts made by paramilitary forces. In the past, there have been several instances however where personnel have alleged long work hours in testing conditions, being denied leaves and not being provided adequate facilities while on duty.
NEW DELHI: Forty MPs of the Rajya Sabha are set to retire from the Upper House with Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivering a speech in the House on Wednesday. The Prime Minister bid farewell to the retiring MPs today at around 11.30 AM.

The leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad also addressed the Rajya Sabha and hailed the contributions of the outgoing MPs of the Upper House of Parliament.

Here is the list of the retiring MPs -

Naresh Agrawal

Munquad Ali

Shadi Lal Batra

Satyavrat Chaturvedi

Chiranjeevi

Renuka Chowdhury

La Ganesan

Kunal Kumar Ghosh

Tulla Devender Goud

Vivek Gupta

Prakash Javadekar

Meghraj Jain

Bhushan Lal Jangde

Vinay Katiyar

K. Rahman Khan

Mahendra Singh Mahra

Kiranmay Nanda

Basawaraj Patil

Rajeev Shukla

Rajni Patil

Ramakrishna Rangasayee

Rapolu Ananda Bhaskar

Anil Kumar Sahani

Munvvar Saleem

Ajay Sancheti

Tapan Kumar Sen

Alok Tiwari

Pramod Tiwari

D P Tripathi

Shankarbhai N Vegad

Darshan Singh Yadav

Narendra Budania

Ananga Udaya Singh Deo

A V Swamy

Dilip Tirkey

Anu Aga

Rekha

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar
NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police and Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) launched a joint operation on Tuesday night and arrested four people who had helped the students in cheating in the online examination of SSC Higher Secondary Level Examination.

The accused are from Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. An FIR has been registered against the accused in North Delhi's Timarpur police station.

According to the initial investigation, the accused used to work on contract basis. They reportedly used to receive lakhs of rupees for helping the students in passing all the SSC examination.

The accused have been identified as Ajay, Param, Gaurav and Sonu - all resident of Delhi-NCR. The gang was helping as many as 100-150 students in cheating.

Laptops, 10 phones, around 50 lakh rupees, 3 cars, pen drives, hard disks, dongles and other documents have been recovered from them.
Jammu: Four terrorists were on Wednesday killed in a gunfight with security forces in the Sunderbani area of Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district.

The militants had infiltrated into the Indian territory from across the Line of Control (LoC) about four-five days ago, prompting security forces to launch a search operation in the area.

Authorities had ordered the closure of educational institutions in the Sunderbani tehsil in view of the search operation. The encounter broke out in the Nowshera-Sunderbani belt after the group of infiltrating terrorists was intercepted by the security forces early on Wednesday.

SSP, Rajouri, Yougal Manhas said three bags containing ammunition and explosives were recovered from outside a CRPF camp in Sunderbani, as per PTI.

Manhas said the police and other security forces had been conducting a combing operation to track down the terrorists for four to five days.

4 Terrorists killed in joint operation in Sunderbani Rajouri. It was a group recently infiltrated from LOC. Great job boys  Shesh Paul Vaid (@spvaid) March 28, 2018

We have killed 4 terrorists, it was a joint operation by Police, Army & BSF. Arms & ammunition have also been recovered: SSP Rajouri on Sunderbani encounter #JammuAndKashmir pic.twitter.com/NPiFA1RhuQ  ANI (@ANI) March 28, 2018

Jammu & Kashmir: Arms and ammunition recovered from four terrorists killed in Sunderbani encounter. pic.twitter.com/DiYtFtbNpx  ANI (@ANI) March 28, 2018

Earlier on Wednesday, Deputy Commissioner, Rajouri, Shahid Iqbal Choudary had ordered the closure of all educational institutions in the Sunderbani sector in view of the search operation.

On February 10, 2018, a group of militants had attacked the Sunjwan Army camp, killing five jawans and a civilian. Three terrorists were also gunned down by the security forces.

Meanwhile, Union Minister Jitendra Singh had said on March 26, 2018, that there could be no leniency towards terrorism and a terrorist should be treated as a terrorist. The Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office had also said that a majority of the youth in Kashmir were part of the mainstream development journey of India led by PM Narendra Modi and did not wish to be deprived of the enormous opportunities being availed by their peers across the country.

"At the same time, a keen endeavour is continuously going on to bring back into the mainstream, a few of the youth who have gone astray. But, there can be no leniency or premium on terrorism and a terrorist is to be treated like a terrorist," he had told reporters while responding to queries about new Hurriyat chief Mohammad Ashraf Sehrai's refusal to dissuade his son from joining the Hizbul Mujahideen militant group in Kashmir.

Lauding the role of the security forces in Kashmir, Singh had said that even while following the policy of hot pursuit against terrorists and Pakistan-sponsored militancy, the security personnel were constantly striving to motivate the local youth not to fall prey to false propaganda or allurement to join militant ranks.

(With PTI inputs)
New Delhi: There is no proposal from Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti seeking a dialogue with Pakistan for bringing peace in the state, the government informed the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. Union minister of state for home Hansraj Gangaram Ahir said the government has a clear and consistent position that it desires "normal neighbourly" relations with Pakistan and is committed to addressing all outstanding issues bilaterally and peacefully in accordance with the Simla Agreement and the Lahore declaration.

In a written reply to a question by Shiromani Akali Dal member Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa on whether the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir has recently asked the central government to talk to Pakistan for peace in the state, Ahir said: "No such proposal has been received from the state government".

The minister said any meaningful dialogue with Pakistan can be held only in an atmosphere free of terror, hostility and violence. "Onus is on Pakistan to create such a conducive atmosphere," he said.

The reply by the Centre has the potential of creating a controversy in the state as the Chief Minister, as well as her party, have been claiming to have asked the Centre to hold a meaningful dialogue with Pakistan.

The Central government had on Tuesday told Lok Sabha that there is no proposal to scrap Article 370, which gives special status to Jammu and Kashmir. Ahir gave the statement while replying to a written question from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Ashwini Kumar. "There is currently no such proposal under consideration of the government," Ahir said.

Kumar had asked whether the government was committed to scrapping Article 370 of the Constitution. He had also asked about the present status of Article 370 and the procedure for scrapping it. Ahir denied in his one-line reply.
BENGALURU: Keeping up its attack on Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, the Bharatiya Janata Party termed his tenure as 'tyrannical'. BJP claimed that when the results of the assembly elections are announced on May 15, it will win with a thumping majority and reach a step closer to its aim of building a "Congress Mukth Bharat."

BJP Karnataka tweeted: "Dear Kannadigas, Our redemption from the tyrannical rule of @siddaramaiah is not far.

On May 15th,

1.BJP will win with thumping majority

2. @BSYBJP will become 23rd CM from NDA

3. We will be a step closer to Congress Mukth Bharata."

Dear Kannadigas, Our redemption from the tyrannical rule of @siddaramaiah is not far. On May 15th,

1.BJP will win with thumping majority

2. @BSYBJP will become 23rd CM from NDA

3. We will be a step closer to Congress Mukth Bharata.#KarnatakaElections2018  BJP Karnataka (@BJP4Karnataka) March 27, 2018

BJP chief Amit Shah has been attacking the Karnataka CM on several fronts. On Tuesday, Shah took potshots at him for wearing a watch worth Rs 40 lakh. "How many people can afford a watch worth Rs 40 lakh? CM of Karnataka Shri Siddaramaiah is the only socialist leader who wears a watch worth Rs 40 lakh and that indicates how much they have looted from the people of Karnataka," he had said.

How many people can afford a watch worth Rs 40 lakh? CM of Karnataka Shri Siddaramaiah is the only socialist leader who wears a watch worth Rs 40 lakh and that indicates how much they have looted from the people of Karnataka. pic.twitter.com/rBGAOBF3oA  Amit Shah (@AmitShah) March 27, 2018

Shah also accused the Siddaramaiah government of trying to divide Hindus and being the "most corrupt" one in the country. On a two-day visit to the poll-bound state, he said the move to accord religious minority tag to Lingayats and Veerashaiva Linagayats was an attempt to "divide" the Hindus.

"Just ahead of the (assembly) elections in Karnataka, they have tried to divide Lingayats and Veerashaivas, also Lingayats and other communities, by announcing minority status for them," Shah said.

Questioning the timing of the move, he asked the Siddaramaiah government, "What were you doing for five years?" In 2013, when your own (UPA) government was in power at the Centre, they had rejected it. Why was Siddaramaiah silent then? This is an attempt to divide the Hindus.."

Shah said it was not a programme towards the welfare of the Veerashaiva and Lingayat community but a "conspiracy" to stop Yeddyurappa, considered a Lingayat strongman, from becoming the chief minister.
BENGALURU: Addressing a Scheduled Tribe convention in Challakere in poll-bound Karnataka, Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah on Tuesday attacked Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, claiming that the present government has done injustice to the tribals.

"The present Siddaramaiah government has done nothing for the Tribals apart from meting out injustice to them. Congress has only indulged in vote-bank politics disregarding the interests of the Tribal community. They will get a befitting reply in the elections for ignoring the Tribals," he said.

He claimed that while the Siddaramaiah government sanctioned Rs 530 crore for the minorities, it only sanctioned Rs 123 crore for the scholarship of SC and ST students. "The height of Siddaramaiah's appeasement politics can be seen in his decision to sanction about Rs123 crore for the scholarship of SC & ST students against Rs 530 crore for the minorities. The budget for minorities has seen 4 times jump with no increase in budget for the Tribals," he claimed.

Shah added that if the BJP comes to power in the upcoming elections in the state, it will ensure the welfare of tribal communities. "The upcoming BJP government in Karnataka will ensure the welfare of the Tribal communities and will work for the upliftment of the Poor, Dalits and Tribals alike," he said.

Speaking to the tribals, he said that various measures have been taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the upliftment of the community. "The Centre will build Advasi Welfare Foundation in each tribal district at a cost of Rs 6,000 crore. Karnataka will get Rs 600 crore. Each district will have an Ekalavya Residential School. The Tribal welfare budget has been increased from Rs 19,000 crore during UPA rule to Rs 31,000 crore now," he said.

Shah also accused the Siddaramaiah government of insulting Madakari Nayaka, the last ruler of Chitradurga region, by giving prominence to 18th century Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan and his father Hyder Ali. Madakari Nayaka had bravely fought Hyder Ali before falling prey to his rival's tactics.

Hailing from the Nayaka community, Madakari Nayaka lost the Chitradurga region in a siege by Hyder Ali, then Mysore ruler, in the 18th century. Shah said in this SC/ST dominated area in Chitradurga district, if BJP comes to power, it will build a memorial for Madakari Nayaka.
BENGALURU: As assembly election dates were announced on Tuesday, Siddaramaiah is set to become the first Karnataka Chief Minister in 40 years to complete his term at the top post. The last chief minister to have served the state for the full term was D. Devaraj Urs from 1972 to 1977. He also could not serve for the entire term when he was reelected for the second time in 1978. However, till date, he has been the longest-serving chief minister of the state and held the term for over seven years in 1970s.

From the Sixth Assembly session to the current 14th session, Chief Ministers have been appointed 18 times. Also, the state in these 40 years has seen four terms of President's rule.

Chief Minister Party Tenure D. Devaraj Urs Congress February 28, 1978  January 7, 1980 R. Gundu Rao Congress January 12, 1980  January 6, 1983 Ramakrishna Hegde Janata Party January 10, 1983  December 29, 1984 Ramakrishna Hegde Janata Party March 8, 1985  February 13, 1986 Ramakrishna Hegde Janata Party February 16, 1986  August 10, 1988 S.R. Bommai Janata Party August 13, 1988  April 21, 1989 Presidents Rule April 21, 1989  November 30, 1989 Veerendra Patil Congress November 30, 1989  October 10, 1990 Presidents Rule October 10, 1990  October 17, 1990 S. Bangarappa Congress October 17, 1990  November 19, 1992 M. Veerappa Moily Congress November 19, 1992  December 11, 1994 H.D. Deve Gowda Janata Dal December 11, 1994  May 31, 1996 J.H. Patel Janata Dal May 31, 1996  October 07, 1999 S.M. Krishna Congress October 11, 1999  May 28, 2004 Dharam Singh Congress[Congress-JD(s) coalition] May 28, 2004  Jan 27, 2006 H D Kumaraswamy JD(s)[BJP-JD(s) coalition] Feb 3, 2006  October 8, 2007 Presidents Rule October 9, 2007  November 8, 2007 B S Yeddyurappa BJP[BJP-JD(s) coalition] November 12, 2007  November 19, 2007 Presidents Rule November 20, 2007  May 29, 2008 B S Yeddyurappa BJP May 30, 2008  July 31, 2011 D.V Sadananda Gowda BJP August 4, 2011  July 11, 2012 Jagadish Shivappa Shettar BJP July 12, 2012  8 May 2013 Siddaramaiah Congress May 13, 2013  Present

A self-professed backward class leader, Siddaramaiah had won a simple majority in the 2013 elections and had taken over as the 28the chief minister of the state. Before taking over as the CM, he had served as deputy chief minister in two previous governments led by the Janata Dal and the Janata Dal (Secular), respectively. He left the Janata Dal (Secular), founded by HD Deve Gowda, in 2005.

The relations between him and his one-time mentor Deve Gowda have gone from bad to worse. The ties between the two came under strain in 2005 after Siddaramaiah expressed his unhappiness over party affairs and dominance of the former Deve Gowda's son HD Kumaraswamy, the then JD(S) state unit working president.

The former PM had recently claimed that grooming Siddaramaiah was his "biggest mistake." "Is he a chief minister? How long will you stay? I will see. I have taken a vow. I will today seek the apology from the people of Karnataka for grooming such an immoral politician. Grooming such a lowly chief minister is my biggest mistake. I will repeatedly say he is unfit to continue in the post," a visibly upset Gowda had said.

Ahead of the upcoming elections, Siddaramaiah has ensured that there is no pre-poll alliance with Gowda, at least till now. Exuding confidence of a victory in the polls, Siddaramaiah has been saying that the Congress will return to power in Karnataka on its own and will not need the help of HD Deve Gowda and Janata Dal (Secular).

The assembly elections in Karnataka will be held in a single phase. Voting will be held on May 12, and the results will be declared on May 15.
Mumbai: Days after a bitter controversy over the killing of nearly 3 lakh rats in 'Mantralaya' erupted, a 'massive' tea scam has now surfaced in the Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis's Office (CMO).

Calling it a 'massive' tea scam, the Maharashtra Congress on Wednesday alleged that an average of 18,500 cups of the hot beverage is being served at the state's Chief Minister's Office (CMO) daily.

Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam, who furnished RTI documents on Twitter, alleged that there has been a dramatic and steady increase in the amount of expenses incurred on tea consumption in the CMO in the past three years.

Citing RTI replies, the Congress leader said the amount spent on tea has risen from Rs 57,99,150 (nearly Rs 58 lakh) in 2015-16 to Rs 3,34,64.904 (nearly Rs 3.4 crore) in 2017-18.

"This is a staggering increase of 577 percent. It means that on an average, a whopping 18,591 cups of tea are served in CMO daily... How is it possible?" he asked.

Mumbai Congress President @sanjaynirupam has alleged " Tea Scam " at CM @Dev_Fadnavis office. The amount spent on tea has risen from approx  58 lakh in 2015-2016 to 3,34,64,904 ( 3.4Crore) in 2017-2018, an increase of a staggering 577%. pic.twitter.com/ON5LnmpJCX  MumbaiCongress (@INCMumbai) March 28, 2018

Seeking to know "what kind of tea is (Chief Minister Devendra) Fadnavis drinking, since we have heard of only green tea, yellow tea and so on", Nirupam sarcastically observed that "the CM and CMO seem to be indulging in some kind of highly expensive 'golden' tea' to mount up such a huge bill".

Attacking the Fadnavis government over its total apathy to farmers' woes, he said that it's an irony that farmers are dying daily in Maharashtra, but the CMO seems to be incurring an unprecedented expense on "serving tea worth crores of rupees".

Alleging corruption in the tea bills of the CMO, he said, "On one hand, the Prime Minister takes great pride in saying that he was a 'Chaiwala'. On the other hand, Fadnavis has clearly taken this a bit too far with the massive and unnecessary expense incurred on serving tea in his office. Both the PM and the Maharashtra CM are taking the country for a ride in the name of chai."

To a question whether it's practical or feasible to serve tea to more than 18,000 people in the CMO every day, Nirupam quipped that "those Mantralaya rats must be drinking it all up...!"

He was referring to an alleged scam highlighted by BJP ex-minister Eknath Khadse, who claimed that around 319,400 rats were eliminated in just one week in Mantralaya.

Later clarifying on the issue, the state government said that he was referring to 319,400 doses of rat poison which were deployed in Mantralaya to kill the rodents.

Nirupam said the huge expenses incurred or the inflated bills for serving tea at the CMO needs to be probed as it is done at the cost of honest taxpayers' money.

"This is happening right under the CM's nose and in the CMO. It must be investigated who is doing it and action must be taken," he demanded.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court today agreed to hear next week the Maharashtra government's appeal challenging the Bombay High Court order granting bail to a lawyer, accused of illegally possessing call detail records (CDRs) of actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui's wife.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice A M Khanwilkar considered the submission of Maharashtra counsel Nishant Katneshwar that the appeal be heard on an urgent basis.

The apex court will hear the matter on April 6.

The Bombay High Court had on March 21 directed the Thane Police to release from their custody advocate Rizwan Siddiqui, who was arrested on March 16 for allegedly having ordered the illegal procurement of the CDR of actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui's wife.

The high court had held that in arresting Rizwan Siddiqui, the Thane Police had acted in a "high-handed" manner and had failed to follow "due process of law".

The HC had also directed the senior-most officials of the Thane Police and the state Home department to inquire into the actions of the Thane Police and if deemed fit, initiate appropriate punitive proceedings against the officials concerned.

Rizwan Siddiqui's wife, Tasneem, had challenged the manner of his arrest and filed a habeas corpus petition in the high court.

In the plea, she claimed that her husband Rizwan Siddiqui had received a witness summon from the Thane Crime Branch Unit one on February 14.

However, around 10 pm on March 16, Thane Crime Branch officials came to his office and while recording the statement, arrested him without giving him any notice under Section 41(A) of the CrPC to give him time to make an appearance before the police, the plea read.

It alleged that the Thane police kept him in wrongful and illegal custody.

The state, however, told the high court that the Thane Crime Branch had attempted to serve the 41(A) notice on Rizwan Siddiqui.

But because he refused to accept it, he was arrested, the prosecution said.

Section 41 (A) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) sets guidelines for a prosecuting agency to arrest a person without warrant.

However, the court noted that while the notice was issued on March 15, asking Rizwan Siddiqui appear before it on March 17 at 11 am, he was arrested before he could visit the police.
Mumbai: Veteran screenwriter Javed Akhtar today warned "bigots" to be wary of communalising the Indian film industry, which he termed as "the citadel of secularism".

The 73-year-old lyricist-writer's comments come after India-based French journalist Francois Gautier had responded to reports of a planned on-screen adaptation of Mahabharat, in which Aamir Khan could possibly play Krishna, highlighting the Bollywood star's religion.

Without naming Gautier, Akhtar, who has spent 53-years in films, asked people to stop spreading hatred in the name of faith in the field of cinema.

"I had joined film industry in 1965 on a salary of 50 rupees per month. In these 53 years not for a second, I have experienced or even seen any communal bias in our industry.

"This film industry is the citadel of secularism. Bigots, don't try to pollute it," he tweeted today.

Gautier had tweeted, "Why should @AamirKhan, a Muslim, play in most ancient & sacred of Hindu epics, the Mahabharata? Is @BJP4India Govt of @narendramodi going to be like the @INCIndia & just stand by in name of secularism??? Would Muslims allow a Hindu to play life of Mohamed?"

Akhtar had earlier slammed the journalist for behaving like a PR machine, calling him "clueless" about Indian history and films.

"Can somebody educate this clueless idiot Gautier that a film Mahabharata was made in 1965 and had become a super hit. The producer's name was Ghaffar Bhai Nadiadwala. This is India that we are proud of. Can some body explain it to the dimwit," Akhtar had written earlier.
New Delhi: Desi Greek god Hrithik Roshan is blessed with oodles of good looks and a great physique. The actor makes sure he does keep fit by doing regular work out sessions at home or at the gym and also eats healthy food. But what is even more inspiring is to know that it all runs in the family.

Not many are aware of the fact that Hrithik's mommy Pinkie Roshan is a bit time fitness freak. Recently, Pinkie shared some videos of her working out and she did turn her beast mode on like a total boss lady, we must say!

What's interesting is that you can see Hrithik along with kids Hrehaan and Hridhaan watching Pinkie do some amazing exercise to keep herself fit under the guidance of a professional trainer. She captioned it as: "My son#my grandsons#myaudience#this morning".

Watch videos:

My son#my grandsons#my audience#this morning A post shared by Pinkie Roshan (@pinkieroshan) on Mar 27, 2018 at 10:30am PDT

Family#fun#outdoor#myson#myworld# A post shared by Pinkie Roshan (@pinkieroshan) on Mar 27, 2018 at 10:32am PDT

Hrithik was quick to repost the video on his Instagram account with a caption, When the grandmother becomes your grandest inspiration - you literally have no excuses!

On several occasions, the actor has confessed that his mother is his inspiration to stay fit in life. On the professional front, Hrithik will be seen in Vikas Bahl's 'Super 30' which is based on Mathematician Anand Kumar, who hails from Bihar. The actor will transform himself to look like the character he is portraying on screens. The film will hit the screens on January 25, 2019.

Kudos to Pinkie for surely inspiring a whole lot of people to not make any excuse and pump up some iron!
New Delhi: It seemed like the 'Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety' fame Kartik Aaryan left no stone unturned to woo Kareena Kapoor Khan with whom he shared the ramp for ace designer Manish Malhotra recently.

Kareena and Kartik, who were in Singapore recently, set the ramp on fire with their sizzling chemistry. In fact, the duo had plenty of fun at the backstage. The six-film-old actor shared a video on his Instagram account and we were totally blown by it. Kartik is seen doing an impromptu act on 'Ban Ja Tu Meri Rani' and we must say that he nailed it completely. While he lip-synced the famous Guru Randhawa's number, Bebo was seen blushing to it.

Check out the video here:

Ban jaa tu meri Rani A post shared by KARTIK AARYAN (@kartikaaryan) on Mar 28, 2018 at 12:46am PDT

Within few hours, the video garnered lakhs of views and thousands of comments. While some called the act 'cute' and 'adorable' and expressing to see the duo on screen together, there were few who warned the young actor against flirting with 'Begum' Kareena.

The actor shared few more photos with Kareena from the event on his Instagram account. In one of the photos, where the two are exchanging a glance on the runway. The actor captioned the photo as - 'Jab We Met'.

Jab we met A post shared by KARTIK AARYAN (@kartikaaryan) on Mar 27, 2018 at 2:59am PDT

Kareena donned an embellished off-grey lehenga with metallic and crystal florals and sheer bralet while Kartik looked dapper in a black bandhgala with white piping detail.

A post shared by Manish Malhotra (@manishmalhotra05) on Mar 26, 2018 at 10:13am PDT

Kartik is known for his work in several buddy films, including 'Pyaar Ka Punchnama'. He was last seen in 'Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety'. Kareena, on the other hand, is awaiting the release of her film 'Veere Di Wedding' which also stars Sonam Kapoor and Swara Bhaskar.
New Delhi: The verdict in the Salman Khan blackbuck poaching case will be announced on 5 April. The Jodhpur court, where the case has been going for the last two decades, reserved the verdict after the final judgement.

Apart from Salman, actors Saif Ali Khan, Neelam, Tabu and Sonali Bendre, as well as Dushyant Singh, are accused in the case. Magistrate Dev Kumar Khatri reserved the order to be pronounced on April 5 in the presence of Khan and other accused, including the local.

Salman counsel HM Saraswat told PTI that the final arguments in the case began on September 13 last year with the prosecution counsel citing the statements of the eyewitnesses of the case. "After the completion of the prosecution's arguments on October 23, we began our arguments on October 28 last year and completed on February 4," he said.

After this, the counsels for the co-accused began their arguments, which completed on March 24, he said.

During the shooting of the movie 'Hum Sath Sath Hain', Khan allegedly went on shooting expedition along with Saif, Neelam, Sonali and Tabu, killing two black bucks in Kankani area of Jodhpur. Following the incident, the Bishnoi community filed a case against all the five actors along with one local person, Dushyant Sinha, in the matter.

In two other cases, Salman went on to killed chinkaras in Bawad area and Ghoda farms. He was, however, acquitted by the Rajasthan High Court in the Chinkara killing case in 2016.
New Delhi: Actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha has praised actor Ajay Devgn for his brilliant on-screen performance and his latest release 'Raid', which he feels is a realistic film.

"My earlier tweets about Income Tax remind me of the film 'Raid', a beautifully made, well directed, socially relevant, gripping movie with an almost authentic story. Congrats to our dear hero/actor Ajay Devgn worthy son of Veeru Devgan for a restrained and brilliant performance," Sinha tweeted.

My earlier tweets about Income Tax remind me of the film "Raid", a beautifully made, well directed, socially relevant, gripping movie with an almost authentic story. Congrats to our dear hero/actor @ajaydevgn worthy son of Viru Devgan for a restrained & brilliant performance.1>2  Shatrughan Sinha (@ShatruganSinha) March 28, 2018

He further congratulated Ajay for "encouraging such a realistic social commercial film and giving a chance to brilliant director Rajkumar Gupta", as well as lauded the performances by Saurabh Shukla and Ileana D'Cruz.

Also congrats @ajaydevgn for encouraging such a realistic social commercial film & giving a chance to brilliant director Raj Kumar Gupta. The background music & simple costumes stand out. Outstanding performance, by Saurav Shukla, his family members & of course Iliana. God bless!  Shatrughan Sinha (@ShatruganSinha) March 28, 2018

'Raid', also features Ileana D'Cruz and Saruabh Shukla, is set in the 1980s era. It tells the story of an income tax officer, who hails from Uttar Pradesh, played by Ajay. The storyline has been reportedly inspired by the real-life I-T raids that were conducted by the officers of the Indian Revenue Service in the 1980s.

'Raid' has received the second best response in the opening week after Sanjay Leela Bhansali's 'Padmaavat' this year. The Raj Kumar Gupta directorial has minted over Rs 84 crores so far since its release on March 23.

Ajay and Ileana's on-screen pairing has also received a big thumbs up from the viewers. The duo previously starred together in 'Baadshaho' and the super hit track 'Mere Rashke Qamar' featured the two in the lead.
New Delhi: Tiger Shroff says in his four-year-old career he has realised that rather than succumbing to pressures of the industry, moving forward is the only way.

The actor, who is the son of veteran star Jackie Shroff, says he is in a hurry to create his own identity.

"Because of the pressure, I am trying to climb ladders much faster... I'm blessed to be in the position that I am today -- to have that acceptance and (to be able to) say that I am my own man, I am not just Jackie Shroff's son. It's what I have set out to do, to create my own identity," Shroff told PTI in an interview here.

The 28-year-old star is aware of his pluses and his connection with the youth is one such that he wants to cultivate further by inspiring them.

"I want to inspire the uninspired. I want to move people and stir some emotion. I want to create a revolution. I have sort of initiated a spark in people. Most of my fans are children.

"That's a huge booster for me as they are the most honest members in the audience. They are the future of the country. And if I am leading them, inspiring them in the right way, it's a great feeling," Shroff says.

The actor is looking forward to the release of "Baaghi 2", a sequel to his 2016 action movie, which cemented his position as Bollywood's latest action star.

He faced failure with the two subsequent films -- "A Flying Jatt" and "Munna Micheal" and Shroff admits that it was hard on him.

"I'm very tough on myself. I'm very emotionally connected to my films and the people who work with on them. When a film doesn't work it sort of puts me in a dark space, until I start working on the next. So, it's a brief period. Learning from my failures had only helped me get better. I've never been as confident as a performer as I am today," he says.

Almost all the big stars have hitched their wagons to different film franchises and Tiger believes being a part of something like this early in his career is an boon. The third sequel has already been announced.

"The sequel is being released within two years of the original. For me, that's a huge achievement. There are expectations as the first one was a massive hit.

"The pressure is on but we have scaled up things in every way. It's a beautiful love story to drive everything forward, especially the action. It has an emotional quotient, it's not just a show reel," he adds.

Featuring Disha Patani as the female lead, "Baaghi 2" releases this Friday.
New Delhi: Veteran actress Jayanthi aka Kamala Kumari's 'death' rumours surfaced online after she complained of difficulty in breathing and was admitted to the hospital. After reports of her demise started doing the rounds on social media, her family slammed the rumours and said that Jayanthi is on the path to recovery and is responding well.

Sakshi.com quoted Jayanthi's son as telling the media, "There is no truth in the news of Jayanti's death in social media. Some TV channels reported that she was dead which is untrue as they were confused regarding her health.

Jayanthi has worked in over 500 films in several languages. She ruled the screens from the 1960s to 1980s respectively. She featured in Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi and Marathi languages films. Jayanthi has been awarded two Karnataka State Film Awards for Best Actress, the President's Medal for Best Actress and two Filmfare Awards for Best Actress throughout her career.

In fact, the Kannada film industry even honoured her with the title "Abhinaya Sharadhe", meaning Goddess Sharada in actingsuch refined is her skill and acting prowess. She often shared the screen space with classic actor Gemini Ganesan. In Tamil films, she acted with almost all the biggies including MG Ramachandran, Gemini Ganesan, R Muthuraman and Jaishankar. Also, renowned filmmaker K Balachander did several films with Jayanthi. She acted with Jayalalitha and Manorama in 'Mugaraasi'.

In 2009, Jayanthi gave her voice to an HIV/AIDS education animated software tutorial created by the nonprofit organization TeachAIDS. She even featured in American comedy-drama 'Brown Nation' in 2016. The series was directed by Abi Varghese and written by Matt Grubb, George Kanatt and Varghese. 'Brown Nation' released in all 190 countries offering Netflix on November 15, 2016.

The thespian was admitted to Vikram Hospital in Bengaluru and complained of 'chronic severe asthma and acute respiratory failure'.

Here's wishing her a speedy recovery!

(Errata: An earlier news report on the actress had claimed that she was dead which later turned out to be false. We sincerely regret the inadvertent error.)
New Delhi: In a bid to give easier access to pension related information, Retirement fund body Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has launched a new pensioners portal.

The pensioners portal https://mis.epfindia.gov.in/PensionPaymentEnquiry gives details of pension related information like Pension payment order number, Pensioners Payment Order details, Pensioners passbook information and other related information such as date of credit of pension, submission of pensioners life certificate etc.

The portal can be accessed to know the status of pensioners life certificate, non-submission/rejection of life certificate of the pensioners. The portal also provides the details and the reason of stoppage of pension.

The retirement body has also launched enhanced Track eKYC facility for the convenience of members. Through this facility EPFO members can check the status of Aadhaar seeded against their UAN and to figure out the specific mismatch details.

To avail the facility, subscribers can go to EPFOs website www.epfindia.gov.in >> Online Services >> e-KYC Portal>> TRACK eKYC.

Using the facility, EPFO members can track the status of Aadhaar seeded against their UAN online. While using the facility, the member will have to provide his/her UAN after which they can check the exact status.

Last month, EPFO made it mandatory to file online claims for provident fund withdrawals above Rs 10 lakh, taking another step towards becoming a paperless organisation.EPFO also made it mandatory to file online claims for withdrawals of above Rs 5 lakh under the Employees Pension Scheme 1995.

Under the pension scheme, there is a provision of part withdrawal of pension, commonly known as commutation of pension money. Before the decision, EPFO subscribers had the option of filing online as well as manual claims for provident fund withdrawal as also for pension.

EPFO has also lowered the rate of interest on employees provident fund to 8.55 percent for its over 6-crore subscribers for 2017-18, from 8.65 percent in the previous fiscal.

The EPFO has over six crore subscribers and manages a corpus of Rs 10 lakh crore.
Jaipur: The Rajasthan Police on Wednesday arrested an alleged 'godman' Kuldeep Singh Jhala in connection with the suicide of a 20-year-old young man called Yuvraj Singh in Jhalawar.

The arrest was made following a complaint by the deceased's father Sohan Singh that the alleged godman was behind the suicide of his son.

Sohan Singh told the police that his family has been in touch with the godman for a long time and has been attending all religious activities performed at his ashram.

The godman Kuldeep Singh Jhala is very popular among the locals as 'lipstick' baba and is revered as a reincarnation of Goddess 'Shakti and 'Jagdamba'.

The godman is famous for dressing up as a woman wearing heavy lipstick during the auspicious month of Navratras. He is believed to be having close to 700 followers.

However, the godman has landed in trouble and has been accused of sodomising teenagers and abetting a youth's suicide.

The family of Yuvraj Singh alleged that Lipstick baba would coerce his young followers to have sex with them and later torture them.

Jhala has been arrested for abetting the suicide of a 20-year-old young man, who was also his follower, the Jhalawar Police said.

The youth, Yuvraj Singh, had committed suicide in February after Jhala allegedly threatened him for getting engaged with a girl and started torturing Yuvraj.

Based on its investigation so far, the Jhalawar Police said at least seven followers had confessed to being sexually abused by baba as part of some rituals.

The godman has also been accused of sending lewd messages to his targets on WhatsApp and the

police is now verifying his call records.



All the victims, so far, have been male. All victims will now be subjected to a medical examination to confirm the allegations of sodomy against the godman.

The arrest of Lipstick baba comes several months after Dera Sacha Sauda founder Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was convicted on rape charges and sent to jail.

(With agency inputs)
New Delhi: Veteran Kannada actress Jayanthi, who was reportedly suffering from chronic asthma and was admitted to a hospital on Sunday is now recovering well. The family has slammed the reports of Jayanthi's death news doing the rounds online.

Jayanthi was shifted out of the Intensive care unit of the hospital on Tuesday evening where she was admitted on Monday morning after she complained of having difficulties in breathing.

An IndianExpress report quoted Jayanthi's son as informing a Kannada news channel, "She was suffering from chronic asthma for a long time. When there was some issue with her breathing, the doctors advised to immediately hospitalise her."

Krishna further added, "Jayanthi had been dealing with her asthma problem for more than three decades but it is for the first time, her problem got severe, which required hospitalisation."

The veteran actress had acted in over 500 films and was visited by a number of South Indian celebs who enquired of her well being.
New Delhi: Two astronauts of Expedition 55 will conduct a spacewalk outside the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday, March 29 to install communications antennas on the Tranquility module.

The spacewalk will be performed by NASA astronauts Ricky Arnold and Drew Feustel. According to NASA, the duo has filled spacesuit tanks and cooling garments with water and reviewed checklists and warning systems.

As per the report, the two astronauts will work outside the space station for about 6.5 hours.They will also replace a camera assembly on the Port 1 truss structure. They are scheduled to begin the spacewalk at 5:40 p.m IST (8:10 a.m. ET) and NASA TV will broadcast live coverage of the spacewalk at 4:00 p.m IST (6:30 a.m. ET).

According to the US space agency, Flight Engineers Norishige Kanai and Scott Tingle will continue training for next weeks capture of the SpaceX Dragon resupply cargo craft with the Canadarm2 robotic arm. Kanai will be at the robotics controls inside the cupola as Tingle monitors Dragons approach and rendezvous.

The resupply cargo craft is set to launch on Monday and arrive on Wednesday just ten meters away from the station. The cargo craft will deliver over 5,800 pounds of crew supplies, science gear, spacewalking equipment and other station hardware.
New Delhi: If you thought that by ditching your phone's battery you can be sure of hiding your tracks, you are probably mistaken.

A Zee Media report has said that Google can trace your location even when you have taken out your battery from mobile phone . On the top of your smartphone's motherboard there is a mini IRC battery which never gets switched off. This battery keeps a track of your location. When you connect back to your internet this battery can convey your entire day's track to Google.

A couple of months ago, a report in the Quartz had revealed that Google is collecting location information from Android smartphones despite location services being actively switched off.

Even as the widening debate on encryption and fundamental right to privacy continues to die down, the latest report on Google's location data collection came as a shocker for many.

An investigative report by Quartz had revealed that phones running Android software gather data about the user's location and sends it back to Google when theyre connected to the internet.

"The information is collected even if the user actively turns off location services, has not used any apps, and has not even inserted a carrier SIM card", the investigation had found.

The investigation had found that Google was collecting location data since beginning of 2017 after a change in early 2017 to the Firebase Cloud Messaging service. The service is is owned by Google and runs on Android phones as a default set up.

The result is that Google, the unit of Alphabet behind Android, has access to data about individuals locations and their movements that go far beyond a reasonable consumer expectation of privacy, it had said.

Quartz had said that Google confirmed the findings on data collection and the company's spokesperson said that the search engine giant will take steps to end the practice.
Karachi: A video of a fatal collision between two cargo ships at the Karachi seaport in southern Pakistan has now gone viral on the social media.

The video was taken by a dock worker in Karachi.

The 3.31-minute long video clip shows a Hapeg-Lloyds ship carrying transit-containers crashing into a stationary Hamburg Bay ship alongside South Asia Port Terminal Limited.

According to the Pakistani media, the incident took place on March 19. Due to the impact of the collision, around 21 containers, said to be carrying imported cars, fell into the Arabian sea and went missing.

Due to the collision, the Karachi seaport - which is one of the largest ports in South Asia  was shut down by the authorities for some time.

No one was injured in the incident, the Pakistani media reported. The authorities, however, said that an assessment of the damage done by the collision of the two cargo ships will be done.
NEW DELHI: Following reports of clashes in West Bengal's Asansol during Ram Navami processions, the Central government on Wednesday asked the state government to submit a report on incidents of arson and violence in the last two days. Centre has also offered assistance of paramilitary forces in this regard.

Earlier today, Section 144 has been imposed in Asansol after clashes broke out between two communities on the occasion of Ram Navami. A huge contingent of police force and RAF have been deployed in the area.

Massive clashes broke out on Monday in Asansol's Raniganj during Ram Navami celebrations. Deputy Commissioner of Police had reportedly sustained injuries in his forearm as miscreants hurled bombs at him and other police officials.

Several groups had taken out processions in Raniganj to celebrate the birth of Lord Rama. As per reports, the procession while passing in front of a mosque, began sloganeering. On being confronted by the police, they started pelting stones at them. Soon after, the mob also hurled crude bombs in which a senior police officer was injured. He was rushed to a hospital in Asansol. Later, he was shifted to a private hospital in Durgapur.

Five other police officers were also said to have been seriously injured, along with some locals in the violence. Mobs are also said to have torched several houses and shops.

On the other hand, one person was killed and five police personnel were injured during a clash between two groups over a Ram Navami procession in Purulia in West Bengal. The incident took place on Sunday.

While the Purulia SP Joy Biswas confirmed that one person was killed in the clash, the Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Anuj Sharma said five police personnel, including a deputy superintendent of police-rank officer, were injured after violence that erupted between two groups over the Ram Navami procession in the Arsha police station area.

The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Opposition BJP had organised processions to celebrate Ram Navami in various parts of the state.
ASANSOL: Section 144 has been imposed in West Bengal's Asansol after clashes broke out between two communities on the occasion of Ram Navami. a huge contingent of police force and RAF have been deployed in the area.

Massive clashes broke out on Monday in Asansol's Raniganj during Ram Navami celebrations. Deputy Commissioner of Police had reportedly sustained injuries in his forearm as miscreants hurled bombs at him and other police officials.

Several groups had taken out procession in Raniganj to celebrate the birth of Lord Rama. As per reports, the procession while passing in front of a mosque, began sloganeering. On being confronted by the police, they started pelting stones at them. Soon after, the mob also hurled crude bombs in which a senior police officer was injured. He was rushed to a hospital in Asansol. Later, he was shifted to a private hospital in Durgapur.

Five other police officers were also said to have been seriously injured, along with some locals in the violence. Mobs are also said to have torched several houses and shops.

On the other hand, one person was killed and five police personnel were injured during a clash between two groups over a Ram Navami procession in Purulia in West Bengal. The incident took place on Sunday.

While the Purulia SP Joy Biswas confirmed that one person was killed in the clash, the Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Anuj Sharma said five police personnel, including a deputy superintendent of police-rank officer, were injured after violence that erupted between two groups over the Ram Navami procession in the Arsha police station area.

The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Opposition BJP had organised processions to celebrate Ram Navami in various parts of the state.
SHANGHAI/SEOUL: After North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited China, Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday accepted the former's invitation to visit North Korea. Following Kim's visit, Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks with him in Beijing.

Under the new circumstances, Xi Jinping said that he is willing to keep frequent contacts with Kim Jong Un through various forms such as exchange of visits, and sending special envoys and letters to each other, China's state news agency Xinhua reported on Wednesday.

North Korean is also willing to have the dialogue with the United States and hold a summit of the two countries, added Kim. The North Korean leader visited China for three days starting Sunday on an unofficial visit.

The visit was Kim's first known journey abroad since he assumed power in 2011 and is believed by analysts to serve as preparation for upcoming summits with South Korea and the United States.

Beijing has traditionally been the closest ally of secretive and isolated North Korea, but ties have been frayed by North Korea`s pursuit of nuclear weapons and China`s backing of tough U.N. sanctions in response.

Xinhua published a photograph of Kim and Xi shaking hands in front of the flags of the two nations.

Speculation about a possible visit by Kim to Beijing was rife earlier this week after a train similar to the one used by Kim's father was seen in the Chinese capital, along with heavy security and a large motorcade.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported that Kim visited China from Sunday to Wednesday with his wife, Ri Sol Ju. It cited North Korea without elaborating.

Xi had accepted an invitation from Kim to visit North Korea, Yonhap said.

Improving ties between North Korea and China would be a positive sign before planned summits involving the two Koreas and the United States, a senior South Korean official said on Tuesday.

Kim Jong Un's father, Kim Jong Il, met then-president Jiang Zemin in China in 2000 before a summit between the two Koreas in June that year. That visit was seen at the time as reaffirmation of close ties with Beijing.

(With inputs from Reuters)
Beijing: North Korea`s leader Kim Jong Un pledged his commitment to denuclearisation and to meet US officials, China said on Wednesday after his meeting with President Xi Jinping, who promised China would uphold friendship with its isolated neighbour.

After two days of speculation, China and North Korea both confirmed that Kim had travelled to Beijing and met Xi during what China called an unofficial visit from Sunday to Wednesday.

The visit was Kim`s first known trip outside North Korea since he assumed power in 2011 and is believed by analysts to serve as preparation for upcoming summits with South Korea and the United States.

US President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter he had received a message from Xi on Tuesday night that his meeting with Kim "went very well" and that Kim looked forward to meeting the U.S. president.

"Look forward to our meeting!" Trump wrote, while adding: "In the meantime, and unfortunately, maximum sanctions and pressure must be maintained at all cost!"

The White House said on Tuesday that North Korea`s denuclearisation pledge was evidence that the U.S.-led pressure campaign to force North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons was working.

"For years and through many administrations, everyone said that peace and the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula was not even a small possibility," Trump tweeted on Wednesday. "Now there is a good chance that Kim Jong Un will do what is right for his people and for humanity."

Earlier this month, Trump, who has exchanged bellicose threats with Kim in the past year, surprised the world by agreeing to meet the North Korean leader to discuss the crisis over Pyongyang`s development of nuclear weapons capable of hitting the United States.

North Korea`s official media has made no mention of Kim`s pledge to denuclearise or the anticipated meeting with Trump, which is planned for some time in May.

China has traditionally been secretive North Korea`s closest ally but ties have been frayed by Kim`s nuclear weapons programme and Beijing`s backing of tough U.N. sanctions in response.

China`s Foreign Ministry cited Kim in a lengthy statement as telling Xi the situation on the Korean peninsula was starting to improve because North Korea had taken the initiative to ease tensions and put forward proposals for talks.

"It is our consistent stand to be committed to denuclearisation on the peninsula, in accordance with the will of late President Kim Il Sung and late General Secretary Kim Jong Il," Kim Jong Un said, according to the ministry.

North Korea was willing to talk with the United States and hold a summit between the countries, it quoted him as saying.

"The issue of denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula can be resolved, if South Korea and the United States respond to our efforts with goodwill, create an atmosphere of peace and stability while taking progressive and synchronous measures for the realisation of peace," Kim said.

Kim Jong Un`s predecessors, grandfather Kim Il Sung and father Kim Jong Il, both promised not to pursue nuclear weapons but secretly maintained programmes to develop them, culminating in the North`s first nuclear test in 2006 under Kim Jong Il.

North Korea has said in previous, failed talks aimed at dismantling its nuclear programme it could consider giving up its arsenal if the United States removed its troops from South Korea and withdrew its so-called nuclear umbrella of deterrence from South Korea and Japan.

Many analysts and former negotiators believe this still constitutes North Korea`s stance and remain deeply sceptical Kim is willing to give up the weapons his family has been developing for decades.

"Kim Jong Un has finally echoed the unconvincing line of his father that denuclearisation is the `will` of Kim Il Sung," said Daniel Russel, who served as the top U.S. diplomat for Asia until last April.

"While that`s better than his outright rejection of denuclearisation to date, it`s not very persuasive in light of his actions and his caveats about the need for the U.S. to first create the right `atmosphere,` Russel said in an email.

Widely read Chinese state-run newspaper the Global Times said the Kim-Xi meeting proved naysayers wrong about Beijing-Pyongyang relations.

"China and North Korea maintaining their friendly relations provides a positive force for the whole region and promotes strategic stability in northeast Asia," it said in an editorial.

Kim`s appearance in Beijing involved almost all the trappings of a state visit, complete with an honour guard and banquet at Beijing`s Great Hall of the People.

Kim and Xi also met at the Diaoyutai State Guest House, where Kim Il Sung planted a tree in 1959 that still stands.

State television showed pictures of the two men chatting and Kim`s wife, Ri Sol Ju, getting a warm welcome from Xi`s wife, Peng Liyuan.

Analysts said the meeting strengthened North Korea`s position ahead of any meeting with Trump by aligning Beijing and Pyongyang while reassuring China it was not being sidelined in any negotiations.

"It seems that North Korea is not ready to deal with the United States without support and help from its longtime ally China," said Han Suk-hee, professor of Chinese Studies at South Korea`s Yonsei University.

A top Chinese diplomat, Politburo member Yang Jiechi, will brief South Korean President Moon Jae-in about the about the Beijing talks in Seoul on Thursday, the South Korean presidency said.

North Korea`s official news agency said Kim told a banquet hosted by Xi that his visit was intended to "maintain our great friendship and continue and develop our bilateral ties at a time of rapid developments on the Korean peninsula".

It said Xi had accepted an invitation "with pleasure" to visit North Korea.

China made no mention of Xi accepting an invitation, but Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang pointed to a line in their statement citing Xi as saying he is willing to maintain regular communications with North Korea via visits and exchanges of envoys and messages.

"I have to say that China and North Korea have a tradition of high-level mutual visits," Lu told a daily news briefing.

China had largely sat on the sidelines as North Korea improved relations with South Korea recently, raising worries in Beijing that it was no longer a central player in the North Korean issue, reinforced by Trump`s announcement of his proposed meeting with Kim.

"China is North Korea`s lifeline, so the notion, from a Chinese perspective, that Kim Jong Un could have had these other two meetings before meeting with Xi Jinping, I think the Chinese just thought that is not going to happen," said Paul Haenle, director of Beijing`s CarnegieTsinghua Center and White House representative to North Korea denuclearisation talks from 2007-2009.
China's determination to modernise its military can best be seen from how aggressively it has pushed the construction of its first-ever homemade aircraft carrier - codenamed Type 001A. The massive ship is reportedly ready for sea trials and may be inducted in the PLA Navy by the end of this year.

According to state-owned Global Times, the aircraft carrier - being built at the Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Company (DSIC) is currently being prepared for sea trials which last anywhere between six and 12 months. Other local reports in China have quoted DSIC Chairman Liu Zheng as saying that the equipment and devices on board the ship are in the joint debugging stage and that the 'main engine has been powered.' These developments further confirm that a sea trial is round the corner - making the Type 001A one of the fastest aircraft carriers to be built.

First launched on April 26 of 2017 and the sea trial may be officially launched on April 23 as part of China's Navy Day. The speed of construction may well be remarkable but officials also point out the quality of construction as one of the main highlights of Type 001A. "The quality of our construction is also world-class. For example, the world-class standard for the flatness of the flight deck is not more than 4 percent, and we made it lower than 3 percent," Liu told certain members of the Chinese press.

Naming the carrier has also been a matter of intense speculation in China. Several social media users in the country have suggested that it should be called 'Taiwan' while others say it should be named 'Shi Lang' - an admiral believed to have re-captured Taiwan during the reign of Qing Dynasty. Security analysts say, however, that the suggestions are not meant to antagonise people of Taiwan and that the final name would likely follow the pattern of naming ships after Chinese provinces and municipalities.

Whatever be the name, the fact that the Type 001A is ready for sea trials is being seen as a testament to a country in top gear towards not just modernising its military but doing so at home. Currently, the country only has a solitary aircraft carrier - Liaoning - in service. Commissioned in 2012, the Liaoning was originally constructed for the Soviet Army in 1980s before being put up for sale by Ukraine. It is mostly used by the PLA Navy for training purposes. Introduction of another aircraft carrier is expected to ring alarm bells to varying degrees in Japan, the United States and even India - all countries with at least one aircraft carrier.
SHANGHAI/SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited China from Sunday to Wednesday on an unofficial visit, China`s state news agency Xinhua reported on Wednesday.

The visit was Kim`s first known journey abroad since he assumed power in 2011 and is believed by analysts to serve as preparation for upcoming summits with South Korea and the United States.

Beijing has traditionally been the closest ally of secretive and isolated North Korea, but ties have been frayed by North Korea`s pursuit of nuclear weapons and China`s backing of tough U.N. sanctions in response.

Xinhua published a photograph of Kim and Xi shaking hands in front of the flags of the two nations.

At the invitation of Xi Jinping, Kim Jong Un paid an unofficial visit to China from March 25 to 28 pic.twitter.com/OG9695uZ6F  China Xinhua News (@XHNews) March 28, 2018

Speculation about a possible visit by Kim to Beijing was rife earlier this week after a train similar to the one used by Kim`s father was seen in the Chinese capital, along with heavy security and a large motorcade.

South Korea`s Yonhap news agency reported that Kim visited China from Sunday to Wednesday with his wife, Ri Sol Ju. It cited North Korea without elaborating.

Xi had accepted an invitation from Kim to visit North Korea, Yonhap said.

Improving ties between North Korea and China would be a positive sign before planned summits involving the two Koreas and the United States, a senior South Korean official said on Tuesday.

Kim Jong Un`s father, Kim Jong Il, met then-president Jiang Zemin in China in 2000 before a summit between the two Koreas in June that year. That visit was seen at the time as reaffirmation of close ties with Beijing.
New Delhi: A video clip of Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi taking off his shoes, jacket and belt during security checking at a US airport has infuriated many back home. While most of them are furious with American airport officials for not extending security protocol to Abbasi, many have also questioned why he complied.

Reportedly in the US to meet his ailing sister, Abbasi was frisked at the John F Kennedy International Airport in New York. A video of the security check emerged shortly after and has since gone viral because high-level government officials are almost always extended a green channel through airports. Presidents, Prime Ministers and Monarchs are always in the no-frisking list, not just in the US but in most countries of the world. As such, the frisking of Pakistani PM has infuriated many. Reactions on Twitter came thick and fast with several complaining that it was no less than an insult.

That's utterly shameful of @TSA to frisk pm of pakistan. No country shd disrespect leader of any other nation such way. Its USA that's embarrassed not Pakistan #ShameTSA #ShahidKhaqanAbbasi  deepkamal singh (@dks__) March 28, 2018

The Prime Minister of Pakistan was strip searched by US border agents, one can only imagine the horrors of travelers from Pakistan face while entering the US. This is not okay! #ShahidKhaqanAbbasi  Professeur de francais, Pratap ?????? (@AbhishekPrtp) March 28, 2018

If the news about complete frisking of Pakistani PM #ShahidKhaqanAbbasi is true, it is highly deplorable! This is no way to treat the head of a State.. #NewLow  Prajwal Mane (@PrajwalMane) March 28, 2018

Some even said that the Pakistani PM had disgraced the country by allowing the frisking to take place at all.

Many others however highlighted that it was only a result of Pakistan's deteriorating image around the world and that it was karma for the treatment given to Kulbhushan Jadhav's wife and mother in Islamabad. Jadhav is an Indian national jailed on false charges of spying in Pakistan.

They removed mangalsutra bangles and shoes of a mother few months later porkistan pm #ShahidKhaqanAbbasi strip checked in front of the whole world. You get back what you deserve.

Karma  Tapas Goswami (@Tapasrox) March 28, 2018

#ShahidKhaqanAbbasi

Hence proved that Karma has no menu.u will get what u deserve. Remember what u have done with Kulbhushan Yadav's mother and wife in the name of security check a few months back.  Jitankur Das (@dasjitankur) March 28, 2018

Pakistan's Geo News, however, suggested that Abassi voluntarily followed the security procedures. Pointing that Abbasi was in US on a private visit, Geo News released a video wherein Pakistani PM could be seen at the airport without any security protocol. The report further talked about Abbasi being popular for adhering to simplicity in his personal life, saying he was recently spotted travelling alone on a train during Britain visit.
The ongoing deterioration of relations between Islamabad and Washington could end up increasing Pakistan's vulnerability to China's financial muscle, an analysis in a widely regarded foreign policy magazine has said. The analysis says the US move to put Pakistan on a terrorism financing watchlist could mean Islamabad's 'risky reliance' on China would only increase.

The analysis, titled 'Pakistan's Risky Reliance on China Set to Grow', appeared in The Diplomat, the online foreign policy magazine. It argued that Pakistan's re-inclusion on the terror financing watchlist by the global Financial Action Task Force has meant that its already precarious economy would become more reliant on Chinese money.

"Pakistan is particularly exposed because its reliance on Chinese funds to re-energize the country seems likely to deepen, now that the United States has backed away," read the analytical piece. "For a number of years, Chinese financial assistance has been helping to buttress the flagging Pakistan economy. It was the country's largest lender last year," it added.

Noting that China is negotiating yet another loan of $1 billion on commercial terms. "With Islamabad's reinclusion on the FATF watchlist - it had been removed in 2015 - such provision will add to the already mountainous debt accruing from Chinese loans for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)," it said.

The piece also touched on steadily growing suspicion and discontent among Pakistan's political class over CPEC. "Already there are reported concerns among Pakistani decision-makers that many CPEC deals are bordering on exploitative. Analysts say debt repayments are not transparent and procurement and bidding procedures for projects significantly favor China, with Chinese companies winning contracts and using Chinese labor to complete them," the piece said.

The analysis further said Pakistan's growing current account deficit and debt problems are bound to be compounded by the country's plummeting foreign exchange reserves, which fell a whopping 27 percent last year. Islamabad has asked the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the second bailout in five years. But a recent IMF report cast doubt on Pakistan's ability to repay what it has already borrowed.

The analysis put all these developments in the perspective of the predatory and debt-trap diplomacy that China has practiced with a number of countries. It said Nepal had already demonstrated jitteriness over blindly accepting the Chinese gift horse, and raised the example of Sri Lanka. "Sri Lanka provides a salutary reminder of why recipients of BRI funds need to be mindful of the long-term implications," it said. China had seized control of the Hambantota Port for 99 years. This had come after Sri Lanka said it was unable to repay the loans China had given it to finance the construction of the port. Like CPEC, Hambantota too had been widely portrayed as a magic wand solution to lagging economic development.

The analytical warning comes as the honeymoon period is coming to a close to CPEC. An increasing number of Pakistani lawmakers and media houses are now beginning to look at the too-good-to-be-true dalliance with the Chinese and are raising questions. The opacity of various agreements between Pakistan and China have also raised worry. Pakistani senators had recently called for an inquiry into the ownership of the Chinese company that is building and operating Gwadar Port without necessary clearances.
Amid reports of Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi undergoing security check at an airport in US, hinting at further worsening of relations between Pakistan and US, Pakistan-based Geo News has suggested that he voluntarily followed the security procedures.

Pointing that Abbasi was in US on a private visit, Geo News released a video wherein Pakistani PM could be seen at airport without any security protocol.

The report further talked about Abbasi being popular for adhering to simplicity in his personal life, saying he was recently spotted travelling alone on a train during Britain visit.

Geo News also referred to a recent photograph of the Pakistani Prime Minister wearing a simple shawl while cutting his birthday cake. The picture reportedly went viral on social media in the country.

This came even as reports said that Abbasi was frisked at an airport in US. The video in question showed Abbasi carrying a coat in one hand and a suitcase in the other as he walked towards security check area.

A leading newspaper had reported that the indignity had angered the Pakistani media, citing reports of US President Donald Trump and his administration considering visa ban on Pakistani nationals.

Abbasi had gone to US to reportedly meet his ailing sister. During the visit he also reportedly met US Vice President Mike Pence. This comes even as US has told Pakistan that the country needs to do more to tackle the menace of terrorism.
One of the most dangerous hacker groups, which has robbed over 100 banks in more than 40 countries, is no longer a threat to the world financial institutions

Read the original text at 112.ua.

Open source

World banks can take a little break now. It seems that they have lost one of the main cyber threats  Cobalt hacker group, which has stolen more than 1 billion dollars from about 100 financial institutions around the world.

Europol has announced the capture of the leader of one of Cobalt, the most dangerous hacker groups, terrorizing banks around the world for the past five years. The detention took place in the Spanish city of Alicante and was the result of a complex three-year investigation conducted by the local police, with the support of the European legal order organizations, the US FBI, Belarusian, Romanian, and Taiwan authorities, as well as private companies engaged in information security sphere.

Europol does not disclose the name of the detained hacker and his other personal data. Presumably, this will be done during the court hearings if they are open to the public. However, the department does not conceal that the detainee is "from the Russian-speaking world", and Spanish law enforcers even claim that he is a citizen of Ukraine.

According to Spanish Minister of the Interior and Deputy for Seville Juan Ignacio Zoido, a 34-year-old Ukrainian citizen who called himself Denys K., was detained in Alicante, El Mundo reports.

He lived in Spain with his family for about four years (since 2014). During this time he managed to buy a house, two expensive cars, and jewelry.

The Spanish police have no doubt that this Ukrainian was "the brains" of the Cobalt cyber group: he developed a malicious program, assembled a team, and directed each of the virus attacks against the computer systems of the financial institutions.

In addition, another important function in the group was performed by three more people - two Ukrainians and a Russian. In particular, one of them specialized in linking malicious software, the other - on banks computer systems, the last one recruited regional executors, the so-called droppers (persons for withdrawing funds through ATMs).

According to the Spanish police, they have been identified already, but not detained yet. Also, 15 droppers were identified, four of them are detained (in Great Britain, Taiwan, Belarus, and Kyrgyzstan).

It is noteworthy that Denys K. does not consider his activity as something bad. During his first court statements, he called himself Robin Hood, who steals money from "bad guys"  banks, not from the ordinary people.

According to Europol, during its existence, Cobalt cybergroup has robbed over 100 banks in more than 40 countries, and the total damage has reached 1 billion euros. "The scale of the losses was extremely significant, for example, the Cobalt program allowed criminals to steal up to 10 million euros at a time," the department stressed.

The geography of the group's fishery is very extensive. Initially, attackers sent phishing emails with infected files to banking institutions of the CIS countries, Eastern Europe, and Southeast Asia, and in 2017, they wrote to banks located in North America, Western Europe, and South America, particularly in Argentina.

Open source

Nevertheless, the main "bad guys," robbed by the hackers of the Cobalt grouping, were the banking institutions of the Russian Federation.

So, for example, in December 2017, using the Cobalt Strike software in Russia, the first attack on the SWIFT financial information transfer system was made. Her victim was the Globex bank, controlled by Vnesheconombank. Then the hackers withdrew an amount equivalent to $ 1 million.

In total, according to Dmitry Skobelkin, the deputy chairman of the Bank of Russia, the attacks of the Cobalt Strike program cost Russian banks lost over 1.1 billion rubles in 2017. "In total, at least 21 waves of Cobalt Strike attacks were registered in 2017. More than 240 credit organizations were subjected to the attacks, 11 of which were successful," Skobelkin stated in February this year.

No, there were no political motives in the robbery of Russians. Rafael Perez, the commissioner of the anti-cybercrime department of the National Police of Spain, explained that hackers preferred Russian banks, as their defense systems are often obsolete.

According to Europol, Cobalt hacker group has conducted their first operations in 2013, attacking ATMs and other financial infrastructure with the help of Anunak malicious software. Later the software was modified and a version of Carbanak appeared, and after 2016 the cybergroup developed even more sophisticated software - Cobalt Strike.

All the attacks had several common features. Hackers sent phishing letters with malicious attachments to employees of financial organizations. When the employee downloaded a malicious program, the criminals received remote control not only over his computer but over the entire internal network of the organization. After that they acted in three schemes:

Gave commands to certain ATMs, so that they began spitting bills at a moment when members of the group were close to them. Instructed systems of interbank money transfers to transfer money to their accounts. Changed databases to increase balances on the "right" accounts.

Many people, probably, wonder why we are talking about the elimination of Cobalt, if not all its participants are detained by the law enforcers. The capture of other members of the group is only a matter of time.

Open source

Immediately after the Spanish police announced about the capture of the alleged leader of the cyber group, Ukrainian law enforcement authorities announced the detention of one of his accomplices. It is a 30-year-old resident of Kyiv who has been a member of the group since 2016. He developed and supported the proper operation of malware, which exploited vulnerabilities in the most common software products.

Experts believe that those who still walk around free will either create a new criminal grouping, or join the existing ones, but they will not call themselves Cobalt again. The world banks might take a break, but they cannot relax completely. This period of relative calm should be used for strengthening the cyber defense of their computer systems so that subsequent attacks by intruders are not as significant as the damage from the activities of the Cobalt hacker group.
Another worsening of the situation in eastern Ukraine has been observed since March 24, and in a few days later, a new truce will come into force

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Avdiivka shelling 23.03.2018

The tripartite contact group in Minsk agreed on another ceasefire in Donbas; the parties re-affirm their full commitment to a comprehensive, sustainable and unlimited ceasefire, starting from 30 March 2018 at 00 hrs. 01 min. (Kyiv time).

Since March 5, the so-called "comprehensive spring truce" is taking place in the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) zone, however, dozens of shelling and losses among Ukrainian servicemen testify about the violation of this truce.

Avdiivka shelling 23.03.2018

According to the official data, for 22 days of the proclaimed ceasefire, the militants have carried out at least 153 attacks, six Ukrainian servicemen were killed, 12 were injured, and 4 more suffered injuries.

At the beginning of the "ceasefire" the illegal armed formations opened fire on average three times a day, but from March 24 the situation worsened significantly  the number of shelling exceeded 10, and then approached 50.

Avdiivka shelling 23.03.2018

Here is a brief chronological reference to track the dynamics of compliance with the "comprehensive ceasefire" in Donbas.

March, 5

At 01:00, illegal armed formations (IAF) have violated the ceasefire agreement, carrying out three direct shelling. Militants used mortars, grenade launchers, and small arms. As a result of the shelling, a Ukrainian serviceman was wounded. As also reported by the Joint Center on Control and Coordination, March 5 militants shelled residential areas of Shchastia: armored piercing and incendiary tracer ammunition and mines damaged the houses of civilians. The premises were severely smashed; no casualties.

March, 6

The second day of the announced ceasefire did not differ with complete silence on the contact line. The militants attacked the Ukrainian positions with the large-caliber machine guns, automatic grenade launchers for three times. As a result, one Ukrainian soldier, Vladyslav Kozachenko from Poltava, who served as a rifle-paratrooper assault of the greyhounds, has died.

Open source

Vladyslav Kozachenko

March, 7

The IAF again carried out three targeted attacks, using grenade launchers, small, arms and large-caliber machine guns. One ATO fighter was injured; he was hospitalized in a satisfactory condition.

March, 8

The fourth day of the "spring truce" was marked with traditional three shelling. They used mortars and other types of weapons. As a result of the shelling, one Ukrainian military man was killed, infantry fighting vehicle commander of the 54th separate mechanized brigade Ivan Riaschenko from Volnogorsk.

Open source

Ivan Riaschenko

March, 9

The militants continued to violate the truce, as evidenced by three shelling. Although the IAF did not use mortars, they opened fire from small arms. Ukraines Armed Forces suffered losses: one fighter died, another one was injured, he was taken to a military hospital in a state of moderate gravity.

A native of Chervonohrad, Lviv region, a serviceman of Special Operations Detachment "Azov" Yuriy Luhovsky was killed by a hostile bullet.

Open source

Yuriy Luhovsky

March, 10

Five sightings from militants were recorded on the contact line. IAF used mortars again. One Ukrainian military man was injured, he was taken to a hospital in a grave condition.

March, 11

The militants carried out four targeted shelling (with grenade launchers and large-caliber machine guns). Ukrainian military suffered some losses. One Ukrainian soldier died as a result of an explosion of an unidentified device explosion. Another soldier, who conducted engineering reconnaissance of the area, was wounded as a result of the explosion. Two more fighters were wounded as a result of shelling. All the wounded were taken to military mobile hospitals (two in a state of moderate severity, another one in satisfactory condition).

As it became known, marine Oleksander Shvets from Oleksandria, Kirovograd region, was killed as a result of the explosion.

Open source

Oleksander Shvets

March, 12

The militants used for the first time during the established ceasefire the mortars of the prohibited caliber 120 mm for positions of ATO forces. In just a day, five sightings were recorded, as a result of which two Ukrainian soldiers were injured.

March, 13

The situation on the collision line has not changed significantly - four shelling by the militants are defined as sighting. As a result of one of them, the Ukrainian military received military trauma. He was hospitalized in a satisfactory condition.

March, 14

For the first time since the announcement of the "comprehensive truce," lull remained on the front line.

March, 15

The militants have violated the ceasefire, opening mortar fire against the positions of Ukraines Armed Forces. During four hostile shelling, none of the Ukrainian militaries was injured.

March, 16

The day was marked by a relative lull on the contact line. One targeted attack was recorded in Luhansk direction, the gunmen opened fire from the armored vehicles and large-caliber machine guns. Fortunately, no losses.

March, 17

The militants have once violated the truce; they fired from the grenade launchers in the Donetsk direction. No wounded or injured among the Ukrainian fighters.

March, 18

The situation on the collision line has not changed significantly - two targeted shelling (from small arms and grenade launchers). As a result of the hostile shelling, one Ukrainian soldier received combat injuries; he was hospitalized in a state of moderate severity.

March, 19

The illegal armed formations failed to observe the conditions of the "spring truce" and have once opened fire from small arms in the Donetsk direction. As a result, one Ukrainian serviceman received a wound, his state was assessed as satisfactory.

March, 20

The militants intensified on the front line and increased the number of mortar attacks. In general, the IAF carried out five shelling, as a result, two Ukrainian fighters were injured, they were taken to a mobile hospital.

March, 21

Full compliance with the ceasefire was recorded.

March, 22

First, the ATO headquarters reported no gunfire. However, after clarifying the operational information it became known that the hostile shelling from small in the Donetsk region, which took place on March 22, was confirmed. The headquarters appointed an official check due to an untimely provision of relevant information. However, the exact number of shelling was not reported.

March, 23

For three times have the militants violated the ceasefire, using grenade launchers, machine guns, small arms, as well as 120-mm mortars. In particular, IAF shelled the civilian facilities in Avdiyivka; 6 mortars targeted the farm buildings and household plots. There were no casualties among the military and the civilian population.

March, 24

The situation in Donbas has aggravated, the militants have significantly intensified firing on the contact line. In total, 12 targeted shelling of Ukrainian positions were recorded.

One serviceman of the brigade, performing tasks on the contact line, died as a result of careless handling of ammunition, another one was wounded. He was taken to a medical institution in a grave condition.

March, 25

Further aggravation of the situation was recorded; 44 attacks from the side of the illegal armed formations were observed, 36 of which were identified as targeted ones. The militants fired from the grenade launchers, heavy machine guns, small arms, tanks, and 120 mm mortars (forbidden by Minsk agreements). As a result of these attacks, one Ukrainian soldier died, another one got injured and hospitalized in a satisfactory condition.

Soon it became known that the deceased was Sehiy Kovnatsky from Zhytomyr region, a fighter of the 95th Air Assault Brigade.

Open source

Sehiy Kovnatsky

March, 26

The militants continued to break the peace deal, carrying out 47 shelling of Ukrainian positions. They fired from grenade launchers, heavy machine guns, and infantry fighting vehicles, small arms and 82 mm mortars. None of the Ukrainian soldiers was injured.

Since 2014, the parties to the Donbas conflict have declared a "complete ceasefire" for more than ten times  the traditional "New Year", "Christmas", "Easter", "grain" and "school" truce.

However, none of them lasted long; some were even broken in the first hours (although none of them was legally completed). The sides have traditionally accused each other, while the OSCE have declared violations both by militants and by Ukraines Armed Forces. Then Trilateral Contact Group in Minsk took another decision on the introduction of a new armistice.

Complete ceasefire was preserved for a few days; on the whole, both shelling and losses were recorded. However, with the proclamation of each armistice (albeit only in the first days-weeks), it can be concluded that the number of dead and wounded has significantly decreased.
Read the original article at 112.ua

To begin with, let us conduct a short excursion to a relatively recent history that should help understand the motives of countries that have in fact entered an open diplomatic conflict with the Russian Federation.



How did it all start?



In the British city of Salisbury on March 4, a former Colonel of Russian Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned.



Later, British Prime Minister Theresa May said that responsibility lies on Russia, and the investigation focused on the use in Salisbury of nerve gas "Novichok", which is produced in Russia.



Britain put forward an ultimatum to the Russian Federation but received no explanations. Moreover, in Russia, they said that they did not admit guilt, and they demanded from the UK to provide evidence of the involvement.



The Russian Foreign Ministry called the charges of Theresa May provocation, undermining the dialogue between the Russian Federation and Great Britain.



"The undermining of the dialogue" continued with the decision of the British Parliament on the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats, adopted in connection with the "case of Skripal."

Russia responded in the same way, expelling 23 British diplomats out of the country.



Later, on March 23, the official position of the European Council was promulgated. They announced that "with a high degree of probability" the Russian Federation bears responsibility for the attempt on the Skripal.



"We express our unconditional solidarity with the United Kingdom in the face of this serious challenge to our common security," the message says.



It was the word "solidarity" that became the key in the further actions of a number of countries. They decided to support the UK not only with words but with actions.



"We're flying home"

112 Agency

"Today, US President Donald Trump ordered the expulsion of several dozen Russian intelligence officers and the closing of the Russian consulate in Seattle. This is the largest expulsion of Russian intelligence officials in the history of the US. The US is taking this step in parallel with NATO allies and partners around the world in response to Russia's use of chemical weapons in the United Kingdom ... The United States, together with its allies and partners, makes it clear that its actions entail consequences, reads the statement of US Ambassador to Russia John Hunstman posted on the embassy website.



"We are expelling four Russian diplomats working at the Russian Embassy in Canada or at the Consulate General of the Russian Federation in Montreal, all four were identified as agents or persons who used their diplomatic status to undermine Canada's security and interference in our democracy," Ukrinform quoted Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland.



Speaker of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Mariana Betz on the air of 112 Ukraine said that Russian diplomats, who are going to be expelled, are representatives of the Russian special services.



In a statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry on the official website of the diplomatic mission, the expulsion of diplomats was called an "unfriendly and provocative gesture" and they promised a reaction.



At the same time, a number of countries refused to expel diplomats. For example, in Austria authorities said that they "intend to keep open channels of dialogue with Russia."



What's next?

112 Agency

The investigation of the "Skrypal case" will be continued. The British police say that it will be lengthy and will take "weeks, if not months".



"This is an exceptionally complex investigation, and we currently have about 250 highly experienced and dedicated experts from counter-terrorist units working around the clock on this matter," said Neil Basu, deputy head of the Scotland Yard counterterrorism department.
The Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) and the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) in Donbas will run in parallel until Ukraine President's decree cancels the ATO. This was announced by the speaker of the Defense Ministry on ATO issues Dmytro Hutsulyak at the briefing in Ukraine Crisis Media Center.

"ATO will now run in parallel with the forthcoming Joint Forces Operation and the decision on the end of the Anti-Terrorist Operation will come in force immediately after the signing of the relevant decree by the President Petro Poroshenko. There is no such decree yet, " Hutsulyak said.

At the moment the formation of units of the Forces Operation continues, Hutsulyak added.

As it was reported earlier, the law On the specifics of the state policy on ensuring state sovereignty of Ukraine on the temporarily occupied territories in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, known as Donbas reintegration law, came into force on February 24, 2018.

According to the law, Ukraines Armed Forces joint operation headquarters is going to replace the Anti-Terrorist Operation (which is the official name of the operation in the conflict zone now) and be the main body in the conflict area. It is going to command the military assets of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, other military groups, the Interior Ministry, the National police dedicated to combating the Russian aggression in Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Law enforcement officers, servicemen and everybody else involved in fighting the aggressor, are going to be subordinate to the Joint Force Commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Related video:
Open source

The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine intends to again use the long-range unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) to increase its monitoring activities and to overcome the obstacles to monitoring the situation in Donbas conflict zone. This was reported on the OSCE website.

"The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine will reintroduce the use of long range unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) to augment and complement its monitoring activities and to overcome impediments to monitoring in eastern Ukraine," the message says.

As it was reported, the OSCE extended the mandate of the Special Monitoring Mission in Donbas until March 31, 2019.

The mandate of the OSCE SMM was extended until March 31, 2019. The delegation of Ukraine issued its interpretative statement, in which it stressed that the SMM should have full and unhindered access to the entire territory of Ukraine, including Crimea and Sevastopol. All states of the EU, the USA and Canada have supported this, the message says.

Earler, Ukraine's Foreign Ministry sent the OSCE a request for the extension of the monitoring mission's mandate in Donbas for another year. Ihor Prokopchuk, Ukraine's representative at international organizations in Vienna tweeted this on Twitter. Prokopchuk added that Ukraine welcomes the efforts and loyalty of OSCE SMM observers who keep on doing their job in Crimea and eastern Ukraine.

Related video:
First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister of Economic Development and Trade Stepan Kubiv says Ukraine has introduced 12 sanctions in relation to goods imported from Russia, UNIAN reports.

I would like to announce that as of today, there are 12 trade safeguard measures introduced in regards to the imports of goods originating from the Russian Federation, Kubiv said at a briefing in Kyiv on 27 March. According to the minister, 10 of the measures are anti-dumping, one of them is compensatory and one of them is special.

Ukraine introduced an anti-dumping duty on fittings and rolled goods from Russia at the end of 2017, on Russian chocolate in May 2017, and on grinding wheels in April. The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade also announced an anti-dumping probe into imports of soda, fibreboard, slate, and polyurethane products. On 26 March, Ukraines Interdepartmental Commision on International Trade decided to apply an anti-dumping duty on

In the winter of 2016, exports of Ukrainian goods to Russia were significantly restricted, and then a complete embargo was imposed on Ukrainian food exports to Russia. In July 2017, Russia continued the trade restrictions policy, closing transit shipments of Ukrainian goods through its territory to third countries, primarily Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. In October 2017, Ukraine filed a new lawsuit with the World Trade Organization against the Russian Federation related to the restriction on imports of food and industrial goods.
Read original article at 112.ua

Trump expels 60 Russian diplomats ... What's next? And then, following the US, the allies in Europe and not only in it did the same. Plus new sanctions. It is easy to assume that Russia will take retaliatory measures, and so the new arms race is under way.



The world is being increasingly polarizing, and for countries like Ukraine, there is less room for maneuver. In such a situation, for such countries, there are usual problems every day, followed by fateful decisions, such as on the eve of the First or Second World War. From these decisions, life and death issues depend. These are problems that cannot be postponed until later. And here the situation is aggravated also by the fact that in Ukraine all 27 years of its indepandence postponed solving problems for later. And the saddest thing is that such a policy has always been in demand by the population and voters. And here you are: instead of songs, jokes and fun - a new cold war.



Hence the conclusion. Any policy that prioritizes the logic of a carefree inner expectation and a slow external drift is doomed to failure and, as a result, the dismantling of statehood. Why? Because there is no longer any reserve of economic strength. In addition, Ukraine is now not in the warm geopolitical bath of the 1990s, but floundering in the cold open storming sea of a new geopolitics, where thousands of bloodthirsty sharks are also swarming.



That's why now populism is Ukraine's number one enemy. And it does not matter what it is: raising pensions and salaries of state employees without real growth of the economy or renaming the streets without a proper replacement of the road surface.
Read original article at 112.ua

Myroslav Prodan - Acting Head of the State Fiscal Service



The options for the legalization of EU numbers continue to be considered in the profile committee of the parliament, and the prime minister promises to solve the problem in a month if the parliament delegates such powers to the government. Meanwhile, the State Fiscal Service notes that, in any case, the National Police should receive the authority to check cars with such number plates on the basis of information from the Fiscal Service databases: this will create an effective system for controlling cars with foreign registration imported to Ukraine.



Today, several options are being considered for resolving the situation with cars with so-called euro plates. Those changes in the legislation on which the Committee on Tax and Customs Policy of the Verkhovna Rada is currently working, I am sure, will give their results and help to develop a clear mechanism for solving the problem, taking into account the interests of both the state and car owners.



The problem of the lack of control over cars with foreign registration, which are being temporarily imported into the country, arose in 2012 after the introduction of changes to the Customs Code. In particular, the mechanism of interaction between the customs service and the Ministry of Internal Affairs was excluded. The traffic police officers have lost the opportunity to control the legality of vehicles with foreign registration. They cannot even stop such cars if there is no traffic violation.



To bring to responsibility the driver of a car present in Ukraine for more than the statutory period, fill up a protocol on the violation of customs rule - it is possible only in the area of the customs activity, that is, in fact, only when the vehicle is being transported across the border.



Recently we signed an agreement with our colleagues from Lithuania, according to which we were able to receive information from the Regitra - a local accounting system for all vehicles. Now we can track vehicles with Lithuanian registration - wanted, taken off the register, with the expired terms of the insurance policy. This information is provided to us by the National Police. We could agree on access to similar bases with other countries. But the police so far simply cannot use it, it has no levers for exercising control and bringing to justice.



A proposal to provide the National Police with the appropriate authority is now at the consideration of the profile committee of the Verkhovna Rada. Only changes in the legislation will enable us to adjust the monitoring system and put an end to this issue.
Open source

The expulsion of the Russian diplomats from Ukraine can influence the process of the release of the Ukrainian political prisoners if Kremlin responds to it. Mariana Betsa, the spokeswoman of Ukraines Foreign Ministry claimed this as 112 Ukraine reported.

She specified that she cannot exclude any variants from the tit-for-tat measures from Russia to the asymmetrical response.

Also, Betsa reported that the Russian diplomats already leave Ukraine.

As far as I know, the Russian diplomats already leave Ukraine. It is out of the competence of the Foreign Ministry to control the departure but we should get the note about the end of the mission from the workers announced persona non-grata. They should immediately pass their accreditation cards, she said.

Russia has a right to send new diplomats instead of the expelled as Betsa specified. Also, Ukraine has a right to not accept them. At the moment, the issue of the possible replacement of the expelled diplomats by new is not considered.

Earlier Ukraine also joined the sanctions and claimed the expulsion of 13 diplomats.
Governmental offices are now checked for illegally brought weaponry, - Iryna Lutsenko, presidential envoy in the Parliament

Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian Parliament will expand the list of places where armed people are not allowed. Iryna Lutsenko, the presidential representative in the Parliament said that in her interview with 112 Ukraine TV channel.

Recently, the Ukrainian MPs passed the law, which bans carrying weapons inside the government buildings, but it needs to be supplemented, she said.

'It will also include mail offices, railway stations, and other strategically important infrastructure objects; yes, they are guarded already, but these extra measure are supposed to avoid any terrorist acts inside these buildings', Lutsenko claimed.

According to her, governmental offices are now being checked for any illegally brought weaponry.

'Guys and K-9 dogs come in, asking people if they may enter, asking them to show the contents of their boxes and bedside tables. They search everything, look everywhere. It's fine, and one should take it easy,' the official concluded.

Last week, the Parliaments official outlet Holos Ukrainy published a law on ban for weaponed people to enter governmental building. Therefore, the law came into force.

The bill provides for people with cold and fire arms not to have a right to enter the buildings of Verkhovna Rada, Cabinet of Ministers and other governmental agencies.

Under this bill individuals with cold or firearms, explosive devices, various ammunition, inflammable liquids, pyrotechnical devices, poisonous and superpotent substances are not allowed to enter the buildings where Verkhovna Rada, the President and the Cabinet of Ministers work. The law does not concern the state security guards.

As to the law, it provides the representatives of the State Security Administration inspect peoples deputies for arms or explosive devices.

The law will come into effect on the day of its official publication.

Earlier, Savcheko was suspected of preparation of terrorist attacks in Verkhovna Rada session room. According to Yuriy Lutsenko the prosecution possesses evidence that she was going to disrupt two boxes with a grenade, and murder those who would survive with an assault rifle.

It should be mentioned that Volodymyr Ruban is also suspected of terrorist attacks preparations in Kyiv downtown, in Verkhovna Rada in particular. Kyiv District Court arrested Ruban for 60 days without a right to the bail. Later, peoples deputy Savchenko stated, that she was ready to bail him out.

More news from Ukraine at 112.international
Naryshkin claimed that there are not many of them, they provided the security of the Russian embassies

Open source

There are the officers of the external intelligence among the representatives of the Russian diplomatic missions expelled by the western countries. Sergey Naryshkin, the Head of Foreign Intelligence Service claimed this as RIA News reported.

There are the officers of our service among the workers of the Foreign Ministry, Naryshkin said.

According to him, there are not many of them, they provided the security of the Russian embassies.

Head of Foreign Intelligence Service added that among the expelled diplomats there were people officially represented in that countries as the workers of the Foreign Intelligence Service and they provided the interactions with the special service of that countries through so-called partnership channel.

As it was reported about 30 countries of the world announced the expulsion of 144 workers of the Russian diplomatic missions in the response to the chemical attack in Salisbury. Ukraine also joined the sanctions and claimed the expulsion of 13 diplomats.
The Luxembourgish Foreign Ministry officially confirmed its support of the UK after the attack in Salisbury

Open source

Jean Asselborn, the Foreign Minister of Luxembourg made a decision to withdraw the ambassador from Moscow for the consultation due to the Skripal case as the press service of the Luxembourgish Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported.

It is noted that the Foreign Ministry officially confirmed its support of the UK due to the poisoning of Sergey Skripal, the former Russian agent.

The government agrees with the estimation of the British government that it is most likely that Russia is responsible for this incident and there is no other plausible explanation, the message said.

Earlier Asselborn claimed that Luxembourg does not intend to expel the Russian diplomats.

As for today 27 countries of the world announced the expulsion of 144 workers of the Russian diplomatic missions in the response to the chemical attack in Salisbury. Ukraine also joined the sanctions and claimed the expulsion of 13 diplomats.
Open source

Kurt Volker, the U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine is going to visit the combat area in Donbas again - during his seventh visit in this office, which is slated for late April - early May. Volker himself said this in his interview with Voice of America.

'I want to visit the eastern part of the country so as to see the conflict zone on the Ukrainian side. I want to meet the Ukrainian counterpart in Kyiv, but before that happens, I'd love to hear Russia's response, in order to realize what we can discuss', Volker said.

The official added he is satisfied with the West supporting Ukraine, but disappointed with the fact that 'there are no respective steps from the Russian leadership'.
Sergei Udovichenko decided to go to Ukraine after the presidential election in Russia, - Ukraine's State Border Guard

A cadet of FSB Border Institute in Russia asked for political asylum in Ukraine. According to Ukraine's State Border Guard, he is identified as Sergei Udovichenko, the ethnic Ukrainian who disapproves the current Russian government's policy towards Ukraine.

'During the interrogation, we found out that he actually is the senior cadet of Golitsyn Border Institute of the FSB (Russian federal security service, - 112 International). It appeared that he is the ethnic Ukrainian who fluently speaks Ukrainian and condemns the incumbent Russian government and its policy. According to him, he participated in the opposition-gathered rallies. After the presidential election in Russia, he decided to leave to Ukraine - permanently', the authority said.

Ukraine's State Border Guard added that currently, the government considers granting Udovichenko the status of a refugee.
The technical director claimed that he did not know about the failure of the alerting system

Sergey Antyushyn, the security guard of the shopping mall in Kemerovo where the fire took place denied his guilt. According to the investigation, he did not turn on the fire alarm as Interfax reported.

Of course, I do not consider myself as guilty. It is a tragedy, I have been so worried. The alarm was malfunctioned earlier and I wrote a report about this to the management of the shopping mall and the technical director was aware, Antyushyn said before the session of the court on the choosing of the restrictive measure for him.

He added that during the fire he called 112 and his chief.

Georgy Sobolev, the technical director claimed in the court about numerous problems of the building.

Recently the shopping mall was in the disrepair. At the same time I had small financial resources, the building is big and the number of staff is small, Sobolev said.

According to him, he ordered to evacuate people during the fire.

At the moment of the fire, I was at the place. I personally came up with the firemen to rescue a woman from the glass elevator stuck during the fire. I did not know about the problems with the alarm, Sobolev explained.

The representative of the investigation in the court reported that Sobolev was aware of the malfunctioning of the system and did nothing to repair it.

The doors should open automatically during the fire but it did not happen. Sobolev did nothing, the people were left face-to-face with the danger, the investigator said.

Also, Interfax reported citing the source that Aman Tuleev, the Governor of Kemerovo region dismissed his deputy and head of inner policy department.

Aleksey Zelenin, the Deputy Governor and Nina Lopatina, the Head of Inner Policy Department were fired, the source said.

Five people, including the vendors of the place where, preliminary, the epicenter of the fire was and the worker and executive officers of the organization that served the fire alarm were questioned due to the fire.

The criminal proceeding due to manslaughter, violation of the fire safety requirements that led to the death of two and more persons and service delivery that did not meet safety requirements.

On March 27, the court extended the detention of Georgy Sobolev, the technical director, Nadezhda Suddenyun, the administrator, Aleksandr Nikitin and Igor Polozinenko, the worker and head of System Integrator System that served the fire alarm of the shopping mall for another 72 hours.

Also, on March 27, the citizens of Kemerovo showed up at the rally with the demands to publish real data about the perished at the fire. The partakers of the rally do not believe the official data and noted that not enough rescuers were attracted to the firefighting.

However, the Investigation Committee of the Russian Federation claimed that Ukrainian pranker Yevhen Volnov spread the information about 300 fatalities during the fire in Kemerovo and opened the criminal proceeding against him.

As it was reported earlier, the shopping mall caught fire in the Russian city of Kemerovo on March 25. According to the Emergency Service, the fire occurred on the fourth floor where the cinema and childrens playgrounds were situated. The Investigative Committee of Russia considers two version of the tragedy: short circuit or use of the open fire. According to the last data, 64 people died. It was noted that 41 of them are children.
This became the impetus for the UK's allies to expel Russian diplomats, - U.S. Ambassador in Russia

Russian newspaper Kommersant published the presentation concerning the Skripal case; it was released for representatives of foreign embassies at a briefing in the British embassy in Moscow on March 22. According to John Huntsman, the U.S. Ambassador in Russia, it was exactly what made the UK's allies expel the Russian diplomats.

'The presentation was shown publicly, then printed and passed to 80 high-rank officials from foreign embassies on March 22, four days before the mass expelling of Russian diplomats. It comprised of six slides,' reads the message.

Slide 1 is the title of the document; the second one shows the timeline of the incident since March 4 (the poisoning) till March 20 (the expelling of 23 Russian diplomats from the embassy in London). Slide 3 describes the functional concept of Novichok nerve agent, which was used in the attack on Skripals.

Slide 4 describes the consequences of the use of this chemical weapon, and the statistics concerning the actual attack.

Slide 5 includes the list of known cases of the Russian aggression that occurred in various countries since 2006 till now; the annexation of Crimea and destabilization of Ukraine are on the list, too.

The last slide informs the audience about the steps taken by the British government. It directly points out to Russia's responsibility for the particular attack, destruction of Russian intelligence network in the UK, freezing of bilateral contacts and the enhanced border control regime.
Volnov claimed that he spread such information to Russian citizens think on the way their country behaves toward Ukraine

The Investigative Committee of Russia opened the criminal proceeding against Yevhen Volnov, the Ukrainian pranker who claimed that about 300 people died in the fire in Kemerovo, Russia as the press service of the committee reported.

On the results of the held check, the investigators of the Investigative Committee of Russia opened the criminal proceeding due to the incitement of hatred or enmity against Mykyta Kuvikov, the citizen of Ukraine known as Yevhen Volnov in the internet. According to the investigation, he publicly spread the inaccurate information about the number of the victims of the fire in Kemerovo, misleading the relatives of the perished and suffered and attempted to destabilize the situation, the message said.

It is noted that the Russian investigation intends to appeal to the court for the choosing of the restrictive measure in the form of the arrest in absentia for Kuvikov. Also, the pranker will be put on the wanted list soon.

Volnov claimed to RBK that the number of 300 died people was announced, taking into account the number of the seats in the cinemas. At the same time, he claimed at ObozTV that he spread information about 300 perished in the fire at the shopping mall in Kemerovo to make Russian citizens think on the way their country behaves toward Ukraine.

My goal was to allow the large range of the citizens of Russia to feel what I and whole Ukraine feel the fourth year. It is possible to call me with some horrible words but it is so, Volnov said.

Earlier the Investigation Committee of the Russian Federation claimed that Ukrainian pranker Yevhen Volnov spread the information about 300 fatalities during the fire in Kemerovo.

As it was reported earlier, the shopping mall caught fire in the Russian city of Kemerovo on March 25. According to the Emergency Service, the fire occurred on the fourth floor where the cinema and childrens playgrounds were situated. The Investigative Committee of Russia considers two version of the tragedy: short circuit or use of the open fire. According to the last data, 64 people died. It was noted that 41 of them are children.

On March 27, the citizens of Kemerovo showed up at the rally with the demands to publish real data about the perished at the fire.

Five people were detained due to the fire at the shopping mall. Also, Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia signed the order that announced March 28 as the day of mourning due to the tragedy in Kemerovo.
People throughout the entire country trust and watch 112 Ukraine. Therefore, this allows the channel to complete an important mission in the period of the Donbas conflict, when the residents of the East part of the state need to receive an accurate information from Ukrainian resources

According to Kiev International Institute of Sociology survey 112 Ukraine is one of the news agencies which Ukrainians trust the most. Other research conducted by the Detector Media shows a high level of journalism of 112 Ukraine editorial team. Besides, the news the channel covers are declared clear  they do not contain any doubtful stories.

As to the Kiev International Institute of Sociology data 112 Ukraine is the only TV channel in Ukraine which is among top-7 as to the total audience.

People throughout the entire country trust and watch 112 Ukraine. Therefore, this allows the channel to complete an important mission in the period of the Donbas conflict, when the residents of the East part of the state need to receive an accurate information from Ukrainian resources. 112 Ukraine provides unbiased information on the events and situation in Ukraine.

For the record: all Ukrainian sociological survey was conducted by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology in February of 2018 through the request of Detector Media and with the financial assistance of Denmarks Foreign Ministry (DANIDA) and NED (USA).

Related video:
Kovalyov said that Russian Foreign Intelligence Service and American CIA have conducted successful operations together, which were controlled by the official representatives of these special services affiliated the embassies

Open source

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency officers who work in Russian Embassy have a diplomatic status. Russian special services in the U.S. worked with the same documents. TASS, Russian news agency reported with a reference to Nikolay Kovalyov, the former Director of Russian FSB.

Certainly (FSB official representatives have a diplomatic status, - ed.), Kovalyov said, answering the relevant question.

They serve as diplomats, introduce themselves officially, this is a usual practice for both sides, Kovalyov added.

He also said that Russian Foreign Intelligence Service and American CIA have conducted successful operations together, which were controlled by the official representatives of these special services affiliated the embassies.

As we reported earlier, Sergei Skripal, ex-GRU officer, was poisoned in British Salisbury on March 4. The investigation confirmed the use of Novichok nerve agent in Salisbury.

Sue to this incident 60 Russian diplomats will be expelled from the USA. Donald Trump, U.S. President, ordered to shut down the Russian Consulate in Seattle. 27 states announced they were to expel 144 Russian diplomats as a reaction to the attack in Salisbury. Ukraine will also expel 13 Russian diplomats.

Russian called a massive expulsion of Russian diplomats a rudeness and promised to take reflecting measures.

Related video:
The President's Administration called the introduction of the electronic declaration for anticorruption crusaders a mistake

Ukraines President Petro Poroshenko demands the Verkhovna Rada to cancel the compulsory electronic declaration for the representatives of the NGOs which deal with anticorruption activity. This was reported by Interfax with the reference to Presidents Administration Press Office.

Petro Poroshenko insists that the Verkhovna Rada and all its factions unexceptionally should finally take into consideration the argumentation of the civil society, our partners, the Head of the state and make a relevant decision on the cancellation of the electronic declaration of anticorruption crusaders, the press office reports.

The representatives of the Presidents Administration reminded that Poroshenko presented the relevant bill in summer in 2017 and he was ready to sign it.

The Head of the state stresses that the introduction of the electronic declaration for the activists, approved in the previous year, was a mistake. It is not irretrievable, it can be amended and it should be done, the press office added.

Earlier, the Verkhovna Rada refused to consider the bills which are cancelled or reschedule the deadline for submission of the electronic declarations of property and revenue of the NGOs representatives, which deal with corruption.

As it was reported, the Group of Seven called Ukraine for cancellation of the e-declaration for anticorruption crusaders.

Related video:
He thanked the Polish Government for its support in counterwork against North Stream - 2 project

Open source

Ukraines Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman had a telephone conversation with his Polish colleague Mateusz Morawiecki. They discussed the key aspects of the bilateral cooperation. Groysman wrote this on Facebook.

They discussed aspects of the enhancement of cooperation in the economic field and the search of ways of existing problems solutions, which would suit both sides.

I thanked the Polish government for the solid support of Ukraine in the counterwork against the implementation of Russian energy project North Stream  2. He invited his colleague to Ukraine and offered to continue a tight intergovernmental dialogue, Groysman said.

Groysman stated that Morawiecki with Easter holidays, which will be celebrated in Poland on the nearest Sunday.

Related video:
The Cabinet of Ministers is responsible for the coordination of work on the implementation of the Annual National Programme

Open source

Ukraines President Petro Poroshenko approve the Annual National Programme under the aegis of Commission Ukraine  NATO for 2018. This was reported on the States website.

The Annual National Programme is to provide the fulfillment of the priority tasks of the cooperation between Ukraine and NATO and the relevant decisions made at the session of Ukraine  NATO Commission at the level of Heads of States and Governments on July 9, 2016 in Warsaw (Poland) and other significant agreements with NATO, the message says.

The strategy determines the priority tasks for 2018 and medium-term objectives, which are to be achieved till 2020.

The document also defines the relevant practical measures within the implementation of Ukraines Euro-Atlantic integration policy, reforming of the security sector and states defense under the standards and recommendations of the Alliance.

The programme is oriented to the attraction and usage of the opportunities along with the practical, advisory and consultative NATOs and its member states assistance to enhance Ukraines defense capabilities in the conditions of Russian armed aggression, and the introduction of goal-oriented and systematic activities to prepare the state to NATO membership.

The Cabinet of Ministers is responsible for the coordination of work on the implementation of the Annual National Programme.

Related video:
The government reported on the successful finishing of the negotiations between the countries

Petro Poroshenko, the President of Ukraine expects the signing of the Agreement on Free Trade Area between Ukraine and Israel during the visit of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel to Kyiv. He reported this on Facebook.

As we agreed with Israeli Prime Minister in Davos in February, the negotiations on the FTA Ukraine-israel are successfully finished. The conclusion of the agreement will give impetus to our bilateral trade. I am looking forward the visit of my friend Benjamin Netanyahu to Kyiv for the signing, the president wrote.

As we reported Ukraine finished the negotiations on the concluding of the Agreement on Free Trade Area with Israel and the signing of the document will take place in the near time.

The negotiations on the FTA with Israel were activated in 2016 and only in 2017, they passed through 11 rounds. After the signing, the agreement should be ratified by the parliaments of Ukraine and Israel.

The coming into force will allow to export the wide range of the agricultural products and food products, medications, cosmetics, chemical and light industry products, building materials, electronic goods and other products to Israel. In three years, the duties will be removed from the spices, seeds, flour, ketchup, canned goods, confectionary, clothes, furniture and glass goods.

The agreement regulates trade argues, fixes customs formalities, rules of the origin of the goods, describes the sanitary and protection means, including anti-dumping actions.
Earlier, 27 states announced that they would expel 144 Russian diplomats as a reaction to the nerve agent attack in Salisbury. Ukraine will expel 13 Russian diplomats

Montenegro is to expel one Russian diplomat within a week as a reaction to Skripal, ex-GRU officer, poisoning in British Salisbury, as the press-office of Montenegros authority reported.

The Government of Montenegro has made a decision to declare a diplomatic representative accredited to the Embassy of the Russian Federation persona non grata and to withdraw the consent of the honourary consul of the Russian Federation in Montenegro. The Embassy of the Russian Federation in Podgorica was informed of the measures with a seven-day deadline for the diplomatic representative to leave Montenegro, the message says.

It was reported that Montenegro notified the Russian Embassy about the decision and added that the Russian diplomat has to leave the country in a week.

Meanwhile, Slovakian news agency Novy Cas reported that Slovakia is to withdraw its consul to Moscow due to Londons accusations towards Moscow on the Skripals case. It was informed that the Head of the diplomatic mission is to be withdrawn for the first time in 20 years.

Earlier, 27 states announced that they would expel 144 Russian diplomats as a reaction to the nerve agent attack in Salisbury. Ukraine will expel 13 Russian diplomats.

Sergei Skripal, ex-GRU officer, was poisoned in British Salisbury on March 4. Later, Theresa May, British PM, stated that Russian is responsible for that and the investigation confirmed that the Novichok nerve agent was used in Salisbury.

Related video:
The signing of the document is expected in the near time

Ukraine finished the negotiations on the concluding of the Agreement on Free Trade Area with Israel and the signing of the document will take place in the near time. Volodymyr Groysman, the Prime Minister of Ukraine claimed this on March 28 as 112 Ukraine broadcasted.

In 2017 we intensively held the negotiations on the Free Trade Area with Israel with which we trade and deal amounting to $800 million. At the moment, the negotiations are finished. Today the joint statement of the governments and ministries of both countries are on the finalization of the Agreement on Free Trade Area with Israel will take place, the prime minister said.

According to Groysman, the states held 11 rounds of very difficult negotiations.

I think that we will form the possibilities for the signing of such agreement in the near future. I hope that possibly even the Prime Minister of Israel will be able to visit Ukraine, to perform the return visit to agree on this issue, he noted.

The Ministry of Economic Development noted that the countries agreed the further actions plan for the signing of the agreement. Later the sides will hold the detailed judicial reconciliation and then the document will be provided to the proper bodies of both countries for the approval.

The negotiations on the FTA with Israel were activated in 2016 and only in 2017, they passed through 11 rounds. After the signing, the agreement should be ratified by the parliaments of Ukraine and Israel.

The coming into force will allow to export the wide range of the agricultural products and food products, medications, cosmetics, chemical and light industry products, building materials, electronic goods and other products to Israel. In three years, the duties will be removed from the spices, seeds, flour, ketchup, canned goods, confectionary, clothes, furniture and glass goods.

The agreement regulates trade argues, fixes customs formalities, rules of the origin of the goods, describes the sanitary and protection means, including anti-dumping actions.
YEREVAN, MARCH 28, ARMENPRESS. The Myanmar parliament announced U Win Myint as the new president of the country after securing more than two thirds of the votes cast in the parliament during Wednesdays elections, The Myanmar Times reports.

U Win Myint garnered 403 votes out of the total of 636 votes cast in the polls.

"Today's result is a triumph for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, "former president U Htin Kyaw told reporters before getting into his car and leaving parliament following the vote.

U Win Myint replaces U Htin Kyaw who resigned last week amid rumors that he is in poor-health.

Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy and the first and incumbent State Counselor, a position akin to a Prime Minister, holds the power in Myanmar, while the president has a ceremonial role.

English translator/editor: Stepan Kocharyan
YEREVAN, MARCH 28, ARMENPRESS. No one is listed as missing after the Kemerovo shopping mall fire, the remains of 64 people have been found, Deputy Minister of Emergency Situations of Russia Vladlen Aksyonov told reporters, TASS reports.

"According to our information, no one is missing. We dont have any information about families who do not know where their loved ones are," he said.

Aksyonov confirmed that the blaze had killed 64 people. "The remains of 64 victims have been handed over to the Investigative Committee," he said, adding that 27 fire victims had been identified.

A fire erupted on the top floor of the Zimnyaya Vishnya (or Winter Cherry) four-storey shopping mall in the Siberian city of Kemerovo on March 25, eventually engulfing an area of 1,500 square meters. According to recent reports, the blaze killed 64 people, including 41 children.

President Vladimir Putin declared a nationwide mourning day on March 28.

English translator/editor: Stepan Kocharyan
YEREVAN, MARCH 28, ARMENPRESS. Armenias minister of education and science Levon Mkrtchyan had a meeting with Alexander Sergeev, president of Russias academy of sciences, during an official visit to Moscow, the ministry told ARMENPRESS.

A number of issues related to expanding cooperation between Armenia and Russia in the science sector were discussed at the meeting.

The Armenian minister presented the ongoing reforms in the science sector and mentioned that Armenia is a member of the EUs Horizon 2020 program, which enables a wide opportunity of using EU scientific grants.

As an efficient model it is planned to create scientific clusters where universities, scientific institutes and the business sector will work jointly by creating a mutually beneficial cooperation platform.

Mkrtchyan pointed out the development of Yerevans Physics Institute, especially in the direction of nuclear and particle physics.

The sides expressed willingness to implement joint scientific-technical projects, and in this context considered the possibility of cooperating with the Russian Foundation of Fundamental Research, which operates under the Russian government.

Sergeev noted that maintenance and strengthening of cooperation with Armenia is in the interest of the Russian side.

The sides also discussed organizing mutual visits of renowned scientists for delivering lectures.

English translator/editor: Stepan Kocharyan
YEREVAN, MARCH 28, ARMENPRESS. Sevim Dagdelen - deputy chairwoman of the group of the Left in the German Bundestag, says its necessary to immediately stop the European arms exports to Turkey.

She gave a comment to ARMENPRESS on the ongoing Turkish military operations in Syrias Afrin.

While Turkey is attacking the region of Afrin in Syria contrary to international law and alongside Islamist terror gangs, the EU accession negotiations are still continuing. 170.000 victims are evicted because of the Turkish invasion in Afrin. The European Treaties exclude accession negotiations with dictatorships or autocracies that invade other countries, murder and plunder hand in hand with Islamist terrorist groups, the Bundestag lawmaker of Turkish origin said.

She stated that the German government itself has called Turkey a platform for Islamist terror. All of this shows that Erdogan cannot be a partner in refugee policies. Furthermore it underlines that there needs to be not only a freezing of accession negotiations and of financial aid, but also an immediate stop regarding European arms exports to Turkey, the MP said.

Interview by Syuzi Muradyan

English translator/editor: Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, MARCH 28, ARMENPRESS. Azerbaijani authorities have banned Karine Oganesyan, an ethnic Armenian citizen of Estonia, who serves as a member of the Tallinn city council, from entering the country at the Baku airport. Oganesyan said on Facebook that she departed to Azerbaijan on March 23 to participate in an international conference of teachers.

Oganesyan had officially received an electronic visa and departed to Baku as part of the Estonian delegation. But, immediately upon arrival in the airport, Azerbaijani authorities noticed the Estonian citizens Armenian surname, and barred her from entering the country and sent her back to Estonia after 12 hours of detention in a special zone.

Armenias Ambassador to Estonia Tigran Mkrtchyan weighed in on the incident, saying: This conduct once again displays the racist and intolerant nature of Baku authorities. Baku, which is absorbed in anti-Armenian policy, is once again displaying cynical conduct towards European values, values which are so strange for itself. I hope the Estonian side will make conclusions and will adequately react to this deplorable story, and will protect the interests of its citizen. European institutions shouldnt remain indifferent too, since Estonia is a EU member and Karine Oganesyan is a EU citizen.

And generally, if any country is unable to receive all participants and accompanying staff who were invited to international conferences based on various motives, then the appropriateness of organizing similar events in the given country should be seriously revised.

English translator/editor: Stepan Kocharyan
YEREVAN, MARCH 28, ARMENPRESS. Speaker of the Parliament of Armenia Ara Babloyan met with President of the House of Representatives (Parliament) of Cyprus Demetris Syllouris on March 27 on the sidelines of the 138th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Geneva, Switzerland, the Armenian Parliament told Armenpress.

Speaker Babloyan highly appreciated the Armenian-Cypriot brotherly relations, stating that the two peoples are linked with historical-cultural, spiritual and value system commonalities the vivid evidence of which is the fact of recognizing and condemning the Armenian Genocide by Cyprus in 1975. The Parliament Speaker expressed gratitude for the adoption of the resolution criminalizing the denial of the Armenian Genocide by Cyprus House of Representatives on April 2, 2015. He expressed confidence that Armenia will continue making efforts in recognition, condemnation and prevention of genocides.

Ara Babloyan said the parliamentary relations between Armenia and Cyprus reached a qualitatively new level over the past years thanks to joint efforts and highlighted the need to intensify the works of the committees of the two parliaments and mutual visits of the delegations.

The Speaker highly appreciated the Cypriot leaderships persistent support to the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs on the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. He reaffirmed that the Armenian leadership has always supported and will support Cyprus at different international platforms concerning the Cypriot issue.

The Armenian Parliament Speaker also touched upon the signing of the Armenia-EU Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA), expressing hope that Cyprus will soon complete the inner-state procedures necessary for the CEPA to come into force.

Babloyan also talked about the centuries-old friendship of the two peoples and the Armenian community of Cyprus.

In his turn the President of the House of Representatives of Cyprus proposed to develop the strategic partnership based on implementation of concrete programs in different fields. The sides agreed to touch upon this issue during the upcoming visit of the Cypriot delegation to Armenia and to take more practical and concrete steps.

English translator/editor: Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, MARCH 28, ARMENPRESS. In addition to Russia and India, Armenia sees an opportunity to deepen the cooperation in the field of military industry with Serbia, China and Poland, Davit Pakhchanyan  deputy defense minister of Armenia, Chairman of the State Committee for Military Industry, told reporters, Armenpress reported.

There are other countries as well with which we cooperate and will continue so. In particular, we have quite good relations with Serbia which has quite developed military industry, works are being carried out also with China, Poland and etc. There are ties and trends to develop them, the deputy minister noted.

He said according to the Armed Forces 7-year Modernization Program, it is expected to reach the share of the Armenian armament to a quarter in the total. The arms purchased within the frames of the loan program with Russia counted as well, nearly a quarter will comprise the purchases of our domestic production, and it will depend on how fast we will be able to bring these developments, that already took place, to mass production, the official noted.

A loan agreement worth 200 million USD on purchase of arms was signed with the Russian government on June 26, 2015. The arms supply within the frames of the loan program is being carried out without delays, within a fixed timeframe.

English translator/editor: Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, MARCH 28, ARMENPRESS. The number of Turkish citizens seeking asylum in Germany after the 2016 failed military coup attempt is growing, Deutsche Welle Turkey reports.

According to official German data, the number of asylum seekers from Turkey in January and February of 2018 grew by 300 against the same period of 2017 - comprising 1,429.

The number of granted asylums also grew  with 42,3% of the applications being granted.

Nearly 9 thousand Turkish citizens requested asylum in Germany in 2017.

English translator/editor: Stepan Kocharyan
YEREVAN, MARCH 28, ARMENPRESS. President Serzh Sargsyan notices a new approach for development of science in Armenia, reports Armenpress.

During an annual meeting of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, the President delivered remarks stating: Previously, especially in 2008-2009, all speeches touched upon just one problem  lack of funds. But today we witnessed that the Academy made a self-assessment, and I am very happy that this process led to the opinion we had 6-7 years before. Yes, its necessary to optimize and effectively use the existing resources. This is just an imperative for development of our science, the President stated.

He agreed with the president of the National Academy of Sciences Radik Martirosyan that the number of scientists is not a lot, but he highlighted that the problem is not in quantity, but in the effective work of the existing people. If there are 20.000 scientists in Armenia, I again will not say that they are many. But I repeat again, the issue is not in that 20.000, the issue is the effective work of several thousands. When we finally achieve the result we expect, I think the state as well will provide additional resources. In general, we have always been ready and now as well are ready to provide any resource if there are concrete programs, if these programs are substantiated, if there are proofs that they are relevant. Of course, if there is just a desire to deal with something, it is understandable that we cannot provide that resources, but we are ready to find funds for any realistic and relevant program, Serzh Sargsyan said, adding that they will continue implementing the program financing.

The President said he is aware of the work of other structures that all are not satisfied with the financing , all think that they have small share. Its not so only in Armenia. Even in countries which reached high level of well-being, huge finance of science, everyone says the funding is less. And in general not only in science, but in other spheres as well the funding is not enough, we must be able to be satisfied with what we have, Serzh Sargsyan said.

He also attached importance to the effective solution of the issue of generation change in the field of science. From the reports I see that changes are being made in the staffs of scientific centers, institutions, but I share the opinion that we can face problems here. In this regard I will be ready to understand together with the people concerned over this issue what we can do in terms of prospective programs if the problem will not again lead to increase in funds, since this issue has always existed, will always exist and its possible to increase the funds only in one case if we have an economic growth like that of 2017 every year. In that case we will increase the funds without asking for and demanding them, the President noted.

According to him, the problems always come to the point that the government and the public always expect from scientists applied tools and always say that a balanced model between vision and applicable must be found. This is an eternal issue that exists in all countries. We expect that we can find such a model in Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan highlighted.

He assured that they have always had a desire and have used all opportunities to develop science in Armenia. Maybe, we were unable to provide so much funds as it requires, but on the other hand we need to understand that a small share comes from less revenues, the revenues will increase, the state shares will also increase, we have no other way. And the only path to development is the effective use of existing resources. This relates to our Army, security and all spheres, the President said.

Summing up his remarks, President Sargsyan expressed confidence that the Armenian people have always showed respect towards science, and science has always been demanded in Armenia. Both you and those who come after you have a lot of works to do, and this work, unfortunately, must be done with scarce resources. We must be able to solve many serious issues with small opportunities, the President stated.

English translator/editor: Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, MARCH 28, ARMENPRESS. A fully-fledged trade war between China and the US would have "a severe impact on the global economy", the World Trade Organisation (WTO) head has told the BBC.

There was a risk global growth could fall "very quickly", WTO director-general Roberto Azevedo warned.

Earlier the US and China announced proposed tariffs against one another.

The WTO now faced one of its toughest periods, Azevedo said.

Last week US President Donald Trump announced proposed tariffs on $60bn worth of Chinese goods.

Beijing responded saying it was not afraid of a trade war, but that negotiations should remain open.

Azevedo told BBC's HardTalk that while a global trade war had not yet been initiated, the world was "seeing the first movements towards it".

The scale of damage done to the global economy, and its rate of expansion, would depend on what the trade war encompassed, Azevedo said.

"If it's just limited to steel and aluminum, it's one thing. If you're talking about hundreds and thousands of products, it's a completely different thing. And the impact will be significantly different."

But he said there was little doubt that the trade clash was a "big problem".

"I don't think anybody believes that this is something minor, even in the US administration.

"These conversations are ongoing precisely because people are beginning to understand, I hope, how serious this is and the kind of impact this could have to the global economy."

English translator/editor: Stepan Kocharyan
YEREVAN, MARCH 28, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan on March 28 received newly appointed UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative for Armenia Shombi Sharp, the government told Armenpress.

The PM congratulated Shombi Sharp on assuming his post and expressed confidence that Mr. Sharp will contribute to further development of bilateral cooperation. PM Karapetyan said a close cooperation has been established with the UN Office in Armenia, a number of effective programs have been implemented, and in line with this, there are new prospective directions for joint work. Karen Karapetyan introduced the agenda of reforms initiated by the Armenian government in different fields, stating that Armenia has a great potential for sustainable development, and the ongoing steps aim at fully utilizing it.

In his turn Shombi Sharp said he assumes his post with an honor and during his mission he will invest the maximum efforts to ensure the UNs engagement in programs aimed at Armenias development and for their success. He welcomed the reforms initiative of the Armenian government, as well as the high economic growth rates and macroeconomic indicators, noting that the UN is ready to assist implementation of constant reforms and investment programs in Armenia. The UN Resident Coordinator said he is happy to assume his post this year during which both national and international-level interesting large-scale events will be held in Armenia.

At the meeting the officials exchanged views on Armenia-UNDP cooperation development prospects. In this context they touched upon the Armenia-2030 development agenda and attached importance to the close cooperation in its implementation.

English translator/editor: Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, MARCH 28, ARMENPRESS. Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan is still the most powerful figure in the political field, and the Republican Party of Armenia keeps the financial, team power and great organizational potential, sociologist Aharon Adibekyan, head of Sociometer center, told reporters, presenting the results of the poll conducted among nearly 100 experts - heads of parliamentary groups, parties, journalists, human rights defenders, business representatives. The survey questions related to the power, share and impact of political figures on political processes, Armenpress reports.

The statistics was also taken into account according to which 70% of leaders of nearly 500 communities of Armenia are members of the ruling Republican party, 20% are independent, and the rest are representatives of other parties.

Aharon Adibekyan said 70 out of over 100 parties still remained registered. It was supposed that we should have a great army of political figures who would express political opinions, ideas and present the interests of different social groups. Whereas, in reality, 8-10 parties are in fight, the sociologist said.

Commenting on the two most important spheres  domestic economy and foreign policy, nearly 45% of voters in the internal economic issues in the rating of the expert poll still have hopes with Karen Karapetyan, 35% with Serzh Sargsyan, 20% with Gagik Tsarukyan, 10% with Armen Sarkissian, and 15% with the ARF which acts as a united body. In the foreign policy field, Serzh Sargsyan has the great advantage  60%, then he is followed by Karen Karapetyan  15%, Armen Sarkissian  30%, the ARF  10% and Gagik Tsarukyan  5%.

Lusine Mkhitaryan

English translator/editor: Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, MARCH 28, ARMENPRESS. ArmHiTec-2018 international exhibition of arms and defense technologies in Yerevan will be attended by more than 60 foreign and Armenian companies, Davit Pakhchanyan  deputy defense minister of Armenia, Chairman of the State Committee for Military Industry, told reporters, Armenpress reported.

The aim of the exhibition, which will be held at the Yerevan Expo complex from March 29 to 31, is to strengthen Armenias security, develop military industry field, deepen the relations with our international partners and establish new ties, the official said.

He said there will be 34 Armenian and 30 foreign companies from 14 countries, including from Russia, India, China, France, Germany, Italy, Croatia, Poland, Serbia and etc. Attendance of high-level delegations from ten countries is expected. We already have cooperation with some of the aforementioned companies, in particular, with the Russian companies such as UralVagonZavod, Rosoboronexport, Almaz-Antey. We hold new talks with a number of companies and search for new cooperation directions. The two largest Indian companies - Bharat Electronics and Larsen & Toubro, as well as a number of other companies will be presented with which we establish new ties, the deputy minister added.

During the exhibition conferences, round-tables, in particular, the Armenian-Russian forum, the defense ministrys scientific and scientific-technical conference, the session of the business council adjacent to the CSTO military-technical cooperation inter-state committee will be held. The deputy minister noted that the Armenian-Russian forum will be attended by nearly 150 participants during which they will discuss the bilateral cooperation opportunities.

We will discuss the participation of our companies in the ongoing developments in Russia, in other words, we will be able to export our developments. There is such experience in Armenia, it moves on quite successfully. There will be a discussion on use of Russian technologies in our factories, David Pakhchanyan said.

The deputy minister informed that during the exhibition they will contact the frontline via cameras to see the situation there.

English translator/editor: Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, 28 MARCH, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs Armenpress that today, 28 March, USD exchange rate down by 0.05 drams to 480.22 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 0.98 drams to 595.18 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate down by 0.07 drams to 8.34 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 0.89 drams to 679.56 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price down by 171.24 drams to 20711.22 drams. Silver price up by 0.43 drams to 256.91 drams. Platinum price down by 16.97 drams to 14652.02 drams.
YEREVAN, MARCH 28, ARMENPRESS. President of the Republic of Artsakh Bako Sahakyan on March 28 held a working consultation with the participation of the heads of regional administrations and Mayor of Stepanakert, the Presidential Office told Armenpress.

During the consultation a wide range of issues relating to the development programs of the regions and the capital were discussed.

A special focus was attached to the solution of socio-economic issues, the process of ongoing agricultural works and capital construction.

President Bako Sahakyan tasked the consultation participants to give proper and coordinated solution to the discussed issues.

The consultation was also attended by state minister Arayik Harutyunyan, as well as other officials.

English translator/editor: Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, MARCH 27, ARMENPRESS. A massive fire broke out at Hyundai car dealership in St. Petersburg, ARMENPRESS reports, citing Ria Novosti.

The information was confirmed by Rolf company which owns the car dealership.

The company informed that people have been evacuated from the area and fire extinguishing works are underway. 100 people have been evacuated. There are no injured.

The Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia informed that the fire covered an area of 500 square meters. Officials are trying to find out the causes of the fire.

English translator/editor: Tigran Sirekanyan
YEREVAN, MARCH 28, ARMENPRESS. Armenias minister of foreign affairs Edward Nalbandian visited the Embassy of Russia in Yerevan on March 28 to express condolences on the Kemerovo disaster, the foreign ministry told ARMENPRESS.

The Armenian FM signed the condolence book which was opened in the Embassy regarding the deadly fire in Kemerovo, which erupted in a shopping mall and claimed the lives of 64 people, mostly children.

English translator/editor: Stepan Kocharyan
YEREVAN, MARCH 28, ARMENPRESS. The budget agreement recently signed by U.S. President Donald J. Trump includes funding for foreign assistance programs, including those in Armenia. Recent reports that the funding plan eliminates all foreign assistance to Armenia are wrong and based on a misunderstanding of the U.S. budget process, ARMENPRESS was informed from the U.S. Embassy in Armenia.

Given the strong separation of powers in the U.S. Constitution, multiple branches of government, agencies, and lawmakers each have a role to play in setting our annual budget and spending priorities. The U.S. Congress authorizes the overall budget and allocates money to various executive agencies, such as the Department of State and USAID. In doing so, Congress provides these agencies with partial independent authority on how to spend those funds to achieve overarching goals. It is a decision made through an inter-agency process, involving a variety of stakeholders and interested parties. Through that process the Congressionally-approved amount of funding is divided between countries and programs, with the overall total not exceeding the amount originally approved by lawmakers.

In certain cases, Congress uses its authority to set specific spending requirements, something called an earmark. In this years budget bill, like in past years, Congress used this power to earmark some assistance funds to specific countries (in the region these include directed earmarks for Ukraine and Georgia). The remaining $58 million in assistance funding allocated by Congress for use in Europe and Eurasia will be divided among a number of countries without earmarks  including Armenia -- with spending levels determined through the interagency process.

This budget process is not a change from previous years. Funding for Armenia was not specifically required by Congress through an earmark, but it has not been so for several years. This lack of an earmark does not mean Armenia will receive no foreign assistance. The decision on how to divide funding for Europe and Eurasia  including how much foreign assistance will be allocated to Armenia and for what programs -- is currently under discussion in the State Department and USAID.

For 25 years the United States has been a strong partner and friend of Armenia given our shared values. In fact, U.S. foreign assistance spending in Armenia has been rising in recent years, with funding reaching almost $23 million in 2017. USAID alone spent $1.1 billion in Armenia since its independence and is currently managing a portfolio that is valued at $70 million and spans 28 different activities.

Given that the bill signed by President Trump earlier this month maintains foreign assistance spending at a level similar to last year, indications are positive that a robust level of assistance funding for Armenia will remain. We will keep the Armenian government and people informed as the spending discussions continue in Washington.

English translator/editor: Tigran Sirekanyan
YEREVAN, MARCH 28, ARMENPRESS. Vincenzo Del Monaco, the newly appointed Ambassador of Italy to Armenia delivered his credentials to President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan on March 27.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the Presidents Office, congratulating on the occasion of assuming the post of the Ambassador, the President of the Republic wished him success and hoped by his active efforts the newly appointed Ambassador will foster the deepening of Armenian-Italian traditionally friendly relations dating back centuries ago and the development of cooperation in various spheres.

President Sargsyan and Ambassador Vincenzo Del Monaco shared the opinion that the high level Armenian-Italian interstate relations are developing based on firm historical grounds and the rich cultural heritage of the two peoples, but according to the interlocutors, the potentials and expectations of developing relations are far more.

Ambassador Vincenzo Del Monaco assured that he will spare no efforts to justify the trust he enjoys and will maximally contribute to deepening and strengthening of relations between Italy and its reliable partner Armenia.

The Ambassador praised the Armenian community in Italy, which, according to him, greatly fosters the development of the social, political, economic and cultural life of the country.

Photos by Mkhitar Khachatryan

English translator/editor: Tigran Sirekanyan
YEREVAN, MARCH 28, ARMENPRESS. The key obstacle for peaceful settlement of Nagorno Karabakh conflict is Azerbaijans non-constructive, extremist and bellicose position, ARMENPRESS reports President of Artsakh Republic Bako Sahakyan announced in an interview with Armenian Mirror Spectator.

President Sahakyan went to the American capital for his first official visit on March 12 at the head of a governmental delegation for a week of political talks and meetings. When asked what motivated this particular visit, the president responded that Artsakh has enjoyed friendly relations with the United States for many years and he himself has visited the United States on numerous other occasions. However, these trips were primarily connected with the work of the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund. This time we had the opportunity, and we took advantage of it, to meet with political circles. I am very happy that such meetings took place, he said.

Sahakyan appreciated the ongoing diplomatic efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs of which the United States is a member. He said, We understand that the international community in the face of the Minsk Group is concerned with finding a solution to this complicated issue. However, the Minsk Groups interest is not sufficient. Our profound conviction is that the non-constructive, extremist, bellicose position of one of the parties, Azerbaijan, toward this issue is the obstruction which we are unable to overcome to achieve more serious agreements.

He also said that for the peace process to be successful, Artsakh must be one of the full parties or sides in negotiations along with Armenia and Azerbaijan, as was initially agreed upon at the 1994 Budapest OSCE summit, and that Artsakh continues to do whatever is in its power to restore that format.

The situation of refugees in the region is often raised in international circles. Sahakyan said, At present, it is Azerbaijani refugees that are chiefly talked about. We naturally are in favor of talking not only about Azerbaijani refugees but also about Armenian refugees. Sahakyan declared, concerning Azerbaijanis who used to live in Artsakh. We have said on multiple occasions over the course of recent years that Azerbaijani refugees naturally can return to Artsakh, to the Artsakh Republic, if they recognize its jurisdiction, he said.

Bako Sahakyan said that although the April War of 2016 with Azerbaijan had its negative effects on the development of the economy, that situation has been rectified now, and for the time being, border incidents are a bit less frequent.

English translator/editor: Tigran Sirekanyan
LOS ANGELESThe third annual RuPaul's DragCon Los Angeles will take place Friday through Sunday, May 11-13, at the Los Angeles Convention Center South Hall.

"RuPauls DragCon is the only place to kiki with your favorite drag queens and stars all under one roof!" the convention's website states. "Come through and meet your faves, snap a selfie, and get your life!" (In true drag fashion, everything ends in an exclamation point!)

And lest anyone think this is an all-adult affair, DragCon even has a "Kid Zone," where "[a]fter your kids have met their favorite drag queens, stop by the Kid Zone for arts, crafts and more!"

The convention, which will be open Friday evening beginning at 4 p.m. for "Preview Night" (only available to those who've purchased full weekend tickets), all day Saturday beginning at 10 a.m., and most of Sunday, opening at !0 a.m. till 4 p.m., also features a runway with performances by special guests, a "Werkroom" where attendees can get photos of their favorite RuPaul's Drag Queen winners and also-rans, and a massive trade show where attendees can buy anything and everything related to the world of transvesticism. There will also be a VIP Lounge with a view of the show floor, for those who have purchased VIP tickets. (Sorry; the website says that all the "VIP Experience" tickets are sold out.)

While the panels and other programming for the convention have yet to be announced, the convention's website does have a "talent page" with photos of the expected Drag Race attendees, including RuPaul herself, TS Madison, who hosted the recent Transgender Erotica Awards, and dozens more celebs, all decked out in their finery.

And while plenty of Southern California's transgender community are expected to attend, one company that won't be exhibiting this year, according to its publicist, is the Grooby Network.

More information on DragCon can be found at RuPaulsDragCon.com.
CYBERSPACEIn what may be a response to the supposed anti-sex-trafficking bill, FOSTA, which passed the United States Senate last week, Microsoft has now banned offensive language, as well as nudity and porn, from any of its serviceswhich include Microsoft Office, XBox and even Skype.

The broad new ban was quietly inserted into Microsofts new Terms of Service agreement, which was posted on March 1 and which takes effect on May 1. The new rules also give Microsoft the legal ability to review private user content and block or delete anything, including email, that contains offensive content or language.

The rules do not define exactly what would constitute offensive language.

In theory, the new ban could let Microsoft monitor, for example, private Skype chats, shutting down calls in which either participant is nude or engaged in sexual conduct.

So wait a sec: I cant use Skype to have an adult video call with my girlfriend? I cant use OneDrive to back up a document that says fuck in it? asked civil liberties advocate Jonathan Corbett, in a blog post this week. If I call someone a mean name in Xbox Live, not only will they cancel my account, but also confiscate any funds Ive deposited in my account?

Last week, several online porn performers who use Google Drive to store and distribute their adult content files reported that the service had suddenly and without warning blocked or deleted their files, posing a threat to their income streams.

The new Microsoft Terms of Service appear to indicate that the software giant is now poised to do the same thing, acting as a censor to keep not only adult content off of Microsoft services, but even language that some users may find objectionable.

Offensive language is fairly vague. Offensive to whom? wondered the tech security news site CSO Online, in an article published Monday. What my granny might find offensive and what I might find offensive could be vastly different. But how would Microsoft even know if you had truly been 'offensive'?

Microsoft has not commented publicly on why it instituted the new regulations, but CSO Online speculated that FOSTA, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives just two days before the new term of service went online, may be the motivation.

The FOSTA bill for the first time holds online sites responsible for any activity by users of those sites that could fall under the definition of sex trafficking.

The online forum Reddit as well as the popular classified ad site Craigslist have already banned user content which could lend itself even to discussion of prostitution or sex trafficking.

Any tool or service can be misused. We cant take such risk without jeopardizing all our other services, a Craigslist spokesperson said, in announcing its blanket ban on personal advertisements. It now appears possible that other online services are applying the same logic in censoring content on their own sites.
CYBERSPACEStormy Daniels will get a chance to sit in the same room with Donald Trump, as her lawyer grills him about their alleged affair and the $130,000 payment to cover it up, if attorney Michael Avenatti gets his way after filing a motion to put Trump under oath. Avenatti filed the motion in federal court in California on Wednesday morning.

Avenatti would be questioning Trump in what would be the first deposition of a current occupant of the Oval Office since President Bill Clinton was forced to sit for a deposition in 1998, to discuss his alleged relationship with Paula Jones, a woman who was then accusing Clinton of sexual harassment.

The motion is set for a court hearing on April 30, according to Avenatti, who posted about the latest development in the case on his Twitter account.

According to Avenattis motion, the deposition of Trump would be held to a maximum time of two hours, and would focusing on discovering what, if anything, Trump knew about the $130,000 hush money payment issued to Daniels by Trumps personal attorney, Michael Cohen, less than two weeks before the 2016 presidential election.

Though Trump himself has not yet spoken publicly about the Daniels allegations, his White House press spokespersons have repeatedly stated that he denies an affair with Daniels ever took place.

Daniels and Avenatti on Monday filed a defamation lawsuit against Cohen, claiming that his assertion that the affair did not happen defames Daniels by calling her a liar. Avenatti also ridiculed the denials in a CNN interview, questioning why Cohen would, as he has acknowledged, pay Daniels $130,000 if they truly believed she was lying about the affair.

Every American tomorrow morning should call Mr. Cohen and claim you had an affair with the President and they promptly send you a check for $130,000 no questions asked, he quipped.

According to Avenattis motion Trumps deposition would be intended to demonstrate that the $130,000 payment did not have a lawful object or purpose and instead was intended for the 'purpose of influencing' the 2016 presidential election by silencing (Daniels) from speaking openly and publicly about Mr. Trump just weeks before the 2016 election."

Cohens lawyer, David Schwartz, responded to Avenattis motion to depose Trump by dismissing it as a reckless use of the legal system in order to continue to inflate Michael Avenatti's deflated ego and keep himself relevant.
DALLASOnline adult retailer DallasNovelty.com is now carrying the XR Brands line of Jesse Jane-branded sex toys.

The new line of signature toys can be purchased here.

The queen of porn is back and hotter than ever, and Dallas Novelty has the complete collection of the new Jesse Jane signature toys ready to ship. The blonde bombshell, Jesse Jane, is known throughout the world as a superstar in both the mainstream and the porn business for being outgoing and loving to all of her fans, said Nick Mahler, Dallas Novelty marketing director. With the new sex toy set that XR Brands Jesse Jane line of toys, you are able to experience all of her famous orifices that you have only dreamt about. You can have her doggie style as well as missionary in two new life cast masturbators that are made in the USA, you can slap her ass cheek as you enter one of her two holes that are also realistically textured inside. The missionary toy allows you to watch your favorite Jesse movie and plow deep with both an anal and vaginal entry that you can attack whenever you feel like it. These life-size toys are heavy weight, so they will stay put wherever you put them, whether its the kitchen counter or in the bedroom, its all up to you.

If youre looking for something easily transportable for a business trip or a quickie at work, there options for you to try and see what Jesses male co-stars have experienced. You could have a three-way with the stroker set of 3 pocket sized male masturbators that include a pair of juicy lips for a blowjob, a tight sphincter for anal and of the course the crown jewel, her perfectly replicated snatch with every detail included. If you want some hardcore ass-to-mouth then the Jesse Jane Double Stroker is just what you want with her pouty lips just asking for some cock and her tight ass that is waiting for you to pummel like no tomorrow. Are you looking for a classic experience? Then the Jesse Jane Pussy and Ass Double Stroker will fill your dance card whenever the mood strikes with an exact replica of both her most famous parts of her body. All the strokers are open-ended for super easy clean up after you are done showing her whos the boss.

Dallas Novelty also carries the mousepad that has Jesses beautiful face on it with a padded booby wrist rest for supporting those tired joints from stroking the night away and is offering fans a way to win one.

Dallas Novelty is running a Twitter contest where two lucky fans will have a chance to win a Jesse Jane Mousepad that was autographed by the superstar herself, said Mahler. Check out Twitter.com/dallasnovelty for details on how to enter. As always visit our @dallasnovelty Facebook and Instagram feeds for the latest toys released on the market. The 15-year anniversary sale is also still in full effect with no coupon needed to get 15 percent off everything in the store to celebrate this huge milestone.

To follow Dallas Novelty, go to DallasNovelty.com.
Amid government initiatives to cut sugar consumption, Nestle has claimed its new technology has reduced sugar in its latest MilkyBar by 30%.

Using a new method patented by the Swiss food giant, MilkyBar Wowsomes have 30% less sugar less than other similar products  without resorting to artificial sweeteners or alternatives such as stevia  but still retain a sweet flavour.

In 2016, the firm announced a sugar-transforming technique, changing its structure so that it dissolves quicker on the tongue, meaning less is required to retain the ingredients sweetness  much like candy floss. The process itself involves spraying sugar, milk powder and water into warm air, then drying out the remaining substance.

For the first time in MilkyBars 81-year history it has combined both milk and white chocolate in the same bar, the new Wowsomes will be available in white chocolate, or a mix of white and milk chocolate. Due in UK stores in the coming weeks, both variations will have creamy centres full of crispy oats.

MilkyBar Wowsomes will be available in single bars, multipacks of two and a bag with individually wrapped single pieces. The largest bars will be 18g and contain 95 calories each.

Public Health Englands chief nutritionist Dr Alison Tedstone showed enthusiasm regarding the new Wowsomes in an interview with The Guardian.

This latest announcement shows innovation has a role to play in making everyday foods healthier and Nestles leadership in this area should be applauded.

We hope it will encourage other companies to explore the use of technology to make significant reductions and produce healthier products to meet the governments 20% target by 2020.

Public Health England aims to cut sugar consumption by at least 20% for 2020 across an array of products, with a 5% drop intended within the first year. Initially aimed at reducing intake among the under-18s, from 2017 the programme was extended to cover a total calorie reduction over multiple sectors.

This is running alongside a sugar levy specifically for soft drinks that comes into force on

6 April and is part of a larger bid by the UK government to tackle mounting childhood obesity and diabetes within the population  conditions four times more prevalent now than in 1980.

While Nestles sugar wrangling method is not applicable to soft drinks  the substance dissolves too quickly to be contained in fluid  the firms developments are in line with long-term sugar reduction across multiple products.
Sheriff Sam Page using state law passed in aftermath of Sandy Hook to enable volunteer school resource officer program

After the Feb. 14 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, lawmakers, educators, and law enforcement immediately looked for ways to improve school safety. Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page announced during a Feb. 28 press conference plans to enact a volunteer school resource program. The same day, Page sat down with Carolina Journal Associate Editor Lindsay Marchello to talk about the program and how it might make schools safer. This interview has been edited for space and clarity.Why did you open the door for volunteers instead of focusing on expanding funding for more school resource officers?I support doing that, but you got to have the funding. What I've learned at the local level is see what you can do without funding. See what you can do with existing resources before you reach out for funding. After the shooting in Florida, I said,We already built on a volunteer base. I have a inactive reserve and an active reserve group that comes out. There is no charge, and they give us so many hours a month of service. They are formal law enforcement officers. A lot of formal law enforcement officers provide so many hours of service monthly. We see it work with volunteer firefighters. We see it work with the rescue squad. The volunteer base is a valuable base. But in this particular law it specifically says they have to come from a law enforcement background or military police. Now I was in the Air Force, so I came from the military law enforcement side, so I understand that side, but I also transitioned to the civilian side and I [have understood] that side for 35 years. [I]f I had the funding I would like to see every school in North Carolina with a school resource officer. Like the governor down in Florida said [recently],Now, I don't know what our funding capabilities are in North Carolina, but that's going to be a big bill. But the kids are worth it, and we should do something. Doing nothing is unacceptable. At this time in America schools are viewed as soft targets. I can't wait around for another child to be killed because we didn't do something.I've got six elementary schools, and a couple years ago we got a grant. It was the biggest grant across the state where you can get elementary school resource officers following Sandy Hook. We participated and I got two school resource officers - full time, trained - but they have to cover six elementary schools. We also augment with our regular patrol zone deputies. They are asked to stop by, visit and walk, do a check. Every one of my captains, my major ... has an elementary school that we are required to do a walk through at least once a day. We try to fill those gaps where we have to, but our children's safety and school safety ... we got to do something for them.The law allowing for volunteer programs was put into place in 2013. Why are you only starting the program now?I think what happened was that about that time ... the state and our school system offered to hire full-time school resource officers in the schools. So, we went with the full-time program and tried to see how we could work with that. Now we have been working with that for a few years now and then the shooting kind of jogged my memory. I said, "We need to do something." That's when I reached into the toolbox. I already have a law. How many times do you have a law already written for you? I don't have to talk to anyone from the legislature because they already wrote the bill. The volunteer school safety resource officer program is one option. It isn't the total fix, but it is one option to help us have safer schools by utilizing the most valuable resource in the community, which [are] volunteers.How would the volunteer program work?With the volunteer program, it's pretty much modeled after the school resource officer program. First, you have a law enforcement presence as a deterrence to violence with an armed officer in the school, but also they are there to be a resource to the teachers and kids. They are also there as a role model. The kids love the resource officers, and they want them to be there. We have some grandparents and parents who have kids in school who want to participate in this program. If they vet and meet the standards - again trained, qualified persons - those are the people I want protecting kids. They have to be former law enforcement or military police, though.Are there other things we can do to harden schools?Absolutely. Metal detectors are fine. There is a cost factor. You also have to have someone monitor those metal detectors. Now if the school system or if there is some federal funding to cover those metal detectors, maybe we could integrate our volunteers or resource officers with that. Remember, when you have one person on duty it pulls them from another duty. I really want my school resource officers to focus on who is coming through those doors, and if there are any threats they need to address. The volunteers, there's a lot of things we can work with them on around the school like parking lot security. When you pull up in the morning and drop your child off at the curb, there's your volunteer there in bright-colored clothes. We want everyone to know that's an armed volunteer school resource officer that is there to protect your children and the teachers to keep the school safe.What are your thoughts on arming school teachers? It's an idea suggested by President Trump.That's a conversation for the White House. I'm sure during discussions there's a lot of ideas floating around. There's some good ideas and some ideas that are different. I am a big supporter of the carry-conceal process in our county, state, and across the country, but I do believe that if a person is going to conceal carry they need to be trained and proficient in the use of firearms. I think the law enforcement model and the education model needs to stay in the realm of we protect citizens, we protect children and the teachers from harm so the teachers have an environment where they can teach and the kids have an environment (where) they can learn. I think that's the best model. As far as arming the teachers, that's a discussion for the local school boards and superintendents. They would have to make those decisions.
While most board members OK'd $95,000 bonus, Rucho says president was rewarded for doing what she's supposed to do

"You can take a look at the fact that she has been a big driver behind the My Future NC commission, and by virtue of the fact that she drove the initiation of a strategic plan [for UNC]. She has been very realistic in talking about accountability within the university system, and also very responsible in the appropriation requests that UNC is making of the legislature and North Carolina taxpayers."

WILMINGTON - The University of North Carolina's Board of Governors should take a serious look at how it awards bonuses and pay raises for university administrators, Bob Rucho, a former state senator and current board member, told Carolina Journal.On Friday, March 23, the board approved a $95,000 bonus for UNC President Margaret Spellings, roughly 12 percent of her $775,000 annual salary. The money will be released in split amounts, with $50,000 paid directly to Spellings, and the remaining $45,000 deposited into her retirement account.Three board members, Thom Goolsby, Tom Fetzer, and Rucho, opposed the decision. Goolsby and Fetzer are also former elected officials, the former a state senator and the latter the mayor of Raleigh.In today's economy, it's just not fair to pay that large a bonus to a public servant, Rucho said.Some areas of Spellings' management and communications need improvement, Rucho said, pointing to an incident last year where the president, along with Bissette, excluded some board members from communications with Gov. Roy Cooper over a controversial confederate monument on UNC-Chapel Hill's campus.But 24 of the board's 28 voting members disagreed with Rucho, voting for the bonus. Marty Kotis, an outspoken board member who frequently opposes spending bumps, was not present for the vote.Spellings earned every dollar, and then some, board Chairman Lou Bissette told CJ.he said.The president's contract doesn't include a yearly raise, Bissette said. Bonus incentives compensate for that. The board considered Spellings' work against percentages attached to each of her five performance categories. For example, implementation of the university's strategic plan accounted for 30 percent of her bonus.Spellings is eligible to receive a maximum bonus of $125,000. Her award this year was 76 percent of that amount, a modest sum when compared to her accomplishments, Bissette said.The president has negotiated the largest ever budget from the state legislature, rebranded the university, and enacted a more efficient budget for system employees, he said.In 2017, the board paid Spellings a bonus of $90,000 . The former U.S. Secretary of Education is two years into her five-year presidential term.Rep. John Fraley, chairman of the House Committee on Education/Universities, said he isthe Iredell County Republican said.My Future NC is a task force of K-12, community college, public university officials, and community leaders, designed to study education and training needs - and make recommendations to the state legislature.In 2016, the state legislature passed N.C. Promise, a program offering in-state tuition of $500 a semester at three UNC schools. President Spellings was a key player during the implementation process, Fraley said.However, in a state where the median household income hovers around $50,000, there is no justification for big bonuses, Rucho said.Spellings' salary is more than 15 times the median household income.The board plans to look at lowering student fees and tuition, but also should consider reforming administrative pay - and revise Spellings' contract, Rucho said.But UNC must offer competitive compensation in the education market, Bissette said. The system plays against schools like Duke University and Wake Forest University, where presidential salaries are north of $1 million.Rucho concluded the board is rewarding Spellings for merely doing her job.
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 ideals.
[Empirical research suggests that] when there's a difference in tax rates, the area with the lower rate sees a bump in sales, while the area with the higher rate sees a drop. That seems intuitive enough. They also found that proximity plays a role. That also makes sense. After all, if I can drive two miles down the road and pay less tax, then I will. If I am required to drive 50 miles to realize tax savings, the costs (in terms of time, fuel, etc.) likely exceed the benefits.

At last count, 12 North Carolina counties will include an increase in the local sales tax on their May ballots. In all 12 of those counties, it's a bad idea. As I wrote last week,I concluded,So, which counties will ask taxpayers to vote for a quarter-cent sales tax increase?Bertie County commissioners have put this on the ballot in May and November 2014. It failed both times. Most of Bertie County's neighbors have already imposed similar sales tax increases, which means that Bertie is a relatively low-tax county in the area. If voters approve this proposed increase, the county's businesses may lose that advantage.Clay County has put sales tax referenda on the ballot twice before, in 2010 and 2016, and it failed both times. Clay County is bordered by two counties, one with a higher tax rate and one with an identical rate. It's also bordered by Georgia, which has a slightly higher sales tax rate than North Carolina. Clay County should be careful about giving up its low tax advantage.Gaston County previously proposed a sales tax increase in 2008. It was defeated. A decade later, none of the counties that border Gaston has increased their sales tax, suggesting that, if passed, this increase would make consumer goods cost a bit more in Gaston County than across the border. That may harm local businesses.Jones County voters rejected sales tax increase proposals in 2008 and 2016, and voters will see it on the ballot again this year. Jones County businesses currently enjoy the benefits of having a lower sales tax rate than most of its neighbors. That's an advantage that a sales tax increase may wipe out.Lenoir County voters also previously rejected a proposed increased sales tax twice, in 2007 and 2012. Lenoir County commissioners say that they want to use this revenue to compensate for lost property taxes related to last year's property revaluation. But with local property owners already seeing a drop in the value of their largest asset, trimming spending would be a better approach than hitting their customers with an additional tax burden.Lincoln County commissioners put a proposed sales tax increase on the ballot in 2008, and voters rejected it. Most of Lincoln County's neighbors have not increased sales taxes, so this increase, if passed, would make Lincoln County a more expensive place to shop and do business compared to many of its neighbors. That may hurt local businesses and consumers.This increase was rejected by Pasquotank County voters in 2012 and 2016. If it passes, Pasquotank will have a higher sales tax than its neighboring counties in the far northeastern region of the state. That may put Pasquotank retailers at a significant disadvantage.Person County voters rejected a proposed sales tax increase in 2008 and 2010. Unlike most counties, which would use the funds for public schools, Person would like to use the additional revenue to fund volunteer fire departments. While fire departments are clearly important, Person County is bordered by Virginia, which has a lower state sales tax than North Carolina. Half of its neighbors have resisted increasing the sales tax. Person should keep that rate low to remain as competitive as possible.This will be the fourth time Rockingham County has put this measure on the ballot. Voters wisely rejected it in 2008, 2014, and 2016. None of Rockingham County's neighbors have the higher sales tax rate. It can only hurt local businesses to make Rockingham the county with the highest taxes in the region.Rutherford County attempted to pass a sales tax increase in 2007 and 2016, and it failed both times. Five of Rutherford's neighboring counties have resisted calls to increase sales taxes. So, if it passes, Rutherford County would become a less competitive and more expensive place to do business.This measure failed in Washington County in 2016, and it's on the ballot again. Washington is mostly bordered by counties that have not introduced a higher sales tax rate, so this may hurt local competitiveness and, ultimately, the local economy.The majority of voters in Watauga County voted against this increase in 2010. Two of Watauga's four neighboring counties have a higher sales tax rate, and two have a lower rate. Watauga County voters would do well to keep their rate competitive relative to its neighbors.
Back in October, General Fund revenues were $50.4 million behind projections, not much when the state expects to collect $23.1 billion for the year. Despite the relatively small difference, the usual advocates for higher taxes were out wringing their hands about the shortfall. The January update showed the gap narrowing and concluded,This has been a pattern in recent years, with the North Carolina Budget and Tax Center has been a prominent member of the sky-is-falling chorus. In October, there is near panic that revenues are running behind. By January, concerns are muted. Then come May or June, and we find that the state ran a surplus for the fiscal year, and the chorus claims (as they did one year) that the surplus is imaginary because the state is "not spending available revenue for the current fiscal year," which is the definition of a surplus. Yogi Berra couldn't have said it better The prospects of federal tax reform probably had an impact on revenues this fiscal year, leading people to pay state and local taxes at the end of December and delay taking business income or capital gains until 2018. Both responses would have contributed to January's spike in revenues. As companies paid tax reform bonuses, the withholding taxes would also have shown up in revenues that month. We would expect lower collections in February and March, but February revenue continued to outpace recent years. The true state of state finances will not be known until April, which is when people make their final tax payments for the preceding year. Those final payments have been very large in recent years, but the various responses to federal tax reform can pull the so-called "April Surprise" in different directions.Revenue estimates used by the General Assembly's Fiscal Research Division and the Office of State Budget and Management have been conservative for budget drafting. They only overshot actual revenues in Fiscal Year 2013-14 with the start of tax reform, but the previous year's surplus still allowed spending to finish on-track. Compare that with the challenges Kansas faced when it tried to cut taxes even as key industries in that state sagged and their state supreme court compelled unsustainably higher school spending. North Carolina's caution on revenues also led to the inclusion of triggers before tax rates could be lowered further.State tax reform could have affected the timing of tax collections in a way that pushes more payments into April than the forecasting model anticipates. Federal and state income tax laws have changed each year, further complicating the ability to forecast accurately from month to month. While it is reasonable for the Fiscal Research Division and the Office of State Budget and Management to plan based on their best estimates of revenue so those who write the budget and those who operate under it can make plans and trim their sails if necessary. The rest of us could show some restraint in our public pronouncements instead of seeing perils or prosperity in each announcement.If anything, slow revenues would argue for slower spending and more savings, not higher taxes. From 2001 to 2011, Democratic legislators and governors enacted (or extended) temporary income tax hikes four times and sales tax hikes five times. In 2007, they allowed half of the sales tax hike to expire, but the remaining half was made permanent. With the next recession in 2009, Gov. Bev Perdue requested and received a one-cent sales tax hike that added $1 billion in taxes, as well as surtaxes on individual and corporate income that generated another $200 million per year. Despite those tax increases, state government spent what it received and was unable to build the Savings Reserve Account to the eight-percent statutory target.Taxes are only half of the picture. Spending is the other half. Even with lower state and federal tax rates, North Carolina government has been able to set aside more money for the future than at any time in the past. Since 2013, revenues have spiked in April to the highest point of the year. Past results are no guarantee of future performance, but this year has been following a similar pattern in both revenue and reactions. Barring something unforeseen, state government should finish the year without a major shortfall, and the legislature will continue to keep planned spending below expected revenues into the next fiscal year.
In early December 2017, as Congress was debating changes to the nation's tax code, U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-California) gave one of the more hyperbolic quotes of the year. In response to the GOP's tax plan, Pelosi said Armageddon? The GOP tax bill is the biblically referenced battle that will end the world? Unlikely.Progressive politicians and politicos have reached the limits of the English language to describe their disdain for people outside of their tribe - i.e. people who disagree with them on policy matters. Pelosi's quote is not the only example of hyper-partisan, over-the-top rhetoric that invokes 'End of Days' and dire straits imagery.During the 2012 presidential race, then Vice President Joe Biden told a predominantly African-American audience that the policies of a Mitt Romney administration would put themRecently, in North Carolina, Democratic state Sen. Jeff Jackson compared the lack of conservative resistance to President Donald Trump to the Vichy French government that collaborated with Nazi Germany.And again in North Carolina, the Rev. T. Anthony Spearman, president of the North Carolina NAACP chapter, referenced Nazi Germany when commenting on one of President Trump's judicial nominees. Spearman likened the nomination of Thomas Farr to the federal bench as,Yet at the same time, many noted Farr's outstanding qualifications, including the American Bar Association.These comparisons were made by elected officials and a leader of a respected organization, and they are all disgraceful. However, as hyperbolic and appalling as the statements are, they are part of a growing trend of extremist rhetoric in our nation's political dialogue.In his book The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion, author Jonathan Haidt writes, "People bind themselves into political teams that share moral narratives. Once they accept a particular narrative, they become blind to alternative moral worlds."Though written five years ago, Haidt describes the partisan political tribalism that we find ourselves mired in now. Such extreme and outlandish language damages debate on serious societal and public policy issues at a time when we need grown-ups to make important decisions for the common good. It ultimately squashes thought and coerces our leaders into silence.Indeed, why would elected officials or political appointees stick out their necks to propose innovative policies or ideas in an environment where tax policies are compared to Armageddon and banking policy is compared to the evils of slavery?In this environment, politicians have little incentive to make serious policy proposals. Serious proposals get little debate in state capitals or Washington, but plenty of diatribes. However, good debate makes good policy, and good policy makes good politics. Unfortunately, Americans have not seen either lately, as the 115th Congress has been rated as the fourth least productive in the last three decades, and the lack of production lies squarely at the feet of extreme tribal rhetoric.If we want to see good policy from our elected officials, the political Left should tone down the apocalyptic rhetoric and engage in rational debate about the proper scope and size of government. Both sides of the political aisle are prone to extreme language from time to time, but the Left seems to be bent on making headlines with accusations that smear character and ruin dialogue. Can you imagine walking into work and claiming your co-worker was a slaveholding racist because they proposed a different sales strategy? It would be absurd and would surely lead to a serious human resources discussion. Isn't it time voters asked for a serious human resources discussion with their leaders? Voters deserve better and shouldn't settle for anything less than civility, inquiry and serious debate.
Engineering firm Corvid will invest $28.9M in Mooresville headquarters

RALEIGH: Corvid Technologies LLC, which provides physics-based engineering solutions for the defense, automotive, aircraft, and biomedical industries, will locate its headquarters in Iredell County, creating 367 new jobs, Governor Roy Cooper announced today. The company will invest $28.9 million in Mooresville.Gov. Cooper said.Corvid provides technology-based solutions to a variety of customers in the Department of Defense, including the Missile Defense Agency, Navy, Army, Air Force, Marines, and Special Operations Command. In addition, Corvid supports ongoing projects and customers varying from motorsports to U.S. Olympic teams to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Corvid currently has 145 engineers and scientists with 75 percent holding advanced degrees across a variety of STEM fields. Corvid employs staff at offices across the U.S., including its current office in Mooresville.said Dr. David Robinson, CEO at Corvid.The Mooresville location will be Corvid's main campus and headquarters. The project will include two, three-story buildings, a data center for high-performance computing, a mechanics lab, and a prototyping lab. Corvid will recruit best-in-class engineers and scientists from top universities, including North Carolina State University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Duke University, Wake Forest University, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, and Clemson University.said North Carolina Commerce Secretary Anthony M. Copeland.Salaries for the new positions will vary. Once all positions are filled, the annual payroll impact will be approximately $40.5 million. The current Iredell County average wage is $47,842.The North Carolina Department of Commerce and the Economic Development Partnership of N.C. (EDPNC) led the state's support for the company's expansion.Corvid's location in Iredell County will be facilitated in part by a Job Development Investment Grant (JDIG) approved by the state's Economic Investment Committee earlier today. Over the course of the 12-year term of this grant, the project will grow the state's economy by an estimated $764 million. Using a formula that takes into account the new tax revenues generated by the new jobs, the JDIG agreement authorizes the potential reimbursement to the company of up to $9,000,750, spread over 12 years. State payments only occur following performance verification by the Departments of Commerce and Revenue that the company has met its incremental job creation and investment targets. JDIG projects result in positive net tax revenue to the state treasury, even after taking into consideration the grant's reimbursement payments to a given company.Because Corvid chose to locate in Iredell County, classified by the state's economic tier system as Tier 3, the company's JDIG agreement also calls for moving as much as $3,000,250 into the state's Industrial Development Fund - Utility Account. The Utility Account helps rural communities finance necessary infrastructure upgrades to attract future business. When new jobs are created in a Tier 3 county such as Iredell, the new tax revenue generated through JDIG grants helps more economically challenged communities anywhere in the state. More information on the state's economic tier designations is available here said N.C. Senator David L. Curtis.said N.C. Representative John A. Fraley.Partnering with N.C. Commerce and the EDPNC on this project were the North Carolina General Assembly, the North Carolina Community College System, the North Carolina Department of Transportation, Iredell County, City of Mooresville, the Mooresville South Iredell Economic Development Corporation and Duke Energy.
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Its nice to hear medical malpractice claims have seen a 56 percent drop in the United States since 1992. That is what a March 27, 2018 report published by JAMA Internal Medicine has showed. Although, study authors also found that the most common medical malpractice claims still stem from diagnostic errors or missed diagnoses and that keeps the nursing home neglect attorneys at Levin & Perconti cautiously concerned. Our team hears of major medical errors happening all too frequently, especially to those who receive their care while in a nursing home or long-term care facility.

How To Identify Misdiagnosis or Failure to Diagnose

Since most nursing homes do not employ doctors, a large percentage of nursing home residents will still receive their care from family practice physicians, therapists, visiting doctors, and other medical specialists not affiliated with the nursing home. These clinicians, even medical specialists such as cardiologists and neurologists, may take visits to the nursing home at the request of nursing home patients and their family members. However, just like in a clinic or hospital setting, these medical professionals can fail to notice obvious signs of illness, or neglect to diagnose a condition. Nursing home staff can also contribute to the problem as some care workers have been directed by administrators to falsify reports of ongoing resident health issues and create medication errors..

Family members of nursing home residents should be on the lookout for these common signs of misdiagnosis or failure to diagnose a condition:

agitation and mood swings

altered mental state

body aches, pain, and stiffness

chronic infections or fever

depression or confusion

extreme weight loss

fatigue

general ongoing illnesses

hallucinations or delusions

memory loss

muffled speech

shakiness or tremors

And those residents with memory or cognitive diseases like dementia or Parkinsons may have an even greater risk of a missed diagnosis or neglect if left untreated for:

arthritis

cancer

dehydration

delirium

fibromyalgia

flu

gastrointestinal issues

heart conditions

pneumonia

urinary tract infection (UTI)

In many cases, medical conditions are treatable when caught early. However, failing to diagnose or treat a medical condition can often lead to further injury or death. This is especially true for nursing home residents, who are likely already vulnerable to illness and injury. Because of this, nursing homes and patient care teams, including physicians, should do all they can to diagnose residents properly.

Proving Failure to Properly Diagnose

The Illinois nursing home attorneys at Levin & Perconti can help if a loved one has suffered as a result of a misdiagnosis or missed diagnosis. In addition, we can work closely with our medical malpractice attorneys, a team that has successfully represented victims of misdiagnoses and missed diagnoses and have the experience and resources needed to handle the most sensitive and complicated matters.

Our consultations are always free, confidential, and handled by one of our skilled attorneys. Click here to fill out an online request form or call us toll-free at 1-877-374-1417 or 312-332-2872.
The state of California filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its decision to add a question about citizenship status to the 2020 U.S. Census form.

In the suit filed Monday night, California became the first U.S. state to challenge in court the administration's action, which the state claims is a violation of the U.S. Constitution.

In a press conference Tuesday, CA Attorney General Xavier Becerra said the Census citizenship question will lead to fewer immigrants responding to the 2020 census, and therefore, under-representation.

"Given the way the Trump administration has attacked immigrants, you could understand why immigrant families would be afraid to fill out census questionnaire," said Becerra Tuesday in Sacramento.

California Secretary of State Alex Padilla said the Census question is part of Trump's "concerted effort to suppress a fair and accurate census count."

From the Washington Post:

The action was followed Tuesday by an announcement from New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman that he will lead a multi-state lawsuit to preserve what he said was a fair and accurate Census. The suits are just the start of what is likely to be a broader battle with enormous political stakes that pits the administration against many Democratic states, which believe that the citizenship question will reduce the response rate for the census and produce undercounts. As a result, opponents say, states with significant immigrant populations stand to lose seats in state legislatures and Congress, along with electoral college votes in presidential elections and federal funding based on census counts.

And from Mother Jones, emphasis mine:
Robot law pioneer Ryan Calo (previously) teamed up with U Washington computer science and law-school colleagues to write Is Tricking a Robot Hacking?  a University of Washington School of Law Research Paper.

Calo and co are looking at the intersection of adversarial examples (blind spots in machine learning systems that make it trivial to trick them into miscategorizing their input, mistaking one face for another, or a stop sign for a sign telling a car to speed up, or a thinking a turtle is a rifle) and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, a ridiculously overbroad anti-hacking law inspired by a panic over the 1984 movie Wargames (seriously) that gives prosecutors almost unlimited authority to attack security researchers.



There is a case to be made that the CFAA could apply to each of these scenarios. The adversarial sound in the first scenario could constitute the "transmission" of a "command" to a "protected computer," i.e., the victim's phone. Assuming the revelation of the victim's location leads to physical harm, perhaps in the form of violence by the perpetrator, the damage requirement of CFAA has been satisfied. Similarly, by defacing the stop sign, the malicious competitor can be said to have caused the transmissions of "information"  from the stop sign to the car  that led to a public safety risk. In both instances, had the attacker broken into the phone or car by exploiting a security vulnerability and altered the firmware or hardware to cause the precise same harm, the CFAA would almost certainly apply.

On the other hand, a perhaps equally strong case could be made that CFAA does not apply. In neither scenario does the defendant circumvent any security protocols or violate a terms of service. The transmission of an adversarial sound seemingly does not cause damage without authorization to a protected computer. Rather, it causes damage to a person through an authorized mechanism  voice control  of a protected computer. With respect to the driverless car scenario, it feels like a stretch to say that minor changes to the visual world that a sensor may come across constitute the "transmission" of "a program, information, code, or command" on par with a denial-of-service attack. Regardless, there is again arguably no damage to the detector "without authorization" as required under Section 1030(a)(5)(A).

However a court comes to characterize the driverless car scenario, the same logic arguably applies to the shoplifter who evades facial recognition  at least for purposes of the CFAA. Like the founder who defaces the stop sign to mislead the car's detector, the shoplifter who alters her face to mislead the facial detector has arguably transmitted information purposely to trick the grocery store into misperceiving her so she can steal. Obviously there are differences. The founder causes physical harm, the shoplifter financial. The founder has no right to alter a stop sign whereas the shoplifter has a right to apply makeup to her own face. But from a CFAA perspective, the two situations feel closely analogous.
Kim Jong Un secretly met with China's Xi Jinping in Beijing, an historic first visit by North Korea's leader.

"If South Korea and the United States respond with good will to our efforts and create an atmosphere of peace and stability, and take phased, synchronized measures to achieve peace, the issue of the denuclearization of the peninsula can reach resolution," Kim Jong Un said, according to Xinhua's summary of his meeting with Mr. Xi.

And this: China's Xi has accepted Kim's invitation to visit North Korea: KCNA state media reports  CeciliaKang (@ceciliakang) March 28, 2018

From the New York Times:

The visit amounted to Mr. Kim's international debut: It was the 34-year-old leader's first trip outside North Korea since he took power in 2011, and his first meeting with another head of state. The surprise discussions added another layer of complexity to the rush of global diplomacy around North Korea's nuclear weapons program. Mr. Kim's trip unfolded in extraordinary secrecy and security; it was confirmed only after he left Beijing on the same armored train that stirred speculation when it arrived mysteriously in the Chinese capital on Monday. (Both Mr. Kim's father and grandfather, the North's former leaders, used similar trains for foreign trips.) Mr. Kim made the trip to China at the invitation of Mr. Xi, North Korea's state-run Korean Central Television reported soon after the announcement in China. Mr. Kim was accompanied by his wife, Ri Sol-ju, as well as by his senior advisers, it said. Mr. Kim told the Chinese leader that he was open to dialogue with the United States, including a potential summit meeting with President Trump, and was committed to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, according to an account published by China's news agency Xinhua.

Kim Jong Un: The DPRK is willing to have dialogue with the United States and hold a summit of the two countries https://t.co/uCJX76mhj0 pic.twitter.com/l0dwf8dIck  China Xinhua News (@XHNews) March 28, 2018
A mural quoting a sexual assault comment made by the President of the United States led to a threat of jail time from the city of New Orleans. Neal Morris, owner of the property and commissioner of the work, got the ACLU involved.

Hyperallergic described what went down after the mural went up in November 2017:

Ten days later, Morris received a letter from the city's Department of Safety and Permits faulting him for not following the proper permit process, demanding the mural's removal, and threatening a "maximum fine or jail time for each and every day the violation continues plus court costs as prescribed by law." Now, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Louisiana has filed a lawsuit on behalf of Morris against the City of New Orleans, alleging that it has violated his rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments.

Read the full ACLU description of the case, which they hope will lead to changes in the laws:

The City Code requires that all proposed murals be subject to "advance review and approval by the board of murals review prior to issuance of a permit." In addition, a mural in a historic district or on a historically designated structure requires approval of the Historic District Landmarks Commission or Vieux Carre Commission before its review by the Design Advisory Committee. The ACLU of Louisiana argues that the city's permit requirements constitute unconstitutional restrictions on freedom of speech. The lawsuit also asserts that the permit approval process is opaque, selectively enforced, and lacking any clear standards.

 Anti-Trump Mural Sparks ACLU Lawsuit and Public Art Dispute in New Orleans (Hyperallergic)


In the USA, there are tens of thousands of teachers in open rebellion, in Oklahoma, West Virginia, Arizona, Kentucky, and things are heating up in Pennsylvania, Illinois, Iowa and Colorado.



Teachers in Algeria staged a month-long strike earlier this year and are getting ready to walk out again, and in next-door Tunisia, teachers just staged a one-day walkout.





In Argentina, teachers are building a permanent teachers' "white tent" city to continue a two-day national strike; teachers in Uruguay just walked out for 24 hours; 16,000 teachers in Chihuahua, Mexico walked out last week, joining teachers' strikes in Oaxaca, Chiapas, and Michoacan. Teachers are also striking in Brazil and Venezuela.

Tens of thousands of French teachers walked out on Mar 22, Scottish teachers are about to strike, and UK wide, higher ed teachers are refusing to certify as sellout deal struck by their cowardly leadership.



Teachers across the world confront the same enemies: governments that cut wages, pensions, and education funding to boost the profits of the banks and corporations, and servile trade unions that isolate strikes and force workers to place their trust in the same capitalist political parties responsible for the attack on public education. Teachers' greatest strength lies in linking with their coworkers, and the working class more broadly, across the world in a united fight to secure the social right to education with a good income and fully funded pensions for every teacher on earth.

Teachers' rebellion spreads on four continents,/a> [Eric London/World Socialists]

(via Naked Capitalism)
The first contact with the nerve agent novichok for former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter was right at home, say British police  literally at the front door.

"Specialists have identified the highest concentration of the nerve agent, to-date, as being on the front door of the address," London's Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

The Skripal residence in Britain was pinpointed as an initial attack site, UK authorities said on Wednesday, March 28.

A high-profile, international investigation into the attack continues, as do Russia's denials.
News / National

by Staff reporter

The High Court has indefinitely postponed the case in which jailed rapist and former Bikita West Member of Parliament Munyaradzi Kereke is appealing against both conviction and the 10 year-sentence imposed on him.Kereke recently lost his bid for bail pending appeal on the grounds of changed political circumstances.Kereke, a former advisor to the then Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono, was jailed after being convicted for raping his then 11-year-old relative, following private prosecution proceedings, about six years after the commission of the crime.
News / National

by Staff reporter

As the election draws near, a prominent Harare Prophet has released a Prophetic word tipping a Female Candidate to win the Presidential elections.Prophet Jeremiah Davies of House of Christ Ministries which is headquartered in the Capital City wrote on his Facebook page that a female candidate who shares a name with a former Head of State has been anointed to take over the reigns from Emmerson Mnangagwa."As I was in the realm of the spirit, I saw a female clothed with the flag of Zimbabwe from the crown of her head to the soles of her feet. When I asked what is this, I heard a voice saying: It's time for Zimbabwe to be mothered. Man have pillaged the treasures of my children, and now it's time for a tender heart to nurture the treasures back to life. As I was still looking, I saw the name of a former President in a neighbouring country Malawi and a voice said; as her name is so shall the President be. Immediately I saw smoke coming from the second largest City, and I saw sky scrappers raised in the City of Progress. man came from all over the world with fishing rods to to fish the resources that are in this land. A voice said; As Egypt was in the days when the children of Jacob went in search of food so shall nations flock to Zimbabwe," prophet Jeremiah Davies said.Facebook users who commented on the Prophet's status concluded that the Prophetic Word was revealing the Presidential candidate of the People's Rainbow Coalition as the winner of the elections.Prophet Jeremiah Davies joins the list of Prophets who have uttered Prophetic words concerning the outcome of the elections.
News / National

by Staff reporter

Movement for Democratic Change leader Nelson Chamisa says his party will now attend all national events as it is now time to "cast away the image of bastards in our own motherland"."From now on, we will now be attending national events such as the national Independence Day, Heroes Day, Defence Forces day and other such national days," he said in his first Road to Victory message."The time has come for us to cast away the image of bastards in our own motherland. These are national days that should not be needlessly politicized by a single political party.""As a leadership, we will be playing our part in carving out a new niche for our national politics and to give our despondent people a reason to hope again."We are not bastards in this country but we are patriots."We are a legitimate party represented in Parliament; a party running a sizeable number of our local authorities including the metropolitan provinces of Harare and Bulawayo."So we are a patriotic national party that deserves its space on the high table where the people's business is transacted and where we celebrate nodal achievements by the sons and daughters of this land."From now on, we want am inclusive process in all national events."Full message belowTuesday, 27 March 2018Road to Victory (R2V): Nelson Chamisa on Tuesday1.The national Council and its deliberationsThe national council on Friday noted and acknowledged the fact that the party had positively rebranded is renewing and has positively re-energized its base and its organs as testified by the continued affirmation and re-invigoration of its national strength and dominance.The same council noted that the people's party of excellence has re-affirmed itself as a revolutionary, democratic and patriotic movement ready to provide national leadership.On Friday, 23 March 2018, the national council of the party sat and made far reaching decisions, some of them painful, as we enter the home-stretch to this year's watershed plebiscite.The shedding off of beloved comrades for undermining party organs and putting the party into disrepute was painful. These are colleagues who had stood resolute in the course of the democratic struggle in the country, only for them to misguidedly let off their guard.It was unfortunate that petty selfish interests got the better of our beloved colleagues at a time when Canaan was well within our sight.2.Handeyi Kumusha/Asambeni ekhayaOur weekend programmes in Murehwa and at Nzvimbo growth point in Chiweshe went into to confirm the nation traction of our party and its resonance with grassroots supporters in the villages in Mashonaland East and Mashonaland Central provinces.For the first time, our thrust is going to be the rural areas in order to debunk and offload the myth that these areas are citadels of the outgoing government as led by Zanu PF.We will intensify our forays into the rural areas to educate, engage and inform our parents and our brothers and sisters about the urgency of NOW in the context of transformation and real change.In Murehwa, before the rally, I had occasion to meet with a wide range of stakeholders among them war veterans, farmers, tomato growers, community leaders, business persons. All these diverse groups shared with me their hopes and aspirations about the future of this country.I got to hear the concerns and complaints from areas such as Mutoko, Mudzi and Uzumba. These concerns centred on intimidation, harassment and victimization of citizens on account of supporting the incoming government led by the MDC Alliance.They also raised the challenges of underdevelopment, including cases where children have to walk long distances to school. I heard bizarre stories of a very few secondary schools in the area, with come bemoaning the absence of a State University.I was also told gory stories of political violence, which stories emboldened me to conclude that this outgoing government's commitment to free and fair elections as bold on paper weak in practice; high-sounding in words but hollow in deeds.We intend to have more of these interactions in the rural areas and we will escalate them as we draw close to the imminent watershed moment.On Sunday, before the rally at Nzvimbo in Chiweshe, Mashonaland central province, I first had a meeting with students from Bindura University.Their complaints were the same from what I have heard from tertiary students across the country. These include, but are not limited to, issues to do with attachment fees, accommodation challenges, a short supply of recreational facilities, and lack of academic freedom and victimization of students.I took the occasion to give them our vision to position Zimbabwe as a hub and champion of world-class education excellence through the provision of quality education.I had highly enriching engagements with business people, farmers, and pensioners but particularly with survivor of political violence who included the Chironga family from Chaona in Chiweshe communal lands.3. An inclusive process at national eventsIn our national council last Friday, the supreme decision-making body between Congresses resolved to move into new uncharted waters.We formed this movement 19 years ago to complete the unfinished business of the liberation struggle and the national council resolved that henceforth, we will not allow ourselves to be second-class citizens in this country.From now on, we will now be attending national events such as the national Independence Day, Heroes Day, Defence Forces day and other such national days.The time has come for us to cast away the image of bastards in our own motherland. These are national days that should not be needlessly politicized by a single political party.Elsewhere in the world, these are important days where partisan politics should never be allowed to take centre-stage. National days and national events should be attended by the entirety of a country's leadership regardless of political affiliation.As a leadership, we will be playing our part in carving out a new niche for our national politics and to give our despondent people a reason to hope again.We are not bastards in this country but we are patriots.We are a legitimate party represented in Parliament; a party running a sizeable number of our local authorities including the metropolitan provinces of Harare and Bulawayo.So we are a patriotic national party that deserves its space on the high table where the people's business is transacted and where we celebrate nodal achievements by the sons and daughters of this land.From now on, we want am inclusive process in all national events.See you at the national Independence Day celebrations.4. The Easter Holidays: It is finishedThis Easter, we are suspending all party programmes to allow the people of Zimbabwe to give veneration to the Almighty,We are allowing the power of resurrection to grip both our souls and the nation.Easter is the time to ruminate over those powerful words by Christ as death became imminent during his crucifixion.In that dire moment, our beloved Christ ominously shouted "It is Finished" and for the people of Zimbabwe, these words have immense power and meaning.As we prepare for this watershed plebiscite, we are under no illusion that come September, our suffering is finished.Indeed, joblessness is finished.Anguish and despondency are finished.Hopelessness is finished. Zvapera!The Lord we serve is a God of eternal goodness and mercy.We need to change the heart of the nation. We need a heart of worship and praise.The heart of nation needs to be filled up with love, peace, unity, selflessness and forgiveness.Let us go this Easter and summon the power of the Cross; the immortal power of resurrection!One Zimbabwe, one people.One Zimbabwe, one future.One Zimbabwe, one vision.Behold the new.God bless Zimbabwe.God bless Africa
News / National

by Staff reporter

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has commissioned the Kariba South Hydro Power Station expansion project today.The $533 million energy expansion project will add two more units or generators with a capacity to generate 150 megawatts each.While commissioning Kariba South Hydro Power Station expansion project, President Mnangagwa said he is extremely and pleasantly surprised and grateful for seeing the actualisation of a concept which started in a room in Harare.President Mnangagwa described the project as a major milestone for the country."The Kariba South Hydro Power Expansion Project is a great wonder and it tells of what we can achieve as a government in collaboration with the domestic institutions as well as the importation and collaboration with our partners in order to access technology from friends for the development of the country," he said.The President said the completion of the energy project will go a long way in the deduction of foreign importation of energy."I am so happy that this has now been achieved. From the moment i cut that ribbon, i am informed that we now have 30 megawatts of power generation transmitted into our national grid," he says.He also said this is the state of the art engineering and technology worldwide which is now resident in the country at the Nyaminyami adding that he has no doubt that the people of Zimbabwe or engineers and technicians will definitely look after this asset and maintain it for the good of the country.Zimbabwe had been experiencing power shortages with a deficit of up to 600 megawatts which were being sourced from regional power utilities which include Eskom of South Africa, Caho-bassa of Mozambique and SNEL of DRC, forcing the nation to spend between $7 million and $10 million weekly.The Kariba South expansion programme is part of government's infrastructure and utilities cluster under ZIM ASSET.
News / Press Release

by TZ Communications

I appreciate you all for coming. The main purpose of this press conference is to communicate the resolutions of the TZ Congress held on 23-24 March 2018 in Harare. The 23rd and 24th of March were historic days for TZ and the nation at large as democracy succeeded over personal egos when TZ held its inaugural elective Congress at Exhibition Centre. Thousands of members in TZ structures across the country graced Nelson Mandela Hall for the Congress.The Congress agenda was as follows;- Election of TZ office bearers- Launch of IGNITE (TZ policy outline)- Review of TZ participation in the MDC AllianceElection strategy outlineCongress appointed a substantive National Executive Committee to lead the party for the next five years. President Jacob Ngarivhume was unanimously endorsed to lead the party deputized by Reason Mandhlenkosi Ngwenya. Of note was the colourful blend of gender, age and ethnicity in the NEC appointments. We showed that TZ is the party for everyone.The Congress then launched our economic masterplan called IGNITE. The IGNITE policy framework is premised on the fact the nation is stagnant and the economic engine is switched off. As TZ we are here to ignite the national engine and steer the nation to a glorious and prosperous future. IGNITE is an acronym for;(1) Industrialization and infrastructure rehabilitation,(2) Good governance(3) National integration(4) Inclusive society(5) Transformational leadership and(6) Empowered society.Transform Zimbabwe acknowledged the compromise made by the party in accepting 19 seat allocation in the MDC Alliance. The Congress raised a number of areas of concern regarding the operationalization of the MDC Alliance. Chief amongst the issues raised by the delegates was the total absence of TZ seats in the three Matabeleland Provinces.Another concern was regarding the letter and spirit of the Alliance agreement by the MDCT through appointing candidates in constituencies earmarked for Alliance partners. It was noted that the Alliance institutionalization process has not progressed as agreed and there was a general sentiment that the Alliance was now heavily reliant on MDC-T party infrastructure. Congress delegates felt aggrieved by the marginalization of the party in the allocation of urban parliamentary and council seats.Notwithstanding these, Transform Zimbabwe affirms its commitment to the ideals of the Alliance and wishes to enter the 2018 election as part of the Alliance. However, that should not be mistaken for a lack of capacity to go it alone in the undesirable situation where the Alliance fails to hold for one reason or another. Congress mandated me as President to table the following requests to the Alliance Principals Forum;- An urgent conclusion to all outstanding matters- That MDCT should nullify all the primary election results for the Constituencies allocated to TZ and make an unequivocal undertaking that there will be no MDCT candidates contesting in areas allocated to Alliance partners.- Plus other issues that have been forwarded to the Alliance Principals Forum, details of which cannot be discussed through the press.Let me also declare that Transform Zimbabwe will escalate its fight for electoral reforms and will petition, demonstrate and lobby for the same. TZ leaders will carry-out massive voter education at grassroots to ensure they debunk misinformation on BVR as peddled by ZANU PF structures. This time around we stand a better chance of defeating ZANU PF and kick it out of power.I then ushered the party into the election mode and issued a clarion call to all structures and candidates to go into overdrive regarding recruitment and support base consolidation in preparation for the 2018 election.Let me conclude by saying that a program for training of poll agents in all provinces will be launched very soon. We believe surely 2018 is our year!I thank you and God bless Zimbabwe. #TZ Communications #www .jacobngarivhume.com
Opinion / Columnist

I hope I find you well dear Former President of our Republic of Zimbabwe. I would like to make it glass clear dear Former President that you are misreading the moods of the people in Zimbabwe. I read with total dismay how misinformed you are about the people of Zimbabwe: the people of Zimbabwe you misruled over the past 38 years are happy you are out of the power equation forever!!!! Please get it from me dear former president; you are not missed at all. As someone who comes from the western region, we wish you left your rule when you started to fail this country long back, long back. We hated you the day you took over the rule from Ian Douglas Smith in 1980. We somehow had this premonition that you were a fake leader. You even took this country's leadership from British colonialism; you and Zanu PF decided to go it alone in the first country election in 1979 without Zapu PF, after the Lancaster conference: from that day we were sure something greater than thunder was to come. It is Jonathan's opinion alone if he likens you with Fidel Castro of Cuba. You are nowhere near that icon called Fidel Castro. You are a murderer, a ruthless, a thug, self-idolising, self loving and curiously not aware how much damage you are infecting on your children and children's children.Dear Former President, you are really misinformed by your G40 cabals that your presidency is missed in this great country Zimbabwe: no, you are not missed at all Former President; your sudden down fall was the best thing that could happen to us in Zimbabwe. The peoples of this great country were happy to see your back, they collapsed with happiness. Somehow you are still hallucinating about your time when you were in power. Did you see the jubilation of peoples in the streets of all towns and cities when the army under Chiwenga took over from you? Did you see the sea of peoples collapsing to one another because of joy about your shame dethronement from power? You were humiliated. We were so happy to the extent that we forgot for a while what was going to happen to us under the military later. We even shelved those fears of a military rule but just decided to take part in the jubilation: the outgoing of a long, ruthless, murderer, a pathological dictator. We could not believe what we saw in the streets. I personally never saw that coming because you ruled so long with the assistance of the Zanu PF army that betrayed you in your twilight years.No, Mr. Former President, do not ever dream of a come-back: we do not want you back. Zimbabweans are not stupid as you think: alone your party Zanu PF wanted you to leave power long back. You have TV coverage in your Blue-roof; you should have seen how the Zanu PF legislators alone sprung for joy when the letter of resignation you wrote was read by the Parliament Speaker resigning from power. They are the ones who wanted you to be impeached. If they wanted you as you now purport or claim, the impeachment was going to fail as you had the parliamentary majority in parliament.I have this feeling you got away with murder for so long and it is for this reason that you can still think the people of Zimbabwe are that stupid to ever wish a despot like you back to his misrule them once more. Every home in Zimbabwe is a casualty of your rule. We the people of Mathebeleland have never wanted your rule the past 38 years. It is for this reason we can never, but never want you back; you are perhaps having after-effects of long rule: absolute power you meted on us with the help of the Zanu PF army that was all out partisan was indeed absolute . We can also say that the Zimbabwean army is a Zanu PF army and never for the people of Zimbabwe.Sit down and really think deeply about your fellow Zanu PF you eliminated even before independence of 1980. You systematically removed all hope we had from the very able expertise we had. We cannot even name all those who fell down with your sword: very many. Let us remember the latest casualties: General Rex Nhongo aka General Mujuru, the person who saw your ascendancy to power in 1980. When you thought you had used him enough, he was eliminated by smoking a cigarette in his bedroom in Beatrice Farm, a cigarette that caught fire and burned him and the whole house. When you writhe with anger that General Chiwenga betrayed you, would you perhaps sit quietly in you blue-roof and think about those whom you betrayed yourself. Alone you tried to eliminate Immersin several means: your "blue-boy" for about 50 years: To note just one incident we all know better, that poisoning that was tried and failed on him was indeed one lethal trial that back fired. Today I believe it was an assassination attempt of his life by whomever. You tried to betray Immersin, even eliminate him.Your age dear former President should also assist you in your decisions to really call it a day in politics and never dream to make a power-come-back. At 94 years you are an overly spent force Mukwena. Your thinking faculties are so impaired due to age and the number of lives lost before and after you took over power in Zimbabwe. You say South Africa's Zuma betrayed you, the SADC betrayed you: AU betrayed you and the UN betrayed you. You suggest they should have intervened militarily to rescue you from the coup d'etat, rescue a 94 year old from power. Which right-minded government in SADC was going to risk-send young people: young solders to reinstate an overly spent force, 93 and 3/4 years Robert Mugabe in power: a President again who was making rounds of embarrassment in world conferences, sometimes sleeping yourself all the time at conferences, or sometimes near falling in world stages, your urine bag showing all time in your dressing, going for just an eye check-up in faraway places leaving our own medical services in Zimbabwe that are in tatters. Jokes are allowed perhaps. Please do not joke with our lives otherwise you insult us, an already insulted people we shall live these insults for some generations to come.Evidently you failed to read the national and international geo-politics correctly. These regional and international bodies were fed-up of you. you had become a joke in the international stage. You never saw this, even your G-40 group never assisted you in sensing the fact that there was a looming coup on the way and the SADC was not going to assist in that case because they wanted you gone from Zimbabwean politics: you are just too old, dear Former President. When you say South Africa betrayed you, did you not betray the processes that led to the independence of South Africa? The ANC- South African government knew well where they will touch you where it will hurt you more: Talking about Mugabe frustrating the independence of their country was to be subtly done. They "did it". They will "did it" again. By South Africa not intervening in Zimbabwe's military coup, it was a "pay-back" time that you did not see or ever thought it can happen.The poverty we experience right now in Zimbabwe is not something to joke about dear Former President; you destroyed a once vibrant economy Africa, a jewel of Africa. Here you are dreaming of coming back at 94 years: to do what at 94 years of age. You really think that Zimbabwe and its resources are yours and your family; you think you owned this country: Lapho ke you are wrong dear former President, Zimbabwe belongs to all of us, you were wrongly given a job, a civil service, top job that did not indicate you should also abuse its resources for the benefit of you and your family and those cronies near you who sang yes and amen to Robert Mugabe. The fact that you dream of coming back is the fact that you saw Zimbabwe as your personal property and the reality has caught up with you: Zimbabwe does not belong to you: it rightly belongs to all of us: all ethnic groups and races born in this country.It will take about 50 years to put back Zimbabwe to its past glorious year of good and well functioning economy of Ian Douglas Smith levels. There are "born free" children who are now adults and they do not know that Zimbabwe or let's call it Rhodesia then had a vibrant economy that had a dollar power whose value was even higher than other western countries back then. These generations know only misery, dilapidating schools, hospitals infrastructure decay, and bad functioning civil service. All that took 38 years to be run down by a clueless regime called Zanu PF and Mugabe as President.Somehow you are really ill advised by your young Turks in the G-40 cabal group. The desperation in them takes desperation to dizzy-heights. We realize too that they wish to make a come-back using you as a cover to drum up your government as legitimate government that was usurped by the military. We the people of Zimbabwe are clever; do not underestimate us people of this great country. We were indeed living in a dictatorship that did not allow us to air our views freely and fairly. We shall sort this out through the ballot. Our voices being silenced did not mean that we approved of your governance for once. The people of Zimbabwe; if they were a chance to vote freely and fairly, they can produce the right leadership that can bring change: bring hope to this great nation. How many voices did we hear asking able people like Strive Masiyiwa to come back and solve economic evils in our country?We have Strive Masiyiwa, we have Nkosana Moyo, we have Simba Makoni, we have Nelson Chamisa, some dynamic young man who brings fresh hope and change in electorates, we have Rudo Gaidzanwa, we have Moses Mzila-Ndlovu, we have Advocates Majome, and Mahere, and we have Mildred Mnkandla: we have Arthur Mutambara, we have Moses Chamboko. All these people are Zimbabwean talents that can proudly put Zimbabwe to where it belongs; success. Can you Mr. Former President, at your age beat these young and dynamic expertise and still think you can be driver of global economy in 2018? You are hallucinating Mr. Former President.At best you can remain silent and preserve the little legacy if there was one. Nobody will listen to you, instead we laugh at you and rightly so. The only people who can listen when you open your mouth are your G-40 cabal. Those are the people who have lost more than you: you are old now but them they are young and in politics, life can be that long. G-40 squad are young people, they miscalculated seriously and somehow they thought they had got what they wanted- power: they thought they were cleverer than the lot- Lacoste. We can say it with equal truth that G-40 destroyed you and your Presidency, they failed to read the mood of the people and the army. Your wife's ranting, kicking a screaming at rallies was fertile ground for a looming disaster, and indeed it happened, you left power by the power of the gun.When you say politics should never be led by the gun, did you not use the very gun to determine the poll results in 2008 when Richard Morgan Tsvangirai won the polls by a landslide victory. It pains you now Mr. Former President, the gun determined the politics against you this time round in November 2017. They very army you trusted so much chucked you out of power in a humiliating way, leaving almost powerless. What goes around comes back with vengeance. Who lives by the sword dies by it, they say. In this case who ever lives by betrayal will be betrayed one day.Your "blue-Boy" is struggling to get anything moving in new government. President Mnangagwa is seriously challenged by presidency. The unrealistic c promises he made to all of us and the world at large are dismally failing and worse he does not realize this. Your "Blue-Boy" has no clue whatsoever. He is not smart as we well told, he is not the best of intelligence we have to resuscitate the overly run down economy. He has many traits from you that are devastating; he read your misgoverning script diligently. There is nothing so far that tells us he is the man for the top civil service job. All those politicians who hero-worshiped you, overnight turned Lacoste just to get their positions back. To name one, Obert Mpofu, your "obedient son" is more Lacoste than Immersin. Your "Blue-Boy" went to Davos to literally give Zimbabwean resources away to the global Rich club. Your "Blue-Boy" is neo-liberal in the sense of the word: if he knew what a liberal economy is, he would never have gone to Davos in the first place. We wonder still that if he knows what he is doing. Seriously uncharismatic, a tale of empty promises, weather he is unelectable we shall see this at the polls come general elections.Where there is life there is hope. We shall not stop to hope for a better Zimbabwe. We hoped to see you leave leadership/Presidency by any means: either by death, we indeed wished you to die; this is how bad our values for life had gone; gone below the pale. But indeed even losing power by coup d'etat was still welcome; hence the citizens were happy in the streets of all cities in Zimbabwe when your letter of resignation was read in Parliament on that day. It is a day that made history: a day that will be in our Zimbabwe history books: the day Mugabe conceded defeat, lost power. I personally was happy when you were butted out of power; I am indeed worried about the future of this great country with your "Blue-Boy" Immersin as President. Nothing has changed so far. He is just a clone of Robert Mugabe. Some said he is a smart man: that smartness is not evident in his short time in power as President. He is hero-worshiped just like your time as President: they liken him to some Jesus- to- near- God himself by those religious institutions that hero-worshiped you when you were President. But because God is good and kind, He/she knows when we shall cross-over; in the meantime we shall wait for God's grace.
Opinion / Columnist

-Kudakwashe Shaddy Marangwanda is a UK based Zimbabwean activist.

The world is sick and tired of politicians who have been getting away with brazen murder - and allowed to go ahead leading nations, as if they have not done anything wrong.Leaders from countries such as Myanmar, Syria, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and so many others have blood on their hands - so much blood - yet, the world continuously pampers and appeases them as if they are more special than the people they massacred.The same is sadly happening in our beloved Zimbabwe, where the new president Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa has the blood of tens of thousands of innocent Zimbabweans - yet, the world continues to welcome him, with very open arms, in their capitals, as if nothing had happened.The gravest and most murderous episode of Mnangagwa's blood-thirsty journey, commenced - as then security minister - in his involvement in the 1980s brutal genocide that was orchestarted by the then prime minister Robert Gabriel Mugabe regime, which used the Zimbabwe National Army's (ZNA) North Korean trained Fifth Brigade to massacre innocent defenceless men, women and children in the Matebeleland and Midlands regions.Mnangagwa, together with the brigade's commander Perence Shiri - who is now minister of lands and agriculture in Mnangagwa's military coup-inspired government, after last November's coup toppling of long-time tyrant Mugabe - masterminded this gruesome murder of these people, solely on tribal hatred lines.What heartlessness is that?!As much as there are records, especially by the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP), proving the occurance of this mass massacre, no one in the international community is saying anything about it, let alone calling for justice.The bottom line is that Mnangagwa and his military allies butchered innocent men , women, and children, so why is the world so apathetic to this fact?Has is become alright and normal for a leader to kill his own people, and the rest of the world just regards it as an everyday normal accurance that should just be ignored?The world cane together to fight Nazi Germany's Adolf Hitler - as he sought to annihilate Europe's Jewish population - so why not Mnangagwa?In fact, denying the holocaust is a punishable offence in most European countries, yet these same countries hypocritically deny the Gukurahundi.Most Nazi leaders who survived the Second World War were brought before international tribunals to face justice.Mnangagwa should be hauled before the courts - hopefully, international tribunals, as well - and if found guilty, locked away just like every other murderer that is currently facing punishment.Is it not such a shame on both Zimbabwe and the international community that a murderer should be holding the highest office in the land, instead of rotting in jail with his fellow criminals?Are those world leaders giving Mnangagwa hugs, embraces and kisses, without any conscience whatsoever?I would rather kiss Jack the Ripper than Mnangagwa!It was more than disturbing when I witnessed his presidential pardoning of criminals last week, and I just said to myself, should a criminal be busy pardoning other criminals?Mnangagwa and his lot, such as Shiri, should finally face the music for their actions, as the Shona say: mhosva hairovi, meaning a crime does not just disappear.The abused and murdered people of Zimbabwe deserve to finally receive justice, and only the international community can help them.We can not just sit back and watch whilst Mnangagwa literally gets away with murder.He can act the bully against the innocent people of Zimbabwe, but if the international community comes together, great things can be accomplished.We can not take this anymore, as any continued silence renders the world accomplices in the genocide committed by Mnangagwa and his allies on the Zimbabwean people.Let us learn from history that appeasing genocidal psychopathic leaders has never been a good idea.It did not work with Hitler, and it will certainly not work with Mnangagwa.For how long will the world just watch as the Royhinger in Myanmar are massacred daily, or the people of Syria bombed recklessly, or those of the DRC shot at willy-nilly?Enough is enough!If the United Nations (UN) wants to be taken seriously, as an organisation that stands for world peace, justice, and equality, then it should be seen to care enough to take decisive action against the likes of Mnangagwa.Should we all now just ignore the pain that he has caused the people of Zimbabwe, just because he removed Mugabe and is now promising to open Zimbabwe for business?Is that all the world cares about?I would certainly want to give the international community the benefit of the doubt, and hole that the issue of the Zimbabwean genocide will not conveniently slide off the radar.Mnangagwa should have his day in court, and be judged - just as everyone of us - on things he has done in the past, as there is enough gabbage there.Zimbabweans deserve better, and can not go on being ruled by murderous presidents - first Mugabe, and now Mnangagwa - who would not lose any sleep if they felt the urge to kill again, just to assert and consolidate his power.Mnangagwa should be tried and thrown in jail, where he rightily belongs, as he certainly should not be anywhere near the State House, where he is hiding away from justice.
Canada's fraud watchdog says scam activity tends to increase during tax time, and warns Manitobans to be on the watch for sketchy situations.

"Generally in the past we've seen an influx of scams surrounding tax season. In the form of phishing email, like it's coming from the CRA: 'congratulations, you have a refund,'" said Jessica Gunson, spokesperson for the Canadian Ant-Fraud Centre.

But now those same scams are showing up as unsolicited text messages, she said.

"It looks like an Interac email money transfer, it looks like you have a refund from the CRA," said Gunson. "The key to remember here is the Canada Revenue Agency would never email you or send you a text message to notify you of a refund."

Another scam becoming more frequent is where the caller tells the victim they owe money for back taxes and if they don't pay it off, they could be arrested.

Some new Canadians are even told they could be deported if they don't pay up. "This is a scary call for them to receive," said Gunson.

She says scammers sometimes tell people to pay off their 'back taxes' in iTunes gift cards or even bitcoin, demonstrating how willing scammers are to utilize new technology  which also makes it harder to follow the money.

"There was a file that [recently] came through, the individual was told to send $5,000 [in bitcoin]," said Gunson, who added the person avoided being defrauded thanks to a well-placed warning.

"There was actually a notice on top of the bitcoin ATM warning them about this scam. And that person, they were able to kind of step back and go 'Wait a second,' and didn't lose the money."

However, another person lost $200,000 to the same bitcoin scam, said Gunson.

If someone does fall prey to these scammers, the best thing to do is report it to the centre as well as the police, she said, even if the victim is ashamed of what happened.

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"There's no embarrassment. They should never feel ashamed because they've fallen for a scam; they're not alone," said Gunson. "Our phone rings here day in and day out from consumers that have lost money."

Only about five per cent of victims report their losses to the centre, said Gunson. Which is a shame because the more reports they receive the easier it is for the centre to track trends and issue warnings.

"Sometimes it's just a one-off piece of information that helps connect the dots."

Gunson said she'd like to see more financial literacy skills taught, especially to young people, to help prevent these kinds of scams in the future.

"If every Canadian recognized a scam, would delete the email, delete the text, hang up the phone, it would stop scammers in their tracks," she said.
The City of Burnaby is taking its fight against construction of Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project to Canada's highest court, after lower courts and the National Energy Board rejected its challenge.

Mayor Derek Corrigan also says he doesn't believe Burnaby should pay for the policing costs of the long-running protest against the project in his city  comments Alberta Premier Rachel Notley warned were "irresponsible."

On Tuesday, Corrigan said the city intends to ask the Supreme Court of Canada to hear its challenge of a National Energy Board decision that came down in December.

"We think it's quite proper to have the bylaws of the city and the regulations of the province to apply, even if it's a federal project," he said. "We want to be able to meet those obligations in our community."

That ruling said Kinder Morgan is not required to comply with two sections of Burnaby's bylaws on land and tree clearances as it expands the pipeline, which will triple the amount of diluted bitumen and other oil products moving between the Edmonton-area and port facilities in Burnaby.

Calls constitutional crisis inevitable

The city filed for leave to appeal the NEB decision in February, but the Federal Court of Appeal denied its application on Friday.

The court dismissed Burnaby's filing without reasons, but Corrigan said it was "very frustrating" the judges did not explain why the provincial government was not being allowed to protect B.C.'s environmental interests.

Corrigan says the city has asked its legal counsel to file the appeal application within 60 days.

He said whatever the courts ultimately decide, it will have significant implications for federal and provincial responsibilities: can the federal government order a province to accept a project, even if that province opposes it?

"This is a threat to the autonomy of our province," he said. "I think it will inevitably lead to a constitutional crisis."

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Notley warns against political interference

Also on Tuesday, Corrigan expounded on the unfairness of having to pay policing costs for the anti-pipeline protest, adding "Insult to injury," as he called it.

International opposition to the project could escalate as the summer wears on, the mayor warned, and if that happens the city will not be able to afford the extra security costs.

"It's very scary for me, and I've made it very clear since the beginning that we're not prepared to absorb these costs, and we don't think it's fair that we're expected to," Corrigan said.

He says the costs of policing are going into the millions of dollars, and the Burnaby RCMP is burning through its budget, including its overtime budget.

"We are very close," he said, to the budget running out and that will impact normal policing demands from the city's residents.

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley called on Corrigan to walk back those comments.

"I think that the mayor of Burnaby is stumbling into some pretty irresponsible areas, and that if he were allowed to sort of carry on that path, it's a very, very slippery slope towards political interference in the administration of justice," she said.

"It injects politicization into the administration of justice in a way that's going to undermine public confidence on a whole number of fronts."

Environmental deadline passes

Thousands of protesters have rallied against the $7.4-billion project at Kinder Morgan's Westridge Marine and Burnaby terminals over the past weeks, according to RCMP.

By early Saturday evening, Protect the Inlet spokesperson Virginia Cleaveland said 58 protesters had been arrested for violating a court-ordered injunction, bringing the week's total to 173 arrests.

Federal Green Party Leader Elizabeth May and NDP MP Kennedy Stewart were among those arrested and briefly taken into custody on Friday.

Activists had planned to continue daily protests until Monday, the environmental deadline for Kinder Morgan to finish clearing trees in the area before migratory birds begin nesting.

On Friday, the company said preparatory work for the project had been completed in time to meet the deadline. The company said crews were finishing clean-up work such as removing salvageable timber and waste wood.

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said the federal court's decision against Burnaby was a "another victory" for the economy.

With files from the Canadian Press, Rhianna Schmunk and Valerie Gamache
At least 2,923 people died from apparent opioid-related overdoses in the first nine months of 2017, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada.

The data released on Tuesday includes an update on opioid-related deaths in the last two years.

"Unfortunately, the data released today have confirmed our fear that that the crisis has worsened significantly since 2016, despite the efforts from all levels of government and partners to reverse the trend," the co-chairs of the Special Advisory Committee on the Epidemic of Opioid Overdoses said in a statement Tuesday.

At least 2,923 people died from apparent opioid-related overdoses between January and September 2017. This is an increase of 45 per cent when compared to the same period in 2016

For the first time, the release breaks down unintentional (accidental) deaths and suicides, which could guide governments in trying to prevent, treat and respond to the crisis, the co-chairs said.

The data also indicate that illegally produced fentanyl and other synthetic opioids remain a growing driver, with 72 per cent of accidental apparent opioid-related deaths involving fentanyl or fentanyl analogues such as carfentanil, up from 55 per cent in 2016.
Keeping pirates at bay: On board with the Canadian navy off the coast of Nigeria

The warm waters of the Gulf of Guinea beyond the bustling navy dockyard in southern Lagos, Nigeria, can be deceptively calm.

But this stretch of the Atlantic Ocean has become the world's hotspot for attacks on commercial vessels by heavily armed pirates in speedboats.

And Canada is wading right in, docking in Nigeria for the first time in half a century to help the country's navy combat the threat.

The International Maritime Organization (IMO), which monitors pirate attacks and other incidents at sea, calls the Gulf of Guinea and the waters off Nigeria "a threat to seafarers."

Control Risks, a global risk consultancy, said it recorded 44 incidents of piracy here since the start of this year alone  double the number in the Caribbean and South America, and 10 times more than the previous hotspot, the Horn of Africa off Somalia.

"The Gulf of Guinea contains the highest risk waters in the world for piracy and armed robbery at sea," said Cormac McGarry, a maritime analyst at Control Risks.

"The threat is mainly from various pirate groups who conduct relatively low-impact thefts on ships, to those who conduct very high-impact armed robberies and kidnaps of crew or hijack tankers in order to steal their cargo."

Canadian warships HMCS Kingston and HMCS Summerside docked in Lagos, Nigeria's biggest city, earlier this month to train with the Nigerians before a bigger operation in the Gulf of Guinea to hone local navies' skills and improve coordination.

CBC joined the crew of HMCS Kingston to witness their training with the Nigerian Navy in a specific tactical move used to stop suspicious vessels.

Training for an attack

The Royal Canadian Navy's deployment here is its first visit to Nigeria since the country gained independence from Britain in 1960.

For three days, the Canadians trained with the Nigerians ahead of joining 30 other countries elsewhere in the Gulf of Guinea for an eight-day exercise called Obangame Express, which is spearheaded by U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa and targets piracy, illegal fishing, narcotics and human trafficking.

Story continues

During Obangame Express, HMCS Summerside and HMCS Kingston are working alongside counterparts from African and European navies doing drills out at sea, including the kind of responses required in the event of a pirate attack.

In the separate training exercise with the Nigerians, HMCS Kingston played a suspect vessel operating illegally in Nigerian waters. To do so, they switched off all signals that might have identified them and waited for the Nigerian navy ship Unity to locate them.

"We haven't gone completely covert," said Lt.-Cmdr. Matt Woodburn, "but we've made it challenging for them to find our location for this scenario we're a motor vessel out here, just operating like any other."

After several hours, a radio communication was received and Kingston was asked to switch off its engines. The Unity encircled them, and sent a smaller boat with an armed crew to board the ship.

Guided by a small team from the US Navy and British Royal Navy, the Nigerians boarded the Kingston.

"We are here to look for anything illegal," said a member of the Nigerian crew.

"There's nothing illegal on here," replied one of the Canadians.

As the exercise played out, the Nigerians demanded a more extensive search.

"My commanding officer is not satisfied," said the lead Nigerian crew member.

Eventually, the Nigerians found the fake packets of drugs, detained the Canadian crew and completed the exercise.

Promising outcomes

Lt.-Cmdr. Woodburn said he was satisfied with his first time working with the Nigerians.

"I came into it not knowing a whole lot of what to expect. We had a quick sync meeting ashore before sailing today. The exercise went fairly well."

Canada's highest-ranking naval officer, Commander of the RCN Vice-Admiral Ron Lloyd, said it was vital Canada play a role in combating the pirates by sharing its expertise.

In recent years, the Royal Canadian Navy has specialized in dealing with pirates, illicit drug smugglers and terrorists at sea with its Maritime Tactical Operations Group (MTOG).

High-seas piracy is a daily risk for ships that come in and out of Lagos, which has West Africa's biggest seaport. On any given day, the horizon is lined with ships waiting to come into port with high-value cargo or steaming fully laden to their next destination.

According to Control Risks data, container ships and supply vessels are most at risk of piracy, as are crude oil tankers and tugs that service Nigeria's oil industry in its southern delta region and offshore.

McGarry said fuel cargoes in particular have become a lucrative target recently.

"Hijacks exclusively target tankers to rob their fuel cargo, which can then be sold on the black market," he said. "But other incidents, such as kidnap-for-ransom attacks, target vessels of all types, while militant groups in the Niger Delta have targeted oil and gas assets and even military or police vessels."

Recent attacks have included one on a tanker loaded with 13,500 tonnes of fuel and a 22-strong Indian crew that went missing in February off the coast of Benin, which neighbours Nigeria to the west.

Just before Christmas, pirates kidnapped 10 sailors from a merchant ship off the Niger Delta, while six crew members on a German-owned container ship were abducted near the Nigerian city of Port Harcourt.

Natasha Brown, from the IMO, said that kidnappings typically involve "four to six days of seizure before the eventual release of the ship and the crew."

Having now completed training with the Royal Canadian Navy, it's up to the Nigerian Navy and their West African neighbours to use what they've practised in real-life situations.
Ottawa police are investigating a potentially hate-motivated crime after a man was assaulted and his turban stolen near Westgate Shopping Centre Friday night.

Two suspects, described as white males by police, approached the victim at 11:25 p.m. while he waited for a bus. They asked the man about his ethnicity and spoke about cutting his beard and hair, police said Tuesday.

"He was asked specifically about his ethnicity and then there were some racial slurs that came along with that," said Staff Sgt. Mike Haarbosch of the Ottawa police.

"They also asked him whether he'd ever cut his hair or his beard, so, that's pretty specific, so at a minimum we're suggesting at this point that there were some racial overtones to this."

The two suspects left, then returned and asked the man for change. Police said they started making racial slurs, and one suspect produced a knife.

The victim ran to a nearby business, which was locked. Police said the suspects then assaulted the man, dragged him on the ground and threatened him.

They also removed and stole the victim's turban, as well as his phone and bus pass, police said.

Haarbosch said this may be an isolated incident, but they're looking for more information.

"We have some information they may have been drinking, so this could certainly be a one-off event committed by a couple of guys that were acting stupidly and disgustingly, but that's part of the investigation that's going on."

Paramedics treated victim

The victim was treated by paramedics for minor injuries.

The first suspect is described as a white male in his 20s, five feet 10 inches tall and clean-shaven with short blondish-brown hair. He was last seen wearing an orange shirt, blue jeans and runners.

The second suspect is described by police as a white male in his 20s, five feet six inches tall, clean shaven and wearing blue track pants or pyjamas.

Police are investigating the incident and whether it was a hate-motivated crime.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Ottawa police's robbery unit at 613-236-1222, ext. 5116. Anonymous tips can also be submitted to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS).
(This version of the March 26 story corrects paragraph 24 to remove reference to ISBA suspending adverts) By David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The leading U.S. consumer protection regulator and attorneys representing 37 states stepped up pressure on Facebook Inc on Monday to explain how the social network allowed data of 50 million users get into the hands of a political consultancy. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission took the unusual step of announcing that it had opened an investigation into the company - which it generally only does in cases of great public interest - citing media reports that raise what it called "substantial concerns about the privacy practices of Facebook." On the same day, a bipartisan coalition of 37 state attorneys wrote to Facebook, demanding to know more about the company's role in the manipulation of users' data by the consultancy, Cambridge Analytica, which used it to target U.S. and British voters in close-run elections. These revelations raise many serious questions concerning Facebooks policies and practices, and the processes in place to ensure they are followed, the letter said. "We need to know that users can trust Facebook. With the information we have now, our trust has been broken. Facebook shares fell as much as 6.5 percent, briefly dipping below $150 for the first time since July 2017, before recovering the day's losses to close up 0.4 percent at $160.06. The shares are still down 13 percent since March 16, when Facebook first acknowledged that user data had been improperly channeled to Cambridge Analytica. The company has lost more than $70 billion in market value since then. The recovery in Facebook's stock on Monday may have been due to investors taking advantage of the lower stock price and the belief that the latest regulatory scrutiny may not ultimately hurt the company's relative long-term growth prospects, Wall Street analysts said. The FTC investigation is looking at more than whether Facebook violated a 2011 consent order it reached with the FTC over its privacy practices, a person briefed on the matter told Reuters. If the FTC finds Facebook violated terms of the consent decree, it has the power to fine it thousands of dollars a day per violation, which could add up to billions of dollars. We remain strongly committed to protecting peoples information," Facebook Deputy Chief Privacy Officer Rob Sherman said in a statement on Monday. "We appreciate the opportunity to answer questions the FTC may have. ALL APOLOGIES Lawmakers in the United States and Europe continue to pressure Facebook and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg to explain the company's privacy practices. The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee said on Monday it had invited Zuckerberg and the CEOs of Alphabet Inc and Twitter Inc to testify at an April 10 hearing on data privacy. The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee and U.S. Senate Commerce Committee have already formally asked Zuckerberg to appear at a congressional hearing. Facebook's failure to protect confidential user information likely violated specific legally binding commitments, but also basic norms and standards," said U.S. Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, a member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee. In Europe, the European Union Justice Commissioner asked Facebook if the company is "absolutely certain" that the Cambridge Analytica incident could not be repeated. Zuckerberg apologized last week for the mistakes the company had made and he promised to restrict developers' access to user information as part of a plan to protect privacy. He also said sorry in full-page advertisements in British and U.S. newspapers. "The was a breach of trust, and I'm sorry we didn't do more at the time," Zuckerberg said in the ads. "We are now taking steps to make sure this doesn't happen again." 'FUTURE REGULATION' His apologies have failed to quell discontent. Germany's justice minister said Facebook's promises were not enough. "In future we will have to regulate companies like Facebook much more strictly," Katarina Barley said after talks to which she summoned Facebook executives including European public affairs chief Richard Allan. Advertisers and users are also unhappy. U.S. auto parts retailer Pep Boys suspended all advertising on Facebook on Monday while wireless speaker maker Sonos said in a blog post it will remove advertising from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Alphabet's YouTube for one week. Internet company Mozilla Corp and Germany's second-largest bank Commerzbank AG suspended advertising on Facebook last week. Opinion polls published on Sunday in the United States and Germany cast doubt over the trust people have in Facebook. Fewer than half of Americans trust Facebook to obey U.S. privacy laws, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Sunday, while a survey published by Bild am Sonntag, Germanys largest-selling Sunday paper, found 60 percent of Germans fear that Facebook and other social networks are having a negative impact on democracy. (Reporting by David Shepardson; Writing by Bill Rigby; Editing by Susan Thomas)
By Aradhana Aravindan SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A mix of concern and disappointment met Uber Technologies Inc's [UBER.UL] deal to sell its Southeast Asian business to bigger regional rival Grab, as drivers and users of the ride-hailing firms took in the prospect of sharply reduced competition. The services throughout Asia have long relied on discounts and promotions for consumers and incentives for drivers, which made for tough competition, pushing down profit margins. Grab said the Uber acquisition accelerated its path to profitability in its core transport business, as it would become the most cost-efficient Southeast Asian platform. While drivers were split on which of the two services offered better compensation, they generally expected fares to go up with the reduced competition. Rennu Mahajan, who has driven a combined three-and-a-half years for both companies in Singapore, said some of her driver friends were concerned because now they would not be able to switch to the other app. "But I am personally not worried. I am quite confident that the fares will go up. If incentives don't go up, fares will increase and we will still get a little bit more," said Mahajan, 57. On its Singapore website, Grab said passengers could expect better service with more drivers and transport options available on one app and that fares would not change. For drivers, it said the benefits and incentives structure remained the same. However, following a similar merger between Grab investor Didi Chuxing and China's Uber business in 2016, driver numbers dropped dramatically as subsidies lapsed and new regulations raised residence requirements for drivers. In the year following Didi Chuxing's acquisition, driver response rates fell between 15 and 40 percent in major Chinese cities, according to Didi Chuxing's data. According to mobile data analytics firm App Annie, Grab was ranked fifth among top apps based on monthly active users in Singapore in 2017 versus Uber at No. 7. In Indonesia, Go-Jek was at No. 9 just ahead of Grab. REGULATORY CONCERN Whether the merger would eliminate competition in Singapore will be the focus of government review, a spokeswoman for the Land Transport Authority said. "We will ensure that no one single market player dominates the sector to the detriment of commuters and drivers," she said. Malaysia's Land Transport Authority issued a similar statement, saying it "will work closely with relevant consumer and various regulatory agencies such as the Malaysia Competition Commission to safeguard passengers from unfair terms". For both Ricky Tan, who has driven for Uber in Singapore for over a year, and Andre Pereira who uses both services, Grab's ability to exert greater control on prices was cause for concern as it may drive away customers to public transport. "As the only app left, Grab can easily increase prices," Pereira, 24, said. While there are smaller ride-hailing apps in each market, Grab and Uber have a presence across the region, while Indonesia's popular Go-Jek only operates within its home country. Drivers in Cambodia, one of the last frontiers in the battle of apps, say competition is fierce and the market will not be easy for Grab. "A lot of people are used to using Uber, Grab isn't strong yet, Uber is stronger...Grab just arrived," said Krem Sokhom. DISCOUNTS AND PROMOTIONS The apps have also grown in popularity in countries with fewer public transportation options, such as Vietnam. Le Minh Quan, 30, who drives with both Grab and Uber in Vietnam, said: "Without competition they could enforce higher commission or reduce their support, and that's worrying. Before we had a choice, but now we don't." Banker Le Hoang Ngan also uses both. "Whoever gives me discount codes I'll go with it, if not, I'll skip. So one down will just give me less option," he said. In Thailand, ride-hailing services by privately owned vehicles are illegal but many drivers work with both Uber and Grab. There was no shortage of drivers and riders who liked the service that Grab had to offer. "Grab provides enough promotions for my liking, and even if sometimes they don't, I don't mind paying the full price," said Choltanutkun Tun-atiruj, a magazine writer, who said she preferred Grabs services and relied on it in her everyday life. "I prefer convenience and what's the quickest, easiest." (Created by Bill Tarrant)
Research

Prospective Students Want to Know About Academic Programs More than Cost, Reputation

When searching for information on colleges, prospective students are most interested in information about specific majors and minors, according to a new survey from research company EAB. The study polled nearly 5,000 freshmen enrolled at more than 900 four-year colleges and universities about their college search, communication preferences, on-campus experience and more.

Seventy percent of respondents said they primarily searched college websites for information about majors and minors, compared to 19 percent who wanted to know about a school's ranking or reputation. Forty-five percent of respondents were looking for information about college costs, and 24 percent wanted to know about financial aid.

EAB noted that the number of students seeking information about academic programs has grown by about 4 percentage points over the last two years. The desire for other types of information (cost, financial aid, reputation, etc.) has remained constant or decreased slightly.

"There's no doubt that rank and cost are important to students and families, but these survey results suggest that students are also focused on value and whether their degree will enable them to succeed in their chosen profession," said EAB principal Dana Strait, in a statement. "The survey findings affirm what our research team has been hearing from the hundreds of enrollment leaders we speak with: Students are evaluating what we call return on education' or ROE. And ROE has a lot to do with their field of study, not just the school they select or the price they pay."

Other survey findings include:

95 percent of respondents used e-mail to communicate with a college during their search;

Campus visits were both the most used and the most valued source of information for prospective students;

42 percent of respondents follow the school they are attending on Instagram, 37 percent follow it on Facebook and 22 percent follow it on Twitter;

41 percent said information about majors and minors is the most useful content schools share on social media; and

Fewer students looked to a school's social media channels for information about college costs (31 percent) and financial aid (26 percent).

"Since the Great Recession, students have become more practical and career-focused when choosing schools. And our research suggests that this trend is likely to continue," Strait said. "Still, many schools don't provide prospective students with enough information on the experiences, opportunities, and outcomes students will have in individual programs."

The full survey is available for download on the EAB site (registration required).
WEDNESDAY, March 28, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- Here's one way to cut the cost of a $10,000-a-month prostate cancer drug: Take it with food, some researchers suggest.

Investigators said they found that taking Zytiga (abiraterone acetate) with a low-fat breakfast boosts its efficiency. That could make it more convenient and significantly cheaper, the new study suggested.

Zytiga is the standard medicine for prostate cancer that has spread and has progressed despite hormonal therapy. Patients are told to take four 250-milligram pills first thing in the morning, then wait an hour before eating breakfast.

But the small study found that taking one-fourth of the recommended dose with a low-fat breakfast -- for example, cereal with skim milk -- was just as effective. In addition, it enabled patients to cut drug costs by 75 percent.

"The patient gets a simplified schedule, slightly more control over his daily life, the convenience of eating whenever he chooses and the opportunity to share the cost-savings with his insurance company," said study lead author Dr. Russell Szmulewitz.

"Taking this medicine while fasting is wasteful," added Szmulewitz, a prostate cancer specialist at the University of Chicago.

A one-month supply of Zytiga costs $8,000 to $11,000 when bought wholesale, or just over $100,000 each year. Many patients take the drug for two to three years, the study authors noted.

Combining the lower dose -- a single 250-mg pill -- with food did not reduce the drug's effectiveness. Progression-free survival was identical for 34 patients who took the lower dose with food and 34 patients who took the recommended dose without food -- about 8.6 months, the findings showed.

Taking the lower dose with food reduced costs by as much as $300,000 per patient, the researchers said.

"Although it should be validated with a larger trial with more robust clinical endpoints, given the pharmacoeconomic implications, these data warrant consideration by prescribers, payers and patients," Szmulewitz said in a university news release.

The study was published March 28 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Zytiga's per-patient cost of about $10,000 a month is a textbook example of what's called "financial toxicity," said study co-author Dr. Mark Ratain, director of the university's Center for Personalized Therapeutics.

This refers to the economic burden placed on patients by the high cost of care, Ratain explained.

"At least three-quarters of this expensive drug is wasted. It's excreted and flushed away," he added.

More information

The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more on prostate cancer treatment.
WEDNESDAY, March 28, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- A smoke is a smoke is a smoke: New research suggests that folks who smoke pot may be more prone to taking up -- or returning to -- the cigarette habit.

One tobacco-cessation expert said the findings aren't surprising.

"Among individuals that I have treated, the majority of those who smoke cannabis as well as cigarettes often have a more difficult time quitting, do not want to give up their cannabis use, and are more likely to relapse to cigarette smoking," said Patricia Folan. She directs Northwell Health's Center for Tobacco Control in Great Neck, N.Y.

The new research was led by Renee Goodwin, of Columbia University School of Public Health in New York City. Her team tracked data on nearly 35,000 American adults who took part in a national survey.

While the study couldn't prove cause-and-effect, Goodwin's team found that marijuana use was associated with an increased risk that nonsmokers would start smoking cigarettes. Pot smoking was also tied to a lower likelihood that smokers would quit and a greater chance that former smokers would return to the habit.

While cigarette smoking is declining in the United States, the relaxation of laws against marijuana means its use is on the rise.

That's why it's important to gain "a better understanding of the relationship between marijuana use and cigarette use," Goodwin said in a university news release.

A prior study by Goodwin and colleagues found a dramatic rise in the use of marijuana by cigarette smokers over the past two decades. It also found that daily marijuana use is more than five times higher among cigarette smokers than among nonsmokers.

"As indicated in the article, the relaxation of laws banning cannabis may have had an impact on the cannabis use of many, who now perceive cannabis as less harmful with fewer risks for health consequences," Folan reasoned.

Other experts agreed.

"This study demonstrates that smoking anything combustible is a generalized habit," said Dr. Len Horovitz, a pulmonary specialist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. "It would seem that 'smoking is smoking.'"

Dr. Alan Mensch is a pulmonologist and senior vice president of medical affairs at Plainview and Syosset Hospitals, in New York. He said there's a worry that "cannabis use could negatively affect the success we've had in decreasing tobacco use and result in an increase in tobacco-related diseases and death."

A greater focus on marijuana use is needed in efforts to reduce smoking and to help people stop smoking, Goodwin said.

The trend could be especially important for young Americans, Goodwin added. She pointed to recent data suggesting that marijuana use is more common than cigarette use among teens, so it's important to learn more about how marijuana use may affect teens' risk of starting smoking.

The study was published online recently in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

More information

The U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse has more about marijuana.
WEDNESDAY, March 28, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- Weight-loss surgery may turn your love life upside down, new research suggests.

In one of two new Swedish studies, major weight loss after bariatric surgery was associated with more divorces.

In the other study, singles were more likely to form new relationships or marry after a weight-loss operation.

"Those of us who take care of bariatric surgery patients notice that many patients experience a pretty profound change in their lives," said Dr. Luke Funk, an assistant professor of surgery at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

"Their significant weight loss and improvements in other health problems -- like high blood pressure and diabetes -- cause changes in both their physical and mental well-being," added Funk, co-author of an editorial published with the study.

"They often take up new hobbies, become much more physically active, and feel much more confident about themselves. They also tend to have an improved self-image. I think this leads many to re-examine their relationships with others," said Funk.

Weight-loss surgery is an effective treatment for severely obese patients who want to control related health issues, the study authors noted. Its popularity is growing, with nearly 470,000 bariatric procedures performed globally in 2013.

But researchers have found a mixed bag of effects in terms of behavior, ranging from improved quality of life on the one hand to increased risk of substance abuse on the other.

One of the new studies tracked the relationship histories of nearly 2,000 obese Swedes who underwent weight-loss surgery over 10 years. The investigators compared the patients with about 1,900 obese adults who did not have surgery.

The other study looked at about three years' worth of post-surgical data on about 29,000 patients who underwent gastric bypass surgery. Those patients were compared with over 280,000 individuals in the general public.

The study authors found that bariatric surgery was tied to increased odds for divorce or separation for those in a prior relationship, especially for those who lost the most weight.

And among those who had been unattached, significant weight loss was associated with higher odds for a new relationship or marriage.

Study author Per-Arne Svensson said, "In solid partner relationships, weight loss after bariatric surgery is probably not an issue, and in many cases the relationships can even be strengthened.

"However, in partner relationships that are somewhat unstable or nonfunctional, weight loss may increase the risk of partner separation," he noted.

An associate professor at the University of Gothenburg, Svensson added, "Unfortunately, our study can only give limited insights to why some couples separate after bariatric surgery."

Funk said it was "kind of surprising" that patients who were in a relationship were more likely to divorce or separate after surgery.

"One might have thought that existing relationships would strengthen as bariatric patients experienced an improvement in their mental well-being and self-image," he pointed out.

Nothing is clear, but Funk offered some theories: "Maybe the bariatric patients wanted to experience new relationships. Maybe the partners of those patients felt less connected to the 'new person' that they were married to."

Another possibility, he said, is that previously healthy relationships suffered when "things that couples may have had in common before surgery perhaps were no longer shared interests after surgery."

The research can't establish a direct cause-and-effect relationship. And the study authors cautioned that the findings might not apply outside of Sweden.

Still, the findings may have serious implications, Funk said.

"Many patients have told me that bariatric surgery was the best decision they've ever made, and they really do have a new outlook on life. A fresh beginning," he said.

But, Funk cautioned, health care professionals need to discuss the potential impact of bariatric surgery on their patients' relationships with others.

The report was published online March 28 in JAMA Surgery.

More information

There's more on weight-loss surgery at the U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
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Sao Paulo, March 27, 2018Brazilian authorities should immediately investigate a recent attack on the offices of the independent weekly Jornal dos Bairros in the southern state of Parana and bring those responsible to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

One unidentified gunman on March 25 around midnight fired at least three shots at the papers main office in the city of Paranagua as the weeks edition was going to print, according to the papers editor, Gilberto Fernandes.

Jornal dos Bairros mainly reports on local politics; Fernandes told CPJ he had previously received anonymous threats relating to the papers coverage.

Brazilian authorities must act swiftly to bring those responsible for the attack on Jornal dos Bairros offices to justice and show that attacks on the media will not be tolerated, said Natalie Southwick, CPJs Central and South America research associate. This most recent act of violence is a stark reminder that Brazil remains one of Latin Americas most dangerous countries for journalists.

A spokesperson for the Parana state civil police who refused to give her name said an investigation into the attack was ongoing.

Fernandes told CPJ that he was at his home, which is located next to the Jornal dos Bairros office, when he heard gunshots.

The editor said he watched on closed circuit cameras inside his home as the shooter fired at the office building. Three [shots] hit the metal door and broke the second glass door [on the buildings entrance]. If I had been working, I would have been hit by either the bullet or the flying glass, he told CPJ. Someone in a silver car transported the shooter to and from the scene, according to Fernandes.

The editor told CPJ that he has previously received threats relating to the papers local news coverage. In September 2017, an anonymous man called Fernandes home and told his daughter that he was going to beat up her father, the journalist said. In May 2017, a friend warned Fernandes that a political group that did not like Jornal dos Bairros articles had talked about shooting up its offices. Fernandes said he did not report the threats to authorities.

We have an independent editorial line; we do the basics of journalism; we hear all sides and then write the facts. It doesnt matter if its a professor or a mayor or a garbage collector who is speaking, Fernandes said.

Jornal dos Bairros is distributed every Monday in Paranagua and the neighboring cities of Morretos, Antonina, Guaraquecaba, and Curitiba, Fernandes said.

Two Brazilian journalists were killed within a week of each other in January of this year. Impunity is widespread in the country, which ranks eighth on CPJs Impunity Index, and where authorities have not sentenced anyone for the murder of a journalist since 2015.
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New York, March 28, 2018Haitian authorities must do everything possible to locate freelance photojournalist Vladjimir Legagneur and conduct a full and transparent investigation into his disappearance, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Legagneur was last seen on the morning of March 14, when he left his home for Grand-Ravine, a neighborhood in the capital of Port-au-Prince, according to his family and colleagues.

Pierre Michel Jean, a member of the Haitian photojournalist organization Kolektif 2 Dimansyon (K2D), told CPJ that Legagneur was working on an independent project exploring the aftermath of clashes between police and gangs in Grand-Ravine. An anti-gang raid in the neighborhood last November resulted in the death of two police officers and nine civilians, according to reports.

Legagneurs wife, Fleurette Guerrier, told CPJ that she and her husband agreed to check in by phone every two hours while he was in the neighborhood. She first called him around noon on March 14, and he answered but said he was busy. When she called back at the next agreed time, the phone rang but nobody answered. Guerrier told CPJ she has not heard from her husband since.

Guerrier said that she filed a missing persons report with Haitis investigative police on March 16, but has not heard back from them.

On March 26, Haitian National Police spokesman Frantz Lerebours said that police did not yet have any information on Legagneurs whereabouts but said they fear a fatal outcome, according to news reports.

We call on Haitian authorities to employ all resources at their disposal to find and ensure the safety of Vladjimir Legagneur, said CPJ Emergencies Director Maria Salazar-Ferro. A full, transparent investigation would demonstrate to the public and Legagneurs family and colleagues that authorities respect the vital role of the press in Haiti and are taking his disappearance seriously.

Michel Joseph, a Radio Caraibes journalist who regularly encountered Legagneur while reporting, told CPJ that the family told him they initially believed he might have been kidnapped.

Last night, Michel-Ange Gedeon, director general of Haitis national police, told media that authorities had ruled out the possibility of kidnapping because there had been no ransom request, but said the investigation was still ongoing.

Haitian reporters and others march through the streets of Port-au-Prince on March 28, asking for information about missing freelance photojournalist Vladimir Legagneur. (AFP)

Haitian police did not answer CPJs calls requesting comment.

Its been 15 days since my husband disappeared, and his colleagues and I have the right to know what happened to him, Legagneurs wife told CPJ.

Legagneur previously worked for Haitian media outlets including the daily Le Matin and online news agency Loop Haiti, as well as non-governmental organizations, according to colleagues and news reports.

The National Association of Haitian Media released a statement yesterday expressing its concern at the lack of information from police and judicial authorities on the investigation into Legagneurs disappearance. Haitian journalists held a march and vigil in Port-au-Prince today calling for a full investigation.

Cases of violence against journalists in Haiti often remain in impunity. April 3 will mark 18 years since the murder of Jean Leopold Dominique, the owner and director of the independent station Radio Haiti Inter, who was shot dead in 2000, according to CPJ research. The case remains unsolved.
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New York, March 28, 2018Mozambican authorities should launch a credible investigation into the abduction and assault of Ericino de Salema, a prominent journalist and human rights lawyer, and bring those responsible to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Three unidentified gunmen yesterday abducted Salema outside the headquarters of the National Union of Journalists (SNJ) in the capital, Maputo, beat him with their AK-47 assault rifles, and left him unconscious along the Maputo Ring Road, according to news reports.

Children who witnessed the attack alerted an adult who then transported Salema to a private hospital in the city, according to the news website Club of Mozambique.

Salema sustained fractures to his arm and legs, according to his wife Neusa Ribeiro.

The journalist told his wife that the gunmen received instructions on what to do with him via cellphone.

Ribeiro told CPJ that her husband, a frequent government critic, received an anonymous call on March 26 saying that he would be silenced for being so outspoken.

We are deeply disturbed that a respected journalist like Ericino de Salema is targeted in this way in broad daylight in an apparent attempt to silence his critical commentary, said CPJ Africa coordinator Angela Quintal. We urge authorities to ensure that this brazen attack is credibly investigated and that his attackers face the full might of the law.

Police spokesperson Inacio Dina did not answer repeated calls from CPJ requesting comment. Interior Minister Basilio Monteiro did not answer CPJs call to his cellphone or WhatsApp message.

The Mozambican state news agency (AIM) said on Wednesday that local police were investigating the journalists abduction and beating.

Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua today reported that Prime Minister Carlos Agostinho do Rosario told Parliament that the government was outraged by the abduction and torture of Salema and would do everything to find the criminals.

Salema is a regular commentator on the weekly current affairs television show Pontos de Vista (Point of View), which airs on the private broadcaster STV, according to news reports. Previously he worked for the independent weekly Savana, and later worked for other privately owned weeklies, according to IOL.

During a March 25 Pontos de Vista broadcast, Salema criticized the new governments attempt to restructure Mozambiques US$2 billion debt accrued under the previous administration, according to a report on the independent South Africa news website IOL. In the same broadcast, Salema also called for the resignation of Finance Minister Adriano Maleiane.

In May 2016, Selmas predecessor as a commentator on Pontos de Vista, academic Jaime Macuane, was abducted outside of his home, driven to a stretch of the Ring Road, shot in both legs, and then left by the roadside, according to AIM.

[EDITORS NOTE: This alert has been updated to correct the spelling of the STV current affairs show Pontos de Vista.]
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Istanbul, March 28, 2018The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the takeover today by a government-affiliated body of one of the last remaining pro-Kurdish national dailies and called for authorities to immediately release at least 10 media staff detained during the raid and to return the outlet to its rightful management.

According to news reports, Istanbul police in the early hours broke into a building in Beyoglu district that houses Ozgurlukcu Demokrasi and its printer, Gun Printing House. Police told the dailys legal team that Saving Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF), a government-controlled insurer and fund manager, had taken over the newspaper and its printing house, but did not provide further explanation, according to the reports.

We condemn this mornings raid on Ozgurlukcu Demokrasi and call on police to immediately release the staff detained, said CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova in New York. Turkey should restore the daily and its printing presses to their rightful owner and end its tactic of forcibly taking over independent or pro-opposition newspapers.

According to the daily Evrensel, police detained Ozgurlukcu Demokrasis publisher Ihsan Yasar, Gun Printing Houses owner Kasm Zengin, and at least eight printing house workers during the raid. Police did not publicly give a reason for why they are being held.

Since 2016, CPJ has documented several cases of Turkish authorities ordering the takeover of the management and boards of independent news outlets, including prominent TV channels and newspapers.

The raid on Ozgurlukcu Demokrasi comes days after an EU-Turkey meeting in Varna, Bulgaria, at which President of the European Council Donald Tusk and President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker raised concerns about Turkeys actions, including the mass jailing of journalists.




Rosendo Rodriguez, III, 38, was executed Tuesday evening in Huntsville, Texas for



Rodriguez was pronounced dead in at 6:46 pm CDT. He was executed one day after his birthday.



His last words were, "With that Lord into your hands I command my spirit. I have ran the race, I have fought the fight. I have accomplished what God intended me to do. Warden I'm ready to join my Father... Here I go."



He also said, "The State may have my body, but they will never have my soul." HUNTSVILLE, Texas - A Wichita Falls man has now become the fourth person executed in Texas this year.Rosendo Rodriguez, III, 38, was executed Tuesday evening in Huntsville, Texas for the murder of a woman whose body was found in suitcases in a landfill in Lubbock in the early 2000s Rodriguez was pronounced dead in at 6:46 pm CDT. He was executed one day after his birthday.His last words were, "With that Lord into your hands I command my spirit. I have ran the race, I have fought the fight. I have accomplished what God intended me to do. Warden I'm ready to join my Father... Here I go."He also said, "The State may have my body, but they will never have my soul."





In 2006, Rodriguez rejected a plea deal which would have given him life in prison.





Rodriguez's execution is the seventh this year in the United States and the fourth in Texas, which has executed more inmates than any state since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.





Attorneys for Rodriguez filed the last-ditch appeal, seeking judicial review after they questioned the integrity and findings of medical examiners in Lubbock relating to the autopsy on the victim, Summer Baldwin, 29.





The body of Baldwin, described by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals as a drug-addicted prostitute, was found in a suitcase in a Lubbock landfill in September 2005. A police investigation found the suitcase was recently purchased and paid for by a debit card belonging to Rodriguez, court papers showed.





Baldwins blood was later found in a hotel room where Rodriguez stayed. Rodriguez, later dubbed the suitcase killer was arrested and confessed to police, prosecutors said.





In a police statement admitted at trial, Rodriguez said he had sexual intercourse with the victim and placed her in a choke-hold until she lost consciousness and had no pulse. He then purchased the suitcase, stuffed Baldwin inside and threw the suitcase into a dumpster, prosecutors said.





He also admitted to murdering Joanna Rogers, 16, in 2004, stuffing her body in a suitcase and throwing the bag away, prosecutors said. His death sentence is for Baldwins murder.





Lawyers for Rodriguez have asked for a new autopsy for Baldwin after it was reported that she may have died from blunt force trauma, saying her death could have come from a trash compactor and not from their client.





Lawyers for Texas said the exact manner of death does not matter because it was Rodriguezs actions that directly led to Baldwins death.





Demonstrating that Rodriguez did not cause the blunt force injuries does not negate the fact that he asphyxiated her and then placed her in harms way, they said in court filings.



The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to block the execution. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito denied Rodriguez's stay of execution.



The high court, without comment, rejected an appeal from attorneys for 38-year-old Rosendo Rodriguez III less than 30 minutes before he was scheduled to be taken to the Texas death chamber Tuesday evening for lethal injection.



His lawyers had questioned the credibility of a medical examiner who testified at Rodriguez's trial about the fatal injuries suffered by Summer Baldwin when she was raped and beaten in 2005.



Her body then was folded inside a suitcase and dumped in the trash. The suitcase purchase was tracked back to Rodriguez, who had been in Lubbock for Marine reserve training and was arrested at his parents' home in San Antonio.



Witnesses to the execution included Rodriguez's mother, sister and friends, Rogers' parents and brother and Baldwin's mother and aunt.





Rodriguez becomes the 4th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas and the 549th overall since the state resumed executions on December 7, 1982.



Rodriguez becomes the 7th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1472nd overall since the nation resumed executions on Janaury 17, 1977.

Sources: Reuters, Texomas, everythinglubbock.com, Twitter, Associated Press, Rick Halperin, March 27, 2018

 | 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
The U.N. Human Rights Office has called into question Japan's possible execution of Aum Shinrikyo cult figures on death row who are seeking a retrial.





"We do note that some of the defendants in this case are reportedly requesting a retrial," Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for the office, said in a written interview with Kyodo News.





"Execution of individuals with appeals or other proceedings still pending is against the U.N. Safeguards Guaranteeing Protection of the Rights of Those Facing the Death Penalty," she said.





Death sentences have been finalized for 13 members of the cult, including Aum founder Shoko Asahara, 63, who masterminded the 1995 sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system that killed 13 people and left over 6,000 people ill.





Earlier this month, the Justice Ministry transferred 7 of the 13 on death row from the Tokyo detention center to other facilities across the country, likely bringing them a step closer to execution.





Japan has long tended to avoid executing death-row inmates while their retrial pleas were pending, but last year then-Justice Minister Katsutoshi Kaneda said such a plea does not impede an execution.





All 13 inmates sentenced to death for crimes committed while members of the doomsday cult, including Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, had been housed in the Tokyo detention facility. Asahara remains in the facility, government sources said earlier.





The U.N. safeguards, adopted in 1984, partly stipulate that capital punishment "shall not be carried out pending any appeal or other recourse procedure or other proceeding relating to pardon or commutation of the sentence."





"The U.N. Human Rights Office advocates for full abolition of the death penalty, and we have in our discussions with the Japanese government urged them to consider abolition," the spokeswoman said.

 | 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

Japan Times, March 28, 2018
Hyderabad: A drug racket operated by an engineering dropout and targeting engineering students in different parts of the city was bust by the Special Operations Team of Rachakonda. Police said that suspect identified as Batchu Ravi Kumar, 23, had been procuring narcotic drugs from Goa and Ganja from Vizag and Khammam agency areas. He was operating his business through whatsapp for taking orders from his clients, referring Cocaine and LSD as SCORE and Ganja as GREEN. Police seized 7 grams of Cocaine, 10 LSD blots and 2 Kgs of Ganja (Narcotic Substance) and a scooter from his possession.

Ravi Kumar hailing from Nalgonda district had completed Intermediate at Nalgonda and moved to the city for engineering. He joined in Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Technology (JNIT) in 2013 in CSE group. While at college, once he travelled to Goa along with his friends, where he got access to narcotic drugs. Though it was for a very short period, he got addicted to them.

Later he developed friendship with Goa based drug peddlers, who started supplying him the drugs for selling at Hyderabad.

 His customers used codes for inquiring about the stocks. For cocaine and other drugs, it was SCORE and for Ganja it was GREEN. He was selling them only to students in his known circles and making money from them, the commissioner said.

He was also into Ganja smuggling. He initially purchased for consumption, but for business, he obtained it from Vizag and Khammam. Inquiries revealed the his passion to travel to Goa frequently for drugs landed him in drug trade. He had supplied drugs to more than 60 students in the city in the past two years and had been spending his earnings on travel to Goa and small luxuries in the city. He was arrested on Tuesday.
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The United States has announced criminal indictments and financial sanctions against Iranian hackers who waged a massive program of cyber intrusions, targeting the computers of hundreds of universities, businesses, and U.S. government and non-governmental organizations on behalf of the Iranian government.

U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said the attacks took place specifically at the behest of Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which plays a central role in Irans malign activities across the world:

The defendants worked for an organization known as the Mabna Institute, which two of the defendants founded for the stated purpose of helping Iranian universities access scientific research. Their work consisted of stealing research though illegal computer intrusions . . .The charges included computer fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy, and identity theft.

U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman said the Iranian hackers stole at least 31.5 terabytes of data  over 15 billion pages  from all fields, including science and technology, medicine and engineering  and sent the data back to computers they controlled outside the United States:

To be clear, this is not just raw data. This is the innovations and intellectual property of some of our countrys greatest minds.

The U.S. Treasury Department has imposed sanctions on on nine Iranian cyber thieves involved in this campaign, and on the Mabna Institute. That means that all property and interests in property of the designated persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction are blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them.

U.S. Attorney Berman said he believes that all the defendants are currently in Iran, but he had a message for them and for others who attempt to harm the United States through such malicious cyber activity:

We have worked tirelessly to identify you. And you cannot hide behind a keyboard halfway around the world and expect not to be held to accountWe will do all we can to bring you to justice.

While the Iranian defendants remain at large, they are no longer free to travel outside of Iran without fear of being arrested and extradited to the United States. They cannot leave Iran to conduct business, Mr. Berman noted. The only way they can see the rest of the world is through their computer screen, but now stripped of their greatest asset, anonymity.
John Paul Stevens:

Repeal the Second Amendment

By John Paul Stevens. March 27th, 2018

Rarely in my lifetime have I seen the type of civic engagement schoolchildren and their supporters demonstrated in Washington and other major cities throughout the country this past Saturday. These demonstrations demand our respect. They reveal the broad public support for legislation to minimize the risk of mass killings of schoolchildren and others in our society.

That support is a clear sign to lawmakers to enact legislation prohibiting civilian ownership of semiautomatic weapons, increasing the minimum age to buy a gun from 18 to 21 years old, and establishing more comprehensive background checks on all purchasers of firearms. But the demonstrators should seek more effective and more lasting reform. They should demand a repeal of the Second Amendment.

Concern that a national standing army might pose a threat to the security of the separate states led to the adoption of that amendment, which provides that "a well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." Today that concern is a relic of the 18th century. .......

It is hoped you can read the rest of this very concerning article on the New York Times. Author John Paul Stevens was a dissenting voice in the 2008 Heller decision and is very obviously no friend of gun owners - this kind of opinion takes on a decidedly sinister tone in the current climate of rabid anti-gun sentiment. With the likes of "Hitler Youth" David Hogg leading the 'gun control' Millenials, we see a very dangerous potential threat to basic rights as emotions get stirred up on a large scale.

Reference is also made to the article on Fox News.com.

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(Reuters) - A Turkish banker who was found guilty of helping Iran evade U.S. sanctions following a trial that featured accusations of corruption against top Turkish officials asked a U.S. judge on Monday to "temper justice with mercy" and impose a lenient sentence.

In a filing in Manhattan federal court, lawyers for Mehmet Hakan Atilla, a manager at Turkey's majority state-owned Halkbank, said that federal guidelines would suggest a sentence of 46 to 57 months, and that the sentence should be "dramatically below" that. Atilla has already been in jail for about 12 months.

Atilla, 47, is scheduled to be sentenced on April 11 by U.S. District Judge Richard Berman. Prosecutors are expected to make their case for what Atilla's sentence should be in a court filing next Monday.

Atilla's lawyers said in Monday's filing that Atilla was the only foreign banker ever prosecuted under the U.S. sanctions law, and that a heavy sentence would be unfair when other bankers were not punished at all.

They argued that Atilla's conduct was "less culpable than that of someone who owes allegiance to the United States," and that "thwarting the foreign policy objectives of the United States is not self-evidently wrong" for someone without ties to the country.

They said that Atilla had already suffered a severe penalty because his conviction had "shattered" his career.

Atilla was arrested in New York in March 2017. He was found guilty of conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions law on Jan. 3 after a four-week trial.

Prosecutors charged that beginning around 2012, Atilla took part in a scheme to let Iran spend its oil and gas revenues abroad using fraudulent gold and food transactions through Halkbank.

At the center of the scheme, prosecutors said, was Turkish-Iranian gold trader Reza Zarrab, who had been arrested in Florida a year earlier. Zarrab pleaded guilty and agreed to testify for prosecutors.

Atilla, testifying in his own defense, denied that he took part in any scheme.

Zarrab testified that he bribed Turkish officials, and that Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan personally signed off on parts of the scheme while he was the country's prime minister.

The case has strained relations between the United States and Turkey, which are NATO allies.

During the trial, Erdogan called the case a "plot against Turkey" based on evidence fabricated by followers of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom he has also blamed for a failed 2016 coup attempt.
Iranian judicial officials revealed that 43 people have been indicted in Irans western province of Kermanshah for participating in recent anti-establishment protests.

In an interview with Mizan Online, the official website of Iranian judiciary, Mohammad Hossein Sadeghi, the provincial public prosecutor said on Wednesday that the indicted individuals have been under the influence of cyberspace and their cases have been handed over to court for review.

Islamic Republic security and judicial officials, as well as hardliners, often try to explain away opposition activism as agitation from abroad, via the internet or satellite TV channels.

Sadeghi described the protests that occurred early this year as sad incidents and added that they have caused the country damage.

He acknowledged that they were partially due to economic problems in the country, but added that they were quickly led into deconstructive behavior that were eventually restrained by the judiciary and the security forces, successfully.

Sadeghi downplayed the number of the cases referred to courts and said the majority of those arrested had attended the protests out of ignorance and therefore they have been released on bail.

The prosecutor did not provide any details about the duration of sentences or the amount of any fines awaiting the accused.

The protests started on December 28, 2017 in eastern city of Mashhad with slogans against economic problems and corruption. Soon it spread throughout the country and turned into demonstrations against the clerical rule and specially the Supreme Leader ayatollah Khamenei. According to official numbers, thousands of protesters were detained and at least 25 of them have been killed.

The protests also led to a temporary filtering of the social media website Instagram and the messaging app Telegram. Protesters were using these platforms to organize rallies and publish their videos.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and some other Iranian officials have accused the U.S., Saudi Arabia, and Israel to be behind the protests. They claimed that these countries have used the internet and particularly the social media to ignite unrest in Iran.

In an op-ed for Radio Farda, Said Peyvandi, an Iranian sociologist residing in Paris describes the previous Persian calendar year which ended on March 20, as the year of the big defeat for the Iranian regime in the media war.

The widespread usage of telecommunication technologies, including social media have allowed Iranians to be connected without being under the radar of the regime, Peyvandi wrote.

According to him, the fact that some Iranian officials have been forced to react to news published on social media, and others to insist on their filtering, speaks for their importance.
Abdolkarim Hosseinzadeh, Iranian MP and chairman of the Citizenship Rights Committee, says Iranians dont trust messaging applications developed inside the country, and attempting to control the Internet is futile.

Censorship of the Internet will be impossible in the near future, thanks to technological breakthroughs, Hosseinzadeh told The Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA) March 27.

The Iranian government uses the term filtering to describe their policy of making websites, applications, and other Internet content inaccessible, although the Iranian public has proved capable of circumventing the censorship using anti-filtering software.

Iran lacks the infrastructure to develop domestic messaging applications. And in any case, the bitter reality is that people do not trust Iranian-made messaging services, Hosseinzadeh said, adding that an opinion poll would prove this lack of trust.

Government officials have recently begun promoting domestic versions of foreign messaging services like Telegram, Viber, and WhatsApp, citing security concerns they say come with using foreign apps. Judiciary officials and the Supreme Council of Cyberspace have also recently praised Iranian-made apps.

Meanwhile, Rasoul Kazemi, the developer of an Iranian messaging app called iGap, told the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) March 27 that Iranian apps have technical glitches, and agreed that Iranians do not trust them.

Kazemi added that government funding for domestic messaging apps could probably solve 5 percent of the problems, but the other 95 percent has nothing to do with money.

Applications should be up-to-date and user friendly. But the biggest problem is that users do not trust Iranian applications and fear their privacy and security might be breached, he said.

President Hassan Rouhani in February characterized cyberspace as a major player in domestic and international politics. He said that monopoly in cyberspace would be meaningless, and a messaging services exclusive control of this space is against our security, adding, Iranian made messaging applications should be developed and be used by the people.

Hosseinzadeh called for creating a competitive market in the area of messaging applications and warned officials against using security as an excuse to target activists online.

Today every child has a smart phone with Telegram and other applications. If we make applications inaccessible, then they will use filter breakers and anti-filters that will also give them access to unethical content, he said.

He also warned that soon people will not even need those anti-filters as sites such as Facebook can use new technology and drones to provide Internet access in remote areas, adding that The best way of nullifying the enemys channels is wining the nations trust, creating a competitive atmosphere of information dissemination, putting an end to the state TVs unilateral and biased news policy, and launching private radio stations and TV channels.

Referring to the censorship of the net by the government during the winter unrest in Iran, Hosseinzadeh said attempts to make the Internet inaccessible would be as futile as banning video tapes and satellite TV in previous years.

Banning video tapes did not stop people from watching videos and clamp-down on the use of satellite television did not add to the state TVs popularity and did not dissuade people from watching foreign-based Persian-speaking TV, he said.Likewise, filtering Telegram did not stop anyone from using the messaging service.

Previously, Hamideh Zarabadi, MP from Qazvin, had said that the Supreme Council of Cyberspace has decided to filter Telegram in the new Iranian year which began March 21.

Commenting on Zarabadis statement, the council announced that there was no ratification on banning Telegram, but agreed with the need to create a domestic equivalent for security purposes.

Iranian officials said in 2017 that over 40 million Iranians use Telegram, and nearly 20 million use WhatsApp, Instagram, and other foreign apps. The cost of using the Internet on a landline in Iran is higher than most other countries and in terms of the speed, it ranks 150 among 200 countries. Iran ranks 98 among 114 countries in terms of Internet speed on the mobile network.
UNITED NATIONS, March 28 (Reuters)

The United Nations Security Council on Wednesday condemned a barrage of missile attacks against Saudi Arabia by Yemen's Houthi group and expressed grave concern at reports of violations of an U.N. arms embargo on Houthi leaders.

Saudi forces said they shot down three missiles over Riyadh shortly before midnight on Sunday. Debris fell on a home in the capital, killing an Egyptian man and wounding two others.

They said air defenses also repelled missiles fired at the southern Saudi cities of Najran, Jizan and Khamis Mushait.

In a statement, the 15-member Security Council expressed alarm at a Houthi threat to continue such attacks in the region. Sunday's attacks threaten to sharply escalate a war that has unleashed what the United Nations considers the world's most urgent humanitarian crisis.

Millions of Yemenis live under threat of mass starvation and disease, at the mercy of combatants who have sometimes cut off food and medical supplies.

"The members of the Security Council expressed their grave concern at the continued deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Yemen and the devastating humanitarian impact of the conflict on civilians," the statement said.

The three-year conflict pits a coalition of Sunni Arab states friendly to the West against the Houthis, a Shi'ite armed movement sympathetic to Iran. The Houthis, who deny they are Iranian pawns and say their movement is a national revolution against corruption, control the north of Yemen.

Independent U.N. experts reported to the Security Council in January that Iran had violated U.N. sanctions on Yemen because "it failed to take the necessary measures to prevent the direct or indirect supply, sale or transfer" of ballistic missiles and other equipment to the Houthi group.

The U.N. Security Council statement on Wednesday did not name who is violating the arms embargo.

Last month, Russia vetoed a western bid for the United Nations Security Council to call out Tehran for failing to prevent its weapons from falling into the hands of the Houthis. Iran has denied supplying the Houthis weapons.

The Trump administration has for months been lobbying for Iran to be held accountable at the United Nations, while at the same time threatening to quit a 2015 deal among world powers to curb Iran's nuclear program if "disastrous flaws" are not fixed.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 28

Trend:

Over the past 24 hours, Armenias armed forces have 119 times violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said March 28.

Armenias armed forces were using large-caliber machine guns.

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 28

By Leman Zeynalova - Trend:

The United States does not recognize the illegal regime in Nagorno-Karabakh, nor does any other country, including Armenia, a US State Department spokesperson told Trend March 28 commenting on the recent US visit of Bako Sahakyan, who claims to be the president of the illegal regime created in the occupied Azerbaijani territories.

State Department is aware that some Congressional representatives hosted visitors from the Nagorno-Karabakh region earlier this month, said the spokesperson.

The United States supports the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair process and will continue to work toward a negotiated settlement based on the Helsinki Final Act principles of non-use of force, territorial integrity, and the equal rights and self-determination of peoples, said the spokesperson.

Earlier, over Bako Sahakyans visit, the US Ambassador to Azerbaijan Robert Cekuta was summoned to the Foreign Ministry and received a note of protest, sent by the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan to the US State Department.



Meanwhile, Azerbaijans ambassador to the US, Elin Suleymanov, after a meeting in the State Department, presented the protest of Azerbaijan to the American side.



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 28

By Samir Ali - Trend:

Armenians want to seize Azerbaijani lands from time immemorial, Chairman of the Caucasian Muslims Office Sheikhulislam Allahshukur Pashazade said on March 28.

"Armenians have repeatedly committed genocides in Azerbaijani lands. Everyone knows what forces stand behind Armenia, and today they continue to help them," Pashazade said.

He added that Armenians always present themselves as a suffering people.

"Some people think they have been really subjected to genocide. The atrocities committed by Armenians against innocent Azerbaijani citizens will never be forgotten," Pashazade said.

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 28

By Farhad Daneshvar  Trend:

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani has said the regional disputes, including the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, should be resolved through diplomatic solutions, and urged for territorial integrity of countries.

We believe the regional issues must be resolved through diplomacy. We believe the problems of Yemen must be resolved through diplomatic talks and there is no military solution. We believe the issues of Syria must be resolved through diplomacy, he told a joint press conference with his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, in Baku on Wednesday.

We also believe the Karabakh problem must be resolved through diplomatic solutions. With the efforts of the two countries, Azerbaijan and Armenia, we should witness more stability in the region. We are happy that diplomatic efforts are being made in this regard. It is important for us to protect the territorial integrity of countries and the [political] geography of the region, he added.

President Rouhani added that his country seeks closer ties with the friendly government and nation of Azerbaijan in order to secure mutual benefits.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani arrived in Baku, Azerbaijan on March 28 on a two-day visit for diplomatic and economic talks.

The presidents of the two countries oversaw a ceremony for inking eight documents on the expansion of cooperation in several fields, including oil and gas, transportation and healthcare.

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 28

By Farhad Daneshvar - Trend:

Bilateral relation between Tehran and Baku is on the path to turn into strategic ties, former Iranian ambassador to Azerbaijan, Mohsen Pak Ayeen, told Trend.

The sides have taken common measures in the fields of economy and security cooperation in particular, the issue of combating terrorism over the recent years, he said, commenting on the ongoing visit of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to Baku.

Saying that the presidents of Iran and Azerbaijan have met more than ten times over the past five years and these meetings have an important role in reaching new agreements and implementing them, he added that the Islamic Republic of Iran sees no restriction to expand cooperation with Azerbaijan.

Stating that the two countries share common viewpoints regarding the security and regional stability, the former envoy mentioned that this kind of cooperation would win the two nations long term interests.

In light of the political will of the two presidents, the sides have taken advantages of existing opportunities which is considered as a symbol of win-win diplomacy, he added.

Concerning the regional and multilateral cooperation, Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan face common threats and opportunities in the region today. In this regard, in consultation with other countries in the region, including Russia, Turkey and Georgia, they can take advantage of opportunities and confront threats

Pak Ayeen said that issues such as the legal status of the Caspian Sea, energy security, transportation, combating drugs trafficking, terrorism and extremism are among the issues that these countries can discuss and cooperate in providing mutual benefits and the continuity of this type of interaction provides benefit of everyone.

The trilateral ties of Iran, Russia and Azerbaijan, beyond bilateral relations and in the form of a tripartite format, can naturally lead to the development and strengthening of economic cooperation.

The former envoy spoke about the existing cooperation opportunities and said the three countries can cooperate in areas such as road, rail and maritime transit as well as the development of the, customs, oil and gas, the global energy market, the creation of infrastructure as well as connecting three countries' electricity networks and in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 28

Trend:

Observation is of great importance to ensure transparency at election, Chairman of Azerbaijans Central Election Commission (CEC) Mazahir Panahov said at a meeting with the expert group on long-term observation of the presidential election in Azerbaijan of the Interparliamentary Assembly of the Commonwealth of Independent States (IPA CIS).

He expressed satisfaction that the long-term observers of the IPA CIS will monitor the presidential election in Azerbaijan to be held April 11.

Dmitriy Gladey, head of the group, director of the International Institute for Monitoring Democracy Development, Parliamentarianism and Suffrage Protection of Citizens of IPA CIS Member Nations (IPA CIS IIMDD), noted that the group he led was made up of influential experts from various countries.

He said that the groups goal is to get acquainted with the preparation for the presidential election in Azerbaijan and have a report ready, following the observation.

Mazahir Panahov at the request of the guests spoke about training for members of lower election commissions, implemented large-scale educational projects, steps taken to clarify the voter lists, the latest preparatory work for the election and answered questions of international observers.

At the meeting, the sides also exchanged views on other issues of mutual interest.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 28

Trend:

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev has signed an order regarding measures to improve education infrastructure in Bilasuvar, Beylagan, Imishli, Neftchala and Saatli districts.

Under the presidential order, 4,172,000 manats have been allocated to the Ministry of Education for the construction of 12 modular schools for 824 pupils in five districts.

The advantages of modular schools include low-cost building work, quick construction and portability of module sections, and the opportunity to adjust the number of classrooms to the number of pupils.
Details added (first version posted on 13:04)

Baku, Azerbaijan, March 28

By Ilhama Isabalayeva - Trend:

The US-based AJF & Associates Inc. and the Citizens Labor Rights Protection League have announced the results of the pre-exit poll survey held in connection with the presidential election in Azerbaijan scheduled for April 11.

Sahib Mammadov, chairman of the Citizens Labor Rights Protection League, noted that the survey is aimed at studying the peoples readiness to vote in the run-up to the presidential election and the level of the peoples participation in the political life of the country, public opinion in connection with the election.

The survey involved 1,500 respondents from various districts of Azerbaijan. Some 63.5 percent of them (952 people) represented big cities, 17.6 percent (264 people) - small towns and the rest - settlements and villages.

George Birnbaum, president of AJF & Associates Inc., noted that 49.9 percent of the respondents are women, 50.1 percent are men.

The survey was conducted taking into account the age of the population: and 30.4 percent (456 people) were aged 18-29, 30 percent (450 people) were aged 30-39 years, 19.5 percent (292 people) - 40-49 years, 11.5 percent (173 people) - 50-59 years, 5.6 percent (84 people) - 60-69 years and 2.9 percent (44 people) - 70 years and older.

When asked How often do you participate in the parliamentary or presidential election?, 74 percent (1,110 people) answered that they always participate in the election, 10 percent (150 people) said they will participate in the presidential election April 11, 2018 for the first time, while 12.6 percent of respondents (189 people) said they participate sometimes or in rare cases, Birnbaum said.

George Birnbaum noted that when asked the questions If the presidential election was held today, and the candidates were the following persons, who would you vote for? and If the parliamentary election was held today, what party would you vote for?, 82.9 percent of the respondents (1,244 people) said they would vote for Ilham Aliyev and 70.9 percent (1,064 people) said they would vote for the ruling New Azerbaijan Party.

When asked How do you assess the work of the current government?, 28.9 percent (433 people) answered "excellent", 27.1 percent (406 people) answered "good" and 19.9 percent (299 people) answered "average", he added.

Birnbaum said that each of these answers is positive, and in general, 75.9 percent of the respondents (1,138 people) assess the current governments activity as satisfactory.

Thus, 62.5 percent of the respondents (937 people) said that the Azerbaijani economy is strong, 65 percent (975 people) said there is freedom of speech in Azerbaijan, 63.6 percent (954 people) said the countrys leadership protects the people from terror, 62.5 percent (938 people) agreed that if the leadership of the political leader is supported, Azerbaijan will be even stronger, Birnbaum noted.

This is while 62 percent (930 people) said that human rights are protected in Azerbaijan, 63.1 percent (946 people) said that Azerbaijan is an island of stability in the region, and all these answers reflect the populations faith and support for the current authorities, Birnbaum said.

He added that when expressing their attitude towards Ilham Aliyevs presidential activity, 58.7 percent (881 people) said he improves the economy, 61 percent (915 people) said that he cares about citizens, 75 percent (1,125 people) said that he represents Azerbaijan well in the international arena, 60.7 percent (911 people) said that Ilham Aliyev protects the security of the country, and 58 percent (870 people) said that he prevents the spread of migration crisis to Azerbaijan.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 28

By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend:

In Azerbaijan, debates of presidential candidates, during free air time on ITV Public Television, run normally and no unpleasant events have been seen so far, Chairman of Azerbaijan's Central Election Commission (CEC) Mazahir Panahov said on March 28.

Panahov considers it normal that the candidates go beyond the defined topics during the debates.

"No election campaign can be perfect in any country. The electoral process is a big process, and things can happen. Overall, the election campaign of the presidential candidates is proceeding normally," Panahov said.

Eight candidates were registered to participate in the April 11 presidential election in Azerbaijan.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 28

Trend:

Azerbaijans Defense Minister Colonel General Zakir Hasanov, who visited Ankara March 28 at an invitation of Turkish Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli, has met with Chief of General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces Hulusi Akar.

During the meeting, the parties discussed the two countries military cooperation, as well as the political and military situation in the region.

Minister Hasanov is also expected to hold meetings with heads of Turkeys military, political and other state structures during his visit.

The Azerbaijani official will take part in a trilateral meeting of defense ministers of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia in Giresun city on March 31.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 28

By Samir Ali  Trend:

Armenians began to pursue a policy of genocide against Azerbaijanis 200 years ago, Chairman of the State Committee for Work with Religious Organizations of Azerbaijan Mubariz Gurbanli told reporters in Baku March 28.

Gurbanli said the young generation should spread information around the world about the atrocities of Armenians in different languages.

The young generation has enough opportunities for this. The young generation should take advantage of these opportunities and keep this issue in the limelight, because our struggle with the enemy has not ended, he added.

Gurbanli said the world community is informed about the atrocities committed by Armenians in Khojaly.

Even if the Armenians wanted to present it as a military operation, these attempts were unsuccessful, since the facts confirming that these atrocities were committed against civilians were brought to the attention of the whole world. Armenians committed genocide against civilians, Gurbanli added.
Details added (first version posted on 16:56)

Baku, Azerbaijan, March 28

Trend:

First Vice President Mehriban Aliyeva has today visited the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Azerbaijan.

Mehriban Aliyeva expressed her sympathy for the heavy casualties caused by a fire at a shopping mall in Kemerovo and signed the book of condolences at the Embassy.

The first vice president pointed out that the news of heavy casualties caused by the fire was perceived with deep sadness in Azerbaijan. She expressed deep condolences to the families and friends of those who died and wished recovery to those injured.

Military, Air and Naval Attache of the Russian Embassy in Azerbaijan Igor Lobastev, for his part, expressed gratitude to First Vice President Mehriban Aliyeva on behalf of the Russian Embassy in Azerbaijan and Russian people for coming to the Embassy, for expressing condolences and standing by Russian people in these difficult days.

On behalf of the Russian Embassy and the whole Russian people, we are grateful to you personally that you found time, came to our embassy and stand by us, by the whole Russian people, in these days, said Lobastev.

First Vice President Mehriban Aliyeva said the Azerbaijani people share the grief of the relatives of those who died.

I would like to emphasize that everyone is in sorrow. I often meet with people. Everyone talks about this tragedy. They sincerely share this grief. But it is difficult to imagine what the relatives of those who died feel. May the God give them strength and patience, said the first vice president.

Lobastev also expressed gratitude to President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev.

We also express gratitude to President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, who was one of the first to express his sincere condolences in connection with the incident. We are sure that Russia and Azerbaijan should always be together, he noted.

Undoubtedly. This is a test for true friends: to be together in joyful and difficult moments and to support each other, said Mehriban Aliyeva.

Thank you, said Igor Lobastev.

Good bye, said Mehriban Aliyeva.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 28

Trend:

An official welcome ceremony has been held for President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Hassan Rouhani, who is on an official visit in Azerbaijan.

A guard of honor was arranged for the Iranian president in the square decorated with the national flags of the two countries.

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev welcomed President of Iran Hassan Rouhani.

The chief of the guard of honor reported to the Iranian president.

President Ilham Aliyev and President Hassan Rouhani reviewed the guard of honor.

The Iranian president saluted the Azerbaijani soldiers.

The national anthems of Iran and Azerbaijan were played.

State and government officials of Azerbaijan were introduced to President Rouhani, and members of the Iranian delegation were introduced to President Aliyev.

The guard of honor marched in front of the presidents to the accompaniment of a military march.

President Ilham Aliyev and President Hassan Rouhani posed for official photos.
Details added (first version posted on 17:08)

Baku, Azerbaijan, March 28

Trend:

Azerbaijans First Vice President Mehriban Aliyeva has today met with Vice President of the Islamic Republic of Iran for Women and Family Affairs Masoumeh Ebtekar.

Expressing satisfaction with the Iranian delegation's visit to Azerbaijan, First Vice President Mehriban Aliyeva said the relations between the two countries are historically based upon friendship and brotherhood, and cover many areas of cooperation, including political and cultural spheres.

Mehriban Aliyeva said the meetings between the presidents of Azerbaijan and Iran serve for strengthening of relations between the two countries.

Saying that in recent years Azerbaijan and Iran have been implementing joint projects that are important for both countries and for the region, Azerbaijans first vice president highlighted the relations in the field of transportation.

She noted that the Rasht-Astara railway project, to be signed during the visit of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to Baku, will benefit both Azerbaijan and Iran.

Irans Vice President for Women and Family Affairs Masoumeh Ebtekar, for her part, expressed satisfaction with her visit to Azerbaijan and stressed that the relations in all spheres are strengthening between the two countries.

Masoumeh Ebtekar added that these relations contribute to the welfare of the two countries peoples.

Speaking about the economic relations between Azerbaijan and Iran, she noted that big projects are being implemented in transportation. She said the expansion of relations in culture is of great importance.

Ebtekar emphasized that relations are expanding in the field of family and women affairs.

The Iranian official spoke about the public and social projects implemented by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, which is led by Azerbaijans First Vice President Mehriban Aliyeva, and emphasized that these projects are being implemented successfully.
Srinagar:Indian troops in their anti-rebel operation have killed four rebel fighters in Rajouri district, today.

Rebels were killed in a gunfight with the troops at Ravarian Talla village, in Sunderbani of the district, police said.

Giving details of the operation SSP Rajouri told media that the rebels were died in the gunfight with troops.

In the meantime, three youth were injured after clashes erupted during a search operation by Indian forces in Pulwama district, tonight.

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Reports said that youth took to streets and pelted stones on the forces during a cordon-and-search-operation (CASO) in Palpora village of the district.

Jammu and Kashmir is a disputed state between India and Pakistan. The two neighbors fought four wars on the Kashmir disputed. Since 1989, an armed struggle broke out in Kashmir against Indian rule. There are almost daily protests, violence and troops operations in the territory.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 28

Trend:

Leaders of religious confessions in Azerbaijan have sent an appeal to world's religious leaders, parliaments, and international organizations, the Caucasus Muslims Office said in a message March 28.

"Expressing aspirations and wishes of Azerbaijani citizens and millions of world Azerbaijanis on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the Genocide of Azerbaijanis - a crime against humanity accompanied by insidious and inconceivable crimes - we bring an appeal to the attention of the world community, religious leaders, parliaments and international organizations. The facts of the genocide committed because of national, ethnic and religious affiliation remain in the memory of mankind as the "black stains" of the world history," the appeal reads.

The appeal reads that Azerbaijanis are among the nations suffering from such crimes, and the regular nature of these terrible disasters always disturbs the Azerbaijani public, including the religious community.

"In the 1920s, Zangazur, the historical territory of Azerbaijan, was transferred to Armenia without any justification, and an Armenian autonomy was created in Nagorno-Karabakh. In 1948-1953, hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis were deported from their native lands, and in fact a mono-ethnic Armenian Republic was created in the ancestral territories of Azerbaijanis. A new wave of aggression and policy of ethnic cleansing by Armenian nationalists against our people began under pressure and provocation of the Armenian lobby in the second half of the 1980s," the appeal reads.

The appeal further reads that acts of vandalism were committed in the lands of Azerbaijan, seized by Armenians, and historical, religious, cultural monuments, sacred places and cemeteries were destroyed. The culmination was an act of genocide committed by Armenian extremists in 1992 in Khojaly.

"The genocide and the policy of genocide caused big moral and material damage to people," the appeal said. Only after Azerbaijani national leader Heydar Aliyev returned to power, the essence of the genocide and the deportation policy, carried out by Armenian nationalists, was brought to the world communitys attention."

Today, the Azerbaijani official and public circles bring irrefutable facts of ethnic cleansing and genocide committed by Armenian extremists in Azerbaijan to the attention of international organizations.

"Unfortunately, the Armenian terrorists have not been punished for the committed crimes yet, the appeal said. To date, the requirements of the four famous resolutions of the UN Security Council have not been fulfilled. Despite Azerbaijans appeals to international organizations for many years, the Khojaly genocide has not found a proper political, legal assessment yet.

According to the appeal, the Khojaly tragedy stands in same line with such inhuman crimes as the Holocaust, Bombing of Guernica and Khatyn Massacre.

"We, religious figures, once again appeal to the leaders of religious confessions, international community, the appeal said. We call for public and political assessment of the genocide committed by the Armenian occupiers.

The appeal was signed by Chairman of the Caucasus Muslims Office Sheikhulislam Allahshukur Pashazade, Archbishop of Baku and Azerbaijan Eparchy of the Russian Orthodox Church Alexander, Head of the Community of Mountain Jews in Azerbaijan Milih Yevdayev, and Chairman of the Albanian-Udi Christian Community Robert Mobili.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 29

Trend:

This visit of Iranian President Hassan Ruhani to Baku will be very successful, said Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev during an expanded meeting with Rouhani.

I am confident that new opportunities will open for the development of Iranian-Azerbaijani relations, said the head of state.

"Dear Mr. President, Dear guests, I once again sincerely welcome you to Azerbaijan. Welcome to Azerbaijan. First of all, I want to congratulate you and the whole brotherly people of Iran on the occasion of the Novruz holiday. I wish the Iranian people happiness and well-being.

Your visit is very important, said President Aliyev. Over the past four years we have met ten times, and every meeting has a great meaning and significance.

The head of state noted that over these years, Iranian-Azerbaijani relations have reached the highest level.

We discuss issues in the atmosphere of friendship and brotherhood. The agreements reached are being implemented. Today we talked about this during the narrow-format meeting. Once again I want to say that all the agreements are being implemented, and this makes our countries even closer. We successfully cooperate in all areas - political, economic, cultural, energy and transport spheres. This cooperation has excellent results. To date, many bilateral documents have been signed and they are being implemented. And the documents to be signed today will open new opportunities for our cooperation. The documents to be signed also envisage joint work in the Caspian Sea, construction of the Astara-Rasht railway. Other documents, of course, are of particular importance in terms of making our countries closer, said the president.

President Aliyev noted that the two countries have sincere cooperation.

We have very close ties. Interstate relations are built on a sound basis. There is mutual trust and the results are clear evidence of these factors. I once again cordially greet you in Azerbaijan. I am confident that the visit will be very successful and new opportunities will open for the development of Iranian-Azerbaijani relations," Azerbaijani president said.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 29

Trend:

The Astara-Rasht railway will be built in a short time and new opportunities will open up for the entire Eurasian region, said Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev, while making press statements with Iranian President Hasan Rouhani in Baku March 28.

Today, a number of documents have been signed, among which I want to highlight two documents. These are documents related to our joint work in the Caspian Sea and the construction of the Astara-Rasht railway. These documents are of historical significance, because as a result of implementation of these documents, our cooperation in the Caspian Sea, as well as in the field of transport, will reach an even higher level. At the same time, it will have a very positive impact on regional cooperation, President Aliyev said.

The head of state noted that the sides have made great progress in the field of transport.

Last year, when I was on a visit to Iran, we marked the arrival of the first train from Azerbaijan to Iran. The first train entered Iran via a bridge built on Astarachai. And today we signed a very important and historic agreement on the construction of the Astara-Rasht railway, Ilham Aliyev said.

The head of state expressed confidence that the missing part of the North-South transport corridor - the Astara-Rasht railway will be built in a short time and thus new opportunities will open for the entire Eurasian region.

The North-South transport corridor is under implementation as a result of our joint efforts and of neighboring countries. In parallel, we have begun to work actively to create the South-West transport corridor. North-South and East-West transport corridors will be connected in the future. Our countries play a very important role here. I can state with full responsibility that the agreement on the construction of the Astara-Rasht railway, signed today, is of historical significance and I believe that everyone will witness this in the years to come, President Ilham Aliyev said.
One more student project, which won 10th Grant competition conducted by the Youth Foundation under the President of the Azerbaijan Republic, has been realized at Baku Higher Oil School (BHOS). The project entitled Future Coming with the Engineers has been implemented by fourth-year Chemical Engineering student Anar Badalbeyli with organizational support from the Higher School.

It aimed at raising young peoples interest in engineering and their awareness of various professions available in this field, comments Anar. More specifically, the project focused on the prospects of receiving education in petroleum engineering, chemical engineering and process automation engineering, he says.

More than 300 students from national universities applied to attend training sessions within the project, and only 80 persons were selected for the participation. Staff members of SOCAR also participated in the training.

First sessions were conducted by representatives of BP in Azerbaijan including engineer Ali Naghiyev and engineer, BHOS graduate Fidan Selimzadeh who shared their working experience at this leading transnational oil company. They also told about career and professional development opportunities provided by BP for young engineers and internship and on-the-job training programs offered to undergraduates of national universities.

Senior lecturer of the BHOS Process Automation Engineering department Abbas Alili became a trainer of the next session. The participants were acquainted with the history and development of the profession of Process Automation Engineer and opportunities to receive education in this field provided by the Higher School. He also informed the trainees about scientific and practical activities carried out by BHOS process automation engineering students.

The next session was conducted by Head of the chemical analysis laboratory of the Heydar Aliyev Oil Refinery Vusala Mamedova. She provided detailed information about importance of chemical engineering for, and chemical engineers contribution to, economic development of the country. The trainer also informed the students about universities where they could receive education in this field.

BHOS rector Elmar Gasimov attended a meeting dedicated to the end of the project and made a speech. He emphasized that the project proved young peoples growing interest in receiving education in the field of engineering. It is not only the future, but also the present that belongs to the young, he said.

The project participants successfully completing the training were awarded certificates and memorable presents.
The German-Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce (AHK Azerbaijan) is organising the German-Azerbaijani Business Forum on "Medical Tourism" on 10 April 2018 at 10:00 a.m. in the Hyatt Conference Centre, Baku.

The Business Forum is organised on the occasion of the visit of Berlin clinics specialised in cardiology, neurosurgery and oncology in cooperation with the Berlin Partner for Business and Technology GmbH.

The main purpose of the event is to identify business opportunities for cooperation, to present the activities of German clinics and medical institutions as well as the implementation of digital technologies in health and medical tourism to their Azerbaijani partners.

The event offers opportunities to establish new business relations, find out new projects and expand the German-Azerbaijani cooperation in the health sector. For this purpose, at the end of the Forum B2B meetings will be held between the medical, tourism and ICT companies involved in the medical field.

The participation in the forum is free of charge and possible only with pre-registration by 03 April 2018 through the following link:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeffizlk5Yhh6JnFYWIiieVGBTYBpQyV2Q4iwscMHH5poLi-w/viewform.

The Forum will be held in English with a simultaneous translation into Azerbaijani.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 28

By Ilkin Shafiyev  Trend:

The National, the Middle East's leading English-language news service, has published an article dedicated to the tourism potential of Baku.

The article titled "A luxury guide to Baku, Azerbaijan" tells about architecture, sights, historical monuments of the capital of Azerbaijan, peculiarities of the national Azerbaijani cuisine.

Mostly walkable, safe and with low-cost taxis and high-end accommodation, shopping and dining  probably the finest in the Caucasus region  make it both interesting and easy, the article said.

Etihad Airways directly flies to Baku three times a week.

An engaging blend of Dubai, Paris, Marrakech and Moscow, Baku, now just a two-and-a-half-hour flight from Abu Dhabi, makes for an excellent luxury weekend break, especially after the recent relaxation of visa restrictions, the article said.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 28

By Fikret Dolukhanov  Trend:

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will grant Tajikistan a $90 million grant for additional funding for the rehabilitation of 40 kilometer of the road linking the capital Dushanbe and Bokhtar (Kurgan-Tube) city, Tajik media reported on March 28.

According to the information, the grant from the Asian Development Fund of ADB was provided in the framework of the project on improving the corridors of Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) 2, 5 and 6, approved in October 2016.

"Road transport plays an important role in Tajikistan's economic development, investment development, job creation and poverty reduction in the country. Additional financing will help not only to create economic corridors through the development of transport, but will also strengthen the country's capacity to maintain infrastructure," transport specialist in ADB's Central and West Asia Department Kamel Bukhmad said.

The Dushanbe-Bokhtar (Kurgan-Tube) road, which serves about 10,000 cars a day, is a part of the strategic link between the north and the south, one of the busiest roads in the country and part of the corridors 2, 5 and 6 of the CAREC program.

The improvement of the 40 km stretch from Chashmasoron to Bokhtar includes the extension of the road from two to four lanes, laying a new road surface and installation of modern road safety equipment.

Additional financing will also support Tajik Transport Ministry's program on improving the road safety of the national road network, which includes improving existing tunnels, intersections, hazardous locations and damaged road surface areas.

So far, ADB has approved a total of about $1.6 billion assistance for Tajikistan in the form of soft loans, grants and technical assistance. The ADB's partnership with Tajikistan, which began in 1998, helped to restore and build new transport and energy infrastructure in the country, helped in social development, expanded agricultural production and supported the development of regional cooperation and trade.

It was earlier reported that ADB in 2018 plans to provide Tajikistan with about $160 million for a number of projects, including reducing risks from natural disasters.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 28

By Ilkin Shafiyev - Trend:

The Gabala Salmon Plant operating under the Azerbaijani Ecology and Natural Resources Ministry plans to release into reservoirs about 57,000 fish in 2018, Plant's leading pisciculturist Safayat Gachayeva told Trend on March 28.

Gachayeva said that last year this figure was about 60,000, which allowed to overfulfil the state plan by 5 percent.

In 2014, 48,300 fish were released into reservoirs, in 2015 - 57,500 fish and in 2016 - 63,840 fish. Over the past 18 years, the plant released about 900,000 fish into the reservoirs.

The plant, which has been operating since 1956, is presently producing salmon and spotty trout, which are then released into the Caspian Sea, the Kura River and shallow waters.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 28

By Fikret Dolukhanov  Trend:

Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan plan to sign several export contracts worth $5.2 million, the press service of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Uzbekistan said on March 28.

According to the Export Support Fund under the National Bank for Foreign Economic Affairs of Uzbekistan, contracts will be signed within the framework of a business forum in Ashgabat with participation of business circles of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Uzbekistan and more than 100 entrepreneurs from all regions of the republic will participate in the National Industrial Exhibition of Made in Uzbekistan branded export-oriented products, which will be held on March 29-31, 2018 in the building of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Turkmenistan in Ashgabat.

The exhibition is aimed at promoting Uzbek industrial companies and investment achievements in the Turkmen market, presenting various investment projects to sign contracts with Turkmen and other foreign companies, familiarizing Turkmen business circles and entrepreneurs with scientific and production potential, as well as with cultural and historical heritage of Uzbekistan.

Uzbekistan will present production of local entrepreneurs from all regions of the republic, including textile (readily-made clothes), food, leather products etc.

A cultural program with performance of the stars of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan is also planned to be held within the framework of the exhibition.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @FDolukhanov
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 28

By Huseyn Valiyev  Trend:

A single call center  155 support service has been launched in Azerbaijan, a source in the countrys telecommunications market told Trend.

The source noted that currently, the center processes requests of citizens in three languages (in Azerbaijani, Russian and English) on telephone, internet, postal and financial services.

Meanwhile, it is envisaged to connect to the call centers of those structural subdivisions of the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies of Azerbaijan, which have their own centers for working with clients.

This is about creating a centralized system, to which any structure can connect. Ideally, as the source said earlier, it would be rational for citizens to have the opportunity to address any issue of interest to a single number.

These may be the issues related not only to communication services, but also to water supply, electricity supply and others.
Dr KC warns of hunger strike if HPE ordinance not tabled in Parliament soon

Dr Govinda KC, senior orthopaedic surgeon at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) who already staged multiple hunger strikes demanding reforms in the medical education sector, has warned that he will stage another round of hunger strike if the Health Profession Education (HPE) ordinance is not tabled in the Parliament at the earliest.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 28

By Fikret Dolukhanov  Trend:

Tashkent will host the World Blockchain and Cryptocurrency (WBC) Summit on April 28, 2018, Uzbek media reported on March 28.

According to the information, the summit will be attended by participants from more than 25 countries and 100 organizations. Speeches of 15 experts from Kazakhstan, Latvia, the Netherlands, Israel, Bahrain, New Zealand, Australia, Russia and Nigeria are planned during the conference.

The participants will discuss actual topics of the digital economy, including the problem of regulation and taxation, data anonymity, implementation of the blockchain-technology, mining, storage and exchange of cryptocurrency.

The Uzbekistan ICO Show will also be held within the framework of the summit. A number of projects on Uzbek economy will be presented during the show.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 28

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

The Turkish Mass Housing Administration (TOKI) has announced a tender for the provision of consulting services in the construction of residential buildings throughout the country.

The tender will be held at 11:30 (UTC+3) on April 10, 2018.

Applications and bids of all the interested parties are accepted at: Istanbul Hizmet Binas Atakent Mah. 221 Sok. No.5 34307 Halkal Kucukcekmece/Istanbul.

Local and foreign companies can take part in the tender.

For additional information please call: (+90 212) 495-40-40, Fax: (+90 212) 470-03-16.

The tender fee is 200 Turkish liras (excluding VAT).

(1 USD = 3.9829 TRY on March 28)
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 28

By Ilhama Isabalayeva  Trend:

Almost as many tourists came to Azerbaijan this year for Novruz holiday as in the previous year, Nahid Bagirov, chairman of the Azerbaijan Tourism Association (AzTA), told Trend March 28.

Despite the fact that this year Iranian tourists were less than in 2017, and they rank first among tourists visiting Azerbaijan, Bagirov said.

The chairman added that during the holidays, there was an increase in the number of tourists who came from Arab countries.

Bagirov noted that this year tourists came from Iran, Arab countries, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and other CIS countries to Azerbaijan to celebrate Novruz.

Most tourists came to Azerbaijan from those countries where Novruz is celebrated. The hotels are full at the moment. Hotels were mostly booked on March 21, 22 and 23 last year, while this year  for a period from March 28 to March 30, he added.

AzTA chairman noted that hotels were mostly booked by Iranian and Arab tourists for this period.

Iranians mainly travel to Baku, while tourists from Arab countries prefer to travel to the districts. The fact that hotels reduced prices by 20-30 percent on the eve of the holiday has also attracted the tourists, Bagirov added.
President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Kyrgyzstan Marat Sharshekeyev and Executive Director of the Dubai Expo 2002 Najeeb Mohammed Al-Ali signed an agreement on participation of the Kyrgyz Republic in the World Expo 2020 in Dubai (UAE), Kabar with reference to the Chamber of Commerce of Kyrgyzstan reported.

Sharshakeyev was appointed general commissioner of the exposition of Kyrgyzstan at EXPO 2020 by the decree of the Prime Minister of the Kyrgyz Republic.

Najeeb Mohammed Al-Ali stressed the great interest of most countries of the world, as well as international organizations, large corporations and companies in the EXPO 2020 in Dubai (UAE). He wished the Kyrgyz Republic successful preparation and fruitful participation in the exhibition.

Marat Sharshekeyev expressed gratitude for the invitation to participate in such a large-scale and significant event. He said that in Kyrgyzstan there are all prerequisites for the successful development of human potential and the contribution of the country's inhabitants to the universal future of mankind.

The Kyrgyz general commissioner assured the organizers of the exhibition that besides the main theme of the exhibition, the economic and tourist opportunities of Kyrgyzstan, the history, traditions and culture of the Kyrgyz people will be presented.

World Expo 2020 will be held from October 20, 2020 to April 10, 2021 in Dubai (UAE) for the first time in its history in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia region and will be held under the slogan "Connecting Minds, Creating the Future".

More than 180 countries, as well as international organizations, large corporations and companies will take part in the exhibition. It is expected that Dubai Expo 2020 will visit 25 million guests, 70% of which will be from abroad. This will be the first ever World EXPO, where most visitors will be foreigners.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 28

By Ali Mustafayev  Trend:

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kyrgyzstan Erlan Abdyldayev met with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on the eve of the Tashkent conference on Afghanistan, the press service of the Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry said in a message.

The sides discussed topical issues of Kyrgyz-Russian cooperation, as well as the interaction within the framework of international organizations.

The foreign ministers agreed that the current state of the Kyrgyz-Russian interaction is characterized by the progressive and dynamic development of strategic partnership and alliance.

The sides also touched upon the preparation for the forthcoming Kyrgyz-Russian Intergovernmental Commission.

Kyrgyz foreign minister also expressed his condolences to Lavrov regardinh with the tragic events in the city of Kemerovo on March 26.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 28

By Ali Mustafayev  Trend:

Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Erlan Abdyldayev met with the Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan Khavajo Muhammad Asif within the International Conference on Afghanistan entitled "Peace processes, security and regional cooperation," held in Tashkent, the press service of the Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry said in a message.

Both sides expressed satisfaction with the existing level of relations and stressed the need to further intensify the dynamics of bilateral cooperation between Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan.

The ministers also discussed issues of regional security and exchanged views on topical international issues of mutual interest.
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, March 28

By Huseyn Hasanov - Trend

The results of the March 25 parliamentary election in Turkmenistan were summed up today.

In total, 125 MPs were elected among 284 candidates throughout the country for the new convocation, the Turkmen Central Election Commission said in a message March 28.

Among the elected MPs are representatives of the Democratic Party, the Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, the Agrarian Party, and initiative groups of citizens.

An approved list of MPs will be disclosed in the coming days.

According to the Turkmen constitution, the parliament passes laws, makes changes and amendments to the constitution, approves the state budget, solves the issues concerning nationwide referendums and appoints MPs, members of the representative bodies.

Moreover, the parliament ratifies and denounces international treaties, solves the issues of state border and administrative-territorial division of the country.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 28

By Fikret Dolukhanov  Trend:

Uzbekistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) jointly with the UN Development Program and the Senate (upper chamber) of Uzbek parliament are holding an online survey among entrepreneurs on conditions for business in the country.

According to the information, the survey is aimed at revealing problems and obstacles for entrepreneurs, in particular, in the country's regions. After the survey, recommendations on improvement of business environment will be presented to the state government, corresponding ministries and agencies and state authorities.

Entrepreneurs, carrying out activity in Uzbekistan, are invited to take part in the survey by following links presented on the web page of the CCI.

Earlier, Uzbekistan held 74th place among 190 countries in the World Banks Doing Business-2018 rating, assessing conditions for business in the country. Even though Uzbekistan strengthened its position compared to the Doing Business-2017 report, there are still spheres requiring improvement.

The survey will be carried out until April 1, 2018.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 28

By Fikret Dolukhanov  Trend:

Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan signed a Cooperation Program for 2018-2019 between the foreign ministries of the two countries, the press service of the Uzbek Foreign Ministry said on March 28.

The document was signed during the March 28 meeting between Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov and Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Erlan Abdyldaev, who arrived in Tashkent to participate in the high-level international conference on Afghanistan Peace Process, Security and Regional Cooperation.

The ministers exchanged views on the results of the Tashkent Conference that wrapped up on March 27.

Foreign Minister of Kyrgyzstan underlined that the successful conclusion of the conference laid a constructive basis for the soonest settlement of the Afghan conflict.

The sides also discussed actual topics of the bilateral and regional agenda.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 26

By Khalid Kazimov  Trend:

An Iranian minister has called for increasing the volume of investment in agriculture in the current fiscal year, which has been named by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as "the year of support for Iranian products".

"It is necessary to increase the volume of investment and support for the output of the agriculture sector in 'the year of support for the Iranian products'," IRNA news agency quoted Agriculture Minister Mahmoud Hojjati as saying on Monday.

The minister further added that the value of the annual output of the agriculture sector in the current situation stands at $70 billion.

Speaking about the countrys fisheries capacity, he said Irans capacity for producing shrimps over the last year (started March 20, 2017) reached 32,000 tons.

According to the official, the country produced as much as 1.6 million tons of sugar over the last fiscal year.
Govt will start fighting against mismanagement from Karnali: PM Oli

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has said that the government would adopt a policy to fight against mismanagement to fulfill the necessities of people.
European Union ambassadors discussed on Wednesday possible new sanctions on Iran, diplomats said, under plans aimed at persuading U.S. President Donald Trump to preserve an international nuclear deal with Tehran.

The EU could decide to impose the extra measures under discussion in Brussels at a foreign ministers meeting next month, four diplomats told Reuters.

Trump has given the European signatories a May 12 deadline to fix the terrible flaws of the 2015 nuclear deal, which was agreed under his predecessor Barack Obama, or he will refuse to extend U.S. sanctions relief on Iran.

Britain, France and Germany have proposed the extra EU sanctions over Irans ballistic missile programs and its role in the war in Syria, according to a confidential document seen by Reuters. The hope is to encourage Trump to issue new waivers preventing those U.S. sanctions lifted under the deal from resuming next month.

One diplomat pointed to the next EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg on April 16. The idea is to have a final decision on Iran sanctions by or at the April Foreign Affairs Council, the diplomat said.

The sanctions would not involve measures that were lifted under the nuclear deal but would instead target individual Iranians that the EU believes are behind Irans ballistic weapons and its support for the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which is also subject to sanctions.

A list of names has been circulated to EU governments, a second diplomat said.

Any Iranians targeted would be subject to asset freezes and bans on traveling to the EU or doing business with companies based in the bloc.

EU envoys discussed possible sanctions on the basis of last weeks meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels, who agreed that Iran needed to be held to account for its role in Syrias seven-year war, even while upholding the Iran nuclear accord.

At that meeting, France also urged the EU to consider new sanctions on Iran, citing publicly the proliferation of ballistic missiles and (Tehrans) very questionable role in the near- and Middle East.

In response, France, Britain and Germany - the three European signatories to the nuclear deal - proposed new sanctions to fellow EU governments on March 16, although countries ranging from traditionally neutral Sweden and Ireland to Irans closest European allies Italy and Greece still need to be convinced.

Any EU-wide measures would be the first significant punitive steps since the bloc lifted broad economic sanctions on Iran last year following the accord to curb Tehrans nuclear ambitions for at least a decade.

Another diplomat said discussions in EU capitals were moving in favor of new sanctions, partly after ballistic missiles fired by Yemens Iran-backed Houthi militia killed a man in Riyadh on Sunday.

Iran says its missiles are purely defensive weapons.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 28

By Khalid Kazimov  Trend:

Following President Hassan Rouhanis recent visit to Turkmenistan, the Central Asian country has announced its decision on transferring Iranian prisoners to their home country.

The spokesperson of Foreign Ministry of Iran, Bahram Qasemi, has said that under the decision, Turkmenistan will transfer 283 convicts to Iran to serve their sentences in their home country, IRNA news agency reported.

The transfer is expected to take place on Wednesday, he added.

President Rouhani arrived in Ashgabat on March 27 at the first leg of his regional tour, which took him to Azerbaijan on Wednesday.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 28

By Farhad Daneshvar  Trend:

President Hassan Rouhani has said that mutual respect and trust between the governments of Iran and Azerbaijan have developed over the recent years.

The trust between the governments of the two countries have grown in the recent years. Mutual respect has increased and the sides have been engaged in more joint projects. The two nations and governments today witness the positive outcome of cooperation, he told a joint press conference with his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, in Baku on Wednesday.

Saying the sides have decided to strengthen cooperation, Rouhani added that such cooperation will leave a lasting impact.

Terming some documents signed between the two countries on Wednesday as historic, he added that these documents will benefit the two nations and the region as well as the world.

President Rouhani arrived in Baku, Azerbaijan on March 28 on a two-day visit for diplomatic and economic talks.

The presidents of the two countries oversaw a ceremony for inking eight documents on the expansion of cooperation in several fields, including oil and gas, transportation and health.

Transportation

The cooperation in transit sector, which links Irans southern waters to the Caucasus, Central Asia and Russia as well as the north and eastern Europe through railways and roads, is an indication of the significance of the North-South corridor. The decision made today for the joint inauguration of Rasht-Astara railway shows the understanding of the two countries about the significance of the corridor.

Caspian Sea

The president went on to speak about ample opportunities for cooperation in the Caspian Sea and said the sides must make the maximum use from the waterbody through cooperation in the fields of science, economy, trade, maritime, fishing and tourism.

Saying that the sides today decided to jointly make use of resources of the Caspian Sea, he added that the agreement would show how the sides can cooperate in this regard.

Joint investments

The two countries decisions on joint investment, including the Astara (Azerbaijan)-Astara (Iran) railway and also the joint production of cars display the strong will of the two countries to widen cooperation, he added.

Rouhani said the opportunities for future cooperation on creation of a joint pharmaceutical plant and also cooperation in healthcare sector, as well as the swap of gas, investment in energy sector, and tourism indicate that the sides are capable of taking new steps in favor of common interests.

President Rouhani further said the sides have also decided to expand cooperation in the banking sector and work on a preferential trade agreement in order to facilitate trade.
The Georgian government will continue to support Georgias high mountain regions to improve infrastructure and conditions for those living there in a bid to reduce migration from rural areas to the city, Agenda reports.

At todays government meeting Georgias Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili announced that out of 20 million GEL (about $8.24m/6.63m*) allocated for the high mountainous settlements development fund, 10 million GEL (about $4.12m/3.31m*) will be spent on infrastructure projects.

More specifically, 3 million GEL (about $1.24m/994,360*) will be allocated for the program "Plant the Future to cultivate berries in high mountain settlements. Meanwhile, 7 million GEL will be allocated for the rational use of state-owned hay-meadow and pasture lands, which were created for developing agricultural cooperatives.

Developing the mountainous areas of the country is one of the priorities for the government of Georgia.

In July 2015, the parliament of Georgia adopted a new law on the development of Georgias mountain regions, which came into force on January 1, 2016.
Georgia has very firm support from Luxembourg for its European and Euro-Atlantic aspirations, Georgian Foreign Minister Mikheil Janelidze said at a joint press conference with the Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of Luxembourg Jean Asselborn, Agenda reported.

Janelidze said it is symbolic that Asselborn arrived to Georgia on the day of its first anniversary of the visa-free travel agreement with the European Union (EU).

Welcoming his counterpart on a two-day visit to Georgia, Janelidze said it is important that Minister Asselborn, representing a country that is one of the founders of EU, will be joining in on the celebrations of Georgias progress.

Minister Janelidze thanked Luxembourg for granting safe country status to Georgia and the countrys firm support towards Georgias territorial integrity and the countrys European and Euro-Atlantic aspirations.

Janelidze also praised economic cooperation between Georgia and Luxembourg stressing the latter is one of the largest investors in Georgia.

During his visit to Georgia Minister Asselborn will meet with the Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili and representatives of government and parliament.

He will leave Georgia tomorrow.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman signed on Tuesday a Memorandum of Understanding with SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son to create the worlds largest solar power generation company in Saudi Arabia, Al Arabiya reported.

At a press conference in New York, the Crown Prince and the Softbank CEO said they expected the solar project to have the capacity to produce up to 200 gigawatts by 2030.

The project is expected to support the creation of a domestic solar equipment manufacturing industry in the kingdom.

It states that two solar plants with a capacity to generate 3 gigawatts and 4.2 gigawatts will be launched by 2019.

The agreement also states that the two parties are committed to exploring the manufacture and development of solar storage systems in Saudi Arabia, as well as the establishment of specialized companies for research and development of solar panels in commercial quantities that will allow them to be marketed domestically and globally.

This MoU is also complementary to what was previously signed in the Future Investment Initiative last October.

The agreement indicates that feasibility studies between the two parties on this project will be completed by May 2018.

The MoU is based on the commitment of the two parties to the production and distribution of solar panels with a capacity of 200 gigawatts in Saudi Arabia, as well as exploring the opportunities to establish industries in the field of power generation systems and batteries in the kingdom, which will help to support diversification of sectors and create jobs in the field of advanced technologies.

It is expected that this will help fuel energy production in Saudi Arabia, which will boost the kingdoms role in supplying the world's oil-reliant markets, especially as demand for oil is steadily increasing as production in some areas is depleted.

The projects are expected to create an estimated 100,000 jobs in Saudi Arabia and boost Saudi Arabia's GDP by an estimated $40 billion annually.

The announcement happened during the New York leg of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's trip across the United States.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres Tuesday evening and discussed several Arab issues including the Yemeni and Syrian crises, Al Arabiya reported.

The crown prince expressed his contentment with the visit, and mentioned Saudi Arabias vital role in co-founding the UN, while stating that the kingdom believes in the sovereignty of nations and the rule of law that governs the world.

Our problem in the Middle East is with the ideas that do not condone or believe in the notion of the United Nations, and that continue to operate in stark contradiction to the principles of the United Nations, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said.

By interfering in other nations internal affairs and promoting transnational ideologies that are not related to national interests. We in Saudi Arabia represent only the national interests of our country. And we work and cooperate with our allies in the Middle East to protect our and their interests in the region, he added.

On Tuesday, Saudi Arabia sent a letter to the United Nations Security Council regarding the Iranian-Houthi ballistic missiles attack on several Saudi cities Sunday night.

Saudi Arabia called on the UN Security Council to shoulder its responsibilities in maintaining international security and stability and the need to hold Iran accountable for supplying ballistic missiles to the Houthis.

We try as much as we can to solve the problems of the Middle East politically. And if things go out of control, we try as hard as we can to avoid as many mistakes as we can, the crown prince said. This is why we are working today with the United Nations in order to avoid other repercussions in the Middle East.

Saudi air defense forces had intercepted seven ballistic missiles fired by the Houthis on Sunday from Yemeni territory towards several cities in Saudi Arabia. Coalition forces then released details into their preliminary investigation showing evidence that the missiles were of Iranian make.

Mohammed bin Salman ended his statement by saying that Saudi Arabia will continue to be an active member of the UN, and will continue to comply with international laws.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have given $930 million to UN humanitarian efforts in Yemen.

Mohammed bin Salman presented the previously pledged donation Tuesday to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Guterres thanked Prince Mohammed for the contribution to alleviating what the U.N. calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with 22 million people needing aid. Guterres added that ultimately, "the solution is political."
Croatia's Defense Council on Tuesday accepted an Israeli offer for the purchase of upgraded used F-16 combat aircraft that will replace its aging MiG-21 fighter jets, Xinhua reports.

The Croatian government announced the decision in a statement on Tuesday night, after a lengthy meeting with a team of experts of the Defense Ministry and the Armed Forces General Staff.

Last year, Croatia received four bids for the new fighter jets: American F-16 Bloc 70/72 from Lockheed Martin, Greek F-16 Block 30, Israeli second-hand F-16 Barak and Swedish new models JAS 39 Gripen.

The value of the deal of 12 used F-16 C/D Barak is estimated at over three billion kuna (420 million U.S. dollars), paid in ten annual installments.

According to defense experts, it may well be that the F-16 fighter aircraft being offered by Israel have been upgraded with cutting-edge technological systems, with Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. (IAI) being the upgrade contractor.
Prime Minister Theresa May said on Wednesday her government would deliver on Britains vote to leave the European Union, after the referendum result was questioned by some critics who say funding rules were broken by Brexit campaigners, Reuters reported.

If there are those who are trying to suggest that the government should be rejecting the result of the referendum as a result of these sort of claims, I say to them very clearly ... the referendum was held, the vote was taken, the people gave their view and we will be delivering on it, May told parliament.
Montenegros government will expel one Russian diplomat and withdraw its consent to the activities of Russias honorary consul in the country, the Cabinet said in a statement, TASS reported.

"The Montenegrin government has decided to declare a diplomatic agent accredited at the Russian Embassy persona non grata and withdraw its consent to the activities of Russias Honorary Consul in Montenegro," the statement reads.

It also noted that the expelled diplomat would have to leave the country within seven days.

According to the statement, Montenegro made this decision in coordination with its allies and in accordance with the measures taken by the EU and NATO member-countries over the nerve gas attack in the UK.

The decision was made despite the oppositions statements, which warned against such moves. On Tuesday, the Democratic Front called on the government to "try to preserve the countrys honor and dignity and refrain from expelling Russian diplomats."

Montenegros Cabinet earlier expressed support for the UK over the poisoning case of former Russian military intelligence Colonel Sergei Skripal, who had been convicted in Russia of spying for Great Britain, and his daughter Yulia.
Kin of disappeared demand swift probe

The relatives and family members of the victims of enforced disappearances in Parsa said officials of the Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons (CIEDP) had not paid attention to their complaints even after its tenure had been extended by a year in February. They requested the CIEDP to start investigation into the reported cases soon.
A German plane collided early Wednesday morning with an El Al jet on the tarmac at Ben Gurion Airport, The Times of Israel reported.

There were no injuries. All of the passengers were evacuated back to the airport terminal.

The Berlin-bound Germania Boeing 737 was reversing out of its parking place en route to takeoff when it clipped the tail of the El Al 767, set to fly to Rome. The El Al plane had already moved away from its passenger entry sleeve and had come to a stop.

The incident is being investigated.

The crash comes hard on the heels of the chaotic evacuation of a plane due to fly from Budapest, Hungary to Tel Aviv on Tuesday, during which an Israeli woman fell out of the doorway onto the ground and was seriously injured.

Passengers had panicked when smoke from a nearby towing tug entered the plane via the air-conditioning system.

Although the pilot repeatedly announced to passengers that the smoke was coming from outside and that there was no danger, those on board apparently left their seats and rushed the doors.

In the commotion, the cabin crew opened the doors to deploy the emergency chutes enabling passengers to leave the plane. Dikla Abitbul, 38, a mother of two from the central city of Lod, apparently fell from the aircraft before the chute was opened, sustaining a serious head injury and breaking her ribs and arms.
The tool provides travelers who wish to book flights departing from Tel Aviv, with the most valuable insights about the best time to book flights, Globes reported.

Global travel search site Skyscanner, which provides free search of flights, hotels and car hire worldwide, today launched its new interactive Best time to book tool for Israel. The tool provides travelers who wish to book flights departing from Tel Aviv, with the most valuable insights about the best time to book flights, as well as the cheapest and most expensive months to travel to the most popular destinations for Israeli tourists.

Skyscanner has analyzed its extensive database of the last two years to gather the information that provides the users with the best week to book, and also allows them to see the cheapest month to travel.

Users simply need to visit Skyscanners interactive tool and choose the destination they plan to fly to from the drop down menu. They can then choose from two options: one, is to get information on the number of weeks to book in advance to get the cheapest price (for each destination) and the second - which month is the cheapest and the most expensive to travel.

A traveler interested in flying to Amsterdam, for example, can then look at the cheapest month or how long in advance they want to book for this trip to get the cheapest price.

Short haul routes tend to be booked up to 10 weeks in advance of travel, but this rule isnt always right. Consequently, Skyscanner encourages tourists to look at each route separately, for example, Tel Aviv to London is best booked 23 weeks in advance of travel, whereas Tel Aviv to Geneva - 8 weeks in advance.

Long haul destinations can vary greatly too. It was once believed that long haul flights should be best booked further in advance, but this isnt always the case. For example, Tel Aviv to Toronto is best booked 6 weeks in advance, whereas Tel Aviv to New York - 20 weeks.

Skyscanner Israel growth manager Itziar Irazabal said, We all wonder when searching for flights when is the best time to book flights. This is why in Skyscanner we wanted to make use of all the data that we have to provide our Israeli travellers with a useful tool so they can make smart decisions when planning their holidays, and save on their flight prices. In just one click, users can see the best time to book in advance for flights departing Tel Aviv, and get a broad overview on which months are the cheapest and which are the most expensive. We will continue to work on ways to help to our Israeli users to save money and make the most of their journey."
The Israeli government has hailed Air Indias new nonstop service from New Delhi to Tel Aviv as a historic breakthrough  the Indian carrier is the first commercial airline to take a geopolitical shortcut through Saudi Arabian airspace, The New York Times reported.

But Israels national airline, El Al, still has to take the long way and fears that it will suffer serious financial damage from what it views as aerial discrimination.

So in a first of its own, El Al petitioned Israels Supreme Court on Wednesday, filing suit against the government; the Civil Aviation Authority; Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; the transportation minister, Yisrael Katz; and Air India.

Flying in a straight line cuts more than two hours off the usual flight time, and allows Air India to lower its ticket price. Even though Saudi Arabia granted permission for the route, El Al is asking the Israeli court to prevent Air India from taking the shorter path unless the Israeli carrier receives a similar permit.

The dispute was touched off by Air Indias inaugural flight last week from New Delhi. As is the case with most of its neighbors in the Middle East, Israel does not have formal diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia, and the Saudis have for decades banned jets traveling to or from Israel from crossing their airspace.
The Israeli military has deployed more than 100 sharpshooters on the Gaza border ahead of a planned mass Palestinian demonstration near the frontier, Israels top general said in an interview published on Wednesday, Reuters reports.

Organisers hope thousands in Gaza will answer their call to flock, starting on Friday, to tent cities in five locations along the sensitive border in a six-week protest for a right of return of Palestinian refugees to what is now Israel.

Citing security concerns, the Israeli military enforces a no go zone for Palestinians on land in Gaza adjacent to Israels border fence.

Lieutenant-General Gadi Eizenkot, the militarys chief of staff, told the Yedioth Ahronoth daily that the military would not allow mass infiltration or tolerate damage to the barrier during the protests.

We have deployed more than 100 sharpshooters who were called up from all of the militarys units, primarily from the special forces, Eizenkot said in the interview. If lives are in jeopardy, there is permission to open fire.

Israeli soldiers are confronted by frequent violent Palestinian protests along the Gaza border and have used tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition against demonstrators whom the military said hurled rocks or petrol bombs at them.

Organisers said the protest is supported by several Palestinian factions, including Gazas dominant Islamist Hamas movement that is dedicated to the destruction of Israel.
Israels deportation of African migrants will be delayed until after Passover.

The High Court of Justice agreed to a government request for an extension on the courts order for a brief to outline the states deportation policy and related issues to April 9. The original deadline was March 26, The Times of Israel reported.

The state said it needed more time to respond to the courts request for clarification of the policy and said it will submit classified documents as part of its filing, which are believed to include information on the African nation that Israel is deporting them to.

Passover, the week-long Jewish festival that celebrates emancipation as understood through recalling the biblical exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, begins on Friday night.

The state also said it likely will grant refugee status to Sudanese migrants from the Nuba area, as well as 300 refugees from Darfur.

The Supreme Court froze the deportations in mid-March in response to a petition.

In January, the Israeli Cabinet approved a plan and the budget to deport thousands of migrants from Sudan and Eritrea.

Prior to that, the Population and Immigration Authority notified the migrants that as of January 1, they must return to their own countries or to a third nation, or be sent to jail until they are deported. According to the government plan, migrants who choose to leave by March 31 will receive a payment of $3,500 as well as free airfare and other incentives, according to reports.

They are believed to be sent to Rwanda, and possibly Uganda, according to reports, which also say that the migrants rights have been violated in the third country.

For now, deportation notices will not be issued to women, children, fathers of children, anyone recognized as a victim of slavery or human trafficking, and those who had requested asylum by the end of 2017 but have not received a response, Haaretz reported.

There are up to 40,000 Eritreans and Sudanese living in Israel, including 5,000 children.
The Workers Party in Brazil says gunshots hit two buses in a caravan for former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silvas campaign tour in southern Brazil, but no one was hurt, Washington Post reports.

It isnt clear if da Silva was on one of the buses during Tuesdays incident.

The left-leaning party says the caravan was traveling from Quedas do Iguacu to Laranjeiras do Sul in Parana state. The partys site has posted a photo of what looks like a bullet hole in the side of one bus.

Police say a team has been sent to investigate.

In a statement on da Silvas website, the former president says violence is unprecedented in all his years of campaigning. He is quoted as saying: If they want to fight, fight with me at the polls.
Another eight people have sought medical assistance after the deadly fire in the shopping mall in the Siberian city of Kemerovo, bringing the total number of the injured to 76, the operation headquarters told TASS on Wednesday.

"In total, 76 people were injured in the fire, including 27 children," a spokesman said. Fourteen people remain in hospitals, including two children. Another 62 people, among them 25 children, received medical assistance on an outpatient basis.

The bodies of two more victims have been identified. As many as 27 out of 64 people killed in the fire have been identified so far, the head of the Kemerovo Region Main Directorate of the Russian Emergencies Ministry, Alexander Mamontov, told reporters on Wednesday.

"Sixty-four people were killed; investigators are carrying out measures to identify the deceased citizens: 27 bodies were identified, and four identified bodies were sent by the Russian investigative committee for further investigation. Fourteen people will be buried today. The subsequent identification procedure will be conducted based on the collected genetic material," he said.

The catastrophic blaze engulfed the Zimnyaya Vishnya (or Winter Cherry) shopping mall in Kemerovo on March 25. The conflagration started on the top floor of the four-story mall, covering an area of some 1,500 square meters. According to recent reports, the ensuing inferno took the lives of 64 people, including 41 children. A total of 27 bodies have been identified.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to declare March 28 a national day of mourning.

A criminal investigation has been launched into the infliction of death by negligence, the fire safety rules violation, and the provision of services failing to meet safety requirements. Five persons have been detained in connection with the case.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 28

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Tina Kaidanow, US principal deputy assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs, will visit Turkey and Iraq, the Turkish media reported March 28 citing diplomatic sources.

Kaidanow will visit Ankara on March 28, and after that, she will visit Baghdad.

As part of her visit to Ankara, she is expected to discuss the situation in Syria, regional security, as well as the Operation Olive Branch.

On March 27, the Turkish Armed Forces liberated the Syrian city of Tell Rifaat from terrorists as part of the Operation Olive Branch.

Turkeys Armed Forces and Free Syrian Army liberated Afrin city from PYD/YPG terrorists on March 18.

On Jan. 20, the Turkish Armed Forces, together with the Free Syrian Army, launched the Operation Olive Branch in Afrin, Syria.

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Baku, Azerbaijan, March 28

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

The EU appealed to President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan with a request to return two Greek servicemen who illegally crossed the Turkish border.

This was noted by the Turkish president himself while he was commenting on the results of the visit to Bulgaria, the Turkish media reported March 28.

In response to the request of the EU representatives, I replied that there is a law in Turkey, and no one can be above the law, Erdogan said.

On March 2, two Greek servicemen were detained in Turkey. The incident occurred in the forest area around the Evros River, along which the border between the two countries runs.

The General Staff of Greek Armed Forces said that there was one junior officer among the Greek servicemen detained by Turkish border guards.

Commenting on the incident, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said that Ankara will not extradite two Greek servicemen who illegally crossed the Turkish border.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 28

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Bank accounts of 20 companies that had contacts with Ciftlik Bank, which is accused of fraud, were blocked in Turkey, Turkish media reports on March 28.

Presently, investigations are underway in 35 companies, according to media. Names of the companies, whose accounts were blocked, are not reported.

Previously, it was reported that 27-year-old Mehmet Aydin, the founder of Ciftlik Bank, fled the country with money collected in two years from the "financial pyramid".

Ciftlik Bank promised its customers a high income, which was provided thanks to the influx of new participants.

Everyone who contributed 200,000 Turkish liras was promised 50,000 liras as interest monthly.

Mehmet Aydin, along with his brother Fatih, were able to flee Turkey. During the activity, a total of 511 million liras were collected from 77,843 people.

(1 USD = 3.9829 TRY on March 28)

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Large cardamom tops list of agro exports

Large cardamom topped the export list of farm products in the first seven months of the fiscal year, accounting for almost one-fourth of agro export revenues, the Trade and Export Promotion Centre (TEPC) said.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 28

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Turkey and the US will discuss the issue of the liberation of Syrias Manbij city from terrorists of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and the Peoples Protection Units (YPG), the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a message March 28.

According to the message, this issue will be discussed during official representative of the Turkish Foreign Ministry Hami Aksoys visit to Washington.

Aksoy will visit the US on March 30.

Earlier, on March 27 the Turkish Armed Forces liberated Syrias Tel-Rifat city from terrorists.

Moreover, Turkeys Armed Forces and Free Syrian Army liberated Afrin city from PYD and YPG terrorists on March 18.

On Jan. 20, the Turkish Armed Forces, together with the Free Syrian Army, launched the Operation Olive Branch in Afrin, Syria.

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.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 28

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Turkey will open a new checkpoint on the border with Syria in Hatay province, the Turkish media reported March 28.

The new checkpoint, the construction of which is underway, is designed to facilitate the access of humanitarian goods to Syrias Afrin.

There are 27 checkpoints in Turkey, and four of them are on the border with Iraq.

Seven of 27 checkpoints in Turkey dont operate, and one of the closed checkpoints is located on the border with Armenia.

On March 27, the Turkish Armed Forces liberated the Syrian city of Tell Rifaat from terrorists as part of the Operation Olive Branch.

Turkeys Armed Forces and Free Syrian Army liberated Afrin city from PYD/YPG terrorists on March 18.

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 27

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

The US Air Force left the Incirlik air base in Turkey before the Operation Olive Branch, Turkish newspaper Yenisafak reported referring to the retired general of the Turkish Air Force, Beyazit Karatas, on March 28.

Karatas said that year the US Air Force withdrew F-15, A-10 and F-16 aircrafts from the Incirlik air base on Jan.19,2018.

He noted that the US Air Force's A-10 aircrafts were sent to the airbase in Afghanistan.

Presently, there are only reconnaissance aircrafts in the Incirlik military air base, according to him.

"Since the beginning of the Operation Olive Branch , Turkey has deployed its F-16 aircrafts at the Incirlik air base," Karatas said.

Turkeys Armed Forces and Free Syrian Army liberated Afrin city from terrorists of Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and the Peoples Protection Units (YPG) on March 18.

On Jan. 20, the Turkish Armed Forces, together with the Free Syrian Army, launched the Operation Olive Branch in Afrin, Syria.

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
The deal on sale of the 49% stake in the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant in Turkey can be completed next year, Chief Executive Officer of the Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom Alexei Likhachev told reporters on Wednesday, TASS reported.

"The ones desirous [to close the deal] are present, and not only in Turkey," the top manager said without detailing companies and countries involved in negotiations with Rosatom.

The probability "to close the deal on the stake sale in the Akkuyu NPP" is low this year but it is likely to take place in the next year, Likhachev added.

The Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant is the first nuclear power plant project in the world being implemented upon the build-own-operate (BOO) model.

Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation of Russia signed an agreement on the main conditions for the Turkish energy companies Cengiz Holding, Kolin Insaat, and Kalyon Insaat to join the shareholders of the Akkuyu Nuclear JSC, which is implementing the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant project.

The agreement was signed at the 9th international forum ATOMEXPO 2017 in Moscow in June.

Turkish consortium claims 49 percent in Akkuyu Nuclear JSC. The value of the possible transaction has not been disclosed, but it will be the biggest investment of foreign companies into a Russian project implemented outside the country and the world's biggest private investment in nuclear energy sector over the past 17 years.
A German national suspected of having links to the YPG/PKK terror group was arrested in southeastern Turkey on Tuesday, security sources said TRT World reported

Patrick Kraicker, 28, was arrested on March 14 in Silopi in the Sirnak province as he was trying to enter Syria, said the sources, who asked not to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

During the arrest, police also reportedly seized various documents, digital materials, and photos related to the YPG/PKK terror organisation.

During his questioning by the police, Kraicker reportedly said that he had served in the German army for four years.

The sources also noted that Kraicker "admitted he came to Turkey with the intention of travelling to Syria to join the YPG/PKK terror group."

Kraicker was remanded on charges of assisting and abetting the terror group.

It was also reportedly confirmed that the suspect had entered Turkey twice.

The YPG is the Syrian branch of the PKK, which is responsible for over 40,000 deaths and has carried out a violent campaign against Turkey for more than 30 years.

The PKK has been listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US and the European Union.
Mark Zuckerberg is preparing to testify before Congress, CNN reported Tuesday, citing anonymous sources, Business Insider reports.

The Facebook CEO has faced increasing pressure over the past week to speak with Congress, and CNN says he is now readying his testimony regarding how Facebook handles user data and privacy.

Zuckerberg, who remained publicly silent for five days following the first reports from The New York Times and The Guardian about Facebook's data scandal, has since apologized and given multiple interviews on the matter, in addition to publishing a post on Facebook detailing planned changes to Facebook's data policies.

The Times and The Guardian revealed that the data firm Cambridge Analytica improperly obtained data on as many as 50 million Facebook users while developing software designed to influence voters. The firm's CEO, Alexander Nix, has since been suspended.

Facebook has said it will check whether any other Facebook user data was mishandled from third-party apps and will alert any users whose data was misused.
Austin Wyatt Rollins, the 17-year-old who opened fire on classmates at Great Mills High School in Southern Maryland last week, injuring one and killing another, died from shooting himself in the head, officials investigating the case said Monday, Baltimore Sun reports.

According to details released by the St. Marys County sheriffs office, Rollins parked his car at 7:50 a.m. and walked through the schools main entrance two minutes later.

At 7:57 a.m., he approached classmate Jaelynn Willey, 16, and shot her once in the headwith his fathers Glock 9-millimeter pistol. That bullet also struck 14-year-old Desmond Barnes in the leg.

After firing the handgun, Rollins kept walking through the school, where he was confronted by school resource officer Deputy First Class Blaine Gaskill just after 8 a.m. Their weapons went off simultaneously 31 seconds later, with Rollins shooting himself in the head and Gaskill shooting Rollins in the hand, officials said.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday that White House doctor Ronny Jackson will replace embattled David Shulkin to be the next Veteran Affairs (VA) secretary, Xinhua reported.

A rear admiral of the U.S. Navy, Jackson has served as the White House physician since the George W. Bush administration, and has monitored Trump's health since he took office.

"Admiral Jackson is highly trained and qualified and as a service member himself, he has seen firsthand the tremendous sacrifice our veterans make and has a deep appreciation for the debt our great country owes them," Trump said in a statement.

Trump also said that he appreciates the work of Shulkin, including his effort to help pass the VA Accountability Act.

"He has been a great supporter of veterans across the country and I am grateful for his service," the president said of Shulkin, who has come under scrutiny after a February report from VA's inspector general office concluded that his European trip last July amounts to a "misuse of VA resources."

Robert Wilkie, an undersecretary at the Department of Defense, will serve as the acting VA secretary, according to Trump.
KYODO NEWS - Mar 28, 2018 - 20:28 | World, All

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made his diplomatic debut overseas as the country's supreme leader this week, with official media airing footage on Wednesday of him being welcomed in Beijing by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Wearing a gray Mao-style suit, a smiling Kim shook hands with Xi in front of their national flags at the Great Hall of the People, the footage showed. Kim and Xi were accompanied by their wives, Ri Sol Ju and Peng Liyuan.

(KCNA/Kyodo)

During their summit meeting on Monday, Xi, clad in a black Western-style suit and a red tie, spoke, occasionally using hand gestures, while Kim took notes with a serious face.

At a banquet after the meeting, Kim was quoted by the Korean Central News Agency as saying in a speech it is "quite natural" that the capital of China was chosen for his maiden foreign trip.

TV footage also showed Kim visiting an exhibition showing achievements by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and writing in the visitors' book there.

(KCNA/Kyodo)

"We can grasp the mightiness of China, a great neighboring country. More excellent scientific successes will be achieved under the wise leadership of the Communist Party of China. Kim Jong Un on March 27, 2018," Kim wrote, according to KCNA.

Immediately after leaving China on Wednesday, Kim sent a message of thanks to Xi, North Korea's state-run news agency said.

"I am convinced that the DPRK-China friendship, a valuable heritage bequeathed down by the revolutionary forerunners and common treasure, would as ever steadily strengthen in the interests of the two peoples," Kim was quoted as saying.

(Photo courtesy of Korea Media)

DPRK is the acronym for North Korea's formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

It was Kim's first trip to another country since becoming North Korea's supreme leader after the death of his father Kim Jong Il in 2011.
COVID-19: 17,983 cases in Kerala on Friday, tally nears 46L

Kerala is currently the only state in India with more than one lakh active cases.
Locals demolish makeshift bridges constructed by India

Locals have demolished three makeshift wooden bridges constructed by India over Mahakali River in Darchula district. Indian authority had constructed the makeshift wooden bridges over Mahakali River in Byas Rural Municipality-2 without the consent of Nepal authority.
More than anything else, we hold principles of sovereignty, independence and non-interference close to our hearts

I am pleased to welcome you all to this Luncheon at my official residence today. Thank you for accepting our invitation. I have met most of you individually. But we are meeting in this format for the first time since I assumed the office of the Prime Minister recently.
J azz/Blues guitarist Mike Armando has paid his dues s

everal times over and you can hear it in his playing. My one time contemporary, Charlie Bird Parker once said, You cant play it if you havent lived it. When you listen to Mike, youll will know from the very first note that he lived what he plays. Theres a seasoned unfiltered quality in his phrasing that awakens our ears to his affinity for the real deal form of jazz. With Mike, its all about feeling, just as it was with all of the great players of the past and the few greats who are on the scene today. The sounds Mike has taken in and absorbed through the years didnt come from any music school class, but straight from his lifes experiences, and from hanging around the great jazz clubs in New York City; and being able to see some of the greats perform up close and personal. Mike has a way of drawing his listeners in and making them a personal part of what he and his group are playing. Mike has surrounded himself with some really fine jazz musicians. http://mjajazz.wixsite.com/mike-armando Artt Frank - drummer for the late great Chet Baker.
Description

Dear Long Island Business/Organzation Representatiave:

What do the Shoreham-Wading River High School students(9-12th grades) know about your growing company, industry and career here on Long Island?

We are asking for a 3-hour commitment to tell your "story" to small groups of high school students for approximately 20 minutes each/3x.

Please RSVP to the URL listed above no later than Thursday, March 15.

Thank you for your support and your dedication to your growing business and industry, to your community and to oLon gIsland's future workforce.
Why Is Northern Trust (NTRS) Up 4.7% Since Last Earnings Report? Northern Trust (NTRS) reported earnings 30 days ago. What's next for the stock? We take a look at earnings estimates for some clues.

It was a week that saw the NYSE ARCA Airline Index declining 4.1% mainly due to the disappointing unit revenue forecast of low-cost carrier Southwest Airlines Co. LUV for the current quarter. The Dallas-based carrier attributed the downbeat forecast to pricing pressure and lower-than-expected demand for air travel due to the timing of the spring break holidays.

Apart from the bleak forecast, airlines were also hurt by the emergence of another noreaster (Toby) in the Northeast region. In fact, this was the fourth noreaster to hit the region this month. American Airlines Group Inc. AAL was also in the news over the past five trading days regarding its fleet upgrade efforts.

Moreover, the week saw American Airlines and United Airlines  the wholly-owned subsidiary of United Continental Holdings, Inc. UAL  issuing updates on their plans to add additional flights in a bid to expand their presence.

Transportation - Airline Industry 5YR % Return

Transportation - Airline Industry 5YR % Return

(Read the last Airline Stock Roundup for Mar 21, 2018).

Recap of the Past Weeks Most Important Stories

1. Southwest Airlines now expects revenue per available seat mile (RASM: a key measure of unit revenue) to be flat, as against the year-ago figure of 13.23 cents. The projection compares unfavorably to the previous forecast of year-over-year growth between 1% and 2%. However, current customer demand remains strong, according to Southwest. The carrier still continues to expect year-over-year RASM growth in 2018.

Further, the company has lowered its outlook for first-quarter operating expenses per available seat mile (CASM) excluding fuel and oil expense plus profit-sharing expense. Additionally, first-quarter fuel costs are expected to be at approximately $2.10 per gallon (Read more: Airline Stocks Decline on Wednesday's Trading: Here's Why).

2. Airline operations were disrupted when Toby hit the Northeast, resulting in multiple flight cancellations. In fact, the current month has reportedly seen more than 10,000 flights being called off due to successive noreasters. Notably, it is believed to be the worst March in five years time in terms of flight cancellations (Read more: Airline Operations Disrupted Due to Another Nor'easter).

Story continues

3. According to a Reuters report American Airlines has ended its negotiations with Airbus to buy multiple planes, in a bid to upgrade its fleet. Replacing Airbus, as a potential supplier to American Airlines was The Boeing Company BA. American Airlines is reportedly looking to purchase 25-30 new wide-bodied jets. The deal with Boeing might be valued between $7 billion and $8.5 billion.

On a separate issue, American Airlines announced its intention to launch flights to four cities  Georgetown, Guyana, Pereira, Colombia, Cordoba, Argentina, Oaxaca, Mexico and Buenos Aires, Argentina. The new routes will be operational subject to government clearance. Tickets will be available from April 2018.

American Airlines carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

4. The association between United Airlines and Air New Zealand was strengthened when the carriers announced their decision to operate flights connecting Chicago and Auckland. The non-stop year-round flights, operated by Air New Zealand thrice a week, will commence from Nov 30, 2018. Moreover, United Airlines announced that its flights connecting San Francisco and Auckland, which currently operate on a seasonal basis, will fly throughout the year (thrice a week) from April 2019. The service has been expanded to cater to the increased demand.

5. Alaska Air Groups ALK subsidiary  Alaska Airlines  inked a deal with Irish carrier, Aer Lingus, for providing members of its Mileage Plan more opportunities to earn and redeem miles to Europe. According to the new partnership, the carriers will commence interline availability across their respective networks from April 2018. Aer Lingus currently operates flights connecting Dublin and 13 cities in North America. The carrier will operate flights connecting Seattle and Dublin from May 18, 2018.

Price Performance

The following table shows the price movement of the major airline players over the past week and during the last six months.













The table above shows most of the airline stocks traded in the red over the past week mainly due to Southwests bearish guidance. Over the course of six months, the NYSE ARCA Airline Index appreciated 6.9%, on the back of impressive gains at Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes S.A. GOL.



What's Next in the Airline Space?

Investors will look forward to March traffic reports from the likes of Delta Air Lines Inc. DAL in the coming days.



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Here's another stock idea to consider. Much like petroleum 150 years ago, lithium power may soon shake the world, creating millionaires and reshaping geo-politics. Soon electric vehicles (EVs) may be cheaper than gas guzzlers. Some are already reaching 265 miles on a single charge.



With battery prices plummeting and charging stations set to multiply, one company stands out as the #1 stock to buy according to Zacks research.



It's not the one you think.



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Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV) : Free Stock Analysis Report



Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes S.A. (GOL) : Free Stock Analysis Report



Delta Air Lines, Inc. (DAL) : Free Stock Analysis Report



United Continental Holdings, Inc. (UAL) : Free Stock Analysis Report



American Airlines Group Inc. (AAL) : Free Stock Analysis Report



Alaska Air Group, Inc. (ALK) : Free Stock Analysis Report



The Boeing Company (BA) : Free Stock Analysis Report



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Zacks Investment Research
Nine panels likely for Lower House

Exceeding the Parliament-Secretariats recommendations, the Regulations Drafting Committee of the House of Representatives is preparing to have some nine thematic committees in the Lower House, on top of three joint committees having representatives from both the Houses of federal parliament.
Flatiron Health

Saskia Uppenkamp

Zach Weinberg is the cofounder of Flatiron Health, which sold to Swiss healthcare giant Roche for $1.9 billion.

He has a simple three-part checklist for determining how to set his priorities.

As the COO of Flatiron Health, Zach Weinberg oversees product development and recruiting efforts at one of the hottest startups in the healthcare industry.

Weinberg and Flatiron CEO Nat Turner founded the company, which makes software for cancer treatment centers, in 2012 and made a deal with Swiss healthcare giant Roche for $1.9 billion in February. An important part of the deal was keeping Flatiron independent, but now the cofounders are taking it to scale.

And on top of that, they're also angel investing in promising startups.

Weinberg tweeted out the three questions he asks himself to set priorities when there's so much going on:

Tweet Embed:

//twitter.com/mims/statuses/978367225328558081?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

90% of my job is asking these 3 questions:



1. What's the goal?

2. Is this important and worth your/our time?

3. Is someone paying?

We recently spoke with Weinberg's cofounder Turner for Business Insider's podcast "Success! How I Did It," where we discussed their 15-year partnership and how they realized that purpose-driven businesses are more successful.

You can subscribe to the podcast and listen to the episode below:

NOW WATCH: Dropbox CEO talks about how he went from rejecting Steve Jobs to an $11 billion IPO

See Also:

SEE ALSO: The 32-year-old who sold his first company for $80 million and a second for $2 billion talks about writing to Richard Branson, how he's a terrible employee, and why he never intends to build companies to sell them
Why does President Trump seem so fond of Russia and its strongman leader, Vladimir Putin?

We asked Michael Isikoff of Yahoo News, co-author of the new bestseller, Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putins War on America and the Election of Donald Trump. And the answer may be pretty simple: Its all about business.

Everybody keeps looking for the smoking gun, the foolproof evidence that explains Trumps Russia problems, Isikoff tells Yahoo Finance. But much of the evidence is hiding in plain sight.

As a real-estate developer and head of the Trump Organization, Trump tried for years to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, just as he had in New York, Chicago, Vancouver, Istanbul and other marquis cities. By 2014, he was actually getting close. Trump had made the right connections during a 2013 trip to Moscow, where the Miss Universe pageant, which he owned, was held. He knew Putins personal approval would be necessary to build his tower. And by early 2014, his company had signed a letter of intent with Moscow authorities to go ahead with the project.

Trumps daughter Ivanka, who was then one of the companys top executives, was actually in Russia scouting for sites in February of that year, when Russia, under Putins order, annexed Crimea. Then Russian troops invaded Ukraine. Europe and the United States responded by imposing tough new economic sanctions on Russiawhich directly affected a Russian bank Trump had lined up to help finance his Moscow tower.

It was the sanctions that killed his Russia deal, Isikoff says. It helps explain a lot.

U.S. President Donald Trump, right, meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G-20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany. Friday, July 7, 2017. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

As a candidate, Trump criticized those sanctions, without ever mentioning that they directly affected his business dealings. And as president, he has been strangely solicitous of Putin, bucking most of the U.S. national-security establishment and the orthodoxy of his own Republican party. Trump, for instance, called Putin recently to congratulate him for winning an election widely viewed as completely rigged. Trumps own national-security advisers had strongly advised him not to congratulate Putin.

Story continues

Trump persisted in his efforts to get a Moscow deal, even after declaring his candidacy for president in 2015. Later that year, Trump lawyer Michael Cohennow embroiled in the Stormy Daniels controversyspearheaded another effort to build a Trump tower in Moscow.

The public knew nothing about it, Isikoff says. That project never got off the ground, either.

While pursuing the Moscow deals, however, Trump and his companyincluding family membersdeveloped a number of Russian contacts who circled back once Trump was a presidential candidate. Those were the Russians who offered dirt on Hillary Clinton, or helped set up meetings on the matter. A few are known confidantes of Putin. If you want to understand what happened at these meetings, Isikoff says, you have to understand these business relationships.

Special counsel Robert Mueller is now investigating whether any dealings between Trump people and Putin people may have broken the law. Trump still has no tower in Moscow, and theres no public evidence he has done anything illegal. But Trump does have a looming problem with Mueller, who may know far more than he has revealed. Trumps business ambitions have cast a long shadow.

Confidential tip line: rickjnewman@yahoo.com. Encrypted communication available.

Read more:

Rick Newman is the author of four books, including Rebounders: How Winners Pivot from Setback to Success. Follow him on Twitter: @rickjnewman

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People against road widening campaign clash with police (In photos)

A group of people, who staged a demonstration against the road widening campaign underway in various part of the Kathmandu Valley, clashed with police at New Baneshwor in the Capital on Wednesday.
BRASILIA, March 27 (Reuters) - Former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has accused Netflix of political bias and character assassination in its series based on the massive Car Wash corruption investigation that rocked Brazil's political establishment.

Since its debut on Friday, the series called "The Mechanism" has enthralled Brazilians with its dramatization of the political scandal that contributed to Rousseff's downfall and impeachment in 2016.

But it sparked mocking memes and angry tweets in Brazil with accusations including that some dialogue delivered by leftist ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in the show resembled the words of a right-wing politician in a real-life wire tap.

Rousseff assailed the series as a travesty of history aimed at her Workers' Party and its founder Lula, who has been convicted of corruption for receiving a luxury seaside apartment as a bribe.

"Under the guise of telling the story of the Car Wash investigation in a series 'based on real events,' the director Jose Padilha distorts reality and spreads all sorts of lies to attack me and President Lula," Rousseff said in a statement.

The director, she said, "doesn't merely reproduce fake news. He has turned himself into a creator of fake news."

Padilha could not immediately be reached for comment, and Netflix did not respond to requests for comment. Padilha told Reuters this month that he hoped to remind viewers that rampant corruption in Brazil was not the fault of any particular politician or party.

"The series is trying to take a position that is non-ideological," he said in that interview.

Workers Party officials said they were consulting lawyers to see what legal action they can take.

Rousseff was impeached for breaking budget laws, ending 14 years of leftist rule by the Workers Party. Lula, still Brazil's most popular politician, faces a 12-year prison sentence and will likely be barred from running in this year's election, even though he is the front-runner in early polls.

Story continues

The Folha de S.Paulo newspaper reported that left-wing Brazilians canceled their Netflix subscriptions over the weekend angered by the depiction of Lula and his party.

"The Mechanism" opens a decade before the Car Wash probe was launched in early 2014 with federal police investigating money laundering in southern Brazil but failing to catch a key suspect.

They eventually unveil a kickback scheme involving politicians, construction companies and Brazil's state-run oil company called Petrobras in real life and Petrobrasil in the series. (Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Omnicom Health Group, a division of Omnicom Group Inc. OMC, announced that it has inked a definitive agreement to acquire Elsevier's Pharma Communications business, which is part of the RELX Group, RELX PLC RELX, for an undisclosed amount.



The acquired business has been a leading healthcare communications business in Japan for 38 years. It enjoys a reputation for quality delivery of medical content for promotional materials and educational programs directed at doctors and patients.



The acquired business and employees will become part of the newly named healthcare marketing communications agency, EMC K.K. The acquired unit's management team will also join EMC while Takao Ozawa will be the Managing Director. He will report to David Stark, CEO of Omnicom Health Group Asia Pacific (OHG AP).



EMC further strengthens OHG's roster of leading healthcare agencies in Japan, including Targis, Rx Healthcare, Polaris Consumer Health, CDM Tokyo and MCI.



Having a solid credibility, OHG will get an opportunity to expand its business in Japan, which is the worlds second largest pharmaceutical market. Also, the addition of EMC's talented healthcare specialists and their long-term good standing in the market will add value to OHG services and enable the company to meet growing client demand and maintain the best service offering in Japan.



With EMC, OHG will have unmatched scale, depth and breadth of dedicated healthcare communications services. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2018, subject to customary closing conditions.



Omnicom continues to expand its global footprint and explore new service areas. It is also building upon its digital and analytical capabilities by investing in agencies and partnering with innovative technology companies in key markets. The company is currently concentrating on strengthening its business while expanding client base globally. The company maintains a balanced growth model through a combination of well-focused internal development initiatives and strategic acquisitions. We expect the company to witness higher revenues in the future on the back of its focused growth initiatives.



The stock has outperformed the industry in the last three months with an average loss of 0.2% compared with a decline of 5.5% for the latter.





Story continues





Zacks Rank and Stocks to Consider



Omnicom carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the broader industry are The Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc. IPG and Automatic Data Processing, Inc. ADP, both carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.



Interpublic has an expected long-term earnings growth rate of 6.7%. It exceeded earnings estimates twice in the trailing four quarters, with an average of 31.5%.



Automatic Data Processing has an expected long-term earnings growth rate of 11%. It surpassed earnings estimates thrice in the trailing four quarters, the average being 5.5%.



Will You Make a Fortune on the Shift to Electric Cars?



Here's another stock idea to consider. Much like petroleum 150 years ago, lithium power may soon shake the world, creating millionaires and reshaping geo-politics. Soon electric vehicles (EVs) may be cheaper than gas guzzlers. Some are already reaching 265 miles on a single charge.



With battery prices plummeting and charging stations set to multiply, one company stands out as the #1 stock to buy according to Zacks research.



It's not the one you think.



See This Ticker Free >>



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



RELX PLC (RELX) : Free Stock Analysis Report



Omnicom Group Inc. (OMC) : Free Stock Analysis Report



Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc. (The) (IPG) : Free Stock Analysis Report



Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP) : Free Stock Analysis Report



To read this article on Zacks.com click here.



Zacks Investment Research
* Patriot agreement largest in Poland's history

* Deal seen as reinforcing NATO's eastern flank

* Russia's military resurgence seen as threat

* Deal could provide momentum for other Patriot sales (Adds quotes from Raytheon)

By Lidia Kelly

WARSAW, March 28 (Reuters) - Poland signed the largest arms procurement deal in its history on Wednesday, agreeing with the United States to buy Raytheon Co's Patriot missile defence system for $4.75 billion in a major step to modernise its forces against a bolder Russia.

"It is an extraordinary, historic moment; it is Poland's introduction into a whole new world of state-of-the-art technology, modern weaponry, and defensive means," President Andrzej Duda said during the signing ceremony.

NATO member Poland has accelerated efforts to overhaul its ageing weaponry following Moscow's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula in 2014. Two-thirds of Poland's weaponry dates from the Cold War era when it was in the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Titov told state-run Sputnik news website in November that Patriot deployments were part of a U.S. plot to surround Russia with missile defence systems "under the pretext of mythical threats to security".

The Patriot deal follows Monday's expulsion of more than 100 Russian diplomats by the United States and a score of other Western countries including Poland in response to a the poisoning of a Russian former spy in Britain.

This month, Russian President Vladimir Putin unveiled an array of new nuclear weapons, saying they could hit almost any point in the world and evade a U.S.-built missile shield.

The Patriot deal came as a relief for Poland amid tension with Washington over a law Warsaw introduced in January imposing jail terms for suggesting Poland was complicit in the Holocaust.

The United States says the bill subverts freedom of speech and Israeli officials say it amounts to Holocaust denial, an accusation that Poland's nationalist government rejects.

Story continues

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said the Patriot agreement showed "solidarity and cooperation" with the United States and other NATO countries.

"STRONGER THAN OTHERS"

Wednesday's deal is for the delivery in 2022 of two Patriot batteries manufactured by Raytheon, each with two fire units.

Warsaw is negotiating with Washington to buy more Patriots, a new 360-degree radar and a low-cost interceptor missile as part of a second phase of modernisation.

"We do expect that Poland will move pretty quickly with Phase II. They have a stated desire to complete that by the end of the year," Wes Kremer, president of Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems, told Reuters by telephone.

Air defences are particularly important for Poland and neighbouring Baltic states Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

NATO planners say Russia is using its Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad as well as Crimea to pursue the capability to block off NATO's air access to the Baltic states, about a third of Poland and to the Black Sea.

Warsaw's decision may raise pressure on Washington to meet Baltic requests for stronger air defences. While the Baltics are seeking their own missile defences, the high cost for their small economies makes any quick purchases difficult.

Raytheon's Kremer said the current threat environment had increased demand for missile defence systems and the Donald Trump administration was working to accelerate sales to allies.

"In general, they're more open to expediting and getting these deals worked," Kremer said.

Fourteen other countries, including six NATO members, have the Patriot missile. Romania agreed in November to buy Patriots and the U.S. government has also approved sales to Sweden. Switzerland last week announced it was also looking at the Patriot among other systems in a competition expected to kick off later this year.

Raytheon hopes the Polish purchase could provide fresh momentum for its bid to supply a more modern Patriot system to Germany, which has not yet signed a contract for the rival MEADS system built by Lockheed Martin and European missile maker MBDA, three years after it picked MEADS over Patriot.

Kremer said changing course and expanding its existing Patriot systems would make it easier for Germany to work jointly with other Patriot users in NATO, although MEADS supporters say the system is intended to be able to integrate other components.

Poland's deal, approved in November by the U.S. State Department, envisaged a sale worth up to $10.5 billion. But Warsaw brought the price down by opting for a less ambitious command system and procuring some elements locally.

"We are getting to the front row of countries which will be able not only to cooperate and jointly carry out tasks with the United States and NATO, but will be also perceived on (NATO's) eastern flank as ... stronger than others," General Leszek Surawski, the Polish military's chief of staff, said after the signing ceremony. (Additional reporting by Andrea Shalal in Berlin and Robin Emmott in Brussels writing by Lidia Kelly editing by Mark Heinrich)
March 28 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Financial Times. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

Headlines

Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund eyes overseas expansion https://on.ft.com/2Giicir

HSBC froze account linked to alleged $500 mln Angolan fraud https://on.ft.com/2GduFbf

Great Ormond Street keeping Presidents Club donations https://on.ft.com/2pLwgd2

Three men jailed over plot to enlist children for terror attack https://on.ft.com/2GiemG7

EU brings in tough rules to protect small traders https://on.ft.com/2pMH36N

Overview

Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund said it was weighing expanding into the U.S. -- New York and San Francisco -- the UK and Japan as it plans to expand its assets under management to $400 billion by 2020 through overseas and domestic investments.

HSBC Holdings Plc has frozen an account connected to an alleged $500 million fraud by Jose Filomeno dos Santos, the son of Angola's former president, after the size and unusual nature of its transactions raised scrutiny.

Great Ormond Street Hospital has decided to keep the donations of 530,000 pounds ($751,328.00) received from Presidents Club Charitable Trust after the hospital held discussions with a regulator about returning the funds.

Three men involved in a plot to use an army of children, aged 11 to 14 years, to carry out a mass terrorist attack on businesses and communities in London have been jailed.

The European Securities and Markets Authority is set to bring in tough new rules for trading websites to protect customers from heavy losses on complex financial instruments. ($1 = 0.7054 pounds) (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom; Editing by Sandra Maler)
PM briefs international community

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli apprised the diplomatic and donor communities in Kathmandu at length on Tuesday on the priorities of his government and its foreign policy, nearly two months after taking office.
Our Mission

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Following talks in Uzbekistan, more than 20 countries and organizations have declared their support for direct talks between the Kabul government and the Taliban to end the 16-year conflict in Afghanistan.

A joint declaration issued at the end of the March 27 meeting in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, noted the signatories' "strong backing for the National Unity Government's offer to launch direct talks with the Taliban, without any preconditions."

They also called upon the Taliban to "accept this offer for a peace process that is Afghan-led and Afghan-owned."

The conference was attended by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, European Union foreign-policy chief Federica Mogherini, and a number of foreign ministers, including Sergei Lavrov of Russia, Wang Yi of China, and Turkey's Mevlut Cavusoglu. The United States was represented by Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Shannon.

Earlier this month, Ghani offered to allow the Taliban to establish itself as a political party and said he would work to remove sanctions on the militant group, among other incentives, if it joined the government in peace negotiations.

In return, the militants would have to recognize the Kabul government and respect the rule of law.

But the Taliban has so far ruled out direct talks with Kabul and insisted it would only negotiate with the United States, which it calls a "foreign occupying force." The Taliban also says that NATO forces must withdraw before negotiations can begin.

The United States has refused to withdraw troops and insisted that the Afghan government must play a lead role in peace negotiations.

Meanwhile, representatives of both Washington and NATO have accused Russia of supplying military aid to Taliban, which ruled over much of Afghanistan from 1996 until it was toppled following a U.S.-led invasion in 2001, after the September 11 attacks.

Moscow has rejected the claims.

While the Tashkent meeting did not lead to any breakthrough, it highlighted the potential reemergence of Uzbekistan as a diplomatic player in the region.

During the conference, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev offered to host peace negotiations between Afghanistan's government and the Taliban.

"We stand ready to create all necessary conditions, at any stage of the peace process, to arrange on the territory of Uzbekistan direct talks between the government of Afghanistan and the Taliban movement," he said.

The Central Asian state of 32 million people is seeking to raise its international profile as part of Mirziyoev's campaign to open up Uzbekistan and attract foreign investment after decades of isolation and economic stagnation.

Mirziyoev took over predominantly Muslim Uzbekistan after the death in 2016 of authoritarian President Islam Karimov, who had ruled with an iron fist since the Soviet era.

Tashkent's ties with the West were strained under Karimov who was often criticized over his government's human rights abuses.

With reporting by AFP, Reuters, and TASS
Protecting election registration sites from cyber intrusions

The Center for Internet Securitys newly established Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EI-ISAC) plans to deploy intrusion detection sensors to voter registration websites for all 50 states by the 2018 midterm elections, an official told GCN.

The intrusion detection sensors are called Albert sensors, and CIS has been using them on the state and local level since 2010, according to CIS Vice President of Operations Brian Calkin.

The open-source Albert sensors provide automated alerts on both traditional and advanced network threats.

Albert grew out of a Department of Homeland Security's Einstein project, which focuses on detecting and blocking cyberattacks within federal agencies. DHS approached CIS about creating similar capability for states and localities, but since the Einstein name was taken, CIS called it Albert instead.

The first version looked only at NetFlow data, or the IP network traffic, which provides high-level insights. It shows which IP addresses communicate with each other and the amount of data sent between systems, but not what was transmitted, Calkin said.

You can almost think of it as looking at your phone bill, he said. You know that you and I had a conversation, you see my number and your phone number, but you dont actually know what transpired in the half an hour that we spoke," he said. "NetFlow is very similar.

Albert ran on NetFlow data for four years until CIS decided the data wasnt rich enough to get really solid hits on malicious threats, Calkin said. In 2014, CIS added full intrusion detection capabilities using Suricata's high-performance intrusion detection engine, which allowed the sensors to run the traffic against a library of about 25,000 malware signatures. New signatures are pushed out to all of the Albert sensors every 12 hours, Calkin said.

If something is picked up by Albert, an alert is sent to the Security Operations Center at the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) in New York where it is reviewed in person. If the threat turns out to be legitimate, the state or locality where it was detected is contacted. The SOC can also push the information to a ticketing system on the state or local level through an application programming interface

The sensors are placed at the outermost edge of their network perimeter, but right behind whatever handles their network address translation, Calkin said. This placement allows the sensors to see the true source IP of the desktop or server reaching out rather than just the public IP address, which would be handling hundreds or thousands or systems, he said.

The data is stored at the MS-ISAC data center in New York, where the more than 200 already-deployed Albert sensors report. Only information related to malicious activity or alerts is stored, and even then its saved for only five months.

Amid rising concerns about foreign governments meddling in U.S. elections ahead of the mid-term elections, CIS plans to deploy Albert sensors in any of the states that dont yet have coverage, Calkin said. Along with deploying these sensors, the EI-ISAC will be disseminating emerging trends and best practices to election officials across the country.

Albert is already deployed in all 50 states, but not necessarily on election infrastructure. An early CIS analysis shows that about half the states have election systems connected to Albert. The other half are expected to be completed by late spring or early summer, Calkin said.

For the six bottom up states where counties handle voter registration, CIS plans to work with the five most populous counties in each of those six states to deploy Albert sensors on the election systems before the midterms, Calkin said.
Spectrum sharing moves ahead

With so much of modern society depending on telecommunications, spectrum is increasingly at a premium. And now the nation's first dynamic public-private spectrum-sharing project is starting to take off.

The Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) is part of a three-tier architecture for sharing a 150 MHz-wide section of radio spectrum between 3.5 GHz and 3.7 GHz that the Navy currently uses for mission-critical radiolocation services.

The Federal Communications Commission adopted rules in 2015 to allow the 3.5 GHz band to be used by commercial wireless providers when not used by the Navy for offshore radar operations. Companies such as AT&T, Google, Nokia, Qualcomm, Sony and Verizon have expressed an interest in accessing this band to expand their market and upgrade to 5G service.

Verizon recently asked the FCC for permission to conduct CBRS trials at 3.5 GHz spectrum in two Florida locations, according to a report in FierceWireless. T-Mobile will be testing 3.5 GHz in Las Vegas, Dallas and Richardson, Texas. Comcast has also applied to test mobile and fixed wireless services in Philadelphia.

Smaller ISPs and other entities, including the city and port of Los Angeles, have expressed interest in using the spectrum to expand rural broadband, but a recent rule change to CBRS proposed by the FCC would change CBRS' small license sizes covering a single census tract to much larger areas, effectively limiting license sales to large carriers only, according to a report in Bgov.

Meanwhile, the National Institute of Standards and Technology has been working to develop test procedures and reference implementations so the FCC can certify commercial use on this spectrum band.

In February, the Wireless Innovation Forum, a public-private body to establish standards for the CRBS, announced baseline specifications for the commercial operations in the spectrum band, which sets the stage for the rollout of commercial CBRS networks and devices. The standards include specifics for operations, security, testing, certification and accreditation as well as an algorithm for protecting military incumbent users designed by NIST.

NIST has also created a model that simulates 45,000 LTE small-cell networks using the 3.5 GHz band. If the Navy should need that band, the model calculates which small cells must be shut down and which can continue transmitting. Similar models "will allow the FCC to test and evaluate how effectively a commercial LTE provider can share the band with the Navy," NIST officials said.

This will be the first time that commercial broadband users share spectrum dynamically with government users, and if it works, the FCC may allocate other currently protected RF bands for shared use, Michael Souryal, lead for the project within NISTs Communications Technology Laboratory, wrote in a recent blog post.

"More spectrum sharing could provide less-congested wireless channels for densely populated areas and more reliable connections for advanced communications needs such as wireless 5G and internet of things applications. Souryal said.

More information on the program can be found here.
Nassau, Bahamas, March 22, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nassau Airport Development Company (NAD), the management company responsible for The Bahamas busiest airport, reported today that air arrivals at Nassaus Lynden Pindling International Airport during December 2017 and January 2018 were the highest in the companys 11-year history and for the first time in a decade exceeded pre-recession travel levels.

Some 151,454 passengers landed at LPIA in December, 140,314 in January, the largest numbers since the pre-recession holidays of 2007/2008. Decembers increase was the highest in a single month, up nearly 15,000 over the second-best year a decade earlier. Preliminary results for March are even more impressive  up by 24% over 2017 arrivals.

The strong increase in air travel to LPIA is excellent news, said NAD CEO Vernice Walkine. While we are handling more passengers than ever before, we are also pleased that enhanced systems including pre-clearance check-in kiosks have made the LPIA experience smooth, efficient and enjoyable for passengers from around the world. Overall, a 15% increase is projected in non-U.S. international seat capacity through June 2018.

The uptick in arrivals is being driven by several factors, according to airport officials. Among them, an increase in airlift, the return of Sunwing Airlines, strengthening of the Canadian dollar and a brutally cold winter in the U.S. northeast and Canada. They also credit a marketing and promotional ramp-up by Ministry of Tourism and destination partners, especially in Canada and specific markets in the U.S. and U.K. Canada is driving growth in international arrivals all on its own, said Jan Knowles, Vice President, Marketing and Commercial Development.

Canada has led the impact on the higher numbers with both West Jet and Air Canada seeing significant growth in their passenger numbers this season and capacity on flights averaging 89%. The bitter cold and a change in flight times help account for the Canadian boost. British Airways also enjoyed about a 10% increase in air arrivals. According to another NAD official, a Baltimore to Nassau route operated by Southwest Airlines showed a strong increase over last years performance.

The Baha Mar factor is yet to be quantified but officials report that nearly every U.S. airline has added seats in anticipation of increased demand driven by marketing of the new luxury resort and casino. Various promotion boards marketing efforts are also credited with the image of Exumas famed swimming pigs driving traffic from far-off places to the islands of The Bahamas.

According to Walkine, the company which has employed Bahamahost training for front-line staff across LPIA has focused on excellence in service delivery. That focus has paid off. Earlier this month LPIA walked away with third place honours when the Airports Council International announced its Best Airports in the Latin America and Caribbean Region. More than 600,000 passengers throughout the region participated in the ranking process.

More than 3.3 million passengers pass through LPIA every year with the airport serving 55 destinations via 24 airlines.

ABOUT THE BAHAMAS

The Islands Of The Bahamas have a place in the sun for everyone. Each island has its own personality and attractions for a variety of vacation styles with some of the worlds best scuba diving, fishing, sailing, boating, as well as, shopping and dining. The destination offers an easily accessible tropical getaway and provides convenience for travelers with preclearance through U.S. customs and immigration, and the Bahamian dollar is on par with the U.S. dollar. Do everything or do nothing, just remember Its Better in The Bahamas. For more information call 1-800-Bahamas or visit www.Bahamas.com. Look for The Bahamas on the web on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/3eec4be0-f62d-4558-a2bf-c0ab148072ff

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/363c37f5-e550-489b-8403-4d12478fb7e0
Lithuanian English

Notice is hereby given that on the initiative and by the resolution of the Board of AB Klaipedos nafta, legal entity code 110648893, with the registered office at Buriu g. 19, Klaipeda (hereinafter, the Company), on 27 March 2018, an ordinary General Meeting of Shareholders of the Company will be held on 27 April 2018 at 09:00 a.m. The meeting will be held in the Companys offices at Buriu g. 19, Klaipeda, in the administrative premises of the Company (in the hall of the meeting on the 2nd Floor).

Agenda of the meeting:

1. On the announcement of the Auditors Report regarding the Financial Statements and Annual Report of the Company for the year 2017 to the shareholders.

2. On the announcement of the Annual Report of the Company for the year 2017 to the shareholders.

3. On the approval of the audited Financial Statements of the Company for the year 2017.

4. On the appropriation of profit (loss) of the Company for the year 2017.

The shareholders will be registered from 08:00 a.m. to 08:55 a.m. The persons intending to participate in the meeting shall have a personal ID document (an authorised representative shall have additionally a proxy approved under the established procedure. The natural persons proxy shall be notarised. A proxy issued in a foreign state shall be translated into the Lithuanian language and legalised under the procedure prescribed by laws).

A shareholder or his proxy shall have the right to vote in writing in advance by filling in a general ballot paper. At the request of the shareholder, the Company shall send a general ballot paper to the shareholder by registered mail free of charge at least 10 days before the meeting. The filled-in general ballot paper and the document attesting the voting right shall be submitted to the Company no later than until the meeting, sending by registered mail or providing them at the address of the registered office of the Company indicated in the notice.

The shareholders who hold shares carrying at least 1/20 of all the votes may propose additions to the agenda of the general meeting of shareholders by submitting with every proposed additional item of the agenda a draft resolution of the general meeting of shareholders or, when no resolution is required, an explanation. Proposals on addition to the agenda shall be submitted in writing or sent by e-mail. Written proposals shall be submitted to the Company on business days or sent by registered mail at the address of the registered office of the Company indicated in the notice. Proposals submitted by e-mail shall be sent to the following e-mails: info@kn.lt and a.kasparas@kn.lt. The agenda shall be supplemented if the proposal is received no later than 14 days before the ordinary general meeting of shareholders. If the agenda of the general meeting of shareholders is supplemented, the Company shall notify on the additions no later than 10 days before the meeting in the same ways as in the case of convocation of the meeting.

The shareholders, who hold shares carrying at least 1/20 of all the votes, at any time before the general meeting of shareholders or during the meeting, may propose new draft resolutions on items which are or will be included in the agenda of the meeting. The proposals may be submitted in writing or sent by e-mail. Written proposals shall be submitted to the Company on business days or sent by registered mail at the address of the registered office of the Company indicated in the notice. Proposals submitted by e-mail shall be sent to the following e-mails: info@kn.lt and a.kasparas@kn.lt.

The shareholders shall have the right to submit to the Company in advance questions relating to the items on the agenda of the meeting. The shareholders may submit their written questions to the Company on business days or sent by registered mail at the address of the registered office of the Company indicated in the notice no later than 3 business days before the meeting. The Company will reply to the questions by e-mail or in writing before the meeting, except the questions which are related to the Companys commercial (industrial) secret, confidential information or which have been submitted later than 3 business days before the meeting.

The Company does not provide the possibility of participating and voting at the meeting by means of electronic communications means.

The Shareholder shall have the right to authorize through electronic communications means another person (natural or legal) to participate and vote in the meeting on behalf of the shareholder. No notarisation of such authorization is required. The shareholder must confirm the proxy issued through electronic communications means by an electronic signature developed by a secure signature-creation device and approved by a qualified certificate effective in the Republic of Lithuania. The shareholder shall inform the Company on the proxy issued through electronic communications means to the following e-mails: info@kn.lt and a.kasparas@kn.lt no later than until the last business day before the meeting at 09:00 a.m. The proxy and the notice must be issued in writing. The proxy and the notice to the Company shall be signed with the electronic signature but not the letter sent by e-mail. By submitting the notice to the Company, the shareholder shall include the internet address from which it would be possible to download software free of charge to verify the shareholders electronic signature.

The record date of the meeting shall be 20 April 2018 (only those persons who will be shareholders of the Company at the close of the record date of the general meeting of shareholders or their authorised persons, or persons with whom an agreement on assignment of the voting right has been executed, may participate and vote at the general meeting of shareholders).

The shareholders proprietary rights accounting day is 14 May 2018.

The shareholders of the Company may familiarise with the draft resolution of the meeting and the form of the general ballot paper under the procedure prescribed by laws in the registered office of the Company at Buriu g. 19, Klaipeda (tel.: 8 46 391636), or on the Companys website at http://www.kn.lt/. The following information and documents shall be provided on the abovementioned internet website of the Company:

- the notification on convocation of the meeting;

- total number of the Companys shares and the number of shares with voting rights on the convening day of the meeting.

Enclosed:

1. Draft decision of the General Meeting of Shareholders.

2. General voting ballot paper of the General Meeting of Shareholders.

3. Financial Statements prepared in accordance with the International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by the European Union, Independent Auditors Report and Annual Report for the financial year ended on 31 December 2017;

4. Draft appropriation of profit (loss) of Klaipedos nafta, AB for the year 2017.
TORONTO, March 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hiku Brands Company Ltd. (Hiku) (CSE:HIKU), Canadas first vertically-integrated cannabis brand house, is pleased to announce it has entered into a letter of intent to establish a co-marketing, retail and select distribution relationship with dosist (previously known as hmbldt), a leading wellness brand recognized as a disruptor in the health industry and named by Fast Company as one of the worlds 10 most innovative companies in the health sector in 2018.



Once dosist cannabis products become legally permitted to be sold for adult-use in Canada, consumers will be able to purchase dosists highly innovative targeted formulas at Hiku-owned licensed cannabis stores. In select areas, where permitted, Hiku-owned licensed cannabis stores will feature an immersive dosist experience where Hiku will be the exclusive retailer of dosist products.

Hiku is focused on bringing Canadians truly exceptional products and experiences, and dosist fits perfectly into our growing family of brands and partners. Hiku and dosist are committed to helping Canadians understand the cannabis landscape and consume in a responsible manner, says Alan Gertner, CEO of Hiku. Were excited to bring dosists amazing products to Canadians soon, and in the meantime, work with them to continue to educate, inform and normalize cannabis for consumers.

dosist is dedicated to providing consistent, controlled and effective cannabis-based solutions through targeted formulations of the active ingredients found in cannabis. The company delivers precise dosage through its recyclable, proprietary, medical grade vaporizer, the dose pen. dosists products are designed for clarity and control from their beautifully designed packaging to the slight vibration which alerts the user after theyve received a precise 2.25mg dose. dosists targeted formulas and propriety dose pen were named one of TIME magazines best inventions of 2016.

Were thrilled to be working with Hiku. Theyve demonstrated a commitment to cannabis-related education, working to remove the stigma surrounding the plant, said Josh Campbell, President of dosist. We chose Hiku because of their vision for the future and their commitment to the best in class customer experience.

About Hiku:

Hiku is focused on building a portfolio of iconic, engaging cannabis brands, unsurpassed retail experiences and handcrafted cannabis production. With a national retail footprint led by Tokyo Smoke, craft cannabis production through DOJA's ACMPR licensed grow, and Van der Pop's female-focused educational platforms, Hiku houses an industry-leading portfolio that sets the bar for cannabis brands in Canada.

Hiku's wholly-owned subsidiary, DOJA Cannabis Ltd., is a federally licensed producer pursuant to the Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations (the ACMPR), owning two production facilities in the heart of British Columbia's Okanagan Valley. The company operates a network of retail stores selling coffee, clothing and curated accessories, across British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario.

About dosist:

Named one of Time Magazine's Best Inventions of 2016, dosist is a cannabis-based wellness company. Through six targeted formulas, dosist aims to deliver safe, targeted and effective solutions for some of our most common ailments. The company takes an ethical approach to production, which includes fully recyclable, medical-grade plastic and a rigorous testing process to ensure all products are safe and pesticide-free. www.dosist.ca @dosist.ca

Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains statements that constitute "forward-looking statements". Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause Hiku's actual results, performance or achievements, or developments in the industry to differ materially from the anticipated results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects," "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur.

Forward-looking statements in this news release include statements regarding Hikus expectations regarding the availability of dosists targeted formulas and products in Hiku owned stores. By their nature, forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the information is made, and is subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking information. Hiku is not under any obligation, and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation, to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable law.

The Canadian Securities Exchange has not approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release.





For Hiku press inquiries or to book an interview, please contact:

Abigail Van Den Broek abby@abigailv.ca; 416-799-8510



For dosist press inquiries or to book an interview, please contact:

Lexi Pathak (Toronto) lexi@dosist.com; Faulhaber Communications, 416-504-0768 x 227

Malania Dela Cruz (Vancouver) malania@dosist.com; Faulhaber Communications, 778-379-6222
Police arrest man for raping girl, 10

Police have arrested a 30-year-old man for raping a 10-year-old girl from Kohalpur in Banke district.
ATLANTA, GA, March 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

GeoVax Labs, Inc. (OTCQB: GOVX), a biotechnology company developing innovative human vaccines using its novel platform technology, today provided a general update on its various vaccine development programs.

Robert McNally, PhD, President & CEO, commented, During the past year, GeoVax made solid progress with its HIV human clinical program, built on its proof-of-concept in animal models for HIV, Zika, Ebola and Lassa vaccines, expanded its infectious disease targets to chronic hepatitis B (therapeutic) and malaria, while simultaneously showing promising results in solid tumor immuno-oncology models.

Dr. McNally continued, These programs are facilitated through grants from government agencies such as the NIAID and CDC; and collaborations with academic research institutions including Emory University, University of Pittsburgh and Georgia State University, corporate entities such as Vaxeal, CaroGen Corporation, American Gene Therapy and ViaMune, and research institutions including the Burnet Institute, the Institute for Human Virology, The Scripps Research Institute, and the HIV Vaccine Trials Network. All of these relationships speed the development process and validate our corporate approach to vaccine design.

Summary Highlights

HIV (prophylactic vaccine)  Ongoing human clinical trials funded by NIH; Next trial expected to begin in late 2018; publication of significant advance in HIV vaccine development.

HIV (therapeutic vaccine)  Entered collaboration with American Gene Technologies International, Inc. (AGT) for use of GeoVaxs vaccine in combination with AGTs gene therapy for development of an HIV functional cure. Clinical trials expected to begin during 2018.

Zika Vaccine  Reported 100% single-dose protection in rigorous rodent challenge model; Awarded $600,000 NIH grant for advanced preclinical development.

Lassa Fever Vaccine  Reported 100% single-dose protection in rigorous rodent challenge model. Seeking NIH support for advanced preclinical testing with collaborators Institute for Human Virology and Scripps Research Institute.

Malaria Vaccine  Initiated program through collaboration with the Burnet Institute in Australia.

Chronic Hepatitis B Infection Immunotherapy  Initiated program through collaborator Georgia State University Research Foundation; Program recently expanded through additional collaboration with CaroGen Corporation.

Cancer Immunotherapy  Encouraging results reported for combination treatment in collaboration with ViaMune, Inc.; additional studies being planned for 2018. Program recently expanded through additional collaboration with Vaxeal Holding SA.

Corporate Update

HIV Prophylactic and Therapeutic Vaccines

Ongoing clinical trials  In November 2017, the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) completed patient enrollment for HVTN 114, a phase 1 trial testing the ability of late boosts to increase antibody responses elicited by our vaccine (GOVX-B11). HVTN 114 is being conducted with funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). We are currently planning a follow-on clinical trial for late 2018 to evaluate GOVX-B11 in combination with two novel protein vaccines.

Government grants  In April 2017, NIAID awarded GeoVax a $658,000 Phase II Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grant for the second year of a project with a total budget of $1.4 million. This grant is supporting studies in non-human primates evaluating the immunogenicity and protective efficacy of the GOVX-B11 with or without a bivalent (two component) protein boost, contributing information to be used in the design of our human clinical trials.

Publication of a significant advance in HIV vaccine development  In October 2017, we reported results of a study, funded by NIAID, demonstrating the elicitation of a key precursor for broadly neutralizing antibody for the HIV CD4 binding site, a significant advance in HIV vaccine development for the clade C subtype most prevalent in the developing world. The study, conducted in non-human primates, used GeoVaxs vaccine technology to express the natural form of an HIV envelope gene from an infection that developed broadly neutralizing antibody to the CD4 binding site. This envelope gene (CH505) was identified by researchers at Duke University, the US National Institutes of Health, the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the University of Pennsylvania. The findings were published in the peer-reviewed open access journal PLOS ONE, and can be viewed at: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0177863 .

HIV functional cure collaboration with AGT  In March 2017, we began a collaboration with American Gene Technologies International, Inc. (AGT) with the goal of developing a functional cure for HIV infection through AGTs gene therapy technology in combination with GeoVaxs HIV vaccine. AGT expects to initiate human clinical trials in mid-2018. For more information, visit AGTs website at www.americangene.com .

Zika Vaccine

In March 2017, we reported a major step forward in the development of a vaccine for protection against Zika virus (ZIKV). Preliminary testing in a highly rigorous challenge model showed our vaccine, GEO-ZM02, provided 100% protection to mice infected with a lethal dose of ZIKV delivered directly into the brain. The study was funded by a grant from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which also provided technical assistance. Results of the study were published in the peer-reviewed open access journal Scientific Reports by Nature Research and can be viewed at www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-15039-8 . In June 2017, NIAID awarded GeoVax a SBIR grant of $600,000 to support advanced preclinical testing of GEO-ZM02 in non-human primates.

Lassa Fever Vaccine

In July 2017, we reported a significant step forward in the development of a vaccine candidate for protection against Lassa hemorrhagic fever virus (LASV). Preclinical testing showed a single intramuscular dose of GEO-LM01 provided 100% protection to mice infected with a lethal dose of the challenge virus directly delivered into the brain. The study was conducted at the Institute of Human Virology (IHV) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Upon completion of this study, we expanded our LASV vaccine development efforts through adding The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) to our collaboration with IHV. The intent of the three-way collaboration is to evaluate additional LASV vaccine candidates to elucidate involvement of humoral and cellular arms of immunity in protection against LASV infections toward the ultimate goal of developing a universal Lassa fever vaccine. We have applied for a fast-track Phase I/II SBIR grant from NIAID to support advanced preclinical testing.

In December 2017, we announced a separate collaboration with the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (USNRL) to develop high-quality antibodies useful for detection of, and potentially as a treatment for, LASV. The U.S. Department of Defense has an interest in the early detection of the presence of LASV to better protect and treat troops that may be in areas where exposure may occur. Development of high quality antibodies useful for detection applications requires a high-quality vaccine. USNRL will utilize the GeoVax vaccine to immunize llamas, whose immune systems are uniquely suited for rapid and cost-effective production of single domain antibodies suitable for use in biosensor applications.

Ebola and Other Hemorrhagic Fever Vaccines

In non-human primate studies conducted during 2016, a single dose of GeoVaxs Ebola (EBOV) vaccine, GEO-EMO1, was shown to protect 100% of rhesus monkeys against death. Results of the study were published in the peer-reviewed open access journal Scientific Reports by Nature Research, and can be viewed at www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-19041-y . Although the 2014-15 EBOV epidemic in western Africa was eventually contained, additional deadly outbreaks are inevitable, as a recent study indicates that less serious Ebolavirus infection may occur in the absence of outbreaks (J Infect Dis. 2018 Jan 30;217(4):529-537. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jix619). Thus, there is continued interest on the part of governments and world health agencies for development of vaccines to prepare for the next epidemic. We are also developing vaccines against Sudan virus (SUDV) and Marburg virus (MARV), two other lethal hemorrhagic fever viruses for which no effective vaccine currently exists.

Malaria Vaccine

In January 2017, we began a collaboration with the Burnet Institute in Australia to develop a vaccine for prevention of malaria infection. The project includes the design, construction, and characterization of multiple malaria vaccine candidates using GeoVaxs MVA-VLP vaccine platform combined with malaria Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax sequences identified by Burnet. Four vaccine candidates were constructed for proof of concept studies and were shipped to Burnet Institute for preclinical testing in animal models. The preliminary results showed a favorable immune response with one of the candidates which was designed to be expressed in the form of VLPs using GeoVaxs proprietary matrix proteins.

Chronic Hepatitis B Infection Immunotherapy

In early 2017, we began collaborating with the Georgia State University Research Foundation to develop a therapeutic vaccine for treating chronic hepatitis B infection. The project includes the design, construction, characterization and animal testing of multiple vaccine candidates using GeoVaxs MVA-VLP vaccine platform with vaccine antigens including both GeoVax and GSUs proprietary designed sequences. Initial immunogenicity studies in mice were conducted by GSU in collaboration with the Shenzhen Graduate School of Peking University, and additional studies are being planned.

In February 2018, we expanded our efforts in this space through an additional collaboration with CaroGen Corporation. This project includes testing GeoVaxs vaccine candidate in combination with CaroGens HBV Virus-Like Vesicles (VLVs) vaccine candidate in prophylactic and therapeutic animal models. Therapeutic experiments may be carried out in combination with anti-viral drugs, TLR agonists, or immune checkpoint inhibitors. CaroGens vaccine candidate employs a transformative VLV platform technology developed at Yale University School of Medicine.

Cancer Immunotherapy (Tumor Associated Antigen Vaccine Programs)

Collaboration with ViaMune  During 2016, we established a collaboration with ViaMune, Inc. to explore development of our combined technologies as a treatment for various solid tumors, targeting an abnormal form of the autologous cell surface-associated protein, Mucin 1 (MUC1), which is overexpressed in metastatic cancers. We reported results from the initial preliminary studies in August 2017, at the 5th Annual Meeting of Cambridge Healthtech Institute, Immuno-Oncology Summit, in Boston, MA, as well as in October, at the 18th World Vaccine Congress Europe in Barcelona. In a human MUC1 colon adenocarcinoma mouse tumor model, groups of hMUC1 transgenic mice with established tumors were treated with MTI (ViaMunes synthetic vaccine), MVA-VLP-MUC1 (GeoVaxs viral-vectored vaccine) or a combination of both. All treatment groups received an immune checkpoint inhibitor in the form of an anti-PD-1 antibody. The results from two studies indicated that a combined vaccine approach increased the therapeutic potential of anti-PD-1 therapy, giving excellent scientific justification to vigorously pursue additional investigation of this potential cancer vaccine. We are currently designing the next set of studies for this program.

Collaboration with Vaxeal  In January 2018, we began a collaboration with Vaxeal Holding SA, expanding our cancer immunotherapy program to incorporate a second Tumor Associated Antigen, Cyclin B1, previously ranked as the top 10 antigens by the National Cancer Institute in our MVA-VLP vaccine platform. The combination of our MVA-VLP-Cyclin B1 vaccine will be assessed in combination with Vaxeals proprietary designed Cyclin B1 peptide vaccine.

Other Developments

SAB formation  In early 2017, we formed our inaugural Scientific Advisory Board, with leading experts in various areas of immunology to provide broad advice and insight into our various programs. Our inaugural members include Thomas Monath, MD, Olivera (Olja) Finn, PhD, Barney Graham, MD, PhD, Stanley Plotkin, MD, and Scott Weaver, PhD.

Attendance at scientific conferences  During 2017 and continuing into 2018, we have made a concerted effort to showcase GeoVaxs technology through presentations at various leading scientific conferences. Our Chief Scientific Officer, Farshad Guirakhoo, has delivered talks at conferences including the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Microbe conference in New Orleans, the Immuno-Oncology Summit in Boston, the 11th Vaccine Congress in San Diego, the International Society for Vaccines Annual Congress in Paris, the World Vaccine Congress Europe in Barcelona, the Third International Conference on Vaccines Research and Development in Washington, DC, and the ASM Biothreats conference in Baltimore. These presentations are having the intended results of bringing GeoVax to the attention of the broader scientific community, generating discussions that have led to some of our current collaborations, and that we expect will continue to pay dividends going forward.

Capital resources  During 2017, GeoVax continued to fund its operations primarily through a mix of government grants and from sales of equity securities. Grant revenues during 2017 were $980,270, and the Company received net proceeds of $980,000 from the sale of preferred stock and $571,511 from the sale of common stock related to warrant exercises. Additionally, GeoVax received $95,000 related to its collaboration with AGT. At December 31, 2017, GeoVaxs cash and grant receivables totaled $372,485, and there was $481,695 in approved grant funds available for use during 2018. In March 2018, the Company received net proceeds of $590,000 from the sale of preferred stock. GeoVax also benefits from clinical trial assistance from NIAID and HVTN related to the conduct of its HIV vaccine clinical trials and, increasingly, from research conducted by various collaborators for its other development programs.

About GeoVax

GeoVax Labs, Inc., is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing human vaccines against infectious diseases using its Modified Vaccinia Ankara-Virus Like Particle (MVA-VLP) vaccine platform. The Companys development programs are focused on preventive vaccines against HIV, Zika virus, hemorrhagic fever viruses (Ebola, Sudan, Marburg, and Lassa), and malaria, as well as therapeutic vaccines for chronic hepatitis B infections and cancers. GeoVaxs vaccine platform supports in vivo production of non-infectious VLPs from the cells of the very person receiving the vaccine, mimicking a natural infection, stimulating both the humoral and cellular arms of the immune system to recognize, prevent, and control the target infection. For more information, visit www.geovax.com .

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements made in this press release that look forward in time or that express managements beliefs, expectations, or hopes are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements include our expectations as to when clinical trials may commence, the scope of such trials, our ability to obtain funds from government grants, the sale of equity securities, and various other collaborators, the benefits of our attendance at scientific conferences and our participation in collaborations and benefits we might receive from clinical trial assistance provided by NIAID and HVTN. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties, estimates, and assumptions that may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations. These risks and uncertainties include the risk factors detailed in our Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including our Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017. GeoVax does not undertake to update its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Information contained on the websites we have referenced in this update is provided for convenience and is not a part of this press release.
English Latvian

Inform you, that Heinz-Jurgen Preiss-Daimler, date of birth 27.07.1939, and Beatrix Preiss-Daimler, date of birth: 28.07.1965, according the decision of the Financial and Capital Market Commission of February 20, 2018, No. 39, have announced the offer of mandatory bid of the share purchase of JSC "VALMIERAS STIKLA SKIEDRA", which ended on March 27, 2018.

1. Target company

Public limited liability company VALMIERAS STIKLA SKIEDRA, registration number: 40003031676, legal address: Cempu iela 13, Valmiera, LV-4201, Latvia, telephone number: +371 64202216, e-mail address: latvia@valmiera-glass.com, website address: www.valmiera-glass.com (the Target Company).

2. The offerors and persons acting in concert with the offerors

The Offerors:

2.1. Heinz-Jurgen Preiss-Daimler, date of birth 27.07.1939, un Beatrix Preiss-Daimler, date of birth: 28.07.1965. The Offerors undertake rights and obligations according to this bid jointly and solidary.

Persons acting in concert with the Offerors:

2.2. P-D Glasseiden Oschatz, a company registered in Germany at the commercial register of District Court Leipzig with registration number: HRB 21085, dtae of registration: 19.11.2004, legal address: Wellerswalder Weg 17, 04758 Oschatz, Germany. To be considered as a person acting in concert with the Offerors due to the fact that it is the Target Companys shareholder, which is indirectly controlled by the Offeror Betaris Preiss-Daimler.

2.3. P-D Management Industries-Technologies GmbH, a company registered in Germany at the commercial register of District Court Dresden with registration number: HRB 17752, date of registration: 15.10.1999, legal address: Wilsdruffer Strasse 11, 01723 Wilsdruff STT Grumbach, Germany. To be considered as a person acting in concert with the Offerors due to the fact that it is the Target Companys shareholder, which is directly controlled by the Offeror Betarix Preiss-Daimler.

2.4. P-D Composites Handels- und Service GmbH, a company registered in Germany at the commercial register of District Court Stendal with registration number: HRB 201322, date of registration: 29.11.1990, legal address: Merseburger Strasse 237, 06130 Halle (Saale), Germany. Tobe considered as a person acting in concert with the Offerors due to the fact that it is the Target Companys shareholder, which is directly controlled by the Offeror Heinz-Jurgen Preiss-Daimler.

2.5. CORVALIS GmbH, a company registered at the commercial register of District Court Bayreuth with registration number: HRB 4446, date of registration: 15.02.2007, legal address: Am Anger 7, 95488 Eckersdorf, Germany. As the Target Companys shareholder to be considered as a person acting in concert with the Offerors due to a mutual agreement.

3. Number of shares offered for sale

Within the framework of the mandatory share buy-back offer, it was offered to redeem 474,044 (four hundred seventy-four thousand forty-four) shares of the Target Company.

4. The number of shares that will be at the disposal of the Offerors after the share buy-back offer

After the mandatory bid of the share buy-out offer, the Offeror will have 3 043 845 (three million forty three thousand eight hundred and forty five) shares at the disposal of the target company, representing 12.73% of the target company's share capital and voting shares.
Re: A car traveled from Los Angeles to San Francisco in 6 hours at an aver [ #permalink

ajaym28 wrote:

A car traveled from Los Angeles to San Francisco in 6 hours at an average rate of x miles per hour. If the car returned along the same route at an average rate of y miles per hour, how long did it take for the car to make the entire round trip, in minutes?



A. (6 + 6x/y)*60

B. (6 + 6y/x)*60

C. 30(x + y)

D. 10(x + y)

E. (x + y)/360

A car traveled from Los Angeles to San Francisco in 6 hours at an average rate of x miles per hour.

The car returned along the same route at an average rate of y miles per hour

6x/y hours

time driving Los Angeles to San Francisco

time driving San Francisco to Los Angeles

6 hours

6x/y hours

How long did it take for the car to make the entire round trip, in MINUTES?

Distance = (time)(rate)So, distance from Los Angeles to San Francisco = (6)(x) = 6x milesWe know the distance = 6x milesTime = (distance)/(rate)So, time spent driving from San Francisco to Los Angeles =TOTAL TIME = () + (= (6 + 6x/y) HOURSTo convert HOURS to MINUTE, we multiply the number of hours by 60So, time (in minutes) = (6 + 6x/y)(60)Answer: ACheers,Brent_________________
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" " Doctors often threaten to charge patients who are late or no-shows. Should patients ask for compensation if they have to wait? Caiaimage/Robert Daly/Getty Images

We've all been left twiddling our thumbs in the doctor's office long after appointment time has come and gone. Some wait it out to varying degrees of annoyance, while others leave in an angry huff. Often, the same docs either post a sign or require patients to initial a form stating that the appointment can be canceled, or a fee applied to the account if the patient is late. So why do doctors get a "free" pass, while patients pay a penalty? Are they implying that their time is more valuable than that of their patients?

Not really. Many doctors say the underlying cause of lateness is the patients who came before you. First, there are patients who arrive late, but still within the acceptable 15-minute grace period. The doctor's office has to be accommodating to a reasonable extent due to extenuating circumstances like traffic, especially if the patient is actively sick or exhibiting symptoms. Also, plenty of patients blow off the request to arrive 15 minutes early to update insurance and fill out paperwork. So, even if they arrive technically on time, taking care of these tedious, but necessary, steps will push the entire schedule back.

Then, there's the actual seeing of the patients. Although it varies by practice, many general practitioners schedule patients in increments of 15 or 20 minutes. For a basic and easy to diagnose complaint, that's totally doable. However, a patient presenting with a complicated history, multiple issues and new symptoms can quickly cause a backlog, particularly if they didn't disclose when scheduling the appointment that they have numerous concerns, or if an unexpected issue pops up during the visit.

"Because of the nature of health, there is no ability to say  'come back tomorrow so that I can initiate the treatment for the heart murmur I just found,'" emails Elizabeth Woodcock, an Atlanta-based expert in medical practice operations efficiency, who regularly advises doctors on ways to improve patient flow and scheduling optimization, adding, "Delaying care is very different [from] delaying a mortgage closing, sweater purchase, meal reservation, etc., so this means that a single patient can result in a delay for everyone scheduled that day."

Most practices take steps to minimize wait times, but there's currently no magic equation. "We try to make a schedule that will accommodate complicated or demanding patients, but what if half the patients that day take more time than expected?" says Dr. Barbara Bergin, an orthopedic surgeon in Austin, Texas. "If I really want to be certain that no one waits, then maybe I only see five patients in a morning. Then I can't afford to keep the lights on."

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Who Pays for Tardiness?

But is it always the patients' fault? The statistics website fivethirtyeight.com looked at a study on patient timeliness which found that just 7.7 percent of patients arrived late to appointments at one pain clinic (late was defined as being one minute past the appointment time). Almost 91 percent of patients arrived on time or early. Of course, just because the patients were on time, doesn't mean that there weren't complications during the visits which threw off the appointment schedule.

The website also reported on a separate paper looking at data from 9,945 patients at 44 outpatient clinics. It found that on average patients waited for 38 minutes: 23 in the waiting room and another 15 minutes in the exam room. The longer patients waited, the lower the satisfaction levels they reported.

Woodcock says she's never heard of a doctor reimbursing a patient for their lost time, nor would she recommend it. But on the other hand, she says, practices rarely follow through on their threat of charging fees for no-show or late arrivals, assuming they have such a policy. Typical enforcement would require invoking a collection agency, just to collect a relatively nominal fee. Most of the time, such policies, are "not even acted upon, particularly on the first offense," she says.

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Patient Interaction

Another reason for delays might be something patients often want more of: evidence that their doctor cares about them. Dr. Nicole Rochester is a professional patient advocate, who used to work as a primary care pediatrician. "The thing I hated the MOST while practicing primary care medicine was regularly apologizing to my patients for being late," she says in an email interview. Although factors were often out of her control, she does acknowledge in a blog post on her site Your GPS Doc, that chatting with patients was a contributing reason.

"There is a price to pay for engaging with your patients and their families, and that price is efficiency," she writes, adding, "I'd like to think the time and attention I gave my patients made up for my being late, but I'm sure there were some who would disagree. When you add the complexities of an electronic medical record, efficiency can really suffer."

So, the next time you have an appointment, do your part to arrive early and hope everyone else does the same. And don't forget one day, it could be you who needs the extra time.

"Most patients understand that their doctor is trying their best to see them on time. They understand that circumstances are sometimes out of the doc's control," Dr. Bergin says. "And my patients also know, that when it's their turn, they will get the attention they need, even if they run over their allotted time."

Now That's a Good Tip When scheduling your appointment, inquire about what the busiest times of day are, as well as the average wait time. This will help you select a spot that could minimize your wait.
Province 2 CM vows to fight social ills

The provincial government in Province 2 has set priorities for its programmes and policies, putting the agenda of combating social evils on top. The provincial executive announced its plan to formulate strong laws to control social ills including the dowry and witchcraft practices.
Was 47-year old priest Jefferson Alvin from Belmont, California arrested with 10kg of cocaine and did he think it was just flour for hosts? If you thought that was true: think again. The story is completely fake and was made up by a satire website.

It originated from an article published on March 27, 2018 on 8shit.net titled "Priest Arrested After Being Caught With 10kg Of Cocaine; Says He Thought It Was Flour For Hosts" (archived here) which opened:

Jefferson Alvin, a 47-year old priest from Belmont, California, was caught with 10kg of cocaine when he was pulled over by the police last Friday. After the priest stopped his car at the side of the road, the police asked him to open the car's trunk to check that the car had a good triangle and that the retro-reflective vest was complying with the terms of the current legislation. The police affirmed that this priest always had a strange behavior and, therefore, they began to suspect something: "It was clear the this man was nervous. We didn't know if he was suffering from anything or not, but it was hard for him to speak and he was taking several seconds to react to anything we said."

People who only saw the summary of the story on social media might have mistaken it for a real news report:

Priest Arrested After Being Caught With 10kg Of Cocaine; Says He Thought It Was Flour For Hosts Jefferson Alvin, a 47-year old priest from Belmont, California, was caught with 10kg of cocaine when he was pulled over by the police last Friday. After the priest stopped his car at the side of the road, the police asked him to open the car's trunk to check that the car had a good triangle and [...]

But the man in the picture was actually not a priest: it shows Roberto Revelo (a shooting suspect) being arrested in 2012:

Police make arrest in suspected homicide FAIRFIELD - Vacaville police arrested a Fairfield man Friday afternoon who they believe shot and killed a Vacaville man whose death was originally reported as a suicide. Roberto Revelo walked out the door of a Grande Circle town house around 4:15 p.m. with his wife to do some Black Friday shopping.

As you can see he is wearing no cross on his shirt: that detail was later added digitally.

We wrote about 8shit.net and their "fauxtire" stories before, here are the recent articles that mention the site:

The site 8shit.net carries a disclaimer on its about page that reads:

8Shit is a satire and humor website. It contains cutting edge satire on a diverse range of topics. The website publishes fake news, shocking rumors and reports with incisive sarcasm, and humor. We also post crazy real news which often sounds too good to be true.

And an additional disclaimer in the footer of every page:
Were 63-year-old emu farmer Michael Wilson and his sons Phillip (38) and Andrew (34) arrested in Longbush, New Zealand for running an illegal animal brothel? Of course not: the whole story is a work of fiction that originated on a satire website.

It first appeared on March 27, 2018 on a website named World News Daily Report where it was titled "New Zealand: Emu farmer arrested for running illegal animal brothel" (archived here) and opened:

Longbush | New Zealand police have raided a family-operated emu farm in Carterton District suspected of operating as an illegal animal brothel. Michael Wilson, 63, and his two sons Phillip, 38, and Andrew, 34, have been arrested and accused of illegally operating an animal brothel. Twenty-six people were also arrested during the raid for their suspected involvement in sexually related activities with animals on the farm.

The man in the image used in the header of the story is not from Longbush and his name is not Michael Wilson. He is Stephen Schmidt from Coleyville (who does happen to be an actual emu farmer):

Farming for a cause A SCATTERED stillness fills the air, broken by cicadas as rain clouds hug the mountain range - bearing down on Stephen Schmidt's Coleyville emu farm. "I don't reckon it'll rain," Stephen says as he walks toward the chick pen. "They're almost fox proof."

The police picture is from a drug raid in Canterbury, New Zealand:

Arrests after police raid Tribesmen MC properties looking for drugs Three people have been arrested after police seized drugs, cash and guns during raids on several properties in Canterbury. The raids were part of an investigation into suspected dealing by Tribesmen Motorcycle gang members. Among the addresses was one police believed was a new base being set up by the Tribesmen in Ohoka.

And the supposed family lawyer mentioned in the story, an "Andrew Goldmann" is really a Las Vegas based lawyer named Alex Ghibaudo:

Las Vegas lawyer seeking redemption comes clean about troubled past Las Vegas attorney Alex Ghibaudo knows prospective clients will Google his name and learn about his suspension. And he knows his peers have been talking about him behind his back, although no one wants to ask him about his past.

People who didn't know better might have suspected the story was a real news article if they saw it in isolation on social media:

New Zealand: Emu farmer arrested for running illegal animal brothel Longbush | New Zealand police have raided a family-operated emu farm in Carterton District suspected of operating as an illegal animal brothel. Michael Wilson, 63, and his two sons Phillip, 38, and Andrew, 34, have been arrested and accused of illegally operating an animal brothel. Twenty-six pe

We frequently write about worldnewsdailyreport.com and their hoaxes, here is just the latest crop:

The website World News Daily Report is a well known satire website specialized in posting hoaxes and made up stories. The disclaimer on their website is pretty clear about that even though you have to scroll all the way down the page to find it:

World News Daily Report assumes all responsibility for the satirical nature of its articles and for the fictional nature of their content. All characters appearing in the articles in this website - even those based on real people - are entirely fictional and any resemblance between them and any person, living, dead or undead, is purely a miracle.

It is run by Janick Murray-Hall and Olivier Legault, who also run the satirical Journal de Mourreal, a satirical site spoofing the (real) Journal de Monteal. Very often their stories feature an image showing a random crazy mugshot found in a mugshot gallery on the internet or on a stock photo website superimposed over a background of flashing police lights or crime scene tape.

Articles from the site are frequently copied (sometimes even months or years later) by varous fake news websites that omit the satire disclaimer and present the information as real.
The importance of words in seeking peace and reconciliation will be the focus of the presentation Poetry and the Art of Peace by poet, theologian and peace activist Padraig OTuama of Northern Ireland on Tuesday, April 10, at 7:30 p.m. at Hope College in the Concert Hall of the Jack H. Miller Center for Musical Arts.

The public is invited. Admission is free.

The presentation will explore the way in which words are significant in the process of deepening trust, acknowledging pain and impact, and acknowledging both the past and the truth. The lecture will consider words that have current political and poetic currency for peace.

OTuama is the director of Corrymeela Center, which is Northern Irelands oldest peace and reconciliation organization, and the author of multiple books of both poetry and prose, chapters, articles and presented papers. He addresses topics spanning theology, peace and justice studies, narrative, identity and his context of Northern Ireland. He also leads retreats, and has worked with groups in Ireland, Britain, the United States and Australia on storytelling, theology, identity and healing from conflict.

His collection Sorry for Your Troubles shares poems that tell stories of individuals who have lived through conflict in Northern Ireland, the Middle East and elsewhere. His book In the Shelter: Finding a Home in the World relates ideas of shelter and welcome using poetry, story, biblical reflection and prose.

Sorry for Your Troubles was described as deeply moving and thought-provoking poetry which invites readers to let the sacred reach into them touching their vulnerability and opening their hearts by Dr. Cecelia Clegg, who is a theologian with New College, Edinburgh. Mary McAvoy of Irish Independents Review of Books praised In the Shelter as Compassionate, Resolute, Confronting, Challenging, Wonderful, Comforting.

OTuama holds his Bachelor of Arts in Divinity from the Maryvale Institute of Birmingham and his Master of Theology degree from Queens University, Belfast, and has taken additional professional development courses in mediation, group conflict, group mediation, dialogue and adult education.

While on campus, he will also speak to classes and meet with students and faculty. The colleges international off-campus course Celtic May Term: Peace and Reconciliation in Northern Ireland and Scotland met with him last May and has worked with the Corrymeela Center for several years. In the Shelter has been used for several of Hopes Senior Seminars.

The event is co-sponsored by multiple Hope programs and departments, including the dean for the social sciences, Student Development, the Cultural Affairs Committee, the Mellon Scholars Program, the Peace and Justice Studies program, and the departments of communication, English, history, political science, and sociology and social work.

The Jack H. Miller Center for Musical Arts is located at 221 Columbia Ave., between Ninth and 10th streets.
Scam reveals bad loan evergreening practice

Haphazard credit disbursement that created irreparable holes in the balance sheet of erstwhile Apex Development Bank has exposed long-suspected counterintuitive practice of evergreening of bad loans in the banking sector, which could contaminate and even bring down the entire financial sector.
Manchester entrepreneur Mel Stephens has been busy globetrotting since the age of 18. Shes made regular trips to Canada, North and South America, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and her favorite destination of all, Thailand.

Shed always had someone to travel with until she found herself newly single in her 30s with all her friends settled down. As an experienced jet-setter, Mel didnt mind flying out and spending some time alone so she booked a five and half week trip to Bali.

However, she figured that shed miss the company of others and would have more fun if she met people to enjoy her time out there with, too. So with this in mind, she put a lot of time into researching the hundreds of different group tours on offer, focusing on those she hoped wouldnt make her feel too old. Then she booked several of the best-rated as part of her Bali adventure.

Long story short, despite booking onto tours that were advertised as covering ages 18 to 35, when she arrived she found that the calibre of both the company and experience wasnt what shed been looking for.

Whilst she met some lovely people in Bali, she discovered that the majority of existing tours may advertise as being suitable for travelers up to 35, but in reality they mostly catered to fresh-faced teens and early twenty-somethings.

As an experienced traveller she felt that the tour operators couldve tried harder to offer some better places and experiences.

I paid a decent amount for each of the tours, and while parts were good, some places we stayed were dumps, and we just seemed to be following the masses. The experienced traveller in me kicked in and I started to feel like I was being ripped off for staying in rubbish places and disappointed they hadnt found better places and experiences. I knew you could find real gems for great value if you were prepared to put in the work to get to know a place.

This left Mel feeling she could do a better job and that a new kind of tour could have the potential to be really popular. Surely she couldnt be the only one feeling too young for an over 60s tour, and too young for a gap year type holiday.

She also didnt want to do a singles tour and believes you dont have to be single to just fancy a fun holiday with other women.

Maybe youre with someone but they dont want to go where you want to go, fancy doing what youd like to do, or maybe theyre just not as adventurous. Maybe they would like to go, but cant get the time away from work or family. Maybe youre single but not necessarily looking to meet someone but just a great holiday with the girls. Or maybe you just want to do something for yourself.

So Mel returned home to set up Travel Queen, the UKs first tour operator dedicated to group tours for women and hasnt looked back.

She designed an amazing two week women-only tour of Thailand, applying her 18 years of travel experience to test every part of the trip, from checking out the safety of every single place you stay  including what its like to walk back at night, so if you want to go back alone youll feel safe  to personally researching and meeting every Thai hotel, boat company and activity provider involved with the tour. This guarantees they meet strict legal and financial requirements through the companys membership of the Travel Trust Association, which guarantees the same financial protection as ABTA.

Mel has spent time discovering destinations off the beaten track, some of which that she guarantees no other company currently goes to, built in plenty of time to relax, and has made sure you wont have to walk too far anywhere in the heat with your backpack after arriving at your destination.

Travel Queen tours have been designed to be adventures done in style, meaning youll explore a huge mix of destinations but with carefully planned and comfortable travel in private air-conditioned minibuses and speedboats. Forget public buses and slow ferries.

Travel Queens two week Thailand Adventure tour includes seven destinations, including the stunning Khao Sok Rainforest and six beautiful islands from the lively to the chilled and the less developed.

There are 13 experiences and trips included, which range from meeting elephants in the jungle to private snorkelling trips in longtail boats, cooking and cocktail classes, temple visits, cave swims through to secret beaches, and short hikes leading to stunning viewpoints and even some spa time.

The group sizes are kept small with a maximum of 14 like-minded women, luxury accommodation spanning 5* beachfront hotels, luxury tree houses and traditional Thai bungalows on the beach. Whats more, Mel will be your group leader on the November tour.

Mel is hosting a Manchester launch party for the tour on Saturday 21st April at 2pm at Banyan bar and restaurant in the Corn Exchange. So if you would like to find out more about Travel Queen and get access to some special discounts off the next tour in November, make sure to book your place soon to avoid missing out. Find out more about the tour here.

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SEE examinees destroy CCTV cameras

Students taking part in the ongoing Secondary Education Examination (SEE) in Brahman Gorchari Exam Centre in Siraha have destroyed the close circuit television (CCTV) cameras placed inside the exam hall on Wednesday.
Sugarane farmers call off protests

Sugarcane farmers in Sarlahi district called off their two-week long protests on Tuesday after farmers and mill operators reached a 6-point agreement to settle outstanding payment to farmers.
Kabul, Mar 28 (IBNS): The Afghan Defence Ministry said on Wednesday that at least 26 militants affiliated to the Taliban terrorist group have been gunned down in various parts of the country in the last 24 hours.

The operations consisted of land and airstrikes.

Mohammad Radmanish, the ministrys spokesman said that among the 26 killed, 12 Taliban were killed in Khak-e-Safed and Balablok districts of Farah province.

Six others were gunned down in Trinkot district of Uruzgan province, while four were killed in Greshk district of Helmand province.

Additionally, three were killed in Faryab province and one in Ghazni province.

The ministry spokesperson further added that at least 20 militants were wounded and 19 others, including 17 suspects, were nabbed by security officials.

The Taliban has not commented on the report so far.
Ottawa, Mar 28 (IBNS): Canada has decided to expel four Russian diplomatic staff, posted at the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Ottawa, over the poisoning of an ex-spy in Salisbury, United Kingdom (U.K.), media reports said.

"The four have been identified as intelligence officers or individuals who have used their diplomatic status to undermine Canada's security or interfere in our democracy," Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said in a statement.

Theresa May, British Prime Minister had reportedly said her government had concluded that that Russia was probably responsible for the attack on Skripal, a former Russian spy, and his daughter in Salisbury.

Nerve agent attack of March 4 on Canada's close ally and partner, Skripal and his daughter and leaving them in critical condition in Britain, was said to be "a despicable, heinous and reckless act" Freeland was reported to state.

As well, three applications by the Russian government for additional diplomatic staff in Canada will reportedly be denied.

Canada's decision, Freeland said, was in accordance with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and on Consular Relations as well as diplomatic action taken by the U.S. and several European Union (EU) nations.

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Donald Trump had reportedly discussed on the phone Monday and said measures taken by Canada and the United States were to support their common ally against Russia in response to the nerve agent attack in Salisbury.

The U.S. administration sent a message Monday to Russia's leaders that it would be expelling 60 Russian diplomats, and ordering the closure of Russia's consulate in Seattle in response to the attack.

This action was condemned by Russia, who threatened to retaliate against Canada.

A statement by Russian embassy in Ottawa was issued on Twitter said Canada's decision was both deplorable and outrageous."

"By taking for granted the totally baseless British accusations, in stark violation of due process ahead of ongoing investigation, if any, of the Skripal case, Canada obediently follows the US/UK designed dangerous confrontational policy. This unfriendly move under false and biased pretext delivers yet another serious blow to Russian-Canadian relations and will be met with resolve and reciprocity,"

the statement read.

Freeland stated that Canada was "taking these measures in solidarity with the United Kingdom,"

"These measures are not aimed at the Russian people, with whom Canadians have long and fruitful ties. Canada remains committed to dialogue and co-operation with Russia on issues where we face common challenges. The nerve agent attack represents a clear threat to the rules-based international order and to the rules that were established by the international community to ensure chemical weapons would never again destroy human lives."

'For national security reasons I can't get into that,' Canada's Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan was reported to state.

Piotr Dutkiewicz, a professor and Russian foreign relations expert at Carleton University, warned that Canada was jeopardizing its relations with Russia especially in matters touching on the Arctic.

The Russian diplomats will have 10 days to leave the country.



(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)




The Washington Post published an article written by Jason Rezaian on March 24th entitled John Bolton wants regime change in Iran and so does the cult that paid him. The article is badly written with numerous errors and deceitful tactics to influence readers. The author suggests, for example, that regime change in Iran will only happen if a foreign war is sparked. This assertation that regime change can only happen with war is ironic. The Iranian regime is the main instigator of the bloody war that is spreading across the region.

Gobadi pointed out that the author omits to present some very telling information such as the recent protests in which the people of Iran took to the streets in more than 140 cities across the country. He forgot to mention that people were chanting Down with Khamenei, Down with dictator and Down with Rouhani. The author made it look like the people do not want regime change. Well, the recent protests were so widespread that it is more than clear the people want regime change so that peace and tranquility can return to the Middle East.

The author seems to think that the people of Iran are the warmongers and Gobadi describes this as a desperate attempt to assist a regime whose countdown has begun. Gobadi also points out that the author sounds like the state-run media of Iran which like to claim that the PMOI has little public support. Lets remember that publicly sympathizing with the opposition is harshly punished. More than 100,000 MEK activists have been killed by the regime, including the 30,000 that died during the course of only a few months in 1988.

While he was living in Iran, Rezaian was linked to the regime, Gobadi pointed out. Furthermore, Irans Supreme Leader himself noted that that MEK was the force behind the recent protests and that Iranian President has tried to get the French President to restrict the MEKs activities. Clearly it does have public support.

With regards to Rezaians claim that the MEK presents fake intelligence regarding Irans nuclear program, it has already been established that this could not be further from the truth. Gobadi points out that IAEA officials and US authorities have said that if the opposition had not revealed the existence of several nuclear sites in Iran, the world would have been caught unaware.

Gobadi also debunked Rezaians statement about Ambassador Bolton and other US officials being paid to speak for the MEK. He simply said: This is utterly false.

It is very clear that Rezaian is on a mission to ridicule the MEK for the Iranian regime. In 2011, a number of Tehran apologists and Rezaian himself were signatories on a petition not to remove the MEK from the terror list.

The pure fabrications and deceptions in the article are damaging to the Iranian people that are desperate for regime change. They deserve human rights and freedom. And our support.
Following the announcement, president of the National Iranian American Council Trita Parsi issued a statement lambasting the decision and accusing Bolton of trying to start World War III with Iran.

He wrote: Bolton is an unhinged advocate for waging World War III. He has explicitly called for bombing Iran for the past ten years Boltons first order of business will be to convince Trump to exit the Iran nuclear deal and lay the groundwork for the war he has urged over the past decade. Additionally, he has called for ending all visas for Iranians, shipping bunker-busting weapons to Israel, and supporting the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) terrorist organization and other separatist groups inside of Iran.

Thats a lot of lies to pack into one paragraph, so lets unpack those a little bit.

First, its hypocritical to accuse Bolton of warmongering when the Iranian regime has launched three wars in Iraq, Syria and Yemen in the past three years. He has never called for nuking Iran, only for serious discussions about strike first policy options if Iran obtains nuclear weapons; a call that has bipartisan support in Congress.

Even his calls to exit the nuclear deal would not lead to war, unless the NIAC believe the Regime would immediately call for war. The deal is merely inadequate to protect the US or the rest of the world form the threat of a nuclear Iran.

Second, the MEK is not a terrorist group. They are part of the organised, democratic, resistance, which is seeking regime change by and for the people of Iran. The only terrorists are those sponsored by the Iranian Regime. Parsi is also attempting to smear the Iranians people popular protests by describing them as separatists, rather than an oppressed people rising up against their dictators.

Later on in his statement, Parsi attacks Bolton some more for his support of the MEK without seeming to realise that there is a massive coalition of groups and people opposed to the Regime, including Amnesty International, members of the Bahai faith and virtually all Iranian women.

This is merely indicative of how scared that Iran lobby is of the MEK and the peoples protests. The Regime and its apologists attempt to smear the MEK and discredit the information that the MEK gives to the West about the Regimes malign activities.

But it is the end of the line for the Regime and their lobbyists and frankly few mainstream media outlets are listening to the NIAC anymore.
But what of their attempts to discredit the MEK within Iran?

Well, it starts surprisingly early, spreads through much of daily life, and doesnt work at all. Lets look at it in more detail.

Education

In Iran, children as young as seven start their school day by insulting the MEK or as the Regime makes them say monafeghin (meaning hypocrites). By forcing children to repeat this in school like times tables, the Regime attempts to dress this up as education or convince children that this is true. Luckily, most parents are able to tell their kids the truth.

Religion

In Iran, the leaders of Friday prayers end their speeches with slogans of Death to the monafeghin (MEK), which is just one way that the Iranian Regime bastardises Islam in order to discredit the MEK.

Politics

Many Regime members also call for the death of the MEK at the end of their speeches, which then get repeated by every news outlet covering the speech.

Justice System

The Iranian Regime make no secret about the fact that they want the MEK to die, which is why you shouldnt be surprised that the Regime has a number of horrific and brutal punishments that they levy against MEK members and supporters, as well as, anyone who in any way is active or effective in advancing its cause.

The vagueness of the second part means that the Regime can use this to punish anyone that they do not like.

The punishments, listed in Article 186 of the Islamic Punishment Act, include, but are not limited to:

 Fines

 Prison Sentences

 Banishment

 Flogging

 Torture

 Amputation of the right hand and left foot

 Execution (including by hanging)

To make matters even worse, the Regime will go after the family or friends of MEK members; sometimes punishing the loved ones of the MEK member in their place.

Why does the Regime try so hard to discredit the MEK?

The Regime claims that the MEK is waging war on god, but in reality the MEK pose a great threat to the ongoing rule of the mullahs because of the MEKs popularity in Iran. Its the same reason why that banned the MEK in the 1980s. They know the MEK will overthrow them.

Its hard to establish the true numbers of MEK supporters in Iran because of the punishments and the overall discrimination against the MEK, but we know that the MEK is very popular in Iran through the amount of MEK leaflets and banners that are pinned up, the money that funds the MEKs TV station, and the number of people arrested for MEK affiliation.

This will only grow until the mullahs are overthrown.
Earlier in March, US Navy Commander William Urban said of the Iranians, It seems theyve absolutely made a conscious decision to give us more space. That is definitely a change in their behavior. Urban did not speculate about the reasons for the change, but the Business Insider piece joined with supporters of the Trump administration in attributing it to the effects of that administrations much more assertive policies with regard to the Islamic Republic.

The piece called attention to a remark made by Donald Trump in September 2016, when he was still campaigning for office, in which he warned that Iranian vessels would be shot out of the water under his leadership if they appeared to threaten US warships. The article went on to point out that Trump issued no explicit warnings about the naval incidents after taking office. But according to Jonathan Schanzer of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, the earlier remarks were indicative of Trumps unpredictability, which made Iran more reticent to test American red lines.

However, neither Schanzer nor Business Insider goes so far as to credit Trumps assertiveness and unpredictability with turning around Iranian behavior in general. Quite the contrary, the article quotes Schanzer as saying that Tehran seems to have concluded that there is now less of a policy with regard to their regional activity from Yemen to Iraq to Syria, notwithstanding Trumps rhetorical attacks on such activity. The White House has cited the confrontation of that activity as one of its conditions for remaining in the 2015 agreement over Irans nuclear activities, but many critics have suggested that there is a lack of clarity about what Trump actually expects in this area.

But whether it is a consequence of uncertain Western policies or some other strategic calculation on Irans part, the Business Insider article indicates that the Islamic Republic has drawn back on its direct antagonism of Western assets but has stepped up other activities, some of which constitute asymmetrical warfare against the US and its allies.

One such activity that has periodically returned to the spotlight in recent years is coordinated Iranian hacking and cyberespionage. In fact, on Friday the US Justice Department announced the indictment of nine Iranian who are accused of participating in a massive hacking operation against US computer systems, at the direction of the IRGC. The operation targeted private companies, government agencies, and academic institutions, and this latter category of victims reportedly suffered the theft of 31 terabytes worth of information and intellectual property, valued at 3.2 billion dollars.

Newsweek quoted US Attorney Geoffrey Berman as saying the indictment represented one of the largest state-sponsored hacking campaigns ever prosecuted by the Department of Justice. In that respect, it lends further credence to the longstanding reports that Iran has been channeling more and more resources into cyber attacks, greatly raising the level of its hacking capabilities in the process.

But even in absence of IRGC harassment of American naval vessels, the most prevalent threats posed by the Islamic Republic are still threats to Western-allied entities in the Persian Gulf region. The persistence of this threat was highlighted on Monday with reports of a barrage of missiles fired at Saudi Arabia by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. The Washington Post indicates that the latest attack occurred on the anniversary of the start of a Saudi-led bombing campaign against the Houthi, who overran the capital city of Sanaa in 2015 and drove the elected and internationally recognized President Abed Rabu Mansour Hadi into exile.

Last year, the Trump administration began an international campaign to bring attention to evidence that Iran was arming the Houthi, in violation of United Nations resolutions targeting both Yemen and Iran itself. This armament includes ballistic missiles like those put on display by US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley in a press conference following a series of earlier Houthi missile launches into Saudi territory. Each of these strikes has reportedly been intercepted by the Saudis, but the latest incident involved seven separate missiles and resulted in at least one death and two injuries, indicating a threat that may still be growing.

There are still outstanding questions about whether that threat will be effectively confronted by the US and its allies in the wake of international talks that are aimed at preserving the nuclear agreement while also addressing President Trumps concerns about the expansion of Irans influence and destabilizing activities. But the Washington Post notes that the latest Houthi strikes coincided with a visit to the United States by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, which may be helping to keep pressure on American policymakers to act in the interest of their longstanding Middle Eastern ally.

At the same time, the White House is undergoing changes in personnel that promise to raise pressure toward similar ends. In April, current CIA Direct Mike Pompeo is expected to take over the position of Secretary of State, and former Ambassador to the UN John Bolton is expected to step in as National Security Advisor. Both men have emulated the presidents contempt for the Iran nuclear deal and for Iran in general, and both have spoken rather openly about the prospect for regime change.

If Trumps unpredictability helped to stop the harassment of American vessels in the Persian Gulf, it stands to reason that these appointments will bolster the perception of unpredictability and perhaps compel Tehran to draw back from other antagonistic measures. For the time being, though, the focus of most Western analysts is on the threat that this poses to the nuclear deal, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

On Monday, Al Jazeera reiterated the assumption that these appointments send a clear message about the likelihood of American withdrawal from that deal. Already in January, Trump warned that he would not renew sanctions waivers under the agreement when they come due in May unless Congress and the European signatories to the JCPOA agree on a plan to address Irans regional influence and ballistic missile activities while expanding access for international nuclear inspectors and making restrictions on Iranian nuclear enrichment activities permanent. With this warning now being strengthened, Iranian officials are reportedly designing contingency plans for the end of the JCPOA and claiming readiness, even while holding out hope that the Europeans will save the deal.

Also on Monday, Five Thirty Eight examined four different courses of action that the Trump administration might take to undermine the JCPOA. The article listed these from least to most aggressive, starting with the re-imposition only of direct sanctions on Iran. The second alternative is the re-imposition of all nuclear sanctions  a measure that would cause problems for Europeans who have sought to reenter the Iranian market since the signing of the JCPOA. Thirdly, the White House could formally declare its withdrawal from the deal, and lastly, it could do so while also threatening military strikes against Iranian nuclear infrastructure.

Given the confrontational style of advisors like John Bolton, the president may soon find greater support for one of the more aggressive options, although it is also possible that threats would only be intended to reassert leverage and bring the Islamic Republic back to the negotiating table, much as earlier threats ostensibly compelled a smaller scale change in behavior.

There are already definite signs of anxiety within the Iranian regime regarding the change in White House personnel, but it is not yet clear how those officials intend to react. Al Jazeera reports that at least one member of the Iranian parliament declare the Pompeo and Bolton appointments to be proof of the White Houses ultimate goal of regime change in Iran. But the same report indicates that the regimes preparations still remain focused on the possible loss of the JCPOA.

As an example, US News and World reported that Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the head of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of the Iranian parliament, had urged a greater shift toward Russia and China in the wake of Boltons appointment. This strategy may help the Islamic Republic to hedge against the possible severance of economic relations with Europe, at a time when Irans economic indicators are still faltering and contributing to persistent domestic unrest. At the same time, an eastward shift might also provide Iran with some political cover at a time when Western policies seem to pose a threat to the clerical regime and even force Tehran to reconsider some of its regional activities.
In December, PhishLabs, a startup based in South Carolina, uncovered one of the largest state-sponsored hacking campaigns ever prosecuted, according to Justice Department officials.

Crane Hassold, the companys director of threat intelligence, was just researching cyber attacks targeting universities when he saw the first traces of the Iranian Regimes cyber attacks; dozens of web pages mimicking university websites.

He began to dig, getting information about who started the websites and finding more of these pages, and came to the conclusion that over 300 US universities had been targeted over the past five years. He then shared this information with the FBI.

The University professors would receive fake emails asking them to update their login information and once they had, the hackers would use that login to gain access to library materials.

Hassold believes that the hacks were designed to find proprietary research within the universities library systems, which was then shared with the Iranian Regime.

He said: The phishing pages were all targeted specifically toward the libraries of the universities, so it was very unique and something Id never seen before. If you looked at the list of universities, its certainly not like they were selected at random. They were selected for a reason.

Others targeted in this cyber attack include the United Nations, two federal agencies, two states, and dozens of private businesses.

In a blog post released on Monday, Hassold said that the Iranian campaign was a sleek and large-scale example of a phishing scam.

The Department of Justice confirmed that this attack was carried out by hackers at the Mabna Institute, which they believe was specifically formed by Irans Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) to carry out the attack. The IRGC is a paramilitary group that is run solely by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Nine Iranians have been indicted by the Justice Department, which means that they will risk extradition if they leave Iran, but it is unlikely these hackers will ever face trial.

The Treasury Department has also issued sanctions against them and the Mabna Institute, which freeze their assets and prevent them from doing business with Americans.

Geoffrey Berman, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said: We have unmasked criminals who normally hide behind the ones and zeros of computer code. The only way they will see the outside world is through their computer screens, but stripped of their greatest asset  anonymity.
Thats why the Houthis launched seven missiles at civilian targets (including airports) in Saudi Arabia over the weekend, killing one and injuring two. This is not the first time that the Houthis have fired missiles at Saudi Arabia in violation of international laws, but one thing is clear: the Houthis are uninterested in bringing an end to the conflict.

Fahad Nazer, a political consultant to the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington, wrote on Arab News: The Houthi rebels attacks on Sunday are not an indication of an ascendant power but rather a desperate attempt to suggest their defeat is not imminent when, in reality, they simply cannot survive given their isolation both domestically and globally. It is Iran that is keeping them from collapsing completely, but that too is not sustainable.

Also evident is that the Iranian Regime has been supporting the Houthis by providing them with missiles, technology and launchers, in clear violation of two United Nations resolutions. After all, the Houthis did not have that equipment when the conflict began. This is agreed upon by Saud Arabia, the US, and many other countries: Iran is supplying these weapons in order to wage a proxy war on Saudi Arabia.

Nazer wrote: Iran and its client militant, non-state actors have shown repeatedly that they will not adhere to the norms, conventions and laws of the international community.

Now the Saudis, especially Defence Minister and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, have made it clear that Iran will not be allowed to destabilize the region using the Houthis as its newest proxy militia. These are not empty threats; the Saudis are standing strong against Iranian expansionism and aggression.

Nazer wrote: The Saudi leadership has issued several clear warnings to Iran not to continue its destabilizing activities in the region and not to think it will be allowed to threaten the security of the Kingdom by its continued support of the Houthis. It is only a matter of time before Iran regrets its nefarious activities. Much like its client Houthis, its destructive policies will come to an end sooner or later.
Probe finds traffic policeman's involvement in students death

Police investigation has the involvement of three persons including a traffic policeman in the mysterious death of a student appearing in Secondary Education Examination (SEE) in West Surkhet.
When travel to Japan is possible for everyone again, were excited to have you back! While youre here, consider a longer stay in one of Japans many welcoming and culturally significant cities, and use the opportunity to gain deeper insight into Japans long history of traditional craftsmanship. Youll gain new perspective on Japan and maybe never leave!
Some Russian diplomats have already passed airport check-in, while others are still in the embassy.

About a dozen activists have gathered near the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Kyiv to "say goodbye" to diplomats who must leave Ukraine as part of the expulsion over a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in Great Britain.

Read alsoUkraine expels 13 Russian diplomats over Skripal poisoning  Poroshenko

The activists are holding banners saying "We won't be missing you," "No vodka here  go home," and others.

On Wednesday, March 28, 13 Russian diplomats will fly to Minsk from Kyiv International Airport, the TSN news service reported.

According to media reports, some Russian diplomats have already passed airport check-in, while others are still in the embassy.

As UNIAN reported earlier, the U.S. Department of State announced that 27 countries and NATO had decided to expel 151 Russian diplomats over the poisoning of the Russian double agent, Sergei Skripal, in Salisbury, the United Kingdom, earlier this month.
Linda Brown, the central figure of the Brown v. Board of Education case, dies at age 76

As a girl in Kansas, Linda Browns father tried to enroll her in an all-white school in Topeka. He and several black families were turned away, sparking the Brown v. Board of Education case that challenged segregation in public schools.

A 1954 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court followed, striking down racial segregation in schools and cementing Linda Browns place in history as a central figure in the landmark case.

Funeral officials in Topeka said Brown died Sunday at age 75. A cause of death was not released. Arrangements were pending at Peaceful Rest Funeral Chapel.

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Her sister, Cheryl Brown Henderson, founding president of The Brown Foundation, confirmed the death to The Topeka Capital-Journal. She declined comment from the family.

Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel at NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc., said in a statement that Linda Brown is one of a band of heroic young people who, along with her family, courageously fought to end the ultimate symbol of white supremacy _ racial segregation in public schools.

She stands as an example of how ordinary schoolchildren took center stage in transforming this country. It was not easy for her or her family, but her sacrifice broke barriers and changed the meaning of equality in this country, Ifill said in a statement.

The NAACPs legal arm brought the lawsuit to challenge segregation in public schools before the Supreme Court, and Browns father, Oliver Brown, became lead plaintiff.

Several black families in Topeka were turned down when they tried to enroll their children in white schools near their homes. The lawsuit was joined with cases from Delaware, South Carolina, Virginia and the District of Columbia.

On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that separating black and white children was unconstitutional because it denied black children the 14th Amendments guarantee of equal protection under the law. In the field of public education, the doctrine of `separate but equal has no place, Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.

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The Brown decision overturned the courts Plessy v. Ferguson decision, which on May 18, 1896, established a separate but equal doctrine for blacks in public facilities.

Sixty-four years ago, a young girl from Topeka, Kansas sparked a case that ended segregation in public schools in America, Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer said in a statement. Linda Browns life reminds us that by standing up for our principles and serving our communities we can truly change the world. Lindas legacy is a crucial part of the American story and continues to inspire the millions who have realized the American dream because of her.

Brown v. Board was a historic marker in the civil rights movement, likely the most high-profile case brought by Thurgood Marshall and the lawyers of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund in their decade-plus campaign to chip away at the doctrine of separate but equal.

Her legacy is not only here but nationwide, Kansas Deputy Education Commissioner Dale Dennis said.

Oliver Brown, for whom the case was named, became a minister at a church in Springfield, Missouri. He died of a heart attack in 1961. Linda Brown and her sister founded in 1988 the Brown Foundation for Educational Equity, Excellence and Research.

The foundation says on its webpage that it was established as a living tribute to the attorneys, community organizers and plaintiffs in the landmark Supreme Court decision. Its mission is to build upon their work and keep the ideals of the decision relevant for future generations.

We are to be grateful for the family that stood up for what is right, said Democratic state Rep. Annie Kuether of Topeka. That made a difference to the rest of the world.
No charges in Alton Sterlings fatal shooting

Louisianas attorney general ruled out criminal charges Tuesday against two white Baton Rouge police officers in the fatal shooting of a black man outside a convenience store.

Attorney General Jeff Landrys decision came nearly 11 months after the Justice Department ruled out federal criminal charges in Alton Sterlings July 2016 death.

Landry made the announcement at a news conference after meeting with family members of Sterling.

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Veda Washington-Abusaleh, Sterlings aunt, was in tears after meeting with Landry.

They said they didnt find anything, she said. They said it was justifiable, what happened to Alton was justifiable.

Landry said his office reviewed all of the evidence compiled by the Justice Department, including opinions issued by independent experts, and also conducted its own interviews of eyewitnesses to the shooting. He said he is always mindful of the human element in the case beyond his review of the facts and applicable laws.

I know the Sterling family is hurting, Landry said. I know that they may not agree with the decision.

Landry did not take any questions from reporters after his statement. His spokeswoman, Ruth Wisher, would not say if they planned to release the body camera footage and surveillance video that hasnt been made public.

Officer Blane Salamoni shot and killed Sterling during a struggle outside a convenience store where the 37-year-old black man was selling homemade CDs. Officer Howie Lake II helped wrestle Sterling to the ground, but Lake didnt fire his gun.

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The shooting came amid increased scrutiny of fatal encounters between police and black men. Two cellphone videos of the shooting quickly spread on social media, leading to protests during which nearly 200 people were arrested. The officers body cameras and a store surveillance camera also recorded the encounter, but those videos have not been released.

Federal authorities opened a civil rights investigation immediately after the shooting and released their findings in May 2017. They said Salamoni yelled that Sterling was reaching for a gun in his pocket before shooting him three times, and then fired three more shots into Sterlings back when he began to sit up and move.

The officers recovered a loaded revolver from Sterlings pocket. As a convicted felon, Sterling could not legally carry a gun. Sterling had pleaded guilty in 2011 to being a felon in possession of a firearm and illegally carrying a weapon and was arrested in May 2009 after an officer confronted him outside another store where he was selling CDs, court records show.

Federal authorities concluded there wasnt enough evidence to prove Salamoni or Lake willfully deprived Sterling of his civil rights, or that the officers use of force was objectively unreasonable.

The officers encountered Sterling after responding to a report of a man with a gun outside the Triple S Food Mart. The officers told Sterling to put his hands on the hood of a car and struggled with him when he didnt comply, the Justice Department said. Lake shocked Sterling with a stun gun before the officers wrestled him to the ground, according to federal investigators.

Attorneys for Sterlings relatives have said federal authorities told them that Salamoni pointed a gun at Sterlings head and threatened to kill him before the struggle began. In a summary of its findings, the Justice Department said Salamoni pointed his gun at Sterlings head but didnt mention any verbal threats by the officer.

Salamoni and Lake have remained on paid administrative leave since the July 5, 2016, shooting.

Racial tensions were still simmering in Louisianas capital when Gavin Long, a 29-year-old black military veteran from Kansas City, Missouri, ambushed police officers near a car wash on July 17, 2016. Long killed three Baton Rouge law enforcement officers and wounded three others before being shot dead.

East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore recused himself from any state criminal investigation into Sterlings death, citing his professional relationship with Salamonis parents, who have served as police officers in Baton Rouge. Moores recusal left Landrys office to review evidence and decide whether any state charges were warranted.

In June 2017, lawyers for Sterlings five children filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city of Baton Rouge, its police department and former police chief, and the two officers involved. Their suit alleges the shooting fit a pattern of racist behavior and excessive force by the Baton Rouge police. It also claims poor training and inadequate police procedures led to Sterlings death.

The mass arrests of protesters after Sterlings death spawned lawsuits that accused police of using excessive force and advancing against peaceful protesters while wearing military gear and gas masks and brandishing assault weapons. In October, a federal judge approved a class-action settlement that awards up to $1,000 in cash to dozens of protesters who claim police violated their civil rights.

Police prepared for another round of protests before the Justice Department announced its decision last year, but the response was far more subdued. After learning neither officer would be charged with federal crimes, dozens of people held a peaceful vigil outside the convenience store where Sterling was shot.


Malaysia's Parliament has passed a disputed bill to change the borders of electoral areas.

Prime Minister Najib Razak called for the change to reform the voting areas. Critics say the new plan divides constituencies by ethnicity and weakens the voting power of the opposition.

They argue that the changes would unfairly help Najibs ruling National Front coalition win the general election later this year. The party faces its most difficult election in years.

Hundreds of demonstrators protested in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, before lawmakers voted on the measure. The activists wore yellow clothing, representing the opposition. They marched toward the Parliament building but police stopped them before they reached its gates.

The National Front has ruled Malaysia since gaining independence from Britain in 1957. Its current leader, Prime Minister Najib, is dealing with reported financial wrongdoing involving the state-operated company 1Malaysia Development Berhad. The case involves billions of dollars.

I'm Anna Matteo.

VOA News reported this story. Lucija Millonig adapted it for Learning English. Caty Weaver edited it.

____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

constituency - n. the people who live and vote in an area

gate - n. a place in a wall or a fence that has a movable part which can be opened or closed like a door
China says North Korean leader Kim Jong Un agreed during talks in Beijing to discuss denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Chinas official Xinhua news agency reported that Kim made an unofficial visit to the country.

The visit was not confirmed until Kim returned to North Korea on Wednesday. A special armored train carrying Kim secretly arrived in Beijing on Monday and left Tuesday.

Kim held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who had invited him to visit, Xinhua reported. The trip was believed to be Kims first visit to a foreign nation since taking power in 2011.

Kim traveled to China with his wife, Ri Sol Ju. The two attended a welcoming ceremony and had dinner inside Beijings Great Hall of the People with Xi and his wife, Xinhua reported.

Xi promised to work with North Korea to make a new contribution to regional peace, stability and development, the news agency said.

Kim told Xi North Korea had taken steps to ease tensions and put forward proposals for peace talks. "It is our consistent stand to be committed to denuclearization on the Peninsula Xinhua reported Kim as saying.

Kim also said North Korea was willing to negotiate with American officials and hold a summit of the two countries.

Xinhua reported that Kim said, "The issue of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula can be resolved, if South Korea and the United States respond to our efforts with goodwill

North Koreas official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Kims visit to China. But it did not report on his comments about denuclearization or upcoming summits.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in is set to meet with Kim in late April.

United States officials say President Donald Trump also plans to meet with the North Korean leader before the end of May.

On Wednesday, Trump wrote on Twitter that Xi had informed him of the Kim's visit to China.

Trump wrote, Received message last night from XI JINPING of China that his meeting with KIM JONG UN went very well and that KIM looks forward to his meeting with me.

Trump added: In the meantime, and unfortunately, maximum sanctions and pressure must be maintained at all cost!

In another tweet, Trump said that for years there had not been even a small possibility for peace and denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula. Now there is a good chance that Kim Jong Un will do what is right for his people and for humanity."

A White House statement said U.S. officials saw the talks between Kim and Xi as more evidence that Americas campaign of maximum pressure on the North is working.

In Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said his government was watching the China-North Korea relationship with "extreme interest." But, he said North Korea must provide concrete action  not just promises  before the international community can consider any easing of sanctions.

In the past, Xi also has expressed support for strong U.S.-led international sanctions on the North. The sanctions banned billions of dollars of North Korean coal, seafood and clothing. They are aimed at pressuring Kim to reenter talks on denuclearization.

In addition to agreeing to the summit meetings, Kim has taken other actions in recent months to reduce tensions. These included halting nuclear and missile tests and permitting North Korea to take part in the recent Winter Olympics held in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Im Ashley Thompson.

Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English, based on reports from VOA News, the Associated Press and Reuters. Ashley Thompson was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

contribution  n. something done to help bring about some result

stability  n. a state of not being changed easily

consistent  adj. always behaving or happening in a similar way

summit  n. an important meeting between leaders

goodwill  n. friendly or helpful feelings towards other people

unfortunately  adv. word used to say something is bad or disappointing

maximum  adj. as great as possible; the most

sanctions  n. punishments usually in the form of trade restrictions meant to force a country to obey international law

concrete  adj. identifying something real or a group of things
Linda Brown, who was at the center of the 1954 Supreme Court case that ended racial segregation in American schools, has died. She was 76 years old.

Brown was nine years old when her father, Oliver Brown, sued the local school board in 1951. The family lived in Topeka, the capital city of the state of Kansas. They wished to send Linda to an all-white elementary school close to their home.

In the 1950s, segregation laws in many American states did not let black children and white children attend the same schools.

The Brown familys case was one of several similar cases brought together by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or NAACP. They targeted Topekas school system. The cases were combined and made it to the Supreme Court. They became known as Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, named after Lindas father.

At the time, many schools in the United States were segregated as part of a wider system of discrimination known as the Jim Crow laws. They also enforced other forms of discrimination, such as separate public drinking fountains for black and white people, and extreme rules and taxes on black people who tried to vote. This kept many black people from voting and helped white leaders remain in power.

An 1896 Supreme Court decision supported those laws, saying that as long as the separate services were equal, they were permissible.

In Linda Brown's case, her family wanted her to go to a school that was both better quality and closer to her home than the one she was already attending.

Judges at the lower court ruled that Topeka's system was acceptable, saying the schools were equal in their services.

But in 1954, every member of the Supreme Court voted to reject that position. The ruling remains one of the most well-known cases in the court's history.

Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote at the time, "We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place.

He added that education may be the most important service performed by state governments, and that the conditions of a child's schooling have an important effect on their life.

Honoring her history

After news of Browns death, leaders around the country praised her and the importance of her case.

"Sixty-four years ago a young girl from Topeka brought a case that ended segregation in public schools in America," Kansas Governor Jeff Colyer wrote on Twitter. "Linda Brown's life reminds us that sometimes the most unlikely people can have an incredible impact and that by serving our community we can truly change the world."

Representative Bobby Scott of Virginia said of Brown, Students all around our nation are forever in your debt for the sacrifices you made in the fight for equality in education."

Leaders noted that more work needs to be done in bringing equality to American schools.

The Congressional Black Caucus group said, The struggle to end separate but equal continues as our schools are becoming increasingly more segregated.

Senator Dianne Feinstein of California said "we remember how far we've come in one lifetime and how far we have to go."

Following the historic case, Linda Browns father became a minister at a church in Springfield, Missouri. He died of a heart attack in 1961. In 1988, Linda Brown and her sister, Cheryl Brown Henderson, created the Brown Foundation for Educational Equity, Excellence and Research.

Linda Brown died Sunday in Topeka. Her sister confirmed Lindas death to news media. A cause of death has not been released.

Sherrilyn Ifill is president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. She said Monday, the life of every American has been touched by Linda Brown. The country is indebted to her, the Brown family, and the many other families involved in the cases that successfully challenged school segregation.

Im Pete Musto.

VOA News reported this story. Phil Dierking adapted it for Learning English, with additional materials from the Associated Press. Ashley Thompson was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.

_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

drinking fountain - n. a device in a public place that produces a stream of water for people to drink from

doctrine - n. a set of ideas or beliefs that are taught or believed to be true

incredible - adj. difficult or impossible to believe

impact - n. a powerful or major influence or effect

indebted - adj. owing something (such as money or thanks) to someone or something 

segregation - n. the practice or policy of keeping people of different races, religions, etc., separate from each other

sue - v. to use a legal process by which you try to get a court of law to force a person, company, or organization that has treated you unfairly or hurt you in some way to give you something or to do something


Many studies have predicted there will be a great need for future workers skilled in jobs related to science, technology, engineering and math. In education, these areas of study are known as STEM.

Research suggests it is important to get students involved in STEM subjects as early as possible, starting in middle school or even before.

While STEM education programs have been increasing in many areas across America, there remains a lack of interest in the subjects by many younger students.

The U.S. Department of Education has estimated that once students reach their last year of high school, only 16 percent are interested in a STEM career. A department study also found that even among those who do choose to study STEM subjects in college, only about half decide to work in a STEM-related job.

A survey released this year by Pew Research Center asked American adults why they believe many young people do not want to study math and science subjects.

About 64 percent of those questioned said they think the main reason is that students consider STEM studies either too hard (52 percent) or too boring (12 percent). More than 20 percent blamed the lack of interest on the belief that a STEM degree might not be useful in the job market.

The study found about one-third of Americans would tell a high school student seeking career guidance to study a STEM-related field. About 19 percent of them said they would suggest a health-related STEM career. And fourteen percent would tell them to center on technology.

STEM careers made up about 13 percent of the total U.S. work force in 2016. However, the number of STEM-related jobs  especially in health and computer areas  has risen much faster than other areas for years.

In its latest new study on STEM-related education, Pew also looked at the feelings American adults have about their own classroom experiences in math and science.

It might surprise some people to learn that 58 percent of adults in America said they enjoyed their math class experiences in grades K-12. Of the American adults who had good memories of their math classes, 61 percent said the main reason was because they liked the subject matter.

Of the 42 percent who said they did not like their math classes, 59 percent said it was because they did not enjoy the subject matter.

The study found that 62 percent of men reported liking math class, compared to 53 percent of women.

When asked about science, even more American adults said they enjoyed their classroom experiences. More than 75 percent said they liked science in grades K-12. Nearly half of those questioned said they liked both science and math classes.

About 10 percent said they liked math but not science, while nearly one-third disliked math, but liked science. Just 14 percent said they disliked both math and science classes.

A majority of adult American STEM workers, 66 percent, said they liked both math and science classes. This compared to about 45 percent of people working in non-STEM fields. Only five percent of STEM workers said they disliked both science and math.

Im Bryan Lynn.

Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English, based on Pew Research Center data and other sources. Ashley Thompson was the editor.

Did you like attending math and science classes in grades K-12? Why or why not? Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

______________________________________________________________

Quiz

Quiz - Study: Most Americans Liked Math and Science Classes Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz

_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

boring  adj. uninteresting

K-12 - adj. relating to primary and secondary education. The term is used in the United States, Canada and other countries to describe publicly supported school grades before the start of college.
Writ at SC challenges legality of Prez Bhandari's oath from ex-CJ Parajuli

A writ petition has been registered at the Supreme Court (SC), challenging the legality of the oath taken by President Bidhya Devi Bhandari from outgoing Chief Justice (CJ) Gopal Prasad Parajuli.
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Australia and Ireland yesterday joined more than 20 other nations in expelling Russian diplomats in response to the nerve agent attack on a former Russian military intelligence officer and his daughter in Britain.

The mass expulsions were a show of solidarity for Britain, which blames Russia for the poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. Moscow vehemently denies responsibility, and has vowed a tough response to the expulsions.

More than 20 countries on Monday announced that they were expelling a total of more than 130 Russian diplomats, including 60 kicked out by the United States.

Yesterday, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said his country was expelling two Russian diplomats whom he described as undeclared intelligence officers. They have been given seven days to leave Australia. Turnbull slammed Russia for reckless and deliberate conduct that harms global security and violates rules against the use of chemical weapons.

The Russian Embassy in Canberra said the decision was regrettable and jeopardized bilateral relationships.

It is astonishing how easily the allies of Great Britain follow it blindly contrary to the norms of civilized bilateral dialogue and international relations, and against [] common sense, it said.

Ireland also announced it was ordering one Russian diplomat to leave. Foreign Minister Simon Coveney called the nerve-agent attack on Skripal and his daughter a shocking and abhorrent use of chemical weapons.

Official in Moscow yesterday condemned the expulsions but have not yet announced steps of retaliation yet.

Speaking at a conference in Uzbekistan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters that a reaction will follow because Russia will not tolerate such rude behavior. Lavrov also speculated that the United States might have coerced some of the European countries into expelling Russian diplomats.

Later yesterday, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said the military alliance will expel seven staffers from the Russian mission due to the nerve-agent poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain.

He said NATO will also deny the pending accreditation request of three other workers at the Russian mission.

Russia is not a member of NATO. Stoltenberg says, despite the expulsions, Russia will still have a diplomatic mission of 20 people at alliance headquarters in Brussels and that will allow Russia to keep essential contacts with NATO members. MDT/AP

Countries expelling Russian diplomats

Two dozen countries including the United States and many European Union states, have announced they are expelling a total of more than 130 Russian diplomats, in a show of solidarity with Britain over the nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in England. However, a small coalition of the unwilling inside the EU had indicated to the UK Foreign Office that they were not prepared to expel any Russian diplomats in solidarity with the UK. The eight countries were Portugal, Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Malta, Slovakia, Slovenia and Luxembourg. Belgium made no announcements but has indicated action will be taken after cabinet meetings.

 UNITED STATES: 60 Russian diplomats expelled; Russian consulate in Seattle ordered closed.

 BRITAIN: 23 Russian diplomats expelled.

 CANADA: Four Russians expelled; three applications for additional diplomatic staff being denied.

 UKRAINE: 13 Russian diplomats expelled.

 GERMANY, FRANCE, POLAND: Four Russian diplomats expelled from each country.

 CZECH REPUBLIC, LITHUANIA: Three Russian diplomats expelled from each country.

 SPAIN, NETHERLANDS, DENMARK, ITALY, ALBANIA, AUSTRALIA: Two Russian diplomats expelled from each country.

 HUNGARY, SWEDEN, CROATIA, ROMANIA, FINLAND, ESTONIA, IRELAND: One Russian diplomat expelled from each country.

 LATVIA: One Russian diplomat expelled, plus one Russian representative of a Russian company blacklisted.
The government will be conducting a study into the territorys urban renewal needs through the Land, Public Works and Transport Bureau (DSSOPT), as mentioned by the Secretary for Transport and Public Works, Raimundo do Rosario.

The Secretary revealed on the sidelines of yesterdays meeting of the Urban Renewal Committee that the committee had finally reached consensus on a study that the government will commission to a private company. According to the same official, such study will draw the paths to be followed on the matters of urban renewal.

The new study will pass through a public tender phase which Rosario said should be completed by late April or early May [this year].

After this process, the committee will analyze the proposals received and will then decide on the company that will do the job.

Rosario recalled that the Committee had earlier reached a consensus defining the scope and aims of such study. Nevertheless, at the meeting two weeks ago, when our colleagues brought the tender dossier and the tender program, some members [or the Urban Renewal Committee] raised some other questions so it became necessary to proceed with a new round of opinions, Rosario said. With all this, we lost about six months, but I think it was [worthwhile] to spend such time so we could get this [full] consensus on the work we are commissioning; its scope and aims, as well as the several phases of such work and the duration of each of those phases, he added.

I believe this will not take a long time now; we are ready to start sending the letters to the companies to announce the tender and receive proposals soon, the Secretary said. Rosario advanced that at this stage it is not convenient to reveal the content of the tender dossier and works to be done, as this will pass through a public tender and we want all companies to start with equal chances, he added, noting that revealing details on the content at this stage could influence the results. We will have news about this in a few months, certainly, he concluded.
Filipino women were honored by the Philippine Consulate General in Macau as part of the ongoing Womens Month this March. The event was themed Filipino Women Expanding Influence and Leading Change.

Held annually, the celebration aims to recognize empowered women who are making an impact on their workplaces, communities and society.

Organized by the Philippine Overseas Labor Offices (POLO), the department launched three award categories including Women of Inspiration, The Trailblazer Award and Leadership Award.

Labor attache Vivian Tornea recalled that they have been conducting the celebration for the past three years, honoring women who have been examples of courage and selflessness.

Weve been holding this celebration to recognize some women in Macau who have outstanding performances, [] for them to be recognized [as] achievers here in Macau that have made an impact in their workplaces and community as well, Tornea told the Times.

According to Tornea, POLO received a total of 30 nominations from the community.

Last year, the consulate awarded women for their economic achievements, recognizing entrepreneurs.

This year, the labor attache expressed the belief that women who are considered change agents and motivators should be recognized, as their accomplishments have an impact not just on their fellow compatriots but to other women in general.

One of the awardees, who has worked as a director of design for Wynn Design and Development for eight years, claimed that women are much stronger and more influential nowadays, adding that they have always been playing vital roles, particularly in their families  as cited in a report by TDM.

Other awardees included Eugenia Desano, who has been working as a medical technologist in the public hospital since 1987, and Marissa Catan, a domestic helper in the city since 2010.

Helping other people should be sincere [], we should be agents of change, said Catan, who is actively volunteering in community projects.

The third edition of Honoring Outstanding Filipina in Macau recognized nine Filipino women altogether. LV

Manila recalls labor attache in Hong Kong

Manila has recalled its labor attache in Hong Kong a year before the official was due to complete his term without justification in the official memo, in a move that has been heavily criticized by migrant groups.

Migrant groups suggested that the move might be related to Jalilo Dela Torres outspoken advocacy against human traffickers and exploitative employment agencies, as cited in a report issued by the South China Morning Post.

Dela Torre received the memo on Friday, stating that the order was effective immediately, although typically, an official has 60 days to leave the post after a recall has been issued.

Whatever the outcome is, I will continue to fight human traffickers and rogue agencies wherever I am, Dela Torre told the media outlet.

Migrant groups including Global Alliance Hong Kong criticized the move, noting that his exit will not benefit them, adding that the community is unaware of the reason behind his recall.

But people believe that one of the reasons has to do with human trafficking. [] He has been very outspoken, said the associations president, Leo Selomenio.

Dela Torre has exposed cases of Filipino helpers in Hong Kong who are trafficked to other destinations including Russia and Turkey.
After six years of seclusion, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un seems to want to get out and see the world.

Kims surprise summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week was the first time hed traveled outside of his country since he assumed power in 2011, according to his own state media. But Beijing is just the start of his ambitious coming out party.

Next is a meeting just south of the Demilitarized Zone with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, then the trickiest meeting of all, with President Donald Trump in an as-yet undisclosed location. He is also rumored to be considering a sit-down with Russias Vladimir Putin, while one of his staunchest critics, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, says he wants some face time, too.

Why the sudden penchant for travel?

Heres a look at where Kims been, where he might be headed and what kind of souvenirs hell be hoping to gather along the way.

CHINA

In hindsight, this was the obvious choice for Kims international debut.

China is far and away the Norths most important economic partner, and it has tightened its sanctions in recent months to increase the pressure on Kim to ease up with his nuclear weapons program. Kim has appeared less willing to toe Beijings line, however, and relations between the two countries have suffered.

By suddenly showing up in China on Monday he completely changed that narrative.

Its not known yet what Kim and Xi discussed.

Two things are clear. By hosting Kim before anyone else, Xi very effectively reasserted Chinas primary role in defusing tensions on the Korean Peninsula, which has long been a key national security concern for Beijing. For Kim, meeting with Xi first means he will go into his summits with Moon and Trump better informed and less isolated.

More importantly for Kim, the visit could be a step toward persuading China to ease its sanctions, or at least how strictly they are enforced.

SOUTH KOREA

The announcement that Kim and Moon would meet face to face was the first shocker of the year.

Kim floated the idea by sending his invitation-bearing sister to the opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang Olympics last month. The meeting is planned for late April in a truce village inside the DMZ.

Symbolically, its a huge step forward. Moon and his liberal government have been taking the initiative to reach out to the North after a year of escalating missile launches and angry rhetorical barrages. Kim extended an olive branch of his own in January, vowing to make improved relations one of his top priorities for the year.

Until Kim showed up in Beijing, it appeared Moon would be his first summit partner.

While that somewhat blurs the focus on North-South detente, the emotional storyline of Korean nationalism and the hope of reunification is still bound to play well with Kims domestic audience. North Korea is working on several development projects that appear aimed at boosting South Korean tourism to its east coast.

Optimistic, yes. But its worked for Pyongyang before.

Kims father, Kim Jong Il, played that card nicely in the previous inter-Korea summits, held in 2000 and 2007.

HAMBURGERS WITH TRUMP?

This one still has a lot of question marks.

Basic things, like when and where  and some might add, if  it will take place have yet to be disclosed.

Instead of announcing it themselves, the White House let a visiting delegation from South Korea inform the media that Trump had agreed to Kims offer to meet by May. Almost nothing official has been announced since.

Lots of potential sites have popped up in the rumor mill, from Trumps Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida to Mongolia (which has good relations with Pyongyang) to an ancient castle in Sweden.

In return for the chance to stand shoulder to shoulder as an equal with the leader of the Free World, Kim may release three Americans imprisoned by the North as a gesture of goodwill.

But a big question remains over one very important word: denuclearization.

Kim has been using it a lot recently, and some officials in Washington have interpreted that to mean he might be willing to negotiate away his costly and hard-won nuclear arsenal. But another interpretation is that he means a process that would involve all 30,000-plus U.S. troops permanently withdrawing from the South and a slew of security guarantees culminating in a peace treaty to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War.

Thats what the North has been demanding for decades.

RUSSIA

A meeting between Kim and Putin would seem to be a no-brainer.

Putin has been relatively friendly with Kims regime and has actively tried to bolster ties, despite the international sanctions.

The two countries recently signed an agreement on cooperation in scientific research and might be discussing a new border bridge. Russian media, meanwhile, are speculating that North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho is planning to travel to Moscow next month.

Better relations with Moscow could benefit Kim tremendously.

The fall of the Soviet Union was a major blow to the North  and a contributing factor behind a famine in the 1990s that is believed to have killed at least hundreds of thousands of North Koreans. Ties have never been the same since.

But along with potential economic benefits, closer relations with Russia are important as a balance against Chinese influence and buffer against Washington and its allies. Putin is certainly wary of encouraging a nuclear-armed neighbor, cozying up with Kim would be a way of thumbing his nose at the West.

And he does seem to like doing that.

JAPAN

Tokyo is playing catch-up.

Mired in a domestic corruption scandal and prone to follow Washingtons lead, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has just recently suggested he, too, wants to get in some quality time with Kim.

Japan has big problems with Pyongyang that go well beyond the nuclear issue.

Kim Jong Il admitted in a summit in 2002 with then-Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi that its agents had abducted Japanese citizens in the 1970 and 80s. Several were returned, but Tokyo has since demanded more information and the dispute has become a bitter stalemate.

Abe, a North Korea hawk, is worried Japans demands on the abduction issue will fall to wayside if he is left out in the cold while Kim meets other leaders.

The cost could be excessively high, however.

In return for normalized relations, Pyongyang will likely demand Japan pay more for the damage caused by its 1910-1945 colonization of the Korean Peninsula.

Some experts have speculated the bill could run into the billions of dollars.

MDT/AP
No matter who was on the private train that pulled into Beijing from Pyongyang overnight, one thing is clear: China still plays a major role in efforts to end North Koreas nuclear program.

Just how much is still open to debate, but the apparent high-level visit shows that Kim Jong Un hasnt forgotten his only major ally despite recent antipathy between the countries and bombshell announcements that the young North Korean leader will hold summits with his foes in Washington and Seoul. China, after all, provides the vital trade, aid and diplomatic support that keep the North and its broken economy afloat.

Because of North Koreas dependence on China, it makes sense that Pyongyang would send a high-level delegation to Beijing for consultations before any major approach to the West.

North Korea will try to remove any Chinese concern that its being passed over as Pyongyang attempts to shake up regional politics by reaching out to Seoul and Washington, said Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea expert at Seouls Dongguk University.

The North Korean delegation will try to make the point that its in the process of overhauling its external relations entirely, and not trying to leave China out of the picture, he said. This will also be the message they want to send to the United States  the North obviously believes maintaining its traditional relationship with China would give it stronger influence over the United States.

There has been widespread speculation that the green and yellow train that arrived in Beijing on Monday was carrying leader Kim himself. Some analysts are doubtful though, saying its hard to imagine that a proud young leader who has proclaimed his nation a world power would sneak into Beijing under cover of night for his first face-to-face meeting with the Chinese leadership since taking power in 2011.

If its not Kim it could be his sister, Kim Yo Jong, who the leader sent to South Korea last month to attend the Winter Olympics bearing the offer of a summit. Another possibility is the train carried a grizzled military or political adviser, two of whom also went south last month.

Whoever it is, the move could also be part of a North Korean effort to gain leverage ahead of the planned talks with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and later U.S. President Donald Trump by showing that it has other options.

Even if the situation surrounding its talks with Seoul and Washington plays out well for North Korea, it still needs Chinas help, Koh said. And if the situation doesnt work out, North Korea will surely need Chinese support.

It may also be that the North recognizes some hard realities.

North Koreas diplomatic outreach to South Korea and the United States followed an unusually provocative year of weapons tests and has been seen as an attempt, in part, to improve a struggling economy crushed the heavy sanctions those test brought about. North Koreas provocations also took a toll on relations with Beijing.

Despite their decades-long alliance, forged during the 1950-53 Korean War, China has played a crucial role in international pressure against North Korea over its nuclear program and has signed on to increasingly strict UN sanctions. Chinas strengthened actions in recent months  including restrictions on oil supply  may have significantly raised North Koreas need to seek a diplomatic breakthrough.

For Beijing, it wants to be seen as a custodian of peace and stability in the region and also a larger player in world diplomacy as it competes with the United States for influence in Asia.

But it also has its own interests in mind. China is unhappy about having an emerging nuclear menace at its doorstep, but also doesnt want to see a collapse of a next door government it sees as a buffer state against U.S. ally South Korea. Kim Tong-Hyung, AP Correspondent, Seoul
Americans appear open to President Donald Trumps surprise decision to negotiate directly with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and at the same time are less concerned than in recent months by the threat posed by the pariah nations nuclear weapons.

Thats according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, taken after Trump agreed to what would be unprecedented meeting between a U.S. and a North Korean leader.

North Korea has yet to publicly confirm plans for the summit, slated for May, but the poll results suggest its potential has eased fears of war that intensified last year as the North made rapid strides in its nuclear and missile capabilities.

If you sit down and talk over any matter, there can be a resolution to it without starting a war, said Sarah Dobbs, a 64-year-old retiree from Norman, Oklahoma, who described herself as a Democrat and is among the 48 percent of Americans who favor Trumps plan to talk with Kim.

No other president has ever done something this bold. Thats why I think: Why not let Trump have at it? she said.

The poll found that 29 percent oppose the plans for talks between the two nations, while 21 percent say theyre neither in favor nor opposed.

The survey also found an uptick in approval of Trumps handling of relations with North Korea as the focus has shifted from possible U.S. military action to diplomacy. That figure is now 42 percent, up from 34 percent last October amid a coarse back and forth between the two leaders.

Last September, Trump dubbed Kim Rocket Man and threatened to totally destroy North Korea. Kim responded with threats and insults of his own, calling Trump deranged and a dotard. North Koreas foreign minister suggested that it might conduct an atmospheric nuclear test in the Pacific  a threat it hasnt followed through on.

Since then, the proportion of Americans who say theyre very or extremely concerned about the nuclear threat North Korea poses to the U.S. has dropped to 50 percent from 67 percent. Its a decline that registered with both Republicans and Democrats. Americans also see the threat as having lessened for U.S. allies Japan and South Korea, as well as U.S. overseas territories such as Guam.

Trump agreed to talk after Kim conveyed through South Korean intermediaries an offer to discuss denuclearization and halt nuclear and missile tests. South Koreas leader is due to have his own summit with Kim in April.

Americans are divided over the potential goals of U.S. discussions with North Korea. Forty-four percent say the North must completely give up its nukes, the long-standing goal of U.S. policy. Forty percent think the U.S. should consider a deal if the North agrees to make progress toward that goal.

Only 13 percent think the country shouldnt consider a deal with North Korea at all.

I would like to see a denuclearization of North Korea, but I dont know how feasible that is, said Aaron Saunders, a 26-year- old medical research associate from Three Rivers, Michigan, who was generally supportive of Trumps handling of the issue  aside from his tweeting.

Theresa Ferraro, 71, of Lowell, Massachusetts, said a summit might make the world safer, but she questioned the presidents temperament for negotiations.

He speaks out too much, she said. Im outspoken myself, but you gotta know when to zip it and I dont think he knows.

Despite the general openness toward negotiations with North Korea, Americans have mixed views about the direction of U.S. national security. One in three say that it will get better over the next year. Similar proportions say it will get worse and stay about the same.

But there are clearer differences on partisan lines. Two-thirds of Republicans expect national security to improve, while a slightly smaller proportion of Democrats expect it to get worse in the year ahead.

Americans have largely negative views about how the U.S. is viewed around the world. Some 53 percent think respect for American will decline in the next ahead, with just 26 percent expecting it to improve. And 48 percent think U.S. influence around the world will decline in the next year, compared with just 27 percent who believe it will get better.

Pamela Williams, 69, of New York City, criticized Trump for boasting about U.S. military strength and having what she saw as flippant attitude to matters of war and peace.

I have not seen anything that hes done since taking office that hes taken seriously. Everything is a joke to him, she said. Matthew Pennington & Emily Swanson, Washington, AP

Editors Note  The AP-NORC poll of 1,122 adults was conducted March 14-19 using a sample drawn from NORCs probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.2 percentage points. Respondents were first selected randomly using address-based sampling methods, and later interviewed online or by phone.
Wrapping up his first trip to the Mideast, South Korean President Moon Jae-in yesterday visited his nations special forces training Emirati soldiers and pledged that peace on the Korean Peninsula would bring new business opportunities.

Moons trip to the United Arab Emirates helped solidify Seouls ties to a nation vital to its fossil fuel supplies. South Korea is also building its first nuclear power plant overseas in the Gulf Arab state, the first such facility on the Arabian Peninsula.

The four-day trip was carefully managed for Moon, who faced no questions from journalists in the UAE, which has a deal with Seoul reportedly guaranteeing the Korean militarys automatic intervention in an emergency.

A statement from the South Korean presidency said Moon visited troops taking part in a program called Akh, the Arabic word for brother. The program, running since 2011, has Korean commandos train Emirati forces.

The Akh unit is a symbol of the defense cooperation between South Korea and the United Arab Emirates and will also serve as a stepping stone toward further developing relations between the countries so they would see each other as a brother nation, Moon said in the statement.

Moon later visited Dubais ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, and the Burj Khalifa, the worlds tallest building. While at the tower, he gave a brief speech.

South Korea is now building peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula. Right now is the best time to invest in South Korea, Moon said. If we can stabilize peace in the Korean Peninsula, your investment will bear fruit and new business opportunities will arise.

Neither Moon nor Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha addressed the mysterious armored train that made a round trip from North Korea to Beijing yesterday.

Moon and Kim plan talks in April seeking to defuse tension over Pyongyangs nuclear weapons and missile program. AP
Dr Martin Luther King has taken a crowd of nearly 25,000 people to the steps of the state capital of Montgomery, Alabama to highlight black grievances.

The procession marks the end of a five-day march which started in Selma last week and it brings to a close a month of civil rights protests in Alabama.

Troops policed the roads surrounding the capital and army helicopters hovered overhead as the crowd swelled to nearly 25,000.

Dr King, who addressed the protesters from a podium in the square, described the trek as one of the greatest marches in the history of America.

Our aim is not to humiliate and defeat the white man, but to win his friendship and understanding, he added.

Dr King tried to present a petition of black grievances to Governor George Wallace but he refused to meet the delegation.

The civil rights leader said he would ask trade unions to refuse to transport or use the states products and he urged the Federal Government and the Treasury to withdraw all assistance from the area.

Dr King also said that demonstrations would have to continue where essential conditions remained unmet.

When the march began last week, large bombs were planted at a black church, a funeral parlour and a leading black lawyers home.

They were later discovered and detonated by experts from the army base at Anniston, Alabama.

To prevent further attacks, US President Lyndon Johnson gave the marchers the protection of nearly 3,000 troops, plus FBI and local police assistance.

But three days ago Viola Liuzzo, a white civil rights advocate who had been ferrying demonstrators to their homes, was shot dead on a lonely stretch of road near the route of the march.

Meanwhile, leaders of the Ku-Klux-Klan movement have reportedly tried to contact President Johnson to dicuss his aversion to their organisation.

There was no immediate response from the US President, who recently launched a scathing attack on the group, describing it as a band of hooded bigots, whose loyalty was not with the United States.

Courtesy BBC News

In context

The protests came just months after the signing of the Civil Rights Bill which created equal rights regardless of race, colour, religion or national origin.

The Voting Rights Act, which banned literacy tests and poll taxes which had previously been used to prevent black people from voting, was introduced in August 1965.

But many states acted quickly to circumvent the law and most of the decade was marked by race riots and assassinations.

Further riots followed in Los Angeles in August 1965.

They lasted six days and left 34 dead and a further 1,000 people injured.

Dr King was assassinated in April 1968 and this led to riots in 100 US cities.

Black people continued to remain at a disadvantage when looking for work, and programmes of affirmative action were introduced during the 1970s under President Nixon.
Lawyers for the casino moguls ex-wife say they have evidence of Steve Wynns pattern of reckless behavior and mismanagement of Las Vegas-based Wynn Resorts and will present it during a hearing scheduled to begin this week in state court in Las Vegas. Its the latest move in a yearslong case involving him, Elaine Wynn and the company they founded.

The hearing could feature previous deposition testimony as well as live witnesses, including Elaine Wynn, who has accused her ex-husband, the companys general counsel and members of its board of directors of getting her off the board in 2015 because of her inquiries into company activities. Her contract-related claims are what is left of a broader case that began in 2012.

A portion of the fight between the Wynns ended earlier this month when an agreement that stipulated that they would vote jointly on company matters was deemed legally invalid. These came weeks after Steve Wynn resigned as chairman and CEO of the casino-operating company amid sexual misconduct allegations that were first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

The newspaper reported two months ago that several women said the billionaire harassed or assaulted them and that one case led to a $7.5 million settlement with a manicurist formerly employed by the company. Other allegations and a settlement with a different employee have since surfaced.

Steve Wynn, 76, has vehemently denied the allegations the newspaper reported and attributed them to Elaine Wynn, whose attorney has denied that she instigated the news report.

Tuesdays hearing [US time] was set after the judge denied a motion from Steve Wynns attorneys that sought to exclude from the trial the settlement he entered with the manicurist in 2005; alleged misuse of company resources including aircraft, Rolex watches and Ferrari automobiles; alleged illegal gambling and other misconduct by two company executives; and other issues.

Theyd like to try a case about sex, sexual harassment, illegal gambling, any other allegations that they can throw around without there being any evidence to link those allegations to the claims that she has asserted in this case, Todd Bice, an attorney Wynn Resorts, said during a March 16 hearing.

A so-called Petrocelli hearing like the one scheduled for Tuesday allows attorneys to present a judge, without a jury present, alleged prior bad acts and evidence to support them. The judge then determines whether those acts will be told to the jury.

The proffer of this evidence does not go to Mr. Wynns propensity to commit sexual misconduct, but does go to the potential motivation of the cross-defendants in not re-nominating or supporting Ms. Wynn for the board seat, which is the breach of contract claim, Clark County District Court Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez said during a hearing Friday. Ms. Wynn will have to show by a preponderance of the evidence that she reported each incident that she intends to introduce at trial and that there is credible evidence of the reported event.

Attorneys for Wynn Resorts in court documents have said Elaine Wynn has even gone so far as to contact the attorney for a woman who entered into a settlement with Steve Wynn to ascertain her clients availability to testify at the Petrocelli hearing.

Elaine Wynn owns 9.5 million shares in Wynn Resorts, which she founded with her ex-husband in 2002. Steve Wynn last week sold all his stock in the company.

A larger portion of the yearslong case was settled earlier this month when Wynn Resorts agreed to pay a Tokyo-based company $2.4 billion by the end of March. Regina Garcia Cano, Las Vegas, AP
A blood clot forming in the carotid artery. Credit: copyright American Heart Association

A new study looks at what problems affect people most after a stroke and it provides a broader picture than what some may usually expect to see. Stroke affects more than just physical functioning, according to a study is published the March 28, 2018, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

"After a stroke, people who have only mild disability can often have 'hidden' problems that can really affect their quality of life," said study author Irene L. Katzan, MD, MS, of the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio and a member of the American Academy of Neurology. "And for people with more disability, what bothers them the most? Problems with sleep? Depression? Fatigue? Not many studies have asked people how they feel about these problems, and we doctors have often focused just on physical disability or whether they have another stroke."

The study involved 1,195 people who had an ischemic stroke, or a stroke where blood flow to part of the brain is blocked. They were asked questions about their physical functioning, fatigue, anxiety, sleep problems, thinking skills such as planning and organizing, how much their pain affects other aspects of their life and their satisfaction with their current social roles and activities.

Participants took the questionnaires an average of 100 days after their stroke, and about a quarter of the participants needed help from a family member to fill out the questionnaires. Researchers also measured their level of disability.

The people with stroke had scores that were considerably worse than those in the general population in every area except sleep and depression. Not surprisingly, the area where the people with stroke were most affected was physical functioning, where 63 percent had scores considered meaningfully worse than those of the general population, with an average score of 59, where a score of 50 is considered the population average.

On the question about whether they were satisfied with their social roles and activities, 58 percent of people with stroke had scores meaningfully worse than those of the general population.

"People may benefit from social support programs and previous studies have shown a benefit from efforts to improve the social participation of people with stroke, especially exercise programs," said Katzan.

The thinking skills of people with stroke in executive function, or planning and organizing, were also affected, with 46 percent having scores that were meaningfully worse than the population average.

"The social participation and executive functioning skills are areas that have not received a lot of attention in stroke rehabilitation," Katzan said. "We need to better understand how these areas affect people's well-being and determine strategies to help optimize their functioning."

Limitations of the study include that the questionnaires did not ask about other problems that can occur after stroke, such as communication issues. Also, the study participants had milder strokes on average than people with stroke overall and the average age of participants was 62, which is lower than the average age of 69 for people with stroke overall.

Explore further Higher levels of biomarker linked to increased stroke risk for women
Credit: University of California, San Francisco

UC San Francisco scientists have uncovered a common genetic driver of aggressive meningiomas, which could help clinicians detect such dangerous cancers earlier and lead to new therapies aimed at curing these difficult-to-treat tumors.

Meningiomas are tumors that grow from the layer of tissue that surrounds the brain and spinal cord and are the most common central nervous system tumor in the United States. Although the vast majority are benign and grow slowly, over time they can lead to headaches, seizures, neurological deficits and even death.

Most meningiomas are treatable with radiation therapy or surgery. However, approximately twenty percent of meningiomas are aggressive and can recur even after surgery and radiation therapy. In the new study, published online March 27, 2018, in Cell Reports, a team led by UCSF's David Raleigh, MD, Ph.D., found that increased activity of a gene known as FOXM1 appears to be responsible for the aggressive growth and frequent recurrence of these tumors.

Raleigh, an assistant professor of radiation oncology and of neurological surgery and member of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, hopes the finding will be an important step towards correctly diagnosing these more aggressive tumors: "There haven't been as many studies on what drives 'problem' meningiomas," he said. "For clinicians, patients, and families, these are the most heartbreaking cases because we expect to cure meningiomas, but sometimes we can't and we don't always do a good job of differentiating 'good' and 'bad' meningiomas ahead of time."

In order to investigate what might be driving aggressive meningioma, Raleigh's group examined 280 human meningioma samples collected by Michael McDermott, MD, and other faculty members in the Department of Neurological Surgery at UCSF between 1990 and 2015. Using an array of techniques, including RNA sequencing and targeted gene expression profiling, the researchers searched for links between gene activity and protein production in these tumors and the clinical outcomes of patients.

Raleigh's team found that a gene named FOXM1 was at the heart of aggressive meningioma growth, and a signpost of subsequently poor clinical outcomes, including death. Previous studies have implicated FOXM1, which encodes a transcription factor protein capable of regulating the activity of many other genes, in many other human cancers, including liver, breast, lung, prostate, colon, and pancreatic cancers.

In the new study, the researchers found that heightened FOXM1 activity was the unifying factor between aggressive meningiomas in both men and women, in older and younger patients, and in meningiomas arising in different parts of the brain. Not only did the gene's activation seem to underlie newly diagnosed tumors, but it was also an important driver of tumor recurrence following treatment.

The researchers also identified new links between aggressive meningioma proliferation and activation of an intercellular signaling pathway called Wntwhich typically plays a role during embryonic development and tissue formation. Given that the protein produced by FOXM1 is known to transmit signals along the Wnt pathway, the new data suggests that FOXM1 and the Wnt pathway working in concert may drive subsequent meningioma proliferation.

Raleigh's group also looked at DNA methylationchemical modifications of the genomic material that affects whether or not specific genes are expressed in a given cell. Previous research has identified excessive methylation of DNA, or "hypermethylation," as a ubiquitous aspect of cancer development. The new study found significant hypermethylation in the most aggressive meningiomas, and showed that these DNA modifications specifically silenced genes that usually inhibit FOXM1 expression and Wnt signaling. Together, these findings suggest that hypermethylation may be an early trigger that leads to the development of aggressive forms of meningioma.

But according to Raleigh, future treatments will need to have more refined in their actions than simply blocking FOXM1. Though blocking FOXM1 could halt aggressive meningioma growth, the gene's role in regulating a host of other genes suggests that there would likely be significant "off-target" side effects. "We now need to find out what other genes FOXM1 is activating to drive meningioma growth, and block those targets with clinical therapies," Raleigh said.

These new insights may prove particularly beneficial for older patients that have aggressive meningiomas, because elderly patients have more trouble tolerating the cranial surgeries or recurrent radiation therapies that are currently used to control aggressive tumors.

"Aggressive meningiomas are very insidious tumors. They keep coming back year after year. Sometimes, patients get worn down from the treatments, or become so old they can't tolerate them anymore," Raleigh said. "Often, we run out of time, but with our new molecular insights into meningioma biology we may be able to find new cures for these tumors with fewer side effects and better outcomes."

Explore further Imaging features predict tumor grade

More information: Harish N. Vasudevan et al. Comprehensive Molecular Profiling Identifies FOXM1 as a Key Transcription Factor for Meningioma Proliferation, Cell Reports (2018). Journal information: Cell Reports Harish N. Vasudevan et al. Comprehensive Molecular Profiling Identifies FOXM1 as a Key Transcription Factor for Meningioma Proliferation,(2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2018.03.013
Cancer  Histopathologic image of colonic carcinoid. Credit: Wikipedia/CC BY-SA 3.0

For many years, physicians have puzzled over why people with "clean" colonoscopies went on to develop colon cancer. New findings from the Oklahoma Medical Research may help explain why, and the discovery could lead to ways to detect these cancers earlier and more effectively.

Trailing only lung cancer, colon cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths for men and women, killing 65,000 Americans each year. Still, life expectancy improves considerably if the cancer is detected early: People whose colon cancer is discovered in the earliest stage have a 5-year survival rate of 90 percent, while those whose cancer is found in the latest stage have an 8 percent rate.

The most common method of screening is a colonoscopy, where doctors use a flexible scope to examine the colon. However, certain cancer-causing polyps can be easily missed during these examinations.

"Some polyps are embedded in the surface of the colon, and they're also flat and covered up," said David Jones, Ph.D., who holds the Jeanine Rainbolt Chair for Cancer Research at OMRF. "This makes them incredibly difficult for doctors to detect."

For a long time, said Jones, it was thought that colon cancers that developed in patients who had clean colonoscopies were coming about through some unknown mechanism that didn't involve polyps. "Now it is clear that these hidden polyps might be responsible for up to 30 to 40 percent of colon cancers that develop later," he said.

Working with a team of researchers, Jones analyzed the genetic composition of the hidden polyps. "Most cancersand most polypsneed more than one mutation to form. However, in these polyps, only one gene, called BRAF, was mutated," he said.

Because of these telltale markers identifying the polyps, Jones said, it would be possible to create a diagnostic test to analyze fecal samples to look for these changes prior to a colonoscopy. "If changes are present, it would be a way for the doctors to know to look for a hiding polyp," said Jones.

Further analysis by the researchers also showed that the mutation caused a wave of alterations in the DNA. "It's probably the change in BRAF combined with these changes that leads to polyps forming."

Jones said understanding the downstream effects of BRAF mutation could allow for drug intervention to prevent this cascade of DNA changes from happening altogether. Ultimately, this might prevent the colon cancer from developing.

"The next phase is to look at how the changes in BRAF cause this cascade leading to cancer," he said. "This was a huge step in the right direction that could have clinical relevance for patients in a meaningful way."

The research was published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE. The research was supported by grant Nos. PO1CA073992 and R01CA116468 from the National Cancer Institute, a part of the National Institutes of Health.

Explore further New endoscope to target colon tumours

Provided by Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation
Gram stain of the bacteria Bordetella pertussis. Credit: CDC

Researchers and public health officials have struggled to explain the resurgence of whooping cough in the United States since the late 1970s, and the suspected shortcomings of the current generation of vaccines are often blamed.

But a new University of Michigan-led study concludes that the resurgence of the highly contagious respiratory disease is the result of factorsincluding a phenomenon known as the honeymoon periodthat began in the middle of the last century, long before the latest vaccines were introduced in the late 1990s.

"Conventional wisdom is that the current vaccine is the problem, but that's not consistent with what we see," said Aaron King, a U-M infectious disease ecologist and applied mathematician.

King and colleagues from the Institut Pasteur, the University of Georgia and Queens University concluded that natural population turnover, incomplete vaccination coverage, and slowly waning protection from a highly effective yet imperfect vaccine best explain the resurgence of whooping cough. The disease can be fatal to infants and is also known as pertussis.

"This resurgence is the predictable consequence of rolling out a vaccine that isn't quite perfect and not hitting everybody in the population with that vaccine," said King, a professor in the U-M Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and in the mathematics department.

The team's findings are scheduled for publication March 28 in Science Translational Medicine. The first author of the paper is Matthieu Domenech de Celles, formerly a U-M postdoctoral researcher under King, now at the Institut Pasteur in Paris.

"Our results are important because they show that recent trends in pertussis are not necessarily caused by recent changes in epidemiology or biology," said Domenech de Celles.

"Rather, the contemporary epidemiology of pertussis may be interpreted as a legacy of longstanding immunization practices. It's an important shift of perspective, which makes pertussis a complex but exciting system to study."

The researchers used disease-transmission models and 16 years of age-stratified pertussis incidence data from Massachusetts, along with statistical methods for extracting information from the data. The authors say their results apply to the rest of the United States and to Western Europe.

According to the study, the introduction of the first pertussis vaccine in the late 1940s led to a honeymoon period, a time of very low disease incidence following the start of a vaccination program. The return of pertussis in recent decades signals the end of that honeymoon period, according to the researchers.

In the pre-vaccine era, whooping cough was a very common childhood disease in the United States. Most kids were exposed to Bordetella pertussis, the bacterium that causes it, and their immune systems mounted a strong response that provided long-lasting immunity. As a result of those naturally acquired infections, most adult Americans were immune to pertussis.

Routine vaccination with a whole-cell pertussis vaccine quickly led to a 100-fold reduction in incidence. Actually, two factors accounted for that sharp drop-off: children protected by the new vaccine and adults with natural immunity acquired in the pre-vaccine era.

But as the decades passed, the number of American adults with naturally acquired pertussis immunity gradually declined as that older group died out.

Concurrently, the number of pertussis-susceptible U.S. adults was on the rise, setting the stage for the resurgence. The susceptible adults included people who were not vaccinated as children and who also avoided naturally acquired pertussis infections.

The mathematical model that best fit the 1990-2005 Massachusetts incidence data was one that explains the current resurgence "as a legacy of incomplete vaccination with effective, but imperfect, vaccines against a background of slow demographic turnover, i.e., as an end-of-honeymoon effect," the authors wrote.

The modeling study also supports the idea that protection from the pertussis vaccine gradually wanes over timethough it lasts a lot longer than many experts believed.

Some critics of the current acellular pertussis vaccine say it wears off after five to seven years. But the new study "suggests that current pertussis vaccines provide lifelong protection to 55 percent of people and protect 90 percent of people for more than a decade," said study co-author Pejman Rohani, a population ecologist at the University of Georgia's Odum School of Ecology."Furthermore, our models explain that patterns of pertussis incidence previously attributed to rapid vaccine waning are actually consistent with higher contact rates once children enter school."

Though the current vaccine is effective at reducing levels of the pertussis pathogen circulating in the population, routine vaccination alone will never be sufficient to eradicate the bacterium, the researchers conclude.

In infants, pertussis causes violent, gasping coughing spells and can lead to life-threatening complications. People with whooping cough usually spread the disease by coughing or sneezing while in close contact with others. Parents, older siblings or other caregivers can give whooping cough to babies without even knowing they have the disease.

The modeling study identified primary school children and teenagers as the "core transmission group" mainly responsible for spreading the disease. In one simulation, a booster vaccination effort focused on children ages 5 to 10 or 10 to 20 led to a drop in infant cases of about 25 percent.

"The overwhelming amount of transmission is happening in those age groups," King said. "So, we have to make sure that kids are getting vaccinated before they go to school. That's going to have the biggest impact."

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends a series of five pertussis shots for children under 7. Additional shots are recommended for older children and for some adults.

Pertussis is responsible for 195,000 infant deaths each year worldwide, mostly in the developing world. There were 17,972 reported pertussis cases in the United States in 2016, including six infant deaths, according to the CDC.

Explore further Resurgence of whooping cough may owe to vaccine's inability to prevent infections

More information: M. Domenech de Celles el al., "The impact of past vaccination coverage and immunity on pertussis resurgence," Science Translational Medicine (2018). Journal information: Science Translational Medicine M. Domenech de Celles el al., "The impact of past vaccination coverage and immunity on pertussis resurgence,"(2018). stm.sciencemag.org/lookup/doi/  scitranslmed.aaj1748
Credit: Monash University

Australian Life Insurers will no longer be able to use predictive genetic test results in underwriting, if recommendations tabled yesterday by a Parliamentary Inquiry into Life Insurance are adopted. The recommendations would bring Australia into line with much of the developed world, who have banned the practice, and are being welcomed by Monash Public Health and Preventive Medicine's Head of Genomics, Dr. Paul Lacaze.

Dr. Lacaze says, "This represents an important step forward for Australia. The ban, if implemented, will enable progress in healthcare and medical research by removing a significant 'black-cloud' over the Australian system. The benefits of genomics, of which there are many, can only be achieved if public trust and willingness to participate is maintained, not deterred by insurance fears. We applaud the Inquiry for its in-depth consideration of the issues and recommendations. The government now need to follow this with action to implement the proposed ban and a new regulatory regime."

Dr. Lacaze and colleague Ms Jane Tiller presented to the inquiry conducted by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services in May and December 2017, arguing that the current self-regulated use of genetic information by the industry has negative consequences for consumers and for research. The Inquiry's findings reflect concerns reported by the genetics community that some people forego potentially life-saving tests, or decide not to participate in medical research involving genetic testing, because of fears of genetic discrimination by insurers.

Ms Tiller says, "We welcome the Inquiry's recommendation of an urgent moratorium, which will protect the rights of Australians seeking to proactively manage their genetic health risks, and of research participants who contribute so much to society. We strongly urge the Australian government to ensure implementation of the Inquiry's recommendations as a matter of urgency."

Those bearing the brunt of current practices include Australians at increased risk of cancers due to inherited genetic mutations, including breast and colon cancer, as well as other genetic conditions. The recommendations make allowances for people willingly supplying genetic information to show they are not at risk; for example, a woman with a family history of breast cancer and whose family is known to harbour a BRCA mutation, who can show she does not carry the family mutation.

Some people with inherited cancer mutations can reduce their overall risk of cancer to that of the general population, via mitigating actions such as surgery or increased frequency of cancer surveillance. In a number of Australian cases brought to the Inquiry's attention, individuals who achieved this were still denied life insurance coverage.

The current practice is also a serious concern for Australian medical researchers, in this critical period of evidence generation for genomics. All genetic testing results, including research results, must be disclosed to life insurers by applicants, which has led to some people declining to participate in genetic research. The Inquiry's findings recognise the dangers this poses to the success of Australian genomics initiatives.

The Inquiry calls for the Financial Services Council to urgently update its code to prohibit the practice, and that until the Code is updated, a ban be implemented. It further recommends the government should monitor the FSC's implementation of these changes and implement legislation if life insurers fail to implement or abide by them.

Explore further Balancing rights and responsibilities in insurers' access to genetic test results
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.

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Credit: Philip Mowbray/Shutterstock

Life expectancy and health outcomes worsen the more deprived an area or population is, new research from Cass Business School has found.

The researchers discovered that men are more adversely impacted by deprivation and the southeast of England is less deprived than the rest of the countrywith the five most deprived districts all in the north of England.

The research paper Inequalities matter investigated the impact of deprivation on demographic inequalities in England, forecast to 2030. It was conducted by Cass for the International Longevity CentreUK (ILC-UK).

The researchers used the government-preferred Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) to measure deprivation. The IMD is based on 37 separate indicators including income and are grouped into seven domains, each of which reflects a different aspect of deprivation across the lifespan including education, health and crime.

Gap between rich and poor worsening

They found that although life expectancy is increasing overall and the life expectancies of men and women are converging, any improvements are slower paced in more deprived areas, with the net gap between rich and poor slowly worsening over time.

Men more adversely impacted

Men tend to be more adversely impacted by deprivation than women, with the gap in life expectancy at age 30 between the top and bottom one per cent of deprived neighbourhoods at 10.9 years for men and 8.4 years for women.

Men are 4.4 times more likely to die at the age of 44 in the most deprived 10 per cent of neighbourhoods, when compared to the 10 per cent of least deprived neighbourhoods.

Deprivation skewed towards the north

The researchers confirmed that deprivation in England is heavily skewed towards urban areas, with the top five districts of deprivation in Northern England  Middlesbrough, Knowsley on Merseyside, Kingston-upon-Hull, Liverpool and Manchester. By contrast in London, only Tower Hamlets, Haringey and Hackney fall into the top 50 deprived districts.

Life expectancy differences due to unhealthy lifestyles

Lead researcher Professor Les Mayhew, Cass Business School, said many of the differences in life expectancy between districts can be explained by unhealthy lifestyles and a lack of social mobility and investment.

"The causes of ill health are increasingly lifestyle related and rooted in the cultures of different socio-economic groups  think smoking, excessive drinking, obesity, drug abuse and mental illness. Efforts are being made to improve health outcomes in deprived areas but more resources need to be provided for preventative measures, training and education. Policy tools aimed at changing behaviour using financial incentives including taxes have shown to be successful and should also be considered."

Professor Mayhew said a positive finding from the report was the gradual reduction in inequalities across the lifespan between men and women.

"This will lead to fewer years of female isolation in later life and longer working lives for women which will have a positive impact on their retirement savings and general health and wellbeing," he said.

However, Professor Mayhew said the gap between rich and poor is widening and the fact that particular districts were more adversely impacted by deprivation was a cause for concern.

"The geographical pattern of deprived districts in England is well established and the reputation of these districts as undesirable places to live tends to go before them, making them unattractive places to invest in. If Government is serious about redressing inequalities, creating attractive job opportunities for the young and investing in training and education is one way do this."

Implications for policymakers and civil society

Baroness Sally Greengross OBE, Chief Executive, ILC-UK, said the report had important implications for policymakers and civil society alike.

"The report's call for greater targeted investment in public health is welcome, but sadly echoes calls made by the International Longevity Centre and other experts that have gone unheeded for far too long. If the UK is to realise the potential of our rapidly ageing population and all that could mean for our society, we must ensure that the benefits of longevity are shared by all."

Inequalities matter: an investigation into the impact of deprivation on demographic inequalities in adults will be launched on Wednesday 28th March and can be read here.

Explore further Young at wrong end of deprivation gap, finds study
A new study indicates that patients with alcohol-related liver cancer often do not live as long as patients with liver cancer that is not associated with alcohol consumption, mainly due to diagnoses at later stages. Published early online in Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the findings indicate that efforts should be made to improve both screening for early signs of liver cancer and the management of alcohol abuse.

Liver cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide, with hepatitis B and C infections being the main causes. Alcohol abuse and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease are other dominant risk factors. Due to improvements in the treatment of hepatitis infections and increased alcohol consumption in some regions, it is likely that alcohol will become a leading cause of liver cancer in the near future. Indeed, alcohol is already the first cause of liver cancer in France and involved in 25 percent to 30 percent of diagnoses in the United States. The real US figure is likely higher as alcohol consumption is often underreported when another risk factor is present.

To compare aspects of alcohol-related and non-alcohol-related liver cancer, Charlotte Costentin, MD, of Hopital Henri-Mondor in France, and her colleagues examined 894 patients with newly diagnosed liver cancer who were followed for 5 years; 582 patients (65 percent) had a history of chronic alcohol abuse and 312 (35 percent) did not. Investigators also recorded whether patients with alcohol-related liver cancer were abstinent or not at the time of cancer diagnosis.

A total of 601 patients had died by the time of the investigators' final analyses. Alcohol-related liver cancers were more likely to be diffuse and were detected in patients with worse liver function. Median overall survival was 9.7 versus 5.7 months in the non-alcohol-related and alcohol-related groups respectively. When investigators looked at each stage of cancer individually, however, survival was similar in patients with non-alcohol-related and alcohol-related cancer. The findings suggest that patients with alcohol-related liver cancer have a reduced overall survival mainly due to worse liver function and tumor characteristics at diagnosis.

The analysis also examined whether patients were participating in cirrhosis follow-up programs before their cancers were diagnosed. (Most people who develop liver cancer show signs of scarring, or cirrhosis, in the liver, and international guidelines recommend ultrasound every six months to detect early liver cancer in patients with cirrhosis.) Patients whose liver cancer was detected during a cirrhosis follow-up program had improved survival compared with patients whose cancer was diagnosed incidentally. This was especially pronounced in patients with non-alcohol-related liver disease or those with alcohol-related liver disease who are no longer drinking alcohol compared with non-abstinent patients. Also, non-abstinent alcoholic patients had the lowest survival in the study, even when restricting the analysis to patients involved in cirrhosis follow-up programs.

"To improve prognosis of liver cancer in the alcoholic population, efforts should be made to implement effective screening programs for both cirrhosis and liver cancer, and to improve access to alcoholism treatment services," said Dr. Costentin. "A smaller tumor burden and a better liver function at diagnosis should translate into higher rates of patients with alcohol-related liver cancer amenable to curative treatment such as tumor resection or ablation and liver transplantation."

Explore further Worldwide lack of early referral of patients with alcoholic liver disease

More information: "Hepatocellular carcinoma is diagnosed at a later stage in alcoholic patients: results of a prospective nationwide study." Cancer (2018). Journal information: Cancer "Hepatocellular carcinoma is diagnosed at a later stage in alcoholic patients: results of a prospective nationwide study."(2018). DOI: 10.1002/31215
Former communications minister Faith Muthambi must go to prison.

ANC MP Lerumo Kalako and DA MP Phumzile van Damme agreed on this, but not on whether the Portfolio Committee on Communications should have an inquiry about Muthambis maligned tenure as communications minister.

Last year, Deputy Speaker Lechesa Tsenoli wrote to the committee to instruct them to hold an inquiry into allegations in a report by Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA), that Muthambi had sent confidential information from Cabinet meetings to Tony Gupta, as revealed in the Gupta Leaks.

The committee met on Tuesday to determine a way forward.

Committee chairperson Humphrey Maxegwana said there were also the matters in the report by the ad hoc committee that investigated the former SABC board.

Van Damme said the matter went beyond Muthambi sending emails to the Guptas. She wants the committee to investigate deeper, including matters relating to MultiChoice, ANN7 and the finding that Muthambi had lied to Parliament when she appeared before the ad hoc committee.

The public expects of us to conduct an inquiry into a matter that was put before us, she said.

Kalako disagreed and said those matters were dealt with by the ad hoc committee and that OUTA had evidence about the emails.

The state capture inquiry will deal with all issues relating to state capture, he added.

Muthambi has lied to the ad hoc committee.

Muthambi must go to prison, he said. It is a simple thing.

OUTA (has) evidence, it is there.

Maxagwana responded that OUTAs report was clear: There is a lot of evidence.

He pointed out that the implementation of the ad hoc committees findings was with the Speakers office and added that the matters should be referred to Parliaments ethics committee.

Van Damme stepped in and said: Honourable Kalako and me agree on one thing  Honourable Muthambi must go to jail.

She said, as a committee, they had failed to impress on the Speaker to take action on reports that Muthambi had lied to Parliament.

Cope MP Willie Madisha believed that Muthambi must be executed, politically, meaning that she should lose her seat as an MP.

Yes, we must send this person to jail, if feasible, he said. This person cannot represent the people of South Africa.

Kalako said the committee can still call anyone it wished to.

Maxegwana assured that the committee would still meet about the MultiChoice/ANN7 matter, which pleased Van Damme.

It is alleged that Muthambi pushed through policies to delay digital migration, to the benefit of MultiChoice.

The committee decided to write to the Speaker to inform her that an inquiry was, in its view, not the correct course of action and that the OUTA matter should be referred to the ethics committee. They will also ask for an update on the findings of the ad hoc committee.

Former president Jacob Zuma appointed Muthambi communications minister in 2014.

After the ad hoc committee found that she was incompetent, Zuma appointed her as the minister of the public service and administration in his dramatic late-night Cabinet reshuffle in March last year. Her tenure in this portfolio was also not without controversy.

She was left out of President Cyril Ramaphosas Cabinet.

Parliaments legal services found that Muthambis testimony before the committee could be seen as an attempt to mislead the inquiry.

Last month, the Public Service Commission said it will look into allegations that Muthambi expanded her private office while minister of public service and administration to include 40 staff members  including some family members and friends.

Muthambi has previously denied any wrongdoing. She is still an MP and a member of the ANCs national executive committee.

News24
The operator of Sharebeast.com, Newjams.net, and Albumjams.com has been sentenced to five years in prison, Sophos reported.

Artur Sargsyan, a 30 year-old man, pleaded guilty to one felony count of criminal copyright infringement related to Sharebeast.

According to the US Department of Justice, the site facilitated unauthorised distribution and reproduction of over one billion copies of copyrighted works.

The department said that Sargsyan pirated thousands of songs that had not yet been officially released.

Law enforcement shut down his sites in August 2015, with police in the UK and the Netherlands helping the FBI to seize the servers he was using.

While the RIAA estimated the damages to its member companies was around $6.3 billion, the court ordered a significantly smaller amount in restitution and forfeiture.

Sargsyan was ordered to pay restitution of $458,200 and ordered to forfeit $184,768.

Sophos concluded that much of that money may have come from the pop-up ads on his sites.

Now read: Six years in jail for online pirates in Sweden
Russia Federal Security Service blocks large network of illicit traffic in narcotic drugs coordinated by Turkey

Thousand-man demonstrations taking place in Berlin ahead of elections

Brazil President's son tests positive for COVID-19 after trip to New York

Armenia PM: Karabakh conflict can't be considered resolved through the use of force

Karabakh Ombudsman: Azerbaijan's raging battle against state emblems of Artsakh is manifestation of Armenophobia

Armenia MP: All cases of Special Investigation Service will be transferred to Corruption Prevention Commission

Armenia MOD receives UK Ambassador

Opposition Armenia faction of National Assembly of Armenia to hold consultation

Saakashvili promises to return to Georgia soon

Digest: Russian and French FMs discuss Karabakh situation, more on COVID-19 situation in Armenia

Erdogan says improvement of Turkey-US relations is necessary

Nakhchivan's ex-internal affairs minister sentenced to 11 years in prison

Armenia parliament approves several amendments and supplements to existing laws

Armenian political party leader: Aliyev accused Armenia of everything that Azerbaijan needs to be accused of

Opposition "Armenia" faction MP: Azerbaijan is preparing to implement agreements reached behind our backs

Armenian deputy parliamentary speaker: There are confidential ties and talks between Armenia and Turkey

Karabakh Investigative Committee accepts for proceedings case of Azerbaijani soldiers who fired at harvesters

First autumn snow falls on Armenias Mount Aragats (VIDEO)

Armenia parliament holding special session for the second time today

Azerbaijan hands over one fallen soldiers remains to Armenian side, in Artsakhs Shushi

Armenia PM: We intend to fully implement Police reforms

Armenia minister: Enlargement of communities will entail job cuts

Asian Development Bank forecasts GDP growth of 5.2% in Armenia for 2021, 3.5% for 2022

Opposition MP: 110,000 people already left Armenia this year

Armenia State Revenue Committee chairman meets with Eurasian Economic Commission minister

Armenia seasoned diplomat dies

Dollar still losing value in Armenia

Armenia Central Bank chief attends 22nd session of Monetary Policy Advisory Council

China Ambassador to Armenia meets with students of Chinese-Armenian Friendship School (PHOTOS)

Armenia Ombudsman receives US ex-Ambassador, presents Azerbaijan's violations of borderline residents' rights

Newly appointed Ambassador of Nigeria presents Letters of Credence to Armenia President

Armenia Parliament Speaker receives UAE Charge d'Affaires

Armenian and Iranian FMs meet, Armenia's Goris-Kapan road also discussed

Defense minister receives head of Red Cross delegation in Armenia

Armenia Security Council secretary: We raise Goris-Kapan road issue in discussions with Russia colleagues, Azerbaijan

Aliyev: Putin asked me not to humiliate Pashinyan in our presence during signing of November 9 statement

Armenia Security Council chief: We need to normalize relations with Turkey

Armenia parliament passes, in 1st reading, controversial changes to law on community enlargement

FM, Jordan deputy PM confer on Armenian POWs, Azerbaijan provocations

Azerbaijan files lawsuit against Armenia with International Court of Justice

Minute of silence to be observed, church requiem services to be offered in Artsakh on September 27

Armenia PM on COVID-19 situation: We definitely have to do it if we sense there is need to get vaccinated again

Russia and France express mutual commitment to further work to stabilize Nagorno-Karabakh situation

Health minister on coronavirus situation in Armenia: About 85% of our bed capacity already used

Pashinyan: Vaccine protects against COVID-19 by 97.5%

906 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Opposition factions boycott Armenia legislature special session

Armenia FM lauds Cyprus principled position on Karabakh issue

Azerbaijan submits new bids to buy weapons from Russia

Armenia FM, UN Commissioner discuss issues of displaced Artsakh Armenians

Azerbaijans Aliyev offers Armenia peace in exchange for Zangezur corridor

Nearly 20 EU countries propose to re-elect Ghebreyesus as WHO chief

Newspaper: Artsakh President targeted

Trump leads in terms of voter support

Newspaper: Armenia government members to come to parliament

Scientists warn of magnetic storms on Earth this week

Schoolchildren and parents get into massive brawl on Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan border

Deputy PM: No corridor issue being discussed, any passage through Armenia's sovereign territory will imply transit

Armenia FM at UN General Assembly: We call on increasing pressure on Azerbaijan

Armenia Deputy PM: It's rather difficult to say when Amulsar gold mine will be opened

Armenia FM meets with Finnish counterpart

Armenia Deputy PM: Pashinyan-Erdogan meeting is not planned

Turkey's Erdogan: We are receiving positive messages from Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan

Armenia 1st President hosts Kyrgyzstan's ex-president

Armenia FM meets with Council of Europe Secretary General

Armenia PM sends congratulatory message to Catholicos Patriarch of Armenian Catholic Church

Armenia Emergency Situations Ministry: Iranians didn't participate in putting out fire near park

Armenia PM orders to ensure enforcement of order for COVID-19 vaccination or PCR test starting October 1

Armenian lawyer: I won't force my employees to get PCR test for COVID-19 and will protect their rights in court

Armenia PM sacks Public Council Secretariat chief

Armenian man charged under organizing of illegal migration in Russia shows up to Armenia police station

France FM to meet with US counterpart

Armenia justice minister introduces newly appointed head of Penitentiary Service

Digest: US Congress demands Armenian POWs release in Baku, more on COVID-19 vaccination in Armenia

Armenian, Russian and Azerbaijani Prosecutors General meet in Kazakhstan

Russia ambassador to Armenia underscores continued development of multipolar cooperation bridges

Armenia peacekeepers in Kosovo mark Independence Day anniversary

US Under Secretary of State: We look forward to progress, including via OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair mechanism

Azerbaijan FM declares country's willingness to normalize relations with Armenia

US, Russia start talks over sustainable development at level of business

Mirziyoyev: Uzbekistan-Armenia cooperation will continue to consistently develop

Tehran says Georgia border guards' conduct against Iran citizens is unacceptable

Karabakh emergency service: Remains of another fallen soldier found

Iranian president invites Turkish counterpart to Iran for official visit

Dollar continues dropping in Armenia

21st Catholicos Patriarch of Catholic Armenians elected

Biden plans to attend G20 summit in Rome

4 new cases of coronavirus reported in Artsakh

Baku fires at Iranian helicopter

Armenia Ombudsman assesses observation of Russian State Duma elections

Armenia health minister: There is differentiated attitude towards COVID-19 vaccines

EU envoy reaffirms their continued assistance to democratic reforms in Armenia

Biden's advisor and Erdogan's spokesperson discuss situation in Caucasus after 44-day war

Poland to install 250 American Abrams tanks in east of country

Armenia parliament opposition faction leader: Azerbaijan, Turkey have no desire to build their policy on logic of peace

Turkey sends several thousand more troops to Syria

EU urges Iranian foreign minister to resume talks on Tehran's nuclear dossier

Syrian citizen arrested in absentia for murder of Russian military pilot in Syria

Criminal case filed for writing insulting comment under Armenia PM's photo on Facebook

Chronicles of Aurora to leave Yerevans Matenadaran for first time to be displayed at San Lazzaro Island in Venice
YEREVAN.  The U.S. Embassy in Yerevan has issued a statement in relation to inaccurate reports about U.S. budget spending.

The budget agreement recently signed by U.S. President Donald J. Trump includes funding for foreign assistance programs, including those in Armenia. Recent reports that the funding plan eliminates all foreign assistance to Armenia are wrong and based on a misunderstanding of the U.S. budget process, the Embassy said in a statement.

Given the strong separation of powers in the U.S. Constitution, multiple branches of government, agencies, and lawmakers each have a role to play in setting our annual budget and spending priorities. The U.S. Congress authorizes the overall budget and allocates money to various executive agencies, such as the Department of State and USAID. In doing so, Congress provides these agencies with partial independent authority on how to spend those funds to achieve overarching goals. It is a decision made through an inter-agency process, involving a variety of stakeholders and interested parties. Through that process the Congressionally-approved amount of funding is divided between countries and programs, with the overall total not exceeding the amount originally approved by lawmakers.

In certain cases, Congress uses its authority to set specific spending requirements, something called an earmark. In this years budget bill, like in past years, Congress used this power to earmark some assistance funds to specific countries (in the region these include directed earmarks for Ukraine and Georgia). The remaining $58 million in assistance funding allocated by Congress for use in Europe and Eurasia will be divided among a number of countries without earmarks  including Armenia -- with spending levels determined through the interagency process.

This budget process is not a change from previous years. Funding for Armenia was not specifically required by Congress through an earmark, but it has not been so for several years. This lack of an earmark does not mean Armenia will receive no foreign assistance. The decision on how to divide funding for Europe and Eurasia  including how much foreign assistance will be allocated to Armenia and for what programs -- is currently under discussion in the State Department and USAID.

For 25 years the United States has been a strong partner and friend of Armenia given our shared values. In fact, U.S. foreign assistance spending in Armenia has been rising in recent years, with funding reaching almost $23 million in 2017. USAID alone spent $1.1 billion in Armenia since its independence and is currently managing a portfolio that is valued at $70 million and spans 28 different activities.

Given that the bill signed by President Trump earlier this month maintains foreign assistance spending at a level similar to last year, indications are positive that a robust level of assistance funding for Armenia will remain. We will keep the Armenian government and people informed as the spending discussions continue in Washington.
YEREVAN.- Vincenzo Del Monaco, the newly appointed Ambassador of Italy to Armenia delivered his credentials to Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan on Wednesday, the press service of the Presidents Office reported.

Congratulating on the occasion of assuming the post of the Ambassador, the President of the Republic wished him success and hoped by his active efforts the newly appointed Ambassador will foster the deepening of Armenian-Italian traditionally friendly relations dating back centuries ago and the development of cooperation in various spheres.

The sides shared the opinion that the high level Armenian-Italian interstate relations are developing based on firm historical grounds and the rich cultural heritage of the two peoples, but according to the interlocutors, the potentials and expectations of developing relations are far more.

Ambassador Vincenzo Del Monaco assured that he will spare no efforts to justify the trust he enjoys and will maximally contribute to deepening and strengthening of relations between Italy and its reliable partner Armenia.

The Ambassador praised the Armenian community in Italy, which, according to him, greatly fosters the development of the social, political, economic and cultural life of the country.
If people can age with class, then Harlene Goodrich, 80, and Dorothy Kelly, 91, should be considered aging s rock stars.

These womentwo strangers from opposite ends of the country and the poles of politicsagree on the basics on how to age well:

 Form and reform circles of supportive friends

 Actively participate in political and non-political groups

 Find outlets for creative talents

 Keep physically active

Stay emotionally active in ways that inspire the mind and nurture the spirit

At a time when women increasingly live into their 90s and more men reach their 80s, the art of aging requires work, thought, planning and, yes, spontaneity.

Learning this art is crucial, as many Americans now have a realistic chance of living beyond 80, said Mark Williams, an attending physician at the New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington, N.C., and author of The Art and Science of Aging Well: A Physicians Guide to a Healthy Body, Mind and Spirit.

I dont think we give enough respect to what it takes to age welluntil it happens to you, said Anne Newman, 62, professor and chair of epidemiology in the Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh. Its a balance between fighting it and accepting it that requires a great deal of grace and courage.

And humor. Perhaps, humor most of all.

Goodrich, a former schoolteacher who lives in Seal Beach, California, still meets regularly with her friends who retired from teaching. When the group gathered recently for a holiday cookie exchange, Goodrichwho has had serious back surgery and knee surgery over the past decadeheard several of the women, ages 65 to 83, complaining about their aches and pains. She stopped the discussion and said they would go around the table and give each woman five minutes to complain about her aches and pains. Thats when everyone broke out laughing, recalled Goodrich.

Humor is an important thing when you reach the point in your life when every week contains at least one doctors appointment, she said.

Humor is no less important to Kelly, who turns 92 in October. Ive always preferred to look at the happy things in life, she says. Perhaps her longevity comes from her ability to laugh at the things so many others stress over. When I turn off the light at night, I turn off the world.

Never mind that the two women are polar opposites politically.

Goodrich jetted cross-country from her longtime California home just blocks from the beach to join the womens march in Washington, D.C., last year. Kelly, a retired pharmacist who lives in the Pittsburgh area, was the first female Republican elected to the town council in her Democratic districtat age 78then was re-elected at age 81. And she still helps with voter registration.

It doesnt matter what political party you supportwhat matters most is that you care enough to get involved, both women agree.

Both women say the key to aging well is to positively begin the process when you are still young by staying engaged with people and with stimulating activities.

Aging starts when youre younger and continues when youre older, said Kelly, who lives in a retirement village outside Pittsburgh.

For years, Kelly has been known for her cooking and parties. She invited eight family members over for Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners last year that she prepared in her apartment. She outdid herself one evening around the holidays hosting 20 people from her retirement village for a walnut torte baked from scratch. She still does her own shopping and drives herself to the grocery store.

Goodrich insists that reaching 80 has not felt limiting but, rather, inspiring. She recently celebrated with her two children and seven grandchildren at a bed-and-breakfast in Kentuckys horse country. During her 80th birthday dinner, her children surprised her with an Elvis impersonator who crooned Love Me Tender.

Goodrich, who at 50 returned to school to get her masters degree in professional writing from the University of Southern California, has since won several playwriting contests, and those plays were ultimately produced at three different festivals. She also self-published a childrens book at age 60.

No one suddenly gets old, Goodrich said. I think were all on the path of life. I may be old in years, but Im the same person whos been living the same life. The key is to participate in each stage along the way.

Sometimes that participation is painful. Both Goodrich and Kelly are widowed. Kelly lost her husband, George, just two weeks before what would have been their 50th wedding anniversary. They met as students in pharmacy school, got married, had two children and traveled the world together.

After George died, a grieving Kelly started writing daily letters to him for nearly two years, which helped her through the loss. I have a whole stack of letters, but Im not sure if anyone wants to see them, she said.

Goodrich lost her second husband, Michael, also a schoolteacher, after 33 years of marriage, but not before the two accomplished an incredible feat: walking the state of California. They did this over many years in bits and pieces starting in 1983, and finally completed the long journey from San Diego to the Oregon border in 2005, when Goodrich was 68.

But shes not done exploring. Shes not done setting goals. Shes not done growing. Goodrich took her family to Frances Loire Valley in 2016. She works with a personal trainer twice a week and walks daily, often to the beach. And she has recently taken up the ukulele, and attends a regular class.

Kelly, meanwhile, regularly lectures on historical figures from Benjamin Franklin to Betsy Ross, then donates her speaking fees for the protection of an 18th-century church that still stands not far from where she lives.

Neil Rosenthal, an author and counselor in the Denver area, has a simple term for what drives Kelly and Goodrich to continue accomplishing such great things in their 80s and 90s: a sense of wonder.

If you dont do these kinds of things, you will grow old; and if you do do these things, you will still grow oldbut much more slowly, said Rosenthal.

Aging well is something that must be learned, Rosenthal said.

Its all about separating out what matters from what doesnt.

In the end, its about that willingnessif not desire  to have fun, even into your 80s, 90s and, perhaps, beyond, he said.

Fun? Wait. Who equates aging with fun? Well, not long before her spinal surgery and knee replacement, Goodrich went zip-lining when she was 70.

Out of fearor a sense of too much comfortthe majority of older folks say no to many opportunities for new experiences, added Goodrich.

Not her.

I say yes, said Goodrich. I always say yes.

Bruce Horovitz is a writer for Kaiser Health News, which originally published this article. KHNs coverage of these topics is supported by John A. Hartford Foundation and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
Home | News | General | BeepMagnet unveils Health Insurance scheme

By Chris Onuoha

Meeting hospital bills at an emergency health challenge could be emotionally and financially devastating, especially when adequate measures are not put in place to cushion such occurrence. Often times, the stress in meeting the bills could also cause another health risk or lead to death of a patience on emergency. As emergency occurs without notice, preparation should not be taken for granted.

In the light this, a stress free health insurance scheme called BeepHealthcare was unveiled in Lagos at the companys head office, Ikeja last weekend to meet the yearning need of all.

BeepHealthcare scheme comes under the auspice of BeepMagnet International group, a versatile company that has carved a niche in the Crypto-currency platform in Nigeria. With the introduction of healthcare insurance scheme, BeepHealthcare is poised to contribute to the health need of the society through easy and accessible scheme that comes in variances called, SisiBox Scheme, Community Health Management Project and Stem Cell Therapy, all coming under an exclusive Simple Merchant Users discounted card.

The President, BeepMagnet Group, Amb. Gilead Okolonkwo in his remarks during the unveiling disclosed that BeepHealthcare is focused on providing health need of the people through discounted cards that has other benefits.

Beep Healthcare is an insurance scheme that provides solution. It is not only about you providing solution, but we have actually made it look more like providing health care free for everyone. We must understand that health is wealth and we as an organisation is focused on making this accessible to everyone. The issue of healthcare cover is not only for those who work in big companies.

We are looking at individuals who are entrepreneurs, businessmen and women who are married and looking forward to get pregnant and having children. The health care is actually robust because there are variances that include SisiBox- we know that every woman has a normal monthly call. Under this platform, when you subscribe, you get a box that should take care of your monthly period without having to worry about it. This is more beneficial to students and working ladies who out tight schedule who often forget to have their sanitary box handy. With this scheme, your subscription delivery covers the stress and the box contains other incentives other than the normal sanitary pad.

Another one is annual Community Check Health Scheme. This is one vital scheme that will solve a lot health issues in this country. In this scheme, we will partner with government as it is done in Korea where it works through our research. We found out that through urine, about 70 different kinds of diseases can be detected. Families or hereditary problems can easily be detected and be solved before it escalates through this scheme.

And lastly, BeepHealthcare Insurance Cover. You can see that some terminal illness, such as diabetes, high blood pressure among other illnesses requires huge amount of money to cure. When meeting the bill becomes a problem, then, BeepHealthcare insurance come to aid. We are not only caring for working class but also for unemployed who registers and sign up with the scheme with benefits.

At the Panel of discussion by medical experts during the unveiling, audience were taken to a journey of health talk and risks of not preparing adequately against emergencies. The panelists shed lights on need to be insured under the new cover, explained that information gap is one major challenge many people are having in getting medical help in a simple and accessible way. They explained that Insurance is the key factor for financial planning that covers exigencies over time.

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Figures do not lie, the number of elderly people (above sixty) in our beloved Zimbabwe could be less than a third of the population. The majority of whom stay by themselves as widows or widowers since most young relatives including children are away in the diaspora, towns and cities in search of better lives.

Cases of suicide by the lonely aged are on the rise, a possible result of stress, depression and abject poverty. Others die in unexplained fires on account of poor eyesight and dangerous housekeeping or is it hut-keeping? The state of the economy may be the reason why young people cannot take care of the elderly or its mere neglect.

Widows are at times wantonly accused of witchcraft, leading to murders at the hands of their relatives. After failing to secure a job in towns, some short-sighted youths worsen their situations by attacking the elderly villagers. Self-appointed false prophets are exacerbating the already precarious situation by falsely accusing the aged of being witches. Shame on these devil's advocates, God is watching.

In view of the aforementioned, the government should seriously consider looking after the aged since churches and society have failed the senior citizens. A monthly twenty-dollar stipend would not dent the national purse. Let's take care of the aged, a fountain of wisdom.

Thomas Murisa. Harare.
Stuttgart was in the grip of the mother of all cold snaps, and sheltering in one of the more secretive sections of Zuffenhausen HQ that afternoon, I got my first glimpse of the all-new 911 GT3 RS. The car was counting time in the off-limits Porsche Exclusive area, box-fresh and finished in pure White, to my mind the best colour to offset those race-derived carbon elements. And my arrival, as it often turns out here, was no coincidence. This car was being prepped for yours truly and my orders were pretty simple: put some miles on it.

So it was a quick kip in Stuttgart that night, then up early to embark on my first long stint behind the wheel, en route to a friend's house in Villars-sur-Ollon. I had four days to play with, and the GT department wanted to see at least 2k on the clock when I brought it home. Sometimes, you just have to do what youre told.

Straight out into central Stuttgart traffic then, and as tractable as the most powerful normally aspirated 911 ever made proved to be, the autobahn was beckoning, and with it the opportunity to stretch those long, high-revving legs.

Put some miles on the 911 GT3 RS  that was Webber's order

It didnt take long to clock some respectable numbers on Germanys derestricted straight stuff, where the cars stability simply blew me away. And another surprising factor was the refinement. For a lightweight, track-focused car with reduced sound insulation, even at serious speeds the level of noise in the GT3 RS is pretty much the perfect balance between raw emotion and useable daily comfort.

Laying down the miles for about four hours, I eventually pulled over to grab my first tank of fuel. When I emerged from the bathroom the car was surrounded by people taking photos and asking questions. Turned out the as-yet unlaunched GT3 RS was already hot property. And definitely not a car for going under the radar.

The last 10km up to Villars is super twisty, super steep and full of challenging hairpins, so this was the first real opportunity to test the agility and braking of the RS. Leaving the selfie session behind, I opened her up again and began to climb. The steering response, the precision and the instant confidence the car gave me to push was incredible. The higher I went, the more snow there was at the side of the road, and yet that confidence never wavered. At that sort of lick, Day 1 was over all too soon. And as nice as it was to arrive, that road, in that car, wanted to be twice as long.

Mark Webber examines the new GT3 RS: box-fresh and finished in pure White

The itinerary for Day 2 looked pretty good however: from Switzerland to Monaco and through the Mont Blanc tunnel, although the weather was still creating some dicey driving conditions as I pointed the RS south. For a GT3 car with increased track focus, it never missed a beat, always calm and composed, visibility always excellent. Just the odd squirt of washer liquid for the wipers was all that was required, and for an ex-racing driver this is bloody important; a perfectly clean screen at all times.

Arriving in the south of France, I was now on some very familiar roads, the hills behind Monaco the perfect place for testing the RSs insane change of direction. And the perfect excuse to crack a window and hear that exhaust note, echoing through the tunnels and bouncing off the cliffs. Safe to say the locals knew I was coming, and even among the high-end metal of Monaco, that rich flat-six stood apart. That night, I tucked her up in the underground car park  front axle lifting system working an absolute treat  and tracked down some old friends.

A good night in Monaco meant a bit of a late start on Day 3, inching out of town towards Parma at a little gone 2pm. These would be the slowest and most treacherous conditions of the whole trip, with the aggressive front spoiler of the GT3 RS tucked up behind a snow plough as it cleared the main route east into Italy. But the stereo was on and the RS on song, taking it all in its stride on those implacable winter tyres.

It was slow and steady along the busy autostrada, arriving in Parma just in time for dinner. The friends I was meeting had a motorsport background and inevitably they all wanted a go in the GT3 RS. One of them was a newbie to PDK and simply couldn't believe the speed of the system. I said Paolo, my friend, this is normal for Porsche, as we barreled out of wet roundabout, hunting out another 9000rpm shift point. Challenging conditions for any car, but the RS lapped it up and I was so happy to show it off to him.

Day 4 was to be my last with the car  Parma back to Stuttgart, the longest single trip at around seven hours. Two things about this stretch were pretty interesting though: I drove a hefty four hours 45mins before nature called and my legs, back and backside were absolutely no problem when I clambered out of the car. In terms of comfort as well as ergonomics, that driving position is simply perfect for me.

The other surprisingly thing about the return leg was that I drove from Parma to Stuttgart on a single tank of fuel, despite having given that 4.0-litre unit another proper work out on the autobahn. Again, the refueling process required plenty of car chat and a fair few selfies, but an outside temperature of minus 5 meant we were all keen to keep moving.

So Tuesday night I rolled back into Zuffenhausen and reluctantly handed over the keys. Im incredibly proud of what the GT team has been able to produce in the RS: a lightweight, high-revving, incredibly versatile yet highly emotional street car. I need to wait a few more weeks to see how it fairs on track, but I already have a pretty good idea. Watch this space.
Colombo (AFP) - Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena Wednesday reduced the responsibilities of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as a power struggle worsened within their uneasy coalition.

Sirisena took away the central bank, the policy-making National Operations Room and several other institutions from the control of Wickremesinghe, who had held them since coming to power in January 2015.

The changes were published in a government gazette notice issued Wednesday which transferred the responsibilities to Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera.

There was no official explanation for why the Central Bank of Sri Lanka had been taken away from the prime minister's control. In 2015 a central bank governor appointed by Wickremesinghe, Arjuna Mahendran, was accused of insider trading.

Sirisena appointed a special inquiry which cleared Wickremesinghe of any wrongdoing. But Mahendran was held responsible for passing sensitive information to his bond-dealer son-in-law Arjun Aloysius to make $75 million in undue profits.

Sirisena joined hands with Wickremesinghe's United National Party (UNP) to oust strongman president Mahinda Rajapakse in January 2015 after a decade in power.

But since then their alliance has fractured, with Sirisena clashing with free-market champion Wickremesinghe over economic policy.

Relations worsened further after their coalition did badly in local government elections last month.

The president blamed the premier for their electoral setbacks.

Earlier this year, Sirisena publicly lambasted Wickremesinghe and his UNP, saying they had mismanaged the economy. Sirisena said the current government was also more corrupt than the former regime they toppled together.

A section within Sirisena's party supports a no-confidence move against Wickremesinghe slated for April 4. However, the UNP is the largest single party in the 225-member assembly and commands a comfortable majority with the help of allies.

The premier could be brought down only if Sirisena can unite his own fractured Sri Lanka Freedom Party and engineer defections from Wickremesinghe's UNP.

Story continues

Tensions between the coalition partners have also escalated over Sirisena's attempts to extend his presidential term by one more year till 2021, a move that was rejected by the Supreme Court earlier this year.

The UNP has suggested that it may go it alone at the next general election in 2020.

Presidential powers to sack the government and call early elections were removed through a constitutional amendment introduced in the early days of the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe coalition.
Paris (AFP) - The United States, EU members, NATO and other nations across three continents have announced the expulsion of over 150 Russian diplomats in a coordinated action against Moscow which they accuse of poisoning an ex-spy in Britain.

Here is a list updated to Wednesday of the countries involved and the number of Russians already expelled or put on notice to leave.

- US, Canada, Australia -

The United States: Expelled 60 alleged "spies" posted around the country and at the Russian mission to the United Nations.

It also closed the Russian consulate in Seattle over alleged spying at the nearby Kitsap submarine base and Boeing.

The retaliation against Moscow was taken "in response to Russia's use of a military-grade chemical weapon on the soil of the United Kingdom," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said.

Canada: Ousted four diplomats, calling the nerve agent attack "a despicable, heinous and reckless act".

Australia: Followed suit with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull saying two Russian diplomats had seven days to leave.

- NATO -

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance was expelling seven Russian diplomats and denying accreditation to three more.

"This will send a clear message to Russia that there are costs and consequences for their unacceptable pattern of behaviour," Stoltenberg said.

- European Union -

Eighteen EU nations have joined Britain in deciding to expel Russian diplomats following a European Council decision last week to react to Moscow within a common framework.

"Additional measures including further expulsions are not to be excluded in the coming days and weeks," EU President Donald Tusk said.

Britain: Already kicked out 23 Russian diplomats, with Moscow retaliating with a tit-for-tat move.

Belgium: One diplomat

Croatia: One diplomat

Czech Republic: Three diplomats

Denmark: Two diplomats

Estonia: One diplomat

France: Four diplomats

Finland: One diplomat

Story continues

Germany: Four diplomats

Hungary: One diplomat

Ireland: One diplomat

Italy: Two diplomats

Latvia: One diplomat

Lithuania: Three diplomats

Netherlands: Two diplomats

Poland: Four diplomats

Romania: One diplomat

Spain: Two diplomats

Sweden: One diplomat

- Outside EU -

Albania: Two diplomats

Macedonia: One diplomat

Moldova: three diplomats

Norway: One diplomat

Ukraine: 13 diplomats

President Petro Poroshenko called for even more action to be taken.

"The next step is to increase the price that Moscow has to pay for its international crimes, including the strengthening of personal, financial and economic sanctions," he said.

Additionally, EU members Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal and Slovakia have recalled their ambassadors for consultations but by Wednesday had yet to expel any Russians.

burs/nla
: Aquarius: The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory: A groomsman and his last-minute guest are about to discover if a fake date can go the distance in a fun and flirty debut novel.Agreeing to go to a wedding with a guy she gets stuck with in an elevator is something Alexa Monroe wouldn't normally do. But there's something about Drew Nichols that's too hard to resist.On the eve of his ex's wedding festivities, Drew is minus a plus one. Until a power outage strands him with the perfect candidate for a fake girlfriend...After Alexa and Drew have more fun than they ever thought possible, Drew has to fly back to Los Angeles and his job as a pediatric surgeon, and Alexa heads home to Berkeley, where she's the mayor's chief of staff. Too bad they can't stop thinking about the other...They're just two high-powered professionals on a collision course toward the long distance dating disaster of the century--or closing the gap between what they think they need and what they truly want...

: Taurus: When Katie Met Cassidy by Camille Perri (July 3): Katie Daniels is a perfection-seeking 28-year-old lawyer living the New York dream. Shes engaged to charming art curator Paul Michael, has successfully made her way up the ladder at a multinational law firm and has a hold on apartments in Soho and the West Village. Suffice it to say, she has come a long way from her Kentucky upbringing.But the rug is swept from under Katie when she is suddenly dumped by her fiance, Paul Michael, leaving her devastated and completely lost. On a whim, she agrees to have a drink with Cassidy Price-a self-assured, sexually promiscuous woman she meets at work. The two form a newfound friendship, which soon brings into question everything Katie thought she knew about sexand love.

: Virgo: Surprise Me by Sophie Kinsella: After being together for ten years, Sylvie and Dan have all the trimmings of a happy life and marriage; they have a comfortable home, fulfilling jobs, beautiful twin girls, and communicate so seamlessly, they finish each other's sentences. However, a trip to the doctor projects they will live another 68 years together and panic sets in. They never expected "until death do us part" to mean seven decades.In the name of marriage survival, they quickly concoct a plan to keep their relationship fresh and exciting: they will create little surprises for each other so that their (extended) years together will never become boring. But in their pursuit to execute Project Surprise Me, mishaps arise and secrets are uncovered that start to threaten the very foundation of their unshakable bond. When a scandal from the past is revealed that question some important untold truths, they begin to wonder if they ever really knew each other after all.

: Libra: Still Me (Me Before You #3) by Jojo Moyes: Louisa Clark arrives in New York ready to start a new life, confident that she can embrace this new adventure and keep her relationship with Ambulance Sam alive across several thousand miles. She steps into the world of the superrich, working for Leonard Gopnik and his much younger second wife, Agnes. Lou is determined to get the most out of the experience and throws herself into her new job and New York life.As she begins to mix in New York high society, Lou meets Joshua Ryan, a man who brings with him a whisper of her past. Before long, Lou finds herself torn between Fifth Avenue where she works and the treasure-filled vintage clothing store where she actually feels at home. And when matters come to a head, she has to ask herself: Who is Louisa Clark? And how do you reconcile a heart that lives in two places?Funny, romantic, and poignant, Still Me follows Lou as she navigates how to stay true to herself, while pushing to live boldly in her brave new world.

: Capricorn: By the Book by Julia Sonneborn: An English professor struggling for tenure discovers that her ex-fiance has just become the president of her collegeand her new bossin this whip-smart modern retelling of Jane Austens classic Persuasion.Anne Corey is about to get schooled.An English professor in California, shes determined to score a position on the coveted tenure track at her college. All shes got to do is get a book deal, snag a promotion, and boom! Shes in. But then Adam Martinezher first love and ex-fianceshows up as the colleges new president.Anne should be able to keep herself distracted. After all, shes got a book to write, an aging father to take care of, and a new romance developing with the colleges insanely hot writer-in-residence. But no matter where she turns, theres Adam, as smart and sexy as ever. As the school year advances and her long-buried feelings begin to resurface, Anne begins to wonder whether she just might get a second chance at love.Funny, smart, and full of heart, this modern ode to Jane Austens classic explores what happens when we run into the demons of our past...and when they turn out not to be so bad, after all. Book Post!! // What's your favorite rom-com book??












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The April theme in the 2018 ONTD Reading Challenge isAn unreliable narrator is a protagonist who lacks credibility or accuracy in telling the story. There areof books that fit this criteria, and for this postand I have come up with 10titles. Please feel free to choose an entirely different book! We've also included a list of outside sources with even more book suggestions.Withdrawn, uneducated and unloved, Frederick collects butterflies and takes photographs. A chance pools win enables his to capture the art student Miranda and keep her in the cellar of the Sussex house he has bought with the windfall. The situation is seen first from the collector's point of view: he thinks the chloroform pad no more vicious than his butterfly net, and patiently waits for the barriers of class and taste that inhibit their love to break down in the limbo of their isolation. She, the creator, desperate for her freedom, tries to be understanding but cannot banish her contempt for everything anti-life that the collector stands for.Fifteen-year-old Christopher has a photographic memory. He understands maths. He understands science. What he can't understand are other human beings. When he finds his neighbour's dog lying dead on the lawn, he decides to track down the killer and write a murder mystery about it. But what other mysteries will he end up uncovering?An internationally bestselling phenomenon: the darkly suspenseful, highly controversial tale of two families struggling to make the hardest decision of their lives - all over the course of one meal.It's a summer's evening in Amsterdam, and two couples meet at a fashionable restaurant for dinner. Between mouthfuls of food and over the polite scrapings of cutlery, the conversation remains a gentle hum of polite discourse - the banality of work, the triviality of the holidays. But behind the empty words, terrible things need to be said, and with every forced smile and every new course, the knives are being sharpened.Each couple has a fifteen-year-old son. The two boys are united by their accountability for a single horrific act; an act that has triggered a police investigation and shattered the comfortable, insulated worlds of their families. As the dinner reaches its culinary climax, the conversation finally touches on their children. As civility and friendship disintegrate, each couple show just how far they are prepared to go to protect those they love.If any American fictional character of the twentieth century seems likely to be immortal, it is Lorelei Lee of Little Rock, Arkansas, the not-so-dumb blonde who knew that diamonds are a girls best friend. Outrageous, charming, and unforgettable, shes been portrayed on stage and screen by Carol Channing and Marilyn Monroe and has become the archetype of the footloose, good-hearted gold digger, with an insatiable appetite for orchids, champagne, and precious stones. Here are her diaries, created by Anita Loos in the Roaring Twenties, as Lorelei and her friend Dorothy barrel across Europe meeting everyone from the Prince of Wales to Doctor Froyd  and then back home again to marry a Main Line millionaire and become a movie star. In this delightfully droll and witty book, Lorelei Lees wild antics, unique outlook, and imaginative way with language shine.In 1869, a brutal triple murder in the remote Wester Ross village of Culduie leads to the arrest of a seventeen-year-old crofter, Roderick Macrae. There is no question of Macraes guilt, but it falls to the countrys most eminent legal and psychiatric minds to uncover what drove him to his bloody deeds. Ultimately, the young mans fate hinges on one key question: is he insane?The story ingeniously unfolds through a series of found documents, including police statements; the accuseds prison memoir; the account of renowned psychiatrist, J. Bruce Thomson; and a report of the trial, compiled from contemporary newspapers.Humbert Humbert - scholar, aesthete and romantic - has fallen completely and utterly in love with Lolita Haze, his landlady's gum-snapping, silky skinned twelve-year-old daughter. Reluctantly agreeing to marry Mrs Haze just to be close to Lolita, Humbert suffers greatly in the pursuit of romance; but when Lo herself starts looking for attention elsewhere, he will carry her off on a desperate cross-country misadventure, all in the name of Love. Hilarious, flamboyant, heart-breaking and full of ingenious word play, Lolita is an immaculate, unforgettable masterpiece of obsession, delusion and lust.Ruth is widowed, her sons are grown, and she lives in an isolated beach house outside of town. Her routines are few and small. One day a stranger arrives at her door, looking as if she has been blown in from the sea. This womanFridaclaims to be a care worker sent by the government. Ruth lets her in.Now that Frida is in her house, is Ruth right to fear the tiger she hears on the prowl at night, far from its jungle habitat? Why do memories of childhood in Fiji press upon her with increasing urgency? How far can she trust this mysterious woman, Frida, who seems to carry with her, her own troubled past? And how far can Ruth trust herself?Working as a lady's companion, the heroine of Rebecca learns her place. Her future looks bleak until, on a trip to the South of France, she meets Max de Winter, a handsome widower whose sudden proposal of marriage takes her by surprise. She accepts, but whisked from glamorous Monte Carlo to the ominous and brooding Manderley, the new Mrs de Winter finds Max a changed man. And the memory of his dead wife Rebecca is forever kept alive by the forbidding housekeeper, Mrs Danvers...Not since Jane Eyre has a heroine faced such difficulty with the Other Woman. An international bestseller that has never gone out of print, Rebecca is the haunting story of a young girl consumed by love and the struggle to find her identity.The Remains of the Day is a profoundly compelling portrait of the perfect English butler and of his fading, insular world postwar England.At the end of his three decades of service at Darlington Hall, Stevens embarks on a country drive, during which he looks back over his career to reassure himself that he has served humanity by serving a great gentleman. But lurking in his memory are doubts about the true nature of Lord Darlingtons greatness and graver doubts about his own faith in the man he served.On the outside, there's Violet, an eighteen-year-old dancer days away from the life of her dreams when something threatens to expose the shocking truth of her achievement.On the inside, within the walls of the Aurora Hills juvenile detention center, there's Amber, locked up for so long she can't imagine freedom.Tying their two worlds together is Orianna, who holds the key to unlocking all the girls' darkest mysteriesWhat really happened on the night Orianna stepped between Violet and her tormentors? What really happened on two strange nights at Aurora Hills? Will Amber and Violet and Orianna ever get the justice they deservein this life or in another one?In prose that sings from line to line, Nova Ren Suma tells a supernatural tale of guilt and of innocence, and of what happens when one is mistaken for the other.
Sydney Businesses Checked for Forklift Violations

Between July 2014 and July 2016, 1,355 workers were injured in forklift incidents, a number that included three fatalities. Those incidents cost the New South Wales workers' compensation system more than $30.5 million.

SafeWork NSW carried out a one-week forklift safety blitz in Sydney, Australia, earlier this month, with the agency saying it was done in response to three workers' deaths and more than 1,300 injuries in two years. The blitz was part of SafeWork's "Take forking seriously" program aimed at reducing deaths and injuries from forklifts.

Between July 2014 and July 2016, 1,355 workers were injured in forklift incidents, a number that included three fatalities. Those incidents cost the New South Wales workers' compensation system more than $30.5 million.

Peter Dunphy, executive director of SafeWork NSW, said, "Despite the inherent dangers of forklifts in the workplace, we strongly believe incidents can be reduced. Inspectors will this week be checking Sydney businesses are complying with safety and licensing laws as well as outlining some of the support available to improve forklift safety."

He said businesses should have a traffic management plan that separates pedestrians and vehicles to help prevent incidents, a plan that includes signage, "no go" zones, use of pedestrian walkways, and exclusion zones during loading and unloading. Businesses should also ensure every forklift operator has a current and valid license and always wears a seat belt.

During 2017, four NSW businesses were prosecuted by SafeWork NSW and fined a total of $835,000 for incidents where workers were injured or killed by a forklift.
Alere Settles Case About Point-of-Care Diagnostic Devices

According to the government's allegations, Alere received customer complaints that put it on notice that certain devices it sold produced erroneous results that had the potential to create false positives and false negatives that adversely affected clinical decision-making, but the company failed to take appropriate corrective actions until FDA inspections prompted a nationwide product recall in 2012.

Alere, a Waltham, Massa.-based medical device manufacturer, and its subsidiary Alere San Diego have agreed to pay the United States $33.2 million to resolve allegations that Alere caused hospitals to submit false claims to Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal health care programs by knowingly selling materially unreliable point-of-care diagnostic testing devices, the Justice Department announced March 23.

"The United States is fortunate that innovative health care companies regularly develop medical devices that improve patients' lives, often in remarkable ways," said Chad A. Readler, acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's Civil Division. "But the department will hold medical device manufacturers accountable if they knowingly sell defective products that waste taxpayer dollars and adversely impact patient care."

The United States alleged that between January 2006 and March 2012, Alere knowingly sold materially unreliable rapid point-of-care testing devices marketed under the trade name Triage for use in the diagnosis of acute coronary syndromes, heart failure, drug overdose, and other serious conditions, and the devices were frequently used in emergency departments. According to the government's allegations, Alere received customer complaints that put it on notice that certain devices it sold produced erroneous results that had the potential to create false positives and false negatives that adversely affected clinical decision-making, but the company failed to take appropriate corrective actions until FDA inspections prompted a nationwide product recall in 2012.

Of the $33.2 million to be paid by Alere, $28,378,893 will be returned to the federal government and a total of $4,860,779 will be returned to individual states, which jointly funded claims for Triage devices submitted to state Medicaid programs. The settlement with Alere resolves a lawsuit filed under the whistleblower provision of the False Claims Act, which permits private parties to file suit on behalf of the United States for false claims and share in the governments recovery. The civil lawsuit was filed by Amanda Wu, who formerly worked for Alere as a senior quality control analyst; she will receive approximately $5.6 million.

"Physicians who work to treat patients with suspected myocardial infarctions rely upon devices such as Alere's Triage Cardiac products for quick and accurate readings," said Stephen M. Schenning, acting U.S. attorney for the District of Maryland. "When manufacturers such as Alere make changes to the specifications that affect the product's reliability without informing physicians or the FDA, patient care is put at substantial risk."
Oregon, Canada, DEA Announce New Steps in Opioids Crisis

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown is issuing an executive order declaring addiction and substance abuse to be a public health crisis in Oregon, and Canadas minister of health announced new research projects and amendments to expand access to treatment options.

Oregon's governor and Canada's minister of health are announcing new steps this week to address the ongoing opioids crisis. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown is issuing an executive order declaring addiction and substance abuse to be a public health crisis in Oregon, and the Canadian health minister, Ginette Petitpas Taylor, announced new research projects and amendments to expand access to treatment options.

The Drug Enforcement Administration also announced it will add 250 task force officers and dozens of additional analysts to areas across America where the opioid crisis is at its worst. "DEA highly values its partnerships with task force officers and their parent agencies. These additional assets will strengthen the work DEA is already doing every day to make a difference in the fight against opioid abuse," said DEA Acting Administrator Robert W. Patterson. "Positioning more robust resources such as task force officers in areas hardest hit by this epidemic will provide the strength and support needed to tackle this crisis in regions that need it most." Opioids were responsible for about 42,000 of the 64,000 U.S. drug overdose deaths in 2016, according to the agency.

Brown also signed two bills into law: HB 4143, which she introduced to the legislature, focuses on measures to combat the opioid epidemic in the state, while HB 4137 and her executive order require the state Alcohol and Drug Policy Commission to create a statewide strategic plan around prevention, treatment, and recovery and to issue a Request for Proposal for the full report this fall.

"Addiction is an issue that unites us all, as we feel the impacts of substance abuse every day, either through personal struggle or through our families, friends, and colleagues," Brown said. "We must break through the barriers of shame to provide the best possible treatments first and the most effective assistance now."

In Ottawa on March 26, Petitpas Taylor announced that the Canadian government is removing barriers to accessing diacetylmorphine (prescription heroin) and methadone for the treatment of opioid use disorder. She also announced $18 million in federal investments for six projects under the Substance Use and Addictions Program and 10 research projects related to opioids funded through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. The projects will explore drug checking in supervised consumption sites, opioid use in pain management, the development of guidance material for prevention and treatment of opioid use disorder, and to look at how opioid-related treatment can better address the needs of women.

There also are a total of $231.4 million in investments proposed in the government's 2018 budget proposal that include:

$150 million in emergency funding for provinces and territories to increase access to evidence-based treatment

$13.5 million toward innovative approaches to treatment and prevention through Health Canada's Substance Use and Addictions Program

$31.6 million to equip border officers with tools to intercept fentanyl and other dangerous substances at the border

Government projections suggest more than 4,000 people died in 2017 in Canada from opioid overdoses.
Russia holds a day of national mourning Wednesday for the dozens of victims of a Siberia shopping centre fire, as calls multiply for the sacking of negligent officials and a thorough probe into blatant safety violations. Russian President Vladimir Putin took the unusual step -- for him -- of visiting the Siberian industrial city of Kemerovo, where the tragedy occurred, and faced emotional questions about how so many could have died "because of criminal negligence". The current toll is at least 64 dead, including 41 children. Safety exits were blocked, cinema doors were blocked, the fire alarm system was not working and a security guard failed to trigger the public warning system, investigators said. The regional authorities appeared to have turned a blind eye to violations by the owners of the complex, which included cinemas, a bowling alley and children's play areas, as well as shops and restaurants. The shopping centre opened in 2013 despite the emergency services having pointed out problems with fire safety. The owners did not make improvements after a 2016 inspection. It was registered as a business with less than 100 staff in order to reduce official checks. "Any businessman can tell you how much it costs to make a fire inspector turn a blind eye to violations," wrote popular blogger Ilya Varlamov. - Protests - Opposition leader Alexei Navalny was among several thousand mourners who came to leave flowers on a Moscow square on Tuesday evening. Some there shouted slogans calling for the sacking of Kemerovo's regional governor Aman Tuleyev and for a "Russia without Putin!" In Kemerovo, thousands of people spent more than ten hours at a rally on the main square, both confronting officials and mourning the victims. "Who is really responsible?," "What is the real number of victims?" and "Pawns will be jailed, kings will get away with it" were some of the slogans on placards held by protesters. The announcement that five people had been arrested, including the owner of the building and the head of the company that managed it as well as one of those in charge of security, was not enough to assuage public anger. Many in Kemerovo voiced fears that no senior figures would be punished and called for the sacking of top officials including the region's governor Tuleyev. Rumours swirled that the true total of victims was much higher than had been announced, even prompting the city mayor Ilya Seredyuk to allow a group of protesters to inspect morgues. Deputy regional governor Sergei Tsivilev went to talk to protesters and confronted one, asking him: "Young man, you're talking to people calmly. What do you want? To get publicity from grief?" The man, who gave his name as Sergei Vostrikov, then told him he had lost his wife, three children and his sister in the fire and accused him of treating people like "cattle". Tsivilev then kneeled down to ask for forgiveness for the mistakes that led to the fire. Vostrikov urged Kemerovo residents to hold another protest on Saturday. At mourning ceremonies in central Moscow and Saint Petersburg on Tuesday evening, people shouted protest slogans such as "Put Putin on trial, put Tuleyev on trial!" - Blaming opposition - The region's governor Tuleyev, in office since 1997, has failed to visit the scene of the tragedy or meet protesters. On Monday his first public reaction was not to speak to the public but to thank Putin for personally phoning him to give instructions. Putin arrived in Kemerovo on Tuesday where he visited the improvised memorial set up by the public and laid flowers. He also held a televised meeting with Tuleyev, the emergency services minister and the country's chief investigator, Alexander Bastrykin. Tuleyev thanked Putin again and apologised to him personally for what happened. He promised to meet each affected family and to pay off any outstanding debts from loans taken out by victims. He accused the "opposition" of taking advantage of the situation to feed on "people's grief" and of posing as relatives of the victims. Russia's main opposition leader Navalny, in his blog, condemned the Kemerovo authorities, who have also put pressure on his supporters in the city, as "a criminal conglomerate, real bandits who think only of personal profit". He said that rescue workers had used outdated equipment and that there was a lack of proper coordination at the site of the blaze. Journalist Oleg Kashin, writing on Republic.ru news website, said the tragedy showed the "real -- very low -- price of human life in Russia."
Credit: University of Kansas

Across the country, affordable checking is becoming a thing of the past. Bank of America recently ended its free online checking account offer, but "main street banks" and small institutions are taking similar measures. A report co-authored by University of Kansas researchers shows that a majority of American banks are failing to offer safe and affordable checking accounts, missing industry standards and shutting some out of the financial mainstream.

Terri Friedline, assistant professor of social welfare and director of financial inclusion in the Center on Assets, Education and Inclusion in KU's School of Social Welfare, led a study to assess whether banks are offering safe, affordable checking to all consumers. The results show that very few do, while many charge high rates and overdraft fees. The study also found that bank staff are often allowed to use discretion in whether to charge overdraft fees. The study assessed if low- to moderate-income consumers could afford checking accounts and if banks were meeting 2017-18 Bank On National Account Standards.

"In terms of guidelines for safety and affordability, banks rate pretty low," Friedline said. "Only about nine percent meet these safety and affordability guidelines. And these aren't just the big Wall Street banks. They're also small-town, main street banks like those that Congress just voted to protect by scaling back Dodd-Frank regulations."

The study analyzed survey data taken from a random sample of 1,600 American banks created by the FDIC. The banks were asked about their retail strategies and approach, including:

Extended hours

Multilingual services

Types of identification required to establish an account

Costs and services

Minimum deposits to open accounts

Overdraft fee policies.

The report was part of Mapping Financial Opportunity, a project led by Friedline and Mathieu Despard, executive director of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill's Center for Community Capital. Friedline and Despard authored the study with Rachael Eastlund and Nikolaus Schuetz, research assistants at AEDI.

Chief among the findings were the facts that most banks do not have a basic, entry-level checking or transaction account that meets the full set of safe and affordable features outlined in the 2017-18 Bank On National Account Standards. Moreover, representatives such as branch managers and tellers struggle to describe their banks' overdraft policies and that they often use discretion in deciding when to charge overdraft fees. The findings showed, in terms of entry-level checking:

Nine percent of banks have accounts that meet all of the safety standards

Three percent have an account that does not have check-writing privileges

Nineteen percent of banks' entry-level accounts have a minimum opening deposit of $25 or less

Fifty-six percent of bank representatives said they use discretion when deciding overdraft charges. Some reported they would waive the fees if the transaction was made at a grocery store but not if it was made at a casino, Friedline gave as an example. The problem is inconsistency in deciding when to charge the fees and what types of purchases are legitimate.

"The bank employees making the decisions were using moral judgments. And people of color and lower-income white people are often perceived to have some moral failing," Friedline said. "And discretion based on moral judgments can be a slippery slope to discrimination."

The result of shutting people out of banking and the financial mainstream can be the perpetuation of poverty. The financial system touches nearly all aspects of life, be it making purchases with cash, debit, credit or using food stamps. To live a full, dignified life, individuals must be at least allowed access to the financial system, Friedline said. However, substantial costs and fees make that difficult. In addition, the survey found that only about 29 percent of banks offer services in more than just English, and about 60 percent offer hours beyond the standard weekday. That can make entering the system difficult for non-English speakers and those working jobs outside of the traditional 40-hour week, thereby exacerbating the disadvantages these populations face with the financial mainstream.

Furthermore, the survey found very few banks offer second-chance accounts and about 95 percent use screening agencies to determine if they will offer an individual an account. People who have had accounts closed for multiple overdrafts or other reasons are entered in a database that banks can access and use as a justification to only offer accounts with exorbitant costs and fees, if they offer one at all. There is also evidence banks have used that information to discriminate against Native and immigrant communities and close accounts based on fraudulent activity, Friedline said.

While banks volunteer to meet the Bank On Standards set by the industry, there is no penalty for not meeting them. The solution lies in policy and legislation to ensure access to the financial mainstream for all and imposing incentives or enforceable penalties for institutions that do not meet safety and affordability standards, Friedline said. She and colleagues are continuing research into the survey data to learn more about the extent of discrimination across racial and community lines, as well as further understanding the discretion tellers and managers use in regard to overdraft fees.

Excluding people from the financial mainstream can hurt the larger economy by preventing people from fully participating in and contributing to the economy.

"If you don't have the money or privilege to buy your way into the financial mainstream now, you might not ever be able to," Friedline said. "Especially if that initial $25 deposit is an amount that has to stay in the account. This is one more example of how it can be expensive to be poor."

Explore further Transaction declined? Texting would OK overdrafts
Artist's impression of a planet transiting a star. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab

A team of astronomers from 11 countries, led by researchers at the Instituto de Astrofisica e Ciencias do Espaco (IA), were able to determine the precise mass of two small exoplanets orbiting the variable star HD 106315.

These two planets were previously detected by the Kepler satellite (NASA) via the transit method, which allowed researchers to determine the diameter of the planets. HD 106315b has a period of 9,5 days and a diameter of 2,44 times the diameter of the Earth, while HD 106315c has an orbital period of about 21 days, and a diameter 4,35 times the diameter of the Earth.

But to characterize a planet (for example, to determine if it is gaseous or rocky, or whether they have an atmosphere), researchers also need to know the mass of the planet, measured by the radial velocities, so that together with size, they can infer its density.

Susana Barros (IA & University of Porto), the first author of the paper, explains the problem with this star: "The variability of HD 106315 was thought to be a source of too much noise for radial velocity observation, and therefore we couldn't measure the mass of the two planets."

Using data from a large observing program with the HARPS spectrograph (ESO), the IA team estimated the mass of the smaller planet HD 106315 b to be 12,6 times that of the Earth, and the density to be 4,7 g/cm3. For the larger planet, HD 106315 c, the derived mass is 15,2 times that of the Earth, with a density of 1,01 g/cm3. These values indicate that planet "c" has a thick hydrogen-helium envelope, while a detailed investigation of planet "b," using planetary interior models, indicates at up to 50 percent of rocky material and 950 percent of water, making it a water world.

This animation shows a planet whose orbit is aligned in such a way that it crosses the disc of its parent star as seen from Earth: during these transits, the star appears less bright. By detecting these periodic decreases of brightness over time, it is possible to detect the presence of the planet orbiting the star. Credit: ESA

Nuno Santos (IA & Science Faculty of the University of Porto), leader of IA's "Towards the detection and characterization of other Earths" thematic line adds: "Thanks to an intensive observation strategy and a sophisticated data analysis method developed by our team, we were able to determine the masses of these two planets and the composition of planet b."

Susana Barros further points out that: "This planetary system showcases the diversity in the composition of planets, and since they transit a bright star, it will be possible to study their atmospheres. With current instruments, it's currently possible to observe the atmosphere of planet c, but for planet b we will need to wait for instruments like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), to be launched in 2019."

Mass-radius relationship for different compositions of small planets: The blue line represents a composition of 50% mantle/50% water; the dark green line 100% mantle; the light green line an Earth-like 32,5% core/67,5% mantle; the brown line a Mercury-like 68% core/32% mantle. The planets HD 106315 b and c are on the far right of the graph, with planet "b" in the blue line. The Solar System planets, Venus, Earth, Uranus and Neptune are indicated as reference, and show that while HD 106315 c is quite similar to Neptune, HD 106315 b is a water world, very different from Solar System planets. Credit: Barros et. al, 2017

Probing atmospheres with upcoming new facilities like JWST (NASA) or ESO's Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) will help to better understand the composition of HD 106315 b, since this planet lies in the transition between rocky and gaseous planet composition.

Explore further A stellar system with three super-Earths

More information: S. C. C. Barros et al. Precise masses for the transiting planetary system HD 106315 with HARPS, Astronomy & Astrophysics (2017). Journal information: Astronomy & Astrophysics S. C. C. Barros et al. Precise masses for the transiting planetary system HD 106315 with HARPS,(2017). DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201731276

Provided by Universidade do Porto
Composite color image of NGC1052-DF2 constructed from observations using the Gemini Multi Object Spectrograph (GMOS) on Gemini North on Hawai'i's Maunakea. The ultra-diffuse galaxy was observed using deep imaging in two filters (g' and i'). Credit: Gemini Observatory/NSF/AURA/Keck/Jen Miller

Galaxies and dark matter go hand in hand; you typically don't find one without the other. So when researchers uncovered a galaxy, known as NGC1052-DF2, that is almost completely devoid of the stuff, they were shocked.

"Finding a galaxy without dark matter is unexpected because this invisible, mysterious substance is the most dominant aspect of any galaxy," said lead author Pieter van Dokkum of Yale University. "For decades, we thought that galaxies start their lives as blobs of dark matter. After that everything else happens: gas falls into the dark matter halos, the gas turns into stars, they slowly build up, then you end up with galaxies like the Milky Way. NGC1052-DF2 challenges the standard ideas of how we think galaxies form."

The research, published in the March 29th issue of the journal Nature, amassed data from the Gemini North and W. M. Keck Observatories, both on Maunakea, Hawai'i, the Hubble Space Telescope, and other telescopes around the world.

Given its large size and faint appearance, astronomers classify NGC1052-DF2 as an ultra-diffuse galaxy, a relatively new type of galaxy that was first discovered in 2015. Ultra-diffuse galaxies are surprisingly common. However, no other galaxy of this type yet-discovered is so lacking in dark matter.

"NGC1052-DF2 is an oddity, even among this unusual class of galaxy," said Shany Danieli, a Yale University graduate student on the team.

To peer even deeper into this unique galaxy, the team used the Gemini Multi Object Spectrograph (GMOS) to capture detailed images of NGC1052-DF2, assess its structure, and confirm that the galaxy had no signs of interactions with other galaxies.

"Without the Gemini images dissecting the galaxy's morphology we would have lacked context for the rest of the data," said Danieli. "Also, Gemini's confirmation that NGC1052-DF2 is not currently interacting with another galaxy will help us answer questions about the conditions surrounding its birth."

Van Dokkum and his team first spotted NGC1052-DF2 with the Dragonfly Telephoto Array, a custom-built telescope in New Mexico that they designed to find these ghostly galaxies. NGC1052-DF2 stood out in stark contrast when comparisons were made between images from the Dragonfly Telephoto Array and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The Dragonfly images show a faint "blob-like" object, while SDSS data reveal a collection of relatively bright point-like sources.

In addition to the Gemini observations, to further assess this inconsistency the team dissected the light from several of the bright sources within NGC1052-DF2 using Keck's Deep Imaging Multi-Object Spectrograph (DEIMOS) and Low-Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (LRIS), identifying 10 globular clusters. These clusters are large compact groups of stars that orbit the galactic core.

The spectral data obtained on the Keck telescopes revealed that the globular clusters were moving much slower than expected. The slower the objects in a system move, the less mass there is in that system. The team's calculations show that all of the mass in the galaxy could be attributed to the mass of the stars, which means there is almost no dark matter in NGC1052-DF2.

Left: The ultra-diffuse galaxy is rich in globular clusters, which hold the key to understanding this mysterious object's origin and mass. Right: A closer look at one of the globular clusters within the galaxy, which are all much brighter than typical, the brightest emitting almost as much light as the brightest within the Milky Way. The spectrum, obtained by Keck Observatory shows the absorption lines used to determine the velocity of this object. Ten clusters were observed, providing the information needed to determine the mass of the galaxy, revealing its lack of dark matter. Credit: Gemini Observatory / NSF / AURA / W.M. Keck Observatory / Jen Miller / Joy Pollard

"If there is any dark matter at all, it's very little," van Dokkum explained. "The stars in the galaxy can account for all of the mass, and there doesn't seem to be any room for dark matter."

"Keck is in a very small group of telescopes that could even attempt these observations, because you need a large telescope to measure these accurate velocities," van Dokkum added. "Keck also has some of the best spectrographs in the world for measuring the velocities of faint objects. We had the opportunity to check and make sure we got the same result within the uncertainties, and that gave us confidence that we were doing things right."

The team's results demonstrate that dark matter is separable from galaxies. "This discovery shows that dark matter is real - it has its own separate existence apart from other components of galaxies," said van Dokkum.

NGC1052-DF2's globular clusters and atypical structure has perplexed astronomers aiming to determine the conditions this galaxy formed under.

"It's like you take a galaxy and you only have the stellar halo and globular clusters, and it somehow forgot to make everything else," van Dokkum said. "There is no theory that predicted these types of galaxies. The galaxy is a complete mystery, as everything about it is strange. How you actually go about forming one of these things is completely unknown."

However, researchers do have some ideas. NGC1052-DF2 resides about 65 million light years away in a collection of galaxies that is dominated by the giant elliptical galaxy NGC 1052. Galaxy formation is turbulent and violent, and van Dokkum suggests that the growth of the fledgling massive galaxy billions of years ago perhaps played a role in NGC1052-DF2's dark-matter deficiency.

Another idea is that a cataclysmic event within the oddball galaxy, such as the birth of myriad massive stars, swept out all the gas and dark matter, halting star formation.

These possibilities are speculative, however, and don't explain all of the characteristics of the observed galaxy, the researchers add.

The team continues the hunt for more dark-matter-deficient galaxies. They are analyzing Hubble images of 23 other diffuse galaxies. Three of them appear to share similarities with NGC1052-DF2, which van Dokkum plans to follow up on in the coming months at Keck Observatory.

"Every galaxy we knew about before has dark matter, and they all fall in familiar categories like spiral or elliptical galaxies," van Dokkum said. "But what would you get if there were no dark matter at all? Maybe this is what you would get."

More information: A galaxy lacking dark matter, Nature (2018). Journal information: Nature A galaxy lacking dark matter,(2018). nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/nature25676
In this artist rendering, Teleocrater, an early dinosaur relative, is shown feeding on Cynognathus, while hippo-like dicynodonts look on. All of these animals lived in the mid-Triassic of Tanzania, about 240 million years ago. Credit: Mark Witton/Natural History Museum, London.

After a great mass extinction shook the world about 252 million years ago, animal life outside of the ocean began to take hold. The earliest mammals entered the scene, and reptilesincluding early dinosaurslived on Pangea, the name given to the giant landmass in which all of the world's continents were joined as one.

A project spanning countries, years and institutions has attempted to reconstruct what the southern end of this world looked like during this period, known as the Triassic (252 to 199 million years ago). Led by paleontologists and geologists at the University of Washington, the team has uncovered new fossils in Zambia and Tanzania, examined previously collected fossils and analyzed specimens in museums around the world in an attempt to understand life in the Triassic across different geographic areas.

Findings from the past decade of fieldwork and analysis are reported in a publication of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, appearing online March 28. In total, 13 research papers detailing new fossils, geologic discoveries and ecological findings in the Triassic make up the society's 2018 special-edition volume, published once a year in a competitive submission process.

"Most of what we know about the major mass extinction is from the South African Karoo Basin. I was always interested in understanding, do we see the exact same pattern around the world, or do we not?" said co-editor Christian Sidor, a UW biology professor and curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture.

"The fossil record can be great to understand timing and sequence, but not always great at looking at things in a geographic context."

The skull of a gorgonopsian, a distant mammal relative and top predator during its pre-dinosaur era about 255 million years ago. This fossil was collected in 2009 in Zambia. Credit: Christian Sidor/University of Washington

Since 2007, Sidor and his team of students, postdoctoral researchers, paleontologists and geologists have visited the Ruhuhu Basin of Tanzania five times and the Luangwa and mid-Zambezi basins of Zambia four times. They lived there for about a month at a time, often hiking for miles to find fossil sites and camping in villages and national parks. Once, they were even awakened by the stomping and calls of elephants only feet from their camp.

Each site in Tanzania and Zambia contains its own collection of fossils from the Triassic and other periods, but the goal of this decade-long project was to look across locations hundreds and thousands of miles apart to find similarities in the fossil records. Two papers describe the regional patterns and similarities across much of what used to be Pangea.

"These papers highlight what a regional perspective we now havewe have the same fossils from Tanzania, Antarctica, Namibia and more," Sidor said. "We're getting a much better Southern Hemisphere perspective of what's going on in the Triassic."

Most of the papers in the special edition discuss new fossil findings from the paleontological digs. One explains the discovery of a new species of lizard-like reptile called a procolophonid. Another details Teleocrater, an early dinosaur relative that walked on four crocodile-like legs. This finding was reported in Nature last year, but the new paper describes the animal's anatomy in fuller detail.

Most of the remaining papers describe other animals that were present in the Triassic besides the early dinosaurs.

Left to right: Michelle Stocker, Sterling Nesbitt and Ken Angielczyk conduct fieldwork in Tanzania in 2015. Credit: Christian Sidor/University of Washington

"This was a time when dinosaurs were just stepping onto the stage, and they were not very big and not very remarkable animals then," Sidor said. "These papers really round out what dinosaurs were competing with before they became the dominant reptiles on land."

In addition to the 13 papers that make up the special edition, the team has published 24 peer-reviewed papers as part of this project in the past decade.

More than 2,200 fossils were collected across Tanzania and Zambia over the last decade of fieldwork. Of the special edition's 27 authors, many participated in fieldwork with Sidor since 2007, including co-editor Sterling Nesbitt, a former postdoctoral researcher at the UW and now an assistant professor at Virginia Tech.

Fossil hunting is an experience every member of Sidor's lab can have, from undergraduates through postdoctoral researchers. Sidor and a team are going again this August.

"This has been what my lab has done, and all of my students have been involved in some way," he said. Four of Sidor's students and two postdoctoral researchers are co-authors of papers in the new special edition.

Explore further Dinosaur predecessors gain ground in wake of world's biggest biodiversity crisis
EasyJet expects to emerge stronger from an ongoing consolidation in Europe's skies

The European aviation sector is likely to see further consolidation after a number of airline bankruptcies, the new chief executive of British low-cost airline EasyJet said on Wednesday.

"In 2017 we saw the bankruptcy of Monarch, the problems with Alitalia, Air Berlin as well, it is just the sign there will be more change," EasyJet CEO Johan Lundgren told AFP in an interview during the inauguration of the company's sixth French destination in the southwestern city of Bordeaux.

France is EasyJet's second-biggest market after Britain, and the company has already raised its French capacity by six percent this year.

"There is more consolidation to come and I'm convinced EasyJet is part of the companies who will become stronger and stronger," said Lundgren who took over at the airline in December.

"But there will be players who are weak today and who will continue to become weaker and also potentially disappear," he said. "And that is the road I think that the aviation industry is on."

EasyJet stood ready to participate in the consolidation "as we did with Air Berlin", Lundgren said, referring to EasyJet's purchase of the bankrupt German carrier's operations at Tegel Airport in Berlin.

"We are monitoring the situation in Europe and if the opportunity is right, if it makes commercial sense for us, we will make sure to seize the opportunities," he said.

The airline, which is based at Luton, north of London, in January reported that first quarter revenues jumped more than 14 percent, profiting in part from the collapse of rivals and flight cancellations at Ryanair.

Revenue reached 1.14 billion ($1.61 billion) in the three months to the end of December, compared with a year earlier.

EasyJet, which carried a company-high of 81.6 million passengers in 2017, is aiming to secure "strong positions in the primary airports", Lundgren said in the interview.

Overall the airline was hoping to occupy the "number one or number two position" in terms of market share.

"Our market share (in Europe)is still only 10 percent," he said. "That means there are lots of future opportunities to continue on the journey of growth we are on."

Explore further Italian govt mulling three offers for ailing Alitalia

 2018 AFP
Niklas Konig, a research assistant in Prof. Nienhaus group, demonstrates the precision of the new sensor-free technology by levitating a steel ball. Credit: Oliver Dietze

Using a new technique developed by drive systems engineers at Saarland University, electromagnetic valves can precisely control the amount of liquid they dispense and electromagnetic door locks can close smoothly and quietly. All that the engineers in Saarbrucken need is a magnetically permeable metal bolt that moves within a coil of wound copper wire and their sensor-free, patent-pending control methodology. Using this combination, Professor Matthias Nienhaus and his team are able to keep the bolt in any desired position without the need for additional position sensors. Simply by analysing the electric current that flows through the coil, the team is able to determine where the bolt is and can adjust its position instantaneously.

The research team will be exhibiting their system at Hannover Messe from the 23rd to the 27th of April at the Saarland Research and Innovation Stand (Hall 2, Stand B46) where they will be demonstrating the potential of their sensor-free technology by using it to keep a steel ball levitated.

The electromagnetically controlled valves and locks that are commonly available today are certainly quick acting, but they also tend to have only two operating states: 'on' and 'off.' If, for example, an electromagnetic door lock is energized, the bolt is driven powerfully into the strike plate. When the lock is de-energized, the bolt is retracted by a spring. Getting these devices to do more, such as getting a valve to maintain some intermediate half-open position or requiring a locking bolt to close less abruptly, has, up until now, been a costly exercise involving additional sensors and a complex control system.

A new approach developed by drive systems specialist Professor Matthias Nienhaus and his team at Saarland University now offers a means of achieving greater control of electromagnetic valves and locking devices without the need for additional sensors. With this new technology, the locking bolt can be made to enter the striking plate softly and to precisely maintain any desired intermediate position. The device is no longer simply a two-state system, but can act more like a water tap in which the extent to which the device is 'on' or 'off' is continuously variable.

The only information that the researchers need is that provided by the electric current that controls the movement of the bolt. "We monitor how the current flowing in the coil changes with time. Specifically, we record the fluctuations in the electric current over a certain period of time and analyse them. These current fluctuations change depending on the position of the bolt. This allows us to determine exactly where the bolt is at any particular time. Knowing where the bolt is, means that we have an effective means of controlling its movement," explains Matthias Nienhaus.

However, the unprocessed signals that the researchers initially record are far too noisy to deliver any meaningful information about the status of the device. "We smooth the raw signals using our new integrating method that is now covered by a patent application," explains Professor Nienhaus.

Using their new method, the drive systems engineers in Saarbrucken are able to filter out a clean measurement signal. "It's a little bit like continuously calculating the average velocity when the speed of the car you're driving is varying from one instant to the next," says Nienhaus. The results allow the researchers to precisely determine the position of the bolt within the coil. "Our method provides us with a measurement signal that is practically noise free. We use the signal to position the bolt where we need it, and we can even position it a little bit beyond the end of the coil," he adds.

The team will be demonstrating just what they mean by 'high-precision control' at this year's Hannover Messe. The demonstration, which involves controlling a steel ball so precisely that it can be made to float up and down in a completely pre-determined manner, not only underscores the team's engineering prowess, it also shows the potential of the new technology. "The demonstration clearly shows the speed and precision of our new control technology. We are effectively juggling a steel ball using nothing more than the device's own current signal  without the need for any additional position sensors," says Matthias Nienhaus.

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By analysing potato production data, information systems specialist Professor Wolfgang Maa and his team want to help farmers and food companies identify potential benefits and optimize their processes. Credit: Oliver Dietze

Farmers can optimize harvesting procedures and improve yields, food manufacturers can improve planning reliability. Information systems specialists at Saarland University are working to optimize the entire potato production chain, from field to fork. When it comes to the world's most popular tuber, Professor Wolfgang Maa and his team are aiming to make all of the processes totally transparent. Starting with the farmer out in the field, Professor Maa' team can offer forecasts that assist the decision-making processes. To provide these services, the team has built networks filled with data and information on topics as diverse as agricultural machinery, price forecasting and how often and how hard potatoes get knocked on a conveyor belt  the latter data being collected by harvesting an impact-sensitive artificial potato.

The research team will be exhibiting their information system at Hannover Messe from April 23rd to April 27th (Hall 2, Stand B46) and are looking for partners with whom they can develop practical applications.

Modern potato harvesting can be a pretty rough business. In years gone by, the farmers would be out in the fields assisted by friends and family carefully digging up the potato crop by hand. Today, mechanical harvesters are in use. But if the machinery is not adjusted correctly, the potatoes can get badly bumped and knocked as they move along the agitator belts, hitting stones and each other on their way. This can cause bruising of the delicate potato tubers, which in the worst cases can lead to significantly reduced yields. "If the farmer knows early on that the potatoes are suffering too many mechanical knocks, he or she can respond in time, by adjusting the speed of the harvester or by increasing the amount of soil on the belt," explains Dr. Sabine Janzen, a research assistant in Prof. Maa' group. But this all relies on the farmer getting the information when it is needed, i.e. during the harvesting process out in the field.

This is where the information technologists at Saarland University and at the German Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) play a role. Their research focuses on delivering 'smart services' to different business sectors, and the potato project is part of the 'smart farming' initiative for the agricultural sector. "Our research involves analysing data within the Industry 4.0 framework with the aim of drawing economically relevant conclusions for sector stakeholders. The agricultural sector still works in a very traditional manner. Despite widespread use of modern technology and digitalization, the data is not being analysed to identify potential benefits or to optimize the processes involved," explains Wolfgang Maa.

His research team is now helping to make the potato and its journey from field to factory completely transparent for all stakeholders  from potato farmers and suppliers to food manufacturing companies and commodity traders. "We examine what data is being generated and whether and how we can analyse it to draw meaningful conclusions and make useful predictions. We can, for instance, calculate what the product losses would be if a machine operator continues to run a piece of agricultural machinery in a particular way and we can provide farmers with this sort of information in real time," explains Maa. "To produce forecasts we also make use of other information, such as financial data. If I know how the global market is developing, I can make real-time predictions of future yields," he explains further.

This involves creating what is known as an "Asset Administration Shell," which can be thought of as a kind of logbook containing as much information as possible about a particular batch of potatoes. One of the parameters examined by the research team is potato damage during harvesting. To get relevant data on this, the team uses a sensitive artificial potato to determine how many times a potato gets knocked. "For the field studies, we make use of our sensor-equipped "nPotato,"" says Sabine Janzen. The potato harvester harvests the nPotato, which then takes the same route through the machine as its naturally grown counterparts. The sensors in the nPotato allow it to register impacts and rotations. If the artificial potato is being thrown about too much, warning signals are issued. "To link physical and virtual objects, to classify the different types of impact occurring and to draw useful conclusions, we use deep learning methods in combination with other IT and communications technologies' explains Janzen.

The researchers are able to mesh together large amounts of disparate information: When and where was the harvest? Which variety of potato was harvested? What is the water content? What is it suitable for? The team also draws on pricing information and financial forecasts, and will in future be expanding their model to include historical data, last year's harvesting process data, data from weather forecasts and expert knowledge from farmers and agronomists. Using these techniques, they have been able to create a service platform for everyone with an interest in the humble spud. The platform can help farmers identify the best time to bring their produce to market, or decide whether the quality of the crop is suitable for a gourmet restaurant or is better off being used for potato starch. The platform can also help optimize the settings of factory machinery, such as determining the thickness of the peel to be removed. And commodity traders can use seals of quality to protect their investments. "If we combine and analyse the data from several farmers, other kinds of forecast are possible. If, for example, predictions show that the quality of the harvest for one variety of potato is likely to deteriorate in the foreseeable future, companies that make, say, French fries could switch to another variety to avoid production problems," explains Professor Maa.

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Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley researchers developed a model to analyze taxi trips provided by shared automated electric vehicles in Manhattan; blue represents an empty vehicle, green is charging, and red is occupied. Credit: Berkeley Lab

It may be only a matter of time before urban dwellers can hail a self-driving taxi, so researchers at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and UC Berkeley decided to analyze the cost, energy, and environmental implications of a fleet of self-driving electric vehicles operating in Manhattan.

Using models they built and data from more than 10 million taxi trips in New York City, they found that shared automated electric vehicles, or SAEVs, could get the job done at a lower cost - by an order of magnitude - than present-day taxis while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption. What's more, they found that "range anxiety" is moot because smaller cars with a smaller battery range were sufficient to complete the trips, although more charging stations would be needed.

Their study, "Cost, Energy, and Environmental Impact of Automated Electric Taxi Fleets in Manhattan," was published recently in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. The corresponding author is Gordon Bauer of UC Berkeley's Energy and Resources Group, and co-authors are Jeffery Greenblatt and Brian Gerke of Berkeley Lab.

"The EV industry is focusing on the personal car market, trying to make the range as large as possible," said Greenblatt. "The standard now is 200 miles. We suspected you wouldn't need as much for taxis. We found plenty of times during the day when a portion of taxis could slip off to recharge, even if just for a few minutes. This greatly reduces the need to have a big battery and therefore drives down cost. It is dependent on having a fairly dense charging network."

The researchers developed an agent-based model to simulate the movement of 7,000 taxis around Manhattan throughout the day. They also built models to analyze the cost of service and optimal placement of vehicle chargers. They found that costs would be lowest with a battery range of 50 to 90 miles, and with either 66 slower Level 2 chargers per square mile or 44 faster Level 2 chargers per square mile.

"Manhattan currently has about 500 chargers for public use, which include Tesla chargers," Bauer said. "We found that we would need to at least triple that capacity."

The study also estimated that a fleet of SAEV taxis drawing power from the current New York City power grid would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 73 percent and energy consumption by 58 percent compared to a fleet of automated conventional gas-powered vehicles.

Greenblatt points out that there are still many barriers to the wider penetration of personal EV ownership, including high cost and limited range. "By switching to a shared fleet that's automated, you can provide electric service to people essentially now," he said.

He notes that shared vehicles are best suited for dense, urban environments: "We're not saying these shared vehicles will be the right thing for road trips, but for the vast majority of urban trips, people drive short distances," Greenblatt said.

The researchers said they were motivated to study this topic because they think it will be "the next big thing" in transportation, Greenblatt said.

"For a long time, personal transportation seemed like the hardest problem to solve," Gerke said. "Now suddenly it seems like there's an obvious path to achieving it, which is the electrification of vehicles coupled with changing the way we get around from private vehicle ownership to shared approaches. Shared approaches are starting to work in urban areas."

Gerke previously researched lighting efficiency, and was surprised by how quickly the market switched from incandescent to LED bulbs. "It was a better product and it was cheaper overall," he said. "When you have those together, people adopt it really fast. I suspect there will be a similar transformation that will occur in the transportation sector in the next decade - it will occur faster than people think."

Explore further Autonomous taxis would deliver significant environmental and economic benefits, new study shows

More information: "Cost, Energy, and Environmental Impact of Automated Electric Taxi Fleets in Manhattan," Environmental Science & Technology (2018). Journal information: Environmental Science & Technology "Cost, Energy, and Environmental Impact of Automated Electric Taxi Fleets in Manhattan,"(2018). pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.7b04732
The research team studied male zebra finches, which learn to sing a courtship song from 35 to 100 days after hatching. Credit: University of California, Los Angeles

Insights into how songbirds learn to sing provide promising clues about human speech disorders and may lead to new ways of treating them, according to new research published in the journal eLife.

There are about 9,000 species of birds, about half of which are songbirds. When these birds sing, the activity of a master gene called FoxP2 declines in a key region of the brain involved in vocal control known as Area X. The decrease in FoxP2 produces changes in the activity of thousands of other genes.

FoxP2 also plays an important role in speech in humans. Stephanie White, a UCLA professor of integrative biology and physiology and senior author of the study, thinks FoxP2 and the changes it causes could be a part of the molecular basis for vocal learning. In both humans and birds, cells process this gene in a way that produces both a full-length protein and a shorter version of the protein. The long version regulates other genes; what the short version does remains a mystery. Humans with a mutation in the long version have problems with their speech.

To prevent this decline in Area X, White's research team used methods similar to human gene therapy to insert a version of FoxP2 in male zebra finches. After doing so, when the birds sang, instead of their FoxP2 levels declining, the levels remained high. This uncoupling of FoxP2 levels from the birds' singing impaired their song learning.

"In a sense, this may be the molecular version of 'practice makes perfect,' and why one needs to repeat motor skills over and over to learn them, rather than just having someone tell you," White said.

Few treatments for language impairments have been developed, White said, because scientists have only a poor understanding of the molecular basis for vocal communication. The findings of this study could lead to the creation of new treatments for speech problems in people, including children with autism and people with mutated versions of FoxP2. White is interested in human behavior, but said humans are difficult to study at the cellular and synaptic level.

Through trial-and-error practice during a critical period, the birds develop a song suitable for courtship. Songbirds, much like in humans, have a critical period in youth when they are best at learning vocal communication skills. In birds, this is when they learn a song they will use later in life as a courtship song. In humans, this is when language skills are most easily learned. After this critical period ends, it is more difficult for people to learn languages, and for certain bird species to learn their songs. Male zebra finches learn to sing a courtship song from 35 to 100 days after hatching.

White and her colleagues set out to identify how FoxP2 affects thousands of other genes in zebra finches before and after the critical period for learning closes.

"We found sets of genes in young birds whose levels change when they sing, and are linked to learning," said White, who is also a member of UCLA's Brain Research Institute. "These patterns disappear in older birds. Many of these genes are essential to human language development."

The researchers found that applying methods similar to gene therapy to the long version of FoxP2 disrupted learning. To their surprise, applying the methods to the short version did not. Instead, it led to songs with less variability between renditions.

"We identified networks of genes involved in critical-period vocal learning, including human speech-related genes," White said. "Pharmacologically targeting these pathways could lead to the development of new drugs to treat communication deficits in humans."

The scientists studied thousands of genes in Area X that are an important part of the bird's song circuitry. (Area X is located in the male finch's basal ganglia, beneath the brain's cortex.)

These genes in Area X change in a coordinated way, much like an orchestra being led by a conductor, with FoxP2 as the conductor, White said.

"It's not that all the genes (or instrumentalists) became loud or became quiet; it's that they change in a coordinated way," White said. "We refer to these as 'suites of genes,' and one of these suites of genes is highly correlated to learning in young birds."

Explore further A gene implicated in human language affects song learning in songbirds

More information: Zachary Daniel Burkett et al. FoxP2 isoforms delineate spatiotemporal transcriptional networks for vocal learning in the zebra finch, eLife (2018). Journal information: eLife Zachary Daniel Burkett et al. FoxP2 isoforms delineate spatiotemporal transcriptional networks for vocal learning in the zebra finch,(2018). DOI: 10.7554/eLife.30649
FIU marine scientist James Fourqurean collects soil samples from a seagrass bed in Shark Bay, Australia in 2011. Credit: James Fourqurean, FIU

Seagrasses in Shark Bay, Australia released massive amounts of carbon dioxide after a devastating heat wave killed them, according to a new study.

More than 22 percent of Shark Bay's seagrasses died when water temperatures warmed as much as 7 degrees Fahrenheit above normal for more than two months in 2011. Up to 9 million metric tons of carbon dioxide were releasedthe equivalent of what is released annually by 800,000 homes or 1.6 million cars. Healthy seagrass meadows act as giant reservoirs that store carbon in their soils, leaves and other organic matter.

"As the Earth's climate changes, we expect to see more and more intense heat waves," said James Fourqurean, director of FIU's Center for Coastal Oceans Research and co-author of the study. "This release of carbon to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide will only cause further heating of the atmosphere, heating of the oceans and climate change."

Although the devastating temperatures warmed Australia's waters nearly seven years ago, its full effects have yet to be seen. The scientists estimate the dead seagrasses could release up to 21 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in the 40 years following the extreme weather event. If seagrass meadows stay intact, they can store carbon for thousands of years. Once killed, they release the stored carbon into the atmosphere as harmful carbon dioxide. A meadow's ability to recover is limited and slow, often requiring the removal of dead seagrass and repopulation with the seeds of more resilient types of seagrass.

Shark Bay has the largest carbon stores in the world with nearly 2,000 square miles of seagrass meadows. It was declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1991. The Shark Bay Marine Reserves Management Plan protects the ecosystem against local threats, including agricultural and industrial pollution, overfishing and tourism. The plan, however, does not address global threats. Strategies are needed to address the impacts of heat waves, extreme weather events and climate change, which scientists said are difficult to plan for and manage.

"This work shows that even the seemingly most isolated, pristine marine ecosystems are threatened by climate change," Fourqurean said. "There truly are no pristine ecosystems on the planet that aren't feeling the effects of human activity. I hope our work makes it clear the consequences of environmental degradation can be felt everywhere around the globe."

Fourqurean leads FIU's Seagrass Ecosystems Research Lab which conducts research to inform scientists, decision-makers and the public about the important benefits seagrass ecosystems provide to people, animals and the environment. FIU has a long history of marine sciences research in Shark Bay, including estimating the amount of carbon stored in its seagrass ecosystems, the effects of the heatwave on endangered sea turtles, and seagrass recovery from the heatwave. Fourqurean has made presentations worldwide and testified before the European Union championing Blue Carbon, a global initiative that allows regulated sources to buy credits for greenhouse emissions, helping restore and preserve seagrasses for climate change mitigation.

The research was a collaboration with universities in Australia, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Spain. It was led by Ariane Arias Ortiz from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona. Fourqurean contributed and analyzed data. He was supported by the Florida Coastal Everglades Long-Term Ecological Research (FCE-LTER) Program. Housed at FIU and funded by the National Science Foundation, the FCE-LTER Program studies how water, climate and people interact to impact the Everglades.

The study was recently published in Nature Climate Change.

Explore further Climate change threatens world's largest seagrass carbon stores

More information: A marine heatwave drives massive losses from the world's largest seagrass carbon stocks, Nature Climate Change, nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/s41558-018-0096-y Journal information: Nature Climate Change A marine heatwave drives massive losses from the world's largest seagrass carbon stocks,
Holotype cast of Arkansaurus fridayi, pictured in front of the Broadway Bridge, Little Rock, Arkansas. Credit: R. Hunt-Foster, used with permission

Last week, a new species of dinosaur was described in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. The dinosaur, Arkansaurus fridayi, is an ornithomimosaur the Early Cretaceous of Arkansas, and represents the first dinosaur to be described from that state. In fact, it's now be honored as the State Dinosaur of Arkansas. And although the paper itself is not Open Access, the data is Open Access and can be found online at MorphoSource.

The specimen of Arkansaurus was discovered over four decades ago, and I sensed an interesting story behind this discovery. So I asked lead author ReBecca Hunt-Foster, a paleontologist for the Bureau of Land Management, a few questions regarding this dinosaur decades in the making.

The specimen was discovered quite a while ago. I'm guessing there's a unique story behind the journey of this specimen, would you care to elaborate?

The fossils were discovered in 1972 by Mr. Joe B. Friday on his land near Locksburg, Arkansas, following an earthmoving project. Mr. Friday showed the fossils to Doy Zachary, then a student at the University of Arkansas (and now geology professor emeritus at the University of Arkansas), who then showed them to Dr. James Quinn [posthumous second author]. Mr. Friday donated the fossils to the University of Arkansas, and the fossils are named also in his honor and in honor of the state in which they were discovered  "Arkansaurus fridayi", a name first unofficially proposed by Quinn.

In 1973, the remains were initially described by Quinn at the South-Central Section meeting of the Geological Society of America in Little Rock, Arkansas. Dr. Quinn's tragic and untimely death in 1977 left the fossils without an official scientific description. The fossils waited in the collections at the University of Arkansas museum until I first began working on the project as an undergraduate in the geology department at the University of Arkansas in 2002. Forty-five years after Quinn began his research, I gave a presentation on the remains at the recent 2018 South-Central Geological Society of America meeting in Little Rock.

When I first began my work in the early 2000's there was little in the way of published research for me to compare the Arkansaurus specimen too. I completed my initial research in 2003, and came back to the project in 2016, when I reexamined the fossils and was able to compare them the additional new fossils that had been described in the scientific literature. This allowed me to do a more complete description of the remains. The fossilized remains were also recognized by the State of Arkansas in 2017 as the official State Dinosaur of Arkansas.

The specimen was found on Mr. Friday's private land, and you've honored him with the specific epithet fridayi. Was there an effort to find any other material in the area or in the same formation elsewhere? Were any other fossils from other organisms found alongside this specimen?

Around 2002 I visited Mr. Friday with my mentor, Dr. Leo Carson Davis, and he took us to the site where the fossils were discovered. Mr. Friday had searched since the initial discovery for additional bones. Only weathered and rounded fragments had been discovered, and were given to me in 2002 to work with, although no additional data was gained from them. No other fossils were recovered from the original discovery site itself.

Arkansaurus, along with Nedcolbertia, now represent some of the oldest remains of ornithomimosaurs in North America. How is this discovery changing our global understanding of the biogeography and evolutionary history of ornithomimosaurs?

Paleontologists have recently found other animals, such as the sauropod dinosaur Mierasaurus, that lived alongside Nedcolbertia, in the Cedar Mountain Formation of Eastern Utah. These dinosaurs have ancestors that suggest they originated in Europe, rather than from the North American Jurassic sauropod lineages, and immigrated to North America across a European land bridge during a time of lower sea levels during the Early Cretaceous, as the two continents began to move away from one another. It is reasonable to hypothesize that North American ornithomimids also immigrated during this time, and spread across North America during this time. There were no large geographical boundaries to keep them from moving back and forth, and the Skull Creek Seaway had not yet descended entirely from the north, which later bisects the continent into Laramidia to the west and Appalachia to the east. Arkansaurus helps us fill in the ornithomimid family tree, especially in North America, as most of the specimens known from North America are only known from the Late Cretaceous. I am also currently studying ornithomimosaur specimens collected from the Arundel Clay of Maryland and the Cloverly Formation of Wyoming, which are also Early Cretaceous in age, to compare to Arkansaurus and Nedcolbertia, and we presented our early findings at the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology meeting in 2017.

Ornithomimid fossils are often usually identifiable by their necks and heads, and aren't often recognized by their feet. What is it about this specimen that gave it away as an orninthomimid?

I started with the metatarsals. I first started by comparing them to other known forms from North America, including Nedcolbertia and Ornithomimus velox. From there I continued to look into the published descriptions of other known ornithomimosaurs, and was surprised at the volume of material that has been published since 2003, as well as the variety and inconstancies seen in the metatarsals across geologic time. Some of these inconsistencies might become more clear as geologic dating methods are improved, when additional and more complete specimens are discovered, and when existing undescribed specimens are published on (there are quite a few from the Early Cretaceous globally we are still waiting on.). The metatarsals I found to be the more diagnostic elements, and are more similar to what we see in the Arundel Clay material and in Nedcolbertia, than to any other ornithomimosaurs.

Let's talk artwork. You commissioned Brian Engh for the fantastic reconstructions of Arkansaurus, and we've featured Brian here at PLOS Paleo before. How did you guide him towards the look of the animal, as well as its environment?

I love working with Brian. He puts a TON of research into his pieces, and ask amazing questions, which I really appreciate. I gave Brian information on similar ornithomimosaurs, and some information on soft tissue has been published, so there was at least some information to help him get started. After that, I let Brian do what he doesa ton of additional research as well as observing modern animalsand then we work to tweak any of the fine features. You can check out more about his art process for the Arkansaurus pieces here: http://dontmesswithdinosaurs.com/?p=2087

Arkansaurusis named after the state of Arkansas, where this dinosaur was discovered. But Arkansas isn't usually renown for their dinosaur discoveries, making this a pretty special find. Do you have plans to further explore this area for more dinosaur or other fossil material?

Yes. I am working with Celina Suarez, Joseph Fredrickson, Rich Cifelli, Jeff Pittman, Kristy Morgan, Mason Frucci and Randy Nydam to study some fossils that were discovered from a different site in the Trinity Formation within the same county by Jeff Pittman in the 1990s. These remains include theropod, sauropod and ankylosaur dinosaurs, along with crocodiles, turtles, a lizard, a mammal and a bird. Celina and I have plans to revisit this discovery site, and hopefully a few other exposures to search for additional material.

Anything else you'd like to share?

Dinosaur fossils are so rare from Arkansas, and other surrounding states like Louisiana, Oklahoma and Alabama, that it is really great when we are contacted by local members of the community who may have potentially discovered fossils. There is often the misconception that people are not allowed to have these remains or that they will be "taken away" from them. This is not true. As long as the remains were collected legally from your private land, you have the right to collect and keep these fossils. Due to the rarity of these types of fossils, it is wonderful when people reach out to us, and ask us to identify fossils for them, donate them so they can be studied, or can help us locate additional remains. The public really are our eyes on the ground, and paleontologists can not visit every outcrop. In our case with Arkansaurus, Mr. Friday was kind enough to donate the specimens to the University of Arkansas, where they have been carefully stored and are available for paleontologists to study. I was happy that we could officially name these remains in his honor, and I am forever indebted to the Friday family for their important contribution to paleontology.

Explore further Rare tooth find reveals horned dinosaurs in eastern North America

More information: ReBecca K. Hunt et al. A new ornithomimosaur from the Lower Cretaceous Trinity Group of Arkansas, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology (2018). Journal information: Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology ReBecca K. Hunt et al. A new ornithomimosaur from the Lower Cretaceous Trinity Group of Arkansas,(2018). DOI: 10.1080/02724634.2017.1421209

This story is republished courtesy of PLOS Blogs: blogs.plos.org.
Observations of the yellow supergiant runaway were conducted using the large 6.5-meter Magellan telescope at Las Campanas Observatory. The Large Magellanic Cloud (companion galaxy to the Small Magellanic Cloud, not shown) is visible right above the telescope enclosure. The bright band of light from lower left to upper right is the southern Milky Way. Credit: Kathryn Neugent

Astronomers have discovered a rare "runaway" star that is speeding across its galaxy at a 300,000 miles per hour (at that speed it would take about half a minute to travel from Los Angeles to New York). The runaway star (designated J01020100-7122208) is located in the Small Magellanic Cloud, a close neighbor of the Milky Way Galaxy, and is believed to have once been a member of a binary star system. When the companion star exploded as a supernova, the tremendous release of energy flung J01020100-7122208 into space at its high speed. The star is the first runaway yellow supergiant star ever discovered, and only the second evolved runaway star to be found in another galaxy.

After ten million years of traveling through space, the star evolved into a yellow supergiant, the object that we see today. Its journey took it 1.6 degrees across the sky, about three times the diameter of the full moon. The star will continue speeding through space until it too blows up as a supernova, likely in another three million years or so. When that happens, heavier elements will be created, and the resulting supernova remnant may form new stars or even planets on the outer edge of the Small Magellanic Cloud.

The star was discovered and studied by an international group of astronomers led by Kathryn Neugent, a Lowell Observatory researcher who is also a graduate student at the University of Washington in Seattle. The team included Lowell staff members Phil Massey and Brian Skiff, Las Campanas (Chile) staff astronomer Nidia Morrell, and Geneva University (Switzerland) theorist Cyril Georgy. Their findings have been accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal. The discovery was made using the National Optical Astronomy Observatory's 4-meter Blanco telescope, and the Carnegie Observatory's 6.5-meter Magellan telescope, both located northern Chile. Their work was funded by the National Science Foundation.

The north-pole star, Polaris, is a yellow supergiant, as is Canopus, one of the brightest stars visible from the southern hemisphere. Yellow supergiants are very rare objects because the yellow supergiant phase is so short. A massive star may live for as much as ten million years but the yellow supergiant phase itself lasts only ten to a hundred thousand years, an eye-blink in the life of a star. After this short time, yellow supergiants expand into giant red supergiants, like Betelgeuse, with sizes as large as the orbits of Mars or Jupiter. These stars eventually die in spectacular supernova explosions.

Explore further The lives of stars, or astronomers as paparazzi

More information: A Runaway Yellow Supergiant Star in the Small Magellanic Cloud. arXiv:1803.02859 [astro-ph.SR] Journal information: Astronomical Journal A Runaway Yellow Supergiant Star in the Small Magellanic Cloud. arXiv:1803.02859 [astro-ph.SR] arxiv.org/abs/1803.02859
The 10-year study showed that having young children leaves female academics facing a motherhood penalty. Credit: University of Bath

Female academics with young children find it more difficult to access research funding and generate attention for their results than their male counterparts, according to a new study presented at the Royal Economic Society's Annual Conference (28 March 2018).

Analysing the careers of 262 male and female scientists at the University of Turin over a ten-year period, the study shows that women receive less funding than their male peers and citation rates, where research is quoted in other academic work, drop for women with young children. The study examined teaching and family commitments alongside public funding and the impact of research achieved through the quality of journal publications and volume of citations.

Researchers from the Universities of Bath, Turin and the National Research Council of Italy found that public funding of research is controlled by elite networks, such as professional scientific bodies, with those in leading management roles receiving twice the funding of other academics, through favouritism or unconscious bias in the selection process.

Dr. Cornelia Lawson, from the University's School of Management, said: "Our research shows that female scientists with young children are not matching the citation levels of their male counterparts. It may be that the challenge of travel to international conferences and meetings to promote research findings alongside childcare responsibility is at the heart of the motherhood penalty, leaving quality research overlooked. It highlights the need for support systems for women with childcare responsibilities.

"Conversely, fatherhood is correlated with higher citation rates for male scientists in the study, driven perhaps by the desire to provide for their new offspring, or reflecting a strategic decision to have a family when they feel their career is safely established."

The researchers believe that their research has applications across a range of academic disciplines and to countries including the UK, China and the United States, where the allocation of research funding is also linked to management of elite networks.

Professor Aldo Geuna, from the University of Turin, said: "The strong influence of management positions in professional societies on research funding is concerning. Other networks should be given the same opportunity for funding and greater scrutiny of selection processes and diversity on selection processes is crucial.

"The productivity puzzle is an important question for Universities that are striving to further scientific and technical knowledge and we hope that Universities will do more to address the obstacles faced by female academics with young children."

The researchers point to training initiated by the European Research Council and the Research Councils UK (RCUK) to address unconscious bias in funding allocation, and the Athena SWAN Charter to advance gender equality in academia, as positive measures that they hope will help to overcome the hurdles identified in their research.

Explore further Female researchers publish childcare recommendations for conference organizers
While most young people use social media to be social, Princeton senior Masoomali Fatehkia is using it to advance social good.

Fatehkia, who is majoring in operations research and financial engineering, logged innumerable hours on Facebook last summer, but not in the usual way. While pursuing an internship in Doha at the Qatar Computer Research Institute (QCRI) at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, he examined the potential use of Facebook's advertising audience estimates as a data source to shed new light on the digital gender gap worldwide.

This data is essential to global aid organizations tracking internet and mobile phone use by gender. Improving women's digital access has been recognized by aid groups as a critical development goal. But monitoring progress toward that goal has been challenging due to a lack of gender-disaggregated data, especially in low-income countries. Facebook's Ads Manager provides a real-time source of information that can be used to measure digital gender gaps in areas where data is scarce or non-existent, Fatehkia said.

Fatehkia's findings have been published in the journal World Development. His paper, "Using Facebook Ad Data to Track the Global Digital Gender Gap," is co-authored with his mentors and collaborators, Ingmar Weber, QCRI's research director for social computing, and Ridhi Kashyap, associate professor of social demography at the University of Oxford and professorial fellow at Nuffield College.

Fatehkia's internship was supported by Princeton's Office of International Programs and the Center for Information Technology Policy's Norman B. Tomlinson Jr. '48 Scholarship for Internships in Information Technology Policy.

Fatehkia, who is from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, developed the internship opportunity with QCRI on his own initiative when researching summer opportunities focused on applying data science for the social good. "They [QCRI] were working on areas I was interested in," Fatehkia said. "[Ingmar] does research in the area of social computing to explore migration and social gaps."

Princeton's International Internship Program (IIP) supports internships like Fatehkia's. Of the 1,000 applications IIP receives each year, it funds approximately 250 summer internships, about 20 of which are student-initiated, said Luisa Duarte-Silva, IIP's director.

"We encourage our students who take the initiative of creating their own internship to get in touch with alumni oversees and with professors here at the University," she said. "Once they have made contact, we encourage them to vet the organization they are working with through several channels, including the American Embassy. They are required to show us all their correspondence with their future mentor, and to have negotiated work responsibilities that will challenge them in skills they already have or teach them new skills."

In researching QCRI, Fatehkia discovered that 2009 Princeton alumnus Kenton Murray had held an internship there, and he was helpful in providing guidance. Murray also forwarded Fatehkia's resume to Weber.

When Fatehkia arrived in Qatar, Weber and Kashyap were completing a proposal for Data2X's Big Data for Gender Challenge. Their idea was based on a UNESCO Broadband Commission for Digital Development goal of reaching gender equality in access to broadband by 2020.

"Masoomali showed excellent initiative right from the start," Kashyap said. "Once we introduced the general motivation for the project and the different data sources to him, he took the lead on the data development and analysis for the research presented in the World Development journal article. He also actively commented on and contributed to the broader Data2X Big Data for Gender Challenge grant proposal that I was writing, which was Ingmar's and my original motivation for delving into this line of research."

Fatehkia spent 12 weeks in Qatar working with Weber using Facebook's Ads Manager as well as custom software Weber had created to automate the capture of gender-related data. Kashyap joined them regularly by Skype.

Previously, the International Telecommunications Union, the United Nations' specialized organization for communications and information technology, had statistics on gender digital access for 84 countries. Using the Facebook data, Fatehkia and his mentors expanded that to 152 countries. They made the biggest gains in adding low- and lower-middle-income countries to the data.

"Masoomali did an outstanding job in collecting and analyzing the data, as well as in writing up the findings," Weber said. "Thanks to his efficiency and focus, we could even iterate a couple of times to improve the analysis methods."

"This study presents a case of a low-cost data innovation to help monitoror 'nowcast'an important development indicator related to gender inequality that is a part of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals," Kashyap said. "The idea of nowcasting is to generate real-time predictions or measures based on data that are real-time, [and that are] much more frequently available and updated compared with conventional social science data sources (e.g., field surveys)."

"I think of data science as a toolkit to enable decision makers from various domains to make more informed decisions that are backed up by evidence and data," Fatehkia said. "Using data science for social good is a unique combination that enables me to combine my strengths and interests in the various disciplines that constitute data science with my passion for engaging in work where I can have a positive impact."

More information: Masoomali Fatehkia et al. Using Facebook ad data to track the global digital gender gap, World Development (2018). Masoomali Fatehkia et al. Using Facebook ad data to track the global digital gender gap,(2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2018.03.007
Natasha Vitek used a technique known as geometric morphometrics to plot turtle shell shape into a series of coordinates. This helped her analyze fossil and modern shells to better understand the variation of eastern box turtles over time. Credit: Natasha Vitek / Florida Museum

Imagine that Labradors and golden retrievers died out a million years ago, leaving only fossilized skeletons behind. Without the help of DNA, how could we determine that a fossil Labrador, a fossil retriever and a modern Chihuahua all belong to the same species, Canis lupus familiaris? And could we look at the wide variety of dogs today to gain clues about lost diversity in the past?

A new study by Florida Museum of Natural History researcher Natasha Vitek shows how scientists can use animals' physical features - also known as morphology - to make connections between a modern species and its fossilized relatives, even if they look strikingly different.

"We can't magically create more fossils," said Vitek, a doctoral candidate in vertebrate paleontology. "A lot of it is trying to figure out what we can do with what we have at hand to find diversity within a species - diversity we no longer have."

Scientists often use color, sexual differences, soft tissues, signs of age and DNA to analyze variation within modern species. But these can be missing in fossil specimens.

Vitek relied on a technique known as geometric morphometrics, a way of quantifying an object's shape, to test whether shape is a reliable way to tease out the subtle relationships between species, subspecies and individuals of the same species that just look different from each other.

She used eastern box turtles, Terrapene carolina - a species that comes in all kinds of shapes, sizes and colors - to make links between the rich variation in modern specimens and their fossil relatives from as far back as the Pleistocene, from about 2.6 million to about 11,700 years ago.

Unfortunately, turtles don't make anything easy.

Eastern box turtles display a dizzying amount of variation, both in modern and fossil specimens. But plotting shell shape reveals patterns and captures aspects like curvature -- things that are hard to measure in just a single linear feature. Credit: Coleman Sheehy / Florida Museum

Modern eastern box turtles display a dizzying amount of variation. A box turtle in Oklahoma can be straw-colored while the same species in Florida is dark with yellow sunburst patterns. Adult box turtles also come in a wide array of sizes with no direct link between size and age. A small turtle in one location could be the same size or older than a large turtle of the same species in another location, even within a short distance.

Similar levels of variation also crop up in fossil eastern box turtles. How different must two turtles be to indicate that they belong to different species or subspecies?

To make sure she was "comparing apples to apples," Vitek only analyzed the shape of eastern box turtle shells, which preserve well and are common in the fossil record.

In doing so, she was wading into a debate about eastern box turtle variation that has lasted more than 80 years, with some scientists suggesting that fossil and modern box turtles are all the same species, while others - pointing to a distinction in size or shape - hypothesizing that some fossils represented a separate, extinct species. Some researchers have also argued that certain subtle differences between fossils are evidence of various subspecies.

Vitek, who began the study as a master's student at the University of Texas at Austin, compared 435 shells of modern eastern box turtles and 57 shells of fossil specimens, analyzing changes in location, shape, size and sex.

"It's almost 'more money, more problems,'" Vitek said. "You'd think that with so many fossils, it would be great, but it just means that you can't hide from all the natural complexity."

To find a signal in the noise, she used geometric morphometrics to plot shell shape into a series of coordinates, "like a connect-the-dots puzzle," she said, which created a more complete model of a shape in space.

Vitek's results showed that fossils from two Florida sites had essentially modern shell shapes while fossils from older sites in Florida, South Carolina and Texas differed from their modern relatives. Credit: Vitek in Plos One

"This allows you to see how that overall constellation of points is changing from shape to shape," Vitek said. "You might see whole new patterns you would never have thought to measure before and capture things like curvature - things that are really hard to measure in just a single linear feature."

Her results showed that scientists on both sides of the debate are partially right.

The argument that modern variation in eastern box turtles mirrors variation in fossil specimens of the same species does have some merit.

"It's not like we hit the fossil record and there's a hard boundary between what's extinct and what still exists today," she said. "Just like we'd expect from evolution, there is a gradient of variation that carries through to modern box turtles. Having some shells that aren't that different is reassuring in the sense that, yes, some species do go back in time."

But, she added, some shells likely do belong to lost subspecies, existing subspecies or closely related extinct species.

"Some sites have shells that are not only bigger than modern eastern box turtles but also very different," she said. "There is lost variation in the eastern box turtle record. It turns out that if you go back to fossils, there is even more diversity than you would be able to pick up just by studying today's box turtles."

Vitek said she is hopeful her study will spur more researchers to look deeper at bony structures within species as a means of detecting variation in fossils.

"We're doing a great job of seeing what drives patterns like mouse coat color, but let's also see what drives patterns in things like mouse teeth and arm bones," she said. "There's a lot of opportunity to start better documenting what the morphology we pick up in the fossil record might actually mean in terms of evolution."

More information: Natasha S. Vitek et al, Delineating modern variation from extinct morphology in the fossil record using shells of the Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina), PLOS ONE (2018). Journal information: PLoS ONE Natasha S. Vitek et al, Delineating modern variation from extinct morphology in the fossil record using shells of the Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina),(2018). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0193437
In 2012, James McGuckin Jr. performed a risky, unproven procedure for multiple sclerosis on Theresa Leipzig at his North Carolina medical facility.

It was not the first time McGuckin, who holds licenses in more than a dozen states, did the controversial procedure.

In one state alone, Washington, he performed it more than 200 times.

Family photo Theresa Leipzig, of Burlington, with her daughter, Alesia Porter. Leipzig underwent an unproven and risky procedure to treat her multiple sclerosis in 2012. Following the procedure, which involved placing a stent in a kidney vein, the stent dislodged and migrated to her heart, which required emergency heart surgery.

Family photo Theresa Leipzig, of Burlington, with her daughter, Alesia Porter. Leipzig underwent an unproven and risky procedure to treat her multiple sclerosis in 2012. Following the procedure, which involved placing a stent in a kidney vein, the stent dislodged and migrated to her heart, which required emergency heart surgery.

As McGuckin snaked a catheter from Leipzigs leg to a kidney vein, he placed a stent that propped open a blood vessel. Then he placed another stent in the jugular vein in her neck, all with the intent of relieving her multiple sclerosis.

But such treatments had never been proven to work, had not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and were being challenged by the medical community. Whats more, McGuckin knew he was under investigation for performing the procedure by regulators in the state of Washington.

At the time, interest in the purported treatment was fueled by social media, with hundreds of testimonial videos posted by patients on YouTube and shared within the MS community. In some cases, doctors did their recruiting seminar-style in hotel ballrooms.

Multiple sclerosis, which has no cure, affects an estimated 400,000 people in the U.S. Symptoms can include trouble walking, loss of balance, vision problems, fatigue and tremors, all of which generally worsen over time. The disease leaves some patients desperate for hope.

Yet experts say there is little reason to expect the vein-opening procedure would work. After all, multiple sclerosis is considered an autoimmune and neurodegenerative disease, not one caused by a lack of blood flow through veins.

It was the third time in a year Leipzig had been to McGuckin to have veins opened. This time, there were problems.

Less than two weeks after the procedure, a stent dislodged and traveled to her heart, requiring emergency open-heart surgery.

I almost died, said Leipzig, 47. Looking back, she believes her condition left her vulnerable to persuasion.

Then comes a shred of light: Doctors performing a procedure that shows promise and hope, she said. No one would ever imagine the doctor's words would turn into a life-threatening medical nightmare.

McGuckin is one of about 30 doctors who performed the unproven procedure  with some requiring patients to pay as much as $10,000 up front. They say the procedure treats what is termed chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency, or CCSVI, a condition supposedly linked to MS.

James McGuckin Jr.

and

Michael Arata The U.S. Food and Drug Administration investigated two doctors who performed a risky and unproven vein-opening procedure on people with multiple sclerosis. One also faced state medical board sanctions; the other did not. Here is a look at their cases: In a scientific paper, Italian doctor Paolo Zamboni identifies a condition that involves diminished brain blood drainage through veins and determines it is associated with multiple sclerosis. It is labeled chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency, or CCSVI.



Zamboni's paper A group called the Hubbard Foundation registers a study with the federal government that aims to treat up to 1,000 people determined to have CCSVI with an angioplasty procedure. James McGuckin Jr. is the studys principal researcher; some of his clinics are listed as sites.



ClinicalTrials.gov registry Michael Arata, who is licensed in California, performs the procedure on Maralyn Clarke, a Canadian, at his facility near Los Angeles. She develops bleeding in the brain and dies a few days later. Aratas company, Synergy Health Concepts of Newport Beach, Calif., says it will start a research study involving CCSVI in 45 patients. Arata is listed as the principal researcher.



ClinicalTrials.org treatment evaluation McGuckin places stents in the kidney, chest and neck veins of Theresa Leipzig who now lives in Burlington, Wis., at his facility in North Carolina. Less than two weeks later, one of the stents dislodges, travels to her heart and requires emergency open heart surgery at a Milwaukee hospital.



View complaint The FDA sends Arata a warning letter citing various objectionable conditions and violations found in his research study, including failing to get FDA approval for the study. The letter orders prompt action to correct several violations, including failure to submit the study to the FDA for approval. California regulators take no action.



View FDA warning Arata posts a Youtube video about CCSVI, claiming his procedure improves energy level and cognitive ability and that the benefits last as long as three years. None of the claims are supported by rigorous science. Between 2009 and 2011, nearly 1,800 videos were posted on Youtube, one study found.



CCSVI video McGuckin gets a letter at his Trenton, N.J., facility from the FDA saying the Hubbard Foundation research he is conducting is unapproved. The letter also notes that he did not report serious adverse events from three patients, as was supposed to be done under the studys protocol. The state of New Jersey does post the letter on its doctor discipline website or take action against him until 2017.



View FDA letter After an extensive investigation, the state of Washington charges McGuckin with unprofessional conduct. It says he performed the procedure in research without FDA approval. In total, the state determines McGuckin performed the procedure on 233 people at his Tukwila, Wash., facility between 2010 and 2013.



View charges Washington fines McGuckin $17,500, orders him to stop performing the procedure and refund patients who paid cash. He agrees to the sanctions. Eventually more than a dozen other states order him to stop performing the procedure.



View order Arata collects more than $1.2 million in Medicare money in the three years after his first FDA warning letter. The FDA sends Arata a second letter saying he deliberately and repeatedly violated rules governing clinical studies, including failing to get approval for research involving people. It threatens to disqualify him as a clinical investigator. California does not take action against him.



View letter The FDA issues an alert about another experimental vein procedure -- this one known as transvascular autonomic modulation -- that also uses angioplasty to open the jugular vein and that also carries serious risks. It singles out Arata by name for claiming the procedure treats the symptoms of neurological disorders. The agency says it has seen no data supporting the safety and effectiveness of the procedure.



FDA safety communication The FDA hand delivers a letter to Arata saying that he has repeatedly and/or deliberately violated federal regulations regarding his role as sponsor-investigator in clinical trials involving an angioplasty device. The violations could result in Arata losing his eligibility as a clinical researcher to receive investigational products such as drugs and devices that might be used in clinical trials. Still no action taken by the California medical board.



NOOH Letter Two weeks after getting a call from a reporter asking why it had not taken action against McGuckin, the state of New Jersey orders him to stop performing the vein-opening procedure on MS patients. McGuckin agrees to the order. A paper in the journal JAMA Neurology finds that the technique of opening veins to treat CCSVI is largely ineffective and that it cant be recommended for people with multiple sclerosis. The lead author is Zamboni, the Italian doctor whose 2009 research started the phenomenon.



JAMA Neurology study More than two years after Washington state barred McGuckin from performing the procedure, Georgia becomes the last state in which he holds a license to order him to stop doing it. Show More



James McGuckin Jr.

and

Michael Arata The U.S. Food and Drug Administration investigated two doctors who performed a risky and unproven vein-opening procedure on people with multiple sclerosis. One also faced state medical board sanctions; the other did not. Here is a look at their cases: In a scientific paper, Italian doctor Paolo Zamboni identifies a condition that involves diminished brain blood drainage through veins and determines it is associated with multiple sclerosis. It is labeled chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency, or CCSVI.



Zamboni's paper A group called the Hubbard Foundation registers a study with the federal government that aims to treat up to 1,000 people determined to have CCSVI with an angioplasty procedure. James McGuckin Jr. is the studys principal researcher; some of his clinics are listed as sites.



ClinicalTrials.gov registry Michael Arata, who is licensed in California, performs the procedure on Maralyn Clarke, a Canadian, at his facility near Los Angeles. She develops bleeding in the brain and dies a few days later. Aratas company, Synergy Health Concepts of Newport Beach, Calif., says it will start a research study involving CCSVI in 45 patients. Arata is listed as the principal researcher.



ClinicalTrials.org treatment evaluation McGuckin places stents in the kidney, chest and neck veins of Theresa Leipzig who now lives in Burlington, Wis., at his facility in North Carolina. Less than two weeks later, one of the stents dislodges, travels to her heart and requires emergency open heart surgery at a Milwaukee hospital.



View complaint The FDA sends Arata a warning letter citing various objectionable conditions and violations found in his research study, including failing to get FDA approval for the study. The letter orders prompt action to correct several violations, including failure to submit the study to the FDA for approval. California regulators take no action.



View FDA warning Arata posts a Youtube video about CCSVI, claiming his procedure improves energy level and cognitive ability and that the benefits last as long as three years. None of the claims are supported by rigorous science. Between 2009 and 2011, nearly 1,800 videos were posted on Youtube, one study found.



CCSVI video McGuckin gets a letter at his Trenton, N.J., facility from the FDA saying the Hubbard Foundation research he is conducting is unapproved. The letter also notes that he did not report serious adverse events from three patients, as was supposed to be done under the studys protocol. The state of New Jersey does post the letter on its doctor discipline website or take action against him until 2017.



View FDA letter After an extensive investigation, the state of Washington charges McGuckin with unprofessional conduct. It says he performed the procedure in research without FDA approval. In total, the state determines McGuckin performed the procedure on 233 people at his Tukwila, Wash., facility between 2010 and 2013.



View charges Washington fines McGuckin $17,500, orders him to stop performing the procedure and refund patients who paid cash. He agrees to the sanctions. Eventually more than a dozen other states order him to stop performing the procedure.



View order Arata collects more than $1.2 million in Medicare money in the three years after his first FDA warning letter. The FDA sends Arata a second letter saying he deliberately and repeatedly violated rules governing clinical studies, including failing to get approval for research involving people. It threatens to disqualify him as a clinical investigator. California does not take action against him.



View letter The FDA issues an alert about another experimental vein procedure -- this one known as transvascular autonomic modulation -- that also uses angioplasty to open the jugular vein and that also carries serious risks. It singles out Arata by name for claiming the procedure treats the symptoms of neurological disorders. The agency says it has seen no data supporting the safety and effectiveness of the procedure.



FDA safety communication The FDA hand delivers a letter to Arata saying that he has repeatedly and/or deliberately violated federal regulations regarding his role as sponsor-investigator in clinical trials involving an angioplasty device. The violations could result in Arata losing his eligibility as a clinical researcher to receive investigational products such as drugs and devices that might be used in clinical trials. Still no action taken by the California medical board.



NOOH Letter Two weeks after getting a call from a reporter asking why it had not taken action against McGuckin, the state of New Jersey orders him to stop performing the vein-opening procedure on MS patients. McGuckin agrees to the order. A paper in the journal JAMA Neurology finds that the technique of opening veins to treat CCSVI is largely ineffective and that it cant be recommended for people with multiple sclerosis. The lead author is Zamboni, the Italian doctor whose 2009 research started the phenomenon.



JAMA Neurology study More than two years after Washington state barred McGuckin from performing the procedure, Georgia becomes the last state in which he holds a license to order him to stop doing it. Show More



Even after FDA warnings, doctors have been allowed to continue practicing in many states with clean licenses, leaving patients in the dark about their troubled pasts, a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/MedPage Today investigation found.

One California doctor, Michael Arata, acknowledges doing the procedure 2,000 times and has been the subject of three FDA letters alleging violations of federal regulations. But no public action has been taken against his license by medical boards in any of the three states where he is licensed to practice.

The cases illustrate how an outdated regulatory morass allows troubled doctors to continue to work, putting patients at risk. Often, malpractice histories are shielded from the public in online listings and ignored by state licensing boards. Some doctors continue to collect money from Medicare even after being cited by the FDA.

In some cases, the Journal Sentinel/MedPage Today investigation found, it took years before any licensing action was taken. Some states have not acted at all.

One reason: A lack of communication between the FDA, which oversees medical research, and state medical boards, which regulate the practice of medicine.

The day after the stent was placed in Leipzigs kidney vein in May of 2012, the FDA issued a safety alert saying the procedure was linked to serious injuries and deaths.

It also said there was no reliable evidence of its effectiveness and that promotion of it may lead people with MS to make treatment decisions without being aware of the risks.

One potential mishap the FDA cited: stents migrating through the body to places such as the heart.

There is no scientific or medical legitimacy to it all, said Steven Novella, an assistant professor of neurology at Yale School of Medicine. I think it is completely unethical to offer a treatment to a patient that is not valid and gives them false hope.

Technique found ineffective

The supposed underlying condition  CCSVI  was identified in 2009 by Italian doctor Paolo Zamboni. But several studies conducted in the years since have found no proof that it causes multiple sclerosis or that the treatment works.

Even Zamboni has changed his view.

Associated Press Paolo Zamboni, an Italian doctor, theorized that multiple sclerosis is triggered by vascular problems and can be treated by using angioplasty to unblock vessels. But in a follow-up trial last year, he found the technique was largely ineffective and should not be recommended for people with MS.

Associated Press Paolo Zamboni, an Italian doctor, theorized that multiple sclerosis is triggered by vascular problems and can be treated by using angioplasty to unblock vessels. But in a follow-up trial last year, he found the technique was largely ineffective and should not be recommended for people with MS.

In a follow-up trial, he found the technique was largely ineffective and should not be recommended for people with MS. It was published in November in the journal JAMA Neurology.

From the beginning, doctors did angioplasty to treat the condition, propping open veins with devices designed for arteries. In some cases, they implanted stents. Over time, variations developed, going by names such as liberation therapy and transvascular autonomic modulation (TVAM).

Leipzig, who lived in South Carolina at the time, had gone to McGuckin to have the procedure done at his clinic in Durham, N.C. She now lives in Burlington.

She has been battling MS since she was diagnosed in 2008, three years before the first procedure performed on her by McGuckin. A former salon manager, she has been unable to work since 2010 and now walks with a cane.

She said she felt more clear-headed after the procedures, though that only lasted a couple weeks. In retrospect, she said, that feeling may have been because of how badly she wanted the procedure to be successful.

She sued McGuckin in 2015 and the case was resolved on a confidential basis in 2017. The lawsuit noted another stent  one placed in her right jugular vein in an earlier procedure  also had moved.

That stent is at risk of moving to another location, such as her heart, but surgeons say it would pose a greater risk if they tried to remove it.

In 2012, the same year Leipzig had the procedure done a third time, Karen Crowson, 62, who has had MS since about age 20, underwent the procedure twice at McGuckins clinic in Washington state, paying him a total of $17,000.

Crowson, who lives in Hawaii, said the procedure did not help her.

Explore medical board websites across the U.S.

Explore medical board websites across the U.S.

Its MS, I never expect miracles, she said in an interview. You try things and take your gambles.

In 2016, she got a refund after an investigation of McGuckin by the state of Washington medical commission. The commission ordered him to repay patients who had to put up their own money for procedures performed after May 10, 2012. Those whose procedures paid by private insurance companies or Medicare were not included in the order.

Washington fined him and ordered him to stop performing the procedure.

The commision said he had performed the procedures as part of a study without ensuring that the research had received FDA approval. In its order, the commission cited McGuckins substandard practices, but noted in the cases it reviewed there was no evidence the procedures had caused serious injuries.

McGuckin is listed as the CEO of Vascular Access Centers, which has facilities in eight states. He did not respond to emails, telephone calls or a registered letter.

But in a document filed in 2016 in connection with the Washington case, McGuckin noted an earlier study had suggested the procedure held promise for MS patients and had encouraged more scientific study. He said he had relied on another doctor who ran the study to get FDA approval, but acknowledged it was his responsibility to make sure that had been done.

McGuckin wrote he acted with a sincere desire to help patients.

I continue to live and practice under the daunting auspices of the Hippocratic Oath, which means more to me today than the day I swore it, he wrote. I am proud to be a physician treating patients daily while at the same time training students and fellow endo-vascular physicians.

First performed in 2009

Patients began having problems with the procedure from the beginning.

Michael Dake, a doctor at Stanford University, was among the first in the country to perform it. Dake did the procedure roughly 40 times, according to an article in the Stanford Daily, a campus newspaper.

One of Dakes patients died from a brain hemorrhage, though Dake has questioned if the stents were the cause. Two others claimed life-altering conditions, from sleeping problems to chronic pain to a blocked stent one patient feared could migrate to his heart.

After the complications, and after meeting with the Stanford medical dean and Stanford lawyers, Dake wrote in an email to his colleagues that after deep soul searching he had decided to stop performing the procedure.

He did not respond to multiple efforts to reach him.

In the years that followed, the procedure grew in popularity. Between 2009 and 2011, some 1,800 videos about it were posted on YouTube, according to one study examining the phenomenon.

In one video, a patient said: I was resigned to the fact that I would spend the rest of my life fighting this awful disease. These last few days have been a liberation. In other videos, patients claimed dramatic results: increased strength, regaining the use of limbs, decreased swelling and more.

A follow-up study found the number of new videos dropped dramatically after 2011 and the testimonials became more tepid  a result, researchers believed, of declining interest due to increasing evidence the procedure had no effect.

Joshua Sudock/The Orange County Register Physician Michael Arata performed a type of vein procedure to treat CCSVI, a condition that supposedly was linked to multiple sclerosis.

Joshua Sudock/The Orange County Register Physician Michael Arata performed a type of vein procedure to treat CCSVI, a condition that supposedly was linked to multiple sclerosis.

Arata, the California doctor, has claimed the procedure improves energy levels and cognitive ability and that improvements lasted as long as three years.

In a video on the Synergy Health Concepts website, Arata recalled a woman who could not move her legs or arms, could not speak and had great difficulty eating. He said he walked into the recovery room 15 minutes after the procedure and the woman was holding a sandwich in one hand and talking to her family on the phone with the other.

I was overwhelmed, he said. I actually started crying myself.  It was just amazing to see this young woman whose life literally was taken away by this disease be a normal woman again.

'A dog and pony show'

Frank Lamb of Calgary said his wife, Maralyn Clarke, bought into the promise after seeing posters advertising a presentation by Arata to be held at a hotel convention hall in Canada.

Clarke, an X-ray technician, was diagnosed with MS in the 1980s. She had been unable to walk at times and was eager to stop the disease from progressing.

She and Lamb went to the meeting. The hall was packed.

A dog and pony show is what it is, Lamb recalled. Give us your $12,000 and everybody will live happily ever after."

Arata made it sound so positive, Lamb recalled, despite the cost and the fact the treatment would require surgery. MS is typically treated with drugs. After much thought, Clarke decided to go ahead with the procedure and flew to Los Angeles.

At 11 a.m. on April 13, 2011, she went into the operating room.

By 1 p.m., she was in a coma.

She never woke up.

Family photo Maralyn Clarke, a Canadian who had multiple sclerosis, died after Michael Arata performed a controversial vein-opening procedure on her in California in 2011.

Family photo Maralyn Clarke, a Canadian who had multiple sclerosis, died after Michael Arata performed a controversial vein-opening procedure on her in California in 2011.

Arata showed up a few times while Clarke was comatose, Lamb said. Eventually, Lamb decided to take his wife off life support.

We'll look after you, we'll take care of you, Lamb remembers Arata saying. Yeah, bullshit. They gave us nothing, not even a refund."

In 2012, the FDA issued a warning letter to Arata saying he had failed to obtain FDA approval before allowing patients to take part in clinical research that used devices posing the potential for serious risk and ordered him to submit an application to the agency.

A firm representing Arata argued the FDA had no jurisdiction to review the studies. The agency rejected that contention, noting its role is to protect human research subjects from undue hazard.

That underscores the state-federal regulatory gap.

The FDA could intervene in the cases of Arata and McGuckin because it had not approved their research. However, doctors are able to perform the procedure without federal scrutiny if there is no research involved. It is viewed as akin to the off-label use of a drug, in that the stent devices were approved for use in arteries, not veins.

That loophole has existed for years, said Diana Zuckerman, who has done research on the FDA and its regulation of medical devices.

Even when the FDA does act by sending warning letters to doctors, often no action is taken, said Zuckerman, president of the National Center for Health Research.

Thats par for the course with the FDA; they dont enforce, she said.

In 2016, another FDA letter said Arata had repeatedly and deliberately violated regulations governing clinical studies, including failing to get approval for research involving people. The agency threatened to disqualify Arata from doing clinical research.

A follow-up letter in 2017 threatened to withdraw his eligibility as a clinical researcher to receive investigational products, such as drugs and devices that might be used in clinical trials.

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In March 2017, the FDA issued a broader warning against one of the procedures, specifically citing Arata as one of its practitioners.

In an email, the FDA would not comment on what, if anything, it has done since 2017.

As this is an ongoing enforcement matter, we are not able to provide any updates at this time, said spokeswoman Stephanie Caccomo.

Despite the FDA warnings, California has not taken any public action against Arata. In fact, Aratas California license indicates that no actions have been taken against him by anyone  including the federal government. His license in Michigan also does not list the FDA action. Nor does his license in New York.

California disciplined McGuckin, citing his unapproved research involving the same procedure. State regulators wouldnt confirm or deny whether they were investigating Arata. A spokeswoman said the medical board reviews any information it receives from any source.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs noted that Aratas license in California is clear, but said the state could take action if California does.

Under federal law, doctors can be excluded from the Medicare program if they provide unnecessary or substandard services to Medicare or Medicaid patients.

Yet, Arata collected more than $1.2 million in Medicare money in the first three years after the first FDA warning against him, according to a Journal Sentinel/MedPage Today analysis of federal data. It was not known how much, if any, of that involved using vein-opening procedures to treat multiple sclerosis or CCSVI.

A staff person at Aratas medical office in California  Arata Medical  said the doctor would not comment for the story.

Doctor ordered to repay patients

In 2015, the state of Washington found McGuckin had performed the procedure on 233 patients in the state between 2010 and 2013. He was ordered to stop and repay patients who had used their own money.

The Journal Sentinel and MedPage Today obtained hundreds of pages of records from the state of Washington investigation, which took the unusual step of having outside doctors review the medical records of seven McGuckin patients.

Jody Robinson photo James F. McGuckin, Jr., founder of Vascular Access Centers and co-founder of Rex Medical in Philadelphia, is one of about 30 doctors who performed an unproven procedure  with some requiring patients to pay as much as $10,000 up front. They say the procedure treats what is termed chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency, or CCSVI, a condition supposedly linked to MS.

Jody Robinson photo James F. McGuckin, Jr., founder of Vascular Access Centers and co-founder of Rex Medical in Philadelphia, is one of about 30 doctors who performed an unproven procedure  with some requiring patients to pay as much as $10,000 up front. They say the procedure treats what is termed chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency, or CCSVI, a condition supposedly linked to MS.

In an email to state investigators, neurologist James Bowen, medical director of the Multiple Sclerosis Center at the Swedish Neuroscience Institute in Seattle, wrote:

In the MS neurology world, I do not know of a single MS specialist that believes that CCSVI exists. We get these unusual treatments springing up in MS every few years, but this is the 1st one being driven by social media.

Bowen also raised concerns to investigators about possible insurance fraud, writing that many places around the country were charging $10,000 to treat MS. He said they may have billed the procedure as one for vascular disease, not as a treatment for MS.

In other words, lying about the diagnosis in order to get a $10,000 procedure paid for, he wrote.

Washington found McGuckin engaged in unprofessional conduct. It said and that by performing an experimental procedure  one that created an unreasonable risk of harm  he failed to meet the basic standard of patient care.

McGuckin agreed to the order, which included a fine of $17,500.

Florida, Illinois, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and California were among states that used Washingtons action to bar McGuckin from performing the procedure. But two other states did not act until after the Journal Sentinel and MedPage Today began asking questions about the case.

Georgia ordered McGuckin to stop in December  two years after the action by Washington state. New Jersey issued a similar order in September.

In 2013, four years earlier, the FDA had sent a letter to McGuckins office in Trenton, N.J., accusing him of conducting an unapproved clinical study involving the procedure and citing other violations.

Among the violations was his failure to report serious complications experienced by three people who had been in the unauthorized study.

But there is little communication between the FDA and state medical boards.

The medical board in New Jersey has no record of ever receiving the FDA order, said spokeswoman Lisa Coryell. Washington state officials uncovered the letter only after asking McGuckin to supply all communications with the FDA.

Ethics course required

As part of his Washington punishment, McGuckin was required to take an ethics course and write an essay reflecting on his behavior.

In his first attempt, in March 2016, he suggested Washingtons Medical Quality Assurance Commission needed better oversight.

The essay was rejected. An evaluator said it does not demonstrate a capacity to think ethically about why he is being held to account.

McGuckin failed the course.

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In July 2016, he took it again. In that essay, McGuckin wrote that the investigation had a profound impact on him, including having to temporarily resign as medical director at more than 15 clinics, incurring legal costs to defend himself in 20 states where he had licenses, losing admitting privileges at three hospitals and the loss of insurance affiliation that cost him millions in uncollected revenues.

More than anything it cost me my innocence and trust, he wrote.

That essay, too, was deemed to suffer from persistent justification and defense of his conduct.

Rather than take the class again, the company handling his ethics courses set up one-on-one tutoring sessions for McGuckin.

In December 2016, more than a year after his punishment was handed down, he turned in a third essay. While they still had reservations, evaluators were more understanding.

Dr. McGuckin demonstrated in his tutorial sessions that he has developed a capacity to consider his actions from an ethical perspective and an ability to think more deeply about why the Commission should care about one of its licensees who behaved as he did, an evaluator wrote in her final report to the Washington health department.

However, the carelessness  both in the manner in which the essay was written and as a prevalent feature in the conduct for which he is being held to account  may be an area for additional investigation.

McGuckin remains licensed to practice in more than a dozen states, including New Jersey, New York, Indiana, Maine, Tennessee, Texas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, California, Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania.

John Fauber is a reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Matt Wynn and Kristina Fiore are reporters with MedPage Today.

This story was reported as a joint project of the Journal Sentinel and MedPage Today, which provides a clinical perspective for physicians on breaking medical news at medpagetoday.com.
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DRH LLC, MRLF LLC, Martin Road Lake Forest LLC, McQueen & Willis LLC, Meadows I Ltd., Meadows II Ltd., Meadows IX Inc., Meadows VIII Ltd., Meadows X Inc., Melody Homes Inc., Pacific Ridge - DRH LLC, Rielly Carlsbad LLC, Rielly Homes Madison LLC, SFTEN LLC, SGS Communities at Grand Quay L.L.C, SHA Construction LLC, SHLR of California Inc., SHLR of Nevada Inc., SHLR of Washington Inc., SRHI LLC, SSHI LLC, Schuler Homes of Arizona LLC, Schuler Homes of California Inc., Schuler Homes of Oregon Inc., Schuler Homes of Washington Inc., Summerlin Pkwy & Cimarron LLC, Surprise Village North LLC, The Club at Cobblestone LLC, The Club at Hidden River LLC, Tierra Financial Advisors LLC, Travis County Title Company, Treasure Assets LLC, Venture Management of South Carolina LLC, Vertical Construction Corporation, WPH-Camino Ruiz LLC, WPH-Copper Canyon II LLC, WPH-Copper Canyon LLC, Walker Drive LLC, Western Pacific Brea Development LLC, Western Pacific Housing - Mountaingate L.P., Western Pacific Housing - SDG LLC, Western Pacific Housing - Westlake II L.P., Western Pacific Housing Inc., Western Pacific Housing Management Inc., Western Pacific Housing-Antigua LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Broadway LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Canyon Park LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Carrillo LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Communications Hill LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Copper Canyon LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Creekside LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Lomas Verdes LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Lyons Canyon Partners LLC, Western Pacific Housing-McGonigle Canyon LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Norco Estates LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Pacific Park II LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Park Avenue East LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Park Avenue West LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Playa Vista LLC, Western Pacific Housing-River Ridge LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Terra Bay Duets LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Torrey Meadows LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Torrey Village Center LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Windemere LLC, and Wilson Parker Homes.
Ormat Technologies, Inc. operates as a holding company. The firm engages in the provision of geothermal and recovered energy power business. It operates through the following segments: Electricity, Product and Energy Storage. The Electricity segment focuses in the sale of electricity from the company's power plants pursuant to PPAs. The Product segment involves in the manufacture, including design and development, of turbines and power units for the supply of electrical energy and in the associated construction of power plants utilizing the power units manufactured by the company to supply energy from geothermal fields and other alternative energy sources. The Energy Storage segment consists of battery energy storage systems as a service and management of curtailable customer loads under contracts with U.S. retail energy providers and directly with large commercial and industrial customers. The company was founded in 1965 and is headquartered in Reno, NV.

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FILE PHOTO: An Israeli flag is seen on the first of Israel's El Al Airlines order of 16 Boeing 787 Dreamliner jets, as it lands at Ben Gurion International Airport, near Tel Aviv, Israel August 23, 2017. REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo

By Tova Cohen

TEL AVIV (Reuters) - El Al petitioned Israel's Supreme Court on Wednesday to restrict any new flights to the country via Saudi airspace until it can also use the shortened route.

The flag carrier's appeal comes a week after Saudi Arabia opened its airspace for the first time to a commercial flight to Israel.

The historic Air India flight last Thursday ended a 70-year flyover ban for jetliners en route to or from Israel, in what many have taken to be a sign of thawing ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia. Granting an Israeli airline access to its air space would, however, mark a dramatic diplomatic shift.

Saudi Arabia does not recognise Israel and El Al must take a more circuitous path to avoid Saudi Arabia, which it says adds two hours to flight times and increases costs.

El Al has accused its own government, which approved Air Indias new route, of putting it at a disadvantage. It could not evaluate the financial damage to the company as it does not know how many carriers will ultimately fly over Saudi Arabia.

El Al named the Israeli government and Air India in its petition but company officials said they do not expect an immediate halt to Air India's flights. Rather it is seeking to prevent any new flights using the route.

El Al seeks "to restrict any further expansion of Air India or any other carrier overflying Saudia Arabia," El Al CEO Gonen Usishkin told Reuters on the sidelines of a news conference.

"We expect the Israeli government to provide any necessary means to grant us either those rights or the restrictions on further expansion."

However, if the high court ultimately issues an injunction, it could also include Air India's flights, El Al officials said.

El Al has asked airline industry lobby group International Air Transport Association to help it access Saudi airspace.

El Al's CEO said IATA agreed this was a "violation of fair and equal rights" but added that it is up to the Israeli government to resolve the issue.

(Reporting by Tova Cohen; Editing by Steven Scheer and Louise Heavens)
By David Alire Garcia and Marianna Parraga

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican national oil company Pemex plans to operate at least two new blocks it won with partners in a shallow water auction on Tuesday, the company's exploration chief said in an interview.

Pemex expects to invests as much as $300 million overall in a four-year exploration phase for the seven contracts it won, more than any other company, said longtime head of exploration, Jose Antonio Escalera.

Petroleos Mexicanos, as the state-owned company is formally known, grabbed seven of the 35 blocks on offer, either as an individual bidder or in consortia.

Overall, 16 blocks were awarded in the last tender scheduled before a July presidential election and the energy ministry forecasts investment of as much as $8.6 billion over the lifetime of the contracts.

"We can say that of these six blocks that we won (in consortia) in two of them we will be the operator and in the other four our partners will be the operators," said Escalera.

Pemex will operate Block 18, won with Spain's Cepsa, as well as either Block 32 or 33, won with France's Total <TOTF.PA>, the executive said.

Total said in a statement that it will hold a 50 percent stake in block 32, while Pemex, the operator of the block, will hold the other half. The French oil and gas major will be the operator in block 33 where both companies hold equal shares.

In block 34, it said BP <BP.L> will be the operator with a 45.5 percent stake. Total will hold 42.5 percent and PanAmerican 15 percent.

In recent years, Pemex has sought more equity partnerships in projects to find and extract new streams of oil and gas as a way for the cash-strapped firm to reverse declining output.

"One thing that makes us very happy is that today we have two new partners," Escalera said, referring to Cepsa and Total.

Pemex has in the past few years entered into partnerships with Australia's BHP Billiton, U.S. major Chevron, Anglo-Dutch major Royal Dutch Shell, Japan's Inpex and Germany's DEA Deutsche Erdoel.

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Escalera said that in Block 29 that Pemex won as an individual bidder, the company plans further study of the area and to begin drilling a first exploration well by the end of 2019 or the start of 2020.

"In the others, we've only committed to further study" in the projects' initial phase, he said.

Escalera said the blocks it won in the Tampico-Misantla basin on Tuesday will permit a cost-saving cluster adjacent to another block it won last year with DEA Deutsche Erdoel.

"This will allow synergies...and in these areas Petroleos Mexicanos already has oil infrastructure in place," he said.

More than 70 percent of Pemex's current oil and gas production comes from nearby shallow water projects.

(Reporting by David Alire Garcia and Marianna Parraga; Additional reporting by Bate Felix in Paris; Editing by Dave Graham, Aaron Sheldrick and Adrian Croft)




Source: OrangeTee

Developers monthly sales (excluding EC) declined 28.1 per cent m-o-m to 377 units in February due to slower home sales during the Chinese New Year holidays and the absence of major launches.





Source: OrangeTee

The number of units sold is not unusually low as primary sales have hovered around 300 to 400 units during the Chinese New Year period over the past three years.





Source: OrangeTee

There was an absence of major launches in February, with Parksuites (119 units) and Nim Collection (98 units) being the largest projects. Some developers have chosen to hold back their launches as they intend to raise prices later as the property market continues to improve in the months ahead.





Source: OrangeTee

Demand for homes in Core Central Region (CCR) continued to rise steadily in February, increasing 55 per cent y-o-y to 45 units.





Source: OrangeTee

Despite the increase in Buyers Stamp Duty, some top-notch properties are still trading at strong prices. The highest psf achieved in February is a unit at Wallich Residence ($3,894 psf), followed by Marina One Residence ($2,826 psf). However, these prices are still below the peak values in 2011. There is still room for price increase this year for CCR on the back of dwindling stock and limited supply, especially given a typical 1.5 to two-year time lag for redeveloped properties to be launched from the recent enbloc sales.





Source: OrangeTee

We expect the primary market to pick up from next month as more property launches are on the cards. The perception that the market is in the beginning of an upswing and the current enbloc frenzy could hasten buyers to secure a property now in anticipation of higher property prices. Long-term investors may also be entering the market to capitalise on the expected price upturn as pricier projects would be launched from the current pool of enbloc sites in Q3/2018 onwards.

This research is kindly contributed by OrangeTee and was first published on Mar 15, 2018 here.

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OrangeTee is a reputable, dynamic and fast-growing real estate company in Singapore. Established in 2000, the company has over 3100 management and support staff, real estate consultants and managers, property management specialists, and information technology consultants, working together with the single aim of providing a one-stop solution to the real estate needs of its corporate and individual clients.

OrangeTee is also the first in Singapore to launch PropertyAgentsReview, a property agent search engine that is powered by peer reviews.

(By OrangeTee Research)

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By Benjamin Jumbe.

The Minister of State for Defence in charge of Veterans, Bright Rwamirama says the increasing number of unemployed veterans poses a big threat to the country.

He says there is need to mobilize and integrate the veterans with gainful skills, re-train and re-skill them as well as take them through psycho social training and counselling to help them fit well within their families and communities.

Rwamirama was speaking at a ceremony for the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the army and UNDP on a UN Integrated Support Program to the force.

The program aligned to Ugandas vision 2040 notes that peace, security and defence are one of the fundamentals for galvanizing and harnessing Ugandas economy.

Meanwhile speaking at the same partnership meeting, UN Resident Coordinator Rosa Malango, reiterated the UNs commitment to helping UPDF veterans,widows and orphans.
In 2010, Vienna airport saw the biggest spy swap since the Cold War. Among those Russia deported was Sergei Skripal, poisoned with a nerve agent in Britain on March 4. Eight years later, Austria's refusal to join most other EU nations in expelling Russian diplomats shows it once again wants to be the conduit for East-West mediation. The exchange on July 9, 2010 could have been lifted from the pages of a spy novel, happening as it did in Vienna, the imperial city of waltzes and chocolate cake that was also a murky Cold War nest of spies. The Russian and US aircraft parked next to each other on the tarmac of Vienna airport and both took off within 15 minutes of the swap, well away from the media. Ten agents including glamorous tabloid darling Anna Chapman were swapped by the US for four men freed by Russia, including Skripal, a former Russian intelligence officer. In 2006, Skripal had been sentenced in Russia to 13 years in jail for betraying agents to Britain's MI6 secret service. The 10 sent back to Russia were members of a "deep cover" network of spies posing as ordinary Americans arrested in an FBI swoop in June 2010 after a decade under surveillance. - 'Military-grade' agent - Skripal and his daughter Yulia remain in a critical condition after being found unconscious on a park bench in the English city of Salisbury earlier this month. Britain says a military-grade nerve agent was used to poison them, pointing a finger at the Kremlin, which has angrily rejected accusations of being behind the crime. Twenty-four countries including the United States, Australia and 17 European Union member states have expelled almost 150 Russian diplomats. But Austria, an EU member, has not followed suit, stressing its "neutrality" and saying it wants to act as a "mediator" between Russia and the West. "Indeed, we want to keep the channels of communication to Russia open," Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl said in a joint statement. "Austria is a neutral country and sees itself as a bridge-builder between East and West." - 'Frozen ambition' - "If you want to build bridges, it seems to be the interpretation of the Austrian government that (expelling Russian diplomats) would be excessive," Paul Schmidt at the OeGfE think-tank told AFP. He also suggested Austria's new right-wing government did not want to risk harming its sizeable commercial ties to Moscow. Kurz visited President Vladimir Putin in late February and Putin, last in Vienna in 2014, will reportedly return the favour soon. The far-right Freedom Party (FPOe), junior coalition partners since December, has a "cooperation pact" with Putin's United Russia party. Stefan Lehne, a former Austrian diplomat now at Carnegie Europe, said that there is a tradition in Austria dating back to the 1950s of reluctance to irk Moscow which resonates with voters. However, Lehne said that any ambition to be the broker in the current crisis was likely misplaced, a "slight disconnect from geopolitical reality of today". "Nobody else looks at Austria as a bridge-builder any more. It's sort of a frozen ambition from the past which has never really survived but has very few links to reality," he told AFP. - Brits 'not unhappy' - Emil Brix, former Austrian ambassador to Britain and until July 2017 to Russia, agreed that the chances are "limited" that Austria can play a big mediator role between Moscow and the West. "But Austria does enjoy trust in Russia when it comes to relations with Europe," Brix, now the director at the Diplomatic Academy Vienna, told AFP. Moreover, some European countries find Austria's current ambivalent position "very useful", he said. "This is also my impression from my British contacts that they are not unhappy at all that Austria supports EU Council decisions but also wants to keep talking to Russia," Brix said. "That is kind of Austria's special role."
Dissident Colombian rebels are believed to be holding hostage two Ecuadoran journalists and their driver who were abducted this week, the head of Ecuador's armed forces said Wednesday. General Alberto Mejia told RCN radio that "the head of this group is the terrorist known as 'Gaucho,' and he is without doubt the person responsible ... for the kidnapping." The reporter, photographer and driver, all working for the prominent Ecuadoran newspaper El Comercio, were seized early Monday in the village of Mataje, in Esmeraldas province, according to officials. The area where the abduction happened has seen increased Ecuadoran military activity in a crackdown against armed insurgents who have split from Colombia's former rebel group FARC, which has laid down arms and become a political party under a 2016 peace deal. Although Ecuadoran Interior Minister Cesar Nevas said Tuesday the abducted trio were thought to be over the border in Colombia, Mejia said there was "no information" supporting that. The journalists' kidnapping has alarmed and unsettled Ecuador, with media saying it was the first such abduction in the country in three decades. "Gaucho" was identified by Ecuadoran military as Walter Artizala, an Ecuadoran in his 30s who had served as a rebel in the FARC for 15 years, specializing in explosives, drug smuggling and financing. He was suspected of being behind a blast on Monday that cut power to 200,000 inhabitants of a Colombia border town. The dissident rebel group he leads is thought to number 70 to 80 people, who move across the Ecuador-Colombia border through jungle and engage in drug trafficking. A week ago, three Ecuadoran soldiers were killed and 11 were wounded by a bomb as they patrolled Mataje. Other attacks in the Esmeraldas province have wounded 32 soldiers and civilians. The governments of Ecuador and Colombia have stepped up cooperation to tackle what they term "transnational crime" across their common border.
The Cuban government has admitted to "errors" in implementing the economic reforms that President Raul Castro ushered in seven years ago to revamp the island's Soviet-style economy, the state-run Granma newspaper said Tuesday. The critique was delivered at a two day meeting of the Cuban Communist Party's Central Committee presided by Castro, who steps down as president next month after ten years in office. Granma said Marino Murillo, the coordinator of the effort, told the committee the pace of reforms has slowed in part because of the complexity of the issues involved but also due to "errors in planning and control." Castro introduced the reforms in 2011, opening the top-heavy, centralized economy to small private businesses and foreign investment. The changes resulted in a burst of new activity in the first years, as Cubans opened restaurants and other small service-oriented businesses. But as some Cubans accumulated wealth under the more liberal rules, Cuban authorities have looked on with disapproval, denouncing "illegal activities" in the private sector. Granma said the Central Committee complained about the "lack of a tax-paying culture in the country" and that policies were being misinterpreted by the public. It also approved new legal norms governing the activities of an estimated 580,000 private sector workers. The committee concluded that the overhaul of the Cuban economic model should continue, but that state entities should be more involved and assume greater responsibility for the process. The Granma account said all the reforms "are in the process of being reviewed," and that the priorities include a move to a single currency -- Cuba has two currencies -- and the drawing up of a national economic and social development plan through 2030.
Egyptians voted Wednesday on the third day of a presidential election guaranteed to hand a second term to Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, leaving turnout as the only contest. The election commission announced that voting was being extended by an hour to 2000 GMT after warning people who do not vote they would be fined 500 pounds ($30). Voters had trickled into polling stations with the authorities encouraging them to show up in high numbers. The commission said not voting "serves the interests of people who hate the country", state television reported. After polling stations closed there was no official figure for the turnout. Full results are not expected before April 2 but partial estimates should be released in the coming hours by local media. Sisi won his first term in 2014, a year after the former army chief ousted his Islamist predecessor Mohamed Morsi following mass protests against him. He won that election with 96.9 percent of the vote, against a left-wing candidate. This time, his serious rivals withdrew citing restrictions, were sidelined or arrested. His sole rival is the little-known Moussa Mostafa Moussa, himself a Sisi supporter. Prime Minister Sherif Ismail urged voters to participate, saying on Tuesday it "is a national duty for all citizens". State television showed voters at different polling stations and played patriotic music. At some polling stations, voters were granted free meals. AFP was unable to verify the source of the donations. At a news conference, an election commission official, Mahmud al-Sherif, said there had been no violations of Egypt's election law. Some 60 million people in Egypt, the most populated Arab country, were registered to vote on March 26, 27, and 28. In 2014, about 37 percent of voters participated in the two-day election, prompting authorities to add a third day to obtain a final participation rate of 47.5 percent. - Opposition urged boycott - Opposition groups had called for a boycott of this week's election which they labelled a facade. There were no presidential debates and Sisi himself did not appear at any official campaign events, although he spoke at a number of ceremonies. In an interview days ahead of the vote, Sisi said he had wished there were more candidates, denying any role in sidelining them. At a speech before the vote he also called for a high turnout. "I need you because the journey is not over," Sisi told a mostly female audience. "I need every lady and mother and sister, please, I need the entire world to see us in the street" voting. Morsi's removal had ushered in a deadly crackdown that killed and jailed hundreds of Islamists. A jihadist insurgency since has killed hundreds of policemen and civilians. The Islamic State group's Egyptian affiliate, which has carried out a number of deadly attacks, has threatened to target election infrastructure. On Saturday, two policemen were killed in a car bomb targeting the provincial head of security for the northern Alexandria governorate. The security chief was unharmed. Egyptian cities, especially Cairo, have been flooded with banners showing Sisi and messages of support from business owners. Posters vowing support for Moussa, 65, are rarely seen. While still popular, Sisi has embarked on tough economic reforms that have been welcomed by foreign investors but dented his popularity at home.
Singapores Parliament House. (PHOTO: Dhany Osman / Yahoo News Singapore)

By Bertha Henson

When you go before a Select Committee hearing, remember that it is for the committee to ask questions of you, which members can frame in any way they want. You will have to answer, unless you say you refuse to answer. And you will have to answer the question as framed, and not segue into nuances and clarifications.

It was probably with this in mind that the civil society activists went before the Parliamentary Select Committee on deliberate online falsehoods. They paused before answering most of the questions, probably wary of being led down a line of questioning that would solicit answers they were not prepared to give.

Reading the written submissions, the four people had a common thread which they were determined should surface at the hearing.

At the risk of over-simplifying the positions of Messrs Terry Xu of The Online Citizen, Ngiam Shih Tung of Maruah and Phd student Howard Lee and freelance journalist Kirsten Han, I would say the following were their common grounds.

Legislation, if considered, should be last resort because there are already plenty of laws which can deal with harmful speech. There are many types of fake news  ranging from those that are shared by concerned citizens without malice, to those that incite violence. The G should deal with deliberate online fake news by engaging the perpetrators or putting up its own take on the matter so that readers can make an informed judgment . Most times, netizens themselves point out the falsity of statements, negating the need for the G to intervene in a sphere which cherishes freedom of expression. Unless the term deliberate online falsehoods (DOFs) was clearly defined, legal means would mean crimping freedom of expression in Singapore and could be abused by the government of the day.

They look plain enough, except that the committee has a lot of resources to call on, such as evidence given by earlier witnesses who said that the current laws lack speed, scope and adaptability, how deliberate disinformation campaigns can undermine national security and how the tech and social media companies themselves were dragging their feet over banning fake material despite demands to do so. Hence, shouldnt the G have a tool which it can use that would be speedy, broad and adaptable, safeguard national security and compel the platforms to take down such DOFs?

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Much of the three hours of questioning, mainly by MP Edwin Tong, who happens to be a Senior Counsel, were aimed at getting them to concede this point. There was plenty of arguing about definitions of fake news and the type of fake news that deserved sanction. Prof Thio Li-Anns testimony  that it was possible to define false in a legal sense  was frequently cited by the panel. So was Prof Goh Yi Hans paper on the inadequacy of current laws to deal with different types of fake speech.

Besides quoting these eminent law academics, the panel also referred to a Reach survey published yesterday, which said that 92 per cent of those surveyed wanted more effective laws on fake news. The civil society activists, parrying every blow that was levelled at them, probably felt that they were under siege.

Both Mr Tong and Dr Janil Puthucheary wanted to know why the acivists views were at odds with the experts and the majority of the survey participants. To her credit, Ms Han questioned the methodology of the Reach survey, and its questions, which would lead respondents to answer in a certain way.

I agree. The participants were asked about fake news  a term that so many people find hard to define and understand, except that it sounds bad. What image popped into their heads when they were popped the question and do they even know if there are laws in place that could deal with some of them?

But beyond questioning the survey results, the activists were caught very much in a bind when they were posed examples of fake news and asked if they should be banned. Most were pretty egregious, like assertions that past US President Barack Obama criticised Christians and that Indonesias Jokowi was a Christian. Then there were examples of online posts and sites filled with falsehoods about certain religious groups, which could lead to violence. The genius of the panel: These examples were raised by the British panel investigating the fake news phenomena, which Mr Tong recited to show that even the British MPs could not condone some types of expression and wanted them taken down. He also told of how the social media and tech companies responded to the British panels accusation of tardiness, by arguing that the offending item did not violate its community standards and how it was technically difficult to remove them.

Again, all this was to point to the question: Shouldnt a government be given a tool to compel these companies to ban fake news?

It was a not a very merry-go-round. So I will try and shorten the discourse. The following is fake, but I hope it gives a fair representation of what happened.

Bear with me and follow this:

Q: If something is faked, should it be taken down?

A: No, because how do you know its fake?

Q: But it has been shown to be faked, so shouldnt it be taken down?

A: No, it depends on who says it is faked and whether it incites violence.

Q: But it is faked and incites violence, so what do you do?

A: You use existing laws or challenge them and give your side of the story.

Q: But what if it has already gone viral?

A: Going viral doesnt mean that it has an impact on the people who read them.

Q: So on the chance that fake news would not give rise to violence, we do nothing?

A: No, we engage them, but who defines fake news and what are we talking about anyway?

And so everything revolves on what is true and false, who decides and whether there are variations of the truth. At one point, Mr Tong said that there was only one truth, which led to the civil society activists speaking all at once until Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam intervened to give examples of facts and falsehoods.

The appearance of the civil society activists yesterday had been anticipated as a kind of showdown between the proponents and opponents of legislation. The panel members stressed several times that legislation was being considered as one of a suite of measures, but the other side was equally adamant that there was no need for new laws. For example, racially charged speech could be dealt with under the Sedition Act. Also, public opinion had, on occasion, led to fake news being pushed back. They piggybacked on the earlier testimony of Professor Cherian George, who warned that action against fake news could backfire on the G, and give the perpertrators ammunition to declare that they were denied freedom of speech.

And so on and so forth

I have some sympathy for the activists who had to go through the insistent and tightly scoped questioning by Mr Tong. They were stymied or cut off whenever they started to raise examples in their favour. Still, they tried to hold up their ideological line: that even falsehoods with spurious allegations should be allowed unless they are clearly illegal under current laws. The counter-measure was engagement, they said, and having social media companies uphold their own code of practice or community standards.

It was in the last hour or so that Mr Tong got into the specifics  and where things started looking bad for the activists. In the case of Mr Xu, it was not his submission that Mr Tong grilled him on but his past action as editor of The Online Citizen. Mr Xu, who had earlier said that he was not a journalist, was pinned down on TOCs 2016 campaign on the suicide of student Benjamin Lim.

Mr Tongs beef was that despite several police and parliamentary statements about an error in its reporting, TOC declined to revise its headlines. This, even though the mother who was the source of claims that police officers had descended on Benjamins school in tee-shirts with police emblazoned had said that she was wrong. Mr Xus reply was that TOC was not in the habit of changing articles. Also, he himself had not received word from the police demanding a correction. Nor was he given CCTV footage to verify the claims of police.

I must say that it was pretty audacious of Mr Xu to give such a reply, which questioned the veracity of police and parliamentary statements. The only kind thing I can say in his favour is that he must have been frustrated by police consistent refusal to answer questions that he had posed to them in the past.

Ms Han, on the other hand, was put in a tight spot over her role in the Human Rights Watch report which the Peoples Action Party Policy Forum had denounced before the Select Committee as deliberate falsehoods. The report, which interviewed 34 individuals on the state of civil rights in Singapore, was one of the planks in her written submission. She declined at first to say if she had been one of the 34 interviewed, arguing that it was irrelevant.

After the committee chairman Seah Kian Peng intervened, she decided to acknowledge that she was one of the interviewees. Mr Tong then drew her into specifics of the article which said that the incarceration of Alan Shadrake and Amos Yee were examples of curtailment of freedom of expression. I would be hard put to compress the details of the ding-dong over the two instances, except to say they both disagreed on everything.

There were two instances when Ms Han almost turned the tables on Mr Tong. She said she was surprised that the Human Rights Watch group had been asked to appear before the committee to defend its report, but not those who had described Operation Spectrum and Operation Coldstore as faked. She also said that while she would not welcome legislation on fake speech, she would welcome a Freedom of Information Act to promote more transparency and free flow of information.

But it was Mr Jolovan Wham, a social worker with Community Action Network, who got the short end of the stick, that is, a short five minutes before the committee. He was the last representor after a very long day which started at 10am. The five minutes was to get him to confirm that his view that there was no empirical evidence of online falsehoods in Singapore having a significant impact on the people.

Needless to say, he was quite cheesed off.

So what did we learn at the end of the day? I would venture this conclusion which I believe is shared by many: Legislation is afoot. Expect another bout of controversy when its draft is made public.

Related stories:

Laws against hate speech can backfire, must be balanced with non-legal avenues: Cherian George

Facebook concerned about rush by Singapore to introduce law to combat fake news
Malaysian lawmakers voted Wednesday to redraw the electoral map in what critics slammed as a bid to rig looming polls, sparking angry protests outside parliament and fury from opposition MPs inside. The election is expected within weeks and Prime Minister Najib Razak is battling to keep his long-ruling coalition in power despite allegations that billions of dollars were looted from a sovereign wealth fund he founded. He is also facing a tough challenge from an opposition headed by veteran ex-premier Mahathir Mohamad, 92, who is seeking to win over the government's traditional support base of rural Muslim voters. After a heated debate in parliament, which is dominated by the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, lawmakers voted overwhelmingly in favour of a bill to redraw constituency boundaries despite concerns that it will unfairly tilt the election in Najib's favour. Opposition lawmakers got to their feet and jeered at the ruling coalition MPs and waved placards that read "rise up to stop cheating". The changes must now by given royal assent but that is expected to happen quickly. The opposition claims the overhaul will favour Najib's coalition by decreasing voter numbers in BN's traditional seats, making it easier for their MPs to be elected, and creating more constituencies dominated by the traditionally pro-government Muslim Malay majority. But lawmaker Liang Teck Meng, whose party is a member of the ruling coalition, told parliament the opposition opposed the changes as "they know they will not get the mandate of the people to rule the country". - 'Scandalous' - Hundreds of protesters marched to parliament as the bill was tabled, waving banners that read "stealing an election is not winning an election", and were joined at one point by Mahathir, who denounced the changes as "kleptocracy". Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, deputy leader of the opposition coalition Pact of Hope and wife of jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, told AFP the electoral overhaul was "scandalous". "We believe an election victory may be stolen from us," she said. The controversy over state fund 1MDB has rocked Najib's administration, with the US Justice Department alleging that $4.5 billion was stolen in a campaign of fraud and money-laundering. Najib and 1MDB deny wrongdoing. Nevertheless, Najib is tipped to win at the elections -- which must be called by August at the latest, but are expected sooner -- due to BN's tight grip on the system and the weakness of the opposition. BN, which has governed Malaysia since independence in 1957, is under pressure to do better in the looming polls after losing the popular vote for the first time in 2013, and as discontent grows at graft scandals, race-based politics in the multi-ethnic country and rising living costs. Redrawing constituencies to favour the government is nothing new in Malaysia and has been used for decades by BN leaders, including Mahathir. The passing of the law was the latest sign polls are looming. The government earlier this week tabled a bill seeking to outlaw "fake news" that would punish offenders with up to 10 years in prison, a move critics say is designed to stifle dissent before the election.
By Monitor Correspondent.

President Museveni yesterday met with officials from electricity distributor, Umeme at State House, Entebbe.

Mr Museveni and the four officials led by Umeme Board Chairperson, Mr Patrick Bitature discussed the increasing power tariffs levied by the power distributor.

Other members included the companys managing director Mr Selestino Babungi, one of the board members Mr Gerald Ssendaula and the Chief Operation Officer Ms Florence Nsubuga.

Recently, Mr Museveni blocked the renewal Umemes contract and demanded for answers on why consumers are still paying high rates for electricity.

In a letter to the Energy Minister, Ms Irene Muloni, the President also directed that a cheaper option of modernizing, expanding, transmitting and distributing of power be found.
Singapores State Courts. (PHOTO: Dhany Osman / Yahoo News Singapore)

Enraged that the waitress did not want to have a meal or go home with him, the man chased after the woman and threw punches at her, causing her to black out.

Samson Tanuwidjaja, 36, ended up fracturing Tessie Verterra Chens nose and bruising her face near her workplace in Orchard Towers.

Tanuwidjaja, a Singapore permanent resident, was jailed for six months on one charge of voluntarily causing grievous hurt to the 31-year-old waitress on a pavement outside the Royal Thai Embassy along Orchard Road on 28 October 2015. He was also ordered to pay about $635.75 in compensation to Chen.

Tanuwidjajas lawyer, Shashi Nathan, said his client would be filing an appeal.



The former executive associate at AIA Singapore was found guilty on 23 November last year after a six-day trial. Prior to AIA, Tanuwidjaja was working in several leading banks as a personal banker and a relationship manager.

On 28 October 2015, Chen was working at Peyton Place, a lounge located in Orchard Towers, at around 7am when Tanuwidjaja ordered drinks from her. He asked the waitress to go home or have supper or breakfast with him. Chen rebuffed his advances.

Tanuwidjaja then waited outside the lounge for Chen, who ran away upon seeing him. He pursued the woman and pushed her into the bushes outside of the Thai Embassy, after she rejected him again. According to the prosecution, Tanuwidjaja rained blows on Chens face and upper chest area, despite the presence of a friend of the woman who witnessed the entire incident.

Chen begged Tanuwidjaja to stop the beating, telling him that her children were waiting for her at home. Tanuwidjaja replied, You think Im joking with you? Of all the girls I ask to go home with me, they go home with me. Why you dont go home with me?

Chen was later conveyed to Tan Tock Seng hospital where she was diagnosed with bruises on her forehead, right cheek, a laceration to her scalp and a fracture at the top of her nasal bone, injuries that were consistent with her being punched, the doctor who examined Chen testified.

Story continues

During the trial, Tanuwidjaja argued that he had called Chen a whore, spurring the waitress to charge towards him. He pushed her back and Chen took out a sharp knife-like object before charging at him again. Tanuwidjaja added that he then shoved Chen a second time, causing her to fall into the bushes, before he fled.

During the close of the trial, the prosecution, represented by Deputy Public Prosecutor Kelly Ho, told the court, (Tanuwidjaja) had propositioned (Chen) that evening. She rebuffed him. (Chen) was a waitress, not a hostess as he insisted she was. Most men, when rejected, walk away. (Tanuwidjaja) however, was unable to accept the fact that a waitress would reject him.

The prosecution sought 15 months jail for Tanuwidjaja, citing the emotional harm caused to Chen, who made repeated requests to be discharged from the hospital as she did not feel safe there.

(Chens) trauma lingered even after her discharge from the hospital. She was asked to contact the hospital if something was wrong or if she felt giddy. However, she was so scared to go out that she did not contact the hospital even though she felt giddy and her head was very pain for fear that she would be required to return to the hospital, said DPP Ho.

Shashi, however, asked for four months jail for his client, whom he said had acted out of impulsiveness and poor judgement.

He had acted in a moment of indiscretion after being rejected by (Chen) to join him for supper or breakfast whilst they were walking along Palais Renaissance he had not followed (Chen) with the intention of causing hurt to her at any point, said Shashi. He also noted that Tanuwidjaja had also been intoxicated at the time.

For voluntarily causing grievous hurt, Tanuwidjaja can be jailed up to 10 years and or fined with caning.
A high-ranking Al-Qaeda operative and another jihadist were killed in a US air strike in Libya, the Pentagon confirmed Wednesday. The March 24 strike near Ubari in southern Libya killed "two Al-Qaeda terrorists, including Musa Abu Dawud, a high ranking Al-Qaeda in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) official," the US military's Africa Command said in a statement. Officials said the strike had been coordinated with the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) of Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj. "Dawud trained AQIM recruits in Libya for attack operations in the region," the statement read. "He provided critical logistics support, funding and weapons to AQIM, enabling the terrorist group to threaten and attack US and Western interests in the region." Libya has been gripped by chaos since a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011, with rival administrations and multiple militias vying for control of the oil-rich country. Jihadists and people-traffickers have taken advantage of the chaos to gain a foothold in the North African country.
BRATISLAVA (Reuters) - Slovakia will recall its ambassador to Russia for consultations over the poisoning of a former Russian double agent with a nerve agent in Britain, and may take stronger steps, Foreign Affairs Minister Miroslav Lajcak said on Wednesday.

The central European country has not joined 19 EU countries, the United States and Australia in expelling Russian diplomats but Lajcak did not rule out doing so later.

"The government has backed my recommendation to recall our ambassador to Russia for consultations. It's a serious diplomatic step, we haven't recalled an ambassador in 25 years," Miroslav Lajcak told reporters after a regular government meeting.

"The process continues, I will meet with the head of Slovakia's secret service today and, depending on the information, we are ready to take further steps."

Slovakia's President Andrej Kiska on Tuesday criticised the government for not taking tougher diplomatic steps, calling for "a principled and clear attitude in response to a request for solidarity coming from one of our important partners."

Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini said on Monday that Slovakia would not make "theatrical gestures under pressure".

Robert Fico, who resigned as prime minister this month but remains leader of the ruling Smer party, said on Tuesday he refused to "break friendly ties with Russia just because someone else wishes so".

(Reporting By Tatiana Jancarikova; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena Wednesday reduced the responsibilities of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as a power struggle worsened within their uneasy coalition. Sirisena took away the central bank, the policy-making National Operations Room and several other institutions from the control of Wickremesinghe, who had held them since coming to power in January 2015. The changes were published in a government gazette notice issued Wednesday which transferred the responsibilities to Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera. There was no official explanation for why the Central Bank of Sri Lanka had been taken away from the prime minister's control. In 2015 a central bank governor appointed by Wickremesinghe, Arjuna Mahendran, was accused of insider trading. Sirisena appointed a special inquiry which cleared Wickremesinghe of any wrongdoing. But Mahendran was held responsible for passing sensitive information to his bond-dealer son-in-law Arjun Aloysius to make $75 million in undue profits. Sirisena joined hands with Wickremesinghe's United National Party (UNP) to oust strongman president Mahinda Rajapakse in January 2015 after a decade in power. But since then their alliance has fractured, with Sirisena clashing with free-market champion Wickremesinghe over economic policy. Relations worsened further after their coalition did badly in local government elections last month. The president blamed the premier for their electoral setbacks. Earlier this year, Sirisena publicly lambasted Wickremesinghe and his UNP, saying they had mismanaged the economy. Sirisena said the current government was also more corrupt than the former regime they toppled together. A section within Sirisena's party supports a no-confidence move against Wickremesinghe slated for April 4. However, the UNP is the largest single party in the 225-member assembly and commands a comfortable majority with the help of allies. The premier could be brought down only if Sirisena can unite his own fractured Sri Lanka Freedom Party and engineer defections from Wickremesinghe's UNP. Tensions between the coalition partners have also escalated over Sirisena's attempts to extend his presidential term by one more year till 2021, a move that was rejected by the Supreme Court earlier this year. The UNP has suggested that it may go it alone at the next general election in 2020. Presidential powers to sack the government and call early elections were removed through a constitutional amendment introduced in the early days of the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe coalition.
Is Canada's beloved coffee and donut chain trying to become more like its arch rival, Starbucks?

Tim Hortons has announced plans to invest $700 million as part of a major makeover that will see restaurants across the country introduce new open-concept seating like red bar stools and banquettes and contemporary updates that include the use of natural, lighter materials and customized art work.

Older customers will recognize vintage Tim Hortons logos that will grace the walls, and portraits of Tim Horton himself.

Customers can expect their local Tim Hortons to begin undergoing the transformation over the next four years.

"The expectations of our guests are evolving, and as Canada's most iconic brand, so must we," said brand president Alex Macedo in a press release.

"Together with our restaurant owners, we're focused on taking Tim Hortons to new heights -- from revitalizing the restaurant experience and evolving our menu offerings to developing creative campaigns that make all of our guests proud to call their local Tim Hortons home."

The move to modernize and improve the eat-in experience is aimed at keeping the brand apace in a competitive market with Starbucks, Second Cup, McDonald's and Williams Fresh Cafe.
Students from KMIDS college in Bangkok posting comments

Posted on 27 March 2018 by BaerbelW

You may have noticed comments in several threads which seem to have come a bit out of the blue. We were wondering the same and found out that the comments are related to a climate change related class activitiy originating from King Mongkut's International Demonstration School (KMIDS) in Bangkok, Thailand. If you read the students' comments, please be aware that English is not their native language.

Here is what Michael Brunt who teaches the class sent us about this activity:

Skepticism is healthy and necessary in science. As a matter of fact, the first step in the scientific method, and in the general process of learning, is to ask a question. So, when it comes to climate change, it is understandable that people have questions. However, there exists so much misleading information that people are often confused thereby often forming misconceptions.

At King Mongkuts International Demonstration School (KMIDS) in Bangkok, Thailand, Mr. Michael Brunts 10th grade environmental science students have been discussing and analyzing climate change and the cryosphere, and addressing misconceptions. After viewing the documentary Chasing Ice, students have been given the task to get actively involved. As part of this task, each student has been required to select three articles of interest from the website Skeptical Science, read and research the articles, and post their comments. Part of their assessment will be the value that the students comments, thoughts, ideas, and opinions contribute to the articles discussion.

Here is a picture of who the comments are coming from:

Let's make this a memorable learning experience for the students!
Amazons stock tumbled about 5 percent today after Axios reported that Donald Trump wants to go after the company, possibly by changing its tax treatment.

This is not an especially shocking development if youve kept up with Trumps occasional rants about Amazon CEO and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos. Trump hates the newspapers critical White House coverage and has accused Bezos of using the publication as a political sword to protect Amazons business interests. If I become president, oh do they have problems. Theyre going to have such problems, he said during a campaign rally in 2016. According to Axios, Trumps rich pals have added fuel to the fire by telling him that Amazon is hurting their businesses. His real estate buddies tell himand he agreesthat Amazon is killing shopping malls and brick-and-mortar retailers, Axios writer Jonathan Swan reports. Trump is also apparently hung up on the mistaken belief that Amazon is somehow fleecing the U.S. Postal Service. (Pretty much the opposite is true; Amazons packages are a crucial moneymaker for USPS.)

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The president, as usual, does not have a precise game plan. He has supposedly mused about attacking Amazon on antitrust grounds, but nobody really has any idea how that would work. (Slate ran a piece last year about how the Feds could bring a competition case against the everything store; it struck this nonlawyer as interesting, but maybe a little novel for the courts.) Hes also talked about tinkering with its tax treatment.

The latter might actually get him somewhere. While Amazon already collects sales tax everywhere on the goods it sells directly, it does not collect sales tax everywhere for third-party shops that do business on Amazon Marketplace, which gives them a bit of an unfair leg up against brick-and-mortar retailers. The company started tacking state sales tax onto Marketplace orders shipped to Washington this year after the state passed a law, but is fighting a court battle over attempts to collect in South Carolina.

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Amazon makes a great deal of money off of Marketplace. It earned more than $10.5 billion in fees from merchants last quarter, up 38 percent year-over-year, compared with $35.3 billion from its own direct sales. That breakneck growth might slow a bit if all Marketplace sales finally had to include sales tax.

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That wouldnt be an entirely bad thing. When it comes to sales taxes, Amazon and its flock of smaller third-party merchants should be forced onto an even playing field with local retailers. States are already pushing things in that direction regardless. But if Trumps rage at Bezos spurred Congress to move on the issue and more broadly modernize the law governing internet sales taxes, it would present a rare silver lining to the presidents seething resentments. To be sure, the spectacle of a White House using legislation to punish a media owner might be less than great for civil society and would probably send yet another chilling message to would-be corporate critics. But from a tax policy perspective, it would be a fine outcome.
If youre a human being who is estranged from your mother or fatherespecially if his or her health is failingthere are a lot of ways you might change the situation, ranging from therapy to murder. If youre a character in a movie, however, theres only one solution: ROAD TRIP! Only by being trapped in the tight confines of an automobile or motel with your least favorite family members, Hollywood tells us, can we do the hard work of rebuilding our relationships, despite the fact that road trips have undoubtedly ruined more families than theyve saved.

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This strange convention means that a screenwriter who is interested in family dynamics needs a reason to get a bunch of people who hate each other into the same vehicle, whether its a sales presentation, a beauty pageant, or just a bunch of crazy Nazis. In Kodachrome, the reason is rolls of undeveloped Kodachrome film.

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The movie, from screenwriter Jonathan Tropper and director Mark Raso, is an adaptation of a 2010 article by New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger about Dwaynes Photo in Parsons, Kansas, the last facility to process Kodachrome (they stopped in 2010). Its as good a reason as any for Jason Sudeikis, Ed Harris, and Elizabeth Olsen to hit the road together. Will Harris confront the wreckage he made of his family? Will Sudeikis confront his troubled past? Will Olsen come to know both men better? Probably! The only other outcome for this sort of setup is a Texas-Chainsaw-Massacre-type situation, and judging from the trailer, thats not on offer. On April 20, you can watch Kodachrome on Netflix with your estranged fatherjust dont expect your relationship to improve unless you watch it while driving.
Early last week, new photos revealed that the massive, multicolored tattoo of a phoenix rising from the ashes widely thought to be splashed across Ben Afflecks back was not, contrary to previous statements, fake for a movie. First glimpsed in 2015, the winding tale of the tattoo includes almost two years of secrecy and a shady dig from ex Jennifer Garner, who said of the apparent midlife-crisis mural just after their split: You know what we would say in my hometown about that? Bless his heart. A phoenix rising from the ashes. Am I the ashes in this scenario? I take umbrage. I refuse to be the ashes.

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The tattoos existence reappeared in headlines last week after photos from the set of the Netflix action movie Triple Frontier showed that it was indeed real. The internet promptly exploded with both mockery and questions. Why did Affleck think the public wouldnt eventually find out that the tattoo was real? How long would you have to sit for a piece this big? And then, how many hours would you have to rethink getting a giant phoenix on your back? To answer all these questions and more, I spoke with Michelle Myles, co-owner of Daredevil Tattoo in New York City and noted tattooer of Whoopi Goldberg.

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This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Rachelle Hampton: So what was your first impression of Ben Afflecks back tattoo?

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Michelle Myles: I was just surprised that it was a pretty large piece. Its definitely unusual for an actor to commit to something that big. A lot of actors are worried about having something that could get in the way of their work.

Would you describe it as a good tattoo?

I think its pretty subjective, as far as what the tattoo looks like, because you never know with something like that. He mightve seen a picture that he liked and brought it to the artist. So its hard to pass judgment on it.

But from a technical perspective, would you say its well-done?

Yeah  the colors are solid.

In a scenario in which Ben Affleck walks into your studio and says, Give me a massive, badass back tattoo, with no other directions besides that, what would you have done?

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I would have asked him for some time to come up with a drawinglike usually we need a week or two to draw something up. Then Id show him what I came up with and go from there: To me its kind of like that game where youre playing warmer and warmer, colder. You try to figure out whats in somebodys head. If they like it, then you finalize the drawing and then make an outline for a stencil, put the stencil on, and then they get a look at it, then you can outline the tattoo.

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What do you imagine were the directions that Affleck gave this tattoo artist?

He mightve seen something that he liked or he might have just said, Oh, I want a big phoenix rising up on my back. If anything, tattoo artists are sometimes guilty of saying, No, you should do it really big. Thats our thing.

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Why would a tattoo artist encourage someone to go larger?

Well, for us, it gives you more room to put in more detail and colors, so you can really put a lot into the drawing if its bigger. You can really kill a tattoo idea by making it too small, and we want something that will hold up over time and look good another 10, 20 years because tattoos age with us. They tend to soften up over time so you want to give it enough room for that.

How many hours would a tattoo that big have taken?

Generally, with a big tattoo like that, you might do a couple of sessions of two or four hours, depending on how well the person sits, how much time they have, what their budget is. Of course he doesnt have to worry about his budget.

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Why do you think Affleck would have lied about the tattoo being real?

Theres always a possibility that he did get a temporary tattoo for something and he liked the way it looked and he decided to make it permanent. It just seems really weird that he would say it was fake since it wouldnt be going anywhere.

Have you ever seen a tattoo like this on somebody?

Yeah definitely, phoenixes are a popular image to get. Ive done a phoenix back piece, maybe two.

Oh wow, thats kind of surprising. I wouldnt have thought they were that common.

I think its a cool image, its visually interesting, and it has a lot of cool colors and stuff. You can really draw it in a fun way. I think its a strong image, and by strong I mean its really iconic and timeless.

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When you see this tattoo, does midlife crisis leap immediately into your mind?

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No, not at all.  I would say if a large tattoo is pointing to any marker of midlife, its maybe that in midlife you have more money to afford to get a big tattoo like that.

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How much would you estimate that this cost?

At our shop, our hourly rate is $200 to $250 depending on the artist. Its hard to estimate how long it took because so often it has to do with how well the person sits. Some people are easier to work on than others, but definitely probably a couple thousand dollars. At the same time, though, its less than a fancy handbag.

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I did not think about that.

How much are those Birkins? $150,000?

Has the tattoo world been talking about this?

My main reaction was just that Im always annoyed that, when I see these things, the artist is never credited. I did a tattoo for Whoopi Goldberg that was on the red carpet the year before last and everyone was freaking out over it. Its like, Hey, hello guys, I did the tattoo? Of course, a part of it is that people just dont know who did the work and thats probably hard to figure out, but I wouldve liked to have known.
The old argument that a well-armed populace is the best defense against tyranny has returned with a vengeance since the February school shooting in Parkland, Florida, has reignited the push for gun control legislation. How many millions were shot and killed because they were unarmed? Rep. Don Young at Alaska said at a debate shortly after the shooting. Fifty million in Russia because their citizens were unarmed. How many Jews were put into the ovens because they were unarmed? During a debate in the Florida Senate over an assault weapons ban, Sen. David Simmons made the inaccurate claim that Adolf Hitler confiscated all the weaponstook all the weapons, had a registry of everybody, before he murdered his political opponents. This week, Iowa Rep. Steve King posted a meme noting the Cuban heritage of Parkland survivor Emma Gonzalez and attacking her for ignoring the fact that your ancestors fled the island when the dictatorship turned Cuba into a prison camp, after removing all weapons from its citizens; hence their right to self defense.

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The shopworn notion that the Holocaust happened because Jews were unarmeda favorite of people ranging from Ben Carson to Joe the Plumberis both misleading and offensive. For one thing, it ignores the Jews who did participate in armed resistance, including the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the partisan fightersefforts that, noble as they may have been, had little chance of stopping the slaughter carried out by a major industrialized military power. Its also strange for King to use Fidel Castro as an example of how an armed citizenry prevents authoritarian government: The Cuban Revolution wasnt exactly an exercise in Gandhian nonviolence.

In the modern world, theres little evidence to suggest that widespread private gun ownership leads to more democratic societies. The top countries on Small Arms Surveys ranking of civilian gun ownership (the most recent data is unfortunately from 2007) are a mixed bag politically. The United States leads by a mile88.8 firearms per 100 peoplefollowed by Yemen, with 54.8. I supposed you could argue that Yemens well-armed population overthrew an authoritarian leader in 2012, though the civil war and humanitarian catastrophe that have followed somewhat undermine the case.

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Switzerland (45.7) and Finland (45.3) are in the top 10, but so is Saudi Arabia (35)the worlds largest and most repressive absolute monarchyand Iraq (34.2). Iraq had a well-established gun culture under Saddam Husseins dictatorship, which did not prevent him from carrying out acts of genocide and mass murder but did contribute to the chaos that ensued after he was overthrown by U.S. military power.

Relatively high rates of gun ownership did not help the failed uprising against the autocratic government of Bahrain (24.8) in 2011, prevent a string of military coups in Thailand (15.6), or prevent Venezuelas (10.7) descent into authoritarianism and economic chaos.

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Its true that North Korea has virtually no guns in private hands, but the same is also true of South Korea and Japan. Ghana, one of sub-Saharan Africas most peaceful and democratic countries, has one of the worlds lowest rates of gun ownership.

The country that ranks dead last on Small Arms Surveys list, Tunisia, not only overthrew its dictator in 2011albeit with a crucial assist from the militarybut is the only one of the Arab Spring countries that has remained relatively democratic and stable since then.

In short, the data shows no discernible correlation between a countrys rate of civilian firearm ownership and its politics. Countries with lots of guns include democracies and dictatorships, peaceful orderly societies and failed states. Ditto for countries with very few guns. It should not be a talking point in this debate.
The designer of a 17-story waterslide at a Kansas amusement park, once the tallest in the world, was arrested on Monday and charged with second-degree murder for the death of a 10-year-old boy who was decapitated on the ride in 2016. The charges were filed against the two designers of the Verruckt ride (translated as insane in German), including Schlitterbahn Waterpark owner Jeff Henry, after investigators uncovered shoddy design, a faulty safety record, and overall negligence in the rushed construction of the hybrid rollercoaster-waterslide.

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From NPR:

Conceived in 2012 in a spur-of-the-moment bid to impress producers of the Travel Channels Xtreme Waterparks series, the 17-story Verruckt was guided from design to completion by Henry and [John] Schooleyneither of whom possessed any kind of technical or engineering credential relevant to amusement ride design or safety, the indictments say Verruckt suffered from a long list of dangerous design flaws; however, the most obvious and potentially lethal flaw was that Verruckts design guaranteed that rafts would occasionally go airborne in a manner that could severely injure or kill the occupants, the indictments assert, alleging that video recordings depict even Henry and Schooley going airborne on a personal test run of the prototype.

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Despite their lack of experience, the ride went live after just 20 months and the injuries began to pile up: 13 injuries, including two concussions and one case of temporary blindness. On Verruckt, groups of riders first zoomed down a nearly vertical, 168-foot main descent. Then they ascended 50 feet above the ground, propelled by inertia and a series of high-pressure water blasters,  the Washington Post reported on the indictment. The problem was that riders would often go airborne when careening down the rides chute, exposing riders to dangerous looped metal poles overhead. In August 2016, thats exactly what happened to the 10-year-old boy, who was thrown from his raft while riding with two older women and decapitated on a metal pole.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte gave an unexpected green light to the attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia, who had claimed in a lawsuit that payments to properties owned by Donald Trump violate the Constitutions arcane foreign and domestic Emoluments Clauses. Messitte, who works out of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, found that the plaintiffs have standing to proceed with their case, at least with respect to the Trump International Hotel in D.C., but not properties in other states.

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In a similar case in December, a judge in New York ruled against a different set of plaintiffs, finding they had not shown they were directly harmed by domestic and foreign officials making payments to Trump properties. But in his 47-page ruling, Messitte denied the Justice Departments motion to dismiss with respect to Trump properties in the District of Columbia but not Maryland. The court made no other decisions beyond finding that the plaintiffs have standing to move forward with their case.

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Of particular note, wrote the judge, was the Trump International Hotel D.C., a five-star, luxury hotel located on Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., in Washington, near the White House. He noted that [d]irectly or indirectly, the President shares in the revenues that the Hotel and its appurtenant restaurant, bar, and event spaces generate. Messitte noted that [s]ince the Presidents election, a number of foreign governments have patronized or expressed a definite intention to patronize the Hotel, some of which have indicated that they are doing so precisely because of the Presidents association with it and made special mention of the fact that at least one Statethe State of Mainepatronized the Hotel when its Governor, Paul LePage, visited Washington to discuss official business with the Federal Government.

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The court found that D.C. and Maryland could plausibly claim to have been harmed when Governor Paul LePage of the State of Maine stayed at the Hotel on an official visit to Washington during the spring of 2017, met with the President, and not long after appeared with the President at a news conference at which the President signed an executive order to review national monuments that are part of the National Park Service, which could apply to a park and national monument in Maine, which President Obama had established over LePages objections in 2016. He added, Leaving aside how Maines citizens may have felt about the propriety of their Governor living large at the Hotel while on official business in Washington, the fact that States other than Maryland or the District of Columbia (while, not a State) might patronize the Hotel while on official business in Washington rather clearly suggests that Maryland and the District of Columbia may very well feel themselves obliged, i.e., coerced, to patronize the Hotel in order to help them obtain federal favors.

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While Trump and the DOJ had claimed that Maryland and D.C. could claim no meaningful injury, Messitte writes that the plaintiffs cite specific instances of foreign governments foregoing reservations at other hotels in the arena and moving them to the Presidents Hotel  (noting that both Kuwait and Bahrain moved events from the Four Seasons and Ritz Carlton to the Hotel after the President was elected). Statements from foreign diplomats have confirmed that they will almost certainly be doing likewise. He also reports that the Plaintiffs further allege that, since the Presidents election, the Hotel has raised its prices to premium levels and has increased its profits (alleging that the starting rate for guest rooms at the Hotel increased to $500 on most nights, which is hundreds of dollars more than when the Hotel first opened shortly before the presidential election).

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Buried in a footnote, the court also tartly rejects the DOJs argument that its Congress responsibility to resolve the emoluments problem, and not the courts:

The thrust of the Presidents argument that only Congress can act is particularly concerning. Suppose a majority (simple? two-thirds?) of Congress (the House? the Senate? both?) is controlled by one partythat of the President. And suppose the Congress never undertakes to approve or disapprove the Presidents receipt of such emoluments. The President could continue to receive unlimited emoluments from foreign and state governments without the least oversight and with absolute impunity.

The president will surely appeal this decision, but the plaintiffs are now a step closer to broad discovery surrounding the profoundly opaque Trump business records, finances, and holdings.
Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens has called on supporters of tighter gun-control legislation to fight for more permanent reform: repeal of the Second Amendment.

That simple but dramatic action would move Saturdays marchers closer to their objective than any other possible reform, Stevens wrote in a New York Times op-ed column published Tuesday, just days after hundreds of thousands of people protested in March for Our Lives rallies across the United States.

Stevens, who retired in 2010 and was nominated by President Gerald Ford in 1975, called the Second Amendment a relic stemming from an 18th-century concern that a national military could pose a threat to the security of the states. As states no longer consider a takeover by the national government an imminent threat, the amendment isnt necessary in modern America.

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The turning point in the amendments reinterpretation came in 2008 with the landmark decision in District of Columbia v. Heller. In the case, the Supreme Court overturned the Second Amendments limited reach and ruled that it protects an individuals rights to bear arms, even for people unaffiliated with a militia. Since then, the NRA has warped it into a powerful propaganda tool, the 97-year-old said.

Stevens, who wrote the dissenting opinion in Heller, said in Tuesdays op-ed, Overturning that decision via a constitutional amendment to get rid of the Second Amendment would do more to weaken the NRAs ability to stymie legislative debate and block constructive gun control legislation than any other available option.

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Although mass shooting deaths have increased in recent years, there has never been a serious movement to repeal the Second Amendment as a way to reduce gun violence. One obstacle is the process required to repeal a constitutional amendment, which has been extremely rare in U.S. history. Since the document was signed in 1787, repeal has been accomplished only oncein 1933 when the 21st Amendment retracted the 18th Amendment, which prohibited the manufacture and sale of alcohol. Repealing an amendment requires the passage of another amendmentan intentionally complicated process. Proposing an amendment requires a two-thirds vote in both chambers of Congress and approval in three-fourths of state legislatures. The process is so difficult, only 27 amendments have been ratified out of 11,000 attempts.

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But perhaps the greatest deterrent to dumping the Second Amendment isnt legal; its political. Any movement to repeal it would probably backfire and play into conservative narratives that liberals want to take away Second Amendment rights. The suggestion is so controversial, only a handful of politicians and activists have even suggested it.

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In 1991, former conservative chief justice Warren Burger said in an interview with PBS Newshour that if he were writing the Bill of Rights today, the Second Amendment wouldnt be included. He went on to say that it had become one of the greatest pieces of fraudI repeat the word fraudon the American public by special-interest groups that I have ever seen in my lifetime.

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The sentiment was echoed in the wake of the Las Vegas massacre by filmmaker Michael Moorewho said in a Facebook post that the amendment should be more specifically applied to state militiasand again after the Parkland, Florida, shooting by New York Times columnist Bret Stephens, who wrote a column titled To Repeat: Repeal the Second Amendment.

The calls for repeal, however, have never gained traction. Instead, activists have taken a more pragmatic approach and continued pushing for the same decades-old proposals: banning assault-style weapons, requiring universal background checks, and restricting bump stocks and high-capacity magazines.

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Radical approaches like Stevens have often received pushback online. Tuesdays op-ed drew criticism from UCLA law professor Adam Winkler and one Parkland student-activist, Cameron Kasky, who reiterated that repealing the Second Amendment is not what the movement is trying to accomplish.

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The Second Amendment is not the barrier to gun reform that Stevens imagines. Recall that Americas gun problem and inability to enact meaningful reform predates Supreme Courts 2008 decision. That ruling did not have a major effect on the gun debate.  Adam Winkler (@adamwinkler) March 27, 2018

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https://t.co/JcFNFTA6VD Not what were going for here, but very interesting considering who wrote it. Feel free to give it a read. I dont feel the same way, but its an interesting point of view.  Cameron Kasky (@cameron_kasky) March 27, 2018

But years of advocacy for common-sense restrictions have been met with limited success. In light of that reality, we shouldnt expect a radical movement to rewrite or repeal the Second Amendment anytime soon.
Mitt Romney is the heavy favorite to replace Orrin Hatch in the Senate. But he still has to win a Republican primary. And even in Utah, where Romney is treated as royalty, this means proving his conservative bona fides.

For instance, Im a deficit hawk, Romney assured a group of Republican women on Monday. That makes me more conservative than a lot of Republicans and a lot of Democrats. Im also more of a hawk on immigration than even the president. My view was these DACA kids shouldnt all be allowed to stay in the country legally. He continued: Now I will accept the presidents view on this, but for me, I draw the line and say, those whove come illegally should not be given a special path to citizenship.

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Its tempting to treat this as simple pandering: another example of Mitt Romney saying whatever it takes to win support from conservative voters. This is, after all, the same Mitt Romney who embraced mandatory health coverage as governor of Massachusetts, before disavowing it on the campaign trail. And the same Romney whose vocal criticism of Donald Trump didnt stop him from auditioning to be secretary of state. But far from opportunistic, Romneys hard line against DACA recipients reflects one of his true, long-standing political commitments. On most issues, the former Massachusetts governor may have been unconvincing as a severely conservative Republican, but on immigration, he appears to be a sincere hawk.

Romney emphasized his opposition to illegal immigration during his 2008 campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. As governor, I authorized the state police to enforce immigration laws. I opposed drivers licenses and in-state tuition for illegal aliens, he said in a campaign advertisement, contrasting his positions with those of Hillary Clinton and the Democrats. As president, Ill oppose amnesty, cut funding for sanctuary cities, and secure our borders, Romney said.

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This position placed Romney to the right of the Republican mainstream. But he was in line with the GOP base. While he would lose the nomination to John McCaina moderate on immigrationthis hard-line position would redound to Romneys benefit during the 2012 Republican primary, when he faced a formidable opponent in thenTexas Gov. Rick Perry, who entered the race as the avatar for the Tea Partys anti-Washington fervor of the moment. Romney was the front-runner, but he also had a record of moderation in Massachusetts, and Perry loomed as a serious threat to his right.

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There was just one place where Romney could outflank him: immigration. And he did exactly that, blasting Perrys support of in-state tuition for undocumented students at Texas colleges and accusing Perry of creating a magnet for illegal immigrants. That shouldnt be allowed, said Romney. It makes no sense at all. This led Perry to the reply that would fatally weaken his candidacy. If you say we should not educate children who come into our state  by no fault of their own, I dont think you have a heart.

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By that standard, Romney was happy to be heartless. At a GOP debate in South Carolina, he announced his opposition to the DREAM Act that was then being considered by Congress. Ive indicated I would veto the DREAM Act if provisions included in that act say that people who were here illegallyif they go to school here long enough, if they get a degree herethen they can become permanent residents, he said. I think we have to follow the law and insist that those that have come here illegally return home and applyget in line with everyone else. Romney infamously declared he was for self-deportation during a Republican debate in Florida, advocating a strategy of attrition, in which the United States would make life so difficult that immigrants leave of their own volition.

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Romneys position on immigration was so right-wing that, in its post-election autopsy of his defeat, the Republican National Committee urged future nominees to reject his approach entirely, warning of electoral irrelevance if the Republican Party cannot attract votes from Hispanic and Asian American communities.

Of course, Donald Trump won the partys nomination, and the White House, by doing just the opposite, attacking immigrants (and other minorities) in harsh, racist terms. And while most of the Republican Party still refrains from using Trumps language, it is fully on board with the presidents draconian immigration policies. But Romney was there first, urging a similarly uncompromising approach on immigration, indulging nativist impulse among Republican voters.

Romneys history on immigration is one reason why we should not treat Trump as an aberration from the Republican Party but the outgrowthand perhaps the apotheosisof forces that have driven Republican politics for at least a decade. Romneys hostility to illegal immigration helped him win the Republican nomination. Whats more, he gave tacit approval to Donald Trumps birtherism, even welcoming his endorsement in 2012. After he lost, Romney attributed Obamas re-election to a promise of gifts to black people, women, and the children of illegals.

Romney holds sincere, conservative views on immigration, but he also helped give rise to the divisive politics that he now criticizes in Trump. Romney indulged the worst impulses of the Republican base, feeding it an appetizer of racial resentment and leaving it hungry for someone who could offer a feast.
Over the next few months, the Supreme Court seems poised to deliver a crushing blow to public sector unions, allow more purges that remove eligible voters from the rolls, limit anti-discrimination laws protecting the LBGT community in the name of protecting religious freedom, and uphold the latest version of Trumps travel ban. And while the court may, for the time being, put the brakes on the most egregious forms of partisan gerrymandering, that result may be short-lived, as rumors recirculate that swing Justice Anthony Kennedy could soon announce his retirement. That would give President Trump the chance to put another judge like deceased Justice Antonin Scalia on the court, creating a more solid five-justice conservative majority.

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Indeed, contrary to the argument of a recent Linda Greenhouse New York Times column proclaiming that Justice Scalias legacy is fading, his legacy only seems to be growing. Over the next few decades, Justice Scalia is likely to have greater influence in death than life.

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As I explain in my new book, The Justice of Contradictions: Antonin Scalia and the Politics of Disruption, Justice Scalias influence on the court certainly seemed small by the usual measures. Aside from his 2008 Second Amendment and gun rights opinion, District of Columbia v. Heller, Scalia wrote few blockbuster majority opinions outside the area of criminal procedure. He wasnt, like Kennedy, the swing justice on the court, the crucial fifth vote moving it from one side or the other of contentious issues. He was mostly a reliable conservative vote on the most important issues of the day, from abortion rights, to same-sex marriage, to the constitutionality of voter ID laws.

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Where Scalia got his influence, though, was through his ideas and the sheer force of his writing. He declared that he had found neutral tools that justices must use to decide constitutional cases (public meaning originalism) and cases interpreting the meaning of federal statutes (textualism). Never mind that he was not a consistent originalist or textualist, often ignoring the methodology or finding a way around it to reach a (usually conservative) result.

He wrote his opinionsespecially his dissentsin a forceful and entertaining way, gaining them disproportionate attention in the public, press, and law schools. He was an in-your-face sarcastic justice who did not fear insulting his colleagues, evenand perhaps especiallythe swing justice. Take his 2015 dissent in the Obergefell same-sex marriage case, authored by Kennedy:

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If, even as the price to be paid for a fifth vote, I ever joined an opinion for the Court that began: The Constitution promises liberty to all within its reach, a liberty that includes certain specific rights that allow persons, within a lawful realm, to define and express their identity, I would hide my head in a bag. The Supreme Court of the United States has descended from the disciplined legal reasoning of John Marshall and Joseph Story to the mystical aphorisms of the fortune cookie.

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His nastiness toward other justices was not (simply) ad hominem: It was aimed at arguing that any justices who did not follow his methods of originalist and textualist interpretations were not acting legitimately as judges but were acting as superlegislators.

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Where Scalia got his influence was through his ideas and the sheer force of his writing.

Now in death, Scalias influence is even stronger. Justice Neil Gorsuch, the newest Supreme Court justice, has not only pledged fealty to Scalias methodology; he has also tried to emulate his snarkiness (although so far without much success in replicating Scalias charm). You could almost see Gorsuch harkening back to Scalia when he admonished his colleagues in a statutory-interpretation case: If a statute needs repair, theres a constitutionally prescribed way to do it. Its called legislation. And at an oral argument in the 2017 Wisconsin partisan-gerrymandering case, he dismissively interjected that Maybe we can just for a second talk about the arcane matter, the Constitution. Gorsuch is likely to continue the effort to delegitimize any judge or lawyer who does not follow Scalias vision.

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He is just the tip of the iceberg. The Federalist Society, which Scalia helped found, has created a farm team of judges and lawyers who all seek to advance the Scalian vision. It is now conservative orthodoxy to pledge allegiance to Scalias methodology, and the great commercial success of a recent collection of Scalias speeches shows the deification of the justice proceeds apace. The Trump administration has essentially outsourced the choice of federal judges to the Federalist Society, and Trump was recently secretly recorded talking about his hopes for putting 145 new federal judges on the bench.

If Justice Kennedy announces his retirement in the spring, there is no question that Senate Majority Leader McConnell will get through a Scalia clone before the 2018 midterm elections.

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If and when Trump has an opportunity to replace Kennedy, Chief Justice John Roberts, a strong conservative, will become the new swing Justice. Much more of Scalias vision would then become a reality. In the area I study most closely, election law and the law of democracy, it would mean that individuals, corporations, and other domestic entities would be able to give unlimited contributions directly to candidates for office. Legislatures would be able to draw legislative districts for full partisan advantage, ignoring any requirements in Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and limited only by a requirement that race not be the predominant factor in redistricting. Politicians would be able to use public employment decisions to reward the loyal and to punish those who belonged to the wrong political party. State legislatures would be allowed to make it much harder for some people to register and vote, so long as the laws did not burden most people. Congress would have only limited power to assure that racial and ethnic minorities have fair representation in legislative bodies. Consumers and labor unions would have much less ability to protect their own interests against those of corporations.

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People often ask me why the left never gets as excited about control of the court when it comes to voting and political action. The answer is that the courts decisions have been mostly in the middle thanks to swing justices like Kennedyabout half the courts decisions in big cases have been more liberal, about half more conservative.

All of that stands to change in the next few years. Even if Justice Kennedy decides to hold on, and Democrats miraculously can block another Trump appointment to the Supreme Court, the stacking of lower-court judges with Scalia acolytes will have effects on all Americans for generations. That may finally wake up the left to the power of the federal courts. By then, though, it may be too late to do anything about it.

Justice Scalias fading legacy? Im afraid not.
Hundreds of members of Sacramentos black community took over city hall for an emotionally tense period Tuesday evening to demand justice for and express outrage over the death of Stephon Clark, an unarmed black man who was shot multiple times last week in his grandmothers backyard by police investigating reports of vandalism.

The City Council was holding a public meeting to discuss the shooting and hear from the public. According to the New York Times, community leaders voiced their grievances to the council as a group of around 300 protesters outside in the buildings foyer chanted loudly. Police in riot gear stood by.

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Clark, a 22-year-old with two young sons, was spotted in his grandmothers backyard by officers in a helicopter who identified him as the man who was reportedly breaking car windows in the neighborhood. When officers advanced toward Clark on the ground, they say he fled toward the back of the house, turned and, according to the officers, advanced toward police with an object in his hand. Police have said the two officers that then shot him thought it was a gun. Clark was holding a cellphone.

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Early in the meeting, Stevante Clark, Stephon Clarks brother, interrupted and started cursing at Sacramentos mayor, Darrell Steinberg, according to the Times. He jumped on the desk in front of Steinberg and started chanting his brothers name. One activist asked people in the room to take out their cellphones and point them at the council members, demanding to know if their phones looked like guns. Three hours in, according to the Times, protesters outside the building started banging on the windows and, when police tried to move one of the protesters, shoved the officers. The police then pulled out their batons and retreated, and around 25 more officers showed up. At one point in the evening, a person was arrested.

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Protesters also blocked entrances of the Golden 1 Center a few blocks away, where the Sacramento Kings were set to play a game, preventing some fans from being able to enter the arena.

At the public meeting on Tuesday, Steinberg promised to push the police for answers. Clarks family has hired the civil rights lawyer who represented the families of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown to explore a potential lawsuit against the police department. The family is skeptical of there being a fair and just investigation, according to the Washington Post.

According to the Sacramento Bee, the two officers who shot him multiple times held their position for around five minutes before approaching Clarks body. The officers have been placed on administrative leave as the state attorney generals office conducts an investigation into Clarks killing, as well as the departments training and protocols.

In the body camera video from the incident, police muted their cameras after Clark was killed. Police Chief Daniel Hahn has said he does not know why.
The Trump administrations decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census could mark the beginning of a radical shift in American democracy. If the question survives a court challenge, it will fundamentally alter the composition of government, exacerbating overrepresentation in predominantly white regions while diminishing representation of immigrants and minorities. The question will tilt political power to the right in both Congress and state legislatures while depriving cities of vital funds for public health, schooling, and other social services. And it opens the door to a new kind of gerrymandering that will further suppress minority votes. The addition of this question may be Donald Trumps most lasting move as president, one with vast ramifications that will harm communities disfavored by the Republican Party through at least 2030.

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How did we get here? The census is meant to be a politically neutral tool designed to ensure that Congress is truly representative of the country it serves. Every 10 years, the federal government must conduct a census to determine the actual enumeration of the people, and then mandates congressional redistricting based on its findings. From the start, the Constitution required the counting of people rather than just citizensthough it notoriously counted individual slaves as three-fifths of a person. The 14th Amendment remedied this shameful exception by apportioning representatives according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state.

The language of the Constitution couldnt be clearer: Congress represents people, not citizens or voters or legal residents. Indeed, the framers of the 14th Amendment considered and rejected the notion of counting citizens alone. Ohio Rep. John Bingham, the principal author of the amendment, explained that it would be foolish to strike from the basis of representation the entire immigrant population not naturalized. Why? Because under the Constitution as it now is and as it always has been, the entire immigrant population of this country is included in the basis of representation. The census counts all people, immigrants included, and all people receive representation in Congress.

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In 1950, the federal government stopped asking about citizenship on the decennial census. But in recent years, Republicans have crafted various theories designed to justify restoring the citizenship question. Some have argued that including undocumented immigrants in the census is illegal, an absurd claim that contravenes the original understanding of the 14th Amendment. Others assert that Congress must represent voters, not peoplea theory the Supreme Court rejected in 2016s Evenwel v. Abbott, holding that states may count the overall population to satisfy the Equal Protection Clauses one person, one vote principle.

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Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross added the citizenship question to the census at the behest of the Department of Justice. In December, the DOJ told the Census Bureau, which is part of the Department of Commerce, that it needs a reliable calculation of citizen voting-age population to enforce the Voting Rights Act, which bars the dilution of minority votes.

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The DOJ is full of it. There is zero chance that Attorney General Jeff Sessions legitimately cares about VRA compliance given that he has abandoned the law in court. And the DOJs theory doesnt even make sense. As the attorneys general of 19 states and the District of Columbia pointed out in a letter, the Supreme Court has never measured vote dilution by simply asking whether a majority of citizens in a district are minorities. To be clear, plenty of conservative lawmakers want the court to do so. Texas, for instance, created multiple districts that contain a majority of Hispanic citizens but relatively few reliable Hispanic voters. In 2011, the DOJ took the position that this method did not satisfy the VRA.

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Sasha Samberg-Champion, a former attorney with the DOJs Civil Rights Division who now practices at the firm Relman, Dane & Colfax, told me the DOJs justification for a citizenship question may indicate the agency will soon flip positions and side with Texas. The Justice Department looks poised to embrace the theory that the state can satisfy the VRA by packing a majority of Hispanic citizens into a district even if they do not consistently vote. If courts accepted this position, states like Texas could effectively sidestep the VRAs goal of empowering minority voters.

There are two equally ominous reasons why the Trump administration would ask for citizenship data. First, in Evenwel, the Supreme Court did not rule out the possibility of drawing districts based on the population of citizens or voters rather than overall population. Citizen-based apportionment would deprive immigrants of representation, shifting power toward white rural voters at the expense of minorities and city-dwellers.

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A Brennan Center analysis found that counting citizens instead of people would disproportionately affect booming metro areas like Dallas, Houston, and Los Angeles given their large populations of immigrants. It would also dilute the votes of Latinos and make it more difficult to draw VRA-compliant districts. Harvard political scientist Carl E. Klarner found that apportionment by citizen population would substantially reduce Latino representation in state legislatures and the House of Representatives. An analysis by Andrew A. Beveridge, a professor of sociology at Queens College, reached the same conclusion.

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In Evenwel, the Supreme Court didnt address the legality of such a scheme because it was, at the time, theoretical. By soliciting data on the nations immigrants, the Trump administration seems to be laying the groundwork for Texas and other states to use citizen population in the next cycle of redistricting. The upshot would be fewer Democratic representatives in Texas; Beveridge estimated that Republicans would gain at least seven seats in the state House (which has 150 members) and one in the state Senate (which has 31). He also found that Republicans would win one to two more congressional districts in the state.

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Second, adding a citizenship question to the census will almost certainly suppress responses from both legal and undocumented immigrants. These individuals may fear that the government will use their information to target them for deportation or investigate their familys citizenship status.

How large might this effect be? Unfortunately, the Census Bureau did not model the impact of a citizenship question. But after the 2010 census, the bureau noted that Hispanic communities were already difficult to count, in part because immigrants are understandably wary of government officials who knock on their doors asking questions. In September 2017, the bureaus Center for Survey Measurement found that Hispanics and immigrants were mistrustful of census-takers. It found that fears of the census, particularly among immigrant respondents, have increased markedly this year, with immigrants expressing concerns about the Muslim ban and the dissolution of DACA. Some immigrants were uncomfortable registering members of their household; others were told by community leaders not to open the door without a warrant signed by a judge.

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That was before the census featured a citizenship question. Civil rights advocates believe that the addition of such a question will compound distrust in the census among immigrants, lead undocumented individuals to refuse to participate altogether, and push those with legal status to lie out of fear that they will inadvertently report undocumented family members. During the Evenwel litigation, several former directors of the census told the Supreme Court that a citizenship question would invariably lead to a lower response rate, particularly among noncitizens.

A significant majority of immigrants live in blue states; if they dont respond to the census, these states populations will be undercounted. As a result, the states could lose seats in the House of Representatives as well as funding for Medicaid, food stamps, transportation, and education. The problem would stretch well beyond the Trump era; the numbers collected in 2020 will be in use until the 2030 census.

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California Attorney General Xavier Becerra appears to recognize this threat; on Monday, he filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of the citizenship question. Becerra argues that the addition violates the Constitutions Census Clause itself: By diminish[ing] the response rates of non-citizens and their citizen relatives, the question will interfere with the actual enumeration of the people required by the Constitution. The strength of this claim is difficult to gauge given the novelty of the question. It seems possible that the courts will find that a citizenship question does not infringe on actual enumeration because immigrants can still respond to the census if they want to, even if the question has a disparate impact on their response rate.

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Becerra also argues that the new question violates the Administrative Procedure Act, a federal statute that bars any arbitrary or capricious agency action. This claim is quite strong. The citizenship question was added at a very late stage over the objection of career attorneys and with no field testing to estimate its effects. That marks a dramatic departure from the bureaus standard procedures, implying a political motivation that may be unlawfully arbitrary under the APA.

There is thus a decent chance that the courts could block the question. But there is also a good possibility that it will remain in place, redrawing the countrys political map for at least 10 years, creating a self-perpetuating cycle of disenfranchisement. Trump will eventually leave office. But the dire consequences of this move could stay with us for a long time to come.
On Saturday night, Ann Coulter, furious over President Donald Trumps inability to build a massive wall along our Southern border, offered an idea to Fox News Jeanine Pirro, one of Trumps favorite television hosts. Its his authority under the Constitution that cannot be taken away from him by any legislature, by any court  to defend our borders, Coulter said. I think it can be done right on our border as part of the defense.

In other words, Coulter was suggesting that Trump use the surge of military funding included in last weeks omnibus bill to construct the wall. Have the Seabees do it, Coulter said.

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Early the following morning, Trump, who has been known to watch Fox on DVR, tweeted that because our Military is again rich, the government should build WALL through M! As the Washington Post reported, in one of the more delightfully dry sentences of late, Two advisers said M stood for military. 

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There are many reasons why this is unlikely to happen. Theres no clear authorization to use Defense Department monies in this way. There would be litigation. Also, the Defense Department does not want to do this, at all. All Democrats and many Republicans in Congress, too, would not be down with repurposing money for rebuilding our military to a make-work monument to political malinvestment on the border. Trump is mad that he didnt secure his wall in the omnibus, and so hes throwing out silly ideas and wasting West Wing man-hours by forcing his aides to look into them as though hes onto something.

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If only there had been some viable path recently toward construction of the wall. Rather than spending spring break stewing in the White House over what might have been, Trump could be lounging in a lawn chair by the border right now, sipping iced tea, watching as contractors erect the prototypical barrier of his liking. He could have fulfilled one of his core campaign promises to his base, a promise that not any generic Republican president would have prioritized.

And all he had to do was accept a 10- to 14-year path to citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants brought to the United States at a young age.

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That deal has been on the table for more than a month now: Trump gives Democrats a path to citizenship for 1.8 million Dreamers; Democrats give Trump his full $25 billion wall funding request. The Trump administration balked at this clean trade when the Senate was negotiating immigration in February and again in the weeks before the omnibus. The master dealer always wanted something more, be it sharp cuts to family-based immigration or enhanced interior enforcement. Democrats were willing to blow money on Trumps vanity project, handing him a political victory, but they were never going to secure Dreamers future by agreeing to the sharpest tightening of legal immigration levels in decades or selling out other undocumented immigrants.

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It is confounding that Trump didnt just take the deal. Yes, he may have gotten some heat from Breitbart over the amnesty, but no one reads Breitbart anymore. They would have gotten over it. And in return, he would have been able to build the wall of his dreams! He could spend the next few years bragging endlessly about how he was able to secure this project in spite of what had appeared to be unwavering Democratic resistance. (Oh, how Trump would have enjoyed the Democratic infighting.) Had he taken the deal, he could have even saidand for the first time in his political career, somewhat accuratelythat he had shrewdly negotiated a deal. He took the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program hostage, forcing Democrats to give him his wall. Inhumane? Yes. Successful? Absolutely.

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Trump could try again in the late-September funding bill, but the calendar will be far too close to the midterms for any substantial bipartisan deal to take place. He could issue a veto threat, but shutting down the government over a border wall five weeks before voters go to the polls, in a cycle that already has Republicans on defense might not fare well for his party. After that, Republicans will either have a slimmer majority in the House or Democrats will have a majority. Neither eases the prospects for large border wall appropriations in the future. Perhaps Trump will have another shot if the courts allow his rescinding of DACA to stand, and Democrats come back to the table.

Trump, as the Post reported, has been privately grousing that his political supporters could become disenchanted without progress on the wall. In that case, he should have enchanted them with progress last week.
Apple CEO Tim Cook had some harsh words for Facebook and defended his companys manufacturing practices during an interview with Recode and MSNBC on Wednesday. The full interview wont air until April 6*, but Recode published some excerpts on its website.

Cook doubled down on his previous calls for regulating data privacy amid Facebooks recent scandal involving political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica accessing private info from more than 50 million accounts. When Recodes Kara Swisher asked Cook what he would do if he were Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the Apple executive responded, I wouldnt be in this situation.

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Apple has largely avoided relying on using consumer data for advertising as a major revenue stream, instead focusing on its hardware. As Cook claimed in the interview, The truth is, we could make a ton of money if we monetized our customerif our customer was our product. Weve elected not to do that.

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Given that Facebook and other social media companies have built business models around monetizing personal data, Cook suggested that it may be time for the government to step in. I think the best regulation is no regulation, is self-regulation. However, I think were beyond that here, he said. He made similar remarks on Saturday at the China Development Forum in Beijing, advocating for policies that would prohibit companies from assembling and employing users data without them knowing.

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Cook also responded in the interview to a common criticism that Apple is shirking American manufacturers by building its iPhones in China. Trump notably attacked Apple on the campaign trail in 2016 for using Chinese factories but later made nice with the company when Cook cited the presidents tax cuts as a motivation for investing $30 billion in the U.S. and hiring 20,000 more workers.

Cook claimed to Recode and MSNBC that the companys detractors fixate on the fact that the final assembly for the devices is done in China, but ignore the manufacturing of certain components in the U.S. For example, glass for the iPhones screen is built in Kentucky. We are building things in the United States, Cook said, Its not true that iPhone isnt built in the United States.

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He further dismissed the idea that the company needs political pressure to employ more Americans and added, We know that Apple could only have been created in the United States. We love this country. Were patriots. This is our country. Want to create as many jobs in the U.S. as we can.

Recode posted additional responses from Cooks interview on Twitter:

Apple's Tim Cook on how to protect privacy:

- I would make sure I understood the privacy policy of every app and every website you frequent.

- I would go into private browsing mode. Think about blocking cookies.

- The only way to protect your data, is to encrypt.#RevolutionCHI pic.twitter.com/ZpTsRxn4KN  Recode (@Recode) March 28, 2018

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.@KaraSwisher: If you were Mark Zuckerberg, what would you be doing right now?



Tim Cook: We curate, we don't want porn on our app store. We don't want hate speech on our app store. We're looking at every app in detail. Is it doing what it is saying it is doing? #RevolutionCHI pic.twitter.com/lGJwiCVeIV  Recode (@Recode) March 28, 2018

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Apple CEO Tim Cook: The DACA situation is one that I am personally, as an American, deeply offended by. The DACA situation is not an immigration issue. Its a moral issue. #RevolutionCHI pic.twitter.com/Acnj0VQwDx  Recode (@Recode) March 28, 2018

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Apple CEO Tim Cook on Amazons contest for its second headquarters location: Were not doing the beauty contest. Thats not Apple. #RevolutionCHI pic.twitter.com/TAKZDx3wmO  Recode (@Recode) March 28, 2018

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Apple CEO Tim Cook on jobs: We all have to get comfortable with education being lifelong. Jobs will be cannibalized over time and replaced by others. #RevolutionCHI pic.twitter.com/phJMMm97aD  Recode (@Recode) March 28, 2018
Apple used to dedicate an entire spring media event to the iPad, but in recent years, the iPad has taken a quieter role among the companys products. While Apple has debuted new models like the iPad Pro and its stylus accessory the Apple Pencil, these announcements have typically piggybacked on other events with an iPhone or Mac focus. Apple has never been afraid of cannibalization, and it seemed that the iPad was being swallowed by its smaller and larger siblings.

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On Tuesday morning, though, Apple brought back the iPad event as part of a set of education-focused announcements in Chicago. The event came as a surprise: The company only sent out invitations less than two weeks ago. Many correctly surmised, based on the invitation art and supply chain reports, that it would center around a new, possibly cheaper iPad, but after so long sitting on the sidelines, it also raised the possibility the iPad was returning to a prominent spot in Apples product lineup.

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Tuesday, we learned what that device would be. Apples new 9.7-inch iPad features Touch ID, an A10 fusion chip, and an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera and HD FaceTime camera. It also includes support for the Apple Pencil, something previously limited to the larger iPad Pro. With 10 hours of battery life and a reduced price tag of $299 for students ($329 for non-student consumers), Apple is hoping that the tablet will be a worthy competitor to Googles affordably priced Chromebooks, which have rocketed in popularity over the past five years, particularly in the classroom.

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As it turns out, the brunt of Apples event was focused on its education-related software updates. These included upgrades to its iWork suite Pages, Keynote, and NumbersApples word-processing, slideshow-making, and spreadsheet programswhich now support Pencil. Apple also introduced a new app called Schoolwork, an iPad-centric environment that lets teachers digitally assign work to students. Addressing data security concerns, the app keeps student information private to all but the teacher herself. To go along with Schoolwork, developers have a new framework, ClassKit, for making their apps compatible. This will eventually allow teachers to assign homework and projects through a variety of applications when Schoolwork goes live in June, in time for the 201819 academic year.

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In hindsight, it doesnt seem surprising how prominent the education programming was. Apple has a rich history of being involved in the education market, dating back to the Apple II in the 1980s, and this is the latest continuation of those efforts. While it was atypical not to offer a livestream of the event, the event itself wasnt designed for mass market appeal like an iPhone event would be.

That doesnt preclude the possibility that 2018 will be a big year for the iPad. On the software front, Apple is said to be planning to address performance and stability issues. When we get the first look at iOS 12 at WWDC this summer, it may not have a lot of exciting new featuresat least from a consumer standpoint. But the fall could bring more notable hardware updates. According to 9to5Mac, we could see a major iPad update later this year with a hardware redesign akin to the iPhone X; that is, a near bezel-free front display, no home button, and perhaps matching colorways to the iPhone X.

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As the iPhone has become Apples primary profit source and has encroached on the iPads mobile territory, its become unclear what the future of the iPad would be. Would it just slip away into obscurity like the iPod? With more education focused software, a cheaper option for students, and (potentially) freshly redesigned iPads later this year, we could see the iPad rise from its stagnant sales. The iPad had aimed to be the anti-PC, the computing device that would succeed our laptops and desktops. Apples recent Whats a computer? iPad Pro ad reiterates that fact. With new features, new accessories, and a broader variety of price points, perhaps it will regain some of the footing its lost during the enlarging of our smartphones. If not, we can be reasonably assured that between our extra-large phones and our ever more lightweight MacBooks, the iPads place in the world has been swallowed up.
Slovak wins Sony National Award for photo

She wanted to share the magic moment she witnessed alone.

Slovak photographer Erika Valkovicova won the National Award in the Sony World Photography Awards. Her winning photo captures sunrise at Matterhorn from the viewing platform located behind Kulmhotel Gornergrat- the highest hotel in the Swiss Alps.

Sharing the moment

I didnt expect the victory but of course, I was really happy, Valkovicova told The Slovak Spectator, adding that she is honoured to be selected as the National Award Winner from many talented photographers.

She applied for the contest with ten photos while she was waiting at the airport. The only condition was that the photos were taken in 2017. Her winning photo was taken in early April.

I walked up in the dark to the observation area in deep fresh snow and spent an endless two hours waiting in the cold before the sun kissed the peak of the Matterhorn and the sky turned pink! As I was the only person out there, I am thrilled I can share with others the magic moment I witnessed, Valkovicova said, describing the moment when the winning photo was taken.

Maps, GPS and weather

Valkovicova loves photographing nature and animals the most, they are infinite source of inspiration and joy, according to her own words, and charge her with energy. But she also likes visiting towns and cities, and she is part of an international team of photographers called Our Place who take photos of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Within this project she takes photos of architecture, towns, culture sites and folk traditions.

Erika Valkovicova (Source: Erika Valkovicova)

A core of each of my photo journeys is a vision, how I would like to capture the country, Valkovicova said, describing how she prepares for a trip. She added that if the days of her stay are limited, she prepares beforehand possible locations, GPS coordinates, and maps.

I can simulate sunrise and sunset thank to smart mobile apps and I even get information whether the sky will turn red, explained Valkovicova. Before every journey she also looks at the advice of local photographers and reads their recommendations.

The rest is up to the weather. She does not give up in any weather conditions and can often be seen taking photos during a windstorm or standing in the freezing water.

My new fashion accessories are waterproof trousers and rubber boots, she added.

From an office to the world

Erika Valkovicova Born in southern Slovakia in the town of Kolarovo, Erika Valkovicova is continuously on the move between the continents exploring the world and capturing the beauty of our planet. Erika is self- employed and currently based in Prague, Czech Republic. Her work can be viewed at www.lpontour.com

Valkovicovas photographic journey started back in 2012 when circumstances allowed her to escape her corporate life. She followed her dream to travel and

learn photography. In 2014 she took training to become a photographer, participating in several courses and workshops. Lately, she has been dedicating her attention to night photography.

This year I would like to return with a camera to the High Tatras, she said, adding that her last time in the Tatras was twenty years ago.

28. Mar 2018 at 7:30 | Nina Hrabovska Francelova
The Dominik Tatarka literary prize went to an intellectual, an ecumenical team of authors

The awards hailing Slovak dissident intellectual and writer went to a collection of critical texts and the 5th volume of comments to Psalms.

L-R: Laureates of the Dominik Tatarka Award 2017 Milos Lichter, Misho Kapustin and Bohdan Hrobon on the award gala, March 13, 2018 in Bratislava. (Source: TASR)

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The laureates of Dominik Tatarka awards 2017 are Martin Milan Simecka, a journalist/writer/editor for his book Medzi Slovakmi (Among Slovaks) and to a team of authors, represented by Bohdan Hrobon (head of Biblical School), Misha Kapustin (rabbi) and Milos Lichner (Dena of the Theological Faculty of the Trnava University) for Psalms 51-75; Comments to the Old Testament.

The awards were handed out at a special event on March 13, in Palffy Palace in Bratislava.

Favourites were clear form the first moment on, the jury decided absolutely spontaneously and consensually this time, jury chairman, Peter Zajac, head of the M.R. Stefanik Conservative Institute, told the TASR newswire. Psalms belong among gems of world literature, and also among the most beautiful texts of the Old Testament. This work is exceptional in that it shows a very complex approach, huge ecumenical collective and a very meritorious work, as it offers both comments to Psalms and translation of Psalms.

Awarded books

As for the former work, its writer M.M. Simecka noted that rather than personal memoirs, it represents a wider, essayistic picture of Slovakia of the past half a century.

Laureats of the Dominik Tatarka Award 2017, Martin Milan Simecka, on the gala ceremony March 13, 2018 in Bratislava. (Source: TASR )

The second award hails the generously conceived ecumenical edition of comments to the Old Testament that has no par in Slovak culture. It is a gate to the thinking, Christianity and Judaism, and a proof that Jews and Christians are able to improve the world, one of the authors, Kapustin, noted.

Those awarded received a painting by Ladislav Carny as the prize.

The Dominik Tatarka Award is a prize bestowed annually since 1995 ot abook which appeared in the previous year  for an exceptional work that fulfils the humanistic traditions of Slovak culture and continues the spiritual message of late Slovak writer-dissident Dominik Tatarka, TASR wrote.

28. Mar 2018 at 6:35 | Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovska
Murder investigation: Police searching Velka Maca again

They were reportedly looking for the murder weapon.

One month after the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova, the police returned to the forest close to the village of Velka Maca (Trnava Region) on March 27.

The forest is close to the house where the couple was shot dead, the TVnoviny.sk website reported.

Dozens of police officers from the National Criminal Agency (NAKA), as well as the headquarters in Galanta and Trnava, were searching the forest, reportedly looking for a murder weapon. Some paths were sprayed with yellow and marked with arrows. It is possible the police officers were marking the potential route of the perpetrators, TVnoviny.sk wrote.

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The prosecutors office will not comment

It is an operational action of the police focused on finding and securing further evidence if there is any, said spokesperson for the General Prosecutors Office, Andrea Predajnova, as quoted by the TASR newswire.

She refused to provide more details.

The police action took place one day after the press conference held by the prosecutor of the Special Prosecutors Office, at which he revealed some facts learnt so far. Among other things he said that the murder had taken place on February 21 and that it was a contract killing.

He also said the police investigators are examining several scenarios.

27. Mar 2018 at 23:04 | Compiled by Spectator staff
Businessman Basternak is suing SaS MP Jozef Rajtar

The tycoon and landlord of ex-prime minister Robert Fico has filed a criminal complaint against the MP for calling him a thief.

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Real estate tycoon Ladislav Basternak has filed a criminal complaint against MP for the opposition SaS party, Jozef Rajtar, the SITA newswire wrote on March 27. According to the complaint, the businessman feels offended by Rajtars statements that he is a former car thief. He is also angry that the SaS MP made evaluating judgments about recurrent crimes in an organised group for which, according to the MP, he should have been taken into custody.

I understand the criminal complaint as a pointless attempt to intimidate me,'' Rajtar reacted, as quoted by SITA. Ladislav Basternak tried to vindicate himself from tax evasion accusations by resorting to active repentance, which is absurd in his case and no sensible investigator can swallow this bait. I still think that the attempt to cover this crime with inactivity of the Financial Administration and the police prove the presence of an organised group, SaS MP summed up.

Rajtar sued Basternak, too

Rajtar filed a criminal complaint against unknown perpetrators with the General Prosecutors Office in mid-March and is preparing one more, involving further transfers of flats, and VAT frauds.

He thinks that Basternaks activities reach further than the Five Star Residence  a highly publicized case in which flats were transferred and paid for cash, amounting to 12 million.

The Sme daily quoted him as claiming businessmen Marian Kocner and Basternak are among the suspects in several shady economic deals involving tax frauds and rigged VAT returns.

28. Mar 2018 at 13:13 | Compiled by Spectator staff
Beckov Castle open to public for Easter celebrations

On Easter weekend, Beckov will be open to the public, offering an Easter egg hunt, traditional crafts, and more.

Historical reenactment of a traditional duel at the Beckov Castle, illustrative stock photo. (Source: TASR)

More information about travelling in Slovakia

Please see our Please see our Spectacular Slovakia travel guide

Four days of fun, games, competitions and workshops for visitors have been organised by the group of legal entities Beckov Castle / Hrad Beckov.

From Friday (March 30) to Monday (April 2) the castle in western Slovakia will be open between 9:00 and 17:00.

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During opening hours, children will be invited to look for decorated Easter eggs hidden within castle walls. Those who find at least three eggs can exchange them for a sweet reward, head of the Hrad Beckov grouping, Peter Pastier, told the TASR newswire. He added that for adults, organisers have arranged a thrilling search operation.

video //www.youtube.com/embed/sRmQLJAwOYA

The accompanying events at Easter include workshops for children, colouring, an exhibition of decorated Easter eggs, workshops on knitting eggs, and real animals normally associated with Easter, TASR wrote.

28. Mar 2018 at 13:21
Slovak Ambassador to Russia summoned home for consultations

Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak: Slovakias steps in Skripal case depend on Russia.

Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak (a Smer nominee) spoke about the case of poisoned Russian spy Sergei Skripal in the UK with the British Ambassador to Slovakia, Andrew Garth, on March 28.

The minister said that Slovakias further steps in this case will depend on Russias reaction; the UK believes Russia is behind the recent poisoning of Skripal and his daughter.

Lajcak also condemned the attack with the nerve agent Novichok and informed, as cited by the TASR newswire, that on Tuesday, March 27, his ministry summoned Russian Ambassador Alexey Leonidovich Fedotov to explain the case. The ministry also requested that he refutes suspicions that Russia had anything to do with the reprehensible act in the territory of the United Kingdom.

Russian reactions will decide

Reactions from the Russian Federation in the coming days will influence further steps we're ready to consider in this matter, Lajcak noted. Well be monitoring the process closely and of course the investigation, and after reviewing all relevant facts, well be ready to take further action.

As a result of the poisoning case, several states have expelled Russian diplomats from their borders. Slovakia has not joined them, however.

Slovak President Andrej Kiska is asking for a clear attitude from Slovakia in relation to the case.

Slovakias position remains unambiguous, according to Slovak foreign minister.

We express our full solidarity with the United Kingdom, who we see as our strategic ally and partner, Lajcak sated, adding that Slovakia has also condemned the attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter with the use of a chemical agent as an unacceptable violation of international treaties, and weve called on Moscow to cooperate fully and refute suspicions that it is behind the attack.''

The Slovak Republic is with full seriousness aware of the UKs evaluation that the Russian Federation is probably behind the attack, according to the ministry which also added it believes that respective British authorities, even with the help of specialists from the OPCW (the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons), as well as the requested information from the Russian side, will find as soon as possible the perpetrators of the act and the origin of the weapon.

We also expect the respective Russian authorities to provide information in the shortest possible time, as requested by the British side, which we clearly communicated to the Russian ambassador during his summons, added the ministry.

UK Ambassador to Slovakia, Andrew Garth, reacted to Slovakias reluctance to make steps in the wake of the nerve-agent attack. Garth said, as quoted by the SITA newswire, he believes Slovakia will ultimately join its European allies and reminded politicians of the three top constitutional officials declarations of pro-EU and pro-Atlantic orientation.

Summoning Slovak ambassador back home

In the latest twist of events, Lajcak also said at a March 28 briefing that Slovakia will summon its Ambassador to Russia, Peter Priputen, back to Slovakia for consultations. The foreign minister said this after a cabinet meeting, as quoted by TASR, adding this was a serious diplomatic act that has not been used in the past 25 years.

28. Mar 2018 at 13:33 | Compiled by Spectator staff
Slovak intelligence agency monitors Russian diplomats

Russian diplomats have increased their intelligence activities as well according to Czechs.

Protest in front of the Russian embassy in Bratislava (Source: TASR)

British daily The Guardian called it the coalition of the unwilling. Eight European-Union countries decided not to expel any Russian diplomats in reaction to the poisoning of the former Russian spy, Sergei Skripal.

Everything suggests that the Russians are behind the nerve agent attack, according to the UK.

So far, Slovakia has reacted by summoning the Russian ambassador, while President Andrej Kiska summoned the Foreign Ministrys state secretary Lukas Parizek. His explanations are not found to be sufficient, though.

Expelling one or two people, like Hungary or Denmark did, would not significantly impact the operation of the Russian Embassy in Slovakia.

The data of the Foreign Ministry shows that there are currently 34 Russian diplomats with official accreditation in Slovakia. These figures do not include non-diplomatic embassy staff.

Russia also has the most diplomats in Prague

28. Mar 2018 at 20:23 | TASR, Adam Valcek, Lukas Ondercanin
Kuciak extended a list of traumatising murders

Slovakia has many experiences with unsolved murders that have affected society.

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The murder of journalist Jana Kuciak and his fiance Martina Kusnirova have created a dispute between the coalition and opposition but both sides agree on one thing. A prompt investigation clarifying what really happened would be the most appeasing for society.

So far, it does not look like a fast job. The murderer, who was probably a professional, killed the couple on February 21 and had four days to hide before police even learned about the shooting.

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Investigators think that it was a contract killing but they are still working with various possible versions of what happened.

We are giving them all the same validity and verifying them with the same attention, said the prosecutor who used his right to remain anonymous at the March 25 press conference related to the case.

The number of unsolved murders affecting a big part of society is increasing in Slovakia. Sometimes people even went to the streets because of them, just like in recent weeks after the journalist was murdered.

Ludmila Cervanova (Source: Atelier.doc)

Ludmila Cervanova

The death of student Ludmila Cervanova is among the most notorious crimes in the former Czechoslovakia.

Cervanova disappeared from the vicinity of the student dormitory in Mlynska Dolina in Bratislava on July 9, 1976. Her body was later found in a brook near Kralova pri Senci. Seven young men from Nitra  Juraj Lachman, Frantisek Cerman, Stanislav Dubravicky, Pavol Bedac, Roman Brazda, Milos Kocur and Milan Andrasik  were arrested by the police in 1981. The prosecution charged that they had kidnapped Cervanova from a Bratislava disco, raped her about 10 times and then murdered her.

28. Mar 2018 at 20:36 | Roman Cuprik
Slovakia investigated for alleged EU funds abuse

The issue was brought to light by murdered investigative journalist, Jan Kuciak.

The European Anti-Fraud Office, commonly known as OLAF, has confirmed opening a selection into the alleged fraud and mismanagement of EU funds and agriculture subsidies in Slovakia, the Politico website reported on March 28.

A selection is the preliminary assessment to see if there are grounds to open a full investigation.

The website mentions that irregularities in the use of EU funds were uncovered by the murdered Slovak journalist Jan Kuciak, who in his last story was investigating ties between the Italian mafia and Slovak politicians and business.

OLAF is currently assessing all the available information and allegations that have surfaced in the last weeks, in order to establish whether or not the conditions for opening an investigation in accordance with OLAFs mandate are met, a spokesperson said in a statement, as quoted by Politico.

A group of MEPs representing the Green faction wrote to OLAF earlier in March, demanding an investigation into the alleged misuse of EU funds, particularly by the Slovak Agriculture Paying Agency (PPA), according to the website.

There is a potentially systemic misuse of EU funds in Slovakia, MEPs said in the letter, as quoted by Politico. We are very concerned that EU funds and agriculture subsidies could be siphoned off to fund criminal activities. We therefore ask the European Anti-Fraud Office to investigate these allegations and make sure that any abuse is brought to an end.

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Meanwhile, the PPA filed a criminal motion due to suspicions of fraud when drawing agricultural subsidies by the Agro-Porubka company, owned by former Smer MP Lubica Roskova. Agriculture Minister Gabriela Matecna (nominee of the Slovak National Party) told the March 27 press conference that the case probably involves subsidy fraud.

28. Mar 2018 at 22:22 | Compiled by Spectator staff
Public broadcast reporters might not wear #AllForJan badges

Some representatives of the broadcaster allegedly consider them political.

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Reporters of the public-service broadcaster RTVS will probably not wear #AllForJan badges that symbolise the sense of belonging and sympathy with the families of murdered investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee, Martina Kusnirova.

Head of the news desk Vahram Chuguryan reportedly recommended the reporters working for the TV section do not wear the badges during the broadcast. Until now, there was no problem with that, the Aktuality.sk news website wrote.

Responding to the recommendation, several RTVS reporters have changed their profile pictures on Facebook, wearing the badges.

Ban or recommendation?

RTVS admits that wearing the badges, jewelery and various accessories was one of the topics discussed at the staff meeting. However, it stressed that it only recommended reporters do not wear #AllForJan badges. Reporters are not banned from wearing the badges.

The law and respective internal regulations set a certain framework for the public-service institution, Stanislav Cacko, PR manager of RTVS, told Aktuality.sk, adding that all reporters should read the respective documents and observe them.

However, a member of the news team told the website that Chuguryan clearly banned them from wearing the badges.

He described it as a political initiative, the team member, who did not want to be named, told Aktuality.sk, adding he did not change his mind even after the reporters present tried to explain to him it has nothing to do with the For a Decent Slovakia initiative.

The website has the information that wearing the badges was approved at a meeting attended by the broadcasters head, Jaroslav Reznik.

Badges used by conspirators

Peter Bardy, editor-in-chief of Aktuality.sk, for which Kuciak was writing, considers the situation concerning the apolitical badges with the #AllForJan hashtag strange.

I fully respect the internal regulations of any institution, he told Aktuality.sk, adding that the hashtag represents the cooperation of the media in the fight for fair society and the continuation in Kuciaks work.

He feels sorry that this message is being turned into a problem.

Many events that followed Jan and Martinas murder have revealed people's characters and the values they respect, Bardy added.

The production and distribution of badges has already been criticised by people spreading conspiracy theories.

Former head of the news deck at RTVS, Boris Chmel, told Aktuality.sk that at the time he was in the office, the badges were considered apolitical.

28. Mar 2018 at 22:31 | Compiled by Spectator staff
KapStone Paper and Packaging Corporation produces and sells a range of containerboards, corrugated products, and specialty paper products in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Paper and Packaging, and Distribution. The Paper and Packaging segment offers containerboards consisting of linerboard and corrugated medium to manufacture corrugated containers for packaging products; and corrugated products. It also offers specialty paper products, including kraft paper, such as multiwall paper used to produce bags for agricultural products, pet food, baking products, cement and chemicals; specialty products comprising shingle wraps, end caps, roll wraps, and dunnage bags; and lightweight paper. In addition, this segment provides saturating kraft paper under the Durasorb trade name for use in construction, electronics manufacturing, and furniture manufacturing industries; and unbleached folding carton board under the Kraftpak trade name to integrated and independent converters in the folding carton industry. The Distribution segment distributes corrugated and other specialty packaging products consisting of stretch films, void fills, carton sealing tapes, and other specialty tapes. KapStone Paper and Packaging Corporation was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Northbrook, Illinois.

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Square, Inc. provides payment and point-of-sale solutions in the United States and internationally. The company's commerce ecosystem includes point-of-sale software and hardware that enables sellers to turn mobile and computing devices into payment and point-of-sale solutions. It offers hardware products, including Magstripe reader, which enables swiped transactions of magnetic stripe cards; Contactless and chip reader that accepts EMV chip cards and Near Field Communication payments; Chip card reader, which accepts EMV chip cards and enables swiped transactions of magnetic stripe cards; Square Stand, which enables an iPad to be used as a payment terminal or full point of sale solution; and Square Register that combines its hardware, point-of-sale software, and payments technology, as well as managed payments solutions. The company also provides Square Point of Sale software; Cash App, which provides access to the financial system, allowing customers to electronically send, store, and spend money; Caviar, a food ordering platform for restaurants to offer food ordering, pickup and delivery, to their customers; and Square Capital that facilitates loans to sellers based on real-time payment and point-of-sale data. Square, Inc. was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

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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.
The rock lobster industry is bracing itself for huge cuts to its crayfish catch in the Hauraki Gulf and Bay of Plenty.

It forecasts this, and other reductions, will reduce its earnings in the area from $17 million to approximately $7m a year.

The comments came after the Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash cut the allowable rock lobster catch from 200 tonnes to 80 tonnes for the year starting next month.

The aim was to restore a fishery deemed to be seriously depleted.

The chief executive of the Rock Lobster Industry Council Mark Edwards agreed with this and says the industry had already cut its actual catch by 50 tonnes for each of the past two years.

And it planned to go further.

"The industry has accepted that measures are needed to secure a rebuild for this fishery and further measures were needed to achieve this.

"But this decision is an aggressive cut and will have serious social and economic consequences for the industry.

"There will be a large number of commercial vessels that will be forced off the water and there will be a loss of employment.

"There will also be adverse impacts on associated businesses and the communities that they operate in."

Mark says the fishery had never been very productive and the last significant increase in crayfish population was more than a decade ago.

The science is unclear about the reasons for this.

In the meantime it would not be realistic for idled lobster boats to switch to other species because of their specialised fishing technology and the need for their owners to buy new quota to go fishing for other species.

The Ministers decisions followed a grim assessment of the state of the Hauraki Bay of Plenty fishery.

"Female spawning stock biomass during autumn-winter in 2016 was estimated to be at 18.5 percent of the unfished level," the Ministry for Primary Industries said in a report.

"This places the CRA 2 fishery below the "soft" limit of 2 percent of the unfished spawning stock biomass, the level where it is MPI policy to implement a formal, time-constrained rebuilding plan."

The drop in catch limits from Hauraki to East Cape was shared by a drop off the coast of Otago, from 112.5 tonnes 97 tonnes.

By contrast, allowances off the Wairarapa Coast rose from 289 to 318 tonnes and allowances in the Fiordland - Stewart Island area rose from 962 to 1071 tonnes.

But mark says this increase would not help surplus boats up North which were tied to particular regions.

The decisions made by the Minister Nash have been welcomed by the recreational fishing industry.

But it says the moves to restore the fishery should have been made four years ago.
Q&A

The Imperative for Fostering Creativity in Students

Peter and Paul Reynolds say that human beings are superheros and that our superpower is creativity. And the twin brothers know a thing or two about creativity. Peter is a New York Times best-selling author and illustrator and co-founder of FableVision, an educational media company. Paul is also a co-founder of FableVision and runs the company as CEO. Peter and Paul recently gave a keynote address about creativity at the CUE 2018 conference in Palm Springs.

THE Journal: You describe creativity as a "human superpower." It made me think about how it supercharged our ability to adapt. Is that what you were getting at or something else? What's different about human creativity that makes it a superpower?

Peter: When I read my books about creativity to kids in school I will always follow up with discussions about creativity and I often refer to it as a "superpower" they all possess  which, if not used on a regular basis, will disappear from their grasp. It elicits some great gasps from the audience and of course, I am there encourage them NOT to let go of it. Planting this seed to retain control of their creative compass, their own navigation decisions. Creative thinkers know how to adapt to the unexpected. Life throws you curveballs. Your "superpowers" can help you hit the ball  or throw down the bat and go sailing.

Paul: Certainly the ability to adapt is a key attribute of creativity. As Carl Bereiter and Marlene Scardamalia make clear in their book, Surpassing Ourselves: An Inquiry Into the Nature and Implications of Expertise, that we must fundamentally rethink how we understand and nurture "adaptive expertise," which is the only thing that leads to completely new insights, innovation, invention. They warn, "In what is coming to be called the 'knowledge age,' the health and wealth of societies depends increasingly on their capacity to innovate. People in general  not just a specialized elite  need to work creatively with knowledge."

Our species thrives today because we have the power of imagination  to imagine things that do not yet exist. To vision solutions that emerge as dreams  captured as words scribbled down  sketch in the margins  and brought to life by making, failing, trying again.

As historian and author Yuval Noah Hirari (Sapiens  A Brief History of Humankind) notes, "The real difference between us and chimpanzees is the mysterious glue that enables millions of humans to cooperate effectively. This mysterious glue is made of stories, not genes.... This is why we rule the world, and chimpanzees are locked up in zoos and research laboratories." Because we humans share a common imagination, we can work together to imagine, build, invent and change the world.

THE Journal: How do you mitigate fear and self-doubt to nurture creativity? How do we know the difference between unreasonable fear and self-doubt and reasonable caution and self-assessment?

Peter: That's a great question. Becoming completely fearless can get you in trouble, or worse, but I'd venture to say that public education doesn't offer nearly enough opportunities to give kids practice exploring those boundaries of reasonable and unreasonable fears when learning something new.

Paul: We're often our own worst enemies when it comes to fostering our own creativity. It's easier to say, "I can't" than "I can." Our own negative self-scripting can shut us down before we even try. And if you don't try, you'll never be on the road to mastery. "Create Bravely" is increasingly our mantra these days. It's a message for kids and adults  maybe even more for the grownups who gave up on their creativity long ago and opted for a safer journey where they'll be unlikely to discover their unique potential.
A total of five employees of Vietnamese lender Eximbank have been placed under investigation for their role in helping a wanted former executive steal more than US$10 million from a depositor, police said Tuesday, updating initial information that only two bankers were involved.

Ho Ngoc Thuy and Nguyen Thi Thi, who both work in the customer office of Eximbanks Ho Chi Minh City branch, had their cubicles searched before being arrested on charges of deliberately violating state regulations on economic management, causing serious consequences around noon on Monday.

Besides these two female clerks, police have also initiated legal proceedings against three other Eximbank employees but did not take them in custody.

Nguyen Thi Ngoc Tram, Tran Nguyen Xuan Lan and Cao Lan Phuong are only prohibited from leaving their residence to serve the investigation, according to police officers.

They all face charges of dereliction of duty that causes damage to property of the state, businesses and organizations, pursuant to the Penal Code.

Tram and Lan quit Eximbank before the probe was launched.

Police escort two arrested Eximbank employees in Ho Chi Minh City on March 26, 2018. Photo: Tuoi Tre

All of the five Eximbank clerks are believed to play a role in helping Le Nguyen Hung, a former deputy director of Eximbank Ho Chi Minh City, used fake papers and forged authorization letters to steal VND245 billion ($10.8 million) from different savings books of a customer named Chu Thi Binh.

Eximbank admitted in February that Hung is on the run overseas after a wanted notice was issued for him in December 2017.

According to police investigation, Hung forged papers which stated that Binh authorized Nguyen Thi Hong Le, his wife's aunt, to withdraw money from the savings books on her behalf.

The fugitive banker managed to have Binh sign those papers in advance, and himself faked Le's signature.

Thuy and Thi, as part of their work, were asked to confirm that those letters were authentic.

It was not clear how Tram, Lan and Phuong were responsible for the theft.

Ngo Thanh Tung, a member of the Eximbank board of directors, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that the lenders employees had to act against their own volition, apparently being forced by their boss, Hung.
Australias Anti-Dumping Commission (ADC) on Monday closed an anti-dumping investigation over steel wire rod in coils imported from a Vietnamese enterprise, concluding that the sale of the goods involves no dumping in the Australian market.

ADC said that Hoa Phat Group, sued by an Australian business, implemented no dumping, according to the Vietnam Steel Association.

The commission found that the recorded dumping margin of wire rod from the Vietnamese firm stayed at 1.3 percent, below the set threshold of two percent beyond which dumping results.

The Vietnamese government has provided no monetary subsidy to the costs of electricity and raw materials utilized by local companies to produce coils of wire rod; and no special market exists for this type of product in Vietnam, ADC declared.

Hoa Phat Group willingly answered questions from the commission and provided it with sufficient information and materials which it had required since the antidumping investigation was launched in June 2017, according to the Vietnam Steel Association.

The enterprise also presented counter-arguments against the claims of the company filing a complaint to the commission, OneSteel Manufacturing Pty Ltd., which at the same time sued Indonesian and South Korean businesses for their manipulation of wire rod prices.

Hoa Phat Group is a major steel manufacturer in Vietnam and exported about 36,000 metric tons of steel in the form of coils and bars to Australia in 2017.

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The leaders discussed enhanced bilateral trade and cooperation on the 45th anniversary of diplomatic ties and the 5th anniversary of strategic partnership.

During the meeting, the general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam expressed his appreciation for Frances role in Europe and around the world.

Building friendship and cooperative ties with France had always been a top priority in Vietnams foreign affairs policy, he said, taking the occasion to thank France and President Macron for having supported Vietnam in all aspects.

The leaders exchanged views on regional and world issues of mutual concern, and agreed that disputes must be resolved through peaceful measures on the basis of upholding international law.

The countries comprehensive and effective cooperation in all fields had served as a vital driving force to elevate bilateral ties to a new height, they noted.

Party leader Trong and President Macron agreed to maintain and increase high-level contacts and people-to-people exchange between the two sides.

French President Emmanuel Macron (R) attends a meeting with Nguyen Phu Trong (L), General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, March 27, 2018. Photo: Reuters

They consented to step up practical measures to boost trade and speed up key cooperation projects on telecommunications, energy, aviation, safe water, climate change and the environment, while seeking supportive measures to enable market entry for businesses from both sides.

Favorable conditions to boost cooperation in technology, clean energy, organic agriculture and digital industries were also present, the leaders agreed.

They saw eye to eye on speeding up the signing and ratification of a free trade deal between Vietnam and the European Union (EU) later this year.

Frances Macron also accepted General Secretary Trongs invitation to visit Vietnam at a convenient time.

General Secretary Trong has been in France since Sunday to head a high-ranking Vietnamese delegation, which includes Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh, on an official visit to the European partner.

The Vietnamese Party leader witnessed the signing of multibillion-dollar deals between the countries businesses, including the purchase of 24 Airbus planes by local estate conglomerate FLC, which is planning to launch a new airline in the next decade.

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Multiple articles on the maintenance of fire alarm systems and firefighting equipment were omitted from a contract that Carina Plazas developer signed with a third-party agency that provided management services.

The report, compiled by the citys construction department, was submitted on Tuesday to the municipal administration and the local Party Committee.

According to the report, a contract was signed in December 2016 between Carina Plazas developer Hung Thanh Co. Ltd. and the Saigon Real Estate Joint Stock Company (SEJCO), stating the latter would be responsible for the management and operation of the condominiums.

However, the contract lacked articles on maintaining the complexs elevators, automatic fire alarm systems, and emergency fire equipment as required by Vietnamese regulations, construction inspectors found.

Carina Plazas Block A and Block C buildings were also found to have been built differently from their approved designs.

Specifically, the developer had used concrete in place of polycarbonate roofing sheets at many locations, and had sealed an exit on the mezzanine floors of the two buildings.

Areas designed for commercial use and services were also wrongly used for other purposes, the report read.

Hung Thanh Co. Ltd. failed to adhere to a regulation on the use and management of a maintenance fund.

The municipal construction department proposed a closer inspection of the structural quality of the Carina Plaza buildings, especially areas affected by last weeks fire.

The fire broke out at Block A of the three-block apartment complex in the early hours of Friday, killing 13 people and injuring nearly 100 others.

The blaze started from a motorcycle parked in the basement between the two buildings, according to CCTV footage released by police officers.

No fire alarm was sounded during the tragedy, and the buildings water sprinkler system was not activated.

Eleven victims died of smoke inhalation, while the other two fell to their death trying to escape from the on-fire building.

Carina Plazas developer issued a public apology on Sunday, three days after the event, and promised to provide financial support for families of the victims and residents affected by the fire.

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A young Vietnamese student has been subject to a financial penalty for clandestinely smoking on a domestic plane, presumably unaware of a relevant flight regulation.

A flight attendant found a female passenger named P.L.V., the occupant of the 6A seat, smoking in the aircraft lavatory on March 19.

The customer traveled on the Vietjet flight VJ696 on the route between Hai Phong City, in northern Vietnam, and Lam Dong Province, in the countrys Central Highlands.

The information was provided on Tuesday by a representative from Vietnams Southern Airports Authority, one of the three governmental bodies managing civil aviation in northern, central and southern Vietnam.

The authority said that the passenger is a 17-year-old high school student in Lam Dong.

She claimed to have been unaware of the no-smoking rule since that was her first-time flight.

The student was fined VND2 million (US$88) for the misstep, but had not paid the money up until Tuesday.

A Vietnamese law holds that a financially penalized violator must pay the fine within ten days since the punitive decision is made.

It is a regulation in Vietnams aviation that smoking cigarettes, even electronic ones, is banned on all inbound and outbound flights.

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Pop sensation Dami Im is a guest this week on ABCs One Plus One.

Dami Im arrived in Australia from South Korea at the age of nine, and learned English by singing along to pop songs. She found fame through X Factor and Eurovision, but says family  and her faith- help keep her grounded.

1pm Friday on ABC.
Its almost been one whole year since ISIS terrorist Salman Abedi managed to get into the Manchester Arena during an Ariana Grande concert and detonate an explosives device  a homemade bomb filled with shrapnel, a real DIY job  in a Suicide Bombing, killing himself and a further 22 people, a total that included an eight-year-old girl, and injuring more than 500 people. On the night, the arena was hectic with emergency services.

In the days and weeks following the attack, the political focus was on fighting the very present threat of terrorism and uniting Manchester as a city that stood strong in defiance of adversity and hate.

But now that its been a few months since the bombing  almost a year, in fact  the government and the powers that be have had a chance to really assess and evaluate the emergency services response on that fateful night last May, and reflect on possible ways to improve that response in case something else like this, God forbid, happens in the future.

One of the most startling revelations from the new report is that, because there was no clear and present fire in the venue following the explosion, the emergency responders didnt allow any fire crews to enter the building. There was no integration of emergency services or communication amongst the teams, so in the first instance, the Fire Engines were sent away from the scene, and in the end, the firefighters didnt end up getting in there until two whole hours after the blast.

Firefighters were kept out of the loop

In the new report, there is a claim that the teams of firefighters in Manchester were kept out of the loop on the night of the attack, and it was this poor communication that kept them from entering the arena for two full hours, despite the first paramedics managing to get right in there within 11 minutes.

See, the firefighters were ready and raring to go. They were there. But they werent allowed in. When they eventually were, one witness noted the immense frustration on the firefighters faces. There was a lot wrong with the communication between the emergency services and the victims and the survivors of the bombing that night.

Right after the explosion went off near the entrance to the Manchester Arena concert area, as the survivors were desperately trying to flee the scene and get the hell out of there, fearing that the next explosion could be right around the corner or there could be terrorists in their midst, the security officers on the doors told them that it was a false alarm and they didnt have to worry about it, that it was just a balloon popping. So, fake news has spread to actual people now.

It was the deadliest UK terrorist attack since the 7/7 bombings

The Manchester Arena suicide bombing, with its 23 deaths, was the deadliest terrorist attack in the UK since the 7/7 attacks way back in 2005, more than a decade earlier.

The detonation of the explosives device is reported to have killed some victims who were up to 20 metres away from Abedi when he set it off. Other parts of the emergency services response to the attack werent up to snuff, aside from their communication amongst each other.

For example, while the survivors fled for their lives from the Manchester Arena after bearing witness to a terrorist attack, a homeless guy named Chris Parker robbed a bunch of them, and none of the police officers on the scene noticed or did anything about it. Justice would eventually be done, since he was sentenced to over four years in jail earlier this year, but that was eight months overdue. Anyway, a fire chief who was on the scene of the suicide bombing, he and his team stuck to rules by staying 500 metres away from an emergency situation.
ISIS have been back in the news recently as a new report has been published about the emergency services response to Salman Abedis suicide bombings at an Ariana Grande concert at the Manchester Arena last May  and were coming up on the first anniversary of the attack. As always, its interesting to see what US President Donald Trump has to say about a trending topic, whether you agree with it or not (most likely not, given his track record).

Recently at his State of the Union address, Trump said that his administration intentions are to team up with his countrys allies (were one of them) with the aim to extinguish ISIS from the face of the Earth. He then added that he was proud to report that 100% of the areas in Syria and Iraq that were being dominated by the Islamic State Terrorist Group have been liberated by his administration and their work.

Trump admits much more work to be done before ISIS are crushed

However, despite these apparent triumphs and all that 100% talk, Trump also admitted that there is still much more work to be done before the terrorist group have been totally eradicated from, in the Presidents words, the face of the Earth. This follows on from a massive anti-ISIS campaign that was headed by Trumps predecessor Barack Obama.
By Stephen Eisenhammer and Lawrence White

LUANDA/LONDON, March 28 (Reuters) - The $500 million at the centre of an alleged fraud involving the son of Angola's former president was transferred out of a Standard Chartered (BSE: 580001.BO - news) account held by Angola's central bank, the British bank told Reuters on Wednesday.

The Angolan prosecutor general's office said on Monday it had charged Jose Filomeno dos Santos (Dusseldorf: STS1.DU - news) , the former president's son, and Valter Filipe da Silva, the former governor of the central bank known as Banco Nacional de Angola, with fraud over the case.

Britain's National Crime Agency said last week that $500 million had been frozen in the UK as part of an investigation into a potential fraud against Angola's central bank and could be returned to the southern African country.

"We are aware that our client, Banco Nacional de Angola (BNA), was the victim of an attempted fraud in Angola which involved the transfer of funds from their Standard Chartered Bank account," Standard Chartered said in an emailed response to questions.

The bank did not respond to a question on how the transaction appeared to bypass security mechanisms.

The Angolan central bank, which has so far made no public statement about the case, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Dos Santos is the highest profile figure charged since President Joao Lourenco succeeded longtime leader Jose Eduardo dos Santos last September pledging to tackle an endemic culture of corruption in the oil-producing country.

Reuters was unable to immediately contact Jose Filomeno dos Santos. He said in a statement circulated in Angolan media on Tuesday that he was cooperating with the investigation and had handed his passports in to the prosecutor general's office.

Reuters has also been unable to reach Da Silva for comment.

Standard Chartered said it is closely cooperating with Angola's central bank and British law enforcement.

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A source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday that HSBC had frozen a bank account in connection with the alleged fraud.

The Financial Times, which reported the HSBC bank freeze earlier, said documents purporting to be from Swiss bank Credit Suisse were also used in the fraud.

The documents were fake and Credit Suisse (IOB: 0QP5.IL - news) was not involved in the transaction, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Britain's National Crime Agency said the funds were frozen after the transaction raised suspicions, without naming the banks involved.

Standard Chartered, which has operations across Asia and Africa, ended its dollar-clearing operations with commercial banks in Angola in Dec (Shanghai: 600875.SS - news) . 2015 because it deemed it too risky.

Singapore said last week its central bank had imposed penalties of nearly $5 million on Standard Chartered Bank and Standard Chartered Trust (Singapore) for breaching money laundering rules and terrorism financing safeguards.

HSBC's move to freeze the accounts and work with authorities to return the funds will reinforce the lender's assertion that its efforts to improve financial controls are bearing fruit.

The bank paid $1.9 billion in fines to U.S. authorities in 2012 and agreed to install an independent monitor to improve its anti-money laundering controls, after it was used to launder Mexican cartel drug money.

A five-year period in which the bank faced criminal prosecution if it breached U.S. compliance rules again ended in December. (Reporting by Stephen Eisenhammer in Luanda and Lawrence White in London; Editing by Adrian Croft)
People attend a rally in support of reunification between Romania and Moldova, at the Great National Assembly Square in Chisinau, Moldova March 25, 2018. REUTERS/Viktor Dimitrov

Thomson Reuters

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Romanian lawmakers expressed support for reunification with neighboring Moldova in a symbolic vote on Tuesday intended to highlight close historic ties, but the speaker of Moldova's own parliament said his country cherished its independence.

Romania's parliament was holding a special session to mark the 100th anniversary of Moldova joining the then-kingdom of Romania after World War One.

Moldova was then annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940 and became an independent state in 1991.

The small, landlocked country is politically divided between supporters of closer ties with Moscow and those who want Moldova eventually to follow Romania, its much larger southern neighbor, into the European Union and NATO.

Most Moldovans speak Romanian and have close cultural ties with Romania but the country also has a large minority of Russian speakers.

"Romania's parliament... considers as fully legitimate the desire of those citizens of the Republic of Moldova who support the unification of the two states," the resolution backed by lawmakers said.

"We underline that such an act would depend on their will and we declare that Romania and its citizens are, and will always be, ready to welcome any organic move to reunification by Moldovan citizens as an expression of their sovereign will."

Barely a fifth of Moldovans favor reunification with Romania, according to an opinion poll conducted in December by the Moldovan Institute for Public Policies, an independent think-tank.

"The majority of citizens today want Moldova as an independent state," the president of Moldova's parliament, Andrian Candu, in Bucharest for the commemoration of the anniversary, told reporters after the vote.

"But I want to assure you that Romania is increasingly more present in Moldova through the projects supported by the government and political class."

Romania has energy projects in the country and supports its long-term process of trying to join the EU.

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Moldova's government, which strongly backs closer ties with the EU and the United States, is often at loggerheads with the country's pro-Russian president, Igor Dodon, who wants it to join a Moscow-led customs union.

Candu, who sides with the government, said Moldova faced many challenges ahead of a planned parliamentary election in November, adding: "We must be very careful to keep the country whole and on the path to the European Union."

(Reporting by Luiza Ilie; Editing by Gareth Jones)

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SOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgarian prosecutors have launched an investigation into the owner of a herd of around 100 horses after they were found starving to death or already dead on a snow-bound mountainside.

Images of the dead or severely weakened horses on Mount Osogovo near the border with Macedonia in western Bulgaria have shocked the Bulgarian public and animal rights groups, and many have called for swift punishment of the owner.

Around 70 horses have died so far and those that are still alive remain in a serious condition, Rumyana Arnaudova, spokeswoman for the chief prosecutor, said on Tuesday.

"We have information that the person who committed the crime had an obligation to take care of the animals ... The owner of the horses had received quite substantial sums in grants from the European Union for horse breeding," she said.

Environmentalists discovered the horses on Sunday on the mountainside, about 1,800 meters (5,900 feet) above sea level, and immediately informed police and the emergency services, but deep snow hampered the rescue operation.

"They are in a terrible state," said Elitsa Dimitrova, one of the activists who found the animals. "The horses are in great danger because of the deep snow and low temperatures and because of the wolves. They still lack water, food and shelter.

"They literally stand in the snow and have no way to move. They are starving, they have not eaten for a long time. And they are helpless - when their strength gives up, they just fall into the snow."

Arnaudova said the punishment for such cruelty to animals is currently up to three years in jail and a fine of up to 5,000 levs ($3,170).

(Reporting by Angel Krasimirov; Editing by Gareth Jones)

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Medieval medicine is full of shocking remedies, like performing brain surgery as a treatment for pre-eclampsia. But scientists think that explains the remains of a woman discovered in Imola, Bologna, in Italy. Although archaeologists unearthed the woman's remains in 2010, scientists only recently offered an explanation for her deathand why a fetus appeared to be partially birthed after her burial, a condition known as postmortem fetal extrusion, or coffin birth.

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Filippo Monteforte/AFP/Getty Images

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At the time, archaeologists determined that the woman lived around the 7th and 8th centuries CE, according to ScienceAlert. A hole in her head indicated she had received an ancient surgical procedure known as trepanation. According to the University of California Santa Barbara, this surgery usually removed a piece of the skull using a scraping tool, and it was used to treat a variety of ailments including head injuries and heartsickness, or depression.

A fetus was also found, its head between the womans thighs, its legs still in her pelvic area, appearing as though it had been partially birthed.

Now, in a paper published last month in World Neurosurgery, researchers are trying to solve the mystery surrounding the fetuss bizarre placement. As ScienceAlert reported, a team from the University of Ferrara and the University of Bologna in Italy believed the woman was between 25 and 35 years old when she died. The fetus is estimated to be around 38 weeks, meaning the mother was close to having the baby before dying.

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Scientists think the woman received trepanation to treat pregnancy-related problems, resulting in her death. Although scientists arent quite sure how coffin birth workstheories aren't provenOB/GYN Jen Gunter, based in the San Francisco Bay Area, explained to Forbes what doctors think causes the phenomenon.

I suspect that what happens is the pressure from the gas builds up, and the dead fetus is delivered through a ruptureit basically blows a hole through the uterus into the vagina, as the vagina is much thinner than the cervix, she told the publication.

This article was first written by Newsweek

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Is there anyone else out there? It's a question plenty of people have asked, but no one has been able to answeryet. But scientists think that may change, and sooner rather than later.

One of those scientists is Jill Tarter of the SETI Institute research center in California. Tarter has spent her career working on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, and during a speech she presented in Florida last week, she hinted at a timeline for the next big discovery.

Read more: Do aliens exist? Human technology may prevent us from finding out

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"I think that in this century we are going to be finding life beyond Earth," Tarter said during the talk, according to Florida Today. "Were really working on an ancient human question. And thats very, very rewarding. We might, within the 21st century, have the answer to whether there is life beyond Earth. And weve been asking that question for a very, very long time."

Tarter was speaking at a conference about cross-cultural management, and she wanted to give the attendees a greater context for solving the big problems that face us. She suggested that searching for alien life could be a sort of practice projectone that is less divisive but requires the same big-picture thinking as challenges like food shortages and climate change.

"[The search for extraterrestrial intelligence] as an endeavor may, in fact, need to be multi-, multi-generational before we figure out the right thing to look for," she told Newsweek. "This cosmic perspective is really something that we all need to adopt."

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For Tarter, the 2100 date reflects a prediction made in a 2004 scientific paper that science of this century would be dominated by biology, just as the one prior was dominated by physics. "I think we see that already playing out in spades," she saidand she says taking that beyond Earth itself is only natural.

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12_14_kepler_k2_exoplanets

NASA/JPL

But there's a big if: Tarter says the biggest challenge is securing the funding needed to see a field through multiple scientific generations. That's been particularly hard for scientists looking for technological signals, rather than focusing on simpler, single-celled life. She thinks success will also depend on adopting new technologies that could revolutionize how scientists search, like using neural networks to process data in new ways.

"Instead of us telling the computers what artifacts and signal types to look for, the machines will be smart enough and fast enough to tell us what's in the data that isn't noise," Tarter said. "It's a big ocean and we're just sticking our toe into it, but it's clearly the way to go."

This article was first written by Newsweek

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FILE PHOTO: KCNA picture of people watching a huge screen showing the test launch of intercontinental ballistic missile Hwasong-14 FILE PHOTO: People watch a huge screen showing the test launch of intercontinental ballistic missile Hwasong-14 in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), July 5, 2017. KCNA/via REUTERS/File Picture

By Josh Smith and Soyoung Kim

SEOUL (Reuters) - State media calls North Korea's nuclear weapons a "treasured sword of justice".

Pyongyang has released commemorative stamps and built monuments in honour of its ballistic missile tests, while nuclear and rocket scientists have been named national heroes.

For Kim Jong Un, fully giving up nuclear weapons would mean a dramatic reversal for an authoritarian leader who has not only staked his security on his nuclear arsenal, but also spent years publicly celebrating such weapons as an integral part of his regimes legitimacy and power.

South Korean envoys who met Kim in Pyongyang early this month quoted Kim as saying he was "committed to denuclearisation", and that he "expressed his eagerness to meet U.S. President Donald Trump as soon as possible".

Chinese officials who met with Kim in Beijing this week also said he committed to denuclearisation, but initial North Korean state media reports on the visit did not mention the nuclear issue.

Absent any public confirmation from Pyongyang, analysts are sceptical Kim will suddenly give up the nuclear arsenal he and his family have spent decades developing.

Instead, Kim is likely to seek a more nuanced and long-term approach that could allow him to emerge looking victorious in the minds of his people and domestic elites, they say.

"Kim Jong Un does not need to sell anything to the North Korean population, particularly because denuclearisation is a process that will take at least 10 years to realistically achieve," said Michael Madden, an expert on North Korea leadership at Johns Hopkins University's 38 North website.

"Pyongyang most likely envisions ... a series of incremental agreements around this, rather than one or two large grand bargains."

CONCESSIONS NEEDED

Former South Korean officials who have negotiated with the North in the past say such a pivot could be difficult, but not impossible - if the United States makes major concessions Kim Jong Un can take back and parade to his people.

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"Kim Jong Un would seek to propagate the idea that he induced the U.S. and international communitys surrender by having mastered nuclear weapons," said Kim Hyung-suk, who served as the South's vice unification minister between 2016 and 2017.

"If talks go well, sanctions are eased and the economy grows. Then the people would understand Kims denuclearisation decision and become strongly supportive of it."

That may not be the kind of deal Trump envisions as he plans to sit down with Kim sometime in May for an historic first summit between sitting leaders of the two countries.

Trump's new national security adviser, John Bolton, recently said Trump should insist any meeting he holds with Kim be focussed squarely on how to eliminate that country's nuclear weapons programme as quickly as possible.

SILENCE IN PYONGYANG

The lack of comment from North Korean state media on the proposed talks between Kim and Trump was not unexpected, analysts said.

"It might reflect an ongoing internal discussion about how to deal with public opinion, certainly, although I would characterise that as a broader discussion of how to proceed overall," said Christopher Green, a senior adviser with the International Crisis Group, which researches conflict.

Given the importance he has attached to the weapons, and the money poured into their development, Kim will have to tread carefully to ensure any talk of abandoning the nuclear programme started by his grandfather and continued by his father wouldn't undermine his legitimacy at home, experts say.

To try to balance factions in his government, Kim Jong Un embraced a policy of "byungjin," or simultaneous military and economic development, after he came to power in 2011.

Since 2013, the pro-military factions have been ascendant, but a Trump summit could lend heft to arguments by officials who prefer to prioritise economic development, Green said.

A number of military authorities and other senior elites might be less receptive to denuclearisation.

"For them, its unthinkable to ensure regime security with conventional forces alone, so they could object to Kims decision and continue to argue for keeping the bombs," said Kim Hyung-suk.

'FOREBEARERS' TEACHING'

According to South Korean and Chinese officials, Kim Jong Un told them denuclearising the Korean peninsula was forebearers' teaching - a potential talking point if he does try to justify curtailing his much-vaunted nuclear programme.

"It is our consistent stand to be committed to denuclearisation on the peninsula, in accordance with the will of late President Kim Il Sung and late General Secretary Kim Jong Il," Kim told Chinese President Xi Jinping during a visit this week, according to Chinese state media.

Kim Jong Un's father and grandfather both publicly promised not to pursue nuclear weapons, but secretly continued to develop the programmes, culminating in the country's first nuclear test in 2006 under Kim Jong Il.

Even after that test, Kim Jong Il insisted in a 2007 summit with his South Korean counterpart that he didn't "have the intention to own nuclear weapons".

The history of failed negotiations with Pyongyang makes many observers, including former senior U.S. diplomat Evans Revere, sceptical the latest negotiations will be any different.

In past talks, North Korea had said it could consider giving up its arsenal if the United States removes its troops from South Korea and withdraws its so-called "nuclear umbrella" of deterrence from South Korea and Japan, a stance Washington has found unacceptable.

"Those of us who have negotiated with the North Koreans know what they mean (by denuclearisation)," Revere said.

"About the only thing that the North Korean leader might need to 'sell' to his people - and particularly to the military - is the idea of a 'freeze' on some elements of his programme."

For a graphic on North Korea's nuclear programme, click http://tmsnrt.rs/2lE5yjF

For full multimedia coverage of North Korea, click https://www.reuters.com/north-korea

(Additional reporting by Hyonhee Shin and Heekyong Yang in SEOUL. Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
FILE PHOTO: German Chancellor Merkel grabs the hand of a triplet baby girl in Berlin FILE PHOTO: German Chancellor Angela Merkel grabs the hand of a triplet baby girl as she visits the Bosch Foundation to mark the 15th anniversary of the social organisation "wellcome" in Berlin, Germany, March 6, 2017. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch/File Photo

BERLIN (Reuters) - More babies were born in Germany in 2016 than in any year since 1996, thanks to a booming economy, government incentives and a surge in migration, data showed on Wednesday.

Europe's biggest economy and its public pension system are struggling with a rapid ageing of the population. In an effort to boost the birth rate, the government has expanded maternity and paternity benefits as well as childcare in the last decade.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision in 2015 to welcome more than a million refugees, mainly from war zones in Syria and Iraq, has also been described as a demographic game changer.

The Federal Statistics Office said 792,131 babies were born in Germany in 2016, up 7 percent on the year before, and the highest number since 1996.

Women between 30 and 37, who had fewer children when they were younger, are now catching up due to favourable economic conditions and family incentives, it said.

Germany is enjoying an unusually prolonged growth cycle, now in its ninth year, as record employment and ultra-low borrowing costs propel a consumer-led upswing.

But while births to German citizens were up 3 percent to around 607,500 babies, the rise was far outstripped by births to citizens of other countries, up a huge 25 percent at 184,660.

"The number of women from countries with a traditionally high birth rate has risen," the office said.

A breakdown of the data showed the number of Syrian babies nearly quadrupled to 18,500, those with Iraqi mothers doubled to 5,500 and those with Afghan mothers tripled to 5,900.

The overall fertility rate - the average number of children a woman has in her lifetime - rose to 1.59 from 1.50 in the previous year, the highest level since 1973.

But although the rate among German women edged up slightly to 1.46 children, that among foreign women was more than 50 percent higher at 2.28.

Despite the rise in births and immigration, experts still estimate that Germany's working-age population, whose pension contributions support the growing number of retirees, is likely to shrink in the next decade.

The average fertility rate in the European Union is 1.60, according to the EU statistics office, Eurostat. France has the highest, with 1.92, and Spain and Italy the lowest, with 1.34.

(Reporting by Michael Nienaber; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
By Alexandra Valencia

QUITO (Reuters) - Two journalists and their driver were kidnapped in a troubled area near Ecuador's border with Colombia, which Quito has said is rife with dissidents of the former FARC guerrilla group, Interior Minister Cesar Navas said on Tuesday.

The three Ecuadoreans working for the leading local newspaper El Comercio, were kidnapped on Monday in the coastal province of Esmeraldas, where there have been several attacks on military and police infrastructure in the last weeks with homemade explosives.

"Three employees of the El Comercio newspaper were kidnapped yesterday," Navas told journalists. "We have records that the three citizens passed a military checkpoint and received due warnings about the risk of circulating in this area."

Navas said Ecuadorean authorities were in touch with the presumed kidnappers and that they were working under the assumption that the three hostages were on Colombian soil.

"We've been informed that they are well," he added.

Ecuador has grown increasingly concerned about organized crime trafficking drugs in nearby Colombia. It has boosted military presence in the area and called on Bogota to do the same.

The Colombian government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Additional reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb; Writing by Alexandra Ulmer; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

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The former president of Ukraine has applauded the growing round of expulsions of Russian diplomats following the nerve agent attack in Salisbury, saying "I have no doubt" Moscow was behind the attack and that military action against Russia should not be ruled out.

Viktor Yushchenko was himself poisoned in 2004. He and his family believe the assassination attempt was ordered by Moscow when he attempted to steer Ukraine to closer integration with Europe.

Speaking to Sky News, accompanied by his American-born wife Katarina, Mr Yushchenko warned that the new-found solidarity between European states and the US was not enough on its own.

"I have no doubt (that Russia carried out the attack ). I want western society - western governments and European governments in particular - to have no doubt too," he told Sky News in his Kiev office.

"I totally agree with the British position . I am glad that it has received international support and solidarity.

"I think politically it is a very important position that is being developed with a united Europe and the United States.

"But I don't want it to end there with this single step, which we use to confront the modern imperial Russian policy."

Mr Yushchenko is critical of western policies towards Russia over the past decades.

He insists that every Russian attempt to interfere in the working of other countries should be addressed immediately, even suggesting that military involvement should not be ruled out.

Expelling diplomats is not enough , he said.

"If we are talking about Russian policy for the last decade or 15 years, it is dangerous," he explains.

"Of course we should talk about the diplomatic component, but we should talk about the military component, we should talk about the safety component, economic, financial, humanitarian, sanctions.

"All these components are a mosaic which contains all these components which makes one strategy focused on changing Russian policy," he said.

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"Of course we can talk of a defensive military component - when every Russian provocation is answered.

"Answering is not aggressive. We are not talking about conquering. We are talking about a normal reaction to the aggressive action of Russia on Ukrainian territory today."

Katarina Yushchenko said that when she heard of the attack on the Skripals, everything came flooding back.

"Of course it did. My husband has been through it, many other people have been through it," she said.

"What we are seeing is the hybrid war tactics that Russia has been using in Britain, Europe and the US - they are exactly what was done in the Ukraine many years ago.

"We are talking about poisoning. We are talking fake news. We are talking the financing of radical parties. We are seeing the same thing. It was a frightening repeat of what we saw happening in our country," she said.

Mr Yushchenko led the so-called "Orange Revolution" - a series of protests and political events that took place in Ukraine from late November 2004 to January 2005.

The poison used to attack him was dioxin, a primary component in the defoliating chemical known as Agent Orange.

Mrs Yushchenko believes it wasn't a coincidence.

"Our doctor in Switzerland thought that it was ironic. Russia often uses symbolism, uses key dates, they often use these types of things to send messages, so yes, I think it might have played a role. There is no doubt it was made only (in Russia) and everyone involved with it ran away and is now hiding in Moscow, she added.

The former president says that the only way to control President Putin is a mixture of solidarity economics.

Reduce the use of his natural resources and the economy of Russia will fail, he says, adding that sticking together is the key.

He asked: "What does Putin fear the most?

"Solidarity, international solidarity. Look, the decision of 24 countries of the world to expel Russian diplomats - it is the most important story in the world. It is the most powerful blow delivered to Putins policies for months."
By Kate Holton and Thomas Wilson

LONDON/TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's largest drugmaker Takeda Pharmaceutical is considering a bid for London-listed rare disease specialist Shire that could top $40 billion (28.4 billion) and spark another takeover battle in the deal-hungry pharma industry.

Takeda said on Wednesday it was "at a preliminary and exploratory stage" of considering a bid, sending Shire's shares up as much as 26 percent. They ended 15.7 percent higher, valuing the group at around 32 billion pounds ($45 billion).

Shire sells treatments for rare diseases and attention deficit disorder. Takeda said buying it could create a global biopharmaceutical leader, boosting its position in the United States, oncology, gastrointestinal diseases and neuroscience.

The drugs industry has seen a surge in dealmaking as large players look for promising assets to improve their pipelines.

In recent months, France's Sanofi agreed to buy U.S haemophilia specialist Bioverativ for $11.6 billion and Belgium's Ablynx 3.9 billion euros. Before that, U.S.-based Celgene bagged cancer specialist Juno Therapeutics.

The prospect of a bid for Shire, 57 percent of whose employees are based in North America, immediately stoked expectations for a takeover battle.

"Takeda publicly saying it is considering an approach for Shire inevitably means that other big pharma players including AbbVie, Novartis, Pfizer et al will equally be running the numbers with a very high likelihood of leading to a competitive M&A multi-bidder situation," said Michael Wegener, managing partner at hedge fund Case Equity Partners, which has a stake in Shire.

Others shared that view.

"We expect most large pharma companies have a takeout model of Shire and the Takeda's announcement will force them to make a decision whether they want to step up," said Bernstein analyst Wimal Kapadia, also pointing to Pfizer and Abbvie , in particular.

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VALUATION APPEALS

U.S. drugmaker AbbVie in 2014 walked away from a planned $55 billion purchase of Shire after changes to U.S. tax rules that would have allowed it to take advantage of lower corporate tax rates overseas.

Analysts pointed to Shire's relatively low market value as helping to attract suitors. At 8.2 times expected core earnings, its market value including debt ranks well below most of its European peers, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Takeda said it had not approached Shire's board. Under UK takeover rules, it has until April 25 to decide whether to make a bid.

Shire said it noted Takeda's statement, and confirmed it had not received an approach.

Shire has been under pressure in the last year, with its shares down 24 percent, due to greater competition from generic drugs and a debt pile that stems from its biggest ever deal, the $32 billion acquisition of Baxalta in 2016.

The company said in January that it would run its attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) business, which consists mainly of its blockbuster drug Vyvanse, as a distinct business and possibly seek a separate listing.

FRENCH CEO

Takeda, Japan's largest drugmaker by sales, focuses its research on developing treatments for cancer and diseases of the digestive and nervous systems.

It has made no secret of its ambition to become a more global company through acquisitions, although buying Shire would be the boldest move yet by its French CEO Christophe Weber.

"Clearly defined strategic and financial objectives are core to Takeda's disciplined approach to acquisitions, including in relation to its dividend policy and credit rating, which are well-established," Takeda said in a statement.

"Any potential offer for Shire, if made, would have to align with this strict investment criteria."

The statement came after Takeda's shares had closed 1.9 percent lower on the Tokyo stock exchange.

Analysts at Deutsche Bank and Bernstein Research said, given the two companies' debt burden, Takeda is likely to make a considerable part of any bid in the form of its own shares.

Not including Wednesday's share surge, Shire is roughly on par with Takeda in terms of stock market value.

Weber, a former GSK executive, was appointed CEO in April 2015 and has already done a number of deals.

In January, Takeda agreed to buy Belgian biotech group TiGenix NV for 520 million euros, funding the deal with cash on hand, and last year, it bought U.S. cancer drug specialist Ariad for $5.2 billion.

Takeda's overseas deals mirror those by other Japanese companies, which are facing bleak prospects at home as a rapidly shrinking population weighs on domestic demand.

(Additional reporting by Ludwig Burger in Frankfurt, Rahul B in Bengaluru, Paul Sandle and Maiya Keidan in London and Ben Hirschler in New York; Editing by Keith Weir and Mark Potter)
Authorities in Shenzhen, China, have set up artificial intelligence-powered CCTV cameras to scan the faces of those who jaywalk at major intersections and display their identities on large LED screens for all to see.

If that isnt punishment enough, plans are now in place to link the current system with cellular technology, so offenders will also be sent a text message with a fine as soon as they are caught crossing the road against traffic lights.

Intellifusion, a Shenzhen-based AI company, is working with local cell phone carriers and social media platforms, such as WeChat and Weibo, to develop the technology, South China Morning Post reported.

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RTS1JOE1

Reuters

Jaywalking has always been an issue in China, Wang Jun, the companys director of marketing solutions, said. [It] can hardly be resolved just by imposing fines or taking photos of the offenders. But a combination of technology and psychology can greatly reduce instances of jaywalking and will prevent repeat offences.

In April 2017, Shenzhen traffic police introduced the facial recognition technology and LED screens to shame and deter jaywalkers. The 7 million-pixel cameras capture images of people illegally crossing the road. The facial recognition software then identifies the citizen against a database and displays their photo alongside their family name and some of their government identification number on the screen.

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Last month, Shenzhen traffic police said they identified over 13,930 offenders at one busy intersection in the 10 months since the screen was installed.

The surveillance technology has deterred repeat offenders and the next step, sending text message fines, may eradicate the large costs involved with installing the screens, according to Wang.

Other main Chinese cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai, are also currently utilizing AI and facial recognition surveillance to capture drivers who violate road rules. Authorities at Zhengzhou East railway station, in Henan province, were also equipped with real-time facial-recognition sunglasses to instantly locate criminals in crowds during the busy Chinese New Year period.

This article was first written by Newsweek

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A woman who emptied a stone from a shoe was threatened with a 75 fine by a litter warden who chased her to a friends house.

Footage captured by an undercover reporter shows a member of staff from Kingdom Security Services demanding money from the woman for 10 minutes.

She apparently claimed the woman had dropped a plastic insole from her shoe on the floor and tried to fine her for littering.

The woman, who had two young children with her, told the warden that she had done nothing wrong but the warden said she would face a 2,000 fine or she will have to call the police.

A child was heard saying go away during the exchange.

The woman was chased by the litter warden as she walked with her children (ITV)

The woman was threatened with a 75 for littering (Rex/stock photo)

The litter warden works for Kingdom Security Services (Kingdom)

The warden only stopped demanding money when the woman went to a friends house.

An undercover ITV Wales journalist who had been working for the firm for a week captured the incident.

The journalist said: The lady just took her shoe off and emptied it. It could have been anything, a stone a leaf. I didnt see it as being fair.

We were in a car following her, watching her and she didnt know we were doing that. I didnt feel comfortable with that, I wasnt comfortable at all.

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Kingdom is contracted by local councils across the country, but their deal with Anglesey County Council has now ended.

However, a council spokesman said the trial had been successful, adding: Without a doubt the trial period with the company has been a success and the partnership with Kingdom has lifted the profile of our ongoing work to keep the streets of Anglesey clean.

Kingdom said: Kingdom are a privately owned company who provide excellent value to the taxpayer through the return of substantial funds to the local authority.

To ensure a direct benefit to the taxpayer, it is correct that there is an expectation that an amount of fines need to be issued to make the project viable.
kim jong un north korea train armored beijing

REUTERS/Jason Lee

An armored train that belongs to Kim Jong Un's family has departed Beijing after causing huge delays with its visit to China.

But the world is no wiser as to why the train came and went  and that's a big win for Kim.

Despite plenty of evidence suggesting Kim, or at least high-level North Korean officials, were aboard, China denied knowing about the train.

North Korea also said nothing, and South Korea appeared in the dark.

With everyone either ignorant of or covering for the journey, it allows Kim to control the narrative and possibly even smuggle back tons of goods in his train.

Kim Jong Un's family's armored train has departed Beijing after causing huge delays in train and street traffic, but the world is no wiser as to why the train came and went  and that's a big win for Kim.

Sources told Bloomberg News and Reuters that the train carried Kim, and a massive motorcade in the city suggests a high-level visit, but no South Korean, Chinese, or North Korean entity has confirmed what would be a historic visit.

Hua Chunying, a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman, said she had no idea who was on the train or in the motorcade. South Korea was "watching things in Beijing very closely, while keeping all possibilities open," a Reuters report cited a senior official in Seoul as saying.

So despite a massively disruptive train and motorcade, Beijing knows nothing of the journey. Despite a massive intelligence organization dedicated to tracking the movement of the Kim family, South Korea says it knows little about the trip. And despite the Kim family's train leaving North Korea for Beijing, Pyongyang hasn't said a word.

But the dense cloud of mystery surrounding the visit creates an ideal situation for Kim.

Besides concerns for Kim and his family's personal safety, the hushed meeting perhaps suggests North Korea has enough leverage with China to have it keep the trip quiet, or enough finesse to orchestrate a massive move like this without alerting South Korea.

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Not even trying to be sneaky, but still getting away with it

Kim Jong-un

Wong Maye-E/AP

Experts tell Business Insider that sometimes diplomacy is best conducted in secrecy, to keep conversations candid and the pressure off diplomats.

But the trip wasn't exactly subtle. Kim could have flown in on a plane and quietly landed in Beijing instead of delaying train traffic across northeast China, one of the more densely populated places on earth.

If anything, the trip recalls those Kim's father, Kim Jong Il, made in the 2000s, in that it used his own personal train, which moves slowly and requires a huge security detail.

Chad O'Carroll, the managing director of the Korea Risk Group, tweeted that a press blackout on Kim Jong Il's trips was customary and suggested it may indicate that the younger Kim was indeed visiting the country this time.

The last time someone other than North Korea's supreme leader took part in that train journey to Beijing was in 1983, when Kim Jong Il, not yet in charge, made the journey, Andray Abrahamian, the senior adviser to Choson Exchange, tweeted.

But there is perhaps a simple reason North Korea would send a train to China, and China would deny it: smuggling.

A train can haul more than a plane, and with all sides denying the visit for now, it's unlikely inspectors could get a look inside to verify it wasn't filled with banned items like luxury goods  or nuclear-missile components.

NOW WATCH: People are queueing for 2 hours to get a 6 lunch from the world's first Michelin Star street food chef

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Vizcarra speaks after being sworn in as Peru's President at the congress building in Lima Martin Vizcarra speaks after being sworn in as Peru's President at the congress building in Lima, Peru, March 23, 2018. REUTERS/Mariana Bazo

By Marco Aquino and Mitra Taj

LIMA (Reuters) - Peru's new President Martin Vizcarra will appoint an opposition lawmaker as his prime minister next week as he seeks to bridge deep political divides and ensure his administration can govern with the opposition-run Congress, two sources said Wednesday.

The centrist lawmaker, Cesar Villanueva, a twice-elected former governor of an Amazonian region, had worked closely with parties on the left and right as he led efforts in Congress to impeach former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.

Kuczynski resigned instead amid growing graft allegations and Vizcarra, who had been his vice president, took office on Friday with promises to form a completely new Cabinet and to fight corruption.

Villanueva has accepted the job and is working with Vizcarra to pick the remaining 18 Cabinet ministers, a source close to Vizcarra and a second source in the presidential palace said.

Both sources spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of an official announcement. Vizcarra has said he will swear in his new Cabinet on Monday.

One of his government's biggest challenges will be repairing relations with Congress, after Kuczynski and the rightwing opposition party Popular Force, the biggest in Congress, clashed repeatedly during his 20 months in office.

Vizcarra, whom most Peruvians could not name two weeks ago, has sought to distance himself from his unpopular predecessor as he tries to build support across the Andean nation of 32 million people.

Like Vizcarra, Villanueva started his political career far from the capital Lima and as an outsider to the elite social circles that are associated with the centre-right government of Kuczynski, a 79-year-old former Wall Street banker.

Villanueva governed the jungle region of San Martin from 2007 to 2013, and served as prime minister for four months in 2013-2014 in the government of former president Ollanta Humala, before resigning over his effort to raise the minimum wage. Humala is now in jail pending trial over money laundering allegations that he denies.

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It is unclear if Vizcarra, the former governor of a small mining region, will propose any major changes to current policies. He is widely expected to continue the pro-business policies that have been in place for nearly three decades in Peru, the world's No. 2 copper producer.

Villanueva, a lawmaker with the small party Alliance for Progress, had called for Kuczynski to be forced from office over his connections to scandal-plagued Brazilian builder Odebrecht, which has acknowledged bribing officials across Latin America.

Kuczynski, whose consulting firm received nearly $800,000 from Odebrecht while he held public office, has denied any wrongdoing and blamed Popular Force for his downfall.

(Reporting By Marco Aquino and Mitra Taj; Editing by Frances Kerry)
Police in Shawnee, Oklahoma, launched an investigation after a horse appeared to have been dragged five miles to its death by a vehicle on March 25.

According to reports, Shawnee police were called to the Highway 177 and MacArthur area to assist Oklahoma Highway Patrol where they discovered a trail of blood that led to the town of Dale, around five miles away.

The officers went out there and seen that there was a bunch of blood and drag marks, Cpl. Vivian Lozano with the Shawnee Police Department told local media.

When police arrived at the end of the trail, they found a dead horse which appeared to have been dragged the entire way.

Police say they have no leads in the case and have asked for the publics help in finding those responsible.

Shawnee resident Pat Farris shared three clips of the trail and the dead horse to Facebook on March 25. The clips had earned over 100,000 views at the time of writing. Credit: Pat Farris via Storyful
Russia is working with members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to help hammer out a deal that would impact world oil supplies for the next decade, according to reports.

Saudi Arabias millennial Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, told Reuters that his Kingdom and Moscow are considering whether to prolong an agreement they struck in response to low oil prices. The agreement between Russia and Saudi Arabia cut back on oil production and helped boost the price of oil, which fell to an all-time low of $30 per barrel in 2016. The move has also allowed Russia to strengthen its influence in the Middle East.

Now the arrangement, which is renegotiated each year, could be extended for up to two decades, the Crown Prince indicated, adding that the details still need to be hammered out.

Trending: Russian Mall Fire: What We Know So Far About the Deadly Blaze in Siberia

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Yuri Kadobnov/AFP/Getty Images

Russia, the worlds largest oil producer, is not a member of OPEC, an alliance that includes other oil-producing countries such as Venezuela, Iraq, Iran, and Angola. But it does get involved in OPEC negotiations when it believes that it could be beneficial. A deal spanning over a decade, however, would be unprecedented.

The U.S. is currently producing at least 10 million barrels of oil a day, making it less reliant on foreign imports than it was in previous years. Nevertheless, the U.S. still needs around 8 million barrels per day of imports, some of which comes from U.S.-ally Saudi Arabia. Therefore, a long-term production cut agreement between Saudi Arabia and Russia could impact oil prices in the U.S.

The relationship between Russia and Saudi Arabia has improved greatly over the past year, despite the fact that Russia maintains ties with Riyadhs top enemy, Iran. In October 2017, the crown princes father King Salman became the first Saudi monarch to ever visit Russia. During the visit, the two countries signed agreements on energy and defense and agreed to several billion dollars worth of joint investment.

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This article was first written by Newsweek

More from Newsweek
SYDNEY/JAKARTA (Reuters) - Russia's Ambassador to Australia said on Wednesday the world will enter into a "Cold War situation" should the West continue its bias against Moscow in response to the nerve agent attack against a former Soviet spy in Britain.

"The West must understand that the anti-Russian campaign has no future," Russian Ambassador Grigory Logvinov told reporters in Canberra.

"If it continues, we will be deeply in a Cold War situation."

Russia denies any part in the March 4 nerve agent attack on former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in England.

The United States and governments across Europe are expelling Russian diplomats en masse in response.

Australia said on Tuesday it would expel two Russian diplomats, prompting Logvinov's impromptu address to the media on Wednesday morning.

Logvinov rejected accusations that Moscow was behind the attack and said Russia has yet to decide on its response to the diplomatic action by British allies.

"I said we have no evidence. The British stubbornly denied giving any evidence. They have denied following the provisions and protocol of the Convention on Prohibition of Chemical Weapons," he said.

Russia's ambassador to Indonesia, Lyudmila Georgievna Vorobieva, said the situation surrounding the Skripal case and the expulsions of Russian diplomats was "absolutely absurd".

Speaking to reporters in reports in the capital, Jakarta, she warned that the confrontation could lead, not to a Cold War but an "ice war".

"What is worse than an ice war? It's a hot war," she said.

"Do we want that? Well, I can tell you from Russia's side definitely we don't want that because if we take into account the number of nuclear weapons accumulated by the country - this kind of development would be fatal for our planet."

Russia wanted to cooperate in the investigation of the attack on the Skripals "in a very transparent way", she said, but added that Russian consular access to the two in hospital in Britain had been denied.

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"We're not concealing anything," said Vorobieva.

Indonesia has not expelled any Russian diplomats and Vorobieva said Russia appreciated its "balanced positions" and the fact it was not "jumping to any conclusions".

(Reporting by Colin Packham in SYDNEY, Fergus Jensen; in JAKARTA; Editing by Michael Perry, Robert Birsel)
Because so many countries have now backed the UK in expelling Russian officials, the few who have chosen not to have now become conspicuous with their decision.

So which European nations have not expelled Russian diplomats and why?

There are some who say they are firmly behind the majority but cannot physically expel any diplomats for practical reasons:

:: Portugal

Often referred to as Britain's oldest ally, Portugal is, more accurately, England's oldest ally, with the diplomatic friendship stretching back to 1147. However, Lisbon has chosen not to expel any Russians as a response to the Salisbury attack.

The Portuguese foreign ministry said this week that it "believes the coordination at the European level is the most effective means to respond to the gravity of the current situation".

It is not clear how many Russians diplomats are operating in Lisbon but it is likely to be small and it may be that the Portuguese could not find a security related reason for any expulsions.

:: Luxembourg

There are only a very small number of Russian staff at the country's mission in Luxembourg and it is understood that not one of them has been connected to espionage.

Luxembourg announced on Wednesday that it was recalling its ambassador to Russia and said it agreed with the analysis of Britain that Moscow was very likely to have been responsible for a nerve agent attack on British soil.

"Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn has decided to recall the Luxembourg ambassador to Moscow for consultations," the foreign ministry said.

:: Malta

Government spokesman Kurt Farrugia told Sky News that Malta is "full square behind the UK and the coordinated action".

He added: "Malta also supports actions by other countries to expel Russian envoys. We are not doing so ourselves because our diplomatic mission in Moscow is very small and any response by Russia would effectively terminate diplomatic relations.

"This operational decision does not reduce our support for the UK and our security partners. This position was communicated to the UK Government and the EU Council, who accepted this rationale."

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However, Malta is known to have helped wealthy Russians obtain EU passports through a legal but shadowy and controversial scheme.

:: Switzerland

A traditionally and staunchly neutral country, this non-EU nation has not expelled any Russian diplomats and there were no expectations that it would.

There are some countries known to have close ties to Russia. The Kremlin has fostered relations with particular EU nations (as well as political parities within EU states) in recent years in order to drive a wedge in the European Union and also to try to undermine the sanctions imposed on it after the annexation of Crimea.

:: Greece

Historical and religious ties between Greece and Russia are deep but the current Greek government has particularly close relations with the Kremlin which has alarmed the EU and NATO for some time.

Members of Greece's ruling Syriza Party are reported to have particular business and economic relationships with powerful Russian business elites. Its coalition partner, Anel, is openly pro-Kremlin too.

At the EU summit last week, the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said: "We have to express our solidarity to the UK, to the British people, but at the same time we need to investigate."

The Greek government has previously said it would never sanction a member of the UN's permanent Security Council.

:: Slovakia

This eastern European nation has meandered in its recent relations with Russia. Currently it appears to be taking a softer line with Moscow. In a parliamentary meeting, Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini described the expulsion of Russian diplomats as "theatrical gestures".

He said: "I want to assure all of you that Slovakia will act responsibly. But, on the other hand, we declared clearly that we will not yield to any pressure and do unnecessary theatrical gestures... Slovakia has already prepared possible further steps. We'll wait. Because the conviction in the high plausibility of Russian responsibility to the Slovak side alone is not enough."

:: Austria

Speaking to Russian news agency Sputnik following the announcements by other EU and European countries, Austria's government spokesman Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal said that Vienna would "not take any measures at the national level" and would not expel diplomats.

He said: "The reason for this is that we intend to keep open channels of dialogue with Russia. Austria is a neutral country and a kind of bridge between East and West. But we support the decision to recall the EU ambassador from Moscow."

However, the far-right FPO Party, which is part of the country's governing coalition, is known to have close ties to the Kremlin.

After the Russian annexation of the Ukrainian region of Crimea, the FPO said it was a "domestic Russian issue that does not need to concern the European Union". The FPO Party is in charge of Austria's foreign ministry.

:: Slovenia

The Slovenian Foreign Minister, Karl Erjavec, issued a short statement this week saying simply "we stick to the position adopted by the European Council that it must be determined what actually has happened".

Mr Erjavec added that the issue would be discussed at a cabinet meeting later in the week.

The government in Ljubljana prides itself on good diplomatic relations it maintains with Russia. Late last year, the Slovenia Prime Minister said he hoped his country could "become a bridge between the two superpowers".

The country has been used before as host nation for talks between the US and Russia - in 2001, George W Bush met Vladimir Putin for the first time at a Slovenian summit.

:: Bulgaria

The current holder of the EU's rotating presidency has not expelled any diplomats but it has recalled its ambassador to Moscow for consultations.

Last week, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said the EU support for the UK was "a joint decision which we support", yet at the same time, the Bulgarian government has said it must remain neutral because of its position as holder of the EU presidency. Strong business ties between Bulgaria and Russia may have played on the decision too.

:: Cyprus

The small Mediterranean country holds billions of euros of Russian capital in its banks. Like Greece, it has also said in the past that it did not think it appropriate to sanction a member of the UN Security Council.
By Lisa Rapaport

(Reuters Health) - Many patients with dangerously high cholesterol or a genetic predisposition to it dont take statin drugs that can lower cholesterol, a U.S. study suggests.

Statins were being taken by just 52 percent of adults with whats known as familial hypercholesterolemia, a genetic disorder that causes extremely high cholesterol and an increased risk of early cardiovascular disease.

And only 38 percent of adults with non-genetic severe dyslipidemia took statins.

All of these adults should be on a statin, lead study author Dr. Emily Bucholz of Boston Children's Hospital said by email.

Heart specialists recommend that people take statins when they have levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) - the bad kind of cholesterol that builds up in blood vessels and can lead to blood clots and heart attacks  of at least 190 milligrams per deciliter of blood.

Commonly prescribed statins include atorvastatin (Lipitor), lovastatin (Mevacor), simvastatin (Zocor) and rosuvastatin (Crestor).

For the study, researchers examined survey data collected from 1999 to 2014 from U.S. adults age 20 and over.

Overall, less than 1 percent of adults had a family history of severely elevated cholesterol, and about 6.6 percent had the condition themselves, researchers report in Circulation.

Older adults, people with insurance, and patients diagnosed with high blood pressure or diabetes were more likely to take statins for dangerously elevated cholesterol or a family genetic risk for the condition, the study found.

Young people, and patients without insurance or a regular source of care, were less likely to take statins.

Statin use did increase among high-risk patients during the study period.

The proportion of people with severely elevated cholesterol taking statins increased from 29 percent to 48 percent during the study, mirroring an overall trend for statin use in the general population.

Only about 30 percent of patients took high-intensity statins - higher doses recommended for people at the greatest risk for health problems associated with dangerously high cholesterol levels.

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One limitation of the study is that researchers lacked data to see whether patients failed to take statins that were prescribed or if doctors didnt give prescriptions, the authors note. Some patients might have tried statins and stopped using the drugs because of side effects like muscle aches.

This study highlights a need for further study of the reasons for the mismatch between dyslipidemia screening and treatment, said Dr. Ian Kronish, of the Center for Behavioral Cardiovascular Health at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City.

We need a better understanding as to whether the low rates of treatment are being driven by clinical inertia  that is, providers are not recommending statins in eligible patients, or whether low treatment is due to patient disagreement or non-adherence to treatment recommendations, Kronish, who wasnt involved in the study, said by email.

If physicians dont recommend statins to patients with high cholesterol, they should get a second opinion from another doctor, advised Dr. Robert Eckel, of the University of Colorado Denver Anschutz Medical Campus.

While statins are a good first choice, if these drugs dont work or have intolerable side effects, patients can also try alternative drugs like ezetimibe (Zetia), colesevelam (Welchol) or newer, more expensive drugs in a family of medicines known as PCSK9 inhibitors.

Once treated, this should be lifelong, Eckel, a past president of the American Heart Association who wasnt involved in the study, said by email.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2pGYnLd Circulation, online March 26, 2018.

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National constituent assembly's member Diosdado Cabello speaks during a session of the assembly at Palacio Federal Legislativo in Caracas National constituent assembly's member Diosdado Cabello speaks during a session of the assembly at Palacio Federal Legislativo in Caracas, Venezuela August 5, 2017. REUTERS/Marco Bello - RC14814D04D0

ZURICH (Reuters) - Switzerland announced a series of sanctions against Venezuela on Wednesday, joining other European countries in cracking down on the South American country over alleged human rights violations.

The Swiss government ordered asset freezes and travel bans for people, companies and organisations including seven Venezuelan ministers and high-ranking officials.

As with European Union sanctions imposed in January, those on the sanctions list include former National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello, Interior Minister Nestor Reverol and Chief Justice Maikel Moreno.

Neutral Switzerland said it was "seriously concerned by the repeated violations of individual freedoms in Venezuela, where the principle of separation of powers is severely undermined and the process in view of the forthcoming elections suffers from a serious lack of legitimacy".

Venezuela's opposition won a broad majority in 2015 legislative elections, but President Nicolas Maduro's allies on the Supreme Court stripped it of many of its powers and systematically shot down every piece of legislation it approved.

Maduro last year led the creation of a legislative superbody called the Constituent Assembly, which has no formal checks on its powers. Its creation led many countries around the world to describe Maduro as a dictator, a charge he dismisses as part of a campaign against him by the United States.

The Swiss sanctions include banning the sale or export to Venezuela of arms and goods which can be used for internal repression and of equipment that can be used to monitor and intercept internet and telephone communications.

(Reporting by John Revill and Michael Shields, editing by Larry King)
Developer and manufacturer of biomaterials for the enhancement and extension of human life, Collagen Solutions , announced the proposed restructuring of its New Zealand operations on Wednesday.

The AIM-traded firm said its board, having undertaken an in-depth strategic review of its overall operations and capabilities, had decided to explore a re-structure of the New Zealand operations for it to focus its activities in the area of tissue collection and processing - a segment the board believed to be valued in excess of $100m.

A key component would remain the sourcing of both New Zealand and Australian collagen exclusively for both its customers' and proprietary products.

As well as positioning the New Zealand operations for significant growth over the medium term the proposed restructuring would enable the existing collagen production to be consolidated into Glasgow, and for the company's current disparate research and development resource to be more focused.

The proposed restructuring remained subject to an employee consultation process, expected to be concluded before the end of April.

It was anticipated that, by undertaking the plans, the company would be able to reach a profitable state more quickly than previously planned.

The annual cash cost savings were estimated to be 0.2m, with one-off cash costs estimated to be 0.15m.

There would be associated non-cash asset write-downs that were yet to be determined, but would widen the loss for the year beyond current market expectation.

The company said it would provide a trading update on 12 April.

There are two sides to making this change, firstly there is the human side, and the potential loss of valued and dedicated employees in New Zealand who through no fault of their own may no longer have a job with Collagen Solutions, said CEO Jamal Rushdy.

The other side is our responsibility to our stakeholders as a whole, and this change will help our key objectives of building a sustainable, profitable and cash-generative company in the near to medium term.
Irish zinc and gold explorer Connemara Mining has restarted drilling operations at its Mine River Gold Project.

The companys drilling project comprises a total of 1,000 metres at prioritised targets at Tombreen, where the drilling results reported 16.1 g/t gold over 2 metres from 78 metres depth, and at Knocknalour which lies 2.5km to the southwest.

Patrick Cullen, chief executive of Connemara, said: We are pleased to report drilling has re-commenced at our Mine River gold project. We had very encouraging results at the Tombreen Prospect and are looking to build on that. Tombreen and Knocknalour lie along the significant 15 kilometre target trend we have identified at Mine River. With this drilling we want to confirm high-grade gold mineralisation while expanding strike-length.

Both targets were identified with the use of an airborne geophysics survey by Hendrick Resources in 2012, soil and rock geochemical surveys and historic drilling which have shown proven gold mineralisation.

The best reported historical intersection at the Tombreen site was 50cm grading at 21.28 g/t Au from 70.7m.

Elsewhere, Connemara Mining has zinc projects at Stonepark, Oldcastle, Derrykearn, Ladyswell and another gold project at Inishowen in Donegal, comprising of eleven licences.

As of 1527 BST, Connemara Minings shares were up 5.63% at 3.75p.
Conviviality Plc , the owner of the Bargain Booze and Wine Rack chains, said it was talking to its lenders and advisors about other funding options, including a potential sale of all or parts the business after failing to scrape together a 125m round of emergency cash.

Just days after the chief executive Diana Hunter departed on the back of a series of profit warnings, the company reported "good levels of demand" after its "significant number" of meetings with potential investors but ultimately insufficient demand to raise the full 125.0m it felt was needed.

"The company is in discussions with its lending banks and advisors regarding other possible options and is in receipt of a number of inbound enquiries regarding a potential sale of all or parts the business," the AIM-listed company said, in a statement after market close on Wednesday. "A further update will be made as appropriate."

Failure to raise the required funds was likely to lead to administration, according to a report from Sky News earlier, which suggested PricewaterhouseCoopers could be be appointed as administrator as soon as Thursday, with an emergency turnaround plan possibly involving PwC partner Brian Lochead joining the companys finance department.

Conviviality revealed earlier this month that it had received an unexpected 30m tax bill, leading to the suspension of its shares.

A number of the companys suppliers are also understood to have deserted the company, hamstringing efforts to raise new funding.

Two weeks ago, the company said it would try drum up funds from a share placing, saying tax authorities, creditors and customers were remaining supportive. This came after a profit warning was followed by a shelving of the interim dividend and "discovery" of the 30m tax bill that threatened its banking terms.

The company supplies over 700 off-licences and more than 23,000 pubs and restaurants across the UK, making it one of the biggest players in the countrys beverage industry.

The company owns retail arms Bargain Booze, Bargain Booze Select Convenience and Wine Rack, as well as wholesaler brands including Matthew Clark, Bibendum and Walker & Wodehouse.
Food packing business Hilton Food posted a 13% jump in full-year profit on Wednesday as volumes increased, in part thanks to recent acquisitions and joint ventures.

In the year to the end of December 2017, adjusted pre-tax profit rose to 37.4m from 33.2m the year before, with revenue up 10.1% to 1.36bn and volume 10.4% higher at 303,811 tonnes.

The company completed the 81m acquisition of UK-based fish processor Seachill back in November and since the year-end it has agreed to restructure the Australia joint venture and take full operational control of its two existing plants.

Hilton said its operating performance so far this year has been in line with the board's expectations and the group will continue to explore opportunities for further geographical expansion in both domestic and overseas markets.

It said the medium-term outlook is positive, with the integration of the Seachill business together with new factories in Queensland, Australia and New Zealand as well as business extension in Central Europe.

Chief executive officer Robert Watson said: "2017 was a transformational year and we achieved significant strategic progress. We entered into a new protein through the acquisition of Seachill as well as agreement to build a new facility in New Zealand and fresh food expansion in Central Europe.

"Hilton made good progress with volume and profit growth demonstrating our geographical and operational progress. This momentum has continued into 2018 and we continue to explore further expansion opportunities."

Shore Capital reiterated its buy rating on the stock.

"We remain positive on Hilton Food Group, reflecting on strategic growth opportunities the group has established over the past 12-15 months noting new JVs in Portugal and New Zealand, the entry into fresh chilled prepared food in Central Europe, the decision to take full operational control/ownership in Australia (from July 2018) and the Seachill acquisition that provides considerable opportunity in a new, and significant protein.

"All such activities are supported by a strong balance sheet robust and sustainable cash flows, as evidenced by the FY2017 delivery."

At 0933 GMT, the shares were up 1.9% to 784.84p.
Remote meetings provider LoopUp Group announced its commercial expansion into the $275m Australian market on Wednesday, with the formal opening of its Sydney office.

The AIM-traded from said it had operated one of its four global data centres in Australia since 2016 to serve its UK and US customers who had local operations in the region.

That would now be augmented with a commercial office presence, where new business acquisition 'pods' would target enterprises headquartered in Australia.

Australia has some very attractive attributes as a new market for LoopUp, said co-CEO Steve Flavell.

There are several geographically-dispersed urban centres which drive conferencing activity, average selling prices are materially higher than the global average, and Sydney represents a wonderful focal point to develop into the Group's regional headquarters over time.

During a market research and testing phase over recent months, LoopUp said it had already contracted six customer wins, including a leading Australian private equity firm and a financial advisory and investment management group with more than $100bn under management.

The group said it had relocated five established members of its UK and US pods to Sydney.

Those employees would form the basis of two initial Australian pods, which would be augmented with local graduate hires.

During the first half of the current financial year, the two pods would focus on building their pipelines to normalised pod levels.

The group said it believed the Australian market was highly conducive to the LoopUp product proposition, and it expected growth and pod performance to fall in line with normal UK and US pod levels thereafter.
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Donald Trump has expressed optimism that North Korea will 'denuclearise' the peninsula as it emerged that leader Kim Jong-Un visited Beijing ahead of his summit with the US president.

Kim met China's President Xi Jinping in his first diplomatic visit outside North Korea since he was named leader six years ago and his first meeting with another foreign leader, Chinese media reported on Wednesday.

The North Korean leader said that without a doubt the Chinese capital had to be his first foreign visit, the news agency KCNA reported. "It's my solemn duty as someone who has to appreciate our ties across generations."

Critically, he said he was ready to denuclearise the peninsula if South Korea and the US respond "amicably" to their efforts of goodwill and create an atmosphere of peace and stability.

The secret visit from March 25 to 28 improved the Cold-War allies' relationship following strains on the back of Pyongyang's nuclear program which were seen as potentially endangering the safety of Chinese living on the border.

Both countries' leaders also discussed the importance of Beijing not being left out of any deal struck between North Korea and the US or South Korea, with Xi Jinping now also expected to pay a visit to the North Korean capital at some point.

The meeting comes ahead of the inter korean summit in April and the anticipated face to face of Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un in May.

US president Donald Trump took to Twitter on Wednesday morning to show his support for Kim Jong Un's decision to denuclearise the peninsula: "For years and through many administrations, everyone said that peace and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula was not even a small possibility. Now there is a good chance that Kim Jong Un will do what is right for his people and for humanity. Look forward to our meeting!"
Theresa May has said that the expulsion of Russian diplomats from almost two dozen countries was not done out of solidarity with the UK, but as an acknowledgement by foreign capitals of the serious threat posed by Russias behaviour. The Prime Minister also said that further sanctions were under discussion.

The United States and 22 European nations took action against Russia over the nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter and are in the process of expeling Russian diplomats from their embassies.

Moscow still denies any involvement in the incident and has vowed to respond against the "unjustified" sanctions, which it described as "provocative gestures2.

A spokesman for the PM said that the PM had told her Cabinet members that: "Yesterday was a significant moment in our response to this reckless act of aggression, but there is still more to be done as we work with international partners on a long-term response to the challenge posed by Russia."

The Kremlin also accused the UK of starting an anti-Russia campaign, with Russian Ambassador to Sydney, Grigory Logvinov, saying in a press conference Down Under that "If the West would follow this line [anti-Russia campaign], I'm afraid we'll be deeply in a Cold War situation."

Earlier, Mr Logvinov said Britain lacked evidence that the nerve agent that was used was Russian.

"To identify this nerve agent came from Russia... you need samples of this agent which came from Russia. Where did they come from? Where do the British get them from?"
Stocks on the Continent are trading lower, caught in the downdraft from the losses seen in the US technology space during the day before.

Commenting on the outlook, Michael Hewson at CMC Markets UK said: "With the increasing focus on what is going with respect to how Facebook has managed its users personal data, it must surely be only a matter of time before attention turns to the rest of the tech sector, and how companies like Alphabet, Twitter, Microsoft and Apple to name a few, manage their own users personal data.

"If lawmakers do turn their attention to the rest of the sector, which seems likely, then it is hard not to see how other tech companies will escape scrutiny on how they use this user data, raising the prospect that we could uncover other practices that invite scrutiny."

Against that backdrop, as of 1105 BST the benchmark Stoxx 600 was retreating by 0.88% or 3.22 points to trade at 364.33, alongside a fall 1.23% or 149.44 points to 11,821.39 for the German Dax and a retreat of 1.12% or 57.48 points in the Cac-40 to 5,058.18.

The Stoxx 600 Technology subindex meanwhile was down by 1.93% to 426.91.

In parallel, the yield on the German 10-year bund was down by one basis point at 0.49%, while euro/dollar was lower by 0.13% to 1.2391.

For their part, analyst at UniCredit Research were of a somewhat similar view to Hewson.

"With sector P/E and P/B ratios trading significantly above their long-term averages, it should not come as a surprise that some negative news would precipitate a sell-off," they said to clients.

"We see this continuing, either with US tech stocks underperforming a rising equity market or weakening materially if risk aversion remains high. In the last few weeks we have recommended a rotation towards defensive sectors, which are more attractive at this stage in the cycle and are more insulated in the event that trade conflicts escalate."

Economic news from the Continent was mildly supportive on Wednesday, with consultancy GfK's German consumer climate index printing at 10.9 for April (consensus: 10.7), which was two tenths of a point higher than in the prior month.

Meanwhile, in France, INSEE reported that its consumer confidence index for March was unchanged at 100.

Further South, Spanish retail sales increased at a 0.1% month-on-month pace in February, for a year-on-year rate of gain of 1.9%, according to INE.

On the corporate side of things, stock in BMW was being dragged down by a Bloomberg report that EU competition authorities were seeking information on the manufacturer's tax deals with Luxembourg.

Also in Germany, Handelsblatt reported that ex-Deutsche Telekom head Rene Obermann was in the lead to takeover at the helm of Airbus's board of directors.
Londons FTSE 100 is being called to open higher on Thursday, taking its cue from an upbeat session in the US.

City sources expect the index to open up 49 points at 6132.

On the economic calendar, UK services PMI is due at 0930 BST, while in the US, trade balance and initial jobless claims are at 1330 BST and ISM non-manufacturing is at 1500 BST.

EasyJet lifts full-year profit guidance

Budget airline EasyJet lifted its full-year profit forecast to between 675m and 700m from a previous range of 620m to 660m as it said record passenger numbers in August offset higher costs. The load factor for August 2015 was 94.4%, a new record for any month, while passenger numbers for the month were 7.06m, which was also a record and is the second successive month of over 7m passengers.

Barclays Bank has agreed to sell its Retail Banking, Wealth and Investment Management businesses and part of its Corporate Banking business in Portugal which serves small and medium-sized enterprises to Bankinter. It has also agreed to sell its insurance business in Portugal to Bankinter Seguros de Vida, S.A. Seguros y Reaseguros, which operates an insurance joint-venture with Mapfre. The bank will continue to operate Barclaycard, investment banking and multinational corporate banking in Portugal.

UK motor retail and aftersales service company Lookers has acquired Addison Motors Limited for 87.5m in cash. The acquisition is being funded using new banking facilities made available to Lookers by Bank of Ireland, Barclays Bank, HSBC Bank, Lloyds Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland and Yorkshire Bank.
Once again, University of North Georgia (UNG) has been recognized for being military friendly.

SR Education Group, an online education research publisher, ranked UNG as No. 3 in its Most Affordable Military-Friendly Online Colleges. It also listed UNG among its Top Military-Friendly Online Colleges.

Christy Orr, assistant director of Student Life and Veteran and Adult Learner programs, was pleased with the recent announcement. She credited UNG Online and eCore for the recognition.

"With the University System of Georgias (USG) eCore program, military students can complete the first two years of college core curriculum classes online," Orr said. "With UNG Online, UNG is able to offer third and fourth year classes to allow students to partially or fully complete their degree online. Having these two programs truly benefits our military students who have jobs, families or are on active duty."

UNG Online are classes designed by UNG faculty with the support of the universitys Distance Education and Technology Integration (DETI) staff. The classes are taught by UNG faculty. eCore is USG's fully online core curriculum, which UNG and other USG institutions partner.

To be eligible for recognition as a military-friendly online college, schools were required to offer at least 10 fully online degrees. All accredited schools meeting this requirement were evaluated based on four key factors for military support in online education: military culture, online support, financial aid, and flexibility.

Stephanie Hulsey, online student success coordinator with DETI and eCore liaison at UNG, explained online courses allow military students to obtain a degree necessary for promotion and utilizes their down time when they are deployed or on assignment.

"The online format gives them great flexibility and gives spouses an opportunity to pursue their studies regardless of location," she said. "Earning a degree prepares military students to be successful in civilian life and gives them a desired credential when seeking employment after their service."

More than 500 schools were considered for the list, with 60 making the final cut. Each school on the list earned a military-friendly score of at least 65 points out of a possible 100. University of Maryland University College tops the list with a score of 95.07. University of North Georgia earned 76.93.

Twenty-five of the schools were highlighted for being the most affordable military-friendly online schools for 2018. In addition to their low annual tuition rates, the schools participate in the Tuition Assistance Program and have high military scores, which were determined using a number of factors including the strength of military culture, prevalence of support services to online students, flexibility, and military-specific financial aid.

Western Governors University ranked No. 1 by offering an affordable tuition rate of $6,380. UNG was ranked No. 3 with its annual tuition of $7,350. In the No. 2 spot was Columbia Southern University.

"As one of the six senior military colleges in the U.S., UNG understands the needs of our military learners," Hulsey said. "We offer a variety of online course options at all levels and at an affordable price. We help students maximize their military benefits with affordability of courses and dedicated staff to guide them along the way."

Executive Officer LTC Mark Legaspi said the Department of Military Science at UNG provides a structured curriculum centered on leadership. Courses conform to the subject requirements of the Senior Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) Department of the Army.

"The objectives of the ROTC program are to attract, motivate and prepare selected students with high potential to serves as commissioned officers in the active Army, or the U.S. Army Reserve, and the Army National Guard," he said. "For cadets with unique academic situations, we provide opportunities for them to maintain the Corps of Cadets program participation with continuous military science instruction during their study abroad academics and internships."
During the colonization of America, the growing of HEMP was encouraged by the government. In fact, during 1619, the Virginia assembly passed legislation requiring every farmer to grow it. Hemp was even considered legal tender in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania at one time. The agricultural plant was used to produce rope, sails, and clothing. It's farming and production was prevalent until the American Civil War as other imports and domestic materials began to take hold, and the fears about marijuana began to grow.

Hemps twisted path

During the 1930s the fear of marijuana as a cause for social ills began to increase culminating in the infamous film, Reefer Madness. At the same time, large business interests in the United States had holdings in timber and other products, which completed with hemp.

As pressure mounted on the government, the Marijuana Tax Act was passed in 1937, effectively criminalizing marijuana and related plants.

As the United States entered World War II, imports of hemp, which was used for a variety of military products, including parachutes, was dwindling. The United States Department of Agriculture began the Hemp for Victory campaign that authorized farmers to grow the plant for the government, even granting draft deferments to farmers that participated.

Postwar America experienced the counter-culture era of the 1960s and the war on drugs beginning in the 1980s. That has been followed up with state and federal laws conflicting with each other, as some states move towards legalization of marijuana.

Hemp remains a controlled substance

Due to its relationship with the marijuana plant and the fact that it contains some THC, the plant is still considered, by the Federal government to be a schedule one narcotic. This severely impedes any potential farming and production of hemp without a special federal permit which would strictly be limited and controlled.

In 2014, Congress enacted a farm bill that also allowed states to undertake certain related research projects, but if it remains a schedule 1 drug, it will never become viable in American agriculture.

BREAKING: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he'll introduce legislation removing hemp from list of controlled substances.  Meg Kinnard (@MegKinnardAP) March 26, 2018

Enter Kentucky Republican Senator Mitch McConnell.

The senator wants to remove hemp from the list of schedule one drugs so that it can once again return as a major crop for American farmers. Senator McConnell stated his intentions to introduce legislation that would legalize its production as an agricultural commodity. With the Justice Departments current negative attitudes towards marijuana, there is still much to be done in order to bring about the return of full-scale hemp production, but such a move could be a huge boost to the farming industry.
Radio shock jock Howard Stern was once a close friend of Donald Trump, but he doesn't seem to be happy with the job the president has done in the White House. During his latest broadcast, Stern gave Trump some advice that likely didn't go over well with fans of the commander in chief.

Howard Stern to Trump: "Get the f-ck out" of the White House https://t.co/baVmO3uthu pic.twitter.com/MugOBqbLvr  The Hill (@thehill) March 27, 2018

Stern on Trump

For years, the name Howard Stern would cause an instant reaction from fans and critics alike. For supporters, Stern was a man who told it like it was and didn't hold back from pushing the limits.

To critics, he was nothing more than a foul-mouthed shock jock who exploited women and minorities. During the 2016 election, many wondered if Stern would support his old friend Donald Trump, despite being a Democratic, but that wasn't the case. Throughout the primary and general election, Stern backed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and warned against a potential Trump presidency.

After repeatedly speaking out against Donald Trump, questioning why he even wanted to be president in the first place, The Hill reported on March 27 that Stern is doubling down on his criticism. "I was watching the news. They said that the president calls his friends and asks advice," he said on Tuesday. "He's never once called me and asked for advice," Stern added, saying that made him "a little upset."

After discussing the issue with long time radio partner Robin Quivers, Howard Stern decided to offer up some advice to Donald Trump just in case he was listening.

"My advice would be get the f**k out of there, man." "Why do you need that for?" Stern wondered, before adding, "Go back to Mar-a-Lago and hang out." "Just give it over to Pence," Stern concluded.

Moving forward

While Howard Stern and others continue to push back against Donald Trump, the president and his administration are facing a long list of controversies and scandals.

From the ongoing Russian investigation, to allegations of an alleged affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels, to his reckless Twitter behavior and controversial policies, Trump is facing non-stop criticism.

According to the most recent round of polling, Donald Trump's approval rating continues to remain around just 40 percent, putting even more pressure on the Republican Party heading into the upcoming midterm elections.

With Republicans expected to loss many seats in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, it remains to be seen whether or not Trump will head out on the campaign trail or be asked to stay back in Washington.
On Sunday night, "60 minutes" broadcasted their interview with Stormy Daniels, the adult film star who has been linked to an affair with Donald Trump. The morning after, First Lady Melania Trump released a statement about whether or not she watched the program.

NEW: Melania Trump focusing on "future projects," per WH.



Asked whether FLOTUS watched the Stormy Daniels interview or has any comment, FLOTUS spox tells me: She's focused on being a mom and is quite enjoying spring break at Mar-a-Lago while working on future projects.  Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) March 26, 2018

Melania on Stormy Daniels

It all started with a report in January by the Wall Street Journal alleging that Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's personal lawyer, spent $130,000 to silence Stormy Daniels about her affair with the former host of "The Apprentice." The news quickly dominated the headlines, though Trump himself remained silent, which has continued until present day.

As the story made the rounds and picked up steam, reports of marriage trouble with the first couple became public, highlighted by Melania Trump canceling a planned trip with her husband overseas.

Melania wont say if she watched Stormy interview: Shes focused on being a mom and future projects https://t.co/pUEQXkSnru  Raw Story (@RawStory) March 26, 2018

In the weeks that have followed, Melania Trump has been reported to have been keeping her distance from Donald Trump, only adding fuel to the fire over their alleged marriage trouble. Following the "60 Minutes" interview with Stormy Daniels, Melania was asked if she watched the broadcasted, and responded through a statement by her spokeswoman.

"She's focused on being a mom and is quite enjoying spring break at Mar-a-Lago while working on future projects," Melania said. The response was neither a confirmation, nor a denial, about whether or not the first lady watched the interview with the woman her husband allegedly had an affair with.

Twitter backlash

In response to Melania Trump's statement about Stormy Daniels' "60 Minutes" interview, critics of the administration wasted no time firing back.

"I'm betting she doesn't give one you know what about Stormy, the playb*y chick or the hundreds of others. We all know this 'marriage' was all about $$$$," one tweet read.

I'm willing to bet they. Haven't been "intimate" since she got prego   Sam(antha)\_()_/ (@sjkmarshall) March 26, 2018

And by future projects she means hiring a divorce lawyer and looking for a new residence.  Pietro Paparella (@PietroPaparella) March 26, 2018

We're talking about someone who herself was one of Trump's affairs. She doesn't care about Stormy, Karen, Summer, Billy Bush etc. For Melania it was always a business deal: didn't have to work, got lavish lifestyle, and he got to play and be a boor.Deserves no respect or sympathy  Jake Rice (@JakeRice16) March 26, 2018

"We're talking about someone who herself was one of Trump's affairs.

She doesn't care about Stormy, Karen, Summer, Billy Bush etc. For Melania it was always a business deal: didn't have to work, got lavish lifestyle, and he got to play and be a boor. Deserves no respect or sympathy," a Twitter user wrote. "And by 'future projects' she means hiring a divorce lawyer and looking for a new residence," another tweet added.

In other words, its business as usual for Melania. Shes luxuriating, shopping & dining in splendor with the understanding that her husband can screw as he pleases.  DebraNYC (@debra_hendler) March 26, 2018

Do have small sympathy for her but she made a deal with the devil. Hope her end of the prenup was worth it. She has been treated quite well so far compared to HRC was about WJC,specially considering they were married young and before he had a long long track record like DT had.  stillngam  (@stillngam) March 26, 2018

Melania's boyfriend, Future Projects, is much better at...well everything... than her husband, Hopeless Project. So it really is going to be a nice week-long break for FLOTUS.  Kay Hoeprich (@khoeprich) March 26, 2018

"Melania's boyfriend, Future Projects, is much better at...well everything...

than her husband, Hopeless Project. So it really is going to be a nice week-long break for FLOTUS," a social media user wrote. "In other words, its business as usual for Melania. Shes luxuriating, shopping & dining in splendor with the understanding that her husband can screw as he pleases," a follow-up tweet stated.
There have been so many terror attacks in France over the past few years that it's hard to keep count. However, the latest tragedy this past weekend has at least created a national Hero.

Last Friday, terrorist Redouane Lakdim created a hostage situation in the medieval town of Carcassonne after hijacking a car, shooting up a group of policemen, and then going on a shooting spree in a Super-U supermarket, declaring himself a soldier of ISIS and killing two people.

Police got most of the civilians away from Lakdim and out of the Super-U, but Lakdim was able to keep one store worker as a hostage, using her as a human shield.

He demanded that authorities release Salah Abdeslam, another terrorist and ISIS soldier who is the last living member of the cell that carried out the 2015 Paris massacres.

Sacrificing his life

This was when Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame went well above the call of duty. He offered himself as a replacement hostage for the captured woman, in order to pacify the gunman and get the last victim to safety. As he entered the terrorist's possession, Colonel Beltrame left his cell phone on so that his colleagues could hear what the terrorist was doing. Lakdim was eventually neutralized by security forces with the aid of Beltrame's cell phone transmission, but not before he shot Beltrame. When they heard Beltrame being shot, the security forces stormed the building, shooting the terrorist dead and attempting first aid on the wounded officer.

The saddest wedding

According to Sky News, Beltrame survived the incident but died in the hospital due to his injuries. Shortly before his death, he was able to get married to his partner, Marielle, whom he was planning to marry in a church ceremony in June. He received the Catholic rites of death and marriage together, at the same time.

Amid near-universal praise, Beltrame, a former military member and decorated Iraq War vet, was buried on Monday in a national ceremony with military honors. Here is video coverage of the life and death of Beltrame:

Lakdim, born in Morocco, had been on a watch list since 2014 and had been arrested for a string of petty crimes.

ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack as part of its exhortations to attack its Western enemies.

A dissenting voice

Not everyone in France honored the fallen hero, however. Left-wing politician Stephane Poussier celebrated the colonel's death with a Tweet, happy that there would be "one less Macron voter." This show of partisanship may have been quite tasteless in the wake of yet another national tragedyparticularly considering Colonel Beltrame's touching selflessnessbut the French government arguably went overboard when they responded to the tweet by having Poussier arrested at his home in Dives-sur-Mer.
As the Supreme Court takes up its second big partisan redistricting case of the term, a Virginia Tech expert on the topic of gerrymandering is available to discuss the courts consideration of limits on drawing election maps for political gain.

Virginia Tech political scientist Nicholas Goedert is available for interviews to discuss the topic and its possible impact.

Quoting Goedert

The Supreme Court has heard a lot of cases involving redistricting, but has never before struck down a map, purely on the basis that it was too partisan, that it advantaged one party at the expense of the other party. There's a lot of disagreement as to what the appropriate standards should be if courts are going to be involved."

To secure a live or recorded interview with Goedert, contact Bill Foy by email, or by phone at 540-998-0288.

Expertise featured in The New York Times and The Hill.

Our studio

Virginia Tech's television and radio studios can broadcast live HD audio and video to networks, news agencies, and affiliates interviewing Virginia Tech faculty, students, and staff. The university does not charge for use of its studios. Video is transmitted by LTN Global Communications and fees may apply.
Two new student representatives will join Virginia Techs Board of Visitors this summer.

This week, Rachel Iwicki, undergraduate student representative, and Zo Amani, who will represent graduate students, were named the 2018-2019 student representatives to the Board of Visitors, the universitys governing body. Their terms begin July 1.

The students serve a one-year term as non-voting board members. They represent all students at the universitys highest level of governance, and they are ex-officio members on the Commission of Student Affairs.

Undergraduate Student Representative

As a first-year student, Rachel Iwicki seemed destined for campus leadership. She was named the freshman chair for the Student Engineers Council, and that gave her confidence to discuss her classmates ideas and concerns with engineering administrators, including the colleges dean. Now as a junior, Iwicki is president of the council.

Iwicki, who is from Springfield, Virginia, is majoring in both mechanical engineering and Russian, which is housed in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. She also is a resident advisor and an undergraduate recruiter for the College of Engineering Deans Team.

Iwicki said representing Virginia Techs undergraduates for the Board of Visitors was a natural progression from her role with the Student Engineers Council. Also, studying abroad in Russia, Moldova, and Estonia while speaking Russian sharpened her communication skills.

Sometimes the people who could offer the most valuable input are afraid to offer it or do not know how, Iwicki wrote in a personal statement for her board application. I enjoy sitting down with my peers to hone and sharpen their opinions, then help voice their experiences so that we can work together to make a change.

Through her work with the board, Iwicki said she wants to push for the expansion of mental health resources on campus and advocate for an inclusive environment at the university.

Graduate Student Representative

Lorenzo Zo Amani has two bachelors degrees from Virginia Tech, and after leaving for a few years to earn a masters degree, Amani is back at his alma mater.

He is on track to graduate in 2020 with a Ph.D. in public administration and public affairs, within the College of Architecture and Urban Studies. He also is gearing up to be the voice of graduate students for the Board of Visitors.

Amani said he hopes to address several topics related to graduate students during his tenure, including recruitment, health and wellness, and funding for travel and scholarships.

Our graduate students academic, social, and financial needs should be adequately addressed if Virginia Tech desires to grow and positively impact the world through research, he wrote in a personal statement for his board application.

Along with his doctoral work, Amani is a graduate assistant in Virginia Techs Office of Budget and Financial Planning. He also enjoys guiding and mentoring Virginia Tech students. Amani is a graduate residential fellow in West Ambler Johnston Hall, and he mentors student athletes.

As an undergraduate, Amani earned bachelor of science degrees in sociology and in apparel, housing, and resource management through the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. Amani said his extensive campus network will help him to be an effective voice for graduate students.

I understand the importance of building sound relationships, he said.

The board is comprised of 14 members, 13 of whom are appointed by the governor and serve a four-year term. The 14th member, who serves ex-officio, is the president of the Board of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

Written by Jenny Kincaid Boone


The Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech will open its doors to the public during an annual Open House on April 7 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Visitors will have a chance to learn about veterinary medicine and the college through tours, demonstrations, and lectures.

The Open House will take place on the veterinary colleges Blacksburg campus, located at 245 Duck Pond Drive, and will feature guided tours of its 270,000-square-foot complex, including the Veterinary Teaching Hospital. Parking will be available in the large fenced commuter/graduate parking lot off Duck Pond Drive (known as the Cage). A sign will direct visitors to the parking lot entrance.

During the Open House, food trucks will offer dining options in the parking lot in front of the veterinary college. Veterinary students will also lead hour-long tours departing every 10 minutes beginning at 10 a.m. Tours require sign-up and are on a first-come, first-serve basis. The last tour will leave at 2 p.m.

The family-friendly event will also feature activities designed expressly for children such as horseshoe painting, face painting, and a future surgeon photo booth. Third-year students will also help surgically repair stuffed animals that children bring to the Open House (limit one per child) during a Teddy Bear Repair Clinic, open from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Lectures and information sessions will address such topics as equine gut anatomy, pet first aid, and what prospective students need to know about applying to veterinary school. Demonstrations will cover a wide range of topics and include ultrasound exams on dogs, live horses painted to represent their internal anatomy, agility and police canine demonstrations, tiny cameras called endoscopes, and more.

Attendees are encouraged to stop by the check-in area in front of the veterinary college complex to pick up event information, map, and passport. In addition, a silent auction with gift certificates and merchandise from local merchants will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., with winners announced at 2:15 p.m.



For biosecurity and health safety reasons, visitors will not be permitted to bring their pets or other animals in the building or hospital areas during Open House. In the event of rain or inclement weather, outside demonstrations and activities may be canceled.

The veterinary college is hosting the Open House with support from the colleges chapter of the Student American Veterinary Medical Association, along with the majority of the colleges student organizations. The college encourages attendees to bring dog food and toy donations, which students will collect at the event for a local animal shelter. Visitors will also have a chance to meet animals available for foster or adoption.

If you are an individual with a disability and desire an accommodation, please contact Rebecca Stinson-Dixon, associate director of student support and admissions, at 540-231-1184 or rstinson@vt.edu during regular business hours at least three business days prior to the event.
Bleeding control kits will be located throughout campus in automated external defibrillator (AED) cabinets and will contain a combat application tourniquet, chest seals, emergency responder dressing, compressed gauze, trauma shears, gloves, and instructions. The kits are packaged in a vacuum-sealed pouch, and the items inside do not expire.

[The kit] is made so that anyone could  pick [it] up, open it, [and] see the instructions and be able to use the pieces in it, McCann said. With all the various projects, research, construction, [and] machinery shops, theres always everyday potential for hazards that could end up causing life-threatening bleeding.

Not only do college campuses have these trauma kits, but so do hospitals and rescue squads in the surrounding community, like Roanoke Carilion Clinic and Blacksburg Rescue. McCann said having the kits available could potentially save lives especially when someone is bleeding severely.

Were fortunate enough to have our own rescue squad [and] our own police department here on campus, but they can still be minutes away, McCann said. You have the opportunity to start helping and assisting someone.
It is not enough to tell family caregivers, as flight attendants tell airline passengers, Put on your oxygen mask first. Too many caregivers fail to practice self-care at all, let alone tend to their own needs before those of their care receivers. How can they find a better balance between the commitment to caring for loved ones and the necessity of caring for themselves? Here are some ideas:

Stop living only in the moment. The spiritual teacher Ram Dass exhorts Be here now and Alcoholics Anonymous advises living one day at a time. These are wonderful admonitions, but they dont work well when dealing with a string of big and small caregiving emergencies that cumulatively take their toll. For every pivot toward crisis, you need to take into account both what needs to be done and what consequences you may experience. Ask yourself, What will this cost me, and can I sustain myself through the course of caregiving if I continually pay that cost over time? With a progressive health condition such as diabetes, the answer is likely no.

Feel guilty  but for not helping yourself. Ive heard too many caregivers explain that taking the time to tend to their own health made them feel guilty when their loved ones were in pain or distress. But if their loved ones always had some degree of discomfort, those caregivers then felt compelled to forever neglect themselves. As much as you may want to give comfort, you do your loved one a disservice by rendering yourself unwell and thereby unable to fulfill your caregiving duties.

Link caregiving and self-care tasks. Rather than regarding caregiving and self-care as an either-or proposition, link them logistically. Use your daily schedule for caring for your loved one as a cue for prompting you to care for yourself. For example, you can dole out and take your pills at the same time that you dole out and give pills to the care receiver. You can give her an insulin shot and then immediately take your own. You can schedule back-to-back medical appointments for you and your loved one with the same primary care provider so that you both receive the care you need.

Work toward family wellness. You would never willingly choose to help one family member if it meant that another family member would unnecessarily suffer. Dont put yourself in the position of the neglected sufferer. Caregiving is ultimately about caring for every family member  including determined but still-vulnerable caregivers.
NBCs live musicals are as hugely risky as they are popular, and sometimes cruelly panned. Are you scared?

The producers said, Does it bother you that its a live audience? And I go, What do you think I do? Every night Im in front of 15,000 people. I'm going to be the only one there whos comfortable.

I love the Mary Magdalene character that Sara Bareilles plays, singing I Dont Know How to Love Him. But since you actually know the Bible, doesnt it drive you nuts that shes falsely portrayed as a prostitute?

Yeah, Marys like an urban legend. The Bible doesnt say anything about her being like that at all. It's like a lot of things that people swear happened, like Alice Cooper biting the head off a bat or killing a chicken on stage. Never happened! But there were lots of prostitutes that Jesus probably saved. He was there for the sinners; his problem was the Sadducees. Basically, the church was his biggest trouble.

You were the chief of sinners in the 1970s. At the Rainbow nightclub on the Sunset Strip in L.A., theres a plaque honoring you as a leader of The Hollywood Vampires.

Yeah, that was just a bunch of guys who got drunk every night: John Lennon, Harry Nilsson, Alice Cooper, Keith Moon, Bernie Taupin, Mickey Dolenz [of the Monkees]. The people who owned the bar started calling us the Hollywood Vampires because they only saw us at night.

A friend of mine was there when Lennon and the Vampires recorded golden oldies, but they were too drunk to play Chain Gang in tune or in time or remember the words. Stevie Wonder, recording a masterpiece in the same studio, was invited to sit in, but he bawled out his engineer: Those guys are terrible! Its embarrassing! Get me out of this!

Yeah, I might have been the bartender. It was definitely a lost weekend. Harry, Keith, T. Rex, Ringo Starr and a bunch of guys helped on my Billion Dollar Babies album, and we got absolutely nothing done.

And yet now youre recording and touring with a new Hollywood Vampires club.

The original Vampires were just a bunch of drinking guys. This Hollywood Vampires band is awfully good  Johnny Depp and Joe Perry [of Aerosmith] on guitar, and Joe Perry sometimes takes guitar lessons from Johnny. We decided to do a tribute to our dead drunk friends: Harry, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, all those people who died from excess. Johnny and Joe Perry are sober, and I've been sober 37 years. Those days were great, but you know, some guys just took it too far.

Last year you released your 27th album, Paranormal, which went Top 20 in 30 countries. But do you have a future?

You should not even do an album if you don't think your next production is going to be the best ever. You really should retire. If you ask Paul McCartney, Are you going to make another album? Hes gonna say, Yes, because I haven't written my best song yet. Its the same with me.

So when can fans see you onstage in a show where youre not taunting Jesus?

After Jesus Christ Superstar, the Hollywood Vampires will tour Eastern Europe this summer. So if anybodys in Prague or Budapest or some of these countries I can't even pronounce, come see us!

The first Alice Cooper concert was almost exactly 50 years ago. How on earth do you have the stamina for another tour? Somebody up there must like you.

I'm probably in better shape than I was when I was 30.
Getty Images

En espanol | Youre usually told to hop on an exercise bike to help your heart health. But now, a new study shows that the bike might be good for the brain as well.



The report, published earlier this month in Neurology, the online journal of the American Academy of Neurology, offered up some profound statistics: Swedish women with a high level of midlife fitness were 88 percent less likely to develop dementia than those who were moderately fit, and those highly fit women who did develop dementia saw the onset 11 years later than those with medium fitness levels.

The testing spanned nearly 4 decades. In 1968, 191 Swedish women between the ages of 38 and 60 took a bicycle exercise test to measure their peak cardiovascular fitness levels. Over the next 44 years, the same group of women were tested for dementia six times, with 44 of the women eventually developing dementia. Those with high fitness levels when they first took the test tended to avoid dementia: Of those women, 5 percent developed dementia, compared with 25 percent of those with moderate levels of fitness.

Thirty-two percent of the women with lower levels of fitness developed dementia; those who could not finish the exercise test due to high blood pressure or other cardiovascular problems fared the worst  45 percent developed dementia decades later.

"These findings are exciting because it's possible that improving people's cardiovascular fitness in middle age could delay or even prevent them from developing dementia," said study author Helena Horder, of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, in a press release.

However, Horder did caution against taking the study as gospel. "This study does not show cause and effect between cardiovascular fitness and dementia. It only shows an association. More research is needed to see if improved fitness could have a positive effect on the risk of dementia, and also to look at when during a lifetime [that] a high fitness level is most important."

The study authors also noted the specific framing of the study: All of the women who participated in the study were Swedish, making it difficult to extrapolate the data to other countries with differing socioeconomic conditions and lifestyles.

The full study is available on neurology.org.
Get started selling on Amazon and make $5,000  $10,000 in the next 30 days even if youve never sold anything online before, AWS promises.

At the AWS website, the organization lists a number of services it said it could provide to Amazon-based sellers for a $79.99 monthly fee, including position tracking, competitor sales, index checks, and several email-related services.

But AWS and its affiliates, according to the FTC, have nothing to do with Amazon, and those who signed up did not make anywhere close to the advertised income or any income at all, the FTC claims. Many of the ploys AWS promoted in order for its clients to sell merchandise, like posting fake product reviews, are also expressly against Amazon policies, and, as a result, some clients had their Amazon selling accounts suspended.

A federal court in Nevada has issued a temporary restraining order against the defendants that bars them from making deceptive claims and freezes assets pending further action, which includes an FTC bid to obtain money for unsuspecting AWS clients. The court has also appointed a temporary receiver to oversee the income and property of the defendant company.
Conklin Clinics building new $3.1 home on Eighth Avenue Northeast

A new Conklin Clinics building, which will cost about $3.1 million is expected to be completed by the spring of 2022.
SANTA FE  Those in charge of a $10.5 million, federally funded project to bring broadband services to parts of northern New Mexico cant account for how almost $1 million was spent or say what happened to 12 miles of fiber optic cable, according to a new state audit.

The State Auditors Office said it is still looking for missing documentation for the REDI Net project and has served several subpoenas on contractors and vendors who received significant payments from the broadband project.

These federal dollars were meant to bring broadband connectivity to people throughout northern New Mexico, state Auditor Wayne Johnson said in a news release. There are some serious questions about a lack of records and controls to assure taxpayers that these funds were used effectively and responsibly.

State Rep. Jim Trujillo, D-Santa Fe, is board president of a local economic development district that received the federal funding. He said he disagrees with the audits findings.

We did it under federal economic development grant and we met the requirements of the grant, Trujillo said. When we finished the job, we turned it into the federal government with a list of what we had done, and they approved it.

The State Auditors Office on Tuesday released the audit that was performed for the office by Jaramillo Accounting Group of Albuquerque.

The REDI Net project was financed in 2010 with $10.5 million in post-recession stimulus money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The money went to the North Central New Mexico Economic Development District, a consortium of counties.

REDI Net later was set up as a separate government entity. Its website says it is run by the North Central district; Santa Fe, Los Alamos and Rio Arriba counties; Espanola and the pueblos of Pojoaque, Ohkay Owingeh, Santa Clara and Tesuque

The audit says that in 2016, Rio Arriba took over from North Central as fiscal agent. During the changeover, questions arose and information came to the attention of the REDI Net board that caused concerns about certain transactions that North Central had charged to the federal grant. Rio Arriba officials communicated those concerns to the State Auditors Office, which in March 2016 designated North Central for a special audit. REDI Net paid for the audit.

The audit identified $955,792 for which North Central was unable to provide supporting documentation. The 12 miles of missing cable is valued at nearly $200,000, the state auditors office said.

David Trujillo, Rio Arriba deputy county manager and vice chair of the REDI Net board, said the findings are very serious and confirm many of the concerns that the REDI Net Board has raised.

Gabriel Montoya, chair of board, said it agrees with the findings and hopes that updated audit results from additional subpoenas will provide more clarity so the organization can close the books and move forward.

REDI Net is providing high-speed internet to about 75 anchor institutions like schools, hospitals and government agencies. The system is set up for other internet providers to take on the role of last mile services to individual customers like homes and businesses.
Charles Ziegler says hes accused in a homicide he didnt commit, and on Tuesday an Albuquerque judge scheduled time for his defense team to conduct the DNA analysis that it believes will help prove he is innocent.

Ziegler is facing murder charges in the death of Eric Hicks, who was stabbed in September near the North Diversion Channel bike path. But in motions filed early this month, Zieglers attorney, Christopher Dodd, alleges he is in possession of substantial evidence that someone else killed Hicks.

Dodd argues that the man he believes is responsible was injured during the altercation that led to Hicks death. He asked the court to schedule sufficient time for him to order DNA testing on certain items of evidence, including blood-soaked clothing and blood samples collected from the crime scene.

Defense investigation has revealed that the individual that we are naming as the one who committed the crime had a severe cut on his hand, very deep, that required hospital attention, Dodd said in a hearing in 2nd Judicial District Court on Tuesday. If he was indeed stabbed there, that will be shown by the DNA testing.

Judge Briana Zamora determined Tuesday that the state must complete its testing of that evidence by July so that the defense can perform its own tests. Last week she agreed to give the defense access to his DNA standard and medical records.

While prosecutors in the case said they disagreed with the factual basis stated in the defendants motion they agreed he should have access to the DNA and medical records. And they agreed the defense should have time to evaluate the DNA evidence after the Albuquerque Police Department has completed its tests.

Prosecutors say Ziegler told a friend that he killed Hicks by stabbing in him the back, ribs and shoulder. They say that story is consistent with Hicks autopsy report. In an interview with a detective in December, he said he didnt know Hicks was dead. And a month later, he told detectives that Hicks was killed by a hitman.

On March 16, APD announced that it was seeking two persons of interest in the case.

Detective Jodi Gonterman, who investigated the case, has said previously that several people were involved in the homicide. No one else has been charged.
TOPEKA, Kan.  As a girl in Kansas, Linda Browns father tried to enroll her in an all-white school in Topeka. He and several black families were turned away, sparking the Brown v. Board of Education case that challenged segregation in public schools.

A 1954 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court followed, striking down racial segregation in schools and cementing Linda Browns place in history as a central figure in the landmark case.

Funeral officials in Topeka said Brown died Sunday at age 75. A cause of death was not released. Arrangements were pending at Peaceful Rest Funeral Chapel.

Her sister, Cheryl Brown Henderson, founding president of The Brown Foundation, confirmed the death to The Topeka Capital-Journal. She declined comment from the family.

Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel at NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc., said in a statement that Linda Brown is one of a band of heroic young people who, along with her family, courageously fought to end the ultimate symbol of white supremacy  racial segregation in public schools.

She stands as an example of how ordinary schoolchildren took center stage in transforming this country. It was not easy for her or her family, but her sacrifice broke barriers and changed the meaning of equality in this country, Ifill said in a statement.

The NAACPs legal arm brought the lawsuit to challenge segregation in public schools before the Supreme Court, and Browns father, Oliver Brown, became lead plaintiff.

Several black families in Topeka were turned down when they tried to enroll their children in white schools near their homes. The lawsuit was joined with cases from Delaware, South Carolina, Virginia and the District of Columbia.

On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that separating black and white children was unconstitutional because it denied black children the 14th Amendments guarantee of equal protection under the law. In the field of public education, the doctrine of separate but equal has no place, Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.

The Brown decision overturned the courts Plessy v. Ferguson decision, which on May 18, 1896, established a separate but equal doctrine for blacks in public facilities.

Sixty-four years ago, a young girl from Topeka, Kansas sparked a case that ended segregation in public schools in America, Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer said in a statement. Linda Browns life reminds us that by standing up for our principles and serving our communities we can truly change the world. Lindas legacy is a crucial part of the American story and continues to inspire the millions who have realized the American dream because of her.

Brown v. Board was a historic marker in the civil rights movement, likely the most high-profile case brought by Thurgood Marshall and the lawyers of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund in their decade-plus campaign to chip away at the doctrine of separate but equal.

Her legacy is not only here but nationwide, Kansas Deputy Education Commissioner Dale Dennis said.

Oliver Brown, for whom the case was named, became a minister at a church in Springfield, Missouri. He died of a heart attack in 1961. Linda Brown and her sister founded in 1988 the Brown Foundation for Educational Equity, Excellence and Research.

The foundation says on its webpage that it was established as a living tribute to the attorneys, community organizers and plaintiffs in the landmark Supreme Court decision. Its mission is to build upon their work and keep the ideals of the decision relevant for future generations.

We are to be grateful for the family that stood up for what is right, said Democratic state Rep. Annie Kuether of Topeka. That made a difference to the rest of the world.
TOPEKA, Kan.  Kansas schools that refuse to allow teachers to carry guns could be held legally responsible in the event of a tragedy under a proposal drafted after last months mass shooting at a Florida high school.

Opponents of the measure, which got its first hearing Tuesday in front of the House Insurance Committee, expressed concern it could effectively mandate arming teachers rather than allowing it, as several states have done.

It would certainly open the door for that conversation, said Democratic Rep. Brett Parker, an Overland Park school teacher. The further we go down this rabbit hole, the more chance there is for even more obnoxious legislation moving forward.

Even if that provision is stripped, as some advocates suggested during the hearing, the bill would prohibit insurers from denying coverage to a school because it lets its teachers or staff members carry weapons.

At least nine other states have provisions in place giving teachers the option of carrying guns in schools, but the Kansas plan seems to go further than most other laws in place or under consideration.

The proposal is separate from one embraced by Republican leaders in the House that focuses on improving school infrastructure instead of arming staff. That measure, which appears to have broader support, won first-round approval on Tuesday.

Rep. Blake Carpenter, a conservative Derby Republican who helped write the legislation that holds schools liable, said he is confident armed and trained teachers will save lives. Police could be minutes away, and in smaller districts where modest funding means school-resource officers arent hired, the bill would allow for next best thing, he told the committee.

It is not, if our kids will be killed. It is, when will they be killed and what are we doing to prevent it? Carpenter said.

Kansas legislators started working on school safety legislation a week after a Valentines Day shooting in Parkland, Florida, left 17 students and staff dead.

Gun control advocates say the portion that presumes negligence against school districts is highly unusual and seems to match closely with concealed carry laws typically applied to businesses in some states, and not schools.

Kansas law has allowed teachers to carry concealed guns since 2013 but school districts across the state have disallowed the practice after EMC Insurance Companies, the states primary school insurer, refused to provide coverage to schools with armed staff.

Kansas Association of School Boards lobbyist Mark Tallman opposed the bill. He said insurance providers could still choose to deny coverage, yet schools would have no choice but to allow staff to arm themselves regardless. Even if an insurer is willing to provide under such circumstances, Tallman said, the rates would become very expensive.

Carpenter said for an insurance company to increase rates or to outright refuse to provide coverage to a school, it would have to prove that having an armed staff creates a higher risk environment.

According to the State Department of Education, the 286 local school districts expect to spend $23.7 million on insurance in the current school year, not including health insurance. No testimony provided during the hearing predicted what that expense would become if the legislation passes.

Parker said he has received 284 pieces of written testimony opposing the bill, much of it from teachers unhappy with the prospect of being armed and working alongside others who may or may not be.

Were inventing new ways, it seems, to drive people out of the teaching profession in Kansas, Parker said.
New Mexico had long utilized a straight party voting option until 2012, when Dianna Duran, the first Republican Secretary of State in New Mexico in 80 years, ended the practice behind closed doors with the stroke of her pen. There was no discussion, no public input and no transparency. Durans was a clearly partisan decision  with the full support of her political party  that was part of an overall plan to both undermine trust in our election process and to make it more difficult to vote.

Lets set the record straight: Durans decision in 2012 to eliminate straight ticket voting was the real partisan movida.

Then-Secretary Duran  who ultimately resigned in disgrace after committing campaign finance fraud  actively worked to limit voter participation in New Mexico, with the goal of aiding the Republican Party. Duran was a staunch supporter of photo voter ID, which is used to limit the participation of the elderly, students, and people of color, and she falsely suggested that 64,000 people were on New Mexicos voting rolls illegally. These actions were not independent of each other. Rather, they were part of a series of actions to suppress the vote in New Mexico.

The final piece of Durans voter suppression plan was to eliminate straight party voting. When Duran ended the practice, she falsely argued that the change was due to straight party votings lack of presence in law. Never mind the fact that other secretaries of state before her utilized the authority granted to them by the state legislature to promulgate and ensure uniformity of the ballot for all voters across the state. Simply put: the decision to end straight ticket voting in New Mexico was a cynical partisan attempt to make it more difficult for New Mexicans to vote.

The myth that straight party voting favors one party over the other is demonstrably false. One recent example is that in the 2010 General Election, which was the last time the straight party feature was used in New Mexico, Susana Martinez was elected Governor and Dianna Duran herself was elected Secretary of State.

Unfortunately, some see practices that ease the voting process or encourage more people to vote as negative. Their goal is to make it as hard to vote as possible because when more people vote they lose. And theyll do anything to try and convince voters otherwise.

Straight party voting makes it much easier for voters of all stripes to cast a ballot. The reality of straight party voting is that more voters will be able to participate in the voting process, and the process itself will be quicker and easier.

Ballots can be long and complicated, often discouraging some voters  particularly the elderly and those with disabilities  from participating in the process. The straight party option eases the burden on these voters, making the ballot more accessible overall. The practice is also logical from an administrative standpoint because voters spend less time at the voting booth when they choose the straight party option, reducing wait times at polling places.

Further, the notion that straight party unfairly discriminates against minor party or independent candidates is also false. Straight party allows voters to select a majority of candidates of one party, while at the same time allowing a voter to select candidates of a different party in any race they wish.

If Republicans believe that more people voting more easily means electoral defeats for them, then we must be skeptical of their intentions when it comes to any proposed changes to the voting process. Calling the re-institution of straight party voting a partisan power grab is false and ignores the fact that it was an actual partisan power grab by the Republicans that took this option away from the voters of our state in the first place.

I have always advocated for unfettered access to the ballot box for all eligible citizens, and for any practice that simplifies the act of voting. It is important that the government does its best to guarantee equal access to the ballot and to ensure that the ballot itself is not rife with difficulties that prevent a voter from fully exercising their constitutional right.

Eliminating straight party voting undermined trust in election process
All you needed to know about student activist David Hoggs speech at the March for Our Lives in Washington, D.C., over the weekend was that he affixed a price tag on the microphone to symbolize how much National Rifle Association money Sen. Marco Rubio took for the lives of students in Florida.

The stunt wasnt out of place. Indeed, it perfectly encapsulated the braying spirit of the student gun-control advocacy in the wake of the Parkland, Fla., school shooting.

These young activists are making our public debate even more poisonous and less civil, and are doing it as teenagers. They are precocious that way.

The Stoneman Douglas students experienced a horrific trauma. No one can deny their grief or blame them for being impassioned. And allowance has to be made for the fact that they are teenagers, who universally believe that they know better than their hapless elders  Hogg says the problem is that their parents dont know how to use a democracy.

Yet none of that excuses their scurrilous smears of the other side in the gun debate. The student activists presume that there is a ready solution to mass shootings that everyone knows, and the only reason someone might not act on this universally accepted policy is malice or corruption. This makes the other side the equivalent of murderers.

So at the CNN forum, Stoneman Douglas student Cameron Kasky told Rubio that looking at him is like looking down the barrel of the AR-15 held by the school shooter.

In a video interview with an outfit called The Outline, Hogg said that the NRA and its supporters want to keep killing our children. Not that they inadvertently enable people who carry out school shootings via misconceived policy, but they themselves kill children and want to keep doing it.

Lest he be misunderstood, Hogg added, They could have blood from children spattered all over their faces and they wouldnt take action because they will still see those dollar signs.

This is the thought, if you can call it that, behind the price tag at the March for Our Lives, which Stoneman Douglas students also wore around their necks. It said $1.05, purportedly the amount of support Rubio has gotten from the NRA over his career, $3.3 million, divided by the 3.1 million public and private students in Florida.

In accusing their opponents of being bought off, the students deny the sincerity and legitimacy of supporters of gun rights. They treat the Second Amendment as an inkblot on the Constitution, and dismiss all counterarguments as transparent rationalizations. Not only is this a (appropriately) juvenile view of the gun debate that ignores Supreme Court jurisprudence, the genuine support of the NRA by millions of people and the serious, practical objections to gun-control proposals, it removes all possibility of a middle ground.

Tellingly, it is Rubio who is the foremost object of the ire of the students, when he has been notably open and accommodating. He showed up at the CNN town hall to get abused, and has shown remarkable forbearance in handling political attacks on him that are shameless blood libels. He sponsored incremental school safety legislation that is becoming law, and for his trouble he is deemed a moral monster who doesnt care how many people have to die as long as he gets a few more campaign contributions.

Maybe all of this can be written off as the work of overenthusiastic, underinformed 17-year-olds. But the student activists arent acting alone. They are promoted and praised by adults who should know better. Since the kids serve a useful purpose in promoting gun control, though, it is practically forbidden in much of the media to dissent from anything they say.

It was hard to believe that our public debate could get even more sophomoric. The student activists are here to say, Yes, it can.

Rich Lowry can be reached via e-mail: comments.lowry @nationalreview.com.  2017 by King Features Syndicate.
WASHINGTON  For several hours on Saturday, cynicism was banned from the streets of what on many days seems to be the most cynical city in the world.

Throngs estimated to number up to 800,000, and perhaps more, gathered because a group of determined, organized, eloquent and extremely shrewd high school students asked them to come, and because too many Americans have been killed by guns.

Suddenly, hope-mongers were stalking the nations capital. They believed, against so much past evidence, that the National Rifle Association could be routed.

The crowd seemed to expect it would require an election to usher in the reforms they seek. Vote them out! was one of the days dominant chants. All along the march route, clipboard-wielding volunteers sought to entice the faithful to register so they could cast ballots to achieve that end.

Cameron Kasky, one of the heroes of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School mobilization, drew raucous cheers when he began his speech with the words, Welcome to the revolution. He was not imagining the storming of the Bastille or the revolt in Petrograd. His promise was peaceable and refreshingly practical.

The voters are coming, he declared.

Cynicism, of course, was quickly restored to its normal place in the nations discourse. Tired complaints were hauled out to discount the March for Our Lives visionaries who hit the pavements in locales across red and blue America on Saturday. Big demonstrations were nice but meant little. The NRA had crushed opponents before and would do so again. Teens and twenty-somethings lacked the discipline to stay with what would inevitably be a long fight. Republican politicians wouldnt break an alliance with the gun lobby that has served them so well.

But there are tough-minded reasons to believe that the cynics are wrong, even if the fight ahead will be as hard as they say. To begin with, Saturdays marches achieved something that has never been accomplished before. Guns have long been a voting issue for those who insist that any and every restriction on firearms is a danger to freedom. These marches finally established guns as a voting issue for those who  as the signs carried by demonstrators declared in various ways  place the desire to save innocent lives ahead of preserving unlimited access to weapons.

The Stoneman Douglas activists, including their able debaters and theater students, understood that their task was to alter the terms of the nations quarrel over guns and to take on the NRAs shibboleths, right down to the basics. Guns dont kill people. People kill people. So goes the old NRA slogan. Actually, guns do kill people, read a placard at the D.C. march.

And the new revolutionaries have been making the essential argument: that our current approach to firearms undercuts the rights of the unarmed far more than any restriction would ever impinge on the rights of gun owners. The NRA imagines a nation of universal gun-toting, an idea brilliantly mocked by Alex Wind, a student speaker who asked: Are they going to arm the person wearing the Mickey Mouse costume at Disney?

The unmistakably political character of this movement is another change. No phony bipartisanship. No pretending that everyone approaches this issue with good will. Thus the importance of Vote them out. Thus the imperative of casting the NRA as the adversary and all who welcome its money and support as complicit.

And the short-term agenda is very clear, as is the price of resisting it. Here is Kasky: The people demand a law banning the sale of assault weapons, the people demand we prohibit the sale of high-capacity magazines, the people demand universal background checks. Stand for us or beware.

Finally, this march established the gun safety alliance as multi-racial and intersectional, reaching far beyond its traditional base among suburban white liberals. Few voices echoing from the platform were more powerful than 11-year-old Naomi Wadlers. She declared that young African-American women who were victims of gun violence would no longer be seen as simply statistics instead of vibrant, beautiful girls full of potential.

In 1960, the nations attention was captured by young civil rights activists who sat in to integrate lunch counters in Greensboro, North Carolina. It is not romanticizing the young to say that at times in our history, only those not beaten down by the defeats of the past could find the courage and the strategic initiative to win old fights in new ways. On a crisp and beautiful spring day we witnessed a new dawn in the struggle to end gun violence.

Dionnes columns, including those not published in the Journal, can be read at abqjournal.com/opinion  look for the syndicated columnist link. Copyright, Washington Post Writers Group; e-mail: ejdionne@washpost.com. Twitter: @EJDionne.
Theres no fool like an old fool.

 Proverbs

Age notwithstanding, two of Americas senior statesmen teamed up recently to lower the bar of public discourse even further. If thats possible.

President Donald Trump, 71, and former VP Joe Biden, 75,  widely considered to be the front-runner for his partys nomination should he choose to run for president in 2020  engaged in a bit of schoolyard tit for tat about who could kick whose butt.

While Trump is frequently coarse and disrespectful, it was actually Biden who started this round. At a University of Missouri rally against sexual assault, Biden cited lewd and disgusting comments Trump made in a 2005 Access Hollywood tape about grabbing women in certain areas of the body without permission just because I can.

Biden loaded up his rhetorical shotgun and pulled the trigger.

If we were in high school, Id take him out behind the gym and beat the hell out of him, Biden told the crowd, adding that any man who disrespected women was usually the fattest, ugliest SOB in the room. Biden made similar remarks on the campaign trail in 2016.

Not one to miss an opportunity to jump into a rhetorical mud wrestling contest, Trump responded that he could kick Sleepy Joes ass and said that if they fought, Biden would go down fast and hard.

All this is incredibly pathetic, but the news media, of course, loved it. An Associated Press story in the Journal had this lead paragraph: Imagine. A pay-per-view fight featuring Donald Kick His A Trump vs. Joe Beat the Hell out of Him Biden. Price to tune in? Enough to eliminate the governments deficit.

The headline: Trump versus Biden: Lets get ready to rumble!

Now thats certainly fair treatment of the incredibly tawdry discourse by two of the men who either are serving or have served at the highest levels of government. But it doesnt make the subject matter any less pathetic.

It doesnt have to be this way.

The English language has seen better. Anyone who doesnt believe that should take the time to listen to Winston Churchills speech in Darkest Hour.

Sadly, for the moment, we appear stuck with Donald and Joe.

This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.
Copyright  2018 Albuquerque Journal

A state court has struck down a New Mexico law that limits the amount of money a plaintiff can receive in a civil medical malpractice lawsuit to $600,000 in damages.

Judge Victor Lopez of the 2nd Judicial District Court in Albuquerque ruled that the Legislature exceeded its constitutional authority with the New Mexico Medical Malpractice Act to the extent that it restricts the plaintiffs right to receive an unaltered jury verdict.

The $600,000 cap was created through an amendment to the 1976 law and has been in place since the 1990s. It does not apply to medical costs or punitive damages but covers compensation for things such as lost wages and pain and suffering.

Lisa Curtis, the plaintiffs attorney, said the case will need to be upheld in the appellate system for the ruling to apply throughout the state.

The ruling stems from a 2011 incident in which a Placitas woman named Susan Siebert alleged she was hospitalized for more than nine months as a result of injuries suffered during a gynecological procedure, according to court filings.

Under the ruling, the defendants owe Siebert $2.6 million in damages, according to Curtis.

The attorneys for the defendants, Albuquerque obstetrician-gynecologist Dr. Rebecca Okun and health care provider Womens Specialists of New Mexico, did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday. The Journal could not determine whether the defendants plan to appeal the decision.

Curtis called the cap really outdated.

A $600,000 cap isnt even the equivalent of paying someone minimum wage, if youre talking about a plaintiff who dies as a result of medical malpractice in their 20s or 30s, said Curtis.

Dr. Barbara McAneny, an Albuquerque oncologist and president-elect of the American Medical Association, described the ruling as very alarming. She said she had not heard of the lawsuit until the Journal contacted her for comment,

We have a very difficult time in New Mexico attracting physicians to our state, said McAneny. One of the things I have used when I try to recruit is that we have a very good and very rational medical malpractice law. If that changes, it will make it even more difficult to bring good physicians here.

A 2011 bill that would have raised the limit to $1 million was vetoed by Gov. Susana Martinez, who said it would increase health care costs and encourage frivolous lawsuits.

Curtis said she hopes the defendants appeal the ruling, so other courts can examine the constitutionality of the law.
BATON ROUGE, La.  Nearly two years after a black man was shot and killed during a struggle with two white police officers, Louisianas attorney general isnt pursuing charges against the officers in a decision that infuriated Alton Sterlings family and frustrated residents in the neighborhood where he died.

Since federal officials have already declined to charge the officers, the decision Tuesday by Attorney General Jeff Landry ends the criminal investigation of the two officers at the center of a case that highlighted racial tensions across the country.

The July 5, 2016, shooting came amid increased scrutiny of fatal encounters between police and black men. The day after Sterlings shooting, Philando Castile was killed in Minnesota by a police officer and the aftermath streamed on Facebook by his girlfriend. Then as demonstrators in Dallas protested those police shootings, a gunman killed five police officers. And on July 17, a black military veteran shot and killed three Baton Rouge law enforcement officers.

Officer Blane Salamoni shot and killed Sterling during a struggle outside a convenience store where the 37-year-old black man was selling homemade CDs. Officer Howie Lake II helped wrestle Sterling to the ground, but didnt fire his gun. Two cellphone videos of the shooting quickly spread on social media, prompting large protests.

Family and supporters of Sterling denounced Landrys decision in an angry news conference shortly after many of them met with the attorney general to hear his findings.

Quinyetta McMillon, the mother of one of Sterlings children, Cameron, said the officers killed Sterling in cold blood.

Were all out of tears. We have nothing else in us to cry about now, she said. Theres no amount of money in this world that can give those kids back their father.

Residents near the convenience store where Sterling was killed said they werent surprised. LeRoi Dunn, a 40-year-old cook, gestured at the spot where Sterling was killed and said it was wrong for the officers to avoid charges.

It hurts, though, to see them get away and go on with their lives, Dunn said.

But Landry said his office reviewed all evidence compiled by the Justice Department, conducted its own witness interviews and concluded there was no case to be made. He pointed to toxicology and urine test results released Tuesday showing Sterling had cocaine, methamphetamine, fentanyl and other drugs in his system and said that contributed to Sterlings non-compliance with the officers commands. He said two independent experts also determined the officers used reasonable force.

I know the Sterling family is hurting, Landry told reporters. I know that they may not agree with the decision.

L. Chris Stewart, a lawyer for two of Sterlings five children blasted the report as biased, saying it included things like Sterlings criminal history that did not pertain to the case.

State and federal authorities said Salamoni yelled that Sterling was reaching for a gun in his pocket before shooting him three times, and then fired three more shots into Sterlings back when he began to sit up and move. A 34-page report by Landrys office said its important to note that Sterlings hands were concealed from the officers as he sat up and rolled away from Salamoni.

The officers recovered a loaded revolver from Sterlings pocket. As a convicted felon, Sterling could not legally carry a gun.

Video footage shows Sterling threatening someone with a firearm before the officers responded to a report of a man with a gun outside the Triple S Food Mart, according to Landrys report.

Now attention turns to the two officers future with the police department as well as a pending civil suit.

Lake and Salamoni have been on paid administrative leave since the shooting. Baton Rouge Police Chief Murphy Paul said he intends to conclude the disciplinary process against the officers by Friday and once concluded hell release body camera and surveillance footage of the shooting  never seen publicly before.

Salamonis attorney, John McLindon, said he expects his client to be fired and called it grossly unfair that a disciplinary hearing is planned so soon after the end of the criminal investigation.

I believe its a foregone conclusion, McLindon said.

A lawyer for Lake said his client should remain on the force. Attorney Kyle Kershaw said Lakes actions on the encounter complied with police procedure.

Lawyers for Sterlings five children have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city of Baton Rouge, its police department and former police chief, and the two officers. It alleges a pattern of racist behavior and excessive force by the Baton Rouge police.
FARMINGTON  Agencies and programs that provide services to tribes received a financial boost in the $1.3 trillion spending bill signed by President Trump on March 23.

A joint press release from U.S. Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich on Monday stated the spending bill provided $3 billion to the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Indian Education, which is a 7 percent increase from the previous budget.

Indian Health Service received approximately $5.5 billion from the overall amount allocated to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, according to the National Indian Health Board.

The National Indian Health Board is a non-profit organization in Washington, D.C. that advocates for the fulfillment of health and public health services for federally recognized tribes.

According to the health board, the break out for IHS is $3.9 billion for services, $867 million for facilities and $718 million for contract support costs.

The amount for IHS is an increase of $500 million from fiscal year 2017, the health board stated.

At the local level, the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project received $5.5 million for operations and maintenance costs.

The NIIP is a system of canals and laterals that deliver water from Navajo Lake to Navajo Agricultural Products Industry, which has a contract with the BIA to manage federal funding for NIIPs operations and maintenance.

Out of the $5.5 million allocation, $1.5 million will cover the cost for operations and maintenance of the Gallegos Pumping Plant.

The pumping plant is located about nine miles south of NAPI headquarters and it delivers water to Blocks 8 and 9.

Lionel Haskie, operations and maintenance manager at NAPI, said operational expenses include labor, equipment and utilities while maintenance costs are related to repairs to the facility, equipment and the electrical system.

Blocks 8 and 9 are our most prime acres, Haskie said adding high value crops are grown there and the area is a favorite among NAPIs agricultural contractors.

He added this is the first time the operations and maintenance allocation for NIIP has been more than $4 million, which has been the amount provided since the 1990s.

Navajo Housing Authority stated in a press release the spending bill allocated $755 million to the Indian Housing Block Grant under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The allocation includes $100 million for distribution under a competitive basis for new construction and rehabilitation of housing units on tribal lands, according to the NHA release.

It also states that competitive funding has not been included in any appropriations bill since the start of the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act, which created the Indian Housing Block Grant.

We are extremely pleased that Congress has included additional funding to the IHBG program, NHA interim CEO Roberta Roberts said in the release.

Noel Lyn Smith covers the Navajo Nation for The Daily Times. She can be reached at 505-564-4636 or by email at nsmith@daily-times.com.



2018 The Daily Times (Farmington, N.M.)

Visit The Daily Times (Farmington, N.M.) at www.daily-times.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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PHOENIX  A judge in a serial killing case against a former bus driver in Phoenix declined Wednesday to bar authorities from releasing any further video of the suspect in his jail cell.

Attorneys for Aaron Juan Saucedo sought the order while the judge considers their request to take the death penalty off the table as punishment after video was released to news media in January.

Saucedo is accused of nine nighttime killings that terrified many residents of the city.

Superior Court Judge David Cunanan scheduled an April 13 hearing for attorneys to argue over the death penalty issue.

Defense attorneys said in court papers that the release of the video to The Arizona Republic and other news organizations violated their clients constitutional right to bodily privacy.

Saucedo has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and other charges in attacks that killed nine people and wounded two others during a nearly one-year period that ended in July 2016. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in eight of the nine killings.

Police said the victims included a 21-year-old man whose girlfriend was pregnant with their son, and a 12-year-girl who was shot to death along with her mother and a friend of the woman.

The jailhouse video showed Saucedo talking on the phone and looking out of a cell-door window.

Prosecutor Juan Martinez said his office didnt release the footage.

The Republic reported the video was released by the Maricopa County Sheriffs Office, which runs the countys jails.

Saucedo has not attended any of the last seven hearings in the case.

___

Follow Jacques Billeaud at twitter.com/jacquesbilleaud. His work can be found at https://www.apnews.com/search/jacques%20billeaud.
SUPERIOR, Ariz.  The mother of two small children found dead after being left strapped in car seats in a vehicle tried to blame their deaths on someone else who was supposed to be watching them, authorities said Wednesday.

A narrative of events released by the Pinal County sheriffs office says there is no proof for 20-year-old Brittany Velasquezs story that she dropped the children off with someone who was to care for them. That persons name is blacked out in the document.

Velasquez is being held on $2 million bond on suspicion of two counts of first-degree murder in the Monday deaths of her 2-year-old son and infant daughter in Superior, a hardscrabble mining town of about 2,900 people some 60 miles (97 kilometers) east of Phoenix.

Authorities say Velasquez was the last person to see her children alive, when she left them in a car outside a family home at about 9:30 a.m. Monday and went to work. The children were dead when Velasquez returned to the car nearly 14 hours later. They were still in the car seats and wearing the same clothes they had on in the morning.

A cause of death for the children has not been determined.

The National Weather Service says the temperature in the region reached 75 degrees (23.8 Celsius) on Monday. It is NEVER safe to leave a toddler, disabled person or pet locked in a car, the National Weather Service says on its web page.

The advocacy group KidsAndCars.org estimates an average of 37 children die in hot cars each year in the United States.

There was no proof that Brittany actually dropped the children off, the document said. It is known that the kids spent several hours in the vehicle as there was condensation on the inside windows of the vehicle and the children were cold to the touch.

The document said Superior Police officers were called to the scene Monday night by Velasquez, who reported finding her two children unresponsive in a vehicle in front of the house. She told them the children were not breathing and blood was coming from their mouths.

They were pronounced dead at the scene.

The unidentified person Velasquez tried to blame for the childrens deaths denied there was any arrangement for her to care for them, authorities said.

The other person stated she had no idea what was happening and did not know what Brittany was talking about, according to the sheriffs document.

A Superior Police Department report from January cited an unidentified relative saying Velasquez left the toddler and infant with relatives for days at a time.

Superior police called Arizona child protection officials in early January because of those concerns about the children after the relative claimed Velasquez had stolen a $3,500 fur coat.

But the coat was later returned and the relative did not seek prosecution.

The police report also indicated that in that incident, Velasquez would not be investigated for child neglect or abuse unless the unidentified family member stated she was no longer willing to care for the children.

Pinal County Superior Court Administrator Todd Zweig said Velasquez would be represented by the county public defenders office. A specific attorney has not yet been assigned to her case. Velasquez could not be reached at the jail.

Autopsies were being conducted to determine causes of death of the children, whose names have not been released. Autopsy results could take months, the sheriffs office said.

The Arizona Department of Child Safety said Tuesday it had received two reports about the boy and the girl and that a case worker visited the womans home.

The children showed no visible signs of abuse or neglect, the agency said. It said case workers determined Velasquez had a job and that the apartment where she then lived in the city of Mesa had everything needed for her children.
WARSAW, Poland  Poland signed a $4.75 billion deal with the United States Wednesday to buy air defense Patriot missile systems as it seeks to bolster its defenses against a resurgent Russia.

President Andrzej Duda described the deal for the state-of-the-art anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems as historic for his country and its armed forces.

Its a lot of money, but we also know from our historical experience that security has no price, Duda said.

The defense deal is Polands largest in almost 30 years.

The system is compatible with technology used by NATO and U.S. troops based in Poland, Duda said. It includes 16 launchers, four radars and the latest fire control system.

Parts of the system will be made in Poland, a boost for the countrys armaments industry.

U.S. Ambassador Paul Jones called the deal a milestone that brings the NATO member into a family of 15 countries that rely on the Patriot system for their airspace security.

We are allies forever, Jones said in fluent Polish.

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has said the Patriot system will increase security in Poland and the surrounding region in an unprecedented way.

On NATOs eastern flank, Poland is upgrading its defense systems and modernizing its military to reach the highest Western standards after Russias 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak signed the document at an armaments plant in Warsaw.
WASHINGTON  The pace of Americans signing contracts to buy homes picked up last month, rebounding from a drop in January. But a shortage of homes on the market continues to weigh on the housing market.

The National Association of Realtors said Wednesday that its pending sales index rose 3.1 percent in February to 107.5 after tumbling 5 percent in January. Despite the uptick, the index is still down 4.1 percent from a year earlier.

Lawrence Yun, chief at economist at the association, blamed the uneven performance on a shortage of houses for sale. The minuscule number of listings on the market and its adverse effect on affordability are squeezing buyers and suppressing overall activity, he says.

Pending sales surged 10.3 percent in the Northeast, rose 3 percent in the South but eked out gains of just 0.7 percent in the Midwest and 0.4 percent in the West.

A shortage of inventory and healthy demand is pushing up housing prices. On Tuesday, Standard & Poors said that its S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller national home price index climbed 6.2 percent in January from a year earlier on top of a 6.3 percent annual gain in December.

A strong job market has given American consumers, including young millennials, the confidence to shop for homes, but the scarcity of choices means they face fierce competition as the spring home-buying season begins.
GALLUP, N.M.  A former manager of a Navajo Nation chapter in Tuba City, Arizona, has pleaded no contest to charges stemming from the theft of more than $1 million in chapter funds.

The Gallup Independent reports Navajo Nation Attorney General Ethel Branch announced this week that Priscilla Littlefoot pleaded no contest to 18 counts of theft.

The tribal Department of Justice in May filed 86 criminal charges against Littlefoot, accusing her of fraud, theft and falsification committed over several years.

Authorities say she directed the funds to herself and her family and forged documents to conceal the thefts.

Authorities say the funds were largely taken from the chapters tax revenue earmarked for scholarships, grazing operations, capital improvements and other public purposes.

The tribe is seeking a repayment more than $1 million.

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Information from: Gallup Independent, http://www.gallupindependent.com
MEXICO CITY  Six suspects have been arrested in the January killing of a journalist in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, Mexican prosecutors said Wednesday.

Meanwhile, two former police officers were sentenced in the 2015 killing of another reporter in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz.

The Jan. 13 stabbing of Carlos Dominguez Rodriguez may have been related to his journalistic work but was not related to organized crime, prosecutors in the northern state of Tamaulipas said.

The results up to this time indicate a probable link between these events and the exercise of freedom of expression, the federal Attorney Generals Office added in a statement.

Across from Laredo, Texas, Nuevo Laredo is dominated by the Northeast cartel and has been the scene of recent shootouts.

State prosecutor Irving Barrios said that the motive for Dominguez Rodriguezs killing was still under investigation, but that the journalist didnt write about organized crime topics.

Barrios said three of the six suspects worked in the information industry, but we are still checking whether they were working journalists.

Officials refused to release the names of the suspects, citing Mexican law that prohibits publicly incriminating people until they are found guilty.

Prosecutors did not explain why the suspects, who local media reported worked as independent journalists, would have wanted to kill Dominguez Rodriguez, or why the killing was so brutal. The victim was stabbed two dozen times in front of relatives.

Prosecutors in Veracruz announced later in the day that two former police officers were sentenced to 25 years in prison for the 2015 murder of another journalist.

The state prosecutors office said the officers were members of the Medellin police force when they participated in killing Moises Sanchez Cerezo.

The Committee to Protect Journalists applauded the sentences, but called for authorities to identify others involved. The men were sentenced March 23.

Sanchez was abducted from his home Jan. 2, 2015. His body was found three weeks later. Initially, the towns entire police force was detained.

Sanchez published the local weekly, La Union, which covered local government corruption and violent deaths. His son, Jorge Sanchez, told CPJ that there many more arrests needed to be made.
PHOENIX  The Arizona House has joined the Senate in approving a bill allowing a parent to use embryos created during a marriage even after a divorce.

Wednesdays House action sends the bill pushed by Republican Sen. Nancy Barto and the social conservative group Center for Arizona Policy to GOP Gov. Doug Duceys desk. It came over united opposition from House Democrats who argued it interfered with legal agreements.

Barto pushed the proposal to help a woman who was denied use of her seven embryos by a court because her ex-husband no longer wanted children. The court ordered the embryos donated because of a contract the couple signed prior to their creation.

Barto has said she hopes an appeals court will grant her access to them if the bill becomes law.

 The Legislation is Senate Bill 1393
LONDON  The Russian ex-spy and his daughter left critically ill in a nerve agent attack three weeks ago were probably poisoned at the front door of their home in southwestern England, British police said Wednesday.

It was the first time police have said where they thought Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia might have been poisoned.

The highest concentration of nerve agent found so far was on the Skripals front door in Salisbury, and detectives plan to focus their investigation in the surrounding area, Londons Metropolitan Police force said in a statement.

At this point in our investigation, we believe the Skripals first came in contact with the nerve agent from their front door, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Dean Haydon said in the statement.

Police have also searched a variety of sites around Salisbury, including a pub, a restaurant and a cemetery.

Britain has blamed Russia for the attack, triggering the expulsion of about 150 Russian diplomats from the U.K., U.S. and their Western allies. Russia has vowed to respond, but a senior diplomat said Wednesday there is no hurry to retaliate.

Russia vehemently denies Britains accusation that it was behind the March 4 attack.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the RIA Novosti state news agency that Moscow is thoughtfully and thoroughly considering its response. Separately, he was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying the expulsions were directed by London and Washington, adding that other nations succumbed to their pressure. He added that all options are on the table regarding Russias response.

President Vladimir Putins spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters that Russias response will suit the interests of Russia.

President Donald Trump spoke with British Prime Minister Theresa May about the coordinated effort by Western allies to expel Russian intelligence operatives. The White House said the leaders agreed Wednesday that dismantling Russian spy rings is a priority to curtail Russian clandestine activities and prevent future chemical weapons attacks on either countrys soil.

Skripal was imprisoned in Russia after he sold secrets to British intelligence. He was released in a 2010 spy swap and moved to Britain.

Britain says the Skripals were poisoned with a nerve agent developed in Soviet times and that it must have come from Russia. Russian officials complain that Britain hasnt presented evidence to back up the accusation.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that British special services could have been behind the poisoning. British officials have previously rejected such Russian claims as nonsense.

___

Jim Heintz reported from Moscow.
WASHINGTON  A federal judge Wednesday allowed Maryland and the District of Columbia to proceed with their lawsuit accusing President Donald Trump of accepting unconstitutional gifts from foreign interests, but limited the case to the presidents involvement with the Trump International Hotel in Washington.

U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messittes ruling dismissed other sections of the lawsuit that raised concerns about the impact of foreign gifts to the president from Trump Organization properties outside of Washington.

Maryland and D.C. accuse the president of violating the emoluments clause of the Constitution, which bans the president and other federal officials from accepting gifts from foreign governments as well as U.S. states. Specifically, they allege nearby businesses have been subjected to increased competition as a result of the foreign traffic to the Trump Hotel.

Their allegation is bolstered by explicit statements from certain foreign government officials indicating that they are clearly choosing to stay at the presidents hotel because, as one representative of a foreign government has stated, they want him to know I love your new hotel,' Messitte wrote in his 47-page ruling.

But the judge also warned the plaintiffs that their claims sweep too broadly, saying it is a considerable stretch, however, to find the requisite injury-in-fact to Maryland and D.C. from Trump properties outside of Washington.

Despite Messittes limited ruling, a watchdog group that has joined the two jurisdictions in the lawsuit was quick to hail the judges decision.

This is a major step forward for the emoluments litigation, said Norman Eisen, a former chief ethics lawyer for the Obama administration and chairman of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, also called CREW. Eisen said the decision suggests that states and businesses near Trump enterprises in other parts of the country may also have legal standing to sue.

Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh said we won the first round. Its a very clear decision that Donald Trump is not above the law and has to be held accountable to the emoluments clause.

D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine, tweeted: We have standing to hold Pres. Trump accountable for violating the Constitution.

It was not immediately clear whether the Trump administration would appeal the ruling.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to address the issue during an afternoon press briefing, saying I cant comment on pending litigation.

Kerri Kupec, a Justice Department spokeswoman, said we believe this case should be dismissed, and we will continue to defend the president in court.

Although the Trump Organization was not a party in the litigation, the company said it was pleased that the judge did not allow the lawsuit to target other Trump properties.

The courts decision today does significantly narrow the scope of the case, said a company spokeswoman. The court has yet to rule on several additional arguments, which we believe should result in a complete dismissal.

If the judges ruling holds, it could allow Maryland and DC to press for documents showing how foreign government interests or U.S. states used the Trump hotel and how much money they spent there.

Late last year, a judge in New York threw out a similar lawsuit filed by CREW, ruling that the emoluments clause is an issue that Congress should address first. A third federal lawsuit has been filed against Trump on the issue by nearly 200 Democratic members of Congress.
Exam times are particularly stressful for both students and their parents. With the board exams currently underway across India, there is great focus on relieving the pressure on students and instead encourage them to their best in a positive way. Quite a few brands have been putting the spotlight on the consequences of the tremendous pressure put on students to score high marks in exams.

BIC Cello (India) Pvt. Ltd., a leading manufacturer of writing instruments, recently launched a short film aimed at illustrating the change of perception of parents in exam time after having taken the same exam themselves.

The short film commences by portraying a scenario on how parents unknowingly pressure their children to perform better. The short film, which has been launched digitally, is created by J. Walter Thompson (JWT), Mumbai and directed by Abhishek Sengupta.

Cello Pens came up with a Surprise Test for parents to make them aware of this constant pressurisation only creates more stress and anxiety in the childs mind. In the video, the parents of kids going to St. Albertus High School are asked to take the same exam that their child is taking  6th graders mid-term test. While taking the test, they experience the level of stress that their kids go through. They realise that their constant pressure on their kids to get good marks only leads to creation of extra stress. The surprise test leads to a change in their perception and belief that Encouragement works better than Pressure.

This initiative is a part of Cello Exam Expert Series, which has been manufactured keeping in mind the comfort of the students using it. Cello Exam Expert Series (Maxriter, Pinpoint & Technotip) are designed to enable students to write for a longer time without pressure on their finger and wrist.

Watch the film here:



Commenting on the insight behind the campaignsaid, Cello Pens has been and will continue to partner with students, teachers and parents. During exam time all of them go through stressful moments, but none like the students. We at Cello Pens understand the kind of stress that students go through during exams. We observed, while setting expectations for their childrens sake, parents at times unknowingly put pressure on their kids before exams, adding to their overall stress. Examinations are stressful and any unnecessary pressure should be removed. We believe words of encouragement will help boost childrens performance in exams and that is the message we want people to take away from this campaign.

elaborated, Exams are a stressful period for students. We observed, while setting expectations for their childrens sake, parents at times unknowingly put pressure on their kids before exams, adding to their overall stress. Examinations are stressful and any unnecessary pressure should be removed. How can we make parents understand that kids go through a lot during exams and they should not put any additional pressure on them?

Shedding some light on the creative thought process behind the campaign, Shrivastava added, We realised that in cases like this one, experience speaks louder than preaching. We needed to show them how it felt to be in that same situation. Thats why we decided to get parents to take the same exam as their kids, as a surprise test.

When quizzed how the agency went about executing the short film, he stated that the script pretty much wrote itself. Everyones experience as a parent and as a child brought in many nuances of the different kinds of parents and their pressure tactics. Using these, they selected real parents and kids and put them in the exam situation. That was enough to give the creators everything they wanted to make a great film.

When asked how Cello planned to take forward the initiative beyond the campaign, Khan replied that it is the brands intention to reach out to key stakeholders (students, teachers and parents) in the education sector with relevant content, which will help them succeed in their respective roles. Cello has also planned a school contact programme to put the spotlight on the raging topic.

On the way forward for the brand, Khan said, Cello Pen is a leader when it comes to the stationery segment, not only in terms of market share but also thought leadership. Cello will continue to create excitement in this segment with its interesting product designs, smooth writing experience, innovative technology and communication campaigns.
Ujjivan Small Finance Bank unveiled its debut brand campaign on Television today. The campaign attempts to strategically position Ujjivan Small Finance Bank (SFB) as a bank of choice among the target consumer segments using its key service propositions of Doorstep Account Opening, Paperless Banking & Special Service Envelope for Senior Citizens. The commercial went live across Kannada and Bengali channels and will progress to a national outreach in the next three weeks.

Yeh Bank to ghar bhi aata hai (The Bank comes to your doorstep) is one of the core messages of the thematic campaign. Ujjivan SFB targets the underserved and unserved segments in urban, semi urban and rural India. Opening a bank account and undertaking transactions at bank branch are considered as a complex and tedious procedure by these customer segments. Ujjivan SFB makes this otherwise cumbersome process fast, seamless and secure using Aadhar authentication on a biometric enabled handheld device right at customers doorstep and an account can be opened in less than 10 minutes.

Commenting on the campaign, Mr Vijay Balakrishnan, Chief Marketing Officer said, We are pleased to unveil the thematic TVC today starting with two of our key markets: Karnataka and West Bengal. In the coming weeks, The television commercials outreach will be extended nationally thereby reaching our over 3.8 million customers across 24 States in India. Over the next few months, the campaign will leverage a multimedia approach with extensions in print, cinema, outdoor and digital.

Our customer research & insights studies revealed 5 brand drivers namely amongst our Target audience: Simplicity, Convenience, Assistance, Trust and Security. Our Brand Campaign, while addressing these pivots head on, showcases them in real life situations which are absolutely relevant and credible for our target audience. The tone of the campaign relies on a subtle humor in daily life situations and makes banking look truly simple and easy. The narratives are showcased between a young couple, a senior citizen couple, a supervisor and his subordinate in different life settings, where through a clever play of words and emotions the message is delivered with a mix of naivety, warmth and hilarity. added Mr Vijay Balakrishnan.

In this campaign there is a sub message of Ujjivan having transformed into a Small Finance Bank from its previous avatar of being a NBFC-MFI. Ujjivan also consciously departs from its earlier positioning and tag line of Build a better life to Bank Better, Live Better (Behtar Banking, Behtar Jeevan).

Besides Hindi, the TVC has been adapted in various vernacular languages: Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam, Marathi, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati and Oriya for widespread reach and connect with the masses.

Ujjivans creative agency, DDB Mudra has conceptualized the campaign.
The watch landscape has evolved immensely over the years with changing demands, significance and roles. Brands have been investing in understanding and deciphering these changes to cater better to a generation that demands a concoction of both style and technology. With the advent of innovative technology, the acceptance among the Indian consumers has risen dramatically and will continue to do so as now the demand has shifted from normal watches to smart watches. But, what is giving a new shape to this already talked about the sector is technological advancement that the brands are adopting today to bring a change in a consumers life.

According to Ken Research in India, the mass segment of watches contributes the highest to the market in terms of volume. On the other hand, in terms of value, each of the mass and the mid-price segments contribute about 37 per cent-38 per cent to the total wristwatch market in India. The rest is contributed by the premium segment, which constitutes around 25 per cent of the wristwatch industry in India. As the size of the population with high disposable income has increased significantly over the past years, the demand for luxury goods has substantially increased in the country. The premium segment wristwatch market in India can be further subdivided into three price categories. In value terms, the affordable luxury wristwatch segment has the highest market share of about 44 per cent in the premium wristwatch market in India. The main consumers of this segment of watches are the rising urban population with higher spending capacity. This segment is expected to more than double in FY2018 by experiencing a high growth at a CAGR of 23.3 per cent in the period FY2014-FY2018.

If we go by the history, earlier the watches were only needed to track time, but with the growing demand today consumers want more than just a normal watch. Technology is playing a bigger role in the watch industry. Traditionally, the smart watches were a fad with fitness enthusiasts and athletes who focused on keeping a track of their health and workouts. Gradually, the acceptance among the Indian audience has stepped up with a category of consumers who demand more than just functionality. Catering to this category means infusing a sense of desirability into the products. The aim is to offer a product that is complete and makes a strong statement when worn. Acceptability of these can be further pushed with advancements in product features. The consumer demands usability of a fitness tracker to go beyond his gym or yoga class. The need of the hour is to offer appealing timepieces that become an ingrained piece of ones lifestyle.

To Read More Visit Here.

What is further fueling this trend is the surge in smartphone usage. A report by a US-based media agency Zenith states that smartphone ownership globally will continue to expand in 2018 and 66 per cent of individuals in 52 countries will own a smartphone in 2018  up from 63 per cent in 2017. Therefore, the increased use of smartphone and other mobile devices means more frequent contact between brands and consumers and since these smartphones are part of ones daily routine and lifestyle, smart watches that can be synced with these smartphones indirectly become a part of ones regime. Convenience, portability, hands free access to texts and calls apart from technical features and visual appeal are pushing these smart watches to become constant companions gradually.

The watch industry has realised the power of combining the technology and fashion together. While traditionally the consumer focus was on men, but now it is expanding and appealing to women as well. They are now focusing on products that are being designed for women who dont want to have to decide between jewellery and gadget. Recently, we introduced Timex Blink, which is a perfect example of enhancing the technology in timekeeping and is an ideal amalgamation of classic style and fitness. It is an activity tracker which uses Bluetooth technology to connect your phone and track all day activity  steps, distance, calories, sleep and gives the battery back-up for 10 days. The USP of the watch is the ability to send instant mail, SMS and save emergency contacts with the users GPS location in case of an emergency. Also, it comes with interchangeable straps with the choice between metal, leather and silicon that complements the look and style for every occasion.

Timex is a traditional watchmaker that has throughout its journey worked on offering its consumers innovative and technologically advanced offering. Backed by American legacy and world class quality and looking at this immense potential, we at Timex have come out with watches that have synced perfectly well with consumer demands and trends, the most recent being the watches under the connected style segment like Timex Metropolitan+, IQ+ Move and Timex Blink, which are perfect amalgamation of innovative technology, classic style and fitness to enhance consumers daily lifestyle.

We believe, in 2018, the watch industry will boom at a rapid phase with a surge in the sales of smart watches that appeal to every eye. But every step forward faces challenges and this integration of wearable technology and fashion also deals with one. To provide a lifestyle offering, the brands shouldnt compromise on its functionality and features for the sake of being cutting-edge. The idea is to identify the right opportunity and the balance to make the offering a desirable one.

(Anupam Mathur is Head of Sales & Marketing at Timex Group India.)

To Read More Visit Here.
Photographer Jordi Busque, a native of Barcelona, Spain, had never heard of Mennonites until some 12 years ago, when he encountered a group while waiting for a bus in the eastern lowlands of Bolivia. Over the course of the decade, he traveled to 20 Mennonite colonies in Bolivia to document lives there. Photography is forbidden in nearly all coloniesBusque compares initial reactions to him taking out his camera out as if he were taking out a gunso it took patience and dedication to earn their trust, notes National Geographic.
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Tribal arbitration for the settlement of community problems and crimes before elderly members and dignitaries has long been the norm in Palestine, both in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. But over the past decade, more Palestinians have been turning to the traditional process, which is not without its drawbacks.

On March 18, an 18-year-old man allegedly raped a 5-year-old girl in the Sabra neighborhood in central Gaza. Tribal arbitrators met with family members of the accused, and, among other conditions, the arbitrators and the parents of the victim called called for banishing the man's entire family from the neighborhood.

In another case, on Nov. 9, a 15-year-old boy from the al-Dagas family living in al-Faluja, northern Gaza Strip, accidentally killed another boy during a fight. The Dagas family has been forced out of its home in accordance with the provisions of the tribal arbitrators.

This is a case of manslaughter. Yet the entire family, the boys father and uncles, were evicted from their house [for fear that] the victims family might act in reprisal against them, Tariq al-Dagas, a relative of the accused boy, told Al-Monitor.

Tribes have played a negative role. The case was not resolved. We demand that the law be followed. We are ready to respond to the demands of the victims family according to the law and Sharia. As things stand now, our punishment is twofold: first, the accused young boy is facing jail time and second, his family will have to pay blood money and face displacement.

Ashraf Abu Rakhia, director of the Center for Studies of the Northern Palestinian Desert, told Al-Monitor that tribal arbitrators often advise the families of the accused to move to avoid escalation.

Arbitrators request the banishment of the concerned families as they fear that the clan of the victims might act in reprisal, which has happened before in cases of murder, rape and mutilation. Families could be evicted temporarily or permanently, he added.

Abu Rakhia said tribal arbitrators in the Gaza Strip deal with thousands of cases a month. Tribal arbitrators and judges are not at odds. Given the tribal nature of Palestinian society, citizens prefer to rely on tribal dignitaries and their swift decisions, which have strong guarantors within tribes and clans."

Tribal arbitrators and dignitaries in the Gaza Strip work with the support of the authorities, including the attorney general. Frequent meetings are held between them and the General Department for Tribal Affairs under the Ministry of Interior that handles related issues.

According to the tribal affairs department and the Ministry of Interior, the department reviewed over 500 cases during the month of May 2016. These figures have been increasing every year: In January, 632 cases were referred to tribal arbitrators affiliated with the Ministry of Local Government, the PLO, the Fatah movement and the Muslim Scholars Association as well as local administrators, who often help settle minor disputes.

Abdel Monem al-Tahrawi, a project manager at the Palestinian Center for Democracy and Conflict Resolution, said the tribes role is to supplement law enforcement in the absence of a strong rule of law.

Palestinians tend to resolve matters and find settlements according to customs and traditions. This makes the litigation process faster. Under these circumstances, the law cannot abolish the role of clans but can limit it in many cases, restricting it to social issues. Tribal leaders and other arbitrators do not seek to undermine the law, but their work ought to be codified, Tahrawi told Al-Monitor. I do not agree with the deportation of entire families for a single person's offense. Those who have committed wrongdoing ought to be held accountable, legally or socially. But unfortunately, customs and traditions remain primary, he added.

According to custom, banishment is one of the consequences of murder or serious harm, according to lawyer Abdallah Sharsharah. He told Al-Monitor, In the first scenario, the family of the accused chooses to evacuate their houses, while in the second they are forced to do so by intermediaries who often believe that this is in the best interest of the tribe.

He went on, The evacuated families are therefore not allowed to be present in certain areas, which is obviously a barbaric and illegal act. Article 11 of the Basic Law prohibits the restriction of the freedom of movement of any person without a court order. Similarly, Article 20 of the same law provides for the liberty of movement and freedom to choose one's residence.

From this perspective, Sharsharah believes that the tribal arbitrators can cause harm, as their interventions are often not done in accordance with the law.

Any arbitration ought to be based on fair provisions and criteria in line with international standards. Formal judicial laws, for instance, guarantee fair trials between litigants. Normally, the judge is an unbiased person who does not follow a certain political party. This is not the case with tribes and clans, which are dominated by political and tribal loyalties. This is not to mention that under the regular law, litigants  can appeal the court judgments, which is not the case with tribal laws.
As part of its efforts to boost ties with other African countries, the Egyptian government is planning to launch a TV channel and news website covering African news and issues.

Ahmed Selim, secretary-general of the Egyptian Supreme Council for Media Regulation (SCMR), said March 12 the council has been taking serious steps toward establishing the TV channel with African and Arab media professionals assistance.

The Cairo-based TV channel, whose launch date is yet to be determined, will operate under the governments supervision.

This comes as part of the SCMR belief that it is important to have an African media outlet assuming an effective role in all parts of the world, Selim said during a Cairo meeting with a group of Arabic-speaking African media professionals, which Al-Monitor attended.

The SCMR announced March 22 that a website focusing on news and issues related to the African continent will be launched. The website, whose March 23 launch was postponed and which will be affiliated with the state-run SCMR, will also cover anything related to African media trainees and provide updates on any media training programs.

The media can assume a very influential role in bridging the gaps between cultures and peoples, said Mahmoud Allam el-Deen, a professor of mass communication at Cairo University. He added that Egypt has been away from the African continent for years and is trying now in every possible way to restore these relations and bring the African people closer to the Egyptian people.

The soft power, like the media, is an Egyptian major tool to boost these relations with African countries, Allam el-Deen told Al-Monitor. He also said that Egypts strategy toward Africa since 2014 bodes well for the future of political, economic and cultural ties with the continent.

In recent years, Egypt has been seeking to enhance ties with other African countries after years of negligence. Last year, the first African cinema club was opened at Cairo Opera House in an attempt to promote cultural relations with African states. According to Egyptian officials, the club aims at promoting African culture in Egypt and raising more awareness of Egypts African identity.

Africa lies at the heart of Egypt's foreign policy, for it is in Africa that our historic roots lie, and it is from Africa that we derive pride in our identity and our deep sense of belonging, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said during the 72nd General Assembly of the United Nations.

According to a 2017 report released by the State Information Service, Sisi paid 21 visits to African countries out of 69 overall foreign visits since he took office  consisting of more than 30% of his total foreign visits.

Over the past three years, Sisi held 112 meetings with African leaders and officials in Cairo out of 543 meetings he held with world leaders and officials, the report added.

In an interview with Egyptian state TV in December 2017, presidential spokesman Bassam Radi said that Egypt has never overlooked the African continent. Yet domestic, foreign and regional circumstances under a particular period resulted in tepid interest in the Egyptian-African relations, as reported by the media. The interview came on the sidelines of Africa 2017: Business for Africa Forum in Sharm el-Sheikh, which gathers African leaders, heads of government, ministers and investors in Egypt.

Although some media professionals have lauded the move, others perceived it to be politically oriented. I see it as a political decision, not one related to the media, said Naglaa El-Emary, a professor of mass communication at the American University in Cairo and former chief of BBC Cairo Bureau.

Emary added that Egypts media industry still lacks some factors for an effective news TV channel addressing the African continent. We still have a problem with making the news. So far, Egypt has not launched a strong TV news channel addressing the Arab world like Al-Jazeera or Al-Arabiya. So, it would be difficult and challenging for Egyptians to launch a competitive TV news channel for the African people, she told Al-Monitor.

A journalist from Ghana who declined to be named said that the idea is excellent. However, he raised concerns about whether or not the channel would serve the Egyptian governments interests. I am concerned that this channel would not focus on Africa as much as it would serve the Egyptian interest in Africa, the journalist told Al-Monitor. He said he hopes that the new TV channel would be different from the other channels operating in the African continent that serve their own countries interests.

The move is still promising, and it can be useful in bringing the African and Egyptian peoples closer, he said.
RAMALLAH, West Bank  Women warmly welcomed the governments declaration of a package of decisions and measures to [address] laws that are unfair to women, March 5 in advance of International Womens Day. But they want more.

The government called on President Mahmoud Abbas March 5 to issue a decision to amend Penal Code No. 16 of 1960 by adding a fifth paragraph to Article 99 excluding honor crimes against women from their customary consideration of extenuating circumstances. The government also called for abolishing Article 308 of the Penal Code, which exempts a perpetrator of rape from prosecution and punishment if he marries his victim.

There were also changes to the regulations governing child custody and measures to fight discrimination against women. Women gained the right to obtain passports for their children, open bank accounts for them and transfer them between schools.

Activist Nahed Abo Tueima, who played a significant personal and professional role in demanding these legislative measures, described the amendments as incomplete. She told Al-Monitor that more action was required for the amendments to be complete and to ensure womens independence and interests.

Abo Tueima, who is divorced and has custody of her daughters, could not open saving accounts for them and move them from one school to another without her ex-husbands approval. Her worst experience was when she needed a passport for one of them to travel for medical treatment and could not get one without her ex-husbands permission despite the pressing need.

I cannot even approve of my daughters marriage without their fathers approval, and they wont be able to do that either. Male guardianship is still the foundation of our society, she said. Abo Tueima called on the government to lift all forms of guardianship over women, not just financial, to ease their lives.

Randa Saniora, director of the Womens Center for Legal Aid and Counseling, told Al-Monitor that while the changes do not go far enough, we can build on this step. The amendment of Article 99 was important, as many murder cases are considered to be honor crimes, even when they arent, to give the perpetrator a reduced sentence.

Saniora said that the biggest success was the elimination of Article 308, which is the most unfair to women, saving them from a life of violence.

Khadija Zahran, director of legislation and policy monitoring at the Independent Commission for Human Rights, said that the amendments are the result of lengthy legal and rights efforts that the commission took part in alongside womens associations. She emphasized that the road to amending Palestinian laws to fully respect human rights is still long, but noted, Something is better than nothing.

Zahran told Al-Monitor that despite these achievements, a comprehensive new penal code is needed to suit modern Palestinian families and their social reality. "It should also be in line with international human rights law and international treaties and conventions ratified by the Palestinian Authority. She added, The current penal code as a whole is the problem, not just one or two articles.

Saniora explained, The Personal Status Law is the real problem, as it still includes provisions that are unfair to women and that clearly discriminate against them. Amendments will not be sufficient. The Jordanian law in place should be abolished and a Palestinian law should be drafted.

She said, The law clearly contradicts international treaties that the PA has signed. These treaties include Article 16 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, which Abbas signed in 2015.

Major battles have yet to be fought to amend all the laws that still threaten Palestinian women, Saniora concluded.
Reports are circulating in Iranian media that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is planning to appoint Ayatollah Mohammad Reza Modarresi Yazdi as the new judiciary chief.

On March 27, the Reformist Emtedad news website reported that hard-liner Modarresi Yazdi is undergoing training to assume the position.

The judiciary chief is directly appointed by the supreme leader for five-year terms, with Khamenei commonly extending the term once, meaning such posts are held for a decade.

At present, the judiciary is headed by Ayatollah Sadegh Amoli Larijani, who was preceded by Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi. The latter is now the chairman of the Expediency Council. In 2009, the supreme leader named Amoli Larijani, who is the brother of moderate conservative parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, as the head of the judiciary and extended his tenure in 2014 for another five years. His term will end on Aug. 14, 2019.

In recent years, Amoli Larijani has been criticized harshly by former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has accused him of putting his entourage on trial and arresting them based on no valid evidence. Ahmadinejad has repeatedly written letters to the supreme leader asking for the dismissal of Amoli Larijani. Ahmadinejad is not the only one who is a critic of Amoli Larijani and his performance. Reformists are also against the judiciary chiefs actions and his apparent lack of tolerance in the face of criticism.

While Emtedads report indicates that Amoli Larijani may be dismissed before the end of his tenure, Iranian state televisions news site on March 28 quoted a source in the judiciary as stating that no decision has been made to remove Amoli Larijani from his post. However, the source didnt deny that Modarresi Yazdi will become the next judiciary chief. There is the possibility that [in preparation] for the next term of the judiciarys chairmanship, a number of figures will have a [presence in the judiciary to be trained for such a position], said the judicial source.

Moreover, in response to a question about Amoli Larijanis dismissal, Justice Minister Seyed Alireza Avai told local media March 28, I dont have such news. It has been a while that these rumors are [swirling around]. But I have no viable and reliable news regarding this.

Modarresi Yazdi, 63, is a member of the conservative-dominated Guardian Council, which is tasked with vetting election candidates and ensures that legislation conforms to the constitution and Sharia. In the 2016 Assembly of Experts elections, Modarresi Yazdi, who was on the conservative ticket, failed to get enough votes to enter the assembly. Of note, the Assembly of Experts is a clerical body that chooses the next supreme leader and monitors his performance.

Modarresi Yazdi has hard-line views about President Hassan Rouhanis moderate administration, the Reformists and, more broadly, critics of the political system.

In 2010, he attacked Grand Ayatollah Yousef Sanei for his support of Reformist presidential candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi in the aftermath of the disputed elections that year. The Reformist candidates alleged that the ballot was rigged. In a 2010 speech, Modarresi Yazdi claimed that Sanei was being supported by Britain and the United States and that the grand ayatollah was distorting Shiite Islam.
In a move that has raised eyebrows in some quarters, Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been quoted as saying that he does not support polygamy.

The conservative Young Journalists Club (YJC), which is affiliated with the state-run television  whose director in turn is appointed by Khamenei  late on March 26 quoted the supreme leader as saying firmly that he is not in favor of having multiple wives. Based on Sharia, men are allowed to take more than one wife. However, many Shiite scholars in Iran do not speak in favor of this while abstaining from labeling it as forbidden.

YJC did not state the timing and date of Khameneis reported remark, but it wrote that his statement was "recent" and in reaction to a fatwa attributed to him that is circulating in cyberspace. The alleged fatwa quoted Khamenei as saying that he views polygamy as mustahab in the current situation of Iranian society. Mustahab is an Islamic term that means an action is not only halal (permissible) but also recommended, though by no means wajib (obligatory).

YJC elaborated, In a meeting with the presence of the leader, one of the attendees asked him about the authenticity of this fatwa. When Ayatollah Khamenei listened to this [question], he got angry and surprised, and said, I havent issued such a fatwa and I dont accept such thing. Who has said this?

Khamenei then reportedly addressed the attendees, saying, The gentlemen must not talk in favor of polygamy even sarcastically, because it will disappoint women.

The YCJ report remarkably added that Khamenei has apparently enforced his view about polygamy in his workplace, warning that those working in his office will be dismissed if they marry a second wife.

It has also been reported that Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, did not consider polygamy to be appropriate. He, however, recognized it as one of the rulings of Sharia. In one related incident, he is said to have cut ties with one of his lecturers after realizing that he had married a second wife.

In other news, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has denied Saudi claims that Iran was behind the March 25 ballistic missile attacks on Riyadh and other cities by Yemeni group Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthis.

Gen. Yadollah Javani, the IRGC deputy for political affairs, said March 27, Everyone knows that the paths for sending weapons to Yemen have been blocked, and Saudi Arabia has completely surrounded the oppressed nation of Yemen. He added, Through these claims, Saudi Arabias goal is to divert peoples [minds] from the crimes they are committing in Yemen.

Speaking of the missiles that Ansar Allah used against Saudi Arabia, Javani said, Since a nation has faced military aggression, this nation [Yemen] has today [decided] to resist and has taken a path that relies on its youth and their domestic abilities, and based on this, make the aggressor regretful, and Saudi Arabia is very anxious about such a future.

Saudi-led coalition spokesman Col. Turki al-Malki has accused Iran of being behind the attacks on Riyadh and has threatened to retaliate against Tehran.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian had been well-briefed by his advisers before arriving in Jerusalem on March 25. His one and only mission on his first official visit to Israel was to clarify the extent to which France objects to destroying the Iran nuclear deal. The only way to go about that, Paris believed, was to send in the heavy guns. To that effect, the French foreign minister had backup. On the same day (March 26), in the same place (Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus office) and with the same objective in mind, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas paid a separate visit.

Anticipating Netanyahus rejection of the common European stance, Le Drian and Maas were careful not only to defend the agreement with Iran, but to also extend feelers on a possible compromise in the form of sanctions against Irans ballistic missile program. Israeli sources told Al-Monitor that both ministers emphasized defense of the agreement in their meetings with Netanyahu. Any hopes Israel might have had of driving a wedge between Germany and France on the Iran issue proved futile.

Le Drian was, however, confronted with a determined Israeli prime minister who knew exactly how he wanted the conversation between them to develop. Netanyahu spoke first at a small joint press conference before the meeting, setting the tone. After offering condolences on the March 23 terror attack in Trebes, Netanyahu went on to talk about Iran.

We have to stand together against this terrorism that afflicts our world, said Netanyahu. We have to fight terrorists wherever they are. And we have to fight terror-sponsoring regimes wherever they are. The foremost terrorist-sponsoring regime in the world, in our region and beyond is Iran. We have to roll back its aggression, and it is vast, and we must ensure that Iran does not acquire nuclear weapons.

The meeting with Le Drian was not very long. Netanyahu spent the morning being questioned by police, so time was scarce. Le Drian expressed his concerns about the Iran agreement and tried to ascertain how Israel might react to proposed sanctions on Irans missile program, but he received little that might be considered reassuring from Netanyahu.

The prime minister made no secret of his assessment that US President Donald Trump will renege on the Iran agreement on May 12. Yet instead of delving into the issue, Netanyahu focused on other things: the common fight against global terrorism, the fight against anti-Semitism (against the backdrop of the March 23 murder in Paris of an 85-year-old Jewish French Holocaust survivor) and the cross-cultural Israel-France Season, scheduled to be run June to November.

Netanyahu is heavily invested in Trump, but this does not mean that he will neglect the rest of the world, especially Europe. He knows that if there is one European leader that Trump likes, it's French President Emmanuel Macron. He also knows that if Trumps Middle East peace plan fails, the European Union is likely to step in. Uri Savir wrote on March 4 in Al-Monitor that the European Union, galvanized by Macron, has already started preparing its own peace plan. With Brexit in the works, the Brits have little say in European foreign policy. Meanwhile, Germany and France are more in sync these days than they have been in many years. Thus, European foreign policy is being championed and shaped by the pro-EU Macron, especially on the Iranian file.

Both Jerusalem and Washington share this assessment of Macron, although he has so far failed to change Trumps mind on Iran; he also fell short in this regard on the Paris climate agreement in 2017. Given this, the cross-cultural Israel-France Season might offer Netanyahu a golden opportunity. He has already confirmed his attendance at one of the main events at the Grand Palais in Paris in June. Associates of the prime minister say that the international timetable works in his favor. If indeed Trump nixes the Iran deal in May, then Netanyahu will arrive in Paris as a winner. In fact, by June, the Elysee might be preoccupied with finding creative solutions to saving the dialogue with Tehran, but this is mere speculation.

For the moment, Netanyahu is trying to channel dialogue toward what unites Israel and Europe, instead of what divides them. From his point of view, every terror attack on French soil reinforces their common battle against Muslim extremists (which, in Netanyahu's view, includes Palestinians who attack Israelis).

An Israeli Foreign Ministry official told Al-Monitor on the condition of anonymity, Netanyahu has little to lose by refusing to react to the issue of sanctions on the Iranian missile program. If Trump rejects the nuke agreement, then Netanyahu can show his voters a major diplomatic and security victory. If he doesnt, then the sanctions against the missiles will surely get center stage, which is also positive as far as Israels security is concerned.

Still, Netanyahus strategy vis-a-vis partners other than the United States comes at a price. Macron has made it clear that on the issue of Jerusalem, as on the issue of Iran, he does not see eye to eye with my friend Donald Trump. On March 7 at the annual dinner held by the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions, an umbrella organization, Macron said that he considers Trumps recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel to be an error and that France is not going to follow suit.

Netanyahu wont be able to say no for forever. At some point, he might be forced to choose between folding on Iran or folding on the Palestinian issue.
In the beginning of March, the Israeli air force posted a promotional video it called Feminine Power to Facebook. The video, a little over a minute long, showed women in various roles in the air force, from operational officers, mechanics and war room commanders to navigators and combat pilots. Over the action, a narrator hinted at criticism of anyone who tries to distance women from combat roles in the Israel Defense Force (IDF). They say, goes the narration, that women cant be fighters, theyre not built for it, are not physically suited to it, and they should stay at home with the kids. They say that women cant serve in operational roles. Her poor kids. Her poor husband. You cant really do it, and women dont have what it takes. So they say.

The video quickly went viral and sparked a public uproar in Israel before it was taken down. It turned out that the video was produced and posted without coordination with the IDF. It was viewed as arguing against religious and conservative forces that have in recent years waged a rearguard battle against opening many combat roles in the IDF to women. In light of this sensitivity, the IDF decided to simply remove it from the web. But the structural tension between the two poles wont be resolved by the videos removal.

The IDF is a reflection of Israeli society, and it too is torn between two opposing poles: Western liberalism still sets the tone in Israel and has turned Tel Aviv into one of the global LGBT capitals and produced an impressive number of women pilots, navigators and combat air crew members. At the beginning of the year, a woman pilot was appointed to command an air squadron for the first time. The air force already has a woman combat navigator who serves as a deputy squadron commander and many other women in senior operational roles.

On the other side are those who oppose womens combat service in the IDF. Leading them, of course, are rabbis of the religious Zionism stream who have waged all-out war against the phenomenon in recent years and have called on IDF chiefs to stop integrating women into senior roles. Leading Zionist rabbis have been quoted as railing against womens military service in sermons that sound as though they were delivered in an earlier time, when women were more relegated to staying at home, raising children and caring for their families. The influence of these rabbis on the IDF is significant, as graduates of religious Zionist institutions make up a substantial portion of the IDF's combat officers and about 40% of those who finish officer-training courses.

Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot has to navigate a narrow and dangerous path between hostile and resolute forces. There's a powerful and influential feminist lobby, but the influence of the religious Zionist rabbis and the conservatives has also grown greatly in recent years. Israel of 2018 is far more conservative than in previous decades. Its doubtful whether the IDF could manage without the graduates of religious Zionist institutions, most of whom volunteer for combat units and some of whom continue beyond compulsory service to serve as officers.

The story doesnt begin or end with the air force. The IDF today has six coed infantry battalions where women fighters serve alongside men in every role. Last December, the first tank crew course for women ended after training three female tank crews. The final preparations are now being made for a course for women tank commanders. The rabbis are instructing their students to refuse to serve in coed units and in combat roles alongside women.

To this complicated equation, we can add another variable that makes it truly impossible to solve: ultra-Orthodox military service. Unlike religious Zionists, the ultra-Orthodox are exempt from military service. Despite the rule, a growing number of ultra-Orthodox enlist. Today thousands of ultra-Orthodox Israelis serve in the IDF, some of them in special battalions that accommodate their religious needs, but they also have a presence in intelligence units, in the air force and elsewhere. The ultra-Orthodox, far more conservative than the religious Zionists, are making the melting pot of Israeli society boil over. While the IDF makes an effort to open up as many roles as possible to women, establishing coed infantry battalions and staffing tanks with female crews, it also makes special accommodations for the ultra-Orthodox, creating service situations in which these soldiers are not forced to encounter or ever see a woman.

The task of the chief of staff is to square the circle, to find a way to increase the number of ultra-Orthodox who serve, to continue to enjoy the devotion and service of tens of thousands of religious Orthodox and at the same time to continue the process of opening the IDF to women as combatants and officers of equal status to men.

Its doubtful that there is such a formula. There are also those who arent religious or conservative who claim that the entry and presence of women in combat forces and training courses lower the physical and mental requirements to enable women to succeed and pass various physical tests. The role of the IDF, says this group, is not to advance equality in society but to win wars. We must not compromise on combat readiness or its demands, even if its for the sake of including women, they say.

Eizenkot has no intention to stop the integration of women or to force them out of positions they have already attained. Eizenkot is a practical person who responds to his critics with numbers. The six coed infantry battalions enable the IDF to tailor training to the units. The coed battalions in which women serve have been charged with security of the peaceful borders of Israel (those with Egypt and Jordan), freeing the IDF's regular battalions to devote their time to training. Since the chief of staff sees his main task as preparing the IDF for war, he has no intention of giving up what has been achieved. All of the sides will simply have to get used to the new reality.
There was nothing ordinary about the two interviews that Israel Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh gave to major media outlets identified with the right last weekend. These were not chance interviews, of course. They were part of a larger media strategy intended to temper the outrage that the right feels toward him.

Alsheikh is one of the most senior figures of the religious Zionist movement, holding a key position in the countrys leadership. He is also intimately familiar with the anger felt toward him in the very home and community where he grew up. The right believes that the Israel Police have been showing excessive motivation in bringing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to trial, where he could be ultimately convicted. On the advice of his media consultants, Alsheikh sat for a long and open interview with the editor of Makor Rishon, Haggai Segal, on March 23. This followed an interview with Channel 20 News on March 22, which is considered pro-Netanyahu. In both interviews, Alsheikh spoke at length about the various investigations of the prime minister and responded to the rights criticism about his role in the investigations.

It was his choice of these two media outlets, which are very popular among the religious Zionist community and the right in general, which is so disconcerting. It raises the question of why it was so important for Alsheikh to explain himself to this community in particular. Arent interviews he grants generously to the more central media outlets in the country enough for him to outline his positions and approach and to provide support for his officers? Does the Israel Police commissioner see a role for himself in politics as part of right-wing HaBayit HaYehudi, as has already been hinted in the past?

Assuming that Alsheikh is as sure of his behavior as he makes a point of saying, there is no need for him to provide the media with lengthy explanations about the most volatile investigations in the country before they are even over. The investigations and their findings should speak for themselves at the end of the entire process. Right now, however, the overriding impression is that the Israel Police commissioner is giving all these interviews for personal reasons, involving his public image.

This is not to cast aspersions on Alsheikhs integrity or his objective of uncovering the truth. The problem with Alsheikh is his media behavior in all matters pertaining to the investigation of the prime minister. To a bystander, it could seem like he is in the middle of some personal campaign in which he is positioning himself against Netanyahu, as if they were political rivals.

In a controversial interview that he gave to journalist Ilana Dayan in February, just before the Israel Police submitted their recommendation to indict the Netanyahu, Alsheikhs mood could best be described as giddy. He gave the impression that he wanted to say much more than he actually could. Alsheikh did more than just hint that Netanyahu interfered with the investigation by sending private investigators to search for incriminating materials against his interrogators. The charge has yet to be investigated in depth. Even now, the nature of that charge is not at all clear. The right was outraged by that interview, claiming it was utterly inappropriate for the commissioner to release information pertaining to the investigation or even make insinuations before the recommendations are released.

There can be no doubt that over the last year Alsheikh has been able to overcome being a subject of ridicule and attacks by the media and emerge as a highly regarded figure in the investigation saga. This image-improvement increased as Alsheikh made himself available to the media during the Netanyahu investigations. The extreme change in public perceptions regarding Alsheikh is the direct consequence of a coordinated effort by his media consultants, intended to improve the Israel Police commissioners public and media image when it was at a low point. It succeeded beyond all expectations. Alsheikh is now seen as a powerful police commissioner who is also popular with the press.

The expansion of the investigations and the prime ministers attacks on the Israel Police only intensified Alsheikhs bellicosity in his statements to the media. Alsheikh could have taken a more official and stately approach and backed his interrogators without putting himself right in the middle of things. It would not have harmed the investigations, and it would have benefited the image of the Israel Police, which all polls show could use a boost.

A comparison of Alsheikhs media conduct and that of former Police Commissioner Dudi Cohen during the investigation of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is interesting. The public has a short memory, so it forgot how Olmert attacked the Israel Police and accused its investigators of intentionally leaking information in order to harm him in 2008. While Netanyahu took things a step further by turning his attacks on the Israel Police into a political campaign, Olmert didnt exactly show statesmanlike behavior either.

In contrast, Cohen did act officially throughout most of the Olmert investigations. He was careful to back Israel Police investigators while giving terse statements to the media. When it was released that Olmert chastised his investigators for endlessly leaking [information] and waging a media war that deviates from any acceptable norm that would otherwise characterize a decent police force, Cohen hinted to the media that the sources of the leaks were none other than Olmerts own lawyers. At the time, the Israel Police were criticized and attacked by various ministers, including Deputy Prime Minister Haim Ramon. He accused the police of acting inappropriately in their handling of the sexual harassment case involving him. Former Justice Minister Daniel Friedman claimed at the time that the Israel Police had just deposed a sitting prime minister.

The first comprehensive interview granted by Police Commissioner Cohen was to journalist Ari Shavit of Haaretz in September 2008, a year and a half after Cohen took the position. In that interview, he was critical of Olmert and certain ministers such as Ramon, but he was reprimanded by the government for that and eventually apologized for his comments. Despite all that, Cohen would not allow himself to get swept up in a personal feud against Olmert and his ministers. He went back on topic immediately, and his generally measured responses were in no way detrimental to the progress of the Olmert investigation. The Israel Police eventually recommended that the prime minister should be indicted, and he was. Olmert was tried, found guilty and served time in prison.

What this shows is that in the Netanyahu investigations, the determining factor will ultimately be the evidence presented to the attorney general. The flood of interviews given by Alsheikh will have no impact whatsoever on the investigations themselves.

Alsheikh would contribute more to the department he heads if he would stick to the issues instead of giving giddy interviews or going off on competing ego trips with Netanyahu. While his behavior is not harmful to the investigations per se, it is not beneficial to them either. On the other hand, it is damaging to the image of the Israel Police. This is especially troubling at a time when Netanyahus supporters are convinced that Alsheikh is persecuting the prime minister.
BAGHDAD  For the first time since 2005, Kirkuk governorate in Iraq will hold elections Dec. 22 to select its local governing council. Parliament included the multiethnic province of the Kurds, Arabs and Turkmens in the provincial election law approved March 3.

The decision follows an agreement among the three groups' representatives in parliament and was greatly welcomed by all segments, especially the Kurds, who for years have demanded that elections be held in Kirkuk. Khalid al-Mafraji, an Arab parliament member from Kirkuk, told Al-Monitor that negotiations took more than a year.

The agreement binds the Independent High Electoral Commission to review voters' records in coordination with the ministries of Interior, Commerce, Planning and Health. If they aren't able to review the records before the elections, the commission will be obliged to undertake an audit within six months after the elected council begins its work.

The most important articles of the agreement relate to sharing power, Mafraji said. The largest bloc in the election will appoint the governor, and the two deputy positions will go to the other two groups. Moreover, federal positions will be determined by the governorate's residents, according to party size. The agreement also states that the constitution and the law take precedence over the governorate's council, parliament and the federal government.

The electoral law will remain in effect for four years. Shakhawan Abdullah, who represents Kirkuk in the Kurdistan Democratic Party in parliament, told Al-Monitor, The agreement between the three components of Kirkuks governorate will be effective for only one electoral round, and the elections will not be held in the same way in four years' time."

Abdullah believes the provincial election law presents a good opportunity to resolve conflicts in the governorate and give it more administrative powers, like other governorates. The governorate has gone without elections all these years for various reasons. Oil-rich Kirkuk is a disputed area claimed by both the central government in Baghdad and the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in Erbil. Its situation is also unique because of its ethnic diversity and disagreements among them.

The constitution stipulates the conflicts in the governorate must be normalized in three stages. The first stage is to allow the return of displaced Kurds and Arabs who emigrated during the regime of deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

The second stage is to carry out a population census, and the last stage is to hold a general referendum on whether Kirkuk should become a new region, like the autonomous Kurdistan Region, or be annexed to the Kurdistan Region.

All of those procedures were to be carried out before 2007, which wasn't done. This caused political conflict, partly because of the disagreement between Baghdad and the KRG over having elected authorities with the right to control the governorate's future.

The Kurdistan independence referendum in September, which included Kirkuk, ended in crisis, and the central government subsequently took over the governorate and cut the Kurds' authority. The coming elections will give Baghdad and the KRG a chance to solve the current dispute over Kirkuk's administration.

However, the most important problem that may affect holding elections in Kirkuk is the agreement on a unified record of voters, which may raise doubts about the election results. Iraq hasn't conducted a census in decades. Ali Khalil, the Arab bloc member of the governorate council, told Al-Monitor that Arabs weren't in favor of the agreement's clause that allows an audit to be delayed until after the elections if records can't be reviewed before then.

"How would we elect a new governorate council while doubting voters' records at the same time?" Khalil asked.

The Kirkuk local elections will provide a chance to reduce tension in the governorate, a good way to determine the real size of each of the three ethnic groups and a way to form a more legitimate administration  but it could lead to negative results. If one segment is counted and found to have significantly fewer representatives than before, that segment might refuse to accept the election results.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip  Hamas is rejecting the Palestinian Authority's 2018 public budget, which President Mahmoud Abbas approved this month. Some legislators believe the budget is illegal.

The budget was submitted to the government of national consensus and ratified Feb. 27, without being presented to the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) as required by law. The government merely presented the budget to a number of parliamentary bloc members, prompting PLC First Deputy Speaker Ahmed Bahar to denounce the process and assert that the budget is illegitimate. In a Feb. 28 news conference, he also called for the government to resign.

The Palestine News Agency, WAFA, reported that the Palestinian Council of Ministers stressed in its weekly meeting Feb. 27 that the first version of the budget has taken into consideration the status quo in the Gaza Strip. This would mean that not all of the expenditures are fully calculated yet. Under this scenario, the budget is estimated at $5 billion, including $3.8 billion in revenues, $775 million in foreign aid, $4.5 billion in current expenses and a funding gap of $498 million.

WAFA indicated that another version of the unified budget was also prepared to include the Gaza Strip in case reconciliation is achieved. That budget would amount to $5.8 billion, including $5.2 billion in current expenses, $4 billion in revenues, $775 million in foreign aid and an estimated budget gap of $1 billion. This means expenses would be 11% higher than revenues.

The Ministry of Finance in Ramallah didn't respond to Al-Monitor's request for comment on the budget.

Like Bahar, Yahya Moussa, a PLC member from the Change and Reform bloc, also told Al-Monitor the budget isn't legitimate, because it wasn't presented before the PLC, the legislative body authorized to review it before it is ratified. He also said tying funds to the reconciliation condition "is a clear and explicit message pointing to the governments unwillingness to achieve reconciliation.

The Palestinian split occurred in 2007 because of a conflict between the two main Palestinian political parties, Hamas and Fatah. Since then, until the government of national accord was formed and rapprochement supposedly was reached in October, Hamas administered the Gaza Strip while Abbas' Fatah party administers the West Bank.

Moussa said, According to the law  the budget is only binding once the PLC approves it. The budget is then ratified by the president and the PLC follows up on the implementing process. He added, Yet the government of national consensus insisted on having the exclusive power of approving the budget, thus violating the provisions of the Palestinian Basic Law.

Moussa considers the budget an illegal disbursement of public funds. He said the government's general conduct is unpatriotic and fails to properly take into account the reconciliation, as it doesn't espouse the logic of unity and distorts the budget structure, particularly since the largest share (27%) is allocated to security services.

Moussa further said it's unreasonable for the government of national consensus to collect a value-added tax on goods, foodstuffs, clothing, cars and fuel entering Gaza, in addition to income tax on the salaries of Gazas employees, and then spend the revenues elsewhere.

Mohamed Mekdad, the commerce faculty dean at the Islamic University in Gaza, told Al-Monitor the main problem in the public budget is that it maintains the status quo and excludes Gaza, contrary to what is expected, especially in light of the supposed reconciliation. Mekdad also believes that the omission clearly indicates there is no intention to achieve rapprochement or deal with Gaza as part of the nation and resolve its ever-increasing economic problems.

He stressed that taxes collected from Gaza are sufficient for its expenses, should they be spent in full, in addition to the reconstruction funds granted to the Gaza Strip. Nevertheless, he said, spending should be based on need, especially in light of the growing unemployment rate, recession and the weakness of the Gaza Strips private sector in creating new jobs.

Mekdad continued, Initially, the public budget should take into account all parts of the state, without any exceptions or scenarios that exclude a particular area for political reasons. A government that represents the Palestinian people should have never accepted such a budget and involved the people in political bickering.

He agreed with others who spoke with Al-Monitor that presenting the budget only to some parliamentary bloc members doesn't make it legitimate, since it was not presented to the PLC.

Mekdad added, According to the budget, security and military expenditures outweigh those of the education and health sectors, which are the most vital  [showing] once again a major defect, because Palestine is a demilitarized state according to the Oslo Accords and does not need to spend money on the security sector.

Meanwhile, Lamees Farraj, a social audit coordinator for Transparency Palestine, told Al-Monitor that her group objects to the budget because it took too long to be approved and was never published. Under the law, the budget is to be approved and made public on Jan. 1 of every year.

She added that the scenario of including Gaza on the condition of achieving reconciliation includes no details on how that would be funded, particularly since that version takes into consideration merging 20,000 Gaza Strip government employees with West Bank employees, without specifying any selection criteria. The Gaza government has 45,000 employees.

She noted, Perhaps the government relied on the internal collection of taxes in Gaza, which Hamas is still in charge of.

Transparency Palestine obtained a copy of the draft budget from private sources. Farraj said the draft is vague and doesn't indicate the disbursement priorities.

She explained that the government expected increased revenues based on tax amendments it adopted Feb. 19, but that won't be enough to bridge the gap. The government needs to develop a clearer and effective policy in the fight against tax evasion, she added.

The government needs to re-examine its expenditures in the security sector, review its revenue sources "and create a logical and equitable balance between vital and service sectors, she concluded.

Many observers are left wondering whether it's even possible to adopt the second scenario, in light of the difficult economic conditions in the Gaza Strip, the UN's warnings about the deteriorating humanitarian situation and its demands that the government shoulder its responsibilities toward Gaza.
Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani met with Russian President Vladimir Putin this week in Moscow, and though the event didn't produce any major breakthroughs, its political importance shouldn't be underestimated.

Part of Qatar's motivation for friendship is the price it's had to pay for its falling out, subsequent embargo and basically total breach in relations with its neighbors in the Gulf Cooperation Council  mainly Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

For Moscow, this visit demonstrated its even-handed approach to both sides in the regional conflict  as Saudi King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud visited Russia in the fall  and, Russia hopes, strengthened its standing with Arab countries.

Qatar aims to continue its course to diversify foreign relations adopted after the onset of the crisis. The embargo gives Doha reason to deepen its contacts with Moscow, both because of Washington's ambivalent position during Qatar's breach with its neighbors, and because of Qatar's general intent to normalize relations with Iran and also strengthen the strategic alliance with Turkey  Russia's two partners in the Syrian resolution process. Those circumstances also made Qatar revise its own positions on the Syrian conflict, some of which Tamim and Putin discussed.

Undoubtedly, the emir's visit is crucial for Moscow, considering the renewed, full-fledged fighting in Syria and the pressure the West is exerting on Moscow since the March 4 poisoning in Britain of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter with a military-grade nerve agent.

The Arab world finds Russia's position on Syria suspect. Instead of Russia delivering on its promises to take the resolution process to a new level, Syria is suffering from escalated fighting accompanied by accusations toward President Bashar al-Assad's regime and its allies  including Russia  of killing numerous civilians in eastern Ghouta.

So Tamim's visit, taking place while the military operation in the Damascus suburbs is still raging, might help to somewhat counter the perception that Arab and Islamic countries doubt Russia and are no longer cooperating with Moscow because of it. Moreover, the emir's trip to Russia could demonstrate that Qatar, consistently confronting Assad's regime and supporting the opposition since the onset of the Syrian conflict, still trusts Russia as a guarantor of conflict resolution and relies on the peace process revival.

At the same time, however, the eastern Ghouta events are very likely to hurt Moscow's relations with some countries of the region  for instance, Saudi Arabia. Before Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visited the United States last week, he said he includes Russia's sometime-allies Turkey and Iran in the "evil triangle" along with Qatar. Doha, for its part, may try to seize the initiative from Saudi Arabia and start to play an active role in the Syrian resolution process, including by developing of a closer dialogue with Moscow.

It appears Qatar and Turkey have already influenced Ahrar al-Sham and Failaq al-Rahman, the opposition factions in eastern Ghouta that were receiving military support from Doha. As a result of this influence, the groups agreed to stop their resistance, leave eastern Ghouta and move to rebel-controlled areas of the greater Idlib area. However, the largest militant group in the area, Jaish al-Islam, which controls the city of Douma and is affiliated with Saudi Arabia, refuses to withdraw from the suburbs of Damascus and intends to continue its resistance. These facts can also demonstrate the controversies between Doha and Riyadh about the Syrian problem, showing the difference between their approaches to the situation there. In these circumstances, Doha is likely to propose further regulation of the Syrian conflict and provide its own services as a mediator.

It's still hard to know for certain how much Tamim's visit might have advanced the negotiations on Doha's proposed purchase of Russian weapons, mostly S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems. This deal has certain complications. Qatar wants to form a compatible tandem of systems made of American Patriot air-defense and THAAD anti-ballistic missile defense systems. Thus, even if Doha is ready to purchase the S-400 systems, the contract will be smaller than previously anticipated. According to specialists connected with the Russian military-industrial complex, even if the contract is signed, delivery of the S-400s to Qatar should not be expected soon. In the first place, the emirate currently has financial limitations due to other expensive military contracts; second, the Russian side has numerous agreements to deliver these systems and its production capacity is full. Moreover, in current conditions the shipments of S-400s to Qatar could strain relations with the country's antagonists  the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

On the other hand, Qatar is also interested in replacing its outdated Roland and Rapier surface-to-air missiles, possibly with Russian Pantsir and Tor weapons. Qatar is also likely to purchase Russian combat helicopters  for instance, the Ka-52  to complement the Western ones it's already using.

There were also some tangible deals made during the emir's visit. Qatar Airways and Vnukovo International Airport discussed the airline's interest in purchasing a 25% share of the airport's stock. The airport is Russia's third-largest in terms of passenger traffic. Qatar Investment Authority, a sovereign wealth fund, since 2016 has owned 25% of Northern Capital Air Gate company, a concessionaire at Pulkovo airport, the No. 4 airline in passenger traffic in Russia.

In another deal, Igor Sechin, director of Rosneft Oil Co., and Faisal al-Suwaidi, president of research and development of the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, signed a science and education cooperation agreement.
At least 11 students from Istanbuls prestigious Bogazici University remain in police custody for airing opposition to Turkeys ongoing military operations against Kurdish militants in northern Syria amid a broadening crackdown on anti-war sentiments.

The first wave of detentions took place last week after the students unfurled banners criticizing fellow students supporting soldiers who fell during Turkeys ongoing Operation Olive Branch in Syrias heavily Kurdish Afrin region. The latter had set up a stand and handed out Turkish sweets they called Afrin delights. It is a Turkish tradition to serve sweets following a loved ones death. The anti-war group allegedly attacked them prompting police intervention.

Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan angrily denounced the students, calling them terrorists and vowing to establish their identities from camera footage of the incident. We will catch those marginals by the ear and hurl them to the ground, he snarled during an address to his ruling Justice and Development Partys Beyoglu branch in Istanbul.

He also took aim at Bogazici professors, saying if they had collaborated in the protest, we will do what is necessary to them too.  We will not cede ground to those who unleash terror on campus lawns.

Seven of the students were eventually freed but four more were rounded up earlier this week after a further volley of threats from Erdogan, who called the students communists and traitors and vowed to end their academic lives at a public rally over the weekend.

One of the freed students told German broadcaster Deutsche Welle that he and fellow students had been blindfolded and then beaten by police as they were being driven away. The student, who declined to be identified by name, said they had bruises to prove it and that one of them had a fractured nose. He said the police assaulting them had told them, If we hit you, you will be less intelligent.

Human Rights Watch, a New York-based advocacy group, said that the Turkish authorities had detained 648 people between Jan. 20 and Feb. 26 over social media posts criticizing Turkeys military operations in Afrin. They held 197 others for expressing criticism in other forms, including street protests or expressing solidarity with protesters on social media, the group said in a report this week.

Its Europe and Central Asia director, Hugh Williamson, said, Detaining and prosecuting people for tweets calling for peace is a new low for Turkeys government. He added, Turkish authorities should respect peoples right to peacefully criticize any aspect of government policy, including military operations, and drop these absurd cases.

The atmosphere at Bogazici remains tense with police patrolling the campus grounds as rumors of further detentions continue to swirl. Despite the growing pressure, many Bogazici students were present at todays hearing of two academics from the university facing trial together with more than a hundred others who signed a 2016 declaration protesting the resumption of the armys military offensive against Kurdistan Workers Party rebels in Turkeys mainly Kurdish southeast region.

In October, prosecutors drew up an indictment accusing the signatories of engaging in terrorist propaganda. At least three were convicted to 15 months in jail. Some 4,811 Turkish academics, including hundreds of Academics for Peace, were sacked under executive decrees issued under a state of emergency that remains in effect since the failed July 2016 coup to violently overthrow Erdogan.

A similarly resolute group of Bogazici students appealed to their professors to stand firm today. In a statement, the members of the universitys Kurdish literature club declared, The AKP and its president, who have made a habit of ignoring academic autonomy and freedom  are seeking to quash differences in opinion with pressure and threats. The students warned, Following this overt attack on Bogazici students, the next target will be you. We invite you to speak up and to support your students before it is too late.
Patients have nowhere to turn after the countrys only radiation therapy machine stopped functioning in 2016.

Senegals solitary radiotherapy machine broke down on December 28 last year, leaving the countrys only radiation therapist and small team of technicians idly waiting as patients were turned away or offered alternative treatments.

The machine uses radioactive cobalt-60 to produce gamma rays that halt tumors in organs near the skin. Installed in 1989, it is from a generation of devices that are completely phased out in most developed countries.

The machine has broken down many times before. Doctors who are familiar with the technology say such a machine should normally not exceed 20 years use.





The Senegalese government promises that three state-of-the-art linear accelerators, which are standard elsewhere, will be installed by August.

This is somewhat surprising given that Senegals hospital system is a reference for the West African sub-region.

Patients cross borders to receive diagnoses, treatments and surgeries. The hospital in Dakar boasts a research unit and some of the only modern DNA sequencing machines on the continent.

The strength of the countrys health system, which doctors are proud to say is more than 100 years old, is due in large part to a long-standing high level of medical education in Senegal.

Medical students from Algeria and Morocco come to Dakar for research and studies. Yet the system is fragile and overwhelmed.

Almost 14 million people live in Senegal, but only a handful of doctors focus on cancer.

Doctors in the developed world recommend one radiation machine or linear accelerator for every 200,000 people. Senegal has one, and this year it is broken. So the lines in the cancer ward are long.

We were fascinated by this story and wanted to film it. But accessing the primary city hospital with cameras has always been nearly impossible. This time, things looked different, and the small team of cancer doctors appeared to welcome us.

Consistent failure

We took the opportunity with caution. It seemed this crisis had struck the cancer team personally, and at least several were eager to talk. Behind closed doors and off-camera, some spoke of their anger that such an old and sometimes dangerous machine would still be the standard for the country.

We should have linear accelerators, they said, shocked that the state had not invested a few million dollars in the new machines. The staff had been trying to raise awareness of the machines consistent failure since 2015, when it broke down and electrocuted a patient on the table.

It also burned others. They were amazed that only now the media seemed to be taking notice.

They took us in to see the device, to look at the bespoke plastic masks that were made to hold patients still, and to watch as the great old machine head  with radioactive cobalt 60 at its centre  swivelled in a wide arc over a cold plastic bed.





Interviewing patients, which we had assumed would be the straightforward part of the shoot, was even more difficult. The word cancer leaves a deep stigma across these wards, even though it is written in clear red paint on the entrances.

Babacar, our fixer, kept saying: Its like Aids, you dont tell people you have it.

One divorced patient said that if she were known to have cancer, she would never be able to marry again. Another wanted to ask her husband for permission before speaking. A third refused to show her face.

Several agreed on the terms that cancer never be mentioned, which was of course, not possible.

After two days of asking patients for interviews, we were leaving empty-handed when a nurse called me to join her at the foot of the stairs. A patient upstairs can see you, you can film him. We were thrilled and nearly raced up the steps. She grabbed my arm. You cannot use the word cancer, she said.

READ MORE: Senegal imam calls for green jihad

I asked Babacar whether I had heard her correctly.

Its taboo, he told me. But were in the cancer ward, I said. Dont use the word, she insisted, telling us that the patients grandson was there with him. Does he know its cancer, I asked? Yes, he did.

We entered the small cell in the recovery ward to find an 84-year old man wearing a neat scarf, a small religious hat and a wide smile. He had been a soldier for Senegal, one of the revered veterans who stood up as the shackles of colonialism were cracking but not yet breaking in the 1950s. He was sick, but feeling fine.

He had a basket full of medicine and a catheter bandage on his hand. We interviewed him, learning that he had no pain and that he was happy to pay whatever was needed for the treatments he received for his mysterious ailment.

Treatments should be expensive, he said, because medical expertise should not come cheap. No mention of cancer.

The interview ended and the nurse came in. She pulled back his gown to reveal a wide chest bandage. This is for the tumor we removed, she said, as if tumor and cancer were two entirely unrelated terms.

Constant chemotherapy

Beyond the hospital, we were led by a member of Senegals League for Cancer (LISCA) to a younger woman of 40, living in the suburbs, who was suffering immensely from breast cancer.

She let us interview her in her home, with her family near, something that was clearly very upsetting to her.

She was undergoing constant chemotherapy. Her hand was swollen and her voice was soft. I asked about her diagnosis. She deferred entirely to her doctors, saying that she was not given choices in her treatments, and the costs, as we had also heard at the hospital, were unending.

Family supported her for visits: a few hundred dollars here and there, with the total running into the thousands.

Our shoot extended over two days, but by the end, we had enough material and strong voices.

We called once more, the day after our long hospital visit, to ask specifically how many patients had received burns  or other injuries  while fixed to the old machines table.

No more calls please, no more questions was the only answer after the call had been passed from one hand to another. Word had gone round. The window of availability and openness had closed.

Follow Colin Baker on Twitter: @airlockben
Popular anger in the Siberian city of Kemerovo, as Russia mourns victims of a shopping centre fire, which killed at least 41 children.

On Tuesday, thousands of people gathered in front of the regional administration building in the Siberian city of Kemerovo amid heavy police presence. The angry crowd demanded answers about what led to the fire and deaths of many, including more than 40 children, when Zimnyaya Vishnya shopping centre burned down on March 25.

Resignation! Tell us the truth! Corruption! the crowd chanted.

A video of the demonstration, which had more than a million views on YouTube, showed Kemerovo region deputy governor Vladimir Chernov standing in front of a crowd shouting insults at him.

Im appointed, not elected. I can tell you, up to now, how many victims there are: 64, he said. The crowd booed in response.

Thousands gathered in front of the Kemerovo Region administration building to protest against local authorities on March 27, 2018 [Getty Images]

According to Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, local people reject the official number that has been announced. They believe that the number of victims could be anywhere between 150 and 400 and that the authorities are hiding bodies. An email address they set up for reports of dead or missing people received information about 85 victims, the newspaper reported.

Her last words were: Mum, I love you, Im dying,' said a woman in the same video who told the crowd she lost her daughter, daughter-in-law and three grandchildren in the fire. She said she begged firemen and police to open the door to a cinema hall where her family was stuck, but they didnt do anything.

Murderers! the crowd chanted as she finished her story.

Local media reported that during film screenings, the cinema employees would lock doors from the outside to prevent people without a ticket from sneaking in. On that Sunday afternoon, when the fire broke out, the cinema was full of parents and children who had come to see childrens films. According to the official numbers, at least 41 children died.

A man shows portraits of family members he lost in the March 25 fire in Kemerovo, Russia on March 27 [Getty Images]

The governor of Kemerovskaya region, Aman Tuleyev, who has occupied the position since 1997 and has been perceived to rule the region with a heavy hand, did not show up at the square.

Tuleyev, instead, attended a televised meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who visited Kemerovo on Tuesday. After apologising to the president for what happened, Tuleyev said that there were only 200 people at the square who were an opposition force and who were not relatives of the victims.

In a horribly servile speech, Kemerovo governor Tuleyev lies to Putin that there are only 200 people at the central square protest and says that his task now is to prevent the opposition from capitalizing on the tragedy.https://t.co/mNPbpdUmk6 via @youtube  Leonid Ragozin (@leonidragozin) March 27, 2018

His statements caused a stir on social media, with many comments pointing out that Tuleyev did not apologise to the people of Kemerovo.

In extensive reports broadcast on state TV channels, the Russian president appeared to be scolding city and regional officials who nervously scrambled to give explanations to him about what had happened. Putin later declared March 28 an official national day of mourning. Talk shows on state TV also accused protesters of politicising the tragedy and trying to use it for political gains.

Kemerovo vice governor Aleksey Tsivilev was seen in another video telling a man in the crowd, You are doing PR for yourself! The man responded that he had lost his whole family in the fire.

Throughout the day on Tuesday, Russians across the country lay flowers at improvised memorials for the fire victims. In Moscow, a few thousand people gathered at Pushkinskaya Square, some chanting against the government and demanding Putins resignation.

This [tragedy] is a usual story. Nothing surprising for Russia, for countries on such level, 38-year-old Dennis Korotkov, told Al Jazeera at the square. Things in Kemerovo region [] are a bit worse. If a governor [in any region] stays 15-20 years, then it means all is bad there.

There were quite a few young people among those who had gathered. A group of four university students said that they had come to honour the memory of the victims and to demand resignations and a fair investigation.

A crowd gathered on March 27 in Pushkinskaya Square in central Moscow to demonstrate and commemorate the victims of a shopping mall fire in Kemerovo, Russia [Mariya Petkova/Al Jazeera]

Emotion and sadness should be used to [encourage effort] to fix this situation, said 21-year-old Vanya who did not give his family name. We can do something so that this doesnt just go by, as it happened with Hronnaya Loshad or even the Kursk submarine, where those who were responsible were not punished.

In 2000  just months after Putin started his first term as president  an explosion on a submarine, the Kursk, killed 118 crew in the Barents Sea. In 2009, a fire broke out in Hronnaya Loshad nightclub in the city of Perm (1,400km east of Moscow) killing more than 150 people. In 2010, an explosion in a mine in Kemerovo region took the lives of 91 miners.

The Russian president promised Kemerovo people that there will be a thorough investigation and those responsible for the tragedy will be held accountable.
In Lesotho, country with second highest HIV rate, passengers learn about how male circumcision helps prevent infection.

Maseru, Lesotho  Tsitso Mokale drives down Moshoeshoe Road in his black taxi with a yellow stripe, scanning the pavement for potential passengers.

The taxi driver in Lesothos capital, Maseru, is on a mission not just to find new customers, but to start a conversation about the benefits of male circumcision and HIV prevention.

It is a daunting task in a country with the second-highest HIV prevalence rate in the world and where social norms and cultural restraints often prevent men from accessing health services.

Its sometimes difficult to talk to the older [male passengers], Tsitso says. Some of them say they are afraid.

But for Mokale and more than 200 other taxi drivers across the city who are part of a programme aimed at HIV prevention, educating passengers about male circumcision has real benefits.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) can reduce the risk of female-male HIV infection by 60 percent.

READ MORE: Living with HIV  There is nothing to fear

There are approximately 26,000 new HIV infections a year in Lesotho, a country of more than two million people that is entirely surrounded by South Africa.

The driver mobilisation programme, which was formed through a partnership between Lesothos Ministry of Health, USAID and Jhpiego, a US-based health non-profit that has implemented the initiative, aims to equip drivers with the knowledge needed to educate young men about HIV prevention.

The taxi drivers are the people who encounter the most people on a daily basis, Polo Motsoari, a communications manager with Jhpiego, says.

The programme is part of a wider national campaign called Rola Katiba, or take your hat off, that focuses on educating men between the ages of 15 and 29 in an effort to reduce HIV rates.

Lesotho has the second highest HIV prevalence rate in the world [Ali Rae/Al Jazeera]

As Mokale drives around, looking for new passengers, he rolls out the list of benefits of VMMC.

You can reduce your risk of contracting HIV, other [sexually transmitted] diseases, penile cancer  cervical cancer. There are lots of benefits, he says.

Since 2007, the WHO and UNAIDS have recommended VMMC as a key component of HIV prevention.

READ MORE: Swaziland and HIV  Redrawing what it means to be a man

According to the WHO, VMMC works because the foreskin is an area of the body that can easily be torn to create tiny gateways for the virus to enter the body. Its removal, reduces the risk of the virus spreading.

If a passenger is interested in undertaking VMMC or learning more, Mokale and the other drivers give them a referral ticket to take to a clinic for a free consultation and procedure.

Men can opt for either a surgical or non-surgical procedure. The most popular option is called Prepex, a non-invasive method that leaves a small device on the penis for seven days in order to stop the blood flow to the foreskin. Once the skin is dead, it is cut off.

READ MORE: Mass circumcision drive in Rwanda to curb HIV

More than 11 million men have received VMMC services across eastern and southern Africa since 2008.

In Lesotho alone, more than 136,000 men have been circumcised through the Rola Katiba programme.

While VMMC does not offer complete protection  and should be used in conjunction with regular safe-sex practices  it remains one of the most cost-effective tools for HIV prevention available today, according to the WHO.

USAID and the WHO estimate that one HIV infection will be averted for every five to 15 male circumcisions completed.

Im fully circumcised and Im ok

Despite the known benefits, taxi driver educators say it is often the stigma and misconceptions surrounding male circumcision that turns many away.

Some people say they will never go to a clinic because we are going to cook their foreskins, Moholi Mosebetsi, another taxi driver educator, says.

So, we have so many things to explain to them.

More than 136,000 men have been circumcised as part of Lesothos national programme aimed at reducing HIV [Ali Rae/Al Jazeera]

In addition to overcoming misconceptions, Mosebetsi says another challenge is that the word in Sesotho for going through a traditional adolescent initiation ceremony  lebollo  is very similar to the word for circumcision.

A 2011 study published in the journal PLOS One found that nearly a quarter of men in Lesotho who self-reported as circumcised did not have evidence of circumcision. Instead, it is likely they undertook a ritual process where the foreskin was only cut, or partially removed.

This is why Jhpiego and the government have tried to find new ways to reach these young men.

Some men dont want to discuss sexual reproductive health with women or with someone younger. They want to discuss that with their peers, Motsoari says.

We are trying to venture [onto] different platforms where we can reach out to these men  regardless of their background, regardless of their age  they should all know that circumcision is here for them  and its free.

READ MORE: South Africas plan to tackle HIV among sex workers

The volunteer taxi driver-educators are paid by Jhpiego. They receive 300 loti ($23) for every five clients they refer to a free clinic.

The initiative is set to expand further, with more taxi drivers being trained later this year.

Im happy because I just want people to live without sickness, Mosebetsi says.

I am not a doctor, but Im fully circumcised and Im okay.

Ali Rae reported from Lesotho with the help of the International Reporting Project (IRP).
When Donald Trump was elected US president in November 2016, he initially signalled some real hope for the peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Some analysts argued that he may actually manage to deliver what he calls the deal of the century and bring peace to Israel and Palestine. These assumptions were based on the fact that Trump is the type of person that could wake up one morning, say enough, and pressure Israeli and Palestinian leaders to sign a peace deal on his terms.

Early on in his presidency, Trump made the conflict a strategic priority and unconventionally chose to go to the Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Israel and Palestine) on his first trip abroad as president. During a press conference with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Bethlehem, he said that if Israel and the Palestinians can make peace, it will begin a process of peace all throughout the Middle East. This was in line with Europes standard inside-out approach (Israeli-Palestinian peace first, Israeli-Arab normalisation later) to the conflict, which was also shared by the Obama administration.

On many other occasions, however, Trump seemed to be in favour of the outside-in approach (Israeli-Arab normalisation first, Israeli-Palestinian peace later) to the conflict. Moreover, he regularly changed his position in the debate  he was for, against and in between on key final status issues such as the settlements and moving the US embassy to Jerusalem, while never taking a clear stand for or against a two-state solution.

But on December 6 last year, Trump made it clear that his much-anticipated peace deal will favour Israel when he recognised Jerusalem as Israels capital and promised to move the US embassy there. This led Abbas to brand Trumps peace efforts as the slap of the century and say the US could no longer play any role in the Middle East peace process following the move.

Over the past five months, there have been at least three rounds of leaks signalling what Trumps peace plan may entail for the Palestinians.

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In November 2017, it was reported that Trumps peace plan would oversee the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in an unspecified territory, but without Jerusalem as its capital and with all the settlements remaining. The report, based on the testimonies of anonymous senior officials on Israels negotiating team, also signalled that Trumps plan would ignore the Palestinians right of return and give the control of the Jordan Valley to Israel. Around the same time, it was also reported that Abbas was summoned to Riyadh and told by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to either accept Trumps peace plan or resign.

In February 2018, it was reported in Arab and Israeli media that Trumps peace plan would entail the relocation of some minor settlements, a possible Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem and some form of international protection for the holy sites in Jerusalem  seemingly an upgrade for the Palestinians, even if it still fell far short of their demands.

And, finally, earlier this month, it was reported in various media outlets that the PAs intelligence chief, Majid Faraj, has seen the latest version of the 35-page peace plan in Riyadh. According to Palestinian officials that spoke to the media on condition of anonymity, this version of the peace plan included the establishment of a Palestinian state with provisional borders on half of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, without Jerusalem, and with only humanitarian solutions to the refugee issue. The plan, moreover, calls for building a new Jerusalem for the Palestinians from the citys surrounding villages and also keeps Palestinian security and borders in the hands of Israel.

There seems to be consensus among the Palestinian leadership that Trumps plan, as it stands today, is something that no Palestinian leader could accept. Abbas himself has said that the plans objective is to destroy the Palestinian national project.

Edward Said described the Oslo Accords as a Palestinian surrender, a Palestinian Versailles 25 years ago, so what should we call Trumps deal of the century? A mini-Palestine is perhaps the correct term, as it will only consist of Gaza and 50 percent of the West Bank  together amounting to no more than 11.5 percent of historic Palestine.

Last month, Nicky Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, said that the plan wont be loved by either side, but so far there has been little, if any, critique in Israel against it. In fact, the plan seems to give Israel everything it wants. Trumps plan as it stands today should be seen as a combination of several earlier Israeli proposals: the 1967 Allon Plan (in which Israel sought to control the West Banks outer borders, except for a small corridor, and keep valuable territories but not major Palestinian population centers), the 1977 Likud autonomy plan (which sought autonomy for the Palestinian population but not for the territory), and the 2009 Mofaz plan (which sought to establish a Palestinian state with temporary borders on 60 percent of the West Bank, that, according to Mofaz, would have included 99 percent of the West Banks Palestinian population).

The latest round of leaks also implies that Trumps peace plan will go ahead with or without the PAs approval. This would mean a unilateral Israeli withdrawal from parts of the West Bank if the Palestinians reject the plan, as they are widely expected to do. A unilateral Israeli withdrawal from parts of the West Bank is precisely what the INSS, the leading centre-left Israeli think-tank, has long advocated for.

In this context, it is worth remembering that a similar discussion to this one took place nearly 15 years ago, when Israel decided to unilaterally disengage from Gaza. Back then, when Ariel Sharon presented his plan to unilaterally disengage from Gaza, because he did not want to negotiate an agreement with Abbas, whom he called a plucked chicken, many analysts said the Palestinians and the international community would not accept the legitimacy of the unilateral disengagement plan. But they all did. Gaza immediately became a valued prize for the rival Palestinian factions, the EU provided monitors for the Rafah crossing in southern Gaza, and Sharons image was transformed in many parts of the world from a war criminal to a celebrated statesman. Could something like this happen this time as well?

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It is important to note that it is still unclear whether a mini-Palestine on 50 percent of the West Bank is Trumps final bid. The first year of the Trump presidency has shown that he is a leader with an unprecedented ability to reverse himself. His many firings and hirings testify to this, and it is still unclear what his latest hiring, the ultra-hawk John Bolton as national security adviser, will mean for Trumps peace plan.

On the one hand, Bolton does not, at all, believe in the two-state solution, and less than a year ago he said that there is no chance President Donald Trump will secure a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians. But, given the unpredictability of the president, it is difficult, at this stage, to predict how much influence Bolton will have on the peace plan.

If Trumps peace plan is as bad for the Palestinians as the recent leaks suggest, then its publication and perhaps unilateral implementation will lead to a much-needed reckoning for all other parties involved; for the Palestinians themselves, for the neighbouring Arab states, for the UN, for the EU, for Russia, for China, for the BDS movement, for liberal Jewish groups in the US and for all others in the international community. This is not necessarily a bad thing for the Palestinians. It may finally unleash the Palestinian mass non-violent resistance that so many have called for, and it may lead the EU to become more assertive in the conflict. If the US tries to impose such a disastrous solution, Russia and China may also feel the need to react.

For now, there is only one thing we know for sure: If Trumps peace plan is implemented, it will end the present status quo, which, everybody knows, is not a real status quo, but a constantly deteriorating situation for the Palestinians.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.
Ex-president, who is in Ivory Coast, accused of authorising the killings of unarmed protesters in October 2014 uprising.

A closely-watched trial of Burkina Fasos Blaise Compaore, former president, and members of his cabinet is under way in the capital, Ouagadougou.

Compaore, who fled to neighbouring Ivory Coast during a popular revolt in 2014 against his attempts to change the constitution and extend his 27-year-rule, is being tried in absentia.

Along with 34 ex-government ministers, Compaore faces assassination charges for allegedly authorising the use of force against unarmed protesters during the uprising that toppled him, killing at least 24 people.

READ MORE: Coup attempt thwarted, says Burkina Fasos government

Al Jazeeras Nicolas Haque, reporting on Monday from outside the court in Ouagadougou, said defence lawyers had launched an appeal questioning the format of the trial.

The judges who were nominated by the national assembly are in fact politicians belonging to the ruling party, he said, adding that a separate appeal had also been launched by the lawyers of the victims.

They [victims] say they want to be represented in this trial  at the moment they are not, as they are being represented by the prosecution, Haque said.

Important moment

Some Burkinabes say they are disappointed that the post-Compaore government led by Roch Marc Kabore has not delivered on its reform pledges and express regret at Compaores absence.

Still, they welcomed the opening of the trial  the first in a series of cases being investigated to be brought to trial.

What most people here want is to see Compaore himself to take part in this trial, Haque said.

So its really an important moment for people in Burkina Faso  not only for justice but also to record the history of actually what happened during that uprising in October 2014.
Authorities appeal to residents in at-risk areas to evacuate and take shelter in schools.

Emergency officials in Niger say torrential rains have destroyed hundreds of houses outside the capital, Niamey.

Colonel Aboubacar Bako, director general of civil protection and disasters, was quoted by the Associated Press news agency as saying on Tuesday that residents were forced to evacuate after several days of heavy downpours.

Bako said the rains began on Saturday in the capital and surrounding areas.





According to Nigers government, the rains have killed at least 44 people in Niamey and other parts of the West African country since June.

Images posted on social media showed dirt roads turned to puddles of mud, making it difficult for vehicles to navigate Niamey, a city of more than a million people.

Saley Abdouhe, the head of Gabougoura village, has appealed to residents in at-risk areas to evacuate and take shelter in schools.

Abdouhe said the main cause of flooding is the obstruction of drainage channels.

Some neighbourhoods have dug ravines to ease the damage.

The government said it is providing emergency food assistance to the victims, while aid organisations are providing shelter and other immediate help.

OPINION: EU should invest in development, not security in Africa

Some schools in the area have been turned into evacuation centres, according to news reports.

Last year more than 50 people were also reported killed from flooding.

Niamey lies along the Niger River, making it vulnerable to flooding every year.
Alton Sterling shooting: No criminal charges for US police

Decision to clear the two white officers comes as another investigation gets under way into the killing of Stephon Clark, an unarmed black man who was fatally shot in Sacramento last week.
California is suing the Donald Trump administration for its decision to ask respondents to the 2020 census about their citizenship status, state Attorney General Xavier Becerra said Tuesday.

The lawsuit, filed late Monday, is the latest development as California and Washington exchange lawsuits against one another. The Trump administration previously sued California for its refusal to assist federal immigration efforts.

But a decision Monday night by the Commerce Department to reinstate a citizenship question on the 2020 census prompted California to take legal action.

The Constitution of the United States requires the actual Enumeration of the people in every state every decade, said Eric Holder, former Attorney General of California.

Here's the lawsuit we filed last night against @realdonaldtrump's #census2020 decision. #California simply has too much to lose for us to allow his Administration to botch this obligation! #citizenship pic.twitter.com/Kp1WWJ3jC8  Xavier Becerra (@AGBecerra) March 27, 2018

Failed to learn

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra tweeted that during World War II, the federal govt. used #Census data to identify Japanese-American families for internment. But the #Trump Administration has failed to learn again from history. Theyve failed to learn the consequences of scaring people 

Central to the states opposition are concerns that requiring respondents to verify their legal status could ward off non-citizen respondents from taking part in the 10-year tally, and could result in an inaccurate count of populations that would have rippling effects.

An accurate census count sets in motion the services and benefits that shape the future of every Californian. The census constitutes the backbone for planning how and where our communities will invest taxpayer dollars, Becerra said in an earlier statement.

During World War II, the federal govt. used #Census data to identify Japanese-American families for internment. But the #Trump Administration has failed to learn again from history. Theyve failed to learn the consequences of scaring people #2020Census  Xavier Becerra (@AGBecerra) March 27, 2018

Becerra tweeted that the citizenship question on the national census is illegal and that the constitution requires the federal government to get an actual count of all the people in this country  citizen and non-citizen.

A citizenship question was on decennial censuses from 1820 up until 1950, the Commerce Department confirmed in announcing the decision. But White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders inaccurately claimed on Tuesday that it has been on every survey from 1965 until 2010.

This is a question thats been included in every census since 1965, with the exception of 2010 when it was removed, she told reporters.

The question has been on the ongoing American Community Survey, but has not been on the full-form 10-year poll for nearly 70 years.

Critically important

The official decennial survey is critically important. In addition to using its data to determine resource allocation, the information collected determines how congressional districts are redrawn every decade.

The Trump administration has maintained that it is reinstating a citizenship question in order to better enforce the Voting Rights Act, but skeptics have warned it has far more to do with ensuring Democratic states have less polling power.

Holder, the Attorney General, who now works for the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, threatened litigation to stop the Trump administration.

The addition of a citizenship question to the census questionnaire is a direct attack on our representative democracy, Holder said in a statement. This question will lower the response rate and undermine the accuracy of the count, leading to devastating, decade-long impacts on voting rights and the distribution of billions of dollars in federal funding.
Call for restrictions on shark fishing in Indonesia

Scientists say law enforcement has been weak and more needs to be done to enforce the export ban and protect vulnerable shark species.
Catalonias former education minister hands herself over to authorities after European arrest warrant was issued.

Clara Ponsati, Catalonias former education minister, has turned herself in to authorities in Scotland and is facing extradition to Spain.

She arrived voluntarily at an Edinburgh police station on Wednesday before being formally arrested.

Spanish authorities have accused her of rebellion and misuse of public funds, and the Supreme Court of Spain issued a European arrest warrant for her and a number of separatist leaders.

Ponsatis lawyer, Aamer Anwar, said she views the charges  which carry a maximum penalty of 25 years in jail  as political persecution.

The Spanish government denies it is prosecuting the Catalan separatists for their political beliefs and says their actions violated the Spanish constitution.

I can confirm @ClaraPonsati has been arrested & the extradition hearing at Edinburgh Sheriff Court is likely 2take place earlier than expected btw 130 & 2pm- Clara is in good spirits & greatful 4all support #Cataloniahttps://t.co/Lwi2rGLweG pic.twitter.com/lacrtolqXJ  Aamer Anwar#BlackLivesMatter (@AamerAnwar) March 28, 2018

Former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont, who faces similar charges, was taken into custody in Germany on Sunday.

Ponsati is a professor at the University of St Andrews in Scotland and fled Spain with Puigdemont after Catalonias referendum on declaring independence from Spain in November 2017.

Ponsati was later freed on bail at Edinburgh Sheriff Court, leaving to cheers from a throng of supporters outside waving the estelada Catalan independence flag.

Clara wishes for me to state that these charges are politically motivated and a grotesque distortion of the truth. She cannot believe that she is being held responsible for the violence that took place on the day of the referendum, Anwar said outside court.

Ponsatis next hearing was set for April 12. A crowdfunding page set up to pay her legal costs has already raised 165,000 pounds ($232,600).

The University of St Andrews said it was deeply concerned about Ponsatis potential extradition.

We believe there are legitimate arguments that Clara is being targeted for standing up for her political beliefs, the university said in a statement.

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said her government would cooperate with Madrid, but added it supported the right of the Catalan people to determine their future.

Protests in Catalonia

The Catalan regional administration has been under direct rule by Madrid and news of Puigdemonts arrest prompted demonstrations in Barcelona, which ended in clashes with the police.

About 90 people were slightly injured during the protests, including 22 police officers.

On Tuesday, demonstrators blocked the main roads in Catalonia to protest Puigdemonts arrest and the jailing of nine other separatist leaders in Spain.

The Catalan parliament passed a symbolic motion on Wednesday affirming the right of Puigdemont to be re-elected to his old job.

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It approved two resolutions put forward by separatist parties to defend the political rights of politicians who are in pre-trial custody or in exile.

Pro-independence parties used their slim majority to approve the motion and continued their defiance of the central Spanish government.

Puigdemont, detained by German police at the border with Denmark, is currently awaiting his extradition trial.

A German court has ordered him to remain in jail while a decision is pending on an extradition request from Spain.
Kim Jong-un ready to give up nuclear weapons if S Korea, US respond with goodwill, Beijing says after landmark visit.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has pledged to denuclearise the Korean Peninsula during his first meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, according to Chinas state news agency.

Xinhua on Wednesday quoted Kim saying that the issue could be resolved if South Korea and the United States respond to Pyongyangs efforts with goodwill.

It is our consistent stand to be committed to denuclearisation on the peninsula, in accordance with the will of late President Kim Il-sung and late General Secretary Kim Jong-il, Kim said, referring to his grandfather and father, according to the statement issued by Chinas foreign ministry.

The issue of denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula can be resolved, if South Korea and the United States respond to our efforts with goodwill, create an atmosphere of peace and stability while taking progressive and synchronous measures for the realisation of peace.

Kim was also reported to have reaffirmed his willingness to meet US President Donald Trump. It was the first official mention of the planned event by North Korea.

Xi held talks with Kim at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing [Xinhua via AP]

China and North Korea both confirmed that Kim had visited Beijing and met Xi during what Chinas foreign ministry called an unofficial visit to China from Sunday to Wednesday.

Xi held talks with Kim at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, and he and his wife Peng Liyuan hosted a banquet for Kim and his wife Ri Sol-ju, Xinhua said. They also watched an art performance together, according to the news agency.

The China visit was Kims first known trip outside North Korea since he assumed power in 2011 and is believed by analysts to be a preparation for upcoming summits with South Korea and the US.

North Koreas KCNA news agency made no mention of Kims pledge to denuclearise, or his anticipated meeting with Trump that is planned for sometime in May.

The White House said the Chinese government contacted them on Tuesday to tell US officials about Kims visit to China.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, White House spokeswoman, said the briefing included a personal message from President Xi to President Trump, which was conveyed to the president. She did not say what that message entailed.

Baik Tae-hyun, South Korean unification ministry spokesperson, said the meeting has helped set the right tone for the upcoming talks.

I think improvement in the North Korea-China relationship ahead of the inter-Korean summit and US-North Korea summit, will be helpful in solving the problem in the Korean Peninsula, such as denuclearisation and establishment of peace.
Chinese mining company accused of destroying Mozambique village

Severe flooding, caused by irresponsible sand mining, according to Amnesty International, swept 48 homes out to sea in 2015 and damaged 170 other buildings.
Human rights groups and local authorities fear another uptick in refugee arrivals could worsen living conditions.

Athens, Greece  Local authorities and human rights groups have expressed concern after an estimated 300 refugees and migrants reportedly reached the Greek island of Lesbos in a 24-hour period.

On Wednesday, the Greek daily Ekathimerini reported that eight boats carrying more than 300 people had reached the Greek island since Tuesday.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, the office of Lesbos Mayor Spiros Galinos confirmed an uptick in arrivals but was unable to provide an exact number.

We have heard from the police that there were boats yesterday and today in Lesbos, said Marios Andriotis, the mayors spokesperson.

Andriotis added the arrivals will exacerbate the already declining humanitarian conditions on the island, where the overpopulation in [Moria refugee camp] has been causing issues both inside the camp and outside in the surrounding communities.

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More than 5,300 refugees and migrants are currently stuck in Moria camp in Lesbos, where overcrowding, poor living conditions and tensions with local Greek communities have prompted concern among human rights groups and aid organisations.

Moria is equipped to accommodate around 2,000 people.

Most asylum seekers on Greek islands are barred from travelling to the mainland without receiving permission from authorities.

End the containment policy

Eva Cosse, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, warned that the Greek government should end the containment policy on Greek islands because it is not a sustainable solution.

We fear that now, as the weather becomes better, well see large numbers of people arriving, she told Al Jazeera. The situation is already problematic, but it could become even worse.

At least 13,289 refugees and migrants have reached Europe by crossing the Mediterranean Sea so far this year, according to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR). Of that total, some 4,286 have landed in Greece.

Some 489 have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean Sea thus far in 2018, according to the UNHCR.

In 2017, the Greek government received 58,661 asylum applications, according to the migration ministrys statistics. Since the start of 2018, at least 8,815 asylum applications have been submitted.

In March 2016, the European Union and Turkey struck a deal to stem the flow of refugees and migrants to Europe.

That deal was lambasted by rights groups and critics who said it effectively turned Greece into a warehouse for asylum seekers.

As a result of the agreement, tens of thousands of people fleeing war and economic devastation were stranded in Greece.

On March 17, a boat carrying refugees capsized while en route to Greece from Turkey. The Greek coastguard subsequently found 16 bodies, among them children.

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In a press release published that same day, Greeces migration minister, Dimitris Vitsas, said there was an urgent need for a solution to the ongoing humanitarian crisis.

We cant tolerate losing children in the Aegean Sea  The solution is to protect people, to implement safe procedures and safe routes for migrants and refugees, to hit the human trafficking circuits, Vitsas said in the statement, as reported by Ekathimerini at the time.
Both fines and incentives were used by Egyptian authorities to encourage a high voter turnout to show legitimacy.

Cairo, Egypt  Polls closed after a three-day presidential election that incumbent Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is set to easily win, but questions remained whether enough voters showed up to lend it legitimacy.

Polling stations remained quiet throughout Wednesday with only a few people trickling in to periodically cast their ballots.

A prosecutor who oversaw one station in a Cairo suburb said voter turnout on the last day had been slightly lower than the first two, when numbers were estimated at well below the 47 percent of the electorate who backed Sisi during the last election in 2014.

Only 1,306 people out of a total of 4,600 eligible voters have so far cast their vote, the prosecutor, who requested anonymity for fear of repercussions, told Al Jazeera.

Sisi had urged high voter participation among the nearly 60 million eligible voters to affirm his legitimacy after all credible opponents dropped out in January, citing intimidation by authorities after his main challenger was jailed.

Lasheen Ibrahim, head of the national election commission, urged Egyptians on state television to come out and vote.

Declare to the world that Egypt always makes history, for you are the Pharaohs, the makers of the civilisation that amazed the world. Oh great people of Egypt, complete the journey of the past two days as you have always presented the best example of faithful patriotism and stabbed the forces of evil in the chest, said Ibrahim.

The election commission has already declared the vote was free and fair.





The election that kicked off on Monday has been largely viewed as a referendum on Sisis performance. He ran against one of his supporters, Moussa Mustafa Moussa, a little-known politician who had endorsed him for a second term, and even organised events to help nominate the former military leader.

Carrots and sticks

In a push to increase voter turnout, Egypts state news agency reminded Egyptians on Wednesday morning that failing to vote was an offence punishable by fines of up to $28, a threat rarely acted on in previous elections.

Commenting on the statement, Magdy*, 34, said: They [the Egyptian authorities] said that last time and nothing happened.

They obviously expected the turnout to be low so they said that to make people fearful of not voting. They thought that [the warnings] might push them to vote, potentially increasing the numbers.

Maha*, who told Al Jazeera she did not vote because she thought the election was useless, said: Id rather pay the [fine] because I dont think it is worth wasting hours of my day. This is more of a referendum than an election.

A video shared on Twitter on Tuesday showed a representative of the Egyptian Ministry of Education telling teachers at a school that they must show proof of their vote by signing a card that would be sent to the authorities using their inked fingertips.

Sticks were reinforced with carrots. Egyptian voters said they had received food, payments and other incentives to go to the polls.

A school compound housing several polling stations in the working-class district of Dar al-Salam in Cairo [Al Jazeera]

Spoiled votes and boycotts

Despite the threats and incentives, however, it was clear many Egyptians decided to boycott the election or spoil ballots.

Everyone has been talking about his achievements, but Im not having any of it. Our salaries are low and I havent seen any improvements in my sector, Maria*, a 38-year-old doctor, who marked an X for both candidates, told Al Jazeera.

There has been no serious competition and we all know he is winning anyway, she added.

Shukri*, 24, from downtown Cairo, told Al Jazeera the election had been useless.

He [Sisi] is going to rule anyway, even if no one elects him. He will also change the constitution and replace the laws to allow him to remain in office, he said.

Meanwhile, other people celebrated in the streets of Cairo as voting came to a close.

Loudspeakers outside polling stations blasted patriotic songs as men and women carrying Egyptian flags danced to the music.

Sisi is a strong and courageous man. It is enough that he is fighting terrorism in Sinai, said 56-year-old Antoine*, who cast his ballot for Sisi in the working-class neighbourhood of Dar al-Salam in southern Cairo.

Sisi said he has brought security and stability to the country during his four-year presidency, highlighting the war waged on armed groups.

He also noted his role as army chief in leading the military coup in 2013 that overthrew Egypts first freely elected President Mohamed Morsi, who is now languishing in a prison.





However, Sisi has struggled to defeat groups linked to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the Sinai Peninsula, which gained strength after Morsis overthrow, with regular attacks on security forces and deadly church bombings.

An attack on a mosque in November killed more than 300 people  the worst attack in Egypts modern history.

But like Antoine, Amany*, a 60-year-old housewife from downtown Cairo, agreed that Sisi was the right choice for Egypt.

We have known him [Sisi] for four years and we know that hes done many achievements. We should continue the journey with him and be patient, she said.

*Names have been changed for security purposes
Egypt offers bribes to voters amid low turnout fears

Voters in Egypt have less than an hour to cast their ballots in the presidential election or risk a fine.
Former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi is being imprisoned in standards lower than those sanctioned by international law, which could lead to an early death, a panel of British MPs and lawyers said.

In a report released on Wednesday, the Detention Review Panel (DRP), which was commissioned by Morsis family, said the former leader is receiving inadequate medical care, particularly inadequate management of his diabetes, and inadequate management of his liver disease.

The consequence of this inadequate care is likely to be rapid deterioration of his long-term conditions, which is likely to lead to premature death, it said.

The panel said the conditions of his detention could meet the threshold for torture in Egyptian and international law. It added that President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi could, in principle, be responsible for the crime of torture.

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Morsi, 67, was democratically elected after Egypts 2011 revolution. He was then deposed following mass protests and a military coup in July 2013.

He served just one year of a four-year term, while the organisation to which he belonged, the Muslim Brotherhood, has since been outlawed.

Since his removal, Morsi has been tried in several different cases.

In April 2015, he was sentenced to 20 years on charges of ordering the arrest and torture of protesters in clashes outside the presidential palace in 2012.

In September 2016, he was sentenced to another 25 years in prison on charges of passing intelligence to Qatar. In December 2017, Morsi was also sentenced to three years on charges of insulting the judiciary.

He is now being held at the infamous Tora Prison, also known as Scorpion Prison, where the DRP said he had been held in solitary confinement for about three years.

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The panel, led by MP Crispin Blunt, said it was able to gather information about Morsis detention from several sources, including testimony from Morsis son as well as medical professionals informed of the former presidents condition.

The DRP had originally requested to visit Morsi and assess his detention conditions firsthand, but the panel said it did not hear back from the Egyptian government.

The release of the report cames as Egypt wrapped up a three-day presidential election, which el-Sisi is expected to win easily.

The National Election Authority cleared el-Sisi and Moussa Mustafa Moussa to run.

Mousa is a little-known politician who joined the race at the last minute after several potential candidates were forced out or arrested.

Mousa had endorsed el-Sisi for a second term and even organised events to help nominate the former military chief up until a week before the nomination deadline.
France honours policeman killed in supermarket attack

Lieutenant Colonel Arnaud Beltrame swapped places with a hostage during the supermarket attack in Trebes, saving her life, but losing his own.
Greek Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades has hailed as unprecedented the European Unions condemnation of Turkey for blocking his governments search for offshore oil and gas of the divided island.

Anastasiades spoke in reaction to a statement made by EU leaders on Thursday, condemning Turkey for blocking of a private drill ship off Cyprus in February.

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For the first time, there is an unprecedented strong condemnation of Turkeys continuing illegal activity in the eastern Mediterranean, which of course includes the Exclusive Economic Zone of Cyprus, Anastasiades told an oil and gas forum in Nicosia.

I would like to express my satisfaction with the strong expression of solidarity by the EU, he added.

Following the meeting in Bulgaria, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said it was indispensable for Turkey to improve its relationship with Greece and Cyprus.

Three days before that meeting, the European Council, made up of leaders of the EU member states, called on Turkey to respect the sovereign rights of Cyprus to explore and exploit its natural resources in accordance with the EU and international law.

Ankara slams EU

Turkey harshly condemned the statement by the European Council.

Such wordings solely based on the Greek Cypriot and Greek claims are unacceptable and create an opportunity for some other countries to hide behind them as well, the Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement on Friday, adding the EU cannot be an objective actor on the Cyprus dispute.

Turkey has vowed to prevent the Greek Cypriot-licensed companies from exploring for oil or gas around the island, claiming that some areas of Cyprus offshore exclusive economic zone fall under its jurisdiction or that of Turkish Cypriots.

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In February, Turkeys navy blocked a drill ship of Italian company Eni from entering a zone off Cypruss east coast, which the European Council called illegal.

The Turkish Cypriot side, through a Turkey-based state-owned company, is set to also start exploration and exploitation of natural gas and oil reserves off Cyprus, unless the Greek Cypriots halt their own activities in the same manner.

We will continue to monitor the Greek Cypriot actions on the hydrocarbon issue and take balancing moves in order to protect the legitimate rights of the Turkish Cypriots, Ozdil Nami, the Turkish Cypriot economy and energy minister, told Al Jazeera in a recent interview.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey militarily intervened on the island in response to a brief Greek-inspired coup. Ankara said it acted in line with a treaty of guarantee, signed in 1960 when the Republic of Cyprus was founded.

Since the establishment of the de facto Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, the north has been described as occupied part of Cyprus by the UN Security Council.

Repeated diplomatic efforts to end the partition have failed, as did the latest attempt to reunify the island through talks held in Switzerland in July, despite efforts by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Human Rights Watch urges better labour treatment in Thailand as court fines British activist US$312,500 for defamation.

A Thai courts $312,500 libel verdict against a British human rights activist reporting on labour abuses in the country will have a chilling effect on others defending migrant workers, a rights group said.

UK citizen Andy Hall was found guilty of defamation in a civil suit brought by Thailands pineapple tinning company, Natural Fruit.

The court in the capital Bangkok ordered the 35-year-old to pay Natural Fruit 10 million Thai baht (US$312,500) in damages, in addition to legal and court fees  a decision condemned by Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Wednesday.

The US-based rights group urged the Thai government to publicly oppose the use of retaliatory defamation cases resulting in excessive awards.

Massive libel damages for reporting on human rights violations will undermine desperately needed research on labour abuses in Thailand, Brad Adams, Asia director at HRW, said in a statement.

The Thai government should recognise that the countrys reputation and economy are better served by ending the mistreatment of migrant workers and ensuring compliance with international labour standards than by embracing a legal system that hands down ridiculous damage awards.





Mondays ruling was one of four defamation cases filed by Natural Fruit against Hall following his research into the company.

It filed the complaints after Hall gave an interview to Al Jazeera in April 2013, alleging abuses of migrant workers from neighbouring Myanmar in the Thai companys pineapple processing factory.

Halls research found evidence of labour trafficking, child labour, violence against workers, and other abuses at its plant in the central province of Prachuap Khiri Khan.

The investigation was carried out on behalf of the Finnish NGO Finnwatch.

Following Mondays ruling, Hall expressed his disappointment and vowed to appeal the shocking decision.

This verdict is a major setback for rights and liberties of human rights defenders, migrant workers, labour/migration activists and researchers everywhere and casts a dark shadow over recent pertinent and practical positive progress the Thai government and Thai industry has made to improve migrant worker conditions, he said in a statement on Tuesday.
Thousands will gather in tent cities on the Palestinian side of the border to protest for the right of return.

The Israeli military has deployed more than 100 snipers, with permission to fire, on the Gaza border, before a planned mass Palestinian demonstration near Gazas border with Israel, the Israeli top general said in an interview published on Wednesday.

We have deployed more than 100 sharpshooters who were called up from all of the militarys units, primarily from the special forces  If lives are in jeopardy, there is permission to open fire, Lieutenant-General Gadi Eizenkot, the militarys chief of staff, told the Israeli Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.

Land day

The annual Land Day protest is set to begin on March 30, a symbolic day in which six Arab citizens of Israel were killed by Israeli forces during demonstrations in 1976 over Israeli land confiscations.

The six-week long protest is for the right of return of Palestinian refugees to their homes in what is now Israel.

The protest is due to end on May 15, the day Palestinians call the Nakba or Catastrophe, marking the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the conflict surrounding the creation of Israel in 1948.

Palestinians have long demanded that as many as five million direct descendants of the original Palestinian refugees be given the right to return to their ancestral homes. Israel rules this out, arguing that the return of Palestinians to what is now Israel would outnumber its Jewish majority.

The protest is supported by several Palestinian political parties, including Hamas, organisers said.

It is expected that thousands in the besieged Gaza will gather in tent cities in five locations on the Palestinian side of the border, away from the no go zone.

The Israeli military enforces a no go zone for Palestinians on land in Gaza adjacent to Israels fenced border.

Palestinian protestors on the Gaza side of the border have been frequently confronted by the Israeli soldiers using tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition.
At least 55 Hamas supporters arrested in aftermath of explosion that targeted PM convoy in Gaza Strip.

Dozens of Hamas supporters and activists have been detained in the West Bank over the past two weeks following an attack on the Palestinian Authority (PA) prime ministers convoy in Gaza on March 13.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused Hamas of being behind the attack on Rami Hamdallahs motorcade, calling it an assassination attempt.

Hamas denied the allegations and said it was launching an investigation to uncover who was behind the blast.

Almost two weeks after the attack, two suspects were killed in an operation carried out by Hamas security forces. They were identified as Anas Abu Khousa and Abdul Hadi al-Ashab, unaffiliated with any Palestinian political faction.

The attack and the subsequent recriminations marked a serious deterioration in relations between Hamas and the PA.

So far, at least 55 Palestinians have been arrested as part of a crackdown by the PA on Hamas supporters.

Arrests must stop

Hasan Khreisheh, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council in the West Bank, told Al Jazeera that the arrest campaign by PA security forces is incomprehensible and unjustified.

These arrests must be stopped in favour for a Palestinian united front to take a stance against the bigger issues at hand, such as US President Donald Trumps decision to move his countrys embassy to Jerusalem, Khreisheh said.

If the PA is serious about confronting these real issues, then they should stop the arrests, he continued. In light of what the Palestinian cause is going through, political detention deepens unreasonable disputes.

The MP said the PA leadership and other factions must intervene to stop the political arrests.

Strained relations

Fatah, the ruling party within the PA, and Hamas signed a reconciliation agreement in October 2017, ending a decade of division that saw two parallel governments operating in Gaza and the West Bank, respectively.

But the deal was never fully implemented due to differences within the two political factions, which are the largest in Palestinian politics.

Analysts said the attack on Hamdallahs convoy was intended to put a strain on reconciliation efforts.

Abdelsattar Qassam, a Palestinian analyst and professor of political science at the an-Najah University in Nablus, accused the PA of practicing tyranny.

Political arrests in the West Bank represents an assault on peoples freedom of expression and in the formation of public opinion, he told Al Jazeera.

Qassem pointed out that the Palestinian reconciliation cannot take place under the Oslo agreement, which he considers the source of civil infighting and rivalry among the Palestinians.

The reconciliation is a theatre play whose objective is to entertain and waste time, he said.

As Palestinians, the solution right now is to hold elections, as it is the only option capable of bringing in a new leadership that will deal with the Palestinian people in a new way.
Statement comes after Ankara threatened to intervene if the Iraqi operation against fighters in Sinjar region failed.

Iraqi armed forces will prevent Kurdish fighters based in northern Iraq from staging cross-border attacks against Turkey, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said.

Abadis office said the prime minister relayed this message to his Turkish counterpart Binali Yildirim in a phone call on Tuesday.

Ankara had threatened on Sunday to intervene directly if the Iraqi operation against the fighters based in the border region of Sinjar failed.

Turkey has long complained that fighters of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) are being given free rein to operate out of Sinjar and other border areas in Iraq against Turkish targets. The PKK has waged a decades-long armed fight against the Turkish state that has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people.

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Iraqi security forces have been instructed not to allow the presence of foreign fighters in the border region, Abadis office quoted him as telling Yildirim in their conversation.

The chief of Iraqs military General Staff, Lieutenant General Othman al-Ghanmi, echoed that message during an inspection tour on Tuesday of troops deployed in Sinjar, the state-run news website Iraqi Media Network reported.

The Iraqi army is in full control of Sinjar and the border strip with Turkey, it quoted him as saying.

On Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkeys intelligence chief would meet an Iraqi official to discuss the Iraqi military operation in Sinjar.

We hope that the Iraqi central government will carry out this operation in Sinjar properly, Erdogan said, adding that Turkey would do what is necessary if the Iraqi governments operation failed.

He said that Ankara was following developments regarding the operation in question, hinting that a cross-border operation is on the table.

PKK announces withdrawal

Turkish forces are currently waging a full-scale military operation in the Afrin region of northern Syria against the US-backed Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) that Ankara says has close ties to the PKK.

The Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK)  an organisation seen as the PKKs umbrella group  quoted by Iraqi Kurdish media last week, announced the withdrawal of the PKK fighters from Sinjar, saying that the Yazidi minority there did not face a security threat any more. The announcement followed Turkeys ultimatum over intervening in Sinjar.

The PKK says it entered Sinjar in 2014 to help defend the Yazidi people against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS).
Malaysian lawmakers vote overwhelmingly in favour of a bill to redraw constituency boundaries despite an outcry.

Malaysian lawmakers voted to redraw the electoral map in what critics decried as a move to rig an upcoming election, sparking angry protests outside parliament and fury from the opposition within.

The vote is expected within weeks and Prime Minister Najib Razak is battling to keep his long-ruling coalition in power, despite allegations that billions of dollars were looted from a sovereign wealth fund he founded.

Najib is also facing a tough challenge from an opposition headed by veteran former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, 92, who is seeking to win over the governments traditional support base of rural Muslim voters.

Najib told parliament the changes were necessary because of significant demographic changes in the country of 32 million people since the last boundary alteration in 2003.

After a heated debate in parliament, which is dominated by Najibs ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, lawmakers voted overwhelmingly in favour of the bill to redraw constituency boundaries  despite concerns it will unfairly tilt the election in Najibs favour.

Opposition lawmakers got to their feet and jeered at the ruling coalition MPs.

Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, deputy leader of the opposition coalition Pact of Hope and wife of jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, told AFP news agency the electoral overhaul was scandalous.

We believe an election victory may be stolen from us, she said.





The opposition and critics say the proposed electoral boundaries would benefit BN by stuffing a large number of opposition-leaning voters into fewer seats and dividing constituencies along racial lines.

The changes must now be given royal assent, but that is expected to happen quickly.

Kleptocracy

Lawmaker Liang Teck Meng, whose party is a member of the ruling coalition, told parliament the opposition opposed the changes as they know they will not get the mandate of the people to rule the country.

Hundreds of protesters marched to parliament as the bill was tabled, waving banners that read stealing an election is not winning an election, and were joined by Mahathir who denounced the changes as kleptocracy.

These coming elections will most certainly not be clean, he told the rally.

Activists and opposition leaders were blocked from entering parliament by riot police. This is the biggest cheating to ever happen, said activist Maria Chin Abdullah.

Bridget Welsh, a Southeast Asia expert at John Cabot University in Rome, said the move to redraw electoral lines could affect at least one-third of the 222 parliamentary seats and six of the 13 state assemblies.

It could potentially help Najibs coalition, which now holds 132 parliamentary seats, win back a two-thirds majority, said Welsh.

A controversy over state fund 1MDB has dogged Najibs administration, with the US Justice Department alleging $4.5bn was stolen in a campaign of fraud and money-laundering.

Najib and 1MDB have denied any wrongdoing.
In a letter sent to UN Security Council, Doha details yet another violation committed by Bahraini air force.

Qatar has addressed a letter to the UN Security Council and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, voicing concern over renewed violations of its airspace by the Bahraini government.

A Qatari foreign ministry press release said on Tuesday the letter relayed Dohas concerns about the serious and flagrant violation of international law.

The statement said Qatar reserved the right to take the necessary measures to defend its sovereignty in accordance with international provisions.

The violations, which occurred on Sunday, were the latest of several such incidents in recent months.

An Emirati military aircraft overflew Qatars territorial waters on January 14 without Dohas authorisation.

On February 25, another Emirati aircraft approached Qatari borders before receiving warnings and switching course.

Emirati and Bahraini military aircraft had similarly overflown Qatars exclusive economic zone on March 10 before being intercepted by a Qatari fighter jet.

On March 15, Qatars Permanent Representative to the UN, Alya Ahmed bin Saif Al Thani, addressed a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the president of the UN Security Council, Karel Van Oosterom, saying a UAE military cargo plane violated Qatari airspace on March 4.

On March 26, the UAE alleged that two Qatari fighter jets approached two of its registered commercial aircraft while flying over Bahraini airspace.

A day later, on March 27, Qatar denied that its air force had intercepted two UAE passenger flights on March 26. Qatars Civil Aviation Authority (QCAA) said the Emirati statement was an attempt to cover up the UAEs multiple breaches of Qatari airspace.

A quartet of countries: Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the UAE imposed an economic blockade on Qatar on June 5, 2017, accusing the latter of supporting terrorism. Qatar has categorically denied the allegations.
Alexandre Bissonnette pleaded guilty for last years deadly attack on a Quebec City mosque that killed six worshipers.

Montreal, Quebec  A Canadian man who stormed a Quebec City mosque last year and shot and killed six Muslim worshipers has pleaded guilty to the charges against him.

Alexandre Bissonnette, 28, had pleaded not guilty previously this week, but formally changed that plea in a Quebec City courtroom on Wednesday.

Im ashamed of what I did, Bissonnette said in court as he read a written statement, Canadian media reported.

I would like to ask for forgiveness for all the pain Ive caused you, he said, referring to the victims and their families, but I know that my actions are unforgivable.

Bissonnette was charged with six counts of first-degree murder and six counts of attempted murder in relation to the attack at the Islamic Cultural Centre in Quebec City on January 29, 2017.

Six men were killed, five others critically wounded, and a total of 19 people suffered injuries in the attack, which took place shortly after evening prayers.

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Aymen Derbali, a now-paralysed father of three who has been described as a hero after he drew the attackers attention on himself and was shot several times, was in the courtroom on Wednesday, the Globe and Mail reported.

The National Council of Canadian Muslims, an advocacy group, said it was extremely relieved by the guilty plea.

It spares the survivors, families and [Quebec City mosque] community from having to relive the horrific attack during what would have been [a] long and excruciating trial, the group said on Twitter.

At the time of the shooting, Justin Trudeau, Canadas prime minister, called it a terrorist attack on Muslims in a centre of worship and refuge.

But Bissonnette was never charged with terrorism or any terrorism-related offences.

Reversing his plea

Bissonnette pleaded not guilty on Monday morning, but reversed that decision by the afternoon, Radio-Canada reported.

Ive chosen to plead guilty. In my heart, Ive been thinking about it for a long time. I want to plead guilty to all the charges to avoid a trial  to avoid having the victims and the families relive the tragedy, he said, according to local newspaper Le Journal de Quebec.

The judge in the case instituted a publication ban on the proceedings shortly thereafter and ordered Bissonnette to undergo a psychological assessment.

The judge formally accepted his guilty plea on Wednesday.

A first-degree murder conviction comes with a mandatory life sentence with no eligibility for parole for 25 years.

If served consecutively, the judge told Bissonnette on Wednesday, he could theoretically spend 150 years in prison, Radio-Canada reported.
Government-affiliated newspaper says troops are mobilised around Douma, the enclaves last remaining rebel stronghold.

Syrian government forces are preparing to launch a huge military operation to capture Douma, the last remaining rebel stronghold in Eastern Ghouta, according to local media.

The government-affiliated al-Watan newspaper reported on Wednesday that troops were dispatched around the town, which is largely controlled by the Jaish al-Islam rebel group.

The mobilisation was preparation of a potential confrontation with the rebels should they fail to evacuate the enclave near Damascus, the report said.

The Russian army, a major ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has been engaged in negotiations with Jaish al-Islam for several days. The talks, however, have so far yielded no result.

An estimated 140,000 people remain inside Douma, with limited access to food, water and medical supplies.

The Douma local council, linked to Jaish al-Islam, on Tuesday issued a statement seen by Al Jazeera, explaining to the residents of the enclave that the armed opposition group had requested from the Russians an extension of the ceasefire and for the flow of aid to resume.

Activists in Douma told Al Jazeera that civilians inside the enclave are extremely exhausted and have lost faith in the negotiations between Russia and the armed opposition.

One activist, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal, told Al Jazeera that some 400 fled Douma through the al-Wafideen camp crossing to government-controlled shelters outside of Eastern Ghouta.

According to the activist, Jaish al-Islam implored the 400 residents to wait until a deal was reached with the Russians, before allowing the residents, some were in desperate need of medical attention, to flee to government-controlled territory.

On February 18, government forces launched a relentless ground and aerial offensive on the enclave in an attempt to drive out rebel groups who had been in control of the Damascus suburb since mid-2013.

Last week, following more than six weeks of bombardment, two rebel groups managed to reach an evacuation deal with the Russian army, which resulted in about 19,000 people leave towards the northern province of Idlib.

Those leaving included fighters from the Faylaq al-Rahman and Ahrar al-Sham rebel groups, their families and other residents.
Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- President Trump on Tuesday signed into law a bill that bans the use of federal funds to pay for painted portraits of federal employees and representatives, to include the president and vice president.



The law won't affect the most famous presidential portraits that are part of the National Portrait Gallery's collection -- like the ones recently unveiled of former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama.



The Obama portraits that recently went on display at the Smithsonian gallery were commissioned through private funds, and according to a National Portrait Gallery spokesperson, every such presidential portrait dating back to George H.W. Bush in 1994 has also been paid for through private dollars.



Among former first ladies, Hillary Clinton was the first to have her portrait privately commissioned in 2006.



Its the collection of portraits, like those of former members of Congress and other notable federal officials that can been seen lining the halls of Congress and other federal buildings, that stand to be more directly impacted going forward.



While the use of federal funds for such portraits has been prohibited on a temporary basis going back to 2014, the new law makes that ban permanent.



The Congressional Budget Office estimates that less than $500,000 in annual discretionary spending will be saved through the ban on using federal money for portraits of federal officials. That figure is based on estimates that less than 20 such portraits have been purchased through federal funds in years past at an average cost of $25,000 per portrait.



ABC News reported back in 2013 that taxpayers has funded nearly $400,000 worth in portraits of government officials in the two previous years alone.



Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, who sponsored the so-called Eliminating Government-funded Oil-painting Act in the Senate, has championed the new law as a matter of fiscal discipline.



The national debt is over $20 trillion. Theres no excuse for spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on paintings of government officials," said Cassidy in a statement following the bill's passage in the Senate.



The president's signature on the bill comes as his administration has been dogged by controversy over reports of big spending by members of his cabinet.







Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
This is a far more political statement, in an overtly partisan way, than we're used to seeing from the U.S. Catholic bishops, so what's going on here?

Last Thursday Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York penned an essay in the Wall Street Journal. The title of the essay, and its subtitle, tells you pretty much all you need to know if you don't subscribe: " The Democrats Abandon Catholics : If you value religious education or life's sanctity, you're not welcome in the party."

For starters, it's helpful to ask: who would have been pleased by this essay, and who would have been...well, let's say displeased?

Let's see...displeased? The Democratic Party  that's a no-brainer. They just lost a presidential election because they lost the heavily Catholic Reagan Democrats in the Midwest. This won't help  not in 2018, not in 2020.

How about the Bergoglio Vatican? Displeased? You'd better believe it. It's a given that Bergoglio personally has no use for the USA, and all you have to do to remind yourself just how virulent that dislike is is reprise the article by Antonio Spadaro, the Jesuit editor of La Civilta Cattolica, a journal reported to be personally vetted by Bergoglio himself. The article is titled "Evangelical Fundamentalism and Catholic Integralism: A Surprising Ecumenism</a>, and you can find an analysis of it by Sam Gregg. The long and the short of it is that Spadaro  and presumably Bergoglio  are disturbed by the ecumenical cooperation between Catholics and Evangelicals. Why? Because they fear the rise of a "theocracy."

Here's how Gregg puts it:

Father Spadaro and Rev. Figueroa correctly observe that many Catholics and Evangelicals have found common cause in recent decades around issues such as "abortion, same-sex marriage, religious education in schools and other matters generally considered moral or tied to values." They then add that "Both Evangelical and Catholic Integralists condemn traditional ecumenism and yet promote an ecumenism of conflict that unites them in the nostalgic dream of a theocratic type of state.

And that's more or less just for starters. Take it from me: Spadaro doesn't like Trump. The dislike begins with the nefarious Norman Vincent Peale officiating at Trump's first marriage and just goes on.

So, we can take it as given that the Vatican 1) wasn't informed in advance that Dolan was writing this essay and 2) is mightily displeased about it. In a sense, Dolan's essay is a follow-on to an earlier snub that the U.S. bishops delivered to Bergoglio at their annual meeting. Back in November 2017, the US bishops rejected Cardinal Cupich  known as "the pope's bishop"  for the leadership of their important and politically sensitive pro-life committee. If Cupich had been elected, that would have been a signal to the Democrats that they could expect a more accommodating line from the Catholic Church. Instead, Cupich was soundly defeated  a poke in the eye for Bergoglio  and a steadfast pro-life bishop was elected instead.

Who is likely to be pleased by all this? Naturally, the Republicans, in a general way. They've tended to benefit strongly from the pro-life vote, but they've never received this pointed an assist from the Catholic bishops in the past. To the contrary, the bishops have tended to maintain an arm's length relationship with the GOP. I say this despite the fact that the GOP is mentioned only once in the essay, and that to point out that in the past Catholics have distrusted Republicans. Nevertheless, the US has a two party system, and if the Catholic Church pointedly states that one of those two parties has abandoned Catholics, well, the implications aren't hard to figure out.

What about Trump? Yeah, he's gotta be pretty pleased by this. With the help of Kellyanne Conway, Trump has courted Catholics from the start of his campaign, and he has followed through with policy accomplishments and appointments in ways that no other president has  no matter their rhetoric. Even though Trump is not mentioned once in Dolan's essay, it's hard to see this as much less than an endorsement. Nuanced it may be, but this initiative could only have been made with the knowledge that it would help Trump. And perhaps with the hint that continued good behavior could lead to more overt support.

Now, I've been referring to Dolan and the Catholic Church as if Dolan were the head of the Church in America, but he's not. Does that change any of the preceding calculations? Does it render his essay a mere expression of personal opinion? I think not. While Dolan is no longer president of the USCCB, he has regularly assumed the position of a spokesman  a natural role for the Cardinal Archbishop of New York. I think this momentous step  and it was, I believe, momentous  was taken only after thorough consultation with other like0minded bishops.

My take is that the calculations that went into this decision are something like this. The Catholic bishops, having studied the politics of this new Trump era, have come to the conclusion that, as shepherds, they need to be with their flocks. And they now know that thir flock is no longer a Democrat flock, and not likely to return to that fold in any definitive way. As a further calculation, I believe that the bishops have recognized that if they lose the moral high ground  in the eyes of their flocks  on the all important social issues, the consequences could be dire. They've already seen how Trump was able to speak over their heads to the faithful. They can't afford to allow that to become a pattern.

The final calculation is that offending Bergoglio is the least of the worries that the American bishops need be concerned about. From this standpoint, Dolan's essay may be a gauntlet thrown in the direction of the Vatican  a warning that the Church needs to take the populist wave sweeping the Western world seriously.

Mark Wauck blogs on religion, philosophy, and FISA at http://meaninginhistory.blogspot.com/.
Discrimination and Segregation: How Trump Can Fix Canada

More than just a poster boy for liberal folly and excess, Justin Trudeau is a segregationist. So was his father. Indeed, Pierre Trudeau is responsible for entrenching in Canada's Constitution provisions of segregation that discriminate against, among others, Americans who come to live in the Province of Quebec, including their descendants. The repeal of these provisions should, I believe, be included as part of current NAFTA negotiations and be a condition upon which the United States consents to any future deal. The New York Times has seen fit to publish an op-ed by a former Mexican cabinet minister calling on human rights provisions to be added to the accord, and there is no reason why this same standard should not be applied to Canada. President Trump should demand that this discrimination against Americans stop.

Trudeau believes in two sets of rights for residents of Canada, segregated by race. Not by skin color  that would be too obvious. But it's a form of racial discrimination acknowledged and recognized not only by the United Nations, but also by the governments of Canada and the United States. And it's a discrimination procedure that lies at the foundation of the now defunct Apartheid system of South Africa, which, in places, is word for word equivalent to the Canadian statute. Where is this law found? The Province of Quebec segregates the rights of all of its residents through the language of education provisions of The Charter of the French Language, commonly referred to as Bill 101 (see, specifically, ss. 72-73). This results in two separate and distinct civil rights categories: a) those with the freedom of choice to send their children to either French-language or English-language publicly funded schools and b) those who can send their children only to French-language publicly funded schools. Unless married to a category (a) Canadian, Americans residing in Quebec fall under category (b) above. The discrimination procedure used to determine placement in either of these two civil rights categories is based upon descent: 1) who one's parents are and 2) what the parents' classification is (i.e., eligibility certificate). This classification is handed down, generation after generation. "Descent" is one of the listed definitions of racial discrimination in article 1 of the United Nations' International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, of which both Canada and the U.S. have been signatories since 1966. Visual inspection of skin color is the commonly understood means of racial discrimination. But descent, in both jurisprudence and codified law, has long held a more stringent standard than mere inspection of skin color  at least under Apartheid. In South Africa, in Moller v. Keimoes School Committee and Another (South Africa Law Reports, A.D., 1911 635), the parents of a child who was accused of not being "white" had three hurdles to overcome in order to maintain their child in a school designated for whites only: (1) visual inspection, (2) associations, and (3) descent. The child easily passed the first two hurdles: he was completely white in appearance, and all his social interactions and associations were with whites. However, one grandparent classified as "colored" was enough, through descent, to hand down this classification to the grandchild, and the grandchild was denied entry into the school. Compare South Africa's descent-based Apartheid statutes with those of Bill 101's descent-based language of education provisions: Statutes of the Union of South Africa; Act No. 18 of 1936 ... "Native" means  any member of any aboriginal race or tribe of Africa ... ; and any person whose father or mother is or was a native in terms of paragraph (a); and any person whose father or mother is or was a native in terms of paragraph (b); and any other person, one or more than one of whose ancestors is or was a native[.] [Emphasis added.] Quebec's Charter of the French Language 72. Instruction in the kindergarten classes and in the elementary and secondary schools shall be in French, except where this chapter allows otherwise. ... 73. The following children, at the request of one of their parents, may receive instruction in English: (1) a child whose father or mother is a Canadian citizen and received elementary instruction in English in Canada, provided that that instruction constitutes the major part of the elementary instruction he or she received in Canada; (2) a child whose father or mother is a Canadian citizen and who has received or is receiving elementary or secondary instruction in English in Canada, and the brothers and sisters of that child, provided that that instruction constitutes the major part of the elementary or secondary instruction received by the child in Canada[.] [Emphasis added.] Quebec discriminates against Americans in a second significant way: Americans falling under category (b), above, cannot transfer to category (a) even if they become Canadian citizens. This is because the Quebec government has, for the past 37 years, refused to implement section 23.1.A of Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Section 23.1.A is in force in every province in Canada except Quebec. This means that immigrants from French-speaking countries, such as France, whose first language learned and still understood is French, can come to any of the nine predominantly English-speaking provinces outside Quebec, become Canadian citizens, and have the constitutional right to send their children to French publicly funded schools. However, immigrants from English-speaking countries, such as the United States, whose first language learned and still understood is English, who come to Quebec and become Canadian citizens, do not have the constitutional right to send their children to English publicly funded schools. The category (b) imprint is, like DNA, as immutable as skin color, and the designation remains for life and beyond. Americans' children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren maintain the classification ad infinitum. Race-based discrimination has no place in free and democratic societies. American citizens residing in Quebec must be assured that they will be treated, at most, equal to Canadian-born English-speakers residing in Quebec and, at least, equal to French-speaking immigrants residing in any of the other nine provinces. I urge the Americans to include this important issue as part of NAFTA renegotiations. For their part, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Quebec counterpart, Liberal premier Phillipe Couillard, can, forthwith, demonstrate to our American friends the openness and tolerance of the Canadian and Quebec governments and the nation's people by advocating for equality for Americans residing in Quebec. With Justin Trudeau's endorsement, Quebec must invoke its constitutional right and opt into S. 23.1.A. Tony Kondaks is a self-employed businessman currently living in Vancouver, B.C. Image: Alex Gulbord via Flickr.
The Luddites Were Right!

"Is It OK to Be a Luddite?" asked novelist Thomas Pynchon all the way back in 1984, the year, according to George Orwell's prediction, that we'd all be living in a technologically advanced dystopian hell. At the time, the digital revolution was just taking off, the personal computer only a few years away from reality. Pynchon questioned if the advent of the P.C. would be opposed by those who took after the Luddites of old  literary and intellectual humanists. During the Industrial Revolution, the European intelligentsia fretted over the effect things like textile machines and the steam engine would have on manual labor. This concern was wound into the works of Lord Byron and Mary Shelley, who warned of technological progress gone awry.

Then the electronic word processor came along and shut the snooty intellectuals up. "Machines have already become so user-friendly that even the most unreconstructed of Luddites can be charmed into laying down the old sledgehammer and stroking a few keys instead," Pynchon lamented. The Luddite mindset looked defeated at the hands of a few college dropouts tinkering in their garages. Fast-forward almost three and a half decades, and Pynchon may think differently. Two recent events have muddled our understanding of technological innovation, clouding and confusing what we thought we knew about the promise of advancement. The first was the implosion of every techie's dream: the self-driving car. An auto-piloted Uber vehicle struck and killed a pedestrian near Phoenix, Arizona. At the time of the accident, the vehicle, a Volvo SUV, was in a state of full mechanical autonomy; the driver behind the wheel was there only for emergencies. An emergency did occur, as Elaine Herzberg attempted to cross the road at night. The car's lights didn't spot her in time. The brakes failed to kick in. Herzberg lost her life on the darkened street. This was no human error. The Associated Press consulted two experts, who found that the SUV should have sensed Herzberg before the collision. "The victim did not come out of nowhere. She's moving on a dark road, but it's an open road, so Lidar (laser) and radar should have detected and classified her," explained law professor Bryant Walker Smith. Researcher Sam Abuelsmaid concurred, pointing out that the car's detection system "absolutely should have been able to pick her up." The word "absolutely" is apropos  we've been conditioned to expect tech to operate perfectly as planned, yet we find ourselves disappointed when the copier gets jammed for the thousandth time. The second incident to raise our suspicion of technology's benefits was Facebook's admission that the data firm Cambridge Analytica had "violated" its terms of usage by accessing the private data of an estimated 50 million users. Cambridge, a British consulting firm employed at one point by the Trump presidential campaign, mined individual data by paying Facebook users for take a personality quiz via a third-party app, then turned around and used the participants' contacts lists as its own address book. If the tactic sounds familiar  gathering minute details about individual voters by using Facebook's interconnectivity  it should. It was the near exact tactic the 2012 Obama campaign used, all to adoring fanfare. But since the Trump people did it, it's all of a sudden the equivalent of summoning Satan with a Ouija board. Nevertheless, Zuckerberg made the rounds on cable news, apologizing over and over for the lapse in their oversight. "I wish we'd taken those steps earlier," Zuckerberg told a scolding a CNN host about Facebook's updated standards to protect user privacy. "That ... is probably the biggest mistake that we made here." The company's mea culpa didn't prevent its stock from tanking or big industry names like Elon Musk from completely disassociating with the brand. And just like that, Zuckerberg's social media superstructure was struck on its Achilles heel: public perception. The hubbub is all nonsense, of course. Only the most mendacious critics attest that Facebook was weaponized by dark forces. This is a center-left-driven moral panic used to excuse the communicative failings of the political class. Zuckerberg's a simple scapegoat, driven out for the sin of allowing his platform to be used by those without elite approval. Modern-day Luddites should take heart over these developments. Uber has temporarily put the kibosh on testing autonomous vehicles. Facebook will never slough off the shame of enabling a boor like Trump to enter the White House. And now the social giant has to contend with a Federal Trade Commission investigation. Noah Rothman of Commentary worries that the backlash we're seeing to technology's failures may inhibit our want for innovation. After Elaine Herzberg's death, Rothman predicts that the "temptation to put the brakes on this paradigm-shifting innovation will be immense." But we should fear not, as "this inevitable development will produce more winners than losers, as has virtually every other technological advancement of its kind." Like Stalin's apocryphal omelet, death is sometimes the cost of betterment, whether it's mortal death, the death of privacy, the death of freedom, or the death of our attention spans. There's something comically all too human about how many movies and books we produce about the dangers of technology, yet we still seek to slake our unquenchable thirst to push the cyber-frontier. One viewing of Terminator 2: Judgment Day should be enough to shear our tech fetishes, yet the technologists of Silicon Valley press forward with the development of the cybernetic endgame: self-aware artificial intelligence. Pynchon recognized as much the year the first Terminator hit theaters. "[T]he next great challenge to watch out for will come," he wrote with a litterateur's foresight, "when the curves of research and development in artificial intelligence, molecular biology and robotics all converge." What Pynchon described sounds eerily like the singularity, the epochal change when A.I. becomes self-reinforcing, awakening a new technological renaissance and changing humankind forever. Once it hits, which some researchers believe may have already happened, there is no going back. We'll have said our vows to our new algorithmically designed cyber-bride, locked into marriage 'til death do us part, where we then upload our consciousness into cyberspace to "live" forever, in the loosest sense of the word. Elaine Herzberg need not be a necessary fatality on our way to the brave new world of technological enhancement. A little bit of that Luddite spirit could help us to distinguish between necessary technological change and our self-sacrifice before the digital gods.
Why the Environmental Left Is Secretly Petrified by Truly Renewable Energy

The hypocrisy of the environmental left is well documented: Al Gore, Leonardo DiCaprio, and the other Hollywood eco-saints travel far and wide in their gas-guzzling limos and private jets to preach the importance of riding bicycles and to spread the gospel of wind and solar power. However, perhaps more astounding than their "green life for thee, but not for me" lifestyle is the reality that environmental radicals, despite all their hollering to the contrary, don't actually want truly cheap and renewable energy. In fact, the creation of affordable, clean, widely available energy is one of their greatest fears. On March 9, a team from MIT and Commonwealth Fusion Systems announced in the academic journal Nature that they are closer than ever to making nuclear fusion a reality. If successful, nuclear fusion would provide incredibly cheap, environmentally friendly energy to the world  and the researchers believe that the technology could be ready for a commercial rollout in as few as fifteen years.

As Fox News noted in a recent report on the potential discovery, "[n]uclear fusion is the be-all and end-all source of energy because, in theory, it's practically unlimited and has almost no downside. It doesn't put carbon into the atmosphere like the burning of fossil fuels or generate radioactive waste like nuclear fission, which is the technology in current nuclear power plants." If nuclear fusion is achieved, it will in relatively short order render much of the existing energy market useless. Many traditional power plants would close. Carbon dioxide emissions would be cut dramatically in countries with enough wealth to build nuclear fusion plants. Billions of people would have access to affordable energy that they never had before. This scenario might sound as though it's every environmentalist's paradise, but there's more to leftist environmentalism than obsessing about global warming. For many on the left, growing human population sizes and their effect on the environmental is also a very serious concern. For instance, in his population control book Ten Billion, environmentalist Stephen Emmott wrote, "Only an idiot would deny that there is a limit to how many people our Earth can support. The question is, is it seven billion (our current population), 10 billion or 28 billion? I think we've already gone past it. Well past it." University of Hawaii at Manoa professor Camilo Mora wrote in a 2014 paper in the journal Ecology and Society, "What caught my interest on this whole issue is how humans are causing the destruction of ecosystems. At the end of the day ... we cannot stop hurting biodiversity if we don't stop reproducing so quickly." Liberal environmentalists believe that more people means more problems, and history has repeatedly proven that when electric power and technological advancements become readily available, population growth inevitably follows. During the twentieth century, Earth's population expanded by 400 percent, largely thanks to fossil fuel-powered societal improvements. If nuclear fusion becomes a reality, billions of people who now live in extreme poverty (and thus don't consume many resources) would likely gain access to affordable energy, helping people living in communities plagued by disease and famine live longer, healthier lives. From the leftist environmentalist's perspective, this effectively means that cheap energy is dangerous. This is precisely why environmentalist Jeremy Rifkin said, "It's the worst thing that could happen to our planet" when the possibility of nuclear fusion was discussed in 1989. Similarly, biologist Paul Ehrlich said it would be "like giving a machine gun to an idiot child." If environmentalists are so concerned about population growth, why do they seem to unanimously support the use of wind and solar power? The answer is because these forms of energy are more expensive than fossil fuels, which means it's unlikely they could soon catalyze population growth in the same way nuclear fusion could. For example, the Institute for Energy Research found that solar power is three times more expensive than power generated from existing natural gas or nuclear plants. If nuclear fusion becomes the world's most important power source in the twenty-first century, you can expect the climate change crisis to quickly evaporate. In its place, the "Population Bomb" fear-mongering of the 1970s will once again rear its horrifying head. Justin Haskins (Jhaskins@heartland.org) is executive editor and a research fellow at The Heartland Institute.
Add pharmaceuticals to the list of trade complaints

International trade is in the news these days, almost on par with the media pumping the tale of porno star Stormy Daniels. Even so, there's still an aspect of trade that gets far too little attention. This is surprising, given that it adversely affects millions of Americans. It has to do with the pricing of prescription drugs. One does not have to be a fan of Big Pharma to acknowledge that the industry spends a tremendous amount of money and effort on developing and testing new drugs. Scientific American estimates that it now costs over $2.5 billion to bring a new drug to market. This involves an arduous twelve-year approval process before the drug is green-lighted.

Along with these costs, patent law leads to high initial prices on drugs. A patent gives its inventor twenty years of exclusive rights to his discovery. But twelve years of this on average is eaten up by the approval process. The result is that the pharmaceutical company is left with only eight years of a monopoly position before competitors can jump in and produce and sell low-cost generics. The bottom line is that pharmaceutical companies are not charities  but they are when it comes to international trade. Or, rather, the American consumer is. How so? Foreign buyers of American pharmaceuticals are with few exceptions government agencies buying in bulk. In the negotiations for new prescription drugs, these foreign governments demand a price far lower than what is charged in the U.S. market. Remember: the price American consumers pay includes covering the upfront R&D effort. Why are the foreign buyers successful in getting the lower pricing? As Steve Forbes explains, that in Don Corleone fashion, foreign governments make the drug companies an offer they can't refuse. They say, If you don't give us the pricing we want, we'll allow a knockoff to be produced by another company. And recall, the cost of actually manufacturing most drugs in minuscule. The major cost is in developing them. As Forbes says, "[t]he U.S. should now make fair pricing of American drugs overseas a top trade priority: If you don't want to pay for our R&D, you won't get our pills. Period. And if you try the imitation game, we'll take painful retaliatory measures. Success with this would mean significantly lower costs for the American consumer." Hopefully, the Trump administration will add pharmaceuticals to its list of trade complaints to be resolved. Americans should not be forced to subsidize foreigners for their drugs, some of which can literally be life-saving. You have to step back and wonder how we got to this point. Aside from subsidizing the world with our R&D drug development, we are also defending Europe over 70 years after WWII and 25 years after the collapse of the USSR. And we allow the Chinese to subsidized their export industries, to dump their over-capacity into our markets, to erect barriers to our exports, and to blatantly steal our technology. Other countries do much of the same, but not to the extent China does. Until Donald Trump came along, nobody in government ever thought to make much of a stink over any of this. That seems to be changing.
The official New China News Agency says Kim told Chinese leader Xi Jinping: "If South Korea and the United States respond with goodwill to our efforts, and create an atmosphere of peace and stability, and take phased, synchronized measures to achieve peace, the issue of the denuclearization of the peninsula can reach resolution."

Once again, Donald Trump has exposed the fecklessness of his predecessors and the foreign policy establishment, this time with his courageous strategy to denuclearize North Korea. The visit to Beijing by Kim Jong-un  held secret at first, but acknowledged and publicized by Beijing after it became clear that it was successful  reveals that so far, Trumps strategy is working beautifully .

Denuclearization of the peninsula means that North Korea gives up its nuclear program in return for the US not introducing nuclear weapons to South Korea, something it has never done and would prefer not to do. Strategic nuclear weapons are most likely kept in Guam, and there is no necessity to house them in South Korea. So this actually means that the US will not use tactical nuclear weapons to, for instance, take out the military installations and forces that could be used by the North to invade the South.

Unspoken but potent is the threat of Japan developing a nuclear arsenal, something easily within the capability of the Japanese, but absolutely anathema to all Koreans and mainland Chinese. The memories of World War II are still vivid, and the thought of the Japanese being able to deploy nukes is terrifying to those who experienced the boot of Japanese militarism.

"The nuclear issue is the only obstacle" to good relations between China and North Korea, says Lu Chao, a North Korea expert at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang, and without it being addressed, China would not invite Kim for a visit.

This reveals that China has indeed been seriously pressuring Kim, telling him in effect that good relations with the US are far more important to China than he is, and that if he doesnt accede to the demands of Trump, the noose around his neck will tighten to the point that North Korea cannot survive.

That is the reason why Kim Jong-un and his sister snuck out of North Korea to consult with Xi Jun-ping and other members of the Chinese leadership. The North Korean populace, and apparently most of the governing elite there, were kept in the dark, in part (at least) to prevent a coup or uprising from taking place, while the two Kims were out of the country. The absolutism of Kimss rule  able to brutally execute his opponents -- should never be mistaken for regime security. Any sign of weakness could be the trigger for its demise.

Note that Kim Jon-un, like his father, traveled by armored train, a vehicle with an appropriately sinister appearance (windows blacked out, painted dark green) that reportedly was well stocked with wine and other delights.

This is because he fears being shot down if he ever flew on an airplane. This creates a dilemma in finding a third country to host the Trump-Kim summit. Helsinki, which has been mentioned as a possible location, would take ten days or so to reach by train. My guess is that Beijing will be chosen for the summit. Or else, the US will have to issue a public guarantee of safety, which Kim would have to take a very deep breath to trust.

The deal that Trump is structuring has a lot of pieces. Two worth noting: South Korea has agreed to trade concessions unachievable by previous presidents, while China is sending a massive fleet into the South China Sea following President Xis vow to be prepared to fight bloody battles if necessary to secure its status as a superpower. This most likely is for domestic consumption, fanning national pride (the exercises are routine), and to send a message to Chinas neighbors in Southeast Asia that China is the new boss in the region. For the moment, the Trump administration will not openly oppose this posture. But for the longer term, it serves to spur nationalism and a military build-up on the part of the nations there  Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia  who regard China with some the same attitudes that the Chinese and Koreans view Japan.

Meanwhile, Barack Obamas passive strategic patience policy now has been proven to have been an open invitation to North Korea, as revealed by this report from the New York Times:

a new North Korean reactor that appears to be coming online now, after years of construction, according to analysts. It sits in the Yongbyon nuclear complex, where the North began its nuclear program in the 1960s. Today, the site boasts hundreds of buildings that lie along a loop of the Kuryong River and cover an area of more than three square miles. North Korea insists the reactor is intended to produce electricity for civilian use. But the new reactor can also make plutonium, one of the main fuels used in nuclear arms. It can thus supplement the output of the aging, existing facilities at Yongbyon. Making bomb fuel in reactors is seen as easier to do than perfecting missiles that can hurl nuclear arms around the globe. While experts clash over how soon the North will develop warheads that can survive the blistering heats of re-entry, they agree that the North has already mastered the art of using reactors to make plutonium.

This makes the magnitude of Trumps achievement-in-process seem all the greater.

It must be emphasized that until the deal is reached and verified by severe inspection methods, celebration is premature. But Trump already has shown that he is able to achieve a more promising strategy than his predecessors whose alleged sophistication means nothing.
Romney, running for the Senate in Utah, has criticized President Trump's offer of amnesty for 1.8 million "DREAMer" illegal aliens (and their additional spouses and children) and said if he were president, he never would have offered such a plan. Romney said:

Mitt Romney is getting to the right of President Trump.

"My view was these DACA kids shouldn't all be allowed to stay in the country legally." Romney said he is against giving legal residence to those 1.8 million people. "That was not my posture," Romney said. "So I was more conservative than others in my party. Now I will accept the president's view on this, but for me, I draw the line and say, those who've come illegally should not be given a special path to citizenship."

In fact, Trump even criticized Romney for calling for illegals to "self-deport," calling it "mean-spirited."

Romney's solution of "self deportation" for illegal aliens made no sense and suggested that Republicans do not care about Hispanics in general, Trump says. "He had a crazy policy of self deportation which was maniacal," Trump says.

Do I believe what Romney says about being against amnesty for illegal aliens? No more than I believed President Trump when he said he would build a border wall paid for by Mexico or require all illegals to return to their country of origin to apply for citizenship or that he would end birthright citizenship.

But this story is instructive, because if a center-left Republican like Romney can criticize Trump on immigration, it shows us truly how far to the left Trump has drifted on the subject.

Trump didn't campaign on giving amnesty to the so-called "DREAMers," and he certainly didn't campaign on giving amnesty to them and an additional 1.1 million of their friends. Trump did campaign as the most solid voice on fighting illegal immigration, and that is in large part why he won the Republican presidential nomination. Even as recently as yesterday, Trump has paired calls for his border wall to be built with messages to "DREAMers" that he "will not abandon" them. Excuse me? Trump is supposed to be speaking to, and for, the American people, not illegal aliens!

Exit question: For all you Trump-supporters out there, would you still have voted for Trump in the primaries if you had known he wanted to give amnesty to 1.8 million illegal aliens (plus close relatives) and that, 14 months into his presidency, not an inch of border wall would be built, with no money authorized for future construction?

Ed Straker is the senior writer at Newsmachete.com.
Micah Johnson, a black nationalist who said he was inspired to kill white people by Black Lives Matter, the New Black Panther Party, and other extremist groups, was killed by a police robot the next day.

A mural that honors the five Dallas police officers killed in an ambush in July of 2016 has been destroyed by the city because of a code violation.

The city destroyed the mural following a brief fight by the owner of the Last Call Lounge, Cesar Paz. The mural was painted on a metal fence that the city said could conceal illegal activity.

CBS Dallas:

The mural listed the names of the five fallen officers, including Patrick Zamarripa who patrolled the southwest division. It makes me sad because hes not here anymore, said Valerie Zamarripa, the mother of Patrick Zamarripa. I miss him so much. Valerie found out about the mural was in jeopardy a few days ago and worked to help find a solution. It keeps him alive so nobody ever, ever forgets, said Valeria Zamarripa. I feel like Dallas has bigger issues to deal with than to be dealing with this. A work crew unscrewed and removed each section of the mural as the sun began to set on Monday. The 90-foot art installment was reduced to a stack of metal within 30 minutes. Why is the city picking on this mural? Do they not see what it represents? questioned Zamarripa. The City of Dallas said the fence, not the mural, at Last Call Lounge violates code and can conceal illegal activity. The city said compliance officers cited the owner May 2017, captured pictures of the unpainted fence in June 2017 and believe the mural was painted July 2017, which marked one year since the deadly ambush. We thought we were doing something right and something nice for the city. We never thought we were going to have these kind of issues, said Cesar Paz, who owns Last Call Lounge. Paz claims he did not receive a notice of violation until after it was painted, but cannot afford to fight the city anymore. It was for our officers, now you know its gone, said Paz.

The fact that the workers "unscrewed and removed" each section of the fence means that if the bureaucrat who ordered its removal had chosen to, the mural could have been moved to a location that didn't violate the code. The decision not to do so was arbitrary and uncalled for.

Mr. Paz did not have enough money to fight the city compliance office in court - something that the city no doubt counted on when it ordered the mural's removal.

There was also no public outcry because few knew of the mural's existence. Again, a little money and a PR strategy might have been able to build public opposition to tearing it down. But against the machinery of the state, what chance does an ordinary citizen of modest means have?

I hope someone in Dallas takes it upon themselves to create another mural honoring these officers. And the impetus to do so should come from the minority community whose lives are most at risk from violence and who are protected by police officers like the 5 who were murdered every day.
North Korea is not just a military problem, but a moral one

In 1969, I had two experiences in Korea that color my perceptions of the ongoing crisis there. One day, while on infantry patrol in the demilitarized zone separating South and North Korea, I looked through binoculars and could clearly see an enemy country where I knew death awaited if I dared step a few feet closer. The next day, I stood on a street in Seoul, the modern capital city, where millions of civilians went about their daily lives, not all that differently from how Americans do the same in any major city. It is said that ten thousand North Korean artillery guns are aimed at that city and could within minutes kill a hundred thousand or more people. Today, while we can peer only dimly through the fog of geopolitics, there is apparently something dramatic going on inside North Korea. Its dictator, Kim Jong-un, has agreed to meet with President Trump. Moreover, Kim has apparently voiced his willingness to give up his nuclear weapons. He has reportedly traveled to China. Through all this fog, we can only speculate about what is happening and where it will lead.

But one thing is certain. The Kim regimes have for decades brutalized the North Korean people beyond anything we can imagine. There are more atrocities going on at this moment than we can list here, but some of them deserve our close attention. By diverting North Korea's scarce food supply to its military, the tyrants have, with grim calculation, starved to death hundreds of thousands of their people, perhaps many more than that. Political dissent of even the mildest sort is quickly crushed. Not only are the dissenters themselves put to death, but their entire families are eliminated, and indeed, sometimes entire villages are punished. North Korea keeps tens of thousands of its people in what can only be termed death camps. The very few escapees from those prisons have described daily torture and daily murder, even gratuitous killings that serve no purpose. We cannot list all the horrors that define North Korea. Merely living in a country where everyone is continually terrorized by the knowledge  that they live only as long as the regime tolerates their existence  must have a mind-numbing effect, a lifelong trauma. These are people we see in film footage  people who are pretending to weep when commanded to mourn, and pretending to revel when commanded to celebrate the regime. They dare not reveal insincerity, not even for a moment. We cannot imagine it. And it is in this that the worst problem of all exists in regard to our policy on North Korea. To be sure, if we can wrest from North Korea its military arsenal, without engaging in the slaughterhouse of warfare, that will be a stunning geopolitical achievement, one the world may joyously celebrate. The military benefit is clear and undeniable. But we do not expect that Kim will abandon his nuclear ambitions without first securing his own means of survival. He is surrounded by generals, bureaucrats, and loyal acolytes who do his murderous bidding, without question, without hesitation. They do so only because Kim keeps them well fed and in luxurious accommodations. Those in the inner circle well know that as soon as they lose power, they will be savagely torn apart by those they have tormented for so long. Kim is their insurance policy. As long as Kim retains power, they retain power. And Kim retains power only so long as he can threaten, terrorize, and hoodwink more powerful countries into supplying his regime with food, money, and industrial equipment. He cannot likely do this without rattling his sabers. With them, he and his two dead forbears have roared like lions, despite being mice. Surely, Kim knows all this. So why is he offering up his nukes? What can he expect in return? What about his ruthless henchmen? Will they continue to cower in fear of him? Or will they be forced to cast the die, to strike at the king? Kim will undoubtedly negotiate to retain his power. He will never, under any circumstances relinquish his iron-fisted grip. Therein lies the moral problem for America and for the world. How do we prevent a destructive war while never putting our name to the type of deal that, in 1938, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain triumphantly waved about as a guarantee of "peace in our time"? How many Jews did we trade for the momentary illusion of peace with Hitler? How many Korean peasants will we sacrifice for a deal with Kim Jong-un? Millions of lives are at risk either way, whether through open warfare or through making a deal with the devil. Who among us will sign his name to the death warrant of a million or more people? Military strength is a necessity if we are to have any hope of saving them. But power devoid of moral wisdom is a sure guarantee of catastrophe. Pray that our leaders will, in the darkened study of a late night, lean forward over their desks, cradle their heads in their hands, and spend a few hours agonizing over the terrible responsibility that is now theirs. Then, once inspired by that greatest of all authority, may they rise from their deliberations, make their plans, and set forth to execute them, never wavering until final success is achieved. Image: Jgaray, Nicor, Coronades03, P388388, Oppashi via Wikimedia Commons.
In any event, the plan is said to go as follows: President Trump is commander in chief. As such, he can order the military to do as he wishes, including building the wall .

One of the more popular conspiracy theories to justify President's Trump signing of the spending bill full of the Democrats' priorities is that President Trump had a "secret plan" for building his border wall with Mexico. Why President Trump would need a secret plan to pay for his border wall when he has always maintained that Mexico will pay for it is unclear.

President Trump, who repeatedly insisted during the 2016 campaign that Mexico would pay for a wall along the southern border, is privately pushing the U.S. military to fund construction of his signature project. Trump has told advisers that he was spurned in a large spending bill last week when lawmakers appropriated only $1.6 billion for the border wall. He has suggested to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and congressional leaders that the Pentagon could fund the sprawling project, citing a "national security" risk. But the military is not likely to fund the wall, according to White House and Defense Department officials. The Pentagon has plenty of money, but reprogramming it for a wall would require votes in Congress that the president does not seem to have. Taking money from the 2018 budget for the wall would require an act of Congress, a senior Pentagon official said.

Many of you are thinking, why doesn't Trump simply order the Pentagon to do this? Trump can order this, but what he would end up with are mass resignations in the Department of Defense, the same kind of resignations he would generate in the Department of Justice if he tried to order the firing of the independent counsel.

But even if the Pentagon were on board with this, the wall still wouldn't get built. That's because a federal judge would stop the process before it begins, due to the patently unconstitutional nature of the act. The attempt to build the wall would be tied up in courts for the remainder of Trump's presidency (which, after having signed this spending bill and others like it last year, looks increasingly likely to be one term).

If Trump really wanted a border wall, he should have vetoed the spending bill, taken the case to the American people, and fought for it. Campaigning incoherently via Twitter ("Build wall through M!") is a lazy substitute for actually going out and speaking to the American people as Ronald Reagan did. Reagan had a much more hostile Democratic Congress, but because he was willing to veto, because he was willing to fight for his agenda, he got much of it accomplished. President Trump wants to win without fighting for it, and the results are obvious. Res ipsa loquitur.

This is what we get for having a president who has no understanding of how governing, or the legislative process, works. President Trump thinks he can sign bills into law and then reinterpret them as he wills. When Obama did this, we called it a subversion of the Constitution. When Trump tries to do this, he is hailed as brilliant. But neither Obama nor Trump is a king  only president.

Actions have consequences. When Trump signed the spending bill, he committed to a set of results. It's a pity we don't have a president who understands how separation of powers and the legislative process work.

Ed Straker is the senior writer at Newsmachete.com.
Major carrier AT&T has announced that it is finally ready to begin the launch of a dedicated network core for its FirstNet network, with separate network equipment from the companys commercial network. AT&T has termed this new network core the evolved packet core, due to a number of features not present on the network core thats used for the firms normal commercial network. The evolved packet core being opened up for business this week has been in development for a year, being worked on constantly ever since AT&T first won the contract for FirstNet on a nationwide basis.

FirstNets evolved packet core is different from the core used in the consumer network in that it enables prioritization for first responders in emergency situations over others using the network. While FirstNet subscribers can jump on the network at any time, first responders who are in an active emergency response situation will receive priority over others in the same area who may simply be patrolling or sitting at the station or hospital. The network core is also able to process public safety data on the fly, making it easier for first responders to get the information that they need as soon as possible. Finally, it serves as a base from which AT&T plans to build out an interoperable network that will enable subscribers and non-subscribers to communicate and share data on a priority basis as needed.

This new network core represents everything that FirstNet is about, and now that its ready, subscribers who have been enjoying priority above civilians on AT&Ts normal network will finally be able to use a dedicated network just for them and their peers, making all sorts of communications and operations faster, easier, and less likely to run into bugs. A lot of relevant data processing and relaying happens automatically on the network thanks to the inclusion of processing solutions, essentially forming a cloud thats limited to first responders needs. Ongoing buildout will focus on expanding and strengthening this network, as well as tying it into compatible solutions outside of FirstNet to allow reliable and consistent communications and data flow no matter where FirstNet subscribers may go or who they may work with.
Google has finally rolled out the much-awaited option to connect Google Home devices to external Bluetooth speakers. Until now, the company only allowed the Home devices to be used as Bluetooth speakers themselves, while streaming to other Bluetooth-enabled speakers was barred via software. This was a highly-requested feature and Google also noted the fact in its official blog where the announcement was made. The feature will be rolled out to the entire Google Home family of smart speakers starting today and should hit the said devices sooner than later. The company does mention that the users will still have to talk to the Google Home devices, and not the connected speaker, for getting a voice feedback.

Besides giving you the ability to control your Bluetooth speakers using voice commands, the new feature will allow pairing with multiple speakers for a multi-room audio experience. Pairing can be done easily using the Google Home device itself and the speaker can be set to default from the Google Home app. Once set, the Home device will automatically stream music to the default Bluetooth speaker with no need to name it each time in the voice command. Without the support for connecting to Bluetooth speakers, the only way to stream music and podcasts to external devices was using Chromecast built-in speakers or Chromecast Audio. Both of them discouraged the prospective buyers with an existing audio system to go for a Google Home speaker that came along with an added expense for a new Chromecast-enabled device. Amazons entire Echo lineup offers connectivity to external speakers both via Bluetooth and old-school 3.5mm audio port, giving it an edge over Googles offerings.

Google Home Mini, the smallest of the three Home speakers, will be benefitted the most with todays announcement. It is a compact smart speaker designed to just get the job done and not to impress any audiophiles, leaving the users wanting for a readily available option to connect the Home Mini to their existing speakers. The company has been consistently releasing similar updates for its Home devices bringing newer features to improve the overall user experience with its smart speakers.
In a blog post, Google has recently announced the availability of the Cloud Text-to-Speech service. This service enables developers to utilize the search giants Wavenet model and its neural network infrastructure in order to incorporate natural sounding text-to-speech to their own applications. The Wavenet technology is the same technology that powers the text-to-speech synthesis of some popular Google services including the Google Assistant, Maps, and Search. The Mountain View-based tech giant noted on its blog post that its latest service could power the voice response systems of call centers, enable responses from the Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and automatically convert text-based media like articles and books into spoken formats like podcasts and audiobooks. Developers may choose among 32 different voices from 12 languages, which include English, Portuguese, Japanese, French, Spanish, and Swedish, although the search giant noted that it will add more voices to the service in the near future. Moreover, people may also choose to modify the volume, the speech rate, and the pitch of the voices, and developers may also add Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) tags in order to add pauses, pronunciation instructions, and dates to the speech.

In its blog post, the search giant also provided additional details regarding the improvements made to the Wavenet model. This technology was originally launched back in 2016, and it used a convolutional neural network that was trained using a variety of speech samples. However, the model was not immediately integrated by the search giant to its product offerings since it was not efficient enough for commercial use. Two years after the technology was launched, updated versions of the Wavenet model now allows for a much faster generation of audio. Back in 2016, Wavenet can only generate 0.02 seconds of audio in one second, while the updated model can now generate 20 seconds of audio within a second. In addition, the updated model offers improved fidelity and better resolution compared to the original Wavenet model, which should result in higher quality audio and more human-like sound.

Developers who will take advantage of the Cloud Text-to-Speech service may choose between Wavenet and Basic voices, and they will be billed monthly based on the number of characters they will send to the service for audio synthesis. The Basic voices are considerably cheaper, although Wavenet voices offer more natural sounding speech.
HTCs Vice President of Product Management, Mo Versi, took to Twitter today to announce his departure, following 8 years with the Taiwanese company. Although the role demands much more than public relations, the executive was most widely known for letting owners of the brands smartphones know when an update was in the works. There hasnt been any word with regard to who will be taking over his position with HTC. With that said, Versi did say that software update-related questions should be directed to the companys Global PR exec, Jeff Gordon  who tweets under the handle @urbanstrata.

Versi did not divulge the reason behind his decision to part ways with HTC or any information about what job he will be taking on next. His professional profiles are also completely devoid of any mention of that. However, his departure does not appear to be driven by any negativity between Versi and the company. The HTC exec went on to express that he felt lucky to have been able to work with an amazing team for so long. Several co-workers also commented on the post to relay their own gratitude for the contributions Versi made to their own careers, as well as to wish him good luck in his future endeavors.

Despite all of the well-wishes and general good vibes, though, it is a bit difficult not to view this from the somewhat harsh perspective provided by HTCs recent history. The company has been steadily losing not only its executive and managerial employees but also a substantial amount of money over the past several years. Despite relatively strong sales of its latest devices and its arguably well-performing VR division, 2017 was its worst fiscal year on record. The company continues to press on and its upcoming HTC U12 Plus is expected to be a brilliant handset. However, there are many who are not optimistic about its prospects even with consideration for the recent injection of a healthy $1.1 billion from Google  in exchange for employees and portfolio access. Whether that pessimism bears out, it is undoubtedly warranted and it isnt likely that Mo Versi will be the last executive to part ways with the company.
NVIDIAs current CEO believes the recent Uber incident will result in more self-driving investments. The recent crash involving one of Ubers test vehicles has so far led to the ridesharing company halting all testing in the US, while NVIDIA itself has chosen to pause its testing in North America for the time being.

Speaking at NVIDIAs GPU Technology Conference in San Jose, Huang stated that he believes that the amount of investment into the seriousness of [autonomous vehicles] is going to go up, although there is likely to be a slight pause in the industry. After all, companies such as NVIDIA will want to learn as much as possible while also implementing any modifications or improvements to the vehicles that are deemed necessary before restarting any tests. In the long run, however, the incident in Tempe, Arizona is expected to put into perspective the level of technology required in future self-driving vehicles, with Huang stating that anybody who previously thought that they could get by without supercomputers and simulators and just vast amounts of data collection will be forced back to drawing board, thus spurring a new round of investments to ensure safety standards are as high as possible .

Despite the recent incident, NVIDIAs CEO remains optimistic about autonomous vehicles and expects the majority of modern cars to boast a certain level of autonomy within just a few years. In fact, the company has just announced a new test driving platform called Drive Constellation. The product utilizes VR technology to allow companies to test their self-driving software without putting them on public roads, and will hopefully help with the training of artificial intelligence systems. It should also allow companies to create situations that are hard to recreate on normal roads, thus improving the software even further. NVIDIA has so far partnered with nearly 400 companies that are developing self-driving technology, among which are Volkswagen, Tesla, and even Uber itself, with the goal of eventually providing a wide variety of customers with all the component necessary to build a completely autonomous vehicle.
NVIDIA and ARM have formed a partnership that will see a huge number of mobile and Internet of Things (IoT) devices integrated with deep learning inferencing. The tie-up will allow NVIDIA to incorporate its open-source NVIDIA Deep Learning Accelerator architecture into ARMs recently announced machine learning platform called Project Trillium. The goal of the partnership is to help companies that manufacture IoT chips introduce artificial intelligence (AI) to their product more seamlessly.

Project Trillium, which was announced last month, is a suite of technologies consisting of scalable processors, software, and architecture centered around machine learning, object detection, and neural networking. Project Trillium is meant to be initially combined into the ARM ML processors scaled to provide a range of benefits to mobile devices coupled with ARMs more traditional chipset to provide a significant boost in performance. According to ARM, Project Trillium is capable of providing up to 4.6 trillion operations per second. Combined with NVIDIAs deep learning technology, the integrated platform is expected to offer a solution that could provide access to deep learning technologies to billions of IoT devices and other consumer electronics products.

The NVDLA architecture is based on the NVIDIA Xavier, the companys autonomous machine processor, with the goal of helping developers build deep learning inference accelerators. The system-on-a-chip for self-driving vehicles was unveiled in 2016 and built to achieve 20 Deep Learning Tera-Ops worth of 8-bit Integer operations while keeping its power requirements as low as 20 watts. NVIDIAs range of developer tools such as the upcoming versions of TensorRT also provides support for NVDLA. NVIDIAs deep learning push saw a significant boost last year when the company teamed up with Qwiklabs to train 100,000 developers in machine learning techniques through its Deep Learning Institute. As part of that effort, NVIDIA expanded all components of the program with assistance from other companies, with Qwiklabs providing aid in the process of growing the online version of the training platform.
NVIDIA has recently announced the DRIVE Constellation Simulation System, a product offering that aims to aid designers and manufacturers in the testing and development of autonomous vehicles. This simulation system is cloud-based and it utilizes photorealistic simulation, which the tech firm claims should help create a safer and more scalable way of testing vehicles. This system is comprised of two servers, with one of the servers running the DRIVE Sim software. This server is responsible for simulating a wide range of environmental conditions, including rainstorms, snowstorms, and sharp glare and it contains a number of powerful GPUs that are responsible for producing simulated data from sensors like cameras, LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), and Radar.

The simulated sensor data produced by the DRIVE Sim software is transmitted to the second server in the simulation system, which contains the DRIVE Pegasus computer. The DRIVE Pegasus is a high-performance artificial intelligence computer that runs the complete software stack of an autonomous vehicle, and it receives the sensor data from the DRIVE Sim software at a rate of 30 times a second. The software running on the DRIVE Pegasus then processes the data and sends driving commands to the simulated vehicle. In its press release, the tech firm emphasized some of the key advantages of utilizing its simulation system in the development of self-driving vehicles. One of the key selling points of this system is the ability to test vehicles in simulated rare weather conditions and dangerous terrains while eliminating the risk of vehicle damage or injury. Moreover, this system also enables manufacturers to test the software of automated vehicles for billions of miles in custom scenarios within a much shorter period of time and at much lower cost.

Within the last few years, the tech company has been involved in the development of self-driving vehicles. Back at CES 2018, the firm announced that it has been chosen by the ride-sharing platform Uber to power the latters self-driving car fleet. NVIDIA also signed a deal with the Chinese tech giant Baidu to develop an autonomous driving platform specifically for the Chinese market. The tech firm noted that the DRIVE Constellation Simulation System will become available to partners starting in the third quarter of 2018.
A Samsung-made smartphone believed to be the upcoming Galaxy Note 9 appeared in the database of mobile benchmarking service Geekbench earlier today, having been identified by the model number SM-N960U. The device was tested while running Android 8.1 Oreo, with its exact software likely being a new version of Samsung Experience. The listing that can be seen below indicates the companys next phablet will have 6GB of RAM, approximately 1GB of which will be reserved for the operating system itself. The smartphone is equipped with the Snapdragon 845, Qualcomms most powerful mobile chip ever and the one that ended up inside the variants of the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus sold in the United States, Canada, and China, as per the same source.

The South Korean original equipment manufacturer already started firmware development for the Galaxy Note 9 and is expected to finalize its design by the end of the month, according to recent reports. The company usually locks down the specifications of its Galaxy Note phablets five months prior to their mass-production but ended up shortening that period of certainty this year as it was still trying to overcome the technical challenges to equipping the Galaxy Note 9 with an in-display fingerprint reader as late as last week, insiders claimed. The next-generation Android flagship from Samsung is rumored to have a 3,850mAh battery and may launch with Bixby 2.0, with the latter point being suggested by the firms mobile chief DJ Koh at this years edition of MWC.

Samsung traditionally announces new Galaxy Note models in late summer and often does so at IFA, with the Berlin, Germany-based trade show hence being the possible target of its next high-end mobile offering. The company may also bring the Gear S4 smartwatch to the same conference, with both the wearable and the Android smartphone being expected to start retailing in September if they end up being announced at IFA 2018 which starts on August 31. The Galaxy Note 9 is likely to retain the Infinity Display-centric aesthetic of its predecessor, much like the Galaxy S9 lineup looks akin to the Galaxy S8 series.
March has proven to be an interesting month in the land of Chrome OS as Google, along with a little help from Acer, has now officially unveiled the latest device form factor to join the Chrome OS ranks  the humble tablet. As a result, this year should see a number of Chromebook tablets arriving, starting off with the Acer Chromebook Tab 10. In the meantime, however, if you are in the market for a Chromebook now, then here are our top 10 best Chromebook picks for March, 2018.

10. Acer Chromebook Spin 11

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Acers Chromebook Spin 11 is an ideal option for those looking for a durable Chromebook. Granted, it is not the most stylish of Chromebooks, but this is usually the cost of opting for a unit that is better at withstanding the perils of daily life. Adding to its appeal is a 360-degree rotating hinge for improved flexibility, and a stylus for those looking for more of an interactive experience. In terms of the baseline specs, the Chromebook Spin 11 features an 11.6-inch display along with a 1366 x 768 resolution. In addition to 4GB RAM, 32GB storage, an Intel Celeron N3350 dual-core processor, and a 4,870 mAh battery. Its one major downside is its price as it is not the most affordable Chromebook  there are better options available for the money.

9. Samsung Chromebook 3

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If value is what you are primarily concerned with, then the Samsung Chromebook 3 is always an option worth considering. First off, this is not a premium Chromebook. Secondly, this one does not come with any additional features to note. Thirdly, its design and general appearance is rather generic. However, this is a Chromebook which can be typically picked up for less than $200 and one that comes from a major name in the industry. Resulting in a highly-affordable Chromebook with a no-frills approach from a reliable name. As for the specs, the Chromebook 3 is available in two distinct models which only differ in the amount of RAM (2GB vs. 4GB). Otherwise, both models feature an 11.6-inch display with a 1366 x 768 resolution, 16GB storage, and an Intel Celeron N3050 processor.

8. ASUS Chromebook Flip C101

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If size is of concern, then there can be little arguing with the ASUS Chromebook Flip C101. As the Flip line of Chromebooks in general have always looked to be as compact as possible and the C101 model sums up this mantra perfectly thanks to its inclusion of a display measuring just 10.1-inches in size. This effectively makes the C101 more comparable in size to a tablet than a traditional Chromebook. Albeit, one that is equipped with a keyboard. Adding to its tablet-like persona, the C101 also features a 360-degree rotating hinge so the Chromebook can be used in various different positions. Besides its size, the Flip C101 also comes loaded with 4GB RAM, 16GB storage, and a Rockchip RK3399 quad-core processor.

7. Acer Chromebook R 13

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The Acer Chromebook R 13 is very similar to the Flip C101 in terms of its design as this Chromebook also heavily focuses on portability and flexibility. Most notably due to its inclusion of a 360-degree rotating hinge which means it can be adjusted for use in various different forms, including a tablet mode. However, unlike the Flip C101, the Chromebook R 13 is designed to offer users a greater degree of screen real estate thanks to its 13.3-inch display. Making this one far more ideal for those in need of more display to play with. Along with the boost in size also comes an increase in resolution to 1920 x 1080, compared to the Flip C101. While the rest of the spec list is padded out with 4GB RAM, 32GB storage, and a MediaTek (MT8173C) quad-core processor.

6. Acer Chromebook 14

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Generally speaking, the Acer Chromebook 14 is  on paper  almost a carbon copy of the R 13 as it does come with a very similar spec list, a very similar build quality, and is also from Acer. Therefore the overall experience is expected to be quite similar. However there are some very notable differences between the two models and these come down to flexibility, size, and price. For example, while the R 13 is designed to be an adaptable Chromebook, the Chromebook 14 is not, as it instead opts for a more of a traditional laptop-like design. Whether this is a good or a bad thing will largely depend on the needs of the buyer. One of the benefits of this lesser-need for flexibility means the Chromebook 14 comes with an even larger display size, measuring in at 14-inches. Likewise, in spite of the larger display, the lack of the additional design points does mean the Chromebook 14 is cheaper than the R 13 and typically by as much as $100. Which is a lot in Chromebook land. The rest of the included specs consist of 4GB RAM, 32GB storage, an Intel Celeron N3160 processor, and a 3,950 mAh battery.

5. Acer Chromebook 15 (2017)

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If the larger size of the Chromebook 14 is appealing to you, then the Acer Chromebook 15 is likely to be even more appealing as this Chromebook features a 15.6-inch screen. Making the Chromebook 15 just about the largest display Chromebook on the market. Therefore, if a larger size is what matters most, this is certainly one of the key Chromebooks to check out. While its size has always been a major selling point for the Chromebook 15 line in general, previous generations have not come with the build quality and design often associated with Acer Chromebooks. This has changed, however, with this latest model now more in line with the likes of the Chromebook 14, the R 13, and so on. Of course, that upgrade in design does mean it is more expensive than previous Chromebook 15 versions but based on the display/cost ratio, there are few better options than this one. Size aside, the Chromebook 15 comes loaded with 4GB RAM, up to 32GB storage, and an Intel Pentium N4200 quad-core processor.

4. Lenovo e-series Chromebooks

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Lenovo recently announced three new Chromebook models which all collectively form the new e series. These are the 100e, 300e, and 500e Chromebooks. Technically speaking, the 5003e Chromebook is the most premium and best option for those looking for more features and an advanced Chrome OS experience, as it not only includes a heightened level of specs, and an adjustable form factor, but also a stylus. However, this is sort of the point with the e series, as the three models are designed for different customer needs. For example, while the 100e is the most basic of the three, it is designed to be a highly-durable, entry-level product that is priced to suit. Making the e series as a whole one worth checking out as not everyone is in need of a Chromebook for the same reasons.

All three e Chromebooks are now available to buy with the 100e available through Lenovos website priced at $199. The middle option, the 300e is now available to buy for $269 and the 500e is currently priced at $309.

3. ASUS Chromebook Flip C302

The ASUS Chromebook Flip C302 is a great all-around option for those looking for a little bit of everything in a Chromebook. For example, with this being a Flip model it does place a good deal of its focus on its portability and flexibility best summed up through its 360-degree rotating hinge. However, unlike the other Flip model, the C302 is not quite as small, as it comes equipped with a 12.5-inch display. Making it ideal for those who like the idea of the Flip line but need that little bit more display to play with. Likewise, and in spite of its size, the C302 is designed to be a high-performing Chromebook thanks to its combination of 4GB RAM, 64GB storage, and an Intel Core m3 processor.

2. Samsung Chromebook Plus/Pro

Arguably, the Samsung Chromebook Plus and Pro models are the best Chromebooks you can buy when it comes to features and overall experience for the asking price. These are premium models and therefore do come with a premium price although that price is not quite as expensive as the ASUS C302, making these better value overall. For example, the flexibility of the Plus and Pro is relatively equal to the ASUS model thanks to the same employment of a 360-degree hinge. In addition, these Chromebooks also come with a stylus as well. That is in addition to a build quality synonymous with Samsung. Making these well-built, high-performing, and feature-rich options. Both models feature the same 12.3-inch display with a 2400 x 1600 resolution. In addition to 4GB RAM and 32GB storage. Where they primarily differ is in the processor department with the Plus version sporting an OP1 processor, compared to the Pro model which features an Intel processor.

1. Google Pixelbook

Once again, the Google Pixelbook remains our go-to option for those in the market for a Chromebook right now. Although this recommendation does come with a fairly big caveat as the Pixelbook is not priced for everyone. This is more of a show of force from Google and while this means the Pixelbook is easily the most powerful Chromebook on the market, it is pricey. With the baseline version starting at $999 and the price rising from there. However, for that elevated cost, the buyer can expect an elevated experience in all respects. This is not simply just a more powerful machine, but also a very premium looking and built device, as well as one that has been highly-tuned to Chrome OS. For example, while other Chromebooks have gained Google Assistant integration, this one comes with a hardware button dedicated to the feature. Put simply, for those looking for the ultimate Chrome OS experience, the Pixelbook is the only Chromebook to go for.
Verizon has taken to NVIDIAs GPU Technology Conference (GTC 2018) to show off how its Smart Communities group is working to make cities safer and more efficient using an edge-to-cloud video platform called NVIDIA Metropolis. Thats according to an announcement made via NVIDIAs official company blog on March 27. Specifically, the project involves using video nodes and NVIDIAs Tesla GPU accelerators, embedded in its Jetson TX1 A.I. supercomputers, placed on city infrastructure to monitor traffic flow and inform about new possibilities for citizen services. The general idea, for now, is that by attaching A.I. enabled camera arrays to street lights, city planners will be enabled to better manage traffic for vehicles, pedestrians, and cyclists. The company also hopes to be able to monitor for crimes, such as speeding, and that the machine learning will be able to detect problem-spots where accidents are likely to occur.

Those tasks are handled primarily at the edge of the network, but the package Verizon is said to be using also includes a link back to a cloud-based A.I. platform. NVIDIA hopes that will eventually lead to the possibility of being able to predict accidents in advance at some point in the future. Moreover, because most of the computing is handled at the edge  by individual nodes  and is connected, the companies are exploring ways to allow smart vehicles to access that data. In effect, that would allow smart vehicles to have a wider view of their surroundings, enabling them to be more efficient and safer. Taken in combination, it is hoped the abilities can help make cyclists and pedestrians safer, too.

To that end, Verizon already has testing of its NVIDIA-driven video nodes underway in both Sacramento and Boston. Its showing off the technology at this GTC 2018 through the course of the event  through March 29  to raise awareness of its efforts and of the wider effort of both companies. Of course, it goes without saying that the thought of A.I. powered cameras watching is going to strike some as being very Orwellian. Thats particularly true since NVIDIA says that Verizon isnt the only company using its platform but that its already in use by over 100 companies globally. Some measure of distrust is bound to grow from that but if the project goes as planned, it could make cities a whole lot safer for everybody.
Facebook co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg decided hell face Capitol Hill in an attempt to address numerous concerns raised in relation to the companys user privacy scandal involving political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, Bloomberg reported Tuesday, citing a source with knowledge of the matter. No exact details of Mr. Zuckerbergs encounter with the United States Congress have yet been ironed out but are expected to be clarified and disclosed by the social media giant in the coming days. Mr. Zuckerberg is likely to testify in front of U.S. lawmakers in an official capacity and try to answer their questions related to the incident that saw the aforementioned company harvest data of some 50 million Facebook users in 2014 without acquiring direct permission to do so from over 99-percent of them.

Earlier this week, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission confirmed its investigating Facebook over the matter, having said its officials are probing a wide variety of potential violations on the social media firms part, including a possible breach of the companys 2011 settlement with the agency that saw it vow to do more to protect the privacy of its users and do a better job at informing them on how it handles their data. Regulators in Europe are also looking into the matter, having noted that the incident may have breached the Privacy Shield maintained by the U.S. and the European Union.

Facebooks top officials already testified in front of the U.S. Congress last year when the lawmakers were investigating the social media platforms role in the 2016 presidential election and how the service may have been leveraged by foreign agents to meddle with the stateside democratic process. Mr. Zuckerberg apologized over any oversights Facebook may have made in that regard and also apologized for the Cambridge Analytica episode last week, with many investors still being displeased with the firms recent moves and prompting a major stock sell-off that erased tens of billions of dollars of Facebooks market capitalization over the last ten days.
BarcelonaWhile the Territorial Court of Schleswig-Holstein decides whether or not to extradite Carles Puigdemont, a good deal of the German press is calling for the President to not be handed over to the Spanish authorities. In an editorial titled "Asylum for Puigdemont, Jakob Augstein an influential journalist and co-owner of Der Spiegel calls for the Catalan leader to not be extradited. Augstein writes that "The detention of Puigdemont is an embarrassment. For Spain. For Europe. For Germany." And he also reminds readers about the arrest of another Catalan president, Lluis Companys: "The Germans already handed over one Catalan politician to the Spanish. Lluis Companys declared independence in 1934. He was arrested and tried. After the victory of the leftist forces he was freed, fought against Franco, escaped to France, and was captured there by the Gestapo and sent back to Spain. He was executed on October 15, 1940."

"Rebellion is a crime that requires the use of force under Spanish law, but violence has never been spoken of in Catalonia. At least not by the Catalan side. It was the Spanish police who attacked the Catalans last fall when they wanted to vote in a referendum", reflects Augstein. And he adds: "The Spanish are calling for the extradition of Puigdemont. Germany must reject this. A politician who uses peaceful means to fight for his objectives should not have to go to prison."

Germanys Suddeutsche Zeitung has taken the same line as Der Spiegel and questions the fact that Puigdemont stands accused of rebellion. It also warns that under no circumstances can possible political motives behind a case be ignored. It argues that judges must turn down the extradition request because "it is not the instrument to resolve internal conflicts.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine is much more neutral but does not take a position in favor of extradition. It describes the situation and stresses that the German government has always said that the Catalan conflict must be resolved "within the Spanish legal and constitutional order."
I am looking forward to bringing my passion for innovation in service delivery to bear, and to working with all my colleagues across the firm to continue to drive our vision, she added.

Collins joined Lander & Rogers in 1985 before she was admitted to practice in 1986. She joined the firms partnership a short time after, in 1991.

In her private practice, she is focused exclusively in WorkCover, employers liability insurance, and common law damages. She represents self-insurers and WorkSafe Victoria, which she has been the firms relationship partner to since 2005. The state authority is one of the longest-standing clients of the firm.

Collins has handled issues related to all aspects of compensation law and has appeared before the Magistrates, Country, and Supreme Courts on litigation matters.

Our firm is in excellent and very strong financial shape, Collins said. We have Andrew to thank for his vision and leadership, for his unwavering focus on enhancing the client experience, and for the way in which he has encouraged us all to embrace innovation and technology to drive change and bring opportunities for our firm, our people and our clients.
The Auto Care Association hosted technology standards conferences in El Salvador on March 19 and Guatemala on March 21 in a series of technical missions to key Latin American countries as part of an export promotion award the association received from the U.S. Department of Commerce.

The conferences, attended by top local auto care industry executives and government officials, focused on the processes around standards development and maintenance. Topics covered included detailed adoption methodologies for existing standards, ACES (Aftermarket Catalog Exchange Standard) and PIES (Product Information Exchange Standard).

The conferences were co-organized by the U.S. Commercial Service Office with the U.S. Embassies in El Salvador and Guatemala. A delegation composed of Auto Care Association staff and Evaristo Garcia of Integrate Data Facts, a strategic partner to the association on various standards initiatives, attended and presented at the conferences. The delegation also spent two days meeting with key industry stakeholders to identify strategic partners for the development and implementation of standards for these markets.

We are very excited to replicate the Auto Care Associations standards in our region in order to enhance the development of our aftermarket product lines, said Ricardo E. Moreno C., Aftermarket Regional Manager of Excel Automotriz. We have the responsibility to the industry to offer a better service to our customers. We look forward and confirm our support in the development of this tool in Central America to bring our industry together.

Excel Automotriz has a large aftermarket presence in Central America, with stores and distribution centers in El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras and Panama.

ACES makes compiling an electronic catalog with high-quality, consistent content about thousands of product lines possible and efficient. Using ACES, suppliers can describe vehicle configuration with valid database values. Suppliers can define product terminology with a database of product names, all in a computer-readable format for the exchange of this information from supplier to receiver.

PIES defines the rules of managing elements of product information, product images and product attributes. PIES defines the format of the information and the valid values. With PIES, customers and those in the distribution chain will know what a product looks like, what it weighs, the size of the box and how many are packed inside, the length of the warranty, the country of origin, the performance attributes, and much more.

For more information on the technology standards, visit http://www.autocare.org/technology/.
The vinyl wraps are on ascending trend thanks to the fact that the people working in this area constantly come up with innovative designs and this Zuffenhausen machine delivers an example as good as any.The Porscha comes with a wrap that would make it suitable for Two-Face, one of Batman's enemies. Half the car is dressed in matte white, while the other half comes in matte black. There's also an accent color (this seems to be the factory hue of the 911), which appears to be Carmine Red - we could also be dealing with Guards Red, but it's difficult to tell.The vivid shade can be found on multiple areas of the car, including the door mirrors and the rear wing.Returning the black, this hue is also featured on the wheels, as well as on the optional all-LED headlights.Well, those of you who are tuned into our Porsche tales should be familiar with the two-faced take, since we featured such a proposal earlier this month.In fact, the wrap was similar to that on the machine seen here, but the accent color was different (we're talking yellow instead of red).And now that Porsche dealers across Europe have started taking delivery of the GT3 Touring Package, we're keeping an eye out for special specs.For instance, we've shown you a Gulf Blue incarnation of the GT3 TP. And if this color seems wild, you should check out the Pink Pig wrap example we discussed last week.
The images of the hypercar have just surfaced on social media, which means we can check out its color and material spec.This is an U.S.-spec incarnation of the twin-turbo V8 animal, with the main visual trick of the thing being its dark blue-tinted visible carbon. Of course, the golden accents on the machine make all the difference in the world.As for the cabin of this Agera RS, we can see a full tan leather interior.In case you're looking at this Egg and wondering why it feels familiar, it might be because the exterior spec is somewhat similar to what we've seen on the Agera RS Naraya.However, while we're not sure about the golden accents on the car we have here, we can confirm that the Naraya is trimmed with gold leaf. This was applied by Ettore Blaster Callegaro, an Italian craftsman who is well known for working on custom cars and bikes. And the process took two 72-hour work weeks at Koenigsegg's headquarters in Angelholm, Sweeden.Alas, the Naraya was involved in a ridiculous parking crash , with a valet driving the K into the posterior of a Lamborghini Aventador Superveloce earlier this month.Fortunately, the pedestrian-like speed of the car meant the damage was limited, so the machine should return to the road soon.And if the owner of the newcomer will drive it around at least half as much as Pasin Lathouras, the man who enjoys the Naraya, we should get to see plenty of adventures involving the Swedish beast.
SUV

A piece of spy footage showcasing what appears to be a 488 test mule portrays the supercar setting off, with only the birds signing in the background (of course, supposing that the soundtrack of the clip wasn't manipulated).The sighting falls in line with our expectations since Ferrari CEO Sergio Marchionne has told multiple magazines that a Ferrari hybrid is set to make its debut next year.The exec hasn't mentioned the model that will be animated by the said powertrain and there are two main possibilities here.The first involves some sort of gas-electric evolution for the Ferrari 488. This would explain the test mule mentioned above. The 2019 timing also seems appropriate, since the 488 came around back in 2015.Marchionne explained that the gas-electric powerplant would deliver a more down to Earth approach than in the case of the LaFerrari.This is one of the reasons for which the rumor mill talks about the hardware being used to power the Ferrari, which is also set to land next year. Among others, this would mean that, unlike in the case of other super-SUVs, the Maranello crossover would debut in hybrid form, with the expected internal combustion-only versions following later on.Of course, we're expecting a plug-in hybrid rather than a simple system, which would deliver an all-electric driving range.Until we get our hands on more info, you can check out the said 488 prototype doing its thing on the carmaker's Fiorano test track below.
AMG

The freshest batch of spyshots portrays both the fixed-roof and the canvas top models doing their thing on the Green Hell, with these having even been captured side by side while inside the carmaker's development center. BMW 's decision to bring back the 8er will deliver plenty of benefits, with the large Grand Tourer expected to deliver a mix that will be difficult to resist.Back in the 90s when the original 8 Series came around, the German automotive producer stopped short of introducing an all-out M version of the car, with the range topper receiving the 850CSi label (here's a review ).At that time, the M Division was led by the kind of purity philosophy that meant the large coupe was simply too heavy for its badge. Things have changed meanwhile and, from the perspective of the new 8 Series, this means we can enjoy the full ist of dynamic assets delivered by the M people.The M8 will borrow most of its tech side from the brilliant F90-generation M5. Nevertheless, the twin-turbo 4.4-liter V8 motor of the super-sedan is expected to receive a power bump, so you should expect more than 600 ponies.And if the larger exhaust pipes are any indication on the car's soundtrack, the M8 should have the voice of a monster.Then there's the M xDrive all-paw hardware, which comes with a rear-only mode that allows drifting fans to have their cake and eat it.Once the two-door versions of the M8 land, we should get ready to meet the four-door incarnation of the machine. We're talking about the production version of the breathtaking M8 Gran Coupe we met at the Geneva Motor Show.And with machines like the Porsche Panamera Turbo and the Mercedes-GT 4-Door Coupe already out, we can't wait to see what the Bavarians have prepared in the fight against their rivals.
ICE

Nearly a quarter of a decade later, at the 2018 New York International Auto Show (NYIAS) taking place this week, the Japanese will be introducing the fifth generation of the model.The new generation of the RAV4 is a highly anticipated one, given the fact that the range has not gotten a proper upgrade since the release of the 2013 model year version. The increase in demand for SUVs in recent years has also built up pressure on Toyota to release a refreshed RAV4.Unfortunately for fans of the original model, the RAV4 has lost much of its initial identity (established on the first and second generations) in terms of styling.The 2019 RAV4 will ride on a longer wheelbase (+1.2 inches) and will be a bit wider than the previous version (+0.4 inches). The biggest novelty when it comes to the chassis is, according to Toyota, the fact that it is 57 percent more rigid than the outgoing version.As compared to the fourth generation in terms of styling, Toyota focused on improving visibility for the driver. It repositioned the side mirrors lower on the door, it lowered the beltline and the redesigned and enlarged rear-quarter glass.The Japanese say they worked around four years to improve the RAV4. As far as engine go, that means the use of only two units on the 2019 model, based on the 2.5-liter inline-four-cylinder: the first is paired with an 8-speed Direct-Shift Automatic Transmission, while the second comes paired with the Toyota Hybrid System II (THS II).When it begins selling later this year, the 2019 RAV4 will be offered in five versions for theengine and four for the hybrid. Pricing has not yet been announced.Full details on Toyotas fifth-generation RAV 4 are included in the document attached below.
The Molsheim machine we have here immediately strikes one via its yellow front section, with this possibly being the most ostentatious Chiron we've featured to date.And while the dark bits on the car only come natural, we can't say the same about the blue hue of the wheels, with this making the rollers stand out from a distance.Of course, the mix between the two strong colors on this Bug will split opinions, but we're expecting the owner to have no troubled with such matters.As for the white-ish bits visible on the W16 beater, it looks like we're dealing with tape design to protect the car for the delivery phase rather than the Tron look certain aficionados adore.Speaking of the Chiron , we'll remind you Bugatti introduced the Sport incarnation of the hypercar earlier this month, at the Geneva Motor Show.Packing the same 1,500 hp as the standard car, if we may call it so, the Chiron Sport comes with a few lightweights and handling touches, with the most unexpected element of the newcomer being the carbon fiber windscreen wipers.Nevertheless, Stephan Winkelmann, the automaker's CEO, did leave room for more during the presentation of the beast, since he mentioned a greater plan while introducing the Sport to the audience.And it's no secret that a Super Sport version of the Chiron is expected. Packing a power bump, this should see Bugatti fighting names such as Koenigsegg and Hennessey in the straight-line performance arena. After all, the US specialist did challenge Bugatti at the Swiss event, bringing the still-unfinished Venon F5 to the venue.
It was first revealed in October of last year and now, it's made its debut in the ASEAN region. The BMW X2 lands in Southeast Asia as the marque continues their expansion of their crossover range. Touted as the smallest coupe-crossover from BMW, it shares the same platform as the X2 but given its own unique sheetmetal.

BMW made it clear that there is a distinction between the X1 and X2. At the front alone, it gets a different headlight and grill treatment, making it look more sporty that its upright counterpart. Bumpers are different too with more defined corner edges and a different air intake treatment. Giving it a lower, wider look is its shorter roofline employing a sleeker rear section treatment. There is a higher window line present, which kinks upwards towards the rear. A gentle character line strikes through the door handles which then forms the flared quarter panel.

As for the rear, it gets a slim rear windshield and a tailgate that comes with an integrated spoiler. The tailgate itself is set higher than the X1, meaning a higher liftover height. Tail lights on the other hand stray slightly away from BMW tradition with the L-shaped units being upside down. There are several model lines to choose from in the X2 but the model shown in Bangkok was the xLine with its low-profile wheels and gray accents.

Where the X1 and X2 are similar is in their cabins. The design is largely lifted from the X2's more upright sibling, right down to the switches, dials and air-conditioning vents. As it is a BMW, the dashboard employs a driver-oriented design. Different trimmings can be specified in the X2, as with most BMW models. Like the exterior, interior themes vary for every model line.

A wide variety of engines can be specified for the X2 but, in the case of Bangkok's launch model, it is the 2.0-liter turbo engine that's under the hood. Badged as the X2 20i, this particular variant makes 192 PS and 280 Nm of torque. Instead of the popular ZF eight-speed automatic, the X2 20i shifts via a seven-speed, dual-clutch transmission.

With its debut in the ASEAN market, the X2 may soon make its way to the Philippines.
The romantic vision of habitat and ecosystem conservation is rather different from the reality.

People picture wildlife living in pristine places, far away and far from humans. The reality is that wild animals live everywhere, sharing the environment with humans and other animals.

"I think there's been a big realization across conservation that we can save these animalswe have the science, we have the abilities to breed thembut if we don't have a place in the wild to put them back into, it's all for naught," said Dr. Mike Adkesson, president of the American Association of Zoo Veterinarians. "So a lot of the conservation focus has really shifted toward not just protecting the species but protecting the ecosystem and habitat around it."

Dr. Adkesson, vice president of clinical medicine for the Chicago Zoological Society, was speaking to JAVMA News for the July 15, 2017, article "Role of zoos is conservation, zoo veterinarians say."

A habitat is defined as the natural environment where an organism lives. An ecosystem is a community of living organisms in conjunction with the nonliving components of the environment.

Among the various organizations at which veterinarians are involved in habitat and ecosystem conservation are zoological institutions including the Saint Louis Zoo, San Diego Zoo Global, and the Wildlife Conservation Society as well as governmental agencies from the global to the local level, such as, for example, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.

Saint Louis Zoo

Dr. R. Eric Miller is a veterinarian and executive director of the Saint Louis Zoo WildCare Institute, and Dr. Sharon L. Deem is a veterinarian and director of the Saint Louis Zoo Institute for Conservation Medicine.

San Diego Zoo Global works with this elephant sanctuary in Kenya to rehabilitate elephants and in hopes that Kenyans' one-on-one experiences with the young elephants will change attitudes in an area where there is human-elephant conflict and impact the design of wells, into which many of these elephants have fallen. (Photo by Ken Bohn/San Diego Zoo Global)

"We do look at the habitat needs of the wildlife that we're trying to conserve," Dr. Deem said. "Without healthy environments, you're not going to have healthy wildlife populations. You're not going to have healthy livelihoods for the people around them."

In northern Kenya, the semi-arid grasslands are becoming more arid, so people are keeping camels instead of cattle. The Institute for Conservation Medicine is examining the potential impacts of camel health on wildlife and environmental health.

In another program, ICM is investigating how endocrine-disrupting compounds are feminizing turtles and fish. Dr. Deem said pollutants such as these are everywhere, affecting human and animal health.

The WildCare Institute's Center for Conservation in Western Asia is working with mountain vipers in Armenia, including tracking movement of the snakes, which involves veterinarians. As a result, Dr. Miller said, Armenia has protected two new areas. The center has developed a viper breeding program at the zoo and is helping establish a breeding program in Armenia for native reptiles and amphibians.

CIM also tracks the movement of box turtles in Missouri and tortoises in the Galapagos Islands along with the animals' health status and human drivers of environmental change, including livestock production in the Galapagos. In Missouri, one goal is to put up road signs to protect female box turtles looking for nesting sites.

"Zoos in general are stepping up like they never have before for field conservation," Dr. Miller said. "Zoos are lifeboats for some of the species, and they're critical for some that only survive because they're in zoos, but zoos now are doing field conservation in a major, major way."

San Diego Zoo Global

Dr. Nadine Lamberski is a veterinarian and corporate director of animal health for San Diego Zoo Global. She said habitat protection is important to maintain sustainable populations of plants and animals. Living organisms are interdependent, and each species has a specific role in keeping ecosystems well-balanced.

The Saint Louis Zoo WildCare Institute participates in conservation projects to protect animal species at home in Missouri and around the world. (Courtesy of the Saint Louis Zoo)

Conservation can involve protecting pristine areas, restoring areas, and connecting or reconnecting habitats. In Peru, San Diego Zoo Global is studying movements of wildlife in the Amazon in a pristine area where people want to build roads. The data will inform placement of the roads.

In California's Mojave Desert, the zoo and partners are augmenting populations of tortoises. Dr. Lamberski described the tortoises as ecosystem engineers, building burrows that other animals use, too. The program raises hatchlings in captivity, releases them into the wild, and determines which habitat features lead to greatest survival. Veterinarians oversee hatchling health and nutrition.

In northern Kenya, San Diego Zoo Global is working with Kenyan veterinarians to protect the critically endangered hirola, a species of antelope. One veterinarian is studying diseases impacting the population, such as from livestock, and another veterinarian is working to improve livestock practices.

Also in the Amazon, the zoo is looking at various animal species in pristine areas and in mining areas to document the impact or lack of impact of mining on wildlife. The hope is that these data will inform management decisions on the location or extent of mines.

Wildlife Conservation Society

Dr. Chris Walzer is a veterinarian and executive director for wildlife health for the Wildlife Conservation Society's Wildlife Health Program. Along with doing field conservation, the society operates four zoos and an aquarium in New York City.

Dr. Walzer said most of the world consists of multiuse landscapes, with humans causing rapid, massive change. Livestock and sometimes pets also interface with remnants of wildlife populations.

When he started out 25 years ago, disease was viewed as unimportant in wildlife management, but the conservation community has come to accept the critical role of disease. The Wildlife Conservation Society is working on a project now to mitigate the spillover of peste de petit ruminants from domestic goats and sheep in central Asia to the critically endangered saiga, an antelope species.

The society has 60 field offices and more than 4,000 employees around the world, with the mainstay of the organization being pure conservation projects to establish and manage protected areas such as national parks. In multiuse landscapes, there are all kinds of projects, from forest restoration and preservation to marine protected areas.

Sharks have returned to the New York seascape, and the society's veterinarians are involved with die-offs and strandings. White nose syndrome, a fungal disease in bats, is spreading to the West Coast, and the society is looking at metabolic rates of bats hibernating in caves there.

Dr. Walzer said the Wildlife Conservation Society seeks to protect the wild status of wildlife. The society's vision statement is "WCS envisions a world where wildlife thrives in healthy lands and seas, valued by societies that embrace and benefit from the diversity and integrity of life on earth."

Idaho Department of Fish and Game

Dr. Mark Drew is president of the American Association of Wildlife Veterinarians and the wildlife veterinarian for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. His role at the department is surveillance and management of disease, often an indicator that things are going awry because of habitat quantity or quality issues.

The department deals with brucellosis in elk in the eastern part of the state next to Yellowstone National Park, where elk are a reservoir for the disease, although it originated in cattle. In recent years, elk have transmitted brucellosis back to cattle. The issue is how to allow cattle on the landscape and encourage elk to winter in alternative locations where co-mingling with cattle is minimized. Habitat rejuvenation or planting of browse species for the elk may allow them to winter in locations away from cattle.

Sage-grouse depend on sagebrush for food and cover, but they also eat alfalfa in irrigated fields, where there are mosquitoes that carry West Nile viruswhich has a high fatality rate in grouse. Maintaining the sagebrush steppe ecosystem is critical for sage-grouse, and one major problem with habitat quality is invasive weed species.

"From my agency's perspective, habitat is everything," Dr. Drew said. "If we don't have a place for wildlife to live, with all the things they need, we can't sustain what we're doing as an agency."

When the American Association of Wildlife Veterinarians was formed in 1979, most members worked for governmental wildlife management agencies. Current members work at zoological institutions, academic institutions, state and federal governmental agencies, and other organizations.

Dr. Drew concluded, "Veterinarians are an integral part of our ability to do anything to alter the health and well-being of wildlife and can be part of the team effort for habitat conservation and restoration."

Related JAVMA Content

Role of zoos is conservation, zoo veterinarians say (July 15, 2017)
A small avionics company called uAvionix ignited a why-didnt-I-think-of-that moment last summer when it revealed an ADS-B Out unit packaged in a navigation light dubbed SkyBeacon. At AEA 2018 in Las Vegas this week, it followed up with a new product housed in a taillight that will fit many aircraft.

In this podcast recorded at AEA, uAvionixs Shane Woodson told AVweb that the new product is called the Tail Beacon. One thing weve learned from talking to many customers is that the wingtip is a very dynamic position out there. And SkyBeacon is not going to fit every single wingtip, Woodson told us.

Woodson added that Tail Beacon, which houses a white LED taillight and an ADS-B Out transmitter, gives owners who cant make the wingtip solution work mechanically or because of antenna performance an alternative. The Tail Beacon has an integrated WAAS GPS and a self-contained blade antenna. All thats required to install is power and ground wires. Since it has no ADS-B In function, it doesnt have the wireless capability of the other products. The device mounts to the vertical fin with only two screws through a mounting ring.

uAvionix is currently testing the Tail Beacon for both fixed and rotary wing aircraft. Meanwhile, approvals for the SkyBeacon wingtip mounts were expected later in 2018 in the May to June time frame, Woodson said. Price is expected to be at about the $2000 mark.
CubCrafters is now offering factory-installed floats for its Part 23-certified XCub two-seater, the company announced this week. Wipline 2100 floats, manufactured by Wipaire, are available in both amphibious and seaplane versions. Float operations were a design objective from the outset, said Randy Lervold, president of CubCrafters. Lervold said he has trained with the floats on the XCub and was impressed with their performance. The airplanes handling on water was smooth and predictable, even in wind and chop, he said. Takeoffs were quick, and the landing gear on the amphibious model is robust, he said. The floats are available for new XCubs, or as a retrofit on aircraft that have already been delivered, the company said.

The XCub has been a popular product since its introduction in 2016. It cruises at about 127 knots, takes off in 650 feet, and has a range of about 700 NM. Its driven by a 180-HP Lycoming O-360-C1G engine, paired with a Hartzell constant-speed prop. It sells for about $300,000. The seaplane (straight) floats are available factory-installed for about $45,000, and the amphibious floats are $70,000, company spokesman John Whitish told AVweb this week. The company doesnt yet offer factory-authorized certification for water operations, Whitish said, but their training partner, TacAero, is working on a program that will be offered later this year. AVwebs Paul Bertorelli took the XCub flying in 2016; click here for his report.
With the 2020 ADS-B deadline rapidly approaching, UK avionics manufacturer Trig Avionics has leveraged its line of transponders and ADS-B Out solutions in a streamlined installation program the company is calling Express Lane. In this podcast recorded at the 2018 Aircraft Electronics Association convention in Las Vegas, Trigs Jon Roper told AVweb how Express Lane works.

Duration: 3:40 File Size: 38 MB download here /wp-content/uploads/podcast/TrigExpressLane.mp3
Gretchen Watkins, the former CEO for Maersk Oil, is expected to begin overseeing energy giant Royal Dutch Shell's growing U.S. business, Bloomberg reports.

Why it matters: This is the latest development for female executives being promoted to "oversee marquee U.S. assets," after the oil industry has been largely dominated by men. There's still a long way to go, however, as 80% of industry workers are men and there's a significant wage gap.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un secretly visited China to meet with President Xi Jinping, Chinese state media has confirmed. The trip took place from March 25-28 (local time).

Why it matters: This was Kim's first trip outside North Korea since he took power in 2011, and his first meeting with a foreign head of state. The meeting also comes ahead of planned meetings with American and South Korean leaders.

What happened: Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan welcomed Kim Jong-un and his wife Ri Sol-ju for a banquet and they watched an art show, according to China's Xinhua News.

Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan welcomed Kim Jong-un and his wife Ri Sol-ju for a banquet and they watched an art show, according to China's Xinhua News. What Kim reportedly said: "The issue of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula can be resolved, if South Korea and the United States respond to our efforts with goodwill, create an atmosphere of peace and stability while taking progressive and synchronous measures for the realization of peace."

"The issue of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula can be resolved, if South Korea and the United States respond to our efforts with goodwill, create an atmosphere of peace and stability while taking progressive and synchronous measures for the realization of peace." Xinhua News writes that Kim also expressed an openness to meeting with the U.S. during his visit.

Statement from the White House: "The Chinese government contacted the White House earlier on Tuesday to brief us on Kim Jong Un's visit to Beijing. The briefing included a personal message from President Xi to President Trump ... We see this development as further evidence that our campaign of maximum pressure is creating the appropriate atmosphere for dialogue with North Korea."

Go deeper: Why Kim Jong-un would visit Beijing
A day after a North Korean armored train arrived in Beijing there has been no official confirmation that Kim Jong-un was on board, but three people with knowledge of the visit" tell Bloomberg Kim did in fact make the trip, while the Financial Times reports Kim visited Beijing and "it was assumed he had met Chinese president Xi Jinping."

Why it matters: This would be Kim's first known trip outside of North Korea since he took power in 2011 and, if he did meet Xi, his first meeting with a foreign leader. It comes ahead of a possible summit between Kim and President Trump, and at a tense time for relations between Beijing and Pyongyang.

Quick take: China is wary of direct talks between North Korea and the U.S., and it's no surprise they'd want to coordinate with Kim ahead of any such negotiations. This visit could show China wants to be able to represent its interests in the conversation.

Rumblings of a visit...

Beijing Rail posted an unusually long list of delays to Weibo, near the North Korea border, per NBC News.

"All news about North Korea was censored on Chinas internet starting at the weekend," per the FT.

Japans Kyodo News reported a special train possibly took Kim through the border city of Dandong, and the train looks similar to the train Kim Jong-il took to China in 2011.

Reports of a motorcade driving through Beijing accompanied by an ambulance spurred rumors the head of state was in town.

Smart take, from the FT:

"Relations... have nearly collapsed in recent years as Beijing has followed the US lead in supporting multiple U.N. sanctions in an effort to pressure its neighbour to give up its nuclear weapons. But Mr Kims visit suggests that a dramatic improvement in relations could be on the cards. Foreign policy experts said Pyongyang was trying to patch things up with Beijing to end its isolation, while China was seeking Mr Kims endorsement to sit at the table during any peace talks."

Go deeper: How icy relations with China changed the game for North Korea
The Supreme Court heard a legal challenge on Wednesday, arguing that a congressional district in Maryland was gerrymandered to favor Democrats  with an attorney claiming that the decision violated the First Amendment rights of Republican voters.

The big picture: In the spirited hour-long hearing, the justices appeared uncertain on how to rule and worried about the possibility that the court's credibility may be tarnished if it inserts itself into partisan squabbles over gerrymandering. In its history, the court has never struck down a voting map due to partisan gerrymandering.

The key takeaways:

Michael Kimberly, the attorney representing the Republicans, contended that Maryland's Democratic-controlled legislature intentionally drew the state's 6th congressional district in 2011 to boost their electoral advantage and cost a longtime GOP incumbent his seat. They made it impossible [for opponents] to gain electoral success, he said.

A majority of the Supreme Court justices indicated they may believe that what Maryland Democrats did was intentional. Justice Sonia Sotomayor highlighted "damning evidence" to that end, pointing to a deposition where then-Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, a Democrat, acknowledged that "it was also [his] intent" to create a district "where the people would be more likely to elect a Democrat than a Republican."

During the oral arguments, the justices acknowledged that some partisanship in redistricting is tolerable, but they repeatedly questioned how much is too much.

What's next: The court heard a similar case last October from Wisconsin where Democrats say the GOP-controlled state legislature gerrymandered the entire legislative map to maximize their majority. The decisions in both cases are expected by June.

Go deeper: Here's where the big redistricting court fights stand.
Senior administration officials said on Tuesday that the Trump administration has reached "an agreement of principle" with South Korea regarding the United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS).

Why it matters, per the New York Times: "Mr. Trump used his threat of stiff steel and aluminum tariffs as a cudgel to extract the concessions he wanted, helping produce an agreement that had stalled amid disagreements this year."

More from the Times: "The deal, which could be formally announced on Wednesday, opens the Souths market to American autos by lifting existing limits on manufacturers like Ford Motor and General Motors, extends tariffs for South Korean truck exports and restricts, by nearly a third, the amount of steel that the South can export to the United States.

"An agreement of principle" essentially means that both sides have agreed to the broad principle of a deal, but haven't worked the technical details out yet. An administration official said when finalized, it will "be the first successful renegotiation of any trade agreement in U.S. history."

What the agreement includes, as of now:
By Rashid Shirinov

Many Armenian experts note that presently, the incumbent president of the country Serzh Sargsyan faces a difficult task  he wants to retain power as the new prime minister of the country, get approval from the international community, and at the same time, he wishes to preserve the corruption system within the Armenian authorities.

On the other hand, he will have to imitate actions to combat corruption in Armenia in order not to cause anger of the international community, which tries to eradicate corruption in the country.

While Sargsyan is trying to maneuver between corruption and the international community, a new movement against him is growing in Armenia.

"During the 10 years of ruling in the country, Serzh Sargsyan achieved only failures and catastrophic indicators in all spheres," David Hovhannisyan, member of the "Reject Serzh" initiative, said on March 28 during the discussion of further steps to combat Sargsyans rule in Armenia.

He also noted that more than 400,000 people have left Armenia irrevocably during these 10 years, while the external debt has reached a dangerous limit. There is no progress in the fields of human rights and democracy, Hovhannisyan added.

Another member of the "Reject Serzh" initiative David Sanasaryan noted that through their rally on March 24, they tried to understand the mood of people and determine their next steps.

"The authorities do not realize who really should be a leader. They simply can enjoy some privileges with the help of Sargsyan," Sanasaryan said.

David Petrosyan, another member of the initiative against Sargsyan stressed that there is no internal democracy in the Republican Party of Armenia, headed by Sargsyan, and that the party hinges on only one person.

Thus, the struggle against Sargsyans rule in Armenia is intensifying with every single day leading towards the prime minister election on April 17.

It is obvious today that Armenia has no future without changing the system of power and the top officials, and the population of Armenia understands this. People suffer from plight due to the incapable authorities headed by Sargsyan, who are not yet able to fix the problems of the country. The state debt is approaching $7 billion but 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  there are only few of the problems the Armenian citizens face.

People periodically hold protests demanding from the government to solve the economic and, first of all, social problems in the country. However, the authorities continue to close their eyes to these issues, and if Sarsgsyan is elected the new prime minister, the doleful situation will not change.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
By Abdul Ghafur

Last year, a 30-year-old teacher suffering from a severe bloodstream infection arrived in my emergency room for treatment. The woman had been in and out of local clinics with a stubborn chest infection and fever, and by the time I examined her, she was receiving chemotherapy for blood cancer.

Instinctively, I treated her infection with an antibiotic from a group of drugs known as carbapenems, strong medicines commonly prescribed to people who are hospitalized. But after further tests I discovered that she was carrying a strain of bacteria that is resistant to most antibiotics in our therapeutic arsenal. There was no option but to treat her with drugs that I knew would be largely ineffective; she was lucky to recover.

Sadly, many patients are not so fortunate. Around the world, people are being admitted to hospitals with infections that do not respond to antibiotics, and relatively benign germs  like Klebsiella and E. coli  have become potent killers, shrugging off medicines that in the past easily contained them.

Antibiotics are different from almost every other class of drug in one important and dangerous respect: the more they are used, the less effective they become. When microbes are repeatedly exposed to antibiotics, the bacteria eventually win.

Each year, an estimated 750,000 people die from antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) infections, and the death toll will climb unless the global health community acts decisively. In the absence of detailed and reliable reporting from all countries, the British government commissioned a series of reports on AMR, estimating that by 2050, as many as ten million people could die annually from AMR complications. Moreover, the economic impact of superbug outbreaks could top $100 trillion; low-income countries would suffer disproportionately.

Uneven and unregulated antibiotic usage is one of the most important reasons behind the AMR crisis. In developed countries, doctors prescribe antibiotics for even the most basic maladies, like the common cold. Stronger regulations of antibiotics prescriptions in these countries, like those implemented in Finland several decades ago, could help to mitigate resistance.

Yet such rules alone will not be enough, because in much of the developing world, antibiotics can be obtained without a prescription. Inequalities in access to medicine, excessive use, and poor sanitation services complicate the problem further. And when farmers uses antibiotics to speed the growth of chickens and other livestock, drug-resistant germs find new ways to enter the environment.

In 2017, the World Health Organization, in an effort to address these challenges, classified antibiotics into three groups and issued guidance for how each class of drugs should be used to treat 21 of the most common infections. For example, the first of these groups consists of medicines that should always be available to patients, preferably by prescription. Amoxicillin, the preferred medicine for respiratory-tract infections in children, is in this group. The second tier includes carbapenems, which, as my patient last year discovered, are increasingly ineffective. And the third group, including colistin and other last resort antibiotics, are drugs that must be used sparingly and only for medical emergencies.

Clearly, guidelines are an important first step in addressing the global AMR challenge. But governments, medical associations, and hospitals must also commit to tackling the antibiotic crisis together. That is what the health-care community in India is doing. In 2012, Indias medical societies adopted the Chennai Declaration, a set of national recommendations to promote antibiotic stewardship. Last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi used his monthly radio address to urge doctors to join the effort.

Still, the AMR threat remains real; containing it will require concerted effort. In India, for example, we must implement the regulation, formulated by the Indian Health Ministry, controlling over-the-counter sales of antibiotics. The WHOs advice should strengthen support for this move.

Indias Red Line campaign  which demands that prescription-only antibiotics be marked with a red line, to discourage the over-the-counter sale of antibiotics is a step forward.

Meanwhile, health-care communities in advanced economies must find the political will to reduce unnecessary antibiotic use by people, and in agriculture. Last resort antibiotics should never be used as growth promoters in livestock farming, but achieving this will require significant changes to current practices.

Superbugs should strike fear in doctors and patients everywhere, but fear cannot lead to paralysis. The next time a patient arrives in my ward with a treatable infection, I need to be certain that the medicine I prescribe will be effective. Luck should never play a role in a patients recovery.

Copyright: Project Syndicate: Indias war on antimicrobial resistance

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By Trend

In the next few years, Azerbaijan will solve the export diversification issue in order to switch from the economy that receives more revenues from the oil and gas industry to economy oriented to non-primary sectors, Alexander Karavaev, Russian political expert, Deputy Director of the Centre for Study of former Soviet Union territory of the Information and Analytical Centre of the Moscow State University told Trend.



The expert believes that the country will primarily witness development in three areas such as agro-industry, logistics and transport communications, as well as supporting small and medium-sized businesses.



"The development of transport communications will also include completion of the planned and modernization of existing routes in the paradigm of turning Azerbaijan into a transport hub, when cargo will be transshipped across the country in different directions."



According to Karavaev, support to small and medium-sized businesses is a very important line of development, since export capacity is built at this level.



"It is difficult to enter international markets through some large companies involved in heavy industry. Azerbaijan is particularly known with two areas: oil and agro-industry. But even in these two areas it is possible to achieve quite great success if we put their development on the right track," - the expert believes.



According to the Russian political expert, further reforms are expected in the sphere of governance and economy as a whole.



The formats of ministries are changing, new agencies are emerging, structures are merging, he said, noting that the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies can serve as an example.



Two large ministries were united in order to concentrate efforts on creating a system that allows products to be exported to electronic trading platforms," Karavaev said.

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By Rashid Shirinov

Cybernet, the leading IT solutions provider in Azerbaijan, will develop software for the State Registry of Collateral over Movable Property, the company informed on March 28.

The company won the relevant tender announced by Azerbaijans Financial Market Supervisory Authority.

Creation of the State Registry of Collateral over Movable Property in Azerbaijan will help develop small and medium-sized businesses, facilitating their access to financial resources.

The Registry will create the database of the encumbrance of movable property that do not have the state registration, provide free access of lending institutions to this information and repeated usage of the property, limit the rights on its usage and expand the selection of collateral. The Registry will also allow legal entities and individuals to register their movable property and subsequently use it as pledge in obtaining a loan, which will simplify their access to finance.

Within the project, representatives of Financial Market Supervisory Authority of Azerbaijan and Cybernet got acquainted with the best international practice in this area through experience sharing programs.

Cybernet company started its activity in 2004. Having extensive experience in the creation of e-services and application solutions for e-Government, it offers IT services and solutions in Azerbaijan and Central Asian countries.

The company's main mission is to provide both private and state organizations with up-to-date information technologies, improve the business processes of financial organizations, as well as local and international companies with IT solutions.

Last year, Cybernet successfully developed an integrated information system for Kazakhstan's Ministry of Health.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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By Laman Ismayilova

Ballet brings the artistry into everyday life. The enchanting and magical world of ballet has its own world of language. The blend of graceful moves and splendid music creates magic in every ballet performance.

The first national ballet titled The Maiden Tower was premiered on April 18, 1940 on the stage of the Azerbaijan State Opera and Ballet Theater.

The Maiden Tower is based on an old Eastern legend about Bakus most famous landmark. The ballet consists of three acts with a prologue and epilogue.

Gamar Almaszade appeared in the ballet and became the first Azerbaijani ballerina.

The Maiden Tower was composed specifically for Gamar by her husband, Afrasiyab Badalbeyli. At the age of 25, she performed the lead role in the ballet.

The ballet managed to attract a large audience. Yong ballerina conquered the hearts of all who have ever seen her on stage.

Almaszade had the kind of talent that appears once every hundred, no, thousand years.

However, there's no easy path to success. She had to overcome many hurdles and difficulties.

When she was a young girl, the idea of becoming a ballerina was scandalous. Her father could not accept the fact that his daughter was performing onstage at the theater.

Despite her father's objections, Gamar became Azerbaijan's first world-class ballerina.

After graduating from the choreographic school in 1930, Gamar Almaszade began working at the Azerbaijan State Opera and Ballet Theatre.

To meet her father's expectations, she also enrolled in a teachers' college. In 1932, she left for Moscow to continue her ballet education but soon returned to Baku after being chosen to perform a secondary role in Reinhold Gliere's opera Shakh-Senem.

In 1937, she founded the Azerbaijan State Folk Song and Dance Ensemble affiliated with the Azerbaijan State Philharmonic Society. Guided by composer Uzeyir Hajibeyli, she organized research expeditions to various parts of Azerbaijan to film and document folk dance performances and to enrich the repertoire of her ensemble.

Gamar Almaszade also taught her first choreography class. During her career, she toured France, India, and Nepal.

In 1970, she was invited to Baghdad by Iraq's Ministry of Culture to promote Iraqi folk dance culture and founded the Iraq Folk Dance Ensemble. She retired from ballet in the 1950s, but remained an instructor at the School of Choreography until the late 1990s.

The ballet star left the stage at 35 with the hope that the viewer must remember her young.

Unfortunately, Azerbaijani ballet star died on April 7, 2006. She made a great contribution to the development of ballet art in Azerbaijan.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

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By Laman Ismayilova

On the eve of one of the biggest Christian holidays-Easter, Baku will host an Easter Charity Bazaar for the ninth consecutive year.

During the traditional Bazaar to be organized at the Russian Information and Cultural Center (RICC) on March 29-30, participants will be able to buy handicrafts, including, artistic embroidery, jewelry, ceramics, and wood carving. Visitors can buy delicious Easter cakes and other sweets.

Guests can participate in a charity lottery.

Easter traditions throughout the world differ from country to country. In many central and eastern European countries decorating eggs in beautiful patterns is especially popular.

For instance, in Poland, families prepare a blessing basket the day before Easter. Filled with colored eggs, sausages, bread, and other food, baskets are taken to church to be blessed.

In Sweden children dress up as Easter witches wearing long skirts, colorful headscarves and painted red cheeks, and go from home to home in their neighborhoods trading paintings and drawings in the hope of receiving sweets.

In Russia, the neighbor or loved one of a person pierces the branch of the soft blooms, kept on the latter's shoulder.

In the Czech Republic, the males of a family spank females with a homemade whip decorated with ribbons. The spanking is lighthearted and is believed to bring health over the next year.

On Easter Monday, the President of the United States holds an annual Easter egg roll on the lawn of the White House for young children.

Azerbaijan enjoys a tolerant atmosphere for different nations and religions. The national policy is defined on the principles of tolerance and coexistence of various nationalities, ethnic groups and religious minorities. Many religious confessions co-exist there. There are 1,834 mosques, 12 churches and 6 synagogues functioning in Azerbaijan.

The government has created all conditions for religious worship in the country.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

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By Rashid Shirinov

If the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is resolved, Armenia may have the opportunity to join projects implemented in the region with the participation of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Russia, the well-known Turkish expert, head of the Ankara Institute of Study of Russia, PhD Salih Ylmaz told Day.Az on March 26.

Of course, for this, Armenia must stop the aggressive policy against Azerbaijan and begin de-occupation of the seized lands in accordance with the requirements of four resolutions of the UN Security Council and other international structures that recognize the occupation of the territories of the neighboring state by Armenia, the expert said.

He also noted that the main country that can exert real pressure on Armenia within the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is Russia, on which Armenia depends entirely.

Presently, while the countries of the region successfully develop political ties and economic cooperation, Armenia remains left out of regional projects. The country has long turned into an outcast of the region due to its unfounded territorial claims and aggression against Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war that ended with signing of a fragile ceasefire in 1994. Since the war, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

While the OSCE Minsk Group acted as the only mediator in resolution of the conflict, the occupation of the territory of the sovereign state with its internationally recognized boundaries has been left out of due attention of the international community for years.

Until now, Armenia ignores four UN Security Council resolutions on immediate withdrawal from the occupied territory of Azerbaijan, thus keeping tension high in the region.

Touching upon the relations between Turkey and Russia, Yilmaz noted that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the economic interaction between the two countries has improved, as well as in the political and military fields in the last two years.

The two countries have become allies in the Syrian issue, combining efforts against U.S. and the West, and I think that these relations will improve in the future, the expert said.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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By Rashid Shirinov

The Armenian Foreign Minister has a special phobia regarding substantive negotiations, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministrys Spokesman Hikmat Hajiyev said on March 27.

He was commenting on the recent statement of the Armenian FM Edward Nalbandian. Apparently, he is seriously concerned about the substantive conduct of negotiations on a specific basis, which began in the autumn of 2017, Hajiyev said.

He added that Armenia deliberately pursues a policy of negotiating for the sake of negotiations and imitating negotiations.

Thus, Armenia pursues such a dirty goal as preserving the occupation of Azerbaijani territories and delaying the negotiation process, Hajiyev mentioned. Instead of putting an end to aggression, which is the fundamental basis of the conflict, and withdrawing Armenian troops from the occupied Azerbaijani territories, the military and political leadership of Armenia deliberately tries to focus attention on negotiations on technical, secondary issues.

The spokesman also said that the creation of Armenia as a state on the ancestral lands of Azerbaijan is a historical fact.

We would advise the military and political leadership of Armenia to check out the census conducted by Tsarist Russia in Yerevan at the beginning of the 19th century, he noted.

Hajiyev also mentioned that for sustainable peace and security in the region, the Armenian leadership must recognize its responsibility for the acts committed against Azerbaijan and the Azerbaijani people, comply with obligations it assumed under the UN Charter, norms and principles of international law, and immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw its occupying forces from the seized territories, as required by the UN Security Council resolutions.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.

Until now, Armenia controls fifth part of Azerbaijans territory and rejects implementing four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding regions.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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By Trend

Anglo Asian Mining PLC (AAM), a producer of gold, copper and silver in Azerbaijan, is pleased to announce that a subsidiary of the Group, Azerbaijan International Mining Company Limited, plans to spend about $6 million for its new geological exploration and evaluation programme for 2018, the company said in a message.

The company said that 2018 to be the first year of a three-year rolling programme of geological exploration of near mine, brownfield and greenfield areas. The aim is replacing mined ounces, extending the current mine life to a 10-year minimum, increasing the company's inventory of resources and discovering new mineral deposits similar to the Ugur open pit mine ("Ugur") which have the potential to be quickly developed into operating mines.

Reportedly, the programme will build on the results of the 2017 geological work and comprehensively cover the Company's three operating contract areas, including Gedabek gold, copper and silver contract area in western Azerbaijan which is the location of the Gedabek and Ugur mines and the Gadir underground mine, Gosha contract area, which is located 50 kilometres from Gedabek; and Ordubad contract area ("Ordubad") which is located in Nakhichivan.

A total of around 43,500 metres of surface and underground drilling is planned within the program.

"I am very pleased to announce this programme of geological exploration of our three operating contract areas," Anglo Asian CEO Reza Vaziri said.

"This will build upon the success of the previous few years during which we discovered the Ugur and Gadir deposits. In addition to demonstrating that our exploration can produce results, we have importantly shown that we can quickly produce value from any new discoveries as exemplified by Ugur, which we brought into production in less than 12 months from discovery."

Anglo Asian Group Director of Geology & Mining Stephen Westhead, in turn, said that the company will carry out an airborne geophysical survey over the entire Gedabek contract area and also investigate the potential of Gosha and Ordubad.

Anglo Asian Mining PLC is a gold, copper and silver producer with a broad portfolio of production and exploration assets in Azerbaijan.

AAM and Swiss Industrial Minerals SA signed an agreement in May 2014 on selling cooper concentrate produced at Gadabay field in Azerbaijan. Based on the production sharing agreement signed with Azerbaijani government in August 1997, Anglo Asian Mining PLC has the right to develop six fields in south-west of Azerbaijan: Gadabay, Ordubad, Gosha Bulag, Gizil Bulag, Vejnali and Soyutlu.

The gold produced at the fields is sent to Switzerland for purification. The ingots are delivered to Azerbaijan and are stored in the governments account.

In 2017, AAM produced 59,617 ounces of gold, 1,991 tons of copper and 172,853 ounces of silver in Azerbaijan. This year the company plans to produce 84,000 ounces in gold equivalent.

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A new print edition of the AZERNEWS online newspaper was released on March 28.

The new edition includes articles about OPEC revises countrys 2018 oil output forecasts, Bosnia and Herzegovina has potential for Azerbaijani investments, Baku joins Earth Hour 2018 ecological campaign, Gamar Almaszade: Nations first ballerina etc.

AZERNEWS is an associate member of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA).
By Trend

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has received US Ambassador to Azerbaijan Robert Cekuta upon the termination of his diplomatic tenure, Azerbaijans Foreign Ministry told Trend.

Cekuta noted that he spared no efforts to strengthen bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and the US during his tenure.

Mammadyarov thanked Cekuta for his contribution to the development of relations between the two countries and wished him every success in his future endeavors.

At the meeting, the sides reviewed the prospects of cooperation between the two countries in the energy, economy, trade, counter-terrorism, humanitarian and other spheres.

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By Kamila Aliyeva

A meeting of an expert group on long-term observation of the presidential election in Azerbaijan of the Interparliamentary Assembly of the Commonwealth of Independent States (IPA CIS) and Chairman of Azerbaijans Central Election Commission (CEC) Mazahir Panahov was held on March 27.

Observation is of great importance to ensure transparency at election, Panahov said.

He expressed satisfaction that the long-term observers of the IPA CIS will monitor the presidential election in Azerbaijan to be held on April 11.

Dmitriy Gladey, head of the group, director of the International Institute for Monitoring Democracy Development, Parliamentarianism and Suffrage Protection of Citizens of IPA CIS Member Nations (IPA CIS IIMDD), noted that the group he led was made up of influential experts from various countries.

He said that the groups goal is to get acquainted with the preparation for the presidential election in Azerbaijan and have a report ready, following the observation.

Panahov at the request of the guests spoke about training for members of lower election commissions, implemented large-scale educational projects, steps taken to clarify the voter lists, the latest preparatory work for the election and answered questions of international observers.

At the meeting, the sides also exchanged views on other issues of mutual interest.

The presidential election in Azerbaijan, the largest South Caucasus state on the Caspian shore, is to be held on April 11, according to an order signed on February 5 by the country's President Ilham Aliyev. Pre-election campaign in Azerbaijan has kicked off on March 19 and will end on April 10 at 08:00.

Eight candidates - Ilham Aliyev, nominated from the New Azerbaijan Party, Gudrat Hasanguliyev from the Azerbaijani Popular Front Party, Araz Alizade from the Social Democratic Party of Azerbaijan, Faraj Guliyev from the National Revival Movement Party, Razi Nurullayev from the Frontists Initiative Group, Hafiz Hajiyev from the Modern Musavat Party, self-nominee Zahid Oruj and Sardar Mammadov from the Azerbaijan Democratic Party  will be competing at the forthcoming presidential election in Azerbaijan.

As many as 312 international observers and 55,887 local observers will monitor the April 11 presidential election in Azerbaijan. The accredited observers represent 47 countries. The number of local observers accredited in the CEC is 969. There are 5,309,434 voters in the country.

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

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By Trend

Azerbaijan's Defense Minister, Colonel General Zakir Hasanov has today met with the US Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Azerbaijan Robert Cekuta on the occasion of completion of his diplomatic mission in the country.

During the meeting, the sides exchanged views on the prospects for development of military cooperation between Azerbaijan and the United States, the military-political situation in the region, the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and other issues of mutual interest.

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By Trend

Azerbaijans Defense Minister, Colonel General Zakir Hasanov has left for Ankara for an official visit at the invitation of his Turkish counterpart Nurettin Canikli, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said in a message March 28.

During the visit, it is planned to hold meetings with the military and political leadership and heads of other state structures of Turkey, according to the message.

Minister Hasanov will take part in a trilateral meeting of defense ministers of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia to be held in Giresun on March 31.

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By Kamila Aliyeva

Azerbaijan has registered 545 international observers to monitor the April 11 presidential election, Chairman of Azerbaijan's Central Election Commission (CEC) Mazahir Panahov said on March 28.

He noted that this is not the final figure as the registration of observers continues and their number will probably increase.

As for local observers, the CEC chairman said more than 53,000 observers were registered, according to the latest information.

The number of local observers is also increasing and appeals are being reviewed, Panahov added.

He went on to say that debates of presidential candidates, during free air time on ITV Public Television, run normally and no unpleasant events have been seen so far.

Panahov considers it normal that the candidates go beyond the defined topics during the debates.

No election campaign can be perfect in any country. The electoral process is a big process, and things can happen. Overall, the election campaign of the presidential candidates is proceeding normally, he noted.

Meanwhile, a technical control center created at the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Azerbaijan for monitoring of web cameras, installed at the polling stations, has been checked today.

Panahov, who attended the event, said that web cameras were installed in 20 percent of the country's polling stations in connection with the upcoming presidential election.

The goal is to ensure transparency in the election process, according to CEC chairman.

Web cameras were installed in 20 percent of the country's polling stations, that is 1,000 polling stations, in connection with the presidential election. The polling stations, where 1,000 cameras were installed, cover all parts of the country. Any internet user can watch the voting process live on the official website of the CEC on the election day, he said.

Minister of Transport, Communications and High Technologies Ramin Guluzade also took part in the event.

The presidential election in Azerbaijan, the largest South Caucasus state on the Caspian shore, is to be held on April 11, according to an order signed on February 5 by the country's President Ilham Aliyev. Pre-election campaign in Azerbaijan has kicked off on March 19 and will end on April 10 at 08:00.

Eight candidates - Ilham Aliyev, nominated from the New Azerbaijan Party, Gudrat Hasanguliyev from the Azerbaijani Popular Front Party, Araz Alizade from the Social Democratic Party of Azerbaijan, Faraj Guliyev from the National Revival Movement Party, Razi Nurullayev from the Frontists Initiative Group, Hafiz Hajiyev from the Modern Musavat Party, self-nominee Zahid Oruj and Sardar Mammadov from the Azerbaijan Democratic Party  will be competing at the forthcoming presidential election in Azerbaijan.

As many as 545 international observers and about 55,887 local observers will monitor the April 11 presidential election in Azerbaijan. The accredited observers represent around 47 countries. There are 5,309,434 voters in the country.

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

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By Trend

Azerbaijans First Vice President Mehriban Aliyeva has today met with Vice President of the Islamic Republic of Iran for Women and Family Affairs Masoumeh Ebtekar.

Expressing satisfaction with the Iranian delegation's visit to Azerbaijan, First Vice President Mehriban Aliyeva said the relations between the two countries are historically based upon friendship and brotherhood, and cover many areas of cooperation, including political and cultural spheres.

Mehriban Aliyeva said the meetings between the presidents of Azerbaijan and Iran serve for strengthening of relations between the two countries.

Saying that in recent years Azerbaijan and Iran have been implementing joint projects that are important for both countries and for the region, Azerbaijans first vice president highlighted the relations in the field of transportation.

She noted that the Rasht-Astara railway project, to be signed during the visit of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to Baku, will benefit both Azerbaijan and Iran.

Irans Vice President for Women and Family Affairs Masoumeh Ebtekar, for her part, expressed satisfaction with her visit to Azerbaijan and stressed that the relations in all spheres are strengthening between the two countries.

Masoumeh Ebtekar added that these relations contribute to the welfare of the two countries peoples.

Speaking about the economic relations between Azerbaijan and Iran, she noted that big projects are being implemented in transportation. She said the expansion of relations in culture is of great importance.

Ebtekar emphasized that relations are expanding in the field of family and women affairs.

The Iranian official spoke about the public and social projects implemented by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, which is led by Azerbaijans First Vice President Mehriban Aliyeva, and emphasized that these projects are being implemented successfully.

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By Trend

Intensification of terrorist activities in the north of Afghanistan causes serious concern for Dushanbe, Tajik Foreign Minister Sirodzhiddin Aslov said at the international conference on Afghanistan, held in Tashkent, Tajik media outlets reported.

"The activation of terrorist groups in northern regions of Afghanistan, especially in the territories bordering Tajikistan, as well as the participation of a certain number of citizens of the post-Soviet republics in terrorist organizations in Afghanistan cause our serious concern," Aslov said.

An international conference on Afghanistan entitled "Peace Process, Security Cooperation and Regional Connectivity" started in Tashkent on March 27.

The list of participants of the conference includes Central Asian foreign ministers, UN Secretary General's Special Representative for Afghanistan Tadamichi Yamamoto, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Magerini, as well as Deputy Secretary of State of the US for Political Affairs Thomas Shannon.

Special representatives of Great Britain, Germany, Italy, special adviser to the Japanese Foreign Ministry, special envoy of the Foreign Ministry of Qatar, NATO delegations, Collective Security Treaty Organization, representatives from France and the United Arab Emirates also participate in the conference.

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By Trend

Foreign Minister of the Kyrgyz Republic Erlan Abdyldaev met in Tashkent with EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federico Mogherini, Kabar with reference to the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic reported.

During the meeting, the sides discussed topical issues of the bilateral agenda, organization of high level mutual visits, as well as negotiations on a new agreement on enhanced partnership and cooperation between Kyrgyzstan and the EU.

Mogherini in the context of the March 15 meeting of the Central Asian leaders in Astana, noted the positive dynamics of development of cooperation in the region.

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By Trend

Turkey hopes that the EU will become the hearth of genuine democracy, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said, Turkish media reported on March 27.

Cavusoglu noted that, unfortunately, a number of EU countries have several problems in relations with Turkey.

"The EU uses double standards in relation to Turkey, but this does not mean that all EU countries do not want to see Turkey within the Union," Cavusoglu said.



Previously, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said that Turkey does not need the EU, nevertheless, the European Union must make a final decision on Ankara's membership in this structure as soon as possible.

According to Yildirim, Islamophobia has grown strongly in recent years in the EU and this could lead Europe to a serious crisis.

An association agreement between the EU and Turkey was signed in 1963. Ankara filed an application for membership in the EU in 1987, but accession negotiations were launched in 2005.

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By Trend

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin have discussed the situation in Syria during a phone conversation, Turkish media reported March 27.

The parties also discussed the development of bilateral relations and regional issues.

The previous phone conversation between the two presidents took place on Feb. 8, during which the parties discussed the Operation Olive Branch.

Turkeys Armed Forces and Free Syrian Army liberated Afrin city from PYD/YPG terrorists on March 18.

On Jan. 20, the Turkish Armed Forces, together with the Free Syrian Army, launched the Operation Olive Branch in Afrin, Syria.

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By Trend

Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Turkey and Kyrgyzstan Mevlut Cavusoglu and Erlan Abdyldaev discussed prospects for expansion of bilateral cooperation during the meeting within the international conference on Afghanistan entitled "Peace Process, Security Cooperation and Regional Connectivity," held in Tashkent, the Foreign Minister of Turkey tweeted.

Chavushoglu stressed that Turkey pays special attention to the development of bilateral relations with Kyrgyzstan, as well as with other Turkic-speaking countries.

The sides also concluded agreements on intensification of interstate political, trade-economic and cultural-humanitarian cooperation, through mutual visits of interdepartmental delegations and the regular meetings of the joint Kyrgyz-Turkish commission on trade and economic cooperation.

The international conference on Afghanistan started in Tashkent on March 27.

The list of participants of the conference includes Central Asian foreign ministers, UN Secretary General's Special Representative for Afghanistan Tadamichi Yamamoto, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Magerini, as well as Deputy Secretary of State of the US for Political Affairs Thomas Shannon.

Special representatives of Great Britain, Germany, Italy, special adviser to the Japanese Foreign Ministry, special envoy of the Foreign Ministry of Qatar, NATO delegations, Collective Security Treaty Organization, representatives from France and the United Arab Emirates also participate in the conference.

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By Trend

Oil exports from Iraq's Kirkuk via Turkey could resume at "any moment," the head of Iraq's State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO) chief said Tuesday, Daily Sabah reports.

The SOMO chief noted that the Kurdistan region debt issue is obstructing the resumption of the oil exports via Turkey.

Back in February, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said that Iraq was discussing with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and Turkey about the resumption of oil exports from Kirkuk to Turkey's Ceyhan port through the KRG-controlled pipeline, adding that oil exports from Kirkuk to Turkey would resume soon.

There are five oil wells in the oil-rich Kirkuk region, two of which are controlled by the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG).

Unidentified attackers on several occasions blew up the strategic Kirkuk-Ceyhan oil pipeline in Iraq's northern Kirkuk province.

Iraq is the second-largest crude oil producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) after Saudi Arabia, and holds the world's fifth-largest proven crude oil reserves after Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Canada, and Iran, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

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By Trend

Deputy Co-Chairman of the Interparliamentary Cooperation Commission of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation and Azerbaijani Parliament, member of the State Duma, Hajimet Safaraliyev will head a mission of observers from the State Duma of the Russian Federation to the upcoming presidential election in Azerbaijan.

"A mission of observers from the State Duma of the Russian Federation, consisting of about 10 people, will arrive in Azerbaijan on April 9 to observe the presidential election," Safaraliyev told Moscow-Baku.

Safaraliyev reminded that he is tasked to observe the presidential election in Azerbaijan not for the first time.

"Azerbaijan is one of the most advanced republics of the post-Soviet area. Last time the presidential election in Azerbaijan was organized perfectly, everything was transparent, democratic and within the framework of international law," Safaraliyev said.

He expressed confidence that the upcoming election in Azerbaijan will also be held at the highest level.

Eight candidates were registered to participate in the presidential election in Azerbaijan, scheduled for April 11.

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Construction of the Turkmenbashi International Seaport is nearing completion, the report noted.

This will allow us in the future to build up communication with the Iranian ports of Anzali and Neka and to greatly increase the international multi-modal transportation through the port of Bandar Abbas in the Persian Gulf, the Turkmen president said.

Berdimuhamedov also spoke about the need to step up the activity of the intergovernmental commission for cooperation in energy, transport, communication, machine-building industry, light industry, agriculture and processing sectors.

Earlier it was reported that a solemn opening ceremony of a new international port will be held in the Caspian city of Turkmenbashi in early May. The port is designed to ensure a higher level of trade and economic cooperation between Asian and European countries.

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By Trend

The parliamentary election in Turkmenistan on March 25 were held in accordance with international norms and there were no serious violations, Sergei Lebedev, head of the CIS observer mission, chairman of the executive committee of the CIS, said at a briefing in Ashgabat.

He said that the parliamentary election in Turkmenistan, where 284 candidates were running for 125 seats, were held on a multi-party basis and were open, free and competitive.

No essential shortcomings that could have affected the election results, distort them or prevent citizens from exercising their right to free expression of will, were found, said Lebedev.

It was earlier reported that the task of the CIS observer mission is to evaluate the election campaign for compliance with national legislation and assist in holding free and democratic election.

According to the Turkmen constitution, the parliament passes laws, makes changes and amendments to the Basic Law, approves the state budget, solves the issues concerning nationwide referendums and appoints MPs, members of the representative bodies.

Moreover, the parliament ratifies and denounces international treaties, solves the issues of changing the state border and the administrative-territorial division of the country.

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By Trend

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has issued an official statement on its website following monitoring of the parliamentary election in Turkmenistan March 25, 2018.

The mission worked under the invitation of the Central Commission for Elections and Referenda of Turkmenistan (Central Election Commission) and the Turkmen Foreign Ministry.

The SCO observer mission monitored the preparation and conduct of the parliamentary election in Turkmenistan March 20-26, 2018.

The mission considers invitation of the international observers as the desire of the Turkmen leadership to ensure maximum openness, transparency and democracy of the election, the statement said.

Fifteen observers - representatives of the legislative, executive and electoral bodies of the SCO member states, as well as officials of the SCO Secretariat, were accredited in the mission.

The mission notes that the alternativeness of the election was conditioned by the nomination of candidates from three parties - the Democratic Party, the Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and the Agrarian Party, as well as from groups of citizens, which allowed voters to nominate the best-trained candidates to the Turkmen Parliament.

A total of 125 MPs were to be elected in Turkmenistan. As many as 125 district election commissions and 2,604 precinct election commissions were formed, including 39 election commissions at diplomatic missions abroad. A total of 3,289,979 voters were registered.

The mission states that the Turkmen parliamentary election took place in accordance with the requirements of the electoral legislation of Turkmenistan and the international commitments undertaken by the state. No violations that put under question the elections legitimacy were noted by the mission.

The mission recognizes the election as transparent, free, credible and democratic, the statement said.

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By Trend

Voting at the parliamentary election was held in Turkmenistan on March 25, with 284 candidates running for 125 seats, the Central Commission on Elections and Referenda in Turkmenistan said.

Election was held in conditions of multi-party system, as well as universal, equal, direct, secret, free electoral right on an alternative basis, Gulmurad Muradov, chairman of the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Turkmenistan, said at a briefing.

Election of members of local government and self-government bodies of Turkmenistan also took place on March 25.

A total of 91.69 percent of voters all over Turkmenistan cast their ballots at the parliamentary election, as well as at the election of members of local government and self-government bodies.

A total of 2,604 polling stations were established for voting at the election, including 39 polling stations established at diplomatic missions and consulates of Turkmenistan abroad.

A total of 168 candidates were nominated from the political parties of Turkmenistan, while 116 candidates were nominated from citizen groups.

International observers from the UN, the CIS, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), the SCO, the US, Austria, the UAE, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey, China and other countries came to monitor the election.

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By Trend

President Hassan Rouhani says that Iranian companies will contribute to construction of a new power transmission line from the Iranian city of Sarakhs to the Turkmen city of Merv.

Addressing a ceremony in Ashgabat for inking several documents on cooperation on Tuesday, Rouhani said the decision is aimed at increasing the volume of bilateral trade between the two countries, IRNA news agency reported.

We are determined to employ all existing capacities for expansion of cooperation, Rouhani stated.

Saying that Iranian constructors will cooperate in building two roads in Turkmenistan, he added that the sides during a meeting on Tuesday discussed cooperation on gas swap and the Caspian Sea.

Rouhani also said the sides have discussed the issue of exports of Iranian buses to Turkmenistan.

The Islamic Republic of Iran and Turkmenistan signed 13 MoUs and documents on cooperation on March 27 during the visit of President Hassan Rouhani to Ashgabat.

President Rouhani arrived in Ashgabat this morning at the first leg of his regional tour, which will later take him to Azerbaijan.

Turkmenistan is the 14th largest market for the Islamic Republic as Iran exported worth of $383 million of goods to the Central Asian country over the first 11 months of the last fiscal year (March 20, 2017-March 21, 2018).

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
By Kamila Aliyeva

Turkmenistan and Iran are keen to further develop cooperation in trade, transport and energy sphere as well as other strategic areas.

This follows from the talks held between Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani which took place in the course of the official visit of Iranian President to Ashgabat.

Both states stand for the consolidation of positive cooperation in Caspian Sea and for the improvement of its status as the sea of peace, friendship and harmony, Turkmen Dovlet Khabarlary reported.

In particular, there are good perspectives for the cooperation in transport sphere where the sides have already accomplished joint project of construction of transnational railroad.

The parties have common visions on the subjects of sharing practices and realization of specific projects in priority branches of the economy.

Turkmenistan and Iran implement productive partnership in transport and transit sphere. Entirely meeting the goals of sustainable development, Turkmen  Iranian cooperation in this field is dictated by national and regional interests. There is the construction of transnational railroad Kazakhstan  Turkmenistan  Iran in the North  South direction among number of big international projects.

Making positive effect on transport communication in entire Eurasian space, the above-mentioned railway opens the entry to trade and material markets of the Middle and Near East as well as Indian Ocean states from the ports in Baltic Sea.

Currently, Turkmenistan is engaged in construction of Turkmenbashy International Seaport. It will allow expanding maritime communication with Iranian ports Enzeli and Nekka and increasing the volumes of international multimodal cargo transportation via Bander-Abbas Port in Persian Gulf.

Following the talks in one-on-one and expanded formats, the parties signed 13 cooperation agreements and memorandums of understanding.

After the signing ceremony, the leaders of two countries made statement to the representatives of mass media.

Commenting on the outcomes of the high-level meeting, the Turkmen president highlighted fruitful character of current negotiations, which resulted in important agreements in cooperation in political, trade, economic and humanitarian spheres.

He confirmed that bilateral partnership planned for long-term perspective received strong impulse.

Concerning the interstate political dialog where the sides demonstrate the proximity or similarity of the visions of topical international issues, the provision of peace and prosperity in regional and global scales are the main objective of Turkmenistan and Iran cooperation, Berdimuhamedov noted.

The agreement on continuation of the cooperation of two countries under competent international organizations including the United Nations, the Islamic Cooperation Organization and other structures has been achieved.

Turkmenistan proposed number of initiatives in energy security sphere and in the formation of transit and transport corridors. In this context, the Turkmen president informed that foreign departments of both countries received the instructions on conduct of regular consultations.

The agenda of the talks included the subjects of cooperation in trade and economic sphere taking into account the necessity of the diversification of the economy in energy sector especially in oil and gas complex as well as in such fields as transport and tellecomunications, agriculture, construction and others. In this aspect, the contacts between the representatives of small and medium business are very important.

Berdimuhamedov noted that the volume of mutual trade turnover has exceeded $1 billion in 2017. As for today, more than 150 Iranian companies work in Turkmenistan.

At the same time, the Turkmen head of the state focused on the cooperation in the formation of transit and transport corridors where transcontinental railroad Kazakhstan  Turkmenistan  Iran, which is used not only by our but other states as well, is a visual example of successful consolidation of efforts.

The sides also agreed to work in energy sphere and hydrocarbon materials processing.

Having focused on the subject of cooperation in Caspian Sea, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov highlighted that our countries are the supporters to make it the sea of peace and harmony. Coastal states actively cooperate in this sphere and this work will be continued especially in ecology, biosphere and other directions.

Having emphasized the trade and economic cooperation, the head of Turkmenistan noted that this important objectives are to be discussed between intergovernmental structures.

In his turn, Iranian leader noted the constructive character of the talks in Ashgabat, during which wide spectrum of the objectives of cooperation in different spheres has been discussed.

At present, the sides are willing to involve existing mutual potential for further development of efficient partnership including in energy, transit and transport sectors.

There are big opportunities stipulated by advantageous geographic location of Turkmenistan and Iran, Rouhani noted. In this context, the decision on opening the bridge in Serakhs in order to give new impulse to the cooperation in this field has been taken.

It was informed that the decision of opening of new road between Mary and Serakhs has been made. The sides agreed on participation of Iranian companies in joint projects of road construction.

Having touched upon the subject of cooperation in Caspian Sea, Rouhani stated the presence of big opportunities for the development of Turkmen  Iranian trade and economic partnership, which are necessary to be realized with maximum output.

Important agreements on humanitarian cooperation including in scientific research and cultural spheres as well as in technology field were important results of the talks.

High ranking guest noted that the sides are also committed to close cooperation in international arena.

Speaking at the briefing on the results of bilateral talks, the Iranian president noted that the parties discussed issues of increasing swap operations and wider use of existing pipelines for the delivery of Turkmen natural gas to third countries, Iranian media outlets reported.

Also, Iranian head of state noted that the issues of increasing the transit of Turkmen electricity through the territory of Iran for export to third countries were considered during the talks.

Today, the main task of the parties is to strengthen and expand traditional cooperation, taking into account existing conditions and opportunities. In this context, we are pleased with the effectiveness of our talks, during which key issues of bilateral partnership are discussed, Rouhani stressed.

Having focused on interaction in the fuel and energy sector and its prospects, the high guest noted the fact that the third direction of electricity supplies from Turkmenistan to Iran is now opening. This is another evidence of intensified cooperation between the two countries in the energy sector, he said.

At the same time, the Iranian leader stressed that the level of trade and economic partnership does not correspond to the capabilities of the two states, and measures should be taken to increase the volume of bilateral trade.

Rouhani also invited Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov to pay an official visit to Iran. The terms of the visit will be coordinated through diplomatic channels.

---

Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
ZE PAK mia 20 mln z zysku netto po I poroczu wobec 261 mln z straty przed rokiem

Zespo Elektrowni PAK zakonczy pierwsze porocze 2021 roku zyskiem netto w wysokosci prawie 20 mln z wobec straty netto przed rokiem na poziomie 261 mln z - poinformowaa spoka w komunikacie.
A state appeals court will decide whether a man convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend in Beaumont almost 14 years ago is actually innocent, they ruled Wednesday.

Raymond Lee Young was convicted in 2008 of murdering Sheila Davis outside her Beaumont home on June 16, 2004.

According to testimony from his trial, the former Orange police officer knocked on the door of the Old Town home where Davis and her fiance lived just before midnight. He forced his way into the house with a gun and shot Davis, who died at her neighbor's back door as she tried to escape.

Davis, 35, had made multiple reports to Beaumont police about threats and violence from Young, including a report on the day of her death, according to previous Enterprise reporting. She and Young had a 3-year-old trial

Young was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison in March 2008, despite attempts by his attorney to argue that there was insufficient evidence linking him to the crime.

He filed a petition for review with the Court of Criminal Appeals, alleging that prosecutors presented false evidence at his trial, that his lawyer was ineffective and that he is innocent based on "newly available evidence."

The court said in an order released Wednesday that Jefferson County's 252nd court must order Young's trial attorney, Langston Adams, to respond to Young's claims.

After his response is received, the court will determine whether the state "suppressed exculpatory and material evidence," whether his counsel was ineffective, and whether he is "actually innocent," the order said.

The Jefferson County court's findings will be sent to the appeals court, who will rule on them.

Young has been serving a life sentence at the state's McConnell unit in South Texas. If his conviction is upheld, he will not be eligible for parole until 2034.

Adams said Wednesday that "as far as my recollection of that particular case, from my standpoint, I think I provided an excellent defense."

He said he recalls an issue arising at trial when the prosecutor introduced the gun that was allegedly used in the murder as evidence, which had not been produced before the trial began. Langston said that could be related to Young's claim of suppressing evidence, but was not immediately aware of the details of his appeal.
A Texas Southern University student originally from Orange has died after accidentally shooting himself at a party, according to a report from KTRK-TV Houston.

Michael "Mikey" Gobert was at a party Saturday, March 24, when the accident occurred, police told the Houston station. He was reportedly on the phone while holding the gun when it accidentally discharged, shooting him in the head.
With his final words, "Suitcase Killer" Rosendo Rodriguez called for the FBI to investigate the Lubbock County District Attorney and medical examiner.

After a lengthy final statement urging onlookers to write other men on death row, calling for a boycott of Texas businesses and referencing his Catholic faith, the condemned San Antonio man died by lethal injection.

"The state may have my body but not my soul," he said, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

He was the fourth man executed this year in the Lone Star State.

The 38-year-old lost out on a final appeal - which stemmed from claims prosecutors withheld information regarding a lawsuit against the medical examiner - less than half an hour before he was scheduled to die at 6 p.m.

The lethal dose of pentobarbital started flowing at 6:24 and Rodriguez was pronounced dead 22 minutes later.

"I had the honor and privilege to know many prison guards and staff," he told onlookers. "I want to thank all of them. I would like for everyone to write the people on death row as they are all good men and I am very happy I got to know them. All of their lives are worth knowing about."

His measured, emphatic statement took more than seven minutes.

"I want everyone to boycott every single business in the state of Texas until all the businesses are pressed to stop the death penalty," Rodriguez continued. "With that Lord I commend my spirit."

At one point, he decried the "thousands" he alleged were wrongfully convicted by Lubbock County District Attorney Matt Powell.

"This needs to be brought to justice," he said. Powell declined to address the condemned man's final words against him.

"Today's not a good day," Powell said. "We're not happy about anything but like I've said all along I certainly think justice was done, that he paid the ultimate price for the crimes he committed. I think it was justice, I certainly do."

READ MORE: Suitcase Killer asks for stay citing lawsuit, $230,000 settlement against medical examiner

Rodriguez was sent to death row nearly a decade ago for the 2005 slaying of Summer Baldwin, a pregnant sex worker whose body was found in a suitcase at the Lubbock city dump.

She'd been beaten and strangled, and her body was covered in cuts and bruises and roughly 50 blunt force wounds.

It was a gruesome killing, but the 29-year-old's death may have stayed a local investigation were it not for the woman's ties to a federal counterfeiting case where she'd been a witness.

Given that, the feds swooped in and eventually authorities found financial records to zero in on a suspect: a Marine reservist visiting from San Antonio.

When authorities arrested the former fraternity brother at his parents' home in San Antonio in 2005, Rodriguez admitted to the slaying. But he said he killed the woman in self-defense after she attacked him with a knife for stealing her crack pipe.

In the hours before the murder, the two met up while Rodriguez was visiting Lubbock for training. He brought the woman back to his room at the Holiday Inn, then raped, beat and strangled her. Then, he bought some food, rented a movie and went to sleep before checking out of his hotel room.

After his arrest, according to court records, he also admitted to the 2004 slaying of 16-year-old Joanna Rogers - who was also found in a suitcase in the Lubbock city landfill, according to court records. Later, during trial, jurors heard testimony linking him to five other rapes.

Although a jury ultimately found him a future danger - one of the requirements for receiving a capital sentence in Texas - at one point Rodriguez was scheduled to take a plea to avoid the death penalty. But then, in the day before he was to sign the agreement, Rodriguez began claiming he did not understand anything he was told. His lawyer pulled out of the case, the plea deal fell apart and prosecutors decided to seek a death sentence instead.

On appeal, Rodriguez's attorneys argued that the sex was consensual, that there is no evidence he'd planned to kill the woman and that he had ineffective trial counsel. But the courts rejected his claims and in late 2017 the Supreme Court turned him down.

A judge set an execution date, but in February defense attorney Seth Kretzer filed for a stay over so-called "Brady material," the name for any potentially exculpatory evidence prosecutors are required to disclose under a 1963 Supreme Court decision.

Citing a recently-settled 2015 lawsuit for more than $200,000 in Lubbock, Kretzer alleged the medical examiner may have outsourced the autopsy to a subordinate.

The suit accused the medical examiner of frequently leaving his job to attend to his private consulting practice and routinely delegating decision-making and sometimes autopsies to his senior forensic nurse. Although the case settled last year, prosecutors never told the defense - and Kretzer took issue with that in court filings.

"Rather than disclose this information, the Lubbock County District Attorney's Office instead sought the immediate setting of an execution date in this cause," Kretzer wrote in his appeal. "But for counsel becoming aware of this information through a third-party, Mr. Rodriguez would have been put to death."

The district attorney pushed back against that claim.

"It's nonsense," Powell said last month. "The two don't have anything to do with each other."

Yet, Kretzer said a day before the execution, if the medical examiner didn't do the autopsy it could call into question the findings that Baldwin was raped - a key element in making the case death-eligible.

"We don't dispute the cause of the death, but the nature of the acts that affected that cause," Kretzer said.

But the state argued that Brady didn't apply to post-conviction appeals; to count as Brady material, the evidence in question would have had to exist during trial - and the suit wasn't filed till seven years later.

Also, the state said, the allegedly withheld evidence wouldn't have changed the outcome anyway. The senior nurse who said she'd been doing her supervisor's autopsies didn't start working at the medical examiner's office until 2013, long after the close of Rodriguez's case.

Before Tuesday, the state of Texas had already executed three men this year, including Houston-area serial killer Anthony Shore. There are now five other death dates are on the calendar.
Bridgeport, W.Va.-based United Hospital Center is opening an ambulatory clinic in Weston, W.Va., WVNews reports.

Here's what you should know.

1. The center will have one surgery suite, with the ability to add up to four more as needed.

2. Hospital administration admitted to struggling with surgical wait times, which they hope this center will help alleviate.

3. The center will be approximately 692,000 square feet and will feature eight stories.

4. In addition to the outpatient portion of the center, it will also feature an acute care facility with 292 private inpatient rooms. The hospital expects to employ 140 new primary and specialty care physicians as a result.
Here are five updates on GI companies from the past week.

Takeda is considering submitting a bid for British drugmaker Shire, to expand its U.S. presence.

The European Commission approved Takeda and TiGenix's perianal fistulas drug Alofisel.

Protagonist Therapeutics discontinued the phase 2b study of its ulcerative colitis drug, PTG-100, after the trial was deemed too futile to continue.

Pfizer will fund the American Gastroenterological Association's Young Investigator Pilot Research Awards in Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

AbbVie's Vice President of U.S. Immunology Mark Stenhouse is joining Exact Sciences as president of the company's Cologuard product, effective April 2.
The Mississippi State Department of Health sent letters March 26 to an undisclosed number of Mississippi residents after it learned an employee mistakenly emailed an Excel spreadsheet containing patients' protected health information to J Michael Consulting, a CDC contractor in January.

The spreadsheet contained names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers and lab results of patients treated at the Mississippi State Department of Health or any of its clinics in 2017. Each person who received the spreadsheet in error told officials they deleted all traces of the email and did not share it with anyone.

Though state officials said it is unlikely anyone viewed the PHI, the email was sent unprotected, and it is possible someone could misuse it. The department adds that because the spreadsheet contained limited contact information, some clients whose information was included in the spreadsheet may not have received a notification letter.

As a precaution, the Mississippi State Department of Health will provide affected individuals one year of free credit monitoring protection.

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Adena Regional Medical Center in Chillicothe, Ohio, is making efforts to simplify and improve patient billing, according to a Chillicothe Gazette report.

The efforts are part of an internal project at the hospital. ARMC has contracted with Ensemble Health Partners, a Huntersville, N.C.-based revenue cycle solutions provider, to reboot its billing cycle. Patients now have new tools to make insurance validation more efficient and effective. The improvement efforts also include a price transparency initiative where patients are able to receive an estimated cost of service and an out-of-pocket cost estimate at registration. Patients can also assess different options for paying their medical expenses, according to the Chillicothe Gazette.

In addition, patients may now talk to a financial counselor, or receive help with Medicaid applications, according to the report.

Changes to the actual patient bill are also planned. Health System President and CEO Jeff Graham told the Chillicothe Gazette he hopes all patient services for a procedure are on one statement within the next 18 to 24 months. This simplifies bills for patients by ensuring they don't receive multiple bills for services such as the anesthesiologist and emergency department.

Read the full report here.

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Dave Rackliffe, the former CIO of Bristol (Conn.) Hospital, is throwing his hat in the ring for Connecticut's 79th District House seat, according to the Hartford Courant.

Mr. Rackliffe blames Democrats for the state's economy and plans to run on the Republican ticket. If state Republicans endorse him, he would face Democratic incumbent Chris Ziogas in the November election.

Mr. Rackliffe, who currently works as a financial consultant, added that Connecticut is overtaxed and state spending must be controlled. He also argues businesses face too many regulations.

"We've fallen behind and are not positioned to compete for jobs, businesses or even people," he told the Hartford Courant. "It is obvious to me that we need a significant change in direction and leadership in Hartford to move us forward instead of business-as-usual politics and single-party control."
Law enforcement officials on March 23 arrested three more former certified nursing assistants from the Prairie View Residential Care Facility in Fayette, Iowa, for allegedly having sexual relationships with patients, according to a Des Moines Register report.

Earlier this month, the Fayette County Sheriff's Office arrested and charged two former CNAs from the facility  Paige Lynn Johanningmeier, 23, and Megan Marie Penney, 26  for sexual exploitation by a counselor, therapist or school employee. Authorities said evidence showed Ms. Johanningmeier and Ms. Penney "had developed a relationship with  two patients and once they had left the facility [with the patients] it became sexual."

On March 26, the Fayette County Sheriff's Office revealed additional arrests in a Facebook post. Authorities said their investigation revealed former CNAs from the facility in Fayette were previously discharged for alleged "unhealthy relationships with patients." More specifically, authorities alleged Carolyn Marie Wiedrich, 44, Shelby Mariah Sebring, 24, and Jamie Leah Pagel, 32, all had sexual relationships with "court ordered" patients in 2015 or 2016 while employed by the Prairie View facility.

They were arrested March 23 and charged with sexual exploitation by counselor, therapist or school employee. The women could face five years in prison and have to register as a sex offender if convicted of the class D felony, according to local law enforcement.

The investigation into the alleged crimes is ongoing.

Editor's note: Becker's Hospital Review reached out to Prairie View Residential Care Facility and will post additional details as they become available.

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Charlotte, N.C.-based Southeast Anesthesiology Consultants filed a lawsuit March 26 against Charlotte-based Atrium Health, alleging the health system and its new anesthesiology provider stole trade secrets and used that information to poach the contract from SAC, according to The Charlotte Observer.

Here are five things to know about the lawsuit.

1. Atrium Health terminated its nearly 40-year contract with SAC earlier this year, claiming SAC was not willing to lower costs or introduce a new operating model to increase savings. The contract, which expires June 30, was instead awarded to Charlotte-based Scope Anesthesia of North Carolina.

2. According to the March 26 lawsuit, SAC claims it provided the founder of Scope, Tom Wherry, MD, with large amounts of confidential information when he was hired as a consultant for Atrium last year. SAC claimed Dr. Wherry never identified himself as a competitor, the report states.

3. SAC alleged Atrium canceled their contract after the anesthesiology group refused to consent to Atrium and Dr. Wherry's plan to impose substantial cuts to the number of anesthesiologists at the health system's various facilities. SAC reportedly informed Atrium and Dr. Wherry of the dangers of their proposed recommendations and attempted "for months" to accommodate such cuts to physician staffing without compromising patient safety and care, according to The Charlotte Observer. Dr. Wherry has denied his intent to impose physician staffing cuts once Atrium's contract with Scope becomes effective.

4. The lawsuit, which seeks more than $25,000 in damages for SAC but does not disclose how much the organization's contract with Atrium was worth, mirrors concerns cited by SAC in an ad campaign and website the organization launched this past weekend to protest Atrium's decision to switch anesthesiology providers.

5. In a statement to Becker's Hospital Review March 27, Atrium Health said SAC's claims are without merit, and said it has been negotiating the contract with SAC's parent company, Sunrise, Fla.-based Mednax, for nearly 18 months.

"Atrium Health has received a complaint filed by Mednax, the corporate parent company of Southeast Anesthesiology Consultants. We believe the claims Mednax has made are without merit, and this court filing is an attempt to distract us from the true issues at hand. Unfortunately, taking their partners, as well as their very own physicians to court is common practice for Mednax.

"To provide some perspective, in recent days, Mednax has started a campaign to spread false and misleading information online and in other advertisements about Atrium Health's decision to transition anesthesia service providers. We think it is important to set the record straight, and reassure the public that we remain true to our priorities, now and always  to provide the highest quality care to every patient who walks through our doors. It's also important to note that Mednax is a for-profit company that purchased Southeast Anesthesiology Consultants for $200 million in 2010, and is beholden to its stockholders. Tactics like this are typical to companies trying to protect a sizeable book of business.

"Decisions like switching our anesthesia services provider are not ones we make lightly. We have been working since 2014 on addressing our anesthesia services program, and have been diligently negotiating for 18 months with Mednax. In the latest negotiations, the Mednax CEO [Roger Medel, MD] refused several contract provisions that would have ensured the safety of our patients and communities we are privileged to serve. This language would have protected Atrium Health and the public from Mednax anesthesiologists walking off the job due to a previous dispute and conflict with Mednax, as nearly happened this past July 2017. Ultimately, Atrium Health wasn't comfortable in partnering with a company that has workforce instability demonstrated by events like this, among other issues, and whose definition of patient safety is so drastically different than ours.

"Atrium Health is committed more than ever to our patients and local communities. We have never compromised on quality and safety, and we never will."

To access the Charlotte Observer report, click here.

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Fifteen employees and patients were sent to the hospital March 27 following a chemical spill at Berwyn, Ill.-based JenCare Senior Medical Center, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Firefighters were called to the medical center around 3 p.m. after phenol, a chemical substance used in some medical treatments, spilled in an exam room. At the time of the spill, 35 people were in the facility. Following the spill, some of the people in the facility experienced shortness of breath, coughing and nausea  prompting the transfer of 15 symptomatic people to nearby hospitals.

The medical center was evacuated and closed. It will not reopen until hazmat personnel clean the spill and the city's building department determines it is safe.

"This afternoon at a JenCare Senior Medical Center in Berwyn a small bottle containing a substance used in podiatric care known to have some toxicity broke," a hospital statement reads, according to the Chicago Tribune. "Caring for our patients and our staff is our number one priority, which is why we took the precautions of evacuating the facility, calling local authorities, and ensuring all who were present received appropriate medical examination."
Although patients know hospital trips are expensive, they still often experience sticker shock when they view their medical bills  especially when these bills are itemized.

Pat Palmer, the founder of Medical Billing Advocates of America, a company that helps patients understand medical bills, outlined examples to Reader's Digest of surprising overcharges by hospitals on medical bills.

Here is the average price for 10 common items used in hospitals.

1. Tylenol

Charge to patient: $15 per individual pill

2. Patient belonging bag (often a grocery bag)

Charge to patient: $8 per bag

3. Box of tissues

Charge to patient: $8 per box

4. Gloves for physicians

Charge to patient: $53 per non-sterile pair

5. Plastic cup to hold medications

Charge to patient: $10 per cup

6. Marking pen (for surgery)

Charge to patient: $17.50 per pen

7. Blood pressure cuff

Charge to patient: $20 per use

8. Oral administration fee

Charge to patient: $6.25 per instance

9. Headlight use in operating room

Charge to patient: $93.50

10. Swabs, alcohol

Charge to patient: $23 per swab to disinfect skin
A branch of the Indian Overseas bank in Virugambakkam was robbed of gold and Rs 32 lakh by unidentified men on Monday. Five special teams were formed to probe the incident and investigations revealed that the branch's security guard and his wife went missing.

Since the security alarms in the bank were also inactive despite the use of welding machines to break open the lockers, police have zeroed in on the security guard as the prime suspect and are investigating the matter.

A police team was flown to Kathmandu in Nepal on Tuesday in search for the suspects.
Belfast-based campervan business Camperco Group has been bought by Australian motorhome firm Apollo for 4.5m

Belfast-based campervan business Camperco Group has been bought by Australian motorhome firm Apollo for 4.5m.

The Camperco group consists of rental brand Bunk Campers, a manufacturing facility converting Volkswagen campervans for rent, and a motorhome sales and an online shop.

A family business, Bunk Campers is headquartered in Belfast and was inspired by a tour of Australia and New Zealand in a campervan.

Founders, husband and wife Keith Charlton and Louise Corken, identified the opportunity to create and develop the Bunk Campers brand and launched the business in 2007. It then grew into what is now Camperco Group.

Brisbane-based Apollo acts as a manufacturer, rental fleet operator, wholesaler and retailer of a broad range of motorhomes, campervans and caravans across Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States.

Ms Corken explained how the business came to be.

"Well, me and my husband took a career break, so we went on a tour of Australia and New Zealand in a campervan, and we realised there was a gap in the market," she explained.

"We both come from a sales and marketing background.

"I was a marketing director for RHM Bakeries and Keith was a sales director at Gillette, so that informed our thinking.

"At the time we were prospecting for ideas and, simply put, we wanted to give people the classic road trip everyone envisions, with a modern, reliable vehicle."

After launching with just five vehicles, the company grew and expanded into the Republic and Britain.

It now has a fleet of more than 200 vehicles, a campervan conversion arm and an e-commerce platform.

Bunk Campers is currently the largest independent motorhome rental operator in the UK and employs more than 40 staff.

"Last year Apollo were looking to branch into the European market and we were looking to expand into Europe, so it made sense to join forces," Ms Corken said.

"A crucial part of the deal for both sides was that Keith and I would stay on and move forward with the company, which we're very excited about.

"Looking back at where we started and where we are now, I think it's a testament to the business we've realised through our hard work and ambition.

"We are very, very proud to be recognised for it. The adventure continues."

Mr Charlton said that from their first interaction with Apollo they realised the two businesses had "real synergies". "At Camperco we have a clear mission to become the first choice for campervan and motorhome rentals and sales in Europe," he added.

"We built our company up from five vans in 2007 and today we are a significant step closer to realising our ambition with Apollo's backing."

Apollo CEO Luke Trouchet said he was excited that the company will grow its operations into the UK and across Europe.

"This acquisition will further strengthen our position as a global operator of motorhomes and allow further expansion into Europe," he added.
Pubs and restaurants in Northern Ireland will lose 20m in trade over Easter weekend as a result of restrictions on the sale of alcohol, it's been claimed.

Colin Neill, chief executive of Hospitality Ulster, said Northern Ireland was effectively closed to tourists and visitors over the bank holiday weekend because of the limits.

And he said venues here were likely to lose business to the Republic, as restrictions have finally been lifted across the border.

Earlier this week restaurateur Michael Deane lambasted the laws forbidding the sale of alcohol in licensed premises to between 5pm and 11pm on Good Friday as "biblical".

On Holy Saturday alcohol can only be served until midnight and on Easter Sunday until 10pm. The day before Good Friday alcohol can be served up until midnight.

Mr Neill said: "We are now entering yet another Easter in Northern Ireland where pubs, hotels and restaurants will be forced to sell alcohol on restricted hours across the whole of the Easter holiday period.

"This is a ridiculous and unsustainable position for decision makers to enforce, especially when you consider that this year for the first time, and very sensibly, the hospitality sector in the Republic will be able to operate as normal across Easter.

"That means that while Northern Ireland's pubs, restaurants and hotels are putting up 'Sorry, closed early' signs, for their counterparts in the Republic it will be business as usual."

Mr Deane, who runs six restaurants around Belfast, said he had decided to close on Friday lunchtime "to avoid any more embarrassment to our hard-working staff who are there to serve people".

Licensed premises cannot open to serve alcohol before 5pm on Good Friday - and if they do wish to open, they cannot serve alcohol until after 5pm.

Mr Neill said the restrictions caused "huge inconvenience" to people who wanted a drink in a licensed premises over Easter.

"It also send outs a sign to tourists from Great Britain, the Republic and further afield that Northern Ireland is not a place to visit over Easter," he added.

"It is estimated that in previous years the licensing hours cost the hospitality sector in the province 16m in lost trade, 16m that could be used to help pay wages, rates, taxes and other bills. This year, with the Republic opening, we can be sure the losses will run toward 20m."

Mr Neill said the Easter licensing laws were "a farce" as there are no limits on supermarket sales of alcohol over Easter.
Comedian Sir Lenny Henry says he became emotional confronting the issue of slavery in a new documentary.

The funnyman visits Jamaica in Lenny Henry: The Commonwealth Kid, which airs on Monday.

He told Good Morning Britain that the issue was like a big stone on my heart as he visited a rum plantation, where 400 slaves once worked.

To walk up this steps to see where all these people used to work.. These are my ancestors, he said.

'He loved the challenge of entertaining an audience' - Lenny Henry reflects fondly on the legendary Sir Ken Dodd pic.twitter.com/hl3UfCAwv7  Good Morning Britain (@GMB) March 28, 2018

So to be in this place where this stuff used to happen is a shock. I couldnt wait to get out of there.

He also visited the land where his mother once lived in the BBC1 documentary, which investigates his own heritage and the relationship between the Commonwealth, the Caribbean and the UK.

I expected there to be a house  I didnt expect there to be a ruin, he said.

My mum used to walk miles and miles and miles with water and laundry.

She was a subsistence farmer with my dad  and it was a punishing, gruelling existence.

He said of the subject of the documentary: I wouldnt be here if it wasnt for the Commonwealth. Lets celebrate it.

Also Im a Knight Of The Realm I was assaulted by an old lady with a sword!
Sir Van Morrison's cousin, who was one of the first ever people to play rock music with him, has died.

Sammy Stitt was a contemporary of Sir Van's growing up in east Belfast in the 1950s and early '60s.

A service of thanksgiving was held for him in Groomsport Evangelical Presbyterian Church.

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Mr Stitt was a talented harmonica player who briefly played in one of the final line-ups of his cousin's troubled group Them.

He had remained close to Sir Van, even after he left Belfast to carve out a superstar solo career in America. He was photographed among the 100 guests at Sir Van's glittering 70th birthday party in 2015 in the Clandeboye estate near Bangor, the day after his sell-out concerts in Cyprus Avenue in Belfast.

Mr Stitt was also among the mourners at the funeral in June 2016 of his aunt, Sir Van's mother, the former Violet Stitt.

During that service, pastor Bill Dunn told the congregation at St Donard's church at Bloomfield that Sammy Stitt played a part in Sir Van's fledgling career when they were both youngsters.

The pastor revealed that after skiffle had been replaced by rock'n'roll, Van called at his home in Greenville Street and asked if he would be interested in starting a rock band with his cousin Sammy Stitt.

He added: "The three of us met up in Van's bedroom for a practice with two guitars, a snare drum and an amplifier but when that was switched on, it blew a fuse."

Pastor Dunn said all the lights went out in the Morrison household as he tried to fix the problem and Van's mother told her irate husband George: "They're only boys enjoying themselves."

The author Johnny Rogan said in his book No Surrender that Mrs Morrison tried to promote a band that her nephew Sammy had set up called The Other Ones by writing a letter in praise of them to a newspaper.

It was said that a youthful Van sang with his cousin's group once or twice.

Other books and blogs about Morrison have related how Sammy Stitt returned the favour in the latter end of the Sixties.

It's reported that after splits emerged in the chart-topping group Them in America, Morrison returned to Ireland and gathered together a new line-up which included Sammy Stitt on drums and harmonica.

They played one gig in a packed Embassy ballroom in Derry and another in Dublin but the consensus was that the band were awful and Morrison went off to write songs for Astral Weeks.

Mr Stitt, who was married with two sons, was buried at Redburn cemetery in Holywood, where Sir Van's mother was also laid to rest. Mourners at Mr Stitt's funeral were asked to make donations to the neurosurgical unit at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast in lieu of flowers.

End of the road for Van and Michelle, Pages 24&25
Parents and children protest outside Belfast City Hall yesterday over proposals to close and merge a number of special schools in Belfast

Supporters of special schools, including pupils and teacher unions, gathered at Belfast City Hall yesterday afternoon to voice their anger at proposals to cut their numbers.

Speakers at the protest included People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll, who helped organise the demonstration.

Hannah Black (14), a pupil at Fleming Fulton School, also addressed the protest.

"I was born with spina bifida, basically my legs don't work, but my brain does and that's thanks to the hard work and dedication of my parents, doctors, teachers and workers at my school," she said.

"I have been going to Fleming Fulton since just before my third birthday, it is like my second home, I have made the best of friends that will stay with me for the rest of my life.

"If the Education Authority goes ahead with what it is planning, I will be separated from my friends and have to go to a different school, which I don't want to happen.

"I love my school the way it is and I don't want it to change."

Mr Carroll praised the turn out at City Hall despite short notice.

He warned that the campaign is "only getting started", adding that there are plans to stage another protest outside the Education Authority, vowing to "send them a message they can't ignore".

The Education Authority is considering proposals to close a number of special schools in Belfast to create three larger 'superschools' by 2020.

All of the new schools would be expected to admit pupils from ages 3-19 with a range of disabilities.

The proposals are due to go out to formal consultation later this year.
Tara Boyle, Macmillan Health and Wellbeing Campus manager; Niall Birthistle, chairman, Western Health & Social Care Trust; Paula Kealey, Macmillan Strategic Partnership manager and actor Adrian Dunbar, guest speaker at the opening

Northern Ireland's first health and wellbeing campus has been officially opened in Londonderry by award-winning actor Adrian Dunbar.

Macmillan Cancer and the Western Trust developed the campus on the site of Altnagelvin hospital.

It will provide a range of services, not just for people diagnosed with cancer, but for those living with long-term complaints.

Campus manager Tara Boyle knows first-hand the benefits the centre will bring. She said: "I began as project manager for the capital build three years ago, but last June I was diagnosed with stomach cancer. I had an operation to remove four fifths of my stomach in July. This has given a very personal perspective on the work Macmillan does."

Performing the official opening, Dunbar - fresh from success as Superintendent Ted Hastings in BBC drama Line of Duty - was clearly impressed by the facility.

He said: "Having lived away from Northern Ireland for many years, it's a very positive experience for me to travel home and see developments like the health and wellbeing campus at Altnagelvin.

"I heard from the Macmillan team that almost one in two of us will face cancer in our lifetime - that's a staggering statistic.

"It's so important for people to have the right support at what can be a life-changing time."
Warnings have been issued to staff at the Northern Ireland Assembly after cyber attacks on the IT system.

It's understood the attacks on the email system came from an external source, with attempts to access mailboxes using numerous passwords.

A guidance email sent to staff seen by the Belfast Telegraph said the Assembly IT office was working closely with Microsoft and the National Cyber Security Centre to address the issue.

An Assembly spokesman said: "The Assembly Commission's IT system has been subjected to unauthorised attempts to access email accounts. We are taking all necessary steps to manage and mitigate this and are working with the appropriate authorities, both locally and nationally.

"The Assembly takes the security of its IT systems very seriously and strives continually to ensure that all systems are secure.

"The Commission does not wish to comment any further at this stage."

The bid to breach security follows a report last month that UK councils had been targeted by nearly 100 million cyber attacks in five years, with 25 councils experiencing data losses.

The organisation Big Brother Watch said this meant criminals were bombarding councils at a rate of 37 times a minute, putting the personal data of millions of residents at risk.

This month the UK's Joint Forces Command and the United States National Security Agency held strategic talks on how to counter the growing online threat.

The recent guidance issued by the Assembly urged staff to review and change their current passwords.

Weak password types like 'password123' were to be completely avoided, as well as dictionary words combined with numbers, like 'Spring2018'. The safest option is said to be three unrelated words like 'CoffeeTrainFish', but should also include at least one capital and numerical character.

Easy to guess combinations like 'onetwothree' or the names of family and pets are also discouraged.

Workers were reminded to update their passwords on all other devices like laptops and mobile phones.
The shenanigans yesterday in Belfast City Hall were a poor reflection of the manner of how we do business here in local government.

The fact that a decision to honour two world statesmen should cause clear division for all to see was not particularly edifying.

The SDLP have been running for a while that we should give the Freedom of Belfast to Bill Clinton (they still refer to him as President) and Senator George Mitchell. It is a 20th birthday present.

The reason they are pushing for this now is because it will be a nice addendum to the international conference at Queen's University to celebrate the Good Friday Agreement. It is even proposed that the ceremony would not take place in City Hall as is always the case, but, rather, it would happen on the QUB Campus.

Apart from the appearance of stunt politics by the SDLP, there are also a number of substantive points that need to be considered.

While it is true that Clinton was able to exert influence on Gerry Adams and some others, and George Mitchell chaired many long and torturous sessions of political debate, the real heroes of the deliverance of a working administration within Northern Ireland were David Trimble and the UUP and John Hume and the SDLP. Attempts by the UUP councillors to have Hume and Trimble added to the award were thwarted.

The debate in the council chamber was careful. Everyone rightly expressed admiration for the endeavours of the two American politicians, but there remained some confusion. Sinn Fein spoke highly of the achievement of a process, large parts of which they were absent from.

They did not, for example, involve themselves in the Strand One discussions on the government of Northern Ireland. And, of course, the entire operation was dogged by the refusal of the IRA to commit to decommissioning. They did not sign up to the Agreement.

The DUP members mostly absented themselves from the chamber, but the five who attended indicated their support for the motion. Councillor Guy Spence pointed out that he was only six years old at the time. He could be forgiven for not remembering that the DUP created the mother of all arguments when Mitchell's name was proposed for chairman. Mitchell was not unbiased, they claimed. He could not be impartial, they stated. They bitterly opposed the Agreement.

The Ulster Unionists maintained their position, that the proposed honour was not what it seemed. But our substantial point remains that to single out the two Americans alone was to ignore the fact that the heavy lifting would be undertaken for years to come by the UUP and the SDLP.

The Good Friday Agreement looks tarnished and war worn at the moment. Stormont might well collapse under the weight of its own pointlessness in the not too distant future. Bill and George may be happy enough to get out of Northern Ireland with the scrolls for their heroic work untattered. The rest of us? We will continue to try to make this place work for all of its citizens.

Chris McGimpsey is a Belfast City Ulster Unionist councillor
Nationalist politicians have called on Belfast City Council to speedily implement the recommendations of a bonfire report, and the DUP has pledged to "respond positively" to all constructive proposals.

Former Northern Ireland Ombudsman Tom Frawley was appointed to investigate the council's controversial storage of bonfire material last summer.

His report, which has been given to the group leaders of the six largest parties in City Hall, was discussed at a committee meeting yesterday. It is expected to be published after a full council meeting next month. The names and positions of staff, which could identify them, will be redacted.

Sinn Fein group leader Deirdre Hargey said: "Sinn Fein recognises that not all the recommendations will be implemented before this summer, but the process for change starts from now.

"We need to look at implementation of the recommendations particularly around governance, accountability and adherence to the law. The council needs to deal with excesses around bonfires which pose risk or harm to people, property or the environment. Proper risk assessments need to be carried out on sites addressing these excesses."

Ms Hargey said the burning of flags, election posters and effigies could not continue.

DUP councillor George Dorrian said bonfires were an integral part of unionist culture but "we recognise there are concerns over a very small number of fires and we don't condone any action which puts life or property at risk".

Any new strategy must be based on "self-regulation and community engagement", and licensing bonfires would not work, he added.

"We will not support anything which will criminalise those who are carrying on the traditions of their fathers and grandfathers. Those who have been most vocal in their criticism are more out to demonise unionists than solve problems," he claimed.

"But when the findings and recommendations from the Frawley report come forward we will respond on the basis of our engagement with communities and bonfire builders and in a way which will add positively to the debate."

Alliance group leader Michael Long described it as "a very comprehensive report" on which the council could move forward. He believed previous failings would now be addressed with "clearer structures and better communication" put in place.

Mr Long was hopeful that "unionist parties are committed to celebrating their culture while acting respectfully towards others".

SDLP group leader Tim Attwood said: "Lessons need to be learnt following events at some bonfires in 2017. This report provides a helpful road map to move this forward and it needs to be acted upon.

Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close William Young used a drone to take this remarkable photo of the bonfire at Sandy Row. 11/07/2017 Sandy Row Photo: William Young Sandy Row Photo: William Young Roden Street Photo: William Young Shankill Photo: William Young The scene on Love Lane in Carrickfergus as the local community rebuild a bonfire after the original bonfire they build was burnt on Monday evening. Picture by Matt Mackey / presseye.com 10/07/2017 The scene on Love Lane in Carrickfergus as the local community rebuild a bonfire after the original bonfire they build was burnt on Monday evening. Picture by Matt Mackey / presseye.com 10/07/2017 The scene on Love Lane in Carrickfergus as the local community rebuild a bonfire after the original bonfire they build was burnt on Monday evening. Picture by Matt Mackey / presseye.com 10/07/2017 Pacemaker Press Belfast 11-07-2017: Final preparations takes place for the Bonfire on Sandy Row in Belfast .The bonfires will be lit in loyalist areas as part of Eleventh Night celebrations on Tuesday night. Picture By: Arthur Allison. Pacemaker Press Belfast 11-07-2017: Final preparations takes place for the Bonfire on Sandy Row in Belfast .The bonfires will be lit in loyalist areas as part of Eleventh Night celebrations on Tuesday night. Picture By: Arthur Allison. Pacemaker Press Belfast 11-07-2017: Final preparations take place for the Bonfire on Sandy Row in Belfast .The bonfires will be lit in loyalist areas as part of Eleventh Night celebrations on Tuesday night. Picture By: Arthur Allison. SDLP MLA Daniel McCrossan posted this photo of one of his election posters on a bonfire and said he considers the action a hate crime. Workmen board up windows of property beside a bonfire at the end of the Comber Greenway off Ravenscroft Avenue in east Belfast. [Photo: Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com] Workmen board up windows of property beside a bonfire at the end of the Comber Greenway off Ravenscroft Avenue in east Belfast. [Photo: Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com] Masked men continue to build a bonfire at Inverary Playing Fields in Belfast. Police in Northern Ireland have warned their resources could be stretched amid growing fears of tension around the burning of Eleventh night bonfires. [Photo credit: Liam McBurney/PA Wire] PA Masked men continue to build a bonfire at Inverary Playing Fields in Belfast. [Photo: PA Wire 10/07/2017] PA A bonfire constructed across the road from a petrol station in Carrickfergus was set alight in the early hours of Tuesday morning. / Facebook

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Whatsapp William Young used a drone to take this remarkable photo of the bonfire at Sandy Row. 11/07/2017

"We must recognise that there are a number of bonfires which continue to put at risk people's health, homes and property. Post-Grenfell, this is unacceptable."
Conor McGinn (front row centre with glasses) with organisations seeking to extend same-sex marriage to Northern Ireland (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

Same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland is a step closer after a bill calling for its legalisation passed the first hurdle in the House of Commons today.

The private members bill was raised by Armagh-born Labour MP Conor McGinn, who later joined campaigners in delivering a petition to 10 Downing Street.

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The letter had 42,000 signatories and was presented by Cara McCann and Amanda McGurk  a same-sex couple from Northern Ireland planning to marry on Valentines Day next year.

Expand Close Partners Amanda McGurk, centre left, and Cara McCann, centre right, with Labour MP Conor McGinn, third left, and campaigners outside 10 Downing Street (Rick Findler/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp Partners Amanda McGurk, centre left, and Cara McCann, centre right, with Labour MP Conor McGinn, third left, and campaigners outside 10 Downing Street (Rick Findler/PA)

They hope it will be a marriage, rather than a civil partnership.

Mr McGinn, in an impassioned speech in the House of Commons, said: The Northern Ireland Assembly being in cold storage, shouldnt mean that Northern Ireland remains a cold house for LGBT people and their rights.

The defacto suspension of the devolved legislature does not mean that equality for same sex couples can be suspended indefinitely  because rights delayed are rights denied.

This is the #EqualMarriageNI Bill that Im very proud to be presenting to the House of Commons later today. Proceedings should get underway shortly after 2pm & you can watch on @BBCParliament or at https://t.co/vguOrN1NuV pic.twitter.com/Bk0gnbfVC5  Conor McGinn MP (@ConorMcGinn) March 28, 2018

In 2013, Westminster MPs passed the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act, which came into force in England and Wales in March 2014.

In Scotland, the move came later in the year, with the first same-sex weddings taking place on December 31.

Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom which does not have legislation for same-sex marriage, but there is widespread public support for the move.

In 2016, an Ipsos Mori poll revealed 70% of adults in Northern Ireland believe gay couples should be allowed to marry.

Speaking to the Press Association, Mr McGinn said: I hope this is the first step on what should be a very short road towards full equality for LGBT people in Northern Ireland.

In Northern Ireland, the DUP has repeatedly blocked legislation to recognise the marriage of same-sex couples.

With power-sharing talks between Sinn Fein and the DUP deadlocked, there has been no executive in Northern Ireland for over a year.

The civil servants who are in charge of the day-to-day running of public services, do not have the authority to pass the law.

Mr McGinn said that now is the time for the British government to intervene.

My preference would very clearly be for the Northern Ireland assembly to legislate for this, he said.

But in the absence of an assembly, we have a duty here in Westminster to ensure that our fellow citizens enjoy the same rights as the rest of us.

Ms McCann, who presented the petition to Downing Street said: It was such a heartwarming experience. We have already won the hearts and minds of the public, now we need to win the political side.

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood welcomed the introduction of the billl.

The passage of the first step towards delivering equal marriage to Northern Ireland is absolutely fantastic news," the Foyle MLA said.

It is however truly shameful that we are not making this legislation here. After well over a year without Government, people right across the North will be asking themselves why they have been left powerless to deliver any change and why we are now in a position where all our power has been given to the DUP and Tory Government.

I am however delighted after working closely with my colleague Conor McGinn MP in our sister party  that we are on the right road to finally delivering equality to for all our LGBT brothers and sisters.

The St Helens North MPs bill was approved and will have its second reading on May 11.
The threat from Russia highlights the need to plug the gaps in the UK's defence budget, a Northern Ireland MP has warned.

Nigel Dodds' comments came as the Republic of Ireland became the 24th country to join the UK in diplomatic action against the Kremlin in response to the nerve agent attack in Salisbury.

Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned on March 4.

Investigators say a military-grade nerve agent was used, but Russia has denied involvement.

After raising the issue during Foreign Office Questions yesterday, Mr Dodds, the DUP MP for North Belfast, said the Nato commitment of spending 2% of GDP on defence was vital.

He said: "The threats faced by our nation are changing and we must ensure the necessary resources are in place to meet those threats.

"While the Government stance has been exemplary, this must be followed through in all areas."

His comments came as Theresa May hailed the "unprecedented series of expulsions" of Russian diplomats across the globe in the wake of the Salisbury attack.

The Prime Minister insisted the move sent a strong message to Moscow that it cannot ignore international law.

With Downing Street saying that more than 115 Russian diplomats had been ordered home by friends and allies, Dublin added one more to the list.

Mrs May's spokesman said the PM told the Cabinet the move against Russia was "an unprecedented series of expulsions that has demonstrated to the Kremlin that we will not tolerate their attempts to flout international law, undermine our values or threaten our security".

The Prime Minister added: "It is also important to note that our partners are not only taking these measures out of solidarity with the UK, but also because they recognise the threat that these Russian networks pose to the security of their own countries and the pattern of Russian aggression which has affected us all." Yesterday Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said that Ireland was not one bit neutral when it came to assassination bids and chemical attacks as he justified the decision to expel a Russian diplomat.

Mr Varadkar rejected claims from Sinn Fein that the move against Moscow undermined Ireland's long-standing military neutrality.

Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald said Mr Varadkar was taking the decision based on the intelligence assessment of the UK.

"Essentially Taoiseach you are asking us to trust Boris Johnson (UK Foreign Secretary) and dare I say it, this might not be the wisest course of action," she told the Taoiseach during exchanges in the Dail.

Mr Varadkar said the expulsion of the Russian diplomat was a show of solidarity with the UK.

He insisted Ireland had "no quarrel with the Russian people".

The Taoiseach noted that other neutral countries, such as Sweden and Finland, had also expelled diplomats in response to the Salisbury incident.

"Ireland is a neutral country, we do not join military alliances, we will not be joining Nato, we will not be part of a European army," he said.

"However, when it comes to terrorism, assassinations and the use of chemical weapons and cyber terrorism we are not neutral, one bit."

Earlier Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney described the Salisbury attack as an affront to international law and order.
Bishop of Raphoe Philip Boyce admits Donegal has the worst record for clerical child sex abuse in Ireland

A retired priest has said he is disgusted by the appointment of Philip Boyce as Bishop of Dromore.

John McAreavey stood down as Bishop of Dromore last month after criticism of him celebrating Mass with paedophile priest Father Malachy Finnegan.

Speaking on the Nolan Show on Radio Ulster, Father Eamon Murray said he was disgusted with the appointment of Boyce as Fr McAreaveys replacement.

In 2011 Philip Boyce was criticised for his handling of clerical sex allegations when working in the Diocese of Raphoe in Co Donegall.

Fr Murray said the appointment of Boyce would rub salt on the wounds of those who have already suffered from clerical sexual abuse in Dromore.

He said: I am so annoyed about this, that he has been appointed to Dromore where there has been a huge problem. I think thats rubbing the salt on the wound.

A review into the handling of clerical abuse in the Diocese of Raphoe in 2011 singled out Bishop Boyces actions in a serious case of abuse in which he attempted to protect the priests family rather than have the cleric removed from the ministry.

At the time Bishop Boyce apologised for "poor judgements" in managing priest accused of "horrific acts of abuse" against children.

Fr Murray said: I dont want that man in Dromore where I live, and I am a priest. I dont want him in Dromore.

He added: I cant believe this man has been appointed after his tenure in Raphoe.

Expand Close JDr John McAreavey who was Bishop of Dromore in Northern Ireland, prior to his resignation following claims he celebrated Mass alongside Fr Malachy Finnegan, a priest he knew was a paedophile (Niall Carson/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp JDr John McAreavey who was Bishop of Dromore in Northern Ireland, prior to his resignation following claims he celebrated Mass alongside Fr Malachy Finnegan, a priest he knew was a paedophile (Niall Carson/PA)

Fr Murray said he was concerned that the Catholic Church would "punish him" for speaking out against the appointment.

A spokesman for the Diocese of Dromore said: "Fr Eamon Murray is not a priest in the Dromore Diocese but is under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Northampton. He does not minister for the Diocese of Dromore and does not live in a property owned by the Diocese.

"Any questions in relation to comments made by Fr Murray should be made to the Diocese of Northampton.
A Shankill woman who joined the UDA as a teenager but quickly realised her potential as a future peace-builder has been recognised with a major award for her decades of community relations work.

Eileen Weir first volunteered with Shankill Women's Centre in the late 1990s and now is the recipient of the 2018 Community Relations Exceptional Achievement Award.

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Ms Weir was presented with her award yesterday at the Community Relations Council's (CRC) annual David Stevens Memorial Lecture at The Duncairn Centre in north Belfast.

The annual award recognises the exceptional achievement of an individual in promoting community relations, intercultural work or peace-building in Northern Ireland and is intended to highlight the ongoing, courageous work of this nature.

Eileen had only turned 16 when she briefly joined the UDA.

However, it was a short time after that she ended her associations with the loyalist paramilitary group and pursued full-time employment in women's equality and fair employment matters.

For a short while after being made redundant in the late 1990s, Eileen facilitated black taxi tours of the Shankill area for tourists and international visitors.

It was during this time that she first volunteered with Shankill Women's Centre, a decision that would lead to years of dedication to women in the area, bringing them together to explore differing beliefs and identities.

She also ensured that their largely under-represented voices in relation to the Good Friday Agreement and peace process were heard loud and clear.

Eileen also worked with prisoners released early under the Agreement, many of whom had been incarcerated for more than a decade, helping them to integrate back into society, secure employment and adapt to family life.

Upon receiving her award, Eileen remarked: "I'm incredibly humbled."

"As an outreach worker based at the Shankill Women's Centre, I've dedicated my career to community relations in north and west Belfast and to similar work throughout greater Belfast. Over the years I've seen many ups and downs, but I work every day on the ground with all our local communities.

"We're beyond the traditional divide of Catholic and Protestant and our communities encompass so much more diversity.

"Every day, more residents and volunteers are stepping up to the mark to promote good relations. It's encouraging for the future of Northern Ireland and for the profound positive impact it has on our local community. I'm extremely proud to have played my part in nurturing such an environment and I'm honoured to receive this award from the Community Relations Council."

Peter Osborne, chairman of the Community Relations Council, said: "Eileen's journey, her courage and remarkable achievements deserve this recognition from the Community Relations Council. She is living proof of how peace is built from the grassroots.

"For almost three decades, Eileen has been at the fore of crucial cross-community work in the Shankill area, work that has had a profound impact on its community.

"The narrative during the conflict in Northern Ireland was a largely male one - the narrative of peace building must include everyone. Eileen is a powerful advocate for an inclusive, empowering approach."
A hatchet-wielding thug who chased a man in the street has avoided jail.

William McFall (24), with an address at Mark Street in Portrush, struck in nearby Portstewart on November 27, 2015, Coleraine Magistrates Court was told.

The defendant had been due to contest the two charges he faced, namely possessing a hatchet as an offensive weapon at a chip shop in Portstewart and common assault.

In court a prosecutor said the assault charge was being withdrawn, and McFall entered a guilty plea to the other offence.

The prosecuting lawyer explained that police received a report that a man "wielding an axe" was chasing another in the seaside town.

Officers began a search and received a further report that a man had been approached by another brandishing a hatchet at a chip shop, and CCTV was seized from inside the premises.

Defence barrister Francis Rafferty said the defendant accepted he was carrying the hatchet.

He said McFall, who has a criminal record, had drink taken and believed it was necessary to carry the axe "for his own protection".

Added Mr Rafferty: "It may be his record came to the attention of other ne'er-do-wells in the area.

"It was an ill-advised attempt at pre-emptive self-defence."

District Judge Peter King said the defendant had previously been in court for offences which included making threats to kill.

Regarding the charges before the court this week, the judge said McFall could consider himself fortunate that the prosecution had withdrawn the assault matter.

The judge ordered that the hatchet be destroyed.

He imposed a four-month prison term, suspended for 30 months.

He told McFall: "If you have issues with your personal safety, the first port of call has to be with the police, not the hatchet."
Sean McGrotty, his partner Louise holding baby Rioghnach-Ann and his sons Mark (right) and Evan

A woman who helped rescue a baby during the Buncrana pier tragedy says she didn't realise the estate of the deceased driver would be included in a personal injuries action she is taking.

Cardiac physiologist Stephanie Knox is seeking damages for "loss of earnings and other matters" after witnessing five people lose their lives in the tragedy two years ago.

Ms Knox said she had been receiving treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Lawyers acting on her behalf initiated a personal injuries suit in the High Court in Dublin earlier this month.

The action is against Donegal County Council, which owns the pier, and the solicitor acting as executor to the estate of Sean McGrotty.

The Londonderry man was the driver of the SUV which slid down the algae-covered pier into Lough Swilly and submerged, trapping him and four passengers inside.

It is understood that Ms Knox's former partner Davitt Walsh, who rescued four-month-old Rioghnach-Ann McGrotty, is not pursuing legal action.

Mr Walsh made "a public statement" on social media on Wednesday.

"Firstly I have the utmost respect for Stephanie Knox, Stephanie has suffered extreme trauma since the tragic events of that horrible day in Buncrana," he wrote.

"Secondly I have not given an interview to ANY newspaper or media source. I have been wrongly misquoted, I strongly refute anything that has been printed in my name.

"I have moved on with my life since that day, in the best way that I can. Please respect my privacy."

His statement comes after quotes attributed to Mr Walsh appeared in the Daily Mail.

Ms Knox said she didn't realise Mr McGrotty's estate would be included in the proceedings and had received abusive messages since the matter became public earlier this week.

Lawyers representing Ms Knox did not comment yesterday.

However, legal sources said an action against the estate was necessary if a claim was to be made against Mr McGrotty's insurer.

"I'm under so much stress and heartache and I would love it to just blow over," she said.

Ms Knox said she continued to suffer from PTSD.

"I've been suffering ever since that day," she commented.

"It took me a long time to get help because I was afraid to talk about the accident, I just wanted to hide it. This has just been a horrible nightmare."

Ms Knox is the second person to issue proceedings against the estate.

Louise James, who lost her partner, Mr McGrotty, two sons, a sister and her mother in the tragedy, has also sued both the council and the estate.

Mr McGrotty (49), his sons Mark (12) and Evan (8), his mother-in-law Ruth Daniels (59) and her daughter Jodie-Lee (14), died when the SUV vehicle they were in slid on algae on a slipway and entered the water at Lough Swilly on March 20, 2016.

A post-mortem examination found Mr McGrotty was more than three times the legal drink-driving limit when the accident happened.

Yesterday, Noel McGrotty (86), Sean McGrotty's father, said he was concerned by public backlash directed at Ms Knox.

"I do not know the wee girl but the only thing I'm afraid of now is that the public opinion might be damaging her," he commented.

"My family doesn't want that.

"The newspapers aren't thinking of the consequences of this... The wee girl must have suffered psychological shock and I can understand that.

"This is in the hands of our solicitors.

"Life has to go on, I'm that type of person," Mr McGrotty added.

He was also critical of Donegal County Council, and the findings of the inquest.

An inquest found the victims died from drowning and that it was a case of death by misadventure.

Ms Knox's case came into the public domain after Noel McGrotty disclosed that he had received a letter about the action.

It is understood the letter was sent by the Personal Injuries Assessment Board, which is obliged under law to inform parties against whom a claim is being made.
Work is to begin on the A6 road project "in the coming weeks" following the appointment of a contractor.

The Department for Infrastructure has appointed the contractor to construct the A6 Dungiven to Drumahoe Dualling Scheme.

The award is to a consortium of Sacyr, Wills Bros and Somague and is a major milestone in the delivery of this NI Executive Flagship project.

The 25.5 kilometre scheme represents an investment in the region of 220million, including land acquisition. The project will construct a high standard dual carriageway between Drumahoe and Dungiven, including a bypass of Dungiven, with roundabouts connecting the scheme to the existing road network at either end.

A Department for Infrastructure spokesperson said: "The A6 is a strategically important route as it connects the North West to Belfast and beyond. The existing road carries around 15,000 vehicles per day and with traffic levels continuing to grow, this very significant investment will greatly improve road safety and journey times by reducing congestion.

"The construction of this road will help to secure jobs in the construction industry, contribute to the economic development of the region and bring long term benefits to road users and local communities.

"Work is expected to commence in the coming weeks, and will take up to four years to complete."

Sinn Fein's Elisha McCallion said the appointment of a contractor is a 'crucial step' in the transformational project.

"I welcome the announcement today from the Department of Infrastructure that a contractor has now been appointed to construct the A6," the Foyle MP said

"The 220million project involves the creation of almost 26 kilometres of high-standard dual-carriageway between Dungiven and Drumahoe.

"Derry city and the north west region has been crying out for meaningful investment of this kind.

"This scheme will transform life for citizens and commuters in the area, and I look forward to its eventual completion."
Bill Clinton and George Mitchell with solicitor Noel Smyth (centre) at a gala dinner in Dublin in 2001

Former US President Bill Clinton and Senator George Mitchell will receive the freedom of Belfast next month - but opposition to the move has been voiced by the Ulster Unionists and People Before Profit.

The SDLP proposal to honour both men on the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement was supported by the DUP, Sinn Fein and Alliance at a special council meeting yesterday.

But the UUP dismissed the move as "a gimmick" and "stunt politics", and said it would be more appropriate to laud "the local politicians who really delivered the peace - David Trimble and John Hume".

People Before Profit challenged President Clinton's image as "a man of peace" and said he was responsible for sanctions which "caused the deaths of thousands of children in Iraq".

A special meeting was called in City Hall yesterday so plans could be made to give the award to the two US politicians who are expected in Belfast for events to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Agreement next month.

Council sources expressed disappointment that the decision to honour them hadn't received unanimous support.

They will be the 83rd and 84th recipients of the Freedom of the City of Belfast, following in the footsteps most recently of actor and director Sir Kenneth Branagh, poet Michael Longley, blues legend Sir Van Morrison and Olympic gold medallist Dame Mary Peters.

SDLP Councillor Tim Attwood said: "Senator George Mitchell and President Bill Clinton played hugely important and significant roles in delivering the peace accord.

"Senator George Mitchell was seen as the honest broker between all sides in the talks process. He won admiration from across the political divide in Northern Ireland for the careful, patient way he chaired the talks that led to the Good Friday Agreement. He steered the talks process through difficult and challenging time and at some considerable personal cost, away from home at a time of family bereavement and when his wife was pregnant."

Mr Attwood said President Clinton had "used flattery, persuasion, arm-twisting and midnight phone calls to encourage people over the line and break deadlocks".

DUP councillor Guy Spence said the former president had worked hard to help Northern Ireland from the late 1990s, and had "strong Ulster-Scots roots".

Alliance group leader Michael Long described the former president as "the most inspiring speaker I have ever heard" and said it was right that Belfast honoured "those who put so much effort" into the peace process.

UUP group leader David Browne said the two architects of the agreement were John Hume and David Trimble and it was wrong that those who "did the heavy lifting" were being ignored while two politicians from outside Northern Ireland were being honoured.

His party colleague Chris McGimpsey said those behind the motion had "mismanaged and made a dog's dinner of it".

He accused the SDLP of "playing stunt politics" to coincide with the US politicians' visit to Belfast next month. People Before Profit councillor Matt Collins said: "Bill Clinton's role in the peace process has been hugely exaggerated and I certainly don't support giving him the Freedom of Belfast. It would be very wrong to honour someone who through sanctions played a role in the death of thousands of children in Iraq."

Independent councillor Declan Boyle called for Mr Hume to be honoured as "the architect, engineer and builder" of the Good Friday Agreement.

However, a statement from the former SDLP leader's wife, Pat, was read out to councillors. Mrs Hume said she would like to thank those making the offer. "However, on this occasion, John will have to respectfully decline," she added.
A Co Armagh dairy farmer is facing a political battle - in the Irish Republic.

Former president of the Ulster Farmers' Union Ian Marshall is Taoiseach Leo Varadkar's preferred candidate in an upcoming Seanad (Senate) by-election.

But he is being challenged for one of two seats on the Seanad's agriculture panel by the sister of sitting TD Kate O'Connell, who is a member of Mr Varadkar's Fine Gael party.

Mr Marshall will have to defeat Mary Newman, a long-time Fine Gael member and Tipperary vet, to become a senator.

The Markethill man will also have to see off competition from Kerry County Councillor and Fine Gael stalwart Bobby O'Connell.

Mr Marshall was recently introduced to the Fine Gael parliamentary party and Mr Varadkar is understood to hope his election to the Seanad would be seen as an olive branch to unionists, who have criticised his approach to Northern Ireland over Brexit. Mr Marshall is an outspoken critic of the UK's decision to leave the European Union and currently works in Queen's University in Belfast.

Ms Newman recently missed out on a general election nomination at a Fine Gael selection convention in Tipperary.

Fianna Fail councillors Niall Blaney of Donegal County Council and Frank O'Flynn from Cork County Council will be running for the same seat.

A separate seat on the Seanad agriculture panel is also being contested by Mr Blaney and two other Fianna Fail councillors - Niall Kelleher of Kerry County Council and Martin Miley from Kildare County Council.
Julian Assange is said to have lost internet access (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is said to have lost access to the internet and the right to receive visitors at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

He has been living at the embassy since June 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden to face questioning over allegations of sex crimes, which he always denied.

The Swedish authorities have dropped their investigation, but Mr Assange believes he will be extradited to the United States for questioning over the activities of WikiLeaks if he leaves the building.

Clearly, Ecuador's government has been subjected to bullying over its decision to grant Julian asylumYanis Varoufakis and Brian Eno

Former Greek minister Yanis Varoufakis and musician Brian Eno said in a statement they had heard with great concern about the lost internet access and ban on visitors.

Only extraordinary pressure from the US and the Spanish governments can explain why Ecuadors authorities should have taken such appalling steps in isolating Julian, they said.

They added that the Ecuador government had only recently granted Mr Assange citizenship, saying it must have been leaned on mercilessly to stop attempting to provide a diplomatic route to safety and even drive the WikiLeaks founder out of the embassy.

Clearly, Ecuadors government has been subjected to bullying over its decision to grant Julian asylum, support and ultimately, diplomatic status.

Foreign Office Minister Sir Alan Duncan branded Mr Assange a miserable little worm during a Commons debate on Tuesday, adding he should leave the Ecuadorean embassy and surrender to British justice.

Mr Assange replied: Britain should come clean on whether it intends to extradite me to the United States for publishing the truth and cease its ongoing violation of the UN rulings in this matter.

If it does this disgraceful impasse can be resolved tomorrow. I have already fully served any theoretical (I havent been charged) bail violation whilst in prison and under house arrest. So why is there a warrant for my arrest?
Prince Harry and Meghan Markles wedding day will feature regiments and units that have a special relationship with the royal who served in the military for a decade, the Ministry of Defence has announced.

The marriage ceremony will be enhanced by the spectacle of Household Cavalry troopers in their gleaming breast plates and plumed helmets lining the staircase at St Georges Chapel, Windsor Castle where the couple will be married on May 19.

Streets within the precincts of the castle will be lined by members of the Windsor Castle Guard from 1st Battalion Irish Guards, and by Armed Forces personnel from the Royal Navy Small Ships and Diving, Royal Marines, 3 Regiment Army Air Corps, The Royal Gurkha Rifles and RAF Honington.

Musical support to the street liners will be provided by the Band of the Irish Guards.

Just announced: Members of the Armed Forces will provide ceremonial support at the wedding of Prince Harry and Ms. Meghan Markle. Units with a special connection to Prince Harry will take part in the carriage procession at the request of Kensington Palace. https://t.co/RORscwAbDj pic.twitter.com/vrZFrDGj7m  Ministry of Defence  (@DefenceHQ) March 28, 2018

Trumpeters and a Captains Escort from the Household Cavalry will also provide ceremonial support bringing the total number of Armed Forces involved with the wedding to more than 250.

Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach, Chief of the Defence Staff, said: I am proud that members of the Armed Forces have been asked to take part in the ceremonial celebrations taking place on the royal couples wedding day.

It is a happy occasion for the whole country and reminds us of the role the Armed Forces play in marking important events in the life of the nation.

I am particularly pleased to hear that members of the Armed Forces who have a close relationship with Prince Harry will be taking part. Servicemen and women from the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force will all be honoured to offer their support.

The Ministry of Defence has confirmed that Armed Forces units with a special connection to Prince Harry will provide ceremonial support at his wedding to Ms. Meghan Markle on 19 May: https://t.co/tSsJP8wgU2  The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) March 28, 2018

Harry began his military life in 2005 as an officer cadet at Sandhurst, and later joined the Blues and Royals and served with the Household Cavalry Regiment.

During his 10-year career he was deployed twice to Afghanistan before leaving in the summer of 2015 after rising to the rank of captain.

His first period of frontline service in Afghanistan was served with the 1st Battalion, the Royal Gurkha Rifles in 2007-08.

Prince Harry and Ms Meghan Markle are pleased that members of the Armed Forces will play such a special role in their weddingKensington Palace

For his second deployment the prince retrained becoming an Apache helicopter co-pilot gunner with 662 Squadron, 3 Regiment Army Air Corps, flying in Helmand Province during 2012-13 and later in his military career became an Apache commander.

Harry recently became Captain General Royal Marines, succeeding the Duke of Edinburgh in December last year, is Commodore-in-Chief, Small Ships and Diving and Honorary Air Commandant of RAF Honington.

A Kensington Palace spokesperson said: Prince Harry and Ms Meghan Markle are pleased that members of the Armed Forces will play such a special role in their wedding.

The military, and these units in particular, hold a great significance for Prince Harry and the couple are incredibly grateful for their support.
The scene in Golders Green in north London where a car crashed into a pharmacy (Kirsty O'Connor/PA)

Two pedestrians rushed to hospital after a car smashed into a pharmacy have not suffered life-threatening injuries, police said.

Passers-by said a silver car mounted the pavement in a busy Jewish shopping district in Golders Green Road, north west London, which was packed with people doing their Passover or Pesach shopping.

The London Ambulance Service (LAS) was called to the incident at 11.46am on Wednesday. Two men  aged 80 and 45  remain in a central London hospital.

Scotland Yard said the car had hit the pair as it careered into the shop.

The male driver of the car stopped at the scene and assisted officers, but was not arrested, police said.

Detectives have asked anyone with footage of the incident or who witnessed the collision to contact the the Serious Collision Investigation Unit at Alperton on 020 8991 9555.

The air ambulance, three ambulance crews, an incident response officer and a hazardous area response team were sent to the scene by the LAS.

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Local resident Sharon Klaff, 69, who was driving to work as a yoga teacher in the aftermath of the crash, was told that a man had been trapped under a car.

She said: It is a terrible thing to see. It is quite traumatic to watch. The police and the emergency services have been doing a fantastic job in caring for people. It is troubling to see. In my heart I am hoping it was just an accident.

When I came to the shop there was people holding the shopfront up so that the debris  like the sign  did not fall and hit anyone. People were trying to help and trying to make sure that no one got injured.

Police in #Barnet are on scene and dealing with a road traffic collision at Golders Green Road. Road closure is currently in place. The public are thanked for their co-operation.  Barnet MPS | North West BCU (@MPSBarnet) March 28, 2018

Passer-by David Collier tweeted: Tragic. People holding shop front up . Certainly serious injury. People just out for pesach shopping. Heartbreaking.

CST, a charity that helps British Jews tackle antisemitism, tweeted that it appeared to be an accident.

CST has discussed with Police and can confirm that traffic incident in Golders Green Road appears to be an accident.  CST (@CST_UK) March 28, 2018

A London Fire Brigade spokesman said fire crews from Hendon, Finchley and Paddington fire stations were called out to a road traffic accident involving a car in collision with a shop front.
Police Scotland plans to cut the number of officers in Scotland.

Financial documents propose cutting police by 100 through freeing up officers in back office roles, saving 2.7 million.

A draft budget report going before the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) board on Thursday states: Scotland will continue to receive the same level of front line policing as it has for the past 10 years, but at a lower cost to the taxpayer.

This just looks like a back of the fag packet calculationSPF vice-chairman David Hamilton

Scottish Police Federation (SPF) vice-chairman David Hamilton criticised the proposal, questioning what constitutes a front line officer and the evidence to back up the figure of 100.

He said: What is the front line? Is it the control room? Is it CID? Theres no definition of front line, its just nonsense.

They are saying its coming from corporate services but they need to tell us, what corporate services are they not doing? Im not aware of anyone sitting twiddling their thumbs.

100 is a suspiciously round number. Theres nothing to say they are going to take an evidence-based approach to this  This just looks like a back of the fag packet calculation, he added.

Demand is at an all-time high for police services. Theres no capacity within the organisation for any cuts.

#SPABoard meets in Edinburgh from 10am tomorrow (Thur 29). Agenda/papers online here: https://t.co/N11hnIIqKA You can also watch the meeting live at following link: https://t.co/7AaDpfts8J  The SPA (@ScotPolAuth) March 28, 2018

The proposal has also drawn criticism from Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives.

Labours justice spokesman Daniel Johnson said: Research shows that cuts to civilian staff led to officers being forced to spend more time conducting back-room admin tasks, leaving officers less visible to the public.

How is this proposal going to solve that problem?

The reduction is expected to come from lower recruitment and there will be no compulsory redundancies.

The most recent figures show Police Scotland had 17,256 full-time equivalent officers on December 31 2017.

The draft 2018/19 budget allows for 17,134 police officers, which would take the numbers below the Scottish Governments commitment for a 1,000 increase from 2007, scrapped in 2016.

The draft budget report also highlights an expected 35.6 million operating deficit in 2018/19.

The budget gap is down from the 47.2 million in the previous years budget and part of a three-year commitment to the Scottish Government to eliminate the deficit by 2020/21.

A Police Scotland spokesman said: At this stage, we are presenting a budget paper to the Scottish Police Authority which includes a planning assumption on a reduction of 100 officers in the next financial year. These officers would come from back office roles and the front line would be protected.

However, more work would be done before this happens, including engagement with the Scottish Police Federation and other staff associations.

We will also obtain independent assurance on our approach from HMICS.

He said the Policing 2026 strategy, consulted on widely last year, indicated a need to rebalance the workforce for new and emerging threats, by actions such as recruiting cyber experts.

He added: These roles may not require warrant cards but will still be part of operational policing.

An SPA spokeswoman said: The Board of the SPA will meet on Thursday to consider in detail proposals outlined in the draft budget for 2018/19.
Those who argue for stiffer tariffs for defendants found guilty of murder will use the case of Northern Ireland man William John McFall as proof that the present system is flawed

Those who argue for stiffer tariffs for defendants found guilty of murder will use the case of Northern Ireland man William John McFall as proof that the present system is flawed.

McFall and Stephen Unwin were found guilty at Newcastle Crown Court in England yesterday of the murder of a Vietnamese mother-of-one after subjecting her to an horrific four-hour ordeal and then setting fire to her car with her inside.

But the court heard that both men had killed before and served prison sentences for those crimes. McFall had bludgeoned elderly neighbour Martha Gilmore to death in her Greenisland home in 1996 with a hammer.

He was jailed for life the following year, and released on licence in 2010.

Unwin had murdered a pensioner in 1998 and was jailed for life the following year. He was released on licence in 2012.

When discussing jail terms for convicted criminals it has to be remembered that judges have to abide by fairly prescriptive sentencing policies, which take into account matters like how the defendant pleads or the amount of force or violence used during the crime.

And it must also be remembered that prison is seen not just as a punishment, but also as a positive place of rehabilitation.

It would appear - although hindsight is always perfect - that in the case of these two men any attempt at rehabilitation failed. In the latest murder they displayed chilling cruelty, premeditation and a desire to cheat justice by blaming each other.

Did those who released both men on licence - in what were totally separate cases - believe that, on the balance of probability, neither posed an obvious threat to the public? If they did then subsequent events were to prove them pitifully wrong.

In the wake of this latest case there has been a call for life sentences to mean a minimum of 40 years behind bars. There is a long-standing maxim that hard cases make bad law, essentially meaning that an extreme case is a poor basis for a general law meant to cover a wider range of less extreme cases.

But if there is a general public clamour for longer minimum sentences in cases of murder then politicians, who are the legislators, would do well to heed the public mood.

Judges can only work within the laws presented to them by the legislators.
Pope John Paul II spoke about the culture of death that he saw engulfing Western society

Recently in Belfast, at a conference on end-of-life care, Tracy Harkin of the Iona Institute (NI) highlighted what she termed "the slippery slope" towards euthanasia in the world today. She referred to Pope John Paul II in 1995 in a document called the Gospel of Life, where he prophetically spoke about the "culture of death" that was engulfing Western society. He was referring to widespread abortion and the growing emergence of euthanasia being discussed in some European countries.

Pope John Paul II warned that: "Choices once unanimously considered criminal and rejected by the common moral sense are gradually becoming socially acceptable."

At the time his words may have seemed to be exaggerated and even extreme, but when one looks at the rapid development of euthanasia, in particular in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, and assisted suicide in Switzerland and Germany, there is little doubt today that his warning was far-seeing.

As well as contemporary Western Europe, similar measures have been introduced in some states in America and also in Canada. The gradual spread of legalised euthanasia and assisted suicide is steadily making ground and is very frightening.

In the UK the current law correctly prohibits assisted suicide and euthanasia, but there have been 10 attempts to introduce assisted suicide as a legally available procedure. The last attempt at this was in 2015 when the proposed Bill was defeated in the House of Commons by 330 votes to an uncomfortably respectable 118 votes.

Although seen off on that occasion, there is little doubt that there is a persistent and determined lobby, fuelled by some in the media, that will not give up on this issue. They are also hugely encouraged by the growth of such measures in the rest of Europe and elsewhere.

In the Netherlands euthanasia was originally introduced in 2002 to deal with hard cases of people suffering from terminal illness. It was strongly argued at the time that it was compassionate to end the suffering of somebody who was doomed to die in any event.

These cases, it was claimed, would be small in number and rare in practice. Last year there were more than 6,000 cases of euthanasia recorded in the Netherlands, whereas in its first year (2002) there were 1,882.

But more important even than the horrific leap in numbers is the fact that cases have moved on from the terminally ill to those suffering from psychiatric conditions, addictions or other non-terminal health conditions.

So, there has been a radical step-change in the sort of cases which are now regarded as legal under Dutch law. Instead of hard cases, where people are dying from incurable illnesses, the law has evolved into a broader range of medical conditions to qualify for euthanasia.

This is contrary to the original arguments put forward for euthanasia and represents a serious widening of the applicability of this law into a more generalised procedure.

Belgium has also undergone an almost identical process, where the legalisation of euthanasia has been approved. In 2003 there were 235 deaths and in 2016 there were 2,024 - an extraordinary jump.

As in the Netherlands, the qualification of having a terminal medical condition has been in practice substituted for non-terminal medical conditions, whether physical or mental.

The whole issue of consent has been either ignored, or in practice discarded and there is virtually no oversight nor effective protections against misuse or abuse of the system. Shockingly, euthanasia is now available even for children.

What is exceptionally disturbing is the apparent normalisation and acceptance of euthanasia in the contemporary world, whether in Europe, the United States or Canada.

This further undermines the value of life in those countries, but also it impacts on the rest of the world, which is absorbing the misguided notion that somehow state-authorised, legally sanctioned killing of human beings in certain circumstances is socially and morally acceptable.

As Pope John Paul II said 23 years ago: "Moral crimes such as abortion and euthanasia are viewed as individual rights."

When we study the barbarous history of the Nazis, we can see that the origin of their extermination programme was in 1939 and started off with the euthanasia of mental patients and disabled children.

Rightly, the world condemned them for their gross atrocities, but what the Nazis started out with in 1939, some countries are now carrying out for themselves under the cloak of legality.

Clearly it was not right for the Nazis, so why then should it be regarded as right now for others?

Euthanasia not only corrupts medical ethics but also erodes respect for human life, which is the very foundation for human rights in the world.

Where all this will lead in the future is the question.

But, sadly, once opened, this Pandora's Box of deathly measures could lead anywhere.
The "war" in Northern Ireland claimed approximately 3,700 lives and, by some estimates, injured 40,000-50,000 people. The Belfast (or Good Friday) Agreement - signed on April 10, 1998 - is the foundation on which an uneasy peace was established. This peace was achieved using "honourable" deceptions, both large and small. This is the "inconvenient truth" of the peace process.

Populists argue that "a straight-talking, honest politics" is possible. Realists claim that deception and hypocrisy is an inevitable part of politics. What is important is to be able to judge between honourable and dishonourable deceptions.

In Northern Ireland the polarisation of the electorate between nationalists, who favoured Irish unity, and unionists, who wanted to remain part of the United Kingdom, made the use of deception particularly important in achieving an accommodation.

Labour's Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Mo Mowlam pointed out that the Good Friday Agreement was deliberately written to be "open to multiple interpretations".

This meant that unionists could argue that it "secured the Union", while for Gerry Adams "it severely weakened it".

The Belfast Agreement was choreographed to climax on Good Friday, April 10, 1998. The symbolism of Easter was used to win support for the deal. The final week of negotiations had been choreographed to give "wins" to all the parties supporting the deal to maximise public support.

The US Senator George Mitchell had been given a position paper by the British and Irish Governments.

He was asked by the them to present this to the Northern Ireland parties as his, rather than their, best estimate of where agreement might be achieved.

Mitchell realised the paper was too pro-nationalist because of its emphasis on a strong all-Ireland dimension.

"As I read the document I knew instantly that it would not be acceptable to the unionists."

But he went ahead with the charade and presented the "Mitchell document" as his own work.

The purpose of the paper was, most likely, to create a drama at the beginning of the final week of talks.

John Taylor MP, a leading figure in the Ulster Unionist Party, declared that he would not touch the proposals with a "40-foot barge pole".

Even the Alliance Party rejected the proposals.

This "crisis" was the cue for Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to fly in and take the stage for the final days of negotiation.

Blair rejected soundbites, but nonetheless "felt the hand of history" on his shoulder.

The Prime Minister's role was to "rescue" the process and reassure unionists that the Union was safe.

He rejected "Mitchell's paper" as too pro-nationalist. Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble was handed a unionist victory.

Unionists claimed that Blair "humiliated" the Irish Prime Minister. The Irish Government claimed Ahern had "reached out" to unionists.

Several participants in the talks suspected choreography. Seamus Mallon of the SDLP was "confident" that changes to the Mitchell document "had been anticipated". The republican newspaper An Phoblacht reported: "The suspicion is that the UUP's speedy rejection was pre-planned."

The Ulster Unionist Party won its "victory" on the all-Ireland dimension on the Tuesday of Easter week.

Negotiations continued and, at 3am on Good Friday, the SDLP then won its victory by securing a strong power-sharing Executive.

Sinn Fein and loyalist paramilitaries secured a "victory" on the release of paramilitary prisoners. Gerry Kelly of Sinn Fein approached the loyalists arguing that they should adopt a common front on prisoners, demanding their release within a year.

Remarkably, the loyalists argued against one year and insisted on two years. They did so out of concern for the UUP, because they believed that Trimble would not be able to sell an agreement to the unionist electorate that released all prisoners within a year.

Decommissioning had already become the key bone of contention in the peace process. Unionists argued that the IRA should at least start decommissioning to demonstrate its sincerity in entering the democratic process.

It was undemocratic, they argued, for republicans to use the threat of violence to extort concessions from the other non-violent parties. The IRA claimed that decommissioning was a humiliating demand for surrender.

The UUP rejected the Agreement's wording on decommissioning because it did not provide strong enough assurances. At the last moment Blair provided a "side letter" to the UUP on decommissioning. Taylor, the Ulster Unionist deputy leader, was seen as a hardliner. When he declared that he was now satisfied on decommissioning this was thought to have reassured some wavering UUP sceptics.

Close observers of the peace process have suggested that Taylor played the role of a sceptic who, after the side letter, "buys into" the deal and this encourages others to overcome their scepticism.

This is a charade, because all along Taylor was going to endorse the deal because he is allied to Trimble, the UUP leader.

Not all in the UUP were sold on the Agreement.

Jeffrey Donaldson MP walked out of the negotiations because he did not believe that the wording on decommissioning was strong enough. He later joined the DUP, which opposed the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, but signed up to a similar deal at St Andrews in 2006.

Trimble later accepted that he had not got strong enough wording in the Agreement on decommissioning. But the alternative to accepting the Good Friday Agreement was for him to walk away from a deal that stood the best chance of bringing peace to Northern Ireland since the violence began in the late-1960s.

In the referendum campaign to endorse the Agreement, when it looked like decommissioning was not required, unionist opinion shifted towards a No vote. Blair used "hand-written" pledges and implied that the Good Friday Agreement required more than decommissioning.

This was an "honourable deception"; the Prime Minister had good reason to believe that, without this deceit, the referendum would fail and this risked a return to a war.

On May 22, 1998, Yes won the referendum on the Agreement. A few weeks later legislation was introduced at Westminster that resulted in the first release of paramilitary prisoners in September 1998.

In December 1999 Sinn Fein took its seats in the power-sharing Executive.

The IRA did not begin decommissioning until October 23, 2001, in the wake of 9/11.

Political actors used their "theatrical skills" to achieve peace in Northern Ireland. Deceptions, both large and small, were perpetrated. Hypocrisy was used by actors to present different faces to different audiences.

Many of these deceptions were "honourable", because, in some situations, the end does justify the means.

In these anti-political times it is useful to remember the positive role political actors can play in making the world a better place.

Professor Paul Dixon is an Honorary Visiting Fellow at Birkbeck College, University of London and author of the forthcoming Performing The Northern Ireland Peace Process: In Defence Of Politics (Palgrave, 2018)
Prime Minister Najib Razak walks to the parliament house before a session in Kuala Lumpur, March 28, 2018.

Malaysia's parliament swiftly approved a new electoral map Wednesday amid howls of protest from opposition lawmakers and activists who said it favored Prime Minister Najib Razaks ruling coalition in upcoming polls.

In total, 129 lawmakers voted for and 80 voted against a bill allowing for the redrawing of electoral boundaries that was bulldozed through parliament and expected to take effect just in time for the 14th General Election, which must be called by August.

Malaysias king must still approve the motion, after which Najib is expected to seek his permission to dissolve parliament and announce a date for the election.

Prominent electoral reform activist S. Ambiga described the move as cheating the people and an act of challenging democracy.

We cannot allow that. Why they are rushing the report through, she told reporters during a protest outside parliament, referring to a document detailing the changes to the electoral map that was produced by the nations Election Commission (EC) and submitted to the legislature.

Lawmakers held a chaotic debate on the measure in parliament late Wednesday in front of Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia, who abruptly suspended senior opposition leader Lim Kit Siang for six months for speaking out of turn.

In introducing the bill, Prime Minister Najib Razak told the House that the redistricting would not produce any new seats but would change the boundaries and names of some existing districts.

He said redistricting was needed because the electoral map had last been drawn up in 2003, and due to the different topography and demography of rural areas.

This had indirectly posed restrictions in terms of connectivity and transportation, Najib said.

This problem had caused far higher concentration of population in the urban areas compared to the rural.

Most supporters of the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition are in rural areas, especially villages built for low-income Malays as part of a decades-old development scheme targeting Malaysias ethnic majority.

The government did not interfere nor had any influence [on the] EC in executing their duties. The government  respects all decisions made by the commission, for the benefit of all and for the interest of the rakyat [the people] and our country, Najib said.

Bigger districts

The new electoral map appears to pack more voters into districts currently held by the opposition.

For example, it renames the Petaling Jaya Utara seat in opposition-held Selangor state and enlarges it from 84,456 to 150,439 voters, making it the largest constituency in Peninsular Malaysia.

Meanwhile, the Kuala Lumpur Lembah Pantai seat, held by the daughter of jailed de facto opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, now includes the federal police headquarters Bukit Aman, adding at least additional 6,000 votes, although the two areas are not geographically adjacent.

Anwars daughter, Nurul Izzah, won the seat in 2013 by 1,847 votes, ousting a former government minister in a shock upset.

Other changes included renaming 12 parliamentary and 28 state seats.

Malays and other indigenous groups account for nearly 70 percent of Malaysias population of 31 million, with ethnic Chinese making up 23 percent and ethnic Indians and others the remainder.

Most of the Malaysian political parties are race-based, including Najibs United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the linchpin of the ruling BN coalition.

Tyranny

Earlier in the day, about 1, 000 people clad in yellow T-shirts of the electoral reform movement Bersih marched towards parliament, led by former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. He had abandoned the ruling party in 2016, saying it was shielding Najib from corruption allegations.

Mahathir said BN had bulldozed through the proposal without giving adequate space for it to be debated.

The law needs more time to be debated. This law is only for the general election, Mahathir said commenting on the half-day given to debate around the redrawing of electoral boundaries.

This is a form of tyranny, he added.

Mahathir has been named as the choice for prime minister by the opposition Pakatan Harapan coalition should it expand its share of seats from 90 to a simple majority of 112 or more.

The suspended opposition leader Lim, a Batu Pahat parliamentarian and advisor of the Democratic Action Party (DAP), had questioned Pandikars decision to prevent the redistricting proposal from being made public when it was handed to parliamentarians last week.

In a press conference shortly after the bill was passed, Lim said the redistricting was aimed at protecting Najib and his ruling coalition.

Today the parliament voted for a motion to protect Najib and BN, tomorrow it will vote to protect Najib from 1MDB with the fake news law. The choice is in the voters hand whether to allow for this to succeed, he told reporters.

A bill introduced in parliament on Monday would make spreading fake news a crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

1MDB affair

Najib could be facing his toughest electoral battle yet due to a massive corruption scandal involving a state-owned investment fund, 1MDB. The ruling BN coalition lost its super majority in 2008 and saw its majority further trimmed in 2013.

The 1MDB affair has spawned international investigations and most recently the seizure of a mega-yacht allegedly purchased with funds stolen from 1MDB by Malaysian tycoon Low Taek Jho, the main target of a U.S. government money-laundering investigation.

Najib has acknowledged receiving close to U.S. $681 million in his personal bank accounts just before the 2013 election, but said the money was a political donation from Saudi Arabias royal family. The prime minister and 1MDB officials have denied the embezzlement allegations.

The controversy over the 1MDB scandal has stoked negative opinion polls against Najib since 2015, but the opposition has struggled to make a serious dent in Najibs rural support, according to analysts.

Mahathirs new party, Bersatu, is focusing on gaining the votes of the ethnic Malay Muslim majority, its president, Muhyiddin Yassin, told BenarNews earlier this month.

Our strategy is to pull the support from Malays who used to support BN and especially UMNO, he said, noting that in 2013 the opposition won 52 percent of the popular vote but was still unable to form a government.

I believe if there is a 5 percent move, to maybe 55 percent or 57 percent, which is highly likely to happen especially among the Malays, the win will be for Pakatan Harapan, he said.

Earlier this month, Najibs government began distributing about U.S. $1.6 billion to millions of low-income citizens as part of a government plan to spur economic growth, but critics slammed the move as vote-buying ahead of the general election.
Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi (left) attends a meeting with U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis at the Pentagon, March 26, 2018.

The foreign ministers of Malaysia and Indonesia met separately with senior U.S. government officials in Washington this week to discuss security-related issues including the South China Sea and efforts to counter the terrorist threat from Islamic State (IS), officials said.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan held individual meetings on Monday with Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman and Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi. Indonesias top diplomat also met with U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis at the Pentagon.

During Sullivans meeting with Anifah, the two diplomats talked about strengthening bilateral ties in key security areas in light of a growing threat posed by IS and the need to ensure freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement.

Nauert said Sullivan and Anifah discussed the South China Sea, to include ensuring freedom of navigation and over-flights, as well as upholding a rules-based maritime order.

The meeting took place as Chinese naval vessels were exercising this week with an aircraft carrier in a show of force involving at least 40 ships and submarines off Hainan Island in the South China Sea, Reuters news service reported Tuesday.

The two leaders also pledged to strengthen cooperation to counter the growing threat of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Nauert said, referring to the other name of IS.

It was not immediately clear if Nauert was referring to the IS threat in Southeast Asia, which has experienced militant attacks in recent years, including vicious fighting during a five-month siege by IS-linked militants in the southern Philippine city of Marawi last year.

Regarding Sullivans meeting with Retno, Nauert said they agreed to deepen cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region for the benefit of regional security, prosperity, and a rules-based international order.

Meeting at Pentagon

Earlier in the day, Retno met with Mattis, who described Indonesia as a geographic and diplomatic fulcrum for the Indo-Pacific region that had the ability to build consensus within the ASEAN regional bloc.

Mattis said this was a very important factor as we seek to expand counterterrorism, to bolster maritime cooperation and to promote collective security, according to a transcript released by the Pentagon.

We welcome greater Indonesia leadership and training and interoperability with your neighbors. We believe it is a stabilizing factor, what you are doing, Mattis said.

As an example, he cited an agreement between Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines to launch joint maritime patrols in their common sea lanes.

Your trilateral cooperation agreement with Malaysia and the Philippines serves as a good model from the North Natuna Sea, to the Sulu Sea and beyond, the American defense chief said.

The three countries launched joint maritime patrols in June 2017. Four months later, as the battle of Marawi was nearing its end, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and Manila began joint air patrols to bolster their coordinated maritime efforts. These were aimed at preventing cross-border movements of IS extremists to and from the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, among other common security concerns, officials from those countries said at the time.

Security analysts said the poorly-secured waterways separating Malaysia from the southern Philippines were a haven for pirates and militants, and may have been the route used by foreign fighters, including Malaysians and Indonesians, as they penetrated Mindanao and joined pro-IS militants in Marawi.

At least 1,200 people, mostly militants, were killed during five months of fighting in Marawi, according to Philippine military officials.

Chinese naval movements

Meanwhile, in developments related to territorial tensions in the South China Sea, satellite images provided by Planet Labs Inc. confirmed that a Chinese carrier group had entered the sea region as part of what the Chinese navy had earlier described as combat drills that were part of routine annual exercises, according to Reuters.

The sea is a vital waterway through which about U.S. $5 trillion in international trade passes annually. It was unclear where the flotilla was headed or how long operations would last, the report said.

China claims most of the mineral and resource-rich South China Sea, which is also claimed by Malaysia Brunei, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan.

Sullivans meeting with the Indonesian and Malaysian foreign ministers took place just days before April 1, when he is expected to step in as acting U.S. Secretary of State, following Rex Tillersons dismissal earlier this month.
Malaysian counter-terrorism officials lead Nor Azmi Zahyi out of the Kota Kinabalu High Court after he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for planning to join pro-Islamic State militants in the southern Philippines, March 28, 2018.

A court in eastern Malaysia sentenced two Indonesians and a Malaysian on Wednesday to 10 years in prison each after convicting them on charges of planning to commit terrorist acts in the nearby southern Philippines.

The Indonesians  Faisal (who uses only one name) and Ali Misron  were sentenced along with Malaysian Nor Azmi Zahyi after they pleaded guilty before Judge Ravinthran Paramaguru at the Kota Kinabalu High Court in Sabah state.

Faisal, 24, and Nor Azmi, 49, were arrested on June 15 last year in Sandakan, a local district that provides ferry services to the southern Philippines, authorities said, adding that Ali, 36, was arrested at the Sandakan airport later in the evening on the same day.

The trio was charged under Malaysias tough penal code and the court could have handed each of them a 30-year prison term, prosecutors said.

Nor Azmi changed his plea on Wednesday after having pled not guilty, while the two Indonesians pleaded guilty last month.

Prosecutors said the three had communicated through Facebook to meet at a mosque in central Sandakan before planning to move to Tawi-Tawi, an island-province in the southern Philippines.

From there, the three planned to travel up north and link up with pro-IS militants who were then locked in vicious fighting with Philippine security forces in Marawi city, investigators said.

Transit route

In February, Malaysian authorities said they had exposed plans by the Abu Sayyaf extremist group to set up a base in Sabah following the arrest of 10 people who had allegedly helped suspected militants travel to the groups base in the southern Philippines.

An ASG faction led by Isnilon Hapilon, the acknowledged IS leader in the Philippines, laid siege to Marawi for five months, engaging security forces in a battle that left 1,200 people dead, most of them militants, according to Philippine officials.

Authorities said they had uncovered the plans after multiple raids in the Malaysian state on Borneo island, from Jan. 25 to Feb. 6.

Sabah has long served as a transit route for foreign militants, including from neighboring Indonesia, Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay, chief of the Malaysian polices counter-terrorist special branch, said in January.

If they dont transit from Sabah, they can go to the southern Philippines directly from their home country, he said. But its a long journey over the Sulawesi Sea, so it is much easier to transit from Sabah.

Malaysian officials announced the sentencing of the three men a day after Foreign Minister Anifah Aman met U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan in Washington. The two diplomats agreed to strengthen ties in key security areas in light of a growing threat posed by the extremist group Islamic State (IS), U.S. State Department officials said.

As ISIS has lost territory in Syria and Iraq, the ISIS threat has evolved because battle-hardened veterans are attempting to return to their home countries or take the fight to other regions, including Southeast Asia, a U.S. State Department spokesman told BenarNews, referring to IS by another acronym.

Roni Toldanes in Washington contributed to this report.
Editor's Note : Pastor Roger Barrier's "Ask Roger" column regularly appears at Preach It, Teach It. Every week at Crosswalk, Dr. Barrier puts nearly 40 years of experience in the pastorate to work answering questions of doctrine or practice for laypeople, or giving advice on church leadership issues. Email him your questions at roger@preachitteachit.org.

Dear Roger,

Where did Jesus go for the three days and three nights after dying on the cross? Did He go to hell and take my sins? I shudder to think that would have happened. Being without His Father on the cross with my sins laid on Him is so painfully, I just can't comprehend He had to spend that time in hell to save me as well. Or did He spend this time in Heaven with God to get Him ready for the 40 days on earth? I have heard it explained both ways.

Sincerely,

Victor

Dear Victor,

No one knows for certain where Jesus was the entire time during the three days between His crucifixion and resurrection. We know for certain where he was part of the timein Paradise. But an enigmatic verse in 1 Peter about, preaching to the spirits in prison opens up other possibilities.

First, what we know for certain: Jesus spent time in Paradise.

Jesus was crucified between two criminals. One of them mocked him. The other one asked Jesus to include him in his kingdom.

One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults him: Arent you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!

But the other criminal rebuked him. Dont you fear God, he said, since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.

Then he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.

Jesus answered him, Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise (Luke 23:39-43).

Where and what was Paradise?

I believe that we can safely assume that the word Paradise refers to Heaven. However, since the word is used only three times in Scripture, need to take a closer look.

In Revelation 2:7, addressing the church at Ephesus, Jesus described Christians in Paradise as eating from the Tree Of Life. In context with the other church letters in Revelation 2-3, the Tree Of Life is obviously located in Heaven.

To the one who is victorious, will give the right to eat from the Tree Of Life, which is in the paradise of God.

In 2 Corinthians 12:1-4, Paul mentioned being taken up to the third heaven, which he identified as Paradise. The third was known as the place where God lived.

I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not knowGod knows. And I know that this man was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell.

So, we know that Jesus spent some time in Heaven during those three days.

However, Jesus also spent time with spirits in prison.

Second, now we speculate about Jesus preaching to the spirits in prison.

A rather enigmatic passage in 1 Peter 3:18-20 gives a confusing and convoluted insight:

"For Christ died for sins once for all... to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built..."

Preaching to "the spirits in prison" intimates that the people who died before the crucifixion (especially the people who lived in the days of Noah) were given a second chance to repent!

Another verse or two in the Bible corroborating and expounding upon Peters statement would be nice. But, since Peter is the only one who refers to this idea, I don't believe a definitive declaration is possible.

The earliest reference outside of the Bible regarding what Jesus might have been doing during those three days and nights was formulated in the 4th century A.D. when the Apostles' Creed was agreed upon by the church leaders. The Apostles' Creed attempted to simplify the basic truths of the Christian faith. I have shared below a copy of the Apostles' Creed so you can be aware of its existence. Notice the reference to "He descended into hell." This obviously comes from 1 Peter but leaves much to the imagination.

"I believe in God, the Father Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:

"Who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.

"He descended into hell.

"The third day He arose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.

"I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting."

By the way, thank you Victor, I have never heard the idea that Jesus spent the three days and nights in Heaven getting ready for His next assignment of 40 days on earth before His ascension.

By the way, if Peter truly means that some received a second chance then Hebrews 9:27-28 will need some explaining: "Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment..."

Incidentally, a careful reading of Romans 2 is interpreted by some to mean that Paul is describing the way to Heaven for people who die without ever hearing of the gospel of Christ.

The idea in Romans 2 seems to be that some will be judged according to how well they have lived up to the "Light" that they did have.

Finally, I grieved with you as you described your personal feelings about the suffering of Christ for our sins. The pain He suffered in that divine transaction is incomprehensible. While we grieve for Him, we also feel a deep-seated sense of gratitude for His work on the cross and for whatever else He was accomplishing during those three days.

Love, Roger

Dr. Roger Barrier retired as senior teaching pastor from Casas Church in Tucson, Arizona. In addition to being an author and sought-after conference speaker, Roger has mentored or taught thousands of pastors, missionaries, and Christian leaders worldwide. Casas Church, where Roger served throughout his thirty-five-year career, is a megachurch known for a well-integrated, multi-generational ministry. The value of including new generations is deeply ingrained throughout Casas to help the church move strongly right through the twenty-first century and beyond. Dr. Barrier holds degrees from Baylor University, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Golden Gate Seminary in Greek, religion, theology, and pastoral care. His popular book, Listening to the Voice of God, published by Bethany House, is in its second printing and is available in Thai and Portuguese. His latest work is, Got Guts? Get Godly! Pray the Prayer God Guarantees to Answer, from Xulon Press. Roger can be found blogging at Preach It, Teach It, the pastoral teaching site founded with his wife, Dr. Julie Barrier.

Publication date: March 23, 2017
by John Aloisi

Throughout church history professing believers have argued amongst themselves about all kinds of things. In retrospect, some of these debates have been key steps in hammering out the details of important theological issues. Other debates have been less than edifying. Many of the disagreements related to the date of Easter have fallen into this latter category.

People are often surprised when they discover that a series of significant and sometimes very bitter controversies have taken place over how to calculate the date of Easter. And as of [yet], the disagreement is still not fully resolved.

The controversy about when to celebrate Easter is usually described as taking place in four distinct phases. Space does not permit a discussion of each of these, but heres a glimpse of the earliest phase. Writing in the fourth century, Eusebius described the first stage of this controversy when he wrote,

At that time [the late second century], no small controversy erupted because all of the Asian dioceses thought that the Saviors paschal festival should be observed, according to ancient tradition, on the fourteenth day of the moon, on which the Jews had been commanded to sacrifice the lamb. On that day it was necessary to finish the fast, no matter what day of the week it might be. In churches throughout the rest of the world, however, it was not customary to celebrate in this way, since, according to apostolic tradition, they maintained the view that still prevails: the fast ends only on the day of our Saviors resurrection [Sunday]. Synods and conferences of bishops were held on this issue (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 5.23).

Eusebius also went on to tell of how Victor (bishop of Rome in the late second cent.) tried to excommunicate a large number of eastern churches for their practice of celebrating Christs resurrection on the 14th of Nisan. Needless to say, these were not some of the churchs brightest days.

Much more encouraging is the advice found in another early text. The Apostolic Constitutions is a document that was probably compiled in the late fourth century. Regardless of its exact origin, this document provides insight into how some early Christians celebrated the resurrection of Christ:

Break your fast when it is daybreak of the first day of the week, which is the Lords day. From the evening until the cock-crows, keep awake; assemble together in the church; watch and pray; entreat God. When you sit up all night, read the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalmsuntil cock-crowing. Baptize your catechumens and read the Gospel with fear and trembling. And speak to the people such things as will assist their salvation. And from that point on, leave off your fasting and rejoice! Keep a festival, for Jesus Christ, the pledge of our resurrection, is risen from the dead! (Apostolic Constitutions 5.19).

Regardless of how one calculates the date of Easter, this last statement expresses the heart of why Christians have celebrated Easter for many centuriesJesus Christ, the pledge of our resurrection, is risen from the dead! In celebrating Easter we celebrate the fact that Christ has conquered death and that just as God raised Christ from the dead, he will someday raise Christs followers as well (1 Corinthians 6:14).

Photo credit: GettyImages/Bychykhin_Olexandr
This is what everyday life is like in prison for the Catalan rebel

Since 3.10 on Sunday afternoon, the Catalan separatist leader, Carles Puigdemont, has been imprisoned in the JVA Neumunster (Correctional Facility Neumunster) in the north-German county of Schleswig-Holstein. Business flights and travelling in Europe are, for now, a thing of the past for him.

Instead, he has to sleep on a 90-centimetre-wide pallet, with a duvet in brown and white checks and a beige toilet that is only separated from the rest of the room by a curtain.

Everyday life in prison for the separatist leader

Mr. Puigdemont is woken up in the morning at 6.30 (at 7.00 on weekends). At this point, breakfast is also handed out, Oliver Breuer from the Ministry of Justice tells BILD.

 Between 8.00 and 9.00, he is on day parole. Between 9.00 and 10.30, he can freely move in the cell block.

 Lunch (changing every day) is at 12.00; dinner at 5.00pm.

 Between 7.30 and 8.00pm, the quiet hours begin (on weekends these already begin at 5.00pm). In the prison, this is called night-time lock-up.

How does he deal with this everyday life?

Auch Interessant



Given the circumstances, Mr. Puigdemont is feeling fine, and he is very cooperative. He eats, drinks, and participates in the institutions routines and the day parole, reports Breuer. Mr. Puigdemont doesnt want any special status and wants to be treated like everybody else.

In the prison, people in investigative custody are allowed to wear their own clothes  but the Catalan doesnt. He has decided to voluntarily wear institutional clothing.

His holding cell is approximately eight square metres. It contains a bed, a desk, a wardrobe, a TV and a toilet with a wash corner (sink, cup for toothbrush and toothpaste, and a soap holder).

Can the Catalan buy odds and ends in prison?

Mr. Puigdemont does not receive any allowance, says Breuer.

Visitors are allowed, however. The inmate must apply for a visitors permit. A ticket is then sent to the visitor which allows him or her to enter the facility for the visit. Every inmate in investigative custody can receive visitors for two hours per month. For defence lawyers and advocates, special regulations apply.

German version Rebell Puigdemont im Knast Zu Ostern kriegt er Milchreis und Hacksteak Barcelonas Separatisten-Chef Puigdemont sitzt in der JVA Neumunster. BILD erfuhr exklusiv, wie sein Ostermenu und sein Knast-Alltag aussieht.

Puigdemont is allowed to use Skype and the phone

It is possible for inmates to call people outside of the facility. However, an inmate may not be called from the outside.

The internet must not be used. However: Skyping is possible with a member of staffs mediation, says Breuer.

According to Breuer, there are several members of staff at JVA Neumunster who speak Spanish fluently. If none of these members of staff are available, we employ an interpreter. We can also communicate in English and French.

Church service takes place on Sundays between 10.00 and 10.45.

PS: Sind Sie bei Facebook? Werden Sie Fan von BILD.de-Politik!
Naturalase QS - A new and advanced technology to successfully treat tattoo removal and skin pigmentation launched

Change in the lifestyle and changing latest trends have increased the demand for tattoo removals and skin rejuvenation especially among youngsters in the recent times. To address this challenge, Lumenis India have launched a technology Naturalase QS for the first time in India.

Naturalase QS is new advanced highest energy Q-switched system in the world and is used for skin pigmentation & tattoo removal. Naturalase QS can successfully treat skin rejuvenation, tattoo removal (all colors), pigmented lesions, vascular lesions and hair removal with more energy and a better beam giving more accurate and better results.

The technology has been launched for the first time in India which is currently installed in Dr P.N Behl Skin Institute & School of Dermatology Hospital in New Delhi.

While the other laser treatments uses small spot sizes with high energy, which results in scarring and skin pigmentation changes, Naturalase QS offered deep penetration of the laser beam into the skin yet provide better protection to the top layer of the skin.

Dharmendra Mistry, Lumenis India & South Asia Country Head said With the launch of Naturalase QS in India, there is an opportunity for those who regret their ink. People who wish to join armed forces due to strict job codes faces lot of problems to get removal of tattoos. Resultant to that many government & army hospitals could not easily address the tattoo removal cases. We are happy to announce the new innovative effective technology for the first time in India which will benefit all our stakeholders. Naturalase QS uses high energy levels, short pulse durations and wide treatments, which is more effective, quicker, safe and most comfortable treatments with better results and higher customer satisfaction, The high energy, nano quick laser pulse reaches deep into the skin where it shatters the natural or ink pigments into particles small enough to be cleared by the bodys lymphatic system

Dr Vikas Kapoor, Skin Institute & School of Dermatology, Senior Consultant said Skin Institute is the first in the country to acquire Naturalase (Q-Switch laser). It is safe, effective, long lasting treatment for all skin problems. Naturalase is the latest technology to treat uneven skin tone, hyperpigmentation, freckles, tattoos and birth marks. This revolutionary service is a boon to dermatology. Naturalase is a powerful high energy Q-Switch laser. Confident of the results, The Skin Institute assures and offers the best at affordable prices.

Dr Poonam Sharma, Skin Institute & School of Dermatology, Senior Consultant said Naturalase QS is an effective treatment for tattoos removal, Nevus of OTA & laser toning. There is 10-15% improvement in skin tone and visible lightening of pigmentation with each sitting. There is less downtime with the laser which adds to the patient satisfaction.

Naturalase QS technology is also known as giant pulse formation, which is a technique in which a laser is made to produce a pulsed beam.

Naturalase QS offers four different wavelengths to effectively deal with a wide range of tattoo colors, on a wide range of skin types. Its four wavelengths- 1064nm, 532nm, 650nm & 585nm- target nine of the most frequently used tattoo colors ranging from light orange to dark black.
Everything You Need To Know About Vamana Dwadashi And Lord Vamana Faith Mysticism lekhaka-Subodini Menon

Vamana Dwadashi is observed on the 12th day of the Shukla Paksha in the month of Chaitra. It is believed that the fifth avatar of Lord Maha Vishnu was born on this day under the Shravan Nakshatra.

As per the scriptures, Lord Vamana is said to have been born in the area that is today known as Hardoi in Uttar Pradesh. He was born as the dwarf son of Sage Kashyapa and Mother Aditi. The goal of his birth was to end the era of King Maha Bali and to spread the knowledge of Dharma.

This day is considered to be very auspicious and is extremely holy for the followers of Lord Maha Vishnu. The devotees of Lord Vamana and Lord Maha Vishnu spend this day in prayers and fasting.

They strictly follow the rituals prescribed in the holy texts to please Lord Maha Vishnu and his fifth avatar. The faithful believe that the one who observes Vamana Dwadashi with full devotion is freed from all kinds of suffering. He attains salvation or Moksha.



The Muhurt of Vamana Dwadashi

The muhurt of Vamana Dwadashi starts at 09.25 and lasts until 10.25

Pooja Vidhi of Vamana Dwadashi

If you are observing the fast and pooja of Vamana Dwadashi, you may follow the instructions below.

 You must wake up early and finish your daily ablutions.

 Choose a clean area or clean your pooja room thoroughly.

 Face the East and spread a green cloth.

 Place an image or picture of Lord Vamana on it.

 Now, perform a dashopachar pooja. Dashopachar pooja is one in which there are ten 'upachars or ten steps. The steps you will need to follow are padya, ardhya, achaman, snana, vastra, gandha, pushpa, deepa and naivedya.

 If you do not have the means to do the above, you can just mentally offer these to the Lord Vamana. It is the thought and its sincerity that counts.

 The favourite things to offer are gaudhrit, sandalwood, tulsi leaves, red sandalwood and mosambi fruit. You can also offer sugar.

 Chant the following mantra using a rudraksha mala.

"Om Tapa Roopaya Vidmahe

Rishikartaya Dheemahi

Tanno Vamana Prachodayat"



Things that you can do to improve your life on Vamana Dwadashi

 To be free of diseases

Offer a pot of homey to the Lord Vamana. Receive it as the prasad. Consume a teaspoon of it every day to be free of physical distress and diseases.

 To be free of familial issues and troubles in relationships

Take a large lamp made out of bronze. Put in 12 wicks that face twelve directions. Light the lamb using ghee.

 To be successful in business or at work

Take a coconut and wrap some yagnopavit (sacred thread) around it. This coconut should be offered to Lord Vamana.

The Story Of Lord Vamana And King Maha Bali

 The Fifth Avatar

Lord Vamana was the fifth avatar of Lord Maha Vishnu. This avatar came in the Treta yuga and was taken to protect the realm of Gods and the throne of Indra.

 Lord Maha Vishnus First Human Avatar

The first three avatars of Lord Maha Vishnu were all in the form of animals - Matsya (fish), Kurma (Tortoise) and Varaha (Wild boar). The fourth avatar was in the form of Lord Narasimha, which was half lion and half human. Only in the fifth avatar did Lord Maha Vishnu appear in a human form albeit that of a Brahmin dwarf.

 King Maha Bali was the grandson of Prahalada

Prahalada was the reason that Lord Maha Vishnu took the Narasimha avatar. The same Prahalada had a son by the name of Virechana who in turn had a son named Bali. This Bali became the reason of Vamana Avatar.

 Maha Bali was a devotee of Lord Maha Vishnu

Like his grandfather, Maha Bali too was a great devotee of Lord Maha Vishnu. He was a wise man and was a scholar who had mastered the Vedas. The people loved him as he was a just ruler. He had brought peace and prosperity to his kingdom.

 Balis envy

Maha Bali, though a righteous man, became envious of Lord Indra. He wanted to be just as great as Indra. He did a great tapas to please Lord Brahma. Lord Brahma, in turn, blessed him with the boon that he could not be defeated in any battle and that he would be as powerful as Lord Indra.

 Escape of Indra

Armed with Lord Brahmas boon, Maha Bali headed toward the heaven. Lord Indra could not fight Bali, as Indra would be defeated as per Lord Brahmas blessings. Therefore, Indra escaped. The throne was handed over to Bali.

 Bali: The Lord of the three worlds

With the heaven under him, he became the one that ruled all the three worlds. This made the gods be scared for their safety and began to pray to Lord Maha Vishnu for help in defeating Maha Bali.

 The upset Aditi

Aditi is the mother of all Gods. When all her children had to flee the heaven, she became very upset. She went and asked her husband Kashyapa to avenge her. But as a sage, he was not very capable of doing what she had asked. He advised Aditi to pray to Lord Maha Vishnu and said he would help.

 Payo vrata

Payo vrata is a kind of fasting where the observer can only consume a little milk during the muhurt. This vow is said to be Lord Vamanas favorite and he fulfills everything that you wish for if you observe it correctly and with devotion Mother Aditi performed this pooja and received Lord Vamana as her gift.

 Lord Maha Vishnus blessings

Pleased with Mother Aditis worship, he granted her some boons.

Mother Aditi said that she wished that Lord Maha Vishnu be born as her son and that this son will prove to be the destruction of the King.

 Lord Vamana changed form when he had just been born

Soon after Lord Vamana, he changed into a dwarfy Brahman. He only had his loincloth and carried an umbrella in one of his hands and had a kamandalu in the other.

 Lord Vamanas demand

Once, King Maha Bali was performing a great yagna. He had vowed that he would not let a Brahmin go away empty handed. The Short Vamana approached the king. Maha Bali asked the Dwarf Brahmin what he wanted. He answered that he only needed 3 paces of land. Maha Bali agreed to it.

 Sage Shukra acharya's advice

The sage Sukracharyad told Bali that the boy was none other than the Lord Maha Vishnu himself. The sage told the King that it was a trap of some kind. But the King wouldnt listen.

 The 3 paces of Land

As Bali stood looking, the Vamana became huge in size. He placed the first feet on the heavens, the next foot landed on the earth, covering all of it. He then asked Bali a place to put his third step. Bali offered his head to place the Lords leg.

 Bali is sent into the underworld

Lord Maha Vishnu placed his leg on Balis head and thus pushed him into the underworld.
Brandons drinking water meets all provincial quality standards, with the exception of one  trihalomethane levels.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 28/3/2018 (1276 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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Brandons drinking water meets all provincial quality standards, with the exception of one  trihalomethane levels.

The 2017 Public Water Supply report states that "a number of steps have been taken to address this issue." As part of a master plan, consultants have reviewed the citys water system and identified the water plant upgrades necessary to meet this regulatory requirement.

The city has struggled with this issue since a THM benchmark was introduced in 2008.

A $60-million overhaul to the water treatment facility is in the works. Last year, Phase 1 was approved for funding through Infrastructure Canadas Clean Water and Wastewater Fund. The tri-level project will see the federal government provide 50 per cent of the cost ($1.6 million), while the province and municipality will each pay 25 per cent ($809,565). This step focuses on the planning and design of the upgrades.

Alexia Stangherlin, the citys director of utilities, said this process began last December.

Part of Phase 1 is an expansion to the chemical building, which Stangherlin said will consolidate chemicals into a single facility for safe handling and operation.

"It will include the replacement of our current disinfection system," she said. "We use chlorine gas, and well switch to a liquid form which is safer for operators and for the public that lives in the area of the water plant."

The chemical building construction is expected to begin this year.

Phase 2 would include new raw water intake and a new membrane treatment train, which will also be reliant on funding from all three levels of government.

"The new plant would incorporate membrane technology to remove the raw water organics, so when blended with the existing plant treated water, the combined water would meet provincial (THM) standards," states the report.

THMs are a byproduct that can form when chlorine is added to water with organic matter. Chlorine is the most common disinfectant added to drinking water, as it is very effective. It can react to organic matter  such as decaying plants and algae  in the water source which forms THMs and ends up in the distribution system.

The standard for THMs is to be less than or equal to 0.10 milligrams per litre. According to the Public Water Supply report, samples show Brandon levels ranging from 0.03 mg/litre to 0.12 mg/litre.

In the short term, the city is working on ways to mitigate THMs in the water system. Stangherlin explained that they blend the system with well water when possible, which helps to bring the organics down  a precursor to THM production.

"Once we do go through the upgrade and have that membrane system available  the level of organics drop, and THM production will drop as well," Stangherlin said. "Right now, its a bit of a balancing act, but in the future, much more easier to handle."

Water treatment plant manager Rob Smith noted they are also trying to reduce the amount of chlorine used at the plant.

"Weve developed a fairly aggressive flushing program throughout the distribution system in the city, so by keeping that cleaner, then we can actually cut down the amount of chlorine that we use leaving the plant, and then that should lower also the THMs," he said.

According to literature put out to the public by Manitoba Health and Manitoba Water Stewardship, there is not enough evidence to indicate that THMs cause cancer in people, but cancers have been detected in some studies in which mice and rats were exposed to high doses.

As a precautionary measure, drinking water guidelines are set to ensure a very low level of potential health risk over a typical lifetime of exposure (about 70 years). According to the province, short-term use of drinking water that exceeds the guidelines is unlikely to have an impact on human health.

When it comes to lead levels, Brandons water supply is within the provincial regulations. In 2013, a provincial study showed lead concentration was found to be higher than the standard in some homes built before 1950, due to lead service connections.

"The water we produce is well below the limit," Stangherlin said. "Lead becomes an issue at the tap, due to service connections and the corrosivity of the pipe itself."

The city continues to offer a water filterrebateprogram. It provides $100 to assist eligible property owners/occupants in the purchase of an NSF-certified water filter forleadremoval.

The report shows Brandons water supply meets all other provincial standards, including E. coli, benzene, fluoride, arsenic, among others.

Overall, both Stangherlin and Smith are proud of the water system in the Wheat City, and are looking forward to making it even better with the planned upgrades.

"People in Brandon dont really have to worry about the drinking water here," Smith said. "The staff that we have on at the water treatment plant are some of the best people Ive ever worked with, and they really take their jobs seriously. People in Brandon are lucky, they really dont have any concerns with their drinking water."

The city owns and operates its public water supply system and it is regulated by Manitoba Water Stewardship to produce potable water under the Drinking Water Safety Act. The city draws its source from the Assiniboine River. The rivers flow is controlled by the Shellmouth Dam located north of Russell.

 jaustin@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @jillianaustin
AIB has secured an additional 122 million in new SME funding as part of its partnership with the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland (SBCI).

The funding is part of a special Brexit Loan Scheme designed to provide support to businesses to address the challenges posed by Brexit.
Cork Airport has launched its 2018 summer schedule, with almost two million seats now available to over 40 destinations.

The airport is forecasting a 5% growth in passenger numbers over the summer months, compared to the same period last year.

The launch of the summer schedule comes as almost 100,000 people are expected to pass through Cork Airport during the Easter break.

Several summer routes kicked off last weekend, including Aer Lingus services to Barcelona and Faro, while Ryanairs Cork to Faro also commenced along with its Palma de Mallorca offering.

The 2018 summer schedule also sees the commencement of Air Frances new year-round daily Cork to Paris Charles de Gaulle route in May, linking the south of Ireland to the French capital.

More than doubling capacity on its Cork to Zurich service, SWISS will operate three flights per week while Iberia Express Cork to Madrid route will expand to twice weekly at the start of June.

Spanish carrier Volotea operates its Cork Verona route every Saturday (26 May to 6 October), with an additional flight on Wednesdays during peak season, commencing 27 June.

This is the first full summer season for Norwegians non-stop transatlantic flight to Boston Providence, providing Irish travellers easy access to popular holiday US destinations such as Marthas Vineyard, Cape Cod and Nantucket.

Aer Lingus adds an additional 8,000 seats to and from Cork this summer, expanding its Cork to Heathrow route as well as flying to popular holidays routes such as Malaga, Palma de Mallorca, Alicante, Tenerife, Faro, Rennes, Barcelona, Dusseldorf, Lanzarote and Gran Canaria.

Aer Lingus Regional, operated by Stobart Air, is also increasing its schedule, adding an additional 6% increase in seat capacity by extending its Newquay, Cornwall service.

Ryanairs routes include Portugal's famed Algarve through Faro, along with the French sun destinations of Carcassonne and Bordeaux; Spanish favourites of Girona, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Malaga, Reus, Tenerife and Palma; and the Italian hotspot of Milan.

Managing Director Niall MacCarthy said: Our focus is always to work with our existing and new airlines on how we can grow our route offerings. With the arrival of Air France this summer, along with additional capacity on 15 of our existing routes, there has never been more choice for holidaymakers choosing to fly out of Cork Airport.

- Digital Desk
Dell has been ranked as the 'Best Place to Work in Ireland' for the second year in a row.

Apple comes second followed by homecare agency Comfort Keepers, according to a survey by Indeed.

The Irish Defence forces has made the top ten for the first time coming in at number 6.

The retail industry featured heavily in the top 25 companies, with high street names like Next, Boots, Debenhams, Penneys, Brown Thomas and Marks & Spencer all on the list.

The food and drink industry was also strongly represented by the likes of Supervalu, McDonalds, Spar and Centra.

Welcoming the announcement today Aongus Hegarty, President, Dell EMC EMEA says: We are delighted that our employees continue to rate Dell so highly and are immensely proud that Dell is being recognised as the best company to work for in Ireland by Indeed for a second consecutive year.

"Our teams located on campuses in Limerick, Cork and Dublin have been vital to delivering transformation solutions for customers across EMEA.

"For us as a company having highly engaged, motivated staff is a vital element of our continued success.

According to Paul Wolfe, Senior Vice President of Human Resources at global job site, Indeed, people are looking for more than remuneration when it comes to their careers.

"Attraction of staff - let alone their continued retention - demands investment in work-life balance, flexibility, a supportive and collaborative working environment and opportunities to progress and learn, and this is evident in the companies we have ranked today.

While attractive perks and flexible working conditions are often associated with the arrival of US tech names in the Irish market, this years rankings show that investment in people is being prioritised right across a range of sectors, from retail to technology and from healthcare to hospitality.

Read the full list of companies here.

Digital Desk
By Gordon Deegan

The developers of a planned 343 unit aparthotel on the site of a Keelings owned fresh fruit and veg distribution depot in Dublin are facing a couple of potential banana skins over the plan.

LMS Investments is intending that apart-hotel firm, Staycity operate the planned seven-story apart-hotel at Dublins Little Mary Street.

The site is owned by fruit and veg distributors and producers, Keelings and director, William Keeling has provided his written consent for the plans to be lodged.

A report lodged with the application states that the aparthotel will be operated by Staycity.

The documentation states that Staycity was established in Dublin in 2004 and currently operates 2,000 rooms in Ireland, the UK and France with plans to increase the number to 5,000.

The report states that the application will regenerate an inner-city, under-utilised brownfield site with a modern aparthotel development.

The report states that the plan present a major opportunity to provide a catalyst and dynamic for the regeneration and redevelopment of the Markets area.

However, the potential for human remains on the site of the planned seven storey apart hotel has placed a question mark over the development.

A City Council archaeologist report found that given that the site is located near to a medieval abbey and that human remains were found nearby, "I consider that it to have high potential for in situ structural remains of medieval date and for burials.

As a result of the potential for human remains on the site of the planned apart-hotel on, the city Council has ordered the omission of the basement of the development and further archaeological work to be carried out to search for the potential human remains.

However, the applicants, LMS Investments have appealed the two conditions attached to the permission to An Bord Pleanala.

Consultants for LMS state that conditions attached to the permission create onerous precedent, giving rise to a disincentive to regenerate this inner city area that has lagged behind other areas.

However, objector, Sean Harringtons Architects has appealed against the decision to grant planning permission.

An appeal lodged on behalf of Mr Harrington and others claims that the planned development does not contribute to the creation of safe and comfortable streets and would exacerbate the poor urban quality and public safety concerns presented by the existing urban environment of Anglesea Row.

The appeal adds that the proposal would result in an unacceptable level of adverse effect of established uses of adjacent properties.

A decision is due in July.
By Pat Flynn and Geoff Percival

A Toronto-listed mineral exploration company has confirmed plans for a major drilling programme in Co Clare.

Hannan Metals plans to test geological, seismic and soil targets on its Kilbricken zinc-lead-silver prospect near Ennis as well as other prospects in the groups extensive licence area in the county.

The companys Clare project consists of seven prospecting licences and two licence applications for a total of 32,223 hectares.

The programme, which is currently being finalised, will involve 20,000 metres of drilling and is a major expansion of the company's exploration.

Hannan's immediate focus is on expanding the Kilbricken resource and testing seven significant geochemical targets within a 12km previously untested trend within the licence area.

The work follows a successful 2017 programme when a maiden resource estimate of 4.4 million tonnes at 8.6% zinc equivalent at Kilbricken was established.

Meanwhile, shares in Irish onshore exploration company Falcon Oil and Gas rose by nearly 10%, before paring back, on rising expectations that a temporary drilling ban in Australia may be lifted next month.

Falcon owns a 30% stake in the much-hyped Beetaloo Basin shale gas field in Australia's Northern Territory, where there has been a halt on fracking - or hydraulic fracturing - methods in onshore drilling for the past 15 months.

The final findings of an independent report, published yesterday, have stuck with its initial thoughts - namely, that while risks remain, they can be reduced if recommendations are implemented. These include increased transparency and better regulation, the implementation of new technologies and top engineering standards and the completion of a strategic regional environmental and baseline assessment (SREBA).

"It is the panel's opinion that, provided that all of the recommendations made in this report are adopted and implemented in their entirety, not only should the risks associated with an onshore shale gas industry be minimised to an acceptable level, in some instances, they can be avoided altogether," the report said.

The report was commissioned by the local government, which has already said it will act in accordance with its findings. Thus, while the government still has to formally lift the moratorium it is expected to do so in April.
Lord Mayor of Dublin Micheal Mac Donncha was in Belfast today to meet The Lord Mayor of Belfast Cllr. Nuala McAllister where they agreed to closer co-operation between the two cities and along the economic corridor between them.

The two Lord Mayors recalled the Memorandum of Understanding signed by their two predecessors in 2014, that aimed to maximise the potential of the economic corridor between both cities. In a joint statement they said:
By Anna Molin

Swedish fashion retailer H&M, the worlds No 2 clothes retailer which has over 20 Irish outlets, said it is increasing markdowns after accumulating a record pile of unsold garments worth more than 3.2bn.

Operating profit fell 62% to the lowest level in more than a decade as clearance sales failed to reduce piles of T-shirts and jeans that customers had passed over.

The shares slumped to the lowest level since 2005.

H&Ms already-downbeat forecast for the start of 2018 was exacerbated by unseasonably warm European weather followed by Februarys cold snap, whipsawing the clothing retail industry.

That forced the company to slash prices even more.

Chief executive Karl-Johan Persson said it made mistakes by narrowing its assortment last year, though he expects sales to improve.

He said H&M plans to reduce markdowns in the second half, also helped by a weaker dollar which will reduce garment costs. The retailer aims to reduce inventory to 12% to 14% of sales in 2019. Stock-in-trade rose to 18% of sales in the first quarter.

H&M said most of that is spring garments, though a small portion is older than 12 months. We havent improved fast enough, said the 43-year-old scion of the billionaire Persson family. Were working hard to fix that, he said.

The retailer is starting a new brand called Afound to sell clothes from various brands including H&M at a discount, and its adding three automated logistics centers this year to speed up deliveries.

Last month, H&M forecast sales in comparable stores to drop this year before returning to growth in fiscal 2019.

And Mr Persson reiterated H&Ms forecast for some improvement in operating profit this year. Analysts expect a 7% drop.

The next 12-18 months will be challenging, wrote Alvira Rao at Barclays.

H&M said its maintaining its targets for sales growth of at least 25% from e-commerce and new businesses this year, even though it missed that rate in the first quarter. Online sales rose 20% while revenue from new businesses gained 15%.

H&M might have e-commerce in place in all its markets by 2020. This month, the retailer began online sales in India and launched H&M on Alibabas Tmall service in China.

- Bloomberg and Irish Examiner
Baltimore RNLI was launched earlier today to carry out a medical evacuation from Sherkin Island.

The volunteer lifeboat crew launched their all-weather lifeboat following a request from the Irish Coast Guard at 1.39pm to provide medical assistance and evacuation to a man with suspected abdominal injuries following a fall on Sherkin Island off the coast of West Cork.

The volunteer lifeboat crew arrived on scene at 1.45pm and transferred the casualty to the all-weather lifeboat.

The lifeboat returned to Baltimore lifeboat station arriving at 2.01pm where it was met by two HSE paramedics who treated the casualty whilst they waited for the HSE ambulance to arrive.

Weather conditions were good at the time with a south-westerly force 4-5 wind and calm sea conditions within the harbour.

There were seven volunteer crew onboard the lifeboat, Coxswain Kieran Cotter, Mechanic Cathal Cottrell and crew members Jerry Smith, Brendan Cottrell, Micheal Cottrell, David Ryan and Aidan Bushe. Providing assistance at the lifeboat station was Don ODonovan.

Speaking following the call out, Kate Callanan, Baltimore RNLI Volunteer Lifeboat Press Officer said: Medical evacuations from the islands off the Cork coast are a vital service carried out by the lifeboat crew for our communities.

"Thankfully conditions today were good and the crew were able to reach the casualty quickly and transfer him to Baltimore to be taken into the care of the HSE.

"We hope the injured man makes a full recovery."

- Digital desk
Update 7.55am: An Irish diplomat is expected to be thrown out of Russia in retaliation for the expulsion of one of their officials here.

The Tanaiste confirmed the move yesterday as a mark of solidarity with the UK who's holding Moscow responsible for poisoning a former spy and his daughter.

Sergei and Yulia Skripal were attacked with a nerve agent in Salisbury earlier this month.

But Russia Today journalist Bryan Mc Donald says it is still an unproven allegation: "I can tell you for sure, Russia will expel an Irish diplomat as a consequence and that will happen in the next couple of days.

"What the Russians see as the British overreaction or wrongful reaction contributed to consolidating support among Russians who feel their country is being victimised."

Earlier: Coveney dismisses criticism over expelling of Russian diplomat

The Tanaiste says he could not support Ireland "sitting on its hands" over the Salisbury nerve agent attack.

The government has announced one Russian diplomat will be expelled, following similar moves from the UK, US and some European countries.

Simon Coveney has dismissed suggestions the decision undermines our neutrality - and says Ireland had to act.

"Russia has offered several alternative and varying narratives of the events in Salisbury and has posed a number of rhetorical questions and to put it mildly none of them offers a plausible alternative explanation," said Mr Coveney.

"I think the idea that 16 other member states in the European Union would act and that Ireland would sit on its hands is not something that I was willing to support."

Digital Desk
By Gordon Deegan

A judge has dismissed an assault case against an African-born taxi driver after Gardai failed to take a DNA sample of the alleged spit at the scene.

At Ennis District Court, Judge Patrick Durcan dismissed the charge against Francis Okeyenbulor (aged 52) of Dun na hInse, Ennis, who was charged with assaulting another taxi driver, Michael OConnor by spitting at him at a taxi rank in Ennis last March.

Judge Durcan said that he was dismissing the case as Gardai had failed to take a swab of the spit on the drivers window of Mr OConnors taxi for DNA analysis and had failed to put the issue of the spit on the window to Mr Okeyenbulor at the scene.

Solicitor for Mr Okeyenbulor, Tara Godfrey, said that we dont know what was on Mr OConnors window - it could have been bird poo from a few days ago or his own spit. To take a swab of a dribble from the window should have been done by the Gardai and that could have exonerated my client.

Ms Godfrey said: My client is an innocent man, a businessman who has had a serious accusation made against him. He absolutely denies it and is very hurt that the spit allegation has been made against him.

Judge Durcan made his ruling after an application from Ms Godfrey to have the case dismissed due to the Garda failure to take the DNA sample and ask Mr Okeyenbulor at the scene about the spit.

In the case, Mr OConnor said that Mr Okeyenbulor spat at him when coming up to his car on the taxi rank in Ennis on March 12, 2017.

Mr OConnor admitted that after some of the spit landed on his face and some on his window, he called Mr Okeyenbulor a black bastard.

Mr OConnor said that before Mr Okeyenbulor spat at him he was shouting abuse at me and that I was an angry man and I should jump off the Cliffs of Moher.

Ms Godfrey said that her client strenuously denies that he ever spat at Mr OConnor or made comments that Mr OConnor should jump off the Cliffs of Moher.

In response, Mr OConnor said: I wouldn't have wasted Garda time over a verbal altercation but when somebody spits on you, it is disgusting.

In a statement to Gardai, Mr Okeyenbulor denied spitting on Mr OConnor.

He said that he approached Mr OConnor because the previous night Mr OConnor told him that he should learn how to drive in this country, that the whole lot of us dont know how to drive and go to the country we came from.

Mr OConnor denied this and said that he never had words with Mr Okeyenbulor before the incident on March 12.

In his interview with Gardai read out in court, Mr Okeyenbulor said: There is a lot of tension going on in the taxi industry in Co Clare."

He told Gardai in an interview: A lot of coloured drivers have reported incidents of intimidation, bullying, racial abuse to the Gardai on several occasions without any meaningful action being taken.

He added: Because of that, some bunch of Irish taxi drivers have decided to always bully, racially insult the non-Irish taxi-drivers to the extent that the non-Irish taxi drivers find it difficult to report such behaviour.

In evidence, Garda Niall Cosgrove said that he arrived at the scene on the night and Mr OConnor was clearly shaking and upset over what had happened.

Garda Cosgrove said that Mr OConnor showed us the remainder of the spit and I took two photos of it.

Garda Cosgrove said that there were no independent witnesses or CCTV or forensic evidence in the case.

Garda Cosgrove handed the photos in to court. Garda Cosgrove said that Mr Okeyenbulor said that Mr OConnor called him a nigger and a black bastard.

In response, Mr OConnor denied calling Mr Okeyenbulor a nigger and stated: I just called him a black bastard after he spat at me. I was in shock after someone came up to my car to tell me jump off the Cliffs of Moher and then spit at me.
Update 5.09pm: The date for the abortion referendum has been set for Friday, May 25.

The abortion referendum Bill was passed in the Seanad this afternoon.

Health Minister Simon Harris announced the widely anticipated date. Polls will open at 7am and close at 10pm.

Government sets the date for the abortion referendum | https://t.co/FQaeQRxCKv pic.twitter.com/1KBVX5QZ49  RTE News (@rtenews) March 28, 2018

Citizens will be asked whether they want to replace the Eighth Amendment, which gives the mother and unborn an equal right to life, with wording that hands responsibility for setting Ireland's abortion laws to TDs.

If the public votes to repeal the constitutional provision, the Government intends to table legislation that would permit women to abort within 12 weeks of pregnancy.

There has been a broad welcome from both sides of the debate for the announcement of the date for the abortion referendum.

Together for Yes, the national civil society campaign to remove the 8th Amendment, said: "May 25th is our chance to repeal the harmful 8th amendment once and for all."

Ailbhe Smyth, Co-Director of the group, said: "It is the day when we can stand up as a nation and say we want women to be able to make personal, private decisions about their pregnancies with the support of their doctors and families at home.

"It is the day when we say we want to create a compassionate, supportive environment for women in Ireland who need to access abortion services.

"It is the day when we decide we will care for and protect women who are vulnerable - because sometimes a private matter deserves public support."

Liam Herrick, Director of Irish Council of Civil Liberties, and one of the speakers at a Together For Yes launch in Cork this evening, said: "ICCL opposed the 8th Amendment in 1983, along with many lawyers and the Attorney General of the time, because we believed the Amendment would bring legal uncertainty and cause harm to women.

"Over the years we have been proven right in those fears. We have seen how the 8th Amendment has failed to provide clarity for the medical profession.

"We have also seen how the Amendment has caused a wide range of human rights violations, as has been consistently found by international human rights bodies."

Mary Favier, a GP in Cork, said the amendment also puts doctors at risk.

Ms Favier said: "As doctors, we want to support our patients in every way we can. But currently the 8th Amendment ties our hands. It is harmful to women who cannot access the care and support they need.

"And it is harmful to us as doctors because we cannot prioritise the health of our patients. We are campaigning together for a yes vote because we believe people want to see a more compassionate Ireland that respects and protects a woman at a time of greatest need."

The Pro Life Campaign has said that the public is entitled to "a fact-based debate where the reality of what repeal would inevitably lead to is discussed openly and honestly".

Dr Ruth Cullen of the Pro Life Campaign said: "The pro-life movement has been ready for todays announcement and is mobilised countrywide like never before. The political chaos at Cabinet in the past few days has brought home to many people just how poorly thought out the Governments proposals are, in particular, the suggestion that there would be no way of restricting abortion if repeal happened.

"It has now been confirmed that this is just not possible.

"As a movement, we are united behind one goal of ensuring that mothers and their unborn babies continue to be fully protected in law. The only way to ensure this happens is to Vote No on 25th May."

Update 4.31pm: Seanad passes abortion referendum Bill

The abortion referendum Bill has passed in the Seanad, meaning that a vote on the 8th amendment will happen this year.

Ministers are expected to confirm the date for the referendum within the next hour.

The Seanad voted 40-10 in favour of allowing a referendum.

Update 2.20pm: Former Tanaiste Michael McDowell argues in favour of repeal as abortion bill reaches final stages

The final stages of the abortion referendum bill is being debated in the Seanad this afternoon.

If they approve it later, a vote on the future of the Eighth amendment will be formally confirmed, with May 25th the likely polling day.

Senator and former Tanaiste Michael McDowell spoke this afternoon in support of repealing the Eighth amendment during the final round of debate this afternoon.

"The issue here is not whether a fertilised ovum in a petri dish in an in vitro fertilisation clinic is a human life.

"In one sense it is, in the same sense that an acorn is tree life in one sense but an acorn is not a tree and likewise a fertilised ovum is not a person, a human person."

Michael McDowell

Earlier: Tanaiste denies doing U-turn on abortion

Update 10.30am: Simon Coveney has been accused of a flip-flop by pro-life campaigners following his decision to back unrestricted terminations up to 12 weeks into pregnancy after initial reservations.

The Tanaiste says he makes no apologies for thinking through the issue in as much detail as he has.

He also claims his concerns are reflected by many others around the country.

Yesterday, Cabinet approved the draft laws they would try to bring in IF the 8th Amendment is repealed.

Minister Coveney says they have allayed his fears: "I don't categorise it as a U-turn at all.

"I couldn't support the 12 weeks proposal unless it was accompanied with what we have got yesterday from the Minister for Health which is a very strict and detailed protocol which involves a lot more time for consideration."

Mr Coveney also suggested that the referendum on abortion could be held earlier than the probable date of May 25.

"Once the legislation passes through the Seanad we will be able to announce a date at that stage," he said.

"There are two possible dates that we're looking at towards the end of May, not necessarily the last Friday, it could be the second last Friday."

Earlier: Attorney General to consider giving future abortion laws special status

The Attorney General has been asked to look at ways to make sure, if abortion laws are ever re-visited in the future, they would get more scrutiny than regular legislation.

The move is being seen as a way to address concerns raised by Tanaiste Simon Coveney.

Just finished in Seanad Eireann for the evening where Senators have voted to pass Second Stage of the Referendum Bill. Back tomorrow at Committee & Remaining Stages. If Seanad pass these tomorrow, we can then set the polling date & Referendum Commission can begin its public work  Simon Harris TD (@SimonHarrisTD) March 27, 2018

Yesterday, Simon Coveney went into cabinet asking that if any new abortion laws were to come in, it would require two thirds of the Oireachtas to vote in favour of changing them again.

But he was quickly, and publicly, shot down by the Taoiseach.

"The Attorney General advised me that it would be contrary to Article 15 of the Constitution to and therefore could not be included in this legislation and therefore will not be," said Mr Varadkar.

But playing to his Coveney's concerns the Attorney General has been asked to see if there is a way of giving future abortion laws special status, according to Simon Harris: "To look and see if there is a way of outlining if the Irish people are or the Irish people's representatives wished to revisit elements of this in the future that there would be a process in place that would be above and beyond that of changing a regular law."

The government yesterday approved the heads of bill of the legislation they will try to bring in if the Eighth is repealed.

The Seanad will likely approve the referendum bill later, meaning we should know when polling day will be by tomorrow.

Digital Desk
Update 1.15pm: The Board of Trinity College Dublin (TCD) has come to an agreement with the Students' Union that means there will be no fee charged for supplemental examinations.

TCD has agreed with the Students' Union proposal to return to the status quo regarding modular billing and fees for taking supplemental assessments.

#TakeBackTrinity has won! Supplemental Fees have been scrapped! Students celebrate outside House 1 where the decision by College Board was made. pic.twitter.com/6UGAPdDs3B  TCD Students' Union  (@tcdsu) March 28, 2018

A committee of students and College officers will now examine alternatives to the proposal and are due to report back in a year's time.

This morning, the Board also agreed to give 'fee certainty' to postgraduate students and other students who pay full fees at undergraduate level.

This means that students who enter Trinity will know in advance how much fees will increase during each year of his or her studies.

The decisions were made on foot of proposals put to the Board by the President of the Students' Union and the Graduate Students' Union with the agreement of the Provost, following a week of discussion between College Officers and student representatives.

"i undertook that we would seriously consider alternative proposals, and we have done so," said Provost, Dr Patrick Prendergast.

"I look forward to continuing the dialogue with student representatives to find a solution to the issues confronting Irish higher education, taking account of both fairness to all students and the College's financial position.

"I would like to thank everyone who has contributed so far."

Earlier: Students rally to protest Trinity College fees for repeating exams

Students at Trinity College, Dublin, are protesting against the university's decision to introduce fees for repeat exams.

The College Board are currently meeting to decide whether to revoke their decision to introduce the 450 charge.

'Take Back Trinity' campaigners say they are no longer willing to stand by and watch the commodification of their education.

A silent protest got underway earlier, while large numbers are expected to join a further rally around now.
A bill calling for same-sex marriage to be legalised in the North has passed its first stage in Britain's House of Lords.

The formal first reading of the private member's bill was brief and was not accompanied by a debate.
A team of researchers are looking for recruits to take part in a new study that hopes to identify early indicators of dementia.

Trinity College Dublin are looking for 100 people to participate in tests.
The Pat Kenny Show will cover a number of contentious issues on the programme tonight.

Today's verdict from the Belfast rape trial verdict, as well as a segment on whether gay conversion courses should be banned in Ireland, will be discussed.

Pat will be speaking about trial with columnist Brenda Power, solicitor Michael Finucane, courts correspondent Frank Greaney and Noeline Blackwell of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre.

The trial has dominated the news headlines for weeks and Pat will be talking about the fallout from the verdict, what may happen next for all its participants and the role of media and social media in the trial.

Also on tonights show, Pat will be talking to Sinn Fein Senator Fintan Warfield who is bringing forward a bill prohibiting so-called gay conversion therapy in Ireland, as well as Dr Mike Davidson  a man who describes himself as ex-gay. He runs a controversial faith-based counselling service called Core Issues Trust which claims that human sexuality is fluid and can be changed with counselling.

Dr Davidson has previously said,

There are some people who have tried gay; it doesnt work for them. Its not mixing with their life circumstances. They want to move out of it. They deserve to receive professional help that is well trained, well regulated and ethical. Thats what we are trying to achieve.

The Pat Kenny Show airs on TV3 on Wednesday nights at 10pm.

- Digital Desk
A 91-year-old man suffered "horrific injuries" when he was robbed at his home for a shopping bag of food, a London court has heard.

Michael Parker, 56, pushed Frederick Rymell from behind, then punched him in the face before making off with goods worth around 100 in west London.

The victim was left at his front door with bruises to his eye, face and right arm as well as bleeding under the skin.

Prosecutor Ruxana Nasser said they were "horrific injuries for a man of that age" adding that he was left "terribly shaken" and feeling "extremely vulnerable".

In a victim impact statement, Mr Rymell said:

The incident has frightened me. I'm surprised someone can even do that to me, or anybody.

Parker, who has a string of convictions dating back to 1978, pleaded guilty to a single count of robbery on February 27 this year at Isleworth Crown Court on Wednesday.

Judge Robin Johnson adjourned sentencing to April 25, warning Parker to "expect a very substantial prison sentence".

He said: "Bearing in mind the age of the victim and the shocking circumstances of this offence, I feel it is in the interest of justice for him (Parker) to be assessed for dangerousness."

The court heard said the victim had just returned home from shopping in Hayes, west London, when Parker struck.

"He opened his front door, he carried his shopping inside," said the prosecutor.

"He has just gone inside the house, he was then pushed from behind by Parker."

The court heard Parker demanded: "Where's the money, where's your purse?"

"Mr Rymell has then been punched in the eye by the defendant, who took one of Mr Rymell's khaki shopping bags full of food - the shopping was 100," said Ms Nasser.

- PA
Delays faced by firefighters responding to the Manchester Arena terror attack were "not key" to whether or not people received treatment, a minister has said.

Ben Wallace praised the speed of the response from police, paramedics and ambulance crews while also acknowledging it was "regretful" that the fire service were not there quicker.

The Home Office minister's remarks came after the Government faced calls in the Commons to answer questions about the "serious failing" of the fire service on the night of the attack on May 22 2017.

Suicide bomber Salman Abedi detonated his home-made device in the foyer of Manchester Arena as 14,000 people streamed out at the end of an Ariana Grande concert, killing 22 people and injuring scores more.

A report by Lord Bob Kerslake into the emergency response to the attack found poor communications between the police and fire service meant the "valuable" assistance of fire crews was delayed by two hours and six minutes after the bombing.

Dawn Docx, the interim chief fire officer of Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, has since apologised while Mark Rowe, north-west secretary of the Fire Brigade Union, said firefighters felt "ashamed" that they could not help victims more quickly.

He told BBC Breakfast that crews were "waiting to be deployed" after the bombing, some of them so close that they had heard the explosion, but "the order never came down from the top".

Conservative frontbencher Mr Wallace, replying to questions, told the Commons: "Within one minute of that explosion, targeted amongst women and children, police, British Transport Police were there, PCSOs were there, paramedics were there and within 12 minutes ambulances were there on the scene.

It is, of course, regretful that the fire service was not there, but that was not key to whether or not people were getting the treatment they were being given.

"The other blue light emergency services did a fantastic job."

He went on: "The biggest point of this report and all terrorist actions is often we start with a point of not knowing what it is.

"All members of this House will remember the day on Westminster Bridge when we were locked in offices, shut off from one to the other, because we didn't know whether it was firearms, a bomb, another person in the House or not.

"That is the biggest challenge our blue light services face, is it a single explosion?

"And I'd reflect on this, if unfortunately we had broken with lots of protocols and there had been a second device, and there's lots of evidence of second devices and second attacks that these people do, I'd hate to have been standing here for another reason saying we exposed our emergency services to too much danger because we rushed in.

"It's a very difficult balance to make, I think they made that balance the right call on the night."

Manchester Arena attack bomber Salman Abedi.

Lucy Powell, Labour MP for Manchester Central, earlier said there are "clear lessons" for Greater Manchester and the fire service, which are being acted upon and have all been accepted.

She said: "There are also questions for the Government, first the report makes clear that the national protocols in relation to the terrorist incident failed to recognise that every incident is different, flexibility and judgment is needed.

Indeed had those in charge on the night not broken protocol we would be facing more challenging questions, in part this explains the serious failing of the fire service.

Ms Powell also called for a fund to help future victims of such attacks.

Mr Wallace acknowledged that on the night "one or two individuals were too rigid to the definition" of how emergency services should respond to a terror attack.

Addressing the issue of a victims fund, Mr Wallace said the Government had put 1 million towards the We Love Manchester fund.

- PA
The policeman who died in last week's extremist attack in southern France is being honoured in an elaborate, daylong national homage led by French President Emmanuel Macron.

It comes as questions are being raised about possible failures in French counter-terrorism tracking of the gunman, who was on a radicalisation watch list before he went on a rampage last Friday.

The coffin of Lieutenant Colonel Arnaud Beltrame was carried in procession in the Wednesday morning drizzle from the Pantheon across Paris to the Hotel des Invalides, the final resting place of Napoleon.

Lieutenant Colonel Arnaud Beltrame.

The French president will deliver a public eulogy in front of colleagues and family of Mr Beltrame, who died of his wounds on Saturday morning, hours after swapping himself for a hostage during a siege in a supermarket.

During the ceremony, Mr Macron will posthumously award Mr Beltrame the Legion of Honour, France's highest award.

Three former presidents, Francois Hollande, Nicolas Sarkozy and Valery Giscard d'Estaing, are also attending in a symbol of the political dimension this ceremony has taken.

The national homage includes a minute's silence in French police stations and myriad events in schools that both honour Mr Beltrame's memory and provide a focal point for national grief after last Friday's killing spree.

Some 2,000 high school students and scores of police attended the Paris event that began as gendarmes sang the French revolutionary anthem the Marseillaise in the stone courtyard of the French Interior Ministry.

The ministry's boss, Gerard Collomb, maintained on Wednesday morning that there were no "dysfunctions" in tracking Mr Beltrame's killer, Redouane Lakdim, who also killed three other people before he was shot dead by police.

Speaking on France Inter, amid questions on possible failures in counter-terrorism tracking, Mr Collomb confirmed the security services were about to reduce the surveillance on Lakdim, who was on a radicalisation watch list.

He said "ultimately no one thought that there would be a hasty attack" by Lakdim, a Moroccan-born French resident with dual nationality.

Questions have been also raised by authorities in Morocco.

Lieutenant Colonel Arnaud Beltrame

The chief of a counter-terrorism agency, known as Morocco's FBI, said on Tuesday that France never alerted his country about Lakdim's radical behaviour - calling the absence of contact "a misunderstanding".

Since the attack, the agency - created three years ago to consolidate counter-terrorism efforts - has been investigating Lakdim's family members in Morocco, Abdelhak Khiame told The Associated Press

Lakdim visited Morocco several times, most recently in February 2012, before the establishment of the Islamic State, Mr Khiame added.

- PA
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have given 930 million dollars (577.34m) to US humanitarian efforts in Yemen.

The nations made the pledge yesterday, as a war between a Saudi-led military coalition and Yemen's Shiite rebels enters its fourth year.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman presented the previously pledged donation to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as the two discussed Yemen.

The Arab world's poorest country is in the grips of a stalemated war and what the UN calls the worst humanitarian crisis, with 22 million people needing aid.

Mr Guterres thanked Prince Mohammed for the contribution, which covers nearly a third of the total the UN is seeking for Yemen humanitarian aid this year.

"On the other hand, we know that there is no humanitarian solution for humanitarian problems," Mr Guterres added.

The solution is political, and we are entirely at your disposal to work together to find a political solution when that becomes possible.

The UN said Mr Guterres and the prince also discussed protecting civilians and needs for humanitarian access and open ports.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir called the meeting "very productive and comprehensive".

He said the two talked about avoiding foreign intervention in Yemen, particularly from Iran.

Western countries and UN researchers have accused Iran of supplying arms to the Yemeni rebels, known as Houthis. Iran denies it, though a growing body of evidence contradicts the claim.

The US provides logistical support and weaponry to the Saudi-led coalition, which has been criticised for airstrikes that kill civilians and for a port blockade that brought Yemen to the edge of famine.

The Houthis and their allies seized Yemen's capital, Sanaa, in September 2014. The war began six months later, with the coalition backing Yemen's internationally recognised government.

Over 10,000 people have been killed.

On Sunday, the rebels fired a barrage of ballistic missiles targeting Saudi Arabia. Fragments of one missile that went over Riyadh, the Saudi capital, killing one person and wounding two.

- PA
A white woman in South Africa has been sentenced to prison for a racist rant against a black police officer who was trying to help her after a robbery.

Vicki Momberg was given a three-year sentence, though one year was suspended on condition that she does not repeat the crime.
The niece of poisoned spy Sergei Skripal has said her uncle and cousin have only a slim chance of surviving.

Viktoria Skripal said the prognosis for the former Russian double agent and his daughter Yulia "really isn't good", as the pair remain in a critical condition following the Novichok attack in Salisbury on March 4.

She also revealed that Mr Skripal's mother had not been told of the incident.

She told the BBC: "Out of 99% I have maybe 1% of hope. Whatever it was has given them a very small chance of survival. But they're going to be invalids for the rest of their lives."

She added: "The first priority was to protect our granny so that she wouldn't hear or find out anything."

Her comments came as countries across the world joined the UK in diplomatic action against Russia, which has been blamed for the attack.

British Prime Minister Theresa May hailed the "unprecedented series of expulsions" of Russian diplomats, which she said sent a strong message to Moscow that it could not ignore international law.

The Russian Embassy in the UK said Ms May had still not presented evidence that the country was responsible for the poisonings, adding that "no-one in the wider world would take British words for granted".

It also responded to claims by officials that more than 20 different stories had come out of Moscow since the attack to "try and confuse the picture".

A statement posted on its website read: "This only confirms the openness of the Russian society and the independence of Russian media, which Prime Minister May wrongly confuses with the Russian state.

"Given the lack of official information, every Russian, just like every Briton, is entitled to their own version of events.

Despite political tensions, Britons are welcome in Russia. Come and discover the difference between how  is portrayed by the UK and how it is in reality.

Mind this gap! https://t.co/6jEiW4AFJL pic.twitter.com/sVRYreqwFq  Russian Embassy, UK (@RussianEmbassy) March 27, 2018

"Let's also not forget that at least five different versions of the poisoning have been 'leaked' by the police to British media: the Skripals were either poisoned in a pub, or in a restaurant, or in their car, or by putting the chemical into Ms Skripal's suitcase, or by smearing their door handle.

"To see Russia being accused of spreading false rumours in this context is rather surprising."

On Wednesday, Ireland became the 24th country to join the the UK in diplomatic action against the Kremlin.

With Downing Street saying that more than 115 Russian diplomats had been ordered home by friends and allies, Dublin added one more to the list.

In Moscow, President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, hinted that the Kremlin would respond with tit-for-tat expulsions, saying Russia would proceed from the "principle of reciprocity".

Russia has already ordered 23 British diplomats to leave in response to the expulsion of a similar number of undeclared Russian intelligence officers from the UK.

PA
After weeks of having their reputations dragged through the mud, banks are pushing ahead with plans to bolster the industrys code of conduct.

The Australian Bankers Association this week took another step in its plan to overhaul the Banking Code of Practice, by making it compulsory for all member banks with retail operations to sign up to the code. Previously, signing the code was voluntary.

Banks are revamping the industry's code of conduct as part of an attempt to win back trust.

The changes to widen the codes coverage are positive, as documents such as this are meant to set fundamental standards of behaviour for the industry, and can be important for resolving disputes.

But how big a change are the banks really making by updating their code of conduct?
In those circumstances the tax office will be able to notify credit rating agencies of the debts.

The federal government's proposed Transparency of Taxation Debts laws will initially apply to businesses with Australian Business Numbers and tax debts of more than $10,000 that are at least 90 days overdue.

On Wednesday afternoon Mr Noroozi told a parliamentary hearing into the ATO's annual report that the Turnbull government's proposed laws should require the Australian Taxation Office to inform taxpayers with an alleged debt that they can lodge a complaint with his office, and hold off reporting until the matter has been investigated.

Safeguards need to be introduced to ensure Australians don't have their credit rating damaged if laws allowing the tax office to report debts to credit agencies are introduced, according to the Inspector-General of Taxation Ali Noroozi.

The ATO has been consulting with stakeholders and insists proper safeguards are in place to protect taxpayers but several submissions to an inquiry on the proposed laws have expressed concerns.

I think the intention is that my office plays a safeguard [role] to make sure in instances where things dont go right, that my office catches those so that a small business or an individual doesnt have a devastating effect of having their credit rating trashed, if you like, mistakenly, Mr Noroozi said.

If the proposed laws are introduced, ATO Deputy Commissioner Robert Ravanello told the same Standing Committee on Tax and Revenue the agency would ramp up slowly starting with egregious cases of phoenixing and serious organised crime, before moving to small business taxpayers.

He said the ATO would always write to the taxpayer notifying them about a tax debt and the taxpayer has 21 days to respond and can ask for a review. And should the Inspector-General be already looking at a complaint relating to a particular debt, the debt would not be reported by the ATO until that complaint had been resolved.

But groups such as Self Employed Australia's Ken Phillips had warned in a submission that ATO already has draconian powers" and that if Parliament were to give the this ATO additional power "it would further extend the ATOs ability to bully, harass and destroy small business people.
Germaine Greer has unveiled the title of her latest book just days after describing Harvey Weinstein's victims as "career rapees".

The world-renowned feminist's newest work will be called On Rape and released by Melbourne University Publishing later this year.

In the book, Greer states that centuries of writing and thinking about rape have "got us nowhere".

"Again and again crime surveys tell us that one woman in five will experience sexual violence," she writes.
Try lumping Jeff Beck with Madonna, or putting Duran Duran in the same sentence as avant-gardist Laurie Anderson, or maybe David Bowie with Al Jarreau. Not only does Nile Rodgers have a way of doing that, but part of his secret is skipping sleep.

Among the world's most in-demand record producers, Rodgers  also a songwriter, guitarist, arranger and leader of the brilliant funk band Chic  has been up for just on 48 hours when we speak on the telephone.

"Since I was about five-and-a-half years old I've only required about two or three hours' sleep a night," he explains. "Like last night I didn't sleep at all, and I've had a super-productive run."

That was finishing two singles from Chic's new album, while other "runs" across the last 40 years have included producing for Mick Jagger, Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder and Paul Simon, with Australia's INXS, Kylie Minogue and Tina Arena also in the mix, along with a steady stream of new artists.
A Canberra petrol station owner says he has lost up to $2500 in the last four months as an increasing number of people drive off without paying for their fuel.

Venugopalreddy Togaru, who owns the United Petroleum station in Fyshwick, said 1543 litres of petrol had been stolen from his business since November 2017.

Petrol drive-offs have cost a Canberra service station owner up to $2500 since November.

He estimated this had left him between $2000 and $2500 out of pocket, with about $70 or $80 of fuel stolen in an average incident.

Despite making several police reports, Mr Togaru said he had only been reimbursed for one drive-off, by "a genuine man who honestly forgot to pay".
In a speech commended by current and former public service leaders , she said the APS needed to change if it was to help steer the government as challenges emerged.

Dr Smith made an urgent call for radical change to the bureaucracy at a conference of public servants in Canberra on Thursday last week, rejecting arguments for "incremental" reform and pushing for a transformation in the way agencies work together and speak to citizens.

The Australian Public Service is unready to help governments as they grapple with eroding support for openness with foreign countries, ambivalence about institutions, and China's role in the world order, Department of Industry, Innovation and Science boss Heather Smith says.

"There's no sense of a burning platform, no sense of strategic preparation for the decades ahead," Dr Smith said.

"The domestic and global environment has changed so much that we do need to do policy differently if we are to adapt and succeed in a new environment, or more bluntly, the way that we are configured to make and deliver policy is no longer fit for purpose."

While the APS was not standing still, and wasn't broken, the International Civil Service Effectiveness Index 2017 suggested Australia was no longer best in its policy making and service delivery, she said.

Describing arguments that liberal democracies face the threat of collapse from rising nationalism, adverse impacts of globalisation, the emergence of "strongman" leaders, an eroding middle class and income inequality, Dr Smith warned that beliefs the world would remain open could turn out to be "a dangerous conceit given what appears to be occurring."

"We need to hope for the best, and we need to prepare for the worst," she told the Institute of Public Administration Australia forum.
A man has been extradited from South Australia to Queensland to face accusations he repeatedly molested a teenage boy more than three decades ago.

The 71-year-old has been charged with 20 counts of indecent treatment of a child, stemming from both New South Wales and Queensland.

Police said he was extradited to Queensland on Wednesday night, to face the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Thursday morning.

Prosecutors will allege the South Australian man abused the boy repeatedly between 1979 and 1986.
Commuters south of Brisbane are facing massive delays after a truck and car collided on south-east Queenslands busiest motorway.

At 7.30am, traffic on the Pacific Motorway was banked up 17 kilometres from Eagleby to Kingsholme, according to the Australian Traffic Network.

Footage from a traffic camera at Beenleigh after a crash on the Pacific Motorway.

An hour later, the delays extended for 20 kilometres.

A police spokesman said emergency services were called to a truck and car accident about 5.50am on Thursday.
A pilot has died after his ultralight plane crashed in a paddock west of Brisbane.

The home-made aircraft, a Slipstream Revelation, came down about 5.15pm on Old Laidley Forest Hill Road in Laidley North, about 80 kilometres west of Brisbane, according to police.

The crash scene at Laidley North where the pilot, and sole occupant, died at the scene. Credit:Caitlin Crowley - WIN News Toowoomba

A spokesman for the Queensland Police Service said the pilot, an 84-year-old man, was the only person inside the aircraft when it came down. The victim died at the scene.

Recreation Aviation Australia was expected to send an investigator to the site on Thursday, according to a spokesman for the Civil Aviation Safety Authority.
The Queensland Police Service will undertake a statewide audit of firearms in its possession, including seized guns in storage and those issued to officers, after a QPS employee was shot at a Logan home on Monday.

The QPS employee suffered a gunshot wound to his hand at a Crestmead home about 9.30pm on Monday.

A police spokeswoman said the QPS Ethical Standards Command was looking into potential links between the gun involved and the man's position within the organisation.

Footage from the Crestmead home where the QPS employee was shot showed officers seizing numerous firearms. Credit:Nine News Queensland - Twitter

"An urgent audit of QPS exhibits is being undertaken as a result of this incident," she said.
Patricia Piccininis sculptures are deeply disquieting. Walking through Curious Affection, her new solo exhibition at Brisbanes Gallery of Modern Art, is akin to entering a science laboratory full of DNA experiments. Made from silicone, fiberglass and even human hair, her sculptures are breathtakingly lifelike, however, we cant be sure what life they are like. The artist creates an exuberant parallel universe where transgenic experiments flourish and human evolution has given way to genetic engineering and DNA splicing.

Patricia Piccinini's latest exhibition features pieces from the past 20 years. Credit:AAP/Darren England

Curious Affection is a timely and welcome recognition of Piccininis enormous contribution to Australian art reaching back to the mid-1990s. Working across a variety of mediums including photography, video and drawing, she is perhaps best known for her hyperreal sculptures.

As a genre, hyperrealism depends on the skill of the artist to create the illusion of reality. To be truly successful, it must convince the spectator of its realness. Piccinini acknowledges this demand, but with a delightful twist. The excruciating attention to detail deliberately solicits our desire to look, only to generate unease, as her sculptures are imbued with a fascinating otherness. Part human, part animal, the works are uncannily familiar, but also alarmingly other.

With more than 70 works on display, the entire ground floor has been handed over to Piccinini, a first for an Australian artist. The flamboyant exuberance of GOMAs soaring atrium is utilised and the visitor is welcomed by an enormous inflatable sculpture, Pneutopia (2018).
The CCC have given me no indication as to what the allegations are. Theyve been investigating me now for a year, not spoken to me once. They called me in for a meeting two days ago and charged me without any understanding as to what the charges were for. The ABC reported Cr Smith sold the boat last year and that the CCC was investigating how much he paid for it, if anything. The developer, SKL Cables, donated $40,500 to Logan Futures, a since-closed business entity used to raise funds for Cr Smiths election, according to the organisations incomplete electoral donations disclosure return.

Last year, the mayor fronted a public hearing into the conduct of councillors from four south-east Queensland councils at the 2016 local government elections. In its October 2017 report of the hearings, the CCC says SKL Cables owns Springfield property subject to a development application lodged with the council to build a 15-storey building. Cr Smiths two counts of perjury stem from allegedly giving false testimony at the hearings. He is due to face the Beenleigh Magistrates Court on April 17. Transcript of part of Cr Luke Smith's conversation with ABC Radio Brisbane host Craig Zonca

Craig Zonca: You are facing some serious charges here. Luke Smith: Charges that Im now, as I read the media, now understanding where the CCC are coming from, as I said theyve not told me the allegations themselves. Theyve chosen to tell the media instead but then, if theyre the charges I'm not concerned because theres no guilt in (sic) my part whatsoever and I can prove that very quickly. Zonca: Lets talk through some of those details. From what the ABC understands much of the charges relate to a donor to your campaign, the Chinese cable maker-turned-developer SKL Cables. At the centre of it is a luxury boat. Yes or no, did you receive a boat? Smith: Mate. Theyre before the court. I really cant answer that question so Im sorry, I cant answer the question but it is before the court. Zonca: But you say youre going to defend these allegations and youve understood what they are through the media, why not take the opportunity to clear the air this morning?

Smith: The CCC havent told me exactly what the allegations are so I dont know. Ive only seen what Ive seen in the media so Im going to have to wait until it comes to the court to defend that. Zonca: If thats the case its a simple answer. Did you receive a boat? Smith: Mate, very simple answer is Im going to have to wait til the court to come through to tell me what the allegations are. Zonca: Why agree to do an interview if youre not prepared to talk about what these allegations are that are floating in the media? Smith: You asked me last night if Im prepared to do an interview. The reality is I cant speak until I know what the allegations are directly from the CCC. All I know is what the media is reporting. What the media is reporting is incorrect. When I get the allegations from the CCC Ill find out directly what their concerns are.

Zonca: So you say the media reporting is incorrect. This is your chance to correct that record. Did you receive a boat? Smith: Ive just said that. Zonca: You have no further comment to add? Smith: Ive just said, what the media is reporting is incorrect but when I find out what the allegations are from the CCC, which theyve not given me the decency to tell me. Theyve obviously leaked it to the media but obviously Im waiting on what those allegations are from the CCC themselves. Zonca: So you say the media reporting is incorrect but youre not prepared to say what is actually correct?

Smith: Well I dont know what the CCC are alleging so how can I say anything? Zonca: Well then, respond to the media reports and correct that record. Smith: I just said that. What the media are reporting are incorrect. Zonca: Yeah, but you're not offering any evidence and youre not prepared to answer any further questions by the sound of things. Smith: Well, by the sound of things Im telling you that what Ive seen in the media is incorrect but Im waiting to see what the allegations are to the court process to the CCC.

Zonca: So youre not prepared to talk about whether you received a boat? Smith: What Im telling you is what youve seen and what Ive seen in the media is incorrect. Which is answering your question. Zonca: No, its not. Smith: Yes, it is actually. What I dont know is what the allegations are made against me by the CCC. Zonca: The answer to my question is a simple yes or no. Did you receive a boat?

Smith: Youve seen stuff in the media and Ive seen stuff in the media and Im telling you its incorrect. Zonca: So correct it. Did you receive a boat? Smith: Incorrect. Its incorrect. Zonca: Well, whats incorrect about it? Its either yes, you received a boat or no, you did not receive a boat. Smith: Ive told you the answer. Its incorrect what Ive seen in the media. Im waiting on what the allegations are from the CCC and thats the only way I can go forward, Craig, or else Im going to misuse the process. So Im going to wait for the court process to happen and then were going to go from there.
A sex offender has not been seen by police for more than three months and they fear he now runs a higher risk of re-offending.

Registered sex offender Darren McDonald, 53, is known to sleep rough and Victoria Police believe he may be frequenting the St Albans and inner-west Melbourne areas.

Registered sex offender Darren McDonald, 53, has not been seen by police since December 17.

Police last saw McDonald on December 17 in the CBD when they arrested and charged him for being drunk in a public place, offensive behaviour and a dishonesty-based offence.

He was bailed to face the Melbourne Magistrates Court on March 15 but failed to show up.
It's pitch dark on an alpine road in Victoria's high country in late November 2017.

After some drinks at the pub, local tradie Bryce Airs starts making the one kilometre walk home that night. It's a walk he'd made many times before.

Minutes later a car approaches from behind, with no headlights.

Suddenly there is an almightly flash and Mr Airs is hit. The car drives away, leaving the man for dead, crawling in the dark.

A passerby finds Mr Airs severely injured on the side of the road. His last words are: "I've been struck by lightning." Two hours later, he is dead in the back of an ambulance.
Perth locals looking to travel to Point Peron for the Easter weekend have been warned to avoid swimming, diving, kayaking or fishing within a one kilometre exclusion zone around four kilometres off the coast of the popular holiday spot.

The Water Corporation issued the warning last Friday after recent water quality testing samples from Cape Peron showed elevated microbiology.

The end of the yellow line is the outlet. The exclusion zone is a one kilometre radius around the outlet. Credit:Water Corporation

Its understood a fault in one of the sewerage treatment pipes is likely to have caused the drop in quality.

The elevated levels have been caused by a decline in the quality of treated wastewater leaving the [plant] since mid-February, a notice said.
The Australian Defence Force has admitted that on the balance of probabilities two civilian Iraqi adults were killed and two children wounded in one of its airstrikes last year.

In only the second case in which Defence has acknowledged RAAF bombs may have killed civilians, the ADFs deputy head of operations said the deaths and injuries likely happened when a Super Hornet plane dropped a precision bomb on an Islamic State sniper nest in the city of Mosul.

An ambulance and an Iraqi humvee make their way along an area in West Mosul, Iraq, which has been damaged by airstrikes in 2017. Credit:Kate Geraghty

Major-General Greg Bilton said the pilot and other coalition personnel involved in the decision-making chain did not know there were civilians inside the house from which two snipers were firing on Iraqi troops on May 3.

But the time and place of the strike, which was called in by the Iraqis as they fought a house-to-house battle to retake the city, correlated with details later given by a witness who said they found the civilians inside afterwards. The witness believed the two adults and two children belonged to one family.
Some of the 845,000 Australians who expect to retire over the decade ahead are being warned to watch out for Labor's latest tax revenue increase, in a fierce political campaign ahead of the next election.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten is insisting his policy will only impact a small number of pensioners after Labor hastily revised its original plan to raise $59 billion by tightening the tax rules on share dividends.

Labor leader Bill Shorten. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

But the government is stepping up its warnings to Australians who expect to retire over the next 10 years, given they will be still caught by the Labor policy if they have a self-managed super fund.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Tuesday accused Labor of hating people who saved for their own retirement because Mr Shorten only offered a limited exemption when he adjusted his policy.
A key adviser to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull helped to formalise a job transfer for the partner of Barnaby Joyce, according to new details about the controversial decision to secure the new position in a ministerial office.

The letter from Mr Turnbulls senior governance adviser was signed on May 9 last year and gave official clearance to the new role for Vikki Campion, who was in a relationship with Mr Joyce at the time and is due to give birth to their baby next month.

The role played by the Prime Ministers office triggered detailed questioning in Parliament last month amid an uproar over the relationship and the way the government moved Ms Campion from one office to another to manage the matter.

Barnaby Joyce and Malcolm Turnbull in Parliament during the height of the crisis over the former deputy prime minister's affair. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Mr Turnbull fended off questions about the transfer in Question Time on February 12 by insisting his office only had an administrative role in the staff changes because the Nationals made the decisions about where to appoint their advisers.
This refusal means we cant remove the sheds, we cant go underground and deliver the parking the traders wanted and the below ground facilities the traders wanted, Cr Wood said. This puts in jeopardy the entire project and we will appeal this decision. He said there was no question the sheds could be removed, restored and returned without damage. Economist Marcus Spiller, whose company SGS completed the business case arguing for a major redevelopment of the market, said the market's potential catchment pool of shoppers had tripled in the past 20 years.

But the customer base has flatlined or even shrunk. If you go through the markets on any day but Saturday, you will see stalls with hessian shrouds over them  almost like coffins. The place is suffering an incremental decline. If we do nothing, the market will die  it will become a skeletal remains of a once vibrant place, Dr Spiller said. One of the heritage sheds Melbourne City Council wants to remove, restore, and dig beneath. Credit:Pat Scale The shed redevelopment is part of a plan to replace the market's above-ground parking with a new park. Credit:Melbourne City Council The chair of Londons 1000-year-old Borough Market, Donald Hyslop, visited the Queen Victoria Market last year. He responded to an email from Melbourne City Council on Tuesday night about the heritage refusal, expressing his surprise.

When we remade the market with the railway works going through between 2005 [and] 2012 we had to take all the main hall and roof structures down piece by piece, store for several years, and then put it all back together, he wrote. He said the sheds were better than original now but all heritage intact. London's Borough Market was restored without losing its heritage values. Cr Wood said something identical could happen in Melbourne. Heritage Victorias decision comes despite the council having spent more than $15 million planning the revamp of the Melbourne landmark, which attracts 10 million visitors annually. Last April, former prime minister Paul Keating attacked the city council's plan, saying taking the sheds down and stripping their lead paint to restore them would ruin their heritage value.

"Imagine in this day and age, [the sheds] somehow being disassembled and re-riveted. All of the patina goes. Melbourne is trying to list this as a heritage site but there will be no heritage left." Planning Minister Richard Wynne has long been opposed to the below-ground construction part of the redevelopment plan, although he last year signed off on construction of a 40-storey apartment tower on land opposite the markets deli hall on Elizabeth Street. On Wednesday he said that it needed to be redeveloped, but in "a respectful way". He said removing the sheds and returning them was an option Heritage Victoria did not accept as a respectful resolution of this issue. Heritage Victoria had been reviewing the councils application and holding discussions with the councils heritage consultants since September last year, Mr Wynne said. Its not as if this has been a quick or short-term conversation. This has been going on for some months.
John Eren in Parliament on Wednesday. Credit:Eddie Jim

Tourism Minister John Eren has been accused of misleading Parliament about what he knew of Labor's "red shirts" rorting scandal more than two years ago, as the Coalition tries to claim a scalp over the affair.

Mr Eren refused to answer questions about his role in the scandal during a fiery question time in State Parliament on Wednesday.

The minister was named by the Victorian Ombudsman as one of 21 Labor MPs who signed timesheets authorising his electorate office staff, who were employed by the Parliament, to work in the party's grassroots "red shirts" brigade for the 2014 state election campaign.

He was found to have signed off on more than $2300 worth of payments.
The consortium proposing a $31 billion high-tech city on Melbournes western city fringe asked Victorian taxpayers to chip in more than $1 billion for a rail line to its development.

And documents leaked to The Age show that funding for the new city in East Werribee would be entirely underpinned by money from Chinese Communist Party businesses.

Australian Education City - a company with close ties to the Church of Scientology but little experience in large-scale development - wants to build a university city that would bring more than 24,000 new overseas students to Melbourne.

The consortium has been negotiating with the government for two years over the purchase of the publicly owned East Werribee land.
Beijing: The young couple, Kim Jong-un and his wife Ri Sol-ju, waved goodbye eagerly out the car window to Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan.

Kim, the supreme leader of North Korea, listened and wrote notes, as he met with a relaxed Xi, who appeared expansive in his advice at the Great Hall of the People.

Kim Jong-un and his wife Ri Sol-ju wave from a car as they bid farewell to Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan in Beijing. Credit:AP

The message on Chinese television on Wednesday was clear: China was back at the centre of world diplomacy.

More importantly, Kim, who was a subject of derision in Chinese media last year as nuclear tests and rogue missile launches frayed the nerves of the Chinese public, was once more an ally.
London: Australia's chief diplomat in London Alexander Downer says Britain must continue the leadership of the Western alliance shown this week when 27 countries, including Australia, stood up to Russia "at last" by expelling more than 100 spies.

Downer, Australia's high commissioner to Britain, also urged NATO to continue its engagement with non-member allies to deal with threats to the world order, including Russia.

Alexander Downer has urged Britain to break from the European Union completely. Credit:Penny Bradfield

He also urged Britain to break from the European Union completely, warning that any proposal to remain half in the trading bloc would render Britain "irrelevant" to Australia and other countries with which Britain wants to negotiate new trade deals.

Speaking to the Policy Exchange think tank, which he will chair when he finishes his extended posting as high commissioner, Downer said Britain had a responsibility to be "one of the great leaders of the Western world", which it had "magnificently demonstrated" in co-ordinating a global response to the attempted assassination of Russian defector Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
London: New Zealand is facing criticism for not expelling any Russian diplomats or spies.

Many of its allies are doing so in solidarity with Britain after its government blamed Russia for attacking a former spy and his daughter with nerve agent in England.

Australia is expelling two Russian diplomats while some 16 European countries have also joined the effort to put pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin. The United States is expelling 60 Russian diplomats.

New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Australia's Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in Danang, Vietnam, last year. Credit:AAP

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Foreign Minister Winston Peters say that while other countries are expelling "undeclared Russian intelligence agents" - or spies - they haven't found anybody in New Zealand fitting that profile.
London: Britain will launch a counter-propaganda war against the Russians and terrorists in an overhaul of security capabilities announced by Theresa May on Tuesday night.

The Prime Minister has instructed the intelligence services to use social media to disrupt misinformation as she promised to use "every capability at our disposal" to defeat the new threat facing the country.

As well as increased Russian aggression, sources warned that the Islamist terror threat was likely to rise in the next two years as Mrs May announced a new effort to ensure every government agency and department makes national security a priority, rather than just the police and security services.

British Prime Minister Theresa May Credit:AP

The plan, called the "Fusion Doctrine", is intended to tackle the evolving threats posed by states such as Russia and North Korea, as well as terrorist groups including Isil which use cyber warfare and "fake news" as well as bombs to attack their enemies.
Latest News Suncorp launches green home loan product Solar panels equal cashback in 'unique' play for refinancing market

This is why Sydney property prices are going up Its not all about the pandemic, interest rates and government stimulus: it goes far, far deeper than that

A call for help on Linkedin secured a dream home for an Australian family in Dubai

THE SCENARIO

With more than 600,000 Australians currently overseas, its a surprisingly common misconception that borrowers can continue to access Australian mortgage finance while living and earning abroad.

One would-be borrower was learning this lesson the hard way when, desperate and stressed, he reached out via LinkedIn in a last-ditch attempt to solve what was fast emerging as an impossible situation.

The house in question was a five-bedroom residence set on a unique 22-acre horse property  a true Aussie lifestyle home. The buyer, an Australian man in his 50s who lived and worked in Dubai, UAE, required finance for 80% of the purchase.

He had been confident he would not have any issues in finding a bank as he had sufficient funds to service the commitment. But he soon discovered it was not so easy to find a lender who would not only lend on foreign income but also consider a security that was outside the normal suburban-home criteria.

There were three specific challenges. In addition to the foreign income, the buyer had spent 12 months approaching  and being rejected  by a number of providers. In fact, he had been searching for so long that the vendors were threatening legal action to recover their losses, and a deposit of $150,000 was at risk.

I said I would do everything to find a solution if there was one in this scenario. I took time to understand the clients exact experience so far, learning about all the banks he had approached and making a note of the outcomes.

In the process of doing this due diligence I found some silver linings: servicing was strong, and the borrowers wife and two children already lived in the property. Confident of a positive outcome, I got to work.

THE SOLUTION

Initial enquiries confirmed what the buyer already knew. Some lenders were happy to go up to 60%, and some private lenders up to 70%. However, no one was going to 80%. If this was to be done it would need special sign-offs and exception approvals.

Then I started approaching things in a different way and reached out to decision-makers who worked for lenders in very senior positions.

I sent a proposal to La Trobe Financial, with a reduced loan term of 15 years in order to provide a strong exit strategy. Chief lending officer Cory Bannister responded with the good news the client needed. We collaborated closely with Bannister and the team at La Trobe to devise a bespoke solution for a not-so-unique situation.

Soon after I was able to go back to the buyer with the update he had been waiting for. The last 12 months had placed significant strain on the family, and they knew they were fast running out of options, so it really was make or break.

The obvious takeaway from this situation is never give up. ... Workshopping a deal with decision-makers was key to solving this application

The outcome was certainly a big win for the client and personally very satisfying for me, as I was able to get a result in record time, which was particularly appreciated given his drawn-out experience.

When I gave him the good news, his exact words were: I cannot believe it. I am so glad I met you, Bernard. You have always been available and guided us like an expert to the finish line. Even the conveyancer was in shock after witnessing the various lender changes and multiple valuation reports.

THE TAKEAWAY

The obvious takeaway from this situation is never give up. However, there is a little more to it than that. Workshopping a deal with decision-makers was key to solving this application. Drawing on my professional experience, I saw merit in the application and knew to follow it through.

If you find yourself in a similar position, stack it up with supporting documents, mitigate any concerns the lender might have, and you will be surprised. Even in this market you will find solutions; and the ability to do that for people, rather than simply selling them a bank product, is the reason I became a broker. The feeling of accomplishment from solving this is fantastic.

Mortgage broking is a very rewarding and fulfilling career. We get to meet and help customers every day, and we are one of the only industries that dont take their costs from the consumer. I feel great, and ready to take on 2018.

Bernard Desmond

Director and finance specialist

Loan MarketChief
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These kids had a little too much bun.

Youngsters jumped in line to meet the Easter Bunny at Washington Park near Park Slopes Old Stone House museum on Saturday, but some tots were not hoppy at all after face time with the festive rabbit, according to one mom.

She was extremely excited to see the Easter Bunny  until we got very close, Jennifer Turner said of her 2-year-old daughter, Veronica Madar. He didnt talk, which may not have helped.

The floppy-eared furball appeared at a so-called Eggstravaganza event for humans and their canine companions that local pet-sitting service Brooklyn Bark organized to raise funds for the no-kill shelter Sean Casey Animal Rescue in nearby Windsor Terrace.

Attendees who donated money at the event received the opportunity to photograph their two- or four-legged children with the Easter Bunny  a photo op that generated lots of excitement resulting in long queues that left some parents waiting as long as 45 minutes to snap a shot of their loved ones with the rabbit, according to Turner.

The mom said her daughter was thrilled at the thought of meeting the buck-toothed bunny while she patiently waited in line, but that things took a turn for the worse when the girl came face-to-face with the hare.

She was delighted during the wait to meet him, until she actually got close enough to touch him and started crying, Turner said. Im not expecting a different reaction to Santa.

But the sweet kid quickly recovered from her traumatic audience with the rabbit, insisting that, come next spring, shell be ready for a less emotional sit-down, according to her mom.

Shes been talking about him every since, about how the next time she meets the Easter Bunny, shell sit on the bench and shake his hand, Turner said.

Parents of dogs seemed to fare better than those of humans, however, as most pups took the visit with the fluffy white hare as an opportunity to pal around, according to another attendee.

We had a good time, said Jamie Goldstein, who brought her 1-year-old hound Rosie to meet the rabbit. It was really fun.

Reach reporter Colin Mixson at cmixs on@cn gloca l.com or by calling (718) 260-4505.
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The new commanding officer of Park Slopes 78th Precinct assumed his position the same day a motorist killed two kids when she drove into the youngsters after running a red light as the they navigated a neighborhood crosswalk. But Captain Jason Hagestad  a self-proclaimed born-and-bred Brooklynite who officially introduced himself to locals at the precincts community-council meeting last night  said he and his men in blue are already working with the city to beef up traffic enforcement in the nabe, and shared other plans he has to keep crime down in the Slope and the parts of Gowanus and Prospect Heights he now oversees as top cop.

Colin Mixson: Congratulations! This is your first command?

Jason Hagestad: Correct. It was a long time coming. But my first day, unfortunately, was on March 5, when the tragic crash occurred on Ninth Street at Fifth Avenue. It happened within my first 45 minutes: I signed in at noon, and by 12:45 pm I was rushing to the scene. It was absolutely horrible. I cant imagine what those parents are going through.

CM: Can you share any details about the citys response?

JH: There are a lot of working parts, but as far as redesigning certain sections of the precinct, anything that can possibly be done to make things safer for drivers and pedestrians. And my officers have conducted a lot of enforcement there. That intersection has a history of collisions.

CM: Do you do a lot of traffic enforcement by handing out tickets?

JH: I have a team of guys doing that. Normally, the executive officer runs the traffic program, but we dont have one, so we deploy cops in the places where we see most collisions occur.

CM: Will you get an executive officer?

JH: I would love to have one, but its not my decision. Theres a shortage of captains in the borough right now, but eventually well get more assigned, and hopefully Ill get an executive officer.

CM: Whats your take on other major issues in Park Slope?

JH: It seems like its a property-crime command, and then you have your occasional burglaries or robberies, which are up, but it doesnt look like there are any patterns. A lot of times kids from other places are involved, and other times, its domestic. They arent glaring issues, but are still things we need to address to continually keep crime down  were down in crime for the year so far.

CM: Can locals expect any new policing strategies?

JH: Im still figuring out what Im going to do by monitoring trends and other possibly evolving patterns. Then Ill deploy personnel in the way I see fit to continue that downward spiral in crime.

CM: Is there anything else you want the residents of your precinct to know?

JH: Just that Im thrilled to be here. Its a dream come true, and Im going to put my heart and soul into the job. Ive lived nearby, in Bay Ridge, for my entire life, and Im very familiar with Brooklyn  I went to Xaverian High School, then St. Josephs College in Clinton Hill, and worked across the borough in my career with the Police Department, which I joined in July 2003.

CM: Where did you start?

JH: I started in the 67th Precinct amid Operation Impact, which called for filling high-crime areas with as many cops as possible. The 67, which covered East Flatbush and Brownsville, was very busy  after six months, I joined a task force as part of the second phase of Operation Impact, and that force went through high-crime neighborhoods in a van doing the same type of enforcement. I then transferred to the 66th Precinct, which includes Kensington and Borough Park. I learned a lot from the different cultural communities there. It was at the 66 when, in my fifth year with the Police Department, I made sergeant.

CM: You have to test into that position?

JH: Yes, and there are different schools that offer weekly classes to prepare for the exam, which is very difficult to pass. There are tests to make sergeant, lieutenant, captain  its tough. Im fortunate, however, because Im not married, and I dont have kids, so its easier to just stay home and study. I went to the 13th Precinct in Manhattan after becoming sergeant, and then moved to the Police Departments auditing unit, the Quality Assurance Division, where I would go to precincts throughout the city and review their complaint reports to ensure the forms were classified accurately. I did that for about a year and a half, then I made lieutenant, and came here to the 78th Precinct, where I served for a couple of months before returning to the auditing unit and eventually making captain in January 2015.

CM: Is that when you got your first command?

JH: No, when you become a captain, your first position is as an executive officer. So I was the number two guy in the 76th Precinct for six months, and then I moved to the 61st Precinct  Sheepshead Bay, Gerritsen Beach, and parts of Manhattan Beach  for a little more than two years before spending another six months in Coney Islands 60th Precinct, where, roughly a month a go, I got the call naming me as the new commanding officer of the 78.  Colin Mixson
Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg plans to testify before US Congress, a source briefed on the matter said on Tuesday, as he bows to pressure from lawmakers insisting he explain how 50 million users' data ended up in the hands of a political consultancy.

Lawmakers in the United States and Europe are demanding to know more about the company's privacy practices after a whistleblower said consultancy Cambridge Analytica improperly accessed data to target US and British voters in close-run elections.

Facebook said the company had received invitations to testify before Congress and that they were talking to legislators.

Facebook shares have fallen almost 18 per cent since March 16, when Facebook first acknowledged that user data had been improperly channeled to Cambridge Analytica.

The tech sector is down 5.2 per cent for March and on track for its worst month since April 2016. The data breach has raised investor concerns that any failure by big tech companies to protect privacy could deter advertisers and lead to tougher regulation.

House Energy and Commerce Committee spokeswoman Elena Hernandez said "The committee is continuing to work with Facebook to determine a day and time for Mr. Zuckerberg to testify".

On the same day, Zuckerberg turned down British lawmakers' invitations to explain to a British parliamentary committee what went wrong. The company said it would instead send one of his deputies, suggesting that Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer or Chief Product Officer Chris Cox had the expertise to answer questions on the complex subject.

The head of the committee called Zuckerberg's decision "astonishing" and urged him to think again.

Christopher Wylie, the whistleblower who once worked at Cambridge Analytica, said on Monday that Canadian company AggregateIQ had developed the software that used the algorithms from the Facebook data to target Republican voters in the 2016 US election.

AggregateIQ did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wylie's remarks. Cambridge Analytica said it had not shared any of the Facebook profile data with AggregateIQ.

Cambridge Analytica has said it did not use Facebook data in Trump's campaign, and that it had deleted all Facebook data it obtained from a third-party app in 2014 after learning the information did not adhere to data protection rules.

In full-page advertisements in British and US newspapers this week Zuckerberg said the app built by a university researcher "leaked Facebook data of millions of people in 2014".

He apologized last week for the mistakes the company had made and promised to restrict developers' access to user information as part of a plan to protect privacy.

The US Senate Judiciary Committee said on Monday it had invited Zuckerberg, as well as the CEOs of Alphabet Inc and Twitter Inc to testify at an April 10 hearing on data privacy.

The US House Energy and Commerce Committee and US Senate Commerce Committee had already formally asked Zuckerberg to appear at a congressional hearing.

The US Federal Trade Commission took the unusual step of announcing on Monday that it had opened an investigation into the company - which it generally does only in cases of great public interest - citing media reports that raise what it called "substantial concerns about the privacy practices of Facebook."
With the Fortis Healthcare announcement on demerger of its hospital business into Manipal Hospitals, the man in the spotlight is Ranjan Pai, chairman of Medical Education and Medical Group (MEMG), which has Manipal Hospitals under its fold. The hospitals owned by Ranjan Pai and backed by TPG, a leading global alternative asset firm, could well be en route to becoming the biggest healthcare player in India, overtaking Apollo Hospitals.

Provided of course, as Pai insists, the shareholders of Fortis Healthcare approve the deal. Speaking to Business Today, he spells out his vision, immediate priorities, the time that the deal will take to conclude and how the new entity has been ring-fenced from any of the investigations by SEBI and the SFIO, mostly related to its erstwhile promoters. Excerpts:

The spirit and intent behind the new deal seem good but it also seems one that will need multiple regulatory approvals with a lot many things that may need to be unwound. So, what is your estimate of how long this will all take?

We expect it all to end by the last quarter of next year.

What is the vehicle under which Manipal will list it and what will it be called?

It will be a new company. It is not yet formed but maybe we will call it Manipal Fortis, or something like that.

So, will all the hospitals eventually be Manipal hospitals?

We will jointly brand it as we may still want to use the Fortis name, but then we will discuss branding and how to position it over the next 12 months.

How do you ensure that the new entity is ring-fenced from the outcomes of the investigations and the liabilities from it?

That is the reason this is a bit more complicated structure. We do not know how long the investigations will continue in the old company (Fortis Healthcare) but we are not leaving any liability as we are taking at the debt and what Fortis Healthcare will own is 36 percent of SRL.

So, the deal is not contingent upon the outcome of the investigations?

It is not. That is the reason we wanted a sure shot agreement because we did not want to put any precondition and hence we came up with this structure, as advised by our lawyers. We understand, it is a little bit more complicated but we also wanted a surety of the deal and because a new entity is being created it will be ring-fenced from all the investigations. We have put a fair value on the company and is fair to all the shareholders and there is a lot of hard work to be done over the next few years.

You will now become the biggest in India, overtaking Apollo Hospitals, with some 45 hospitals, close to 8000 beds, and over Rs 5000 crore revenues in addition to the teaching hospital beds. Is this right?

We have to wait for this. While the Fortis board has recommended it, we should now let the Fortis shareholders understand the deal, feel comfortable and if they vote for it and approve it, only then, I think, we can talk of building a great company.

What about the Rs 3,900 crore that is to be invested now and also tell us about the Religare Health Trust that you will be acquiring. It holds all the hospital assets of Fortis and is listed in Singapore and will need to be de-listed there. Right?

Yes. That is correct. All those things had to be factored in. We are acquiring the hospitals at 22 to 24 times the EBITDA including Religare Health Trust. It is a fully priced deal.

Now that you may become the biggest hospital chain, with the caveat about getting the Fortis shareholders' approval first, what is your immediate priority and what is your vision?

The immediate priority is to integrate it well. The next couple of years are going to be challenging from that perspective. We have to make sure that all the employees, in both the entities, feel secure and comfortable working in this space. As for vision, we want to practice ethical health care. The industry has got a lot of flak over the last several years and as the largest player, we will have to ensure that ethical practices are run across the enterprise.
The past few months have been troublesome for Fortis Healthcare Ltd. In a late night announcement yesterday, the hospital chain said that its board has approved demerger of hospital business. As part of the deal, the hospital business of Fortis along with a 20 per cent stake in diagnostics chain SRL will be acquired by Manipal Hospitals and private equity investment firm TPG Capital.

"The merger will take time. The merging of Fortis into Manipal will take between 10 to 12 months," FHL CEO Bhavdeep Singh said in a conference call on Wednesday.

Only last month, the promoters - Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh - stepped down from the board of Fortis and diversified financial services firm Religare Enterprises. The Singh brothers quit following reports that the duo had allegedly taken Rs 473 crore from their publically listed company without the board approval.

In a statement on Tuesday, Fortis said, "As part of the proposed transaction, Dr Ranjan Pai and TPG will invest Rs 3,900 crore into Manipal Hospitals. The funds will be utilised by Manipal Hospitals to finance the acquisition of 50.9 per cent stake in SRL (20.0 per cent from FHL and 30.9 per cent from other investors for which discussions are currently underway)."

"The Board has also approved sale of its 20 per cent stake in SRL Ltd. to Manipal Hospitals. The resultant entity Manipal Hospitals will be a publicly traded company listed on NSE and BSE. The remaining FHL will be an investment holding company with 36.6 per cent stake in SRL," it added.

Fortis demerger comes at a time when Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) is reportedly initiating a probe into alleged financial irregularities at Fortis Healthcare and Religare Enterprises. When asked about the investigations by Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) in the company over alleged financial irregularities in the company involving its promoters, Singh brothers, Bhavdeep Singh said: "We are cooperating with the ongoing SFIO investigations."

Earlier, Deloitte, Haskins & Sells LLP, had red-flagged the Fortis Healthcare Ltd's financial results. Deloitte, in fact, said that it has not performed an audit.

The Delhi High Court had on January 31 upheld an international arbitral award of Rs 3,500 crore passed in favour of Japanese pharma major Daiichi Sankyo, which had alleged that the former promoters of erstwhile Ranbaxy Laboratories had concealed information about proceedings against them by the US Food and Drug Administration.

The Singh brothers issued a statement on the demerger of Fortis' Hospital business into Manipal Hospitals. The move, they said, "will unlock significant value for all stakeholders and will further accelerate and expand access to high quality healthcare services in India. We are happy and confident that the combination will be value accretive for all stakeholders."



Referring to the growth of Fortis though not about its scale down, especially of its international operations, the Singh brothers said, "for over a decade and a half, we have committed to expanding and building India's leading healthcare organisation which delivers best-in-class infrastructure and world-class care to its patients. From a humble beginning with one hospital in 2001, Fortis has grown to become a national healthcare provider in a rather short span of time, owing to the relentless dedication of the Fortis family."

Shares of Fortis Healthcare tumbled nearly 11 per cent today after the company said its board had approved demerger of its hospitals business. The stock, after making a weak opening, cracked 9.96 per cent to Rs 128.25. On NSE, shares of the company plunged 10.57 per cent to Rs 127.20.

with PTI inputs
Nearly two months after the four senior-most judges accused the Chief Justice of India of putting the democracy at risk, the Congress-led opposition has begun a signature drive to initiate an impeachment motion against Dipak Misra. NCP General Secretary DP Tripathi told ANI that a lot of opposition parties have signed the draft proposal for moving an impeachment motion against CJI Dipak Misra. "Many parties like Nationalist Congress Party, Left parties and I think TMC and Congress have also signed it," he said.



To remove a judge, an impeachment motion should be initiated with the support of 50 MPs if it is introduced in the Rajya Sabha and 100 MPs if it is introduced in the Lok Sabha. The proposal can be submitted in either House. However, the Speaker has the right to admit or reject it. In case the motion is accepted, the Speaker constitutes a three-member committee to look into the charges made against the judge concerned and if found guilty the House can take up the matter for voting.

A judge can be removed only on the ground of proved misbehaviour or incapacity. In this case, the Congress and other opposition parties have taken up the issues raised by four senior Supreme Court judges in January.



Earlier in January, Justices Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, MB Lokur and Kurien Joseph held an unprecedented press conference to put out some administrative differences with Chief Justice Misra. They accused the CJI of assigning important cases in an arbitrary manner to preferred junior judges.

The revolting judges in a seven-page letter to CJI made some damning observation on the conduct of Chief Justice Misra. The letter was later released to the press. It said: "There have been instances where cases having far reaching consequences for the nation and the institution have been assigned by the chief justices of this court selectively to the benches 'of their preference' without any rational basis for such assignment. This must be guarded against at all costs."



Apart from this, there are two other serious allegations that the opposition has included in its draft motion as a ground for the impeachment. It accused the CJI of receiving illegal gratification in Prasad Education Trust Case and submitting a false affidavit for an alleged land acquisition while Misra was an advocate.



The draft proposal for impeachment motion may be coming now, but the talks of impeachment had begun soon after the judges made their difference public. In January, the CPM had started reaching out to other opposition parties to discuss the possibility of bringing an impeachment motion against CJI Misra.



NCP MP Majeed Memon in an interview on Tuesday said that several opposition MPs have signed the petition to remove the Chief Justice. Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee is also supporting the motion and on Tuesday she met senior Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan on the issue.
The government today wrote to social networking giant Facebook, seeking its response over the user data breach and details of the measures it has put in place to ensure safety and prevent misuse of personal data.

Meanwhile, Facebook said that it is taking additional steps which will be rolled out in coming weeks to put people more in control of their privacy.

The Ministry of Electronics and IT (Meity) today said that a notice has been sent to Facebook, seeking details relating to breach of data by Cambridge Analytica particularly with regard to reports in the media about questionable practices attributed to the UK-based firm in their efforts to influence elections.

"It is felt that there is a need for further information about the data breach from Facebook. Accordingly, a letter has been issued by the Ministry of Electronics & IT on March 28, 2018 to Facebook seeking their response," Meity said in a statement.

When contacted, Facebook spokesperson said, We are strongly committed to protecting people's information. As Mark Zuckerberg has said, we are working hard to tackle past abuse and prevent future abuse. We appreciate the opportunity to answer questions the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology has raised, as we continue our review of the situation."

The move came after a global outrage over breach of user data on social networking platform Facebook. Data mining firm Cambridge Analytica has been accused of harvesting personal information of over 50 million Facebook users illegally to influence polls in several countries.

Facebook's data breach scandal also sparked a furore in India with IT Minster Ravi Shankar Prasad warning the firm of "stringent" action for any attempt to influence polls through data theft and threatening to summon Zuckerberg, if needed.

The government has also issued notice to Cambridge Analytica, seeking its immediate response on whether it was involved in misuse of data to profile Indians and influence their voting behaviour. Facebook has already issued an apology with Zuckerberg assuring stringent steps to secure user data.

The ministry has raised five questions in all including whether the personal data of Indian voters and users has been compromised by Cambridge Analytica or any other downstream entity in any manner.

The ministry has asked social media major to submit a reply whether the company or its related or downstream agencies utilising Facebook's data have previously been engaged by any entities "to manipulate the Indian electoral process".

The letter sent to Facebook said that at present, it has largest footprint in India in terms of its user base and sought its reply on proactive measures being taken by the company to ensure safety, security and privacy of such large user data and to prevent its misuse by any third party.

"Facebook has been called upon to give their response by April 7, 2018," the statement said.

A blog post by Erin Egan, VP and Chief Privacy Officer, Policy and Ashlie Beringer, VP and Deputy General Counsel at Facebook said, "...we're taking additional steps in the coming weeks to put people more in control of their privacy. Most of these updates have been in the works for some time, but the events of the past several days underscore their importance."

"We'll also update our data policy to better spell out what data we collect and how we use it. These updates are about transparency - not about gaining new rights to collect, use, or share data," the blog post said.

The proposed changes include even control of advertisements that a Facebook user would like to watch, review posts shared or reacted to searches made on the social media platform.
Around 7 lakh traders and over 3,000 shops in Delhi have decided to down shutters on Wednesday to protest the ongoing sealing of commercial establishments in Delhi. Besides 20 industrial areas, 20,000 transporters have also joined the shutdown call.

The strike has the backing of several traders' bodies, including the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), Chamber of Trade Industries (CTI) and Vyapari and Workers Association.

The initial decision to hold separate rallies across Delhi-NCR was subsequently replaced by the move to organise a protest march to Ramlila Maidan. The traders associations will jointly move a motion to place their demands before the government. The gathering will comprise 100,000 shopkeepers, their employees as well as their family members, CAIT members said.

"We have been demanding that the Delhi government should pass a Bill in the Assembly session for an embargo on sealing and also intimate the Centre for its approval. Our members and many other traders have not sent their children to school or colleges as a mark of protest. All transport and logistics companies will be off the roads as they have extended their support to our rally," said Praveen Khandelwal, secretary general of CAIT.

CAIT and CTI represent over 3,500 trader organisations in Delhi-NCR. Markets across Karol Bagh, Lajpat Nagar, Connaught Place, Chandni Chowk, Sadar Bazar and Uttam Nagar are expected to be worst affected. Traffic snarls and chaos are expected across the city, especially during the day.

Matter of concern

A Supreme Court-appointed Monitoring Committee has ordered the current sealing drive in Delhi against business establishments operating on residential properties for commercial purposes. The drive was implemented by the three BJP-ruled municipal corporations.

Traders bodies allege that the Monitoring Committee has adopted strict measures while sealing the shops and business establishments. Traders have also been denied the benefit of fundamental provisions of the MCD Act,1957.

No show-cause notice nor any chance to place defence was given to traders, union leaders said. Traders had gone on a 48-hour strike in February against the municipal corporations' move.

Political tussle

The traders' associations have accused the AAP government in Delhi for its inaction and passive moves. When CM Arvind Kejriwal tried to woo the traders by announcing a hunger strike in their support, CAIT said "Mr Kejriwal was shedding crocodile tears".

On the other hand, the city BJP unit is trying to calm down the traders and have assured that the Delhi Development Authority will approve changes to the national capital's master plan' at the earliest.

With PTI inputs
Saudi Arabia and SoftBank Group Corp have joined hands to build the world's largest solar project worth $200 billion in the kingdom that could generate 200 gigawatts by 2030.

The deal was signed in presence of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman who is on a US visit. The project will be part of the SoftBank Vision Fund, which was set up in 2016, and has invested in many projects in the US, India and Europe.

Speaking at the launch in New York, SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son said the project will help Saudi Arabia to get rid off its dependence on oil for electricity and create 100,000 job opportunities. The country can shave off $40 billion power bills, he said as quoted by Bloomberg.

The deal is a step towards achieving the Crown Prince's ambition to diversify Saudi Arabia's economy. "It's a great step and is bold, risky. We have great sunshine, land and great engineers and labour," Prince Mohammed told reporters in New York, as quoted by Bloomberg.

The project cost will be around $200 billion. For the first phase which aims to produce 7.2 gigawatts, $5 billion will be provided. SoftBank's Vision Fund will give $1 billion for the first phase.

SoftBank's Son added that the electricity produced in the first phase will be sold and that would help financers to earn money for the forthcoming stages. Initially, the solar panels will be imported. A factory unit is being planned in the kingdom to manufacture the panels locally.

Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries have been experimenting with ways to cut their energy bills, pollution and also find ways to earn money away from oil.

The Kingdom has set a target of 9.5 gigawatts of renewable energy by 2023.
Some Ryanair cabin crew in Portugal will go ahead with one-day strikes during the Easter holidays after Europe's largest low-cost carrier failed to meet their demands on working conditions, the SNPVAC union said on Tuesday.

The strikes by unionised cabin crew were set for March 29, April 1 and April 4. The union said it was still in Ryanair's hands to avoid the walkout.

The airline said it did not expect a lot of crew to join the walkout but disruptions were possible.

"The talks with the company have been fruitless as Ryanair refuses to apply the Portuguese law, recognise the rights that the Portuguese constitution gives to its citizens," the union said in a statement, also criticising the Portuguese government for doing nothing to defend its union members' rights.

Union representatives say the strikes were motivated by below-par labour conditions, including disciplinary processes and threats for not reaching in-flight sales objectives. They also accuse the company of ignoring basic parenthood rights and not allowing doctor-approved sick days.

"We demand respect because it is granted by law... the cabin crews demand their basic rights and not even the vile threat of shutting the Portuguese hubs scares us," the union said.

In a statement, Ryanair called the strike threat "entirely unnecessary" after it sent the union a signed recognition agreement and agreed to meet with SNPVAC representatives in Dublin on April 9.

Ryanair argues that the strike is organised by union members from competitor airlines such as TAP and easyJet to disrupt its operations.

Ryanair has had strained relations with its staff lately and was forced to recognise trade unions for the first time to avoid mass Christmas strikes in December.

Unions representing Ryanair pilots across Europe signed a deal earlier this month to cooperate in a move that could raise the prospect of coordinated action, something the airline's management has been keen to avoid. (Reuters)

Source: www.businessworld.ie
According to figures published by the Central Statistics Office, retails sales dropped by 0.2 percent in February but rose 2 percent in the year, in volume terms.

When motor sale figures are excluded, the volume of sales increased by 0.6 percent in the month of February and 6.3 percent in the year.

Department Stores saw the largest monthly volume increases in February with a 5.9 percent rise, while the sectors with the largest monthly falls were Books, Newspapers & Stationery (-6.2 percent) and Beverages & Tobacco (-3.9 percent ).

Elaborating on the statistics, Alan McQuaid, Chief Economist with Merrion, said: Even with the fluctuation in consumer sentiment, overall personal spending has been positive in the past couple of years, boosted by the increase in the numbers employed in the country. This is despite the fact that the weakness in sterling since the June 2016 Brexit referendum has enticed some shoppers to spend in Northern Ireland."

Looking toward 2018, Mr McQuaid added: We think personal spending will post another positive rise as the unemployment rate drops below 6.0%, though the increase in headline retail sales is likely to be lower than 2017, at around 2.0%. However, core sales should be higher, at 5.0% or so.

Source: www.businessworld.ie
New Ireland Assurance today released its 2017 claims statistics, which revealed a record of more than 111 million in protection claims were paid out last year. Of the claims, life cover payments made up 70.5 million of the total, while specified illness claims of over 28 million and income protection claims of over 11 million were also paid out.

Commenting on the statistics, David Hennessy, Head of Claims for New Ireland said: In terms of changing trends in 2017, we witnessed an increased amount of terminal illness claims and expect to see many more as knowledge and awareness of this important policy feature becomes better known."

The average claim by individuals for life cover was 51,358 in 2017 with men making up 63 percent of the claims. Cancer was still the biggest cause of claims for life cover and heart related claims increased slightly to 17 percent from 14 percent last year.

The average claim by individuals for specified illness in 2017 was 73,299 compared with 69,898 in 2016. 58 percent of claims related to men and the average age of claimants was just 51 with the youngest being 25 years old. Cancer related illness claims accounted for over half of specified illness claims and heart related claims one-fifth.

Mental illness made up 29 percent of income protection claims, while 22 percent related to musculoskeletal issues and 20 percent related to cancer. Over two thirds of new claims for income protection were made by women last year.

David Hennessy said: Supporting customers when its needed most is what we have been doing for 100 years. In 1918, we paid out 213 and 9d in claims and in 2017 we paid 4,434 claims to customers and their families, amounting to a record 111,326,961.

He concluded: Insurance companies are here to pay valid claims and support people at the most vulnerable points in their lifetime. It is in everyones interests to protect their family against the financial difficulties that are caused by an unexpected illness, accident or death.

Souce: www.businessworld.ie
Japan's largest drugmaker Takeda Pharmaceutical said it was considering a possible bid for pharma group Shire, to help expand its presence in the United States, sending shares in the British pharmaceuticals company up as much as 25 percent.

Takeda said its approach for the owner of rare disease and hyperactivity drugs was "at a preliminary and exploratory stage and no approach has been made to the board of Shire."

It said a deal with Shire, who opened a new headquarters in Dublin City Centre last year, would create a global biopharmaceutical leader and strengthen its presence in the treatment of rare diseases and the oncology, gastrointestinal and neuroscience sectors.

It said it would also balance Takeda's geographic focus to align with the market opportunity in the United States.

Shares in Shire have been weak for the last year after the group said earnings would be held back by greater competition from generic drugs and lower royalties. As of 0950 GMT, Shire had a market valuation of around 32.7 billion pounds.

It has announced a plan to split its business in two, dividing the rare disease and hyperactivity medicines businesses to boost performance. (Reuters)

Source: www.businessworld.ie
Chinese President Xi Jinping (right) meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Beijing during Kims visit from Sunday to Wednesday. Photo: Xinhua

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited China from Sunday to Wednesday in his first trip outside his country during six years in power, the official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported Wednesday, confirming swirling speculation about a visit.

During Kims trip, which was initiated by Chinese President Xi Jinping, the North Korean leader said he was committed to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and open to dialogue with the United States, Xinhua reported.

It is our consistent stand to be committed to denuclearization on the peninsula, in accordance with the will of late President Kim Il Sung and late General Secretary Kim Jong Il, Kim said, according to Xinhua.

However, Kim gave a condition for denuclearization, saying that the issue can be resolved if South Korea and the United States respond to our efforts with goodwill, according to Xinhua.

Kims trip to Beijing, which was kept under wraps for most of its duration, comes ahead of his planned meetings with South Korean and U.S. leaders in April and May respectively.

When questioned by reporters at a regular news briefing Tuesday, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying said: As close neighbors, China and the DPRK enjoy traditional friendship and maintain normal exchanges, using the acronym of North Koreas official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

But Hua did not confirm rumors of a visit, though Chinas social media had been swarmed with sightings of a North Korean government train heading toward Beijing and video clips of a large fleet of vehicles riding through several places in Beijing in the past two days.

The Xinhua report released on Wednesday morning was the first official confirmation of Kims visit.

The length of the 3,400-word report was extremely rare for one covering the visit of a state leader, according to a social media article by the overseas edition of the Peoples Daily, the Communist Partys official newspaper.

Kims visit, although said to be an unofficial visit in the Xinhua report, came with very high-level reception, as Kim also met Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Vice President Wang Qishan and several Politburo officials, along with Xi, according to the overseas edition article of the Peoples Daily.

Kims visit to Beijing took place after months of tension between North Korea and China, its biggest trade partner. Over the past year, China banned imports of key goods from North Korea, including iron ore, coal and seafood, following United Nations sanctions that were applied after Pyongyangs latest series of missile tests.

North Korea has been a close ally of China for decades. But in recent years, China has been emphasizing its normal state-to-state relationship with North Korea.

However, the two sides highlighted their traditional friendship during Xi and Kims meeting in Beijing. Kim also emphasized his willingness to cherish the friendship with China by choosing it as his first visit to another country (since he became North Koreas top leader in 2012), according to Xinhua.

Kim felt there was a need to come in time and meet Xi this week as the Korean Peninsula situation is developing rapidly and many important changes have taken place, Xinhua reported.

Xi said friendship between China and North Korea is a strategic choice and the only right choice both sides have made based on history and reality, Xinhua reported.

Xi also said he is willing to maintain close contact with Kim through mutual visits, envoys, and exchanges of letters, according to Xinhua. Xi has not visited North Korea since he became president in 2013.

Both China and North Korea have incentives to meet and discuss a long list of bilateral issues, but more importantly the geopolitical trends in the region and the world, Daniel Pinkston, a nonproliferation expert and lecturer in international relations at Troy Universitys South Korea campus, told Caixin. I think both sides viewed the timing as important given the inter-Korean summit next month and the proposed U.S.-North Korea summit, possibly in May.

Earlier this month, U.S. and South Korean officials announced that U.S. President Donald Trump had accepted Kims invitation to meet by May for talks on permanent denuclearization.

In response, Chinas Foreign Ministry said it welcomed talks between the U.S. and North Korea, which it saw as a positive signal.

While the move toward dialogue between Trump and Kim came sooner than many expected, China has no reason to feel marginalized, as it will surely find its own position and play its role and influence on the North Korea nuclear issue, top Communist Party official Yu Hongjun told Caixin in an interview conducted before news broke of Kims visit to Beijing.

China had hosted the Six-Party Talks, aimed at peacefully resolving security concerns on the Korean peninsula, between 2003 and 2008, and has pushed for the discussions to resume after North Korea walked out of the negotiations in 2009.

North Korea used to be a close ally of communist China. Kims grandfather, DPRK founder Kim Il Sung, paid 11 visits to China as state leader between 1953 and 1991. Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Uns father, visited China eight times as the top leader.

Contact reporter Teng Jing Xuan (jingxuanteng@caixin.com)

Read more about the history of visits by North Korean leaders to China.
The U.S. threatened hefty tariffs on Chinese goods to urge China to make good on promises to open its markets, the top American diplomat in China said Tuesday.

Although China has been repeating its intentions to do so, we have not seen the action on the promises that have been made and certainly not quick enough, Terry Branstad, U.S. ambassador to China, said at a press conference in Beijing on Tuesday. The goal is to try to get that to happen sooner.

International investors are closely monitoring the latest developments in the trade tiff between China and the U.S. The situation eased after news broke late last week that the two parties were in secret discussions to hash out some of their differences.

To address the trade imbalance, Branstad suggested that China could increase its imports of U.S. pharmaceuticals, high-end medical devices and clean fuels such as liquefied natural gas and ethanol gasoline. In return, the U.S. could help China improve the quality of life of its people and help the government fight air pollution.

He also revealed that Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, President Xi Jinpings top economic advisor, as well as U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer will lead the trade talks.

The two parties have 30 days to negotiate a solution to avoid the tariffs. On Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum that threatened to impose tariffs on up to $60 billion worth of Chinese goods.

The U.S. is looking forward to outcomes that could give it more access to the Chinese market and create a fair playing field for U.S. companies operating in China, Branstad said.

During a meeting with a U.S. congressional delegation on Tuesday, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said its impossible to find quick solutions for long-term trade issues, the Xinhua News Agency reported. Li said a trade war is not a solution to the problem and runs afoul of basic trade rules.

Over the weekend, Secretary Mnuchin said that the tariffs could be avoided if Beijing and Washington can come to an agreement on outstanding trade issues.

Meanwhile, the Chinese state-run Global Times reported that China will soon compile a reprisal list targeting U.S. goods  the latest sign that China has tough measures in store if the U.S. goes through with its tariff plan.

Fears of a trade war have clouded the business outlook of U.S.-based companies that export to China. The stock of Hong Kong-listed Chinese firm WH, which acquired U.S. pork producer Smithfield Food in 2013, tumbled as trade tensions ratcheted up.

At a press conference Monday in Hong Kong for its annual financial results, WH Group downplayed the effect of a prospective trade war, but also said it was looking to expand into other markets to cushion it from any potential loss in a trade war.

Contact reporter Pan Che (chepan@caixin.com)
Our Promise: Welcome to Care2, the world's largest community for good. Here, you'll find over 45 million like-minded people working towards progress, kindness, and lasting impact.

Care2 Stands Against: bigots, racists, bullies, science deniers, misogynists, gun lobbyists, xenophobes, the willfully ignorant, animal abusers, frackers, and other mean people. If you find yourself aligning with any of those folks, you can move along, nothing to see here.

Care2 Stands With: humanitarians, animal lovers, feminists, rabble-rousers, nature-buffs, creatives, the naturally curious, and people who really love to do the right thing.

You are our people. You Care. We Care2.
Employees' State Insurance Coportation (ESIC) has released an employment notification calling out for aspirants to apply for the posts of Professor, Assistant Professor and Associate Professor. Those interested can check out the eligibility, salary scale, how to apply and the complete details of the government job here. Selected candidates can earn up to INR 67000. The last date to apply for the government job is Apr 2, 2018.

What Are The Specialisations In Medicine After MBBS

Employees' State Insurance Corporation Recruitment 2018 Vacancy Details

CRITERIA DETAILS Name Of The Posts Professor, Assistant Professor and Associate Professor Organisation Employees' State Insurance Corporation Educational Qualification PhD in medicine or MS in surgery Maximum Age Limit 50 years Skills Required Clinical jusdgement and teaching skills Salary Scale INR 15600 to INR 67000 Job Responsibilities Providing first rate medical education and support research students Job Location Haryana, Karnataka, Delhi, Kolkata, Gulbarga and Hyderabad Industry Teaching Experience 3 to 5 years Application Start Date Mar 1, 2018 Application End Date Apr 2, 2018

Also Read: 8 Highest Paying Medical Professions in 2018 You Must Know

How To Apply For ESIC Recruitment 2018

In order to apply for ESIC Recruitment 2018, follow these steps:
Step 1

Log on to the Exim Bank official website.

Step 2

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on Careers.

Step 3

The careers page will be displayed on the screen. Read the general instructions.

Step 4

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the link for current openings.

Step 5

The application link for contract officers will be active from Apr 6, 2018. Click on it, fill and submit the application form to complete the process.
Photo: Contributed

Kamloops RCMP have arrested a 19-year-old man accused of assault.

Police made the arrest Monday around 5 p.m. at the Petro-Pass Kamloops. There had been reports that the man was armed with a firearm.

He has been taken into custody, and the firearm was recovered at a nearby location.

The RCMP would like to thank the patrons and Staff of the Petro-Pass for their cooperation during this incident.
Photo: David Ogilvie Trees across power lines in West Kelowna have caused a large-scale power outage.

UPDATE: 6:35 p.m.

Power has been restored in West Kelowna, after more than 5,000 homes were without power for just under two hours Tuesday due to a tree across the lines.

UPDATE: 5:30 p.m.

One of the two widespread power outages in West Kelowna appears to have been caused by a tree that has blown across power lines on Shannon Lake Road.

While the lines were not torn down completely, a witness said sparks were coming off the lines as the tree leaned against them.

Shannon Lake Road has been closed in both directions near Shannon Woods Drive.

The outage has affected 2,288 homes. A second outage, affecting a large chunk of Westside Road, south to Boucherie Road, has impacted 2,988 homes.

ORIGINAL: 5 p.m.

A power outage is reportedly affecting a large area of West Kelowna.

Castanet is receiving tips from Shannon Lake to Boucherie and Lakeview Heights that the lights went out about 4:40 p.m. Tuesday.

BC Hydro's website says crews have been assigned to two outages, and about 5,000 customers are affected.

The first problem is arising from the area of Old Raven Road, west of Juliann Road, Hydro reports. It's affecting 2,288 customers.

The second is east of Highway 97, southwest of Westside Road and north of Boucherie Road, affecting 2,988 customers as far north as Trader's Cove.

It's not yet known what caused the power outages.
Photo: Contributed

UPDATE: 9:32 a.m.

A 25-year-old man has been arrested in connection with a stabbing at the Sandman Centre in Kamloops.

The man is known to police.

The victim is still in the hospital with a non-life threatening injury.

All investigative information will be forwarded to the BC Prosecution Service who will determine what charges are applicable.

ORIGINAL: March 28, 2018

A man has been found with stab wounds at Sandman Centre in Kamloops.

At about 7:40 a.m. this morning police responded to the scene of a man who had a stab wound.

When Kamloops RCMP asked the man what happened he didn't provide any information.

Police couldn't find a suspect or a witness in the area.

The victim was transported to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Kamloops RCMP at 250-828-3000 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
Lesian Gutierrez was the first to be eliminated from thefarm 13" (RecordTV) was the least voted by the public, with...
Education, Income, and Employment and Prevalence of Chronic Disease Among American Indian/Alaska Native Elders

Collette Adamsen, MPA1; Shawnda Schroeder, PhD1; Steven LeMire, PhD2; Paula Carter, PhD1 (View author affiliations)

Suggested citation for this article: Adamsen C, Schroeder S, LeMire S, Carter P. Education, Income, and Employment and Prevalence of Chronic Disease Among American Indian/Alaska Native Elders. Prev Chronic Dis 2018;15:170387. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5888/pcd15.170387external icon.

PEER REVIEWED

Abstract

Introduction

Chronic disease studies have omitted analyses of the American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) population, relied on small samples of AI/ANs, or focused on a single disease among AI/ANs. We measured the influence of income, employment status, and education level on the prevalence of chronic disease among 14,632 AI/AN elders from 2011 through 2014.

Methods

We conducted a national survey of AI/AN elders (55 y) to identify health and social needs. Using these data, we computed cross-tabulations for each independent variable (annual personal income, employment status, education level), 2 covariates (age, sex), and presence of any chronic disease. We also compared differences in values and used a binary logistic regression model to control for age and sex.

Results

Most AI/AN elders (89.7%) had been diagnosed with at least one chronic disease. AI/AN elders were also more than twice as likely to have diabetes and more likely to have arthritis. AI/AN elders with middle-to-low income levels and who were unemployed were more likely to have a chronic disease than were high-income and employed AI/AN elders.

Conclusion

Addressing disparities in chronic disease prevalence requires focus on more than access to and cost of health care. Economic development and job creation for all age cohorts in tribal communities may decrease the prevalence of long-term chronic diseases and may improve the financial status of the tribe. An opportunity exists to address health disparities through social and economic equity among tribal populations.

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Introduction

Chronic diseases are the leading causes of death and disability in the United States, and nearly half of adults are diagnosed with one or more chronic conditions (1). Many of these conditions are disproportionally prevalent among American Indian/Alaska Natives (AI/ANs) (2,3). The prevalence of chronic conditions among AI/ANs results in low life expectancy (4,5), and AI/ANs are more likely than all other races in the United States to die of heart disease, diabetes, chronic lower respiratory disease, cirrhosis, stroke, pneumonia, kidney disease, and hypertension (4,6).

AI/ANs are more likely than their peers to be at risk for chronic disease as a result of income, education level, employment status, and health behaviors (7,8). One in 4 AI/ANs live in poverty, and tribal communities report the lowest employment rate nationally. The median annual personal income for AI/ANs is far below the national average (7,8). During 2001 and 2002, AI/AN elders (aged 55 y) were at greater risk for chronic disease than their non-Hispanic white peers when social status and health behaviors were examined (9). However, the study with these findings relied on a small sample (3,5), was conducted before the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the US recession, and did not explore subgroups in the AI/AN elder population. Other national surveys on the prevalence and risk factors of chronic disease had a small sample of AI/ANs, were disease-specific, omitted analyses of the AI/AN population, or had cell sizes that were too small to report (911).

The objective of this national analysis was to identify which social factors, if any, influence the prevalence of chronic diseases among AI/AN elders (aged 55 y). We assessed the association of self-reported income, employment status, and education level on the prevalence of chronic disease among 14,632 AI/AN elders from 2011 through 2014.

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Methods

The US Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Community Living funds the National Resource Center on Native American Aging (NRCNAA). Data used in this study were taken from the NRCNAAs 20112014 Survey of Elders, which has been administered every 3 years since 2001.

Survey

NRCNAA faculty developed the paper survey to assist tribes, villages, and homesteads nationally in creating a record of the health and social needs of their elders. The results satisfy the requirement for Title VI Nutrition and Caregiving Grant under the Administration for Community Living. Self-reported data are collected every 3 years on general health status; activities of daily living; vision, hearing, and dental care screenings; health care access; tobacco and alcohol use; weight and nutrition; social support and housing; demographic characteristics; and social functioning. Survey measures mirror those of nationally administered questionnaires to allow for comparison to the US population (12). Data for this study were taken from Cycle V, which covers self-reported health status for AI/AN elders from 2011 through 2014. The University of North Dakotas institutional review board approved the survey and the proposed method of research; the Official Tribal Council for each participating tribe provided approval through a tribal resolution for the study.

The survey is administered via a Scantron form (Scantron Corporation) on which respondents fill in circles that correspond to the most appropriate responses. The survey also has several write-in responses that are input through image reader technology. Surveys are scanned in-house by NRCNAA staff. To build tribal capacity and improve trust among participants, trained members of the tribe administered the paper surveys to participating elders, reading the questions and filling in the corresponding answers on the form. These individuals were not paid by the NRCNAA directly, but many were employees of the Title VI program. The participating elders were allowed to skip questions they were not comfortable answering. Participating tribes returned all completed surveys to the NRCNAA research team.

All survey data are owned by the tribes. The NRCNAA houses the data, but staff report only in aggregate and under tribal approval. Tribal-specific reports are shared with Title VI directors, who then provide the data to members of the community and to community health groups (to include local public health units). NRCNAA staff and faculty (including authors) include both non-Natives and enrolled members of federally recognized tribes.

Study population

Tribes participating in the Title VI Nutrition and Caregiving Grant were recruited through the Title VI tribal directors, although we invited all tribes to participate. The 20112014 survey cycle included tribally affiliated elders aged 55 years or older. Participants represented all US regions, and 262 (of 566) federally recognized tribes. Within each tribe, researchers identified a simple random sample based on the total number of elders enrolled. The prestudy calculation of required sample size was determined by applying a formula to each tribe. The formula was applied to each of the 262 tribes independently to ensure that the sample obtained was representative of that tribe and not an aggregate representation of all participating tribes collectively. This method allowed results that were representative and generalizable to their population to be shared with each tribe and not to all participating tribes.

Individuals were included in the study if they were aged 55 years or older, an enrolled member of a federally recognized tribe, and eligible to accept services under the Title VI Nutrition and Caregiving Grants. The survey had a 68.5% response rate (14,632 of 21,361 respondents).

Measures

Independent variables were employment status (employed, unemployed/retired); education level (no education or less than a high school diploma, high school graduate, any education beyond high school); and annual personal income (<$15,000 [low]; $15,000$49,999 [middle]; $50,000 [high]). Income level was listed categorically in the survey instrument. We controlled for age (5564 y, 6574 y, 75 y) and sex (male/female). The dependent variable was diagnosis of any chronic disease. Participants replied to the question, Has a doctor ever told you that you had any of the following diseases (please mark all that apply)? The presence of chronic disease was assessed with 10 conditions: arthritis, congestive heart failure, stroke, asthma, cataracts, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, depression, diabetes, and cancer. We included cataracts in our analysis because literature on the elderly population more commonly refer to this vision impairment as a chronic condition, and the World Health Organization indicates it as a priority eye disease (13,14). Furthermore, diabetes is associated with the development of cataracts.

Statistical analysis

We used SPSS (IBM Corporation) to compute summary statistics to identify characteristics of the study population. To determine the prevalence of chronic disease, we created a binary variable to include respondents with at least one of the 10 identified chronic conditions and those without. We converted age from a ratio to a categorical variable, a method most commonly used in health research (15), and converted education level from a 0 to 17 scale to a 3-point scale. We determined the percentage of participants with and without chronic conditions within each category of the independent variables. We computed cross-tabulations for each independent variable and presence of any chronic disease and used a binary logistic regression model (P  .05). In the regression model, researchers controlled for age (categorically), and sex (male/female).

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Results

Respondents were mostly female (62.3%), unemployed/retired (69.4%), aged 55 to 64 years (40%), and middle income (56.1%) and had completed some education beyond high school (38.7%). Most AI/AN elders (89.7%) had been diagnosed with at least one of 10 chronic diseases; 69.8% had 2 or more chronic conditions, and 45.2% had 3 or more. The most common chronic diseases among AI/AN elders were high blood pressure (58.9%), diabetes (53.9%), and arthritis (47.2%) (Table 1).

The prevalence of having one or more chronic diseases was significantly higher among female (91.1%) than male (87.5%) elders; among elders aged 65 to 74 years and aged 75 years or older than those aged 55 to 64 years; among low-income and middle-income elders than high-income elders; among unemployed (92.4%) than employed (83.9%) elders; and among elders who had not completed high school than those with a high school diploma and those with education beyond high school (all P  .05) (Table 2).

When we controlled for age and sex, middle-income AI/AN elders were 1.3 times as likely as high-income AI/AN elders to be diagnosed with one or more chronic diseases (Table 3). Employed AI/AN elders were less likely than unemployed AI/AN elders to be diagnosed with one or more chronic diseases. When we controlled for age and sex, educational attainment did not have a significant influence on the likelihood that an AI/AN elder would be diagnosed with at least one chronic disease (Table 3).

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Discussion

AI/AN elders have a higher prevalence of chronic disease than other races in the US population yet are largely overlooked in research and in proposed federal, social, and tribal interventions. We identified the influence of social variables on the health status of AI/AN elders and found that 89.7% of elders surveyed from 2011 through 2014 had at least one chronic disease. Comparatively, the National Council on Aging, using 2015 Medicaid and Medicare data, reported that 80% of older adults of all races had at least one chronic condition (16,17).

High blood pressure, diabetes, and arthritis were the 3 leading chronic conditions for AI/AN elders. The frequency of hypertension among AI/AN elders (58.9%) nearly mirrored the national average (58%) (16,17). However, other chronic conditions among AI/AN elders occurred at double the national average. Specifically, 54% of the AI/AN elders reported diabetes, compared with only 27% of the US population aged 65 years or older. Roughly 31% of all US adults aged 65 or older were diagnosed with arthritis in 2015, compared with 47.2% of AI/AN elders (16,17).

Federal, state, community, and tribal interventions and policies must explore the prevalence of chronic conditions by race, rather than solely examine general prevalence of chronic disease. Data for AI/AN elders and for the general US elder population identify the prevalence of similar chronic diseases, but special attention must be paid to AI/AN elders. The significant disparity among diseases (eg, diabetes) may also indicate that programs designed to reduce the prevalence of that disease among the general US elder population are not effective, are not reaching tribal populations, or both. As public health units become increasingly responsible for the prevention of chronic disease, these data may be used to develop interventions that are population-specific for each chronic condition.

We established the prevalence of chronic disease among AI/AN elders and then identified demographic categories with higher prevalence of chronic disease. As in national trends, female AI/AN elders were significantly more likely than male AI/AN elders to have a chronic condition (1821). Approximately 91% of AI/AN female elders had at least one chronic disease, compared with 87.5% of AI/AN male elders. As age increased among elders, so did the likelihood of having a chronic condition, which mirrors national trends (21).

The prevalence of chronic disease among AI/ANs who were employed was significantly lower than for those who were unemployed; similarly, those with high income were less likely than middle-income and low-income elders to have a chronic condition. These trends were also reported by the National Center for Health Statistics for the general US population in 2013 (15). Cost of care is the most common reason patients with chronic conditions delay treatment or prevention (regardless of income or employment status) (22). Therefore, there is heightened concern for the AI/AN elder population, as most were unemployed and middle-income to low-income and less likely to then afford health care services both on and off of the reservation.

Although the Indian Health Service (IHS) provides care at reduced cost to AI/ANs on the reservation, access to that care is limited because IHS consistently is underfunded (23,24). During 2009 and 2010, Indian health expenditures per capita were one-third of the expenditures for Medicare, and they were lower per capita than those for veterans, Medicaid patients, and participants in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (25). AI/ANs also have high uninsured rates, making it more difficult to access care outside of IHS, especially for those who are low-income (23). These issues of access to affordable care likely contribute to the increased prevalence of chronic disease among AI/AN elders who are low-income and unemployed.

To prevent chronic diseases and improve the health status of those with chronic diseases, communities and programs can investigate job creation for AI/AN elders. Elders may also require resources like transportation and job training. Economic development and job creation for all age cohorts in tribal communities will benefit long-term chronic disease prevalence and can improve the financial status of the tribe.

Results also indicate a need to identify solutions that are focused more on population health than on access to or cost of care. Communities have developed programs that rely on collaboration between public health units, at-risk tribal populations, and local health care systems to address prevention and early detection services (2629). As public health units take on a larger responsibility for population health, this data can and is being used to target population subgroups in the AI/AN population who have an increased prevalence of chronic conditions. Tribal public health units can identify subgroups (eg, women) that have a higher prevalence of certain chronic conditions and provide education and prevention that is specific to them (26). Likewise, as AI/ANs seek information, prevention, and treatment outside of IHS, local public health units need to recognize that AI/AN elders that use their services likely have multiple chronic conditions. Shaw et al discussed health literacy and the need for communities and public health units to understand the socioeconomic and cultural differences of at-risk populations (29). Programs exist that effectively incorporate cultural traditions in public and tribal health services (10,27,29,30). These models can improve the health of tribal communities and their elders.

This study has several limitations. First, the national definition of elderly is typically aged 65 or older. We assessed chronic disease among AI/AN elders aged 55 or older. This decision was in response to the lower average life expectancy of AI/ANs compared with that of the general US population. However, doing so made it difficult to compare AI/AN elders prevalence of chronic disease to the prevalence of disease among all older people in the United States with any certainty. This limitation, however, provides a conservative measure of chronic disease among AI/ANs elders, recognizing that research indicates a higher prevalence among older cohorts. Omitting respondents aged 55 to 64 years would have resulted in higher prevalence rates for the AI/AN population.

The self-reported diagnosis of a chronic disease may also be problematic. There is risk of both underreporting and overreporting. Elders may not want to identify with a given disease or may have low health literacy and misunderstand or forget a diagnosis. Elders may also self-diagnose and indicate a chronic disease that has not been clinically diagnosed. Finally, the results addressed AI/ANs as one collective people, although AI and AN populations experience vastly different health barriers, practice different traditions, and vary in some health outcomes. The decision to speak to the AI/AN elder population collectively was made to ensure a large enough sample to generalize for tribal populations and to have large enough cell sizes to conduct both a factor analysis and cross-tabulations. Future research may investigate the 2 populations independently to determine whether differences in the prevalence of chronic disease exist. In addition, the variable employment previously omitted a distinction between retired and unemployed, limiting respondents to indicate only yes, employed full-time; yes, employed part-time; or not employed. Future cycles of the survey will now include retired and unemployed as separate categories, which will allow for more granularity in the discussion of chronic disease among people who are not employed.

We found a higher overall prevalence of chronic disease among AI/AN elders compared with the older US population and substantially higher rates of both diabetes and arthritis among AI/AN elders. Finally, we found that a significantly higher prevalence of chronic disease exists among AI/AN elders who are unemployed and middle-income or low-income. These findings call for economic and social interventions outside those typically related to access to care. These results may be used to develop public health and community programs and interventions at the tribal level dedicated to improving the health of AI/AN elders, especially those with hypertension, arthritis, or diabetes, and those who are middle- to low-income or unemployed. An opportunity exists to address health disparities through social and economic equity among tribal populations.

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Acknowledgments

Support for this research was provided by the Administration of Community Living under grant no. 90OI0008-03-00. The information, conclusions, and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors, and no endorsement by the Administration of Community Living, the University of North Dakota, or the NRCNAA is intended or should be inferred.

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Author Information

Corresponding Author: Shawnda Schroeder, PhD, The University of North Dakota, Center for Rural Health, School of Medicine & Health Sciences, 1301 N. Columbia Rd, Stop 9037, Grand Forks, ND 58202. Telephone: 701-777-0787. Email: Shawnda.schroeder@med.und.edu.

Author Affiliations: 1The University of North Dakota, Center for Rural Health, School of Medicine & Health Sciences, Grand Forks, North Dakota. 2The University of North Dakota, College of Education & Human Development, Grand Forks, North Dakota.

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References

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Tables

Table 1. Percentage of American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) Elders With Diagnosed Chronic Disease (N = 14,632), by Demographic Category, Survey of Elders, 20112014 Demographic Characteristic HBP Diabetes Arthritis Cataracts Depression Asthma Osteoporosis Cancer CHF Stroke Overall 58.9 53.9 47.2 22.5 15.0 13.7 10.8 9.0 8.9 7.7 Sexa Male 59.6 52.9 40.0 19.1 11.4 9.4 3.9 10.0 10.1 8.3 Female 58.6 54.6 51.5 24.5 17.1 16.3 14.9 8.3 8.2 7.3 Age, ya 5564 54.5 49.7 43.0 12.5 17.4 14.8 8.7 6.4 5.7 5.5 6574 61.3 57.3 48.4 24.3 13.9 13.7 10.9 9.4 9 8.2 75 62.8 55.9 52.5 36.4 12.5 11.6 13.9 12.6 14.2 10.7 Annual personal income, $a <15,000 (Low) 58.3 57.5 49.6 21.7 16.2 14.6 11.2 7.8 8.7 8.6 15,00049,999 (Middle) 59.8 53.3 46.6 23.0 14.4 13.5 10.7 9.5 9.3 7.5 50,000 (High) 55.3 44.8 37.5 18.6 11.4 11.1 9.5 10.7 6.1 3.6 Employment statusa Unemployed or retired 61.9 57.3 51.7 26.6 17.0 14.5 12.5 10.2 10.9 9.5 Employed 53.1 47.1 36.6 13.3 10.4 12.0 6.6 6.4 4.5 3.5 Education levela Less than a high school diploma 62.2 57.1 52.2 27.5 15.4 14.1 10.9 8.7 11.1 9.5 High school graduate 58.8 52.7 45.8 20.5 13.3 11.7 9.7 8.2 8.3 7.4 Education beyond high school 56.6 52.7 44.8 20.7 16.2 15.0 11.6 9.8 8.0 6.7

Table 2. Demographic Characteristics of American Indian/Alaska Native Elders With and Without a Diagnosed Chronic Disease (N = 14,632), Survey of Elders, 20112014 Demographic Characteristic With Chronic Disease (n = 13,123a) No Chronic Disease (n = 1,509a) % (No.) Sex Male 87.5 (4,768) 12.5 (681) Female 91.1 (8,212) 8.9 (807) Age, y 5564 85.5 (5,003) 14.5 (848) 6574 91.6 (4,849) 8.4 (445) 75 93.8 (3,271) 6.2 (216) Annual personal income, $ <15,000 (Low) 90.6 (4,392) 9.4 (455) 15,00049,999 (Middle) 90.0 (6,655) 10.0 (737) 50,000 (High) 84.6 (794) 15.4 (144) Employment status Employed 83.9 (3,459) 16.1 (666) Unemployed or retired 92.4 (8,623) 7.6 (712) Education level Less than a high school diploma 92.2 (3,787) 7.8 (319) High school graduate 88.8 (4,192) 11.2 (529) Education beyond high school 88.7 (4,942) 11.3 (630)

Table 3. Binary Logistic Regression Models for Presence of Chronic Disease Among American Indian/Alaska Native Elders (N = 14,632), by Income, Employment Status, and Education Levels, Controlling for Age and Sex, Survey of Elders, 20112014 Variable B (Standard Error) Wald 2 P Valuea Exp(B) Income, $ 50,000 (High)b  11.90 .003  15,00049,999 (Middle) 0.261 (0.105) 6.18 .01 1.298 <15,000 (Low) 0.060 (0.117) 0.27 .60 1.062 Education Education beyond high schoolb  7.18 .03  High school graduate 0.088 (0.072) 1.49 .22 0.916 Less than a high school diploma 0.143 (0.087) 2.72 .10 1.154 Employed 0.715 (0.071) 100.29 <.001 0.489 Age, y 75b  49.69 <.001  6574 0.157 (0.101) 2.44 .12 0.854 5564 0.568 (0.098) 33.57 <.001 0.566 Female sex 0.449 (0.062) 51.87 <.001 1.566

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Algeria's Aoulef works exports first cement to Niger

ICR Newsroom By 28 March 2018

El-Hamel-owned Aoulef cement plant, in Adrar, Algeria, carried out the first Algerian cement exports to Niger, according to Minister of Industry and Mines, Youcef Yousfi.



The new plant, which entered service in December 2017 exported 950t of cement overland to Niger  the first of regular shipments. The 1.5Mta Aoulef cement facility plans to exports around 1Mta of its output.



"With these export operations, Algeria has thus shifted from [being] a large importer of cement to an exporting country, thanks to the policy outlined by the public authorities, which has led to the emergence of a genuine cement industry. with a production that has exceeded 25Mta," said the Ministry of Industry and Mines. With production forecast to increase further to 40Mta by 2040, the Ministry reiterated its availability to support cement companies in their export drive.

Published under
Ivanka Trump hasnt had the easiest time settling into the White House. The former fashion mogul headed to Washington, D.C. to be a senior advisor to her father with zero experience. Since her father, President Donald Trump, has said egregious things about women, immigrants, and people of color, many folks have called out Ivanka Trump for being complicit in her fathers horrendous actions.

As shes continued to tweet out tone deaf and absurd things, Twitter users have been quick to put the first daughter on blast. However, it looks like shes not getting the message.

Check out every time Twitter has taken Ivanka Trump to task for her absurdities.

Playing scientist

In mid-March 2018, the mother of three toured a job-training and science facility in Waukee, Iowa to promote her fathers new infrastructure plan. She tweeted a photo of herself wearing safety goggles, a lab coat, and gloves. She added a caption that said, I cant promise that Ill get this right, but at least well look the part, right?

Twitter was outdone. Folks quickly clobbered Trump for cosplaying. One user tweeted, Hey @IvankaTrump its great that you like to cosplay as a scientist on Instagram, but some of us are an #ActualLivingScientist. Tell us about what youre doing in this picture. Im making a battery. #ILookLikeAnEngineer

Obviously, the photo also made a grand meme.

Next: Fangirling over Oprah

A baffling response to #TimesUp

Despite her fathers egregious and disturbing behavior towards women including sexual harassment, affairs, and allegations of sexual assault, Ivanka Trump has remained at her father side. Therefore, everyone was stunned when she tweeted out some praise for Oprah Winfreys arousing #TimesUp speech at the Golden Globes in early 2018.

She said, Just saw @Oprahs empowering & inspiring speech at last nights #GoldenGlobes. Lets all come together, women & men, & say #TIMESUP

While most of us were simply too puzzled to respond, Washington Post blogger Jenifer Rubin tweeted, This is the most hypocritical, clueless statement in her regrettable time in the WH. Your father has a trail of victims and supported Roy Moore, Ivanka. YOU are indeed part of the problem Ivanka. #complicit

Next: A meaningless message

A very flat message

When her father was first elected, Ivanka Trump pledged to stand up for women. Naturally, she hasnt even begun to uphold her promise. Therefore, when she tweeted in celebration of Womens History Month in March 2018, many Twitter followers shut her down immediately.

The eldest Trump daughter tweeted, As we celebrate #WomensHistoryMonth we reflect on womens incredible contributions to our Nation. We honor womens legacy of achievementsfrom pioneering innovations & strengthening our communities to leading in business & politics. Women write Americas proud & thriving history.

One outraged Twitter user responded in all caps saying, YOUR WORDS MEAN NOTHING VANKA.

Another added, And your legacy? Do you think about that? Where, WHERE, are the women you have championed and empowered? Wouldnt ONE of them have come out to talk about how you have improved her life by now. You dont get to champion this month. You are complicit in this administration.

Next: Begging for a royal invite

A not-so royal congratulations

Over a month after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced their engagement, Ivanka Trump took to Twitter to offer the royal couple a very delayed congratulations. She wrote, Wishing Meghan and Prince Harry a lifetime of love, laughter, and happiness together. I have no doubt that this couple will do extraordinary things, both individually and collectively. Congratulations!

Obviously, Twitter folks saw it as a desperate grab for a wedding invite. A Twitter user cleverly snapped back saying, Dear Kremlin Barbie: still not getting an invite. Another added, They dont want your family at their wedding #Sad

Next: A tone-deaf holiday

A rather wealthy Christmas

Though past presidents and first families have spent their holidays giving back to the less fortunate, the Trumps are a different breed. Instead of wishing good cheer to their fellow Americans on Christmas, President Trumps younger daughter, Tiffany Trump, tweeted a video of herself and Ivanka wearing bikinis and blowing kisses.

Needless to say, the video was not well received. One Twitter user said sarcastically, @trumps_feed @IvankaTrump Sorry we missed you at the homeless shelter handing out Christmas gifts.

Another simply added, Well thats embarrassing.

Next: Vicious critics

Whining never wins

In July 2017, Ivanka Trump headed to her favorite program, Fox & Friends, to cry about her fathers vicious critics. Apparently, its gone far beyond what she was expecting. Twitter was immediately amused.

One user tweeted a video of President Trump mocking a disabled reporter with the caption, Yeah none of us expected that level of viciousness ivanka tbh.

Another added, Your brother said critics of your father arent even people.

Next: Fathers and daughters

Inappropriate questions

In February 2018, Ivanka Trump went on NBC News. On the program, journalist, Peter Alexander asked her if she believes the women who accused her father of sexual misconduct. Ivanka was incensed.

She responded, I think its a pretty inappropriate question to ask a daughter if she believes the accusers of her father when hes affirmatively stated theres no truth to it. I dont think thats a question you would ask many other daughters. I believe my father, I know my father. I think I have that right as a daughter to believe my father.

Twitter let the First Daughter have it. One user tweeted, Hey @IvankaTrump, when you choose to work for a president with 19 accusers these are appropriate questions. If you cant answer them then you should step down.

Comedian Chelsea Handler tweeted a creepy picture of a teenage Ivanka seated on her fathers lap. She asked, Ivanka Trump said its inappropriate to ask her about the sexual accusations against her father. Would it be more appropriate if we asked you while you sat on his lap like this?

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Page: 1 2 3 4 5 ... 12 NWO = vatican DrVIP

Registered User

User ID: kaput

03-28-2018 02:49 AM



Posts: 3,902









Post: #1 NWO = vatican

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vatican = rome = iron beast from Daniel.



vatican agents spread disinfo trying to blame it on Jews while presenting rothschild and soros as examples but they work for the vatican.



so simple. Dreamily Resonant VIP vatican controls - jesuits masons knights of malta EU UN fed reserve and much more.vatican = rome = iron beast from Daniel.vatican agents spread disinfo trying to blame it on Jews while presenting rothschild and soros as examples but they work for the vatican.so simple. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-28-2018 02:50 AM











Post: #2 RE: NWO = vatican

Yah the pope is the original anti-christ, pope means vicar of Christ which means in place of Christ or replacement Christ. DrVIP

Registered User

User ID: 1337

03-28-2018 02:54 AM



Posts: 3,902









Post: #3 RE: NWO = vatican

LoP Guest Wrote: (03-28-2018 02:50 AM) Yah the pope is the original anti-christ, pope means vicar of Christ which means in place of Christ or replacement Christ.

and the comes the Jew and says rome invented jesus as part of their nwo plan, and the christian gets butthurt and says the Jewish conspiracy is real.



I know how it works. and the comes the Jew and says rome invented jesus as part of their nwo plan, and the christian gets butthurt and says the Jewish conspiracy is real.I know how it works. Dreamily Resonant VIP LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-28-2018 02:56 AM











Post: #4 RE: NWO = vatican

Time for an evil laugh







LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-28-2018 02:57 AM











Post: #5 RE: NWO = vatican

DrVIP Wrote: (03-28-2018 02:49 AM) vatican controls - jesuits masons knights of malta EU UN fed reserve and much more.



vatican = rome = iron beast from Daniel.



vatican agents spread disinfo trying to blame it on Jews while presenting rothschild and soros as examples but they work for the vatican.



so simple.

Well yah. If you were Satan wouldnt you infiltrate the largest and richest religion. Better yet. Start the religion and then say Peter the disciple started it. Well yah. If you were Satan wouldnt you infiltrate the largest and richest religion. Better yet. Start the religion and then say Peter the disciple started it. DrVIP

Registered User

User ID: 1337

03-28-2018 03:01 AM



Posts: 3,902









Post: #6 RE: NWO = vatican

LoP Guest Wrote: (03-28-2018 02:57 AM) DrVIP Wrote: (03-28-2018 02:49 AM) vatican controls - jesuits masons knights of malta EU UN fed reserve and much more.



vatican = rome = iron beast from Daniel.



vatican agents spread disinfo trying to blame it on Jews while presenting rothschild and soros as examples but they work for the vatican.



so simple.

Well yah. If you were Satan wouldnt you infiltrate the largest and richest religion. Better yet. Start the religion and then say Peter the disciple started it.

explain, theres a hidden player in what youre describing whose identity I cant discern explain, theres a hidden player in what youre describing whose identity I cant discern Dreamily Resonant VIP LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-28-2018 03:02 AM











Post: #7 RE: NWO = vatican

DrVIP Wrote: (03-28-2018 02:54 AM) LoP Guest Wrote: (03-28-2018 02:50 AM) Yah the pope is the original anti-christ, pope means vicar of Christ which means in place of Christ or replacement Christ.

and the comes the Jew and says rome invented jesus as part of their nwo plan, and the christian gets butthurt and says the Jewish conspiracy is real.



I know how it works.

Hmm well I see it a little different than that, I think there is a Jewish conspiracy but the conspiracy is that Satan uses the Jewish people because of Abraham and the prophets.



That is he corrupted most of the Jewish race because of their original birthright. However Christ did come in the flesh and then offer a new way to the Father, the old way is now null and void.



The Jews who ignore the new Covenant by Christs sacrifice and resurrection are easily led by the enemy so he uses them even more. They are still blessed with certain traits that make them very useful servants. For instance many scholars, writers, thinkers and creative people are of Jewish lineage. Hmm well I see it a little different than that, I think there is a Jewish conspiracy but the conspiracy is that Satan uses the Jewish people because of Abraham and the prophets.That is he corrupted most of the Jewish race because of their original birthright. However Christ did come in the flesh and then offer a new way to the Father, the old way is now null and void.The Jews who ignore the new Covenant by Christs sacrifice and resurrection are easily led by the enemy so he uses them even more. They are still blessed with certain traits that make them very useful servants. For instance many scholars, writers, thinkers and creative people are of Jewish lineage. DrVIP

Registered User

User ID: 1337

03-28-2018 03:09 AM



Posts: 3,902









Post: #8 RE: NWO = vatican

LoP Guest Wrote: (03-28-2018 03:02 AM) DrVIP Wrote: (03-28-2018 02:54 AM) and the comes the Jew and says rome invented jesus as part of their nwo plan, and the christian gets butthurt and says the Jewish conspiracy is real.



I know how it works.

Hmm well I see it a little different than that, I think there is a Jewish conspiracy but the conspiracy is that Satan uses the Jewish people because of Abraham and the prophets.



That is he corrupted most of the Jewish race because of their original birthright. However Christ did come in the flesh and then offer a new way to the Father, the old way is now null and void.



The Jews who ignore the new Covenant by Christs sacrifice and resurrection are easily led by the enemy so he uses them even more. They are still blessed with certain traits that make them very useful servants. For instance many scholars, writers, thinkers and creative people are of Jewish lineage.

its ok, I understand.



I cant do anything about it if you dont want to accept the fact jesus is a false prophet invented by rome to try and destroy G-d.

when you choose to see jesus as a good figure who is sent by G-d, you will filter reality to fit that narrative. its ok, I understand.I cant do anything about it if you dont want to accept the fact jesus is a false prophet invented by rome to try and destroy G-d.when you choose to see jesus as a good figure who is sent by G-d, you will filter reality to fit that narrative. Dreamily Resonant VIP LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-28-2018 03:11 AM











Post: #9 RE: NWO = vatican

LoP Guest Wrote: (03-28-2018 02:50 AM) Yah the pope is the original anti-christ, pope means vicar of Christ which means in place of Christ or replacement Christ.

Where you guys been.? Who told you all this truth. ? Wow. Very encouraging. Where you guys been.? Who told you all this truth. ? Wow. Very encouraging. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-28-2018 03:11 AM











Post: #10 RE: NWO = vatican





Read the entire article....heres a snippet.



https://montalk.net/gnosis/187/mosaic-ab...technology



5 - Mosaic Abuse of Demiurgic Technology



Acquisition of the Ark Stone by the proto-Israelites was a critical turning point in history. Under the direction of the entitized thoughtform (Yahweh) manifesting through the Ark, these exiles conquered and prospered into what eventually became ancient Israel and the Jewish people. High demiurgic technology inserted a new religious, political, and economic power into the timeline.



History would have turned out very differently had the Israelites never acquired the Ark Stone, if they faded into history like other tribes of the past. First and foremost there would be no Judaism, and hence no Islam or Christianity. Thus the Catholic Church would not exist either, nor the Inquisition. There would be no anti-Semitism during the Middle Ages, which forced Jews to take refuge in the financial industry since other occupations were barred to them1. Without anti-Semitism, there would be no Nazis, World War II, or Holocaust. After the war, the Nazi scientific intelligentsia were transferred to the USA to work in black ops projects2. From their influence arose the Military Industrial Complex3.



And because of the Holocaust, Israel exists once again as a nation, though only through the oppression of the Palestinians. This has further increased anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism in the world, especially among Israels Arab and Persian neighbors. This conflict is bound to erupt in regional warfare, possibly nuclear. This was written ren years ago and it pretty much sums things up.Read the entire article....heres a snippet.5 - Mosaic Abuse of Demiurgic TechnologyAcquisition of the Ark Stone by the proto-Israelites was a critical turning point in history. Under the direction of the entitized thoughtform (Yahweh) manifesting through the Ark, these exiles conquered and prospered into what eventually became ancient Israel and the Jewish people. High demiurgic technology inserted a new religious, political, and economic power into the timeline.History would have turned out very differently had the Israelites never acquired the Ark Stone, if they faded into history like other tribes of the past. First and foremost there would be no Judaism, and hence no Islam or Christianity. Thus the Catholic Church would not exist either, nor the Inquisition. There would be no anti-Semitism during the Middle Ages, which forced Jews to take refuge in the financial industry since other occupations were barred to them1. Without anti-Semitism, there would be no Nazis, World War II, or Holocaust. After the war, the Nazi scientific intelligentsia were transferred to the USA to work in black ops projects2. From their influence arose the Military Industrial Complex3.And because of the Holocaust, Israel exists once again as a nation, though only through the oppression of the Palestinians. This has further increased anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism in the world, especially among Israels Arab and Persian neighbors. This conflict is bound to erupt in regional warfare, possibly nuclear. DrVIP

Registered User

User ID: 1337

03-28-2018 03:16 AM



Posts: 3,902









Post: #11 RE: NWO = vatican

LoP Guest Wrote: (03-28-2018 03:11 AM) This was written ren years ago and it pretty much sums things up.



Read the entire article....heres a snippet.



https://montalk.net/gnosis/187/mosaic-ab...technology



5 - Mosaic Abuse of Demiurgic Technology



Acquisition of the Ark Stone by the proto-Israelites was a critical turning point in history. Under the direction of the entitized thoughtform (Yahweh) manifesting through the Ark, these exiles conquered and prospered into what eventually became ancient Israel and the Jewish people. High demiurgic technology inserted a new religious, political, and economic power into the timeline.



History would have turned out very differently had the Israelites never acquired the Ark Stone, if they faded into history like other tribes of the past. First and foremost there would be no Judaism, and hence no Islam or Christianity. Thus the Catholic Church would not exist either, nor the Inquisition. There would be no anti-Semitism during the Middle Ages, which forced Jews to take refuge in the financial industry since other occupations were barred to them1. Without anti-Semitism, there would be no Nazis, World War II, or Holocaust. After the war, the Nazi scientific intelligentsia were transferred to the USA to work in black ops projects2. From their influence arose the Military Industrial Complex3.



And because of the Holocaust, Israel exists once again as a nation, though only through the oppression of the Palestinians. This has further increased anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism in the world, especially among Israels Arab and Persian neighbors. This conflict is bound to erupt in regional warfare, possibly nuclear.

you attribute so much to the ark... but most of what you wrote happened after the ark was lost.



also if you choose to see the creator as a demiurge its becuase you are butthurt. you attribute so much to the ark... but most of what you wrote happened after the ark was lost.also if you choose to see the creator as a demiurge its becuase you are butthurt. Dreamily Resonant VIP LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-28-2018 03:31 AM











Post: #12 RE: NWO = vatican

DrVIP Wrote: (03-28-2018 03:09 AM) LoP Guest Wrote: (03-28-2018 03:02 AM) I cant do anything about it if you dont want to accept the fact jesus is a false prophet invented by rome to try and destroy G-d.

nope. Jesus is in fact the messiah. Do not start with your Jesus bashing bullshit. nope. Jesus is in fact the messiah. Do not start with your Jesus bashing bullshit. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-28-2018 03:37 AM











Post: #13 RE: NWO = vatican

LoP Guest Wrote: (03-28-2018 03:11 AM) This was written ren years ago and it pretty much sums things up.



Read the entire article....heres a snippet.



https://montalk.net/gnosis/187/mosaic-ab...technology



5 - Mosaic Abuse of Demiurgic Technology



Acquisition of the Ark Stone by the proto-Israelites was a critical turning point in history. Under the direction of the entitized thoughtform (Yahweh) manifesting through the Ark, these exiles conquered and prospered into what eventually became ancient Israel and the Jewish people. High demiurgic technology inserted a new religious, political, and economic power into the timeline.



History would have turned out very differently had the Israelites never acquired the Ark Stone, if they faded into history like other tribes of the past. First and foremost there would be no Judaism, and hence no Islam or Christianity. Thus the Catholic Church would not exist either, nor the Inquisition. There would be no anti-Semitism during the Middle Ages, which forced Jews to take refuge in the financial industry since other occupations were barred to them1. Without anti-Semitism, there would be no Nazis, World War II, or Holocaust. After the war, the Nazi scientific intelligentsia were transferred to the USA to work in black ops projects2. From their influence arose the Military Industrial Complex3.



And because of the Holocaust, Israel exists once again as a nation, though only through the oppression of the Palestinians. This has further increased anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism in the world, especially among Israels Arab and Persian neighbors. This conflict is bound to erupt in regional warfare, possibly nuclear. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-28-2018 03:47 AM











Post: #14 RE: NWO = vatican

DrVIP Wrote: (03-28-2018 03:16 AM) LoP Guest Wrote: (03-28-2018 03:11 AM) This was written ren years ago and it pretty much sums things up.



Read the entire article....heres a snippet.



https://montalk.net/gnosis/187/mosaic-ab...technology



5 - Mosaic Abuse of Demiurgic Technology



Acquisition of the Ark Stone by the proto-Israelites was a critical turning point in history. Under the direction of the entitized thoughtform (Yahweh) manifesting through the Ark, these exiles conquered and prospered into what eventually became ancient Israel and the Jewish people. High demiurgic technology inserted a new religious, political, and economic power into the timeline.



History would have turned out very differently had the Israelites never acquired the Ark Stone, if they faded into history like other tribes of the past. First and foremost there would be no Judaism, and hence no Islam or Christianity. Thus the Catholic Church would not exist either, nor the Inquisition. There would be no anti-Semitism during the Middle Ages, which forced Jews to take refuge in the financial industry since other occupations were barred to them1. Without anti-Semitism, there would be no Nazis, World War II, or Holocaust. After the war, the Nazi scientific intelligentsia were transferred to the USA to work in black ops projects2. From their influence arose the Military Industrial Complex3.



And because of the Holocaust, Israel exists once again as a nation, though only through the oppression of the Palestinians. This has further increased anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism in the world, especially among Israels Arab and Persian neighbors. This conflict is bound to erupt in regional warfare, possibly nuclear.

you attribute so much to the ark... but most of what you wrote happened after the ark was lost.



also if you choose to see the creator as a demiurge its becuase you are butthurt.

Jewish god not the creator...you didnt read the entire article because you are lazy.



Snip...



It all goes back to the Hyksos expulsion (1550 B.C) and the Osarseph Rebellion (1320 B.C.) in Egypt. One or both of these events involved transport of the Ark Stone out of Egypt into Canaan. In both events, the Semitic leadership in Egypt was ousted and exiled. According to ancient historians Manetho and Josephus, a High Priest of Akhenaten named Osarseph, who held allegiance to the Semitic people of Lower Egypt, lead his monotheistic followers out of Egypt after a failed rebellion against the Egyptian traditionalists. As the story goes, this heretic priest and his people became Moses and the Israelites4.



There may be more to the story. In The Stellar Man, hermetic author Dario Salas Sommer (John Baines) relays a parallel account of what happened in Egypt, based on his research and inside sources as member of the Hermetic brotherhood. Because of its importance and relevance, I quote it here in full:end snip..



Snip...



We invite the reader to meditate on what he could do to corrupt human beings if he was Satan; what means or tools would he use to instigate crime, greed, war, fratricide, and decay of moral values? It would be difficult to imagine anything more perfectly suited for this than gold; neutral in its own condition, but diabolical when handled perversely.



Does Satan really exist, or is he only a myth created by the masses to explain certain things? If a person believes in the existence of God, then he must believe there is a devil or Satan as a counterpart of the Supreme Creator. Because absolute unity does not exist in life, the mere existence of something leads us to the affirmation that its opposite is also real. There is no light without darkness, no good without evil, no truth without falsehood. Death follows life, and life follows death.



God would thus be the supreme creative intelligence, and the devil, the destructive intelligence. In the ancient Kabbalah, the devil has been symbolized as the shadow of God. Therefore, just as the Great Creator has his angelic hosts, the devil also has his infernal legion. William Blatty, in his book The Exorcist, refers to this legion when he presents the phenomenon of demonic possession. After the following explanation we can continue our story.



The tradition transmitted by the great Hermetic Masters affirms that at a crucial moment in the history of humanity, a powerful diabolic Archangel, if we are allowed to call him thus, succeeded in penetrating the earths occult defenses and entered its atmosphere, provoking extreme disturbances. To be able to imagine such a being, we suggest reading the book The Lurker at the Threshold by H. P. Lovecraft. According to Hermetic tradition, the direct, albeit unwilling cause of this catastrophe which affects us to this day, was Moses. ..End snip.



Moses was Osarseph, Black Magician, leper, (see the book of numbers) Rogue Egyptian High Preist. He was Villain  not a hero  he was expelled, along with his followers out of Egypt.



I encourage everyone gathered here to read the entire thing. You wont be sorry.



https://montalk.net/gnosis/187/mosaic-ab...technology Jewish god not the creator...you didnt read the entire article because you are lazy.Snip...It all goes back to the Hyksos expulsion (1550 B.C) and the Osarseph Rebellion (1320 B.C.) in Egypt. One or both of these events involved transport of the Ark Stone out of Egypt into Canaan. In both events, the Semitic leadership in Egypt was ousted and exiled. According to ancient historians Manetho and Josephus, a High Priest of Akhenaten named Osarseph, who held allegiance to the Semitic people of Lower Egypt, lead his monotheistic followers out of Egypt after a failed rebellion against the Egyptian traditionalists. As the story goes, this heretic priest and his people became Moses and the Israelites4.There may be more to the story. In The Stellar Man, hermetic author Dario Salas Sommer (John Baines) relays a parallel account of what happened in Egypt, based on his research and inside sources as member of the Hermetic brotherhood. Because of its importance and relevance, I quote it here in full:end snip..Snip...We invite the reader to meditate on what he could do to corrupt human beings if he was Satan; what means or tools would he use to instigate crime, greed, war, fratricide, and decay of moral values? It would be difficult to imagine anything more perfectly suited for this than gold; neutral in its own condition, but diabolical when handled perversely.Does Satan really exist, or is he only a myth created by the masses to explain certain things? If a person believes in the existence of God, then he must believe there is a devil or Satan as a counterpart of the Supreme Creator. Because absolute unity does not exist in life, the mere existence of something leads us to the affirmation that its opposite is also real. There is no light without darkness, no good without evil, no truth without falsehood. Death follows life, and life follows death.God would thus be the supreme creative intelligence, and the devil, the destructive intelligence. In the ancient Kabbalah, the devil has been symbolized as the shadow of God. Therefore, just as the Great Creator has his angelic hosts, the devil also has his infernal legion. William Blatty, in his book The Exorcist, refers to this legion when he presents the phenomenon of demonic possession. After the following explanation we can continue our story.The tradition transmitted by the great Hermetic Masters affirms that at a crucial moment in the history of humanity, a powerful diabolic Archangel, if we are allowed to call him thus, succeeded in penetrating the earths occult defenses and entered its atmosphere, provoking extreme disturbances. To be able to imagine such a being, we suggest reading the book The Lurker at the Threshold by H. P. Lovecraft...End snip.Moses was Osarseph, Black Magician, leper, (see the book of numbers) Rogue Egyptian High Preist. He was Villain  not a hero  he was expelled, along with his followers out of Egypt.I encourage everyone gathered here to read the entire thing. You wont be sorry. DrVIP

Registered User

User ID: 1337

03-28-2018 03:54 AM



Posts: 3,902









Post: #15 RE: NWO = vatican

LoP Guest Wrote: (03-28-2018 03:47 AM) DrVIP Wrote: (03-28-2018 03:16 AM) you attribute so much to the ark... but most of what you wrote happened after the ark was lost.



also if you choose to see the creator as a demiurge its becuase you are butthurt.

Jewish god not the creator...you didnt read the entire article because you are lazy.



Snip...



It all goes back to the Hyksos expulsion (1550 B.C) and the Osarseph Rebellion (1320 B.C.) in Egypt. One or both of these events involved transport of the Ark Stone out of Egypt into Canaan. In both events, the Semitic leadership in Egypt was ousted and exiled. According to ancient historians Manetho and Josephus, a High Priest of Akhenaten named Osarseph, who held allegiance to the Semitic people of Lower Egypt, lead his monotheistic followers out of Egypt after a failed rebellion against the Egyptian traditionalists. As the story goes, this heretic priest and his people became Moses and the Israelites4.



There may be more to the story. In The Stellar Man, hermetic author Dario Salas Sommer (John Baines) relays a parallel account of what happened in Egypt, based on his research and inside sources as member of the Hermetic brotherhood. Because of its importance and relevance, I quote it here in full:end snip..



Snip...



We invite the reader to meditate on what he could do to corrupt human beings if he was Satan; what means or tools would he use to instigate crime, greed, war, fratricide, and decay of moral values? It would be difficult to imagine anything more perfectly suited for this than gold; neutral in its own condition, but diabolical when handled perversely.



Does Satan really exist, or is he only a myth created by the masses to explain certain things? If a person believes in the existence of God, then he must believe there is a devil or Satan as a counterpart of the Supreme Creator. Because absolute unity does not exist in life, the mere existence of something leads us to the affirmation that its opposite is also real. There is no light without darkness, no good without evil, no truth without falsehood. Death follows life, and life follows death.



God would thus be the supreme creative intelligence, and the devil, the destructive intelligence. In the ancient Kabbalah, the devil has been symbolized as the shadow of God. Therefore, just as the Great Creator has his angelic hosts, the devil also has his infernal legion. William Blatty, in his book The Exorcist, refers to this legion when he presents the phenomenon of demonic possession. After the following explanation we can continue our story.



The tradition transmitted by the great Hermetic Masters affirms that at a crucial moment in the history of humanity, a powerful diabolic Archangel, if we are allowed to call him thus, succeeded in penetrating the earths occult defenses and entered its atmosphere, provoking extreme disturbances. To be able to imagine such a being, we suggest reading the book The Lurker at the Threshold by H. P. Lovecraft. According to Hermetic tradition, the direct, albeit unwilling cause of this catastrophe which affects us to this day, was Moses. ..End snip.



Moses was Osarseph, Black Magician, leper, (see the book of numbers) Rogue Egyptian High Preist. He was Villain  not a hero  he was expelled, along with his followers out of Egypt.



I encourage everyone gathered here to read the entire thing. You wont be sorry.



https://montalk.net/gnosis/187/mosaic-ab...technology



wow you actually believe in fantasies and fairy tales so you could lable G-d as an evil demiurge.



btw, Moses predates akhenaten.



the Exodus of Israel out of egypt was during the reign of pharoah pepi 2, the last pharoah of the old kingdom which fell because of the plagues.



gnostism was invented by pagans who lived in Judea during the 2nd temple period, and studied some kabbalah, but they were butthurt because Judaism destroyed their old ways.



its ok... you can cry. wow you actually believe in fantasies and fairy tales so you could lable G-d as an evil demiurge.btw, Moses predates akhenaten.the Exodus of Israel out of egypt was during the reign of pharoah pepi 2, the last pharoah of the old kingdom which fell because of the plagues.gnostism was invented by pagans who lived in Judea during the 2nd temple period, and studied some kabbalah, but they were butthurt because Judaism destroyed their old ways.its ok... you can cry. Dreamily Resonant VIP Advertisement


















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West hypocrites supporting who in Ukraine? conspiracyparty

Registered User

User ID: kaput

03-28-2018 04:06 PM



Posts: 1,025









Post: #1 West hypocrites supporting who in Ukraine?

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many of these groups were Liberal/Progressive.





today the same trend continues in Ukraine... keep in mind the US sends weapons there,

participated in the coup, and probably wants them to join NATO.





Quote: In 1991 Svoboda was founded as the 'Social-National Party of Ukraine'.[48] The party combined radical nationalism and neo-Nazi features.[49][50][51] It was renamed and rebranded 13 years later as 'All-Ukrainian Association Svoboda' in 2004 under Oleh Tyahnybok. In 2016, The Nation reported that "in Ukrainian municipal elections held [in October 2015], the neo-Nazi Svoboda party won 10 percent of the vote in Kiev and placed second in Lviv. The Svoboda partys candidate actually won the mayoral election in the city of Konotop."[52] The Svoboda party mayor in Konotop reportedly has the number "14/88" displayed on his car and has refused to display the city's official flag because it contains a star of David, and has implied that Jews were responsible for the Holodomor.[49]



The topic of Ukrainian nationalism and its alleged relationship to Neo-Nazism came to the fore in polemics about the more radical elements involved in the Euromaidan protests and subsequent Ukrainian crisis from 2013 onward.[51] Some Russian, Latin American, U.S. and Israeli media have attempted to portray the Ukrainian nationalists in the conflict as neo-Nazi.[53][54] The main Ukrainian organisations involved with a neo-Banderaite legacy are Right Sector,[55] Svoboda and Azov Battalion. The persons regarded as Ukraine's national heroes  Stepan Bandera, Roman Shukhevych or Dmytro Klyachkivsky of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA)  at times supported and then opposed the presence of the Third Reich in Ukraine.[56][57]



After Yanokovych's ouster in February 2014, the interim Yatsenyuk Government placed 4 Svoboda members in leading positions: Oleksandr Sych as Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine, Ihor Tenyukh as Minister of Defense, lawyer Ihor Shvaika as Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food and Andriy Mokhnyk as Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine.[58][59] Since 14 April 2016 the Chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament has been Andriy Parubiy,[60][61] the co-founder of the neo-Nazi 'Social-National Party of Ukraine'.[59]



In June 2015, Democratic Representative John Conyers and his Republican colleague Ted Yoho offered bipartisan amendments to block the U.S. military training of Ukraine's Azov Battalion  called a neo-Nazi paramilitary militia by Conyers and Yoho.[62][63][52] Andriy Biletsky, the head of the ultra-nationalist and neo-Nazi political groups Social-National Assembly and Patriots of Ukraine,[64] has been commander of the Azov Battalion.[65] Azov Battalion of the Ukrainian National Guard[62] is fighting pro-Russian separatists in the War in Donbass.[66][67] Some members of the battalion are openly white supremacists.[65] preWW2 to mid WW2 countries like the US had elites funding the Nazis.many of these groups were Liberal/Progressive.today the same trend continues in Ukraine... keep in mind the US sends weapons there,participated in the coup, and probably wants them to join NATO. conspiracyparty

Registered User

User ID: 1337

03-28-2018 04:13 PM



Posts: 1,025









Post: #2 RE: West hypocrites supporting who in Ukraine?

well done to the libs and neocons

for supporting neonazis,

while you accuse the Russians of being neonazis and/or communists (which is it?).



funnily enough the libs dont realize that Ukraine has similar positions on their precious LBGT as do the Russians.



but hey neonazis are preferable to big bad Russia lol! LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-28-2018 04:16 PM











Post: #3 RE: West hypocrites supporting who in Ukraine?





Russian agitprop shill alert. Go home Ivan, you're drunk again. conspiracyparty

Registered User

User ID: 1337

03-28-2018 05:14 PM



Posts: 1,025









Post: #4 RE: West hypocrites supporting who in Ukraine?

poor sodomite got angry about truth.



hows your third reich? (This post was last modified: 03-28-2018 05:14 PM by conspiracyparty .) LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-28-2018 05:16 PM











Post: #5 RE: West hypocrites supporting who in Ukraine?

They pay you in vodka for this crap? LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-28-2018 05:23 PM











Post: #6 RE: West hypocrites supporting who in Ukraine?

conspiracyparty Wrote: (03-28-2018 05:14 PM) poor sodomite got angry about truth.



hows your third reich?

Hey Ivan, you've been found out!



LoP Guest Wrote: (03-28-2018 05:13 PM) LoP Guest Wrote: (03-28-2018 04:21 PM) Shilling for Russia has gone into overdrive.

sleapy hollow Wrote: (03-28-2018 05:12 PM) noticed this ^^^^^^



bit of a liberal red fest going on ! LOP is no longer a conspiracy site but a forum for lefty communist liberals spouting their bullshit everywhere . and some of them are members lol

Better switch to plan B.



Hey Ivan, you've been found out!Better switch to plan B. conspiracyparty

Registered User

User ID: 1337

03-28-2018 05:24 PM



Posts: 1,025









Post: #7 RE: West hypocrites supporting who in Ukraine?

i dont drink alchohol.



but vodka is better

than mass bombing nations and spreading lbgt.



so piss off.



btw im not russian, i just despise your kind of savages.



enjoy your 40% of obesity,

50 million food stamps

now run to your parades.



got that? or are you gonna accuse me of being ivan without proof because you got no better arguments?



Westerners excel at accusing without proof. Just ask May. (This post was last modified: 03-28-2018 05:26 PM by conspiracyparty .)
















Atheist Richard Dawkins warns of 'something worse' if Christianity continues to decline in Europe

Famed atheist Richard Dawkins has warned against celebrating the demise of Christianity in Europe, noting that the "relatively benign" religion could be replaced with something worse.

"Before we rejoice at the death throes of the relatively benign Christian religion, let's not forget Hilaire Belloc's menacing rhyme: 'Always keep a-hold of nurse For fear of finding something worse,'" Dawkins wrote in a recent tweet.

The author of "The God Delusion" has previously expressed concern about the decline of Christianity in the West, controversially stating he did not know of Christians who are carrying out acts of terrorism.

"There are no Christians, as far as I know, blowing up buildings. I am not aware of any Christian suicide bombers. I am not aware of any major Christian denomination that believes the penalty for apostasy is death. I have mixed feelings about the decline of Christianity, in so far as Christianity might be a bulwark against something worse," he said, as reported by CBN News.

Dawkins' recent post linked to an article about a study that highlighted the declining trend of religious affiliation among young people in Europe.

The findings of the study indicated that a majority of 16- to 29-year-olds in 12 European countries are not religiously affiliated.

The survey found that Czech Republic was the least religious country, with 91 percent of young people saying they do not have any religious affiliation. Between 70 to 80 percent of young adults in Estonia, Sweden and the Netherlands also do not associate with any religion.

The largest concentration of Christians was found in Poland at 83 percent, followed by Lithuania at 74 percent and Ireland at 59 percent. The smallest proportions were found in Czech Republic at nine percent, Sweden at 18 percent and Netherlands at 19 percent.

In the U.K., seven percent of young adults identified as Anglican, while 10 percent described themselves as Catholics and six percent as Muslims. As many as 59 percent of young people never attend religious services and almost two-thirds never pray.

The report titled "Europe's Young Adults and Religion" was authored by Stephen Bullivant, a professor of theology and the sociology of religion at St Mary's University in London.

Based on the findings, Bullivant remarked that religion was "moribund" and "Christianity as a default, as a norm, is gone, and probably gone for good  or at least for the next 100 years."

Bullivant's research is consistent with the findings of a previous study conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2015, which stated that Europe's Christian population is expected to shrink by around 100 million people in the coming decades.

The Pew study further noted that while Christians will remain the largest religious group in Europe, 10 percent of the continent's population will be made up by Muslims by 2050, up from 5.9 percent in 2010.
China releases key underground bishop ahead of rumoured deal with Vatican

Chinese police have released a key 'underground' bishop after arresting him and holding him for a day as Beijing and the Vatican prepare to seal a historic agreement on the appointment of prelates, a source told AFP today.

Vincent Guo Xijin, bishop of the diocese of Mindong in the southeastern province of Fujian, was at the centre of the highly controversial deal after being urged by the Vatican to step aside for another bishop recognised by China's Communist government.

According to Asia News, bishop Gua and the chancellor of the diocese, Fr Xu, were arrested by the police on Monday evening. The status of the second church official is unclear, AFP said.

Reports said that at 3pm, bishop Guo, 59, was called into the office for religious affairs where he met with government officials for over two hours. At 7pm he reportedly returned to his residence but at 10pm he was taken away.

Beijing and the Vatican severed diplomatic relations in 1951 and though ties have improved as China's Catholic population grows, they have remained at odds over the appointment of bishops.

There are around 12 million Catholics in China who are divided between a government-run association, whose clergy are chosen by the Communist Party, and an unofficial church which swears allegiance to the Vatican.

AFP pointed out that the situation is complex because the Vatican has previously accepted several bishops appointed by Beijing, which is an officially atheist regime.

Guo, who is recognised by the Vatican but not by the Chinese authorities, was recently urged by the Vatican to step aside for Bishop Vincent Zhan Silu and to accept being demoted to auxiliary bishop, as part of preparations for the agreement.

According to Catholics consulted by AsiaNews, the disappearance of the bishop of Mindong is down to the fact that he refused to celebrate Easter with the prelate who will replace him.

According to La Croix, a Chinese delegation is expected in Rome this week.

LifesiteNews.com reported that last year, Bishop Guo disappeared at the hands of Chinese police just before Easter and reappeared 20 days later.

The website said that representatives of the underground Church say Bishop Guo was taken away for having refused to concelebrate the Easter liturgies with Bishop Zhan Silu, an illegitimate and excommunicated bishop who was approved by the Chinese authorities.
Do Christians really have to be nice to everyone?

Being nice to everyone every second of the day sounds impossible. We're humans and there's no "nice" switch to always keep us in a good mood. It's reality. However, as Christians, when we talk to other people or even simply walk down the street and meet strangers, there's that belief that we must always be nice to everyone we see and meet. That's too much pressure, right? And if you're not being nice, other people will be quick to judge and say you're a hypocrite. If you've been wondering if Christians must always be nice to everyone, let's discuss that in more detail today.

Nice vs. Kind

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.  Ephesians 4:32

There's a difference between being nice and kind. When you're being nice, it simply means you're always smiling and always pleasant to different people. On the other hand, being kind is more than just a smiling face; it comes from the heart.

Certainly, there's no harm in trying to be nice to everyone. It won't be hard to flash a smile on your face when you're waiting in line for something. Little do you know that your smile is already helping people get through a tough day. However, if you're not in the mood to do so, don't force yourself. No need to feel guilty about it. The more important thing is that you try your best to be kind to everyone as much as possible.

Love Your Neighbors

One of the ten commandments was to love your neighbor as you love yourself. It sounds a bit exhausting, doesn't it? It also sounded like you have to be best friends with everyone you meet. That is not the case at all.

God doesn't expect you to invite every friend you have over for a good meal. But what this "love" means is that you treat everyone with respect and generosity. The concept of being kind also comes into the picture here, because without genuine kindness, you won't be generous as well.

If you don't like someone or someone really annoys you, you don't have to force yourself to be his/her friend. However, the right thing to do is to avoid gossiping about the person, avoiding them, plotting against them, or instilling hatred in your heart toward this person. You can try to understand this person more and still be respectful and polite when he/she talks to you  this is already considered love.

The Takeaway

As a Christian, you are not expected to be perfect. As we all know, it is a struggle every day to be a Christian worthy of being God's child. Nonetheless, you still have the right to feel disappointed or angry. It doesn't make you less of a Christian if you feel negative emotions. You don't have to be nice to everyone and like them. But if you can, do so. The important thing you have to focus on is how to react when something bad happens or how to treat others with love and kindness. As much as possible, be gentle, be patient, be kind and good, practice self-control, and offer peace as these are the fruits of the Spirit.
Duggar family latest news: Jessa Seewald contemplates baby number 3

New episodes of TLC's "Counting On" will be aired this summer, and in it, Jim Bob and Michelle's daughter, Jessa Seewald, is contemplating getting pregnant with baby number three.

Jessa and her husband, Ben Seewald, already have two boys - Spurgeon Elliot and Henry Wilberforce. During a supertease of the show shared by PEOPLE, it looks like Ben is already thinking of their next baby. "What if we have another kid by the end of four years?" he asked his wife.

The Christian couple were also asked how they keep the "spark" alive in their marriage, but Jessa had to confess: "There's days where it feels like we have just hardly any time in the evening together."

"It seems like our family never slows down," she added. Her younger sister, Joy-Anna, quickly chimed in: "You never know what's going to happen next."

In another clip, Jessa said that she can no longer keep up with their family's expansion. "It's crazy how much has changed in our family over the past year and there's so much more to come," she said. "Babies, relationships and milestones are always happening."

Jessa's younger sister Jinger is expected to give birth to her first child with husband Jeremy Vuolo this year, while her younger brother Josiah is now engaged to Lauren Swanson.

She was already rumored to be pregnant with baby number three already, but a Duggar family spokesperson came forward and told E! News that the report is absolutely false.

The rumor was first started when a source reportedly told In Touch that Jessa has another bun in the oven, although she is timing her pregnancy announcement. "Jessa is definitely pregnant and will be making an announcement in April," the insider dished, adding that the reality star is already four months along.

Ben and Jessa "have been keeping the news under wraps, partly because it was in the early stages and also because she did not want to take away from the news that her brother Josiah and Lauren are getting married," the source also alleged.
Last male northern white rhino's death a spiritual matter, says Catholic priest

The death of Sudan, the last male northern white rhinoceros in the Kenyan wild, is not just an environmental concern but a spiritual concern, according to a Catholic priest in Kenya who is also a conservationist.

Caretakers and scientists at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy decided to euthanize Sudan on March 19 following an infection that resulted from complications attributed to his age. Father Charles Odira said that Sudan's death indicated problems that relate to man's regard for God's creations in light of religious fanaticism.

"I feel as if we have neglected our duty as stewards of creation and should have done more for this species," Odira told reporters.

The priest also shared that demand for rhino body parts, as well as other animals, contributed to its extinction in light of religious fanaticism. In Asia, for instance, people believe these body parts have healing powers and bring good luck, hence poachers continue to hunt endangered species.

"We have talked to religious leaders in the region about how this is killing our wildlife," Odira stated. "We believe God cannot commission the death of species that he had brought to life."

Sudan left behind two female offspring, a daughter and a granddaughter. Hope of a pregnancy via in vitro fertilization, however, were dashed as the female animals are not of good health. Experts think they won't be able to carry a pregnancy to term or will die during the pregnancy.

The 45-year-old animal arrived at the Kenya conservatory in 2009 from a Czech Republic zoo. Because his species' status was critical, guards stood guard round-the-clock to ensure his safety and stave off poachers. The conservatory also cut off his horn so hunters wouldn't have interest in the animal.

In 1960s, rhinos like Sudan freely roamed the African and Sumatran jungles. At that time of his birth in 1972, there were hundreds of white rhinoceros.
Lawmakers applaud US Navy for declining application of 'atheist chaplain'

Two members of Congress have commended the U.S. Navy for rejecting the application of an atheist to be a chaplain for the service.

Jason Heap, who describes himself as a "humanist" and a "non-theist," had initially applied to become chaplain in 2013, but the service rejected the application.

A Navy chaplain advisory board had recently recommended approving Heap's application, prompting dozens of members of Congress to send letters to Navy leaders this month to express their opposition. Senators have argued that the service already has the authority to create programs to support atheists and humanists.

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), who spearheaded the effort to block the appointment, said that the Navy's leadership did the "right thing" in rejecting Heap's application.

"The appointment of an atheist to an undeniably religious position is fundamentally incompatible with atheism's secularism. This decision preserves the distinct religious role that our chaplains carry out," he said, according to Washington Examiner.

The Navy Chaplain Corps is made up of officers representing a variety of religions including Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism, with the aim of promoting religious and spiritual well-being among sailors and Marines.

Rep. Doug Lamborn said that he was relieved to see the Navy's response, and stressed that allowing an atheist to serve as chaplain "would've gone against everything the chaplaincy was created to do."

"It would open the door to a host of so-called chaplains who represent philosophical worldviews and NOT the distinctly religious role of the Chaplain Corps," he added.

Retired Army chaplain Phil Wright, who currently serves as the executive director of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, said that his organization is encouraged by the Navy's decision.

"We commend the Navy for its decision to not approve the humanist chaplain prospect because  just by definition of his belief system  he is hostile or antagonistic to religion and could not meet the religious needs of the men and women serving in the military," he said.

Wright said that his Christian group - whose members endorse two-thirds of the 5,500 chaplains serving in the military  does not understand what a humanist chaplain would offer to service members seeking spiritual guidance to deal with the effects of combat and other stresses of deployment.

Heap, who holds a master's degree in divinity from Texas Christian University as well as a theological history degree from Oxford, filed a lawsuit against the Navy and the Pentagon in 2014 after the rejection of his application to the Chaplain Corps.

He has tried several times to become a Navy chaplain since the Department of Defense started recognizing humanism as an official belief, but his attempts to date have been unsuccessful.
Mom crashes car with two daughters inside to prove to them God is real

A mother driving a car with her 5 and 7-year-old daughers inside has landed in jail after crashing her car into an electric post in Georgia. Authorities said that the 25-year-old mom, Bakari Warren, wanted to prove to her children that God exists and thus, would protect them from getting hurt even if she crashed the vehicle.

One of her children told police that Warren deliberately crashed their SUV and drove towards the concrete post with her eyes closed. Before the crash, Warren was telling her daughters about her love and devotion to God, and that she wanted them to be actual witnesses to the wreckage to prove that He is real.

Warren crossed the car from the north side of Peachtree Industrial Boulevard to the southbound lanes. Police rushed to the scene then accosted the mom and placed her in handcuffs, while emergency services checked on the children.

Authorities saw the crash in traffic videos. It showed Warren driving at high speed. The kids and their mom, however, sustained no injuries despite the high speed crash. Their account of what happened was recorded on police videos as well.

Investigation found no other reason to indicate what triggered the mom to put her children's lives in danger in such a reckless way. She told reporters to check her Facebook profile but no entries were found that indicated any clue as to her motives.

Later, she insisted to police that she just really wanted to prove that God exists and would protect them. She defended that the girls were strapped in with their seatbelts before she crashed the car.

"It could have been a lot worse," Norcross police Sergeant Eric Butynski told the press. "It could have been heavier traffic at the time, she could have hit the pole at such an angle that she did more damage to the car."

Warren remains in jail at Gwinnett County with a $22,000 bond and faces charges of two counts of child cruelty. Her children are currently in the custody of their grandparents.
Over 4,000 Christian families return to Mosul following victory against ISIS

More than 4,000 displaced Christian families have returned to Mosul since the city was fully liberated from Islamic State militants, the governor of the northern Iraqi province of Nineveh said.

Nawfal Hammadi stated that more than 4,000 families have returned to the strategic city and have resided in its eastern and western flanks, Press TV reported. He noted that most of the Christian families had resettled in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region after they were overran by ISIS.

The governor went on to note that a small number of Christian families in Erbil will be returning to Mosul once the current school year winds up.

ISIS overran vast swathes of territory in Iraq during its terror campaign that began in 2014. In the battle to take back control of Mosul, some sweeping gains were made by the Iraqi army soldiers and volunteer Hashd al-Sha'abi fighters against the group.

Eastern Mosul was liberated by Iraqi forces in January 2017 after 100 days of fighting, and the battle to take control of the western part of the city was launched on Feb. 19 last year.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi formally declared victory against ISIS in Mosul in July 10 and he announced the end of military operations against the terror group in the country on Dec. 9, 2017.

Since the defeat of ISIS, several humanitarian groups have been working to restore the homes of Christians in the Nineveh Plains.

In February, Open Doors announced that 678 Christian homes have been rebuilt in the region. The group and its local partners have helped to rebuild 286 houses in Qaraqosh, which was once known to be the largest Christian town in Iraq. The charity went on to support the restoration of 392 more houses throughout the rest of the Nineveh Plains.

Other charities such as the Knights of Columbus and Aid to the Church in Need were also instrumental in providing support to Christians who are returning to their homes in Iraq.

Aid to the Church in Need has provided $5 million to support projects aimed at rebuilding and repairing an estimated 2,000 Christian homes in Iraq.

Last year, the Knights of Columbus had raised about $2 million to support the rebuilding of homes in Karamdes. The U.S.-based Catholic fraternal organization had been inspired by the $2 million donation made by the government of Hungary to help the restoration of Christian homes in the town of Telskuf.

In January, the U.S. government designated $55 million to help persecuted Christians, Yazidis and other religious minorities victimized by ISIS militants in Iraq.

The $55 million is part of the $75 million payment by U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to the U.N. Development Program (UNDP) Funding Facility for Stabilization (FFS) in Iraq.

The USAID announced in a press release that time that it has ensured that the amount "will address the needs of vulnerable religious and ethnic minority communities" in the Nineveh Province.

Another $75 million has been designated for FFS, but USAID noted that the "fulfillment of the rest of that pledge will depend on UNDP's success in putting in place additional accountability, transparency, and due-diligence measures for the FFS."
Pesach: From the Egypt of our lives to the Promised Land

On Friday after nightfall Jewish communities the world over will be celebrating the spring festival Pesach (Passover) as usual.

Preparations often start as early as January, with every corner of the house or flat cleaned thoroughly from top to bottom. But most people start seriously after the carnival festival of Purim, exactly a month before Pesach. The most in-depth cleaning takes place in the kitchen, with every crevice scoured and special non-leaven foods bought or prepared, and once-a-year crockery and cutlery brought out in honour of the occasion.

But Pesach is not really about food and fun: it is there to teach us a grim story.

Everywhere the Jewish community has lived outside of Israel has been regarded as 'galut', the miserable diaspora existence in which we are not only told by G-d that we are strangers in a strange land, but life teaches us this every minute of the day, every day of the week, every week of the year.

This week demonstrations have been held outside Parliament objecting to antisemitism in the Labour Party led by Jeremy Corbyn. In 2018 Britain, that this should be necessary simply beggars rational belief.

But then Jew-hatred is not and never has been rational. And politics is not the only culprit. For decades we have known that antisemitism is rife in our universities, and yet nothing is done. Justifications from 'freedom of speech' are used when it suits, and only when it is a question of Jew-baiting. No other minority would allow academic institutions to get away with this type of behaviour.

Then there are sermons at Easter or after the latest terrorist attack. Antisemitism has been built into the wording of official church services, especially at Easter, and some Easter hymns I have heard are still shockingly antisemitic in terminology. And as for terrorist attacks, I have actually read and heard more than one Anglican bishop using language that implies a comparison between Isis and 'the Jews'.

So when you have political parties, churches and universities (often aided and abetted by the media) feeding off each other, no wonder we don't have to go back thousands of years to our sojourn in Egypt to remind ourselves of what being a stranger in a strange land is all about. Egypt is here in front of us  every day of our lives.

So what do Pesach and the Seder service around the table teach the Jewish people? How can we find something positive in our daily experience of conflict and crisis? The answer is the concept of 'bitul', which means self-abnegation. This is not self-abasement and silence, but the knowledge that we should be open to G-d's divine mercy.

This time of year, so often in Jewish history fraught with murders and rampage on behalf of the host societies in Europe, hell-bent on celebrating their own spring festival in style (which meant cutting down any Jew who happened to be around, and burning a synagogue or two, not to mention rapes and pillage), reminds us to be both vigilant and open to the divine.

We have to have rules, but we also have to bend them. Around the Seder table we play at not being slaves, but at being the master for the day. We enact the role that we hope will be ours in the Messianic age of controlling our lives in our own land, and not in one which is foreign to us in all but language. And we eat the 'bread of humility' known as matzah, instead of the normal inflated bread made with yeast which rises.

At this time of year par excellence, we know that we are not simply individual Jews, but an entire 'people', an 'am'. In Hebrew 'am' is related to 'with'. We are a people who are with each other in communion and as siblings. We are a tiny people of 14 million, most of whom now live in the State of Israel. In this country we number 250,000, around 0.3 per cent of the total population. And yet, at this time of year, we feel that we are simply one Jewish family  aware that all over the world other families are also celebrating our joint redemption from Egypt to the Promised Land by dint of G-d's grace and mercy.

We know in addition that our tiny religion of Judaism and our tiny people, the Children of Israel, have given hope, love and true belief to the world. It is our prophet Moses who first advocated helping the poor, the lonely and the widow financially, spiritually and psychologically. It is Moses who declared it to be the greatest sin imaginable if anyone starved, and who insisted on giving every member of the household, including servants, one day off free from work, to rest as G-d did in his creation of the world.

It is Moses who told us not just to love our neighbours as ourselves, but to love the stranger. Believe me, loving the stranger, a person who is completely unknown and alien to you, is far more difficult than loving the enemy. The enemy is known and is often admired. But to love the unknown is possible only with 'bitul', with the opening up into the new, the novel, the dangerous and the threatening. And throughout our history, we Jews have learned to do this: we are practised in the art of being both the stranger and also being open to the stranger. The 'enemy' is often a person made in our image who simply doesn't agree with us, whereas the stranger is uncanny, 'unheimlich' in German, and beyond all comprehension.

Without the teachings of Judaism there would also be no concept of justice in the world. The seven Noachide laws incumbent on gentiles include kindness to animals and setting up courts of justice.

Judaism is a live and let-live religion, which only advocates stringent laws for itself and not for others. And yet, for thousands of years, Jews and Judaism have been under attack, libelled, slandered and subject to attempted destruction.

But each year we, the Jewish people, manage to survive and find ourselves here together once again at Pesach time as we sit round the Seder table, telling the story of the Haggadah, of our ancestors in Egypt whom G-d redeemed through miracles, well aware as we speak that history repeats itself in every generation.

And each year at Pesach around the Seder table, we ask G-d once again to redeem us from the Egypt of our present life, as we look ahead to the next festival of Shavuot (Pentecost) which takes place in exactly seven weeks time and celebrates the giving of the G-d's teaching (the Torah) to Moses on the tiny hill known as Mount Sinai.

Only this year it is especially painful and scary to acknowledge that the call of 'Dayenu', the universal Pesach cry against antisemitism, has for the first time in history been heard outside London's Parliament Square.

Yes, in the streets of London, we, the Jewish community, have just before Pesach expressed what we have known for a very long time  England is no longer the home of the free, Blake's promised 'green and pleasant land.'

No, England has now become the new dry and dessicated land of Egypt, a country where churches, universities, politicians and educationalists think it is OK to demonise us Jews such that we now feel it necessary, once again in our history, to cry out to G-d, finally 'enough is enough.'

So when we finish our annual Seder meal round the table on Friday night with the cry 'Next year in Jerusalem', we will know as never before that there is only one Jerusalem: the one in Israel  our true home.

Dr Irene Lancaster is a Jewish academic, author and translator who has established university courses on Jewish history, Jewish studies and the Hebrew Bible.
Pope sacks 9 Ukranian monks for taking part in unapproved exorcisms

Nine Ukranian monks were reportedly removed from the monastic discipline last month for engaging in unapproved exorcisms and following the orders of a self-proclaimed "prophetess."

The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) reported on its official website on March 20 that Pope Francis had approved the decrees of Archbishop and Metropolitan Basil (Semeniuk) to remove the nine monks.

The monks have reportedly violated monastic discipline and have performed exorcism prayers without authorization at monasteries in Kolodiivka and Velyki Borky. Some of the monks were reportedly guided by the orders of a so-called "prophetess."

"She seemed to hear the voice of God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, Sacred Virgin Mary, and some saints. Some of the messages were written down by Father Planchak. The priest confirmed their veracity and origin from God but did not have the authorities for this as the Synod of UGCC officially claimed," said the Church.

A re-organization of St. Theodore the Studite monastery had taken place following an investigation conducted by a special commission. However, some monks reportedly refused to accept the comments of the church authorities and refused to obey. They continued violating monastic rules and were said to be illegally settled in the village of Posich in Ivano-Frankivsk region.

"After the proper warnings, nine monks were defrocked. Pope personally approved this decision," a statement read.

Under the decrees approved by Francis, the monks were stripped from the monastic state, and were no longer allowed to wear monastic clothes. They have also lost all rights and were deprived of all duties arising from taking monastic vows and are no longer allowed to call themselves monks.

Additionally, the decree stripped monks Antony-Gregory (born Roman Planchak) and Andrij (Mykola Kostevsky) of their rights to conduct any religious rites, such as Divinie Liturgy, administering the Holy Mysteries and other services in or outside the temple. The UGCC noted that Francis' decision was final and cannot be appealed.

The Church's canon law recognizes exorcism, but only when high-level permission was obtained from within the church. Priests are advised to consider all medical explanations before proceeding to an exorcism.

In 2014, the Vatican approved the International Association of Exorcists, which was founded in 1990 and has about 200 licensed members on six continents.

A weeklong international course on the subject has been scheduled by the Vatican in April at the Pontificial Atheneum Regina Apostolorum.
Samsung Galaxy Note 9 release date, specs & features news: Phablet to boast an in-display fingerprint sensor, 3,850mAh battery

After the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2018 last February, the public now has its eyes fixed on the South Korean tech firm's premium Note collection. There is no official announcement yet regarding the next-generation Note phablet, although the rumors are rife that the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 will highlight a huge hardware feature. Specifically, the device is tipped to boast an in-display fingerprint reader technology.

The latest scoop regarding the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 was brought by Ice Universe, a known and reliable tech tipster on Twitter. According to his insider sources, Samsung is now ready to integrate an in-display fingerprint scanner to the Galaxy Note 9, something that has always been expected by tech experts from the Galaxy Note 8 successor.

The in-display fingerprint reader of the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is expected to take the spotlight from Apple's Face ID feature in the iPhone X. According to Ice Universe, the company has already overcome the hurdles preventing the inclusion of an optical biometric reader component in the Note 9. Earlier reports suggested that the phablet may no longer have an in-display scanner due to manufacturing issues, but that does not seem to be the case at this point.

Ice Universe has a good reputation in leaking firsthand Samsung tech information on Twitter, given that he was among the first individuals to post the first-look photos of the Galaxy S8, Note 8, S9, and S9 Plus. He was also able to correctly predict the specs details of the Galaxy S9, thus making his latest Galaxy Note 9 scoop more believable, according to Forbes.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is also revealed to have a much bigger battery capacity compared to its predecessor with a massive 3,850mAh battery cell. This is a 20 percent increase than the Galaxy Note 8's 3,300mAh battery, and the biggest battery to be included in a mass-produced Samsung mobile device. This suggests that Samsung has already got past the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco in 2016, which made them more conservative in adding bigger batteries to their devices.

Meanwhile, the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is reportedly trademarked in Colombia recently for a 2018 release. The phablet's name is already listed among the available Samsung devices in the market, together with the Galaxy Note 9, Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus.
From Gertrude Stein to the Rockefellers: The collecting of modernist masterpieces

Christies Impressionist and Modern Art specialists Max Carter and Jessica Fertig tell the story of how important works from one of the first ever great collections of modern art, formed by Gertrude Stein, were acquired by Peggy and David Rockefeller

Its rare that you can capture a moment of great change and transition, says Max Carter, Head of Department for Impressionist and Modern Art at Christies in New York. The suite of works from the Gertrude Stein collection that are offered in The Collection of Peggy and David Rockefeller this May is, says Carter, fascinating for the way it links two great collecting families, which were both driven by an adventurous spirit and strong women who were looking at modernism and really finding themselves. The three works that Carter and his colleague Jessica Fertig admire in Christies Rockefeller Center galleries were initially assembled by Gertrude Stein, the great American writer and facilitator of the avant-garde who became the epicentre of beau monde Paris in the 1900s. When her collection came up for sale some half a century later, Peggy and David Rockefeller hatched a plan to acquire it. Gertrude and her brother Leo Stein moved to an apartment on the rue de Fleurus in Paris in 1903 and began acquiring paintings from their then unknown artist friends, who included Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Paul Cezanne. At the time, the works cost just a few dollars each.

The Steins Paris home, circa 1912-13. Picassos Fillette a la corbeille fleurie, 1905, is to the left of the stove. Photo from the Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas papers, Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Artworks:  ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2018.  Succession H. Matisse/DACS, London 2018.  Succession Picasso/DACS, London 2018

Every Saturday Leo, Gertrude, and her partner Alice B. Toklas presided over a salon attended by their creative cohorts. Guests included not only the rivals Picasso and Matisse (who competed for space on the high walls of Gertrudes atelier), but artists such as Andre Derain and Georges Braque, and the writers Guillaume Apollinaire, Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. The family bond between Gertrude and Leo was disrupted after 1910 when Alice moved into the apartment, although their views on art were becoming irreconcilable too. Leo was retreating from his earlier enthusiasm for the new painting; Renoir was now his paragon. Gertrude, meanwhile, had come to look on Picasso as a kind of twin soul  and to see her own fractured, iterative poetry as the literary equivalent of Picassos faceted Cubist canvases. Leo loathed his sisters work (I think it abominable, he said) and in 1913 this open antipathy resulted in the inevitable rupture. Leo decided to move out of rue de Fleurus; the collection, their joint project and mutual property, had to be divided between them.

Gertude Stein (left) and Alice B. Toklas. Photo from the Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas papers, Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University

It was mostly an easy parting of the ways: Gertrude kept the Picassos; Leo took the Renoirs, the Renaissance furniture, and nearly all the Cezannes when he left Paris for a house outside Florence. Leo and Gertrude never set eyes on each other again. Gertrude and Alice remained in Paris for 30 more years, buying and selling works when finances fluctuated. During the Second World War Gertrude once quipped we are eating the Cezanne when questioned about a painting missing from her walls. After Gertrude died in 1946 her collection of 47 paintings (38 of which were by Picasso) was bequeathed to her nephew but remained on the walls of Toklass home. Gertrudes nephew eventually passed ownership on to his three children, who decided to sell when Toklas died. David and Peggy Rockefeller were no strangers to modernism by the time news of the sale broke in 1967. Davids mother, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, had co-founded the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1929, and the museum was now keen to acquire a group of six Picassos from Steins collection, although it needed to find the funds.

The back of Picassos Pomme still retains the handwritten note from the artist to the couple, which reads, Souvenir pour Gertrude et Alice. Picasso. Noel 1914

David Rockefeller stepped in and formed a six-man syndicate made up of himself, his brother Nelson, William Burden, Andre Meyer, Bill Paley and John Hay Whitney, publisher of the New York Herald Tribune. An independent expert placed a total value of $6.8 million on Steins cherished paintings. This meant that each of the six syndicate members needed to put in a little more than a million dollars. I felt this was far too good an opportunity to miss, David later wrote in his memoirs. On a Saturday afternoon in December in 1968 in a back room at MoMA, numbered pieces of paper were put into an old felt hat. David was able to draw two lots from the hat after doubling up on his investment when Burden dropped out. By the time the hat reached him, however, there were only two pieces of paper left inside. Fortunately for [David], the two lots that were left were numbers one and three, says Carter. Davids first selection was easy: Picassos 1905 masterpiece Fillette a la corbeille fleurie (Young Girl with a Flower Basket), which every other member of the syndicate wanted. We actually know this is a portrait of Linda, a flower seller in Montmartre, says Jessica Fertig of the teenage model who worked outside the Moulin Rouge and later posed for Modigliani and Van Dongen. It has such a unique palette in the way that [Picasso] uses colour and where he chooses to use it. And then the face  its haunting, its self-assured, its knowing. Leo Stein had paid $30 for the painting in 1905, long before his disenchantment with Picasso. Gertrude did not like it at all, and was furious with her brother for buying it. But over the years, once it was hers alone, she came to admire the work greatly. This Rose Period Picasso, which was painted while the artist was in his early twenties, went on to hang in between two windows of the library in David and Peggys 65th Street New York townhouse for the rest of their lives.

By the end of the wintry meeting at MoMA, David had selected seven more Picassos and two works by Gris, including the 1925 work Le Tapis (The Green Cloth). Seven Picassos remained unchosen by any member of the syndicate, but David later swapped one of his paintings, a still life, for a study of a head for Les Demoiselles dAvignon (1907). For Fertig, Picassos charming Pomme (Apple) is another highlight from the Rockefeller Collection, and one that comes with an evocative story. The watercolour was a Christmas gift from Picasso to Gertrude and Alice in 1914, and was painted to fill the fruit-shaped hole left in their collection after Gertrude had reluctantly let her brother keep a picture of apples by Cezanne  the only painting the two had quarrelled over when dividing up their collection. Later, Leo wrote a letter to Gertrude saying, Im afraid youll have to look upon the loss of the apples as an act of God.
Justin Sullivan, Staff / Getty Images

WASHINGTON  As the Trump administration begins to dismantle Barack Obamas auto efficiency regulations, California is said to be prepared to retaliate by doing something that automakers have feared: decoupling the states rules from those set in Washington.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has concluded that current rules to limit vehicle greenhouse-gas emissions are too aggressive and should be revised, according to people familiar with the determination. The agency is scheduled to make the decision public by Sunday.
Associated Press

LONDON  The computer expert who alleges a trove of Facebook data was improperly used to help Donald Trump's White House bid said Tuesday that he strongly believes the information was also used by the Brexit movement that persuaded Britain to quit the European Union.

In a 3  hour hearing, Chris Wylie told the House of Commons media committee that he believes the breach exceeded the 50 million Facebook users reported earlier  though he didn't give an exact figure. And he said the data compiled by the political consulting business Cambridge Analytica was available to other firms with links to it.
THE MOTLEY FOOL

Floored by taxes

Q: Whats the 2 percent floor in tax talk?  K.G., Fort Myers, Fla.

A: It refers to miscellaneous itemized deductions. You can deduct only the portion of them that exceeds 2 percent of your adjusted gross income (AGI). For example, if your AGI is $50,000, your floor will be 2 percent of that, or $1,000. If your miscellaneous itemized deductions total $900, youre out of luck. But if they total $1,750, you can deduct $750. Qualifying expenses include certain home office expenses, tax preparation fees, investment-related fees, job-hunting expenses and unreimbursed job-related expenses. Unfortunately, the recent tax reform suspends these miscellaneous itemized deductions beginning with the 2018 tax year through 2025. So enjoy them this year! Learn more in our tax nook at fool.com/taxes and from the horses mouth, at irs.gov.

Name that company

I trace my roots back to 1972, when a guy founded me as a mail order business to sell small telescopes. Over time I offered more and more products for amateur astronomers. Im known for innovation, such as my telescopes that feature auto-guiding systems to easily align on objects of interest. Today, based in Irvine, California, Im the worlds leading designer and maker of telescopes, and I offer many binoculars and optical accessories, too. In 2013 I merged with Sunny Optics, a subsidiary of a Chinese company. My brands include Coronado, SolarMax, LightBridge, LightSwitch, Wilderness and Astro. Who am I?

Last weeks trivia answer : News Corp.

Fast-food titan has McProfits

McDonalds (NYSE: MCD) just closed its best year for customer traffic since 2012. A return to basics that stressed iconic brands such as the Egg McMuffin and Quarter Pounder helped, but so did new product launches, a refreshed value menu and food preparation improvements. Customers are loving the fresher menu items and are demonstrating their satisfaction by returning more often. At the same time, profitability has shot to new highs, buoyed by a refranchising plan that, by lowering the proportion of company-owned locations, is boosting operating margins. Investors can expect that metric to rise again in 2018 as the company completes its refranchising push. Meanwhile, management aims to deploy earnings into growth initiatives that include store remodelings, ordering kiosks, a mobile app and home food delivery. The company already offers delivery from more than 20 percent of its restaurants worldwide. CEO Steve Easterbrook told investors early this year that, while executives are happy with their recent wins, we have far greater ambitions. Additional market-share gains would be impressive, but investors can rest easy knowing that income gains are likely from McDonalds in the years ahead  whether sales growth accelerates or stays put. The stock recently sported a dividend yield of 2.5 percent, and its payout has more than doubled over the past decade. It boasts a 42-year streak of dividend increases.

Universal Uclick
Eric Gay, STF / AP

White & Case opened an office in Houston earlier this year and this week it added its sixth partner.

Steven Tredennick, the previous head of the corporate practice for Paul Hastings in Houston, joined White & Case's global mergers and acquisitions practice.
Midland-based Concho Resources said it will pay $8 billion to buy West Texas rival RSP Permian in a merger that creates the largest shale driller in the booming Permian.

While not a household name, the big sale makes Concho an even larger power player in the Permian Basin, which now accounts for more than half of all the oil drilling rigs in the entire country. RSP Permian is based out of Dallas, but it's also focused just on West Texas and the parts of the Permian extending into New Mexico.

Perfectly positioned to capitalize off the Permian shale boom from its Midland home, Concho has grown rapidly as one of the leaders in domestic oil production. Concho was valued on Wall Street at more than $23 billion before the deal was announced Wednesday.

RSP, which was formed in 2010, was valued at about $6.2 billion before the sale.

Concho Chairman and CEO Tim Leach said RSP Permian operates similarly to his company, so they should mesh well to form one super Permian Basin player.

"The RSP team built an exceptional high-margin asset portfolio consistent with our playbook  large, contiguous positions in the core of the Permian Basin," Leach said. "And they did so with a strategy of maximizing well performance and returns, which provides substantial running room for continuous development with large-scale projects.

"This combination allows us to consolidate premier assets that seamlessly fold into our drilling program, enhance our scale advantage and reinforce our leadership position in the Permian Basin, all while strengthening our platform for delivering predictable growth and returns."

After independent producers in West Texas like Concho and RSP helped lead the initial Permian shale boom, the focus switched last year to Big Oil players like Exxon Mobil and Chevron beefing up their Permian positions. Now, Concho is taking action to stake its claim as the leader in Permian shale, especially in the unconventional production that combines horizontal drilling techniques with hydraulic fracturing, called fracking, to produce oil and gas from the hard-to-crack shale rock.

Energy analyst David Kistler, of Piper Jaffrey & Co., said Concho is successfully increasing the scale and scope of its already enviable Permian position. At the same time, RSP Permian shareholders should benefit from great value generated by the sale, he added.

RELATED: Concho shakes up Permian holdings

However, the sale is happening at a time when investors are asking for discipline and shying away from forking over a lot of extra dollars. As such, the initial Wall Street reaction was down on Concho's big move. Concho's stock dipped about 8 percent in early Wednesday morning trading. Likewise, RSP Permian stock jumped more than 15 percent.

RSP Permian will give Concho nearly 100,000 more net acres in the Permian, increasing its overall position to about 640,000 net acres. The combined company would have 27 active drilling rigs operating in the Permian.

Apart from the $8 billion sale, Concho also will assume about $1.5 billion in RSP Permian debt.
Three Schlitterbahn Waterparks officials now have been swept up in a criminal probe into the 2016 decapitation death of a 10-year-old boy at the companys Kansas park.

An indictment unsealed Tuesday in Kansas reveals for the first time that ride designer John Timothy Schooley and Henry and Sons Construction Company Inc., Schlitterbahns construction firm, also face charges of second-degree murder, aggravated battery and aggravated endangering of a child in the death of Caleb Thomas Schwab, along with park co-owner Jeffrey Wayne Henry.

The 10-year-old, the son of Kansas State Rep. Scott Schwab, died Aug. 7, 2016 while riding the 168-foot Verruckt slide when he hit a hoop that held protective netting on the rides second hill.

RELATED: Indictment: Waterslide in fatal accident was 'deadly weapon'

The indictment names Henry as Verruckts visionary and designer and Schooley as the slides lead designer. It accuses both men of ignoring safety standards during the slides design process and warnings about the rides potential danger.

If convicted on all 18 counts, each defendant faces a maximum sentence of almost 139 years and fines potentially totaling $3.4 million.

Under Kansas law, suspects can be charged with second-degree murder if evidence suggests the act was committed unintentionally but recklessly under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life.

Last week, a Wyandotte County grand jury indicted Schlitterbahn along with Tyler Austin Miles, a director of operations for Schlitterbahn, on charges of involuntary manslaughter, aggravated battery, aggravated endangerment of a child and interfering with law enforcement by concealing evidence.

RELATED: This is what it looks like to ride the world's tallest water slide, the Verruckt

The grand jury also charged Miles, 29, with allegedly giving false information to a detective. Miles pleaded not guilty to the charges Friday after turning himself in.

Schlitterbahn pushed back against the charges levied against Henry, Schooley and the construction company Tuesday. The indictment is wrought with references to the outtakes of a dramatic, scripted television show, and filled with information that we fully dispute, company spokeswoman Winter Prosapio said in a statement sent late Tuesday.

Jeff Henry has designed waterpark rides the world over, Prosapio said. Nearly every waterpark that exists today has an attraction or feature based on his designs or ideas.

The incident that happened that day was a terrible and tragic accident. We mourn the loss of this child and are devastated for his family. We know that Tyler, Jeff, and John are innocent and that we run a safe operation - our 40 years of entertaining millions of people speaks to that.

The U.S. Marshals Service arrested Henry on Monday in South Padre Island on a warrant out of Kansas, the Kansas Attorney Generals Office said in a news release Tuesday. Henry is due to appear in Cameron County court Thursday. A judge Tuesday ordered that he be held without bond pending extradition to Kansas.

Schooley is not yet in custody, the Kansas Attorney Generals Office said.

A separate indictment unsealed last week alleges that Verruckts designers and operators knew the slide could cause severe bodily injury and potentially death but kept the ride open anyway. The rides operators knew of at least 13 injuries  including two concussions  sustained by riders, including four children.

Neither Henry, who dropped out of high school to work for his fathers water park, nor Schooley had technical or engineering credentials pertaining to amusement ride design or safety, the charging document says. Furthermore, neither man possessed the expertise required to properly and safely design a ride as complex as Verruckt, according to the indictment.

Henry, who co-owns the New Braunfels theme park company with his two siblings, first conceived of the Verruckt project in November 2012 as a way to impress producers of the Travel Channels Xtreme Waterparks series and fast-tracked the slides design and construction phases, skipping over necessary calculations and safety measures in the process, according to the indictment.

The indictment also details alleged actions by Schlitterbahn and its employees to silence subordinates and cover up evidence of park visitors injuries caused by Verruckt.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
It's no secret among classical music aficionados that this year marks the centennial of the highly acclaimed Leonard Bernstein, born Aug. 25, 1918. Symphonies across the globe have planned seasonlong celebrations - nearly 2,500 events - dedicated to sharing his music and the legacy he left behind when he died in 1990 at age 72.

For British conductor Bramwell Tovey, the anniversary is just as much a time of reflection, igniting memories of what he calls a "defining moment" in his life - the moment he met the world-famous composer and former music director of the New York Philharmonic.

It was April 1986, and Tovey was in the midst of running a dress rehearsal for the opening night of the London Symphony Orchestra's Leonard Bernstein Festival when a commotion started in the back of the concert hall, he said during a recent phone interview.

Unbeknownst to him, the man himself had entered the Barbican Centre, surrounded by paparazzi. A cigarette between his teeth, Bernstein walked directly up to Tovey, who was a last-minute substitute, and offered his assistance. "I was quaking in my boots because this wasn't any old composer," he said. "This was Leonard Bernstein."

This weekend, Tovey will encounter the musical mastermind once again in his debut with the Houston Symphony, leading the ensemble through Bernstein's "The Age of Anxiety," which will feature the return of French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet. The program also will include Igor Stravinsky's "Symphony of Psalms" and "The Firebird."

"He was a very profound influence on my career and so many other musicians, too," said Tovey, who is the outgoing music director of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, a music professor and the director of orchestral activities at Boston University and the principal conductor of London's BBC Concert Orchestra. "It was a very special, special moment in my life - meeting him. To conduct his music gives me the chance to relive that memory, and by reliving that memory, I get recharged by the experience again."

Bernstein's jazz-influenced symphony, composed in the years after World War II, is what the entire program is based around, Tovey said. The six-movement score follows the philosophical narrative of a Pulitzer Prize-winning, book-length poem by W.H. Auden, in which four strangers discuss their search for meaning and faith in a war-torn world.

The pianist serves as the protagonist, Thibaudet said, guiding listeners through the mesmerizing and, at times, somber work.

Unlike the Broadway production "West Side Story" or the operetta "Candide," "The Age of Anxiety" is one of Bernstein's lesser-known works, but it demonstrates the incredible range of his ability and artistic language. For instance, the last section of the work, titled "Masque," features a 10-minute jazz trio between the piano, double bass and percussion, while the rest of the orchestra remains silent, Thibaudet said. "It's very rare in a symphony to have, suddenly, a written, not improvised, jazz section, which is really fun rhythmically. It becomes this incredible, partylike music."

More Information Stravinsky's 'Firebird' When: 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday Where: Jones Hall, 615 Louisiana Tickets: $23-$120; 713-224-7575, houstonsymphony.org See More Collapse

Transitioning from this emotionally encompassing piece into the austere, yet beautiful scores by Stravinsky seemed a natural progression, despite the generation that separates them, Tovey said. The Russian-born Stravinsky happened to be one of Bernstein's great heroes. In fact, Bernstein selected "The Firebird" to conclude the aforementioned program conducted by Tovey over three decades ago.

With such deeply rooted connections, the theme of the program truly celebrates both men, whose modern compositions embraced melody unlike other composers of their time, Tovey said.

After their initial meeting at the Barbican, Bernstein invited Tovey to join him at the Tanglewood Music Center in Massachusetts, where he was offering master classes.

"I spent that particular summer being mentored and shepherded by him," Tovey said. "I wouldn't say I was a student of his. I don't think I qualify for that honor. It's more true to say that I was lucky enough to be in the orbit of Leonard Bernstein."
I caught up with Breckenridge Brewery's head brewer Jimmy Walker and chief marketer Todd Thibault last week at the Mucky Duck. They and a group of lucky colleagues were in town as part of "Breck Trek," an annual outreach to various cities where their beers are sold.

I say lucky because they get to travel to cool places like Houston and make new friends over beers like their Imperial Vanilla Porter aged in rum barrels. Their itinerary also included a beer dinner at Hobbit Cafe and a Midtown pub crawl.

Walker, who works at the original brewpub in Breckenridge, Colo., and Thibault, who offices at the relatively new production brewery in the Denver suburb of Littleton, are both Breck Brew veterans of more than two decades. They're classic craft-beer personalities: friendly, easygoing, eager to chat.

Our conversation on the Duck's back patio ranged from their careers to the benefits of living in an outdoor wonderland like Colorado to the competition from legal recreational marijuana in the state. (It's too early to measure the impact so far, they say, although Walker seemed confident anything that draws tourists will be good for the brewers as well.)

Given their long Breckenridge tenures, I was also eager to know how things have gone since the brewery was acquired two years ago by Anheuser-Busch InBev. Sounds like the initial reaction was every bit as heated as it was here when Karbach Brewing Co. announced it was being sold to the global giant.

Thibault admitted to feeling sick when he learned about the impending sale.

The actual experience has been much more positive, both men said, echoing what's been said by folks I've spoken with at Karbach. AB-InBev has put a more corporate structure in place, including an improved accounting system, annual roof inspections and the like. But the company also has dramatically enhanced testing for quality control and put a greater focus on brewery safety, they said. Breckenridge opens its lab to smaller breweries interested in using it, Walker said.

Thibault, who briefly waxed nostalgic about the early days when some employees would voluntarily forgo paychecks for two months each year, said he is convinced the sale to AB-InBev was the right move at the right time for Breckenridge.

He knows not everyone agrees. He recounted one particularly hostile encounter with an angry bar patron a while back. Thibault talked it out with the guy, who wound up offering an apology. Still, he acknowledged, "We didn't change his opinion."

Sure enough, comments to the Chronicle's Beer, TX Facebook page post about last week's pub crawl were negative: "Still sad they sold to InBev." "Definitely sub par since they sold." "So many great breweries from Colorado that didn't sell out. We already have two ABInBev breweries here." "Just Budweiser marketing fake craft beer."

Regardless of how you feel about their employer, Walker and Thibault are nice guys with a long track record in craft beer. I trust everyone gave them the friendly Texas reception they deserve.
Sandy Adams Photography

Hugo Ortega along with anthropologist Dr. Dirk Van Tuerenhout of the Houston Museum of Natural Science, will lead a tour of the Houston Farmers' Market coupled with a cooking demonstration to share the ingredients used in Aztec cooking on Saturday, April 7, from 2 to 6 p.m.

Ortega is a James Beard award-winning chef and co-owner of Hugo's, Caracol, Xochi, and other celebrated H Town Restaurant Group eateries.
A woman and two girls died in the crossfire between Mexican marines and members of an organized criminal group in Nuevo Laredo, authorities have confirmed.

Mexican media outlets reported that marines shot at the familys vehicle from a helicopter, killing Nellely Aide Ruiz Martinez, 28, and her daughters Chelsea Abril Rojas Ruiz, 6, and Kenia Azul Rojas Ruiz, 4. But the navy said in a statement that the bystanders were hit from the ground  not the air  and their wounds were caused by a type of bullet not used by the helicopter crew.

READ ALSO: One dead, twelve marines wounded in shootout in Mexico

The husband and father was identified as Efrain Rojas Santos, 25. He was taken to a local hospital in serious condition. Media reports claimed that the marines denied the family medical attention.

The navy disputed the claim, saying marines rendered aid to those wounded during Sundays firefight.

This naval institution regrets the events where civilians lost their lives and were injured, and reaffirms its commitment for citizens safety.

The navy did not say how many civilians died during the clashes, which left a marine and four suspected gunmen dead and 12 marines wounded. Authorities identified the fallen marine as Capt. Mauro Hernandez, an 18-year veteran.

READ ALSO: 'I went to war for this country:' Army veteran in US deported after prison stint

Suspected members of the Northeast Cartel, an offshoot of the Zetas cartel, circulated a message on social media warning the citizens about a curfew. The group, which operates in Nuevo Laredo, also took responsibility for Sundays ambush.

Did you all like how we f**k you up? the criminal group wrote.

They added that this week will be all about topones, or shootouts, and that authorities will feel hell.

Authorities said marines were ambushed three separate times late Saturday and early Sunday.

Marines returned fire and killed one gunman in the first attack, but suffered three wounded. Another patrol was sent to help the wounded when it also came under fire; that ambush killed one marine and wounded several others.

READ ALSO: Texas pastor gets 99 years in prison in death of child who was starved

A third patrol was ambushed just outside the marine base as it responded to the first two attacks. In that shootout, three gunmen were killed. Finally, a helicopter gunship was called in.

Mexico's navy said in a statement that the gunmen had fake marine uniforms and markings on their vehicles.

Tamaulipas Gov. Francisco Javier Garcia Cabeza de Vaca posted on Twitter that the government will continue to support the actions of the marines in his state.

We will continue to work in conjunction with federal forces for the familys safety. We wont back down from the enemies of peace who threat the citizens, he said.
More than 21 million domestic and international tourists visited Houston in 2017 according to a new report, marking a 6 percent increase in domestic tourism from 2016.

It also marks a major step towards reaching the city's benchmark goal of 25 million visits by 2020.

The report, compiled by OmniTrak's TravelTrakAmerica and Travel Marketing Insights, found that millennials led domestic tourism numbers. Of the 18.3 million domestic visits, 80 percent were overnight visits and 20 percent came for day trips.

About 73 percent of domestic tourists came for leisure activities with 15 percent here for business.

RELATED: Houston beats its own tourism goal ahead of schedule

The estimated 3.5 million international visits represented a 3.5 percent increase from 2016. Though preliminary national figures show a 9 percent decline in travel from Mexico to the U.S., there was a 1.5 percent increase in the number of Mexican tourists visiting Houston from 2016.

Factors driving the overall growth included Super Bowl LI, the World Series, and focused marketing efforts like the HolaHouston campaign that attracted Mexican tourists in particular.

RELATED: Explanations on tourism firing in short supply

"We have bounced back from Harvey, but it is the diverse and welcoming nature of this city that shines brightly across the country and now draws visitors in increasing numbers," said Mayor Sylvester Turner in a statement.

Annual nights booked for future conventions rose to 802,859 in 2017, representing a 5 percent increase over 2016. and traffic to the VisitHouston.com collection of websites rose to 7.4 million, representing a 9% increase over 2016.

The mayor added that the tourism industry supports more than 140,000 jobs in the Houston region, contributing $16.5 billion to the local economy.
Sweet Paris Creperie & Cafe announced a new partnership with the Houston Food Bank to benefit the region's hungry children.

The Houston-based company, which is expanding in Houston and other markets, will donate 33 cents per crepe sold for three designated crepes to the Houston Food Bank. The crepes, which have the Houston Food Bank logo on the menu, consist of Allison's Parfait, Truffled Caprese and Lemon & Sugar.

The initiative is part of the company's "Eat Here, Feed There" program, which has provided more than 130,000 meals to children battling hunger through since 2012. Sweet Paris was founded by Allison and Ivan Chavez.

RELATED: Sweet Paris to open in Highland Village

Houston Food Bank serves approximately 800,000 people each year, including nearly 400,000 children.

"Feeding others is one of the most universal expressions of human care and love," Houston Food Bank president and CEO Brian Greene said in an announcement.

"We are fortunate to have partners like Sweet Paris who understand the importance of feeding others, and not just customers in their stores, but those they may never know or meet. We thank them for their generosity and for helping us to fill pantries and fill lives."
3 1 of 3 JLL Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Clipper Group Show More Show Less 3 of 3





Clipper Americas will relocate its Houston office to a new space that will serve as the base of the Clipper Group's North American operations.

The global shipping company has leased 6,283 square feet at Town Centre I, 750 Town & Country Blvd., JLL announced. Employees from Connecticut and Brazil will join the Houston office, which will relocate from 16200 Park Row Drive in the third quarter.
For decades, the Rotary mantra has been 'service above self.' Communities around the world have been the beneficiaries of Rotarian goodwill and this week, two clubs from two completely different corners of the nation converged on a home in Dayton to live out that humanitarian slogan.

A home in Spur Forest, just outside Kenefick, was the site selected by the Dayton Rotary Club as the recipient of funds and hands-on labor to help bring a deserving grandmother's home back into shape.

Claudia Cannaday was in shock as she watched a convoy of trucks, cars and trailers loaded down with supplies and equipment park in front of her home.

About two dozen Rotarians came out of multiple vehicles and converged on the home, each bearing some piece of equipment ready to work. She had no words she was so surprised.

Cannaday found out just days before the Rotarians showed up that she was under consideration for the assistance, never believing that she would be the one they would help.

She flashed back to the terrifying night that Harvey pounded her home.

"It rained, and rained, and rained," she said. She never thought it would ever end.

She said they measured 57 inches by the time Harvey made its exit from the area.

The National Weather Service said it was the wettest storm in history to hit the contiguous 48 states.

In its wake, Harvey also left plenty of devastation.

The hurricane began pelting the house early Saturday night, but by 3 a.m., Cannaday, her son-in-law, daughter and grandchildren were all awakened by the sound of running water.

"It came across my neighbor's property across the street onto mine," she said.

Like a river, flowing without banks, it ran right through her house and out the back door.

In the dark, because there was no light, they abandoned the house to take refuge in a nearby trailer that was up a little higher on blocks.

The house is a little bit higher on one end than the other and when the rain had ended, the water settled on the low end.

It wasn't the first time it had happened, just the second, but the first flood didn't amount to this deluge of Biblical proportions.

Along with the powerful water rushing across the property also came debris from everywhere that piled up in her yard.

It ruined all of the carpet in the house and the drywall throughout the house had to be replaced. Even the floors were ruined and needed new tiling. She lost a good bit of possessions.

"We were able to save some of the furniture because we got it cleaned right away," she said.

Even with the devastation, she still feels blessed.

"My neighbors down the road just completely abandoned their place because it was so bad," she said.

She recalled when she and her husband moved out to the area some 40 years ago.

"We were the first ones on this side of the street," she said proudly.

She lost her husband in 2004 whose name, ironically, was Harvey.

Her face broke into a smile thinking about that.

Having faced adversity with Hurricane Ike and a yard full of trees, she never expected to have to traverse this path again. But she did.

She had to take out an SBA loan to get the roof repaired from damage by Harvey. She went from August of 2007 to February 2018 enduring the moisture and holes in the roof, the dampness creating a mold problem.

Her daughter and friends from her work came out to help with the repairs, but with trying to work and with some heavy lifting, they were overwhelmed with the project.

Claudia sat quietly outside holding her Maltese poodle mix dog in her arms as the Rotarians buzzed by her, tools in hand to attack each project inside and out.

Her quiet demeanor was only interrupted by tears welling up in her eyes as she tried to express her appreciation.

"I can't thank them enough," she said.

She had been a colleague of Rotarian Arlene Langham at Post Oak Bank in the past and thought that might have been the connection.

"I don't think I'm worthy of this," she said as her voice cracked, "but I am so grateful."

Cannaday could only watch as the volunteers from Dayton Rotary Club and visiting club members from the Oswego Rotary Club in Oswego, Ill., began working in earnest to clean up the property and help repair the damaged home.

Two huge dumpsters were quickly filled with debris from the yard and the inside of the house.

The project stemmed from a simple phone call from Chris Sims of Oswego, Ill.

"We have a response and communication committee in our Rotary Club and to reach out could simply be a phone call to let them know that we're thinking about them and praying for them," Sims said.

"We've also been able to help flood and tornado victims in our own state of Illinois," he said.

They had heard of all the hurricanes of 2017 and wanted to do something.

Sims has a brother who lives in Atascocita and he asked him where he thought they could offer some help.

"I know a place that could use some help," his brother told him, "and it's Dayton. They were in the bull's eye of the storm."

With that, Sims made a phone call and introduced himself to Gary Masterson, president of the Dayton Rotary Club and asked what they could do to help.

That was just weeks after the hurricane. They've been planning ever since and on Thursday, they first met each other in person at the Dayton Rotary Club meeting.

"I appreciate the hospitality. We look for no reward. If we can bring hope, you can't put a dollar figure on that," Sims said.

Masterson asked Doug Crayton of Crayton Construction and Remodeling in Dayton to be the project manager, which Crayton took to heart.

"The Oswego Club offered money to help with the remodel of one of the homes in our area and we selected a perfect candidate," Crayton said.

"Arlene [Langham] knew Claudia and told us of her plight," he said.

The club had spent money earlier to help others with their homes including Marjorie Brown.

The Dayton club donated $5,000 to help Cannaday and they've also worked hands on with the Oswego Club to remove and replace drywall, mold remediation, installing insulation, repaired plumbing they discovered while on the job site, and did some electrical work as well.

"We finished up with sheetrocking, taping, floating, and painting," he said. They also hung doors and painted some that needed it.

On the outside, the club hauled out and burned debris from the storm, raked leaves and burned them.

"Larry [Wilburn] came in with his John Deere and unloaded sand and dirt for us to fill in the holes in the yard and smooth out the yard for her," Crayton said.

With the $5,000 she was given, some of that money went to replace the carpeting and the tile will be done after the club's work is done.

"She took the money and is stretching it as far as she can," Crayton said. Her family has come in and helped her with projects as well.

"Now it was our turn to help," he said.

Saturday was Cannaday's birthday, but the club's turned it into a Christmas in March celebration.

She not only received a freshly painted bedroom and painted doors, they also furnished her room and gave her a television as well.

She was overwhelmed.

Once everyone was gone, Claudia envisioned making her place a home again.

"I want to plant some flowers in the beds again," she said.

She didn't have to.

Her newfound friends took care of that and left Cannaday feeling pretty special.

Her Rotarians had not just written her a check but came and put in the elbow grease to get the job done.

But that's their mantra - service above self.
12 Minutes Max!

Art, dance, music, sound and spoken word performances, each 12 minutes or less. Presented by DiverseWorks Artist Advisory Board.

When: 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday

Where: MATCH, 3400 Main

Details: $5-$40; matchouston.org

Anime Matsuri XII

Japanese culture and arts convention features cosplay, music, exhibitions, contests and fashion.

When: noon Friday, 10 a.m. Saturday and Sunday

Where: George R. Brown Convention Center, 1001 Avenida De Las Americas

Details: $10-$195; animematsuri.com

"MaDe in Houston"

Closing party for an exhibition featuring Sebastien "Mr.D" Boileau's body of work with several new pieces never shown in Houston.

When: 6-11 p.m. Friday

Where: 1958 W. Gray

Details: facebook.com/events/760898277449286

Andy Hendrickson

Comedian, writer and actor known for his appearances at "The Late Show," Gotham Comedy Live and Outback's Feeding Freedom Tour.

When: 8 and 10:30 p.m. Friday, 7 and 10 p.m. Saturday

Where: Joke Joint Comedy Showcase, 11460 Fuqua

Details: $14-$19; jokejointcomedyshowcase.com

Yoga, Beer, Watercolors

Yoga & Hops hosts a morning of yoga, brews and a watercolor painting session.

When: 10 a.m.-noon Saturday

Where: 8th Wonder Brewery, 2202 Dallas

Details: $20-$35; yogaandhops.com

Heads & Tails Crawfish Festival

Crawfish, fun and music, featuring DJ Mannie Fresh, Brian Jack and The Zydeco Gamblers.

When: 1-9 p.m. Saturday

Where: Grooves of Houston, 2300 Pierce

Details: $10-$100; headstailsfest.com

Astros Art Celebration

Astros-themed art show featuring the unveiling of "Houston Celebration 2017" by MLB-sanctioned artist Opie Otterstad.

When: 2-5 p.m. Saturday through April 15

Where: Off The Wall Gallery, 5015 Westheimer

Details: offthewallgallery.com

Houston Roller Derby

A double-header of teams battling it out on the track.

When: 6 p.m. Saturday

Where: Revention Music Center, 520 Texas

Details: $15-$30; reventionmusiccenter.com

H-Town Blues Festival

Festival features performances by TK Soul, Sir Charles Jones, Tucka, Pokey Bear, Willie Clayton, Calvin Richardson and Tyree Neal.

When: 7 p.m. Saturday

Where: NRG Arena, 1 NRG Park

Details: $52-$75; nrgpark.com

John Howard

Houston Bicycle Museum hosts a meet-and-greet with the legendary cyclist and Olympic athlete.

When: 7 p.m. Monday

Where: 1313 Binz

Details: $15; HoustonBicycleMuseum.org

Anime Matsuri XII

Japanese culture and arts convention features cosplay, music,

exhibitions, contests and fashion.

When: noon Friday, 10 a.m. Saturday and Sunday Where: George R. Brown Convention Center, 1001 Avenida De Las Americas Details: $10-$195; animematsuri.com
The animal-loving staff at Rover Oaks hosted their seventh annual "Doggie Pictures with the Easter Bunny" event on March 17.

All of Rover Oaks' clients, friends and pet owners in the community were invited to bring their dogs to pose for a picture with the Easter Bunny. All proceeds from the event were donated to local rescue group Shaggy Dog Rescue.

The event started on Saturday morning; and, by the afternoon, Rover Oaks' lobby was packed with pet owners and pups who were ready to meet the Easter Bunny and have their portraits made. Attendees were encouraged to dress up their pet with holiday-themed props such as bunny ears and tutus, and some used the opportunity to get a complete family portrait made. Visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S6uzoxb4Ek to view a video slideshow from the event.

For a $20 donation, pet-owners received a photo session and portrait of their pet with the Easter Bunny in a festive "springtime" setting. Pet owners got to keep the hi-resolution digital files of all the photos, including the "outtakes" which are often the favorites. They also received a print of their best photo. Rover Oaks produced Easter portraits for over 90 dogs, raising over $1,900 for Shaggy Dog Rescue. These funds will help provide much needed medical care, food, and other supplies that the rescue group desperately needs for the dogs in their care.

"We have a blast putting on this event, and our clients love taking home the adorable and often hilarious photos of their pet with the Easter Bunny," said Claire Ellington, general manager of Rover Oaks Houston. "It is so rewarding to be able to provide our clients with this special keepsake, while using the proceeds to help our friends at Shaggy Dog Rescue."

"We're so grateful that Rover Oaks donates all of the proceeds from this event to our rescue," said Kathy Wetmore, founder of Shaggy Dog Rescue. "Every dollar counts and every donation brings us closer to saving a dog from a high-kill Houston animal shelter. These donations really can mean the difference between life and death for these dogs."

Rover Oaks Pet Resort hosts Doggie Pictures with the Easter Bunny every spring and Doggie Pictures with Santa every fall to help raise money for Shaggy Dog Rescue.
Activist and author Deborah Santana says she wants her new anthology to create a "conversation to educate and illumine, as well as to give hope, strength, power and joy."

"All the Women in My Family Sing," which features narratives by 69 women ranging in age from 16 to 77, is a "tribute to the many voices of women in a chorus of cultural refrains," Santana, the former wife of musician Carlos Santana, writes in the foreword.
A New York university is investigating allegations of plagiarism targeted at Gregory Vincent -- the campus' new president and a former longtime top administrator at the University of Texas at Austin.

Vincent, who oversaw UT-Austin's diversity and community engagement efforts, was tapped by Hobart and William Smith Colleges in April to become that institution's president. He took the helm over the summer after more than a decade at UT-Austin and denied the charges through a university spokesman.
A package with the words "Let's play a game" scrawled on it has launched an investigation by the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office.

The agency found the suspicious package Tuesday on Six Pines Drive at Lake Front Circle. The sheriff's office and the Montgomery County Fire Marshal's Office rerouted traffic from the area before determining that the package was empty. Given the recent bombings in Austin, police said they are taking all suspicious packages seriously.

MORE BOMBER: Austin bomber's cellphone confession provided 'targets list' of other locations

"This is NOT A GAME in light of the current bombings in Austin and packages mailed nationwide, this will be investigated," the sheriff's office wrote in a Tuesday Facebook post.

The sheriff's office was referring to Mark Conditt, the 23-year-old who distributed deadly package bombs around Austin.

Anthony Stephan House, 39, was killed by a package bomb left on his doorstep on March 2. Draylen Mason, 17, was killed bya package on March 12. Esperanza Herrera, 75, was injured by a package bomb a few miles away from Mason on the same day. Conditt died in a bomb blast, ending the hunt for the bomber.

On March 18, two men in their 20s were caught in a blast set off by a tripwire in Austin. On March 19, a bomb exploded in a FedEx shipping facility in Schertz, just north of San Antonio.

Those who come across any suspicious package or mail are warned to not touch or disturb the package. People are warned to not approach the packages and to call 911 instead.

Anyone with information about the suspicious package found in Montgomery County on Tuesday is encouraged to call the Montgomery County Crime Stoppers at 936-539-7867.

Will Axford is a digital reporter for Chron.com. Read more of his stories here and follow him on Twitter.
Three Houston men have been sentenced to federal prison Wednesday after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery, according to the Eastern District of Texas U.S. Attorney's Office.

This past fall, Marvin James Rhine, 45, Gerrick Leon Wade, 38, and Paul Williams 38, pleaded guilty to commiting armed robbery in Beaumont. Rhine was sentenced to 215 months, Wade was sentenced to 151 months and Williams was sentenced to 92 months, according to a press release from the Eastern District of Texas U.S. Attorney's Office.



On Feb. 22, 2017, police tried to stop a white Cadillac Escalade in the vicinity of Dowlen Road and Delaware Street. The Escalade would not stop and officers began pursuit in the 3500 block of Delaware. The officers apprehended Rhine, Williams and Wade after the three tried to flee on foot, according to the news release.



A fourth man involved in the robbery was located and detained at a nearby service station. Police interviews found the men were conspiring to commit armed robbery. Rhine, Williams and Wade, along with five others, were charged in a five-count indictment in March 2017, the press release stated.
Following 20 years on the run, a man pleaded guilty and was sentenced Tuesday to a total 210 years in prison for the 1993 rape and killing of an 82-year-old retired Tomball teacher, according to the Harris County District Attorney's Office.

Alfredo Rameriz-Rosas, 50, was sentenced to 70 years each for three charges for the murder, aggravated sexual assault and burglary habitation-rape of Mildred Stallones. He was apprehended in 2013 by Mexican authorities in the state of Michoacan and was extradited three years later, according to a press release from the Harris County District Attorney's Office.
AUSTIN  State lawmakers representing Latinos and people who live near the border warned that Texas stands to lose more money and power than other states if the Trump administration prevails in requiring the 2020 Census asks people about their citizenship.

Including the question could scare people in immigrant families from filling out the 2020 U.S. Census, which would undercount the population here and lead to inadequate federal funding for education, health care, highway construction and other programs, along with a loss of political power, a team of lawmakers and Latino advocates said at a press conference in the state Capitol Wednesday.

Texas has one of the largest immigrant populations in the country, and because of that, Texas stands to lose big, said Rep. Cesar Blanco, a Democrat from El Paso, home to a large Latino community north of Mexico. Blanco, who chairs the Texas House Border Caucus, said Texas has received about $43.3 billion tied to population numbers derived from the census in recent years.

Including the question perpetuates fear among immigrants who already fear the government, said Rep. Mary Gonzalez, vice chair of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus. Between President Donald Trumps hard line on immigration, a bevy of immigration raids and the states passage of an anti-sanctuary cities law, the fears a real thing, said the Democrat from Clint who represents the district outside El Paso and said Texas is home to some 5 million immigrants.

The Trump administration announced it would include the question on the next census Monday night, spurring attorney generals from Democratic-leaning states like California and New York to sue the federal government in an effort to nix the question from the census two years from now.

MORE: Census controversy on citizenship hits Texas

Blanco called on Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton to join the legal fight against asking all respondents about their citizenship, although Paxton had sent a letter urging the policy in a letter to the U.S. Census Bureau last month.

Texass population is growing, with several of its major cities among the fastest growing in the country. The census is used to allocate congressional seats, and Texas could be poised to gain three new seats after the census. The population numbers will also play a role in redrawing congressional and state district maps

Undercounting the population will hurt not just immigrants, but all Texans, said Ann Beeson, CEO of the Center for Public Policy Priorities, a left-leaning think tank.

This is not a political issue. This should not become a political issue, she said, noting that Texas is tackling expensive problems like adjusting education funding which could be negatively effected if Texas population is undercounted.

Jessica Azua she said she grew up in San Antonio and benefits from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Not so long ago, I was undocumented. I know what its like to live in the shadows, afraid of having your status known or being deported and separated from your family, she said at the press conference. What the Trump administration is doing is sending chills down the spine of every immigrant in Texas and the country.

She said her and her family will complete the census, but will leave the question about citizenship blank. She urged the public to do the same.

Andrea Zelinski covers politics for the Houston Chronicle. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook. Send her tips at andrea.zelinski@chron.com.
Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez expressed multiple concerns Wednesday about the conduct of his deputy who shot and killed an unarmed man 17 seconds after he ordered him to lie on the ground, and questioned why the deputy did not resort to a number of de-escalation steps including physical restraint or the use of a stun gun.

The March 22 shooting of Danny Ray Thomas, 34, has thrust Houston back into a national debate over police shootings, and comes as controversial police shootings are being questioned in other states across the country.

Dash camera video and bystander videos shows Thomas, with his pants around his ankles, walking toward deputy Cameron Brewer, who orders him to the ground. Thomas ignores his commands, and continues walking forward.

Seconds later, Brewer, a 7-year law enforcement veteran who joined the sheriffs office in 2016, shot Thomas once, killing him.

Read more: Deputys shooting of Danny Ray Thomas reignites debate over use of force, police accountability

The deputy had been issued a body-worn camera two hours before the shooting, and it was being charged in his patrol car.

What concerns me specifically is we have in place the force continuum, Gonzalez said. The continuum of force, that limits the type of force and or weapons that can be used to respond to certain types of resistance.

Theres a number of things that could be used, ranging from the mere presence of the deputy, to verbal commands, to the use of a Taser, to use of your hands, to ultimately, the use of (lethal) force, Gonzalez said. So theres a range of options there. To go straight to that, thats concerning to me, but in fairness, I have to make sure we determine from the deputy what his observations were at the time.

Its not necessarily what I would look at from a controlled environment looking at the video now, but its also, what was the perspective of that deputy when all this was going down, and it really was a matter of seconds, from his first engagement with him, making commands to the poor man, to discharging his weapon.

WATCH: Unarmed man with pants down fatally shot by Harris County deputy

But it is concerning that Mr. Thomas was unarmed, he was obviously in a state of crisis of some kind, and I think theres a lot of different ways that situation could have been assessed, the Sheriff continued. Im not naive to that. Im not naive to the concerns of the public, and to say, the man was unarmed, he should have found other options.

There are a range of options that could have been used, Gonzalez said. Why they werent used, thats something well determine through our investigation and HPD through theirs.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said he has been asked to get "very, very, very involved" in Houston ISD as it faces potentially severe state sanctions, but he stopped short Wednesday of suggesting the city could take control of the district's chronically under-performing campuses.

Asked whether the city could become a "partner" with the district, giving the city significant authority over operations at campuses, Turner said Wednesday: "Let's just say I've been asked to be very, very involved by multiple individuals, and then I am deciding to what degree and to how far I am going to get involved in the day-to-day operation of any of the schools."

In recent weeks, HISD administrators have proposed surrendering significant control over 10 underachieving campuses to "partners" as part of the district's plan for avoiding state sanctions.

Under a law known as HB 1842, which was passed in 2015, the Texas Education Agency must replace HISD's locally elected school board or close campuses if any one of the district's 10 longest-failing schools fails to meet state academic standards this year.

Under a separate law known as SB 1882, which was passed in 2017, the district can stave off those potential sanctions for two years if it partners with a nonprofit, higher education institution, charter school network or government entity.

HoustonChronicle.com: HISD leaders pitch 3-year partnerships at struggling schools

When HISD administrators initially recommended partnerships in early February, the district did not include governmental entities as a potential partner. However, in recent days, HISD leaders have added that option in public presentations about SB 1882, leading to speculation that the city of Houston could take control of HISD campuses.

It is unclear how seriously HISD administrators are considering that option. District officials did not immediately offer comment on Turner's statements Wednesday afternoon. HISD administrators have not discussed the possibility of partnering with the city of Houston at any public board meetings.

EDITORIAL: HISD supporters should prepare for the worst case scenario

By partnering with the city, HISD would secure an entity that is deeply invested in the success of local schools. However, the city of Houston has virtually zero experience running campuses, its Office of Education Initiatives has two employees and HISD administrators have said they are seeking partners with educational background.

"They have to be an established organization, an organization that has a proven track record of turning schools around or have the capacity to do that," HISD Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan said last week at a school board meeting.

HISD administrators initially floated a potential partner in February, Baltimore-based Talent Development Secondary, but that proposal was nixed because the group did not want to take responsibility for hiring and governance at campuses. Administrators have not named any other potential partners at public board meetings.

Lathan has said she hopes to name proposed partners at an April 2 board meeting, with trustees potentially voting on partnership contracts on April 12. HISD must submit contracts to the Texas Education Agency by April 30. Any partners would take control of campuses ahead of the 2018-19 school year.
A combined thousand years of life and a century of sunrises were celebrated this week at Clarewood House Senior Community in southwest Houston where 11 residents will turn 100 or older this year.

Centenarians, as the triple-digit set are called, have survived everything from the Great Depression to last years epic storm.

I grew up in the Dust Bowl and in the drought and ended up in the flood. Ive come full circle, said Laura Wini Robertson, 100, a retired teacher who was born in Texas and spent part of her upbringing as a farm girl in Oklahoma. She moved to Clarewood last year after her longtime Meyerland-area home was overtaken by water during Hurricane Harvey.

Clarewood House  long known for its bounty of centenarians (they had six in 2010)  is believed to have the most people 100 and older living at one address in Houston.

Resident lore determined that theres something on the door knobs at the United Methodist home, according to Executive Director Patrick Pheifer.

I dont know what youve been doing but keep doing it, because its working. Its wonderful. Dont change a thing, he told the honorees at Mondays group birthday party.

On the rise

The nations number of centenarians is expected to rise sharply over the next few decades because of the size of the baby boom generation born between roughly 1945 and 1960, said Dr. Thomas Perls, director of the New England Centenarian Study at Boston Medical Center. The study has been an ongoing project since 1996.

Even in 1990, about 1 per 10,000 in the population was a centenarian and now its 1 per 5,000. Its doubled, Perls said. Thats still a rare number. Weve gone from about 30,000 individuals in the United States to about 60,000 individuals who are centenarians.

More Information Eleven residents of Clarewood House, a senior community in southwest Houston, will turn 100 or older this year including: MARGARET KILTY, 100, Born Sept. 28, 1917 HELEN BROWN, 100, Born Sept. 30, 1917 BYROM WEHNER, 100, Born March 21, 1918 CHARLES OMAR LOGAN, 99, Born April 10, 1918 LENA BRENNER , 99, Oct. 29, 1918 These are the edited responses of some of Clarewood House's centenarians. GEORGE MCMAHAN, 102 Born: Oct. 21, 1915 Birthplace: Houston Fun facts: He served in the U.S. Army during World War II in the Pacific Theater. He is a Mason. In 2017, the Bellaire Lodge honored him for 70 years of service and as the last surviving founding member. How did you become a Houstonian? He was born in the Bayou City and grew up in the Heights. Why have you lived so long? "I got my mother's genes. She lived to 101." What's the secret to longevity? "I didn't expect to get past 90 and I was surprised when I got to the 100th birthday." MARGARET SHEARER, 101 Born: June 6, 1916 Birthplace: South Bend, Ind. Fun fact: She has twin daughters, June and Joan, who turn 80 in May. How did you become a Houstonian? "My daughter moved here after she got married. My husband died. My family was getting smaller." Why have you lived so long? "I just try to do the right thing for my help. I try to keep busy and I am busy." What's the secret to longevity? "One day at a time." INEZ HEGGIE, 100 Born: Sept. 1, 1917 Birthplace: Graham, Texas Fun fact: She worked at a dime store during the Depression for $1 a day. How did you become a Houstonian? After her husband died in a car accident, she moved to Houston in 1973 with her two sons to be closer to her husband's sisters. She retired from teaching in the Spring Branch Independent School District. Why have you lived so long? "Because I wanted to. I felt good. I like people. I enjoy seeing and enjoying and finding and looking. I had to work. I was not sick." What's the secret to longevity? "They need to be able to walk and walk and walk and walk." LAURA "WINI" ROBERTSON, 100 Born: Dec. 20, 1917 Birthplace: Tolbert, Texas Fun fact: She taught for 20 years at Poe Elementary in the Houston Independent School District. How did you become a Houstonian? "My husband worked with an oil company and we were transferred here in 1960." Her longtime home in the Meyerland area was flooded by Hurricane Harvey. Why have you lived so long? "Eating from the soil. We ate from gardens. I think that probably had something to do with it. I think that there may be some genes. I've had a few things wrong, but very little sickness. We weren't always talking about being happy, but there was always hard work." What's the secret to longevity? "You need to have a job that you really like and have people that you really care for around you. Have lots of friends. I don't think you have to be happy every single minute. Do the best you can. Having children in your life or being around children makes for a happier life." BETTYE DRISDALE, 100 Born: March 16, 1918 Birthplace: Fort Worth, Texas Fun fact: She worked on the repair bench at her husband's business on Westheimer, which started in "radios and phonographs," evolved to black and white televisions and, finally, to color TVs. How did you become a Houstonian? An only child, her father moved the family here during her childhood. Why have you lived so long? "I never expected that I'd live to be 100." What's the secret to longevity? "Enjoy life." VIRGINIA HARRELL, 100 Born: March 28, 1918 Birthplace: Yazoo City, Miss. Fun facts: She was once a "house mother" for the Delta Delta Delta sorority at Ole Miss, the University of Mississippi. Her maiden name is Swayze and the late actor and Houston native Patrick Swayze was a distant cousin. How did you become a Houstonian? She moved to Houston seven years ago to be closer to relatives. Why have you lived so long? She had aunts to live to 101, 103 and 104. "I think the good Lord is trying to make me a better person." What's the secret to longevity? "I tell you, the secret is walking. I walk a lot. Walk and be happy." Read a 2010 articleabout a group of Houston centenarians who offer advice on longevity. See More Collapse

Im not saying that well continue to see such a dramatic growth in the proportion of the population, but because of the absolute number, well see more and more.

A new report released by the U.S. Census Bureau this month projects that the graying of America and longevity will reach a new milestone by 2035: For the first time, there will be more older adults in the nation  people 65 and older  than children. Over the next four decades, from 2016 to 2060, the number of centenarians in the United States is expected to increase six-fold, the report said. For instance, in 2016, there were 66,000 female centenarians and 16,000 male centenarians. By 2060, the projection is 422,000 female centenarians in the United States and 168,000 male centenarians, which will represent a larger percentage of the population and a higher ratio of surviving men.

Clarewoods 100 club

The same is true at Clarewood House where eight centenarians are female and just three are male. They include a veteran of World War II and retired teachers as well as women whose efforts supported their families and businesses. Lifelong friends and other contemporaries are long gone. They are the patriarchs and matriarchs of their families.

Their mental acuity and physical conditions range from quick conversations and independent mobility to those in wheelchairs and one who forgot about Mondays party less than a half-hour after the celebration ended.

When they were asked about the secret to living to 100 years old, some themes emerged: Exercise, work and a positive attitude. Most didnt smoke, but some did. There were also only a few teetotalers.

You need to have a job that you really like and have people that you really care for around you, Robertson said. Have lots of friends. I dont think you have to be happy every single minute. Do the best you can. Having children in your life or being around children makes for a happier life.

Cindy Jackson, the administrator of health services at Clarewood House, said the 11 centenarians are followed by a large bunch of healthy and vibrant residents in their 90s.

The oldest resident is George McMahan, 102, who worked at Hughes Tool Co. for five decades and believes he inherited his longevity from his mother. She lived to be 101.

At the party, McMahan sang Amazing Grace and led Happy Birthday while another resident Robert Bennett, a retired music professor, played sacred songs and cowboy tunes for singalongs on the piano. Jackson roamed the room with the microphone for solos.

Good genes?

Why do you think people live to be 100? Who knows? I had a Daddy who drank like a fish and smoked like a chimney and he lived to be 93, Jackson told the crowd. It may be good genes.

Indeed, thats where the research is pointing.

The New England Centenarian Study and a sister inquiry with which Perls is associated, the Long Life Family Study, is searching for biological and environmental factors that help people survive from their early 90s to their early 100s  if not older.

We think that a lot of the benefit comes from some special longevity-enabling genes. These are genes that slow down aging and decrease your risk for aging-related diseases. We think that its just not one powerful gene, but rather a combination of many genes that individually have a weak effect but in the right combination can have a very strong effect, Perls said.

The effect is super-strong for people who are getting to the very oldest ages in our study  110 and older, he said. Those people are incredibly rare. Theyre about 1 in 5 million in the population.

Those 110-year-old superstars  called supercentenarians  are 1,000 times more rare than centenarians.

Houston lost a celebrated supercentenarian in February when Emma Primas died at 112. The retired businesswoman gained national prominence at age 109 during her 2015 meeting with President Barack Obama. Upon receiving a kiss on the cheek from someone she never thought she'd live to see  the first black U.S. president  she claimed it was simply like the loving nuzzle of a grandchild. She later admitted that the peck made her toes wiggle, a granddaughter reported.

Clarewood House residents have anecdotal proof of genetic longevity. Virginia Harrell, who celebrates 100 years this week, had three aunts who became centenarians. Margaret Shearer, 101, has twin daughters - Joan and June - who will turn 80 in May.

Some of this generational stuff is so fun. The notion that there are centenarians with 80-year-old kids? Amazing, Perls said. The children of our centenarians tend to be very healthy. They constitute the offspring portion of our study where we enroll the kids. Generally, they have 50 percent lower rates of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer compared to other people born around the same time. I think a very big chunk of that is healthy behaviors, but certainly we are guessing that there are some genes involved as well.
Former U.S. Congressman Steve Stockman tried to recruit top officials from the Egyptian defense ministry to help solicit a $30 million donation from an international cement company facing legal trouble, according to testimony in the second week of the GOP lawmakers federal corruption trial.

Stockman claimed the funds would go toward educating Americans about the historic importance of Egypt and the Middle East, or perhaps toward shipping medical supplies to Egypt and Africa, a witness testified Tuesday.

The hefty donation from CEMEX, an international cement company founded in Mexico, apparently never materialized. But prosecutors say the aide who helped arrange Stockmans trip to Egypt where he meet with officials was paid with money from another donation Stockman solicited for another of his pet causes. He had told an investor he wanted to establish Freedom House, a facility for conservative Capitol Hill interns in Washington, D.C.

The government lawyers say these trips and expenditures demonstrate how Stockman took hundreds of thousands of dollars in charitable donations, and rather than spending it as promised, he used it to enrich himself. The former GOP lawmaker from Clear Lake is on trial for 28 criminal counts related to syphoning off major donation funds to cover his own personal and political debts in what the government lawyers called a white collar crime spree.

MORE: Interns for ex-congressman Steve Stockman saw horrific work environment, ex-staffer testifies

But Stockmans defense team contends that testimony about the Egypt trip and about donation money Stockman funneled into a surveillance project tracking a presumed political opponent at the state capitol amount to meritless theatrics aimed at swaying the jury.

Its a time-consuming effort to make Mr. Stockman look like hes involved in a bunch of shady stuff, none of which is charged in the indictment, said attorney Sean Buckley.

Buckley is one of Stockmans three trial lawyers, paid for by a private benefactor who has declined to be named. Stockman told the court at a previous hearing he could not afford a lawyer.

The government has called a series of witnesses to follow the money from two major donations to Stockmans pet projects. One bank transfer at a time, an FBI agent and IRS agent both testified about how in a matter of months Stockman squandered the proceeds of checks from Richard Uihlein, a wealthy conservative investor from the Chicago area, for $350,000 and $450,000.

RELATED: Megadonor says he thought former U.S. Congressman Steve Stockman was trustworthy

Uihleins first donation of $350,000 tagged for Freedom House was used to pay for the surveillance operation in Austin against a perceived political opponent, it also covered a friends 30-day treatment for chemical dependency and a book publishing project, witnesses said.

Some of Uihleins money went to Tera Dahl, who arranged a meeting for Stockman with a group of people that included Gen. Mohamed El-Assar and Maj. Gen. Mohamed Elkeshky from the Egyptian ministry of defense.

Dahl testified about a letter Stockman apparently wrote after speaking with the Egyptian officials. He drafted a letter in which the officials could solicit from CEMEX two donations of $15 million for Egyptian American Friendship Association, to help improve plant security in Egypt and patch up relations between the Egyptian government and CEMEX after an employee was held hostage by Muslim extremists.

She testified the meeting which included civilians never touched on the CEMEX proposal.

Dahl told the jury, I believed he did care about the cause, referring to humanitarian causes the group discussed on the trip.

MORE: Stockman fraud case not about fur coats, Rolexes and Mercedes Benzes, lawyer says

Dahl earned $4,000 for helping Stockman with the Egypt trip, but said she knew nothing about the project meant to house conservative interns, which was tied to a charitable donation that funded her check.

Two witnesses testified Tuesday about another Uihlein donation of $450,000 meant to cover mailing costs for a self-published tabloid newspaper for Stockmans unsuccessful primary campaign to unseat U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. Kurt Wagner, who ran a direct mail service, said he gave back the $214,000 surplus from that project to a Stockman aide. An IRS investigator testified that some of that syphoned mailer money went to the opposition researcher in Austin, and some went to pay for credit card purchases in Turkey and in Egypt.

Gabrielle Banks covers federal court for the Houston Chronicle. Follow her on Twitter and send her tips at gabrielle.banks@chron.com.
A teenager arrested Tuesday in an aggravated robbery is connected to a shooting on Houston's southeast side a month earlier, court documents show.

Now he's not only facing a robbery charge in Tuesday's incident, but also a charge of first-degree felony murder for allegedly gunning down Cornelius Jackson, 20, in a shopping center parking lot Feb. 25.

Kevon Latreal Mills, 17, was picked up by Houston Police Department officers Tuesday, court documents show.

COPS ARRESTED: Ex-Houston cops among 22 arrested in gambling investigation

During that robbery, detectives believe Mills pulled a gun on a man and threatened his life. Mills was quickly arrested and charged.

Once Mills was in custody, detectives developed him as a suspect in the February shooting. An HPD spokesperson did not answer questions about how detectives connected Mills to the shooting.

During that shooting, police said, Mills shot Jackson in the 4800 block of Martin Luther King Boulevard, near Old Spanish Trail.

IN CUSTODY: Possible shooter in custody after northeast Houston shooting

During an altercation, Mills allegedly shot Jackson in the face and chest. Jackson was rushed to Memorial Hermann Hospital where he later died.

Court documents show Mills was on bond for a misdemeanor weapons charge during the shooting and robbery.

He could face up to life in prison if convicted.

Jay R. Jordan is a breaking news reporter at Chron.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JayRJordan.
A northeast Houston homeowner shot and killed a suspected robber who was trying to steal a pickup truck on his driveway, police said.

Around 11 p.m. Tuesday, the homeowner heard a noise and saw someone breaking into a pickup truck at his home in the 7400 block of Langley, HPD Lt. Larry Crowson said.
One person was injured in a shooting Wednesday afternoon in northeast Houston, and police have a possible suspect in custody.

Houston police officers were called out to the 9500 block of North Wayside Drive near Tidwell Road around 1:15 p.m. to reports of a shooting. When paramedics arrived, they found one person had been shot.
Kita Thomas-Smith stood in front of Houston City Council on Tuesday, calling for its members to speak out against police brutality and to encourage law enforcement departments across the region to invest in more officer training.

It was the first time the 34-year-old mother of two has spoken publicly since videos showing a Harris County deputy last Thursday fatally shooting her unarmed brother, Danny Ray Thomas, at a busy intersection were released to the public.

Im speaking on behalf of police brutality, Thomas-Smith told the council as she began to sob. My brother was not armed, not trying to harm and possibly, he just wanted someone to help him.

Despite the shooting involving a Harris County sheriffs deputy, not a Houston officer, Mayor Sylvester Turner reiterated the importance of transparency and training.

I certainly feel your pain. We are certainly sorry for any life that is taken, he said. Training is always in order and we encourage training. And we encourage training with any organization. Thats very important. We are not disagreeing.

In an interview with the Houston Chronicle, Thomas-Smith and her father, Donald Ray Woods, described Thomas, 34, of Houston, as a loving husband, father, uncle and brother. Thomas wife is awaiting trial for killing two of his children.

Thomas was fatally shot last Thursday by Harris County sheriffs deputy Cameron Brewer, who was responding to a report of a suspicious person at the corner of Imperial Valley Drive and Greens Road. Brewer had received a body camera hours earlier, but it was charging in his patrol car when the incident occurred, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said Monday.

Upon arrival, Brewer called out to Thomas, the sheriffs office dashcam reveals. Thomas, with his pants at his ankles, begins walking toward Brewer, who tells Thomas to get on the ground or that he will shoot him. The deputy, who was in fear for his life, shot and killed Thomas with a single gunshot, Gonzalez said.

Days after the shooting and the release of videos that captured the incident, authorities said they would investigate Thomas mental health and stability in addition to Brewers action. Gonzalez said that by standing in the road, with his pants at his ankles while foaming at the mouth, Thomas appeared to be under the influence of a substance or mentally impaired. Toxicology reports from the Harris County medical examiner are still pending.

Thomas-Smith, however, said her brother was never diagnosed with a mental illness. Im pretty sure they will find no documentation stating that he had a mental illness, she said. Thomas wife is awaiting trial for killing two of his children.

On the steps of City Hall, Thomas described the emotions she felt watching the dashcam video. It feels like premeditated murder, she said. He was clearly walking, not running, toward the deputy not trying to hurt or harm him.

Attempts to reach Brewer for comment were not returned by press time. He has been placed on administrative leave

Thomas was walking with his arms to his side, she said. That officer had enough time to think about what he wanted to do. He acknowledged what he was going to do and thats whats heartbreaking. Why couldnt he grab the Taser?

In the coming weeks, Gonzalez said the department would review its use of force policy. In the meantime, HPD is conducting a criminal investigation because the shooting occurred within the citys jurisdiction. Based on the police departments findings, the district attorney will review the evidence and take it before a grand jury. There is no set timeline on when that will happen.
Harris County investigators snared two Houston police officers and seized $2.3 million in cash along with luxury cars during a year-long investigation into illegal gambling centered in game rooms in the Chinatown area, prosecutors and Houston police confirmed.

In all, 22 people have been charged with money laundering, and six of them were also charged with engaging in organized crime, according to the Harris County District Attorney's Office.

More than $2.3 million in illegal proceeds were seized and is being forfeited, along with high-priced Lamborghini, Porsche and Mercedes Benz sport cars, said Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg.

The gaming arrests come as fear and concerns remain in the Asian community over a number of robberies and violent crimes that have victimized residents in the Chinatown area over the past two years. Some of these sorts of crimes can be linked to illegal game room activities, Ogg said.

"Illegal gambling game rooms in general are magnets for crime," Ogg said. "Cash is how business is done. Owners rarely report crimes. Ancillary crimes such as robbery, shootings, murders ... extortion, are spinoffs of the gambling criminal industry."

While most of the people arrested were clerks or owners of the game rooms, former Houston Police Department officers Larry Nguyen and Huy Ly were on the force when they were accused of buying cars, appliances and furniture on behalf of a game room owner, Ogg said.

Among the purchases made by Ly on behalf of a game room owner was $210,000 for a 2016 Lamborghini Huracan, a car the officer is alleged to have financing through the Houston Police Federal Credit Union.

"I'm proud that these guys are no longer part of our organization," said Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo, who attended a press event announcing the investigation results. "We're not going to tolerate any type of corruption in the police department."

READ ALSO: Fire engulfs 18-wheeler filled with pecans in NE Houston

Nguyen and Ly, who both resigned in February, have been charged with money laundering, which carries a five-year to life sentence if they are found guilty.

Nguyen, 39, had been on the force for 16 years and was assigned to the traffic enforcement division. According to police records, Nguyen had been disciplined in 2013 after HPD received complaints about his conduct and behavior although details of the incidents were not immediately available.

Ly, 37, had been an HPD officer for 10 years and was assigned to the Westside Patrol Division, and apparently had not been the subject of any previous disciplinary action, according to an HPD database of sustained complaints.

In addition to Nguyen and Ly, those charged include more than a dozen employees and six owners of the game rooms, most of which are located in shopping centers along Bellaire Boulevard in the Chinatown area, according to prosecutors.

A large portion of the $2.3 million was seized from an owner's safe, Ogg said. That owner, Thien Hoai Vo, has also been charged with money laundering. His game room, Memory Cafe, on 12168 Bellaire Blvd., had $1.9 million in assets, a Mercedes-Benz, a Lamborghini and a Porsche, according to the district attorney's office.

READ ALSO: Shooting victim asks bystanders for help near Galena Park

Jessica Chen, a local attorney and community leader, said the game rooms bring "bad people to gamble," possibly contributing to robberies in Chinatown that have negatively impacted the character of the area and the peace of mind of residents.

"Intentionally targeting Chinese or Asians for crime is discriminatory," Chen said.

People who go to game rooms are often older and living on fixed-incomes, and waste hundreds of dollars on gambling machines, Ogg said. Some of the owners make their gambling operations more inviting, with free food to keep people around.

Ogg emphasized that game rooms themselves aren't illegal -- they're regulated by the city and county -- but that much of the activity taking place in them can be. Certain gambling machines are prohibited, and operators can't pay out winnings over a small legal limit, she said.

Some of the game rooms that were busted were packed with machines, having between 25 to 60 eight-liners at each location, Ogg said.

Many illicit activities can come out of illegal gambling operations, the district attorney said.

"This is an ongoing issue for people in Houston," Ogg said. "We know that Chinatown and that the Asian community in general have suffered a series of robberies and violent crimes in their area, and we hope by investing resources in investigations like this that we can make a measurable difference."

The top prosecutor noted that much of the gambling proceeds are in cash, and do not provide tax revenue to local government.

"Of course, the owner operators of these gambling game rooms don't pay taxes on the money so where we have to earn $200 to bring home $140, they take every penny of the cash they earned illegally home."

Houston's police chief warned that the gaming parlor become a springboard for other, more serious criminal activity.

"In terms of the actual crimes being investigated with these game rooms, just know this: it is not a victimless crime," Acevedo said. "We have a lot of community members being victimized because of a large amount of cash coming to and from those establishments."

samantha.ketterer@chron.com

Twitter.com/sam_kett


A Texas man who confessed to killing a teenager and shooting another one in Wichita Falls in 2016 was declared incompetent on Friday.

Kody Austin Lott, 22, faces a count of murder and one count of aggravated assault in the death of Lauren Landavazo, 13, and shooting of Makayla Smith, also 13 at the time. The girls were shot after a man drove up beside them while they were walking from school Sept. 2, 2016, according to Lott's arrest affidavit. The man reached into the passenger area and produced a rifle-type firearm.
12:34 p.m. UPDATE:

The Woodlands cataloged the most rainfall in the Greater Houston area over a 24-hour period, with 6.3 inches recorded by the National Weather Service.

In Harris County, rainfall ranged from a high of 5.56 inches in Westfield to a low of 1.1 inches near Holcombe.

11:47 a.m. UPDATE:

Houston meteorologists confirmed that a weak tornado producing winds of 60 mph went through Iowa Colony in Brazoria County Thursday morning.

A survey crew is out on the scene. The exact location and damage from the tornado is unknown.

8:18 a.m. UPDATE:

While Trinity River at Liberty is within its banks now, it is projected to rise through the weekend, causing major flooding on Saturday and Easter Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.

The Texas Department of Transportation Houston District has also identified high water on roads at four locations in the Houston area.

I-45 at North Main street right and center lanes

2920 westbound and eastbound right and center lanes at Calvert

IH-69 southbound entrance ramp at Williams Way Boulevard in Fort Bend County  entrance ramp

7:45 a.m. UPDATE:

The West Fork of San Jacinto River is expected to rise through mid-day, causing moderate flooding, according to the National Weather Service.

As of 7 a.m., the river was at 49 feet, and by 1 p.m., it is projected to reach around 51.6 feet before dropping, meteorologists predicted.

The main threat is street flooding to subdivisions near the river's edge and access to those subdivisions, meteorologist Jeff Lindner of the Harris County Flood Control District said.

Homes on Lake Point Drive in the Northshore subdivision in the Kingwood area could flood, and when the river reaches its highest point, the flooding could extend to other homes in that subdivision, according to the National Weather Service.

Minor flooding is also predicted at East Fork San Jacinto River near New Caney, Caney Creek near Splendora and Lake Creek north of The Woodlands.

Peach Creek near Splendora is expected to experience moderate flooding by 7 p.m.

7:05 a.m. UPDATE:

Houston's flash flood watch has expired as the storm system is starting to move east out of the area.

6:18 a.m. UPDATE:

The West Fork of the San Jacinto River at Highway 59 is "rising rapidly" and will exceed its banks Thursday morning, according to meteorologist Jeff Lindner of the Harris County Flood Control District.

Minor flooding is also expected to occur along the river from Lake Houston to west of Highway 59 as a result of Spring and Cypress Creek runoff.

5:45 a.m. UPDATE:

Conditions are expected to improve from west to east this morning, with the skies predicted to start clearing up sometime after 7 a.m., according to the National Weather Service.

Minor flooding is forecast for areas near Peach Creek near Splendora and West Fork San Jacinto River in Humble.

4:10 a.m. UPDATE:

The heaviest rain and lightning have moved on to the north and east of Houston, leaving only scattered areas of standing water, none serious enough to cause a road closure.

According to the National Weather Service, "Localized flooding is still possible. Precipitation will clear from west to east through the morning hours."

Showers and possible thunderstorms are still part of the morning mix.

2:50 a.m. UPDATE:

More than an inch of rain has fallen in many locations in and around Houston in the last hour as a strong line of storms has moved through from west to east.

A severe thunderstorm warning was issued by the National Weather Service for parts of Brazoria, Galveston, Harris and Matagorda counties until 3:45 a.m. The warning area did not include Houston proper.

Radar indicated a slight lull in the rainfall in the next hour or so, with the possibility that another band of heavy rain will move through before daybreak.

No major flooding events were reported as yet.

9:20 p.m. UPDATE:

A second round of storms expected to slam the Houston area overnight are stronger than previously forecast, according to the National Weather Service.

This means there is an increased chance of flooding, meteorologists predict. Most of the threat appears to be in the Brazos Valley, but other areas of concern are communities along the U.S. 59 corridor, NWS stated.

Some Houston-area communities have seen close to 3 inches of rain, mostly in north-to-northwest Harris County, Waller County and most of Montgomery County, according to the HArris County Flood Control District.

Most neighborhoods inside Houston's city limits have received less than 1.5 inches.

With a new round of storms coming through, the threat shifts from severe weather (tornadoes, wind, hail) to flooding. As much as 3 additional inches of rain could fall throughout the area, with some areas receiving an additional 6 inches by Thursday morning.

A widespread tornado watch expired at 9 p.m. All of southeast Texas remains under a flash flood watch until 1 a.m. Thursday, with Harris County and other more southern counties under a flash flood watch until 7 a.m. Thursday.

Storms are expected to clear out by late Thursday morning, NWS predicts.

8:20 p.m. UPDATE:

All of southeast Texas remains under a tornado watch until 9 p.m.

More storms are expected to roll into the area overnight, possibly causing minor flooding. The storms should clear out by Thursday afternoon, meteorologists predict.

7:30 p.m. UPDATE:

CenterPoint Energy reports several hundred outages in homes in Midtown.

6:15 p.m. UPDATE:

A short-lived ground stop at Houston's Bush Intercontinental Airport was lifted around 6:10 p.m. Wednesday.

The airport was under a ground stop due to severe weather in the area, including high winds.

6 p.m. UPDATE:

All aircraft have been grounded at Houston's Bush Intercontinental Airport due to the storms blowing through the area.

The airport tweeted that there is a ground stop due to wind shear.

A tornado warning issued for north Harris County, which included much of the airport, has since expired.

5:35 p.m. UPDATE:

A tornado warning has been issued for north Harris County, extending along the north Beltway 8 from around Veterans Memorial Drive almost to the Eastex Freeway.

The warning includes south Spring and Bush Intercontinental Airport.

The warning expires at 5:45 p.m.

While a thunderstorm warning has expired for parts of Harris, Waller and Fort Bend counties, a strong line of storms continues to pummel much of the Houston area.

Rain totals provided by the Harris County Flood Control District indicate many areas in west and northwest Harris County have received more than 1 inch of rain in the last hour.

The storms are expected to continue through Thursday morning, according to the National Weather Service.

4:40 p.m. UPDATE:

Parts of west Harris County are under a thunderstorm warning until 5 p.m., according to the National Weather Service.

The warning includes Katy and Brookshire, primarily affecting areas north of Interstate 10.

ORIGINAL STORY:

The Houston area is under a tornado watch until 9 p.m. today, according to the National Weather Service.

The watch means that people across Houston, as well as most of southeast Texas, are under a threat of possible tornadoes, "lime-sized" hail and wind gusts up to 70 mph, forecasters said.

Houston residents should be on the lookout for severe weather as storms are coming ahead of a cold front pushing its way through Texas, according to the National Weather Service.

At 12:45 p.m., a second line of strong thunderstorms was beginning to move into northern parts of southeast Texas, near College Station. A smaller line of thunderstorms was also starting to develop over Fort Bend and Harris Counties, meteorologists reported.

LATEST FORECAST: Keep up with the storms moving into the area

Rainfall totals from overnight Tuesday through Thursday are expected to be anywhere from 2 to 3 inches, with isolated areas receiving closer to 4 to 6 inches.

A flash flood watch is also in effect for Houston and most of southeast Texas until Thursday morning.

Flash flooding warnings are also in effect for southeastern Burleson County, western Grimes County, western Washington County and central Brazos County until 4 p.m. As of 2 p.m., up to two inches of rain had already fallen, according to the National Weather Service.

The thunderstorms are now moving across southeast Texas, bringing heavy downpours and lightning, the National Weather Service said. Bayous throughout Houston could rise but should stay within their banks, meteorologists predict.

The Houston Fire Department is taking extra precautions ahead of a string of storms expected to hit the area over the next few days.

TAX DAY FLOOD 2016: Scroll through the slideshow below

HFD announced Tuesday they deployed an extra high-water rescue vehicle to HFD Station 37 near Stella Link and West Holcombe Boulevard, about a mile north of Brays Bayou.

High-water rescue vehicles are already stationed permanently at HFD Station 5 near Hammerly Boulevard and Bingle Road, HFD Station 57 near Memorial Drive and North Wilcrest Drive and HFD Station 58 near Fulton Street and Parker Road and can be dispatched throughout the city as needed, officials said.
Pour lire cet article en francais, cliquez ici.

The Government of Quebec unveiled plans today for a new Expression of Interest system modelled on the federal Express Entry system.

The new Expression of Interest (Declaration dinteret) system will manage candidate profiles for the Quebec Skilled Worker Program (QSWP).

Quebecs Immigration Ministry, the Ministere de lImmigration, et de la Diversite et de lInclusion (MIDI), has made no secret of its intention to create its own version of Express Entry following the introduction of Canadas federal economic immigration management system in January 2015.

Quebecs immigration system is unique and the province has significant autonomy in creating its programs.

The Expression of Interest system will replace the first-come, first-served application process for the QSWP and its problem-plagued Mon Projet Quebec application portal. That portal will continue to receive applications from cap-exempt QSWP candidates with an employment offer and temporary residents of Quebec until the Expression of Interest system is in place.

Similar Concept to Federal Express Entry system

Like Express Entry, interested candidates, who are eligible for the Quebec Skilled Worker Program, would have to submit an Expression of Interest as a first step.

Also similar to the Federal Express Entry system is the fact a profile will be valid for 12 months.

It is expected that after entering Quebecs Expression of Interest pool, a candidate would receive another score based on a ranking system that determines their position in the pool, much like Express Entrys Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS).

Under the Federal Express Entry system, a candidates ranking score is determined by points awarded for factors such as employment, education, language skills, age, as well as additional factors. It is expected that Quebec will have a unique points-system that operates in a similar way.

Candidates would be drawn from the Expression of Interest pool through invitation rounds during which a specified number of candidates who meet or exceed a specified cut-off score would be issued invitations to apply for a Quebec Selection Certificate (Certificat de selection du Quebec, or CSQ).

Those issued an invitation to apply will have 90 days to submit a complete application for CSQ. Applicants who receive an CSQ from Quebec can then apply to the Government of Canada for permanent residence.

More details about this system, including the ranking system and exact start date, are expected to be announced in the near future.

Its exciting to see that Quebec is finally moving forward with its plans to revamp the intake system for skilled workers, said Attorney David Cohen, senior partner with the Campbell, Cohen immigration law firm in Montreal. It will be very interesting to see exactly how ranking points will be assigned under the new system, not to mention how Quebec will conduct draws from the Expression of Interest pool.

To find out if you are eligible for any Quebec or Canadian immigration programs, fill out a FREE assessment form.

 2018 CICNews All Rights Reserved
Entrepreneurs backed by business incubators would be welcomed under proposed changes

Quebec looking to revamp Entrepreneur immigration options Entrepreneurs backed by business incubators would be welcomed under proposed changes

Quebec looking to revamp Entrepreneur immigration options Entrepreneurs backed by business incubators would be welcomed under proposed changes

Quebec looking to revamp Entrepreneur immigration options Entrepreneurs backed by business incubators would be welcomed under proposed changes Stephen Smith Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif

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Pour lire cet article en francais, cliquez ici.

The Government of Quebec is proposing a series of updates to its Entrepreneur immigration category.

The changes would revise the two components through which entrepreneurs will be selected into one focused on startups supported by a business incubator/accelerator or university and the other on owner-funded and operated businesses.

Under the first component, Quebecs Immigration Ministry, the Ministere de lImmigration, et de la Diversite et de lInclusion (MIDI), would select entrepreneurs who:



Have a passing score under Quebecs Economic Class selection grid.

Settle in Quebec to operate an enterprise that the entrepreneur creates, alone or with other persons, and that has received an offer of service from an enterprise accelerator, an enterprise incubator or a university entrepreneurship centre.

The second component concerns the operation in Quebec of an enterprise that the foreign entrepreneur creates or acquires. Under this component, MIDI will select a foreign entrepreneur based on the following criteria:

Holds and controls, alone or with the accompanying spouse or de facto spouse, at least 25% of the equity of the enterprise he or she creates or at least 51% of the equity of the enterprise he or she acquires. The value of that participation must be equal to or greater than the amount that must serve to start up the business project;

Manages the enterprise himself or herself or participates actively as an associate in the management and daily operations of the enterprise;

The enterprise does not carry out a restricted economic activity;

Provides a start-up deposit and performance guarantee security deposit; and

Obtains a passing score under the Entrepreneur program selection grid.

A key change between this last component and the current Acquisition of a business in Quebec component is candidates would now have to pay a performance guarantee deposit that is refundable if certain conditions are met.

Quebec has not yet detailed the financial requirements, such as the deposit or net worth required of applicants to the Entrepreneur program.

To find out if you are eligible for the Quebec Entrepreneur Program, fill out a FREE assessment form.

 2018 CICNews All Rights Reserved
Enterprise service management is already a reality in many organizations and will be even more so in the future. But if thats true, why does it feel like a very ancient story indeed: building the tower of Babel?

Breaking down silos in organizations by working together with different service departments has a lot of benefits. Most of all, enterprise service management helps you improve your customer experience while increasing efficiency at the same time. Sounds great, but is it worth the hassle it causes when departments dont see eye to eye?

A very common hurdle in improving the collaboration between departments is that they dont speak the same language. Facilities and IT dont mean the same thing when they talk about an incident, and HR and finance use different terminology altogether, which leads to misunderstandings. For instance, when IT departments talk about an incident there is no stress related to it, but in a facilities context an incident most likely means the building is on fire or something of that severity, not to mention what an incident implies in an HR context.

The thing is, though, you dont need to speak exactly the same language across departments to make enterprise service management work. A very good place to start is a clear understanding of how other departments work and communicate.

Babel in Brussels

Take Belgium as an example, the country where I grew up and have spent quite a few years of my career. The country has three official languages: Dutch, French and German. In Brussels, the capital of Belgium, speakers of these different languages live side-by-side and meet in government and businesses alike. The languages arent very similar, and many people find it difficult to express themselves in a language that isnt their own.

But listening to and understanding a foreign language is much easier than speaking it. Heres the Belgian solution to the language barrier: In meetings, each person speaks their own language, so everybody can have their say without the fear of using the wrong words or phrases. Misunderstandings may still occur, but even re-phrasing your point of view in simpler terms is easier in your own language than in somebody elses. It takes some getting used to but it works surprisingly well.

Speech confusion in service management

The Belgian model to overcome their language barrier sounds great, but how does it translate to service management?

If you work together with multiple service departments, like IT, facilities and HR, youre bound to run into your own small-scale (or even large-scale) language barriers. Different departments will use different words when they mean the same thing or use the same words when they actually mean different things. Its tempting to start creating a whole new framework to get everybody on the same page, but is that really the most efficient way to improve communication?

Just like in Belgian meetings, the most important goal is that all your employees understand each other. At first glance, it seems like that means you need to speak the same language across the board. But what if everybody is simply aware of the differences and keeps talking the way they normally would? It takes a long time to create, implement and learn a new framework for terminology, so wouldnt it be great if you could skip that step?

Instead of aligning service departments language, let colleagues get to know each other and see each others work, so they know what the other side is talking about. Once employees have sufficient knowledge of other departments to understand the differences, they can see their communication in the right context. Plus, since everybody keeps communicating the way theyre used to, your team members wont have to struggle to get their point across in a meeting, phone call or email.

A great way to achieve better communication is to have job shadowing days, where people from IT, for instance, tag along with the facilities team for a couple of hours or a full day. Want a more coordinated program? Organize a knowledge sharing day, where the departments each give a presentation about what they are working on. If youd rather take an informal approach, simply having people from different departments sit together is also a great start.

Communicating with customers

So, will you never have to change the way your service departments communicate from now on? Well, there is one context in which consistent language is crucial: communication with your customers. If you work together with various departments at the back-end, you may share a service desk or self-service portal where your customers go with their questions and requests. Perhaps you even maintain a knowledge base where customers can quickly find the answers theyre looking for. You want to keep communication with the customer clear and consistent, even if service departments each have their own jargon. How? Heres a rule of thumb: Avoid jargon as much as you can. Describe your services as plainly as possible and dont bother customers with the intricacies of how you handle requests at the back-end.

And dont forget to involve your service desk if youre going to develop a tone-of-voice for customer communication. Service desk employees talk to customers every day; theyll know your customers will understand and what confuses them when they submit requests.

So, if enterprise service management feels like building the tower of Babel, just remember how Belgians have made that tower work in Brussels. Figure out how the other side works, and let the other side know how you work as well. Then youre breaking down silos instead of building a tower.
The Road to Reinvention (Leadership in the Digital Age) was a program that ran last week at the University of Californias Center for Digital Transformation. The event was chock full of digital leaders and shared many lessons for legacy and digital native business CIOs. Here are some highlights from an all-day program.

Alignment is essential in the digital age

Vijay Gurbaxani in his key note suggested that we are at a technology cross roads. He said digital businesses have the potential for big rewards and big risks. But the common theme amongst digital winners is they have perfected their data skills. This vanguard, he claims, knows that machine learning and AI are only as good as the data that you put into them. They understand that the way a legacy firm can beat the platform vendor including Facebook, Google, Apple and Amazon is with data and increasingly by taking their firms intellectual capital and codifying it in software. Nordstrom is the poster child example in how it has used integration, data, predictive analytics, and secret shopper mentality to win against Amazon.

With this, Gurbaxani shared the Centers research on what is needed for successful digital transformation. Gurbaxani suggested that six things are needed in lock step for digital transformations to succeed.

A shared strategic vision Strategic alignment A culture of innovation Know-how Technology assets Digital talent

I know that CIOs want similar things from their organizations. But this list suggests something even biggerCIOs must be more than aligned in the digital era. They need to be a connection masters up, down, and across their organizations to facilitate realistic strategic vision and then turn it into reality. With this said, Gurbaxani said the list of risks to digital strategies are only increasingly. At the top of the list are security and privacy. Given these threats, Gurbaxani suggests the digital world needs governance to deal with an ever-increasing list of threats.

The importance of the right strategic vision

Qantas CIO, Susan Doniz, shared during her talk how strategic alignment has allowed her to put the appropriate attention upon customer experience. She said that historically Qantas was focused upon optimize the assets, the airplanes, but with the business now is focused around optimizing the customer experience. This has changed everything for her. Susan claims that with a focus on fixing the customer relationships, she has been able to go after improving employee experience and engagement as well. Clearly, leading edge organizations like Zappos and Virgin Atlantic have proclaimed that putting employees first allows their organizations to deliver superior customer service.

To enable these changes, Doniz decided that IT needed to do a better job at surfacing data and analytics for customers and employees. She said that they need to be more transparent to both. Her goal has become to enable employees to manage the customer journey. Microsofts Ada Duan echoed Donizs thinking on the importance of customer centricity in describing Microsofts transformation from a company that knows it all to a company that wants to know everything about the customer. As a software company, she said that their moving off the box to the cloud transformed how they release product and more importantly how they interact and keep customers. They now give customers the opportunity to participate in software beta releases and make suggestions for future releases.

Meanwhile, Kiva Allgood of GE ventures said that the pace change has really impacted General Electric at its core. They believe now that all of their businesses can be digitally disrupted. So, they ask a rigorous set of questions to business owners regularly in particular regarding technology change. Clearly, their success here is now question. Fortune Magazine, for example, has recently questioned the success of GEs business transformation. Clearly, not all transformations will succeed.

What do boards want to hear from their CIOs?

The event moved interestingly to a discussion of the boards perspective on digital transformation. Dean Yoost, who is on the board of Union Bank and Pacific Life, said he does not want to see an IT budget discussion that is just a bunch of financial numbers. Instead, he wants CIOs to come in and discuss business capabilities and innovation. Business capabilities is clearly the language of PWC/Booz Consulting and Enterprise Architecture. Yoost claimed as well that CIOs should be pushing for their board of directors to create technology committees. Apparently, the number of organizations that have taken this step are small but it is nevertheless it is an interesting idea. Yost ended by saying that as a board member in banking, quality of data is their business and without it, AI is useless."

It was clear from the presenters that it is much harder to add new digital capabilities in legacy organizations. A big determinant of whether new digital capabilities work or not, said Yoost, is whether CIOs gets the change management in place for a digital transformation to work. Another thing that can determine whether CIOs enable digital survivors is whether they stop customizations for systems outside their organizations core competencies. One presenter asked why do people customize their HR apps?

It seems clear that digital transformation requires much of organizations and much in terms of the capability to change. Success is not just on the CIOs shoulders. This is clearly why Jeanne Ross of MIT-CISR found in her research that many successful legacy businesses are not clear on whether they will cross successfully the digital divide. It requires getting ones data act together, but it also requires a culture that is an enabler of change. Otherwise, legacy organizations will surely experience a Kodak Moment when the next wave of digital disruption threatens their business model.
Buried on page 130 in the new Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is a measure aimed at revitalizing Americas struggling neighborhoods by putting trillions of dollars in cashunrealized capital gainsto work. Last week, governors from around the country nominated a portion of their low-income census tracts to be eligible for tax-friendly private investment. Known as Opportunity Zones, they serve as investment bait for communities left behind by the economic recovery. Success rests on an experiment in federalism, aligning investors and public officials behind a strategy for reengaging in distressed America.

Roughly 30 percent of Americans live in distressed zip codes marked by low incomes, education, and workforce participation, along with high rates of poverty. Meantime, five dynamic metro areas produced as many net new businesses as the rest of the country combined. Lawmakers are eyeing profits that investors have made in things like stocks or real estate, but that they let lie fallow to avoid being hit with capital-gains taxes. But now these investors can put that moneyas much as $6.1 trillionto use in so-called Opportunity Funds. In exchange, their capital gains taxes are deferred, reduced, or eliminated altogether.

Investing in struggling places is taking on new urgency. Harvard economist and Manhattan Institute fellow Edward Glaeser, together with his coauthors, recently found a widening and persistent gap in American regional economic fortunes. A man between the ages of 25 and 54 in Flint, Michigan, for instance, is more than ten times likelier to be out of work than a similarly aged man in Alexandria, Virginia. It may be time to target pro-employment policies towards our most distressed areas, Glaeser and his coauthors write.

Opportunity Funds pool dollars into qualified low-income areas. The longer they invest in local businesses or real estate, the better the tax treatment. As Brookingss Adam Looney found, Individuals in a high-tax state and with short-term capital gains can avoid $7.50 in taxes for each $100 they invest, even before considering any return on their Zone investments. Funds can put money into a broad set of activities, from small-business startups to real estate ventures, as well as traditionally blue-collar sectors like manufacturing or energy.

Up to a quarter of a states low-income census tracts can qualify as Opportunity Zones, as selected by the governor and approved by the Treasury Department; another 5 percent of contiguous tracts may also qualify, as long as they are not radically better off than their neighbors. The near-term cost to the federal government is expected to be $7.7 billion over the next four years and $1.6 billion during the full 10-year window as deferred taxes are paid back.

Opportunity Zones are the brainchild of the Washington, D.C.-based Economic Innovation Group (EIG). The measure establishing them made it to President Trumps desk thanks primarily to Senators Tim Scott (R-SC) and Cory Booker (D-NJ). Governors of every state and territory have been racing against the clock since last December to pick the right mix of poor areas for development before the initiatives entry deadline closes this month. It has not been easy. California, for instance, could nominate up to 879 census tracts out of a total of more than 7,000. New York could pick up to 513. Several states, such as Tennessee and Idaho, launched portals allowing their cities and counties to pitch themselves for selection.

Unlike most economic-development efforts, this one appears to protect taxpayers; investors are on the hook for the risk and citizens benefit from the upside. Tax credits, by contrast, offer the wealthy a guaranteed subsidy while routinely capping outlays, lest too much success bust government budgets.

Opportunity Zones have their critics. For one thing, tax-favored zones have a lackluster record reviving distressed regions. Nineties-era Empowerment Zones, which channeled tax credits and block grants to high-poverty areas in six cities, spurred only limited job creation, at enormous cost. Californias enterprise zones couldnt even boost employment. The most trenchant critique of Opportunity Zones is that, thanks to quirks in the census data, they may simply redirect dollars to already-flourishing communities. Californias Berkeley is no ones vision of a down-and-out town; nevertheless, parts of it sit in qualified low-income census tracts. Areas with a large concentration of poor college students, say, or that grew significantly since the last census, are not only qualified as zones but also probably tempting to investors and governors looking for a quick payoff.

States and municipalities need to start planning now for the implementation of Opportunity Zones. Designating census tracts for the initiative is a governors statutory responsibility, but crafting a strategy and convening affected locals must be their responsibility, too. These strategies should be undergirded by data gathering and data sharing, with governors offices acting as information hubs, and outside institutions providing rigorous evaluation. Places that do well with Opportunity Zones are going to be ones that have really thought through what happens to make each dollar work, said John Lettieri, president of EIG. Licensing, zoning, and permittingtheres so much you can do.

Whether Opportunity Zones end up a boon will depend in part on the communities themselves. Some places are going to figure this out and say we have a strategy, concluded Lettieri. Other places are going to say: I designated my zones and Ill check back in a couple years. One of these approaches is going to be successful.

Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images
Charity bodies have formed a steering group to create a digital code of practice to try to close the skills gap in the sector.

The steering group has been convened with representatives from NCVO, Acevo, the Small Charities Coalition, the Charity Finance Group, Tech Trust, SCVO, WCVA and Charity IT Leaders, as well as the Office for Civil Society and the Charity Commission. It will be chaired by independent digital consultant Zoe Amar.

The project is being funded by the Lloyds Banking Group and the Co-op Foundation. The Co-op Foundation is giving the Small Charities Coalition a grant of 7,000 to help it develop a version of the code that is suitable for smaller charities and to cover its costs of participating in steering group. Lloyds Banking Group would not disclose how much it had contributed to the project.

A consultation with the wider sector will launch in the summer and The Charity Digital Code of Practice is then expected to launch before the end of the year.

The code will include best practice guidelines and there will be different versions for larger and smaller charities.

Amar said the code would bring much needed support for digital activity in charities.

She added that: The charity sector has recognised a need for digital improvement and is coming together to work on the solution. Were all looking forward to developing the new code and seeing an increase in digital skills and practices to make the sector more digitally confident, efficient and sustainable.

Charities lag behind

A number of studies over the years have suggested that the charity sector has struggled to adopt digital technology, with smaller charities more likely to lag behind.

One of the recommendations from the House of Lords Committee on Charities was that the sector needed to improve in this area and said each charity should have at least a basic website or social media page.

Last year the Lloyds Bank Business Digital Index found that 48 per cent of charities have basic digital skills, a slight drop on the previous year when it was 51 per cent.

It also found that biggest barrier to doing more online is that it is not relevant to our charity, with nearly a third of respondents giving this as the reason.

Last month Amar co-authored the second in annual benchmarking survey about charities digital skills, which found that there had been little improvement on the first years findings. This survey found that funding was the biggest barrier, with 58 per cent saying this was the case.




Great Ormond Street Hospital Childrens Charity has announced that it will keep money donated to it by the Presidents Club, despite originally saying it would return all funds received.

The charity said it had made the decision following feedback from its supporters, as well as guidance from the Charity Commission, and taking into account the impending closure of the Presidents Club Charitable Trust.

The Presidents Club announced in January that it would close after a Financial Times investigation reported instances of sexual harassment at its annual fundraising dinner.

When reports first broke about the controversial dinner, GOSH had said that it would return donations it had received from the charity. Although not receiving any money from the 2018 dinner, GOSH had benefited from previous fundraising dinners the Presidents Club had held.

However, last month the charity had said that it was considering its position on whether it would return the money.

In a statement, the charity said yesterday: Our thinking is always guided by our aim to maximise the support we give to the hospital and the families it cares for.

Following feedback from our supporters, guidance from the Charity Commission and taking into account the impending closure of the Presidents Club Charitable Trust, the trustees have decided to retain the funds donated by the trust.

We would like to thank all of our donors for their support, it is only through their generosity that we can make a difference for seriously ill children cared for at the hospital.

For more news, interviews, opinion and analysis about charities and the voluntary sector sign up to receive the Civil Society News daily bulletin here.
Yesterday, WNYC and Public Radio International named Tanzina Vega as the new host of flagship morning show The Takeaway. She steps into the booth vacated last year by John Hockenberry, who retired in August, then faced allegations of sexual misconduct.

Vega, who has guest-hosted the show several times since Hockenberrys departure, is an authority on the intersection of gender, race, and class in the media and beyond. After rising through the ranks at The New York Times, she crafted her own race beat at the paper, which drew headlinesand some furorwhen it was scrapped in 2015. Shes since reported for CNN, and served as a fellow at The Nation Institute and as a journalism professor at Princeton.

In an interview after her Takeaway appointment was confirmed, Vega told CJR how shell bring her long-time focus to her new role, boost listener voices, and keep her public radio bosses honest. The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

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Whats been your takeaway from listening to (and working with) The Takeaway? What will you bring thats new?

Well Im new, for starters. And I am definitely bringing my whole self to the job. I say that sort of joking, but also not joking. I think its really important who sits in the chair, who leads the conversation, and when I say who, I mean: Who is that person? What are their beliefs? For too long weve seen too much homogeneity in media and whos leading the conversation in media. Thats starting to change, and I think deservedly so. So with, literally, a new voice and some wonderfully ambitious and talented producers here already on the showwho are creative, who are smart, who are eagerIm really excited about where were headed.

Your Nieman Lab prediction for journalism in 2018 called for news organizations to pass the mic and boost the representation of women and people of color in their ranks. Now that you have literally been passed the mic by The Takeaway, who do you plan to pass the mic to in your coverage?

Obviously, we want to cover the important news of the day, but we want to cover it from a number of different vantage points. One of the areas we hear a lot about is that people dont feel connected to media. Theres a lot of distrust in media, particularly when we get to people who dont really see themselves reflected. With the election of President Trump, there was this narrative about the white working class, but people werent going out and talking to the white working class until they understood that this was part of the election. So I think we really need to make sure that were talking to not just the smartest people in the room, or the experts, but that were also bringing in voices from people who are marginalized, who dont feel they get represented in mainstream media or public media. Thats the only way, not only that were going to open up the conversation to more listeners, but that were going to be able to connect with more people.

Your book thats coming out, Uppity, explores the intersection of gender, race, and class. Here at CJR, were really interested in class and journalism at the moment, and how it intersects with those other identities. How are you planning to address that topic, in all its complexity, at The Takeaway?

One of the things Im interested in is unpacking the narratives around class and race. Along with this idea of the white working class, one of the pieces I wrote for CNN actually looked at the empathy gap: how we empathize with white working class Americans, but there seems to be a disconnect when we talk about empathizing with black and brown working-class Americans. These areas are intimately connected, but those connections arent often made because we seem to be very uncomfortable with going against the narrative that you can make it in America, this is a meritocracy, just work hard and you can get there. Thats not always the case and money has a lot to do with that.

We also have to think about class in newsrooms. Ive worked in two of the biggest newsrooms in the world, and there are some wonderful people in both those places, but I think a lot of these larger institutions have often been taken over by people who are Ivy League graduates, people who have really good connections, people who have grown up in the industry. Theres probably a little bit of nepotism here and there. I grew up in a working-class community, I spent 20 years in public housing. People like me generally do not make it that far in journalism, because its not very well-paid, generally speaking, and its not something we always have access to; it almost seems like a luxury to be able to write and tell stories for a living. I think we as newsrooms have to examine who were hiring, why were hiring, why were not opening the doors to people who dont go to Ivy League schools as much as we are to people who do.

What can WNYC, public radio, and the media as a whole do better to boost representation in newsrooms? Are there concrete steps that could be taken straight away?

Absolutely. I talk about this all the time. What frustrates me is the lack of movement, the lack of action. The excuse is often we cant find [reporters of color]. Theyre there. I mean, we exist, right? News organizationsbecause of a lot of this homogeneity, and the fact theyre poaching from many similar placeslose sight of that in their networks. They have to be proactive in going to events to recruit. But they also have to make sure their content is being pushed out. You cant expect somebody to love you without even knowing you. Its incumbent on us to make sure that we are trying to speak to audiences that dont get spoken to very often, or spoken about very often, in order to make that change.

A feature that makes The Takeaway stand out in comparison to some other public radio programming is its inclusion of listener comment. What importance do you think that has?

Were inundated with commentary on social mediaI turn off notifications on my phone sometimes because I cant handle the constant pinging of texts, and Twitter, and everything else. I do, however, think that people who engage with media are, for the most part, thoughtful about it. For example, we were talking about discrimination against white Americans on one of the [episodes of The Takeaway I hosted]. There were those who said, Absolutely not, Ive never experienced that, and there were those who said, Absolutely yes, I have. If youre taking the step of emailing or calling, I think theres already a serious interest, hopefully, in whatever it is you would like to discuss. So I think we have to engage our audience. I think we have to make sure theyre involved in the conversation.

Its incumbent on us to make sure that we are trying to speak to audiences that dont get spoken to very often, or spoken about very often, in order to make that change.

I dont think its controversial to say the popular conception of NPR listenership has a certain ideological profile. And yet the piece you mentioned about white discrimination contained an interesting range of voices. What are your plans to reflect that full range of opinion on The Takeaway going forward?

One of the most important things we as journalists need to do is put things in a context. We have lost a lot of context: The news cycle has become frenetic, for both journalists and people who are consuming news. Every day feels like whiplash. So we need to take a moment to say, wait a minute, this is the context to why, and how, this is all happening. There are certain things that expertssociologists or people whove studied these issues intimatelycan articulate clearly and can help put context around for the listener. Thats what were trying to do. Its not to insult the guest by saying, That cant be true, or thats not right. Its to say, OK, heres a point of view, but heres some context for that point of view: Why does that person feel that way? Where is this coming from? You dont just let it ride.

ICYMI: What journalists are saying about Anderson Coopers interview with Stormy Daniels

Its been a difficult few months for WNYCand other public radio stations and news organizationsin light of the sexual misconduct allegations leveled against a number of powerful reporters and editors, including your predecessor at The Takeaway, John Hockenberry. NPR reporters like Mary Louise Kelly and David Folkenflik won praise at the time for their coverage of what was going on internally. How do you plan to keep your bosses honest going forward?

Ive been a reporter, and Ive been a media reporter. Ive been on the receiving end of storiesnotably after [my] race beat at the Times was killed. So I know what it feels like to be on that side, and to make sure youre being represented fairly and accurately. I know what it feels like to have the support of an institution; I know what it feels like not to. But at the end of the day, there is a moral obligation I feel as a journalist to make sure things remain above board.

One of the things Im excited about is being able to take the mantle and build, not on what the traumatic past was, but on what a lot of women of color who were in these positions prior to me built. I know what it feels like to have your work erased from a major media institution. I know what it feels like to have your work ignored by a major media player, and I know I would never want to do that to someone. So I want to make sure we uplift the women who were in this role before I was.

I know what it feels like to have your work erased from a major media institution. I know what it feels like to have your work ignored by a major media player, and I know I would never want to do that to someone.

As you mentioned, youve worked across a bunch of different media organizations, and also across different platforms: the Times, CNN, youve already hosted The Takeaway. Does radio have a power, in your view, that print and television dont have?

Im a multiplatform journalist, so I look at the story and where it will best be served. Certain stories are really good for print. Certain stories are really good for visual [pieces]. Certain stories are really good on audio. Radio has a built-in audience, but that audience is shifting, its changing. The Takeaway isnt just available live on-air; its available online, you can download it. You can upload it to your phone and take it with you as a podcast. Were having a renaissance in audio, if you will. But I was around for podcasts circa 2004, I was around for podcasts circa 2009 and 2010.These things are cyclical. Everyone acts like podcasts are new. Theyre not new. I worked on them when they were on MP3s. So I think this notion that radio serves one specific function isnt necessarily true.

Radio is also the only thing thats often available when theres a crisis, when people dont have their laptops. When were thinking about what happened in Puerto Rico, there were public radio folks who were trying to get off the ground who were like, this is the only way we can communicate. I think people understand that, but might forget the vital role that radio plays not just as a communications tool, but as a tool for public safety and information, in addition to all the cool things we wanna do on The Takeaway.

You were a media reporter at the Times a while back. Clearly, the media is a huge story right now. Do you plan to bring more media stories to The Takeaway?

I think media has, unfortunately, become the story again. And if its appropriate to the stories were covering on The Takeaway, absolutely well cover it. Why not? Ive already got the chops in that, and in technology, and wealth, and inequality, and criminal justice. So bring it on.

Update: This story has been updated to clarify that The Takeaway is a joint production of WNYC and Public Radio International (PRI).

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

Jon Allsop is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Review of Books, Foreign Policy, and The Nation, among other outlets. He writes CJRs newsletter The Media Today. Find him on Twitter @Jon_Allsop.
A water park companys co-owner was expected to appear in court after his arrest in Texas in connection with a Kansas criminal case arising from a 10-year-old boys death on what was promoted as the worlds largest waterslide.

Records show that Jeffrey Henry, co-owner of Schlitterbahn Waterparks and Resorts, was booked into the jail in Cameron County, Texas. He was being held without bond, and a jail booking clerk said he would remain there until a court appearance Tuesday.

Henrys arrest Monday follows a Kansas grand jurys indictment last week of the Schlitterbahn park in Kansas City, Kansas, and its former operations director, Tyler Austin Miles, on 20 felony charges. They included a single count of involuntary manslaughter over the death of Caleb Schwab in 2016.

Schlitterbahn spokeswoman Winter Prosapio said that considering last weeks indictment, the company is not surprised by Henrys arrest. The company also promised to aggressively fight the criminal charges against Miles and the park, and respond to the allegations in the 47-page indictment point by point.

We as a company and as a family will fight these allegations and have confidence that once the facts are presented it will be clear that what happened on the ride was an unforeseeable accident, she said in an emailed statement.

Attorney General Derek Schmidts office did not immediately respond to phone calls and emails seeking further comment, details about Henrys arrest, or information about exactly what criminal charges he faces. The Kansas City Star reported that Henry was taken into custody by U.S. marshals out of Brownsville, Texas.

Prosapio said Schlitterbahn does not expect any changes to the Kansas City parks season, which is set to open May 25 and run through Labor Day. The big slide there  Verruckt, or German for insane  has been closed since Caleb died.

The boy was decapitated after the raft on which he was riding went airborne. He was the son of Republican state Rep. Scott Schwab, of Olathe, and the family reached settlements of nearly $20 million with Schlitterbahn and various companies associated with the design and construction of the waterslide.

The two women who rode with Caleb suffered serious injuries and settled claims with Schlitterbahn for an undisclosed amount.

The indictment against Miles and the park alleges that Verruckt met few, if any, industry standards and that Miles delayed or avoided necessary repairs, even after the rides brake system failed.

The indictment also said Henry helped design the giant waterslide even though he had no technical or engineering credentials and that he set a rushed timeline for its construction.

Schlitterbahn said last weeks indictment is full of false information, and the company also rejected its allegations that Miles and the company withheld information from law enforcement officials. It said the allegation that Calebs death was foreseeable is beyond the pale of speculation.

Miles attorneys said in their own statement that they welcome the opportunity to prove his innocence in court.

Not only had Tyler ridden the slide numerous times, but, as the State is aware, he had scheduled his wife, to ride it on the day of the accident, the attorneys, Tom and Tricia Bath, said in their statement. These are not the actions of someone who believed the ride to be dangerous.

(Associated Press writer Terry Wallace in Dallas also contributed to this report.)

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Two Plead Guilty to Insurance Fraud by Arson

Two men pled guilty today in federal court for their respective roles in a scheme to commit insurance fraud by arson, announced United States Attorney Michael B. Stuart. Dudley Bledsoe, age 63, of Hanover, Wyoming County, and Ricky Dwayne Gleason, age 54, of Peach Creek, Logan County, both pleaded guilty to a charge of unlawful monetary transactions before Senior District Court Judge David A. Faber in Bluefield. United States Attorney Mike Stuart commended the work of the United States Postal Inspection Service, the West Virginia State Police and the West Virginia Office of the Insurance Commissioner.

In the spring of 2012, Bledsoe, with the assistance of James Edward Lester, also known as Punkin, and others, purchased a house in Matoaka, Mercer County. The purchase price was approximately $38,000. They insured the property for over $300,000 and set fire to the house in December of 2012 using cardboard and unscented candle oil. Bledsoe, with the help of others, then filed false claims for the house and its contents. Bledsoe collected the proceeds and divided the proceeds with others involved in the scheme.

In May of 2013, Gleason purchased a house in his name on Norwood Road in Huntington, West Virginia for $100,000 and insured it for over $400,000. Funds for the purchase were provided by others involved in the scheme. The next month, Gleason and others staged the house to be burned using cardboard and unscented candle oil. While Gleason was out of town in order to concoct an alibi, others connected with the scheme set fire to the house. Gleason filed a claim for the loss of the house as well as false contents lists with the insurance company and collected over $280,000 in insurance proceeds. The proceeds were divided with others in the scheme.

Bledsoe and Gleason each face up to 10 years imprisonment and up to a $250,000 fine when they are sentenced on May 30, 2018. Windel Lester, James Edward Lester, also known as Punkin, Georgetta Kenney, Greg A. Lester and James Keith Browning are currently facing charges in a 40 count indictment for their respective roles in the scheme. Their trial is set for May 8, 2018, in Bluefield.

Source: Department of Justice, U.S. Attorneys Office, Southern District of West Virginia

Washington Trio Sentenced for Buying Property Insurance After the Fact

Three people were sentenced to community service after pleading guilty to charges related to purchasing insurance after incurring property losses. Charges were filed after investigations by Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidlers Criminal Investigations Unit (CIU).

Hashim Makawi, 40, of Everett, was sentenced in Snohomish County Superior Court to 80 hours of community service and to pay $10,858 in restitution and $700 in court fees, all of which he has completed. Makawi pleaded guilty to second-degree attempted theft in December 2017.

According to the investigation, Makawi purchased renter insurance from Assurant Specialty/American Bankers Insurance on May 11, 2016, and the next day filed a water-damage claim following a garbage can fire in his apartment. Records from the Everett Fire Department show the fire occurred the day before he bought the policy.

Makawi failed to appear in Snohomish County Superior in September and was listed on Kreidlers insurance fraud most wanted. He reported to the court in October to face the charges against him.

Charles Bjork, 45, formerly of Everett, was sentenced in Snohomish County Superior Court to 80 hours of community service, which hes already completed, and to pay a $300 fine and $700 in court fees. Bjork pleaded guilty to attempted insurance fraud on Dec. 20.

According to the investigation, Bjork purchased a Progressive auto insurance policy on Jan. 21, 2016, after having a collision on the freeway that morning. That evening, he filed a $6,475 claim for the vehicles total loss.

Jasmine McQuiston, 33, of Federal Way, will serve 40 hours of community service and pay $700 in court fees after pleading guilty last month to second-degree attempted theft. She was charged in November 2017 in King County Superior Court with one count of making a fraudulent insurance claim.

According to the investigation, McQuiston filed a claim with GEICO in August 2016 for damage to her vehicle. She reported that her 2010 GMC Terrain rolled backwards into a concrete barrier and was damaged while it was parked overnight. GEICO determined that McQuiston renewed her expired auto policy the same day her car was damaged in a hit-and-run collision and was impounded by police. GEICO denied the claim and referred the case to Kreidlers CIU.

Source: Office of the Insurance Commissioner Washington State

Public Adjuster Gets 10 Year Prison Term for Embezzling From Fire Victims

An Orange County, Calif., public adjuster was sentenced to 10 years in state prison today for pocketing more than $1.2 million from fire victims insurance payouts, the Los Angeles County District Attorneys Office announced.

Jose Villa, of San Clemente, pleaded no contest to eight felony counts of diverting construction funds exceeding $2,350, Deputy District Attorney Jeffrey Stodel of the White Collar Crime Division said. Villa also admitted to sentencing enhancement allegations of excessive taking of property and aggravated white collar crime.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael E. Pastor immediately sentenced Villa to prison. The judge also imposed a $10,000 fine and ordered restitution to the victims in the amount of $1,213,227.23.

According to Stodel, Villa was a licensed public adjuster who owned and operated Statewide Claims Advisors Inc. in Irvine. The victims in this case were the owners of a commercial building in Whittier and the owner of a residential rental property in Los Angeles. The victims had hired Villa to serve as their public adjuster after their properties were damaged in fires in 2013.

The prosecutor said Villa deposited the victims insurance reimbursement checks into his business checking account, ostensibly so he could handle demolition and construction at the victims properties in the months following the fires. However, he kept most of the insurance money instead of using it for the victims benefit, Stodel said.

The District Attorneys Office filed charges on Oct. 4, 2017.

The case was investigated by the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Departments Commercial Crime Bureau and the California Department of Insurance.

As part of the negotiated plea agreement, a seven-year prison sentence that Villa is serving for another insurance fraud case will run concurrently to the 10-year term imposed in this case. In the earlier case, Villa was convicted in May 2017 of two felony counts each of grand theft by embezzlement and forgery for taking insurance proceeds from other fire victims.

As a result of Villas conduct, the California Department of Insurance revoked Villas license to serve as a public adjuster and permanently barred him from applying for or holding any license it issues.

Source: Los Angeles County District Attorneys Office
Remington Outdoor Co.s decision to seek court protection was a long-anticipated move by one of Americas oldest gun-makers. It was in part the result of a maelstrom thats buffeted the industry since the election of Donald Trump, one also fueled by mass shootings and protests such as this weekends nationwide march for gun regulation.

Hundreds of millions of dollars in leveraged-buyout debt didnt help, either.

But in Remingtons reorganization, the question remains whether people with pre-existing legal claims against the company will be made whole. Lawsuits over firearms defects and the use of its weapons in the Sandy Hook attack were pending when the company filed for bankruptcy Sunday. The company has moved to suspend those cases.

As much as $500 million could hang in the balance. Remington, which is owned by Cerberus Capital Management, is embroiled in litigation over trigger defects on guns such as its iconic Model 700 rifle, as well as another lawsuit by survivors of the children and teachers killed in the 2012 elementary school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. Bushmaster, owned by Remington, manufactured the firearm used in that massacre, which left 26 dead.

While attorneys for the Sandy Hook families said they dont anticipate the bankruptcy filing will impact their lawsuit, it remains to be seen how the separate trigger litigation will be affected. In U.S. bankruptcy court in Wilmington, Delaware, on Tuesday, a lawyer for the company said the two cases wont be affected by the bankruptcy. They will ride through, attorney Gregory Bray said.

The class action, which alleged that the defects caused guns to discharge accidentally, is currently before a federal appeals court in St. Louis. Plaintiffs have argued that in completing a settlement, Remington failed to sufficiently advertise the initial call for claims in the case, resulting in an artificially small pool of potential victims and thus, an inadequate settlement. State attorneys general have sided with the claimants in seeking to expand the class beyond the 0.3 percent of potential participants it originally covered.

The entire class is likely to receive settlement benefits that will cost Remington less, likely far less, than $4 million, the state officials wrote in a court filing. They also warned that the blanket release required by the accord will likely bar personal injury or property damage claims tied to future firearm misfires. An attorney for the lead plaintiff, Ian Pollard, didnt reply to a request for comment on how the bankruptcy could impact the potential settlement.

If the settlement is approved, Remington is absolved of close to half a billion dollars in potential liability.

The gunmakers legal troubles stem from a defect that caused its Model 700 rifles and similar models to unintentionally discharge. After customers sued Remington in 2013, the company tentatively settled the case in an arrangement that would cost it about $3 million. U.S. District Judge Ortrie Smith in Kansas City, Missouri, initially withheld approval of the settlement because he thought participation was too low: Fewer than 3,000 of the guns owners had submitted claims, whereas 7.5 million rifles had been sold.

If the settlement is approved, Remington is absolved of close to half a billion dollars in potential liability at a cost of less than $3 million, Smith said Feb. 12. He ultimately approved the deal, but objectors quickly appealed.

The appeals court had yet to rule on the matter by the time Remington sought court protection, which typically suspends pre-existing legal proceedings against a debtor. On Monday, attorneys for Remington alerted the court to the bankruptcy filing and to provisions that require such litigation to be stayed, which the court acknowledged. Neither John Sherk, of Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP, the Remington lawyer who filed the notice, nor a spokesperson for the gunmaker responded to requests for comment. Cerberus declined to comment.

During bankruptcy, companies are often allowed to scuttle outstanding claims or pay them out at pennies-on-the-dollar. Depending on the particular facts and allegations surrounding the litigation, its often possible for a plan of reorganization to impose the same pennies-on-the-dollar treatment on litigation claimants that other unsecured creditors are receiving in a particular case, said Steve Wilamowsky, a bankruptcy and restructuring partner at Chapman & Cutler.

For Madison, North Carolina-based Remington, that could mean relief from up to $500 million in liabilities, the amount it could owe if all 7.5 million rifle owners ultimately participated in the settlement.

If the appeals court decided to toss out the agreement and start the process over, Remington could eventually face a trial over the defectand liabilities closer to the $500 million Smith referenced. But with the company now in bankruptcy, the outcome of those claims falls into doubt.

Copyright 2021 Bloomberg.
Arizona ordered Uber Technologies Inc. to stop operating autonomous cars on the states roads indefinitely after the death of a pedestrian there a week ago.

In a letter to Uber Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi, Governor Doug Ducey called last weeks fatal incident involving an Uber self-driving car an unquestionable failure to comply with public safety standards.

Uber had voluntarily halted testing companywide after one of its vehicles hit and killed a woman in Tempe, Arizona. Duceys decision on Monday to designate a ban adds a significant hurdle to Ubers attempts to get the program back on track.

Improving public safety has always been the emphasis of Arizonas approach to autonomous vehicle testing, and my expectation is that public safety is also the top priority for all who operate this technology in the state, Ducey wrote in the letter. Arizona will not tolerate any less than an unequivocal commitment to public safety.

Uber has previously tested autonomous vehicles in California and Pennsylvania, in addition to Arizona. The company hasnt said when it will start operating them on public roads again. We continue to help investigators in any way we can, and well keep a dialogue open with the governors office going forward, Matt Kallman, a spokesman for Uber, wrote in a statement.

Arizona is one of the friendliest U.S. states to auto and technology businesses looking for someplace to give driverless cars experience on public roads. A couple weeks before Ubers fatal encounter, Ducey approved the use of autonomous vehicles without safety drivers  although the Uber car involved in the incident had a person at the wheel.

Last week, Massachusetts quietly asked companies testing in the state to take a few days off the road. Most companies continued driving elsewhere.

A video released by Tempe police showed the Uber car moving at a constant speed with no attempt to slow down or swerve in the moments before the collision. In recent days, executives from Alphabet Inc.s Waymo and Intel Corp.s Mobileye said their driverless-car software would have detected and responded to Elaine Herzberg, the woman struck while walking her bicycle across the road.

Copyright 2021 Bloomberg.
A lab technician at Novo Nordisk conducts in vitro research in Malov, Denmark. John Mcconnico | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Novo Holdings' recent launch of a $165 million venture fund focused on tackling "superbugs" resistant to modern antibiotics demonstrates the paradigm shift occurring in Big Pharma. Novo's Repair Impact Fund  Repair stands for Replenishing and Enabling the Pipeline for Anti-Infective Resistance  will invest $20 million to $40 million in start-ups and early stage companies in the United States and Europe that have new approaches to combat bacteria that pose the greatest threat to human health. New approaches to combat antimicrobial resistance urgently need to be developed. Already, more than 700,000 people die each year from infections resistant to most or all antibiotics, and the number is increasing by the day. Antimicrobial resistance is projected to kill more people than cancer by 2050, which would reduce global economic output by between 2 percent and 3.5 percent and severely cripple modern medical and surgical advances. Despite growing recognition of this threat, there is an early stage funding gap for new treatments. To date, Big Pharma companies have not successfully developed a new generation of antibiotics, although last year they set up AMR Industry Alliance, a coalition to monitor the industry's progress in this field.

A magnified image of the MRSA bacteria. The "superbug" is poised to kill 30,000 Americans per year by 2050. DTKUTOO | iStock / 360 | Getty Images

"This is a huge global problem in need of R&D funding," said Aleks Engel, partner at Novo Holdings. "But many Big Pharma companies have pulled out of the area in the last 10 to 15 years because they see a challenging ROI." As he explains, antibiotics are a fraction of sales of drugs in other classes. They would rather wait as upstart biotechs take the risk out of development. The economic challenge the industry faces is undeniable. That's because the average cost to develop and win marketing and FDA approval for a new prescription drug in the United States is about $2.6 billion, reports the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development. Despite high development costs, the majority of drug launches achieve modest sales in the first five years on the market. Only 19 drugs have reached $1 billion in annual sales within five years of launch over the past 20 years, the QuintilesIMS Institute revealed. In response, industry giants like Novo Holdings  which has big stakes in Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk  Merck, Johnson & Johnson, Sanofi and others are looking to become more entrepreneurial. Increasingly, these big players are setting up venture capital funds and investing in start-ups and licensing technology to fuel their own drug pipelines. Many are also outsourcing R&D, while reducing product development efforts internally. The trend is accelerating at a rapid pace. Behind the scenes, pint-size ventures are driving pharma innovation. The majority of drugs approved in recent years originated at smaller outfits 63 percent of them over the last five years, according to HBM Partners, a health-care investing firm. The allure is multifaceted. Small biotech start-ups are more nimble, and many can do research and product development faster. By investing in a broad portfolio of young ventures, a big drug company can leverage outside scientific talent and cast a wide net in order to gain access to breakthrough discoveries in areas of the company's strategic interest. For investors the sheer market size of the industry cannot be ignored. It's a global market growing at 6.5 percent compounded annually that is expected to reach $1.06 trillion by 2022, HBM forecasts. "If you look at the money going into R&D in health care, it is a drop in the bucket," said Tom Heyman, president of Johnson & Johnson Innovation  JJDC, the oldest corporate venture fund in the life sciences industry, launched 45 years ago. "In today's world, trying to get access to external innovation is extremely important to stay competitive."

J&J provides scientists with shared lab work space at its JLAB facility in San Francisco. Source: Johnson & Johnson

That's because so many revolutions are going on in so many sectors of the industry, he noted. The rate of innovation keeps accelerating, making it so hard for one company to capture all the innovation itself. While Johnson & Johnson invests $10 billion to $12 billion on R&D annually across the company's different sectors  medical devices, consumer health, prescription drugs  it also invests $250 million to $300 million a year in everything from seed investments to PIPE transactions.

If you look at the money going into R&D in health care, it is a drop in the bucket. Tom Heyman president, J&J Development

Often the payoff for J&J can be huge. For example, 22 years ago it invested in Biosense Webster, a company that makes a 3-D mapping system that discovers, interprets and treats cardiac rhythm disorders. Two years later it acquired the company, and today it is part of its medical device business and a leader in the worldwide $4.4 billion electrophysiology market. Its sales last year were around $2 billion. Making early bets on behemoths that fill overlooked niches in the health-care market is key to J&J's strategy. Last year, for example, it acquired a venture capital-backed Portland-based start-up called Sightbox and then folded it into its vision-care business. The three-year-old company sells contact lenses with a membership model that charges users $39 each month for an annual eye appointment and contact lens fitting, along with a 12-month supply of contact lenses of their choice.

How innovators stack up

The Pharmaceutical Innovation Index 2017 released in March provides a snapshot of innovation leaders in the industry, most of whom have reinvented the value chain for discovery and development. Companies leading the league are those developing creative approaches to the R&D productivity crisis with all kinds of early stage collaborations. At J&J the company is building a network of incubators known as JLABS to get a window on early stage breakthroughs. It operates shared workspaces and labs with chemistry, biotechnology and prototyping equipment for local scientists and entrepreneurs to use. Launched in 2012, it has eight incubators, in cities such as San Francisco, Boston, San Diego, Houston, Toronto and Beerse, Belgium. It plans to open two more  one in New York in June, and another in Shanghai next year. "Every start-up in the JLabs workspace gets a J&J mentor that helps them focus on ideas that have potential," said Melinda Richter, global head of J&J Innovation JLABS.

They also have access to a J&J business service team that helps manage their start-up's operations and navigate the regulatory and product development pathway, helping them get permits and licenses and funding they need to grow. "The idea is to catalyze great ideas and build business around them," Richter points out. "There is magic in tapping the black box of entrepreneurs located anywhere around the world," she said. France's Sanofi has taken a different tact. It runs Sanofi-Sunrise, a company creation vehicle that works to invest in seed ideas or co-invest with venture capitalists on promising new technologies. Leading the effort is a team of scientists with Sanofi's global R&D department who have ties to venture capitalists and academic networks. It's run by Sanofi's vice president of global R&D, Kathy Bowdish, Ph.D., a former serial entrepreneur.

Creating new models

Sanofi-Sunrise is a unit in the company's R&D group that collaborates with outside scientists in R&D. "The idea is to access science early and co-create a company that we can later invest in and partner with," said Bowdish. "It helps us bring in new products in Sanofi's pipeline. The benefit for entrepreneurs is that they get to work with our senior scientists and scale up production quickly. We often invest and license their technology as well." Companies can be in the process of being formed, or be one or two years old after seed financing, Bowdish said. Typically, Sanofi-Sunrise invests in those areas the company targets, such as rare disease, oncology, neuroscience, diabetes, multiple sclerosis and immunology. To date its biggest win has been investing with Third Rock Ventures in MyoKardia, a company focused on precision therapies for genetic heart diseases that lead to heart failure. After plowing more than $150 million in equity financing in MyoKardia and $45 million in Sanofi resources, the company went public in 2015. It now has a market cap over $1.8 billion.

Myokardia scientist working on new precision medicine for genetic heart disease. Source: Sanofi
The day after closing a $4.5 million round of funding for her tech start-up, Dandelion Energy CEO and co-founder Kathy Hannun gave birth to a healthy baby girl.

Most entrepreneurs complain about how arduous the fundraising process is. That goes double for entrepreneurs working in "cleantech." And triple for women in tech.

According to research from the MIT Energy Initiative, U.S. venture firms invested around $25 billion into cleantech companies between 2006 and 2011, losing over half their money on those deals. Consequently, many investors soured on the very notion of "cleantech."

Additionally, Pitchbook researchers found that just 2 percent of VC funding goes to companies with women as their sole founders.

So what's the key to raising a round when you're a woman in tech who is expecting?

"Women should just do what they want in their personal life, go after it, same as you do in your professional life. Obsessing about what investors will think if I'm pregnant, or having any fear of not being able to have a work-life balance causes too many people not to try," Hannun told CNBC. "Fear is more self-limiting than anything."

Though Hannun went through a fair share of paranoia fundraising while pregnant, she says that refreshingly, investors who connected with her company didn't ask her any questions about her family planning, even when she was showing.

"There are no templates that tell you the right etiquette for this situation," Hannun said. "If you focus on it too much, it will blow things out of proportion and make investors worry about how your personal life will affect your business. Yet, you can't conceal things. Pregnancies are very visible."

She had one "Jedi mind-trick" that helped her through the process most of all. "I would ask myself if I were a man going through a divorce, would I feel obligated to tell that to investors constantly? Probably not. And I think those circumstances would be more distracting than being pregnant," the CEO said.
Plenty of market-watchers have produced countless obituaries for the mall-based retailers, but on Tuesday, CNBC's Jim Cramer floated a counterargument about the space. "As far as I'm concerned, it's a perception problem," the "Mad Money" host said. "The popular perception that the stores in the mall are dying is certainly not going to go away, but how many better-than-expected quarters do we need to see from mall-based chains before we conclude that reports of the demise of the mall-based retailers may be greatly exaggerated?" After positive earnings reports from a host of mall-based stores including Zumiez, Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle, Williams-Sonoma, Ralph Lauren, Macy's and Urban Outfitters, Cramer wondered if the market might be misinterpreting the state of mall retail. "I think we've reached a tipping point. There's too much good happening to keep writing off all the mall-based chains," Cramer said. "Once we get just a few more closings and maybe a handful more of bankruptcies, it will be very clear that the mall retail business is back," he continued. "And many of the bargains here? They may be too good to ignore."

Nvidia, Twitter and the Tuesday sell-off

Jack Dorsey, co-founder and chief executive officer of Twitter Inc. David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

As stocks sold off dramatically into Tuesday's close, Cramer knew investors were asking themselves a critical question. "Was yesterday's rally an aberration, with today's sell-off being the real deal continuation of last week?" Cramer said. "Or was today's sell-off just part of some sort of overall retest that we need to expect after an exuberant Monday?" For Cramer, zooming in on the sell-off's key contributors was the best way to get a handle on why the major averages halted their recovery. "In all honesty, I think this market has become downright treacherous," Cramer said. "The best examples of [that] are Nvidia and Twitter."

Sell-off strategies: Why 'long oil' is wrong

Chris Hondros | Newsmakers | Getty Images

Cramer doesn't exactly have a rosy outlook on the future of the oil industry. "You know what? Long term in the oil world's quite bad," the "Mad Money" host told a caller in a sell-off strategy session after Tuesday's market drop. Cramer referenced his Monday segment on Wall Street's newfound hate of natural gas stocks, noting that the commodity seems to be peaking when it comes to heating use in the United States. "I think that oil and gas are falling out of favor with new young portfolio managers," Cramer said. "So the answer is, if you have a ... 10, 15, 20 year horizon, oil and gas is going to be quite bad. So I would not own those stocks even though they look like value."

Kohl's CEO on Amazon partnership

Kevin Mansell, CEO, Kohl's Michael Newberg | CNBC

Kohl's budding partnership with Amazon marks the next leg of innovation for the department store operator, Kohl's Chairman, President and CEO Kevin Mansell told CNBC on Tuesday. With another earnings beat under its belt, the Wisconsin-based retailer has turned its focus to bolstering its pilot program to sell Amazon products and accept Amazon returns in its stores. In an interview with Cramer, Mansell said that allowing shoppers to return items purchased on Amazon at Kohl's stores "in a seamless way ... and then converting that traffic to Kohl's shoppers and purchases is a big idea." The partnership with Amazon, which began in 2017, presents an opportunity for Kohl's to boost foot traffic at its 81 participating locations in Chicago and Los Angeles, Mansell said.

Zoetis CEO: The time of the companion animal

Veterinary technology company Zoetis used to generate most of its growth from making treatments for livestock, cattle and other farm animals. But "now is the time of the companion animal," Zoetis CEO Juan Ramon Alaix told Cramer in a Tuesday interview. In 2017, the company almost doubled its operating cash flow, with its companion animal products seeing 15 percent sales growth. This year, Alaix said that Zoetis expects to generate more than $500 million in sales from just two of its leading products that treat itching in dogs and cats. "There is nothing working today for cats, and if we bring the solution to the market, it will be a significant opportunity for Zoetis and will bring a significant tool for veterinarians," the CEO said.

Lightning round: Top 3 Chinese stocks
China said on Wednesday it won a pledge from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to denuclearize the Korean peninsula during a meeting with President Xi Jinping, who pledged in return that China would uphold its friendship with its isolated neighbor.

After two days of speculation, China announced on Wednesday that Kim had visited Beijing and met Xi during what the official Xinhua news agency called an unofficial visit from Sunday to Wednesday.

The trip was Kim's first known journey abroad since he assumed power in 2011 and is believed by analysts to serve as preparation for upcoming summits with South Korea and the United States.

Beijing has traditionally been the closest ally of secretive North Korea, but ties have been frayed by North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons and China's backing of tough U.N. sanctions in response.

Xinhua cited Kim as telling Xi that the situation on the Korean peninsula is starting to improve because North Korea has taken the initiative to ease tensions and put forward proposals for peace talks.

"It is our consistent stand to be committed to denuclearisation on the peninsula, in accordance with the will of late President Kim Il Sung and late General Secretary Kim Jong Il," Kim Jong Un said, according to Xinhua.

North Korea is willing to talk with the United States and hold a summit between the two countries, he said.

"The issue of denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula can be resolved, if South Korea and the United States respond to our efforts with goodwill, create an atmosphere of peace and stability while taking progressive and synchronous measures for the realization of peace," Kim said.

Chinese state news outlets had photos of Xi and Kim together:

XHNews tweet

People's Daily tweet.

Xi told Kim in return that both sides had stated repeatedly that their traditional friendship should be passed on and developed better.

"This is a strategic choice and the only right choice both sides have made based on history and reality, the international and regional structure and the general situation of China-North Korea ties. This should not and will not change because of any single event at a particular time," Xi said.

Speculation about a possible visit by Kim to Beijing was rife earlier this week after a train similar to the one used by Kim's father was seen in the Chinese capital, along with heavy security and a large motorcade.

Kim was accompanied by his wife, Ri Sol Ju, Xinhua said.

Xi had accepted an invitation from Kim to visit North Korea, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said.

Improving ties between North Korea and China would be a positive sign before planned summits involving the two Koreas and the United States, a senior South Korean official said on Tuesday.

In response to the Chinese government's announcement of Kim's visit, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters, "The Chinese government contacted the White House earlier on Tuesday to brief us on Kim Jong Un's visit to Beijing. The briefing included a personal message from President Xi to President Trump, which has been conveyed to President Trump."

Kim Jong Un's father, Kim Jong Il, met then-president Jiang Zemin in China in 2000 before a summit between the two Koreas in June that year. That visit was seen at the time as reaffirmation of close ties with Beijing.

CNBC.com contributed to this report.
shade Christopher Wylie, the whistleblower behind the Facebook (FB) and Cambridge Analytica data scandal, appeared before U.K. lawmakers today. He said the election of Donald Trump made him speak out about the practices being employed by the firm.



Additionally, Facebook said it would send a top executive to appear in front of U.K. lawmakers, but not CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Instead, the company will send either Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer or Chief Product Officer Chris Cox. (CNBC)



* Facebook's data scandal should be a wake-up call about our online footprint (CNBC)

The Commerce Department reinstated a citizenship status question to the 2020 Census. The department said the question was added to help enforce the Voting Rights Act. Some argue the move was designed to undercount immigrants and minorities. (USA Today)



* California AG to sue Trump administration over census citizenship question (The Hill)

President Donald Trump ordered the expulsion of 60 Russians from the United States and the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle, the White House confirmed. The 60 Russian nationals were given seven days to leave the United States. (CNBC)



* How an outraged Europe agreed to a hard line on Putin (NY Times)

* Over 100 Russian diplomats and counting: The list of countries punishing Moscow after UK poisoning grows (CNBC)



A prominent Chicago defense attorney declined an invitation to lead President Trump's legal team responding to Robert Mueller's Russia probe. Trump's legal team has been in crisis mode after the president's lawyer John Dowd abruptly resigned. (Washington Post)

The White House is investigating whether two loans totaling more than $500 million to the family real estate business of Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner violated any criminal laws or regulations, according to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics. (Reuters)

Stormy Daniels sued President Trump's personal lawyer for defamation. Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, said in a court filing that Michael Cohen publicly portrayed her as having lied about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump. (WSJ)



* '60 Minutes' Daniels interview was its most-watched episode in 10 years (CNBC)

* White House tries to shift focus on Stormy Daniels to Trump lawyer, campaign (CNBC)

Larry Kudlow, Trump's pick to head the National Economic Council, asked to keep White House economic advisor Gary Cohn's staff. Former CNBC contributor Kudlow told the Washington Post "It's a terrific staff, and I've asked everyone to stay on."

President Trump is on the verge of securing his first major trade deal, leveraging the threat of tariffs to gain concessions from South Korea on exports of steel and imports of American cars. The agreement could be announced as soon as today. (NY Times)

The Defence Department said it is investigating the delivery of suspicious packages to multiple military installations in the Washington, D.C. area. A package was tested positive for black powder residue. No injuries have been reported. (AP)

GMC unveiled an off-road truck AT4 sub-brand, designed to take on Jeep and the Ford Raptor. The move follows introductions of other off-road versions of pickup trucks, such as the Raptor and Colorado ZR2. (CNBC)



* New York Auto Show kicks off this week against a tough backdrop (USA Today)

Arizona's governor suspended Uber's ability to test self-driving cars on public roads in the state after a fatal crash that killed a 49-year-old pedestrian. The state had been a key hub for Uber, with about half of the company's self-driving cars. (Reuters)

At an event at Lane Tech College Prep High School in Chicago today, Apple is expected to introduce a new lower priced iPad in a bid to get students and school administrators, to start thinking Mac again. (USA Today)
SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman signing a memorandum of understanding between Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and the SoftBank Vision Fund.

Saudi Arabia and Japanese telecom giant-turned-tech investor SoftBank expanded their partnership this week, announcing the world's biggest solar power generation project at a press conference in New York.

The project was projected to cost $200 billion through 2030. That's about how long it's anticipated it will take to build out all 200 gigawatts of the project.

By comparison, there are roughly 70 gigawatts of solar capacity in operation, under construction or in development in the United States, according to a list of large-scale projects kept by the Solar Energy Industries Association.

The project is so large, it will support the creation of a domestic solar equipment manufacturing industry in the kingdom, said SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son.

The project remains in the early phases, and it is not yet guaranteed it will be built. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Son signed a memorandum of understanding between Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and the SoftBank Vision Fund on Tuesday evening, which kick starts the process of forming a new power generation company. The intention is to complete due diligence on the project by the end of May.

"This kind of a project would never have been feasible without the big vision we shared with the crown prince," Son told reporters.

"The kingdom has great sunshine, great size of available land, great engineers, great laborers," he said. "But most importantly it has the greatest vision."

Expanding into renewable energy is a key part of Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030, a plan spearheaded by Prince Mohammed to diversify the nation's oil-dependent economy.

The 200 gigawatts of capacity announced Tuesday will be spread throughout the kingdom. The first two solar parks will be able to generate 7.2 gigawatts of power and are scheduled to begin construction this year and start generating electricity in 2019.

The cost of the two parks will be about $5 billion, with $1 billion coming from Softbank's Vision Fund and $4 billion from project financing.

Son said revenues from early stage solar parks will help fund the construction of future projects in the kingdom. Each park will have a 25-year power purchase agreement, a long-term contract to supply electric power to customers, which is common in the solar energy industry.

The first parks will not include battery storage, but the new Saudi electricity generation company will begin adding that feature to solar farms within two to three years, according to Son.

The estimated $200 billion project cost includes building the solar parks, integrating battery technology and constructing a massive new facility that will vertically integrate solar equipment manufacturing, according to Son. The venture also plans to build centers for research and development and education and training, he said.

The growth of the solar industry is expected to create 100,000 jobs and increase Saudi gross domestic product by $12 billion. It is also expected to save the kingdom $40 billion by obviating the need to burn domestically produced oil to generate power.

The announcement happened during the New York leg of Prince Mohammed's trip across the United States. The 32-year-old king-in-waiting and a Saudi delegation are cementing ties with the Trump administration and lining up American investors as the kingdom embarks upon an ambitious plan to diversify its economy.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Saudi-U.S. CEO Forum gathered American and Saudi business leaders in New York, where the kingdom announced about three dozen memorandums of understanding with U.S. firms, which are often the first step in establishing business ventures.

Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund is the largest investor in Softbank's $100 billion Vision Fund. The kingdom's sovereign wealth fund has reportedly committed $45 billion to the massive technology investment vehicle, which counts Uber, Nvidia and WeWork among its largest investments.

The fund, which was at $93 billion, reached its target after raising $7 billion from U.S. corporates and managers of the Vision Fund in the last few months, according to a source familiar with the fund. The fund is now closed.
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.

The United States and South Korea have reached agreement on a revised trade pact that includes a side deal aimed at deterring competitive currency devaluation by Seoul and provides relief from U.S. tariffs on steel, senior Trump administration officials said on Tuesday.

South Korea's steel exports to the U.S. will fall by about 30 percent, but the Asian country is still subject to a 10 percent aluminum tariff.

The officials told reporters that the deal includes provisions outlined by South Korean officials on Monday, including a 20-year extension of the 25 percent U.S. tariff on pickup trucks and a doubling of the Korean import cap on autos that meet U.S. specifications to 50,000 per manufacturer per year.

The agreement, cobbled together quickly with only a few rounds of negotiations under Trump's threat of withdrawal, will include a side-letter that requires South Korea to provide increased transparency of its foreign exchange interventions, with commitments to avoid won devaluations for competitive purposes.

The currency deal, final details of which are still being negotiated between the U.S. Treasury and South Korea's Ministry of Strategy and Finance, is considered a "side letter" that will not be enforceable with trade sanctions.

Many U.S. lawmakers, particularly Democrats, had opposed the 2015 Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal because it had a similar currency manipulation side agreement that could not be enforced. The revised KORUS will be the first U.S. trade deal with a currency side deal.
Walmart is pulling Cosmopolitan Magazine from its checkout lines.

The magazine that made its name with provocative covers will no longer be found in Walmart on sale at the checkout lines, a move that the company is calling a "business decision" but which one advocacy group is touting as a victory against sexual exploitation.

Cosmopolitan, owned by Hearst Communications, describes itself as a "bible for fun, fearless females that reaches more than 18 million readers a month." In its early days, it made a splash with its provocative covers and sex advice for readers. It has been critiqued for marrying its racier content with young starlets on its covers.

In an emailed statement to CNBC on Tuesday night, Walmart said it "will continue to offer Cosmopolitan to customers that wish to purchase the magazine, but it will no longer be located in the checkout aisles."

"While this was primarily a business decision, the concerns raised were heard," it said.

Advocacy group National Center on Sexual Exploitation hailed the decision as victory against "Cosmo's hypersexualized and degrading article titles" that it says promote pornography and other offenses, in a statement posted on its website.

The group, founded in 1962, has as one of its center issues the "thread of pornography in the web of sexual exploitation."

Walmart did not immediately respond to inquiries from CNBC on whether sales of Cosmo were declining.

Rising social and political activism in the U.S. has put a new lenses under which corporations are evaluating their business practices. That has meant everything from human resources polices, in the wake of the #MeToo movement, to gun restrictions put in place by retailers following the massacre in Parkland, Florida. Walmart is one of several retailers that have issued new restrictions on the sale of guns.

That climate has also reflected itself in magazines like Cosmo, which are increasingly broadening their coverage to include politics.

In 2016, Ivanka Trump, in an interview with the magazine, said its questions regarding President Donald Trump's childcare and maternity leave policies had a lot of "negativity."

Hearst did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC.
American Airlines is adding flights from Florida to Venezuela at the end of the year, an addition that contrasts with moves made by several international airlines that have halted or reduced service due to economic and political turmoil in the country.

The world's largest airline will offer thrice-weekly service starting Dec. 19 from Miami to Caracas that will fly Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays, and will be served on a single aisle Airbus A319, spokeswoman Laura Masvidal said. The airline already has two daily departures from Miami to Caracas.

The airline added the flights because the Miami-Caracas route "has continued to perform well," Masvidal said, adding that the new flights will bring American's weekly service from Miami to Caracas to 17 flights. The airline also has a daily flight from Miami to Maracaibo, Venezuela, but its service to the country is still far less than the nearly 50 flights a week it used to operate.

American Airlines slashed its service from the U.S. to Venezuela in mid-2014 amid a dispute over repatriation of American's funds. Other airlines took similar measures. Delta Air Lines also cut its service that year and announced the suspension of its remaining Atlanta-to-Caracas flight last year. United Airlines made a similar move.

The change is part of broader rejiggering of American's service to Latin America that it announced on Monday. About 13 percent of American's more than $42 billion in operating revenue last year came from the region, making it the airline's second-biggest after the much larger U.S. domestic market, which generated close to $30 billion in revenue.

American is also adding service to existing routes to Mexico and announced new service like nonstops from Los Angeles to Buenos Aires, Argentina; Miami to Cordoba, Argentina; Dallas-Fort Worth to Oaxaca, Mexico; and Philadelphia to Mexico City.

At the same time, American in August will stop flying from Dallas to Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and from Dallas to Rio de Janeiro.

It is also reducing service from New York and Rio de Janeiro and flights to Sao Paulo from Los Angeles and Miami.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said Wednesday that the iPhone is in fact largely made in America.

He clarified his comments to say the flagship phones are assembled elsewhere, but said "there's equipment and manufacturing" all over the U.S.

President Donald Trump has touted Apple as one of the top many American companies investing at home. The company said in January that it planned to contribute $350 billion to the U.S. economy over the next five years through taxes, capital investment and job creation.

Cook said Wednesday the company doesn't need "political pressure" to add American jobs and said, "we've already been doing that."

Cook made the comments in an interview with Recode's Kara Swisher and MSNBC's Chris Hayes, a day after Apple revealed a new affordable iPad model that supports Apple Pencil and revamped education software.

The company is hoping the new iPad, marketed primarily to schools, will help regain some of the education market share from Google and its Chromebook. Meanwhile, Apple is facing reports of iPhone "demand deterioration."

Cook said the hardware giant is looking to expand its domestic operations from its main hubs in California and Texas.

He said Apple wouldn't be launching a "contest" like Amazon has in its search for a second headquarters.

Apple doesn't want to put states and municipalities through the work only to be rejected, he said, a case that produces one winner and a lot of losers.

Cook also spoke broadly about the political climate, denouncing high college costs and reiterating his firm stance against the repeal of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, which offers legal protections to child immigrants.

It's "unthinkable" that such changes are happening in the U.S., Cook said, adding that it's not an issue of "red or blue, conservative or liberal"  upholding DACA is a moral issue.

"I am very disappointed in both parties," he said.

Cook's full interview with Swisher and Hayes will air on MSNBC on April 6.

 Writing by CNBC's Sara Salinas, reporting by CNBC's Paayal Zaveri.

Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the parent company of MSNBC and CNBC.
Status update on Facebook

Facebook logo at HQ in London Reuters

With high-profile brands and people like Elon Musk abandoning Facebook, Cramer worried that the news would affect the scandal-ridden stock more adversely than expected. "These departures may not seem very large, but ... if they continue, they're going to hurt Facebook's numbers [and] make it extraordinary difficult to value the stock," Cramer said on Wednesday. "Both the estimates and the price-to-earnings multiple  what we're going to pay for those estimates  are in flux." Shares of Facebook have been falling ever since news broke that research firm Cambridge Analytica used Facebook users' data without their permission to support Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. So, to try and figure out where Facebook's stock might bottom after its 21 percent decline, Cramer examined some past corporate scandals to compare the declines.

UnitedHealth Group CEO on the future of health care

Representatives speak with customers at a UnitedHealthcare store in Queens, New York. Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Even UnitedHealth Group's CEO, David Wichmann, acknowledges that the health-care juggernaut might not always have faster growth than that of the United States' gross domestic product. "If you look forward to the future, call it seven, eight, nine, 10 years out, I think you're going to see the real strong implications of technology on helping to curtail health care costs," Wichmann told CNBC in a Wednesday interview with Cramer. Speaking from CNBC's Healthy Returns conference, Wichmann envisioned a future where tech advances would streamline health care to the point where the industry would hinge more on value than on profits. "I think the systems of the benefits and the health systems broadly going to more value-based mechanisms will drive greater efficiency and effectiveness in health care," the CEO said.

PVH CEO talks issues with China

Emanuel "Manny" Chirico, CEO, PVH Scott Mlyn | CNBC

After delivering one of the best quarterly earnings reports in PVH's history, Chairman and CEO Manny Chirico took a moment to discuss the Trump administration's tariff policy. "We're totally opposed to tariffs as a way to solve problems. There's clearly issues with China and trade policy and I think the administration is appropriate to go after them, but I think the way to do it is really target those industries [where] those abuses are going on and apparel is not one of those," the CEO said. "But clearly we need to level the playing field in trade and I give the administration credit for really going after it," Chirico told Cramer in an interview. Chirico also told Cramer he expects a number of PVH's business lines to grow this year, including its well-established Tommy Hilfiger brand. He added that the mall-based Macy's is "by far" the biggest U.S. customer for Tommy Hilfiger. And as an international operator, Chirico said he would much rather see Trump's tariff moves end in civil negotiations than in a full-blown trade war. "I'd like to see us negotiate with China," the CEO said. "I'd like to see us come to terms."

Norwegian Cruise Line CEO: Millennials' 3 requirements

Frank Del Rio, CEO, Norwegian Cruise Line Scott Mlyn | CNBC

Millennials now account for 25 percent of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings' customers, and to the cruise ship operator's President and CEO, Frank Del Rio, that's no accident. "We've got everything millennials want," Del Rio told Cramer in a Wednesday interview. "You buy stuff  they don't want to buy stuff. They want experiences." Millennial requirement No. 2? Del Rio said it was a "variety" of experience, highlighting his cruise ships' amenities: spas, casinos, pools and even racetracks. "The last thing that millennials want these days is value, and the cruise industry offers the greatest value there is on the face of this earth for a vacation," the CEO said, using an anecdote to emphasize his point. On a Norwegian Cruise Line vacation, "you can get our best suite in the house  two bedrooms, 1,200, 1,500 square feet, butler service around the clock  for half of what I just paid at The Peninsula for two nights. No question," Del Rio told Cramer.

Lightning round: Tech turbulence
Walmart has recently begun to take a stance in certain social issues such as religious freedom laws, raising the minimum wage, and raising the minimum age for gun purchases which has shifted Democrat's perception of the retailer from negative to positive.

The retailer giant "spent more than $2 million influencing federal elections in three out of the five past federal election cycles, mostly supporting conservative causes," according to a YouGov survey. 52 percent of Democrats are now more likely to purchase from Walmart compared to the 44 percent that would have 5 years ago. The 65 percent of Republicans and 57 percent of Independents who like the brand have remained constant.



After the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Walmart raised the minimum age to purchase firearms and ammunition to 21. The gunman used a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle in the shooting, which killed 17 people. Walmart ended sales of the AR-15 rifle in 2015.

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon also criticized President Donald Trump's reaction to the violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017.

The company also attacked Arkansas' state government in 2015, where the company is headquartered, for passing a bill that critics say would discriminate against LGBTQ people.
Musk hasn't spoken much about Neuralink in the past. But he has said that before the company would seek to deploy its technology for a wider population -- which could be seven to nine years away -- Neuralink would first try to help people with certain kinds of disabilities.

The report on Wednesday from Gizmodo points to a letter Neuralink employee Jared Birchall sent to a San Francisco city department last year that mentions plans for "a small operating room for in vivo testing, and a small room to house rodents."

The new information provides rare insight into Neuralink's earliest plans for executing on its bold vision, which could ultimately diversify Musk beyond cars with Tesla and space travel with SpaceX.

Neuralink, a company cofounded by Elon Musk that aims to develop brain implants for boosting people's mental capabilities, had plans to test products on animals, according to a new report.

"The first use of the technology will be to repair brain injuries as a result of stroke or cutting out a cancer lesion, where somebody's fundamentally lost a certain cognitive element," Musk told Tim Urban for an expansive article on the site Wait Buy Why.

"It could help with people who are quadriplegics or paraplegics by providing a neural shunt from the motor cortex down to where the muscles are activated," Musk said. "It can help with people who, as they get older, have memory problems and can't remember the names of their kids, through memory enhancement, which could allow them to function well to a much later time in lifethe medically advantageous elements of this for dealing with mental disablement of one kind or another, which of course happens to all of us when we get old enough, are very significant."

Urban's article, based on his conversations with Musk, did not touch on animal testing.

The letter from Birchall noted the company was looking to abide by law with its research efforts.

"This will follow the CNC/NIH Animal Biosafety Laboratory Level 1. The use of rodents is exempt from the Animal Welfare Act," Birchall wrote.

The Gizmodo report says an architect subsequently told the city that the company was looking outside San Francisco to set up a lab, and that Neuralink has begun sponsoring research at the University of California, Davis. Ultimately Neuralink did receive approval from California's state public health department to keep and use animals at its San Francisco headquarters.

It's not certain that animal testing has begun, though. Neuralink did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Read Gizmodo's report here.
U.K. lawmakers sent a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Wednesday asking for clarification on whether he would eventually appear in front of them, after the social network agreed to send two of his deputies instead.



Last week, Damian Collins, the chair of the British parliament's Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, asked Zuckerberg to appear in front of lawmakers to "give an accurate account of this catastrophic failure of process" related to the Cambridge Analytica data scandal.

A quiz app harvested 50 million Facebook profiles for data which were then sent over to Cambridge Analytica, a firm that was caught claiming it handled the digital aspects of President Donald Trump's 2016 election campaign.

Instead of Zuckerberg, Facebook said it would send either its Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer or Chief Product Officer Chris Cox, to appear in front of U.K. lawmakers.

On Wednesday, Collins said he accepted the offer of evidence from Cox, and suggested the Facebook executive answer U.K. lawmakers' questions on April 24.

"However, given the seriousness of these issues we still believe that Mark Zuckerberg himself is the right person to give evidence," he said in a letter to Rebecca Stimson, Facebook's head of public policy.

"Mr Zuckerberg has stated in interviews that if he is the right person to appear, he will appear. He appears to have acted on this belief with respect to appearing before Congress. We now request confirmation as to whether he will make the same decision for us."

Collins has given Zuckerberg until April 9 to respond.
Advertisers for the first time must now decide whether putting content on Facebook represents a liability, tech analyst-turned-venture capitalist Gene Munster told CNBC on Wednesday.

"I don't think there's going to be some huge aversion from Instagram or Facebook. I think that those platforms are going to be around forever," Munster said in a "Squawk Box" interview. "But I do think the lift you're going to see from these policy changes can impact their advertising effectiveness."

"We've seen a couple small advertisers ... back off from the Facebook platform. But it's subtle things like that" that makes investors watch the stock, Munster added.

Munster, founder of Loup Ventures, which focuses on research and early-stage funding, said he doesn't expect Facebook's stock to fall sharply, but shares could be a "stuck in the mud" for the next six to 12 months.

Shares of Facebook have declined more than 17 percent from the close on March 16 through Tuesday's close. On March 17, The New York Times, The Observer and The Guardian reported that Cambridge Analytica had harvested data from more than 50 million Facebook users without their permission. The profile information was used for targeted political ads.

On Monday, the Federal Trade Commission confirmed that it's investigating the company's data practices.

Facebook unveiled changes Wednesday to its data and privacy tools. Among the changes: The settings will now be on a single page, rather than spread across nearly 20 different screens.

Additionally, Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg has agreed to testify before Congress on the leak and the company's data practices.

On Tuesday, Christopher Wylie, the Cambridge Analytica whistleblower, told U.K. lawmakers that the election of Donald Trump prompted him speak out. The political analytics firm worked on the Trump presidential campaign.
African heads of state and government pose during the African Union summit on establishing an African Continental Free Trade Area in Kigali, Rwanda, on March 21, 2018.

Safeguarding jobs and cheap Chinese goods flooding the market are hurdles the South African government must clear before it signs up to a pan-African free trade agreement, the country's largest trade union group told CNBC.

A free trade agreement across Africa is "great in principle," Matthew Parks, parliamentary deputy co-ordinator for the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), told CNBC via telephone Tuesday. COSATU represents more than 2 million workers in South Africa.

But, "we need to see some kind of plan," he added.

Attending a summit in Kigali, Rwanda, last week, South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa did not immediately sign the African Union's proposed free trade agreement, which posits a free trade area between its 55 member states. Ramaphosa instead signed the Kigali Declaration, a precursor to the deal.

"We are part of this process of opening up Africa for trade. All that is holding us back from signing the actual agreement is our own consultation process," Ramaphosa was quoted as saying by South African broadcaster eNCA.

Forty-four African nations signed on to the free trade agreement last week, though another notable exception was Nigeria, by some metrics the continent's largest economy.

"Complete freedom of movement of people would mean that our economy would collapse," Parks said.

South Africa's economy, despite being sub-Saharan Africa's most developed, has foundered in recent years. Sluggish growth and unemployment at nearly 27 percent  though recent data has shown improving fundamentals  mean that the country could struggle to accommodate an influx of new workers.

"We already have Zimbabweans fleeing Zimbabwe, taking up low paid jobs here," Parks explained.
Digital display signs on the exterior of the headquarters of Morgan Stanley in New York's Times Square.

Mr. Greenberg is in the top 2 percent of brokers at the firm by revenue produced. Last month, he made a Forbes list of Oregon's top wealth managers.

The wealth management division in which Mr. Greenberg works represents the future of Morgan Stanley. The company's chief executive, James P. Gorman , wants the division to supplant the volatile investment banking and trading businesses that until recently were the bank's profit engines. Wealth management now accounts for nearly half of the bank's total revenue.

Despite this information, Morgan Stanley apparently took no action against Mr. Greenberg. He is still an employee and a member of the elite "Chairman's Club," which recognizes brokers who are not only top producers but also meet certain "conduct and compliance standards."

Morgan Stanley received a federal subpoena related to one abuse allegation, according to a lawyer for one of the women. In another instance, a Morgan Stanley manager alerted his superior when Mr. Greenberg was charged with violating a restraining order, according to three former employees. Another manager at the firm liked and replied to a Facebook post by one of Mr. Greenberg's ex-wives in which she described his abuse. On yet another occasion, an official from the bank's New York headquarters flew to Portland to investigate, two former employees said.

For years, Morgan Stanley executives knew about his alleged conduct, according to seven former Morgan Stanley employees.

Yet the man, Douglas E. Greenberg, remains one of Morgan Stanley 's top financial advisers  and a celebrated member of the wealth management industry.

"He threatened to burn down my house with me in it," one woman wrote in her application for a restraining order. "I don't know what he's going to do next," a second wrote. "He choked me so hard it left a mark on my throat," wrote another. "He is scaring my children and me," a fourth woman said.

Over 15 years, four women in Lake Oswego, Ore., a wealthy Portland suburb, sought police protection against the same man, court filings show.

A mug shot of Douglas E. Greenberg from Sept. 3, 2014.

This week, after The New York Times contacted Morgan Stanley with questions about Mr. Greenberg, the bank put him on "administrative leave pending further review of this situation," said a Morgan Stanley spokeswoman, Christy Jockle. "We are committed to maintaining a safe and professional work environment and will take appropriate action based on the facts of the matter."

Reached on his cellphone this week, Mr. Greenberg said he had no comment. "It's interesting that a reporter from New York would somehow have all this information just on her own," he said. He did not respond to additional detailed requests for comment.

Since claims of sexual harassment in the workplace ignited the #MeToo movement last year, companies have been struggling to handle accusations against star employees. Fox News, for example, granted a four-year contract extension to the anchor Bill O'Reilly soon after he paid $32 million to settle a sexual harassment claim against him.

Morgan Stanley has wrestled with the issue, too. Late last year, the bank fired a top investment banking executive, Harold E. Ford Jr., after hearing accusations that he had engaged in misconduct. The bank later said that Mr. Ford, a former Tennessee congressman, was not fired for sexual harassment. Mr. Ford has denied any wrongdoing.

None of the women Mr. Greenberg is said to have abused were employed by Morgan Stanley. But employees in the finance industry  especially those who manage money for clients  are judged in part on their character. That puts the onus on companies, and regulators, to police their conduct even outside the office.

Financial advisers like Mr. Greenberg have to share certain information about themselves publicly, under rules intended to help investors find trustworthy money managers. For example, brokers have to inform the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, known as Finra, if they declare bankruptcy or are charged with any felony or with a misdemeanor related to money.

But there is just as much information that does not have to be disclosed  and that means that people with checkered histories can continue to thrive in the industry.

On Finra's website, each broker's history is displayed in a vertical timeline, with red dots marking the date of each trouble spot.

There are five red dots on Mr. Greenberg's timeline. They represent a 1984 charge, eventually dismissed, of theft by check; a 2001 charge of criminal mischief in the first degree, also dismissed; two disputes with clients; and a regulatory penalty.

But that record does not reveal Mr. Greenberg's other run-ins with law enforcement and the judicial system, which are not required to be disclosed to Finra.

In 2000, Mr. Greenberg admitted in an arbitration proceeding that he had phoned someone who did a lot of business with a colleague and told him, inaccurately, that the colleague was known for shady business practices, according to a record of the proceeding. Mr. Greenberg was not punished for what the three-person arbitration panel deemed was defamation because the statute of limitations had expired, the panel said in its decision.

In December 2006, Mr. Greenberg was charged with harassment and criminal mischief, according to court papers and a police blotter item in The Lake Oswego Review. He had violated a restraining order taken out by his ex-girlfriend, the second woman to ask for protection against him, according to the court papers. Mr. Greenberg eventually pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of criminal trespass and agreed to limitations on his movements, according to a plea deal reviewed by The Times.

And eight years later, Mr. Greenberg was charged with violating another restraining order taken out by a different ex-girlfriend. The woman, Anne Cost, had obtained the order against Mr. Greenberg after, she said, he threatened to burn down her house. Now, she told police, Mr. Greenberg was menacing her again, trailing her in his car.

"You could have placed a pizza box between her back bumper and Mr. Greenberg's front bumper he was so close to her," a Lake Oswego police officer, John J. Brent, wrote in his report of the incident, which was reviewed by The Times. Ms. Cost declined to comment.

After that September 2014 arrest, Mr. Greenberg's mug shot appeared online in a report about the arrest. Morgan Stanley employees in Seattle and Portland shared it via text messages and emails, according to the seven former Morgan Stanley employees, most of whom said they did not want to be identified because they feared retribution by Mr. Greenberg or the bank.

"Everybody knew," said Jani Beatty, a former vice president at Morgan Stanley's private bank. She added, "I considered him my friend until I understood the full extent of his actions against his intimate partners."

When he learned of the arrest, Paul Amsbury, a Morgan Stanley branch manager and Mr. Greenberg's boss, passed information about it, including the mug shot, to Curtis Peterson, the firm's Pacific Coast regional director, in San Francisco, according to Ms. Beatty and two other former bank employees. Mr. Amsbury's message: Mr. Greenberg was not fit to represent Morgan Stanley and should be dismissed.

Mr. Amsbury declined to comment. Mr. Peterson did not respond to requests for comment.

After Mr. Amsbury flagged the arrest, a high-ranking compliance official from Morgan Stanley's New York offices flew to Portland to meet with Mr. Greenberg and Mr. Amsbury, the former employees said. (Ms. Beatty, who worked in a separate business line in Mr. Greenberg's office, said she did not recall the visit.)

Morgan Stanley officials soon were confronted with more issues involving Mr. Greenberg.

In June 2015, his second ex-wife, Traci Williams, wrote a series of Facebook posts that described her ex-husband's alleged physical and verbal abuse. The posts did not name Mr. Greenberg, but there was little doubt about whom she was referring to. Her friends commented on the posts and criticized Mr. Greenberg by name. And a lawyer for Mr. Greenberg complained about the posts to Ms. Williams's lawyer.

Among the commenters was Alex Burlingame, a Morgan Stanley manager in Seattle who had worked with Mr. Greenberg for years. He "liked" the post and added a personal message: "Hang in there, Traci! So sorry to see that one acts this way. Nancy and I r thinking of you!"

Mr. Burlingame did not respond to requests for comment.

That summer, Ms. Williams said she started receiving what she perceived to be threatening letters in the mail. "I CAN SEE YOU," read one message made up of letters cut out from magazines. She reported the harassment to the Portland police, who opened an investigation. Their main suspect was Mr. Greenberg, according to emails between Ms. Williams, her lawyer and a Portland police officer that were reviewed by The Times.

The police eventually turned the case over to federal prosecutors, according to a July 2015 email to Ms. Williams from the Portland police officer. The United States Postal Inspection Service was also part of the investigation.

One day in early 2016, federal authorities showed up at Mr. Greenberg's Morgan Stanley office to serve a subpoena related to the investigation, according to Edie Rogoway, Ms. Williams's lawyer. On March 1, Greg Nyhus, an assistant United States attorney, said in an email to Ms. Rogoway, reviewed by The Times, that his office was reviewing documents obtained from several subpoenas.

A spokesman for Mr. Nyhus's office declined to comment.

Ms. Williams, meanwhile, asked her lawyer to complain to Morgan Stanley that Mr. Greenberg was making it hard for her to access her children's Morgan Stanley wealth management accounts.

Ms. Rogoway said she spoke to a Morgan Stanley lawyer, Bernard Kornmehl, about the accounts. Mr. Kornmehl declined to comment.

She said she told him that Mr. Greenberg had a history of abusing women.

Later that day, Ms. Rogoway emailed Ms. Williams about the conversation. She reported that Mr. Kornmehl had said that "many sides" were aware of Mr. Greenberg's alleged history.
Special counsel Robert Mueller revealed in a court filing that former top Trump campaign aide Rick Gates had contacts with a former agent of Russia's intelligence service as late as October 2016  weeks before the election that propelled Donald Trump into the White House.

The communications were disclosed in a sentencing memorandum filed Tuesday night against Alex van der Zwaan, a Dutch lawyer who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.

Mueller said Gates and van der Zwaan had numerous calls between September and October of 2016 with a "close business colleague" of Gates and Trump's campaign chief, Paul Manafort.

The colleague, identified in the memo only as "Person A," is alleged to have worked with Gates and Manafort "in connection with their Ukraine lobbying work." Person A is a Ukrainian foreign national who lived in Kiev and Moscow until mid-August 2016, the memo said.

The special counsel alleges that Gates told van der Zwaan of Person A's status as a former officer of Russia's military intelligence wing, which is known as GRU.

The special counsel is investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election, as well as potential collaboration between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. Trump has repeatedly denied colluding with the Russians. Gates stayed with the Trump campaign after Manafort was fired in summer 2016, and he served on Trump's inaugural committee. He is also a co-founder of the pro-Trump nonprofit advocacy group America First Policies.
Following Kim's visit, China said its isolated neighbor reaffirmed promises to denuclearize the Korean peninsula and meet with Trump. The North, on the other hand, continued its public silence on both matters.

After two days of speculation, China announced that the North Korean regime's reclusive leader traveled to Beijing for bilateral talks with President Xi Jinping . Kim made the international trip by train in what is believed to be his first known journey abroad since assuming power in 2011.

"Comparing the Chinese and North Korean readouts of the meeting, I'm struck once again by the absence of any mention of the nuclear issue in the North Korean version," Joshua Pollack, senior research associate at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, California, told CNBC.

"The Chinese version says that Kim Jong Un reaffirmed North Korea's commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," Pollack said. "The North Korean version conspicuously fails to confirm this or any of the rest of the Chinese account of the leaders' exchanges."

Reacting to the news, Trump tweeted Wednesday that "there is a good chance that Kim Jong Un will do what is right" and "Kim looks forward to meeting me."

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And if the North is willing to give up its nuclear weapons, the U.S. will most likely be tasked to give the reclusive state something big in return.

"The key question the world needs to ask is this: what does Kim Jong Un want for those nukes?" Harry Kazianis, director of defense studies at the Center for the National Interest, told CNBC.

"What would Kim Jong Un demand from the United States and South Korea for giving up its nuclear weapons? Would they demand, for example, the ending of the U.S.-South Korea alliance and the removal of all U.S. forces from the Korean Peninsula? Could Kim demand America also denuclearize, as has been the case in the past?" Kazianis added.

"This is all just the beginning of what will be a historic few weeks in Asia. Either history will be made, or we will be back at the brink all over again," he said.
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and US President Donald Trump wait for a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House on February 10, 2017 in Washington, DC.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is finalizing details for a summit with President Donald Trump on April 18 to discuss strategy before a proposed meeting between North Korean and U.S. leaders, a ruling party official told Reuters on Wednesday.

Abe will also likely ask Trump to exempt Japan from his steel and aluminum tariffs, said the official, who has been briefed on the matter and asked not to be identified.

Abe, speaking at a parliamentary committee, said Japanese steel products were helping to make U.S. auto makers more competitive and cheaper for American consumers.

"Protectionism, at first glance, appears to benefit a nation which exercises it, but it is not necessarily so," Abe said. "Japan wants to be a flag bearer to promote a free trade which will bring a win-win situation to each nation."

His finance minister, Taro Aso, echoed that view and said some of responsibility for the trade imbalance rested with the United States.

"I understand the U.S. position that it cannot continue with a trade deficit, but the United States itself should make efforts," Aso told the same committee.

The meeting between Abe and the U.S. leader is expected to be held at Trump's Mar-a-Lago retreat in Florida, according to the source. North Korea's Kim Jong Un is set to meet South Korean President Moon Jae-In in April and then possibly Trump in May.
Saudi Arabia and Russia are ironing out the details on an unprecedented pact to extend controls over major exporters for decades to come.

Riyadh and Moscow have been engaged in supply cuts over the past year in order to try to clear a global supply overhang and keep prices in check. Yet, in an effort to further their influence over world crude supplies, the two countries are now reportedly working on a deal to actively manage markets for potentially the next 20 years.

OPEC is working on a "very long-term" deal to try to extend its alliance with other oil producers, Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo said at an energy conference in Baghdad, Iraq on Wednesday.

Barkindo's comments followed news at the start of the week in which Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince, Mohammad Bin Salman, told Reuters: "We are working to shift from a year-to-year agreement to a 10-20 year agreement."
Playboy has decided to suspend all activity on Facebook in response to the data sharing scandal engulfing the social media giant.

The adult publication said Wednesday that it would be exiting the social network and deactivating each of its accounts.

Cooper Hefner, Playboy's chief creative officer and son of the late Hugh Hefner, called Facebook "sexually repressive" on Twitter, and said its content and policy guidelines "continue contradicting our values."

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In a statement on Wednesday, Playboy said: "The recent news about Facebook's alleged mismanagement of users' data has solidified our decision to suspend our activity on the platform at this time.

"There are more than 25 million fans who engage with Playboy via our various Facebook pages, and we do not want to be complicit in exposing them to the reported practices. That is why we have announced that we will be leaving Facebook's platform, deactivating the Playboy accounts that Playboy Enterprises manages directly."

The firm said it has "always stood for personal freedom and the celebration of sex," and that its move to deactivate platforms on Facebook was "another step in that ongoing fight."

Facebook was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.

Facebook has been hit by negative headlines since a number of media publications reported that the data of millions of users was improperly harvested by political data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica.

Cambridge Analytica is accused of using the data of 50 million Facebook users, obtained by a now-dissolved company called Global Science Research (GSR), to influence voters in the 2016 U.S. elections.

On Tuesday, whistleblower Christopher Wylie said that the election of President Donald Trump was part of his reason for speaking out about the practices of his former employer. He said that he personally believed more than 50 million users could have been targeted.

Calls to delete Facebook have taken momentum in the wake of the scandal, with the hashtage #DeleteFacebook trending across social media.

Last week, both Commerzbank and Mozilla suspended ad campaigning on the social network. Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk also deleted the pages of SpaceX and Tesla later in the week.

Facebook advertising brought in more than $10 billion in the third quarter of 2017, a rise of 49 percent, bolstering the firm's profits. But fears of advertisers pulling from the platform have heightened in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Shares of Facebook were down 1 percent in extended hours trading.
U.S. soldiers talk after a routine inspection of a Patriot missile battery at a Turkish military base in Gaziantep, Turkey. Department of Defense photo by Master Sgt. Sean M. Worrell, U.S. Air Force

The Pentagon is taking a victory lap after President Donald Trump signed off on $700 billion in defense spending. Touting the bill as a "matter of national security," Trump noted big-ticket defense procurements as well as the significant increase in spending for missile defense. However, even that massive amount of spending may not be enough to full modernize U.S. missile defense systems. The military's massive funding hike allocates $11.5 billion for the Missile Defense Agency, the largest amount ever. But there are brewing threats even greater than North Korea, particularly from other countries' outer space capabilities.

"North Korea is deploying lots of new things, but it's not just about North Korea and it's not just about ballistic missiles anymore. There is a missile-rich threat environment that is getting more powerful and it will hold U.S. forces at risk," Thomas Karako, director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told CNBC. Karako explained that missile threats posed to the U.S. include everything from rocket artillery to cruise missiles to ballistic missiles to hypersonic weapons.

"It's that whole spectrum of things that unfortunately kind of snuck up on us when we were focused on the counterterrorism mission," he said. And while Karako said the record $11.5 billion was a step in the right direction, he noted that the U.S. is still "playing catch up" in building a robust missile defense program. "We are playing catch up, above all, because of the risk that we have been taking for, I would say the last decade," Karako said. "The dip in funding for MDA and the services over the past six to 10 years is the reason why that number is where it is."

The need to track missiles in space

Karako emphasized that aside from funding, the U.S. must field systems in space and integrate them with land- and sea-based platforms in order to counter the full spectrum of missile threats. The U.S. currently fields four components of ballistic missile defense, none of which are space-based: Patriot, Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), AEGIS, and Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD). "The thing that is missing from the FY18 omnibus and the FY19 request is space sensors," Karko said. "So tick tock, people, time is running out. The time for studies is over. Where is the plan to actually field some space sensors?"

An animation of a space-based sensor tracking a missile. Source: AGI While the U.S. military is already tracking more than 23,000 objects in space around the Earth, space-based missile sensors would be fundamentally different in function, according to AGI, a company which provides software to commercial and government entities to analyze and track objects. Missile defense sensors in space would look down at the Earth, instead of up at space, AGI vice president Travis Langster told CNBC. "From a missile defense perspective, the reason why you'd need sensors in space is because you'd need to be able to  the moment a ballistic missile is launched  detect it from anywhere on the Earth," Langster said. "If you know it's already in space, headed toward its target, then it's too late." Tracking objects in space is no simple feat either. These new missile defense sensors, like the thousands of satellites set to launch in the next few years, would need to avoid the constantly-growing field of objects and debris.

An animation of the history of space debris around the Earth. Source: AGI "Today's public catalogs, by AGI's estimates, only account for about 4 percent of the objects in space around the Earth," Langster said. Catalyzed by incidents in the late 2000s, both commercial and military entities are working to solve the growing space debris problem. The military was first put on high alert that space debris must be combated after a Chinese military test in 2007. "China conducted an anti-satellite weapons test on one of their own defunct weather satellites. It created thousands of pieces of debris." Today's technology can track objects in space "on the order of 10 centimeters," Langster said. But, moving at thousands of miles per hour in orbit, objects 2 centimeters or larger "could cause catastrophic damage." While an anti-satellite weapon is a direct threat, the thousands of pieces of debris from such destruction creates an invisible menace. Commercial entities were put on notice when, in 2009, a dead Russian military satellite shattered a $50 million Iridium telecommunications satellite. With near-misses becoming increasingly common, companies focused on space debris now makeup 2 percent of the $350 billion space industry.

An animation of the collision in 2009 between an Iridium satellite and a dead Russian military satellite. Source: AGI "Inevitably there are situations where space debris, dead or inoperable satellites could get too close to a functioning satellite, and then a satellite operator must make the decision of whether to maneuver or not," Langster said. The government is seeking to regulate space debris, with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross recently declaring there must be more "rules to the road" in space. "There need to be means for policing, if you will, the debris in space," Ross said. "That's one of the big problems. And as more and more launches occur, more and more satellites reach the end of their life, that's going to be a problem we have to deal with." Regardless of space debris, Karako said the four existing U.S. missile defense systems would "be better and more effective and lethal with space sensors."

WATCH: Middle East tensions point to higher defense spending
"My despair over Fox does not make its cable-news rivals camps of the saints: In the race for ratings, even those outlets that have not yet fallen into the propaganda abyss often drive right to the edge."

On the internet, propaganda's fiefdoms multiply. Blithely irresponsible tech companies react to extremist users only under legal duress and public shaming. The citizenry's ignorance of how our government is designed to function, of our history, of world affairs, of basic economics and, not least, of critical thinking makes dupes of even our those who, on paper, enjoyed impeccable educations.

Successful propagandists have always understood one basic truth: Propaganda works best when it exploits pre-existing prejudices. Anti-Semitism is the classic (and grimmest) example.

Today's American propagandists and foreign interlopers play to popular disaffection irresponsibly inflamed by all forms of our media. An ungrateful people, inured to countless privileges, we are daily instructed that "You may be entitled," or that we're being cheated by the villains of the moment (minorities always suffice for the role), or that our self-created misfortunes are someone else's fault.

Right and left, the one thing that truly unites us is our sprawling culture of blame, the welcome reassurance that our problems are of the other guy's doing, not ours. We set the table for propagandists and serve them high-protein mealsthen we wring our hands over their growth.

Neither liberals, nor moderates, nor conservatives alone can defeat the new propagandists. We all have to pledge our allegiance to proven facts. Ferocious arguments are finebut they must be tethered to reality. There may be additional facts, but there are never alternative facts.

Cable news and talk radio also need to stop reducing everyone, from presidents to plumbers, to a single dimension. Human beings are complex, often contradictory, and they change. An oft-missed point of Goethe's Faust is that even the devil can incidentally do good.

The hyper-media's insistence that individuals are either all good or all bad, on our side or on their side, cripples our democracy (yet another lesson of 2016). President Obama, who I criticized ferociously and without regret, squandered opportunities for greatness, but conservatives could not credit him with doing anything right.

Now, Trump, whose behavior is execrable (as an Army officer, I never thought I'd be cheering on a porn star against the President of the United States), nonetheless has done a few useful things, such as facilitating our military's response to the Islamic State. But those on the left cannot accept that anything good can come from this self-drawn caricature of a devil.

CNN and MSNBC would be more effective if they occasionally gave the devil his due, instead of mirroring the intolerance of their prime-time counterparts at Fox.

On a practical level, the immediate problem with hyper-media is that the gatekeepers are gone. Cable news is now about ratings alone, not public service, and that applies to every outlet. But the cable-news channels generally do acknowledge proven facts (the Fox prime-time line-up being the cancerous exception).

"News" sources on the internet are something else. Contrary to initial claims, the internet did not empower the individual. It empowers the mob. An individual may build a hate-porn "news" site, but it's the mass that rallies to him that poses the threat.

Ink-stained fisticuffs in the press date back to the earliest days of our republic (and far beyond), but the difference with the internet is that the crucial, mediating hurdle has been removed, the editor's desk. In the news business, the most important figure, traditionally, wasn't the star reporter or the publisher. It was the editor who, presented with a tantalizing story, looked up at the enthused journalist and demanded, "Show me the proof."

That's gone. And it's not missed by the mass audience, which eagerly devoured propaganda produced by a Russian troll factory. And those Russians didn't have to start from scratch: They merely took advantage of our evident prejudices and inchoate anger. The Russians trolls were just vultures: The carcass of truth was already dead in a ditch.

And thus I'm compelled to note the most obvious factor missing from cable-news today: the news. As a news junkie, I cannot rely on cable-news for even a rudimentary understanding of an increasingly interdependent world. The maxim for all outlets seems to be "No more than one international story per day; Americans have to be directly involved; and keep it short."

No wonder Donald Trump sits in the White House.

My morning routine? I wake up and turn on France24 while making the coffee. I bring in The Washington Post, one of the few pillars of serious journalism still standing, and read it through. Then I take a second cup of coffee to my home office and turn on the computer. On-line, I scroll through the German and Italian papers--perhaps others, depending on the day's leading stories. For comic relief, I review the Russian media. Only then, with my certified-left-wing granola in hand, do I briefly turn on "Morning Joe" or CNN. Later, I'll check the financial channels, but the point is that I could not maintain an informed world-view if I relied on our cable-news networks. They're entertaining us, but they're failing us.

The hyper-media era needs many things, from responsible tech billionaires, to editorsand, God knows, copy-editors, that marvelous, dying breed. Tomorrow morning, though, I'd settle for CNN, circa 1990. Does anyone remember how exciting that was? Real news and global reporting, 24/7? As an Army officer, I loved itwe all did.

Then the promising child, cable news, grew up to be a thug.

Commentary by Ralph Peters, a retired U.S. Army officer, a former enlisted man and a prize-winning novelist. From 2008 to 2018, he was Fox News' Strategic Analyst.

For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter.
Facebook will need to change its business model in order to win back user trust, said Roger McNamee, one of Facebook's earliest advisors and a longtime tech investor.

"If you want to restore trust, you have to accept that some of your past business practices are deeply harmful to people," McNamee, managing director at Elevation Partners, a private investment firm focusing on new media and technology, told CNBC.

"And you have to change them, even if there's a cost to short-term earnings. Because, I think, in the long run, the brand is much more valuable to the extra penny of earnings that would come from maintaining the old business practice," he said on "Squawk Alley" Wednesday.

The solution may involve changing the fundamental business model, he said.

"In the advertising business, you basically get all the data you can get about your users and then you monetize it anyway you can," McNamee said. "Now we're having a day of reckoning. Where people used to say, that's okay. Now we're not so sure it's okay."

The hashtag #DeleteFacebook online began circulating shortly after the news broke of the scandal that affected approximately 50 million users. But McNamee doesn't think people will abandon the platform so fast. He is more concerned with the brand's image.

"The way that Zuckerberg and [Sheryl] Sandberg have handled this is almost the worst possible way if you're trying to protect your stock value," he said. "Trying to hide the ball. Trying to deflect criticism is not going to work anymore. This is a much bigger problem. They need to get on top of it and they need to do a way better job than they're doing so far."

He pointed out that between 2010 and 2014 several companies  not just Cambridge Analytica  were allowed to "harvest" user data without consent from Facebook users.

"That scares me as an investor," he said. McNamee said he did sell some of the company's stock after The New York Times and The Observer stories were released earlier this month, and has since turned over his Facebook position to a third party manager.
Moscow, with the Kremlin in the background.

Russia will definitely retaliate for the expulsions of Russian diplomats by multiple Western and east European governments, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday.

Peskov said Moscow would hit back against the mass expulsions of diplomats by the U.K., the U.S. and other allies "but will do so at the appropriate time," Reuters reported.

Peskov, speaking at a press conference, gave no details on what Russia's response would be but said it would correspond to Russian national interests.

He said he hoped that countries carrying out expulsions will "properly examine British information" on the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia on British soil in early March.

The U.K. said it was almost certain that Russia carried out the attack using a military-grade, Russian-made nerve agent, but Russia denies any involvement.
"It would introduce more liquidity into the markets, and we're talking about an IPO of a state-owned company, which would be a large contributor to the market. Anything that would make the market bigger, the pool bigger would help absorb the IPO," said Peter Donisanu, global market strategist at Wells Fargo.

The kingdom's equities market is being considered by MSCI for emerging markets status, and was named a secondary emerging market by the FTSE Russell for its global index series. MSCI's announcement, a much bigger driver of emerging market funds, is due in June, and would be effective next year.

Saudi Arabia's stock market could get a helpful boost of liquidity by its inclusion in emerging markets indexes as it looks to the anticipated IPO of state-owned oil company, Saudi Aramco.

Saudi stocks will be phased in by FTSE Russell beginning in March, 2019.

"People are anticipating anywhere from from $3 to $5 billion of international flows will come into the stock market prior to MSCI, FTSE inclusion. On the back of that, you have a lot of locals who are beginning also to invest in the stock market. That's keeping up the momentum. The stock market is roughly by now about 10 percent lower than where it was the last time oil prices were at $70," said John Sfakianakis, director of economic research at the Gulf Research Center.

He said there are estimates that MSCI inclusion would bring in another $15 to $20 billion of foreign inflows. The widely held iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF is based on MSCI, and managers who use MSCI indexes would have to add Saudi shares if it is approved.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS, has been in the U.S. and is visiting with government officials and business leaders, as part of his efforts to change Saudi into a more diverse, modern economy. On Tuesday evening, the prince announced, along with Softbank, a plan to build the world's largest solar power generation project.

Sarah Al-Suhaimi, chairwoman of the bourse, or the Tadawul, told CNBC Tuesday that the exchange has been transforming itself, in areas such as clearing, in line with international standards. She was attending the Saudi-U.S. CEO forum in New York.

The Aramco IPO is expected to list first on the Saudi exchange and has been targeted for 2018, though it could be later in early, 2019.

On the local exchange, "they could test the waters a little bit, see what investor appetite is. If its true this FTSE and MSCI litings come through, you could have a lot more buyers at the table," said Donisanu.

He said the overall Saudi market has a market cap of about $450 billion, and the IPO listing there would have to be smaller than the $100 billion the company hopes to raise globally.

The company has also been considering listing in Hong Kong, London or New York which would come after the Riyadh listing.

Nishit Lakhotia, head of SICO told CNBC earlier Wednesday that he expected to see the FTSE Russell listing to be announced. "In terms of the flows, yes the market is factoring it in," he said.

Lakhotia said the passive flows from the FTSE inclusion could be about $4.5 billion, but total flows would be more.

"That's a widely anticipated event. Everybody's looking at that. It's a major thing for Saudi Arabia. It's one of the internationally accepted benchmarks and it gives MBS [Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman] additional credit for reform and change in the capital markets," said Sfakianakis.
Executives from large technology firms could be called to appear in front of British lawmakers as they continue gathering evidence about fake news and data practices in the wake of the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal, a member of parliament (MP) told CNBC Wednesday.



Damian Collins, the chair of the British parliament's Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, said he would not rule out asking more technology firms to give evidence on their data collection practices, but there are no plans currently.

"Well we've already spoken with with Google and YouTube and Twitter as part of our inquiry and we'll be looking to hold further evidence sessions after the Easter recess. And we have not at the moment decided to call other tech companies, but we may well do," Collins told CNBC in a TV interview.

Last week, Collins invited Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to appear in front of lawmakers to give evidence about the data fiasco. Facebook instead said it would send one other senior executive that directly reports to Zuckerberg instead.

The MP told CNBC Wednesday that he would again write to Zuckerberg to ask for clarification on whether he would speak to lawmakers on another occasion.

The MP is chairing a committee of lawmakers investigating fake news. The Facebook and Cambridge Analytica case however fell under its remit. Collins said that the Facebook case has made people aware of how much data is being collected about them.

"These issues are not just questions for Facebook but the spotlight has fallen on them. It's about how all companies gather and use data. I think there are two things that I think you can, consumers and users are really focused on in the last 10 days or so, which are, which is firstly just how much data is being gathered about them," Collins said.

"And then with the data security breach, the concern there is that data isn't necessarily safe."
All of the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market cap are down for the year. Except for one, VeChain.

That digital currency has gained more than 28 percent since January 1, which one analyst says is thanks to big-name partnerships and a unique structure that incentivizes investors not to sell.

Prices of most cryptocurrencies have suffered this year following regulatory crackdowns and news of hacks. For the top three by market cap, bitcoin is down more than 44 percent, ethereum has fallen 40 percent, and ripple is down 74 percent this year, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Source: CoinMarketCap



Like many digital tokens, VeChain, which trades under the symbol VEN, is tied to a larger blockchain project. The digital currency backs the actual company VeChain, which among other things, uses a mix of blockchain and a chip technology to track luxury goods and confirm that they're not counterfeit.

The company likens VEN to "the fuel or the blood which supports VeChain's distributed platform."

Since launching its coin in August, VeChain has announced relationships with BMW, Michigan State University, Oxford University Math, PwC Asia, and Chinese consulting firm NRCC that's working with VeChain for China's tobacco industry.

Those corporate ties have attracted more retail investors and boosted prices, according to Derek Kim, head of research at BK Capital Management.

"They have a really good way of marketing their relationships with companies they're developing products for," Kim said. "The big catalyst for token price appreciation is company relationships."

VeChain's price structure has prevented the similar sell-off seen in other cryptocurrencies, Kim said. As part of the company's rebranding in January, it announced a structure where those holding a certain amount of coins for a longer time get more rewards, and voting rights.

Those investors are also eligible for additional VEN coins, which act like an interest-type payoff, Kim said.

"That structure makes token holder base a bit more sticky," BKCM's Kim said. "They have to lock up tokens within the structure, which takes supply and selling pressure and protected them from the sell-off."

Early bitcoin investor Tim Draper has backed the company, VeChain announced in a tweet.

Draper, who has also invested in Skype and Tesla, bought roughly 30,000 bitcoins in 2014, which he told CNBC in December he is still holding. At Wednesday's prices, those are worth roughly $237 million.

The founding partner of leading venture capital firms Draper Associates and DFJ told CNBC in March this "is the most excited I've ever been as an investor, and I was right there at the beginning of the internet."

TWEET

In January, early Circle and Ethereum investor Jim Breyer also announced his support for the company and its founder Sunny Lu. Breyer Capital is acting in official advisory role for VeChain, the founder of Breyer Capital said in a blog post.

VeChain has fallen more than 60 percent from its all-time high of $9.43 in January, according to CoinMarketCap. The cryptocurrency was trading near $2.92, as of 2:05 p.m. ET Wednesday.
As the cost of college rises, several high-ranking business executives have suggested that it may no longer be worth it. But cost aside, attending college is still the most common pathway to becoming a CEO.

The UK Domain analyzed data on the CEOs from the 100 biggest companies in the Fortune 500 and the 100 biggest companies on the London Stock Exchange and found that the vast majority of CEOs have spent some serious time in school. Just three of these top execs never attended college and 100 had earned an undergraduate degree and a postgraduate degree.

According to the UK Domain, one of the largest website registries in the world, the CEOs of the companies in the world come from a fairly wide range of colleges. "The CEOs of the FTSE 100 and Fortune 100 companies are arguably some of the most influential leaders in the world," said James Barnes, a company spokesperson. "We conducted this research in order to understand what this elite group of individuals have in common, and what it takes to climb to the top."

Here are the nine schools that granted the most undergraduate degrees to future top CEOs:
International trade is a complex system with decisions made in one country having far-reaching consequences in others. Last week, President Trump announced his latest set of tariffs  this time worth $50 to $60 billion of Chinese products  with the goal of boosting the U.S. economy and protecting America's workers and businesses.

These are on top of the far-reaching tariffs he announced earlier this month on a majority of steel and aluminum imports. Despite the president's best intentions, these actions have put a bullseye on the backs of rural families across the country, which stand to lose hundreds of thousands of jobs as America's trading partners fight back.

According to a recently-released study by Trade Partnership Worldwide, the president's steel and aluminum tariffs alone would result in the loss of nearly 500,000 U.S. jobs, with approximately 25,000 lost jobs in the agricultural sector alone.

As CNN Money put it, "Historically, agricultural products take a hit when the U.S. targets imports of industrial goods. Other countries have imposed countermeasures like tariffs on U.S. goods and sometimes outright bans that have depressed sales."

Sure enough, following the president's announcement last week, China laid out a list of retaliation targets, including grains, pork and soybeans, putting America's food and agriculture sectors at the tip of the spear.

While President Trump's tariffs could harm America's rural communities, he is correct that many of our trading agreements are in need of an update to better serve the needs of a 21st Century economy. For example, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has been a historic success, significantly increasing exports to our immediate neighbors Canada and Mexico, and lowering prices for American consumers-economists estimate that NAFTA has boosted the U.S. economy by $127 billion annually. Of course, improvements to the agreement can and should be made so it continues to work well.

However, the new tariffs are a troubling warning sign that this administration is ignoring the voices of some of President Trump's most loyal supporters. Seventy-five percent of farm-belt voters sent President Trump to the Oval Office based on his promise to "make America great again." With the food and agricultural industries supporting 43 million jobs, many in rural America are concerned that the steel and aluminum tariffs, and now the proposed tariffs against China, will lead to retaliation against American agriculture, directly hitting the president's base.

Already, China has threatened a 15 percent duty on products ranging from wine to fresh fruit to dried fruits and nuts. Worse, yet, they have proposed a 25 percent duty on American pork.

Fortunately, the Administration is in talks with China to avoid these very repercussions. That's good news for families and job creators throughout rural America and will hopefully allow the administration to focus on the bigger issue for our nation's future: improving and expanding our trade agreements.

America's farmers and agriculture industry trust President Trump and believe he has their best interests at heart. But if his administration continues to take actions that directly harm rural communities, that loyalty will be tested and ultimately erode. Tariffs are a warning sign, but failing to preserve and modernize NAFTA would be a bridge too far.

After so much progress, we cannot turn back the clock and deny American farmers access to critical markets. If President Trump wants to show one of his most loyal groups of supporters that he intends to stand by his commitments, he should focus on renegotiating and advancing NAFTA, as opposed to issuing job-killing tariffs against steel, aluminum and Chinese products.

Commentary by Casey Guernsey, a seventh-generation farmer, former Missouri state legislator and chairman of the Agri-Business Committee. Rep. Guernsey is leading an effort called "Retaliation Hurts Rural Families" project, a diverse roster of spokespeople seeking to ensure rural voices are heard and helping the Administration understand the impact of these tariffs could have on rural economies. The project is part of Americans for Farmers & Families, a broad-based coalition of more than 100 food and agriculture stakeholders focused on preserving and modernizing NAFTA.

For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter.
Want to travel luxuriously, but don't have the budget to back up your expensive tastes? Book strategically, and you just might just be able to afford that dream vacation. TripAdvisor Rentals  TripAdvisor's vacation rentals booking arm  crunched the numbers on 11 of the priciest destinations around the world, identifying the most affordable (and most expensive) times to visit in 2018. For its report, the median weekly rental rates are based on 2018 pricing for all two-bedroom rentals on TripAdvisor. Here's when to get a deal on some of the most amazing spots around the world. Saint James Parish, Barbados

Pricey Saint James Parish is nestled on Barbados' "Platinum Coast," known for its massive mansions and expensive resorts. TripAdvisor found that the most expensive time to visit this idyllic part of the Caribbean island is the third week of December, when the median weekly rental rate is $3,154. Instead, booking for the second week of June, which TripAdvisor says in the most affordable time to visit, can mean a 28 percent savings with weekly rental rates dropping to $2,259. Wailea, Maui, Hawaii

Hawaii has long been a dream vacation spot. If you're planning a vacation to Wailea, a luxurious area on Maui, TripAdvisor says peak travel season is the last week of December. During that time, you'll find a median weekly rental rate of $5,001. But in September, the median weekly rental rate is $2,908, reports the travel booking site, which is a 42 percent in savings. Bonus: Travel + Leisure reports that rainfall is at its lowest in Hawaii from April through September. St. Martin / St. Maarten

This dual-governed, French and Dutch island is known for its two distinct cultures and its beautiful coastlines  U.S. News & World Report ranked it sixth on its Best Caribbean Beaches list. TripAdvisor found that the most expensive time to visit is the last weekend of December, when the median weekly rate for rentals is $3,736. However, during the most affordable time to visit, in August and September, that rate decreases to $2,504. Opting for a late summer getaway can save you 33 percent. Beaver Creek, Colorado

This picturesque ski town serves as a popular but pricey winter getaway. During peak travel time, which is the last week in December, TripAdvisor says the median weekly rental rate is $7,421. But travelers can save 36 percent by booking a trip for mid-May, which the site says is the most affordable time to travel to Beaver Creek, when the weekly rental rate drops to $4,769. Providenciales, Turks and Caicos

Located in the Turks and Caicos archipelago and known for its white sand beaches, this paradise comes at a cost. TripAdvisor data reveals that the most expensive time to visit this area is the last week of December, when the median weekly rental rate is $5,275. However, the cheapest time to visit is the second week of October, when that rate drops to $3,821, a 28 percentage in savings. U.S. News & World Report also recommends April and May as a good time to travel to this spot, for its pleasant weather and lower prices. St. Barthelemy

As the priciest destination included in TripAdvisor's survey, Caribbean island St. Barthelemy  also know as St. Barts  has been described by U.S. News & World Report as being "in vogue with the moneyed set." Stars that have visited the island include A-listers like Gwen Stefani, Beyonce, Jay-Z and Derek Jeter. Expect stretches of white sand beach, designer shops and lots of yachts. Its peak travel time is the first week of January, according to TripAdvisor, with the median weekly rental rate at an astounding $11,793. However, you can pay less than half (51 percent off), if you book for the second two weeks in October, which the site says is the most affordable time to visit with a median weekly rental rate of $5,755. However, Travel + Leisure notes that the St. Barts rainy season runs from September through November, and many establishments may close, so it can be a trade-off. Catalina Island, Avalon, California

Catalina Island off California's southern coast, has amazing ocean views, rocky cliffs  and a hefty price tag. But you can get almost half off your vacation rental in the winter months. Catalina reportedly experiences mild, dry weather throughout the year, so it shouldn't deter your travel plans. The peak time to travel to Catalina, according to TripAdvisor, is the second week in July, with a median weekly rental rate of $3,457. But you could save 46 percent in January and February, when the median weekly rate drops to $1,864. Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Dubai screams extravagance with towering skyscrapers, lavish shopping and glistening sand dunes. It's also pretty expensive: TripAdvisor found that at peak  in the third week of January  the median weekly rate for a rental is $5,892. Instead, TripAdvisor found the most affordable time to visit Dubai is the second week in February, when the median weekly rate for a rental drops to $2,474. That's a 58 percent savings. Aspen, Colorado

This ski town is known for being the go-to vacation spot for the wealthy  like Paris Hilton and Mariah Carey  who want to hit the slopes. But if you're planning a holiday trip, be prepared to pay. TripAdvisor data found that the last week in December is the most expensive time to visit Aspen, with a median weekly rental rate of $4,455. The second week in October, however, is more financially feasible: You can score a 37 percent in savings with a median weekly rental rate of $2,807. You might not have snow, but you'll still find pretty fall foliage. Santorini, Greece

This honeymoon hot spot in Greece boasts beautiful blue skies and water, but it doesn't come cheapespecially in the third week of August. That's the most most expensive time to visit, according to TripAdvisor, with a median weekly rental rate of $4,191. Instead, TripAdvisor found that you can save 25 percent by vacationing the second week of November, when the median weekly rental rate drops to $3,129. However Travel + Leisure reports its off season (November through March) can mean chilly temperatures and rain and many restaurants and hotels shutter their doors, so keep that mind. But there are things to do beyond the beaches, like wine-tasting at the island's numerous vineyards or visiting the Museum of Prehistoric Thira, according to T+L. Ka'anapali, Hawaii


People opposing sanctuary state at the Orange County Board of Supervisors meeting on March 27, 2018 in Santa Ana, California. Irfan Khan | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images

President Donald Trump on Wednesday ratcheted up the pressure against a California law aimed at protecting undocumented immigrants by giving a shoutout to the state's third-most populous county after it pushed back on the controversial policies. "My Administration stands in solidarity with the brave citizens in Orange County defending their rights against California's illegal and unconstitutional Sanctuary policies," Trump tweeted. He added that laws on the books let California "release known dangerous criminals into communities across the State. All citizens have the right to be protected by Federal law and strong borders." TRUMP TWEET 2 The president's broadside follows the all-Republican board of supervisors for Orange County  home to about 3 million residents and Disneyland  voting 4-0 on Tuesday to direct the county counsel to join the U.S. attorney general's sanctuary lawsuit against California. The board hopes the federal court will issue a restraining order against the state to halt enforcement of the law.

Also, the board of supervisors voted to condemn the state's sanctuary law in a largely symbolic stand, and the county sheriff moved this week to start assisting the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, or ICE. "We're not talking here about law-abiding immigrants, we're talking about criminal aliens," said Michelle Park Steel, the supervisor who introduced the measure condemning the sanctuary law.

Conservative bastion

Despite its long history of being a conservative bastion in the southern part of the state, Trump actually lost California's Orange County in the 2016 presidential election. There are cities within Orange County that have undergone significant demographic change in the past decade due to more ethnic diversity and immigration, and Hillary Clinton, who won the state, was the first Democrat to win the county since 1936. Regardless, political observers say Orange County's actions this week highlight how some communities in the state are growing weary of the sanctuary law, or state Senate Bill 54, which bars state and local law enforcement officers from asking about the immigration status of people during routine interactions or participating in federal enforcement actions. In a statement, Orange County's Steel said: "Senate Bill 54 poses a real threat to our local communities as it cripples our law enforcement from working with federal authorities to identify dangerous criminals in our communities. The county voted to condemn the state sanctuary law and direct county counsel to take legal action including intervening in the case of the United States v. California." Critics of the state sanctuary law say it jeopardizes public safety and puts law enforcement officers in the state in a tough spot. They also say it can increase the danger down the line for federal immigration agents.

'Law and order' issue

"With the action Tuesday, Orange County conclusively is stating that it will not participate in the illegal and unconstitutional sanctuary state," said state Assembly member Travis Allen, a Republican candidate for governor whose district includes Orange County. "This is great news for every Californian who believes in the rule of law and the supremacy of the U.S. Constitution." Previously, four other counties in the Golden State  Tehama, Kern, Siskiyou and Shasta  passed nonsanctuary resolutions. Also, the City Council of Los Alamitos, a small city in Orange County, last week voted to opt out of the sanctuary law, and more than a dozen other cities in California are considering taking similar actions. "When you've got Orange County that represents 3 million people doing this, I think it's a pretty strong message," said Troy Edgar, mayor of Los Alamitos. "I've been talking to a lot of mayors and city council members up and down California, and I'm just praying that they'll find the conviction and be able to follow suit." Dubbed the "California Values Act," SB 54 bars local jails from detaining undocumented immigrants who have been convicted of a crime past their normal release time at the request of federal agents.

Members of the immigrant removal task force of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during an early morning raid to arrest and deport immigrants who have notices of deportation. J. Emilio Flores | Corbis | Getty Images

Some police also complain it puts restrictions on their ability to communicate concerns with federal law enforcement authorities about certain undocumented offenders being released on the street. "You can kind of paint this as kind of a 'law and order' issue that you don't have to necessarily tie it to Trump," said Rob Robinson, assistant professor in political science at California State University-Fullerton. "It's just that view that 'we should obey the law' or maybe some people see the state as going too far, and so this is kind of pushing back on that." That said, Robinson indicated there certainly is "a core of conservative Republicans in the state that very much likes Trump and very much likes his brand of conservatism." "Our duty always has to be first and foremost to the citizens," said Shawn Nelson, an Orange County supervisor who proposed joining the federal complaint against California.

Federal case against California

The case against California is being heard by Magistrate Judge Kendall Newman of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California in Sacramento. Despite objections from the Justice Department, Newman last week ordered the acting director of the federal ICE agency, Thomas Holman, to testify no later than April 13 in the case at the request of California. In filing the original lawsuit March 6, the Justice Department also included an accompanying motion for preliminary injunction that could be decided in a matter of months, according to legal experts. Legal experts say the side that ultimately loses will get the ability to file an appeal with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, even as the rest of the case moves forward with the lower District Court. There's also a possibility the case could ultimately find its way to the U.S. Supreme Court and then take years to resolve. In all, the U.S. government's suit against the state of California centers on three laws  all of which the Trump administration claims "intentionally obstruct and discriminate against the enforcement of federal immigration law."

Legal ramifications

Having one of California's biggest counties part of the Trump administration lawsuit and the resistance to the sanctuary legislation may not make a significant difference in the case's outcome, legal experts say. But it could provide a symbolic boost to supporters of the resistance movement  and Trump's tweets on the controversy also could help the anti-sanctuary effort. "This case will turn on whether the federal government can essentially compel the state to have its state and local officers participate in immigration enforcement and whether the federal government can prove the harm that it's alleging in the lawsuit," said Annie Lai, co-director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic at the University of California-Irvine. "As a general matter, California does have powers to govern within its own state  and the laws that are at issue were kind of carefully crafted to kind of be expressions of California's local power," Lai added. In any event, she said there's also an issue of whether localities can be "opting out of state law. I think it's quite clear that until a court makes a ruling and somehow invalidates parts of California law, that California law is the 'law of the land.'" At the same time, she said another issue "is a sense that there's a conflict between honoring and following the federal Constitution and federal law and state law." But she called that essentially "a red herring," and made the case there's no federal law that says cities or counties must have their local police officers dedicated to federal immigration enforcement.

The immigration battleground

Meanwhile, the Orange County Sheriff's office announced this week it will make publicly available the inmate names and release dates through an online database, regardless of the released person's immigration status. The sheriff also directed staff to respond to requests from ICE for any serious offender criminals who are on the inmate release list. "SB 54 makes local law enforcement's job more difficult and requires bureaucratic processes that could allow dangerous individuals to fall through the cracks of our justice system," Sheriff Sandra Hutchens said in a statement. "My department, however, remains committed to cooperating fully with federal authorities in all areas where I have discretion to remove serious criminals from our community." California's attorney general, Xavier Becerra, pushed back against criticism of the law. "We're not going to let the Trump administration coerce us into doing the federal government's job of enforcing federal immigration law. We're in the business of public safety, not deportation," Becerra said in a statement Wednesday. The state attorney general also released new "guidance" for California's public safety authorities under SB 54. Among other things, it lays out how local police agencies can provide inmate release information to immigration authorities and what is needed to stay in compliance with the state law. Kevin de Leon, who introduced SB 54 legislation last year and was until last week the Democratic leader of the state Senate, lashed out at Orange County's vote Tuesday to side with Trump's lawsuit against California. "The county that gave us Prop 187 more than two decades ago is at it again with another unconstitutional attack on our immigrant communities," said de Leon, who is challenging incumbent U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, also a Democrat, in a primary. "I am confident the courts will reject this challenge to SB 54, just as they roundly rejected Prop 187." Proposition 187, a 1994 ballot initiative championed by prominent state Republicans and passed by voters, was a ban on most social services to undocumented immigrants. Eventually, courts ruled that it was unconstitutional, but it still is considered a polarizing issue that some blame for hurting the state's GOP support among Latinos. The Orange County moves are part of a backlash against sanctuary laws in traditionally Republican areas of the country. On Monday, the Texas attorney general weighed in as part of a coalition of 18 Republican-led states filing a so-called friend-of-the-court brief supporting the Trump administration's case against California's sanctuary law. "Dangerous sanctuary policies like California undermine the rule of law and endanger good law enforcement officers and the communities that need their protection the most," said Ken Paxton, the Republican attorney general of Texas.

WATCH: Trump threatens to yank immigration enforcement from California
The former head of President Donald Trump's legal team discussed the idea of pardoning two of the president's former top advisors with their lawyers, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

The Times, citing three people with knowledge of the discussions, reported that the topic was broached last year by Trump's lawyer John Dowd in talks with lawyers for former national security advisor Michael Flynn and former Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort.

Both men were charged with crimes as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of potential links between the Trump campaign and Russia. Trump has regularly denied any collusion between his campaign and Russia, and some of his recent statements have raised concerns that he is preparing to fire Mueller.

Asked about the president's views on his power to pardon at a White House briefing on Wednesday, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, "There would be no reason for me to have had a conversation with the president about that, because that is not being currently discussed at the White House."

But Dowd reportedly raised the prospect of pardoning the two former officials last summer, shortly after he joined Trump's legal team, the Times reported.

Dowd reportedly told Flynn's lawyer that Trump was prepared to pardon Flynn on the basis that he believed the case against his former top advisor was flimsy.

Flynn pleaded guilty to making false statements to investigators about contacts with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Manafort, however, pleaded not guilty to dozens of counts levied against him in multiple indictments.

In a statement to NBC News, White House lawyer Ty Cobb said, "I have only been asked about pardons by the press and have routinely responded on the record that no pardons are under discussion or under consideration at the White House."

Cobb did not immediately respond to CNBC when asked if he was aware of Dowd's conversations at the time.

The special counsel's office declined to comment on the newspaper's report. Dowd did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.
Lior Ron, the co-founder of a self-driving truck company Uber acquired, is leaving the company according to a person familiar with the matter.

Ron co-founded Otto, an autonomous vehicle start-up, which Uber bought in 2016, and his LinkedIn profile lists him as the head of Uber Freight. Ron co-founded the start up with Anthony Levandowski, who was at the center of a lawsuit between Uber and Alphabet-owned Waymo.

Waymo alleged that when Uber acquired Otto, founded by star Google engineer Levandowski, the engineer brought some 14,000 Google files with him, some of which contained Waymo trade secrets. Levandowsky left Uber in May. The companies settled the dispute in February and Uber agreed to pay Waymo roughly $245 million.

Uber last week suspended its autonomous driving tests in all cities after a fatal collision in Arizona. The governor of Arizona Monday blocked Uber's ability to resume testing in the state.

The crash is thought to be the first pedestrian death from an autonomous vehicle. It's raised questions about Uber's use of safety sensors, which detect objects in the road.

"Our hearts go out to the victim's family. We are fully cooperating with local authorities in their investigation of this incident," the company said in a statement at the time.

The New York Times reported Uber's self-driving tests were struggling even before the crash, falling far below industry standard for miles traveled before a safety driver has to intervene and take over for the auto-pilot system.

Uber declined to comment on Ron's departure, but said: "We remain fully invested in and excited about the future of Uber Freight. Since launching in Texas, we have introduced Freight to all states in the continental U.S. We believe it will continue to grow as we use our network and technology to transform the trucking industry."

Correction: This story and its headline have been updated to reflect that Ron was the co-founder of Otto, a self-driving truck company Uber bought. Uber's self-driving efforts predated that acquisition.
Wells Fargo doesn't appear willing to wade as far as some of its peers into the raging gun-control debate.

CEO Tim Sloan said in an interview earlier this week that while the bank has been in contact with its clients in the firearms industry, he has doubts about whether banks should get more involved.

"I don't know if Americans, regardless of which side of the issue you might be on, on whether or not folks should own guns or which type they should purchase, do they really want their bank to be making that decision?" Sloan told the Charlotte Observer. "I don't know if banks or credit card companies or any other financial institution should be the arbiter of what an American can buy."

Multiple nationwide businesses have taken action since the February mass school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 students and faculty dead. On top of sporting goods stores changing their practices, Citigroup said it wouldn't do business with stores that sell guns to customers under 21 or provide bump stocks and high-capacity magazines.

Sloan said the bank is monitoring the debate and considering steps.

"There's a lot of complicated issues that are in and around how do we make and ensure that people in this country are a lot safer," he said. "Because it's not just about our children being safe from school, they should be safe in the communities they live in."

Wells Fargo, the third-largest U.S. bank by assets, is the top financier for the gun industry, according to a recent Bloomberg report.

"We're in dialogue with those customers and providing them with feedback in terms of what we are hearing not only from our own customers but other shareholders, our team and the like," Sloan said.

Read the entire report and see the interview here.
President Donald Trump reportedly wants to take on Amazon and the internet retail behemoth's tax treatment.

It is unclear what the president would, or could, do on his own, but actions in the two other branches of government could settle the issue for him.

The president has long argued that Amazon gets unfair tax treatment relative to brick-and-mortar retailers. Trump is "obsessed" with Amazon and wants to "go after" the company, Axios reported on Wednesday, citing sources. The company's stock, in turn, lost more than $50 billion in shareholder value at one point Wednesday.

Amazon shares flagged Thursday, too, after Trump tweeted more criticism about the online retailer. "Unlike others, they pay little or no taxes to state & local governments," the president wrote.

On Wednesday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders denied that the White House planned any imminent move against Amazon. "We have no announcement and no specific policies we are pushing for" related to Amazon, she said.

The president's reported stance on the company isn't new. In several tweets in recent years, Trump has argued for changes in how Amazon purchases get taxed. At issue is whether a state sales tax is levied on purchases made from a third-party Amazon vendor.

Trump tweet

Last year, the online retailer started to collect sales taxes on products it sells directly to consumers in states that levy such taxes. But some retail competitors argue the policy for third-party vendors gives Amazon an unfair advantage.
Types of obituaries

The Missourian publishes two types of obituaries  family obituaries and life stories.

A family obituary is the version submitted by a funeral home or family. Please see the submission form for details on cost and deadlines. Family obituaries

A life story is a closer look at a person's life and involves a reporter contacting family and friends. Life stories are based on newsworthiness and consent of the family. Life stories.
The Missourians Opinion section is a public forum for the discussion of ideas. The views presented in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Missourian or the University of Missouri. If you would like to contribute to the Opinion page with a response or an original topic of your own, visit our submission form
October 2020 brought a lighter-than-usual crop of patches. For the first time in recent memory, there were none at all for Internet Explorer or the (Chromium-based) Edge browser. The cumulative updates went in with few reports of problems, although there were many complaints about printers not working after the update.

Strange things happened, though, outside the usual monthly patching schedule. The day after Patch Tuesday, Microsoft announced a(nother) fix for a security hole in the HEVC codec  CVE-2020-17022  distributed, once again, only through the Microsoft Store.

HPs Secure Click Enterprise started falling over immediately after installing this months Windows cumulative updates. HP released a Win10 update-friendly version a couple of days later. It continues to astound me that a mainstream product from a major manufacturer isnt tested before the cumulative updates roll out.

There was a security hole plug specifically for Visual Studio programmers, CVE-2020-17023.

Then theres the security patch for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Commerce, CVE-2020-16943, that was announced but never appeared. Its still missing in action. Something in there about counting chickens before theyre hatched.

As usual, we had dire warnings galore from the usual patch-right-now sources (Microsoft warns beeeelions of customers to patch immediately!). As usual, we havent seen any immediately exploited security holes, with the possible exception of SharePoint Server 2016 and 2019.

The usual grab-bag of bugs

Every month for the past year or two, weve seen a big accumulation of bugs arrive on the heels of Patch Tuesday. This months no exception. You can see a motley collection of blocked update error messages, error codes, blue screens, crashes, and peripheral problems in Mayank Parmars article in Windows Latest, Lawrence Abrams piece for BleepingComputer, Venkats rundown in Techdows, Gunter Borns post in Borns Tech and Windows World, and countless parrot sites around the web.

I dont see any particular pattern to any of it, which has become increasingly common. New patches just seem to bring along a trove of unrelated bugs, any one of which can be hugely frustrating  but none of which seem to be particularly widespread.

The one exception: Ive seen many reports of printers that stop working after the latest cumulative update gets installed. In every case Ive seen, pulling the plug on the printer and plugging it back in solves the problem  an easy task for individuals, not so much for admins.

'Windows cant verify the publisher of this driver software'

Some people are reporting an unexpected error when installing certain drivers. Microsoft describes the situation in the Resolved issues portion of the Windows Release Information Status page:

When installing a third-party driver, you might receive the error, Windows cant verify the publisher of this driver software." You may also see the error No signature was present in the subject when attempting to view the signature properties using Windows Explorer.

This issue occurs when one or more of the following is present in a driver package:

An improperly formatted catalog file is identified during validation by Windows. Starting with this release, Windows will require the validity of DER encoded PKCS#7 content in catalog files. Catalogs files must be signed per section 11.6 of describing DER-encoding for SET OF members in X.690.

A driver catalog file extension is not one of the supported extensions.

Thats a feature, not a bug. Microsoft suggests that you contact the driver manufacturer and ask for an update. If your hardware vendor isnt real interested in keeping up with Windows 10, well, jokes on you. Gunter Born puts it succinctly: Windows is a huge hardware exterminator, rendering still working devices as electronic waste, because drivers can no longer be installed.

'Optional' .NET previews arent optional any more

Weve seen this problem for several months, and it still hasnt been fixed.

Windows Update doesnt handle the .NET Preview monthly rollups the way you (or at least, I) would expect. Cumulative Update previews have to be manually approved by clicking a Download and install link. .NET Previews dont even offer the option.

Theres a convoluted set of rules about Windows automatically installing .NET Previews. @abbodi86 has unrolled the behavior this way:

The new .NET Previews are nothing different from all previous non-security .NET cumulative updates. They just have the term Preview in label.

If youre a seeker (click Check for updates in Windows Update), the .NET Preview update will be installed regardless of your other settings.

If you arent a seeker, when a normal update scan takes place, one of two things will happen. (1) If the previous .NET Security update is not yet installed, the .NET Preview update will be flagged as potentially superseded, and Windows Update will not offer it. (2) If the latest .NET Security update is already installed, the .NET Preview update will be installed.

If that isnt confusing enough for you, @abbodi86 has full details here.

I have no idea why Microsoft thinks that its preview (i.e., not-yet-ready-for-prime-time) patches should be installed on machines without any warning or opt-out capability. But there you have it.

Microsoft pulls back on potentially unwanted PWA apps

When is a PUP installer not a PUP installer? When its a Windows beta, of course.

Somebody at Microsoft decided it would be a good idea to jury-rig some beta test versions of Windows 10 so they automatically installed the new PWA (progressive web app) versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote. Several beta testers took umbrage at an operating system that cavalierly installed potentially unwanted programs. A couple days later, Microsoft changed course, claiming that the pushy behavior was a bug.

Right. Sean Hollister at The Verge has details.

Office 2010 and Exchange Server 2010 hit end of life

As of Oct. 13, both Office 2010 and Exchange 2010 fell off the support cycle. You wont get any more patches. A pity, really, because Office 2010 (in spite of its interface peculiarities) was a real workhorse. Patch Lady Susan Bradley has details.

Version 20H2 (or is it 2009?) rolling out

Microsoft is starting to make Win10 version 20H2 available for the masses  although you have to click Download and install to get it. At least, thats the theory.

Considering version 2004 had almost no new worthwhile features, and 20H2 has fewer still (theme-related shading on Start tiles? Alt+Tab switching Edge tabs? Puh-lease), the push to 20H2 is now under way. Think of it as yet another cumulative update, except it doesnt plug any new security holes.

If you ever needed a concrete example of why twice-a-year upgrades for Win10 make absolutely no sense at all, now you have it.

Patching problems? Hit us on AskWoody.com.
In the midst of news that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will testify before Congress to answer questions about his company's data collection and sharing practices, Mozilla has begun pushing a Firefox add-on to make it harder for the social network to track users once they leave its site.

"Facebook Container isolates your Facebook identity from the rest of your web activity," Nick Nguyen, Mozilla's product strategist, wrote in a Tuesday post to a company blog. "When you install it, you will continue to be able to use Facebook normally. Facebook can continue to deliver their service to you and send you advertising. The difference is that it will be much harder for Facebook to use your activity collected off Facebook to send you ads and other targeted messages [emphasis added]."

Mozilla introduced the container concept to mainstream Firefox users in September when it rolled out "Firefox Multi-Account Containers," a company-made add-on. In a way somewhat similar to how Firefox - and other browsers - isolate one tab from others to block app- or system-wide exploits, these containers insulate cookies generated by one site from those produced by other websites. (Normally, all cookies are stored in one memory location by the browser; Mozilla's extension sets up multiple "cookie jars," or storage locations, and thus prevents one site from recognizing and reading cookies recorded by other URLs.)

"If used carefully, Containers can prevent tracking. If a site is only opened in one Container, cookies set on that container cannot follow the user to other sites visited in non-container tabs or other containers," Mozilla stated in a backgrounder about the technology.

Facebook Container is, at root, a customized version of the earlier add-on, as Mozilla explained in another, albeit unsigned, blog post Tuesday.

"When you install this extension, it will delete your Facebook cookies and log you out of Facebook," the company noted. "The next time you visit Facebook it will open in a new blue-colored browser tab (aka 'container tab'). In that tab you can login to Facebook and use it like you normally would. If you click on a non-Facebook link or navigate to a non-Facebook website in the URL bar, these pages will load outside of the container."

Mozilla Facebook Container signals it's active by shading the name of the service, as well as drawing a thin blue line under the tab.

Facebook has been under renewed scrutiny because of allegations that a British political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica, illegally collected and retained the data of more than 50 million Facebook users. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has launched an investigation into Facebook's practices, and Zuckerberg will answer questions from at least one congressional committee, according to the New York Times

But while Mozilla capitalized on the turn against Facebook among some users - evidence highlighted by the #deletefacebook campaign - it admitted that the Container add-on would not have helped in the latest instance. "The type of data in the recent Cambridge Analytica incident would not have been prevented by Facebook Container," acknowledged Mozilla's Nguyen. "But troves of data are being collected on your behavior on the Internet, and so giving users a choice to limit what they share in a way that is under their control is important."

Elsewhere, Mozilla pointed out the downsides of adding Facebook Container to Firefox. Among the issues with Facebook: Users may not be able to log in to other sites or accounts with their Facebook credentials, and "Like" buttons offered by non-Facebook websites will not work.

The Facebook Container can be downloaded and installed into Firefox from this page of the Firefox Add-ons market.

Mozilla has long touted its browser as the best choice for the privacy minded, with the pitch's credibility dependent, at least in part, on the fact that unlike Google (and its Chrome), Mozilla's business model does not directly rely on monetizing user data via targeted ads. (Mozilla certainly indirectly leans on just that; the bulk of its revenue comes from setting Google as Firefox's default search engine.) The open-source developer repeated the privacy talking points as it rolled out Facebook Container.

"This add-on offers a solution that doesn't tell users to simply stop using a service that they get value from," Nguyen said. "Instead, it gives users tools that help them protect themselves from the unexpected side effects of their usage."
Robert Courts is Member of Parliament for Witney, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Small and Micro Business, and a member of the Federation of Small Businesses.

Thirty years ago, four in ten new homes were built by small builders. Now, its barely a tenth. When I was elected as Chair of the APPG for Small and Micro Business last year I wanted my first inquiry to look at why that has happened, and  if that trend could be reversed  what role smaller businesses could play in building the homes we need in the UK.

The Conservatives are the party of small businesses: those people and families who have had an idea, taken a chance, put everything on the line, and work all day, every day, to make a better future for themselves and their families. But why is it so important that they play a bigger part in building homes?

Simply, because small businesses overwhelmingly work near to where they live. This is as true of homeholders as it is about high street businesses. In many areas  and this is certainly the case in my West Oxfordshire constituency  we know that there is more housing coming. What is essential is that it is housing in the right place, of the right kind, that it complements the local area  and that the infrastructure comes at the right time. Politicians must not simply be obsessed with numbers but must consider how new homes are to be provided, and the effect they have on those who already live there.

A small builder is likely to be a local builder. They, too, will care about their local area. If they build homes, they are more likely to ensure that they complement the community, because they too have to drive past them each day. They are less likely to wish to renege on infrastructure payments, because the community facilities or transport links will affect them, too. They will want to create homes, communities  to create places  rather than faceless developments. Small builders will not have the cashflow incentives to land-bank, but have a real incentive to build out the permissions they are given, meaning we do not have the situation so hated by local communities where permissions are granted for sites that then sit empty for years. And further, as surely most MPs will agree, if there is to be money spent on homes in my area, then I want the people employed to be local, and that money to stay in my local area where it benefits my businesses, who pay business rates in my area and thereby benefit my constituents, not go to a large company that is based elsewhere and may not have my areas best interests at heart.

So if we are to build housing that works for us, in the right place, at the right price  and whether it benefits and does not blight communities  then we must get behind small builders. At the end of last year, the APPG invited small builders to talk to us about the challenges they faced in building homes. After hearing from them, alongside experts in housing, we have today published a series of recommendations that, if taken, could really help small businesses get back in to building homes. In our view, these recommendations should form part of a dedicated Small Homebuilders Strategy.

What has struck me through this inquiry is that the challenges faced by small builders are wide and far-ranging, and helping builders overcome these will require a cross-Government effort. A dedicated strategy would give Government a real focus on how to make sure policy is addressing the real barriers faced by smaller homebuilders, which are quite distinct from the issues with the larger players.

To help small builders access the finance they need to get schemes started, wed like to see initiatives that not only increase the investment available, such as the Home Builders Fund, but also to help improve the terms of finance.

Wed like to see steps to address poor payment practice in the construction sector. The Federation of Small Businesses has long argued for further action to be taken to address the UKs payment culture. There should be an even greater emphasis on supporting small businesses in supply chains and ensuring small firms will be paid for their work they do, whatever the circumstances.

The construction sector is facing a growing skills shortage and there must be more action on getting the skills we need in to the homebuilding sector. Construction can be a good career option: we must do everything we can to encourage more people to pursue it. Government must ensure that T-levels and Apprenticeships are designed to be accessible for, and benefit, smaller businesses who in practice employ most construction workers.

Finally, if more homes are to be built locally then we need to ensure that small builders are able to get their fair share of the right sites. We must push forward on ensuring higher small site availability in local plans. We must also do all we can to develop a streamlined process for small sites to ensure that small builders are not frozen out by those with bigger resources, and to ensure that small sites are viable instead of the bigger ones that so often distress local communities.

Any sector of our economy would grind to a halt without the involvement of small businesses. What has happened in homebuilding is a case in point. As Conservatives we should be backing the small builders that can really make places. Its time to redouble our efforts to ensure that in so doing, we build the right homes, in the right places.
Jesse Norman is Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Department for Transport, and MP for Hereford. He is author of Edmund Burke. His new book on Adam Smith will be published by Penguin in July. He is also author of Big Society.

Whatever happened to the Big Society? Having written a book on the subject a few years ago, I am sometimes asked that question. It reminds me of that moment in Sunset Boulevard when the journalist says to Norma Desmond (the magnificent Gloria Swanson) You used to be in silent pictures. You used to be big, only to receive the withering response I AM big. Its the pictures that got small.

In some ways, the same thing happened to the Big Society. Its a big, bold and brilliant political idea, and conservative to its core. But, like Norma Desmond, it fell victim to being framed in ever-smaller ways. So: what happened, and why does it matter?

Its sometimes said that the phrase The Big Society was coined by Samantha Cameron. It was first introduced into the public realm by David Cameron in his Hugo Young lecture of 2009, a speech still well worth re-reading. He cast it as a response to an overgrown state that was now inhibiting, not advancing, the progressive aims of reducing poverty, fighting inequality and increasing general well-being. Vast sums had been spent under Tony Blair, he pointed out, yet inequality was at a record high, while the poorest in society were getting not richer, but poorer and more numerous.

Instead, Cameron had something very different and more radical in mind. He said: Our alternative to big government is not no governmentsome reheated version of ideological laissez faire. Nor is it just smarter government. Our alternative to big government is the Big Society. He saw the Big Society as going beyond the efforts of social entrepreneurs and community activists to liberate a vast swathe of social energy, creating a national life expanded with meaning and mutual responsibility. We will feel it in the strength of our relationshipsthe civility and courtesy we show to each other. He imagined widespread decentralisation, institutional innovation, and collective efforts to shift social norms in a more positive direction.

Over the next few years, however, the re-framing began. First, the original Cameronian vision was presented as if it was only ever about social entrepreneurship, rather than simply starting from that point. Much good work was done even so, including support for new mutuals and employee-owned businesses and the creation of Big Society Capital and, in particular, of National Citizen Service. Secondly, as spending controlslargely cross-party in their early scale, let us recallwere imposed after 2010, the public narrative shifted towards arguments over austerity, as though the Big Society was an attack on the state as such, rather than the thoughtful re-imagination and wider vision Cameron had called for. And thirdly, there was a lack of clarity at the official level across Whitehall as to what the Big Society amounted to, and how it could be implemented. Cameron himself stopped using the phrase, and it did not feature heavily in the 2015 Conservative election manifesto.

In retrospect, however, the ironies are manifest. For in fact the original vision of the Big Society ranged far wider than was ever credited. It was quite compatible with the reductions needed to curb government spending, since its point was precisely that latent resources existed in British society vastly greater than the state could ever muster. And in policy terms it was the unacknowledged thread that tied whole swathes of government action together, from the creation of free schools and academies to attempts to reinvigorate local government to metro mayors to welfare reforms. For what these policies at their best had in common was the effort to empower people and encourage the development of independent institutions.

Moreover, Labour never really worked out how to deal with the political threat posed by the Big Society. Rather, it veered around between claims that the idea was empty or vague, or  contradicting this  only about volunteering and philanthropy, or  contradicting that too  merely Thatcherism in disguise. All of which sat oddly with the evident attractions that the Big Society had for Blue Labour politicians and voters.

But Labours befuddlement is also not surprising. There is a very specific reason why that party, or indeed any party, might struggle to attack the Big Society. That is because it is an idea that cuts across party lines, and sits at the very heart of British history and British political thought.

To see why, as I describe in my book The Big Society, we need to go back to philosophical bedrock, and the publication in 1651 of Thomas Hobbess masterpiece, Leviathan. In it Hobbes argued that human government owed its legitimacy to a contract by which individuals voluntarily traded autonomy for security.

Without government, people would subsist in a state of nature in which their lives were, famously, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short. The social contract is simply a rational response, by which individuals cede some freedoms on a once-and-for-all basis to a sovereign authority which, by guaranteeing civil order and secure borders, gives them the legal and physical protection to associate freely with each other.

This has been an astonishingly influential picture, so much so that we have been blinded to its effects. For Hobbes makes three crucial omissions. First, he deliberately ignores the astonishing richness and diversity of human emotions, aspirations, interests and goals. Secondly, in his extreme individualism, in seeking to rule out any such thing as the common will over and above actual individuals themselves, he deliberately ignores all intermediate institutions between the individual and the state. And finally, he builds in a moral presumption in favour of the state and against the individual. For, the argument goes, we have freely empowered the sovereign, and if it acts contrary to our interests, then tough luck. There can in general be no conscientious objection or civil disobedience in Hobbess state.

Writing more than a hundred years later Edmund Burke, in effect the founding father of the Big Society, attacks this view at its deepest point. For Burke, as for Aristotle, man is a social animal. There can thus be no explanatory value to considering a state of nature in which man is understood independently of society: mans natural state is to be in civil society.

Where Hobbes deliberately ignores trust, culture and tradition, Burke treats them as constitutive of our humanity. Where Hobbes stresses the primacy of the individual will, Burke stresses the natural reciprocity of rights and duties which occurs within human society. Where Hobbes sees freedom as negative, as the absence of constraint, Burke lays the ground for freedom as a positive value, as a capacity afforded by society for an individual to flourish. For Burke it is in the institutions of an ordered society themselves, in the little platoons, that freedom is to be found.

We can thus think of the Big Society as a deliberate Burkean counterblast to Hobbes, restoring all the three elements which Hobbes omits: a focus on human beings not as economic atoms, but as bundles of capability; a focus on intermediate institutions between the individual and the state; and a focus on society and individual rights as such, rather than as mediated by the state. Thus it has proven.

So: when David Cameron spoke of the Big Society, he was giving voice to centuries of belief embedded deep in the British body politic. The words will change, but that belief remains; and is a deeply conservative one. In a world of social media, a world of connectivity which can spawn a thousand new institutions in an instant, but which seems so often dominated instead by negativity and grievance, we need to renew that belief, that self-belief, and that optimismabout people, about society, about freedom and about human lifemore than ever.
Robert Halfon is MP for Harlow, a former Conservative Party Deputy Chairman, Chair of the Education Select Committee and President of Conservative Workers and Trade Unionists.

There is a commonly held belief that populism is the deliberate manipulation of ignorant, sheep-like masses by a charismatic leader. One who deliberately lies in order to gain power and, in turn, creates a closed, authoritarian (in some cases totalitarian) regime.

The argument continues by claiming that the offer of rapid, extreme, simplistic solutions to complex problems whips the electorate up into blindly voting for terrifying, unthought-out, unworkable policies. It asserts that votes are won by playing on the worst fears and prejudices of human nature. According to this view, numerous shocking examples of startling election results can be cited: Trump v Mexicans, Rodrigo Duterte v drug dealers, Nigel Farage v the EU and, yes, Jeremy Corbyn v The Elite.

The list is long. Now, this article could spend time exploring the semantics of what exactly populism is, or explaining how these people have gotten away with it. Similarly, the establishment can occupy itself wringing its hands and frowning, tut-tutting and eye-rolling in response to the stupidity of the people who have voted for these dangerous demagogues.

Theres been plenty of all of the above  and it rumbles on. But debate about what populism is or isnt is perhaps less important than looking at the politicians and policy makers who now suddenly find themselves on the outside. Just perhaps, current and past populist movements have an uncomfortable truth to present to us all.

Obviously, its far easier to take comfort in the thought that if the hordes arent bright enough to see the wisdom of our ongoing, statistically proven policies and social models, then they must at best be easily led  or, at worst, stupid racists. Or even ridiculous, misguided, idealistic leftists.

But, if as a politician, you really believe any of that, then you absolutely dont deserve to be elected.

Take Vince Cable, who said recently about those who voted for Brexit: Too many were driven by a nostalgia for a world where passports were blue, faces were white, and the map was coloured imperial pink.

Actually, the reason for Brexit was quite the opposite: voters, often working class, have been left behind by globalisation, and have a yearning to take control. By disrespecting the electorate in this way, we fall into the trap of the same thin, simplistic mindset that we ourselves condemn. We adopt a rhetoric filled with equally thought-stopping phrases that we suppose are employed by the people and movements we claim to fear. As politicians and policy makers, it is instead worth looking at where we have failed those that elected us.

What is it about the society we have been responsible for creating that has made so many people feel that they are outsiders? Have rulers genuinely listened and responded? Have governments served with authority, or become authoritarian? Technocrats raving about the IMF and the strength of the pound in elections is not relevant to people who cant afford their rent and, put very simply, feel that they have nothing to look forward to. The public are constantly told their lives will get worse if they dont do what the established consensus suggests. No wonder they are cynical: to many, their lives are hard enough as it is. They struggle to keep their head above water. They are hardly going to believe a spaghetti of acronyms from the IMF, OECD, EU et al, telling them how things will be.

So the great and the good can simply accuse the likes of Farage, Trump and their cohorts of isolationist policies and pulling up the drawbridge. Or can instead realise that these populists are popular because they are products of democracy. And an authenticity. And potential radical change.

Populism is a wake-up call for us all to start listening. Genuinely listening. To people who express themselves in different vernaculars from us. To people who we might find uncomfortable, because they have different starting-points: cultural, political, historical. Populism is a call genuinely to acknowledge the publics disappointments  their fears and, in turn, what it is to be human and real. If we dont do so, we risk turning into separate, entrenched, predictable archetypes. In Britain, we have long championed equality and celebrated our diversity and the acceptance of the individual within our society. This has to be a reality, not rhetoric. So policy-makers must look at where (in education and on into the workplace) these ideals are no longer being genuinely addressed.

Where do people feel that their voice is being ignored or demeaned? Some sneer cynically at a political party such as the Law and Justice Party in Poland as just being populist for offering childcare benefits that people clearly wanted and needed. A more thoughtful response is to ask: why was that policy so popular? If it was so important to people, why didnt other politicians see this, and find a way to move swiftly to implement a solution?

No-one here is suggesting that we start killing drug dealers, as is currently being government-sanctioned in the Philippines. Indeed, I find Duterte, the countrys President, quite a scary individual, and am disturbed at what is happening  although it is worth noting that public satisfaction with his government rose at the end of last year to the highest level on record since one of the countrys top pollsters started conducting opinion surveys in the 1980s. Analysts suggest that this is because he has implemented what he promised, starting with his anti-drugs campaign; then his Build, Build, Build infrastructure projects and anti-corruption efforts  and, now, a shift to federalism. Yes, Duterte may be frightening, but he was elected because many people were already living in extreme fear. And no one else else appeared to offer solutions.

For many voters, populist candidates are able to verbalise gut feelings that people have been unable to express for themselves to a distant, moneyed, technocratic, separately-educated class that has failed them not only politically but also, as is now apparent, on a deeply personal and human level. Populist candidates offer an off message authenticity.

Instead of complaining about how terrible all this is, now is the time to recognise that populism is a symptom of the failures of the political class. The solution is not to condemn, but to recognise that these voters are worth fighting for and should be listened to  and to develop a political philosophy that does not leave these people behind.

Just as the progressive feminists of the 1970s said that The Personal is Political! we, as politicians, need to remember that The Political is Personal!. On all levels (individual, local, national and international), policy makers need to leave what they feel comfortable with, and start genuine dialogues with people from all backgrounds and all political persuasions to find common ground.

We cannot simply sulk and accuse charismatic, popular candidates (and leaders) of using thin, simplistic cliches to con the masses or even so-called, cod-oil voter database technology, courtesy of Cambridge Analytica and the like. It is not just populists who are guilty of thought-terminating language and entrenched assumptions that they are right.

In Britain, the phrase, lessons have been learned is an over-used term in politics and PR. It often comes across as disingenuous  as disingenuous as we claim the populists are. Its time for us to accept the uncomfortable truth that we, as politicians and policy makers, genuinely have lessons to learn not only from the people we were elected to serve (and each other), but also from the authenticity on offer from the populists. After all, what does populism mean but popular?
One of the worst failings of Jeremy Corbyn is his evasiveness. If he finds a question in some way painful or awkward, he possesses to an abnormally high degree the capacity to avoid it.

This fault severely limits his effectiveness at PMQs. Today we got nothing from him about the John Worboys case, or about Brexit, or about Cambridge Analytica, or about anti-semitism  the last, an issue where his refusal over several years to confront something which needs confronting has ruined his credibility with many lifelong Labour supporters.

Nor, of course, did we get anything about economics, for Corbyn hardly ever bothers with the dismal science, even though his party will need at the next election to gain the trust of voters on the subject. Perhaps he thinks John McDonnell can take care of it.

Corbyn instead asked about mental health  a worthy topic, but not what they are talking about in the Dog and Duck, so it sounded as if he had chosen it, not on its own merits, but in order to avoid Worboys.

The fact that David Gauke, the Justice Secretary, was going to make a statement later on that subject need not have inhibited Corbyn from going on the attack. It was instead left to Zac Goldsmith (Con, Richmond Park) to refer to this landmark decision, and a criminal justice system in which many of us no longer have confidence.

Ken Clarke (Con, Rushcliffe)  the Father of the House, in which he has sat since 1970  raised Brexit. He expressed the hope that in order to facilitate frictionless trade, and avoid a hard border in Ireland, the new arrangements will resemble the existing customs union very closely indeed.

The Prime Minister remarked that trade is not completely frictionless today.

Caroline Lucas (Greens, Brighton Pavilion) said the Cambridge Analytica affair suggests there is something rotten in the state of our democracy.

The Prime Minister agreed that clearly the allegations are concerning, as people should be able to have confidence in how the system works.

People should also be able to have confidence in how Corbyn works. But at PMQs, he almost never gives the appearance of having done his homework on the topics of the day. He is the laziest and most self-indulgent Leader of the Opposition in living memory.
Welcome to the future. Hackers are currently holding a major American city for ransom and are demanding that they be paid in Bitcoin.

Atlanta officials confirmed on Monday that a ransomware attack had kicked much of its computer system offline. Without the system functioning, Atlanta is unable to collect online bills from residents, which perhaps isnt such a bad thing for people who are behind on their water bills or traffic ticket payments.

But the attack has frightening implications for government agencies. "This is much bigger than a ransomware attack, this really is an attack on our government," Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms told a news conference. "We are dealing with a hostage situation."

The attackers have indicated that it will not restore Atlantas websites or computer system until they are paid $51,000 in Bitcoin.

Ransomware, as its name suggests, freezes or infects computers and then provides a message asking for a ransom if users want their systems unlocked. Like other malware, it works by sending an email to unsuspecting users with a phishing link.

Atlanta officials have not yet indicated whether they will pay the ransom.

As of Friday afternoon, Atlantas page for allowing residents to pay their water and sewer bill was still not loading. The municipal court online payment webpage says; City of Atlanta is currently experiencing technical issues which is impacting the ability to take payments at this time.

Under Armour

Under Armour warned a whopping 150 million people on Thursday to change their password. The company owns a popular application called MyFitnessPal that tracks nutritional intake and workout routines. Hackers gained access to all 150 million users passwords, names, and email addresses.

The company denies that credit card information was accessed but says they are getting law enforcement involved.

We do not know the identity of the unauthorized party. Our investigation into this matter is ongoing, the company announced.

Italian soccer (football) team

It happens to the best of us. The Italian newspaper Il Tempo is reporting that SS Lazio, a football team in Italy, was tricked into paying the final portion of a players contract to hackers.

A Dutch soccer club had traded their star defender, 26-year-old De Vrij, to SS Lazio in 2014. A hacker impersonating the Dutch team recently sent SS Lazio an email asking for the final installment of his contract, or two million Euros.

The Dutch team says they never sent that email and never received the final payment. Authorities are reportedly investigating the issue.
Irrigation systems are critical to agricultural operations to ensure water distribution to crops and livestock. Drip and sprinkler systems are used most commonly on farms to irrigate land based on crop, water source, and field size. To work smarter, farmers are adopting wireless technology to manage the different aspects of their different irrigation systems.

Functional over the expanse of a multi-acreage farm with varied terrain and structures, a wireless sensor control system provides real-time visibility into the operating status of motors, pumps, valves, flow rate, and other parameters of the irrigation system. Farm workers can retrieve information remotely from a control center with the convenience of a smartphone or laptop.

In addition to automating data collection, these wireless telemetry systems are configurable to shut down operations and send notifications of a change in operating status. Alerted to abnormal conditions, operators can make immediate adjustments to ensure proper system functionality.

Collected data is downloadable into analytics software for calculating and analyzing water and electrical usage, which represents significant expenses related to irrigation system operation. Users can trend information on an hourly or daily basis about volumes, levels, rates of applications, etc. to get greater insights into irrigation operations and make appropriate adjustments.

Moving to wireless automation

Many farms still monitor irrigation systems manually. To do so, workers must travel to different sites to check motor run status, water volume, meters, and pump connections as well as to record measurements daily. Farms can be vast, covering thousands of acres, with tracts divided into smaller lots. As farms can contain a number of irrigation systems located many miles from each other, inspections can require multiple workers.

While a sight inspection can ensure systems are working, they cannot provide detailed insights into power or water usage to readily identify potential issues, such as an abnormally high electric current draw from pumps, nor can they quantify the amount of water or chemicals used to irrigate or treat crops. And a malfunction that occurs between inspections could result in a great loss to operations.

A wireless remote monitoring and control system empowers farmers to monitor remotely and control different aspects of the irrigation system from the convenience of a tablet, computer, or even a smartphone. Instead of traveling to multiple locations to manually inspect the motor and pumps, the wireless telemetry system reduces labor by providing an automatic and real-time status of water pressure, pump usage, pump water flow, and other critical operating parameters by collecting data from instrumentation located on different components of the irrigation system.

The wireless monitoring and control system is configurable to provide alerts on abnormal conditions so technicians can diagnose problems, such as motor failures and pipeline leaks, quickly. They can return irrigation systems to optimal operation, as well as avoid adverse scenarios, such as flooding. Farmers can review hourly, daily, and long-term historical information on water usage to determine trends in volumes, levels, and rates of application. For example, if a farmer discovers that yield is the same whether using 50 or 100 gallons a day, a decrease in water usage for specific crops can reduce power consumption, saving on electrical costs and energy usage throughout the farm.

As proper fertilization produces high-quality crop yields, accurate application is critical. The telemetry system works with flowmeters to optimize the amount of chemicals dispersed with water to accurately treat crops while saving money by not overusing expensive fertilizers. Overdosing or undertreating crops also can affect yield.

The figure shows a configuration of a remote monitoring and control system for a drip irrigation system. Sensors installed on the various components of the drip irrigation system (water source, pumps, and pipelines) provide data to radio nodes that transmit data to a central gateway. Either battery or solar-powered, the nodes power the sensors. Serving as the central processing hub, the gateway stores the most recent readings of the nodes in a network in Modbus format then manages outbound communications by formatting data for delivery to a control center. An Ethernet interface module can tie information from the gateway into a web-based tool such as a laptop or cell phone.

Tracking different parameters

Versatile telemetry systems are sensor agnostic, allowing users to specify different sensors to monitor various aspects of an irrigation system. In one network, farmers can use:

Pressure sensors to track pump and spray nozzle pressure

Current meters to measure the pumps current draw

Flowmeters to measure water and chemical usage

Level sensors to monitor tank levels

Soil moisture sensors to monitor water content.

Covering large acre farms

A wireless sensor control system can operate over many square miles of different terrain without using cables that limit the use of wired systems. Wireless telemetry systems working in a mesh network permit nodes to self-configure into a web-like structure over large areas regardless of hills, buildings, and other structures. The nodes can hop from one crop field to another and back to a gateway located at the point of monitoring, such as the headquarters of the irrigation district. Robust gateways can accommodate hundreds of transceiver inputs from multiple field sensors, enabling the network to cover a geographic range of a mega farm of 10,000 acres that roughly equals 15 square miles. An Ethernet interface module connects the gateway to a local area network (LAN), a Wi-Fi network, or a cellular modem, bringing the information to the field operators. Bottom line, the telemetry system can broadcast information over long distances.

Data is key to an educated farmer. Smarter operations lead to greater cost efficiency. A wireless remote monitoring and control system enables farmers to gain better control and visibility over the operations of their irrigation systems to make better decisions regarding water, chemical, and electrical usage that leads to more precise irrigation to generate a more significant return on investment. In addition to reducing costs, farmers can operate with lower energy requirements related to power and water usage.

Sandro Esposito is the sales and marketing director for SignalFire Telemetry Inc., with responsibilities for managing the portfolio and commercialization of the companys wireless telemetry solutions. He has more than 24 years of experience in the process control and automation industry, holds six patents, and has published 12 papers related to industrial controls and smart technologies. A graduate of College Ahuntsic in Montreal, he has a Bachelors degree in electrical and instrumentation engineering and is actively involved in the International Society of Automation.

This article appears in the Applied Automation supplement for Control Engineering and Plant Engineering.

 See other articles from the supplement below.
SOUTH STORMONT, Ontario  Stormont, Dundas & Glengarry (SD&G) Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officers are currently at the scene of a two (2) vehicle collision on Highway 401 (between McConnell Road and Boundary Road), South Stormont Township.

Preliminary investigation has indicated that at approximately 4:15pm, a passenger vehicle was travelling Eastbound on Highway 401 when, for reasons under investigation, a commercial rental vehicle entered the Highway 401 travelling Westbound in the eastbound lanes and collided with the eastbound passenger vehicle.

The adult male driver (lone occupant) of the eastbound passenger vehicle was taken to hospital with serious non-life threatening injuries.

The wrong way adult male driver was not injured and was taken into Police custody.

SD&G OPP continue to process the scene and investigate the collision with the assistance of the OPP Traffic Collision Investigators (TCI).

As the investigation continues, a section (both Eastbound and Westbound lanes) of Highway 401 between McConnell Road and Boundary Road, South Stormont Township is closed to traffic with indicated detours in place.
CORNWALL, Ontario  A 25-year-old Cornwall man was arrested on March 27th, 2018 and charged with the following:

 Robbery

 Theft under $5000

 Break and enter

 Breach of probation (for consuming alcohol and failing to keep the peace)

It is alleged on March 20, 2018, the man forcibly took money from his ex-girlfriend and also forced his way into his mothers residence, removing some of her property. It is further alleged on March 27, 2018, the man removed merchandise from a store on Ninth St. E., making no attempt to pay for the items as he left the store. On March 27, 2018 police located the intoxicated male. He was taken into custody, charged accordingly and held for a bail hearing. His name was not released as it would identify the victims in the matter.

WARRANT

CORNWALL, Ontario  Michael Pare, 48, of Cornwall was arrested on March 27, 2018 on the strength of a warrant. It is alleged the man failed to attend for prints on March 7, 2018 and also failed to attend court on March 27, 2018 for theft charges. An investigation ensued and a warrant was issued for his arrest. On March 27, 2018 the man was taken into custody on the strength of the warrant and held for a bail hearing.

CORNWALL, Ontario  A 35-year-old Cornwall man was arrested on March 27, 2018 on the strength of a warrant. It is alleged between Feb. 5-22, 2018 the man contacted his ex-girlfriend on multiple occasions, despite his conditions. Police were contacted and a warrant was obtained for his arrest. On March 27, 2018 a member of the Cornwall Community Police Service assumed custody of the man from Port Hope Police Service as they had the man in custody on the strength of Cornwalls warrant. The warrant was executed and the man was held for a bail hearing. His name was not released as it would identify the victim in the matter.

There were 60 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. CCPS reserves the right not to post all calls for service in order to protect the identity of the victims.
CORNWALL, Ontario  Good water makes for great craft beer and RiverLabs, the Applied Research wing of the River Institute, knows all about good water. On Wednesday, April 4 at 7:00 p.m. the River Institutes signature Science and Nature on Tap speaker series will tap one of their own when RiverLabs program leader, Louis Savard presents on one his favourite topics  the art and science of brewing a good beer. As it turns out, its all about the water.

The craft brewing industry in Ontario continues to grow by leaps and bounds and one of the largest challenges being faced, especially in smaller rural communities, is water management. RiverLabs Brewery Services Program is actively working with members of the Ontario Craft Brewers Association to ensure that not only does the best quality of water goes into Ontario Craft Beer but that the wastewater leaving their facilities does not pose a problem for the environment. Louis Savard says, The message is fairly simple  Best Water In: Best Water Out.

Formed five years ago, Cornwalls own RiverLabs is the Applied Research wing of the St. Lawrence River Institute of Environmental Sciences. Amongst its many other industry environmentally related projects, RiverLabs is working with Ontarios Craft Brewers to assist some 68 small independent breweries across the province to create the best products possible. Breweries such as Lake of Bays in Baysville, Ont. and Beaus in Vankleek Hill are brewing large quantities of craft beer in small communities. Out of necessity they are becoming experts and leaders on water and wastewater best practices and Savards expert team is working with them to assist in the process.

Mario Bourgeois from Cassel Brewery says, Being a microbrewery with limited space, analysis and quality control is challenging. RiverLabs staff have gone out of their way to help us out and build standards for our beers. Their professionalism and awesome service is one of the key factors of our success.

Learn more about the burgeoning craft brewing industry and its vital connection to water in this intriguing session at Schnitzels where an opportunity exists to discover what makes Ontarios craft brews some of the finest anywhere. Sessions are free but seating is limited. If you are interested learning more about waters role in brewing great beer, reserve your seat today by registering on line at www.riverinstitute.ca or by e-mailing Science and Nature on Tap Coordinator Karen Cooper kcooper@riverinstitute.ca or by calling 613-936-6620 (ext.229).
Comtrade Software has spun out its data protection technology targeting Nutanix hyper-converged infrastructure environments into a new company, HYCU, and expanded its offering to include protecting data on non-Nutanix systems.

HYCU, which is both the name of the new company as well as the name of the data protection technology, on Wednesday also unveiled a couple of new executive hires aimed at expanding its channel business, said Simon Taylor, CEO of the Boston-based company.

HYCU, pronounced "haiku," is a data protection technology originally developed specifically for Nutanix environments, Taylor told CRN.

[Related: 19 Powerful Hyper-Converged Infrastructure Solutions: New Choices From A Narrowing Field Of Vendors]

Comtrade Group, a 25-year-old company based in the Netherlands, started as an outsourced software firm developing data protection and data monitoring software sold by several other storage vendors, Taylor said. However, the company a few years ago sold the intellectual property of some monitoring technology it had developed for Citrix and Microsoft to Citrix, and decided it could also develop data protection products it could sell through its own channels.

The decision to build its own data protection offering came at about the time that Nutanix pioneered the hyper-converged infrastructure business, a move that Comtrade realized would shake up how businesses build data center infrastructure and prepare for the cloud, Taylor said.

"So we developed HYCU, the only purpose-built backup and recovery software for Nutanix environments," he said. "We now have sales to hundreds of customers in 20 countries, which we see as much a sign of Nutanix's impact on the market as our own skills."

Comtrade decided to spin out the HYCU business as a separate entity, although Comtrade retains a majority ownership, Taylor said. HYCU now has about 350 employees. Comtrade meanwhile remains focused on systems integration and outsourcing, he said.

The original version of HYCU was focused specifically on protecting data in Nutanix environments running that company's AHV hypervisor, said Subbiah Sundaram, vice president of products for the company.

With version 2, the company expanded HYCU to include VMware ESX hypervisor support, Sundaram told CRN. "Nutanix's AHV is doing well, but 60 percent of Nutanix's customer base is using ESX," he said. "Many customers have decided Nutanix is the long-term direction they want to go, but they don't want to necessarily change their hypervisor."

With version 3.0, unveiled Wednesday, HYCU now protects data that is running on all systems in the data center whether Nutanix-based or not, Sundaram said. The software is still sold via channel partners to businesses with Nutanix in their environments, but now lets partners give such customers a single data protection application for the entire data center, he said.

Also new with HYCU 3.0 is the ability to protect data in Nutanix's Acropolis File Services environments. "We're the first to provide scalable data protection for AFS," Sundaram said. "Other offerings don't scale easily."

HYCU 3.0 also includes Oracle database support, and for the first time comes service provider-ready, Sundaram said. "This makes it very attractive to service providers," he said. "We provide all the REST APIs to add the needed automation."

The most important part of the HYCU release is the fact that, with all the enhancements, it retains the look and feel and simplicity of Nutanix, Sundaram said.

"Customers can deploy the software in three minutes, learn it in four minutes, and start using it in five minutes," he said. "It's the perfect complement to Nutanix. It leverages the Nutanix platform. We take advantage of everything in the platform, and create a value unique to the Nutanix solution."

HYCU has a great data protection technology, and it's only getting better with version 3.0, said Terry Buchanan, vice president of technology and general manager at Zycom Technology, a Toronto-based solution provider and channel partner to both HYCU and Nutanix.

The new ability to protect data on both Nutanix and non-Nutanix systems is very important to Zycom's clients, Buchanan told CRN.

Zycom, as Nutanix's largest partner in Canada, has taken that vendor into multiple clients in multiple industries, but those clients never have a 100-percent Nutanix environment, he said.

"If HYCU runs on Nutanix and also backs up data on non-Nutanix equipment, that's a big advantage on the back end," he said. "This update will be of big interest to our clients."

The new Oracle support is also important, Buchanan said. "We have a lot of Oracle customers running on Nutanix," he said. "They're running all the Oracle apps. One customer alone has 26 Oracle use cases running on Nutanix."

The growth of Nutanix's share in the data center, and the growing popularity of its AHV hypervisor, means channel partners can expect more third-party technologies like HYCU to be written natively for Nutanix environments, Buchanan said.

"I don't bet on a lot of things, but I would bet a lot more software companies develop solutions for Nutanix like HYCU does," he said. "If you go back to when VMware took off like crazy, you saw a lot of people developing for the VMware platform. We're already seeing 25 percent of our customers moving to AHV, and seeing more customers approaching AHV."

Venugopal Pai, vice president of alliances and business development at San Jose, Calif.-based Nutanix, told CRN that Comtrade early on worked closely with Nutanix to extend the simplicity of the Nutanix architecture to data protection.

While other vendors have adopted their technology to easily run with the Nutanix platform, HYCU was the only one written for the Nutanix platform from the start, Pai said. "We have a very broad ecosystem," he said. "But the clarity of starting fresh with Nutanix makes it easier to extend the Nutanix simplicity. And HYCU was the only one to start fresh with Nutanix."

HYCU on Wednesday also extended its executive team with two new seasoned sales and channel veterans, Taylor said.

The first is Scott Henderson, HYCU's new vice president of sales in the Americas. Henderson was until January the vice president of worldwide sales at Egnyte, and previously a vice president for North America enterprise and strategic accounts at SolarWinds.

"Henderson will really be able to drive all our Americas sales," Taylor said. "He's one of the most senior sales executives in the company and has a lot of experience in the channel."

HYCU also named Junelle Swan, formerly channel executive at Quest Software and Citrix, as its new vice president of channels. "Swan has really good relationships with the channel," Taylor said. "Channel partners tell us she brings value to the channel. And that's important to us because we're 100-percent channel."
The Sapphire Princess has embarked on her maiden Singapore to Southampton 38-night voyage following a two-week dry dock in Singapore.

This "Indian Ocean Grand Europe Adventure" voyage will visit 17 ports including Colombo, Cochin, Dubai, Petra, scenic cruising along the Suez Canal, Santorini, Monte Carlo, Florence, Malta, Gibraltar, Lisbon, Paris before arriving in Southampton.

Homeporting in Southampton for the first time, the Sapphire Princess also makes her maiden calls to the British Isles, Northern Europe and the Mediterranean and will sail three- to 14-night voyages to total of 42 destinations in this region. The Sapphire Princess will also make Princess Cruises first port call to Skagen (Denmark).

Sapphire Princess will return to Singapore in November 2018 to continue her fifth Singapore homeporting season together with Diamond Princess.

The 2,560-guest Sapphire Princess now has a new livery on her bow that features the iconic Princess Cruises logo and has been outfitted with the Princess Luxury beds in all cabins, the company said.

Other upgrades during the drydock include the fitness center, spa, and retail shops, among other areas.
March 28, 2018  Health care workers across the globe come in contact with victims of sex trafficking constantly, but may not know it.

Recognizing victims and helping them without endangering them is one of the topics on tap at the CSU Channel Islands (CSUCI) First Annual Global Health Symposium on Saturday, April 7 from 9 to 3 p.m.

The symposium will take place in CSUCIs Grand Salon and is open to anyone interested in global health issues. CSUCI students, faculty and staff are free, non-CSUCI students are $10 and admission for the general public is $30.

We will talk about infectious diseases, improving health outcomes, heart disease, diabetes stroke, childbirth outcomes, said symposium faculty organizer Assistant Professor of Nursing LaSonya Davis, DNP (Doctor of Nursing Practice). We are also going to have one of our speakers talk about interpersonal violence and human trafficking.

The aim is to provide CSUCI and other undergraduate/graduate nursing and allied health major students with the opportunity to engage in scholarly discussions and learning activities with population/global health experts and emerging academic scholars.

The morning keynote speakers are identical twins Carol and Carolyn Bloch, who hold doctoral degrees in Nursing. They are both transcultural nurse scholars, nurse educators and transcultural/diversity consultants.

With advisory and educational experience in Mexico and Venezuela, they specialize in health care and cultural differences in the effective delivery of care. The Blochs will discuss culturally sensitive ways to work with patients from different countries.

The afternoon keynote speaker is Assistant Dean for Global Health and Innovation for the College of Graduate Nursing at Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, California Ivy Tuason, who holds a Ph.D. in Nursing with a concentration in Community & Global Health.

Tuason has run clinics in Haiti, Nicaragua and Vietnam and has worked with vulnerable populations in the city of Pomona on issues such as nutrition and chronic disease management.

Shell be talking about her work with the albino population in Tanzania, Davis said. They are at risk as some people believe they are a lucky charm and they will hunt and maim them by cutting off body limbs although the government tries to protect them. She has been traveling to Tanzania and doing clinical care with that population. It really is an issue of social justice and humanity.

There will be breakout sessions between the presentations led by nursing students with different areas of expertise.

Nursing graduate student Melanie Cross, who is earning her Doctor of Nursing Practice, will be leading one of the sessions. Cross is doing her thesis on human trafficking and has run across some startling statistics in the course of her research.

I am going to talk about the prevalence of human trafficking and its intersection with health care, Cross said. Data shows that 87 percent of domestic sex trafficking victims came into contact with health care providers but were never identified.

We will talk about special communication techniques and resources, Cross said. The goal of interacting with potential human trafficking victims is not the details of their exploitation, but rather safety for both provider and victim. Trafficking happens in a process and recovery happens in a process.

Cross and Davis worked together to organize the symposium, which was created and sponsored by the CSUCI Student Nurses Association and the Nursing Honor Society.

Licensed professionals will earn 4.5 continuing education units (CEU)s for attending.

For more, click on snaconference.cikeys.com.
WOLCOTT  In the early morning hours of Tuesday, the U.S. Marshals Violent Fugitive Task Force in Connecticut captured a fugitive from North Carolina, said Deputy Brian ONeill, supervisor of the task force.

The significant arrest, as ONeill called it later Tuesday, was done in conjunction with Wolcott police. Around 5:30 a.m. Tuesday, the task force and Wolcott police went to a residence in the 200 block of Todd Road in Wolcott to detain a fugitive wanted on weapons charges, police said.

This morning we had gained intel on an address for him (the fugitive), ONeill said.

The fugitive  identified as 21-year-old Joseph Pierce from Greenville, North Carolina  was arrested on behalf of police in North Carolina.

He took off when North Carolina (police) went to arrest him, ONeill said.

Marshals in North Carolina got involved once Pierce fled from police, ONeill said. The Connecticut U.S. Marshals were contacted on March 20 because North Carolina law enforcement believed Pierce was headed to Connecticut.

When Pierce was arrested Tuesday, he was charged with being a fugitive from justice. Pierce was taken into custody without incident, Wolcott police said. He was taken to court on a $100,000 bond.

Once we got in the home, it ended up being his fathers home ... we saw one weapon on the table as well as large amount of marijuana and packaging material, ONeill said.

Once the Marshals and Wolcott police saw the evidence of narcotics, they secured the home and a search warrant was filed. When the warrant was signed, officers and task force members searched the home.

During the search, we found two other weapons in the home that were hidden, ONeill said.

Over three pounds of marijuana, crack cocaine, packaging equipment and cash were also found, ONeill said. Wolcott police said the three firearms were handguns. An extended illegal magazine for one of the guns was also seized, police said.

ONeill said the resident of the home on Todd Road was Pierces father. Wolcott police identified him as 41-year-old Raymond Baker, who claimed everything found was his.

Baker was charged with possession of more than four ounces of marijuana, possession of marijuana with intent to sell, possession of narcotics in a school zone, three counts of criminal possession of a firearm, risk of injury to a minor and possession of a large-capacity magazine.

He is being held on a $100,000 bond.
BRIDGEPORT  Frustrated City Council members have proposed a six month moratorium blocking City Halls controversial efforts to collect late sewer use fees through property foreclosures.

You wanna hold us up, well hold you up! Councilman Marcus Brown told two municipal lawyers Tuesday during a tension-filled ordinance committee meeting, which Brown co-chaired.

That committee has launched an aggressive  and at times seemingly unwieldy  probe into the citys longtime use of private collection attorneys, the courts and property foreclosures to go after bills owed the Water Pollution Control Authority. The council hopes to reform that process and set up an improved mediation program for homeowners who have fallen too far behind.

But the sniping between some council members and municipal lawyers who, ideally, are supposed to be working together  the City Attorneys Office is legal counsel to the council  has escalated to the point of disfunction.

I love the way they talk to us like were animals  dogs on a leash, Councilwoman Eneida Martinez snapped after one veteran municipal lawyer, Mark Anastasi, tried to correct her Tuesday on a procedural matter.

Dont characterize my language, Anastasi shot back.

Councilman Peter Spain referred to Anastasi and his colleague, municipal lawyer Tyisha Toms, as our illustrious attorneys. Toms indicated she did not appreciate Spains sarcasm, and Spain responded: Its well earned. Its well deserved.

Ordinance committee members Tuesday accused the City Attorneys staff of taking too long to respond to requests for legal opinions and information about the WPCA collection process and other matters, slowing the councils work.

So Brown, Martinez and others on the ordinance committee will ask the full council Monday to place a 180 day moratorium on allowing private collection attorneys to move ahead with foreclosures to compel payment of overdue WPCA bills.

So you all will see were very serious about trying to help people, Councilman Ernest Newton said.

The move could also cripple WPCA collection efforts. The City Attorneys office has argued that lawsuits and foreclosures are the only tools it has to pursue late sewer fees. And if that money goes uncollected, Anastasi warned Tuesday, sewer bills could rise.

Anastasi and Toms tried to defend the City Attorneys office. They portrayed it as understaffed, with overworked lawyers representing Bridgeport in numerous legal matters while doing their best to also serve the council.

Toms noted that the ordinance committee is seeking five years worth of paperwork on 2,517 sewer fee cases. She said it was an extraordinary amount of information that could take her a very long time to compile from city, court and WPCA files.

Brown argued every month that the ordinance committee delays its WPCA probe means more residents homes are at risk: Make time for what really matters. People losing their homes matters.

Prior to Tuesday it seemed as if the relationship between the ordinance committee and City Attorneys office had hit its nadir. Another municipal lawyer  Russell Liskov, who oversees WPCA collections  in February filed a complaint with the state accusing ordinance committee members of religious discrimination and blatant anti-Semitism.
BRIDGEPORT  A stab wound victim has been reported at a city hospital Wednesday afternoon, dispatch reports indicated.

Shortly before 3:30 p.m., Bridgeport police were alerted to a stab wound victim at St. Vincents Medical Center. The victim told hospital staff that the stabbing occurred earlier on Beers Street, according to reports.

About five minutes before 3 p.m., officers were dispatched to Beers Street for a reported street fight involving what appeared to be teenagers. One witness told police that one person had a knife. When the officers arrived, the fight had dispersed, reports indicated.

The victim was reportedly a Central High School student.

Officials could not immediately be reached for comment on the incident or on the seriousness of the stab wound.
President Trump last week said it was Democrats in Congress who left the youthful DACA Dreamers at the altar, falling short of promises to protect their legal status as part of the Omnibus spending bill agreement reached Friday.

I say this to DACA recipients, that the Republicans are with you, said Trump, who almost vetoed the $1.3 trillion bill and vowed never to sign another one like it again. They want to get your situation taken care of. The Democrats fought us. They just fought every single inch of the way. They did not want DACA in this bill.

That came as something of a surprise to Sens. Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal, who have both gone overboard in their defense of the 700,000 or so youthful immigrants brought illegally to the U.S. as children  and who won legal status in 2012 as part of President Obamas Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

Trump followed through on his anti-immigrant pledge in the 2016 election and halted DACA in September 2017, throwing the recipients (more than 8,000 in Connecticut) into legal limbo.

Since then, the president has said he loves the DACA people and wants to help them, as have a large number of Capitol Hill Republicans. But at what price?

Trump demanded $25 billion for the wall, which he said during the campaign would be paid for by Mexico. Democrats balked at the wall-for-DACA exchange.

Theres no one to blame but President Trump, said Murphy. He created the crisis for Dreamers by arbitrarily declaring the end of DACA, and hes tried to use their lives as bargaining chips for a $25 billion wall no one wants.

Blumenthal was even more emphatic.

President Trump is pandering to his right wing while avoiding the humanitarian nightmare of actually getting the result he says he wants, he said, referring to the mass deportations of undocumented he immigrants he promised during the campaign. Its the height of hypocrisy, without even the slightest shred of credibility.

Brush with the law

Sometimes while covering the news here in D.C., I come close to making it as well. Such was the case in the massive crowd at Saturdays March for Our Lives demo, in which a contingent from Newtown High School played a leading role.

I was threading my way toward the press riser that would afford me a view of the Newtown kids handing off a signed banner to their counterparts from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. I stopped for a line of beefy D.C. cops threading its way in front of me. As one of them crossed my path, I felt a blunt object sticking in my gut, hooking my partly unzipped jacket. I reached down to guide it away.

Turns out it was the cops holstered sidearm.

What are you doing? Why were you reaching for the officers firearm? the last cop in the line bellowed at me.

I proclaimed my innocence: Just trying to avoid getting impaled, didnt know it was a gun handle, actually thought it was one of those metal billy-club things cops carry.

And, besides, Im in the media! Yeah, well, lets see some ID! was the cops reply. For I moment, I thought I was on my way to the hoosegow.

But the cop looked at the congressional ID hanging from my neck, dropped it and mumbled: Next time youll know not to reach for an officers gun. My response was the equivalent of Duh!

My younger son equated it to an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm. I was just glad it was something I could laugh at in retrospect.

Consumer watchdog

Since his days as Connecticuts attorney general, Blumenthal has thrived on consumer-protection issues, from faulty Takata airbags to malfunctioning GE ignition switches to hacks of private banking and credit data.

Now Blumenthal, with his rat-a-tat prosecutorial questioning style, will get a crack at Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other social media heavyweights at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on April 10.

Facebook has been in the crosshairs since The New York Times reported that Cambridge Analytica, a research firm hired by the Trump campaign for the 2016 race, gained access to 50 million Facebook profiles without users permission.

The data analyzed postings, likes and other activity to predict their political leanings and, ultimately, attempt to sway their votes.

Its the Wild West out there, Blumenthal said. Users had no idea that they were compromising their data and all of their friends.

Assurances of lessons learned wont be enough this time, Blumenthal said. Facebook will continue to be a behemoth. The question is will they protect consumers interests? Their attitude is trust us, but history shows theyve betrayed that trust repeatedly.

Both the cynic and the Facebook user in me wonders whether this barn door is closing after the horse got out. I mean, who on Facebook really trusts that his or her data is truly private?

Facebook is in business of selling information; thats its business model, Blumenthal said. But they should be required to disclose (to consumers when their data is breached). There is the danger of identity theft, of unwanted marketing  thats why we have do not call lists. 

OK, so we know how well those are working, right?
If you've ever had a scoop of ice cream so good that you find yourself muttering "sweet Jesus" then I have some advice for you: eat more of that ice cream. Now, if you happen to be the owner of an ice cream business and you overhear your customers and employees mutter the same phrase when they taste your ice cream I have some advice for you too: dont even think about using that expression as the name for your store.

Oops. Too late.

Unfortunately, I'm not acquainted with the owners - Andrew Richmond and Amin Todai - of the Sweet Jesus ice cream shop in Toronto, Canada. If I did, Id have given them this advice. Now, unfortunately, some are giving them the cold shoulder.

According to a recent article in The Star, both Richmond and Todai have come under fire from religious groups who are claiming that the name of their store is "blasphemous." Of course, the name has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with that out-of-this-world feeling you get when you have a scoop of their ice cream. Even Richmond and Todd point this out on their website, writing that the company's name is just a "popular phrase that people use as an expression of enjoyment, surprise or disbelief."

Related: 3 Tips to Turn Your Brand Into a Religion

But this doesn't matter to the people who are offended. In Canada, where Sweet Jesus has almost twenty locations, people are more chilled out about these things. But now that the successful chain is expanding into the U.S., religious activists here are turning up the heat.

Complaints began appearing earlier this year after the entrepreneurs opened up shops in Baltimore and the Mall of America near Minneapolis objecting about the brand's logo which some feel is "offensive and revolting" and encourages "hate speech towards Christians." According to The Star report, a petition which has more than 8,000 signatures as of a few days ago calls for a "public apology for openly (attacking) the Christian community and God." Opponents are demanding the store change its name because Sweet Jesus is all about trashing Christianity and mocking the saving work of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now before you sound off with your own opinions about the religious right or whether or not the shop's owners really are taking the Lord's name in vain, just hold on a minute. People have a right to their opinion and its not for a business owner to decide what does or doesnt offend someone. This story is not about Jesus. It's more about whether or not a couple of guys should name their business after Him. In my opinion, they shouldn't.

Related: 11 Disturbingly Offensive Ads That Landed Big Brands in Trouble

No, I don't have anything against Jesus and yes, I'm an advocate of free speech. But even more so, I'm a capitalist. The minute I see clients of mine let anything related to religion, whether it's serious or in jest, make its way into their business I see a potential risk to their profits.

People around the world, and not least in the U.S., feel very strongly about religion. I dont mess with that. I respect your faith. But pleasekeep your religion to yourself. Dont hang crosses or pictures of your religious heroes on the walls in your reception area. Dont hold daily prayer sessions in the office (and yes, I have one client who does this, to the discomfort of some of his employees). And to the guys at Sweet Jesusdont make jokes or have fun with the name of a religious figure. Bad idea.

Doing any of this risks alienating both customers and prospective employees. Business is tough enough without having yet another headache to deal with. Now Richmond and Todai are dealing with this major headache. Is the media attention worth it? Perhaps. But cmon -- they were smart enough to come up with this name. Think of another. Im sure your ice cream is worth it. Otherwise, letting religion play a part in your company's branding or environment is inviting trouble.

Related:

6 Signs Your Company Needs to Rebrand

Oh, Lord, Why Do We Even Need to Tell You This? Religion and Branding Don't Mix.

How Kinderdance Has Been Able to Make Great Strides In India



Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com


The eastern cougar is a gone cat.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service formally declared it extinct in January. This was no surprise. The last time anyone saw one was in New Brunswick in 1938.

But there are these big cats people keep seeing.

Mike Bird of New Milford saw one crossing Hardscrabble Road in 2016. He watched it walk for about 40 yards before it ducked into the woods.

A cat crossed from the left to the right, Bird said. I thought, Its too big to be a bobcat. I could see its big tail.

Bird told his story last week at the John Pettibone Community Center in New Milford, after a talk by Chris Spatz, the president of the Cougar Rewilding Foundation.

The foundation is dedicated to education and habitat preservation, the better to bring the eastern cougars cousin  the western cougar  to the East Coast, adding what the foundation believes is a badly-needed predator to our ecosystem.

Spatz told Bird and others with big cat stories he hoped they saw what they thought they saw.

Then we could talk about protection rather than reintroduction, Spatz said.

But there is a problem. Other than the one, famous cougar that wandered from South Dakota to Connecticuts Gold Coast before being killed by a car on the Wilbur Cross Parkway in June 2011, theres been no substantiated modern evidence of a cougar  aka a mountain lion, a puma, a catamount  in the state.

That means no other roadkill. No photographs or videos. No paw prints. No cougar scat. No cougar-killed deer carcass.

It isnt just Connecticut. Spatz and his other cougar-obsessed cohorts have combed through New York and New Jersey, chasing down reported sightings. Theyve set up motion-activated field cameras in the woods and shot thousands of hours of film. Theyve doused the ground near the cameras with Obsession for Men, a scent animals find irresistible.

And the results?

Weve seen porcupine, fisher, gray fox, turkeys, red fox, coyote, black bear, he said.

But no cougars. Ever.

Spatz said if they are here, they should not be that hard to find.

There are about 150 Florida panthers, he said. With that number, they get 25 road kills a year.

For all those reasons, Jenny Dickson, supervising wildlife biologist with the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, agrees there is no convincing proof of any cougars in Connecticut, except for that one documented wanderer.

Wed be seeing roadkill. Weve not seen them in all these many years, she said.

Paul Elconin, director of land conservation at Weantinoge Heritage Trust, said that in all the time he and his staff have spent on the trusts 10,000 acres of protected land in Litchfield County, no one has seen a cougar.

But hes heard stories.

I know people who say theyve seen something, he said.

What some people do mistakenly ID as cougars may be atypical bobcats, longer-tailed and pale.

Ninety-nine percent of bobcats dont look like cougars, Dickson said. But there is that 1 percent.

And yet.

In New Canaan in January, there was a sighting of what looked to be a cougar near the Merritt Parkway. Allyson Halm, the towns animal control officer, reported it to DEEP.

It crossed a lighted street where there was good vision, Halm said. The person who reported it was credible.

If the eastern cougar is gone, and the western cougar  wandering out of the Dakotas into the Great Lake states  hasnt arrived here, why advocate for its return?

For one thing, they used to be here before people exterminated them.

For another, they are very good at killing and eating white-tailed deer. One way of controlling the overpopulation of deer in the east, and the damage those deer do to the ecosystem, is to have a predator that specializes in preying on them, Spatz said.

Dickson, the DEEP biologist, however, invokes the Law of Unintended Consequences to question whether this is such a good idea.

Its easy to romanticize it. But were talking about an ecosystem that has evolved without them, she said of a countryside that now is home to a lot of humans. If you change it by reintroducing a top-tier predator, what will happen?

So for now  with that one exception  this is how things stand.

Look at the megafauna we have now, Elconin, of Weantinoge, said. We have black bears, coyotes, bobcats. And ghost mountain lions.
A judge in Arkansas has ruled that the state commission assigned to award licenses for growing legal medical marijuana awarded the contracts in an unfair manner. Its led to a legal quagmire in Arkansas, one of only two southern states to legalize medical marijuana. For practical purposes, its left Arkansans who want to try medical marijuana out of luck for the foreseeable future.

In his decision, Judge Wendell Griffen barred the state Medical Marijuana Commission from issuing any licenses until the situation is sorted out. That may take some time, as Griffen found the commission was biased and did not follow the proper rules when it awarded five contracts to grow marijuana.

The Court takes no joy in reaching or declaring this conclusion, nor should anyone else treat the conclusion as anything other than disappointing and sobering, the judge wrote.

Related: What Better Conditions to Raise Money for Cannabis Businesses Means for Marijuana Entrepreneurs

An Exception In The South

Arkansas voters approved legal medical marijuana in November 2016. The state is allowing its use only for specific medical conditions, including multiple sclerosis and to combat the pain and discomfort of cancer treatments. Voters in Arkansas passed medical marijuana legalization by 53 percent.

The state would allow patients to only use marijuana grown in Arkansas. So far, more than 4,700 people have applied to the program, which will require issuance of a state card. Arkansas and Louisiana are the only two states in the South to approve medical marijuana (unless you count Florida as a southern state).

Essentially, the two states are an island of marijuana legalization in the middle of a large swath where marijuana is not legal for any purpose, medical or recreational. That includes Virginia, the Carolinas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Texas.

Related: How Mainstream Is Marijuana? Cannabis Franchises Are Available in Colorado

Rule Of Law Violated

Griffen, who issued a 28-page order, was ruling on a lawsuit filed by an unsuccessful applicant who wanted to grow marijuana in the Natural State. The lawsuit charged that the application process contained scoring irregularities, bias, conflicts of interest and violation of rules.

Griffen, on the whole, saw it that way, too. He said the process did not respect the rule of law. He stopped the awarding of the five contracts, which was supposed to happen in March. The five applicants had paid $100,000 in fees to apply and put up a $500,000 bond.

The state can appeal the decision, but even marijuana advocates dont want that. David Couch, the Little Rock attorney who helped get medical marijuana legalized, told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette he wanted the state just to restart the application process.

That way, medical marijuana patients could legally get cannabis faster, Couch said. Even Griffen noted that no matter what the state chooses to do, the fact that Arkansans will now have to wait even longer for access to medical marijuana should be unpleasant to anyone concerned about providing relief to people who suffer from serious illnesses."

Follow dispensaries.com on Twitter to stay up to date on the latest cannabis news.

Related:

Trouble In Arkansas: Judge Throws Out Medical Marijuana Licenses

How Mainstream Is Marijuana? Cannabis Franchises Are Available in Colorado

What Better Conditions to Raise Money for Cannabis Businesses Means for Marijuana Entrepreneurs



Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com


In todays ever-changing financial industry, credit unions continue to thrive in spite of fierce competition from huge banking institutions and ongoing regulatory challenges. This success is often attributed to credit unions cooperative foundation and commitment to serving their members and communities in ways that big banks simply do not.

Credit unions are known for their great loan rates, excellent customer service, and ability to assist the underserved. These are core pillars in the foundation of the credit union movement, but some credit unions are finding that these values dont necessarily attract new members with large spending power.

We love that the credit union motto is People Helping People, but we also know that it is important to market your credit unions profitability. Members need to know that you can help them generate wealth, easily manage their finances, and offer a variety of competitive, cutting-edge services.

Wed never suggest that your credit union abandon its focus on community service, but the more members you attract, the better you will be able to serve!

Here are a few tips on how your credit union can attract a larger membership base:

Embrace technology. Many credit unions have taken the leap and prioritized digital resources like mobile banking, remote deposit capture, and user-friendly websites, and if you want to stay competitive and attract a large member base, this is an absolute must. You dont need to create new software or invent a mobile app to be on the front line of technological advancements, but when a product is proven successful, embracing that product will show consumers that your credit union is just as cutting-edge as a big bank. Offer wealth-management services and advice. You know that millennials are the fastest-growing and largest consumer group, but did you know that they stand to inherit unprecedented wealth from the baby boomers? More than $30 trillion in assets will trickle down to millennials over the next 40 years. 1 Though convenience and speed are certainly millennial priorities, this generation is also looking for reliable ways to grow and manage their wealth. Where better to do so than with a credit union? In fact, according to one study, 93% of credit union customers say they trust their financial institution, whereas 1 in every 3 big bank customer says they do NOT trust their own bank! 2 Offer competitive products. There seems to be a common myth that credit unions dont offer products and services that are on par with those offered by big banks, and this falsehood may be keeping your potential members at bay. Did you know that only 60% of credit unions offer a credit card? Credit card programs can be very expensive to run, especially for smaller credit unions, but there are products available that can help you offer a great credit card to your members with no start-up fees and very little risk to your CU. Unhappy with your current provider or looking to offer a credit card for the first time? Check out EZ Launch from LSC , where members benefit from competitive interest rates and an awesome rewards program. Focus on financial literacy. Its not just your members struggling with their finances who want assistance managing their money. According to one 2017 study, 64% of millennials say their generation is not good at managing money, 73% say their generation overspends on unnecessary indulgences, and 75% say their generation overspends in comparison with other generations. 3 This study also shows that 47% of millennials have $15,000 or more in savings, and 67% of millennials who have a savings goal stick to it every month, yet 35% of millennials are worried that they are not saving enough. Show the largest consumer base that you can help them plan for the future and stick to a budget, and they will reward you with their loyalty.

The Greater Wealth Transfer. Accenture.com. https://www.accenture.com/us-en/~/media/accenture/conversion-assets/dotcom/documents/global/pdf/industries_5/accenture-cm-awams-wealth-transfer-final-june2012-web-version.pdf. Published 2012. 5 Ways Community Banks & Credit Unions Can Crush Competitors Online. Thefinancialbrand.com. https://thefinancialbrand.com/69378/community-banks-credit-unions-online-strategy/ Published Jan 10, 2018. 2018 Better Money Habits Millennial Report. Bettermoneyhabits.com. https://bettermoneyhabits.bankofamerica.com/content/dam/bmh/pdf/ar6vnln9-boa-bmh-millennial-report-winter-2018-final2.pdf Published Jan 2018.
For Subscribers Windber woman files protection petition against Somerset DA, wife

A Windber woman filed petitions for protection of victims against Somerset County District Attorney Jeffrey Thomas and his wife, Amy Thomas.
A president whose chief of staff is compromised by a relationship with a woman who runs a Russian-funded think tank and is planted there by the Russian government? Could Homeland be more of the moment than that? Does anyone see parallels with Aleksandr Kogan, the Cambridge University academic who built the profiling app thisisyourdigitallife and sold data of 50 million Facebook profiles to Cambridge Analytica without their consent? Which data was then used to target voters during the 2016 presidential election in the US?

A still from Homeland.

Kogan had previously unreported ties to a Russian university, including a teaching position and grants for research into Facebook. Sounds like a long-term plan to destabilise America and not let that "nasty woman" become president? Something that Hillary Clinton herself has written about, saying perhaps Vladimir Putin's dislike of her ("he's not the most feminist of leaders," she said of him at the India Today Conclave recently, adding, "He blamed me for causing the protests on the streets. I wish I had that kind of influence. But I did not.") had something to do with it.

Well, if you're living in reality TV-land which we are, thanks to a US president who became famous because of it, then anything is possible. Homeland, Showtime's fresh-off-the-press TV series, now in its seventh season, ended last season with a woman as president, in what was obviously in anticipation of Clinton's ascent. As everyone knows by now - and possibly Russian President Putin knew before anyone else - Donald Trump became President instead, and Clinton retired to walk in the woods and drink Chardonnay before writing a book that explains What Happened.

But the show quickly got itself together and in its new season has relentlessly followed the Russian lead. Episode after episode has been a minor lesson in the new and dangerous game of weaponised information. Saul Berenson, now President Elizabeth Keane's national security adviser has assembled a small team of analysts, one an old time Russia expert and another a contemporary data analyser, to understand how the Russians are tampering with the democratic process in America, from using fake Twitter accounts amplifying anti-Keane feeling to using social media clips downloaded on YouTube to precipitate a massive shootout involving an Alex Jones clone, who broadcasts alt right venom against the president.

What's interesting in this alternative universe of a Hillary Clinton clone in the Oval Office is that she is no angel. Keane is portrayed as a president who is at war with her own security establishment, having imprisoned 200 of them at the end of season six. She is seen as being just but barely able to handle the crises that engulf her presidency - from a rabid Alex Jones clone who calls for her head and precipitates a face-off to a chief of staff, who is deeply compromised to having to take credit for an air strike in Syria she did not authorise but which is used to win her brownie points for being tough on terror.

Homeland has no love lost for politicians, but it does have a soft corner for intelligence operatives who give up their lives to live in the shadows and fight for democracy. Carrie Mathison, played with great grit by the Golden Globe winning Claire Danes, is one such operative and she is the heart of the show, as is Berenson, her sometime mentor, counsellor, friend and conscience. The Americans, FX's show on two Russian agents working in America at the height of the Cold War in the eighties, shows the relationship between the two great nations as it used to be - hobbled by suspicion, constantly at risk of either biological warfare or psychological tit-for-tat, and Homeland's latest season shows how little has changed, except perhaps the advance of technology.

Suddenly, the Russians are back in the popular imagination of the Western world. It's not quite the heady days of the James Bond days when villains like General Orlov traded Faberge eggs and atomic bombs, but the bad guys are speaking in Russian accents again. Putin's aggression which has clearly a link with the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in London, has found another mainstream echo, in the Jennifer Lawrence-starrer Red Sparrow. She plays Dominika Egorova, a ballerina, an officer in the SVR, a Sparrow trained to bend others' minds (and bodies, because they belong to the state) to win the information war for Russia. Putin's name is never mentioned but it is clear that this new breed of spies reports directly to him. As a line in the film goes: "Russia most certainly did not lose the Cold War. It never ended."

A still from Red Sparrow.

And if anyone has not had enough of Russians on screen, they can always watch BBC1's McMafia, my favourite TV series of the year so far, based on Misha Glenny's book, which chronicles the rise of Russian mafia throughout the world, its links with the drugs business via Pakistan and India, with the business of fakes in Prague and with high priced escorts in Israel, all controlled seemingly smoothly by bankers who transfer milllions at the click of a button.

A still from McMafia.

It shows the virtual takeover of the toniest parts of London by rich Russians, from smart townhouses to lavish country estates; the still basic level of living back home in Moscow, and the ruthless blood lust that has allowed the revolution to eat its own children. Little wonder then that the UK-based Russian embassy was critical of the drama, saying it "depicts Britain as a playground for Russian gangsters".

It may be bad for politics but it makes for great television. No one plays the bad guys as well as the Russians.

Also read: Arvind Kejriwal is apologising, but sadly, he's not really sorry
Its not easy to upset business tycoons, salaried employees and small traders all at the same time. Finance minister Arun Jaitley has, however, accomplished this feat with customary aplomb.

Businessmen say inspector raj is back with a vengeance. Demonetisation has had unintended consequences. Lakhs of Indian businessmen and traders proved more imaginative than the government had thought. They contrived to convert virtually all their black money to white, depositing crores of rupees in cash into their bank accounts, preferring the risk of income tax scrutiny and raids to losing unaccounted cash holdings.

Deluged with income tax returns that didnt match assessees new black cash deposits, the authorities are now stuck in a quagmire of their own making. There just isnt enough manpower to chase all the dodgy cash deposits. Those who took the risk of income tax scrutiny by declaring all their black money are busy settling matters. Since there are lakhs of such assessees, most slip through the net.

Distraught bureaucrats in the Ministry of Finance (MoF) have reacted in the time-honoured way of bureaucrats: raid and prosecute. Their victims have reacted in the way the Indian system works: go to court. With multiple tribunal appeals and court challenges available, black money-newly-turned-white in bank accounts is safe for an indefinite period of time.

Meanwhile, the tax terrorism the NDA government had pledged to end is back.

As TV Mohandas Pai and S Krishnan wrote acerbicly in The Economic Times on March 22: One of the major promises made by the BJP government when it came to power in 2014 was to stop tax terrorism. Finance minister Arun Jaitley proclaimed before the 2014 election that tax terrorism was the biggest threat to India and he would stop it. The problem of tax terrorism persists in this regime as well. Tax disputes have risen massively due to high target setting by the political establishment over the years. The I-T department collects tax on a perverse assessment by force and when taxpayers protest, officers agree, but confess that they have a collection target to achieve. They instead suggest that taxpayers appear against the assessment and obtain refunds.

When the NDA government came to power, the amount of tax disputes in March 2014 was Rs 4.10 lakh crore, which has gone up to Rs 6.10 lakh crore in March 2017, a 50 per cent increase. The FM also agreed that injustice was done to Vodafone, but has not remedied it yet. If promises made in Parliament are not kept, the credibility and trust in government will suffer. Its time our FM kept his promise.

While delivering his Union Budget speech in 2015, Jaitley promised to cut corporation tax from 30 per cent to 25 per cent. He still hasnt done it. As a sop, in the 2018-19 Union Budget last month, Jaitley cut corporation tax to 25 per cent - but only for companies with an annual turnover of less than Rs 250 crore. This, Jaitley declared, covered 99 per cent of Indian companies. What he didnt say is the remaining one per cent of companies with an annual turnover of over Rs 250 crore account for over 90 per cent of corporate tax revenue.

Why this sleight of hand?

Because extending the 25 per cent corporation tax rate to all companies would mean a loss of an unaffordable Rs 70,000 crore in revenue. By reducing tax to 25 per cent on 99 per cent of companies with an annual turnover below Rs 250 crore, but which account for only 10 per cent of corporation tax revenue, Jaitley got the optics right but broke his 2015-2016 Budget pledge.

Tax terrorism helps nobody. Most cases go into long-term litigation. They take years or even decades to conclude. India doesnt have separate commercial courts (as, for example, Britain does) to fast-track revenue disputes.

Corrupt tax officers are delighted at this state of affairs. They raid businessmen on the pretext of post-demonetisation scrutiny. Avenues of settlement are kept wide open. Businessmen know this reality. That is why so many blithely deposited crores of black money into their bank accounts following demonetisation.

There is one silver lining though for the government - businessmen and traders who deposited large amounts in cash into their bank accounts but never filed tax returns in the past will now have to pay taxes regularly.

One business leader tells the story of a friend whose entire business is not on the books - there is ostensibly no revenue, no profits, no taxes, no factory. All transactions are done in cash. He now wants to go legit, but doesnt know how. If he declares his factory, located in the hinterland where tax officials rarely venture, there will be back taxes and penalties to pay. If he doesnt declare it, he risks being caught anyway as many of his customers are now GST-compliant. He will soon be outed based on matched invoices.

This then is the biggest benefit of GST  transparency.

Yet India remains under-taxed. Farmers pay no tax. There are some no-go areas where I-T officials admit they dare not venture. As one officer says sheepishly, Some community enclaves dont allow us to step in - they threaten violence. Business here carries on in cash. No books of account exist.

Many of the scams unearthed over the past decade originated in the finance or defence ministry. It is here where the politician-bureaucrat nexus is most toxic. Scams where investigations have been mysteriously stalled include income tax cases against television channels and the national spot exchange (NSEL). The bank fraud by Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi took place under the watchful eyes of the banking department which is a part of the MoF.

The MoF has in five Union Budgets over four years consistently disappointed salaried employees. Schemes that have succeeded - financial inclusion through Jan Dhan Yojana, Mudra loans for small entrepreneurs and direct benefit transfers (DBT), which sideline middlemen who used to siphon off subsidies for the poor - were created by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). The MoF for its part stalled one rank, one pension (OROP) for several months, reduced defence allocations, delayed farm loan waivers and alienated small business traders with a needlessly complex GST.

Its no easy task to upset voters across such wide demographies. This government has managed to do just that.

Also read: Why 2019 general elections will be about regional parties versus BJP
Indias relations with China seem to lurch from talk of crisis to expectations of a grand reset. From talk of imminent war during the 72-day Doklam stand-off last year  at least among sections of the media  now the Narendra Modi government is being seen as trying to attempt a reset to turn the page.

Two recent developments have fuelled such talk. First, in March, the ministry of external affairs issued a classified circular advisory advising all ministries/departments of Union government as well as state governments not to accept any invitation or to participate in the proposed commemorative events organised by the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala in April. This was seen as a shift in the governments stand on Tibet, and by some as kowtowing to Chinese sensitivities.

Second, officials in Delhi have pointedly played down Chinese infrastructure construction on the Doklam plateau that abuts India, Bhutan and China, and was the scene of last years stand-off. China has beefed up its presence and built barracks on the plateau, although a few kilometres away from the site of last years stand-off which was barely a few hundred meters from the Indian border.

Yet, it may well be reading too much into both developments and somewhat premature to talk of a reset. On Tibet, it has been Delhis policy for years that senior officials do not attend events involving the government-in-exile or leaders of the Tibetan community. Perhaps, the only recent exception was Minister of State Kiren Rijiju accompanying the Dalai Lama to Arunachal Pradesh, but that, officials stressed including to their Beijing counterparts, was not as a representative of the centre but as an Arunachal representative. So the circular appears more of a reminder of whats been followed in the past ahead of Aprils anniversary events, rather than a new line.

Doklam also appears far from resolved or settled, and the prospect of a flare-up cannot be ruled out. That was hinted by Indias envoy to China, Gautam Bambawale in an interview last week to the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post. While arguing there was no change taking place today in any sensitive area in the Doklam plateau and Chinese barracks were well behind the sensitive area, he added that if anyone changes the status quo, it will lead to a situation like what happened in Doklam. If the road-building resumed at the sensitive area, in other words, we would be back to where we were last August.

Bambawale also suggested any compromise on the Belt and Road Initiative remains unlikely, saying Indias view was that one of the norms is the project should not violate the sovereignty and territorial integrity of a country. Unfortunately, there is this thing called the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which is called a flagship project of Belt and Road Initiative, which violates Indias sovereignty and territory integrity. Therefore, we oppose it.

As tempting as it is to see the relationship in black-and-white of crises and resets, the reality is grey: one of a complex relationship of areas of both discord and concord. That balance is unlikely to change, talk of resets notwithstanding, and managing these difficulties is what both sides appear to be attempting, if only because it suits the interests of both Delhi and Beijing, at least for the moment.

(Courtesy of Mail Today)

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Facebook has been accused of breaking democracy. It is in the middle of a big data scandal, where the allegations are that it shared data of over 50 million users with a quiz app, the data which ended up in the hands of Cambridge Analytica that reportedly used it to micro-target and influence voters in the US election.

Organisations, people and companies across the world are taking a fresh look at their relationship with Facebook. But apparently in India it is business as usual.

At a time when Facebook stands accused of being a platform that is turning democracy and democratic processes like voting into a farce, the Election Commission of India is going to work with Facebook for elections in Karnataka. We should ask why.

The scandal involving Facebook is in news. All of this is serious, so serious that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said sorry and has vowed to fix it. It is so serious, this whole fiasco over Facebook using big data for purposes that seem clear breach of privacy, that regulators and lawmakers across the world are looking into it. British lawmakers want Zuckerberg to testify because they believe Facebook might have been used to influence voting in their country.

The US regulators in the US too seek the same and Zuckerberg reportedly has agreed. The FTC, a regulating agency in the US, is official probing if Facebook violated an earlier privacy agreement it signed with government officials.

Then there is the fallout. Mozilla, a browser, just a few days ago pulled out of Facebook ad network because of the privacy issues. There are thousands of people, who have deleted their Facebook accounts or pages, including people like Farhan Akhtar and companies like Tesla. German bank Commerzbank and audio product company Sonos too has pulled off their ads from Facebook. There is hashtag #DeleteFacebook trending.

So, the question, to repeat, needs to be asked, why the Election Commission of India is going ahead with its plans to work with Facebook for an election at a time when Facebook stands accused of being careless about its platform and data that has been used to unethically (and probably illegally) influence voting?

This is not to say that Facebook cant be a force for good. The die-hard optimists can still believe that Facebook, or for that matter any social media site, could do wonders for democracy. May be Election Commission of India believes it too, even if Facebook itself is no longer sure.

Just a few months ago, the company told the world that it couldnt guarantee that it was always good for democracies. I wish I could guarantee that the positives are destined to outweigh the negatives, but I cant, Samidh Chakrabarti, a Facebook product manager, wrote on companys official page.

This means, lets ask the big question again: Why is the Election Commission of India still going to work with Facebook for arguably one of the most important elections this year?

The standard practice in these cases, in instances when a company or an organisation is in the middle of something as serious as what Facebook has found itself in, is to hit pause. Its possible that Facebook had no role to play in either the Russian meddling in US elections, or in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, but the right course of action would be to pause all activities until there is a proper investigation and a proper conclusion. This is something agencies and the organisations that take accountability and ethics seriously do.

The Election Commission of India is not just a private entity. Or a small organisation. Any election in India is not some random voting process or a survey. It involves millions and millions of people.

India is the worlds biggest democracy and at a time when the rest of the world is looking at how people have used Facebook data and platform to undermine the democratic processes, Indian regulators cannot be - or rather should not be - seen working with the firm.

In fact, ideally the Election Commission of India should be reviewing how Facebook is used by organisations and people in India for election purposes. We already have the Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie saying that the data analysis firm is active in Indian elections. That is a serious claim. That is something the Election Commission should be probing and only when it conclusively sees that Facebook is a force for good for democracy it should work with the social media giant.

Chief election commissioner OP Rawat calls the scandal around Facebook an aberration.

No sir, definitely not. Mark Zuckerberg doesnt say sorry for aberrations.

Also read: How Russians are everywhere - in fact and fiction
A couple of months ago a friend, somebody I would describe as centre-right, and far more knowledgeable than me on political issues, placed a bet with me that Narendra Modi would not be the prime minister after the 2019 elections. He set the odds at 10 to 1. He laughed at my surprise and said, Consider it an emotional hedge. If you lose - and Modi is no longer PM - you wont mind paying me Rs 1,000. But if you win, at least you get Rs 100.

I laughed and said okay, and then he explained to me his logic.

The 2014 elections were a wave, as much anti-UPA as in favour of a Modi who promised to transform India. That wave will not recur. The NDA currently has 275 seats in the Lok Sabha (272 elected, two nominated, and the speaker), and its allies add another 40 to that kitty. The BJP can do what it wants because in a House of 545 seats, it has a simple majority by itself. And the BJP is in the complete control of the Modi-Shah duo because the wave, and the majority, is seen as their doing.

In 2019, though, there is unlikely to be a recurrence of the wave, the BJP is already at its peak in large states like Uttar Pradesh - which it virtually swept, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, and Maharashtra. The only way that it has to go is down, and that could mean a loss of anywhere between 50 to a 100 seats. It might still remain the single-largest party, but it will not be calling the shots, and just as Modi and Shah were seen as the people who gave the BJP a thumping victory, they will be seen after 2019 as the ones that drove the BJP to its biggest loss in seats.

Given that the politics within the party are already vicious, and that its biggest ally - the Shiv Sena (no other NDA ally has seats in the double digits) - gives almost daily lectures against the BJP, the reign of Modi is already over. Only its epitaph needs to be written.

I heard almost the same logic from a Congress politician recently. The BJP has consistently written cheques with their speeches, that they dont have the wherewithal to cash. From Rs 15 lakh in peoples bank account from black money brought back from abroad, to creating millions of jobs, to a foreign policy built on boastful talk and hugging any dignitary in sight, Modis governance track record in the past four years has gone from unerringly from disaster to another disaster.

Every new announcement is treated with derision and a fearful look at the bank, in case Modi has another brainwave and decides to cancel whatever money we have left.

The single greatest success that Make in India has achieved is a massive outpouring of Modi jokes. And maybe that is enough, maybe the Opposition can just wait in the wings and let Modi continue to destroy himself, and be ridiculed out of power.

There is a precedent. The Republicans under George W Bushs presidency went from one massive error to another. Dubya, a person with limited intellectual ability, surrounded himself with people who thought they were smarter than they were. At the same time the genius of Karl Rove, supported ably by Rupert Murdochs execrable Fox News, did a great job in stirring up the nastiest parts of the American psyche while sowing falsehoods and divisions among the Opposition.

All of that did not help, by the time Barack Obama stood for elections all the dirty tricks in the world could not hide the wars that America was losing (or at least not winning, which counts for the same when you are a superpower), the economy in free fall, and a banking sector so contemptuous of regulations that it brought the world to its knees.

Obama did not merely win, Dubya and his team of idiots lost, catastrophically, and in their wake destroyed much of the rational basis of the Republican Party.

The problem is what came after. During his presidency Obama managed to tie a bow on the Iraq War, but ISIS was already rising. Afghanistan remains in dreadful stalemate with lives being lost - often innocent lives of Afghan civilians - almost every day. The price of stabilising the banking sector was that all the biggest thieves got away. And for all the idea of a better foreign policy, the indescribable folly of lumping together various conflicts under the war on terror was to create a menace that could never be eradicated.

When states such as Egypts military dictatorship, Putins Russia, Chinas authoritarian dictatorship, and Saudi Arabias regime are your allies, then your enemies are likely to be regime opponents somewhat closer to Bhagat Singh, Nelson Mandela, and Menachem Begin (all "terrorists" in their day) than anything else.

Obama inherited a state already caught in a deeply damaging battle against democracy and human dignity. He could do little to change that, and by perpetuating the omni-spying of the National Security Agency, and the extra-legal execution by drone, he also added to the problems. The appeal of a lunatic like Donald Trump, who said (not incorrectly) that the system was failing (by-passing the fact that people like him had exploited those failures to make money and destroy jobs and industries) was not irrational.

If I am to believe my friend, and the Congress politician, then all we have to do is wait for Modis reign of error to come to an end is the laughter of our fellow citizens, I fear what comes after if there is no plan. How do we fix the mistakes of the past four years, of the deep damage done to social harmony, to systems of accountability, to the independence of the Election Commission and the judiciary, to the bullying of every single community that is seen as marginal?

What stops the government that comes into place in 2019 from continuing down the self-destructive path that we have taken since 2014?

Do you really think the mad screamers on your TV screens will become sensible? Do you really think the sycophants will go away, or will they just find another "great leader" to take their selfies with?

We have two advantages, the first is the influence of Indias independence movement, and the Constituent Assembly debates.

We tend to forget that Indias independence movement was as much a social reform movement as well as a political movement. As much as it argued that the dignity of Indians was deeply compromised as a colonised people treated as subjects, it also argued for the greater role of women in public life, and in BR Ambedkars fiery prose, the importance of the need of dignity for Indians marginalised in unequal societies.

Our leaders had the wisdom to understand that in our tryst with destiny, we had only partially achieved what we aimed to do, or in Nehrus words, "not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially". Ambedkar, as always, was far more blunt. Speaking of the Constitution, he said, In politics we will be recognising the principle of one man, one vote, and one vote, one value.

"In our social and economic life, we shall, by reason of our social and economic structure, continue to deny the principle of one man one value. How long shall we continue to live this life of contradictions? How long shall we continue to deny equality in our social and economic life?

"If we continue to deny it for long, we will do so only by putting our political democracy in peril. We must remove this contradiction at the earliest possible moment or else those who suffer from inequality will blow up the structure of political democracy which is Assembly has to laboriously built up.

It is essential that this path must continue to be followed. Fortunately, in the past few years a series of blunders by the Modi government has raised the relevance of these same points. There has been no stronger statement of the importance of the essential dignity of Indians than the recent case which enshrined the right to privacy (justice KS Puttaswamy versus Union of India).

During the recent hearings of the legality and constitutionality of making Aadhaar mandatory, similar arguments have been forwarded on the right of Indians to be citizens, not subjects.

When I raised these points with an Opposition leader, he said that while he was in favour of a more democratic approach, he replied that while Indians are all in favour of democracy when it comes to people above them, they want those less empowered than them to stay down.

In a hierarchical society it was hard for politicians to make an appealing argument for radical democratic and egalitarian values.

He may be correct. For anybody who has seen elections close up in the hinterland much of the argument is, Now our people will be in power.

And this points to one last thing - political parties will not save India, because they will only change things at the margins. The Centre is us, the public, civil society, the Indian citizen. Let us stop looking for saviours and lobby, work for, change ourselves. Only then will we get the Opposition we deserve, and the government too.

Only then can we achieve what our Independence movement aspired to achieve, a free country of free citizens.

Also read: Why 2019 general elections will be about regional parties versus BJP
A saffron invasion is going on in Bengal that aims to re-engineer the cultural fabric of the state. For the past couple of years, Ram Navami has become the annual occasion and the nodal point to assert the socio-cultural engineering mission of the RSS-BJP.

They want to "convert" the Bengali Hindus in the image of Hindi-speaking Hindutva-Hindus, "colonise" Bengal with the help of the fast-mushrooming RSS shakas (more than 1,350 in 2017) and "conquer" the "never-conquered-by-the-right-wing" state by winning elections on the communal plank: "Islamist threat" and the "Hindu identity".

The RSS-BJP has certain misunderstandings about Bengals culture and history. They dont understand that a Bengali is a Bengali first, before he or she is a Hindu. In fact, a Bengali can be a Hindu, a Muslim, a Brahmo, a Vaishnav, a Buddhist, a Christian and an atheist, and yet share the common "Bengali language and culture".

Woman devotees blow conches during a religious procession to celebrate the Ram Navami festival at Bolpur in Birbhum district of West Bengal on April 6. (Credit: PTI photo)

The RSS-BJP doesnt seem to understand that all Bengalis are not Hindus, and all Muslims in Bengal are not "jihadists from Bangladesh".

Last year, when the Ram Navami processions - organised by the saffron brigade - made news due to the aggressive display of swords and tridents, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee voiced the common feeling among the Bengalis. Speaking about the saffron brigade, Didi had said, "They dont know Bengali culture All they know is to roam around with swords."

There was no violence last year, but things have become progressively worse. This year, violence erupted during the Ram Navami rallies, a couple of people died, the saffron outfits clashed with the police in several places around Bengal, chiefly in Murshidabad and Bardhaman districts.

"Violence for votes" in the name of Ram seems to be the strategy of the saffron brigade in Bengal. This has thrown up an enormous challenge to maintain peace and harmony - without which the state will struggle to develop and to progress - and to protect the traditional liberal cultural ethos of Bengal from being mutilated by Hindutva, a recent import into Bengal from the Hindi-speaking regions of India.

Bengals culture of Shakti worship

Ram is not worshipped in Bengal, like he is worshipped in north and western India. Bengal has devised her own way to celebrate Ram Nabomi via Annapurna Puja - a form of Shakti. This cultural tradition is followed by millions of Bengalis.

In Bengal, we have this popular saying "baro mashe, tero parbon". It means, that in Bengal we have, "in 12 months, 13 festivals". The culture of festivities and melas is also strongly related to the socio-economic system.

The annual flow of various festivals - panning all religions and sub-cultures - is going on for a long time. This lies at the heart of the secular and plural fabric of Bengals culture. Bengal has been worshipping Shakti - the feminine force of existence - for centuries. The Bengali language and the culture was first developed under the Buddhist Pala Empire (7501174 CE) that had ruled Vanga for 424 years, much before the arrival of the Mughals and the British.

Sanskrit was spoken in Bengal since the first millennium BCE. During the Gupta Empire, Bengal was a hub of Sanskrit language. The Bengali language evolved between 1000-1200 CE from Sanskrit and Magadhi Prakrit. Proto-Bengali was the language of the Buddhist Pala Empire.

Buddhist Tara was worshipped. There was an original shrine of Tara in Tarapeeth, before the popular Ma Kali temple was constructed.

Darjeeling was Dorje-Ling meaning "land of the thunderbolt". It had an ancient Mahayana Buddhist monastery on the Observatory Hill, where now a Buddhist Mahakala Temple - with fluttering prayer flags - looks towards the "Five Treasures of Snow", or the Kangchenjunga.

The esoteric Tantra philosophy of Buddhist Vajrayana was developed in Vanga. The influential Buddhist philosopher and saint who went to Tibet was Asita (982-1054 CE). He was a Bengali with the name of Dipankar.

Tilopa (9881069 CE) - an exponent of Annutara Yoga Tantra - wrote the 28 verses of "The Ganges Mahamudra". He was also a Bengali. Tilopas disciple was Naropa, who wrote extensively and was an abbot of ancient Nalanda University. He too was a Bengali.

The Nalanda University that was in Bihar, from Buddhist Vihara, profoundly influenced the ancient intellectuals and philosophers of Vanga. The tradition of Shakti worship has continued in Vanga/Bengal for centuries since the time of the Pala Empire.

After the decline of Buddhism, goddesses from both Buddhist and Sakta traditions were combined to form the 10 goddesses of the Mahavidya, better known as Dasha Mahavidyas (Ten Great Wisdoms).

Now, Ma Kali and Ma Durga are the most popular goddesses in Bengal while Lakshmi and Saraswati are also worshipped.

Bengal, a place for Shakti or the feminine principle of the universe, has also contributed to a couple of key social reforms that benefitted the women of India. Rammohan Roy started the campaign against sati that eventually abolished the practice by law in 1829. Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar campaigned for the right of widows to remarry that led to the Widow Remarriage Act of 1856.

This happened during the Bengal renaissance that challenged the existing orthodoxies and brought about an era of radical ideas, revival of spirit and evolution of consciousness. The Bengal renaissance inspired monumental strides in literature, science, social reforms, religion, art and spirituality.

Bengal has also a unique tradition of worshipping an indigenous pantheon of "non-Brahmanic" folk gods and goddesses - Dharma-Thakur, Shasti, Manasha, Chandi, Shitala, Basanti and Bon-bibi.

The higher classes of Bengalis in towns and cities dont worship these folk deities. They are largely the deities of rural Bengal and the poor. The overwhelming majority of these folk deities are feminine. This also follows the Shakti worshipping instinct of Bengal.

Now, after knowing the history and culture of Bengal, one feels really disturbed, when during the RSS-BJP-organised Ram Navami rally last year - the patriarchal Hindi-Hindustani-Hindutva brigade - on the soil of Bengal, had the audacity to utter slogans like: "Na Durga, na Kali, keval Ram aur Bajrangbali."

The plot of the story

An attempt is being made to engineer Bengal away from her ancient traditions and make her embrace patriarchal male gods in the image of Hindi-speaking Hindutva heartland. The culture of Bengal is being sought to be changed to mirror the Hindi cow belt. Many right wing cultural "lessons" are being sought to be imparted.

However, Bengal doesnt need lessons on nationalism and Hinduism from the saffron brigade. From Vivekananda to Aurobindo, and from Subhas Chandra Bose to Maulana Azad, there have been countless personalities from Bengal who have devoted their lives to the service of nationalism and Hinduism.

I feel it is a futile attempt to convert, colonise and conquer Bengal in the name of Hinduism and nationalism. This wont work, the backlash will be swift. The vote share of BJP is likely to fall, not increase.

Having said the above, I also know that Bengal has entered a trail of fire - almost like Sitas Agnipariksha - when the traditional ethos of Bengal is being tested by the well-organised and well-funded campaign by the Hindutva forces.

If Bengal has to remain as Bengal, she has to smother the cultural and the political growth of the RSS-BJP in the state. She cannot afford to bring upon itself an era of regressive ideals, communal polarisation and societal unrest.

But there is no doubt that a challenge has been thrown by the RSS-BJP. Mahabharata is breaking out in Bengal in lieu of Ramayana. As 2019 General Election and 2021 Assembly elections approach, the battle will intensify. The spectre of violence and turmoil looms in the horizon.

There is no scope for complacency anymore. Everyone in Bengal has to wake up to the circumstances and do what he or she can to avert the "cultural transformation" that is being engineered by the saffron brigade.

The saffron conquest of Bengal is required for the dream of Hindu/Hindutva Rashtra. As long as Bengal holds out against Hindutva - along with a couple of southern states - the Indian Constitution will remain safe.

The future of India, like it has been many times before in our long history, might depend upon the future of Bengal. The stakes couldnt be higher, than this.

Also read: 15th Finance Commission: Why the southern states of India are fuming
Two days after Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were hanged, another glorious martyr gave his life for India. Most of us have forgotten him and if we do hold on to the memory of his name, it is through a few colleges and an award for journalists. His values and his remarkable courage have faded from our minds.

Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi was just 40 years old when, on March 25, 1931, he was killed while trying to rescue people during a communal riot. Mahatma Gandhi had described it as a shaandar (glorious) death, one he envied. In this respect, he was not a man who followed in Gandhis footsteps. He was the man who showed Gandhi the way.

Writer, editor, publisher, activist, elected representative, friend to young revolutionaries and, ultimately, a man of his word  Vidyarthi represents both, an ideal and a dilemma for journalists.

Born in Attarsuiya, Allahabad, young Ganesh came from a family of very limited means. His father was a teacher and so he managed to clear his school leaving examination. He enrolled at the Kayastha Pathshala College but he couldnt really afford to study further. He had to start working. However, he adopted the suffix Vidyarthi (student) for he was determined not to stop learning.

Irony stares us in the face given that UP CM Yogi Adityanath, himself accused of flaming communal tensions, decided to name the Kanpur airport after Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi.

One of Vidyarthis first writing-editing jobs was at a literary magazine, Saraswati, but his heart lay in current affairs. He started writing for Karmyogi (founded by Pandit Sundarlal, himself a revolutionary Ghadarite) but he moved to Kanpur and when he was barely 23, he started publishing an independent Hindi weekly, Pratap.

A meeting organised by the Mumbai Sarvodala Mandal at the Press Club marked his death anniversary by inviting a retired Hindi journalist, Saroj Tripathi, and Niranjan Takle, who has recently followed the story of Judge Loyas mysterious death for The Caravan, to speak.

Tripathi said that our collective forgetting of this national hero is deliberate. He also wondered whether journalists today are worthy of this legacy, given the current trend of focussing on communal distractions even as 73 percent of Indias wealth lies concentrated in the hands of one percent and farmers are killing themselves. Vidyarthi had not been afraid to pose the question: independence, yes, but for whom? Would it be a case of Gorey Khan (white ruler) being replaced by Kaley Khan (coloured ruler)?

Niranjan Takle posed another question  what would someone like Vidyarthi do in todays India?  and then answered it himself: he would probably be in jail.

Despite facing near-constant financial distress, Vidyarthi remained fiercely independent, refusing to accept help from a certain ruler of a princely estate, who approached him after being criticized by Pratap. From the start, his focus was the oppression of farmers and labourers. Kanpur was already an industrial hub and MK Gandhi was not yet the Mahatma.

Vidyarthi met him later, in 1916, and quickly threw himself into the freedom movement. He was sentenced to jail at least five times, for his writing and his speeches. He refused to write any apology letters.

There was no question of maintaining a neutral stance. Vidyarthi was one of those journalists who attended farmers meetings, led strikes, got lathi-charged, and then went home to write about it. He headed the Kanpur Mazdoor Sabha and contested elections as a Congress leader. But that didnt stop him from taking a sympathetic view of young revolutionaries. He didnt just shelter Bhagat Singh for a few months, allowing him space to write in the newspaper, he also facilitated a meeting between the young Jawaharlal Nehru and Chandrashekhar Azad.

Vidyarthi thought of communalism as an imperialist construct and blamed the British for creating a divisive view of Indias history, Tripathi said. In his editorials, he liked to remind readers that Ram-lila performances had been held in the grounds outside mosques across north India.

But for all his efforts, he couldnt prevent people from organising along religious lines and he couldnt prevent the riot in 1931. As news of the hanging of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru spread, Congress workers called for a hartal in Kanpur. It was meant to be a peaceful demonstration with some picketing of shops. Somehow, a minor confrontation took on a religious tone. The ensuing violence lasted a week, with more than 400 or more than 250 dead, depending on whether you believe the British report or the Indian one. Among those killed was Vidyarthi.

There is a theory that the riot was triggered by the British CID (Committee of Imperial Defence). Kanpur was a hotbed of anti-British and anti-big business political activity. The Congress was the main political actor and Vidyarthi one of the most influential leaders in the United Provinces. Certainly, the British administration did little to control the violence.

The Kanpur Riots Commission Report mentioned that Vidyarthi stepped on out March 25 to control the mobs himself. The night before, he wrote a letter dissuading a friend from coming down to help, saying, The police stands by watching unconcerned while mosques and temples are burnt, people are beaten and shops are looted.

By morning, the violence was much worse.

Vidyarthi and his friends began to visit various mohallas, rescuing both Hindus and Muslims, trying to reason with armed mobs. Witnesses describe him as having gone out bare-headed and bare-footed. Then he met a mob that would not listen.

Vidyarthis courage, his empathy, his ability to rise above narrow self-definition was very rare, even for his times, when the air was thick with dissent and the leadership inspiring. The Kanpur Riots Commission Report was written by members of the Congress and it was carefully edited to leave out one of the major causes of worry: fissures in the soul of its own cadre.

The report includes a note of dissent by member Zafar-ul-Mulk. It cites a witness having told the Commission: Men who are absolutely above Hindu-Muslim feeling are a microscopic minority in the Congress organisation here. The note records the fact that Congress workers were not able to rise to that high level loving all mankind irrespective of creed, which was attained by Ganesh Vidyarthi.

This state of affairs hasnt changed and perhaps brushing it under the carpet made matters worse. There are many more political outfits now; how many leaders love mankind, irrespective of creed?

In fact, there is a great irony staring us in the face given that Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, himself accused of flaming communal tensions and shielding riot accused ministers, decided to name the Kanpur airport after Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi.

One of the organisers of the tribute in Mumbai ended the meeting by posing a rhetorical question: How many Vidyarthis are needed today?

How does one answer him?

Also read: How India shows women her place
Dear general Qamar Javed Bajwa,

Greetings from New Delhi from a former Indian soldier, who has served on the Line of Control (LoC), conducted counter-insurgency operations against Pakistan-trained terrorists in Kashmir Valley, and participated in several Track-2 discussions aimed at conflict resolution.

You were reported to have told Pakistan's parliamentarians recently, "The military is ready to back the political leadership's initiative for the normalisation of relations with India." In the same meeting you defended Hafiz Saeed, chief of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and the mastermind behind the Mumbai terror attacks of November 2008 and extended your support to efforts to "mainstream" him and his cadres. Don't you think the two positions are dichotomous and smack of a business-as-usual approach against India?

For over 70 years, since 1947-48, the Pakistan army has been waging a low-intensity limited war against India at the LoC, ostensibly to complete what it calls the "unfinished agenda of the Partition" - that is, the merger of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) with Pakistan.

In keeping with its diabolical strategy to "bleed India through a thousand cuts", Pakistan's deep state (army and the ISI) has been nurturing and sponsoring terrorist organisations such as the LeT and the Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM), to launch terrorist attacks on military and civilian targets in J&K and other parts of India for almost 30 years.

What Pakistan's "miltabishment" euphemistically calls the provision of "political, diplomatic and moral support" to so-called Kashmiri "freedom fighters" is, in effect, a package deal that includes the recruitment, training, arming, equipping, funding and the launching of radical extremists, mainly from Pakistan - to wage what they are brainwashed into believing is a jihad - a holy war against India.

Infantry battalions of the Pakistan army deployed on the LoC aid and abet the induction of the terrorists by providing intelligence about Indian deployments, information about the terrain, guides to escort terrorist groups across the LoC and covering fire during attempts at infiltration. The ISI's "psyops" operatives work overtime to inflame passions in Kashmir through both regular and social media and fund stone pelters.

You designate terrorists as "strategic assets" and play double games. You call terrorists who attack targets in India and Afghanistan "good terrorists" and those who hurt the Pakistan army's interests "bad terrorists".

Well, Uncle Sam, your major non-NATO ally (MNNA) has put you on notice to stop providing bases and safe havens to the likes of the Haqqani network to attack American and Afghan troops.

Despite former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee having reaffirmed India's commitment to the existence of Pakistan as a nation-state while visiting Minar-e-Pakistan at Lahore in February 1999, the conventional wisdom in GHQ Rawalpindi is that India poses an existentialist threat to Pakistan.

You strategise that keeping India embroiled in countering cross-border, state-sponsored terrorism is a "low-cost, high payoff" option to weaken and destabilise India. The Chinese, your "all-weather" friends, watch your efforts to destabilise your neighbours from the sidelines and encourage you to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds.

Sadly for you, the reality is much different. India is not bleeding; you are going down the tube.

India has shown immense strategic restraint in the face of the gravest provocations (intrusions in Kargil in 1999, attack on the Indian Parliament in 2001 and terrorist attacks at Mumbai in 2008) so that socio-economic growth is not hampered.

Among the world's large economies, the Indian economy's growth rate has consistently been the fastest for over a decade. At less than 1.60 per cent of the projected GDP for 2017-18, India's defence expenditure is among the lowest in the world. Resilient India is a rising power in a polycentric world order.

As for J&K, the security environment is stable. Despite your best efforts, numerous infiltration attempts have been thwarted at the LoC in 2017-18. Though there are sporadic incidents of violence, these are limited mainly to the Kashmir Valley. A handful of Kashmiris have been vocal in expressing their disaffection; they are free to express their views in India's democratic milieu. However, clearly, no one has any affection for Pakistan, except some members of the Hurriyat Conference that represents nobody.

And, what has been the internal fallout of your policy of supporting and giving state patronage to terrorist organisations within Pakistan? All sane Pakistanis readily accept that the army and the ISI have unwittingly created a Frankenstein monster, which is gradually but inexorably spinning out of control.

Pakistan's name has become synonymous with international terrorism. Most major terrorist attacks around the world in this century have had a Pakistani connection. Your country has earned the dubious distinction of being described as the hub, epicentre, even the mother nation sponsoring terrorism.

Your military bases and headquarters have been attacked by radical Islamist terrorists. These include the Mehran naval base near Karachi, the airbases at Kamra and Badabher near Peshawar, the GHQ at Rawalpindi and the ISI's regional HQ at Lahore. In an attack on an army school at Peshawar, the terrorists killed over 150 children, most of them from army families.

The Baloch people are fighting for their independence - they want freedom from the military jackboot riding roughshod over their human rights and their dreams. The long-suffering Pashtuns recently organised a protest march to Islamabad. The Shia-Sunni sectarian divide appears unbridgeable and creeping Talibanisation is gnawing at Pakistan's innards. In November 2017, a handful of radical extremists held Islamabad hostage and you prevailed on the government to cave in to their outrageous demands.

Pakistan's defence expenditure is a major drain on the economy, which is in the doldrums. With work on the $62 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) now in full swing, the country is heading for an inevitable debt trap. Your press is full of anti-CPEC rumblings. And, the Chinese are worried about the security of their workers.

The international community is apprehensive of the possibility of your nuclear warheads falling into jihadi hands through subversion. Given the extent of radicalisation of the Pakistan army since General Zia ul Haq was the army chief, even more worrisome is the possibility of a jihadi-led coup from within the army.

In the low probability, but high impact eventuality that the jihadis manage to seize control over Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, the consequences are likely to be horrendous - both for the region and the international community. Pakistan is gradually heading towards complete diplomatic isolation.

If you carry out a net assessment of the colossal resources committed by the deep state to bleed India and the gains achieved vis-a-vis the losses sustained, you can come to only one conclusion: Hostility with India over 70 years has yielded no tangible dividends. Your DGMO will tell you that the Pakistan army cannot take Kashmir from India by military force.

Maintaining armed forces numbering half a million personnel to ward off phantom threats has been a major drain on Pakistan's budget and has severely hampered socio-economic development. A former corps commander of the Pakistan army told a few of us during a Track 2 meeting that considering how far behind India had left Pakistan in all fields of human endeavour, he felt ashamed at how badly the Pakistan army had let down the country.

Since the trans-LoC surgical strikes of September 2016, India has adopted a posture of tactical assertiveness under the umbrella of strategic restraint. The continuation of hostility through daily pinpricks runs the risk of escalation to large-scale conflict. It might even cause India to change its policy to a still more vigorous approach.

Imagine where Pakistan would be if India began to provide "political, diplomatic and moral support" to the Baloch freedom fighters and the disaffected people of Gilgit-Baltistan exactly in the same manner that the deep state does in Kashmir.

Is there any point in continuing to pursue a fundamentally flawed policy? You must have been taught during the Junior Command course to never reinforce failure. Prudence lies in following a pragmatic approach to conflict resolution.

Since conflict has not paid dividends, is it not time to give peace a chance? If you were to stop supporting radical extremism, put an end to cross-border terrorism and extend the hand of friendship, I am sure India will reciprocate with enthusiasm.

Statesmanship requires leaders to shed the shibboleths of the past and conceptualise a progressive vision for the future. Courage and persistence are necessary on both sides to build a national consensus for peace.

As the head of an army that "guides" Pakistan's foreign policy and national security policy, the onus is on you to review the present strategy that is flawed and opt for peace and stability in the region so that you can fight the demons within in a concerted manner.

In the past, many military leaders have shown themselves capable of acting like statesmen. You have been called a "thinking" general. You can rise to the occasion and prove it, or fall by the wayside as another also ran - like your predecessors. The ball is in your court.

Also read: Tandoor murder case: How Sushil Sharma killed his wife Naina Sahni and disposed off her body in a restaurant
During a recent trip to the Rann of Kutch, I happened to visit Sardar Post, which is bang on the India-Pakistan international border. Close to the post is a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) memorial. Why this monument stood there was the obvious question. Here is what I found. In April 1965, the Pakistan Army launched "Operation Desert Hawk 1" against Indian border posts to establish claim over the Indian territory bordering Pakistan.

On April 9, 1965, at 3am, Pakistan's 51 Brigade Group  consisting of 3,500 men  launched a full-scale attack on Sardar and Tak posts in Rann of Kutch. At the time, the border was guarded by the CRPF and Gujarat State Police Force.

That morning, 04 Coys of 02nd Bn CRPF were on duty. The jawans fought valiantly and repulsed the attack during a battle that lasted 15 hours. During this time, Pakistan lost 34 soldiers while four others were taken as prisoners. On the Indian side, our CRPF men made the supreme sacrifice and 19 others were jailed.

The determination and valour of 02nd Bn CRPF jawans kept the Pakistan Army Brigade at bay for more than twelve hours.

Col Keshav S Puntembaker, who surveyed the battle spot from an aircraft the morning after the battle, wrote: "Enemy losses, as seen from the air were much higher which perhaps broke their spirit to hold on to the area. Reflecting over the issue, it seems amazing that an attack launched by a regular infantry brigade of the Pakistan army with full artillery support could not overcome a company position held by the Indian armed police. It appears that the medium machine gunners of the CRPF put up a spirited resistance and extracted a very heavy toll on the Pakistani brigade, which sapped their will to continue with the operations."

Today, the border is easily accessible, fenced and flood-lit. Imagine the condition 53 years ago when the area could only be reached by riding on camels. Then, as now, the whole area had little in the form of habitation - it is an endless sea of sand and then some.

It is in the memory of those brave jawans that the CRPF memorial stands.

The April 9 battle is important for two reasons. One for the valour displayed by a small contingent of CRPF/SRP in repulsing a Pakistani brigade.

Two, it is because of this incursion that the government decided to set up a dedicated force to man the border with Pakistan  that is the Border Security Force (BSF). Till 1965, Indias borders with Pakistan were guarded by the State Armed Police Battalion.

"The above mentioned attacks on Sardar Post, Chhar Bet and Beria Bet on 9 April, 1965 in Kutch exposed the inadequacy of the State Armed Police to cope with armed aggression. At that point the Government of India felt the need for a specialised centrally controlled Border Security Force, which would be armed and trained to man the International Border with Pakistan."

This way, the BSF came into being on December 1, 1965. Today, the force guards the international border with Pakistan in the states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab and parts of Jammu and Kashmir, including where it watches over the Line of Control along with the Indian Army.

On the eastern side, it guards our border with Bangladesh.

The Kutch memorial is built on the very spot where the battle took place. It consists of a marble plaque built on a raised platform, all enclosed by barbed wire. Since access to the area is restricted, another memorial was built by the Gujarat government in 2013 at the border outpost of Dharamshala. Both the memorials could be far better built.

Memorial at Sardar Post, Kutch Gujarat.

This author has seen the Rezang-la War Memorial in Ladakh (about five hours drive from Pangong Lake), built in equally inhospitable terrain in the memory of 114 men of the 13 Kumaon Regiment, and wishes the ministry of home affairs would build an appropriate memorial at Sardar Post in the honour of the CRPF martyrs.

The average Indian would then come to know of their valour as well as the story of BSF's beginnings.

When a civilian visits the memorial, she will better appreciate the role played by BSF and the unique challenges faced by its jawans. During summers, temperatures in the region cross 45 degrees. A BSF officer joked that the jawans are in a state of permanent meditation because there is solitude and no mobile communication at their posts.

Notwithstanding the harsh mercury, I found the BSF team to be cheerful; the jawans share a great bonding among themselves. They are warm, helpful, go about their job sincerely and are firm when it comes to checking permissions at border posts.

Visitors will see a well-fenced border, flood lights with power supplied by the state electricity board (not polluting diesel like I saw at Jaisalmer border in 2013), a road running parallel to it and know how the state government has helped meet the water needs of jawans.

Sardar Post, international border, Rann of Kutch

Another very interesting story is that of the temple of Hanumanji, which was relocated to India at Bediya Bet, close to the border outpost of Dharamshala (in Kutch raised part of land is called Bet).

The area in Pakistan  opposite to where the temple exists today  is called Jat Talai, and was part of India before the 1965 war. After the battle, India agreed to vacate Jat Talai. According to local folklore, when the Indian troops started moving away, they got a message from Hanumanji, who asked them, "Why are you leaving me behind? Take me with you."

And so, the jawans carried the idol and walked for about 27km till they reached Bediya Bet. They spent the night there and the next morning, the idol stuck itself firmly to the ground. It could not be budged. Thus, a small temple was built at the site. Today, it attracts a large number of devotees who hang bells within its edifice so their wishes are fulfilled.

I found bells of every conceivable shape and size.

India is full of stories of valour and faith. These two symbolise that truth.

Also read: Mohan Bhagwat must explain why he has lost faith in Indian Army
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Amer Agency, AHC Digital LLC, AIX Limited, AJG Coal LLC, AJG Financial Services LLC, AJG Meadows LLC, AJG North America ULC, AJG RCF LLC, AJGRMS of Louisiana LLC, ARM RE Ltda., AVIATION INSURANCE SERVICES, AVRECO, Ace IRM Insurance Broking Group, Acumus Holdings Limited, Acumus Interco Limited, Acumus Ltd, Adams & Associates International, Adaptive Marketing LLC, Adco General Corporation, Advanced Benefit Advisors, Aequus Trade Credit, Affinity Marketing Group, Ahrold Fay Rosenberg, Aires Consulting Group, Alesco Risk Management Services Limited, Alize Limited, Allied Claims Administration Inc., Alternative Market Specialists, Altman & Cronin Benefit Consultants, American Freedom Carriers Inc., American Security Services Corp., American Wholesalers Underwriting Ltd, Andrew-Anthony Insurance Agency, Anthony Hodges Consulting Limited, Antrobus Investments Limited, AquaSurance, Argentis, Argentis Financial Group Limited, Argentis Financial Management Limited, Argus Benefits, Armstrong/Robitaille/Riegle, Artex (SAC) Limited, Artex Cedar Hill, Artex Corporate Services (Malta) Limited, Artex Corporate Services Limited, Artex Holdings (Gibraltar) Limited, Artex Holdings (Malta) Limited, Artex Insurance (Guernsey) PCC Limited, Artex Insurance (Tennessee) PCCIC Inc., Artex Insurance Brokers (Malta) PCC Limited, Artex Insurance ICC Limited, Artex Intermediaries Ltd, Artex Risk Solutions (Bermuda) Ltd, Artex Risk Solutions (Cayman) Limited, Artex Risk Solutions (Gibraltar) Limited, Artex Risk Solutions (Guernsey) Limited, Artex Risk Solutions (International) Ltd, Artex Risk Solutions (Malta) Limited, Artex Risk Solutions (Singapore) Pte Ltd, Artex Risk Solutions (UK) Limited, Artex Risk Solutions Inc., Arthur J Gallagher (Norway) Holdings AS, Arthur J. 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Chapman & Associates Insurance Brokers, G.S. Levine Insurance Services, GBS (Australia) Holdings Pty Ltd, GBS Administrators Inc., GBS Insurance and Financial Services Inc., GBS Retirement Services Inc., GBS Specialty Markets LLC, GGB Finance 1 Limited, GGB Finance 2 Limited, GGB Finance 3 Limited, GGB Finance 4 Limited, GPL Assurance, GPL Assurance Inc., Gabor Insurance Services, Gale Smith & Co. 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Freerks & Associates, SEG Insurance Ltd, SGB-NIA Insurance Brokers, SHILLING Ltd, SKANCO International, SMERI AB, SRS Underwriting Pty Ltd, Secure Enterprises Pty Ltd, Securitas Re, Sellers Group, Sentinel Indemnity LLC, Septagon Insurance PCC Limited, Shuford Insurance Agency, Sigma II Insurance Agency, Sinclair Billard and Weld Limited, Sobieski & Bradley, Solid Benefit Guidance, Spanjers Insurance Agency, Spataro Insurance Agency, Specialised Broking Associates, Specialty Risk, Stackhouse Poland, Stackhouse Poland Bidco Limited, Stackhouse Poland Group Limited, Stackhouse Poland Holdings Limited, Stackhouse Poland Midco Limited, Stackouse Poland Limited, Stanton Group, Stark Johnson & Stinson Inc., Steel Agency, Strata Solicitors Ltd, Strategic Health Plans Corp., Strathearn Insurance Brokers, Strathearn Insurance Brokers (Qld) Trading Trust, Strathern Insurance Group Pty Ltd, Strathern Integration Holdco Pty Ltd, Strathern Unit Trust, Strong Financial Resources, Summit Insurance Group, Sunday and Associates, Sunderland Insurance Services, Super Advice Corporate Services Pty Ltd, Taylor Benefits, Texas Insurance Agency, Texas Insurance Managers, The BeneTex Group, The Buchholz Planning, The Chapman Group, The Commonwealth Consulting Group, The Daniels Group Inc., The EHE Group LLC, The EHE Insurance Agency LLC, The Eagle Insurance Agency LLC, The Eriksen Group, The Forker Company, The Gleason Agency, The Great Lakes Agency, The HR Group, The Hawk Agency, The Human Capital Group, The Lance Group, The Levitt/Kristan Co., The MW Bagnall Company, The Old Greenwich Consulting Group, The Parks Johnson Agency, The Plus Companies Inc., The Presidio Group, The Producers Choice, The Rains Group, The Splinter Group, The Titan Group, The Treiber Group, The Woodsmall Companies Inc., Title & Covenant Brokers Ltd., Title Investments Limited, Tom Sherwin Insurance Agency, Total Reward Group, Total Rewards Group (Holdings) Limited, Towle Agency, Transwestern, Tri-State General Insurance Agency, Triad Insurance Agency, Triad USA, Tribeca Strategic Advisors, Trinder & Norwood, Trip Mate, Trissel Graham & Toole, Tropp & Co., Tudor Risk Services, Tyloma Holdings Limited, Uni-Care Inc., Unison Inc., Universico Group, Unoccupied Direct Limited, V2V Holdings LLC, VEBA Service Group, Vasek Insurance Services Limited, Velo ACU LLC, Velo Holdings Inc., Verbag AG., Vertrue LLC, Victory Insurance Agency, Vincent L. 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The Bank of Nova Scotia provides various banking products and services in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Colombia, the Caribbean and Central America, and internationally. It operates through Canadian Banking, International Banking, Global Banking and Markets, and Global Wealth Management segments. The company offers financial advice and solutions, and day-to-day banking products, including debit and credit cards, chequing and saving accounts, investments, mortgages, loans, and insurance to individuals; and business banking solutions comprising lending, deposit, cash management, and trade finance solutions to small businesses and commercial customers, including automotive financing solutions to dealers and their customers. It also provides wealth management advice and solutions, including online brokerage, mobile investment, full-service brokerage, trust, private banking, and private investment counsel services; and retail mutual funds, exchange traded funds, liquid alternative funds, and institutional funds. In addition, the company offers international banking services for retail, corporate, and commercial customers; and lending and transaction, investment banking advisory, and capital markets access services to corporate customers. Further, it provides Internet, mobile, and telephone banking services. The company operates a network of 952 branches and approximately 3,540 automated banking machines in Canada; and approximately 1,400 branches, 5,200 ATMs, and 22 contact centers internationally. The Bank of Nova Scotia was founded in 1832 and is headquartered in Halifax, Canada.

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ElringKlinger AG develops, manufactures, and distributes technical and chemical products for the automotive sector and the general manufacturing industry in Germany and internationally. It operates through four segments: Original Equipment, Aftermarket, Engineered Plastics, and Other. The Original Equipment segment is involved in the development, manufacture, and sale of products and assemblies, such as metal sealing systems and drive train components; thermoplastics for drivetrains, body, and underbody applications; hybrid technologies; thermal, acoustic, and aerodynamic shielding systems; cylinder-head and specialty gaskets; battery and fuel cell components and systems; electric drive units; and exhaust gas purification. This segment serves passenger car and commercial vehicle sectors. The Aftermarket segment offers a range of gaskets, gasket sets, and service parts for the repair of engines, transmissions, exhaust systems, and auxiliary units in cars and commercial vehicles under the Elring A- Das Original brand. This segment serves a network of wholesalers and purchasing organizations. The Engineered Plastics segment develops, manufactures, and markets customized products made from various plastics for the mechanical engineering sector, as well as in medical, chemical, energy, and vehicle industries. The Other segment operates engine test benches and measuring equipment for testing engines, transmissions, and exhaust systems for vehicle manufacturers and automotive suppliers; and offers logistics and catering services. The company was founded in 1879 and is headquartered in Dettingen an der Erms, Germany.

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Black Diamond Group Limited rents and sells modular space and workforce accommodation solutions. It operates through two segments, Modular Space Solutions and Workforce Solutions. The Modular Space Solutions segment provides modular space rentals to customers in the construction, real estate development, manufacturing, education, financial, and resource industries, as well as government agencies in North America. Its products include office units, lavatories, storage units, large multi-unit office complexes, classroom facilities, banking and health care facilities, custom manufactured modular facilities, and blast resistant structures. This segment also sells new and used space rentals units; and provides delivery, installation, project management, and ancillary products and services. The Workforce Solutions segment provides workforce housing solutions, including rental of accommodations and surface equipment, and provision of turnkey lodging and travel management services in Canada, the United States, and Australia. This segment also provides associated services, such as installation, transportation, demobilization, and sale of used fleet assets. This segment primarily serves the resource, infrastructure, construction, disaster recovery, and education sectors. The company also provides specialized field rentals to oil and gas industries. Black Diamond Group Limited markets its rental assets, custom sales, and ancillary products and services through in-house sales personnel, its website, social media, web campaigns, and its digital marketplace. The company was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.

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Wall Street analysts have given iShares MSCI India ETF a "N/A" rating, but there may be better buying opportunities in the stock market. Some of MarketBeat's past winning trading ideas have resulted in 5-15% weekly gains. MarketBeat just released five new stock ideas, but iShares MSCI India ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

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National Bank of Canada provides various financial products and services to retail, commercial, corporate, and institutional clients in Canada and internationally. It operates through four segments: Personal and Commercial, Wealth Management, Financial Markets, and U.S. Specialty Finance and International. The Personal and Commercial segment offers personal banking services, including transaction solutions, mortgage loans and home equity lines of credit, consumer loans, payment solutions, savings and investment solutions; various insurance products; and commercial banking services, such as credit, and deposit and investment solutions, as well as international trade, foreign exchange transactions, payroll, cash management, insurance, electronic transactions, and complimentary services. The Wealth Management segment provides investment solutions, trust and estate services, banking services, lending services, guaranteed investment certificates, mutual funds, notes, structured products, and other wealth management solutions through internal and third-party distribution networks. The Financial Markets segment offers risk management products and services; and debt and equity underwriting; advisory services in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, and financing. The U.S. Specialty Finance and International segment provides specialty finance expertise; financial products and services to individuals and businesses in Cambodia; and the activities of targeted investments in certain emerging markets. The company also offers credit cards. It provides its services through a network of 483 branches and 1,573 banking machines. The company was founded in 1859 and is headquartered in Montreal, Canada.

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The following companies are subsidiares of Bristol-Myers Squibb: 1096271 B.C. ULC, 345 Park LLC, A.G. Medical Services P.A., AHI Investment LLC, AbVitro LLC, Abraxis BioScience Australia Pty Ltd., Abraxis BioScience Inc., Abraxis BioScience International Holding Company Inc., Abraxis BioScience LLC, Abraxis BioScience Puerto Rico LLC, Acetylon Pharmaceuticals Inc., Adnexus, Adnexus a Bristol-Myers Squibb R&D Company, Allard Labs Acquisition G.P., Amira Pharmaceuticals, Amira Pharmaceuticals Inc., Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Apothecon LLC, B-MS Generx Unlimited Company, BMS Benelux Holdings B.V., BMS Bermuda Nominees L.L.C., BMS Data Acquisition Company LLC, BMS Forex Company, BMS Holdings Sarl, BMS Holdings Spain S.L., BMS International Insurance Designated Activity Company, BMS Investco SAS, BMS Korea Holdings L.L.C., BMS Latin American Nominees L.L.C., BMS Luxembourg Partners L.L.C., BMS Omega Bermuda Holdings Finance Ltd., BMS Pharmaceutical Korea Limited, BMS Pharmaceuticals Germany Holdings B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals International Holdings Netherlands B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals Korea Holdings B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals Mexico Holdings B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals Netherlands Holdings B.V., BMS Real Estate LLC, BMS Spain Investments LLC, BMS Strategic Portfolio Investments Holdings Inc., Blisa Acquisition G.P., Bristol (Iran) S.A., Bristol Iran Private Company Limited, Bristol Laboratories Inc., Bristol Laboratories International S.A., Bristol Laboratories Medical Information Systems Inc., Bristol-Myers (Andes) L.L.C., Bristol-Myers (Private) Limited, Bristol-Myers Middle East S.A.L., Bristol-Myers Overseas Corporation, Bristol-Myers Squibb (China) Investment Co. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (China) Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (Israel) Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (NZ) Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb (Proprietary) Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb (Shanghai) Trading Co. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (Singapore) Pte. Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb (Taiwan) Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (West Indies) Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb A.E., Bristol-Myers Squibb Aktiebolag, Bristol-Myers Squibb Argentina S. R. L., Bristol-Myers Squibb Australia Pty. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Axia Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb B.V., Bristol-Myers Squibb Belgium S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb Business Services Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada Co., Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada International Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Delta Company Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Denmark Filial of Bristol-Myers Squibb AB, Bristol-Myers Squibb EMEA Sarl, Bristol-Myers Squibb Egypt LLC, Bristol-Myers Squibb Epsilon Holdings Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Farmaceutica Ltda., Bristol-Myers Squibb Farmaceutica Portuguesa S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb GesmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb GmbH & Co. KGaA, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holding Germany GmbH & Co. KG, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings 2002 Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Germany Verwaltungs GmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Ireland Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Pharma Ltd. Liability Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Ilaclari Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb India Pvt. Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb International Company Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb International Corporation, Bristol-Myers Squibb Investco L.L.C., Bristol-Myers Squibb K.K., Bristol-Myers Squibb Kft., Bristol-Myers Squibb Luxembourg International S.C.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Bristol-Myers Squibb MEA GmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb Manufacturing Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Marketing Services S.R.L., Bristol-Myers Squibb Middle East & Africa FZ-LLC, Bristol-Myers Squibb Norway Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Nutricionales de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Bristol-Myers Squibb Peru S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma (HK) Ltd, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma (Thailand) Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma EEIG, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma Holding Company LLC, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma Ventures Corporation, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceuticals Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceuticals Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Polska Sp. z o.o., Bristol-Myers Squibb Products SA, Bristol-Myers Squibb Puerto Rico Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Puerto Rico/Sanofi Pharmaceutical Partnership Puerto Rico, Bristol-Myers Squibb Romania S.R.L., Bristol-Myers Squibb S.A.U., Bristol-Myers Squibb S.r.l., Bristol-Myers Squibb SA, Bristol-Myers Squibb Sanofi Pharmaceuticals Holding Partnership, Bristol-Myers Squibb Sarl, Bristol-Myers Squibb Service Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Services Sp. z o.o., Bristol-Myers Squibb Spol. s r.o., Bristol-Myers Squibb Theta Finance Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Trustees Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Verwaltungs GmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb de Colombia S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb de Costa Rica Sociedad Anonima, Bristol-Myers Squibb de Guatemala S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Bristol-Myers Squibb/Astrazeneca EEIG, Bristol-Myers Squibb/Pfizer EEIG, Bristol-Myers Squibb/Sanofi Pharmaceuticals Partnership, Bristol-Myers de Venezuela S.C.A., CHT I LLC, CHT II LLC, CHT III LLC, CHT IV LLC, CR Finance Company LLC, Cardioxyl Pharmaceuticals, Cardioxyl Pharmaceuticals Inc., Celem LLC, Celem Ltd., Celgene, Celgene A.B., Celgene AS, Celgene Ab (Finland), Celgene Alpine Investment Co. II LLC, Celgene Alpine Investment Co. III LLC, Celgene Alpine Investment Co. LLC, Celgene ApS, Celgene B.V., Celgene BVBA, Celgene Brasil Produtos Farmaceuticos Ltda., Celgene CAR LLC, Celgene CAR Ltd., Celgene Chemicals Sarl, Celgene China Holdings LLC, Celgene Co., Celgene Corporation, Celgene Distribution B.V., Celgene EngMab GmbH, Celgene Europe B.V., Celgene Europe Limited, Celgene European Investment Company LLC, Celgene Financing Company LLC, Celgene Global Holdings Sarl, Celgene GmbH [Austria], Celgene GmbH [Germany], Celgene GmbH [Switzerland], Celgene Holdings East Corporation, Celgene Holdings II Sarl, Celgene Holdings III Sarl, Celgene Ilac Pazarlama ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Celgene Inc., Celgene International Holdings Corporation, Celgene International II Sarl, Celgene International III Sarl, Celgene International Inc., Celgene International Sarl, Celgene K.K., Celgene Kft., Celgene Limited [Hong Kong], Celgene Limited [Ireland], Celgene Limited [New Zealand], Celgene Limited [Taiwan], Celgene Limited [UK], Celgene Logistics Sarl, Celgene Ltd, Celgene Luxembourg Sarl, Celgene Management Sarl, Celgene NJ Investment Co, Celgene Netherlands B.V., Celgene Netherlands Investment B.V., Celgene Pharmaceutical (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Celgene Pte. Ltd., Celgene Pty Ltd, Celgene Puerto Rico Distribution LLC, Celgene Quanticel Research Inc, Celgene R&D Sarl, Celgene RIVOT LLC, Celgene RIVOT Ltd., Celgene RIVOT SRL, Celgene Receptos Limited, Celgene Receptos Sarl, Celgene Research Incubator At Summit West LLC, Celgene Research S.L.U., Celgene Research and Development Company LLC, Celgene Research and Development I ULC, Celgene Research and Development II LLC, Celgene Research and Investment Company II LLC, Celgene S. de R.L. de C.V., Celgene S.L.U., Celgene S.R.L., Celgene SAS, Celgene Sarl AU, Celgene Sdn Bhd, Celgene Services Sarl, Celgene Sociedade Unipessoal Lda, Celgene Sp. Z.o.o., Celgene Sro [Czech Republic], Celgene Summit Investment Co, Celgene Switzerland Holding Sarl, Celgene Switzerland II LLC, Celgene Switzerland Investment Sarl, Celgene Switzerland LLC, Celgene Switzerland Sarl, Celgene Tri A Holdings Ltd., Celgene Tri Sarl, Celgene UK Distribution Limited, Celgene UK Holdings Limited, Celgene UK Manufacturing II Limited, Celgene UK Manufacturing III Limited, Celgene UK Manufacturing Limited, Celgene d.o.o., Celgene sro [Slovakia], Celmed LLC, Celmed Ltd., ConvaTec Divestiture, Cormorant Pharmaceuticals, Cormorant Pharmaceuticals AB, Crosp Ltd., Delinia Inc., Deuteria Pharmaceuticals Inc., DuPont Pharmaceuticals, E. R. Squibb & Sons Inter-American Corporation, E. R. Squibb & Sons L.L.C., E. R. Squibb & Sons Limited, EWI Corporation, EngMab Sarl, F-star Alpha, FermaVir Pharmaceuticals L.L.C., FermaVir Research L.L.C., Flexus Biosciences, Flexus Biosciences Inc., Forbius, Galecto Biotech, GenPharm International L.L.C., Gloucester Pharmaceuticals LLC, Grove Insurance Company Ltd., Heyden Farmaceutica Portuguesa Limitada, IFM Therapeutics, Impact Biomedicines Inc., Inhibitex, Inhibitex L.L.C., Innate Tumor Immunity Inc., JuMP Holdings LLC, Juno Therapeutics GmbH, Juno Therapeutics Inc., Kosan Biosciences, Kosan Biosciences Incorporated, Linson Investments Limited, Mead Johnson (Manufacturing) Jamaica Limited, Mead Johnson Jamaica Ltd., Medarex, Morris Avenue Investment II LLC, Morris Avenue Investment LLC, MyoKardia, O.o.o. Bristol-Myers Squibb, Oy Bristol-Myers Squibb (Finland) AB, Padlock Therapeutics, Padlock Therapeutics Inc., Pharmion LLC, Princeton Pharmaceutical Products Inc., Receptos LLC, Receptos Services LLC, RedoxTherapies Inc., Route 22 Real Estate Holding Corporation, SPV A Holdings ULC, Seamair Insurance DAC, Signal Pharmaceuticals LLC, Sino-American Shanghai Squibb Pharmaceuticals Limited, Societe Francaise de Complements Alimentaires(S.O.F.C.A.), Squibb Middle East S.A., Summit West Celgene LLC, Swords Laboratories, VentiRx Pharmaceuticals Inc., Westwood-Intrafin SA, Westwood-Squibb Pharmaceuticals Inc., X-Body Inc., ZymoGenetics, ZymoGenetics Inc., ZymoGenetics LLC, ZymoGenetics Paymaster LLC, iPierian, and iPierian Inc..
Aviva plc provides various insurance, retirement, and savings products in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, France, Italy, Poland, and internationally. The company offers life insurance, long-term health and accident insurance, savings, pension, and annuity products, as well as pension fund business and lifetime mortgage products. It also provides insurance cover to individuals, small and medium-sized businesses for risks associated with motor vehicles and medical expenses, as well as property and liability, such as employers' and professional indemnity liabilities, and medical expenses. In addition, the company offers personal and commercial lines insurance products; long-term insurance and savings products, primarily for individuals. Further, it provides investment management services for institutional pension fund mandates; and manages various retail investment products, including investment funds, unit trusts, open-ended investment companies, and individual savings accounts for third-party financial institutions, pension funds, public sector organizations, investment professionals, and private investors. Additionally, the company offers asset management and protection insurance products. Aviva plc markets its products through a network of insurance brokers, as well as MyAviva platform. The company was formerly known as CGNU plc and changed its name to Aviva plc in July 2002. Aviva plc was founded in 1696 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.

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Cartier Resources Inc. engages in the acquisition and exploration of mining properties in Canada. The company explores for gold deposits. Its flagship project is the Chimo mine property located to the east of Val-d'Or, Quebec. The company also holds interest in Benoist, Fenton, Wilson, Cadillac Extension, Dollier, and MacCormack metal deposit projects, which are located in Quebec. Cartier Resources Inc. was incorporated in 2006 and is headquartered in Val-d'Or, Canada.

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The following companies are subsidiares of BP: 200 PS Overseas Holdings Inc., 563916 Alberta Ltd., ACP (Malaysia) Inc., AE Cedar Creek Holdings LLC, AE Goshen II Holdings LLC, AE Goshen II Wind Farm LLC, AE Power Services LLC, AE Wind PartsCo LLC, AM/PM International Inc., ARCO, ARCO British International, ARCO British Limited, ARCO Coal Australia Inc., ARCO El-Djazair Holdings Inc., ARCO Environmental Remediation L.L.C., ARCO Exploration Inc., ARCO Gaviota Company, ARCO International Investments Inc., ARCO International Services Inc., ARCO Midcon LLC, ARCO Oil Company Nigeria Unlimited, ARCO Oman Inc, ARCO Resources Limited, ARCO Trinidad Exploration and Production Company Limited, ARCO Unimar Holdings LLC, Actomat B.V., Advance Petroleum Holdings Pty Ltd, Advance Petroleum Pty Ltd, Air BP Albania SHA, Air BP Brasil Ltda., Air BP Canada LLC, Air BP Croatia d.o.o., Air BP Finland Oy, Air BP Iceland, Air BP Limited, Air BP Norway AS, Air BP Sales Romania S.R.L., Air BP Sweden AB, Air Refuel Pty Ltd, Allgreen Pty Ltd, AmProp Finance Company, American Oil Company, Amoco (Fiddich) Limited, Amoco (U.K.) Exploration Company LLC., Amoco Bolivia Petroleum Company, Amoco Bolivia Services Company Inc., Amoco Canada International Holdings B.V., Amoco Capline Pipeline Company, Amoco Chemical (Europe) S.A., Amoco Chemicals (FSC) B.V., Amoco Cypress Pipeline Company, Amoco Destin Pipeline Company, Amoco Environmental Services Company, Amoco Exploration Holdings B.V., Amoco Guatemala Petroleum Company, Amoco International Finance Corporation, Amoco International Petroleum Company, Amoco Leasing Corporation, Amoco Louisiana Fractionator Company, Amoco MB Fractionation Company, Amoco MBF Company, Amoco Main Pass Gathering Company, Amoco Marketing Environmental Services Company, Amoco Netherlands Petroleum Company, Amoco Nigeria Exploration Company Limited, Amoco Nigeria Oil Company Limited, Amoco Nigeria Petroleum Company, Amoco Nigeria Petroleum Company Limited, Amoco Norway Oil Company, Amoco Oil Holding Company, Amoco Olefins Corporation, Amoco Overseas Exploration Company, Amoco Pipeline Asset Company, Amoco Pipeline Holding Company, Amoco Properties Incorporated, Amoco Remediation Management Services Corporation, Amoco Research Operating Company, Amoco Rio Grande Pipeline Company, Amoco Somalia Petroleum Company, Amoco Sulfur Recovery Company, Amoco Tri-States NGL Pipeline Company, Amoco Trinidad Gas B.V., Amoco U.K. Petroleum Limited, Amprop Illinois I Limited, Amprop Inc., Anaconda Arizona Inc., Arabian Production And Marketing Lubricants, Aral Aktiengesellschaft, Aral Luxembourg S.A., Aral Services Luxembourg Sarl, Aral Tankstellen Services Sarl, Arco Mediterraneo Inversiones S.L., Areas Noriega S.L., Areas Singulares Reyes S.L., Aspac Lubricants (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Atlantic 2/3 UK Holdings Limited, Atlantic Richfield Company, Atlantic Richfield Companyd, Autino Holdings Limited, Autino Limited, Auwahi Wind Energy Holdings LLC, B2Mobility GmbH, BASS Management Pty Ltd, BP (Abu Dhabi) Limited, BP (Barbados) Holding SRL, BP (Barbican) Limited, BP (China) Holdings Limited, BP (China) Industrial Lubricants Limited, BP (GTA Mauritania) Finance Limited, BP (GTA Senegal) Finance Limited, BP (Gibraltar) Limited, BP (Guangzhou) Advanced Mobility Limited, BP (Hunan) Petroleum Company Limited, BP (Indian Agencies) Limited, BP (Shandong) Petroleum Co. Ltd, BP (Shanghai) Trading Limited, BP - Castrol (Thailand) Limited, BP AMI Leasing Inc., BP Absheron Limited, BP Advanced Mobility Limited, BP Africa Limited, BP Africa Oil Limited, BP Akaryakit Ortakligi, BP Alaska LNG LLC, BP Alternative Energy Holdings Limited, BP Alternative Energy Investments Limited, BP Alternative Energy North America Inc., BP Alternative Energy Trinidad and Tobago Limited, BP America Chembel Holding LLC, BP America Chemicals Company, BP America Foreign Investments Inc., BP America Inc, BP America Inc., BP America Limited, BP America Production Company, BP Amoco Chemical Company, BP Amoco Chemical Holding Company, BP Amoco Chemical Indonesia Limited, BP Amoco Chemical Malaysia Holding Company, BP Amoco Exploration (Faroes) Limited, BP Amoco Exploration (In Amenas) Limited, BP Andaman II Ltd, BP Angola (Block 18) B.V., BP Argentina Exploration Company, BP Argentina Holdings LLC, BP Aromatics Holdings Limited, BP Aromatics Limited, BP Asia Limited, BP Asia Pacific (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., BP Asia Pacific Holdings Limited, BP Asia Pacific Pte Ltd, BP Australia Capital Markets Limited, BP Australia Employee Share Plan Proprietary Limited, BP Australia Group Pty Ltde, BP Australia Investments Pty Ltd, BP Australia Nominees Proprietary Limited, BP Australia Pty Ltd, BP Australia Shipping Pty Ltd, BP Australia Swaps Management Limited, BP Aviation A/S, BP Benevolent Fund Trustees Limited, BP Berau Ltd., BP Biocombustiveis S.A., BP Bioenergia Campina Verde Ltda., BP Bioenergia Ituiutaba Ltda., BP Bioenergia Itumbiara S.A., BP Bioenergia Tropical S.A., BP Biofuels Advanced Technology Inc., BP Biofuels Brazil Investments Limited, BP Biofuels Louisiana LLC, BP Biofuels North America LLC, BP Biofuels Trading Comercio Exportacao Ltda., BP Bomberai Ltd., BP Brasil Ltda., BP Brazil Tracking L.L.C., BP Bulwer Island Pty Ltd, BP Business Service Centre Asia Sdn Bhd, BP Business Service Centre KFT, BP CIV Pty Ltd, BP Canada Energy Development Company, BP Canada Energy Group ULC, BP Canada Energy Marketing Corp., BP Canada International Holdings B.V., BP Canada Investments Inc., BP Capellen Sarl, BP Capital Markets, BP Capital Markets America, BP Capital Markets America Inc., BP Capital Markets p.l.c., BP Car Fleet Limited, BP Caribbean Company, BP Castrol KK, BP Castrol Lubricants (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., BP Central Pipelines LLC, BP Chembel, BP Chemicals (Korea) Limited, BP Chemicals East China Investments Limited, BP Chemicals Investments Limited, BP Chemicals Limited, BP China Exploration and Production Company, BP Comercializadora de Energia Ltda., BP Commodities Trading Limited, BP Commodity Supply B.V., BP Company North America, BP Company North America Inc., BP Containment Response Limited, BP Containment Response System Holdings LLC, BP Continental Holdings Limited, BP Corporate Holdings, BP Corporate Holdings Limited, BP Corporation North America, BP Corporation North America Inc., BP D-B Pipeline Company LLC, BP D230 Limited, BP Danmark A/S, BP Developments Australia Pty. Ltd., BP Dogal Gaz Ticaret Anonim Sirketi, BP East Kalimantan CBM Limited, BP Eastern Mediterranean Limited, BP Egypt Company, BP Egypt East Delta Marine Corporation, BP Egypt East Tanka B.V., BP Egypt Production B.V., BP Egypt Ras El Barr B.V., BP Egypt West Mediterranean (Block B) B.V., BP Energy Asia Pte. Limited, BP Energy Colombia Limited, BP Energy Company, BP Energy Europe Limited, BP Energy Solutions B.V., BP Energy do Brasil Ltda., BP Energia Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., BP Espana S.A. Unipersonal, BP Estaciones y Servicios Energeticos Sociedad Anonima de Capital Variable, BP Europa SE, BP Exploracion de Venezuela S.A., BP Exploration & Production Inc., BP Exploration (Absheron) Limited, BP Exploration (Alaska), BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc., BP Exploration (Algeria) Limited, BP Exploration (Alpha), BP Exploration (Alpha) Limited, BP Exploration (Angola), BP Exploration (Angola) Limited, BP Exploration (Azerbaijan), BP Exploration (Azerbaijan) Limited, BP Exploration (Canada) Limited, BP Exploration (Caspian Sea), BP Exploration (Caspian Sea) Limited, BP Exploration (D230) Limited, BP Exploration (Delta), BP Exploration (Delta) Limited, BP Exploration (El Djazair) Limited, BP Exploration (Epsilon) Limited, BP Exploration (Gambia) Limited, BP Exploration (Greenland) Limited, BP Exploration (Madagascar) Limited, BP Exploration (Morocco) Limited, BP Exploration (Namibia) Limited, BP Exploration (Nigeria Finance) Limited, BP Exploration (Nigeria) Limited, BP Exploration (Psi) Limited, BP Exploration (STP) Limited, BP Exploration (Shafag-Asiman) Limited, BP Exploration (Shah Deniz) Limited, BP Exploration (South Atlantic) Limited, BP Exploration (Xazar) Pte. Ltd., BP Exploration Angola (Kwanza Benguela) Limited, BP Exploration Argentina Limited, BP Exploration Australia Pty Ltd Level 15, BP Exploration Beta Limited, BP Exploration China Limited, BP Exploration Company (Middle East) Limited, BP Exploration Company Limited, BP Exploration Indonesia Limited, BP Exploration Libya Limited, BP Exploration Mexico Limited, BP Exploration Mexico S.A. De C.V., BP Exploration North Africa Limited, BP Exploration Operating Company, BP Exploration Operating Company Limited, BP Exploration Orinoco Limited, BP Exploration Personnel Company Limited, BP Exploration Peru Limited, BP Express Shopping Limited, BP Finance Australia Pty Ltd, BP Finance p.l.c., BP Foundation Incorporated, BP France, BP Fuels & Lubricants AS, BP Fuels Deutschland GmbH, BP GOM Logistics LLC, BP Gas & Power Investments Limited, BP Gas Europe S.A.U., BP Gas Marketing Limited, BP Gas Supply (Angola) LLC, BP Ghana Limited, BP Global Investments, BP Global Investments Limited, BP Global Investments Salalah & Co LLC, BP Global West Africa Limited, BP Greece Limited, BP Guangdong Limited, BP High Density Polyethylene - France, BP Holdings (Thailand) Limited, BP Holdings B.V., BP Holdings Canada, BP Holdings Canada Limited, BP Holdings International B.V., BP Holdings North America, BP Holdings North America Limited, BP Hong Kong Limited, BP India Private Limited, BP Indonesia Investment Limited, BP International, BP International Limited, BP International Services Company, BP Investment Management Limited, BP Investments Asia Limited, BP Iran Limited, BP Iraq N.V., BP Italia SpA, BP Japan K.K., BP Korea Limited, BP Kuwait Limited, BP LNG Shipping Limited, BP Latin America LLC, BP Latin America Upstream Services Inc., BP Lubricants KK, BP Lubricants USA Inc., BP Luxembourg S.A., BP Malaysia Holdings Sdn. Bhd., BP Management International B.V., BP Management Netherlands B.V., BP Marine Limited, BP Mariner Holding Company LLC, BP Maritime Services (Singapore) Pte. Limited, BP Marketing Egypt LLC, BP Mauritania Investments Limited, BP Mauritius Limited (in liquidation), BP Middle East Enterprises Corporation, BP Middle East LLC, BP Middle East Limited, BP Midstream Partners GP LLC, BP Midstream Partners Holdings LLC, BP Midstream Partners LP, BP Midwest Product Pipelines Holdings LLC, BP Mocambique Limitada, BP Mocambique Limited, BP Muturi Holdings B.V., BP Nederland Holdings BV, BP Netherlands Upstream B.V., BP New Ventures Middle East Limited, BP New Zealand Holdings Limited, BP New Zealand Share Scheme Limited, BP Nutrition Inc., BP Offshore Gathering Systems Inc., BP Offshore Pipelines Company LLC, BP Offshore Response Company LLC, BP Oil (Thailand) Limited, BP Oil Australia Pty Ltd, BP Oil Espana S.A., BP Oil Hellenic S.A., BP Oil International, BP Oil International Limited, BP Oil Kent Refinery Limited (in liquidation), BP Oil Llandarcy Refinery Limited, BP Oil Logistics UK Limited, BP Oil New Zealand Limited, BP Oil Pipeline Company, BP Oil Senegal S.A., BP Oil Shipping Company, BP Oil UK Limited, BP Oil Venezuela Limited, BP Oil Vietnam Limited, BP Oil Yemen Limited, BP Olex Fanal Mineralol GmbH, BP One Pipeline Company LLC, BP Pacific Investments Ltd, BP Pakistan (Badin) Inc., BP Pakistan Exploration and Production Inc., BP Pension Escrow Limited, BP Pension Trustees Limited, BP Pensions (Overseas) Limited, BP Pensions Limited, BP Petrochemicals India Investments Limited, BP Petroleo y Gas S.A., BP Petrolleri Anonim Sirketi, BP Pipelines (Alaska) Inc., BP Pipelines (BTC) Limited, BP Pipelines (North America) Inc., BP Pipelines (SCP) Limited, BP Pipelines (TANAP) Limited, BP Pipelines TAP Limited, BP Polska Services Sp. z o.o. Ul., BP Portugal -Comercio de Combustiveis e Lubrificantes SA, BP Poseidon Limited, BP Products North America, BP Products North America Inc., BP Properties Limited, BP Raffinaderij Rotterdam B.V., BP Refinery (Kwinana) Proprietary Limited, BP Regional Australasia Holdings Pty Ltd, BP River Rouge Pipeline Company LLC, BP Russian Investments Limited, BP Russian Ventures Limited, BP SC Holdings LLC, BP Scale Up Factory Limited, BP Senegal Investments Limited, BP Services International Limited, BP Servicios de Combustibles S.A. de C.V., BP Servicios territoriales S.A., BP Shafag-Asiman Limited, BP Shipping Limited, BP Singapore Pte. Limited, BP Solar Energy North America LLC, BP Solar Espana S.A., BP Solar International Inc., BP Solar Pty Ltd, BP South America Holdings Ltd, BP Southern Africa Proprietary Limited, BP Southern Cone Company, BP Subsea Well Response (Brazil) Limited, BP Subsea Well Response Limited, BP Taiwan Marketing Limited, BP Technology Ventures Inc., BP Technology Ventures Limited, BP Train 2/3 Holding SRL, BP Transportation (Alaska) Inc., BP Trinidad Processing Limited, BP Trinidad and Tobago, BP Trinidad and Tobago LLC, BP Turkey Refining Limited, BP Two Pipeline Company LLC, BP UK Retained Holdings Limited, BP Venezuela Investments B.V., BP West Aru I Limited, BP West Aru II Limited, BP West Papua I Limited, BP West Papua III Limited, BP Wind Energy North America Inc., BP Wiriagar Ltd., BP World-Wide Technical Services Limited, BP Zhuhai Chemical Company Limited, BP+Amoco International Limited, BP-AIOC Exploration (TISA) LLC, BPA Investment Holding Company, BPNE International B.V., BPRY Caribbean Ventures LLC, BPX (Eagle Ford) Gathering LLC, BPX (KCS Resources) LLC, BPX (Karnes) Gathering LLC, BPX (Permian) Gathering LLC, BPX (WSF Operating) Inc., BPX Energy Inc., BPX Midstream LLC, BPX Operating Company, BPX Production Company, BPX Properties (GP) LLC, BPX Properties (LP) LLC, BPX Properties (NA) LP, BTC Pipeline Holding Company Limited, BXL Plastics Limitedv, Bahia de Bizkaia Electridad S.L., Baltimore Ennis Land Company Inc., Black Lake Pipe Line Company, Brian Jasper Nominees Pty Ltd, Britannic Energy Trading Limited, Britannic Investments Iraq Limited, Britannic Marketing Limited, Britannic Strategies Limited, Britannic Trading Limited, Britoil Limited, Burmah Castrol, Burmah Castrol Australia Pty Ltd, Burmah Castrol Holdings Inc., Burmah Castrol PLC, Burmah Castrol South Africa (Pty) Limited, Burmah Chile SpA, Butamax Advanced Biofuels, CASTROL Austria GmbHb, CH-Twenty Inc., CNAA, Cadman DBP Limited, Casitas Pipeline Company, Castrol (China) Limited, Castrol (Ireland) Limited, Castrol (Shanghai) Management Co. 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Limited, Castrol B.V., Castrol BP Petco Limited Liability Company, Castrol Brasil Ltda., Castrol Caribbean & Central America Inc., Castrol Colombia Ltda., Castrol Del Peru S.A., Castrol Egypt Lubricants S.A.E., Castrol India Limited, Castrol Industrie und Service GmbH, Castrol KK, Castrol Limited, Castrol Lubricants RO S.R.L, Castrol Mexico S.A., Castrol Namibia (Pty) Limited, Castrol Offshore Limited, Castrol Pakistan (Private) Limited, Castrol Philippines Inc., Castrol Servicos Ltda., Castrol Ukraine LLC, Castrol Zimbabwe (Private) Limited, Centrel Pty Ltd, Charge Your Car Limitedc, Chargemaster, Chargemaster (Europe) GmbH, Chargemaster Limited, Charging Solutions Limited, Clarisse Holdings Pty Ltd, Coastwise Trading Company Inc., Consolidada de Energia y Lubricantes (CENERLUB) C.A., Conti Cross Keys Inn Inc., Coro Trading NZ Limited, Cuyama Pipeline Company, DHC Solvent Chemie GmbH, Dermody Developments Pty Ltd, Dermody Holdings Pty Ltd, Dermody Investments Pty Ltd, Dermody Petroleum Pty. 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(In liquidation), Puente Arce 4 S.L., Remediation Management Services Company, Richfield Oil Corporation, Rio Corvo 2 S.L., Rolling Thunder I Power Partners LLC, Romax Insight Korea Ltd., Ropemaker Deansgate Limited, Ropemaker Properties Limited, Ruhr Oel GmbH, Rusdene GSS Limited, SOFAST Limited, SRHP, Saturn Insurance Inc., Sherbino I Holdings LLC, Sherbino Mesa I Land Investments LLC, Sociedade de Promocao Imobiliaria Quinta do Loureiro SA, Societe de Gestion de Depots d'Hydrocarbures - GDH, South Texas Shale LLC, Southeast Texas Biofuels LLC, Southern Ridge Pipeline Holding Company, Southern Ridge Pipeline LP LLC, Sp/f Decision3 (GreenSteam) Company, Standard Oil Company, Standard Oil Company Inc., Standard Oil of Ohio, Stryde Limited, Sunrise Oil Sands Partnership, TISA Education Complex LLC, TJKK, Taradadis Pty. Ltd., Telcom General Corporation, Terre de Grace Partnership, The Anaconda Company, The BP Share Plans Trustees Limited, The Burmah Oil Company (Pakistan Trading) Limited, The Standard Oil Company, Toledo Refinery Holding Company LLC, Torrelavega 7 S.L., Union Texas International Corporation, Vastar Pipeline LLC, Veba Oel AG Veba Oel, Verenium, Viceroy Investments Limited, Villacarriedo 8 S.L., Warrenville Development Limited, Water Way Trading and Petroleum Services LLC, Welchem Inc., West Kimberley Fuels Pty Ltd, Westlake Houston Development LLC, Whiting Clean Energy Inc., Windpark Energy Nederland B.V., and Winwell Resources L.L.C.
Weatherford International plc, an oilfield service company, provides equipment and services for the drilling, evaluation, completion, production, and intervention of oil and natural gas wells worldwide. The company operates in two segments, Western Hemisphere and Eastern Hemisphere. It offers artificial lift systems, including reciprocating rod, progressing cavity pumping, gas, hydraulic, plunger, and hybrid lift systems, as well as related automation and control systems; pressure pumping and reservoir stimulation services, such as acidizing, fracturing and fluid systems, cementing, and coiled-tubing intervention; and drill stem test tools, and surface well testing and multiphase flow measurement services. The company also provides safety, downhole reservoir monitoring, flow control, and multistage fracturing systems, as well as sand-control technologies, and production and isolation packers; liner hangers to suspend a casing string in high-temperature and high-pressure wells; cementing products, including plugs, float and stage equipment, and torque-and-drag reduction technology for zonal isolation; and pre-job planning and installation services. In addition, it offers directional drilling services, and logging and measurement services while drilling; services related to rotary-steerable systems, high-temperature and high-pressure sensors, drilling reamers, and circulation subs; managed pressure drilling, conventional mud-logging, drilling instrumentation, gas analysis, wellsite consultancy, and open hole and cased-hole logging services; reservoir solutions and software products; and intervention and remediation services. Further, the company provides equipment and drilling tools; tubular handling, management, and connection services; equipment rental services; and onshore contract drilling and related services through a fleet of land drilling and workover rigs. Weatherford International plc was incorporated in 1972 and is headquartered in Baar, Switzerland.

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SRC Energy Inc., an oil and natural gas company, engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, and production of oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids primarily in the Denver-Julesburg Basin of Colorado. As of December 31, 2018, it had net proved oil and natural gas reserves of 88 million barrels of oil and condensate, 771.9 billion cubic feet of natural gas, and 89.1 million barrels of natural gas liquids; and operated 985 net producing wells, as well as had 95,200 gross and 86,200 net acres under lease in the Wattenberg Field. The company was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Denver, Colorado.

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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...
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Profit-before-tax for the telecom service sector companies has decreased from Rs (-) 1,699 crore for the financial year 2015-16 to Rs (-)38,153 crore.

New Delhi: Telecom companies' pre-tax losses widened to a staggering Rs 38,153 crore in the 2016-17 fiscal from Rs 1,699 crore in the preceding year, Parliament was informed on Wednesday. Also, 24 out of 50 companies reported losses before tax during 2016-17, the government said.

"Based on audited/unaudited information submitted by telecom service sector companies to TRAI, the profit-before-tax (PBT) for the telecom service sector companies has decreased from Rs (-) 1,699 crore for the financial year 2015-16 to Rs (-)38,153 crore for the financial year 2016-17," Sinha said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

"The government ensures healthy competition in telecom sector. Recently, TRAI has reiterated the regulatory principles of non-predatory, non-discrimination and transparency in tariff offers vide Telecommunication Tariff (63rd Amendment) Order, 2018 on February 16, 2018," Sinha said.

The note of minister's reply mentioned that the likelihood of a company getting into financial stress is high when the debt to Ebitda ratio is 4 times or above on a sustained basis.

As per data shared by Sinha, telecom major Airtel had the debt to Ebitda ratio of 3 times, Idea Cellular 5.8 times and Reliance Communications (RCom) 7.4 times. In view of financial stress and market scenario, Idea Cellular opted for combining its wireless business with Vodafone and RCom decided to adopt strategic debt restructuring process.

Sinha said that bankruptcy petitions have been filed by Aircel and its subsidiaries before National Company Law Tribunal. He said that during radiation audit by the vigilance arm of the Department of Telecom (DoT), it was revealed that most of the mobile towers of Aircel were switched off which led to non-generation of porting code and further causing great inconvenience of the customers.

"It has also been mentioned that the quality of service being offered to the customers is getting adversely affected... DoT has issued direction to M/s Aircel Limited on 19.03.2018 for compliance of various clauses of the agreement including those relating to customer services and quality of performance," Sinha said.
Mumbai: Bollywood's most desirable Alia Bhatt, who recently celebrated her 25th birthday, is continuing to entertain everyone with her magical performances.

During a recent interaction with a leading daily, the 'Highway' actress revealed that she would like to be a part of a multi-heroine project. She mentioned, "Ive never been offered such a movie. I havent rejected a film because it was a two-heroine outing. Instead, I want to do something which has only women. I think we will have amazing camaraderie and it will be a fun film."

When she was asked about the co-actors she would like to work with, Alia said, "Katrina (Kaif) is one of my closest friends, so we keep talking about doing a film. Its the same with Deepika (Padukone). It will be amazing to act in a movie with such powerful women. Ive made a pact with Kat and DP that we will do films together."

The 25-year-old actor also spoke about changing times for women in the industry. She concluded by saying, "It has become progressive for actresses today. But, theres still a long way to go. The best thing is that now, they are standing by each other. For instance, imagine Dil Chahta Hai being remade with three girls today. It would be wonderful. Im game for a good chick flick."

On the work front, Alia is back to the Bay amid her Bulgaria schedule of 'Brahmastra' due to injury. Alia also has Zoya Akhtar's 'Gully Boy' alongside Ranveer Singh.
Mumbai: Tiger Shroff is a well-known face for various brands. He endorses an innerwear brand, which had arranged a meet-and-greet with his fans.

The contest, held since a year, was named Show Off with Tiger Shroff, which promised the fans a trip to Cape Town with their favourite superstar.

The usually humble Tiger was contacted by the organizers in January, and he agreed thinking that he could promote Baaghi 2 as well there, but in February, the actor suddenly put forth his terms and conditions.

A source close to the event informed Spotboye that Tiger Shroff, wanted not one or two but six members from his staff to accompany him to Cape Town.

The organizers requested Tiger to cut down on his staff, but it appears that the actor was in his Baaghi mode as he refused to adjust.

At the end, the brand had to take the winners to Cape Town and arrange a meeting with Tiger in Mumbai itself.

They wrote, The winners will get to go to Cape Town and a meet and greet session with Tiger Shroff will take place in Mumbai. Note: Tiger Shroff will not be accompanying the winners to Cape Town.

It was quite an unfortunate instance for the hopeful fans who thought that they could explore Cape Town with their idol by their side.
Sanjay Dutt is the third in my series of untold stories about famous film personalities. When I was writing about Rajesh Khanna after he passed away, most of the people wanted to talk and share stories about Kaka. During the research on Rekha, nobody wanted to talk beyond her films. And in the case of Sanjay Dutt nobody wanted to talk about him at all. And now Sanjay himself, doesnt want us to talk about him.

The decision to write the book, Sanjay Dutt: The Crazy Untold Story of Bollywoods Bad Boy, was a personal one. In a family passionate about everything Bollywood  my father has been a great admirer of Sunil Dutt  every time the Dutt family passed through a frightening tragedy, it was Sunil Dutt who we empathised with. My book, essentially, is a father-son story and in many ways it is Sunil Dutt who towers over it. He put everything at stake for his incorrigibly errant son. Can you think of another life story that is more epic Bollywood in its reality? My attempt to document this story  the good, the bad and, at times, the disastrously absurd  is a journalistic one, complete with the conflicts, the mistakes, the many heart-breaking tragedies, and the overwhelming triumphs. It is the story of a family of film stars that is sometimes difficult to comprehend with such moments of insanity that are often stranger than any fiction. This is a spectacular story.

In a career spanning almost four decades and more than 100 films, Sanjay Dutt has only around 10 noteworthy films, a poor average by any standard. Then what did people see in him? Why was he such a big A-list star for years? Why did his fans emulated his macho personality, the rippling muscles, long hair, smoking and drinking? This intense devotion of his fans made me more curious. Also, as a keen observer of Bollywood, I was dismayed at how our perception of Sanjay Dutt shaped post-1993. How it over-defined him. And when I started researching, it was shocking to know that the signs were always there. How many people know, for instance, that almost a decade before the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, Sanjay was involved in a shooting spree in the posh Pali Hill area for which he was even arrested?

Sanjay Dutt was perhaps the first offender who made the offence seem cool, legitimised through the lens of Bollywoods familial loyalties and stardom. And he let this get to his head.

In fact, when he was arrested for his alleged involvement in the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts, the common narrative in the film industry and in a large part of the media was to project him as foolish, stupid or naive. I strongly debunk this theory with anecdotal evidence. Sanjay told the police he acquired the deadly AK-56 and ammunition for the safety of his family from the rioters. In my book, it becomes clear that he already had three licensed arms and one unlicensed gun before he willingly acquired the AK-56 for which he was later incarcerated. Given the facts, how does one challenge Bollywoods collective, persuasive perception that he was just a naive fool?

It was easier said than done. This is where unauthorised but journalistic accounts come into play. I have personally always felt that many film books, biographies or memoirs on popular cinema are either safe insider versions that make everyone happy, or boring academic cinema books. Sometimes, the subjects try to look back at their lives through rose-tinted glasses. The positive events are talked about in detail, but uncomfortable facts are wrapped up in a few lines. For an unauthorised biographical account, the research is extremely long and tedious because there is no one-point reference source for all your information.

Very few wanted to talk about Sanjay at all. Some were scared, a few said this will affect his case (which is over) and some said that he is a misunderstood boy (of 58 years). It was a difficult and humbling experience chasing people who want to ignore you. I had to bear the suspicions and royal ignore of people from Bollywood. My requests for telephonic interviews or meetings regularly went unanswered. People either hung-up on me or had no time to meet or talk.

There were two instances where I even flew down to Mumbai and Chennai as a star and a filmmaker had promised to talk. They ditched. But, thankfully, over a period of time few crucial ones agreed to speak and gave great interviews. Thats how journalism works. No one can control everyone. In Sanjay Dutts book, it was Mahesh Bhatt, Sanjay Dutts classmates and teachers from school, co-stars and many police officers who shared their memories and stories of him.

People ask me if not talking to the subject and his family is a handicap. I agree, it would have been so much better had I got an opportunity to interview him at length apart from the ones I have done with him around his films. But then, how do you research and write about history? In the absence of the primary source, you look for the secondary sources for piecing the narrative together. Can you imagine the incredible media coverage that a controversial star of his stature would have commanded?

I went through hundreds of interviews, books and journals  some of them rare and definitive. The foremost challenge was to gain access to such archives and separate the wheat from the chaff. I spoke with his directors, co-stars, technicians and also journalists who interviewed him. I talked to a number of people to weave his filmography subtly into the narrative. The crucial films walk hand-in-hand with details of his personal life  both having affected each other, and being affected by each other. At the end of it, I believe, I have presented a star as a human with many dimensions.

So while Sanjay Dutt can question how can there be an unauthorised account of his life but that is a journalistic right that he cannot, and should not, deny anyone. A public life cannot just be seen through rose tinted glasses and selective amnesia.

Yasser Usman is a television journalist and film commentator
When I saw the cover of The Wounds of the Dead by Vikram Paralkar  a small house, looking lost and lonely, in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by a copse of trees  I felt a strong sense of bleakness. But when I read the blurb, I felt intrigued because magic realism is my latest favourite genre and The Wounds of the Dead fits in perfectly there. Im sure the title would have given you a clue about who the protagonist is. And if your guess is that the person is a doctor/surgeon, you are right.

The protagonist is an old surgeon, disillusioned with life. He was chucked out of his cushy job in a posh city hospital due to the machinations of a diabolical colleague who framed him in a case of malpractice and bribery. He has no option but to work in a dilapidated, rural clinic with a pharmacist who doubles up as his nurse and attends to the villagers.

One of the first patients we meet is a farmer whose forearm has been slit with a sickle. A cockroach disturbs the surgeon, who in anger stamps on it, snuffing out its life, thereby inviting a fumigation of his clinic, a night before he has to administer polio vaccine to children. It has been three dull years since the surgeon, who lives in a tiny quarter nearby, has arrived at this clinic.

The next day, the surgeon and his pharmacist, battling eye-watering fumes of formaldehyde, await the arrival of the polio vaccine which is late by several hours. Finally, a pompous official in a faded safari jacket reaches the small hillock on top of which the clinic is situated, carrying the vaccine. The surgeon and the official have a war of words, each threatening the other. It is during this verbal duel that we get to know the pathetic condition of the clinic.

After the polio vaccination gets over and all the women and children leave, it is late evening. While the surgeons head is buried in his ledger making entries, three visitors  a man, his full-term pregnant wife and their eight-year-old son  enter his clinic with a rather strange request. They tell the surgeon that they are seriously injured and need surgery. When the surgeon inspects them, he is shocked because though their wounds are deep, no blood is gushing out of those. The man tells the surgeon that they were attacked by four men on their way to home.

When the surgeon asks them how did they stop their bleeding?, the man answers, We dont know. The surgeons next question is, Then how did you survive? The teacher replies, We didnt. This reply sent chills down my spine.

The man, a teacher, tells the surgeon that an official in the afterlife, taking pity on them, granted them life with the stipulation that if they get their surgeries done during the course of the night then at sunrise they would get their life back. As the night wears on, the surgeon operates upon them.

The entire novel spans out during the course of this one, long night. As the surgeon conducts these risky surgeries, we become privy to the secrets the teacher harbours, the danger to which he has exposed the surgeon, the pharmacist and her husband.

The book had every chance of falling into a dull and boring read but Paralkar, like a skilled surgeon, manages to save it from the malady of dullness by keeping it alive with suspense.

Magic realism is a difficult genre to pull off but Paralkar has managed to do so with aplomb. Though Paralkar doesnt name any of the main characters: they are called surgeon, pharmacist, her husband, teacher, woman and boy, there is no sense of disconnect with them. And Paralkars medical background (he is a doctor) is emphasised by the intricate detailing of the surgery, which is interesting.

The language of the book is quite evocative: The sun was a bag of blood sliced open by the horizon, smearing the brick houses. The parched ground stretched before him, covered with a rash of dry yellow weed.

Paralkar is truly a remarkable writer who breathes life into his characters by elevating them from sketchy creatures to the ones that readers can connect with. And in doing so he stakes his claim to that title. The book is rivetting.

The theme of the novel is both magically unreal, with a touch of absurd, and a little bit philosophical but it all ties up well with the genre of the story.

Though the year has just started and many more such books are likely to come out, I would definitely put The Wounds of the Dead as one of my top favourites of the year.

Rachna Chhabria is a Bengaluru-based childrens author and a freelance writer
Chennai Weekend Artists  the name says it all. Artists, all of them amateurs, coming together on weekends to draw, paint, learn and share knowledge; everyone connected by the common passion of artistic talent. What started as a seven-member Facebook group by techie Muralidharan Alagar in 2012 has grown into a community of over 17,900 virtual members  nearly a hundred of them super active, who, during weekends, gather at spots in and around Chennai to sketch and paint.

Every Sunday, 20-30 persons gather by 10 am, roaming around, settling down with their canvases, palette or drawing books and copy what they see. It might be sketches or paintings or portraits. By 1 pm, they assemble at a spot where they exhibit their works, talk about the techniques and share their ideas. At times, they get a prominent artist to speak to them. By evening, the artworks and photographs are shared on the Facebook page.

It might be sketches or paintings or portraits.

Explaining how it all began, Muralidharan says, I came to Chennai in 2012 from Bengaluru, where I was associated with the groups Urban Sketchers and Pencil Jammers, who meet every weekend for sketching. Chennai lacked such a group and thats how I started Chennai Weekend Artists, says Muralidharan, who quit his software job to pursue art full time.

Hunting for interesting places and subjects, the team has covered almost every park, beach, temple, museum and mall in the city  Nageswara Rao Park, Anna Nagar Tower Park, Madava Perumal Koil, Egmore Museum, Kalakshetra, Kapaleeswarar Temple, Natesan Park, etc. Now they are exploring places like Thanjavur, Darasuram, Gangaikonda Cholapuram, Kanchipuram, Pulicate Lake and Pondicherry. The latest visit has been to the IIT-M campus where they interacted with noted graffiti artist from Denmark, Frida Stiil Vium. We invite artists like Trotsky Marudhu and Maruthi for interactive sessions, he adds. Every year, they hold exhibitions and last year, they collaborated with the art show AIM for Seva Krupa Homes to support an institution.

The group has no specific age group  from 10-year-old Akhil and 12-year-old Manav to sexagenarians Aleem and Balaji, its a big family of three generations. Alok Kumar, a techie who has been part of the group since 2013, admits to have never given any weekend camp a miss. All of us have been into drawing and painting since childhood, but somewhere down the lane, as career and responsibilities took over, we had to bury it all. Being part of the group is the happiest thing that has happened to people like me, says the Bihar native, who has been a Chennaiite for over a decade.

The aim of CWA is to appreciate art works and provide guidance to each other, which, we believe, is being carried out wonderfully, says Murali, who believes that art is a tool to bring together people, like his little idea did, and help prevail harmony, peace and greater communication where words fail.
A post mortem showed Diana had been stabbed in the neck and head with a scimitar-style sword.

In a shocking revelation, a man allegedly murdered his pregnant wife with a sword, believing that she was a hybrid human who would take over the world.

Arrested and tried, he has now claimed he was insane at the time.

John Ziegler IIIs lawyers filed a mental health plea for him earlier this month for the murders of Diana Ziegler, 25, and their unborn baby girl last January in Pennsylvania.

Prosecutors have called for Ziegler to receive the death penalty.

He claims he believed if he killed his heavily pregnant wife he would save the planet from a global hybrid human conspiracy.

According to the suspected killer, he believed Diana was the queen bee of the cult and that she must be killed in order to protect the world.

When he was arrested last year, Ziegler claimed he could control the weather, with his emotions.

He also told cops he had been feeling off in the months leading up to her death.

A post mortem showed Diana had been stabbed in the neck and head with a scimitar-style sword.

It also stated the sword used was four inches wide.

Dianna had be beaten so badly that parts of her skull were found scattered across the houses deck.
The victim working in Betul, a place situated within 178 kilometre from the capital of Bhopal, was identified as Manish and is currently under medical care. (Photo: Twitter | ANI)

Betul (Madhya Pradesh): A worker at an eatery in Madhya Pradeshs Betul district was allegedly stripped and thrashed by his manager for eating more than his allotted share of food.

The victim working in Betul, a place situated within 178 kilometre from the capital of Bhopal, was identified as Manish and is currently under medical care.

According to a report in NDTV, the owner of the eatery has already been arrested.

Tiffs and scuffles amid employees at dhabas and local restaurants are common.

Earlier in March, a 30-year-old customer at a Delhi dhaba was murdered allegedly by three of its employees after he grumbled over the quality of food he was served.

The victim was at Preet Vihars Kamal Dhaba. When he complained about food quality, three workers of the eatery allegedly hit him multiple times with a broken ladle, police said. The three accused were later held.

Another report by the Delhi Police says, out of 462 murder cases filed in 2017, killings over petty issues comprised 18 per cent.
The incident occurred on Wednesday morning when the boy was relieving himself in an under-construction structure on the premises of the school. (Photo: Representational/File)

Thane: A 12-year-old boy was allegedly hacked to death on Wednesday by unidentified persons on the premises of a school in Thane, Maharashtra, police said.

The incident occurred on Wednesday morning when the boy was relieving himself in an under-construction structure on the premises of the school, a police official said.

The boy was class 4 student. According to police, the boy was attacked with an axe on his neck and hips.

The victim's body was sent to the government hospital for postmortem.

Additional SP, Thane, Prashant Kadam said the motive behind the killing is not known immediately.

No arrests have been made so far, he said.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A 36-year-old radio jockey was hacked to death in front of his recording studio at Madavoor Junction under Pallickal police station on Tuesday. The police identified him as Rajesh alias Rasikan Rajesh, son of Radhakrishnan and Vasantha of Asha Nivas, Padinjattela, Kilimanoor. The man along with his friend Kuttan, 50, of Vellalloor was loading equipment into to a car when the vehicle carrying assailants started running zigzag near them.

They were gazing at the red hatchback when masked assailants jumped out and hacked both of them around 1.45 am. A bleeding Kuttan managed to run away, but Rajesh was pinned down. He ran for few kilometres and knocked the doors of several houses for help, but none gave him asylum. Finally, he got help from a known person who alerted the police and rushed to the studio. By, the time police arrived and took Rajesh to a hospital at Parippally where he was declared dead. Kuttan is recuperating at Medical College Hospital (MCH).

Rajesh was an RJ with Big FM and had worked with Voice of Kerala FM station in Qatar for two years. On his return, he joined mimicry and folks song troupes and started the Metras Media and Communications. He had just returned from a programme and finished his meal. He was urgently wrapping up some studio works as he had to head to Chennai the next day. Attingal deputy superintendent of police is leading the investigation. They suspect personal issues behind the murder. He leaves his wife, Rohini, and son, Arjun. The body was handed over to relatives after an autopsy.
Hyderabad: A Chittoor based firm is under the scanner of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for allegedly cheating Saptagiri Grameena Bank to the tune of Rs 1,836.95 lakh. Following the case, CBI sleuths conducted searches at several places in Chittoor district of AP.

An FIR registered by the CBI names the firm as Sri Balaji Cold Storage represented by R. Royal Kumar located at Gokul Street in Punganur of Chittoor district.

The others named in the FIR are Dwarakamal Rural Godown represented by R. Deepa, G. Mallikarjuna Rao, G. Anuradha, R. Shobha Rani and T. Harindranatha Sama and unknown public servants.

The bank officials alleged that the loans obtained by 150 farmers were transferred to the savings bank accounts of the partners of the cold storage and rural godown and thus they were the beneficiaries of the loan amount.

According to the CBI officials, regional manager of the Saptagiri Grameena Bank alleged that Sri Balaji Cold Storage and Sri Dwarakamai Rural Godown owned by R. Royal Kumar and his family members had issued ware house receipts to around 150 farmers. The receipts stated that the farmers had stored a stock of tamarind and tamarind seeds in the cold storage and the godown.

Both the firms also gave a guarantee and undertaking to Saptagiri Grameena Bank that the stocks will be released when the original ware house receipts are produced to the firms. However, the firms allegedly released the stocks without collecting the ware house receipts from the farmers. The farmers had deposited the ware house receipts with the banks as guarantee and obtained Agriculture Produce Marketing Loans (APML) to the tune of Rs 1,464.60 lakh from the bank.

The bank officials had alleged that the cold storage unit and rural godown intentionally delivered/released the stock of tamarind and tamarind seeds which was primary security for the loan extended by the bank. All the 150 accounts were declared NPA on June 30, 2017 and the firms released the stock without the banks knowledge. Following a complaint made by the bank, the Economic Offence Wing of the CBI registered a case and investigation has begun.
Bengaluru: Claiming that the pontiffs objecting to the expert committee formed to look into granting of an independent religious status to Lingayats/Veerashaivas were pro-BJP, a forum formed to pursue the demand voted in favour of the panel on Monday.

Speaking to reporters here, forum members JD(S) leader, Basavaraja Horatti, former IAS officer, S M Jamdhar, Mr Jayanna and Mr Basavaraj Patil also claimed that the Veerashaiva/Lingayat leaders convention in Gadag on Sunday was not a Akhila Bharathiya Veerashaiva Mahasabha, show but of the Panchapeeta. The pontiffs, who participated in it were pro-BJP. One of the pontiffs at the convention alleged that the Chief Minister was dividing the community, but this is not true. Another pontiff called the three ministers involved in the movement three idiots, they deplored, noting that the report of the seven-member expert committee would be discussed by the state Cabinet before it takes any action in the matter. Also, all applications received by the government from the Veerashaiva Mahasabha, Mathe Mahadevi, the Panchapeeta and Viraktha mutts would be forwarded to the expert panel, which would go through them and make its recommendations to the Karnataka State Minorities Commission.

The Veerashaiva Mahasabha and Panchapeeta pontiffs don't have valid documents to support their argument and fear their application will be rejected. The Panchapeeta seers are responsible for the ongoing confusion. They should keep quiet till we get the separate religion tag. They are playing worse politics than seen in the corridors of Vidhana Soudha," they charged.

Recalling that their plea for a separate religious status for Lingayats/Veerashaivas was rejected by the Union government in the past, they said another memorandum would be submitted to it on the issue.

Basava Dal threatens to boycott pancha peetas

The Rashtriya Basava Sena has threatened to boycott heads of the Pancha Peetas if they continue to oppose the formation of a seven-member expert panel to look into applications seeking separate religion status for Lingayats.

In a release here on Monday, Dr Ravi Biradar of the Sena dubbed the heads of the five Peetas as 'opportunists' who want government rules and regulations to be tuned as they wish.

It was this same group of seers who went to former PM Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee seeking Scheduled Caste benefits for 'Beda Jangama'.

In fact, hundreds of sub-castes among Lingayats will get benefits which religious minorities get and even associations and mutts wil get aid from the government. "We need not take lessons from these pontiffs. Basavanna is the founder of Lingayat religion and the vachanas are our religious text. In fact, 99 sub-castes come under the umbrella of one religion-Lingayat," he said.
65-year-old fisherwoman, hit by a vehicle, lay bleeding in the middle of a busy road in Kadakkavoor, with vehicles passing her by without stopping for help. (Screengrab | ANI)

Thiruvananthapuram: In a shocking turn of events, a 65-year-old fisherwoman, hit by a vehicle, lay bleeding in the middle of a busy road in Kadakkavoor, with vehicles passing her by without stopping to help.

The public apathy was caught on security cameras that show several vehicles including bikers, cars, buses and vans passing her after the woman falls to the road. No one stops to help and no calls were apparently made to the police either.

Later locals were seen crowding around the woman as mute spectators, until a young man steps in to help the victim of hit and run. Around the same time, a passing police car stops and takes her to the hospital.

Police source to NDTV said, "We were not informed of this incident. We were just passing the place and stopped by seeing the crowd gather. We rushed her to a local hospital, from there she was taken to the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College yesterday."

Police have arrested a 20-year old man who was riding the two wheeler along with two other pillion riders. All three of them were not wearing helmets.
The no-confidence notice of Chandrababu Naidu's TDP has not been taken up in Lok Sabha for over two weeks due to the persistent protests by Tamil Nadu's ruling AIADMK over Cauvery waters. (Photo: File)

Amaravati: Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who is fighting for special status for his state, has said that he will visit Delhi in April to meet representatives of all political parties. Naidu said this at an all-party meeting at Amaravati on Tuesday, adding that the visit will take place on April 2 and April 3.

Speaking about the meeting, he said, "Meeting is convened as emergency to take everyone's suggestions and decide how to go forward in Parliament. We have invited organisations that fought for the state during bifurcation and the ones fighting now.

On March 16, the ruling TDP reached a deadlock with BJP over the non-issuance of 'special category status' to the state, and the former ultimately quit the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance at the Centre.

The no-confidence notice of Chandrababu Naidu's TDP has not been taken up in Lok Sabha for around two weeks due to the persistent protests by Tamil Nadu's ruling AIADMK over Cauvery waters. The party has made it clear that they will not support the demand by Andhra Pradesh. The other protesting party, Telangana's TRS, said it would not obstruct the no-confidence motions against the BJP-led Central government.

"We have been hoping each day that discussion would happen on No-Confidence motion," Naidu told party representatives at the meeting in new state capital Amaravati, called to decide the way forward.

At the national level, most political parties, including the Congress, the Left Front and the Trinamool Congress, have supported Andhra Pradesh's demands and its no-confidence move. Congress president Rahul Gandhi has accused the Centre of dodging a discussion on the no-confidence motion.

"We are giving information on important aspects to all political parties through pen drives," said Naidu, whose state hopes to beat Bengaluru to become the country's cyber-capital.

At the all-party meeting, Chief Minister Naidu also denied the allegations of the opposition YSR Congress, which has accused him of pushing the special status issue at the Centre to gain political points in the state and cited the demand of the timing as evidence.

Naidu contended that it was no recent move for his government. In the last four years, he has visited Delhi 29 times and "reminded the Centre of all promises to be fulfilled", he said.

"I have reminded them of 16,000 crores revenue deficit several times. They have announced Special Assistance Measure equivalent to Special Category Status. Even then, I categorically said that all benefits of Special Category Status must be given," he added.
The letter of the mutt seer came a day after BJP chief Amit Shah accused the ruling Congress party in Karnataka of creating a rift between the Hindus. (Photo: ANI/Twitter)

Tumakuru: Seer Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru of Chitradurga Mutt on Wednesday wrote a letter to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah, requesting him to support the Karnataka government's decision of granting minority status to Lingayats community.

In the letter to Shah, Seer termed the ongoing movement in Karnataka between the followers of Lingayats and Veerashaiva Lingayats community as a 'temporary outbreak of emotions', which will not last long.

He said granting special status to the community will unite the divided sub-castes of Lingayats.

"Minority status to this religion will deliver some benefits to youth of community --individually and collectively. It is not a step to divide community but a measure to unite divided sub-castes of Lingayats," the letter read.

The letter of the seer came a day after Shah accused the ruling Congress party in Karnataka of creating a rift between the Hindus.

Earlier on Tuesday, while addressing a public rally in Davanagere city ahead of the state assembly election, Shah said, "On one hand their party president (Rahul Gandhi) talks about uniting Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, and Christians, on the other hand, their chief minister (Siddaramaiah) is creating a divide between Hindus. Such a major internal conflict is not there in any other party."

Also read: Siddaramaiah trying to divide Hindus with Lingayat card: Amit Shah

The elections to the 224-seat assembly will be held on May 12, and the results will be declared on May 15.

Also read: Karnataka to vote on May 12, result May 15; row over 'leaked' dates

While the Congress party is trying to retain power in Karnataka, the BJP is pulling all stops to regain the southern state into its fold.
Bengaluru: The Indian Police Service (IPS) officer from Karnataka, D Roopa, who shot into the limelight for uncovering the alleged special privileges enjoyed by VK Sasikala in a Bengaluru jail, has landed into a fresh controversy. This one is over an award the "Namma Bengaluru Award" that she refused to accept because it comes with a high cash reward.

But "she was never offered this award and so, there was no case of her turning it down," Namma Bengaluru Foundation shot back on Tuesday.

The Namma Bengaluru Foundation also alleged relentless lobbying for the award by Roopa, "There were multiple communication by this nominee to lobby both to jury, NBF team and trustees."

The non-profit organisation called the officer's announcement that she wasn't going to accept the award "immature malicious conduct by a nominee who did not make it to the final winner".

"Never in the long history of recognising the heroes of our city by a jury of respected Bengalureans have we experienced this relentless lobbying for the award, then followed by this immature malicious conduct by a nominee who did not make it to the final winner," the statement by the NGO read.

D Roopa is currently the Inspector General of Police (Home Guard and Civil Defence, Bengaluru).

D Roopa's handwritten letter to the organisers declining the award had earlier been released by news agency ANI. In this, she had pointed out that she could not accept the award because it carried a heavy cash award "and my conscience does not permit me for this".

Also Read: D Roopa, Karnataka IPS officer who exposed Sasikala jail perks, refuses award

She had also underlined that government officials had to "maintain equidistance from all quasi-political bodies and associations that have the bare minimum political overtone".

The reference to the "political overtones" of the award was seen to be a reference to its links to Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the BJP lawmaker who founded the organisation and continues to support it.

D Roopa had followed it up with a tweet on Tuesday, underlining why Namma Bengaluru Award wasn't good for government servants. Because it came with a monetary component and was involved in activities which may prove embarrassing for the government.

The foundation, she tweeted, had dragged the government to court in several cases including the ones relating to the now-scrapped steel flyover linking the city to the international airport.

In a statement, Namma Bengaluru Foundation said D Roopa had never spoken about these views as long as she was a nominee. "Her views have surfaced only after the jury had decided the final winner," the statement said, dismissing her public stand as "dramatics" that make her disappointment at not getting the award "obvious".
New Delhi: Amid the controversy over data leakage surrounding social media giant Facebook, Election Commission chief O.P. Rawat on Tuesday gave a thumbs up to the beleaguered company saying that it would remain the election body's social media partner during the Karnataka assembly elections. He said that use of social media cannot be stopped due to instances of "aberrations".

He also said that the social media cell of the EC would go into the issue of apps of politicians and political parties sharing user data without the users' consent. He said that the cell will make its recommendations on the issue to the Commission which would then take a decision.

"Any aberration won't stop the use of modern technology... Bank frauds have taken place, but we don't stop banking," he said, announcing the Karnataka assembly poll schedule.

The chief election commissioner (CEC) said that social media is a reality and EC will take all precautions to prevent episodes which adversely affect Indian elections.

The CEC had last week said the poll panel would coordinate with the enforcement agencies for suggestions to prevent "unlawful" activities such as attempts to influence polls. He had made the remarks following revelations about data harvesting by the British poll consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica through Facebook. The EC uses Facebook to encourage young people to enrol as voters.
Following the meeting, Ram Madhav said that he received an assurance from the Finance Commissions chairman that the states with progressive population would not be penalised. (Photo: File/PTI)

New Delhi: BJP general secretary Ram Madhav met NK Singh, chairperson of the 15th Finance Commission on Tuesday to place before him the concerns of southern states which have objected to the parameters chosen by the panel for the devolution of finances after the inclusion of the 2011 census as the baseline for allocations.

The meeting came after south leaders, including Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, DMK leader MK Stalin and Kerala Finance Minister TM Thomas Isaac had flagged worries that the inclusion of the 2011 census will reward the more populous north India while their share of tax revenue will decline only because their population has decreased.

Following the meeting, Ram Madhav said that he received an assurance from the Finance Commissions chairman that the states with progressive population would not be penalised.

According to a report in The Indian Express, BJP general secretary Ram Madhav said, The chairman assured that the guidelines are such that no state with progressive population policy would face injustice. He said that the terms of reference ensure that no discrimination is committed against the states with progressive population policies and measures.

In fact, he even said they (guidelines) have the scope for incentivising such actions, he added.

The BJP has recently faced criticisms for not fulfilling special status demand made by political parties in Andhra Pradesh. The ruling TDP not only walked out of the NDA alliance but also gave no-confidence motion against the Centre in Lok Sabha. Even YSRCP has given a notice for moving no-confidence motion.

Amid this controversy, Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah alleged discrimination against southern states, citing the central governments recommendation to Finance Commission to use population data from the 2011 census for sharing central tax revenues. Earlier, census of 1971 was being used.

Madhavs meeting is being seen as an attempt made by BJP to remove its tag of being an anti-south party in view of the 2019 election. As BJP fears losing some seats in its stronghold states such as Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, it wants to make up to that by winning more seats in the southern states. The prospects of the party in south would diminish more if all the southern states come together.

The BJP has to pre-empt such a move, a senior party leader said.
Opposition parties are circulating an unprecedented petition for sacking Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, leaders of the NCP have confirmed. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: Backed by several opposition parties, Congress is leading efforts to bring an impeachment motion in the parliament against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra.

The parties are circulating an unprecedented petition for sacking the Chief Justice of India, leaders of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) have confirmed.

NCPs Majeed Memon said signatures of 20 members have been collected so far. Three Congress leaders, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Kapil Sibal and Ahmed Patel have reportedly signed the petition and five more signatories are from the NCP.

Congress leaders said nothing on record on the move that has been confirmed mainly by NCP leaders Majid Memon and DP Tripathi.

"The Congress as the largest Opposition party has belatedly initiated the proceedings for impeachment of the Chief Justice of India," Majid Memon said on Tuesday.

NCP's DP Tripathi said, "I have signed it and others are also signing it and the process is going on." The CPI-M and CPI have also signed the petition, he said.

Read: Oppn parties have begun impeachment process against CJI, says NCP leader

The Samajwadi Party on Wednesday said it supports the petition. "The Samajwadi Party stands with the impeachment motion, which is about bringing independence and unquestionable integrity to the judiciary," SP leader Ghanshyam Tiwari told news agency ANI.

Tripathi said it is not just corruption, but "the charges are far more serious" and it emanates from the letter that four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court had earlier written stating that there was danger to the independence of judiciary.

Meanwhile, the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) MP M Rajamohan Reddy on Wednesday said his party has not received any proposal for moving an impeachment motion against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra.

The petition refers to allegations that sensitive cases were assigned to handpicked judges and the most-senior judges were ignored; the allegations were raised in January by the four top Supreme Court judges - J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur and Kurien Joseph - after the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra.

Also Read: SC admin not in order, democracy at stake, say 4 top judges in open dissent

To move an impeachment motion against the Chief Justice of India, signatures of 100 MPs are needed in Lok Sabha while in signatures of 50 members are required in Rajya Sabha.

Leaders of several opposition parties reportedly met and discussed the issue with the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad.

Many opposition leaders, including those from Trinamool Congress, NCP and the CPI(M), have reportedly held discussions over the past few days.

The development came after West Bengal Chief Minister and TRinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee's meeting with senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan on Tuesday to discuss a possible impeachment motion against the CJI.

The impeachment motion is in relation to the CJI's handling of the matters raised by four Supreme Court judges in a press conference on January 11.

(With inputs from agencies)
Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was reportedly on a private visit to meet his ailing sister in the US. (Photo: File/AFP)

New Delhi: Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was abased down to any regular person at the John F Kennedy airport in New York, as viral videos on Youtube show Abbasi being frisked during the security procedure.

Ditching official customs as a visiting dignitary, that too as a Prime Minister of a nuclear-armed nation, Abbasi, who reportedly was on a private visit to meet his ailing sister in the US, can be seen in the video adjusting his t-shirt after getting out of security checks with his jacket and a trolley bag.

Abbasi, however, has a history of making private trips to foreign nations, as according to Pakistani TV news channel Geo News, the PM was previously spotted travelling alone at a train station during his visit to Britain.

This comes at a time when Pakistan-USA relations have been strained lately, especially since US President Donald Trump tweeted, "The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!"

Also read: Made fools of us, gave lies, deceit in return for billions in aid: Trump slams Pak

Earlier this month, Vice-President Mike Pence told Abbasi that Pakistan "must do more" against the Taliban and other militants.

"Vice President Pence reiterated President (Donald) Trump's request that the Government of Pakistan must do more to address the continued presence of the Taliban, Haqqani Network, and other terrorist groups operating in their country," the White House said in a statement.
Wylie tweeted there are 10 offices in India. The firm is headquartered in Indirapuram, Ghaziabad and has offices in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Cuttack, Ghaziabad, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Kolktata, Patna and Pune. (Photo: AFP)

Mumbai: Former Cambridge Analytica (CA) employee and whistleblower Christopher Wylie  who exposed Facebooks data breach -- tweeted on Wednesday on the rather long association Indian politics had had with the company to get voter information and strategise poll campaigns around it.

Wylie tweeted: I have been getting a lot of requests from Indian journalists, so here are some of Strategic Communication Laboratorys (SCL) past projects in India. To the most frequently asked question  yes SCL/CA works in India and has offices there. This is what modern colonialism looks like.

I've been getting a lot of requests from Indian journalists, so here are some of SCL's past projects in India. To the most frequently asked question - yes SCL/CA works in India and has offices there. This is what modern colonialism looks like. pic.twitter.com/v8tOmcmy3z  Christopher Wylie (@chrisinsilico) March 28, 2018

Wylie attached a document to his tweet which states the firm was engaged in the 2003 Rajasthan elections by a major state party to carry out two pieces of work, one internal and aimed at assessing the partys organisational strength, the other external and looking at the nature of the voting population, and, more particularly the attitudes and behaviours of politically-active individuals within the state.

In the 2003 Madhya Pradesh elections, SCL India carried out a psephological study and opinion polling for a national party to identify swing voters. This was followed with a more in-depth analysis of behavioural dynamics at work in key seats which in turn informed the partys efforts to ensure a local structure and communication strategy that matched the caste make-up and attitudinal positions of the pre-identified swing population.

In 2007, SCL worked in Kerala, West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh, on a communication campaign to support a trans-national programme for countering the Non-Desired Behaviour of recruitment into, and support of, violent Jihadism. The project focused on ancillary populations as opposed to perpetrators of violent Jihadism themselves and required in-depth motivational understanding of the populations of six states.

In 2007, the firm worked in Uttar Pradesh and carried out a full political survey on behalf of a major party.

In the 2010 Bihar state election, the firm was asked to provide electoral research and strategy for the Janata Dal (United).

Wylie also says in 2012, SCL India carried out a caste census in Uttar Pradesh on behalf of a national party. The research included analysis of caste structure and dynamics within the state leading to conclusions regarding the identification of the partys core voters as well as likely swing voters.

Also Read: Believe Congress was firm's client, says Cambridge Analytica whistleblower

Wylies tweeted document also says in 2011 Uttar Pradesh, SCL India undertook a statewide (200mn people) research campaign to identify voter caste by household. This booth level polling data formed the basis of further research into swing vopter motivation and supporter mobilisation strategies, which were presented to individual candidates and tailored to their constituencies.

In the 2009 general elections, SCL India managed the campaigns of a number of Lok Sabha candidates. The research and campaign teams employed SCL Indias proprietary data collection methodologies to form strategies that gave the clients successful election campaigns.

He tweeted SCL and CA have 10 offices in India. The firm is headquartered in Indirapuram, Ghaziabad and has offices in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Cuttack, Ghaziabad, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Kolktata, Patna and Pune.

Wylie has previously disclosed how users' data from Facebook was used by Cambridge Analytica to help elect US President Donald Trump.
Mumbai: In recent times, the Mumbai city has witnessed strange spray-painted symbols on the walls, billboards, and pillars, which look like triangle with a wavy line underneath.

The symbols have been spotted on the exterior boundary walls of Victoria church in Mahim and Kohinoor Square near Shiv Sena Bhavan in central Mumbai.

The graffitis look similar to the work of anonymous British graffiti artist who has been named as Banksy.

Banksy's satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine dark humour with graffiti executed in a distinctive stenciling technique.

Now this arises the question, is there a Banksy in Mumbai?

'We first saw someone painting this symbol in December, don't know the identity of the person," said a passerby to news agency ANI.

However, another passerby has claimed that the painting made on walls of India Bulls, which is bigger in size than the others, has been made by an Indian, "This painting was made in the month of December. The person who made this painting looked like an Indian."
Police said the girl hung herself from the ceiling of her house in suburban Powai on Monday evening after returning from her school in Kurla. (Representational Image)

Mumbai: A 13-year-old girl allegedly committed suicide with her parents claiming that she was upset as a teacher had scolded her after finding chits in her answer sheet, police said.

Police said that the girl hung herself from the ceiling of her house in suburban Powai on Monday evening after returning from her school in Kurla.

"Family members, who entered the room in the nick of time, managed to rush her to hospital but she died while under treatment," an official said.

Police said that no suicide note was found but her parents alleged that she took the step because a teacher had scolded her after finding chits in her answer sheet.

"When the girl was submitting her exam paper at her school in Kurla yesterday, the teacher found some chits in the victim's answer sheet. She allegedly accused the girl of cheating and scolded her," the official said.

Officials said that a case of accidental death had been registered and further investigations were underway.
Facebook has been asked 'Whether Facebook or its related or downstream agencies utilising Facebooks data have previously been engaged by any entities to manipulate the Indian electoral process?' (Photo: File/AP)

New Delhi: The government has issued notice to Facebook on Wednesday seeking information over the alleged data leak.

According to news agency ANI, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has asked the social media company to respond to the letter by April 7.

Earlier, the government had issued a notice to Cambridge Analytica on March 23 seeking details relating to breach of data from Facebook.

However, the government felt need for more information over the issue from Facebook.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology issued a letter to Facebook on March 28 seeking their response to certain questions.

Facebook has been asked Whether personal data of Indian voters and users has been compromised by CA? Whether Facebook or its related or downstream agencies utilising Facebooks data have previously been engaged by any entities to manipulate the Indian electoral process?

The letter sent to Cambridge Analytica sought details particularly with regard to reports in the media about questionable practices attributed to Cambridge Analytica in their efforts to influence elections. The company was given time till March 31 to respond.

Earlier on Wednesday, Christopher Wylie, the Cambridge Analytica whistleblower behind the Facebook privacy scandal tweeted on the rather long association Indian politics had had with the company to get voter information and strategise poll campaigns around it.

Also read: Indian parties hired CA since 2003, to study voters, counter jihadism: whistleblower

On Tuesday, Wylie told UK lawmakers that his company worked extensively in India and that he "believe" Congress was a client at the regional level.

Soon after the testimony details emerged, the ruling BJP sought apology from Congress president Rahul Gandhi.

Today the whistleblower Christopher Wylie has confirmed that Cambridge Analytica worked with Congress. This has exposed Rahul Gandhi who was denying all along. Congress and Rahul Gandhi must now apologize, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

Also read: Believe Congress was firm's client, says Cambridge Analytica whistleblower

Christopher Wylie came into the limelight last week after he alleged that information from more than 50 million Facebook users improperly ended up in the hands of data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica. He further alleged that the data was used to help politicians, including US President Donald Trump during 2016 presidential polls and the Brexit campaign.
Closure of a construction company led to the crisis as Indian and Nepali workers, who were engaged in the firm lost their livelihood.

NIZAMABAD: Around 100 Indian workers, including 20 Telugu workers, are stranded in Qatar since the last few months. Closure of a construction company led to the crisis as Indian and Nepali workers, who were engaged in the firm lost their livelihood. Cold response from Indian embassy officials is worsening the situation of the migrant workers.

On the other hand, the families of migrant workers are worried over the safety of their beloved ones. Reportedly, the construction company owners belong to Hyderabad. Hoping a bright and secure future, Indian workers had been working in the company for the last four years. Due to unknown reasons, the company closed and office staff were shifted to other firms in Doha and Qatar.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle over phone from Qatar, Deva Raj, a stranded migrant worker said that for the last four months, they did not receive wages. We have approached the Labour Court and the Court in Qatar for the settlement of our wages and other benefits, but in vain, he lamented.

There is no proper response from the Indian embassy officials on the issue. It is very difficult to get food and accommodation , he said.

Reportedly, the beleaguered company did not return the passports to the migrant workers and they are now illegal migrants in Qatar. The victims explained their pathetic condition to their family members in Nizamabad, Kamareddy and other districts in Telangana. The families urged the district administration and elected representatives to ensure the safe return of the migrant workers from Qatar.

Telangana-Gulf Migrant Workers Welfare Association president P.Basanth Reddy brought the issue of Qatar workers to the notice of NRI Minister K.Taraka Rama Rao. He explained the plight of workers as well as their family members in the state. When contacted by this newspaper, Basanth Reddy said that they are waiting for the State Governments response. There is provision in Indian embassy for the safe return of Indians if any problem arises abroad, he explained.

KTR assures help in return of migrants

Gulf Telangana cultural association president P. Basanth Reddy said that NRI minister K. T. Rama Rao assured that the government would ensure the safe return of Telugus stranded in Qatar soon. The association had submitted details of the youths who are unable to return on account of the closure of the construction company they worked in.

Minister G Jagadishwar Reddy and Kamareddy MLA Gampa Govardhan explained the plight of youths and the concerns of their worried families to the minister, Mr Basanth Reddy said.
Hyderabad: The leak of CBSE board exam papers for the subjects of maths and economics has caused a lot of anger and irritation among students, parents and school authorities equally. Principals of schools have stated that they became aware of the paper leak only after they were officially notified by the CBSE board.

Mrs Anjali Rajzan, vice-chairperson, Hyderabad Sahodaya Schools Complex, a CBSE schools association, said, I was as unaware of these question paper leaks as anybody else.

It is definitely disheartening for meritorious students who have worked hard for the forthcoming exams. Whoever is responsible for the misdeed should be punished severely for the inconvenience they have caused to all the students.

She adds, I am also given to understand that many parents had made bookings for holidays. So their families have also been disappointed by this as maths was the last paper for Class 10 students, and now they have to change their plans.



Dr Narsimha Reddy, principal, Hyderabad Public School, Ramanthpur, said, 'It is demoralising to hear about the leakage. We try to teach values to student as part of their education, and here we have adults committing such unscrupulous acts. The people responsible for this ought to be put behind bars for at least 20 years.

Another school principal, on condition of anonymity, said, 'Like other schools, even we were not aware of the leak and learnt about it from the official website of CBSE. Since, we waited for further clarification from the board.
NEXT will also serve as a screening test for doctors with foreign medical qualifications in order to practice in India.

New Delhi: The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the removal of the controversial provision in the National Medical Commission (NMC) Bill which allowed a bridge course for ayurvedic and unani practitioners enabling them to practice modern medicine.

Official sources said the Cabinet, which met under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, decided to remove the clause dealing with a bridge course for Ayush practitioners to practice modern medicine to a limited extent.

It has been left to state governments to take necessary measures for addressing and promoting primary health care in rural areas, sources further said.

In another significant decision regarding a provision of the NMC bill on entrance examinations, the Cabinet decided that the final MBBS examination will be held as a common exam across the country and would serve as an exit test called the National Exit Test (NEXT).

Having considered the common demand by students not to subject them to an additional licentiate exam for getting a licence to practise, the Cabinet approved making the final MBBS examination a common exam across the country that would serve as an exit test to be called NEXT.

Thus, the students would not have to appear in a separate exam after MBBS to get a licence to practice. NEXT will also serve as a screening test for doctors with foreign medical qualifications in order to practice in India.

The Cabinet approved these amendments recommended by the parliamentary standing committee on health. The NMC Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on January 2 this year, but was referred to the committee as many of its provisions were found to be contentious.

Some other amendments okayed by the Cabinet include fee regulation for 50 per cent seats in private medical institutions and deemed universities. Earlier, as per the bills provisions, the maximum limit was 40 per cent seats, for which fee could be regulated in private medical institutions and deemed universities.

Also, stringent punishment will be given to unqualified medical practitioners or quacks under the amendments.
New Delhi: Amid growing concerns among the SC/ST communities over the dilution of the provisions of arrest in the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act by the Supreme Court, ruling NDAs SC/ST MPs, led by Union ministers Ramvilas Paswan and Thawarchand Gehlot on Wednesday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to raise the issue.

On their part, opposition leaders, led by Congress President Rahul Gandhi, met President Ram Nath Kovind on the same issue. Mr Gandhi said that the dilution of arrest provisions in the SC/ST Act comes in the backdrop of growing atrocities on Dalits and tribals across the country. The opposition delegation, which had the Congress, BSP, NCP, CPI(M,) SP, DMK among other parties members, also handed over a memorandum to Mr Kovind.

While Mr Paswan's outfit, LJP, which is part of the NDA, has filed a review petition in the apex court against its earlier order, BJP SC/ST MPs also want the government to file a review petition against the apex court's judgement.

Mr Paswan said that NDA MPs are confident that the government will take appropriate action in the matter.

That the issue could have serious ramifications for the BJP if not addressed immediately, was felt after party's Bharaich MP Savitri Phule said she will hold a rally on April 1 in Lucknow under the banner of 'Namo Buddhai Jenseva Samiti' to highlight SC/ST, OBCs and minorities issues.
New Delhi: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) announced on Wednesday that students will have to take Class 10 Mathematics and Class 12 Economics exams again following shocking reports of paper leak.

Delhi Police has also registered a case on the alleged leak of Class 12 economics paper following a complaint by CBSE, an official said.

Seeking to reach out to parents and students worried over the alleged incidents of repeated leaks, Mr Javadekar said he has spoken to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and brief him on the developments.

We will ensure no injustice is caused. I just want to tell the parents and children that it is extremely unfortunate that this incident happened, he said.

It seems some kind of gang is behind this and is doing it deliberately. A special team is already probing the matter and the guilty will not spared, Mr Javadekar told reporters as he faced a barrage of questions about the repeated leaks.

According to a news channel, Prime Minister Modi expressed unhappiness about the leak of Class 10 and Class 12 CBSE papers. The economics paper of Class 12 was held on Monday when social media was abuzz with reports of the paper being leaked. The CBSE had, however, then waived aside those claims.

Reports of the question paper being leaked circulated through social media and WhatsApp several hours before the time of the exam. But CBSE said, We have checked with all examination centres and the paper was not leaked. The Class 10 math exam was conducted on Wednesday. The Delhi Polices Crime Branch has begun investigating the alleged leak of the CBSEs Class 12 Economics paper and registered a separate case in connection with the leak of the Class 10 Mathematics paper.

On March 15, the Delhi government had said it had received complaints of the Class 12 CBSE Accountancy paper being leaked, a claim denied by CBSE then. On Wednesday, Manish Sisodia, Delhis education minister, asked CBSE to investigate Class 12 Accountancy question paper leak after receiving complaints that the paper had been leaked. Received complaints of Class 12 CBSE Accountancy paper being leaked. Asked officers of Directorate of Education to investigate&lodge complaint with CBSE. Swift action must be taken, so that hard-working students dont suffer due to the negligence of CBSE, Mr Sisodia tweeted.

The paper was reportedly leaked in Rohini and later circulated in the national capital via WhatsApp. The CBSE again denied reports of the alleged leakage of the accountancy paper.

In a statement, the board said that some miscreants tried to play mischief by circulating messages through WhatsApp. There has been no leakage of the question paper. All the seals have been found intact at all the exam centres. During the process of exam, however, at local level some miscreants have tried to play mischief by circulating messages through WhatsApp and social media to disturb the sanctity of examinations. CBSE has decided to take strict action against such activities. FIR is being lodged by CBSE, read an official statement.

The CBSE conducts 24 exams annually for 120 million (1.2 crore) students.
Chennai: Suspecting involvement of a gang comprising a security guard hailing from Nepal in the daring robbery at Indian Overseas Bank, Virugambakkam, the city police teams have rushed to Nepal to nab the suspects.

Meanwhile, distressed account holders rushed to the bank on Tuesday to ascertain the safety of their valuables in the lockers. However, the bank officials have placed a notice stating except locker numbers - 259 and 654, all others remained safe and intact. They also requested their customers not to believe rumours. The officials issued tokens to the account holders to check their valuables in the lockers. After checking their lockers, the account holders expressed satisfaction that their lockers were safe.

Following a preliminary probe, city police commissioner A.K. Viswanathan has formed five special teams to nab Sabi Lal and other gangsters. They also suspect that Lal's son, Dhilu, might have been involved in the heist. The cops have released their photos. While a team rushed to Nepal another team headed to West Bengal. The cops suspect they looted cash and valuables worth Rs 1 crore.

One team comprised SI Murali, head constable M. Selvaraj, constable S. Ravikumar and another team include inspector Giri, SI Thirumal, constables Manikandan and Narayanan.

According to police sources, in an effort to provide assistance to the team, a Nepalese also has accompanied the team to Nepal. The security guard had stored two LPG cylinders in his room located on the second floor of the building, which houses the bank. After looting, they brought the stolen goods to Sabis room. A few silver articles were found in the room.

The sources said, though Sabi Lal was allotted a room in the building, he stayed along with his family in Vellavedu village near Poonamallee for nearly eight years. He was residing along with his wife, son Dhilu and daughter Pushpa, in the village.

Sources said he sent his family members to Nepal four days before committing the robbery. Later, with the help of his friends and his son, he successfully committed the heist. The team members are scrutinising whether Sabi Lal and his son were involved in any other criminal activities. The police hoped that they would be nabbed soon.
BJP leaders Shatrughan Sinha, Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie with West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee in New Delhi on Wednesday. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee met some BJP leaders on Wednesday and called on UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi at her home in the evening.

Banerjee, who heads the ruling Trinamool Congress in Bengal, was seen entering 10, Janpath at about 7pm.

We want Congress to help the regional parties front that is being talked about, so as to facilitate a one-is-to-one fight. This one-is-to-one fight will eliminate BJP politically, Banerjee said after the meeting.

Her meeting with Gandhi, who was Congress president till December last year, assumes significance as Banerjee is a key player in a possible grouping of non-BJP political parties ahead of next years Lok Sabha elections. Her visit to New Delhi is seen as a bid to assemble forces against the BJP in the run-up to 2019.

On Tuesday, she had met with several MPs, including those from the NCP, Shiv Sena and TRS.

Earlier in the day, Banerjee called on BJP leaders Yashwant Sinha and Shatrughan Sinha and also held discussions with Arun Shourie, a former Union minister in the NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

After the meeting, Shourie, who has been critical of the Modi government, said the Trinamool chiefs theory of putting up a one-on-one fight against the BJP in every state was the right path to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

If the one-on-one formula is implemented, the opposition will be able to corner 69% of votes, Shourie said.

Though Yashwant Sinha did not clarify on whether he or Shatrughan Sinha would join a united force against the BJP, he said, Mamata is our old cabinet colleague. Her personality is known to everyone. The role she has taken to save the country is appreciable. In future also, we will support her.

Banerjee was the railways minister in the Vajpayee government.

BJP attacks Mamata

The BJP was quick to hit out at its former ally, saying while her state was burning, she was doing politics in the national capital. The party was referring to incidents of violence during Ram Navami processions in West Bengal.

Senior BJP leader Prakash Javadekar told reporters that Trinamool thugs were attacking peaceful Ram Navami processions in the state.

Bengal is burning and Mamata is doing politics in Delhi. It is like Nero fiddled while Rome was burning, said Javadekar.

He accused Banerjee of being insensitive towards the state and said that this attitude of the TMC supremo is insult to the peoples mandate.

It is also an insult to the chief minister post, he said.

The West Bengal chief minister is free to do politics and the BJP is quite capable of replying to it, the minister said.

But one should not do politics on the cost of the state and her constitutional duties, he said.
Chennai: Pointing out that no political party can seek any monopoly over its flag, or any combination of colours, T.T.V. Dhinakaran has prayed to Madras High Court to dismiss AIADMK's application restraining him and his party Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam from using any flag deceptively similar to AIADMKs flag using the same black, white and red colour combinations.

Dhinakaran stated this in his counter affidavit filed before Justice C.V. Karthikeyan, in response to the application arising out of the suit filed by AIADMK party's joint coordinator Edappadi K. Palaniswami.

He said the origins of the red and black colour on the AIADMK's flag traces its history to 1944 when Justice Party changed its name to Dravidar Kazhagam under the leadership of Periyar, who upon his return from Russia declared that all members of DK wear black to signify the strife and hardship faced by Dravidians in the then Madras Presidency.

He said colours of Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam's flag was red at the bottom, white in the middle and black at the top with a picture of Jayalalithaa in the centre.

More particularly, the colour distribution was such that only 50 per cent was red and black and the balance 50 per cent was white in the middle with the prominent face of Jayalalithaa.

Consequently, even a bare look by the naked eye will clearly bring out the difference between the flags of AIADMK and his party much more prominently than the differences between the flags of DMK and AIADMK, he added.

Pointing out that colours red and black were symbolic to Dravidian politics and represent the visions of Periyar, Anna, MGR and Jayalalithaa, he said AIADMK cannot claim any monopoly over the colours red, black and white nor can it contend that they were unique to AIADMK party.
Davangere: This was one embarrassment the BJP could have done without at a time when rival politicians are mocking the partys CM candidate, B.S. Yeddyurappa for his alleged involvement in a series of scams when he was CM.

The rotund Mr Shah did the unpardonable at a press meet in Davangere and quoting a former Supreme Court judge, said the Yeddyurappa government was the most corrupt in the country. On realising his faux pas when it was pointed out to him by other BJP leaders, he quickly corrected himself to say the Siddaramaiah government.

Social media went viral with the comment. The Congress happily latched on to it and said its campaign in Karnataka had started on a fabulous note as it took a swipe at Mr Shah who has been accusing the Congress regime in the state of being mired in corruption.
Bengaluru: A letter by Sri Shivamurthy Shivacharya Swamiji of Muruga Mutt of Chitradurga has put BJP national president Amit Shah in a bind. The swamiji, while handing over the letter, had reportedly requested Mr Shah to do the needful to get the religion tag for Lingayats from the Centre.

Matters were further complicated by the fact that the. prominent Lingayat seer has commended the Siddaramaiah governments decision to recommend grant of religious minority tag to Lingayats and Veerashaiva Lingayats, in an embarrassment to BJP president Amit Shah, who had termed it as an attempt to divide the Hindu community.

On a mission to connect with the pontiffs of the community, Shah had met several Lingayat/Veerashaiva seers during his two-day visit to Karnataka, in an apparent move towards keeping the BJPs traditional Lingayat voter base intact, ahead of the May 12 Assembly polls.

The letter pointed out that a strong movement is going on in Karnataka by Lingayats and Veerashaiva Lingayats, pressing for minority status to the community. At the outset it appears that there is a controversy between Lingayat and Veerashaiva Lingayat followers, but it is a temporary outbreak of emotions of small groups in the followers of both faiths and it will not last long, it said. The seer said that the government of Karnataka has rightly recommended to the Centre in this regard. Minority status to this religion will definitely deliver some benefits to the youth of this community - individually and collectively. It is not a step to divide the community, but a measure to unite the already sub divided sub caste followers in Lingayats, he said.

The swamiji, considered to be a progressive pontiff among the Left liberals in Karnataka, had on various occasions argued for a caste-less class-less society.

He has earlier participated in initiatives and movements backed by progressive thinkers and reformers. However, he has pitched for religion status for Lingayats, saying it would help the common people from the community.



In the letter handed over to Mr Shah, he has explained in detail how the state government constituted a committee which recommended the religion status that was approved by the state cabinet. After receiving the petition, Mr Shah promised to look into it.

But sources in the party said that Mr Shah and other leaders who accompanied him were left shocked as they did not expect it from the pontiff.
New Delhi: Trinamul chief Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday met UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and sought the Congress support to regional parties to facilitate a 1:1 fight with the BJP at the state level in the 2019 general elections.

Ms Banerjee has already indicated her willingness to be the leader of any grouping of federal parties to take on the BJP and has also expressed uneasiness in being part of any front that led by the Congress.

Ms Banerjee, who is on a three-day visit to the national capital, met leaders from across the political spectrum on Tuesday in Parliament and had sent an emissary to enquire whether Mrs Gandhi was present in the Congress office. However, the former Congress president had already left by then.

It is learnt that later in the evening Mrs Gandhi sent a text message to Ms Banerjee confirming the meeting for Wednesday evening.

After her nearly hour-long meeting with Mrs Gandhi, the West Bengal Chief Minister told the media, Whenever, I come here I meet her. We share a good relation. I enquired about her health.
German optics brand Leica has started selling its range of digital cameras in the Indian market. The models will be available on Amazon exclusively.

Leica will start selling three camera models on the e-commerce website  the compact D-lux and V-lux models as well as the Sofort instant camera, all of them ranging from Rs 25,000 to Rs 90,000. The D-lux is equipped with a 16.8MP 4/3-inch high sensitivity MOS sensor along with a Leica DC Vario-Summilux lens assembly, which is accompanied by Optical Image Stabilisation. The slightly superior V-lux features a 20MP sensor paired with lens that supports a zoom range of 25 to 400 mm.

The SoFort has a selfie mode for capturing random moments instantly. Leica is also offering binoculars and camera accessories on Amazons India portal.

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.
Next generation of fake news will be empowered by Artificial Intelligence and be far more sophisticated, and even more disastrous.

We all know the about Facebook debacle. And we all know that the political world was influenced by fake news. So rest back and take this news seriously  Fake news will get a lot worse in future and AI will be the biggest catalyst. This warning comes from an AI consultant that works for the CIA.

Sean Gourly, founder and CEO, Primer, told a conference in San Francisco that the next generation of fake news will be empowered by Artificial Intelligence and be far more sophisticated, and even more disastrous. Primer is a company that uses software to mine data sources and automatically generate reports for the CIA and other clients.

The automation of the generation of fake news is going to make it very effective, Gourley told the audience at EmTech Digital, organised by MIT Technology Review.

Facebook was at the centre of the fake news scandal where the social networking platform failed to prevent fake news on its platform. The fake news was created by Russian operatives and the resulting fake information was spread across millions of people before the 2016 presidential elections. And now after the unearthing of Cambridge Analyticas dirty data breach scam, Facebook has been severely hit by the personal data mining issue.

Mark Zuckerberg had earlier suggested that the company would be using AI to spot fake news. But Gourly has a piece of alerting advice stating that the same AI could be used otherwise.

The AI company chief has noted that the present type of fake news being created is relatively simple as they are human-crafted stories posted online. However, with technology that Primer has today, the AI can be used to generate truly convincing fake stories and that too automatically, and at a faster level.

Click here to see a glimpse of how Gourlys Primer has mastered AI to automatically create stories from a said database of information, without any human intervention. The fake stories and fake reports can be easily tailored to individual interests and carefully tested before being released, maximizing their impact. I can generate a million stories, see which ones get the most traction, double down on those, Gourley said.

He added that present fake news is only being fed into the social networking platform. But with the prowess of sophisticated AI, the fake information could take advantage of understanding network dynamics, as well as the mechanisms used to judge the popularity of content and could amplify a posts effect with great ease.

Where you inject information is going to have a massive impact on how it spreads and diffuses, Gourley said. He went on to suggest that a platform like Facebook may be inherently flawed for sharing news. All weve seen at the moment is primitive, and its had a profound impact, and more is coming, he said.

Gourley did, however, agree that AI would be at least part of the solution. If machines are going to produce it on one side, he said, then youd better have machines helping you sift through it on the other.

This concussion of AI-powered fake news and social media is huge possibility and could turn out to be disastrous. While AI is the best that has happened to technology, the wrong use of this power could cause a catastrophe ahead. AI needs to be well built, closely monitored and tightly secured so that it does not fall in the wrong hands.

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Last week, Gov. Gary Herbert signed a bill legalizing free-range parenting in Utah. As the first of its kind in the country, this law reinforces the importance of families as the lifeblood of communities, but it also entrusts parents to be the primary teachers of self-sufficiency and public safety.

The new law, which takes effect May 8, specifies that parents arent neglecting their children if they choose to let them play outside alone or ride a bike to school without supervision.

Years ago, free-range parenting was just called parenting. In the era of Herberts childhood, it was more socially acceptable within American communities  both suburban and urban  for parents to give their children autonomy to roam, explore and play in their neighborhood unsupervised. Parents trusted their children to make responsible decisions and for the community to maintain a friendly watch.

In recent years, however, seeing children walking to school, riding public transportation or playing in public parks without an adult has become less common. Multiple cases have arisen of strangers calling Child Protective Services about children in public without supervision. In some instances, children have been taken away from their parents, with CPS determining the parents neglected their duties by letting their children play at a public park alone. This relatively new phenomenon, undoubtedly rooted in concern for the safety of children, is evidence of a concerning shift in social sentiment among American parents.

While theres no clear cause for this trend, Bloomberg writer Megan McArdle hypothesizes that this is the result of a multiplicity of factors, including more ubiquitous access to negative news coverage of child abuse, making danger feel more imminent for parents; a rise in paid childcare, which emphasizes vigilant oversight; and groupthink, which adjusts a communitys norm for safety to the most concerned parent in the neighborhood.

Irrespective of what factors have contributed to this phenomenon, Utahs new law serves as a reminder that parents should intentionally invest in their childrens self-sufficiency, which takes many forms. For some, this may look like the spatial autonomy most often associated with the concept of free-range parenting. For others, this may mean empowering children to make responsible decisions about how they spend their time instead of micromanaging, or "helicopter parenting," all of their extracurricular activity.

The law also reminds parents to have critical conversations with their children about safety and how to maintain vigilance at school, online and in public spaces. Children must be equipped with the capacity to identify danger or threatening situations and know to whom they should report concerns. No amount of parental oversight can serve as a substitute for the safety that comes from this kind of self-sufficiency.

The legislative approval of "free-range parenting" serves as a symbolic reminder that children deserve some degree of autonomy and that they learn best through exploration. The essence of "free-range parenting" is to create space for such exploration and learning to occur. The new law also emphasizes the need to de-stigmatize different parenting methods and to reinforce that parenting should be done on purpose and with purpose. Good parenting leads to stronger children, better communities and a healthier Utah.
A high court in majority-Muslim Pakistan has ruled that citizens must declare their religious affiliation before joining the civil service, military or judiciary. All birth certificates, identity cards, passports and voting lists must also indicate the persons faith.

The judgment, a victory for hard-line clerics pressuring the state to single out minorities in their midst, adds that all Muslim candidates for national or provincial assemblies must swear that Islams Prophet Muhammad was the last of Gods prophets.

This has spread fear among Christians, Hindus, Sikhs and other religious minorities already under pressure in the South Asian nation. Ahmadis, who believe another Muslim prophet came after Muhammad, feel especially targeted because they could not take the parliamentary oath.

Already it is difficult for us as minorities to retain our government jobs. With this court judgment, we can forget whatever normalcy we had in our lives, said Ejaz Mall, 34, a Christian civil servant in Lahore.

Many people will face socioeconomic exclusion if the order is implemented.

In its March 9 ruling, the Islamabad High Court argued that citizens should be easily identifiable by their faith and that applicants for public offices should declare their beliefs before being considered for employment.

Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui, in a remark clearly aimed at Ahmadis, said it was alarming that one of the minorities was often mistaken for being Muslims because their names and general attire were like those of Muslims.

The courts ruling outraged human rights activists, who fear it would blackball minorities and lead to more persecution. The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan called on the government to counter it immediately.

It is essential that the government acts in aid of its minority citizens by appealing this ruling, said Commission Chairperson Mehdi Hasan.

Forums for justice such as the Islamabad court should play their due role in safeguarding the fundamental rights of the most vulnerable sections of society.

The ruling is the latest in a long series of attempts by officials to clearly distinguish between religions in Pakistan. A 1974 constitutional amendment declared the Ahmadis to be non-Muslims and a 1984 ordinance barred them from practicing Islam in public.

Although Ahmadi Muslims, also known as Ahmadiyya, believe in the Quran and Prophet Muhammad, many mainstream Muslims consider them to be heretics because they also believe their 19th-century founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, was a latter-day prophet.

In 1992, lawmakers proposed indicating religion on official identity cards, but they dropped the idea when Christians protested.

Christians, the second-largest religious minority in Pakistan, comprise less than 2 percent of the countrys 208 million population, followed by Hindus, then Ahmadis and the others.

Non-Muslims have faced discriminatory laws, violence and prejudice for decades in Pakistan. Earlier this year, the U.S. State Department placed Pakistan on its Special Watch List for severe violations of the religious freedom of minorities.

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom noted in its 2017 annual report that the Pakistani government continued to perpetrate and tolerate systematic, ongoing and egregious religious freedom violations in the previous year.

Religiously discriminatory constitutional provisions and legislation, such as the countrys blasphemy and anti-Ahmadiyya laws, continue to result in prosecutions and imprisonments, the report said.

Nasir Saeed, director of the Centre for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement, a Lahore-based group that advocates for religious minorities in Pakistan, said the government should promote harmony rather than further division.

Minorities, who are living under threat and are already fleeing the country, need to be assured of security, protection and equality, he said.

The campaign against Ahmadis has gained momentum in the run-up to Pakistans general election slated for July. A new ultraconservative religious party shut down Islamabad for three weeks late last year in protests against a new election law that seemed to ease some restrictions on Ahmadis.

Last December, lawmaker Muhammad Safdar Awan called for a ban on Ahmadis from joining the armed forces. Safdar is the son-in-law of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

These people are a threat to this country, its constitution and ideology. I want to bring a resolution to ban the recruitment of Qadianis (Ahmadi Muslims) in the armed forces of Pakistan, Safdar said at the time.

A person who doesnt believe in the jihad in the path of Allah, that person cannot be a part of our pious army.

Ruby Tabbasum, a 32-year-old Ahmadi mother of two, knows this discrimination firsthand.

In 2016, my husband, Qamar ul Zia, was stabbed to death outside our house in broad daylight. His crime  he was an Ahmadi, said Tabbasum, who lives in Rabwah, a majority-Ahmadi city 100 miles west of Lahore that once hosted the communitys international headquarters.

Zia was hounded for years by Islamists for supposed offenses like posting his fathers name, Muhammad Ali, on his house gate or displaying the Arabic expression mashallah (God has willed it) on the window of his mobile phone shop.

After a few assaults, a group armed with knives killed him as he was bringing his children back from school.

I fear for my children. They know what happened to their father. They also know that they are not accepted in this society, said Tabbasum. We left our home after the killing because the children were teased in the school for being Ahmadis.

Other minorities say they now feel as if they have an even larger target on their backs than they did before.

Why should my religion be a business of the state? If my religion is mentioned on the identity card, that makes me even more vulnerable as a minority, said Asher Daniel, 19, a university student in Lahore and a Christian.

Now even getting a parking or red-light ticket for me will become dangerous. When I show my identity card, it will have my religion on it.
SALT LAKE CITY  John Swallow wants a federal judge to not only dismiss the Federal Election Commission complaint against him but invalidate the campaign finance rule he allegedly violated.

Allen Dickerson, a lawyer for the former Utah attorney general, argued Tuesday in U.S. District Court that the process the FEC used to come up with the regulation was "deeply flawed."

The FEC alleges that now-imprisoned St. George businessman Jeremy Johnson used "straw" donors to give $100,000 to former Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, $50,000 to U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and $20,000 to now-retired Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Swallow solicited large contributions from Johnson for the campaigns, and showed him how to circumvent FEC laws that limit individual donations to $2,400, FEC lawyer Sana Chaudhry told Judge Dee Benson.

"Mr. Swallow initiated this scheme," Chaudhry said.

It is illegal under federal law for a person to donate funds to a federal candidate through another person. Chaudhry contends Congress allows the FEC to write regulations to fill a "gap" in the law, and Swallow "aided and abetted" in making illegal donations.

Dickerson said the law is silent on secondary liability  the practice of holding one party legally responsible for helping another  for the type of campaign finance violation Swallow allegedly committed.

"There is none," he said.

Benson said he was having a problem with the FEC argument that someone could assist another person in making a campaign contribution.

"I just don't see it," he said. "How does more than one person make a contribution? Either you make a contribution to a candidate or you don't."

Chaudhry asked Benson to refer the regulation back to the FEC rather than remove it from the books if he finds it invalid. The judge did not issue a ruling Tuesday.

Swallow, who is represented by the Institute for Free Speech based in Washington, D.C., did not attend the hearing.

The FEC case is based largely on statements Johnson made to federal and state agents during a criminal investigation of Swallow in 2013 under a grant of immunity.

Johnson was to be a key prosecution witness in the public corruption case against Swallow and was found in contempt of court when he refused to testify earlier this year. A 3rd District Court jury acquitted Swallow of all charges after a four-week trial.

Because the FEC case is a civil action, there's no threat of prison time, but Swallow and Johnson could be fined thousands of dollars if found guilty.

Johnson is serving an 11-year federal prison sentence for making false statements to a bank in connection with his defunct internet marketing company.
PROVO  Months ago, Utah County officials decided against hosting another vote-by-mail election this year. But now that city leaders are finding out, many of them aren't happy.

"We're furious," Pleasant Grove Councilwoman Dianna Andersen said Tuesday.

Andersen and leaders from other cities  including Provo, American Fork and Orem  have joined in a chorus of frustration, hoping Utah County officials will reverse their decision to hold a traditional election for 2018 with an absentee voting option rather than automatically sending vote-by-mail ballots to all households throughout the county, like the county did in last year's special election.

Utah County is no stranger to controversy when it comes to voting by mail. Last year  its first all by-mail election  more than 68,000 unaffiliated 3rd Congressional District voters in the county were mistakenly sent Republican ballots due to a clerical error. The blunder later caused confusion at primary polls.

But Utah County Clerk/Auditor Bryan Thompson and county commissioners said last year's issues weren't the main reasons why they decided against another vote-by-mail election this year.

Thompson, Commissioner Bill Lee and Commissioner Nathan Ivie said they made the decision during the county's budgeting process in December in an effort to be responsible with taxpayer money and to eventually ease into an all by-mail election by the next presidential election in 2020.

Thompson said he and county commissioners agreed it would be best to put the county's existing voting equipment to good use instead of hosting a vote-by-mail election that would cost up to $150,000 more. He also said having voters who want to vote by mail opt-in for an absentee ballot will reduce wasted ballots, noting that about 20,000 ballots last year bounced back due to wrong addresses.

"We invested a significant amount of money in those voting machines, so it's hard to let those sit in storage," Ivie said. "It would feel like a waste of taxpayer money to let those sit in a closet and spend tens of thousands of dollars on postage."

Thompson said the county will also host expanded early voting in addition to absentee ballots  which residents can manually request at vote.utah.gov  and host a traditional number of polling places so anyone who wants to vote in person won't be at risk for long lines.

"I feel like we're being very methodical in rolling this out appropriately," Thompson added. "But I know some people disagree."

City officials are questioning why the county is reverting back to a traditional election  especially when last year's vote-by-mail election experienced a record turnout.

"This is just blatantly wrong. It isn't the American way," said Orem Councilman Tom Macdonald. "Don't we want high turnout?"

Provo Mayor Michell Kaufusi pointed out that her city saw a huge jump in turnout for the 2017 election. It was about 37 percent last year, whereas turnout was 18 percent in 2015 and 15 percent in 2013, she said. (It's worth noting 2017 was also a unique municipal election year due to the 3rd Congressional special election to replace former Rep. Jason Chaffetz.)

"From everything I've heard, citizens prefer vote-by-mail by a large margin," Kaufusi said. "It allows them to really study the issues and candidates while they review the ballot in the privacy of their own homes. And the increase in voter participation is tremendous."

American Fork Mayor Brad Frost said he's not "satisfied" with the county's financial reasoning, asking, "If you can double (turnout), why would you not carry that trend forward?"

Kaufusi, Andersen, Macdonald and Frost also worry that a switch back to a traditional election might confuse voters due to a lack of consistency from year to year.

"Consistency does work," Andersen said.

But Thompson said he doesn't think it will lead to confusion, noting that some cities in Utah County had by-mail elections in 2015, then in 2016 the county held a traditional election.

This year, Utah County will be the only county along the Wasatch Front and one of only three in the state that won't be holding a vote-by-mail election. Emery County and Carbon County are the other counties holding traditional elections this year, according to the Utah Lieutenant Governor's Office.

"I'm a little surprised they are changing it because they seemed to see higher turnout, particularly for the primary election," said Justin Lee, the state's elections director. "But it's ultimately a decision left to the county."

Lee said there is "always a possibility of voter confusion" when changing the type of election year to year.

"We would hope Utah County does really good outreach to voters to help them know what to expect," he said.

Frost said he and other elected officials will be reaching out to the county to ask it to reverse the decision. "I hope that door isn't closed, because I intend to reopen it," he said.

It's not clear, however, whether county could. Lee said under state law, any county that will run a vote-by-mail election is supposed to notify the state's election office by Feb. 1.

"If the county decided they wanted to go in a different direction, we would have to look at that," Lee said.
Then-Elder John Taylor, with others of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, returned to Far West, Missouri, from where, on April 26, 1839, according to revelation, they were to depart on missions to foreign lands.

At the time, Elder Taylor, who later became the third president of the LDS Church, also secured quarters for his family in miserable old log barracks in Montrose, a small settlement on the opposite side of the river from Nauvoo, in the Territory of Iowa. Upon completing his mission to Great Britain, he returned home in July 1841 and, with his wife, Leonora, and the children, established his home in Nauvoo, Illinois. That home was lost in a fire.

The Prophet Joseph Smith appointed him associate editor of the Times and Seasons publication. The excavated building site where that periodical was published has been identified.

Elder Taylor accompanied Joseph and Hyrum Smith when they went to Carthage where he sang a favorite hymn of the Prophet. John Taylor was severely wounded by gunfire at the time Joseph and Hyrum were killed. Unhurt, but expecting to be killed at any moment, Willard Richards dragged the severely wounded John Taylor into the nearby dungeon cell and covered him with an old straw mattress.

Later, a three-building complex, formerly owned by convert James Ivins, was acquired by the LDS Church in 1845. Here were printed the Times and Seasons and the Nauvoo Neighbor newspapers. Both publications were edited by John Taylor, who moved with his family into the center building. He hesitated to do so because of how it might appear to the Saints in their modest circumstances. President Brigham Young, however, saw the need for Elder Taylor to not only publish but also be close to the publication site. President Young insisted that the Taylors move into the printing complex.
SALT LAKE CITY  Gov. Gary Herbert signed a bill Tuesday instructing the Department of Health to seek large-scale Medicaid expansion in Utah, which state officials say would expand coverage eligibility to everyone in the state up to the federal poverty line.

Herbert was flanked by Senate President Wayne Niederhauser, R-Sandy, and House Speaker Greg Hughes, R-Draper, for a signing ceremony at the Capitol.

The governor reflected on failed efforts in recent years to expand Medicaid in Utah, saying "it's been a long journey, it's had its twists and turns, its bumps and bruises, to get us to this point today.

"The goals have always been the same. We want to provide access to affordable health care for all of our people, but particularly for those who are most vulnerable in society who need a little helping hand," all while being responsible with the state's budget, Herbert said.

Herbert was also joined by Rep. Robert Spendlove, R-Sandy, and Sen. Brian Zehnder, R-Holladay, who were the sponsors of HB472.

The two of them garnered enough support for the bill in the recently concluded legislative session by assuring fellow state lawmakers that the bill was structured to spend no new state money and that it included a safeguard allowing Utah to rescind its Medicaid expansion if the promised federal fund matching rate were to fall below 90 percent.

"Now we have a chance to do this the Utah way," Zehnder said Tuesday. "It prevents cost overruns and reduces risk."

The new law instructs Utah's Department of Health to apply for a Medicaid expansion waiver from the federal government by Jan. 1 of next year.

The application will request that federal Medicaid funds be made available for expanding insurance coverage to all Utahns up to 100 percent of the federal poverty line, which would make health insurance coverage newly available to, according to an estimate from the governor's office, about 60,000 Utahns.

The bill's supporters say it will accomplish a commonly held goal of lawmakers and advocates to fix the so-called coverage gap that exists for those who are too poor to qualify for critically important subsidies on health plans offered on the federal exchange and yet earn too much to qualify for Medicaid.

Stacy Stanford, a policy analyst for the Utah Health Policy Project think tank and health insurance enrollment hub, contended Tuesday that the state's request is overwhelmingly likely to be denied by federal authorities. The bill signed into law by Herbert "provides a false promise and a false hope to a lot of Utahns," Stanford said.

"I wish that this was something I could be celebrating," she said. "(But) it's something that's destined for failure."

Stanford said that's because the federal government has never approved a Medicaid expansion to only 100 percent of the federal poverty level at a 90-10 funding match rate, and that beyond that there's "not a path for legal approval" of such an expansion  regardless of which presidential administration is at the reins.

"It's just destined for denial, unfortunately," Stanford said.

Niederhauser doesn't see it the same way. He believes the current presidential administration has made it clear that it's possible the terms outlined in Utah's request for Medicaid expansion could be approved.

"We've gotten some indications from Washington that they will consider a waiver for us, so we're going to give it a shot," he said at the signing ceremony. "Because it's important for us to get as many (as possible) of those in (the coverage) gap access to health care."
SALT LAKE CITY  Mitt Romney's Senate campaign is trying to clarify his stance on the Dream Act after he said recipients "need to do more" to justify permanent residency during a campaign appearance in Provo on Monday.

Meantime, his leading Democratic opponent, Salt Lake County Council member Jenny Wilson, said Romney has been inconsistent and "sort of rambling" on the issue.

The GOP front runner told Utah County Republican Women that he is a "hawk" on immigration and that undocumented immigrants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program shouldn't be able to stay in the country legally.

"My view is that they needed to do more to justify permanent residence here, such as attending community college, getting an associate degree, serving in the military, serving in teaching  " Romney said.

Romney said he is more conservative than others in his party on the issue.

"Now I will accept the president's view on this, but for me, I draw the line and say, those who've come illegally should not be given a special path to citizenship," he said.

President Donald Trump last year announced he would end the DACA program, which protects some young undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children from deportation. But in February he unveiled plans that included a pathway to citizenship in a failed deal with Democrats.

The Romney campaign issued a statement Tuesday saying the former Massachusetts governor made a reference in his speech Monday to his stance on immigration while running for president in 2012.

"Since then circumstances have changed. President Obama enacted DACA and Gov. Romney believes the commitment made by President Obama should be honored. Therefore, he agrees with President Trump's proposal to allow DACA recipients to legally stay in the country but does not support a special pathway to citizenship," according to campaign spokesman.

Romney has made similar comments since launching his campaign in February.

But Wilson said Romney has dodged the question about how he would vote on extending DACA if he were in Congress.

"It's another flip-flop," she said, adding voters deserve to know where candidates stand. "I, Jenny Wilson, support extending DACA and allowing a pathway to citizenship."
Schedules and other facts for the 188th Annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which will be held in the Conference Center on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, can be found here. Watch live below.

When

Saturday and Sunday, March 31 to April 1, 2018.

The Saturday, March 31, general sessions will be held at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. MDT. Sunday, April 1, sessions will be held at 9:30 a.m. (which includes "Music and the Spoken Word") and 2 p.m.

The general priesthood session will be held Saturday, March 30, at 6 p.m.

To attend

Tickets are required for admission to all sessions in the Conference Center. To obtain tickets, contact your local priesthood leader. Visitors from outside the U.S. and Canada must also request tickets from their stake or district president, as tickets will no longer be distributed at Conference Center Ticket Office.

Standby seating may be available on a first-come, first-served basis. The standby line is formed at the north gate on Temple Square approximately two hours before each session.

Admission to the Conference Center is limited to those ages 8 or older for general sessions and 12 or older for the priesthood session. No babies, please. Sunday dress is encouraged.

Wheelchair seating is available. Patrons who require such seating should inform Guest Services when they arrive. American Sign Language interpretation is available. Patrons who require this service should inform an usher when they arrive at the Conference Center. A limited number of language translation headsets are available in the foyer area of the Conference Center. Patrons should ask an usher for assistance if needed.

Service dogs are not allowed in venues where meetings and events are being broadcast or recorded. Ushers will direct those who require them to overflow viewing rooms where service dogs are allowed.

For general conference sessions, the Conference Center doors open 90 minutes before the session start time. Those with tickets should be in their seats 30 minutes before the session start time. Photos during the event are not allowed, and neither are selfie sticks.

Parking

Parking options in downtown Salt Lake City may be limited on Saturday. Conference attendees are invited to carpool or use public transportation to relieve downtown traffic congestion. Attendees can visit rideuta.com to plan their downtown routes.

Those driving are encouraged to allow extra time for travel, locating a parking spot and being seated in the Conference Center.

Disability parking is located at the West Temple lot just north of North Temple, the entrance to which is accessible when traveling south on West Temple.

If you do not have a parking permit or pass, the Triad Center lot, The Parking Place lot, Regent Street lot and Eagle Gate Terrace Lot might have open spots to park in. Visit lds.org for more parking details.

Conference attendees should avoid parking in front of homes in downtown residential areas. Cars parked on neighborhood streets may be ticketed or towed at the owner's expense. Public parking is not available at the Conference Center lot.

Watch, listen

General conference is broadcast via satellite to church meetinghouses throughout the world, and it is available through television, radio, the internet and other media.

Go to bonneville.info, and click "Continue" under the General Conference section for a complete list of TV, radio or satellite reception options for all 50 states, plus Canada and Bermuda.

On Salt Lake-area TV: All four general sessions will be broadcast live on KSL/Ch. 5 and on cable/satellite channel BYUtv. The priesthood session will also be broadcast on BYUtv.

KBYU/Channel 11 will repeat the morning sessions at noon and the afternoon sessions at 4 p.m. both days.

On the radio: All four general sessions will air on KSL Radio (AM-1160/FM-102.7), KBYU (FM-89.1) and BYU-Radio (Sirius XM-143). BYU-Radio will also air the general priesthood session.

Visit bonneville.info to find stations outside Utah and the Salt Lake area that will air conference.

On satellite and other TV stations: The church will provide an analog signal and digital signal for broadcasters and home satellite dish owners. Click here for more information.

Check local program listings for other cable or TV availability in your area, or visit bonneville.info, byutv.org or ksl.com for more information.

On the Web: A live broadcast will be available on deseretnews.com, lds.org, YouTube, BYUtv and BYUtv International, as well as through the Mormon Channel (YouTube, apps, website and Roku). A summary of each talk will be posted to deseretnews.com throughout the weekend.

Social media: Follow @LDSConf on Twitter for live updates during all sessions. Use #LDSConf in your tweets to share your thoughts with others who are watching and tweeting. For a full list of the recommended hashtags, click here.

Post-conference downloads: Audio and video files of the session are available within one to seven days after the conference ends. Text files of the talks are available within two to 20 days after general conference. Click here for more information.

Programming

KSL/Channel 5 will broadcast some special programs for general conference weekend:

Saturday, March 31: 9:30 a.m.  "History of the Saints"; noon  "Aid Amidst the Storm"; 1 p.m.  "In God We Trust"; 1:30 p.m.  "An Artistic Vision"; 4 p.m.  "LDS World Report."

Sunday, April 1: 9 a.m.  "50 Years of Miracles"; 9:30 a.m.  "Music and the Spoken Word"; noon  "President Russell M. Nelson; Brilliant Mind, Gentle Heart"; 1 p.m.  "Voices of Strength"; 1:30 p.m.  "Miracles from Elsie; 4 p.m.  "The Rising Generation"; 4:30 p.m.  "Family History 2.0: A New Generation of Genealogy.

BYUtvwill also broadcast special programs:

Saturday, March 31:1 p.m.  "LDS World Report

Sunday, April 1: 9:30 a.m.  "Music and the Spoken Word"; 1 p.m.  "President Russell M. Nelson; Brilliant Mind, Gentle Heart
SOUTH JORDAN  A man accused of killing his 8-month-old puppy and then trying to hide it by putting the animal in a trash can has been arrested.

Michael Anthony Fario, 25, of South Jordan, was arrested over the weekend for investigation of torture of a companion animal and obstruction of justice.

According to a Salt Lake County Jail report, Fario's stepfather was the one who called South Jordan police to report him. He "described seeing and hearing Michael beat the dog on multiple occasions. The complainant said during those beatings, Michael was hitting the dog repeatedly, much more than someone would normally discipline a puppy in training," the report states. "(He) went on to describe the beatings as a 'ground and pound' where Michael was beating the dog, with closed fists."

The Australian shepherd had not been seen by the family for several days. Fario had had the dog since September.

When police interviewed him, Fario admitted hitting the dog, "then stated the dog stayed in its kennel for about four days, not eating or drinking and acting strange and lethargic," according to the report.

On Saturday, Fario found the dog deceased in its kennel, "and he took it out to the trash because he didn't want to tell his family," the report states. Fario at first told his family the dog had run away, then told them he returned it to the person from whom he purchased the dog.

The body of the dog was discovered in a bag, wrapped in a sheet, at the bottom of a trash can, the report states.
Googles mobile-first approach of the web is being reflected on Google search as well. The search giants mobile-first indexing is rolling out after over a year of testing. The new indexing method will use the mobile version of a webpage to index and rank search results which will help make searching easier on mobile devices.

The project was introduced back in 2016 and after a limited rollout in December, it is finally official. So far, Googles crawling, indexing and ranking system have used the desktop version of a webpage which may have caused issues for users searching on smartphones.

Mobile-first indexing means that well use the mobile version of the page for indexing and ranking, to better help our  primarily mobile  users find what theyre looking for, Google wrote in a blog post.

The jump to mobile-first indexing makes sense as an increasing number of users now use smartphones to search things on the internet. Google stated that it will have one index for search results instead of a mobile-first index that is different from the desktop-first index.

As a result, pages that are optimised for mobile devices will get precedence and will rank higher in search results. To know how Google determines a mobile-friendly webpage, you can read up on its developer documentation which showcases the best practices when designing a web-page. The documentation covers how sites can use responsive web design and dynamic serving. With sites havinig AMP and non-AMP pages, Google will prefer the mobile-version of the non-AMP page.

Google stated that site owners with mobile-friendly webpages will see significantly increased crawl rate from the smartphone Googlebot. Furthermore, Google will rank mobile versions of pages in search results and Google cached pages.

Having a mobile-friendly webpage isnt the only factor to rank higher in search results though. Starting July 2018, Google will penalise websites that have slow-loading content by downranking them for both mobile and desktop users. However, if the information in a not mobile-friendly or a slow-loading site is the most relevant, it will still get precedence over others.
The Indian government has refused Google's proposal to launch its 'Street View' service in India, Minister of State for Home Affairs Hansraj Gangaram Ahir said on Tuesday. Ahir informed the Lok Sabha that Google had submitted a proposal on Street View for the government's permission in July 2015, which allows users to explore places around the world through 360-degree panoramic street level imagery and view public areas.



"The government did not agree to the proposal," the Minister said. Ahir was replying to a written question asked by Balasubramaniam Senguttuvan, a member from Vellore in Tamil Nadu.



Internet giant Google launched its Street View service in Bengaluru in 2011 to collect street-level imagery but was soon asked by local authorities to stop the service citing security reasons. Revived again in 2015, Google tied up with the Archaeological Survey of India to bring 31 historical monuments and sites online and offer panoramic views to the consumer. Since then it has been in talks with the Centre to see how the service can be launched in compliance with local regulations.



Google Street View is present in more than 82 countries around the world, which have benefited from it in terms of tourism and other aspects. Introduced in 2007 in the US, Street View uses bikes and cars fitted with cameras to collect 360-degree images which the user is then able to see in a panoramic view with street-level 3D imagery.
Theres a new iPad in town. Apple held its Education event on March 27 where the Cupertino-based tech giant announced a new 9.7-inch iPad with a Retina display and all-day battery life. The new iPad comes in an aluminium shell and features Apples A10 Fusion Chip which also powers the iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus. The processor from Apple is built on a 64-bit architecture and 16nm process technology. Its a quad-core processor but only two of them are high-performance cores, reaching a clock speed of 2.34GHz.

Since the new iPad is aimed at classrooms and students, it comes with support for Apple Pencil, which was first introduced with the iPad Pro. Sensors can measure both pressure and tilt and the iPad also features palm rejection technology that makes it possible to rest your hand on the screen while you use Apple Pencil. At the event, Apple demoed some Pencil specific apps such as Smart Annotation, which allows teachers to markup reports and Froggipedia, which lets students virtually frog in AR using the pencil. Apple also announced updates to its iWork suite of apps including Pages, Keynote and Numbers. The new update will allow users to add drawings and annotations to Keynote, Numbers and Pages by just writing on the documents with the Apple Pencil. The Apple Pencil will not ship with the iPad though and will need to be bought seperately at Rs 7,600.

In the camera department, the 2018 iPad features an 8MP rear shooter alongside a 1.2MP HD FaceTime camera at the front. Apple says that both cameras are optimised to provide exceptional low-light performance and the primary cam can be used to record 1080p HD videos as well as 720p slow-motion videos. Apple is trying to promote learning through Augmented Reality and the new iPad features a gyroscope and accelerometer for motion tracking to support the next generation of AR apps.

In terms of connectivity options, the new iPad will be available in two variants - Wi-Fi only and Wi-Fi + Cellular. Apple claims that the device features ultrafast wireless that can deliver two times faster cellular data connections. The new iPad also features an Apple SIM with which customers can connect to wireless data plans right from their device when traveling in more than 180 countries and regions. Not all carriers support Apple SIM though and the service is not available in China.

For its software skills, the 2018 iPad will ship with iOS 11 onboard. iOS 11 on iPad brings enhanced multitasking, a customisable dock and seamless integration with Apple Pencil, ARKit.

Apples software experience also extends to education apps. At the event, Apple also introduced a new app called Schoolwork. The Schoolwork app allows teachers to create assignments and keep track of student progress. The app has a Handouts feature which can be used to create and send assignments with almost any type of content, from web links to PDFs and documents. Teachers can also assign specific activity within an app and direct their students to the specific point within the app.

Teachers will also be able to use Macs to create digital books for their classrooms. The Mac version of the app will be available in beta starting in June.

Further, Apple announced that students and teachers with a Managed Apple ID will get access to 200GB of iCloud storage.

Pricing and Availability

The new iPad is available through Apple authorised sellers at Rs 28,000 for the 32GB with Wi-Fi model and Rs 38,600 for the 32GB Wi-Fi + Cellular model. As we already told you, the Apple Pencil has to be purchased separately for Rs 7,600 and smart covers can also be purchased for Rs 3,400. The new iPad will be available in silver, space gray and a new gold finish, while the Smart Covers are available in charcoal grey, midnight blue, red, white and pink sand colour options.

Apple will start selling the new iPad in 25 countries starting this week. However, the device will be available in India, Russia, Thailand, Turkey and other countries and regions in April.
Disability Discrimination in Portugal is High - No National Strategy for Persons with Disabilities

Published: 2018-03-28 - Updated: 2018-05-02

Author: EESC | Contact: eesc.europa.eu

Synopsis: Disability discrimination in Europe averages 15%, but in Portugal this figure increases to 65% - Surprisingly, the Portuguese Government has no national strategy for persons with disabilities.

Main Digest

Disability discrimination in Europe averages 15%, but in Portugal this figure increases to 65%. Surprisingly, the Portuguese Government has no national strategy for persons with disabilities.

Data analysis and research from the Observatorio da Deficiency e Direitos Humanos (Disability and Human Rights Observatory) based at the University of Lisbon, Portugal, reveals some worrying concerns.

As part of the work of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) Permanent Study Group on Disability rights (PSG DIS), a fact-finding visit was undertaken to Lisbon, Portugal on 19-21 March 2018, to look at the situation for persons with disabilities following the crisis and the subsequent austerity measures.



Yellow tram carriage suspended at the top of a narrow street with traditional architecture, Lisbon, Portugal.

Irene Petraitiene from Lithuania, President of the PSG DIS and representing the Workers' Group, Ioannis Vardakastanis from Greece, representing the Various Interest Group, and Madi Sharma from the UK, representing the Employers' Group, met with a range of civil society actors and organisations to gain a better understanding of the challenges. A high level meeting was also held with Ana Sofia Antunes, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Work, Solidarity and Social Security, whose remit includes disability policy.

Since 2016, the newly-elected Portuguese government has introduced two important advances to improve the situation of people with disabilities.

These measures focused on targeted social benefits and independent living. The objective is to move away from institutionalisation towards empowering individuals through new measures recently introduced. Public debates and consultations with civil society on the new legislation and direct support initiatives have taken place with the goal of delivering tangible measures.

However, many of the organisations the EESC members spoke with stated that whilst they had been included in the initial consultations of the government, they felt that the absence of a national strategy was a major obstacle in combating the discrimination and increasing the risk of poverty faced by persons with disabilities in Portugal.

Mr Vardakastanis, also President of EDF, the European Disability Forum, said;

"Reforms are needed on how people receive their social benefits and on the way the disability assessment system works, especially the medical analysis which, as it stands, may be acting against the UNCRPD guidelines. The assessment should be based on needs, not on the level of disabilities - this is the human rights approach".

Combating discrimination must begin with an inclusive education system and the statistics for Portugal are good. The inclusion of students with disabilities within the education system is 99%, with 86% receiving mainstream education. However, it is difficult to achieve an inclusive system which does not provide students with disabilities with the support services they need, including therapeutic support, which sadly was cut by half from 2015-2016 and continues at this rate. Consideration and measures must also be devoted to addressing the gender gap among students, where girls receive less support than boys and girls with disabilities are less present in schools.

The culmination of poor educational attainment results, in findings from The Disability and Human Rights Observatory, shows that 18% of the Portuguese population aged five or over declared severe difficulty in achieving six pre-established daily tasks, but this increases to 50% for people over 65. Furthermore, figures for 2011-2016 reveal that registered unemployment decreased by 18.8% among the general population in Portugal, but increased to 26.7% among people with disabilities. Women with disabilities are subject to twofold discrimination, where 20% of men with disabilities and as many as 37.2% women are unemployed. Much of this can be attributed to the lack of support that young people with disabilities, especially girls, receive in schools.

"Both employers and trade unions must take up their responsibility - Communication and training for both the public and the private sector must be undertaken if we are to see a change in Portugal", said Ms Sharma.

Job promotion measures have supported mainstream individuals, and people with disabilities have gained from short-term programmes such as internships and apprenticeships, but for long-term employment opportunities there is a severe negative trend. The private sector employs only 0.5% of people with disabilities and the public sector only 2.3%, despite targeted objectives of 2% and 5% respectively. Low work intensity results in low income (24.8%), the consequences of which are a high risk of poverty and social exclusion, which is greater for people with severe disabilities (36.5%).

The Portuguese government has high expectations of its social inclusion benefit as a solution to some of the challenges faced by persons with disabilities, but ultimately effective implementation will be the key and some concern was raised by many of the civil society organisations. Access to the benefits requires a minimum of 60% incapacity, based on a medical assessment - this itself is carried out on the basis of a contentious table of established physical disabilities, discriminating against intellectual disabilities. The benefit is awarded on a sliding scale according to the percentage of disability above 60%. Further barriers occur as the distribution of funds is problematic for many individuals due to the banking system in Portugal.

Despite all the challenges, enlightening and dedicated work has been carried out by many NGOs, such as Novamente, the APD (Portuguese Association for the Disabled), CNOD (Portuguese Confederation of Disabled People), ECDC Sintra ,the Liga Foundation and the Association for Study and Psychosocial Integration). Much of the work is carried out on a voluntary basis or with very limited funds, and there is a desperate need for additional funding for such organisations which implement community initiatives.

"Accessibility and awareness-raising regarding the challenges faced by persons with disabilities in Portugal still has a long way to go. Here, the European Union and the Portuguese government could ensure more efficient dissemination of funds and more relevant and targeted programmes to address those most marginalised in society," said Ms Petraitiene at the end of the mission.

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Cite This Page (APA): EESC. (2018, March 28). Disability Discrimination in Portugal is High - No National Strategy for Persons with Disabilities. Disabled World. Retrieved September 24, 2021 from www.disabled-world.com/news/uk/portugal.php
The final Dreamliner has arrived. Boeing celebrated the delivery of its newest, biggest 787 to Singapore Airlines South Carolina Factory on Sunday where, according to Eyewitness News, the occasion took place in front of a crowd of employees and airline officialswith rock and roll playing in the background.

Singapore Airlines plan to use the 787-10 for regional flights of up to 8 hours, such as to Osaka, Japan. CEO Goh Choon Phong, as reported by Stuff NZ, said:

It is an honour for us to be the worlds first airline to take delivery of this amazing new aircraft

This new version of the Dreamliner is basically a bigger version of the 787-9, measuring 18ft longer, and able to seat 330 passengers (compared to the 787-9s 290 passengers). It is worth $326 million, and completes the 787 range, which began with the 787-8 in 2011. According to Eyewitness News, all three:

Boast carbon-composite fabrication materials, fuel efficiency and new state-of-the-air filtration systems with higher levels of humidity in the air for long-distance flight

Earlier today the jet touched down in Changi airport, having made its way from the US.

The new 787-10 currently accounts for 13% of orders for the range, however the 787-9 remains the most popular, competing predominantly with the European company Airbuss new-gen carbon-composite A350a jet of similar carrying capacity and range.

Felicia, a cabin crew member on board @SingaporeAir #787 -10 delivery flight, takes a few minutes to watch as the northern lights dance through the sky. #avgeek @TodayInTheSky pic.twitter.com/2TKJZzBKJA  Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren (@photoJDL) 27 March 2018

RELATED: Singapore Airlines Unveils Its Amazing New A380 Business Class Suites
The World Whisky Awards in London brought some accolades to an Australian name overnight with Sullivans Cove Distillery receiving the title for the Worlds Best Single Cask Single Malt Whisky.

The winning bottle of Sullivans Cove American Oak was officially distilled in the year 2000 and bottled in 2017 to make for a 16 year-old bottle of liquid gold consisting of nothing but 100 percent Tasmanian malted barley and Tasmanian mountain water.

Only 136 bottles of the whisky have been produced with Head Distiller Patrick Maguire expressing his joy over the hard works pay off.

To be crowned Worlds Best at The World Whiskies Awards again is a wonderful honour. The distillery was in competition with over one thousand brands from around the globe, so its a fantastic achievement for us and Tasmania, he said.

These awards are incredible recognition of our dedicated and passionate team, and reinforce that Tasmania is one of the worlds best whisky making regions, added Adam Sable, the Managing Director of Sullivans Cove.

The latest haul follows on from the Australian distillerys win from the 2014 World Whisky Awards where it took out the Worlds Best Single Malt Whisky  a first for Australia amongst competition which usually hails from Scotland or Japan.

Other notable winners on the list includes Japans Hakushu 25 Year-Old which took out top honours for the Worlds Best Single Malt  it also retails for AU$4,000 locally if youre curious. The Worlds Best Grain Whisky meanwhile was taken out by a AU$45 bottle of South African Whisky for the first time.

See the full list of winners below.

Worlds Best Single Cask Single Malt  Sullivans Cove American Oak Single Cask

Worlds Best Single Malt  Hakushu 25 Year-Old

Worlds Best Blended Malt  Taketsuru 17 Year-Old

Worlds Best Blended  Johnnie Walker Gold Reserve

Worlds Best Bourbon  1792 Full Proof Kentucky Straight Bourbon

Worlds Best Blended Limited Release  Ichiros Malt & Grain Limited Edition
The growth in IDA supported jobs in Donegal since 2000 is less than half the national average, it has been revealed.

Senator Padraig MacLochlainn revealed that the IDA supports 12 companies in the county today, compared 14 in 2000.

Two of those companies, Pramerica and Optum employ two-thirds of the total IDA supported jobs in Donegal, 2,200 out of 3,389.

In July 1999, the report from the Donegal Employment Initiative Task Force targeted 4,750 new jobs for Donegal in Foreign Direct Investment and Internationally Traded Services over the following seven years, He said.

The Task Force, led by the then County Manager, Michael McLoone had been established by the Government following the loss of over 1,000 jobs in Donegals textile industry at the time.

This report was launched just over a year after the Good Friday Agreement that heralded a new era of peace on the island of Ireland. So the Task Forces job targets for Donegal reflected a time of hope and post-conflict ambition.

Questions submitted to the minister

The senator recently submitted a range of parliamentary questions to the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Heather Humphreys to fully examine the rate of progress in Donegal.

The findings are stark. It is a story of government failure. It is a story of lost prosperity for the people of Donegal.

I can reveal that the level of growth in IDA supported jobs here in Donegal since 2000 is less than half the national average. At national level, IDA supported jobs have grown from 140,000 in 2000 to over 210,000 today, 50% growth. The growth in IDA supported jobs in Donegal over that period is just 24% from 2,739 jobs in 2000 to 3,389 today.

So rather than the 4,750 jobs called for by the Task Force so that we could catch up with the national average of jobs, we actually got 650 additional jobs in the last 17 years.

The success of Optum and particularly Pramerica with over 1,500 jobs created in Donegal, clearly demonstrate the true potential of our county. The progression of the new North West City Region under the leadership of Donegal County Council and Derry City and Strabane District Council is truly exciting. The team at LYIT with its adjoining CoLab and Science and Technology Park are also leading the way to a brighter future.

What has been glaringly missing is delivery from Governments led by Fine Gael and Fianna Fail down the years. The days of the broken promises have to end. The people of Donegal deserve prosperity and fairness like everywhere else.
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The rear bumper has also been remodelled with revised twin-outlet tailpipes finished in high-gloss chrome on either side of a bolder diffuser.

Inside the cockpit, the instrument cluster is now a 12.3-inch fully-digital screen that can be configured in three different themes  Classic, Sporty or Supersport  and displays a multitude of information, including turbo boost pressure, g-forces, a race timer and a new AMG Track Pace function (that may be an optional extra) which can showcase circuit track maps with individual sector and lap times.

The function can also be linked to the colour head-up display, with upcoming bends, braking marker points, lap delta speeds and optimum lap times.

It measures over 80 different paramaters up to 10 times per second using GPS data, accelerometers, gyroscopes, wheel speed sensors and steering angle. The system has a number of circuits pre-loaded in its memory, such as the Nurburgring in Germany and Belgiums Spa-Francorchamps, but it is not known whether any Australian circuits are featured. In any case, the GPS data can record individual circuits, and all of the data can be stored and reviewed after track sessions.

Sitting on top of the centre console, the C63 features a new, larger 10.25-inch colour multimedia system that integrates sat nav, connectivity, vehicle settings and the audio system with a new-look Comand interface that features Mercedes latest Energizing function that links music with ambient lighting, air conditioning and the seat heaters and massage functions to create different moods within the cabin.

Elsewhere, the C63 picks-up the latest-generation AMG three-spoke, flat-bottomed steering wheel with touch pad controllers for the instrument cluster (left) and multimedia system (right). It can also be equipped with a round controller under the right-hand spoke that toggles through the multiple drive modes, displaying the chosen setting on a colour LCD screen on its face, while two additional colour-display buttons on the opposite side provide easy access to other AMG-specific functions such as personal preference settings for the suspension, exhaust, steering and engine response.
Mercedes-Benz has revealed plans to develop a high-riding crossover wagon based on the popular C-Class.

The German brand has succesfully rolled out the larger E-Class All-Terrain, which is the only wagon variant of the latest-generation mid-sizer available in Australia, and now plans to extend the concept as part of the recently-updated C-Class range.

Speaking to Australian media at a preview event ahead of the 2018 New York motor show, Christian Fruh, the chief engineer for all mainstream C-Class variants, confirmed the idea was first flirted with the previous-generation C-Class, but Mercedes-Benx decided to concentrate on building its conventional SUV range first with models like the popular GLC.

Now that program has been succesfully completed, and considering the success of the E-Class All-Terrain, particularly in Europe where station wagons are still popular, Fruh confirmed his division is building a new business case to revive the C-Class All-Terrain before this current generation is replaced within the next four years.

"The idea started in the C-Class already in the generation before, because I love this concept always. But it never was calculated as a big success [back then] so we didnt do it," he said.

"Now we have started it for the first time in the E-Class, and it is a good success. And we are of course now thinking about it for the C-Class. It is, how would you say it, designed into the platform.

"The platform can do it. The current platform can do it, and the next-generation can do it.

"We are discussing [building a business case for it] now."

The All-Terrain concept isn't a new one, and essentially follows the path that was pioneered by the Subaru Outback more than two decades ago.

In the E-Class (pictured), the All-Terrain features adjustable air suspension that naturally sits 15mm higher than a regular wagon but can be raised an additional 20mm higher at speeds below 35km/h for additional ground clearance.

It is available exclusively with Mercedes' advanced 4Matic all-wheel drive transmission, with specific off-road driving modes, and is powered by a 2.0-litre turbo diesel four cylinder that produces 143kW and 400Nm with a nine-speed automatic gearbox.

The body features unique cladding around the wheel arches and shallower front and rear bumpers with extra underbody protection for mild off-roading capabilities.

That same concept is expected to be applied to the C-Class All-Terrain, which could join the already extensive range of C-Class variants - which includes sedan, wagon, coupe and convertible - by 2020, and is expected to continue into the next-generation model.
Bold new styling follows the recent trend of Toyota's next-generation models like the Toyota Camry that has broken with its usual conservative approach to it cosmetic appeal.

This is most noticeable at the front with a large guard and air vents cutting a swathe through the front of the RAV4. A new grille, floating roofline and overall squarer, edgier silhouette combine to give the RAV4 a more masculine and aggressive stance.

The RAV4 is built on the Japanese giant's new TNGA (Toyota New Global Architecture) platform that underpins the new Camry, C-HR and Prius and the upcoming 2018 Corolla.
Good Friday 2018 will have a decidedly different feel to it than in years gone by. For the first time since 1927, pubs in Ireland will be allowed to open to the public on the holy day marking the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

In January, the Dail passed new legislation  an amended Intoxicating Liquor Act - to allow the sale of alcohol on Good Friday. President Michael D Higgins subsequently signed the bill into law.

Alcohol has not been permitted for sale on this day in Ireland since 1927  91 years ago  and the change of law comes after lengthy calls to repeal it, citing how out of kilter it was with modern Ireland.

Politicians and publicans also argued that tourism in Ireland suffered. Easter Weekend, with a Bank Holiday Monday, is traditionally a huge period for tourism but with pubs closed, foreign visitors to Ireland were often left bemused by the law.

Ireland, of course, is famed worldwide for its pubs, nightlife, whiskey and Guinness.

The law change does not oblige publicans to open on Good Friday  it simply gives them the option to do so. Most will open now that the opportunity has arisen, but some will continue to honour the tradition.

Speaking to the Dundalk Democrat, Andrew McGeough of McGeoughs of Roden Place in Dundalk said they were opening on Good Friday for the first time since the ban came in.

The proprietor said it was something of a step into the unknown.

It will be interesting, he told us. Well open and see how it goes.

Times have changed, he admits, Not everybody stands up to Good Friday now. We have all different types of religions, races and cultures in Ireland nowadays, so its different.

We said wed go with the flow. The general feeling [around town] is that people will open.

Whilst, since the law passed, the intention was always to open, Andrew says a new day of trading makes up for having lost a day worth of business at the start of the month.

We lost a day of trading with the snow, he said, I hope we wont be held up as traitors to the cause. Certain people have their habits. Everyone has a different outlook these days.

He says that in years gone by, he would use Good Friday as a day for repairs and refurbishments if needed. Being a rare day the licensed premises would be closed, it was the only time such work could be done.

But he says in modern times, he can pick and choose when to close  perhaps on a quiet night  to undertake such tasks. He no longer relies on Good Friday as the day to get things done with the pub closed to the public.

Elsewhere in Dundalk, The Vinegar Man said they will be open on the holy day. Were open, but I dont think itll make much of a difference, admitted barman Stephen OHare, Id say it will just be a normal Friday. We might be a bit busier but we wont be full to the brim.

The Bartender is also opening on Good Friday for the first time. We are all delighted about it here,said a staff member. We think it might be a bit busier than usual, people will go out for the novelty.

Courtneys say they are also opening because everyone else is.

It was never spoken about so I guess we are open, a barman told the Democrat, Id say it might be busy for the first year. It can be a bit hit and miss on Fridays, some nights it is very busy, others not so much.

Not everywhere in Dundalk will open however. The Spirit Store, the bar and live venue located on Georges Quay says it will remain closed as usual.

In response to a request for comment as to why they were not opening on Good Friday, owner Mark Dearey said, Theres more to life.

In a poll on our social media channel this week, 58% of our readers said they believe alcohol should be available for sale on Good Friday. Just 27/% of them say they intend on going to the pub on Good Friday this year.

65% said they would not be spending any of their Good Friday in the pub.

Removing the ban is simple common sense, Licensed Vintners Association CEO Donall O'Keefe remarked earlier this year.

Why we're closing on Good Friday

Landy's Irish Harp in Ardee is to remain closed on Good Friday, despite the vast majority of public houses opening their doors to custom.

Proprietor Adrian Landy spoke to the Democrat and told us why he came to the decision to stick with tradition.

I'm glad to see there's a choice. I'm all for choice - to let publicans open and close if they wish, he said.

Christmas Day and Good Friday have always been a family day, for myself and my wife and our family. We always head away on Good Friday so I'm putting family before business. That's all it is.

Landy says things may change in the future but his customers support his decision.

It's two days we enjoy every year. It's a tradition with us to take them off.

You never say never, things can change. Definitely, I'm going to lose money by closing. There's no doubt about it - but I'm putting my family first.

The customers don't mind. They know my reasoning behind it, so they understand.
St Vincents Secondary School student Sadbh Boylan was named one of two winners of the 2018 national ActionAid Speech Writing competition last week.

The local teenager joined Juliette ODonnell from Colaiste Einde in Galway as the winners of the prestigious competition, the final of which was held at the Royal Irish Academy on Wednesday, March 21st.

Sadbh was one of nine finalists who emphatically delivered her speech in front of the panel of judges including former RTE broadcaster and Action Aid chairman Rodney Rice and Hans Zomer, who is the Head of Communications for President Michael D Higgins.

The speeches were judged on their delivery, writing skills and understanding of the topic with Sadbh praised for her understanding and enthusiasm towards human rights in a superb display of research, critical thinking and originality.

Speaking afterwards, Sadbh admitted her victory came as a shock. Im really excited and surprised to win the competition! she said.

I didnt know much about the Sustainable Development Goals before but I did a lot of research and now recognise the importance of overseas development aid, and understand how it can bring us closer to reaching sustainable development.

The joint winners of the first prize Sadbh and Juliette will now travel to Brussels in June as part of their prize. There, accompanied by teachers and representatives by ActionAid, they will meet with members of the European Parliament and organisations active on womens rights, youth and development.

Sadbh and Juliette saw off competition from over 130 other entries from 40 different schools all across the country. The speech topics were based on one of three topics relating to womens rights and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the latter of which Sadbh chose.
It's Not Yet Dark, the acclaimed independent Irish documentary film directed by Ardee man Frankie Fenton, is to receive it's Irish television premiere on TV3 this coming weekend.

The 2017 film will be broadcast as part of a 9pm double bill on Easter Sunday night including 'My Name Is Emily', the 2015 movie directed by Simon Fitzmaurice, the subject of Fenton's film.

The documentary has been available to view on streaming service Volta since November, having been released on a limited run in cinemas across Ireland earlier in the Autumn.

It's Not Yet Dark sees Ardee-native Fenton follow film-marker Fitzmaurice as he directed 'My Name Is Emily', the Evanna Lynch fronted drama. Fitzmaurice was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease in 2008. He lost movement across his body as the disease took hold - using eye-gaze technology to communicate.

Bringing My Name Is Emily to the big screen was an extraordinary achievement for the man from Greystones, battling against the odds and the restrictions that came with his illness.

He died in late October last year, shortly after the documentary It's Not Yet Dark had enjoyed it's Irish premiere. Simon Fitzmaurice was married to Ardee local Ruth Fitzmaurice, who wrote a best-selling memoir - 'I Found My Tribe' about her life coping with Simon's illness and family life.

My Name Is Emily airs on Sunday night at 9pm on TV3, with It's Not Yet Dark following at 10.50pm.
The Hungarian Ambassador to Ireland Mr Istvan S Palffy paid a visit to Dundalk on Monday afternoon - and he was given some local cheese to take home with him (below) as he stopped off at some of the area's most well-known sites.

Louth County Council welcomed the Hungarian Ambassador to County Hall at 11am, where Cathaoirleach Colm Markey presented the special guest with a ceramic cheeseboard made by local ceramicist, Sarah McKenna, along with a sample of Bellingham Blue Irish Farmhouse Cheese - produced locally by farmer Peter Thomas.

Earlier, Mr Palffy was given a tour of the County Musuem in Dundalk by Louth County Council Arts Officer, Brian Harten and Museum Curator Brian Walsh. The Ambassador was intrigued by the amenity, which chronicles Louths historical development from the Stone Age to the present day.

Louth County Council Heritage Officer Brendan McSherry was also on hand to accompany His Excellency to Proleek Dolmen in Ballymascanlan, where he informed him of the significance of the local landmark.

"I was delighted to welcome His Excellency, Mr Istvan S Palffy to County Hall today," Cathaoirleach Markey said. "Mr Palffy visited a number of sites of cultural interest in the north of the county, including our award-winning County Museum.

"He was very interested in the story of human habitation in Louth - the Proleek Dolmen, for example, shows we were creating amazing structures here over 5,000 years ago."

"We chose to present His Excellency with a locally made cheese board and a selection of local cheeses in acknowledgement of his interest in food and regional cuisine  he has written a number of books on food and wine in Hungary.

"I assured His Excellency that Louth would be delighted to greet many more visitors from Hungary, and that they would be assured of a warm welcome," he added.

His Excellency, Mr Palffy remarked, "I was very pleased to pay a visit to Louth today.

"I am very interested in Irish arts and heritage and I very much enjoyed exploring the cultural richness Louth has to offer. I thank Louth County Council staff for their hospitality and for their very thoughtful gifts."
Ireland's Minister for Justice and Equality, Charlie Flanagan T.D., has issued a report on the outcome of a review by the Garda authorities into the events which lead up to the murder of Garda Tony Golden and the shooting of Ms. Siobhan Phillips in Omeath on October 11th 2015.

In the report he called Garda Tony Golden a brave man who gave his life in the line of duty and determined that the actions of Garda Golden were beyond reproach.

Minister Flanagan said: The murder of Garda Tony Golden at Omeath in October 2015 was a tragic loss for his family and his colleagues. We should never forget that Garda Golden was a brave man who gave his life doing his duty as a Garda and serving his fellow citizens.

I understand the review undertaken was done so with great sensitivity and involved a complex piece of work. I am appealing for continued sensitivity for those who have suffered greatly as a result of these events, especially the widow and children of Garda Golden and his wider family and Ms. Phillips and her family members. My deepest sympathies are with them.

The Minister added: The shooting of Garda Golden and Ms. Phillips was an abhorrent crime. Ms. Phillips is a young woman who has suffered great trauma and serious injuries as a result of the events of that day.

The Golden family have lost a dearly loved husband, father, brother and son. Garda Golden died selflessly doing his duty in seeking to protect the members of the community he served. This review has identified that the actions of Garda Golden were beyond reproach.

The Minister also indicated that, in terms of the separate review undertaken by Assistant Commissioner Eugene Corcoran, it is important to note that certain allegations in respect of the murder of Garda Golden are currently being examined by GSOC in two investigations. These investigations have been ongoing since April 2017.

The Minister state: Conscious of the gravity of this matter and the concerns expressed by the family of Ms. Siobhan Phillips, as well as by local public representatives, I have taken the decision in the public interest to publish this report. The report is subject to a number of minor redactions for necessary legal and security reasons. I have been assured by GSOC that the publication of this report will not have any adverse impact on the independent investigations underway and we should not prejudge the outcome of those investigations.

The Minister noted that, while the report highlighted that the two incidents were not recorded in accordance with relevant policy and procedures, it does not appear that the classification of the incidents was a causative factor in these tragic events on the night of the shootings.

And in responding to concerns relating to the recording and classification of crime statistics the Minister stated:

Ensuring that we have robust crime data is a very important element in effectively preventing and responding to all forms of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. As the CSO stated earlier today, there is ongoing engagement between it, An Garda Siochana and other crime statistics users, including my Department and the Policing Authority, in relation to the issues that need to be resolved to ensure our crime data is robust and corresponds to international best practice. These difficulties are not unique to Ireland but it is essential that matters are fully resolved as soon as possible.

The Minister further noted the recent measures being taken which are designed to improve the manner in which An Garda Siochana deals with victims of domestic abuse and welcomed the increased focus by An Garda Siochana on vulnerable victims of crimes against the person, including where the incidents of criminality occur in a domestic setting.

The Minister said: Tackling domestic violence is an essential priority for the Government. New legislation strengthening protections for victims is currently before the Oireachtas and a multimillion Euro domestic violence awareness campaign is underway.

I welcome the measures taken by An Garda Siochana to improve their responses to domestic violence cases and in particular I welcome the introduction of the Revised Policy of An Garda Siochana on Domestic Violence Intervention.

As a further measure to ensure that victims are placed at the heart of Garda service, Divisional Protective Services Units (DPSUs) will also be established in each Garda Division. This has already been rolled out on a phased basis starting with 3 Divisions - Louth, Dublin Metropolitan Region West and Cork City. The next phase of DPSUs have provisionally been identified and will be launched in the coming months.

Garda Golden was killed as he defended a young woman, Siobhan Phillips, after she had been attacked by her partner, Adrian Crevan Mackin.
Posted Wednesday, March 28, 2018 3:30 am

Wednesday, March 28

 Community Blood Center of the Ozarks blood drive, 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Logan-Rogersville High School, 4700 State Highway 125, Rogersville.

 Story time, 10 a.m., Webster County Library, Marshfield. A free weekly kids event that includes stories and a craft. For more information, call the library at 468-3335.

 AA meeting, noon, Marshfield Nazarene Church, east entrance. For more information, contact John at 417-224-5573.

 Music Jam, 1:30 p.m., Marshfield Senior Center, 427 W. Washington St., Marshfield

 Quill and Ink Creative Writing class, 3 p.m., Webster County Library, 219 W. Jackson St., Marshfield. Open to the public, no fees.

 Open gym hallwalking, 3:30-6 p.m., Marshfield Community Center, 110 E. Commercial St. Donation of $1 is suggested. Children must be accompanied by an adult. For more information, call 859-6055 or email melaniefraker@gmail.com.

 TOPS Mo. 686 Strafford, 4:30 p.m. weigh-in, Strafford High School.

 Pound Cardio Class, 6-7 p.m., Marshfield Community Center (back cardio building), 110 E. Commercial St. Cost is $5 per class. For more information, call Trisha Tindall at 417-224-0721.

Thursday, March 29

 Community Blood Center of the Ozarks blood drive, 1:30-6:30 p.m., Marshfield United Methodist Church, 220 S. Elm, Marshfield.

 Open gym hallwalking, 3:30-6 p.m., Marshfield Community Center, 110 E. Commercial St. Donation of $1 is suggested. Children must be accompanied by an adult. For more information, call 859-6055 or email melaniefraker@gmail.com.

 TOPS 0534 Marshfield meeting, 3:30 p.m., Webster County Library, 219 W. Jackson St. Visitors welcome.

 TOPS 1039 Conway, 5:30 p.m., Conway Community Building, 589-6056 or 589-2121.

 Marshfield Lions Club meeting, 6:30 p.m., 210 Maple St. All are welcome.

 Gamblers Anonymous, 6:30-7:30 p.m., Holy Trinity Catholic Church, 2818 E. Bennett St., Springfield. For information, call Karen at 417-894-7959.

 Taekwondo class, 7-8 p.m., Marshfield Community Center, 110 E. Commercial St. Cost is $5 per class. For more information, contact Pat Blinzler, 417-839-0433.

 AA meeting, 8 p.m., Holy Trinity Church, 859-6031.

Friday, March 30

 AA meeting, noon, Marshfield Nazarene Church, east entrance. For more information, contact John at 417-224-5573.

 Community Blood Center of the Ozarks blood drive, 1-6 p.m., Niangua High School, 301 Rumsey St., Niangua.

 Family roller skating, 4-8 p.m., Marshfield Community Center, 110 E. Commercial St. Cost is $5 per skater per two-hour session (4-6 p.m. recommended for young skaters).

 Celebrate Recovery, meets Friday nights at the wareHouse at 33 Stevens Drive. Dinner starts at 5:45 p.m., with meeting at 6:30 p.m. Group meetings are designed to aid in the recovery process from addiction, destructive habits, anger or whatever is causing trouble in your life. For more information, call Misti at 417-241-3997 or Dale at 417-241-1544.

 Pound Cardio Class, 6-7 p.m., Marshfield Community Center (back cardio building), 110 E. Commercial St. Cost is $5 per class. For more information, call Trisha Tindall at 417-224-0721.

 AA meeting, Diggins ABC Group, 7 p.m., Diggins Baptist Church, Highway 60 and NN, 417-464-1750.

 Bingo night, sponsored by the Marshfield Firefighters Association, 7 p.m., Uptown Cafe, 210 W. Jackson St., Marshfield.

 Unchained Biblical 12-step meeting, 7-8 p.m., CrossBridge Church, 302 S. Clay St., Marshfield. Open to all addictions and support needs. Childcare and dinner provided.

Saturday, March 31

 Addicts, Coffee and Recovery, 10 a.m., the wareHouse, 33 Stevens Drive, Marshfield, 859-0640.

 44th annual Seymour FFA Alumni Association Consignment Auction, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Seymour High School parking lot. Will feature traditional equipment and horse-drawn equipment taken on consignment and sold that day. All profits benefit local youth. Concessions available.

 Marshfield First Baptist Church Easter Egg Hunt, 10 a.m., Marshfield First Baptist Church, 1001 S. White Oak.

 Marshfield Assembly of God Easter Egg Hunt, noon, Marshfield Assembly of God, 1538 W. Washington St. The free hunt is for ages 0-12, with lots of candy, prizes and more to be offered. In case of rain, the hunt will be indoors.

 CrossBridge Church Easter Egg Hunt, 5:30 p.m., Hidden Waters Nature Park, 716 W. Hubble Drive.

 After Dark Easter Egg Hunt, 6:30 p.m., Swan Song Inn, 583 Spring Valley Loop. Hunt starts at full dark, with gates opening one hour before dark. Cash prizes and more to be offered, along with a bonfire and music. Egg hunters must be at least 13 years old, with under 18 to be accompanied by a parent. Admission is $10 per person at the gate. Bring a chair, flashlight and comfortable shoes.

Sunday, April 1

 Al Anon, 6 p.m., Fellowship Bible Church, 4855 S. Farm Road 205, Rogersville, 417-619-4788.

 Addicts, Coffee and Recovery, 6:30 p.m., the wareHouse, 33 Stevens Drive, Marshfield, 859-0640.

Monday, April 2

 Preschool Story Time, 10 a.m., Webster County Library, Marshfield. A free weekly kids event that includes stories and a craft. For more information, call the library at 468-3335.

 Red Cross blood drive, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Marshfield Care Center, 800 S. White Oak St.

 Community Blood Center of the Ozarks blood drive, 2-7 p.m., Seymour Lions Club, 204 N. Main St., Seymour.

 Open gym hallwalking, 3:30-6 p.m., Marshfield Community Center, 110 E. Commercial St. Donation of $1 is suggested. Children must be accompanied by an adult. For more information, call 859-6055 or email melaniefraker@gmail.com.

 Pound Cardio Class, 6-7 p.m., Marshfield Community Center (back cardio building), 110 E. Commercial St. Cost is $5 per class. For more information, call Trisha Tindall at 417-224-0721.

 Cub Scout Pack 800, 6:30 p.m., 859-0972.

 City of Rogersville Board of Aldermen meeting, 7 p.m., first and third Monday of each month, Rogersville City Hall, 211 E. Center St.

 City of Strafford Board of Aldermen meeting, 7 p.m., first and third Monday of each month, Strafford City Hall, 126 E. Washington.

 Gamblers Anonymous, 7-8 p.m. conference room at St. Elizabeth Ann Seaton Catholic Church, corner of Cox and Republic Road, Springfield. For information, call Karen at 417-894-7959.

 AA meeting, 7:30 p.m., at Marshfield Nazarene Church, east entrance. For more information, contact John at 417-224-5573.

 Al Anon meeting, 7:30 p.m., at Marshfield Nazarene Church. Contact Jane at 417-224-5654.

 Mt. Olive Masonic Lodge, 7:30 p.m., first Monday of each month, five miles east of Route B on KK, northeast of Rogersville. www.mofreemason.com/mtolive/.

Tuesday, April 3

 Its Showtime, 9:30 a.m., Webster County Library, Marshfield. This weeks feature is All the Kings Men, starring Broderick Crawford and John Ireland. The film showings are free and open to all residents every Tuesday morning in the meeting room of the Garst Memorial Library, 219 W. Jackson in Marshfield. For more information, contact the library at 417-468-3335.

 Story time at the Library, 10:30 a.m., Rogersville Branch Library, 104 N. Beatie St. A free weekly kids event that includes stories and a craft. For more information, call the library at 753-3220.

 Wildcat Closet, 1-5 p.m., every Tuesday, Logan-Rogersville Upper Elementary School, 306 S. Mill St., Rogersville. Open to all families in the Logan-Rogersville School District and is operated by LR PTA. Donations also accepted outside shopping hours in the maroon bin by the doors of the Wildcat Closet.

 Open gym hallwalking, 3:30-6 p.m., Marshfield Community Center, 110 E. Commercial St. Donation of $1 is suggested. Children must be accompanied by an adult. For more information, call 859-6055 or email melaniefraker@gmail.com.

 I-44 interchange/Route CC roundabout public meeting, 4:30-6 p.m., Marshfield Senior Center, 417 W. Washington. Come-and-go style meeting with no formal presentation is to provide public with chance to ask questions and provide feedback on plans to build a new Interstate 44 interchange and a new roundabout on Route C at Banning and Buffalo streets.

 TOPS MO 1234 Rogersville, 5:45 p.m. at Rogersville Church of Christ off Center Street across from Citizens Bank of Rogersville.

 Crossroads to Recovery N/A meetings, 6 p.m., CrossBridge Church, 302 S. Clay St., Marshfield, 417-838-3013.

 Rogersville Planning and Zoning Commission meeting, 6 p.m., Rogersville City Hall, 211 E. Center St., Rogersville. The meeting is open to the public and the commission meets every first and third Tuesday at 6 p.m.

 Taekwondo class, 6-8:30 p.m., Marshfield Community Center, 110 E. Commercial St. Cost is $5 per class. For more information, contact Pat Blinzler, 417-839-0433.

 Webster County Democratic Party meeting, Sheilas Place, 915 S. Marshall St., Marshfield, 6 p.m. meet, greet and eat, followed by 6:30 p.m. meeting. Hallie Thompson, Democratic candidate for 4th Congressional District, will be speaking. Everyone is welcome.

 Overcomers: Victory in Christ Recovery Support Group, 7 p.m., Glorious Church, 3935 W. Sunshine, Springfield, 417-890-4420 or 417-865-1468.

 Webster County Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) meeting, 7 p.m., Webster County Emergency Management office, 433 Commercial St., Marshfield. If anyone is interested in becoming a HAM/amateur radio operator, you are invited to participate in the monthly meetings where testing information and training will be provided. For more information, call Tom Simmons N0CSA, Webster County ARES coordinator, at 417-872-5567.

Future events

April 5

 Strafford Elementary School Carnival, 5-7:30 p.m., Strafford Elementary, 310 W. McCabe St.

April 7-8

 20th annual Show-Me Gourd Art Festival, at the Ozark Empire Fairgrounds, from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. April 7 and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. April 8. Admission is $5 for the weekend; kids 12 and under are free. Free parking. For more information or to register for workshops, visit www.showmegourdsociety.com.

April 7

 Elkland Community Wide Yard Sale, junction of Highway 38 and Route AA. No fees for sellers or buyers. Set up starting at 6:30 a.m. All small animals must be confined. Concession and restrooms will be open. For more information, contact Elkland Lions Club president Elden Moore at 417-759-2490.

 Chili supper and talent show, 5:30-8 p.m., Marshfield Christian School, 114 Commercial St., Marshfield. Talent show portion of event hosted by MCS begins at 7 p.m.

April 13

 Night of the Arts, 5-8 p.m., Marshfield High School, 370 State Highway DD. Event will feature art displays and activities, along with demonstrations from the culinary arts, speech and theatre, and industrial arts departments. Paintings will also be for sale by Katelynn Loder for her senior project. Free admission.

April 14

 Dancing with the Stars, starting at 7 p.m. (doors open at 6:15 p.m.) in Marshfield High School gym. General admission $5, with opportunities to vote with dollars to support Project Graduation.


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The United States Department of Justice has charged nine Iranian nationals for engaging in a massive phishing campaign on behalf of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. The allegations include the theft of US$3.4 billion in research and intellectual property from 320 colleges and universities in the U.S. and abroad, as well as from 47 foreign and domestic companies, plus several federal agencies, state governments, and the United Nations.

All of the defendants were affiliated with the Mabna Institute, an Iranian firm that launched a massive cybercampaign in 2013, eventually stealing 31.5 terabytes of email account data from thousands of U.S. and foreign corporate employees and university faculty members around the world.

The nine defendants: Gholamreza Rafatnejad, 38; Ehsan Mohammadi, 37; Abdollah Kharima, aka Vahid Kharima, 39; Mostafa Sadeghi, 28; Seyed Ali Mirkarimi, 34; Mohammed Reza Sabahi, 26; Roozbeh Sabahi, 24; Abuzar Gohari Moqadam, 37; Sajjad Tahmasebi, 30. All of the defendants are Iranian citizens.

The defendants have been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion, which carries a five-year sentence; one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which carries a 20-year sentence; two counts of unauthorized access to a computer, which carry five years each; two counts of wire fraud, which carry up to 20 years; and one count of aggravated identity theft, which carries a mandatory two years in prison.

The Treasury Department sanctioned the Mabna Institute and 10 Iranians -- the nine defendants named in this case and Behzad Mesri, who previously was indicted in a case last fall. In that case, Mesri is accused of hacking and trying to extort HBO for $6 million in bitcoins, after stealing episodes of unaired episodes of various shows, including Ballers, Insecure, and Game of Thrones.

The various agencies and governments hit by the latest attack include the U.S. Department of Labor, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the states of Hawaii and Indiana, the United Nations, and the United Nations Children's Fund.

Iran's Foreign Ministry condemned the sanctions as provocative and illegal.

The U.S. "will not be able to use such ploys to stop or prevent Iranian people's scientific progress," said spokesperson Bahram Qassemi.

Brute Force

The defendants targeted the accounts of 100,000 professors around the world, but ultimately compromised 8,000 of them, according to the DoJ. Among those breached were 144 U.S. and 176 foreign universities in 21 countries, including the UK, China, Canada, South Korea, Spain, Israel, Turkey and other Western European nations.

The attacks, which ran from 2013 until December 2017, gained unauthorized access to various professors' accounts to steal dissertations, academic journals, theses and electronic books. The targeted documents spanned a variety of fields, including technology, medicine, engineering and social science.

The stolen information was sold through two websites: Megapaper.ir, a firm controlled by Falinoos Co., which Karima controlled; and Gigapaper.ir., which was affiliated with Karima.

Megapaper sold stolen academic information to customers in Iran, including colleges and universities there, while Gigapaper sold access to stolen professor credentials, which were sold to gain access to library systems in U.S. universities overseas, according to the DoJ.

"Academic institutions are prime targets for foreign cybercriminals," said Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein when he announced the indictments last week.

"Universities can thrive as marketplaces of ideas and engines of research and development only if their work is protected from theft," he added. "The events described in this indictment highlight the need for universities and other organizations to emphasize cybersecurity, increase threat awareness and harden their computer networks."

The Iranians are far from new to cyberespionage or cyberwarfare. They were the victims of the Stuxnet computer worm attack that famously targeted the Iranian nuclear program. As cyberactors, the Iranians reportedly were behind APT33, a group that targeted energy, aerospace and other industries in the U.S., Saudi Arabia and South Korea.

"The Iranians continue to improve and become more sophisticated in their cybercapabilities. In my opinion, they are in the top five of countries with significant capabilities," said Verodin Chief Strategy Officer Earl Matthews, Maj. Gen., USAF (Ret.).

"This attack represents the continued loss of intellectual property of our nation. It wouldn't surprise me if many of these universities were specifically targeted because they are doing research and development on behalf of the U.S. government," he told the E-Commerce Times.

"When the investigation details come out on how the breach was accomplished, we will once again find that cyberhygiene and social engineering will be the cause. These attacks can be mitigated if organizations would continuously automate and measure the validity, value, and effectiveness of their cybersecurity controls. We are well beyond just doing checklist compliance and thinking we are safe," Matthews said.

Vulnerable Targets

The indictment shows that phishing attacks played a central role in how the Iranians were able to access this data, said Kevin O'Brien, president of GreatHorn.

More than 8,000 professors around the world were compromised by the attack, court documents show, through a link to a "complimentary note" regarding an article that actually turned out to be a malicious website.

The research and intellectual property, and the personal identity information stolen from universities can generate major returns in underground marketplaces, O'Brien told the E-Commerce Times.

"Universities are both places where IP can be both found and stolen, and repositories of significant amounts of personally identifiable information about students, ranging from names and addresses to detailed financial records. Both are highly valuable and can be resold to fund more significantly nefarious and dangerous activities," he said.

The latest indictments should not spark greater concerns over the vulnerability of U.S. cybersecurity, suggested Chris Bronk, associate director of the Center for Information Security Research at the University of Houston.

"You can panic about things like this, I don't," he told the E-Commerce Times. "Compared to 10 or 15 years ago, U.S. entities are better prepared."

David Jones has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2015. His areas of focus include cybersecurity, e-commerce, open source, gaming, artificial intelligence and autonomous vehicles. He has written for numerous media outlets, including Reuters, Bloomberg, Crain's New York Business and The New York Times. Email David.




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The scene in A Few Good Men with Jack Nicholson going off on handling the truth has been coming to mind way too often of late. Sadly, this is the world we are living in right now, and social media is at the heart of it.

I recently noticed a headline that implied a lot of people had taken exception to something Gal Gadot, the woman who impressively portrayed Wonder Woman in the movie of the same name, tweeted about Stephen Hawking. I fell for it -- only to discover that the clear majority of folks actually supported what Gadot had tweeted.

I can't speak for you, but I am so tired of being lied to. So, this week, I'm going to cherry pick some of the things that just annoyed the hell out of me last week and debunk them. You see, I think you can handle the truth. I also think that if just a few of us constantly work to debunk fake news, then maybe -- just maybe -- the truth really will set us free.

I'll close with my product of the week: Snopes, one of the few websites you can visit to find out if that email or social media post is real before you assist the liars by spreading it to your friends.

No Bigotry in Gal Gadot's Tweet

Gal Gadot is the woman who played Wonder Woman in one of the most powerful movies ever created with a female lead, and one of the most successful movies ever released. Stephen Hawking was a real-life superhero who did not let his extreme disabilities stop him and accomplished more in his lifetime than 99.9 percent of able-bodied humans manage to do.

Upon Stephen's death, Gadot posted what appeared to be a respectful, heartfelt tweet:

Rest in peace Dr. Hawking. Now you're free of any physical constraints.. Your brilliance and wisdom will be cherished forever  pic.twitter.com/EQzSxqNTuN  Gal Gadot (@GalGadot) March 14, 2018

So far, around 53K people have liked the tweet -- yet the media reports have focused on the small fraction of people, counted in the hundreds, who took exception to it. Some claimed it was bigoted against disabled people, while others attacked Hawking's views on religion or his positions on Israel.

The problem for me is that the headline that drew me to the tweetstorm was "People aren't thrilled with Gal Gadot's tribute to Stephen Hawking." Yet the statistics indicate that around tens of thousands were thrilled with the tribute and a very vocal few hundred weren't -- some who drifted substantially afield of the tweet to take exception to it.

So, while the headline is accurate in a sense -- because some people weren't thrilled -- the fact is that a massively larger number of people supported it than took exception to it. Further, it obfuscated the fact that a significant number of those who took exception to it had invented reasons that had nothing to do with the tweet.

Saying "Most Everyone Liked Gadot's Tribute Of Hawking" just wouldn't pull enough clicks, I guess. Perhaps the more accurate "A Handful of Assholes Accuse Gadot of Being a Bigot" was too long?

Fishy Findings on AMD Security Problems

The media reported that CTS Labs had found a series of serious security problems with AMD's processors. This report was dumped on the market and on AMD at the same time, before being vetted. It moved AMD's stock down -- and yet just taking a few minutes to look into CTS Labs should have raised red flags.

CTS Labs is staffed with ex-spies and one ex-spy hedge fund manager. The firm doesn't even appear to have the skills needed (microprocessor engineering) to locate the questionable security exposures that were reported. Apparently, while the security problems were real, their significance was not. The problems paled against the issues reported by more credible firms on Intel's parts back in January. (Intel even faces a class action lawsuit tied to this mess.)

While I think it is likely Intel is behind the misinformation (AMD is believed to be taking significant share at the moment), equally credible is Linus Torvalds' opinion that the CTS Labs report was an illegal attempt to manipulate AMD's stock price. Nothing says we can't both be right.

In the end, while the security problems are real, they are obvious and easily preventable. An analogy would be saying your car has a security flaw because if you leave it unlocked with the keys in it in a bad part of town, it will be stolen. In the case of the CTS Labs claims, according to Torvalds, a systems administrator would have to be criminally negligent to allow these flaws to become a threat.

Whether Intel is behind the questionable report or it was an attempt to manipulate AMD's stock price, the problem is that it was taken at face value by a bunch of news services that spread it without vetting it -- doing significant damage to AMD investors and AMD itself just for clicks. That's crap.

The right headline, "Unknown Security Firm Tries to Smear AMD," would have been even more interesting and likely not caused harm to the market.

Scott Pruitt Unlikely to Be Named Attorney General

Granted, this is on the political side, but the amount of fake news coming out of the current administration is so overwhelming that some, like Bill O'Reilly, have coined the term "Trump fatigue."

The latest rumor driving a lot of folks nuts is that President Trump is going to replace embattled Attorney General Jeff Sessions with embattled Scott Pruitt. The only problem with this "rumor" was that its origin apparently is none other than Scott Pruitt.

That alone should ensure that Scott Pruitt isn't going to become attorney general. Before media sources gleefully spread this crap around, they at least should seek out the source. I recall a few years back when there was a rumor surrounding the guy who was to be the next HP CEO, which was being spread by the rumored HP exec. He was not made CEO, and he eventually was fired -- perhaps at least in part for spreading the false rumor (he never was a contender).

Perhaps the right headline here is "Scott Pruitt Commits Career Suicide."

Facebook's Fake News Caused Genocide

I think is it important to point out that false news has consequences. In a United Nations report by Investigator Yanghee Lee, Facebook activity was cited as one of the causes of genocide in Myanmar. Increasingly, governments have been finding that Facebook can be a useful tool to further their agendas -- and if that agenda is killing people, so be it.

You might recall that Hillary Clinton recently called out Facebook as one of the key causes of her loss, charging that it basically had worked as an agent for Russia during the 2016 campaign.

I am still amazed that the government can say both that Russia interfered with the presidential election and that it did not change the outcome, without a full audit. The irony is that an audit would have shown Clinton won, but the Republicans tried to do an audit and the Democrats blocked them.

Granted, Facebook clearly says that Russia didn't impact the election -- and of course, Facebook, which would be culpable if this were not true, isn't exactly the most trusted source for this conclusion.

In short, the massive amount of fake news already has had a material impact on many people's lives and, as the United Nations has pointed out, may be responsible for ending a substantial number of them.

Wrapping Up

It isn't just Trump fatigue but fake news fatigue that concerns me. There is so much false information floating around that it is having a material impact on the quality of our lives -- and for some of us, how long those lives will be (I did warn you). Our inability to separate what is real from what is false quickly has become an existential risk. Faked news promotes anger, pointless fights and stock market swings. If we don't get our arms around this soon, both individually and collectively, I'm worried about our survival.

I'll leave you with another powerful movie clip, this one from A Time to Kill, which focuses on the value of truth. We have lost that value and desperately need to recapture it, because the lies have become an existential threat.

Interestingly, or ironically, they actually may kill Facebook first. I'm slowly coming around to the view that the only way to save ourselves is if social media networks die first. I am hardly alone, which doesn't speak well to Facebook's long-term survival.

Now excuse me as I review the latest UFO sightings. Oh crap

Snopes is our greatest defense against a lot of the fake news that is out there, and it is neither staffed nor funded to take this kind of critical load. Still, I've made it a habit to always check Snopes before passing on a juicy tidbit.

The latest was a friend sending me an email that showed one of the Columbine parents stunned Congress with a plea against gun control. Interestingly, what was false wasn't the content but the context. Some of this stuff is getting really hard to fact check. However, Snopes called out the false conclusion very nicely, and I wasn't fooled (and didn't pass on the largely false story).

Currently some of the "stories" that Snopes is refuting include:

You know it is actually almost starting off the day going over the top 50 Urban legends on the site just, so you are ahead of the fake news.

By the way, one of the most interesting this week was that a GOP candidate did call one of the Florida massacre survivors a skinhead and a lesbian (and apologized). Sadly, still, the truth can be even more surprising than the fiction.

Because it helps me avoid becoming part of the fake news problem, Snopes 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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The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday officially published its Net neutrality rollback order in the Federal Register, triggering a flurry of legal actions and Capitol Hill scrambling to stop it before it takes hold.

The order, which goes into effect on April 23, reverses an Obama era rule requiring that broadband access be regarded as a utility. Without it, ISPs and other firms will be able to speed up or slow down Internet traffic.

It also will allow service provers to make adjustments in program access that could speed up technology innovation, the rollback's supporters have contended.

The repeal was a major priority of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, a commissioner who took the FCC's helm after Donald Trump won the presidential election in 2016 and proceeded to strip away numerous regulations put into place by Obama.

Legal Maneuvers

Following publication of the FCC's Final Rule, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced that a coalition of 23 state attorneys general had filed a petition in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit seeking to block the illegal rollback of Net neutrality.

The FCC's ruling was arbitrary and capricious, the AGs argued, and would open up consumers to throttling, blockage of certain content, and a the possibility that some consumers would be charged more than others for the same content.

Public Knowledge also filed a lawsuit in federal court to challenge the FCC's order, arguing that Chairman Ajit Pai had broken with more than 20 years of FCC history as protector of the open Internet.

"The impact of this order is clear," said John Bergmayer, senior council at Public Knowledge. "By eliminating its rules and oversight role, the FCC has given broadband providers the green light to press forward with anti-competitive and anti-consumer business models."

Opponents of the Net neutrality reversal have 60 days to file suit and 10 days to be a part of the multi-district lottery to determine where the cases will be heard, according to Public Knowledge. Congress has 60 legislative days to challenge Net neutrality through the Congressional Resolution of Disapproval.

Mozilla on Thursday re-filed its earlier suit challenging the repeal of Net neutrality.

The FCC's order does not simply "roll back" an unregulated Internet, argued Dennelle Dixon, chief legal and business officer at Mozilla. It also removes affirmative protections from the public, despite the fact that many consumers do not have a choice of high-speed service provider.

Vimeo also filed a petition with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Thursday,arguing that the FCC engaged in a "wholesale abdication of FCC's statutory mandate" to regulate one of hte most critical means of communication that exists, through broadband Internet.

The FCC engaged in a "deeply flawed rulemaking process" that departed starkly from prior FCC reasoning and precedent, according to the filing.

The FCC expressed confidence that its order would withstand the legal bombardment.

"We are confident that the Restoring Internet Freedom Order will be upheld in the courts," the agency said in a statement provided by spokesperson Mark Wigfield. "In 2005 the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the FCC classification of broadband as a Title I information service, and we have every reason to believe that the courts will uphold the FCC's decision to return to that light touch regulatory framework."

However, there remained fierce opposition to the move from the FCC's two Democratic commissioners.

The majority was giving billion-dollar broadband providers the keys to the Internet, said Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, but she remained hopeful that the opposition would prevail.

Reps. Mike Doyle, D-Penn., ranking member of the Communications and Technology Subcommittee and Frank Pallone, D-N.J., ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, announced that 143 House members had agreed to co-sponsor a bill to prevent the FCC from rescinding Net neutrality.

Low Density, Slow Buildout

Rural communities have not seen any additional investment as a result of the rule reversal, according to Christopher Mitchell, director of community broadband networks at the Institute for Local Self Reliance.

CenturyLink last month announced plans to focus more of its future investments in high-speed, high density urban areas, he noted.

The ILSR does not plan to file a lawsuit, but it has pledged its support to other organizations that take the fight to court.

"We continue to work with rural groups to improve Internet access, but most of the hope lies with local groups and states -- not the federal government," Mitchell told the E-Commerce Times.

While the Department of Agriculture has been doing some good work to help rural investment, he said, the FCC's Connect America has wasted billions on obsolete networks that make it harder to bring high-speed access to those communities.

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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YouTube intends to ramp up its efforts to combat conspiracy mongers, perhaps in response to the rash of conspiracy videos that trended following the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, last month.

Among other things, YouTube will supply links to relevant Wikipedia pages and other credible websites to provide viewers with a counter narrative, according to CEO Susan Wojcicki, who revealed the plans earlier this week during a panel discussion at SXSW.

YouTube plans to roll out additional features pointing to third-party information sources over the next few months.

The Wikimedia Foundation welcomed the move, but noted that it had not entered a formal partnership with YouTube and had not received any advance notice of the plan.

"We are always happy to see people, companies and organizations recognize Wikipedia's value as a repository of free knowledge," said Samantha Lien, spokesperson for the Wikimedia Foundation.

Wikipedia is freely licensed for reuse by anyone, and its mission is to facilitate sharing of that content, she told TechNewsWorld.

Wikipedia is based on the contributions of hundreds of thousands of volunteer contributors. She added that they encourage others who share Wikipedia's content to give back.

Like-Minded People

Thousands of videos have been uploaded to YouTube by conspiracy theorists, noted John Paolillo, associate professor of informatics at Indiana University.

They share some common threads, he told TechNewsWorld, as many of them come from survivalists, gun rights activists, InfoWars, the Russian propaganda channel RT, and libertarian commentators.

"Conspiracy theory videos are posted and reposted and seem almost immune to disappearing," Paolillo remarked. "There are thousands upon thousands of these, and reliably identifying them is not that simple.

It's likely that YouTube will face a severe backlash from certain users who may see the crackdown on these sites as a conspiracy.

Difficult Task

Like Facebook, YouTube faces an enormous challenge in trying to weed out fake news, conspiracy videos, and other types of hate speech or misinformation, observed Rick Edmonds, media business analyst at Poynter.

While some Wikipedia entries may not be accurate, there is a method in place for policing information and promptly updating problematic posts, he told TechNewsWorld.

YouTube is one of the key enablers of "micro-propaganda," noted Jonathan Albright, research director at the Tow Center for digital journalism, in a recent post on Medium.

YouTube was inundated with conspiracy theories following the Parkland shooting, suggesting that the incident had been faked and that survivors who spoke out after the shooting were so-called "crisis actors."

A data set of more than 250 videos were returned from a search of "crisis actor," Albright noted. In that data set, 20 percent of the videos were related to mass shootings, false flags and crisis actors. The other 80 percent were related to historical, religious or government conspiracies.

It was imperative that YouTube take additional steps, including optional filters and human monitors, to monitor its pages for this kind of disinformation, Albright wrote.

Conspiracy videos are part of a wider trend in social media. Fake news, hate speech, hoaxes and other misinformation have been proliferating on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google.

After taking a beating over the proliferation of fake news during the 2016 presidential campaign, Facebook recently announced that it would de-emphasize news coverage in Trending Topics in favor of more posts from friends and family members.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg has come under severe criticism for being too slow to recognize Facebook's increasing role and responsibility as a digital publisher, while established media outlets have suffered mightily. The lion's share of digital advertising has been gobbled up by Facebook and Google, leading to severe economic distress for the journalism industry.

David Jones has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2015. His areas of focus include cybersecurity, e-commerce, open source, gaming, artificial intelligence and autonomous vehicles. He has written for numerous media outlets, including Reuters, Bloomberg, Crain's New York Business and The New York Times. Email David.


Seven environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, Ohio Citizen Action, the Environmental Defense Fund, and the Natural Resources Defense Council, sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Monday, The Hill reported.

The lawsuit seeks to reverse the agency's January decision to repeal the "once-in always-in" policy, which said that all "major" sources of air pollution, like power plants or factories, would always be regulated according to stricter standards, even if they took steps to reduce pollution.

At the time of the repeal, the EPA argued that the policy, which had been in effect since 1995, was "a longstanding disincentive for major sources of pollution to implement voluntary pollution abatement and prevention efforts, or to pursue technological innovations that would reduce emissions," EcoWatch reported.

But the environmental groups bringing the suit countered that the repeal would risk doing serious harm to the air and to human health by enabling major polluters to wiggle out of meeting Clean Air Act requirements.

The Environmental Integrity Project (EIP), one of the parties to the suit, also released a study Monday examining the potential impacts of the repeal, which would allow industrial polluters to disable or lower their emissions controls if they promise to release less than 10 tons of single pollutants or less than 25 tons of toxic air pollutants overall.

The study examined 12 "major" industrial polluters in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and Minnesota and concluded that the EPA rule change would allow them to release four times the amount of toxic air pollutants, according to an EIP press release.

Pollutants that would contribute to this increase include carcinogens like benzene and dioxin, acid gases like hydrogen chloride, and neurotoxins like lead, according to the study.

The study further found that 60,000 people lived within a mile of the plants and that more than half of the potentially-impacted communities were disproportionately African American or Latino and had poverty rates more than double the U.S. average.

Further, the report underlined that it is unlikely the plants will be able to accurately measure their emissions once they turn off controls. Currently, most plants measure the working of controls, like scrubbers, and not the release of toxins themselves. The study likened the repeal to "allowing drivers to remove speedometers from their cars if they promise to obey the speed limit."

"This attempt to save money by turning off pollution controls will only further shift the burden of pollution to the rest of us, especially fenceline communities. Polluters can and should save money by preventing pollution in the first place," Ohio Citizen Action deputy director Melissa English said in an EarthJustice press release about the suit.

The rule change and subsequent lawsuit seem to illustrate a pattern at Trump's EPA that Gina McCarthy, the EPA administrator during Barack Obama's second term, described in an interview on Friday with Bill Maher.

When Maher asked her how bad things were at the EPA under Trump-appointee Scott Pruitt, she responded, "The only thing that could be worse is if he actually knew what he was doing," the Washington Examiner reported.

"He's making some policy decisions. But in the end he's trying to get rid of a lot of rules that were put in place that were done well and every time there have been challenges in court, he's going down," she explained.

The courts have yet to decide if McCarthy's analysis will ring true in this particular case.
Kathryn "Kat" Taylor, a member of the Harvard Board of Overseers and wife of billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer, made an unprecedented public call on Harvard University to divest from fossil fuel stocks.

The action comes after the university's $37.1 billion endowmentthe world's largest academic fundreported a lackluster 8.1 percent return that reflected "deep structural problems" that will take years to turn around, its endowment manager said.

Taylor, whose six-year term on the elected board will be ending this spring, wrote in an op-ed that as her last act, she is calling on University President-elect Lawrence S. Bacow and the Harvard Corporation, the university's highest governing body, "to adopt ethical investment principles."

"At a minimum," she is asking the endowment arm of the university, Harvard Management Company, "to divest from fossils fuels to prevent the end of life as we know it through cascading climate-driven disasters."

"This single act would not only take steps to address the existential crisis of our time, but it would allow the University to lead its peers, as few, if any, American universities thus far have taken this important moral stance," Taylor said.

The Harvard alumna ('80) joins a growing chorus of students, faculty, alumni and community members criticizing Harvard's portfolio that contains fossil fuel companies. The 70,000-member organization Divest Harvard demands that the Ivy League institution immediately divest direct holdings from the top 200 publicly traded fossil fuel companies.

"Many more experts than I have advocated for Harvard's leadership to take the responsible action of divesting. For instance, more than 200 Harvard faculty members, including top scientists in the field, have called on the University to divest from fossil fuel corporations," Taylor said.

According to 350.org, a major campaigner in the global fossil free movement, more than 800 institutions, including universities, religious and medical groups, have joined the divestment movement to date.

"The movement to divest is large and thoroughly mainstream, comprised of many other top schools, cities, including New York City, as well as the Church of England and some pension funds," Taylor noted. "Their commitments to divest over the next few years now cover over $6 trillion in assets. So, our request, with these august endorsements, is not radicalbut recalcitrance is."

In a stunning conclusion, Taylor said:

I am not going public with this call to action lightly or to be impolite. I have tried everything elsediplomatically in the background with other Overseers and outspokenly but behind closed doors in plenary. But this is too important for me to remain silent. It's because I love Harvard that I am compelled to speak with all the force of my position before it extinguishes. Harvard once refused to divest from companies doing business with apartheid South Africa in spite of a moral movement on campus. I marched in the student protests in 1980 and received the same disregard we are dishing out to our future leaders now. After ten years of dismissal, and the election of no less than Bishop Tutu to the Board of Overseers, Harvard finally reversed itself. Let's not repeat this mistake.

It's time for Harvard to stop owning climate change. We can make money ethically, with more resilient returns too. We don't just get profit from what we finance in this life, we endorse the activities underlying that profitthere is nowhere to hide from that. It is because we love our country and its most respected institutions that we call out the highest standards to which they must live.

While Harvard has not fully dropped its fossil fuel holdings, last year the elite college indicated it was "pausing" investments in minerals and oil and gas.

Colin Butterfield, the head of natural resources at the Harvard Management Company, said at the time that climate change is a "huge problem" and "I clearly feel that we are stealing from the future generations."
A Boston judge on Tuesday sided with 13 climate activists who were arrested for protesting the West Roxbury Mass Lateral Pipeline.

Judge Mary Ann Driscoll of West Roxbury District Court decided it was necessary for the protestors to engage in civil disobedience to block the construction of Spectra Energy's high-pressure fracked gas pipeline and acquitted the activists of civil infractions, according to media reports.

The judge made the decision after hearing each defendant's testimony. They argued the threat of climate change necessitated their civil disobedience.

Shadowproof reported:

"Part of why Judge Mary Ann Driscoll found no liability was because they engaged in a sustained effort to end the project and attempted legal remedies by the city council, mayor, and other agencies to stop the pipeline.

Even though the pipeline was still constructed and operational by January 2017, that was irrelevant. The judge found the activists were not liable."

Karenna Gore, the director of Center for Earth Ethics and daughter of former Vice President Al Gore, was one of the 23 people arrested during a 2016 protest of the pipeline.

"What happened today was really important," she said. "Essentially, the people that put themselves in the way of building this fossil fuel pipeline were found 'not responsible' by reason of necessity."

"The irony of that is that we are making ourselves responsible. We are part of the the movement that is standing up and saying we won't let this go by on our watch. We won't act like nothing's wrong."

According to The Independent:

"Neither Ms Driscoll or the court clerk was available for comment. However, one member of the court's staff who asked not to be named, told The Independent the judge had found them not responsible. The person denied, however, that the judge had made the ruling on the grounds of legal necessity."

The trial took place this week after the state prosecutor reduced the original charges of trespassing and disturbing the peace to civil infractionsthe equivalent of a parking ticket.

The Civil Disobedience Center, which supported the protestors, said that the prosecution's reduced charges meant the activists were denied a chance to present a "necessity defense" against the gas pipeline.

"By reducing the charges, the prosecutor has avoided what could have been a groundbreaking legal case. The action effectively denied the 13 defendants a jury trial," the Civil Disobedience Center explained in a press release.

While the activists said they were disappointed that they would not get the chance to present their case to a jury of their peers, they still felt their resistance had a positive impact, the release noted.

350.org founder Bill McKibben, who was set to appear as a witness for the defendants, celebrated the judge's decision.

He tweeted, "Good golly! A few minutes ago a Boston judge acquitted 13 pipeline protesters on the grounds that the climate crisis made it necessary for them to commit civil disobedience. This may be a first in America."
An online petition calling on the nation's largest supermarket chain to open a plastic-free aisle has surpassed 85,000 signatures.

The Care2 petition, launched less than a week ago, asks Kroger Co. to curb plastic packaging in its 2,800 branches.

The campaigners were inspired to take action after Dutch grocery store chain Ekoplaza launched the world's first plastic-free aisle in one of its Amsterdam markets last month.

"People would love to have that in the United States," Rebecca Gerber, Care2's senior director of engagement, told Retuers.

"You can tell by how fast this petition grew that this is something that (our supporters) want stores and companies that produce plastic to take on seriously."

Each year, 8 million metric tons of plastic gets dumped into our seas, literally choking marine life and wrecking havoc on ocean ecosystems and the larger food chain. Local and national governments around the world have introduced bans on plastic bags, bottles and other single-use items to stem the flow of the wasteful and potentially harmful material.

Environmentalists and concerned citizens are urging businesses and manufacturers of disposable products to take responsibility for their products through their entire life-cycle and invest in sustainable alternatives.

The Care2 petition states:

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, global food retail sales add up to a whopping $4 trillion annually. A lot of those products come in plastic which keeps our food from spoilingbut spoils the planet at the same time.

Supermarkets are responsible for 40 percent of the plastic packaging we use, and because of that huge number, they must start taking responsibility for the plastic products they put out on their shelves and which subsequently end up in our landfills, city streets and oceans.

Shoppers at Ekoplaza's Jan Pieter Heijestraat store have roughly 700 plastic-free products to choose from, including meat, rice, sauces, dairy, chocolate, cereals, yogurt, snacks, fresh fruit and vegetables. Instead of plastic, items are packed in compostable materials or glass, metal and cardboard. The company, which has 74 stores across the Netherlands, plans to roll out similar aisles across all branches by the end of the year.

"Care2 is calling on Kroger to show American consumers the same here," the organizers said.

"Imagine how much of a difference Kroger could make if they opened a plastic-free aisle in all of their stores. This would not only reduce waste, but it would encourage companies to think of othermore environmentally soundways to package their foods."

More and more businesses are stepping up to reduce consumer waste. Iceland Foods, a major UK supermarket chain specializing in frozen food, announced in January it will eliminate plastic packaging from its own brand of products by the end of 2023.
Saudi Araba and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have contributed $930 million to the Yemen Humanitarian Fund, ahead of the upcoming international fundraising conference for Yemen.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres who met Tuesday evening at the UN headquarters in New York Saudi Arabias Crown Prince Mohamed Ben Salman expressed to the two donor countries his deep gratitude for their contribution and urged other donors to follow suit and help tackle the crisis in Yemen, the worlds worst humanitarian crisis, a UN press release said.

The Saudi-led Arab coalition, which intervened in Yemen to fight the Iran-backed Houthis rebels and restore President Mansour Hadi in his powers, was often criticized by humanitarian agencies for the deteriorating situation in Yemen.

I would like to take this occasion to appeal to all the other donors who will be meeting in Geneva next week to follow the same generosity shown by the two countries, the UN chief told reporters following his meeting with Prince Mohamed.

These funds cover almost one-third of the $2.96 billion required to implement the 2018 Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan, which will enable the United Nations and its partners to help alleviate the suffering of millions of vulnerable people across Yemen, read a statement issued by Guterres office, following the signing of the memorandum on the voluntary contributions.

More than 22 million people in Yemen require humanitarian aid or protection assistance, including 2 million who are internally displaced due to the ongoing conflict between the Government and rebel forces.

On 3 April, donors will meet in the humanitarian pledging conference in Geneva, Switzerland.

In his meeting with the Crown Prince, who is also First Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister, Guterres said to give to those in need is a central pillar of Islam, noting that two-thirds of the refugees are Muslims and are received by Muslim countries.

The Secretary-General and the Crown Prince discussed the obligations of all parties to the conflict under international humanitarian law to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure, and the critical need for humanitarian access across the country and for all of Yemens ports to remain open to both humanitarian and commercial movement.

They also discussed the need for the parties to the conflict to work towards a negotiated political settlement through inclusive intra-Yemeni dialogue, the statement issued by Guterres office said, adding that Guterres expressed the UNs readiness to work together with Saudi Arabia for these objectives.

The UN, through its envoy, has been engaged in helping Yemenis to find a peaceful solution. UN agencies and partners are also on the ground to deliver life-saving aid.
U.S. Bank has become the first major bank in the U.S. to formally exclude gas and oil pipelines from their project financing. This groundbreaking change to their Environmental Responsibility Policy was publicly announced at the annual shareholders meeting in Nashville in April.

In addition to no longer providing "project financing for the construction of oil or natural gas pipelines," the bank has stated that relationships with their clients in the oil and gas industries will be subject to "enhanced due diligence processes."

As recently as March 2017, U.S. Bank has renewed commitments with Energy Transfer Partners, the company constructing the Dakota Access Pipeline, and with Enbridge Energy, whose pipelines operate within Minnesota. However, advocates are hopeful that the bank's newly released policy will limit other kinds of financing relationships with these industries.

"U.S. Bank's new policy is an important step in protecting the environment and moving towards a fossil free future," said Wichahpi Otto, a volunteer with the climate justice group MN350, who travelled to Nashville for the shareholders meeting. "We applaud them for responding to the community and contributing to worldwide efforts to address climate change."

This move comes after ongoing pressure on U.S. Bank locally from MN350 and from the Minnesotans for a Fair Economy coalition, and on banks nationally from indigenous groups including Honor the Earth, the Indigenous Environmental Network and the Dakota Access resistance movement.

Beginning in 2015, a regional partnership of climate, labor and indigenous rights advocates has urged that U.S. Bank divest from fossil fuels, in particular from Enbridge Energy, and move its financing into the clean energy economy. Local actions have included letter-writing, account closures and social media campaigns. In response, in May 2016 the bank made changes to their Environmental Policy restricting lending to coal.

"We applaud this progressive decision from U.S. Bank," said Tara Houska, national campaigns director of Honor the Earth. "A strong message is being sent to the fossil fuel industry: We are consumers, we have agency and the right to know how our money is being invested. Move to a green economy and a future that does not profit off the destruction of Mother Earth and our communities."

A national and international campaign pressuring banks to divest has been highly successful, pulling nearly $4.5 billion from financiers, and a newly launched coalition effort called Mazaska Talks has expanded this effort.

Organizations and community members say they are eager to see how U.S. Bank's unprecedented stance can encourage movement in financing from fossil fuels to a clean energy economy.

"Confronting the climate crisis requires boldness, urgency and innovation," said Dr. Emily Swanson, a member of MN350. "While there is more to be done, we are hopeful U.S. Bank can continue to act as an industry leader and as an ally for creating a more sustainable economy."
Can educational data be used to actually help schools get better?

Thats the hope behind a push to bring to K-12 schools a management philosophy known as continuous improvement that has flourished in fields such as health care, manufacturing, and social services.

But experts contend that the K-12 education systems current data infrastructure, built in response to the federal No Child Left Behind Law and focused primarily on holding schools accountable, looms as a significant barrier.

New data systems really have to allow [teachers and principals] to say what they want to accomplish, and determine whether theyve accomplished it, said Louis Gomez, a professor of education and information studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a co-author of the 2015 book, Learning to Improve, How Americas Schools Can Get Better at Getting Better. Just monitoring how were doing is not going to help us get better.

Examples of what an improvement-based data infrastructure actually looks like in practice are few and far between.

Wisconsins 4,000-student Menomonee school district is lauded for using a comprehensive approach to steadily improving everything from recess safety to the cleanliness of its classrooms, but educators and administrators there have relied on mostly informal systems for collecting and analyzing information.

The 400,000-student Chicago school district has been at the forefront of efforts to use early-warning data to keep high school students on track to graduation and college, but such work typically relies on existing data systems to support a narrowly targeted improvement project. And the New York-based nonprofit New Visions for Public Schools has taken the lead on developing brand new data systems designed to help schools collect and track the kinds of process data that continuous-improvement proponents describe as critical, but such tools remain on the fringes of the K-12 sector.

Far more typical are districts like Dallas, where budget woes and leadership churn have hampered efforts to build and use data systems in new ways.

See Also: A Primer on Continuous School Improvement

As a field, education has placed tremendous emphasis on data for accountability purposes, said Mark Dunetz, the president of New Visions for Public Schools. Weve done a much poorer job at providing practitioners with the tools they need to manage the types of tasks that are the day-to-day bread and butter of schools, and that enable everything else to happen.

Little Impact on Teaching

The idea of schools making better use of educational data is nothing new.

Back in 2010, the U.S. Department of Education described data-driven decision making as a national priority, saying that states and school districts had made significant progress in building a new data infrastructure.

But in a report that year titled Use of Education Data at the Local Level: From Accountability to Instructional Improvement, the department also concluded that such work was having little impact on actual classroom teaching.

The reasons?

School staffs perception of barriers to greater use of data include a sense of lack of time, system-usability issues, the perception that the data in the system are not useful, and district policies around curriculum coverage or pacing that prohibit modifying learning time to match student needs, the report concludes.

Fast forward eight years, and the lingo has changed, but such challenges are still endemic, said Andrew Krumm, the director of learning analytics at Digital Promise, a nonprofit that promotes the use of technology to improve schools.

Too often, Krumm and other proponents of continuous improvement say, schools get caught in a cycle in which administrators and policymakers identify a problem; develop a program or intervention to address that problem; roll it out; and try to determine whether or not it worked. The data used to measure success is typically a long-term outcome measure, such as standardized test results. If scores go up, administrators try to scale the program across other schools and districtsoften with little consideration for why the program worked, or how conditions on the ground in other schools and districts might vary.

That approach amounts to implementing fast and learning slow, Gomez and his co-authors from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching argue in their 2015 book.

Instead, they argue, schools should be focused on the reverse: implementing improvement strategies more methodically, but learning much more about them as they happen.

Ideally, they say, such a process would entail identifying the problem schools want to fix; developing a theory about how to improve it; and then helping the people closest to the problemusually teachers, principals, and other school staffto develop measures of day-to-day progress that are aligned to that theory. Technology tools should help schools monitor three things: whether theyre actually doing what they set out to do, whether its making a difference on the measures that educators developed locally, and how such efforts impact the kinds of long-term outcomes measures that are typically used now.

The most interesting work happens when schools supplement system-wide data with finer-grained, day-in-and-day-out data, Krumm said in an interview. We need to be collecting data that is much closer to what were actually trying to change.

Tracking Daily Decisions

Thats generally the approach that New Visions for Public Schools is trying to take with the custom educational software its building.

The nonprofit currently provides its data tools to 342 schools in New York City, including 10 charter schools that it directly operates and several dozen district schools for which the group serves as a comprehensive lead partner.

The focus is on closely tracking the seemingly mundane decisions that principals, assistant principals, teachers, and guidance counselors have to make each day, then getting them the information they need to make those decisions.

Graduation planning is one big example. Additional functions aim to help counselors match students to internships and other opportunities in the most efficient way possible, or to help administrators track student attendance and participation in after-school activities.

I think weve historically underestimated the complexity of work in schools, where there is a tremendous volume of decisions that need to be made, and the outcomes are often determined by our ability to be consistent, Dunetz said. If you dont know whether a classroom had the right textbooks, or whether the computers worked, or if kids showed up, its very difficult to draw any conclusions about whether what youre doing is working, and why.

Notably, though, Dunetz said New Visions determined it had to build that kind of software from scratch. Very few software applications allow schools real flexibility to decide what data are most important to them, then collect and analyze that information customized ways.

In theory, at least, the new technologies that have flooded into schools over the past decade could help. Countless digital tools are now part of students everyday learning, and many are capable of generating reams of data on everything that a student (or teacher) does.

But much of that software still serves accountability purposes, Krumm said. The experience of the 157,000-student Dallas school system highlights the challenges on the ground to building new data systems to support continuous improvement work.

Back in 2009, the Gates Foundation gave the Dallas district a three-year, $3.8 million grant to strengthen its college readiness warning system, modeled after Chicagos efforts. The aim was to help teachers use data, pulled primarily from existing student-information systems, to identify student needs, provide appropriate interventions, and ultimately increase college readiness.

The tool the district developed was a dashboard pulling up live data on such indicators as student attendance and access to financial-aid counseling, said Cecilia Oakeley, who started with the district in 2005 and is now an assistant superintendent for evaluation and assessment.

That system took a while to build, Oakeley said. Some schools used it more than others.

And then the grant ran out, the superintendent left, and budget cuts hit.

The platform went by the wayside, she said. When there are switches in administration, some work gets lost in the shuffle.

Fortunately, Oakeley said, all was not lost. The district had also built a supplemental data system to allow school staff to also examine other relevant information, such as students grades in core subject areas. District-level staff still use that system to monitor how many students are on track for graduation at the end of 9th grade. And former superintendent Michael Hinojosa, who led the original push for an early-warning system in Dallas before moving on, is now back leading the district, bringing renewed attention to efforts to get school-level staff to use the information, too.

But for now, at least, thats still a far cry from the type of continuous-improvement data systems that proponents envision.

This is a process, said Gomez of UCLA. People are coming to understand that all these [data systems we have now] were not created with improvement in mind. This is a first and important step.
The Every Student Succeeds Act finally becomes a classroom reality this fall, putting more authorityand on-the-ground responsibilityin the hands of district leaders, school-level educators, and state policymakers.

Education Week offers a big-picture look at how prepared states, districts, and schools are to meet the challenges of the new federal K-12 law and what they can do to assure a smooth rollout in the 2018-19 school year. In this virtual event, Education Week journalists and guests will staff online discussion booths on a host of topics, including details of the law itself; its impact on teacher policy; testing and assessments; how schools and districts are meeting the laws demands for data and transparency; what ESSA means for minority students, English-learners, and those with disabilities; and market opportunities and challenges for the business sector as educators move to meet ESSAs requirements.
I grew up in a small town in West Virginia where having guns in your home was quite common. My dad had rifles, muzzleloaders, and antique pistols in the house. I respected guns as tools that fed my family and controlled the deer population. My dad, a Vietnam vet, also taught me that guns werent toys. He knew first-hand the devastation a gun could unleash. I never dreamed of touching his guns, but I knew if I wanted to learn how to hunt, he would properly train me about gun safety.

Mindful of the potential danger, Dad took every precaution to keep us safe from his guns, even though they were a far cry from the automatic weapons responsible for recent slaughters, like the one at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. Since that massacre, many educators and students have felt a sense of urgency to change our countrys mindset about assault rifles and how we approach keeping our citizens safe.

Guns are prevalent in our lives, but not just for hunting and keeping the deer population under control. Our culture is filled with video games and movies that romanticize guns, especially military-style weapons. Our current reality is one filled with mass shootings that happen so often many of us struggle to keep up with the number of lives lost. Many citizens have become numb or just accepted this as a fact of life. However, I refuse to accept that my students could be attacked on any given day by someone who can easily buy a weapon that kills many within seconds.

Sensible gun policies and stricter licensing are a start, but keeping schools safe requires much more than this."

If we had stronger regulations and requirements at the federal level, we could reduce firearm-related violence overall. While the federal government has a national background check system, it relies on states to supply information about prospective gun buyers criminal histories. In many cases, this information is incomplete or not provided, which makes the system unreliable. Jonathan Crohn from the Huffington Post writes that some experts suggest requiring gun purchasers to get licenses from the federal governmenta controversial suggestion but one I think would help protect our children. Such a licensing process could make gun-safety courses mandatory, and require registration fees, character references, and in-person applications at local law-enforcement offices for anyone who wants to buy a gun.

Focus on Mental Health

Sensible gun policies and stricter licensing are a start, but keeping schools safe requires much more than this. We must also begin to address mental-health issues in ways we havent done before, such as providing all students with access to licensed counselors, social workers, and psychologists, and training educators to better identify the needs of students. Pro-gun advocates often say that guns dont kill people, people kill people. And yet, they quickly suggest arming teachers with guns rather than focusing on increasing schools capacity to help students who are facing depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and other mental-health issues.

The truth is as a society we need to focus on helping kids stay resilient in the face of adversity, rather than letting negative emotions fester until they erupt in violence. School counselors, social workers, and psychologists all have a powerful impact on the development of our students mental health. Our schools need these staff members to support all students both early in their development and throughout their high school years.

Sadly, 1.6 million students in this nation attend a school that employs a law enforcement officer but not a school counselor, according to a 2013-14 federal data collection. In fact, in some of our largest school systems, including New York City, Chicago, Miami-Dade County, and Houston, you are more likely to run into a security officer than a counselor. The American School Counselor Association recommends one counselor for every 250 students, but in a recent survey, the 10 largest districts were not close to meeting students needs.

I firmly believe that having guns in our schools is not the answer. If trained law-enforcement officers have trouble hitting their targets, how can we expect an educator, whose role is to teach, to hit a shooter within a school? Accidental discharge is possible, along with the fact that in a heated moment, anyone is capable of making a bad decision. Do we really want our schools to resemble prisons with armed authority figures, metal detectors, and limited access for the community?

In addition, if many schools cant afford to provide books, paper, pencils, and other classroom materials for learning, do we really have the money to buy guns for teachers to carry? If our districts cant afford counselors, psychologists, and adequate staffing to support students emotional and learning needs, can we really afford to train educators to use weapons? Educators want to impact students futures in positive ways, not serve as prison guards in a school. The responsibility of school staff members is to help students learn the skills to ask questions and seek answers in the world around them, to process those answers, and to realize their own potential. Subjecting students to more guns will not make them feel safer and is certainly not conducive to a positive teaching and learning environment.

If we arm anyone, we need to arm our studentswith the resources and tools they need to be healthy, globally minded citizens. We need to arm children with caring adults who can give them the attention they need in small classes. We need to arm them with more opportunities to learn about other cultures and empathize with those who are different. And with counselors and social workers who can provide the support students need when they struggle with depression, anger, or abuse.

Educators began the #ArmMeWith movement on Twitter not too long ago to bring awareness to these very issues. When we arm kids with a society where they feel safe, have a sense of belonging, and know how to empathize, they, in turn, will create a world that is safer.

Parkland, now among our deadliest mass shootings in the United States, comes almost 20 years after the horrific massacre at Columbine. As rational beings, we should have learned ways to prevent tragedies such as these. But we havent. This lack of progress represents a blatant and shameful denial of responsibility as we bury even more students. Its the kind of negligence that would have horrified my late father, as it does many other responsible gun owners across the country.
Sign stolen from Douglas business

Police are appealing for information after a sign was stolen from outside a business in Douglas.

The sign was taken from the doorway outside Simply Secure at Mount Havelock between Sunday and Monday.

Officers say the sign was above the doorway and out of easy reach.

Anyone with information on this theft is urged to contact Police Headquarters on 631212.
Pseudonymization is one strategy that could help businesses struggling to comply with the European Unions General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

GDPR goes into effect on May 25, bringing with it stringent new data privacy protections for companies with European customers  and steep penalties for failing to comply with those regulations.

One recent report found that a quarter of U.S. companies arent sure if theyre ready to meet GDPR compliance standards. The challenge is due in part to confusion on behalf of many companies, primarily because there is not one software solution to buy that can help each corporation comply with the standard, said Kory Willis, senior director of IT at partner relationship management (PRM) provider Impartner. Rather, it is up to each company to make sure that each technology vendor they use can comply with the standard.

Indeed, there are a number of technologies that can help companies comply with GDPR, among them data protection, managed file transfer, data mapping, privacy impact assessments, and individual rights compliance tools.

But Willis says the key to complying with GDPR is pseudonymization.

What is pseudonymization?

Pseudonymization is a form of data masking. It refers to a safeguard that can render a users personally identifiable data, well, less personally identifiable.

The term can be found within the text of the law itself. Heres how Article 4 of the GDPR defines pseudonymization:

[P]seudonymization means the processing of personal data in such a manner that the personal data can no longer be attributed to a specific data subject without the use of additional information, provided that such additional information is kept separately and is subject to technical and organizational measures to ensure that the personal data are not attributed to an identified or identifiable natural person.

Its a mouthful, but what does it mean for data controllers and IT teams?

Simply put, pseudonymization means storing an individuals information in many separate files, under many different names, so that no hacker could ever grab one file and have anyones full information, Willis said. If your information isnt pseudonymized, youre not compliant, and you could face huge consequences in just a few short months.

If a users data record is pseudonymized, one file would not yield an attacker enough information to complete the users record. Data must be stored in more than one data repository so an individuals total set of details would be protected if one file of information is ever breached, Willis said.

Pseudonymized data is different from anonymized data in some crucial respects.

Anonymous data is irreversibly altered so that the data subject is not or no longer identifiable, states GDPR Recital 26, one of 173 such sections outlining the thinking behind the law. In short, there is no way of reassembling a user record if its anonymized and therefore GDPR does not apply to the processing of such information used for research purposes. Pseudonymized data, however, may be reassembled with the use of a key or other additional information.

It seems fairly straightforward, but Willis cautions that organizations that arent already pseudonymizing user data will face some added complexity implementing the privacy-enhancing procedure. Its not completely foolproof; theres still the risk of a persistent attacker being able to piece together a record if lax safeguards and security policies expose pseudonymization keys. But if properly used alongside data encryption, it can go a long way toward ensuring GDPR compliance.

How to implement pseudonymization

Pseudonymization involves much more than masking data on a technical level, Willis said. Here are some tips for IT teams looking to implement pseudonymization.

Examine what kinds of data youre storing: Identify how and where youre storing personal data. Take a thorough inventory of the databases and systems where affected records are kept before even considering pseudonymizing them.

Identify how and where youre storing personal data. Take a thorough inventory of the databases and systems where affected records are kept before even considering pseudonymizing them. Do you need the data that you think you need? If youre hanging on to personal data that doesnt add value or your organization simply doesnt need, consider getting rid of it, Willis said. Pseudonymization comes at a cost and adds complexity to your enterprise data management and governance operations. Why incur those burdens if the data isnt worth it to your organization?

If youre hanging on to personal data that doesnt add value or your organization simply doesnt need, consider getting rid of it, Willis said. Pseudonymization comes at a cost and adds complexity to your enterprise data management and governance operations. Why incur those burdens if the data isnt worth it to your organization? Enact good privacy policies: Clear and unambiguous privacy policies will not only help your European users know where they stand in terms of their personal data, it governs how your organization protects that data. Pseudonymization can help give those policies some much-needed bite.

Clear and unambiguous privacy policies will not only help your European users know where they stand in terms of their personal data, it governs how your organization protects that data. Pseudonymization can help give those policies some much-needed bite. Target your databases: Look at your database and talk to your engineers, Willis advised. Besides making the case for data pseudonymization as it applies to GDPR, youll need the expertise of your IT experts and database administrators to implement pseudonymization techniques.

Pseudonymization vendors

There are several database vendors and data-masking specialists that can help businesses pseudonymize sensitive data. Heres a sampling:
City Park Asks Tbilisi Mayor to Delay Abolition of Deal

Parking regulatory company C.T. Park, which has been managing parking system in the capital since 2007, asks Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze to postpone abolition of the deal until the court disputes are over.Kaladze announced about his decision on abolishing the contract with the company on March 12, saying the company does not fulfill its obligations properly. He added the agreement would be annulled on April 10.However, the company believes it will be fair if the Mayor delays the process until the court makes its decision over the case.We have appealed the mayors decision about improper fulfillment of obligations from our side. We think that the agreement can be cancelled only after the court verdict, the lawyer of C.T. Park Natia Tskepladze stated.The lawyer said they filed a statement to the City Hall, asking for postponement of contract abolition.Kaladze responded to the request of the company. He says the decision has been made and it will not be reversed.There is no court dispute and no talks about postponing our decision will take place. Everything is already decided, he stressed.The contract between City Park and Tbilisi Mayors Office was signed in 2007 and was supposed to last until 2022. According to the international auditing company Ernst & Young, the annulment of the agreement will cost the Mayors office 25 million GEL to pay for the compensation.However, Deputy Tbilisi Mayor, Irakli Khmaladze said the Mayors Office will not have to pay any compensation as it has grounded arguments that the company was not properly fulfilling its obligations.The company owners, David Pila and Natan Shorer - released the statement on March 14, saying the Mayors decision is an illegal, premeditated political act and the latest example of how the Georgian government treats foreign investors. 
The American Geriatrics Society (AGS) and the AGS Health in Aging Foundation today announced that Heather E. Whitson, MD, MHS, Associate Professor of Medicine and Ophthalmology at the Duke University School of Medicine and Deputy Director at Duke's Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, will be honored with the 2018 Thomas and Catherine Yoshikawa Award for Outstanding Scientific Achievement in Clinical Investigation. A past program chair for the AGS annual conference, Dr. Whitson will deliver a plenary presentation on individualizing health and promoting resilience in medically complex older adults as part of the AGS 2018 Annual Scientific Meeting (#AGS18; May 3-5 in Orlando, Fla.).

"Dr. Whitson is not only recognized nationally as a leading geriatrics researcher but also as a creative and compassionate clinician," notes Ellen Flaherty, PhD, APRN, AGSF, AGS Board Chair. "That blend of expertise at the lab bench and in the clinic and classroom reflects everything we have come to expect from AGS members."

Dr. Whitson's interest in improving care delivery systems to better serve older adults with complex health needs has contributed to the leading role Duke's Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development has played in efforts to promote resilience to common "late-life stressors," such as surgery and sensory loss. Among several noteworthy highlights from a clinical and academic career that already spans more than a decade, Dr. Whitson developed a novel rehabilitation model for people living with both vision impairment and cognitive impairment, and she is part of an interdisciplinary team seeking to improve health outcomes for frail older adults immediately before, during, and after surgery.

More broadly, Dr. Whitson has focused her research career on improving care and health outcomes for older individuals living with multiple chronic conditions. Her unique interest in links between eye health and brain function, for example, are tracing important associations between Alzheimer's disease and changes in the eye, which could advance early detection for certain types of dementia.

An AGS member since 2005, Dr. Whitson received her medical degree from Cornell University in 2000 and began her work at Duke as a medical resident shortly thereafter. In addition to chairing the 2017 AGS Annual Scientific Meeting Program Committee and co-chairing a series of "bedside-to-bench" AGS research conferences sponsored by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), Dr. Whitson has authored or co-authored more than 60 research publications, many on the breadth of her own work supported by the NIA and other influential funders.

Announced at the 2016 AGS Annual Scientific Meeting and supported for 16 years thanks to generous contributions to the AGS Health in Aging Foundation, the Yoshikawa Award recognizes the research accomplishments of mid-career clinician-investigators directly involved in the care of older adults. It is one of several honors conferred by the AGS at its Annual Scientific Meeting. For more information, visit Meeting.AmericanGeriatrics.org.

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About the American Geriatrics Society

Founded in 1942, the American Geriatrics Society (AGS) is a nationwide, not-for-profit society of geriatrics healthcare professionals that has--for more than 75 years--worked to improve the health, independence, and quality of life of older people. Its nearly 6,000 members include geriatricians, geriatric nurses, social workers, family practitioners, physician assistants, pharmacists, and internists. The Society provides leadership to healthcare professionals, policymakers, and the public by implementing and advocating for programs in patient care, research, professional and public education, and public policy. For more information, visit AmericanGeriatrics.org.

About the Health in Aging Foundation

The Health in Aging Foundation is a national non-profit established in 1999 by the American Geriatrics Society to bring the knowledge and expertise of geriatrics healthcare professionals to the public. We are committed to ensuring that people are empowered to advocate for high-quality care by providing them with trustworthy information and reliable resources. Last year, we reached nearly 1 million people with our resources through HealthinAging.org. We also help nurture current and future geriatrics leaders by supporting opportunities to attend educational events and increase exposure to principles of excellence on caring for older adults. For more information or to support the Foundation's work, visit HealthinAgingFoundation.org.

About the Thomas and Catherine Yoshikawa Award for Outstanding Scientific Achievement in Clinical Investigation

Named in honor of Dr. Thomas T. Yoshikawa and his wife, Catherine--who together served the AGS and the geriatrics community for more than two decades--the Yoshikawa Award will offer recognition and financial support to emerging geriatrics scholars who represent the early promise of the Yoshikawas' own illustrious careers. The award has been supported thanks to generous contributions to the AGS Health in Aging Foundation from AGS members, as well as friends and colleagues of the Yoshikawas.

About the AGS Annual Scientific Meeting

The AGS Annual Scientific Meeting is the premier educational event in geriatrics, providing the latest information on clinical care, research on aging, and innovative models of care delivery. More than 2,500 nurses, pharmacists, physicians, physician assistants, social workers, long-term care and managed care providers, healthcare administrators, and others will convene May 3-5, 2018 (pre-conference program on May 2), at the Walt Disney World Swan & Dolphin Resort in Orlando, Fla., to advance geriatrics knowledge and skills through state-of-the-art educational sessions and research presentations. For more information, visit Meeting.AmericanGeriatrics.org.
According to researchers at Aalto University, Finland, large-scale weather cycles, such as the one related to the El Nino phenomenon, affect two-thirds of the world's cropland. In these so called climate oscillations, air pressure, sea level temperature or other similar factors fluctuate regularly in areas far apart in a way that causes rain and temperature patterns to shift significantly.

'During recent years, researchers' ability to predict these oscillations has improved significantly. With this research, we highlight the potential of utilizing this improved forecasting skill in agricultural planning. This could improve the resilience of agriculture to climate related shocks, which can improve food security in many areas across the globe', says Matias Heino, a doctoral candidate at Aalto University.

The study, published in Nature Communications, is the first global study which examines the impacts of the El Nino-Southern Oscillation as well as the similar North Atlantic Oscillation, and the Indian Ocean Dipole, on global food crop production.

These climate oscillations can be divided into different episodes depending on their phase. It is already known that El Nino and its opposite phase, La Nina, have a clear effect on corn, soy, rice, and wheat yields in many areas across South Asia, Latin America and southern Africa.

'Our study showed that the North Atlantic Oscillation, NAO, significantly affects crop production in many parts of Europe, but also in North Africa and the Middle East', says assistant professor Matti Kummu from Aalto University.

The North Atlantic Oscillation describes the relationship between the Icelandic low pressure and the Azores high pressure areas. When the air pressure in Iceland is significantly lower than in the Azores, stronger winds increase the transport of warm, moist air from the Atlantic to Europe. During the other phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation, when the air pressure difference is smaller, less than average amounts of mild air flow to Europe. It makes the winters colder and less rainy.

When the Atlantic air pressure difference has been high, the productivity of crops in Europe have reduced by 2 per cent compared to the average. The effect has been particularly strong in places like Spain and the Balkans, where the decrease in productivity has been as much as 10 per cent. Crop productivity reductions, by up to 6 per cent, were also observed in North Africa and the Middle East. During the other phase of NAO, when the air pressure difference is weaker, the same areas have shown positive changes, in crop productivity.

In the Indian Ocean Dipole, the surface water temperature of the Indian ocean fluctuates regularly in the ocean's eastern and western parts: When the surface water is warmer in the Western Indian Ocean, the temperatures in the Eastern Indian Ocean tend to be lower, and vice versa. The IOD phenomenon affects food crop production particularly in Australia, where the crop productivity may, depending IOD's phase, be up to 8 per cent smaller or 6 per cent larger compared to the average.

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This study has been conducted in collaboration with researchers from Columbia University, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), and University of Bonn.
New CDDEP study finds largest increases in low-income and middle-income countries; calls for strategies to reduce use and support alternatives

Washington D.C. - Despite the threat of a global health crisis in antibiotic resistance, worldwide use of antibiotics in humans soared 39 percent between 2000 and 2015, fueled by dramatic increases in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), according to a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The study, which analyzed human antibiotic consumption in 76 countries, is the most comprehensive assessment of global trends to date.

Researchers from the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy (CDDEP), Princeton University, ETH Zurich and the University of Antwerp conducted the study, which found that antibiotic consumption rates increased worldwide from 11.3 to 15.7 defined daily doses (DDDs) per 1,000 inhabitants per day between 2000 and 2015. DDDs are a statistical and standardized measure of drug consumption and represent the assumed average maintenance dose per day for a drug used for its main indication in adults.

Antibiotic resistance is a global health problem; when it emerges in one place, it quickly spreads to other parts of the world. The study underscores the need for consistent global surveillance of antibiotic resistance and policies to curtail unnecessary antibiotic use.

Loss of effective antibiotics is driven in large part by antibiotic consumption, most of which is inappropriate and does nothing to improve health. However, while reducing antibiotic use is critical, increasing access to antibiotics in lower-income countries is also necessary, as these countries suffer from the highest rates of illness and death caused by infectious disease, the study researchers pointed out.

"Finding workable solutions is essential, and we now have key data needed to inform those solutions," said CDDEP researcher and study co-author Eili Klein. "Now, more than ever, we need effective interventions, including stewardship, public education, and curbing overuse of last-resort antibiotics."

Major findings from the PNAS study are as follows:

Total global use of antibiotics in humans was estimated to be 35 billion DDDs in 2015, a 65 percent increase from 2000, while the consumption rate increased 39 percent, from 11.3 to 15.7 DDDs per 1,000 inhabitants per day.

Antibiotic use in LMICs increased 114 percent in total and 77 percent per 1,000 inhabitants per day between 2000 and 2015 (some of total use increase was due to population growth). Some LMICs had rates of consumption that surpassed those of high-income countries. However, many LMICs still have considerably lower per capita consumption rates than high-income countries, due to access issues such as the high cost of drugs and patent protections.

The consumption rate of broad-spectrum penicillins, the most commonly consumed class of antibiotics, increased 36 percent between 2000 and 2015 globally. The greatest increase was in LMICs, where the rate of antibiotic consumption increased 56 percent, compared to 15 percent in high-income countries.

Consumption of new and last-resort antibiotic classes, such as linezolid, carbapenems, and colistin, increased significantly in nearly all countries. The United States remained one of the largest consumers of glycylcyclines (tigecycline) and oxazolidinones (linezolid), although use of these newer drugs in other countries use has surpassed that of the US in recent years.

Consumption increases in LMICs were driven largely by economic growth--a pattern not seen in high-income countries.

Despite the rising rates of antibiotic use worldwide, the results suggest that reducing antibiotic consumption is possible. Consumption in high-income countries actually fell slightly over the study period. In addition, the considerable variation in per capita use across high-income countries suggests that there are lessons to be learned.

CDDEP Director and study co-author Ramanan Laxminarayan noted that more than a year has passed since the United Nations General Assembly recognized the global threat of antibiotic resistance, yet little action has been taken since then.

"We must act decisively and we must act now, in a comprehensive manner, to preserve antibiotic effectiveness," Laxminarayan said. "That includes solutions that reduce consumption, such as vaccines or infrastructure improvements, particularly in low-income and middle-income countries. New drugs can do little to solve the resistance problem if these drugs are then used inappropriately, once they are introduced."

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About the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy

The Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy (CDDEP) produces independent, multidisciplinary research to advance the health and wellbeing of human populations around the world. CDDEP projects are global in scope, spanning Africa, Asia, and North America and include scientific studies and policy engagement. The CDDEP team is experienced in addressing country-specific and regional issues, as well as the local and global aspects of global challenges, such as antibiotic resistance and pandemic influenza. CDDEP research is notable for innovative approaches to design and analysis, which are shared widely through publications, presentations and web-based programs. CDDEP has offices in Washington, D.C. and New Delhi and relies on a distinguished team of scientists, public health experts and economists.
Boston University researchers, led by John Connor, associate professor of microbiology at the Boston University School of Medicine and researcher at Boston University's National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL), in collaboration with the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), studied data from 12 monkeys exposed to Ebola virus, and discovered a common pattern of immune response among the ones that got sick. This response occurred four days before the onset of fever--the first observable symptom of infection. The work, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, suggests a possible biomarker for early diagnosis of the disease.

Currently, there is no way to diagnose Ebola until symptoms arrive--and the fever, severe headache, and muscle pain that mark Ebola can strike victims anytime between 2 and 21 days after exposure.

"Right now, we wait for diagnosis until the virus spills out of primary infection sites into the blood," says Emily Speranza, who recently received her PhD from Boston University's Bioinformatics program and is the co-first author on the paper. "At that point, it's already tremendously far along."

"If you can start treating someone very, very early on after exposure, they're less likely to develop really severe disease," says Speranza. "And if you can identify people who are sick before they even show symptoms, you can better quarantine and actually control outbreaks."

Speranza's study began with an unexpected result from scientists at USAMRIID.

They had been trying to simulate the course of Ebola in monkeys, in a way that more closely mimicked the way humans become infected. Traditionally, scientists studying Ebola in primates inject a high dose of virus directly into a muscle. When infected that way, all the animals die within 10 days.

That's not how it works in people. "Humans are not necessarily going to be exposed to a needle injection of Ebola virus," says Speranza. "You're more likely to be exposed through cuts on your skin or through mucosal surfaces in your eyes, nose, or mouth."

So the scientists at USAMRIID tried a similar tactic. They infected 12 monkeys through the nose, using much less Ebola virus than usual. The researchers expected all the animals to grow sick at the same time, but they didn't; some died within the usual 10 days, one group died around day 13, another group lived to 21-22 days, and two of the animals never got sick at all.

"Prior to this result, there was no model that behaved like the disease that you and I would get, which is, we would probably be exposed, we'd walk around for somewhere between 2 to 21 days, and then we'd get sick," said John Connor, who is senior author on the paper. "And that's what this was trying to model: If I get sick in 5 days, and you get sick in 12 days or 17 days, are our immune responses different? All of a sudden you can ask that question."

Speranza, who studies the body's immune response to Ebola virus, sought to answer the question by looking at genes. "We were very curious to find out what was going on," she says. She started by looking at the innate immune response, the body's first defense against disease, trying to see which genes turned on, and when. When she looked at a group of signaling proteins called interferons, she found a pattern. In all the monkeys, no matter how long it took them to show symptoms, a handful of genes triggered by interferons--called the interferon-stimulated genes--kicked into gear four days before the animals spiked a fever. The genes showed up in the same pattern across all the subjects who got sick.

Speranza then compared the results to humans, using Ebola victim blood samples that had been collected and preserved during the 2014-2016 outbreak in Guinea. "We found not only the same genes going up," she says, "but in a similar order."

Connor notes that other scientists have found similar early immune responses in monkeys exposed to Lassa and humans exposed to influenza. Scientists still need to tease out more specific details of the human response to Ebola. "We looked at the most obvious things, which is this very loud innate immune response. Those are the trumpets," says Connor. "And there may be some piccolos playing that we can't hear. There may be some other specific signals that say, 'Oh, this actually is Ebola.'"

Finding those subtle signals will take more research, the scientists say, but this work, though preliminary, offers a promising first step toward early diagnosis. "We can now take the next step," says Speranza, "and actually start building that information into a biomarker for infection."

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About Boston University

Founded in 1839, Boston University is an internationally recognized institution of higher education and research. With more than 33,000 students, it is the fourth-largest independent university in the United States. BU consists of 17 schools and colleges, along with a number of multi-disciplinary centers and institutes integral to the University's research and teaching mission. In 2012, BU joined the Association of American Universities (AAU), a consortium of 62 leading research universities in the United States and Canada.

About the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL)

The National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL), part of Boston University and located on BU's Medical Campus, is focused on research to increase the understanding of emerging infectious agents that cause human disease. In a safe and secure environment, multidisciplinary teams of microbiologists, virologists, engineers and other scientists conduct research at Biosafety Level 2, 3 and 4 in order to identify and develop new and better treatments, vaccines and diagnostic tools for emerging diseases. It is also a center for collaboration, training and education in emerging infectious disease research. The NEIDL is a 192,000-square-foot, 7-story building, designed and built in accordance with the most stringent specifications set by the U.S. government for conducting infectious disease research, and was approved for BSL-4 research in November 2017. Part of a national network of secure facilities that study infectious diseases, the NEIDL is one of 10 BSL-4 facilities in the United States.
Cold Spring Harbor, NY -- Using a revolutionary new brain-mapping technology recently developed at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), an international team of scientists led by Professor Anthony Zador have made a discovery that will force neuroscientists to rethink how areas of the cortex communicate with one another.

The new technology, called MAPseq, allowed the scientists to determine that neurons in the primary visual cortex communicate with higher visual areas of the cortex much more broadly than previously believed, and according to specific patterns.

The wiring diagram of the cortex determines how information is processed across dozens of cortical areas. "If we don't know how information is combined even at the earliest stages, then we have essentially no shot of figuring out how the brain works." says Justus Kebschull, now a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University who was instrumental in developing MAPseq as a graduate student in Zador's lab.

In a MAPseq experiment, hundreds or thousands of neurons are labeled uniquely with random RNA sequences ("barcodes") via a single injection made in the brain. The barcodes are transported into the branching axons of each labeled neuron, where they can later be read out by high-throughput barcode sequencing after the brain is dissected. This process allows researchers to identify every brain area that each barcoded neuron makes contact with.

The Zador lab has begun to use MAPseq to compare the brains of a mouse autism model with healthy mouse brains to see if mis-wiring occurs during development at the single-neuron level that might explain the disorder's symptoms--just one of many potential applications of the method.

In the experiments reported today, the team first verified the relatively new technology by comparing its results with the gold-standard mapping method, called single-neuron tracing. They used the latter method to trace 31 mouse neurons in the primary visual cortex to up to seven different cortical locations. These experiments took 3 years to complete. It then took them only 3 weeks to use MAPseq to map the projections within the cortex arising from 591 primary visual cortex neurons. Both techniques revealed that the majority of neurons in this location target multiple visual areas, and that roughly the same proportions of cells project to two, three, or four cortical areas.

Beyond just being faster, MAPseq was able to reveal patterns in the way that neurons in the primary visual cortex connected to other visual areas across the cortex. About 73% fit into one of six distinct projection patterns. This architecture may facilitate coordination of activity among those areas, which in turn could provide a means of linking visual information across the brain to help form complex percepts.

"Our finding signals a shift away from the rather convenient idea of every neuron projecting to just one cortical area," says Kebschull. "That thinking ignores the underlying structure of the brain, and in the future, the way people do their experiments is going to change drastically."

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Funding

U.S. National Institutes of Health; Brain Research Foundation; IARPA (MICrONS); Simons Foundation; Paul Allen Distinguished Investigator Award; Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds; Genentech Foundation; European Research Council; Swiss National Science Foundation.

Citation

Han Y et al, "A single-cell anatomical blueprint for intracortical communication" appears online March 28, 2018 in Nature.

About Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

Founded in 1890, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has shaped contemporary biomedical research and education with programs in cancer, neuroscience, plant biology and quantitative biology. Home to eight Nobel Prize winners, the private, not-for-profit Laboratory employs 1,100 people including 600 scientists, students and technicians. The Meetings & Courses Program annually hosts more than 12,000 scientists. The Laboratory's education arm also includes an academic publishing house, a graduate school and the DNA Learning Center with programs for middle and high school students and teachers. For more information, visit http://www.cshl.edu
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Today, most people in the United States rarely think of rheumatic heart disease (RHD)-or the rheumatic fever that causes it-as more than a historical footnote.

Rheumatic fever, which usually starts as strep throat, was essentially eliminated as a life-threatening disease with the use of penicillin in the early 20th century.

But for much of the developing world, RHD still kills. Estimates range that between a quarter-million to 330,000 people a year die from what has been called the "disease of poverty" across Africa, the Middle East, Central and South Asia and the South Pacific.

Worse, women of childbearing age who suffer from RHD face a double danger: They face increased risk of complications during pregnancy-including death-while also bearing a cultural burden and expectation that they'll become mothers.

That was among the findings in a recent study in Uganda led by researcher Allison Webel, an assistant professor at the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University.

The survey of 75 women last year is among the first qualitative studies of female RHD patients and their attitudes toward cardiovascular disease and reproduction.

The study has its origins in clinical observations at the Ugandan Heart Institute. A health-care provider there was hearing from women who were cautioned by their doctors about the dangers of bearing and delivering children-but who were also being told by their families and community that they must get pregnant.

Webel said that "tension between maintaining one's own health and the social expectation of becoming pregnant" was clearly illustrated in the Ugandan study.

"Our findings suggest that health programs targeting RHD in low- to moderate-income countries have to pay special attention to female patients of childbearing age," she said.

Webel and six co-authors discuss their findings in a paper published this month in the journal PLOS ONE.

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http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0194030

Co-authors include Andrew Chang, of the Department of Medicine at Stanford University; researchers at the Heart Institute; and joint senior author Christopher Longenecker, of the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

PLOS ONE is a peer-reviewed, open-access scientific journal published by the Public Library of Science, covering primary research from any discipline within science and medicine.
It may be only a matter of time before urban dwellers can hail a self-driving taxi, so researchers at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and UC Berkeley decided to analyze the cost, energy, and environmental implications of a fleet of self-driving electric vehicles operating in Manhattan.

Using models they built and data from more than 10 million taxi trips in New York City, they found that shared automated electric vehicles, or SAEVs, could get the job done at a lower cost - by an order of magnitude - than present-day taxis while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption. What's more, they found that "range anxiety" is moot because smaller cars with a smaller battery range were sufficient to complete the trips, although more charging stations would be needed.

Their study, "Cost, Energy, and Environmental Impact of Automated Electric Taxi Fleets in Manhattan," was published recently in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. The corresponding author is Gordon Bauer of UC Berkeley's Energy and Resources Group, and co-authors are Jeffery Greenblatt and Brian Gerke of Berkeley Lab.

"The EV industry is focusing on the personal car market, trying to make the range as large as possible," said Greenblatt. "The standard now is 200 miles. We suspected you wouldn't need as much for taxis. We found plenty of times during the day when a portion of taxis could slip off to recharge, even if just for a few minutes. This greatly reduces the need to have a big battery and therefore drives down cost. It is dependent on having a fairly dense charging network."

The researchers developed an agent-based model to simulate the movement of 7,000 taxis around Manhattan throughout the day. They also built models to analyze the cost of service and optimal placement of vehicle chargers. They found that costs would be lowest with a battery range of 50 to 90 miles, and with either 66 slower Level 2 chargers per square mile or 44 faster Level 2 chargers per square mile.

"Manhattan currently has about 500 chargers for public use, which include Tesla chargers," Bauer said. "We found that we would need to at least triple that capacity."

The study also estimated that a fleet of SAEV taxis drawing power from the current New York City power grid would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 73 percent and energy consumption by 58 percent compared to a fleet of automated conventional gas-powered vehicles.

Greenblatt points out that there are still many barriers to the wider penetration of personal EV ownership, including high cost and limited range. "By switching to a shared fleet that's automated, you can provide electric service to people essentially now," he said.

He notes that shared vehicles are best suited for dense, urban environments: "We're not saying these shared vehicles will be the right thing for road trips, but for the vast majority of urban trips, people drive short distances," Greenblatt said.

The researchers said they were motivated to study this topic because they think it will be "the next big thing" in transportation, Greenblatt said.

"For a long time, personal transportation seemed like the hardest problem to solve," Gerke said. "Now suddenly it seems like there's an obvious path to achieving it, which is the electrification of vehicles coupled with changing the way we get around from private vehicle ownership to shared approaches. Shared approaches are starting to work in urban areas."

Gerke previously researched lighting efficiency, and was surprised by how quickly the market switched from incandescent to LED bulbs. "It was a better product and it was cheaper overall," he said. "When you have those together, people adopt it really fast. I suspect there will be a similar transformation that will occur in the transportation sector in the next decade - it will occur faster than people think."

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The study was supported by DOE's Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) as part of its SMART Mobility Lab Consortium, managed by VTO's Energy Efficient Mobility Systems Program.

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory addresses the world's most urgent scientific challenges by advancing sustainable energy, protecting human health, creating new materials, and revealing the origin and fate of the universe. Founded in 1931, Berkeley Lab's scientific expertise has been recognized with 13 Nobel Prizes. The University of California manages Berkeley Lab for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. For more, visit http://www.lbl.gov.

DOE's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.
Prestigious HFSP awards to next generation leaders in frontier research

The International Human Frontier Science Program Organization (HFSPO) announced today 11 Career Development Awards (CDA). The awards are for the most highly creative and accomplished holders of HFSP fellowships, and allow the awardees to return home or move to another member country to continue frontier research in the life sciences. This year the winners will return to Canada, Israel, Japan, Germany, Spain and the UK, after HFSP postdoctoral research in France, Switzerland and the USA. Following a rigorous selection in a global competition, the future for these young scientists could not be brighter.

The CDA is a special feature of the HFSP fellowship programs because it offers fellows the possibility to return to their home countries or to move to another HFSP member country after their research abroad. They receive $300,000 spread over three years to assist their frontier research in their new lab as an independent researcher.

The 11 winners of the 2018 HFSP Career Development Award, their research institutions and research programs, are:

Maithe ARRUDA-CARVALHO (Brazil/France)

Department of Psychology

University of Toronto - Scarborough, Toronto, Canada

Investigating the circuit basis of adolescence impulsivity

Dan DOMINISSINI (Israel/Italy)

Cancer Research Center

Sheba Medical Center / Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel

A new epitranscriptome mark - deciphering function and mechanism of N1-methyladenosine (m1A) in mRNA

Julien GUIZETTI (France/Germany)

Centre for Infectious Diseases

Heidelberg University Hospital, Heidelberg, Germany

Schizogony: understanding atypical cell division mechanisms in malaria parasite

Felipe KARAM TEIXEIRA (Brazil/Portugal)

Department of Genetics

Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK

Genomic conflict and stability during germline development

Michael KRIEG (Germany)

The Institute of Photonic Sciences, Castelldefels - Barcelona, Spain

A prosthetic photon-based neurotransmitter system to overcome synaptic transmission barriers

Liad MUDRIK (Israel)

School of Psychological Sciences and Sagol School of Neuroscience

Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

Studying real-life conscious vs. unconscious processing: a novel experimental approach

Edda SCHULZ (Germany)

Otto-Warburg Laboratory

Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, Berlin, Germany

Towards a quantitative understanding of the mechanistic coupling of X-inactivation and pluripotency

Itay TIROSH (Israel/USA)

Department of Molecular Cell Biology

Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel

Dissecting pediatric high-grade glioma by single cell expression profiling

Stuart TRENHOLM (Canada/UK)

Montreal Neurological Institute

McGill University, Montreal, Canada

The neuronal substrate of face selective visual responses

Christoph WILHELM (Germany)

Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Clinical Pharmacology

University Hospital Bonn, Bonn, Germany

The metabolic control of ILC plasticity

Yamato YOSHIDA (Japan)

College of Science

Ibaraki University, Ibaraki , Japan

Decoding the molecular mechanisms and kinetics of the plastid- and mitochondrial-division machinery

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The lists of all 2018 HFSP awards are available at http://www.hfsp.org/awardees/newly-awarded.

The Human Frontier Science Program is an international program of research support implemented by the International Human Frontier Science Program Organization (HFSPO) based in Strasbourg, France. Its aims are to promote intercontinental collaboration and training in cutting-edge, interdisciplinary research focused on the life sciences. HFSPO receives financial support from the governments or research councils of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Switzerland, UK, USA, as well as from the European Union.
A research team led by Monica Bettencourt Dias, from Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciencia (IGC, Portugal), discovered important features of cancer cells that may help clinicians fighting cancer.

The researchers observed that the number and size of tiny structures that exist inside cells, called centrioles, are increased in the most aggressive sub-types of cancer. This study will be published in Nature Communications* on the 28th of March.

Cancer is a very diverse disease with some tumours being more aggressive and more resistant to chemotherapy than others. Clinicians are eager to find novel diagnostic, prognostic and treatment tools that allow them to predict outcomes and treat patients in a more personalised way. The study now published may contribute to this process.

About 100 times smaller than the cross section of a hair, centrioles have been called the cells "brain", as they play crucial roles in cell multiplication, movement and communication. Their number and size are highly controlled in normal cells. Since their discovery, more than one century ago, it has been proposed that an abnormal increase in the number of these structures may induce cancer..

Bettencourt-Dias's team investigated the incidence of centriole abnormalities in human cancer cells. The researchers thoroughly analysed a panel of 60 human cancer lines originated from 9 distinct tissues. Their results reveal that cancer cells often have extra and longer centrioles, which are absent in normal cells. Importantly, the research team observed that supernumerary centrioles are more prevalent in aggressive breast - as the triple negative - and colon cancer. Also, the team discovered that longer centrioles are excessively active, which perturbs cell division and could favour cancer formation.

"Our data confirm that deregulated number and size of centrioles inside cells is associated with malignant features. This finding may help establishing centriole properties as a way of classifying tumours in order to establish prognosis and predict treatment response", says Gaelle Marteil, first author of this study and researcher at Bettencourt-Dias laboratory.

What is the next step? "The cell lines that we analysed are already well characterized in terms of genetic changes and resistance to therapeutics. We are pursuing our studies in collaboration with Nuno Barbosa-Morais' team at Instituto de Medicina Molecular, in Lisbon, and Joana Paredes at I3S, in Porto, to explore new mechanisms and therapeutics that could target centrioles in cancer", adds Monica Bettencourt-Dias.

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This study involved an international research team from Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciencia, I3S- Instituto de Investigacao e Inovacao em Saude (Portugal), IPATIMUP - Instituto de Patologia e Imunologia Molecular (Portugal), Instituto de Medicina Molecular (Portugal), Instituto Portugues de Oncologia (Portugal), and Dana-Faber Cancer Institute (USA). This work was funded by European Research Council (ERC), European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (FCT, Portugal), and FCT- Harvard Medical School Program Portugal.

* Marteil, G., Guerrero, A., Vieira, A.F., de Almeida, B.P., Machado, P., Mendonca, S., Mesquita, M., Vilarreal, B., Fonseca, I., Francia, M.E., Dores, K., Martins, N.P., Jana, S.C., Tranfield, E.M., Barbosa-Morais, N.L., Paredes, J., Pellman, D., Godinho, S.A., Bettencourt-Dias, M. (2018) Over-elongation of Centrioles in Cancer Promotes Centriole Amplification and Chromosome Missegregation. Nature Communications. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-03641-x.
Researchers of the Department of Crystallography and Experimental Physics at Lobachevsky University N. Somov and P. Andreev have proposed a new approach to estimate the degree of similarity of a coordination polyhedron to a certain reference polyhedron

The problem of the relationship between the structure of materials and their physical properties is one of the global problems of the present day. For many years, researchers of the Lobachevsky University's Faculty of Physics have been working to solve it. In particular, systematic experimental and theoretical studies of the atomic structures of crystals of various materials are conducted at the UNN Department of Crystallography and Experimental Physics.

The traditional approach to describe the atomic structure of a crystal is to use the polyhedral method based on the description of the model of a crystal by means of coordination polyhedra (polyhedra built on atoms as their vertices). An important contribution to the development of this method was made by Academician N.V. Belov, the originator of the crystallographic research at the UNN Faculty of Physics. The polyhedral method greatly simplifies the crystallochemical analysis of complex atomic structures. Crystal structure as a whole is represented in the form of a spatially ordered system of coordination polyhedra, thus, a transition is performed from an atom to a larger structural unit, the coordination polyhedron. On the other hand, the analysis of individual coordination polyhedra makes it possible to determine the symmetry of a particular atom's environment, its energy and chemical state.

In real crystals, coordination polyhedra often have a distorted shape, that is, they differ from ideal polyhedra. The presence of distortion of the coordination polyhedron and its magnitude are due to a variety of factors, including the energy state of the central atom, the chemical and physical features of the environment of the central atom, the mechanical stresses arising in the atomic structure framework of the crystal, and many more. Some types of coordination polyhedra distortion significantly affect the physical properties of materials. For example, distortion of the coordination polyhedron of an activator ion in a laser crystal can lead to a Stark splitting of electron terms, which often results in emission spectra broadening. Thus, the problem arises of giving a quantitative estimate of the distortion in a real coordination polyhedron.

Associate Professor Nikolai Somov and Assistant Professor Pavel Andreev from the Department of Crystallography and Experimental Physics at the Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod have proposed a new approach to estimate the degree of similarity of a coordination polyhedron to a certain reference polyhedron. The degree of similarity of a coordination polyhedron is a scalar value strictly equal to unity if the coordination polyhedron is similar to the reference polyhedron; in other cases it takes values from zero to one. The proposed method is implemented in the form of a computer program that is freely available (http://phys.unn.ru/ps/).

The method for quantitative estimation of the degree of similarity of coordination polyhedra was tested on more than 400 crystalline structures of organometallic compounds of pentavalent antimony and bismuth. It was shown that the proposed approach is consistent with one of the main theorems of structural crystal chemistry, and the advantages of the new approach were demonstrated using concrete examples.

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Margvelashvili about Hybrid Threats of Georgia

By Vladimer Napetvaridze

On March 20, President of Georgia Giorgi Margvelashvili underscored the importance of country's security strategy against hybrid threats. The president has held a meeting with the British Government Adviser on Security and Crisis Management Issues, Sir Garry Johnson to discuss the regional security and Georgias national security system. According to Margvelashvili, Georgias national security system is unable to adequately respond to current challenges and hybrid threats and it is especially alarming considering the security threats Georgia is facing today. Margvelashvili noted that As a result of the legislative and governmental changes implemented in the country, Georgias national security system responds less adequately to challenges than before and requires corrections and therefore engagement of Georgia's partners, including the UK, in the development and improvement of Georgias national security system is crucial.The President Margvelashvili mentioned the security issues of Georgia, on a farewell meeting with the Ambassador of the U.S. Ian Kelly. Considering escalated threats when democracy and freedom of Georgia and other leading states in the region have to be protected, adoption of Georgia Support Act and advancement of the US-Georgia relations are crucial to overcome the existing challenges, - Margvelashvili stated.What is a hybrid threat and why it carries importance for the safety of the country? The hybrid threat is considered as an attack when the enemy together with military forces, uses cyber attacks, media, and other means simultaneously or in combination with different combinations to achieve the desired goal.It involves synchronised use of military and non-military means against specific vulnerabilities in order to affect its opponent. Its instruments can be ratcheted up and down simultaneously, using different tools against different targets.Any conflict in contemporary world is a hybrid warfare because any side has a number of ways to attack an opponent. In case of Russia-Georgian confrontation, together with the crawling occupation, Russia uses different means to negatively influence Georgian society's pro-western attitudes. Propaganda is an important component of the Kremlin foreign policy. A number of internet based TV channels, print publications, websites, non-governmental organizations and political groups are financed from Russia, to distribute anti-Western messages. These are main tools of Russian hybrid threats in Georgia:Media Organizations - According to the 2016 survey by the National Democratic Institute (NDI) - 47% of Georgian TV audience watches Russian channels, the most popular of which are TV HTB, ORT and RTR;Non-Governmental Organizations- Kremlin propaganda also relies on a network of nongovernmental organizations, which organize information meetings and spread anti-western messages;Political Parties- A number of political parties and political figures directly or indirectly spread Kremlin propaganda.The main goal of Russia is to reduce the pro-western attitudes in the Georgian society through the spread of disinformation and anti-Western stereotypes, as the public opinion largely determines the state foreign policy.One of the most important state agencies against hybrid threats was the State Security and Crisis Management Council, which was the highest political authority in terms of determining Georgias security threats. The members of the Council were  Prime Minister, Minister of Finance, Minister of Internal Affairs, Minister of Defense and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia. The Council assessed internal and external national security threats, and provided the Prime Minister with the framework of essential measures to predict, expose, prevent and neutralize threats to vital national interests.In November 2017, the State Security and Crisis Management Council was merged with the Emergency Management Service, which will be focused on operational management of crises but not on a strategic discussion and coordination of security policy. This fact caused controversy part among Georgian experts because they believed that Georgia could not respond adequately to the existing challenges, the Russian occupation, and the hybrid war, as the country would no longer have a coordination mechanism at the highest political level.
Galaxies and dark matter go together like peanut butter and jelly. You typically don't find one without the other.

Therefore, researchers were surprised when they uncovered a galaxy that is missing most, if not all, of its dark matter. An invisible substance, dark matter is the underlying scaffolding upon which galaxies are built. It's the glue that holds the visible matter in galaxies - stars and gas - together.

"We thought that every galaxy had dark matter and that dark matter is how a galaxy begins," said Pieter van Dokkum of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, lead researcher of the Hubble observations. "This invisible, mysterious substance is the most dominant aspect of any galaxy. So finding a galaxy without it is unexpected. It challenges the standard ideas of how we think galaxies work, and it shows that dark matter is real: it has its own separate existence apart from other components of galaxies. This result also suggests that there may be more than one way to form a galaxy."

The unique galaxy, called NGC 1052-DF2, contains at most 1/400th the amount of dark matter that astronomers had expected. The galaxy is as large as our Milky Way, but it had escaped attention because it contains only 1/200th the number of stars. Given the object's large size and faint appearance, astronomers classify NGC 1052-DF2 as an ultra-diffuse galaxy. A 2015 survey of the Coma galaxy cluster showed these large, faint objects to be surprisingly common.

But none of the ultra-diffuse galaxies discovered so far have been found to be lacking in dark matter. So even among this unusual class of galaxy, NGC 1052-DF2 is an oddball.

Van Dokkum and his team spotted the galaxy with the Dragonfly Telephoto Array, a custom-built telescope in New Mexico they designed to find these ghostly galaxies. They then used the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii to measure the motions of 10 giant groupings of stars called globular clusters in the galaxy. Keck revealed that the globular clusters were moving at relatively low speeds, less than 23,000 miles per hour. Stars and clusters in the outskirts of galaxies containing dark matter move at least three times faster. From those measurements, the team calculated the galaxy's mass. "If there is any dark matter at all, it's very little," van Dokkum explained. "The stars in the galaxy can account for all the mass, and there doesn't seem to be any room for dark matter."

The researchers next used NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii to uncover more details about the unique galaxy. Gemini revealed that the galaxy does not show signs of an interaction with another galaxy. Hubble helped them better identify the globular clusters and measure an accurate distance to the galaxy.

The Hubble images also revealed the galaxy's unusual appearance. "I spent an hour just staring at the Hubble image," van Dokkum recalled. "It's so rare, particularly these days after so many years of Hubble, that you get an image of something and you say, 'I've never seen that before.' This thing is astonishing: a gigantic blob that you can look through. It's so sparse that you see all of the galaxies behind it. It is literally a see-through galaxy."

The ghostly galaxy doesn't have a noticeable central region, or even spiral arms and a disk, typical features of a spiral galaxy. But it doesn't look like an elliptical galaxy, either. The galaxy also shows no evidence that it houses a central black hole. Based on the colors of its globular clusters, the galaxy is about 10 billion years old. Even the globular clusters are oddballs: they are twice as large as typical stellar groupings seen in other galaxies.

"It's like you take a galaxy and you only have the stellar halo and globular clusters, and it somehow forgot to make everything else," van Dokkum said. "There is no theory that predicted these types of galaxies. The galaxy is a complete mystery, as everything about it is strange. How you actually go about forming one of these things is completely unknown."

But the researchers do have some ideas. NGC 1052-DF2 resides about 65 million light-years away in a collection of galaxies that is dominated by the giant elliptical galaxy NGC 1052. Galaxy formation is turbulent and violent, and van Dokkum suggests that the growth of the fledgling massive galaxy billions of years ago perhaps played a role in NGC 1052-DF2's dark-matter deficiency.

Another idea is that gas moving toward the giant elliptical NGC 1052 may have fragmented and formed NGC 1052-DF2. The formation of NGC 1052-DF2 may have been helped by powerful winds emanating from the young black hole that was growing in the center of NGC 1052. These possibilities are speculative, however, and don't explain all of the characteristics of the observed galaxy, the researchers said.

The team is already hunting for more dark-matter deficient galaxies. They are analyzing Hubble images of 23 other diffuse galaxies. Three of them appear similar to NGC 1052-DF2.

"Every galaxy we knew about before has dark matter, and they all fall in familiar categories like spiral or elliptical galaxies," van Dokkum said. "But what would you get if there were no dark matter at all? Maybe this is what you would get."

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The team's results will appear in the March 29, 2018, issue of the journal Nature.

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., in Washington, D.C.

For images and more information about galaxy NGC 1052-DF2 and Hubble, visit:

NASA's Hubble Portal: http://www.nasa.gov/hubble

The Nature paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature25767

HubbleSite link: http://hubblesite.org/news_release/news/2018-16

Donna Weaver / Ray Villard

Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Maryland

410-338-4493 / 410-338-4514

dweaver@stsci.edu / villard@stsci.edu

Pieter van Dokkum

Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut

203-432-3019

pieter.vandokkum@yale.edu
Sea turtles use their flippers to handle prey despite the limbs being evolutionarily designed for locomotion, a discovery by Monterey Bay Aquarium researchers published today in PeerJ.

The in-depth examination of the phenomenon - Limb-use By Foraging Sea Turtles, an Evolutionary Perspective - by authors Jessica Fujii and Dr. Kyle Van Houtan and others reveals a behavior thought to be less likely in marine tetrapods is actually widespread and that this type of exaptation of flippers may have been occurring 70 million years earlier than previously thought.

"Sea turtles don't have a developed frontal cortex, independent articulating digits or any social learning," says Van Houtan, Director of Science at Monterey Bay Aquarium. "And yet here we have them 'licking their fingers' just like a kid who does have all those tools. It shows an important aspect of evolution - that opportunities can shape adaptations."

Lead author Jessica Fujii is part of the Aquarium's sea otter research team where she specializes in ecomorphology--the intersection of evolution, behavior and body form. Fujii's expertise in sea otter foraging and tool use behavior has influenced her recent examination of sea turtles and how they have evolved to use their limbs in novel ways.

Analysis by Fujii and Van Houtan using crowd-sourced photos and videos finds widespread examples of behaviors such as a green turtle holding a jelly, a loggerhead rolling a scallop on the seafloor and a hawksbill pushing against a reef for leverage to rip an anemone loose.

Similar behaviors have been documented in marine mammals from walruses to seals to manatees - but not in sea turtles. The paper shows that sea turtles are similar to the other groups in that flippers are used for a variety of foraging tasks (holding, bracing, corralling).

"Sea turtles' limbs have evolved mostly for locomotion, not for manipulating prey," Fujii says. "But that they're doing it anyway suggests that, even if it's not the most efficient or effective way, it's better than not using them at all."

The finding came as a surprise to the authors, given sea turtles' ancient lineage and the fact that the reptiles are considered to have simple brains and simple flippers. The results also offer an insight into the evolution of four-limbed ocean creatures that raises questions about which traits are learned and which are hardwired.

"We expect these things to happen with a highly intelligent, adaptive social animal," Van Houtan says. "With sea turtles, it's different; they never meet their parents," Kyle says. "They're never trained to forage by their mom. It's amazing that they're figuring out how to do this without any apprenticing, and with flippers that aren't well adapted for these tasks."

The study may also help inform the aquarium's ongoing sea otter research. How developmental biology predisposes animals to adopt dining strategies is of particular interest, given the aquarium's efforts to raise stranded sea otter pups and prepare them for a return to the wild. Rearing and releasing stranded pups contributes to the aquarium's work to recover California's threatened sea otter population.

Before they're released, ecologically naive pups have to be taught foraging behaviors, be it for crabs or abalone, by adult female sea otters at the aquarium, which serve as surrogate mothers to the pups.

"What we're trying to understand is how to have the best sea otter surrogacy program," Kyle says. "This is kind of one end of the spectrum of that--the opposite end of the spectrum."

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The paper is available now at https://peerj.com/articles/4565

Images:

Image 1 credit: A green turtle swiping the stinging jellyfish (Cyanea barkeri) in the water column at Hook Island, Queensland, Australia, taken June 2017.

Image 2 credit: A green turtle holding a mosaic jellyfish (Thysanostoma thysanura) in the water column near the ocean surface in the Similan Islands, Thailand, taken June 2017 ( Rich Carey/Shutterstock.com).

Full Media Pack including images: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1tqeFyoF-xVzu7poBt32S7MVhpAMF-R01

EMBARGOED until March 28, 2018: 7 am EST; 12 midday UK local time; 11 am GMT (i.e. the date of publication)

Link to the Published Version of the article (quote this link in your story - the link will ONLY work after the embargo lifts): https://peerj.com/articles/4565 your readers will be able to freely access this article at this URL.

Citation to the article: Fujii et al. (2018), Limb-use by foraging marine turtles, an evolutionary perspective. PeerJ 6:e4565; DOI 10.7717/peerj.4565

About:

Monterey Bay Aquarium: The mission of the nonprofit Monterey Bay Aquarium is to inspire conservation of the ocean. It is the most respected public aquarium in North America, and an innovator in living exhibits, public programs and social media-engaging nearly two million visitors a year and millions more around the world. It is a leader in science education, creating programs for young people and the adults who guide them as it nurtures a new generation of science-literate, conservation-minded young people to tackle the environmental challenges of the 21st century. And it is an influential global voice for ocean conservation, combining active programs in marine science, with policy initiatives and public outreach to secure the future of the ocean. Its science is the foundation for the sustainable seafood movement worldwide, and integrated with its policy and outreach programs, is shaping a sustainable future for global fisheries and aquaculture. Learn more at montereybayaquarium.org.

PeerJ is an Open Access publisher of two peer-reviewed journals and a preprint server. PeerJ's mission is to help the world efficiently publish its knowledge. All works published by PeerJ are Open Access and published using a Creative Commons license (CC-BY 4.0). PeerJ is based in San Diego, CA and the UK and can be accessed at peerj.com

PeerJ is the peer-reviewed journal for Biology, Medicine and Environmental Sciences. PeerJ has recently added 15 areas in environmental science subject areas, including Natural Resource Management, Climate Change Biology, and Environmental Impacts. peerj.com/environmental-sciences

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The largest of its kind held in non-Arctic countries

"Fifth International Symposium on Arctic Research (ISAR-5)," the largest international Arctic research symposium of Asia's non-Arctic nations was held in Tokyo from January 15 to 18, 2018.

The participants included 344 persons from 18 countries and regions, with 100 young researchers as well (students and researchers who had acquired their degree within the previous five years).

The Arctic is experiencing rapid environmental and amplified climatic changes, creating significant challenges for the people and the ecosystem in the region besides its various impacts on other areas of the globe.

H.I.H. Princess Takamado marked the opening ceremony of the symposium by talking about the expectations from Arctic research.

Researchers from various research fields -- natural sciences, engineering, social sciences, and humanities -- participated and discussed important topics related to global warming and its impacts:

Natural variability in Arctic warming and its relationship with global change were discussed.

Recent warming in the Arctic and its influence on the ecosystem and human activity can be considered as the formation of a "New Arctic."

Importance of elucidating the Arctic changes using various data sets was emphasized.

Need for international collaboration for various kinds of Arctic observations as well as national and community-level efforts for monitoring, taking use of indigenous knowledge, were suggested.

In many senses, the Arctic is no more considered a confined region but as the "global Arctic." Reduction in the extent of summer sea ice in the Arctic Ocean has brought about changes in the world cargo ship traffic, higher possibilities of development of natural resources and tourism, and extreme weather in mid-latitudes.

Reports were presented about the new research project, the MOSAiC, which involves sending a research ship onto sea ice to monitor the atmosphere, sea ice, and ocean all year around, cooperating with other research ship operations and circum-Arctic observatories.

The importance of the symposium held in a non-Arctic country was recognized by the wider research communities, and the new participants gained a valuable opportunity to learn about new findings, exchange ideas, and develop their research interests. The next ISAR (ISAR-6) will be held in 2020.

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About the Japan Consortium for Arctic Environment Research (JCAR):

Established by Arctic environmental researchers in Japan, JCAR is a nationwide network-based organization for promoting Arctic environmental research. It comprises 440 members as of March 2018.

About the International Symposium on Arctic Research (ISAR):

This symposium is directed to detecting and clarifying the recent changes in the region, including impact on the ecosystems and human lives to know the underlying essential processes and examine their global influence.
An international collaboration of neuroscientists have today published a paper in Nature demonstrating the breadth of neural communication in visual cortex using a combination of methods for tracing the projections of individual neurons across the brain.

In classical models of the visual system, information flows from 'primary' visual cortex (V1) to more specialized, downstream areas that focus for example on image movement or image form. However, the details of how individual cells carry this information are not understood.

Professor Tom Mrsic-Flogel, one of the senior authors of the paper and project leader at Biozentrum, University of Basel and Director of the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre commented:

"Understanding the fine-scale anatomy by which individual neurons distribute signals to their targets is a crucial step for forging the relationship between neuronal structure and function."

Up until now, it had remained unclear as to whether information transfer from primary visual cortex was largely "one neuron - one target area", or if individual neurons distributed their signals across multiple downstream areas.

While the research, conducted by neuroscientists from the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour, in conjunction with Cold Spring Harbor and Biozentrum, confirmed the existence of dedicated projections to certain cortical areas; the scientists found that these were the exception and that the majority of primary visual cortex neurons broadcast information to multiple targets.

Justus M. Kebschull, one of the first authors on the paper at Cold Spring Harbor commented:

"Our findings reveal that individual neurons in the visual cortex project to several targets in the neocortex. This means that their signals are distributed widely and that individual neurons contribute to multiple parallel computations across the neocortex."

In the Nature paper, the team outline the two complementary methods they used to map the projection patterns. Firstly, they used whole-brain fluorescence-based axonal tracing by labelling neurons in the right visual cortex of each mouse with GFP and then imaging axonal projections by whole-brain serial two-photon tomography.

The Allen Mouse Brain Reference Atlas was then used to identify the areas in which axonal terminations were observed. The mouse primary visual cortex (V1) neurons were found to have a high degree of projectional diversity and most of the individual layer 2/3 neurons were found to distribute information to multiple areas rather than projecting to a single target. Such neurons were termed 'broadcasting neurons'.

Secondly, the researchers used high-throughput DNA sequencing of genetically barcoded neurons (MAPseq) to determine whether the broadcasting neurons were targeting cortical areas at random, or whether they preferentially target, or avoid, specific subsets of areas thereby indicating a higher-order structure.

Thousands of individual V1 neurons were uniquely labelled with random RNA sequences, in essence barcodes. Each labelled neuron then transports the barcode into its own axonal processes where they can be read out by high throughout sequencing of a dissected target area to determine the projection targets of that specific neuron to higher visual areas.

Professor Anthony Zador, another senior author and project leader at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, explains the revolutionary technique:

"The RNA sequences, or 'barcodes', that we deliver to individual neurons are unmistakably unique and this enables us to determine if individual neurons, as opposed to entire regions, are tailored to specific targets."

This technique revealed that the majority of V1 neurons project to higher visual areas in a non-random manner. Six projection motifs were identified that reflect several sub-classes of projection neurons for divergent information transfer from V1 to higher visual areas.

The researchers state that the results of the study "suggest a functional specialization of subpopulations of projection cells beyond 'one neuron - one target area' mapping.

"The next piece of the puzzle will be to understand what each of these projection motifs does for visual processing and perception and how these long-range connectivity patterns are established during development," Professor Mrsic-Flogel concluded.

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This research was supported by U.S. National Institutes of Health; Brain Research Foundation; IARPA; Simons Foundation; Paul Allen Distinguished Investigator Award; Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds; Genentech Foundation; European Research Council, and Swiss National Science Foundation.

Source:

Read the full paper in Nature: 'The logic of single-cell projections from visual cortex' By Yunyun Han, et al.

About Sainsbury Wellcome Centre

Sainsbury Wellcome Centre brings together world-leading neuroscientists to generate theories about how neural circuits in the brain give rise to the fundamental processes underpinning behaviour, including perception, memory, expectation, decisions, cognition, volition and action. Funded by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation and Wellcome, Sainsbury Wellcome Centre is located within UCL's School of Life and Medical Sciences and is closely associated with the Faculties of Life Sciences and Brain Sciences. http://www.ucl.ac.uk/swc
A scientist at the University of Arizona College of Medicine - Phoenix has received a $1.65 million grant to find out how a traumatic brain injury changes communication in the brain.

The project marks the first time an electrochemical assessment will be used to evaluate traumatic brain injury in real time.

Theresa Currier Thomas, PhD, a researcher in the UA Department of Child Health, will test initial and delayed changes in brain communication as a consequence of a brain injury by using microelectrodes that record neural signals. Dr. Thomas also is an assistant professor at Barrow Neurological Institute at Phoenix Children's Hospital and a research investigator at the Phoenix VA Health Care System.

"After a brain injury, the communication among neurotransmitters can change, causing abnormalities or differences in the processes," Dr. Thomas said. "Electrochemistry is a laboratory approach to measure how neurotransmissions change in real time."

She said the change in circuitry within the brain after a TBI causes problems with cognition, sensory processing and/or mental health.

"Traumatic brain injury can be devastating because of the real risk it brings for permanent effects that can alter the course of a person's life," said UA President Robert C. Robbins. "The groundbreaking work that Dr. Thomas is doing to understand what's happening in the brain after a serious injury is crucial to developing more effective treatments. I look forward to following her progress and learning what she's able to discover."

As part of the grant, Dr. Thomas will study the long-term effects of rehabilitation after a brain injury as well as the differences in how men's and women's brains recuperate after a TBI. Because TBI is reported more often in men than women, the majority of previous research has focused on males.

"We have overlooked how often traumatic brain injuries, including concussions, occur in both men and women," she said.

Each year, more than 2.5 million Americans survive a TBI. Of those survivors, 20 to 50 percent develop delayed or persistent traumatic brain injury-associated symptoms or aggravate pre-existing symptoms. These can include problems with cognition, sensory processing, communication and behavior and mental health due to injury-related pathological processes that impair the activation and function of brain circuits. The multiplicity of symptoms impedes or can complicate return to routines, daily activities, personal relationships and employment.

"Treatment strategies for post-traumatic morbidity are limited and usually are treated based on the symptoms that manifest," Dr. Thomas said. "Alternative treatment approaches include rehabilitation therapy. Yet, since the underlying mechanisms that result in the delayed and persisting post-traumatic morbidity are not fully understood, it is difficult to have a standard treatment paradigm in place."

Because late-onset symptoms are unpredictable in TBI and can have detrimental influence on relationships, employment and quality of life, Dr. Thomas said she hopes that - through her research - diagnoses, treatment and patient education can be improved.

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The five-year grant, No. R01NS100793, is from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

About the UA College of Medicine - Phoenix

The University of Arizona College of Medicine - Phoenix admitted its inaugural class of first-year medical students in August 2007. The College inspires and trains exemplary physicians, scientists and leaders to optimize health and health care in Arizona and beyond. The College is uniquely positioned to accelerate the biomedical and economic engines in Phoenix and the state by leveraging vital relationships with key clinical and community partners. For more information, please visit phoenixmed.arizona.edu.
A groundbreaking project for Parkinson's patients from the European Institute of Innovation and Technology Health (EIT Health) titled 'MoveIT' has now been launched under the lead of the Molecular-Neurological Department at Universitatsklinikum Erlangen in collaboration with researchers from Friedrich-Alexander-Universitat Erlangen-Nurnberg and other European partners. Using telemedicine based on sensors placed in patients' shoes and attached to their upper body, researchers aim to analyse specific characteristics in the patient's gait and when they fall. 'In future, patients or carers will be able to be warned in time if a certain gait pattern indicates that a fall is likely', says lead researcher Prof. Dr. Jochen Klucken from the Molecular-Neurological Department at Universitatsklinikum Erlangen. The data gathered as part of the telemedical home monitoring solution is also to be made available for use in further research projects for the interdisciplinary care of Parkinson's patients based on medical engineering approaches. The project is planned to run for one year and has received funding of 500,000 euros from EIT Health.

'MoveIT' is just one of a number of research projects conducted by the consortium led by Prof. Klucken from the Molecular-Neurological Department at Universitatsklinikum Erlangen and Prof. Dr. Bjorn Eskofier from the Chair for Machine Learning and Data Analysis (Heisenberg professor) at FAU Erlangen-Nurnberg aimed at designing new digital care concepts for Parkinson's. These include another two EIT projects and a project funded by the Medical Valley Award (FallRiskPD) for assessing the risk of falls. The new EIT health project is to be run in close collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits (IIS) Erlangen, headed by Christian Weigand, in order to create the required IT infrastructure for improved communication between doctors, therapists, patients and technology and provide the best possible patient care. Other regional and European partners involved in the project are the University of Luxembourg, Radboudumc university medical center in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, Philips Research ITTM S.A. and Portabiles HealthCare Technologies GmbH (HCT). 'By working with various partners we are able to incorporate experience from other EU countries and the private sector into the digital medicine we are developing as part of our project', explains Prof. Klucken.

With more than 140 partners from 17 European countries, EIT Health is one of the largest health initiatives in the world. FAU Erlangen-Nurnberg is a core partner in the EIT Health consortium. The Fraunhofer IIS is also involved as an associate member. The aim of EIT Health is to promote research, entrepreneurial thinking and innovation in the areas of healthy living and active ageing, thereby improving the quality of life, medical care and the health sector throughout Europe. The EIT Health initiative aims to develop innovative products, education services and other services to contribute to solving demographic challenges and optimising healthcare in Europe. With a total project volume of more than 2 billion euros, up to 700 million of which comes from funding, ETI Health is one of the largest publicly funded health initiatives in the world. The project is set to receive 80 million euros of annual funding over the next seven to fifteen years.

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In the latest experiment of its kind, researchers have captured the most compelling evidence to date that unusual particles lurk inside a special kind of superconductor. The result, which confirms theoretical predictions first made nearly a decade ago at the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI) and the University of Maryland (UMD), will be published in the April 5 issue of Nature.

The stowaways, dubbed Majorana quasiparticles, are different from ordinary matter like electrons or quarks--the stuff that makes up the elements of the periodic table. Unlike those particles, which as far as physicists know can't be broken down into more basic pieces, Majorana quasiparticles arise from coordinated patterns of many atoms and electrons and only appear under special conditions. They are endowed with unique features that may allow them to form the backbone of one type of quantum computer, and researchers have been chasing after them for years.

The latest result is the most tantalizing yet for Majorana hunters, confirming many theoretical predictions and laying the groundwork for more refined experiments in the future. In the new work, researchers measured the electrical current passing through an ultra-thin semiconductor connected to a strip of superconducting aluminum--a recipe that transforms the whole combination into a special kind of superconductor.

Experiments of this type expose the nanowire to a strong magnet, which unlocks an extra way for electrons in the wire to organize themselves at low temperatures. With this additional arrangement the wire is predicted to host a Majorana quasiparticle, and experimenters can look for its presence by carefully measuring the wire's electrical response.

The new experiment was conducted by researchers from QuTech at the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands and Microsoft Research, with samples of the hybrid material prepared at the University of California, Santa Barbara and Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands. Experimenters compared their results to theoretical calculations by JQI Fellow Sankar Das Sarma and JQI graduate student Chun-Xiao Liu.

The same group at Delft saw hints of a Majorana in 2012, but the measured electrical effect wasn't as big as theory had predicted. Now the full effect has been observed, and it persists even when experimenters jiggle the strength of magnetic or electric fields--a robustness that provides even stronger evidence that the experiment has captured a Majorana, as predicted in careful theoretical simulations by Liu.

"We have come a long way from the theoretical recipe in 2010 for how to create Majorana particles in semiconductor-superconductor hybrid systems," says Das Sarma, a coauthor of the paper who is also the director of the Condensed Matter Theory Center at UMD. "But there is still some way to go before we can declare total victory in our search for these strange particles."

The success comes after years of refinements in the way that researchers assemble the nanowires, leading to cleaner contact between the semiconductor wire and the aluminum strip. During the same time, theorists have gained insight into the possible experimental signatures of Majoranas--work that was pioneered by Das Sarma and several collaborators at UMD.

Theory meets experiment

The quest to find Majorana quasiparticles in thin quantum wires began in 2001, spurred by Alexei Kitaev, then a physicist then at Microsoft Research. Kitaev, who is now at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, concocted a relatively simple but unrealistic system that could theoretically harbor a Majorana. But this imaginary wire required a specific kind of superconductivity not available off-the-shelf from nature, and others soon began looking for ways to imitate Kitaev's contraption by mixing and matching available materials.

One challenge was figuring out how to get superconductors, which usually go about their business with an even number of electrons--two, four, six, etc.--to also allow an odd number of electrons, a situation that is normally unstable and requires extra energy to maintain. The odd number is necessary because Majorana quasiparticles are unabashed oddballs: They only show up in the coordinated behavior of an odd number of electrons.

In 2010, almost a decade after Kitaev's original paper, Das Sarma, JQI Fellow Jay Deep Sau and JQI postdoctoral researcher Roman Lutchyn , along with a second group of researchers , struck upon a method to create these special superconductors, and it has driven the experimental search ever since. They suggested combining a certain kind of semiconductor with an ordinary superconductor and measuring the current through the whole thing. They predicted that the combination of the two materials, along with a strong magnetic field, would unlock the Majorana arrangement and yield Kitaev's special material.

They also predicted that a Majorana could reveal itself in the way current flows through such a nanowire. If you connect an ordinary semiconductor to a metal wire and a battery, electrons usually have some chance of hopping off the wire onto the semiconductor and some chance of being rebuffed--the details depend on the electrons and the makeup of the material. But if you instead use one of Kitaev's nanowires, something completely different happens. The electron always gets perfectly reflected back into the wire, but it's no longer an electron. It becomes what scientists call a hole--basically a spot in the metal that's missing an electron--and it carries a positive charge back in the opposite direction.

Physics demands that the current across the interface be conserved, which means that two electrons must end up in the superconductor to balance out the positive charge heading in the other direction. The strange thing is that this process, which physicists call perfect Andreev reflection , happens even when electrons in the metal receive no push toward the boundary--that is, even when they aren't hooked up to a battery of sorts. This is related to the fact that a Majorana is its own antiparticle, meaning that it doesn't cost any energy to create a pair of Majoranas in the nanowire. The Majorana arrangement gives the two electrons some extra room to maneuver and allows them to traverse the nanowire as a quantized pair--that is, exactly two at a time.

"It is the existence of Majoranas that gives rise to this quantized differential conductance," says Liu, who ran numerical simulations to predict the results of the experiments on UMD's Deepthought2 supercomputer cluster. "And such a quantization should even be robust to small changes in experimental parameters, as the real experiment shows."

Scientists refer to this style of experiment as tunneling spectroscopy because electrons are taking a quantum route through the nanowire to the other side. It has been the focus of recent efforts to capture Majoranas, but there are other tests that could more directly reveal the exotic properties of the particles--tests that would fully confirm that the Majoranas are really there.

"This experiment is a big step forward in our search for these exotic and elusive Majorana particles, showing the great advance made in the materials improvement over the last five years," Das Sarma says. "I am convinced that these strange particles exist in these nanowires, but only a non-local measurement establishing the underlying physics can make the evidence definitive."

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A University of Oklahoma professor, Cameron Homeyer, is a recipient of a NASA Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Science grant for new, early career investigators. Homeyer's research is the first concept of its kind to take ground-based radar observations of storms and link them to satellite observations of trace gases to better understand the characteristics of storms and how they modify the atmospheric composition.

"NASA's Early Career Investigator Award goes only to the best of the best. We are thrilled and honored that NASA has selected Professor Homeyer to receive this award," said Berrien Moore, vice president of Weather and Climate Programs, dean of the OU College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences and director of the National Weather Center.

"We are applying methods to discriminate between air masses that recently have been modified by storms and those air masses that have not been impacted by storms," said Homeyer, assistant professor and associate director for undergraduate studies, School of Meteorology, OU College of Atmospheric Sciences. "This is the first time anyone has applied these methods in this way to understand this problem."

The impact of storms on atmospheric composition is not well understood and changes in water vapor and ozone from these storms can have important impacts on Earth's climate and human health. Storms move air masses with certain chemical characteristics around, and these air masses can impact the atmosphere's radiation budget, pollution and air quality.

"We don't understand how these storms modify Earth's upper atmosphere, particularly in the stratosphere, the layer of the Earth's atmosphere where the ozone lies and absorbs the ultraviolet radiation; and the troposphere, the layer of the Earth's atmosphere where human activity takes place," said Homeyer.

Homeyer will use a trajectory model and information on winds in the atmosphere, then put particles or little air bubbles in places where the storms occur, move them around with the winds and watch as they move downstream to find locations where air masses from storms coincide with satellite observations. Satellite observations from around the world then can be linked to recent storms and compared to air masses that have not been influenced by storms.

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Funding for the three-year, $284,000 grant supports the NASA Earth Science mission by advancing the use of satellites and providing data that contributes to understanding the climate system. For more information, contact chomeyer@ou.edu.
Researchers at the University of Vienna and the Austrian Academy of Sciences develop a new theoretical framework to describe how causal structures in quantum mechanics transform. They analyse under which conditions quantum mechanics allows the causal structure of the world to become "fuzzy". In this case, a fixed order of events is not possible. The results are published in the renowned journal Physical Review X.

The idea that events occur one after the other in a fixed causal order is part of our intuitive picture of the physical world. Imagine that Alice can send a message to Bob via a wire that connects them. Alice decides to have a barbecue and can invite Bob via the wire connection. If he gets invited, Bob decides to prepare some ?evapci?i to bring along. This is an example where the event in which Alice decides to invite Bob to the barbecue influences the event in which Bob decides to prepare food. Such an order of events characterizes a definite causal structure. However, research in the foundations of quantum mechanics suggests that, at the quantum level, causal structures may be "indefinite". In an indefinite causal structure there might not be a fixed order in which events happen, i.e. whether Alice influences Bob or Bob influences Alice might not be defined.

If causality is indeed indefinite, where do indefinite causal structures come from? Can they be obtained dynamically so that definite causal structures become indefinite? And, if so, under which conditions can this happen? Answers to these questions would be remarkable, because they would shed light on the nature of causality in the quantum world.

In a recent paper, published in the journal Physical Review X, a group of physicists led by ?aslav Brukner at the University of Vienna and the Vienna Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information of the Austrian Academy of Sciences showed that, if the dynamics of causal structures is continuous and reversible, a definite causal structure can never become indefinite. In our example, a bending or stretching of the wire (continuous and reversible transformation) connecting Alice and Bob would not lead to any changes in the causal structure because Alice can still reach Bob. If one wants to change the causal structure, one would have to either disconnect and reconnect the wire (not continuous) or to replace the wire (not reversible). The researchers also studied more complex situations in which more parties are involved. For example, decisions by a third person, Charly, can under certain circumstances determine whether the causal order of future events is definite or indefinite.

"Our results demonstrate that under physically reasonable assumptions of continuity and reversibility a world with definite causal order will never become a world with an indefinite causal order and vice versa", says Esteban Castro, one of the authors of the paper. This insight may lead to a more complete understanding of what the role of causality is in the quantum world.

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Publication in Physical Review X

"Dynamics of quantum causal structures", E. Castro-Ruiz, F. Giacomini, ?. Brukner

Phys. Rev. X 8, 011047 (2018)

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevX.8.011047
It stands to reason that parents who physically or emotionally abuse their children do them lasting damage, in part by undermining their ability to trust others and accurately read their emotions.

But what about the children of parents who experience simple, everyday conflict?

New research published in the current issue of the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships shows that the emotional processing of these children, too, can be affected - potentially making them over-vigilant, anxious and vulnerable to distorting human interactions that are neutral in tone, throwing them off-balance interpersonally as adults.

"The message is clear: even low-level adversity like parental conflict isn't good for kids," said Alice Schermerhorn, an assistant professor in the University of Vermont's Department of Psychological Sciences and the lead author of the study.

In the study, 99 nine-to-eleven-year-olds were divided into two groups based on a series of psychological assessments they took that scored how much parental conflict they experienced and how much they felt the conflict threatened their parents' marriage.

Children were then shown a series of photographs of couples engaged in happy, angry or neutral interactions and asked to choose which category the photos fit.

Children from the low conflict homes consistently scored the photos accurately. Those from high conflict homes who experienced the conflict as a threat were able to accurately identify the happy and angry couples, but not those in neutral poses - incorrectly reading them as either angry or happy or saying they didn't know which category they fit.

Schermerhorn sees two possible interpretations of the results.

The inaccuracy may attributable to hypervigilance.

"If their perception of conflict and threat leads children to be vigilant for signs of trouble, that could lead them to interpret neutral expressions as angry ones or may simply present greater processing challenges," she said.

Alternatively, it could be that neutral parental interactions may be less significant for children who feel threatened by their parents' conflict.

"They may be more tuned into angry interactions, which could be a cue for them to retreat to their room, or happy ones, which could signal that their parents are available to them," she said. "Neutral interactions don't offer much information, so they may not value them or learn to recognize them."

Shyness Compounds Problem

The study is also one of the first to measure the impact of temperamental shyness on the children's ability to process and recognize emotion.

The shy children in the study, who were identified via a questionnaire given to the mothers of the study subjects, were unable to correctly identify couples in neutral poses, even if they were not from high conflict homes.

Shyness also made them more vulnerable to parental conflict. Children who were both shy and felt threated by their parents' conflict had a high level of inaccuracy in identifying neutral interactions.

"Parents of shy children need to be especially thoughtful about how they express conflict," Schermerhorn said.

Implications for adulthood

The research results are significant, Schermerhorn said, for the light they shed on the impact relatively low-level adversity like parental conflict can have on children's development.

Either of her interpretations of the research findings could spell trouble for children down the road.

"One the one hand, being over-vigilant and anxious can be destabilizing in many different ways," she said.

"On the other, correctly reading neutral interactions may not be important for children who live in high conflict homes, but that gap in their perceptual inventory could be damaging in subsequent experiences with, for example, teachers, peers, and partners in romantic relationships."

"No one can eliminate conflict altogether," she said, "but helping children get the message that, even when they argue, parents care about each other and can work things out is important."

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After a great mass extinction shook the world about 252 million years ago, animal life outside of the ocean began to take hold. The earliest mammals entered the scene, and reptiles -- including early dinosaurs -- lived on Pangea, the name given to the giant landmass in which all of the world's continents were joined as one.

A project spanning countries, years and institutions has attempted to reconstruct what the southern end of this world looked like during this period, known as the Triassic (252 to 199 million years ago). Led by paleontologists and geologists at the University of Washington, the team has uncovered new fossils in Zambia and Tanzania, examined previously collected fossils and analyzed specimens in museums around the world in an attempt to understand life in the Triassic across different geographic areas.

Findings from the past decade of fieldwork and analysis are reported in a publication of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, appearing online March 28. In total, 13 research papers detailing new fossils, geologic discoveries and ecological findings in the Triassic make up the society's 2018 special-edition volume, published once a year in a competitive submission process.

"Most of what we know about the major mass extinction is from the South African Karoo Basin. I was always interested in understanding, do we see the exact same pattern around the world, or do we not?" said co-editor Christian Sidor, a UW biology professor and curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture.

"The fossil record can be great to understand timing and sequence, but not always great at looking at things in a geographic context."

Since 2007, Sidor and his team of students, postdoctoral researchers, paleontologists and geologists have visited the Ruhuhu Basin of Tanzania five times and the Luangwa and mid-Zambezi basins of Zambia four times. They lived there for about a month at a time, often hiking for miles to find fossil sites and camping in villages and national parks. Once, they were even awakened by the stomping and calls of elephants only feet from their camp.

Each site in Tanzania and Zambia contains its own collection of fossils from the Triassic and other periods, but the goal of this decade-long project was to look across locations hundreds and thousands of miles apart to find similarities in the fossil records. Two papers describe the regional patterns and similarities across much of what used to be Pangea.

"These papers highlight what a regional perspective we now have -- we have the same fossils from Tanzania, Antarctica, Namibia and more," Sidor said. "We're getting a much better Southern Hemisphere perspective of what's going on in the Triassic."

Most of the papers in the special edition discuss new fossil findings from the paleontological digs. One explains the discovery of a new species of lizard-like reptile called a procolophonid. Another details Teleocrater, an early dinosaur relative that walked on four crocodile-like legs. This finding was reported in Nature last year, but the new paper describes the animal's anatomy in fuller detail.

Most of the remaining papers describe other animals that were present in the Triassic besides the early dinosaurs.

"This was a time when dinosaurs were just stepping onto the stage, and they were not very big and not very remarkable animals then," Sidor said. "These papers really round out what dinosaurs were competing with before they became the dominant reptiles on land."

In addition to the 13 papers that make up the special edition, the team has published 24 peer-reviewed papers as part of this project in the past decade.

More than 2,200 fossils were collected across Tanzania and Zambia over the last decade of fieldwork. Of the special edition's 27 authors, many participated in fieldwork with Sidor since 2007, including co-editor Sterling Nesbitt, a former postdoctoral researcher at the UW and now an assistant professor at Virginia Tech.

Fossil hunting is an experience every member of Sidor's lab can have, from undergraduates through postdoctoral researchers. Sidor and a team are going again this August.

"This has been what my lab has done, and all of my students have been involved in some way," he said. Four of Sidor's students and two postdoctoral researchers are co-authors of papers in the new special edition.

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Other co-authors are from The Field Museum; London's Natural History Museum; University of Birmingham; Virginia Tech; Royal Ontario Museum; California Academy of Sciences; Southern Methodist University; Petrified Forest National Park; Iziko: South African Museum; Museum national d'Histoire naturelle (Paris); University of Chicago; University of the Witwatersrand; National Museum (Bloemfontein); Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales; Rowan University; and North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.

Fieldwork in Tanzania and Zambia was supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Geographic Society, The Grainger Foundation and The Field Museum/IDP Foundation, Inc., African Partners Program. Additional support for analysis and museum research are noted in the individual papers.

For more information, contact Sidor at casidor@uw.edu.

Images available for download: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1IguAX2X2tFS5oC3Rnq7nv4mR6hupPQa7?usp=sharing
LOGAN, UTAH, USA -- Utah State University physics professor David Peak is the 2018 recipient of the national Council on Undergraduate Research-Goldwater Scholars Faculty Mentor Award. Selected from 10 finalists nationwide, Peak has mentored, to date, more than 30 USU undergraduates, who have received a phenomenal 36 Goldwater Scholarships and Honorable Mentions -- a number that rivals Ivy League competitors.

Peak will be formally recognized during the Biennial Conference of the Council on Undergraduate Research July 1-3, 2018, in Arlington, Virginia. As part of the award, USU's undergraduate research program receives a $5,000 gift.

"Utah State University is thrilled David Peak is receiving this well-deserved national honor," says USU President Noelle Cockett. "Professor Peak has tirelessly mentored undergraduate researchers throughout the university and guided them in successfully competing for prestigious national scholarships and recognition. He epitomizes the aims of our land-grant mission in providing world-class learning opportunities for our students."

"The Goldwater Foundation is pleased to partner with CUR to celebrate faculty mentors, who have helped their students achieve one of the most prized awards an undergraduate majoring in science, engineering and mathematics can achieve, a Goldwater scholarship or honorable mention," said John Mateja, president of the Goldwater Foundation, in a release. "David Peak is an exceptional undergraduate research mentor, his educational leadership at the national level is longstanding and he sets a high standard to which all of us should aspire."

CUR Executive Officer Elizabeth L. Ambos calls Peak "an outstanding physicist, teacher-scholar and highly effective mentor."

"David Peak has nurtured the careers of hundreds of students," she says. "His wider contributions to undergraduate research programs at USU, as well as CUR, mark him as a foremost innovator within the undergraduate research movement."

Peak was an early leader of the National Conference on Undergraduate Research, a co-founder of the CUR Physics and Astronomy Division and has helped to foster USU's renowned, campus-wide Undergraduate Research Fellows program, the nation's second oldest.

"David Peak provided me with the background and inspiration to create a plan for a centralized undergraduate research program at USU," says Joyce Kinkead, USU professor and former associate vice president for undergraduate research. "He consistently pushes for efforts that provide students access to meaningful, authentic research experiences and enhance the competitiveness of our students for prestigious awards and scholarships."

Nearly two decades ago, Peak established, what he calls, a "scholarship boot camp" to equip outstanding undergraduates with the skills to pursue national scholarship opportunities. Since 2001, his boot campers, in addition to the Goldwater awards, have received a Rhodes Scholarship, a Rhodes Finalist citation, a Fulbright Student Scholarship, a Marshall Scholarship and a number of National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow recognitions.

With wife Terry Peak, professor of social work at USU, Peak established an endowment in 2008 to fund annual outstanding undergraduate research awards called "Peak Prizes in Undergraduate Research" to students from each of the university's seven colleges and from a regional campus.

In 2009, Peak was one of 40 professors across the nation named a Carnegie Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.

"I cannot think of a more deserving 2018 CUR-Goldwater Scholars Faculty Mentor Awardee than Physics Professor David Peak," says USU Science Dean Maura Hagan. "His devotion to our students is legendary, both as a teacher and a research mentor. I am particularly grateful to Professor Peak for his tireless advocacy for undergraduate research opportunities that enhance our students' educational experiences."

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A new study indicates that patients with alcohol-related liver cancer often do not live as long as patients with liver cancer that is not associated with alcohol consumption, mainly due to diagnoses at later stages. Published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the findings indicate that efforts should be made to improve both screening for early signs of liver cancer and the management of alcohol abuse.

Liver cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide, with hepatitis B and C infections being the main causes. Alcohol abuse and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease are other dominant risk factors. Due to improvements in the treatment of hepatitis infections and increased alcohol consumption in some regions, it is likely that alcohol will become a leading cause of liver cancer in the near future. Indeed, alcohol is already the first cause of liver cancer in France and involved in 25 percent to 30 percent of diagnoses in the United States. The real US figure is likely higher as alcohol consumption is often underreported when another risk factor is present.

To compare aspects of alcohol-related and non-alcohol-related liver cancer, Charlotte Costentin, MD, of Hopital Henri-Mondor in France, and her colleagues examined 894 patients with newly diagnosed liver cancer who were followed for 5 years; 582 patients (65 percent) had a history of chronic alcohol abuse and 312 (35 percent) did not. Investigators also recorded whether patients with alcohol-related liver cancer were abstinent or not at the time of cancer diagnosis.

A total of 601 patients had died by the time of the investigators' final analyses. Alcohol-related liver cancers were more likely to be diffuse and were detected in patients with worse liver function. Median overall survival was 9.7 versus 5.7 months in the non-alcohol-related and alcohol-related groups respectively. When investigators looked at each stage of cancer individually, however, survival was similar in patients with non-alcohol-related and alcohol-related cancer. The findings suggest that patients with alcohol-related liver cancer have a reduced overall survival mainly due to worse liver function and tumor characteristics at diagnosis.

The analysis also examined whether patients were participating in cirrhosis follow-up programs before their cancers were diagnosed. (Most people who develop liver cancer show signs of scarring, or cirrhosis, in the liver, and international guidelines recommend ultrasound every six months to detect early liver cancer in patients with cirrhosis.) Patients whose liver cancer was detected during a cirrhosis follow-up program had improved survival compared with patients whose cancer was diagnosed incidentally. This was especially pronounced in patients with non-alcohol-related liver disease or those with alcohol-related liver disease who are no longer drinking alcohol compared with non-abstinent patients. Also, non-abstinent alcoholic patients had the lowest survival in the study, even when restricting the analysis to patients involved in cirrhosis follow-up programs.

"To improve prognosis of liver cancer in the alcoholic population, efforts should be made to implement effective screening programs for both cirrhosis and liver cancer, and to improve access to alcoholism treatment services," said Dr. Costentin. "A smaller tumor burden and a better liver function at diagnosis should translate into higher rates of patients with alcohol-related liver cancer amenable to curative treatment such as tumor resection or ablation and liver transplantation."

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Additional Information

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Full Citation: "Hepatocellular carcinoma is diagnosed at a later stage in alcoholic patients: results of a prospective nationwide study." Charlotte E. Costentin, Abbas Mourad, Pierre Lahmek, Xavier Causse, Alexandre Pariente, Herve Hagege, Anca Stela Dobrin, Claire Becker, Berangere Marks, Robert Bader, Bertrand Condat, Frederic Heluwaert, Jean Francois Seitz, Bruno Lesgourgues, Jacques Denis, Sylvie Deuffic-Burban, Isabelle Rosa, and Thomas Decaens on behalf of CHANGH study group. CANCER; Published Online: March 28, 2018 (DOI: 10.1002/31215).

URL Upon Publication: http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/31215

Author Contact: Press office of the Assistance Publique Hopitaux de Paris, at service.presse@aphp.fr or 01 40 27 37 22.

About the Journal

CANCER is a peer-reviewed publication of the American Cancer Society integrating scientific information from worldwide sources for all oncologic specialties. The objective of CANCER is to provide an interdisciplinary forum for the exchange of information among oncologic disciplines concerned with the etiology, course, and treatment of human cancer. CANCER is published on behalf of the American Cancer Society by Wiley and can be accessed online at http://wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/cancer. Follow us on Twitter @JournalCancer.

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Maunakea, Hawaii - Galaxies and dark matter go hand in hand; you typically don't find one without the other. So when researchers uncovered a galaxy, known as NGC1052-DF2, that is almost completely devoid of the stuff, they were shocked.

"Finding a galaxy without dark matter is unexpected because this invisible, mysterious substance is the most dominant aspect of any galaxy," said lead author Pieter van Dokkum of Yale University. "For decades, we thought that galaxies start their lives as blobs of dark matter. After that everything else happens: gas falls into the dark matter halos, the gas turns into stars, they slowly build up, then you end up with galaxies like the Milky Way. NGC1052-DF2 challenges the standard ideas of how we think galaxies form."

The research, published in the March 29th issue of the journal Nature, amassed data from Gemini North and W. M. Keck Observatory, both on Maunakea, Hawaii, the Hubble Space Telescope, and other telescopes around the world.

Given its large size and faint appearance, astronomers classify NGC1052-DF2 as an ultra-diffuse galaxy, a relatively new type of galaxy that was first discovered in 2015. These barely visible galaxies are surprisingly common. However, no other galaxy of this type yet-discovered is so lacking in dark matter.

"NGC 1052-DF2 is an oddity, even among this unusual class of galaxy," said Shany Danieli, a Yale University graduate student on the team.

Van Dokkum and his team first spotted NGC1052-DF2 with the Dragonfly Telephoto Array, a custom-built telescope in New Mexico that they designed to find these ghostly galaxies. NGC1052-DF2 stood out in stark contrast when comparisons were made between images from the Dragonfly Telephoto Array and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The Dragonfly images show a faint "blob-like" object, while SDSS data reveal a collection of relatively bright point-like sources.

To get a closer look at this inconsistency, the team dissected the light from several of the bright sources within NGC1052-DF2 using Keck Observatory's Deep Imaging Multi-Object Spectrograph (DEIMOS) and Low-Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (LRIS), identifying 10 globular clusters. These clusters are large compact groups of stars that orbit the galactic core.

The spectral data obtained on the Keck telescopes revealed that the globular clusters were moving much slower than expected. The slower the objects in a system move, the less mass there is in that system. The team's calculations show that all of the mass in the galaxy could be attributed to the mass of the stars, which means there is almost no dark matter in NGC1052-DF2.

"If there is any dark matter at all, it's very little," van Dokkum explained. "The stars in the galaxy can account for all of the mass, and there doesn't seem to be any room for dark matter."

"Keck is in a very small group of telescopes that could even attempt these observations, because you need a large telescope to measure these accurate velocities," van Dokkum added. "Keck also has some of the best spectrographs in the world for measuring the velocities of faint objects. We had the opportunity to check and make sure we got the same result within the uncertainties, and that gave us confidence that we were doing things right."

To peer even deeper into this unique galaxy, the team used the Gemini-North Multi Object Spectrograph (GMOS) to capture detailed images of NGC1052-DF2, assess its structure, and confirm that the galaxy had no signs of interactions with other galaxies.

"Without the Gemini images dissecting the galaxy's morphology we would have lacked context for the rest of the data," said Danieli. "Also, Gemini's confirmation that NGC1052-DF2 is not currently interacting with another galaxy will help us answer questions about the conditions surrounding its birth."

The team's results demonstrate that dark matter is separable from galaxies.

"This discovery shows that dark matter is real - it has its own separate existence apart from other components of galaxies," said van Dokkum.

NGC1052-DF2's globular clusters and atypical structure has perplexed astronomers aiming to determine the conditions this galaxy formed under.

"It's like you take a galaxy and you only have the stellar halo and globular clusters, and it somehow forgot to make everything else," van Dokkum said. "There is no theory that predicted these types of galaxies. The galaxy is a complete mystery, as everything about it is strange. How you actually go about forming one of these things is completely unknown."

However, researchers do have some ideas. NGC1052-DF2 resides about 65 million light years away in a collection of galaxies that is dominated by the giant elliptical galaxy NGC 1052. Galaxy formation is turbulent and violent, and van Dokkum suggests that the growth of the fledgling massive galaxy billions of years ago perhaps played a role in NGC1052-DF2's dark-matter deficiency.

Another idea is that a cataclysmic event within the oddball galaxy, such as the birth of myriad massive stars, swept out all the gas and dark matter, halting star formation.

These possibilities are speculative, however, and don't explain all of the characteristics of the observed galaxy, the researchers said.

The team continues the hunt for more dark-matter-deficient galaxies. They are analyzing Hubble images of 23 other diffuse galaxies. Three of them appear to share similarities with NGC1052-DF2, which van Dokkum plans to follow up on in the coming months at Keck Observatory.

"Every galaxy we knew about before has dark matter and they all fall in familiar categories like spiral or elliptical galaxies," van Dokkum said. "But what would you get if there were no dark matter at all? Maybe this is what you would get."

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ABOUT DEIMOS

The DEep Imaging and Multi-Object Spectrograph (DEIMOS) boasts the largest field of view (16.7arcmin by 5 arcmin) of any of the Keck Observatory instruments, and the largest number of pixels (64 Mpix). It is used primarily in its multi-object mode, obtaining simultaneous spectra of up to 130 galaxies or stars. Astronomers study fields of distant galaxies with DEIMOS, efficiently probing the most distant corners of the universe with high sensitivity. Support for DEIMOS was generously provided by the National Science Foundation.

ABOUT LRIS

The Low Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (LRIS) is a faint-light instrument capable of taking spectra and images of the most distant known objects in the universe. The instrument is equipped with a red arm and a blue arm to explore stellar populations of distant galaxies, active galactic nuclei, galactic clusters, and quasars. LRIS was used in observing distant supernovae by astronomers who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2011 for research determining that the universe was speeding up in its expansion. Support for LRIS was generously provided by Friends of Keck, including Change Happens Foundation and Mt. Cuba Astronomical Foundation.

ABOUT W. M. KECK OBSERVATORY

The W. M. Keck Observatory telescopes are among the most scientifically productive on Earth. The two, 10-meter optical/infrared telescopes on the summit of Maunakea on the Island of Hawaii feature a suite of advanced instruments including imagers, multi-object spectrographs, high-resolution spectrographs, integral-field spectrometers, and world-leading laser guide star adaptive optics systems.

Some of the data presented herein were obtained at Keck Observatory, which is a private 501(c) 3 non-profit organization operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation.

The authors wish to recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that the summit of Maunakea has always had within the indigenous Hawaiian community. We are most fortunate to have the opportunity to conduct observations from this mountain.
DETROIT -- The Barth Syndrome Foundation recently announced awardees from its 2017 grant cycle. Miriam Greenberg, Ph.D., professor of biological sciences in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Wayne State University and a resident of Ann Arbor, Michigan, received a one-year, $50,000 grant for the project, "Cardiolipin activates pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) - a potential new target for treatment of Barth syndrome."

Barth syndrome (BTHS) is a rare and life-threatening, X-linked genetic disorder that primarily affects males and is passed from mother to son; women who are carriers do not show symptoms of the disorder. Fifty percent of children born to a mother who is a carrier will inherit the defective gene, and all daughters born to an affected man will be carriers. BTHS is caused by a mutation in the tafazzin gene that results in decreased production of cardiolipin, an essential lipid for energy metabolism.

BTHS causes cardiomyopathy, a disorder of the heart muscle; neutropenia, a reduction in the number of white blood cells; hypotonia, reduced muscle tone; undeveloped skeletal muscles and muscle weakness; delayed growth; decreased stamina; physical disability; and methylglutaconic aciduria, an increase in an organic acid that is characteristic of abnormal mitochondrial function.

Greenberg and her team will test the hypothesis that cardiolipin (CL) deficiency results in a deviation of the metabolic pathway for energy production, specifically due to decreased activity of the enzyme pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH).

"We aim to reveal a new direction for BTHS treatment based on activation of PDH and/or supplementation of deficient metabolites," said Greenberg. "The outcome of our study may reveal a new direction for Barth syndrome treatment based on activation of PDH and/or supplementation of deficient metabolites."

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Wayne State University is one of the nation's pre-eminent public research institutions in an urban setting. Through its multidisciplinary approach to research and education, and its ongoing collaboration with government, industry and other institutions, the university seeks to enhance economic growth and improve the quality of life in the city of Detroit, the state of Michigan and throughout the world. For more information about research at Wayne State University, visit http://www.research.wayne.edu.
this news is not available
NATO joined 25 governments around the world Tuesday in expelling Russian diplomats in response to a nerve agent attack in Britain, marking what London called a "turning point" in the West's relations with Moscow.

The US-led military alliance expelled seven Russian staff and denied accreditation to three more, bringing the total number of suspected Russian spies expelled to almost 150, including the 23 initially dispatched by Britain.

This will send a clear message to Russia that there are costs and consequences for their unacceptable pattern of behaviour, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said in Brussels.

In an unprecedented act of coordination, at least 25 countries have echoed Britains action in response to the March 4 attack on former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury.

London and its allies have blamed Moscow, citing the use of a Soviet-designed nerve agent Novichok, Russias record of targeting dissidents and its history of aggression in recent years, from Crimea to cyber-attacks.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said the mass expulsions were a blow from which Russian intelligence will need many years to recover.

It could become a turning point, he wrote in The Times newspaper, adding: The Western alliance took decisive action and Britains partners came together against the Kremlins reckless ambitions.

Skripal, a Russian military intelligence officer imprisoned by Moscow for passing on information about Russian agents in various European countries, came to Britain in a 2010 spy swap.

Moscow has fiercely denied any involvement in his attempted murder, instead pointing the finger at London.

It responded to Britains expulsions with its own, and the closure of the British Council cultural organisation  and on Tuesday promised it would hit back against the coordinated moves.

Well respond, have no doubt! No one wants to put up with such loutish behaviour and we wont, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on the sidelines of a conference in Uzbekistan.

Lavrov said the coordinated response was the result of colossal pressure, colossal blackmail from the United States.

 Full Cold War 

Washington led the way in responding, ordering out 60 Russians in a new blow to US-Russia ties less than a week after President Donald Trump congratulated his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on his re-election.

Trump on Tuesday discussed the spy attack with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, the White House said, and expressed support for the Wests strong response.

Australia, Canada, Ukraine and 18 European Union states followed with smaller-scale expulsions, most recently coming from Belgium which on Tuesday evening announced the dismissal of one Russian diplomat.

Relations between Russia and the West are entering a period of full Cold War, foreign policy analyst Fyodor Lukyanov wrote in the Vedomosti daily.

The Izvestia daily dismissed the expulsions as a russophobic flashmob.

But Western officials made it clear in announcing the expulsions that they share Britains assessment that only the Kremlin could have been responsible.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said Washington and its allies were acting in response to Russias use of a military-grade chemical weapon on the soil of the United Kingdom.

The Skripals remain in a critical state in hospital, and Prime Minister Theresa May said on Monday that they may never fully recover.

 No one is fooled anymore 

Britain has emphasised that the attack took place in the context of reckless behaviour by Russian President Vladimir Putin, including the annexation of Crimea.

Mays spokesman said Tuesday that the unprecedented actions by allies were in part because they recognise the threat that these Russian networks posed to the security of their own countries.

British officials say Russia has sought to divert attention by putting out more than a dozen explanations for the attack, the first using a nerve agent in Europe since World War II.

There was a time when this tactic of sowing doubt might have been effective, but no one is fooled any more, Johnson wrote, adding that the expulsions were a moment when the cynicism of the propaganda machine was exposed for all to see.

Washingtons expulsions represented the largest ever of Russian or Soviet agents and came after US President Donald Trumps predecessor Barack Obama expelled 35 in late 2016 over alleged election meddling.

The Russian embassy in Washington responded by asking its Twitter followers to vote on which US consulate should be closed, listing those in Vladivostok, St Petersburg and Yekaterinburg as options.

burs-ar-rsc/je
Many pupils find physics hard because they misunderstand the fundamental concepts. A new teaching method developed by Zurich researchers could change this. Intelligent girls in particular can benefit.

Our research shows that when good students dont understand physics, its mostly due to the teaching methods, said Elsbeth Stern, Professor of Empirical Learning and Instruction Research at the Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich) in a statement released on Monday.

A study conducted by her institute and published in the most recent Journal of Educational Psychology has shown, however, that even small changes to lessons can have a big effect.

The new method makes pupils grapple with their prior knowledge, which is especially important for physics, said Stern. In almost no other subject do intuition and reality lie so far apart as in physics. Our everyday experiences do not help, she said.

Learning formulas by heart is not enough  understanding the concepts behind them is key, she said. Many pupils, even the best ones, have to make a huge mental effort to understand, for example, force, mass and acceleration.

The teaching unit developed at the ETH Zurichs STEM learning centre lets pupils fail in a targeted way, through giving them a task they cannot solve with their existing knowledge. Afterwards the teacher explains the underlying concept  or lets students work out the principles themselves using different examples, before giving them the formula.

The method was tested at academic secondary school level  gymnasium, the school which leads to university entrance  on 172 pupils in German-speaking Switzerland, on 18 lessons on Newtonian mechanics. Half of the eight classes were taught as usual and half using the new method. The pupils were tested before the lessons, after, and then three months later.

Gender gap



The results: pupils under the new method not only improved their conceptual understanding; they also became better at calculations. Stern and her group found the biggest difference in performance was in intelligent girls  with the new method, they significantly caught up the boys. The gender gap did not disappear entirely, but it became much smaller.

The physics gender gap is a well-known phenomenon: male students still outperform female students in physics in secondary school, and few women go on to study it and other science subjects at university  as noted by the OECD. There have been several initiatives in Switzerland to encourage women to study STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), particularly as there is a skills shortage in these areas.

The proportion of physics underachievers (low performance despite high intelligence) is much higher among female than male pupils, as previous research by Stern and her team has shown. They have pointed to evidence that conventional teaching methods for physics may prevent even more female than male students from developing their potential and that a focus on deeper conceptual understanding would be beneficial for girls.

There is also some evidence to suggest that expectations of girls are different. A previous ETH Zurich study, conducted in Switzerland, Germany and Austria, found that secondary physics teachers with little teaching experience tended to hand out poorer grades to girls than boys for the same performance.

Lessons learned



In terms of the present study, Stern hailed the results as positive, but said the teaching units effects could be increased even further. Her next step is to fine-tune the method with the teachers involved. She also hopes the research will lead to a rethink in physics lessons.

We will now turn even more confidently to those physics teachers who still primarily teach the subject using calculation exercises. That approach does not work.













swissinfo.ch/ilj






How do you make Switzerland even more democratic? By involving randomly chosen citizens in the deliberation process ahead of popular votes. A research project first carried out in the US state of Oregon will test that practice, in part to address populist proposals.

The project, called A non-populist theory of direct democracy, is financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and led by political scientist Nenad Stojanovic.

With his group of researchers, Stojanovic  a champion of direct democracy who says he doesnt want to be restricted to a theoretical project  says he aims to test an innovation connected to direct democracy which has non-populist potential.

This text is part of#DearDemocracy, a platform on direct democracy issues, by swissinfo.ch.

It involves the so-called Oregon model, which has been applied in the northwestern US state since 2010.

Under the model, organisers of the Citizens Initiative Review (CIR) select a panel, made up of a random sample of 18-24 citizens who are demographically representative of the population. The panellists meet for five days to learn about and discuss a ballot initiative.

This model fits particularly well to the Swiss system of direct democracy, which is similar to that in Oregon.

At the end of the CIR, the panellists write a Citizens Statement that sets out the facts about the initiative that they agree on, the number of panellists supporting and opposing the initiative, and the panellists reasons for supporting or opposing the initiative.The statement is then made available to the public and the media.

In some jurisdictions, such as Oregon, the Citizens Statement is included in the official voters guide, a booklet published by the government that gives citizens information about candidates and measures to be voted on in an election.

Studies in Oregon have revealed that more and more people have greater confidence in the information produced by these groups of citizens than in [information] from the authorities, says Alice el-Wakil, a doctoral student of political theory at the University of Zurich and the Aarau Centre for Democracy Studies.

El-Wakil has followed the evolution of the CIR in Oregon and urges Switzerland to draw inspiration from it to improve the quality of its own system.

Not perfect

Although she believes Swiss direct democracy offers good participatory instruments, el-Wakil sees room for improvement.

In Switzerland, inclusion  one of the fundamental principles of democracy  is only partial. The abstention rate in votes is high, she says.

Another sore point is information. Its often difficult for citizens to form an opinion on complex issues on which they have to vote, she adds. Then theres the problem of disinformation, of fake news circulating  also during referendum campaigns.

Given these points, el-Wakil thinks it would be interesting for Switzerland to explore democratic innovations like the CIR.

Thanks to the drawing of lots, the principle of equality mostly prevails and people get involved who normally dont, she says.

At the same time, these spaces for discussion enable new information to reach a wider public as well as the authorities.

El-Wakil underlines that this project has the double advantage of testing a decision-making forum and of improving the democratic procedures which already exist in Switzerland.

Geneva pioneer

The Swiss experiment with the CIR is set to begin next year, in two municipalities for two votes.

Its still early stages, but Stojanovic says he has seen encouraging signs from canton Geneva, where he is currently looking for the first pioneering municipality. The four-year chair of the project, funded by the SNSF, is at the University of Geneva.

As in Oregon, the 20 or so citizens who will make up the working group will be drawn by lot from the electoral list. Always following the Oregon model, the group will also include experts and a media spokesperson. The work will last five days and at the end, the group will release its own statement explaining its position.

Unlike in Oregon, the recommendation formulated by the Geneva CIR will not be included in the official guide sent to all voters.

In order to be able to do that, it would be necessary to change the law on exercising political rights, which is very precise on documentation, Stojanovic explains. The CIR booklet will therefore be distributed separately.

Populist proposals

After the vote, we will carry out a representative survey in the municipality to measure the impact, he says. The interest in this process is not simply in having the discussion group drawn by lots, but also in seeing the effect. Its important that the fruit of the debate doesnt come to nothing.

Theres hope for the model based on the experience in Oregon, where the CIR recommendations enjoy increasing consideration among voters. This is perhaps due not only to the fact that the position of the CIR group is the result of well-informed reflection, but also because the group of citizens selected by lot is considerably more representative than the general public when it comes to institutions, parties and organisations representing business interests.

Stojanovic hopes this model will arouse interest across his country and give a boost to Swiss direct democracy.

If one day this model were to be introduced in Switzerland at all levels, it would enable around a thousand citizens a year to be selected, to focus on a public issue for a week, to learn how institutions work, and to understand the complexity of the material, he says.

Whats more, it would make the job of voting easier for all citizens and it would motivate them to do so.

Studies conducted on this model have shown that among the groups of citizens that take part in the CIR, over the course of the information and deliberation process populist proposals lose considerable ground. At the end of the five days, they are rejected by the majority, Stojanovic says.

He wants to be able to demonstrate in Switzerland that this system reinforces popular sovereignty while at the same time closing the door to populism.

Tonight, Stojanovic and el-Wakil will start the work of convincing people of the project, when they present it at a public conference at the University of Lucerne.



Translated from Italian by Thomas Stephens




The Swiss Federal Council plans to renew its pledge of contributing CHF1.3 billion ($1.4 billion) to the EUs cohesion fund. It opened the consultation process on the matter on Wednesday.

The funds are aimed at improving living standards and combating inequality in the EU. It particularly supports projects in Central and Eastern European member countries.

When the EU limited Swiss stock exchange market access last December, the government announced that further payments would only be made on condition of the EU granting unlimited stock market equivalence to Switzerland.

+EU-Swiss ties: Happy with progress but obstacles remain

By opening the consultation process, this condition has now been removed and can be interpreted as a conciliatory sign to Brussels, reported Swiss public television, SRF, on Wednesday.

It signalled a willingness to strengthen bilateral relations with the EU and a normalisation of the relationship between the two parties, according to SRF.

The cohesion fund money would be paid over the next ten years and will still have to be approved by both chambers of parliament before it will be put to the vote.

The Swiss public accepted the first cohesion fund packet in 2006.













SRF-RTS/ln






A senior Swiss government official has dismissed fears that a new method of funding for crypto start-ups has mushroomed out of control. Last year, such firms raked in an estimated CHF850 million ($890 million) in Switzerland using a novel form of capital raising known as initial coin offering (ICO).

Jorg Gasser, head of the State Secretariat for International Finance (SIF), denies the ICO industry has descended into a free-for-all and is convinced that ongoing regulatory tweaks can protect the reputation of the Swiss financial industry.

Gasser chairs the Swiss governments Blockchain/ICO working group that brings together the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), the Federal Office of Justice and the private sector to scrutinise the ICO landscape. It will report to the government by the end of the year.

swissinfo.ch: Some observers refer to the ICO market in Switzerland as a Wild West. What are the risks to consumers and Switzerlands reputation that still need to be addressed?

J.G: A Wild West? Not really. Firstly, FINMA issued guidance on how to apply existing market legislation, in particular on preventing money laundering and the financing of terrorism. FINMA is also strictly enforcing any fraudulent ICO projects that breach existing laws and regulations.

Secondly, our governmental working group Blockchain/ICO is looking at the legal framework to identify any potential need for action. Since our regulation is principle-based, however, already today many of our laws and rules are applicable on crypto assets and ICOs. This is true in particular with regard to anti-money laundering and counter terrorism requirements.

swissinfo.ch: Swiss Economics Minister Johann Schneider-Ammann recently called for Switzerland to become known as a Crypto Nation. Is this feasible and what would this look like in 10 years time?

J.G.: It is a nice catchphrase, but the term crypto is rather reductive and can be misleading. To speak of a Blockchain nation or a Fintech nation would be even more accurate.

What it will look like in Switzerland  or in the world for that matter  in 10 years time is anybodys guess. It depends on technological, economic and legal evolutions. However, if we put the right framework conditions into place, we will be able in the long term to attract innovative companies, which will create jobs and pay taxes.

Our goal is to ensure that Switzerland keeps a competitive edge in blockchain technologies in general without compromising the integrity of the Swiss financial sector.

swissinfo.ch: Disruptor start-ups are promising a complete change in some areas of economic and financial system. How much disruption will this potentially bring to Switzerland?

J.G: New technologies will always find their way into the financial system and disrupt existing market structures. This has always been the case and cannot be prevented by either incumbents or by regulations.

It is nevertheless a fact that these new technologies are a challenge for traditional players. There is no question that they need to embrace these new technologies to remain competitive. But I am convinced that in the foreseeable future fintech companies will exist next to traditional financial companies.

swissinfo.ch: Switzerland is known as a conservative country where things move slowly. Is this really the right place to be at the cutting edge of the blockchain revolution?

J.G.: One should remember that Switzerland always ranks as number one globally as far as innovation is concerned. Our country has always been open to business innovation. To add to that, Switzerland offers a stable political system, a liberal economic environment, a highly qualified workforce and a competitive tax system.

Our regulations are principle-based and technology neutral. All these factors explain why Switzerland provides the right innovation-friendly ecosystem for fintech companies.

swissinfo.ch: It is said that cryptocurrencies will breathe new competitive vigour into Switzerlands financial system, replacing the advantage that banking secrecy used to bring. What is your opinion on this view?

J.G: First of all, the Swiss financial sector remains very competitive. We are still number one in the world in cross-border private wealth management. Having said that, it is a fact that blockchain technology, which underlies most cryptocurrencies, leads to structural changes and disruption.

But digital innovation can also make the financial system more efficient. As a small open economy, Switzerland can only be successful if it innovates constantly. And that is where our key strengths such as political security, legal certainty and high-quality services can help us to successfully address those challenges.

What are ICOs? Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs)  also known as Token Gathering Events (TGEs)  are a relatively new method of raising start-up capital for companies. Start-ups give out digital tokens in exchange for contributions (usually in the form of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin) to fund their projects. Rather than award company shares or dividends, these tokens in many cases simply allow people to use the new technology  which is often not yet built. ICOs took off in 2017, raising an estimated $4 billion globally for blockchain start-ups. This rapid rate of growth has caused regulators in many countries to sit up and take notice. ICOs raise three main areas of potential concern: that the crowdfunding system may in some cases be used to launder illicit assets, dodge financial regulations such as securities trading rules or rip off unwary consumers through scams and fraud.













swissinfo.ch






Swiss Post confirmed this week it had signed a contract with e-commerce giant Amazon, months after rumours first emerged. The contract simplifies the transfer of merchandise across the Swiss border and allows the American company to bill customers the exact customs clearance fees.

The head of the Swiss Post distribution centre in Daillens, canton Vaud, told Swiss public radio, RTS, that the contract offered no preferential treatment to Amazon, with terms and conditions similar to those for other online businesses such as Germanys Zalando.

Jean-Gabriel Meylan added that the centre was testing its data transfer systems for quality assurance together with Amazon. He expected the contract with the worlds largest online retailer to be operational this spring.

In 2017, Amazon posted sales figures of around CHF600 million ($630 million) in Switzerland. Estimates are that the contract with Swiss Post will allow the retailer to quadruple its profits within three years.

The contract will also have an impact on Swiss Post, which handles an average of 550,000 packages daily and plans to open three more distribution centres at a total cost of CHF150 million.













RTS/gw






Switzerland has welcomed a decision by states at the Conference on Disarmament (CD) to appoint five working group coordinators and to adopt a timetable to explore common ground on nuclear disarmament core issues.

This is another step in the right direction to bring the CD back to substantive work, declared Sabrina Dallafior,Switzerlands ambassador to the UN in charge of disarmament issues. Switzerland currently holds the presidency of the worlds main multilateral forum for nuclear disarmament (March 19-30 and May 14-25) and is trying to revitalise talks at the Geneva-based forum, which has been deadlocked for over 20 years.

Dallafior said numerous consultations had taken place over the past ten days to resolve differences.

On Tuesday, it was announced that Indonesia would lead the CDs nuclear disarmament group, the Netherlands would lead the nuclear conflict prevention group and Brazil would lead the space arms race group. The discussions on negative security assurances (wherein nuclear powers agree not to attack non-nuclear states) will be chaired by Germany. The fifth group on new types of weapons of mass destruction and other disarmament issues will be led by Belarus. All these bodies, which will meet next May, will have to draw up recommendations in August.

Many of the 65 member states underlined the work of the three presidencies this year  Switzerland, Sweden and Sri Lanka  and delegations willingness to compromise in a constructive spirit.

We hope that this beautiful moment will not be marred by political battles, declared a Chinese diplomat. Russia also praised CD members on the adoption of this important decision and the efforts of the President to reach compromise.

Tuesdays announcement remains just one step, however, and the overarching goal of the CD remains negotiations on disarmament issues and the adoption of a programme of work.

The CD was established in 1979 as the single multilateral disarmament negotiating forum of the international community. However, the forum, which meets several times a year at the United Nations Palais des Nations complex, has been blocked ever since theComprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treatywas adopted in 1996. Disagreements between states on which disarmament topics should be negotiated, linkages between issues and the need to agree by consensushave left the forum unable to agree on a way forward.













ATS-SDA/sb






Switzerland has announced a series of sanctions against Venezuela, joining other European countries in cracking down on the South American country over alleged human rights violations.

The Swiss government on Wednesday ordered asset freezes and travel bans for people, companies and organisations including seven Venezuelan ministers and high-ranking officials.

As with European Union sanctions imposed in January, those on the sanctions list include former National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello, Interior Minister Nestor Reverol and Chief Justice Maikel Moreno.

Neutral Switzerland said it was seriously concerned by the repeated violations of individual freedoms in Venezuela, where the principle of separation of powers is severely undermined and the process in view of the forthcoming elections suffers from a serious lack of legitimacy.

Superbody

Venezuelas opposition won a broad majority in 2015 legislative elections, but President Nicolas Maduros allies on the Supreme Court stripped it of many of its powers and systematically shot down every piece of legislation it approved.

Maduro last year led the creation of a legislative superbody called the Constituent Assembly, which has no formal checks on its powers. Its creation led many countries around the world to describe Maduro as a dictator, a charge he dismisses as part of a campaign against him by the United States.

The Swiss sanctions include banning the sale or export to Venezuela of arms and goods which can be used for internal repression and of equipment that can be used to monitor and intercept internet and telephone communications.













Reuters/ts






Switzerland has imposed sanctions on seven senior Venezuelan officials, banning them from entering the country or passing through it, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs said on Wednesday.

And their Swiss bank accounts have also been frozen, the SECO statement said of measures which were approved by the Swiss Federal Council, or government, and which take effect immediately.

The move follows similar steps by the European Union in January, when the bloc blacklisted seven senior officials in President Nicolas Maduros administration, freezing their assets and imposing a travel ban in response to human rights violations.

The EU has voiced serious concerns about rights abuses in Venezuela, where protests against Maduro turned violent and economic collapse has led to dire shortages of food and medicine.

Among those hit by the Swiss sanctions are Diosdado Cabello, one of the most powerful figures in the Venezuela leadership, Supreme Court president Maikel Moreno and Interior Minister Nestor Riverol.

The government also slapped an embargo on military equipment and items likely to be used for repressive ends as well technology and software which could be used for surveillance or the interception of telecommunications or the internet.

It said it was gravely concerned by the repeated violations of individual freedoms in Venezuela where the principle of separation of powers had been severely undermined and where preparation for the upcoming elections was suffering from a grave lack of legitimacy.
Train and railway manufacturer Bombardier and German worker representatives said Wednesday they had reached a deal that would see the firm shed some 2,200 jobs but stop site closures.

The posts are set to fall away at Bombardier by 2020 through voluntary redundancies and ending temporary contracts, the firm and union IG Metall said.

Meanwhile three factories in the east of the country producing rolling stock will heighten their specialisation in different stages of manufacturing.

Voluntary job losses could not be avoided given the business situation, IG Metall regional leader Olivier Hoebel said in a statement, but would be implemented in a socially manageable way.

With this programme, Bombardier will become significantly more efficient and thus more competitive, Bombardiers rail chief in Germany Michael Fohrer said.

The deal marks the end of two years of hard negotiations between executives and worker representatives, after bosses 2016 announcement that they planned to slash 5,000 jobs worldwide.

Unions protests drew the attention of the German government, which convinced the two sides to seek a compromise.

Wednesdays agreement also includes a mechanism for joint decision-making with workers that would create the conditions to future-proof jobs and sites beyond 2020, works council chief Juergen Korstian said.

The German deal follows an October 2017 promise from French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire that no Bombardier sites would close in France.

Canadian-owned Bombardier is looking to stay on the rails in Europe as it confronts a major new competitor formed from a merger of Frances Alstom and the rail activities of German industrial giant Siemens.

Alstom-Siemens tie-up was itself a response to increased competition from Chinese champion CRRC.

Bombardier Transport France chief Laurent Bouyer told AFP in October he was not necessarily convinced the firm would need to seek mergers of its own to contend with other manufacturers size.

tgb/mfp/jh
German solar panel manufacturer Solarworld said Wednesday it had filed for bankruptcy for the second time in 10 months, unable to right itself as global prices tumble for the renewable energy gear.

The company said in a statement it had requested insolvency proceedings be opened at a court in its home city of Bonn.

Meanwhile an administrator nominated to shepherd Solarworld through the bankruptcy process will visit Wednesday and determine whether it should continue production at its factories in Saxony and Thuringia states.

The firms move came as European Union anti-dumping measures against competing Chinese solar panels are set to run out, making its high quality but more expensive units a tougher sell.

Once a flagship company in Germany as the country turned away from nuclear power towards renewables, Solarworld employs around 600 people worldwide, down from around 3,000 before its first bankruptcy in May last year over excessive debt.

It was relaunched in smaller form in August with help from Qatari investors.
A German far-right activist was arrested in Hungary Wednesday on suspicion of illegally selling weapons through a website that urged citizens to defend themselves against migrants, Berlin prosecutors said.

The suspect, 34-year-old Mario Roensch, was detained in an early morning raid on his Budapest home by Hungarian anti-terror officers.

Prosecutors said he is strongly suspected of running the far-right website Migrantenschreck (Migrants fright) between May and November 2016, which according to German media called on citizens to arm themselves against refugees.

He is believed to have illegally sold 193 permit-requiring firearms to buyers in Germany, the statement from the Berlin prosecutors office read.

They added that Hungarian police searched two properties in connection with the probe, and seized computer hard drives as evidence.

Public broadcasters NDR and WDR said Roensch, who had been on the run from German authorities, was detained under a European arrest warrant.

They also reported that the weapons allegedly sold by the suspect  earning him around 100,000 euros ($124,000)  fired rubber bullets of the kind that could cause serious injuries and kill people.

German media said Roensch was also thought to have close links to the notorious far-right Anonymous.Kollektiv Facebook page and the online portal Anonymousnews.ru, known for spreading anti-Islam and anti-Semitic content.

The Berlin prosecutors said their investigation was ongoing and that they were now awaiting Roenschs transfer to Germany.

mfp/dlc/wdb
Spanish National Police said Wednesday they have arrested two Catalan police officers who were in the same vehicle as former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont when he was detained in Germany over the weekend.

National police arrested the two agents from the Mossos dEsquadra, or Catalonias regional police force, in Barcelona on Wednesday as part of an investigation for the crime of harbouring a criminal, the force said on Twitter without giving further details.

Spanish media said one Catalan police officer was arrested at Barcelonas El Prat airport after he arrived on a flight from Brussels while the other was taken near his home in the coastal town of Vilassar de Mar, northeast of the Catalan capital.

A history professor who was also in the car with Puigdemont at the time of his arrest was also detained on Wednesday on the same charge, public television reported.

Acting on an international arrest warrant issued by Spain, German police arrested Puigdemont on Sunday after he arrived from Denmark en route back to Belgium where he has been living in self-imposed exile since the Catalan parliament declared independence in October.

His arrest came two days after Spains Supreme Court ordered Puigdemont and 24 other Catalan leaders to stand trial for rebellion, misuse of public funds, and disobeying the state in Catalonias separatist push, including holding a referendum on independence on October 1 despite a court ban.

Puigdemonts detention triggered demonstrations on Barcelonas streets on Sunday that left around 100 people lightly injured in clashes with riot police.
Sun-drenched Spain should be a natural for solar energy, and it is here that the technology is making an effort to stand on its feet financially without subsidies.

Investors are now betting again on solar power generation in Spain, which for a decade was in the shadows as the country cut subsidies for the clean but expensive source of energy.

A plunge in the price of solar panels and lower construction costs has changed the maths, and new projects are moving forward again.

Iberdrola, Spains largest power company, this month launched a solar project with a capacity of 425 megawatts.

And last week Spanish renewable energy firm Cox Energy signed a deal for the construction of 495 megawatts of capacity in Spain, and another 165 megawatts in neighbouring Portugal, in a 400-million-euro ($490 million) investment.

Companies have sought authorisation for solar power projects across Spain with a total capacity of 24,000 megawatts, according to the director general of Spanish solar power lobby UNEF, Jose Donoso.

 Subsidies stumble 

That is the equivalent of 14 of the latest generation nuclear power plants that France hopes to launch later this year, after a decade of costly construction.

Spain was one of the pioneers of solar power-generation. Subsidies in the form of a high purchase price for solar power lured investors and homeowners to install solar panels, triggering an installation boom in 2008 that saw Spains installed capacity jump five times to 3,355 megawatts.

But the global financial crisis, which ravaged Spain via a collapse of the property market, led to a bust in new projects and the cash-strapped government was quickly forced to abandon the subsidies.

Just 49 megawatts was added in 2015, and 55 megawatts in 2016, before picking up to 135 megawatts in 2017, according to UNEF figures.

However in Germany, which kept up its subsidies, solar power swelled by six times although the country does not receive as much sun as Spain, meaning each panel produces less electricity.

The country now has more than 40,000 megawatts of solar power, compared with 5,400 in Spain at the end of 2015.

But the sector has undergone a complete reversal in less than six months, according to Donoso.

 Blazing return 

One reason is that solar panels can now produce electricity at a lower price than traditional power sources such as coal, gas and nuclear.

The cost of solar power production plunged 73 percent between 2010 and 2017, according the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena), which predicts it will continue to fall.

Companies also realised the projects didnt need guaranteed prices from the state.

A tender for solar power projects launched by the government in July had so many bids that the price was capped at 30-31 euros per megawatt hour.

According to the European statistical agency Eurostat, non-residential customers in Spain paid an average 107 euros per megawatt hour last year.

Investors concluded that it is better to run risks in the market then depend on regulated demand, Donoso said.

Moreover, investors into renewables know how much construction and operation will cost them, while traditional power stations have only a limited ability to lock in prices for fuel.

It is much more profitable to invest in capital-intensive technologies (like photovoltaic power) than technologies where the raw material comes at a cost like gas or coal, said the president of renewable energy lobby group Fundacion Renovables, Fernando Ferrando.

 Room to grow 

Donoso said this explains why major Spanish power firms such as Iberdrola who stood aside from this sector have suddenly jumped in.

The Spanish market will certainly be one of the biggest in Europe in the coming years, he added.

A group set up by the government proposes setting as a goal having a total of 30,000-60,000 gigawatts of installed solar capacity by 2020, Donoso said.

Spains conservative government has so far not made solar power a priority, said Ferrando.

We only use the sun for tourism not for electricity, he said.

Solar power represents just 3-4 percent of electrical power production in Spain, compared with 20 percent for wind power and 16-17 percent for hydroelectric power, according to the lobby group.

pmr/ds/rl
Hungry moths are the bane of French wine growers' lives due to their ferocious ability to feast on vines, but producers have discovered an unexpected ally in their fight against the insects: bats.

A study commissioned by the wine industry committee of Bordeaux, published Tuesday, found that bats were observed swooping to hunt more often towards vines where the bugs were present  meaning they could potentially be used as a natural pesticide.

A genetic analysis of the bat droppings showed they were indeed eating the moths rather than other insects.

For the first time these results show in a formal way the capacity of bats to feed themselves on grapevine moths and cochylis moths, the group said in a statement.

The study was carried out by Frances Animal Protection League and Bird Protection League, along with the consultancy Eliomys and the National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA).

It observed bat activity over 23 plots of land in the winegrowing Gironde region of southwest France around Bordeaux between May and October 2017.

Yohann Charbonnier of the Bird Protection League said the conservation groups had been surprised to find as many of 19 of the 22 local bat breeds feasting on the grape-loving moths.

We werent expecting so many species of bats to be frequenting the vines, which were not previously known for their biodiversity, he told AFP.

He noted, however, that bats still appear to prefer hunting in more natural environments such as hedgerows.

The study could lead the way for vineyards to look at encouraging bats to hunt there, to allow winegrowers to reduce their pesticide use.

Currently, growers faced with an infestation have no choice but to spray their vines with chemicals.

But Charbonnier said another study would be needed to determine whether the bats eat enough of the pests to allow reduced use of pesticides.
The United States and its allies must work more closely with Turkey in Syria, President Donald Trump said Tuesday in a call with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron.

Washington has previously expressed concern about Turkeys decision to plunge itself more deeply into Syrias civil war with an offensive against Kurdish-held border areas.

But according to the White House, in conversation with Macron, Trump stressed the need to intensify cooperation with Turkey with respect to shared strategic challenges in Syria.

In January, Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ordered an assault against the enclave of Afrin in northern Syria to root out the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) there.

Turkey views the YPG as simply an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is fighting an insurgency inside Turkey and whose fighters Ankara and Washington brand terrorists.

But the US military has worked closely with the YPG inside Syria, making the Kurdish fighters the backbone of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), set up to fight the Islamic State group.

US officials have repeatedly complained that Turkeys battle against the YPG is a distraction from the anti-IS fight, but Trumps remarks Tuesday suggest growing sympathy for his NATO ally.

In addition to discussing Turkey and Syria, Trump and Macron touched on the allied response to Russias alleged attempt to assassinate a double-agent in a nerve agent attack on British soil.

Both leaders expressed support for the Wests strong response to Russias chemical weapons attack in Salisbury, United Kingdom, including the expulsion of numerous Russian intelligence officers on both sides of the Atlantic, the White House said.

This marked Trumps first personal, public comment on the Western response after he allowed his spokeswoman to announce Washingtons unprecedented decision to expel 60 alleged Russian agents.
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Luxembourg recalled its ambassador to Moscow on Wednesday in a show of solidarity with Britain over the poisoning of an ex-spy but said it will not expel Russian diplomats.

The tiny but wealthy grand duchy joins Malta, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Portugal in a club of EU countries that have said they are pulling out their envoys for consultations but not kicking out Russian officials.

Nineteen European Union states including Britain have said they will expel Russian diplomats for the nerve agent attack on former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, England.

The foreign ministry said that Luxembourg shared Britains assessment that it was highly likely Russia was responsible, and that foreign minister Jean Asselborn has decided to recall Luxembourgs ambassador to Moscow for consultations.

In the context of the Salisbury attack, the government of Luxembourg stands in full solidarity with Britain, faced by this grave challenge to our common security, the ministry said in a statement.

Asselborn later insisted that Luxembourg had not reversed course since Tuesday, when he said the country would not expel any Russian diplomats because it could not prove any were spies, but made no mention of recalling the ambassador.

I stand by what I said on Tuesday: it is clear that we dont want to expel Russian diplomats There is no contradiction with what I said about the expulsion, he told AFP.

He added: I have shown solidarity with Britain and shown that there is a very serious problem and that there are responsibilities.

Luxembourg is one of the EUs smallest states but is disproportionately influential due to its status as one of the unions founding countries and the site of several of its key institutions.

Austria, Greece, Cyprus and Slovenia are the only EU states that have taken no action against Russia so far.
Luxembourg is recalling its ambassador to Moscow for consultations in the latest show of solidarity from EU states to Britain over the poisoning of an ex-spy, the government said in a statement on Wednesday.

The move comes just a day after the tiny but wealthy grand duchy said it would not follow the lead of 18 other EU states that have so far expelled Russian diplomats over the nerve agent attack in the English city of Salisbury.

In the context of the Salisbury attack, the government of Luxembourg stands in full solidarity with Britain, faced by this grave challenge to our common security, said a foreign ministry statement.

Noting that Luxembourg shared Britains assessment that it was highly likely Russia was responsible, it added that Foreign and European affairs minister Jean Asselborn has decided to recall Luxembourgs ambassador to Moscow for consultations.

Asselborn had been quoted by broadcaster RTL on Tuesday as saying that Luxembourg would not expel any Russian diplomats.

As far as Luxembourg is concerned, we have a very limited number of Russian diplomats here and, despite all our efforts, we have been unable to prove that any spy or person is working against Luxembourgs interests, he said at the time.

Luxembourg is one of the EUs smallest states but is disproportionately influential due to its status as one of the unions founding countries and the site of several of its key institutions.

Bulgaria, which currently holds the EUs rotating presidency, has taken a similar step by saying it will recall its ambassador for consultations but not expel any Russian diplomats.

Austria is one of the key states that has said it will not take any action, saying it wants to be a bridge between east and west.

Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Slovenia, Slovakia and Portugal have also not taken any action so far.

cak-dk/arp/nla
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday the alliance was expelling seven Russian diplomats to show that Moscow faces "costs and consequences" over a nerve agent attack on a former spy in Britain.

Stoltenberg announced the maximum size of the Russian mission to NATO would also be slashed by a third, from 30 to 20, as part of international measures to punish Russia over the poisoning of Sergei Skripal.

I have today withdrawn the accreditation of seven staff of the Russian mission to NATO. I will also deny the pending accreditation request for three others, Stoltenberg told a news conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

This sends a clear message to Russia that there are costs and consequences for its unacceptable and dangerous pattern of behaviour, the former Norwegian prime minister added.

The moves pile yet more pressure on Moscow after two dozen countries around the world united in mass expulsions of Russian diplomats over the attempted assassination of Russian double agent Skripal and his daughter Yulia with a nerve agent in the English city of Salisbury on March 4.

Britain has said the Skripals were poisoned with the Soviet-developed nerve agent Novichok, though Russia has denied involvement.

Stoltenberg said Russia had underestimated the unity of NATO allies, adding that the mass expulsions would have a material impact on Russian operations.

The practical implication is that Russia will have a reduced capability to do intelligence work in NATO countries and in those countries they are expelled from, Stoltenberg said.

But Stoltenberg, who said earlier this month he did not want a new Cold War with Moscow, said the alliance planned to continue its dual-track approach of strong defence and openness to dialogue with Russia.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday accused Washington of applying colossal pressure to achieve the massive, coordinated international response to the poisoning.

A number of countries including the United States said the Russian diplomats they were throwing out were actually undeclared spies.

Relations between NATO and Russia were already at a low ebb over Moscows annexation of Crimea and its role in the Ukraine and Syria conflicts.
Thirteen Russian diplomats declared persona non grata by Ukraine in a show of solidarity with Britain over the nerve agent attack on an ex-spy, have left the country, the Russian embassy said Wednesday.

Employees of the Russian embassy who have been ordered to leave Ukraine are no longer in Ukraine, embassy spokesman Denis Golenko told AFP.

On Monday, Ukranian authorities announced the expulsion of 13 diplomats who they said were agents of Russian special services and added they have 48 hours to leave the country.

But after the expulsion, dozens of Russian diplomats will still work in the Russian embassy in Kiev and in its three consulates in Odessa, Kharkiv and Lviv, Ukraine has said.

Twenty-six countries including the United States and most of the EU member states have ordered out more than 120 Russia diplomats in response to the March 4 attack on former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury.

Russia has repeatedly denied involvement in the attack.

A pro-Western uprising that ousted a Kremlin-backed president in Kiev in 2014 and Moscows subsequent annexation of Crimea shredded ties between Russia and Ukraine.

After the takeover of the peninsula, Moscow moved to support a pro-Kremlin insurgency in the east of the ex-Soviet country, in a crisis that has claimed more than 10,000 lives since April 2014.

Currently there is no Russian ambassador in Ukraine and Kiev has replaced its own ambassador to Moscow with a temporary representative.
The Kremlin said Wednesday that President Vladimir Putin was still ready to hold a summit with US counterpart Donald Trump despite the mass Western expulsions of Russian diplomats in a spy row.

This depends on the American side, but the Russian side remains open, Putins spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Putin is ready and the Russian side is ready for mutually beneficial and mutually trustful relations with all countries including the US to the extent that our opponents or partners are ready for this, Peskov added.

He added that Russia currently had no information about Trumps readiness to meet with Putin following Washingtons decision to expel more than 60 diplomats.

At least 25 countries decided to expel Russian diplomats in response to the March 4 attack on former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury.

London and its allies have blamed Moscow, citing the use of a Soviet-designed nerve agent dubbed Novichok, Russias record of targeting dissidents and its history of aggression in recent years, from Crimea to cyber-attacks.

Washington led the way in responding, ordering out 60 Russian diplomats in a new blow to US-Russia ties less than a week after Trump congratulated Putin on his re-election and raised the prospect of a summit in the not-too-distant future.

The Kremlin has repeatedly denied Russias involvement in the nerve agent attack and Peskov played down Wednesday the extent of the diplomatic fallout.

Twenty or 30 countries are just a part of the global community and it is much bigger and varied and includes many more countries, Peskov said.

He claimed that some of the countries that backed London still believed that Britain had not provided enough evidence to prove Russias involvement.

Separately, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow would respond to all the expulsions appropriately.

The measures are being worked out for each country, she told reporters.

Moscow, she added, views the expulsions as a provocation which will have very serious long-term consequences for global peace and stability.
The News in Brief

Ombudsman Says More Efforts are Needed to Protect People with Down Syndrome



The Public Defender of Georgia Nino Lomjaria stated on Wednesday, on the World Down Syndrome Day, that it is important to make more efforts to protect the rights of people with Down syndrome in order to ensure their participation in the public life.



The opportunity of people with Down syndrome to contribute to public life is significantly hindered by the lack of awareness and negative attitudes, she stated.



Lomjaria said that after certain steps that have been taken in terms of realization of human rights by people with Down syndrome in Georgia, there are still obstacles, elimination of which requires persistent identification and satisfaction of the needs of people with Down syndrome.



The Public Defender underscored that efforts should be made to ensure that people with Down Syndrome can live independently, have access to social and health care programs, quality education and equal employment opportunities.



It is important that the state takes effective steps to support the development and strengthening of people with Down syndrome and their families, plan and implement necessary programs and services for them, stated the Public Defender.



World Down Syndrome Day is marked on March 21, which is aimed at raising public awareness of people with Down syndrome. The theme of the World Down Syndrome Day 2018 -"What I Bring to the Community" - emphasizes the equal contribution of people with Down syndrome to social, public, political, cultural and other areas of life.







Georgian top officials send best wishes to Azerbaijani population on Novruz



The Georgian Prime Minister, President and other high-ranking officials have sent best wishes to the countrys Azeri population on Wednesday, on Novruz holiday, which marks the New Year and the beginning of spring.



My brothers, my Azerbaijanis! Happy Novruz, a beautiful holiday to celebrate a new year, the coming of spring, rebirth, the day of life and love! I share the happiness of the day with all my heart; we are compatriots of one and the same country, Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili wrote.



President Giorgi Margvelashvili expressed his respect and gratitude to Azeri people and stated that the people are distinguished by their diligence and hard work.



The features are exemplary for other nations. You can be proud of your merit in building of Georgia, Margvelashvili stated.



First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of economy and Sustainable Development Dimitri Kumsishvili also congratulates the ethnic minorities on Novruz.



I want to wish you and your families peace, prosperity and success for the sake of our homeland. Novruz Bayram?n?z Mubar?k! said Kumsishvili.



Novruz is celebrated in Afghanistan, Albania, Azerbaijan, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

(By Mariam Chanishvili)




Ecuador on Wednesday said it has stopped Julian Assange's ability to communicate to the outside world from its London embassy, where the WikiLeaks founder has been holed up since 2012.

The decision was taken because the Australian had broken a 2017 promise to not interfere in other countrys affairs while in the mission, an Ecuadorian government statement said.

It came after Assange on Monday used Twitter to challenge Britains accusation that Russia was responsible for the March 4 nerve agent poisoning of a Russian former double agent in the English city of Salisbury.

He also questioned the decision by Britain and more than 20 countries to retaliate against the poisoning by expelling Russian diplomats deemed spies.

The comments prompted a British Foreign Office minister, Alan Duncan, to brand Assange a miserable little worm who should leave the embassy to turn himself over to British authorities.

Assange, 46, has spent much of his time in his small room in the embassy tweeting and at times contributing to RT, a Russian state-owned television channel that broadcasts Kremlin messaging, as well as taking part in media conferences via video link.

In 2016, Ecuador briefly suspended his internet connection for posting documents online that were seen as having an impact on the US presidential election from which Donald Trump emerged the victor.

In May 2017, Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno asked Assange to refrain from commenting on a separatist crisis in Spain over that countrys Catalonia region, after he tweeted that Madrid was guilty of repression.

 Extradition fear 

Assange took refuge in the diplomatic mission in 2012 after a British judge ruled he should be extradited to Sweden to face allegations of sexual assault there.

Assange claims the accusations were politically motivated and could lead to him being extradited to the United States to face imprisonment over WikiLeaks publication of secret US military documents and diplomatic cables in 2010.

Sweden dropped its investigation last year, but British authorities say they still want to arrest him for breaching his bail conditions.

Ecuador in December made Assange an Ecuadorian citizen and unsuccessfully tried to register him as a diplomat with immunity as part of its efforts to have the WikiLeaks founder leave the embassy without risk of being detained.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday false stories were posted online from abroad about a devastating Siberian shopping centre fire and warned against attempts to "sow distrust."

On Sunday, a huge fire ripped through the building in the Siberian city of Kemerovo, killing 64 people, most of them children.

Rumours that the real toll is higher than the official death toll announced by the authorities spread as relatives frantically searched for those missing after the fire.

Unfortunately we see that fake stories are coming through social media including from abroad in order to sow panic and distrust and pit people against each other, Putin told his top investigator Alexander Bastrykin.

We definitely must not allow this in any circumstances, Putin added, RIA Novosti state news agency reported.

Russia earlier Wednesday announced that it had opened a criminal probe into hate crime after an obscure Ukrainian prank caller called Nikita Kuvikov posted YouTube videos claiming that 300 people died.

Putin also told Bastrykin to check all the versions and said many questions remained unanswered.

The fire alarm didnt work for a week. Why? Putin asked, also querying why a public warning system was not triggered and why doors were locked and why flammable materials were used in construction.

Bastrykin told Putin that investigators were looking into the non-functioning fire alarm system and also examining claims that it could have been an arson attack, although he said this was unlikely.

He added the arson claim was being made by those already detained in the criminal probe  five people who worked for companies that owned and ran the building and serviced its fire alarms.

He pointed the finger at city authorities who carried out a check into the buildings fire safety in 2016.

We have reasons to suppose that this was done not too conscientiously, to put it mildly, he said.

The more than 100 investigators probing the fire are also looking into the legality of the buildings change of use from a sweet factory to a shopping mall, Bastrykin said.

Opposition leader Alexei Navalny accused the authorities of scapegoating outside forces instead of focusing on the corrupt practices of paying off fire safety officials that allow such tragedies to occur.

Personally I already have conclusions. These people in the Winter Cherry shopping centre were killed by corruption and for me that is as clear as day, Navalny wrote on his blog.
A reconstruction, made from date syrup cans, of an ancient Iraqi statue destroyed by Islamic State jihadists was unveiled in London's Trafalgar Square on Wednesday.

The artwork will stand for two years on the empty fourth plinth in the British capitals central square as a monument to the destruction of Iraqi culture since the 2003 US-led invasion.

Created by US conceptual artist Michael Rakowitz, who is of Iraqi Jewish descent, the replica is entitled The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist.

I see this work as a ghost of the original and as a placeholder for those human lives that cannot be reconstructed, that are still searching for sanctuary, said Rakowitz.

It recreates a Lamassu  a winged bull and protective deity  that stood at the gates of Nineveh, northern Iraq, from around 700 BC. It was destroyed by the Islamic State (IS) group in 2015.

The new statue is part of a wider project to recreate more than 7,000 objects looted from the Iraq Museum in 2003 or destroyed at archaeological sites in the aftermath of the Iraq War.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said the artwork was an act of resistence against Islamic extremists and philistines.

He claimed that 20 million people would walk past the statue during its two-year run, making it the worlds most visible piece of contemporary art.

It sends a message loud and clear: we will not be defied, scared or cowed, we will stay united, Khan told AFP.

Your past defines the future. The idea that you can blow up statues and somehow rewrite history I find appalling.

 10,500 empty cans 

The statue stands 4.5 metres high, weighs 6,000 kilogrammes and is made from 10,500 empty Iraqi date syrup cans, representing a once-renowned industry laid low by the wars in Iraq.

The statue, for me, symbolises a lot of things, Rakowitz told AFP.

Its about the dehumanisation of the Iraqi people and the loss that they incurred.

Rakowitz said dates were put into the mouths of newborn babies in Iraq so that their first taste of life was sweet.

Now the number of date palms has dwindled from 30 million in 2003 to around three million, he claimed, adding that Iraqi date syrup now gets packaged under the label of other countries.

Its a foodstuff that suffers from the xenophobia of the West, the artist said.

It speaks to a devastation that is not just cultural but also environmental.

Trafalgar Square has large stone plinths in each corner, three of which bear permanent statues. The fourth was never completed.

Since 1998 the empty plinth has been used to showcase temporary pieces of art, and has so far hosted works including a giant ship in a bottle and a huge nude statue of the English artist Alison Lapper, who was born without arms, during her pregnancy.
A brewery in Windsor, the British town where Prince Harry will marry American Meghan Markle in May, believes it has concocted its own perfect pairing with a "royal beer" celebrating the occasion.

The regal-themed brew, a pale ale named Harry & Meghans Windsor Knot, appropriately combines British and American hops, barley grown on the Royal Farms adjoining Windsor Castle  and a finishing touch of champagne yeast.

Marrying these ingredients creates a new pale ale that is young, fresh and full of character, proclaimed Windsor & Eton Brewery, which launched the limited edition craft beer on Wednesday.

The firm, which says it is on a long-shot mission to make Windsor more famous for its beers than any other attraction, brewed its first Windsor Knot for the 2011 wedding of Harrys brother Prince William to Kate Middleton.

To honour this new Anglo-American nuptial, the brewery team has designed a bottle and pump clip featuring a tie made out of Britains Union Jack flag and the US stars and stripes.

It also displays two interlocking male and female symbols to reflect the strength and support they give each other the brewers said in a press release announcing their concoction.

Harry and his American actress fiancee are set to tie the knot at Windsor Castle, west of London, on May 19.

British pubs will be allowed to stay open late on the eve of the wedding and on May 19, for what the British Government has described as a day of national celebration.
Ecuador on Wednesday said it has stopped Julian Assange's ability to communicate to the outside world from its London embassy, where the WikiLeaks founder has been holed up since 2012.

The decision was taken because the Australian had broken a 2017 promise to not interfere in other countries affairs while in the mission, an Ecuadoran government statement said without elaborating.

Under that deal, Assange had pledged to not send messages that could be seen as interference in relations with other countries, the statement said, adding that it could take other, unspecified measures if he persisted.

The move to cut off Assange came after he used Twitter on Monday to challenge Britains accusation that Russia was responsible for the March 4 nerve agent poisoning of a Russian former double agent in the English city of Salisbury.

Assange also questioned the decision by Britain and more than 20 countries to retaliate against the poisoning by expelling Russian diplomats deemed spies.

The comments prompted a British Foreign Office minister, Alan Duncan, to brand Assange a miserable little worm who should leave the embassy to turn himself over to British authorities.

In another tweetstorm on Tuesday, Assange attacked the arrest in Germany of former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont under an EU warrant issued by Spain over Puigdemonts failed bid last year to declare independence for his Spanish region.

Assanges behavior, with his messages on social networks, puts at risk our good relations with Britain and the European Union, the Ecuadoran government text said.

 Online activity 

Assange, 46, has spent much of his time in his small room in the embassy tweeting and at times contributing to RT, a Russian state-owned television channel that broadcasts Kremlin messaging, as well as taking part in media conferences via video link.

In 2016, Ecuador briefly suspended his internet connection for posting documents online that were seen as having an impact on the US presidential election from which Donald Trump emerged the victor.

In May 2017, Ecuadoran President Lenin Moreno asked Assange to refrain from commenting on the separatist crisis in Spains Catalonia region, after he tweeted that Madrid was guilty of repression.

An analyst, Michel Levi of the Simon Bolivar Andean University, said he believed the decision to render Assange incommunicado isnt a change of policy in terms of his asylum, but rather to keep him to his conditions of staying in the embassy.

 Extradition fear 

Assange took refuge in the diplomatic mission in 2012 after a British judge ruled he should be extradited to Sweden to face allegations of sexual assault there.

Assange claims the accusations were politically motivated and could lead to him being extradited to the United States to face imprisonment over WikiLeaks publication of secret US military documents and diplomatic cables in 2010.

Sweden dropped its investigation last year, but British authorities say they still want to arrest him for breaching his bail conditions.

Ecuador in December made Assange an Ecuadoran citizen and unsuccessfully tried to register him as a diplomat with immunity as part of its efforts to have the WikiLeaks founder leave the embassy without risk of being detained.

Ecuadors foreign minister, Maria Fernanda Espinosa, said Wednesday that a delegation would meet with Assanges lawyers in London next week to explore what alternatives existed to have Assange be able to leave the embassy.

We continue to hold dialogue with the United Kingdom to seek a definitive and durable solution to this situation, she added.
Mexicos nationally held oil and gas company has signed a deal with San Antonio-based Lewis Energy to develop part of the Eagle Ford Shale that extends into Mexico.

State-owned Petroleos Mexicanos, also known as Pemex, said the deal would have Lewis Energy invest upward of $617 million. That money would be used to develop the Olmos field in the Mexican state of Coahuila, an extension of the same geologic formations that drillers target in the Eagle Ford Shale that runs across South Texas.

Pemexs goal is to produce upward of 117 million cubic feet a day of natural gas from the field by 2021.

The deal appears to be one of the first for an American oil and gas company to tap into Mexican shale, though Lewis Energy has a long history in the country. It has been doing work for Pemex in the Olmos field since at least 2004 and has drilled at least some shale wells in Mexico.

The privately held company operates primarily in South Texas, where it was among the earliest companies to drill in the Eagle Ford. It has hundreds of wells, according to its website. It also operates in Colombia.

Mexico has deep-water oil and gas fields, shallow water, conventional onshore fields and shale. Mexican shale is the least understood of its assets, but its the area that companies operating in the Eagle Ford and the Permian Basin in West Texas have been watching most closely.

Lewis deal comes as part of Mexicos liberalization of its oil and gas industry, which was dominated by Pemex for nearly 80 years until it was opened in 2014. Pemex has been beset by financial and production issues, leading to declining oil and gas output in the energy-rich country, as well as shortages of fuel in Mexico.

The sweeping energy reform is intended to boost production and fuel electricity generation. The overhaul of Mexicos oil and gas industry extends beyond its onshore and offshore oil and gas fields.

Multiple companies  including San Antonio-based refiners Valero Energy Corp. and Andeavor  have taken advantage of the opening of Mexicos fuels market to announce plans for projects to build fuel infrastructure and, in Andeavors case, gas stations in Mexico. Other oil and gas companies, such as like Exxon Mobil and BP, have also announced intentions to enter the Mexican fuels market.
San Antonio businessman Sardar Biglari last year pocketed almost $8.3 million in compensation from the publicly traded company he controls, nine times what he received in 2016.

A $7.4 million incentive fee paid to Biglari, the chairman and CEO of Biglari Holdings Inc.  parent company of the Steak and Shake restaurant chain and Maxim magazine, accounted for the hike. He again received a $900,000 salary, which had been his total annual compensation since 2014.

Biglari Holdings additionally entered into a new contract in September to pay two entities owned by Sardar Biglari a $700,000 monthly fee, or $8.4 million a year, under a shared services agreement, the company disclosed without providing additional details.

Meanwhile, a Biglari Holdings shareholder this week filed a lawsuit in Indiana to stop Biglari from going forward with plans to create two classes of stock next month. Its at least the second lawsuit challenging the companys proposal.

Under the plan, according to the suit, Biglari will end up consolidating even more voting control over the company  he already owns almost 55 percent of the stock  while diluting the voting rights of existing shareholders.

A call to Biglari was not returned, but he generally doesnt speak with the media.

Biglaris $8.3 million in compensation last year was 828 times more than the median compensation of the companys employees last year, according to a filing this week with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The figure is high partly because the companys median employee worked part time and earned $9,963 last year. Biglari Holdings has about 21,000 employees, most of whom work at Steak n Shake. Only Biglari and four others work at its San Antonio headquarters.

Publicly traded companies are now required to report the ratio of CEO-to-median-employee-pay-ratio.

The CEOs at Americas largest companies received an average of $15.6 million in compensation in 2016  or an average of 271 times the $57,565 average pay of the typical worker, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

Last year marked the first time Biglari has collected an incentive fee since he received $10 million in 2013. The fee is capped at $10 million each year.

Biglaris bonus was based on the holding companys $50.1 million in net earnings last year. The company said it was able to report a profit due to a $53.5 million deferred tax liability  an accounting benefit that generally gives a temporary boost to earnings.

Biglari Holding said in the SEC filing that its executive compensation philosophy is intended to reward and promote such long-term growth for the benefit of all shareholders. Biglari Capital Corp., the companys largest shareholder, is solely owned by CEO Sardar Biglari.

The companys bottom line widely fluctuates from year to year because of swings in the gains and losses of its two investment partnerships called the Lion Fund.

Biglari Capital, the hedge fund that manages the Lion Fund partnerships, wasnt paid a performance fee last year. It received a $31.6 million performance fee in 2016, basing it on $280.6 million in earnings from the investments.

Investment managers generally receive fees based on assets under management, Biglari Holdings said in the SEC filing. Biglari Capitals fees are based solely on investment gains, the filing added.

The hedge funds investment strategy is run entirely by Sardar Biglari.

As sole capital allocator, the decisions I make shape the company, Biglari said in an annual letter to shareholders last year. In determining capital deployment decisions, I employ no staff in evaluating acquisitions or investments. We circumvent suffocating bureaucracy and thereby accelerate decision-making.

Immediately after its annual meeting April 26 at the St. Regis Hotel in New York, Biglari Holdings will hold a special meeting for a vote on the proposal to create a new public holding company with a dual class stock structure.

The purpose of creating two classes of stock is to enable the issuance of stock in future acquisitions without risking a change in control, Biglari said in a letter to shareholders last month. The common stock will be designated Class A and Class B.

Shareholders complain that the purpose of the dual classes is to concentrate even more control with Sardar Biglari. Investors will receive 10 shares of Class B stock and one share of Class A for every 10 shares they currently hold. While each Class B share will be worth one-fifth of a Class A share, it wont have any voting rights.

Shareholders will receive cash payouts in lieu of fractional shares, according to the lawsuit.

The cash-out feature is designed to ensure that defendant S. Biglari can consolidate even more voting control over the Company, with the Company retiring an undetermined number of voting shares held by minority stockholders, the lawsuit says.

Shareholder Eugene Protz, who this week sued Biglari, the company and its directors, said the new stock structure will guarantee that Biglari maintains perpetual control over company. The suit seeks class-action status.

Moreover, by keeping this majority stake in the company indefinitely, defendant (Sardar) Biglari will be able to continue making self-interested acquisitions in stock-for-stock transactions that further dilute the rights of minority shareholders, Protz alleges. In return for their acquiescence, the Board ensured that its members would continue on at the company.

Protz also contends one of the directors, who analyzed the plan and determined it was in the companys best interest, is beholden to Biglari. Kenneth Cooper, a San Antonio attorney who is classified as an independent director at Biglari Holdings, has represented the Biglari family for years, Protz alleges in the suit.

Cooper was listed as a registered agent for Sardar Inc., an oriental rug liquidator that was headed by Biglaris father, Ken Biglari, the suit added. Sardar Inc. was incorporated in 1990 but became inactive in 2005.

A call to Cooper was not immediately returned.

Protzs suit alleges breach of fiduciary duties and seeks to have the dual class stock structure declared invalid and unenforceable.

No shareholder proposals have been presented for a vote this year at Biglari Holdings annual meeting.

Last year, the Humane Society of the United States called on Biglari Holdings to separate the chairman and CEO positions. The group cited a lack of checks and balances when a CEO is her or her own overseer while simultaneously managing the business. The proposal was defeated.

Biglari Holdings disclosed Biglaris brother, Shawn Biglari, who works in business development for Steak n Shake, received $242,600 in compensation last year, a 72 percent increase from $141,250 in 2016. Biglaris father, Ken Biglari, a Steak n Shake consultant, received $160,000 in fees last year, a 29 percent increase from the $141,250 in fees received in 2016.
In a rebirth befitting Easter week, the First Baptist Church Sutherland Springs on Tuesday unveiled plans for a new worship hall and education center  to be funded with donations  at the site of the attack that took the lives of 26 congregants last November.

This is going to represent new life, Pastor Frank Pomeroy said of the $3 million project to be located north of the existing church, which has been converted into a memorial honoring those who were slain by Devin Kelley, 26. Kelley took his own life after the deadly attack.

What better way to celebrate the resurrection of the Lord than the resurrection of a new church? he said during a news briefing at the Hilton San Antonio Airport. I think God choreographed that.

God is going to use the blood of those 26 martyrs and those survivors to bring forth revival, he said, citing Biblical precedents. Any time the church is persecuted, God backed that up with a multiplication of his church, of his people.

The pastor thanked Myrick, Gurosky & Associates, an Alabama firm that designed the new structures and will commence construction May 5, and the North American Mission Board, of the Southern Baptist Convention, which has pledged to cover any funding shortfall remaining after donations of materials, services and money.

But Pomeroy, whose 14-year-old daughter Annabelle was among the shooting victims, said God deserves all the glory and credit for the new facilities that are expected to be completed next Spring,

I believe God is utilizing these men and their associates to bring forth this building, he said, as his wife, Sherri, looked on. As much as I love the design... it would be no more than a pretty building if Gods blessing was not upon it.

The new worship hall and education center will be built on a 2-acre lot beside U.S. 87, just north of the existing church, which was acquired with donations previously banked.

A new fundraising campaign is now being launched to fund the planned improvements. Those interested in learning about it or donating to it should visit restoresutherlandsprings.com.

Members of the congregation worked with MG&A on the design of the new church, which has a capacity of 250 and features two towers, one with a lookout at the top and the other to house the churchs bell.

The two structures will be connected by a common area, which will serve as a joint entrance, and will include individual portraits of all of the shooting victims.

Scott Gurosky, president of MG&A, said modern security components were designed into the structures, but declined to describe them in detail.

He expressed excitement about beginning work on the project, whose design was crafted with input from church members. Making the plans public will allow formal fundraising for it to commence.

We are very, very excited to be part of this effort, said Gurosky, noting some design modifications may yet occur. Were still in the throes of the interior design.

Gurosky, whose development firm has worked on more than 300 churches, said solicitations for help on the project from other construction firms have been received very, very, very well and generated numerous pledges of support with labor and materials.

Everyone is aware of this church. Everyone is excited to help, he said.

The plans also call for construction of a new parking lot that covers the area where the memorial/old church building now stands.

Pomeroy said church leaders had intended to close and demolish the memorial in January, but have kept it open due to the steady stream of visitors who come to mourn, pray and meditate.

Every day we have people come from all over the country, he said. It has touched them in incredible ways.

Although the churchs membership was around 75-100 before the shootings, it has more than doubled since then, he said, noting about 190 worshipped at services last weekend.

Mike Ebert, NAMB spokesman, said, We are guaranteeing the funding of this building project.. so even if we dont receive donations that come in high enough to cover the costs, we will make sure that the building is paid for.

The deadly carnage at the rural Wilson County church shocked and horrified the nation and the world, but he said, Even the darkest of darkness can be outshined by the light of Jesus.

The hope, faith and perseverance shown by surviving parishioners have inspired others to offer help in replacing the old church that also served as a community gathering spot.

Theyve really become a symbol and encouragement to all of us, he said. There are thousands of people out there, and organizations and groups that want to be part of helping this church.

Although the renderings released Tuesday include a possible phase two building shown in gray, the funding commitments by the mission board and MG&A don't extend to that component at this time.

Pomeroy couldnt pass up the opportunity Tuesday to share some scripture. He chose Psalm 127.1, which says, Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain.
President Donald Trump, who has boasted hes rebuilding the military by supporting the largest budgets the Pentagon has seen in years, has worked recently to funnel money from the Defense Department budget for construction of a border wall that he once said would be paid for by Mexico.

Trump spelled out the idea in a tweet posted two days ago that said building a great Border Wall, with drugs (poison) and enemy combatants pouring into our Country, is all about National Defense. Build WALL through M!

The Washington Post reported that Trump had discussed the matter with Defense Secretary James Mattis and lawmakers on Capitol Hill in a private effort to seek military funding for the wall to augment $1.6 billion Congress had approved for it. He raised the issue with House Speaker Paul Ryan, who offered little reaction to the idea, the paper said.

Defense experts told the San Antonio Express-News late Tuesday that the Pentagon cant reprogram money already allocated in a pair of budget blueprints that will raise military spending to $700 billion this year and $716 billion for the fiscal year that starts in October. Congress, they said, would have to approve any such movement of the money.

The money and the appropriations act, at least the current one  is specifically identified for projects like operations and maintenance and particular procurement accounts and things like that, and there is a limit, and the $25 billion he wants for the border wall is far above the limit that would require congressional approval, said F. Whitten Peters, who served as secretary of the Air Force in the Clinton administration.

The presidents tweet doesnt mean anything in terms of what actually happens, added retired Marine Lt. Gen. Paul Van Riper, known for serving as a mentor to Mattis. Just because he tweeted it doesnt mean its going to happen, not without Congress getting involved.

Peters, Van Riper and others who include Jacob Cohn, research fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, agreed that small amounts of money can be moved between accounts, but anything rising into the billions would require Congress to intervene  a politically dicey situation for lawmakers who agreed to sharply increased defense funding to improve military readiness and would need to decide how to react if the Pentagon asked to move funds to meet a different set of priorities.

Trump campaigned on building a border wall and once claimed Mexico would pay for it. Though he pushed hard for $25 billion for it in the last round of budget negotiations, but the $1.6 billion that resulted for fencing and flood control levees on the border well short of that.

Trump briefly threatened to veto the $1.3 trillion spending measure, but signed it last week, averting a government shutdown, and repeatedly lauded the military spending as historic.

The Post reported hes since expressed regrets, saying it was a mistake and that he should have followed his instincts. Talking with senior aides last week, Trump noted the Defense Department was getting so much money as part of the spending package that the Pentagon surely could afford the border wall, two White House officials told the Post.

Van Riper, a former commanding general of the 2nd Marine Division at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, said the White House moved last week to sweep up unspent defense funding allocated to agencies or programs, to use for the border wall.

Peters, the former Air Force secretary, said it isnt uncommon for defense or service secretaries to reallocate small amounts of money to other programs within the Pentagon. In one case, he recalled shifting unspent money from flying hours to some other account, but said the amount wasnt large.

But unspent money is hard to find, and anything above double-digit millions has to be approved by Congress, Peters said.

Van Riper echoed that, saying: You cant move wholesale money into different programs inside of the Pentagon, so say an airplane under development is a billion dollars short, you cant reach around someplace else and get a billion dollars and move it over.

A former senior Pentagon official who spoke only on condition of anonymity said Defense Department money is authorized for specific uses and might be spent by specific agencies within the Homeland Security Department  but Congress still would have to move the money if it wasnt originally authorized that way.

It is the fact that money in DoD is appropriated by numbers  and anything that is appropriated within those accounts, within those larger pots of money, you have to go back to the Congress to get permission to move it, the former official said.

An amendment last fall sought by U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, D-El Paso, to block Pentagon funding from going to wall construction was initially approved by the House Armed Services Committee, but later was stripped out of the annual defense policy bill.

Generally speaking in terms of how Congress will authorize and appropriate money and how DoD can request reprogramming, it has to go to Congress, Cohn said. I just dont know if there is any special exception or exemption in this particular case, but in general thats the process they would have to go through.

But Christopher Swift, adjunct professor of national security studies at Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, said Trump could use his authority as commander-in-chief to build a border wall on an emergency basis. He said strict conditions would have to be in effect to do that.

He needs to go to Congress to get the money and if hes going to be using active-duty forces down there (on the border) he needs to go to Congress to get authorization so hes not in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, said Swift, a partner in a national security law practice who has worked in the Middle East, Central Asia, Afghanistan and Chechnya.

You can, in fact, use military forces for law enforcement purposes if Congress has approved it. But if Congress hasnt approved it, then the Posse Comitatus Act prohibits that, he said. Youve got to have some prior authorization from Congress like a declaration of war or the conditions necessary to trigger the Insurrection Act. We dont have that.

Congress did modify Posse Comitatus in the 1980s to allow the Army to combat drug trafficking.

I think Trump's wall idea is idiotic, said retired Army Col. Andrew Bacevich, author of several books on the military and a longtime critic of U.S. wars since 9/11. But, he said, the idea raised something worth considering.

Trump appears to be suggesting that the mission of the Department of Defense should include actually attending to the defense of the United States, Bacevich said. Take that seriously and the assumed priority assigned to pacifying Afghanistan or determining the future of Syria becomes more difficult to sustain. Perhaps the troops should be on the Texas-Mexican border rather than in Kandahar province.
The University of Texas became the first school on Monday to partner with the U.S. Census Bureau to help the public to evaluate the value of a degree from its various campuses.

The duo created a data tool that allows a user to filter by degree level, area of study and campus to see graduates' median earnings one, five and 10 years after graduation and compare it to the median amount those graduates have taken out.

At the University of Texas - San Antonio, those who graduated between 2004 and 2006 saw the greatest increase in earnings between their first and 10th year out of school, studied subjects like communication and media studies, biology, and business and managerial economics.

But the most money to be made out of the gate was in engineering. Those who studied civil, mechanical and electrical engineering made the most their first year out of school and were in the top tier of earners in their 10th year, according to data from the University of Texas and the U.S. Census Bureau.

A person who studied civil engineering at UTSA made $61,859 his or her first year out of school and $91,299 by year 10, according to the data. Only those who studied chemistry made more by the 10th year, with a median income of $91,743.

The median salary of those who left UTSA between 2001 and 2005 - the cohort with the most comprehensive 10-year data available - with a degree in business, management or marketing reached six figures by a decade after graduation.

Master's degrees in computer science and engineering aged about as well, according to the data.

The system said in a news release Monday that 92 percent of UT baccalaureate programs system-wide have a debt-to-income ratio of 10 percent or less one year after graduation, and 99 percent of them hold that statistic five years after graduation.

That means UT graduates who earned bachelor's degrees have relatively low monthly student loan payments compared with their monthly income.

UTSA bachelor graduates graduated with the highest median student loan debt in at least a handful of fields.

The median earnings for accounting major at UTSA his or her first year out of college, for example, is $45,128, according to the UT data, while the median loan is $26,735 - meaning the median loan is roughly 59 percent of a graduate's income the first year out of school.

That holds true for psychology majors as well. A UTSA psychology major's loans will account for 79 percent of his or her first-year income, according to the data, whereas a UT-Austin graduate's loans account for about 66 percent of his or her first-year income.

Finally, while mechanical engineering students make good money their first year out of school and their median salaries seem to increase by their fifth and then tenth years after school, UTSA students still see the highest median loans at $27,393.

Those three examples were somewhat randomly selected from the database based on what was available across all campuses, and they don't necessarily mean UTSA students overall have more debt than students at other campuses.

To learn more about the methodology behind the data collection and tool - or to download some of the data in bulk - visit the Census Bureau's website.

Correction: a previous version of this article incorrectly stated which UTSA graduate cohorts were referred to early on in the article and where the Bachelor's degree earners were working. The data refers to 2004-2006 Bachelor's graduates and 2001-2005 Master's graduates working in the United States. The graphics in this story have been updated to reflect that information.

amillerbernd@express-news.net @annieanyway
WASHINGTON - The Trump administrations plan to ask people in the 2020 census if they are U.S. citizens prompted an outcry from advocacy groups and former Census Bureau directors worried that it will reduce Latino participation and prevent a fair and accurate count.

The decision, announced by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on Monday night, triggered an immediate declaration by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra that his state will sue to block use of the question. Several more states are expected to ask courts to intervene.

Texas is unlikely to be among states challenging the decision given that Attorney General Ken Paxton last month asked the Census Bureau to include the question to give state legislatures the best available source of citizenship data for reapportionment.

The question of citizenship has not been posed in a once-in-a-decade census since 1950, although it is asked in the American Community Survey and smaller Census Bureau counts. Two former bureau directors called it a mistake.

He (Ross) is simply uniformed, said Kenneth Prewitt, Census Bureau director in the Clinton administration, referring to Rosss assertion that asking about citizenship is unlikely to diminish participation.

There is focus group data on the 2020 census that is turning up lots of anxiety about the government doing things to us that we dont want. These court cases and all the arguing will make it seem like the census is one more part of the country that is falling apart and not something people will want to cooperate with.

According to census data, some of the hardest to count areas are situated along the South Texas border and in San Antonio. In San Antonio, about 200,000 Hispanics live in what are categorized as hard-to-count tracts.

Steve Murdock, who headed the Census Bureau in the George W. Bush administration, said an undercount of Latinos is a likely outcome of the decision.

The people I know in Hispanic communities tell me that there would be a significant loss in participation if there is a citizenship question on there. They say its a double bind: If I respond by saying no, are they going to come get me? If I say yes, are they going to come check me?" said Murdock, a Rice University sociology professor.

The decision has implications for Texas and other states with significant immigrant populations. Census counts are used to allocate representation in Congress, and Texas is in line to add three seats based on population increases. At the same time, a burgeoning population of Latinos is pressing for added representation at all levels.

Meanwhile, the census count determines the formulas for government agencies distributing more than $600 billion to states and localities.

Murdock said he worried that areas with populations most in need will be unable to get government services because people declined to be counted.

If you dont know people are there, youre not going to be able to help them in various ways. That is one of the real concerns, he said

The announcement represents a victory for immigration hardliners in the Trump administration. Attorney General Jeff Sessions pressed for adding the question which, he said, could help better enforce the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Ross announced the decision a week after Trumps political arm recommended that he do so.

The president wants the 2020 United States census to ask people whether or not they are citizens, Trumps re-election committee, headed by Brad Parscale, of San Antonio, asserted last week in a fundraising appeal.

The money request gave recipients two choices to click on: Absolutely! Is that even a question? and No.

The decision found favor among groups pressing for immigration restrictions.

Ira Mehlman, media director of the Federation of American Immigration reform, said that citizenship is an important demographic trend, and we need to have that information so we can plan accordingly. Its not just a decennial headcount, its a snapshot of the country.

Ross, in a memo outlining his thinking, contended that the decision was his and his alone. He rejected concerns from advocacy groups and officials in the Census Bureau that the question would depress participation.

Neither the Census Bureau nor the concerned stakeholders could document that the response rate would, in fact, decline materially, he wrote.

I find that the need for accurate citizenship data and the limited burden that the reinstatement of the citizenship question would impose outweigh fears about a potentially lower response rate.

Census Bureau officials disclosed in November that counting Latinos could be a problem because of fears about the administrations deportation policies and potential misuse of their data, which is supposed to be kept confidential.

Speaking at a public advisory committee meeting, a bureau official said that initial testing had found an unprecedented groundswell in confidentiality and data sharing concerns related to the 2020 count.

Were concerned that this may present a barrier to participation in the 2020 census, said the official, Mikelyn Meyers. And this is particularly troubling due to the disproportionate impact on hard-to-count areas.

The decision adds another layer of uncertainty for the once-in-a-decade count, which already is hampered by a lack of funding and potential problems in the shift to counting mostly online.

In addition, the Census Bureau has no director, a position that has gone unfilled by the Trump administration since the previous director, John Thompson, resigned abruptly last spring.

Planning for the 2020 count is far along, and the only dress rehearsal began last week in Providence, R.I., after cancellation of several other full-scale tests for lack of funding.

Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund, told reporters that the decision has the potential of catastrophic consequences for Latinos and all Americans. The addition of this citizenship question in 2020 would be implemented blindly without any scientific evaluation of what impact it would have on public response rates.

Vanita Gupta, who was in charge of voting rights enforcement in the Obama administrations Justice Department, challenged Sessions claim that a citizenship question is essential to enforcing the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits voting practices that discriminate on the basis of race, color or ethnicity. She noted that the 1965 law came about 15 years after the citizenship question was last asked.

Vigorous enforcement of the Voting Rights Act has never required a citizenship question in the census, said Gupta, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, an umbrella organization represented over 200 groups.
Mayor Ron Nirenberg on Tuesday told City Council members that, with input he gathered from them, hes finalized performance metrics that will be used next year to determine the potential bonus for City Manager Sheryl Sculley.

With her contract set to expire at the end of the year, Sculley could receive as much as $100,000 on top of her annual base pay, which increased to $475,000 in 2018.

The city manager will be evaluated on seven general measures: professional skills, organizational staffing, relations with City Council, fiscal management, community relations, ethics and individual characteristics, and crisis and disaster-response and management. Each member will assess up to 10 points for each category. Additionally, there are 14 special initiatives specific to fiscal year 2018 that could earn up to an additional 70 points from each council member.

Included in those initiatives are the development and implementation of the Smart Cities program, City Hall and Frost Tower renovation projects, promotion of training and implementation of equity principles, climate-action work, preparation of legal defense of fire-union lawsuits, organization of succession planning and implementation of council-approved projects.

The points assessed by each council member, including the mayor, will be averaged. The memo states that the mayor may elect to omit the highest and lowest ratings to estimate a more accurate average of individual council members scores.

If the average is 84 points or below, Sculley would get no bonus. At an 85-point average, she would receive $10,000. The chart increases bonus dollars in two-point increments, ending with an average of 137 or more, which would earn the maximum bonus of $100,000.

Metrics also were set by the mayor and council for the city clerk and city auditor, who along with the city manager, report directly to the council.

The metrics were jointly developed by the individuals concerned and my office, utilizing your direct input, Nirenberg wrote in a memo to council members.

The process will require that each position provide self-appraisals  using the attached form  to the City Council by December 1, said the memo, obtained by the San Antonio Express-News. I will, in turn, meet with each councilmember directly to receive their respective scoring for each position, before presenting the City Council with summary appraisals.

Final evaluations, scoring and decisions regarding pay will be made by the full council prior to the end of the year, Nirenberg wrote.

The mayor acknowledged dissatisfaction with the process and said a permanent fix is coming.

There seems to be broad agreement that the performance evaluation system needs to be improved, he wrote, adding that a request for proposals for executive performance and compensation consultants was issued.

I expect that the recommended firm will be selected in May. The consultants will help inform the City Council regarding overall compensation, as well as future performance evaluation/pay systems for these three positions, starting in 2019.

In February 2016, the City Council approved a three-year contract extension for Sculley, which included annual increases to her base salary and recast how shed earn annual bonuses. Previously used as an incentive to stay, the bonus structure was recast by then-Mayor Ivy Taylor to one that would be awarded based on performance.

Soon after, Taylor worked with Sculley to devise a set of metrics against which shed be judged in 2017 for the work she did in 2016, which included inking a new contract with the San Antonio Police Officers Association. The council approved a $67,000 bonus.

But Taylor failed to outline another set of metrics to measure Sculleys 2017 performance, so this year the new mayor and council were forced to decide on an amount without having preset metrics to measure against. Half the council hadnt even been city officials for the first half of 2017.

They decided on $75,000 of a possible $100,000.

This plan is a remarkable improvement to the total lack of criteria we had for the 2017 evaluations. Our city clerk, auditor and manager, council members, and the public deserve to know how we plan to conduct future performance evaluations and that standards that will be applied, Councilman Manny Pelaez said. Fair performance evaluations are key to managing staff and setting organizational goals.

Pelaez said he knows some San Antonians will object to some of the criteria.

They should know that there was disagreement on the council as to the weight given to each goal or the bonus scoring, he said. Its important to keep in mind that there is no such thing as a flawless evaluation. To expect one is unreasonable. Effective leaders must not allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good.

As he did when the council awarded the $75,000 bonus this year  a decision made during a closed-door executive session  Councilman Greg Brockhouse said he believes council members should take a public vote on approving bonuses.

I continue to be concerned that we are offering a bonus to an already generously compensated city executive, said Brockhouse, an outspoken critic of Sculleys compensation package. The bonus criteria also forces a council member who doesn't believe the manager should receive a bonus to intentionally rate her lower to ensure that a bonus is not awarded.

That is unfair to the council member and the city manager, he said. Still, it's better than nothing.

City Hall sources say theres been little or no discussion about Sculleys future as the city manager. She started here in 2005 and has been awarded several contract extensions. Though her contract is set to expire Dec. 31, that doesnt mean her work ends. Sculleys salary would remain flat in 2019 at a base of $475,000 until she parts ways from San Antonio municipal government.

Her contract stipulates that effective Jan. 15, 2017, the City shall annually pay the Manager up to $100,000 in performance pay subject to City Council review based upon the metrics under paragraph 6 or another agreed upon determination of performance pay.

It does not contemplate an end date.
Lets put aside, for a moment, the question of whether a five-story apartment complex is the best use for the long-dormant dirt lot just north of the historic Hays Street Bridge.

Lets temporarily agree not to get bogged down in the endless debate over whether the city reneged years ago on an agreement to create a public park on that 1.7-acre parcel of land.

Lets just focus on what the city, or more specifically, City Manager Sheryl Sculley, is saying to the members of the community who have organized against the proposed apartment complex.

Last Friday, Sculley sent a letter to the projects developer, Mitch Meyer of Loopy Limited, approving the mixed-use development, with conditions.

Those conditions concerned lighting, roofing, building facades and the amount of separation between the complex and the bridge. She also required that the final plan be presented to the Dignowity Hill Architecture Review Committee and the Design Review Committee of the citys Historic and Design Review Commission (HDRC).

Consider the efforts of the developments opponents.

They respected and observed the governing process. They rallied support for their cause, sat through long community meetings and successfully made their case  twice  before the HDRC, which rejected the project last December and a revised version of it earlier this month.

In the face of all that, with one letter, our city manager unilaterally throws out the results of that process and approves the development. She essentially tells members of the community that the public process for dealing with these kinds of issues is a sham, unless that process produces her preferred result.

Sculley is well within her rights to do this. The HDRC is merely an advisory body and the City Code gives the city manager the power to review and disregard the commissions decisions. But this might not be the most inspiring civics lesson to impart in a city where its a constant struggle to get even 10 percent of eligible voters to show up for municipal elections.

People dont vote, not because of apathy, but because of despair, said Amy Kastely, the lawyer representing the Hays Street Bridge Restoration Group, which opposes Sculleys decision.

Kastely was one of the more than 50 residents who turned up for a Monday night vigil on the Hays Street Bridge. The crowd included Rick Trevino, the school teacher who is locked in a Democratic runoff battle in U.S. District 23; Mario Salas and Keith Toney, former East Side council members; and Graciela Sanchez, director of the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center.

Protesters carried signs proclaiming This Is Class Warfare, Culture Over Gentrification and Youre Not Just Developing This Bridge, Youre Burning One.

Trevino, an unabashed Bernie Sanders progressive, said, Its just crazy to see power being catered towards the most privileged interest groups and developers in the city, on the backdrop of one of the poorest communities in the United States.

Its impossible to look at Sculleys tentative approval of the project in a vacuum. This is a grass-roots fight that goes back 18 years, with Nettie Hinton and other East Siders working to save a dilapidated, old, wrought-iron trussed bridge that had been closed to traffic since 1982.

In January 2002, the bridge restoration effort received $2.9 million in federal funds. That left roughly $700,000 to complete the effort and the city basically dumped that burden on community activists, who worked like crazy to raise the needed funds.

Part of their fundraising effort was getting BudCo Ltd., the owners of the vacant lot north of the bridge, to donate it to the city in 2007, with the dream of creating a park there. The city turned around and sold it to Eugene Simor, the owner of Alamo Beer Co.

This was a blatant double-cross on the part of the city. The one time the issue was addressed in court, a Bexar County district court ruled in favor of the Restoration Group. (A 2017 reversal by the 4th Court of Appeals was not based on the substance of the district court ruling, but the question of the citys immunity from lawsuit.)

Its not hard to understand Sculleys desire to broker a deal. She sees the possibility of development on a vacant piece of East Side property, which means investment, additional housing and a new revenue stream for the city.

Unfortunately, it also means that the city is once again telling bridge-restoration activists that their concerns are just an annoying inconvenience.
14 Opposition Parties Win Auction of Land at Sakdrisi Gold Mine

By Tea Mariamidze

14 Georgian opposition parties, united under Dmanisi Saving Fund, have won the auction of the 16 ha land, adjacent to Sakdrisi Gold Mine and archeological site near Dmanisi, Kvemo Kartli region.The initial price of the land for 10 year disposal was 15,000 GEL ($6,133), however, in the end, the fund managed to win the auction for 5,056,000 GEL ($2,073,575).The parties decided to take part in the auction after it became known that there was only one participant of the auction, mining company RMG Gold, which has been obtaining gold from Sakdrisi mine since 2013.The land, which has been put up at auction, is located right next to the area, where RMG is carrying out works.The opposition parties accuse RMG Gold of obtaining gold without observing necessary norms and of being connected to tycoon Bidzina Ivanishvili, founder of the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party and former Prime Minister of Georgia.They bought the land to prevent the company from carrying out additional mining works, saying they would not let billionaire Ivanishvili get additional money from the state land.The parties also claim the works of RMG Gold negatively affect the health of the locals, adding they suffer from grave diseases, especially cancer.In the end three sides took part in the auction: Dmanisi Saving Fund, RMG Gold and the third interested person whose name is unknown.Now the Fund has 45 days to transfer the money to the Ministry of Economy, however, during these days the members of the Foundation will be able to enter the territory and look around.The parties have already paid 3,GEL as a guarantee, but if they fail to collect the money and transfer it to the ministry, the auction will be annulled and new one will be announced.Giorgi Vashadze, one of the members of Dmanisi saving Fund and the leader of non-parliamentary opposition party, New Georgia, the foundation has not been officially registered, adding the Justice Ministry deliberately hindered the process.As the politician says, after the procedures of the registration are over, volunteers can transfer money to the found and help to gather 5 million.Vashadze explained that people are interested to save the land hopes they will gather the necessary sum.Next week we will take appropriate measures. We saw a huge interest from the population. Many people have stated they are willing to participate in this process financially assist us, Vashadze added.Along the opposition parties, the representatives of Sakdrisi Protection Committee, composed of Non-Governmental Organizations, environmentalists and ordinary people are also against that RMG Gold obtained the 16 ha land.They accuse the company of the air, water and soil contamination at Sakdrisi.Local and foreign archaeologists claim there are traces of old humans in Sakdrisi dating back 5,000 years. The Sakdrisi mountain-archaeological mine is believed to be the world's oldest gold-mining center. The settlement from the Bronze-Age period is found on this territory. In 2006, the mine was granted the status of cultural monument, which was lifted in 2013.
Re: Zuckerberg summoned by lawmakers, Nation, March 21:

Russia made me do it. Now, Facebook made me do it. I never realized all the influences that were secretly motivating me to vote for my president.

Come on, liberal media, do not inundate me with more useless ink. I do have a brain and can think on my own.

Jack Hardy, Adkins

Voting power

Re: How to make everyones vote matter, Editorial, March 18:

Allow me to praise this editorial. I have long known that the Electoral College system is manifestly unfair, primarily because of the winner-take-all approach used, as you note, in most states. Either of the lawsuits you describe could go a long way toward fairness.

Also, we should remember that a vote cast in Wyoming has far more power than one cast in California or Texas. But correcting that would take a constitutional amendment, a bigger obstacle than a state-by-state correction.

Maurice Fox

Heed the suffering

Re: My brothers and my sisters, driven by love, Luis Roberto Vera Jr., Opinion, March 18:

This column is a beautiful, moving emotional appeal to the plight of the illegal immigrant.

There is no argument for this kind of commentary  because it contains no argument. There is no solution to the problem; there is no logical response, merely a feeling of sorrow and of pity.

Yes, the illegal is our brother. Yes, we are all human. But we are also America, and if a country has no borders, it will cease to exist. If the food, water and medicine is strewn on the ground and left, the vultures and coyotes will come in and steal it, and the humble men and women who just want a better life for themselves and their families will be left with nothing. And their plight will be worse, because there will no longer be any hope for them to improve their lot in life.

So what should we do? Try donating to relief efforts around the world, such as Samaritans Purse or World Vision. Try volunteering at a local homeless shelter or church organization. Try listening to the suffering people around you.

We, the people, must be the difference. We, the people, must fight poverty and ignorance. Dont wait for Washington or Austin to do our job for us.

Micah Walker
by Dan Harris | Padres Correspondent | Tue, Mar 27th 9:29pm EDT

Mark Melancon is dealing with an undisclosed injury, and is uncertain for Opening Day, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. (San Francisco Chronicle)

Fantasy Impact:

It's assumed that Melancon is dealing with some sort of arm injury, but the Giants have provided no details as of yet. If you're a Melancon owner, don't be overly concerned just yet, but pick up Sam Dyson and/or Hunter Strickland just in case.
by Patrick Cole | Rockets Correspondent | Wed, Mar 28th 1:07am EDT

Eric Gordon hit 11-of-17 shots on Tuesday en route to a game-high 31 points. He added one rebound, one assist, and one block on the night.

Fantasy Impact:

Without James Harden, Gordon led the way for the Rockets. He was incredibly efficient against the Bulls and knocked down 8-of-13 three-pointers. He didn't offer much else besides points and threes, but this was a big performance from Rockets' sixth man. Gordon is expected to return to a bench role for Friday's game against Phoenix.
by Alex Murray | Heat Correspondent | Wed, Mar 28th 2:19pm EDT

Kyle Lowry scored 11 points on 40 percent shooting from the field during Toronto's win over the Nuggets on Tuesday. Lowry added eight dimes, five boards and four swats in 33 minutes of action.
by Alex Murray | Bulls Correspondent | Wed, Mar 28th 2:25pm EDT

DeMar DeRozan scored 15 points on 58 percent shooting from the field during Toronto's 114-110 win over Denver on Tuesday night. DeRozan added eight assists, two steals and a rebound in 30 minutes of action.

Fantasy Impact:

DeRozan matched his backcourt mate Kyle Lowry with eight dimes as the All-Stars spread the ball around to the seven different Raptors that reached double-digits. DeRozan also scored a three-point shot for the first time in five games (he went 1-for-3 from deep on the night) and shot above 50 percent from the field for the first time in two weeks.
by Ryan Patti | Wed, Mar 28th 6:40pm EDT

Jordan Mickey compiled seven points on 3-for-6 shooting (0-for-1 from three, 1-for-2 at the stripe), five boards, one block and a steal in 23 minutes on Tuesday.
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A farmer has had no choice but to shoot a dog dead after it ran loose on farmland and attacked sheep.

The Cotswolds farmer shot the Husky dead on Monday (26 March) after it chased and attacked dozens of sheep, killing one lamb in the process.

According to Gloucestershire police, the farmer tried to catch the large dog first but failed to do so.

The farmer had no other option left but to shoot the dog.

The dog's owner has since apologised to the farmer for the ordeal, and arrangements have been made to compensate him for the loss of his lamb.

Wildlife Crime Officer Ashley Weller, based in the Cotswolds said: Every year farmers suffer the consequences of irresponsible dog owners, with many of their sheep being attacked and killed or losing their unborn young.

Once again we are appealing to all dog owners to keep their pets on leads when they are near any livestock, no matter how much you trust them. This is for your own sake as well as the farm animals.

It is an offence to allow your dog to worry livestock and farmers have legal rights, under certain conditions, to shoot the dog if they feel the livestock is in danger.

In Monday's incident the farmer did everything he could to try and catch the dog, but as a last resort had no choice but to shoot it to prevent more of his flock being killed. There is still a strong possibility the pregnant ewes will miscarry over the next few days.

Anyone identified letting their dog off the lead resulting in an attack or worrying incident will be dealt with by the police and compensation will be sought for the farmer.

Previous cases

Under the Dogs (Protection of Livestock) Act 1953, if a dog worries sheep on agricultural land, the person in charge of the dog is guilty of an offence.

The Act considers sheep worrying to include attacking sheep, chasing them in a way that may cause injury, suffering, abortion or loss of produce or being at large in a field or enclosure in which there are sheep.

To protect their livestock, the farmer has the right to kill the offending dog.

A Welsh farmer shot a dog dead which ran havoc on his land and savaged six of his sheep last summer.

And in June last year, a Wiltshire farmer shot dead a dog which ran havoc and savaged two of his sheep. The farmer said the whole incident had been 'deeply upsetting'.

A further two farmers shot dead loose dogs attacking their livestock in 2017. A farmer from Aberdeenshire shot dead a dog which killed two of his sheep, and a farmer from Fife shot dead a loose dog which attacked his livestock.

A farmer from Hertfordshire said due to the recent rises in sheep worrying cases, he said that he won't 'hesitate in shooting in future'.
Accumulated Pension Reform and Initiatives from Social-Democrats

By Levan Khutsishvili

On March 12, 2018 Sector Economy and Economic Policy Committee of Parliament did not support project of the pension reform, submitted by the Georgian Government.After the long discussions, committee concluded that project is not prepared enough and fundamental changes are needed. Some of the committee members do not agree with the offered system of pension accumulation, as they believe that on the one hand it doesnt guarantee growth of the pension in nearest future and on the other- it is not transparent and clear, where and how will the government invest money accumulated from employees.Accumulated Pension Reform was presented on October 1, 2017 and is based on following postulates:1. Employees under the age of 40 will be obliged to transfer 2% of their monthly salaries in to the individual pension account, employer will add 2% of the employees salary and government will add 2% of the salary.2. For employees above 40, involvement in the system will not be obligatory.3. Self-employed citizens will transfer 4% of their monthly income and government will add 2%. Conditions with age are the same as for employees.Project of the reform was criticized in many directions, and after the unsuccessful discussion in Sector Economy and Economic Policy Committee, political fraction Social-Democrats asked government to organize discussion about the topic and study all alternative versions of the reform if there will be any.Social-Democrats themselves have a project of the reform, that differs, from government's initiative in many ways.As Beka Natsvlishvili, Member of Parliamentary Fraction Georgian Dream  Social Democrats declared in the interview with Maestro, pension reform is vital for the country and it should be discussed among the several interested actors.It is a fact that pension reform should be implemented. This is inevitable, because today we do not have a Pension System, the one we have is Social Help, as two fundamental issues is not taken into consideration: it is a seniority and working experience. Therefore, there is a need for this reform, it should be understood by the society and business, said Beka Natsvlishvili.According to the Social-Democrats project:1. Basic Pension will be increasing by at least 2% per year, which is around 20 GEL growth. As Mr.Natsvlishvili said, pension is measured by so-called replacement coefficient, which implies pension relative to average wages, which is 1130 GEL and is increasing. So the initiative from Social-Democrats is that Basic Pension should not be less than 17% of the average salary.2. Second difference is so called Solidarity Column between Generations, which will be based on 2+2 principles (state and employer will contribute 2-2% of employees salary to the pension fund). According to this initiative young generation will pay for the pension of the older generation, and the working experience and seniority will be taken into consideration. Difference between Solidarity Column between Generations and the Governmental project is that, government was planning to give pension to the person after 20-25 years, as any citizen under 40 is obliged to pay pension fund. Pension age starts from 65 for men and from 60 for women. Social-Democrats say, that if the new pension reform will be implemented in 2019, according to their project, person will receive increased pension from 2020, so it will not be necessary to wait 20-25 years.3. Third part of initiatives is related with the change of age boundary. Social-Democrats believe that instead of age 40, citizens under the age of 50 should make compulsory contribution and above 50 years it should be voluntary.Social  Democrats claim their initiative is focused on creation of social equality in Georgia.You know that revenues are very different. The level of inequality in respect of salaries is very different and Solidarity Column between Generations consists the solidarity fund where part of the contributions will be accumulated and be spent on creation of Social equality, stated Beka Natsvlishvili.
The UK's farming unions have urged the government to use Brexit to herald a new "agricultural revolution" and for any new policy to be "fair to all farms".

The four UK farming unions have used a joint-meeting to agree a set of priorities for achieving the best Brexit outcome for the farming industry.

Presidents Barclay Bell, Ulster Farmers Union; Minette Batters, National Farmers Union; Andrew McCornick, NFU Scotland; and John Davies, NFU Cymru are calling on the UK government to use Brexit to herald a new agricultural revolution.

They urged the government to make sure any future policy continues the pursuit of "high quality, safe and affordable food" without any barriers.

The statement comes as the UK moves to the next phase of Brexit negotiations following the sign-off on the framework for a future relationship between the UK and EU.

In a joint-statement, the farming union Presidents said: A well-managed Brexit must herald an agricultural revolution. Enabling UK farmers to continue to deliver high quality, safe, affordable and responsibly produced food for all UK consumers, whatever their income.

Our farming and food sector has some of the best standards of food safety, animal welfare and traceability in the world. Brexit should celebrate these standards and new third country trade agreements must not undermine them.

Weaken regulations

There are fears that Britain could significantly weaken its food and safety regulations when it signs its own trade deals after it has left the EU.

Brexit could be used to allow US imports of inferior meat and dairy. According to a recent investigation, regulations could be weakened that prevent milk from cows with infected udders reaching British consumers.

It follows news of a senior business representative to President Donald Trump warning that the British public may also have to accept chlorinated chicken as part of any trade deal between the UK and the US.

Wilbur Ross, the US commerce secretary, said any trade deal between the two countries would need to scrap rules that were set by Brussels.

A free trade deal between the US and the UK also has the potential to dilute EU-set high welfare standards, and has led the British poultry industry to call the possibility "very concerning".

In their joint-statement, the farming union Presidents emphasised current efforts by UK farmers to manage the environment and high animal welfare standards.

They said current standards are "critical" to the UK's healthy soils, clean water, vibrant wildlife and managed landscapes.

The Presidents said farmers' environmental credentials are "both the result and underpinning of sustainable food production".

'Frictionless access'

The joint-statement said the UK farming industry must retain "frictionless access" to European market after Brexit.

It continued: Brexit is going to bring fundamental change to our sector. A sector that has been driven by European farm and environmental regulation for over 40 years.

Farmers in the UK and in Europe are worried that frictionless access to each other's markets could be lost after the UK leaves the EU.

EU agricultural co-operative Copa and Cogeca has said it has "serious concerns" about the potential impact on farmers and agri-businesses on both sides.

Copa President Joachim Rukwied said: It is important to minimise any disruption to trade. The European farmers and agri-cooperatives strongly believe that, depending on the guarantees obtained, the UK should remain in the Single Market and Customs Union.

If this is not possible, the EU and UK should find a new customs arrangement that enables frictionless trade as much as possible, whilst preserving the integrity of the Single Market.

UK devolved collaboration

The Presidents' statement then turned their attention to joint-collaboration, saying farming ministers in all four regions of the UK must collaborate to "take back control" of agricultural policy.

The call for UK-wide collaboration comes as new legislation to protect devolved powers after Brexit has been passed overwhelmingly by the Scottish and Welsh governments in a bid to stop a Westminster "power grab" on issues such as agriculture support and food labelling.

However, the farming industry has expressed fears over disagreements between the UK government and devolved governments.

The chief executive of the Tenant Farmers' Association (TFA) aired his concern that disagreements between Westminster and the devolved governments of the UK could impede a post-Brexit agreement for agriculture.

'Irrespective of size'

The statement continued and said policy changes need to be "fair to all farms irrespective of size or system, with sufficient time for farm businesses to adapt".

Alongside, better regulation with support and promotion of UK farming standards that protect the single UK market from competitive distortions, it said.

Replacing the CAP with domestic farm policy measures alone will be insufficient to see farming thrive. We also need a comprehensive approach with all parts of Government across the UK contributing, including delivering fair trade deals, continued access to labour and improved application of new technology.

In particular, farmers need to be equal partners in the supply chain. Our ambition is a post-Brexit supply chain that is fair and equitable for all.
Prince Charles has met with young farmers and agricultural students to learn how the Cumbrian farming industry is preparing for the future.

The Prince of Wales visited Newton Rigg College's Sheep Husbandry Centre at its hill farm, Low Beckside, Mungrisdale, to see how young Cumbrian farmers are preparing themselves for the future.

Students demonstrated how they use the latest technology, such as how handheld scanners can record animal data, from the sheeps ear tag number, to its weight and any health issues the animal may have.

They also displayed more traditional skills, such as tagging lambs and sheepdog training.

Prince Charles then joined in with a discussion as part of the The Princes Countryside Fund Preparing for Transition activity.

Cumbrian farmers who have been supported by the Fund were brought together to share how they planned to create businesses that were fit for future generations.

Catherine Dixon, Chief Executive of Askham Bryan College said: We were delighted to show The Prince of Wales the important work we are doing to inspire and equip agriculture's future leaders and custodians of the countryside.

For generations farmers have played a crucial role in providing the nation's food, but also in caring for our landscapes and our College has played a key role in that. We are passionate about continuing that tradition and particularly to ensure our uplands remain a vibrant workplace as well as a picturesque asset.

Claire Saunders, Director of The Princes Countryside Fund said the visit by the Prince demonstrated the "many diverse and important ways" that farmers are preparing for the future.

It was heartening to hear the conversation between local farmers on their aspirations and plans for their businesses, Ms Saunders said.

Prince Charles also visited the Lake District to herald future opportunities for the national park and hill sheep farming, which he said has helped shape the landscape for generations.

He said it seemed entirely appropriate that the Lake Districts UNESCO recognition was in the Cultural Landscape category describing how the "incomparable beauty" was a consequence of more than one thousand years of human activity.
A special rare-breed of sheep has been killed following a dog attack in Scotland's oldest Local Nature Reserve.

The incident happened at the Aberlady Nature Reserve in East Lothian during the first week of March, and now an appeal has been made for more information.

The Reserve holds Chevease sheep, a hardy-breed used to conserve habitats. They are usually found across central Scotland.

Rory Sandison, reserves manager for the Scottish Wildlife Trust, told East Lothian Courier that he is "appalled" at the "reckless" incident.

(Photo: East Lothian Council)

The trust and East Lothian Council want to reinforce the message that dogs are not allowed at Aberlady Bay and that people with dogs near grazing animals should adhere to the Scottish Outdoor Access Code, Mr Sandison said.

Sheep are prey animals by nature and even the presence of a dog will cause stress. This can lead to them losing condition and can even cause pregnant ewes to abort their lambs. The loss of this sheep has a financial cost to the trust of 250 and it is a criminal offence for anyone in charge of a dog to allow this to happen.

Duncan Priddle, East Lothian Council countryside officer, said: Irresponsible exercising of dogs on the reserve is neither wanted nor welcome.

"When dogs kill sheep it is distressing. It angers not only the owners of the sheep but jeopardises the continuation of the conservation grazing scheme as a whole.

"At Aberlady, we will actively intervene to request all dog owners exercise their dog at more suitable locations elsewhere in East Lothian.

Anyone with information regarding the incident have been urged to contact Police Scotland immediately on 101.
Benefits and pitfalls of clover overseeding examined on farm

'If it's not 20% clover, its not doing the job'
Veteran screenwriter Javed Akhtar today warned "bigots" to be wary of communalising the Indian film industry, which he termed as "the citadel of secularism". The 73-year-old lyricist-writer's comments come after India-based French journalist Francois Gautier had responded to reports of a planned on-screen adaptation of Mahabharat, in which Aamir Khan could possibly play Krishna, highlighting the Bollywood star's religion.

Without naming Gautier, Akhtar, who has spent 53-years in films, asked people to stop spreading hatred in the name of faith in the field of cinema. "I had joined film industry in 1965 on a salary of 50 rupees per month. In these 53 years not for a second I have experienced or even seen any communal bias in our industry.

"This film industry is the citadel of secularism. Bigots, don't try to pollute it," he tweeted today.

Gautier had tweeted, "Why should @AamirKhan, a Muslim, play in most ancient & sacred of Hindu epics, the Mahabharata? Is @BJP4India Govt of @narendramodi going to be like the @INCIndia & just stand by in name of secularism??? Would Muslims allow a Hindu to play life of Mohamed?"

Akhtar had earlier slammed the journalist for behaving like a PR machine, calling him "clueless" about Indian history and films.

"Can somebody educate this clueless idiot Gautier that a film Mahabharata was made in 1965 and had become a super hit. The producer's name was Ghaffar Bhai Nadiadwala. This is India that we are proud of. Can some body explain it to the dimwit," Akhtar had written earlier.

While promoting Secret Superstar, Aamir Khan had said, " "My dream project is to make the Mahabharata but I'm afraid of starting the project as I know it will consume at least 15-20 years of my life."

He had further added, "My favourite character is Karna, but I don't know if I'll be able to play him due to my physique. I may just have to play Krishna. I also liked the character of Arjun. He was the only person who asked Krishna why he had to kill his own people."

Inputs From PTI
Work Mode On

Arjun captioned the picture as, "Satinder Dahiya reporting for duty Janaab." In the still, we see Arjun picking up an argument with two men.

What's With The Gloomy Mood, Parineeti?

The actress shared this still and captioned it as, "One of our most intense films!!! Gave my blood and sweat to it - LITERALLY!!!

Arjun Kapoor's Tough Cop Act

Arjun plays a 30-year-old police constable from Haryana. Reportedly, the film will focus on the "dilemma" of 'Bharat vs India', the country's urban-rural divide. Speaking about it, Arjun had earlier shared, "There is a dilemma that our country is facing nowadays- 'Bharat v/s India'. These are the two types of thought processes which have emerged over the last 8-10 years. The film deals with the psychology of people, who are influenced by the changes in the society and how they are going through their own ups and downs because of the changes.

On The Other Hand,

Parineeti essays the role of fierce, ambitious girl from the corporate world'. She has revealed to a leading daily, "I'm playing a fiercely ambitious girl from the corporate world. She is the perfect example of how you would describe a girl, who has a single-point-focus on her career. She is based in Delhi and is extremely clear of what she wants from life."

Arjun On Teaming Up With Parineeti Again

"We are working in two films. First in Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar and then, whether you're satisfied or not, we will come together in Namastey Canada as well. So next year, I am going to be linked-up only with Parineeti because I would be working only with her."

Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar Shot At Indo-Nepal Border

A source shared, " Dibakar is filming extremely intense and gritty portions of the film at the Indo-Nepal border. The portions will show the tension between Arjun and Parineeti's character. These are crucial and defining moments of the film. The area where the two are shooting is exactly at the border and is constantly under alert for illegal immigration and smuggling. People use an inflated rubber tube as a flotation device on the Kali river at the border and make this risky crossing in the thick of a wintry night. So, shooting has been quite difficult. Local authorities have been of tremendous help providing the crew with assistance and necessary security."
Farhan Sets The Record Straight

Rubbishing the news, Farhan tweeted, "Request those who conjure up news about #Don3 without any fact checking to please refrain. It is not fair to raise expectations of the films fanbase via false news."

No False News Please!

Putting an end to baseless rumors the actor appealed to curb loose speculation. The actor has requested not to spread false news across as it may increase unfair expectations of the film's fanbase audience.

For Those Who Ain't Aware

A DNA report had quoted a source as saying, "Farhan will also act in this film. He will play a desi top cop to Shah Rukh's Don. Since a portion of the film will be set in India, Farhan will be seen donning the policeman's uniform in the film."

Don 3 To Roll Next Year?

The daily had further stated that Farhan and Shahrukh plan to bankroll the project mid-next year.

Priyanka Chopra To Get Replaced?

It was also reported that the new film won't be having Priyanka Chopra as Roma and quoted a source as saying, "The storyline is such that it doesn't need Priyanka's character. It's likely to have a new cast, which will be locked soon."
Throwback Picture From The Wedding

Sridevi looks so jovial in the picture with Akshay and Aashita, and it's still hard to believe that just two days later she lost her life.

Sridevi Looked Fabulous At Mohit & Antara's Wedding!

Sridevi rocked Mohit and Antara's wedding in Dubai as she looked fit and fabulous in all the pictures. Here, she is seen having a good time with Sonam Kapoor's mother Sunita Kapoor.

Manish-Sridevi-Anil-KJo

No matter what the event was, Manish Malhotra and Karan Johar were always beside Sridevi and their friendship lasted until the last day of her death.

Ace Designer Manish Malhotra

We guess this was the last selfie Manish Malhotra could ever take with Sridevi. He really was a true friend right from the beginning to the end, no doubt about that.

Even Khushi Kapoor Killed It!

Khushi Kapoor poses along with her mother Sridevi at the wedding bash and the mother-daughter duo look nothing less than a dream.

A Family & Friends Picture

Sridevi poses along with her husband Boney Kapoor and daughter Khushi Kapoor at Mohit and Antara's wedding in Dubai and are surrounded by their friends and children. It's a typical and perfect wedding bash picture.

The Gorgeous Khushi Kapoor

The young and lovely Khushi Kapoor poses for a picture and proudly flaunts her outfit. Jhanvi Kapoor could not attend the wedding in Dubai as she was busy shooting for her debut movie Dhadak in Mumbai.

Mohit Marwah & Antara Motiwala

Mohit Marwah and Antara Motiwala tied the knot on February 21, 2018 in Dubai and it was a grand affair.
Yeh Hai Mohabbatein - Latest Update

While Ishita was following Raman and thinking of surprising him, she finds the lady in black coat and follows her. She worries as to who the lady is.

Raman Saves Ishita

As Ishita was busy following the lady, she doesn't see a car speeding towards her. At the right time, Raman saves her life and is surprised to see Ishita in London.

Mystery Lady Follows Ishita

Meanwhile, Ishita reveals to Raman that a lady has been following her, but he tells her that he didn't find anyone except her at the place. On the other hand, a Tarot reader seeks help from Mihika.

Tarot Reader Reveals Ishita Is In Danger

The tarot reader sees Ishita's picture on the wall and reveals to Mihika that their house is in the bad influence of an evil spirit. She also reveals that Ishita is in danger. While Mihika is worried about Ishita, Ruhi tells the tarot reader that they don't believe in these stuffs.

Ishita & Raman Romance In London

In the upcoming episode, we will see Ishita and Raman romancing in London. Raman makes Ishita wear a ring and tells her that he won't get separated from her, while Ishita promises that she will always love him. Ishita will also be seen dancing for Sridevi's song.

Charu Mehra Plays A Ghost!

Apparently, the character of the evil spirit is played by Charu Mehra. A source was quoted by Spotboye as saying, "Charu plays a ghost in Yeh Hai Mohabbatein. She will follow Ishita to London and the horror angle of the show will commence. The makers are all set to scare the hell out of fans."

Charu Mehra

Regarding her role Charu was quoted by Tellychakkar as saying, "I will be entering Yeh Hai Mohobbatein and my character will be highly mysterious, adding spice to the already twisted story."

Tarot Reader To Help Ishita

Also, the Tarot reader, who warned Mihika will be helping Ishita to get rid of this evil spirit. Well, this is not the first time that Ekta is trying supernatural tracks on the show. Earlier too, Ishita was shown possessed by evil spirit, but later it was shown that Ishita was faking it to save Ruhi. Well, it has to be seen as to what Ekta has in store for the viewers with this new ghost track.
La pubblicazione di contributi, approfondimenti, articoli e in genere di tutte le opere dottrinarie e di commento (ivi comprese le news) presenti su Filodiritto e stata concessa (e richiesta) dai rispettivi autori, titolari di tutti i diritti morali e patrimoniali ai sensi della legge sul diritto d'autore e sui diritti connessi (Legge 633/1941). La riproduzione ed ogni altra forma di diffusione al pubblico delle predette opere (anche in parte), in difetto di autorizzazione dell'autore, e punita a norma degli articoli 171, 171-bis, 171-ter, 174-bis e 174-ter della menzionata Legge 633/1941. E consentito scaricare, prendere visione, estrarre copia o stampare i documenti pubblicati su Filodiritto nella sezione Dottrina per ragioni esclusivamente personali, a scopo informativo-culturale e non commerciale, esclusa ogni modifica o alterazione. Sono parimenti consentite le citazioni a titolo di cronaca, studio, critica o recensione, purche accompagnate dal nome dell'autore dell'articolo e dall'indicazione della fonte, ad esempio: Luca Martini, La discrezionalita del sanitario nella qualificazione di reato perseguibile d'ufficio ai fini dell'obbligo di referto ex. art 365 cod. pen., in "Filodiritto" (https://www.filodiritto.com), con relativo collegamento ipertestuale. Se l'autore non e altrimenti indicato i diritti sono di Inforomatica S.r.l. e la riproduzione e vietata senza il consenso esplicito della stessa. E sempre gradita la comunicazione del testo, telematico o cartaceo, ove e avvenuta la citazione.
Congress and some other Opposition parties have signed a draft proposal for moving an impeachment motion against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, ANI reported.

Congress and some other Opposition parties have signed a draft proposal for moving an impeachment motion against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, ANI reported.

The news agency quoted NCP leader DP Tripathi as saying that many parties, including NCP, Left parties, and TMC may have signed the proposal apart from Congress.

The parties had resumed discussion on the impeachment motion after they felt that the chief justice was not doing enough to address the key issues raised by the four seniormost judges concerning the functioning of the Supreme Court when they held an unprecedented joint press conference in January, The Economic Times reported quoting a senior leader in an Opposition party. The impeachment motion could be tabled in the ongoing Budget Session.

To bring an impeachment motion, the proposal should have a support of 50 members if it is introduced in the Rajya Sabha, and likewise 100 members in Lok Sabha. The motion can be submitted in either House and the Speaker may admit or reject such a proposal. In case the proposal is accepted, the Speaker forms a three-member committee to probe the charges laid against the judge, in this case, CJI Misra, and if found guilty the House can take up the matter. The President then finally addresses the Parliament and passes the impeachment order.

Reports said that the Congress party had circulated the draft to like-minded parties to gather the support of required 50 MPs as it plans to introduce the motion in Rajya Sabha, where the BJP is not yet in majority.

Furthermore, The Scroll reported that senior advocate Prashant Bhushan has also met Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday to discuss the impeachment motion.

Bhushan had earlier filed a complaint against Misra in the medical college scam case and requested five senior most apex court judges, including the four rebel judges, to hold an in-house inquiry into the matter.

In January, four out of the five members of collegium took the unprecedented step of addressing the media to accuse Chief Justice Dipak Misra of breaching rules and "selectively assigning" cases that have "far-reaching consequences for the nation" to "junior judges." Justices Ranjan Gogoi, Kurian Joseph and Madan B Lokur besides Justice Chelameswar said that the Supreme Court administration was "not in order" and hinted that they were unhappy with the way the case on CBI special judge Justice Loya's death was allocated for hearing.

Following this, Communist Party of India (Marxist) said that it was reaching out to other parties to move the impeachment motion, but most parties then preferred to adopt the wait and watch approach.

"The CPM is discussing with other Opposition parties the possibility of bringing an impeachment motion against the CJI," Sitaram Yechury had said on 23 January just ahead of the Budget Session. But nothing materialised at the time. Now with Banerjee and other Opposition parties reaching out to forge a unified front, the matter seems back on agenda for the Opposition parties.
Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday said that the state has been left alone by India to deal with the difficult situation it is going through.

Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday said that the state has been left alone by India to deal with the difficult situation facing the state.

The chief minister made the remarks while addressing the 64th convention and exhibition of the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) in Srinagar.

"Jammu and Kashmir is going through difficult times. It has affected tourism not only in Kashmir, but also in Jammu. If you look globally, there are problems everywhere. However, our problem is that the country has also left us alone," the chief minister said.

"Our job is very tough. There are many ways to deal with the situation but we are using only one way, which is to fight the gun with a gun. The wounds inflicted in the process also need to be treated and if anyone can treat those wounds, it is the people of the country, it is you," Mufti said.

The chief minister invoked her late father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, who, she said, would always say that tourists visiting Kashmir were an investment in peace.

"My father would always say when a tourist visits us, it is an investment in peace. An Army jawan fights militancy and guards the border, that is one way of fighting. The other way is by addressing the alienation," she said.

The chief minister said that Jammu and Kashmir is the crown of the country but in the past few years it has lost its sheen.

"We have natural beauty, cultural diversity and languages ... not even the entire country has so much diversity as much exists here alone. This might be the reason that the almighty has kept us at the top, in the form of the crown," she said.

The chief minister said the state was today going through difficult times and blamed the TV news channels for exaggerating the situation, which dissuades people from other parts of the country from visiting the state.

"TV news channels have created such a perception as if the entire Jammu and Kashmir is on fire. That is not the truth ... I have no hesitation in saying that Kashmir is the safest place for women in the country," she added.
If we look at the political discourse leading up to the 2016 Assembly elections, the focus was on unabashed minorityism and the TMC chief was quite explicit in wooing the 'votebank'.

West Bengal residents were treated to a curious sight on Sunday, the day Ram Navami was celebrated across the country. Both BJP and the ruling Trinamool Congress were trying to outdo each other in holding Ram Navami processions. In some rallies, TMC leaders reportedly even ditched the party flag in favour of saffron headband!

There are two ways of looking at the competitive celebrations of a Hindu festival that marked West Bengal's political landscape. One, though a nascent force in Bengal, BJP has already succeeded in triggering a fundamental shift in the state's political discourse. Two, Mamata Banerjee is trying to pro-actively nip in the bud BJP's attempts to consolidate the Hindu votes. These statements are not at variance with each other.

If we look at the political discourse leading up to the 2016 Assembly elections, the focus was on unabashed minorityism. At roughly 30 percent, Bengal has a sizeable Muslim population. Through her policies and politics, the Trinamool Congress chief was quite explicit in wooing the 'votebank'.

Soon after ending Left's three-decade stranglehold over Bengal and rising to power in 2011, Mamata had proposed a state-sponsored monthly stipend of Rs 2500 and "own land, own house" for each of the state's "30000 to 40000" imams. Over the years, she has enthusiastically pursued this strategy. The Bengal chief minister has set up Haj houses, new campus for Aliah University, sanctioned 400 madrasa hostels, and introduced scholarships for Muslim students, The Indian Express reported.

If any criticism for these policies came her way, Mamata showed a remarkable intolerance for dissent and an autocratic style of functioning, quite unlike the "liberal icon" image that she is of late trying to promote.

In September 2012, The New York Times reported how police tried to intimidate the publishers of a book written in Bengali by a senior police officer criticizing Banerjee's policies. The 102-page book Musalamander Koroniyo (What Muslims Should Do) written by Narzul Islam  then the additional director general of the West Bengal police  had criticized the chief minister's move to allow stipends for imams and plans to "recognize 10,000 madrasas".

According to The New York Times, "police raided the College Street office of the books Kolkata publisher, Mitra & Ghosh". Publisher Indrani Roy told the US-based newspaper that "government has tried to intimidate us in different ways". The report further stated, "Roy said she believes the raid, the first in the publishers 80-year history, stems from Banerjees intolerance to criticism. 'It is rather unnerving,' she said. 'We are actually very scared. Our freedom is at stake and who knows what will happen tomorrow'."

These days, however, Mamata claims that "only West Bengal can fight against this communal politics and intolerance and save the country."

During the campaign stage for 2016 Assembly polls, huge cutouts of the chief minister  head covered in white chador and arms joined in prayers to the Almighty  were ubiquitous. Mamata also religiously attended iftaar parties.

As an India Today report from June 2016 notes, "Banerjee can be seen attending several fast-breaking ceremonies with her cabinet colleagues. With her head covered and her colleagues wearing skull caps. Banerjee can be even heard quoting Urdu couplets in a bid to display her skills with the language and familiarity with the community."

Mamata's campaign speeches in Muslim-majority areas ended with an invocation to Allah, as a report in The Hindu in April 2016 noted. "Allah ho Akbar,' she (Mamata) cries out, adding, 'La Ilah Ilalah Mohammad un Rasool Allah. Inshallah, paribartan hobe (God willing, there will be change).' For West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, no stump speech is complete without a string of invocations aimed at Muslims, who number close to 28 per cent of the States population".

Her zeal often led to decisions that drew condemnation from the courts. The Bengal chief minister has been rebuked by Calcutta High Court for trying to "appease the minority section of the public at the cost of the majority section without there being any plausible justification". Her attempts to prevent the BJP from holding a rally in the state has been quashed. Mamata evidently believed that she can afford to pay a small cost for consolidation of Muslim votes.

Two things happened in 2016 Assembly polls. One, the Left and Congress were decimated despite forming an alliance. Two, BJP emerged as the chief Opposition. It didn't take long for Mamata to realise that the Left and the Congress are no longer a threat to TMC. She also realized the need now to focus her attention on BJP, a party that is cadre-based, organised and is adept at playing the waiting game.

Mamata drew some quick conclusions. If the Left and Congress are insignificant in Bengal, then there is no longer any need for TMC to attempt a Muslim consolidation. Conversely, she needed to quickly move and prevent BJP's attempts to consolidate the Hindu votes by portraying Mamata as "anti-Hindu".

Theoretically, even if Mamata succeeds in getting the backing of state's Muslim population, any consolidation of Hindu votes as a countermeasure would damage her politically.

The 2017 Ram Navami celebrations, organised by the RSS across Bengal, drew unprecedented response. It was enough to tell Mamata that she needs a quick resetting of her priorities. The zeal of TMC ministers in snatching Ram away from BJP during Sunday's celebrations was a culmination of this "reset" that Mamata has embarked on since last year.

Gone were the huge cutouts in strategic locations of the city. On April 2017, Mamata had tweeted:

Greetings to all on Hanuman Jayanti. Jai Bajrangbali  Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) April 11, 2017

Around this time, Anubrata Mondal, a party leader and a Mamata loyalist, was quoted as saying in newspapers: "There are 127 Bajrangbali (other name for Hanuman) temples in Birbhum district. On Wednesday evening in each of the temples, puja will be held. All our legislators and other party leaders and workers will take part. We will worship Bajrangbali everywhere."

In January 2018, TMC organised a convention of Brahmins and Hindu priests in Bolpur town of Birbhum district where thousands of priests and attendees were given "a copy of the Bhagavad Gita, a shawl and pictures of Sarada Maa and Ramakrishna" ostensibly to teach them "real meaning of Hinduism".

Rahul Gandhi's temple run during last year's Gujarat elections seemed to have rubbed on to Mamata as well.

It is in this context that we must see TMC leaders' zeal in taking out Ram Navami processions and state food minister attending the rally armed with a mace. .

Livemint reported that Arup Roy, a state minister, has said "the chief minister had asked all key party functionaries to take out rallies every Sunday until the upcoming panchayat election."

The winds of change are evident. Trinamool's shift from blatant minorityism to soft Hindutva is in sync with similar attempts from the Congress at the national level. Notably, both parties are at pains to insist that they have been wrongly portrayed as "pro-Muslim" in the past, and their temple visits and taking up of Hindu causes are not examples of "soft Hindutva" but a move to deny BJP the chance to project itself as the sole savior of Hinduism. Both claim that doing so does not make them "any less secular".

It is here that BJP has scored a major victory. Under Narendra Modi, the party has reinvented "secularism", breaking its unanimity with "minorityism". What we are witnessing in Bengal is TMC's attempt to respond to this changed definition. The likely repercussions of this churning (disempowerment of Muslims, for one) will be evident over time. What is of immediate interest is how it affects voter behavior. By all purposes, we should get a definitive answer by 2019.
The UAE said that one of four nuclear reactors at its debut plant has been completed as it moves closer to becoming the first Arab nation to produce atomic power

Abu Dhabi: The United Arab Emirates said on Monday that one of four nuclear reactors at its debut plant has been completed as it moves closer to becoming the first Arab nation to produce atomic power.

The announcement came after visiting South Korean president Moon Jae-in and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed toured the $20-billion Barakah plant, the state-run WAM reported.

The plant west of Abu Dhabi is being constructed by a consortium led by the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO).

Sheikh Mohammed described the achievement as "historical" for the energy sector of UAE, which is rich in oil and gas but is looking to increase other sources of power.

The UAE previously announced the first reactor would start operations in 2017 before delaying the start date.

The Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation, which is overseeing the nuclear programme, is awaiting the approvals from the regulatory authority to start operating.

Nuclear and renewables, which currently make up a small portion of the federation's energy sources, are slated to contribute around 27 percent to UAE electricity needs by 2021.

The second reactor is 92 percent complete, the third 81 percent while 66 percent of the fourth has been completed, WAM reported.

When fully operational, the four reactors will produce 5,600 megawatts of electricity, or around 25 percent of the country's needs, according to the UAE energy ministry.

UAE says it aims to continue diversifying toward its goal of 50-percent clean energy by 2050.

Saudi Arabia, the world's top crude oil exporter, also has accelerated plans to acquire nuclear energy and is expected to prequalify several international companies next month to bid for building two nuclear reactors.
Devon Energy (NYSE:DVN) has been an active acquirer over the years, spending billions of dollars on shale assets, which have grown it into one of the largest oil and gas producers in the country. However, while these transactions have increased the size of the company, they haven't created any value for shareholders. In fact, the stock is down about 75% since peaking nearly a decade ago.

It's a trend the company wants to reverse in the coming years by shrinking down to just three core regions, which are where Devon believes it can create the most value for investors going forward.

Building a shale-focused giant

Devon Energy began its foray into shale back in 2001 when it spent $3.1 billion to acquire fracking pioneer Mitchell Energy, which discovered how to unlock the treasure trove of natural gas locked away in the Barnett Shale. The company would go on to expand its shale portfolio over the years, including spending $6 billion to purchase GeoSouthern Energy for its Eagle Ford position in 2013 and $1.9 billion to buy Felix Energy for its STACK position at the end of 2015.

That last deal, however, which also coincided with a $600 million land acquisition in the Powder River Basin, turned out to be the one that broke the proverbial camel's back. While the purchases provided the company with leading acreage positions in those two high-growth areas, they also saddled it with more debt at a time when oil prices were in free fall. While the company said it would sell $2 billion to $3 billion in assets to shore up its financial position, that wasn't enough to sooth the market's concerns. Because oil continued plunging, Devon Energy had to quickly sell stock and slash spending -- including its dividend -- to bolster its balance sheet.

Shifting focus

Those moves bought the company some time to sell assets. By the end of 2016, it more than met its goal after unloading $3.2 billion in oil and gas properties as well as a pipeline in Canada. The company continued paring back its portfolio last year, aiming to jettison another $1 billion of non-core oil and gas properties, which it reached earlier this year when it sold a portion of its legacy Barnett Shale assets for $553 million.

However, Devon Energy isn't finished selling assets. Instead, it's "working on [a] portfolio simplification of significant scale," according to CEO Dave Hager. It aims to sell up to $5 billion in additional properties and streamline its focus on the STACK, Powder River Basin, and Permian Basin.

This focus suggests the company will eventually part with the rest of its assets in both the Eagle Ford and Barnett shale regions as well as its oil sands properties in Canada. The Eagle Ford Shale could be the next one to go considering that its joint venture partner, global resources giant BHP Billiton (NYSE:BHP), is looking to exit its shale business altogether. Because of that, it's possible that Devon Energy will agree to sell its stake to the same buyer that ultimately acquires BHP Billiton's position so that it can have full control over that asset.

The reason Devon wants to sell these assets is so that the three regions where it earns the highest returns have its full attention. That focus should enable the company to steadily improve margins, boosting both earnings and cash flow. It should also give the company more money to return to investors above the $1 billion stock buyback and 33% dividend increase already announced this year. This plan aims to grow the value of the company, not necessarily its overall size.

Growing what matters most

Devon Energy spent billions of dollars to expand in recent years. That approach, however, had the opposite impact on shareholder value, which declined as the company increased its size. Because of that, Devon is going to continue shrinking its portfolio in the near-term, so it can focus all its attention on drilling the highest value wells, which should create the most wealth for investors in the coming years. It's one of the many reasons why Devon looks like such a compelling oil stock to buy these days.
Gloria Jeans Coffees is bringing its flair for flavor to the vibrant central region of North Carolina, with plans to expand the gourmet coffee house brand in a big way.

The global specialty coffee chain recently inked a franchise agreement to add five stores in the Piedmont Triangle area, including in and around the cities of Morrisville, Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill. The deal includes the high-profile addition of Gloria Jeans Coffees in a new, three-story state-of-the-art facility scheduled to open later this year in Morrisville, North Carolina, near Raleigh-Durham International Airport.

The project features an adjacent gas station and convenience store, housing Gloria Jeans Coffees, and two additional franchised food concepts, along with two floors of 10,000 square feet of office space, notes new-signed franchisee Kishor Kaneria, managing director of Morrisville, North Carolina-based Classic LLC.

As a franchisee, we are the brand ambassadors for Gloria Jeans, with an eye-catching location by RDU airport, Kaneria says. This location is going to be a part of a state-of-the-art 30,000 square foot building. Because the store will be near the airport, it will be in a prime location, making it easily accessible to the community.

Kaneria brings a wealth of experience in franchise operations and multi-unit, multi-brand development to the Gloria Jeans Coffees chain. His family-owned, diversified global portfolio includes investments in manufacturing, commercial and residential real estate, and government infrastructure development.

The company has earned numerous accolades from the government of India and private sector for hard work, dedication, and distinguished design of our construction projects, says Kaneria, who visits his family in India twice a year and has lived in the U.S. for more than 20 years.

We are one strong family of four brothers, following all of the traditions of our culture, Kaneria says. Our family has been involved in developing infrastructure, such as roads, buildings, and commercial malls for years and have decided to expand our business to the United States. North Carolina is a growing area with a very good quality of life, at a reasonable cost, and all of these factors make it the perfect place to build our businesses.

With more than 900 Gloria Jeans coffee shops worldwide, Kaneria joins a brand family that is brewing up aggressive U.S. growth through franchising. A pioneer and innovator of fresh, flavored coffee, Gloria Jeans is a proven model, with a high-value, high-quality focus that is the perfect franchise fit, says Kaneria.

My passion is to provide the greatest customer service with quality products, and my business philosophy is that the customer is always right, he says. My philosophy is to treat each customer in such a way that they form a strong, long-term connection with the franchise.

Kaneria, who is proactively scouting sites to expand in the Research Triangle Park area, intends to have a lasting franchise partnership with his new brand. He says strong franchisor support and encouragement with site selection and initial design has been there from the start.

Even though we have been in the franchise business for years, we have never been as excited and encouraged as we are with all of the Gloria Jeans support that we have received, remarks Kaneria. We are looking forward to having a bright future with Gloria Jeans Coffees, with a lot more GJ development, in not only the Research Triangle Park area, but also at the national and international levels.

Gloria Jeans Coffees is expanding nationally with new store openings taking place in Pittsburg, Gurnee Mills Mall, Illinois, and Staten Island Mall, New York in the second quarter of 2018. Additional stores will open soon after in Northwest Indiana, Fort Collins, Colorado, and Pharr, Texas.
How to catch all the Asian carp in St. Louis, Missouri

March 28, 2018



47,000 invasive Asian carp were removed from Creve Coeur Lake in Maryland Heights, Missouri. Photo courtesy of Missouri Department of Conservation.

In a recent fishing exercise at Creve Coeur Lake in Maryland Heights, Missouri, our biologists worked with the Missouri Department of Conservation, U.S. Geological Survey, and the St. Louis County Parks Department to remove 47,000 Asian carp from the lake. The lake is primary infested with silver carp, a type of Asian carp that jumps out of the water when agitated by the sound of a boat motor. With conventional fishing methods unable to efficiently and effectively capture thousands of these unwanted fish, the team of partners looked to China, the country of origin for silver carp and other Asian carp species, for inspiration.

Able to swim 30 miles per hour, evade nets and fishing boats, as well as fishing hooks and lures, silver carp pose an extreme fishing challenge. While silver carp populations have steadily increased in lakes and rivers of the United States, they continue to decline in China where they are seen as a valuable source of nutrition. To remove thousands of Asian carp from the 320 acre Creve Coeur Lake, partners deployed a Chinese fish herding technique to slowly move fish across the lake into a confined space for removal.

Herding was done with high intensity sound coupled with deep water electricity and floating nets. The technique was largely successful, until the fish formed a tight ball, refusing to move the last few feet into the desired removal location. Concerned the tight ball of fish would escape, the quick-thinking partners assembled equipment and personnel to remove the fish from the water.

The successful removal of 47,000 silver carp, averaging 5 pounds each, was a monumental undertaking. From start to finish, the effort took three full weeks, 20 people, one track hoe, two skid loaders, 10 boats, and a mile of net. Cool temperatures at night also created ice on the lake that had to be broken each morning before work could continue.

Creve Coeur Park Lake, once packed full of silver carp, is now largely free from them. After nearly a decade of competing with native fish species for food and space, native sport fish like crappie have a chance to regain their foothold in the lake and create a desirable fishery for anglers. Once again, recreational boaters will be able to enjoy the lake without the excessive risk of jumping silver carp. The absence of the invasive Asian carp will also reduce the likelihood of smelly and unsightly fish kills at the scenic urban park. Through this partnership effort, it is anticipated the lessons learned will allow for other groups to successfully remove Asian carp in invaded waters throughout the Midwest.
As the union discussion took over GDC this year, shocking revelations about working conditions at the indie studio MidBoss--makers of 2064: Read Only Memories--also hit Twitter in a massive thread curated by musician Jessica Levine.

Wage theft, sexual assault, hostility, and exploitation were all alleged, and often substantiated by several former MidBoss employees coming forward to tell their stories.

One, Tyler Gausvik, took to Twitter to confirm the substance of the allegations, saying there was a lot of sexual harassment/misbehavior, emotional manipulation, and other really toxic behavior. I was threatened with litigation when I spoke out. They elaborated on this to GamesBeats Stephanie Chan:



"After they spoke out about these criticisms, they said Conn messaged them on Facebook and said lawyers would have to get involved. Gausvik also said that Conn told them that they would develop a negative reputation for speaking up about these issues."

The crisis at MidBoss runs deep, offering a grimly appropriate illustration of many discussions about exploitative work practices in the industry, which dominated GDC last week.

From the testimony of several staffers whove come forward, including some I interviewed for this piece, what emerges is a picture of a company where dual passions for game design and queer representation within those games were exploited to ensure a mostly young, queer and trans group of artists and developers could put long hours for little pay into a game that was capriciously managed.

***

Ive been a guest of honor at GaymerX in both the US and Australia (though the latter was run by an entirely different set of people). Ive met wonderful people at GX, making lifelong friends there and even meeting a few romantic partners. To say my personal experience was positive was an understatement. My role as a guest involved comped badges and sometimes comped hotel rooms, a precious commodity at any convention. I was briefly supported on Patreon by MidBoss (to the tune of four dollars total) before I requested that they cease doing so because it created the appearance of a conflict of interest.

The substance of many of these allegations, about MidBoss being a chaotic and difficult place to work, are things Id heard in my own circles since at least early 2017. The sexual harassment allegations were unknown to me until last week. Looking at things with a clear gaze meant recognizing that the size of my platform might have led to me being used to present a rosier image of things than was, perhaps, merited. I had no direct experience of MidBoss, after all, and I never worked GX as a volunteer.

Accounts vary as to whether MidBoss CEO Matt Conn, whose alleged behavior was at the heart of nearly all of these charges, underpaid people maliciously or as a result of incompetence. Some underpaid staff suggest he simply bit off more than he could chew and didnt really know how to properly run a company. Others allege the exploitation was deliberate, and accompanied by angry outbursts and threats to retaliate or destroy careers. Multiple accounts agreed that there were virtually no contracts given to staff.

Matt [Conn] loves verbal handshakes, tweeted Chris Lindgren, a software engineer who worked at MidBoss. The reason he's able to get away with such blatant wage theft is because he's too lazy to write up any contracts. It's difficult to fight for pay not in writing, and pushing for a contract might come off as rude. Lindgren added, I signed one document at MidBoss and it was a government form verifying that the information required for my 1099 was valid.

Ellen McGrody, a writer who also did work for MidBoss, tweeted confirmation that shed heard many such allegations in whisper networks, adding, I earned less than minimum wage. I wrote it off as okay, but in light of these allegations, I cant justify their behavior anymore. Photographer Emi Spicer, who worked at MidBoss GaymerX convention, added I can verify that the accusations are true. I did not have the entire experience that was written about in the initial tweets, but I did experience a large amount of it.

As a result of all of this, Matt Conn resigned from his leadership of GaymerX, adding that he would also be taking leave of MidBoss once I can make sure the remaining employees payroll is handled. He has since deleted his Twitter. It is unclear if taking leave refers to a leave-of-absence or if hes resigning from being CEO of MidBoss. A statement made to VentureBeat suggests the latter. Longtime staffer, Toni Rocca, would lead the company and oversee reforms--such as developing an HR department--according to the statement. She tweeted that she would be working on MidBoss moving forward, though shes now confronting serious allegations of her own--including inappropriate sexual behavior and racism.

She has issued a strenuous denial of one specific allegation that shed told an employee of color to keep other non-white MidBoss employees happy purely to give the company a cosmetic appearance of diversity, rather than because of their inherent value.

Speaking to Gamasutra just before the latest wave of allegations, shed said MidBoss was going to restructure as best we can, which will likely mean taking a break from current projects. We'll figure out what project we can currently focus on, and then hire properly through that. I think that a system of just focusing on doing what we can slowly with a minimal staff is going to work out better.

I also spoke to former staffers who were willing to go on the record to Gamasutra, albeit anonymously for fear of retaliation. I can confirm the extreme underpaying, on the order of several hundred dollars a month for full time work up to and including crunching, said Lara*. She corroborated an image of a working environment that, at best, was chaotic and poorly managed, often subject to Conns mercurial whims.

He would often have people working on multiple projects at once (e.g. ports to consoles), Lara added, referring to projects like a quixotic PS Vita port of 2064. [Hed] then whip priorities and the developers back and forth constantly between these while complaining that they werent far enough along. or deciding to cancel a port via social media post without anyone on the team knowing, before he changed his mind and uncanceled it.

Rose*, another former employee, told Gamasutra that this extended to how jobs were assigned. Matt wanted more from people than they could give, she said, both in terms of time (he would demand more work than folks could possibly do) and in terms of skills (he hired people for one job, then asked them to perform jobs in other areas, then blamed them when they were not competent in those other areas).

He seemed not to have a clear understanding of how much work it takes to create the types of products he wanted to create, she added, repeating a theme Id heard in a lot of testimony, both public and private. He pushed people constantly and most of them he never paid, she said, contradicting Conns claim that hed paid everyone he owed. When he did pay, he did so grudgingly and with a healthy helping of guilt.

In her interview for Gamasutra, Toni Rocca argued that the bit off more than he could chew thesis was the correct one. I think that a lot of this comes out of poor communication and Matt trying to just work with people when he couldn't really afford to. I think that when someone says Yes I can do it for 300 dollars it's the employer's role to stop and make sure you have a better and more clearly defined structure than that. When asked whether there were contracts at the company, she replied, Not really, adding, it was essentially just verbal agreements and I think that's part of the problem.

It all lends credence to the arguments put forth by Game Workers Unite, the union activists at this past GDC, that such conditions are endemic to the industry. Even spaces that are awash in a progressive ethos can slouch into destructive labor practices.

Rocca added that some of the problem lay in Conns troubled personal life, losing his partner to cancer recently, as well as his father. With his father and then boyfriend dying he still kept trying to do everything and never slowed down, he kept trying to take on more and more projects...I think he was obsessed with the concept that if he ever stopped or slowed down he'd let everyone down.

In a rambling apology (since deleted along with the rest of his Twitter), Conn wrote, bad behavior is bad behavior but the cruelty of people who couldnt even be there for me when my man died or say one nice thing of support watching with glee as our family and work get torn apart, I am a very sad panda, he said, alleging that one of the claims against him was made by someone who bugged him about a paycheck the day his partner had died.

These deaths were clear tragedies for Conn. But the allegations stretch back years, and relate to a wider structural problem; even if no malice was involved (itself a hotly disputed point), many staffers felt taken advantage of, and the fact that so much depended on one man was clearly a larger problem at a company trying to scale its ambitions without scaling its infrastructure. Conns bereavement should not have prevented the smooth operation of a company that, by now, should have had the staff, workflows, and procedures to operate without his day-to-day input.

Conn added in his apology, I was mistaken in thinking that giving as many people opportunities but at low monthly wages was the right thing to do, I had no idea the pain I was causing people.

But the sexual harassment allegations are even more severe. One man came forward late last night to offer his own story on Twitter, alleging that Conn brought him on board for a GX internship and then immediately began looking through his phone messages, encouraging him to break up with his boyfriend. He made constant comments about my appearance, telling me I COULD be handsome if I changed my beard, or hairstyle, etc. He used phrases similar to 'Well, I like my guys to look like that, so you should do it.' He became annoyed when I said I liked the way I looked. In addition:



On day three [of the GX internship] he showed me porn. In the workplace, he showed me 'what he liked' in an open laptop he abruptly turned to me. His comments seemed connected to the ones about my appearance and 'what he likes.'

Conn brushing this off in multiple comments as him being weird or sloppy about the way [he] communicated, feels unconscionably inadequate. Earlier tweets, which he deleted, saying the campaign was politically motivated also ring with hollow irresponsibility in the wake of so many detailed and matching accusations, coming almost entirely from his queer, erstwhile workforce.

On a personal level, I cant shake the infuriating sense that I and others, who were treated well and had relatively large platforms, may have been used to mask all this. Did I inadvertently take money out of a game devs pocket by accepting that hotel room? Did my prominent presence at GX entice other trans women of color, or gay men into thinking MidBoss was a safe place to work? I dont have simple answers.

Part of what was politely obscured was Conns casual cruelty, certainly. One GaymerX speaker, Cerys R.*, gave a statement to Gamasutra about one incident she recalled:



"I think my first interaction with Matt set the stage for me in how I interacted with him. I was sharing my story on how I have fibromyalgia and working around the limitations. He flat out said maybe I should work in another industry, [asking] if I even can work. When I tried to bring it up later he was reluctant to own up to it...I had a lot of love for those he worked with, but the stories of his abuse have been whispered for years. So none of this surprises me, but as my interaction was some time ago I had hoped he changed, and I do feel that he's genuinely going to try changing."

Whether Conn does or doesnt change depends a lot on how he handles these allegations; his defensive remarks augur poorly, thus far.

I asked Jessica Levine about the question of incompetence versus malice, as shed seen the overwhelming bulk of the allegations and had many people confide in her. She argued the alleged sexual harassment demonstrates clear malice as it makes for an unsafe workplace.

She added that minimum wage laws exist for a reason. MidBoss is not a cooperative, and not everyone was sharing risks and profits equally. When you take on the relationship of employer, you take on certain responsibilities, responsibilities Matt Conn knowingly did not follow through on, and I don't think that can be argued as anything but malicious in an employer. Intent, then, is irrelevant.

Both Rocca and Conn have likened the allegations to callout culture gone amok, but this is less a call-out than a labor dispute. Conns self-described intense management style came off to many as abusive and destructive. With no contracts and no HR department, and a sense that, in Roses words, if we didn't excel, everyone would lose their shirts, and it would be our faults, avenues for redress were entirely cut. Its a familiar story, whose relevance goes far beyond the narrow world of queer game dev.

***

The concept of a safe space is often a mirage used to conceal something thats anything but. For young queer people desperate to break into a hostile industry, MidBoss was heaven-sent. A place to get real experience while also working in an LGBT-friendly environment. Instead, it was like too many other places in the gaming industry, and as a result they let down these precious people who deserved so much better.

What I can say is that these former employees excelled under difficult conditions, in ways that testify to their technical skill; they deserve jobs where those skills are respected, and which play to their strengths. They offer much. Like so many tragedies in this industry, especially when they happen to women or minorities, theres a tendency to fetishize the victims as people whose abuse we can gawk at before moving on to the next big story. But the MidBoss folks need work more than retweets; they are so much more than victims of a hostile workplace.

More than anything, restoration in the wake of these revelations will mean respecting that and treating them like the professionals they are.

* Pseudonyms were used to protect these peoples identities

Katherine Cross is a Ph.D student in sociology who researches anti-social behavior online, and a gaming critic whose work has appeared in numerous publications.
The Metal Gear Solid movie has been around for quite a huge amount of time and, even though it has already been attached a director, it doesnt look to be coming anytime soon to the theaters worldwide.

Anyway, according to a new report coming from Brazil, theres some good news about it, as the works are apparently going on quietly and reaching new milestones with the time passing by.

In particular, it looks like the Metal Gear Solid movie is still being produced by Sony Pictures, meaning that it remains a high budget effort with all the things you would expect from a top film releasing to the cinemas nowadays.

It is worth remembering that Metal Gear Solid movies director is Jordan Vogt-Roberts, not only a huge fan of the franchise but also the man behind Kong: Skull Island and a great friend of Guillermo del Toro and Hideo Kojima, who he has recently visited.

Unfortunately, the project is said to still be in its very early development stages, so you shouldnt really hold your breath before you can see it with your own eyes. In the meantime, anyway, we can only dream about whos going to play Solid Snake and Big Boss, whichever is the timeline chosen for the movie.

Source
According to a new rumor, it looks like the next movie in the Tomb Raider franchise might not feature Alicia Vikander as the young Lara. Vikander was awarded an Academy Award for her performance in The Danish Girl.

However, this doesnt seem like is enough to grant her a role in the next few movies of the series, since based on sources it looks like the production isnt happy with her portrayal of the young archeologist from the rebooted video games series.



Sources from Crazy Days and Nights report that MGM, Warner Bros., and GK Films have not been satisfied with the performance of Alicia Vikander in the movie and with the opening weekend, which underperformed with just $23 million.

Critics werent too harsh with the movie, even though many claimed the direction wasnt that great and was to change in the future in order to make the movie series more relevant. Other claimed indeed Vikander wasnt the right choice for the role of Lara since the very first moment.

The film stars Alicia Vikander, Walton Goggins, Hannah John-Kamen, Daniel Wu, and Dominic West as Richard Croft. This is the synopsis:

Seven years after the disappearance of her father, 21-year-old Lara has refused to take the reins of his global business empire, instead of working as a bike courier in London while taking college classes.

Eventually, she becomes inspired to investigate her fathers disappearance and travels to his last-known location: a tomb on an island somewhere off the coast of Japan. Suddenly, the stakes couldnt be higher for Lara, whoagainst the odds and armed with only her sharp mind, blind faith and inherently stubborn spiritmust learn to push herself beyond her limits as she journeys into the unknown. If she survives this perilous adventure, it could be the making of her, earning her the name Tomb Raider.

Source
More than 250,000 Georgian citizens traveled to EU / Schengen Zone during past year - GeorgianJournal
Georgian soldier Archil Tatunashvili's death in occupied Tskhinvali Region to be discussed at Geneva talks - GeorgianJournal
Georgia marks the first anniversary of Visa-Liberalization with EU - GeorgianJournal
UMANG (Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance)

This is an advanced and dynamic platform that brings together a wide range of Digital India services like Aadhaar, DigiLocker and PayGov. This app, developed by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and National e-Governance Division (NeGD)

mPassport

Information about the steps involved in obtaining a passport, the location of nearby Passport Seva Kendras (PSK) and Passport application status tracking are a few of the services provided by this app.

mAadhaar app

This app is exclusive to Android, for now. This app enables users to carry their Aadhar identity on their smartphones. You will be able to share your eKYC information with any service provider. Users also have the option of sharing their Aadhar profile via QR code.

Postinfo

Developed by Centre for Excellence in Postal Technology, this app from Department of Posts has a wide variety of features like tracking of parcels, post office search, postage calculator, insurance premium calculator and interest calculator.

MyGov

Ideas, suggestions and comments can be provided to ministries and associated organizations can be conveyed by the users to the government directly through this app. You can also participate in policy formulation and programme implementation through this app.

MySpeed(TRAI)

The TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) is provided with information regarding data coverage and speeds, and location of the tests. This app does not send any personal user information.

mKavach (Mobile security solutions)

If you are looking for a way to block spam SMS or unsolicited incoming calls, this Android-exclusive app must be your go-to.

Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan

Aimed to keep your surroundings clean, concerned municipal authorities can be contacted through this app and pictures relating to civic issues can be posted here. All urban local bodies have been linked to this app, which pinpoints the area of the complaint using the geo-location of the pictures.

Feedback can also be sent if their complaint isn't resolved.

BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money)

This Unified Payment Interface (UPI) can be used to carry out financial transactions digitally. UPI payment addresses, phone numbers or QR codes can be used to send or receive money as required.

The app is also linked to all major banks across the country to make financial transactions easier.

How to send money using Paytm Inbox

IRCTC

Integrated with an IRCTC e-wallet to facilitate faster and easier transactions, the IRCTC app enables the online booking of the tickets.
Google Play Movies and TV now get updated search function for streaming videos News oi-Sandeep Sarkar Google's latest update for the Play Movies and TV will show which third-party video on demand (VoD) platform is currently streaming the show or movie a user wants to watch.

Google is known for rolling out latest updates for its apps and services on a regular basis. The latest app joining the update bandwagon is the Google Play Movies and TV app. As per some reports from the web, the latest update for the Play Movies and TV will show which third-party video on demand (VoD) platform is currently streaming the show or movie a user wants to watch.

The reports further suggest that at the moment there are 28 different services which are being indexed includes Amazon Prime Video, HBO Go/Now Showtime, Hulu, CBS, ABC, NBC, Comedy Central, Fox, HGTV and others. However, it is quite strange that one of the most popular third-party video on demand service (VoD) "Netflix" is missing from the list. There is no information as of yet when the Netflix will be added to the list. However, Google claims that it is in talking terms with Netflix and there is a possibility that we might see the partnership between Netflix and Google Play Movies and TV in the coming days. That said, we will keep you posted with further updates related to this topic and will inform you if Netflix and Google join hand soon in the future.

Top 10 Tips & Tricks for Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL

Also, in one of our recent articles related to Google, we covered that the tech giant has recently made an announcement that it is officially rolling out the 'mobile-first-indexing". In the 'mobile-first-indexing,' the Google bots or what many of us know as the spider will crawl to index the mobile versions of web pages instead of crawling or indexing the desktop pages. It is being reported that the company is aiming towards making the switch beneficial for its "primarily mobile" customer base. You can read the complete story by clicking on this link.

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Leica Camera launches exclusively on Amazon.in News oi-Sandeep Sarkar Leica will begin with selling three camera models on Amazon.in - D-lux, V-lux and Sofort ranging from INR 25,000 to INR 90,000.

Amazon India today announced an exclusive partnership with Leica Camera which is a German photography company that manufactures optics and high-end cameras. With its vision to change the dynamics of photography in the country, the high-end German camera brand will offer its range exclusively on Amazon.in. This partnership will help customers across the country get access to Leica's optics and high-end cameras along with Amazon.in's fast & reliable delivery.

Leica will begin with selling three camera models on Amazon.in - D-lux, V-lux and Sofort ranging from INR 25,000 to INR 90,000. Customers can also find high-quality Leica binoculars and camera accessories on Amazon.in.

German camera maker Leica enters Indian market, opens store in Delhi

Speaking about the collaboration, Sunil Kaul, Managing Director - Asia Pacific, Leica Camera said, "The photography industry is booming in India and we are committed to creating and building a community around the brand by connecting with our target customers. This partnership with Amazon India is a great opportunity for us to create a strong online presence and engage with our customers effectively across the country" he further added.

Commenting on the launch, Nadeem Karbhari, Category Leader - Consumer Electronics, Amazon India said, "Leica Camera is iconic in the world of photography with enthusiasts cherishing their hand-crafted masterpieces. We are delighted to be the partner of choice for Leica Camera in India and are excited to offer their products exclusively on Amazon.in."

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Story first published: Wednesday, March 28, 2018, 18:00 [IST] Other articles published on Mar 28, 2018

Customers looking to buy Leica Camera can also take advantage of no-cost EMI offers by all leading banks on Amazon.in. These products are also Prime eligible for next day delivery option in most cities.
Facebook to delay smart speaker launch as the data scandal swirls News oi-Vishal Kawadkar Facebook's troubles aren't over yet.

Facebook has been facing a lot of heat as public outrage over companies data collection policies continues to rise. Now a new report from Bloomberg claims that the social media giant will delay the launch of its smart speakers which were slated for a launch at Facebook's F8 developer conference in May.

As the report states, "now may be the wrong time" to expect users to trust the company by placing an always-listening device in their homes, considering the ongoing data scandal.

In August, Bloomberg reported few details of the smart speakers. They are said to feature a video-focused device codenamed Aloha which will possibly be called Portal. The device is expected to come with 15-inch touchscreens manufactured by LG. It will also have a standalone speaker that would be priced lower than the former.

Both devices will reportedly use a voice assistant developed by Facebook, just like Amazon's Alexa and Apple's Siri. These smart speakers were planned to see the light of day in May, according to the report, but Facebook now wants have a 'deeper review' of how it is going to collect user data before unveiling the devices to the public.

Few other reports say Aloha or Portal will offer more social networking functions. The company seems to have signed deals with Sony and Universal Music, which may add more features to the smart speakers.

The social media giant was also hit with a fresh controversy following the Cambridge Analytica revelations. Users have found out that the social media giant collected their personal data such as contact numbers and text messages from Android phones.

Dell XPS 13 (2018) laptop review - GIZBOT

The company in response to the reports said that the call and SMS data was uploaded to secure servers and come only from Android users who opt to allow the sync of data. The company also emphasized that the data is collected in order "to improve people's experience across Facebook," and is not shared or sold with other third-party apps. The company claims that it doesn't collect the content of the text messages or calls.

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Qi Wireless charging

Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S employs a 3400mAh battery along with Quick Charge 3.0 fast charging technique from Qualcomm. While this is the same as the battery capacity of the Mi Mix 2, the difference is the support for wireless charging. Well, the latest Xiaomi flagship smartphone supports 7.5W Qi wireless charging similar to the 2017 iPhone models. The wireless charging bed meant for the Mi Mix 2S can be used by the other smartphones supporting wireless charging.

Dual cameras with AI

Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S comes with a dual-camera setup with the two sensors positioned vertically at the top left corner. There is a 12MP Sony IMX363 wide-angle lens and another 12MP telephoto lens with 2X optical zoom. The dual rear cameras can render bokeh effect shots with background blur. The bokeh effect shots can be customized with 6 kinds of dynamic effects such as Van Gogh Starry Night effect, AI Dream Bokeh and more. There is support for AI, which will make it possible to find out up to 206 scenes with support for real-time language translation and currency conversion.

Face Unlock

The 8MP selfie camera at the front of the Mi Mix 2S comes with AI support and makes it possible to click snaps with bokeh effect using Artificial Intelligence. In addition to the bokeh effect, the AI support also paves way for the Face Unlock feature, which is a facial recognition technique that can unlock the device with the users' face.

Google ARCore

Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S comes with support for Google ARCore, which is a platform for building augmented reality apps on Android. ARCore uses three key technologies to integrate virtual content with the real world as seen through the phone's camera.

Xiaomi Redmi 5, a budget category smartphone

Xiaomis Xiao voice assistant

Xiaomi has launched a new voice assistant called Xiao. This smart AI-based voice assistant has been introduced along with the Mi Mix 2S and is touted to take over Apple Siri. For now, this voice assistant is available only in China.
A revival of the Indian Telecom industry is likely to be prolonged as competition remains intense News oi-Priyanka CRA expects FY2018 revenues to decline by 13 percent and OPBDITA to decline by 34 percent.

According to a new report by research firm ICRA, the revival of the Indian Telecom industry is likely to be prolonged and the pressure on the cash flows of the industry may continue for a few more quarters.

The report said that this is due to the price competition which has exerted significant pressures on the Indian telecom industry in FY2018 and continues to remain intense as the larger operators are contesting to acquire subscribers of the existing telcos.

"The exit of smaller telcos has provided an opportunity for larger telcos to garner subscribers and the competition for them remains intense. We expect the migration of subscribers from the existing telcos to the continuing telcos to complete over the next six months. But until such time, the pricing levels in the industry are unlikely to witness material improvement. This can be witnessed from the fact that the trend of steady increase in Average Revenue per SIM (ARPS), led by RJio's plans, witnessed till December 2017 has since been reversed due to discounted price offerings," Harsh Jagnani, Sector Head & Vice President - Corporate Ratings, ICRA

However, recovery is expected in the sector on the back of a consolidated structure, better pricing power and data usage with greater price-inelasticity. By the end of next fiscal, the industry is likely to witness better outlook driven by improvement in pricing levels. Meanwhile, the debt levels of the industry, which would remain elevated as on March 2018, are expected to witness some reduction by way of promoter funding and asset monetization.

Furthermore, ICRA expects FY2018 revenues to decline by 13 percent and OPBDITA to decline by 34 percent. Given the current levels of competition and pricing regime, recovery in revenues and profitability is expected only by end of FY2019. But the debt levels, estimated at Rs. 4.7 lakh crore as on March 31, 2018, is expected to reduce to Rs. 4.3 lakh crore by FY2019 driven by asset monetization and increased promoter support.

To improve the telecommunication connectivity, especially broadband, in rural and remote areas of the country, Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) was set up in 2003, which is being funded by a Universal Access Levy of 5 percent of the Adjusted Gross Revenues of all the telecom operators. Till December 2017, the collections under USOF stood at Rs. 89,400 crores of which only Rs. 41,000 crore (46 percent) has been utilized under various projects.

Xiaomi Redmi 5, a budget category smartphone

Jagnani comments on the rural broadband penetration: "A major proportion of the USOF funds are expected to be utilized for this project. BharatNet can make a significant change as it can improve the rural economy by way of improved telecom connectivity and other services such as e-health, e-education, banking, rural ATMs etc. Furthermore, it complements the efforts by the telcos towards greater fiber rollout and gives them the potential of new subscribers, and higher data and content consumption."

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The News in Brief

Companies will be fined 30 000 GEL for violation of construction safety



Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze made a statement at the government meeting about a number of workers who have died on construction sites.



He stated that the number has increased recently and this is why the amendment to the law on construction regulations has come into play, which will intend to provide maximum security for people employed on construction sites.



Sanctions on violating security rules, as well as illegal constructions have increased significantly. I would like to thank the Parliament of Georgia for productive cooperation. I hope that with these changes we will ensure the maximum safety of the people employed at constructions. If we look at the statistics, the number of people who died at workplaces has increased in recent years and in recent months, which is categorically unacceptable for us, said Kaladze.



The fines amounted 3000 GEL before the amendment, while now the companies will be fined with 30 000 Gel.







50 Georgian citizens deported from Germany



Germany deported 50 Georgian citizens for violating visa-free regime.



The citizens of Georgia arrived in Tbilisi on a special flight.



The citizens of Georgia, who asked for the asylum in Germany, were also expelled. There are children among the deported as well.



As reported by Georgians the court made a decision on their deportation. People were picked up from their houses and taken to the airport.



Frontex - European Border and Coast Guard Agency is monitoring the process. Their representative, Irma Tsiramua made a comment on the deportation.



The reason is that Georgian citizens do not have a reason to seek an asylum in Germany, said Tsiramua.

(By Mariam Chanishvili)




Ambassador of Belarus O.Paferov meets the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Venezuela

28-03-2018

On March 27, 2018 the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Belarus to Venezuela, Oleg Paferov, met with the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Venezuela for Cooperation with European Countries, Ivan Gil.

The sides discussed the development of bilateral collaboration, including plans for the implementation of the Roadmap for bilateral cooperation between the Republic of Belarus and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, exchange of visits.

An agreement was reached to research possibility of participation of Belarusian specialists in the construction of social housing in Venezuela, as well as the supply of Venezuelan products to Belarus.

   

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Contributed Photo / ST

William Raveis Real Estate ranked in the top 10 of a real estate power broker list published by RISMedia, with nearly $10.2 billion in home sales last year.

New Jersey-based NRT topped the RISMedia list with $178 billion in transactional volume, with the Realogy subsidiarys brands including Coldwell Banker and Sothebys International Realty. Rounding out the top three were HomeServices of America and Douglas Elliman.
In the era of Amazon, southwestern Connecticut shoppers can still find plenty of brick-and-mortar destinations.

While the retail sector locally and across the country has been rocked by the explosive growth of e-commerce powerhouses, destination shopping continues to hold its own in many neighborhoods. Projects such as a planned retail hub at the foot of the new Atlantic Station apartment tower in downtown Stamford demonstrate the local confidence in the industry, although property owners and Realtors acknowledge the hurdles they face.

I think everybody is pretty confident this will become a vibrant retail area, said Skip Lane, a Stamford-based director with Cushman & Wakefield. Weve got about 7 million square feet of office space within walking distance of Atlantic Station. Anyone can see theres plenty of foot traffic and a huge daytime population to serve.

Destination: Downtown

Along with the 325-unit Atlantic Station, which opened at the turn of the year, are a number of commercial strips around the region that have resisted long-term tenants or otherwise proved difficult to consistently fill.

Atlantic Station itself is on a lot that had sat empty for a number of years after a commercial strip center there had been demolished. But the developer Cappelli Organization and Cushman & Wakefield saw major potential for a site near the downtown Metro-North train station and Stamford Town Center mall and a short walk from the city centers restaurant rows.

Serving Atlantic Station residents would be a top goal for the tenants who would move into the approximately 17,000 square feet of storefronts in the buildings ground floor. No leases have been signed, but the street-level space has attracted interest from a range of prospective tenants including banks, restaurants and gourmet grocery stores, Lane said.

Weve earmarked Atlantic Station as the best building in downtown Stamford, Lane said. To keep up that reputation, the building needs to have proper services and amenities.

Downtown property owners and commercial Realtors in neighboring cities and towns are also bullish about their retail prospects.

In the past year, Robert Steinberg, who owns several properties on Main Street in Danbury, has filled two vacancies with The Parfumerie  which sells perfumes, oils and incense  and mens hair-cutting establishment CutZone II.

If you look around at the malls and shopping centers, you see a lot of vacancies, especially with the big retailers, Steinberg said. The chains have played their card, and people are moving away from them. I think independent retailers will see a resurgence.

In Norwalk, the downtown Wall Street district has benefited from the addition of the Head of the Harbor apartments and the Wall Street Theater. But the latters bankruptcy this year has cast a shadow over retailers, joining the shell of the Wall Street Place development next door that has been stalled since 2016.

Still, Wall Streets storefronts have continued to draw newcomers in the past year, including the Troupe429 LGBTQ bar and performance space, the Yoga203 studio and the Eco Windows and Doors showroom.

Those recent arrivals join an eclectic mix in which jewelers and dollar stores are elbow-to-elbow with the Ink-Side-Out tattoo parlor or the My Three Sons kids party space.

Thinking long term

While they are optimistic, Realtors and economic development officials said they are not overlooking the ongoing disruption to the retail sector.

Trumbull Center in Trumbull has experienced high turnover, with a number of businesses recently exiting the venue. Now the town wants to market the vacancies to businesses that are internet proof.

The idea that youre going to get the fashion businesses, and things like that that, are really tough right now ... so you need to look for things that stay local, said Rina Bakalar, Trumbulls director of economic and community development.

In Greenwich, downtown has grappled with an above-average number of vacant storefronts on Greenwich Avenue. In late January, around 26 shops there appeared empty. But several brands have announced plans to fill those stores and a building on the street sold this month for nearly $6.6 million.

The sale indicates real estate investors also believe in Greenwich Avenue, said the buildings agent, Tom Torelli of Allied Property Management.

Turnover on the thoroughfare is not new, with around 25 percent of retail tenants typically opting against renewing their leases, Torelli added.

At Atlantic Station, Cushman & Wakefield aims to announce retail leases this spring and start welcoming the first round of tenants in the fall. But the schedule will ultimately depend on when sustainable businesses materialize.

Were not just jumping on the first deal, Lane said. Landlords are conscious that it has to be the right tenant, with the right connection to the residential sector.

Macaela J. Bennett, Chris Bosak, Jordan Grice and Alexander Soule contributed reporting to this article.

pschott@scni.com; 203-964-2236; twitter: @paulschott
GREENWICH  State Department of Transportation Commissioner James Redeker came to Greenwich this week to share a tale of woe with local residents.

The states transportation fund, which is supposed to pay for infrastructure upkeep and improvements, faces a five-year budget deficit of $388 million, he said.

Redeker, who met with residents in an informational session Tuesday night, said about $15 per household goes into the fund each month, which he compared with the $91.66 the average Connecticut household spends a month on coffee.

Theres something out of whack in terms of the value system and I think its because theres this thing called the freeway and people think roads are free, Redeker said. Theyre not. Thats the dilemma. Thats where we are.

The fund was created after the Mianus River Bridge collapse in Greenwich in 1983. But with revenue from the gas tax and other sources declining  and the fund being used for non-transportation purposes  the deficit has resulted.

Money in the fund is being used to service transportation debt, rather than to pay for needed projects. In January, the DOT released a list of $4.3 billion worth of projects that were postponed indefinitely, including rehabilitation of the Cos Cob railroad bridge and several others in Greenwich.

There have been changes in transportation services as well, including reductions of bus and rail service during off-peak hours and increases in fares.

Redeker said the DOT has little power to solve the overriding problem because issues such as debt service and transportation income come under the purview of the state Legislature.

I cant cut my way out of the problem in the transportation fund, Redeker said. You can cut and cut and cut but theres just no more to go before you shut the DOT down.

Many projects are ongoing, however, and Redeker offered status updates. He also shared news about high-speed rail coming through Connecticut. Concerns about the proposed federal project have been deeply felt in Greenwich because of the amount of property, particularly in Riverside and Cos Cob, that would have to be taken in order for the high-speed track to be built.

Several of the potential rail lines most vocal local opponents were in attendance for Tuesdays meeting, and Redeker sought to calm their fears.

There is no money for it, Redeker said. The (Federal Railroad Administration) would not be advancing a project of its own accord. In fact the study that was done showed if anyone wanted to advance a project in that report it is up to the individual states to take it on. If there was anything happening it would not be on the federal side and if you look at the budget that was just passed theres no money in it for any of it.

Instead, he said, concepts for increasing speed and capacity on the existing New Haven Line will be discussed in the near future.
Once the darling of the tech community, Elizabeth Holmes is now an example of what can go wrong when entrepreneurs get in over their head. Holmes co-founded Theranos with Ramesh Balwani. The company hoped to develop technology that could quickly and inexpensively analyze blood samples.

The goal was to create a type of computer that was essentially a miniature blood lab, capable of determining if patients had diseases like diabetes or cancer. Theranos partnered with Walgreens and the Department of Defense to bring the technology to the masses.

As it turns out, however, the company was operating on a foundation of lies and half-truths that have caused the one-time Silicon Valley darling to become a cautionary tale. On March 14, the Security and Exchange Commission brought charges against Holmes and Balwani, alleging that they intentionally misled investors and business partners.

Now, rather than serve as a source of undying inspiration, Holmes provides entrepreneurs with 6 cautionary lessons to learn from when building a business.

1. Talented advisors are useless if you arent honest.

Theranos assembled an all-star board of directors, featuring some of the most respected leaders from all walks of life. Directors included George Shultz (former Secretary of State), James Mattis (the current Secretary of Defense) and Dick Kovacevich (former CEO of Wells Fargo).

However, despite surrounding herself with outstanding mentors, Holmes was not able to benefit from their advice. As has been alleged in a number of reports, Holmes kept employees and advisors in the dark about the challenges her organization was facing.

Since she wasnt honest with her board, she wasnt able to benefit from their experience. Though discussing mistakes and failures may be uncomfortable for entrepreneurs driven to succeed, business leaders are obligated to seek advice when things go wrong. Doing so is in the best interest of the organization, its employees and its investors.

Had Holmes chosen to tap into the advice of her all-star board, she might have been able to avert disaster.

2. Transparency is key to strong business partnerships.

The Security and Exchange Commission alleges that Holmes misled business partners like the drugstore giant Walgreens. Holmes claimed that the Theranos minilab was capable of testing for roughly 200 diseases. The SECs report shows that, in reality, the device could test for roughly 20 diseases.

Perhaps this is why Walgreens chose to sue Theranos for $140 million in 2016, claiming breach of contract. Though the parties settled out of court, it seems clear that Holmes misled her business partners into believing that her company was capable of providing services it was years away from being able to provide. Legally, this sort of misrepresentation is known as fraud.

The only way to enter a business partnership is with full transparency. Anything short of this and the relationship is doomed to failure the moment the truth comes out. After all, business relationships are like any other: they thrive on a foundation of truth.

Related: Why Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes Should Be Banned

3. Raising capital isnt a cure-all.

In 2010, Theranos raised $45 million in investment capital. Over the next 8 years, the company would raise a total of $400 million. Many entrepreneurs make the mistake of assuming that raising capital will solve an organizations most meaningful challenges.

The thinking goes like this: If you arent finding productmarket fit, surely more money will help you hire the engineers and product managers to fix it. If you arent hitting your sales targets, more money will allow you to hire an experienced VP of Sales while retaining existing salespeople. If you arent generating press attention, raising a large round of funding will show the media that your organization is worth covering.

In truth, however, raising capital from investors can exacerbate existing problems, especially if they are related to company culture or flaws in leadership. Theranos should serve as an example for other entrepreneurs that capital is not a cure-all. Before establishing a relationship with investors, business leaders should first ensure that the fundamentals of the business are strong.

4. The public values leaders who proactively take responsibility.

Elizabeth Holmes shirked her responsibilities as the leader of an organization that was supposedly focused on helping people to inexpensively live healthier lives. She appears to have intentionally created a highly secretive organization that operated in the shadows of the tech world for roughly 10 years. Along the way, she manipulated investors, business partners and journalists while knowingly offering a product that was unreliable.

This is no recipe to earning the trust of the general public. As a rule, people prefer leaders who admit to making mistakes and who take responsibility for their actions when mistakes occur.

In contrast to Elizabeth Holmes is Mark Zuckerberg, who helms Facebook. After realizing that his organization made a serious mistake in failing to properly react to a user data breach, he took full responsibility for his organizations actions, taking out full-page newspaper ads apologizing to Facebook users.

5. Fail fast or youll fail big.

As mentioned earlier, Holmes chose to operate in stealth mode for nearly 10 years of the companys history. Stealth mode is startup speak for operating under the radar. As a result of opting to operate secretly and withhold important information from employees and advisors, Holmes may have missed her opportunity to fail fast. As a result, she and her company failed big.

Had Theranos operated with more transparency, its conceivable that the organization would have been able to solve some of the problems that caused the company to under-deliver later on.

Rather than operating in secrecy until the organization is 100 percent successful, entrepreneurs should adopt the lean-startup methodology known as build, measure, learn. This framework encourages founders to create an organization that builds products quickly, measures the outcome of the product in question and learns from the results.

Applying this framework requires operating out in the open, where employees can gather customer feedback and where business leaders can inform employees and advisors about company performance in an honest manner.

6. What you say to the media can have legal consequences.

The first point of the complaint filed against Elizabeth Holmes by the SEC mentions that Holmes intentionally misled members of the media in order to disingenuously represent Theranos technology.

While hyping your business is certainly a generally accepted part of media relations, doing so in order to intentionally misrepresent your organization can be ethically dubious. In the case of Theranos, it appears to have been illegal.

Holmes is accused of using the media to mislead Theranos investors, partners and customers. Entrepreneurs must be mindful of how they use the media. Promoting your business is one thing; telling outright lies in order to garner press attention or to save face is another.

Entrepreneurs struggling to build a successful business could easily find themselves in situations similar to those Elizabeth Holmes faced when building Theranos. Readers must remember that ones integrity is most tested during times of struggle.

When times get tough, rather than opt for deception, manipulation and puffery, entrepreneurs should opt for transparency. Reaching out to advisors, partners and employees and asking for advice and help is often the best way to overcome professional hardship.

Related:

6 Lessons Entrepreneurs Can Learn From the Fall of Theranos

Acusan de fraude masivo a la fundadora de la startup Theranos

What Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Theranos's Fall From Grace



Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com


Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus V.Makei visits the UK

28-03-2018

On March 27  28, 2018 the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus, Vladimir Makei, paid an official visit to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. This is the first since 1993 visit of Belarus Foreign Minister to the UK.

During the visit, V.Makei met with the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Boris Johnson, to discuss prospects for the development of bilateral relations in the context of the current situation in the European region, including the withdrawal of Britain from the EU.

It was noted that the sides are interested in further development of bilateral relations in all areas, as well as in promoting initiatives that would be aimed at easing tensions in the region.

Talks were held on a wide range of political and economic issues with the Minister of State for Europe and the Americas, Alan Duncan, and the Minister of State for Trade Policy, Greg Hands.

Foreign Minister of Belarus V.Makei meets the Minister of State for Trade Policy of the UK

Following th meetings, official documents were signed: Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on trade and economic cooperation, which provides for the establishment of a Commercial Dialogue between the Governments to develop greater mutual trade and investment between the two countries, and MoU on customs cooperation.

At the Palace of Westminster, V.Makei met with the British MPs, members of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Belarus. The importance of consolidating positive dynamics in the dialogue between the peoples representatives of both states was noted.

At the Kensington Palace, the Minister met with a member of the royal family, Prince Michael of Kent, who had previously visited the Republic of Belarus. The parties exchanged views on the issues of bilateral cooperation in economic and humanitarian fields.

In the City of London, the Belarusian Foreign Minister held talks with the Vice-President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Pierre Heilbronn, during which the whole complex of issues related to the work of this international financial institution in Belarus was discussed. The course of implementation of the current projects within the framework of the EBRD Strategy for Belarus for 2016  2019 was considered.

During the meeting with the President of EBRD, Suma Chakrabarti, the sides noted the positive dynamics in the volume of operations in Belarus and the expansion of the spheres of cooperation, including through preparation of new projects in transport, energy, banking and financial sectors.

At the EBRD headquarters, a loan agreement was signed on the project for the reconstruction of the P-80 highway (section of the Minsk Second Ring Road). Realization of the project will allow completing the construction of the Second Ring Road around Minsk to the opening of the II European Games in 2019. Taking into account the funds allocated by the bank to finance the project (EUR 42.45 million), the total amount of financial resources provided by the EBRD to Belarus has exceeded 2 billion euros since 1992.

At the Center for European Reforms, V.Makei took part in the round table Modern Belarus and its place in Europe with the participation of leading British think tanks (Royal Institute of International Relations, International Institute for Strategic Studies, European Council on Foreign Relations, etc.). The Minister outlined the stance of the Republic of Belarus on topical issues on the international agenda.

The visit of the Belarusian Foreign Minister to the United Kingdom will contribute to the development of bilateral cooperation and have a positive impact on strengthening the region-wide stability.

Background Information: The United Kingdom is one of the main trade partners of the Republic of Belarus. Over last few years, the UK has consistently ranked third in terms of export of Belarusian goods. In 2017, the trade turnover between the Republic of Belarus and Great Britain amounted to 2,656.6 million dollars, exports  2 407.3 million dollars, with a positive balance of 2 157.0 million dollars.

The United Kingdom ranks second in terms of foreign direct investment (FDI) attracted to the economy of the Republic of Belarus. In 2017, the volume of British investments in the Belarusian economy amounted to 2,591.3 million dollars, FDI  2 456.4 million dollars.

   



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NORWALK  A security officer at West Rocks Middle School is no longer employed at the district after making an inappropriate comment to a student last week, according to Norwalk School Resource Officer Joe Rios.

Rios said the security officer was immediately removed from the school the day of the incident, after a student reported the inappropriate comment to school administration.

He said the issue was immediately resolved after working with West Rocks Middle School principal Lynne Moore, the Norwalk Police Department and Century Protective Services, where the security officer was employed.

Rios said it was unclear whether or not the security officer was fired or resigned.

We basically felt that this incident was isolated in that it was the best decision to remove the guard from the school, Rios said, noting the extensive background check the security officer went through as district employees do.

There was nothing in his background that we knew about and or was shared with us that prevented him from working in the district, he added.

The security officer was placed at the school as part of a new initiative to strengthen school security in the light of the school shooting in Parkland, Fla., according to district spokeswoman Brenda Wilcox-Williams.

Superintendent of Schools Steven Adamowski made the recommendation to add 16 new security guards within the district from Century Protective Services, which also employs security officers who work in Norwalk buildings, to the Board of Education at the March 6 board meeting.

The cost of hiring the 16 new security officers were included in his recommendation to add $457,099 to the 2018-19 budget to strengthen school security measures. Existing security personnel will remain in place.

Details were discussed in an executive session at the board meeting that night, in line with the state law, Wilcox-Williams said. But West Rocks parents and families were informed of the addition of new security guards prior to the change at the school, and other schools will follow suit as new security officers are assigned, she added.

We do our best to communicate with them as soon as we can, but for safety reasons, there are times when we may not be able to communicate with them as far as advance and as thoroughly as they would like, Wilcox-Williams said.
Racial discrimination in mortgage lending in the 1930s shaped the demographic and wealth patterns of American communities today, a new study shows, with 3 out of 4 neighborhoods "redlined" on government maps 80 years ago continuing to struggle economically.

The study by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, released Wednesday, shows that the vast majority of neighborhoods marked "hazardous" in red ink on maps drawn by the federal Home Owners' Loan Corp. from 1935 to 1939 are today much more likely than other areas to comprise lower-income, minority residents.

"It's as if some of these places have been trapped in the past, locking neighborhoods into concentrated poverty," said Jason Richardson, director of research at the NCRC, a consumer advocacy group.

Researchers compared the HOLC maps, the most comprehensive documentation of discriminatory lending practices, with modern-day census data to determine how much neighborhood demographics have changed in 80 years. The findings have implications for today's political debates over housing, banking and financial regulation, as well as civil rights, as Congress seeks to weaken the government's ability to enforce fair-lending requirements. Policies that influence access to capital and credit have long-lasting effects on residential patterns, neighborhoods' economic health and household accumulation of wealth, the report said.

In the 1930s, government surveyors graded neighborhoods in 239 cities, color-coding them green for "best," blue for "still desirable," yellow for "definitely declining" and red for "hazardous." The "redlined" areas were the ones local lenders discounted as credit risks, in large part because of the residents' racial and ethnic demographics. They also took into account local amenities and home prices.

Neighborhoods that were predominantly made up of African Americans, as well as Catholics, Jews and immigrants from Asia and southern Europe, were deemed undesirable. "Anyone who was not northern-European white was considered to be a detraction from the value of the area," said Bruce Mitchell, a senior researcher at the NCRC and one of the study's authors.

Loans in these neighborhoods were unavailable or very expensive, making it more difficult for low-income minorities to buy homes and setting the stage for the country's persistent racial wealth gap. (White families today have nearly 10 times the net worth of black families and more than eight times that of Hispanic families, according to the Federal Reserve.)

"Homeownership is the number-one method of accumulating wealth, but the effect of these policies that create more hurdles for the poor is a permanent underclass that's disproportionately minority," said John Taylor, president and chief executive of the NCRC. "I think most people believe the problem is not with the rules but with the people. Most middle-class whites in America don't have empirical observations of what happens in underserved neighborhoods or understand the historical treatment of poor and minority communities."

The Federal Housing Administration institutionalized the system of discriminatory lending in government-backed mortgages, reflecting local race-based criteria in their underwriting practices and reinforcing residential segregation in American cities. The discriminatory practices captured by the HOLC maps continued until 1968, when the Fair Housing Act banned racial discrimination in housing.

But 50 years after that law passed, the lingering effects of redlining are clear, with the pattern of economic and racial residential segregation still evident in many U.S. cities - from Montgomery, Alabama, to Flint, Michigan, to Denver.

Nationally, nearly two-thirds of neighborhoods deemed "hazardous" are inhabited by mostly minority residents, typically black and Latino, researchers found. Cities with more such neighborhoods have significantly greater economic inequality. On the flip side, 91 percent of areas classified as "best" in the 1930s remain middle-to-upper-income today, and 85 percent of them are still predominantly white.

Researchers found that redlined neighborhoods in the South and the West are more likely today to be home to a largely minority population. Neighborhoods in the South and Midwest display the most persistent economic inequality.

In Macon, Georgia, 65 percent of neighborhoods were marked "hazardous" in the 1930s, making it the most redlined city in the United States, followed closely by Birmingham, Alabama, and Wichita, Kansas.

In Macon today, 91 percent of redlined neighborhoods are inhabited by mostly minorities; 73 percent of such neighborhoods remain low-to-moderate income, researchers found. Whites, on the other hand, remain the overwhelming majority in Macon neighborhoods deemed "best" in the 1930s - all of which remain middle-to-upper income.

The racial disparity is reflected in the city's poverty statistics. Nearly 35 percent of blacks in Macon live in poverty today, compared with less than 13 percent of whites, according to 2012 to 2016 census data.

In Baltimore, one of the earliest cities to officially adopt restrictive covenants limiting African Americans and Jews to certain neighborhoods, nearly every census tract labeled "hazardous" in the 1930s remains low-to-moderate income today, researchers found. The only exceptions are the areas surrounding Baltimore's harbor, a former industrial front that's been redeveloped to attract businesses and tourism.

Nearly 70 percent of formerly redlined communities in Baltimore remain predominantly minority, as well as lower income. Even neighborhoods in western Baltimore that had been rated as "desirable" subsequently became populated with minority, low-income residents as middle-class whites fled to the suburbs, researchers said.

A 2015 study of home mortgage and small-business lending in Baltimore by the NCRC found that race, more than income, affected mortgage lending in the city. Lending is greater in neighborhoods with larger white populations, with banks making more than twice as many mortgage loans to whites as they did to blacks.

A February report by the Center for Investigative Reporting showed that redlining persists in 61 metro areas - from Detroit and Philadelphia to Little Rock, Arkansas and Tacoma, Washington - even when controlling for applicants' income, loan amount and neighborhood, according to its analysis of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act records.

Banks have largely blamed the racial lending discrepancies on borrowers' credit scores. Lenders were supposed to soon start reporting extra information about credit scores and other loan-pricing features. But the Senate recently voted to roll back the new reporting requirements for small lenders.

The researchers also analyzed 30 cities for patterns of gentrification, where once-redlined neighborhoods showed an increase in median home values and educational attainment between 2000 and 2010. They found that in cities with higher levels of gentrification, more redlined neighborhoods had become middle-to-upper-income neighborhoods. These areas saw a greater influx in economic activity and changes to their downtowns. They also now have lower levels of segregation, with more interaction between blacks and whites, as well as greater economic inequality between newcomers and those who have historically lived there.

Current lending discrimination reinforces the economic gulf, Mitchell said, as middle- and upper-income gentrifiers moving into lower-income areas are able to obtain loans to buy and renovate homes, while longtime residents rarely have access to that type of capital.

Researchers ranked Portland, Oregon, which has seen an influx of financial investment from the tech sector, as the most gentrified American city, with 58 percent of its census tracts having gentrified. It is followed by Minneapolis, Seattle, Atlanta and Denver.

Detroit was the least gentrified city, the research showed, with less than 3 percent of its census tracts having gentrified, and only around the downtown core. But artists and other "urban pioneers" have in recent years begun moving into more pockets of the city, researchers said.

Longtime residents of formerly redlined neighborhoods are often pushed out when the areas' economic fortunes are reversed, researchers said. Many can no longer afford the rising rents. Homeowners often can't afford the increases in property taxes, and as their home values rise, many are tempted to sell and cash out.

"Is gentrification promoting sustainable desegregation?" Mitchell said. "Or is it just a movement towards increased segregation in the next census period?"
GREENWICH  Police were dispatched to the Peoples United Bank Monday afternoon on a report of a man attempting to cash fraudulent checks.

According to an arrest report, Giovanni Ortiz, 26, of no known address, had cashed on fraudulent check and was attempting to cash another one when police arrived.
If you've been keeping up with Xiaomi and in-display fingerprint tech lately, then you probably heard a lot of rumors regarding the Mi Mix 2s. Since that particular flagship was announced yesterday that obviously didn't come to pass. However, this development doesn't mean the Chinese manufacturer entirely gave up on the technology.

The primary suspect to pioneer the new reader within Xiaomi's ranks now seems to be the the Mi 7. As per industry chatter, the flagship was delayed, potentially to accommodate the new tech. Some fine investigative work from the guys over at XDA seems to further back this up with an interesting spin.



In-display fingerprint reader references

To keep a long story short, a couple of MIUI code bases were discovered. One titled "dipper", while the other "dipper old". Since dipper is a known Mi 7 codename, it only makes sense to assume the latter is an earlier version of the software. One likely abandoned around the time development on the product was postponed.

The really interesting part, however, is that the build.prop file, as well as many functions within Xiaomi's MiuiKeyguard (the app responsible for the lock screen) code of the new "dipper" branch contain references to fingerprint sensors sourced form Synaptics and Goodix, along with variables, such as "goodix_fod". The FOD likely stands for "fingerprint on display".



In-display fingerprint reader references

Apparently, the MiuiKeyguard code in this particular repository contains some IF statements to check for a particular hardware vendor. That could only make sense if a different type of reading is involved. The theory is further backed up by accompanying variables, such as HBM (High brightness mode) and coordinates to draw circles and fingerprint icons on screen as visual guides for the user.

So, this this all adds up to an in-display fingerprint reader on the Mi 7, right? Well, not necessarily. The plot thickened even further with the discovery of another MIUI code branch.

A device codenamed "ursa", is yet another upcoming Xiaomi flagship. One with a Snapdragon 845 chipset, OLED display, with a notch and 4,000 mAh of battery. Its code features references to the same Synaptics and Goodix_fod sensors. Furthermore, "ursa" and "dipper" both mention other common features, like optical camera zoom.

This could mean that "ursa" is actually a Xiaomi Mi 7 Plus, or some other, similarly named variation of the Mi 7 flagship. Whether or not the in-display fingerprint tech will be exclusive to it, however, is still anybody's guess.

Source
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus O.Kravchenko visits the United States

28-03-2018

On March 27, 2018, during visit to the United States, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus, Oleg Kravchenko, met with the Assistant Secretary of State of the U.S. for European and Eurasian Affairs, Wess Mitchell.

During the meeting, the parties discussed Belarus  U.S. cooperation, as well as ways to further improve bilateral relations.

The issues of human rights respect were discussed at the meeting of O.Kravchenko with the Senior Official of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor of the State Department, Michael Kozak.

Deputy Foreign Minister of Belarus also held a meeting with a group of experts of RAND Corporation. O.Kravchenko presented main directions of Belarus foreign policy and the vision of the regional situation, as well as answered the questions of American analysts.

   

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Published on 2018/03/27 | Source

With the movie "Seven Years of Night" coming soon to theaters, Jang Dong-gun had an interview with Maeil Kyungjae on the 23rd. He said, "At first the director suggested an M hair line and I thought he was joking. I wondered if that was necessary and if it was too much for a look transformation".

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"He wanted to try it out so when I did, it was awkward seeing myself like that but at the same time, I could see Oh Young-jae right away. Being comfortable acting the character just by looking like him was a first since the movie "Friends"".

"The director said I would feel more at ease about acting if I wore a mask and I related to that. I don't usually do 'transformation' but once I got into it, I felt better about the character".

He put on weight and spent 9-10 months with an M shaped hair line. "The staff were surprised at first and of course, my family too".

"Ko So-young told me not to come close. Then she got used to it and told me it was appealing in its own way".

"There was a cut from the poster making that I liked so I made it my cell-phone background. My daughter called it a "Monster". She didn't know it was her dad. I realized I had succeeded".

A man named Choi Hyun-soo (Ryu Seung-ryong) who loses everything because of a murder and a man named Oh Young-jae (Jang Dong-gun) who loses his daughter because of that plan revenge and look back on 7 years of truth in "Seven Years of Night". It is a best seller by Jeong You Jeong. Jang Dong-gun plays Oh Young-jae who plans revenge for his daughter's death and it is his most shocking transformation yet.
By Vasia Orion | Published on 2018/03/27

Upcoming drama "Lawless Lawyer" is finally giving us a peek into its production, and it's such a delight knowing all of these actors, and everyone not yet pictured, will be working together. Script reading photos are usually an official kick off for promotional campaigns, so my grabby hands are waiting for what the future brings.

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The script reading held at Studio Dragon featured actors Lee Joon-gi, Seo Ye-ji, Lee Hye-young-I, Choi Min-soo, Yeom Hye-ran, Shin Eun-jung, Ahn Nae-sang, Lee Han-wi, Lee Dae-yeon and more. It is reported that the session was enthusiastic and full of great acting, which is no surprise when we look at the names involved.

The piece talks a bit about each of the major leading actors, their appearance and performance at the script reading, but I do wish we could have a few words from the cast, rather than the fawning reports on such events like engaging in.

We do have some interesting words from PD Kim Jin-min-I, however. The director has expressed his wish to keep the set full of laughter. He also wants to make sure that no actors, staff or anyone else gets hurt during filming. Given the recent events in "A Korean Odyssey", another Studio Dragon and tvN drama, the production is probably being very cautious, which is good.

"Lawless Lawyer" is the story of a lawyer who bends the law to go after the corrupt and powerful, while being motivated by his quest for personal revenge. The drama will begin its run on May 12th, and I'll be sharing major media goodies from its production process.

Written by: Orion from 'Orion's Ramblings'

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Published on 2018/03/28 | Source

Added episode 10 captures for the Korean drama "The Great Seducer" (2018)

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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

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Havre Police Department

Michelle Rose Jiron of Havre, 26, was arrested on charges of criminal contempt and no insurance on owners vehicle in relation to a 24-7 Sobriety Program violation Tuesday at 8 a.m. at the police station.



Three arrests were made after a 17th Street West caller reported Tuesday at 2:25 p.m. that two men were trying to kick in her door, but no details were provided about the arrests.



Officers investigated after a 19th Street caller reported Tuesday at 6:51 p.m. that a lawn decoration was stolen.

Hill County Sheriffs Office

William Ray Snell of Dodson, 22, was arrested on a Justice or City court warrant served Tuesday at 2:51 p.m. at the detention center.



Aaryn Jace Cantrell of Havre, 18, was arrested on a charge of shoplifting after a caller at a U.S. Highway 2 West business reported at 7:21 p.m. Tuesday having a shoplifter in the office.

Havre Fire Department

Emergency medical crews responded to four calls Tuesday, and fire crews responded to a call on the 400 Block of First Avenue.

Havre Animal Shelter

This morning the shelter held 10 medium-hair cats whose sex is listed as unknown, one medium-hair male cat, and two short-hair cats, one male and one female.



The shelter held this morning a 4-year-old male Australian shepherd-Labrador retriever cross, a 1-year-3-month-old female Australian shepherd, a 1-year-1-month-old male Labrador retriever-pug cross, an 8-month-old female German shepherd, a 6-year-1-month-old female Labrador retriever and a 5-year-old female Australian shepherd.
Chase Stoner with Stoner Family Farms harvests dry green peas July 23, 2016, at the family's farm fields north of Havre. The Montana State University pulse crop breeding program has released a new green pea variety bred specifically for Montana growing conditions. The variety, currently named MT457, will be commericallly available in 2020.

By Jenny Lavey

MSU News Service

BOZEMAN - More than a decade ago when Montana's pulse crop industry was a sliver in northeastern Montana and there wasn't much money to fund alternative crop trials, a Montana State University agricultural faculty member was planting the future.

Chengci Chen, superintendent of the MSU Eastern Agricultural Research Center in Sidney has spent the last 12 years developing pulse crops specifically adapted to Montana's growing conditions. One successful green pea variety with high yield and protein, currently named MT457, was released from the university last month. It will be commercially available in 2020.

The new pea variety has a heavy seed weight and genetic resistance to Fusarium oxysporum Race 1, a widespread fungus that damages pulse crops. Chen said the variety also has nice height and produces multiple pods along the stem and is resistant to plant collapse, also called "lodging," which can make harvesting harder and reduce yield.

"What's unique about this variety is that it's bred specifically to perform well in Montana," said Kevin McPhee, who holds a doctorate in plant sciences as MSU's pulse crop breeder and professor in the Department of Plant Sciences and Plant Pathology. "I'm not confident this variety would perform well outside of Montana, in fact."

Chen and McPhee have been working together for more than a decade breeding and testing pea varieties for Montana - before Montana produced the most pulse crops in the nation and before there were strong commodity markets for Big Sky peas. In Montana, pulse crops are chickpea, pea and lentil. In 2017, Montana farmers planted 525,000 acres of dry pea, according to the 2017 USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service.

Chen, who has a doctorate in agronomy, has been working on pulse crops since he started working at the MSU Central Agricultural Research Center in Moccasin as an assistant professor of agronomy and cropping systems in 2002, before moving to Sidney to become superintendent of EARC in 2015. The Moccasin facility is one of seven statewide agricultural research centers in the College of Agriculture and the Montana Agricultural Experiment Station. At CARC, Chen requested pea populations from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service's Grain Legume Genetics and Physiology Research Unit in Pullman, Washington, where McPhee worked as the USDA unit's research plant geneticist at the time.

Following Chen's request, McPhee sent pea populations to Moccasin for Chen to make genetic selections for potentially adapted high-yielding plants for Montana. It was a long process starting from a single plant.

According to Chen, his pulse crop research program may have evaporated if it weren't for having a full-time CARC research associate, formerly Karnes Neill, who provided research support and field assistance.

"It was a long and hard 12 years, especially the first few years when Montana's pulse crop industry was in its infancy," Chen said. "There weren't any check-off dollars from growers or funding support for pulse crop breeding or variety trials. We did this without any funding support. It was challenging."

McPhee would stop at Moccasin once or twice a year on the way to visit family in Lewistown to check on the field trials and suggest new genetic selections to Chen.

"Ultimately, our goal was to breed a variety that worked well for U.S. northwest production and future markets by sharing advanced lines and populations," McPhee said. "Stopping at Moccasin to visit Dr. Chen was convenient, and I was happy to see the consistent trials at the location which made new selections maybe a bit faster than other field trial locations."

Despite researching a relatively new crop for Montana with little funding at the time, Chen said he was obligated to introduce new crops to the state.

"My job description is to introduce specialty crops to Montana in wheat-based cropping systems," Chen said. "So, whether I have funding or not, I have to test specialty crops that have potential to grow in Montana. I'm happy to see this released finally."

After multiple genetic selections and field trials, Chen and Neill selected MT457. Chen said the new variety wouldn't have been possible without his colleagues at the seven research centers and on the main campus in Bozeman, for their support in testing this variety at multiple locations statewide during the last three years. Chen said EARC Research Scientist Yesuf Mohammed, who has a doctorate in soil science, coordinated the statewide testing.

MSU Photo Chengci Chen, superintendent of the Eastern Agricultural Research Center, has spent the last 12 years developing pulse crops specifically adapted to Montana's growing conditions.

Chen, who researches how pea crop yield and protein are affected by genetics that interact with diverse environments, said the new variety has a big seed size and bright color, which may be ideal for the green pea market in soups, salads or fried snack peas.

"This variety flowers and matures a few days earlier than other varieties, which presents some advantages to growers in central and southern regions of Montana to be able to avoid heat stress in the summer," he said. "From our statewide testing results in the past three years, this variety also performs very well under irrigated conditions."

Montana Foundation Seed Program manager Doug Holen said after McPhee increases enough breeder seed, the university will increase its foundation seed quantity of MT457 and the variety will likely be available commercially in 2020. The MFSP provides foundation seed, or genetically pure seed, to statewide producers and certified seed houses.
Jared Pettinato, a Democrat candidate running for U.S. House of Representatives, talks to people at Triple Dog Brewing Co. Tuesday evening in Havre.

Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives Jared Pettinato talked with voters at Triple Dog Brewing Co Tuesday, part of a six-stop whistle stop tour he is making across northern Montana.

Pettinato said in an interview that he has already visited Wolf Point and Glasgow, and will round out his tour with stops in Cut Bank, Browning and Libby.

A former U.S. Justice Dept. attorney from Whitefish Pettinato is vying to be the Democratic candidate to take on Rep. Greg Gianforte, R-Mont., in the fall.

Pettinato is competing with Billings Attorney John Heenan, former Five Valleys Land Trust Executive Director Grant Kier of Missoula, former state Sen. Lynda Moss, D-Billings, former state Rep. Kathleen Williams, D-Bozeman and John Meyer of Bozeman to win the June 5 primary

The winner of the primary will go up against Gianforte and Libertarian Elinor Swanson of Billings and Green Party candidate Doug Campbell of Bozeman in the November general election.

Pettinato said he was motivated to run because he wants to push back against what he calls "the toxic politics" coming out of Washington, D.C.

"We are not seeing people working together, rolling up their sleeves and digging into problems," he said.

Pettinato is a fourth-generation Montanan and the son and grandson of railroad workers. He has a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics with minors in computer science and political science from the University of Montana and a law degree from Stanford University.

He was a clerk for former Montana Supreme Court Justice W. William Leaphart, and spent a summer working for Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., on the Senate Finance Committee and was a U.S. Justice Department attorney from 2008 to 2017 where he defended the government in cases involving public lands and infrastructure.

His experience working on the Senate Finance Committee and in federal law gives him experience his primary opponents don't have and will allow him to get to work quicker if elected, Pettinato said.

"You can either pick someone else and wait nine years to get my experience, or you can pick me and I can start tomorrow," Pettinato said.

Great potential exists for Montana's economy in renewable energy, especially wind energy, he said, adding that wind energy is an opportunity to "make money out of thin air."

"It brings money in, it brings the best-paying jobs into town, rent for the landowners and money for the schools," Pettinato said.

Washington and Oregon are aiming to have a certain amount of electricity in their states come from nonhydroelectric renewable energy sources, he said, and Montana with its abundance of wind can help them out.

"They have demand, we have supply, and we are never going to run out of wind," Pettinato said.

Rural communities in Montana are in need of good-paying jobs, he added.

"I see a lot of people moving out of rural areas because of jobs and because of the economy," Pettinato said.

Broadband internet also needs to be expanded to rural communities, he said. He added that broadband is the future and can help bring jobs to rural Montana.

On gun control, Pettinato said he wants to balance the rights of gun owners with the need for safety.

The best thing that can be done to reduce shootings, he said, is enforce laws now on the books, such as making sure the National Instant Criminal Background Check system has all the information needed to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people.

He said he does not think the research exists to determine whether additional proposals such as an assault weapons ban, a ban on bump stocks or raising the minimum age to buy all guns from 18 to 21 would be effective.

Republicans in Congress have prevented the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from funding studies to analyze how effective those gun control efforts would be, he said.

"I am not aware of the research out there that would say how effective all these pieces would be to do that."

Tariffs proposed by President Donald Trump on goods from other countries are not the way to protect middle class jobs and wages, he said. Instead, Pettinato said he thinks the way to help workers is through labor unions.

"They need unions, they need collective bargaining because share holders already have a collective to bargain for them, they call it a corporation," he said.

Although infrastructure around the U.S. needs to be improved, Pettinato said President Donald Trump's plan is not the answer.

Trump's infrastructure plan that relies heavily on money from the private sector as well as local and state governments will not work, Pettinato said.

He said infrastructure improvements need to be done with federal dollars as they have since the 1950s.

"So if (Trump) wants to use a different system, I just don't see much coming from it," he said.

Pettinato said that he differs with people in the Democratic party who think forests should not be managed, adding that he sees opportunities to manage forests in a way that follows science.

"I think we need to manage our forests a little more effectively," he said.

Pettinato said he supports taking out some of the dead trees and downed timber that fuel forrest fires. Doing so would help make money on the timber and can be used to help clean up other parts of the forest.

He said all of the dead wood can't be taken out because wildlife need some of it to survive.

Pettinato said the if he is elected and the Democrats take a majority in the House, he doesn't know if he would vote to make House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif, speaker of the House because he does not know if she will be re-elected next year.

Pettinato said his former law school colleague Shahid Buttar is challenging Pelosi in the Democratic primary in her San Francisco congressional district.

"So I am not convinced Nancy is going to be there." he said.
The employee was aged 24 and in Australia on a bridging visa when he started work as a cook at The Curry Tree in 2012. He was paid $200 cash for his first few days of work, but then worked six evenings per week for the next four months without receiving any pay.

He hesitated to complain because he had hoped Mackenzies company would sponsor him on a work visa, which would allow him to remain in Australia.

When the worker sent Mackenzie a text message saying he would not attend work because he was unwell and would provide a medical certificate the following day, Mackenzie responded with a series of text messages terminating his employment.

The worker lodged a complaint after being dismissed which led to the Fair Work Ombudsman commencing an investigation and then legal action.

At a contested hearing in the Federal Circuit Court, Mackenzie denied committing any contraventions of workplace laws.
Rey alleges that, on more than one occasion, his General Manager and another manager had casually commented to him that it might be because of my culture that other staff members think I am being aggressive.

Rey also claims that he carried out his duties with an "honest and professional personality", and garnered great feedback from guests".

The alleged incident which caused the Rey to lose his job took concerned an altercation with a fellow server. Whilst Rey denies acting in an aggressive or bullying manner, the restaurant manager claims the fellow server came into her office borderline in tears.

BCs Tribunal have granted Rey a hearing, despite the restaurant attempting to have the complaint thrown out.

At a hearing, Mr. Rey will have to lead evidence about what exactly the stereotype is with respect to people from France, commented Tribunal member Devyn Cousineau.
UC San Francisco scientists have uncovered a common genetic driver of aggressive meningiomas, which could help clinicians detect such dangerous cancers earlier and lead to new therapies aimed at curing these difficult-to-treat tumors.

Meningiomas are tumors that grow from the layer of tissue that surrounds the brain and spinal cord and are the most common central nervous system tumor in the United States. Although the vast majority are benign and grow slowly, over time they can lead to headaches, seizures, neurological deficits and even death.

Most meningiomas are treatable with radiation therapy or surgery. However, approximately twenty percent of meningiomas are aggressive and can recur even after surgery and radiation therapy. In the new study, published online March 27, 2018, in Cell Reports, a team led by UCSFs David Raleigh, MD, PhD, found that increased activity of a gene known as FOXM1 appears to be responsible for the aggressive growth and frequent recurrence of these tumors.

Raleigh, an assistant professor of radiation oncology and of neurological surgery and member of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, hopes the finding will be an important step towards correctly diagnosing these more aggressive tumors: There havent been as many studies on what drives problem meningiomas, he said. For clinicians, patients, and families, these are the most heartbreaking cases because we expect to cure meningiomas, but sometimes we cant and we dont always do a good job of differentiating good and bad meningiomas ahead of time.

In order to investigate what might be driving aggressive meningioma, Raleighs group examined 280 human meningioma samples collected by Michael McDermott, MD, and other faculty members in the Department of Neurological Surgery at UCSF between 1990 and 2015. Using an array of techniques, including RNA sequencing and targeted gene expression profiling, the researchers searched for links between gene activity and protein production in these tumors and the clinical outcomes of patients.

Raleighs team found that a gene named FOXM1 was at the heart of aggressive meningioma growth, and a signpost of subsequently poor clinical outcomes, including death. Previous studies have implicated FOXM1, which encodes a transcription factor protein capable of regulating the activity of many other genes, in many other human cancers, including liver, breast, lung, prostate, colon, and pancreatic cancers.

In the new study, the researchers found that heightened FOXM1 activity was the unifying factor between aggressive meningiomas in both men and women, in older and younger patients, and in meningiomas arising in different parts of the brain. Not only did the genes activation seem to underlie newly diagnosed tumors, but it was also an important driver of tumor recurrence following treatment.

The researchers also identified new links between aggressive meningioma proliferation and activation of an intercellular signaling pathway called Wnt  which typically plays a role during embryonic development and tissue formation. Given that the protein produced by FOXM1 is known to transmit signals along the Wnt pathway, the new data suggests that FOXM1 and the Wnt pathway working in concert may drive subsequent meningioma proliferation.

Raleighs group also looked at DNA methylation  chemical modifications of the genomic material that affects whether or not specific genes are expressed in a given cell. Previous research has identified excessive methylation of DNA, or hypermethylation, as a ubiquitous aspect of cancer development. The new study found significant hypermethylation in the most aggressive meningiomas, and showed that these DNA modifications specifically silenced genes that usually inhibit FOXM1 expression and Wnt signaling. Together, these findings suggest that hypermethylation may be an early trigger that leads to the development of aggressive forms of meningioma.

But according to Raleigh, future treatments will need to have more refined in their actions than simply blocking FOXM1. Though blocking FOXM1 could halt aggressive meningioma growth, the genes role in regulating a host of other genes suggests that there would likely be significant off-target side effects. We now need to find out what other genes FOXM1 is activating to drive meningioma growth, and block those targets with clinical therapies, Raleigh said.

These new insights may prove particularly beneficial for older patients that have aggressive meningiomas, because elderly patients have more trouble tolerating the cranial surgeries or recurrent radiation therapies that are currently used to control aggressive tumors.

Aggressive meningiomas are very insidious tumors. They keep coming back year after year. Sometimes, patients get worn down from the treatments, or become so old they cant tolerate them anymore, Raleigh said. Often, we run out of time, but with our new molecular insights into meningioma biology we may be able to find new cures for these tumors with fewer side effects and better outcomes.

Harish N. Vasudevan, MD, PhD, was lead author of the study. Other authors of the paper were Steve E. Braunstein, MD, PhD, Joanna J. Phillips, MD, PhD, Melike Pekmezci, MD, Ashley Wu, Gerald F. Reis, MD, Stephen T. Magill, MD, PhD, Jie Zhang, Felix Y. Feng, MD, Theodore Nicholaides, Susan M. Chang, MD, Penny K. Sneed, MD, Michael W. McDermott, MD, Mitchel S. Berger, MD, and Arie Perry, MD, all of UCSF; and Bryan A, Tomlin, PhD, of California State University Channel Islands.

This work was supported by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) (1F32CA213944-01), the Linda Wolfe Meningioma Research Fund, the Goddard Foundation, and the University of California San Francisco Physician Scientist Scholar Program.

UC San Francisco (UCSF) is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. It includes top-ranked graduate schools of dentistry, medicine, nursing and pharmacy; a graduate division with nationally renowned programs in basic, biomedical, translational and population sciences; and a preeminent biomedical research enterprise. It also includes UCSF Health, which comprises three top-ranked hospitals, UCSF Medical Center and UCSF Benioff Childrens Hospitals in San Francisco and Oakland, and other partner and affiliated hospitals and healthcare providers throughout the Bay Area.
People are surrounded by thousands of chemicals in their everyday life, so are children. One of the chemical groups of concern are the so called highly fluorinated chemicals, PFASs. A recently defended doctoral thesis from Kerstin Winkens at the Department of Environmental Science and Analytical Chemistry (ACES) investigates childrens exposure to these chemicals. In agreement with previous studies, childrens exposure to PFASs is shown to peak in the first year of life.

The investigation demonstrates that children are exposed to a wide range of PFASs through multiple pathways including breastfeeding, air inhalation and dust ingestion. PFASs, also known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are very stable chemical substances with unique properties added into many different consumer products that we have in our homes. They are for instance used to make products at the same time water, oil and grease repellent and are used in products such as textiles, food packaging materials, floor waxes, inks, paints, fire-fighting foams and ski waxes. PFASs are added to food packaging materials to prevent fat or water from leaking through. In textiles such as in rain jackets or in fabrics of furniture, they are used for waterproofing and to enable the easy removal of stains.

The problem with PFASs is that there are so many and several of the PFASs are so called precursors that can break down to persistent PFAS chemicals. Some of the PFASs are meanwhile restricted or not produced in the western countries anymore and agencies are working on the classification of some others as well, says Kerstin Winkens, PhD student at the Department of Environmental Science and Analytical Chemistry (ACES), who defended her doctoral thesis in March.

Agencies have an eye on PFASs, because there are some scientific studies on some of the PFASs that report effects in animal and even some in human studies. Among the effects are hormone disruption and a higher likelihood of some specific cases of cancer and for children, a later onset of puberty and associations with obesity. Early-life exposure to chemicals, which occurs during key stages in development, is especially of concern because some studies have linked early-life exposure to chemicals (including PFASs) to health effects occurring later in childhood or adulthood.

The research team followed the children during a long time

In Kerstin Winkens study, she did not focus on the health effects, but wanted to understand the exposure and trends of PFASs during childhood. The research team that she was part of followed the same individuals from birth and up to the age of 10.5 years. PFAS concentrations were measured in childrens bodies and in indoor dust and air samples collected from the rooms where they slept. It is the first time that a study investigates PFAS exposure for such a long time during childhood in a normal population.

One of the major findings was that the concentration of single PFAS compounds in the blood peaked in early life and declined between 1 and 10.5 years of age. In contrast, the total amount of single PFAS compounds remained constant or increased during that time.

This seems contradictory at first, but the serum concentration can also be seen as the total amount of the PFASs divided by the volume of the blood. The blood volume becomes bigger as the child grows. Therefore the blood concentration goes down, even though the total PFAS amount in their bodies is still increasing. We call this effect growth dilution. Thanks to our calculation of the total amount in the body we see that the intake during childhood is higher than the excretion of those chemicals.

PFASs can be released from consumer products that contain these chemicals. They can then enter human bodies when we inhale them with air, swallow them with food, drinking water and dust, or when they penetrate the skin after contact with dust or consumer products. PFASs can be transferred from the mother with the cord blood or after birth with the breastmilk to foetuses or infants.

Children can swallow more dust than adults

In order to understand the amounts of chemicals in the body, we have to understand where the exposure comes from. These entry pathways into the body may be of different relevance for children and adults, because their behaviour and the body size is different. Children play for instance on the floor, they put items or their hands more frequently in their mouth. Therefore dust is supposed to be of more relevance for PFAS exposure for children, says Kerstin Winkens.

The researchers worked on a group of about 60 Finnish children and followed them throughout childhood. Nurses took blood samples of the children when those were 1, 6 and 10.5 years old. Also at the age of 10.5 years, indoor air and dust samples were collected from the rooms where the children slept. The dust and air samples, as well as the blood samples were analysed in the laboratory for up to about 60 of the PFAS substances.

The biggest challenge lies in the huge amount of more than 3 000 different PFASs and the transformation or degradation to other PFASs. There is a lot of research that still needs to be done on how the different behaviour of children in comparison to adults influences chemical exposure. We need to understand exposure, because this is considered for the regulation of chemicals and can help to reduce exposure. Existing studies are mostly focusing on adults exposure to PFASs and that is why this study is so valuable, says Kerstin Winkens.

The project was a collaboration between ACES and the National Institute for Health and Welfare in Finland. The main funding came from the Swedish Research Council FORMAS.

Kerstin Winkens doctoral thesis Estimating childrens exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances can be read here.

Two scientific articles are so far published from the work within the project:

Early life exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs): A critical review

Perfluoroalkyl acids and their precursors in indoor air sampled in childrens bedrooms




It's not yet certain who will be on the stage, but Republican and Democratic hopefuls for governor can now expect to debate their primary opponents under television lights just weeks before party voters choose who will be on their ballots in the general election.

The Children's Movement of Florida and the Florida Press Association announced Wednesday they will hold televised Republican and Democratic primary debates for the 2018 governor's race on Aug. 1 and 2, less than a month before the Aug. 28 primary.

Both debates will be produced by South Florida CBS station WFOR/Channel 4 and will be held at the University of Miami's Maurice Gusman Concert Hall in front of a live studio audience of 600, the groups said. The debates will air from 7 to 8 p.m. Eastern on the state's 10 major media markets, from Miami to Pensacola.

Qualifying criteria for the debates have not yet been released, but former Congresswoman Gwen Graham, former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine and Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum have jockeyed in the polls to lead the primary race for the Democratic nomination. Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam and Congressman Ron DeSantis are grappling for the top slot on the Republican side, though House Speaker Richard Corcoran, who has not declared his candidacy, is mulling a run as well.

Photo: Philip Levine, a Democratic gubernatorial candidate, speaking in Tallahassee Tuesday.
Yoghurt given to infants in the first year of life may protect them from developing eczema and allergy, researchers from the University of Otago, Wellington, and the University of Auckland have found.

The effects are striking says Dr Julian Crane from the Department of Medicine at the University of Otago, Wellington, who led the Health Research Council-funded study, published in the journal Clinical and Experimental Allergy this week.

We found up to 70 per cent reduction in eczema and allergy in the first year of life for daily consumers, Dr Crane says. The more regularly yoghurt was given, the greater the effect.

The study involved 390 mothers in Wellington and Auckland who were asked about various foods they gave to their infants in the first year of life and the infants were seen regularly for signs of eczema and had a skin prick test for allergy at one year.

The researchers say the results should encourage parents to consider feeding their infants yoghurt, especially if they are worried about a risk of eczema or allergic disease.

Full fat, plain, unsweetened yoghurt is already recommended by New Zealands Ministry of Health, the World Health Organisation and other groups for infants from 6 months of age as an excellent food. The researchers believe this finding about allergy protection in infants eating yoghurt may provide an added benefit.

We found that regular consumption of yoghurt gave stronger protection, but what we dont know yet, is what type of yoghurt is best or how much is protective, Dr Crane cautions.

The researchers also do not know whether the effect will last into later childhood.

In addition, our study does not provide proof that it is the yoghurt that is responsible. This would require a trial in which some infants get yoghurt and some dont. No such trial has yet been done, says Dr Crane.

What we have found is an association  i.e. infants who were fed yoghurt had less eczema and were less likely to be allergic. At least two other things could explain this.

These are, that parents who give yoghurt to their infants also do other things that might be reducing the chances of allergies that the researchers are not aware of.

Or, if parents whose children are at increased risk of eczema and allergy deliberately avoid yoghurt, this may make it appear that yoghurt is giving protection.

We dont think this is the case, but only a trial where parents cant choose yoghurt could prove this, Dr Crane explains.

In the meantime, plain unsweetened yoghurt is recommended for infants from 6 months of age as it may reduce allergies.

Link to full study: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/cea.13121

University of Otago
Researchers at the Yale School of Public Health have discovered that the rates of two major sexually transmitted infections (STIs), gonorrhea and chlamydia, are 21% and 19% higher, respectively, in Ohio counties with high shale gas activity (fracking), compared to counties without any fracking. Rates of a third STI, syphilis, were not elevated.

The findings are published in the journal PLOS One.

Shale gas extraction is associated with large influxes of specialized, trained workers into rural areas to meet the labor demands of the drilling rigs, and commonly involves the formation of work camps composed of relatively young men. The influx of workers in these situations is thought to increase STI risk because male workers typically live and socialize in communities with masculinized social norms, do not bring families and thus have opportunities to seek other sex partners, and may have few emotional ties to the local community.

Beyond some of the more familiar concerns about water quality and earthquakes, this report of increased rates of two major sexually transmitted infections suggests another potential health impact in communities hosting the emerging shale gas industry, said lead author Nicole Deziel, Ph.D., assistant professor at the Yale School of Public Health.

This report of increased rates of two major sexually transmitted infections suggests another potential health impact in communities hosting the emerging shale gas industry. NICOLE DEZIEL

The study examined new well permits and reported STI cases, obtained from publicly available datasets, in all 88 Ohio counties from 2000 to 2016; this long follow-up period covered both pre- and post-fracking periods to account for any pre-existing trends in STI rates. The researchers accounted for several other factors, such as population density and age, using variables obtained from the US Census.

Similar patterns have been observed for other migratory labor movements, but the idea that this could be occurring for the current situation of increased hydraulic fracturing in the United States is only beginning to emerge, said senior author Linda Niccolai, Ph.D., Professor at the Yale School of Public Health. These findings point to the potential importance of new shale gas extraction activities as a social determinant of health, one that changes the collective fabric of communities in a way that increases risk for STI transmission.

The fracking industry has rapidly expanded over the past decade, particularly in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Colorado, Texas and North Dakota. In contrast, other states, such as New York and Maryland, have banned the practice.

The link between fracking and STIs needs to be studied in other regions before it could be considered conclusive; however, our results may be useful in informing local public health officials and policy makers, as there are effective community-level interventions for reducing transmission of STIs, said Deziel. Further, this study adds to the growing body of evidence of other possible health problems in populations living near fracking sites, such as asthma symptoms or premature births.

Other Yale School of Public Health authors on the study include Zoe Humeau, Elise Elliott, and Joshua Warren.

Yale School of Public Health
ANN ARBORResearchers and public health officials have struggled to explain the resurgence of whooping cough in the United States since the late 1970s, and the suspected shortcomings of the current generation of vaccines are often blamed.

But a new University of Michigan-led study concludes that the resurgence of the highly contagious respiratory disease is the result of factorsincluding a phenomenon known as the honeymoon periodthat began in the middle of the last century, long before the latest vaccines were introduced in the late 1990s.

Conventional wisdom is that the current vaccine is the problem, but thats not consistent with what we see, said Aaron King, a U-M infectious disease ecologist and applied mathematician.

King and colleagues from the Institut Pasteur, the University of Georgia and Queens University concluded that natural population turnover, incomplete vaccination coverage, and slowly waning protection from a highly effective yet imperfect vaccine best explain the resurgence of whooping cough. The disease can be fatal to infants and is also known as pertussis.

This resurgence is the predictable consequence of rolling out a vaccine that isnt quite perfect and not hitting everybody in the population with that vaccine, said King, a professor in the U-M Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and in the mathematics department.

The teams findings are scheduled for publication March 28 in Science Translational Medicine. The first author of the paper is Matthieu Domenech de Celles, formerly a U-M postdoctoral researcher under King, now at the Institut Pasteur in Paris.

Our results are important because they show that recent trends in pertussis are not necessarily caused by recent changes in epidemiology or biology, said Domenech de Celles.

Rather, the contemporary epidemiology of pertussis may be interpreted as a legacy of longstanding immunization practices. Its an important shift of perspective, which makes pertussis a complex but exciting system to study.

The researchers used disease-transmission models and 16 years of age-stratified pertussis incidence data from Massachusetts, along with statistical methods for extracting information from the data. The authors say their results apply to the rest of the United States and to Western Europe.

According to the study, the introduction of the first pertussis vaccine in the late 1940s led to a honeymoon period, a time of very low disease incidence following the start of a vaccination program. The return of pertussis in recent decades signals the end of that honeymoon period, according to the researchers.

In the pre-vaccine era, whooping cough was a very common childhood disease in the United States. Most kids were exposed to Bordetella pertussis, the bacterium that causes it, and their immune systems mounted a strong response that provided long-lasting immunity. As a result of those naturally acquired infections, most adult Americans were immune to pertussis.

Routine vaccination with a whole-cell pertussis vaccine quickly led to a 100-fold reduction in incidence. Actually, two factors accounted for that sharp drop-off: children protected by the new vaccine and adults with natural immunity acquired in the pre-vaccine era.

But as the decades passed, the number of American adults with naturally acquired pertussis immunity gradually declined as that older group died out.

Concurrently, the number of pertussis-susceptible U.S. adults was on the rise, setting the stage for the resurgence. The susceptible adults included people who were not vaccinated as children and who also avoided naturally acquired pertussis infections.

The mathematical model that best fit the 1990-2005 Massachusetts incidence data was one that explains the current resurgence as a legacy of incomplete vaccination with effective, but imperfect, vaccines against a background of slow demographic turnover, i.e., as an end-of-honeymoon effect, the authors wrote.

The modeling study also supports the idea that protection from the pertussis vaccine gradually wanes over timethough it lasts a lot longer than many experts believed.

Some critics of the current acellular pertussis vaccine say it wears off after five to seven years. But the new study suggests that current pertussis vaccines provide lifelong protection to 55 percent of people and protect 90 percent of people for more than a decade, said study co-author Pejman Rohani, a population ecologist at the University of Georgias Odum School of Ecology.

Furthermore, our models explain that patterns of pertussis incidence previously attributed to rapid vaccine waning are actually consistent with higher contact rates once children enter school.

Though the current vaccine is effective at reducing levels of the pertussis pathogen circulating in the population, routine vaccination alone will never be sufficient to eradicate the bacterium, the researchers conclude.

In infants, pertussis causes violent, gasping coughing spells and can lead to life-threatening complications. People with whooping cough usually spread the disease by coughing or sneezing while in close contact with others. Parents, older siblings or other caregivers can give whooping cough to babies without even knowing they have the disease.

The modeling study identified primary school children and teenagers as the core transmission group mainly responsible for spreading the disease. In one simulation, a booster vaccination effort focused on children ages 5 to 10 or 10 to 20 led to a drop in infant cases of about 25 percent.

The overwhelming amount of transmission is happening in those age groups, King said. So, we have to make sure that kids are getting vaccinated before they go to school. Thats going to have the biggest impact.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends a series of five pertussis shots for children under 7. Additional shots are recommended for older children and for some adults.

Pertussis is responsible for 195,000 infant deaths each year worldwide, mostly in the developing world. There were 17,972 reported pertussis cases in the United States in 2016, including six infant deaths, according to the CDC.

The other author of the Science Translational Medicine paper, in addition to Domenech de Celles, King and Rohani, is Felicia M.G. Magpantay, formerly a U-M postdoctoral researcher and now at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario.

The new study is the latest result of efforts funded by a $1.7 million, five-year National Institutes of Health grant to King and Rohani aimed at understanding the causes of pertussis resurgence.

University of Michigan
Community leaders gather to address opioid crisis

Related Stories

By Nancy Waclawek

Associate Editor

For the 90 community leaders gathered at Blue Ridge Community College on Wednesday afternoon, Henderson Countys opioid crisis wasnt news. In their positions in law enforcement, emergency management, government, medicine and nonprofit agencies, they live daily with the challenge of helping individuals and their families with substance abuse problems.

What was new was having all of them in one room brainstorming for four hours about how they can strategically get together to deal with the crisis and pledging to do so.

At least two concrete efforts had been put in place by the time the gathering broke up.

Henderson County Manager Steve Wyatt said that, at the next county commission meeting, he plans to ask commissioners how they will address the issue that cost the sheriffs department $2.5 million between January 2015 and August 2017.

Megan Powell, who works in Wyatts office and coordinated the forum, said she would be updating the countys website Thursday morning with resources offering help with substance abuse. That information, Powell said, would be available at www.hendersoncountync.org under Opioid Crisis. It would include all the agencies in the HopeRx Resource Guide, she said.

This crisis has affected everyone in this room in one way or another, Wyatt said in his opening remarks. Lives have been lost.

Nationally, the opioid epidemic kills 60,000 to 70,000 people per year, said Dr. Craig Martin, chief medical officer of Vaya Health.

Broken hearts, lost lives, people incarcerated, families divided, children in foster care, the stigma, lack of funding for treatment and not enough treatment programs and clinicians, Martin said. They are all part of the tragic story of addiction to narcotic pain medicines that were over-prescribed by physicians since the 1990s, he said. At that time, hospitals were instructed to measure patients pain and alleviate it, he said. Pain was measured with smiley faces from 1 (little) to 10 (intense).

Dr. David Ellis, chief medical officer of Pardee Hospital, said that was the problem  trying to eliminate pain rather than control it.

The vast majority of narcotics (prescriptions) are written by primary care physicians  They were written for people with chronic pain. We need a system where we can take all these people and they can be treated for their chronic pain in other ways We should not be getting people pain free. We should have been treating pain to (allow) function. Its nobodys job to make people pain free.

Kevin Marino, social work program administrator for Henderson Countys Department of Social Services, said the issue goes to the problem of the heart. We need something to deal with the problems of the family. Families struggle with keeping their jobs, with keeping their insurance, with keeping their children, with trying to get to services  and still get their kids to school and day care. With all these life competing issues, weve got to deal with the family system.

Mike Barnett, EMS manager for the county, said mental health issues are essential to address. The frequent fliers, the frequent users, those who call on us 20 or 30 times a year  a lot is relating back to mental health. The recovery piece (from overdoses) is important but having better access to mental health would also help.

The conversation about the opioid epidemic in Henderson County continues Thursday with listening and learning events with Sam Quinones, author of Dreamland: The True Tale of Americas Opiate Epidemic. Quinones speaks at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Blue Ridge Community College.

On Friday night a Hope Candlelight Vigil takes place at 7 p.m. at the Historic Courthouse in downtown Hendersonville.

On Saturday, April 7, Niks Hope Run, a 5K race to raise awareness about addiction, starts at 9 a.m. in Patton Park.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar's controversial 5m Strategic Communications Unit (SCU) is to be effectively scrapped following a review by the State's most senior civil servant.

The review was conducted by Department of the Taoiseach secretary general Martin Fraser in the wake of heavy criticism of the PR unit by the Opposition in recent weeks.

Questions were raised about how the SCU promoted the Government's Project Ireland 2040 plans amid claims that paid-for coverage promoted Fine Gael candidates.

Mr Fraser has recommended the SCU should be "wound down" and the Taoiseach's department should revert to the traditional Government Information Service with a smaller budget, fewer staff, and a more limited role.

There will be a transition period that will end in July 2018 while the review's recommendations are being implemented.

The 5m SCU budget allocation is to be slashed in half to 2.5m.

Last night, a spokesman for Mr Varadkar said the Taoiseach had acknowledged the SCU was becoming "a distraction" and said that was why Mr Fraser was asked to conduct the review.

He insisted the SCU was "doing a lot of good work".

The SCU is headed by John Concannon, the PR guru behind tourism initiatives like The Gathering and the Wild Atlantic Way.

He is to stay in place during the transition period.

Mr Fraser's review was discussed at Cabinet yesterday and the Government accepted its recommendations.

A statement last night said that the review found no evidence of a breach of the Civil Service Code by staff in the SCU "whether by seeking favourable coverage for Fine Gael candidates or otherwise".

Redeployed

It also said that editors at newspapers that ran paid-for content relating to the campaign confirmed that the choice of photos and quotes was determined by them at a local level and was not subject to any outside influence.

Mr Fraser's review found that surplus staff should be redeployed within the Taoiseach's department or other departments. There are to be no new national campaigns run by the SCU.

Where expenditure has been committed but not yet spent it should be redirected to "non-contentious campaigns" like Healthy Ireland or Brexit preparation, according to the review.

The Government Information Service should continue to have a co-ordinating and supporting role for national, cross-Government communications, but such campaigns should now be led and funded by the relevant line department instead.

The Departments of Public Expenditure and Housing will be responsible for leading future communications for Project Ireland 2040.

Streamlining of communications should continue and reform projects involving training are to continue, as will the project to amalgamate government websites to a single web portal, Gov.ie.
Ireland is "not neutral" when it comes to assassinations or the use of chemical weapons, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said yesterday as a Russian diplomat was chosen for expulsion.

The country is now embroiled in growing tensions reminiscent of the Cold War, sparked by the attempted assassination of a former spy in England earlier this month.

Russian president Vladi- mir Putin has been briefed on the decision of the Irish Government to join more than 20 countries in expelling diplomats.

Senseless

His ambassador to Ireland, Yury Filatov, was summoned yesterday to a brief and frank meeting at the Department of Foreign Affairs, where he was told the name of a diplomat whose accreditation is to be terminated.

The Herald understands the diplomat in question is considered "mid-rank" and will leave in the coming days.

He was not chosen at random, but on the back of ongoing work by gardai.

Mr Filatov described the expulsion as "totally unwarranted, uncalled for, senseless and regrettable".

He claimed the world is witnessing a "complete cover-up" of the poisoning of Sergei Skripal in Salisbury.

Asked whether retaliation from Moscow is likely, the ambassador said the Government's decision "would not go unanswered".

More than 20 countries have expelled diplomats, including Finland and Sweden, which are also considered neutral.

Mr Putin is expected to formally announce his response later this week, though sources say it is not certain he will enter a tit-for-tat with smaller countries such as Ireland.

Mr Filatov said his colleagues at the Russian embassy in south Dublin have "done nothing illegal".

Speaking in the Dail, Mr Varadkar defended himself against accusations that he had gone into "full macho mode" by joining forces with French president Emmanuel Macron to convince EU leaders to take action.

Terrorism

He added that Ireland's long-standing neutrality is not under threat.

"We do not join military alliances, we will not be joining NATO and we will not be part of a European army. However, when it comes to terrorism, assassinations, the use of chemical weapons and cyberterrorism, we are not neutral one bit," he said.

After initially expressing reservations, Fianna Fail last night backed the move.
It's only a matter of time before an influx of older people lose their homes and end up on the streets, Alone Ireland has said.

The charity, which supports the elderly to age at home, has launched a campaign to raise awareness of the "hidden housing crisis" among older people.

Alone chief executive Sean Moynihan told the Herald that as people age, they often can no longer afford to pay their rent.

"At the moment, an older person relying on their contributory pension can't afford to rent a home," he said.

"There is an assumption within the pensions system that older people do not need to rent or do not have accommodation costs, yet in 2016, there were 15,883 people over 60 in the private rental sector."

With the number of elderly rough sleepers relatively low, Mr Moynihan fears that the figures will increase dramatically if the Government does not act.

"At the moment, the councils are doing what they can to provide accommodation to elderly people in desperate need, but as numbers of older renters go up, how can they possibly cope?" he said.

Alone is calling on the Government to provide funding toward developing a new, age-friendly model of housing.

Ageing

It also wants Rebuilding Ireland - a Government scheme that aims to increase the delivery of homes nationwide - to be updated to reflect the needs of an ageing population.

"The housing crisis will only get worse as our population ages," said Mr Moynihan.

"The current generation can't buy homes, but if nothing changes, huge numbers won't be able to afford to rent as they age either. The private rental market is not suitable long-term for older people.

"For most people when they retire, they lose 60pc of their income. The thousands of older people who retire every year in private rented accommodation face a very uncertain future."

In 2016, there were 876,423 people aged 60 or older living in Ireland. By 2031 it is estimated that this will grow to 1.42 million people.

One man who knows first-hand what it's like to struggle with homelessness in later life is Noel Murphy (71).

For 38 years, the Longford native worked as a security guard, but after his marriage broke up, he became homeless.

Speaking to the Herald, Mr Murphy said he went from hostel to hostel at the age of 67.

Difficult

"It was very difficult and had a big impact on my mental health," he said.

"I was living in a three-bedroom house in Blanchardstown with my family, but due to domestic issues I was plunged into homelessness.

"Every day, I had to ring around many different hostels just to get a room for the night. It was very demoralising."

Mr Murphy was then referred to Alone by Dublin City Council, which has accommodated him at Willie Bermingham Place for the past three years.
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio was in full-alarm mode Tuesday on the second day of a two-week swing around the state during the spring recess.

He warned that President Donald Trump's scheduled meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jung-un is potentially "dangerous and counter-productive." He warned of China's "unprecedented" and steady attempt at displacing the U.S. as the world economic power. He warned of overconfidence in the elections system. And he warned the National Rifle Association that if it doesn't focus its energy on reducing mass shootings, the Second Amendment could be at stake.

"I would argue today that perhaps the single, biggest threats to the Second Amendment are these mass shootings because if it weren't for mass shootings and gun crime you wouldn't see this outcry,'' Rubio said at a meeting with reporters at his Tallahassee office in the Florida state Capitol. "It's awakening the conscience of the country."

He called Trump's visit with Jung-un "counter-productive because it will be used just to give him a platform to look important,'' adding that he doesn't know "if the meeting is ever going to take place or not.

Rubio said he was "doubtful" that Jung-un was interested in denuclearization.

"I am very doubtful that he will ever surrender his nuclear weapons because, for him, that is his life insurance,'' Rubio said. "That is what keeps him in power. Because he is fearful of becoming [deposed Libyan leader Muammar] Gaddafi and fearful of becoming [executed Iraqi president] Saddam Hussein and he's a young man. He's got to figure out how to hold onto power for 50-60 years."

He said Jung-un benefits from the meeting more than Trump because the dictator "lured an American president' into a meeting and it helps him in his quest "to be accepted as a global power.

"These parameters have to be worked out in ahead of time so that when you're going there, you're going to sign an agreement not negotiate an agreement,'' he said. "So if that's not what's going to happen, I think it's a terrible idea."

He called Trump's Tweet announcing the meeting "a very mysterious announcement that came out of the blue."

Rubio's advice to the president: "If this is a deal to just meet with a guy under false pretense and there's not a pre-arranged outcome, I think not only is it a waste of your time it actually proves to be quite dangerous and counter-productive."

The Florida Republican saved his strongest warnings, however, for the global economic war underway between China and the U.S.

He said the biggest threat to the U.S. economy and its democratic system is the steady infiltration of Chinese companies into the U.S., where states and local governments are relying on Chinese firms to produce infrastructure and where companies and universities allow Chinese nationals to "embed themselves, even with classified standing, into corporate entities that provide defense contracts and then deliver secrets."

"You cannot be a successful Chinese company until you are willing to do what the government asks of you when they ask it of you,'' Rubio said. "Even if they are just a component in the supply chain, the ability of them to embed in that chain technology that allows them to shut it off or capture information is extraordinary."

He said his frustration was the failure of the U.S. to focus on the threat.

"We've got a big problem on our hands, particularly as we move into revolutions in artificial intelligence and quantum computing,'' he said. "Whoever wins that battle will win the 21st Century. It's the equivalent of the Brits winning the industrial revolution and America winning the technology revolution."

Rubio dismissed the criticism of him by the students at the March for Our Lives event last week, in which students accused him of selling out to the NRA, and wore $1.05 signs -- a number they said was derived by dividing the number of students enrolled in Floridas schools by the amount of campaign contributions Rubio received from the National Rifle Association.

"I don't care. It doesn't matter. I'm a grown man and I can defend myself if I needed to,'' he said. "But more importantly, I'm focused on finding answers. I don't spend my day in the Twitter bubble. I have a job to do and I'm going to do it."

He said the Stop School Violence Act that passed Congress and was signed into law in less than a month had "strong, bi-partisan support" because it was achievable quickly. He noted that the 17 parents of the Parkland victims have diverse opinions about gun control, but they agreed on the proposal.

Rubio said he abandoned his initial proposal to raise the age limit for gun purchases because it wasn't possible to pass in the short time.

And he said he hopes to find bi-partisan support on the "red flag" bill that he and Nelson have sponsored that allows family members and others to notify law enforcement if they suspect someone who has access to guns is a threat to themselves and others. He said he does not know the NRA's position on it.

Rubio also said he was prepared to modify his opposition to ban on high capacity magazines, but he was not sure how to do it.

"I have traditionally not supported [a ban] on magazine capacity because I don't think they prevent shootings,'' he said. "What has allowed me to re-examine it is the reality that in Parkland, at some point in that shooting, whether it was a gun jam or reloading, the shooter had to stop and people got away."

Because of that, he said that he is prepared to reconsider his position.

"If I'm being intellectually honest, I have to look at it again,'' he said. "Frankly, I haven't figured out how to regulate it in a way that could also pass. Some people just want to ban them. I'm not sure that's the right answer."

He said he is looking at the idea but added, " I just don't have a proposal to bring to people that we can defend. I have to be able to explain to people in both sides of how we arrived that point."
Keep those lost shakers of salt hidden, Utah music fans, Jimmy Buffett is returning to the Beehive State for the first time in 27 years.

Buffett & The Coral Reefer Band is returning to Vivint Smart Home Arena on Oct. 17 as part of the Son of a Son of a Sailor Tour. Tickets go on sale April 6 at 10 a.m.

Buffett released his famous Son of a Son of a Sailor album in 1978 and is marking the landmark records 40th anniversary this year.

It is a privilege to welcome back Jimmy Buffett & The Coral Reefer Band to Salt Lake City for his return to the newly renovated Vivint Smart Home Arena, said Jim Olsen, president of Vivint Arena, in a press release. Twenty-seven years have passed since he last performed in Utah when this venue opened, and we are excited to bring this legend to our stage for a memorable night.

Buffett has a new special project that was just released, titled Buried Treasure, which he described as being songs he wrote in the early days of his career. Buried Treasure, Volume I was just released on Mailboat Records.
Eagle Mountains high school has a name.

The Alpine School District Board of Education voted to name the school Cedar Valley High School during its meeting Tuesday night.

We have Cedar Fort and we have Fairfield out there, and Cedar Valley is now going to encompass all of the community and the growing community, said Paula Hill, a member of the Alpine School District Board of Education, during the board meeting Tuesday.

The board also voted to name a new elementary school in north Lehi Belmont Elementary School and name a new elementary school in Eagle Mountain Brookhaven Elementary School.

The board voted between Eagle Peak High School, Cedar Valley High School or Lake Mountain High School for the new Eagle Mountain high school, which will open in the fall of 2019.

The school mascot will be the Aviators and the colors will be steel gray and ruby red.

The board also chose between Lake Mountain Elementary School, Brookhaven Elementary School and Silver Ranch Elementary School for the school under construction in Eagle Mountain and chose between Sunrise Elementary School, Silver Lake Elementary School, Montclair Elementary School, Belmont Elementary School and Bellevue Elementary School for the new school in Lehi. Montclair Elementary School and Bellmont Elementary School were not originally proposed to the board for a vote, but were later added to the list.

Both elementary schools will open in the fall.

Thousands of name, mascot and color ideas were submitted by the community for the three schools. Community committees forwarded three names for each school to the board for a vote.

The board originally voted to name Eagle Mountain elementary school Lake Mountain Elementary School. However, the name did not get a majority vote.

I like the Brookhaven name, said Mark Clement, a member of the Alpine School District Board of Education, during the meeting. I think it is kind of unique and it has a name that is meaningful for students. I hope our elementary schools are havens for students.

Sara Hacken, a member of the board, voted against the Brookhaven name. She said she preferred Lake Mountain Elementary School because it gives tribute to a local mountain.

The board unanimously voted for Cedar Valley High School and Belmont Elementary School.

Belmont was offered as both one word or two. Scott Carlson said he preferred one word because it would be easier for people to find the school and would avoid having staff explain to people the name was two words.

Carlson also pointed to Belle Mont, a plantation in Alabama. He said the plantation building itself is a beautiful, historical structure, but he didnt like the buildings connections to slavery.

Its history started as one of the first slave-owning plantations and it made me uncomfortable, Carlson told the board.

He said he didnt want there to be any chance of confusion between the school and the plantation.

He said Belmont is unique and wont be confused with another school.

I like all of the names, Carlson said before the vote. They all send a really great message about this area, that location on that hill.

Board members have expressed they liked a French name for the school because it will have a French dual language immersion program there.
Property owners spoke out. Now, police have increased their presence and put up warning signs on Mapleton Parkway Trail for recreational shooters and vehicle-drivers to stay off the trail.

People have traditionally shot in a gravel-pit area near Mapleton Parkway Trail.

Its become known over the years where people can shoot, said John Jackson, Mapletons police chief. [But] they are shooting right towards our trail.  All of the property owners there are saying we dont want people down there.'

Property owners complained about motorcycles on their land. Also, some people on the trail were not comfortable with the motorcycles on the trail, Jackson remarked.

On Friday, city staff added four no-trespassing signs, with more that Mapleton Police Department custom-ordered to be put up this week. On Saturday, Jackson had to close a gate in the same area twice.

People were still on the motorcycles, Jackson remarked. They just take down the gate and (go) on through.

The polices objective on the trail is not complex, Jackson said.

We simply want people to use our trail and feel safe in doing so, he said.

Police wanted to tackle the criminal issue of trespassing now because with it being spring, people start recreating with their dirt bikes, Jackson said.

The downside is people are also driving cars and ATVs on the trail, which is prohibited, Jackson said. The trails say no motorized vehicles, and those signs are particularly indicated on the trail.

Target shooting around 4000 South and State Route 89 is no longer legal because the trail now falls within municipal boundaries.

We have an ordinance of shooting in the city limits, Jackson said.

The target shooting has also resulted in a lot of trash deposited, so much so that a youth group was scheduled to clean the area Tuesday evening.

Theres old computers; theres everything down there, Jackson said. Its kind of a little garbage heap.

Jackson said police have contact information for all property owners.

We have spoken with all of them on that south end, Jackson remarked. Theyre all supportive; they dont want anybody on their property.

Jackson mentioned a particular demographic regarding the problem.

We dont want to write kids tickets on their dirt bikes, Jackson said. But if that gets them into driving on their trail, thats what we (will) need to do.
In 1949, playwright Arthur Miller penned a story about a 62-year-old unstable, insecure and deluded salesman named Willy Loman.

This Miller play is still popular today in community theater across the country and there are some lessons to be learned currently from our erstwhile salesman. Loman tends to blame his lack of success on population growth and believes the American peoples kindness is only afforded to the gifted and elite. This lack of inward introspection was altogether lacking in Loman and is today lacking in many of our leaders in the public and private sectors.

You may have heard that the immensely popular website Facebook has had some problems lately with the protection of our data. A company called Cambridge Analytica legally used Facebooks platform to access the data of about 50 million Americans during the 2016 presidential race. It was not a breach, as some in the news media are portraying it, it was a private company (Analytica) using Facebooks legally allowed social media system to micro target Facebook users on behalf of the Trump campaign.

To the extent that you are outraged by this legal use of a campaign strategy, the outrage should be leveled directly at Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, who run Facebook. They have known about this for about two years and have not been transparent in their disclosures and their public apologies have come up lacking.

I watched Sandberg apologize recently on a business channel and it was pathetic; she talked endlessly about taking responsibility and fixing this or that. It reminded me of when one of my children is in trouble and they apologize earnestly but it seems as if they are sorrier for getting caught as opposed to being truly sorry and committed to changing real behavior.

If Sandberg and Zuckerberg were truly repentant then they would have disclosed this two years ago and fixed their platform, so it cant happen again. Instead, Sandberg endlessly blamed bad actors whoever they are and the current environment whatever that means.

I always try and bring a national story to you and write about how it affects us locally, so here goes. This last week, the neighborhood caucus meetings were held to choose people to represent us at the State and County conventions and then choose who should be our candidates. It is being reported by the Salt Tribune that the average attendance was only about one-third of what it usually is in an off-presidential election year. So, what gives? I have heard people say they are turned off by GOP in-fighting and some blaming the Count my Vote folks for throwing shade on the caucus/convention system.

Just like Sandberg, Zuckerberg and Willie Loman, who all failed to look internally and see if what they were doing contributed to the circumstance they find themselves in, the caucus/convention blame dodgers are looking elsewhere to cast their blame as well. The attendance at caucus night was low because those promoting the caucus/convention system are looking backwards to a time when it worked well.

Today it seems to be a ship lost at sea. Congressman John Curtis came in fifth at his convention, but easily won the election as he had collected signatures as well. Governor Gary Herbert, who may be the most popular governor in the country, was booed at his convention, and lost to Jonathan Johnson at that convention, but easily won the primary and general election.

If the caucus/convention is to succeed and not just survive, then it needs to do what its objective is, which is to find the most conservative but electable person if youre a Republican, or most progressive and electable if youre a Democrat.

At this point the caucus system seems to be successfully choosing the most conservative/progressive but not electable candidates. In my January column, I talked about how we complain as a society about our elected officials adnauseam, but dont change how we choose them. All too often, we choose the most popular people as candidates, but not the most qualified. As Willie Loman said in Death of a salesman, if change is to occur, attention must be paid.
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The Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh has one of the finest forests in India. Inside those thick, deciduous jungles, theres a primary school, overlooking the river Ken: Two decrepit rooms with blackboards, a couple of discoloured educational charts and maps on their dirty cream walls, one temporary teacher, a defunct toilet, and the worst of all these deficits, a non-functional midday meal scheme. It has been like this for years now, the teacher, a young man, told me. Nothing reaches this place on time, including textbooks.

Every time I hear about the learning deficit of students who go to State-run institutions, I am reminded of this school and the vacant look on the faces of the poor tribal students. How on earth can a child learn or a teacher teach without basic infrastructure, books, and teaching aids? In the last decade or so, after the Right to Education Act came into force, India has upgraded its school infrastructure, but, as this school showed, its still a work in progress. So it is not surprising that despite a spike in primary enrolment, the progress in learning remains patchy.

While problems related to physical infrastructure and midday meal schemes in schools are discussed widely, I dont find much discussion on another key issue that has a serious bearing on the learning levels of students: Textbooks, their quality, and timely delivery. There are many states where students dont receive their full set of textbooks at the start of the school session, which is April. At the central level, the State is consumed by NCERT textbooks. The public is also focused on NCERT textbooks. But we must remember these books are used by only 12,000 Central Board of Secondary Education schools in the country. What about textbooks used in other State-run schools? There has been no national-level analysis of the quality of these textbooks, says Dhir Jhingran, a former IAS officer and currently executive director, Language and Learning Foundation, New Delhi.

In states, textbooks are either produced by their own State Council of Educational Research and Training agencies or textbook corporations. There are four problems with textbooks in states: Production, printing, distribution and quality. Many authors who write these textbooks have little expertise on how books for children should be framed or an understanding of pedagogy. Their printing is often messy and there is hardly any quality control. I was aghast to know that many of these textbooks are written during workshops of authors/teachers without any framework. Unsurprisingly, these textbooks are information-loaded, the language is often not friendly to children and the context alien to local students. Worse, authors dont even go to the field to see how these textbook are faring because SCERTS and corporations often lack funds, orientation and staff to undertake such studies for these textbooks, which are primarily read by poor students. Sometimes questionnaires are sent to teachers on the quality of textbooks, but their answers are seldom incorporated.

Coming back to the critical supply-chain management of textbooks, Oxfam, an NGO, provided me with some information on Odisha. According to their report, in the 2017-18 academic session, students of upper primary schools in two districts  Mayurbhanja and Bolangir  did not get their textbooks until August. The report added that there is corruption in the printing and supply system of textbooks.

The good news, however, is that states such as Himachal Pradesh are trying to figure out ways to cut delays in the delivery of textbooks, which ranged in the hill state from 2-137 days (average of 2.5 months) after the commencement of the academic session. After studying the existing system, the problems they identified were: Lack of single person accountability at the block level offices; inefficient supply chain leading to duplication of work and delays due to manual intervention in the supply management ecosystem. Every year, more than 55 lakh books are distributed to eight lakh eligible students across 15,000 schools before the beginning of the academic sessions in the state.

The state government then enlisted a consultancy firm, Samagra, to devise a simple but effective way of tracking the supply of textbooks across the state. The project is funded by the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation. Along with ensuring inventory stock checks at depot level and better coordination between the education department, the Himachal Pradesh Board of School Education and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the Centres flagship education programme, for the release of textbook printing tender, there has been a streamlining of book collection by block officials at depots.

It has also put in place a centrally-managed electronic indenting system, which helps in ensuring faster processing of indents and book distribution on short timelines. An online dashboard tracks textbook collection status from depots to blocks and an IVRS system helps teachers to confirm receipt of the textbook by pressing a button on their mobile phones. A WhatsApp group takes care of real-time information dissemination and a special telephone helpline has been set up for block-level officials to get information or solve problems related to textbook distribution. In India, there is no one-size-fits-all solution for even similar problems across a state. But Himachal Pradeshs effort of streamlining timely distribution of textbooks is worth emulating.

@kumkumdasgupta
One is the grandson of an Armenian troubadour who fled to Syria in 1915. The other is a descendant of a Syrian army chief who died fighting the French in 1920. One hails from Aleppo, the other from Damascus. Both Syrian artists call New York, where they met 17 years ago, home.

For one night on stage in Beirut on Monday, Kevork Mourads live sketches combined with Kinan Azmehs clarinet to create a whirlwind of images to mirror the seven years of war that have made their country unrecognisable. Syrias conflict began in 2011 with a popular uprising and has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced 11 million more. A generation of young children has grown up without proper education, with 180,000 youths forced into child labour, the UN childrens fund UNICEF says.

Kinan Azmeh at a performance in Beirut, Lebanon. (REUTERS)

Azmeh, 41, says the numbers are enough to make him think Syrians may never recover but it is important to keep working. The art I do doesnt stop a bullet, doesnt bring a free democratic secular Syria, it doesnt bring back people who died ... (but) it gives us a reason to live, he said. Azmeh and Mourad launched their project six years ago under the title Home Within and the show has evolved with the war. They describe their performance as a sort of dialogue. Kinan gives me a line and I gave him a picture, Mourad said.

In one sketch on screen, with the shadow of Azmeh playing, Mourads silhouettes rise from darkness to reveal a group huddled in a small boat. Mourad says the image symbolises Syrian refugees who have crossed to Europe and the flight of his ancestors from Armenia. When I draw, it becomes a single story, it becomes about a family, a boat and people are in it. And then when I zoom out, it is about ... an entire country, Mourad said. Many Syrian artists, both those who left and those who stayed, seek to document their nations suffering and say their art is a necessity rather than a luxury. We are going through the darkest of times, said Azmeh, a graduate of New Yorks Julliard music school and a member of acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Mas Silk Road ensemble. The question is what do you do?

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Dibakar Banerjees upcoming film Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar, starring Arjun Kapoor and Parineeti Chopra, has been in the news for all the unusual reasons  its title being one of them. The film has Arjun as an ambitious Delhi Police officer and Parineeti belonging to a completely different social strata. The films shoot has been quirky too  from Indo-Nepal border to a village in Uttarakhand which will soon be immersed underwater because of the construction of a dam.

On Wednesday, the films two leads  Arjun and Parineeti  shaed two stills from the films shoot. While Arjun is in the midst of a confrontation, Parineeti Chopra looks lost in thoughts.

Dibakar is filming extremely intense and gritty portions of the film at the Indo-Nepal border. The portions will show the tension between Arjun and Parineetis character. These are crucial and defining moments of the film. The area where the two are shooting is exactly at the border and is constantly under alert for illegal immigration and smuggling. People use an inflated rubber tube as a floating device on the Kali river at the border and make this risky crossing in the thick of a wintry night. So, shooting has been quite difficult. Local authorities have been of tremendous help providing the crew with assistance and necessary security, a source told Hindustan Times earlier.

Read: Punjabi fever grips Bollywood: Namaste England, Arjun Patiala, Gold, Paltan all set up camp in Punjab

Arjun plays a 30-year-old cop from the Delhi Polices special unit in Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar. Arjuns character wants a promotion so he can play a more responsible role in law enforcement, and needs to undergo special training so that he can be assigned to high-profile cases.

Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar is set to release on August 3, 2018.
Utarakhand government Wednesday asked aviation companies to work in consortium with three principle companies that fulfil the tender norms released earlier this month for flying copters to the Kedarnath shrine.

The tender floated by the Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority (UCADA) stipulated that the bidding was open to companies, which own two helicopters and take one on lease.

This condition nullified the chances of 75% companies, operating in Uttarakhand. The operators alleged that only three companies fulfil the norms and hence the business of the remaining firms (six companies) will be shut down.

On Wednesday evening, additional chief secretary Om Prakash along with additional secretary, UCADA, R Rajesh Kumar met the operators at Civil Aviation Headquarters on Sahastradhara Road.

The officials suggested that the companies with less than three copters should work as a group. They, however, added that the tender will be allotted to the company that satisfies the norms. The operators said that this means that the tender would be given to the company having three copters, while other firms could work with this parent company.

Governments decision will discourage people from investing in Uttarakhand. The aviation sector prospered after repeated pleas of the government asking aviation firms to invest in state. Now that companies have established base, a decision is being taken to give advantage to select firms. This is unfair, Rajeev Dhar, who runs a helipad at Tirjuginarayan near Kedarnath, said.

People close to the matter said that UT Air, Heritage, and Global Vectra fulfill the tender norms.

If we work as a group with other company, it would mean a massive loss of revenue for us, an operator said requesting anonymity.

People familiar with the matter claimed that the BJP government issued the tender to favour a particular company. The tender only talks about the number of copters and age of the engine, but nowhere safety has been mentioned, said another operator requesting anonymity.

The fare for a helicopter ride in Kedarnath is between Rs 3000-7000 per person depending on the distance from the helipad. There are 14 helipads around the shrine.

There will be a separate meeting of tourism secretary with the operators. We will take the best decision in the interest of state as well as its people, Kumar said.

The operators claimed that previous Congress government had come up with a similar tender in 2016. The BJP, particularly then leader of the opposition Ajay Bhatt, had accused the government of favouring India Fly Safe Aviation Ltd, linked to Congress leader Naveen Jindal, and demanded a probe.

The Congress governments tender had sought proposals for scheduled services, but Jindals company was registered as a non-scheduled operator (NSOP), which prompted the BJPs opposition. The remaining 14 companies were running scheduled services.

BJP when came to power last year cancelled the contract and issued a revised tender.

Former chief minister Harish Rawat has demanded that the BJP apologise for the allegations levelled against his government. The BJP government should apologise to us for the accusations made when we wanted to do the same, he said.

He added that there was a plan for an umbrella heli company, which would run all seasonal and internal air services and pay Rs 12 crore revenue annually to the government. The decision could have facilitated internal air service to remote areas of Pithoragarh, Chinyalisaud, Gauchar and others. But the BJP could not follow it and people of the state are still suffering from poor air connectivity, he said.

Om Prakash was in meeting until filing of the report and couldnt be contacted for version.
In blatant violation of traffic norms, vehicles of top administrative officials and legislators in Uttarakhand continue to sport bull bars, used as crash guards, despite a notification by Centre asking the states to remove the external accessory from the four-wheelers.

It has been nearly four months since the Centre, in a letter on December 7, 2017, directing all state government to take action against unauthorised fitment of the bull bars on vehicles. No action, however, has been initiated against the VIPs in the mountain state.

Bull bars are external modifications made in front of and the rear of the vehicles and are installed both for beautification as well as a safeguard for vehicle during accidents and from scratches.

A scrutiny in Dehradun revealed that vehicles of several top-level bureaucrats -- secretaries, additional secretaries, joint secretaries, senior police officials, including SSP, STF; municipal commissioner, and directors  are continuing to use the bull bars. One can find a plethora of such vehicles during a visit to the secretariat and other government offices on any given day.

Earlier, the Delhi high court had banned the installation of the bull bars. The HC order had come on a PIL filed by two persons  Aarshi Kapoor and Sidharth Bagla  who contended that bull bars and crash guards offer protection to vehicles only at low speeds. At high speed impacts, they tend to prevent the deployment of the airbags. They also contended that crash guards being made of metal or steel, pose threat to the life of pedestrians.

Subsequently, the matter was examined by the Union ministry of road transport and highways, and referred to the technical standing committee of the Central Motor Vehicle Rule (CMVR).

On September 5, 2017, the committee concluded: Fitment of crash bars as aftermarket fitment shall not be allowed on vehicles and that provisions CMVR also do not allow such fitment.

The Centres directive in December categorically mentioned that the fitment of crash guards was in contravention of Section 52 of the Motor Vehicle Act, 1988 and attracts penalty (under sections 190 and 191)  a fine of Rs 1,000 for the driver for the first offence and Rs 2,000 for second or subsequent offences while the penalty for seller or deliverer could be Rs 5,000.

It is therefore requested that states may take strict action against the unauthorised fitment of crash guard/bull bar on the motor vehicles, the Centres directive read.

However, the transport department in Uttarakhand has failed to ensure that these illegal installations are removed from the vehicles.

Sunita Singh, additional commissioner, transport, said, We have issued instructions to all government officials to remove crash guards from their vehicles.

Asked how despite instructions from the Centre, vehicles of senior officials continue to use crash guards, she said, This is a new law. It will take some time to spread awareness and get the desired results.

Speaking in a similar vein, Kewal Khurana , DIG, traffic, said, We will immediately write a letter to the heads of all departments to remove these modifications from their vehicles and comply with the law. We will also hold talks with the chief secretary in this regard.

Asked about the action traffic police plans to take against private vehicles, he said, We will first issue a public appeal and give people one months time to voluntarily remove crash guards from their vehicles. After this, the department will start issuing challans, as mandated by the law.

Incidentally, a manufacturer of bull bars challenged the Centres notification in Delhi high court, following which a divison bench has asked the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to examine the matter and directed that there would be no challans till April 18, the next date of hearing.
A 30-year-old mans body was exhumed from a graveyard in outer Delhis Mangolpuri on Tuesday, 18 days after he died following a paralytic attack.

The decomposed body was exhumed after the dead mans family accused his wife and her alleged lover of killing him on discovering their extramarital affair. The family alleged that recorded telephonic conversations and a fake driving licence raised their suspicion days after the mans death.

The decomposed body was dug out by the police at the orders of a sub-divisional magistrate who initiated inquest proceedings in the case, said Rajneesh Gupta, deputy commissioner of police (Rohini). He said any decision to register an FIR in this connection would be taken only after receiving the autopsy report.

It is too early to comment on the possibility of foul play. The dead mans family has submitted certain evidence to support their claims, but they are a subject of verification. The autopsy report should help us take the case to its logical end, said the DCP.

Married in 2007, the man lived with his wife and two children in outer Delhis Begumpur. He ran a furniture business and his wife is a homemaker. His father claimed that he did not suffer from any known ailment.

On the afternoon of March 6, my son suddenly fell ill. Before he could reach his maternal uncles home for help, he had a paralytic attack and had to be hospitalised. The doctors said he died of excessive drug use, but I can confidently say he never consumed drugs. He died in hospital on March 9, said the dead mans father who was among the attendees at the burial that happened in Mangolpuri.

It was when the mans parents decided to clean up his home on March 20 that they allegedly stumbled upon his mobile phone and his wifes fake driving licence. My daughter-in-laws driving licence had my nephews name instead of my sons. She was in an extramarital affair with my nephew, alleged the father.

On checking the mobile phone, they allegedly came across recorded telephonic conversations that shed light on what had happened in the early hours of March 6.

My son had woken up around 2 am to find his wife talking to someone. He confronted her and beat her up. She used his mobile phone to call her lover for help. My son also called up his in-laws and told them about the affair. All this is a part of the recordings we have submitted to the police, alleged the father.

In his written complaint to the police, the mans father suspected that his daughter-in-law and nephew had planned and administered harmful substances that slowly caused his death. The DCP said the investigators were yet to gather any evidence to substantiate the allegations made by the victims family.
Delhi Polices metro unit on Wednesday announced the arrest of a gang of four members involved in the theft of overhead cables on Delhi Metros Magenta Line.

The metro suffered losses worth crores because of the cable theft of such a high volume, the police said.

Dilshad (22), Ali Hassan (23), Imran (27), and Saddam (24) had allegedly been stealing the cables along the Magenta Lineinaugurated in December last year for the past one month. They are former labourers at a project company of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC).

We had received a complaint from DMRC on March 7 of theft of overhead cables between January 23 and March 5, this year, from the Kalindi Kunj depot, Pankaj Kumar Singh, deputy commissioner of police (Metro), said.

DMRC said though services on the line had not been disrupted as backup cables were available, the thefts raised major safety concerns.

According to DMRC, 25kilovolt and 33kilovolt cables were stolen from multiple locations such as the ramp area (where the train tracks elevate from the underground station) of the Kalindi Kunj depot.

The police said that out of the property recovered from the gang, they managed 506 feet of 33kv cable, along with equipment such as saw, cutter, ropes and blades, used for the theft.

Dilshad and Ali Hassan had worked in the project and were aware of the cable lines and also knew their way around getting to the tracks from the station, the police said.

The men would cut the cables from the track and hide them either in the drain passing beneath the track or in the adjacent forests, they said. They would take out the cables to sell them at night.

The overhead cables are in high demand in the market because of the high quality of metal used to make them.

Other stretches where such thefts have been reported are Okhla Vihar to Jasola Vihar, Jasola Vihar to Kalindi Kunj, and Okhla Vihar to Jamia Nagar.

Since all these sections are elevated, the cables run along the track where CCTV cameras have not been installed.

Officials familiar with the matter said almost all thefts happened at night after the train services were terminated.
Four men have been arrested from north Delhi for helping Staff Selection Commission (SSC) candidates cheat by taking remote access of their computers, the police said on Wednesday.

The arrests come in the wake of a series of protests in recent weeks by students alleging that SSC question papers had been leaked.

Police said that the accused mainly relied on Team Viewer and AMMYY software that allows a user to take control of a computer remotely. Where they couldnt use the remote access system, they provided answers through Local Area Network (LAN) that allows interconnection of computers within a limited area, said police.

Jatin Narwal, deputy commissioner of police (north) said that the gang charged Rs 5-10 lakh for solving SSC questions for posts such as lower divisional clerk, junior secretariat assistant and data entry operators. We recovered Rs 51.8 lakh in cash from the flat in Gandhi Vihar that we raided, said Narwal.

The raid on Tuesday was conducted jointly by the special staff of north Delhi district police and the Uttar Pradesh-Special Task Force.

Delhi Police said they were on the trail of the gang for some days and it was the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force that provided them a tip-off about the location of the accused.

The SSC conducts its examination online, for which it outsources exam centres to private computer labs across the country. Some of these labs are owned by Harpal  who has been identified as the alleged kingpin  and other members of the gang, said Narwal. The SSC exam this year was conducted between March 4 and March 26 for which 63.5 lakh candidates had applied.

This gang is suspected to have links with many other computer labs that made cheating feasible on a large scale. This couldnt be possible without the help of insiders, said an investigator.

The gang first identified their customers. They then remotely accessed the candidates computer through Team Viewer and AMMYY software or through LAN, said Abhishek Singh, senior superintendent of police (UP-STF).

Staff Selection Commission works under the department of personnel and training and recruits staff in various government positions through competitive exams.

Though the probe into the cheating was in its early stages, an STF officer said nearly 180 candidates have benefited from the racket.

Four persons have been arrested so far with police having launched a manhunt for Harpal. The investigator said it is likely that the gang was taking help of dozens of people to solve the papers.

When we raided the flat, there were four men inside working on three laptops. On spotting us, they tried to log out of Team Viewer and shut down the laptops. We recovered a lot of incriminating evidence in the form of laptops, 10 mobile phones and papers with names and roll numbers of candidates, said Narwal.

The flat from which the four men were arrested belongs to Harpal, police said. The gang has rented many more flats in Gandhi Vihar from where the question papers would be solved, said the UP Police.

A case of cheating and criminal conspiracy and under seections of the IT Act has been registered at Timarpur police station in north Delhi.
A Mathura resident, who supplied over 700 pistols to city criminals in the last two years, was arrested from south Delhi on Sunday afternoon. Police said Khazan Singh, 42, was arrested from outside NAFED building in Ashram where he had come to deliver a cache of arms to his contacts.

The police have seized 15 pistols, 2 revolvers and 10 spare magazines from Singhs possession.

Deputy commissioner of police (special cell) Pramod Kushwah said the operation was part of the polices drive against illegal gun suppliers in Delhi.

The officer said police found that most pistols used by Delhis criminals were smuggled from Khargone and Burhanpur in Madhya Pradesh and Munger, Bihar.

We received information about a man who will meet his contact outside the NAFED building on Sunday at around 3.30-4.30 pm. At around 4 pm, our officers spotted a suspicious man going towards DND flyover. Our team arrested him from the spot, said DCP Kushwah.

Singh confessed he had fixed a meeting with his contact, who had promised to buy the pistols.

An officer, who interrogated Singh said, Unlike other couriers, Singh dealt directly with a man in Khandwa who manufactures illegal weapons. He had come in touch with the manufacturer through a contact. He confessed that he has sold over 700 sophisticated pistols to different gangs in Delhi.

Singh reportedly confessed that he made a profit of around 5,000 to 15,000 by selling one pistol, depending on the make. Singh said he sold illegal sophisticated replica of 9 MM, Glock and many other types of small arms.

He bought the pistol at around Rs 10,000 and sold it at twice the rate. Police said he has been in the business of smuggling arms for more than 25 years.

In 1997, he was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh police for arms smuggling. The Uttar Pradesh police have also declared him a bad character.

A bad character in police record is one, who has many criminal cases and must be monitored by local police so that he or she does not indulge in any illegal activities.

Earlier this year, police had arrested a 26-year-old and recovered an automatic carbine, among 30 other pistols from his possession.

Last year, police had seized over 1200 illegal pistols and other types of guns from criminals across the city.

There was a steep increase in the recovery of such illegal firearms compared to 2016 when 738 such weapons were recovered.
Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel, AAP MLAs and ministers wore black bands in the House on Wednesday to protest against Lt. Governor Anil Baijals contention that the Speaker cannot accept questions on reserved subjects.

On Monday, Goel cited a letter from Baijal that said the Speaker cannot accept any question on reserved subjects, such as land, law and services, etc.

Officers should realise that legislation on reserved subjects and seeking replies on matters of public interest are two different issues, the Speaker had said, adding that officers were duty bound to provide replies to all questions admitted by the House.

The Lt. Governors letter to the state law department stated that he had consulted the legal affairs department of the Centre, which said the Speaker cannot allow such reserved subject questions.

On Wednesday, initially it was Aam Aadmi Party MLAs and ministers who came to the House wearing black bands.

During the Q&A session, responding to the first question, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said the answer to the question had not been provided by officials.

Goel also said that written answers to 17 out of 40 questions were not provided by officials.

As the House became agitated over the issue, the Speaker referred the question to the Question and Reference Committee of the assembly.

Later, he said that he would also tie a black band as a mark of protest against the Lt. Governors decision, and subsequently did so.

BJP MLA Manjinder Singh Sirsa said party MLAs were also of the opinion that all questions should be answered. He, however, said the Speaker should not wear a black band and added that he was breaking tradition by doing so.
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has been at the heart of political action in Delhi this week. She has met a range of opposition leaders. The discussions have had a common thread: forging a common understanding against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The initiative is significant not because it is new, but because of the context. With the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party coming together in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP faced a severe setback in the bypolls; the Rashtriya Janata Dal, with Congress support, did well in the Bihar bypolls. And there is a sense in the opposition that if they can prevent a fragmentation of the anti-BJP votes, the saffron juggernaut can be stopped. The Congress has declared that it is open to pragmatic alliances at its plenary, but it has not been aggressive by claiming leadership yet. This is the backdrop in which Ms Banerjee has stepped up her efforts. West Bengal sends 42 MPs to the Lok Sabha and she is all set to win a majority of them in 2019. Unlike the Congress, which is in a straight contest with some regional parties in specific states  whether it is the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in Andhra Pradesh or the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) in Telangana or the AAP in Delhi  Ms Banerjee can talk to everyone. The efforts help buttress her credentials as the strongest leader in the anti-BJP camp in West Bengal and position her as a potential Prime Ministerial candidate of the alliance in 2019.

But it would be premature to leap to any conclusions just yet, for the pitfalls are greater than the possibilities of such a front. For one, there is a sharp contradiction between the constituents of any such front on the question of leadership. Will the Congress accept Banerjee? Will Banerjee accept the Congress? Will Ms Banerjee accept a Mayawati or vice versa? Will they be able to arrive at a common leader before polls  and, if not, would this faceless alliance be able to take on Narendra Modi at all? Two, there is no common narrative here. The TDP or the YSR Congress Party have Andhra Pradesh-specific concerns; the DMK or the TRS have interests specific to their states; the Shiv Sena, the leaders of which Ms Banerjee met, have far more in common ideologically with the BJP even now.

To be able to stitch together this coalition is a tall order. Besides, there are contradictions in each state among non-BJP parties. Take Bengal itself. Can Ms Banerjee ally with her arch rival, the CPM, as well as the Congress, to take on the BJP? All three parties want a common front in Delhi, but are battling each other in Kolkata. Unless the issues of leadership, narrative, and actual contradictions on the ground are sorted out, Ms Banerjees efforts to forge a grand alliance may falter.
The reclusive leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un, has proved this month that he is capable of springing a surprise or two on the international arena. A little more than a fortnight after he sent an invitation for talks to US President, Donald Trump, through South Korean officials, Kim travelled to China in an armoured train to meet President Xi Jinping. Mr Kims three-day secret visit to Beijing was his first trip abroad and his first meeting with a head of state since he assumed power in 2011. Mr Kim travelled to Beijing at Mr Xis invitation, a move that reflects Chinas keenness to shape the narrative ahead of a crucial summit of the leaders of North and South Korea next month, and the planned meeting of Kim and Mr Trump in May.

For long, China has looked at the North Korean regime as a counter to the close defence and security cooperation between the US and South Korea. But the Norths increasingly belligerent and relentless nuclear and missile tests, including the reported testing of a hydrogen bomb last September, increased the concerns of the world community and caused considerable embarrassment for China, often seen as the only country with any sort of leverage over North Korea.

Finding itself in an awkward position, Beijing has increased pressure on Pyongyang to end its weapons tests while seeking to assuage its ally by linking the suspension of weapons tests to the suspension of military drills by the US and North Korea. It remains to be seen what role, if any, China had in persuading Kim to reach out to the US, but it would not be surprising if North Korea made the move at the prompting of a top Chinese leader like Mr Xi. There are even reports that footage aired on Chinese state-run television showed Kim taking notes as Mr Xi spoke during their meeting, and that the Chinese president spoke of the need to strengthen strategic communication. Chinas backing at this stage will only add to Mr Kims confidence, given his unchallenged grip on power and the Norths nuclear and missile programmes. It is this confidence that the US should focus on ahead of the meeting between Mr Kim and Mr Trump. The US president, who has not surrounded himself with the finest of advisors in recent months, may not find it very easy to negotiate with Mr Kim, who has already set conditions for the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, including synchronous measures by the US and South Korea.
Students and parents across the country said on Wednesday they were disappointed after the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) decided to re-conduct the Class 10 mathematics and Class 12 economics board examinations over reports that the question papers were leaked.

The board said the dates for the retests will be announced on its website within a week.

The Board has taken cognizance of certain happenings in the conduct of certain examinations as are being reported. With the view to upholding the sanctity of the Board examinations and in the interest of the fairness to the students, the Board has decided to re-conduct the examinations in the subjects, it said in a statement.

Students appeared for the Class 10 maths paper on Wednesday and the Class 12 economics paper was held on Monday.

Bhopal

Deepika Ghosh, a Class 10 student of Green Valley Senior Secondary School in Bhopal, said the news was really disappointing.

I had really worked hard. I am unable to understand why students should suffer due to the fault of a few people, she said.

Those who leaked the papers should be dealt with severe punishment but unfortunately the students are being punished too for none of their faults, Soham Rana, a Class 12 student from Mansarovar School in the same city, said.

Sangeeta Yadav, a teacher at Bhopals St Josephs Convent School, said many students were not aware of the boards decision but some called her.

Some students told me that their parents had got tickets booked for summer vacation. They are disappointed, she said.

PK Pathak, the principal of Rajiv Gandhi School in the Madhya Pradesh capital, also said panicked students and parents were calling the school authorities after the news about the cancellation of the papers broke.

We are trying to talk to the board (CBSE) authorities as to what has really happened, he said.

Guwahati

Like students and parents across the country, celebrations of the end of Class 10 board exams and an easy maths paper turned into disbelief and disappointment for many in Guwahati as well.

Students, both appearing for Class 10 and Class 12, are hoping that they wouldnt have to reappear for the exams again.

This is so unfair. Why are we being made to suffer for no fault of ours? The maths paper was easy and most of us did well. Now, we have no clue what the paper for the reconducted exam will be like, Amlan Borthakur, a Class 10 student of Maharishi Vidya Mandir, said.

Its very discouraging for students. This is the first time such a thing has happened for CBSE board exams. We are still waiting to know if the exam will be reconducted for Delhi region or for all over India, Dilip Sarkar, the maths teacher at Faculty Higher Secondary School, said.

Dehradun

Chaya Khanna, the principal Scholars Home in Uttarakhands Dehradun, said she was disappointed with the boards decision to re-conduct the Class 12 and Class 10 economics and maths exams.

Its very unfortunate and very unfair. Just because of a few centres that reported some issue, its not fair to cancel the examinations which affect the students of small towns like Dehradun, Haridwar, and others.

She said students of Class 10 and Class 12 were extremely happy about their papers.

I feel dejected. We thought that our last exam went extremely well and its time to enjoy the holidays. But, the boards decision has stunned everyone, Ritika, a Class 10 student of Vivekananda School, said.

The board on Monday denied claims on social media that the economics paper was leaked ahead of the exam and being circulated on WhatsApp.

On March 15, the Delhi government said that it had received complaints that the Class 12 accountancy paper was leaked following which a probe was ordered, but the board denied any leak.

Mumbai

Most school principals in Mumbai were surprised that the board chose to hold the Class 10 maths exam despite knowing about the paper leak.

Whats the use of holding a paper and getting lakhs of students across the country to appear for a paper, which was leaked before the exams began? Board exams are anyway very stressful so the board could have avoided this stress for students, Deepshikha Srivastava, principal of Rajhans Vidyalaya in Andheri, said.

Many said that the news of the re-examination will disappoint the students.

Its very disappointing to know that paper leaks are still happening despite so much security and new technology in place. Mathematics is a difficult paper and asking students to give this paper all over again will not go down well with many, said Jose Kurian, regional director (western zone II), DAV Public Schools.

He said that the worst affected will be those who have already booked their holidays according to the original exam schedule.

Teachers too will be disappointed, he added.

Most students were still not aware of the boards decision by Wednesday evening and were shocked to find out about it late in the day.

I have been practising various mathematical problems for several days now and was finally relieved once the paper got over. Since our paper now stands cancelled and there will be a re-examination, all my hard work has gone waste, Arunima Roy, a Class 10 student, said.

Many were worried about the level of difficulty they will face in the same paper for the second time.

Hopefully, the board will understand how anxious we students are and settle for a less level of difficulty for the re-examination, Rahul Sheth, a Class 12 student from Mumbai, said.

Jaipur

Kush Bansal, a Class 10 student of Jayshree Periwal High School in Jaipur, said the news about the retest was not good.

We have already given the exam. We did not know the paper had been leaked. It is not right that we have to give the exam again. It is their fault that they leaked the paper. It is not fair, he said.

His schoolmate Khushi Goswami said she was shocked to know about the re-exam.

Initially, I felt frustrated but I am fine with it now. I had made mistakes of 1-2 marks in the paper today. Now, Ill be able to cover those up as well.

Their maths teacher Rakhi Gupta said that it seemed the board does not think about students.

After stepping out of the examination hall, students were happy that their exams have finished. Now, they have to go through the same trauma again, Gupta said.

Every student is not very good at maths. For an average student, to study for the same exam again and give it once more becomes very difficult. CBSE should pay attention so that the paper is not leaked, rather than making the students go through the same grind again. It is mentally harassing for both students and teachers, she added.

Riddhi Jain, a Class 12 student of Seedling Modern High School in the Pink City, said the boards decision to conduct the economics retest was a relief as well as a disappointment.

Its good that we will get another chance to give the exam and perform better, but it also very disappointing to appear for the same paper again, Jain said.

I feel very bad about it because the paper was so easy and we did very well on that exam. But now its being re-conducted. It is a very bad feeling to give it again and we still have to give two more exams. It is very disappointing, her schoolmate Shruti Gupta said.

Monica Sharma, an economics teacher at Jayshree Periwal High School, said it is an additional burden on students as well as the teachers.

Some students had gone out for a trip. They will have to come back, recollect themselves and make a fresh start to give the paper. Competitive exams are also about to start so many of them have started preparing for that. CBSE should have taken tight security measures so that such a thing would not have happened, Sharma said.

Chandigarh

Students and their parents in Chandigarh were left distraught after the news that the Class 10 math exam will be reconducted and directed their anger at the board.

I still cant believe that Ill have to take the paper again. I was so happy a couple of hours ago. It went off so well and I was hoping to score above 75 but now this. I think the paper they will frame now will be difficult, Poorva of Sherwood Convent School said.

Im feeling bad as my daughter will undergo the pressure of preparation all over again. Our plans to go on a holiday are cancelled now. The CBSE should have been more cautious. Things like this really affect the child, her father Vikas Kohli said.

I am shocked how the board gets away with by issuing a notification. Heads need to roll for this, Dinesh Bali, a Mohali-based marketing executive whose daughter studies in a boarding school, said.

The hostellers vacated the boarding school today after the exam, he said, adding that his holiday to Kerala is now in limbo.

Shamsher Singh, a math teacher at Government Model Senior Secondary School, said it was unacceptable.

The CBSE has to understand that if someone commits a mistake, the whole country cant be made to suffer. Leaking the question paper has become a trend now. I cant imagine the pressure students must be facing. Smiles have turned into sorrow, Singh said.

Kiranjeet Singh, a Class 10 student of Stepping Stone Senior Secondary School, Chandigarh, said he was heartbroken.

I hadnt even changed my uniform when I got this news. I did well today. This is so unfair, he said.

Patna

Students in Patna were anxious about the difficulty level of the questions in the re-test.

I was mentally relaxed today as it was the last examination. But, as soon as I reached home and switched on the TV after few hours the news of re-examination made me disappointed and anxious. My examination went so well today that I was expecting above 70 marks out of 80, Harshita Raj, a Class 10 student of St Michaels School, said.

Obviously, the reports of the paper leak are very disappointing but I am happy because I will get another chance to write the paper. I will appear with better preparations this time, Samadh Khan, a class 10 student of Vivekanand English School, said.

Shweta, a Class 12 student of RPS Residential School said she was disappointed with the reports about the leak of the economics question paper

Why do people do such things despite the fact that the questions of each examination were very easy? Now, we will have to go through anxiety for one more week until the dates are declared, she said.

Kolkata

Nandini Sen, the principal of Kolkatas Hariyana Vidya Mandir, said students should understand that such things can happen in life at times.

While admitting that the retest will cause inconvenience for a section of the students, I personally feel that the decision of the retest has been taken for a bigger benefit ... So, I am confident that students will take the decision sportingly and abide by the decision without many grievances, she added.

Lucknow

Class 10 students in the Uttar Pradesh capital were also disappointed over the decision that the maths paper will be held again and said they worked very hard and did well.

The paper leak is something shameless and we were not happy with this decision, Mohd Anas, a student of City international school, said.

Medhavi and Shreya shared similar views as they will have to prepare for the exam again and said they were worried about the difficulty level in the retest.

Im worried about the re-exam question paper. I feel that it will not be as good as the one today, Sarvasva Pandey said.

The decision to reconduct the Class 12 economics paper also came as a shock to the students.

Nikhil and Dhruv of City International School said they gave their 100% for the paper and now coming back to the same mind frame would be difficult as they are preparing for various competitive exams.

Akhil, another student of City International School, said the decision would hamper admission for various graduate courses in good universities.

The news is disturbing. Reconduct of the exam will definitely have an impact on the admissions of Class 12 students. The students who have worked hard throughout the year will be very disappointed, GD Goenka Public Schools principal Raveen Pande said.

I just wish that what happens next should be fair to all especially the ones who have been diligent in their studies, Manvi Agarwal of GD Goenka Public School said.

I dont have any problem in giving the exam again but we should not suffer because of the people who cheated, Krishnansh Gupta said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Union human resource development minister Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday, calling for strict action against paper leaks in key board examinations, according to news agency ANI.

Modis directive came just hours after the Central Board of Secondary Education announced the re-examination of Class 10 maths and Class 12 economic papers.

The PM expressed unhappiness over reports that the question paper of these two subjects were leaked, ANI tweeted, quoting unnamed sources.

At a press conference in New Delhi, Javadekar said: We have seriously taken into consideration the matter of paper leaks.

Javadekar said some organised gangs were behind such malpractices in examinations. He also said the culprits will be identified and arrested soon.

Asked if he got a call from the PM, Javadekar nodded.

The board said dates for the re-examinations will be posted on the CBSE website within a week.

The minister said the cabinet had given its nod to a National Testing Agency, which will come into effect next year to make sure such leaks did not take place in examinations.

Meanwhile, Delhi Police registered a case following a complaint by the CBSE, news agency PTI reported, quoting an unnamed official.
The six-member special task force, formed by the forest department to protect wildlife in the Aravallis, has started functioning and conducted its first formal patrolling on Tuesday night.

The task force is meant to protect wild animals from poachers. The team will curtail poaching and illegal tree felling in the eco-sensitive areas of the Aravallis.

The department also launched a 24-hour, toll-free helpline (18001030562) for residents to call and seek information on the rescue of distressed wildlife in the region.

The helpline became operational on Tuesday, officials said.

According to officials, tenders have been floated to buy drones to patrol the forest areas and the delivery is expected this week.

The six-member team includes inspector Sunil Kumar (in-charge), Dr Ashok Khasa (veterinary surgeon, wildlife), inspector Om Prakash, inspector Devender Kumar, inspector Surjeet Singh, Krishan Kumar (wildlife guard).

After the December 8 incident, wherein a peacock with its legs caught in a metal trap was spotted near the Tata Raisina Residency in the Aravallis, we had sent teams to the area and all traps laid by tribal people were removed. The task force teams will carry out patrolling three days a week and a report

will be submitted after each patrolling, Vinod Kumar, chief conservator of forest, wildlife Gurgaon, said.

The team will monitor and patrol the Aravalli villages at night when poachers are most active, Kumar said.

A group of tribal people allegedly laid traps in the Aravallis and these were spotted by a group of residents and environmentalists.

They met the Union environment minister in December and he had assured them that he would take action against those involved in wildlife poaching.

The state forest department had received a letter from the Centre, seeking a status report on the formation of a task force to step up vigil in the Aravallis and curb poaching.

In response to the letter, the forest and wildlife department had met the Haryanas forest and wildlife minister Rao Narbir Singh in January.

During the meeting, I had asked the department to form a task force and to ensure no incident of poaching takes place in the forest. A clear instruction is given to the officials that if anyone is found involved in poaching, he will be nabbed and punished, Narbir Singh said.

The task force found no illegal activity during its first patrol on Tuesday night. We saw a jackal, blue bull, hare, jungle cat and porcupine and the animals were healthy, Dr Ashok Khasa, veterinary surgeon, said.
A man wanted in connection with the murder of a Badshahpur resident on March 13 was arrested by the Gurgaon police after a late night encounter in Sector 18 near Iffco Chowk on Tuesday.

The prime accused in the case, Narender alias Tillu, was injured in the encounter and admitted to Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi, the police said.

One countrymade pistol and two live cartridges were also recovered from Tillu. A reward of 1 lakh was announced by the police soon after the murder for any information leading to Tillus arrest.

The police have been chasing Tillu, a resident of Ravidas Mohalla, Badshahpur, since March 13 after and his accomplices allegedly shot dead Badshahpur resident Anand Vashisht and injured his wife Karishma.

A case of murder was registered against Tillu and two of his associates at the Badshahpur police station under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code.

Vashishts wife is now the prime witness in the murder of her husband and family members are apprehensive about her security.

Police had decided to provide her security after the family conveyed their apprehensions to the Gurgaon police.

Vashisht was the prime witness in an attempt to murder case in which Tillu was the accused. He had allegedly shot and injured a local youth who was later taken to the hospital and saved by Vashisht. Twelve cases, including that of murder, are registered against Tillu at Badshahpur police station.

The police said they received a specific tipoff about Tillus whereabouts and the crime teams of Sector 39, Sector 17 and the local police station set up a barricade in Sector 18 to nab him. Around midnight, they saw two youth on a Pulsar motorcycle trying to flee after hitting the barricade.

Our men realised that the accused could be one of the riders and they gave chase. Seeing the police, Tillu started firing. Eleven shots were exchanged and Tillu fell off the motorcycle after being hit and was taken into police custody, Sumit Kuhar, DCP, crime, said.

A case has been registered against Tillu at Sector 18 police station for attempting to kill police officers on duty and for interfering in their work.

The police said Tillus accomplice, identified as Anshul from Pataudi, managed to escape on the motorcycle. An injured Tillu was, meanwhile, taken to the Civil Hospital in Gurgaon from where he was referred to Safdarjung Hospital. He was seriously injured and is presently under treatment, Kuhar said.

We will question Tillu in connection with the murder and his accomplices are also being traced. They will be arrested soon, Kuhar said.

On March 14, the investigation into the murder was transferred to the crime branch, taking into account the seriousness of the matter, and the strong reservations expressed by relatives of the victim about the local police.

On March 21, around 500 Badshahpur residents gathered at Rajiv Chowk and carried out a candlelight march to press for the arrest of the main accused.

The march was taken from Rajiv Chowk to Civil Lines, Gurgaon, where the marchers went to the residence of the deputy commissioner and the commissioner of police, Gurgaon.

Vashishts son Rahul, his uncles and other family members had led the protest.
Take two tablets and a selfie? Your doctors orders may one day include a smartphone video to make sure you took your medicine.

Smartphone apps that monitor pill-taking are now available, and researchers are testing how well they work when medication matters. Experts praise the efficiency, but some say the technology raises privacy and data security concerns.

Selfie medicine works like this: Open an app on your phone, show your pills, put them in your mouth and swallow. Dont forget to show your empty mouth to the camera to prove todays dose is on its way. Then upload the video proof to the clinic.

Fans say the technology addresses a big problem: About half of drugs for chronic conditions arent taken as prescribed because of cost, side effects or patient forgetfulness.

With treatment for opioid addiction, a skipped dose can mean a dangerous relapse. The National Institute on Drug Abuse is funding research to tailor a smartphone app for those patients and see if theyll use it.

Selfie medicine works like this:

Open an app on your phone, show your pills, put them in your mouth and swallow. Dont forget to show your empty mouth to the camera to prove todays dose is on its way. Then upload the video proof to the clinic.

If we can keep patients engaged, we can keep them in treatment longer, said lead researcher Dr. Judith Tsui of the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle.

The next phase of her research will compare a group of patients who use the monitoring app called emocha (ee-MOH-kuh) with those who dont to see if theres a difference.

At one Tennessee treatment centre, some patients with opioid addiction are already using the app to upload selfies of their daily dose and answer questions about how theyre doing.

Every time they sign on, it allows us to capture data. Are they having cravings? Suicidal tendencies? said Scott Olson, CEO of Dallas-based Pathway Healthcare, which is trying the app at its Jackson, Tennessee, site. Maybe a phone call from a counsellor might make the difference between staying clean and a relapse.

Olson thinks insurers will pay for the service with more evidence. For monitoring tuberculosis patients, health departments pay roughly $35 to $50 per patient each month for systems that include encrypted data storage. A small health department might pay as little as $500 a month.

The idea of watching someone take their medicine  called directly observed therapy or DOT  has roots in tuberculosis where one persons forgetfulness can be serious for everyone. If patients dont take all their antibiotics, their infectious TB germs can get stronger, developing drug resistance and endangering the broader community.

But taking a handful of pills daily for up to a year is difficult, so public health departments traditionally sent workers to peoples homes and workplaces to watch them take their doses. Today, many TB patients prefer remote monitoring. Nurses like it too.

Nurse Peggy Cooley has used Skype for years to chat live with patients taking TB medicine.

We can accomplish in a two-minute phone call something that might have taken an hour to do and most of that hour was in the car, said Cooley, who works for the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department in Washington state.

The new uploaded selfies dont need an appointment. They are a daily routine for many tuberculosis patients in Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Houston, where savings on mileage and worker time amounted to $100,000 in a recent year.

The group supports research in

China and India on two homegrown technologies. Chinas tool, about

the size of a shoebox, reminds patients to take their pills and saves data for review. In India, the government favours a blister pill pack printed with phone numbers;

a patient punches out a daily pill,

then calls the revealed number.

In Boston, Albuquerque and five other cities, researchers are studying whether the technology works for hepatitis C, a blood-borne virus thats surging among a new generation of injection drug users. New drugs for hepatitis C can cure, but theyre expensive  $75,000 for a 12-week course of treatment  so insurers want to make sure patients take them.

I think it holds a lot of promise, said researcher Dr. Alain Litwin of University of South Carolina School of Medicine, whos testing whether patients do better when someone watches them take their pills.

Whats next? An insurer in Maryland plans to use the technology in diabetes and high blood pressure to make sure Medicare and Medicaid patients take their medicine. Startups selling the apps say they could be used by faraway adult children monitoring an elderly parents daily pill-taking.

Experts worry about privacy, data security and penalties for poor pill-taking.

Thats the biggest ick factor, said Carolyn Neuhaus, a medical ethicist at the Hastings Centre in New York. You can imagine a program where benefits are tied to compliance and the insurer says, We wont pay for medication anymore unless youre taking it correctly.

Globally, the rapid spread of smartphones creates an opportunity to eradicate TB, say the app developers.

But eliminating TB may take simpler, cheaper technologies that can be scaled for millions of cases, said Dr Daniel Chin, who leads TB efforts for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The group supports research in China and India on two homegrown technologies. Chinas tool, about the size of a childs shoebox, reminds patients to take their pills and saves data for review. In India, the government favours a blister pill pack printed with phone numbers; a patient punches out a daily pill, then calls the revealed number.

Worldwide, TB kills more than 1.6 million people annually, even though most deaths are preventable with treatment.

If we are going to eliminate the disease, we need technology, said Dr. Richard Garfein of the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, who helped develop one of the smartphone apps, SureAdhere.

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Donald Glover knows how to be petty and he knows how to be creative. The actor shared a 15-page script of the Deadpool animated series that couldnt see the light of day due after being rejected by FX, on Wednesday on Twitter.

For the record, I wasnt too busy to work on Deadpool, he wrote in a tweet followed by the hilarious script for the FINALE. In the story, Deadpool goes to Kenya to keep Sudan, the last male white rhino, safe from poachers. Once with him, he talks to the animal about the falling Bitcoin rate, the Facebook crises, racism on television, the police shooting black civilians in their backyards, school shootings and the teachers being asked to carry guns to schools, the President and the who-bit-Beyonce controversy. The real Sudan died a few days ago.

Actor/director Jon Favreau, left, and actor/musician Donald Glover, right, share a laugh on the carpet at the premiere of the film Black Panther. (Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

Deadpool talks in detail about the scrapped show as well. All the writers were black, he says. And the references were pretty black too. I heard they went over the lunch budget ordering Jamaican food at least once a week.

It just feels like everyone wants something different, but no one wants to do anything different to get it. Doesnt Marvel have enough feel-good minority shows everyone supports but doesnt watch? I mean, I think our show woulda been funny. I just wanted a place to be honest. And I guess that place is Freeform.

While announcing that the show will not be made, FX cited creative differences as the cause. However, many also speculated that Glover didnt have time to give to the show with his live action Lion King remake in production and his show Atlanta.

Just a reminder, even Ryan Reynolds, who plays the superhero in the Deadpool movie series, wasnt allowed to make the movie for years until a test footage was leaked to the world. The clip was appreciated by everyone so much and began a huge conversation and support for the film that Ryan was given a green flag and a huge budget for the film.

Read the full script here:

for the record: i wasnt too busy to work on deadpool.  donald (@donaldglover) March 28, 2018

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Harvey Weinsteins former British assistant said Wednesday that a gag order she had to sign when she left his film company was morally lacking in every way and failed to stop the movie producers harassment and abuse of women.

Zelda Perkins quit Weinsteins firm Miramax in 1998 along with a colleague who accused the movie mogul of trying to rape her. Each received a 125,000-pound ($177,000) settlement and signed a non-disclosure agreement. Perkins told a committee of British lawmakers that she felt defrauded by the agreement, which contained clauses intended to stop Weinstein from sexually harassing or abusing staff. The agreement committed Weinstein to attend therapy and required the company to act if he made any more payouts over alleged wrongdoing. Perkins said she has no evidence that these actions were carried out.

Multiple women have accused Weinstein of sexual harassment and assault over many years. He denies all allegations of nonconsensual sex. I believed we had done the best we could in terms of stopping his behavior, Perkins told Parliaments Women and Equalities Committee. Essentially we were defrauded.

The committee is investigating sexual harassment and the use of non-disclosure agreements, or NDAs.

NDAs are common in the corporate world, but Perkins said her experience shows they can be used to let perpetrators get away with wrongdoing while silencing their victims. The problem is they are used abusively ... and there isnt enough regulation and there isnt a framework to protect the victims of the situation, she said.

The agreement Perkins signed kept her quiet about Weinsteins behavior for almost 20 years. He continued to be one of Hollywoods most powerful producers until last year, when women  including Hollywood stars  publicly accused him of groping, exposing himself to them or forcing them into unwanted sex. Weinstein has since been fired by the company he co-founded and expelled by Hollywoods film academy. Police in the U.S. and Britain are investigating multiple claims of sexual assault.

Perkins was in her early 20s and said she had barely heard of Weinstein when she began working for Miramax in London. She called him a challenging employer. Everybody knew that he had a roving eye and he pushed it with women, she said. He had a fearsome temper and didnt respect usual office boundaries, sometimes walking around naked or in his underwear, she said.

I was 22 and I was like, OK, this is what it must be like in the big league, Perkins told The Associated Press on Tuesday. This guy is really important  he doesnt have time to wear his trousers.

Perkins said she wasnt aware of any allegations of sexual assault until a younger colleague came to her in distress during the 1998 Venice Film Festival and said Weinstein had tried to rape her. The pair flew back to England and went to lawyers with the presumption that we were going to prosecute him in court.

Told they could not prosecute in England because the alleged crime took place in Italy, the two women ended up negotiating a settlement. While Perkins managed to get the agreement to impose conditions on Weinstein, she said the negotiating process was humiliating and degrading. I was made to feel like I was in the wrong for trying to expose his behavior.

She was told she would be held responsible if her family or friends disclosed details of Weinsteins behavior. She couldnt see a therapist unless the therapist also signed a non-disclosure agreement. Perkins was not even allowed to have a copy of the agreement she had signed.

Perkins said the experience left her trapped in a vortex of fear. I think Im only just beginning to realize what it stole from me, Perkins said of her experience with Weinstein and his lawyers. It stole my belief and my confidence in myself and in society.

Perkins said the #MeToo and Times Up movements against harassment and inequality which have erupted in the wake of the Weinstein revelations have made her feel hugely liberated and given her faith again in society.

The fact that Harvey was the beginning of this snowball, to me, is just completely thrilling.
All ya hip hop fans out there, heres your treat: American star Tyga is all set to perform in India next month. This maiden visit is a part of his world tour to promote his latest album, titled Kyoto. His first  and only  show in India will be held in Delhi on April 20.

The rapper, known for singles such as Ayo, Faded, U Cry, Nasty, Rack City, and Wait for a Minute, is excited about coming to India, rocking the stage and meeting his fans. Hes likely to arrive a day before the first show and stay for a few extra days.

Ive always wanted to tour India. The sights and sounds of the country are fascinating, and Ive heard that the music industry [in India] is one to watch out for. Im really excited to perform my new album, Kyoto, for all my fans out there, says Tyga, who has collaborated with the likes of Justin Bieber, Chris Brown, Rick Ross, Drake, Lil Wayne, Bow Wow, Nicki Minaj, and Wiz Khalifa. Tyga has also been in the news for his relationships with reality TV star-model-socialite Kylie Jenner and model-entrepreneur Blac Chyna.

Arjun Jain, the promoter of Tygas event in India, shares that the demand for hip hop and rap music in India is quite overwhelming, but remains largely untapped. He adds, This event will be very exclusive in the form of a luxury pop-up night, where fans can have the opportunity of getting up close and personal with the artist, as well as have a more intimate experience. Jains company has earlier brought music sensations such as Justin Bieber, David Guetta, and Hardwell, among others, to India for live shows.

Interact with Shreya Mukherjee on Twitter @Shreya_MJ
A dip in the Ganga at Sangam, where the Yamuna meets it in Allahabad, could expose people to levels of the faecal coliform (FC) that are 5-13 times the permissible limit, official data from 2017 shows. This limit is unsafe for bathing.

FC bacteria, such as E.coli, are found in excreta that contaminates water through untreated sewerage. The permissible limit for FC is 2,500 MPN (most probable number) /100 ml, while the desirable level is 500 MPN/100 ml.

Pollution levels were high centred around holy sites, where high population density and activities add to the pollution load, shows Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data.

In Uttar Pradesh, 50% of the 16 stations for which latest FC data is available for 2018, did not meet desired standards.

For Bihar, 88% of the stations did not meet standards.

Some of the most polluted stretches were Kanpur, Allahabad and Varanasi in UP. At the Jajmau pumping station in Kanpur in 2017, FC levels were 10- 23 times the limit. This not a one off spike. In 2011, too, the station recorded FC levels ranging from 4,000 to 93,000 MPN/ 100 ml.

At Malviya bridge in Varanasi, the FC levels are 9-20 times the limit.

Watch: Elephant saved from drowning in Ganga in 2-hour rescue operation

In 2011, values ranged between 13-19 times the limit at the Malviya bridge station.

At Ramrekhaghat in Buxar, the FC levels in August 2017 peaked at 160,00,000, which is 6,400 times the FC norm.

An analysis of 2017 data from state pollution control boards in five states  Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal  through which the Ganga flows shows that water quality in the river was abysmal in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in 2017 mostly because of faecal pollution.

Data for West Bengal was not available but an earlier analysis of Ganga water quality data from 2016 showed high levels of FC contamination.

Most projects to treat sewerage were sanctioned in the past year and have yet to show results.

Out of 94 stations that dot the Gangas main stem, readings from 76 stations was available. Data for one station in Jharkhand showed satisfactory water quality.

The CPCB data shows that the Ganga is cleanest as it flows from its source in Uttarakhand, with all stations in the state reporting satisfactory water quality.

In Uttar Pradesh, 65% of the stations had unsatisfactory water quality in 2017. In Bihar, 76% of the stations recorded unsatisfactory water quality, with no station reporting satisfactory water quality.

There is an index for air quality, but it is more difficult to develop an index for water, a CPCB official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said. It is different from an environmental point of view and from a human health perspective. Fecal coliform is dangerous to human health.

Read: Ganga water cleaner than it was in 1986?

Anil Kumar Singh, an official at the UP Pollution Control Board, said that the high levels of pollution were due to discharge of untreated domestic waste. Treatment capacity [in Varanasi] is about a quarter of the total discharge, he said.

This is true of the entire Ganga main stem. Sewage treatment capacity in the 97 major towns on the river is less than half of the total sewage generated.

The largescale diversion of water has made the problem worse as depleting water flow raises the concentration of pollutants.

The Namami Gange programme, launched in May 2015, earmarked Rs 20,000 crore for the rejuvenation of the river. Though Rs 19, 630 crore has been approved for funding 192 projects, only 49 projects have been completed so far.

Pollution levels fluctuate, with higher water flow during and after monsoon diluting contaminant levels. However, pollution has reached such levels that rivers like the Yamuna are polluted throughout the year, the CPCB official said.

The data from programmes for cleaning the Ganga are incomplete and not independently verified. The data is questionable, but since no one else apart from the pollution control boards collect the data, no one can challenge it, said RK Sinha, an environment activist hailing from Bihar who has worked on Ganga water quality for over three decades. The regulatory authority and monitoring authority cannot be the same.
In a major relief to civil servant Devyani Khobragade, the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has asked the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to promote her as a Joint Secretary within two months if she is found fit for the job.

The direction came on her plea alleging that when her batch was considered for promotion to Grade-III of the Indian Foreign Service, that is the Joint Secretary rank for he vacancy year 2016-17, her case was not considered and kept in a sealed cover, apparently due to the pendency of enquiry proceedings against her.

The MEA had initiated proceedings against her for giving interviews to the media without taking permission from the ministry, as also for her misleading statement that it was permissible for her children, who were both under 18 years of age, to retain both Indian and US passports.

The disciplinary authority (DA) had in November 2017 imposed the penalty of reduction to a lower stage in the time scale of pay by one stage for a period of one year without cumulative effect and not adversely affecting her pension on her.

The bench, while noting that there was an inordinate and unexplained delay of about 20 months at the end of the Ministry in acting on Khobragades March 2015 reply on the charges, said the penalty imposed by the DA shall be treated as effective from September 2015 with its currency ending on August 2016.

From the inordinate delay of 20 months at the end of the respondents (Ministry), we are fully convinced that the respondents have not shown any alacrity or seriousness to complete the proceedings against the applicant (Khobragade) in a reasonable time frame.

Even the time prescribed in the guidelines have not been adhered to. This delay has severely prejudiced the case of the applicant for promotion to the next higher grade, the bench, headed by CAT chairman Justice Permod Kohli, said.

It said if the time frame was adhered to by the Ministry, she would have secured her promotion along with her batch-mates as the currency of the punishment would have ended by that time.

The sealed cover relating to the promotion of the applicant (Khobragade) to the grade of Joint Secretary shall be opened and if she is found fit for promotion, she shall be promoted to the grade of Joint Secretary with effect from November 1, 2016 when her batch-mates were promoted to such grade.

This shall be done within a period of two months from the date of receipt of a certified copy of this order. It is also clarified that the applicant shall be entitled to all consequential benefits, the bench, also comprising member K.N. Shrivastava, said.

Khobragade was deputy consul general in New York in late 2013 when she was arrested by US authorities for allegedly underpaying her Indian maid in a fraudulent manner.

Her strip-search, which had followed the arrest, had created an uproar in India with the then UPA government threatening similar action against US diplomats and scaling down the immunity enjoyed by them here.

Khobragades children live in the US with their father while she is not allowed to travel abroad pending the case against her in the US. She has also moved the high court against denial of Indian citizenship and passport to her children by the MEA.
iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- President Donald Trump took some of his strongest action yet against Russia with Monday's expulsion of what the U.S. says are 60 Russian intelligence operatives - retaliation for the alleged poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in the United Kingdom.



But the president continues to hold out hope for personally working with Russian President Vladimir Putin, even congratulating the strongman leader on his "re-election" last week and calling for cooperation on "shared interests" like North Korea, Ukraine, and Syria.



"They can help solve problems with North Korea, Syria, Ukraine, ISIS, Iran and even the coming Arms Race," Trump tweeted last Wednesday.



At every turn, however, Russia appears to be blocking U.S. interests, and it's Trump's own top officials pointing out that Russia has created crises around the world or made existing ones worse.



"Russia has chosen to be a strategic competitor, even to the point of reckless behavior," Defense Secretary James Mattis told reporters Tuesday.



Despite calls from the White House for Russia to change its behavior, Trump's persistent push to work with Putin has led critics to doubt his commitment to defending American interests against Russian interference from Afghanistan to Ukraine, the Korean peninsula to western Europe.



North Korea



In North Korea, for example, Russia is hindering the administration's global pressure campaign to isolate the regime and force it to give up its nuclear weapons in negotiations, according to Trump's top diplomat for Europe.



"The Russian government has not been helpful in recent days with the United States, with the international community and our efforts with North Korea," Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs A. Wess Mitchell told Fox News Monday. One of the few senior Trump appointees at the State Department, Mitchell said it was part of a "pattern of Russian aggressive behavior worldwide."



"We see the situation in Ukraine and in Syria, Russian meddling in multiple countries, undermining Western institutions," he added.



Mitchell didn't share more details about how Russia was "not helpful," and State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert declined to elaborate Tuesday, but in January, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said specifically that the country has violated United Nations sanctions, especially on fuel shipments to Kim Jong Un's regime.



Syria



Tuesday morning at the U.N. Security Council, Trump's U.S. ambassador, Nikki Haley, also blasted Russia for its intervention in Syria, where it and Iran's "forces working alongside Assad... [are] responsible for this slaughter" of civilians in a rebel stronghold east of Damascus. The U.N. had voted one month ago for a cessation of hostilities in the area called eastern Ghouta  a ceasefire that never came.



"Russia cynically negotiated a ceasefire it instantly defied," Haley said, adding it "will stop at nothing to use its permanent seat on this Council to shield its ally Bashar Al-Assad from even the faintest criticism."



After months of continued bombardment by Russia and Assad  and repeated calls for it to end by the U.S.  eastern Ghouta has now been largely retaken by Assad's forces and civilians are being bused out.



While Trump wants to work with Putin against ISIS, Haley noted that the two countries can't even agree on which groups are terrorists in Syria, saying Russia's claim that they have "to combat what they call 'terrorists'" in eastern Ghouta "is a transparent excuse for the Russians and Assad to maintain their assault."



There has been one area of cooperation in Syria, though. Last week, Russian mercenaries in Syria pulled back from a position near U.S. troops  and a possible confrontation  after successful discussions between Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford and his Russian counterpart, Gen. Valery Gerasimov. In a similar incident in February, armed groups that included Russian mercenaries opened fire against U.S. forces in the same area, leading to an American response that killed at least "dozens" of Russians.



Ukraine



Nowhere is Russia's position at greater odds with the U.S. than Ukraine, where Russia seized the Crimea peninsula and Russian-backed separatists have been battling U.S.-backed government forces for four years now. The Trump administration decided to increase its support for Ukraine in December, approving the sale of lethal weapons to the country for the first time.



While those anti-tank missiles are making their way to Ukraine, the U.S. has demanded that Russia stop arming separatists and return Crimea to Ukraine. Just last week, the top U.S. diplomat to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, or OSCE, which monitors the conflict, blasted "Russias campaign of violence, intimidation, violations of international law, and defiance of OSCE commitments."



With Russia responsible for the violence, it's unclear how the U.S. expects to work with them to end it.



Afghanistan



Even in Afghanistan, where the U.S. has spent nearly 17 years at war, Russia has begun poking at American interests.



The top U.S. commander there, Gen. John Nicholson, said days ago that Russia is supporting and even arming the Afghan Taliban, telling BBC News, "We know that the Russians are involved."



Russia has denied arming the Taliban, but Nicholson blasted them for "destabilizing activity" in Afghanistan that has increased in the last 18 to 24 months, saying it "roughly correlates to when things started to heat up in Syria."



The Trump administration has been pursuing a strategy to beat the Taliban on the battlefield, adding 3,500 more troops last year, and drive it to the negotiating table.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
The latest scheme announced by Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao extending cash assistance of Rs 4,000 per acre to farmers every agricultural season has attracted the attention of the Narendra Modi government.

The scheme called Rythu Bandhu, or farmers friend, will be inaugurated in the third week of April with farmers getting cheques. The state government will have to shell out Rs 5,685 crore for the scheme covering 14.21 million acres of cultivable land.

The exercise will continue till May-end so as to help farmers buy agriculture inputs such as seeds, pesticides and fertilisers by the commencement of the kharif season in the first week of June.

On Tuesday, the Centre summoned principal secretary of Telangana state agriculture department C Parthasarathy to New Delhi to give a detailed presentation of the scheme before ministers and officials representing agriculture, finance, defence, food and civil supplies, railways, rural development, ports and national highways.

It appears the Centre is keen on replicating our Rythu Bandhu scheme and has asked me to explain the modalities of implementing the same. I told them how we have identified genuine beneficiaries through revamping revenue records, digitising land records, assessing farmers financial requirements, etc., Parthasarathy said on Wednesday.

We have identified around 7.2 million farmers after revision of land records in the last two months. They would be given Rs 4,000 per acre during the kharif and rabi seasons  which means, each farmer would get Rs 8,000 per acre per year, the official said.

The Telangana government has earmarked Rs 12,000 crore for the scheme in the annual state budget for 2018-19.

However, it is going to be a heavy burden on the Centre if it has to implement it in the entire country. The central agriculture ministry made a rough estimate of the financial implications of the scheme and found it would cost Rs 2 lakh crore every year, Parthasarathy, who submitted a comprehensive report to Union agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh, said.

Since the Centre has not made any provision for any such scheme in the Union budget 2018-19, it may not implement the scheme this year. However, there is every possibility that the BJP might include this scheme in its election manifesto for the 2019 general election, said another official in the agriculture department, requesting anonymity.

Meanwhile, the chief minister defended his decision to announce various schemes targeting particular sections of society. Yes, they are schemes aimed at attracting voters. Ours is a political party and we have to attract voters, he asserted in the state assembly.
Supreme Court judge Justice J Chelameswar has objected to a probe initiated, on a law ministry complaint, by the Karnataka high court chief justice against a district judge who was recommended for elevation, people familiar with the matter said.

Justice Chelameswar wrote to Chief Justice Dipak Misra, bringing to his attention the illegal manner in which the probe was called for and questioned the propriety of the probe.

In a letter, sent to the CJI last week and marked to all the judges of the top court, Justice Chelameswar said that the inquiry was contrary to established conventions. At least two judges confirmed on condition of anonymity that they had received the letter, which HT has not seen.

Chelameshwar, the second senior-most judge in the Supreme Court, also wrote in the letter, one of the judges said, that it was improper for the law ministry to forward a letter directly to an HC chief justice. He contended in the letter that this was in violation of the 1998 MoP (memorandum of procedure) governing the procedure for appointment/elevation.

The letter also mentioned the delay on the Centres part to appoint judges to the HC as per the top courts recommendation of April 2017, said the judge quoted above.

The chief justice of the Karnataka high court, Dinesh Maheswari, had initiated the inquiry against the senior district judge after the law ministry forwarded a complaint by a woman judicial officer of Karnataka, levelling charges of misconduct and misbehaviour against the judge. The letter was sent after the top court had cleared his name for the HC after rejecting the charges.

The top court had first approved his name in November 2016. But the law ministry had returned the file, asking the collegium to look into charges of alleged misbehaviour and misconduct.

The then CJI Justice TS Thakur had ordered the then Karnataka HC chief justice SK Mukherjee to hold an inquiry against the judge.

The probe had exonerated the district judge of all charges, saying the complaint was malafide and motivated to stall his elevation.

The SC collegium in April 2017 reiterated his recommendation. However, the woman judicial officer lodged a fresh complaint, this time directly with the law ministry.

The Centre, which did not move on the file of judges elevation for over six months, forwarded the complaint to the Karnataka HC chief justice.
Clashes broke out between two religious groups in Bihars Munger early on Wednesday as communal tension triggered by violence during a festive procession in Bhagalpur on March 17 spread to seven districts, prompting the authorities to deploy additional policemen and paramilitary troopers to control the situation.

According to the police, more than 100 people, including policemen, have been injured in the violence over the past 10 days and several shops and business establishments set on fire.

The state government, struggling to restore peace, imposed prohibitory orders in some areas and deployed paramilitary and Rapid Action Force (RAF) personnel to tackle the unrest that broke out during this years Ram Navami celebrations. More than 200 people have been arrested so far.

Police said Munger became the latest addition to the list of troubled districts after violence broke out over a controversial song being played and inflammatory slogans shouted at an immersion procession of Chaiti Durga.

A large group had gathered in Mungers Neelam Chowk thoroughfare in protest and the clashes began when the rally reached there, police said.

People from both sides shot firearms, threw stones and brickbats, and set property and vehicles on fire, police said, estimating that more than 100 rounds of gunshots were fired as the violence engulfed several neighbourhoods in the town.

Stones were thrown at policemen deployed to control the flare-up as well as ensure peaceful immersion of the goddesss idols, forcing the authorities to order baton-charges and fire warning shots to disperse the mobs. Security forces are carrying out flag marches in sensitive areas.

I am at one of the troubled spots. Its calm now, said Vikas Vaibhav, the Munger range deputy inspector general of police.

In adjoining Jamui district, people at an idol immersion procession clashed with policemen. Several people, including six policemen, were wounded. Two policemen were critically wounded, Jamui superintendent of police Jagannath Reddy said.

According to eyewitnesses, who refused to be named, the violence began over the polices refusal to allow a procession from entering an unauthorized route.

The Ram Navani festival keeps police on the edge almost every year in Bihar as the processions are taken out for several days and trouble-makers try to foment communal trouble. This year, police said, the government has permitted 1,590 Ram Navami committees across the state to hold processions but several unauthorised rallies were taken out too.

Chronology of communal tension in Bihar districts March 17, Bhagalpur: Tension broke out in Bhagalpurs communally sensitive Nathnagar locality after people of two communities clashed over an unauthorized religious procession taken out by saffron outfits and led by Arijit Shashwat, son of union minister of state for health and family welfare, Ashwani Choubey. More than 35 people including policemen were injured and several shops and vehicles were set on fire. Internet services were suspended for two days. Two separate cases were lodged. Shashwat was named in one first information report (FIR). No arrests have been made so far. March 24, Siwan: A minor clash took place between Hindus and Muslims after a group of people stopped a Rama Navami procession at Hassanpura under MH Nagar police station. People resorted to brickbatting and three vehicles were burnt. Around six people were taken into custody. March 25: Communal clashes broke out in three districts, Aurangabad, Kaimur and Gaya. Aurangabd was the worst affected; rioters set 31 shops on fire--by unofficial count, more than 50 shops were gutted. More than 25 people were injured. Police had to clamp prohibitory orders and suspend internet services for an indefinite period. Police said around 150 people have been arrested. In Gaya and Kaimur, minor clashes were brought under control quickly. March 27, Samastipur: Clashes broke out between two groups over a Rama Navami procession that came under attack by trouble makers. Around 10 people including a probationary Indian Police Service officer were injured. Three vehicles were set on fire. Internet services were suspended and prohibitory orders imposed.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday told the Legislative Council that the lion and tiger--an allusion to the BJP and the Shiv Sena- would contest the 2019 elections together.

Fadnavis remarks came in response to Leader of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe Patils dig that rats will destroy the throne of the BJP-led state government.

Former BJP minister Eknath Khadse had last week questioned the claims of a private company that a total of 3,19,400 rats were killed in the state secretariat in a week.

Khadse, an MLA from Jalgaon district, had also said that Dhule farmer Dharma Patil had consumed the same poison which was meant for killing rodents in Mantralaya to commit suicide in January this year.

The embarrassed government later clarified that 3,19,400 was actually the number of rat poison tablets placed in Mantralaya and not the number of rodents killed.

Building on Khadses statement, Vikhe Patil said the remaining rats in Mantralaya would destroy the throne of the state government.

Returning the barb, Fadnavis said his government had no fear of rodents.

Tiger (a symbol of Sena) and lion (an allusion to BJP) are together so we dont fear rats. Rats will come our way, but the tiger and the lion will destroy them and win the 2019 polls, he said.

Responding to the CMs remarks, Jayant Patil (NCP) said they knew about the tiger but the presence of the lion is a new thing.

Rats were set loose from your side. People of the state will show all these animals their place in 2019, he said.

In a veiled reference to the constant criticism of the BJP by its belligerent ally Sena, Vikhe Patil said, People of the state have seen the love of the tiger and lion. People of the state are seeing for the last four years the way the two are living with each other.

CMs statement of a joint contest assumed significance as the Sena had resolved in its national executive to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha and Assembly polls solo.

Sena MP Sanjay Raut reportedly met TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee, who is projecting herself as a pivot for a federal front to challenge the BJP in upcoming polls, in Delhi on Tuesday.
All the slaughter houses in urban areas of Haryana will remain closed on the occasion of Mahavir Jayanti on March 29, Kavita Jain Haryana urban local bodies minister said on Wednesday.

The sale of meat, fish and eggs will also be restricted, the minister said in a press statement.

Jain said that Mahavir Jayanti is observed every year as non-violence day. Different religious organisations of the state had met her and demanded prohibition of killing of animals on this day, she said.

Keeping in view the religious sentiments of the Jain community, the proposal to close down slaughter houses on March 29 and also restrict the sale of meat, fish and eggs has been approved, Jain said.

She said that officers have been instructed to ensure strict compliance of the orders in the municipal areas and also submit a report of the same.
Pakistans objections over the designs of some of Indias hydropower projects along with other issues related to the Indus Waters Treaty are likely to be discussed during the two-day meeting of the Permanent Indus Commission here starting Thursday, sources said.

Indias Indus water commissioner P K Saxena, technical experts and a representative of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) will be part of the Indian delegation for the annual meeting.

Pakistans six-member delegation, led by Syed Muhammad Mehar Ali Shah, has already arrived here for the Commissions 114th meeting, which will take place in the backdrop of the continuing tension between the two countries over a host of issues, including the alleged harassment of diplomats.

The PIC is an established mechanism under the IWT, which mandates it to establish and maintain cooperative arrangements for the implementation of the water distribution pact and to promote cooperation between the two sides in the development of the Indus water systems.

Pakistan has objections over designs of some of Indias projects. Their objections have been there since 2012. These issues may come up for discussion. There will also be routine exchange of information between the two countries, an official source told PTI.

According to the sources, Pakistan has been expressing concerns over Indias Ratle (850 MW), Pakal Dul (1000 MW) and Lower Kalnai (48 MW) projects -- located in the Chenab basin  contending that they violate the IWT, signed in 1960.

India continues to maintain its position that designs of the projects are very much in accordance with the treaty, the source said.

The sources said that the issues concerning the 340 MW Kishanganga hydroelectric project, located on river Jhelums tributary in Bandipora district of Jammu and Kashmir, may not figure during the meeting since the project has already been commissioned.

The IWT covers the water distribution and sharing rights of six rivers -- Beas, Ravi, Sutlej, Indus, Chenab and Jhelum.

The treaty specifies that waters from the three western rivers -- Indus, Jhelum and Chenab -- are reserved for Pakistan, while waters from eastern rivers -- Ravi, Sutlej and Beas -- are for reserved for India.

The PIC had last met in March 2017 in Islamabad. The meeting of the PIC is held alternately in India and Pakistan at least once every year as mandated by the treaty.
With elections around the corner, the influential mutts (monasteries) in Karnataka have become centres of hectic political activity.

While Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah visited five mutts during his recent tour of the state, Congress president Rahul Gandhi also met pontiffs during his poll visit last week. Prime Minister Narendra Modis rallies in the state invariably include references to the mutts.

Historians and political analysts ascribe the political importance of the mutts to the enormous influence they wield over the constituencies where they are located. With the state set for polling on May 12, the three major political parties are likely to lobby with some of these institutions, as their backing provides legitimacy to the candidates.

In this context, the Siddaramaiah-led Congress governments decision last week to notify Lingayats and Veerashaiva-Lingayats (those who follow the teachings of 12th century philosopher Basaveshwara) as a minority religious group is expected to yield political dividends. The sect, which makes up roughly 15% of the states population, could have a say in who comes to power in the state.

The Lingayat mutts, according to Aya Ikegame of the University of Tokyo, who has researched extensively on the role of mutts and pontiffs in Karnatakas politics, have history on their side. Most mutts are specific to certain castes, with some even having branches to cater to different castes and sub-castes.

Explaining the influence of Lingayat and Brahmin mutts in the state, Ikegame said these maths influence is a product of their centuries-long existence. Only Brahmins and Lingayats/ Veerashaivas have maintained these institution for centuries. Not other castes, she said.

However, given their small numbers in the state, the influence of Brahmin mutts is limited when compared to the Lingayats. The Adichunchanagiri is a relatively new mutt (about 100 years old) but they are practically the only Vokkaliga mutt in the state, she said.

According to political analysts, the reasons behind this influence were the various outreach programmes of the mutts. The Lingayat mutts, especially, enjoy support because of the educational institutions they run, among other things, said Narendar Pani, faculty at the National Institute of Advanced Studies.

Shivamurthy Murugha Swamy, the pontiff of the Murugha mutt, said about 30,000 students were currently enrolled in the educational institutions run by the monastery. According to the Siddalinga Swamy, the junior pontiff of the Siddaganga mutt, around 40,000 students were studying in the various institutions run by them.

However, influence and legitimacy do not flow in one direction. Harish Ramaswamy, political science faculty at the Karnatak University, Dharwad, said the pontiff of the Moorusavir mutt in Dharwad had to abdicate for a brief period after a political battle broke out over choosing his successor. Two political leaders were said to have canvassed for different candidates, which forced the seer to step down.

BJP spokesperson S Prakash said seeking the blessings of seers was a traditional practice. It is just an expression of respect to the pontiffs, he said.

State law minister TB Jayachandra of the ruling Congress said mutts share a connect with people of particular areas that is beyond politics. Visiting mutts is a signal to the people that their sentiments are respected. It is not that this will result in more votes. But not visiting a mutt can send the wrong message to the followers of that order, he said.

There is definitely a lot of prestige attached to the backing of some of the big mutts, like Siddaganga or Suttur or Tontadarya, despite such influence having been eroded by the emergence of newer mutts catering to specific castes, said Ramaswamy.

Such is their influence that the state government was forced to withdraw a notification calling for public consultations on a plan to bring mutts under the governments purview.
A Kolkata-bound Air India flight has been grounded at Delhi airport following reports of a bomb threat, an official said.

They said a bomb threat assessment committee (BTAC) is undertaking sanitisation drills on the flight and all 248 passengers and 11 crew members have been de-boarded.

A call threatening to bring down the plane was received at Mumbai airport at about 2:45pm, after which the flight was grounded.

The flight has been isolated and anti-sabotage checks are in progress at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, a senior official said.

The CISF and other security agencies are on the job, along with canine and bomb disposal squads, he said.
A former teacher of a reputable school in West Bengals Kolkata, sacked by the authorities in February allegedly over his sexual orientation, has sent a legal notice to the Council of International Schools (CIS), the global body for accreditation to which the school is affiliated.

Avijit Kundu, the former mathematics and physics teacher of Calcutta International School, alleged he was sacked on February 5, a day after his autobiography Amar Shamakami Ejahar (My Homosexual Confession) was released at the Kolkata International Book Fair.

The school authorities denied Kundus allegations and its human resource manager Chayita Sen said that his services as a part-time teacher were no longer required.

In my notice, I challenged the statement given by the school authorities to the media that Avijit Kundus service was terminated since the school did not require part-time teachers, Kundus lawyer Anupam Sircar said.

I challenged their decision selecting him in isolation on this ground since none of the other part-time teachers of Calcutta International School suffered the same fate, he added.

Sircar said he has not demanded any compensation or reinstatement for Kundu, an engineering graduate from Jadavpur University.

I have requested the CIS authorities to ensure that none in future should be subjected to such humiliation in an educational institution because of his or her sexual orientation, he added.

Copies of the notice were also forwarded to principal secretaries of West Bengal school education and state women and child welfare departments, deputy commissioner of police (east division) of Kolkata Police, chairperson of West Bengal Transgender Development Board and the district inspector of schools (secondary), Kolkata.

Kundu said before taking the legal step he wanted to know from the authorities the grounds for his abrupt termination of service.

On March 18, I also sent an e-mail to CIS principal, Dr Moon Moon Nath, asking the reason for my dismissal. She did not respond to my mail, but telephoned me and expressed a desire to meet me to discuss the matter. However, since then there has been total silence, said Kundu

Right now, I am not considering any permanent job. But I want to ensure that none else should ever face such injustice, he added.

Manabi Bandopadhyay, the vice-chairperson of West Bengal Transgender Development Board and also Indias first transgender college principal, said she could empathise with Kundu as she too faced similar humiliations.

However, I need to read the mail sent to the board before speaking on the matter, she said.
In a bid to forge opposition unity, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday met UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and stressed the need for the Congress to be part of a front to take on the BJP.

The Trinamool Congress leader also met a host of other opposition leaders during her two-day visit to the national capital.

Banerjee had on Tuesday met NCP supremo Sharad Pawar and leaders of some regional parties, including NDA ally Shiv Sena, to explore possibilities of a federal front to take on the BJP in the next Lok Sabha polls.

Banerjee on Wednesday met disgruntled BJP leaders Yashwant Sinha and Shatrughan Sinha, besides having a telephonic conversation with Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav, with whom she talked of a one-to-one fight in states.

Wednesdays meeting with Sonia Gandhi took place at her 10, Janpath residence and lasted for around 20 minutes.

During the meeting, the two leaders are understood to have discussed the present political scenario and the strategy to defeat the BJP in the next general elections and in various state elections due this year.

I told Sonia ji, we want the Congress to be part of the united opposition, Banerjee told reporters after the meeting.

She also said that she wanted the Congress to win Karnataka, as it was strong there.

I am 100 per cent sure, when there is one single fight, the BJP will go, she said.

I have told Sonia ji what the country wants is that there should be a state-wise one-to-one fight against the BJP. Whichever party is the strongest in the state, that party should contest in that state against the BJP.

I have also discussed this issue with Sonia ji. The talks which we are having with the regional parties, we are trying to work together....We want the Congress also to be part of that, Banerjee said.

After todays meeting, she also alleged that in a bid to finish democracy in the country, the BJP is spreading atrocities.

Apart from political vendatta, the BJP does not do anything for the people of the country, she claimed.

The West Bengal chief minister said the Congress should also help the one-on-one fight in the states and added that parties which had an alliance with the Congress would carry on with the tie-ups.

Lalu (Yadav) ji and Sharad (Yadav) ji have an alliance with the Congress. Their alliance will continue, she said, adding that the opposition party which was the strongest in a state should be supported by the others to oust the BJP.

Banerjees meeting with Sonia Gandhi was earlier scheduled for Tuesday, but could not take place as the UPA chairperson was indisposed.

The chief minister is in Delhi to hold talks with various parties in a bid to form a united front against the BJP and bring together opposition parties on one platform.

The TMC leader had met many opposition leaders yesterday, but had not met any leader of the Congress.

Banerjee, who has been meeting leaders of various opposition parties and some allies of the ruling BJP here, also held discussions with former Union minister Arun Shourie.

After the meeting, Shourie, who has been critical of the Modi government, said the Trinamool Congress chiefs theory of putting up a one-on-one fight against the BJP in every state was the right path to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

If the one-on-one formula is implemented, the opposition will be able to corner 69 per cent of votes, Shourie said.

Though Yashwant Sinha did not clarify on whether he or Shatrughan Sinha would join a united force against the BJP, he said, Mamata is our old cabinet colleague. Her personality is known to everyone. The role she has taken to save the country is appreciable. In future also, we will support her.

The Trinamool Congress supremo sought to rally the regional parties against the NDA, even as Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, who mooted a non-Congress, non-BJP coalition in national politics, said the alternative being proposed by him would be a peoples front of India.

BJP attacks Mamata

The BJP was quick to hit out at its former ally, saying while her state was burning, she was doing politics in the national capital. The party was referring to incidents of violence during Ram Navami processions in West Bengal.

Senior BJP leader Prakash Javadekar told reporters that Trinamool thugs were attacking peaceful Ram Navami processions in the state.

Bengal is burning and Mamata is doing politics in Delhi. It is like Nero fiddled while Rome was burning, said Javadekar.

He accused Banerjee of being insensitive towards the state and said that this attitude of the TMC supremo is insult to the peoples mandate.

It is also an insult to the chief minister post, he said.

The West Bengal chief minister is free to do politics and the BJP is quite capable of replying to it, the minister said.

But one should not do politics on the cost of the state and her constitutional duties, he said.
Several Opposition leaders intensified their efforts to arrive at a common position to give a notice for a motion for the removal of the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, leaders of several political parties said on Tuesday. A Rajya Sabha MP said that he and a number of others had signed a petition in this regard.

At the same time, however, there also appeared to be differences within the Opposition ranks -- including within the Congress -- on how to proceed on the motion. The Opposition does not have the numbers to remove the CJI even if all other requirements of a complex constitutional process are met. The proposal had been initially mooted after four Supreme Court judges spoke out against the CJIs use of his position as the master of the roster in January.

Majeed Memon, a Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MP, said: Several Opposition MPs, including me, have signed the petition to remove the Chief Justice.

On Tuesday, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee met Prashant Bhushan, senior advocate and leader of the Swaraj Abhiyan party, who has taken a strong public position against the CJI. The two, a Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader confirmed, focused exclusively on the possible motion to remove Misra, with Bhushan making a strong case for it to Banerjee. Bhushan was not available for comments.

A draft explanatory note -- with five specific charges against the CJI -- was doing the rounds on Tuesday evening among opposition MPs in Delhi. HT could not independently confirm the origin or veracity of the note.

Read: Opposition move to remove Chief Justice: How and when can a judge be removed

A top Opposition leader, who is a key figure in pushing the motion, but spoke on condition of anonymity, said, I can tell you that we are seriously considering the move. We have discussed this with Congress as well as a set of regional parties including the Telugu Desam Party (TDP). By Friday, you will have a sense of whether we will go ahead with the motion. If it happens, this will be the first time any motion to remove a sitting Chief Justice would be moved in Parliament.

The Congress has come out with an impeachment petition to which my party including myself became associated. Other opposition parties have also shown inclination to support it. This is a fierce battle for purity of justice, truth and therefore there cannot be any compromise, Memon said. But when asked if the Congress had drafted the removal motion, partys communication in charge Randeep Surjewala said, I dont think this has any weight.

But a top leader, who is central to the Congresss parliamentary strategy, confirmed that the issue was under discussion. Two schools of thought within the party were apparent. Some, like me, believe that we should not get involved. This will open up a Pandoras box and will make us appear anti-judiciary, said a leader who is also an eminent legal figure. But there are others who believe that the motion itself -- even if it has no chance of passage  would act as a deterrent and pressure point to ensure that the executive cannot influence the judiciary.

A Biju Janata Dal leader said that the party is unlikely to support the motion.

Government leaders declined to comment on the Oppositions initiative for impeachment of the Chief Justice. How do we react when there seems to be a confusion within the Opposition itself? a senior minister said.

The removal of the Chief Justice - or any judge - is a lengthy constitutional process. To submit a removal motion itself requires the support of at least 50 MPs in the Rajya Sabha or 100 in the Lok Sabha. The Chair/Speaker has to then decide whether to admit it and, if it is admitted, constitute a three-member committee to investigate the charges. If the committee finds the judge to be guilty, the House can take up the motion for consideration. Once the house, in which it was originally admitted, passes it with a special majority, it then goes to the other house, which has to pass it with a special majority as well. An address for the removal of the judge is then presented to the president, who then passes an order.
Seven opposition parties led by the Congress on Friday submitted to vice president and Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu a notice seeking the impeachment of Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra. Heres a look at how and why judges can be removed and what are the processes involved:

Grounds for removal

There are two grounds for removal of judges  proved misbehaviour or incapacity.

According to article 124 of the constitution, a judge of the Supreme Court can be removed from his office by an order of the President.

The President can issue the removal order after an address by the Parliament, supported by a special majority of each House of Parliament (that is, a majority of the total membership of that House and a majority of not less than two-thirds of the members of that House present and voting), that has been presented to the President in the same session of Parliament for such a removal.

Process for removal

* A removal motion signed by 100 members (in case of Lok Sabha) or 50 members (in case of Rajya Sabha) is to be given to the Speaker/Chairman.

* The removal motion can be introduced in any of the two Houses of Parliament.

* The Speaker/Chairman may admit and reject the motion.

* If it is admitted, then the Speaker/Chairman is to constitute a three-member committee to investigate into the charges. The committee should consist of the Chief Justice or a judge of the Supreme Court, a chief justice of a high court and a distinguished jurist.

* If the committee finds the judge guilty of the charges (misbehaviour or incapacity), the House in which the motion was introduced, can take up the consideration of the motion.

* Once, the House in which the removal motion was introduced passes it with special majority, it goes to the second House which also has to pass it with special majority.

*After the motion is passed by each House of the Parliament by special majority, an address is presented to the President for removal of the judge.

* Finally, the President passes an order removing the judge.

Earlier instances

So far, no judge of has been removed by the Parliament, though a few have faced motions for their removal over corruption charges:

 Justice Soumitra Sen, former judge of Calcutta high court

He was held guilty of misappropriation of public funds he received in his capacity as receiver appointed by the Calcutta high court and misrepresenting facts about it by a committee of three judges set up by former CJI KG Balakrishnan in 2007.

A year later, Justice Balakrishnan recommended his removal to the PM, after which a legal opinion obtained by the law ministry endorsed the judges committee report. In 2009, 58 MPs of the Rajya Sabha moved a motion for Justice Sens removal.

The report of the three-member committee, placed in both Houses of Parliament, said Justice Sen was guilty of misbehaviour. The report said oral and documentary evidence had established that two separate accounts were opened by Justice Sen as receiver in his own name and Rs 33,22,800 were deposited between March 1993 and May 1995.

The motion for removal was moved in the Rajya Sabha and debated upon. On August 18, 2011, Rajya Sabha passed the motion for removal by overwhelming majority of 189 votes in favour and 17 against. Ahead of the motion for removal against him in the Lok Sabha in September 2011, he resigned. Later, Lok Sabha decided to drop the proceedings against him because he had resigned.

 Justice V Ramaswami, former chief justice of Punjab and Haryana court, judge in SC

Following media reports about his ostentatious expenditure on his official residence during his tenure as chief justice of Punjab and Haryana, the Supreme Court Bar Association passed a resolution calling for his removal. Bharatiya Janata Party and Left parties submitted a notice of motion to Parliament seeking his removal from office.

A committee found Ramaswami guilty of 11 out of 14 charges.

The removal motion was placed for debate and voting on May 10, 1993. Of the 401 members present that day, there were 196 votes for impeachment, no votes against and 205 abstentions by the ruling Congress and its allies. The motion which required not less than two-third majority of the total number of members present in both Houses of the Parliament and an absolute majority of its total membership thus failed to pass.

 Justice PD Dinakaran, former chief justice of Sikkim high court

Justice Dinakaran also faced a move to remove him. In September 2009, allegations were made against Dinakaran by several members of the Bar Council of India stating that he had huge assets and land in Tamil Nadu. They wrote a letter to then President Pratibha Patil, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union law minister to intervene in this matter.

The chairman of Rajya Sabha admitted a motion seeking his removal on charges of corruption and abuse of his judicial office. Facing removal, he resigned from the post of Sikkim high court chief justice on July 29, 2011 expressing lack of faith and confidence in the three-member inquiry Committee probing charges against him.

On August 4, 2011, Justice Dinakaran wrote to the law ministry seeking to withdraw his resignation. But the ministry rejected his request. However, his resignation did manage to scuttle the probe against him as the chairman of Rajya Sabha, Hamid Ansari, quietly buried the inquiry committee citing Dinakarans resignation in July.

(This story was first published in Hindustan Times on March 28)
Union Minister Ananth Kumar on Wednesday blamed Congress president Rahul Gandhi for the ongoing disruptions in Parliament, saying that the productivity of its two Houses had dipped after Gandhi took over as the party chief.

Claiming that Gandhi did not understand the nuances of legislative functioning, the Parliamentary Affairs minister said the Congress kept changing the goalposts.

Kumar also ruled out an early end to the ongoing budget session.

The government is not going to adjourn the House sine die before schedule. We always want to the run the House, he said.

Replying to questions on a no-confidence motion being planned by opposition parties, Kumar said the Modi government was ready for a discussion on it and face the motion.

Rahul Gandhi does not know parliamentary nuances and therefore the Congress, following the trail of other parties, gave a no-confidence motion, Kumar said, adding that the motion had been moved by the YSRCP and TDP much before the Congress had done so.

Accusing the opposition party of changing the goalposts, Kumar said the government had always been ready for discussions but it was the Congress which kept changing its demands for a debate in the House.

We are ready and waiting for discussions but every other day the Congress comes up with some new excuse to stall the proceedings of both the Houses courtesy its chief Rahul Gandhi. Since he became the party president, the productivity of both houses has gone down, Kumar told reporters here.

He added the motion was not taken up for consideration as the House was not in order and Congress workers were carrying placards.

Kumar said when Meira Kumar was speaker during UPA-2, she gave a ruling on 15 occasions that since the House was not in order because of disruptions, she was not in a position to bring a motion before it.

Earlier, speaking to reporters outside Parliament, Kumar said the people would give a befitting reply to the Congress for mocking the process of a no-confidence motion.

The minister claimed the opposition parties lacked the numbers to move the motion and wanted to show the people that they can achieve something without the numbers.

The people will give a befitting reply across the country, and also in Karnataka, for the way they have stalled the functioning of Parliament, created a ruckus and ridiculed the process of a no-confidence motion, he added.

The Rajya Sabha yesterday saw a unique protest by opposition parties with members continuing to be in their seats for over 30 minutes after Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu had called it a day and left the House.

The Lok Sabha, too, failed to take up notices for a no-confidence motion against the government after Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said the House was not in order and adjourned proceedings amid noisy protests over various issues.

In a novel way to convey they had the numbers to initiate a no-confidence motion, members of the Congress, the Left and some other parties displayed blue-coloured placards, each with a circled number -- from 1 to 80 -- along with the words For no-confidence.

At least 50 members are needed to support a no-confidence notice for the House to accept it and start a debate.
After around a week of parleys and speculations, incarcerated Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad on Wednesday left for New Delhi to undergo treatment at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), on the recommendation of a medical board set up for the 70-year-old ailing leader.

Prasad, along with some RJD members, boarded the AC first class bogie of Ranchi-New Delhi Rajdhani Express on Wednesday evening. Permission for shifting Prasad to AIIMS was issued to the jail superintendent on Tuesday night, said Harsh Mangla, inspector general (prisons). Jharkhand home secretary SKG Rahate, however, refused to say anything on the matter.

The former Bihar chief minister had earlier requested jail authorities to allow him fly to Delhi and also expressed willingness to pay for the air travel, but his plea was turned down.

Birsa Munda Jail superintendent Ashok Choudhary refused to comment on the issue. The RJD has slammed the government for its alleged apathetical approach towards Prasads health and accused it of deliberately causing trouble for him.

Since the beginning, government has been deliberately causing trouble for Laluji. What was the harm in allowing him to travel by air when he was willing to pay for it? said Annapurna Devi, Jharkhand RJD president.

Annapurna joined Prasad in the train at Koderma on Wednesday. Besides, senior RJD leader Bhola Prasad also accompanied Prasad to Delhi. He was taken from the VIP lounge of Ranchi railway platform to the train compartment on an e-rickshaw amid chants of Lalu Yadav Zindabad, by hundreds of RJD supporters who had gathered for a glimpse of their leader.

Prasad, who is serving jail term since December 23 last year after conviction in a fodder scam case, was admitted in the cardiology wing of Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), Ranchi, on March 17 evening after he complained of discomfort.

The RJD chief has a history of cardiac ailments. In August 2014, he underwent two major heart surgeries  one to replace an aortic valve and the other to repair the aorta  at Asian Heart Institute, Mumbai. He has since been under medication.

At RIMS, he underwent a surgery for perianal abscess and was under observation. He is stable now, said Dr RK Srivastava, director, RIMS. Prasad is likely to undergo treatment at AIIMS for about three months.
The Supreme Court dismissed a plea seeking re-investigation into the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi and also rejected the four-bullet theory propounded by the petitioner.

A bench of justices SA Bode and LN Rao also refused to go into the correctness of the findings of the Kapur Commission set up to inquire into the conspiracy behind the assassination, saying it would be another exercise in futility and would none the less pan new fires for controversy. This court must at all cost be wary of such contentious issues and must not allow its jurisdiction to be invoked for such purposes, the bench said.

The petition was filed by Mumbai-based Pankaj Phadnis, trustee of a Abhinav Bharat, who had questioned the three-bullet theory relied upon by various courts to convict and sentence Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte to death. Phadnis had said there was a need to examine whether there was a fourth bullet and whether someone other than Godse had fired it. Abhinav Bharat is a Hindu revivalist group inspired by Vinayak Savarkar who was named an accused in the assassination of Gandhi but was later acquitted.

Phadnis submitted that the Kapur Commission report brought disrepute to Savarkar and adverse remarks should be expunged.
There is a shortage of 274 pilots in the Army and the Navy, the government on Wednesday informed the Lok Sabha.

In a written response to a question, Subhash Bhamre, minister of state in the defence ministry, said the sanctioned strength of pilots in the Army is 794, while it has 192 vacant posts.

The Navy has a sanctioned strength of 735 pilot and has 82 vacant posts.

There is a marginal shortage of pilots in Indian Air Force against the authorised establishment. However, the available strength in the IAF is sufficient to meet the current operational requirements, he said.

On a question whether the Navy has decided to increase its watch over Indian Ocean, Bhamre said the geo-strategic importance of the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) has seen a gradual increase in the recent past.

The Indian Navy closely monitors the maritime areas if our interest and regularly deploys ships for Presence and Surveillance Missions (PSM), off critical choke points/ sea lanes in the IOR, he said.

In response to another question, Bhamre said the Navy does not undertake joint monitoring of the Indian Ocean in cooperation with other foreign countries.

Replying to another question, the minister said the government has identified 73 roads as strategic Indo-China Border Roads (ICBRs), out of which 34 roads are completed and in the remaining 39 ICBRs, work in progress.

He added that the government has taken measures to expedite the construction of border roads in the states of Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarkhand and has constituted an Empowered Committee to resolve the issues pertaining to BRO.

He added that 22,225.17 km road has been entrusted to the Border Roads Organisation, of which 7,122 km is in Jammu and Kashmir, 5,267 kms in Arunchal Pradesh.

In response to another question whether there has been an increase in Chinese transgressions over the last one year or so, Bhamre said there is no commonly delineated Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the border areas of between India and China.

There are areas along the LAC where both sides have differing perception of LAC. Due to this, both sides undertake patrolling up to their perception of the LAC and as a result transgressions do occur, he said.
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena on Wednesday reduced the responsibilities of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in the backdrop of the ongoing political turmoil in the country.

The unity government of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the United National Party (UNP) was thrown into a crisis after former president Mahinda Rajapaksas new party pulled off a stunning victory in local elections seen as a referendum on the ruling alliance.

Sirisena removed the control of Central Bank of Sri Lanka from Wickremesinghe in a further manifestation of the political crisis the unity government is currently faced with.

The Securities and Exchange Commission, which was also under the Prime Minister, has been brought under the Finance Ministry by Sirisena.

The changes, which sources said were against the wishes of the Prime Minister, were published in a gazette notification issued today.

The move came ahead of the next weeks no confidence motion against Wickremesinghe handed by the Joint Opposition of Rajapaksa. It is to be debated on April 4.

Wickremesinghes action to bring the Central Bank under his control was one of the main charges in the no confidence motion which alleges that it was a deliberate action to commit the fraud in the issues of Central Bank bonds in 2015.

Wickremesinghes handpicked governor of the Central Bank Arjuna Mahendrans son-in-laws firm was accused of committing a fraud in Bond deals.

Mahendran was sacked by Sirisena in 2016 and a Commission appointed had ruled that Mahendrans son-in-laws firm had made undue profits due to Mahendrans action of providing them with inside information.

Mahendran, a Singapore national, has been issued with an arrest warrant while his son-in-law and the CEO of the firm have been in custody since early February.

Rajapaksas new political party, Sri Lanka Peoples Party (SLPP), defeated Sirisenas SLFP and Wickremesinghes UNP, winning 225 councils or two-thirds of the 340 councils which went to polls in February.

After registering the landslide win, Rajapaksa was quick to demand a snap general election which is scheduled to be held after August 2020.

Since the defeat, Sirisena has been seeking the removal of Wickremesinghe as the prime minister, attempting to form his own SLFP government, analysts have said.

However, in the absence of required numbers, Sirisena has to accept Wickremesinghe, they said.

Wickremesinghe has said that the result of the local body polls was a wake up call for the government.
Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) President Lobsang Sangay on Wednesday said his government-in-exile doesnt want to cause inconvenience to host India.

Speaking on cancelling of events planned by his administration earlier in New Delhi to mark the beginning of the 60th year of the Dalai Lama stepping on India soil, he told reporters here: Whatever we do, we dont want to cause inconvenience to our hosts or to the persons who want to meet us.

They may have particular reasons as to why these coming months are sensitive. So, we completely understand and respect that. There is no disappointment at all but rather an understanding of the situation, he said.

Sangay was responding to a media query regarding a circular issued by the Indian government relating to the Thank You India events starting on March 31.

Without mincing words, he said the government and people of India have done the most for Tibet.

Every year, in all the formal and non-formal events, we Tibetans always say thank you India. I think its important that we also demonstrate our gratitude in deeds.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama calls himself a son of India. So, we should be saying thank you a lot. Moreover, our relationship with India is like parent and children. Therefore, we want to thank India, he said.

Amidst the recent tensions with China, the Indian government was reported to have cautioned its senior officials last month to stay away from events aimed at marking the start of the Dalai Lamas 60th year of exile.

After cancelling events in the national capital, the Tibetan government-in-exile will now start pan-India Thank You India programmes to mark the beginning of the 60th year of the Dalai Lama arriving in India.

The Dalai Lama escaped from Tibet to India in March 1959.

To mark the events, Sangay on Wednesday released a Thank you India music video, performed and produced by artistes of the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts, thanking India for its hospitality and assistance.

Sangay said the yearlong events lined up as part of the campaign include a mass tree plantation drive to support a green India movement, participating in Yoga Day events organised by the government of India, distribution of food to the hungry and homeless and a mass cleanliness drive to observe the Indian governments Swachh Bharat initiative.

Acknowledging the growing Chinese pressure on global leaders on the Tibet issue, Sangay said: Wherever I go, be it Europe, the US, the pressure is increasing.

The CTA is organising a public event here to officially launch the Thank You India campaign on March 31.

It will be one of the largest events ever organised by the Tibetans in Dharamsala and hundreds of guests are expected to attend, including Naren Das, a member of the first delegation that received the Dalai Lama when he first set foot on India.

Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama will attend the event.

The Dalai Lama, in an interview to CNN News18, has said he doesnt care about how Chinese pressure forced the cancellation of the events of the Tibetan government-in-exile in Delhi.

He said it was more about how you feel for Tibetans and how Tibetans feel for India.

The Tibetan administration in exile is based in the north Indian hill town of Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh.
An Uttarakhand court has convicted four people of murdering a Delhi couple in 2014, but they were acquitted of rape charges in the absence of evidence, government counsel Guruprasad Raturi said on Wednesday.

The additional sessions court of Vikasnagar, 40km from Dehradun, pronounced the judgment on Tuesday and the quantum of punishment will be announced this Friday.

Besides murder, the court held the four men guilty of hiding evidence and looting the couple  painter Abhijit Paul and his friend Momita Das, who were from Lado Sarai in New Delhi. They were murdered during a holiday in Dehradun districts Chakrata in October 2014.

According to the investigation, Abhijit and Momita, a fine arts teacher, rented a jeep on October 23 to travel to the scenic Tiger waterfall in the area. The driver, Raju Das, reportedly told the couple that three more passengers  identified as Kundan Das, Bablu Das and Guddu Das  would be travelling with them to a village near the spot.

On the way back from the waterfall, it was alleged that the four men overpowered Abhijit, tied him with a rope and raped Momita before murdering the couple and dumping bodies in the Yamuna, the police charge sheet says.

Momitas father lodged a complaint with Delhi police six days later and investigators traced her mobile phones location in Chakrata. A day later, Abhijits body was spotted on banks of the river.

A joint team of Delhi and Dehradun police arrested Raju on November 10, and he confessed to the crime, the charge sheet says. The other three were caught a day after. Three days later, Momitas decomposed body was found.

The crime sent shockwaves in the region and affected tourism, the peoples economic mainstay.

Government counsel Raturi said 43 people were made witness in the case initially and 20 of them recorded their statements.
The case of a Barmer woman, who went missing on March 16 and later the police found that she had converted to Islam and had married a Kashmiri man, took a new turn on Wednesday when her father alleged that she had been kidnapped from Ahmedabad.

In a press conference, the woman, Ritu Khandelwals father Ganesh Kumar said that she had neither converted nor married the Kashmiri man. We fear that shes been brainwashed and her life is in danger, he told reporters.

On March 16 this year, Ritu went missing from her home, and when her family registered a missing persons report, the police found that she was in Jammu and Kashmirs Kupwara district. The police claimed that the girl had converted to Islam in December last year and married a Kashmiri man, keeping her family in the dark.

The Barmer police said that they have received an order from the Jammu and Kashmir high court on March 22 to provide security to the couple so that no harm is caused to them. According to the Barmer police, the court had passed the order on February 20, but it reached Barmer on March 22.

Ritus father told reporters that she boarded a bus to Surat (Gujarat) on March 16 but she did not reach her destination.

He alleged that the documents produced in the Jammu and Kashmir high court have been forged using his daughters fake signatures. She took history exam on December 20 at Barmer College and has been at her aunts in Mumbai from December 26 to January 3, he said, adding that she couldnt have converted on December 27 and married on December 30 when she was in Mumbai.

The documents that the Barmer police received on March 22 showed that she had converted on December 27 and wed the Kashmiri man on December 30.

Ritus uncle Kundan said that he had gone to Kashmir with the Barmer police team and met the officials of the Kashmir police, who also expressed apprehension that the documents had been forged. He claimed that Ritus original documents are in Barmer.

The Barmer police said that the couple had approached the Jammu and Kashmir high court, seeking security from private respondents; the HC directed the police in Kashmir and Barmer to not act against them.
The Sirohi police in Rajasthan arrested five people, including the owner of a fuel pump, on Wednesday on charges of siphoning off diesel meant for the Indian Railways.

The police said that some more people are being questioned and more arrests could follow.

Sirohi superintendent of police Om Prakash said that they were receiving information about diesel theft from tankers meant for the railways diesel shed in Abu Road for last few months. We were keeping tabs on the diesel movement and were able to catch five of them red-handed on Wednesday while they were siphoning off diesel from a tanker meant for the railways, he said.

Janwari Lal Bishnoi and two of his associated were siphoning off diesel from a tanker at Baba Ramdev Petrol Pump in Abu Road area under Sadar police station when police arrested them, the SP said. Pump owner Hardik Patel has also been arrested.

Police said the racket took out 5,000 litres of diesel from the tankers carrying 25,000 litres of diesel from Jamnagar refinery in Gujarat to Essar depot in Sirohi. They would remove the seal, take out diesel and put some chemical that made discovery of theft difficult before sealing the tankers again, the police officer said.

Prakash said the initial investigation shows the racket was operating for four months and must have siphoned off thousands of litres of diesel. We suspect that the railway protection force and the railways staff at the diesel shed may be involved in the racket. We are interrogating some people and are likely to arrest some more, the police officer added.

Last year in July, the Barmer police had unearthed a criminal syndicate accused of smuggling more than 50 million litres of crude oil inside water tankers from Indias largest onshore oilfield in Barmer. The theft at the Cairn India oilfield went undetected for nearly six years until the police arrested 34 people involved in it.
The court of chief judicial magistrate in Jodhpur will announce its decision in the blackbuck case against Bollywood actor Salman Khan on April 5.

The actor is accused of poaching two blackbucks at Kankani village in Jodhpur during the shooting of film Hum Saath Saath Hain on the intervening night of October 1-2, 1998.

Saif Ali Khan, Sonali Bendre, Tabu and Neelam are other actors, besides a local resident, Dushyant Singh, who are accused in the case.

The actors are required to be present in the court at the time of judgment.

Arguments from both sides concluded on Wednesday. The Jodhpur Chief Judicial Magistrate Court on Wednesday under Jodhpur District Presiding Officer Dev Kumar Khatri issued the date for the decision in the 20-year-old case.

Khans counsel Hastimal Saraswat submitted a written argument seeking the Bollywood actors acquittal from the charges against him. Saraswat said the charges brought against Khan have not been proven during the trial proceedings, pointing out contradictions among statements of the prosecution witnesses.

The prosecution also concluded its arguments, pleading maximum punishment for the accused .

Three cases of poaching and one under the Arms Act were registered against Khan in Jodhpur in 1998.

The actor has been acquitted in the two chinkara poaching cases and the Arms Act case by the trial courts. The prosecution has appealed against the acquittals in higher courts. The appeals against the chinkara case are pending with the Supreme Court.
The Centre has sought a report from the West Bengal government on a communal flare-up that occurred during a Ram Navami procession in Raniganj, West Burdwan district, three days ago.

The query followed Prime Minister Narendra Modis telephonic conversation on the issue with Babul Supriyo, Asansol Lok Sabha MP and minister of state for heavy industries, on Wednesday morning.

A man was killed and several injured after the BJP-organised procession allegedly tried to enter a Muslim-dominated locality in Raniganj on March 25. Two others lost their lives in the following days. The district administration has imposed restrictions under Section 144 of the CrPC in the area, and deployed police as well as Rapid Action Force personnel to prevent further violence.

Supriyo said he has briefed Union home minister Rajnath Singh on the matter too. The Centre has offered to send additional forces, he told mediapersons.

The state government, however, accused the Asansol MP of painting an inaccurate scenario before the Centre. The state administration is handling the situation efficiently, said education minister Partha Chatterjee.

A senior bureaucrat in the Bengal government confirmed the receipt of the central query, but described it as a routine affair. The Union home ministry has sought a report from the state on the steps taken by the state administration in Raniganj. It also wants information on the action taken against those involved in the clashes, he said on the condition of anonymity.

Partha Chatterjee, Trinamool Congress secretary general and state education minister, downplayed the need for deployment of central forces. Its up to the chief minister to take a decision on the matter. We have handled difficult situations in the past too, he said.

Supriyo had earlier accused law-enforcement agencies of doing nothing when goons went on the rampage in his constituency. The most alarming fact is that the WB police remained inactive and far away from the spots. And, as the videos will prove, residents are alleging that police did not respond or take calls, he alleged on Twitter.

The Asansol MP also claimed on the micro-blogging site that dozens of goons from the minority community came in matadors and cars to vandalise and burn down shops. They pulled Hindus out of their houses and brutally assaulted them with sharp weapons, he added.

The Raniganj scenario

The situation in Raniganj remained tense for the second day despite an abatement of violence. Police continued to patrol largely deserted streets even as banks functioned through partially opened shutters. The situation is under control but we are not taking any chances, said Asansol-Durgapur police commissioner LN Meena.

A police team led by Kolkata additional commissioner Vineet Goyal is being dispatched to ensure peace in Asansol. It will also have three IPS officers.

While chief minister Mamata Banerjee maintains that saffron activists triggered violence in the state, BJP leaders have accused police of allowing people from the minority community to attack them.

Meanwhile, police arrested Sajal Mitra, town committee president of the Vishva Hindu Parishad, on charges of bearing arms during the event. Following that, members of his organisation met Bengal governor Kesari Nath Tripathi to hand over a memorandum demanding the release of saffron activists held by police, action against those guilty of perpetrating violence, and the provision of monetary aid to Hindu families that suffered losses, among other things.

In another development, Tripathi cancelled a plan to visit injured people admitted to the Durgapur hospital following a request from the authorities. I will interact with the state government separately, the governor told mediapersons later.
After drawing criticism from its minister and SBSP president Om Prakash Rajbhar, the Yogi Adityanath government is now under attack from BJP MP from Bahraich Savitri Bai Phule.

Though the BJP had been dealing with Rajbhars tirade for quite some time, Phules stance has caught the party unawares.

Both the minister and the party MP are planning to hold separate rallies in April.

The development comes at a time when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is gearing up to counter the growing Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party bonhomie in Uttar Pradesh.

Rajbhar has claimed that the backwards in the state are being neglected in the present regime. He has been blowing hot and cold against the Adityanath government of late.

Rajbhar is planning to hold a rally in Deoria on April 10, the day on which BJP chief Amit Shah is expected to be in Lucknow.

Rajbhars Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) in an ally of the BJP in Uttar Pradesh.

Phule has also planned a rally in the state capital on April 1 in which she admitted she would also criticise policies of the BJP governments both in UP and the centre.

She added that though she wasnt in touch with any political party, she wasnt averse to seeking support of anyone on the issues flagged by her.

I am open to seeking support on the issue from anyone though I am not in touch with any political party per se, she said. Political observers said the issue could provide fresh fodder to the opposition, chiefly the SP and the BSP, to target the Adityanath government.

An OBC minister and a woman Dalit MP questioning the BJP government isnt good news for the party just as before it plans to roll out a rural connect campaign targeting OBC and Dalit villages, said Irshad Ilmi, the editor of an Urdu daily.

Phule belongs to the Pasi caste that is considered the second most numerically significant Dalit sub-caste after the dominant Jatav, the subcaste to which BSP chief Mayawati belongs. She didnt name anyone in the party but said that some party leaders were conspiring to abolish quota.

At present there is 27% reservation for OBCs of which Yadavs, the OBC subcaste considered loyal to the Samajwadi Party, are the most dominant. There is 22.5% reservation for Scheduled Castes or Dalits. Jatavs, considered staunch backers of the BSP, are the most dominant of them all.

The BJP hasnt reacted to the party MPs surprising attack on her own party government, but some said her move could also be pressure tactic to ensure that the party again fields her in 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The BJP is in the process of reviewing performance of party MPs and many of them could be replaced or fielded from different constituencies on the basis of an internal assessment being carried out by the party, BJP leaders admit.

He also demanded quota within quota, an issue that chief minister Yogi Adityanath flagged in the state assembly a few days back. It was due to our efforts, Rajbhar said later. He also said poor were feeling left out in the present government as the police and officers werent listening to them.

Rajbhar said he planned to raise the issues flagged by him before Shah. Interestingly, two of the four SBSP lawmakers had cross voted against the BJP in the Fridays Rajya Sabha vote but Rajbhar chose to play down the issue.

We have sought an explanation from our MLAs and only after I receive it would I be able to say anything, he said.

Shah had inked a pact with the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party in the 2017 UP polls. The alliance helped BJP connect with OBCs in eastern UP where Rajbhars are spread evenly in several assembly segments.
Amid a walkout by the opposition, the state legislative assembly passed the Uttar Pradesh Control of Organised Crime Bill (UPCOCB) on Tuesday for a second time. The bill aims to check organised crime and terror activities in the state and deal strictly with those trying to foment terror or dislodge the government forcibly or through violent means.

The UPCOCB had to be re-introduced in the assembly on Tuesday as it could not be passed in the Legislative Council, where the ruling BJP is in a minority, after being cleared by the Lower House earlier in December last year.

If the Legislative Council rejects the bill again or passes the bill with amendments not acceptable to the lower house or does not pass the bill within one month, then the bill will be deemed to have been passed by both the houses in the form in which it was passed by the lower house for the second time.

The proposed legislation is on the lines of Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).

Tabling the bill, chief minister Yogi Adityanath said there was a need for a stringent law to break the nexus of politicians, corrupt officers and the mafia.

He described as baseless the oppositions apprehension that the new law might be misused to settle political scores.

Enough measures had been taken to check abuse of the new law, he said. To prevent possible misuse of the law, the bill says UPCOCA can be slapped only after recommendation of commissioner or IG-rank officials.

Organised crime had emerged as a widespread and serious threat to the society, he said, adding crime had no national boundaries.

The bill proposes that properties amassed through organised crime will be taken over by the government with the permission of the court during the course of investigation. The property will be confiscated by the state government after conviction.

Kidnapping, illegal mining, manufacturing and sale of illicit liquor, acquiring contracts on the basis of muscle power, organised exploitation of forest produce, trade in wildlife and fake medicines, grabbing of government and private properties and extortion will come under the ambit of the new law.

It proposes to extend the period of filing charge sheets from 90 days to 180 days.

The state government will also establish a special force and UPCOCA courts to expedite hearing of cases filed under the provisions of the new law. The state home secretary will personally monitor cases lodged under UPCOCA.

The bill provides for minimum three years imprisonment to capital punishment. The provision of capital punishment will also extend to those involved in illicit liquor trade. The draft Bill also provides for fines ranging from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 25 lakh.

Although the then government had passed the Gangster Act in 1986, still a need was felt to implement UPCOCA as the existing legal framework, the penal and procedural laws and the adjudicatory system were found to be rather inadequate to control organised crime, he said.

For about a year, the state government had been working to create a safe atmosphere by launching a crackdown on criminals, he said. He highlighted the killing of criminals in encounters with the police as well as measures taken by the state government to strengthen the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) and the Special Task Force (STF).

Terming the UPCOCB draconian, leader of opposition Ram Govind Chaudhary said it will be misused to suppress the opposition and the press. If the law and order situation had improved within a year, why was the UPCOCB tabled in the assembly, he asked.

When the BSP government had tabled the bill, the then the BJP leaders had opposed it, he said.

Leader of BSP legislature party Lalji Verma said the UPCOCB was anti -people, anti-constitution and anti-press. Similar laws had failed to check organised crime in Maharashtra and Karnataka, he said.

Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Ajay Kumar Lallu said the bill should be again referred to the select committee, he said.

Speaker Hriday Narayan Dikshit said there was no need for fresh observation on the bill as the legislative council had not proposed an amendment.

Terming the bill as a black law, the BSP, SP and Congress MLAs staged a walkout even as chief minister tried to ally the apprehension of the opposition. The new law had been brought for the security of citizens, and not to suppress the opposition, he said.
Diwali gift goes down the drain by Holi.

That precisely summarises the fate of majority of pairs of shoes distributed among school kids of government-run primary and upper primary schools of Uttar Pradesh in November last year.

A reality check at a government-run primary school in Lucknows Jiamau area, at least suggests so.

They are in tatters. The sole has worn out and it is painful to come to school almost barefoot in this hot weather, said Rahul, a student of Class 2.

The same boy was super delighted when he got his first pair of black school shoes and socks along with several other children in November during Diwali.

Almost all 50 pairs of shoes that our school students got as special Diwali gift are in tatters. Many kids hold their shoes together with rubber bands, others with laces, admitted a teacher, not willing to be named for obvious reasons.

Officials, interestingly, are seized of the matter.

We have ordered all Basic Shiksha Adhikari (BSAs) to replace these worn shoes as there is a provision of a 12-month warranty. Since shoes were purchased in November, it can be replaced, said Sarvendra Vikram Bahadur Singh, director, basic education department.

To recall, soon after changing the colour of school uniform from khaki to pink and brown, the state government had announced to give a new pair of shoes and socks to all 1.54 crore students studying in primary and upper primary schools across the state.

Earlier in October, the state cabinet had approved the free distribution of shoes, socks and sweaters to students of classes 1 to 8.

A sum of Rs 266 crore was earmarked for distribution of shoes/socks to the about 1.54 crore students.

The cost of each pair of shoes was Rs 135.75 while socks came at Rs 21.85 a pair.

Bought on a shoe-string budget, many insist the shoes were of substandard quality.

My shoes now look more of a sandal as the upper part got partly damaged even before Holi, said Satish, A class 3 student.

It is better to come barefoot or in bathroom slippers than to come wearing these substandard shoes, he added.

Some students also complained that they could not wear the shoes as they were either bigger or smaller than their feet.
Shifting to a new city is never easy. It opens up a pandoras box of things to be managed at various levels, and requires extreme patience. Relocating doesnt stop at mere transportation and shifting of houses, but spans through buying furniture, getting connections such as Direct-to-Home (DTH), familiarisation of area for locally available home help services and basic amenities to make life easy. To avoid the hassle involved, here are five apps that one can explore:

1. UrbanClap

Finding services in a new city is a problem faced by many. Be it getting a plumbing job done, improving fitness through yoga, learning to play the guitar, or decorating ones home. UrbanClap delivers all reliable services at the push of a button. The app connects one with home cleaning, pest control, car washing, appliances repair, beauty experts for personal services and also the usual essential service providers like an electrician, plumber and carpenter.

2. ShiftKarado

ShiftKarado seeks to create a disruption through its transparent and real-time solutions for the inter and intra city relocation. The app gives customers the option of doing a site survey themselves over their laptop or mobile, reducing the overall time taken to zero in on a packer and mover, to approximately 20 minutes.

3. ePayLater

A lot of money is spent on movers and packers, new furniture, travel tickets, electrician, plumbers and so on. This could create a crunch for cash in hand. In such cases, one can log on to ePayLater, where they can buy things instantly and pay after 14 days.

4. AroundMe

AroundMe lets one quickly find out the nearby places and things at a new location. It identifies ones position and allows them to choose the nearest bank, bar, gas station, hospital, hotel, movie theatre, restaurant, supermarket, among other things.

5. NoBroker

NoBroker.com is a brokerage free real estate portal that connects customers directly with each other by eliminating the middleman. The platform has made renting out a flat, apartment, house, home and flat-mate without a broker so much easier. Moreover, owners of flats and tenants looking for flats can talk directly, thereby saving brokerage cost.

Follow @htlifeandstyle for more
President of Mumbais Congress unit Sanjay Nirupam has claimed that an average of 18,591 cups of tea is served in the Maharashtra Chief Ministers (CM) office daily, amounting to a cost of over Rs3.4 crore in the year 2017-18.

In what is being labelled a tea scam, Nirupam has alleged a 577 per cent increase in the money spent on the tea served at the CMs office from 2015-16 to 2017-18.

Providing the relevant right to information (RTI) documents, Nirupam alleged that the amount spent on tea has risen from nearly Rs58 lakhs in 2015-16 and Rs1.2 crore in 2016-17 to Rs3.4 crores in 2017-18.

He said, All these years, I have heard of green tea and yellow tea, but this seems to be some kind of golden tea. How much and what kind of tea is Devendra Fadnavis drinking? When farmers are dying in Maharashtra, the expense on tea in this government is unprecedented.

Nirupam went on to take a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well.

Alleging corruption in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, Nirupam said, The Prime Minister takes pride in saying that he was a chaiwala (tea seller). Devendra Fadnavis has taken this a bit too far since the tea he is drinking cannot be sold at a regular tea stall.

Last week, a rat scam rattled the Maharashtra government, when the opposition accused it of inflating figures of rat killings. On Thursday, former revenue minister and senior BJP leader Eknath Khadse, ad alleged a scam over the claim that an agency appointed to kill rats at the Mantralaya killed 3.19 lakh rats at the headquarters in one week.
The CBI is making all efforts to establish the identity of Farooq Mansoor alias Farooq Takla, who was arrested earlier this month in connection with the 1993 serial blasts case.

Takla was produced before special TADA judge Govind Sanap on Wednesday afternoon. CBI counsel Deepak Salvi sought for extension of his custody to ascertain Taklas role.

The agency claimed that previously convicted accused Hanif Usman Shaikh, Ibrahim Shaikh Husain and Shaikh Usman Khan were called by the agency to join the investigation against Takla.

The trio was convicted by the TADA court in connection with 1993 blast and were sentenced to six years jail. They were sent to Pakistan for training and had named Takla and his brother Mohmad Ahmad Mansoor in their confession statement. Ahmad was acquitted by the TADA court.

The CBI had called the three accused to help the agency to identify Takla. However, the agency claimed the three men have not cooperated. The trio had also moved a plea against agency on Monday claiming that CBI was coercing them.

Taklas lawyers claimed that the method adopted by the agency is illegal. The lawyers contended that the agency cannot make these convicts, witness against Takla. The judge rejected the contention claiming that the agency should be given opportunity to investigate the case.

This is not the stage where the court would direct the agency on what evidence to collect and what to omit. This is also not the stage where the court would decide on legality of the evidence so collected by the agency, the special judge observed while extending his custody to the CBI till April 9.

Meanwhile, the agency further claimed that Takla had evaded the arrest for many years by assuming different identities under the name of Mustak Mohmmad Miya and also got a fake passport issued on the same name. It is alleged that Takla had forged the documents and obtained the said passport, while the record at the passport office has different details about Mustak.

The agency further claimed that when they investigated with the Regional Passport office, Mumbai, it was revealed that the passport was fabricated. The photograph on the copy of the Index card of the passport office was identified as Mustak Ahmed Faki Mahmood Khatib by his wife Rabia.
At least 1,000 supporters of right-wing Hindutva leader Sambhaji Bhide, who was accused of instigating violence at Bhima-Koregaon in Pune in January this year, gathered at Mumbais Azad Maidan on Wednesday morning to protest against demands for his arrest, a day after Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis gave a clean chit to Bhide.

Earlier, the protest had been planned as a march from Byculla zoo up to Azad Maidan, but the plan changed after Shivpratishthan Hindustan, the organisation behind the rally, was denied police permission for the march.

Bharat Mali, a member of Shivpratishthan Hindustan, said: We wrote to the police asking for permission and have obliged to their request to not hold a march for reasons of law and order.

While sources estimated the crowd to be around 1,000 people, organisers said 3,000 supporters have turned up.

Prakash Ambedkar, president of Bharip Bahujan Mahasangh and Babasaheb Ambedkars grandson, has been demanding Bhides arrest since the Bhima Koregaon violence. On Monday, the Dalit leader held a march in Mumbai, protesting against the governments failure to arrest Bhide.

Bhide had been accused of instigating violence against the Dalit community, which led to clashes at Bhima Koregaon in Pune district, and then spread to Mumbai and other cities in Maharashtra. Two days after the incident, the Pimpri Chinchwad police had registered an FIR against Bhide and Milind Ekbote of Hindu Ekta Aghadi for inciting violence.

On Tuesday, Fadnavis told the state Assembly that investigating agencies had not found any direct evidence of Bhides involvement and that he had no contact with the people involved in the violence.
Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, who was scheduled to meet chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday evening, was made to wait for over two hours before the meeting was called off.

According to Sena leaders, Thackeray was a slated to meet Fadnavis at 5pm, but the Sena chief had to wait as Fadnavis was tied up in Vidhan Bhavan.

Fadnavis later said in a press conference that he could not meet Thackeray as his reply in lower house went on for long. We had decided to meet at 6pm, but my reply to major debate went on till 7pm. I have spoken to Uddhav and have promised to meet tomorrow or day after. Uddhav wanted to hand over letters by the Sena legislators. Uddhavji has been convinced about the difficulty and there was nothing to be read out of it.

Sena chief and Sena legislators were to meet CM over the disbursal of MLA funds. However, the CM called Thackeray later and the two leaders spoke on the issue.

Sena leaders alleged after the party passed a resolution in January to go solo for the next Assembly and general elections in 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party leaders did not want Sena MLAs to be seen as carrying out development work in their respective constituencies. Senas strength in the Assembly is 63 legislators.

According to Sena leaders, Thackeray was waiting at Sena party office Shivalaya for over two hours. Fadnavis finished his speech in the lower house at 7.30pm and then he called Thackeray, Sena leaders said. A leader close to Thackeray added that CM spoke to Thackeray twice after he got out not the lower house.

Fadnavis promised Thackeray that the funds of the Sena legislators will be released soon. The CM was busy as he had to give his reply in both the Houses. Hence, Uddhav ji decided to speak to him (Fadnavis) over the phone on the topic. CM has assured Uddhav ji that he will look into the demands of the legislators and disburse funds soon, a senior Sena leader who was privy to the discussion said.

Another Sena leader dismissed reports that the CM snubbed Thackeray. He (Fadnavis) expressed regret that the scheduled meeting had to be cancelled. CM was busy as he had to give reply in both the Houses. He has assured Uddhav ji that a meeting will be scheduled again to discuss the issue further. It should not be viewed in a negative light, the leader added.
Raking up the alleged rat scam in the state administrative headquarters  Mantralaya, the opposition has asked the state government to disclose the number of rats actually killed in the headquarters building after using 3.19 lakh anti-rodent tablets.

Senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) legislator Jayant Patil raised the issue while participating in a debate over corruption in the state assembly on Tuesday. He also questioned the governments claims that 3.19 lakh zinc phosphide tablets were used to kill rats.

Former revenue minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Eknath Khadse had rocked the state assembly last week by alleging that the government killed 3.19 lakh rats at its administrative headquarters in just seven days.

The ruling party then ridiculed him saying Khadse mistook the number of anti-rodent tablets for rats.

Strangely, not a single Mantralaya employee saw a dead rat or encountered stench of dead rats in the premises despite more than 3 lakh zinc phosphide (anti-rodent) tablets being used, Patil said raising questions over the claims.

Moreover, no boards were put up to inform employees to not touch these tablets, which are extremely poisonous, he added.

Indicating that it as a scam, Patil further asked the state government to inform the lower house that the bill was paid to whom and in which bank account as Amol Shedge, owner of the firm Vinayak Mazoor Sahakari Sanstha, who was awarded the contract to kill rats, had passed away in 2008.

Earlier, the state government had said the payment made to the private agency was for the 3.19 lakh anti-rodent tablets at a rate of Rs1.50 for each tablet. It said that the reply to the query raised under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, too, had clarified this.

Khadse had referred to the RTI information for indirectly alleging a scam in the state secretariat by general administration department (GAD) headed by the chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.
The Talasari police on Tuesday arrested a 30-year-old man for allegedly killing a 60-year-old woman for refusing sex.

According to the police, the incident took place on Monday night when the accused, Laxman Kharpade, 30, was returning from a function at Govarshetpada in Talasari, Palghar district. On the way, Kharpade, who was drunk, saw the woman, Lakmi Dhondade sleeping on the verandah of a Zilla Parishad school.

The accused demanded sex, but the woman said she was like his mother and scolded him, said a Talasari police officer, requesting anonymity.

Angry, Kharpade took out his leather belt and hit her. As she didnt heed to his demand, he picked up a boulder and smashed her to death. She died. He then disposed of the body in a desolate spot and tried to flee, but locals caught him and handed him over to us, the officer added.

Kharpade has been arrested under section 302 (murder) of the IPC. The boulder has been sent for forensic analysis. We are awaiting the post-mortem report, said the official.
A father-son builder duo were booked for allegedly cheating four people of Rs1.8 crore by promising them flats in privately redeveloped buildings in Mumbai.

Incidentally, earlier in March, the duo was arrested by the Andheri police in a similar cheating case and have two more FIRs against them at Worli police station and Vanrai police station.

According to the Dindoshi police, since October 2012, the accused  Chintan Zaveri, 41, and his father Arun Zaveri, 73  collected money from four buyers by promising them flats in privately redeveloped properties in areas like Jogeshwari, Goregaon and Andheri within two to three years.

The duo ran Ashana Constructions and collected money at their office in Karishma Plaza on Pushpa Park Road in Malad (East). As more time passed by, the flat buyers confronted them and found that they had sold the redevelopment rights to some other builder.

They then approached the Dindoshi police where an FIR was filed for cheating and criminal breach of trust under the IPC by Jayesh Parekh, 62. The other three victims were made witnesses.

Cops said the duo preferred people who paid in cash and gave them receipts, agreements and security cum allotment letters.
The Bombay high court on Monday granted bail to a Jogeshwari (East) resident who allegedly smuggled two minor children  a boy and a girl  to the US, using Indian passports of her children.

The Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) police booked Nirmal Azar Qureshi last year under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) after receiving information from the US consulate in Mumbai complaining that she was purportedly hired to smuggle two unknown children using Indian passports of her own children containing valid US visas.

In March 2016, she had applied for US visa for herself and her children and had submitted her passport along with theirs. She took advantage of the US consulates policy of not requiring minor children to present themselves before the staff for a visa interview.

After grant of visa, she travelled to US in January 2017 along with two minor children.

Subsequently, a study of the US border-crossing showed that she had entered Orlando with two minor children, but returned back alone  purportedly after dropping the unknown children to their parents  who, too, were residing in the US as illegal migrants.

Investigations by local police supported the US consulates claim.

Justice Revati Mohite-Dere of the high court granted bail to Qureshi primarily in view of the fact that she has been behind bars since June 2017, when she was arrested by the BKC police and now the investigation is complete and a charge sheet has been filed against her.

The judge ordered to release her on a personal bond of Rs50,000 and one or two solvent sureties of the same amount.

Besides, she has also been restrained from leaving Mumbai without prior permission of the trial court and has been asked to present herself to the investigating officer first Sunday of every month.
Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday gave a clean chit to state industries minister Subhash Desai, accused of impropriety in a case involving a plot in Nashik. Fadnavis said the committee constituted to look into the allegations against Desai of graft.

Fadnavis also gave clean chits to state cooperation minister Subhash Deshmukh, labour minister Sambhajirao Nilangekar Patil and tourism minister Jaykumar Rawal, while replying to a debate on corruption in the Assembly.

Desai, a Shiv Sena leader, has been accused of denotifying 16,909 hectares belonging to the MIDC in Nashiks Igatpuri to allegedly favour a private development. Sources said Desai also ignored the opinion of the industries department against denotifying the Nashik plot. Following uproar from the Opposition, the state formed a committee headed by retired IAS officer KP Bakshi to look into the allegations.

The CM had later expanded the scope of probe, asking the committee to even look into denotification of lands acquired by MIDC during the Congress-NCP government. The committee, which was formed in August last year, submitted its report to the chief minister on March 21.

While the CM gave a clean chit, the report has found that in the past 15 years (between 2002 and 2017), there were 160 cases in which plots acquired for industrial use were denotified for various reasons. It is learnt that of the total 160 cases of denotification, former revenue minister Narayan Rane has denotified a maximum, around 50-55 plots, during his stint as the industries minister from 2009 to 2014. Desai has denotified second highest number of plots (around 40-45) during his four-year stint.

The committee found violation of rule 30 of the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) Rules, 1962 , which restrict the government from initiating the process of denotification of the land 10 years after notifying, in most cases. It means the government cannot denotify the plot after completion of 10 years.

The committee has recommended the decision on use of the plot be taken within 15 years from the date it was acquired, failing which the land be denotified and returned to the farmers. However, the government can issue another notification to extend the time frame for 15 years, sources revealed.

The cooperation minister was accused of constructing bungalow on a plot reserved for fire brigade, labour minister has been named by CBI as an accused in a loan default case where he was a guarantor and tourism minister was accused of conflict of interest for being director in a firm involved in tourism business  Toranmal Hill Resorts Private Limited (THRPL).

The CM said the residence of the cooperation minister was regularised in 2006. However, the local body has not updated its land records which led to the controversy. Nilangekar-Patil had nothing to do with the loan amount which was already settled as per the healthier One-Time Settlement (OTS) scheme of Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The minister was just a guarantor in the case. There is no proof that Rawal is anyway related to the THRPL firm.
Mumbai is turning into an unsafe city for women and children with every passing year. New data, fresh interpretations of data, anecdotal experiences, all point to how the city is no longer as safe as it used to be. This begs the question: What should be done to specifically prevent crimes against women and children?

Before that, lets look at the larger framework of crime and the city. Mumbais crime rate marginally dipped in the last three years, from 362 cases per one lakh people to about 321, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report last year. Violent crimes like murders, kidnappings, petty crimes like chain-snatching were, thankfully, on the downswing. Mumbai was placed third behind Delhi and Chennai in the total crimes reported but adjust this for population, thats crime rate per lakh of people, and the city ranked a more reassuring 15.

But the opposite has happened in crimes against women; the graph has been moving up. The crime rate for assault on women was 25.6 per lakh people compared to the average of 19.3 for metro cities, in the NCRB report.

Now, data from Mumbai Police shows that the number of reported rape cases doubled in the last five years and the number of molestation cases rose a staggering 165% in the same time. The rape cases went from 294 in 2012-13 to 576 in 2016-17; molestation cases rose from 793 to 1,209 in these years. This data accessed and analysed by Praja, the policy-advocacy think-tank, significantly adds to our understanding of the issue.

The time-analysis is important. It shows a clear trend and has revealed more than the year-on-year data put out by the Mumbai Police. It has other revelations too: more than 40 serious crimes were reported every day; the suburbs of Bandra, Kurla, and Vile Parle had the highest number of registered crimes; seven out of ten sexual assault victims were minor girls; the police took an average of 11 months instead of the mandated three to file charge-sheets; and the conviction rate for serious crimes was only 23%. But the enormous rise in the reported cases of rape and molestation is most disturbing.

An explanation for the upsurge forwarded by the police as well as some womens groups is increased reporting of these crimes. More women are going to the police and reporting violations, more women are being encouraged to do so, they say. This, they trace back to increased awareness and heightened sensitivities in society as a result of campaigns and programmes targeted at women and police officials.

This is, indeed, correct but it does not fully explain the massive rise. After discounting for increased reporting, it points to the unattractive truth: Mumbai has slowly but surely turned unsafe, even risky, for women and children. More women are at risk than ever before, more children too.

And this has a great deal to do with poor conviction rates in crimes against women. Save one Shakti Mills rape case, most rape and molestation cases drag on in the courts for years and usually end in acquittals. Convictions in rape cases have been a mere 18%, much lower than convictions in other serious crimes, the analysis shows. From delays in investigation to lack of evidence and witnesses, the reasons are many.

All these point to a crucial link in making Mumbai safer for women: The broken criminal justice system. Till this is set right, till police reforms are introduced across the board, till the prosecution approaches these cases with urgency and sensitivity, the situation is not likely to change. While preventive programmes, technological solutions like CCTVs, urban design and planning are important, a determined and efficient police force and a dedicated prosecution system are critical factors in making Mumbai safer. There are no substitutes for these. Chief Minister and home minister Devendra Fadnavis, please take note.
Its opening has been eagerly awaited in Mumbai, and this weekend, Indian fans of the Soho House brand can take heart that there is some positive activity towards its launch: the likes of Prasoon Joshi, Karan Johar and Siddharth Roy Kapur joined Narendra Kumar Ahmed and Cecilia Oldne at what appears to be its first pre-launch party on site in Juhu. As is known, the Soho House marque was launched in Londons Soho district in 1995 as a private members club for those in the arts, fashion and media industries, by British entrepreneur Nick Jones (its now been acquired by US billionaire Ron Burkle and operates more than 18 clubs around the world).

Membership is a strictly held affair, with new members requiring an introduction by two previous members and a stated bias towards hipness and cool, over bottom line and material success. Going by its previous record, there is every chance the clubs advent in Mumbai will be a game changer and that much of the social action will shift to Juhu once it opens its doors. Soho Club Mumbai will be the first of the brands roll out in Asia and the fact that its opening has taken more than four years to fructify speaks of the importance it holds in the groups scheme of things. Neither is its location in a standalone, sea-facing multi-storey block in Juhu, a coincidence. The suburb lies at the heart of the citys showbiz community, not too far either from Bandra and BKC, the other the hotspots for the citys well-heeled.

A few months ago, we had visited Soho House, Istanbul, housed in the former headquarters of the American ambassador to Turkey, which displayed the brands trademark hipness. In Mumbai, people as diverse as restaurateur AD Singh and actress Alia Bhatt are said to have been roped in to curate its all-important membership list.

Just one thing though: at Istanbuls Soho House, we recall being informed that members and guests were expected to desist from taking pictures while inside its premises, to insure their privacy.

Will our trigger-happy, selfie-obsessed, local celebrities be able to comply? The mind boggles.

SECRET DIARY OF:

Shahnawaz Hussain, BJP leader

March 23, 2018

Dear diary,

I am in a particularly upbeat mood today and deservedly so: As you might recall, around this time a few years ago, I had found myself in an embarrassing spot, when I had, (out of the goodness of my heart) tweeted a warm, respectful greeting to all my Christian brothers and sisters on the occasion of Good Friday. Warm Greetings on #GoodFriday to all of you!  I had posted on the micro-blogging site.

Well, that did not gone down well and I had received a fair share of criticism for my efforts. Somebody plz tell him what does #GoodFriday means, tweeted one Dr Jitendra Awhad. Wonder how Christians like me r feeling after this tweet, tweeted one Abraham Jacob. As you can understand, this was very disheartening and had left me feeling quite dejected. But being someone who never holds grudges, I have decided I will not let this small hiccup come in the way of my reaching out to my dear brothers and sisters in the Christian community. So this year, dear diary, I am going to greet them with a more appropriate message for the occasion. #HappyBadFriday I plan to tweet this Friday.

That should set things right Im sure!

CULTURAL CATALYST

Malvika Singh

Delhi and Rajasthans chief cultural provocateur Malvika Singh will be making a sortie into Mumbai next week for a discussion around art revivalist Pooja Singhals Pichwai exhibition, which takes over most of Famous Studios next week. Singh, who in the past four years, has created a staggering amount of cultural centres. including Delhis Bikaner House, one of the Capitals most vibrant cultural spaces, and the Museum of Legacies in the Old City of Jaipur, along with tribute sari exhibitions to the likes of Indira Gandhi, admits the culture-vulturing has proven to be too hectic and she needs a break. So Ive decided to enjoy myself and party every night, says the unabashed extrovert, whose Sujan Singh Park home is one of the great salons of the city, featuring an array of ministers, artists and intellectuals.

A portrait of Frida Kahlo by a young artist from Kolkata.

What cultural institutions is she looking forward to visit in Mumbai? Not too many, she says, I think the Zaveri sisters are doing good work with their art gallery, and Maithli Ahluwalia has great taste in the fashion sphere, but other well-known museums and galleries are pretty shabby.

Meanwhile, theres a host of things to pursue once shes ready to resume role of cultural czarina, especially the work of a young artist of the Kalighat school, discovered by a friend in the gallis of Kolkata, who paints portraits of Frida Kahlo. I want to expose his work to the world, she says. Nice!
A 42-year-old businessman lost part of his thumb after his cousin fired at him from a country-made pistol over a business rivalry in Malad (East) on Wednesday afternoon. The victim and his two employees overpowered the 51-year-old gunman, who was arrested.

According to the Kurar police, the incident took place at Raj Electrical shop at Pimparipada in Kurar village.

The victim, Rajkumar Jaiswal, 42, and his cousin Jaiprakash Jaiswal had a family business of water pumps and other materials. Owing to a monetary dispute in 1998, they parted ways. Jaiprakash was left sore as he thought that Rajkumar took the lions share of the business,said the police.

Rajkumar alleged that his elder brother was killed at the behest of Jaiprakash.

Jaiprakash had threatened to harm Rajkumar multiple times, which led to a non-cognisable complaint in 2012. Jaiprakash on Wednesday carried a chopper, a pistol, a magazine, a few bullets and a kerosene bottle in a bag to Rajkumars electronics shop. At the time, one employee was seated in the shop, while Rajkumar was in his cabin with another employee Rakesh Chouhan, 23.

Rajkumar told HT, From the window of my cabin, I saw Rajkumar barging in the shop. I tried to shut the door on him. In the din, he shot at me on the hand,

I lost the upper part of my thumb. When he was reloading the firearm, Rakesh caught him and started beating him up. Rakesh called two more men and we managed to disarm him, added Rajkumar.

The police have collected CCTV footage. Rajkumar said owing to a business related dispute in 2004, his elder brother Ratnesh was murdered on the orders of Jaiprakash in Pratapgarh in Uttar Pradesh. Jaiprakash and his brother-in-law were arrested in the case. Vinay Rathod, DCP (zone XII), said, We have registered an attempt to murder case. The incident took place over business rivalry.
Officials of a church at Vidyavihar have complained about the municipal corporations work on a private road leading to the adjacent cemetery. Officials alleged that the work is being carried out without their permission.

Our Lady of Fatima Church, which is managed by priests from Capuchin Friars Minor (Bom.) Society, a Roman Catholic order, said the property belongs to the church.

We are not against redevelopment. If the road is being made better for the convenience of devotees and those staying around, we would be more than happy. But Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) started construction without following the procedure, which is why we have written to them, said Fr Philip Gonsavles, president, Capuchin Friars Minor (Bom.) Society.

Gonsavles added there was no formal communication from the civic body the work started last week. The church received a letter on March 24, intimating that the work order for the road was given to a contractor following which Gonsavles wrote to the deputy chief engineer (Roads) raising his objection to the project.

We do not know under what provisions the work is being done. Also, we have not been informed what would the status of ownership be after the work is completed, which is why we have expressed concern Gonsavles said.

The 100-metre by-lane leading to the cemetery is not metalled and is used by three housing societies to access their main gates. The narrow lane also acts as a parking area for the residents of these buildings and autorickshaws.

N-ward officials said although the road belonged to a private entity, it was categorised under 63 (K) of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation (MMC ) Act. Such roads are defined as smaller roads owned by individual entities, leading to a street, used by the public.

It is our responsibility to maintain the road, which is why we redevelop such roads regularly and provide amenities such as street lights. In this case, the ownership wont change after the work is completed, said a ward official.
The state government on Tuesday announced the suspension of an assistant municipal commissioner and other designated officers of the C ward, which covers Mohammed Ali Road, Pydhonie and Kalbadevi, holding them responsible for the illegal construction in the ward. Legislators also alleged the involvement of anti-social elements, including that of the Dawood Ibrahim gang, in the illegal construction. They alleged there is a nexus between the underworld and civic officials in the construction of illegal buildings in the area.

Responding to a question raised by Sharad Sonavane of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), minister of state for home, Ranjit Patil said that holding them responsible for the illegal construction in the ward, the assistant municipal commissioner Jeevak Ghedamal of C ward, designated officers and beat officers would be suspended with immediate effect.

Jeevak Ghedamal, assistant municipal commissioner of C Ward, said, I have not received any intimation about the suspension as yet.

BJP legislators Raj Purohit and Ashish Shelar said in the House that the ward has at least 200 illegal buildings. Shelar said anti-social and underworld elements including the Dawood gang are involved in the constructions. He said that officials from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) are in an unholy nexus with the underworld. Shelar said local legislator Raj Purohits life had been threatened for raising the issue in the legislature.

BJP legislator Parag Alvani said BMC officials do not take action even after court directives under section 354 (A) of the Mumbai Municipal Act, which necessitates immediate action.

BJP legislator Yogesh Sagar said there are five IAS officers at the helm of the civic administration, but no accountability has been fixed as far as the illegal constructions are concerned.

The Nationalist Congress Partys group leader Jayant Patil demanded to hold the municipal commissioner responsible for the illegal construction . I had given a list of ongoing illegal constructions with the evidence of photographs attached to the chief minister a few days ago. He directed the commissioner to take action but nothing has been done so far, he said.

Sonawane had raised the issue of the illegal construction of a nine-storey building on Ismail Karte Road in Pydhonie. He said that despite directives from the Mhada, the ward officer failed to take action. In his reply, chief minister Fadnavis said the civil court has directed on March 3, 2018 to take action against the construction if found illegal.
The Mumbai crime branch has seized two high-end vehicles, including a Mercedes Benz, from an Andheri-based businessman arrested in a rape and cheating case registered by a 67-year-old veteran Bollywood actress.

In her complaint, the actress alleged that the accused took a total of Rs15.4 crore from her under the pretext of buying four flats for her in Mumbai and that the businessman raped her between 2011 and 2015, said a police official connected with the investigation. The FIR was registered on March 22 with Juhu police station, based on the rape complaint.

Police officials said the actress sold her mothers house at Nepean Sea Road and gave the accused Rs8 crore. To gain her trust, the accused gave her forged letters for two Mhada flats and an agreement for a flat in Santacruz.

The police on Tuesday said they had recovered two high-end vehicles that the accused is said to have bought from a Nashik-based person, though it is not registered in his name.

We are also trying to recover the actress gold, which the accused mortgaged with a jeweller four years ago. The actress was aware of the mortgage, said crime branch official, requesting anonymity.

Police officials have seized around 20 debit and credit cards from the accused and have intimated the concerned banks to determine where he parked the money he took from the actress.

Earlier, in January, the actress had filed a stalking and molestation case against the accused, after which he was arrested by the Juhu police. The accused was arrested for the second time in March under charges of rape, cheating and forgery.

The accused is a sweet-talker and has cheated a few other women earlier, too, the police said.
The Tulinj police arrested a 22-year-old woman late on Tuesday for the murder of a five-year-old girl from Nallasopara, whom she lured with chocolates, kidnapped and strangled to death in a womens toilet at Navsari railway station in Gujarat.

The accused has been identified as Anita Waghela, a resident of the same residential complex where five-year-old Anjali Saroj lived with her parents. Manjunath Singe, superintendent of police, Palghar, said the accused had been involved with the childs father Santosh Saroj, who is an auto driver, and had killed his daughter as revenge after the relationship failed.

Waghela wanted Santosh to divorce his wife so they could get married, but he kept making excuses and then he refused. She had been physically involved with him and had undergone abortion twice. She was furious with Santosh for using her, said a police official, who did not wish to be named.

To teach Santosh a lesson, the accused kidnapped Anjali on Saturday while she was playing with friends in the building. The child knew her, so she went with her easily. Waghela took her almost 200km away, to Navsari, where she killed her, the official said.

The childs body was found on Sunday, a day after she was abducted, by women passengers at Navsari who wanted to use the washroom.

After the murder, Waghela took a shuttle train and came back to Nallasopara where she joined in the search for the girl, the official said.

The Tulinj police, who are investigating the case, got suspicious at her distress, and her over-enthusiastic and over-helpful behaviour, and questioned her. When she was grilled, she confessed. We have arrested her for kidnapping and murder and will produce her before Vasai court on Wednesday afternoon, the official said.
After opposing the Maharashtra governments ban on several plastic items, the All India Plastic Manufacturers Association (AIPMA) is preparing to challenge the ban in the court of law. AIPMA has termed the ban as impractical and unrealistic, and claimed that it is not the solution to the problem of pollution.

While imposing the ban on plastic and thermocol items, the state government for the first time also banned their manufacture, which according to AIPMA will impact the industry drastically.

AIPMA has demanded a detailed environment impact assessment (EIA) study to ascertain the impact of plastic and other alternatives on the environment. The study will clarify the real environmental impact of plastic as well as those materials suggested as alternatives to plastic, said Hiten Bheda, president AIPMA.

It will give a scientific basis to the argument that plastic does not harm the environment when handled responsibly, and serves as the best alternative to paper, glass, cloth and metal, Bheda added.

We have been trying to persuade the government that the ban is not the only solution to environmental issues. The basic issue is littering and collection of plastic items, which can be sorted out through a joint effort by all stakeholders. We will now wait for a few days in the hope that the government will make changes in the notification, failing which we will be left with no choice but to challenge the ban in court, Bheda said.

Jayesh Rambhia, ex-president AIPMA said littering is the main problem in the environment, which cannot be overcome without the support of the government. You cannot punish the entire industry for the fault of a few people who were manufacturing banned plastic bags of less than 50 microns, Rambhia said.

According to the knowledge paper released by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), the plastic sector in Maharashtra is a vital sector for economic and industrial development accounts for around 35% of the state GDP. The annual turnover of plastic products is Rs50,000 crore. The ban would result in the shutting down of 2,150 units leading to a revenue loss of around Rs8,400 crore, AIPMA said.
In what appears to be a largesse, two public sector banks, Union Bank of India and Bank of Maharashtra settled a Non Performance Asset (NPA) loan account of Rs49.20 crore associated with states labour minister Sambhaji Patil Nilangekar at Rs25.50 crore.

When the settlement was finalised in February this year, the loan taken in 2009 had already been classified as a NPA. The one-time settlement was finalised at Rs25.50 crore by waiving interest and slashing Rs7.50 crore from the principal amount for both the banks. This was confirmed by the Bank of Maharashtra. The accumulated interest was in the range of Rs21.75 crore (together for both the banks) but this could not be confirmed from the banks.

The one-time settlement comes even as the CBI probe in the NPA loan case worth Rs 49.20 crore in 2014 had charged the minister and other directors of this firm with criminal conspiracy. The CBI charge sheet points to tampering of mortgage deed of land, offered as a collateral for the loan and substituting it with property of a smaller size and lesser value.

Victoria Agro Food Processing Private Limited, a company incorporated in 2008 to set up a grain based distillery, had taken a loan of Rs20 crore each from both these banks in 2009, to which Patil-Nilangekar was a guarantor. The grain distillery never took off. When the company was incorporated, the ministers sister and brother-in-law, Prajakta Marwah and Ashish Marwah were directors of this firm. The company stopped paying dues and interest back to the banks from 2011. In 2014 the banking securities and fraud cell of the CBI filed a case of criminal conspiracy against the company and also named Nilangekar in the charge sheet.

The Union Bank of Indias corporate communication department, in an emailed response, said : It is a fact that both our bank and Bank of Maharashtra sanctioned OTS in the account of Victoria Agro and Food Industries.. The factory is closed since July 2011 and the entire plant and machinery was gathering junk and deteriorating day by day. Even attempts made by the bank to dispose off secured assets through auction failed multiple times for want of bids.

Therefore in the changed circumstances, the lenders agreed to settle the account under OTS to recover maximum possible amount. The Bank followed set procedure as per RBI guidelines and board approved policy to settle the account.

Both the banks pointed out that this settlement will not have any bearing on the criminal case filed by the bank. Post-settlement, criminal case will not be withdrawn by Bank. All assistance required or called by the investigating agency or court to take the case to its logical conclusion will be promptly provided, said Union bank communication.

Bank of Maharashtras deputy general manager in Pune, N Waghchaure said, `The settlement decision was taken by the banks managing committee after following all legal procedures and RBI norms. The settlement was finalized at Rs25.50 crore for both the banks.

Sambhaji Patil Nilangekar said, The one-time settlement was done after following all RBI norms. I am not directly associated with this company, I was only a guarantor for the loan. The CMalso defended his minister in the Assembly, pointing out there was no favour or violation done in the OTS.
Ever wondered how traffic signals could ease traffic congestion in the city?

The Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) will soon synchronise the signal systems at prime junctions in the city with Google Maps sensors to intelligently manage traffic depending on the density of congestion.

With increasing urbanisation in Thane in the past decade, the traffic situation in the city has worsened, especially during peak hours.

In order to ease congestion, the municipal corporation has decided to implement a Rs2.82-crore Adaptive Traffic Management System that uses satellite sensors.

This concept was put forth in a discussion with the University of New South Wales, Australia. A TMC official said, As per the institute, the real time crowd-sourced data at the junctions will be available through Google Map. Based on the data, the signal system at the junction can be managed.

The university has signed a contract with the Ministry of Road, Transport and Highway, Government of India.

The signals in the city will be fitted with specific sensors. The traffic density, speed and time taken at each signal will be studied and entered in Google Maps, said the civic official.

Based on the crowd-sourced data, the system will do an intelligent analysis of signal timings. In case the traffic density at a particular signal is high while that of the next signal is low, the timing of both the signals can be managed accordingly to ease the congestion at both the points.

We have signed an agreement with Google on using the data mapped on its satellite imagery. Google is also planning to implement such a project for the first time and has chosen Thane from India for its pilot project, said civic commissioner Sanjeev Jaiswal while presenting the budget estimate last week.

Presently, the signals in the city operate in a relay as per predetermined timings, which have no connection with the density of traffic.

This leads to unnecessary delay even when there is a line of vehicles at the signal as the halt time does not change.

The new system will help change the timings of the signal as per the traffic density at given time on a real-time basis.

The Australian university has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Google and the TMC and is now planning to sign an MoU with this university to implement the project.

The data collected can also be used to implement other traffic management initiatives in the city in future.

It can also help to choose the best-suited traffic management system for a particular area.

PROJECTS TO KEEP TRAFFIC IN CHECK

SATIS: The TMC conducted a study of existing road networks, population and vehicular population in the city.

We realised that the traffic is heavily concentrated at few prime junctions, such as, Eastern Express Highway, Ghodbunder Road and Thane station area, which leads to traffic congestion in the entire city, said the civic official.

To ease the congestion we have come up with long term solutions as Station Area Traffic Improvement Scheme (SATIS) on the east and west side of the station platforms, grade separators and increasing the road network in the city, he added.

Traffic simulation survey: The TMC also conducted a traffic simulation survey three years ago at three major junctions  Teen Hath Naka, Nitin Company junction and Cadbury junction.

In the traffic simulation model, when the traffic data of a particular area is uploaded, the system gives solution to manage and monitor traffic in that area. The video data of any particular area, day and time can be fed in this base model to create a design of traffic management for that particular area.
The wait for the second arm of the skywalk in Kalyan (East) will get longer as the Kalyan- Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) will not be able to meet its March 31 deadline.

Last year, when one stretch of the skywalk connecting Siddharth Nagar in Kalyan (East) was open to the public, the civic body had said it would to stretch connecting Kolsewadi by March.

On Wednesday, the KDMC said it would not be able to complete the work because of shortage of funds. We cannot complete the work of the skywalk this month as we have not got funds from the MMRDA. The work is going on slowly, said Tarun Juneja, executive engineer, KDMC.

He said, The second arm will be completed in two months. The skywalk will be ready before monsoon.

Commuters alighting at Kalyan railway station are forced to take the narrow subways to go to Kolsewadi in Kalyan (East).

The Siddharth Nagar arm of the skywalk has helped curb trespassing the track meant for goods train.

It has been almost a year the first arm of the skywalk was opened. The civic body should have completed work of both the arms at the same time, said Vijay Mehta, 45 ,a commuters who walk to the Kalyan railway station from Kolsewadi daily crossing narrow subways.

The second arm will start from the foot overbridge at Kalyan station and end at Ganesh Mandir Chowk that leads to Kolsewadi in Kalyan (East).

Since the project started seven years ago, there has been delay in completing it. The civic body claimed there were hurdles from the railways and the MMRDA which caused the delay, said Sunil Mhatre, 45, a commuter who travels from Kalyan railway station to Thane daily.

Built by the KDMC, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) is funding the Rs35-crore project.

Started in 2011, the work was delayed as the civic body had missed several deadlines due to changes being made in the project plan of the skywalk.

An MMRDA official, requesting anonymity, said, We are working on allotting the remaining funds to the civic body for the project.
Learning its lesson from the Kamala Mills fire that claimed 14 lives, the state government tabled a bill in the legislative Assembly on Tuesday to ban hookah bars in the state. The amendment proposed in the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA) is on the lines of the ban imposed by the Gujarat government last year.

The amendment has the provision of imprisonment for a term ranging between one to three years and a fine from Rs50,000 to Rs1 lakh. The bill has proposed to insert a section 4A in the COTPA, clearly stating that no person either on his own or on behalf of any other person can open or run any hookah bar in any place including the eating house. The amendment has also made the offence non-cognisable.

The amendment gives the power to designated officers of the police to seize any material in hookah bars. The government in its statement has said that the bill was initiated in view of the mushrooming of hookah bars in cities like Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Nagpur and other cities. It also has stated that school and college-going children are attracted to these parlours, which are generally located close to educational institutions.

The Home department was initially considering regulating the hookah parlours by making changes in the COTPA, but the Kamala Mills fire forced it to change its stand and ban the parlours. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who also heads the home department, had given directions to bring an amendment for a blanket ban instead of regulation. Hindustan Times had reported on January 11 about the government plan to ban the parlours.

Burning coal used for a hookah had led to the fire at 1Above and Mojos Bistro on December 29. Fourteen people had died of suffocation due to the fire that completely gutted the pubs at Kamala Mills.

Though there are no official figures available of the hookah parlours operational in the state, according to rough estimates, there are 400 to 500 such parlours in Mumbai and Pune respectively.

Read more: Kamala Mills fire effect: Stricter law for hookah parlours in Maharashtra soon

COTPA definition does not have the term hookah and the parlours have been contending that they do not serve tobacco in the hookah, pushing them out of the gamut of the legislation. By including hookahs in the Act, they can now be banned in todays forms, an official said.

Once passed by both the Houses of the legislature, the amendment will need assent of the President and it may take at least few more months for the actual implementation. With successful implementation in Gujarat since July 2017, we have a fair chance of smooth sailing of the amendment, the official said.
On Wednesday, four of the eight persons, who allegedly sold spurious liquor that led to the death of four persons in Khoda on March 13, surrendered at a Ghaziabad court.

The police said they are among the biggest distributors of liquor to local operators.

The police were on the lookout for Bunty Kaliya, Mintu Masala, Jitendra Yadav, Ravi Yadav, Ravi Khari, Bunty Chauhan, Dilip Rana and Ranjit Mandal, the prime suspects of liquor smuggling and also allegedly preparing spurious liquor with the help of urea.

Four of them  Mandal, Rana, Bunty and Khari  surrendered at a Ghaziabad court on Wednesday.

The eight men gave police the slip on March 27 and left behind a consignment of smuggled and spurious liquor, besides urea, which is used in preparing spurious liquor.

We have eight persons on our radar and four of these surrendered at a Ghaziabad court on Wednesday due to police pressure. They surrendered as we initiated legal proceedings for confiscation of their properties and procuring non-bailable warrants. We have formed teams to nab them and will not allow them to operate anymore, Dharmendra Chauhan, circle officer (Indirapuram), said.

However, family members of the victims of Khoda tragedy suspect that the bigger operators might be back in the business, as they are yet to be arrested by the police and only four of them had surrendered.

Shri Niwas, a 40-year-old tractor-trolley driver, is back with his family from the hospital and is the only survivor of the Khoda spurious liquor tragedy that claimed four lives. His 35-year-old brother Ravinder had also died on March 13 and he said the smugglers will not hold back for too long and will soon be back in business.

Following the four deaths, UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath took cognizance of the issue. The police already had eight bigger operators on their radar but none of them has been arrested.

I have an impaired vision in one of my eyes since the day I consumed the liquor. My body has become weak and I am hardly unable to move out of bed. The livelihood is also lost. I remember that I purchased the sealed liquor bottle from one Phulwa, who sold it to us for Rs50. She operates from her house, Shri said.

She had been in business for two-three years but you will find many such people who sell liquor illegally. It is because of dense population and people wanting ready liquor availability that the business is flourishing. Since the four deaths, the local operators have vanished but for how long? he said.

Ashok Prasad, 45, Avnesh, 28, and his brother Sandeep, 18, had also died, allegedly, due to consumption of the spurious liquor. After the suspension of four policemen and three staff from the excise department, the police lodged three FIRs and arrested local operators Sunil, his mother Neelam, Sudhir and Phulwa.

Vinod Singh Bihari, a Khoda resident, said that apart from flourishing liquor smuggling and sale from households, the liquor mafia is also in cahoots with the local police.

The liquor is sold in a number of households across the area. It is a flourishing business here due to high demand for countrymade liquor and also because the area is next to Delhi, where liquor is cheaper than that in UP. The local population is mostly poor and would purchase cheaper, smuggled liquor. The bigger smugglers also have bouncers who will beat up people if they resist. The idea is to let the business flourish, he said.

Khoda, which has an estimated population of 5-6 lakh, has only 16 licensed liquor shops while smuggled liquor is often seized by police and teams of excise officials. A majority of residents here are workers from different cities of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Yogesh Bhati, the younger brother of slain BJP leader Gajendra Bhati, said the business of smuggled liquor helps the smugglers make about Rs10 lakh every month.

Most of the liquor is brought here from Haryana, where it is cheaper than even in Delhi. We had protested a month ago at the police station but the activity resumed after a couple of days. Liquor smuggling has flourished and is done openly. It should be curbed, as residents have understood its implications after four deaths, he said.

Gynendra Tripathi, the district excise officer, said, We suspect the Khoda incident could be a fallout of rivalry between the liquor mafia groups or even to create a mischief in Khoda. It is a case of spurious liquor and the forensic reports are awaited. An inquiry report by state officials is also awaited. The spurious liquor can be easily be filled in empty bottles and again sealed to be sold again at cheaper prices.
Karl Marx, the prophet of the communist comrades in Kerala, said, The first requisite for the happiness of the people is the abolition of religion. But the Left in Kerala is canny enough to understand that such a prospect is not feasible in a state which is increasingly wearing its religiosity on its sleeve. While many experts feel that the tiny coastal state will be the last bastion of secularism in an otherwise rapidly saffronising India, ground realities suggest that this is far from the truth. The BJP has long coveted the highly educated state with Scandinavian class development indicators, but Kerala has not given the BJP any parliamentary seats. A spirited bid was made some years ago to wrest the prestigious Thiruvananthapuram seat from the ebullient Shashi Tharoor by fielding a popular BJP veteran, O Rajagopal, in 2014. That Rajagopal was defeated only by a very narrow margin seemed lost on most commentators, including Tharoor, who celebrated this as a victory for secularism.

It is not that Kerala will fall to the BJP in the next election. But the RSS has been steadily laying the ground in the state with the BJP trying several permutations and combinations to gain power. The development plank will not work, because the states indicators are superb. In Kerala, the prime minister has not displayed his renowned political touch; in fact, in the election in which Tharoor narrowly won, it was his references to terror and Islam in northern Kerala that irked the volatile Malayali.

But the BJP has not lost track of its goal in the state. Since it cannot make education, healthcare, jobs or special packages its poll planks, it is back to the tried and tested Hindu card through its party boss, Rajasekharan, a veteran RSS man. He has never made any pretence of having anything other than Hindutva to offer. He has actively promoted various Hindu organisations, the key being the Kshetra Samrakhshana Samiti (KSS) meant to protect temples. Alongside are the Balasadanams meant for children to inculcate Hindu values in them from an early age.

He has been effective and has got key former bureaucrats and scientists to rally for the cause. The BJP may not have got seats, but its vote share has been steadily rising, up from 10% in the 2014 elections to 14% during the municipal elections. The RSS would like to go all out and put its agenda out front, but the restraining force is the mix of Keralas population: 26.6% is Muslim; around 55 % Hindu; and the economically powerful Christians form the rest.

It would be expected that a state which has seen several communist governments, which has an educated population and a strong rationalist movement would be immune to overt religiosity. But as always, Kerala turns this logic on its head. Religion has today become loud and in your face, with the three faiths competing for public space. So if the Hindu festivals are loud and public, so are the Muslim and Christian ones. If the Hindus have public and intrusive processions celebrating various festivals, the Christians think nothing of blocking roads with their own, all of them accompanied by ear-splitting loudspeakers. Rituals which were not prominent before are now becoming the norm in temples. This has released a latent anger among communities against each other, the veneer of education preventing it from boiling over into the kind of communal rage seen in northern states.

The once gracious and quiet temple festivals have today become threatening and loud accompanied by fireworks, drums, loudspeakers and lumpen hordes. An effort has also been made to incorporate festivals alien to Kerala, though so far with not much success. The grievance card is being played, despite the fact that the Hindus have not been marginalised or discriminated against. The comrades themselves are not above playing religious politics. Then secretary general of the CPI(M), Prakash Karat, once shared a stage with Abdul Naseer Madani of the Peoples Democratic Party, known for his extreme views, in the hope of winning over the Muslim vote. It is a different matter that Madani, despised by many Muslims, could deliver nothing by way of secular legitimacy to the Left.

The increasing Wahhabisation of Keralas Muslims, thanks to the bounty from countries such as Saudi Arabia, has seen the rise of radicalism in the Malabar, home to the majority of the states Muslims. This is manna from heaven for the Hindutva forces who can now club the Muslims with the larger ummah, people who have no allegiance to the state.

Even small Hindu outfits have crawled out the woodwork to make common cause with the RSSs Hindutva agenda. It is now less necessary to hide ones feelings. This explains the open resistance to the writer, MM Basheer, whose erudite column on the Ramayana in a well known newspaper. Basheer had to give up the column on account of the fact that he was a Muslim writing on a Hindu scripture, anathema to the RSS and its ilk. The trolls are out in full force at any perceived insult to Hinduism.

There have been many other instances of intolerance  the burning down of a library thought to contain books which were anti-Hindu being one of the most egregious. This is a comedown for a state with a fine literary tradition and a once thriving library culture. While all eyes are on Karnataka, even Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, there are many flashpoints in Kerala which have been overlooked.

Both the Congress and the CPI(M) ignore such flashpoints at their peril. The two parties seem to think that they will be able to rule the state in turns in perpetuity.
A 22-year-old man was killed after a security guards gun got accidentally discharged at an Indian Oil petrol pump in Sector 79, Mohali on Monday night, the police said.

The victim, Pankaj Kumar, a native of Unnao, Uttar Pradesh, lived in Mataur village with his elder brother. He was to get married in April.

Security guard Kuldeep Singh, who retired from Punjab Polices Home Guard department, has been arrested and booked under Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the Indian Penal Code and the Arms Act. He will be produced in a local court on Thursday.

Manjit Singh, SHO of Sector 66 police station, where the case was registered, said the incident occurred around 11.40pm on Monday, when the security guard was readying his bed not too far from Pankaj.

As per police probe and pumps employees, Kuldeep rested his .12-bore double barrel gun against a wall to take out his dinner box from his bag, when it suddenly fell down and discharged in Pankajs direction.

Kuldeep Kumar, an employee at the petrol pump, said he rushed outside on hearing a loud noise, and found Pankaj lying in a pool of blood, and the security guard checking on him.

Pankaj was taken to a private hospital, where he was declared brought dead.

The SHO said it was not a bullet but its shrapnel that hit Pankaj, causing serious injuries on the head, neck and abdomen, adding that they had ruled out foul play as all workers at the petrol pump, including the victims cousin, gave similar account of the incident.

He said they wont seek the guards police remand as no probe or recovery was required.

The gun has been sent for forensic tests to establish how it fired when the guards claim is that he kept it locked, the SHO said.

The victim is survived by his parents, who live in Unnao, a brother and a sister. My parents were preparing for Pankajs wedding. We are shattered. My sister is inconsolable, victims brother Mohinder said.

The body was handed over to the family after autopsy.

Ambulance reached late

Petrol pump workers said they had called the government ambulance service soon after the firing. But when the ambulance did not arrive for 10 minutes, they took Pankaj to a nearby private hospital on a bike. The ambulance arrived only 25 minutes after their call, they alleged, while claiming that the PCR vehicle also reached late.

No CCTV camera at petrol pump

Despite police instructions, the pump has no CCTV camera. Rajesh Goyal, pumps franchise owner, said, We took over the pump from the company just a month ago. Request for CCTV cameras has already been placed.
Lt Col Baljit Singh Sandhu (retd), chairman of WWICS Group  an immigration consultancy  and owner of Forest Hill Resort in Nayagaon, is under the scanner in the case of murder of a Chandigarh Transport Undertaking (CTU) employee.

The Mohali police have arrested three Forest Hill Resort employees in the case. Sandhus name has also been included in the FIR though no charges have been pressed against him.

Victim Abhishek Guleria, 28, had gone missing after visiting a relatives house in Nayagaon on March 14. His body was recovered from along the Pinjore-Baddi road on March 25.

During questioning in the area, the Mohali police zeroed in on the Forest Hill Resort employees  liasoning officer Gurdeep Bains, his assistant Tarsem Singh and security in-charge Balwinder Singh.

The three alleged they had found Gulerias body in the tank of resorts sewage treatment plant, following which they informed Sandhu, who asked them to dispose of the body to avoid controversy.

The trio allegedly wrapped the body and drove to the Pinjore-Baddi road in a Tata Pickup to dump it on the night of March 22.

Unanswered questions How did the victim enter a gated resort; CCTV footage is inconclusive Was he murdered or did he commit suicide; postmortem report is awaited Did someone else dump the body at resort, as claimed by Forest Hill Resort representative Why didnt Lt Col Sandhu, staff inform the police

Fails to join probe

A case under Sections 302 (murder), 201(destruction of evidence) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered at the Nayagaon police station.

We have arrested three employees of Forest Hill Resort. The victims body has been sent to Patiala for postmortem. The report will come on Wednesday. We have raided Sandhus house in Sector 68, but it was locked, said Mohali senior superintendent of police (SSP) Kuldeep Singh Chahal.

Police even summoned Sandhu for questioning on Tuesday, but he didnt turn up. Meanwhile, court sent the three employees to two-day police remand for further questioning.

Sources privy to the investigation said closed-circuit television footage (CCTV) shows Guleria passing the front gate of the resort. How he reached inside the resort is being probed, they said. The Tata Pickup used to dispose of the body and a Mahindra Scorpio have also been seized.

Victim went missing on March 14

Abhishek Guleria, a Burail resident who was from Himachal Pradesh, had been working at the CTU workshop for the past six years.

Police said he had gone to a relatives house in Nayagaon on March 13, where he was drinking till past midnight. He left from there early morning but didnt reach home. His brother Rahul approached the police on March 15.

On March 25, Haryana Police informed the Mohail SSP about a body recovered along the Pinjore-Baddi road.

The SSP asked all police stations about reports on missing persons. Meanwhile, the Nayagaon police registered a kidnapping case and took Gulerias family for identification of the body on March 26. After identification, police took the body in their custody. During probe in the area, police rounded up the Forest Hill Resort employees.

While Sandhu was not available for comment, Forest Hill Resort brand and corporate head Digvijay Jamwal alleged: After committing the crime, someone deliberately dumped the body in the resort. The security in-charge came to know about it because of the foul smell and decided to dump the body at a faraway place. Lt Col Sandhus son Devinder Sandhu is also lodged in the Amritsar jail in the suicide case of Khalsa Diwan chiefs son Inderpreet Chadha. His bail plea was to come up for hearing this week.
A teenager working as a carpenter allegedly threw acid on a 15-year-old girl at Barewal Awana locality of Ludhiana after she rejected his marriage proposal.

Police have arrested the accused, Manoj Kumar (19), who lives in the same locality. The police said Manoj barged into the victims house after scaling a boundary wall on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday and threw acid on her face when she was asleep. The girls mother, who was also sleeping there, also suffered minor burn injuries on her arm and stomach. The two have been admitted to a local hospital.

The girl has suffered 40 per cent burn injuries on her face, neck and the right arm, the police said. She is stated to be out of danger. The boy hails from Uttar Pradeshs Hardoi district. The victims father works as a sweeper and the family belongs to Unnao in UP.

In her complaint, the victims mother said, I got my elder daughter married to Manojs brother last year in April and he has been stalking my younger daughter since then. He has visited our house many times and would force my daughter for marriage. He also used to harass her on her way to school.

She said the victim studies in Class 5 as she was admitted to school late.

He had threatened her that he will throw acid on her face if she refused to marry him. Since he is a relative, we talked to his parents rather than approaching the police. We never thought that he will take this extreme step, she said.

A case under Sections 452 (house trespass after preparation for hurt, assault or wrongful restraint), 326-A (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by use of acid) of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 9 and 12 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act) was registered against the accused at the PAU police station.

Station house officer (SHO) Brij Mohan said the boy confessed to have brought acid from a construction site where he was working.

At least four cases of acid attack were reported in the city last year.
An uncontrolled Chinese space station weighing at least seven tonnes is set to break up as it hurtles to Earth on or around April 1, the European Space Agency has forecast.

It will mostly burn up due to the extreme heat generated by its high-speed passage through the atmosphere, it said in a statement.

Some debris from the Tiangong-1 -- or Heavenly Palace -- spacelab will likely fall into the ocean or somewhere on land, but the chances of human injury are vanishingly small, said Stijn Lemmens, an ESA space debris expert based in Darmstadt, Germany.

Over the past 60 years of space flight, we are nearing the mark of 6,000 uncontrolled reentries of large objects, mostly satellites and upper (rocket) stages, he told AFP.

More than 90% of those bits of high-tech space junk weighed 100 kilos or more.

Only one event actually produced a fragment which hit a person, and it did not result in injury.

Lemmens calculated the odds of being struck by space debris at one in 1.2 trillion -- 10 million times less likely than getting hit by lightning.

Read: Cemetery, graveyard or burning in the sky: How spacecraft meet their end

The China Manned Space programme, which put Tiangong-1 into orbit in September 2011, has been mostly mum on the fate of Chinas first space station, designed to test technologies related to docking in orbit.

Daily updates on its official website have tracked its gradual descent -- average altitude as of Tuesday was 207.7 kilometres -- but not much else.

On Monday, Chinas state-run news agency Xinhua cited the agency as saying the spacelab should be fully burnt as it reenters the Earths atmosphere.

During its operational lifetime, Tiangong took part in two crewed missions, and an unmanned one.

As with all large satellites and spacecraft, the Chinese spacelab had been slated for a controlled reentry that would have seen it fall somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, far from human habitation.

In March 2016, however, the space station ceased functioning.

Design for demise

With ground teams no longer able to ignite its engines, Tiangong is expected to make an uncontrolled reentry, the ESA said.

It can be surmised that Tiangong-1 will break up during its atmospheric reentry and that some parts will survive the process and reach the surface of Earth.

Debris has become a major headache for space agencies and private companies lobbing satellites and other modules into Earth orbit.

The problem is not what comes back down, but what stays in space.

More than 5,000 rockets launched since 1957 have hoisted some 7,500 satellites into orbit, with more than 4,300 of them still in place.

The US Space Surveillance Network tracks some 23,000 debris objects travelling at speeds of up to 28,000 kilometres per hour.

Statistical models estimate that there are nearly 30,000 objects of at least 10 centimetres across, and 20 times that number measuring between one and 10 cm in diameter.

These form a real collision risk for spacecraft and manned space-flight activity, said Lemmens.

What we really fear is the so-called Kessler Syndrome, whereby objects collide in an exponential cascade, with one collision causing thousands of fragments that in turn start colliding with others.

Not much can be done to reduce the volume of orbiting space junk, much of which will eventually drift into Earths atmosphere and burn up.

To avoid further clutter, programmed reentry is crucial, said Lemmens. All nations capable of launching a spacecraft have signed a treaty making them liable for damages caused, in space or on Earth, he noted.

Future spacecraft will also be designed for demise upon reentry.

A new generation of fuel tanks, for example, will replace ones currently made with titanium, which can withstand very high temperatures.

Tiangong-1 weighed 8.5 tonnes on take off, but with fuel consumption has probably shed at least one tonne.
It has been the way of the world since time immemorial. When the steam engine first puffed its way on the tracks, people were frightened out of their wits and called it a black monster. When a wise man said the earth was round, he was ridiculed by all those who firmly believed that it was flat. Any invention or discovery or even change - like what the Cannes Film Festival chief, Thierry Fremaux, has made to the press screenings -- is bound to be criticised.

Many or the most vocal among the 4000-plus critics who gather on the French Riviera every May are upset that a decades-old privilege has been snatched away from them.

Fremaux told a French magazine last week that the morning press show of a Competition movie - starting from the Festivals 71st edition running from May 8 to 19 - will be scheduled for the evening and coincide with the black-tie, red carpet gala for the public, including the industry. This way, the film will be truly a world premiere.

Read: Priyanka Chopra keeps things classy on her latest magazine cover. Check it out

And, the 7 pm Competition title for the press will henceforth be slotted the following morning.

This arrangement is meant to protect the interests of movie producers, directors, actors and others from negative or harsh reviews. For years, filmmakers have felt that Cannes movie critics, unlike their tribe in Berlin or Venice, have been legendary for their vitriolic comments, which have marred the prospects of a film and also robbed the actual evening gala world premiere, happening after the press show, of the surprise element. For, the reviews are already up on the websites, and they have said what they have to.

Fremaux has also been angry with bloggers, tweeters and those dashing off quick reviews. He has been contending that this will mean the absence of a well thought-out review, a considered review. Moviemakers will be the actual sufferers here.

(File Photo) French film critics are angry, insisting Cannes chief Thierry Fremaux should have explored other solutions - like imposing embargoes on reviews, like they do in Berlin and Tokyo. (REUTERS)

The press -- so long used to watching Competition films much before the others at Cannes -- is angry. The Syndicat Francais de la Critique de Cinema (French film critics) said in a letter issued on Monday that Fremaux should have explored other solutions - like imposing embargoes on reviews, like they do in Berlin and Tokyo.

But Berlin has a hands-on press department, which keeps a close watch on who is writing what. This writer remembers a piece of his attracting the attention of the authorities, because it was somewhat critical. And this happened years ago, and one is told that such supervision has become stricter now. In any case, Berlin has far fewer journalists. Ditto, the Tokyo International Film Festival, where most of the critics are Japanese and are disciplined enough not to flout an embargo.

Read: Baloch activists want support from India without Kashmir lens

The Syndicat added that the screenings shakeup would have a negative impact on the quality of work produced by French and international journalists. The conditions will lead some journalists to renounce conducting interviews and do them before having seen the movies or even encourage publications to reduce their editorial coverage of the Festival by sending fewer journalists and critics.

But an unmoved Fremaux in response to these arguments, quipped in his classical style that he could wait 24 hours to read an article in a newspaper in print... I belong to the generation that respects the press and doesnt think a tweet is the same thing as a serious article published by a critic.

One is sure that a legendary critic like Derek Malcolm, now 86, and still going strong, would be happy with Fremauxs new policy. One remembers him struggling, while working for the Evening Standard a few years ago, having to turn in a review within 20 minutes of a film drawing to an end. My reviews can hardly be informed or have any kind of depth, he used to lament.

Whether one likes it or not, critics do matter, especially in a festival like Cannes -- whose biggest attraction (that is getting bigger) has been its market, and the sales guys there are really hawkish. They do wait for a review. They may have their favourites among the tribe, and if a review is disparaging, the future of the movie concerned may get seriously affected.

Here is one example. In an essay in a magazine, Another Man, director Vincent Gallo accused the late film critic, Roger Ebert, of destroying The Brown Bunny (2003) at Cannes. Ebert described the film as the worst in the history of the festival.

Read: Documentaries shot on mobile phones to be showcased at Canada film festival

The movie, about a motorcycle racer (Gallo) embarking on a cross-country expedition while haunted by memories of his ex-girlfriend (Chloe Sevigny), caused outrage over an explicit scene between the lead actors. The segment went on to become one of the most controversial sex scenes in movie history.

It is outrageous that a single critic disrupted a press screening for a film chosen in main Competition at such a high profile festival and even more outrageous that Ebert was ever allowed into another screening at Cannes. His ranting, moaning and eventual loud singing happened within the first 20 minutes, completely disrupting and manipulating the press screening of my work. Afterwards, at the first public screening, booing, laughing and hissing started during the open credits, even before the first scene of the movie. The public, who had heard and read rumours about the Ebert incident and about me personally, heckled from frame one and never stopped.

Eberts reactions obviously had a bad bearing on The Brown Bunny. It is possible that Fremaux had such impactful criticism in mind when announced the changes in the press screenings.

(Gautaman Bhaskaran has covered the Cannes Film Festival for 28 years.)

Follow @htshowbiz for more

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The American state of Delaware has declared April as Sikh Awareness and Appreciation Month in recognition of the contribution of the Sikh community.

Throughout April, the public will be educated about what Sikhism. Delaware governor John Carney said Sikhs had earned respect and appreciation through exceptional service to the community.

The state of Delaware seeks to further the diversity of its community and afford Delawareans the opportunity to better appreciate the rich history of Sikh-Americans, the proclamation read.

The state assembly  House of Representatives and Senate  simultaneously passed unanimous resolutions proclaiming April as Sikh Awareness and Appreciation Month. The move is significant as Delaware has a small Sikh population.

Sikhs and Indian-Americans are welcome in Delaware with open arms, Carney told PTI after signing the proclamation. Several legislators sported turbans during passage of the legislation.

Wearing the turban shows that we are also a part of America. Because of this resolution, for the second consecutive month, the identity and awareness about Sikhs has increased in the state, local Sikh leader Charanjeet Singh Minhas told PTI.

Also read | We Are Sikhs campaign wins top US public relations award

However, Minhas said, there was still a lack of awareness about Sikhism among people.

There are still a lot of people who think that people with turbans are members of the Taliban, member of Al-Qaeda. A turban is seen as anti-American, anti-western, which is not true. This is what we are trying to correct, he said.

Noting that the Sikh community in America continues to peacefully overcome attacks on its members, as well as attacks on Sikh identity and practices, Delaware House and Senate said the current US Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, was raised a Sikh and in New Jersey, Gurbir Grewall became the first Sikh Attorney General in the US.

One way that the Delaware Sikh community promotes love, respect, and peace for all is through billboards on I-95 that celebrate holidays such as Diwali, Thanksgiving, Guru Nanaks birthday, and Christmas, the resolution read.

Observance of this month raises awareness about contributions of Sikhs to the economy and the wider community in Delaware, it read.

The resolution said Delaware stood with the Sikh community in denouncing hate crimes directed towards any individual on account of their religious beliefs.

Since September 11, 2001, nationally, Sikhs have been subject to harassment, employment discrimination, and fatal shootings, the resolution said.

Carney, a Democrat leader, said that a general anti-immigrant sentiment prevailed in the country is personally embarrassing to me.

Delaware Senator Bryan Townsend, one of the key sponsors of the resolution, said Sikh-Americans play a very important role in the economic development of the state.
The Congress has repeatedly said it had no links with Cambridge Analytica, the company accused of using Facebook data to influence elections, but a BBC documentary aired last September prominently features a Congress poster in the office of the firms former CEO Alexander Nix.

Journalist Jamie Bartletts two-part documentary Secrets of Silicon Valley explored how Silicon Valleys mission to connect the world was disrupting democracy and plunging the world into an age of political turbulence. He specifically explored the role played by social media and Facebook in getting Donald Trump into the White House.

In the second part titled The Persuasion Machine, Bartlett interviewed Nix at his London office to learn about the methods Cambridge Analytica had used for the campaigns of Ted Cruz and Trump, including the use of Facebook data to predict the actions and personalities of voters.

As Bartlett speaks to Nix, a large poster of the Congress can be seen within a frame on the wall behind the former CEO of Cambridge Analytica. Also on the wall are framed photos of leaders and parties whose campaigns had engaged the firm, such as Cruz and Trump.

The orange Congress poster prominently features the partys hand symbol in the colours of the national flag with the legend Congress  Development for all below.

Bartletts questions for Nix focus on Cambridge Analyticas role in the 2016 US presidential election and the two do not discuss the firms activities in India.

Asked about the poster displayed in Nixs office, a spokesperson for the Congress said on Wednesday that the party had no links with Cambridge Analytica. The spokesperson reiterated the partys assertion that it had never hired the firm for any poll-related work.

In a tweet posted on Wednesday night, information and broadcasting minister Smriti Irani said: Kya Baat hai @RahulGandhi Ji.. Congress ka Haath, Cambridge Analytica ke Saath!

The Congress and the BJP have accused each other of using Cambridge Analytica in elections across the country. Christopher Wylie, the whistle-blower who exposed Cambridge Analyticas use of Facebook data, told a British parliamentary panel on Tuesday he believes the firm had been hired by the Congress.

Nix says in the documentary that the information used to predict the personality of voters came from telephone surveys and several online platforms, including Facebook. He also appears to justify the use of information that is publicly shared by people on platforms such as Facebook during the brief interview.

He also says he believes the use of more personalised communication instead of blanket advertising is going to increase.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Uns visit to China, countering what had been growing estrangement between the Cold War allies, is likely to bolster Pyongyangs leverage going into a planned summit between Kim and US President Donald Trump.

For Chinese President Xi Jinping, the meeting with a long-troublesome neighbour ensures Beijing will not be left out of any deal struck between the United States and North and South Korea, experts said.

Months of frosty relations between Beijing and Pyongyang appeared suddenly to thaw with Kims secretive trip, which saw the Chinese capital go into security lockdown as the mysterious North Korean delegation toured the city.

China said Kim had pledged to denuclearise the Korean peninsula while North Korean state media said Xi had accepted with pleasure an invitation to visit the North.

Kims meeting with Xi strengthens North Koreas negotiating position by aligning the two nations ahead of Trump and Kims planned meeting, said Wang Peng, a North Korea expert at the Charhar Institute in Beijing.

North Korea is seeking assurances, he said. They want to quickly mend ties with China so that they have more leeway with the United States and they have more confidence in a good outcome.

Analysts say North Korea has been hurt by tightening UN sanctions and would need Beijings support for any softening of trade restrictions.

China wanted to show its importance as a partner to North Korea and ease worries about being sidelined in negotiations between the Koreas the United States.

At the end of the day, Chinas got huge interests and it was not comfortable not being at the table, said Paul Haenle, director of the CarnegieTsinghua Center in Beijing and a White House representative to the Six Party Talks from 2007-2009.

Kim Jong Uns first meeting with a head of state was with the Chinese President, which frankly from the Chinese perspective is exactly the right thing, he added.

Trumps decision to hire hardliners such as incoming National Security Adviser John Bolton may have put added pressure on North Korea before the summit, said Han Suk-hee, professor of Chinese Studies at Yonsei University.

It seems that North Korea is not ready to deal with the United States without support and help from its long-time ally China, he said.

Close allies again?

China, as well as being North Koreas biggest trade partner, also has key strategic interest in assuring its isolated neighbour remains a buffer between it and South Korea, home to 28,500 US troops.

The two nations also have long-standing emotional and historic ties. China sometimes says they are blood brothers, having fought side-by-side in the 1950-53 Korean War.

The two remained close allies in the decades immediately after the Korean War, but have drifted apart since Kim succeeded his late father.

North Koreas rapid escalation of nuclear tests and missile launches, combined with the assassination of Kims half-brother last year in a Kuala Lumpur airport, brought diplomatic ties between Beijing and Pyongyang to historic lows.

With China signing on to ever-stricter United Nations sanctions against Pyongyang, North Korean state media took to openly criticising and even threatening China.

China is ... the only state willing and able to immediately ease North Koreas economic burden, said Christopher Green, senior adviser at International Crisis Group. North Korea was not prepared to give up its close relationship with China, much as it may chafe at its economic and political reliance on its much bigger neighbour, he added.

With North and South Korean relations improving during the Winter Olympics and plans for summits involving Trump, Moon and Kim, Beijing had reasons to resume contact with North Korea that had all but disappeared in the past year.

Xi stressed to Kim that past Chinese and North Korean leaders had always visited each other as often as relatives, proposing the two leaders set up new channels of communication, Chinas official Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday.

Chinese state media has cast Beijing as crucial to forcing talks between Trump and Kim with its freeze for freeze pitch for North Korea to suspend nuclear and missile tests, and South Korea and the United States to suspend military drills.

Its extremely difficult for the US to map out a feasible denuclearisation process that meets the North Korean preconditions without Chinas support and involvement, said Cheng Xiaohe, a North Korea expert at Renmin University in Beijing. China wants to show it cannot be left out.

A friend in need

Speaking at a banquet hosted by Xi, Kim Jong Un expressed gratitude to China for readily accepting his proposal to visit and all the efforts Chinese leaders made to pave the way for a successful visit in a short period of time, according to the Norths official KCNA news agency.

China remains an advocate for a dual track of pressure and greater dialogue with North Korea, a position at odds with the Trump administrations maximal pressure approach.

That disagreement had left Beijing sidelined amid the escalating crisis, shunning a meeting of foreign ministers in Canada where leaders discussed how to pressure the North into backing down.

North Korea may also be taking advantage of tensions in US-China relations over trade and the disputed South China Sea to draw in Beijing, Jia Qingguo, dean of the School of International Studies at Chinas Peking University

China wants North Korea to denuclearise but does not want to alienate North Korea at a time when China-US relations are deteriorating very fast, said Jia, who has advised the government on foreign policy.

We want a denuclearised North Korea, but at the same time we want North Korea to be a friend.
A Sikh campaign group on Tuesday announced that it will join a protest demonstration with other UK-based groups against Prime Minister Narendra Modi outside one of the venues of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in April.

Modi and 52 heads of government are due to arrive for the meeting from April 16 to 20, when the UK will assume its chairmanship for the next two years. Security concerns have ruled out Modi making a public address before the Indian community.

The Sikh Federation UK claimed Sikhs would turn out in thousands to protest outside the Queen Elizabeth II Centre against Modi, who it described would be the primary focus of the demonstration. The release of British national Jagtar Singh Johal arrested in Punjab for targeted killings would be a major issue in the protest.

British MPs and others have often raised Johals arrest in Parliament, urging the Theresa May government to take up the issue with India. Foreign secretary Boris Johnson has assured his family that London was doing everything it could to ensure he gets access to justice in India.

The group said the demonstration will also be a show of support for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for what it called his standing up for the rights of Sikh nationalists during his recent visit to India.

India is likely to be tasked with a greater role in the commonwealth at the meeting, which is likely to be the last attended by its head, Queen Elizabeth. Modi and other heads of government are likely to decide on her successor informally during the meeting.
State media calls North Koreas nuclear weapons a treasured sword of justice.

Pyongyang has released commemorative stamps and built monuments in honour of its ballistic missile tests, while nuclear and rocket scientists have been named national heroes.

For Kim Jong Un, fully giving up nuclear weapons would mean a dramatic reversal for an authoritarian leader who has not only staked his security on his nuclear arsenal, but also spent years publicly celebrating such weapons as an integral part of his regimes legitimacy and power.

South Korean envoys who met Kim in Pyongyang early this month quoted Kim as saying he was committed to denuclearisation, and that he expressed his eagerness to meet US President Donald Trump as soon as possible.

Chinese officials who met with Kim in Beijing this week also said he committed to denuclearisation, but initial North Korean state media reports on the visit did not mention the nuclear issue.

Absent any public confirmation from Pyongyang, analysts are sceptical Kim will suddenly give up the nuclear arsenal he and his family have spent decades developing.

Instead, Kim is likely to seek a more nuanced and long-term approach that could allow him to emerge looking victorious in the minds of his people and domestic elites, they say.

Kim Jong Un does not need to sell anything to the North Korean population, particularly because denuclearisation is a process that will take at least 10 years to realistically achieve, said Michael Madden, an expert on North Korea leadership at Johns Hopkins Universitys 38 North website.

Pyongyang most likely envisions ... a series of incremental agreements around this, rather than one or two large grand bargains.

Concessions needed

Former South Korean officials who have negotiated with the North in the past say such a pivot could be difficult, but not impossible  if the United States makes major concessions Kim Jong Un can take back and parade to his people.

Kim Jong Un would seek to propagate the idea that he induced the US and international communitys surrender by having mastered nuclear weapons, said Kim Hyung-suk, who served as the Souths vice unification minister between 2016 and 2017.

If talks go well, sanctions are eased and the economy grows. Then the people would understand Kims denuclearisation decision and become strongly supportive of it.

That may not be the kind of deal Trump envisions as he plans to sit down with Kim sometime in May for a historic first summit between sitting leaders of the two countries.

Trumps new national security adviser, John Bolton, recently said Trump should insist any meeting he holds with Kim be focussed squarely on how to eliminate that countrys nuclear weapons programme as quickly as possible.

Silence in Pyongyang

The lack of comment from North Korean state media on the proposed talks between Kim and Trump was not unexpected, analysts said.

It might reflect an ongoing internal discussion about how to deal with public opinion, certainly, although I would characterise that as a broader discussion of how to proceed overall, said Christopher Green, a senior adviser with the International Crisis Group, which researches conflict.

Given the importance he has attached to the weapons, and the money poured into their development, Kim will have to tread carefully to ensure any talk of abandoning the nuclear programme started by his grandfather and continued by his father wouldnt undermine his legitimacy at home, experts say.

To try to balance factions in his government, Kim Jong Un embraced a policy of byungjin, or simultaneous military and economic development, after he came to power in 2011.

Since 2013, the pro-military factions have been ascendant, but a Trump summit could lend heft to arguments by officials who prefer to prioritise economic development, Green said.

A number of military authorities and other senior elites might be less receptive to denuclearisation.

For them, its unthinkable to ensure regime security with conventional forces alone, so they could object to Kims decision and continue to argue for keeping the bombs, said Kim Hyung-suk.

Forebearers teaching

According to South Korean and Chinese officials, Kim Jong Un told them denuclearising the Korean peninsula was forebearers teaching  a potential talking point if he does try to justify curtailing his much-vaunted nuclear programme.

It is our consistent stand to be committed to denuclearisation on the peninsula, in accordance with the will of late President Kim Il Sung and late General Secretary Kim Jong Il, Kim told Chinese President Xi Jinping during a visit this week, according to Chinese state media.

Kim Jong Uns father and grandfather both publicly promised not to pursue nuclear weapons, but secretly continued to develop the programmes, culminating in the countrys first nuclear test in 2006 under Kim Jong Il.

Even after that test, Kim Jong Il insisted in a 2007 summit with his South Korean counterpart that he didnt have the intention to own nuclear weapons.

The history of failed negotiations with Pyongyang makes many observers, including former senior U.S. diplomat Evans Revere, sceptical the latest negotiations will be any different.

In past talks, North Korea had said it could consider giving up its arsenal if the United States removes its troops from South Korea and withdraws its so-called nuclear umbrella of deterrence from South Korea and Japan, a stance Washington has found unacceptable.

Those of us who have negotiated with the North Koreans know what they mean (by denuclearisation), Revere said.

About the only thing that the North Korean leader might need to sell to his people - and particularly to the military - is the idea of a freeze on some elements of his programme.
China said on Wednesday North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledged to denuclearise the Korean peninsula during a historic meeting in Beijing with president Xi Jinping, who promised China would uphold its friendship with its isolated neighbour.

After two days of speculation, China and North Korea both confirmed on Wednesday that Kim had visited Beijing and met Xi during what Chinas official Xinhua news agency called an unofficial visit from Sunday to Wednesday.

The trip was Kims first known journey abroad since he assumed power in 2011 and is believed by analysts to serve as preparation for upcoming summits with South Korea and the United States.

North Koreas KCNA news agency made no mention of Kims pledge to denuclearise, or his anticipated meeting with US President Donald Trump that is planned for some time in May.

Read: Kim Jong Un: North Koreas princeling makes a diplomatic turn, but in reclusive style

Beijing has traditionally been the closest ally of secretive North Korea, but ties have been frayed by North Koreas pursuit of nuclear weapons and Chinas backing of tough UN sanctions in response.

Xinhua cited Kim as telling Xi that the situation on the Korean peninsula is starting to improve because North Korea has taken the initiative to ease tensions and put forward proposals for peace talks.

It is our consistent stand to be committed to denuclearisation on the peninsula, in accordance with the will of late President Kim Il Sung and late General Secretary Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Un said, according to Xinhua.

North Korea is willing to talk with the United States and hold a summit between the two countries, he said.

The issue of denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula can be resolved, if South Korea and the United States respond to our efforts with goodwill, create an atmosphere of peace and stability while taking progressive and synchronous measures for the realisation of peace, Kim said, according to Xinhua.

Trump briefed

Though billed as an unofficial trip, Kims appearance in Beijing contained almost all the trappings of a state visit, complete with an honour guard and banquet at Beijings Great Hall of the People.

Kim and Xi also met at the Diaoyutai State Guest House, where Kims grandfather, Kim Il Sung, planted a tree in 1959 that still stands to this day.

Read: Kim Jong Un in China? VIP security in Beijing raises speculation

State television showed pictures of the two men chatting amiably and Kims wife, Ri Sol Ju, getting an equally warm welcome from Xis wife, Peng Liyuan.

Ri Sol Ju, wife of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, shakes hands with Peng Liyuan, wife of Chinese President Xi Jinping as the two leaders watch, in this still image taken from video released on March 28, 2018. (REUTERS)

China briefed Trump on Kims visit and the communication included a personal message from Xi to Trump, the White House said in a statement.

The United States remains in close contact with our allies South Korea and Japan. We see this development as further evidence that our campaign of maximum pressure is creating the appropriate atmosphere for dialogue with North Korea, the statement said.

Analysts and former negotiators remain deeply sceptical Kim is willing to give up the nuclear weapons his family has been developing for decades.

Solemn duty

Kim told a banquet hosted by Xi the visit was intended to maintain our great friendship and continue and develop our bilateral ties at a time of rapid developments on the Korean peninsula, calling it his solemn duty to make Beijing his first overseas destination, according to KCNA.

Read: South Korean President Moon says three-way summit with North Korea, US possible

Xi had accepted an invitation from Kim to visit North Korea, KCNA and South Koreas Yonhap news agency reported.

Speculation about a possible visit by Kim to Beijing was rife earlier this week after a train similar to the one used by Kims father was seen in the Chinese capital, along with heavy security and a large motorcade.

Improving ties between North Korea and China would be a positive sign before planned summits involving the two Koreas and the United States, a senior South Korean official said on Tuesday.

Kim Jong Uns father, Kim Jong Il, met then-president Jiang Zemin in China in 2000 before a summit between the two Koreas in June that year. That visit was seen at the time as reaffirmation of close ties with Beijing.

However, the relationship between the North and its key protector has soured in recent years, with China increasingly exasperated by its neighbours nuclear antics and recently showing a new willingness to enforce United Nations sanctions imposed on it over its weapons and missiles programmes.

This is my solemn duty as someone who should value and continue the DPRK-PRC relations through generations, Kim said at the banquet, using the countries official acronyms.

Such a trip by a current Chinese Communist Party general secretary and national president would be extremely unusual.

The last such visitor was Hu Jintao in 2005, and the last top Chinese leader to go was the then premier Wen Jiabao in 2009  although Mao Zedongs son Mao Anying was killed fighting for the North during the Korean War.
The Kremlin said on Wednesday that President Vladimir Putin was still ready to hold a summit with US counterpart Donald Trump despite the mass Western expulsions of Russian diplomats in a spy row.

This depends on the American side, but the Russian side remains open, Putins spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Putin is ready and the Russian side is ready for mutually beneficial and mutually trustful relations with all countries including the US to the extent that our opponents or partners are ready for this, Peskov added.

He added that Russia currently had no information about Trumps readiness to meet with Putin following Washingtons decision to expel more than 60 diplomats.

At least 25 countries decided to expel Russian diplomats in response to the March 4 attack on former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury.

London and its allies have blamed Moscow, citing the use of a Soviet-designed nerve agent dubbed Novichok, Russias record of targeting dissidents and its history of aggression in recent years, from Crimea to cyber-attacks.

Washington led the way in responding, ordering out 60 Russian diplomats in a new blow to US-Russia ties less than a week after Trump congratulated Putin on his re-election and raised the prospect of a summit in the not-too-distant future.

The Kremlin has repeatedly denied Russias involvement in the nerve agent attack and Peskov played down today the extent of the diplomatic fallout.

Twenty or 30 countries are just a part of the global community and it is much bigger and varied and includes many more countries, Peskov said.

He claimed that some of the countries that backed London still believed that Britain had not provided enough evidence to prove Russias involvement.

Separately, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow would respond to all the expulsions appropriately.

The measures are being worked out for each country, she told reporters.

Moscow, she added, views the expulsions as a provocation which will have very serious long-term consequences for global peace and stability.
Pakistan Army on Wednesday warned India of a response in case of any misadventure across the border and said nobody should underestimate the capability of the countrys armed forces.

If India tried for any misadventure, then it will be responded, Army spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor said at a press briefing.

He was responding to a question about the state of preparedness in case of a surprise attack by India.

Nobody should underestimate our capability vis-s-vis India. Our response capability in case of any threat from India is absolutely ready, he said.

Ghafoor also accused India of killing of 30 Pakistani civilians in 2018 in firing along the Line of Control.

Pakistan has played a positive character for peace in the region. If India promotes instability in Pakistan through Afghanistan or the Line of Control it will not be in Indias best interests either, he said.

To a question, the spokesman said that Indian diplomats were also invited to witness the Pakistan Day parade on March 23 along with diplomats from other countries.

We wanted to show the world that we have invited them (Indian) despite what they are doing to our diplomats. We also wanted to show them our capability and resolve, he added.
US President Donald Trump said Wednesday the historic meeting between the leaders of China and North Korea had gone very well and that Kim Jong Un is eager to hold a summit with Trump.

Received message last night from XI JINPING of China that his meeting with KIM JONG UN went very well and that KIM looks forward to his meeting with me, Trump tweeted.

In the meantime, and unfortunately, maximum sanctions and pressure must be maintained at all cost!, he added after Kim concluded a secretive three day meeting in Beijing with President Xi Jinping.

After two days of speculation, China announced on Wednesday that Kim had visited Beijing and met Xi, who elicited a pledge from the isolated leader to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.

The trip was Kims first known journey abroad since he assumed power in 2011 and is believed by analysts to serve as preparation for upcoming summits with South Korea and the United States.

China briefed Trump on the meetings, according to the White House, which said the denuclearization pledge was further evidence that our campaign of maximum pressure is creating the appropriate atmosphere for dialogue with North Korea.
Appointment

28 March 2018

BENCHMARK, a global hospitality company, has appointed Eric Gavin senior vice president sales & marketing. This marks a return to Benchmark for Mr. Gavin. Ted Davis, chief sales and marketing officer, made the announcement on behalf of the company.

A seasoned sales and marketing hospitality executive with nearly 20 years of exemplary senior-level leadership experience, Eric Gavin returns to Benchmark following serving as chief marketing officer for Salamander Hotels & Resorts. His most recent position with Benchmark was as regional vice president sales and marketing, where he successfully led the sales operations for properties throughout Florida, California, Tennessee and the Caribbean.

Prior to joining Benchmark the first time, Mr. Gavin served as vice president of marketing for Noble House Hotels & Resorts, developing marketing and branding strategies across the portfolio.

Eric Gavin attended the University of South Carolina - Aiken. He and his family are relocating to The Woodlands.
Appointment

28 March 2018

Omni Hotels & Resorts today announced Daniel Surette's promotion to senior vice president of sales and marketing. In his role, Surette will continue to lead the brand's sales strategy to position Omni as a leader in the luxury hospitality marketplace. In addition, he will oversee revenue management, marketing and loyalty. Surette will continue to report to newly appointed president, Peter Strebel.

Since joining Omni in August 2017, Surette has overhauled the company's sales compensation model, developed a new group marketing campaign and inspired sales teams through promotional and recognition programs.

Prior to joining Omni, Surette worked at Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. for more than 15 years where he served as the vice president of North America sales and field marketing. In this role, he oversaw a team of 68 regional marketing experts handling sales and marketing for 600+ Starwood properties.

Surette attended Johnson & Wales University where he earned a degree in hospitality management. Throughout his career, Surette has been a member of several leading professional organizations, including Meeting Professionals International (MPI), Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) and Hotel Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI).
Appointment

28 March 2018

In his new role, Giacotto oversees all aspects of hotel operations for the historic, 335-room hotel. Before his appointment with Sage Hospitality, Giacotto held the GM position with Hotel Arista in Naperville, Ill. Giacotto is also known for his work as the first GM for Carlson-Rezidor Hotels' flagship North American Radisson Blu property, Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel, Chicago. He successfully oversaw the construction of the Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel and participated in opening other locations during his five-year tenure with Carlson-Rezidor.

Giacotto received formal European training from the Hotel Catering Schools of Grenoble and Paris in France and attended the Professional Development program at Cornell University. He is a current member on the board of the Illinois Hotel Lodging Association, and Giacotto also serves on the Triton College Community Board and the Hospitality Industry Administration Advisory Board.
Officials of The Buccini/Pollin Group today announced that it has acquired the 364-room Sheraton Society Hill Hotel in Philadelphia, Pa. PM Hotel Group, based in Washington, D.C., will manage the hotel.

Officials of The Buccini/Pollin Group today announced that it has acquired the 364-room Sheraton Society Hill Hotel in Philadelphia, Pa. PM Hotel Group, based in Washington, D.C., will manage the hotel.

"The Sheraton Society Hill is a remarkable asset in an unmatched location surrounded by numerous business and leisure demand generators, from the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall to Fortune 500 companies like Comcast and Aramark," said Dave Pollin, co-founder, BPG. "We are in the advanced planning stages of a complete makeover of the hotel to upgrade the guest experience. In addition to improving both guest rooms and public spaces, we intend to change brand affiliations to better match and serve the surrounding community."

Nestled in the Old City district of Philadelphia at One Dock Street, the hotel is in the midst of some of the nation's most renowned historical attractions, including The National Constitution Center and Penn's Landing. Guests are invited to relax in the hotel's indoor, heated swimming pool, break a sweat in the Sheraton Fitness room or get some extra work done in The Link@Sheraton, a full-service, 24/7 business center. The hotel also provides 20,000 square feet of versatile meeting and event space, including the 7,800 square-foot Society Hill Ballroom capable of hosting up to 900 guests. Guests may indulge on contemporary dining with a dash of ambiance and a nod to the historical importance of the surroundings at Taste, the hotel's on-site restaurant. The hotel's exclusive Club Lounge offers a complimentary continental breakfast, evening hors d'oeuvres and a variety of beverage options.

"Hotel guests can take a short stroll down cobblestone streets to Philadelphia's most renowned restaurants and cultural attractions, while also being just blocks from the city's financial district and City Hall," Pollin added. "With nearly 370 rooms, more than 20,000 sq. ft. of function space and a textbook blend of amenities, the Sheraton Society Hill is the perfect location for all downtown Philadelphia travel occasions. The Buccini/Pollin Group looks forward to unlocking significant value through branding, renovation and operational investments."

The Buccini/Pollin Group, Inc. (Buccini/Pollin) is a privately held, integrated real estate acquisition, development and management company with offices in Washington D.C., Wilmington, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. Buccini/Pollin has developed and acquired hotel, office, residential, retail, and parking properties throughout the United States, valued in excess of $4.0 billion

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While this year has been anything but normal, time marches on and budget season has arrived. While the past 1.5 years may be hard to use for future planning, there are certainly lessons to be learned for 2022. Lets look at some trends and strategies to keep in mind as you begin your 2022 planning.
Leesburg, FL - A Florida woman was arrested on incest charges after her baby was born with medical complications and tests performed at Winnie Palmer Hospital showed the child's father was a close relative, according to an arrest report.

Deputies said Pauline Martin, 33, gave birth to a baby on Nov. 21. The baby had several medical problems when born and was transferred to Winnie Palmer Hospital within hours of its birth. Genetic testing done at the hospital showed that the child's father was a close relative, according to the report.

The Department of Children and Families was contacted when neither parent filled out the proper Medicaid paperwork for the child or obtained a birth certificate, according to the report.

Officials with DCF along with Lake County deputies met with the defendant, who told them the baby's father was her biological brother, according to the report. Deputies said she would complete the paperwork the next day, but it was not completed until Feb. 26.

Deputies later interviewed Martin at her workplace, McDonald's, where she informed them that she had been in a romantic and sexual relationship with her brother for five years, according to the report. Deputies said she informed them that her brother was aware that he was the father of the child. She informed deputies that she has a 12-year-old daughter with a different father, according to the report.

Martin told deputies she was going to end the relationship because "she knows it is wrong," and that she was talking to another man, according to the report.

She informed deputies that she had sexual relations with her brother the night before the interview, which gave them probable cause for arrest, according to the report.

Martin stood up from the table and tried to run toward the back of the McDonald's restaurant, according to the report. Deputies said they were able to arrest her and got her to calm down in order to transport her in the front seat.

Once in the front seat, the detective said Martin started getting upset and spitting from her mouth as she was talking. She then yelled "F--- this!" and and began flailing her legs around in an attempt to kick the detective, according to the report. Deputies said she was restrained with leg shackles and continued to yell profanities.

Martin was transported to the Lake County Jail and arrested on charges of incest and resisting arrest without violence. Her bond was set at $1,000.
The suspected reconciliation of Lil Wayne and Birdman seems to have come a few moments too soon. According to documents obtained by the Blast, the litigation battle between the two has taken a turn for the worse. Apparently a shared hug, and their public outing have done little to repair their soured relationship.



An Instagram post, of the pair hanging out at a club in Miami, appeared to show the two former colleagues in good spirits, with Birdman referring to Wayne as his son yet again.



In good conscience, it appears they held off from talking business during their club encounter. Things came to a head shortly thereafter. Lil Wayne is fiercely confident in his case against Birdman. Sources indicate that "There will be no connection, no ties, and no business relationship," between them.

Wayne is suing his former boss and father figure for $51 Million. Birdman is accused of withholding millions. Wayne is also seeking an out from his Cash Money deal to go along with aforementioned compensatory package. Much of the infighting stems from Birdman's unwillingness to release the Carter V, amid a certainty it would go over well.
Susan Rice was once the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nation and she served for four years as Barack Obama's national security advisor that pushed her into the limelight after the 2012 attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi, Libya.

Having such great experience and probably the best recommendations, the 53-year-old has now joined Netflix's board of directors, The Hollywood Reporter reports.

We are delighted to welcome Ambassador Rice to the Netflix board, Netflix co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings said. For decades, she has tackled difficult, complex global issues with intelligence, integrity and insight and we look forward to benefiting from her experience and wisdom.

The streaming platform recently announced that they are planning to incorporate more current affair talk shows and weekly programs, it seems as though Susan will be the perfect delegate to go over such series and provide valued insight on proper coverage.

I am thrilled to be joining the board of directors of Netflix, a cutting-edge company whose leadership, high-quality productions, and unique culture I deeply admire, Susan said.

Netflix has close to 118 million subscribers worldwide and with the plans to release 700 series and movies this year alone, that number is bound to grow even more.
Three Schlitterbahn Waterparks officials now have been swept up in a criminal probe into the 2016 decapitation death of a 10-year-old boy at the companys Kansas park.

An indictment unsealed Tuesday in Kansas reveals for the first time that ride designer John Timothy Schooley and Henry and Sons Construction Co., Schlitterbahns construction firm, also face charges of second-degree murder, aggravated battery and aggravated endangering of a child in the death of Caleb Thomas Schwab, along with park co-owner Jeffrey Wayne Henry.

The 10-year-old, the son of Kansas State Rep. Scott Schwab, died Aug. 7, 2016, while riding the 168-foot Verruckt slide when he hit a hoop that held protective netting on the rides second hill.

The indictment names Henry as Verruckts visionary and designer and Schooley as the slides lead designer. It accuses both men of ignoring safety standards during the slides design process and warnings about the rides potential danger.

If convicted on all 18 counts, each defendant faces a maximum sentence of almost 139 years and fines potentially totaling $3.4 million.

Under Kansas law, suspects can be charged with second-degree murder if evidence suggests the act was committed unintentionally but recklessly under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life.

Last week, a Wyandotte County grand jury indicted Schlitterbahn along with Tyler Austin Miles, a director of operations for Schlitterbahn, on charges of involuntary manslaughter, aggravated battery, aggravated endangerment of a child and interfering with law enforcement by concealing evidence.

The grand jury also charged Miles, 29, with allegedly giving false information to a detective. Miles pleaded not guilty to the charges Friday after turning himself in.

Schlitterbahn pushed back Tuesday against the charges levied against Henry, Schooley and the construction company. The indictment is wrought with references to the outtakes of a dramatic, scripted television show, and filled with information that we fully dispute, company spokeswoman Winter Prosapio said in a statement sent late Tuesday.

Jeff Henry has designed water park rides the world over, Prosapio said. Nearly every water park that exists today has an attraction or feature based on his designs or ideas.

The incident that happened that day was a terrible and tragic accident. We mourn the loss of this child and are devastated for his family. We know that Tyler, Jeff, and John are innocent and that we run a safe operation - our 40 years of entertaining millions of people speaks to that.

The U.S. Marshals Service arrested Henry on Monday in South Padre Island on a warrant out of Kansas, the Kansas Attorney Generals Office said Tuesday in a news release. Henry is due to appear in Cameron County court Thursday. A judge Tuesday ordered that he be held without bond pending extradition to Kansas.

Schooley is not yet in custody, the Kansas Attorney Generals Office said.

A separate indictment unsealed last week alleges that Verruckts designers and operators knew the slide could cause severe bodily injury and potentially death but kept the ride open anyway. The rides operators knew of at least 13 injuries  including two concussions  sustained by riders, including four children.

Neither Henry, who dropped out of high school to work for his fathers water park, nor Schooley had technical or engineering credentials pertaining to amusement ride design or safety, the charging document says. Furthermore, neither man possessed the expertise required to properly and safely design a ride as complex as Verruckt, according to the indictment.

Henry, who co-owns the New Braunfels theme park company with his two siblings, first conceived of the Verruckt project in November 2012 as a way to impress producers of the Travel Channels Xtreme Waterparks series and fast-tracked the slides design and construction phases, skipping over necessary calculations and safety measures in the process, according to the indictment.

The indictment also details alleged actions by Schlitterbahn and its employees to silence subordinates and cover up evidence of park visitors injuries caused by Verruckt.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON  Social media feeds on Tuesday morning sported links to an article listing the Nine Reasons Why Patagonia Secretly Loves Fracking, and memes including a picture of empty shelves with the caption, Patagonia introduces new petroleum-free product line.

The online campaign against the outdoor gear manufacturer was the work of a group called Texans for Natural Gas, a grassroots organization funded by oil and gas companies including EnerVest, EOG Resources and XTO Energy, a division of Exxon Mobil, which said in a press release it was taking issue with Patagonias hypocritical opposition to fracking.

As the fight over fracking and climate change has ramped up in recent years, oil and gas companies are engaged in increasingly creative public relations campaigns to convince the American public that transitioning away from petroleum products represents a foolish and calamitous mistake.

If the articles blasted out across the Internet on Tuesday morning all sounded a little ridiculous, that was exactly the point, says Steve Everley, the oil and gas consultant who serves as a spokesman for Texans for Natural Gas.

Theres a broader conversation now with a company like Patagonia that uses petroleum products and then plants their principled flag in the ground, he said. This is intended to be funny and a little cheesy, and help people laugh a little. Everything these days seems to be the sky is falling, but every single day the sky is still there.

Patagonia executives declined comment on the effort.

How the California-based company ended up the target of an oil industry-backed attack campaign traces back to Patagonias longtime criticism of the hydraulic fracturing boom. In 2013 then CEO Casey Sheahan wrote to California legislators, We believe the damage caused by this process to human health and to the environment, especially the air, soil and water quality, will have consequences that cant be undone for centuries.

The tense relationship with the oil industry only intensified in December when Patagonia sued the U.S. government to block President Donald Trump from reducing the size of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments.

The homepage of the companys website that day read, The President stole your land.

Attacking climate scientists

Now environmentalists see the attack against Patagonia as an effort to sow confusion while discrediting a well-known and well-financed critic of the Trump administrations environmental policies  Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinards net worth was pegged at $1 billion by Forbes last year.

Climate scientists like Michael Mann of Penn State University and Katharine Hayhoe of Texas Texas University have been the subject of similar attacks.

Naomi Oreskes, a professor at Harvard University who co-wrote Merchants of Doubt about the oil industrys efforts to undermine climate science, said the attack against Patagonia reflected the latest in a long running campaign by some corners of the oil and gas industry to slow the movement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

They recycle different arguments based on what they think will work in any given moment, she said. They say were all hypocrites because we drive a car.  Look, were in a system and all of us are part of it. Thats why were trying to change the system.

In recent years, the oil and gas industry, which was long famous for maintaining a steely silence in the public sphere, has become increasingly visible.

Last year, the American Petroleum Institute, the industrys largest lobbying organization, ran an ad during the Super Bowl with images of products from makeup to artificial limbs, telling viewers, This aint your daddys oil.

Everley said he, along with an Austin public relations firm, launched the website FrackFeed.com  where the Patagonia article posted Tuesday  in 2015 as a way to reach out to millennials who werent reading the industrys policy papers.

It was designed to reach a younger audience through memes and listicles, he said. There was a legitimate concern what the industry was putting out was not reaching younger people.

Gaining followers

So far they seem to be having some success. Facebook shows Texans for Natural Gas having more than 250,000 followers, while FrackFeed counts over 130,000 followers.

At the same time, a recent study by the University of Colorado and Yale University found that climate change denial groups, many linked to the oil and gas industry, were getting increasing coverage in print and television news.

These front groups are getting a little more engaged in the public conversations and media attention is picking up on them, said Max Boykoff, director of the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research at the University of Colorado. It is less clear why that is the case.

In recent years, some oil companies, like BP and Shell, have become increasingly vocal about the need to shift away from oil to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, predicting oil demand could peak within a matter of two decades.

But within some oil companies, the fight is far from over, said John Hanger, a former top environmental official in Pennsylvania who has been critical of some environmentalist claims about frackings danger.

The oil industry is diverse, but there are some really reactionary, dinosaur-like parts of the industry, he said. I doubt Shell or BP wants to be anywhere near that campaign against Patagonia.
When Welcome Wilson Sr. reflects on his career from college administrator to civil defense chief to real estate mogul, he recalls a handful of life-changing conversations.

The earliest, and most important, was with his father.

My father said that in order to succeed in business, you have to have guts and determination, Wilson told me. Not guts to fight somebody, but guts to make a pitch. Youve got to have the ability and perspicacity to go see someone who is important, that youve never met before in your life, and make a pitch in your favor.

Wilson is the chairman of the Welcome Group, a commercial and industrial property developer with 4 million square feet of building space in 87 locations. But Wilsons earliest developments were residential, including Jamaica Beach in 1957 and Tiki Island, both of which are now cities.

His real estate deals alone are enough to guarantee a spot in the annals of Houston business, but they are only a small part of his contributions. Thats why 600 of Houstons most influential people gathered last week to celebrate Wilsons 90th birthday.

Wilson was born in San Angelo, but his father eventually moved the family to Houston. Wilson graduated from the University of Houston with a degree in business administration in 1949, and worked for the universitys College of Nursing before he was drafted for the Korean War.

Decades later Wilson served as chairman of the University of Houston Board of Regents and was responsible for recruiting Renu Khator to become president.

That was the best job I ever had, Wilson said in his office on Westheimer, where he still reports to work in a suit and tie. My four passions in life are my God, my family, my country and the University of Houston. And none of them have ever let me down.

After serving as a naval intelligence officer, Wilson returned home and became Houstons chief of civil defense. Visiting Houstons different neighborhoods sparked a life-long interest in civil rights, which included dealing with African American students protesting segregated lunch counters.

In the 1960s, the mayor, Lewis Cutrer, called me one day and said: `You have to help me solve this lunch-counter problem, Wilson said. We called a meeting of the owners of the eight downtown lunch counters.

After three hours of heated discussions, the store owners agreed to desegregate the following Monday. But they wanted to minimize publicity, so Wilson asked the newspapers and television stations to downplay the story.

That would not happen today, Wilson said with a chuckle. I then called the leader of the protestors and told him to send enough people to fill all eight lunch counters, and if they arrived by noon, they would be served.

Fifty years later, Wilson was an early proponent of the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, which would have protected transgender Texans from discrimination. The ordinance was revoked by voters in a 2015 referendum.

In Houston, we address problems head-on. We dont avoid them, said Wilson, who is still fighting for transgender rights. Were lying in wait. Well be back. I promise you.

Wilsons civil defense work led to jobs in the administrations of President Dwight Eisenhower and President John Kennedy. He witnessed an atomic bomb test in Nevada in 1954 and the hydrogen bomb test at Bikini Atoll in 1956. President Lyndon Johnson appointed him as a special ambassador to Nicaragua in 1966.

When not working for a president, Wilson built thousands of homes, founded a bank, owned part of the Houston Astros, backed the Astrodome and chaired the American Stock Exchange Company.

Wilsons fortune, though, comes from commercial real estate. His company constructed, owned and operated hundreds of building with millions of square feet over the years, but the Welcome Group now specializes in build-to-suit industrial projects. The narrower focus has allowed the company to cut back from 65 employees to only 20. His son Welcome Wilson Jr. is now chief executive officer.

Another life lesson Wilson recalled is the importance of kindness, which he learned from his mentor, early investor, and best friend, Bob Smith. Wilson sponsored the Bob and Vivian Smith Fountain in downtown Houston to honor the legendary Houston oilman and civic leader in 1970.

Wilson has always understood that no business can grow unless its community prospers too. Every Houston business person should aspire to Wilsons legacy of not only business accomplishments but civic contributions too.

Most importantly, Wilson has always had the courage to fight for whats best for the city without engaging in destructive political partisanship. He consistently applied his business acumen to seek out pragmatic solutions to the citys challenges.

Therefore, allow me to offer a belated Happy Birthday to Welcome Wilson Sr. on his 90th, and a heartfelt thank you for his contributions to our city, state and nation.
Insperity has opened a district office in Sugar Land Town Square.

The company has leased 4,093 square feet at 2245 Texas Drive, suite 100, according to Planned Community Developers. The deal brings the building to 96 percent leased.

RELATED: Words that mean something at Insperity: work-life balance

"Insperity's employees will enjoy a full range of walkable amenities, ample structural parking, and close proximity to many stores and restaurants in an experiential urban-style setting," said Don Janssen, principal of Planned Community Developers.

Houston-based Insperity, which operates 68 offices throughout the United States, provides human resources and business performance solutions that support 100,000 businesses. Its services include employee benefits, payroll processing, performance management, recruiting, employee screening, retirement services and insurance services.

Donald Garrett has been named district manager of the new office. Garrett joined the company in 2015 as a business performance advisor and was promoted to district manager in 2016.

RELATED: Real estate briefs

Rich Pancioli of CBRE represented Insperity. Janssen represented Planned Community Developers.

Also in Sugar Land Town Square, Lotus Midstream recently leased 7,575 square feet for its headquarters at 2150 Town Square Place, Sugar Land. Lonna Dorman of Transwestern represented the tenant. Don Janssen represented Planned Community Developers.
The guys that wrote two of the most-popular books about tacos in Texas, Mando Rayo and Jarod Neece, are currently filming a seven-episode web series about the Lone Star State's favorite snack.

Greenlit by ITVS, the series "The Tacos of Texas" will stream on the Indie Lens Storycast, a YouTube channel that was launched in partnership with PBS Digital Studios.

TACO CITY: Don't settle for anything but Houston's best tacos

Rayo and Neece wrote the loving odes "The Tacos of Texas" and "Austin Breakfast Tacos: The Story of the Most Important Taco of the Day," both drool-worthy tomes. They will serve as co-hosts for the show.

El Paso, Austin, San Antonio, Brownsville, Corpus Christi and Dallas are all on the filming schedule. Expect to see puffy tacos, migas tacos, carnitas tacos, barbacoa tacos and more profiled for the series.

Now Playing: Instead of heading to your favorite Mexican restaurant, take this spicy shrimp and pineapple tacos recipe into the kitchen. Watch this video for a recipe to make Taco Tuesday more exciting. Video: Health

Thursday through Sunday this week the duo and a production crew will be in Houston gathering footage and meeting some of the city's taco ambassadors.

"The overall theme for the series is the 'iconic tacos of Texas' and for the Houston episode we're focusing on tacos al pastor and the taco truck scene with La Macro and Boombox Taco," Rayo said Tuesday.

Those two taco trucks serve up some of the best street tacos in Houston.

STEP ASIDE, CHILI: Expert makes the case for tacos as the official dish of Texas

"We'll explore the city vibe and culture as well, including how Houston lives up to being one of the most diverse cities in America," he added.

Those who want to keep up with where the Tacos of Texas crew is going in Houston can follow them on Instagram and Facebook. The hashtag #TacosofTexas is also a worthy follow.

Local issues such as "taco gentrification" and the importance of the tortilla will be detailed in cities across Texas. How immigrants keep their own traditions alive while pursuing the American Dream is also a focal point.

Filming continues now through the summer and the series should be ready to go by the fall.

Craig Hlavaty is a reporter for Chron.com and HoustonChronicle.com.




The Years is well documented through her diary and the various manuscripts, many scholars have gone to the manuscripts and found themselves disappointed by the choices Woolf made for the final version, particularly how she systematically cut explicit critiques of patriarchy in favor of embedding them within the structure of the whole, requiring the reader to pay close attention to repetitions and implications in the text rather than relying on characters who proselytize or whose fictional situations are designed for polemical purposes. Some of these critics take their disappointment out on Woolf by accusing her of cowardice because she wrote a subtle novel. The latest person to do this is Molly Hite, in her (otherwise often quite interesting) recent study Woolf's Ambiguities. Hite looks at the differences between Woolf's initial plan for The Years and its final form and Because Woolf's writing ofis well documented through her diary and the various manuscripts, many scholars have gone to the manuscripts and found themselves disappointed by the choices Woolf made for the final version, particularly how she systematically cut explicit critiques of patriarchy in favor of embedding them within the structure of the whole, requiring the reader to pay close attention to repetitions and implications in the text rather than relying on characters who proselytize or whose fictional situations are designed for polemical purposes. Some of these critics take their disappointment out on Woolf by accusing her of cowardice because she wrote a subtle novel. The latest person to do this is Molly Hite, in her (otherwise often quite interesting) recent study. Hite looks at the differences between Woolf's initial plan forand its final form and says that "this change in form was not 'a good idea' aesthetically, although the step back into a less experimental structure may have been necessary for Woolf herself because of her own psychological involvement in the materials she had collected", a statement I find stunningly inaccurate and patronizing, but it's typical of readers who prefer to psychoanalyze Woolf than to really look at what the texts are doing as texts.





Virginia Woolf's Late Cultural Criticism is an important corrective to a lot of the received opinion about The Years and Three Guineas. Wood looks closely at the development of the manuscripts into final form, and insightfully shows what choices Woolf made as she went along. Such careful attention to the texts allows Wood to demonstrate once and for all that The Years is an impressive aesthetic achievement, even if readers like Hite (and Grace Radin and even, to some extent, Jane Marcus) see Woolf's choices as disappointing failures of nerve. For anyone with an interest in Woolf's later work, Wood's book is essential. Alice Wood's thorough and accessible studyis an important corrective to a lot of the received opinion aboutand. Wood looks closely at the development of the manuscripts into final form, and insightfully shows what choices Woolf made as she went along. Such careful attention to the texts allows Wood to demonstrate once and for all thatis an impressive aesthetic achievement, even if readers like Hite (and Grace Radin and even, to some extent, Jane Marcus) see Woolf's choices as disappointing failures of nerve. For anyone with an interest in Woolf's later work, Wood's book is essential.





The Years or Three Guineas as the equal of Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse; they are not. Those works are singular. But The Years and Three Guineas are fascinating, compelling books when read with an open mind and an eye sympathetic to the complexities that they sometimes quite subtly hide. The narrative of Woolf as a fragile woman whose final decade doomed her to slip into the waters of the River Ouse is noxious to me. Up to the end, she challenged herself to find new forms, to avoid repetition, to upset conventions. In one of her last, great essays, I offer these scattered thoughts on this anniversary of Woolf's death because I want to counter the view of Woolf's last decade as one of fragility and decline. It would be a mistake to positoras the equal ofand; they are not. Those works are singular. Butandare fascinating, compelling books when read with an open mind and an eye sympathetic to the complexities that they sometimes quite subtly hide. The narrative of Woolf as a fragile woman whose final decade doomed her to slip into the waters of the River Ouse is noxious to me. Up to the end, she challenged herself to find new forms, to avoid repetition, to upset conventions. In one of her last, great essays, "Thoughts on Peace in an Air Raid" , she said: "'I will not cease from mental fight,' Blake wrote. Mental fight means thinking against the current, not with it."

Today is the anniversary of Virginia Woolf's death in 1941. Tomorrow, I defend a doctoral dissertation with a chapter on Woolf's 1937 novel, and I have spent much of last few years studying Woolf's writings and life in the 1930s especially. Here, a few thoughts on that.Woolf's last decade is under-appreciated both by general readers and by scholars, although there seems to be growing scholarly interest in her final, not-quite-finished novel. ("Under-appreciated" is, of course, relative  Woolf is one of the most-studied writers of the 20th century, and many of her contemporaries don't have even a small percentage of the attention for their entirethat Woolf has for her least-read writings.) The relative lack of interest in Woolf's life and work afterhas various sources, many of them having to do with why readers are attracted to Woolf in the first place. Her achievement withandis one of the great literary triumphs of the 20th century  these books reconfigured the novel as a form and the language as a medium. (, her first bestseller, isn't far behind as an achievement.) She wrote hundreds of essays, with many of her most powerful statements about aesthetics and literature being in the essays of the 1920s, and she finished the decade with, one of the most influential essays of the century. It's no surprise that the 1920s is the decade focused on by the majority of Woolf scholarship, and that decade's work what most readers are familiar with. That focus, though, does have an effect on how Woolf is perceived as both a person and a writer.To see just how dominant the 1920s are in perceptions of Woolf, look at the best biography of her, Hermione Lee's from the mid-'90s, which is remarkable in all sorts of ways but disappointing in its coverage of the 1930s. (If you want to know how much Lee skims over, read Herbert Marder's. It's not as artful as Lee's biography, but it's a necessary addition to it. Also valuable: the last section of Alison Light's extraordinary.)My own academic study has mostly focused onwhich I wrote about a few years ago here as I was beginning work on it; more recently, I have an article in the latest Woolf Studies Annual (vol. 24), "The Reader Awakes: Pedagogical Form and Utopian Impulse in". I'll have a few words for it below. However, if there were one post-Woolf book that I would want to put in everyone's hands right now, it would be Three Guineas in the Harcourt edition that Jane Marcus edited . Lots of people hate this book. It is Woolf's most developed, strident, and often angry statement against militarism, fascism, and patriarchy. Its critiques are as bracing and necessary today as they were in 1938. That does not make it an easy read, because Woolf's ideas do not separate fascism, militarism, patriotism, nationalism, despotism, and patriarchy  while most readers are likely to disapprove of any one of those things, few readers reject them all, and so the links Woolf makes are ones that raise the blood pressure of nearly everyone who encounters her text. That she does all this via a complex structure of narrative voices and literary and historical allusions only makes it all the more difficult to parse exactly what she is advocating at any one moment. It is a book that confronts and confounds. As such, it is uniquely clarifying when read carefully.I recommend Marcus's edition not only because it has useful annotations, but because Marcus wrestled with the book for much of her life, and her own iconoclastic opinions were more in line with Woolf's than many scholars', making her long introduction itself a tour de force of polemic and analysis. (Anna Snaith's recent edition ofandfor Oxford World's Classics is also excellent, though less passionate. Snaith is one of the preeminent scholars of Woolf in the '30s, and her edition offor Cambridge is a masterpiece of scholarly editing.)As for, I've sat in multiple conference sessions where it would be a perfect example for whatever the session's topic is, and while other, less apt, Woolf works are discussed,is skipped over without mention. There are major Woolf studies that leave it out entirely. (Not quite as many as leave out, which perhaps vies with her biography of Roger Fry as Woolf's most forgotten and neglected book.)gets treated as expendable in a wayandnever are. Though some scholars have certainly given excellent attention to, it remains possible, for instance, for Jane De Gay in Virginia Woolf's Novels and the Literary Past (2006) not only to analyze each of the novels except, but to never explain this omission  the book's title doesn't appear anywhere in De Gay's text that I've found. Similarly,makes barely any appearance in Emily Blair's(2007), where it might be expected to get at least a few paragraphs of analysis, if not a whole chapter, given its close relationship to domestic novels (but at least Blair makes no pretense of covering all of Woolf's novels is also absent except for a couple of footnotes. Still,owes so much to 19th century domestic novels that the absence screams out). Aside from a small group of scholars who demonstrate some appreciation for whatachieves, most Woolfians dismiss the novel as a failure.The problem foris that many people have a very set idea of what a "good Woolf novel" must be. Woolf's better-approved books of the mid-1920s, for all their innovations, still have trackable characters with distinct personalities and voices, narratives with easily-noticed organizing principles, and details which clearly serve those principles. Perhaps more importantly, Woolf's "good novels" are overtly, even ostentatiously experimental  oneskeptic, Pamela Transue, calls "a unique literary creation, daringly experimental in style, structure, and theme" and writes that "On almost every level is in part a comment on the limitations of the novel in its classic form." For Transue,is successful in all the waysis not. Such an evaluation fails, though, to read the books on their own terms. The specific reading strategies that lead to an appreciation ofare not the specific reading strategies that will lead to an appreciation of, as the two novels are  and were from the moment Woolf conceived almost exactly opposite in their experimental approach to the idea of the novel as a form and genre.No-one would ever mistakefor a conventional novel, and the position it puts the reader in is that of someone who must discover how to make sense of the text while reading, rather than being able to benefit from knowledge of novelistic conventions. From the first pages, the reader ofknows that this is not a novel that follows the traditional conventions of the form. That is one type of experimental writing (thetext), but another is the text that unsettles conventions from within. The innovations ofare embedded within the reader's perception of the book as a novel. It becomes a new kind of "comment on the limitations of the novel in its classic form" for Woolf, and something more than a comment, because readerly experience is central to the effect. The critique of the novel form woven throughis activated via the expectations the reader brings to it.sets up an antagonism between the reader and the text. Wherestretches toward being an anti-novel in the way it excludes so much of what is conventional within novels generally,teases familiar novelistic conventions to frustrate and then reshape them, makingof the novel.requires the reader to learn how to read it from scratch, because from the first pages it is clear that few of our assumptions about how a novel works will be applicable with this book, whereasteaches the reader to see the inadequacy of received ideas about how a novel makes meaning and what within a novel is most meaningful. For the critique of patriarchy and family that was so important to Woolf's project in the 1930s, the novel form itself needed to be pulled apart from the inside. She had gathered, she said in her diary, "enough powder to blow up St Pauls", but for the most effective demolition, she needed to place that powder inside the structure itself.
A 27-year-old New Waverly man has been identified as the suspect who allegedly fired at a Conroe police officer during a traffic stop early Tuesday morning, according to the Conroe Police Department.

The public helped identify the suspect, Raymond Cole Lynch, through still video footage from the officer's body camera.

The officer tried stopping the driver of a black Lexus around 4:10 a.m. on the Interstate 45 northbound feeder lane at Gladstell. The Lexus pulled over, and as the officer approached, the Lexus driver fired at him multiple times, said Sgt. Scott McCann, of the Conroe Police Department.

Now Playing: A shooter is on the run after firing at a Conroe police officer during a traffic stop Tuesday morning, according to the Conroe Police. Video: Scott Engle, Montgomery County Police Reporter

The officer then returned fire, McCann said. It is unknown whether the driver was injured or any bullets struck the Lexus, which fled north on the feeder. The officer was uninjured.

Around 5:30 a.m., a security officer south of Conroe saw a Lexus on fire in the woods off Crater Hill Road, according to the Montgomery County Police Reporter. The Caney Creek Fire Department and Conroe Police Department responded to the scene.

Anyone who knows of Lynch's current whereabouts should call the Conroe Police Department at 936-522-3200 or a local law enforcement agency. Do not attempt to apprehend Lynch, according to CPD.

Lynch was found guilty of burglary of a building in April 2016 and was sentenced to four years of community supervision. He also was arrested and charged with evading arrest in June 2017 and was sentenced to eight months in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice because he was on probation when he was arrested again in 2017. Both arrests occurred in Montgomery County.
Top officials from a Galveston County health clinic defended that clinic's sterilization procedures this week, saying six dental patients found to have hepatitis C did not become infected at the facility.

Mary McClure, the executive director at Coastal Health & Wellness, told reporters that the state's citation of breaches in infection control were mostly related to lack proper documentation.

"No one said there wasn't sterilization going on," McClure said at a Monday press conference. "There was not documentation of some trainings, which, now there is documentation that they've been trained by the manufacturer. There was some missing documentation; there were some staff that didn't know where some items were on the machine. Everything is not yet known and when the final report comes out, we'll know more about that."

McClure and Dr. Milton Howard, chairman of the Coastal Health & Wellness Board of Governors, spoke to reporters Monday to explain what steps the clinic has taken to ensure its procedures were above board.

"Let me just say this, we see all patients, we see patients with Hep C, Hep B and HIV and we take the proper precautions when we see each and every patient," Howard said.

An investigation by the Galveston County Health District and the state Department of State Health Services found that a Coastal Health & Wellness clinic in Texas City demonstrated poor sterilization procedures, including not adequately documenting the sterilizing of dental instruments. The review also found dirty areas where dental instruments were passing through.

McClure said that the clinic waited to tell its patients while the local health district and state and federal authorities conducted the investigation, and canceled their patients' appointments at the dental clinic during that 38-day period, citing internal "redesigns."

The investigation was triggered by a recent accreditation site review conducted on Feb. 12-13. Texas facilities go through the accreditation process every three years.

During its last accreditation, the Coastal Health & Wellness clinic in Texas City was found to have a "minor issue" with sterilization, according to Dr. Philip Keiser from the Galveston County Local Health Authority.

"Looking back at that, that was a good starting point to say, 'This is where we need to start looking,'" Keiser said.

The health district estimated that as many as 9,500 patients who frequented the clinic from March 15, 2015 through February 12, 2018 would need to be tested for hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV.

Keiser said that the investigators had cross-referenced all of the patient files from Coastal Health & Wellness against Department of Health records for people in Galveston County that reported to have those three diseases.

On Tuesday, Keiser said that six people who received dental treatment at the Texas City Coastal Health & Wellness Clinic in the past three years were diagnosed with hepatitis C after visiting the clinic. Two of the six contracted the disease outside of the clinic; the county is still investigating how the other four were infected.

"There was over 300 cases of hepatitis C among those 9,000 patients," Keiser said. "We asked the question, since we have all these patients with hepatitis C that go to the clinic, was there any time association between the dental clinic seeing a patient with hepatitis C and some of these unexplained cases? And the answer was yes for every one of them, including two of the patients - the same day that they were seen, a patient with hepatitis C was seen."

Keiser, without directly disputing McClure, said the violations were not merely administrative. He explained that most clinics have a "dirty" and "clean" area. After equipment is used, it goes into the dirty area, then to the clean area where the equipment is put in a cleaning machine before it is run through an autoclave, which sterilizes the equipment.

Keiser said that staff was placing sterilized equipment back in the dirty area because of the flow of how the Texas City clinic was designed. He added that there was no documentation that the solution in the cleaning machine had ever been changed.

"There were a lot of little breaches, any one in themselves you can probably write off as well that's a procedural thing we need to fix that," Keiser said. "But when you take them all together it brings you concern."

McClure said that the clinic trains its staff on sterilization equipment in accordance with the manufacturing guidelines on their equipment. She would not say whether any staff members have been fired for neglecting sterilization procedures, citing the ongoing investigation.

As of Tuesday morning, 404 patients had come into the health district for screening. The dental clinic remains closed until the investigation is complete, which could take months, Keiser said. He added that the clinic would remain closed until it can "demonstrate competency."

"It isn't that we say we know how to do it, it's that they can do it and that they demonstrate it for someone who's an independent observer who can say, 'This is how we sterilize the instruments,' and someone says, 'You got it all right,'" Keiser said.

The health district is asking all patients who received dental services at Coastal Health & Wellness between March 15, 2015 and February 12, 2018 to be tested. The free screenings will be available through April 13.

Nick Powell covers Galveston County for the Chronicle. Follow him on Twitter and send him tips at nick.powell@chron.com
Houston ISDs hunt for a new superintendent will begin in earnest in the coming weeks after its board of trustees last week named Grenita Lathan as its interim leader.

It is not the only local district looking for a new superintendent.

Aldine, Anahuac, Angleton, Conroe, Crosby and Waller ISDs are all searching for new superintendents after their current leaders announced their resignations and retirements earlier this school year.

Only Conroe ISD, which educates about 60,000 students north of Beltway 8, has named a lone finalist. That districts board of trustees last week tapped Curtis Null, who currently serves as the districts deputy superintendent, to replace Superintendent Don Stockton after he retires this summer.

David Thompson, a partner with the Thompson & Horton law firm, said of Texas more than 1,000 school districts, it is common to see leadership changes in about 160 of them each year. He said spring typically is a busy season for superintendent searches, even though it is the same time school boards must hammer out budget and staffing details for the coming school year.

If people are retiring at the end of the year, their contracts typically run through June 30, Thompson said. Someone can finish the school year, the new superintendent can transition over summer and be ready for the next school year.

That is what happened in Conroe and Aldine ISDs. Conroe ISD Superintendent Don Stockton, who has led the district since 2003, announced his retirement in August to give the districts board of trustees time to conduct a thorough search for his replacement. Wanda Bamberg, who has led Aldine ISD since 2007, announced her retirement in October along with Aldine ISDs Deputy Superintendent of Operations Archie Blanson.

Waller ISD Superintendent Danny Twardowski, affectionately known as Mr. T, also is retiring after leading that district for eight years.

Crosby ISDs search is occurring under murkier circumstances.

The district announced in January that Superintendent Keith Moore had signed resignation papers effective June 30. According to a voluntary separation agreement obtained by the Houston Chronicle, Moore is not allowed to visit Crosby ISD campuses without permission, but will continue to be paid his full $234,130 annual salary and receive district benefits until June 30.

The agreement does not say why Moore will continue to draw a salary or why he resigned, other than a line that states his resignation will allow Moore to pursue other interests in the best interests of his family and himself. Former Pasadena ISD Superintendent Kirk Lewis was named as Moores interim replacement in February.

Thompson said smaller school districts typically get more applicants than those larger than a few thousand students.

In our experience, as districts get larger, your pool gets smaller, Thompson said. When you get into larger districts with multiple high schools, budgets in the hundreds of millions of dollars, the pool of people with the experience base to move into those communities gets smaller.

Sarah Blakelock, director of communications for Conroe ISD, said more than 20 people applied to lead the suburban district that encompasses much of The Woodlands and other suburban communities north of Houston.

Steven Mead, president of Aldine ISDs board of trustees, said candidates for his districts top position will begin to come in for interviews next week, but would not say how many had applied.

We want someone who knows what Aldine needs for its kids, someone who can close gaps between our kiddos, someone who is very professional and engages with stakeholders and teachers, everything like that, Mead said.

Thompson said districts increasingly have asked for candidates who are fluent in Spanish as Hispanic communities in Houston and statewide continue to grow. Teaching experience also is a big plus, Thompson said, because it helps leaders better understand classroom challenges.

The search process often takes months as boards work to find the best fit.

This is the most important decision school boards get to make, Thompson said. In our experience, boards and communities recognize the importance of it. They take it very seriously.
The campaign to replace Councilman Larry Green promises to be chaotic, with nine candidates vying to become the second person to represent his southwest Houston district.

Green, who held the District K seat for more than six years, died unexpectedly in his home earlier this month. A special election for the term that runs through 2019 is scheduled for May 5.

The crowded field of council hopefuls features former council candidates, two city employees and a handful of political newcomers.

Name recognition will be key in what is expected to be a low-turnout election, University of Houston political scientist Jeronimo Cortina said.

When you have very low turnout, anything can happen, Cortina said. A few votes here, a few votes there and then you multiply that by nine. Given the number, you would expect that its going to be a competitive race.

subhead

Pat Frazier, a community activist who serves on the Harris County Appraisal Districts appraisal review board, and Larry Blackmon, a businessman and former teacher, are among the most politically experienced.

Frazier, 58, mounted an unsuccessful campaign for the district seat in 2011, and said her passion for the community inspired her to run again. She said her priorities would include seeing through many of the infrastructure projects Green championed, working with law enforcement to try to reduce crime, collaborating with businesses to revitalize strip centers and bringing a high-quality grocery store to the area.

Safety is a major issue for me in all parts of the district, Frazier said.

Blackmon, who unsuccessfuly ran for an at-large seat in 2015, said he wants to develop a plan to make Houston more resilient to flooding, improve streets and bring more medical services to the district.

Thats a great start, Blackmon, 68, said of the proposed flood plain regulations City Council is slated to consider Wednesday. But I would still have to be a person from the city of Houston to lobby to the state Legislature to get the cooperation of the surrounding counties.

Aisha Savoy, meanwhile, is a first-time candidate who works in the citys flood plain management office. She touted her disaster recovery work and said she would focus on economic development, environmental protection and public safety.

Everybody has a right to feel safe, said Savoy, 40.

Carl David Evans, president of the Fort Bend Houston Super Neighborhood, wants to eliminate flooding, make the district safer and advocate to improve public education.

Ive been fighting for our community on the outside for a long, long time, said Evans, 63. I wanted to get in this race to fight from the inside.

subhead

Former city employee Anthony Freddie, 55, spoke to youth empowerment, public safety and road upgrades.

What Id like to do is definitely focus on the infrastructure, Freddie said.

Elisabeth Johnson, 32, is finishing a masters degree in public administration at Texas Southern University. She is keen on lifting Houstons cap on property tax collections and bringing more economic opportunities to District K.

Basically talking to builders and other contractors throughout the district to see what we can do to get more businesses open, talking to entrepreneurs to get them started in their businesses, Johnson said.

Lawrence McGaffie, a 30-year-old disabled veteran, said he is running in part to encourage young people to take on leadership roles.

My whole goal is to get the young people involved, to inspire them to make a change where they are, in their classrooms, in their homes, in their communities, wherever they are, to be that leader, McGaffie said.

Martha Castex-Tatum, the late councilmans constituent liaison, did not respond to requests for comment, and Gerry Vander-Lyn, an administrative assistant and first-time candidate for public office, was not available for comment.
BEIJING - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made a surprise trip to China this week, meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping ahead of planned summits with South Korean and U.S. leaders, Chinese and North Korean state media confirmed Wednesday.

The journey, which is believed to be Kim's first foreign trip since he came to power in 2011, adds a new piece to a complex diplomatic puzzle over the future of North Korea's nuclear program.

The announcement ends a mystery that started on Monday, when a mysterious train chugged into central Beijing, spurring reports of a high-profile visitor from North Korea.

The North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) confirmed that the visitor was indeed Kim, along with his wife, Ri Sol Ju, arriving for an "unofficial" visit at the invitation of the Chinese president, Xi Jinping. The confirmation came sometime after the North Korean group is believed to have departed China.

Kim traveled with all his top aides, KCNA said, including Choe Ryong Hae, often called the No. 2 leader of North Korea and the head of the powerful Organization and Guidance Department, and Ri Su Yong, the former ambassador to Switzerland and foreign minister, who is now a top official in the Politburo.

China and North Korea have had close ties for decades, but in recent years, the relationship has been stressed. Kim's visit suggests an effort to repair relations ahead of Kim's planned meetings with the South's president, Moon Jae-in, and then U.S. President Donald Trump.

Chinese and North Korean accounts of the meeting struck a positive tone. "We speak highly of this visit," Xi told Kim, according to Chinese state media.

Kim's toast to Xi: "It is appropriate that my first trip abroad is in China's capital, and my responsibility to consider continuing NK-China relations as valuable as life," according to KCNA.

The question of who was on the armored train had gripped the Chinese capital for days. The train arrived unannounced. Passengers disembarked and boarded limos. After nightfall, a motorcade drove to a state guesthouse where foreign dignitaries often stay.

But Chinese officials and media and the South Korean government were initially quiet about the identities of those who had been aboard.

Chinese netizens looking for answers hit a wall. On Tuesday, three of the top 10 blocked terms on Weibo, a microblogging site, were "Kim Jong Un," "North Korea" and "Fatty the third," a popular Chinese nickname for Kim, according to freeweibo.com, a website that tracks censorship.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders responded to the news of Kim's visit by saying that the Chinese government had briefed the Trump administration about the visit on Tuesday. The briefing included a "personal message from President Xi to President Trump," she said.

The Trump administration sees the development "as further evidence that our campaign of maximum pressure is creating the appropriate atmosphere for dialogue with North Korea," Sanders said.

Chinese experts said a visit by a senior North Korean leader before the meetings with Moon and Trump made sense.

"At a possibly historic moment, before the start of a dramatic play on the Korean Peninsula, China was losing the spotlight," said Cheng Xiaohe, a North Korea expert at Beijing's Renmin University. A visit would restore Beijing's leading role, he reasoned.

Zhang Liangui, a retired professor and Korea scholar at the Central Party School in Beijing, said, "The North Korea nuclear issue cannot be solved by solely relying on negotiations between North Korea and the United States, because, essentially, the nuclear issue is a regional security issue, not an issue of the relationship between North Korea and the United States."

Experts also said secrecy was standard for North Korean visitors. "Kim Jong Un's father, Kim Jong Il, employed a similar approach in the past," said Lu Chao, a Korea expert at China's Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences. "It's usually a secret visit and then publicized after the North Korean leader has left."

It was the example of Kim Jong Il's 2011 visit that provided early clues that something was up.

The detective work started Monday when train spotters and North Korea watchers noticed two suspicious developments: tight security at the China-North Korea border and train delays across the northeast.

On Monday afternoon, Japanese broadcaster NTV spotted an unusual train pulling into a station in the heart of the capital. It was green and yellow and looked a lot like the trains used by Kim Jong Il in 2011.

As the news started to spread, so did unverified videos of a motorcade speeding through the Chinese capital. Soon, unconfirmed reports of Kim sightings were spreading in chat groups.

- - -

The Washington Post's Anna Fifield in Tokyo, Amber Ziye Wang, Shirley Feng, Luna Lin and Yang Liu in Beijing, Min Joo Kim in Seoul and Yuki Oda in Tokyo contributed to this report.
Police are searching for at least three people who are accused of shooting and injuring a resident during a home invasion in southeast Houston.

Around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, a group of masked men held a resident at gunpoint at a home in the 10000 block of Victoria Point Lane in southeast Houston, HPD Officer R. Naughton said.
12:34 p.m. UPDATE:

The Woodlands cataloged the most rainfall in the Greater Houston area over a 24-hour period, with 6.3 inches recorded by the National Weather Service.

In Harris County, rainfall ranged from a high of 5.56 inches in Westfield to a low of 1.1 inches near Holcombe.

11:47 a.m. UPDATE:

Houston meteorologists confirmed that a weak tornado producing winds of 60 mph went through Iowa Colony in Brazoria County Thursday morning.

A survey crew is out on the scene. The exact location and damage from the tornado is unknown.

8:18 a.m. UPDATE:

While Trinity River at Liberty is within its banks now, it is projected to rise through the weekend, causing major flooding on Saturday and Easter Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.

The Texas Department of Transportation Houston District has also identified high water on roads at four locations in the Houston area.

I-45 at North Main street right and center lanes

2920 westbound and eastbound right and center lanes at Calvert

IH-69 southbound entrance ramp at Williams Way Boulevard in Fort Bend County  entrance ramp

7:45 a.m. UPDATE:

The West Fork of San Jacinto River is expected to rise through mid-day, causing moderate flooding, according to the National Weather Service.

As of 7 a.m., the river was at 49 feet, and by 1 p.m., it is projected to reach around 51.6 feet before dropping, meteorologists predicted.

The main threat is street flooding to subdivisions near the river's edge and access to those subdivisions, meteorologist Jeff Lindner of the Harris County Flood Control District said.

Homes on Lake Point Drive in the Northshore subdivision in the Kingwood area could flood, and when the river reaches its highest point, the flooding could extend to other homes in that subdivision, according to the National Weather Service.

Minor flooding is also predicted at East Fork San Jacinto River near New Caney, Caney Creek near Splendora and Lake Creek north of The Woodlands.

Peach Creek near Splendora is expected to experience moderate flooding by 7 p.m.

7:05 a.m. UPDATE:

Houston's flash flood watch has expired as the storm system is starting to move east out of the area.

6:18 a.m. UPDATE:

The West Fork of the San Jacinto River at Highway 59 is "rising rapidly" and will exceed its banks Thursday morning, according to meteorologist Jeff Lindner of the Harris County Flood Control District.

Minor flooding is also expected to occur along the river from Lake Houston to west of Highway 59 as a result of Spring and Cypress Creek runoff.

5:45 a.m. UPDATE:

Conditions are expected to improve from west to east this morning, with the skies predicted to start clearing up sometime after 7 a.m., according to the National Weather Service.

Minor flooding is forecast for areas near Peach Creek near Splendora and West Fork San Jacinto River in Humble.

4:10 a.m. UPDATE:

The heaviest rain and lightning have moved on to the north and east of Houston, leaving only scattered areas of standing water, none serious enough to cause a road closure.

According to the National Weather Service, "Localized flooding is still possible. Precipitation will clear from west to east through the morning hours."

Showers and possible thunderstorms are still part of the morning mix.

2:50 a.m. UPDATE:

More than an inch of rain has fallen in many locations in and around Houston in the last hour as a strong line of storms has moved through from west to east.

A severe thunderstorm warning was issued by the National Weather Service for parts of Brazoria, Galveston, Harris and Matagorda counties until 3:45 a.m. The warning area did not include Houston proper.

Radar indicated a slight lull in the rainfall in the next hour or so, with the possibility that another band of heavy rain will move through before daybreak.

No major flooding events were reported as yet.

9:20 p.m. UPDATE:

A second round of storms expected to slam the Houston area overnight are stronger than previously forecast, according to the National Weather Service.

This means there is an increased chance of flooding, meteorologists predict. Most of the threat appears to be in the Brazos Valley, but other areas of concern are communities along the U.S. 59 corridor, NWS stated.

Some Houston-area communities have seen close to 3 inches of rain, mostly in north-to-northwest Harris County, Waller County and most of Montgomery County, according to the HArris County Flood Control District.

Most neighborhoods inside Houston's city limits have received less than 1.5 inches.

With a new round of storms coming through, the threat shifts from severe weather (tornadoes, wind, hail) to flooding. As much as 3 additional inches of rain could fall throughout the area, with some areas receiving an additional 6 inches by Thursday morning.

A widespread tornado watch expired at 9 p.m. All of southeast Texas remains under a flash flood watch until 1 a.m. Thursday, with Harris County and other more southern counties under a flash flood watch until 7 a.m. Thursday.

Storms are expected to clear out by late Thursday morning, NWS predicts.

8:20 p.m. UPDATE:

All of southeast Texas remains under a tornado watch until 9 p.m.

More storms are expected to roll into the area overnight, possibly causing minor flooding. The storms should clear out by Thursday afternoon, meteorologists predict.

7:30 p.m. UPDATE:

CenterPoint Energy reports several hundred outages in homes in Midtown.

6:15 p.m. UPDATE:

A short-lived ground stop at Houston's Bush Intercontinental Airport was lifted around 6:10 p.m. Wednesday.

The airport was under a ground stop due to severe weather in the area, including high winds.

6 p.m. UPDATE:

All aircraft have been grounded at Houston's Bush Intercontinental Airport due to the storms blowing through the area.

The airport tweeted that there is a ground stop due to wind shear.

A tornado warning issued for north Harris County, which included much of the airport, has since expired.

5:35 p.m. UPDATE:

A tornado warning has been issued for north Harris County, extending along the north Beltway 8 from around Veterans Memorial Drive almost to the Eastex Freeway.

The warning includes south Spring and Bush Intercontinental Airport.

The warning expires at 5:45 p.m.

While a thunderstorm warning has expired for parts of Harris, Waller and Fort Bend counties, a strong line of storms continues to pummel much of the Houston area.

Rain totals provided by the Harris County Flood Control District indicate many areas in west and northwest Harris County have received more than 1 inch of rain in the last hour.

The storms are expected to continue through Thursday morning, according to the National Weather Service.

4:40 p.m. UPDATE:

Parts of west Harris County are under a thunderstorm warning until 5 p.m., according to the National Weather Service.

The warning includes Katy and Brookshire, primarily affecting areas north of Interstate 10.

ORIGINAL STORY:

The Houston area is under a tornado watch until 9 p.m. today, according to the National Weather Service.

The watch means that people across Houston, as well as most of southeast Texas, are under a threat of possible tornadoes, "lime-sized" hail and wind gusts up to 70 mph, forecasters said.

Houston residents should be on the lookout for severe weather as storms are coming ahead of a cold front pushing its way through Texas, according to the National Weather Service.

At 12:45 p.m., a second line of strong thunderstorms was beginning to move into northern parts of southeast Texas, near College Station. A smaller line of thunderstorms was also starting to develop over Fort Bend and Harris Counties, meteorologists reported.

LATEST FORECAST: Keep up with the storms moving into the area

Rainfall totals from overnight Tuesday through Thursday are expected to be anywhere from 2 to 3 inches, with isolated areas receiving closer to 4 to 6 inches.

Now Playing: Latest Weather News Video: Houston Chronicle

A flash flood watch is also in effect for Houston and most of southeast Texas until Thursday morning.

Flash flooding warnings are also in effect for southeastern Burleson County, western Grimes County, western Washington County and central Brazos County until 4 p.m. As of 2 p.m., up to two inches of rain had already fallen, according to the National Weather Service.

The thunderstorms are now moving across southeast Texas, bringing heavy downpours and lightning, the National Weather Service said. Bayous throughout Houston could rise but should stay within their banks, meteorologists predict.

The Houston Fire Department is taking extra precautions ahead of a string of storms expected to hit the area over the next few days.

TAX DAY FLOOD 2016: Scroll through the slideshow below

HFD announced Tuesday they deployed an extra high-water rescue vehicle to HFD Station 37 near Stella Link and West Holcombe Boulevard, about a mile north of Brays Bayou.

High-water rescue vehicles are already stationed permanently at HFD Station 5 near Hammerly Boulevard and Bingle Road, HFD Station 57 near Memorial Drive and North Wilcrest Drive and HFD Station 58 near Fulton Street and Parker Road and can be dispatched throughout the city as needed, officials said.
A flash flood watch is in effect for Houston and most of southeast Texas until Thursday morning, according to the National Weather Service.

South central Trinity County, northwestern San Jacinto County and western Polk County are all under severe thunderstorm warnings until noon.

The thunderstorms are now moving across southeast Texas, bringing heavy downpours and lightning, the National Weather Service said. Later today and tonight, there could be damaging winds, large hail, dangerous lightning and heavy rainfall along with the storms. Isolated tornadoes could pop up near the coast.

Bayous throughout Houston could rise but should stay within their banks, meteorologists predict.

The Houston Fire Department is taking extra precautions ahead of a string of storms expected to hit the Houston area over the next few days.

HFD announced Tuesday they deployed an extra high-water rescue vehicle to HFD Station 37 near Stella Link and West Holcombe Boulevard, about a mile north of Brays Bayou.

High-water rescue vehicles are already stationed permanently at HFD Station 5 near Hammerly Boulevard and Bingle Road, HFD Station 57 near Memorial Drive and North Wilcrest Drive and HFD Station 58 near Fulton Street and Parker Road and can be dispatched throughout the city as needed, officials said.

EXECUTED: Suitcase Killer' calls for FBI investigation of DA in 7-minute final statement

Now Playing: Latest Weather News Video: Houston Chronicle

The severe storms are coming ahead of a cold front pushing its way through Texas, according to the National Weather Service. Rainfall totals from overnight Tuesday through Thursday are expected to be anywhere from 2 to 3 inches, with isolated areas receiving closer to 4 to 6 inches.

A 40 percent chance of rain exists after 1 a.m. Wednesday, with another batch of showers and thunderstorms expected to come again at 1 p.m.

SHOTS FIRED: Fleeing burglary suspect shoots at La Porte man following vehicle

Click through the gallery above to see Houston's roads prone to flooding.

Jay R. Jordan is a breaking news reporter at Chron.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JayRJordan.
WASHINGTON  A Trump administration decision to question residents' citizenship status in the 2020 census is being attacked by Texas Democrats and voting rights groups who say it will discourage non-citizens and their families from responding, costing the state both political power and federal funds.

The uproar spread across the nation Tuesday with state attorneys general from Democratic-leaning states launching suits against the Trump administration, which announced the new policy Monday night.

Suspicion of the administration motives also has been fed by Trump's hard line on immigration  both legal and illegal  as well as a spike in immigration raids and tough rhetoric on so-called sanctuary cities.

The controversy is likely to be acutely felt in Texas, which gained four seats in Congress after the 2010 census, largely based on the growth of the state's Latino population. It also exposed a new political fault line in this year's U.S. Senate battle between Republican Ted Cruz, one of the leading backers of the census plan, and Democratic challenger Beto O'Rourke, who denounced it.

Although the states of California and New York have announced multi-state challenges to the decision, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has weighed in on the administration's side, urging the policy change in a letter last month to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Critics in Texas fear that asking census respondents to answer a question about their citizenship could dramatically drop response rates and undercount the state's population, a result that could endanger federal funding for health care, education, highway construction and other government programs.

The once-every-decade census also is used to allocate seats in Congress, with recent population gains putting Texas on the cusp of gaining three additional seats after the next population count in 2020. States' Electoral College votes also depend on the census.

"Texas is home to four of the fastest growing cities," said U.S. Rep. Gene Green, a Houston Democrat. "Without an accurate count, our state can lose out on additional seats in Congress and federal funds for communities."

Administration officials dismissed the concerns about scaring away non-citizens, who are supposed to be counted for a complete "enumeration" of the U.S. population, as required by the Constitution.

"No one provided evidence that there are residents who would respond accurately to a decennial census that did not contain a citizenship question but would not respond if it did," Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a letter explaining the decision. "While it is possible this belief is true, there is no information available to determine the number of people who would in fact not respond due to a citizenship question being added."

Although the citizenship question is not currently part of the regular census, it is a part of the more comprehensive American Community Survey, which includes small fraction of the U.S. population.

But some researchers say recent surveys and interviews suggest that more extensive questions about citizenship could add to some Latinos' wariness of government authorities, contributing to existing concerns about undercounting, particularly in minority communities in rural, low income areas of Texas.

"We've had focus groups where people have voiced those concerns, which is not surprising" said Sylvia Manzano, who heads the Houston office of Latino Decisions, a national research firm. "People have more of a sense of the danger of identity."

The Census Bureau estimates that the last census in 2010 failed to find 1.5 percent of the nation's Hispanic population, an problem that many activists say led to undercounting in Texas, California and other states with large Hispanic populations.

San Antonio attorney Rolando Rios, who has represented hundreds of Texas jurisdictions in redistricting disputes, said the results could be disastrous for Texas. "The census is done for two reasons," he said. "It allocates political power, and also federal funds. What is supposed to be a fairly clinical, purely governmental function to count every human being in the United States looks like it's getting tainted by politics."

But conservative backers of the administration's decision, first floated in December, say it is the critics who are playing politics.

Paxton's letter on February 23 was signed by Assistant Texas Attorney General Jeffrey Mateer, whose nomination for a federal judicial position was withdrawn in December over disparaging remarks he had made about homosexuality. He argued that there was no evidence of that census participation dropped in past years when the citizenship question was included in the census.

"It is unfortunate that a few misguided individuals are attempting to politicize an apolitical issue by creating a sense of fear and distrust without supporting evidence," Mateer wrote.

The administration decision, also sought by the Justice Department, was welcomed by some Republican lawmakers in Washington, including Cruz, who called it "a reasonable, common sense addition to the census."

Cruz was among a group of GOP lawmakers  including Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma  who also urged the Census Bureau to add the citizenship question, arguing that it would provide more accurate data on the number of U.S. citizens living in the country.

"I applaud Secretary Ross for honoring this request by my colleagues and me," Cruz said in a statement Tuesday. "It is imperative that the data gathered in the census be reliable, given the wide-ranging impacts it will have on U.S. policy."

Among the justifications for restoring the citizenship question is that data on citizen-voting-age populations would permit more effective enforcement of the Voting Rights Act, which prevents diluting minority populations to decrease their political power. The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled next month to hear a case alleging racial gerrymandering to weaken minorities in Texas.

Democrats see a more sinister motive.

"Adding a census question on citizenship is specifically intended to undercount communities with large immigrant populations," said O'Rourke, Cruz's opponent in this year's U.S. Senate race. O'Rourke also argued that the negative effect on census participation "will also work in tandem with gerrymandering to erode the voting rights of those in our state and threaten our representation in the federal government."

Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa said the change in the census form is likely to scare immigrants, legal and illegal alike.

"This administration is steadfast on intimidating immigrant communities at any cost," he said, calling it "a political tool to advance Donald Trump's anti-immigrant agenda."

Outside Texas, groups ranging from the League of Women Voters to the American Civil Liberties Union expressed outrage. But short of legal action  or the unlikely intervention of Congress  it appears that the Commerce Department, which includes the Census Bureau, plans to meet a March 31 legal deadline to finalize the census.

Andrea Zelinski in Austin contributed to this report.
Who knew Californians, to whom Texas is so often a Howard Hawks caricature to ridicule and be confounded by, were so eager to adopt one of our most cherished traditions?

And yet in this age of Donald Trump, California  the Democratic crown jewel of the Electoral College  has transformed itself into the Unions most boastful defender of states rights. Texans should be so darn impressed we just may blush.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions in early March announced that the Department of Justice was suing California over three sanctuary laws its legislators passed in 2017 that limit the ability of state officials to help enforce federal immigration law.

EDITORIAL: Gov. Abbott, don't say no to refugees

Sessions called California lawmakers insubordinate and described the laws as an effort to secede from federal jurisdiction. California Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, retorted that Sessions remarks were a political stunt and said it was rich to be lectured on secession by an Alabamian.

And just like that, one of the largest and most influential states was ready to spar with the federal government over sovereignty.

Sound familiar? It should. After eight years of needling the Obama administration, Texas has officially passed the states-rights-champion baton to California.

Federalism  the balance of power between the national government and the states  has been a contentious issue since the Constitution was adopted. While the power of the federal government has generally grown over time, especially since the Civil War, states still wrestle with Washington over a host of issues.

And when done in good faith, this is a good thing. Lawsuits from states test, and sometimes check, the power of the federal government. This tug-of-war also plays out between city and state governments, like Houstons ongoing tussles with Austin over property taxes, education and Hurricane Harvey recovery.

EDITORIAL: Paxton, facing charges, should step down

Texas sued the Obama administration at least 48 times, according to a database compiled by the Texas Tribune. The issues ranged from the hyper-local  like a Red River land dispute and fight over red snapper fishing limits  to those with national implications, like a failed effort to convince the Supreme Court that the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional.

Some of these suits are little more than politically motivated rabblerousing, like Texas Attorney General Ken Paxtons quixotic effort to deny a Texas same-sex couple marriage benefits after the Supreme Court had already settled the issue and his harebrained attempt to assert Texas could keep the federal government from resettling Syrian refugees in the state.

His predecessor, Greg Abbott, performed a tough act for Paxton to follow by often saying of his job: I go into the office in the morning, I sue Barack Obama, and then I go home. Californias leaders would be wise to avoid picking meaningless fights just to brag they can stand up to President Trump.

The fight over Californias sanctuary laws is one of the important battles. As the Los Angeles Times wrote in an editorial, the state should welcome the federal suit  the newspaper predicts the courts will side with California on most if not all of the legal issues Sessions lawsuit raises. This would deal a blow to the Trump administration and embolden other states to adopt similar laws.

MAREK: Abbott wins politically as Texas loses in reality

So would efforts by California, whose economy accounts for about 14 percent of the countrys GDP, to follow international carbon reduction initiatives like the Paris climate agreement that the Trump administration has withdrawn from. And just three days ago, California sued the Trump Administration over its plans to ask about citizenship on the 2020 census, which could leave immigrants vastly under-counted.

Texans should be flattered Californians have  though they may be loath to admit it  stolen a page from the Lone Star playbook in offering a full-throated defense of federalism. We encourage them to stay away from fights built on political expediency, of which our state has seen all too many, and stick to good-faith disagreements.

So in that vein, we owe a tip of the hat to our World Series-losing, regulation-loving, West Coast compatriots. When a Democrat re-enters the White House, were sure Texas politicos will be glad to take back the reins.
A familiar and tragic scene played in Houston last week. An unarmed black man, Danny Ray Thomas, who family members say struggled with mental illness, was shot and killed by a Harris County Sheriffs Office deputy. Cellphone video that captured the shooting shows a man with his pants around his ankles walking toward the officer, and a shot rings out moments later. Shocked, the person shooting the video repeats over and over, He shot that man, he shot that man.

Between the Harris County Sheriffs Office and the Houston Police Department, this was the seventh officer-involved shooting in Harris County this year, and the fifth death. And while reaction is swift  community members demanding answers and law enforcement promising transparency and an investigation  not much is being done to prevent such events from happening again.

By focusing on prevention, we can glean lessons from other complex systems. Air transportation, railroads and surgery are all domains in which, like policing, humans must make split-second, life-or-death decisions. These industries stood some decades ago where policing stands today  facing calls for reform amid unacceptably high rates of fatal incidents. In the ensuing years, railroad and surgical death rates have fallen by more than half, and the airline fatality rate fell by more than 80 percent.

EDITORIAL: Teens cannot bear the burden of troubled police interactions

These improvements were enabled in all three industries through an important preventive tool: the event review.

Event reviews go by various names, but whether called root cause analyses or sentinel event reviews, their philosophy is the same: When a system generates undesirable events, all stakeholders should come together to review those events in a nonpunitive manner, understand the true underlying causes of why events unfolded as they did, and determine how they could have been avoided.

Such insights become the basis for recommendations for system change to prevent the next error. These investigations, epitomized in other industries through structures like the National Transportation Safety Board or hospital morbidity and mortality reviews, have fostered significant innovations such as child safety seats and surgical checklists that have saved thousands of lives.

In law enforcement today, in contrast, investigations look backward.

The question asked in disciplinary hearings or litigation is whether the officers actions were legally justifiable or permissible under law enforcement policy. This retrospective approach does not reach the question of whether the incident could have been avoided, and how to prevent future incidents. Nor does it address the reality that most shootings, even when legally justified, decrease police legitimacy and fracture the relationship between officers and the communities they are supposed to serve.

EDITORIAL: Texas now tracks police shootings, but the data needs to be standardized

What would an event review of a police shooting look like?

An independent facilitator would assemble a review team with subject matter experts, such as former detectives, psychologists or ballistics experts, and include community and police department representatives not directly involved in the incident. They would conduct interviews and review documentary evidence, working together to identify contributing factors and root causes of the event and developing policy recommendations aimed to prevent future, similar incidents. For example, an event review of a shooting of a mentally ill individual might result in recommendations to develop specific police protocols for interaction with people believed to be mentally ill, or create law enforcement response systems that include communication or collaboration with mental health professionals. Importantly, the event review would be firewalled from the disciplinary or legal process, to allow those who participate to do so candidly.

In analyzing police shootings, reviews can focus on the use of force and immediately preceding events. But they can also look at the incident response, and how later actions may have compounded the reaction to the initial event. For example, when Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson, Mo., community resentment arose from not only the initial shooting, but also because his body lay in the street for hours afterward.

EDITORIAL: Let's resolve to create a new narrative on police shooting unarmed residents

Ultimately, widespread use of event reviews has the potential to foster a culture of learning and improvement within police departments that will minimize unwanted police use of force and improve responses when such incidents occur. While significant reductions in police shootings may seem out of reach today, the experience of other industries suggests that dramatic improvements are in fact possible with the right approach.

Expanding use of event reviews, by their very design, will not reach the problem of accountability for individual police officers. Nevertheless, in addressing police violence, calls for redress should not only react to the incident of the moment, but also expand to consider how to prevent future harm. While agreement may feel elusive in the wake of these tragic and polarizing events, we should all embrace approaches such as event reviews that prevent loss of life by ensuring officers never feel the need to pull out a gun in the first place.
Primary caregivers are currently entitled to their full ANZ salary for up to 18 weeks after the birth or adoption of a child and this is increasing to 26 weeks from 1 July.

Employees can also take two weeks of paid family leave, usually taken before parental leave starts, increasing the entitlement to 28 weeks.

It is our social responsibility to not only support our staff and their families by alleviating financial stress, but also to lead the way in driving change with other employers, said Gina McJorrow, senior manager of HR at ANZ.

McJorrow also pointed out that all of the banks parental policies were not specific to mums but were open to all parents, regardless of gender.

Through the survey, PORSE was able to determine the top 10 mum-friendly workplaces  voted by Kiwi mums. They include the New Zealand Defence Force, Ministry of Primary Industries, BNZ, Fonterra, Resene, Statistics NZ, Ministry of Health, ACC and Inland Revenue
The India Today Group via Getty Images INDIA - FEBRUARY 05: Dr Rajendra K Pachauri, Director-General of the Tata Energy Research Institute, became the first Indian to be elected Chairman of IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), during the recent elections at the international scientific and technical body. (Photo by Sumeet Inder Singh/The India Today Group/Getty Images)

NEW DELHI -- R.K. Pachauri has filed a civil suit against lawyer Vrinda Grover, seeking injunction and Rs1 crore in damages, alleging she was trying to prejudice the ongoing sexual harassment case against him.

Grover had made public the statements of two women who are her clients and have alleged they were sexually harassed by the former TERI chief. Neither of the women have, as yet, lodged a criminal complaint in the matter, but in their statements released to media through Grover, they alleged that Pachauri is a serial sexual harasser. They have indicated their willingness to come forward as character witnesses in the ongoing criminal case against the former IPCC head, where a 29-year-old researcher from TERI has alleged he sexually harassed her for a year and a half at work. Character witness means the prosecution can use them to try and establish a certain character of the accused from past incidents.

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Pachauri's lawyer Ashish Dixit filed the suit against Grover on 5 April in Patiala House court, following which the court summoned Grover to appear today. "Since July, when the first woman, besides the original complainant, came forward with her statement, nothing has been done officiallythere is no police complaint or anything else," he told HuffPost India. "Every time, the purported statements on behalf of these two women are released to the media, usually before key court dates in the ongoing case. The timing is very suspicious."

Who is the foreign national who has accused Pachauri of harassment?

According to Pachauri's submission to the court, there was no foreign national who was ever employed as a secretary to him in TERI. One of the two women who have alleged that they were also sexually harassed by Pachauri is a foreign national who said she was hired as his secretary in 2008 for a year, only to be suddenly removed after she warded off his alleged unwanted advances towards her. Pachauri, through his lawyer, has claimed that these allegations are false as he never had such a secretary.

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Meanwhile, Grover, who did not appear in court today, said that she was at a conference yesterday because of which she missed the summons and wasn't aware of the contents of the petition. However, she clarified that the foreign national's exact designation was that of "program assistant", even though her work was secretarial in nature.

Why haven't the other two women lodged a police complaint?

Neither of the two women, besides the original complainant, has formally complained to the police yet about the harassment they faced. According to Pachauri's petition in court, there is nothing on official record against him, but the statements released to media have helped prejudice the current case of sexual harassment against him.

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"The timing of the release of these statements is very suspicious": RK Pachauri's lawyer.

However, both these women have repeatedly tried to give their statement to police, claimed Grover. She told HuffPost India that both the women approached her in February last year, as soon as the FIR was lodged against Pachauri at the same time. Since then, she claimed, she had repeatedly asked the police to record their statement, but the cops had not acted on it, even though she is ready to share contact details of her clients. In several letters to the police, which HuffPost India has seen, Grover has asked cops to record the statements of these women, especially before the charge sheet in the case was filed.

"They have been ready to come forward and it was only after they were left with no option that they released their statement to the public, and I acted on instruction of my clients," said Grover. "It makes me wonder why the police did not record their statements and from who all Mr. Pachauri gets protection and patronage?"

Police has said in the past that Grover has refused to divulge any details about the other complainants, which Grover says is untrue. "Show one letter the police sent to me asking for their details," she challenged.

Muffling women's voices, delaying legal processes

Grover alleged the petition was a fresh attempt at "silencing women's voices".

"The petition does not bother me for a moment, and my counsel will appear for the next date," she told HuffPost India. "The larger point here is that these kind of misogynistic campaigns are efforts to silence women. The court should take serious note of this and not even entertain such petitions."

Vrinda Grover, Supreme Court lawyer and Human Rights Activist.

According to Grover, much like other high-profile cases, this case too has taken much longer than necessary. "We've seen Mr. Pachauri exercises fairly astounding clout in the country as well as globally," she alleged. "There are endless delays in cases like this and women do not get justice because men obstruct the law."

She alleged that through the petition, Pachauri was not only trying to gag the national media, but he was also trying to stifle the voices of the feminist lawyers. Women have raised their voice against patriarchy with a lot of difficulty, she said, and fought hard to bring cases of sexual harassment to the foreground.

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"The law understands the manner in which patriarchy and gender flows in the system," she said. "This is a clear attempt to muffle our voices."

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On 2 March 2018, France deposited instruments of ratification to the Protocol Relating to an Amendment to the Convention on International Civil Aviation [Article 50(a)] and to the Protocol Relating to an Amendment to the Convention on International Civil Aviation [Article 56], both signed at Montreal on 6 October 2016.

Mr. Philippe Bertoux, Representative of France on the Council of ICAO was present for France. ICAO Secretary General Dr. Fang Liu presided over the deposit ceremony. It was attended by Dr. Jiefang Huang, Acting Director of ICAO's Legal Affairs and External Relations Bureau.

The Protocol of Amendment to Article 50 (a) provides for an increase in the size of the Council from thirty-six members to forty, while the Protocol of Amendment to Article 56 provides for an increase in the membership of the Air Navigation Commission from nineteen to twenty-one. By Assembly Resolutions A39-5 and A39-7, respectively, the ICAO Assembly recommends to all States to ratify most urgently these Protocols.

France is the twelfth ICAO Member State to ratify these Protocols. To enter into force, these Protocols each require 128 ratifications, in accordance with their respective Articles 3d).
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Montreal and Madrid, 7 March 2018  Speaking yesterday at CANSOs Sixth World Air Traffic Management (ATM) Congress in Madrid, Spain, ICAO Council President Dr. Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu told the gathered experts and leaders that airspace design and management would be changing dramatically in the years ahead as more and more aircraft enter into service which fly higher, lower, faster, and much slower than those we manage today.

Todays incredibly rapid rate of technological progress is now forcing us to acknowledge that a revolution is underway, with UAS navigating residential and urban environments for a wide range of purposes at one end of the spectrum, and high-altitude balloons, RPAS, and super- or hyper-sonic aircraft jetting across the stratosphere at the other.

Regarding current commercial operations, Dr. Aliu stressed ICAOs prioritization of the worldwide adoption of Air Traffic Flow Management (ATFM) approaches, underscoring the promise which ATFM holds out for more cost-, time- and fuel-efficient operations.

ATFM optimizes the existing capacities of the air traffic management system through the more precise coordination of take-offs and landings, he remarked. This means aircraft dont find themselves placed into costly holding patterns when they reach their destinations, and that while in flight they can be more quickly and accurately routed around constrained airspace and unexpected weather events.

The ICAO Council President also drew the audiences attention to the fact that new space-based Automatic dependent surveillance  broadcast (ADS-B) technology should eventually serve as a truly global aircraft positioning solution, redefining how seamlessly modern ATM will function and delivering important efficiency and emissions-reduction advantages.

We do not yet have a global ADS-B mandate, however by 2020 a number of States and regions will be ADS-B capable and many commercial aircraft will be equipped with suitable transponders.

President Aliu also strongly underlined the responsibility of the entire air transport community to ensure that there are sufficient numbers of skilled personnel to manage this increasingly complex technological foundation for 21st century aviation, noting that ICAOs Global Plans for Aviation Safety and Air Navigation included helpful targets to assist planners and investors looking to optimize their flight capacity and the socio-economic benefits of todays nascent operations.

The horizon now before us is one I am convinced we can reach if we continue to work together, and certainly CANSO will be looked to by ICAO to play a key role in how we shape and realize this bold new future together, he concluded.

The Congress also offered President Aliu the opportunity to meet with the Minister of Public Works of Spain, Mr. Inigo Joaquin de la Serna Hernaiz, with whom he endorsed a Memorandum of Understanding reached between ICAO and ENAIRE, the main provider of air navigation services in Spain. Through this memorandum, ENAIRE will contribute to the ICAO "No Country Left Behind" initiative. It provides for a new framework of cooperation between both organizations, enabling for example the development of training programs, professional mobility, and the donation of communications and air navigation equipment to countries that need to adapt and improve their systems.

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About ICAO



A specialized agency of the United Nations, ICAO was created in 1944 to promote the safe and orderly development of international civil aviation throughout the world. It sets standards and regulations necessary for aviation safety, security, efficiency, capacity and environmental protection, among many other priorities. The Organization serves as the forum for cooperation in all fields of civil aviation among its 192 Member States, helping governments to share their skies to their mutual and sustainable socio-economic benefit.

ICAOs Air Navigation Capacity and Efficiency Strategic Objective

ICAO and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

ICAOs No Country Left Behind Initiative



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Anthony Philbin

Chief, Communications

aphilbin@icao.int

+1 514-954-8220

+1 438-402-8886 (mobile)

Twitter: @ICAO



William Raillant-Clark

Communications Officer

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In August of 2016, I emailed Ryan Holiday and asked if he would help me write my first book proposal. I paid him $1,000 an hour for his time. He probably costs a lot more now.

Over the following three months, I would have a 1-hour phone call with him, once per month. And he would review what I developed. He started by helping me craft the idea, then helped me structure it.

After getting his help, I was able to get an agent and in January of 2017, a nearly quarter million dollar deal with one of the biggest publishers in the world. I then hired Ryan and his team to help me write and market the book itself.

Here's some of the lessons I learned:

1. Write The Proposal For "Them" And The Book For "You"

If you want to go the "traditional" publishing route, you need to have a marketable concept. The publisher needs to trust that you can sell this thing, and that the book concept has merit.

The purpose of the proposal is to get the publisher to care.

is to get the publisher to care. The purpose of your book is to write the book you need to write, and that your audience needs to read.

2. The Book Proposal Has 3 Parts

There are three parts to a book proposal:

What is this book? Who are you to write it? How can you sell it?

3. Get Blurbs For The Book Before It's Even Written

For your proposal, you should get as many blurbs for the book as you can for the book that you are proposing... which hasn't yet been written.

Get people to provide testimonials of the book and about you as a writer. This can create extremely high expectations for the people reviewing your proposal, which is exactly what you want. You need to get them ready to have their minds blown. And then you need to make good on that built-in expectation.

4. Never Lower Your Standards For Your Work

It doesn't matter how good of a publisher or editor you have, you need to hold yourself to the highest possible standard. More than that, you need to surround yourself with people who hold you to an even higher standard than you hold yourself.

What blew me away during the writing process of WILLPOWER DOESN'T WORK is that, every time I'd send a draft to Ryan, he'd rip it to shreds and say, "You can write so much better than this."

I didn't take it as an offense. It wasn't even just about the writing. It was about the whole process. "Do I really care about what I'm doing?" was the question I had to ask myself after getting Ryan's feedback. It was just what I needed.

5. The Title Of Your Book Really Matters

When I sold my book proposal, I had the idea and an initial title. But it wasn't the right title. The book was originally going to be called, "The Proximity Effect."

I couldn't come up with a better title. For months, no one could. But Ryan would never let me settle. Even after I told him I was completely settled internally on the matter. He continued to push back.

Eventually, with the help of Joe Polish and Joe's copywriter, JR, I was able to get the right title for the book, WILLPOWER DOESN'T WORK.

The title needs to stand on it's own. It needs to create a statement or polarize or create an experience.

Ryan's books are a great example of this. Some of his titles include:

THE OBSTACLE IS THE WAY

EGO IS THE ENEMY

TRUST ME, I'M LYING

6. Write Something Perennial

Don't just write a book to write a book. Don't just write a book to become a flash-in-the-pan bestseller.

Write something that can withstand the test of time. Write something that will continue to sell long into the future.

I'm grateful Ryan held me to this standard throughout the writing process. Too many people write a book just for the sake of having a book. They don't hold themselves to the standard of writing something they can be proud of... something that will be expected to sell and reach new audiences for decades.

7. Spend The First 3 Months Doing An Insane Amount Of Research ("Find stuff no one else has found.")

When you first start writing, spend the first several months digging digging digging. Find stuff no one else has found. That's what Ryan told me to do. And that's what I did.

I was able to find some fascinating stuff that I believe made WILLPOWER an innovative book. If you're not pushing your own limits through the creation process, you're probably not making new connections. Writing a book (or creating anything, for that matter) should change YOU in the process. The level of transformation you experience should reflect the level of transformation you hope your readers will experience.

8. "If The Story Wasn't About You, Would You Use It?"

In the first several drafts of my book, I had a ton of stories about myself. Ryan called me out on that.

"If this story was about someone else, would you use it?" he asked me.

"Probably not," I responded.

Then don't use it. Make this book worth reading. It's much better to create something that's amazing than to write about yourself. The content will always be king.

9. Even After You Have Done Something Big, You Can Always Do Better (the student's mindset)

After I finished the final draft of WILLPOWER, I got some humbling feedback from Ryan.

"You can do much better than this," he told me.

I remember being somewhat put off. Then I thought about it for a day or two and knew exactly what he was saying. There is no such thing as a perfect book. And I know that, given this experience, I can absolutely write a better book than what I just created.

Another friend and mentor of mine, Richard Paul Evans, who has written 38 New York Times Bestsellers, told me that every book he writes, he tries to make it the best book he's ever written.

I recently had dinner with Alice Cooper and he told me that he believes, after 50 years of making music, that his "best song" is still in him. He told me that if he believed he had already written his best song, he wouldn't continue writing music.

10. The Best Way To Market A Book Is To Write The Next One

After WILLPOWER's publication date, Ryan emailed and congratulated me. Then he swiftly said, "Write the next one."

He told me the best marketing you could do for a book is write the next one. The success of every book spills-over into the success of the other books. I learned that writing several viral articles. When one's doing well, you want to write more. The traffic compounds.

Conclusion

Writing a book could change your life. It could change the way you see the world. And more than that, It could change the way you work.
It's easy to see why health insurance is one of the industries most in need of disruption. It's also easy to see why most entrepreneurs would be crazy to try it. But Mario Schlosser and Joshua Kushner, the co-founders of Oscar Health, seem to be having some success at it.

The most recent proof point: a new $165 million funding round, led by Founders Fund. Other investors included 8VC, Verily Life Sciences, Fidelity, General Catalyst, Capital G, Khosla Ventures, and Thrive Capital. The investment values Oscar at $3.2 billion and brings its total amount raised to $892.5 million.

Schlosser and Kushner got the idea to start a health insurer while sitting in a coffee shop in New York in 2012. Schlosser, once a visiting scholar at Stanford University, had recently been asked by investors to leave the gaming company he'd founded. He was thinking he was ready to pull back a bit.

But Kushner's idea to start a health insurance company resonated with him, partly because Schlosser's sister, back in Germany, was a pediatric nurse working in an intensive care unit. Plus, Schlosser's wife was pregnant, and he was getting a new appreciation for how difficult the U.S. system of healthcare could be. He knew there had to be a better way. Most insurers weren't seriously targeting the individual market, but the Affordable Care Act would require individuals to buy insurance. "Overnight, in downstate New York, about one million people would come into the market who didn't have insurance before," Schlosser said during an event held at Bloomberg headquarters in January. (Kushner's brother's father-in-law, President Donald Trump, is now trying to dismantle the Affordable Care Act.)

Schlosser and Kushner believed that clever use of technology could drive higher engagement between a health insurer and its customers. That engagement would allow the insurer to better steer the patient in their care--reminding them to get a prescription filled, for example, or to schedule a follow-up appointment after a surgery--which would lead to both efficiencies and improved care. Oscar now uses what it calls "narrow networks" of hand-picked physicians to deliver the majority of care to its customers.
If the thought of Facebook tracking your phone calls is creeping you out, consider the fact that the social network is also following you around the web, making note of the websites you visit, how often, and for how long. It's one of the ways that Facebook infers your interests and political persuasions even if you never express a political opinion on Facebook. As with everything else, Facebook sells that information about you for advertising purposes.

Now the Firefox browser, offered by the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation, is offering a way to stop Facebook's tracking in the form of an add-on called Facebook Container. Installing that add-on makes it much more difficult for Facebook's algorithms to track what you do online.

Here's how it works: When you install the app, it will automatically log you out of Facebook. When you log back in, Facebook will run inside a digital container that isolates it from the rest of your activity online. There may be a downside in terms of convenience: If there are sites that you sign into using your Facebook credentials, you'll need to change your sign-in method. And if you're accustomed to clicking Facebook "like" or "share" buttons on other websites (such as this one), you'll have to actually copy and paste the link into Facebook instead. But Facebook will be effectively prevented from seeing what you're doing when you're not doing it on Facebook.

Obviously, Facebook is not the only company tracking your activity online. You know this already, especially if you've ever shopped for something online, decided not to buy it, and then seen ads for whatever it was dogging you across every website you visit for the next several days. So why is Mozilla focusing its attention on Facebook alone?

As Nick Nguyen, VP of Firefox product writes in a blog post, a lot can be inferred about you from the websites you visit. That information becomes exponentially more revealing when it's combined with your social media activity. It seems clear from the Cambridge Analytica scandal among other things that Facebook can't necessarily be trusted with this kind of deeply detailed data. As Nguyen notes, the Facebook Container would not have prevented Cambridge Analytica from gaining access to personal data on 50 million or more Facebook users. Still, it seems sensible to limit Facebook's privacy intrusions whenever you can.

Besides, Firefox isn't singling Facebook out. Its Multi-Account Containers allow you to build virtual walls around different parts of your life so that, for example, if you're at a website you'd prefer your employer not to know about, you don't have to open a separate browser to check your work email account.

There's something in it for Firefox, too, of course. With the new privacy-strengthened, super-fast Firefox Quantum browser it released last year, Mozilla, once a dominant browser, is hoping to win back some of the users it lost to Google Chrome. Google deserves a privacy black eye for creating the API that allowed Facebook to track users' phone calls and texts for years without their express permission. Perhaps this is just retribution.
A Federal Circuit Court has reversed a district court decision in the eight-year-old copyright infringement case between Oracle and Google. The district court found in Google's favor two years ago. This new decision says that Google did indeed infringe on Oracle's copyright and has ordered a trial in order to determine damages. In an earlier court action, Oracle had filed for about $9 billion. Now the company's general counsel says, "the value has gone up."

Our story begins in 2008 when Google first released the Android operating system. It wanted Android to be compatible with apps written in Java and rather than buy licenses for Java application programming interfaces (APIs), Google created its own, apparently drawing 11,000 lines of code from 37 Java APIs along the way. Google argued that this was only a tiny portion of the operating system's 15 million lines of code and qualified as fair use.

In 2010, Oracle, which had recently acquired Java creator Sun Microsystems, sued Google over that code. (Disclosure: I'm a contributor to Oracle's Profit magazine.) There was a jury trial in 2012 and Google won. Oracle appealed, and in 2014 that verdict was declared void. Google asked the Supreme Court to hear the case, but the high court declined to take it up. So there was a second jury trial in 2016. Once again, Google won. Once again, Oracle appealed.

Which brings us to today. The circuit court overturned the jury's finding of fair use, saying there was "nothing fair about" using part of a copyrighted work verbatim and using it in a competing product.

Reactions on both sides sound very familiar to anyone who's been following copyright and patent cases. Google, along with open-source advocates such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Berkeley professor Pamela Samuelson, argue that this decision will have a chilling effect on innovation because high-tech startups will now be afraid to write their own APIs. Oracle argues that, on the contrary, this decision will encourage innovators to create new software, secure in the knowledge that they can derive revenues from licensing it. On balance, it may be bad news for startups, who are likelier to be writing APIs than selling software licenses. Of course, that's only if the ruling stands.

What happens next? Google said in a statement that it was considering its options. It's safe to say the company won't simply give in and start talking payment terms with Oracle. One possibility is that it might once again ask that the Supreme Court take up the case. The high court turned them down in 2015, but since then, there's a new Supreme Court justice and a new solicitor general as well.
Harvey Weinstein's former assistant says she tried to prevent him abusing women two decades ago.

Zelda Perkins said she made the disgraced producer sign a legal agreement that required him to seek therapy and mend his ways.

As part of a settlement, when she quit Weinstein's film company in 1998, along with a colleague who accused the movie mogul of trying to rape her, Ms Perkins signed a non-disclosure agreement.

As well as keeping her silent, it committed Weinstein to attend therapy and required the company to act if he made any more payouts over alleged wrongdoing.

"I have no idea if any of the obligations were upheld," she told The Associated Press.

Ms Perkins is due to give evidence before MPs investigating workplace sexual harassment.

Conservative Maria Miller, who chairs the Women and Equalities Committee, has said there are concerns the gag orders might be used to "mask the scale of this problem".

Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) are common in the corporate world, but Ms Perkins says her experience shows they can be used to let perpetrators get away with wrongdoing while silencing their victims.

The agreement Ms Perkins signed kept her quiet about Weinstein's behaviour for almost 20 years.

He continued to be one of Hollywood's most powerful producers until last autumn, when women - including Hollywood stars - publicly accused him of groping, exposing himself to them or forcing them into unwanted sex.

Harvey Weinstein's former assistant explains what working for him was like

Weinstein, who denies all allegations of non-consensual sex, has since been fired by the company he co-founded and expelled by Hollywood's film academy.

Police in the US and Britain are investigating multiple claims of sexual assault.

Ms Perkins said her hope was to "create protection for people in the future".

Under the terms of the agreement, Ms Perkins chose the therapist Weinstein was to consult. She does not know whether he ever went to the sessions.

She said that a year after she left the company she saw Weinstein at the Cannes Film Festival, and "he told me that everything I had done was pointless".

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Ms Perkins was in her early twenties and says she had barely heard of Weinstein when she began working for his then-company, Miramax, in London. She said he was a challenging employer.

"Everybody knew that he had a roving eye and he pushed it with women," she said. "He also had a fearsome temper, and did not respect usual office boundaries, sometimes walking around naked or in his underwear.

"I was 22 and I was like, 'OK, this is what it must be like in the big league,"' she added. "This guy is really important - he doesn't have time to wear his trousers."

Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Show all 42 1 /42 Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Harvey Weinstein Harry Weinsteins reputation as one of Hollywoods leading executives was long cemented in stone. The acclaimed movie mogul, who produced Oscar-winning films Shakespeare in Love, The English Patient, and The Artist, clocked up box office successes and accolades aplenty. But this has quickly changed since a chorus of women have come forward to accuse the Hollywood producer of sexual harassment and assault. Since the New York Times bombshell report disclosed sexual harassment and rape allegations against the film mogul dating back decades, Weinstein has been fired from his namesake company, expelled from the Oscars and has had his wife leave him. Weinstein has apologised for having caused a lot of pain but has denied all allegations of nonconsensual sex. Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Annabella Sciorra The Sopranos actor alleged Weinstein raped her after shooting The Night We Never Met, a 1993 movie that Weinstein produced. Similar to the stories told by other women, Weinstein drove the actor home, only to reportedly burst into Sciorra's apartment and start unbuttoning his shirt. He shoved me onto the bed, and he got on top of me, Sciorra said. I kicked and I yelled. Weinstein then allegedly locked her arms and forced sexual intercourse on her. After the incident, Sciorra found it increasingly hard to get work, many filmmakers saying 'We heard you were difficult', something the actor claims was because of the 'Weinstein-machine'. Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Natassia Malthe The model and actress, who has appeared in around 50 films, said she met Weinstein at a BAFTA after party in 2008 while she was working as a spokeswoman for LG. She told a press conference in New York that she felt pressured into telling Weinstein she was staying at the Sanderson Hotel after being put on the spot. Malthe, now 43, said after her shift on February 10 she went back to her room and went to sleep, but was awoken by "repeated pounding" on her door, from someone yelling: "Open the door Natassia Malthe, it's Harvey Weinstein." Feeling humiliated, she said she opened the door. She alleged Weinstein began implying sex would get her a role in an upcoming film while semi-undressed and then he began to masturbate. "I was sitting on the bed talking to Harvey when he pushed me back and forced himself onto me. It was not consensual. He did not use a condom," she said. AP Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Sean Young The actor, best known for her role in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, said that Weinstein exposed himself to her in the early 1990s, when she was starring in the Miramax-produced Love Crimes - a production company that Weinstein headed at the time. "I personally experienced him pulling his you-know-what out of his pants to shock me," she said. "My basic response was, 'You know, Harvey, I really dont think you should be pulling that thing out, its not very pretty.'" Young never worked with Weinstein again after the incident. Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Mimi Haleyi Mimi Haleyi said she was assaulted by Weinstein in what appeared to be a child's bedroom in his New York City apartment in 2006 when she was in her 20s. She said she was aspiring to work in television and film production when she was first introduced to him at the London premiere of The Aviator around two years earlier and he helped her get experience on the set of a TV show being produced by The Weinstein Company. But, she added, he repeatedly hassled her and even tried to force himself through her front door in an effort to get her to join him on a trip to Paris. At one point he allegedly forcibly performed oral sex on an aspiring production assistant while she was on her period. Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Lupita Nyong'o In an op-ed for The New York Times, the Oscar-winning actor said she was invited to Weinsteins family home in Connecticut on the premise of watching a film shortly after they met in 2011. But she said shortly after it started he "insisted" in front of his children that she follow him and she was led to his bedroom. The Kenyan-Mexican actress, now 34, said she felt pressured into giving him a massage after he offered her one. "Before long he said he wanted to take off his pants," she wrote."I told him not to do that and informed him that it would make me extremely uncomfortable. He got up anyway to do so and I headed for the door, saying that I was not at all comfortable with that." Over the years that followed, he continued to get in touch, Nyong'o said, and when she declined another proposition she felt her career was threatened. Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Lena Headey Writing on social media, the Game of Thrones actor claims she first met Weinstein at the Venice Film Festival in 2005 where, after taking her for a walk by the water, he made some suggestive comment and gesture. Headey claims she bumped into Weinstein years later where he kept asking her questions about her love life. She alleges that, when Weinstein invited her to his hotel room to show her a script, the "energy shifted. The actor notes how, after saying she was not interesting in anything but the work, Weinstein was furious, apparently marching her back to a lift, "grabbing and holding tightly to the back of [her] arm." She claims that, after paying for her car, he whispered in her ear: "Don't tell anyone about this, not your manager, not your agent. Headey finished the post, writing: I got in the car and I cried. Getty Images Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Lucia Evans The actor told The New Yorker that after a meeting to discuss casting her in various projects, Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex on him. I said, over and over, I dont want to do this, stop, dont. She added: Hes a big guy. He overpowered me. I just sort of gave up. Thats the most horrible part of it, and thats why hes been able to do this for so long to so many women: people give up, and then they feel like its their fault. Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Laura Madden Madden, a production assistant who worked at Miramax for a decade, told the Times that Weinstein allegedly prodded her for massages at hotels, a common theme among the sources the Timess reporters spoke with. On one occasion, she claims she locked herself in his hotel bathroom, sobbing Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Ashley Judd Judd recounted for the Times how Weinstein allegedly harassed her while she was filming Kiss the Girls in 1996, inviting her to his hotel room and asking her for a massage, then inviting her to watch him shower. Judd first went public with the allegations in a 2015 interview with Variety during which she discussed the experience without naming the producer involved. She described Weinsteins alleged behaviour as coercive bargaining; I said no, a lot of ways, a lot of times, and he always came back at me with some new ask, she told the Times AFP/Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Rose McGowan McGowan reportedly reached a previously undisclosed $100,000 settlement with Weinstein in 1997, over an incident that occurred in a hotel room Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Mimi Haleyi Mimi Haleyi said she was assaulted by Weinstein in what appeared to be a child's bedroom in his New York City apartment in 2006 when she was in her 20s. She said she was aspiring to work in television and film production when she was first introduced to him at the London premiere of The Aviator around two years earlier and he helped her get experience on the set of a TV show being produced by The Weinstein Company. But, she added, he repeatedly hassled her and even tried to force himself through her front door in an effort to get her to join him on a trip to Paris. At one point he allegedly forcibly performed oral sex on an aspiring production assistant while she was on her period. Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Emily Nestor Nestor had been temping at the Weinstein Company for only one day in 2014 when Weinstein allegedly offered to boost her career in return for sexual favours, according to the Times. She declined and reportedly complained of his behaviour to colleagues, who later passed the information on to senior executives. An internal Weinstein Company document cited by the Times describes Nestors encounter with Weinstein as follows: She said he was very persistent and focused though she kept saying no for over an hour Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Ambra Battilana In March 2015, Battilana, an aspiring model and actress, was reportedly summoned to Weinsteins office on a Friday night to discuss her career. According to a police report cited by the Times, Battilana claimed she was assaulted by Weinstein, who grabbed her breasts after asking if they were real and put his hands up her skirt. Weinstein later claimed that Battilana had set him up, according to colleagues of his who were interviewed by the Times. The Manhattan District Attorney, Cyrus Vance, later declined to press charges, and according to the Times, made a payment to Battilana. On 5 October, the International Business Times reported that after Vance dropped the charges, he received $10,000 from Weinsteins lawyer Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Lauren OConnor Lauren OConnor, an employee of the Weinstein Company, penned a memo to executives alleging a toxic environment for women at the company. The memo cited numerous incidents of Weinstein harassing or coercing women who worked for him. She expressed fear that Weinstein was using her and other female employees to facilitate liaisons with vulnerable women who hope he will get them work. That same year, Weinstein allegedly reached a settlement with OConnor Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Kate Beckinsale The actor, who starred in the Weinstein Company films Serendipity and The Aviator, alleges that she was invited to Weinsteins hotel room at the age of just 17. When she approached the door, the producer reportedly greeted her dressed in just a dressing gown. I was incredibly naive and young and it did not cross my mind that this older, unattractive man would expect me to have any sexual interest in him, she wrote on Instagram. After declining alcohol and announcing that I had school in the morning I left, uneasy but unscathed. Theo Wargo/Getty Images Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Gwyneth Paltrow The actor alleges that after he cast her in the title role of the film Emma when she was 22, he took her to his hotel room, placed his hands on her and suggested massages. I was a kid, I was signed up, I was petrified, Paltrow told the New York Times. Rex Features Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Asia Argento Italian actress Asia Argento has alleged that in 1997 Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her as she repeatedly told him to stop. When I see him, it makes me feel little and stupid and weak, Argento told The New Yorker. After the rape, he won. Rex Features Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Cara Delevigne The British model and actress penning an Instagram post claiming that Weinstein had ordered her to kiss another woman in his hotel room, and tried to kiss her on the lips. AFP/Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Ashley Judd Ashley Judd said she rebuffed Harvey Weinsteins unwanted sexual advances by offering to consent only after she had won an Oscar. When she was initially invited to a meeting with Weinstein, Judd said, she was surprised to learn the producer was in his hotel room - a tactic that recurs in other womens accounts. Echoing the accounts of other women, Judd said Weinstein suggested she give him a massage and then invited her to watch him shower. After a volley of nos she said she would only after she wins an Oscar, fleeing after making the comments. Reuters/Mike Segar Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Judith Godreche French actress Judith Godreche said when she was 24 Weinstein invited her to his hotel room and asked to give her a massage. The next thing I know, hes pressing against me and pulling off my sweater, she told the New York Times. Rex Features Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Mira Sorvino The Oscar-winning actor said she found herself in a hotel room with Weinstein in 1995 where he started massaging my shoulders, which made me very uncomfortable, and then tried to get more physical, sort of chasing me around. According to an interview in The New Yorker Weinstein subsequently arrived at her apartment late at night and she had to call a friend to come over to pose as her boyfriend in order to get Weinstein out of the house. Rex Features Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Katherine Kendall The actress said Weinstein undressed and chased her around a living room when she was just 23. She subsequently felt that telling others meant Ill never work again and no one is going to care or believe me, she told the New York Times. WireImage Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Tomi-Anne Roberts As an aspiring actress and working in a restaurant in New York, Tomi-Ann Roberts encountered Weinstein who encouraged her to audition for one of his films back in 1984. She subsequently went to meet him and found him naked in the bath and invited her to get naked and get into the bath with him, she told the New York Times. She said she left feeling manipulated. Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Myleen Klass It has also been alleged that the disgraced film producer propositioned Myleene Klass with a sex contract at Cannes Film Festival in 2010. One of the singer and television personalitys friends reportedly told The Sun, Klass had told Weinstein to f*** off. Getty Images Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Sophie Dix Sophie Dix, best known for her role as Captain Sadie Williams in Soldier Soldier, described her encounter with Weinstein when she was 23 as the single most damaging thing thats happened in my life. She told The Guardian Weinstein had pushed her to her bed and was tugging at her clothes. She rushed to the bathroom to escape, but when she came out she found him standing there masturbating. I quickly closed the door again and locked it, she said. Then when I heard room service come to the door I just ran. Rex Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Lea Seydoux The actor and director claims she had to fight off Weinstein after he brought her to his hotel room during what she remembers to be 2012. He suddenly jumped on me and tried to kiss me. I had to defend myself. Hes big and fat, so I had to be forceful to resist him. I left his room, thoroughly disgusted, she wrote in The Guardian. AFP/Getty Images Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Claire Forlani British actress Claire Forlani wrote on Twitter that she had evaded Weinsteins advances on five occasions at the age of 25. At meetings with the Hollywood a-lister, she says massage was suggested, and that Weinstein had boasted of all the women hed had sex with. Mark Douet Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Florence Darel French actress Florence Darel claimed Weinstein relentlessly pursued her in the mid 1990's and propositioned her while Eve Chilton, his wife at the time, was in the hotel room next door. I was astonished, she told People magazine. When you have someone so physically disgusting in front of you, continuing and continuing as though this was all perfectly normal What happened to me may not be illegal but it was inappropriate. Very inappropriate. Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Lysette Anthony Lysette Anthony, who starred as Marnie Nightingale in Hollyoaks, has claimed Weinstein raped her in the late 1980's after turning up to her London home in the late 1980s. She described the disgraced film producers alleged attack as pathetic and revolting and said it left her feeling disgusted and embarrassed. Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Dawn Dunning Dunning said she met Weinstein in 2003 when she was 24-years-old and the disgraced film producer suggested she have a threesome with him and someone else. She told the New York Times Weinstein got angry when she refused. Youll never make it in this business, she said he told her as she left. Rex Features Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Rosanna Arquette Rosanna Arquette was already well known for her role in Desperately Seeking Susan, when she said she met Weinstein at his hotel to pick up a script in the early nineties. Weinstein was dressed only in a dressing gown, and tried to put her hand on his erect penis. Speaking to the New York Times, Arquette said as she left she told him: I will never be that girl. Rex Features Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Emma de Caunes Caunes, a French actor, claimed Weinstein took her to his hotel room in 2010 supposedly to retrieve a book he was making into a film, but once there he went into the bathroom. De Caunes said he then emerged naked, with an erection and told her to lie on the bed. She fled the room. Rex Features Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Zoe Brock Model Zoe claimed that she had to lock herself in a bathroom at Weinsteins hotel in 1997, after the mogul had sent all of the assistants out of the room, and then appeared naked. I was alone with Weinstein, she told ITVs This Morning programme. He very quickly left the room and came back naked. He chased me naked. Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Jessica Barth Actress Jessica Barth described an encounter with Weinstein in 2011 in an interview with The New Yorker in which she said Weinstein veered between offering her roles in films and demanding a naked massage. She alleges the producer said to her: So, what would happen if, say, were having some champagne and I take my clothes off and you give me a massage? When she tried to leave, he then promised to give her the number of a female executive at the company. He gave me her number, and I walked out and I started bawling, Barth said. Rex Features Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Romola Garai The actress told The Guardian she felt violated after she went to a meeting with Weinstein at the age of 18 and he met her in his hotel room wearing nothing but a dressing gown. Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Heather Graham Graham claimed that during a casting opportunity in the early 2000's Weinstein had told her he had an open relationship with his wife. He could sleep with whomever he wanted when he was out of town. I walked out of the meeting feeling uneasy, Graham told Variety. There was no explicit mention that to star in one of those films I had to sleep with him, but the subtext was there. Graham was never hired to work in a Weinstein film. Rex Features Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Jessica Hynes Spaced and W1A star Jessica Hynes tweeted about an encounter with Weinstein earlier this week, but subsequently deleted the tweet. Rex Features Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Lucia Evans The actor told The New Yorker that after a meeting to discuss casting her in various projects, Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex on him. I said, over and over, I dont want to do this, stop, dont. She added: Hes a big guy. He overpowered me. I just sort of gave up. Thats the most horrible part of it, and thats why hes been able to do this for so long to so many women: people give up, and then they feel like its their fault. Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Louisette Geiss The former actress said she met Weinstein to pitch a film script she was working on. During the meeting, Weinstein allegedly went out and reappeared naked and got into a jacuzzi where he masturbated in front of her and said he would make the script into a film if she stayed and watched. Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Liza Campbell Liza Campbell, a British writer and artist, alleged that Olympically ugly Weinstein asked her to join him in the bath and began getting undressed at a hotel. In a piece for The Times, Campbell claimed she was forced to sprint to the door to escape. Rex Features Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Louise Godbold Writing in a blog post, Louise Godbold, a non-profit director in Los Angeles, said her encounter with Weinstein took the form of an office tour that became an occasion to trap me in an empty meeting room. She said then Weinstein was begging for a massage, his hands on my shoulders as I attempted to beat a retreat.

Ms Perkins says she was not aware of any allegations of sexual assault until a younger colleague came to her in distress during the 1998 Venice Film Festival and said Weinstein had tried to rape her.

The pair flew back to England and went to lawyers, "with the presumption that we were going to prosecute him in court".

Told they could not prosecute in England because the alleged crime took place in Italy, the two women ended up negotiating an agreement that saw each receive 125,000 pounds.

While Ms Perkins managed to get the agreement to impose conditions on Weinstein, she said the negotiating process "was humiliating and degrading.

She added: "I was made to feel like I was in the wrong for trying to expose his behaviour".

She was told she would be held responsible if her family or friends disclosed details of Weinstein's behaviour.

She could not see a therapist unless the therapist also signed a non-disclosure agreement. Ms Perkins was not even allowed to have a copy of the agreement she had signed.

Ms Perkins said the experience left her "trapped in a vortex of fear".

After a couple of job interviews in Britain where people "presumed that I'd been his girlfriend", Ms Perkins left for several years. She now works as a theatre producer in the UK.

"I think I'm only just beginning to realise what it stole from me," Ms Perkins said of her experience with Weinstein - and his lawyers. "It stole my belief and my confidence in myself and in society."

She plans to urge MPs to tighten up rules so that NDAs cannot be used to silence reporting of crime.

Ms Perkins says the #MeToo and Time's Up movements against harassment and inequality which have erupted in the wake of the Weinstein revelations have made her feel "hugely liberated".

"It's given me a faith back in society, and huge motivation to actually join in society and do something about it," she said. "The fact that Harvey was the beginning of this snowball, to me, is just completely thrilling."
Jack White has announced a free London show which will take place today (28 March) at 5pm.

The rock musician is celebrating the release of his third solo album Boarding House Reach with the gig at the historic George Inn, near London Bridge.

Entry to the show is free - doors open from 3.30pm and the gig will be a first-come, first-served basis.

White will be joined by his new touring band: Carla Azar on drums, QUincy McCrary and Neal Evans on keys, and Dominic Davis on bass.

The George Inn gig precedes another intimate show held today at London's 600 capacity venue The Garage. Tickets to this evening's event sold out within minutes of going on sale, following similar shows in Los Angeles and New York which took place last week.

White will return to the UK as part of his European tour in June and July, including a run of three consecutive nights at the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith.
The cast of Dawson's Creek has reunited for the first time in 20 years.

In honour of the teen soap's 20th anniversary, the cast - James Van Der Beek, Katie Holmes, Joshua Jackson, Michelle Williams, Busy Phllips, Kerr Smith, Meredith Monroe and Mary Beth Peil - came together for this week's issue of EW.

The cast did an iconic photo shoot - one including best friends Michelle Williams and Busy Phillips embracing each other - and a roundtable to commemorate the occasion.

When the show premiered in 1998, it gained a cult-following for the love triangles and teen drama that emerged from the friendships of Dawson Leery (Van Der Beek), Joey Potter (Holmes), Jen Lindley (Williams) and Pacey Witter (Jackson).

In an interview with PeopleTV, Van Der Beek said, "That's been the coolest thing to see the resonance that it held with people."

"I remember loving the script," Van Der Beek added. "I remember thinking, 'Everybody's amazing, and all the actors were perfectly cast ... We didn't have any expectation it was going to blow up in the way that it did."

Holmes recalled how she was still a high school student in Ohio when she landed the part of Joey, and Williams discussed how her mother still remembered Jen's death.

"I was saying to my mom, 'I'm on my way to a reunion.'" She said, 'But you can't do that. You're dead,'" Williams chided.

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The cast even addressed the possibility of a reunion and what that would need to look like if it did happen.

"It would have to be a reinvention of sorts," said Van Der Beek.

Holmes jumps in saying, "What I love about this show is that it existed at a time pre-social media, pre-internet, and it was nostalgic when we were shooting it. So I really like it where it is, to be honest."

Dawson's Creek ran for six seasons and left the WB in 2003.

You can see a collection of photos from the shoot on EW.
Thirty-four people believed to be immigrants who entered the country illegally have been put in federal custody after a house was raided in Phoenix, Arizona, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials said.

The drop house, or sort of waiting station where human smugglers hide undocumented immigrants, was raided based on a tip that a "local residence contained a large group of suspected undocumented aliens," Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for ICE, said in a statement.

Ms Mack said the house and smuggling operation were dismantle[d] and the group of people included 27 Guatemalan nationals, five Mexican nationals and two Honduran nationals.

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The individuals have been detained on immigration administrative charges, according to Ms Mack but no further details about their fate were provided.

Video from a local news helicopter showed the more than 30 people sitting in the driveway of the home, which lies inside a gated community and the Arizona Republic newspaper reported they were restrained with plastic handcuffs.

Sadia Koloff, a 17-year-old neighbour, told the Arizona Central news outlet that she and her mother were stunned by the scene. "It was like heartbreaking to see those kids. They're around my age and younger and they're all crying, she said.

"Yeah, they came here illegally, but it breaks my heart because I want people to have a better life. I hate seeing people suffer, and seeing this really hurts my heart a lot, Ms Koloff said.

 US attorney general Jeff Sessions to Oakland mayor: 'how dare you' expose immigration raid

According to other neighbours, the immigrants were all escorted onto a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) bus yesterday evening by Phoenix police and ICE officials.

Ms Mack indicated the investigation into the smuggling operation and alleged smugglers, referred to as coyotes, is ongoing.

The raid comes at a time when President Donald Trump has called for increased enforcement of immigration rules and praised construction of the roughly 2,000-mile US-Mexico border wall. He has also called for the crackdown on so-called sanctuary cities like Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago, which have vowed to protect the confidential information of undocumented immigrants and not assist federal authorities with rounding them up. Instead, local police focus on combatting criminal and violent activities.

Protestors rally at JFK Airport against Muslim immigration ban Show all 20 1 /20 Protestors rally at JFK Airport against Muslim immigration ban Protestors rally at JFK Airport against Muslim immigration ban jfk-protest-muslim-ban-1 Protestors rally during a demonstration against the Muslim immigration ban at John F. Kennedy International Airport on January 28, 2017 in New York City. President Trump signed the controversial executive order that halted refugees and residents from predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States. Getty Protestors rally at JFK Airport against Muslim immigration ban jfk-protest-muslim-ban-2 Protestors rally during a protest against the Muslim immigration ban at John F. Kennedy International Airport on January 28, 2017 in New York City. President Trump singed the controversial executive order that halted refugees and residents from predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States. Stephanie Keith/Getty Protestors rally at JFK Airport against Muslim immigration ban jfk-protest-muslim-ban-3 Protestors rally during a protest against the Muslim immigration ban at John F. Kennedy International Airport on January 28, 2017 in New York City. President Trump singed the controversial executive order that halted refugees and residents from predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States. Stephanie Keith/Getty Protestors rally at JFK Airport against Muslim immigration ban jfk-protest-muslim-ban-4 SAN FRANCISCO, CA - JANUARY 28: Demonstrators hold signs during a rally against a ban on Muslim immigration at San Francisco International Airport on January 28, 2017 in San Francisco, California. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday that suspends entry of all refugees for 120 days, indefinitely suspends the entries of all Syrian refugees, as well as barring entries from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering for 90 days. Stephen Lam/Getty Protestors rally at JFK Airport against Muslim immigration ban jfk-protest-muslim-ban-5 A crowd of protesters gathers outside of the Brooklyn Federal Courthouse as a judge hears a challenge against President Donald Trump's executive ban on immigration from several Muslim countries, on January 28, 2017 in Brooklyn. The judge issued an emergency stay on part of Trump's executive order, ruling that sending refugees stopped at U.S. airports back to their countries would be harmful. Yana Paskova/Getty Protestors rally at JFK Airport against Muslim immigration ban jfk-protest-muslim-ban-6 Protestors rally during a demonstration against the new immigration ban issued by President Donald Trump at John F. Kennedy International Airport on January 28, 2017 in New York City. President Trump signed the controversial executive order that halted refugees and residents from predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States. Stephanie Keith/Getty Protestors rally at JFK Airport against Muslim immigration ban jfk-protest-muslim-ban-7 NEW YORK, NY - JANUARY 28: Protestors rally during a demonstration against the new immigration ban issued by President Donald Trump at John F. Kennedy International Airport on January 28, 2017 in New York City. President Trump signed the controversial executive order that halted refugees and residents from predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States. Stephanie Keith/Getty Protestors rally at JFK Airport against Muslim immigration ban jfk-protest-muslim-ban-8 Protestors rally during a demonstration against the new immigration ban issued by President Donald Trump at John F. Kennedy International Airport on January 28, 2017 in New York City. President Trump signed the controversial executive order that halted refugees and residents from predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States. Stephanie Keith/Getty Protestors rally at JFK Airport against Muslim immigration ban jfk-protest-muslim-ban-9 Getty Images Protestors rally at JFK Airport against Muslim immigration ban jfk-protest-muslim-ban-10 Getty Images Protestors rally at JFK Airport against Muslim immigration ban jfk-protest-muslim-ban-11 NEW YORK, NY - JANUARY 28: Protestors rally during a demonstration against the Muslim immigration ban at John F. Kennedy International Airport on January 28, 2017 in New York City. President Trump signed the controversial executive order that halted refugees and residents from predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States. Stephanie Keith/Getty Protestors rally at JFK Airport against Muslim immigration ban jfk-protest-muslim-ban-12 Protestors rally during a demonstration against the Muslim immigration ban at John F. Kennedy International Airport on January 28, 2017 in New York City. President Trump signed the controversial executive order that halted refugees and residents from predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States. Stephanie Keith/Getty Protestors rally at JFK Airport against Muslim immigration ban jfk-protest-muslim-ban-13 Protestors rally during a demonstration against the Muslim immigration ban at John F. Kennedy International Airport on January 28, 2017 in New York City. President Trump signed the controversial executive order that halted refugees and residents from predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States. Stephanie Keith/Getty Protestors rally at JFK Airport against Muslim immigration ban jfk-protest-muslim-ban-14 Protestors rally during a demonstration against the Muslim immigration ban at John F. Kennedy International Airport on January 28, 2017 in New York City. President Trump signed the controversial executive order that halted refugees and residents from predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States. Stephanie Keith/Getty Protestors rally at JFK Airport against Muslim immigration ban jfk-protest-muslim-ban-15 Protestors rally during a demonstration against the Muslim immigration ban at John F. Kennedy International Airport on January 28, 2017 in New York City. President Trump signed the controversial executive order that halted refugees and residents from predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States. Stephanie Keith/Getty Protestors rally at JFK Airport against Muslim immigration ban jfk-protest-muslim-ban-16 Protestors rally during a demonstration against the Muslim immigration ban at John F. Kennedy International Airport on January 28, 2017 in New York City. President Trump signed the controversial executive order that halted refugees and residents from predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States. Stephanie Keith/Getty Protestors rally at JFK Airport against Muslim immigration ban jfk-protest-muslim-ban-17 NEW YORK, NY - JANUARY 28: Protestors rally during a protest against the Muslim immigration ban at John F. Kennedy International Airport on January 28, 2017 in New York City. President Trump singed the controversial executive order that halted refugees and residents from predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States. Stephanie Keith/Getty Protestors rally at JFK Airport against Muslim immigration ban jfk-protest-muslim-ban-18 Protestors rally during a protest against the Muslim immigration ban at John F. Kennedy International Airport on January 28, 2017 in New York City. President Trump singed the controversial executive order that halted refugees and residents from predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States. Stephanie Keith/Getty Protestors rally at JFK Airport against Muslim immigration ban jfk-protest-muslim-ban-19 Protestors rally during a protest against the Muslim immigration ban at John F. Kennedy International Airport on January 28, 2017 in New York City. President Trump singed the controversial executive order that halted refugees and residents from predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States. Stephanie Keith/Getty Protestors rally at JFK Airport against Muslim immigration ban jfk-protest-muslim-ban-20 Passengers wait in line to check in at the American Airlines terminal at JFK International Airport August 10, 2006 in the Queens borough of New York City. British authorities arrested 21 people and halted a anallegedly terrorist plot to use liquid explosives concealed in carry-on luggage to blow up airliners traveling between Britain and the U.S. Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff said that the plot appeared to be directed at U.S. carriers flying out of Heathrow. such as United Airlines, American Airlines, Continental Airlines. Stephen Chernin/Getty

Mr Trump has also left approximately 800,000 "Dreamers" in legal limbo in an ongoing battle with Congressional Democrats over how to handle the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (Daca) programme, legislation that allows those individuals brought into the US illegally as minors to stay and work.

In January 2018, ICE raided 100 7-Eleven convenience stores all over the country in search of undocumented workers. The chain store is often run and staffed by immigrants, but it is illegal for employers to hire those without the proper papers authorising them to work in the US. In total 21 people were arrested across 17 states and Washington DC.

This is what were gearing up for this year, and what youre going to see more and more of is these large-scale compliance inspections, just for starters, Derek Benner, acting executive associate director for ICEs Homeland Security Investigations, told the Associated Press at the time.

Its not going to be limited to large companies or any particular industry, big medium and small. Its going to be inclusive of everything that we see out there, he said.
Walmart stores across the US are going to stop selling Cosmopolitan magazine in the checkout aisles.

Earlier today, the National Centre on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) announced that it had been working with Walmart for months to make the policy change in an effort to take a stand against sexual exploitation.

The popular womens magazine will continue to be sold elsewhere in stores, but will no longer appear on stands when Walmart shoppers pay for their purchases.

Thats over 5,000 stores where families and individuals will no longer be automatically exposed to Cosmos hypersexualised and degrading article titles that regularly promote pornography, sexting, BDSM, group sex, anal sex, and more, all while marketing toward young teens with Disney star cover models, the statement reads on the NCOSE website.

We at the National Centre on Sexual Exploitation have been working behind the scenes with Walmart for months regarding this police improvement, and applaud Walmart for making their checkout aisles family-friendly and sexploitation-free.

Many people on social media have expressed their extreme disapproval over the announcement, explaining that the removal of Cosmopolitan magazine from the checkout aisles for hypersexualised imagery perpetuates rape culture.

The argument that hiding Cosmo from Walmart shoppers will foster a culture that will respect women and ensure their dignity is understood is absolutely infuriating. Sexuality = exploitation, one person wrote.

I have always thought of @Cosmopolitan as empowering, not exploitative, another individual commented.

Haley Halverson, vice president of advocacy and outreach at NCOSE, linked the decision with the #MeToo movement in a comment to the Daily News.

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Especially in this #MeToo world, its time to start addressing the fact that we cant treat women as objects in these ways in our popular culture and then expect individuals to treat women with respect in they day-to-day lives, she said.

However, a Twitter user rebuked this statement, writing: Walmart using #MeToo as an excuse to stop selling Cosmopolitan in checkout lines is pretty ridiculous.

"Censoring frank information about sex feeds into rape culture by denying girls knowledge about their sexuality and choices they can make for themselves.

On the Cosmopolitan website, it states that the magazine offers: Fun, fearless advice on men, love and sex.

A Walmart spokesperson provided The Independent with a statement about the policy announcement, stating: As with all products in our store, we continue to evaluate our assortment and make changes.

Walmart will continue to offer Cosmopolitan to customers that wish to purchase the magazine, but it will no longer be location in the checkout aisles.

While this was primarily a business decision, the concerns raised were heard."

The Independent has reached out to Cosmopolitan for comment.
British cookery writer Hannah Glasse (1708-1770) was born 310 years ago today, an anniversary acknowledged in the latest Google Doodle.

Glasse remains best known for her 1747 recipe collection The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy, which was published anonymously and remained a best-seller for a century.

One of the work's key innovations was the author's pledge to democratise the business of cookery, promising in an introductory note to readers that the language contained within was intended so that domestic servants could understand it.

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"My intention is to instruct the lower Sort", she wrote, expressing a preference for "pieces of bacon" over "large Lardoons" so as not to confuse the common reader, a commitment to inclusive, democratic language George Orwell might have approved of.

"The great Cooks have such a high way of expressing themselves, that the poor Girls are at a Loss to know what they mean," she said.

This no-nonsense approach sought to demystify the culinary arts, dispelling the myth that gourmet cookery was the exclusive preserve of temperamental continental chefs and could instead be attempted with confidence within the confines of the ordinary British home, paving the way for the popular cooks that followed.

Everyone from Mrs Beeton and Fanny Craddock to Delia Smith, Jamie Oliver and Mary Berry owe a debt to this modest and unassuming author - Hannah Glasse proving Dr Johnson's doubts that a woman could have written such a work profoundly wrong.

The popularity of her book, which was hit by several accusations of plagiary, was such that its fame reached the New World and survived the abiding anti-British sentiment of the American War of Independence: Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington were all said to own copies.

Glasse's culinary innovations included the first recorded use of jelly in trifle and the first mentions of "Hamburgh sausages" and piccalilli. It even included one of the first English language recipes for making "currey the Indian way".

While the author was dismissive of the contemporary British reverence for French cuisine, she harboured no prejudice:

"I have indeed given some of my Dishes French Names to distinguish them, because they are known by those names; And where there is great Variety of Dishes, and a large Table to cover, so there must be Variety of Names for them; and it matters not whether they be called by a French, Dutch, or English Name, so they are good, and done with as little Expence as the Dish will allow of."

Glasse was by no means afraid to experiment with exotic ingredients and saw the opportunities global trade represented for the British kitchen, her book anticipating the advent of Nigella Lawson and "fusion cooking", advocating the use of cinnamon, cardamon, cocoa, pistachios, nutmeg, truffles, ambergris, "Naples biscuits" and, er, larks (ideally served with bread sauce).

But she valued economy as much as simplicity, worrying that, "some Things [are] so extravagant, that it would be almost a Shame to make Use of them, when a Dish can be made full as good, or better, without them."

For more on Hannah Glasse and her contribution to the British dining table, you can't do better than read The Independent's own Harry Cockburn, that Wordsworth of food writing, on the "deep puffy hollows and gilded crenellations" of the Yorkshire pudding and her immortal recipe for the "beguiling main course merangue."
A Canadian ice cream chain based has refused to change its blasphemous name despite thousands signing online petitions calling for a boycott.

Sweet Jesus is a Toronto-based company that specialises in soft ice cream and milkshakes.

The brand has recently faced heavy criticism by some Christians who have described the name as mocking.

The name of the brand was inspired by the use of the popular phrase in common vernacular, as explained in a statement on the Sweet Jesus website.

Our name was created from the popular phrase that people use as an expression of enjoyment, surprise or disbelief, it reads.

Our aim is not to offer commentary on anyones religion or belief systems.

While the ice cream chain has claimed that it did not intend to offend any religious group in any way, many devout Christians have expressed their disapproval over the name.

Toronto ice cream chain Sweet Jesus blasphemes Christ, one person wrote on Twitter.

Please Christians go sign this petition, so that this ice cream company will not belittle Jesus name as a mere ice cream name in their company.

However, others have stated that they dont see anything wrong with the name, with one person saying: I think its a charming name. Its not all negative.

Its ice cream people! Delicious, delicious, innocent ice cream

A petition on change.org ordering for Sweet Jesus to change its name has been signed by more than 1,800 people, while another on citizengo.org has garnered more than 10,000 signatures.

If this ice cream chain is permitted to keep the mocking and blasphemous name of Sweet Jesus, what is next? the petition on change.org reads.

We are calling on not just Christians, but anyone who is against religious discrimination to take a stand against this brand until the name is changed so as not to be offensive to and until such time as it does not discriminate against any religion."

Despite the backlash and the boycott threats that Sweet Jesus has received, it is reportedly refusing to make any changes to its branding.

We are conscious of the fact that, to some, our name can be off-putting, Sweet Jesus co-founder Andrew Richmond told CBC News.

That fact is something we struggle with, because we sincerely do not wish to give offence or show disrespect in any way toward anyones personal beliefs.

After a lot of thought, we have decided that we will not make a change.

Sweet Jesus is an honest reflection of our experiences and that of our customers and how they react when they try a product.

In our experience, the majority of people understand that were not trying to make a statement about religion.

The Toronto-based ice cream chain has plans to expand across Canada and the US in the near future.
Julian Assange has been banned from the internet by the Ecuadorian embassy, where he lives.

The Wikileaks founder has been upsetting the Ecuadorian government by sending messages that could anger other countries, the Ecuadorian government said.

"The Ecuadorean government believes Assange's behaviour, through his messages on social media, put at risk good relations which this country has with the UK, the rest of the EU and other nations," it said in a statement posted to Twitter. Mr Assange had signed a written agreement not to send any messages that might undermine Ecuador's relationships with other countries, it said.

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

More measures might be taken if Mr Assange fails to keep to the agreement, it said, though it didn't clarify what those might be.

The last tweet from Mr Assange's account was a message directed at a UK minister who called him a "miserable little worm" and said he should turn himself in. "As a political prisoner detained without charge for 8 years, in violation of 2 UN rulings, I suppose I must be 'miserable'; yet nothing wrong with being a 'little' person although I'm rather tall; and better a 'worm', a healthy creature that invigorates the soil, than a snake," he wrote.

Mr Assange's supporters, including internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom, have begun a campaign under the banner "reconnect Julian". They have asked people to head to the embassy, in London's Knightsbridge, to show support for Mr Assange and to ask that diplomats let him back on the internet.

Mr Assange has been living in Ecuador's embassy for more than five years.

Ecuador gave him asylum after he sought refuge in the embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden for investigation of sex-related claims.

Sweden dropped the case, but Mr Assange remains subject to arrest in Britain for jumping bail.
Being an astronaut might be many children's most desired job. But there might be something a little more exciting: making sure astronauts are able to do their jobs.

Nasa is looking for flight directors, the staff who run the team of engineers and scientists who make sure spaceflight missions go to plan, it has announced. And it has put out an open call to anyone who might be interested.

You don't need a PhD in astrophysics, or to understand the deep mysteries of the universe that the space agency works to understand. But you do probably need one of the coolest heads in the galaxy: the job involves being responsible not just for space missions but the astronauts whose lives depend on them going well.

Science news in pictures Show all 20 1 /20 Science news in pictures Science news in pictures Pluto has 'beating heart' of frozen nitrogen Pluto has a 'beating heart' of frozen nitrogen that is doing strange things to its surface, Nasa has found. The mysterious core seems to be the cause of features on its surface that have fascinated scientists since they were spotted by Nasa's New Horizons mission. "Before New Horizons, everyone thought Pluto was going to be a netball - completely flat, almost no diversity," said Tanguy Bertrand, an astrophysicist and planetary scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center and the lead author on the new study. "But it's completely different. It has a lot of different landscapes and we are trying to understand what's going on there." Getty Science news in pictures Over 400 species discovered this year by Natural History Museum The ancient invertabrate worm-like species rhenopyrgus viviani (pictured) is one of over 400 species previously unknown to science that were discovered by experts at the Natural History Museum this year PA Science news in pictures Jackdaws can identify 'dangerous' humans Jackdaws can identify dangerous humans from listening to each others warning calls, scientists say. The highly social birds will also remember that person if they come near their nests again, according to researchers from the University of Exeter. In the study, a person unknown to the wild jackdaws approached their nest. At the same time scientists played a recording of a warning call (threatening) or contact calls (non-threatening). The next time jackdaws saw this same person, the birds that had previously heard the warning call were defensive and returned to their nests more than twice as quickly on average. Getty Science news in pictures Turtle embryos influence sex by shaking The sex of the turtle is determined by the temperatures at which they are incubated. Warm temperatures favour females. But by wiggling around the egg, embryos can find the Goldilocks Zone which means they are able to shield themselves against extreme thermal conditions and produce a balanced sex ratio, according to the new study published in Current Biology journal Ye et al/Current Biology Science news in pictures Elephant poaching rates drop in Africa African elephant poaching rates have dropped by 60 per cent in six years, an international study has found. It is thought the decline could be associated with the ivory trade ban introduced in China in 2017. Reuters Science news in pictures Ancient four-legged whale discovered in Peru Scientists have identified a four-legged creature with webbed feet to be an ancestor of the whale. Fossils unearthed in Peru have led scientists to conclude that the enormous creatures that traverse the planets oceans today are descended from small hoofed ancestors that lived in south Asia 50 million years ago A. Gennari Science news in pictures Animal with transient anus discovered A scientist has stumbled upon a creature with a transient anus that appears only when it is needed, before vanishing completely. Dr Sidney Tamm of the Marine Biological Laboratory could not initially find any trace of an anus on the species. However, as the animal gets full, a pore opens up to dispose of waste Steven G Johnson Science news in pictures Giant bee spotted Feared extinct, the Wallace's Giant bee has been spotted for the first time in nearly 40 years. 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The bones belonged to two large rodent species and a small shrew-like animal New Mexico Museum of Natural History Science news in pictures Fabric that changes according to temperature created Scientists at the University of Maryland have created a fabric that adapts to heat, expanding to allow more heat to escape the body when warm and compacting to retain more heat when cold Faye Levine, University of Maryland Science news in pictures Baby mice tears could be used in pest control A study from the University of Tokyo has found that the tears of baby mice cause female mice to be less interested in the sexual advances of males Getty Science news in pictures Final warning to limit "climate catastrophe" The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has issued a report which projects the impact of a rise in global temperatures of 1.5 degrees Celsius and warns against a higher increase Getty Science news in pictures Nobel prize for evolution chemists The nobel prize for chemistry has been awarded to three chemists working with evolution. Frances Smith is being awarded the prize for her work on directing the evolution of enzymes, while Gregory Winter and George Smith take the prize for their work on phage display of peptides and antibodies Getty/AFP Science news in pictures Nobel prize for laser physicists The nobel prize for physics has been awarded to three physicists working with lasers. Arthur Ashkin (L) was awarded for his "optical tweezers" which use lasers to grab particles, atoms, viruses and other living cells. Donna Strickland and Gerard Mourou were jointly awarded the prize for developing chirped-pulse amplification of lasers Reuters/AP Science news in pictures Discovery of a new species of dinosaur The Ledumahadi Mafube roamed around 200 million years ago in what is now South Africa. Recently discovered by a team of international scientists, it was the largest land animal of its time, weighing 12 tons and standing at 13 feet. In Sesotho, the South African language of the region in which the dinosaur was discovered, its name means "a giant thunderclap at dawn" Viktor Radermacher / SWNS Science news in pictures Birth of a planet Scientists have witnessed the birth of a planet for the first time ever. This spectacular image from the SPHERE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope is the first clear image of a planet caught in the very act of formation around the dwarf star PDS 70. The planet stands clearly out, visible as a bright point to the right of the center of the image, which is blacked out by the coronagraph mask used to block the blinding light of the central star. ESO/A. Muller et al Science news in pictures New human organ discovered that was previously missed by scientists Layers long thought to be dense, connective tissue are actually a series of fluid-filled compartments researchers have termed the interstitium. These compartments are found beneath the skin, as well as lining the gut, lungs, blood vessels and muscles, and join together to form a network supported by a mesh of strong, flexible proteins Getty Science news in pictures Previously unknown society lived in Amazon rainforest before Europeans arrived, say archaeologists Working in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, a team led by archaeologists at the University of Exeter unearthed hundreds of villages hidden in the depths of the rainforest. These excavations included evidence of fortifications and mysterious earthworks called geoglyphs Jose Iriarte Science news in pictures One in 10 people have traces of cocaine or heroin on fingerprints, study finds More than one in 10 people were found to have traces of class A drugs on their fingers by scientists developing a new fingerprint-based drug test. Using sensitive analysis of the chemical composition of sweat, researchers were able to tell the difference between those who had been directly exposed to heroin and cocaine, and those who had encountered it indirectly. Getty Science news in pictures Nasa releases stunning images of Jupiter's great red spot The storm bigger than the Earth, has been swhirling for 350 years. The image's colours have been enhanced after it was sent back to Earth. Pictures by: Tom Momary

Flight directors play a critical role in the success of our nations human spaceflight missions, said Brian Kelly, director of Flight Operations at Johnson. The job is tough, the responsibilities are immense, and the challenges can seem insurmountable. But the experiences and personal rewards are incredible.

The candidates who are picked will oversee missions including those to the International Space Station, and eventually sending spacecraft to the Moon and onto Mars.

They'll do that by sitting at the top of teams made up of experts in flight control, research and engineering. They will have to make decisions to keep Nasa astronauts safe in space  making sure that they go up and come back down without problems, and are secure in the time between.

While that won't require astrophysics training, Nasa does ask applicants to have at least a bachelor's degree in a scientific subject such as engineering, biological science or computer science. They'll also need professional experience that has included "time-critical decision-making experience in high-stress, high-risk environments".

They also need to be US citizens, Nasa said.

Many of Nasa's flight directors come from its team of flight controllers, but that is not necessarily required.

Anyone who thinks they meet those criteria can apply on Nasa's website. It will announce its picks in mid-2018, when the successful applicants will head into intensive training.
The Royal Wedding invitations sent out ahead of the upcoming union of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry subtly acknowledge Markle as a divorcee.

On the white gilded invitations printed by Barnard & Westwood, which feature American ink on English card, a certain wording when referring to Markle has caught the eye - as it references the fact that Meghan was previously married.

Rather than refer to Markle as Miss Meghan Markle on the invitations, it instead reads: His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales KG KT requests the pleasure of the company of (name) at the marriage of His Royal Highness Prince Henry of Wales with Ms Meghan Markle at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle on Saturday 19th May 2018 at 12 noon followed by a reception at Windsor Castle.

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The subtle variation is in contrast to the Duchess of Cambridges 2011 wedding invites, where she was referred to as Miss Catherine Middleton.

The use of Ms is a first for the royal family, but according to etiquette, it is the proper way to refer to a divorcee.

Regarding the title, royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams told The Independent: The wording referring to Meghan on the wedding invitations is a first but this is a unique wedding. Ms is the correct way to refer to a divorced woman before either her birth name or married name.

However, the title may also be a sign the royal family is accepting of the fact Markle is a modern woman and a divorcee.

Mr Fitzwilliams said: It is also appropriate as Meghan is a feminist. The use of Ms is a contemporary way of avoiding using Mrs or Miss and I think it certain that this is also something Meghan would have approved of.

This is another sign of the royal family moving with the times, Mr Fitzwilliams told us.

Markle was previously married to film producer Trevor Engelson, whom she married in 2011 after seven years of dating.

The couple later divorced in 2013, citing irreconcilable differences.

The wedding between Ms Markle and Prince Harry will take place on May 19 2018 at St Georges Chapel, Windsor Castle, followed by a carriage procession around the Berkshire town.
A Pennsylvania Planned Parenthood affiliate is facing backlash after tweeting that Disney should consider adding a princess whos had an abortion to its lineup.

In a tweet that has since been deleted, Planned Parenthood Keystone, located in Trexlertown, PA, wrote: We need a Disney princess whos had an abortion, before naming other Disney princesses that we need.

Their suggestions included a princess who is pro-choice, an undocumented immigrant, a union worker, and a princess that is trans.

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Despite deleting the tweet just two hours after, screenshots of the tweet are being widely shared on social media - where people are criticising the affiliate.

On Twitter, some people are shocked that the organisation would think it was a good idea to involve children in matters many believe are better suited for adults.

I dont think girls who are young enough to like Disney Princesses need to know about abortion or other complex social issues. Just my opinion, wrote one woman.

Another said: Cant children just be children? This is totally age-inappropriate.

The tweet has since been deleted (@PPKeystone)

Even those who support Planned Parenthood are against the proposal that Disney should incorporate the subject of abortion into the background of a princesss story.

One person tweeted in response: I support Planned Parenthood, however, Disney Princesses dont have abortions because they dont have sex. They dont have genitalia. They dont have real problems. They represent an idealistic escape, not a reflection of society. Stop.

Neither Planned Parenthood nor the Keystone location has responded to a request for comment.
The number of EU workers actively searching for jobs in the UK has dropped by 11.4 per cent since the 2016 Brexit referendum, new research shows.

Searches made by Romanian job seekers saw a drop of 52 per cent, closely followed by those from Portugal (41 per cent), Poland (34 per cent) and Spain (26 per cent), according to online jobs board monster.co.uk.

It says online searches made by EU citizens for management roles in the UK has dropped by 24.8 per cent since June 2016, more than any other occupation.

Jobs in sales, legal professions and accounting have all been searched 21 per cent less since the Brexit vote, as EU nationals fear uncertainty over freedom of movement and the status of EU citizens once the UK leaves the bloc.

UK businesses employed a total of 2.35 million EU nationals in 2017.

While the proportion of international traffic from outside the EU has increased, a fall in active searches from EU countries in the wake of the referendum threatens to leave UK businesses unable to fill critical skilled roles, said Sinead Bunting, marketing vice president at Monster.

And things could get even more challenging.

A government report released on Wednesday said the hospitality sector is at particular risk of skills shortages, with nearly half of workers in restaurants, hotels and pubs originating from outside the UK.

The Migration Advisory Committee, which detailed findings from more than 400 businesses and government departments, described EU nationals as higher quality and more eager than British citizens and warned reduced immigration after Brexit could be disastrous for UK businesses.
Funding from big banks for extreme fossil fuels jumped by 11 per cent to $115bn (81bn) in the first year of Donald Trumps presidency, new research shows.

Finance for controversial and highly polluting tar sands projects more than doubled to $47bn in 2017, a report by a group of environmental NGOs found.

Extreme fossil fuels include those that contribute the most to climate change such as Arctic oil drilling, ultra-deepwater oil extraction, liquefied natural gas export, and coal mining and power.

While several European banks, including ING and BNP Paribas, pledged last year to cut financing for unconventional fossil fuels, North American banks ramped up their funding, particularly in Canada, the research found.

This reversed much of the progress made on reducing investment in the most carbon-intensive fossil fuels after the signing of the landmark Paris Agreement in 2016.

Wall Streets biggest lender, JPMorgan, more than quadrupled its funding for tar sands projects and companies, according to the report. Overall, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) was the largest funder of extreme fossil fuels in the last three years, apart from Agricultural Bank of China which finances a large amount of coal projects, according to the report.

It is environmentally, reputationally and often financially risky for banks to back these fossil fuel projects and companies, the report said. More and more, the public is tying the impacts of fossil fuels to the financial institutions backing the sector.

The rapid increase in funding last year came as a result of Canadian tar sands specialists buying up reserves from oil giants who began to focus on lower-cost oil elsewhere, the report said. Shell, Conoco Phillips and Statoil sold $23bn of Canadian oil assets in 2017.

Tar sands are worse for the climate than conventional sources of oil, sometimes producing three or four times the amount of greenhouse gases thanks to energy-intensive methods of extraction.

Tar sands are a combination of clay, sand, water, and bitumen, a heavy black viscous oil, which cannot be pumped from the ground in their natural state.

The estimated 173 billion barrels of oil discovered in Canadas tar sands would, if extracted, release enough carbon to take the world 30 per cent of the way towards the maximum 1.5C temperature increase agreed to under the Paris Agreement, according to campaign group Oil Change International.

Alison Kirsch, research co-ordinator at Rainforest Action Network, one of the groups that produced the report said: At a time when some European banks like BNP Paribas and ING are adopting policies that sharply restrict their lending to some of the worst fossil fuels, US and Canadian banks like JPMorgan Chase and TD are moving backwards in lockstep with their wrongheaded political leaders.

In October, Mr Trumps administration approved the proposed expansion of the Line 67 pipeline, doubling the amount of tar sands oil it transports from Canada to the US to 890,000 barrels per day. That followed a decision in March last year to approve the Keystone XL pipeline which his predecessor, Barack Obama, had blocked.

The Canadian president, Justin Trudeau, has come under fierce criticism from environmental groups for making green electoral promises while also backing pipelines such as Keystone XL.

The research was conducted by Oil Change International, BankTrack, Honor the Earth, Indigenous Environmental Network, the Sierra Club and Rainforest Action Network.

It assessed the financing by 36 banks from around the world of the top 30 companies in each extreme fossil fuel sector.

JPMorgan and RBC did not respond to requests for comment.
Softbank Group has announced a $200bn (141bn) investment to create the worlds biggest solar power project in Saudi Arabia through its Vision Fund private equity arm.

The Japanese conglomerates chief executive, Masayoshi Son, told reporters on Tuesday that the planned project is expected to have the capacity to produce up to 200 gigawatts (GW) of energy by 2030.

According to Reuters, that would add to around 400GW of globally installed solar power capacity and is comparable to the worlds total nuclear power capacity of around 390GW as of the end of 2016.

Recommended Softbank chief signals interest in Uber and Lyft investment

The deal will also fit into Saudi Arabias broader goal of diversifying economically and reducing its reliance on the often volatile oil industry  a programme it has dubbed Vision 2030.

The kingdom is one of the sunniest countries in the world but it is also the worlds biggest oil exporter. By tapping into the market for alternative sources of energy it will be able to increase its overseas shipments of oil.

Mr Son on Tuesday said that Saudi Arabias Vision 2030 plan was a good match for Softbanks long-term innovation ambitions.

So far, the Vision Fund, which was set up in 2016, has channelled more than $27bn (19bn) into around 20 tech firms, establishing Softbank as one of the worlds most influential technology investors.

Last May, Softbank  which is known in the UK for buying chip designer ARM in 2016  raised more than $93bn for the Vision fund, which is the worlds largest private equity fund and is backed by Saudi Arabias sovereign wealth fund and Apple.

Mr Son said that the panels used for the project will initially be imported. Later the project will include a panel manufacturing and assembly site of its own. Construction is due to start immediately and power generation will kick off at the beginning of next year.

Additional reporting by newswires
A new type of antibiotic has been discovered that could be a potent new weapon for tackling drug-resistant bacteria, particularly recurring infections that pose a serious risk to people with cystic fibrosis.

Two chemical compounds from the same family as vitamin A, a group known as retinoids, have been identified by US researchers as a potential weapon against drug-resistant superbugs, including hospital infection MRSA.

These chemicals have not been considered useful before because they are also poisonous to human cells, however the team  including researchers from Brown and Harvard Universities  were able to modify it to be safe.

The molecule weakens the cell membranes of bacteria, but human cells also have membranes, said Professor William Wuest, associate professor of chemistry at the Emory University Antibiotic Resistance Centre and one of the authors of the study, published in the journal Nature.

But we found a way to tweak the molecule so that it now selectively targets bacteria.

This technique could mean thousands of other compounds which are currently too toxic to humans could be potential avenues for future drugs.

Identifying another new class of antibiotic, the second in as many months, is another step to overturning a decades-long drought in new antibiotics being brought to clinics and could help avert a post-antibiotic apocalypse.

The new compounds could be particularly potent in treating chronic infections because the researchers showed they have the unprecedented power to kill dormant persister cells  bacteria which have become inactive and are more resistant to antibiotics.

These bacteria become embedded in bio films in the lungs of cystic fibrosis patients, or on implanted medical devices like pacemakers, and can reignite infections after theyve been treated.

In this form, surgery is often the only treatment as aggressive antibiotic treatment can make the problem of drug resistance even worse as the infection regrows from the most resilient bacteria.

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The team proved their drug could work safely in a living organism by testing it in MRSA-infected mice.

MRSA is the major superbug responsible for hundreds of thousands of life-threatening infections in hospital intensive care units around the world each year, due in part to its resilience against persister cells.

The results were extremely positive. We are extremely optimistic, said Professor Eleftherios Mylonakis, chief of infectious diseases at Rhode Island Hospital.

But he warned the development from being a promising candidate into a functional drug which can be trialled in humans was still many years away and that more investment was needed in both the initial discovery and development of new drugs.

In this study, researchers tested 82,000 compounds, and identified 185 that looked promising before ending up with the two retinoid compounds, and now they will need large animal and human trials to test a future drug.

This is an emergency, by 2050, superbugs will surpass cancer as the global number one killer, Professor Mylonakis said.

This is a frightening situation. It affects more than individuals in the hospital or the very ill or the very old. It affects everybody.

Independent researchers said the benefits in tackling persister cells were remarkable.

Dr Julian Hurdle of the Centre for Infectious and Inflammatory Diseases at Texas A&M University said: In experiments in mice, [the treatment] remained in circulation in the animals bodies for several hours at high enough concentrations to kill MRSA persister cells, but did not give rise to signs of toxicity such as liver or kidney damage.

Remarkably, the authors showed in mice it could tackle what would generally be considered to be a treatment-resistant form of MRSA.

Siouxsie Wiles, associate professor of microbiology at the University of Auckland, said the authors findings didnt show a complete wipe-out of bacteria, but the drug made a significant dent and could one day become a new drug treatment.

She added: What stands out to me about the study is the elegant way the researchers identified the new compounds  infecting microscopic worms with MRSA and then adding compounds to see if any of them helped the worms survive being infected.
Jose Antonio Abreu was the founder of Venezuelas internationally acclaimed music education programme, El Sistema  a national programme offering hundreds of thousands of children education in music and allowing them the chance to play in orchestras.

In 2015, The Independent described it as possibly the last national institution around which most Venezuelans still proudly unite.

Known affectionately to his fellow Venezuelans as Maestro, Abreu, who died aged 78, was born in Valera, a small city in the Andes. His maternal grandparents immigrated to Venezuela from Italy in the 19th century, bringing with them their love of Italian opera.

Abreus maternal grandfather founded a local orchestra. His mother was a keen pianist who encouraged young Jose to take up the instrument himself at the age of nine.

Though a talented musician, when it came to choosing a university degree Abreu decided on economics with a view to being able to financially support his family.

He graduated from the Andres Bello Catholic University and taught at two universities in Caracas before going into politics.

In 1963, he was elected as a member of the Chamber of Deputies in the Congress of Venezuela and in the 1980s, he was culture minister during President Carlos Andres Perezs second term.

From the minute a child is taught how to play an instrument, he is no longer poor, Abreu said (AFP/Getty) (AFP/Getty Images)

Throughout his career, music remained Abreus first love. While working as an economist, he continued to study composition, winning the Symphonic Music National Prize in 1967. It was in 1975 that he first decided to share his passion with Venezuelas least privileged children by founding the free music education programme El Sistema, using his government connections to raise funds.

Explaining El Sistemas philosophy in a TED Talk in 2009, Abreu said: The idea is that the families join with pride and joy in the activities of the orchestras and the choirs their children belong to.

The huge spiritual world that music produces in itself, which also lies within itself, ends up overcoming material poverty. From the minute a child is taught how to play an instrument, hes no longer poor. He becomes a child in progress heading for a professional level, wholl later become a full citizen.

In the run-up to El Sistemas first meeting in downtown Caracas in 1975, Abreu gathered together 50 music stands, expecting at least 100 children to attend. Just 11 children showed up. But Abreu was not to be put off.

He told the BBC: They were so determined and so enthusiastic that I understood from that very moment that success was guaranteed.

Indeed, El Sistema quickly grew to touch the lives of thousands of children, many from poor rural areas, who attended Abreus free afternoon music classes.

Forty years later, El Sistema mentors more than 300,000 children at 280 different music centres. It supports more than 500 orchestras and ensembles. El Sistemas flagship orchestra, The Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra, plays to sellout crowds in the worlds best music venues.

In the struggle for human rights, let us vigorously incorporate childrens sublime right to music  Let us reveal to our children the beauty of music and music shall reveal to our children the beauty of life Jose Antonio Abreu

Abreus teaching model has been adopted in more than 50 countries.

One of El Sistemas most famous alumni is Gustavo Dudamel, conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. He told The Independent: El Sistema is the most important thing apart from my family, and my family at the same time is El Sistema.

Abreu and his programme were lauded internationally, with awards from the Royal Swedish Academy and Unesco.

Abreu himself was given the Latin Grammy Trustees Award by the Latin Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences in 2009.

Receiving the Bnai Brith Human Rights Award in 2008, he said: In the struggle for human rights, let us vigorously incorporate childrens sublime right to music  Let us reveal to our children the beauty of music and music shall reveal to our children the beauty of life.

But despite his huge success, Abreus life and work were not without controversy.

In 2014, during a period of anti-government unrest, Abreu and his star alumnus Dudamel made a television appearance with Venezuelas unpopular socialist president Nicolas Maduro, who is widely criticised for having undermined Venezuelas democracy (though later Abreu would speak out in favour of anti-Maduro protests).

El Sistemas flagship band, the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra, plays to crowds around the world (Getty) (AFP/Getty Images)

At the same time, British musicologist Geoffrey Baker published El Sistema: Orchestrating Venezuelas Youth, accusing El Sistema of harbouring a culture of corruption and Abreu himself of being a vengeful autocrat.

And until last year, El Sistemas official biography claimed that Abreu had a PhD in petroleum economics from the University of Pennsylvania. After an Associated Press investigation revealed that Abreu had never attended the university, Abreus brother, Jesus, put the false claim down to an administrative error.

However, it remains widely believed that for many thousands of children, El Sistema has been and remains positively life-changing.

When Sir Simon Rattle proposed Abreu for the Noble Peace Prize in 2010, he said: What Abreu and El Sistema have done is to bring hope, through music, to hundreds of thousands of lives that would otherwise have been lost to drugs and violence.

Summing up his own hopes for the future of El Sistema and the role of the arts in the wider world, Abreu told his 2009 TED audience, We hope that [you] can contribute in a full and fundamental way to the building of this new era in the teaching of music, in which the social, communal, spiritual and vindicatory aims of the child and the adolescent become a beacon and a goal for a vast social mission.

No longer putting society at the service of art, and much less at the services of monopolies of the elite, but instead art at the service of society, at the service of the weakest, at the service of the children, at the service of the sick, at the service of the vulnerable, and at the service of all those who cry for vindication through the spirit of their human condition and the raising up of their dignity.

Jose Antonio Abreu Anselmi, Venezuelan conductor, born 7 May 1939, died 24 March 2018
In a world first, astronomers have found a galaxy that lacks the enigmatic substance known as dark matter  long considered one of the universes fundamental building blocks.

Its discovery challenges well-established ideas about how galaxies form, and the nature of dark matter itself.

Located 65 million light years away, the snappily named NGC 1052-DF2 galaxy  or DF2 for short  is a complete mystery according to the scientists who found it.

While dark matter has yet to be directly observed by scientists, it is generally considered a vital ingredient in the birth of galaxies.

We thought all galaxies were made up of stars, gas and dark matter mixed together, but with dark matter always dominating, said Professor Roberto Abraham, an astronomer at the University of Toronto who co-authored the paper describing the discovery.

Now it seems that at least some galaxies exist with lots of stars and gas and hardly any dark matter. It is pretty bizarre.

DF2 is known as an ultra-diffuse or ghost galaxy, an extremely low-density variety, recognisable due to its large size and faint appearance.

However, this one is an oddity, even among this unusual class of galaxy, according to Shany Danieli, a Yale University graduate student who contributed to its discovery.

 Out of control space station hurtling towards Earth

The astronomers realised something about DF2 was amiss when telescope observations revealed that 10 clusters of stars within it were moving far slower than would normally be expected.

The velocities of stars and other objects in faraway galaxies can be used to measure their individual masses.

By performing these calculations, the research team found that all the mass in the galaxy could be attributed to the visible stars, gas and dust. There was essentially no remaining room in this galaxy for dark matter.

If there is any dark matter at all, its very little, said Professor Pieter van Dokkum of Yale University, the studys lead author.

The analysis of this new galaxy was published in the journal Nature.

The discovery was unexpected because while dark matter remains largely mysterious, it is nevertheless considered by many to be the most dominant substance in the universe.

In the Milky Way, for example, scientists have suggested there is around 30 times more dark matter than normal matter.

Dark matter is also thought to have a hand in the birth of galaxies.

For decades, we thought that galaxies started their lives as blobs of dark matter. After that everything else happens: gas falls into the dark matter halos, the gas turns into stars, they slowly build up, then you end up with galaxies like the Milky Way, said Professor Van Dokkum.

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

No previous theory has predicted the discovery of a galaxy like DF2, and its discovery calls into question these fundamental ideas about galaxy formation.

The galaxy is a complete mystery, as everything about it is strange. How you actually go about forming one of these things is completely unknown, said Professor Van Dokkum.

This result also suggests that there may be more than one way to form a galaxy.

Counterintuitively, Professor Van Dokkum and his colleagues suggest the lack of dark matter in DF2 is actually good evidence for its existence.

While this substance plays a central role in our understanding of the universe, its intangible nature means alternate theories have been suggested to account for the gap in scientific understanding of what is currently known as dark matter.

These theories consider the dark matter signature that astronomers measure to be an unavoidable consequence of ordinary matter.

Therefore, the existence of a galaxy that has lots of matter, but no dark matter, suggests dark matter does indeed exist elsewhere as a substance in its own right.

This discovery shows that dark matter is real  it has its own separate existence, apart from other components of galaxies, said Professor Van Dokkum.

The astronomers suggest that DF2s dark matter could have been swept away by the birth of many massive stars, or the presence of a giant galaxy nearby.

However, for the time being they can only speculate about how it came to be in its current state, and they are now undertaking a survey to look for more dark matter-deficient galaxies and unravel this mystery.
Our understanding of ancient human migration may need a rethink after scientists analysed the oldest ever human DNA evidence found in Africa.

Researchers successfully sequenced genetic material from people living in Morocco 15,000 years ago, and found they shared a genetic heritage with populations in the Eastern Mediterranean and sub-Saharan Africa.

It suggests Stone Age humans from North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East were interacting much earlier than previously thought.

The findings were made by an international team of scientists, led by Johannes Krause and Choongwon Jeong from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, Germany.

"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," said Mr Jeong.

The team analysed DNA samples of nine individuals from the Iberomaurusian culture in Taforalt, a cave in northern Morocco and the oldest known cemetery in the world.

 An ancient city has been discovered in the middle of the ocean

The Iberomaurusians lived between 20,000 to 10,000 years ago and are considered the first humans in North Africa to have produced 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," said co-author Louise Humphrey, of the Natural History Museum in London.

Iberomaurusian microlithic tools recovered from Taforalt cave (Max Planck Institute/Abdeljalil Bouzouggar)

Using advanced sequencing methods, the team were able to recover DNA data from humans pre-dating the agricultural revolution in North Africa  around 10,000 years ago  for the first time.

They found that about two-thirds of the Taforalt individuals heritage closely matched the DNA of the ancient Natufians, a culture that lived in the Eastern Mediterranean region of the Middle East until about 11,500 years ago.

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The other third of the Taforalt DNA matched current populations in West Africa, suggesting interaction by peoples on either side of the Sahara Desert  a huge physical barrier to migration  were also occurring earlier than previously thought.

"Clearly, human populations were interacting much more with groups from other, more distant areas than was previously assumed," Mr Krause said.

Ancient necropolis discovered in Egypt Show all 6 1 /6 Ancient necropolis discovered in Egypt Ancient necropolis discovered in Egypt An archaeologist works on a damaged coffin Reuters/Mohamed Abd El Ghany Ancient necropolis discovered in Egypt An archaeologist works on a sarcophagus at the necropolis EPA/IBRAHIM YOUSSEF Ancient necropolis discovered in Egypt Skulls found at the burial site Reuters/Mohamed Abd El Ghany Ancient necropolis discovered in Egypt Another sarcophagus found at the necropolis EPA/IBRAHIM YOUSSEF Ancient necropolis discovered in Egypt Four canopic jars designed to hold internal organs are decorated with the heads of the four sons of the god Horus EPA/IBRAHIM YOUSSEF Ancient necropolis discovered in Egypt Examining a sarcophagus on site Reuters/Mohamed Abd El Ghany

"This illustrates the ability of ancient genetics to add to our understanding of human history."

But despite previous theories of a genetic link between ancient Europeans in Sicily or southern Spain and the Iberomaurusians, the study found no evidence of this.

The findings were published in the journal Science.
Footprints of people who lived 13,000 years ago have been discovered off the west coast of Canada, which scientists say could belong to the first North American settlers.

Researchers from the Hakai Institute and the University of Victoria in Canada excavated sites along the shoreline of Calvert Island in British Columbia, where at the end of the last ice age the sea level was two to three metres lower than it is today.

The archaeologists discovered 29 human tracks in the sediment, which carbon dating showed to be 13,000 years old. Measurements and enhanced photographs helped them identify the footprints of three different people, thought to be of two adults and a child, walking barefoot.

The findings indicate humans were present on the west coast of British Columbia as the world emerged from the last ice age. They add to a growing body of evidence that people travelled along a coastal route to move from Asia to North America at the time.

Academics believe giant glaciers locked up much of the Earths water during the last ice age, sinking sea levels so that a massive land bridge the size of Poland, called Beringia, connected the eastern tip of Russia to Alaska across what is now the 95km-wide stretch of sea called the Bering Strait.

The bridge allowed people to cross by foot to North America and eventually reach what is now British Columbia, Canada. Until then, both had probably been free from human habitation.

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

Now, much of the Pacific coast of Canada is covered by dense forest and can only be accessed by boat, making it difficult to look for archaeological evidence which could support the theory that humans travelled along the coast.

But the authors of the paper said further excavations were likely to uncover more human footprints in the area that would help to piece together the patterns of early human settlement on the coast of North America.
A former Catalan minister who fled Spain after last years independence referendum has been freed on bail after handing herself in to police in Scotland.

Clara Ponsati faces extradition after being formally arrested in Edinburgh over charges of violent rebellion and misappropriation of public funds.

She has described the charges  punishable with a jail term of up to 30 years  as political persecution and said she would fight attempts to return her to Spain.

Ms Ponsati travelled to Scotland this month to resume work as an economics lecturer at the University of St Andrews, a post she left for a role as education secretary in former Catalan president Carles Puigdemonts government last July.

Mr Puidgement, Ms Ponsati and three other Catalan ministers fled for Belgium in October after the failed bid for secession following the independence referendum that Madrid says was illegal.

Mr Puigdemont was detained by German police while crossing from Denmark on the way to Belgium at the weekend. His arrest sparked angry protests among separatist supporters in Catalonias main city of Barcelona.

Ms Ponsati voluntarily attended a police station on Wednesday morning after Spanish authorities issued new European arrest warrants for the five fugitives last week. The country's Supreme Court had withdrawn previous arrest warrants in December.

She appeared at the Edinburgh Sheriff Court, before a full hearing in April.

The academic told The Independent earlier this month she had faith that Britain would not comply with Madrids politically motivated extradition request.

I am confident British justice works, unlike Spain, she said.

Ms Ponsati has received public support from her university and Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon, as well as thousands of people who have contributed to a crowdfunding appeal to pay for her legal fees.

Speaking outside the police station, her solicitor Aamer Anwar said: Clara remains defiant, resolute and is determined to fight back.

She wants to thank the many hundreds of thousands of ordinary people especially in Scotland who have shown her such love and support.

She is truly humbled by the unconditional support from students, colleagues and the principal at St Andrews University.

Clara wishes to thank Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish government and politicians for their solidarity. Scotland has been a true friend to Catalonia in her darkest hours.

However it is absolutely right that the independence of the judiciary in Scotland is respected and that no government should ever interfere in that process. Clara accepts her fate now lies in the hands of the Scottish justice system.

St Andrews described Ms Ponsati as a valued colleague and said it was deeply concerned by recent developments, their motives and potential consequences.

In a statement, the university added: In the current circumstances, we believe there are legitimate arguments that Clara is being targeted for standing up for her political beliefs.

That is anathema to us, and we will continue to offer her every appropriate support, while respecting due legal process.

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Ms Sturgeon has said the Scottish government strongly oppose the Spanish governments decision to seek the arrest and imprisonment of independence-supporting politicians, but had no power to intervene in the case.

A crowdfunding drive to raise money for Ms Ponsatis extradition defence reached 100,000 just over two hours after it was launched on Wednesday morning.

On Monday, a group of protesters congregated outside the Spanish consulate in Edinburgh to demonstrate against the arrest warrant and the actions of the Spanish government.

A crowd of demonstrators also showed up to support Ms Ponsati outside the police as she handed herself in.

Xavier Oliver, 35, a software engineer from Catalonia, said: The Spanish government is using this excuse to put people in jail and let them rot.

They should tackle the problem politically. In their minds putting people in jail on ridiculous charges is enough to change the minds of two million people.
 Close Government abandons plan to challenge release of 'Black Cab' rapist John Worboys

Victims of black cab rapist John Worboys have won their legal challenge against a decision to release him from prison.

A ruling in the landmark case was given by three judges at the High Court in London, who heard evidence over two days earlier this month.

Lawyers for two of Worboys victims had argued that the Parole Boards decision to release the 60-year-old serial sex attacker was irrational, and should be overturned.

Scroll down to see how we covered the ruling, live. The blog has now closed.

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The Parole Board must reconsider, judges ruled on Tuesday morning  just minutes after the bodys chairman resigned.

Officials should have held further inquiry into Worboys offending and his overall credibility and reliability, Sir Brian Leveson said.

He also said the boards Rule 25, which currently bars disclosure of information about its decisions, was incompatible with the principle of open justice.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 23 September 2021 Gabriella, the seven year old daughter of imprisoned British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, joins in a game on a giant snakes and ladders board in Parliament Square, to show the ups and downs of her mothers case to mark the 2,000 days she has been detained in Iran AP UK news in pictures 22 September 2021 A new sign hangs on the Millicent Fawcett statue after it was altered by CrackTheCrises coalition activists to highlight the climate crisis as a feminist struggle in Parliament Square in London EPA UK news in pictures 21 September 2021 Gabriella Diment prepares a monumental bronze patinated fibreglass wall sculpture depicting household cavalry soldiers on horseback which is expected to be sold for 12,000-18,000 when it goes up for auction at Summers Place Auctions in Billinghurst, Kent PA 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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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. 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Worboys, who now goes by the name Radford, was jailed indefinitely in 2009 with a minimum term of eight years after being found guilty of 19 offences, including rape, sexual assault and drugging, committed against 12 victims.

He became known as the black cab rapist after attacking victims in his hackney carriage.

Police believe he committed crimes against 105 women between 2002 and 2008, when he was caught.

The two victims who brought the case believe something went badly wrong with the Parole Boards decision to free him.

They said the Parole Board should have taken into account critical evidence of the wider allegations against Worboys.

The judges heard that Worboys, who has served 10 years behind bars, including remand time, has denied committing any offences other than those for which he was convicted.

The Parole Board argued that its decision was lawful and and rational and was based on appropriate evidence.

Londons Mayor Sadiq Khan and The Sun newspaper also took part in the legal action.
A victim of black cab rapist John Worboys accused the government of scapegoating the head of the Parole Board after he was forced to resign.

Nick Hardwick stepped down as High Court judges overturned the decision to release Worboys and condemned officials who failed to properly investigate the scale of his crimes and deception.

The legal challenge was brought by two women  DSD, who was attacked in 2003, and NBV, who was assaulted four years later.

DSD attended court to see judges rule in their favour and quash the decision to release Worboys, while ruling a Parole Board rule banning the disclosure of information on proceedings to victims unlawful.

But she said there had been failures all the way through the legal process, from the original police investigation onwards.

Forcing Mr Hardwick to resign was wrong because I think hes been made a scapegoat on this, the woman told The Independent. I wouldnt put the blame solely at the Parole Boards feet because they could only make a decision on what was presented to them.

Phillippa Kaufmann QC, who represented the victims, said it was improper and wrong to force Mr Hardwick to resign.

Nick Hardwick said he was told his situation was untenable

It looks as though he has been scapegoated for something that was not the sole fault of the Parole Board, she added.

Mr Hardwick made it clear he had been forced to step down in a resignation letter, saying the Justice Secretary David Gauke told him his position was untenable in a meeting.

I had no role in the decision of the panel in the case and believe I am capable of leading the Parole Board through the changes, many of which I have advocated, that will now be necessary, he wrote.

I want to state my concern about the independence of the Board. I believe this matter raises very troubling questions about how the Boards independence can be safeguarded.

The judicial review exposed a series of failings by both the Parole Board and Ministry of Justice, which left vital information out of a dossier used to consider his release.

It referred to more than 80 potential victims, but did not include details of the offences, which were not prosecuted in the original trial that saw Worboys convicted on a sample of 19 crimes against 12 women.

The dossier also omitted sentencing remarks from the judge who jailed him indefinitely for public protection, calling him a high continuing risk to women and as a significant risk of reoffending.

Mr Gauke admitted that it may well have been the case that information should have been included that wasnt provided.

But during questioning by MPs in the House of Commons, he placed the blame firmly with the Parole Board for failing to probe the evidence available.

I think it is right that Professor Hardwick stand down as chair, he said. I want to acknowledge that he has been a dedicated public servant and done a number of very good things at the Parole Board, but I do believe at this point that there have been significant failures and new leadership is required.

Justice Secretary David Gauke addressing MPs in the House of Commons (PA)

He announced a review of all Parole Board rules and said he had already decided to abolish the unlawful Rule 25 to allow victims to be given information on the release of prisoners, as well as creating a mechanism to challenge decisions.

DSD called for all victims, not just the 12 whose cases Worboys was jailed for in 2009, to be able to give evidence at the new hearing on his case.

The next parole hearing will look at everything that is available to them, and they should have done last time, she said. Hopefully they will decide that Worboys isnt fit for release and see through his lies.

Sir Brian Leveson stressed that the ruling did not have any bearing on the fresh hearing to be held over Worboys potential release.

The Parole Board should have undertaken further inquiry into the circumstances of his offending and, in particular, the extent to which the limited way in which he has described his offending may undermine his overall credibility and reliability, he said, calling for a judge to chair the new panel.

We must emphasise that we have not held, nor must we be understood as suggesting, that Worboys present risk is such that his continued imprisonment is necessary for the protection of the public.

Sir Brian said the Parole Board should take the courts findings into account but the decision is for it alone to make.

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DSD called for more prosecutions to be brought to ensure that more than 100 women who police believe were attacked by Worboys receive justice.

His attack against her in 2003 was the first to be reported to authorities but Worboys was not imprisoned for another five years, being left to continue picking up women in his taxi, convincing them to consume spiked drinks and sexually assaulting them.

I would like to see more prosecutions because although the Parole Boards decision was quashed, at some point in the future I think they will decide he is fit to come out and safe, DSD said. Im thrilled and feel safer, no woman is safe with him free.

NBV said she had been frozen in shock, disgusted and traumatised by the thought that Worboys could be released, feeling compelled to hold authorities to account.

News that we have won this case finally brought huge relief, she added. I can get on with my life again without looking over my shoulder.

Harriet Wistrich, a solicitor for the two victims, said she has been approached by 10 victims of Worboys during the judicial review, including several who had not previously gone to police.

As I understand it they are still investigating cases, she said, including one she referred detailing an alleged attack in 1999  four years before Worboys was known to have struck.

Ms Wistrich also raised concern that Mr Hardwick had been made a scapegoat, adding: This case from start to finish has illustrated the weakness of our criminal justice system to tackle serious sexual offending, from the failures of the police to adequately investigate; the weakness of CPS decision making selecting only a small number of cases to prosecute; the failure of the Secretary of State to ensure the Parole Board had all the necessary and relevant evidence; the failure of probation to consult all the victims, to ultimately the incomprehensible decision making of the Parole Board itself.

Scotland Yard refused to confirm or deny whether new investigations were underway, saying it would not provide a running commentary and would release information only when the move is operationally appropriate.

A spokesperson for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said: The CPS has been providing early investigative advice to the Metropolitan Police but no files have been submitted for a charging decision.

DSD was concerned about how Worboys will be monitored if and when he is released and raised fears over resources, adding: They say he would have very stringent licence conditions, but who has got the time to follow him for 24 hours a day?

The Parole Board initially imposed conditions including Worboys living permanently at a specific probation hostel and under a curfew, having to notify supervisors of personal relationships with women and being banned from deleting internet history or having a second phone.

The National Probation Service later applied for Worboys to be excluded from Greater London and Sussex, while being monitored using a GPS tag.

Licence conditions will be considered once again when the Parole Board holds another hearing over his potential release, which is not expected to take place for several months.
The decision to release the black cab rapist John Worboys has been quashed by the High Court after a landmark legal challenge by his victims.

They were thrilled by the result, which sparked the resignation of Parole Board chair Nick Hardwick and a government review of the bodys rules.

Women can go to bed tonight with the knowledge he isnt going to be on the streets any time soon, said one of the claimants, named only as DSD, amid jubilant scenes in London.

Police are believed to be investigating fresh reports by victims of Worboys who have come forward during the judicial review, including a woman who said she was sexually assaulted in 1999.

The 60-year-old is believed to have attacked more than 100 victims but was only convicted of a sample of 19 offences against 12 women, and campaigners hope new investigations will see him jailed once more.

Lawyers do not expect the exceptional case to cause a flood of legal challenges against the release of other prisoners but the public outrage over Worboys potential release has damaged confidence in the Parole Board.

Worboys was handed an indeterminate sentence for public protection in 2009 but a minimum term of eight years meant he was considered for release in December.

A dossier of evidence passed to the panel by the Ministry of Justice did not include details of attacks that were not prosecuted, or the sentencing remarks that called Worboys a high continuing risk to women and a significant risk of reoffending.

 Justice Secretary David Guake on Worboys case: The judgement quashestransparency around decision making

Sir Brian Leveson, Mr Justice Jay and Mr Justice Garnham said the board should have questioned the evidence handed to them, as well as Worboys efforts to present himself as an open and honest man who took responsibility for his actions.

The Parole Board should have undertaken further inquiry into the circumstances of his offending and, in particular, the extent to which the limited way in which he has described his offending may undermine his overall credibility and reliability, they concluded, calling for a judge to chair the new panel.

Sir Brian stressed that although the judicial reviews findings mean that Worboys will be subject to a fresh hearing, they have no bearing on its outcome and the Parole Board may decide to release him again.

Judges also found the bodys Rule 25, which currently prohibits reasons for its decisions being made public or passed to victims, unlawful and a violation of the principle of open justice.

The inquiry found that if the Parole Board accepted Worboys own accounts of his behaviour and motivations at face value, despite his history as a clinical and conniving manipulator.

He maintained his innocence for six years before an abrupt change of heart in 2015, but only ever admitted the offences for which he was convicted  a coincidence judges called quite remarkable given that prosecutors had selected the sample of cases for trial themselves.

Worboys, who now calls himself John Radford, also admitted paying a total of 241,000 to 11 women  including the judicial view claimants DSD and NBV  who launched legal claims after their cases were not prosecuted.

Judges said the size of the payment should have generated a modicum of scepticism over Worboys claim that he had only assaulted the 12 women included in the 2009 trial.

DSDs account of the black cab driver drugging her with a spiked alcoholic drink and sexually assaulting her in 2003 was made public in a separate court case that won damages from the Metropolitan Police.

The information was not viewed by the Parole Board, even though it would have contradicted the attackers claim that his predatory behaviour was triggered by a breakup in 2006.

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Members of the panel that decided to release the serial sex attacker also failed to request further information from the Crown Prosecution Service or Metropolitan Police, which would have revealed the discovery of a rape kit at his home and other evidence of his obsession.

The Parole Board argued that its decision was lawful and rational and was based on appropriate evidence, but its chair was forced to announce his resignation as the High Court judgement was handed down.

Nick Hardwick made it clear he had been forced to step down in a resignation letter, saying the Justice Secretary told him his position was untenable in a meeting.

I had no role in the decision of the panel in the case and believe I am capable of leading the Parole Board through the changes, many of which I have advocated, that will now be necessary, he said.

I want to state my concern about the independence of the Board. I believe this matter raises very troubling questions about how the Boards independence can be safeguarded.

DSD and the lawyers who represented her accused the government of making Mr Hardwick a scapegoat for wider failings, including the dossier submitted by the Ministry of Justice itself.

Phillipa Kaufmann QC said the Parole Board was overloaded with cases without sufficient funding, warning: The board is constrained by a lack of resources, the judiciary is constrained by a lack of resources.

David Gauke, the Justice Secretary, admitted that it may well have been the case that information should have been included that wasnt provided.

But while being questioned by MPs in the House of Commons, he placed the blame firmly with the Parole Board for failing to probe the evidence available.

I think it is right that Professor Hardwick stand down as chair, Mr Gauke said. I want to acknowledge that he has been a dedicated public servant and done a number of very good things at the Parole Board, but I do believe at this point that there have been significant failures and new leadership is required.

He announced a review of all Parole Board rules and said he had already decided to abolish the unlawful Rule 25 to allow victims to be given information on the release of prisoners, as well as creating a mechanism to challenge decisions.

New guidance will be issued on how panels can consider offences that were not prosecuted, dossiers will be checked, and the panels for considering offenders meeting set criteria will include judges.

The Parole Board makes thousands of decision every year, they involve very difficult judgements and they are not always going to get it right, Mr Gauke said.

Justice Secretary David Gauke addressing MPs in the House of Commons (PA)

I welcome the judgment and congratulate the victims who brought this unprecedented legal action.

I want to take this opportunity reitierate my heartfelt sympathy for all they, and the other victims, have suffered as a result of Worboys hideous crimes.

Harriet Wistrich, the solicitor for the two claimants, praised their determination to launch the challenge, which was driven by an online crowdfunding campaign.

I have been inundated with calls from other victims of Worboys including several women who had never reported attacks by him before, she added.

This case from start to finish has illustrated the weakness of our criminal justice system to tackle serious sexual offending, from the failures of the police to adequately investigate; the weakness of CPS decision making selecting only a small number of cases to prosecute; the failure of the Secretary of State to ensure the Parole Board had all the necessary and relevant evidence; the failure of probation to consult all the victims, to ultimately the incomprehensible decision making of the Parole Board itself.

DSD is still fighting for her case to be prosecuted but said she was thrilled to have won the case, telling The Independent: I would like to see more prosecutions because although the Parole Boards decision was quashed, at some point in the future I think they will decide he is fit to come out and safe no woman is safe with him free.

Her co-claimant, NBV, said she had been frozen in shock, disgusted and traumatised by the thought that Worboys could be released, feeling compelled to hold authorities to account.

News that we have won this case finally brought huge relief, she added. I can get on with my life again without looking over my shoulder.

The Metropolitan Police refused to confirm or deny whether new investigations were underway, saying it would not provide a running commentary and would release information only when the move is operationally appropriate.

A spokesperson for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said: The CPS has been providing early investigative advice to the Metropolitan Police but no files have been submitted for a charging decision.
The former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter are believed to have been poisoned by a military-grade nerve agent at their home, police said.

Detectives identified the highest concentration of the novichok nerve agent on the front door of their address in Christie Miller Road, in Salisbury.

Mr Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, remain in critical condition in hospital.

The Metropolitan Police said traces of the nerve agent have been found at some of the other scenes detectives have been working at over the past few weeks, but at lower concentrations.

Detectives will now focus their inquiries in and around the address, and specialist teams will step back from some of the other areas investigated over the past few weeks.

Around 250 counter terrorism detectives continue to work around the clock on the investigation, supported by a full range of experts and partners.

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

Officers continue to trawl through more than 5,000 hours of CCTV and examine over 1,350 exhibits that have been seized.

Around 500 witnesses have been identified and hundreds of statements taken.

The London Road cemetery, where his wife and son are buried, the Maltings shopping centre where Mr Skripal and his daughter were discovered unconscious, and the Ashley Wood compound have been handed back into the control of Wiltshire Police.

A police officer stands behind cordon tape in an alleyway which has been blocked off near the home of former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal in Salisbury (REUTERS/Peter Nicholls) (Reuters)

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Dean Haydon, Senior National Coordinator for Counter Terrorism Policing said: At this point in our investigation, we believe the Skripals first came into contact with the nerve agent from their front door.

We are therefore focusing much of our efforts in and around their address."

Police offers at the crime scene of the nerve-agent attack in Sailsbury (Getty Images)

It comes after Russia, which has faced increasing global isolation after being held responsible for the attack, suggested UK intelligence officers may have been involved in the poisoning of Mr Skripal and his daughter, Yulia.

The Kremlin made the allegation after at least 26 countries expelled a total of more than 130 suspected Russian spies in response.

Britain insists there is no other plausible explanation for the novichok attack and has dismissed a series of suggestions emanating from Moscow as nonsense.
Details of a jihadi manifesto sent by the Westminster attacker on WhatsApp minutes before launching the atrocity have been revealed in a report that probed why police arrested a dozen potential suspects and then set them free.

Khalid Masood placed a photo of himself on the front page of the document, which was entitled Jihad and included extracts from the Quran and other Islamic sources that he claimed to support violence.

A report by the Independent Reviewer of Legislation detailed how police traced the contacts who received Masoods final message to launch a wave of arrests across the country, starting in Birmingham.

Max Hill QC said investigators initially believed Masood had sent the document to specific individuals who may be of interest, but it quickly transpired to the police that a large number of individuals received this message and it wasnt targeted at specific associates.

The Independent understands that the document did not include a pledge of allegiance to Isis, which claimed responsibility for the Westminster attack in a statement describing Masood as a soldier of the Islamic State.

Intelligence investigations found he had researched Isis online, alongside methods of attack using knives and vehicles favoured by its followers, but the discovery raises the prospect that the terrorist group issued its claim opportunistically and without proof of his support.

Masood had been known to security services since 2004, over his links with al-Qaeda supporters and Anjem Choudarys banned Islamist network, but was not under active investigation at the time of the attack.

 Met Police announce that terror perpetrator Khalid Masood was born Adrian Russell

A review by Mr Hills predecessor found that neither MI5 nor the police had any reason the anticipate the attack, concluding that Masood was a long way from the top of anyones grid.

The 52-year-old Muslim convert was shot dead after killing five pedestrians on Westminster Bridge with his car and stabbing PC Keith Palmer to death outside Parliament.

The rampage on 22 March 2017 lasted just 82 seconds but left 29 other victims injured, becoming the first terror attack claimed by Isis in the UK.

A report into the ensuing police investigation said counter-terror officers launched a fast-moving probe that initially relied on just the items found in the crashed hire car.

Recommended Timeline of MI5 investigations into UK terror attackers revealed

Masoods phone was locked but notifications showed the content of recent messages, while financial information revealed that he had stayed at a hotel in Brighton on the previous night.

The premises were searched, as was a hostel in Birmingham and the homes of friends and relatives in the city and London.

Police arrested 12 people in total  eight men and four women aged between 20 and 58  but all were later released without charge.

The sweep contributed to a record number of terror arrests recorded in the UK last year, when the Westminster attack was the first of five atrocities to strike London and Manchester.

Mr Hill found no major fault with the investigation but made four recommendations for police to improve practices.

I considered very hard the fact that 12 people were arrested and detained but none were charged, but I reached the conclusion that this was an efficient investigation, and a reasoned and proportionate use of the relevant terrorism legislation, he told The Independent.

In pictures: Westminster attack Show all 9 1 /9 In pictures: Westminster attack In pictures: Westminster attack An air ambulance lands after gunfire sounds were heard close to the Palace of Westminster in London PA wire In pictures: Westminster attack MPs wait until the situation is under control in Westminster. 'The alleged assailant was shot by armed police,' David Lidington, leader of the House of Commons, told the house. BBC News In pictures: Westminster attack Crowds gather in Westminster after shooting incident, which police are treating as terror attack BBC News In pictures: Westminster attack Police were also called to an incident on Westminster Bridge nearby AP In pictures: Westminster attack Early reports indicate the car, which mounted the pavement on Westminster Bridge and mowed into around a dozen people, was the same vehicle which then rammed into the railings of the Palace of Westminster, just around the corner Reuters In pictures: Westminster attack Security sources described the suspected assailant as a middle-aged Asian man, who is understood to have left the car before attacking a police officer with a seven-to-eight inch knife PA wire In pictures: Westminster attack Police have asked people to avoid the immediate area to allow emergency services to deal with the ongoing incident AP In pictures: Westminster attack One woman has died and a number of others, including the police officer, have been hurt, according to a junior doctor at St Thomas' Hospital Reuters In pictures: Westminster attack At least three gun shots were heard by those inside Westminster, and proceedings in the House of Commons have been suspended AP

This this was a standing start, the police had to work with what they found on the bridge on that day and it is extremely important not to apply too much hindsight.

Those arrested in the wake of the attack included Masoods ex-wife, who had two young children with the attacker.

In a statement released through police, she said she was saddened and shocked by his attack, condemning his actions.

Notifications on the terrorists phone showed she had tried to call him on the day of the attack, when she contacted police identifying him as the attacker.

She stated in interview that she received a text message from Masood with a pdf named Jihad, the report said.

When she saw the incident on Twitter she was worried he might be involved and tried several times to get a hold of him.

The woman cooperated fully with police and passed on details of Masoods other associates.

Among them was a 58-year-old man who had also tried to call the attacker and was due to travel abroad with him imminently, sparking suspicion that he was complicit in the attack.

He was initially not forthcoming as to the full extent of his relationship with Masood, claiming he had only met him weeks before and complained about his arrest and the impact on his children.

One of Masoods relatives, a 27-year-old man, was also arrested after he refused to hand police his phone because he needed it for work.

People look at floral tributes left for the victims of the Westminster terrorist attack (file photo) (Getty)

Officers uncovered messages the man sent to Masood two hours after the attack reading: I will take care of her inshallah [God willing]. Ameen. Please give us a call when possible, and then minutes later: May Allah grant you peace and honour Ameen.

Later the same evening, he texted Masood saying he had visited his home: Khalid... called you and no answer..what is going on? We just knocked for you but no answer.

The report said the man fully cooperated with police and denied knowledge of the attack, describing himself as a strict Muslim but ignores the situation in Syria as he finds it too depressing.

Another man, a 30-year-old associate of Masood was arrested after police found out he had received religious instruction from the terrorist had was becoming more extreme and talking about jihad.

Call data showed he had been in contact with Masood in the days and weeks leading up to the attack, and had visited Westminster for unclear purposes earlier in March.

He refused to answer questions in his first police interview on the advice of a solicitor, but later told investigators he met Masood at a gym, describing him as a mentor who assisted him with his separation and child access issues.

The man said he had not seen the terrorist for some time before the attack and knew nothing about it.

Four Hungarians who lived at an address where Masood was a former tenant were arrested, but did not know him.

Nor did a man and woman in their 20s living in a homeless hostel, which they moved into hours before being arrested.

Police also detained a Saudi Arabian married couple who were in a professional relationship with Masood through his teaching work.

Acting deputy commissioner Mark Rowley says attacker was inspired by 'Islamist-related terrorism' (PA)

Financial records showed the wife paid a total of 2,100 into Masoods bank account in the two months before the attack with the reference friend, but they told police the payments were for educational work completed.

In total, police seized 584 pieces of potential evidence, including 256 electronic devices.

The evidence will be considered in ongoing inquests into the deaths of Masood and his five victims, British mother Aysha Frade, Romanian architect Andreea Cristea, pensioner Leslie Rhodes, American tourist Kurt Cochran and PC Palmer.

Mr Hill said police had fully accepted the findings of his report, which called on officers to give greater thought to transporting detainees hundreds of miles from the place of arrest, as was seen following the Westminster attack.

The lawyer, who has himself prosecuted several high-profile terror cases involving Isis and other groups, called on authorities to consider making it possible to release people arrested under the Terrorism Act on bail, make sure detainees are given their rights as soon as possible and review training on how people are questioned on their religion.

None of them are major criticisms but they present learning opportunities, Mr Hill said.

I wanted to present as much information on the public as possible on Masood and his plans.

There little public information as to what process follows when people are arrested on suspicion terror offences its at the heart of this countrys response to terrorism and theres a right to understand what police and individuals in their charge go through.

Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, said she would carefully consider the reports recommendations and respond formally in due course.

It was published the day after an independent review into the emergency services response to the Manchester attack in May exposed failings by the fire service, which did not respond to the bombing for two hours after poor communication with police.
The investigation into the death of an Army recruit from gunshot wounds at Deepcut barracks has been hampered by inadequate initial analysis, an inquest has been told.

Private Sean Benton, 20, was found with five bullets in his chest in June 1995, shortly after he had been told he was to be discharged from the Army.

The fresh inquest into his death at Woking Coroner's Court has been told there was inadequate scene investigation, scene photographs were of poor quality and did not allow for detailed assessment of specific gunshot wounds.

Home Office pathologist Nathaniel Cary, who produced a report in September 2011 based on the documentary evidence surrounding the case, also found there were no post-mortem photographs to assess and there was a lack of adequate post-mortem description in relation to internal and external gunshot wounds.

The inquest was told that BKA, the German investigators called in by Surrey Police to look into the ballistics evidence surrounding Pte Benton's death, found six shots had been fired in two bursts at close range and one of them missed.

BKA stated it would have been possible for the victim to have fired those shots given the way the injuries fell, the inquest was told.

There was "no grounds" to suggest it was not the result of self-harm, according to BKA.

The inquest was also told that a mortuary assistant washed Pte Benton's jacket which was full of blood and body tissue. No further explanation was given about why he did this.

It was brought out to show visitors and kept in a cupboard for seven years, the court heard.

Reading from an agreed statement from Dr Cary and pathologist Professor Jack Crane, inquest counsel Bridget Dolan QC said: "We agree that the gunshot wound to the heart would have been rapidly fatal although further shots can still occur if this was part of automatic fire.

"Due to a lack of detail concerning internal findings and a lack of post-mortem photographs, it is difficult to determine the likely effect of each of the other gunshots with both rapid mobilisation and some further purposeful activity possible."

The agreed statement adds there is "nothing inconsistent with self-infliction" and the court may decide if someone else pulled the trigger.

The statement adds: "We agree that there is nothing inconsistent with infliction of the gunshot wounds by another person from a forensic pathology point of view; this is a matter for the court to determine on the basis of assessment of witness evidence."

Pte Benton's family have campaigned for years for a full investigation into his death amid allegations he suffered prolonged physical and psychological bullying.

A first hearing led to an initial inquest finding of suicide in 1995, even though no evidence was given about his experiences at Deepcut.

Paul Greaney QC, for the Benton family, asked Dr Cary that "in the absence of things should have been done, do you accept that the examination of Sean's falls short of what was expected?"

Dr Cary replied "yes".

He described the two burst theory as witness-dependant and noted "there is always concern there may be third-party involvement in any shooting". The possibility of a scene being staged has to be thought about, he said.

Dr John Keeling, the senior medical officer at Pirbright, was the GP who pronounced Pte Benton dead at the scene at 7am.

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Entry wounds were on the upper left thorax and right upper chest.

Dr Keeling thought the spread of the injuries, reported to have been self-inflicted, were "unusual" but stressed he is not a ballistics expert.

He said: "Having been briefed that this had been caused by an automatic weapon at close range, and I am not an expert, I was surprised by the spread of the entry wounds."

Dr Keeling said he could see that Pte Benton, who had been known to have self-harmed previously, had seen a psychiatrist the week before his death.

Dr Keeling also noted that rumour, hearsay and general chat about Deepcut was that its trainees were demotivated and had low morale.

He thought this was because there were long delays in moving them on in their training.

The hearing continues.

Press Association
Great Ormond Street Hospital is to do a U-turn and keep donations raised by a controversial black-tie event mired in claims that female hostesses were groped.

The London children's unit said it has made the decision to keep the money, reportedly some 530,000, raised by the Presidents Club for it over a number of years.

It had originally pledged to return the money following revelations about behaviour at January's event, uncovered by the Financial Times.

Recommended The Presidents Club is symptomatic not of the City but of society

But a hospital spokesman said it had reversed its decision following feedback from supporters and discussions with the Charity Commission.

He said: "Our thinking is always guided by our aim to maximise the support we give to the hospital and the families it cares for. Following feedback from our supporters, guidance from the Charity Commission and taking into account the impending closure of the Presidents Club Charitable Trust, the trustees have decided to retain the funds donated by the trust.

"We would like to thank all of our donors for their support, it is only through their generosity that we can make a difference for seriously ill children cared for at the hospital."

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 22 September 2021 A new sign hangs on the Millicent Fawcett statue after it was altered by CrackTheCrises coalition activists to highlight the climate crisis as a feminist struggle in Parliament Square in London EPA UK news in pictures 21 September 2021 Gabriella Diment prepares a monumental bronze patinated fibreglass wall sculpture depicting household cavalry soldiers on horseback which is expected to be sold for 12,000-18,000 when it goes up for auction at Summers Place Auctions in Billinghurst, Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2021 Florist Judith Blacklock puts the finishing touches to a floral carousel installation in Halkin Arcade, which she has designed with Neill Strain for the Belgravia in Bloom festival, running from September 20-26, in London PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2021 Bubbles surround Manchester Uniteds Cristiano Ronaldo before the match against West Ham at London Stadium Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 18 September 2021 Children take part in the Settrington Cup Pedal Car Race as motoring enthusiasts attend the Goodwood Revival, a three-day historic car racing festival in Goodwood, Chichester, Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2021 Hugo, 7, from London rides past a 4x7 metre rainbow arch, made entirely of recycled aluminium cans, which has been installed by recycling initiative 'Every Can Counts', in partnership with The City of London Corporation in front of St Paul's Cathedral in London, to encourage members of the public to recycle their drinks cans ahead of recycling week, which starts on 20 September PA UK news in pictures 16 September 2021 Sheikeh MOhammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, leader of Abu Dhabi, leaves Downing Street after meeting with Boris Johnson PA UK news in pictures 15 September 2021 Children pose by ice sculptures depicting people collecting water by charity Water Aid to show the fragility of water and the threat posed by climate change in London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 14 September 2021 Heavy rain covers the A149 near Kings Lynn in Norfolk PA UK news in pictures 13 September 2021 Luke Jerram's 'Museum of the Moon' at Durham Cathedral PA UK news in pictures 12 September 2021 Inspirational young fundraiser Tobias Weller crosses the finish line, near his home in Sheffield, as he completes his latest epic feat where he swam and triked his way to the end of his awesome year-long Ironman Challenge. This is the third challenge Tobias, who has cerebral palsy and autism, has completed, raising more than 150,000 for his school and Sheffield Children Hospitals charity PA UK news in pictures 11 September 2021 British player Emma Raducanu, holds up the US Open championship trophy winning the women's singles final of the US Open in New York AP UK news in pictures 10 September 2021 People paddle board during a misty morning in Ullswater, the second largest lake in the Lake District, Cumbria PA UK news in pictures 9 September 2021 Troops from Wiltshire based 4 Armoured Close Support Battalion Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers during final inspection at Wellington Barracks in London, ahead of providing troops for the Queens Guard PA UK news in pictures 8 September 2021 Workers cross London Bridge during the morning rush hour in London Reuters UK news in pictures Mixing it up: Painting it up press view in London A gallery employee poses for photographers next to a painting entitled Prairie by British artist, Louise Giovanelli during the exhibition 'Mixing it up: Painting it up' at the Hayward Gallery in London EPA UK news in pictures 6 September 2021 Traders in the Ring at the London Metal Exchange, in the City of London, after open-outcry trading returned for the first time since March 2020, when the Ring was temporarily closed due to the pandemic PA UK news in pictures 5 September 2021 People enjoy the warm weather on Sandbanks beach, Poole PA UK news in pictures 4 September 2021 Demonstrators from Animal Rebellion and Nature Rebellion protest in Trafalgar Square in London. PA UK news in pictures 3 September 2021 South Africa's Ntando Mahlangu (centre) wins the Men's 200 metres T61 Final ahead of second placed Great Britain's Richard Whitehead at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games PA UK news in pictures 2 September 2021 A young common seal on the beach at Horsey Gap in Norfolk, as hundreds of pregnant grey seals come ashore ready for the start of the pupping season. PA UK news in pictures 1 September 2021 Goldfinches fighting over food in a garden in Strensham, Worcestershire PA UK news in pictures 31 August 2021 Gold Medallist Sarah Storey of Britain celebrates on the podium Reuters UK news in pictures 30 August 2021 Extinction Rebellion protesters hold a a tea party on Tower Bridge in London EPA UK news in pictures 29 August 2021 A police office tussles with a demonstrator on Cromwell Road outside the Natural History Museum during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion in London PA UK news in pictures 28 August 2021 Members of the British armed forces 16 Air Assault Brigade walk to the air terminal after disembarking a Royal Airforce Voyager aircraft at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire POOL/AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 27 August 2021 Fabio Quartararo crashes during a MotoGP practice session at the British Grand Prix, Silverstone Circuit Action Images via Reuters UK news in pictures 26 August 2021 An Extinction Rebellion activist holds a placard in a fountain surrounded by police officers, during a protest next to Buckingham Palace in London Reuters UK news in pictures 25 August 2021 Gold Medallist Great Britains cyclist, Sarah Storey, celebrates after winning the Womens C5 3000m Individual Pursuit Final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. It was her 15th Paralympic gold Reuters UK news in pictures 24 August 2021 A demonstrator dressed as bee during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion on Whitehall, in central London PA UK news in pictures 23 August 2021 Former interpreters for the British forces in Afghanistan demonstrate outside the Home Office in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 22 August 2021 Police officers form a line in front of the entrance to the Guildhall, London, where protesters have climbed onto a ledge above the entrance during an Extinction Rebellion stage a protest PA UK news in pictures 21 August 2021 People take part in a demonstration in solidarity with people of Afghanistan, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 20 August 2021 People zip wire across the sea from Bournemouth pier towards the beach. PA UK news in pictures 19 August 2021 Supporters of Geronimo the alpaca gather outside Shepherds Close Farm in Wooton Under Edge, Gloucestershire PA UK news in pictures 18 August 2021 Former Afghan interpreters and veterans hold a demonstration outside Downing Street, calling for support and protection for Afghan interpreters and their families PA UK news in pictures 17 August 2021 Military personnel board the RAF Airbus A400M at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, where evacuation flights from Afghanistan have been landing Reuters UK news in pictures 16 August 2021 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer takes part in a minute's silence at Wolverhampton police station for the victims of the Plymouth mass shooting last week PA UK news in pictures 15 August 2021 2Storm, a ten-metre tall puppet of a mythical goddess of the sea created by Edinburgh-based visual theatre company Vision Mechanics, makes its way alongside the seafront at North Berwick, East Lothian, during a performance at the Fringe By The Sea festival PA UK news in pictures 14 August 2021 A woman and two young girls look at floral tributes in Plymouth where six people, including the offender, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident PA UK news in pictures 13 August 2021 Forensic officers in the Keyham area of Plymouth where six people, including the shooter, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident on Thursday evening PA UK news in pictures 12 August 2021 Children ride horses in the River Eden in Appleby, Cumbria, during the annual gathering of travellers for the Appleby Horse Fair PA UK news in pictures 11 August 2021 Stella Moris (left) reacts after talking to the media outside the High Court in London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal, n London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal. The US government has won the latest round in its High Court bid to appeal against the decision not to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges PA UK news in pictures 10 August 2021 Students react after they receive their A-Level results at the Ark Academy, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 9 August 2021 The final athletes from Great Britain arrive home including Jason Kenny, Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald (front left-right) at Heathrow Airport, London following the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games PA UK news in pictures 8 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny during the closing ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Olympic stadium in Japan PA UK news in pictures 7 August 2021 People from the Glasgow Southside community take part in the Govanhill Carnival, an anti-racist celebration of pride, unity and the contributions immigrants have made to the community in Govanhill, at Queen's Park, Glasgow PA UK news in pictures 6 August 2021 Chijindu Ujah of Britain, Zharnel Hughes of Britain, Richard Kilty of Britain and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake of Britain celebrate winning silver as they pose with Asha Philip of Britain, Imani Lansiquot of Britain, Dina Asher-Smith of Britain and Daryll Neita of Britain after they won bronze in the women's 4 x 100m relay during Olympic Games Day 14 Getty UK news in pictures 5 August 2021 A protester places flowers on a photograph of an executed man during a demonstration organised by supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) to protest against the inauguration of Iran's new president Ebrahim Raisi in central London AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 4 August 2021 England's Joe Root looks on as India's KL Rahul doesn't make it to a catch during day one of Cinch First Test match at Trent Bridge, Nottingham PA

Great Ormond Street follows Guy's and St Thomas' Charity in deciding to keep money raised for it by the event, which featured high-value items and experiences auctioned to raise funds.

Guy's and St Thomas' Charity, the charity for Evelina London Children's Hospital, previously said it would be keeping 365,000 in donations "as we cannot return these in line with our charitable objects".

A number of charities, including Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity, have benefited from the 20 million raised by the Presidents Club over more than 30 years.

But the January 18 event at London's upmarket Dorchester Hotel gained notoriety following an undercover investigation by the Financial Times that alleged female staff were subject to sexual harassment and inappropriate advances by guests.

The report sparked a furious backlash and several high-profile charities refused to take any donations from the trust.

The Presidents Club decided to wind up its work in the wake of the scandal.

Press Association
A man who killed a heron to rescue a baby duck from its stomach has been cautioned by police.

After witnessing the bigger bird eat the newborn, he decided to act, according to North Wales Police Rural Crime Team.

Strangely he actually did rescue the duckling alive from the dead herons stomach the force posted on Twitter.

But obviously he was then left with a dead heron. You couldnt make this up!

The man, who police chose not to name, was cautioned after police revealed he was vulnerable and elderly.

They said he had confessed voluntarily to the action with no previous convictions.

But the decision to let the man off with what some deemed an overly light punishment, provoked a mixed reaction on social media.

Some felt he should have received a more severe punishment, especially as herons are protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

Lee Dingain, who describes himself as a conservationist, a naturalist and a Wader Quest trustee posted on Twitter: Utterly ridiculous! Not too elderly to kill an apparently protected & not to mention formidable bird.

The heron is the vulnerable one! Decisions like this are a major part of the reason why wildlife crime is not taken seriously.

If he had stabbed someone he would be prosecuted.

The RSPB bird charity states in their online public information: In Great Britain the heron is protected at all times under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, with fines or prison sentences available for anyone killing or attempting to kill.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 24 September 2021 Police officers remove two protesters from the top of a tanker, as Insulate Britain block the A20 in Kent, which provides access to the Port of Dover in Kent. The environmental activists have moved location after been banned from campaigning on the M25 motorway in London PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2021 Gabriella, the seven year old daughter of imprisoned British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, joins in a game on a giant snakes and ladders board in Parliament Square, to show the ups and downs of her mothers case to mark the 2,000 days she has been detained in Iran AP UK news in pictures 22 September 2021 A new sign hangs on the Millicent Fawcett statue after it was altered by CrackTheCrises coalition activists to highlight the climate crisis as a feminist struggle in Parliament Square in London EPA UK news in pictures 21 September 2021 Gabriella Diment prepares a monumental bronze patinated fibreglass wall sculpture depicting household cavalry soldiers on horseback which is expected to be sold for 12,000-18,000 when it goes up for auction at Summers Place Auctions in Billinghurst, Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2021 Florist Judith Blacklock puts the finishing touches to a floral carousel installation in Halkin Arcade, which she has designed with Neill Strain for the Belgravia in Bloom festival, running from September 20-26, in London PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2021 Bubbles surround Manchester Uniteds Cristiano Ronaldo before the match against West Ham at London Stadium Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 18 September 2021 Children take part in the Settrington Cup Pedal Car Race as motoring enthusiasts attend the Goodwood Revival, a three-day historic car racing festival in Goodwood, Chichester, Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2021 Hugo, 7, from London rides past a 4x7 metre rainbow arch, made entirely of recycled aluminium cans, which has been installed by recycling initiative 'Every Can Counts', in partnership with The City of London Corporation in front of St Paul's Cathedral in London, to encourage members of the public to recycle their drinks cans ahead of recycling week, which starts on 20 September PA UK news in pictures 16 September 2021 Sheikeh MOhammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, leader of Abu Dhabi, leaves Downing Street after meeting with Boris Johnson PA UK news in pictures 15 September 2021 Children pose by ice sculptures depicting people collecting water by charity Water Aid to show the fragility of water and the threat posed by climate change in London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 14 September 2021 Heavy rain covers the A149 near Kings Lynn in Norfolk PA UK news in pictures 13 September 2021 Luke Jerram's 'Museum of the Moon' at Durham Cathedral PA UK news in pictures 12 September 2021 Inspirational young fundraiser Tobias Weller crosses the finish line, near his home in Sheffield, as he completes his latest epic feat where he swam and triked his way to the end of his awesome year-long Ironman Challenge. This is the third challenge Tobias, who has cerebral palsy and autism, has completed, raising more than 150,000 for his school and Sheffield Children Hospitals charity PA UK news in pictures 11 September 2021 British player Emma Raducanu, holds up the US Open championship trophy winning the women's singles final of the US Open in New York AP UK news in pictures 10 September 2021 People paddle board during a misty morning in Ullswater, the second largest lake in the Lake District, Cumbria PA UK news in pictures 9 September 2021 Troops from Wiltshire based 4 Armoured Close Support Battalion Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers during final inspection at Wellington Barracks in London, ahead of providing troops for the Queens Guard PA UK news in pictures 8 September 2021 Workers cross London Bridge during the morning rush hour in London Reuters UK news in pictures Mixing it up: Painting it up press view in London A gallery employee poses for photographers next to a painting entitled Prairie by British artist, Louise Giovanelli during the exhibition 'Mixing it up: Painting it up' at the Hayward Gallery in London EPA UK news in pictures 6 September 2021 Traders in the Ring at the London Metal Exchange, in the City of London, after open-outcry trading returned for the first time since March 2020, when the Ring was temporarily closed due to the pandemic PA UK news in pictures 5 September 2021 People enjoy the warm weather on Sandbanks beach, Poole PA UK news in pictures 4 September 2021 Demonstrators from Animal Rebellion and Nature Rebellion protest in Trafalgar Square in London. PA UK news in pictures 3 September 2021 South Africa's Ntando Mahlangu (centre) wins the Men's 200 metres T61 Final ahead of second placed Great Britain's Richard Whitehead at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games PA UK news in pictures 2 September 2021 A young common seal on the beach at Horsey Gap in Norfolk, as hundreds of pregnant grey seals come ashore ready for the start of the pupping season. PA UK news in pictures 1 September 2021 Goldfinches fighting over food in a garden in Strensham, Worcestershire PA UK news in pictures 31 August 2021 Gold Medallist Sarah Storey of Britain celebrates on the podium Reuters UK news in pictures 30 August 2021 Extinction Rebellion protesters hold a a tea party on Tower Bridge in London EPA UK news in pictures 29 August 2021 A police office tussles with a demonstrator on Cromwell Road outside the Natural History Museum during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion in London PA UK news in pictures 28 August 2021 Members of the British armed forces 16 Air Assault Brigade walk to the air terminal after disembarking a Royal Airforce Voyager aircraft at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire POOL/AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 27 August 2021 Fabio Quartararo crashes during a MotoGP practice session at the British Grand Prix, Silverstone Circuit Action Images via Reuters UK news in pictures 26 August 2021 An Extinction Rebellion activist holds a placard in a fountain surrounded by police officers, during a protest next to Buckingham Palace in London Reuters UK news in pictures 25 August 2021 Gold Medallist Great Britains cyclist, Sarah Storey, celebrates after winning the Womens C5 3000m Individual Pursuit Final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. It was her 15th Paralympic gold Reuters UK news in pictures 24 August 2021 A demonstrator dressed as bee during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion on Whitehall, in central London PA UK news in pictures 23 August 2021 Former interpreters for the British forces in Afghanistan demonstrate outside the Home Office in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 22 August 2021 Police officers form a line in front of the entrance to the Guildhall, London, where protesters have climbed onto a ledge above the entrance during an Extinction Rebellion stage a protest PA UK news in pictures 21 August 2021 People take part in a demonstration in solidarity with people of Afghanistan, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 20 August 2021 People zip wire across the sea from Bournemouth pier towards the beach. PA UK news in pictures 19 August 2021 Supporters of Geronimo the alpaca gather outside Shepherds Close Farm in Wooton Under Edge, Gloucestershire PA UK news in pictures 18 August 2021 Former Afghan interpreters and veterans hold a demonstration outside Downing Street, calling for support and protection for Afghan interpreters and their families PA UK news in pictures 17 August 2021 Military personnel board the RAF Airbus A400M at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, where evacuation flights from Afghanistan have been landing Reuters UK news in pictures 16 August 2021 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer takes part in a minute's silence at Wolverhampton police station for the victims of the Plymouth mass shooting last week PA UK news in pictures 15 August 2021 2Storm, a ten-metre tall puppet of a mythical goddess of the sea created by Edinburgh-based visual theatre company Vision Mechanics, makes its way alongside the seafront at North Berwick, East Lothian, during a performance at the Fringe By The Sea festival PA UK news in pictures 14 August 2021 A woman and two young girls look at floral tributes in Plymouth where six people, including the offender, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident PA UK news in pictures 13 August 2021 Forensic officers in the Keyham area of Plymouth where six people, including the shooter, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident on Thursday evening PA UK news in pictures 12 August 2021 Children ride horses in the River Eden in Appleby, Cumbria, during the annual gathering of travellers for the Appleby Horse Fair PA UK news in pictures 11 August 2021 Stella Moris (left) reacts after talking to the media outside the High Court in London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal, n London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal. The US government has won the latest round in its High Court bid to appeal against the decision not to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges PA UK news in pictures 10 August 2021 Students react after they receive their A-Level results at the Ark Academy, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 9 August 2021 The final athletes from Great Britain arrive home including Jason Kenny, Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald (front left-right) at Heathrow Airport, London following the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games PA UK news in pictures 8 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny during the closing ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Olympic stadium in Japan PA UK news in pictures 7 August 2021 People from the Glasgow Southside community take part in the Govanhill Carnival, an anti-racist celebration of pride, unity and the contributions immigrants have made to the community in Govanhill, at Queen's Park, Glasgow PA UK news in pictures 6 August 2021 Chijindu Ujah of Britain, Zharnel Hughes of Britain, Richard Kilty of Britain and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake of Britain celebrate winning silver as they pose with Asha Philip of Britain, Imani Lansiquot of Britain, Dina Asher-Smith of Britain and Daryll Neita of Britain after they won bronze in the women's 4 x 100m relay during Olympic Games Day 14 Getty

The North Wales Police rural unit was not immediately available for comment when contacted by The Independent.

They tweeted in response to questions about the caution: These decisions are never taken lightly and a number of factors are addressed.
The wall of Major General Nick Carters office in Kandahar displayed a chart showing the Pashtun tribes, clans and sub-clans of southern Afghanistan. Bewildering in its complexity, it eventually overflowed into the next room. The general, however, was adamant that the intricate level of information was essential in understanding the dynamics of the local community and the Taliban.

General Sir Nick Carter, as he is now, the newly appointed head of the military, has built up a reputation for an eye for detail and also a penchant for thinking out of the box, taking an alternative view. This has not always gone down well with traditionalists in the armed forces.

His plans, as army chief, to attract more women and those from ethnic minorities, and make the recruiting approach less macho, with a media campaign which told prospective applicants that it is perfectly natural to show emotion and practice ones own faith, caused controversy.

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Gen Carters response to criticism was: I happen to be very proud of the fact that the British army really does respect the background, ethnicity and gender of anybody. What this campaign is about is a recognition that we dont have a fully manned army at the moment, that the demography of our country has changed, and that we need to reach put to a broader community in order to get the right talent.

His riposte to critical questions about the policy on the Today programme was: We are the sort of employer who, incidentally, I might say, dont have different pay scales for anybody in our army, they are the same whatever your gender might be. A low blow at the BBC, some may have thought; Nick Robinson responded: Touche.

Gen Carter has not been entirely successful in his pursuit of altering the army brand. His plans to drop the long running slogan be the best  after market research showed it to be considered dated and elitist  led to howls of protest from some quarters. The new defence secretary, Gavin Williamson, who is said to be in a hurry to get to No 10, and never slow in spotting a tabloid headline, overruled the change.

The promotion to the head the military, chief of defence staff (CDS) from the armys chief of general staff (CGS) appears to show that Gen Carter has overcome disapproval over his stance. He faced stiff competition, from among others, General Sir James Everard and General Sir Gordon Messenger, who would have been the first Royal Marine to head the armed forces had he got the job.

Gen Carters predecessor as CDS, Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach, is held in high regard internationally by Britains allies. He will go now go on to become the first British chairman of the Nato Military Committee for more than two decades.

Theresa May described Gen Carters appointment as a super choice and gave backing to the reforms he is carrying out. The prime minister stated: He will bring vast experience to the role having served as chief of general staff for nearly four years. In that time I have been impressed not only by the reforms he has carried out with the British army, but by the care he has demonstrated for the men and women under his command.

It is also a testament to him that over his period of leadership the army has become more reflective of the society it serves. I am confident Gen Carter will bring the same dynamism to his new role and I look forward to working with him.

Mr Williamson said: Gen Carter has been an exceptional chief of general staff, leading the army at a time of rapid change, with troops deployed to deter Russian aggression and protect our Nato allies in the east. He has also overseen the delivery of vital training to help Iraqi security forces defeat Daesh [Isis].

But Gen Carter faces a challenging task with a range of threats from Islamist terrorism to cyber warfare and a looming confrontation between the West and Russia. At the same time there is a huge hole in the defence budget and the numbers in the armed forces have been shrinking.

When Gen Carter served in Afghanistan, the international military presence in the country  mainly ground forces fighting a deadly, but lightly armed, insurgency  was 103,000. The size of the British army at present is now just 82,000 and the whole of the military, including the navy and the RAF, comes to less than 147,000.
A Syrian refugee family has been left homeless after they were refused emergency accommodation following their eviction from a rented property in London.

Muhamed and Rouzeh Shouesh, who fled to the UK from Syria with their two teenage children in 2012, are currently having to borrow money to stay in a hotel after Enfield Council said they were resilient enough to deal with being homeless.

Ms Shouesh, 53, a trained solicitor, said the family was in a high state of stress after finding themselves with no home. Her children, now 19 and 21, are both studying at universities in London but living at home, while she and her husband, an engineer, are trying to find work as well as dealing with ill health.

The family was informed last year that they would be evicted from their rented home in Edmonton after the landlord decided to stop letting the property. They tried to find an alternative but have been routinely turned away by landlords and letting agencies because they receive state benefits.

When the bailiff instructed the family to leave the property last week (19 March), they approached the local authority with their possessions and reported that they were homeless.

They remained outside the council offices from 10am until the end of the day, but were turned away on the grounds that they didnt qualify as having priority need for housing. The council said it was "under no duty" to provide them with accommodation.

A letter from Enfield Council stated that it was not satisfied that the family would suffer harm that makes a noticeable difference to their ability to manage and cope with being homeless when compared to an ordinary person.

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It continued: Looking at all the facts I believe you and your husband are resilient enough to manage a reasonable level of functionality and I am not satisfied that your ability to manage being homeless, even if that homelessness were to result in you having to sleep rough occasionally or in the longer term, would deteriorate to a level where the harm you are likely to experience would be outside the range of vulnerability that an ordinary person would experience if they were to be in the same situation as you.

The family, who lived in the city of Qamishli in the north of Syria before fleeing the country, is now staying in a hotel in Muswell Hill, where they are being charged half of the full price because the manager sympathised with them. But they cannot afford to stay there for much longer.

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Ms Souesh, who suffers from high blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes, told The Independent: The UK Government is good, they have helped us. But now we are refugees and have to stay on the streets. This would not happen in Syria, I dont understand how it can happen in London.

We are very stressed and worried about our family in Syria. My mum and dad both have cancer. And we are now homeless. We are without a house.

All of this together puts us in a very bad situation. We are already stressed about the war, we have bad health, we are refugees.

Enfield Council said the family had failed to provide evidence suggesting they have a priority need for housing under the Housing Act 1996, and that it would be unlawful and unfair to move them to house them when other families have proved greater need.

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Michael McGowan, a local charity worker who has been supporting the family, said he had approached the council when the family was first issued the eviction notice and was told they would be housed if they were left homeless.

He continued: But when it came to it they were told you are not priority need, you can go and sleep on the streets.

This family has done the right thing since theyve been here. The parents have got national insurance numbers and are trying to find work. Theyve done all they can to assist their children in getting to university.

I feel ashamed and appalled as a British person that we can say this to people who are refugees.

Refugees welcome here: Protesters demand UK resettle more migrants in response to refugee crisis Show all 7 1 /7 Refugees welcome here: Protesters demand UK resettle more migrants in response to refugee crisis Refugees welcome here: Protesters demand UK resettle more migrants in response to refugee crisis The Solidarity With Refugees group said Saturdays protest aimed to show our Government and the world that Britain is ready to welcome more refugees. Rex Features Refugees welcome here: Protesters demand UK resettle more migrants in response to refugee crisis People march through central London as they take part in a protest rally organised by Solidarity with Refugees in a bid to urge the Government to take more action on the migrant crisis Press Association Refugees welcome here: Protesters demand UK resettle more migrants in response to refugee crisis The protest comes days before world leaders meet to discuss crisis at UN General Assembly Press Association Refugees welcome here: Protesters demand UK resettle more migrants in response to refugee crisis Demonstrators made their way from Park Lane to Parliament Square in London on Saturday afternoon Press Association Refugees welcome here: Protesters demand UK resettle more migrants in response to refugee crisis Marchers chanted refugees are welcome here and waved banners reading no-one is illegal and lets help people Press Association Refugees welcome here: Protesters demand UK resettle more migrants in response to refugee crisis The march was supported by charities and groups including the Red Cross, Asylum Aid, Save the Children, Hope Not Hate, Oxfam and the UN Refugee Agency Rex Features Refugees welcome here: Protesters demand UK resettle more migrants in response to refugee crisis In the wake of Alans death, David Cameron pledged to resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees in the UK over the coming five years but there have been additional calls to re-home those who have already reached Europe, as well as asylum seekers coming from other conflict zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan Rex Features

An Enfield Council spokesperson said: We will reassess this case if the family provide additional information. However, while we sympathise with the familys situation, with the information they have provided we have assessed that they do not have a priority need for housing under the Housing Act 1996.

"It would be unlawful and unfair to move them to the top of the housing waiting list, when other families have proved greater need.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said they did not comment on individual cases.
The Conservatives have been hit by a race row after a former Tory minister condemned a party leaflet warning Labour would turn a suburb into an inner city area.

The newsletter, produced by local Tories in the outer London borough of Havering, carries a headline: Labours shocking plan to change Romford for good.

Alongside pictures of Jeremy Corbyn and London mayor Sadiq Khan, it warns Labour would turn it into boroughs like Hackney, Newham, Camden and Barking, rather than a traditional part of Essex.

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Romford will increasingly become like an inner city area, if Labour get their way and seize control of Havering Town Hall in May! the leaflet says.

There would be massive population increases vast numbers of high rise blocks of flats [and] a London crime wave with even less police, it adds.

Now Nick Boles, the former housing minister, has attacked the leaflet  urging Conservative party chairman Brandon Lewis to step in and ban it.

Nick Boles MP said the leaflet was 'disgraceful' and called for 'the individuals responsible [to] apologise, and withdraw it, or face disciplinary action'

This leaflet is disgraceful. The individuals responsible should apologise, and withdraw it, or face disciplinary action, he tweeted.

We cannot attack Corbyn for indulging anti-semitism in Labour and allow messages like this to go unchallenged.

The Stand Up To Racism Campaign has also urged Theresa May to take immediate action, saying: There must be no place in the local elections for whipping up racism to win votes.

The leaflet also warns that our cherished Union Jack flag [will be] taken down - back to Labours political correctness.

It urges voters to back the local Tories at the upcoming May elections in London, in order to keep Havering special.

The row comes after Mr Corbyn was forced to apologise for opposing the removal of an antisemitic mural  prompting a major demonstration by Jewish organisations.

Meanwhile, a Conservative MP, Bob Blackman, has expressed sincere regret after he was accused of endorsing Islamophobia on Facebook.

The Harrow East MP shared a story from Hardcore News USA with the headline: Muslim Somali sex gang say raping white British children part of their culture'.

On Tuesday, Mr Blackman said: I deleted the link as I saw that the headline to the article was phrased inappropriately. I can confirm that I have never visited the website in question and am not part of any group related to it.

I sincerely regret any upset caused to the Muslim Council of Britain or the wider community for my error.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of The Belfast Agreement, more commonly known as The Good Friday Agreement, which was signed in Northern Ireland on 10th April 1998. It effectively brought an end to The Troubles, which had raged in the region for thirty years, and established a cross-community consensus for peace and the future direction of the region.

The Troubles

From the late 1960s, Northern Ireland was plunged into a brutal conflict between republicans who wanted the province to become part of a united Ireland and unionists who wanted to remain within the United Kingdom. Republicans and the wider nationalist community are mostly Catholic, while unionists are mostly Protestant.

British Army members on the streets of Belfast in 1972

Violence was largely perpetrated by paramilitary groups on both sides, such as the IRA and the UVF, while others were killed by the British security forces after the army were deployed in the summer of 1969. Of the 3,532 people who died, the majority were civilians, many of whom were killed in random tit-for-tat attacks across the sectarian divide.

For the majority of this thirty year period, Northern Ireland was under direct rule from Westminster.

Talks

After years of failed talks and back channel discussions, progress was slowly made across the 1990s. A dialogue between SDLP leader John Hume and Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams made moves towards consensus across the nationalist community, while ceasefires announced by the IRA and loyalists in 1994 were also welcomed.

John Hume with Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness during talks

US President Bill Clinton took a keen interest in Northern Ireland and sent a special envoy in the form of senator George Mitchell, who would eventually chair the talks between the parties and groups.

The situation was accelerated after Labour came to power in Britain in 1997 and Tony Blair saw the necessity of including Sinn Fein in the process, although the DUP walked out in protest over the inclusion.

Talks began in September 1997, and in January 1998, Northern Ireland secretary Mo Mowlam made an unprecedented visit to the Maze prison to urge the support of loyalists who were imprisoned for paramilitary activity. Similarly, as the political wing of the IRA, Sinn Fein were responsible for ensuring the support of republican prisoners.

In the final days, both Mr Blair and the Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern went to Belfast to join the talks, and the agreement was eventually announced by George Mitchell on the afternoon of 10th April 1998.

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams with US president Bill Clinton in 1995 (Getty)

The Agreement

The agreement was formally made between the British and Irish governments, and eight political parties of Northern Ireland, including Sinn Fein, the Ulster Unionist Party, the SDLP and the Alliance Party. The DUP were the only major political group to oppose it.

The agreement acknowledged the constitutional status of Northern Ireland as a part of the United Kingdom, reflecting the wish of the majority of citizens. But it also established a principle of consent - that a united Ireland could come about if and when a majority of people in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland wanted it. In this instance, the British government would be bound to hold a referendum, and honour the result.

Three strands of new institutions were established in the agreement:

A democratically elected Northern Ireland Assembly A North/South Ministerial Council for cross border issues A British-Irish Council and the British-Irish Governmental Conference

The Northern Ireland Assembly would be elected every five years, and be led by an Executive of ministers, which would require the participation of parties on both sides of the community divide.

Crucially, the agreement committed the parties to democratic and peaceful methods of resolving political issues, to using their influence to bring about the decommissioning of paramilitary groups, and for security arrangements in Northern Ireland to be normalised.

The agreement marked a commitment to the mutual respect, the civil rights and the religious liberties of everyone in the community and Britain agreed to incorporate the European Convention of Human Rights into the law of Northern Ireland.

The Independent's front page reporting the agreement in 1998

Referendums

The British and Irish governments agreed to hold joint referendums on 22 May 1998. The referendum in Northern Ireland was on accepting the Good Friday Agreement itself (a copy of which was posted to every household) and 71% of people voted Yes.

The referendum in the Republic of Ireland was to amend the countrys constitution to relinquish its claim on Northern Ireland, acknowledging the new principle of consent. An overwhelming 94% of people voted to do so.

What happened next?

The years following 1998 remained turbulent and uncertain, with the Northern Ireland Assembly established, but periodically suspended, largely over concerns about continued paramilitary activity. It took until 2005 for the IRA to decommission, and in 2007 Sinn Fein put their support behind the new policing force, the PSNI.

By this point, the DUP and Sinn Fein had overtaken the UUP and the SDLP as the main unionist and nationalist parties. The St Andrews Agreement of 2006 paved the way for the two major parties to enter power sharing together.

Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness pictured in 2007 (Getty)

The relationship between Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness, as First and Deputy First Minister, was a sign that Northern Ireland had truly changed. The Presbyterian preacher and the ex-IRA commander were once sworn enemies, but were suddenly working together in the same office and being nicknamed the Chuckle Brothers as a result of their good rapport.

For the next decade, Northern Ireland experienced relative political stability due to the power sharing arrangement. The Hillsborough Castle Agreement of 2010 saw powers over police and justice devolved to Northern Ireland, while The Fresh Start Agreement of 2015 saw further settlements on identity issues, as well as welfare reform and finance.

DUP leader Arlene Foster

In January 2017 Martin McGuinness resigned his position in protest over a political scandal involving the new First Minister Arlene Foster, thereby collapsing the Executive. He also cited long-term issues in which the DUP were failing to honour the commitments to basic equality laid down in their agreements.

McGuinness died months later, and although a new deal came close to being done in February 2018, talks broke down and power sharing has yet to be restored.
Tony Blair has called on Labour MPs to vote against Jeremy Corbyn, if they believe the party leader takes the wrong approach to Brexit in the critical months between now and October.

In an exclusive interview with The Independent, Mr Blair said MPs had to vote with their conscience if they see Labour is abetting Britains withdrawal without fully knowing what the countrys future relations with Europe will be.

He said Labour insiders feared Mr Corbyn is at heart anti-European Union and still has the same negative views on the bloc that Tony Benn had 30 years ago.

Recommended Why the Brexiteers of Essex are still glad they voted to leave the EU

The former prime minister took the unusual step of comparing critical pending Brexit votes to those in which MPs rebelled against him over Iraq and tuition fees more than a decade ago  and urged his partys representatives today to go with what they believe.

He also delivered a message to the Tories, warning that by pursuing Brexit they would prime a political backlash against their own party that could put Mr Corbyn in No 10.

Mr Blair spoke as Brexit negotiators try to secure a final deal on withdrawal and future relations by this Octobers European summit, and then ratify it before the UKs EU membership expires on 29 March 2019.

Despite the looming deadlines, he argued Theresa May would probably try to leave without having fully set out the implications of the deal she reaches and warned Labour was in danger of backing her agreement regardless.

 Exclusive: Tony Blair describes why some Labour members may not have a clear view on Jeremy Corbyn's Brexit position

He told The Independent: I think all MPs have got a responsibility to do what they think is right and thats why what I was urging MPs to do, whether Conservative or Labour, is vote according to what you genuinely believe.

This is the most important decision since the Second World War and its going to decide the destiny of the country for future generations  do what you think is right, this is one moment surely to do that.

The idea that Labour could back Ms Mays Brexit deal was given credence on Wednesday when the shadow foreign secretary, Emily Thornberry, said an agreement would probably meet her partys official demands, even if it was a blah, blah, blah divorce.

Writing for The Independent on Thursday though, shadow brexit secretary, Keir Starmer, assured Labour supporters the party would be prepared to formally oppose the deal.

Brexit so far: in pictures Show all 53 1 /53 Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit campaign Boris Johnson led the VoteLeave campaign PA Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit campaign Boris Johnson MP, Labour MP Gisela Stuart and UKIP MP Douglas Carswell address the people of Stafford in Market Square during the Vote Leave Brexit Battle Bus tour on 17 May 2016. Their lead line on the tour was: We send the EU 350 million a week, let's fund our NHS instead. Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Voting day A man shelters from the rain as he arrives at a polling station in London on 23 June 2016. Millions of Britons voted in the referendum on whether to stay in or leave the European Union AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Referendum results Leader of Ukip, Nigel Farage, reacts at the Leave EU referendum party at Millbank Tower in central London as results indicated that it was likely the UK would leave the European Union AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Protesting the result A young couple painted as EU flags and a man with a sign reading Im not leaving protest outside Downing Street against the voters decision to leave the EU on 24 June 2016 Getty Brexit so far: in pictures David Cameron resigns British Prime Minister David Cameron resigns on the steps of 10 Downing Street on 24 June 2016 after the results of the EU referendum were declared and the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Theresa May Becomes the new Conservative Party leader Theresa May receives a kiss from her husband Philip, after becoming the new Conservative Party leader on 11 July 2016. May became Prime Minister two days later and although she voted to remain in the referendum was keen to lead Britains Brexit talks after her only rival in the race to succeed David Cameron pulled out unexpectedly. May was left as the only contender standing after the withdrawal from the leadership race of Andrea Leadsom, who faced criticism for suggesting she was more qualified to be prime minister because she had children AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Lancaster House keynote speech on Brexit British Prime Minister Theresa May delivers her keynote speech on Brexit at Lancaster House in London on 17 January 2017. Where she spoke about her offer to introduce a transition period after the UK formally leaves the European Union in March 2019. Despite repeating the pro-Brexit mantra of no deal is better than a bad deal, the Prime Minister claimed she wanted a tone of trust between the negotiators and said Britain was leaving the EU but not Europe. She said there should be a clear double lock needed for the transitional period to make sure businesses had time to prepare for changes to their trading relationships with the EU Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Triggering of Article 50 British Prime Minister Theresa May in the cabinet, sitting below a painting of Britain's first Prime Minister Robert Walpole, signs the official letter to European Council President Donald Tusk invoking Article 50 and the United Kingdom's intention to leave the EU on 29 March 2017 Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Gibraltar nonsense Tensions have risen over Brexit negotiations for the Rock of Gibraltar. The European Council has said Gibraltar would be included in a trade deal between London and Brussels only with the agreement of Spain. While former Conservative leader Michael Howard claimed that Theresa May would be prepared to go to war to protect the territory. Spain's foreign minister stepped in only to assert that there was no need for the dispute Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Shock snap election Soon after triggering Article 50, Theresa May called on 18 April 2017 for a snap general election. The election would be on 8 June and it came as a shock move to many, with her reasoning to try to bolster her position before tough talks on leaving the EU AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Dissolution of Parliament for General Election Campaign Prime Minister Theresa May makes a statement in Downing Street after returning from Buckingham Palace on 3 May 2017. The Prime Minister visited the Queen to ask for the dissolution of Parliament signalling the official start to the general election campaign Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Conservatives lose parliamentary majority An arrangement of British daily newspapers showing front page stories about the exit poll results of the snap general election. British Prime Minister Theresa May faced pressure to resign on 9 June 2017 after losing her parliamentary majority, plunging the country into uncertainty as Brexit talks loomed. The pound fell sharply amid fears the Conservative leader would be unable to form a government AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Labour gains Britains opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn gives a tumbs up as he arrives at Labour headquarters in central London on 9 June 2017 after the snap general election results showed a hung parliament with Labour gains and the Conservatives losing their majority AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit negotiations begin Brexit Minister David Davis and European Commission member in charge of Brexit negotiations Michel Barnier address a press conference at the end of the first day of Brexit negotiations in Brussels on 19 June 2017 AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures May speaks in Florence British Prime Minister Theresa May speaks on 22 September 2017, in Florence. May sought to unlock Brexit talks after Brussels demanded more clarity on the crunch issues of budget payments and EU citizens' rights AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures EU council summit  insufficient progress German Chancellor Angela Merkel joins other EU leaders for a breakfast meeting during an EU summit in Brussels on 20 October 2017. The EU spoke about Brexit and announced that insufficient progress had been made AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures DUP derails settlement on the withdrawal part of Brexit DUP Deputy Leader Nigel Dodds walks off after speaking to members of the media as a protester holding flags shouts after him outside the Houses of Parliament on 5 December 2017. British Prime Minister Theresa May was forced to pull out of a deal with Brussels after the DUP said it would not accept terms which see Northern Ireland treated differently from the rest of the UK Getty Brexit so far: in pictures May suffers defeat over EU (Withdrawal) Bill Theresa May suffers defeat in parliament over EU (Withdrawal) Bill on 13 December 2017. The Government was defeated by Conservative rebels and Labour MPs in a vote on its key piece of Brexit legislation. MPs amended the EU (Withdrawal) Bill against Theresa May's will, guaranteeing Parliament a meaningful vote on any Brexit deal she agrees with Brussels. Ms May's whips applied pressure on Conservative rebels who remained defiant in the Commons throughout the day and in the end the Government was defeated by 309 votes to 305 Brexit so far: in pictures EU council summit  sufficient progress Britain's Prime minister Theresa May arrives to attend the first day of a European union summit in Brussels on 14 December 2017. European leaders discussed Brexit and announced there was finally sufficient progress at the end of the two days AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures The game moves to transition Brexit Secretary David Davis gives evidence on developments in European Union divorce talks to the Commons Exiting the EU Committee in Portcullis House, London, on 24 January 2018 PA Brexit so far: in pictures Trade deal is what May wants French President Emmanuel Macron gestures to Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May after they hold a press conference at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, on 18 January 2018. May and Macron agreed a new border security deal, through which the UK will pay more to France to stop migrants trying to reach British shores on 18 January 2018 AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Transition period agreed The UK and EU agree terms for Brexit transition period on 19 March, 2018 Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures No agreement on Irish border The EU and UK however failed to reach an agreement on the Irish border during the successful talks on other Brexit issues AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures EU attacks Mays fantasy strategy For months after the March deal is struck there is little significant progress in talks. One senior EU official tears into Britains fantasy negotiating strategy and accuses Theresa May of not even having a position on a variety of important issue Getty Brexit so far: in pictures UK releases Ireland plan Britain releases a new customs plan to solve the Northern Ireland border but Michel Barnier says it leaves unanswered questions and would not prevent a hard border EbS Brexit so far: in pictures Chequers plan agreed The cabinet agrees on a plan known as the "Chequers deal" on July 6 2018. The plan seeks regulatory alignment on goods and food, divergence on services, freedom from the European Courts of Justice and an end to free movement. Many were surprised that the hard Brexiteers of the cabinet would agree to this plan PA Brexit so far: in pictures Chequers plan sparks resignations Brexit Secretary David Davis and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and numerous ministers resign in the days following the Chequers agreement Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures Davis out, Raab in On 9 July, Dominic Raab replaces David Davis as Brexit Secretary. Raab is a keen Brexiteer and was a housing minister before taking over from Davis Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures Barnier's "deal like no other" EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier claims on August 29 2018 that they are prepared to offer Britain a trade deal like no other, though he stressed that they will not divide or change the single market to accommodate Britain AP Brexit so far: in pictures "My deal or no deal" In an interview on Panorama on September 17, the Prime Minister insists that any Brexit deal will be offered to the EU on her terms. She asserts this amongst continued attacks on her approach to Brexit by Boris Johnson and the European Research Group, headed by Jacob Rees Mogg BBC/Jeff Overs Brexit so far: in pictures EU leaders reject Chequers Quite the blow was dealt to the Prime Minister at a EU leaders summit in Salzburg on September 20. European Council President Donald Tusk stated that the Chequers deal "will not work" Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures May demands respect Following the rejection of her Chequers plan the day before, the Prime Minister voiced her anger that the EU had dismissed it without offering an alternative. She stated that throughout this process, I have treated the EU with nothing but respect. The UK expects the same. A good relationship at the end of this process depends on it." Getty Brexit so far: in pictures People's Vote march As the People's Vote campaign and The Independent's Final Say campaign gain traction, 700,000 people turn out in London to demand a final say on the UK's Brexit deal on October 20 2018 PA Brexit so far: in pictures More resignations As the Prime Minister settles on a Brexit deal, Brexit secretary Dominic Raab resigns along with Work and Pensions secretary Esther McVey and many other ministers Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Final Say petitions delivered to Downing Street People's Vote supporting MPs Chukka Umunna, Justine Greening and Caroline Lucas and The Independent editor Christian Broughton deliver over a million signatures in favour of a People's Vote to the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street on December 3 2018 PA Brexit so far: in pictures May delays vote On December 10, the Prime Minister delayed the vote on her Brexit deal as it was near certain not to pass through the Commons due to Tory rebels and lack of DUP support AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures No confidence motion Tory MPs triggered a confidence vote in the Prime Minister on December 12. She won by 200 votes to 117 Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures Commons rejects the deal Following the delay, the Prime Minister's deal was rejected in the Commons by a historic 230 votes AFP Brexit so far: in pictures Corbyn tables a no confidence motion Following the rejection of the Prime Minister's deal, opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn tabled a motion of no confidence in the government, which the government won by a margin of 19 AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Plan B The Prime Minister won the support of the commons to return to Brussels to renegotiate the backstop on January 29. In the same sitting, MPs also voted against a no-deal Brexit in a non-legally binding motion PA Brexit so far: in pictures EU council president savages Brexit campaigners who failed to plan for departure: Special place in hell There is a special place in hell for pro-Brexit campaigners who demanded Britain leave the EU without explaining how it should happen, Donald Tusk has said. The European Council president launched the scathing attack as he accused anti-EU campaigners of pushing for Brexit without even a sketch of a plan how to carry it out safely. Mr Tusk also dismissed suggestions that the EU could reopen negotiations over the controversial Northern Ireland backstop, dealing a blow to Theresa Mays hopes of securing fresh concessions as she tries to get her exit deal through parliament. Speaking in Brussels alongside Irish taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Mr Tusk said: Ive been wondering what a special place in hell looks like for people who promoted Brexit without even a sketch of a plan how to carry it out safely. He also tweeted the accusation moments later Getty Brexit so far: in pictures EU and UK announce talks to restart after Theresa May visits Brussels Both have agreed to restart Brexit talks to find a way through the deadlock in Westminster, following a visit by Theresa May to Brussels. In a joint statement the British government and European Commission said Ms May had had a robust but constructive meeting with president Jean-Claude Juncker, and that the pair would meet again before the end of the month. But the EU again refused to reopen the withdrawal agreement and its controversial backstop  with any negotiations expected to focus on the future relationship between the UK and EU instead Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit strategy lost MPs voted down May's Brext plans, with a majority of 45. The prime minister did not appear in parliament to see another defeat PA Brexit so far: in pictures Labour and Conservative MPs resign and create the Independent Group Back row of Chris Leslie, Gavin Shuker, Chuka Umunna and Mike Gapes, middle row of Angela Smith, Luciana Berger and Ann Coffey and front row of Sarah Wollaston, Heidi Allen, Anna Soubry and Joan Ryan PA Brexit so far: in pictures Non-biding votes on amendments to Brexit motion On February 27 he house held a series of votes, unanimously calling for the UK and EU to guarantee citizens rights in a no-deal scenario AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Attorney General publishes legal advice A hammer blow for May as Geoffrey Cox said her renegotiated deal can still leave UK in backstop against its will. Mr Cox did say the prime ministers efforts had reduced the risk of the UK being trapped in the backstop indefinitely. MPs went on to vote against her deal by 391 to 242 UK Parliament/PA Brexit so far: in pictures No-deal off the table MPs rejected a no-deal Brexit by 43 votes on March 13, with cabinet ministers rebelling in another humiliating defeat for Theresa May. A day later they voted in favour of the prime minister seeking an extension to Article 50 AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures House speaker bans May from third Commons vote on same Brexit deal John Bercow sensationally told Theresa May he would stop her making another attempt to pass her Brexit deal unless she has secured changes. The Speaker said a further meaningful vote would be ruled out of order if the motion was the same or substantially the same  under an ancient convention to stop the government bullying parliament on issues MPs have rejected Parliament Live Brexit so far: in pictures May writes to Tusk The prime minister wrote to Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, to ask for a three-month extension to give her more time to try to get her deal through parliament. However the European Commission advises the EU27 should offer a short extension to May 23 or a longer one meaning the UK would participate in European elections 10 Downing Street/AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures European Council summit Theresa Mays request to extend triggering Article 50 until the end of June was rejected by the EU, and instead offered a shorter time frame. She accepted the offer of a delay until May 22 if her withdrawal deal is approved by Parliament. If MPs rejected it for a third time, the EU said Britain must propose a new plan by April 12. Ms May said she will not support a long delay because it would mean Britain participating in elections for the European Parliament Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Brussels confirms preparations for a no-deal Brexit are completed They warned that it is increasingly likely the UK will crash out. In a statement the European Commission (EC) said preparedness and contingency work, which the EC has been conducting since December 2017, was now finished. The announcement came days after EU leaders agreed to a request by Theresa May to extend the UKs Brexit date AFP Brexit so far: in pictures May resigns Reuters

Discussing Labour MPs decision on whether to back their party, Mr Blair went on: Its one of those rare occasions, and Im aware Im saying this as a former prime minister that would have obviously wanted in general terms the whips to be active on big issues of the day, but I think this is an issue that is unlike any other  I think all MPs whether they are Labour or Conservative should on this issue go with what they believe.

Asked if there was a single issue during his own premiership, which in hindsight was so important that people would have been right to defy the whip, he said: It depends how strongly they feel.

All MPs have got a responsibility to do what they think is right and thats why what I was urging MPs to do, whether Conservative or Labour, is vote according to what you genuinely believe Former prime minister Tony Blair

Some people will resign  people resigned over Iraq for example. People resigned over tuition fees, people resigned over some of the reforms we did on welfare.

Its not a hugely unusual thing to say, but I think that on this issue, parliament is the only thing that can allow this issue to be handled in the right way.

Mr Blair, who has already backed an unwhipped vote on the final Brexit deal and a second referendum, acknowledged his party was in a difficult position electorally, especially MPs in Labour heartlands which heavily backed Leave. But he explained the political challenge for those MPs was not insurmountable.

 Exclusive: Tony Blair puts forward his case for a second referendum on Brexit

One of the things Ive been saying to MPs who are in Leave constituencies is, if you go out and say, Im trying to get you the best deal on Brexit, I accept the result of the referendum, but once the governments got the deal Im going to give you my view on it, because this is a new fact, youve got the deal, and I think you should have the final say  I think there are many people who voted Leave who would accept that, he said.

Some Labour insiders have warned their party faces a reckoning over its Brexit position, which is to take the UK out of the EU  despite supportive younger voters and its membership being largely pro-EU.

Asked if he believed members had a clear view of Mr Corbyns position on Brexit, Mr Blair said he thought they kind of understand it.

He said people from Mr Corbyns wing of politics had traditionally been anti-European Union, even though he believed the Labour leader could easily deliver his left-wing programme from within the bloc.

The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Show all 8 1 /8 The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Post-Brexit immigration workers sorting radishes on a production line at a farm in Norfolk. One possible post-Brexit immigration scheme could struggle to channel workers towards less attractive roles - while another may heighten the risk of labour exploitation, a new report warns. PA The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Customs union A key point in the negotiations remains Britain's access to, or withdrawal from, the EU customs union. Since the referendum there has been hot debate over the meaning of Brexit: would it entail a full withdrawal from the existing agreement, known as hard Brexit, or the soft version in which we would remain part of a common customs area for most goods, as Turkey does? No 10 has so far insisted that Brexit means Brexit and that Britain will be leaving the customs union, but may be inclined to change its position once the potential risks to the UKs economic outlook become clearer. Alamy The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Northern Ireland-Irish border Though progress was made last year, there has still been no solid agreement on whether there should be a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. To ensure borderless travel on the island, the countries must be in regulatory alignment and therefore adhere to the same rules as the customs union. In December, the Conservative Partys coalition partners, the DUP, refused a draft agreement that would place the UK/EU border in the Irish Sea due to its potential to undermine the union. May has promised that would not be the case and has suggested that a specific solution would need to be found. Getty The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Transition period Despite protests from a small number of Conservative MPs, the Government and the EU are largely in agreement that a transitional period is needed after Brexit. The talks, however, have reached an impasse. Though May has agreed that the UK will continue to contribute to the EU budget until 2021, the PM wants to be able to select which laws made during this time the UK will have to adhere to. Chief negotiator Michel Barnier has said the UK must adopt all of the laws passed during the transition, without any input from British ministers or MEPs. EPA The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Rights of EU citizens living the UK The Prime Minister has promised EU citizens already living in the UK the right to live and work here after Brexit, but the rights of those who arrive after Brexit day remains unclear. May insists that those who arrive during the transition period should not be allowed to stay, whereas the EU believe the cut-off point should be later. Getty The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Future trade agreement (with the EU) Despite this being a key issue in negotiations, the Government has yet to lay out exactly what it wants from a trade deal with the EU. Infighting within the Cabinet has prevented a solid position from being reached, with some MPs content that "no deal is better than a bad deal" while others rally behind single market access. The EU has already confirmed that access to the single market would be impossible without the UK remaining in the customs union. Getty The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Future trade agreements (internationally) The Government has already begun trying to woo foreign leaders into prospective trade agreements, with various high profile state visits to China, India and Canada for May, and the now infamous invitation to US President Donald Trump to visit London. However the UK cannot make trade agreements with another country while it is still a member of the EU, and the potential loss of trade with the world's major powers is a source of anxiety for the PM. The EU has said the UK cannot secure trade deals during the transition period. EPA The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Financial services Banks in the UK will be hit hard regardless of the Brexit outcome. The EU has refused to give British banks passporting rights to trade within the EU, dashing hopes of a special City deal. However according to new reports Germany has suggested allowing trade on the condition that the UK continues paying into the EU budget even after the transition period. Getty

Mr Blair went on: Part of the left has always seen the European Union as a kind of capitalist conspiracy, in the same way that part of the right has always regarded the European Union as a socialist conspiracy.

Neither is right by the way, but this is the legacy of the past, and what it means is that people worry that, in his heart of hearts, Jeremy Corbyn still has the same position on this that Tony Benn had 30 years ago.

In a speech delivered in the Palace of Westminster earlier this week, Mr Blair predicted the government will not set out the full implications of any deal before leaving the EU, because it would either leave Brexiteers feeling disappointed or promise significant economic damage, depending on what kind of customs relations the country ends up with.

He said the political turmoil that would follow a post-Brexit realisation, that the deal does not live up to peoples expectations, would then create an opening for Mr Corbyn to win an election.

 Exclusive: Tony Blair issues warning to the Tory party over their handling of Brexit

He said: Who is the country going to blame? They are going to blame the Tories.

Its a message to the Tory party, to say: You guys think you are being smart in sticking together and saying OK, we are just going to deliver Brexit, but actually you are not being smart because you are going to take sole responsibility for this decision, he said.

The 17 million who voted Leave may be short on gratitude, and the 16 million who voted Remain are not going to forget.

13 million votes, frankly, on the basis of the last 20, 30 years, wins you an election.

 Exclusive: Tony Blair says the EU would take the UK back if we 'withdrew the letter' triggering Article 50

The former Labour leader said that if Britain is going to change its mind on Brexit, then it would be vital to do so before March 2019, after which it would be much harder to return on the same terms it had pre-referendum.

He said: I have never had any doubt at all that if Britain were to show, and I think this is what will become important in the coming months, that there is the possibility of the country changing its mind, it would get a positive and immediate response.

The former PM was also to set out a range of radical, tougher immigration policies on Thursday, which aim to assuage public concern over the issue if the UK opts to remain in the EU.
Michael Gove has denied any knowledge of a 625,000 donation made by the Brexit campaign ahead of the EU referendum, which is alleged to have breached strict spending rules.

The Environment Secretary, who helped to coordinate pro-Brexit groups during the campaign, said he was unaware of the sizeable donation made by Vote Leave to the youth Brexit group BeLeave in the lead up the 2016 vote.

Whistleblowers at the heart of the Facebook data row have alleged that the donation was made to get around electoral spending limits - a claim that Vote Leave strongly denies.

Christopher Wylie, former director of research at scandal-hit Cambridge Analytica, told MPs on Tuesday that the referendum result could have been different without "cheating" from Vote Leave.

It comes after another whistleblower, Shahmir Sanni, alleged that Vote Leave used its links with BeLeave to get around the Electoral Commission's 7m referendum campaign spending limit.

Asked about the claims, Mr Gove told Sky News: "No, I wasn't involved in the day-to-day running of the campaign, I was out there making the case for leaving the European Union rather than managing the hidden wiring of the campaign.

"But I think this case has been investigated twice by the Electoral Commission since it occurred and I think on both those occasions the Electoral Commission said that it's quite right that the one campaign can donate to another organisation, and indeed my understanding is that the Remain campaign did pretty much the same thing."

Pressed on why he did not know, as co-convener of the campaign committee, Mr Gove said he was only made aware after the referendum campaign concluded.

Labour and the Lib Dems have called for the police to investigate the claims by Mr Sanni, a former BeLeave volunteer, and 50-page dossier has been handed to the election watchdog, alongside a legal opinion that the campaign may have broken electoral law.

However senior Brexiteers have dismissed the claims. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said the allegations were "utterly ludicrous" and insisted the referendum had been won "fair and square - and legally".

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 21 September 2021 Gabriella Diment prepares a monumental bronze patinated fibreglass wall sculpture depicting household cavalry soldiers on horseback which is expected to be sold for 12,000-18,000 when it goes up for auction at Summers Place Auctions in Billinghurst, Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2021 Florist Judith Blacklock puts the finishing touches to a floral carousel installation in Halkin Arcade, which she has designed with Neill Strain for the Belgravia in Bloom festival, running from September 20-26, in London PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2021 Bubbles surround Manchester Uniteds Cristiano Ronaldo before the match against West Ham at London Stadium Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 18 September 2021 Children take part in the Settrington Cup Pedal Car Race as motoring enthusiasts attend the Goodwood Revival, a three-day historic car racing festival in Goodwood, Chichester, Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2021 Hugo, 7, from London rides past a 4x7 metre rainbow arch, made entirely of recycled aluminium cans, which has been installed by recycling initiative 'Every Can Counts', in partnership with The City of London Corporation in front of St Paul's Cathedral in London, to encourage members of the public to recycle their drinks cans ahead of recycling week, which starts on 20 September PA UK news in pictures 16 September 2021 Sheikeh MOhammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, leader of Abu Dhabi, leaves Downing Street after meeting with Boris Johnson PA UK news in pictures 15 September 2021 Children pose by ice sculptures depicting people collecting water by charity Water Aid to show the fragility of water and the threat posed by climate change in London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 14 September 2021 Heavy rain covers the A149 near Kings Lynn in Norfolk PA UK news in pictures 13 September 2021 Luke Jerram's 'Museum of the Moon' at Durham Cathedral PA UK news in pictures 12 September 2021 Inspirational young fundraiser Tobias Weller crosses the finish line, near his home in Sheffield, as he completes his latest epic feat where he swam and triked his way to the end of his awesome year-long Ironman Challenge. This is the third challenge Tobias, who has cerebral palsy and autism, has completed, raising more than 150,000 for his school and Sheffield Children Hospitals charity PA UK news in pictures 11 September 2021 British player Emma Raducanu, holds up the US Open championship trophy winning the women's singles final of the US Open in New York AP UK news in pictures 10 September 2021 People paddle board during a misty morning in Ullswater, the second largest lake in the Lake District, Cumbria PA UK news in pictures 9 September 2021 Troops from Wiltshire based 4 Armoured Close Support Battalion Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers during final inspection at Wellington Barracks in London, ahead of providing troops for the Queens Guard PA UK news in pictures 8 September 2021 Workers cross London Bridge during the morning rush hour in London Reuters UK news in pictures Mixing it up: Painting it up press view in London A gallery employee poses for photographers next to a painting entitled Prairie by British artist, Louise Giovanelli during the exhibition 'Mixing it up: Painting it up' at the Hayward Gallery in London EPA UK news in pictures 6 September 2021 Traders in the Ring at the London Metal Exchange, in the City of London, after open-outcry trading returned for the first time since March 2020, when the Ring was temporarily closed due to the pandemic PA UK news in pictures 5 September 2021 People enjoy the warm weather on Sandbanks beach, Poole PA UK news in pictures 4 September 2021 Demonstrators from Animal Rebellion and Nature Rebellion protest in Trafalgar Square in London. PA UK news in pictures 3 September 2021 South Africa's Ntando Mahlangu (centre) wins the Men's 200 metres T61 Final ahead of second placed Great Britain's Richard Whitehead at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games PA UK news in pictures 2 September 2021 A young common seal on the beach at Horsey Gap in Norfolk, as hundreds of pregnant grey seals come ashore ready for the start of the pupping season. PA UK news in pictures 1 September 2021 Goldfinches fighting over food in a garden in Strensham, Worcestershire PA UK news in pictures 31 August 2021 Gold Medallist Sarah Storey of Britain celebrates on the podium Reuters UK news in pictures 30 August 2021 Extinction Rebellion protesters hold a a tea party on Tower Bridge in London EPA UK news in pictures 29 August 2021 A police office tussles with a demonstrator on Cromwell Road outside the Natural History Museum during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion in London PA UK news in pictures 28 August 2021 Members of the British armed forces 16 Air Assault Brigade walk to the air terminal after disembarking a Royal Airforce Voyager aircraft at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire POOL/AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 27 August 2021 Fabio Quartararo crashes during a MotoGP practice session at the British Grand Prix, Silverstone Circuit Action Images via Reuters UK news in pictures 26 August 2021 An Extinction Rebellion activist holds a placard in a fountain surrounded by police officers, during a protest next to Buckingham Palace in London Reuters UK news in pictures 25 August 2021 Gold Medallist Great Britains cyclist, Sarah Storey, celebrates after winning the Womens C5 3000m Individual Pursuit Final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. It was her 15th Paralympic gold Reuters UK news in pictures 24 August 2021 A demonstrator dressed as bee during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion on Whitehall, in central London PA UK news in pictures 23 August 2021 Former interpreters for the British forces in Afghanistan demonstrate outside the Home Office in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 22 August 2021 Police officers form a line in front of the entrance to the Guildhall, London, where protesters have climbed onto a ledge above the entrance during an Extinction Rebellion stage a protest PA UK news in pictures 21 August 2021 People take part in a demonstration in solidarity with people of Afghanistan, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 20 August 2021 People zip wire across the sea from Bournemouth pier towards the beach. PA UK news in pictures 19 August 2021 Supporters of Geronimo the alpaca gather outside Shepherds Close Farm in Wooton Under Edge, Gloucestershire PA UK news in pictures 18 August 2021 Former Afghan interpreters and veterans hold a demonstration outside Downing Street, calling for support and protection for Afghan interpreters and their families PA UK news in pictures 17 August 2021 Military personnel board the RAF Airbus A400M at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, where evacuation flights from Afghanistan have been landing Reuters UK news in pictures 16 August 2021 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer takes part in a minute's silence at Wolverhampton police station for the victims of the Plymouth mass shooting last week PA UK news in pictures 15 August 2021 2Storm, a ten-metre tall puppet of a mythical goddess of the sea created by Edinburgh-based visual theatre company Vision Mechanics, makes its way alongside the seafront at North Berwick, East Lothian, during a performance at the Fringe By The Sea festival PA UK news in pictures 14 August 2021 A woman and two young girls look at floral tributes in Plymouth where six people, including the offender, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident PA UK news in pictures 13 August 2021 Forensic officers in the Keyham area of Plymouth where six people, including the shooter, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident on Thursday evening PA UK news in pictures 12 August 2021 Children ride horses in the River Eden in Appleby, Cumbria, during the annual gathering of travellers for the Appleby Horse Fair PA UK news in pictures 11 August 2021 Stella Moris (left) reacts after talking to the media outside the High Court in London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal, n London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal. The US government has won the latest round in its High Court bid to appeal against the decision not to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges PA UK news in pictures 10 August 2021 Students react after they receive their A-Level results at the Ark Academy, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 9 August 2021 The final athletes from Great Britain arrive home including Jason Kenny, Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald (front left-right) at Heathrow Airport, London following the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games PA UK news in pictures 8 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny during the closing ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Olympic stadium in Japan PA UK news in pictures 7 August 2021 People from the Glasgow Southside community take part in the Govanhill Carnival, an anti-racist celebration of pride, unity and the contributions immigrants have made to the community in Govanhill, at Queen's Park, Glasgow PA UK news in pictures 6 August 2021 Chijindu Ujah of Britain, Zharnel Hughes of Britain, Richard Kilty of Britain and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake of Britain celebrate winning silver as they pose with Asha Philip of Britain, Imani Lansiquot of Britain, Dina Asher-Smith of Britain and Daryll Neita of Britain after they won bronze in the women's 4 x 100m relay during Olympic Games Day 14 Getty UK news in pictures 5 August 2021 A protester places flowers on a photograph of an executed man during a demonstration organised by supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) to protest against the inauguration of Iran's new president Ebrahim Raisi in central London AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 4 August 2021 England's Joe Root looks on as India's KL Rahul doesn't make it to a catch during day one of Cinch First Test match at Trent Bridge, Nottingham PA UK news in pictures 3 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny and Jason Kenny with their silver medals for the Women's Team Pursuit and Mens Team Sprint during the Track Cycling at the Izu Velodrome on the eleventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA

An Electoral Commission spokesperson said: The commission has a number of investigations open in relation to campaigners at the EU referendum; it does not comment on live investigations.
Theresa May has refused to intervene to legalise same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland, despite the limbo in Belfast after the collapse of power-sharing.

The prime minister was accused of hiding behind the DUP [Democratic Unionist Party] by refusing to act on the issue  despite overwhelming public support in the province.

But Ms May insisted it was a devolved matter, to be dealt with soon at Stormont  despite the 15-month failure to restore the executive and assembly there.

The controversy was raised in the Commons because a backbench Bill to introduce same-sex marriage has been brought forward jointly by a Labour MP and a Tory peer.

Ged Killen, a Labour MP, told the prime minister: LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] rights in Northern Ireland are in limbo.

The assembly has already voted for equal marriage and public support for it is overwhelming.

Will the prime minister stop hiding behind the DUP and will she take the opportunity to put her support on record for the Bill being brought forward?

But Ms May insisted legislation passed by the last Labour government meant the issue of same-sex marriage was for Belfast to decide.

This is an issue that we have taken up, it is an issue we have championed, she insisted.

And she added: We hope that there will be a Northern Ireland executive in place soon that will be able to address these issues.

The stance appears to sit uneasily with a recent written parliamentary answer, which said same-sex marriage was a devolved matter, but added: The power of the Westminster Parliament to legislate remains unaffected.

If this issue were to be raised in Westminster, the Governments policy is to allow a free vote on matters of conscience such as equal marriage, the Northern Ireland Office stated.

In November 2015, the Stormont Assembly voted in favour of equal marriage  but the measure was blocked by the DUP using a Petition of Concern, on the grounds it lacked sufficient cross-community support.

The DUP is propping up Ms May in Downing Street, following the lost Tory majority last year, providing support in key votes in return for 1.2bn for Northern Ireland.
Britains nuclear submarine programme has been handed an extra 600m by Theresa May in an unexpected boost for the Ministry of Defence.

The Prime Minister said channelling additional funding to the new nuclear-missile carrying submarines would help keep the country safe, amid a deepening crisis in relations with Russia over the Salisbury chemical weapons attack.

The money is also a boost for Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson who has been pushing the Treasury to provide more funding for the British armed forces.

Speaking at Prime Ministers Questions, Ms May said: The Chancellor of the Exchequer and I agreed the Ministry of Defence will have access to 600m this coming financial year for the MoDs Dreadnought submarine programme.

Todays announcement will ensure the work to rebuild the UKs new world class submarines remains on schedule and another sign of the deep commitment this government has to keeping our country safe.

When finished the new Dreadnought class of submarine will replace the ageing Vanguard class, which currently carries the UK's Trident missiles.

The Prime Minister explained that when added to a supplementary 200m released by the Government in February, the total extra new money for the MoD rises to 800m in the financial year.

 Russia 'staged a brazen and reckless attack' on UK, says Theresa May

It comes amid a major diplomatic stand-off with Moscow over the Salisbury poisoning, which left ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in a serious condition.

More than 100 Russian diplomats have been expelled by the UK, US and other Western allies in response to the attack, which saw a Russian-made novichok nerve agent deployed in the English city.

The broader National Security Capability Review (NSCR), looking at all defence spending and the challenges the country faces, will be published today.

Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Show all 24 1 /24 Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning United States Donald Trump has expelled 60 Russian diplomats from the US and closed the consulate in response to the Sergei Skripal spy poisoning. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Great Britain Prime Minister Theresa May confirmed Britain would be expelling 23 Russian diplomats. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Ukraine Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko has expelled 13 Russian diplomats. Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Germany Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel has expelled 4 Russian diplomats. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning France France's President Emmanuel Macron has also expelled 4 Russian diplomats. Reuters Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Poland Poland's President Andrzej Duda has expelled 4 Russian diplomats. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Lithuania President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaite has expelled 3 Russian diplomats. Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Czech Republic Czech Republic President Milos Zeman has also expelled 3 Russian diplomats. AFP Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Netherlands Netherlands Prime minister Mark Rutte has expelled 2 Russian diplomats. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Latvia Prime Minister of Latvia Maris Kucinskis has expelled 1 Russian diplomat. Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Estonia Estonia's Prime Minister Juri Ratas has expelled 1 Russian diplomat. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Croatia Croatia President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic has expelled 1 Russian diplomat. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Italy Italian President Sergio Mattarella has expelled 2 Russian diplomats. Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Canada Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has expelled 4 Russian diplomats. Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Finland Finland's President Sauli Niinisto has expelled 1 Russian diplomat. Reuters Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Denmark Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen has expelled 2 Russian diplomats. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Romania Romania's President Klaus Werner Iohannis has expelled 1 Russian diplomat. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Norway Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg has expelled 1 Russian diplomat. REUTERS Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Spain Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has expelled 2 Russian diplomats. Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Sweden Sweden's Prime Minister Stefan Lofven has expelled 1 Russian diplomat. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Albania Albanian President Ilir Meta has expelled 2 Russian diplomats. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Australia Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has expelled 2 Russian diplomats. Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Macedonia Macedonia President Gjorge Ivanov has expelled 1 Russian diplomat. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Hungary President of Hungary Janos Ader has expelled 1 Russian diplomat. AFP/Getty

It was launched after Mr Williamson raised concerns over potential cuts to the armed forces to meet a funding gap of 20bn over the next decade.

Ms May said the Salisbury attack had underlined the need for the UK to make better use of its financial, cultural and diplomatic clout as well as military force to quash threats.

Under the new "fusion doctrine" to be pursued, all Whitehall departments and agencies will play a part in boosting security, changes will also be made to the way decisions are taken at the top of government to prevent any repeat of the UK's failings in the Iraq War.
 Close PMQs: May questioned over 'shady link' between Vote Leave and data mining company at heart of Facebook scandal

Theresa May has spoken to Donald Trump to thank the US president for his 'very strong response' to the Salisbury nerve agent attack.

Earlier in the day, Ms May faced Jeremy Corbyn for the last session of Prime Minister's Questions before Parliament's two-week Easter recess.

The Labour leader attacked the Government on its record tackling mental health, pointing to failings at Southern Health, which has been fined 2m for the "avoidable" deaths of two young people.

Meanwhile Amber Rudd was quizzed by MPs over the Salisbury poisoning case and post-Brexit immigration when she appeared before the Home Affairs Committee.

As it happened...
Three people have now been charged in connection to the 2016 death of 10-year-old Caleb Schwab, who died on a ride at a park in Kansas.

Jeffrey Henry, who is the co-owner of Kansas Citys Schlitterbahn Waterpark where Caleb Schwab died on the Verruckt water slide, was indicted Tuesday after a grand jury considered evidence, and now faces charges that include reckless second-degree murder.

John Schooley, a designer of the water slide, was also named in the Tuesday indictment along with the corporation involved in the design and construction of the water slide, Henry & Sons Construction company.

The three defendants were also charged in connection to the injuries of 13 other people who were allegedly hurt while riding the slide, including four other minors. Those charges include aggravated battery, and aggravated endangering of a child.

The Tuesday indictments follow after charges were filed against the Schlitterbahn Water Park itself, and against the parks director of operations, Tyler Austin Miles. That indictment detailed 20 felony charges, including one count of involuntary manslaughter, five counts of aggravated endangering of a child, 12 counts of aggravated battery, and two counts of interference with law enforcement.

Mr Henry surrendered to US Marshals Service in Texas Monday, and is scheduled to appear in court Thursday. He has been released on $50,000 bail.

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. 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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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The park, in a Monday statement, said that they were not surprised by the decision to indict Mr Henry given the previous charges on the issue last week, but vowed to fight the allegations.

We as a company and as a family will fight these allegations and have confidence that once the facts are presented it will be clear that what happened on the ride was an unforeseeable accident, the statement read.

The indictment alleges that, while the 10-year-olds death first appeared to be an isolated and unforeseeable incident, employees later came forward to investigators to say that officials at the park had covered up similar incidents involving the water slide in the past.

The water slide  certified in 2014 by Guinness World Records as the worlds tallest  required two or three riders with a weight of between 400 and 500 pounds to be strapped in a raft. The vessel would then slide down a jaw-dropping 168 foot 7 inch structure, only to be blasted back up a second massive hill and then sent down yet another gut-wrenching 50 foot drop for the ultimate in water slide thrills, according to the water parks website.

Caleb was decapitated when he and the two women he was on the raft with went airborne, crashing into nets and hoops affixed above the slide. The two women faced face injuries, investigators said.

The water park reached settlement agreements with the involved parties in early 2017, including nearly $20 million for the Schwab family. The other settlements were not disclosed.
The families of 90 Argentine soldiers killed in the Falklands War have visited their graves for the first time after the fallen troops remains were identified decades after the conflict.

About 250 relatives travelled to a windswept military cemetery on the South Atlantic islands as part of an unprecedented diplomatic agreement between the UK and Argentina.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) identified the troops after taking DNA samples from the families of 107 soldiers who died in the 1982 war.

Forensic scientists analysed remains from 122 graves labelled no name in Darwin Cemetery on East Falkland island.

I found my son, I spoke with him, I asked him questions, I shared my feelings with him, my pain, said Dalal Massad after kneeling at her son Marcelos grave for the first time during the emotional trip on Monday.

"I feel at peace because I know where he is."

Marcelo was one of 649 Argentines killed during the 74-day war, nearly half of those perishing when a navy ship was sunk by a British submarine.

The conflict also cost the lives of 255 British troops, who were fighting to regain the islands after Argentinas invasion.

Argentina still rejects the UKs claim to the islands, which it calls the Malvinas.

But the two nations set aside the dispute in 2016 to sign an agreement to identify the soldiers and divide the costs.

Relatives of an Argentine soldier killed during Falklands War embrace at Darwin Cemetery (AFP/Getty Images)

Scientists started analysing the DNA last June after the ICRC began interviewing the families of fallen soldiers in 2012.

Speaking for the state, I think we have taken an enormous step toward closing a debt we had to the families and to the heroes of the Malvinas, said Claudio Avruj, Argentinas human rights secretary, at Mondays ceremony.

He said the identification of the soldiers was the culmination of a long-running demand and the families visit was a celebration of life in its entirety.

Parents, siblings and other relatives of the buried soldiers sobbed, prayed, and comforted each other at the cemetery, where in total 237 Argentine soldiers are buried.

The families listened as Scots Guards members played bagpipes against a backdrop of vast, grassy plains, and some relatives collected stones to bring back to the mainland.

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

Brigadier Baz Bennett, Commander of the British Forces South Atlantic Islands, said: For me, as a military man, I think it is very, very important that the families have been able to come here today to now actually see a name on a grave and be able to pay their respects.

Relatives of 32 fallen soldiers who have not been identified also attended the ceremony.

Nora Dimotta, whose son Raul never returned from the war, cried in front of one of the unmarked graves.

This is not the final step, this is the beginning, said Norma Gomez, whose brother Eduardo was identified. This process will continue until all the missing soldiers are identified.

Mr Avruj added: We must continue working to gather as many samples as possible in order to gain greater certainty about those that remain unidentified.
The driver got into a physical altercation with the group before running his vehicle into them and driving away, a San Francisco police official said.

Four of the five were sent to the hospital with life-threatening injuries as authorities hunted for the driver. One of them subsequently died.

A police spokeswoman said the department did not have any additional information on the suspect.

The incident occurred in the Dogpatch, an industrial area of San Francisco dominated by warehouses.

Police officers cordoned off the streets as onlookers relayed the aftermath.

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

Paul Lim told the San Francisco Chronicle that a passerby entered his place of business pleading for aid to assist the injured victims.
The White House has batted down a report that Donald Trumps lawyer floated the idea of pardoning former aides Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort.

In remarks to reporters, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders echoed Mr Trump's attorney Ty Cobb in saying no pardons are under discussion or under consideration at the White House. Pressed by reporters, Ms Sanders reiterated that there were no discussions occurring at this time or currently.

Im not aware of any conversations of that nature at all, Ms Sanders said in response to a question about whether Mr Trump had directed attorney John Dowd to introduce the idea of pardons to attorneys for Mr Flynn or Mr Manafort.

Mr Dowd discussed the prospect of pardoning the two prominent former Trump associates with their attorneys last summer, according to the New York Times, as special counsel Robert Muellers team was constructing cases that would ultimately produce charges against both men.

Until recently, Mr Dowd was a member of the legal team representing the president amid Mr Muellers investigation into Russian election meddling. He told the Times that there were no discussions with attorneys for Mr Flynn and Mr Manafort around issuing pardons as far as I know.

Both Mr Flynn and Mr Manafort have been ensnared by special counsel Mr Muellers probe into potential coordination between the Russian government and the Trump presidential campaign.

Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Show all 24 1 /24 Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning United States Donald Trump has expelled 60 Russian diplomats from the US and closed the consulate in response to the Sergei Skripal spy poisoning. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Great Britain Prime Minister Theresa May confirmed Britain would be expelling 23 Russian diplomats. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Ukraine Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko has expelled 13 Russian diplomats. Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Germany Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel has expelled 4 Russian diplomats. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning France France's President Emmanuel Macron has also expelled 4 Russian diplomats. Reuters Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Poland Poland's President Andrzej Duda has expelled 4 Russian diplomats. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Lithuania President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaite has expelled 3 Russian diplomats. Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Czech Republic Czech Republic President Milos Zeman has also expelled 3 Russian diplomats. AFP Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Netherlands Netherlands Prime minister Mark Rutte has expelled 2 Russian diplomats. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Latvia Prime Minister of Latvia Maris Kucinskis has expelled 1 Russian diplomat. Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Estonia Estonia's Prime Minister Juri Ratas has expelled 1 Russian diplomat. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Croatia Croatia President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic has expelled 1 Russian diplomat. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Italy Italian President Sergio Mattarella has expelled 2 Russian diplomats. Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Canada Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has expelled 4 Russian diplomats. Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Finland Finland's President Sauli Niinisto has expelled 1 Russian diplomat. Reuters Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Denmark Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen has expelled 2 Russian diplomats. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Romania Romania's President Klaus Werner Iohannis has expelled 1 Russian diplomat. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Norway Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg has expelled 1 Russian diplomat. REUTERS Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Spain Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has expelled 2 Russian diplomats. Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Sweden Sweden's Prime Minister Stefan Lofven has expelled 1 Russian diplomat. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Albania Albanian President Ilir Meta has expelled 2 Russian diplomats. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Australia Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has expelled 2 Russian diplomats. Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Macedonia Macedonia President Gjorge Ivanov has expelled 1 Russian diplomat. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Hungary President of Hungary Janos Ader has expelled 1 Russian diplomat. AFP/Getty

A top campaign aide who briefly served as Mr Trumps national security adviser, Mr Flynn has pleaded guilty to lying about his contacts with Russian surrogates.

Mr Manafort, who at one point led Mr Trumps presidential campaign, has pleaded not guilty to charges that he concealed the proceeds from his work for foreign governments. His associate Rick Gates has pleaded guilty to fraud.

The guilty pleas from Mr Flynn and Mr Gates, combined with former George Papadopoulos admitting to having lied about interactions with Russian surrogates, mean multiple former members of Mr Trumps orbit are cooperating with the special counsel.

The president has been adamant that there was no coordination between his campaign and the Kremlin, an allegation he dismissed as a partisan attack advanced by career officials at the FBI and the Department of Justice.

 Donald Trump insists 'no collusion' after Michael Flynn admits lying to FBI

It would not be unprecedented for Mr Trump to pardon a political ally. Last year he spared former Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio jail time after Mr Arpaio was found guilty of contempt for ignoring a court order to stop detaining people on the basis of their immigration status.
Donald Trump has said that the Second Amendment will never be repealed after a former US Supreme Court judge called for the foundational tenet to be scrapped.

John Paul Stevens said repealing the constitutional right to bear arms would weaken the National Rifle Associations (NRA) ability to stymie legislative debate about gun control.

The amendment was a relic of the 18th century originally adopted out of concern that a national standing army might pose a threat to the security of the separate states, the 97-year-old said, adding that repeal would make our schoolchildren safer.

Mr Trump, a Republican endorsed by the NRA during his presidential campaign, said on Tuesday that he would not countenance repealing the measure.

He tweeted: THE SECOND AMENDMENT WILL NEVER BE REPEALED! As much as Democrats would like to see this happen, and despite the words yesterday of former Supreme Court Justice Stevens, NO WAY. We need more Republicans in 2018 and must ALWAYS hold the Supreme Court!

Mr Stevens intervention came days after school pupils took to the streets across the US in the March for our Lives. They were lobbying for tighter restrictions on guns in the wake of the Florida school shooting in which 17 children and staff were killed.

March for Our Lives  in pictures Show all 13 1 /13 March for Our Lives  in pictures March for Our Lives  in pictures Demonstrators chant during the protest for gun legislation and school safety AP March for Our Lives  in pictures Trevon Tre Bosley, 19, of Chicago, the brother of Terrell Bosley who was killed in 2006 in a case of mistaken identity, speaks during the rally AP March for Our Lives  in pictures Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student Delaney Tarr speaks at the rally AFP/Getty March for Our Lives  in pictures Protestors line the streets in Washington Getty Images March for Our Lives  in pictures People arrive for the March For Our Lives rally against gun violence in Washington, DC AFP/Getty March for Our Lives  in pictures Protestors carrying placards in Washington AFP/Getty March for Our Lives  in pictures Protestors hold up placards in Washington AFP/Getty March for Our Lives  in pictures Schoolchildren wear targets ahead of the rally Getty March for Our Lives  in pictures Attendees congregate in preparation for the march Getty March for Our Lives  in pictures Students brought a host of innovative placards AFP/Getty March for Our Lives  in pictures The movements main demand is the banning of assault rifles Getty March for Our Lives  in pictures Since the Florida shooting, students have called for urgent gun reform AFP/Getty March for Our Lives  in pictures In the wake of the Florida attack, President Donald Trump called for teachers to be armed AFP/Getty

The NRA said it would unapologetically continue to fight to protect citizens right to bear arms.

Changes to the US constitution can be proposed only with a two-thirds vote in the House of Representatives and the Senate or by a constitutional convention called by two-thirds of the states, and must be ratified by three-quarters of the 50 states.

The Second Amendments text reads: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
President Donald Trump has been quick to show his disdain over a suggestion from a former Supreme Court justice that the Second Amendment of the US Constitution  the right to keep and bear arms  should be repealed.

Retired Justice John Paul Stevens has become the latest prominent figure to call for the repeal of the amendment, citing the sweeping movement started by student survivors of the Parkland, Florida school shooting on Valentine's Day in which 17 people were killed. Justice Stevens argues that the time is now to push on beyond the gun controls being sought and get rid of the whole amendment.

In response, Mr Trump said that the right to bear arms would "never" be repealed, using the method of a capital letter-laden tweet and even some students from Parkland's Marjory Douglas Stoneman Douglas have said they are after an end to gun violence, not an end to gun ownership.

Beyond Mr Trump's political bluster, the reality is that it would also be "almost impossible" to get rid of the amendment, according to constitutional law experts.

Gregory Magarian, who clerked for Justice Stevens and is now a law professor at Washington University in St Louis, said the 97-year-olds proposal makes a compelling historical and legal case for amending the Constitution to repeal the Second Amendment, but any proposed amendment would face tough challenges.

I think he does believe that we should do this, Mr Magarian said of Justice Stevens call to repeal the Second Amendment. But I think were inclined to think a little less boldly.

In an opinion piece in the New York Times, Justice Stevens said the amendment had been warped by gun lobbying groups such as the National Rifle Association (NRA) to extend beyond its original intent. He pointed out that the amendment was adopted out of concern that a national standing army might pose a threat to the security of the separate states.

Today that concern is a relic of the 18th century, wrote Justice Stevens, a Republican, even though he is widely considered to have been on the liberal side of the high court at the time of his retirement in 2010.

He added that a constitutional amendment to get rid of the Second Amendment would do more to weaken the NRAs ability to stymie legislative debate and block constructive gun control legislation than any other available option.

Donald Trump in turn defended the Second Amendment, saying it WILL NEVER BE REPEALED!

March for Our Lives  in pictures Show all 13 1 /13 March for Our Lives  in pictures March for Our Lives  in pictures Demonstrators chant during the protest for gun legislation and school safety AP March for Our Lives  in pictures Trevon Tre Bosley, 19, of Chicago, the brother of Terrell Bosley who was killed in 2006 in a case of mistaken identity, speaks during the rally AP March for Our Lives  in pictures Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student Delaney Tarr speaks at the rally AFP/Getty March for Our Lives  in pictures Protestors line the streets in Washington Getty Images March for Our Lives  in pictures People arrive for the March For Our Lives rally against gun violence in Washington, DC AFP/Getty March for Our Lives  in pictures Protestors carrying placards in Washington AFP/Getty March for Our Lives  in pictures Protestors hold up placards in Washington AFP/Getty March for Our Lives  in pictures Schoolchildren wear targets ahead of the rally Getty March for Our Lives  in pictures Attendees congregate in preparation for the march Getty March for Our Lives  in pictures Students brought a host of innovative placards AFP/Getty March for Our Lives  in pictures The movements main demand is the banning of assault rifles Getty March for Our Lives  in pictures Since the Florida shooting, students have called for urgent gun reform AFP/Getty March for Our Lives  in pictures In the wake of the Florida attack, President Donald Trump called for teachers to be armed AFP/Getty

As much as Democrats would like to see this happen, and despite the words yesterday of former Supreme Court Justice Stevens, NO WAY he wrote on Twitter. We need more Republicans in 2018 and must ALWAYS hold the Supreme Court!

Of Justice Stevens op-ed, Mr Magarian said there is value in kind of disturbing the narrative that the Second Amendment is a sacred cow, adding that it could help activists focus their attention on what they want to accomplish when it comes to gun control.

But stoking a movement to repeal the Second Amendment may not be the best area to place efforts, he suggested.

Gerald Treece of the South Texas College of Law in Houston told The Independent that a more practical strategy for creating change would be for Congress to pass gun control laws, such as raising the age limit to buy guns. And if there are legal challenges to those laws, the Supreme Court may take the opportunity to reevaluate what the amendment means, he said. Justice Stevens was one of four dissenters in 2008, when the Supreme Court ruled in the case of District of Columbia v Heller that there is an individual right to bear arms.

Making any change to the US Constitution can be achieved in two ways.

In the first method, which has been used to ratify all 27 amendments, two-thirds of both the Senate and House of Representatives must approve of the proposal and send it to the states for a vote. Then, three-fourths of the states must affirm the proposed amendment. The other method for passing an amendment requires two-thirds of state legislatures to call a constitutional convention. Amendments proposed at the convention must be approved by three-fourths of the states.

The most recent push to ratify an amendment was in the 1970s. The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which would have prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex, was sent to the states in 1972 after having been passed by both the House and Senate. But the ERA never received the 38 state ratifications it needed.

If an amendment regarding sex equality could not be ratified  when there was probably sufficient agreement on the substance of the amendment to get it done, Mr Magarian said  its even more unlikely that one related to the divisive issue of guns could.
President Donald Trump has ousted another high ranking member of his administration, Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin, in the latest in a series of high profile departures as the White House shakes up its operations.

The decision, announced by Mr Trump in a tweet, after weeks of speculation over what would happen to Mr Shulkin, and whether his job was safe.

Mr Trump said that he was nominating Navy Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson to replace his outgoing secretary, while praising Mr Shulkin's service in Washington.

"I am thankful for Dr David Shulkin's service to our country and to our great VETERANS!" Mr Trump tweeted.

Robert Wilkie, an undersecretary at the Pentagon, will fill in for Mr Shulkin until the Senate can approve Mr Jackson's nomination.

Mr Shulkin's departure follows after months in which he has been locked in a power struggle with some senior White House staff members, who have wanted him to be removed from his post. His leaving suggests that they were eventually able to convince Mr Trump that the Veterans Affairs secretary  who was an appointee of President Barack Obama  needed to go.

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 outgoing secretary had pledged during his tenure that the VA would not be privatised while he was in charge, and had promised expanded opportunities for veterans to get care in the private sector. Political appointees in the White House who wanted him to be given the boot have pushed for a more comprehensive overhaul of the system to go further and provide even more access to VA-funded are in private sector health networks.

Mr Shulkin's departure marks a U-turn for the secretary, who Mr Trump was praising as recently as a few weeks ago for doing a "great" and "incredible" job at the helm of the VA.

But Mr Shulkin turned that tide of compliments around by publicly warring with an VA inspector general's report that found he and his staff had committed ethics violations while planning and then during a trip to Europe last year.

He first disputed the findings that he had improperly accepted tickets to Wimbledon, and for his wife's airfare during the 10-day trip. He proceeded from there to refuse to accept the report's findings that his chief of staff had misled ethics officials to get his wife's airfare cleared.

While Mr Shulkin later apologised and expressed regret for those actions and repaid the airfare  his behaviour left a bad taste in the mouths of members of Congress, veterans groups, and other stakeholders in the department's healthy operation who might have spoken in his defence, and many of those groups stayed silent as he publicly disputed the report. That period of silence reportedly left the senior White House political appointees with a window to push for his ouster.

They then reportedly pressed heavily for his removal, leading the White House to unilaterally remove Mr Shulkin's chief of staff from his position, and instal former Trump transition member Peter O'Rourke in his. During that time, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders repeatedly said that Mr Trump supported the work of his VA secretary, but that his work was "under review".

Mr Shulkin joins a long list of top officials who have now left the Trump administration, including the recent departures of former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, former national security adviser HR McMaster, and White House adviser Gary Cohn, all of whom left the administration this month.

He will be replaced by Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson, who has served as the White House physician for the past three administrations, including former President George W Bush, and Mr Obama.
A Canadian teenager has hit the jackpot after buying her first ever lottery ticket to celebrate her 18th birthday.

Charlie Lagarde, who is from Quebec, purchased the scratch ticket alongside a bottle of champagne to celebrate turning 18 on 14 March.

The winner was offered the choice of a C$1m (550,000) lump sum or C$1,000 (550) a week for the rest of her life.

After going to a financial adviser Ms Lagarde decided to go for the latter option of a weekly allowance because it is not taxed.

Its without taxes so its equivalent to a salary of more than $100,000 a year, so its a great start in life for that young lady, Patrice Lavoie, a spokesman for the lottery corporation, told the Canadian Press news agency.

That was her first lottery ticket ever and she fell upon a winning ticket.

Ms Lagarde has said she is keen to use the money to travel and to invest in her education.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

I want to study photography. One of my dreams would be to work for National Geographic, she said.

She was joined by family and friends as she accepted her prize at the Canadian lottery corporations head office in Montreal.
In hosting North Koreas leader Kim Jong-un on a surprise visit to Beijing, Chinas President Xi Jinping has made clear to the United States that his country will be an integral part of the as-yet-to-be-scheduled and unprecedented negotiations between Mr Kim and President Donald Trump.

The meeting put a new coat of paint on the relationship between the two countries, which was believed to have soured somewhat as China backed UN sanctions against Pyongyangs nuclear and missile programmes. The secret journey by Mr Kim, believed to be his first international trip since taking power in 2011, has allowed Mr Xi to ensure Chinas interests are represented whether they are physically present for the negotiations or not.

Xi Jinping wants to make sure he is fully informed of North Koreas intentions, and ensure North Korea keeps Chinas interests in mind as it prepares to talk with South Korea and the US, Patricia Kim, the Stanton nuclear security fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations, told The Independent.

China has been largely on the sidelines of the flurry of diplomatic outreaches between the US, North Korea and South Korea in the post-Olympic period, and inviting Kim to make his first foreign trip to Beijing was Xis way of reinserting China into the arena, she continued.

The two-day visit also served Mr Kims interests, of course, reminding officials in Seoul and Washington that Mr Kim has some bargaining power.

The United States is going to have to read it as a sign that they cant kick North Korea around, that North Korea still has influence in Beijing, Adam Mount, a senior fellow and director of the Defence Posture Project at the Federation of American Scientists, told The Independent.

North Korea Military Parade Show all 6 1 /6 North Korea Military Parade North Korea Military Parade AP North Korea Military Parade AFP/Getty Images North Korea Military Parade AP North Korea Military Parade AP North Korea Military Parade AP North Korea Military Parade AFP/Getty Images

The White House has called Mr Kims China visit  especially the fact that the North Korean leader travelled outside of his country for potentially the first time since taking power  a positive sign for the upcoming talks between the US and North Korea, and proof that the American diplomatic offensive is working.

President Donald Trump has helped orchestrate a strong international response to North Koreas repeated nuclear missile tests, including sanctions approved by the United Nations and honoured by China, and that is paying off, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Wednesday.

Were going to be cautiously optimistic, Ms Sanders told reporters.

Following news of the trip, Mr Trump tweeted that he is looking forward to meeting Mr Kim.

For years and through many administrations, everyone said that peace and he denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula was not even a small possibility, Mr Trump wrote. Now there is a good chance that Kim Jong Un will do what is right for his people and for humanity. Look forward to our meeting!

South Korea has cautioned they were not involved in the efforts to bring Mr Kim to Beijing, and that it added a new layer of complexity to the situation. Perhaps with that in mind, state media has labelled the visit by Mr Kim as unofficial.

What is happening now is beyond what the [government] was predicting, and [Seoul] will need to keep an eye on the situation with all possibilities in mind, senior presidential press secretary Yoon Young-chan told reporters.

Mr Xi, for his part, has said that the visit was a positive one and that he expects his country will continue to play a constructive role on the issue [of talks], and work with all parties, including the DPRK [North Korea], toward the thaw of the situation on the Peninsula, according to state news agency Xinhua.
Three Indian journalists have been killed in deliberate hit-and-run accidents and their deaths highlight an issue with freedom of the press in the world's largest democracy, according to watchdog groups.

Sandeep Sharma in Madhya Pradesh state, and Navin Nischal and Vijay Singh in Bihar state were all killed within the span of 24 hours. The incidents appeared to be unrelated though Mr Sharma had been investigating a controversial story at the time of his death and Mr Nischal and Mr Singh had just gotten into an argument with a local politician after filing a story.

Their deaths are illustrative of a problem the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) had highlighted in a 2017 report on the safety of the press around the world. Since the early 1990s, 27 journalists have been killed with complete impunity in India. The group is also investigating the deaths of 25 other reporters to see if there is a link between their murders and reporting work.

The problem is particularly fraught for non-English language reporters outside of major cities in the worlds largest democracy.

Six journalists have been killed since the report was issued. Most notably was Gauri Lankesh, a veteran reporter for a Kannada-language newspaper. She was fatally shot just outside of her home in the southern city of Bangalore in September 2017 after publishing reports critical of Hindu extremists. A suspect who is believed by police to be a Hindu nationalist has been arrested in the case.

Mohammad Harsu, a village chief in Bihar, allegedly drove a vehicle that ran over the motorbike both Mr Nischal and Mr Singh were riding. He has been arrested by local police.

Rakesh Kumar Singh, bureau chief of the pairs newspaper Dainik Bhaskar, said they had just finished an assignment of a local Hindu festival when they got into an argument with Mr Harsu.

Mr Harsu used to pressure local journalists to write in his favour and had lots of grudges against these two journalists, said Mr Singh. He added that these local dons are the big figures. If you dont greet them with a smile you get four slaps. They want you to fear them.

Mr Sharma, 36, had been investigating the sand mafia, as The Guardian reported. He had just finished an undercover assignment about an allegedly corrupt police official in Madhya Pradesh who had reportedly agreed to a accept a Rs 25,000 (272) monthly bribe in exchange for allowing sand mining in a government-protected alligator sanctuary.

Sand is an increasingly hot commodity as building material in India as the country rapidly urbanises and grows. The amount of sand used for construction in India has tripled since 2000 by some estimates and supplies around major cities have been depleted, the newspaper reported.

The side effects of sand dredging, however, can be severely damaging to riverbeds and coastlines amid drier-than-normal rainy seasons and suffering fishing communities. Reporters Without Borders also noted that those who cover Indias sand mafia are often the victims of violent reprisals. In a statement, the group called Mr Sharmas death a terrible warning to journalists.

The footage of his death was caught on CCTV cameras as his motorbike was crushed by a truck in Bhind district, about 300 miles (500 km) from the state capital Bhopal.

Mr Sharma had recently sought police protection for his previous reporting about alleged corruption in the states police departments and the incident took place just metres away from the local police station.

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 suspected driver has been arrested the truck has been seized. A state official has asked the Central Bureau of Investigation to investigate the matter as well after the CCTV footage was made public.

After his illegal sand mining report, he was getting lots of threats from people, Rizwan Ahmad Siddiqui, editor-in-chief of local television news station News World where Mr Sharma was a stringer, told The Guardian.

He was denied police protection and the police asked for the camera he had used to conduct the sting. They took the original recording and never gave it back, he said.

Mr Siddiqui also called on the CBI to investigate the substance of Mr Sharmas sand mining reports in the protected land.

As The Wire news outlet reported: In 2016, the International Federation of Journalists listed India as the eighth most dangerous country for journalists.

At the time of Ms Lankeshs death Reporters Without Borders said that journalists are increasingly the targets of online smear campaigns by the most radical nationalists, who vilify them and even threaten physical reprisals.
Myanmars parliament has elected a close aide of de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi as president.

The loyalist beat a military-backed candidate, while Ms Suu Kyi retained executive authority over the government.

It came as the countrys civilian government struggled to implement peace, with Myanmar's powerful army under heavy international criticism for its brutal counterinsurgency campaign against the nation's Rohingya Muslims.

Recommended Aung San Suu Kyi seeks humanitarian help for Rohingya crisis

Win Myint, 66, replaces another Ms Suu Kyi loyalist, Htin Kyaw, who retired last week due to ill health. Mr Win Myint is a long-serving member of her National League for Democracy  an affiliation that led to his becoming a political prisoner under the previous military government.

Myanmars army ruled the country for half a century, during which it was accused of widespread abuses. The armed forces relinquished some of its power to the civilian government in 2016, but it remains in charge of security matters.

The army is responsible for mass village-burnings and the widespread rape and murder of the countrys Rohingya Muslim population in Myanmars western Rakhine state, which has seen nearly 700,000 Muslim Rohingya flee to Bangladesh since August. The United States and UN have described the operation as ethnic cleansing, which Myanmar denies.

When Ms Suu Kyis government was installed in 2016 and she was made state counsellor, she said she would be above the president, a position largely supported by her party and the public.

The state counsellor role was created especially for Ms Suu Kyi because she is constitutionally banned from the presidency. A clause in the 2008 military-drafted constitution bars anyone with a foreign spouse or child from holding the job. Ms Suu Kyis two sons are British, as was her late husband.

Myanmars president is elected by a joint sitting of the two houses of parliament from among the countrys three vice presidents, representing the lower house, the upper house and the military.

Mr Win Myint, the vice president backed by Ms Suu Kyis ruling party and selected by the lower house, received 403 votes from the combined houses. Meanwhile, Myint Swe, the vice president supported by the military, had 211 votes and Henry Van Tio, the vice president selected by the upper house, had 18.

The National League for Democracys (NLD) landslide election victory in late 2015 gave it large majorities in both houses.

But under the constitution, the military holds special privileges in the countrys administration, including a 25 per cent share of parliamentary seats and the three security portfolios in the cabinet.

Having been both a member of the NLDs Central Executive Committee and speaker of the lower house for two years shows Mr Win Myint holds the skills to be president, said Win Zaw, a party representative sitting in the lower house

We hope that he will do great work as the president, and I am sure he will use his power to do the best he can for the country, he said.

Mr Win Myint was a successful parliamentary candidate in the 1990 general election, but the military invalidated the poll and he was denied a seat. He was elected in 2012 and again in 2015.

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

Born in the Irrawaddy Delta in 1951, Mr Win Myint won his degree in geology in Yangon, only to become a lawyer in the 1980s. He became involved with the NLD in the party's infancy, during the failed anti-military uprising of 1988, which led to his brief stint in prison. In 2010, he became a member of the Central Executive Committee of Suu Kyis party.

Win Myint was educated as a lawyer and has been loyal to the party as well, said Aung Shin, a close friend and colleague. More importantly, he has always worked together with Aung San Suu Kyi and they have mutual trust. I see him as a very reliable person who will be a great president for the country, and people are very optimistic about him.

Khin Zaw Win, director of the Tampadipa Institute, a policy advocacy group, questioned whether Mr Win Myints loyalty to Ms Suu Kyi was an asset.

To those who are asking, he will be forever Aung San Suu Kyis henchman, he said. I dont expect much change in the presidency, unless Win Myint puts the countrys interests before Aung San Suu Kyis and that of the military.

Associated Press contributed to this report
Tributes have been paid across France to the police officer who sacrificed himself to save a hostage during an Islamist attack on a supermarket.

Lieutenant Colonel Arnaud Beltrame symbolised the French spirit of resistance, said the countrys president Emmanuel Macron as he delivered his eulogy at Invalides military museum in Paris.

As rain poured down on the French capital, the officers coffin had earlier wound its way through the citys streets from the Pantheon  a secular mausoleum for French heroes. Hundreds lined the streets despite the weather.

Lt Col Beltrame was killed after swapping places with a female hostage at the siege in the Super U supermarket in the small village of Trebes in southern France last week.

To accept to die so the innocent can live: that is the essence of what it means to be a soldier, Mr Macron said. Others, even many who are brave, would have wavered or hesitated.

He awarded the officer Frances highest medal  the Legion dHonneur.

Lt Col Beltrames name would live forever while his attackers would sink into oblivion, Mr Macron said.

He was joined at the ceremony by his predecessors Francois Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy.

Schools and police stations around the country observed a minutes silence.

Two cities in southern France, Pau and Beziers, have announced they will both name streets in honour of Lt Col Beltrame, and the mayor of Versailles said he plans to do the same.

Colleagues of the police officer also paid tribute.

In serving the country he gave his life, General Denis Favier, a former senior official in the National Gendarmerie, told Frances BFM TV. He showed he was a man of values, a man of honour who went beyond the call of duty to fulfil his mission.

The gunman, 25-year-old Redouane Lakdim, began his attack five miles east of Trebes in the medieval town of Carcassonne.

There he stole a car after shooting the passenger dead and seriously wounding the driver. He then opened fire on a group of police joggers, before driving to Trebes where he took hostages.

Lt Col Beltrame led the team of gendarmes who arrived first on the scene. He persuaded Lakdim to release a woman he was holding as a human shield, laying down his weapon and putting his mobile phone on a table with the line surreptitiously left open.

After shots were heard down the line, police stormed the building and they found Lt Col Beltrame with gunshot wounds to his arm and foot. He also suffered a major knife wound to his neck. He died the following morning.

A customer and an employee of the supermarket were found dead.

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

Lakdim claimed to be an Isis supporter and had been on an extremist watch list. He was already known to authorities as a petty criminal, but Frances intelligence services had determined he did not pose a public threat.

Last weeks attack was the first since Mr Macron took power. He lifted a two-year state of emergency imposed after Islamist militants killed 130 people in coordinated attacks on Paris in November 2015.

Political opponents have pressed Mr Macron to deal more firmly with radical Islamism in France.
His spectacular free fall from the edge of space may have won Felix Baumgartner a place in the record books, but the Austrian sky diver is now threatened with a fall from grace over a court case in which he stands accused of punching a Greek lorry driver in the face.

Lawyers representing the daredevil have been summoned to appear before judges at a court in Mr Baumgartners native Salzburg on Tuesday to defend their client against charges that he was involved in a violent rush-hour altercation in September 2010.

State prosecutors maintain that Mr Baumgartner looked on as a car driver and the lorry driver became involved in an argument.

Mr Baumgartner is alleged to have got out of his car and taken sides with the car driver.

A scuffle ensued and the sky diver is said to have punched the lorry driver, causing him bodily harm.

At an earlier hearing judges convicted Mr Baumgartner of the offence and fined him 1,500. But he appealed and on Tuesday, judges will decide whether to order a re-trial.
French president Emmanuel Macron has led a minute's silence for Arnaud Beltrame, the police officer who was killed in a terrorist attack in Trebes last week.

Beltrame took the place of the final civilian hostage after 25-year-old Redouane Lakdim's shooting spree in the southern French town.

He was to be awarded France's highest accolade, the Legion d'Honneur, at a national memorial service on Wednesday.
Two planes collided at Ben Gurion airport in Israel, causing "heavy damage" but no casualties.

The tail end of a German aircraft crashed into the tail end of an Israeli plane, the Israel Airports Authority said.

A spokesman, Ofer Lefler, said "heavy damaged was caused, mainly to the German plane."

But he said passengers were "not in any danger" and were put on alternative flights.

The Germania aircraft was destined for Berlin while the El Al flight was bound for Rome.

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 rare incident is being investigated, Mr Lefler added.

Footage shows the tail end of the German plane sliced open.
Israels military has deployed more than 100 snipers on the Gaza Strip border ahead of a planned mass Palestinian protests, the countrys top general said in an interview.

Organisers said they expect thousands in Gaza, including entire families, to answer the call for protests on Friday symbolically linked to what Palestinians call Land Day.

Large crowds are expected to gather in tent cities in five locations along the sensitive border in a six-week protest for the right of return of Palestinian refugees to what is now Israel.

Citing security concerns, the Israeli military enforces a no go zone for Palestinians on land in Gaza adjacent to Israels border fence.

Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during 'Day of Rage' Show all 18 1 /18 Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during 'Day of Rage' Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during 'Day of Rage' Israeli forces scuffle with Palestinians at Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City AFP/Getty Images Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during 'Day of Rage' A Palestinian protester hurls stones as tear gas is fired by Israeli troops Reuters Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during 'Day of Rage' A Palestinian protester runs during clashes with Israeli troops REUTERS Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during 'Day of Rage' Israeli forces scuffle with Palestinians at Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City AFP/Getty Images Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during 'Day of Rage' Palestinian protesters run during clashes REUTERS Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during 'Day of Rage' Israeli border policemen and a Palestinian protesters clash REUTERS Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during 'Day of Rage' Palestinian protesters react to tear gas REUTERS Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during 'Day of Rage' Israeli border policemen hold on to a Palestinian protester REUTERS Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during 'Day of Rage' Palestinian protesters react to tear gas fired by Israeli troops REUTERS Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during 'Day of Rage' Israeli border policemen and Palestinians scuffle after Friday prayers in Jerusalem's Old City REUTERS Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during 'Day of Rage' A Palestinian protester moves a burning tire during clashes with Israeli troops REUTERS Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during 'Day of Rage' Worshippers chant as they hold Palestinian flags after Friday prayers Reuters Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during 'Day of Rage' A Palestinian protester hurls back a tear gas canister fired by Israeli troops REUTERS Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during 'Day of Rage' A wounded Palestinian protester is evacuated during clashes with Israeli troops REUTERS Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during 'Day of Rage' Israeli border policemen and a Palestinian youth scuffle REUTERS Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during 'Day of Rage' Israeli border policemen detain a Palestinian man REUTERS Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during 'Day of Rage' A Palestinian protester uses a sling to hurl stones towards Israeli troops REUTERS Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during 'Day of Rage' Journalists react to tear gas fired by Israeli troops REUTERS

Lieutenant-General Gadi Eizenkot, the militarys chief of staff, told the Yedioth Ahronoth daily that the military would not allow mass infiltration or tolerate damage to the barrier during the protests.

We have deployed more than 100 sharpshooters who were called up from all of the militarys units, primarily from the special forces, Mr Eizenkot said in the interview.

If lives are in jeopardy, there is permission to open fire.

Israeli soldiers are confronted by frequent violent Palestinian protests along the Gaza border and have used tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition against demonstrators who the military said hurled rocks or petrol bombs at them.

The beginning of the demonstration was symbolically linked to Land Day, which commemorates the six Arab citizens of Israel killed by Israeli security forces in demonstrations in 1976 over land confiscations.

It coincides with the week-long Jewish holiday of Passover, when Israel heightens its security.

A man hangs a Palestinian flag amid a collection of tents near the border with Israel, in the southern Gaza Strip (REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa)

The protest is due to end on 15 May, the day Palestinians call the Nakba or Catastrophe, marking the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the conflict surrounding the creation of Israel in 1948.

Organisers said the protest is supported by several Palestinian factions, including Gazas dominant Islamist Hamas movement, which is dedicated to the destruction of Israel.

A man hangs a Palestinian flag at an electric pole (REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa)

Israeli cabinet minister Tzachi Hanegbi, speaking on Israel Radio, said Hamas had avoided direct conflict with Israel since the end of the 2014 Gaza war.

But he said the pressure Hamas was now feeling from Israels destruction of some of its network of attack tunnels near the border, coupled with harsh economic conditions in Gaza, were a formula for rising tension.

Palestinian youth prepare a tent during preparations for mass protests along the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip (EPA/MOHAMMED SABER)

Palestinians have long demanded that as many as five million of their compatriots be granted the right to return.

Israel rules this out, fearing an influx of Arabs that would eliminate its Jewish majority.

It argues the refugees should resettle in a future state that the Palestinians seek in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Additional reporting by Reutrers
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in an unofficial visit to Beijing, according to state media.

The confirmation of the visit capped days of speculation that were fuelled by images of a mysterious train arriving in the Chinese capital city.

Despite recent sanctions, China is isolated North Korea's closest economic ally, and the visit represents the first time Mr Kim is known to have left North Korea since assuming power.

Analysts saw the visit as a key step towards crucial talks between Mr Kim and his counterparts in South Korea and the US, scheduled for April and May respectively. It was widely expected that North Korea would confer with China before those talks.

But perhaps most significantly, Chinese state media said Mr Kim reiterated his view that North Korea could discuss "denuclearisation" in the months ahead.

The government-aligned Chinese outlet Xinhua said the two leaders praised ties between their countries and cited Mr Xi as lauding positive changes that had taken place on the Korean Peninsula since this year.

Mr Kim said he was satisfied to have reached an agreement with Mr Xi on a number of issues of mutual interest and that friendly bilateral ties were a common strategic choice, the North Korean state news agency KCNA reported.

In his meeting with Mr Kim, the Chinese president stressed the goal of denuclearisation of the [Korean] peninsula, safeguarding peace and stability on the peninsula and solving problems through dialogue and consultation.

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

As North Korea has rattled the world with belligerent language and a series of intercontinental ballistic missile tests, China has both condemned North Korea aggression and chastised America and its allies for escalating the situation. Beijing has called for an end with joint US-South Korean military drills that Pyongyang views as provocations.

But while China supported tougher UN sanctions on North Korea and suspended imports of coal, iron ore, seafood and textiles, the official reports from both countries of the visit depicted warm ties between the two leaders in an effort to downplay recent tensions.

In these reports, "Kim reaffirms the traditional friendship between the two countries as if nothing had ever happened, when the relationship had plummeted to unprecedented lows", said Bonnie Glaser, an Asia expert at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

Mr Kim was described by Xinhua as saying that his country wants to transform ties with South Korea into "a relationship of reconciliation and cooperation".

The two Koreas are still technically at war because their 1950-53 war ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.

 Donald Trump says he 'believes' North Korea leader Kim Jong Un about peace talks

The recent moves towards detente began when North Korea used the recent Winter Olympics in South Korea to send emissaries and engage in talks with its southern neighbour. Those efforts culminated in Mr Kim inviting Donald Trump to an unprecedented meeting between the two leaders, which Mr Trump accepted.

Mr Kim told Mr Xi that North Korea is willing to hold a summit with the United States, according to Xinhua, something which has still not been confirmed by North Korean media but which South Korea said had been offered.

Mr Kim pledged in a missive floating those negotiations to suspend nuclear and weapons tests, did not call for a halt in military exercises and said he was committed to denuclearisation, according to a top South Korean official.

In a speech at a banquet in China, Mr Kim described the traditional allies as inseparable "neighbouring brothers" with a relationship moulded by a "sacred mutual fight" to achieve socialist ideals, according to KCNA.

The North Korean agency said Mr Kim also called for more meetings with Mr Xi and other Chinese officials to deepen the ties between the countries and also asked Mr Xi to visit North Korea at a time convenient for him, which Mr Xi "gladly accepted".
Travelling alone can be a hugely rewarding experience, especially in a place that's bursting with enough culture, attractions, and scenery to keep you occupied.

To help you figure out where to go next, the European travel website Route Perfect has released a list of the best destinations in Europe for solo travellers.

The ranking is based on data from over 100,000 trips saved and booked by solo travellers from around the world through the site.

From grand European capitals steeped in historic architecture and art, to cities with hip neighbourhoods and cheap beer, there's something for every type of traveller.

Check out the top 11 destinations for solo travellers below.

11. Munich, Germany

They city of Munich is famous for its annual Oktoberfest celebration (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

This Bavarian city attracts visitors with its picturesque architecture, art galleries, and beer halls. It's especially busy in the autumn during Oktoberfest.

10. Vienna, Austria

World-famous opera, ornate buildings, and fancy desserts make this city popular with solo travellers looking to take in some culture.

9. London, UK

Free cultural attractions like the British Museum and the Tate Modern make the British capital a popular choice.

8. Prague, Czech Republic

Gothic architecture, cheap beer, and a bustling nightlife means visiting the Czech capital is never a lonely experience.

7. Berlin, Germany

Home to the East Side Gallery and trendy neighbourhoods like Kreuzberg, history nerds and hipsters alike are drawn to Berlin.

6. Barcelona, Spain

You don't have to travel to Barcelona with other people to appreciate the city's gorgeous art and architecture, like Gaudi's spectacular Park Guell.

5. Florence, Italy

The Ponte Vecchio, or Old Bridge, is a medieval stone arched bridge over Arno river in Florence, Italy (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The Tuscan capital attracts art lovers with works by the likes of Da Vinci and Michelangelo. In the heart of the city, the dome of Florence Cathedral, designed by Filippo Brunelleschi, is a piece of art in itself.

4. Amsterdam, Netherlands

Whether you prefer to hop on a cycle or cruise along one of the city's canals, Amsterdam is the perfect destination for active travellers.

3. Venice, Italy

Venice may have a reputation as a romantic city, but that doesn't mean it can't be enjoyed alone. The canal city is the perfect place for looking at art, riding a gondola, and walking its incredible backstreets.

2. Paris, France

"The City of Lights boasts fascinating architecture, endless history, rich culture, and amazing cuisine," Boaz Lantsman, founder of RoutePerfect.com, told Business Insider.

1. Rome, Italy

"History, ruins, architecture, culture, great food, and nightlife" is what Lantsman says makes Italy's capital the best destination for solo travellers in Europe.

Read more:

 How much the best paid workers in 20 professions earn

 Seven outdated mens style rules that you can now ignore

 16 skills that are hard to learn but will pay off forever

Read the original article on Business Insider UK.  2018. Follow Business Insider UK on Twitter.
Andrew Adonis came to talk to students on the Blair Years course at Kings College London the other day  I have only just had time to write about it because Tony Blair himself came to the class two days later (which I wrote about here and here).

Adonis gave a brilliant overview of the Blair government, focused mostly on what he saw as Blairs failure to turn the Eurosceptic tide that led to Brexit, but what struck me most was Adoniss confession that he had changed his mind on electoral reform.

The proportional system for European Parliament elections brought in by Labour in 1999 was a huge mistake, he said. It created Ukip. It provided a platform for Nigel Farage, who was one of three Ukip MEPs first elected then.

Ive changed my mind completely on electoral reform, from experience. I think it is very important in democracies that parties aggregate opinion, they dont divide opinion. The only time we made that mistake in England was in Europe, but we made it fatally, because we created a proportional list system which allowed Farage to come in, Adonis said.

This was surprising because Adonis is a great admirer of Roy Jenkins, the Labour home secretary and leader of the SDP who was charged by Blair with devising a more proportional voting system in 1998. It could have been worse, said Adonis, because Roy wanted to change the whole of the UKs electoral system, which would have been an utter, utter disaster.

When I protested that Jenkins was his hero, he said: No one is right on everything, and he was wrong on that.

Adonis said that if Labour had stuck to the first past the post system for European Parliament elections, there would have been no Farage. He added that, if Farage had made it into the House of Commons, people would have been exposed to him and seen what he was about.

As it was, he said, Ukip were able to avoid scrutiny in Brussels and Strasbourg, but to have a base and resources for campaigning. Adonis said: The great beauty of Westminster is that it is a goldfish bowl  people really do understand the strengths and weaknesses and frailties of people.

As might be expected, Adonis, who has become a vehement campaigner against Brexit, sees much of the Blair government through the prism of the 2016 referendum. As I look back on it, in retrospect, Blair was much more important to Brexit than we realise. What Tony did was to accept the entire Eurosceptic argument of the 1990s but not to advance it further, he said. Tony mitigated the effects of Thatcherism, and in a few areas such as devolution he reversed it, but on Europe, which now dominates politics, what he did was press the pause button and were still waiting to see whether the button remains pressed.

Adonis was head of the Policy Unit in 10 Downing Street for most of Blairs time as prime minister. In the last two years, he was schools minister in the House of Lords, setting up academies to replace under-performing schools in poor areas.

When he came to the class he was full of the arguments of his forthcoming book, Saving Britain: a Manifesto for a European Future, but he tried to stand back and offer a wider assessment of the Blair government in the long perspective of history:

Theres very, very little that Tony did with the single exception of Iraq which progressives would think were in the wrong direction. The debate about it is whether he went far enough. And on Iraq, that wasnt made in Britain. That wasnt made by Blair. That was made by Bush, made in the United States, by the neo-cons. The debate about Tony was about how far he was right to ally himself with it.

In historical perspective, hell always be somewhere in the middle rank at least of prime ministers, because theres not much that he did that seriously set the country back, and the only debate is how far he took it forward.

He is not in that category of prime ministers including Chamberlain, Eden, Callaghan and Cameron, who either brought government to a standstill and almost destroyed the authority of the state, which is what Callaghan did in the winter of discontent, or took steps that were catastrophic, in terms of the national interest and were largely self-commissioned, which I think was certainly the case with Eden and arguably the case with Chamberlain.

But in the end, Adonis was brought back to Europe. Iraq was not on a par with Brexit, he said, which was a massive self-inflicted wound, entirely created by Cameron himself.

Other reports of Blair Years classes are filed here
Brexit is confusing, and it is I am afraid going to become more so. That is partly because, as in any debate where the different sides have strongly held views, evidence is presented as fact, whereas it is really just opinion. But it is worse than that, because of the complexity of the UKs relationship with Europe, and the lack of time to sort out that complexity.

There will be some sort of deal, and what we all would like to know is where on the spectrum of closeness or separation that deal is likely to be struck. But before digging into that, there are two other basic points to be made.

One is that in economic terms what happens to the world economy is much more important than the deal the UK does with Europe. If the world economy continues to grow strongly both Europe and the UK get richer. If it doesnt, perhaps because of a trade war, we wont.

The other is that much of the debate now ignores the long-term dynamics. Yes, there will be a deal, but the relationship between the UK and Europe, and with the US, China, India and other major economies, will evolve over time. The less favourable the deal is to the UK, the more the UK will focus on the rest of the world.

Recommended We went on a tour of Brexit Britain and this is what we found

That said, maybe the easiest way to get a hugely complex negotiation into a manageable structure is to think of it in three areas of consideration. The first is: what access does the UK get to the European market? Two: what access does Europe get to the UK market? Three: how well, or badly, does the admin get sorted?

Take the latter first because this will attract most headlines. To call it admin may sound dismissive, but what I mean is the mass of detailed regulations and agreements that have to be redrawn. With goodwill this can all be done; this is what the bureaucrats do all day. But with ill will what should be mere detail can be used to stir up antagonism.

Already we have seen difficulties. One is the Irish border. It should and can be seamless, as are the borders between Switzerland and the EU nations that surround it. But it can be turned into an issue. I was brought up mostly near Dublin and well remember the palaver of the customs when we crossed the Irish Sea. (My mother apparently looked like a known smuggler and was searched particularly closely.) At that time Ireland was still restricting imports to protect local producers.

There are many other difficulties. There needs to be an agreement on airline traffic, on the Galileo satellite system, on drug regulation, on health services on both sides of the Channel and so forth. Conceptually this is very simple: you just agree whatever is most sensible and get the lawyers to do the paperwork. In practice it can be extremely divisive, as negotiators seek to gain short-term advantages for their home companies, rather than build a long-term strategic relationship.

So there will be  and we need to be adult about this  a string of disagreeable stories, placed by whoever and designed to destabilise the negotiations.

Now point one. What access does the UK get to the European market? There are three areas here: goods, services and people. Goods are easy, because Europe sells so much more to the UK than the UK sells to Europe. It is not in the self-interest of Germany to restrict sales of BMWs to the UK and I cannot see us charging a tariff on them.

Services are tricky because in general (there are exceptions) the UK sells more services, including financial services, to Europe than it buys. This is the so-called single market. Actually there isnt a single market because there are all sorts of non-tariff barriers to trade in services  try and start a ski-school in France and see what happens. There will be a deal but, from a UK perspective, not an optimal one.

People are less difficult, simply because not many Britons work in Europe. We dont have the language skills. British people, when they choose to work abroad, go to the US, Canada, Australia, the Middle East or Singapore and Hong Kong. They dont, in the main, go to Italy. We retire abroad, at least for a while, but that is a less contentious issue.

The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Show all 8 1 /8 The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Post-Brexit immigration workers sorting radishes on a production line at a farm in Norfolk. One possible post-Brexit immigration scheme could struggle to channel workers towards less attractive roles - while another may heighten the risk of labour exploitation, a new report warns. PA The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Customs union A key point in the negotiations remains Britain's access to, or withdrawal from, the EU customs union. Since the referendum there has been hot debate over the meaning of Brexit: would it entail a full withdrawal from the existing agreement, known as hard Brexit, or the soft version in which we would remain part of a common customs area for most goods, as Turkey does? No 10 has so far insisted that Brexit means Brexit and that Britain will be leaving the customs union, but may be inclined to change its position once the potential risks to the UKs economic outlook become clearer. Alamy The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Northern Ireland-Irish border Though progress was made last year, there has still been no solid agreement on whether there should be a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. To ensure borderless travel on the island, the countries must be in regulatory alignment and therefore adhere to the same rules as the customs union. In December, the Conservative Partys coalition partners, the DUP, refused a draft agreement that would place the UK/EU border in the Irish Sea due to its potential to undermine the union. May has promised that would not be the case and has suggested that a specific solution would need to be found. Getty The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Transition period Despite protests from a small number of Conservative MPs, the Government and the EU are largely in agreement that a transitional period is needed after Brexit. The talks, however, have reached an impasse. Though May has agreed that the UK will continue to contribute to the EU budget until 2021, the PM wants to be able to select which laws made during this time the UK will have to adhere to. Chief negotiator Michel Barnier has said the UK must adopt all of the laws passed during the transition, without any input from British ministers or MEPs. EPA The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Rights of EU citizens living the UK The Prime Minister has promised EU citizens already living in the UK the right to live and work here after Brexit, but the rights of those who arrive after Brexit day remains unclear. May insists that those who arrive during the transition period should not be allowed to stay, whereas the EU believe the cut-off point should be later. Getty The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Future trade agreement (with the EU) Despite this being a key issue in negotiations, the Government has yet to lay out exactly what it wants from a trade deal with the EU. Infighting within the Cabinet has prevented a solid position from being reached, with some MPs content that "no deal is better than a bad deal" while others rally behind single market access. The EU has already confirmed that access to the single market would be impossible without the UK remaining in the customs union. Getty The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Future trade agreements (internationally) The Government has already begun trying to woo foreign leaders into prospective trade agreements, with various high profile state visits to China, India and Canada for May, and the now infamous invitation to US President Donald Trump to visit London. However the UK cannot make trade agreements with another country while it is still a member of the EU, and the potential loss of trade with the world's major powers is a source of anxiety for the PM. The EU has said the UK cannot secure trade deals during the transition period. EPA The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Financial services Banks in the UK will be hit hard regardless of the Brexit outcome. The EU has refused to give British banks passporting rights to trade within the EU, dashing hopes of a special City deal. However according to new reports Germany has suggested allowing trade on the condition that the UK continues paying into the EU budget even after the transition period. Getty

Now to point two. Europe will get virtually the same access as it has now to goods and services. Over time there may be a shift away from Britons buying European goods as other trade deals are struck, so in practice its privileged access may gradually be eroded. (Small point: there is already a marked switch taking place from Champagne to UK sparkling wines.) But there will be no sudden shift.

The bigger issue is people. Will Europeans still have access to the UK job market? This has been very important for the EU, for it has become a pressure valve, relieving tensions in the EU labour market. Even now, despite the recovery in the Eurozone, there is still a net inflow of EU citizens seeking jobs in the UK. Expect this to be a contentious issue.

There is a deal: Europe gets reasonable access to the UK labour market, while the UK gets reasonable access to the European market for services. Can that deal be struck?

It is massively in the self-interest of both the UK and the EU to have a friendly relationship. The question is whether self-interest triumphs.
A triumph for UK diplomacy, is how the expulsion of more than 100 Russians from more than 20 countries is being presented by the Prime Minister and her Foreign Secretary. And, in a way, it is.

Those who have given marching orders to Russian diplomats  commonly referred to in official statements as undeclared spies (note: declared spies  good; undeclared spies  bad) include a majority of our European Union partners, the US, Canada and Australia, as well as Nato headquarters.

Let me observe only as an aside that things have come to a pretty pass when the tally for expelled diplomats  a number that is likely to be doubled when Moscow gets round to retaliating  is regarded as a benchmark of diplomatic success.

It might rather be seen as the reverse: an actual failure of diplomacy. But there we are. It rather depends who is the target of your diplomacy, and in this case it was obviously not Russia, which is charged in the court of politics with the Salisbury poisonings, but our EU partners, other friends (Ukraine) and Nato allies.

And one reason  perhaps the reason  why this is being touted in London as such a triumph is that it allows Brexiteers to counter one of the most insistent charges of the Remainers: that this countrys international clout will be severely diminished by our departure from the European Union.

Some of the most bullish in the Leave camp are even arguing that it will be enhanced. At a time when both Theresa May (suspected of being soft on Brexit) and Boris Johnson (accused of bumbling incompetence) were politically under the weather, you can understand why the Western chorus of Russia-bashing comes as music to their ears.

How close, though, are appearance and reality? For a start, uniting a quorum of Western countries around vilification of Russia is not the hardest of sells, especially now Vladimir Putin has just won another six years in power.

Come on, you can imagine the British persuaders saying, you may not quite accept that the Kremlin spread novichok in Salisbury, but doesnt it make sense to tell Putin that his new term gives him no mandate to mess with the West?

Even then, however, the UK had to expend some effort (and political capital, perhaps, too). As surprising as the Wests near-unanimity is now, nearly four weeks on from Salisbury, was the hesitancy of even our closest allies at the start.

The initial response seemed to be that whatever happened in Salisbury was between the UK and Russia, and that if London wanted wider support, it had to produce some evidence.

Evidence may or may not be what the Prime Minister produced over dinner in Brussels  and if it was, it would have been courteous to give the UK public some of it, too. But it is not hard to imagine other UK arguments.

How about: First they come for swapped spies in Salisbury, but next time it could be Stuttgart or St Etienne. Or this: Curbing chemical weapons has to be a collective endeavour; what message will it send if you dont join in?

Plus, there can be few Western countries that do not have at least Russian diplomat they would prefer not to have. So why not use solidarity over the Skripals poisoning as a pretext?

In other words, persuading Western countries to expel some Russians is probably not the hardest task in the world, especially not if you couch the arguments in the right way, with the clincher being it wont cost you much.

Which it wont  not even the UK. On the same day that Theresa May was announcing the expulsions and a few less obvious measures, the Russian energy behemoth Gazprom was raising a 750m (656m) Eurobond in the City.

And no sooner had Germany told four Russians to go, than it gave the go-ahead to the contentious second Nordstream gas pipeline that will allow Russian gas exports to bypass Ukraine.

The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Show all 8 1 /8 The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Post-Brexit immigration workers sorting radishes on a production line at a farm in Norfolk. One possible post-Brexit immigration scheme could struggle to channel workers towards less attractive roles - while another may heighten the risk of labour exploitation, a new report warns. PA The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Customs union A key point in the negotiations remains Britain's access to, or withdrawal from, the EU customs union. Since the referendum there has been hot debate over the meaning of Brexit: would it entail a full withdrawal from the existing agreement, known as hard Brexit, or the soft version in which we would remain part of a common customs area for most goods, as Turkey does? No 10 has so far insisted that Brexit means Brexit and that Britain will be leaving the customs union, but may be inclined to change its position once the potential risks to the UKs economic outlook become clearer. Alamy The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Northern Ireland-Irish border Though progress was made last year, there has still been no solid agreement on whether there should be a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. To ensure borderless travel on the island, the countries must be in regulatory alignment and therefore adhere to the same rules as the customs union. In December, the Conservative Partys coalition partners, the DUP, refused a draft agreement that would place the UK/EU border in the Irish Sea due to its potential to undermine the union. May has promised that would not be the case and has suggested that a specific solution would need to be found. Getty The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Transition period Despite protests from a small number of Conservative MPs, the Government and the EU are largely in agreement that a transitional period is needed after Brexit. The talks, however, have reached an impasse. Though May has agreed that the UK will continue to contribute to the EU budget until 2021, the PM wants to be able to select which laws made during this time the UK will have to adhere to. Chief negotiator Michel Barnier has said the UK must adopt all of the laws passed during the transition, without any input from British ministers or MEPs. EPA The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Rights of EU citizens living the UK The Prime Minister has promised EU citizens already living in the UK the right to live and work here after Brexit, but the rights of those who arrive after Brexit day remains unclear. May insists that those who arrive during the transition period should not be allowed to stay, whereas the EU believe the cut-off point should be later. Getty The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Future trade agreement (with the EU) Despite this being a key issue in negotiations, the Government has yet to lay out exactly what it wants from a trade deal with the EU. Infighting within the Cabinet has prevented a solid position from being reached, with some MPs content that "no deal is better than a bad deal" while others rally behind single market access. The EU has already confirmed that access to the single market would be impossible without the UK remaining in the customs union. Getty The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Future trade agreements (internationally) The Government has already begun trying to woo foreign leaders into prospective trade agreements, with various high profile state visits to China, India and Canada for May, and the now infamous invitation to US President Donald Trump to visit London. However the UK cannot make trade agreements with another country while it is still a member of the EU, and the potential loss of trade with the world's major powers is a source of anxiety for the PM. The EU has said the UK cannot secure trade deals during the transition period. EPA The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Financial services Banks in the UK will be hit hard regardless of the Brexit outcome. The EU has refused to give British banks passporting rights to trade within the EU, dashing hopes of a special City deal. However according to new reports Germany has suggested allowing trade on the condition that the UK continues paying into the EU budget even after the transition period. Getty

One conclusion that could be drawn is that anyone, Brexit-Britain included, can exert influence on others, so long the message chimes with their interests and there is little or nothing to pay.

But another is that UK diplomacy will probably have to work much harder in the time of Brexit. Support was hardly spontaneous or fulsome, and we dont know what inducements the UK may have offered. And, of course, its easier if the target is generally unpopular.

Those who felt that it was not in their interests to join the protest did not come on board. So how would it be trying to drum up some concerted action against China? Or against the EU, or an EU member, once we have left? And was there perhaps an element, this time, of the EU trying to drive home the message that such support is conditional on membership?

It is probably true that the UK will retain some clout in the area of security and intelligence, though that could be more problematical if transatlantic relations are cool. But what of trade  vis-a-vis a tariff-happy United States  or a China that imposes terms only a fraction short of dumping?

Todays members have made clear that there is no rebuilding the Commonwealth, old or new. Australia and others had to restructure their trade after the UK joined the EU; there is no prospect of their reversing track now.

Not only will the UK have to work harder, but size and perceived allegiances will matter. Russia can cope with expulsions, especially if it gets its way on Gazprom and Nordstream. Is there not a danger the UK could get picked on, and not just by Russia, if its commercial alliances are all ad hoc?

Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Show all 24 1 /24 Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning United States Donald Trump has expelled 60 Russian diplomats from the US and closed the consulate in response to the Sergei Skripal spy poisoning. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Great Britain Prime Minister Theresa May confirmed Britain would be expelling 23 Russian diplomats. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Ukraine Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko has expelled 13 Russian diplomats. Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Germany Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel has expelled 4 Russian diplomats. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning France France's President Emmanuel Macron has also expelled 4 Russian diplomats. Reuters Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Poland Poland's President Andrzej Duda has expelled 4 Russian diplomats. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Lithuania President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaite has expelled 3 Russian diplomats. Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Czech Republic Czech Republic President Milos Zeman has also expelled 3 Russian diplomats. AFP Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Netherlands Netherlands Prime minister Mark Rutte has expelled 2 Russian diplomats. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Latvia Prime Minister of Latvia Maris Kucinskis has expelled 1 Russian diplomat. Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Estonia Estonia's Prime Minister Juri Ratas has expelled 1 Russian diplomat. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Croatia Croatia President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic has expelled 1 Russian diplomat. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Italy Italian President Sergio Mattarella has expelled 2 Russian diplomats. Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Canada Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has expelled 4 Russian diplomats. Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Finland Finland's President Sauli Niinisto has expelled 1 Russian diplomat. Reuters Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Denmark Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen has expelled 2 Russian diplomats. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Romania Romania's President Klaus Werner Iohannis has expelled 1 Russian diplomat. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Norway Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg has expelled 1 Russian diplomat. REUTERS Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Spain Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has expelled 2 Russian diplomats. Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Sweden Sweden's Prime Minister Stefan Lofven has expelled 1 Russian diplomat. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Albania Albanian President Ilir Meta has expelled 2 Russian diplomats. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Australia Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has expelled 2 Russian diplomats. Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Macedonia Macedonia President Gjorge Ivanov has expelled 1 Russian diplomat. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Hungary President of Hungary Janos Ader has expelled 1 Russian diplomat. AFP/Getty

As for an international diplomatic role, the UK has taken no part in any of the major mediation opportunities of recent years. A nuclear North Korea may not be an immediate threat to the UK, but we have been absent, or perceived as partial, both in the war in Syria and the conflict in Ukraine. First calls are made not to London, but increasingly to Paris and Berlin. A new role as peace-broker seems not to be on the cards.

The UK looks set to be straddled awkwardly as a country too big to be a plausible intermediary, but too small to be a great power. It is worth asking, though, whether all Brexiteers will regret this. Not everyone who voted Leave did so in the hope of making Britain  or England  great again.

For some, taking back control meant the UK being its own master, not only in who it lets in, but in what it does outside its borders. And the appetite here was for drawing in our horns, ditching imperial nostalgia and ending ill-advised interventions.

So while it is unlikely that the UK will resemble, say, Norway  either in its future relations with the EU or in any independent path it may choose  at least for this group of Leave voters the lessons for UK diplomacy from the past month may not be too disheartening.

A country that feels smaller in its reach; a country that has lowered its international ambitions; a country that has to work hard to build coalitions, might be one where a good number of Brexiteers and Remainers could actually converge.
Is there a secret plot to stop Brexit? Its a favourite theme of the likes of the Daily Express and the Daily Mail, and Ive often been identified as being part of it. Secrecy is a rather absurd suggestion given Ive made no secret of my dislike of Brexit and regularly go on broadcast media saying so. Im not sure you can plot to do something like this given the only way Brexit wont happen is if that is what a majority of British people want at the end of this process. There is not some coordinated plan that millions have signed up to. If we reach the point where the British people arrive at the view that we are better off fighting to change our country from within the EU rather than accepting a very bad deal for our departure, that will be an organic process.

Our relationship with the EU, as I have written before on these pages, is intensely personal, not just political. I am a quarter Irish, have a Danish brother-in-law, niece and nephew, a French aunt and Spanish nationals in my family. I feel British and European, and am typical of so many in my constituency, a place which scored the highest Remain vote in 2016. So many families in my constituency include EU citizens.

Often we get smeared as liberal, metropolitan, elite and citizens of nowhere as Theresa May put it in her 2016 Conservative Party conference speech. But the truth is many of my constituents have the same challenges as communities that voted Leave in great numbers and which are frequently described as left behind. People in Streatham and other areas that voted Remain are left behind too. Our borough of Lambeth is one of the most deprived local authority areas in England, most residents cant afford to own their own home and one in four lives in absolute poverty. The difference is that we did not think Brexit would solve our problems, we think it will make them worse.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 23 September 2021 Gabriella, the seven year old daughter of imprisoned British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, joins in a game on a giant snakes and ladders board in Parliament Square, to show the ups and downs of her mothers case to mark the 2,000 days she has been detained in Iran AP UK news in pictures 22 September 2021 A new sign hangs on the Millicent Fawcett statue after it was altered by CrackTheCrises coalition activists to highlight the climate crisis as a feminist struggle in Parliament Square in London EPA UK news in pictures 21 September 2021 Gabriella Diment prepares a monumental bronze patinated fibreglass wall sculpture depicting household cavalry soldiers on horseback which is expected to be sold for 12,000-18,000 when it goes up for auction at Summers Place Auctions in Billinghurst, Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2021 Florist Judith Blacklock puts the finishing touches to a floral carousel installation in Halkin Arcade, which she has designed with Neill Strain for the Belgravia in Bloom festival, running from September 20-26, in London PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2021 Bubbles surround Manchester Uniteds Cristiano Ronaldo before the match against West Ham at London Stadium Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 18 September 2021 Children take part in the Settrington Cup Pedal Car Race as motoring enthusiasts attend the Goodwood Revival, a three-day historic car racing festival in Goodwood, Chichester, Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2021 Hugo, 7, from London rides past a 4x7 metre rainbow arch, made entirely of recycled aluminium cans, which has been installed by recycling initiative 'Every Can Counts', in partnership with The City of London Corporation in front of St Paul's Cathedral in London, to encourage members of the public to recycle their drinks cans ahead of recycling week, which starts on 20 September PA UK news in pictures 16 September 2021 Sheikeh MOhammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, leader of Abu Dhabi, leaves Downing Street after meeting with Boris Johnson PA UK news in pictures 15 September 2021 Children pose by ice sculptures depicting people collecting water by charity Water Aid to show the fragility of water and the threat posed by climate change in London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 14 September 2021 Heavy rain covers the A149 near Kings Lynn in Norfolk PA UK news in pictures 13 September 2021 Luke Jerram's 'Museum of the Moon' at Durham Cathedral PA UK news in pictures 12 September 2021 Inspirational young fundraiser Tobias Weller crosses the finish line, near his home in Sheffield, as he completes his latest epic feat where he swam and triked his way to the end of his awesome year-long Ironman Challenge. This is the third challenge Tobias, who has cerebral palsy and autism, has completed, raising more than 150,000 for his school and Sheffield Children Hospitals charity PA UK news in pictures 11 September 2021 British player Emma Raducanu, holds up the US Open championship trophy winning the women's singles final of the US Open in New York AP UK news in pictures 10 September 2021 People paddle board during a misty morning in Ullswater, the second largest lake in the Lake District, Cumbria PA UK news in pictures 9 September 2021 Troops from Wiltshire based 4 Armoured Close Support Battalion Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers during final inspection at Wellington Barracks in London, ahead of providing troops for the Queens Guard PA UK news in pictures 8 September 2021 Workers cross London Bridge during the morning rush hour in London Reuters UK news in pictures Mixing it up: Painting it up press view in London A gallery employee poses for photographers next to a painting entitled Prairie by British artist, Louise Giovanelli during the exhibition 'Mixing it up: Painting it up' at the Hayward Gallery in London EPA UK news in pictures 6 September 2021 Traders in the Ring at the London Metal Exchange, in the City of London, after open-outcry trading returned for the first time since March 2020, when the Ring was temporarily closed due to the pandemic PA UK news in pictures 5 September 2021 People enjoy the warm weather on Sandbanks beach, Poole PA UK news in pictures 4 September 2021 Demonstrators from Animal Rebellion and Nature Rebellion protest in Trafalgar Square in London. PA UK news in pictures 3 September 2021 South Africa's Ntando Mahlangu (centre) wins the Men's 200 metres T61 Final ahead of second placed Great Britain's Richard Whitehead at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games PA UK news in pictures 2 September 2021 A young common seal on the beach at Horsey Gap in Norfolk, as hundreds of pregnant grey seals come ashore ready for the start of the pupping season. PA UK news in pictures 1 September 2021 Goldfinches fighting over food in a garden in Strensham, Worcestershire PA UK news in pictures 31 August 2021 Gold Medallist Sarah Storey of Britain celebrates on the podium Reuters UK news in pictures 30 August 2021 Extinction Rebellion protesters hold a a tea party on Tower Bridge in London EPA UK news in pictures 29 August 2021 A police office tussles with a demonstrator on Cromwell Road outside the Natural History Museum during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion in London PA UK news in pictures 28 August 2021 Members of the British armed forces 16 Air Assault Brigade walk to the air terminal after disembarking a Royal Airforce Voyager aircraft at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire POOL/AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 27 August 2021 Fabio Quartararo crashes during a MotoGP practice session at the British Grand Prix, Silverstone Circuit Action Images via Reuters UK news in pictures 26 August 2021 An Extinction Rebellion activist holds a placard in a fountain surrounded by police officers, during a protest next to Buckingham Palace in London Reuters UK news in pictures 25 August 2021 Gold Medallist Great Britains cyclist, Sarah Storey, celebrates after winning the Womens C5 3000m Individual Pursuit Final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. It was her 15th Paralympic gold Reuters UK news in pictures 24 August 2021 A demonstrator dressed as bee during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion on Whitehall, in central London PA UK news in pictures 23 August 2021 Former interpreters for the British forces in Afghanistan demonstrate outside the Home Office in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 22 August 2021 Police officers form a line in front of the entrance to the Guildhall, London, where protesters have climbed onto a ledge above the entrance during an Extinction Rebellion stage a protest PA UK news in pictures 21 August 2021 People take part in a demonstration in solidarity with people of Afghanistan, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 20 August 2021 People zip wire across the sea from Bournemouth pier towards the beach. PA UK news in pictures 19 August 2021 Supporters of Geronimo the alpaca gather outside Shepherds Close Farm in Wooton Under Edge, Gloucestershire PA UK news in pictures 18 August 2021 Former Afghan interpreters and veterans hold a demonstration outside Downing Street, calling for support and protection for Afghan interpreters and their families PA UK news in pictures 17 August 2021 Military personnel board the RAF Airbus A400M at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, where evacuation flights from Afghanistan have been landing Reuters UK news in pictures 16 August 2021 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer takes part in a minute's silence at Wolverhampton police station for the victims of the Plymouth mass shooting last week PA UK news in pictures 15 August 2021 2Storm, a ten-metre tall puppet of a mythical goddess of the sea created by Edinburgh-based visual theatre company Vision Mechanics, makes its way alongside the seafront at North Berwick, East Lothian, during a performance at the Fringe By The Sea festival PA UK news in pictures 14 August 2021 A woman and two young girls look at floral tributes in Plymouth where six people, including the offender, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident PA UK news in pictures 13 August 2021 Forensic officers in the Keyham area of Plymouth where six people, including the shooter, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident on Thursday evening PA UK news in pictures 12 August 2021 Children ride horses in the River Eden in Appleby, Cumbria, during the annual gathering of travellers for the Appleby Horse Fair PA UK news in pictures 11 August 2021 Stella Moris (left) reacts after talking to the media outside the High Court in London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal, n London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal. The US government has won the latest round in its High Court bid to appeal against the decision not to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges PA UK news in pictures 10 August 2021 Students react after they receive their A-Level results at the Ark Academy, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 9 August 2021 The final athletes from Great Britain arrive home including Jason Kenny, Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald (front left-right) at Heathrow Airport, London following the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games PA UK news in pictures 8 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny during the closing ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Olympic stadium in Japan PA UK news in pictures 7 August 2021 People from the Glasgow Southside community take part in the Govanhill Carnival, an anti-racist celebration of pride, unity and the contributions immigrants have made to the community in Govanhill, at Queen's Park, Glasgow PA UK news in pictures 6 August 2021 Chijindu Ujah of Britain, Zharnel Hughes of Britain, Richard Kilty of Britain and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake of Britain celebrate winning silver as they pose with Asha Philip of Britain, Imani Lansiquot of Britain, Dina Asher-Smith of Britain and Daryll Neita of Britain after they won bronze in the women's 4 x 100m relay during Olympic Games Day 14 Getty UK news in pictures 5 August 2021 A protester places flowers on a photograph of an executed man during a demonstration organised by supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) to protest against the inauguration of Iran's new president Ebrahim Raisi in central London AFP via Getty

However your area voted, we can all agree this process is much more protracted and complicated than anyone envisaged. It impacts on important aspects of UK society like the Good Friday Agreement settlement in Northern Ireland, which brought peace after decades of bloodshed or the transport of medical isotopes used in cancer treatment. 10,000 health professionals from the EU  which we desperately need in the context of a nursing recruitment crisis  have left the NHS and the number is growing. For all these reasons and given the gravity of the decision, there is a growing network of national organisations arguing against the Tory Brexit being pursued and for there to be a peoples vote on the Brexit deal at the end of the negotiations. But who are they?

Full disclosure: I am involved with most in some way and chair the Grassroots Co-ordinating Group (GCG), the umbrella outfit which brings all of them together. It helps coordinate the campaign efforts between these grassroots civil society organisations and MPs, who all want the UK to have the closest possible relationship with the EU.

Open Britain is by far the largest organisation with a base of over half a million supporters. It is the successor organisation to Britain Stronger In Europe, the official Remain campaign. It works closely with a range of politicians in Parliament from across the political spectrum from the Green Partys Caroline Lucas to the Conservatives Anna Soubry and Chris Patten, who will be speaking at an important Open Britain event tomorrow marking the anniversary this week of the triggering of Article 50. The majority of their funds come from small donations made by tens of thousands of their supporters, and the group is currently raising more than at any time since the 2016 referendum. It is headed by executive director James McGrory and a young team who are mostly under the age of 30.

And youth is a strong feature of the movement overall, which is unsurprising given the huge majority of young people who are opposed to Brexit and will have to live far longer with the consequences. The student-focused For Our Futures Sake (FFS), which launches at the NUS conference this week, and Our Future, Our Choice (OFOC), are two new youth-centred campaigns that are already attracting huge attention and support.

The European Movement UK is the longest standing organisation with a grassroots network of more than 80 local groups across the whole of the UK from Dorset to Hull, from Kent to Leeds. They work closely with over 50 local Britain for Europe groups, the biggest of which is in Bristol. If you see a stall of activists on your high street or volunteers going door to door, they are most likely to be from one of these two organisations. They do so much of the hard work on the ground making the case to fellow citizens.

 Labour deputy leader Tom Watson refuses to rule out new Brexit referendum

One of the big differences between those arguing for the UK to have a close relationship with the EU and those arguing against, is that the All-Party Parliamentary Group on EU Relations (which Anna and I chair) works side by side with this plethora of grassroots groups in every region of the UK, whereas Jacob Rees-Moggs ERG (European Research Group) does not.

Given the impact of Brexit on the NHS  75 per cent of hospital leaders think Brexit is bad news for the health service  there is a large body of people who work in and campaign to protect the NHS that forms part of our movement. The number of health workers joining the NHS from the EU is shrinking at a time when we need them  there are currently 100,000 vacancies in the NHS that need filling but there has been a drop of nearly 90 per cent in the number of nurses from the EU registering to work in the UK. Healthier IN the EU and Scientists for EU, headed by Dr Mike Galsworthy and Dr Rob Davidson, are followed by over a quarter of a million people and are working to reverse this.

Best for Britain is one of the best resourced of the groups and helps fund others. It was attacked by the right-wing media for having received donations from the philanthropist George Soros. The pretty unedifying attack on the group by The Daily Telegraph and others was intended to harm it  it had the opposite effect, boosting a crowdfunding campaign Best for Britain launched off the back of it. It will be starting a big ad campaign soon.

InFacts is a journalistic enterprise making the fact-based case against Brexit. If you want facts and figures, they will provide it. The New European is a great weekly house newspaper for the pro-EU movement. Vote Leave famously deleted from its website all the promises it made immediately after the 2016 referendum  Leave Watch (which I founded) performs a valuable function systematically holding Leave campaigners like Boris Johnson to account for those overblown promises, shining a light on the original pledge and highlighting the lack of delivery. Its patrons include the head of shop workers union, Usdaw, John Hannett, and the businessman Richard Reed who established Innocent Smoothies.

The organisation among pro-Europeans took a major step forward when six of these groups mentioned above moved into shared offices together in Millbank Tower this month, in what staff working there have quickly dubbed Project GCHQ, in reference to GCG. You can already see the impact this move is having, as the sharing of resources, ideas and expertise is so much easier when everyone is under one roof.

So, far from some secret plot, what you have is a diverse movement made up of civil society. They are not citizens of nowhere but citizens from every corner of the UK, from communities that voted Leave and Remain, people that vote for all political parties and none, and those who work in the public and the private sectors. We are well organised and disproportionately young. Above all, we know that shouting stop Brexit is not a political strategy but having an open, honest conversation with our fellow citizens to secure everyone a vote on the Brexit deal Theresa May returns with in the autumn is the only way forward.

Driverless taxis

So, I had a ride in one of the first new electric black cabs to grace Londons streets this month. And what a luxurious experience! Comfy leather, mod cons, gadgets galore and a very impressive large glass roof so you can admire Londons skyline as well as the delights we have to offer at street level too.

It did make me think: how long will it be before we get driverless black cabs? And, come to think of it, would we not miss our taxi drivers? In fact, do we want driverless taxis at all? A self-driving Uber tragically killed a woman in Arizona last week so perhaps this is not something we want to rush into. Food for thought.

Chuka Umunna is the MP for Streatham and the former shadow business secretary
For hundreds of years the UK has reached out to markets in every corner of the globe, strengthening our economy as well as the economies of our partners and allies.

While other priorities have changed, our commitment to free trade has remained the foundation for British economic and foreign policy. And yet, before July 2016, we had no dedicated Department for International Trade.

A strange state of affairs with a simple cause: our membership of the European Union, which restricted our ability to act independently from Brussels.

In the EU referendum the British public voted to restore our sovereignty, and that will require the restoration of a rich tradition: to make Britain an independent global trading nation once again. Since its creation, the Department of International Trade has been busy turning that democratic mandate into economic reality.

It has helped secure more foreign direct investment (FDI) projects than ever before, supported thousands of businesses to export their goods and services, and started work on scoping the potential for future free trade agreements.

Brexit so far: in pictures Show all 53 1 /53 Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit campaign Boris Johnson led the VoteLeave campaign PA Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit campaign Boris Johnson MP, Labour MP Gisela Stuart and UKIP MP Douglas Carswell address the people of Stafford in Market Square during the Vote Leave Brexit Battle Bus tour on 17 May 2016. Their lead line on the tour was: We send the EU 350 million a week, let's fund our NHS instead. Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Voting day A man shelters from the rain as he arrives at a polling station in London on 23 June 2016. Millions of Britons voted in the referendum on whether to stay in or leave the European Union AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Referendum results Leader of Ukip, Nigel Farage, reacts at the Leave EU referendum party at Millbank Tower in central London as results indicated that it was likely the UK would leave the European Union AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Protesting the result A young couple painted as EU flags and a man with a sign reading Im not leaving protest outside Downing Street against the voters decision to leave the EU on 24 June 2016 Getty Brexit so far: in pictures David Cameron resigns British Prime Minister David Cameron resigns on the steps of 10 Downing Street on 24 June 2016 after the results of the EU referendum were declared and the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Theresa May Becomes the new Conservative Party leader Theresa May receives a kiss from her husband Philip, after becoming the new Conservative Party leader on 11 July 2016. May became Prime Minister two days later and although she voted to remain in the referendum was keen to lead Britains Brexit talks after her only rival in the race to succeed David Cameron pulled out unexpectedly. May was left as the only contender standing after the withdrawal from the leadership race of Andrea Leadsom, who faced criticism for suggesting she was more qualified to be prime minister because she had children AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Lancaster House keynote speech on Brexit British Prime Minister Theresa May delivers her keynote speech on Brexit at Lancaster House in London on 17 January 2017. Where she spoke about her offer to introduce a transition period after the UK formally leaves the European Union in March 2019. Despite repeating the pro-Brexit mantra of no deal is better than a bad deal, the Prime Minister claimed she wanted a tone of trust between the negotiators and said Britain was leaving the EU but not Europe. She said there should be a clear double lock needed for the transitional period to make sure businesses had time to prepare for changes to their trading relationships with the EU Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Triggering of Article 50 British Prime Minister Theresa May in the cabinet, sitting below a painting of Britain's first Prime Minister Robert Walpole, signs the official letter to European Council President Donald Tusk invoking Article 50 and the United Kingdom's intention to leave the EU on 29 March 2017 Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Gibraltar nonsense Tensions have risen over Brexit negotiations for the Rock of Gibraltar. The European Council has said Gibraltar would be included in a trade deal between London and Brussels only with the agreement of Spain. While former Conservative leader Michael Howard claimed that Theresa May would be prepared to go to war to protect the territory. Spain's foreign minister stepped in only to assert that there was no need for the dispute Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Shock snap election Soon after triggering Article 50, Theresa May called on 18 April 2017 for a snap general election. The election would be on 8 June and it came as a shock move to many, with her reasoning to try to bolster her position before tough talks on leaving the EU AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Dissolution of Parliament for General Election Campaign Prime Minister Theresa May makes a statement in Downing Street after returning from Buckingham Palace on 3 May 2017. The Prime Minister visited the Queen to ask for the dissolution of Parliament signalling the official start to the general election campaign Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Conservatives lose parliamentary majority An arrangement of British daily newspapers showing front page stories about the exit poll results of the snap general election. British Prime Minister Theresa May faced pressure to resign on 9 June 2017 after losing her parliamentary majority, plunging the country into uncertainty as Brexit talks loomed. The pound fell sharply amid fears the Conservative leader would be unable to form a government AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Labour gains Britains opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn gives a tumbs up as he arrives at Labour headquarters in central London on 9 June 2017 after the snap general election results showed a hung parliament with Labour gains and the Conservatives losing their majority AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit negotiations begin Brexit Minister David Davis and European Commission member in charge of Brexit negotiations Michel Barnier address a press conference at the end of the first day of Brexit negotiations in Brussels on 19 June 2017 AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures May speaks in Florence British Prime Minister Theresa May speaks on 22 September 2017, in Florence. May sought to unlock Brexit talks after Brussels demanded more clarity on the crunch issues of budget payments and EU citizens' rights AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures EU council summit  insufficient progress German Chancellor Angela Merkel joins other EU leaders for a breakfast meeting during an EU summit in Brussels on 20 October 2017. The EU spoke about Brexit and announced that insufficient progress had been made AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures DUP derails settlement on the withdrawal part of Brexit DUP Deputy Leader Nigel Dodds walks off after speaking to members of the media as a protester holding flags shouts after him outside the Houses of Parliament on 5 December 2017. British Prime Minister Theresa May was forced to pull out of a deal with Brussels after the DUP said it would not accept terms which see Northern Ireland treated differently from the rest of the UK Getty Brexit so far: in pictures May suffers defeat over EU (Withdrawal) Bill Theresa May suffers defeat in parliament over EU (Withdrawal) Bill on 13 December 2017. The Government was defeated by Conservative rebels and Labour MPs in a vote on its key piece of Brexit legislation. MPs amended the EU (Withdrawal) Bill against Theresa May's will, guaranteeing Parliament a meaningful vote on any Brexit deal she agrees with Brussels. Ms May's whips applied pressure on Conservative rebels who remained defiant in the Commons throughout the day and in the end the Government was defeated by 309 votes to 305 Brexit so far: in pictures EU council summit  sufficient progress Britain's Prime minister Theresa May arrives to attend the first day of a European union summit in Brussels on 14 December 2017. European leaders discussed Brexit and announced there was finally sufficient progress at the end of the two days AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures The game moves to transition Brexit Secretary David Davis gives evidence on developments in European Union divorce talks to the Commons Exiting the EU Committee in Portcullis House, London, on 24 January 2018 PA Brexit so far: in pictures Trade deal is what May wants French President Emmanuel Macron gestures to Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May after they hold a press conference at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, on 18 January 2018. May and Macron agreed a new border security deal, through which the UK will pay more to France to stop migrants trying to reach British shores on 18 January 2018 AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Transition period agreed The UK and EU agree terms for Brexit transition period on 19 March, 2018 Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures No agreement on Irish border The EU and UK however failed to reach an agreement on the Irish border during the successful talks on other Brexit issues AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures EU attacks Mays fantasy strategy For months after the March deal is struck there is little significant progress in talks. One senior EU official tears into Britains fantasy negotiating strategy and accuses Theresa May of not even having a position on a variety of important issue Getty Brexit so far: in pictures UK releases Ireland plan Britain releases a new customs plan to solve the Northern Ireland border but Michel Barnier says it leaves unanswered questions and would not prevent a hard border EbS Brexit so far: in pictures Chequers plan agreed The cabinet agrees on a plan known as the "Chequers deal" on July 6 2018. The plan seeks regulatory alignment on goods and food, divergence on services, freedom from the European Courts of Justice and an end to free movement. Many were surprised that the hard Brexiteers of the cabinet would agree to this plan PA Brexit so far: in pictures Chequers plan sparks resignations Brexit Secretary David Davis and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and numerous ministers resign in the days following the Chequers agreement Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures Davis out, Raab in On 9 July, Dominic Raab replaces David Davis as Brexit Secretary. Raab is a keen Brexiteer and was a housing minister before taking over from Davis Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures Barnier's "deal like no other" EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier claims on August 29 2018 that they are prepared to offer Britain a trade deal like no other, though he stressed that they will not divide or change the single market to accommodate Britain AP Brexit so far: in pictures "My deal or no deal" In an interview on Panorama on September 17, the Prime Minister insists that any Brexit deal will be offered to the EU on her terms. She asserts this amongst continued attacks on her approach to Brexit by Boris Johnson and the European Research Group, headed by Jacob Rees Mogg BBC/Jeff Overs Brexit so far: in pictures EU leaders reject Chequers Quite the blow was dealt to the Prime Minister at a EU leaders summit in Salzburg on September 20. European Council President Donald Tusk stated that the Chequers deal "will not work" Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures May demands respect Following the rejection of her Chequers plan the day before, the Prime Minister voiced her anger that the EU had dismissed it without offering an alternative. She stated that throughout this process, I have treated the EU with nothing but respect. The UK expects the same. A good relationship at the end of this process depends on it." Getty Brexit so far: in pictures People's Vote march As the People's Vote campaign and The Independent's Final Say campaign gain traction, 700,000 people turn out in London to demand a final say on the UK's Brexit deal on October 20 2018 PA Brexit so far: in pictures More resignations As the Prime Minister settles on a Brexit deal, Brexit secretary Dominic Raab resigns along with Work and Pensions secretary Esther McVey and many other ministers Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Final Say petitions delivered to Downing Street People's Vote supporting MPs Chukka Umunna, Justine Greening and Caroline Lucas and The Independent editor Christian Broughton deliver over a million signatures in favour of a People's Vote to the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street on December 3 2018 PA Brexit so far: in pictures May delays vote On December 10, the Prime Minister delayed the vote on her Brexit deal as it was near certain not to pass through the Commons due to Tory rebels and lack of DUP support AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures No confidence motion Tory MPs triggered a confidence vote in the Prime Minister on December 12. She won by 200 votes to 117 Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures Commons rejects the deal Following the delay, the Prime Minister's deal was rejected in the Commons by a historic 230 votes AFP Brexit so far: in pictures Corbyn tables a no confidence motion Following the rejection of the Prime Minister's deal, opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn tabled a motion of no confidence in the government, which the government won by a margin of 19 AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Plan B The Prime Minister won the support of the commons to return to Brussels to renegotiate the backstop on January 29. In the same sitting, MPs also voted against a no-deal Brexit in a non-legally binding motion PA Brexit so far: in pictures EU council president savages Brexit campaigners who failed to plan for departure: Special place in hell There is a special place in hell for pro-Brexit campaigners who demanded Britain leave the EU without explaining how it should happen, Donald Tusk has said. The European Council president launched the scathing attack as he accused anti-EU campaigners of pushing for Brexit without even a sketch of a plan how to carry it out safely. Mr Tusk also dismissed suggestions that the EU could reopen negotiations over the controversial Northern Ireland backstop, dealing a blow to Theresa Mays hopes of securing fresh concessions as she tries to get her exit deal through parliament. Speaking in Brussels alongside Irish taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Mr Tusk said: Ive been wondering what a special place in hell looks like for people who promoted Brexit without even a sketch of a plan how to carry it out safely. He also tweeted the accusation moments later Getty Brexit so far: in pictures EU and UK announce talks to restart after Theresa May visits Brussels Both have agreed to restart Brexit talks to find a way through the deadlock in Westminster, following a visit by Theresa May to Brussels. In a joint statement the British government and European Commission said Ms May had had a robust but constructive meeting with president Jean-Claude Juncker, and that the pair would meet again before the end of the month. But the EU again refused to reopen the withdrawal agreement and its controversial backstop  with any negotiations expected to focus on the future relationship between the UK and EU instead Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit strategy lost MPs voted down May's Brext plans, with a majority of 45. The prime minister did not appear in parliament to see another defeat PA Brexit so far: in pictures Labour and Conservative MPs resign and create the Independent Group Back row of Chris Leslie, Gavin Shuker, Chuka Umunna and Mike Gapes, middle row of Angela Smith, Luciana Berger and Ann Coffey and front row of Sarah Wollaston, Heidi Allen, Anna Soubry and Joan Ryan PA Brexit so far: in pictures Non-biding votes on amendments to Brexit motion On February 27 he house held a series of votes, unanimously calling for the UK and EU to guarantee citizens rights in a no-deal scenario AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Attorney General publishes legal advice A hammer blow for May as Geoffrey Cox said her renegotiated deal can still leave UK in backstop against its will. Mr Cox did say the prime ministers efforts had reduced the risk of the UK being trapped in the backstop indefinitely. MPs went on to vote against her deal by 391 to 242 UK Parliament/PA Brexit so far: in pictures No-deal off the table MPs rejected a no-deal Brexit by 43 votes on March 13, with cabinet ministers rebelling in another humiliating defeat for Theresa May. A day later they voted in favour of the prime minister seeking an extension to Article 50 AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures House speaker bans May from third Commons vote on same Brexit deal John Bercow sensationally told Theresa May he would stop her making another attempt to pass her Brexit deal unless she has secured changes. The Speaker said a further meaningful vote would be ruled out of order if the motion was the same or substantially the same  under an ancient convention to stop the government bullying parliament on issues MPs have rejected Parliament Live Brexit so far: in pictures May writes to Tusk The prime minister wrote to Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, to ask for a three-month extension to give her more time to try to get her deal through parliament. However the European Commission advises the EU27 should offer a short extension to May 23 or a longer one meaning the UK would participate in European elections 10 Downing Street/AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures European Council summit Theresa Mays request to extend triggering Article 50 until the end of June was rejected by the EU, and instead offered a shorter time frame. She accepted the offer of a delay until May 22 if her withdrawal deal is approved by Parliament. If MPs rejected it for a third time, the EU said Britain must propose a new plan by April 12. Ms May said she will not support a long delay because it would mean Britain participating in elections for the European Parliament Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Brussels confirms preparations for a no-deal Brexit are completed They warned that it is increasingly likely the UK will crash out. In a statement the European Commission (EC) said preparedness and contingency work, which the EC has been conducting since December 2017, was now finished. The announcement came days after EU leaders agreed to a request by Theresa May to extend the UKs Brexit date AFP Brexit so far: in pictures May resigns Reuters

Today, at the midway point of the countdown triggered by Article 50, the prospect of an independent trade policy is within sight for the first time in more than 40 years. During the implementation period that follows, we will be able to negotiate and sign new trade deals that are ready to come into force, so businesses get the certainty they need.

Once again we will be able to set the terms of trade arrangements so they are tailored to the unique strengths of the UK economy, and push the boundaries of what trade can achieve for every part of the UK.

As we leave the EU we will build a new, deep and special partnership with the EU, which includes a comprehensive free trade agreement in the interests of all sides.

But we also want to take advantage of the way global trade is changing. The International Monetary Fund predicts that 90 per cent of global growth in the coming years will come from outside the EU. Global trade, which had been growing more slowly than global GDP over the past few years, is now picking up again and looks set to be robust throughout 2018.

New technologies, in both physical and virtual infrastructure, are producing truly global products and services in a world where geographical boundaries matter much less than before. And for the first time, our services exports  where the UK excels  are outstripping goods export to non-EU countries.

Leaving the single market and customs union is a golden opportunity for the UK to capitalise on this trend, re-think concepts of global trade and take advantage of the progress and pace of change in the world economy.

Global trade is evolving with increasing complexity, with technological development driving innovations and creating disruption in sectors such as artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, biotechnology and robotics.

 Nigel Farage throws dead fish into the Thames in protest over the Brexit transition deal

Its not only businesses that need to adapt to these changes  governments must also be dynamic to ensure their countries do not get left behind.

The UK is already well-placed in this regard, and after Brexit we will look to position ourselves at the forefront of this new technological age when setting the terms of our own independent trade policy, outside the European Union.

That is the big prize after 2019: the ability to develop our economy in areas where we have a competitive advantage. Take financial services, where again the UK is a world leader. A Britain committed to striking new free trade agreements across the globe can help not only in opening up the services trade, but in driving up international standards of regulation and financial stability.

At the same time we will use our restored independent seat to promote further trade liberalisation under the World Trade Organisation, such as digital trade, where most of the major rules have not changed much for the past 20 years.

I often hear people say Brexit will expose an unprepared UK to the harsh climate of globalisation. This is far too downbeat. For the past 40 years the UK has not been hiding from global trade. Instead we have been continuously evolving to reflect global market conditions, and the enduring strength of our economy proves it. Investment and employment are at record levels, exports are rising and the trade deficit is narrowing  by 12.8bn in the last annual figures.

The process of modernisation has resulted in the UK having one of the most open and free economies in the world, one that other countries want to emulate. The size of our domestic market is big draw; so too is the regulatory and business environment, and a workforce skilled in design and services  if you want evidence just look at the record on tech investment, or the fact we create a new tech company every hour.

These qualities will provide leverage when striking new trade deals, and Ive no doubt the world will be banging on our door to do business. With an independent trade policy the UK can thrive on the world stage, confident in our abilities and with the freedom and flexibility to adapt to a rapidly changing world. That is our goal.
At half past ten on Wednesday morning, the High Court decided one of the most notorious serial sex attackers in recent British history should not, in fact, walk free from jail after just 10 years.

The High Court decided it agreed with a case brought jointly by two of what police believe to be more than a hundred of John Worboys victims, by London mayor Sadiq Khan and The Sun newspaper, was victorious.

And why did it fall to these people to bring this action, known as a judicial review? Because the Justice Secretary, David Gauke, decided in January that if he brought a judicial review himself he would stand no chance of winning.

In other words, left to its own devices, without The Sun and Sadiq Khans help, the government, this Conservative government, led, by the way, by a woman who spent six years running the Home Office, would now be allowing John Worboys needlessly to walk free from jail.

There are not many things worse that can happen, with such immaculate timing, before Prime Ministers Questions at noon. Ninety minutes is plenty of time to prepare for a decision that had been in the pipeline for weeks.

It is why David Gauke squirmed and stared skyward at the end of the government benches. In a past life, two years ago, it used to be his job as chief secretary to the treasury, to come to the despatch box and face down awkward questions whenever his boss, George Osborne, didnt fancy it. What he suddenly knew is that sitting in the same room as the prime minister, as she is forced to squirm her way out of your cock-ups is an order of magnitude worse.

Or, of course, it should have been but it didnt actually happen because Jeremy Corbyn didnt ask a single thing about it. Not once. Indeed it wasnt until 43 minutes in that Zac Goldsmith of all people mentioned the name John Worboys, eliciting a hastily pre-prepared and entirely unsatisfactory answer from Theresa May.

We are in the middle of one of the madder weeks in British politics. Theres been an antisemitism protest against the opposition in Parliament Square, Theresa May appears to be leading some sort of international diplomatic march against Vladimir Putin. And a small cabal of computer geeks have blown a serious hole in the EU referendum.

Corbyn has been struggling. May has been winning. And here, in plain sight, was an open goal. He didnt miss it. He didnt turn round and blast it into his own net from ninety yards, as was his way in early 2016. He simply stood there and refused to kick it. Refused to send it even on the gentlest roll in the direction of the net.

Instead we got six carefully prepared questions on mental health funding. We heard again about the terrible deaths of two mental health patients at the hands of Southern Health, in 2012 and 2013.

As he spoke, text messages blipped around between Conservative special advisors and spinners and MPs, in sheer incredulity that the prime minister really was going to be let off the hook in this fashion.

Its happened once before, this. When the work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith resigned from the government over cuts to disability benefits, an attack designed to sustain maximum damage on Cameron and Osborne. When it fell to Corbyn to ask about it, the words Iain Duncan Smith did not pass his lips. Months later, it would transpire that a documentary crew from Vice were in the room when Corbyn made this decision, when he now infamously told his adviser Seumas Milne: Its not up to me to say more than a couple of lines about the governments in a mess.

Jeremy. Jeremy Jeremy Jeremy. It is truly painful to say it, all these years later, but that is exactly your job. Youre even paid out of the public purse to do it. Saying the government is in a mess when the government is in a mess, is the very first and indeed last thing on your to do list.

When the government has required The Sun newspaper to step in and sort out the early release of a notorious rapist, well, we need more than the couple of lines we didnt even get this time.

Of course there is a tendency, amongst pundits and politicians, to see it all as a grand game, about who knew what and when about x, and whether z should therefore sack y. Normal, functioning people might be of the view that mental health funding, or rather the lack of it, affects real people more than David Gaukes decision not to bring a judicial review that, clearly, he could have won.

The mental health crisis isnt going away. The opportunity to hold the prime minister to account, at the only point in the week when anyone pays even the remotest bit of attention, has now been and gone.
Stuart Olding has apologised for the hurt caused to the woman who had accused him of rape.

In a statement, read by his solicitor outside Belfast Crown Court after his acquittal, the Ireland and Ulster rugby star also expressed regret and told of his relief that he had been believed.

Speaking on his behalf, solicitor Paul Dougan said: I am very relieved that the jury has accepted my explanation as to what occurred.

I want to acknowledge publicly that though I committed no criminal offence on the evening of the 28th of June 2016, I regret deeply the events of that evening.

I want to acknowledge that the complainant came to court and gave evidence about her perception of those events.

I am sorry for the hurt that was caused to the complainant.

It was never my intention to cause any upset to anyone on that night.

I dont agree with her perception of events, and I maintain that everything that happened that evening was consensual.

The Stuart Olding who has been portrayed over the past nine weeks in this trial is not the real Stuart OldingStuart Olding

Olding, who had always denied the charge, said he had consistently told the truth to police and when he gave evidence on his own behalf during the nine week trial.

His statement added: The Stuart Olding who has been portrayed over the past nine weeks in this trial is not the real Stuart Olding.

I am fiercely proud to represent my province and my country. I have worked very hard to achieve those goals.

I hope to be able to prove myself going forward in all aspects of my life.

I would like to thank my legal team for their hard work and their belief in me throughout.

And finally to my family, thank you all for standing by me from the beginning.

During the trial, Olding, like his co-accused, gave evidence on his own behalf.

He was asked during week six to explain controversial and explicit WhatsApp exchanges in which he boasted about sexual activity.

The rugby player described the messages, sent between friends, as immature bragging.

He told the court frankly: I am certainly not proud talking like that.

But I did it, I have done it and I shouldnt have done it.
The judge warned she would clear the court if there was any reaction from members of the public when verdicts were returned.

It was a difficult task and people must have respect, the court was told.

And, so as the jury panel of eight men and three women filed in one by one, you could have heard a pin drop should one have fallen in the packed courtroom.

Paddy Jackson, Stuart Olding, Blane McIlroy and Rory Harrison sat side by side in the glass dock in the middle of court 12, just as they had done for the duration of the nine-week trial.

As always, they were impeccably turned out. Jackson in a grey suit and open neck dark shirt while his co-defendants were dressed in dark suits, white shirts and ties.

In contrast to their appearance on arrival at Belfast Crown Court on Wednesday morning, they seemed relaxed, flashing brief smiles and offering a quick word to each other before they heard their fate.

The deep intakes of breath were perhaps the only indicator their confident demeanour could be concealing nerves.

Blane McIlroy rubbed his eyes and sipped on water and at one point Olding appeared to whisper: You alright?

Paddy Jackson sat head tilted to one side, staring ahead, while Rory Harrison was also impassive.

The men were told to stand and as each rose to their feet they clasped their hands in front of their bodies  as if lined up for pre-kick-off anthem rendition.

The time was almost 12.30pm and it seemed everyone in court was holding their breath.

A few seconds later and the tense atmosphere had lifted.

The jury had reached unanimous decisions on all six charges after three hours and 45 minutes deliberation, the court was told.

The men barely flinched as not guilty verdicts were returned for each individual and each charge separately.

Minutes later, the scenes outside the court room were of jubilation.

The defendants, their friends and families, who had attended every day of the trial and listened to every piece of graphic evidence, wept with relief and hugged each other.

Others made excited phone calls to relay the not guilty verdicts to those unable to get a place in the 100-seat capacity public gallery.

Words such as we did it, well done, thats it and its over echoed through the fourth floor corridor.

Someone even ran and jumped into Blane McIlroys arms.

Outside the court an enormous crowd had also gathered.

It not only included media from across Ireland and beyond but onlookers and office workers keen for a glimpse of the famous sportsmen during their lunch break.

First to exit was Blane McIlroy who walked out, head held high.

He was accompanied by legal representatives and his mother, who had walked him in and out of court every day of the trial.

He said nothing to the media.

Jackson was next, and he walked out to a small ripple of applause from some members of the public.

There was a media scrum as reporters and cameramen jostled for position to hear him thank the judge.

Id just like to thank the judge and the jury for giving me a fair trial, my parents for being here every day, as well as my brother and sisters, he said.

Jackson also thanked his barristers and solicitors, but added: Out of respect for my employers Ive nothing further to comment.

Meanwhile, an impassioned speech was made by his defence solicitor Joe McVeigh.

Paddy leaves court for the last time today as he entered almost 10 weeks ago  an innocent man, the solicitor said.

The prosecution made much of the perceived privileged position provided by virtue of Paddy being an international rugby player.

We say that it was this very status as a famous sportsman that drove the decision to prosecute in the first place.

The high profile trial is among the longest rape trials ever heard in Belfast.

It generated an unprecedented level of coverage on both sides of the border and a massive amount of debate on social media, particularly

on Twitter.

Mr McVeigh hit out against the intrusive infection that social media had on the legal process.

Theres no reason to believe that this problem will not worsen, he added. To that end we invite the office of the Lord Chief Justice, the Attorney General, and the Public Prosecution Service, to enter into fresh discussions with us to look at more robust mechanisms that can strike an effective balance between everyones rights, but that properly secure the integrity of our criminal justice system.

As for Paddy, his main priority now is to return to work, that means getting back on the rugby pitch, and representing his province and his country.

Rory Harrison left the court as he had arrived every day  alone and without a word. His family, who had supported him in court, walked out a short time later.

Stuart Olding walked out accompanied by his solicitor.

Paul Dougan read out a statement written by Olding, in which he expressed regret about the events of June 2016.

I want to acknowledge publicly that though I committed no criminal offence on the evening of June 28 2016, I regret deeply the events of that evening.

I want to acknowledge that the complainant came to court and gave evidence about her perception of those events.

I am sorry for the hurt that was caused to the complainant. It was never my intention to cause any upset to anyone on that night.

I dont agree with her perception of events, and I maintain that everything that happened that evening was consensual.

Meanwhile, discharging the jury and excusing them from jury service for life, Judge Smyth said the case had been among the most difficult heard in the city.

She said: May I take the opportunity to thank you for the enormous commitment that you have given to us.

I have no doubt that it has been at great personal cost to all of you.

This has probably been the most difficult trial that any jury in Northern Ireland has ever been asked to adjudicate on.

The high-profile trial opened on January 30, and every day the rugby players and their supporters walked through the bank of photographers in rain, hail and snow.

As they left for the last time, as free men, the sun finally shone.
Dr Butler said that the sexed semen product has evolved since its last trial over four years ago.

A team of 11 bulls will be used in a new sexed semen trial to assess its fertility compared with conventional straws during the new breeding season.

Sexed semen has already been flagged as having a potential role in reducing unwanted bull calves off crossbred dairy herds.

Teagasc researcher Dr Stephen Butler explained that it is aiming for around 200 farmers who will be identified as suitable through ICBF and invited to take part in the trial starting next month.

The farmers taking part will be using 60 straws, including 30 of conventional semen and 30 sexed semen.

Dr Butler said that the sexed semen product has evolved since its last trial over four years ago.

He pointed out it would be "more attractive" for crossbreeding herds but it also has "values" such as using the best dams to deliver herd replacements and reducing calving difficulties.

"Sexed semen, if it is a high fertility product, is a win for the dairy industry," he said, adding that if the fertility was good then farmers should be using it.

He pointed out it was a product best suited to high fertility herds.

A team of 11 bulls from Dovea and NCBC were sent to sorting labs with the semen sorted and returned frozen. Now, Dr Butler said it has to get the farmers to agree to use it and take part. Sexed semen is more expensive than conventional so there would be an incentive for the farmer to take part as they will pay only the cost of conventional semen straws and for AI.

Ger Ryan from Dovea Genetics said it was important to assess the new SexedUltra technology that offers an increased four million sperm per straw in a spring calving grass-based system.

"We sent two Jersey bulls, two genomic Holstein Friesians and one daughter proven Holstein Frieisian. The results, if positive, should lead to an uptake," he said.
Dairy farmers are being advised not to push back the calving season for 2019 by more than a week despite the impact of recent storms and the extended winter.

Vets are reporting "serious problems" on many dairy farms with farmers indicating they plan to delay the breeding season slightly this year.

AI centres confirm that the breeding season has got off to a "slow" start, but they are hoping for a pick-up in demand over the next few weeks.

Aidan Doyle from Summerhill Veterinary Clinic, Nenagh told farmers at North Tipperary IFA Executive that "farmers are going to push back the calving season because they are experiencing serious difficulties this year".

He said that compact calving combined with the late spring has compounded management problems.

"We are encouraging farmers to ensure that their cows are in good condition before starting the mating season. It has been a difficult winter and spring on farms. Some cows are not in the condition score that is recommended," he advised.

Teagasc dairy advisor George Ramsbottom said he would be surprised if farmers were planning to defer calving by more than a few days as this was the most which could be justified.

"Teagasc advice remains that February is the most profitable month to calve spring calving cows.

Stocking rates

"We'd recommend that cows are calved compactly from early February on dry, free draining farms and from 10-14 days later on heavier wet farms," he said.

"With increased stocking rates prevailing on many farms, there should be renewed emphasis placed on planning for and providing sufficient high quality silage."

Terry Dillon from the Munster Cattle Breeding (AI) centre said the breeding season has got off to "a very slow start" so far.

"Because of the shorter gestation of many bulls now we find that farmers have pushed back the mating date by up to 10 days and peak is now around May Day," he said.

"Pushing back calving dates may be done by some farmers with heifers, but we would generally advise against it, because it is a lot harder to bring calvings forward again if they do push back next year," he said.

Larry Feeney of Progressive Genetics said with shorter gestations, some farmers find cows are now calving earlier than they would like.

He said that some delay in calvings for 2019 "will only be going back to calving closer to where they were" in the past.

John Lynch, Dovea AI representative in the intensive Limerick dairy region, said he definitely feels "the calving date is going to be pushed back" in 2019 because some are finding it very hard to cope.
Efforts must be made to market wool as a 'green' fibre as it is currently worthless to farmers, it has been urged.

The price for wool has been poor over the past 12 months with a lack of appetite in the Chinese market being blamed for the fall-off in demand.

"Wool is currently worthless and farmers are often left at a loss financially at the end of shearing season with wool prices failing to cover the 2-3 average ewe shearing cost," said the ICSA's John Brooks.

With a new shearing season in sight, he called for more efforts to promote Ireland's indigenous wool industry as sheep numbers have risen to over five million head in recent years.

"We need to see a concerted effort made to breathe life back into the industry. At a time when low carbon, low waste, biodegradability and renewability are the factors by which products and processes are judged, wool scores high on all," he said, adding it was a viable alternative to fossil fuel based synthetic fibres.

Aidan Walsh, from Texacloth, said the market was dependent on export for large-scale sales as it could be processed cheaper elsewhere.

He pointed out there wasn't enough volume in Ireland to keep a factory running apart from cottage industries.

The Kildare-based buyer said there was an overhang of New Zealand wool on the world market at the moment and there were some concerns weather there may impact on the quality of the clip. Currently, he said there were no signs of any major changes to the wool market for this year, with farmers getting around 50c/kg for wool by the end of the last season.

However, he said the market tends to be cyclical and the Chinese reenter and buy on a "rising market".

"It might be this season, it might be next season," said Mr Walsh.
The judge threw out McDonaghs claim which meant the six other claims collapsed with it and were dismissed

The developers of a planned 343-unit aparthotel on the site of a fresh fruit and veg distribution depot in Dublin are facing a couple of potential pitfalls over the plan.

LMS Investments is intending that apart-hotel firm, Staycity operate the planned seven story aparthotel at Dublin's Little Mary Street.

The site is owned by fruit and veg distributors and producers Keelings and director, William Keeling has provided his written consent for the plans to be lodged.

A report lodged with the application states that the aparthotel will be operated by Staycity.

The documentation states that Staycity was established in Dublin in 2004 and currently operates 2,000 rooms in Ireland, the UK and France with plans to increase the number to 5,000.

The report states that the application will regenerate an inner-city, underutilised brownfield site with a modern aparthotel development.

The report states that the plan present a major opportunity to provide a catalyst and dynamic for the regeneration and redevelopment of the Markets area.

However, the potential for human remains on the site of the planned seven -storey hotel has placed a question mark over the development.

A City Council archaeologist report found that given that the site is located near to a medieval abbey and that human remains were found nearby, "I consider that it to have high potential for in-situ structural remains of medieval date and for burials".

As a result of the potential for human remains on the site of the planned aparthotel on, the city Council has ordered the omission of the basement of the development and further archaeological work to be carried out to search for the potential human remains.

However, the applicants, LMS Investments have appealed the two conditions attached to the permission to An Bord Pleanala.

Consultants for LMS state that conditions attached to the permission "create onerous precedent, giving rise to a disincentive to regenerate this inner city area that has lagged behind other areas".

However, objector, Sean Harrington Architects has appealed against the decision to grant planning permission.

An appeal lodged on behalf of Mr Harrington and others claims that the planned development would exacerbate the poor urban quality and public safety concerns presented by the existing urban environment of Anglesea Row.
'The Irish Times' says it will respond to businessman Denis O'Brien's queries about its coverage of his legal action against Dublin PR firm Red Flag Consulting.

The newspaper has defended its reporting as "comprehensive, impartial and balanced".

The defence comes as Mr O'Brien, the biggest single shareholder in Independent News & Media (INM), publishers of this newspaper, called on 'The Irish Times' to answer his correspondence querying whether there was any connections between Red Flag and its reporter Peter Murtagh.

Last night, a spokespersson for 'The Irish Times' said a response to Mr O'Brien's letter would be issued "shortly".

A statement issued yesterday on behalf of Mr O'Brien said his legal advisers wrote to 'The Irish Times' Editor Paul O'Neill on March 21.

This letter "enquired if there was any connection directly or indirectly between 'The Irish Times' and Mr Peter Murtagh, reporter, and Red Flag and any of the other defendants in the current High Court proceedings.

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"To date 'The Irish Times' has not responded to this letter."

Mr O'Brien's statement also pointed to a story printed in another Sunday newspaper, and noted that 'The Irish Times' did not respond to queries from this outlet either.

"In the interests of balance, objectivity and impartiality, it is incumbent on 'The Irish Times' to deal with this matter in a fully transparent manner immediately, most particularly in light of ongoing litigation, significantly Mr Murtagh's role in reporting matters relating to me and Red Flag," the statement for Mr O'Brien added.

When contacted, 'The Irish Times' issued a statement to the Irish Independent in which it described Mr Murtagh's coverage of the case as "comprehensive, impartial and balanced".

"As Mr O'Brien's solicitors have been informed, 'The Irish Times' will be responding to their correspondence which they described as 'strictly private and confidential'. That will happen shortly," the statement said.

Mr Murtagh has been covering the protracted legal battle between Mr O'Brien and Red Flag, headed by former newspaper executive Karl Brophy, for 'The Irish Times' since proceedings began in the High Court in October 2015. He won the NNI Investigative Journalism of the Year award in 2016 for his coverage of the case.

Earlier this month, former Fianna Fail TD Colm Keaveney - who is now at the centre of the case - complained to 'The Irish Times' about what he described as its "highly critical" coverage of him, and claimed there was a campaign to pressurise him to change his evidence.

He also claimed Mr Murtagh attempted to contact him while the case was being heard in the High Court, stating: "Hi Colm, wanna talk? This won't go away and you can still be on the side of the angels. Best Peter".

When Mr Keaveney's complaint was mentioned in a recent hearing of the case in the High Court, it was told the editor of 'The Irish Times' denied this was an attempt to get Mr Keaveney to change his evidence, and the reference to being 'on the side of the angels' was a reference to being on the side of the media, and perhaps giving interviews.
Permanent TSB has yet to receive a ruling from the European Central Bank on whether some 900m worth of restructured or split mortgages can be reclassified as performing, in a move that would likely reduce the bank's massive sell-off of soured home loans.

The State-backed lender has come under political fire for including these mortgages in its 3.7bn Project Glas non-performing loan portfolio sale.

While Brussels this week signalled its willingness to adopt a lenient stance on the issue, sources said potential bidders will continue to sift through the data on Project Glas until PTSB receives clarity from the ECB.

A spokesperson for the bank declined to comment. However the Irish Independent understands Daniele Nouy, head of the ECB's supervisory board, has offered informal feedback on the classification of split mortgages to PTSB.

On Monday she told the European Parliament, in response to questions by Fine Gael MEP Brian Hayes, the restructured home loans could be reclassified if they met certain conditions.

In a statement yesterday Mr Hayes said "Ms Nouy has confirmed that the senior part of a split mortgage may be considered as performing as long as certain conditions are met.

"The senior part and the warehoused part must be completely separated from each other; there can be no repayment obligation on the warehoused part until the senior part has been repaid in full. The senior part must also meet certain sustainability criteria and then it can be considered non-NPL."

He added the ECB, the European Banking Authority and the Irish Central Bank have reached consensus on this issue, according to indications from Ms Nouy.

It is understood PTSB has received a similar message via informal discussions with the ECB's supervisory wing.

Whether the bank, which is under intense pressure to reduces its high stack of NPLs, opts to excise all the splits from Project Glas, even if all 4,300 of the loans are judged performing, remains unclear. In a note to clients Goodbody Stockbrokers said reclassification "will come at a cost as management will have to fully provide for the unprovided warehoused element of the loan, meaning a higher level of upfront provision write-offs".

Owen Callan of Investec said PTSB will take the brunt of the cost hit "upfront" and pointed out splits will continue to weigh on the balance sheet as the assets are "low-yielding" and there is propensity for the borrowers to "re-default".
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 []
Irish startup company Intercom has become the country's first homegrown 'unicorn', the industry term for those notoriously rare young businesses that pass the $1bn valuation early in their development.

For a startup - loosely defined as a young (ish) company with the potential for rapid and dramatic growth - hitting the coveted $1bn valuation is an important milestone.

Unicorns are rare - not quite as rare as the mythical creatures they're named after, although they've become more common in recent years. The valuation has to have substance. In Intercom's case the company has raised 101m from investors for a 10pc stake in the business. That is a big bet in its own right, and provides the overall valuation just north of 1bn - a record for an Irish startup.

John and Patrick Collison's payments business Stripe is valued even more highly - enough to make the brothers paper billionaires in fact, but despite its Irish founders Stripe was developed in the US.

In 2017, 57 startups crossed the unicorn threshold, ranging from relatively well-known companies, such as Reddit or Quora, to rapid-risers like China's Toutiao (in fact valued at $20bn), which has global scale despite being little known in the West.

Last year ranks third overall in terms of unicorn "births" per year, according to a report by the World Economic Forum (WEF).

The peak was in 2015, when the unusually high availability of venture capital, especially in the US, pushed up valuations.

Silicon Valley is the traditionally home of the unicorn - incubating the likes of Facebook, Airbnb and Twitter before those now giant companies made the transition to the stock markets.

The US is still the main stomping ground for unicorns, notably dwarfing the European Union, a market of roughly similar scale. But China is quickly emerging as a natural home of high potential businesses - thanks to a vast domestic market and the availability of local capital.

News service Toutiao is a striking example.

Toutiao is the behemoth on the 2017 new unicorn list. Based in Beijing, it is a news and information platform that focuses on recommendations using artificial intelligence. The company pushes news articles and other content to users based on their previous interactions as well as a detailed analysis of new content. The platform was only founded in 2012 but has 120 million active users and has also gone on a recent buying spree, acquiring names like Flipagram and Musical.ly.

Crossing the $1bn valuation threshold is not a guarantee of future success, but it puts a business on the radar for more potential investors, including on the stock markets, and there's little doubt that the attention generated can be a catalyst in its own right for accelerated growth or new opportunities.

Stock markets are currently anticipating a string of big tick unicorn flotations.

Short-term home rental service Airbnb is valued at about $30bn, music sharing service Spotify has been valued at as much as $16bn.

Controversial taxi hailing service Uber could be the mother of all unicorns though.

Uber's $68bn makes it the second-highest valued private venture-backed company after China's ride-service company Didi Chuxing.

The likelihood it will list this year is seen as low, but when it does the splash will be enormous.
Computer giant Dell has been ranked the 'Best Place to Work in Ireland' for the second consecutive year.

The technology sector in general was highly rated by employees, according to the latest research carried out by jobs website Indeed.

Dell - which has operations in Limerick, Cork, and Dublin - is joined in the top five companies list by Apple and Google. HP and Intel also feature in the top 10 ranking.

The Irish Defence Forces took a spot as a new entry to the top 10, taking sixth place overall following a high-profile recruitment campaign last year.

Aongus Hegarty, president, Dell EMC EMEA, said that the company worked hard to create a "welcoming workplace" where employees can "carve out a rewarding and valuable career for themselves".

"We invest significantly in creating an environment that is motivating and inspiring, while also giving them [workers] flexibility to maintain a good work-life balance," he said.

Indeed's '2018 Top 25 Best Places to Work in Ireland' index is based on thousands of employee reviews posted on its site.

Employee satisfaction is becoming increasingly important as the number of jobs overtakes the availability of staff.

Paul Wolfe, Indeed's senior vice-president of human resources, said that there is intense competition among companies to secure the best candidates for roles as the economy nears full employment.

"Companies have recognised for some time that there is more to employee satisfaction than remuneration," he said.

Overall, the retail industry featured heavily in the top 25 companies, with main street names like Next, Boots, Debenhams, Penneys, Brown Thomas and Marks & Spencer all ranked.

Other businesses to feature included SuperValu, McDonald's, Spar and Centra.

"While attractive perks and flexible working conditions are often associated with the arrival of US tech names in the Irish market, this year's rankings show that investment in people is being prioritised right across a range of sectors, from retail to technology and from healthcare to hospitality," said Mr Wolfe.
The Web Summit has seen a rise in its profits with its move to Lisbon apparently paying off.

The company, which is mostly owned by co-founder Paddy Cosgrave, posted a 2.1m profit for 2016, up on the profit of 128,000 it recorded in 2015.

While a revenue figure isnt divulged, the companys gross profit rose from 6.9m in 2015 to 11.5m in 2016.

2016 was the year that Cosgrave controversially moved the Web Summit from Dublin to Lisbon. The event almost doubled in size that year, going from 30,000 registered attendees to 50,000 attendees, partly due to the bigger venue. It also attracted bigger sponsors and commercial partners, including car companies and financial firms.

The Web Summit also received 1.3m from the Portuguese government as an incentive to relocate there.

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In a recent podcast interview (see The Big Tech Show on Independent.ie/podcasts) with the Irish Independent, Paddy Cosgrave said that the Web Summit is expecting more than 60,000 attendees at the 2018 event.

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He also said that the companys other global events, including Collision in the US and Rise in Hong Kong, are continuing to grow at a similar pace to the Web Summit.

Moneyconf, a Web Summit owned financial technology conference that attracted 1,500 people in Madrid in 2017, is expected to attract 5,000 registered attendees when it relocates to Dublins RDS this in June of this year.

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The Web Summit now employs over 180 people and is currently trying to hire another 50 people. Most of the staff are located at its Dublin headquarters, from where the global conferences are run.

The Web Summit signed a three year deal with authorities in Lisbon to host the conference there, concluding in 2018.

The company has not yet indicated whether it is due to extend that deal into 2019 and beyond, although Cosgrave told the Big Tech Show podcast that he was hopeful the event would remain in Lisbon for the time being.
DMX, the rapper also known as Earl Simmons (AP Photo/Larry Neumeister)

A judge heard a DMX rap song before sentencing the rapper to a year in jail for tax fraud.

Federal Judge Jed Rakoff accommodated DMXs desire to hear his hit Slippin before calling the rappers fraud a brazen and blatant crime that could not go unpunished.

The 47-year-old, known to law enforcement and the courts as Earl Simmons, has been incarcerated since his bail was revoked in January.

He sobbed during the proceeding as his lawyer, Murray Richman, recalled his nightmarish childhood.

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Mr Richman said DMX has been a model prisoner. Still, prosecutors sought five years in prison for him, citing a lengthy rap sheet and drugs.

Mr Richman wanted him free to support his 15 children and pay back more than 2 million US dollars in taxes.

As Slippin played in the packed courtroom, DMX nodded his head slightly to the beat while some of his supporters nodded more enthusiastically.

Given a chance to speak, he said he knows taxes need to be paid and what he did was wrong.

I wasnt following the rules, he said. I was in a cloud.

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The judge said that in the courts view DMX is a good man.

In many ways, the judge said, hes his own worst enemy.
A harrowing new Irish docu-drama highlights the true story of three innocent Irish men who were hanged for the brutal slaying of a family in Mam Trasna, a remote townland set in the mountains of Galway-Mayo border, in 1882.

Murdair Mham Trasna (The Mam Trasna Murders), which will air on TG4 next week, is a feature length film exploring what was described by British historian Robert Kees as one of the most blatant miscarriages of justice in British legal history.

On the night of August 17, 1882, five members of the Joyce family were slaughtered - the men father John and son Micheal were shot and the women, John's mother Mairead, wife Brighid and daughter Peigi were savagely beaten to death - in the remote village in the west of Ireland.

Nine-year-old son Patsy survived but as he lay suffering from his injuries the following day, the neighbours refused to help him, such was the climate of fear in the area at the time. Another brother Mairtin survived as he had been away from home on the night.

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There were several possible motives for the crime, but the British authorities' responded swiftly - with perjured evidence and bribery of witnesses that led to the conviction of innocent people, with three men - Myles Joyce, Tom Casey and Pat Joyce - hanging and five others imprisoned.

The Irish-speakers were tried in an English-speaking court and did not understand the proceedings.

As the truth began to unfold about the men's innocence - one of the witnesses revealed he had been paid for his evidence - and the perjury was admitted in the press, both nationally and internationally at the time, a refusal by Gladstones government to allow a public inquiry contributed to the fall of that government in Westminster in 1885.

The innocent victims have never been pardoned by the authorities but a campaign seeking posthumous pardons will undoubtedly gain traction with the airing of the film.

President Michael D. Higgins fully supports the campaign and reveals that the Government has appointed an expert to examine the case for granting posthumous pardons to Maolra Seoighe and the innocent men convicted of the historic murders.

I will be returning to this issue to see what I can do. If it were up to me, the formalities aside, I would be happy to accept that the injustice which occurred should be recognized. My view is that the moral issue is clear, the President says.

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Everything that happened at the level of the State was horrendous. There was bribery involved. The accused didnt get a proper chance to defend themselves. There wasnt an atmosphere of equality and there was no equality as regards legal processes at that time.

The documentary is based on the book Eagoir written by former Irish Language Commissioner Sean O Cuirreain and makes several other shocking revelations about the case, not least of which is the connection to Earl Spencer, the great-granduncle of Princes William and Harry.

Produced by Ciaran O Cofaigh of Rosg, Murdair Mham Trasna will be broadcast on TG4 on Wednesday April 4th at 9.30pm.
THE referendum on repealing the Eighth Amendment will take place on Friday, May 25.

Legislation allowing for the vote has passed through the Seanad this evening by a majority of 40 to 10.

It will officially kick-start an eight week campaign that many fear will be deeply divisive.

Health Minister Simon Harris said the campaign will be "very close".

"Im sure it will be a close referendum campaign; often referendum campaigns in Ireland are very close", he said today.

"Its only kicking off; I think for many people theyre just beginning to think about the issues and these are deeply personal, private issues and I would imagine youll have conversations around kitchen tables and in the privacy of sitting rooms."

Meanwhile, Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy formally announced the date on the referendum to take place on May 25.

Polling will take place between the hours of 7am and 10pm.

The total electorate currently stands at some 3.2 million.

"Whatever your views are on the proposals in the referendum, can I take this opportunity to encourage voters to go to their polling station during this 15 hour period on 25 May and have your say in the outcome of the referendum, Mr Murphy said.

A postal vote will close on April 28.

Speaking at the conclusion of the Seanad debate, Senator Ronan Mullan warned Mr Harris that he would not get away with doing one on one radio interviews.

He said both sides need equal time in the media so that the real problems with this very unjust proposal can be exposed.

Fianna Fail senator Catherine Ardagh said there are a lot of facts to be studied ahead of the vote.

Take the time to sit down and learn it, she urged.

Labour senator Ivana Bacik predicted an intense campaign, saying those opposed to change were in denial about the hypocrisy of Irish law.

But she added: We shouldnt under estimate the significant achievement it has been to get this Bill through both Houses of the Oireachtas.

Fine Gaels Catherine Noone, who chaired the Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment, said: It has been a challenging and intense process. Im very pleased that we are finally at this stage.

Finally after 35 years of avoiding this deeply personal issue, the Irish people will have their say.
Autism Ireland is to launch a temporary radio station to provide information to the autism community of Ireland.

It will be launched on April 2, World Autism Awareness Day in Multyfarnham, Mullingar, Co Westmeath.

The idea was brought to Autism Ireland by heartbeat radio services.

The event kicks off with an Easter egg hunt at 1.15pm and will be followed by the autism hero awards at 2.30pm.

Samantha Judge CEO Autism Ireland said: "Autism Ireland is delighted to collaborate on this exciting radio broadcast which will deliver so much valuable information to the autism community. The event on April 2nd promises to be lots of fun and we are looking forwarding to welcome as many families as possible."

Autism radio will broadcast in Dublin on 105.2fm and Cork 106.7fm.

You can also tune in online on www.autismradio.blue.
Vous etes confrontes a une infestation par la puce, la punaise de lit ? Voici plusieurs actions qui sont a mettre en uvre pour faire []
AMID a pressure cooker environment rare in its intensity, this would have been no easy trial for any judge.

At the heart of it all was a vulnerable witness who was facing the relentless probing at the hands of no less than four legal teams on the behalf of the defence pushing things as far as they could be pushed under law.

There was the disturbing and often graphic nature of the evidence. There was the never ceasing public, media and social media frenzy - particularly following the attendance of Ireland captain Rory Best  which all had to be carefully monitored to ensure that it complied with the obligations to ensure a fair trial. There were the numerous lengthy delays and bouts of legal argument, the loss of a juror due to stress and the threatened loss of another due to illness followed by the pressure put on the trial by another juror who had booked a holiday.

All these facts, combined with the nine week duration of the trial all went towards creating a level of stress that was almost unique.

And yet Judge Patricia Smyth time and time again proved herself to be entirely capable of keeping her hands coolly on the reins.

Appointed to the bench in 2010, she is only one a handful of female members of the judiciary in the north. As a junior counsel, she was part of the legal team representing the families in the Bloody Sunday inquiry.

Softly spoken and at all times measured and courteous, she was nevertheless most determined in the running of this trial. It was clear she would everything in her power to avoid the possibility of a mistrial - even down to allowing the defence barristers to make several amendments and suggestions to her final direction to the jury.

At one stage when it emerged that a northern publication had printed something deemed inaccurate, Judge Patricia Smyth warned the 12-person jury panel not to carry out independent research into the case online, cautioning them against the opinions of fireside lawyers.
Former Rehab boss Angela Kerins is understood to be "very disturbed" by comments made by Attorney General Seamus Woulfe about the Supreme Court case she had taken against the State.

Sources close to Ms Kerins said she was taken aback by remarks the Attorney General made about her legal case while speaking to a group of journalists.

"She is very disturbed at the report of remarks by the Attorney General to journalists in a case of which she is a party," the source said.

Mr Woulfe's comments "could be interpreted as the State seeking to influence" the outcome of a Supreme Court case, the source added.

They noted Taoiseach Leo Varadkar "made no attempt" in the Dail to relay concerns raised by Independent4Change TD Mick Wallace about the Attorney General's comments.

Mr Wallace said Mr Woulfe "scandalised" the courts system by discussing an ongoing Supreme Court case at an Association of European Journalists' lunch last Friday.

"The Attorney General is involved in the nomination of Supreme Court judges. Should he be second guessing their decision-making in public before the decision is made?" Mr Wallace asked. "A previous government nearly fell over the behaviour of an Attorney General. Does the Taoiseach not think he should look for a new one? He might need to look for one himself if he does not."

Mr Woulfe predicted the Supreme Court will rule against Ms Kerins in her case against the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee.

His comments were made during an 'off-the-record' session but were reported by the Irish edition of 'The Sunday Times'.

Defending the AG, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said he had discussed the issue with Mr Woulfe and was "satisfied with his clarification".

Mr Varadkar said no public statement was made and 'off-the-record' comments should be respected.

Mr Wallace also hit out at the AG's statements, on the record at the same lunch, about the Judicial Appointments Bill.

He described the legislation, which aims to remove the political influence from the selection of judges, as a "complete dog's dinner" due to a number of amendments made by the Opposition. Mr Wallace said it was "wholly inappropriate" for the AG to making such a comment.
Former CEO of Anglo Irish Bank, David Drumm pictured outside the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. Photo: Collins Courts

Anglo Irish Bank officials who met staff at the Financial Regulator to explain a 7.2bn inter-bank deal done during the financial crisis compared the meeting to an "ambush", a court heard.

An Anglo banker also said this meeting, in the wake of former regulator Patrick Neary's resignation, was "tense and robust".

Then-head of financial reporting Kevin Kelly was giving evidence in the trial of Anglo's ex-CEO David Drumm at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

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.

He is alleged to have conspired with Anglo's former finance director Willie McAteer and head of capital markets John Bowe, as well as then-CEO of Irish Life and Permanent (ILP) Denis Casey, and others.

The case centres on a series of inter-bank deposits which circulated between Anglo and ILP in September 2008.

Mr Drumm also denies false accounting by providing misleading information to the market.

Mr Kelly was being cross- examined by Bernard Condon SC, defending.

Mr Condon asked Mr Kelly about a meeting at the Financial Regulator's office in January 2009.

Mr Kelly was there with Anglo's chief financial officer Matt Moran and they met IFSRA officials Con Horan, Donncha Connolly and Bernard Sheridan.

Mr Condon said Mr Kelly had told gardai in his statement that it was a "tense meeting, very robust". Mr Moran in his statement had "described it along the lines of an ambush", Mr Condon said.

"That was certainly the tone," Mr Kelly replied.

Mr Condon asked Mr Kelly what issues had been under consideration.

Mr Kelly said the regulator was querying the treatment of the ILP transactions. Patrick Neary, who had recently announced his resignation as regulator, was not at the meeting.

On February 11, 2009, ILP issued a press release about the transactions and this had an impact on discussions of disclosure and prompted additional work by Ernst and Young.

There was more disclosure because it was now possible to name the counter parties (ILP and ILA), Mr Condon said. Up to then, issues of confidentiality applied.

"In my experience it would be highly unusual to refer to a client transaction in a financial statement," Mr Kelly said.

He agreed that auditors could not audit every transaction done by a bank as it "wouldn't be possible in the timeline".

They would instead decide what was statistically relevant and look at a sample, he said.

The court heard that, after a board meeting in January, a note was added to Anglo's end- of-year accounts to provide additional disclosure before they were published in February.

In re-examination, Paul O'Higgins SC, prosecuting, asked Mr Kelly if the ILP transaction could be detected in the accounts without that note.

"No, I don't believe so," Mr Kelly said. The trial continues.
A woman who contracted food poisoning at a First Communion function died due to salmonella, an inquest heard.

Investigations into the outbreak are continuing, an inquest into the death of 55-year-old mother of one Sandra OBrien heard.

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Mrs OBrien, from Rivervalley, Swords, Co Dublin died on May 21 last following the consumption of food prepared by a catering company working from ODwyers Pub, Strand Road, Portmarnock, Co Dublin.

The womans husband Sgt Michael OBrien attended a short inquest hearing into her death opened at Dublin Coroners Court.

Investigations by two separate authorities are ongoing into the salmonella outbreak, the court heard.

The Health Service Executives Environmental Health Office and the Food Safety Authority of Ireland are preparing files on the incident. Reports will be filed by both authorities to the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) once investigations are complete.

Its an investigation into the outbreak in relation to compliance with food safety legislation. We are not investigating the death of a particular person, Mr Noel Donnelly, Principal Environmental Health Officer in Fingal, north Dublin told the court.

The inquest heard that an autopsy was carried out by Pathologist Avril Cullen and the cause of death was acute myocarditis as a consequence of salmonella infection with previous myocarditis as a contributory factor.

Myocarditis is inflammation of the heart muscle and can be caused by a viral infection or an immune response, reducing the heart's ability to pump and causing rapid or abnormal heart rhythms.

Following her death on May 21 2017, Mr OBrien formally identified his wifes body at Connolly Memorial Hospital in Blanchardstown to Garda Kevin Barry.

After the incident the HSE said it became aware of more than 50 people from a number of different family groups supplied by the company over the weekend of May 13 and 14 last year, who became ill.

The catering company Flanreil Food Services, who provided the food served on the day of the First Communion function was represented at the inquest by solicitor Elaine Byrne.

Inspector Oliver Woods applied for a six month adjournment of the inquest to allow for investigations to continue and the coroner adjourned the inquest until November 8 2018.

If there are any updates in the meantime we will inform you, Insp Woods told the court.

Coroner Dr Myra Cullinane extended her condolences to Mr O'Brien.
Ireland and Ulster rugby player Stuart Olding (centre) with his solicitor Paul Dougan (on left) after he was found not guilty of rape . Pic:Mark Condren

STUART Olding has said he "deeply regrets" the events of the night of June 28 in a statement after he was acquitted of one count of rape.

Outside Belfast Crown Court the Ireland international issued a statement via his solicitor, Paul Dougan.

"As you will appreciate everyone including Stuart Olding is in a heightened state of emotion and it would not be appropriate for him to answer questions today," Mr Dougan said.

The statement he read out on behalf of his client said: "I want to start by thanking the judge and jury for their time and patience throughout this long trial . I am very relieved that the jury has accepted my explanation as to what occurred. I want to acknowledge publicly that though I committed no criminal offence on the evening of the 28th of June 2016 I regret deeply the events of that evening. I want to acknowledge that the complainant came to court and gave evidence about her perception of those events.

"I am sorry for the hurt that was caused to the complainant. It was never my intention to cause any upset to anyone on that night. I don't agree with her perception of events and I maintain that everything that happened on that evening was consensual.

"I have consistently told the truth to the police and the court when asked to account for my conduct.

"The Stuart Olding who has been portrayed over the past nine weeks in this trial is not the real Stuart Olding. I am fiercely proud to represent my province and my country. I have worked very hard to achieve those goals. I hope to be able to prove myself going forward in all aspects of my life."

He also thanked his legal team and his family for their support.

Paddy Jackson, who was acquitted of rape and sexual assault, read his own statement outside the court.

He said: "I'd just like to thank the judge and the jury for giving me a fair trial, my parents for being here every day, as well as my brother and sisters.

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"Out of respect for my employers I've nothing further to comment."

All four defendants in the rape trial were found not guilty on all charges.

Ireland and Ulster rugby players Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding were found not guilty by a jury of raping a young student at a house party two years ago.

Mr Jackson (26) was also found not guilty of sexually assaulting the then 19-year-old woman.

The rugby players' close friend Blane McIlroy (26) has been found not guilty of exposure.

A second friend, Rory Harrison (25), has been found not guilty of perverting the course of justice and withholding information.

After three hours and 45 minutes of deliberation, the jury of eight men and three women returned to courtroom No 12 shortly after noon and told the judge they had reached a unanimous verdict on all counts.
Major construction work starts this week on the new Grangegorman campus for Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT).

The building of its two main teaching blocks, under a public-private partnership (PPP), was delayed by a failed legal challenge from an under-bidder for the contract.

The go-ahead for the development was announced today and it is expected to be ready for half of DIT students by September 2020  those in sciences and health, arts and tourism and electrical and electronic engineering.

The following September, the campus, in Dublins north inner city, will be ready for students from the business faculty, currently located in Aungier Street. No date has been set for the transfer of students on construction-related programmes, currently in Bolton Street.

And, by the time of the big move in 2020, DIT could be elevated to university status.

The green light for the two academic quads coincides with the passing of new legislation that will allow for the establishment of a new technological university in Dublin.

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DIT is joining forces with IT Tallaght and IT Blanchardstown to create a Dublin technological university as part of rationalisation of the institute of technology sector.

The new campus, which will bring DIT on to a unified site for the first time, is served by two stops on the Luas Green Line, which will make for a seamless journey to college for increasing numbers of students.

One stop is Grangegorman and the other is Broadstone, which will be the main entrance to the campus.

The contract for the new development is worth 220m, up from the 180m-200m quoted for the original deal.

DIT president Professor Brian Norton said the development of the Grangegorman campus had the power to add new life and opportunity  culturally and economically - in the heart of Dublin City.

Education Minister Richard Bruton said the project was being funded by the government under Project Ireland 2040," he said.

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The contract was awarded to the Eriugena consortium, (led by Macquarie Capital Group Ltd, and Irish construction firm John Sisk & Son (Holdings) Ltd, FCC Construction Ireland Ltd and Sodexo Ireland Ltd).

Eriugena is responsible for designing, building and financing the construction of the buildings, and will also provide facilities management and services over 25 years.

The State will pay the consortium via monthly fees, starting when the buildings are operational. The construction cost of the two buildings represents the largest PPP project in the education sector.
All schools were due to complete the practicals in the fortnight starting April 9, but some are being rescheduled for the week beginning April 23. Stock Images

Some Junior Cert pupils face a delay in completing their home economics practical this year because of a shortage of examiners.

The State Examinations Commission (SEC) has confirmed that tests are being rescheduled for a "small number of schools".

All schools were due to complete the practicals in the fortnight starting April 9, but some are being rescheduled for the week beginning April 23.

The disruption comes amid growing problems over the availability of teachers to conduct oral and practical tests for the Leaving and Junior Cert.

Teacher shortages mean schools are increasingly reluctant to release staff for this work and home economics is one of the subjects where the problem is acute.

Teacher unions also say that pay rates for this work are no incentive. They will soon be submitting a claim for restoration of rates cut during the recession, along with an increase, Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland deputy general secretary Diarmaid de Paor said.
Student teachers in their final year of post-graduate study should be paid to work in schools to help deal with staff shortages, Fianna Fail education spokesperson Thomas Byrne said today.

Mr Byrne said students on the two-year postgraduate Professional Masters of Education (PME) should be offered paid contracts of six to 12 hours a week.

While not the only route into teaching, the PME is used by many graduates of degree programmes in areas such as arts, science and business to gain a professional qualification.

The PME has replaced, and is of longer duration than, the traditional HDip and it means that by the time they hit second year, students will be in their sixth year of higher education and paying post-graduate fees.

Mr Byrne said the PME is dysfunctional in its present form and is in dire and urgent need of review".

Reform of the PME is among the measures put forward by Fianna Fail in a 10-point plan to combat the shortage of teachers and primary and post-primary level.

Mr Byrne said the teacher supply issue was having an extremely damaging impact on students, teachers and principals, and responses to the problem had to be accelerated.

He warned that unless the issue was tackled in a comprehensive way, wholesale class cancellations and school closures "could become a reality in the future".

Mr Byrne said the lack of second-level teachers in subjects such as science, languages, Irish and home economics, threatened the education of young people and utterly undermines all sorts of national social, cultural and economic objectives.

Other measures proposed in the report include a road-map for restoration of pay equality for teachers, a recruitment campaign to attract the Irish teaching diaspora back home and a fast-track for migrant teachers to allow them to begin work in schools

Fianna Fail is also seeking more degree programme that integrate the professional qualification and which can be done over four years - an issue on which Education Minister Richard Bruton recently moved by approving more training places for September.

The party is also proposing a national form on teacher supply and a special unit within the Department of Education tasked with tackling the crisis.
Trinity College Dublin has backed down on plans to introduce a fee of 450 for repeat exams.

The Trinity board has agree to examine other options, in collaboration with a committee of students, and report back in a years time.

The TCD board has also agreed to give "fee certainty" to post graduate students and others who pay full fees at undergraduate level.

The u-turn comes after massive student protest at the university last month, including a sit-in in the dining hall.

The deal comes after a week of discussions between college officers and representatives of the TCD Students Union and the Graduate Students Union.

Trinity Provost Dr Patrick Prendergast said he had undertaken "to seriously consider alternative proposals, and we have done so."

He said he looked forward to "continuing the dialogue with student representatives to find a solution to the issues confronting Irish higher education, taking account of both fairness to all students and the colleges financial position."

Trinity is carrying a budget deficit and, like other Irish universities, it says cuts in Government funding have had a severe impact on its financial position.

They have been campaigning for a new funding regime.
A view of the Metro Hotel following last week's fire. Photo: PA

21 Mar 2018: General view of Fire Brigade attempting to put out fire at Metro Hotel, Ballymun, Dublin. Picture: Caroline Quinn

The fallout from the Metro Hotel fire has led to Dublin firefighters issuing a vote of no confidence in their administration.

Siptu members in Dublin Fire Brigade (DFB) passed two votes of no confidence in senior members of the administration.

The votes were taken at an emergency meeting held on Saturday in the wake of the high-rise fire in Ballymun last week.

Siptu sector organiser Brendan O'Brien said: "Policy makers and management have had many opportunities to resolve the issues raised by our members.

"However, we believe no satisfactory improvements have been made despite Siptu representatives continually raising health and safety concerns."

Siptu DFB convenor Shane McGill said: "These votes of no confidence come directly from our members.

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"They are front line firefighters working in fire stations and control rooms across Dublin city and county and they have had enough."

On Friday, Mr McGill told the Irish Independent that the two 30-metre ladders used to fight the blaze would not have been high enough to reach anyone trapped on the upper floors.

The DFB convenor said members have been calling for a 42-metre ladder along with additional resources for a "very long time".

However, in contradiction to Mr McGill's concerns, DFB chief fire officer Pat Fleming said equipment and resources weren't a problem on the night.

Last night, in the wake of the Siptu vote, Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy expressed his full confidence in the senior members of the administration.

He said people will be "surprised" by the union.

Representatives of Siptu and Forsa members in the DFB are now seeking an urgent meeting with Mr Murphy.
Acting Garda Commissioner Donall O Cualain has admitted he is concerned about a shortage of supervisors in the force.

He said he had finished a tour of the country where he had visited every chief superintendent in their own divisions and said the lack of supervision had been a "constant refrain".

He was commenting on criticism of the shortage by the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors at its annual conference in Tullow, Co Carlow.

Association president Antoinette Cunningham told the commissioner the shortage had reached "crisis point".

The commissioner said some of the problems they were now confronting were legacy issues, partly as a result of the moratorium on recruitment and promotions, and they realised this was a big risk for the organisation.

"Recruitment has started and we welcome the fact there are all these young people coming into stations throughout the country," he said.

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The conference also heard personal stories from garda sergeants at the front line.

Sgt David Haughney told how he thought he was about to die when he sustained severe eye injuries when he came under attack on night duty with colleague John Tarrant in 2014.

He said he owed his life to his colleague and friend when he was attacked with a barrage of rocks while investigating an incident.

Currently based in Midleton, Co Cork, he and his colleague said they were called out to an incident in Youghal.

"It was dark. We came across two guys who we'd know. I hemmed them in with the car and we knew once we got out that there was going to be trouble. From the outset there was aggression and no positive response from them," Sgt Haughney added.

He said they tried to defend themselves, using batons and pepper spray, in accordance with protocols.

But the aggression got worse. "We could hear the stones hitting the car, hitting glass. Without warning I remember getting this thud in the head".

Sgt Haughney said he couldn't see properly and remembered John Tarrant standing over him and protecting him. "I just wanted it to end," he added.

Det Sgt Conor Gilmartin, currently attached to the national cyber crime bureau, told how he was targeted by an online stalker after his then colleagues at Shankill station in south Dublin were investigating a man.

He said he was attacked on several websites constantly and accused of being corrupt and evil. His ordeal began in 2010 and did not end until 2016 when the man was convicted of harassment and jailed. But he said he feared that it would begin again when the criminal was released from prison as he was totally unrepentant.

"I think the best thing I could do is robustly challenge it, which I did. If you're a victim of something you should make a statement and have it brought to court," he said.

Meanwhile, new research revealed that gardai are facing a crisis in the investigation of road deaths and serious injuries.

Despite a 70pc increase in the number of serious injury collisions in the past four years, there has been a 40pc drop in trained investigators.
Karen Hynes from Blackrock in the MSunderstood Cafe, which will help people to experience what it is like to have MS. Photo: Steve Humphreys

Health Minister Simon Harris is under pressure to approve a pilot scheme so sufferers of progressive multiple sclerosis can access a unique new drug.

MS Ireland wrote to the minister last December to highlight a medicine called ocrelizumab which is creating "a great deal of interest and excitement among the MS community".

It is the first drug approved to specifically treat primary progressive MS (PPMS), and the largest supplier of medicines to Irish hospitals, Roche, has offered to work with the Department of Health on a pilot reimbursement system for patients.

Ava Battles, CEO of MS Ireland, told the Irish Independent they want ocrelizumab made available "as soon as possible".

"We are concerned that we have yet to receive a response from him [Mr Harris]. We would like the opportunity to discuss with the minister why access to ocrelizumab is so important as there are currently no other treatment options for people with primary progressive MS."

A spokesperson for the Minister said he is willing to meet representatives to discuss the issue in the near future.

It comes as a pop-up shop opens in Dublin today to give visitors an insight into what it is like to suffer MS.

The 'MSunderstood Cafe' is an innovative social experiment which will see cafe-goers take a short walk in the shoes of someone with MS.

The cafe on Exchequer Street has been designed with an unsteady floor, heavy chairs that are awkward to move, a blurred menu, bent cutlery and almost impossible to unwrap pastries.

Though such a cafe sounds far from a desirable spot to grab a coffee during a busy work day, the entire point of the experiment is to allow those with no concept of MS to experience the symptoms sufferers endure on a daily basis.

Cameras and microphones hidden within the cafe, will capture how the public reacts to the strange surroundings in the cafe.

Karen Hynes (39) from Blackrock, an MS sufferer, helped advise on the project and she believes it will really "get people talking" about the central nervous system condition many have little understanding of.

"I was diagnosed on my 20th birthday in 1998 and I was considered the youngest person in the country to have MS at that time," Karen, a former bank executive said.

"I just couldn't understand how I had this condition back then. I started to get symptoms that included pins and needles in my left foot and within five months I had to sit down on a bus because I had a numb sensation running through my leg."

Karen never let the condition hold her back and she moved to Australia, where she lived when she was 23. She went on to enjoy a successful career in banking, only giving up work four years ago.

A new website, PatientsDeserveBetter.ie, will also be launched today to help those affected by MS demand quick and better access to new medicine.
Members of the 'Sloggers to Joggers' group jog next to the hearse after the funeral of Sandra O'Brien at St Finian's Church in Swords, Dublin. Picture credit; Damien Eagers 25/5/2017

Members of the 'Sloggers to Joggers' group and Gardai form a guard of honour as the hearse arrives at the funeral of Sandra O'Brien at St Finian's Church in Swords, Dublin. Picture credit; Damien Eagers 25/5/2017

Members of the 'Sloggers to Joggers' group and Gardai form a guard of honour as the hearse arrives at the funeral of Sandra O'Brien at St Finian's Church in Swords, Dublin. Picture credit; Damien Eagers 25/5/2017

Members of the'Sloggers to Joggers' group and Gardai form a guard of honour as the hearse arrives at the funeral of Sandra O'Brien at St Finian's Church in Swords, Dublin. Picture credit; Damien Eagers 25/5/2017

The coffin is carried into St Finian's Church in Swords at the funeral of Sandra O'Brien. Picture credit; Damien Eagers 25/5/2017

The coffin is carried into St Finian's Church in Swords at the funeral of Sandra O'Brien. Picture credit; Damien Eagers 25/5/2017

Gardai and members of the 'Sloggers to Joggers' group form a gaurad of honour as the hearse leaves after the funeral of Sandra O'Brien at St Finian's Church in Swords, Dublin. Picture credit; Damien Eagers 25/5/2017

HUNDREDS turned out in tribute to a Dublin mum who tragically passed away after suspected food poisoning at a First Communion party.

Fitness fanatic Sandra OBrien, in her 50s, was given a guard of honour by her jogging group along with a large number of gardai, colleagues of her sergeant husband, as her hearse turned into the churchyard of St Finians, River Valley in Swords.

The mother-of-one was a popular figure in the local community and was heavily involved in a number of fitness groups.

Members of one, Sloggers To Joggers, ran along with the hearse as it left the church.

Ms OBriens husband, Mike, who stood with the couples son Josh, paid an emotional tribute to his wife, explaining to a packed mass that all the success in his life was down her.

People buy lotto tickets hoping theyd be the lucky one. I was the lucky one every day to share my life with such a beautiful woman. I was a very fortunate person to have such a beautiful woman as a wife, a partner and best friend.

Everything I have achieved in my life was made possible by the love and caring of a great wife and I take solace knowing she loved me with all her heart, and I in turn loved her with all of mine, he said.

After a rendition by a family friend of the famous Irish ballad The Lonesome Boatman, Mr OBrien spoke of his wifes faith.

He said she would be forever lighting candles at church, particularly for Josh at exam time.

She was so proud of the two of us and of her own family, but no one made her more proud than her own son Josh.

Everyone knew Sandra, she had so many friends. Mr OBrien added that she was the life and soul of every party.

Among the gifts brought up to the alter was her precious running gear  an emotional moment for her jogging pals, who turned up in their droves, all in the same outfits.

This was followed by an emotional few words from two of her young grand-nieces, who she would regularly babysit.

Meanwhile, the Food Safety Authority has confirmed it has placed a closure order on the kitchen of ODwyers pub, in Strand Road, Portmarnock, occupied by catering company Flanreil Food Services Ltd.

The watchdog and the HSE are conducting a joint investigation into a suspected outbreak of food poisoning following the death of Ms OBrien.
Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan has secured Government approval to recommend the granting of a posthumous pardon to a man convicted and executed for murder in 1882.

Myles Joyce was one of three innocent Irish men who were hanged for the brutal slaying of a family in Mam Trasna, a remote townland set in the mountains of Galway-Mayo border.

Minister Flanagan will recommend to President Michael D Higgins that he exercise his right to pardon Mr Joyce.

"This case is very well known, particularly in the West of Ireland, and it is widely regarded as a clear cut case of wrongful conviction and an historic injustice," he said in a statement this evening.

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"In reaching a decision on this matter, I have carefully considered the Attorney Generals legal advice and the expert report commissioned by the former Taoiseach.

"Myles Joyce is one individual but in coming to a decision on this matter, I was acutely conscious of the symbolism of this pardon and its importance for that reason."

On the night of August 17, 1882, five members of the Joyce family were slaughtered.

There were several possible motives for the crime, but the British authorities' responded swiftly - with perjured evidence and bribery of witnesses that led to the conviction of innocent people, with three men - Myles Joyce, Tom Casey and Pat Joyce - hanging and five others imprisoned.

Dr Niamh Howlin, of the Sutherland School of Law in University College Dublin, conducted an expert review into the case.

Her report concluded that Mr Joyce was wrongfully convicted.

"There are two understandings of the term wrongful conviction. The first, which may be termed a lay interpretation, is the conviction of a factually innocent person. The legal interpretation focusses more on the procedures and processes which were used to secure a conviction  in other words, whether the investigation and prosecution of the alleged offence conformed to the legal norms such as the rules of evidence.

"In the case of Myles Joyce, it is possible to point to both the legal and lay interpretations and conclude that he was wrongfully convicted."

Murdair Mham Trasna (The Mam Trasna Murders), a harrowing new Irish docu-drama highlighting the story, will air on TG4 next week.

The documentary is based on the book Eagoir written by former Irish Language Commissioner Sean O Cuirreain and makes several other shocking revelations about the case, not least of which is the connection to Earl Spencer, the great-granduncle of Princes William and Harry.

Produced by Ciaran O Cofaigh of Rosg, Murdair Mham Trasna will be broadcast on TG4 on Wednesday April 4th at 9.30pm.
Gardai and members of the 'Sloggers to Joggers' group form a gaurad of honour as the hearse leaves after the funeral of Sandra O'Brien at St Finian's Church in Swords, Dublin. Picture credit; Damien Eagers 25/5/2017

The HSE has confirmed that more than 50 people have fallen ill after an outbreak of food poisoning due to Salmonella in North Dublin.

The statement comes a week after Sandra OBrien, who was in her 50s, died from suspected food poisoning at a First Communion party.

The Health Service Executive confirmed that the outbreak has affected "multiple groups".

The HSE is liaising with the Food Safety Authority of Ireland and an Outbreak Control Team has been formed and an investigation is ongoing.

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The statement continues: "The HSE is aware of more than 50 people (including 4 children) ill from a number of separate groups of family parties supplied by a North Dublin food business on Saturday 13th May and Sunday 14th May.

"To date five people were admitted to hospital and 16 of those ill have been confirmed as Salmonella."

The first cases of food poisoning were notified to the HSE on Thursday May 18. The statement confirms that a north Dublin food business was identified as the common link in this outbreak.

"The investigation is focused on this business. A Closure Order was served on the food business on Friday 19th May."

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The HSE say the investigation is ongoing and includes further examination of the food business operation and food served and assessment of the information from ill and well persons who consumed food.

"Members of the public should contact their GP if they have any concerns regarding their health. People who think they may be ill as a result of this outbreak may also contact the HSEs Environmental Health Service or Department of Public Health in Dublin to assist in the investigation of this outbreak."

Last week the Food Safety Authority confirmed it has placed the closure order on the kitchen and associate storage facilities of O'Dwyer's pub, Strand Road, Portmarnock which is occupied by catering company Flanreil Food Services Ltd.

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"The investigation is in its early stages and while it is currently focusing on a catering company, Flanreil Food Services Ltd, the source and cause of the outbreak has not yet been identified," said a Food Safety Authority spokesperson.

Concerned members of the public are asked to To contact the HSE Environmental Health Service please phone 01-8976140 during office hours(or email cdu@hse.ie with your name and telephone number)

To contact the HSE Department of Public Health please phone 01-6352145, during office hours.
Ireland and Ulster rugby player Paddy Jackson with his solicitor Joe McVeigh after he was found not guilty of rape. Pic:Mark Condren

The lawyer of Paddy Jackson has said that more should have been done to protect the anonymity of a 21-year-old woman who claimed she was raped.

Speaking on RTE News, Joe McVeigh said "the system in the south is the way it should go at the very least".

Mr McVeigh said the identity of the complainant is well-known in Belfast.

"It's common knowledge the name of this young lady," he said.

"If I was this young lady and her parents I would be absolutely appalled. They were given assurances before this trial commenced that this young woman's identity would be kept secret.

"It's impossible to do that when you've got a court full to the brim with members of the public for nine solid weeks where her name is used openly throughout the trial.

"Our system in the North currently pays lip service to those type of [safe guarding protections]."

All four defendants in the high-profile rape trial were acquitted on all charges today.

Ireland and Ulster rugby players Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding were found not guilty by a jury of raping a young student at a house party two years ago.

Mr Jackson (26) was also found not guilty of sexually assaulting the then 19-year-old woman.

The rugby players' close friend Blane McIlroy (26) was found not guilty of exposure.

A second friend, Rory Harrison (25), was found not guilty of perverting the course of justice and withholding information.

Speaking following the not guilty verdicts for all four defendants, Detective Chief Inspector Zoe McKee, the senior investigating officer, said she had spoken to the complainant and that she was "understandably upset and disappointed with the outcome".
Ireland is "not neutral" when it comes to the use of chemical weapons and cyberterrorism, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.

The country is now a fully fledged participant in a modern-day Cold War sparked by the attempted assassination of a former spy in the UK earlier this month.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been briefed on the decision of the Irish Government to join more than 20 countries in expelling diplomats.

His Ambassador to Ireland, Yury Filatov, was summoned to a brief and frank meeting at the Department of Foreign Affairs yesterday where he was told the name of a diplomat whose accreditation is to be terminated.

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The Irish Independent understands the diplomat in question is considered 'mid-rank' and will leave the country in the coming days.

Mr Filatov described the expulsion as "totally unwarranted, uncalled for, senseless and regrettable".

He alleged that the world is witnessing a "complete cover-up" of what really happened in Salisbury.

Asked whether retaliation from Moscow is likely, the ambassador said the Government's decision "would not go unanswered".

The Irish Independent understands Tanaiste Simon Coveney told the Taoiseach on Sunday evening that he had decided to proceed with an expulsion.

However, it was decided not to join the majority of EU states in making the announcement on Monday. Instead Mr Coveney briefed the Cabinet before the Ambassador was summoned yesterday.

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Sources say the diplomat for expulsion was "not identified at random". He was chosen on the back of ongoing work by An Garda Siochana.

More than 20 countries have now expelled diplomats, including Finland and Sweden - who are also considered neutral.

Mr Putin is expected to formally announce his response later this week - although sources say it is not certain that he will enter a tit-for-tat with smaller countries like Ireland.

Mr Filatov said his colleagues at the Russian Embassy in south Dublin have "done nothing illegally".

Speaking in the Dail, Mr Varadkar defended himself against accusations he had gone into "full macho mode" by joining French President Emmanuel Macron to convince EU leaders to take action.

The Taoiseach said Ireland's long-standing neutrality is not under threat.

"We do not join military alliances, we will not be joining Nato and we will not be part of a European army," he said.

"However, when it comes to terrorism, assassinations, the use of chemical weapons, and cyberterrorism, we are not neutral one bit."

After initially expressing reservations about getting involved in the UK's battle, Fianna Fail last night backed the Government's move. The party's foreign affairs spokesman, Darragh O'Brien, said: "Our military neutrality should never be moral neutrality."

He told the Dail Russia is becoming "more belligerent", noting on several occasions in recent years Russian jets have entered Irish airspace. He said Russia was "determined to advance its own dubious agenda" and "undermine European values and ideals".

Sinn Fein is opposing the expulsion on the grounds there isn't enough evidence in the public domain to be sure Russia is behind the attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

Mary Lou McDonald said it was "not sufficient to simply cite solidarity with Britain".

"Such a significant foreign policy decision should be dictated by Irish security analysis."
Mother of all holidays: Seth Rogen and his screen mum Barbra Streisand in The Guilt Trip

It's unmistakable - the look of pity in people's eyes when you tell them that you, an adult woman, are going on holiday with your parents.

Typically it's followed with an unconvincing 'that'll be nice', a nose wrinkle and then a joke about your parents picking up the tab. "Well at least it won't cost you an arm and a leg."

And I get it. I was exactly the same until last year when I found myself sorely missing travel buddies.

Pals were either too broke or had selfishly decided to go travelling with their spouse instead of me. Rude.

Three weeks on my own was too daunting, and so I admitted defeat and scuttled along to my mother's and asked her to go away with me.

She agreed and then five days later my dad decided he would tag along too.

In the lead up to the holidays I started getting anxious - 21 days was an awfully long time to spend with your parents and I wondered if I would make it through the holiday without murdering them in their sleep.

But as soon as I reached the airport I realised travelling with your parents as an adult is actually the business. And the sooner you realise it the better.

Of course there has to be a sufficient time lapse between the adult family trip and your teenage and childhood family holidays.

You need that break; a few years when you do the sixth year vacation to Magaluf, or the backpacking trip around Thailand, or the post break-up gals holiday to Dubrovnik when you drink a whole bottle of discount limoncello and spend three days with your head down a toilet.

But once those bucket-list holidays are crossed off the list, you can return to the joy of family holidays. Over the course of our holiday in Mexico we spent weeks eating guacamole, swimming, and sunbathing.

We went on a sea safari and saw manatees having sex (a little awkward for everyone, especially the manatees), we went on a cantina tour in Merida, and we spent plenty of time psychoanalysing every single member of our extended family. It was ace.

Of course, there are downsides; holiday romances are off the cards (unless you like chatting people up in front of your folks in which case, get thee to a therapist).

They also get up early, move slower and can on occasion point out insurmountable flaws in your character that will lead to you suffering an existential crisis. It's also highly likely that your mother will get drunk and emotional and recall giving birth to you.

And contrary to popular opinion, it will not be less expensive than other holidays. Your mam and dad are at a stage in their lives where they should be enjoying the good things. Unless you are the sort of person who prides themselves on scrounging off your parents, this will bump up the cost of your holiday. On the plus side, you will drink some very, very nice wine. But the pros far outweigh the cons.

Firstly, there is zero stress or consideration about getting 'beach ready'.

These are your parents and they therefore have to love you and your cellulite-ridden body unconditionally.

Also Irish mammies are walking pharmacies who sweat Sudocrem. No matter what happens to you on holiday, your mother will always have the remedy. Blister plasters, aftersun, eye drops, ear unblockers, codeine - whatever you need she is your handy holiday Dr Quinn Medicine Woman and will look after you.

Parents are also infinitely more organised than you and will remember all the important stuff like boarding passes and currency exchange rates.

You will unearth long-forgotten family gossip and finally understand why your aunt Pauline walks like that.

Plus, you'll stockpile an arsenal of "you won't believe what dad did then" stories to tell your siblings.

Unlike your childhood holidays which can all blur together, you will remember these memories and treasure them the older you get.

Yes, you will fight a lot but you will probably laugh a good deal more and for that alone, it's worth it.

Myth about jellyfish and pee will leave sting in the tail

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Not one, but two, fundamental medical truths were up-ended this week.

On Thursday, we heard that contrary to what every doctor in the history of medicine has told patients, you should not, I repeat, should not finish a full course of antibiotics.

Apparently all it does is make your body immune to the medicine. How's that for a kick in the teeth?

It was followed by news that the traditional first-aid treatment of peeing on jellyfish stings is nothing but a pack of lies.

Accordingly to Dr Tom Doyle, lecturer in zoology at NUI Galway, the 'cure' has remained a popular solution thanks to that episode of Friends.

"It definitely didn't help," Dr Doyle said.

"I don't know anyone who has actually tried this method, but I can confidently say that it doesn't work."

Dr Doyle also said an episode of Running Wild with Bear Grylls in which former Spice Girl Mel B urinated on Grylls' hand led to further confusion.

"He got one of the Spice Girls to pee on himThis was just done for TV and drama and didn't actually make things better," he said.

Dr Doyle is right; it did make for compulsive viewing - afterwards Mel and Bear killed and then ate the jellyfish in some sort of bizarre ritualistic practise.

The incident even earned Scary Spice the nickname 'Mel Pee' but Bear later admitted it "wasn't the miracle cure we'd hoped for".

I am sad to hear that this natural remedy is nothing but a ruse - I quite enjoyed the idea of people all over Ireland urinating on their nearest and dearest in moments of blind panic. But our man in the field, Dr Doyle, says the answer is much simpler.

"All you need is some vinegar and lots of hot water."

Sounds great. Just one slight problem - does anyone pack a bottle of Sarsons Malt Vinegar and a kettle when heading to the beach? Didn't think so.

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Being nonchalant no longer cuts it. Think big, think bold, think Celine Dion.

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Chocolate eclairs filled with soft-serve ice cream. Like a much fancier Iceberger.

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Emoji speak

According to linguistics expert Vyvyan Evans, you can now be fluent in emoji. \_( )_/

Dimpleplasty

New plastic-surgery trend to give you identikit dimples to Kate Middleton/Miranda Kerr/Harry Styles

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Were not all drinking lattes and getting taxis, we run a tight ship

2FM boss Dan Healy defends RTE stars salaries
The very public battle of TV star Ant McPartlin with alcohol and prescription drugs has cast the spotlight on addiction and the carnage it can cause once again. The 42-year-old has gone back to rehab as he faces a drink driving charge and his show Saturday Night Takeaway continues on without him as he tries to deal with his demons. This weekend, his television partner Declan Donnelly will host the hit programme alone for the first time in the 23 years the pair have been working together.

ITV has pledged allegiance to Ant & Dec, saying the presenting duo will never be replaced on I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!, and while the public gaze has been firmly centred on Ant getting treatment, now the focus shifts to what Dec will do next, and whether he'll continue to branch out solo.

Behind the scenes and often totally forgotten are the loved ones of the alcohol-dependent person whose life can be consumed with trying to help their loved one stay away from drink.

Addiction counsellor Austin Prior, who worked at the Rutland Centre in Dublin for many years, says the loved ones' first thoughts are never for themselves?

"The first thing they ask me is: 'How do I stop them drinking?' My answer is you probably can't but you can do something to help your own quality of life. If you can make a change, there is a possibility they will change," he says.

Prior says that for loved ones of addicts, often there's a huge problem of their own self-worth.

"When you're looking at someone you love going through a self-destructive pattern and you're trying to help them and failing, your first instinct is to blame yourself. It's only when they start to realise that they have to help themselves that this shifts," he says.

"Living with an alcoholic, you start to normalise abnormal situations, saying things like 'it wasn't that bad - he wasn't violent'. The starting point is it's not okay. One of the hard questions for people to answer is could they do things differently? That means stopping cooking and ironing and covering up. If someone is hungover and not able to go to work, the partner or parent often rings their work. Stop covering up," says Prior.

"The message we try to give is self-care. I wouldn't ever say the first option is to walk away. But you are trying to convey a message like 'when you're drinking I don't want to be around you'.

"Sometimes the loved one becomes dependent on the drinker in their lives and they become obsessed with trying to fix things and cover up. They have to start taking care of themselves. Even though it's not perfect, it can be better," he says.

"Once they learn the lesson of self-care, they stop blaming. Al Anon has the three Cs: you didn't cause it, you can't control it and you can't cure it. Can you imagine the huge sense of freedom that comes with that?" For children of an alcoholic parent, the damage can last long into adulthood. A new initiative being supported by Alcohol Action Ireland aims to cast a spotlight on the largely silent voices of those impacted by parental or other harmful drinking.

Mary* grew up in a family of seven where her father was an alcoholic. "I knew nothing else - I didn't realise it wasn't typical until much later. Back then there was no help for people in that situation. Neighbours would have heard the shouting and roaring but there was no help," she says.

"My father would disappear for weeks on end. Money was always an issue. There was always this huge shame - you couldn't talk to others about it, loyalty was critical," says Mary, who is now in her 50s.

"There was physical abuse. Many a time I would end up protecting my mother. She would get upset at his behaviour and I'd be in between the two of them. It's very difficult to remember good times."

It was only when Mary went for counselling in her own marriage and the counsellor asked about her background and sent her on a course to help her deal with her issues that she realised how much she'd lost out on in her early life.

"I thought I'd survived, that I'd got through it. Meeting other people through the course made me realise the extent of what I'd lost. I realised that it was important to break the cycle for the next generation so as not to make the same mistakes I'd come across."

Tony* describes his childhood as "a blighted upbringing" as his father's alcoholism cast a shadow over everything. Fear, anxiety and trepidation are words he uses to describe growing up not knowing what way his father was going to walk in the door.

Now having just entered his 60s, he feels it's high time the voices of the loved ones of alcoholics were heard as it stimulates a more open and honest conversation. "It may even begin to melt the hard Irish drinking culture into something healthier and with much more awareness," says Tony, who lives in the mid-west.

Tony says he has undergone therapy and no longer feels any anger towards his father who died many years ago, only the loss and sadness for what could have been.

Tony was in his mid-40s when he got married and had a child and says he never felt ready to be a father before then.

"That's as a direct result of my upbringing. I went abroad for years. I think I was running way. I remember being taken in by a family when I lived abroad and they treated me like a son. I found the whole experience alien. I was like an emotional plank - I couldn't handle this normality," he says.

"If I hadn't decided I needed to do something about it, I could still be like that now. I was in therapy for years. There are supports there. Find others in similar situations and talk to them. The feelings of shame close the heart and close you off. But the future is brighter and there is light at the end of the tunnel."

*Names have been changed to protect their identity

Alcohol Action Ireland will soon launch an initiative that aims to amplify the 'silent voices' of those impacted by parental or other harmful drinking. This initiative will raise awareness of the trauma experienced by children and adults, and the need for evidenced based interventions to recognise and support those harmed by alcohol abuse. If you have been impacted by such trauma and wish to find out more about this initiative, you can contact Alcohol Action confidentially via email at silentvoices@alcoholactionireland.ie or call 01-878 0610.
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Angela Merkel became known for the so-called Merkel diamond, a strange, old-fashioned way of folding her hands in public with fingers and thumbs touching. Last month, the rival party hopeful to succeed her as German chancellor caused a minor sensation when he appeared on the cover of a news magazine imitating the same hand gesture.
Michelle Visage has fired back at Amanda Brunker who disapproved of the low-cut dress she wore on the Irelands Got Talent final, saying she really didnt need them splashed across my widescreen TV last Saturday night.

The TV3 judge received several comments on her head-turning red dress that featured a plunging neckline on the show, but she has stood by her decision to wear it.

Instead of lifting women up and saying brava for being you, they instead say this. Not very strong for the feminist movement, she said in response to Amandas column in the Herald.

She added that she believes it's important that women are supportive of each other.

Women supporting women is what we need. I think its about celebrating and owning, not hiding and shaming, she wrote on Twitter.

Shortly after the Irelands Got Talent final aired, Michelle took to social media to wave off the criticism she received for the daring outfit.

Who knew boobs could cause quite a stir. Ladies, if youve got em, flaunt em. Im working on something special for the larger breasted ladies. Stand by, she wrote.

In her column, former Miss Ireland Amanda insisted she was not being ageist or body shaming the American TV personality but simply did not see why she felt the need to wear such a revealing dress.

When I was judging the All Ireland Talent Show in 2010, myself, Blathnaid Ni Chofaigh and Dana werent even allowed to wear skirts or dresses, never mind a plunging neckline that exposed our bras. We had to wear black trousers and jackets  sex was not allowed to be a selling point. How times have changed, she wrote.

She went on to speculate that TV bosses may have been more lenient with Michelles sartorial choices because she is American.

Theyre more er, up-front, dont you agree? None of us Oirish girls could wear such revealing gunas  lets face it, the country would descend into chaos if we did, she said.

Michelle, known for being a judge on RuPauls Drag Race, proved popular with viewers on the TV3 series and has expressed strong interest in returning for the shows second series next year.
US model Jeremy Meeks (L) poses with Britain's Chloe Green during the Monte-Carlo Gala for the Global Ocean in Monaco on September 28, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / YANN COATSALIOUYANN COATSALIOU/AFP/Getty Images

Chloe Green (L) and Jeremy Meeks attend the Balmain Homme Menswear Fall/Winter 2018-2019 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on January 20, 2018 in Paris, France. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

Model Jeremy Meeks (L) and Chloe Green attend 2017 Princess Grace Awards Gala at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on October 25, 2017 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for Princess Grace Foundation - USA)

Jeremy Meeks and Chloe Green arrive at Balmain Homme Menswear Fall/Winter 2018-2019 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on January 20, 2018 in Paris, France. (Photo by Jacopo Raule/Getty Images)

They're the most unlikely couple in showbiz, but Jeremy Meeks and Chloe Green aren't wasting any time in moving their relationship to the next level.

The billionaire Topshop heiress (26) went public with her new relationship with the 'hot felon' (34) last summer - he was given the moniker because of his handsome mugshot photo went viral after his 2014 conviction. After being released from jail, he landed a lucrative modelling contract which eventually led him to Green and the pair hit it off while attending the same exclusive party at the Cannes Film Festival.

When pictures of the couple kissing on a yacht off the coast of Turkey were published last July, Meeks' wife of nine years Melissa, whom he has one child and two stepchildren, said she felt "betrayed" and "heartbroken" and filed for divorce in October.

And their rocky love story looks to have a happy ending as pair are reportedly expecting their first child together, according to Us Weekly. An insider added: "Chloe and Jeremy are very much in love and she thinks they will get engaged at some point."

Expand Close Model Jeremy Meeks (L) and Chloe Green attend 2017 Princess Grace Awards Gala at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on October 25, 2017 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for Princess Grace Foundation - USA) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Model Jeremy Meeks (L) and Chloe Green attend 2017 Princess Grace Awards Gala at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on October 25, 2017 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for Princess Grace Foundation - USA)

They have received the blessing of Chloe's parents Philip and Tina Green, who have warmed to him after several months of getting to know each other.

"Her parents have recently done an unexpected U-turn on Jeremy, and are now embracing him as one of the Greens. They are resigned to the fact hell be a part of their lives forever," a source told the Mail on Sunday.

Despite his convictions (he was previously imprisoned for grand theft of a person in 2002), Meeks has since cleaned up his act and is embracing fame thanks to his new modelling career and high profile relationship.

Police in California have previously described Meeks as "one of the most violent criminals in the Stockton area".

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Green previously dated Marc Anthony after his split with ex-wife Jennifer Lopez.
As a teenager growing up in Roscommon, Una Burke spent her nights dreaming of clothes and models walking down ramps in fashion shows.

As her mum Martina was a home economics teacher, Una (37) was taught to sew from the age of five and learned about pattern drafting from an early age.

She specialised in fashion at Limerick School of Art and Design, and gained experience working with her favourite material, leather, at Chesneau Design. She could hardly predict back then that her first commission would be from Lady Gaga.

"Talk about being thrown in the deep end," she laughs. "It was a full body suit with boots, arm braces and a face mask." Other pieces have been worn by Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Heidi Klum and Madonna, and closer to home, Una Healy and Kathryn Thomas. Pieces also appeared in The Hunger Games films and Taylor Swift's Bad Blood music video.

Tiny Una met her tall partner, Emmett Herbert (38), when she went to work at Michael H as a design assistant. He was working in the production end of things, and had previously worked for John Rocha. He was immediately attracted to the bubbly Una. "There was a fun feistiness about her and she has a lovely smile," he says.

Una loved Emmett's charisma and friendliness, but when he asked her to dance at the Christmas party, she turned him down. It wasn't personal, but she had prior experience of the perils of mixing a Christmas party liaison with a colleague. They got together in January 2005 though, and then broke up six months later, which made the work situation awkward. "It was torture," Una groans.

Happily they got back together after six months, but Una had already decided that she was going to move to the UK the following year to get leather design work. She was making handbags on a small scale but really wanted to get properly into it. She moved over to London in 2006, and she and Emmett thought it might be best to break up at that point. "It was terrible," admits Emmett. "I wasn't happy because I felt Una was picking her career over our relationship. We agreed to try long-distance for six months, which turned into seven years."

Una did a master's at London College of Fashion, but the recession hit as she graduated. She had to get a job in retail to service her student loans, while working on her own designs in her spare time. She then attracted the attention of fashion editors from the likes of Vogue, ID and Dazed and Confused, who wanted to use her graduate collection of "strange and unique" leather art pieces that fit on the body in their shoots.

Expand Close Una Burke, wearing one of her weather creations, and Emmet Herbert. Photo: Damien Eagers / Facebook

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While starting off was a financial struggle, Una's parents helped and she also got support from the Design & Crafts Council of Ireland. As the invitations came in to show at London and Paris fashion weeks, she was able to leave the day job and focus on her craft. She decided to make leather bags, bracelets and belts to sell, and use her "impractical" bodices and "mental" show pieces for publicity.

"I was surprised that people wanted to buy the crazy stuff as well," she says. "That was a really nice surprise as they're the fun things to make."

While Una was building her empire, Emmett was knocked down and badly injured while away on a stag weekend here. He was rushed to Beaumont Hospital for surgery, and poor Una got that awful call in London from his parents, Tom and Etta, and rushed home in a panic.

"The doctor said they had to put his head back together like a jigsaw as the skull was completely shattered," she recalls. "Luckily none of the bone had pierced internally so she said he'd be okay."

Emmett made a great recovery but the situation reinforced the pair's desire to be together. When Michael H's production ceased four years ago, Emmett moved to London. He looks after the accounts and press and Una says he's a great support. The collection will enter Selfridges' new accessory hall in London tomorrow, which they're thrilled about.

They have also launched their short fashion film collaboration with director John Haugh, featuring Laura Rakhman-Kidd. Called Seduction, the film and an exhibition of Una's leather pieces and photography opens at Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin in a few weeks. The film has already been short-listed for a fashion film award.

Una says that once Emmett moved over, her life became more balanced and they see a future and, hopefully, a family together. In the meantime, they're thrilled at the way it's all going. "I don't think Una realises quite how good she is," says Emmett. "She's just so modest."

www.unaburke.com
The ad says the job would be based at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the street address of the White House (Niall Carson/PA)

A prankster has posted a fake job listing  advertising the position of lawyer for US President Donald Trump.

The job has been included on Craigslists jobs board for Washington, DC.

While it doesnt mention the president by name it spells out that the job would be based at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the street address of the White House.

Expand Close Fake job posting on Craigslist (Craigslist) / Facebook

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The full advert was posted on March 27 with the heading: Seeking lead attorney for difficult client.

Skills needed include working knowledge of Twitter and must look the part  like a Tommy Lee Jones or a Gregory Peck  with no fatties.

Must be familiar with laws and procedures around discovery, executive privilege, international financing of licensed real estate, election law and the Logan Act, the ad reads.

Must be prepared to work with a client who is very forceful and opinionated about his defence and is his own best counsel.

Basically your job boils down to keeping him from testifying under oath and hoping the rest comes out in the wash.

No salary is suggested but under compensation it reads: Client is hugely wealthy man. Hugely successful. Everyone says it.

The spoof ad was well received on Twitter.

THE SHADE OF IT ALL!! https://t.co/xJ7pAdqY3f  Cecil Baldwin (@CecilBaldwinIII) March 27, 2018

The ad has been posted in reference to Trumps struggle to find a lawyer to represent him in Special Counsel Robert Muellers ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

His previous lawyer John Dowd resigned abruptly last week.
A mysterious armoured train made a round trip from North Korea to Beijing without revealing its secret: Was Kim Jong-un on board?

Speculation about a visit to Beijing by North Korea's leader or another high-level Pyongyang official ran high yesterday amid talk of preparations for a meeting between Kim and US President Donald Trump.

The visit by the train to Beijing and unusually heavy security at a guesthouse where prominent North Koreans have stayed seemed to point to the possibility that Kim was making his first visit to China as North Korean leader.

Such a trip would be seen as a potential precursor to Kim's planned summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in late April and his anticipated meeting with Trump by May. Analysts, however, questioned whether Kim would make the visit to Beijing himself rather than send an envoy.

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Whoever was on the train, their visit to Beijing appeared to be short. A vehicle convoy led by a motorcycle escort yesterday headed in the direction of Beijing's main railway station. The train was seen leaving shortly afterwards, less than a day after it arrived.

While there has been no word of a meeting with Chinese leaders, China has been one of North Korea's key allies, even though relations have chilled recently because of Kim's development of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles.

On Monday, heavy security was reported at the Friendship Bridge on the Yalu River marking the border between China and North Korea before a train passed through the Chinese city of Dandong. There were reports of it transiting several stations on the way from North Korea to Beijing.

Japanese broadcaster NTV reported the train appeared very similar to the one Kim's father and predecessor, Kim Jong-il, took to Beijing in 2011.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and wife Ri Sol Ju pose for a picture with Chinese President Xi Jinping and wife Peng Liyuan at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China. Ju Peng/Xinhua via REUTERS

NORTH Korean leader Kim Jong Un has pledged to denuclearise and meet U.S. officials, China said on Wednesday after an historic meeting with President Xi Jinping, who promised China would uphold its friendship with its isolated neighbour.

After two days of speculation, China and North Korea both confirmed that Kim had visited Beijing and met Xi during what China's Foreign Ministry called an unofficial visit to China from Sunday to Wednesday.

The China visit was Kim's first known trip outside North Korea since he assumed power in 2011 and is believed by analysts to serve as preparation for upcoming summits with South Korea and the United States.

North Korea's KCNA news agency made no mention of Kim's pledge to denuclearise, or his anticipated meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump that is planned for some time in May.

Beijing has traditionally been the closest ally of secretive North Korea, but ties have been frayed by Pyongyang's pursuit of nuclear weapons and China's backing of tough U.N. sanctions in response.

China's Foreign Ministry cited Kim in a lengthy statement as telling Xi that the situation on the Korean peninsula was starting to improve because North Korea had taken the initiative to ease tensions and put forward proposals for peace talks.

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Whatsapp North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China. Photo: Ju Peng/Xinhua via REUTERS

"It is our consistent stand to be committed to denuclearisation on the peninsula, in accordance with the will of late President Kim Il Sung and late General Secretary Kim Jong Il," Kim Jong Un said, according to the statement.

North Korea is willing to talk with the United States and hold a summit between the two countries, he said.

"The issue of denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula can be resolved, if South Korea and the United States respond to our efforts with goodwill, create an atmosphere of peace and stability while taking progressive and synchronous measures for the realisation of peace," Kim said.

'NUCLEAR UMBRELLA'

Kim Jong Un's predecessors, grandfather Kim Il Sung and father Kim Jong Il, both publicly promised not to pursue nuclear weapons but secretly continued to develop the programmes, culminating in the North's first nuclear test in 2006 under Kim Jong Il.

The North had said in past failed talks aimed at dismantling its nuclear programme that it could consider giving up its arsenal if the United States removed its troops from South Korea and withdrew its so-called nuclear umbrella of deterrence from South Korea and Japan.

Many analysts and former negotiators believe this still constitutes North Korea's stance on denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and remain deeply sceptical Kim is willing to give up the nuclear weapons his family has been developing for decades.

At first wrapped in secrecy, the announcement of Kim Jong Un's visit soon became the third-most discussed topic on China's Twitter-like Weibo microblogging site, although many state media outlets blocked their comments sections.

Widely read Chinese state-run newspaper the Global Times praised the meeting as proving naysayers about Beijing-Pyongyang relations wrong.

"China and North Korea maintaining their friendly relations provides a positive force for the whole region and promotes strategic stability in northeast Asia," it said in an editorial.

Billed as an unofficial trip, Kim's appearance in Beijing contained almost all the trappings of a state visit, complete with an honour guard and banquet at Beijing's Great Hall of the People.

Kim and Xi also met at the Diaoyutai State Guest House, where Kim Il Sung planted a tree in 1959 that still stands.

State television showed pictures of the two men chatting amiably and Kim's wife, Ri Sol Ju, getting an equally warm welcome from Xi's wife, Peng Liyuan.

TRUMP BRIEFED

China briefed Trump on Kim's visit and the communication included a personal message from Xi to Trump, the White House said in a statement.

"The United States remains in close contact with our allies South Korea and Japan. We see this development as further evidence that our campaign of maximum pressure is creating the appropriate atmosphere for dialogue with North Korea," the statement said.

A top Chinese diplomat, Politburo member Yang Jiechi, will brief officials, including President Moon Jae-in, in Seoul on Thursday about Xi's meeting with Kim Jong Un, according to the presidential office in Seoul.

Kim told a banquet hosted by Xi the visit was intended to "maintain our great friendship and continue and develop our bilateral ties at a time of rapid developments on the Korean peninsula", according to KCNA.

Xi had accepted an invitation "with pleasure" from him to visit North Korea, KCNA said.

However, China's statement made no mention of Xi accepting an invitation, saying only that Xi pledged to keep frequent contacts with Kim through the exchange of visits and sending special envoys and letters to each other.

China had largely sat on the sidelines as Pyongyang improved its relations with Seoul, prompting worry in Beijing that it was no longer a central player in the North Korean issue, reinforced by Trump's subsequent announcement of his proposed meeting with Kim Jong Un in May.

"China is North Korea's lifeline, so the notion, from a Chinese perspective, that Kim Jong Un couldn't have these other two meetings before meeting with Xi Jinping, I think the Chinese just thought that is not going to happen," said Paul Haenle, director of the CarnegieTsinghua Center in Beijing and the former White House representative to North Korea denuclearisation talks from 2007-2009.

Improving ties between North Korea and China would be a positive sign before the planned summits involving the two Koreas and the United States, a senior South Korean official said on Tuesday.

Kim Jong Il met then-president Jiang Zemin in China in 2000 before a summit between the two Koreas in June that year. That visit was seen at the time as reaffirmation of close ties with Beijing.

Speculation about a possible visit by Kim Jong Un to Beijing was rife earlier this week after a train similar to the one used by his father was seen in the Chinese capital, along with heavy security and a large motorcade.

The secrecy around the visit was not unusual. The later visits of Kim Jong Il to China were only announced by both countries once he had left the country.
The Trump administration has slapped sanctions on companies across the globe to punish illicit trade with North Korea (Niall Carson/PA)

US President Donald Trump said there is a good chance that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will do what is right for his people and for humanity and make moves towards peace.

In a pair of morning tweets, he said he received a message from Chinese President Xi Jinping that a meeting Mr Xi had with Mr Kim this week went very well.

Mr Trump says that according to Mr Xi, the North Korean leader looks forward to meeting the American president.

The White House has said Mr Trump plans to meet Mr Kim by May amid nuclear tensions between the two nations.

Mr Trump has agreed to historic talks after South Korean officials relayed that Mr Kim was committed to ridding the Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons and was willing to halt nuclear and missile tests.

Expand Close North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, centre right, and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, centre left, inspect the honour guard at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP) / Facebook

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Whatsapp North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, centre right, and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, centre left, inspect the honour guard at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

In the meantime, Mr Trump said, unfortunately, maximum sanctions and pressure must be maintained at all cost!

The Trump administration has slapped sanctions on companies across the globe to punish illicit trade with North Korea.

For years and through many administrations, everyone said that peace and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula was not even a small possibility, Mr Trump tweeted.

Now there is a good chance that Kim Jong Un will do what is right for his people and for humanity. Look forward to our meeting!

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said that Mr Kims visit to China was an unprecedented, historic step in the right direction.

Yesterdays #DPRK visit to #China was an unprecedented, historic step in the right direction. It is also evidence that @POTUS maximum pressure campaign is working. We look forward to sitting down with Kim Jong Un to talk about a better future for his people. #NorthKorea  Ned Price (@StateDeptSpox) March 28, 2018

It is also evidence that @POTUS maximum pressure campaign is working. We look forward to sitting down with Kim Jong Un to talk about a better future for his people, Ms Nauert said in a tweet.

However, it remains unclear if there has been direct communication between Washington and Pyongyang on the planned Trump-Kim summit that is slated for May, and under what conditions North Korea would agree to give up the nuclear arsenal it has spent decades building.

According to the Chinese state news agency Xinhua, Mr Kim told Chinas Mr Xi that North Korea is willing to have dialogue with the United States and hold a summit of the two countries.

Mr Kim also said the issue of denuclearisation can be resolved if South Korea and the US take progressive and synchronous measures for the realisation of peace.
Julian Assange remains subject to arrest in Britain for jumping bail (Lauren Hurley/PA)

Ecuadors government is cutting off WikiLeaks founder Julian Assanges communications outside the nations London embassy.

Officials announced on Wednesday they were taking the measure in response to Mr Assanges recent activity on social media.

As part of an agreement between Mr Assange and the Ecuadorean government, he is not permitted to send any messages that could interfere with the South American nations relations with other countries.

Mr Assange has been living in Ecuadors embassy for more than five years.

Ecuador gave him asylum after he sought refuge in the embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden for investigation of sex-related claims.

Sweden dropped the case, but Mr Assange remains subject to arrest in Britain for jumping bail.

The move followed Mr Assanges recent social media activity decrying the arrest of a Catalonian separatist leader.

In a statement, officials said Mr Assanges recent posts put at risk the good relations Ecuador maintains with nations throughout Europe and had decided as of Tuesday to suspend his internet access in order to prevent any potential harm.

Mr Assange has since gone silent on social media.

Relations between Mr Assange and his host nation have often grown prickly. Ecuador suspended his internet access in 2016 after a WikiLeaks dump targeting Hillary Clintons US presidential campaign.

Ecuadors former president Rafael Correa hailed Mr Assanges work but the nations current head of state has called him a hacker and warned him not to meddle in politics.
Family members, friends and Frances president have honoured an 85-year-old woman who escaped the Nazis 76 years ago but was stabbed to death last week in her Paris apartment, apparently targeted because she was Jewish.

Mireille Knolls death has taken on national importance, reminding France of both historical anti-Semitism and its resurgence in some quarters in recent years.

President Emmanuel Macron decried the barbaric views that fuelled an Islamic extremists supermarket hostage-taking last week as well as Ms Knolls killing.

In a speech at the 19th-century Invalides monument on Wednesday, Mr Macron said Ms Knolls attacker murdered an innocent and vulnerable woman because she was Jewish, and in doing so profaned our sacred values and our history.

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Later, Mr Macron made a surprise appearance at Ms Knolls funeral ceremony in the Jewish section of the cemetery in the Paris suburb of Bagneux, where sombre-faced guests gathered to pay their respects.

Silent marches are being held later on Wednesday around the country in her honour, and to denounce racism.

Far-right French leader Marine Le Pen is insisting on attending the Paris march despite criticism from Frances leading Jewish group.

The head of the CRIF Jewish organisation said Ms Le Pens National Front and members of the far left would not be welcome at the marches because of anti-Semitic sentiment among their members.

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Ms Le Pen tweeted on Wednesday that the CRIF cannot stop her from attending.

She has sought to distance herself from the anti-Semitism that stained her party in the past, instead focusing anger on immigrants and Islamic extremists.

The National Front said it was maintaining its appeal to members to attend Wednesdays marches because Ms Knolls son Daniel said everyone, without exception is welcome to join.

Speaking on RMC radio, Daniel Knoll said he wanted to encourage national unity and distanced himself from the CRIFs political position.

Whether it is a Jewish mother, a black mother, a Protestant mother, a Muslim mother, they are all our mothers. They have the right to live normally, with love, he said.

Ms Knoll was killed on Friday in her apartment, which was then set on fire.

Expand Close Daniel Knoll, third left, son of Mireille Knoll, and his wife Jovita attend the funeral (Christophe Ena/AP) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Daniel Knoll, third left, son of Mireille Knoll, and his wife Jovita attend the funeral (Christophe Ena/AP)

Prosecutors filed preliminary charges against two people for murder with anti-Semitic motives, including a neighbour Ms Knoll hosted regularly, according to her son.

Authorities have not released the names of the two men in custody but have said the chief suspect is a 29-year-old with a past conviction who lived in the same building.

Speaking to the Associated Press on Tuesday, Daniel Knoll said: My mother had a thirst for knowledge and meeting new people and talking to them, and thats what killed her.

Ms Knoll was forced to flee Paris with her family aged nine to escape a notorious World War Two round-up of Jews.

After the war she returned to Paris and spent most of her life in the eastern Paris apartment where she was killed, according to her son.

The US Holocaust Memorial Museum urged French and European officials to redouble efforts to combat the rise in anti-Semitism plaguing much of the continent.

Frances government presented a plan earlier this month to fight racism and anti-Semitism, focusing on social media and prevention in schools.
Quyen Ngoc Nguyen's body was found in a burning car. Stephen Unwin and William McFall who have been accused of torturing, raping and dumping the Vietnamese woman's body in a burning car have previous convictions for murder, Newcastle Crown Court has heard. Photo: Family Handout/Northumbria Police/PA Wire

Twisted killers who teamed up to commit murder again have been warned they face a whole life term for torturing a Vietnamese woman, then torching her body in a car.

Maintenance men Stephen Unwin, 40, and William McFall, 51, put Quyen Ngoc Nguyen through an unimaginable four-hour ordeal after she was lured to Unwin's home in Shiney Row, Tyne and Wear.

Expand Close Undated handout comp of photos issued by Northumbria Police of Stephen Unwin (left) and William McFall who have been been convicted at Newcastle Crown Court for the murder of Quyen Ngoc Nguyen Photo: Northumbria Police/PA Wire / Facebook

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Whatsapp Undated handout comp of photos issued by Northumbria Police of Stephen Unwin (left) and William McFall who have been been convicted at Newcastle Crown Court for the murder of Quyen Ngoc Nguyen Photo: Northumbria Police/PA Wire

Unwin raped her and she was forced to hand over her PINs so they could raid 1,000 from her bank.

McFall even posed for a grinning selfie after the pair had committed their depraved and greed-fuelled crime.

He was cleared of the rape charge following the trial at Newcastle Crown Court.

It was the second time each had murdered, having both killed pensioners in the 1990s before they met in prison. Each served 13 years of a life sentence before they were released on licence.

Mr Justice Morris said mandatory life sentences will follow and he warned them they may be never be released.

He will set their minimum term at a hearing next month.

Firefighters discovered Ms Nguyen's badly burned body in the back of her Audi after it had been torched beside allotments last August.

The jury heard how her killers ate a curry they had cooked as their victim lay dying in the house.

The mother-of-two worked at her sister's nail bar but also helped Vietnamese people find accommodation when she came across Unwin, who worked for landlords maintaining properties.

She would not have known he was a life prisoner, out on licence for murdering a pensioner in 1998.

Tellingly, he also set fire to his elderly victim's house in a bid to cover his tracks.

McFall, who is from Northern Ireland, also murdered a pensioner during a 1996 break-in.

The killers met in the prison system at HMP Swaleside, a Category B institution, in Kent. They got in touch via Facebook after they were both released on licence.

They teamed up, working together legitimately, but also stealing cannabis from farms they found in local properties.

They planned their depraved attack on the 5ft victim and Unwin tricked her into coming into his home, where McFall was waiting.

The Irishman had texted Unwin earlier that evening saying: "We raping the c***k"?

Each of the defendants blamed the other, seemingly hoping to confuse the jury.

McFall wrote to Unwin while they were on remand saying he had been to the prison library and found a "legal loophole" despite what he admitted was damning evidence.

The prosecution claimed their loophole was simply to blame one another.

Videos filmed on a mobile phone showed how close the men were.

In one, seemingly filmed for a fellow ex-prisoner, Unwin talks about paying a prostitute 100 for her to have sex with them both at the same time.

In another, McFall chillingly plays with an air pistol, and in two more they film cannabis farms they planned to raid.

After the trial, the victim's sister Quyhn Ngoc Nguyen branded the killers "evil" and said they should never be released.

In a statement, she said: "I believe that if these two people were released at some point in the future, then definitely some innocent people could be harmed.

"I think they should never be released, they are evil."

David Hines, founder of the National Victims' Association, said: "A life sentence should mean a minimum of 40 years behind bars."

McFall made a series of outbursts from the dock while Unwin kept his head bowed after the jury convicted him following four hours of their deliberations.

The Ministry of Justice said fewer than one in 200 prisoners out on licence go on to commit a serious offence.

A spokesman said: "This was a truly heinous crime and our sincere condolences remain with Miss Nguyen's family and friends.

"Serious further offences are very rare - but each one is taken extremely seriously and investigated fully so we identify any necessary actions when managing other cases."

The Ministry of Justice said McFall and Unwin were not known to be associates.

It said people on "life licence" were monitored according to the risks they posed and "how long they have been on licence without cause for concern".
The niece of poisoned spy Sergei Skripal has said her uncle and cousin have only a slim chance of surviving.

Viktoria Skripal said the prognosis for the former Russian double agent and his daughter Yulia "really isn't good", as the pair remain in a critical condition following the Novichok attack in Salisbury, Wiltshire, on March 4.

She also revealed that Mr Skripal's mother had not been told of the incident.

She told the BBC: "Out of 99pc I have maybe 1pc of hope. Whatever it was has given them a very small chance of survival. But they're going to be invalids for the rest of their lives."

She added: "The first priority was to protect our granny so that she wouldn't hear or find out anything."

Her comments came as countries across the world joined the UK in diplomatic action against Russia, which has been blamed for the attack.

Theresa May hailed the "unprecedented series of expulsions" of Russian diplomats, which she said sent a strong message to Moscow that it could not ignore international law.

The Russian Embassy in the UK said the Prime Minister had had still not presented evidence that the country was responsible for the poisonings, adding that "no-one in the wider world would take British words for granted".

It also responded to claims by officials that more than 20 different stories had come out of Moscow since the attack to "try and confuse the picture".

A statement posted on its website read: "This only confirms the openness of the Russian society and the independence of Russian media, which Prime Minister May wrongly confuses with the Russian state.

"Given the lack of official information, every Russian, just like every Briton, is entitled to their own version of events.

"Let's also not forget that at least five different versions of the poisoning have been 'leaked' by the police to British media: the Skripals were either poisoned in a pub, or in a restaurant, or in their car, or by putting the chemical into Ms Skripal's suitcase, or by smearing their door handle.

"To see Russia being accused of spreading false rumours in this context is rather surprising."

On Wednesday, Ireland became the 24th country to join the the UK in diplomatic action against the Kremlin.

With Downing Street saying that more than 115 Russian diplomats had been ordered home by friends and allies, Dublin added one more to the list.

In Moscow, President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, hinted that the Kremlin would respond with tit-for-tat expulsions, saying Russia would proceed from the "principle of reciprocity".

Russia has already ordered 23 British diplomats to leave in response to the expulsion of a similar number of undeclared Russian intelligence officers from the UK.
Clara Ponsati, the former Catalan education secretary, will hand herself in to Scottish police today after they received a request for her extradition to Spain.

If the request is successful, she will face a rebellion charge over October's referendum and declaration of independence.

Amid protests in Catalonia over the Spanish crackdown on separatists, the dispute will arrive in a court in Edinburgh, where Ms Ponsati will appear to begin the fight against her extradition.

She will be represented by Aamer Anwar, a Glasgow University rector and human rights lawyer, who insisted yesterday she was the target of "political persecution".

Scotland has been one of the strongest sources of international support for Catalan secessionists, and the extradition case has drawn strong protest, particularly from nationalist politicians.

Nicola Sturgeon, Scottish first minister, has been forced to deny calls to step in, saying that her government has "no powers to intervene" in a process that is the exclusive remit of the courts.

But she said in a statement: "It is well established that the Scottish government supports the right of the people of Catalonia to determine their own future and that we strongly oppose the Spanish government's decision to seek the arrest and imprisonment of independence supporting politicians."

Ms Ponsati travelled to Scotland earlier this month to return to a post at the University of St Andrews, after four months in self-imposed exile in Belgium with Carles Puigdemont - who was detained in Germany on Sunday - and three other former cabinet members.

Spain's Supreme Court on Friday opened prosecutions against 13 members of the separatist government for rebellion and misuse of public funds, charges that could see them jailed for up to 30 years. Another 12 independence figures have been charged with lesser crimes, while seven international arrest warrants have also been issued.

The UN Human Rights Committee said that it would be accepting a complaint filed by Mr Puigdemont.

Yesterday, pro-independence activists blocked roads across Catalonia, with police moving in to forcibly remove them in several places.

The protesters vowed to "stop the country", in what they dubbed the beginning of "the Catalan Spring".

It is unclear whether the German and Scottish courts will grant the extraditions on the grounds of rebellion.

A previous attempt to extradite Mr Puigdemont from Belgium was dropped amid fears the judge would strike out the rebellion charge, which requires the use or threat of violence.

Ms Ponsati's lawyer told the BBC yesterday that they would be challenging the rebellion charge, insisting that there was no similar crime in Scotland and that "the only people responsible for violence on [referendum] day were the Spanish police".

Inigo Mendez de Vigo, a Spanish government spokesman, denied the separatists were "victims", insisting their "criminal actions" were an "attack" not only against Spain but the European Union.
A woman places flowers at the main gate of the Police headquarters in Carcassonne, France (Emilio Morenatti/AP)

FRENCH judges placed the 18-year old girlfriend of the Islamist gunman who killed four people in southern France last week under formal investigation, a judicial source said on Tuesday.

Named only as Marine P, Redouane Lakdim's partner is being investigated for terrorist conspiracy, the source said. She remains in temporary custody.

Under the French legal system, being "placed under investigation" is a step judicial investigators can take if they have serious grounds for suspecting an offence. It often but not always leads to trial.

Her sister told French television that she had shown no signs of radicalisation.

Marine, who lived with her parents, was arrested within hours of the attacks committed on Friday in Carcassonne and nearby Trebes in southern France.

Lakdim was shot dead by security forces at the scene.
Yulia and Sergei Skripal were poisoned in the UK

The Russian Foreign Ministry said British special services could have been behind the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Salisbury.

Britain has accused Russia of a nerve agent attack on former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

Russia has fiercely rejected the accusations, calling them baseless.

More than 20 nations have expelled over 130 Russian diplomats this week in a show of solidarity with Britain.

Russia denounced the actions as "boorish" and pledged to retaliate.

The Russian Foreign ministry's claim of "possible involvement" of British special services in the poisoning marks Moscow's bluntest claim yet of alleged British foul play.

British officials have previously rejected such Russian claims as nonsense.

Moscow said the British failure to provide evidence suggests the poisoning was a "major political provocation".
French Republican Guards and cadets from the joint-army military school carry the coffin of Arnaud Beltrame during a national ceremony in Paris (Ludovic Marin, Pool via AP)

The policeman who died in last weeks extremist attack in southern France is being honoured in an elaborate, daylong national homage led by French President Emmanuel Macron.

It comes as questions are being raised about possible failures in French counter-terrorism tracking of the gunman, who was on a radicalisation watch list before he went on a rampage last Friday.

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The coffin of Lieutenant Colonel Arnaud Beltrame was carried in procession in the Wednesday morning drizzle from the Pantheon across Paris to the Hotel des Invalides, the final resting place of Napoleon.

The French president will deliver a public eulogy in front of colleagues and family of Mr Beltrame, who died of his wounds on Saturday morning, hours after swapping himself for a hostage during a siege in a supermarket.

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During the ceremony, Mr Macron will posthumously award Mr Beltrame the Legion of Honour, Frances highest award.

Three former presidents, Francois Hollande, Nicolas Sarkozy and Valery Giscard dEstaing, are also attending in a symbol of the political dimension this ceremony has taken.

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The national homage includes a minutes silence in French police stations and myriad events in schools that both honour Mr Beltrames memory and provide a focal point for national grief after last Fridays killing spree.

Some 2,000 high school students and scores of police attended the Paris event that began as gendarmes sang the French revolutionary anthem the Marseillaise in the stone courtyard of the French Interior Ministry.

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The ministrys boss, Gerard Collomb, maintained on Wednesday morning that there were no dysfunctions in tracking Mr Beltrames killer, Redouane Lakdim, who also killed three other people before he was shot dead by police.

Speaking on France Inter, amid questions on possible failures in counter-terrorism tracking, Mr Collomb confirmed the security services were about to reduce the surveillance on Lakdim, who was on a radicalisation watch list.

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He said ultimately no one thought that there would be a hasty attack by Lakdim, a Moroccan-born French resident with dual nationality.

Questions have been also raised by authorities in Morocco.

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The chief of a counter-terrorism agency, known as Moroccos FBI, said on Tuesday that France never alerted his country about Lakdims radical behaviour  calling the absence of contact a misunderstanding.

Since the attack, the agency  created three years ago to consolidate counter-terrorism efforts  has been investigating Lakdims family members in Morocco, Abdelhak Khiame told The Associated Press

Lakdim visited Morocco several times, most recently in February 2012, before the establishment of the Islamic State, Mr Khiame added.
After six years of seclusion, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un seems to want to get out and see the world.

Mr Kims surprise summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week was the first time he had travelled outside of his country since he assumed power in 2011, according to his own state media.

But Beijing is just the start of his ambitious travel plans.

Next is a meeting just south of the demilitarised zone with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, then the trickiest meeting of all, with US President Donald Trump in an as-yet undisclosed location.

He is also rumoured to be considering a sit-down with Russias Vladimir Putin, while one of his staunchest critics, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, says he wants some face time, too.

Why the sudden urge to travel?

Here is a look at where Mr Kims been, where he might be headed and what kind of souvenirs he will be hoping to gather along the way.

CHINA

In hindsight, this was the obvious choice for Mr Kims international debut.

China is far and away the Norths most important economic partner, and it has tightened its sanctions in recent months to increase the pressure on Mr Kim to ease up with his nuclear weapons programme.

Mr Kim has appeared less willing to toe Beijings line, however, and relations between the two countries have suffered.

By suddenly showing up in China this week he completely changed that narrative.

Its not known yet what Mr Kim and Mr Xi discussed.

Two things are clear. By hosting Mr Kim before anyone else, Mr Xi very effectively reasserted Chinas primary role in defusing tensions on the Korean Peninsula, which has long been a key national security concern for Beijing.

For Mr Kim, meeting with Mr Xi first means he will go into his summits with Mr Moon and Mr Trump better informed and less isolated.

More importantly for Mr Kim, the visit could be a step towards persuading China to ease its sanctions, or at least how strictly they are enforced.

SOUTH KOREA

The announcement that Mr Kim and Mr Moon would meet face to face was the first shock of the year.

Mr Kim floated the idea by sending his invitation-bearing sister to the opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang Olympics last month. The meeting is planned for late April in a truce village inside the DMZ.

Symbolically, its a huge step forward. Mr Moon and his liberal government have been taking the initiative to reach out to the North after a year of escalating missile launches and angry rhetorical barrages.

Mr Kim extended an olive branch of his own in January, vowing to make improved relations one of his top priorities for the year.

Until Mr Kim showed up in Beijing, it appeared Mr Moon would be his first summit partner.

While that somewhat blurs the focus on the North-South detente, the emotional story line of Korean nationalism and the hope of reunification is still bound to play well with Mr Kims domestic audience.

North Korea is working on several development projects that appear aimed at boosting South Korean tourism to its east coast.

Optimistic, yes. But its worked for Pyongyang before.

Mr Kims father, Kim Jong Il, played that card nicely in the previous inter-Korea summits, held in 2000 and 2007.

HAMBURGERS WITH TRUMP?

This one still has a lot of question marks.

Basic things, like when and where  and some might add, if  it will take place have yet to be disclosed.

Instead of announcing it themselves, the White House let a visiting delegation from South Korea inform the media that Mr Trump had agreed to Mr Kims offer to meet by May. Almost nothing official has been announced since.

Lots of potential sites have popped up in the rumour mill, from Mr Trumps Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida to Mongolia (which has good relations with Pyongyang) to an ancient castle in Sweden.

In return for the chance to stand shoulder to shoulder as an equal with the leader of the Free World, Mr Kim may release three Americans imprisoned by the North as a gesture of goodwill.

But a big question remains over one very important word: denuclearisation.

Mr Kim has been using it a lot recently, and some officials in Washington have interpreted that to mean he might be willing to negotiate away his costly and hard-won nuclear arsenal.

But another interpretation is that he means a process that would involve all 30,000-plus US troops permanently withdrawing from the South and a number of security guarantees culminating in a peace treaty to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War.

That is what the North has been demanding for decades.

RUSSIA

A meeting between Mr Kim and Mr Putin would seem to be a no-brainer.

Mr Putin has been relatively friendly with Mr Kims regime and has actively tried to bolster ties, despite the international sanctions.

The two countries recently signed an agreement on cooperation in scientific research and might be discussing a new border bridge.

Russian media, meanwhile, is speculating that North Korean foreign minister Ri Yong Ho is planning to travel to Moscow next month.

Better relations with Moscow could benefit Mr Kim tremendously.

The fall of the Soviet Union was a major blow to the North  and a contributing factor behind a famine in the 1990s that is believed to have killed at least hundreds of thousands of North Koreans. Ties have never been the same since.

But along with potential economic benefits, closer relations with Russia are important as a balance against Chinese influence and a buffer against Washington and its allies. Mr Putin is certainly wary of encouraging a nuclear-armed neighbour, and cosying up with Mr Kim would be a way of thumbing his nose at the West.

And he does seem to like doing that.

JAPAN

Tokyo is playing catch-up.

Mired in a domestic corruption scandal and prone to follow Washingtons lead, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has just recently suggested he, too, wants to get in some quality time with Mr Kim.

Japan has big problems with Pyongyang that go well beyond the nuclear issue.

Kim Jong Il admitted in a summit in 2002 with then-prime minister Junichiro Koizumi that its agents had abducted Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s. Several were returned, but Tokyo has since demanded more information and the dispute has become a bitter stalemate.

Mr Abe is worried Japans demands on the abduction issue will fall to the wayside if he is left out in the cold while Mr Kim meets other leaders.

The cost could be excessively high, however.

In return for normalised relations, Pyongyang will likely demand Japan pay more for the damage caused by its 1910-1945 colonisation of the Korean Peninsula.

Some experts have speculated the bill could run into billions of dollars.
Richard Phillips shows his order of dismissal of homicide charges against him (Max Ortiz/Detroit News via AP)

A US man whose murder conviction was thrown out after spending 45 years in prison has been exonerated and will not face a second trial.

Richard Phillips, 71, from the Detroit area, was upbeat, saying the criminal justice system works  it just didnt work fast enough.

A judge granted a request to permanently drop the case against Phillips, whose conviction was erased last year.

Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy said a new investigation by her office backed his claim that he had no role in a 1971 fatal shooting.

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She said a key witness lied at his 1972 trial.

Theres nothing I can say to bring back 40 years of his life, Ms Worthy said. The system failed him. This is a true exoneration.

The case was reopened at the urging of the Innocence Clinic at University of Michigan law school after a co-defendant at the 1972 trial told the state parole board that Phillips was not involved in the slaying of Gregory Harris.

Phillips had been free on bond since December. He is likely to be eligible for more than 2 million US dollars under Michigans wrongful conviction law.

I've never carried bitterness around, so I'm not a bitter manRichard Phillips

No one in the US has served more years in prison before being exonerated than Phillips, said David Moran, director of the Innocence Clinic.

Ive never carried bitterness around, so Im not a bitter man, Phillips told reporters when asked about his decades in prison.

One of his goals is a reunion with two children who were aged two and four when he went to prison in 1972.

Despite publicity about his case, Phillips said he has not heard from them and does not know their whereabouts.

You have seen the worst and best of the criminal justice system, Judge Kevin Cox told Phillips.

Phillips has settled in a Detroit suburb and attends a church where he shares his story with others.

His freedom truly belongs to him again, Mr Moran said.
Alexandre Bissonnette arrives at the courthouse in Quebec City (Mathieu Belanger/The Canadian Press via AP)

The man accused of killing six men at a Quebec City mosque has changed his mind and pleaded guilty.

Many people in the courtroom burst out sobbing and held hands on Wednesday as the judge confirmed Alexandre Bissonnettes guilty pleas.

Bissonnette, 28, originally pleaded not guilty to the 12 charges on Monday morning but that afternoon announced he wanted to plead guilty.

Superior Court Justice Francois Huot refused to accept the pleas on Monday pending a psychiatric assessment of the accused to ensure he fully understood the consequences of his decision.

Mr Justice Huot placed a publication ban on Monday afternoons proceedings but agreed to accept the 12 guilty pleas on Wednesday.

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Bissonnette faced six charges of first-degree murder and six of attempted murder.

More than 50 people were at the Islamic Cultural Centre in January 2017 when the shooting began during evening prayers.

Six men aged between 39 and 60 were killed.

In my heart, its the decision I have wanted to make in order to avoid a trial and for the victims to not have to relive this tragedy, he told the court on Monday.

Bissonnette said he had been thinking for some time of pleading guilty but that he was missing certain pieces of evidence, which were relayed on Sunday.

When Mr Justice Huot asked him if he was fully aware of what he was doing, Bissonnette replied: Yes.

The judge asked Bissonnette whether he knew he would be getting a life sentence and he answered: I understand.

Mr Justice Huot also asked him if he understood he could receive consecutive sentences, meaning 150 years of prison.

I know, Bissonnette replied, in a low voice.

Psychiatrist Sylvain Faucher said Bissonnette is fit to stand trial and to plead what he wants to plead.

He did not want to be the perpetrator of another collective drama, said Mr Faucher, who met with Bissonnette on Monday evening.

Many members of Quebec Citys Muslim community were present in court on Monday and Wednesday.

Amir Belkacemi, whose 60-year-old father Khaled Belkacemi was killed, said no-one wants to live the trauma again.

That the trial wont have to take place, its a good thing for us, its a good thing for everyone in the community, said Amir Belkacemi, the son of victim Khaled Belkacemi. Very relieved.

Jury selection was scheduled to start April 3 and the trial was expected to last two months.

Sentencing arguments will take place at a later date.

Those who monitor extremist groups in Quebec described the French-Canadian university student as someone who took extreme nationalist positions at Laval University and on social media.

He was a supporter of French far-right leader Marine Le Pen and US President Donald Trump.

Quebecs premier previously acknowledged the French-speaking province has its demons in terms of attitudes towards Muslims.
Six former Israeli spymasters yesterday accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of jeopardising the country's future as it prepares to celebrate the 70th anniversary of its founding next month.

The surviving ex-Mossad chiefs voiced their opinion of the fourth-term, right-wing leader in a joint interview in 'Yedioth Ahronoth', Israel's best-selling newspaper and a regular Netanyahu critic.

Mr Netanyahu had no immediate response, but a senior member of his governing coalition brushed off the censure.

Danny Yatom, who headed Mossad during Netanyahu's first stint in office in the late 1990s, called for him to be ousted, accusing him and aides of "putting their interests ahead of national interests" as corruption investigations deepen.

Police have questioned Mr Netanyahu over his alleged dealings with the country's largest telecommunication company, one of three cases weighing on his political future. Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing and opinion polls show his popularity is still high.

Yatom also voiced concern about "the inertia in the diplomatic sphere, which is leading us toward a bi-national state (with the Palestinians), which would spell the end of a Jewish and democratic state".

Negotiations over a "two-state solution" to Israel's conflict with the Palestinians have been frozen since 2014. Some argue if Israel fails to quit occupied territory, it could one day face a choice between remaining a democracy or securing a Jewish majority by denying the Palestinians voting rights.

Figures cited by Israeli officials showed the number of Jews and Arabs between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River - territory encompassing Israel, the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip - is at or near parity.

"We have children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren here, and I want them to live in a healthy country - and the country is sick," said Zvi Zamir, Mossad director from 1968 to 1974.
A hundred buses carrying 6,749 people  around a quarter of them fighters  left a devastated pocket of Eastern Ghouta in the early hours of yesterday, state news agency SANA has said. Photo: AP

The largest convoy yet of armed fighters and civilians left a devastated pocket of Eastern Ghouta early yesterday, further emptying the one-time Syrian rebel bastion.

Government troops, backed by Russia and loyalist militia, launched a ferocious assault more than a month ago to retake the enclave on the outskirts of Damascus.

They have recaptured more than 90pc of it and are draining the last rebel-held pockets through negotiated withdrawals brokered by Russia. Two such deals have already seen thousands of rebels, their relatives and other civilians bussed out of bombed-out Ghouta districts to Idlib, a north-western province most of which still escapes government control.

The largest numbers have quit the towns of Arbin and Zamalka and adjacent district of Jobar, controlled by the Faylaq al-Rahman Islamist faction. It reached a deal with Moscow last Friday and its implementation began the following morning with nearly 1,000 people boarding buses and leaving.

The numbers have grown steadily since, with the biggest convoy yet departing yesterday after boarding under supervision of Russian military police.

A hundred buses carrying 6,749 people - around a quarter of them fighters - left the Faylaq-controlled pocket in the early hours of yesterday, state news agency SANA said. That brought the total number of evacuees from the pocket to 13,165, and more departures were expected later yesterday.

Faylaq al-Rahman spokesman Wael Alwan has said as many as 30,000 people could be evacuated in all.

President Bashar al-Assad has used such evacuation agreements to recover swathes of territory since the uprising against his rule began seven years ago. They have usually begun with the military encirclement of an area, followed by bombardment and a ground operation before a deal is reached.

Eastern Ghouta lies within mortar range of Damascus, and rebels had used it repeatedly as a launchpad for rocket attacks on the capital. The regime responded with a half-decade siege of the enclave's 400,000 residents, sealing off access to food and medicine.

On February 18, the regime, its ally Russia and loyalist militia launched an all-out air and ground assault that killed more than 1,600 civilians, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Nationwide plans to wade into the market for business banking by taking a slice of Royal Bank of Scotlands challenger fund.

Britains biggest building society wants to launch a current account for smaller firms in an attempt to break the big fives dominance of the financial space.

RBS has been forced by the European Commissions to set up a near-800 million pot designed to spur competition while avoiding the sale of around 300 Williams & Glyn branches.

The package is split, with 425 million set aside to support challenger banks and fin-tech businesses and 350 million to help challenger banks convince small firms to switch from the state-backed lender.

Nationwide, has around 15 million customers and employs 18,000 staff, joins the likes of Virgin Money, Starling and Aldemore, which have all expressed an intent to claim a portion of the money.

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Chief executive Joe Garner said: We know there is demand for a Nationwide business current account, because at least 50,000 members ask us each year if we can help.

This funding gives us a way to enter the market, serve society and meet our member needs several years before we would otherwise have re-considered it.

We are already transforming the market in personal current accounts, winning more switchers than the big banks combined.

Nationwide is the only market challenger with the scale, trust and track record to offer a compelling national alternative to the status quo that has reigned in business banking for over 20 years.

Banking giants RBS, Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and Santander hold around 85% of business accounts, according to market research specialist Mintel.

If its secures the funding, Nationwide will look to cater for the UKs 5.7 million small companies and micro firms, including sole traders and owner-managed businesses.

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Conservative MP Kevin Hollinrake, vice chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Fair Business Banking, welcomed the move.

He said: High-profile business banking scandals have featured heavily in the press in recent years.

It is worrying that there is now a growing crisis of confidence between our businesses and our banks.

The market needs to be competitive in order to deliver the right solutions for small businesses, who are the backbone of our economy.

Nationwide announced in February that underlying pre-tax profit rise 2% to 883 million for the nine months ending in December, boosted by the 26 million sale of its payments system VocaLink.
Stormy Daniels added Donald Trump's personal lawyer as a defendant in her lawsuit against the US President, another fold in the legal morass stemming from her alleged affair with Mr Trump in 2006 and a subsequent agreement not to discuss the relationship.

Daniels, an adult actress whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, claimed on Monday that she was defamed by a statement Mr Trump's lawyer issued last month that made her sound like a liar.

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In the statement, Michael Cohen said: "Just because something isn't true doesn't mean that it can't cause you harm or damage." The comments were in connection with the $130,000 (104,000) he paid Ms Clifford in 2016 to keep quiet about the alleged relationship with Mr Trump. According to Ms Clifford, the statement harmed her reputation and exposed her to contempt, ridicule and shame.

The filing in the Superior Court of California followed a '60 Minutes' interview aired on Sunday night in which Ms Clifford described the encounter she had with Mr Trump more than 10 years ago. Raj Shah, a spokesman for the White House, said on Monday that Mr Trump strongly, clearly and consistently denied the underlying claims.

"The president doesn't believe any of the claims Ms Daniels made in the interview last night were accurate," Mr Shah said.

The television interview was the first time Ms Clifford explicitly confirmed the affair since receiving a $130,000 payment from Mr Cohen shortly before the 2016 election in exchange for a non-disclosure agreement.

The interview drew the highest ratings in 10 years for CBS's '60 Minutes', attracting 21.3 million viewers, according to ratings released by the network. Asked about the payment by Mr Cohen, Mr Shah said: "False charges are settled out of court all the time. This is nothing out of the ordinary."

Ms Clifford has sought to invalidate the agreement, in part because she says Mr Trump didn't sign it, and said her decision to speak out was driven by suggestions by the president's associates that she made up the story.

Ms Clifford's sometimes-graphic retelling of the alleged sexual incident largely echoed a 2011 interview with 'In Touch' magazine about the relationship. 'In Touch' didn't publish the interview after Mr Cohen threatened to sue the publication, '60 Minutes' reported.

She also said she had been intimidated to keep silent. Ms Clifford said that in 2011, after Mr Cohen's threat to sue 'In Touch', an unidentified man approached her in a car park before a gym class in Las Vegas and said it would be a shame for her daughter if something happened to Ms Clifford.

Mr Trump's representatives denied allegations of an affair during the presidential campaign, and earlier this year Daniels signed a statement denying any relationship, which was released by Mr Cohen.

In the '60 Minutes' interview, Ms Clifford said she signed the denial because she believed Mr Cohen would make her "life hell in many different ways".

Stephanie Grisham, a spokeswoman for First Lady Melania Trump, appeared to allude to the allegations in a tweet on Sunday night.

"While I know the media is enjoying speculation and salacious gossip, I'd like to remind people there's a minor child whose name should be kept out of news stories when at all possible," she wrote.

The alleged affair between the future president and Ms Clifford occurred only months after the birth of Barron Trump.

Ms Clifford's lawyer, Michael Avenatti, said on Monday that there was additional evidence to support Ms Clifford's claims. Ms Clifford herself declined to answer questions about whether she had any text messages or videos documenting the relationship.

"We're not going to get into the details of everything we have at this time, and there's a reason for that," Mr Avenatti told NBC News. "We understand the American people want all the information right now, immediately. It would make no sense for us to play our hand as to this issue and we're not going to do it right now."

 2018 Bloomberg
Donald Trump probably got it about right when he said he could shoot somebody on Fifth Avenue and people would still vote for him.

Given that he is on his third marriage, I think it would be fair to say that he is not going to win the award for husband of the year. But unless he does something monumentally stupid, the Stormy Daniels brouhaha should not prove fatal for his presidency.

Trump's libido was hardly a secret when he ran for office and he still won the election. He may have been embarrassed by the 'Access Hollywood' tapes, but they did no lasting damage.

There has been a procession of women accusing Trump of sexual harassment or extramarital affairs. The veracity of these allegations is for others to judge.

Thus far Trump has largely kept quiet about the Daniels allegations beyond a cryptic tweet about fake news and a denial issued on his behalf by the White House press office.

He did, of course, make an angry full-throated denial of the claims of sexual harassment made by Summer Zervos, a contestant on 'The Apprentice'.

Trump's generally muted response to the torrent of allegations is fairly sensible.

As things stand, he has lost the support of some evangelical Christians, which is hardly surprising. He was never particularly popular among women voters.

Not only is there little political capital to be gained in becoming embroiled in a tit for tat with his accusers, but the consequences of doing so could be catastrophic.

He need only look back at what happened to Bill Clinton to appreciate that he should do whatever it takes to prevent any of his dirty linen being aired in court.

To recap: Clinton had a series of sexual encounters with Monica Lewinsky, below, then a 21-year-old intern, with their affair starting in November 1995.

When the relationship broke up she confided in Linda Tripp, a Pentagon co-worker, about her affair with Clinton without realising that the conversations were being taped.

In December 1997 Lewinsky was subpoenaed by lawyers acting on behalf of Paula Jones, who was suing Clinton for sexual harassment.

Clinton put pressure on Lewinsky to file an affidavit denying having had a sexual relationship with him. Clinton continued to deny the allegations in a sworn deposition.

Things got messy as the story unravelled. Clinton faced a special prosecutor and the Republican-dominated House of Representatives ordered his impeachment for an array of offences including lying to a grand jury and attempting to obstruct justice in the Paula Jones case.

Clinton, who was acquitted by the Senate, was only the second president to face impeachment proceedings. The first was Andrew Johnson in 1868.

One suspects that the lessons of the Clinton impeachment proceedings have not been lost on Donald Trump, who will note how close one of his predecessors came to being defenestrated on the back of allegations of sexual misconduct.

At the very least, Trump faces the risk of humiliation should the cases go to court and potentially far more serious consequences should the other side have some sort of smoking gun which proves the truth of the allegations or even worse, shows that he perjured himself during the proceedings.

Ignoring the allegations, save for the odd tweet about "fake news", won't keep the story out of the headlines. But it will prevent it from spiralling out of control.

That is probably the best he can hope for.
Ri Sol Ju, wife of Kim Jong Un and the North Korea leader (on left) were hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife, Peng Liyuan (Ju Peng/Xinhua via AP)

North Korea leader Kim Jong Un has visited Beijing and met Chinas President Xi Jinping in his first known trip to a foreign country since he took power in 2011.

The leaders sought to portray strong ties between the long-time allies despite a recent chill as both countries confirmed Mr Kims secret trip this week.

The visit highlights Beijing and Pyongyangs efforts to better position themselves by showing they support each other ahead of Mr Kims planned meetings with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and US President Donald Trump in the coming weeks.

Mr Kim made the unofficial visit to China from Sunday to Wednesday at Mr Xis invitation, Chinas official Xinhua News Agency said.

Mr Xi held talks with Mr Kim at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing and he and his wife Peng Liyuan hosted a banquet for Mr Kim and his wife Ri Sol Ju, Xinhua said. They also watched an art performance together, the news agency added.

Official reports from both countries depicted warm ties between the two leaders in an effort to downplay recent tensions in relations over Mr Kims development of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles.

In these reports, Kim reaffirms the traditional friendship between the two countries as if nothing had ever happened, when the relationship had plummeted to unprecedented lows, said Bonnie Glaser, an Asia expert at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

Ties in recent months have frayed as China supported tougher UN sanctions on North Korea and suspended imports of coal, iron ore, seafood and textiles.

Pyongyang last year seemingly sought to humiliate Beijing by timing some of its missile tests for major global summits in China, while its state media accused Chinese state-controlled media of going under the armpit of the US by criticising the North.

Expand Close People watch a TV report about the meeting between Kim Jong Un and Xi Jinping (Lee Jin-man/AP) / Facebook

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Whatsapp People watch a TV report about the meeting between Kim Jong Un and Xi Jinping (Lee Jin-man/AP)

Mr Xi hailed Mr Kims visit as embodying the importance with which the North Korean leader regarded ties with China.

We speak highly of this visit, Mr Xi told Mr Kim, according to Xinhua.

For China, the visit also reminds other countries that Beijing remains one of North Koreas most important allies and is a player not to be sidelined in denuclearisation talks.

It also projects to the Chinese public that Mr Xi is firmly in charge of steering Beijings relations with North Korea in a way that favours Chinas interests.

Here is Xi Jinping saying, Dont worry, everything is going to be great, Ms Glaser said.

Mr Trump tweeted on Wednesday that he had received a message from Mr Xi saying that his meeting with Mr Kim went very well and that Kim looks forward to his meeting with me.

For years and through many administrations, everyone said that peace and the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula was not even a small possibility, he tweeted.

Now there is a good chance that Kim Jong Un will do what is right for his people and for humanity. Look forward to our meeting!

Analysts say Mr Kim would have felt a need to consult with his countrys traditional ally ahead of summits with Mr Moon and Mr Trump. China would also not want Mr Kims first foreign meeting to be with someone other than Mr Xi.

Expand Close Kim Jong Un and Xi Jinping walk together in Beijing (CCTV via AP Video) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Kim Jong Un and Xi Jinping walk together in Beijing (CCTV via AP Video)

China was getting concerned it could be left out of any initial political agreements that Moon and Kim or Trump and Kim could come to, said Michael Kovrig, senior adviser for north-east Asia at the International Crisis Group.

This is China asserting its regional hegemony and influence, saying: Hey, you talk to me first.

Mr Kim was described by Xinhua as saying that his country wants to transform ties with South Korea into a relationship of reconciliation and cooperation.

The two Koreas are still technically at war because their 1950-53 war ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.

Mr Kim also said that North Korea is willing to hold a summit with the United States, according to Xinhua.

North Koreas official Korean Central News Agency published Mr Kims personal letter to Mr Xi dated on Wednesday, where he expressed gratitude to the Chinese leadership for showing what he described as heartwarming hospitality during his productive visit.

Mr Kim said that the first meeting between the leaders of the two countries will provide a groundbreaking milestone in developing mutual relations to meet the demands of the new era.

Mr Kim also said that he is satisfied that the leaders confirmed their unified opinions on mutual issues.

For the North Koreans, it is in their best interests to enter any meetings with Moon or Trump having shored up and repaired to a certain extent their relations with Beijing, said Paul Haenle, director of the Carnegie-Tsinghua Centre for Global Policy in Beijing.

KCNA said Mr Kim also called for more meetings with Mr Xi and other Chinese officials to deepen the ties between the countries and also asked Mr Xi to visit North Korea at a time convenient for him, which Mr Xi gladly accepted.

The Norths diplomatic move this year follows a tense 2017 when it conducted its most powerful nuclear test to date and tested three intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to target the US mainland.

The developments are being interpreted as the North being desperate to break out of isolation and improve its economy after being squeezed by heavy sanctions.

At least one of the things that Kim would want out of these meetings is a way forward to begin to ease those sanctions and support from China in that effort, Ms Glaser said.

China remains North Koreas only major ally and chief provider of energy, aid and trade that keep the countrys broken economy afloat.

In a speech at a banquet in China, Mr Kim described the traditional allies as inseparable neighbouring brothers with a relationship moulded by a sacred mutual fight to achieve socialist ideals, according to KCNA.

In addition to the trip being his first abroad as leader, his talk with Mr Xi was his first meeting with a foreign head of state. Mr Kims father, late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, had visited China several times during his rule, lastly in May 2011, months before his death that December.

Its most proper that my first overseas trip would be the capital of the Peoples Republic of China, said Mr Kim, according to the North Korean agency. Its also one of my noble duties to value the North Korea-China friendship as I do my own life.
Police in protective suits at The Maltings shopping centre, where former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found critically ill (Ben Birchall/PA)

The Russian Foreign Ministry said British special services could have been behind the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Salisbury.

Britain has accused Russia of a nerve agent attack on former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

Russia has fiercely rejected the accusations, calling them baseless.

These 5 slides are literally all the confidential evidence @foreignoffice presented to prove its point in Skripal case. No wonder over 160 countries were not impressed. pic.twitter.com/4qBFzI0U4X  Russian Embassy, UK (@RussianEmbassy) March 28, 2018

More than 20 nations have expelled over 130 Russian diplomats this week in a show of solidarity with Britain.

Russia denounced the actions as boorish and pledged to retaliate.

The Russian Foreign ministrys claim of possible involvement of British special services in the poisoning marks Moscows bluntest claim yet of alleged British foul play.

British officials have previously rejected such Russian claims as nonsense.

Moscow said the British failure to provide evidence suggests the poisoning was a major political provocation.
People light candles for victims of the fire in the Siberian city of Kemerovo (Pavel Golovkin/AP)

Flags flew at half-mast across Russia on Wednesday as the country mourned the victims  many of them children  of a shopping centre fire in Siberia.

The blaze engulfed the four-storey shopping centre in the city of Kemerovo on Sunday while it was packed with parents and children on the first weekend of the school break.

Investigators identified a short circuit as a possible cause and said the emergency exits were locked shut, hampering an evacuation.

Some of the victims, many of them young children, died inside a locked cinema.

Wednesday was declared a day of mourning in Russia, and thousands of people have been bringing flowers and toys to makeshift memorials across the country.

The investigators have released 21 bodies for burial.

The first funerals for the victims were held Wednesday morning in Kemerovo, a city of half a million people 3,000 kilometres (1,900 miles) east of Moscow that has been paralysed with grief.

Thousands of angry and distraught residents rallied on Kemerovos main square on Tuesday for 10 hours, demanding that local officials conduct a full and transparent probe.

Some locals mistrust the official reports that put the death toll at 64.

Deputy emergency situations minister Vladlen Aksyonov told the RIA Novosti news agency on Wednesday that the bodies of all 64 victims have been recovered and that no one is unaccounted for.

Among the first people buried were a grandmother and her two grandchildren  eight and 10  who died in the locked cinema while watching cartoons. They were all buried in the same grave.

Expand Close Relatives and friends of the victims attend a religion mourning ceremony in an Orthodox church, in the Siberian city of Kemerovo (Sergei Gavrilenko/AP) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Relatives and friends of the victims attend a religion mourning ceremony in an Orthodox church, in the Siberian city of Kemerovo (Sergei Gavrilenko/AP)

Elsewhere in Kemerovo, residents were mourning English teacher Tatyana Darsaliya who also died in the fire.

Deputy Principal Irina Borisova told the Tass news agency after the requiem service that Ms Darsaliya was much loved and pupils loved her classes.

A court in Kemerovo is expected to rule later on Wednesday on the arrests of one of the malls tenants, the malls technical director, two employees of a company maintaining the fire alarm system and a security guard who the investigators said turned off the fire alarm.

Speaking in court, security guard Sergei Antyushin said in remarks carried by the Dozhd television station that the malls fire alarm did go off and that he called emergency services when it did.

He did confirm, however, that the malls public announcement system has not been operational for two weeks.
Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud speaks during a signing ceremony at the United Nations (Eskinder Debebe/United Nations via AP)

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have given 930 million dollars (505m) to US humanitarian efforts in Yemen.

The nations made the pledge on Tuesday, as a war between a Saudi-led military coalition and Yemens Shiite rebels enters its fourth year.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman presented the previously pledged donation to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as the two discussed Yemen.

The Arab worlds poorest country is in the grips of a stalemated war and what the UN calls the worst humanitarian crisis, with 22 million people needing aid.

Mr Guterres thanked Prince Mohammed for the contribution, which covers nearly a third of the total the UN is seeking for Yemen humanitarian aid this year.

Expand Close UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, right rear, and Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, left rear, watch as their representatives sign a voluntary financial contribution memo for the Yemeni humanitarian response plan at UN headquarters (Eskinder Debebe/United Nations via AP) / Facebook

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Whatsapp UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, right rear, and Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, left rear, watch as their representatives sign a voluntary financial contribution memo for the Yemeni humanitarian response plan at UN headquarters (Eskinder Debebe/United Nations via AP)

On the other hand, we know that there is no humanitarian solution for humanitarian problems, Mr Guterres added. The solution is political, and we are entirely at your disposal to work together to find a political solution when that becomes possible.

The UN said Mr Guterres and the prince also discussed protecting civilians and needs for humanitarian access and open ports.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir called the meeting very productive and comprehensive.

He said the two talked about avoiding foreign intervention in Yemen, particularly from Iran.

Western countries and UN researchers have accused Iran of supplying arms to the Yemeni rebels, known as Houthis. Iran denies it, though a growing body of evidence contradicts the claim.

The US provides logistical support and weaponry to the Saudi-led coalition, which has been criticised for airstrikes that kill civilians and for a port blockade that brought Yemen to the edge of famine.

The Houthis and their allies seized Yemens capital, Sanaa, in September 2014. The war began six months later, with the coalition backing Yemens internationally recognised government.

Over 10,000 people have been killed.

On Sunday, the rebels fired a barrage of ballistic missiles targeting Saudi Arabia. Fragments of one missile that went over Riyadh, the Saudi capital, killing one person and wounding two.
Firefighters work at the wreckage of a bus that crashed in Gosau near Salzburg (Werner Kerschbaumayr /FotoKerschi.at/Kerschbaummayr via AP)

Twenty-four people have been injured after a bus carrying South Korean tourists crashed near the Alpine city of Salzburg, Austrian police said.

The Croatian driver and a South Korean tourist were seriously injured in Wednesdays crash, while 22 others suffered minor injuries.

Police said the crash happened in Gosau, 30 kilometres (19 miles) south-east of Salzburg.

According to preliminary information, the bus, which was heading to the scenic village of Hallstatt, slid off the road in snowy conditions and hit a perimeter wall.

The injured were taken to hospitals in Voecklabruck, Salzburg, Bad Ischl and Gmunden.

Police say 35 South Korean tourists were on board.
Mumbai, Mar 28 (IBNS): MG Motor India on Wednesday further reiterated its commitment to the Indian market through the first-ever dealership experience event in the country.

The event was aimed at selecting the right partners for its operations in India.

With over 2,000 registrations received from prospective dealers on its website since entries began on Mar 11, 2018, MG Motor India also shared its business plans with the selected prospects from Western India at an event in Mumbai.

In order to find dealers who can complement the MG Motor brand synergy, the company will conduct an extensive evaluation process.

The key selection parameters will include good market credibility, local market knowledge, financial background, digital savviness, excellent operational efficiency and the capability to deliver a differentiated service commitment that surpasses the industry standard and sets new benchmarks.

Like our strong focus on employees and diversity, we have laid out a core philosophy for our dealers as well, for they will be the face of the MG brand for customers. Revolving around the umbrella theme: Together we grow, our dealer policy inculcates complete transparency and mutual respect while focusing on bringing a practical approach to business, said Rajeev Chaba, President & Managing Director, MG Motor India.

With a high degree of emphasis on digitisation and business analytics, we will offer a strong support system to our dealer partners, helping them run their operations effectively and profitably. The overarching goal of this endeavour is to provide a heightened customer experience. We are also looking at engaging diversified partners from the non-automotive business with proven experience across organized customer-oriented retail industry, added Chaba.



As part of the Make in India initiative, MG Motor India recently announced that its first vehicle will be launched in Q2 2019, followed by the introduction of one new product to the Indian market every subsequent year. Led by strong R&D efforts of its parent company SAIC, the carmaker is also actively considering offering new energy vehicles and is keenly looking to work with all stakeholders involved to implement the technology commercially.

With the rebuilding of its Halol plant progressing at a fast pace, including the construction of a new press shop, the company is in the process of concluding talks with various suppliers to achieve high levels of localisation in its vehicles.



MG Motor India said it is also looking to build a future-ready organization that sets the industry benchmarks not only in terms of a young & smart work culture, but also in terms of diversity; female employees already account for 22 percent of the companys total workforce and it plans to further increase the number of female hires in the future.




New Delhi, Mar 28 (IBNS): External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday departed for Japan.

She will visit Japan for three days.

Swaraj will attend the 9th India-Japan Foreign Ministers Strategic Dialogue in Tokyo.

Strengthening our Special Strategic and Global Partnership with Japan! EAM @SushmaSwaraj departs on a 3-day visit to Japan for the 9th India-Japan Foreign Ministers Strategic Dialogue in Tokyo. #KonnichiwaNamaste pic.twitter.com/IInVyJVSj7  Raveesh Kumar (@MEAIndia) March 28, 2018

"Strengthening our Special Strategic and Global Partnership with Japan! EAM @SushmaSwaraj departs on a 3-day visit to Japan for the 9th India-Japan Foreign Ministers Strategic Dialogue in Tokyo. #KonnichiwaNamaste," MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted.

Swaraj is visiting the Asian nation at the invitation of the Foreign Minister of Japan Taro Kono.

During her visit, Sushma Swaraj will co-chair the 9th India-Japan Strategic Dialogue with Foreign Minister Kono on Mar 29, 2018.

The two sides will review all aspects of bilateral relations and exchange views on regional and international issues of common interest,India's Ministry of External Affairs earlier said in a statement.

India and Japan concluded a Special Strategic and Global Partnership during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Japan in 2014. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited India in September 2017.

Japan is today one of the largest investors in India, with a growing presence in infrastructure projects, manufacturing, financial markets and capacity-building, among others, the Union ministry said in its release.
New Delhi, Mar 28 (IBNS): The parliament will head on to the 18th working day in the second phase of the budget session as the logjam between the ruling and the opposition parties is continuing to stall proceedings in both the houses.

The four no-confidence motions-brought by Telegu Desam Party (TDP), YSR Congress, Congress and CPI-M- are yet to be tabled in the Lok Sabha.

Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan could not allow the motions as the house was not in order.

In last few days, both the houses were adjourned for the day within few minutes of its beginning.

The opposition parties like Telangana Rashtriya Samithi (TRS), AIADMK have been protesting for more than a week over a number of issues ranging from the Cauvery river water share to the Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam.

However, both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress said they want the parliament to function.

The no-confidence motion was first brought by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu's TDP which had pulled itself from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), that runs the central government, over the demands of the special status for the southern state.
New Delhi, Mar 28 (IBNS): A day after holding meetings with host of opposition leaders, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief, Mamata Banerjee, will meet three rebel Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders in the national capital on Wednesday, media reports said.

Banerjee is expected to meet BJP leaders Yashwant Sinha, Shatrughan Sinha and Arun Shourie.

All the three leaders have been vocal against the ruling BJP in recent times.

Yashwant Sinha, the former Union Finance Minister, had criticised incumbent FM Arun Jaitley over his running of the department.

Both Sinha and Jaitley were engaged into verbal attacks against each other.

Jaitley had also alluded to Sinha as having aspirations to become the FM of the country even at the age of 80.

BJP's Lok Sabha MP Shatrughan Sinha has been tweeting on a regular basis to criticise the BJP government.

He has also accused the saffron party of "arrogance" and "overconfidence", while reacting to his party's twin defeats in the Uttar Pradesh by-polls.

Banerjee, who is a strong proponent of a collective opposition at the national level, met leaders of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Shiv Sena, Samajwadi Party (SP), DMK in the parliament's central hall on Tuesday.

She has pitched in the united opposition by urging all parties to come together to defeat the BJP in 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

The TMC supremo even urged all parties to support the political outfits which are dominant in respective states, a strategy Banerjee feels could uninstall the Modi government.

While asked about whether she would like to meet Congress Chairperson Sonia Gandhi during her four-day visit to Delhi, the WB CM said she will do once the veteran recovers from ailment.

In a later development reported by some newspapers, Sonia has expressed her wish to meet the TMC chief on Wednesday.

Banerjee is also expected to meet Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday evening, according to media reports.
Guwahati, Mar 28 (IBNS) : Three days after the arrest of three Nagaland Government officials in connection with illegal tax collection on behalf of several insurgent groups, including the banned NSCN-K, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has issued a fresh notice to former Chief Minister TR Zeliang, asking him to appear before it in New Delhi on March 31.

The investigating agency has also asked his then personal secretary K Francis Zeliang to appear before the NIA headquarter on the same day in connection with the allegation of funding insurgent groups from state exchequer.

On March 25, the NIA had arrested three Nagaland Government officers in connection with illegally tax collection for the banned outfit group.

The arrested officers are - G Ikuto Zhimomi (Director, Directorate of Agriculture, Kohima), Ketouzo Peseyie (executive engineer in state rural development department) and Sangtemchuba (divisional accounts office in Nagalands urban development department).

Earlier, TR Zeliang was summoned by the NIA to Delhi but he requested for deferring the date because of the state Assembly session, which ended on March 26.

NIA has been probing the case since August 2016.

The National Investigation Agency has so far arrested 10 Nagaland Government officials in connection with the allegations of extortions and illegal tax collection.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
Srinagar, Mar 28 (IBNS) : A gunfight between suspected militants and Government forces is underway in the Sunderbani area of Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district, where a search operation has been going on for past four days.

Reports said that intermittent exchange of fire is going on between the suspected militants and the forces in a forest area of Talha village near the Line of Control (LoC).

Earlier, forces recovered bags containing ammunition and explosive materials from a gorge in the area.

Authorities have ordered the closure of all schools in the area as a precautionary measure.

The search operation was launched following the reports of suspicious movement of suspected militants.

(Reporting by Saleem Iqbal Qadri)
New Delhi, Mar 28 (IBNS): The Lok Sabha has been adjourned till Monday as the opposition continued to create ruckus in the lower house on the 18th day in the second phase of the Budget session.

Speaker Sumitra Mahajan adjourned the House as it was not in order.

The second phase of the budget session, which began on Mar 5, has gone without any activity till Wednesday.

The four no-confidence motions-brought by Telegu Desam Party (TDP), YSR Congress, Congress and CPI-M- are yet to be tabled in the Lok Sabha.

In last few days, both the houses were adjourned for the day within few minutes of its beginning.

The opposition parties like Telangana Rashtriya Samithi (TRS), AIADMK have been protesting for more than a week over a number of issues ranging from the Cauvery river water share to the Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam.

However, both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress said they want the parliament to function.

The no-confidence motion was first brought by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu's TDP which had pulled itself from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), that runs the central government, over the demands of the special status for the southern state.

However, the Rajya Sabha functioned on Wednesday as Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and others bid farewell to the retiring MPs of the Upper House.
Naypyidaw, Mar 28 (IBNS) : A week after former President Htin Kyaw's resignation, Myanmar Parliament elected Win Myint as his successor, reports said on Wednesday.

The new President has been described as a close aide of State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.

Myint in the past has been a speaker in the lower house, serving in the position since 2012.

Htin Kyaw, Myanmar's ninth President, and the first to hold the office without having any military ties, resigned last week.

His official Facebook page later stated that the President was stepping down to 'take rest'.

According to reports, the former President has not been keeping well.

The new President, 66-year-old Myint, is a Bamar, Myanmar's majority ethnic group.
New Delhi, Mar 28 (IBNS): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday commended the contributions of all the retiring Members of the Rajya Sabha, and wished them well for the future.

In his remarks in the Rajya Sabha, the Prime Minister expressed confidence that the Members retiring from the House, would now play an even stronger role in social service.

He said all of them have a unique importance, and have contributed in their own way. He added that they have worked to the best of their ability for the brighter future of the nation.

The Nation can never forget their contribution, he said.

The Prime Minister said that the Upper House, with senior Members, has a unique significance. It plays a key role in policy formulation, he added.

The Prime Minister made a special mention of many retiring MPs and their contributions.

The Prime Minister said that it is unfortunate that the retiring Members will not be a part of Parliament, when the long due decision on Triple Talaq is taken.

He assured the retiring members that the doors of Parliament and PMO are always open for them, and urged them to continue sharing their thoughts on vital issues of the day.
New Delhi/London: Christopher Wylie, the whistle-blower in the Cambridge Analytica saga, revealed on Tuesday that the UK-based firm has offices in India and has been helping major Indian political parties during election campaigns.

Wylie, who testified before members of the British Parliament, named India's oldest political party, Indian National Congress, as one of CA's client.

"They [Cambridge Analytica] worked extensively in India. They have an office in India... I believe their client was Congress but I know that they have done all kinds of projects. I don't remember a national project but I know regionally. India's so big that one state can be as big as Britain. But they do have offices there, they do have staff," Wylie was quoted in media as telling lawmakers under oath.

I've been getting a lot of requests from Indian journalists, so here are some of SCL's past projects in India. To the most frequently asked question - yes SCL/CA works in India and has offices there. This is what modern colonialism looks like. pic.twitter.com/v8tOmcmy3z  Christopher Wylie (@chrisinsilico) March 28, 2018

His statement has confirmed allegations made by India's Law and Justice and Information-Technology Minister, Ravishankar Prasad, earlier this month.

The Indian lawmaker had alleged that the Congress has links with Cambridge Analytica.

On Wednesday, he took to Twitter to share documents suggestive of CA's indulgences in India.

"I've been getting a lot of requests from Indian journalists, so here are some of SCL's past projects in India. To the most frequently asked question - yes SCL/CA works in India and has offices there. This is what modern colonialism looks like."

According to these documents, it is understood that Cambridge Analytica has been working in India for several parties since 2003.

The Janata Dal United is the only party that has been named in the document shared by Christopher Wylie on Wednesday.

The documents shared by him also indicated that the company had conducted caste research for a major party in Indian states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.



How the saga unfolded?

Cambridge Analytica, US President Donald Trump campaigns data consultant, was accused of siphoning personal data of over 50 million Facebook users to influence the 2016 American election.

The matter came to light after UK's Channel 4 News released a footage obtained via a sting.

In it, then CA chief executive, Alexander Nix, was seen discussing tactics with the undercover reporter on how the firm would discredit politicians online.

Nix spoke about sending Ukrainian girls around to the candidate's house, adding that these girls 'are very beautiful, I find that works very well'.

He said another way to lure the target is to 'offer them a deal that's too good to be true and make sure that's video recorded'.

The company first denied any wrongdoing.

"In playing along with this line of conversation, and partly to spare our 'client' from embarrassment, we entertained a series of ludicrous hypothetical scenarios," a company statement read.

It added, "Cambridge Analytica does not condone or engage in entrapment, bribes or so-called 'honeytraps'."

However, a day later, the company said it has suspended its CEO pending investigation.

"In the view of the Board, Mr. Nixs recent comments secretly recorded by Channel 4 and other allegations do not represent the values or operations of the firm and his suspension reflects the seriousness with which we view this violation.

"We have asked Dr. Alexander Tayler to serve as acting CEO while an independent investigation is launched to review those comments and allegations," the company said in a release.

"We have asked Julian Malins QC to lead this investigation, the findings of which the Board will share publicly in due course," it said.



Facebook's reaction

Reacting to the fiasco, a report from Facebook Newsroom read, "In 2015, we learned that a psychology professor at the University of Cambridge named Dr. Aleksandr Kogan lied to us and violated our Platform Policies by passing data from an app that was using Facebook Login to SCL/Cambridge Analytica, a firm that does political, government and military work around the globe. He also passed that data to Christopher Wylie of Eunoia Technologies, Inc.

"Although Kogan gained access to this information in a legitimate way and through the proper channels that governed all developers on Facebook at that time, he did not subsequently abide by our rules. By passing information on to a third party, including SCL/Cambridge Analytica and Christopher Wylie of Eunoia Technologies, he violated our platform policies.

"When we learned of this violation in 2015, we removed his app from Facebook and demanded certifications from Kogan and all parties he had given data to that the information had been destroyed. Cambridge Analytica, Kogan and Wylie all certified to us that they destroyed the data," the company said.

"Several days ago, we received reports that, contrary to the certifications we were given, not all data was deleted. We are moving aggressively to determine the accuracy of these claims. If true, this is another unacceptable violation of trust and the commitments they made.

"We are suspending SCL/Cambridge Analytica, Wylie and Kogan from Facebook, pending further information," the statement added.



Zuckerberg's apology and the aftermath

"This was a major breach of trust, and I'm really sorry that this happened," Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg told the CNN, reflecting on the gaffe.

In a Facebook post, he wrote, "We have a responsibility to protect your data, and if we can't then we don't deserve to serve you. I've been working to understand exactly what happened and how to make sure this doesn't happen again. The good news is that the most important actions to prevent this from happening again today we have already taken years ago. But we also made mistakes, there's more to do, and we need to step up and do it."

Following its admission, that it failed to handle the data breach, Facebook lost 58 billion USD in shares within a week.

Even though the company's founder, Mark Zuckerberg, apologised for the mistake, experts have said that it was too late by then to stem the rot.

"One of the secrets of Facebook's success has been that the more people who use Facebook, the more integral it becomes to its customers. Unfortunately for Facebook, the same dynamic cuts in the opposite direction if it loses a meaningful number of users as a result of this scandal," BBC quoted senior analyst Laith Khalaf as saying.

Passion Capital tech investor Eileen Burbidge was quoted by the outlet as saying, "The fact that it took them five days to come out with a statement, which happened to be a fair, sensible and comprehensive statement, was just far too long. I think they were just really tone deaf for too many days."

Meanwhile, taking up a dare, Tesla co-founder Elon Musk deleted Tesla and SpaceX's Facebook page.

Musk said that the pages 'looked lame anyway'.




New Delhi, Mar 28 (IBNS): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday thanked BSP chief Mayawati for attacking the BJP-led government at the Centre.

She said BJP is 'scared' as all opposition leaders are working together.

"Thank you Mayawati Ji for your comments about Bengal. You have exposed the BJP govt. BJP govt is scared as we are all working together," Banerjee tweeted.

Mayawati reportedly accused Prime Minister Narendra Mod-led Centre of having different standards for West Bengal.

Banerjee, who is a strong proponent of a collective opposition at the national level, met leaders of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Shiv Sena, Samajwadi Party (SP), DMK in the parliament's central hall on Tuesday.

She has pitched in the united opposition by urging all parties to come together to defeat the BJP in 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

The TMC supremo even urged all parties to support the political outfits which are dominant in respective states, a strategy Banerjee feels could uninstall the Modi government.

While asked about whether she would like to meet Congress Chairperson Sonia Gandhi during her four-day visit to Delhi, the WB CM said she will do once the veteran recovers from ailment.

In a later development reported by some newspapers, Sonia has expressed her wish to meet the TMC chief on Wednesday.
Guwahati, Mar 28 (IBNS): Concerning about rising crimes against women in Assam, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Wednesday directed all Deputy Commissioners (DCs) and Superintendents of Police (SP) of all districts to ensure swift and correct filling of chargesheet in all crimes against women and children so that justice can be given to the victims.

Chairing a law and order meeting with DCs and SPs of all districts through video conferencing at his conference hall at Janata Bhawan in Guwahati, the Assam CM said that, no criminal should be able to get away taking advantage of the loopholes in law and that must be ensured by filing an accurate charge-sheet, he said.

Sonowal also directed the DCs and SPs to conduct intensive awareness campaigns with active participation of students, teachers, NGOs, village heads (gao burhas), village defence forces, panchayat members, ASHA workers, anganwadi workers etc so that people are made aware to prevent heinous crimes taking place against children and women in all corners of the state.

The Assam CM directed the SPs of all districts to personally monitor all such cases.

Issuing a directive to the DCs of all districts to ensure completion of repair works of embankments within stipulated timeframe through strict monitoring, Sonowal instructed DC Jorhat to prevent erosion caused by Brahmaputra River at Nimati Ghat by monitoring the works closely.

He also directed the DCs and SPs of Dibrugarh and Dhemaji Districts to ensure speedy completion of Bogibeel Bridge so that it can be opened for the public at an early date.

Infrastructure development related all national projects must be accorded top priority by the DCs and SPs, Sonowal said.



The Assam CM directed the SPs of all districts to act strongly against drug trafficking and illegal syndicates.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
New Delhi, Mar 28 (IBNS): The Centre on Wednesday announced its plan to sell up to 76 per cent stake in Air India.

In June, the Union Cabinet had given in-principle approval for national-carrier Air India's stake disinvestment.

The process is being monitored by Air India-Specific Alternative Mechanism headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

On Tuesday, the Civil Aviation Ministry came out with a detailed preliminary information memorandum on the stake sale, said reports.
Los Angeles, Mar 28 (IBNS): As many fans criticised Kim Kardashian over a recent photo she shared on Instagram and said the image was 'edited', the actress herself took the effort of clearing all doubts on the issue.

Kim recently issued a statement on her website where she blamed a fan for editing the image.

Kim said she just reposted the image on her Instagram page.

"Im seeing online and on news media outlets that I suffered a 'Photoshop fail.' So ridiculous! I reposted a picture on Instagram that a fan had already postedI only added a filter to it," Kim said in a statement.

"It looks like the fan mirrored the photo, which is the reason the car looks like that. So, this is actually really funny to me! Who would even Photoshop a car to look like that?! LOL," she said.

Kim often posts bold and beautiful images of herself on social media.

Image: Kim Kardashian Instagram page
New York, Mar 28 (JEN): Yemens education system has been devastated by the countrys brutal conflict, the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday, reporting that at least half a million children have dropped out of school since the 2015 escalation of the war.

An entire generation of children in Yemen faces a bleak future because of limited or no access to education, said Meritxell Relano, UNICEF Representative in Yemen. Even those who remain in school are not getting the quality education they need.

According to If Not In School, the total number of out-of-school children now stands at 2 million, and almost three quarters of public school teachers have not been paid their salaries in over a year, putting the education of an additional 4.5 million children at grave risk.



Children risk being killed on their way to school. Fearing for their children's safety, many parents choose to keep their children at home.More than 2,500 schools are out of use, with two thirds damaged by attacks, 27 per cent closed and 7 per cent used for military purposes or as shelters for displaced people.

The lack of access to education has pushed children and families to dangerous alternatives, including early marriage, child labour and recruitment into the fighting.

UNICEF appeals to the warring parties, those who have influence on them, government authorities and donors to put an end to the war, pay teachers, protect children's education unconditionally, and increase funding for education.

On 26 March 2015, a coalition of countries led by Saudi Arabia intervened militarily at the request of President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi to secure the return of the Government to Sanaa, which had been seized by Houthi militias and allied units of the armed forces when the conflict initially erupted in 2014.

Three years on, the fighting is still raging and the ensuing humanitarian crisis has only deepened in a country that was already one of the regions poorest.

The UN, through its envoy, has been engaged in helping Yemenis to find a peaceful solution. UN agencies and partners are also on the ground to deliver life-saving aid.

UNICEF/Clarke for UNOCHA
New York, Mar 28 (JEN): The Security Council on Tuesday extended for one year the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), making it a priority for the operation to protect civilians and provide support for implementation of a 31 December 2016 agreement on holding elections.

Adopting a unanimous resolution, the 15-member body authorized the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) to maintain the troop ceiling of 16,215 military personnel, 660 military observers and staff officers, 391 police personnel, and 1,050 personnel of formed police units, until 31 March 2019.

Also in the 63-paragraph text, the Council reiterated its appeal to all Congolese actors to work for the preservation of the still fragile gains in the path of peace and stability in the African country, and urged the Government to hold accountable those responsible for violations of international humanitarian law or violations and abuses of human rights, in particular those that may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The Secretary-General is requested to prioritize and align budgetary resources based on critical tasks set out in the mandate.

The troop levels were retained, including more than 16,000 military personnel and nearly 400 police, but the Council requested the Secretary-General to undertake contingency planning within 90 days, looking at all options, including through inter-mission cooperation.



MONUSCO/Sylvain Liechti






Beijing, Mar 28 (IBNS): North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made an 'unofficial' trip to China from Sunday to Wednesday, Chinese media reports said.

With China conforming about his visit to the nation, all speculation about the North Korean leader's trip to the neighbouring country came to an end.

Kim visited China at the invitation of Chinese president Xin Jinping.

The North Korean leader and his wife Ri Sol Ju were given a welcoming banquet by Chinese President Xi.

As per Chinese media, the meeting between two leaders took place at the Great Hall of the People.

Kim has pledged that he was "committed to the denuclearisation" of the Korean peninsula, as per a report published in Chinese news agency Xinhua.

"It is our consistent stand to be committed to denuclearization on the peninsula, in accordance with the will of late President Kim Il Sung and late General Secretary Kim Jong Il," Kim was quoted as saying by Xinhua.

Kim reportedly said that the situation in the Korean Peninsula has improved.

He said that his nation will like to have a dialogue with the US.

"The issue of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula can be resolved, if south Korea and the United States respond to our efforts with goodwill, create an atmosphere of peace and stability while taking progressive and synchronous measures for the realization of peace," Kim was quoted as saying by the Chinese news agency.

Xi reportedly said he had a 'friendly' talk with Kim.

"We agreed that carrying forward the traditional friendship between China and the DPRK accords with the common interests of both sides, and is the common strategic choice of both sides," Xi was quoted as saying by Xinhua.

"No matter how the international and regional situation changes, we will both firmly grasp the global development trend and the overall situation of the China-DPRK relationship, strengthen our high-level exchanges, deepen our strategic communication, expand our exchanges and cooperation, and benefit the people of both countries and the people of all countries," he said.

This was Kim's first known foreign trip since taking office in 2011.

Image:english.gov.cn




Forced sterilization programs in California once harmed thousands  particularly Latinas

ByThe Conversation

Leer en espanol.

In 1942, 18-year-old Iris Lopez, a Mexican-American woman, started working at the Calship Yards in Los Angeles. Working on the home front building Victory Ships not only added to the war effort, but allowed Iris to support her family.

Iris participation in the World War II effort made her part of a celebrated time in U.S. history, when economic opportunities opened up for women and youth of color.

However, before joining the shipyards, Iris was entangled in another lesser-known history. At the age of 16, Iris was committed to a California institution and sterilized.

Iris wasnt alone. In the first half of the 20th century, approximately 60,000 people were sterilized under U.S. eugenics programs. Eugenic laws in 32 states empowered government officials in public health, social work and state institutions to render people they deemed unfit infertile.

California led the nation in this effort at social engineering. Between the early 1920s and the 1950s, Iris and approximately 20,000 other people  one-third of the national total  were sterilized in California state institutions for the mentally ill and disabled.

To better understand the nations most aggressive eugenic sterilization program, our research team tracked sterilization requests of over 20,000 people. We wanted to know about the role patients race played in sterilization decisions. What made young women like Iris a target? How and why was she cast as unfit?

Racial biases affected Iris life and the lives of thousands of others. Their experiences serve as an important historical backdrop to ongoing issues in the U.S. today.

Race science and sterilization

Eugenics was seen as a science in the early 20th century, and its ideas remained popular into the midcentury. Advocating for the science of better breeding, eugenicists endorsed sterilizing people considered unfit to reproduce.

Under Californias eugenic law, first passed in 1909, anyone committed to a state institution could be sterilized. Many of those committed were sent by a court order. Others were committed by family members who wouldnt or couldnt care for them. Once a patient was admitted, medical superintendents held the legal power to recommend and authorize the operation.

Eugenics policies were shaped by entrenched hierarchies of race, class, gender and ability. Working-class youth, especially youth of color, were targeted for commitment and sterilization during the peak years.

Eugenic thinking was also used to support racist policies like anti-miscegenation laws and the Immigration Act of 1924. Anti-Mexican sentiment in particular was spurred by theories that Mexican immigrants and Mexican-Americans were at a lower racial level. Contemporary politicians and state officials often described Mexicans as inherently less intelligent, immoral, hyperfertile and criminally inclined.

These stereotypes appeared in reports written by state authorities. Mexicans and their descendants were described as immigrants of an undesirable type. If their existence in the U.S. was undesirable, then so was their reproduction.

A sample sterilization form for a 15-year-old woman in California. Image: Sterilization and Social Justice Lab, University of Michigan (CC BY-SA)

Targeting Latinos and Latinas

In a study published March 22, we looked at the California programs disproportionately high impact on the Latino population, primarily women and men from Mexico.

Previous research examined racial bias in Californias sterilization program. But the extent of anti-Latino bias hadnt been formally quantified. Latinas like Iris were certainly targeted for sterilization, but to what extent?

We used sterilization forms found by historian Alexandra Minna Stern to build a data set on over 20,000 people recommended for sterilization in California between 1919 and 1953. The racial categories used to classify Californians of Mexican origin were in flux during this time period, so we used Spanish surname criteria as a proxy. In 1950, 88 percent of Californians with a Spanish surname were of Mexican descent.

We compared patients recommended for sterilization to the patient population of each institution, which we reconstructed with data from census forms. We then measured sterilization rates between Latino and non-Latino patients, adjusting for age. (Both Latino patients and people recommended for sterilization tended to be younger.)

Latino men were 23 percent more likely to be sterilized than non-Latino men. The difference was even greater among women, with Latinas sterilized at 59 percent higher rates than non-Latinas.

In their records, doctors repeatedly cast young Latino men as biologically prone to crime, while young Latinas like Iris were described as sex delinquents. Their sterilizations were described as necessary to protect the state from increased crime, poverty and racial degeneracy.

Lasting impact

The legacy of these infringements on reproductive rights is still visible today.

Recent incidents in Tennessee, California and Oklahoma echo this past. In each case, people in contact with the criminal justice system  often people of color  were sterilized under coercive pressure from the state.

Contemporary justifications for this practice rely on core tenets of eugenics. Proponents argued that preventing the reproduction of some will help solve larger social issues like poverty. The doctor who sterilized incarcerated women in California without proper consent stated that doing so would save the state money in future welfare costs for unwanted children.

The eugenics era also echoes in the broader cultural and political landscape of the U.S. today. Latina womens reproduction is repeatedly portrayed as a threat to the nation. Latina immigrants in particular are seen as hyperfertile. Their children are sometimes derogatorily referred to as anchor babies and described as a burden on the nation.

Reproductive justice

This history  and other histories of sterilization abuse of black, Native, Mexican immigrant and Puerto Rican women  inform the modern reproductive justice movement.

This movement, as defined by the advocacy group SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective is committed to the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities.

As the fight for contemporary reproductive justice continues, its important to acknowledge the wrongs of the past. The nonprofit California Latinas for Reproductive Justice has co-sponsored a forthcoming bill that offers financial redress to living survivors of Californias eugenic sterilization program. As reproductive justice advocates, we recognize the insidious impact state-sponsored policies have on the dignity and rights of poor women of color who are often stripped of their ability to form the families they want, CLRJ Executive Director Laura Jimenez said in a statement.

This bill was introduced on February 15 by Sen. Nancy Skinner, along with Assemblymember Monique Limon and Sen. Jim Beall.

If this bill passes, California would follow in the footsteps of North Carolina and Virginia, which began sterilization redress programs in 2013 and 2015.

In the words of Jimenez, This bill is a step in the right direction in remedying the violence inflicted on these survivors. In our view, financial compensation will never make up for the violation of survivors fundamental human rights. But its an opportunity to reaffirm the dignity and self-determination of all people.

Nicole L. Novak is a Postdoctoral Research Scholar at the University of Iowa. Natalie Lira is an Assistant Professor of Latina/Latino Studies at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Novak has received funding from the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health. Lira has previously received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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The head of a state is rarely ever frisked at the airport. How many times have you seen, heard or read about Prime Ministers or Presidents being frisked at Airports? Most of the people haven't.

Reuters

But the Prime Minister of Pakistan was forced to go through the scanner at a US airport and Pakistani authorities have been left seething.

In footage that has now gone viral after being aired on a Pakistani television show, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi can be seen retrieving his bag and coat and exiting a security checkpoint.

Geo News had reported that the incident had angered the Pakistani media, citing reports of US President Donald Trump and his administration considering visa ban on Pakistani nationals.

Abbasi was in the US last week on a private trip to visit his ailing sister, but he also met Vice President Mike Pence. '

Reports also state that Pence urged Abbasi to me more serious about the US concern with Pakistans alleged ties to terrorism.

"Vice President Pence reiterated President [Donald] Trump's request that the government of Pakistan must do more to address the continued presence of the Taliban, Haqqani Network, and other terrorist groups operating in their country," the White House said on March 17, referring to the talks conducted the night before.
Disha Patani has a done a few films in the industry such as Baaghi 2, M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story and Kung Fu Yoga, but she is constantly trying to prove her acting mettle.

2.bp.blogspot.com

To many, she is known for her dancing skills and to others she is known as Tiger Shroffs alleged girlfriend. However, Disha Patani doesnt want to be the hot element in the films, she says she wants people to recognise her for her acting talent, and take her as an actor seriously.

When I came to Mumbai, I must have gone through a thousand auditions for commercials, which helped me get over my inhibitions. Sometimes, you wonder why some things happen, but trust me, its all for a reason. I am a positive person and I always told myself that I was probably too young for the opportunities that I lost. Maybe it was Gods way of telling me that I was not fully prepared for them. Today, I am proud of all the work I have done. I could have chosen films where I merely had to look good, but I wanted people to take me seriously as an actor. I wanted producers to see me as an artiste and not just a decked-up doll. I think Ive succeeded in doing that, to an extent. Im a selfish actor and I am concerned about what I bring to a film, Pinkvilla quoted her as saying.

 A post shared by disha patani (paatni) (@dishapatani) on Mar 26, 2018 at 12:48am PDT

About her role in the upcoming film Baaghi 2, Tiger Shroff has said that she is the lead actor in the movie and that he is just supporting her character. The movie is already creating a lot of buzz before for its songs and trailer. It is scheduled to hit the screens on March 30.
A 62-year-old Pune resident has been arrested for allegedly harassing a Vistara airline air hostess. According to reports, the airlines might reccomend to put him on the No Fly list. The incident took place on March 24 on Lucknow-Delhi flight.

Confirming the incident, an Air Vistara spokesperson said, We have reported the matter to the police and other relevant authorities. An FIR has been registered and the investigation is on.

Air Vistara does not tolerate abusive or unruly behaviour by passengers that puts safety of its staff and customers at risk or compromises their dignity, the spokesperson added.

The accused, Rajeev Vasant Dani, was arrested by the Delhi police from the airport itself after the complaint was lodged.

The police said the incident happened when the passenger was de-boarding the aircraft after it landed at T3 terminal in New Delhi on March 24. The air hostess told the police that she had been touched inappropriately when he was getting down.

A case vide FIR under section 354A of IPC (sexual harassment, punishable with a maximum term of three years and a fine) has been registered, the police said in a statement.
The Delhi assembly on Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution demanding amendments to the existing law to award death penalty to those convicted of rape of children under 12. The House also resolved to make stalking a non-bailable offence.

BCCL/Representational Image

To do this, the Delhi government would have to draft a criminal law amendment Bill, get it cleared by the cabinet and then the assembly. Given the brute majority AAP enjoys in the House, it should be passed easily. But the challenge lies in the fact that Delhi isnt a full state. So, any amendment would have to be vetted by the LG and the ministry of home affairs. The approval of LG and MHA would be necessary to amend provisions in the Indian Penal Code and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act to make them applicable to Delhi.

BJP-ruled Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana are the other states that have passed amendments in laws that entail capital punishment for those convicted of such rapes. Delhi now becomes the fourth and only non-BJP ruled state to move in the direction of bringing such an amendment.

BCCL

The resolution brought by AAP MLA from Greater Kailash, Saurabh Bharadwaj, states that the Delhi government should immediately introduce suitable legislation to amend the Indian Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code. It was passed by voice vote.

The resolution was preceded by a discussion on the proposed amendments. Chandni Chowk MLA Alka Lamba, who initiated the discussion, said that sex crimes against women should stop and women should be protected.

Delhis home minister Satyendar Jain assured the House that the Bill would soon be presented in the House for necessary changes in law. I hope that the Centre will also not obstruct the amendments, Jain said. He added that such amendments in the law can work as a major deterrent.

BCCL

Initially, the MLAs demanded capital punishment for rape of minors below 18 years, but later, the age was revised to below 12 years to keep it in line with the amendments introduced in states like Madhya Pradesh so that the Union government approves the changes, sources said.

Earlier, in the wake of the rape of an eight-month-old baby by an adult in the city had pushed Delhi Commission for Women to launch a Rape Roko campaign to demand strict action against those accused of child sexual abuse. The campaign demanded death penalty for such rapists.
Exhibiting tremendous bravery, a truck driver in Madhya Pradesh's Narsinghpur drove a burning petrol tanker away from a petrol pump in an attempt to save lives.

The petrol tanker caught fire on Sunday while it was being emptied at a petrol pump.

The truck driver sustained burn injuries while driving the burning truck away from the petrol pump. He was later admitted to a hospital.

The fire was later doused by the fire department.
A proposal to roll out Google Street View in India has been shut down by the government, though its failed to say just why that is.

Submitted for approval earlier in July 2015 by Union minister of state for home Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, Street View would have let people explore the entirety of India in 360-degree panoramic view, from street-level imagery.

Google had, in partnership with the Archaeological Society of India, launched Street View in a few tourist spots in India as a pilot project, including at the Taj Mahal, Red Fort, Qutub Minar, Varanasi river bank, Nalanda University, Mysore Palace, Thanjavur Temple and Chinnaswamy stadium. It let users explore the locations through the desktop or smartphone Google Maps app, in 360-degrees.

Likely, the problem here is one of an assumed threat to national security. After all, this isn't Street View's first setback at the hands of Indian authorities. Back in May 2011, Google had sent its cars around Bangalore to capture street-level imagery. However, it was stopped in its tracks by the police commissioner in June that year, who said it was a security threat to have such imagery posted online. In fact he also at the time claimed Google had no clearance from the Home and Defence ministries to "collect the pictures of strategic buildings and public places."

Google screenshot

Google Street View launched in 2007, primarily in a few US cities. Its now extensively used across the US, Canada, and a number of European countries. Typically, Google captures the street-level imaging using cars with a special 360-degree image capture rig, driven across the country.

After that, all the data is stitched together into the Maps app, where you can simply click through and navigate to see whatever you like.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced that the California Department of Justice (DOJ) will be providing "independent oversight" of the investigation into the shooting death of Stephon Clark on March 18 by Sacramento police officers Terrence Mercadal and Jared Robinet. Mercadal and Robinet shot Stephon, who was unarmed, 20 times.

Those seeking justice for Stephon do not feel that the Attorney General will aid in the cause.One individual summed it up on social media:"The Attorney General being involved sounds REALLY good. It isn't. While the attorney general is certainly not directly correlated to the police department that summarily executed Stephon Clark in his grandmother's back yard -- they are still a CA state legal representative. While I hope that the investigation is handled properly.. I remain stalwart that we must continue to push this forward. The attorney general is not enough. We want the police officers arrested."Another individual asked, "Why didn't the Attorney General come to investigate, Mario Woods right away? Alex Nieto, Jessica Williams, and Jesus Alfredo Delgado?" All of them killed by police.This week in Sacramento, Black Lives Matter activists have been protesting Stephon's killing at the DA's office, stating "Let's Go See the D.A! Charge the Police!"See: https://www.facebook.com/events/366518910496908/ Here is the Attorney General's press release dated March 27:SACRAMENTO  California Attorney General Xavier Becerra today announced that the California Department of Justice (DOJ) will be stepping in to provide independent oversight of the investigation into the shooting death of Stephon Alonzo Clark. During a press conference with Sacramento Police Chief Daniel Hahn, Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert and Sacramento community leaders, Attorney General Becerra pledged that the California DOJ will lend its experience to ensure a fair and impartial investigation. The California DOJ will also evaluate law enforcement policies, procedures, and practices to identify ways to achieve safer outcomes.I stand together with Sacramento law enforcement, city and community leaders to announce that the California Department of Justice will lend our experience to ensure the investigation into the tragic death of Stephon Clark is fair, thorough, and impartial, said Attorney General Becerra. We take on this responsibility in full recognition of the importance of getting it right  because there is nothing more important than respect and trust between law enforcement and the communities that they are sworn to protect as we work to keep all Californians safe.While investigations of this kind are generally handled by local District Attorneys, the California DOJ is entering this investigation at the request of Sacramento Police Chief Daniel Hahn. As part of the agreement with the Sacramento Police Department, the California DOJ will also evaluate police department policies, procedures, and practices to help identify ways to achieve safer outcomes for community members and officers.Source: https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/california-department-justice-steps-provide-independent-oversight-investigation More info: https://www.facebook.com/BlackLivesMatterSac/
The challenges of building a united resistance in Dutertes Philippines by Joshua Makalintal

Wednesday Mar 28th, 2018 12:22 AM

Three decades after the People Power revolution ended the bloody regime of Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, Asias oldest republic is at a crossroads. Since Rodrigo Duterte became president of the Philippines in June 2016, he has led an extrajudicial killing campaign that has taken over 12,000 lives. Officially cloaked as an anti-crime policy, his war against drugs has nevertheless failed to address the genuine roots of the countrys narcotics crisis. It has instead only worsened the situation by victimizing the urban poor at a staggering rate.



In recent months, there has also been a particularly bloody escalation of hostility against the progressive movement under his regime. Over a dozen activists from left-wing groups were executed in December, among them religious leaders and indigenous farmers from the south of the country in Mindanao. The island has been under martial law for nine months, due to the war between government forces and jihadist militants in the city of Marawi, which ended in October. Dutertes congressional and judicial allies did not hesitate to extend military rule in the region despite the actual absence of rebellion.



Moreover, Dutertes order to declare the Communist Party of the Philippines, or CPP, and its armed wing, the New Peoples Army, terrorist organizations has created more incentives for the military to accelerate its aggressions against the militant left. This has provided a pretext to oppress the CPPs affiliates on the legal front, a development that has already occurred in recent weeks, when the president publicly vowed to extend his crackdown against these organizations.



More recently, after the International Criminal Courts chief prosecutor announced she was opening a preliminary investigation for crimes against humanity surrounding the drug war killings, Duterte did not tone down his brutal rhetoric. He explicitly called for summary executions of rebel fighters and incited sexual violence against female rebels, acts that are tantamount to war crimes.



Yet the governments increasingly authoritarian tactics are a symptom of its lack of popular support. By targeting the countrys undesirables first, he may have provided a useful pretext for todays broader repression, but the campaigns brutality has also helped crystallize opposition to his government.



This opposition was on full display during the last week of February, with the nationwide commemoration of the People Power revolt that was celebrated through protests against Dutertes tyrannical policies. The youth-led demonstrations were one notable event that demonstrated a growing trend of radicalization among the young generation. Considering Dutertes crackdown is now encompassing dissenting voices from schools and universities, this is a welcome development since it is more important than ever to empower and organize the youth.



The force of this maturing resistance began to blossom last fall when Filipinos all over the country took to the streets to mark the 45th anniversary of Marcos declaration of martial law. The National Day of Protest on Sept. 21 didnt just memorialize the suffering that occurred under the Marcos dictatorship. It provided an opportunity for the opposition to flex its popular support against the government. Those who came to speak out against the regime vastly outnumbered Dutertes supporters.



These oppositional forces represented a broad and popular force in the making. It further proved that even though Duterte has the tools of a repressive state at his disposal, he cannot count on a mass base to come to his defense.



Regrouping the opposition



One of the major formations that surfaced was the Movement Against Tyranny, led by the traditional militant left, the National Democrats, under the Maoist umbrella of the CPP. The CPP allied with Duterte at the beginning of his term, but this coalition became strained as the president neglected to support their comrades in cabinet appointment hearings. Renewed popular outrage gave them a chance to distance themselves from Duterte through the late-August launch of the Movement Against Tyranny. However, they only officially severed parliamentary ties weeks later after an ally at the Department of Agrarian Reform was rejected. Such a broad coalition might not have even come into being had their cabinet appointments been approved.



Indeed one of the greatest sins ever committed by the militant left was giving Duterte the benefit of the doubt, despite the signs that his governments policies  backed by demagogic rhetoric and authoritarian methods  would only prolong a neoliberal economy and marginalize the masses even further. Dutertes candidacy served as a litmus test for the National Democrats commitment to progressive principles  one that they failed.



Another major political force is Tindig Pilipinas, or Rise Up Philippines, launched a few days before the National Day of Protest. Its a broad coalition that includes minority blocs from congress; figures from the previous Liberal Party establishment; the social democratic party AKBAYAN, which coalesced with the liberals in the previous administration of Benigno Aquino; and the nationalist, anti-communist Magdalo group, composed of former junior officers of the armed forces led by Antonio Trillanes, Dutertes most vocal critic in the senate and a former military man who staged a few failed coups against the presidency of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo during the 2000s.



When it comes to the influence of leftist parties in Philippine parliamentary politics, AKBAYAN has the second largest base of support after the National Democrats. AKBAYANs rise was made possible by groups that broke away from the traditional militant left in the 1990s, a decade defined by left-wing setbacks, as the largest mass formation of the militant left fragmented into multiple blocs.



Since then, the party has had some success in getting people elected in both houses of congress and eventually became one of the leading voices behind progressive legislation. However, its social democratic values were called into question when it failed to take a more critical stance against the Aquino administration in its later years when issues of accountability came up, which ultimately led to the rise of Duterte. AKBAYAN eventually became the liberals grassroots wing during the 2016 elections, when it decided to back the Liberal Party frontrunner and Aquinos designated successor.



The rise of a resurgent alternative



Fortunately for the countrys vibrant democracy, the Philippines diverse progressive movement includes various independent organizations. As with the social democrats, most of them were derived from breakaway organizations that resulted from the 1990s split. But unlike AKBAYAN, their success in recent elections have been almost non-existent, effectively sidelining them from the national political scene.



But this may change with the new creation of LABAN NG MASA, or Struggle of the Masses, the third oppositional force encompassing a coalition of socialist-oriented groups who have been consistent in their opposition to Dutertes presidency from the beginning.



The coalitions leader is activist-academic Walden Bello, who in 2016 ran an unsuccessful independent senate campaign supported by many of the same groups that now make up LABAN NG MASA. By running outside the sponsorship of the National Democrats and AKBAYAN, Bello sought to build a campaign without corporate backing or relying on patronage politics.



LABAN NG MASA is the only bloc among the three that is openly positioning itself as a left-wing alternative. In his speech, at its first general assembly, Bello emphasized the movements socialist vision of realizing a system of radical democracy and equality  a future beyond capitalism thats worth fighting for.



There is no doubt that this alliance retains the moral high ground among the three. Yet it lacks the political capital and resources of the left-liberal factions making up Tindig Pilipinas and the mass base of the Movement Against Tyranny, whose backing by the militant left makes it part of the countrys largest organized left-wing coalition. From this position, the National Democrats are confident in their ability to control the narrative. After all, the CPP has been waging an armed struggle against the Philippine state for almost half a century, which makes it Asias longest running communist insurgency. Despite their dogmatic ideology stuck in Cold War-era rhetoric, they continue to mobilize mass support thanks to their grassroots fronts and sub-organizations, which refrain from actively promoting the armed struggle and primarily utilize nonviolent tactics.



A tactical alliance between these oppositional blocs would lead to a New Left in the Philippines. Its likelihood and character rests on the choices each force makes in the coming months. Long-term issues that touch on ideological boundaries need to be discussed intensively, especially on the part of the National Democrats. But surely, given their willingness to ally with an authoritarian strongman like Duterte, they should be inclined to show the same favor towards other groups. If they dont, they will be unable to radically shape a new political order.



The need for a unified project



The lack of solidarity among left-wing groups has plagued the country for decades. A fresh reformist project must reaffirm the importance of progressive pluralism.



For this project to be successful, the National Democrats need to take ownership for their past transgressions, in particular their continuing refusal to genuinely acknowledge their complicity and insist that their alliance with Duterte was a critical engagement in principled unity and struggle, a courtesy that was never extended to any previous president.



Opposition forces must also wrestle with whether to call for Dutertes ouster. Simply ousting the president will not address the structural problems that led to his rise. Even progressive activists who support ousting him, like LABAN NG MASAs Herbert Docena, recognize that only through a broad and unified mass movement can an actual alternative emerge.



Plus, considering Dutertes durable popularity among many Filipinos, particularly from the middle and upper middle classes, such an action would deepen the divide among the populace and pave a fresh path towards another strongman citing the golden age of Marcos.



As for Tindig Pilipinas, the groups social democratic forces have yet to account for its association with the previous government and have so far shown no concrete plan for how to fix the country without going back to the failed elite-dominated democracy that led to Dutertes surge.



So far, they have also hesitated on calling for the presidents ouster, and instead focused on vague goals like appealing to the government to take a healing approach to the drug war, which assumes that the countrys institutions are capable of change without reforming them from the ground up.



Indeed, using the law to resist authoritarian abuse of power is essential, and resisting Dutertes dictatorial tendencies through the courts is something that needs to be taken advantage of. But the struggle through administrative entities or legal battles can only triumph if they are reinforced by collective action.



And that is more needed than ever, since Duterte is slowly stepping up his game in railroading constitutional bodies as part of his blueprint of reforming the countrys political system.



Struggling against Dutertismo and Marcos legacy



After toppling the Marcos dictatorship, Filipinos have witnessed the gradual return of the Marcos family into politics. Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos Jr.s 2010 senate victory was bad enough. Worse still was his near success in capturing the vice presidency in 2016.



Bongbongs bid for vice president was barely defeated by the liberal frontrunner. Yet he still succeeded in tarnishing the legacy of People Power. Duterte, despite having a different running mate, continuously acted as an apologist and sponsor to the family while on the campaign trail. The support was of course mutual.



As a token of gratitude, in November 2016, Duterte green-lighted a highly controversial heros burial for the former tyrant, an issue that has divided the nation since the revolution and a subject that the Marcos dynasty has pushed for since their return to the country.



By putting the despot on a pedestal, Duterte catalyzed the first major protest wave against his presidency, less than five months after taking office. The anti-Marcos protests gathered various civil society organizations, such as the #BlockMarcos movement, to form an alliance not only against the Marcos burial but also as a stepping stone towards a more organized opposition against the presidency, which culminated last fall.



Now on the defensive, Duterte is trying to revive the strategy that brought him to power: using radical rhetoric to enlist popular support for his authoritarian agenda. In this effort, he has called for the establishment of a revolutionary government to hasten change.



Its not the first time that Duterte has tried to launch a kind of peoples movement akin to that of the National Democrats. In 2016, his cabinet secretary Jun Evasco, a former member of the CPP, formed but failed to develop the Kilusang Pagbabago, or Movement for Change, which aimed to build an insurgent group similar to Marcos New Society Movement, a right-wing vehicle for liberating the Filipino people that conveniently required the declaration of martial law.



In reality, Dutertes revolutionary program consists of constitutional reform meant to consolidate the administrations power, restrain key political institutions and legalized intimidation of dissident groups. His call for a federalist system of government has been seen as a mere maneuver to extend his term as president.



This program has not inspired widespread support. When government allies called for mass demonstrations last November, they expected to rival the September protests in size and force. Instead, they flopped, particularly in Manila where they peaked at a few thousand, far below their expectations of a few hundred thousand people. The mobilization showed that the government has failed to develop a critical mass to counter the rising opposition. Duterte has online trolls at his disposal, but not a grassroots movement capable of mobilizing aggressive demonstrations.



Resisting Rodrigos revolution from above



The spectacle of the failed Revolutionary Government rallies proved that Dutertes appropriation of anti-establishment rhetoric cannot hold up under the reality of his regime. But that didnt stop him from taking advantage of his allies in the legislature. The Philippine Congress has now taken the lead and decided to form a constituent assembly to reform the constitution.



Indeed, the current situation poses both opportunities and challenges. The next task for such a united front is to maintain the momentum that arose from the September rallies and the subsequent mass actions. Because if the progressive movement in the Philippines is to have a future, it will depend on its willingness to forge more strategic alliances.



The shift among the traditional militant left, away from Dutertes government and towards coalition with a broad opposition, may be a step in the right direction. They must begin to recognize the reality of the plurality of the countrys grassroots movements. Ignoring the struggles of those who have staunchly and consistently fought and resisted Dutertes brutal regime from the start will not help the cause for a better future.



Unless the National Democrats sectarian factions acknowledge that there is no future for a doctrinaire left, they will continue to pave their own path towards long-lasting marginalization. They should start realizing the impossibility of winning the armed struggle and that only through a veritable multi-sectoral political struggle can they solidify a true united front towards radical change.



As for the social democratic left, a fundamental step is to essentially distance themselves from the reactionary forces that constitute Tindig Pilipinas and rebuild their party by re-embracing the very principles that accompanied its foundation. Moreover, they must overcome the temptations to reinstate the elite democracy that blossomed following the Marcos era and instead join the broader left in advocating for its radical reform.



Unfortunately for the socialist forces comprising LABAN NG MASA, building a huge mass base with their current resources remains an unlikely prospect, unless they lead the call towards building this unified project while sticking to their radical principles. This will not be an easy task, but if these emergent forces truly desire to deepen democracy in the country, they will need to come together and build a more formidable coalition.



Such an undertaking must resist Dutertes creeping dictatorship, where violence and capital continue to reign supreme, while fighting for true democratic reforms based on social justice and equality. This is the true ongoing struggle of the masses  a struggle for a more genuine progressive alternative that is worth fighting for.
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But the message is coming through that enough still isnt being done. The imbalance between men and women remains in place - and its damaging to the sector as a whole.

For instance, a recent report showed that just 1% of insurance firms have a female CEO, and only 12% of women in the business occupy top management positions. The gender pay gap is approximately 30% in the industry  the largest among several top industries, according to another report.

This is the kind of imbalance that new conference Women in Insurance  hitting Sydney on August 07  aims to rectify. The industrys top experts will be gathering to discuss the important measures that need to be taken to effect change in the sector.

Join the conversation at the Women in Insurance Summit. Insurance Business readers are being offered Super Saver rates to the event if they register now.

The Women in Insurance Summit will be held at the InterContinental Sydney on Tuesday, August 07.
Tragedies involving active shooters, vehicular attacks, and bombings have dominated the news cycle around the world as political tensions grow. Data from Statista shows the number of terrorist attacks happening annually in the US has spiked from a low in 2011, though the nature of these attacks has changed from those that impacted the country just a decade ago.

If we had been having this conversation 10 or 15 years ago, wed be talking about 9/11-type events, so very largescale [with] relatively low probability of frequency, but very high severity, said Ben Tucker, head of US terrorism and political violence at XL Group.

I think what the events in Austin highlight  and other more active-shooter, vehicular attack-type events  are that what were seeing is higher frequency, lower physical damage severity, but quite a high psychological human impact because of their random nature and the fact that its people who are being targeted versus large buildings.

Its not just Fortune 500 companies or the big banks looking for terrorism coverage, and its not just larger events that are motivating firms today to get terrorism insurance.

I would say nearly 50% of our book is smaller, commercial properties, said Tucker, adding that commercial buildings can get coverage through a property or standalone policy. The reason why they might do it in the standalone terrorism market instead of TRIA [Terrorism Risk Insurance Act] is because TRIA has somewhat failed as a mechanism for providing coverage to smaller, commercial buildings. The level of attack you would need to have an event certified is so large it would be larger than the values exposed to the building. If you need real cover, you have to buy a standalone contract thats going to trigger for a lower, smaller event.

XL Catlin writes terrorism coverage that doesnt require certification by the federal government to trigger coverage, and has a broad definition of terrorism as an event motivated by ideology, politics or religion.

Episodes like the London Bridge attack, the Bataclan attack in Paris, and Octobers vehicle attack in Manhattan are covered by XL, as are situations like the coordinated bombings at the Brussels airport.

In those kinds of events, you see a disruption of business either at an airport or to some of those airlines flying into that airport, explained Tucker. There is financial exposure there to companies through those transportation hubs, and that is again a type of scenario we have been exposed to.

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Enrico, a podiatrist, has offices in Paterson, Passaic and Elizabeth, N.J., according to a report by The Paterson Times. Prosecutors said that between 2007 and 2016, he billed insurers for physical therapy sessions that should not have been covered by insurance.

Medicare and private insurers require that physical therapy be performed only by people with proper training and certifications. But Enrico had staff members who werent trained or certified perform the services so he could bill insurers, the Times reported.

In addition to the three-year prison sentence, Enrico must also serve three years of supervised release and pay $3 million in restitution, according to the Times.

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Security video shot in the basement of a Penn State fraternity house the night a pledge was fatally injured during an evening of hazing and drinking was played in court on Monday and shows fraternity members plying pledges with alcohol.

Pennlive.com said testimony in the preliminary hearing for 11 former members of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity focused on deleted video the FBI recovered.

This is the second preliminary hearing for the defendants, required because some charges that had been dismissed were refiled and additional charges were added.

The footage shows fraternity brothers handing beers or bottles to pledges. That continues after 19-year-old pledge Tim Piazza, of Lebanon, New Jersey, appears to be staggering in the basement.

Piazza fell down the basement stairs, and spent the night on the fraternity houses first floor, mostly on a couch but he also is seen on video stumbling and falling several times.

Footage shows Piazza walking toward the basement stairs the next morning, and then through the basement toward a bar. He is later seen near the bar, with his head on the floor in between his arms.

About two hours later, he was found unconscious and carried upstairs. Video shows fraternity members standing around Piazza for more than 40 minutes before anyone calls for an ambulance.

Piazza later died at a hospital from severe head injuries that included a skull fracture and a shattered spleen that caused massive abdominal bleeding.

The hearing will decide if there is enough evidence to send the case to county court for trial.

Five of the 11 former fraternity members face involuntary manslaughter charges, while other allegations include hazing, reckless endangerment, conspiracy and alcohol violations.

Some charges were previously bound over for trial, and other defendants are scheduled for a preliminary hearing in May.

Police said Piazza was served 18 drinks over 82 minutes before he fell down the basement steps and was rendered unconscious.

Information from: Pennlive.com

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Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Abuse Molestation
Winter sea ice on the Arctic Ocean covered the second smallest area on record this year, part of a thaw that is opening the region to shipping and oil exploration and may be disrupting weather far to the south, scientists said on Friday.

The extent of floating ice likely reached an annual maximum of 14.5 million square kilometers (5.6 million square miles) on March 17, fractionally bigger than a record set in 2017, the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) said.

Sea ice around the North Pole freezes to its biggest at the end of the winter in March, and thaws to an annual minimum in September. The ice has shrunk in recent decades in a trend scientists link to man-made climate change.

The 2018 winter ice is about a million square kilometers  roughly the size of Egypt or Colombia and bigger than the state of Texas  below the long-term average maximum, NSIDC data show. The center, affiliated with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, studies satellite data of the ice going back 39 years.

The diminishing ice seems at odds with remarks by President Donald Trump in a television interview in January that The ice caps were going to melt, they were going to be gone by now. But now theyre setting records.

Until now, most scientific focus has been on a trend of shrinking Arctic sea ice in summer, which is opening shipping routes from the Pacific to the Atlantic and allowing oil and gas exploration even as it harms indigenous peoples and wildlife such as polar bears.

Now, things are increasingly about the winter time, said Tor Eldevik, a professor at the University of Bergens Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research.

The winter retreat means ever bigger areas are ice-free year round, especially in the Barents Sea north of Russia and Norway which is becoming more like the Atlantic Ocean, he said.

The vast Shtokman natural gas field, north of Russia, is in an area that is now ice-free even in the depths of winter  helping Gazprom if it ever develops the find. The region was ice-bound in winter until the early 1980s, Eldevik said.

Shipping company Teekay said a tanker loaded a first cargo of liquefied natural gas at a terminal in Arctic Russia and traveled to France in January 2018  the first ship to make such a winter voyage without an icebreaker.

The retreat may also affect weather far to the south.

Researchers suspect that Arctic warmth can disrupt the high altitude jet stream and send briefblasts of frigid air south  such as a beast from the East freeze in Europe last month or bitter cold brought by a bomb cyclone in the eastern United States.

You could talk about the Arctic having a fever, and boy did the Arctic have a fever this winter, and when it does, Florida feels it, Jennifer Francis, a professor at Rutgers Universitys department of marine and coastal science, told reporters.

Florida faced freezing temperatures this year and suffers long-term threats from sea level rise.

At the other end of the planet, sea ice around Antarctica recently reached the second smallest for summertime since satellite records began in the 1970s, also behind 2017, the NSIDC said.

(Reporting by Alister Doyle; editing by Tom Brown)

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Topics USA Trends Russia
A water park companys co-owner was being held in a Texas jail on murder and other charges on March 27 in connection to a Kansas criminal case in the death of a 10-year-old boy on what was promoted as the worlds largest waterslide.

Jail records show that Jeffrey Henry, the 62-year-old co-owner of Schlitterbahn Waterparks and Resorts, was booked into the jail in Cameron County, Texas, on three charges: murder, aggravated battery and aggravated child endangerment.

Henrys arrest on Monday followed a Kansas grand jurys indictment of the Schlitterbahn park in Kansas City, Kansas, and its former operations director, Tyler Austin Miles, on 20 felony charges. The charges include a single count of involuntary manslaughter over the death of Caleb Schwab in 2016.

While we as a family continue to mourn and heal from Calebs passing, we wanted to again thank the community of Kansas City for its continued prayers and support, Calebs father, Kansas Republican state Rep. Scott Schwab, said in a statement. Clearly the issues with Schlitterbahn go far beyond Calebs incident, and we know the attorney general will take appropriate steps in the interest of public safety.

Schlitterbahn spokeswoman Winter Prosapio said that considering last weeks indictment, the company is not surprised by Henrys arrest. The company also promised to aggressively fight the criminal charges against Miles and the park, and respond to the allegations in the 47-page indictment point by point.

We as a company and as a family will fight these allegations and have confidence that once the facts are presented it will be clear that what happened on the ride was an unforeseeable accident, she said in an emailed statement.

Attorney General Derek Schmidts office did not immediately respond to phone calls and emails seeking further comment, details about Henrys arrest, or information about exactly what criminal charges he faces. The Kansas City Star reported that Henry was taken into custody by U.S. marshals out of Brownsville, Texas.

Prosapio said Schlitterbahn does not expect any changes to the Kansas City parks season, which is set to open May 25 and run through Labor Day. The big slide there  Verruckt, or German for insane  has been closed since Caleb died.

The boy was decapitated after the raft on which he was riding went airborne. The family reached settlements of nearly $20 million with Schlitterbahn and various companies associated with the design and construction of the waterslide.

The two women who rode with Caleb suffered serious injuries and settled claims with Schlitterbahn for an undisclosed amount.

The indictment against Miles and the park alleges that Verruckt met few, if any, industry standards and that Miles delayed or avoided necessary repairs, even after the rides brake system failed.

The indictment also said Henry helped design the giant waterslide even though he had no technical or engineering credentials and that he set a rushed timeline for its construction.

Schlitterbahn said last weeks indictment is full of false information, and the company also rejected its allegations that Miles and the company withheld information from law enforcement officials. It said the allegation that Calebs death was foreseeable is beyond the pale of speculation.

Miles attorneys said in their own statement that they welcome the opportunity to prove his innocence in court.

Not only had Tyler ridden the slide numerous times, but, as the State is aware, he had scheduled his wife, to ride it on the day of the accident, the attorneys, Tom and Tricia Bath, said in their statement. These are not the actions of someone who believed the ride to be dangerous.

Associated Press writers David Warren and Terry Wallace in Dallas also contributed to this report.

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Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Texas Legislation Abuse Molestation Kansas
American International Group paid its new chief executive Brian Duperreault $43.1 million last year, a securities filing showed on Tuesday.

AIG, which during the financial crisis faced questions over the compensation of former leader Maurice Hank Greenberg, had previously outlined the components of Duperreaults pay but not the total figure.

Excluding one-time components, Duperreault earned $14.9 million after rejoining AIG in May, according to the companys annual proxy filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

That figure was similar to the $15.3 million paid to MetLife Inc. CEO and Chairman Steven Kandarian in 2016, and less than the $27.1 million paid in 2017 to John Strangfeld, chairman and CEO of Prudential Financial Inc., according to the latest proxy filings by those companies.

AIGs High Cost of Hiring Duperreault

Duperreault, 70, had worked for AIG until 1994 and rejoined it from a Bermuda company he founded, Hamilton Insurance Group.

As CEO he replaced Peter Hancock, who stepped down under pressure. Hancock received $24.2 million last year including a $5 million cash award for his service through the transition to the new CEO, according to the filing.

Duperreaults payout could indicate investor angst at high CEO pay has faded with rising markets. At last years AIG annual meeting, about 98 percent of votes cast by investors were in favor of the 2016 compensation for top executives, the companys filing states.

While Duperreaults compensation will be up for another advisory vote at its annual meeting on May 9, some investors have previously said they would approve of the pay so long as he performs.

Since his appointment AIGs shares have closed as high as $66.06 on Aug. 3. The stock closed at $54.21 on Monday.

AIG received a federal bailout during the financial crisis that eventually totaled $182.3 billion but was repaid.

Greenberg, who built the company until his ouster in 2005, on Monday suffered a legal defeat when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal he led arguing the bailout was illegal and at the expense of shareholders.

Duperreaults compensation in 2017 included a $12 million cash bonus and a one-time option award valued at $16.2 million, mostly tied to performance targets.

AIGs board compensation committee believes this award properly motivates Mr. Duperreault to create sustainable, profitable growth for AIG, aligning his interests with those of our shareholders, the proxy filing states.

(Reporting by Ross Kerber Editing by David Gregorio and Chris Reese)

Topics AIG
Hackers increasingly threaten sites in the U.S. ranging from nuclear power plants to water processing systems, according to a member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, adding his voice to warnings from several agencies and officials in recent weeks.

Cyberattacks have the potential to cause significant, widespread impacts on energy infrastructure, Commissioner Neil Chatterjee said Friday in an emailed response to questions. Sophisticated hacking tools are becoming more widely available, and cyber threats are constantly evolving, making such attacks more versatile.

Chatterjees remarks underscore the alarm growing after the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security issued a report earlier this month saying that Russian hackers have been attacking the electric grid, power plants, air transportation facilities and targets in the commercial and manufacturing sectors  attempting to gain remote access or install malware or make spear phishing attempts.

A report released by the Energy Department last year warned that the countrys power grid was in imminent danger from a cyber attack.

Energy Secretary Rick Perry said on Thursday agreed that the attacks linked to the Russians were an act of war.

We are making I think every effort to protect the electrical grid from those types of attacks, Perry said in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee. I agree the United States and the rest of the world need to send a very powerful message to Russia relative to some of their activities.

How 2 Researchers Hope to Protect Power Grid with Cyber Insurance Modeling

He has said cyber-attacks are happening hundreds of thousands of times a day.

Even the Energy Regulatory Commission, which oversees the reliability of the electric grid, hasnt been immune from the attacks. The U.S. Justice Department on Friday charged nine Iranian citizens with hacking hundreds of companies, academic institutions and government agencies to steal more than $3.4 billion in trade secrets and other data on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Among the Victims: FERC.

While the administration has taken significant steps to address cyber threats to our critical infrastructure, I believe that these threats will continue to grow, Chatterjee said.

Among the more recent targets are the Colorado Department of Transportation, where more than 2,000 computers shut down after it was breached in a ransomware attack; and the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company, which operates the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline that transports roughly roughly 500,000 barrels of crude a day.

We know they are trying but have so far been unsuccessful, Kate Dugan, a spokeswoman for Alyeska, said. The number grows every year.

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Copyright 2021 Bloomberg.

Topics USA Cyber
Louisiana lawmakers have jettisoned a measure that would have banned employers from requiring their workers to sign contracts that keep them from filing sexual harassment lawsuits in civil court.

The House voted 50-42 against House Bill 578, with most Republicans in the majority-GOP chamber objecting to the legislation. It needed 53 votes to pass.

Supporters of the measure by Rep. Robert Johnson, a Marksville Democrat, said contracts that force sexual harassment victims to pursue claims in closed-door arbitration proceedings give too much protection to perpetrators. Johnson said they discourage people from coming forward to report inappropriate conduct.

Its part of lifting the veil of secrecy, he said of his bill.

Opponents said the proposal came from good intentions but would improperly meddle in the affairs of private companies. They touted arbitration as costing less and offering privacy to victims.

I see it as an intrusion into private industry, said Rep. Dodie Horton, a Haughton Republican.

Gov. John Bel Edwards backed Johnsons bill and said he was disheartened by Mondays vote. In a statement, the Democratic governor said lawmakers agreed to continue the culture of silence that protects perpetrators of sexual harassment at the cost of their victims.

Victims should never be deprived of their day in court, Edwards said.

Rep. Beryl Amedee, a Houma Republican, supported the measure in committee but changed her mind on the House floor. She said she opposed the bill as a restriction on businesses after talking with some attorneys I trust.

But Rep. Patricia Smith, a Baton Rouge Democrat, said a company should never force its employees to handle sexual harassment claims in closed-door proceedings outside of court.

Arbitration should be voluntary and agreed upon by every party, she said.

The measure also would have prohibited forced arbitration in cases where veterans claim they were discriminated against because of their military background.

Edwards backed Johnsons bill in a package of anti-sexual harassment measures hes supporting. One of the governors top deputies resigned in November after being accused of sexual harassment.

Attorney General Jeff Landry, a Republican, supports similar legislation proposed at the federal level, signing a letter with other states attorneys general in February urging passage in Congress.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Legislation Louisiana Claims Commercial Lines Business Insurance
An Oklahoma law forbidding motorists on four-lane highways to impede traffic by traveling in the left lane has resulted in dozens of citations since going into effect last year.

Records obtained by The Oklahoman show that 60 people were cited for violating the left lane law during the first three months it was enacted.

Interstate 35 between Noble and Love counties had the most citations, with 25 issued. According to records, 14 motorists were ticketed along Interstate 40 between Canadian and Pottawatomie counties. Eight drivers were also cited on Interstate 44 from Oklahoma to Tulsa counties.

Among the counties, Carter County had the most issued in its limits with 14 tickets. Oklahoma County issued 12 in the same period.

Troopers in Canadian, Pottawatomie and Tulsa counties cited seven motorists each through late January, according to records.

Trooper Dwight Durant said more than 200 warnings were written from November through December. He said troopers can choose whether to issue a ticket or a warning.

We write a lot of warnings, Durant said. Every trooper has their own discretion. Theyre not under any direction to do either one.

Durant said the number of citations is in line with what troopers write for other infractions like speeding and following too closely. He said drivers are still expected to move into the left lane when passing emergency vehicles and stranded motorists.

Drivers also might travel in the left lane due to traffic congestion, left turns and moving out of the way of drivers merging onto the highway.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Oklahoma
The Main Street America Group has promoted Michele Seymour from director, compensation and benefits, to assistant vice president. The company has also appointed Thea Campbell to assistant secretary of the super-regional property/casualty insurance carrier.

Seymour oversees Main Street Americas compensation and benefits function. She is responsible for planning, directing and managing the analysis, development and implementation of the companys compensation, benefits and human resources information systems programs. Additionally, Seymour oversees the administration of several departmental functions including payroll, compensation and benefits.

Seymour reports to Dave Medvidofsky, Main Street Americas vice president of human resources, and is based at the companys corporate headquarters in Jacksonville, Fla. Seymour joined Main Street America in 2002 as manager, compensation and benefits. She held this role until being promoted to director, compensation and benefits, in 2012. In 2013, she was appointed assistant secretary.

Prior to joining Main Street America, Seymour was a project consultant at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida (now known as Florida Blue). Her professional experience also includes compensation analyst roles at American National Bank and Oak Tree Savings Bank.

Campbell is responsible for overseeing the companys IT program office. This involves providing strategic direction to the unit to ensure projects are properly managed, controlled and budgeted. In addition, Campbell is responsible for Main Street Americas quality assurance function and IT support services team.

Campbell, who reports to Amy Frederick, chief information officer, is based at the companys corporate headquarters in Jacksonville, Fla. Campbell joined Main Street America in 2013 as an IT project manager. In 2015, she was promoted to director, IT program office. Campbell was promoted into her current role in 2016.

Campbell has extensive experience leading an IT project management function, including her role as director of professional services, project management office, at Availity. She also held change management and service request processing roles at Bank of America for more than a decade.

The Main Street America Group is a mutual insurance holding company which writes business through its eight property/casualty insurance carriers: NGM Insurance Company, Old Dominion Insurance Company, Austin Mutual Insurance Company, Grain Dealers Mutual Insurance Company, Main Street America Assurance Company, MSA Insurance Company, Main Street America Protection Insurance Company and Spring Valley Mutual Insurance Company. Based in Jacksonville, Fla., Main Street America offers a wide range of commercial and personal insurance, as well as fidelity and surety bond products, to individuals, families and businesses throughout the United States.

Topics Carriers Florida Human Resources
Uber Technologies Inc. wont renew a license to operate self-driving cars in California while the company evaluates how one of its vehicles killed a pedestrian in Arizona last week.

The San Francisco-based company told the California Department of Motor Vehicles that it will let its license expire at the end of the month, according to a letter from the departments deputy director. The self-driving car program is under intense scrutiny following a collision on March 18 that killed a woman in Tempe, Arizona. All of Ubers autonomous-vehicle tests have been on pause since the incident.

The DMV told Uber that a new permit application would need to address what investigators find out about the Tempe crash. Uber has said that it is cooperating with Tempe police and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration  both of which are investigating. On Monday, Arizonas governor banned Uber from operating self-driving cars on state roads, creating another barrier for the programs eventual return.

We proactively suspended our self-driving operations, including in California, immediately following the Tempe incident, Matt Kallman, an Uber spokesman, said in a statement. Given this, we decided not to reapply for a California DMV permit with the understanding that our self-driving vehicles would not operate on public roads in the immediate future.

Related:

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics California Auto Arizona Sharing Economy Ridesharing Autonomous Vehicles Uber
A woman who owns a business that claims to be Californias largest landlord of marijuana businesses sued the city of San Bernardino to overturn its pot regulation ordinance that could bar her from the industry.

Stephanie Smith, the owner of a business called Bubba Likes Tortillas, said in the lawsuit filed in San Bernardino County Superior Court that the citys new law could create monopolies and also prevent her from renting property to pot growers and other marijuana operations.

The dispute dates back to December when a fortified building Smith owns was raided, cultivation operations her clients were operating were shut down and 35,000 marijuana plants were seized. Smith was not involved with pot growing and she was not arrested or charged, her attorney Ben Eilenberg said.

After the raids, a judge invalidated a voter-approved measure to regulate marijuana operations and San Bernardino City Council passed its own measure to replace it earlier this month.

The new rules said anyone, from a permit applicant or an employee of a cannabis business to the owner of a property, could be barred from the commercial cannabis business in the city if they had violated local or state laws related to the industry or if they had failed to report income from it.

Smith is concerned that could apply to tenants, or even her company, because the businesses raided in December were in the process of being licensed, Eilenberg said. They received approval letters to operate a week after they were shut down, but the law appears to make them ineligible to get licenses.

This misguided ordinance is a backdoor ban that continues the citys illogical campaign against a legal product, Smith said in a statement. Any person who has ever had anything to do with cannabis is banned for life from entering the legal market under this ordinance. It is not what the voters want and it makes no sense.

Eilenberg said it could also apply to businesses that operated in the murky days when medical marijuana was loosely regulated. Cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco have given priority to license businesses that operated under medical marijuana regulations to get into the broader retail market that opened Jan. 1.

San Bernardino is taking the opposite tack and guaranteeing that anyone in the city who operated prior to this law has to remain in the black market, Eilenberg said.

The lawsuit said the ordinance would violate the constitutional right to due process by disqualifying tenants or Smith without ever granting them an administrative or criminal hearing.

The lawsuit also claimed the city law could create monopolies of certain types of marijuana operating licenses.

The ordinance would allow 17 commercial marijuana businesses in the city, but there are 19 different types of licenses that could be issued, everything from growing pot, to transporting it, testing it and selling it.

A city spokeswoman did not immediately comment on the case.

Related:

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Lawsuits California Legislation Cannabis
The family of a teenager who died after a bull riding competition is suing the organizers of the 2016 event.

Brandon Charley died in Fruitland, N.M., while riding a bull named WhooWee. The lawsuit filed in state district court claims the organizers were negligent and put the 15-year-old on a bull too dangerous for the junior competition.

The Albuquerque Journal reports that video provided by the familys lawyers shows Charleys hand appeared to get latched to the bull shortly after the ride began and WhooWee started bucking.

The bull ultimately landed on Charley, and the teen was pronounced dead later that afternoon.

The lawsuit alleged that no emergency medical technicians were on scene and there was no ambulance. Officials with Navajo Nation Jr. Bull Riders dispute that claim.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Lawsuits Mexico
What is a Liquidity Cushion

A liquidity cushion refers to the cash or highly liquid assets that an individual or company might hold to meet unexpected demands for cash during a liquidity crisis.

Key Takeaways Liquidity refers to the cash assets a company or individual has on hand. Assets that are not cash and hard to turn into cash quickly are illiquid.

Cash in reserve is a hedge against external shocks to an individual or company's operating expenses.

A company or individual's operating expenses, their obligations (like debt payments) versus their income, may have a thin margin. When this is the case, having a liquidity cushion means they won't have to sell illiquid assets to cover expenses if there is a shortfall in income.

A liquidity cushion of cash reserves or money market instruments can prevent a company from having to sell more illiquid securities or other investments  possibly at a loss  to raise cash to meet short-term obligations like repaying loans, bills or wages. A liquidity cushion is sometimes called a "rainy day fund."

How a Liquidity Cushion Works

A liquidity cushion protects an individual or a business from having to sell illiquid assets like real estate or equipment to pay off debts.

The same principle applies to banks and other financial institutions that buy and sell assets by borrowing money, also known as trading using leverage. If a company or trader is too highly leveraged and they don't have a liquidity cushion or cash reserve, they can be forced to sell assets at a loss if they can't dip into cash reserves to service debt obligations.

The opposite of a liquidity cushion is a liquidity crunch, where an individual or a company finds it does not have the cash on hand to pay their obligations by the due date. In finance, when banks do not have the cash to cover depositors' demands for money, it's called a liquidity crisis.

Real-Life Examples of a Liquidity Cushion

Automobile companies, for example, are wise to keep a bit of a cash buffer, given that their industry is so cyclical. The Ford Motor Company, for example, having long understood that financial health is key to its success, mortgaged all the companys assets for $23.6 billion in loans in November 2006, to finance an overhaul and give it a cushion to protect itself against a recession.

This shrewd move was to prove Fords salvation. Unlike General Motors and Chrysler, it did not need to be bailed out by the government during the global financial crisis. Nor did Ford have to give any concessions to union workers as a condition for Federal aid. Moreover, its self-sufficiency also turned into a valuable marketing tool.

Ford is quite a highly leveraged company, and while it could do more to cushion itself against another recession, it has $31 billion in cash set aside for a rainy day (current as of Q2 2020).

Similarly, The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (Dodd-Frank Act) requires banks to have a liquidity cushion in case of another financial crisis similar to the financial crisis of 2008. According to the Federal Housing Finance Agency, "The Dodd-Frank Act requires certain financial companies with total consolidated assets of more than $250 billion, and which are regulated by a primary federal financial regulatory agency, to conduct annual stress tests to determine whether the companies have sufficient capital to absorb losses and support operations during adverse economic conditions."
IRELAND: Tanaiste Simon Coveney has been left humiliated after his two-thirds Dail majority legal lock plan for the Governments post-referendum abortion law was labelled unconstitutional, naive, and deeply damaging to the Yes campaign.

IRELAND: The Department of Justice has been criticised for 'ad hoc' emails about Garda whistleblowers.

IRELAND: The Tanaiste says he could not support Ireland "sitting on its hands" over the Salisbury nerve agent attack.

IRELAND: Business leaders in Cork have given City Hall two weeks to iron out teething problems with the new St Patrick St car ban.

BUSINESS: Rising house prices with no end in sight will lead to buyers being priced out of the market, according to experts.

WORLD: North Korea leader Kim Jong Un visited Beijing and met with President Xi Jinping in his first known trip to a foreign country since he took power in 2011, the Chinese government has confirmed.

SPORT: Munster Rugby were last night remaining tight-lipped over reports in South Africa that Bulls centre Dries Swanepoel is set to sign a short-term deal with the province.

... SOME DISTRACTION

FEATURES: The name Dennis O'Daly scarcely receives a mention in history books; nor is there much about him in the archives. Yet this banana merchant from Cork helped people more than two thousand five hundred miles from his native land obtain the vote.

SHOWBIZ: The organisers of the Oscars have announced its president will remain in his job after investigating a report of sexual harassment.

ARTS: Paddy Considine directs and stars in Journeyman, about a pro fighter battling for a normal life after suffering a brain injury.
By Patrick Flynn

The Coast Gaurd has located a stricken fishing trawler around 150km off the Kerry coast after communications were lost yesterday afternoon.

Irish Navy vessel the LE William Butler Yeats remains on scene today while a tug has also been sent to tow the trawler back to port.

The alarm was raised yesterday afternoon when the Irish Coast Guard received a distress signal from an emergency position-indicating radio-beacon (EPIRB). Automatic EPIRBs activate when they are released from their mounting bracket under pressure from water when a vessel sinks.

The Shannon-based Irish Coast Guard, Rescue 115, was requested to proceed to the last known location of the emergency signal amid fears the vessel had sunk.

Rescue 117 from Waterford was also tasked to provide communications top-cover.

The 72ft (22m) Ocean Pioneer was left adrift without power or any means of communication. It is understood the crew intentionally activated the trawlers EPIRB device in an effort to alert the Coast Guard to their emergency.

Watch officers at the Irish Coast Guards marine rescue sub centre on Valentia Island mounted and coordinated the search effort. The last known location of fishing boat was around 80 nautical miles (148km) west of Valentia Island in Kerry.

The Shannon-based crew reached the scene and quickly located the fishing vessel. Rescuers established the vessel was still afloat and that the crew of seven was unharmed.

With night falling, an Irish Naval Service ship was dispatched to the scene to remain with the stricken trawler overnight. Without any lighting to indicate its position, other ships were at risk of colliding with the vessel. The LE William Butler Yeats is still at the scene this afternoon.

A tug was also dispatched from Castletownbere late last night and made its way to assist the trawler.

The tug reached the vessel earlier today and is expected to tow the trawler back to port later tonight or early tomorrow morning.
Gardai in Ballinasloe, Co Galway have renewed their appeal for information in relation to a fatal traffic collision last week that claimed the lives of two women.

The incident occurred on Thursday, March 22 at Station Road, Ballinasloe at approximately 5.40pm.
By Gordon Deegan

A 22-year-old Limerick man has received a two-month suspended prison term after taking a Snapchat snapshot on his smartphone of a female judge in court.

Imposing sentence at Ennis District Court today, Judge Patrick Durcan described the actions of Eoin McDonnell as devious, dangerous, appalling and disgusting.

In the case, Mr McDonnell of College Avenue, Moyross, Limerick pleaded guilty to breaching Section 6 of the Public Order Act arising from taking the photo of Judge Fiona Lydon during a sitting of Ennis District Court last September and resulting confrontation with Gardai.

Judge Durcan said that there were a number of aggravating factors - Mr McDonnell was taking a photo image of a sitting judge and the fact that it was a female judge.

He said: It was appalling carry-on.

In response to a Garda removing Mr McDonnell from court on seeing the photo being taken, Judge Durcan said that Mr McDonnell "was doing everything he possibly could to obstruct the Garda on the day in question.

Imposing the suspended prison term Judge Durcan said that if our courts are to function in any realistic sense and if the Gardai are to be protected then there is only one kind of way to deal with this and that is to impose a prison sentence.

Giving an outline of the facts, Insp Tom Kennedy said that a Garda in court spotted Mr McDonnell taking a photo of Judge Lydon with his phone and he was asked to leave the court.

Insp Kennedy said that Mr McDonnell was brought outside the court where he became aggressive and told the Garda to "f**k off".

The inspector said that Mr McDonnell then tried to stamp on the phone so that what was on the phone wouldnt be available.

Insp Kennedy said that two Gardai were required to deal with Mr McDonnell as he was getting more aggressive and more difficult to deal with.

Insp Kennedy said that no image of Judge Lydon was found on the phone and a Garda in court explained that it was a Snapchat image and would have gone off the phone.

Solicitor for Mr McDonnell, Tara Godfrey said that her client took this Snapchat snapshot - these things evaporate - in other words, they only last a minute within a couple of minutes on the phone.

Ms Godfrey said that Mr McDonnell taking the photo wouldnt have happened if any other particular judge was sitting on that occasion. We had unusually, Judge Fiona Lydon and such was the contrast in my clients poor disturbed mind to the normal vista that presents itself in court.

In reply, Judge Durcan - who is the presiding judge said: Thank you Ms Godfrey - proceed."

In reply, Ms Godfrey said: "I certainly dont wish to make light of this."

Ms Godfrey said: It was the wrong thing by my client to do. I think it would be unfair to suggest that it was anything more sinister going on."

Ms Godfrey said that her client has psychiatric problems and is anxious and determined that treatment therapy is there to be put in place.

Ms Godfrey said that my client apologizes unreservedly. There was nothing sinister in this, the photo was taken impulsively and it shouldnt have been taken".

She said: Mr McDonnell apologies to the judge in question and to this court and to gardai who dealt with him on the day. What he did may have shown a very high level of contempt for what judges do, but that wasnt his motivation.

Addressing Mr McDonnell, Judge Durcan said: You would want to behave yourself - grow up.
The name Dennis O'Daly scarcely receives a mention in history books; nor is there much about him in the archives. Yet this banana merchant from Cork helped people more than two thousand five hundred miles from his native land obtain the vote, says Robert Hume.

Dennis ODaly, son of James and Onora, was born in Co.Cork about 1738. Possibly the family lived in West Cork where ODaly was a common family name, especially around the Sheep's Head peninsula.

Impoverished roots

During the 17th century Plantations, the ODalys are forced to give up their land to the British and are reduced to struggling tenant farmers.

Knowing that a bleak future awaited young Dennis should he stay in Ireland, his parents send him to France, where several communities of Irish priests had established themselves after Britain's Penal Laws banned Catholics from teaching in Ireland.

French education

In France he receives moral and religious instruction from the Jesuits  the schoolmasters of Europe at this time.

The Irish College in Paris, which ODaly may have attended, attracted most students. Priests at the college were certainly used to taking destitute Irish migrants under their wing, and encouraging them to lead happy, fulfilled lives. Many students became scientists, writers and explorers.

ODaly the banana merchant

Like hundreds of other migrants dreaming of a better life, ODaly leaves France, and sails to La Palma in the Canary Islands. He settles in its capital city, Santa Cruz de La Palma, which has one of the largest ports in the Spanish Empire, trading in sugar, Malvasia wine, and bananas.

La Palma came to cultivate more bananas than any other Canary Island, with the exception of Tenerife, and today even has a banana museum.

Banana plantations cover all the flat coastal land and many mountain terraces. The bananas are smaller and straighter than the Fyffes banana and have a sweeter flavour.

ODaly dedicates himself to the business of growing bananas.

His business prospers and he can soon afford to look for a wife. He marries Isabella Andrea McGee from a family of merchant drapers who had recently established itself in La Palma. They settle in a house in the main street.

Ruling families are ridiculous

When the couple invite guests to dinner, they hear complaints that the island is poorly run and in a miserable condition. "Most people eat fern bread  you can not imagine the horror of seeing it, protests Friar Juan Francisco de Medinilla.

Nothing improves because the citys government is in the hands of self-seeking and corrupt rich families  the Poggio and Guisla, Pinto and Massieu.

In no other Canary island, says historian Alvares Rixo, were the nobles so incompetent. Their ignorance was ridiculous.

Furthermore, these aldermen, or regidores perpetuos, passed on their office to their children when they died, as if it were a piece of private property.

O'Daly becomes determined to free the island from the stranglehold of these families and empower ordinary people to govern themselves.

Many in Santa Cruz de La Palma find the Irishman's promises attractive, and on 15 January 1767 he is elected mayor.

He proceeds to hire the best lawyer of the day, Anselmo Perez de Brito, a man whose sympathies towards political rights for all citizens had recently earned him a prison sentence.

In a lawsuit known as el pleito de los regidores perpetuos, Brito accuses the aldermen of abusing their power by embezzling public funds and committing other outrages in the city.

A banana plantation in La Palma today.

Dismissed as a foreigner

Led by Felipe Manuel Massieu de Vandale, the old governing families appeal against ODalys election, on the grounds that he is a foreigner.

The council of regidores suspend him from his job as mayor. He is charged with sedition, and ordered to present himself at the Royal Tribunal of the Canary Islands in Tenerife. Vandale hopes it would be the last they would see of ODaly and he would be thrown into prison. He is to be sorely disappointed.

Evading his captors, and leaving his banana plantation in the care of his wife, ODaly escapes to safety in Gibraltar, which is in British hands.

Much worse news follows for the old governing families. The Royal Tribunal refers the case to King Carlos III of Spain who supports reform, and agrees to abolish government by the regidores.

Popular elections would be introduced in La Palma, and the nobility would not be allowed to vote.

On 2 January 1773, the regidores are dismissed and replaced by governors to be elected every two years.

People in Santa Cruz wanted to celebrate gaining power with a thanksgiving service in the church of Matriz de El Salvador but the clergy refused them permission.

In the first election, held later that year, those living in the town and surrounding countryside designated 24 voters, all men, to choose the new governors. They elected a customs officer, a doctor, an attorney and a merchant.

Worn out by his labours and years in prison, the lawyer Brito dies in 1772, without seeing the fruit of his hard work.

Over the next few years, the families and descendants of the lifetime regidores fight to restore their positions and regain their titles. But they are unsuccessful. The government of La Palma has changed forever.

Place in history

It was largely due to Dennis O'Daly that La Palma became the first area in the huge Spanish Empire to enfranchise ordinary men, a whole century before working-class men were given the vote in Ireland.

Women, however, had to wait until those in the rest of Spain got the vote in 1924.

The Irishman, who owed so much to his schooling by the Jesuits, valued education as a means of social progress for ordinary people and set up the first state school in the Canaries. It still carries the name of ODalys lawyer, Anselmo Perez de Brito, who engineered the great changes.

ODaly died in Santa Cruz de La Palma on 16 March 1796.

St Patricks (or rather ODalys) Day celebrations in the city of La Palma earlier this month.

Today, the citys main street, the Calle ODaly, honours his name. Unfortunately, his house at No. 21, where he lived with his wife, no longer exists, although the modern building does carry his name: Edificio ODaly.

In 2017, for the first time, O'Daly was at the heart of Santa Cruz's St Patrick's Day celebrations. Municipal buildings were "greened" with floodlights, the Irish tricolour and shamrock flags were prominently displayed, and the Bar Rapadura hosted a street party with live rock and folk music.

This year, confirms the tourist information office, "even better" O'Daly festivities are planned in Santa Cruz de La Palma.

The day promises to be a celebration of the banana merchant who gave the town its place in history.

La Palma is celebrated today for its natural beauty. Few tourists would disagree with Madonnas eulogy as she dreams of San Pedro: Tropical the island breeze, all of nature wild and free.

But the little island has another claim to fame. It is here that Dennis ODaly from Cork won his battle to wrest power from the hands of a few rich families, and enabled ordinary people to have a say in the running of their government  A step towards democracy that his new country achieved long before most other parts of the world.
US President Donald Trump said there is "a good chance" that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will "do what is right for his people and for humanity" and make moves towards peace.

In a pair of morning tweets, he said he received a message from Chinese President Xi Jinping that a meeting Mr Xi had with Mr Kim this week "went very well".

Mr Trump says that according to Mr Xi, the North Korean leader "looks forward" to meeting the American president.

The White House has said Mr Trump plans to meet Mr Kim by May amid nuclear tensions between the two nations.

Mr Trump has agreed to historic talks after South Korean officials relayed that Mr Kim was committed to ridding the Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons and was willing to halt nuclear and missile tests.

In the meantime, Mr Trump said, "unfortunately, maximum sanctions and pressure must be maintained at all cost!"

The Trump administration has slapped sanctions on companies across the globe to punish illicit trade with North Korea.

"For years and through many administrations, everyone said that peace and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula was not even a small possibility," Mr Trump tweeted.

"Now there is a good chance that Kim Jong Un will do what is right for his people and for humanity. Look forward to our meeting!"

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said that Mr Kim's visit to China "was an unprecedented, historic step in the right direction".

"It is also evidence that @POTUS' maximum pressure campaign is working. We look forward to sitting down with Kim Jong Un to talk about a better future for his people," Ms Nauert said in a tweet.

However, it remains unclear if there has been direct communication between Washington and Pyongyang on the planned Trump-Kim summit that is slated for May, and under what conditions North Korea would agree to give up the nuclear arsenal it has spent decades building.

According to the Chinese state news agency Xinhua, Mr Kim told China's Mr Xi that North Korea is willing to have dialogue with the United States and hold a summit of the two countries.

Mr Kim also said the issue of denuclearisation can be resolved if South Korea and the US take "progressive and synchronous measures for the realisation of peace".

- PA
A former Catalan minister facing extradition to Spain has handed herself in for arrest at a Scottish police station.

Professor Clara Ponsati, the ex-Catalan education minister, is being sought by the authorities in Madrid on charges of "violent rebellion and misappropriation of public funds" over her role in Catalonia's controversial independence referendum last year.

She refutes the charges and is set to embark on a legal fight to resist the attempts to have her returned Spain.

Her lawyer says she views the charges - which could attract a jail term of up to 30 years - as "political persecution" and believes that her human rights cannot be guaranteed in Spain.

Scottish-based Prof Ponsati attended a police station in Edinburgh voluntarily on Wednesday morning after she was made the subject of a European arrest warrant last week.

It is expected police will place her under arrest and formally serve the European Arrest Warrant on her.

The academic is then due to appear from custody at an initial extradition hearing at Edinburgh Sheriff Court later on Wednesday.

Bail will be sought and a full hearing on the extradition request is expected to be held several weeks down the line.

Her solicitor, Aamer Anwar, said on Tuesday: "I understand that Clara Ponsati faces charges of violent rebellion and misappropriation of public funds which relates to the organising of the referendum, which my client utterly refutes.

"My legal team is instructed by Professor Ponsati to robustly defend her against the Spanish attempts to extradite her.

"Clara views these charges as 'political persecution' and submits that her human rights and justice cannot be guaranteed in the Spanish Courts.

Clara remains defiant and resolute and believes that the Spanish Government will never be able to crush the spirit of the Catalan people.

Prof Ponsati returned to Scotland earlier in March having been in Belgium since fleeing Spain with Catalonia's ex-leader Carles Puigdemont and three other former cabinet members, following an unsuccessful bid to declare independence from Spain in October.

She had resumed working at the University of St Andrews in Fife.

But a Spanish judge issued arrest warrants on Friday for Prof Ponsati and the other fugitive politicians including Mr Puigdemont, who was detained by police in Germany.

On Monday, a group of protesters congregated outside the Spanish consulate in Edinburgh to demonstrate against the arrest warrant and the actions of the Spanish Government.

Meanwhile, the Scottish Government is to raise concerns over the use of European arrest warrants with the European Commission.

Mr Anwar said of Prof Ponsati: "She is truly humbled by the support she has received from across Scotland as well as that of the Scottish Government, but believes that it is right that our courts must now decide what happens next."

- PA
Organ Donor Awareness Week is celebrating 40 years since the first donor cards were issued in Ireland.

In Ireland, 3,500 transplant recipients are enjoying an extended life, but the Irish Kidney Association is urging families to talk to each other about donation.

Those willing to donate are being urged to carry organ donor cards and to allow Code 115 to be included on their drivers licences, so as to promote the message.

A week of fundraising and awareness events runs from next Saturday, with proceeds from sales of forget-me-not flower emblems, brooches, lapel pins, pens, and shopping trolley discs going towards the Irish Kidney Associations work with patients on dialysis.

It also supports those who have received a kidney transplant and is celebrating a significant breakthrough.

For the first time in 39 years, transplantation is keeping up with dialysis, said Irish Kidney Association chief executive Mark Murphy. With 2,074 people on dialysis, this is one less person on dialysis than in the previous year, 2016.

At the launch, yesterday, of Organ Donor Awareness Week, he said there were 524 people active on transplant waiting lists for the heart, liver, kidney, lung, and pancreas. Among the recipients last year were 23 children/paediatric transplant patients.

Mr Murphy thanked the families of the 99 deceased donors in Ireland last year, whose selflessness and profound generosity resulted in 260 transplants. These were 141 kidney, 62 liver, 36 lung, 16 heart, and five pancreas transplants.

A record 51 living donor kidney transplants were among 192 kidney transplants carried out by Beaumont Hospital, in Dublin.

Of the record 311 transplants in Ireland in 2017, 16 heart and 36 lung transplants took place at Dublins Mater Hospital.

St Vincents University Hospital carried out 62 liver transplants and five pancreas transplants, combined with kidney transplants.

The Health Service Executive funded 16 transplants for 15 Irish patients in the UK last year, including 11 paediatric organ transplants and three kidney swaps.

Cork woman Isabel Terry was at the launch in Dublins Mansion House, six months after her 15-year wait on the transplant list finally came to an end, when she underwent a combined heart and double lung transplant in Newcastle.
However, Cork County Council engineers are ploughing ahead with tender documents for the project, so, if the green light is given, there wont be any hold-up with the plan.

Tom Stritch, the councils director of roads, said that the Government has made 300,000 available to the local authority, this year, to progress that phase of the project.

Mr Stritch said that they are progressing it, in the hope of a positive outcome from Bord Pleanala, which held a lengthy hearing on the project late last year.

Many objections were heard from residents living along the proposed, new motorway route, especially near the Broomfield interchange, at Rochestown.

They claim they are already suffering from excessive noise levels and are fearful of increased diesel emissions.

The Port of Cork cannot realise the full potential of its plans for a 75m upgrade of its cargo-handling terminal at Ringaskiddy, if the new motorway (M28) is not built.

The motorway is needed to handle what is predicted to be a 40% increase in average daily traffic and a leap in freight numbers, from 700 to 3,900 trucks, by 2035, primarily due to road freight transport coming in and out of the upgraded Ringaskiddy cargo-handling docks.

If the motorway gets the green light, there will be no traffic lights on the main road between Dublin and Cork.

Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) plans to remove the signalised roundabout at the north of the Jack Lynch Tunnel, as part of a major revamp of that junction to speed up traffic flow.
These are just some of the suggestions coming from councillors in Cork County Council, which is expected to set up a special taskforce to deal with the increasing scourge of dog fouling.

Sinn Fein councillor Danielle Twomey won unanimous support when she asked the local authority to set up a taskforce to deal with the issue.

She said it should be allocated special funding from the council budget and plans should be put in place to target the issue head-on.

Ms Twomey said she was being bombarded with complaints from her constituents and was frustrated by the councils lack of action in dealing with the issue.

We need to do something because the problem is getting worse, she said. Southwark council [in London] has special machinery to clean up parks and has designated no dog areas. Dublins four local authorities joined up last year to tackle the problem and are to put up 3,000 bin-it signs. Fingal County Council also trialled audio messages in areas, which were successful.

Fine Gael councillor Noel McCarthy said extra funding and extra dog wardens were needed.

But the only way to tackle this properly is by naming and shaming these people, he said. Theres a health aspect to this, especially where dogs are fouling childrens play areas.

Independent councillor Danny Collins said there were dog poo bag dispensers in some towns, but there were no designated bins to put the bags in, with the result that some owners end up throwing them over walls.

Sinn Fein councillor Melissa Mullane said the biggest issue was enforcement and not enough staff.

Litter fines are being issued, but this is littering as well, she said.

Fianna Fail councillor Seamus McGrath said: We need to put the emphasis on enforcement and need to put fear into dog owners who dont clean up after their pets.

In Carrigaline there is only one dog bin for a population of 17,000.

His party colleague, Deirdre OBrien, said not one fine had been issued in her municipal district last year for dog fouling, while Social Democrats councillor June Murphy said that if people are fined, that is when they are going to take notice.

Fine Gael Derry Canty also agreed that a name and shame policy was needed for offending owners. He said many dog owners put their pets on long leads in the knowledge that they could walk on and pretend not to notice their pet fouling.

Independent councillor Alan Coleman said one of his local engineers had come up with a good idea.

He said, at present, dog wardens had to catch the owner with the dog as the crime was unfolding, which was extremely difficult as many owners took their pets for walks in the early morning or late evenings when the dog wardens werent on duty.

He had the good idea to make it an offence not to take dog poo bags out while walking their pets, he said. Thats more easily detectable with spot checks rather than catching them in the act.

Suggestions have already been made at the Fermoy/Charleville municipal district to ban dogs from certain walkways.
However, Tanaiste Simon Coveney also admitted last night that Ireland did not have the power to independently verify Britains claims that Russia was behind the attack.

The decision, made by Cabinet, was informed by security chiefs and saw the Russian ambassador hauled in to the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Ambassador Yury Filatov warned the move will not go unanswered and that Russian president Vladimir Putin will decide the next move.

The expulsion was deemed stupid and dangerous by some in the opposition who want evidence shared on why the Kremlin and Moscow are to blame for the attack in Salisbury.

The Russian embassy staff member has been given nine days to leave the country.

Mr Coveney said their diplomatic status was to be terminated.

The individual in question is required to leave the jurisdiction.

Mr Coveney also extended sympathies to the victims of the shopping mall fire in the Russian city of Kemorovo, where at least 64 people lost their lives.

Mr Filatov, in a briefing with journalists at the embassy in Rathgar, Dublin, denounced the expulsion.

This kind of decision is totally unwarranted, uncalled for, senseless and regrettable, he said.

There was no Russian involvement in Salisbury.

And it is high time that Great Britain stop misleading its own public as well as the international community.

The ambassador described the current situation as political theatre.

He hoped the goodwill could help overcome any damage between Ireland and Russia.

However, asked what counter-action Moscow might take, Mr Filatov said: You might safely assume that this type of unwarranted action... will absolutely not go unanswered, thats for sure.

The diplomat being expelled had done nothing bad or illegal here and Moscow would now respond:

Im sure President [Putin] will take appropriate action and decision that might be necessary.

The fear is now that Ireland and other countries who expelled officials will see repercussions from Moscow. Ireland has nine embassy staff working there.

Moscow has strenuously denied being behind the Salisbury poisoning of ex-double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter.

Mr Coveney said Ireland had to trust Britain, telling the Dail: It is true that we are not in a position to independently verify the UKs assessment of responsibility for Salisbury.

Several parties called for the release of evidence that Russia carried out the attack, including Solidarity-PBP who called the expulsion stupid and dangerous.
The incident prompted renewed calls last night for the Spring Lane halting site on the northside of Cork city to be shut down.

Living conditions at the site have been described as amongst the worst in Ireland. Waste ground alongside the site has been plagued by illegal dumping for several years. It has also been the scene of several illegal fires.

Figures released by Cork City Fire Brigade reveal that fire crews have been sent to incidents at the address more than once a week for the last 12 months.

However, a source said the site has in recent months become increasingly hostile towards fire crews.

Fianna Fail councillor Ken OFlynn said strong action must now be taken to resolve a range of issues which have been linked to this site for many years.

We have a duty of care to our firefighters, who put their lives on the line in the course of their duty every day, he said. Shutting this halting site down now would be in the best interests of all.

The injured fireman is a member of a unit of Cork City Fire Brigade which was tasked to respond to a fire at the halting site on Saturday.

It is understood that residents who live overlooking the site raised the alarm just after 7pm.

One unit of the fire brigade from nearby Ballyvolane fire station was tasked. They were on the scene within seconds.

When the fire crew arrived at the entrance to the halting site, a group of individuals made attempts to block their access to the site.

A tense stand-off ensued during which it is alleged that a vehicle was driven at a large, heavy, metal gate at the site entrance, which swung violently and struck the firefighter.

Gardai were called to the scene and a senior garda spokesman confirmed that an investigation is underway.

It is understood that a vehicle has been seized as part of the probe.

A spokesman for Cork City Fire Brigade declined to comment in detail on the incident given that a garda investigation is underway. However, he confirmed that the injured firefighter was taken to hospital for an initial assessment and is now out of work as a result of the incident.

He said that city fire crews have been called to the Spring Lane halting site 78 times in the last 12 months, and 136 times in the last two years.
The Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) said a rising workload, described as unacceptable by 74% of those who responded to its survey, is contributing to increased stress and falling job satisfaction.

Although workload is not the direct subject of any motions at ASTIs annual convention in Cork next week, some of the recent education initiatives contributing to it are among the themes.

Delegates will seek, for example, to initiate a right to opt-out of supervision and substitution duties, and to demand meaningful consultation with teachers on changes to the second-level curriculum.

Of the 2,341 ASTI members who responded to the online survey in January, 92% said they are teaching full-time. This means they teach 21 hours and 20 minutes a week, reduced by one 40-minute period a week recently to facilitate whole-school practices associated with junior cycle reforms.

In addition, the survey found that second-level teachers typically spent just over 20 hours a week on non-teaching activities such as planning lessons, marking homework and other assignments, providing feedback, attending school meetings, and completing pastoral care duties.

Most also do supervision and substitution duties such as yard supervision for up to 33 hours in the school year, or get paid less if they do not do it.

Further requirements include attending an average of five parent-teacher meetings a year, usually around two-and-a-half hours each. A similar time is spent attending one or two school open nights annually, and between 10% and 20% spent from two to six hours in the past year preparing for school inspections or responding to them.

One in three members of ASTI told the survey carried out by Red C that they do unpaid school work such as student support roles, co-ordinating school tours or leading teaching teams in one of their subjects.

While a third of those teachers spend less than two hours a week at these duties, the average was nearly five hours. More than one-quarter of the teachers doing unpaid work  meaning almost one in 10 of all teachers  do so for over 10 hours a week.

The key sources of increased work included extra hours required under the Croke Park social partnership deal, junior cycle reforms and additional paperwork and administrative tasks.

The survey found just 51% of respondents describe themselves as satisfied or very satisfied with their work, slightly lower than similar responses in recent years, but down from a high of 77% in 2009.

ASTI president Ger Curtin said teachers work has changed significantly in the past decade.

As society has changed, the role of the teacher has expanded, he said. The number of new initiatives in schools and the pace at which they are implemented has increased.

Mr Curtin said teaching has always been acknowledged as a stressful job but the survey is now showing that teachers face unsustainable demands, high stress levels, and low morale.

This must be addressed as a matter of urgency if we are to maintain our high-quality education service, he said.
Mr Coveney was forced into an embarrassing U-turn hours after putting the plan forward after Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, cabinet colleagues, opposition parties, and pro-life groups all said it is not workable under any circumstances.

As revealed in yesterdays Irish Examiner, in return for his new-found support for the post-referendum unrestricted access to abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy, Mr Coveney said that he wanted to make any new legislation more difficult to change.

As part of the hoped-for deal, the Tanaiste wanted the new law to include a guarantee that it could not be changed in the future without the express permission of at least two thirds of the Dail.

Sources close to Mr Coveney hoped the suggestion would end claims from pro-life groups that the potential new law could be watered down to allow for further access to abortion by a more liberal future government.

However, hours after the plan was put forward, it was immediately slapped down as unconstitutional, naive, and a danger to the yes campaign. In a frank exchange in the Dail, Mr Varadkar was faced down by opposition leaders about the two-thirds majority suggestion, all of whom warned would be unworkable.

Asked by Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin if it would be unconstitutional, by Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald how on earth can you propose something that clearly contradicts the Constitution, and Labour leader Brendan Howlin, who said it very clearly cannot happen.

Mr Varadkar failed to back his Tanaiste, saying it could not be and will not be included as doing so would require another constitutional amendment.

The refusal to support Mr Coveney was compounded by further Dail criticism from Solidarity-People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett who said the suggestion would endanger the yes vote, and Independent Mattie McGrath who said a transition-year student would know this is completely unconstitutional.

Government colleagues, TDs, and pro-life groups lashed the now-scrapped two-thirds Dail majority plan. Government sources said Mr Coveney went from hero to zero as the plan  discussed for an hour at Cabinet yesterday  undermined his 12-week proposal support and his Tanaiste position. A cabinet source described the suggestion as ill-thought out and unnecessary while another said the attorney general Seamus Woulfe made it clear the plan was not a flier.

In a bid to calm the anger over Mr Coveneys botched proposal, Health Minister Simon Harris last night told reporters he has asked the attorney general to examine other possible ways to ensure future governments will have to go above and beyond existing rules to change the proposed 12- weeks law.

Responding to the criticism last night, a spokesperson for Mr Coveney said: The option of a legislative lock was discussed earlier, but this would require constitutional change and is not possible in the timeframe. It in no way alters the Tanaistes full support for the heads being brought forward by Minister Harris.

The Government last night published the draft heads of bill for the 12 weeks post-referendum law as the separate referendum bill was debated in the Seanad. The draft includes plans to ban late-term abortions and guarantees women seeking an abortion will face a three- day cooling off period.

Should the referendum bill be passed by the Seanad, Mr Harris will formally announce the Friday, May 25, referendum polling day before the weekend.
News Bagan Steps Up Efforts to Stop Climbers After Latest Temple Tumble

Shwesandaw Pagoda in Bagan. / The Irrawaddy

MANDALAY  Officials in Bagan are planning to do more to warn people against climbing the pagodas of Bagan after a German tourist was injured in a fall on Tuesday.

Yulia Krylova, 22, fell off one of the relatively smaller of the areas thousands of pagodas after watching the sun set and was sent to the Nyaung Oo general hospital to be treated for a minor head injury.

Because people are now prohibited from climbing the pagodas typically most popular for sunset views, visitors are clambering up the smaller temples, which can still be risky.

Weve prohibited the climbing of the pagodas since the earthquake hit and have requested the hotels and guesthouses to inform the tourists. However, the incident on Tuesdays shows our efforts are still weak, said U Aung Aung Kyaw, director of the Department of Archaeology, National Museum and Librarys Bagan branch, part of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Culture.

The department said it will put up more notice boards around Bagan and remind hotels and guesthouses to tell tourists that climbing the pagodas is prohibited.

Since it is very hard for us to keep an eye on everyone and every location, we hope the tourists will also understand the situation and avoid taking risks. Instead, we would like to encourage the use of the sunset viewing spots that we made, U Aung Aung Kyaw said.

Nearly 400 pagodas were damaged in the earthquake of August 2016. Shwesandaw Pagoda, especially popular for its sunset views, was closed to the public after the terrace collapsed last October.

The department prohibited the climbing of all pagodas in Bagan the following month after an American tourist fell to her death.

The department has built three earthen hills around Bagan for sunset views to help discourage climbing of the pagodas.

It is not uncommon for visitors to fall from pagodas in Bagan. The incident on Tuesday was the fourth in 2017-2018. We would like the visitors to use the sunset viewing spots rather than risking their lives to climb the pagodas, U Aung Aung Kyaw said.

According to his departments records, about 900 people would climb Shwesandaw Pagoda a day before the ban.

The views from the pagodas are fantastic. But there are safety reasons, and in our traditional point of view it is somehow inappropriate for people to climb the pagodas. That is why we have to ban the climbing, he said.

With an application to grant world heritage site-status to Bagan now before UNESCO, some have complained that the earthen hills could hurt its chances.

Weve received many complaints and suggestions about the manmade hills. But these hills could be abolished easily when we do not want them, the director said.

Ideas are welcome, and if we have a better solution we can remove these hills in no time. These hills cannot give the feeling of seeing the views from the pagodas, but we do not yet have a better way to provide an elevated location for viewing the sunsets besides these hills, he added.

Members of the World Heritage Site Committee will visit Bagan in mid-2018. The site will be brought up for deliberation at UNESCOs World Heritage Site convention in 2019.
Burma 4 Policemen Arrested Over Alleged Torture of Suspects in Irrawaddy Region

Policemen are detained at Labutta Police Station for alleged torture of suspects.

PATHEIN, Irrawaddy Region  Four policemen were arrested on Sunday over the alleged torture of two burglary suspects in a village in Irrawaddy Regions Labutta Township.

The chief of the Poe Laung police station and other ranks allegedly tortured two burglary suspects against legal procedures during interrogation sessions, said a spokesperson of the Irrawaddy Region Police Force Police Lt-Col Khin Maung Latt.

We have launched an internal investigation, he said, adding that the investigation is being led by the chief of the Myaungmya District police force.

Police arrested Khing Maung Latt and Soe Myat Aung, who were suspected of stealing more than 40 million kyats (US$30,000) worth of goods from a house in the village of Daung Chaung in Labutta Township in January.

The four policemen from the Poe Laung police station were arrested and are currently being held in the Labutta police station after families of the two suspects filed a complaint.

Locals said the police held the two suspects for weeks without remand. The four policemen allegedly slapped the two suspects with their hands and shoes, burned their genitals with cigarettes, burned plastic rope and bottles, and hung them upside down with their hands handcuffed.

In the first few days, we were held separately. They slapped me in my face with a slipper and hung me upside down for about five hours. They also ripped out my pubic hairs. On March 21, they burned [plastic] water bottles and dripped them on my genitals and thighs, Soe Myat Aung told The Irrawaddy.

Khin Maung Latt then confessed to burglary because of the torture and lied and said he had buried the loot under his house. As police brought him to his house to recover the goods, he showed his injuries to his wife and village administrators so that the village knew about the torture, said U Zaw Yan, a member of the Myanmar Farmers Network, a group supporting local farmers.

The wife of Khin Maung Latt and the mother of Soe Myat Aung then filed a complaint with the Labutta District police force. Khin Maung Latt and Soe Myat Aung have been receiving medical treatment at Labutta Hospital since March 23.

I cant hold things with my hands now because of the torture. I even need my mother to feed me. Because they slapped me in my face, my jaw hurts if I speak for too long. I also have burns, Soe Myat Aung told The Irrawaddy.

Khin Maung Latt also suffered similar injuries, plus he cant hear out of his left ear, said U Zaw Yan.

The Myanmar National Human Rights Commission said it would investigate the case within a few days, he said.

In 2003, a couple in Pathein who were suspected of a theft, committed suicide following torture by police during their detention. The inspector who led the interrogation was sacked and imprisoned and four other policemen were demoted.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko
Burma 5 of 9 Suspects in Sittwe Bombings Released

Ko Naing Soe was released on March 26. / Min Aung Khine / The Irrawaddy

SITTWE, Rakhine State  Five of nine suspects detained over a series of bomb attacks that injured a police officer in the third week of February in Rakhine States Sittwe were released on Monday.

Ko Naing Soe, also known as Mae Lone, an executive committee member of the Arakan National Council (ANC), was among those who were released on Monday.

Others include locals Ko Shwe Tun Aung, Ko Maung Myint Shwe, Ko Tun Myint Shwe and Ko Maung Thein Nu.

Ko Naing Soe was charged by police under multiple articles of the Counter-Terrorism Law that carry a minimum prison sentence of 10 years.

My arrest is ridiculing the rule of law. When will Myanmar achieve peace if police, who are supposed to enforce the law, do not respect the law and oppress the people? The fact that they are trying to forcibly arrest us is insulting the law, Ko Naing Soe told the media upon his release.

According to police procedure, suspects shall not be held on remand for more than 30 days. After eight of nine detainees spent 30 days in prison on remand, police still could not find evidence to bring them to trial and asked the court to extend their remand on other charges.

The court only approved the extension for three suspectstwo over the charge of illegally crossing the border, and one for a bomb blast in Mrauk-Uand ordered the release of the five others.

Three bombs exploded in Sittwe on Feb. 24, respectively in front of the Sittwe Court, in the backyard of an outspoken state government secretary, Tin Maung Swe, and in front of the Land Records Department.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.
Burma On Armed Forces Day, One Holiday, Two Visions

Soldiers take part in an Armed Forces Day parade in Naypyitaw on Tuesday. / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy

YANGON  The ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) and Myanmars military, or Tatmadaw, held separate events to mark the 73rd anniversary of Armed Forces Day on Tuesday and shared very different ideas about how to build peace and achieve national reconciliation.

While the Tatmadaw said Myanmar needed a strong and modern army to protect the country, the NLD said the military should stay out of national and ethnic affairs in order for Myanmar to see an end to decades of civil war.

The NLD marked the anniversary at its headquarters in Yangon, going with Anti-Fascist Day instead of its official name, preferred by the military. March 27 celebrates the beginning of the militarys resistance to Japanese occupation in 1945.

Exerting influence in national and ethnic affairs with military might must be ended. Resorting to armed conflicts that result from suspicions and grudges between ethnicities and national people must also be ended, the NLDs statement on the anniversary reads.

It adds that the NLD would never allow the loss of the countrys hard-won democratic gains, the result of the peoples resolve and perseverance.

About 100 party members attended the NLDs event, at which party leaders recalled the hard work the NLD has put into leading the country toward democracy. They urged party members to also work hard to further their cause and to heed the example of party chair Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the countrys de facto leader.

The NLD attributed its 2015 election victory to its years of resistance to military rule, from the pro-democracy uprising of 1988 on through the start of the transition to a semi-civilian government in 2010.

Party leaders said the NLD remained committed to achieving national reconciliation and a federal system accommodating the countrys many ethnic groups. Only when Myanmar achieves peace can it truly develop, they added.

If we want to build a safe, peaceful and prosperous nation, this can only be achieved when political parties and the Tatmadaw cooperate with the people, U Hantha Myint, a member of the NLDs central executive committee, said in his speech. Therefore, by embracing a policy of national reconciliation, the NLD is working hard to unify the political parties, Tatmadaw and the people.

Since the NLD took power, U Hantha Myint said, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has prioritized peace in order to establish a union based on democracy and a federal system.

To do so, we have called for the problems between us to be solved at the table rather than with armed fighting, he said.

A Martial Mandate

Control of Myanmar is effectively split between State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the Tatmadaw chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, each with a different vision of how to end the civil war.

Leaders of the countrys ethnic armed groups blame the slow pace of progress toward peace at least in part on the pairs fraught relationship. Still, many of them see in the NLD a more committed partner than the Tatmadaw, which has been fighting with the armed groups for decades. The military-drafted 2008 Constitution prevents the government from ordering the Tatmadaw to stop fighting, or from amending the Constitution without the Tatmadaws consent.

Since taking the reins of government in early 2016  minus three key ministries and a critical quarter of parliamentary seats, all still firmly in the Tatmadaws hands  the NLD has made little obvious progress toward peace. A planned national peace conference has been repeatedly pushed back as the Tatmadaw has blocked efforts by some ethnic groups to hold public consultations with their members in preparation.

Marking Tuesdays anniversary in Naypyitaw, Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing said the Tatmadaw had to be strong, modern and patriotic to protect the countrys independence.

Only when the Tatmadaw is strong will the nation be strong, the army chief said, citing a favorite saying.

Speaking on the peace process, he advocated pragmatism over idealism.

During the peace talks, it will be more practical to negotiate about probable things, in view of long-term benefits, instead of claiming the impossible ones and procrastinating, he said.

The general said Myanmar achieved independence by fighting off the Japanese with the help of the people, saving the country from disintegration.

He said a solid foundation had been laid for a smooth transition to democracy and that the Tatmadaw has played an important role in the country throughout its history.

Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing urged people to practice a Myanmar spirit without racial and religious discrimination, and to strive for the countrys development into a cohesive union. Instead of pointing to the past and finding faults, it is now high time to learn the lessons from the past and to [work] for the countrys development.
Burma Highlights of Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaings Armed Forces Day Speech

Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing inspected troops during the Myanmar Armed Forces Day parade in Naypyitaw on Tuesday. / Htet Naing Zaw / The Irrawaddy

At this years Armed Forces Day commemoration, Myanmar military chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing did not inspect the troops from the back of a moving military vehicle, opting to do so on foot.

In his speech, he said the country is lagging behind even its neighbors in the region.

In order to catch up, he urged people to work hard and show the spirit of Myanmarinterestingly, he also told the people of this Buddhist majority country to avoid racial and religious prejudice.

He reiterated his commitment to protecting the military-drafted 2008 Constitution. The military chief also urged all armed groups to sign the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement without making impossible demands.

Instead of pointing to the past and finding fault, Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing said, its time to learn the lessons of the past and to work for the countrys development.

Independence Struggle

In what has become something of a tradition for military leaders during Armed Forces Day speeches, Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing devoted the first part of his speech to the Tatmadaws role in the independence struggle.

He mentioned Aung San, father of State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who led the independence struggle, using the military training he had received from Japan to drive out the British colonizers. He and the rest of the legendary Thirty Comrades entered Myanmar through Thailand to liberate the country, which was then colonized by the British.

Min Aung Hlaing briefly touched on the Dawei and Mawlamyine columns that entered Myanmar from Thailand.

Among the columns, the Dawei column was the core one and it was cordially welcomed by local residents of all kinds on its arrival in Dawei, he said.

It is well known that residents of Dawei (known as Tavoy in southern Myanmar) welcomed the Myanmar soldiers, then part of the Burma Independence Army (BIA), and that many in Dawei joined the army. Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing is himself from the town.

The army chief then went on to discuss the post-independence period, and highlighted two major issues: the invasion by the Chinese Kuomintang (KMT) of eastern Myanmar, and the Mujahideen insurgency in the west.

In January 1950, KMT troops from China, backed by the American CIA, crossed the border from Yunnan and occupied northeastern Shan State, prompting the government under Prime Minister U Nu to formally complain to the UN. Myanmar forces, including the air force, bombed KMT troops and a series of fierce battles were fought.

In 1953, the UN passed a resolution calling on the US to work for the removal of the KMT troops from Myanmar.

Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing then touched on the Mujahideen insurgency in western Myanmar. In the Burmese language, he talked about the bad, naughty kalar. (A derogatory term for those of South Asian descent).

In northern Rakhine starting in 1950, separatist Bengalis who had migrated from what was then East Pakistan took up arms against the central government, he said. The military launched several operations including Operation Mayu. Mujahideen leaders fled or surrendered and the rebellion finally ended in 1961.

Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing related this story to demonstrate how the armed forces had played a role in protecting Myanmars sovereignty. He did not refer directly to the current crisis in Rakhine State, however.

Modern Army and Military Professionalism

The Tatmadaw leader did not fail to mention the ongoing efforts to build a modern army and to effectively utilize technology and military professionalism to collectively serve military affairs.

Freedom of Speech

He also touched on freedom of speech.

Today, our country is marching toward becoming a modern and developed democracy, he said.

Democracy is a negotiation of different views from multiple directions and it is a way to live cohesively with those attitudes. Whichever policies are pursued in the country, there shall be laws, rules and regulations promulgated.

He added, In democracy, there is freedom of speech in line with democratic norms, but these must also be in accordance with rules and regulations, as well as accountability. Baseless speech leads to animosity and degrades the prestige of our country, hindering nation building.

On Ethnicity and Religion

The commander-in-chief stated that more than 130 ethnic groups have existed in Myanmar for decades.

Among these ethnic groups, some number in the hundreds of thousands, while others have a population of just a handful. However, population is not the main issue, and all ethnic groups have equal rights under the Constitution. Although the majority believes in Buddhism, there is also freedom of worship for other religions. Thus, speech spreading disinformation must be restrained in relation to religion. One wondered whether he was preaching tolerance as some army officers, well-funded thugs, vigilantes and extreme nationalists have been accused of involvement in attacking minorities and Muslims.

On Rules of Engagement

Discipline is the backbone of the Tatmadaw, Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing said.

Our Tatmadaw is strong because it stands on the firm ground of good military discipline and obedience. Each and every serviceman must strictly follow rules and regulations, orders and instructions.

He told military personnel to adhere to the military code of conduct.

He said, Moreover, apart from following civil laws, military laws and laws related to war, we must also abide by rules of engagement [ROE]. ROE is a legal instruction as well as guidance for circumstances and restrictions to be followed by units and corps in the accomplishment of military objectives. I would like to say that legal action will be taken against anyone who violates the code of conduct, rules or regulations.

The comments appeared to be aimed at deflecting international criticism of the military crackdown on Muslim insurgents, terrorists and the self-identified Rohingya population of northern Rakhine State.

On the NCA

During peace talks, he said, it would be more practical to negotiate toward likely outcomes, in view of long-term benefits, instead of wasting time and setting impossible conditions.

In conclusion, Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing spoke about peace, prosperity, development of the nation and unity, and urged people not to dwell on the past.

He repeatedly mentioned multiparty democracy and federalism and urged people to avoid racial and religious prejudice.

He did not mention anything about government leadership changes, but his speech indicated that he was trying to put his house in order as well as to counter international condemnation, tougher sanctions and accusations of ethnic cleansing and genocide.
Burma Parliament Elects Ex-House Speaker Myanmar's Next President

U Win Myint (center) arrives at the Union Parliament in Naypyitaw before the presidential election on Wednesday. / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy

YANGON  The Union Parliament on Wednesday elected former Lower House Speaker U Win Myint the countrys 10th president after U Htin Kyaw left the post last week citing the need to rest.

U Win Myint became president-elect after securing 403 votes from the 636 lawmakers of the Upper House and Lower House. The other two candidates, U Myint Swe and U Henry Van Thio, secured 211 and 18 votes, respectively.

U Myint Swe is currently the countrys acting president. Based on the number of votes he secured on Wednesday and his military background, the former lieutenant general likely landed votes not only from all 162 military lawmakers but also from more than 40 lawmakers of the main opposition, the Union Solidarity and Development Party.

Its announced that U Win Myint, who has secured the most votes, has been elected the president, Union Parliament Speaker U Mahn Win Khaing Than announced after all the votes were counted.

State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and some union ministers attended the election as observers.

As part of the process to select a replacement for the 71-year-old U Htin Kyaw, who resigned on Mar. 21, U Win Myint was elected a vice president on Friday, paving the way for a vote for a new president.

U Win Myint submitted his resignation as speaker of the Lower House soon after U Htin Kyaws resignation was announced on Wednesday, prompting speculation that he would become Myanmars next president.

The 67-year-old is believed to be one of Daw Aung San Suu Kyis favorites among fellow senior National League for Democracy (NLD) members. He became Lower House speaker in February 2016, after the NLD won the 2015 general election.

During his time in the Lower House, the former lawyer was known for his strict discipline. He did not tolerate discussions that were off topic during parliamentary meetings. Even union ministers were not free from his stern warnings, not to mention lawmakers, including those from the military.

U Win Myint became an NLD central executive committee member in 2010. In 2012 he also served as secretary of the Lower Houses Rule of Law, Peace and Tranquility Committee  chaired by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who was a Lower House lawmaker at the time  after being elected to represent Yangons Kawhmu Township.

Born in Danubyu in the Irrawaddy Delta in 1951, U Win Myint studied geology at Yangon University before moving on to study law in the 1980s. He was working as a barrister in 1988 when nationwide pro-democracy protests erupted, leading to the founding of the NLD, which he subsequently joined.

Since joining the party, U Win Myint has won three election races: in the 1990 general election, a 2012 by-election, and the last general election in 2015.

He was elected speaker of the Lower House in 2016.
Burma UN Chief 'Shocked' by Top Myanmar General's Comments on Rohingya

Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing addresses the second anniversary of the NCA signing ceremony in Naypyitaw. / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy

YANGON  United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres expressed shock at comments by Myanmars military chief in which he said the Rohingya minority shared nothing in common with the rest of the population and that their demand for citizenship had stoked recent violence.

Nearly 700,000 Muslim Rohingya fled to Bangladesh since the military launched a crackdown in Myanmars western Rakhine State in response to insurgent attacks on security forces in August, according to UN estimates. The United States and UN have described the operation as ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya, which Myanmar denies.

Senior General Min Aung Hlaing said in a speech to military personnel and their families last week in northern Kachin State that Rohingya do not have any characteristics or culture in common with the ethnicities of Myanmar, according to his website.

The military chief also said the tensions in Rakhine were fuelled because the Bengalis demanded citizenship, using a term that Rohingya activists reject as implying they are illegal migrants from Bangladesh.

UN chief Guterres said in a statement on Monday he was shocked at the comments, and urged all leaders in Myanmar to take a unified stance against incitement to hatred and to promote communal harmony.

The Secretary-General reiterates the importance of addressing the root causes of the violence and the responsibility of the Government of Myanmar to provide security and assistance to those in need, the statement said.

Though many Rohingya say their families have lived in Myanmar for generations, they are not among the 135 officially recognized ethnic groups and so are denied citizenship.

Several calls to a military spokesman seeking comment went unanswered.

The army chief is an influential figure under Myanmars Constitution, which obliges State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyis civilian government to share power with the military.
News Southeast Asia Closes Island Beaches to Recover from Climate Change and Tourism

Tourists jump from a 20-foot cliff at one of the islets off the island of Boracay, central Philippines, January 18, 2016. / Reuters

BANGKOK  More popular Southeast Asian islands will be off limits to visitors this year as officials seek to protect eco-systems crumbling from warming seas and unchecked sprawl, despite the risk to tourism revenues and tens of thousands of jobs.

Thailand will shut Maya Bay, which famously featured in The Beach, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, for four months a year, from June. In the Philippines, officials plan to close Boracay Island for six months at the end of April.

Islands have very fragile eco-systems that simply cannot handle so many people, pollution from boats and beachfront hotels, said Thon Thamrongnawasawat, a marine expert in Bangkok.

Coral reefs have been degraded by warmer seas and overcrowding. Sometimes, a complete closure is the only way for nature to heal, he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

More than three-quarters of Thailands coral reefs have been damaged by rising sea temperatures and unchecked tourism, said Thon, who last week recommended limiting visitors to its 22 marine parks to 6 million a year to enable their recovery.

Currently, they number about 5.5 million, he said.

Thailand closed dozens of dive sites to tourists in 2011, after unusually warm seas caused severe damage to coral reefs in the Andaman Sea, one of the worlds top diving regions. It also shut some islands in 2016.

The countrys sandy beaches helped draw record numbers of tourists last year, with revenues contributing about 12 percent of the economy. The government expects 38 million visitors this year.

Southeast Asia is expected to bear the brunt of rising damage to coral reefs, depriving fishermen of incomes and leaving nations exposed to incoming storms and damage from surging seas, recent research showed.

In the Philippines, which is among the most vulnerable to climate change, about 2 million people visited Boracay last year, celebrated for its white-sand beaches.

On a visit last month, President Rodrigo Duterte called the island a cesspool because of sewage dumped directly into the sea, and warned of a looming environmental disaster with buildings constructed too close to the shore.

Government agencies have recommended closing the island for six months to fix the problems.

Tour operators say more than 36,000 jobs are at stake.

We support the government in adopting responsible and sustainable tourism practices  but not in shutting down the whole island, the Philippine Travel Agencies Association said.

But Thailands Thon warned against short-term fixes.

Tourism is important, but we need to preserve these spaces for our future generations, for future livelihoods, he said.
GPU-accelerated deep learning is increasingly a part of applications running in hyperscale data centres. Nvidia has announced a raft of product improvements and industry collaborations addressing this market.

TensorRT 4 accelerates deep learning inferencing. The new version is said to be up to 190 times faster than conventional CPUs for common applications including computer vision, translation, speech recognition and recommendation engines.

In addition, Nvidia and Google have jointly integrated TensorRT and TensorFlow 1.7, delivering up to eight times greater inference throughput compared with conventional GPU execution.

Tthis [integration] dramatically improves inferencing performance," said vice-president and general manager of accelerated computing Ian Buck.

SAP reports its deep learning-based recommendation application runs 45 times faster on TensorRT with Tesla V100 GPUs than it does on conventional CPUs.

The Kaldi speech framework has been optimised for Nvidia GPUs, allowing faster and more useful virtual assistants, at lower cost to datacentre operators.

GPU acceleration for Kubernetes has been announced by Nvidia in the form of contributions to the open-source project.

Mathworks has announced TensorRT integration with Matlab, giving the ability to generate inference engines from Matlab to Jetson, Nvidia Drive and Tesla.

Nvidia has worked with Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft to ensure software developed using ONNX frameworks including Caffe 2, Chainer and Pytorch can be deployed on Nvidia deep learning platforms.

Nvidia GPU Cloud provides a registry of pre-built containers for running various pieces of GPU-accelerated software in the cloud. "You log in, you download, you run," said founder and chief executive Jensen Huang. Thirty containers are currently available, all certified to run on AWS, Google Cloud, AliCloud and Oracle Cloud, as well as on DGX systems. Azure is still being qualified.

"This is the only architecture that is 'all cloud,'" he said during his keynote address at the GPU Technology Conference.

Huang went on to say that the availability of Kubernetes on Nvidia GPUs "is going to bring joy." The ability to take massive workloads and orchestrate them across hyperscale data centre resources means "life is complete," he joked.

Nvidia demonstrated an image recognition system processing 4.3 images per second on an Intel Skylake-based server. On a single Volta GPU, that rocketed up to 874 images per second. Moving the same job to eight Kubernetes containers, each with a V100 GPU gave around 6900 images per second. The demonstration then failed-over half of those to AWS containers, and not only was the speed maintained, in increased slightly to some 7100 frames per second.

Disclosure: The writer attended Nvidia's GPU Technology Conference as a guest of the company.
The CSIROs data innovation network Data61 has developed a new real-time video platform designed to help quicker recovery from work injuries through virtual appointments.

Coviu  an emerging start-up out of Data61  offers a video consultation software to healthcare businesses. Coviu is being used across the country and has connected 20,000 Aussies to healthcare practitioners through partnerships with organisations including Health Team Australia, HealthKit and Ramsay Healthcare. Coviu has also been commercialised in China.

Pronounced co-view, the real-time video platform quickly connects patients with health professionals and is ideal for people in rural and regional Australia who cannot travel for treatment.

Data61 announced that physiotherapy network Biosymm is an early adopter of the platform and says that by improving accessibility to professional physiotherapists, Biosymms early intervention treatments have reduced claim numbers by half compared to the same period the year prior.

Biosymm has conducted more than 1400 consultations on Coviu since implementing the platform. The company works with major retail, industrial, mining, rail and pharmaceutical clients, many of whom operate in isolated areas across Australia.

Biosymm chief executive Greg Borman said good injury management came down to expert advice at the right time.

The majority of work injuries are musculoskeletal in nature, and by using Coviu to connect patients with our physiotherapy team, we can triage them on the spot and provide the right advice at the right time, wherever theyre based.

The real-time video feature also allows us to guide employers at the end of the consult on what the worker can safely perform at work during their recovery and how best to prevent a recurrence or aggravation.

Weve been able to deliver significant returns in workers compensation savings and productivity by ensuring employees receive the timely expert treatment and guidance they need to make a full and swift recovery.

Borman said Biosymm is expecting to assist more than 7000 workers in the 2018/19 financial year, supported by a network of over 300 preferred local providers.

Coviu chief executive Dr Silvia Pfeiffer said the real-time video consultations platform developed by Data61 worked particularly well because of its flexibility to integrate with existing workflows in healthcare.

Our platform can be accessed through web browsers, a custom mobile app and even through an iPod.

Weve integrated video consultation scheduling into Biosymms existing practice management software. It means that no matter whether theyre at work or at home, patients can have access to the treatment and expert advice they need.
Amazon Cash is targeted at an entirely different market from the other digital pay services offered by technology companies and what remained to be seen was whether it could attract any additional market share by streamlining this process, a senior official of an American payment processing company says.

Joe Kleinwaechter, vice-president of Innovation and Design at Worldpay US, told iTWire in response to queries following the launch of Amazon Cash this month, that to compare the service against Apple Pay, Samsung Pay or Android Pay was "an apple to oranges comparison".

Amazon Cash is aimed squarely at those who want digital cash for transactions but have no means of topping up online.

Kleinwaechter said: "The xPay cadre is based on credit or ACH systems, which require the consumer to have a bank account or credit card. Amazon Cash appears to target unbanked and underbanked consumers to convert them to Amazon customers.

"They know they have a market, as these consumers are already buying Amazon gift cards with cash and taking them home to redeem them on their Amazon accounts.

"There really is no risk if the expectation is to replace that mechanism. But, what remains to be seen is whether they can attract any additional market share by streamlining this process."

Asked if Amazon was too late to the market and whether a half-and-half service was going to make the cut, Kleinwaechter responded: "Not at all. I think Amazon is going after a fixed job-to-be-done  provide purchasing power to cash only customers. Currently, 7% of consumers are unbanked and an additional 20% are underbanked. Thats a big opportunity, if you have the right solution."

Given that the US is now pushing for digital payments - as underlined by its being behind the moves in India to lessen cash transactions - Kleinwaechter was asked if it was in any way peculiar that Amazon was seemingly encouraging people to keep using cash.

He disagreed with this conclusion. "I dont think Amazons encouraging the use of cash, it's simply responding to a market need. Consumers are unbanked and underbanked for a reason. They often dont have access to or choose not to have access to traditional credit systems and are challenged by paying in ways banked customers do.

"Traditionally banks have ignored this population, as they werent candidates for the margin-rich service upsells that make customer acquisition costs worthwhile. Amazon Cash is a valuable service, but whether it will be a good source of profit or a loss leader for future offerings remains to be seen."
Centre Com, operated by director Raymond Xianke Huang, established 18 years ago, has 10 stores in Victoria and an online presence, as well as being an authorised Apple service centre and reseller. It sells products from most majors: HP, Intel, ASUS, Samsung and Lenovo, although the origin of these products is unknown.

Microsoft's investigators purchased two new computer systems from Centre Com, according to the vendor, which were found to have counterfeit Certificates of Authenticity (COAs) attached, with unauthorised copies of Windows 7 Professional installed.

Microsoft Australia legal counsel Clayton Noble said, Microsoft will continue to do business with Centre Com. Purchasing Microsoft products from unauthorised resellers compromises the integrity of software distribution channels, and is unfair to those Microsoft resellers who obey the law and purchase and resell only genuine and licensed Microsoft software products available from Microsofts authorised distributors.

Microsoft has had a run of successful convictions of late. Moonbox sold more than 3600 pirated keys for 17 different Microsoft products and settled for nearly $1 million and its four directors were permanently banned from representing themselves as lawful resellers of Microsoft software.

Last year Software Oz, PC-Tek, and Bytestech settled for $300,000, $25,000 and an undisclosed amount respectively. These were all for supplying pirate copies of Microsoft programs and for preloading Windows 10 and Office Professional Plus 2013 onto hard drives.

But one of the more significant breaches last year involved PC Case Gear obtaining 4000 Microsoft Certificates of Authenticity for Windows 7 that belonged to a Microsoft Authorised Refurbisher Program.
Nuance will provide support for the enterprise workflow solutions that increase productivity and enhance document security fore Lexmark products.

Brock Saladin, Lexmark senior vice-president and chief revenue officer, said, Nuances proven capabilities and global 24/7 support align to the needs of Lexmark customers. When combined with Lexmarks industry-leading, award-winning imaging devices, our customers can confidently and securely manage documents throughout their lifecycle.

Nathan Taylor, vice-president, Nuance Document Imaging, Asia Pacific, said, Nuances print management and document workflow solutions are well established in the Asia Pacific marketplace. With a reputation for delivering feature-rich capability and robust security, these solutions will provide Lexmarks Australian customers with greater choice, while allowing us to build a new relationship with a quality distributor.

Nuance solutions available immediately to Lexmarks Australian and global dealer network include:

AutoStore

AutoStore is said to best suited for business processes that capture workflows where participants submit documents and data into a predefined workflow.

Equitrac Office/Express

Equitrac Office is claimed to give businesses the flexibility to let users print what they need and when they need it, while reducing the costs and complexities of deploying a print infrastructure.

SafeCom

Nuance SafeCom solutions are claimed to offer companies a better way to manage and optimise their printing services.

"The primary beneficiaries of todays news are Lexmarks customers who now have access to the industrys pre-eminent MFP capture and print management solutions with AutoStore, Equitrac and SafeCom, said Chris Strammiello vice-president of global alliances and strategic marketing, Nuance Document Imaging. Utilising Nuances solutions, Lexmark customers can enhance their document workflows to increase productivity and efficiencies. Simultaneously, organisations gain control of document security to better secure protected information against unauthorised access by individuals in and outside of the organisation.
The leader of a group that used malware to steal money from more than 100 financial institutions over nearly five years has been arrested in Spain.

A statement from Europol said the unnamed man was held in Alicante after an investigation carried out by the Spanish National Police with help from the FBI, authorities from Moldova, Romania, Belarussia and Taiwan, and a number of private security companies.

The gang was behind malware known as Carbanak and Cobalt and had caused banks in more than 40 countries to suffer losses of more than 1 billion.

The malware was capable of facilitating the theft of large sums, with Cobalt allowing thefts of up to 10 million at a time.

The gang started operating in late 2013 with malware known as Anunak that targeted financial transfers and ATM networks. Anunak was developed into a more sophisticated version which came to be known as Carbanak and used until 2016.

Europol said all the attacks used a similar modus operandi. "The criminals would send out to bank employees spear phishing emails with a malicious attachment impersonating legitimate companies.

"Once downloaded, the malicious software allowed the criminals to remotely control the victims infected machines, giving them access to the internal banking network and infecting the servers controlling the ATMs. This provided them with the knowledge they needed to cash out the money."

The money was then cashed out in one of the following ways:

ATMs were instructed remotely to dispense cash at a pre-determined time, with the money being collected by organised crime groups supporting the main crime syndicate: when the payment was due, one of the gang members was waiting beside the machine to collect the money being "voluntarily" spat out by the ATM;

The e-payment network was used to transfer money out of the organisation and into criminal accounts; and

Databases with account information were modified so bank accounts balance would be inflated, with money mules then being used to collect the money.

The European Banking Federation co-operated with Europol in bringing about the arrest.

EBF chief executive Wim Mijs said: "This is the first time that the EBF has actively co-operated with Europol on a specific investigation.

"It clearly goes beyond raising awareness on cyber security and demonstrates the value of our partnership with the cyber crime specialists at Europol.

"Public-private co-operation is essential when it comes to effectively fighting digital cross border crimes like the one that we are seeing here with the Carbanak gang."

Steven Wilson, head of Europols European Cyber Crime Centre, said: "This global operation is a significant success for international police cooperation against a top level cyber criminal organisation.

"The arrest of the key figure in this crime group illustrates that cyber criminals can no longer hide behind perceived international anonymity."
The US Department of Justice has challenged a lawsuit filed by Russian security firm Kaspersky Lab claiming that a US Congress ban on the use of its software products was unlawful.

The DoJ said the case should be dismissed because the ban by Congress, codified in the National Defence Authorisation Act for the fiscal year 2018, was a legal one and made to protect the national security of the country, according to a report in The Hill.

Kaspersky Lab filed the case on 12 February in the US District Court for the District of Columbia.

In December, Kaspersky filed an appeal against a September 2017 ban on the use of its products in the public service by the Department of Homeland Security, to which the DHS responded, arguing that in its opinion the restriction should not be lifted.

This US ban came in the wake of allegations that Russia had interfered in the 2016 US presidential elections.

A number of mainstream media reports have claimed that Kaspersky was connected to Russia's spying on the US.

"By the time this legislation reached the floor, there was broad agreement among lawmakers and cyber security officials in the executive branch that the security risks posed by the use of Kaspersky products and services were intolerably high, and strong bipartisan support for taking preventive action against those risks," the DoJ told the court on Monday.

It added that Kaspersky's assertion that the claimed security risk needed to be tested was not valid, because "Congress is not required to 'test' anything before it legislates".
Former Washington Post employee Brian Krebs, who runs a site claimed to be dedicated to security issues, has come under fire from users of a German image board pr0gramm.com after he revealed details about several admins and moderators in an article which claimed to identify who was behind the cryptocurrency mining service Coinhive. This is known as doxxing.

But the users of pr0gramm.com did not retaliate against Krebs; as his name literally means "cancer" in German, they started a donation blitz to local cancer research organisations. This was first reported by the website Bleeping Computer.

Coinhive has a script that can be used to mine the monero cryptocurrency. It has been found embedded in many sites by malware authors.

Another choice bit from today's story on #Coinhive: "Somewhere along the way, however, Moench ditched the priest idea and decided to become a spammer instead." https://t.co/QvV1vwFkHF  briankrebs (@briankrebs) March 26, 2018

"The man hired used a machete to hack to death Moenchs parents & the family poodle. Moench later explained his actions saying he was upset his parents bought him a used car for his 18th birthday instead of the Ferrari hed always wanted." More: https://t.co/QvV1vwFkHF  briankrebs (@briankrebs) March 26, 2018

Krebs' long and tortuous article claimed to probe "who and what is Coinhive." But after identifying the individual whom he claimed was behind the script, Krebs then included lurid details about one Matthias Moench who was the first owner of the domain pr0gramm.com  even though the article said "Mr Moench is only tangentially connected to this research".

Krebs took a drubbing on, with one user commenting: "I think uncovering the person/company behind Coinhive is not a bad idea. However, in doing so, Brian Krebs did several extremely questionable decisions and moves:

"Publishing material by users he knew had trolled him to further the agenda that this is a right-wing site (it is not, the site has a huge fan base of Bernie Sanders and other leftist politicians).

"Look at his tweets and headlines (on Vice Motherboard for example) that are used to promote the story: They are almost exclusively focusing the the Matthias Moench part, which is completely irrelevant to pr0gramm, Coinhive, and even the mindmap."

Users of pr0gramm.com have created a hashtag #KrebsIsCancer under which details of various donations are being posted. Details of donations are also plastered all over the home page of pr0gramm.com.

As iTWire has reported, Krebs last year quietly took down a story he had written purporting to uncover the people behind the Shadow Brokers group who leaked a number of NSA exploits on the Web. No reason was offered for this takedown and it was mentioned only at the very end of a story he wrote about the arrest of a Vietnamese American who pleaded guilty to taking masses of NSA material home.

Comments were not allowed on this article, presumably to avoid criticism of his earlier claim. The allegations about the identity of the Brokers were fed to Krebs by a Washington DC-based security firm, InGuardians, a fact he mentioned only in the 30th paragraph of his story.

iTWire has contacted Krebs for comment.
Ecuador has taken what it says is a step to prevent WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange from interfering in other countries' affairs and cut off his Internet access.

The BBC reported that the move came after Assange raised doubts (see tweet below) about Britain's assertions that Moscow was behind the recent poisoning of an ex-spy from Russia and his daughter.

(3/3) Further, while it is reasonable for Theresa May to view the Russian state as the leading suspect, so far the evidence is circumstantial & the OCPW has not yet made any independent confirmation, permitting the Kremlin push the view domestically that Russia is persecuted.  Julian Assange  (@JulianAssange) March 26, 2018

But WikiLeaks contested this, claiming that Ecuador had only asked for removal of a tweet that said: "In 1940 the elected president of Catalonia, Lluis Companys, was captured by the Gestapo, at the request of Spain, delivered to them and executed. Today, German police have arrested the elected president of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, at the request of Spain, to be extradited."

It added: "This is the only tweet the government of Ecuador asked to be removed. In an email to his London lawyers on 27 March at 14:54 BST the Ecuadorian foreign ministry referenced no other matter."

Ecuador said Assanges recent behaviour on social media put at risk the good relations (it) maintains with the UK, with the other states of the European Union, and with other nations.

Assange last month lost a bid in court to get an arrest warrant against him dropped.

The Australian has been taking refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since June 2012.

His problems began when he visited Sweden in August 2010 to attend a conference where he was scheduled to give a talk. During that visit, he had sex with two women whom he met. The pair filed rape and molestation complaints against him later, claims that he denied.

Wikileaks editor @julianassange has been gagged and isolated by order of Ecuador's new president @Lenin Moreno. He cannot tweet, speak to the press, recieve visitors or make telephone calls. Ecuador demanded that he remove the following Tweet: https://t.co/uaDAEBKtwR  WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) 28 March 2018

In 1940 the elected president of Catalonia, Lluis Companys, was captured by the Gestapo, at the request of Spain, delivered to them and executed. Today, German police have arrested the elected president of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, at the request of Spain, to be extradited.  Julian Assange  (@JulianAssange) 26 March 2018

This is the only tweet the government of Ecuador asked to be removed. In an email to his London lawyers on 27 March at 14:54 BST the Ecuadorian foreign ministry referenced no other matter.  WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) 28 March 2018

He was questioned by Swedish authorities and cleared of all accusations. He could have left the country then and there but stayed for a while, in case the authorities decided to question him again.

Interpol issued a Red Notice for his arrest on 20 November 2010. On 27 November, Assange surrendered to authorities and appeared before a Westminster judge. Bail was granted to him in December after his backers provided 240,000 in cash and sureties.

Then began a protracted period of legal back and forth that went on until June 2012, when Swedish prosecutors sought his extradition.

I want to be clear that this has nothing to do with his politics. Any guest who actively is working against your interests is really hard to stomach. I don't blame Ecuador and honestly I think they've been surprisingly accommodating up to this point. 2/2  Jake Williams (@MalwareJake) 28 March 2018

Assange's lawyers, among them the world-renowned Australian Geoffrey Robertson, replied that if he agreed to the extradition request, then he could be flown to the US from there.

On 19 June 2012, he jumped bail and took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy, seeking asylum in the South American country. British police surrounded the building and blocked any chance of his leaving.

Ecuador granted him asylum in August 2012. He has had to stay inside the four walls of the embassy since then. He was recently granted Ecuadorian citizenship.
The business model and investment model for the national broadband network has been built on a very unclear footing, "and the question can even be asked whether there is a business plan at all, according to telecommunications analyst Paul Budde.

This is the key reason there is now so much confusion and negativity surrounding the project, Budde comments in a blog detailing his lengthy submission to the Joint Standing Committee on the National Broadband Network Inquiry into the business case for the NBN.

At least in its original plan there was an overarching vision from the government on the social and economic benefits of the NBN, and this was supported by a range of digital economy and smart grid policies, Budde writes in his submission.

This original view was largely abandoned when the current government came into power in 2013. Prior to that, Tony Abbott, at that time the leader of the Opposition, launched a campaign to Kill the NBN. This was only just avoided, thanks to the then Shadow Minister for Communications, Malcolm Turnbull; but there was little room for a positive policy towards the NBN within that poisonous political environment.

After the 2013 elections and for the reason mentioned above little interest was shown in developing a long-term vision for the NBN in relation to the national good, because that could be taken to be a political endorsement of the project.

The government never took full ownership of the NBN, instead using every opportunity to talk the project down, blaming the previous government.

The new government failed to provide its own national vision for the infrastructure and a broad level of policies concerning the countrys need for the NBN. Instead it concentrated on detailed policies in relation to cheaper technologies. A better approach would have been for the government to provide its NBN vision in relation to health care, education, government service, e-commerce and so on.

Just one example here to illustrate that point  the government could have mentioned using the NBN for the development of e-health services aimed at lowering healthcare costs by distributing more services through digital systems. Such policy parameters should then have been handed over to engineers, who would have been able to develop a fit-for-purpose infrastructure with appropriate costing models and implementation plans.

The lack of a business plan also left the financial situation of the NBN in limbo. Is it a nation-building project or not? What was clear was that the government required a return on investment, which could indicate that it sees the NBN just as a commercial venture, Budde wrote.

Budde says in his submission that it is important to look at the original NBN initiative within the market and industry context of that time.

Based on the situation back in the 2000-2009 period there was no opportunity to develop a viable business model for a national broadband network, basically because of lack of co-operation from the very dominant and powerful telecommunication provider Telstra. Although their attitude changed after 2009, a private market model was never tested again, he wrote.

Budde points out that under the current telecoms laws and regulations, it is now even forbidden for private enterprise to build residential fixed broadband networks.

Several providers have indicated that they are interested in building commercial FttH networks in selected areas, and Telstra had already indicated in 2007 that it would be willing to build an FttN network to 50% of Australian premises.

After the massive policy changes to the NBN in 2013 no new business model was developed, and this has created the current messy situation with a relatively low level of broadband quality  with hindsight it would have been better to let private enterprise develop their own high-speed broadband networks. Recent research from the Melbourne School of Engineering has indicated that such a network would have been built anyway by private enterprise by now.

Budde said in his submission that the only reason for the government to be involved in the NBN would be if they see it as essential national infrastructure.

This would be one of the first questions that needs to be answered before building a proper business plan. Without that you simply cannot build a business case for it, he said.

Although it is unclear precisely what the governments position is on the issue, to all intents and purposes the NBN is, of course, essential national infrastructure. While national plans and policies differ, all western economies are building their NBNs and there is nearly always bipartisan support for these plans.

While this might not have been specifically articulated by the government the fact that it is investing some $50 billion in the NBN means that they must see some social and economic benefits. So why not talk about them?

The confusing situation in Australia can be rectified with the stroke of a pen, but this requires the political will to do so, and there doesnt seem to be any hope of that, Budde said.

In his submission, he said that while a full review of the NBN is inevitable, it is most unlikely that this will be initiated by the current government and it looks as though we need to wait for the next election before we reach clarity on which business model can be built.

He writes that failing to address these issues will continue the current confusion and undermine the financial situation of NBN Co.

Based on the current financial model, the company will be unable to meet its financial requirements. As explained below, it will be very difficult to increase its prices to address that issue, he said.

Most users have a monthly budget for home broadband of between $50 and $80. If the NBN cannot deliver a service at such levels customers simply will not buy their service (as we clearly saw this in relation to the 25Mb/s and 50Mb/s situation). Worldwide, the norm in the broadband access market is that new upgrades are provided at roughly the same price we now pay for a 50Mb/s service, at roughly the same price that Australians received a 4Mb/s service 10-years ago or a dial-up service before that.

In five years time we will get 100Mb/s for the price of 50Mb/s (we see this already happening in some countries with more advanced broadband networks). This is facilitated by a reduction in cost for the telcos, made possible through new technologies.

So, the revenue options are limited, and this is obviously a risk to NBNs financial model, Budde submitted.

He said the real value of broadband resides in the value that it provides to society and to the economy  but these social and economic benefits dont show up on the balance sheets of the NBN company.

It is therefore important for the government to put a value on this and take that into account in the overall business model.

Or the government can take its hands off the NBN and privatise it. Indications from several sources such as the ACCC and PwC indicate that making this an attractive project, capable of appealing to outside investors, would involve a significant write-down of the governments investment in the NBN.
The Basslink Interconnector, the undersea data and telecommunications cable that connects Tasmania to the Australian mainland, has been hit by an outage after routine maintenance was begun on 24 March.

Basslink, the operator of the cable, said only the electricity interconnector was affected.

"Regrettably, during the routine maintenance at a transition station in Victoria, a third-party contractor damaged a piece of equipment," the company said in a statement.

"Given the damaged equipment is unique, it will require appropriate expertise and equipment from overseas for repair before the interconnector can recommence operations.

"Basslink has begun the process to return the Basslink Interconnector to service. Based on current information, its anticipated return to service date is 14 April 2018.

"At this point in time, the fault only impacts the electricity interconnector. The Basslink telecoms cable providing broadband services to Internet service providers continues to operate."

basslink went down for maintenance over the weekend.

oddly it hasn't come back and now they've stopped using gas!



tas has been 100% renewable for more than 24 hours.

 2% solar

 5% wind

 93% hydro pic.twitter.com/seUjn3thca  simon holmes a court (@simonahac) 27 March 2018

Basslink is in the midst of a dispute with the Tasmanian Government over an earlier outage in December 2015 which lasted for six months. The government is seeking damages of $122 million; Basslink denies that it was responsible for the outage.

The statement said: "This incident is unrelated to the outage in December 2015 and the ongoing dispute with the state of Tasmania."

Contacted for comment, Hydro Tasmania, the Tasmanian Government body that is the predominant electricity generator in the state, said: "Tasmania's energy supply is extremely secure, and not meaningfully affected by the current short-term Basslink outage.

"Hydro Tasmania storages were at 36.9% on Monday. Thats an extremely secure level for early autumn, as we approach the wettest months of the year. It's also well above the High Reliability Level set by the Energy Security Taskforce.

"Especially given the time of year, we expect to manage quite comfortably without being able to import energy until mid-April."
Business Spanish Class Partners with SBDC to Promote Latino Entrepreneurship

March 28, 2018

Kelli Highland '19 (left) and Ivana Valencia '21, presented How to Start a Small Business in Illinois in Spanish.



BLOOMINGTON, Ill.  A partnership between Illinois Wesleyan Universitys Hispanic Studies Department and the Illinois Small Business Development Center (SBDC) of McLean County at Illinois Wesleyan is helping to inspire and empower local Latino entrepreneurs.

Twenty-five Spanish-speaking community members attended the first-ever How to Start a Small Business in Illinois in Spanish presentation, held at the Western Avenue Community Center on Feb. 28. A second event with the same title is scheduled for Wednesday, March 28 from 5 p.m. until 6:30 p.m. at St. Mary's Catholic Church (527 W. Jackson St., Bloomington).

Byron S. Tucci Professor of Hispanic Studies Carolyn Nadeau and Director of the SBDC Karen Bussone collaborated to create a Spanish version of the How to Start a Small Business in Illinois seminar, which the SBDC is required to provide monthly.

This event reflected the collective wisdom of the SBDC to offer constructive, concise information for new and prospective business owners in Spanish, Nadeau said. The Latino community is hard-working, dedicated, and dynamic and has many excellent entrepreneurial ideas, yet at the same time, it is underserved in our community. This workshop is a step in the right direction in helping turn dreams and visions into successful realities.

Twenty-five Spanish-speaking community members attended the first-ever How to Start a Small Business in Illinois in Spanish presentation.

Bussone and Nadeau developed a project plan that included opportunities for students in Nadeaus Business Spanish and its Cultural Context class to assist with translating the SBDC presentation and event marketing materials from English to Spanish. Additionally, two students  Kelli Highland 19 and Ivana Valencia 21  teamed up with Assistant Director of the SBDC Katelyn Hill to deliver the How to Start a Small Business in Illinois presentation in Spanish.

Putting into practice both their Spanish language communicative skills and their cultural competency skills in a real world scenario is an invaluable experience for any language learner, Nadeau said, noting the significance of such experiential learning opportunities. Kelli and Ivana will be able to apply what theyve learned from this experience in their respective futures.

Two other Business Spanish and its Cultural Context students  Alexa Huskisson 18 and Josh Segatto 20  will give the March 28 presentation in Spanish. Additionally, five students in Nadeaus class are assisting this semester with The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) grant program, which is an IRS initiative designed to support free tax preparation service for the underserved through various partner organizations.

Bussone said, on average, the SBDCs monthly business planning seminar yields 12 attendees; therefore, she was pleased to see a larger-than-average crowd of 25 people at the February session of How to Start a Small Business in Illinois in Spanish, which included childcare provided by Illinois Wesleyan students and dinner from Moe's Southwest Grill.

Bloomington resident Claudia Calev-Parra attended the first-ever How to Start a Small Business in Illinois in Spanish presentation.

Everyone in attendance told us that they have always wanted to start a business or expand their existing business but were not aware of any organization that provided help and support, Bussone said. The Latino population is a very close community that will share the SBDC's services, which in essence will provide opportunities for people to pursue their passion with new business start-up or business expansion.

Since launching the SBDC of McLean County at Illinois Wesleyan on March 27, 2017, 56 IWU students have collaborated with 12 SBDC client projects. The SBDC finished the year at 60 percent over its goal, with 112 total clients served in 2017. Two months into 2018, the SBDC had added 50 new clients.

Bussone is confident that offering How to Start a Small Business in Illinois in Spanish, will positively impact the Latino  and entire Bloomington-Normal and McLean County  community.

The positive attitudes and positive mindset exhibited by attendees literally filled our hearts with joy, Bussone said. During my event debriefing with Katelyn, we both discovered how difficult it was to sleep that night because of the energy and excitement displayed by seminar attendees. We were also overjoyed to have such wonderful support from Professor Carolyn Nadeau and her class.

By John Twork
Controversial city businessman Ben Kangangi has not taken too kindly to Anerlisa Muigais recent allegations on social media.

A little over a week ago, the apparent Keroche heiress accused Kangangi and controversial shylock Dennis Mwangeka of working together to defraud her. Ms Muigai had previously been sued by Mwangeka over a Sh.19 million loan she took on behalf of Ben Kangangi.



Anerlisas allegations on social media have now landed her in more trouble with the law. This after Ben Kangangi moved to Court to accuse Anerlisa of defamation.

In Court papers seen by Nairobi Wire, Ben claims that Anerlisas social media posts regarding the Sh.19million loan she took contain total falsehoods as pertains to him.

They were published with deliberate malice by the defendant who knows or ought to have known that the statements are not true. As a result, the Plaintiff has suffered loss in his transactions, loss of respect amongst his friends, business associates, family etc, the papers read in part.

By the publication of the said online posts, the Plaintiff has been greatly injured in character and reputation as a consequence whereof the Plaintiff has been brought into grave public ridicule, scandal, odium and contempt in the eyes of right thinking members of the society.

Kangangi, through a supporting affidavit, argues that he is an established businessman dealing in imports and sale of high-end automobiles, equipment, fashion apparel and interior designs materials through his trading company known as Benka Automobiles.

He claims to make an annual turnover of Sh100 million through these businesses with 7 employees working directly under him and another 30 indirectly.

According to Kangangi, he has not been in contact with Ms. Muigai since December 2015 despite being close friends for three years, a period during which they used to spend considerable time together.

He, however, clarifies that he has never dated the multi-billion shilling beer empire heiress.

Kangangi further states that though he knew of her debt with Mwananchi Credit as she had approached him to help her settle it, he could not do so at the time as he had other pressing personal commitments.

Read: Ben Kangangi Imports McLaren Sports Car as Anerlisa Muigai Cries Foul in Sh19 Million Debt Case

The businessman also claims that Anerlisa asked him to accompany her to ask mother, Tabitha Karanja, to help her settle the loan but she refused.

After this incident, Kangangi says he was arrested on claims of fraud reported by Anerlisa Muigais father, Joseph Karanja.

On Christmas Day 2015, I was called by a CID officer from Nairobi who informed me about a complaint lodged at the police alleging that I was involved in a fraudulent scheme that swindled Keroche Breweries Limited of Sh20million. I was informed that the complaint was lodged by the defendants father Joseph Karanja.

Kangangi was then arrested and detained at Kileleshwa Police Station for two days and released on December 27, 2015, pending investigations into the complaint.

He was arrested again on January 2016 and was in police custody for a week after which he was released and his cash bail of Sh200,000 returned to him.

The police informed me that from their investigations they had established that the defendant had been a victim of a scam known as wash-wash where she lost her money and from their investigations, I was not in any way involved, Kangangi said.

According to the papers drawn by Conrad Maloba and Associates and dated March 22, 2018, Ben Kangangi now wants the court to restrain Anerlisa from publishing any further defamatory words against him or his dealings.
It was all good and happy vibes in Governor Sonkos family as his grand-daughter, Sasha, turned one.

Born to Sonkos eldest daughter Saumu Mbuvi and politician Benson Gatu, Sasha celebrated her first-year milestone in style as her mom and grandpa joined forces to throw her a grand bash.

In addition to splashing millions on Sashas party, Governor Sonko further celebrated Saumu with a Sh15 million Range Rover Evoque.

Sonko, who shed tears of joy when Saumu Mbuvi gave birth to Sasha last year, gave the gift as a token of appreciation for making him a grandfather and also for raising her daughter as a single mother.

Saumu and the former Mathioya constituency aspirant parted ways before Saumu delivered their daughter. Gatu, who was once accused by Sonko of joyriding on his name to gain political mileage, has since moved on with Muranga governors daughter Racheal Wanja.

With Gatu nowhere to be seen on Sashas day, the rest of the entire Sonko family was joined by friends to make it memorable and fun-filled.

Here are the photos and a video of Saumu and Sasha receiving their new ride:
Sangaree resident Jim Retz shows off a model Huey helicopter, that sits on a shelf in his living room, as a reminder of his Army Aviation days in the Vietnam War.
Opposition leader Raila Odinga has for the first time spoken up about the scandal involving data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica and Facebook, vowing to take legal action against them.

Raila was speaking on Monday in an interview with British Channel 4 News, the station that exposed the data firm bragging to its undercover reporter of having fixed the Kenyan elections for President Uhuru Kenyatta in both 2013 and 2017.

I am disappointed that Facebook agreed to cooperate in this clandestine enterprise. I have been very disappointed, and we are actually contemplating legal action against Facebook. . . We will do it outside Kenya with Kenyan lawyers and others from outside, Raila said.

On whether he will also sue Cambridge Analytica, he answered in the affirmative, saying most certainly.

We will certainly take legal action against Cambridge Analytica. The introduction of this system being brought by Cambridge is bad for electoral democracy in the continent.

Raila noted that the company took advantage of the impressive internet penetration statistics in Kenya to depict him as the devil incarnate through Facebook pages such as The Real Raila and Who is Raila Odinga.

You see stories such as Who is Raila Odinga and The real Raila Odinga the Raila in those adverts was very evil, the devil incarnate he told Channel 4s Lindsey Hilsum.

The ODM party leader further noted that Kenya is vulnerable and was probably one of the first guinea pigs in Cambridges propaganda experiment in 2013.

I think we were one of the first guinea pigs in this experiment. In 2013, we were new to this kind of thing, and we did not know how to deal with it. And then they came in 2016, and this time, they had perfected the art of manipulating data.

If it [data manipulation] is allowed to succeed there will be no point of having elections. People will be like robots that vote according to how they are manipulated. That is not the meaning of democracy, Raila said.
Reddit Email 5K Shares

TeleSur |  

According to a Palestinian activist, this year alone 500 pages of Palestinian journalists, activists and bloggers have been deleted.

Facebook deleted account of Gaza-based Palestinian news agency Safa as part of a pro-Israeli policy to block and delete users accounts considered inciteful. The agency is allegedly affiliated to the Palestinian political party Hamas; a claim Safa denies.

Safas account was disabled along with the accounts of 10 of its editors Saturday, after 5 p.m local time. The agencys social media manager, who is keeping his identity secret, told the Jerusalem Post We were totally surprised. The news agency didnt receive a warning or an explanation.

We are now working to restore the account because 60 percent of the websites traffic comes through Facebook, the social media manager said. A reminder of Facebooks growing power in limiting or facilitating access to information.

After the page was deleted, journalists rallied Saturday outside Safas headquarters in Gaza to reject Facebook s move, arguing the news agency had garnered 1.3 million followers who rely on it for news information.

The agency responded to the measure by urging Facebook to fulfill their stated goal to allow people to express their standpoints so that the world is more open and pluralistic.

Activists have launched a campaign titled Facebook is fighting Palestine, which is calling for a boycott of the social media company. According to them, Facebook has proven their bias because while they delete and block Palestinian Facebook accounts, citing incitement, they have failed to do the same to Israeli accounts that openly call for violence and produce derogatory and discriminatory content against Palestinians.

According to a Palestinian activist quoted by Israeli newspaper Haaretz, since the beginning of 2018 roughly 500 Facebook pages of Palestinian activists, journalists and bloggers who cover the news in the occupied territories have been shut down by the social media company.

Clearly violent and inciteful comments on the social media website have in fact come from Israeli officials themselves and an action against them has yet to be taken by the company.

Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked has praised Facebook on its censorship policies when it comes to incitement despite the fact that she has been shown to carry out the same practice herself.

They are all enemy combatants, and their blood shall be on all their heads. Now this also includes the mothers of the martyrs, who send them to hell with flowers and kisses, Shaked once wrote on her Facebook account.

They should follow their sons, nothing would be more just. They should go, as should the physical homes in which they raised the snakes. Otherwise, more little snakes will be raised there.

Via TeleSur



Bonus video added by Informed Camment:

Al Jazeera English from January 2018: Is Facebook silencing Palestinians at governments request? ??
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - March 28, 2018) - KWG Resources Inc. (CSE: KWG.A) (CSE: KWG) (OTC: KWGBF) (FSE: KW61) ("KWG") has received Letters Patent No. 32526 and Author's Certificate No. 100393 issued by the Kazakhstan Patent Office for PRODUCTION OF CHROMIUM IRON ALLOYS DIRECTLY FROM CHROMITE ORE.

About KWG:

KWG is the Operator of the Black Horse Joint Venture after acquiring a vested 50% interest through Bold Ventures Inc. which is carried for 10% (20% of KWG's equity in the JV) by KWG funding all exploration expenditures. KWG also owns 100% of Canada Chrome Corporation which has staked claims and conducted a surveying and soil testing program, originally for the engineering and construction of a railroad to the Ring of Fire from Aroland, Ontario. KWG subsequently acquired intellectual property interests, including a method for the direct reduction of chromite to metalized iron and chrome using natural gas. KWG subsidiary, Muketi Metallurgical LP, is prosecuting two chromite-refining patent applications in Canada, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, and USA. The national phase filings are under review in each of those jurisdictions, save that Canada and South Africa have notified that they will each grant a patent for the direct reduction method and Kazakhstan has issued a Patent for the method.

For further information, please contact:

Bruce Hodgman, Vice-President: 416-642-3575 ~ This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ceylon Graphite Corp. (Ceylon Graphite or the Company) (TSX-V:CYL) (OTC:CYLYF) (FSE:CCY) is pleased to announce that the Company will be attending the Mines and Money Asia Conference being held in Hong Kong from the 3rd of April to the 6th of April 2018 to introduce Ceylon Graphite to the Asia Pacific markets. The Company has also been shortlisted for two awards by the organisers of the Conference and several well-respected industry experts.

Asia Pacific Exploration Executive of the Year  Bharat Parashar, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Ceylon Graphite Corp.

Asia Pacific Exploration Mining Company of the Year  Ceylon Graphite Corp.

https://asia.minesandmoney.com Network and then Outstanding Awards

The Company considers it a great honor to be recognized by its peers in the Asian mining community in just its second year of operation. These awards speak directly to the extensive exploration work the Company has carried out in Sri Lanka over the past year.

Mr. Bharat Parashar, Chairman and Chief Executive of Ceylon Graphite and Mr. Sasha Jacob, Chairman and Chief Executive of Jacob Capital Management, Financial Adviser to the company will be making presentations at the Conference. Should there be an interest to meet with either of them please feel free to contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Bharat Parashar, Chief Executive Officer states: Being nominated for these awards is a real honor for the Company and is tangible recognition for all our employees, who have worked so hard, to achieve so much, in such a short period of time.

About Ceylon Graphite Corp.

Ceylon Graphite Corp is a public company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange (CYL:TSX-V), that is in the business of exploring for and development of graphite mines in Sri Lanka. The Government of Sri Lanka has granted the company exploration rights in a land package of over 120km. These exploration grids (each one square kilometer in area) cover areas of historic graphite production from the early twentieth century and represent a majority of the known graphite occurrences in Sri Lanka. Graphite mined in Sri Lanka is known to be some of the purest in the world, and currently accounts for less than 1% of the world graphite production.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS: This news release contains forward-looking information as such term is defined in applicable securities laws, which relate to future events or future performance and reflect management's current expectations and assumptions. The forward-looking information includes statements about Ceylon Graphites grids, Ceylon Graphites plans to undertake additional drilling and to develop a mine plan, Ceylon Graphites intention to apply for a Mining License and to commence establishing mining operations. Such forward-looking statements reflect management's current beliefs and are based on assumptions made by and information currently available to Ceylon Graphite, including the assumption that, the drilling exercises will confirm the presence of high quality graphite, sufficient financial resources will be available, the records from the drilling exercises prove to be accurate, there will be no unanticipated delays or costs materially affecting Ceylon Graphites exploration, development and production, there will be no material adverse change in metal prices, all necessary consents, licenses, permits and approvals will be obtained, including various Local Government Licenses and the market. Investors are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause future results to differ materially from those expected. Risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results expressed or implied by the forward-looking information include, among other things, an inability to reach a final acquisition agreement, inaccurate results from the drilling exercises, a failure to obtain or delays in obtaining the required regulatory licenses, permits, approvals and consents, an inability to access financing as needed, a general economic downturn, a volatile stock price, labour strikes, political unrest, changes in the mining regulatory regime governing Ceylon Graphite, a failure to comply with environmental regulations and a weakening of market and industry reliance on high quality graphite. Ceylon Graphite cautions the reader that the above list of risk factors is not exhaustive.

These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and, except as required under applicable securities legislation, Ceylon Graphite does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances. All of the forward-looking statements made in this press release are qualified by these cautionary statements and by those made in our filings with SEDAR in Canada (available at www.sedar.com).

Further information regarding the Company is available at www.ceylongraphite.com

Bharat Parashar, Chairman and & Chief Executive Officer

Chairman & Chief Executive Officer

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Corporate Communications

(604) 559-8051
Vancouver, British Columbia (FSCwire) - Maxtech Ventures Inc. (CSE: MVT) (Frankfurt: M1N) (OTC: MTEHF), (Maxtech or the Company) is pleased to announce that it has signed a letter of interest to form a joint venture to explore 40,000 Hectares with Andorra Participacoes e Empredimentos Ltda in the State of Para, Brazil.

The Company is immediately organizing a site visit with Andorra and MLB Mining Brazil, Maxtechs in-country manager who has led numerous successful manganese exploration teams in the region. MLB Mining will complete an extensive due diligence report on the 40,000 hectares and the potential of the Mn mineralization photographed on the claims by Andorra Participacoes. The areas of interest are located in the municipality of Jacareacanga, in the southwest portion of the State of Para. The claims under discussion have geological structures in three main directions, NW-SE, NNE-SSW and EW, being the most significant possibly due to the influence of a tectonic event and magnetic discontinuities. The claims are located in the Teles Pires River Basin, in the Southwest portion of the State of Para, belonging to the meso-region of the Lower Amazon region of North Brazil. There is easy accessibility to the areas by paved highways, the airport of Jacareacanga, and the local ferry terminal.

The mining sector represents 14% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the State, originating mainly from the extraction of iron, bauxite, manganese, limestone, tin, and gold. The term of the Letter of Interest will be effective for a period of one hundred and twenty (120) days, closing no later than June 23rd 2018. Andorra Participacoes e Empredimentos Ltda and Maxtech discussions are around a joint venture and contingent upon successful due diligence including licencing verifications and initial sample assay results.

Maxtechs strategy for the first quarter is to joint venture with companies in the Brazil who have already located high-grade manganese areas of interest. Now that the rainy season in the region is over, our operations will ramp up quickly and research and technical site visits will increase, noted Peter Wilson, CEO of Maxtech.

About Maxtech Ventures Inc.

Maxtech Ventures Inc. is a Canadian based diversified industries corporation focused primarily on manganese mineral properties.

For additional information see the Companys web site at http://www.maxtech-ventures.com

Email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Phone: 604-484-8989

Further information about the Company is available on www.SEDAR.com under the Companys profile.

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.

Certain statements contained in this release may constitute forwardlooking statements or forward-looking information (collectively forward-looking information) as those terms are used in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and similar Canadian laws. These statements relate to future events or future performance. The use of any of the words could, intend, expect, believe, will, projected, estimated, anticipates 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 Companys current belief or assumptions as to the outcome and timing of such future events. Actual future results may differ materially. In particular, this release contains forward-looking information relating to the business of the Company, the Property, financing and certain corporate changes. The 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.
Vancouver, British Columbia / TheNewswire / March 28, 2018 - Emgold Mining Corporation (TSXV: EMR) ("Emgold" or the "Company"): is pleased to announce that it has completed the final acquisition of a one hundred (100%) percent interest in its Koegel Rawhide Property, Nevada (the "Property"). The Property is located approximately 40 miles southeast of the city of Fallon, in the Rawhide Mining District and Koegel Hills, and five miles southwest of the active Rawhide Mine. The Rawhide Mine is owned and operated by Rawhide Mining LLC. Formerly operated by Kennecott Minerals Company, the Rawhide Mine is reported to have produced 1.7 million ounces of gold and 14.1 million ounces of silver from the years 1990 to 2014 (Source: Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology Special Publication MI-2014).

Terms of the Agreement

As announced by the Company on February 13, 2012, Emgold originally signed a Lease and Option to Purchase Agreement with Jeremy C. Wire to acquire the RHT and Gel Claims (19 unpatented lode mining claims totaling 380 acres), which comprise the core of the Koegel Rawhide Claims. As further announced by press release on February 15, 2012, Emgold subsequently staked 17 additional claims, expanding the property size to 36 unpatented lode mining claims totaling 720 acres. The RHT and GEL Claims, and all of the claims staked by Emgold within a 0.5 mile radius, will remain subject to a two (2%) percent net smelter returns ("NSR") royalty should any production occur from the claims. The entire NSR royalty can be purchased for USD$1 million at any time (less any previous royalty payments already made).

Koegel Rawhide Property Details

The Koegel Rawhide property is a volcanic-hosted, structurally controlled, epithermal gold-silver prospect in the Walker Lane gold belt of western Nevada. The Walker Lane is a regional shear zone and known gold trend that hosts large and small historic and currently operating gold-silver mines, including in the Comstock Lode, Tonopah District and Rawhide District. The Property's geology and mineralization are associated with lithologic units and structures of the Rawhide volcanic center, as well as structures from the Walker Lane and Basin and Range. Further information on the Property can be found on Emgold's website at www.emgold.com

Gold and silver mineralization is present at the Property based on historic randomly spaced surface sampling. A total of 464 samples were taken in geologically derived locations in the years 1991-1992. The results of the historic grab samples ranged from non-detectable to 2 ounces per ton gold, and from non-detectable to 11 ounces per ton silver. The methods and quality control from the historic sampling are unknown and cannot be verified to comply with NI 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") requirements, but the results are considered reliable for exploration purposes. Historic sampling identified a higher grade area named the T-10 Zone. Historic sampling in this area included 13 samples ranging in grades from 0.004 to 1.99 ounce per ton gold, with an average grade of 0.52 ounces per ton gold.

In 2012, Emgold took 11 rock chip-channel and grab samples in the T-10 Zone, the results of which were disclosed in a February 27, 2012 press release, including the quality assurance program and quality control methods. The grade of the samples ranged between non-detectable and 1.60 ounce per ton gold, with an average grade of 0.27 opt gold. Results of Emgold's sampling compared favorably with historic sampling on the Property. Emgold subsequently completed grade contouring of the historic and Emgold surface sample data on the Property. The contouring indicated the presence of a mineralized zone with a strike length of up to 6,000 feet and average width of 200 feet. The dimensions of the mineralized zone are based on the presence of detectable gold at 50 ppb to over 2,000 ppb.

The location of the Property in the vicinity of the Rawhide Mine and other nearby exploration properties does not mean that a resource will be identified on the Property. However, the presence of similar geology and mineralized structures to those found at the nearby Rawhide Mine and other nearby exploration properties are favorable indicators for the potential of discovery.

Qualified Person

The scientific and technical information that forms the basis for portions of this news release was reviewed and approved by Robert Pease, PG, CPG, who is a qualified person as defined by NI 43-101.

About Emgold

Emgold is a junior gold exploration and mine development company that has several exploration properties located in the western U.S. and Canada. These include the Buckskin Rawhide East, Buckskin Rawhide West, and Koegel Rawhide gold and silver properties in Nevada and the Stewart and Rozan poly-metallic properties located in British Columbia.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

David G. Watkinson, P.Eng.

President & CEO

For further information, please contact:

David G. Watkinson, P.Eng.

Tel: 530-271-0679 Ext 101

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as the term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Note on Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian and U.S. securities legislation, including the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein including, without limitation, statements regarding the anticipated results from exploration activities, the discovery and delineation of mineral deposits/resources/reserves on the Property and the anticipated business plans and timing of future activities of the Company, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as: "believe", "expect", "anticipate", "intend", "estimate", "postulate" and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events.

In making the forward-looking statements in this news release, the Company has applied several material assumptions, including without limitation, that market fundamentals will result in sustained gold and silver demand and prices, the receipt of any necessary regulatory approvals in connection with any future development of the Property or any of the Company's other properties in a timely manner, the availability of financing on suitable terms for the development, study and continued exploration by the Company, and the Company's ability to comply with environmental, health and safety laws. The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking statements made by the Company are not guarantees of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including, issues operating and technical difficulties in connection with mineral exploration and development activities, actual results of exploration activities, the estimation or realization of mineral reserves and mineral resources, the timing and amount of estimated future production, the costs of production, capital expenditures, the costs and timing of the development of new deposits, requirements for additional capital, future prices of precious metals, changes in general economic conditions, changes in the financial markets and in the demand and market price for commodities, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry, delays in obtaining governmental approvals, permits or financing or in the completion of development or construction activities, changes in laws, regulations and policies affecting mining operations, title disputes, the inability of the Company to obtain any necessary permits, consents or authorizations required, including TSX Venture Exchange acceptance of any other current or future property acquisitions or financings and other planned activities, the timing and possible outcome of any pending litigation, environmental issues and liabilities, and risks related to joint venture operations, and other risks and uncertainties disclosed in the Company's latest interim Management's Discussion and Analysis and filed with certain securities commissions in Canada. The Company's Canadian public disclosure filings may be accessed via www.sedar.com and readers are urged to review these materials, including the technical reports filed with respect to the Company's mineral properties.

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any of the forward-looking statements in this news release or incorporated by reference herein, except as otherwise required by law.
NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES.

TORONTO, March 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Toachi Mining Inc., (Toachi or the Company) (TSX-V:TIM) (OTCQB:TIMGF) announced today that the Company has agreed on terms for a strategic non-brokered private placement of Units of the Company (Units) with a combination of insiders and high net worth investors. Under the agreed terms, Toachi will issue up to 20,000,000 Units at a price of $0.15 per Unit for aggregate gross proceeds to the Company of up to $3 million (the Offering). Each Unit is comprised of one common share (an Offered Share) in the capital of the Company (a Common Share) and one-half Common Share purchase warrant (a whole Common Share purchase warrant referred to as a Warrant), each whole Warrant entitling the holder thereof to purchase one Common Share of the Company (a Warrant Share) at an exercise price of $0.17 per Warrant Share for 24 months following the Closing Date.

The Company notes that the financing has been fully subscribed however it retains the ability to increase the size of the financing subject to additional investor demand.

The net proceeds of the Offering will be used to advance the Companys La Plata project in Ecuador for working capital and general corporate purposes.

All securities to be issued pursuant to the Private Placement will be subject to a four month hold period from the closing date under applicable securities laws in Canada and among other things, receipt by Toachi of all necessary regulatory approvals, including the TSX Venture Exchange. Closing of the Offering is anticipated to occur on or before Tuesday April 10, 2018.

A cash finders fee of 6% may be payable to certain finders applicable on the gross proceeds raised through them in connection with the Offering, other than in relation to any Units issued to certain "president's list" investors subject to the approval of the TSXV.

Insiders of the Company, including members of the Board of Directors, will participate in the Offering. A Material Change Report will be filed outlining the exemptions the Company will rely upon as described in policy NI 61-101.

The offer and sale of the Units is being conducted in Canada as well as in the United States by way of a private placement in reliance on Section 4(a)(2) of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and other jurisdictions by way of private placement under applicable accredited investor exemptions. The Units have not been registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy the securities herein described, and shall not constitute an offer, solicitation or sale in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of that jurisdiction.

About Toachi Mining

Toachi brings a disciplined and veteran team of project managers together with a high grade gold-copper-silver-zinc project at La Plata in Ecuador. Toachi is focused on and committed to the development of advanced stage mineral projects throughout the Americas using industry best practices combined with a strong social license from local communities. Toachi Mining has 61,166,435 shares issued and outstanding.

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT

Alain Bureau

President and CEO

Joe Fazzini

Chief Financial Officer

Candace Di Vito

Manager, Investor Relations

Telephone: 416 365 7043

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is dened in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Vancouver, British Columbia / TheNewswire / May 15, 2017 - Pacton Gold Inc. (TSXV: PAC) (the "Company" or "Pacton") is pleased to announce that the Company has commenced drilling at its Tully West Gold Property. The initial focused diamond drill program will be comprised of up to 1,200 meters to... Read More
UN investigators gathering evidence against perpetrators of horrific crimes committed in Syrias seven-year war said Tuesday they had begun sifting through unprecedented amounts of information.

Catherine Marchi-Uhel, the French judge leading the new UN push to bring Syrias war criminals to justice, said overwhelming amounts of data were flooding in and it would be impossible for investigators to probe all of the crimes.

We are faced with unprecedented volumes of information, she told reporters in Geneva, adding that her team was setting up IT systems capable of managing the vast amounts of data.

The so-called International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism was created in 2016 to compile prosecutorial files that could be used by any jurisdiction  domestic or international  capable of acting against the perpetrators of major crimes in Syria.

Marchi-Uhel, who was appointed last July and who published her first report this week, said the team, which is due to swell to 60 people, was still at the data gathering and sorting stage.

But she said it was already clear it was not going to be in a position to investigate each and every crime. That would be an impossible task.

The team had recently reached an agreement to access most of the information gathered by the UN Commission of Inquiry that has been reporting on atrocities in the Syrian conflict, which has killed more than 350,000 people since 2011.

It also wants to cooperate with many non-governmental organisations that have been compiling documentation of crimes, she said, stressing that the mechanism would re-evaluate and re-analyse all data and draw its own conclusions.

 High-level perpetrators 

Exercising our discretion when selecting cases is going to be a crucial aspect of the work, Marchi-Uhel said, adding that investigators would rely on multiple criteria to determine which cases to focus on.

Obviously the gravity of the crime would be important, but the French judge pointed out that there are widespread allegations of war crimes, crimes against humanity or even possibly genocide, so you cant just take gravity  as a sole criteria.

The team would focus on cases where it is possible to establish responsibility of high-level perpetrators, and cases involving sexual and gender-based crimes as well as violations against children, she said.

We are looking for individual criminal responsibility, she added, acknowledging that the options for prosecuting perpetrators in Syrias conflict were currently slim.

The UN Security Council has ignored repeated calls to refer the Syria case to the International Criminal Court, with using Syrias domestic courts not an option.

But Marchi-Uhel said there a need to start the long process of preparing for prosecution to ensure suspects can go to trial as soon as a solution is possible.
A military coalition led by Saudi Arabia on Monday threatened retaliation against arch-foe Iran, accusing the Shiite power of being behind a barrage of Yemeni rebel missile attacks on the kingdom.

Saudi forces said they intercepted seven missiles on Sunday, including over the capital Riyadh, in a deadly escalation that coincided with the third anniversary of the coalitions intervention in Yemen.

Displaying wreckage at a news conference in Riyadh of what it said were fragments of those ballistic missiles, the coalition claimed forensic analysis showed they were supplied to Huthi rebels by their ally Iran.

The missiles launched against Saudi territory were smuggled from Iran, coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki told reporters.

We reserve the right to respond against Iran at the right time and right place, he added.

The missile strikes resulted in the first reported fatality from Huthi fire in the Saudi capital.

Egyptian national Abdul-Moteleb Ahmed, 38, died instantly in his bed when what appeared to be burning shrapnel struck his ramshackle room in Riyadhs Um al-Hammam district, leaving a gaping hole in the roof, witnesses told by AFP at the site.

Three other Egyptian labourers in the same room were wounded and hospitalised, they said.

The Iran-aligned Huthis said on their Al-Masirah television that Riyadhs King Khalid International Airport was among the targets.

Malki alleged the rebels in Sanaa were using the airport there to launch missiles on Saudi territory, adding the coalition had seized a number of smuggled weapons.

Iran has repeatedly denied arming the Huthis in Yemen, despite claims by the United States and Saudi Arabia that the evidence of an arms connection is irrefutable.

 Show of strength 

A Saudi-led military coalition intervened in Yemen on March 26, 2015 to try to restore the government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi after the Shiite Huthis and their allies took over large parts of the country, including the capital Sanaa.

Hours after the missile attacks on Saudi Arabia, hundreds of thousands of Huthi rebel supporters flooded the streets of Yemens capital Monday to mark three years of war.

Sanaas Sabaeen Square was a sea of Yemeni flags as rebel authorities ordered all schools and government offices shut for the anniversary.

Huthi supporters carried portraits of rebel chief Abdulmalik al-Huthi and speakers blasted out a fiery speech by Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Lebanons powerful Hezbollah Shiite movement, praising the steadfastness of the Yemeni people.

War songs, poems and speeches condemning the United States, the main arms supplier for the Saudi-led coalition, echoed across the square.

No one can speak on behalf of the Yemeni people. The people taking to the streets today are the real voice, Ibtisam al-Mutawakel, head of a Huthi cultural committee, told AFP.

About 10,000 Yemenis have been killed and 53,000 wounded since the start of the coalition intervention in Yemen, which triggered what the United Nations has called the worlds worst humanitarian crisis.

Despite the intervention the rebels remain in control of the capital, northern Yemen and the countrys largest port.

 Possible war crime 

Amnesty International, which has criticised both sides in the Yemen war for neglecting civilian safety, on Monday said the indiscriminate Huthi missile attack could constitute a war crime.

The rights group has also slammed the Saudi-led alliance for possible war crimes in Yemen.

Britain urged Iran to stop sending in weapons which prolong the conflict, while Tehran accused London  a key arms supplier for Saudi Arabia  of hypocrisy.

Delivering a veiled swipe at Iran, France called the transfer of missile capabilities to non-state actors irresponsible.

The US State Department said Washington would support the Saudis right to defend their borders against these threats.

Rebel leaders have sought to highlight the role of the United States in the Saudi-led intervention.

At Mondays rally, Saleh al-Sammad, head of the rebels Supreme Political Council, said the rebels were ready to reach an understanding to end the intervention and the coalitions blockade of Yemen.

It is the Americans who are directing this aggression and participating directly on a number of fronts, Sammad told the rally.

The Hadi government said Monday that the overnight attacks on Saudi Arabia amounted to an open rejection of peace.

The US Senate last week rejected a bipartisan bid to end American involvement in Yemens war, voting down a rare effort to overrule presidential military authorisation.

The US has provided weapons, intelligence and aerial refuelling to the Saudi-led coalition.

Washington formally approved defence contracts worth more than $1 billion with Riyadh last Thursday during a high-profile visit by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

burs-ac/bp
Pope Francis has declined to apologize for the abuse of indigenous Canadians at church-run boarding schools, drawing a polite rebuke Wednesday from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

In an open letter, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops wrote: After carefully considering the request and extensive dialogue with the Bishops of Canada, (the Pope) felt that he could not personally respond.

At the same time, however, the pontiff encouraged bishops to engage in an intensive pastoral work of reconciliation, healing and solidarity and to work collaboratively to improve the lives of indigenous peoples.

Im disappointed with the Catholic Churchs decision not to apologize for their role in residential schools, Trudeau told reporters.

His minister of Crown-indigenous relations, Carolyn Bennett, went further, saying: Sorrow is not enough.

One has to take responsibility for the harm that was done, not only to the children that were taken but for the families left behind and what happened to them, she said, vowing to continue to pressure the Vatican to change tack.

A Canadian truth and reconciliation commission urged an apology from the Catholic Church in its extensive list of recommendations in a 2015 report.

The report collated evidence over six years from some 7,000 former students in Canada.

We ask the Pope to present, on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church, an apology to the survivors, their families and the communities concerned for the spriritual, cultural, emotional, physical and sexual abuse of indigenous children at the residential schools, it said.

Trudeau had sought an apology for the abuses when he met with Pope Francis at the Vatican in 2017.

Some 150,000 Indian, Inuit and Metis youngsters were forcibly enrolled into 139 residential schools set up to assimilate native people, many of which were operated by church groups on behalf of the Canadian government.

Students were physically and sexually abused by headmasters and teachers who stripped them of their culture and language. Today they blame their experience for a high incidence of poverty, alcoholism and domestic violence, as well as high suicide rates, in their communities.

The first of the schools opened in 1874 and the last one closed in 1996.

At least 3,200 students never returned home.

Trudeau, having already offered his own apology to survivors, noted after the 2015 report that Pope Francis had previously offered similar apologies, for example over the treatment of indigenous communities during the colonial era in South America.

Franciss predecessor pope Benedict XVI in 2009 expressed sorrow for the abuses in Canada.
The 17-year-old man whose hand had been accidentally amputated and re-attached has been allowed to leave the Kenyatta National Hospital.

This is after specialists from the University of Nairobi and KNH who have been attending to him after the historic operation gave him a clean bill of health.

Theuri underwent a successful hand re-implantation surgery after his hand got accidentally severed by a Chaff Cutter machine on 26th January, 2018.

He has since been closely monitored by a multidisciplinary team of KNH and UoN specialists who on Tuesday reunited him with his family.

The specialists expressed their satisfaction with the tremendous progress he has made in his recovery.

The successful medical hallmark reaffirms that Kenyatta National Hospital is a centre of excellence with professionals dedicated to offering the best specialized healthcare services in the region. Importantly this confirms that the Country has undergone medical transformation which we should be proud of, protect and support, read a statement by KNH acting CEO Dr. Thomas Muite.

We want to reassure the Country that KNH remains committed to offering the highest standards of care, which has been our trade mark in the region for more than 100 years.

Theuris discharge comes barely a week after it was reported that he had been detained at the facility over a Sh452,000 bill.

Its unclear if the bill has been settled but Jospeh Theuri has been reunited with his guardian Virginia Gathoni who has been raising him as her son at her home in Gachie, Kiambu County.

Theuri, a Standard Seven drop-out, lost his parents early in life. His mother died when he was just three months old.

His hand is expected to regain full functionality by the end of the year.
Vaccine requirement makes its way to Highmark Stadium If youre 12 or older, youll now need at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to see the Buffalo Bills play in person. In a Sept. 14, press conference,...

Experience the Ghostlight Theatre like never before Engage with the spooky spirits of the Ghostlight Theatre for one weekend only from 7 to 8:30 p.m. on Friday Sept. 24 through Sunday Sept. 26 at the Ghostlight Theatre...

Towns of Amherst, Tonawanda to experience Interstate 290 lane and road closures The New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) advised motorists to expect continuing lane closures on Interstate 290 in the Town of Amherst, Erie County, weeknights from 7 p.m. to...

Voting open for proposal projects in Tonawanda The Town of Tonawanda is asking residents to cast in their votes for finalist projects funded by the Tonawanda Community Environmental Benefit Program. This program grants funds for proposal projects...

City of Tonawanda Fire Department to receive more than $106,000 in federal fire grant Congressman Brian Higgins and City of Tonawanda Mayor Rick Davis announced a federal fire grant totaling $106,145 awarded to the City of Tonawanda Fire Department through the Department of Homeland...
Beverly Turner spent 23 years answering emergency calls for Napa police, fire and sheriff offices. Today, shes using her voice for a completely different field.

Turner recently launched her own business: Voiceovers By Beverly.

I like the challenge and the variety, of voiceover work, she said.

1. How did you become a voiceover actor?

Id mentioned once to my best friend that I had always wanted to do voiceover work, audio books, etc. She came across a (voiceover) class being offered at Napa Adult Education and I took it.

The wonderful voiceover instructor  Bob from Voices For All  spoke and enlightened us on the business (and) did some scripts with those of us who wanted to.

He recorded them to take back to studio and evaluate.

My evaluation was very thorough and detailed and mentioned about five areas they thought I could work in, i.e. promotional, educational, commercial, audio books etc., and offered me a chance to train with one of their professional voiceover actors/instructors.

2. Which three people would you most like to have dinner with?
20 Shares Share

Our health care system in the United States is notorious for providing a lot of unnecessary medical care  something weve written about extensively.

Doctors may provide that unnecessary care because they perceive that patients are expecting or requesting it.

If health care professionals dont provide the aggressive care that patients believe they require, the thinking goes, patients wont be satisfied, and the doctor-patient relationship will suffer. Plus, the patient will just go to another provider wholl perform the requested services anyway.

But does that explanation hold water?

Patients understand: More care is not better care

The latest report from the University of Michigans National Poll on Healthy Aging, which recently surveyed some 2,000 US adults between the ages of 50 and 80, casts doubt.

Preeti Malani, MD, who is a professor at the University of Michigan and director of the polling effort, summarized some key findings from the report together with co-author Jeff Kullgren, MD, on the Health Affairs blog. (Malani is also an expert story reviewer for HealthNewsReview.org.) They wrote:

Only 14 percent of poll respondents agreed that more medical treatment is usually better. In contrast, more than half (54 percent) felt health care providers often order medications, tests, or procedures that patients dont really need. One in six (17 percent) reported that in the last year a health care provider had recommended a medication, test, or procedure that they felt they did not need.

Not only do many older Americans report that they receive care perceived as unnecessary, the results show, but those patients would likely go along with clinician efforts to avoid prescribing unnecessary tests and treatments. Malani and Kullgren write:

When clinicians explained to older adults that they did not need a service they had requested, nine in 10 of these patients reported that they understood the clinicians explanation. In contrast, when an older patients health care provider recommended a test or medication that the patient felt was not needed, nearly half proceeded with the recommendation regardless.

So nearly all respondents understood the explanation as to why they didnt need a test or treatment, and more than half went along with tests or treatments they thought they didnt need simply because the doctor ordered it. This suggests that the medical community has more influence over patient behavior than is widely acknowledged.

Not really a good excuse

It could be a little bit of a generational thing, Malani said in an interview, noting the older cohort they surveyed may see physicians as more of an authority figure than younger patients.

Regardless of the reason, she said the results suggest the conventional wisdom about patient expectations often doesnt apply. When people say, I have to order that test because otherwise, Mrs. Jones wont like it, thats not really a good excuse for doing it, she said.

Its a conclusion backed up by some other research on physician-patient interactions. For example, pediatricians may perceive an expectation that antibiotics will be prescribed even when drug treatment is not directly requested. Clinicians who perceive such an expectation are more likely to prescribe antibiotics unnecessarily.

Obstacles to shared decision-making

Ade Adamson, MD, an assistant professor of dermatology at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill who studies both over- and under-use of medical care, seconded the need for more thoughtful communication in the health care system. I think more of these conversations should be had between patient and provider, he said in an email. More patients should speak up. Joint decision making, grounded in evidence, should be the ideal we strive for.

But he cautioned that what the patient versus the physician interpret as low value are not always the same. As result, when entering these conversations, it is sometimes easier to order the service than to have a debate/conversation as to why a certain procedure/test/medicine is of low-value.

Adamson gave the example of certain medical interventions that are not recommended for older adults simply because patients above a certain age are not expected to live long enough to benefit from the test or treatment.

If the reason for withholding a certain service or medication that a patient comes to expect is purely because of their age, some providers may not want to have those types of uncomfortable discussions, Adamson said.

The need for Choosing Wisely

Malani agreed that there are many obstacles to better clinician-patient communication. She said that programs like Choosing Wisely, which aim to educate patients and consumers about wasteful medical care, are critical to facilitating these discussions. (Weve written extensively about the Choosing Wisely campaign.)

Time really becomes a problem when you talk about addressing this issue. It takes time for a doctor to explain to somebody why the test they want isnt necessary, and in a clinical setting today youre almost always running behind.

This is where Choosing Wisely is helpful because it can do the education component thats hard to do in the clinic, she said. Its easy to say, You just need to take the time to answer the patients questions, but thats not the reality that we live in.

Kevin Lomangino is managing editor, HealthNewsReview.org, where this article originally appeared. He can be reached on Twitter @KLomangino.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
The Kilkenny Cat Laughs Comedy Festival is back for its 24th year and unveils one of the most exciting and diverse line-ups yet! The website is now live, check out www.thecatlaughs.com for tickets and all information.

As always there are world class comics performing this year with a festival debut from Rory Scovel, one of the best comedians on the live circuit today.

Manchester favourite Jason Manford will perfrom as will Aisling Bea fresh from recording one of Netflixs 15 minute comedy specials.

household name Reginald D Hunter, The Last Legs Adam Hills, whimsical master James Acaster and the whip smart Sara Pascoe are also on the bill.

Mock the Weeks Zoe Lyons, festival favourite and Irelands Got Talent Judge Jason Byrne, keyboard maestro David ODoherty, Des Bishop and Maeve Higgins (flying in from New York for the weekend) are also all appearing at the 2018 festival.

This years lineup brings together the best in Irish comedy including, Neil Delamere, Deirdre OKane, Andrew Maxwell, Barry Murphy, Karl Spain, Alison Spittle, Bernard OShea, Eleanor Tiernan, Abandoman, Colm ORegan, Chris Kent, Paul Currie, Joanne McNally, Colin Murphy, Eric Lalor, Kevin McGahern, Jarlath Regan, Fred Cooke, Gearoid Farrelly and many more.

There are guest-curated showcases, podcasts, weird performance art and secret late-night craic! This year STRAY, a new strand of Cat Laughs will be unveiled for late-night explorers, day-time wanderers and the curious at heart - if you are looking for something a little bit different then this is definitely for you.

Check out Meltybrains?, one of the countrys most lauded live acts, Barry Award Nominees The Bear Pack, Improv performers of a near-divine level of inspiration, Los Angeles premier genre-bending, mash-up comedy spectacle The Super Serious Show and, after the resounding success of their Cat Laughs debut last year, Soho Theatre, Londons most vibrant venue for new theatre, comedy and cabaret!

Blind Boy Boatclubs new podcast will be coming live from Langtons Ballroom, where you can expect very special guests - one part fiction, a pinch of politics and a heaped spoonful of lunacy.

Also making their Kilkenny debut are Reductress, your home for Womens News. Feminized with their unmissable Podcast Mouth Time - giving you everything youve come to expect from a womens magazine podcast.

Dreamgun Film Reads will present their skewed, joke-stuffed & wholly unrehearsed take on cinematic classics. For their special Cat Laughs performance they are set to tackle the time-travelling classic Back To The Future".

Seconds Captains Live show is back after its sell out success last year, as are Stephen Frosts Improv All Stars with Today FMs Dermot Whelan, and Karl Spains Hilarious Walking Tour.

Festival debuts from John Kearns, the only person to win the prestigious Edinburgh Comedy Award only a year after being named Best Newcomer, Natalie Palamides (last years newcomer winner), Britains Got Talent semi-finalists Lords Of Strut, Facebook sensation Tony Cantwell, anti-comedy hero Ed Aczel, PLUS Lise Meyer, Barry Rothbart, Kevin Camia, Lauren Pattison & Steen Raskopoulos!

The Cat Laughs is always keen to support up and coming comedic talent and once again it hosts The Wild Cats which will showcase the best in new stand-up.

This years line-up includes Hannah Mamalis, Norris & Parker, Aine Gallagher, Catherine Bohart, Aidan Greene, Maisie Adam, Ken Cheng, Sara Barron & more to be announced. Its your June Bank Holiday Craic Pilgrimage - May 31st  4th d 2018.

For more details click on our website which is now live at www.thecatlaughs.com All Tickets on sale now from www.thecatlaughs.com
NewstalkZb reports:

New Zealand is being called an international laughing stock for claiming there are no Russian spies here to expel.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said that the NZ Security Intelligence Service has told her there are no Russian undeclared intelligence officers in New Zealand, but if there were, she would kick them out.

New Zealand has garnered international headlines for not following other countries that are expelling Russian diplomats in protest over the use of a Russian nerve agent to poison former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia Skripal.

Twenty six countries have reportedly expelled Russian envoys in the past few days, among them New Zealands Five Eyes security partners Australia, Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom.
Several readers have alerted me to an interesting fundraiser held on the 8th of June 2017 for Ginny Andersons campaign for Hutt South.

It was a whiskey tasting sessions with tables costing $700 for a table of 10. It was mainly focused on corporates.

So nothing wrong with that, except for one thing.

It was held in the Labour caucus room in Parliament.

In my 30 years of political involvement Ive never heard of parliamentary premises being used for a campaign fundraiser.

It is absolutely common for caucus rooms and the likes to be held for meetings, conferences, policy discussions, seminars and the like. Also for functions that are free (caucus parties etc).

But I cant ever recall a party using a caucus room as a venue for a campaign fundraiser. This is probably why attendees were explicitly told not to post any photos to social media.

The question is whether this could be a breach of the rules. But who would one complain to?

You could complain to the Prime Minister. But guess who was listed as the host of the fundraiser. One Jacinda Ardern.

Maybe one could try complaining to the Speaker. But Ardern had to pull out at the last minute, so guess who hosted it on her behalf. One Trevor Mallard.

So I guess theres no point in doing a complaint.

But media could ask questions about whether Parliament is an appropriate venue for campaign fundraisers.

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Napa Valley Youth Symphonys annual Red Gala presents an evening of New Orleans style and sizzle with food, wine, and music, featuring Delfeayo Marsalis, a member of one of Americas greatest musical families and a jazz legend.

The fundraising event is at 5 p.m. on Saturday, April 21, at The Lincoln Theater in Yountville. There will be live and silent auctions, an authentic Creole feast, and wines from Napas top wineries. The concert begins at 8 p.m.

Funds raised will help support the NVYS and its scholarship program.

Delfeayo Marsalis will join the Napa Valley Youth Symphony for Rimsky-Korsakovs Trombone Concerto as well as jazz standards Autumn in New York and Summertime, to name a few.

Anyone who loves New Orleans jazz recognizes Delfeayo Marsalis as one of the true masters. He simply one of the most gifted names in the world of music and the members of our youth symphony are thrilled to be performing with an artist of this caliber, says Chris Carpenter, board chairman of Napa Valley Youth Symphony.
Remember how much time we used to spend (waste?) trying to work out the exact difference between a drama and a comedy? Luckily that's been long solved with the catchall term "dramedy," which made it safe for a half-hour show to be disturbingly dark, painfully real but also brutally funny.

Yet it's worth asking if we went far enough in stripping away outdated expectations of genre. Is a one-hour show always supposed to be burdened with the heavy tone of drama? Is a half-hour show required to be even remotely funny? Is a half-hour show starring "Saturday Night Live" alum Bill Hader - known far and wide for his highly committed approach to slapsticky characters - supposed to be more funny than it is dark?

And here's another question: Why does HBO put so much effort into finding the perfect one-hour drama (the quest for that elusive "next 'Sopranos'" or "next 'Wire,'" which leads to cowboy robots and other existential crises) when, time after time, some of its most moving and effective dramatic work is contained within its half-hour dramedies? "High Maintenance," "Insecure," "Getting On," "Enlightened," "Veep" - I could go on.
Kalifornia Jean Bar will open its first Bay Area location at 1234 First St. in the First Street Napa complex.

The new store will be adjacent to Napastak Napa Valley and the entrance of Archer Hotel Napa.

Kalifornia Jean Bar features the latest California fashions for men and women, offering the best premium brands for denim, tops, and accessories, said a news release.

It will open this spring, said the release.

We are pleased to announce more shopping options for Napa locals and visitors with the addition of Kalifornia Jean Bar, said Todd Zapolski, managing partner of Zapolski Real Estate.

The Napa Valley market currently has a big need for this type of store concept and we have had many requests for a tenant with this caliber and selection of merchandise. Were happy to be adding this to our lineup.

Kalifornia Jean Bar first opened its doors in 2005 in Renos Midtown district.

Since the store was the only retail shop offering such a variety of highly sought-after brands, it quickly became one of Renos most popular outfitters, said the release.
B Stanley Seibert was born on February 11, 1918 in Dickey County, ND, the third of seven children born to Floyd and Bernice (Curtis) Seibert. Stan came to California at 18 and eventually obtained his pharmacy degree from USC. In 1947, he married Eddie York, and their son Robert was born the next year. The great tragedy of their lives was losing Bobby in a fatal car accident in 1967.

Stan began working for L.A. County Hospital Pharmacy in 1953, and rose to Chief Pharmacist in 1966. He retired in 1976 and embarked on a second career as a real estate broker and investor.

Stan's wife Eddie passed away in 1991, after which he lived in WA State for a time. He met and married Ona Medeiros in 1995. They enjoyed traveling in their R.V. until moving to the Napa Valley, and residing at Silverado Orchards. Tragedy struck again when Ona was killed in a car accident in 2005. Two years later, Stan found love a third time and married Elsie Cobb, who remained his devoted companion until his death on March 21, 2018 at their home in Calistoga, where he had celebrated his milestone 100th birthday the month before.
New Delhi, March 27: Hitting out at Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad for linking data mining firm Cambridge Analytica with the Congress, party spokesperson Randeep Surjewala asserted that all allegations leveled are false. Why is India's perpetually lying Law Minister throwing allegations in the media, he is in power why doesn't he show all proof and then register an FIR. We challenge you. They fear they will be exposed if they probe, Surjewala was quoted by ANI.

Surjewala statement comes soon after Cambridge Analytica (CA) whistleblower Christopher Wylie revealed to the British lawmakers that his company worked extensively in India and that Congress may have been a client at the regional level.

It is all false. why is India's perpetually lying Law Minister throwing allegations in the media, he is in power why doesn't he show all proof and then register an FIR. We challenge you. They fear they will be exposed if they probe: RS Surjewala,Congress #CambridgeAnalytics pic.twitter.com/gprvW4EOk7  ANI (@ANI) March 27, 2018

Earlier this week, Surjewala had said that it was the BJP which hired the services of the controversial firm during Bihar and Gujarat elections. Reacting to Prasad's charge that the Congress planned to use the firm's services for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and boost Gandhi's profile, Surjewala said that the services of the London-based company have never been hired by his party or its chief Rahul Gandhi.

Cambridge Analytica is accused of illegally harvesting personal information from Facebook to influence polls in several countries. Earlier this week, Union Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad slammed the Congress for its alleged ties with Cambridge Analytica. As per reports, the UK-based data mining firm has been in the eye of the storm for manipulating US presidential elections in 2016 and helping Donald Trump win the Presidential Elections in the US.

According to a report by PTI, Surjewala termed Prasad's remarks as yet another attempt at "spin strategy" and to divert the country's attention from other issues. "BJP's factory of fake news has produced one more fake product today. It appears that fake press conferences, fake agendas and fake spins and fake statements have become the everyday character of BJP and its 'lawless' minister of law Ravi Shankar Prasad," he was quoted by PTI.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 27, 2018 09:59 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
Toronto: In a counter-protest of its own kind, the co-owner of a Toronto restaurant has responded to animal rights activists by cutting up a leg of deer in front of them, prompting reactions from the Twitter and other social media platforms.

A group of local Vegan protesters had arranged a protest in front of the restaurant Antler, known for serving "local seasonal and wild foods" that are native to Canada, such as bison, boar, rabbit, duck and deer.

Restaurant's co-owner and chef, Michael Hunter reportedly brought out an entire animal leg and started cutting it up right in the window on a table reserved for diners.

EPIC! Toronto restaurant shocks vegans protesting meat https://t.co/Mb18uupTAl #antler  International Free Press (@proffrink24) March 27, 2018

Chef Hunter received support from meat-eaters and vegans alike who supported his freedom to cut up a deer inside his own restaurant.

DEER() #Antler in #Toronto, The vegan protesting outside your restaurant and hurting a small business does not have my support. I might not eat all the meats you serve but anything is better than veganism being pushed down my throat. From, a Candian supporting local businesses.  Brent (@BasicallyBrentt) March 27, 2018

Super disappointed with how activists outside the restaurant Antler in Toronto chose to respond to a man doing his job in his restaurant. Its a lifestyle, not a religion.  #antler #animalrights #humanrights #protest #love #respect #respectingthekill  X. Gonzalez (@xzg24) March 27, 2018

However, a few expressed displeasure of the chef's move.

"Super disappointed with how Antler restaurant in Toronto chose to respond to animal rights activists outside their restaurant #antler #animalrights #protest #love #respect," tweeted host of Bachelorette/Bachelor Canada Noah Cappe.

I am disgusted by this entire #Antler incident. I am disgusted to have the protestors that think they have the right to dictate what others eat represent the #vegan community. I am disgusted by how the chef responded to this and will never consider his restaurant now. ~A Vegan  mandy (@Hot_Mess_HQ) March 28, 2018

Everybody should boycott Antler! Sounds disgusting and as we can tell, the restaurant obviously doesnt care about lives. Disgusting. If anybody knows if that Chef has a Twitter, let me know.  joey minaj (@itstheweezy) March 27, 2018

Vegans or being a vegan is similar to being a vegetarian in India. But most vegans refuse to eat all and any animal-related products including dairy products and choose this lifestyle due to their love for animals and animal rights.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 28, 2018 06:53 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
Mar 27, 2018, 5:13pm ET

Fatal Tesla Model X crash, fire prompt NTSB inquiry

The California Highway Patrol says the Model X crashed into a highway divider and two other vehicles. It is unclear if the vehicle was operating with Autopilot active.

The National Transportation Safety Board has launched a field investigation after a Tesa Model X was involved in a fatal crash in California.

The victim was driving the Model X when "for unknown reasons" he struck a highway barrier separating the SR-85 southbound connector and US-101 southbound lanes near Mountain View last week, according to the California Highway Patrol.

After hitting the barrier, the EV was struck by two other vehicles including a Mazda and Audi before catching fire. The driver of the Model X "sustained major injuries" and later died at the hospital.

The CHP posted images of the crash scene and of a Google Street View perspective of the type of highway barrier struck by the Model X. Investigators do not yet know if the vehicle had Autopilot engaged at the time of the accident.

This is a Google Maps image of the location where the collision occurred. We don't have a current picture available but this is the type of barrier the Tesla collided with at freeway speeds. pic.twitter.com/cuXP4ivjdC  CHP Redwood City (@CHP_RedwoodCity) March 23, 2018

"We have been deeply saddened by this accident, and we have offered our full cooperation to the authorities as we work to establish the facts of the incident," Tesla said in a statement.

Aside from questions surrounding possible Autopilot engagement, authorities are also looking into details of the battery fire.
Mar 28, 2018, 2:50pm ET

Hyundai introduces 2019 Kona Electric to the U.S.

Hyundai showed the Kona Electric in Europe, but it\'s coming here.

Hyundai's announcements at the New York International Auto Show were essentially re-treads, but the U.S. debut of the Kona Electric carries more significance than that of the Santa Fe.

The announcement was a "when" (rather than an "if") as it was plainly obvious that Kona's global role would trickle down to its more niche variants, but the introduction of the Kona Electric concept to the U.S. market coincides with our first look at the company's plans for introducing it State-side.

The Kona Electric will debut as a 2019 model with an initial launch in the larger EV markets--California, then eventually the Pacific Northwest and the Northeast.

While ROW markets get two different powertrain choices for the Kona Electric, America will get just one. The unit boasts 201 horsepower and 291 pound-feet of torque, achieving acceleration of 7.6 seconds from zero to 62 mph and a range of over 250 miles (equivalent to 292 miles on the European system) thanks to a 64-kWh battery pack.

Introductions to EV markets will begin late this year, with deliveries beginning in the aforementioned EV-heavy markets in Q4.

Photo by Ronan Glon.
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19272018

Fredi Rayline Wauchope Jones died peacefully in her sleep on March 17, 2018.

She is survived by her children, Linda Reynolds of West Virginia, Larry (Beverly) of Angwin, CA, Curtis of Reno, NV, and JonPaul of Sacramento, CA, 8 grandchildren and 17 great grandchildren. She was born October 31,1927 in Fresno, CA where she lived until she met Ethan, her husband of 71 years in 1945. They were married in 1946 in Fresno The moved to Angwin, CA in 1949 so Ethan could finish his education.

They moved to Napa in 1950, where they resided until this year. Fredi was always willing to help those in need. She spent over 10 years as Red Cross first aid instructor. After Ethan retired they spent around 30 years going to many places across the United States, Jamaica, and twice to Guam to help with disaster relief after floods, fires or earthquakes, for American Red Cross and Adventist Development and Relief Association. .

During that time she was also Seventh Day Adventist Community Services Coordinator for Northern California. They traveled monthly around northern CA to visit all the Community Service Centers. She is predeceased by her husband Ethan this last January.

A memorial Service will be held, March 31 at 3:00 PM at the Napa Community Seventh Day Adventist Church.
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A woman who stole a bottle of brandy because she wanted something nice for herself for Christmas has been warned that if she does not complete community service she could go to prison.

Carmen Rostas (29), Cosby Avenue, Fairgreen, Portlaoise, was charged with theft, from Tesco, Portlaoise, on December 24, 2017.

When she first appeared before the district court in February last, the court heard the accused stole a bottle of brandy.

Sgt JJ Kirby said the accused had eight previous convictions, three for theft.

Defence, Ms Thomasina Connell said her client, a mother of three, wanted something nice for herself for Christmas and took an opportunity.

The accused, a Romanian national, came to Ireland in 2004 and was on social welfare.

She was trying to do the best she could and it was Christmas Eve, said Ms Connell.

Remarked Judge Catherine Staines: I would understand if she took toys or food for the children, but a bottle of brandy?

The judge imposed 80 hours community service in lieu of three months in prison, with the matter put back to March 22 for a community service report.

When the case returned to court last week, an issue was raised over the accuseds ability to do community service as she looks after her children.

As the accuseds children were being looked after that day by her husband, Judge Staines asked could her husband not look after them while she did the community service.

Does she realise this is an alternative to prison? asked Judge Staines, pointing out that the accused has eight previous convictions.

Through a Romanian interpreter, the accused replied that this was possible. However, probation officer, Ms Ann Walsh said that there may be concerns with the accused working on a site with all men. She said the work was physical and language could be an issue.

Judge Staines asked could the accused not work somewhere where she wouldnt be surrounded by males.

Ms Walsh replied that it could be difficult to get garda vetting if the work was not taking place on site.

Judge Staines reaffirmed her order of 80 hours community service in lieu of three months in prison, and warned the accused that if she did not do it, she would be brought back to court and could face three months in prison.
More beds are planned for Naas Hospital.

The additional beds are likely to be provided as part of a bed capacity review which is being undertaken by the Health Service Executive.

The review suggests that an additional 2,500 acute beds are required throughout Ireland by 2030.

According to Labour general election candidate Emmet Stagg this will mean 62 new beds for Naas Hospital, across two wards, which formed part of a planned previous expansion.

Naas Hospital, which serves West Wicklow as well as Co. Kildare, currently has 243 beds in eight wards and these include 18 day service beds.

Planning permission to provide new wards/beds was granted ten years ago.

It was recognised then that the additional capacity was required and given the increase in population since then and given the increasing number of older people in Co. Kildare and at a minimum the 62 beds approved must be provided, said Mr. Stagg.

A firm decision on the number of beds to be provided at Naas has not yet been made and Mr. Stagg believes that it may be some time before decisions are taken.

The HSE has said that Naas will be considered as part of a comprehensive schedule of bed locations along with all other hospitals.

There are currently around 12,000 acute hospital beds in the health service and the system has been under strain because of overcrowding. There were 31 patients awaiting a bed at Naas yesterday, having been admitted through the A and E department.

This happens when patients are admitted through the accident and emergency departments without beds being immediately available.

Meanwhile, the hospital is in line for an upgrade to services provided.
The third of four regional finals in this years Irish Restaurant Awards took place in the Kilronan Castle, Ballyfarnon, Co. Roscommon, last night where 76 awards were presented to the countrys leading chefs, restaurants and pubs.

Over 400 people attended the Connaught Regional Final where the top establishments in each county were named.

The awards covered a wide range of venues and the winners from each of Connaughts five counties were selected from the following categories: Best Casual Dining, Best Emerging Irish Cuisine, Best Kids Size Me, Best Free From, Best World Cuisine, Best Restaurant Manager, Best Wine Experience, Pub of the Year, Best Cafe, Best Customer Service, Best Gastro Pub, Best Hotel & Guesthouse Restaurant, Best Newcomer, Best Chef and Best Restaurant. There was also a special Regional award for Connaughts Local Food Hero.

Speaking at the awards, Adrian Cummins, Chief Executive of the Restaurants Association of Ireland (RAI) said: Now in their tenth year, the Irish Restaurant Awards continue to showcase the exquisite and admirable calibre of food available in our restaurants and pubs nationwide. Online nominations have increased from 9,000 in 2013 to over 80,000 this year and with the increase in interest comes an increase in standards, making the judging process more difficult than ever.

Our small island boasts everything from fine dining to high quality gastropubs, from the exotic taste explosions of world cuisine to the comfort of traditional dishes. We have an appreciation for what we eat, for the journey of our food from farm to fork, and for the dedication of those working in the food industry to serve up Irelands finest food.

Leitrim winners are as follows:

Best Casual Dining sponsored by San Pellegrino - Riverbank Restaurant, Dromahair

Best Kids Size Me sponsored by Dubliner Cheese - Vittos Restaurant, Carrick-on-Shannon

Best 'Free From' sponsored by Peroni Nastro Azzurro Gluten Free - Sweet Geranium Cafe, Drumshanbo

Best World Cuisine sponsored by Aryzta - Divino Italian Restaurant, Carrick-on-Shannon

Pub of the Year sponsored by Bushmills - Flynn's Bar, Carrick-on-Shannon

Best Cafe sponsored by Illy - Lena's Tea Room, Carrick-on-Shannon

Best Gastro Pub sponsored by Coca Cola & Schweppes - The Oarsman, Carrick-on-Shannon

Best Hotel & Guesthouse Restaurant sponsored by BWG Foodservice - The Boardwalk at The Landmark Hotel, Carrick-on-Shannon

Best Newcomer sponsored by Elavon - Buffalo Boy, Carrick-on-Shannon

Best Chef sponsored by Nisbets - Shamzuri Hanifa of The Cottage Restaurant, Jamestown

Best Restaurant sponsored by Tindal Wine Merchants - St. Georges Terrace, Carrick-on-Shannon

Best Restaurant Manager sponsored by AIB Merchant Services - Lee Hanifa of The Cottage Restaurant, Jamestown

Best Wine Experience sponsored by ClassicDrinks - Cox's Steakhouse, Dromod

Best Customer Service - Luna Restaurant, Dromahair

Best Emerging Irish Cuisine sponsored by Odaios Foods - St. Georges Terrace Restaurant, Carrick-on-Shannon

Best Local Food Hero sponsored by Rewarding Times - Liam & Justina Gavin of Drumanilra Farm Kitchen, Boyle
LifeStyle

The best Lifestyle shows are right here, from Australia and around the world. Catch up with the experts on home design and interiors, food and cooking, the property market, and get fresh ideas with the savviest of renovators. Whether you need inspiration for cooking up a storm, to refresh a tired room, or tips to sell your property, Foxtel Lifestyle will always something new for you to watch. Enjoy your favourite experts like Andrew Winter and Neale Whitaker, or Shaynna Blaze and Jamie Oliver live or On Demand.
ST. HELENA  A local cop recently returned to patrol duty in Walnut Creek after an injury suffered during a car chase almost cost him his leg and his career.

St. Helena native Tom Brown, a 10-year veteran of the Walnut Creek Police Department, sustained a broken leg and other injuries on July 16, 2016, when his patrol car was hit head-on by a suspect who was high on meth.

Browns leg will never be the same, but he was able to return to full active duty on Feb. 16, after three surgeries and 19 months of painful rehabilitation.

Its good to be back, he said.

The injury occurred as Brown was responding to a vehicle pursuit involving a man whod been driving in the wrong direction on Highway 24 before heading into the hills above Lafayette and Walnut Creek. The driver had already hit two pedestrians, who suffered minor injuries.

As Brown was heading to the scene in his police SUV, the driver sped around a corner, blew through a stop sign, and veered into the oncoming lane at an estimated 50 mph.

Brown had just enough time to slam on his brakes, extending his leg straight out, before he was hit head-on. The energy of the collision traveled up his locked right leg.
TEENAGE entrepreneurs from Limerick will go on to represent the city and county after securing their spots in the upcoming finals of the Student Enterprise Programme National Finals.

More than 1,000 students from 23 schools across the region took part in the annual Student Enterprise Programme this year.

Quaid Candles from student Evan Quaid at Hazelwood College, App of Troy from Castletroy College and Cycle Safe 2000 from Desmond College in Newcastle West will go on to represent their Local Enterprise Office and their county at the upcoming showpiece in May.

Each September, entrepreneurial secondary school students across the country begin their business journey as they are encouraged to brainstorm, create and run their own businesses.

Students competed for their spot in the National Final at the Limerick Final which was held at the South Court Hotel Raheen.

The success of the Student Enterprise Programme is down to the entrepreneurial spirit of the students involved, according to LEO Limerick Eamon Ryan, who praised the standards of this years entrants.

Every year we are blown away by the ideas and the business savvy that these students have acquired at such a young age.

They really are a credit to their teachers and school staff who have helped to nurture this talent, he said.

The Student Enterprise Programme is growing appeal every year and we hope to see many of these excellent young students coming through the door of their local LEO in the years to come.

We wish today's winners all the very best as they go on to represent their county at the National Finals in Croke Park in May, he added.

Further information around the Student Enterprise Programme is available from www.studententerprise.ie.
Mar 27, 2018, 12 PM

Fred Rogers' wife, Joanne Rogers, attended the event with their sons and other family members. Photo by Daniel Afzal, U.S. Postal Service.

Linns editor-in-chief Jay Bigalke (second from left) in the autograph line after the ceremony. Photo by Daniel Afzal, U.S. Postal Service.

Travelers coming through the Pittsburgh airport could leave words of love and gratitude for Mister Rogers on message boards. Photo by Daniel Afzal, U.S. Postal Service.

A forever stamp honoring the late Fred Rogers and his long-running children's show was unveiled in Pittsburgh, Pa. March 23. U.S. Postal Service art director Derry Noyes designed the stamp. Image from U.S. Postal Service video.

A forever stamp honoring the late Fred Rogers and his long-running children's show was unveiled in Pittsburgh, Pa. March 23. U.S. Postal Service art director Derry Noyes designed the stamp. Image from U.S. Postal Service video.

By Molly Goad

The United States Postal Service dedicated the Mister Rogers forever stamp March 23 at a first-day ceremony in Pittsburgh, Pa., honoring beloved childrens programming personality Fred McFeely Rogers.

The event took place at WQEDs Fred Rogers Studio, in the same space where Rogers invited viewers to be his neighbor during his popular show Mister Rogers Neighborhood, starting in 1970 through 2001. (The series began in 1968; the first three seasons were filmed at a different building just down the road from the Fred Rogers Studio.)

This big room has some incredible history, said WQEDs Rick Sebak in his opening remarks, shortly after the familiar voice of Rogers and the piano welcomed everyone with the Wont You Be My Neighbor? tune.

Sebak, the master of ceremonies, recognized Rogers family members in attendance, including Freds wife, Joanne Rogers, and sons John and Jim. Members of the cast and crew of the television show were also applauded.

The ceremony included remarks from United States Postmaster General Megan J. Brennan, The Fred Rogers Company President and CEO Paul Siefken, McFeely-Rogers Foundation Executive Director James R. Okonak and WQED-FM Artistic Director Jim Cunningham.

Fred Rogers had an uncommon sense of how young children absorb ideas about civility and morality, Brennan said. The gentle voice, the slow pace, the sense of security, gave us the unmistakable feeling that Mister Rogers was a friend. Its a feeling shared by our nation and its why we honor him today.

Rogers passed away at the age of 74 in 2003 of stomach cancer, but his words were present at the dedication ceremony. Siefken read Rogers own thoughts on the mail as written in the introduction of his book, Dear Mister Rogers.

Just as our program is a television visit, the mail is a letter visit, Siefken read. It gives me a way to know my neighbors as real people, and to make a more personal connection with them.

WQEDs Cunningham compelled the audience to take a Fred Rogers stamp and write and send a letter in the mail to someone special, just as Fred would do. The audience was invited to share photos on social media with the #MisterRogersStamp hashtag.

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The nondenominated (50) forever stamp was issued in a pane of 20. For more information on the stamp set, and the history of the long-running show, see Celebrating Fred Rogers March 23 with a forever stamp and 50 years of 'Mister Rogers' Neighborhood' show.
New Brazilian stamps honor water forum and promote the protection of pets

Mar 28, 2018, 6 AM

Brazil issued a round stamp for the eighth World Water Forum. It was the first such forum held in South America.

By Denise McCarty

Brazil issued two stamps March 19. One commemorates the eighth World Water Forum, and the other promotes the protection of domestic animals.

The World Water Forum took place March 18-23 in Brasilia, Brazil. This was the first of these forums held in South America.

A mock-up of the round stamp is shown nearby.

Brazil Correios described the design of the stamp as featuring the forums logo resting on a background of wavy lines that simulate the flow of water.

The logo itself is shaped both like an hourglass and the figure 8, representing urgency of the time to act and that it is the eighth forum, respectively. The logo also includes a map of South America and a symbolic drop of water.

The theme of the conference Sharing Water is in Portuguese in green and blue at the bottom of the design.

The Defense Animal stamp depicts a dog and cat with the Portuguese words for love, respect and life above them.

Both stamps are nondenominated, paying the basic domestic letter rate.

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The Brazilian Mint printed them by offset. The World Water Forum stamp is in sheets of 16 (the round stamps are surrounded by a margin area to make them square), and the Defense Animal stamp is in sheets of 12.
A systems engineer from Valley Stream is suing BMW for $13.5 million after his right thumb was severed when the door of his car closed on it, court records show.

Godwin Boateng, 62, said the injury was caused by the BMW X5's self-closing door feature, which does not have a sensor to detect whether there is an object or body part in the door's path.

He said in the court papers that he was standing next to the driver's door on July 6, 2016, when it closed automatically and crushed and severed about half his thumb.

His lawsuit, filed in federal court in Brooklyn in January, seeks $3 million in lost wages from his job as a self-employed systems engineer, and the rest in damages a jury might award.

Soft-closing automatic doors have been offered by BMW as an option since 2002, according to the lawsuit. Boateng bought the 2013 BMW X5 for about $70,000, his lawyer said.

A sensor detects when a door is being closed and an electric motor kicks in and automatically closes it the last 6 millimeters, about one-quarter inch, according to a number of automotive websites.
Quite a few facts have changed since 2005. Back then, Bolton was being nominated for a post in which he was supposed to echo the president's views. And that president - George W. Bush - was a traditional conservative who believed that the United States needs to promote free trade and freedom more broadly.

Even then, I noted that "I don't see eye to eye with Bolton on everything. His animus toward the International Criminal Court - which led him to antagonize valuable allies because of his insistence that they sign treaties pledging never to refer U.S. soldiers for prosecutions - seems excessive to me. And he has never been known as a fan of nation-building or humanitarian interventions, which I believe are necessary in the post-9/11 world." But, I concluded, "he seems like a good choice to help drain the U.N. cesspool of corrupt bureaucrats and self-serving tyrants." Note to the flip-flop patrol: I still agree with Bolton that if the 38-story U.N. Secretariat building "lost 10 stories, it wouldn't make a bit of difference."

But today Bolton isn't being sent to Turtle Bay. He is going to the West Wing, where he will be one of the most important influences on a president who is so ignorant that he makes Bush seem like an international relations PhD by comparison - and whose protectionist, isolationist, authoritarian instincts are at odds with more than 70 years of U.S. foreign policy.
Can someone explain why I've been seeing articles literally every day recently with the name, picture, intent and story of that idiot coward who was blowing people up in Austin, Texas, while I've seen barely any mention of Blaine Gaskill, the school resources officer who stopped a school shooting in Maryland recently by applying necessary and appropriate deadly force to the idiot coward shooter?

Why is the media glorifying killers with high body counts, absolutely without question creating more of them in the process, yet mostly ignoring the fact that a trained, armed professional stopped a massacre literally dead in its tracks?

The national and local media go out of their way to give every idiot coward murderer a national platform for their actions and grievances, turning them into dark, seductive anti-heroes -- and then people stand around wondering why there are more and more of these tragedies every year.

Stop blaming law-abiding citizens. Stop blaming the occasionally ineffective local law enforcement. OK, blame the politicians who pressure the FBI and sheriffs to ignore reports of problem kids because they don't want to look like they're "intolerant."
Alpaca thieves of New Zealand, please return Bambi's alpaca brother Charisma.

Bambi the Kiwi alpaca is blind, and according to the Rodney Times "relies heavily on Charisma to help him find his way around his home" in a north Aukland paddock. But ever since thieves stole Charisma "from under his nose on March 12," the Times reported, "he stands alone and helpless, unable to move."

New Zealand cops have appealed to the public for help finding the missing alpaca. While several reports have quoted local alpaca keeper Kathy Rademacher as saying that the stress of loneliness can kill the herd animals, Live Science has been unable to confirm or debunk that claim with biologists or veterinarians and will update this post if that changes. In the meantime, according to the Times, Rademacher has provided "a couple of her young alpacas to keep Bambi company."

Alpacas, as Live Science has previously reported, are docile, soft, domesticated descendants of wild vicunas, which live in the South American Andes. They are raised primarily for their wool, rather than as pack animals like llamas.

They are "very social creatures," according to Live Science's past reporting, and "make a sound like 'mmm,'" a kind of hum, most of the time  though when threatened they "shriek," make a "wark" sound, emit a "warbling bird-like cry" and spit.

As herbivores, they eat mostly grass and are the smallest members of the camel family, standing just 3 feet (91 centimeters) at the shoulder and 4 to 7 feet (120 to 225 cm) long, weighing 120 to 140 pounds (55 to 65 kilograms).

Those facts aren't especially relevant to this particular alpaca theft, but they do generally make the whole situation a bit more sad somehow. Anyway, Live Science hopes the alpaca thieves see this and this inspires them to return Charisma unharmed.

Originally published on Live Science.
NASAs Skylab space station (left) fell to Earth in 1979; Chinas Tiangong-1 is approaching its own burn up in the planets atmosphere (right).

China's Tiangong-1 space station is predicted to enter Earth's atmosphere sometime during Easter weekend, but the exact location of its re-entry remains a mystery. Its uncontrolled fall to Earth shares some similarities with the end of the Skylab space station in 1979; some of Skylab's pieces rained down on rural Australia.

The European Space Agency's (ESA) Space Debris Office in Darmstadt, Germany, which issued the Tiangong-1 prediction, said the March 30 to April 2 window is "highly variable," and it will not be possible to determine exactly where the space station will fall to Earth. However, the space station will re-enter somewhere between the latitudes of 43 degrees north and 43 degrees south, based on its current orbital inclination. [China's Space Station Crash: Everything You Need to Know]

"Areas above or below these latitudes can be excluded. At no time will a precise time/location prediction from ESA be possible," agency officials said in a statement.

The end of Skylab

Skylab was the first U.S. space station. It orbited the Earth between 1973 and 1979. Skylab's first crew had to perform urgent repairs to the space station when a meteoroid shield ripped off during launch, but the station proved to be a success. It hosted three space crews whose members performed science experiments, including one group of astronauts who remained on the station for a then-record 84 days.

Some at NASA wanted Skylab to remain aloft longer. Around 1980, a group of NASA Marshall Space Flight Center engineers suggested using the space shuttle to boost the orbital complex, according to Wired. After refurbishing the complex and adding an additional Spacelab module, astronauts would have performed experiments in the space station (which was far more roomy than the space shuttle). This would have kept Skylab flying until about 1990. The space shuttle didn't fly until April 1981, however, which kept that option off the table, according to Wired. [Skylab's Remains: Photos of Debris from NASA's 1st Space Station]

Since the station was falling to Earth anyway, NASA elected to try to control Skylab's re-entry as well as it could. The agency, which could still communicate with and direct the space station prior to its re-entry, aimed Skylab to a location approximately 810 miles (1,300 kilometers) south-southeast of Cape Town, South Africa. Skylab broke up faster than expected, however, and parts of it fell in Australia, east of Perth.

The end of Skylab sparked reaction all over the world, ranging from vendors hawking sarcastic T-shirts to ordinary citizens seeking reassurance from their leaders that they wouldn't be hurt. In 1979, Time magazine wrote of the upcoming event: "Thus will be observed, after a series of miscalculations, the tenth anniversary of man's proudest achievement in space, the walk on the moon."

Skylab similarities?

China's Tiangong-1 space station is predicted to fall somewhere between the latitudes of 42.8 degrees north and 42.8 degrees south, the area shaded in yellow and green here. (Image credit: Aerospace Corporation)

Tiangong-1 is much less massive than Skylab. Tiangong-1 is China's first space station; it launched in 2011 and was visited twice by taikonauts (Chinese astronauts). It masses about 9.4 tons (8.5 metric tons), compared to Skylab's approximately 100 tons. In an interview with National Geographic in October 2017, Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said he only expects a few small pieces of the Chinese station to reach the surface.

In a May 2017 statement to the United Nations, representatives from the Permanent Mission of the People's Republic of China also said Tiangong-1 will pose little threat to Earth's inhabitants. "According to the calculations and analysis that have been carried out, most of the structural components of Tiangong-1 will be destroyed through burning during the course of its re-entry. The probability of endangering and causing damage to aviation and ground activities is very low," the statement read.

China further added that it would provide a "timely forecast of its [Tiangong-1's] re-entry" and would disseminate information through the news media and the United Nations. But because Tiangong-1 stopped working in March 2016, Chinese engineers will not be able to control its re-entry.

Figuring out where the space lab will fall is a complex calculation of the station's altitude, the height of the Earth's atmosphere (which changes according to solar activity) and the station's shape. The space lab will make dozens of orbits between March 30 and April 3, making it extremely difficult to determine where the station will fall. That said, much of Earth is uninhabited  making it likely that Tiangong-1 will fall in the ocean, or, like Skylab, into a remote area.

While Skylab is the most famous spacecraft to fall in an uncontrolled fashion back to Earth, there are many others that have attracted attention over the years. Some examples include the European Space Agency's GOCE satellite (November 2013), NASA's Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite or UARS (September 2011), and the Russian Salyut 7 (which broke up in February 1991 over an area of land in Argentina  which included a town called Capitan Bermudez  with no reported injuries.)

Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
The image on the right shows the galaxy, full of "globular clusters." The image on the left shows the measurement the researchers used to track the speed of one such object.

Here's a problem: The universe acts like it's a lot more massive than it looks.

Take galaxies, those giant, spinning masses of stars. The laws of motion and gravity tell us how fast these objects should turn given their bulk. But observations through telescopes show them spinning way faster than we'd expect, as if they were actually much more massive than the stars we can see indicate.

Astrophysicists have come up with two main solutions to this problem. Either there's a lot of mass out there in the universe that we can't detect directly, mass scientists call dark matter, or there's no dark matter out there, but there is something missing from our laws of gravity and motion. Researchers call the second proposed solution modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND), which suggests that if the laws are properly tweaked, the universe would make sense without dark matter.

A new paper, published today (March 28) in the journal Nature, provides compelling evidence that there really is dark matter out there and that modifying the laws of physics wouldn't by itself solve the universe's weight problem. [The 18 Biggest Unsolved Mysteries in Physics]

In that study, the researchers found an object that could exist in a universe that has dark matter, but that would be nearly unimaginable in a MOND universe: a totally normal galaxy, one that seems to operate without any dark matter-type forces.

Researchers first spotted galaxy NGC 1052DF2 through the Dragonfly Telephoto Array. Then, after long observations through telescopes like Hubble and Hawaii's Gemini and W.M. Keck observatories, the researchers found that the galaxy behaves exactly the way our laws of physics predict it should  without the need for dark matter corrections. It moves just as fast as the regular old laws of astrophysics would suggest, when calculated based on the mass of the stars researchers can see. And that normalcy is deeply weird.

The Dragonfly Telephoto Array is a robotic sky-watcher that peers into space from New Mexico through several regular Canon lenses all working together. (Image credit: University of Toronto and Yale University)

So NGC 1052DF2 is a head-scratcher whether you lean toward dark matter or toward MOND. But physicists contacted by Live Science to discuss this paper mostly said the finding made dark matter (already the dominant explanation for the universe's weirdness) look a lot more likely.

The thing about dark matter, or whatever's causing outer space to move so weirdly, is that it's predictably distributed throughout the universe. Physicists expect the dark matter "halo" around lightweight, dim galaxies like NGC 1052DF2 to be extra big, and they expect to find less evidence of dark matter effects in more-massive galaxies. Similarly, MOND theorists expect to find the most significant observable effects of their modified laws in less massive galaxies like NGC 1052DF2, and lesser effects in more-massive galaxies.

Kathryn Zurek, an astrophysicist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory who did not work on the paper, wrote in an email to Live Science that the discovery "looks on the surface to be another nail in the coffin of MOND," because "the absence of DM [dark matter] in this galaxy shows that baryons [normal matter] and DM indeed behave as separate substances."

In other words, finding a galaxy without dark matter is pretty good evidence that dark matter is a real thing. If there were no such thing as dark matter and the current laws of physics were just slightly wrong, you'd expect the laws to be just as wrong in NGC 1052DF2 as they are everywhere else. [8 Galaxies with Wacky Names]

But that doesn't mean the results in this paper provide perfect support for dark matter theories either.

"There are simulations of the universe starting back near the Big Bang that show dark matter was produced and actually gravitationally attracted normal matter to it, and that's how the galaxies were formed," said Dan Bauer, a physicist at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, who studies dark matter and did not work on the paper.

At the beginning of everything, those simulations suggest, all the matter we see in the galaxy was spread out in a thin gas. But the dark matter floated in clumps. And over time, those clumps attracted the gas with their gravity. The gas crunched together in balls, lit up as stars, and formed planets and galaxies. [Is Dark Matter Less 'Lumpy' Than Predicted?]

"Basically, it was the seed for drawing in normal matter," Bauer told Live Science. "So then, if you find a galaxy that appears not to have dark matter, you have to ask, 'How was it formed?'"

While NGC 1052DF2 doesn't break any fundamental rules of the dark matter theory, Bauer said the galaxy is surprising and unexpected enough to force astrophysicists to develop some new models of how galaxies come together.

Stacy McGaugh, an astrophysicist at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio who has worked on both dark matter and MOND and did not work on the paper, disagreed with the idea that this galaxy refutes MOND or bolsters the case for dark matter.

"I find this [discovery] unlikely in all possible contexts," McGaugh wrote in an email. "That doesn't make it wrong, just really weird."

If NGC 1052DF2 behaves as the new research describes, he wrote, that presents challenges to both explanations for the missing mass in the universe. Sure, MOND doesn't easily explain a galaxy behaving as if there is no missing mass. But dark matter theorists have relied heavily on the idea of "abundance matching," which links the masses of dark matter halos closely to the masses of the galaxies they surround.

"This has been a common experience of mine: When I find something that doesn't make sense in MOND, it usually doesn't make sense in dark matter, either," he wrote.

But McGaugh was something of an outlier in this perspective.

"I don't find that [point of view] at all compelling," Bauer said. "To me, there are many ways that you could form a galaxy like this  for example, in a collision of other galaxies."

McGaugh also argued that the paper relies on too little data for scientists to be totally sure of its conclusion. The researchers figured out NGC 1052DF2's spin speed by looking at the movement of 10 objects in the region of the galaxy. And 10 objects isn't always enough to accurately measure a galaxy's movement, he said.

"I have no reason to doubt the data, though I note that there are only 10 objects that contribute to the [speed] measurement," he wrote. And 10 objects isn't always enough to accurately measure a galaxy's movement."When more data are obtained, sometimes this [amount] proves to have been enough, but sometimes it proves to have been inadequate. So, this is at the hairy edge of credible."

He also raised the possibility that another galaxy nearby was tweaking NGC 1052DF2's motion through an element of MOND called the "external field effect." However, he said he needed more precise data to say more.

Live Science reached out to several other experts in galactic rotation for their opinions on the strength of the paper's measurements and claims, but none responded by press time.

Bauer, whose research focuses on dark matter but not galactic rotation, said that the most interesting next step for him will involve simulations. He said he wants to see whether researchers who model how galaxies form can come up with models that account for NGC 1052DF2.

Right now, one paper on one galaxy is far from firm proof of dark matter's existence. But it's one more tantalizing clue regarding the universe's invisible mystery.

Originally published on Live Science.
About 13,000 years ago, two shoeless adults and a child squished their bare feet through wet clay near the water's edge, leaving footprints that still exist today.

The footprints, recently unearthed by anthropologists on an island in British Columbia, Canada, are the oldest known human track marks in North America, according to a new study, and provide more evidence that humans were thriving on the Pacific Coast of Canada at the end of the last ice age, said study lead researcher Duncan McLaren, an anthropologist at the Hakai Institute and the University of Victoria, in Canada.

The footprints  29 in all  were so well preserved that McLarenand his colleagues could assign modern-day U.S. shoe sizes to the prehistoric individuals: a junior size 8; a junior size 1 (or a woman's size 3); and a woman's size 8 or a man's size 7. [In Photos: Stone Age Human Footprints Discovered]

The researchers made the remarkable discovery on Calvert Island, located off the western coast of British Columbia, about 62 miles (100 kilometers) north of Vancouver Island.

An aerial photo of Calvert Island, in British Columbia, Canada, where researchers found the 29 ancient human footprints. (Image credit: Keith Holmes/ Hakai Institute)

At the end of the last ice age (about 11,700 years ago), the North American Cordilleran Ice Sheet ended along the Pacific coastline, leaving "refugia," or iceless areas where plants and animals could survive. Calvert Island fell right into one of these refugia, prompting modern-day researchers to dig there, looking for artifacts. However, excavations in refugia aren't always easy, as today much of the region is covered with dense temperate rainforest, the researchers wrote in the study.

Moreover, the geography there was different at the end of the last ice age because more of Earth's water was frozen in huge glaciers. This explains why sea levels were as much as 9.8 feet (3 meters) lower about 14,000 to 10,000 years ago on Calvert Island than they are today, McLaren said.

"We were testing this shoreline, below the beach in the intertidal zone, when the first footprint was discovered," McLaren told Live Science.

This was in 2014, when the team  which included members of the Heiltsuk First Nation and the Wuikinuxv First Nation  unearthed a single human footprint about 24 inches (60 centimeters) below the beach's surface on Calvert Island. Two pieces of ancient wood found by the footprint dated to between 13,300 and 13,000 years ago, according to radiocarbon analyses, the researchers found.

Study researchers Daryl Fedje (left) and Duncan McLaren (right) excavate a site on Calvert Island, looking for human footprints. (Image credit: Grant Callegari/Hakai Institute)

Encouraged, the researchers returned to the island during the 2015 and 2016 field seasons, eventually uncovering 28 more human footprints from the same period.

Normally, footprints last only a moment. But in this case, "they were impressed into a wet clay that hardened and then was filled by sand, likely washed in from the beach below," McLaren said.

Not a bear

The 29 footprints have clear arch, toe and heel marks, so the scientists are "certain that they were left by human feet," they wrote in the study. But given that British Columbia is home to bears, and the hind paw of black and grizzly bears can leave footprints similar to a human's, they had to ask the question: Are these bear tracks?

A thorough analysis reveals that "no," these are likely not bear tracks, the researchers said. [Photos: These Animals Used to Be Giants]

"The tracks excavated on Calvert Island have a clearly defined arch, lack characteristic claw marks, are not triangular in overall shape  lack a long third [toe] and they are overall narrower than bear tracks," the researchers wrote in the study. In addition, they couldn't find any bear pawprints at the site.

In fact, "overall, nonhuman tracks of any kind are lacking from the area that was excavated," the researchers wrote in the study.

Prehistoric boating

Calvert Island was still an island during the last ice age, indicating that prehistoric people used boats to reach it, McLaren said. It's possible the footprints were left "by a group of people disembarking from watercraft and moving toward a drier central activity area to the north or northwest," the researchers wrote in the study.

Duncan McLaren (right) and Daryl Fedje (left) excavate the site on Calvert Island. (Image credit: Joanne McSporran)

The oldest documented site of prehistoric people along the west coast of North America is Manis Mastodon, on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state. At Manis Mastodon, researchers found a bone point lodged into a mastodon rib that's dated to about 13,800 years ago. The oldest known human-inhabited site in Canada is younger  a group of artifacts, including a stone weapon, found at Charlie Lake Cave in British Columbia dates to about 12,500 years ago, the researchers said.

The new finding is "encouraging for future researchers who might employ similar methods to identify archaeological sites along the Pacific Coast," said Kevin Hatala, an assistant professor of biology at Chatham University, in Pittsburgh, who was not involved in the study.

"Ultimately, the data seem to show indisputable evidence for human presence along the Pacific Coast of Canada," Hatala told Live Science. "This is important because archaeological sites from this time and place have been quite rare."

The study was published online today (March 28) in the journal PLOS ONE.

Original article on Live Science.
Two separate flights reported seeing the same 'UFO' in the Arizona desert in February.

Two airline pilots spotted a mysterious, reflective object hovering some 40,000 feet (12,000 meters) over southern Arizona last month, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is stumped.

According to radio transmissions between the befuddled pilots and air traffic controllers (which you can listen to in full, thanks to an FAA recording recently released to the Phoenix New Times), the sighting occurred around 3:30 p.m. local time on Feb. 24, somewhere over the Sonoran Desert near Phoenix.

"Was anybody above us that passed us like 30 seconds ago?" the first pilot asked while flying a Learjet west toward California. [7 Things Most Often Mistaken for UFOs]

"Negative," an air traffic controller at the FAA's Albuquerque Air Traffic Center in New Mexico answered.

"OK," the pilot responded. "Something did."

The object, whatever it was, was flying high  at least a few thousand feet above the jet, which was cruising at an altitude of around 37,000 feet (11,000 m), the New Times reported. A few minutes later, the FAA asked another nearby flight  an American Airlines Airbus traveling in the same direction  to keep an eye out for anything "passing over" it in the desert.

The confused pilot agreed. And sure enough, within a few minutes, the Airbus crew saw the same mystery object fly over their plane.

"Yeah, something just passed over us," the Airbus pilot reported. "I couldn't make it out, whether it was a balloon or what  but it had a big reflection on it and it was several thousand feet above us, going the opposite direction."

Several weeks later, authorities are still stumped as to the object's origin. Beyond these two pilot reports, the FAA couldn't verify that any other aircraft were around. It likely wasn't a "Google balloon," the FAA reported, nor a weather balloon or a military craft.

"We have a close working relationship with a number of other agencies and safely handle military aircraft and civilian aircraft of all types in that area every day, including high-altitude weather balloons," an FAA representative told the New Times.

In other words, whatever the UFO was, the FAA should have known about it. But it didn't.

This report comes just a few months after a former Pentagon official revealed that the government has been quietly running an official UFO detection program since 2007. An investigation into the program by The New York Times turned up striking footage taken by two Navy fighter pilots, who appear to encounter a mysterious glowing object midair.

Reports like these may be more common than you imagine. According to the National UFO Reporting Center  an online database of alleged UFO sightings in America  there have been nearly 650 UFO sightings reported so far in 2018. However, the website advises, "Many of the new reports have been submitted by individuals who elect to remain anonymous we encourage visitors to our website to be discriminating in what they accept as accurate and reliable."

Originally published on Live Science.
A New Jersey man's "beer belly" turned out to be a 30-lb. (13.6 kilograms) tumor.

The man, Kevin Daly, realized something was wrong when he lost more than 30 lbs. in 2015, but his belly fat didn't budge, the New York Daily News reported earlier this month.

A CT scan revealed that the man's belly bulge was in fact a rare type of tumor called a liposarcoma, according to Fox News.

Liposarcomas are tumors that grow in fat tissue, according to the Genetic and Rare Disease Information Center (GARD). Because these tumors can spread to surrounding tissues or organs in the body, they are considered malignant.

Liposarcomas most often develop in fat tissue found in the thigh, behind the knee or in the abdomen, GARD says. (Indeed, Daly's tumor arose from fat tissue in his abdomen.)

The tumors are rare; according to the American Cancer Society (ACS), about 13,000 sarcomas will be diagnosed in 2018. Liposarcomas are just one type of sarcoma, which refers to a cancer that forms in certain tissues in the body, including bone, muscle and fat.

The first approach to treating a liposarcoma is often surgery, according to GARD, though surgery can be difficult when the tumor is in the abdomen and growing near vital organs.

In Daly's case, the tumor was wrapped around one of his kidneys, and took 4 hours to completely remove, the Daily News reported.

Daly's surgeon, Dr. Julio Teixeira of Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, told the Daily News it was the largest tumor he had ever removed.

Daly before (left) and after (right) his surgery. (Image credit: Courtesy of Kevin Daly and Lenox Hill Hospital)

Originally published on Live Science.
What is the punishment in consumer or environmental protection cases? Unlike most cases prosecuted by the DAs office, the CEPU generally prosecutes cases in civil court rather than criminal court. That means we seek to punish unlawful conduct not through jail time, but through monetary penalties and a court-ordered injunction prohibiting the defendant from engaging in the unlawful conduct. However, we may still proceed with a criminal case against a defendant if warranted under the circumstances. Whether we file a civil or criminal case, we seek restitution for victims whenever possible.

If I submit a consumer complaint, does the CEPU file a case on my behalf? If you believe you are the victim of an unlawful business practice, we encourage you to submit a consumer complaint to our office. However, we cannot act as your attorney or give you legal advice. In consumer and environmental cases, just as in criminal cases, the DAs office represents the People of the State of California, not individuals. Our cases commonly involve a pattern of unlawful activity. While consumer complaints are instrumental in establishing such a pattern, we do not file a case for every complaint. In appropriate cases, we may attempt to informally resolve disputes between consumers and businesses.
MEXICO CITY (AP)  A Mexican marine and four suspected gunmen were killed during a coordinated series of ambushes against marine patrols in a northern Mexico border city, authorities reported Sunday.

The attacks late Saturday and early Sunday left a total of 12 marines wounded.

Authorities said marines were ambushed three separate times in Nuevo Laredo, a city across the border from Laredo, Texas.

Marines returned fire and killed one gunman in the first attack, but suffered three wounded.

Another patrol was sent to help the wounded when it also came under fire; that ambush killed one marine and wounded several others.

A third patrol was ambushed just outside the marine base as it responded to the first two attacks. In that shootout, three gunmen were killed.

Mexico's navy said in a statement that the gunmen had fake Marine uniforms and Marine markings on their vehicles.

Nuevo Laredo is dominated by the Northeast Cartel, an offshoot of the Zetas cartel.
Criminal charges against Laredo media personality and citizen journalist Priscilla "La Gordiloca" Villarreal were dismissed Wednesday morning.

111th District Court Judge Monica Zapata Notzon found that Villarreal was denied due process because the Texas statute used to charge her with misuse of official information, a felony, is too vague. She deemed the statute unconstitutional.

READ MORE: 'Gordiloca' to challenge law that led to misuse of official information charges

Villarreal was arrested by the Laredo Police Department in December after she published on Facebook the name of a suicide victim and the name of a person who died in a car wreck. The law punishes anyone who "solicits or receives from a public servant information that has not been made public" and does so "with intent to obtain a benefit." Police allege that Villarreal benefited by receiving more Facebook followers after she published the names online before police released them publicly.

Rather than arguing that Laredo police misapplied the law when they arrested Villarreal, her lawyers challenged the law in its entirety by filing a writ of habeas corpus in February.

READ ALSO: Laredoans react to the arrest of citizen journalist La Gordiloca

One of the attorneys, Joey Tellez, told the San Antonio Express-News that the use of the term "solicits" in the law means journalists or regular citizens could face criminal charges simply by asking for something exempted from disclosure under the Texas Public Information Act.

Webb County District Attorney Isidro "Chilo" Alaniz told Laredo Morning Times that the prosecution would not appeal Notzon's ruling.

(The San Antonio Express-News contributed to this report.)
The Walt Ranch vineyard project in the hills between Napa and Lake Berryessa won a victory in Napa County Superior Court, but that apparently wont be the last legal word.

Walt Ranch involves creating 209 acres of vineyard blocks and a total 316-acre disturbed area on a 2,300-acre property. It has become a flashpoint in battles over vineyard development in the agricultural watershed, with opponents saying it will hurt wildlife, cut down trees and sap groundwater supplies.

Judge Thomas Warriner on March 8 ruled in favor of Napa County, which approved the Walt Ranch erosion control plan in 2016. His ruling addressed three separate lawsuits, one by Living Rivers Council, one by Circle Oaks Homes Association and Circle Oaks County Water District and one by the Center for Biological Diversity and Sierra Club.

Were grateful to the court for its decision, said Mike Reynolds of Walt Ranch. Generally, I think its a reflection of the extensive work Napa County put in over a decade that analyzed all of the potential impacts and made sure that the project was as sensitive to the environment as possible.

Local environmentalist Chris Malan on Tuesday said Living Rivers Council will appeal the courts decision.

The Center for Biological Diversity had yet to decide as of early this week if it will appeal. Aruna Prabhala of the group said it is considering all options along with its lawsuit partner, the Sierra Club.
Police are hoping a public appeal for information will lead to the identity of suspects reportedly approaching Cleveland ISD students near bus stops in the Bella Vista Subdivision near Plum Grove.

At a press conference Tuesday at the Cleveland ISD Police Station, Chief Rex Evans explained that the suspects are promising young children candy and puppies to entice them in their vehicle.

Evans said a dozen children, ranging in ages from 7-11, have made similar complaints to police about the strangers approaching them at three bus stops inside the subdivision. The stops are located at the intersections of CR 3407 and CR 3404, CR 340 between the CR 3401 Loop, and CR 3411 at CR 3406.

The incidents were first reported to police last week.

Since that time, Cleveland ISD Police Department, working with other local law enforcement agencies, has stepped up patrols around Plum Grove.

"We are aggressively trying to make sure that at our school bus stops our students are very well protected," Evans said.

The vehicle reportedly used in the incidents is described as a white utility van with a male Hispanic driver and a female passenger. The van reportedly has cardboard covering the license plate. Students told police that only the male subject has attempted to communicate with them in Spanish.

Evans said his department's investigation is also looking at possible links to a vehicular assault of a Texas game warden on Jan. 1 in the Plum Grove area. In that incident, the suspects shared a similar description and vehicle type.

"We don't know if there is a link ... We cannot connect the two at this point in time," Evans said. "But that case doesn't need to be forgotten either."

The chief praised the students who have reported the incidents to authorities, saying they have responding appropriately to the stranger danger by fleeing the van.

"This is obviously a concern but I am very proud of our students," he said.

Crime Stoppers is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrests of suspects involved in the case. Anyone with information about this case should call Cleveland Police Department at 281-432-2908 or send a message through the Cleveland ISD Police Department's Facebook page.
Katy residents should get ready for new offices, shops, a medical center and maybe even a new hotel. Those are all permitted uses within the Village at Katy, a planned development district approved by the Katy City Council on March 26.

The 84 vacant acres stretch from Pin Oak Road on the west to Highway 90 on the north and the Interstate 10 frontage road on the south.

Mayor Chuck Brawner said, "We're looking at a beautiful piece of land that will be an asset to the city of Katy." He added that it will take several years to develop and while it will allow uses permitted in commercial and general business districts, officials have excluded automobile dealerships. The list of prohibited uses also includes sexually oriented businesses, communication towers, schools and churches, and machine and sheet metal shops.

Plans to develop a similar project about 10 years ago fell short, with that developer blaming the economic downturn.

Commercial real estate brokers Colliers International have opened a website at www.villageatkaty.com seeking tenants for the newly announced project.

City Council approval followed a public hearing at which residents raised concerns about drainage and traffic.

Steve Wilcox and Raphael Saladana, partners of Costello Inc. addressed drainage concerns on behalf of the developer. The company also works for the city. Katy officials hired the engineering firm after Tax Day flooding and its role was expanded after Hurricane Harvey flooded the community.

Maps of the project site show two detention areas: 4.7 acres on the west side and 8.4 acres on the east side.

Through site grading, water will be guided to the detention ponds, according to Saladana, and a 60-inch drainage pipe will be installed. He said the 10-foot deep ponds will be mowed and maintained by the district and will be kept empty to store rainfall and slow the rate of water emptying to Cane Island Branch. The project will not block existing drainage, he said. "We will force everything to the roads in front of the two ponds. We're not taking any drainage to Pin Oak."

The goal is not to impact people upstream or downstream of the project, he said. "We won't send a drop more of water to the creek."

Wilcox added that no widespread flooding was reported on the property after Harvey.

As to traffic, city attorney Art Pertile III referenced a Texas Department of Transportation plan to convert the Pin Oak overpass similar to what it did for Fry and Mason roads, where the freeway is raised above the local street. Development of the Village at Katy will include a traffic study to see what might be done to ease mobility, he said.

The city won't have traffic like it did when Pertile said he came to Katy in 1993. "You can't stop people from coming this way."

Access to The Village at Katy includes Katy Village Drive which will go north from the frontage road to Highway 90, and Pin Oak Court will travel east from Pin Oak Road to Katy Village Drive. The streets will intersect in a roundabout.

An 11-page document prepared for the PDD says the connection point for Katy Village Drive at the frontage road was approved by TxDOT in 2004 as part of a prior planned development. TxDOT will be required to approve the connection point at Highway 90 and the city of Katy of the connection point at Pin Oak Road.

A website at www.houstonarchitecture.com refers to a Village at Katy across from Mills Mall in November 2005. A March 3, 2009, Houston Chronicle article quotes developer Masaud Baaba, president of Tristar Holdings, the parent company of Omega III Investment Co., which was overseeing the project, as saying the project was shelved two years earlier because of the economic downturn experienced in the country.

The March 26 City Council approval also abandons a portion of a platted but never developed section of Roberts Road, abandons a utility easement near Roberts Road, allows for the temporary location of a HUD-code manufactured home until a municipal utility district is created and appoints directors to the Village at Katy Development District. Directors are civil engineer Bill Abbott, insurance agent Dusty Thiele, investment banker Michael Harrington and chiropractor Darren Konesheck.

The city's Planning and Zoning Commission recommended City Council approval of the PDD at its March 13 meeting.
CAIRO -- In Tahrir Square, where hundreds of thousands of Egyptians once rallied for democracy, a giant television screen played videos of tanks, Egyptian soldiers and speeches by President Abdel Fatah el-Sissi. Election billboards of Sissi blanketed the area as his supporters waved national flags and danced to patriotic music blaring from loudspeakers mounted on trucks.

To anyone watching the scene, the symbolism was clear: The revolution was dead, and authoritarianism was in control.

As polls closed on Wednesday, ending Egypt's farcical three-day-long elections, no one in the Arab world's most populous country had any doubts about who would win. All credible challengers had been arrested, intimidated or pressured to withdraw.

Even with no real competition, Sissi's loyalists and local authorities delivered food, cash and promises of municipal services to voters in an effort to engineer a high voter turnout, according to Egyptian voters, local journalists and some foreign election observers. The aim was to lend legitimacy to Sissi's victory.

The election underscored the fissures in Egyptian society. Many people in their twenties and thirties said in interviews that they did not intend to vote, citing their displeasure over economic austerity measures, lack of jobs and repression.

"I thought I would be excited for these elections, seven years after the January revolution, but I am surely not," said Shams El Dine, 28, an engineer. "Why would I vote in an election where two candidates were jailed, another two were intimidated and while thousands of opponents are jailed?"

Many middle-aged and elderly Egyptians said they voted for Sissi and cited his efforts to combat terrorism, bolster the economy and bring stability and security to the country.

Mohamed Shaban, 44, said he voted for Sissi because he didn't want the country to return to the political and economic turmoil that emerged after the revolution. Mohamed Morsi, Egypt's elected Islamist president, was ousted in a military coup led by Sissi in 2013, triggering violence and chaos. Since his election in 2014, Sissi has jailed thousands of Islamists and others considered opponents of the regime.

"It's more secure than before," said Shaban, a petroleum engineer who lives in Cairo's affluent Maadi enclave. "I have seen what happened in 2011, during the revolution. We were in the streets defending our buildings and families. I don't believe our country in this time needs another revolution."

Analysts say Sissi is eliminating threats to his rule, in large part because Egypt's powerful military regrets that Mubarak gave an opening to Islamists and other opponents by acceding to Western pressure to hold elections in 2005.

Over the past year, the government has blocked hundreds of websites, including those of most independent media. Numerous opponents have been arrested, or "forcibly disappeared," in Egypt's state security system.

On the last possible day to run, Sissi's lone challenger, Moussa Mostafa Moussa, announced his candidacy. Moussa's entry was widely seen as an effort by the government to bring a veneer of democracy to the vote. Campaign billboards of Moussa were hard to find, and he declined to even consider debating Sissi over issues, saying he had no intention of challenging him.

Sissi loyalists spent the past three days largely focused on trying to bolster voter turnout. Analysts say a turnout of at least 45 percent - close to that of the 2014 elections - is needed for the vote to have credibility.

Election results are expected Monday, if not earlier.

In some cases, the efforts to boost the vote were public. In the governorate of Qalyoubeya, citizens were told they would be eligible for religious trips to Saudi Arabia if the turnout exceeded 40 percent in their areas. Each church diocese would also be given $5,700 if the governorate as a whole exceeded the 40 percent turnout rate.

In some polling stations, Sissi campaign workers were asked by voters to stamp cards entitling them to food packages in exchange for voting, said Hassan Hussien, a local journalist who said he witnessed such incidents. One well-known businessman, he added, distributed two chickens to every person who voted.

In other cases, the vote-buying was more clandestine. An election observer from a foreign embassy said he witnessed two instances of cash exchanging hands at polling stations in central Cairo. "We saw people being passed cash," said the observer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

A spokesman for Egypt's electoral commission did not respond to requests for comment.

On Monday, the U.S. Embassy in Cairo tweeted a photo of charge d'affaires Thomas Goldberger with the message: "As Americans we are very impressed by the enthusiasm and patriotism of Egyptian voters."

That triggered widespread condemnation on social media. "Saying this with no context for the widespread repression that has totally discredited this vote is shameful," wrote Timothy Kaldas, a political analyst with the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy.

For Wael Eskandar, an activist and blogger, and many other young Egyptians, Western governments are to blame for the sham election because they remained silent about the repression of democracy. Eskandar said those governments have emboldened Sissi, pointing to the continuing sales of arms and surveillance equipment to Egypt.

The Sissi election billboards across the capital, he said, "are a symbol of oppression" but he's neither angry at Sissi or at Egyptians who support Sissi. "I see the faces of Western leaders when I see Sissi's face all over Tahrir," Eskandar said.
Austria is drawing criticism from parts of the European Union for saying it couldn't expel Russian diplomats on account of its neutrality.

Chancellor Sebastian Kurz's government, which includes nationalists that cooperate with Russian President Vladimir Putin's party, declined to join the tough international response to a nerve-agent attack on a former Russian spy in England. Rather, it said, Austria is a "builder of bridges between East and West" and wants to "keep channels open" to Moscow.

That position is "hardly compatible with EU membership" and there's "a big difference between being part of the West and being a bridge between the West and the East," former Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said Tuesday on Twitter.

Artis Pabriks, a former Latvian foreign minister who's a member of the European Parliament, called Austria's decision a "bad joke." He asked, "Which other EU policies/decisions Kurz does not apply to Austria?"

Kurz, whose People's Party is part of the same political family as the parties of Bildt and Pabriks, said Monday that Austria backs the EU's decision to pull its ambassador to Russia. He and Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl cited Austria's neutrality as a reason for the reluctance.

Austria adopted neutrality as a condition for ending its post-World War II occupation by the U.S., the Soviet Union, the U.K. and France in 1955. While it joined the EU in 1995, it's not a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and hosts several United Nations agencies as well as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Austria, which has gotten most of its natural gas from Russia for 50 years, has a history of trying to moderate the EU's approach to Moscow. Social Democrat Werner Faymann was one of the more skeptical EU leaders when initial sanctions were imposed on Russia in 2014 over the annexation of Crimea.

Kurz's coalition partner, the Freedom Party, signed a "working agreement" with Putin's United Russia party in Moscow in 2016, saying it would like to roll back the sanctions.

Johann Gudenus, Freedom's parliamentary caucus leader, said Wednesday that the attack is being exploited by governments "that are interested in an escalation and want to entice other countries to join them."

Neighboring Slovakia's decision not to expel Russian diplomats is emerging as the first test of Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini's week-old government.

The premier, whose predecessor Robert Fico was publicly opposed sanctions against Russia, was urged this week by President Andrej Kiska to "show solidarity with one of our most important partners," a reference to the EU.

On Wednesday, Slovakia said it will recall its ambassador to Moscow for consultations for the first time in the country's 25-year history. Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak said expulsions "can't be ruled out" after all.

--With assistance from Samuel Dodge
Every place has a history and a culture that defines it. For West Texans, it's agriculture. It is what drove our ancestors to settle in this region, and it is what connects us to that pioneering spirit of our past. Over time, this region has become the food and fiber capital of the United States, and that didn't happen by accident. It was built on the backs of farmers and ranchers who understood the value of hard work and were not afraid to take risks. Only the most visionary settlers could imagine what bounty the high plains could produce, and because of their tenacity, their descendants boast of the largest cotton patch in the world and the epicenter for cattle production in the United States. They have proved that like the West Texas horizon, there is no limit to what farmers and ranchers in this region can do.

It's because of our hardworking producers that Texas is the agriculture envy of the world. Home to 250,000 farms that cover more than 130 million acres, our state is America's largest exporter of farm products, leading the nation in cotton, cattle, hay, sheep, goats and mohair production. Altogether, the economic impact of Texas' food and fiber sector totals over $100 billion annually.
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - Ethiopia's ruling coalition elected a new chairman and eventual prime minister from a vast protest-hit region, in a major shift in leadership that could also ease persistent unrest in one of Africa's fastest-growing economies.

Ethiopia has been racked by violence for the last three years amid protests by members of an ethnic minority, known as the Oromo, claiming they have been systematically excluded from power.

A decision late Tuesday to pick an Oromo lawmaker to lead Ethiopia's governing coalition marked a potentially important step to ease political upheavals that have twice forced authorities to declare a state of emergency.

The tensions also reverberated well beyond Ethiopia's borders, threatening its status as an anchor of stability and foreign investment in East Africa and its role as a key U.S. ally in the region.

The council of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, a coalition of four ethnically based parties, voted for Abiy Ahmed, 41, an outspoken Oromo member of parliament to be its new chairman. That sets the stage for Abiy to be named prime minister.

The move comes after days of closed-door meetings and six weeks after the previous prime minister, Hailmariam Desalegn, abruptly announced his resignation, saying it was to further democracy in the country.

His resignation prompted the declaration of a new state of emergency around the country - and especially in the Oromo region which surrounds the capital. Oromos make up a third of the population of 100 million but maintain they have been consistently excluded from having a voice in shaping the country.

Abiy would be the country's first Oromo head of state in modern times and his accession to the premiership is expected to calm the persistent protests and violence in the countryside.

"There was dancing last night in the town, people were dancing in the streets and congratulating each other," said Andu Selam, an engineering student in the town of Mettu in the Oromia region in southwestern Ethiopia. "People have hope now that things will be different - if someone else had been selected, [the demonstrations] would not have stopped."

Abiy would only be the third prime minister since the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, or EPRDF, overthrew the communist regime in 1991 and his predecessor was seen largely as a placeholder dedicated to maintaining the policies of Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia's leader until his death in 2012.

Abiy, however, is expected to bring something very different.

"He was the candidate with the most radical reform agenda compared to the other three candidates," said Hallelujah Lulie, a political analyst. "His biggest challenge will be the state of emergency, not from the perspective of the people, but he won't be a fully mandated prime minister while the military and intelligence handle the major political and security situation."

Abiy's victory was clinched when his chief rival, Demeke Mekonnen of the Amhara party, withdrew his candidacy to become the deputy chairman. The move suggested the Oromos and the Amharas, the country's two largest ethnic groups, have formed an alliance.

Abiy's reform agenda, however, will likely face opposition from the establishment. Among the biggest challenges will be attempts to address complaints against security services, which are widely reviled by the Oromos for their role in suppressing dissent.

At the very least, his accession coming on the heels of the widespread protest and political crisis, means he won't be seen as a puppet the way Hailmariam was.

"Abiy came to the chairmanship and the premiership rebelling against the status quo," asserted Hallelujah. "He is the result of a popular uprising that rocked Ethiopia for the past two years, that is the major difference between the two."

Under pressure from the protests that begin in earnest at the end of 2015, the Oromo People's Democratic Organization began taking a more opposition-like role in the ruling coalition - especially after Abiy and his colleague Lemma Megersa took on leadership positions.

The unrest, which also spread to the northern Amhara region, coupled with the growing splits in the ruling coalition, prompted a political crisis that first saw the massive release of political prisoners, then the resignation of the prime minister and finally a new state of emergency.

There were also strikes in the Oromo towns around the capital that disrupted transportation services and at one point choked off fuel supplies.

A mistaken operation against alleged rebels then resulted in the deaths of 10 civilians in the border town of Moyale sending a flood of refugees into Kenya. There has also been renewed detentions of activists and journalists, including some that had only just been released.

The expectation is that with Abiy's selection, the unrest will die down as he is given a chance to prove himself.

Abiy is no stranger to the establishment, however.

He served as a lieutenant colonel in the armed forces and in 2007 created the Information Network Security Agency, which has been criticized by activists for its surveillance activities both inside and outside the country. He was also briefly the minister for science and technology in 2015.

Influential blogger Daniel Berhane, who has been described as close to the previous government, said Abiy's election was a bit strange.

"He doesn't have the experience or the temperament," he said, noting Abiy's limited time in top party circles. "Part of the thinking in many people's minds is that if you elect an Oromo there will be a few months peace in Oromia but I doubt it."

Ethiopa's very active - and often anti-government - diaspora lit up Twitter following the announcement, with both congratulations and pessimism about Abiy's ability to reform the country, with many commentators urging that the new leader be given a grace period.

In Mettu, deep in southwestern Ethiopia, however, the mood was euphoric and there seemed little doubt that something new was afoot for the country.

"I am feeling very excited and energetic to do something for my country," said Andu by phone. "It has totally changed everything. We are alive now, before we were dead."
On Saturday, March 24 TV news channels were focused on The March of Our Lives, the student-led anti-violence demonstrations in support of tighter gun control. While the so-called main event was taking place in Washington, D.C., there were an estimated 800 sibling events taking place throughout the United States and around the world. One was in St. Helena.

Initiated by a local organization called Women Stand Up  St. Helena, a group of demonstrators was lining Main Street in St. Helena with signs and, as they stood, more people joined them.

Im really excited at the number of people who have come out, said Beth Lincoln, one of the organizers of Women Stand Up. She added, We didnt really advertise this vigil, but a lot of people walking past just joined in.

During the two hours that the vigil took place, she estimated that as many as 50 people stood at one time or another, lining the street in front of Lyman Park across from the Post Office. They come and stand for a time, and then go on.

Lincoln said she was also excited about how the movement has gained steam as a result of student activism. Its a whole new generation of activists, she said. And Im really proud of how these kids have taken on the leadership in this important debate about guns and violence.

Many of the demonstrators talked about the recent killing of four local residents at the California Veterans Home in Yountville. On March 9, Albert Wong  a former Army veteran who had served in Afghanistan took three woman hostages who were working at The Pathway Home treatment center. The coroners report says he killed them with a rifle and then took his own life. The women killed were Pathways executive director, Christine Loeber, 48, therapist Jennifer Golick, 42, and psychologist Jennifer Gonzales Shushereba, 32, who was 26 weeks pregnant. Golick was a resident of St. Helena.

According to Lincoln, the proximity and the violence associated with this recent tragedy  the victims were well known to many of the demonstrators  was just the most recent event that brought people to the vigil in St. Helena.

Signs that read Enough is Enough, Shame On You NRA!, Im a Teacher. To ARM me is to HARM me, Stricter Gun Control Now! were just few of the colorful calls for greater gun control.

Others were more informative, such as 187,000 scarred by school shootings. Not One More!, More Americans have been killed by guns in the US since 1968 than all the wars in US history! and Actually guns do kill people!

Meanwhile, cars and trucks passing in front of the vigil encouraged the activists with honks and shouts. Occasionally, a driver would lift a finger to voice silent opposition, but the group on the sidewalk would call back in unison, We love you anyway.

And though the group was composed mostly of women, there were men standing in support of the cause as well. There was even a 3-year-old girl enthusiastically holding a sign that read Never Again on one side and Save Our Kids  Ban Assault Weapons on the other.

At the end of the vigil, some of the demonstrators were energized by the experience and vowed to continue their involvement. Its my hope that this energy will continue to the elections in the fall, Lincoln said. Our group has already been helping with voter registration and in August were going to hold our big event, and well be doing that here as well.

Women Stand Up is a local group promoting political action with a united message that womens rights are human rights. Co-founders are Lincoln and Mary Burton. For more information, send an email to WomenStandUp.StHelena@gmail.com.

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WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court has never struck down a state redistricting plan because of extreme partisan gerrymandering, and the justices' deliberations Wednesday during their second look at the issue this term only underscored why.

At least one justice thinks the courts have no business second-guessing the political decisions of elected representatives. Others worry about being drawn into every redistricting dispute between Democrats and Republicans. And even the justices who see gerrymandering as an evil are torn about the constitutional test that should be applied.

After considering during the first week of their term a Republican-drawn plan from Wisconsin that hurt Democrats and, now, a Democratic-drawn plan in Maryland that undermined a Republican congressman, there was a sense the conversation was moving in circles.

Justice Elena Kagan suggested that if the court couldn't find a constitutional problem in the Maryland redistricting, it may never reach agreement on the issue.

"However much you think is too much, this case is too much," Kagan said, drawing laughter from the courtroom as she addressed Maryland Solicitor General Steven Sullivan.

She continued: "People were very upfront about what they were trying to do here, which was to create another Democratic district."

But the same was true in the Wisconsin case - albeit in mirror image - as the Republican-controlled legislature and Republican governor saw a once-in-a-generation chance to draw lines advantageous to their party.

The court has not issued a decision in that case, and there were indications from Wednesday's hearings that either the court has not decided how to rule or that challengers were in danger of losing.

Justice Stephen Breyer, who has favored a role for courts in deciding when political bias violates the Constitution, suggested combining the Wisconsin, Maryland and a pending North Carolina case for a future hearing. It is unlikely he would propose such a course if his side was confident about how the Wisconsin ruling would come down.

Some justices suggested that in the Maryland case, it was unlikely for even a victory for the challengers to result in changes before the fall elections. It may be better, they said, to return the case to the lower court for more work.

Breyer said it was important for the court to act - if it were going to - before the 2020 Census, when a new round of redistricting would begin. Technological innovations have made it easier for one-party-rule states to draw districts that will entrench them in power, he said.

"If you think what's happened now is something, wait until you see those computers really working," Breyer said.

The key justice is likely to be Anthony Kennedy. He has said that, while a test seems elusive, extreme partisan gerrymandering might be seen constitutionally as retaliation for a voter's past votes, a violation of the First Amendment.

That is the claim a handful of Republican voters brought. They singled out Maryland's 6th Congressional District, which in the past stretched from the state's western border across the top of the state. Republican Roscoe Bartlett had represented the area since 1993 and won reelection in 2010 by a 28-point margin.

Growth reflected in the census that year indicated the district needed to add about 10,000 people. But to accomplish that, the state's Democratic leaders pushed the district boundaries into Democrat-heavy Montgomery County. That required moving hundreds of thousands of voters from one district to another and made the district much more likely to elect a Democrat, which it did in 2012 and has done since.

Sullivan said the actions simply made the district "competitive."

Chief Justice John Roberts Jr., who has been resistent to the court's involvement in such cases, said there didn't seem to be much "internal logic" to the change, except perhaps to connect the "hobby farms" of Potomac to the "real farms" of Western Maryland.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor noted "pretty damning evidence" in the case, including a deposition from Democratic former governor Martin O'Malley. You have your own governor, she told Sullivan, "saying that he felt duty-bound to ensure that his party won."

Washington lawyer Michael Kimberly, representing the Republican challengers, said that under the court's First Amendment precedents, "government officials may not single out particular individuals for disfavored treatment on the basis of the views that they have expressed at the ballot box in prior elections."

But, echoing the state's arguments, justices across the board wondered whether such a broad approach would require courts to forbid any political considerations, such as protecting incumbents.

"I really don't see how any legislature will ever be able to redistrict," said Justice Samuel Alito Jr, adding, "hasn't this court said time and again you can't take all consideration of partisan advantage out of districting?"

Even Kagan and Sotomayor had trouble defining how courts would ascertain the minor political considerations Kimberly said his First Amendment theory would allow.

Kennedy returned to the central issue of whether a state legislature could put a thumb on the scale in favor of the party in power. He asked Sullivan a question similar to what he asked Wisconsin's lawyer last fall:

Suppose a state constitution "had a provision that required that partisan advantage for one party be the predominant consideration in any districting. Lawful or not?"

No, that wouldn't be lawful, Sullivan said, but Maryland doesn't have that.

Roberts and Kagan said Maryland's redistricting statute gives just such an advantage to Democrats.

Not on its face, Sullivan said.

Kennedy responded: "So, if you hide the evidence of what you're doing, then you're going to prevail?"

The Maryland case is Benisek v. Lamone. The Wisconsin case is Gill v. Whitford.
High-tide flooding, which can wash water over roads and inundate homes and businesses, is an event that happens once in a great while in coastal areas. But its frequency has rapidly increased in recent years due to sea-level rise. Not just during storms, but increasingly on sunny days, too.

Years ago, the late Margaret Davidson, a coastal programs director at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, warned it wouldn't be long until such flooding becomes routine. "Today's flood will become tomorrow's high tide," she said.

A new NOAA report has published startling new projections that affirms Davidson's warning. Due to sea-level rise, high-tide flooding is already accelerating along many parts of the U.S. coastline, including the Mid-Atlantic.

By 2100, the report says, "high tide flooding will occur 'every other day' (182 days/year) or more often" even under an "intermediate low scenario" in coastal areas along the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico. This scenario works under the assumption that greenhouse gas emissions - which warm the climate and speed up sea-level rise - are curbed.

For a more aggressive "intermediate" scenario, in which greenhouse gas emissions carry on at today's pace, high tide flooding is forecast to occur 365 days per year.

In February, scientists published a separate study concluding that they had already detected an acceleration in sea-level rise and that it is likely to speed up more in the coming decades as ice sheets disintegrate and ocean waters expand.

The implications of the steepening sea-level rise on high-tide flooding are already apparent on the ground.

William Sweet, the lead author of the NOAA report, has witnessed an uptick in flooding firsthand. "I moved to Annapolis (Maryland) last year," he said in an interview. "Since I moved there, I've seen six or seven days when waters hit storefronts. What we're finding is along the East Coast, and the Mid-Atlantic in particular, already the flooding is accelerating."

In just 15 years, the incidence of high-tide flooding in the Mid-Atlantic has doubled, from an average of three days per year in 2000 to six in 2015, according to the NOAA report.

"That's a very important outcome," Sweet said. "What it means is that the change is not a gradual linear change, but measured in leaps and bounds. By the time you realize there is a flooding issue, impacts will become chronic rather quickly."

A similar acceleration in coastal flooding has been seen in other locations along the East Coast, including Florida, the Carolinas and in the Northeast.

Practically every time tides are intensified by the lunar cycle in South Florida, media reports show inundation from "sunny day flooding," which seldom occurred mere decades ago.

This past winter, Boston observed its first and third highest tides in recorded history as nor'easters battered southern New England in January and March.

"The record-breaking event of January 2018 would not have broken the record had it not been for relative sea-level rise that carried the tide and storm surge above the level reached in 1978," Andrew Kemp, an assistant professor of earth and ocean sciences at Tufts University, told the Boston Globe.

The prospect of high-tide flooding occurring every day or even every other day late this century is difficult to fathom.

Michael Lowry, a visiting scientist at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, expressed shock on Twitter after seeing these projections. "It's hard to overstate the significance of this," he said. "That isn't even the intermediate high, high, or extreme scenarios that bring us 365 (days per year) high-tide flooding in my lifetime. It's crazy."

Even by 2050, just over 30 years from now, the report projects high-tide flooding will occur between 50 and 250 days per year along the East Coast, depending on the emissions scenario.

"This is such a huge deal," tweeted Alan Gerard, a division chief at the National Severe Storms Laboratory. "And even the increase by 2040. That's not that far away."

Astrid Caldas, a senior climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists who tracks the impacts of sea-level rise, is extremely worried about the projected flooding increases.

"(B)y mid-century, the frequency of this type of 'minor' flooding would become so disruptive that business as usual would be practically impossible without significant adaptation measures," Caldas said. "Without planning for flooding with measures such as protecting, elevating, accommodating the water, or even moving stuff out of the way, the impacts on the cities, their economy, and their residents would be immense."

She added: "Just imagine seeing streets (and property) flooded every other day. That gives a completely new meaning to the term 'nuisance flooding.' Or actually, it completely obliterates the concept, as flooding would become much more than a nuisance, but a rather serious problem requiring significant resources and innovative policies."

NOAA's Sweet said informing decision-makers and planners about the escalating flood risk was impetus for the report. "(Floodwaters) getting up to storefronts in Annapolis becomes the new tide (by late this century)," he said. "When you project out that far, the assumption is that society will adapt. That's the real reason we're doing this: to inform decision-making so the best science is available to plan accordingly."

In the D.C. region, significant infrastructure is at risk from rising seas, including assets around the National Mall, the Southwest Waterfront, Old Town Alexandria in Virginia, and Annapolis.

To respond to this risk, an interagency team known as the District of Columbia Silver Jackets formed in 2014. It includes members from regional and federal agencies, such as the D.C. government, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, National Park Service and National Weather Service, as well as academia.

The team convened a flood summit in 2016, has developed an online flood inundation mapping tool, and conducted a study for vulnerable neighborhoods along Watts Branch, a tributary of the Anacostia River.

"While our team has made great strides in identifying and helping to mitigate flood risk in the region, there is still so much work to be done, including taking a more comprehensive, integrated and regional approach to flood risk management," the Silver Jackets team said in a statement. "The statistics in this report are staggering, and really hit home on the fact that time is of the essence as we plan for the future and take steps now to ensure our nation's resources and treasures are not impacted by flooding."

Caldas stressed global action is needed in addition to local measures to lower the risk of high-tide flooding. "(A)dhering to the commitments of the Paris (climate) Agreement is exceptionally important, because emissions for the next couple of decades, up to mid-century, will define how much sea level rise we will see in the end of the century - and how much tidal flooding we will see: every other day or every day," she said.
EAST ST. LOUIS  A former Edwardsville man has pleaded guilty to robbing banks in Lebanon and OFallon.

Marcus J. Thornton, 37, faces up to 40 years in federal prison, a fine of up to $500,000, and a minimum of five years of supervised release after his prison term. He must also pay restitution although that amount has yet to be determined, according to information from U.S. Attorney Donald S. Boyce.

Thornton is referred to as having an Edwardsville address though at the time of the second robbery court records in Madison County show that he lived in the 2700 block of Allen Avenue in St. Louis.

The first robbery happened on Oct. 13, 2016, at the Regions Bank in Lebanon. Court proceedings revealed that Thornton entered the bank at 107 E. Schuetz St., brandished a silver and black semi-automatic handgun, and demanded money from the tellers. He took $13,710 and fled in a vehicle, according to the release.

The second robbery happened four months later at the US Bank in OFallon. Court proceedings reveal that Thornton brandished a silver and black semi-automatic handgun and demanded money from the tellers. Tellers gave him $10,720. Thornton put the cash in a white plastic bag, and fled in a vehicle, according to the press release.

The case is being investigated by the FBI and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Daniel Kapsak and James Piper, Jr.
WASHINGTON - The FBI has found that a business associate of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort had ongoing ties to Russian intelligence, including during the 2016 presidential campaign when Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates, were in touch with the associate, according to new court filings.

The documents, filed late Tuesday by prosecutors for special counsel Robert Mueller III, also allege that Gates has said he knew the associate was a former officer with the Russian military intelligence service.

The allegations underscore Mueller's interest in Manafort and Gates, who continued to interact with business associates in Ukraine even as they helped lead Donald Trump's presidential campaign.

Manafort, 68, has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy, money laundering, and tax and bank fraud charges related to his lobbying work for a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine and former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych.

Gates, 45, who was deputy campaign manager for Trump and had earlier worked with Manafort in Ukraine, pleaded guilty last month to conspiracy and lying to the FBI in a cooperation deal with Mueller's probe.

Prosecutors made the allegation without naming the Manafort associate but described his role with Manafort in detail. The description matches Konstantin Kilimnik, the Russian manager of Manafort's lobbying office in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev.

Kilimnik did not respond to a request for comment. Nor did a White House spokesman or an attorney for Gates.

Kilimnik has previously denied intelligence ties, telling The Washington Post in a statement in June that he has "no relation to the Russian or any other intelligence service."

A spokesman for Manafort, who is under a court gag order, declined to comment.

Manafort has acknowledged staying in frequent contact with Kilimnik during the time he worked for Trump's campaign. He has said he met with Kilimnik in person in May 2016 and again in New York City in August 2016, about two weeks before Manafort resigned as Trump's campaign chairman.

A Manafort spokesman expressed confidence in June that investigators would ultimately conclude that Manafort's interactions with Kilimnik were "perfectly permissible and not in furtherance of some conspiracy."

The information about the FBI's assessment of the Manafort associate came in a court filing related to the upcoming sentencing of London attorney Alex van der Zwaan, whose firm worked with Manafort when he served as a political consultant in Ukraine.

Van der Zwaan, 33, the son-in-law of a prominent Russian Ukrainian banker, pleaded guilty last month to lying about his September 2016 contacts with Gates and the Manafort associate, identified in court documents only as "Person A."

Prosecutors explained that van der Zwaan had lied and withheld documents about information that was "pertinent" to their investigation - that Gates had been in direct contact during the presidential campaign with a person who "has ties to a Russian intelligence service and had such ties in 2016."

They said that when van der Zwaan was interviewed by the FBI in November, he told investigators that Gates had informed him that Person A was a former officer of the Russian military intelligence service, known as the GRU.

Kilimnik ran Manafort's office in Kiev during the 10 years he did consulting work there, The Post reported in 2017.

During his August 2016 meeting with Kilimnik, Manafort has said he and his longtime Kiev office manager discussed, among other topics, the ongoing campaign, including the hacking of Democratic National Committee emails. Stolen DNC emails had been released by WikiLeaks the previous month, and the hack was widely suspected to be the work of Russia.

During Kilimnik's time working for Manafort in Kiev, he had served as a liaison for Manafort to the Russian aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska, with whom Manafort had done business. Emails previously described to The Post show that Manafort asked Kilimnik during the campaign to offer Deripaska "private briefings" about Trump's effort. A Deripaska spokeswoman has said the billionaire, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was not offered and did not receive such briefings.

Kilimnik previously told The Post that he had served for a time in the early 1990s in the Russian army, but he denied any links to intelligence work.

Manafort has also denied knowingly communicating with Russian intelligence during the campaign. He told the New York Times last year, however, "It's not like these people wear badges that say, 'I'm a Russian intelligence officer.' "
Venture out for Natures Eggs Extravaganza, a special egg hunt event Saturday at the Chippewa Nature Center.

Each child, ages 3-12, will make his/her own egg hunt bag, then venture into the woods to search high and low for hidden eggs. Prizes, including a book, will be awarded to all participants. Before or after the hunt, be sure to spend time inside the Visitor Center discovering the wonders of Michigans egg-laying animals through various games and activities. Group sizes for the hunts will be kept small, and children will be divided according to age. Hunt times are 10, 10:30, 11 and 11:30 am. Participants are asked to arrive at least 10 minutes prior to your hunt time to check-in.
I was skeptical. Ricky had a way of getting us into trouble even more than I did. Besides, why did we need a pair of womens legwear anyway? We were heading down to the Napa River to catch crawdads. I understood that the liver was going to be used as bait, but I imagined wed tie it up with string and then place it in the water. Chad had told us that hed seen his uncle do such a thing up in Fort Bragg the weekend before and had hauled out hundreds of pounds of crawdaddies from a tiny-little pond.

According to Chad, theyd cooked the lobsterlike crawdads and then used a knife to pry the meat from the tail, which, according to our source, they had dipped in melted butter and then eaten like royalty.

It had sounded intriguing. Id always liked the idea of hunting and gathering my own food, just like the Native Americans had done. The trouble was that when Id eaten lobster two years earlier I had nearly vomited. I knew that the red-colored, clawed crustaceans were a revered culinary delicacy for the rich and famous, but when Id bitten into the rubbery flesh it had tasted like what I imagined it must be like to lick the underside of a rock at low tide  even a heavy coating of butter had not masked the muddy flavor.
Auto parts tycoon Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit has already been threatened with death just weeks after registering a political party in Thailand.

The 39-year-old executive isn't shy about taking on some of the nation's most powerful players: He wants to do away with military rule once and for all, give more control over money to regional governments, and break up entrenched oligopolies.

"It will be a dangerous game," Thanathorn said in an interview Monday. "We are playing with people who have no respect for human life."

His new party, Future Forward, is taking direct aim at the military rulers who seized power in 2014 and installed a new constitution that entrenches the power of non-elected soldiers, judges and bureaucrats at the expense of elected politicians. The coup was Thailand's latest in about a dozen following the shift to a constitutional monarchy in 1932.

Junta leader Prayuth Chan-Ocha, who also serves as prime minister, said last month an election would be held no later than February next year, with new parties allowed to register from March 1.

Thanathorn said he doesn't think the military "will give up power so easily." Sansern Kaewkamnerd, a spokesman for Prayuth's government, rebutted that assertion on Tuesday: "There will have to be elections in February next year."

The executive vice president of Thai Summit Group, an auto parts manufacturer founded by his late father, Thanathorn said his family's fortune was estimated at around $800 million several years ago. He declined to give an updated figure.

Thanathorn said he's encouraged by polls showing his party running third behind Pheu Thai and the Democrat party, the two major organizations that have dominated Thai politics over the past decade. Pheu Thai consists of allies of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra who have won the past five elections.

Thanathorn said he voted for Pheu Thai in the last election, but now "they are not fighting for democracy." He said Thailand's constant military coups have hurt the economy.

Thailand's economic growth has lagged peers in Southeast Asia, partly due to moderating consumer spending and private investment. The military-led administration is trying to accelerate major infrastructure projects, put more money in the pockets of low-income people and reduce red tape to bolster the outlook.

The current constitution was drafted by a military-appointed panel and approved by voters in a 2016 referendum held under an oppressive environment in which campaigning was banned. Thanathorn called the document a "time bomb" that no elected government could work with.

"We will propose to amend the constitution, the military bill, and other bills that oppress the freedom of speech," Thanathorn said.

Thanathorn said his party doesn't yet have consensus on changing Thailand's lese-majeste laws, which are among the world's toughest. Offenders can get jail sentences of 15 years for defaming, insulting or threatening members of the royal family.

The laws can end up being used as a "political tool" by "conservatives to destroy their enemies," Thanathorn said.

"Many people I know, good people I know, are in jail because of this," he said.

Piyabutr Saengkanokkul, who co-founded the Future Forward party, had earlier proposed amending the law so that only the Bureau of the Royal Household could file a complaint, Thanathorn said.

"Piyabutr and I were threatened last week to death by an ultra-conservative," Thanathorn said, referring to a Facebook post allegedly written by a former deputy police commander. The author of the post accused the pair of speaking ill of the royal institution and said that he had "lost count" of the number of "evil" people he had killed, before adding that "you guys would be easy for me."

National deputy police spokesperson Krisana Pattanacharoen didn't respond to telephone calls seeking comment on whether the threat was being investigated.

Thanathorn said another key plank was to empower provinces to select their own governors, collect their own taxes, and issue bonds for public projects. Currently they need to go through the powers that be in Bangkok.

"The current system is not very friendly to creativity, to constructive proposals," he said.

His third key policy would be to break up what he sees as powerful oligarchies dominating industries including banking, retail and agriculture, describing the task as a "big fight."

"Lots of sectors are currently being manipulated, controlled by only a few players and these players are protected by law," Thanathorn said.

Thanathorn said his strategy for winning the election isn't yet finalized. He said he's seen estimates that his party could win anywhere from one to 100 seats in the next parliament among the 500 up for grabs.

"Someone has to say 'No more military coups in this country,' " he said. "That's what we want to do."
Republicans are counting on their $1.5 trillion tax cut to stave off a midterm disaster, but the measure's big-business champions so far aren't investing in a major, coordinated blitz to sell skeptical voters on its benefits.

That has some GOP strategists nervous that the party's deep-pocketed allies are missing the moment to help it secure credit for a strengthening economy - their best bulwark against a November referendum on a presidency roiled by controversies.

Just 32 percent of voters say they have more take-home pay because of the tax cuts, according to the latest CNBC All-America Economic Survey, released Tuesday. And of that group, only 38 percent said the extra money is making a meaningful difference in their financial situation. Those results track with other polls that show public support for the measure has plateaued after improving following its passage at the end of last year.

"If Republicans focus more on the middle class benefits such as the doubling of the standard deduction and the increase in the child tax deduction, there is room for growth in the numbers," GOP consultant Ken Spain said in an email. "The key is trying to break ... through all the noise, which includes a president that is often times more than happy to deviate from the Congressional GOP's message."

Some outside groups backing the tax cuts are pulling together scattershot efforts to promote it over the two-week recess that just sent lawmakers home for their longest stretch of the year so far:

--The Business Roundtable says it is shelling out "nearly seven figures" to run radio and digital ads in more than 30 congressional districts. The spots "emphasize how businesses now have more opportunities to innovate, invest and grow due to a more globally competitive tax system that will lead to more jobs and bigger paychecks for Americans," a BRT official says.

--The American Action Network, the super PAC aligned with House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., is spending $1 million to boost the law in 26 battleground districts held by Republicans.

--And the Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity is hosting events across several states to thank Republicans who voted for the package, as part of its "American Pay Raise" campaign launched this month.

What isn't happening, or at least not yet: A centrally-plotted and more fully-funded campaign to prop up the package now that the wave of corporate announcements of bonuses and other benefits from the cuts has ebbed. "To keep something like this alive, you have got to work the messaging. It's not going to occur naturally," one top Republican lobbyist says, adding the effort so far has been "erratic." In a bid to keep the issue in front of voters while attempting to jam Democrats, congressional Republicans are now eyeing votes on a second round of tax cuts later this year.

The party received a warning shot recently when tax cut-focused messaging flopped in the special election for a House seat in southwestern Pennsylvania. From Politico's Kevin Robillard, just before Republicans lost that race:

"Republicans backed away from their signature tax-cut law in the final days of a closely watched special House election in the Pittsburgh suburbs - even though it's the very accomplishment on which they had banked their midterm election hopes. Instead, GOP groups that once proudly declared the tax law would be the central fight of the midterms are now airing ads on so-called sanctuary cities and attacking Democrat Conor Lamb's record as a prosecutor."

Republicans have since rationalized the loss as the byproduct of other factors, including candidate quality, that they say Democrats will have difficulty replicating across the map in November. Indeed, the party is heading into campaign season with historically helpful economic tailwinds. Plotted by unemployment trends and real returns in equity markets, the president's party has enjoyed better conditions in a midterm year only three times dating back to 1910, as data from JPMorgan's asset management team show.

"In each of those elections, the president's party suffered only modest losses in the House of Representatives - 13 seats or fewer," The Washington Post's Chuck Lane writes. "If the Republicans match that performance in 2018, they will retain their House majority." Yet as the data also show, "the GOP does not at present appear on course for such a result. Consulting expert forecasts, Cembalest produces a plausible estimate of 25-40 GOP losses in the House. That is, money won't buy them love, or at least not enough love to offset many voters' antipathy to Trump."
The new missiles announced by President Vladimir Putin draw a major attention. However, they are either non-operational yet or undergoing test operations or trials. In 2016 the aniship Kh-32 missile for Tu-22M3 bombers became operational. Its high characteristics considerably changed the balance on oceanic and sea theaters of warfare, expert Konstantin Sivkov writes in the Military-Industrial Courier.

Tu-22M3 number 9804 in flight test with 2x Kh-32 in 2013. Designed to break the enemy's air defense and attack carrier battle groups, Russian media reported that the missiles are able to exchange information after launch via datalink and able to withstand 20mm gun fire as well as small surface to air missiles. Photo by Sergei Lysenko, http://russianplanes.net/id121764



Open sources provide no data on the range of Standard-6 homing warhead. The size and weight of the missile can suggest that it can see an aircraft with five square kilometer effective echoing ratio at a distance of 15-20km. Kh-32 missile effective echoing ratio is 0.5 square kilometers, so the range of Strandard-6 warhead is 8-12 kilometers. The fire at attacking antiship missiles will be naturally held at head-on courses. It means the missiles will approach each other at a speed of 2200-2330 meters per second which leaves only three-four seconds for the approaching maneuver. The hit probability is low specifically at altitudes above the limit where rarefied atmosphere considerably decreases maneuvering capabilities. It means Standard-6 has to be launched with an error not exceeding 30-40 meters to successfully hit Kh-32 at the flying section. The hit probability of a nosediving KH-32 in the dense layers of the atmosphere is also limited by little time of the flight to the mission point - 20 seconds.



Calculations show the hit probability of Kh-32 by one Standard-6 can hardly exceed 0.05-0.08 even in favorable conditions and aiming directly from the carrier. Hit probability by data from an AWACS aircraft is close to zero (0.01-0.02) because of errors in determining the location of the carrier and the targeting source and the time to exchange information. It means the most effective US and NATO Standard-6 missile has a low capability to hit Kh-32. One can object and say the Americans fired from a Ticonderoga-class cruiser and hit a satellite flying at a speed of 27 thousand km/h at an altitude of 240 km. But it did not maneuver and its position was precisely determined after a long observation which helped bring the missile directly to the target. There will be no such possibilities in repelling an attack by a maneuvering Kh-32.



It is necessary to estimate the probability of Ticonderoga-class cruiser or Arleigh-Burke-class destroyer to hit Kh-32. The range of their radars to detect Kh-32 at an altitude of 40 km can be estimated at 230-270 km. It means the missile will approach the target in less than three minutes after it is detected. The Aegis system operational time is 30-35 seconds between the detection and launch. In the remaining time two universal Mk.41 launchers can fire 20-30 guided missiles capable of destroying the attacking Kh-32.



The hit probability by Vulcan Phalanx is next to nothing. Therefore, Ticonderoga or Arleigh-Burke can potentially destroy one of two Kh-32. It means two such warships can destroy two-four Kh-32.

Close up picture of a X-32 anti-ship missile during a test flight with a Tu-22M3 bomber in July 2013 (original photo by Vitaly Yurtayev, http://russianplanes.net/id114329).



There is also electronic warfare of active deception and passive jamming. There is sufficient time for it and their complex engagement can disrupt the targeting to a major extent. The operational time of electronic warfare weapons of a warship and their expected efficiency result in a maximum probability hit of 0.3-0.4. In case of fire at a group it is highly probable that the homing warhead would lock on another target. During Falkland hostilities a British aircraft carrier engaged passive jamming and the attacking Exoset missile changed the target and hit and sank the Atlantic Conveyers container ship. Kh-32 speed may leave no time for another warship in a formation on which the warhead may lock to engage electronic warfare and divert it.



It means a group of two cruisers or destroyers is incapable of repelling a strike from two Tu-22M3 bombers carrying two Kh-32 missiles each even in favorable conditions. At least one warship would be damaged with a 0.6-0.7 probability. A strike by a wing of three aircraft with six Kh-32 will definitely destroy both warships.



A salvo of 24 Kh-32 at an aircraft-carrying force would be fatal. The probability to destroy or sink an aircraft carrier with two-three escort ships is 0.75-0.85. Russian aircraft will attack from outside the operational zone of adversary seaborne fighter jets. It means a strike by 12 Tu-22M3 with two missiles each will be sufficient to destroy an aircraft-carrying force with a high probability.



A group of two-three aircraft carriers can be destroyed by a strike of two regiments of Tu-22M3 with 72 Kh-32. They can fire from a distance of two-three thousand kilometers from the Russian coast, i.e. long before the aircraft-carrying force arrives at the distance of seaborne aircraft engagement.



Even limited long-range aviation forces can considerably neutralize US aircraft-carrying formations. However, they have to be properly aimed at the targets and defended from adversary coastal fighter jets. If it is not provided, the Kh-32 potential will not be implemented.



The United States is actively developing hypersonic missiles but so far there is no data about the design of weapons similar to Kh-32. Russia is likely to dominate in the sphere for ten years and more.

Still it is necessary to arm the aviation with a sufficient number of such missiles. The troops need at least 250-300 of them. But the navy and the air force are unlikely to get such a number of missiles because of the state of the economy and the defense industry, as well as upcoming conversion. It means Kh-32 will remain an excellent but rare Russian weapon.



The serial production of Kh-32 means a revolution in the naval arts. The relative parity in the offense-defense balance will be replaced by a situation when the attack potential will considerably surpass the defense capability.



The review analyzed the most perfect foreign arms. The capabilities of other weapons are considerably inferior to Aegis and Standard-6.



It is necessary to design new methods and forms of naval warfare, in particular, the destruction of surface forces of the adversary and promotion of combat sustainability of your own forces. Adequate increase of the air defense potential of warships will likely demand to review the conceptual basis of such systems. It will take 10-15 years or may be more, expert Konstantin Sivkov writes in the Military-Industrial Courier.
The physician and the poet can both be healers medicine serves the body, poetry the spirit.  Anne Hudson Jones, Institute for Medical Humanities

Thirty-five years ago, during his senior year at Emory University School of Medicine, Dr. W. Clyde Partin Jr. did something unexpected for a student immersed in the medical sciences  he lobbied for a literature class.

With the help of classmate Walton Reeves Jr., who had majored in English as an undergraduate, they appealed to Emorys acclaimed physician-poet John H. Stone III to create and teach a course that explored the intersection of medicine and literature.

Our love of literature was the crucible here, says Partin 79C 83M, now an associate professor of medicine, Rollins Distinguished Clinician, director of the Emory Special Diagnostic Services Clinic at Emorys School of Medicine, and a published poet.

A cardiologist and educator, Stone was an internationally recognized poet and essayist who would serve on the Emory medical school faculty for 40 years before his death in 2008.

Partin recalls him as a man who believed that literature could help imbue within physicians the importance and complexity of both their patients and their own humanity.

He breathed life into the notion that reading poems and novels helps physicians understand the human condition, especially the messy parts of existence in which we find our patients suffering, reflects Partin. I think about him often.

In the end, Stone agreed to help, creating one of the nations first medical school courses to combine literature and medicine. In the years that followed, he would go on to teach it at Emory and Emorys summer studies program at Oxford University, and see similar courses flourish across the country.

Now, that tradition has come full circle.

Bridging literature and medicine

Four years ago, Emory alumna Sally Wolff-King 79G 83PhD approached Partin with a proposal to revive Emorys Literature and Medicine course.

It was a fitting collaboration: When Stone launched the course, he had conferred with Wolff-King to create a course syllabus and would invite her into the classroom as a guest lecturer every year.

He knew what to do with the medicine part but wasnt sure what to do with the literature side, says Wolff-King. The idea was to combine the two disciplines and draw from each.

Designed as an elective for fourth-year medical students, the re-launched seminar course focuses on the works of both physician writers and poets and those who arent physicians but write about medical issues.

This semesters class includes 11 medical students who are studying texts that draw from a rich trove of literature: Eudora Weltys The Optimists Daughter, William Faulkners As I Lay Dying, surgeon Richard Selzers essay collection The Exact Location of the Soul, and On Doctoring, a collection co-edited by Stone and physician Richard Reynolds, among others.

To help the literature come alive, this spring Wolff-King and Partin borrowed from another page of Emory history, taking class members  and some interested alumni  on a four-day field trip to Mississippi to explore the literary landscape of William Faulkner.

Long known as the Faulkner pilgrimage, the trip dates back to 1954 when Floyd Watkins, Candler Professor of American Literature, began visiting Faulkner's home in Oxford, Mississippi, to research the famed Southern writer. In time, he began bringing along Emory students to experience the people and places that inspired Faulkners stories.

In fact, thats how Wolff-King was first introduced to the literary adventure. Professor Watkins was my dissertation director, and while I was in graduate school in English at Emory, I attended one such trip in the late 1970s, she says.

When Watkins retired, Wolff-King  a respected Faulkner scholar herself  continued leading student trips. Now a longstanding Emory tradition, the pilgrimage has remained popular among those who relish the chance to hold Faulkner ephemera, walk the streets where he lived and visit face-to-face with members of his family.

Exploring the landscape of William Faulkner

In the years that Wolff-King has led the Faulkner pilgrimage, shes guided many spirited discussions about the Nobel Prize-winning writer. But rarely has she heard participants posthumously diagnose his likely cause of his death.

But thats what happened earlier this month with a touring group that included students from the Emory University School of Medicine and Emory College of Arts and Sciences, alumni of Emory College, a physician faculty member from the School of Medicine, and others.

Historians believe that Faulkners death was preceded by a fall from his horse. He lingered at home in pain for several days before being taken to a sanitarium in nearby Byhalia, Mississippi, where he died soon afterward. Was it a heart attack? A blood clot in his lungs?

I could not pass up the opportunity to engage the medical students in a mental exercise to reconstruct what happened and develop what we call a differential diagnoses, which is a list of the possible diagnoses, Partin says. What were the potential complications of his fall and the subsequent events surrounding his care that were possible explanations for the exact reason of death?

The students had a similar debate about the fate of the character Addie Bundren in Faulkners novel As I Lay Dying  a natural result of a medical focus on literature in this course, Wolff-King notes.

Over four days, participants visited Rowan Oak, Faulkners home, touring rooms where the author liked to read and write; the home of a relative, who shared family stories and some of the authors personal effects; the cemetery where Faulkner and his family are buried; and the buildings, streets, rivers and landscape from which he drew inspiration. Touring the archives at the University of Mississippi, they were also able to view original drafts of his works.

Literature through a medical lens

Andrew Ebner, a fourth-year Emory medical student, was drawn to both the class and the pilgrimage out of a love of literature. And it didnt disappoint.

The trip was amazing, he says. We were able to meet with William Faulkners great-niece, Meg Faulkner DuChaine, who shared personal memories of stories that her father had told about Brother Will, as he was called.

Beyond the literary focus, Ebner, who plans to study psychiatry, says medicine was woven into discussions along the way. For instance, a trip to a graveyard in Holly Springs, Mississippi, illuminated the public health crisis of the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1878, which resulted in some 20,000 deaths throughout the Lower Mississippi River Valley.

Ebner was intrigued to find towering cedar trees lining the pathway to Faulkners home. There was a time when cedar was thought to ward off mosquitos. He wondered: Could they have been planted in response to the epidemic?

Sophia Neitsch, a junior majoring in English and comparative literature, joined the trip with the support of the Department of English in Emory College. She praised the experience for providing new insight and context to engage with the work of Faulkner and his Southern contemporaries.

To have the opportunity to hold a first-edition of The Sound and the Fury in a case that was hand-sewn by his mother was so amazing, says Neitsch, originally from Ecuador. It helped you to see the author as a person, a human being. Overall, it was an extremely rich experience.

This was the first time that Partins busy clinical schedule allowed him to join the literary pilgrimage, and he found it deeply rewarding. It was fascinating to see these places that inspired Faulkner  having dinner where a character got off a train, seeing a road that featured prominently in one of his books, visiting a spring where he took his horse to get fresh water, he says.

As a poet, Partin was inspired. Its given me some new ideas of what to write about, how to create characters and connection, he explains.

And as a physician, there are threads of the experience that he will carry back into both the classroom and the exam room.

When I listen to a patient, I believe it helps that I have spent time trying to interpret literature, studying an abstract idea and how to distill it. In fact, I often find that it can help me make a diagnostic connection, Partin says.

Through this class, I really learn more than I teach, he adds.
An expert on chronic disease of the elderly says John Igo, a well-known San Antonio author and college professor, was afflicted with dementia was likely incompetent when he signed a controversial will almost two years ago.

On May 24, 2016, he did not have  sufficient mental capacity to understand the business in which he was engaged, specifically, that of making or amending a will, Dr. Ruben Tenorio concluded after examining Igos extensive medical records.
The oldest daughter of first-generation Mexican-Americans who dropped out of school to help support their families, Rose Marie Rosie Melendes was raised with an appreciation of education.

Both our parents never finished school  and education was extremely important to them, her sister Elizabeth Ashby said. Rosie was the first to go to college, not only in our family, but in the whole family; she was the role model for me and my sisters and our cousins.

Graduating from what was then Our Lady of the Lake College in 1966, Melendes went on to teach elementary school for 39 years.

She loved it and I know that was her vocation, her calling, Ashby said.

Melendes, who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2017, died of the disease March 17 at 73.

Growing up on the South Side, Melendes went to Burbank High School, where she was a member of the marching band. She graduated in 1962.

More Information Rose Marie "Rosie" Melendes Born: Sept. 14, 1944, San Antonio Died: March 17, 2018, San Antonio Preceded by: Father Prospero R. Melendes Survived by: Mother Helen C. Melendes; sisters Sylvia Leal, Dolores "Dodie" Garcia and brother-in-law Julian, Blanche Melendes, and Elizabeth Ashby and brother-in-law Doug; two nieces; a great-nephew; two great-nieces Services: Rosary at 7 p.m. Monday at Porter Loring Mortuaries, 1101 McCullough Ave.; Mass at 10 a.m. Tuesday at St. Matthew Catholic Church, 10703 Wurzbach Road, followed by entombment at San Fernando Cemetery # 2 See More Collapse

After getting her degree from Our Lady of the Lake, Melendes started her teaching career at Riverside Elementary School before later moving to Ed Cody in the Northside Independent School District and retiring from Wilson Elementary School in 2005.

Teaching second and third grades, Melendes always strove to impart a sense of possibility to her students.

There were several years  that she taught children from lower-income neighborhoods, Ashby said. She not only wanted to make sure that she gave them all the knowledge of academics, but she also liked to share her life experiences with them to teach them that they have opportunities  that they could shoot for the stars.

It was a strategy that her parents used when raising Melendes and her four sisters, taking them on two-week vacations every summer.

They wanted to expose us to experiences they didnt have growing up, Ashby said. We were very fortunate.

Piling into their station wagon every year, Melendes and her family drove to Colorado; Wyoming; Washington, D.C.; and New England, among other parts of the country.

Never marrying, Melendes devoted herself to her students, tutoring them after school and keeping in close touch with their parents.

The daughter of a World War II veteran, Melendes was very patriotic, Ashby said. She helped her students understand our countrys history and why she loved freedom and liberty and justice for all.
HUNTSVILLE  With his final words, suitcase killer Rosendo Rodriguez of San Antonio called for the FBI to investigate the Lubbock County district attorney and medical examiner.

After a final statement that took more than seven minutes in which Rodriguez urged onlookers to write other men on death row, called for a boycott of Texas businesses and referenced his Catholic faith, he died by lethal injection.

The state may have my body but not my soul, Rodriguez said.

A day after his birthday, the 38-year-old lost a final appeal  which stemmed from claims prosecutors withheld information regarding a lawsuit against the medical examiner  less than half an hour before he was scheduled to die at 6 p.m.

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The lethal dose of pentobarbital started flowing at 6:24 p.m., and Rodriguez was pronounced dead 22 minutes later.

I had the honor and privilege to know many prison guards and staff, he told onlookers before his death. I want to thank all of them. I would like for everyone to write the people on death row as they are all good men, and I am very happy I got to know them. All of their lives are worth knowing about.

I want everyone to boycott every single business in the state of Texas until all the businesses are pressed to stop the death penalty, Rodriguez continued. With that, Lord, I commend my spirit.

At one point, he decried the thousands he alleged were wrongfully convicted by Lubbock County District Attorney Matt Powell.

This needs to be brought to justice, he said. Powell declined to address the condemned mans final words against him.

Todays not a good day, Powell said. Were not happy about anything, but like Ive said all along I certainly think justice was done, that he paid the ultimate price for the crimes he committed. I think it was justice, I certainly do.

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Rodriguez  the fourth man executed this year in Texas  was sent to death row nearly a decade ago for the 2005 slaying of Summer Baldwin, a pregnant sex worker and mother of four.

Workers at the Lubbock city landfill spotted a new suitcase in the trash, opened it and discovered the body of Baldwin. She had been beaten and strangled, and her body was covered in cuts and bruises  roughly 50 blunt force wounds.

The 29-year-olds death may have stayed a local investigation were it not for the womans ties to a federal counterfeiting case in which shed been a witness.

The feds swooped in, and eventually authorities found records to zero in on a suspect.

Detectives used a barcode label sewn to the luggage to establish it was purchased a day earlier at a Walmart. Debit card records and store surveillance video identified the buyer as Rodriguez, a Marine reservist whod been in Lubbock for training that included martial arts combat.

When authorities arrested the former fraternity brother at his parents home in San Antonio in 2005, Rodriguez admitted to the slaying. But he said he killed the woman in self-defense after she attacked him with a knife for stealing her crack pipe.

In the hours before the murder, the two met up while Rodriguez was visiting Lubbock. He brought the woman back to his room at a Holiday Inn, then raped, beat and strangled her. Then he bought some food, rented a movie and went to sleep before checking out of his hotel room.

After his arrest, according to court records, he also admitted to the 2004 slaying of 16-year-old Joanna Rogers  who was also found in a suitcase in the Lubbock city landfill, according to court records. Later, during trial, jurors heard testimony linking him to five other rapes.

At one point Rodriguez was scheduled to take a plea to avoid the death penalty. But the day before he was to sign the agreement, Rodriguez began claiming he did not understand anything he was told. His lawyer pulled out of the case, the plea deal fell apart and prosecutors decided to seek a death sentence instead.

On appeal, Rodriguezs attorneys argued that the sex was consensual, that there is no evidence hed planned to kill the woman and that he had ineffective trial counsel. But the courts rejected his claims and in late 2017 the Supreme Court turned him down.
Sikyong Lobsang Sangay, president of the Tibetan government-in-exile, will deliver the 2018 Berman Lecture at 7 p.m. Monday, April 9 at Emory University School of Law. He will speak on "The Tibetan Peoples Transition to Secular Democracy."

Sikyong Lobsang Sangay, president of the Tibetan government-in-exile, will deliver the 2018 Berman Lecture at 7 p.m. Monday, April 9, in Tull Auditorium at Emory University School of Law. He will speak on "The Tibetan Peoples Transition to Secular Democracy."

President Sangay was elected administrative head of the Tibetan government-in-exile, officially known as the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), in 2011, with 55 percent of the vote.

Shortly before Sangays election, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama devolved his political power to the CTA making Sangay the first leader of a secular, democratically elected Tibetan government. Sangays title was officially changed to sikyong, which translates as president, in 2012. He was re-elected in 2016.

He supports the middle way approach to peace in Tibet, which represents the Dalai Lamas vision of autonomy for Tibet within the framework of the Chinese constitution, similar to arrangements China has with Hong Kong and Macau.

Sangay was born in an exile Tibetan community in India and graduated from Delhi University before receiving an LLM and an SJD from Harvard Law School.

He was a senior research fellow at the East Asian Legal Studies Program, where he organized conferences with Chinese, Tibetan, Indian and Western scholars, including meetings between the Dalai Lama and Chinese scholars.

We are so very honored to have President Dr. Sangay speak to us on the Tibetan peoples experience of the transition to secular democracy, says Silas W. Allard, associate director of Emorys Center for the Study of Law and Religion (CSLR), sponsor of the event.

The Tibetan people have a living memory of moving from a centuries old combination of political and religious authority in the person of the Dalai Lama to an elected, secular government-in-exile, Allard says. This creation of a secular government and the work to preserve a religious tradition in an exilic community offer important new perspectives on enduring questions about the interaction of law and religion.

The Harold J. Berman Distinguished Lecture was established in 2009 to honor the intellectual legacy of Berman, whose scholarship on the link between religious tradition and law evolved into what is now a thriving law and religion field. CSLR is the oldest and most recognized scholarly center in the field of law and religion. It engages scholars worldwide and offers six advanced degrees, 40 cross-listed courses, research projects, public forums and international conferences.

The Berman lecture is free and open to the public. Go here to RSVP.
Even though the historic tax reform took effect only recently, almost 450 businesses nationwide have announced pay raises, bonuses, utility rate cuts, or 401(k) hikes, according to a detailed list maintained by Americans for Tax Reform. The pay and benefit increases have helped pad the pocketbooks of an estimated 4.2 million working Americans  and that number continues to grow.

Happier employers and employees are making people more optimistic about the future too. A new University of Michigan survey shows that consumer confidence is at its highest level since 2004 due to a new all-time record favorable assessment of current economic conditions. Amazingly, all of the surveys gains came from lower-income households.

Not surprisingly, all of these positive elements are combining to create an awful lot of jobs. A recent Labor Department report shows the U.S. economy added 313,000 new jobs in February, smashing most analysts expectations.

Its not difficult to grasp that cutting taxes can help people prosper, but it is important to remember  especially if you are a Texas lawmaker.

When the next Texas Legislature convenes in January, lawmakers are expected to wrestle with a broken property tax system that is, quite literally, taxing Texans out of their homes and businesses. The situation is nearing crisis levels.

To understand the weight of Texas property tax problem, consider how much was taken from property owners. In 2016, more than 4,000 local governments socked homeowners and businesses with property tax bills totaling $56 billion. Thats a large enough tax levy to take $2,000 from every man, woman and child in Texas, or $8,000 from a family of four.

Now consider how fast those tax bills grew. In the past 10 years alone, property taxes levied statewide have increased by 60 percent. Over the same period, the states population grew by only 19 percent. Thats a big delta between property taxes paid and possible property taxpayers.

Its obvious that taxes are too high and growing too fast. Its also obvious that, much as Congress tackled federal tax reform, its time for the Texas Legislature to act on state tax reform.

A good place for lawmakers to start is to contain the problem. One way to do this is by creating a property tax trigger.

The idea behind a trigger is simple: Allow property taxes to increase by only a certain amount every year. If a local government needs more than the limit provides, then an election is triggered and voters can decide whether to approve the increase or not.

Making this kind of change would encourage greater government efficiency and give voters more opportunities to have a voice in the conversation. Over time, it might also help to substantially lower your tax bill as compared to the status quo. Of course, that depends somewhat on where lawmakers set the trigger. The lower the threshold, the better the likely outcome is for taxpayers.

Whether lawmakers move forward with this particular proposal or something else, theres no question that broad-based property tax reform is a must next session. The current situation is simply not sustainable nor is it in Texas best interests.

That is to say, Texas tax reform done right can spur economic opportunities that benefit businesses, workers and the state economy in some amazing ways  much like what has already happened nationally as a result of federal tax reform.

With the right tax policy changes made, lawmakers can ensure that Texas remains the nations economic powerhouse and, more important, dramatically improves peoples lives.
Eddie Murphy, Malcolm X, Marilyn Monroe, Tiffany Haddish and Simone Biles: What do these celebrities have in common? They spent time in foster care. As the foster care celebrity roster grows and more people pay attention, maybe we can figure out how to improve the system instead of simply celebrating the few who beat it.

As a foster care alumna and advocate, I believe we can.

Normalcy, not legal permanency, may be the way to nurture foster children and produce well-rounded adults, according to a first-of-its-kind study just released by the Texas Institute for Child & Family Wellbeing at the University of Texas at Austin.

Foster children often dont, but should, experience the world in ways a child who is not in foster care would. So achieving normalcy can be something as simple as enrolling in extracurricular activities in school. For Olympic five-time medalist Simone Biles, gymnastics practice was an integral part of feeling normal. With the passage of the Strengthening Families Act in 2014, the Obama administration mandated achieving normalcy as a priority for states.

Instilling normalcy can also mean keeping foster children as close to family as possible. Placing children in kinship care  custody of relatives such as grandmothers, aunts and uncles  as opposed to traditional foster homes is another strategy. Haddish, who spent nine years in foster care, was reunited with her three siblings and placed with her grandmother, avoiding aging out of the system. Research suggests children living with kin are less likely to experience behavioral problems than their counterparts in foster care as long as they start with kinship placement, and its not a second or last resort option.

Legal permanency means a legal outcome to a placement arrangement that does not involve the state: The youth is adopted or reunited with biological parents. Its easy to see why legal permanency would be the preferred goal. Involvement with a states foster care system can have an abysmal effect: One-quarter of foster youths aging out of the system end up locked up; a quarter experience homelessness; and many are woefully behind in educational achievement. And yet there is little evidence to suggest legal permanency is the best outcome.

Yes, its complex: Ultimately, most children prefer to be with their mother or father, but its not always best for their well-being. That was true in my case. No matter how many times the case worker explained why my sister and I were being taken away (again), I still wanted to go home. And no matter how normal we try to make a childs experience while in care, legalities exist: A sleepover with a friend may require a home study and a background check on the friends parents.

But the foster care alumni Hall of Fame gives society hope, so I am encouraged. The report points to relational permanency , which recognizes that both formal and informal relationships flourishing under normal circumstances are important components to a youths success.
McConnell Dowell project manager Robert van Rijnsoever with pieces of pipe, clamped and ready to go.

A state of the art tunnel boring machine has arrived at Watercares wastewater treatment plant in Army Bay, ready to begin installation of a new outfall pipe.

The machine is rented from a German company and has been named Blanche after Henry Shakespears wife.

The name, newly painted on the front of the machine, will soon be scraped off by friction as Blanche begins its work of driving a total of 2.9km through the earth, installing up to 100m of pipe per day.

Like a giant caterpillar, the remote controlled machine munches its way through the soil, thrusting the pipe into the newly created space. It will bore from the treatment plant out into the existing discharge point, which lies several kilometres out into the Tiritiri Matangi Channel.

The work is part of a $31 million upgrade to the Army Bay plant. Blanche is insured for $6.6 million.

The current pipeline is nearing the end of its operational life and needs to be replaced with a larger pipe. The new infrastructure will ensure greater reliability and resilience of the treatment plant as Whangapararoa and surrounding areas continue to grow.
Children love to make and play with slime  a colourful, gooey, slippery substance made from craft glue, water, food colouring and borax.

It quickly found its way into primary schools as its popularity soared, and at least one school on the Coast has now implemented a ban.

For Dairy Flat School principal Debbie Marshall, slime is a dirty word. She says hygiene is her biggest issue with slime, which is why the school recently banned it.

She says as children pass it from hand to hand, it becomes filthy and a source of germs. Some slime is perfumed, which encourages children to sniff it and then pass it on.

At the school, there have been ownership disputes and a number of students play with slime in class.

Debbie says for some children, playing with a toy manually assists their learning, but she prefers fidget spinners or squishy toys be used for that purpose.

She says slime was enormously popular towards the end of last year, so the school has been quick to stamp on it now, asking parents to ensure their children dont bring it to school.

Dairy Flat School appears to be unusual in the area in banning slime five other local schools that the paper canvassed said they do not find the substance a problem and do not have a ban in place.

Holiday slime factory

Estuary Arts Centre in Orewa is offering two Potions Lotions and Goo sessions, which include slime making, with Sam McClure during the school holidays. Both are on Tuesday, April 17 with one targeting 5-8 year olds and the other for children aged nine and older. Info: www.estuaryarts.org

Slime Diva

Twelve-year-old Milan Lubbe spent many hours in the familys Stanmore Bay kitchen experimenting with recipes to make the perfect slime  stretchy, not too sticky or hard and lightly scented. The dining table is often covered with slime ingredients while a batch is underway. The Kingsway School student says it took six months of trial and error, which included microwaving toothpaste and using shampoo, before she found the right combination. The type of glue used is key, and she imports hers from Australia. Milans recipe is a trade secret but includes non-toxic glue and non-toxic paint as well as borax (which can be toxic if ingested in large doses). Candle fragrance is added  everything from watermelon to gingerbread scents. She says children love it because its fun to make into shapes, feels good and can be a stress reliever. She recommends washing your hands before and after playing with it  and not giving it to boys, with their dirty hands! Milan sells her slime at markets and via her Slime Diva website.
Story Highlights Partisan gaps across global-warming measures slightly wider than in 2017

Democrats view global warming seriously; Republicans view it skeptically

69% of Republicans, 4% Democrats say global warming is exaggerated

This story is part of a special series on Americans' views of the environment, global warming and energy.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Americans' concerns about global warming are not much different from the record-high levels they were at a year ago. However, the views of some partisans have shifted, creating larger gaps than what Gallup saw last year across all questions about global warming.

Partisan Divisions in Americans' Views of Global Warming 2017 2018 % % Think the seriousness of global warming is generally exaggerated Republican 66 69 Independent 32 34 Democrat 10 4 Say most scientists believe global warming is occurring Republican 53 42 Independent 71 65 Democrat 86 86 Believe effects of global warming have already begun Republican 41 34 Independent 67 60 Democrat 73 82 Believe global warming is caused by human activities Republican 40 35 Independent 70 62 Democrat 87 89 Worry a great deal/fair amount about global warming Republican 36 33 Independent 67 62 Democrat 90 91 Think global warming will pose a serious threat in their lifetime Republican 14 18 Independent 45 45 Democrat 58 67 GALLUP

Gallup's annual survey about the environment, conducted March 1-8, found that Americans' opinions about global warming, like many other issues, have increasingly become politically polarized.

President Donald Trump, who has called global warming a "hoax," may have contributed to this widening divide by reversing a number of government actions to address the issue. These included the announcement that the U.S. will withdraw from the 2015 Paris climate accord, the removal of climate change from the list of top U.S. national security threats and the elimination of the terms "global warming" and "climate change" from U.S. government websites and lexicons.

In general, Democrats view global warming seriously, while Republicans view it skeptically:

Ninety-one percent of Democrats and 33% of Republicans say they worry a great deal or fair amount about global warming, but 67% of Republicans worry only a little or not at all.

While 82% of Democrats think global warming has already begun to happen, only 34% of Republicans agree. Rather, 57% of Republicans think it will not happen in their lifetime (25%) or will "never happen" (32%).

About seven in 10 Republicans (69%) think the seriousness of global warming is exaggerated in the news, 15% think it is generally correct and 15% say it is generally underestimated. Democrats, however, are much more likely to think the seriousness of global warming is underestimated (64%) or correct (32%), and just 4% say it is exaggerated.

Eighty-six percent of Democrats versus 42% of Republicans think most scientists believe global warming is occurring. The percentage of Republicans who say most scientists believe this is down 11 percentage points since last year.

Almost nine in 10 Democrats say increases in the Earth's temperature over the last century are due to human activities more than natural changes in the environment. Just 35% of Republicans agree, while 63% attribute the temperature increases to natural environmental causes.

Four in five Republicans do not think global warming will pose a serious threat to them in their lifetime; two-thirds of Democrats think it will.

##SPEEDBUMP##

Broad Agreement Among Americans on Some Aspects of Global Warming

Majorities of Americans overall say most scientists think global warming is occurring (66%), it is caused by human activities (64%) and its effects have begun (60%). Yet, the net effect of increased political polarization over the past year is that opinions on each of these measures have edged down slightly.

At the same time, the 45% who think global warming will pose a serious threat in their lifetime is the highest percentage recorded for this measure since Gallup first asked the question in 1997. This is the only issue that saw increased concern among both major party groups.

The 43% of Americans who say they worry a great deal about global warming or climate change is similar to last year's record-high 45% and is still up significantly from 32% in 2015.

Roughly Half of Americans Continue to Take Global Warming Seriously

A Gallup analysis that takes into account four of the global warming questions finds large segments of Americans holding highly consistent views that are either supportive or dismissive of global warming. The remainder have mixed views, generally acknowledging global warming on some questions but expressing doubts or less concern about it on others.

The supportive group, "Concerned Believers," uniformly worries a great deal about global warming and thinks human activity causes it. Seven in 10 Concerned Believers also expect global warming to pose a serious threat in their lifetime. None believes that news reports of global warming exaggerate the problem -- they think reports either underestimate it or are correct.

By contrast, the dismissive group, or "Cool Skeptics," worries little to not at all about global warming. Its members uniformly believe that news reports about global warming exaggerate the problem and doubt global warming will pose a serious threat in their lifetime. They also ascribe warming to natural environmental changes rather than human activities.

The "Mixed Middle" expresses some combination of views across the four items. The slight majority, 53%, thinks news of global warming is correct or even underestimated. At the same time, the majority, 55%, worries only a little or not at all about global warming, and 64% doubt that it will pose a serious threat in their lifetime. The Mixed Middle is split on whether global warming is caused by human activity (48%) or natural changes in the environment (42%).

The size of these groups was stable over the past year, with 48% of U.S. adults categorized as Concerned Believers, similar to 50% in 2017. Nearly one in three remain in the Mixed Middle -- 32% this year vs. 31% a year ago -- while the percentage of Cool Skeptics is unchanged, at 19%.

Democrats More Unified Than Republicans on Global Warming

About eight in 10 Democrats fall into the Concerned Believers camp, while Republicans are less unified: Gallup classifies 45% as Cool Skeptics and 38% as the Mixed Middle. Notably, far more Republicans fall into the Democratic-oriented category of Concerned Believers than Democrats fall into the Republican-leaning Cool Skeptics -- 17% vs. 1%, respectively.

Beyond political party, there are gender, age and educational differences in these global warming categories. Women, younger Americans and college graduates are more likely than their counterparts to be Concerned Believers. These party and demographic differences are generally in line with previous years.

2018 Global Warming Opinion Groups Concerned Believers Mixed Middle Cool Skeptics % % % U.S. adults 48 32 19 Party ID Democrats 81 18 1 Independents 44 38 18 Republicans 17 38 45 Gender Women 54 33 13 Men 42 32 26 Education College graduate 59 23 18 Not college graduate 44 37 20 Age 18 to 34 58 32 11 35 to 54 50 30 20 55 and older 40 35 24 Based on cluster analysis of four Gallup global warming questions: concern about global warming, perception of whether seriousness is exaggerated in the news, whether global warming is caused by human activities and whether it will pose a serious threat in own lifetime Gallup

Bottom Line

The higher level of concern Americans have exhibited about global warming since 2016, particularly in terms of worrying about the issue and believing it is caused by human activity, is largely intact this year.

One reason for this stability is that Americans' views on the issue are becomingly increasingly partisan and therefore entrenched. With Trump reversing many of his predecessors' policies aimed at curbing global warming, Democrats are feeling a greater sense of urgency about the issue, while Republicans have either remained as skeptical as they had been in the past or have become more so.
Rural pockets of north County Longford will effectively become wastelands unless immediate financial assistance is given to hard-pressed farmers.

Agriculture Minister Michael Creed has come under sustained scrutiny in recent weeks over claims Ireland's beef sector will cease to exist unless a direct coupled payment of up to 200/cow for all suckler cows is rolled out nationwide.

The Cork North-West Fine Gael TD has, until now, batted away such suggestions, insisting the proposals to be both unworkable and overly burdensome on the Exchequer.

It was a stance which was met with derision at a recent meeting of Longford County Council with several local politicians warning of the likely ramifications facing rural holdings across the county.

Fianna Fail Cllr Luie McEntire said the minister's reluctance to rubberstamp the payment was only serving to heap additional financial hardship on already cash-strapped farmsteads across the region.

There are 200,000 live cattle shipped out every year, bringing in 2.5bn, he said.

The way things are going at the minute, it (farming) is not sustainable.

I would know of people who have been farmers for 40 years and they are only just about staying in existence.

Cllr McEntire said the proposed 200 payment per suckler cow would provide some respite to those just about managing to keep their financial heads above water.

The debate which was also raised by Fine Gael Cllr Micheal Carrigy received an equally sobering appraisal of the challenges facing the industry from Cllr Paraic Brady.

If the 200 payment doesn't come, what we will be talking about is the demolition of rural Ireland, he remarked.

It will absolutely decimate north Longford.

Fellow Fine Gael Cllr John Browne agreed, describing the outlook as bleak for farms throughout the region.

Longford County Council is expected to send a letter to Mr Creed's department calling for the payment to be initiated without delay.

A similar letter, detailing the contents of a joint notice of motion tabled by Cllr McEntire and Cllr Micheal Carrigy will also be distributed to the country's 25 other local authorities seeking their backing on the issue.

ALSO READ:

IFA campaign for 200 suckler cow support
A local parish priest forced intruders at a south Longford church to flee empty handed following a botched break-in attempt last week.

Killashee Parish Priest Fr Patsy McDermott chased a gang of men from St Patrick's Parish Church last Thursday evening as they attempted to burst into its sacristy.

Fr McDermott, who was in the parochial house across the road, saw suspicious activity in the trees along with loud banging which was coming from the church and immediately began to go and investigate.

"It must have been about 8:30pm to 9pm and suddenly I heard noise at the back of the church and movement in the trees," he told the Leader.

After bursting through a rear door, the culprits soon switched their attentions to the sacristy.

However, the arrival of Fr McDermott onto the scene forced the gang to abandon those attempts as they made their getaway on foot.

The Donegal native, who has been resident parish priest in Killashee/Clondra for the past three years, admitted the damage caused by the intruders was likely to run into several hundreds of euro.

"They broke the back door and must have used to a crow bar to get in as it was locked," he said.

"They almost got into the sacristy too and that door was destroyed also.

"I'm just thankful they (burglars) didn't take anything.

"Thank God they didn't touch the tabernacle or the shrine."

The local parish priest said he didn't get a chance to get a look at those responsible, but believes there were at least "two, if not three" raiders involved.

Fr McDermott said it wasn't the first time criminal elements had targeted the church either.

"In terms of oil (theft) that's happened twice," he said, adding that together with replacement doors he was now looking at having to install a CCTV camera between the church and parochial house.

Details of the attempted raid at St Patrick's Church follows hot on the heels of a similar incident at St Anne's Church in Curry over the course of March 14 and 15 last.

In that episode, damage was caused to a stained glass window with damage also being caused to the church's interior.

Both incidents bring to four the number of times churches across the county have been the subject of break-ins or attempted raids over the past 12 months.

ALSO READ:

Fearless Longford priest confronts bungling intruders during botched break-in
County Longford Easter Commemoration Committee will hold their annual commemoration this Easter Sunday, April 1 at 3pm, in Drumlish at the Memorial of Lieutenant Thomas Kellegher, who was shot on active service in Drumlish on June 19, 1921 by foreign crown forces.

A parade will take place at 2.30pm.

Kellegher originated from Dromard and he is buried in the republican plot in Clonbroney graveyard, Ballinalee.

An active and unretiring freedom fighter, he was shot in Drumlish while engaged in delivering intelligence reports to the south Longford Flying Column.

The Longford Leader reported on the incident at the time, in an article entitled 'Man Shot Dead'.

A number of policemen on bicycles visited the village of Drumlish for the purpose, it is said, of enforcing Curfew Regulations.

Arriving in the village, they observed two men approaching in the opposite direction on bicycles also.

The police gave the order to 'halt' and the order was quickly obeyed and the two men got off their bicycles.

It is stated that one of them opened fire on the police patrol and that a bullet perforated one policeman's tunic, but did not enter his body.

The police at once took up positions and returned the fire in the course of which one of the young men was shot through the head and died almost immediately.

His companion is stated to have been slightly wounded also, but escaped and no trace could be found of him by the police.

Little or no excitement prevailed in the village while the affair lasted and most of the inhabitants were ignorant of any incident until they were going to Mass in the morning.

The dead body was conveyed to the Mortuary attached to the Military Barracks in Longford and the remains were unidentified up to a late hour on Sunday night.

It transpired on Monday morning, however, that they were those of a young man named Kellegher, son of a small farmer living near Longford.

Word was at once conveyed to his relatives and preparations for the removal and burial were made.

The oration will be delivered by Garoid Banks. Wear an Easter lily and honour Ireland's Dead.
Local News, Crime

By Long Island News & PR Published: March 26 2018

These schemes have isolated and victimized scores of women and girls throughout the country, and it must stop.  District Attorney Sini.

Suffolk DA Sini announced the guilty plea of Joseph Iorio of Holtsville, 21, who attempted to extort sexually explicit photos and videos from more than 30 women.

Hauppauge, NY - March 26, 2018 - Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy D. Sini announced the guilty plea of a man who attempted to extort sexually explicit photos and videos from more than 30 women by threatening to disseminate their nude photos, also known as sextortion. District Attorney Sini also announced a new multi-pronged initiative in the District Attorneys Office to address this issue, including the aggressive prosecution of sextortion schemes and other related offenses; enhanced education and prevention efforts; providing resources and support for victims; and advocating for effective legislation to prosecute these crimes.

We can only imagine the type of fear, isolation and desperation that these women must feel when they receive a message showing that someone they dont know has an image of them naked or performing a sex act, and that if they dont do what the person says, those images are going to be sent to their family or to the public, District Attorney Sini said. Thats how these sick, sadistic offenders are able to get girls and women to do these acts that are against their will and that are damaging to them, both physically and emotionally.

Joseph Iorio, 21, of Holtsville pleaded guilty to one count of Stalking in the First Degree, a D violent felony, and one count of Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree, an E non-violent felony. He faces a determinate sentence of five years in prison followed by three years of post-release supervision on the Stalking charge and a sentence of one and one-third to four years in prison on the Scheme to Defraud charge, to run concurrently.

In July 2017, the Suffolk County District Attorneys Office was made aware of a victim who was sent partially nude photographs of herself in a Facebook message from a user named Luke As. The user, who was later identified as Iorio, requested that she send additional photos or he would disseminate the images. Iorio was arrested on July 18, 2017 and charged with Grand Larceny in the Fourth Degree for the extortion.

The District Attorneys Office continued to investigate Iorio and found that he was a moderator of an online forum where users would upload nude images of young women along with their identifying information, including names, home towns and schools they attended.

Using their personal information, Iorio was able to find the women on social media and attempt to extort them for additional sexually explicit photos and videos.

A parallel investigation by the NYPD found that Iorio was also extorting women on Facebook under the username Mike Cosgrove.

The investigations resulted in the identification of more than 30 victims of attempted sextortion by Iorio.

Our investigation has revealed that some women were forced to appear in public in the nude, perform sex acts upon themselves that have resulted in injury, and much worse, District Attorney Sini said. Its a modern day form of sexual torture.

As a result of these crimes, Iorio was arrested on January 19, 2018 by Suffolk County Police Detectives assigned to the District Attorney Squad.

District Attorney Sini announced that the District Attorneys Office is launching a new multipronged initiative to address this issue through aggressive investigation and prosecution of offenders; educating young people and parents about the dangers of taking nude photos and videos; supporting victims and connecting them with resources; and advocating for legislative reform.

Let me be crystal clear: If you are an offender, I promise that we are coming for you, District Attorney Sini said. We will find out, we will arrest you and we will prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law. You will be held accountable for your sick acts, and we will show no mercy.

As part of the initiative, Suffolk County Assistant District Attorneys will conduct outreach in schools to educate students, teachers and parents about the potential social and criminal consequences of sharing nude photos.

The District Attorneys Office will also provide assistance to victims of these crimes. Victims of sextortion or revenge porn can contact the Suffolk County District Attorneys Office at 631-853-5602 or SCDAPhotoExtortion@suffolkcountyny.gov

We know that many victims out there may not feel comfortable cooperating in a criminal prosecution, but dont let that get in the way of reaching out, District Attorney Sini said. There are ways that we can end your torture without ever revealing your identity. By coming forward, you can help yourself and you can also help scores of other girls and women who are being victimized.

District Attorney Sini also highlighted the need for specific legislation to outlaw sextortion and revenge porn in New York State and to require perpetrators of these crimes to register as sex offenders.

We should have a statute on the books just for sextortion and revenge porn, and I want to thank Governor Andrew Cuomo for proposing that very legislation as part of his 2018 budget for New York State, District Attorney Sini said.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Tracy Hoffman, of the Enhanced Prosecution Bureau.
Local News, Community, Charity & Cause, Politics

By Long Island News & PR Published: March 28 2018

Zeldin: "This is important legislation that provides a valuable and necessary service to our nations veterans."

Long Island, NY - March 28, 2018 - Congressman Lee Zeldin (R, NY-1) just announced that his bipartisan legislation (H.R.1005/S.324) to help severely disabled veterans on Long Island and across the country, by expanding access to Adult Day Health Care for disabled veterans who need extra assistance and special attention in their day to day lives, was signed by President Trump and is now law.

Service members who are 70% or more service connected disabled often require significant assistance from others in order to carry out everyday tasks. Many times, the burden falls on their family members; some veterans may even need to reside in institutionalized facilities to receive the daily assistance of a trained medical professional. Both of these options can create financial and emotional hardships for the veteran and their family.

One program that is currently available to help disabled veterans is Adult Day Health Care, which can be provided at State Veterans Homes across the United States. However, the expense of the program is oftentimes directly shouldered by the veteran and their family, which significantly limits the number of veterans who can enroll.

Furthermore, the program is only currently offered at three facilities in the United States; one being the Long Island State Veterans Home, which is located in the First Congressional District of New York, in Stony Brook . Congressman Zeldins bill defines the Adult Day Health Care program as a reimbursable treatment option through the Department of Veterans Affairs, which guarantees all severely disabled veterans, those who are 70% or more service connected disabled, are able to access Adult Day Health Care at no cost to them.

The bill would also help expand the program, which could be offered at any of the 153 State Veterans Homes (SVH) across the country.

Congressman Zeldin said, This is important legislation that provides a valuable and necessary service to our nations veterans, and I thank President Trump for signing it into law. By expanding access to Adult Day Health Care, we can ensure that all veterans receive the best and most efficient outpatient services that provide each veteran with the assistance and special attention they need, while still allowing them to maintain their independence. This new law expands care for disabled veterans on Long Island and across our country, allowing each veteran to lead a much more fulfilling life, while keeping families together and strong. Expanding Adult Day Health Care for our disabled veterans is a top priority, and I thank my colleagues in the House and Senate, especially Senator Orrin Hatch and House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Phil Roe, and President Trump for delivering for our nations veterans.

United States Senator Orrin Hatch (R, Utah), Senate sponsor of the Adult Day Health Care Act, said, Our Utah veterans deserve our utmost care and respect. This legislation will give veterans the opportunity to live and spend more time at home with their families while still receiving daily medical care and attention. It would allow state veterans homessuch as those in Ivins, Ogden, Payson, and Salt Lake Cityto enter into agreements with the VA to provide adult day health care.

House Committee on Veterans Affairs Chairman Phil Roe said, Our country made a promise to care for the men and women who sacrificed for our freedoms. Im proud this legislation would expand access to adult day health care for veterans who qualify for, but are not currently utilizing, nursing home care, and would provide Americas heroes with companionship and care as they age. Im grateful for Rep. Zeldins leadership on this important legislation.

Vietnam Veteran and Long Island State Veterans Home Patient Al Anderson said, I am grateful to Congressman Zeldin for having the foresight to introduce this bill on behalf of all severely service connected veterans who reside in State Veterans Homes across the country. The bottom line is that this legislation will allow me to return home to my family, while still having the ability to receive essential services through the Adult Day Health Care program. I can keep my chronic conditions in check and still enjoy the comforts of my own home.

Spouse and Caregiver of Vietnam Veteran James Saladino Noreen Saladino said, The passage of the State Veterans Home Adult Day Health Care Improvement Act of 2017 will be life changing for me and my husband, Jim. This legislation is one of the best things that has ever happened to us. My husband will be able to receive the care he requires in a safe and comfortable environment at the Long Island State Veterans Home, while I get a rest from being his sole caregiver. I want to thank Congressman Lee Zeldin and other Members of Congress who never ever gave up the fight for our nations veterans and their families.

Director of the Long Island State Veterans Home Fred Sganga said, We are grateful to Congressman Lee Zeldin for his ongoing efforts to care for veterans both locally and nationally. This legislation will enable veterans to receive the essential services they deserve, while still being able to reside in their own homes. This legislation helps to restore a veteran's freedom to remain an active member of their community even after succumbing to the perils of military service. Congressman Zeldin never forgets the sacrifice of brave women and men who donned the uniform to protect the freedoms we all enjoy today.

President of the National Association of State Veterans Home Sharon Murphy said, The National Association of State Veterans Homes is grateful to Congressman Zeldin for his foresight to provide essential services to our most disabled veterans, without the need for institutionalization.This legislation will have tremendous impact for our chronically ill and injured veterans as well as their caregivers.
Local News, Crime

By Long Island News & PR Published: March 28 2018

Man Targeted Immigrant-Owned Small Businesses; DA Sini Urges Other Victims to Come Forward.

Central Islip, NY - March 28, 2018 - Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy D. Sini today announced the arrest of a Brooklyn man who scammed approximately 30 businesses in Suffolk County into paying for fake fire extinguisher inspections.

This individual was preying on small business owners who were trying to do the right thing and protect the safety of their employees, District Attorney Sini said. This is not just a matter of bringing a scam artist to justice; it is a matter of ensuring that our small businesses are safe and in compliance with fire safety laws.

Michael Castellano, 51, of Brooklyn, was arraigned in Suffolk County Court on charges of Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree, an E felony; Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree, an E felony; and Petit Larceny, an A misdemeanor. Bail was set at $5,000 cash or $20,000 bond.



A fake Liberty Fire Extinguisher Sales Co. certificate of inspection. Photo Credit: SCPD



Castellano fraudulently collected money from business owners for fire extinguisher inspections and falsified certificates of inspection under the business name Liberty Fire Extinguisher Sales Co. from as early as August 2017. He charged businesses $20 per fire extinguisher and replaced the inspection tags without servicing the equipment. He collected approximately $1,050 from businesses located across Suffolk County.

Castellano targeted small businesses owned by immigrants, many of whom speak English as a second language. District Attorney Sini urged business owners to check their fire extinguishers for inspection tags issued by Liberty Fire Extinguisher Sales Co.

If you are a business owner in Suffolk County and you were a victim of Mr. Castellanos scam, please contact the Suffolk County District Attorneys Office at 631-853-5602 or via email at InfoDA@suffolkcountyny.gov , District Attorney Sini said.

Castellano was arrested by Suffolk County Police Detectives assigned to the District Attorneys Squad on March 26. He is being represented by the Legal Aid Society of Suffolk County and is due back in court on March 30.
Local News, Politics

By Long Island News & PR Published: March 28 2018

As Gillibrand Doubles Down On Ignorance Of NXIVM, Chele Farley Asks: Why Is Kirsten Gillibrand Protecting International Sex Slave Cult?

New York, NY - March 28, 2018 - As Kirsten Gillibrand doubled down on feigning ignorance of a notorious international sex slave cult, U.S. Senate candidate Chele Farley called on Senator Kirsten Gillibrand to come clean on what she knew and when she knew it.

In todays New York Post , Gillibrand doubled down on her claim that she only learned of the Clifton Park cult, as a result of a letter in November 2017.

"For Kirsten Gillibrand, the self proclaimed #MeToo Senator, to double down and feign ignorance about a notorious international sex slave cult, that has been big news in her own backyard for over a decade, is simply too much to believe, said Farley.

She added, Why wont she come clean? Is it to protect her embarrassing family connection or protect the powerful Bronfman family who are prominent democratic donors and would be helpful to a future presidential campaign in 2020?"

One possibility is that the cult once employed the Senator's father, Albany lobbyist Douglas Rutnik, only to later sue him, allegedly, for sexual harassment.

Another possibility is that Gillibrand is protecting the powerful Bronfman family. They are well-known as large donors and bundlers, who have given over $1 million to liberal and Democratic causes since 2000, and would be obvious sources of funds for an expensive Presidential campaign.

New York Post that What is shocking is that just a few months ago, in November 2017, Kirsten Gillibrand's office told Richard Johnson of thethat "Sen. Gillibrand had never heard of this group until she recently read about them in the newspaper.

What is even more shocking is that her spokesperson repeated that same answer yesterday when once again pressed by the New York Post .
On Wednesday morning, following Apples education event in Chicago the day before, CEO Tim Cook sat down with MSNBCs Chris Hayes and Recodes Kara Swisher to talk about a variety of Apple-related topics. The interview has not been released in its entirety; it is scheduled to air on April 6 at 8 p.m. EDT as part of MSNBC and Recodes Revolution series. However, it was filmed in front of a live audience, and portions of Cooks responses have been released.

Heres a sampling of what you can look forward to when the special airs late next week.

On education

Our view is education is the great equalizer of people, Cook said. if you look at many of the issues in society today, you can find the root in people dont have access to quality education today.

Cook placed a big emphasis on learning to code, too. I want America to be strong. First and foremost. And one base for that is that everyone needs to learn to code. Coding is a way to express yourself. Its a language.

However, he doesnt expect everyone to suddenly get jobs making iPhone apps.

Its not our expectation that everyone becomes a software programmer, he said. Its important that people learn the basics of coding.

Its clear Cook believes education is not just for kids in school. Continuing education is going to be important for everyone, he believes, and it will become the backbone of our jobs market as automation becomes more commonplace. We all have to get comfortable with education being lifelong, he said. Theres an element of what each of us do, which will be automated over time. Thats not bad. But we need to think about training for the jobs for tomorrow, which will be software-based.

On U.S. manufacturing

Apple is often criticized for making iPhones in China, with partners like Foxconn and Pegatron. Cook spelled out that, in his view, the idea of Apples products being made overseas is misguided.

We are building things in the United States, he said. Its not true that iPhone isnt built in the United States. We have always made many of the parts here. People just look at where the final product is assembled.

Cook also stressed the idea that Apple is a company that could only have been so successful here in the U.S. We know that Apple could only have been created in the United States, he said. We know that. This company would not have flourished in any other country in the world. This is our country. We are patriots.

He further explained his belief that companies need to give back to their community and their country. Businesses should be more than about making revenues and profits, he said. Businesses need to give back. Speaking about Apple building a second headquarters, he threw some shade at Amazons hunt for its own second headquarters location. Were not doing the beauty contest. Thats not Apple.

On DACA

The DACA situation is one that I am personally, as an American, deeply offended by. The DACA situation is not an immigration issue. Its a moral issue, Cook said, speaking of the U.S.s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy thats aimed at undocumented immigrants who entered the country as children.

But its not a red vs. blue or liberal vs. conservative issue, in his mind. I dont see this as a partisan issue, this is about America, its that simple, he said. I am very disappointed with both parties. He sees it as something worth his own personal time and influence, adding, Im personally lobbying Congress [on DACA].

On privacy and regulation

The latest Facebook and Cambridge Analytica fiasco gave Cook the opportunity to rightly point out how much more strict Apple is about privacy and security than most other big tech companies. Swisher asked him what he would do if he was in Mark Zuckerbergs shoes, to which he replied, I wouldnt be in this situation.

He said Apples business model simply doesnt require it to collect and monetize user data. The truth is, we could make a ton of money if we monetized our customerif our customer was our product, he said. Weve elected not to do that. Were not going to traffic in your personal life. Privacy to us is a human right, a civil liberty.

Cook spoke about the potential need for regulation to protect users in an increasingly connected world, even though hes not a fan of government regulation in general. Im personally not a big fan of regulation because sometimes regulation can have unexpected consequences to it, he said. However I think this situation is so dire, and has become so large, that perhaps some well-crafted regulation is necessary.

The full interview with Tim Cook will air on April 6 at 8 p.m. Eastern Time on MSNBC.
New on the scene of remote monitoring, Biotricity is tackling cardiovascular disease with a real-time, high-precision remote monitoring technology. Earlier this year, the company secured FDA 510k approval for Bioflux, a 3-channel electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring system designed for use by physicians.

Triggered notifications about a patients potential bradycardia, tachycardia, or atrial fibrillation events, based on set points remotely controlled by the patients physician, are sent to a remote monitoring center where specialists and nurses can provide on-demand support. Recently, Biotricity announced the development of a new product, Biolife, a personal monitoring device that aims to empower patients managing cardiovascular issues. To learn more about Biotricitys growing suite of technologies which, in addition to hardware, includes an operating system and cloud infrastructure, Medgadget spoke with Biotricity CEO, Chairman, and Founder Waqaas Al-Siddiq.

Medgadget: Theres been a lot of recent activity in the world of remote monitoring. What makes Biotricity different?

Waqaas Al-Siddiq: There has been a lot of discussion around consumer health and remote monitoring in the context of lifestyle. There has been a lot less discussion around remote monitoring for chronic care and healthcare. The discussion within the context of chronic care and healthcare is more focused on mobile health apps and patient interaction, all of which generally requires manual data entry and patient engagement. Biotricity is focused on medical devices that can be used remotely to diagnose or manage a patient. This is very different as it is focused on diagnosing the patient in real-time using an actual medical device as opposed to an app. In terms of patient management, again the focus of Biotricity is to enable an individual to monitor themselves through a personal medical device as opposed to a consumer device or a health app that required manual intervention. We are focused on delivering medical devices that are FDA cleared, so there is evidence and trust when it comes to device generated data, and devices that provide feedback to patients so that they are able to better understand their condition and take actions that can be measured.

Medgadget: Who are Biotricitys technologies designed to impact? Providers, patients, or both?

Al-Siddiq: Biotricitys vision is to provide impact and technologies to both providers and patients. Our first product is focused on providers whereas our second product is focused on the individual patient. The vision is to help providers diagnose patients accurately and effectively in a remote setting and then to help diagnosed patients manage the condition from that point onwards. So the entry point is at the diagnostic side with providers and then moving to the patient. On the patient side, we are focused on individuals diagnosed with chronic conditions, irrespective of whether or not they were diagnosed on our technology. Our first market is in cardiac monitoring but we have plans to move beyond that.

Medgadget: Biotricity has developed Bioflux and your next offering, Biolife, is on the horizon. What made Biotricity decide to create its own remote monitoring technologies when there are a number of devices and sensors already on the market?

Al-Siddiq: We found that current technologies have limitations when it comes to connectivity, active monitoring, and affordability. Medical devices are generally expensive, making them unavailable for personal use. In terms of connectivity, most devices do not have built-in connectivity or if they do, they rely on Bluetooth or other access points to forward their data. Lastly, many of these devices are passive and do not collect or store information for long-term insights, an unfortunate consequence of little or no connectivity. Therefore, we set out to solve these challenges by building connectivity within the device (i.e. direct cellular so there is no need for a cellphone), building algorithms so that they can actively analyze the patients biometrics while they are using the device, and bringing in innovation at every level to help drive the costs down so that these devices are cheap enough that they can be made available across the market.

Medgadget: Can you tell us a little about how the Bioflux technology works?

Al-Siddiq: The Bioflux solution is an arrhythmia monitor that is constantly recording and communicating your electrocardiogram (ECG). It looks for anomalies, which it then flags for further review by a qualified technician. This technician is then able to review this data and determine the severity level and appropriate response. The Bioflux has built-in cellular connectivity so it does not need a cellphone to piggyback off of but connects directly to the cellular network. This leads to four key advantages: (1) the patient is able to go about their lives with less worry about no one having insight into their data, (2) it helps the physician diagnose the patient faster as data gets flagged and forwarded as needed, (3) it reduces the costs associated with in-facility monitoring, and (4) it makes the entire process of being diagnosed more efficient and safer.

Medgadget: With FDA approval complete, how does Biotricity plan to bring Bioflux to market?

Al-Siddiq: We plan to bring Bioflux to market through our direct sales force that we have already begun building and through medical device distributors. Our plan is to go after the top 10 regional markets in the US with our sales force and everywhere else through traditional medical distribution networks.

Medgadget: How will Biolife expand Biotricitys hardware offering? When will it be available?

Al-Siddiq: Biolife will help expand Biotricity into the chronic disease management market by providing individuals with an even cheaper medical device that they can use on an ongoing basis to monitor their improvement. Our plan is to have this available by late 2018 or early 2019

Medgadget: How do these products compare to competitors on the market?

Al-Siddiq: On the Bioflux side, we believe we are the smallest and most integrated device within the market. On the Biolife side, we believe this will be a first in terms of a personal medical device for the cardiac market!

Medgadget: Biotricitys technology platform goes beyond hardware to include an Embedded Real Time Operating System and Cloud. How do these technologies build upon the companys remote monitoring tools and add value to your users?

Al-Siddiq: Our technologies work together to create a complete solution for our users. Because we have designed each component as a platform, it allows us to create subsequent remote monitoring technologies for other markets. In terms of users, many patients suffering from one chronic condition develop others over their lifetime. As we leverage our technologies to create additional remote monitoring solutions for other disease categories, patients will be able to have multiple devices that work together to provide a holistic view of the individuals health.

Medgadget: Do you have any anecdotes of how Biotricitys technology can make an impact?

Al-Siddiq: We have certainly heard of examples where cardiologists and electrophysiologists have mentioned that our technology could have made a huge difference. For example, there have been cases where patients have died while wearing monitors that do not actively monitor a patient or transmit data, they simply record. A device like ours could have helped.

Link: Biotricity homepage
by Tanya Gazdik , March 28, 2018

More than $118 million has been donated to charities throughout the life of Subarus Share The Love philanthropic effort, now in its 10th year.

In celebration of the campaigns 10th anniversary and automakers 50th anniversary in the U.S., Subaru did not place a cap on total contributions to its Share the Love charitable partners for the second consecutive year. This years donation of $21.8 million, along with a match of more than $2 million from Subaru retailers, brings the grand total donated throughout the life of the program to more than $118 million, exceeding the $115 million total estimate predicted at the launch of the 2017 Share the Love event.

Held at the end of each year, the Subaru Share the Love event donates $250 for every new Subaru vehicle sold or leased to the customers choice of charities, including national partners the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), Make-A-Wish, Meals on Wheels America and National Park Foundation. In addition, each Subaru retailer selected a hometown charity from their local community to support, adding more than 670 local causes to the Share the Love campaign.

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Meanwhile, today in New York at the auto show, the automaker will unveil the new Subaru Forester. The automaker posted a teaser shot of the rear of the vehicle on its Facebook page Tuesday. The reveal will also be showcased on the company's Facebook page via Facebook Live.

The Subaru Forester is a significant reveal for the brands U.S. performance, as it sold 177,563 units in 2017 and is the brands second-best-selling vehicle, behind the Outback, says Stephanie Brinley, principal automotive analyst at IHS Markit.

Subaru is expected to have a strong 2018, supported both by the Forester update and the additional all-new Ascent, Brinley says. "Even with the larger SUV range, Forester is forecast to continue to deliver about 26% of the brands U.S. sales going forward.
by Chuck Martin , March 28, 2018

A new use has been found for facial recognition.

Using artificial intelligence along with facial recognition, jaywalkers are about to get messaged that they have been identified and fined.

Police are installing AI cameras in the Chinese city of Shenzhen, to spot and identify jaywalkers.

The system is being put into place by Intellifusion, a Shenzhen AI firm that provides technology to police, according to the South China Morning Post.

Faces of jaywalkers appear on a large LED screen at intersections. The idea is that offenders would receive a text message through a widely used system such as WeChat or Sina Weibo. The message would also notify the person of a fine.

The cameras, linked into a database of people, catch pedestrians crossing the road when traffic lights say they should not be.

This is not the first use of facial recognition out in the public in China. Police there have been wearing glasses capable of taking a picture of a person and quickly matching the person to masses of photos stored in a database. Information returned to the policeman can include name, address and any criminal records.

Last year, Beijing Capital International Airport made a deal with Baidu, the internet giant, to set up facial recognition for passengers to use to check in.
by Chuck Martin , March 28, 2018

The technology for driverless vehicle may be moving along but that motion may be somewhat ahead of consumer acceptance.

Many U. S. drivers have no intention of giving up their car ownership patterns and would never use an autonomous vehicle.

These are among the findings of a study on autonomous vehicles, comprising a survey of 21,000 adults in 28 countries conducted by Ipsos Global.

Nearly one in four (24%) U.S. consumers would never use an autonomous vehicle, a higher level than globally (13%), with those in China twice as likely to say they cant wait to use autonomous vehicles than Americans. In the U.S., 22% are in favor of self-driving cars and cant wait to use them while the majority (54%) are unsure but find the idea interesting.

The overall view of self-driving cars in the U.S. is positive for 52% of consumers, with 48% negative. For millennials, a positive view is even higher (64%).

The recent Uber incident notwithstanding, we were surprised at how open and favorable consumers were to the idea of autonomous vehicles, Oscar Yuan, president Ipsos Strategy3, told the AI & IoT Daily. There seems to be a wholesale acceptance, even embracing of technology, perhaps driven by all the devices in our lives.

Those most in favor of self-driving cars by region are in India, Malaysia, China and South Korea. The highest skepticism is in Australia, Spain, Japan, France and the United States.

For regulating self-driving cars, consumers globally trust the companies that design and make the cars (43%), the government (28%), insurance companies (16%) and automobile clubs (15%).

In 10 years, if all vehicles had self-driving capabilities, 50% of U.S. consumers would use the feature for self-parking and 39% would not use it, according to the study.

Advertising in self-driving cars may also have a place. Here are the ad features U.S. consumers would want in cars in the future, according to the Ipsos study:

76% -- Letting you know you are nearing a gas or charging station if low on fuel

67% -- Reminders about appointments

49% -- Telling you about specials or sales at stores you have shopped at

42% -- Reminding you about services that you do on a regular basis

30% -- Asking in the morning if you would like to stop by a coffee shop

29% -- Pointing out stores youve shopped at

27% -- Notifications that youre passing restaurants youve been to before

If they had regular access to a self-driving car rather than driving themselves, 38% of U.S. consumers say they would not take advantage of them.
by Sara Guaglione , March 28, 2018

Unique visitors to Readers Digests website in February 2018 reached 11.7 million, a 179% increase from the same period in 2017, according to comScore numbers cited by parent company Trusted Media Brands.

Readers Digest, which publishes lifestyle, health and wellness content, is now one of the top 10 magazine brands measured by the latest Magazine Media 360 report from MPA  The Association of Magazine Media. It included 119 magazine media brands from 27 companies.

Readers Digest reaches an average audience of 19 million, according to the report.

The Trusted Media Brands title had the highest year-over-year mobile web growth among the magazines in the report, with a 286% increase in audiences consuming Readers Digest content on mobile in February 2018 versus February 2017.

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The magazine industry as a whole also experienced growth in the mobile web platform, with a 7.6% increase in February 2018, compared to the same month a year ago, according to the MPA report measuring magazine brands audiences.

About half of all the brands in the report experienced growth in mobile web magazine audiences, which are unique visitors that visit a site on a mobile device.

Nearly 50% of the brands measured showed growth of 8% or more.

MPA believes this growth is also the result of a full year of reporting occurring since the first of two comScore methodological changes in 2017.

The Family Handyman and Taste of Home, two of Trusted Media Brands other titles, also attracted more audiences in February 2018 compared to the same month a year prior.

Tasteofhome.com reached more than 12.8 million unique visitors in February, up 38.2% from last year. Familyhandyman.com reached 4.6 million unique visitors, representing a 41.1% increase from the prior year.

Our consumer-first approach utilizing focused UGC content, has enabled us to effectively and strategically grow our digital audiences across all of our platforms, stated Bonnie Kintzer, Trusted Media Brands CEO.
by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, March 28, 2018

Waze, the Google-owned navigation app, branched out to small business owners Wednesday with its introduction of Waze Local. It will now allow small businesses to buy local advertising such as branded pins, paid-search ads, and pop-ups.

The ads on Waze integrate into the map and the navigation features of the platform. The local takeover ads -- which Waze calls Zero-Speed Takeover" -- appear as a large banner ad across the top third of the screen when the person using the app stops for more than three seconds at any location.

The promoted search ads appear at the top of search results and include the brand logo. The branded pins serve up along the driving route.

Waze will charge for the ads based on a cost-per-thousand impression (CPM) basis. Major brands previously had the ability to buy Waze ads for a minimum of $850 per day. Local ads lower that cost to as little as $2 per day on a CPM.

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Reporting now also becomes available in real-time. Metrics that are available to business owners include impressions, clicks, navigations, call/URL and info button clicks, and more.

Google released data that estimates U.S, businesses advertising on Waze Local will see a 20.4% increase in monthly navigations to their physical locations. One early advertiser  Kung Fu Tea  saw more than 5,500 drivers navigating via Waze Local to 16 Kung Fu Tea locations during its three months of testing.

In 2017, more than 3.3 million people  an average of more than 9,000 per day  used Waze to visit local U.S. businesses that advertised on the platform.

There are two packages available to small business owners. The Starter, a self-service package, became available Wednesday in more than 55 countries for companies that have about 10 locations.

The plus package is available in U.S., Brazil, France, Mexico and Israel. This one, which requires an investment $100 per day investment, supports up to 50 locations and includes everything in the Starter package, as well as Zero-Speed Takeover ads, time scheduling targeting, live support for account setup, phone support and billing via invoice.
by Joe Mandese @mp_joemandese, March 28, 2018

Obvious partisan political implications aside, the Trump White Houses push to add a citizenship question to the U.S. Census raises big issues for the world of marketing, advertising and media.

Specifically, much of the industrys most representative research is either based on or weighted to U.S. Census estimates of the size and composition of the population. If, as opponents fear, requiring people to state their citizenship creates a non-respondent bias among some people -- especially illegal aliens, or fearful legal aliens -- it will distort the representation of the population in the U.S. Census estimates and all the research benchmarked to it.

A non-citizen who is here legally would probably comply. A non-citizen who is not here legally might well not comply and that is the problem, says Richard Zackon, a long-time industry researcher and principal of Audience Patterns LLC.

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Politically it will cause controversy, he continues, adding: For the marketing industry it would mean bias in the foundational data base. It would have particular negative impact on media that cater to those communities and those companies who research them.

Aside from distorting the overall picture of the popular, it could be devastating for multicultural marketing, speculates Jim Spaeth, another long-time industry researcher and Founding Partner at Sequent Partners.

Certain populations will likely be undercounted. As a result the value marketers see in those consumer segments will be understated and investments will be reduced, says Spaeth, a former president of the Advertising Research Foundation.

Immigrant populations are an integral part of the overall consumer growth in the U.S. keeping many industries booming and many others from declines. The proposed Census question on citizenship status would be extremely detrimental to commerce and business growth since a count with higher than usual margin of error would create inaccurate universes at all levels: from neighborhoods to trade areas to a national basis, asserts Carlos Santiago, President and Chief Strategist of Santiago Solutions Group and a co-founder of the Association of National Advertisers Alliance for Multicultural & Inclusive Marketing (AIMM).

As most consumer research in America is typically weighed and projected against the decennial Census, the repercussions of an inaccurate baseline would be passed on to businesses hurting their ability to make sound investment decisions for new stores, new products, media investments, communications and outreach strategies impacting everything consumers purchase including health care, banking, home sales, cars, services, etc., says Santiago, a 25-year vet of segment marketing.

The way I see it there could be multiple negative ramifications, says Rob Frydlewicz, a long-time industry researcher who is currently contracts and budgets manager at Dentsu Aegis Network.

Not only is it likely non-citizens will be undercounted -- because of a refusal to respond -- so will their children who were born here and are citizens, he adds, noting, And perhaps there may even be American-born citizens who protest this question by refusing to participate or at least refusing to answer that question.

Frydlewicz, who was an enumerator in the 2010 U.S. Census, has first-hand knowledge of that process.

Going to door-to-door was challenging enough, with some people using it as an excuse to rail against the government, he recalls, adding, Now the negative reception will likely be amplified - especially in neighborhoods with large immigrant populations.

Whatever the impact the citizenship question would have on the 2020 Census, Audience Patterns Zackon says the industry would figure out a solution, even if its just one that relies on mathematical modeling to adjust estimates for undercounts in the Census data.

I would expects to see various analytic fixes, he says.
The time has finally come! Im not referring to Spring  which still remains elusive  Im talking about Medical News Today cracking the top 10 health websites in the world.

Share on Pinterest Thanks to all of our readers, medicalnewstoday.com is now the 10th most popular health website in the world.

During the past 2 years in particular, weve been watching MNT move steadily from a ranking of somewhere in the thirties to alluringly close to the top 10. And this month, we received the report that we have finally arrived!

But what have we discovered along the way? Weve learned that a devotion to the needs of our readers is the key to success, along with the ruthless pursuit of accuracy.

One of our company values is integrity, and this guiding principle has given us a place as an authority on health information.

I was curious to know what my fellow writers and editors have learned about health since working at MNT. Ive taken their responses and compiled a top 10 list:

Telomeres are like the plastic caps on shoelaces. Mitochondria are the powerhouses of cells. Sitting down all day is a sure way to pile on belly fat. Apple cider vinegar can treat a multitude of ills. Moderation in all things is best  even moderation. Always ask who funded the study. Being happy at work is so beneficial to overall health. Applying curiosity can reap health rewards. Scientific research is one of the greatest resources we have as humans. After seeing MNTs medical review process firsthand, I know that there is medical information on the Internet that I can trust.

But what did we learn together this month, dear reader? Our News team reported that two blood pressure drugs increase death risk and that the new guidelines for type 2 diabetes lower blood sugar control levels.

Our writers also investigated the state of cancer, asking if we are close to a cure.

You were also very interested in our article on whether its possible to unclog your arteries, which displays our interactive new body maps.

Home remedies to get rid of yellow teeth also piqued your curiosity, as did the top 10 foods for healthy eyes.

Earlier this month, Tim Newman and I attended the Wired Health conference in London, where we learned about the latest developments in health tech. I focused on the rise of so-called Femtech, and Tim focused on old tech, new ideas.

What are you curious about when it comes to your health? Let us know, and well investigate for you. You can also contact us on Twitter and Facebook.

Thank you for trusting us and helping MNT get to the top. Have a joyful, healthful start to the new Spring season!
Simply put, scientists have discovered a new organ. Previously overlooked by the standard techniques of visualizing the human anatomy, this new anatomic structure may play a key role in the functioning of all major tissues and organs, as well as in cancer metastasis and inflammatory illnesses.

Share on Pinterest Traditional visualization techniques may have missed an entire organ, suggests new research.

Humans are made mostly of water. In fact, approximately 75 percent of an infants body mass and up to 60 percent of that of an adult is made up of water.

To store all this liquid, our bodies devised clever ways of compartmentalizing. The interstitial space is one such compartment.

The interstitial space stores extracellular fluid between the cells and is the main source of lymph, which is the clear fluid crucial for our bodys ability to fight off infections.

Medical professionals have long known about the interstitium, a network of tissue generally known to reside within the lungs, and about the interstitial space, which stores fluid.

But now, for the first time, researchers  co-led by Dr. Neil Theise, a professor in the Department of Pathology at New York Universitys School of Medicine in New York City  defines the interstitium as an actual organ, and it is one of the largest in the human body.
You may have taken ibuprofen today, be it to ease a headache or alleviate back pain. But there might be more to this common medication than pain relief; a new paper suggests that a daily dose of ibuprofen could prevent Alzheimers disease.

Share on Pinterest Researchers say that ibuprofen could ward off Alzheimers if taken every day.

Led by Dr. Patrick McGeer, who is the CEO of Aurin Biotech in Canada, the study describes how ibuprofen could reduce inflammation caused by an Alzheimers-related peptide.

The paper was recently published in the Journal of Alzheimers Disease.

Alzheimers disease is the most common form of dementia. It is estimated that around 5.7 million adults in the United States are living with the disease.

This number is predicted to rise to almost 14 million by 2050.

The search continues for the exact causes of Alzheimers, but a sticky protein called beta-amyloid is believed to play a role in the disease.

Beta-amyloid can clump together and form plaques in the brain. These plaques will interfere with brain cell communication, which can lead to memory loss, behavioral changes, and many other symptoms characteristic of Alzheimers disease.

In a study published last year , Dr. McGeer and colleagues revealed that a beta-amyloid peptide  known as amyloid-beta 42 (Abeta 42)  is present in saliva, as well as the brain, and that levels of this peptide are higher in adults who are at greater risk of Alzheimers.

Based on those results, the team suggests that a saliva test could be used to predict the risk of Alzheimers disease years before symptoms arise.

What weve learned through our research, reports Dr. McGeer, is that people who are at risk of developing Alzheimers exhibit the same elevated Abeta 42 levels as people who already have it; moreover, they exhibit those elevated levels throughout their lifetime so, theoretically, they could get tested anytime.
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A research group headed up by Bernhard Spingler, a professor at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Zurich, has now modified a method that had previously been used exclusively for the crystallization of proteins and successfully applied it to organic salts.The team was able to determine the crystal structures of several organic salts with significantly less time and effort. "As organic salts make up about 40 percent of all active pharmaceutical ingredients, this new method can greatly speed up the development of drugs," says Spingler.The generation of solid salts of organic molecules is a key step in developing certain pharmaceutical ingredients. The positively and negatively charged particles that make up organic salts determine their properties, such as their solubility, crystal shape, ability to absorb water, melting point, and stability.The search for the ideal negatively charged anion to match the salt's positively charged cation has until now been a very resource-intensive process. Thanks to the semi-automatic combination of ion exchange screening and vapor diffusion for crystallization, this is not only done quicker and at lower costs."We can now also determine the structures of the salt combinations directly after screening since doing so only requires only very small amounts," adds crystallography expert Spingler.The breakthrough in developing the novel method was achieved by Philipp Nievergelt, a trainee who had spent ten months in Bernhard Spingler's lab after graduating from Gymnasium. The successful junior researcher is listed as the first author of the study and is now four semesters into his business chemistry studies at UZH. "The traineeship got me excited about lab work and encouraged me to continue doing research," explains Nievergelt.Source: Eurekalert
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"In the United States, approximately one in 30 baby boomers are chronically infected with HCV ," said Vadaparampil. "Almost half of all cases of liver cancer in the United States are caused by HCV. Therefore, it is important to identify and treat people who have the virus in order to prevent cancer .""Hepatitis C is an interesting virus because people who develop a chronic infection remain asymptomatic for decades and don't know they're infected," explained Kasting. "Most of the baby boomers who screen positive for HCV infection were infected over 30 years ago, before the virus was identified."Because over 75 percent of HCV-positive individuals were born between 1945 and 1965, both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) now recommend that baby boomers get screened for the virus. However, data from the 2013 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) indicated that only 12 percent of baby boomers had been screened for HCV, Kasting explained.The researchers wanted to study if HCV screening rates had increased following the FDA approval of several well-tolerated and effective treatments for HCV infection.Using NHIS data from 2013-2015, Kasting and colleagues analyzed HCV screening prevalence among four different age cohorts (born before 1945, born 1945-1965, born 1966-1985, and born after 1985). Participants were asked if they had ever had a blood test for hepatitis C. As the researchers were interested in assessing HCV screening in the general population, they excluded certain populations who were more likely to be screened for the virus, resulting in a total sample size of 85,210 participants.After multivariable analysis, Kasting and colleagues found that females were screened less often than males in every age cohort. Additionally, among baby boomers and those born between 1966-1985, HCV screening rates were lower among Hispanics and non-Hispanic Blacks. "This is concerning because these groups have higher rates of HCV infection and higher rates of advanced liver disease," noted Kasting."This may reflect a potential health disparity in access to screening, and therefore treatment, for a highly curable infection."Among baby boomers, HCV screening rates ranged from 11.9 percent in 2013 to 12.8 percent in 2015. Regardless of the federal screening recommendations, less than 20 percent of baby boomers reported that the reason for their screening was due to their age."Our most important finding is that the HCV screening rate isn't increasing in a meaningful way," said Giuliano."Between 2013 and 2015, HCV screening only increased by 0.9 percent in the baby boomer population. Given rising rates of liver cancer and high HCV infection rates in this population, this is a critically important finding. It shows that we have substantial room for improvement and we need additional efforts to get this population screened and treated as a strategy to reduce rising rates of liver cancer in the United States."Limitations of the study include a reliance on self-reported data. "Another limitation is that this is secondary data and we didn't collect it ourselves," noted Kasting. "There are several questions we would have liked to ask about behavioral risk factors, such as drug use, that weren't utilized on this survey."This study was supported by the Biostatistics Core and the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute. Kasting is supported by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).As a member of Merck Scientific Advisory Boards, Giuliano and her institution have received funds from Merck. An additional author on the study, David Nelson, MD, has received grant support from Abbvie, Gilead, and Merck. All other authors declare no conflicts of interest.Source: Eurekalert
Rajkummar Rao always manages to steal the limelight with the kind of power packed performances he gives. The stellar actor is probably one of the brightest stars in Bollywood and while we are eagerly awaiting his upcoming movie 'Omerta', he is currently shooting for 'Stree' in Bhopal with Shraddha Kapoor.

Probably as a bonding activity, both Rajkummar and Shraddha have been sharing videos of them having impromptu karaoke sessions. There's a recent video which she shared that has them crooning the 'Dil Se' title track and dancing along with it.

@rajkummar_rao #STREE A post shared by Shraddha (@shraddhakapoor) on Mar 27, 2018 at 12:21pm PDT

It's fun to get a peek inside the lives of our favourite celebs letting their hair down and also, we are totally stealing this idea of karaoke with friends for the long weekend!
There was a time when only a handful of smartphone companies could release a flagship device that would also attract an exorbitant price tag. Ever since Chinese players have taken a piece of the cake, smartphones are getting cheaper, faster and sexier.

Companies like Apple and Samsung had a strong hold on the premium smartphone market; however, OnePlus has challenged the status quo ever since the company launched its first device. The company is capable of producing cutting-edge devices that are cheaper than flagship phones and this year the company plans to do the same.

Notable mobile leaker Evan Blass just released a picture of the apparent OnePlus 6 smartphone. It is probably the first high-res picture we have seen of the device and the device looks very elegant and sleek. No other specification details were given; however, we can be sure of one thing, it will look great.

 Twitter/Evan Blass

It seems like the next OnePlus 6 device will have a unibody aluminium design with a textured back that looks similar to the wooden covers the company makes. Other leaks have suggested the device has shown a glass back that suggests more than two models may be in the works. A glass back could also hint at the device's capabilities to support wireless charging.

Other features we can guess from the image include a headphone jack, USB-C port, a single speaker grille, a dual-camera setup, a fingerprint sensor and volume rockers on the left.

 Oppo

Previous leaks have suggested a bezel-less design with an 18:9 aspect ratio, a Snapdragon 845 processor, 6GB or 8GB of RAM, up to 256GB of storage, and a dual camera setup. OnePlus will likely bring back facial recognition and other features from Oxygen OS.

Of course, the image cannot be verified as the actual device as we will only know once the smartphone has been made official by OnePlus. Until then, stay tuned to MensXP technology for more scoop.
At the age of 17 when most of us are struggling over picking colleges, Rishabh Lawania had something completely different running through his mind. Despite failing his 12th standard examinations, he managed to launch his first startup by 17, as he was strongly inspired by Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.

The Initial Dogma Of Society And His Struggles.

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So, nobody expected that I would start a business, much less a technology startup because I have no technical background whatsoever, Rishabh said.

Irrespective of these perceptions Rishabh launched Red Carpets Events in 2010. It was an event management company that helped organize/co-organise 70+ promotional, corporate events across Delhi-NCR and Jaipur. That was a start and here is what inspired him to venture into a tech startup.

The inspiration to launch a tech startup came to me during my early years as an independent event organizer. During this phase of my life, I understood the power of networking. At the time, my focus was on connecting with as many entrepreneurs, VCs, and investors as I could and understanding from them how to start a business, he added.

The Beginning Of The Failure-Success Cycle.

After getting a fair sense of the market, Rishabh launched JusGetIT 2013, a last mile logistics startup that specialized in doorstep delivery of groceries. If you remember, it was the time when hyperlocal was booming in India and many big companies like BigBasket, Grofers, PepperTap were already receiving huge fundings. According to Lawania, JustGetIT was operational for around six to seven months, during which it had partnered with 30+ vendors and shopkeepers. The startup helped maximize the revenues of offlines Kirana stores by offering its tech solutions to them.

This is what Rishabh had to say about the failure of JustGetIT, That was the time when the entire hyperlocal thing was just starting up in India. Back in 2013-14, Grofers and Bigbasket were at a pretty nascent stage. We figured out that we did not have a cost-effective model.

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Although funding was available to Indian startups at the time, we were not able to figure out the right way to do it. However, we learned a lot. We had reached out to a lot of investors and through that, eventually, learned how to raise funding.

Well, many had said at that time that this concept was suitable for the countries like the US but not good enough for India as for a time been.

In 2015, Rishabh teamed up with techie Keshu Dubey in the US to launch Xeler8. Xeler8 is one of his most successful ventures till date which was later acquired by ZDream Ventures for an undisclosed amount. ZDream Ventures is a Chinese accelerator with a startup incubator in Gurugram as well.

Xeler8 was a deal-sourcing and research platform which offered a modernized approach to prospecting, tracking and analyzing startups with an initial focus on Indian startups.

Rishabh said, Back then, there were Bloomberg and similar platforms, which had databases of big corporate companies. However, there were not many platforms that focussed on startups. Even the ones that existed back then did not have good coverage when it came to startups. This was pretty much a good product-market fit.

Xeler8 basically offered a database of Indian startups, covering about 47 industries. The entire product worked on machine learning crawlers that were built in-house its process of evaluation was based on around 16 to 17 parameters

At the time of its acquisition, Xeler8 had around 35 to 38 paying clients, including corporates, VCs and angel investors and a lot of premium customers such as micro-VC firms and big startups. The company's client base stood around 70 clients at that time.

Rishabh's Learning From Xeler8

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Rishabh says, With Xeler8, I was a third-time entrepreneur. It should be noted that the startup was bootstrapped since its launch. From the very beginning, we knew that we had to face the reality that Xeler8 was never going to be a $100 Mn company. We knew the upper cap that we could go to. But, I was aware that I needed to exit from it at the right time.

Building a B2B product is especially difficult because you need to keep pivoting. There were not a lot of people on my team. At the time of acquisition, we had around 13 to 14 people in our team. More difficult than building the tech product was to actually sell it.

From Being An Investor At ZDream Ventures To His Latest Venture In Africa

Rishabh joined ZDream Ventures as the Chief Operating Officer(COO) and Head of Investments and thus began his journey as an investor. There he gained an understanding of startup ecosystems across India, China, the US, and Japan.

This understanding of different landscape enabled Rishabh to launch WeeTracker, a global tech media dedicated to the African tech ecosystem. The aim of this venture is to nurture startups in the continent in a three-way holistic fashion: inform, educate and invest. Rishabh and his team aim to connect startups in fledgling ecosystems like Africa with key players and enablers in the same vertical in developed economies.

Rishabh chose Africa explaining, Having worked very closely with Indian, American and Chinese startup ecosystems, I wanted to do something that would really create some value. So, my team and I did an extensive comparative analysis of the major tech economies: India, China, US, Japan and South Korea.

According to Lawania, Africa is undergoing a tech revolution, similar to the kind that happened in the US in the late 1990s and in India in the early 2000s.

As per Rishabh's knowledge, most of these startups operate in the fintech, agritech, water tech, and cleantech segments.

At present, I have a list of 25 to 30 Pre-Series A and Series A African entrepreneurs who are interested in coming to India to learn from established entrepreneurs here. We are trying to build a network of mentors, entrepreneurs and product managers across India, China, the US, and Japan. So if someone in Africa is trying to build a B2B platform, we can just connect them to the relevant product managers across these economies.

WeeTracker is currently in the process of raising a $20 Mn fund and acquired a Cape Town-based Startup Safari, an ecosystem immersion programme intended for entrepreneurs in emerging economies.
We unequivocally condemn the recent missile attack on cities of Saudi Arabia, including its capital, Riyadh.

These attacks undermine international and regional security and constitute flagrant violations of International Law and the Law of War.
Dan Thuemmel remembered for dedication to education,... Dan Thuemmel was one of the North Huron school board members who hired current superintendent...

Take an inside look at the register of deeds office In the Huron County Register of Deeds, theres a vault containing documents that go back as far...

Huron County's private schools optimistic about return to normal The optimism Huron Countys public schools are feeling about a return to normal this year extends...
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EAST HADDAM  Connecticut State Police detectives are continuing to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of a Moodus woman that authorities have ruled a homicide.

State police from Troop K in Colchester were called to 206 North Moodus Road Friday at 5:22 p.m. and found the resident, Sandra Kalosky, 56, had died suspiciously, according to a press release. Following an autopsy, the chief medical examiners office declared her death a homicide, authorities said.
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A portion of the Air National Guard's F-15 Eagle fleet at Kingsley Field, Oregon, has been grounded over significant maintenance issues affecting the aircraft's structure, Military.com has learned.

Col. Jeff Smith, commander of the 173rd Fighter Wing, last week grounded the fleet of 30 aircraft over pilot safety concerns.

"Due to a possible maintenance issue, out of an abundance of caution and concern for air crew safety, we have decided to stand down our flying while we take a closer look and determine the path forward," said Maj. Nikki Jackson, spokeswoman for the 173rd.

Jackson said the concerns were over "structural issues that we want to take a closer look at before we clear our aircraft to fly."

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"The safety of our air crew is our number one priority," she said in an email Wednesday.

The 173rd anticipates F-15 flight operations to resume tomorrow, Jackson said.

It remains unclear if the issue pertains only to F-15s at Kingsley thus far, or if it will lead to a service-wide inspection of all of the 1980s-era aircraft.

The temporary grounding is not expected to affect training or deployment schedules for the 173rd, Jackson said.

"A team from the F-15 Aircraft Structural Integrity Program is on site and looking into the issue, to determine the path forward," she said.

Kingsley Field in Klamath Falls is home to the only F-15C training schoolhouse in the Air Force, a robust training program for both active-duty and Guard pilots. The 173rd also houses a few D aircraft models.

The single-seat F-15C and two-seat F-15D models entered the Air Force inventory in 1979 and have been in almost every theater across the globe.

In 2007, the Air Force grounded its entire F-15 fleet after a fighter from the Missouri Air National Guard broke apart mid-air and crashed. The pilot ejected.

The service conducted a nearly three-month inspection of the fleet, in which investigators found the cause of the crash to be a faulty beam in the frame of the aircraft, known as the longeron.

Engineers concluded that the longeron -- part of the multi-fastened support beams that work as building blocks within the aircraft's fuselage -- had cracks in it, and that there had been no proper maintenance procedures to detect the deficiency.

"No inspection requirements existed for detecting a crack in the longeron," according to the 2008 Accident Investigation Board report, as reported by CBS News. Similar issues were detected in more than 150 F-15s, the report said.

The Air Force in recent months has dedicated funding just to keep up with maintenance for its longerons.

According to the service's fiscal 2018 budget request, it asked for roughly $7 million just for service life extension, or SLEP, on the support beams.

The funding was recently approved through the $1.3 trillion omnibus bill signed last week by President Donald Trump, with fixes beginning later this year.

"Air superiority is a demanding mission set, and the newest F-15C was built in 1986," the budget documents said. "Consequently, the F-15C/D fleet will need a Service Life Extension Program on its fuselage longerons to reach its planned service life within acceptable risk margins.

"The longeron SLEP entails replacing 14 primary tension members in the structure of the forward fuselage and is critical to the safety of flight of these aircraft. There are other structural issues with the F-15Cs besides the longerons, and full-scale fatigue testing is ongoing to assess these matters," the budget request said.

The service plans to forgo other upgrades to the legacy F-15 in order to focus on SLEP.

The F-15C is unlikely to receive its Eagle Passive/Active Warning Survivability System upgrade, known as EPAWSS, that would heighten its threat assessment and survivability with advanced electronic warfare technology, according to a recent report from Aviation Week.

The latest F-15 woes come at a time when the service has mulled retiring the C/D models, which mainly reside in the Air National Guard.

Last March, officials told lawmakers they were looking at possible plans to retire the two models as early as the mid-2020s.

Air National Guard Director Lt. Gen. L. Scott Rice at the time said the Air Force as a total force was in "deep discussions" regarding the retirement, with plans to further assess the F-15 inventory in 2018.

Rice and other Air Force officials said the F-16 Fighting Falcon would take over in the multi-mission role.

The service has 212 F-15C and 24 F-15D models, according to the Air Force Association's 2017 aircraft inventory almanac.

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214.
What Is ISIS-K? Two Experts on the Group Behind the Kabul Airport Attack and its Rivalry with the Taliban

By 2018, the group had become one of the top four deadliest terrorist organizations in the world.
Moscow recently invested $20 million to rebuild the ruined edifice of an old Soviet Union-era cultural center in downtown Kabul, giving it a new name as Russia continues to rebrand itself in a country where it waged a long and bloody war.

The building, named the Russian Cultural Center in Afghanistan, is a symbol of how Moscow aims to boost its influence in Kabul with both gifts and an aggressive propaganda campaign that Western and Afghan analysts believe is aimed at discrediting the West.

Moscow's latest tactic: exaggerate the threat of Islamic State in Afghanistan, according to top U.S. generals. These "soft-power" efforts by Russia aim to exploit Afghan disappointment about the post-9/11 intervention by America and its allies, said Arturo Munoz, a researcher with the RAND Corporation.

"It tracks with their whole strategy to paint a picture of the United States as having failed to bring security to Afghanistan," Munoz said. "Rumors and conspiracy theories -- it's a way to increase your influence and lower others' without shooting."

The U.S has been concerned about Russian efforts to gain influence in Kabul for at least a decade. Leaked military cables from the spring of 2007 highlighted fears that Russia and Iran were working together to thwart Western influence in Afghan media.

In March, two U.S. generals publicly accused Russia of exaggerating the threat of the terrorist group ISIS in Afghanistan as a way of promoting the Taliban.

"We see a narrative that's being used that grossly exaggerates the number of ISIS fighters here," Gen. John Nicholson told BBC News Friday, in an interview where he also accused Russia of arming the Taliban. "This narrative then is used as a justification for the Russians to legitimize the actions of Taliban and provide some degree of support to the Taliban."

Gen. Joseph Votel, commander of U.S. Central Command, has voiced similar concerns, saying Russia is deploying "familiar propaganda techniques" to brand ISIS's presence as a U.S. and NATO failure.

Moscow's relations with Washington have grown increasingly strained since 2014. NATO suspended all cooperation after Russia's annexation of Crimea that year. In Syria, Russia cited the threat of ISIS as it backed government forces fighting against American-backed rebels. U.S. intelligence agencies have accused Russia of meddling in the 2016 presidential election, and Washington ordered the expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats last week in retaliation for the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain.

Exaggerating the ISIS presence has several aims, according to Thomas Ruttig of the Afghanistan Analysts Network. These include presenting Western efforts as failing, keeping its options open, and also pressuring the former Soviet republics in Central Asia to cooperate with Russia against the ISIS threat.

In December, Russian envoy Zamir Kabulov told a state media outlet that the number of ISIS militants in Afghanistan exceeds 10,000. Late last year, Nicholson estimated there to be around 1,100 fighters. Afghanistan Defense officials, using the Arabic initials for ISIS, put the number closer to 1,500.

"Russia and Iran are talking about Daesh's threat with more exaggeration," said Afghan deputy Defense spokesman Gen. Mohammad Radmanish, using the common local name for ISIS. "Some people will continue their propaganda about Daesh presence in Afghanistan, but what we know is that they are not a big threat."

ISIS has claimed several bloody attacks in Kabul in recent months, but Nicholson in November said the terror group has presence in just three provinces: Nangarhar, Kunar and Jowzjan.

Conflict Intelligence Team, a group of Russian online investigators who fact check claims by the Russian military, said it had has observed local media efforts to use ISIS as justification for a continuous Russian presence in Central Asia. "This is no overwhelming propaganda effort like on Ukraine, yet it's there," a spokesperson from the group said.
The U.S. Army plans to launch a large-scale pilot within the next year to test a new physical fitness test designed to gauge if soldiers are ready for the rigors of combat.

On Monday, Secretary of the Army Mark Esper told an audience at the Association of the United States Army's Global Force Symposium that the service plans to adopt a new physical fitness regime.

Senior Army officials offered an update on the effort to replace the Army Physical Fitness Test, or APFT, with the proposed Army Combat Readiness Test, or ACRT, during a panel discussion on soldier lethality.

"We have been working this for some time," said Sergeant Major of the Army Daniel Dailey. "This is a tough task; it's not that easy. There is a whole science that goes behind this. First, you got to answer the question, 'What do you want to test, what do you want to gauge?' "

The current APFT gauges general fitness, Dailey said.

"It does a pretty darn good job of what it's designed to do. It's designed to gauge a general level of fitness. ... It can be done anywhere, by anyone, at any location, with no equipment," he said.

The APFT does not gauge whether every soldier "can do the multitude of 150 [military occupational specialty] tasks we have across the Army," Dailey said.

"We have to get better at this; we have to get better at saying, 'Do our physical fitness requirements match the capabilities and needs of what we need a soldier to [do] on the battlefield,' " he said.

Gen. Stephen Townsend, commander of Army Training and Doctrine Command, said the service's current APFT "by our own studies, has about maybe 30 percent, at best 40 percent, correlation to battlefield fitness."

The six-event ACRT is designed to better prepare troops for the rigors of combat than the three-event APFT, officials maintain.

"The Army Combat Readiness Test, we think, will have a much higher correlation to these fitness requirements," Townsend said. "In the next year, we will probably pilot that on a larger scale. It's been a fairly small-scale effort right now."

The current APFT will continue as the test of record, "while we do this large-scale ACRT pilot. And we will see where it goes from there," he said.

-- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com.
When you think of homeless veterans, you may not immediately think of female vets. But the Department of Veterans Affairs says that women comprise the fastest-growing segment of the homeless veteran population.

In its 2017 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) estimated that just over 40,000 veterans were homeless on a single night in January of that year. Of those, about 9% were women. From 2016 to 2017, the number of homeless female veterans increased by 7%, compared with 1% for their male counterparts.

In a 2016 report, the VA-funded National Center on Homelessness Among Veterans said the number of women identified by the program as homeless, or who accessed VA programs to end homelessness, tripled to 36,443 in a five-year period ending in 2015. That figure, according to the center, is projected to rise by about 9% to nearly 40,000 by 2025.

Many Homeless Female Veterans Don't Seek Assistance

Many homeless female veterans were victims of military sexual trauma and feel resentment toward the military and the VA, officials said. As a result, many do not identify themselves as being veterans. They tend to stay away from the organizations wishing to help them because they feel they were betrayed by that organization in the past, officials added.

According to the VA's National Center for PTSD, data from the VA's military sexual trauma screening program shows that about one in four women and one in 100 men say that they experienced sexual trauma or assault while in the military.

Homeless female veterans don't fit the stereotype of a homeless person living on the streets. Female homeless veterans often have children and tend to stay with family or friends temporarily.

Just as homeless male veterans often don't seek help because they were instilled with a sense of self-reliance and pride while in the military, female homeless veterans are often caregivers for their children and have a very hard time asking for help, officials said.

Using a Holistic Approach

On the campus of the VA Central Western Massachusetts Healthcare System in Leeds, Massachusetts, the department is taking a holistic approach to helping female veterans get back on their feet.

Nearly all of the center's residents experienced early childhood trauma, and more than 80% encountered military sexual trauma, officials said.

Treating the entire person -- mind, body and spirit -- helps female veterans regain their sense of self-worth and dignity, allowing them to transition back into the community, according to center personnel.

The facility's holistic program focuses on six dimensions of wellness: physical, social, emotional, occupational, spiritual and intellectual.

The residents have access to activities that provide peer-to-peer support: yoga, workouts, art therapy classes, walking clubs, and sessions on spirituality, goal setting and financial aid.

Social health is more important to a woman's healing process than it is to a man's, according to the center. The VA is realizing that and tailoring treatments as necessary.

Stay on Top of Your Veteran Benefits

Military benefits are always changing. Keep up with everything from pay to health care by signing up for a free Military.com membership, which will send all the latest benefits straight to your inbox while giving you access to up-to-date pay charts and more.
Military members and veterans can get up to four free months of Apple Music through the Apple Music military discount -- but...
It's always nice to have someone to blame for something you don't like. And if you're a consumer of school lunch at an overseas (OCONUS) school, that person could be a student from Dallas, Texas.

Everyone knows that cafeteria food can be dicey. That's a general fact of life. But the Army and Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES), provides school lunches at 78 schools on military bases overseas, decided to tackle the problem with a little child labor ... er ... volunteers from a school near their headquarters.

Students from Advantage Academy in Dallas visited AAFES headquarters early this month to taste test potential new menu items. Their feedback will be added to input from adult taste testers, OCONUS parent and student testers, input from this survey and "the results of a competitive bidding process among food vendors," according to a recent news release.

The resulting new menu items will show up on the menu for next school year, the release said. The schools also use baked goods made by AAFES facilities, which bake with "American flour," in case you care about that sort of thing.

OCONUS school lunches currently run $2.75 and $3.00 for elementary and secondary schools, respectively, with lower or no cost for the free or reduced lunch programs. Those prices have seen an increase for the past two years running. Prior to that they were $2.40 and $2.55 for several years in a row.
Calling all Spartans! Spartan announced this week they will again be featuring their Honor Series of races with presenting sponsor USAA at four military installations and three satellite locations across the country. This news means you can sign up and then drive your friends and family crazy with non-stop references from the movie 300.

Courtesy of USAA, current/former military members and first-responders and current USAA members can receive a 25% discount on race registration through ID.me.

It may not be the Nasty Nick, but Spartan has some tough races with their Ultra race clocking in at more than 30 miles and 60 obstacles.

The races will be held on installation at Fort Benning, Georgia; Fort Carson, Colorado; Fort Knox Kentucky; and the United States Military Academy at West Point in New York. Other races will be held in Fayetteville, North Carolina; Nashville, Tennessee; and Dallas, Texas.

The first race will be a Spartan Sprint on Fort Benning on April 14 and the course will be included as a part of the annual Best Ranger competition which is a grueling, sixty-two hour race to determine the best two-man team from the entire United States military.

Spartan founder and CEO Joe De Sena said, The Honor Series was created to pay tribute to members of the U.S. Armed Forces, and together with USAA and thousands of racers, we will honor servicemen and women across this great nation.

The Spartan Series features four race categories: Sprint, Super, Beast and Ultra. The Sprint is three to five miles with 20 to 25 obstacles. The Super is eight to ten miles with more than 25 obstacles, the Beast is 12 to 14 miles with more than 25 obstacles and the Ultra, as mentioned above, is insane with 30 miles and 60 obstacles to cover. Races will also feature a Spartan Kids race for the younger set between the ages of four and 14.

Competitive spirit and a desire to be the best are common traits among those who serve and defend our nation, said Eric Engquist, USAA vice president and former U.S. Army officer. The Spartan Honor Series Presented by USAA brings elite-level challenges to service members doorsteps, allowing them to compete alongside their civilian counterparts and highlights the many unique talents of Americas military community. In addition to the April 14 race at Fort Benning, below is the schedule and type of races featured at each location:

May 5: Fort Carson (CO)  Super and Sprint races

May 12: Fayetteville, NC  Super and Sprint races

July 14: Fort Knox (KY)  Sprint race

August 25: West Point (NY)  Sprint race

September 22: Nashville, TN  Super and Sprint races

October 27: Dallas, TX  Sprint, Beast and Ultra races

All competitors who finish will get a special Honor Series medal and twenty dollars from registrations between March 15 and March 29 will be donated to OSCAR MIKE with those competitors getting a special edition OSCAR MIKE Spartan t-shirt.

So gird your loins (or whatever areas you feel need girding), grab your friends, and show those civilian Spartans how its done!
The Mets successfully ran outfielder Bryce Brentz through waivers, Matt Ehalt of The Record reports on Twitter. It seems that the out-of-options Brentz will be outrighted off of the New York 40-man roster, though hell have the right to decline an assignment to Triple-A.

Brentz has bounced from the Red Sox to the Pirates and then on to the Mets over the offseason. The former first-round pick turned in a strong showing last year at Triple-A, hitting .271/.334/.529 with 31 home runs in 494 plate appearances.

Now, though, Brentz will have to decide whether to stay with his new organization or instead set out onto the open market. The Mets do not appear to have a direct path up to the majors, though obviously the organization likes the player. Given that every other team has now passed on a chance to add Brentz to a 40-man roster, it seems unlikely hell earn an Opening Day job in the big leagues, though perhaps there are some more promising opportunities out there.
Beaver Dam, WI (53916)

Today

Partly cloudy this morning, then becoming cloudy during the afternoon. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 76F. Winds SSW at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Rain ending early. Clearing overnight. Thunder possible. Low 43F. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%.
Amit Gupta of ICICIdirect told CNBC-TV18, "Go long in Eicher Motors and to hedge your positions, go short in Nifty. The price ratio of Eicher Motors to Nifty has started moving up; from Rs 2.78 it can move towards Rs 3 which can benefit this strategy."

"SRF is moving towards Rs 2,200; another 10 percent is due in the stock and you should have this stock in your portfolio even in this range bound market."
business Commodity Corner: Agri ministry in discussion for doubling farmers income Watch CNBC TV-18's Manisha Gupta giving details on the agri ministry in discussion with other ministries about increasing or doubling farmers income.
Aurobindo Pharma-Actavis Europe business acquisition | Year: April 2014 | Deal size: EUR 30 million (USD 36.9 million) Objective: Expand presence and portfolio in Europe Result: The acquisition turned profitable within two years of acquisition. (Image: Reuters)

Aurobindo Pharma-Natrol acquisition | Year: December 2014 | Deal size: USD 132.5 million Objective: To foray into nutraceuticals in the US. Result: The acquisition turned profitable from the second year with revenue from the acquired business increasing by over 12 percent CAGR over FY15-17. Natrol continues to be a stable growth contributor for Aurobindos OTC franchise. (Image: Reuters)

Jubilant-Draxis acquisition | Year: April 2008 | Deal size: USD 255 million

Objective: To access high-end radiopharmaceutical market in North America.

Result: The acquisition was profitable from the second year. However, the US launch of Ruby-Fill, at the time of acquisition, was delayed and the product was eventually launched in 2017. (Image: Reuters)

Sun Pharma  Taro acquisition | Year: September 2010 | Deal size: USD 273 million Objective: To strengthen US portfolio and bet on a turnaround of the business. Result: Taro has been one of Suns most lucrative acquisitions, with payback within 3 years and return-of-capital of 641 percent. The acquisition strengthened Sun Pharmas presence in the US.

Piramal-Mallinckrodt pain portfolio acquisition | Year: January 2017 | Deal size: USD 273 million

Objective: Get a portfolio of intrathecal spasticity and pain management drugs.

Result: Yet to see any impact of the deal. (Image: Reuters)

Torrent Pharma-Elder portfolio acquisition | Year: December 2013 | Deal size: USD 323 million

Objective: To expand India portfolio and scale up sub-optimal products.

Result: Elder's portfolio acquisition turned out to be highly profitable for Torrent, with 23 percent CAGR of Elders brands over FY14-17. Torrent, the 12th largest (in terms of IMS sales) pharma players in India increased its market share from 2.0% to 2.7% in the country. (Image: Reuters)

Dr Reddys-Teva (8 ANDAs/generic filings) | Year: June 2016 | Deal size: USD 350 million Objective: To strengthen US presence Results: Yet to deliver. Company awaits the launch of major products from the deal that are held up due to regulatory and patent-related issues. (Image: Reuters)

Cipla-InvaGen/Exelan acquisition | Year: September 2015 | Deal size: USD 550 million Objective: To scale-up its US generics business and have a manufacturing presence in that market. Results: The InvaGen/Exelan buy has expanded Ciplas US base, but failed to deliver on the commercial potential of limited competition filings such as generic Renvela and generic Fosrenol. Since the acquisition, Cipla has already taken USD 110 million of impairments on the acquisition, which accounts for nearly 20 percent of the acquisition cost. (Image: Reuters)

Dr Reddys-Betapharm acquisition | Year: February 2006 | Deal size: USD 571 million Objective: To get access to large, high-margin German generic pharma market. Result: Was a disaster for Dr Reddy's. Germany's policy move to source most medicines from the lowest-cost vendor through a tender-based model hurt the company. By FY10-end, Dr Reddys had written off all the intangible assets and goodwill attributable to the Betapharm acquisition. (Image: Reuters)

Lupin-Gavis acquisition | Year: July 2015 | Deal size: USD 880 million Objective: To expand its US portfolio, especially pain management drugs (controlled substances) and get manufacturing base in the US. Result: Expensive deal with Lupin paying 9.2 times of Gavis sales, largest ever overseas acquisition by an Indian drug maker. Contribution from Gavis has been below expectations so far. The pace of approvals has been slow and the US crackdown on use of opioids isnt helping matters. So far, sales are nowhere close to the expectation of the much-tempered target of USD 200 million in FY18. (Image: Reuters)

Abbott-Piramal acquisition | Year: May 2010 | Deal size: USD 3.7 billion Objective: To increase its presence in the Indian branded generics space. Result: Expensive deal with Abbott paying 8.8 times of Piramal sales. While the acquisition strengthened Abbotts market position and product portfolio in India, sales growth are highly unlikely to reach Abbotts USD 2.5 billion revenue target for 2020. (Image Reuters)
Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) will be holding a crucial board meeting today. CNBC-TV18 learns that the market regulator may be imposing a trading ban on companies that are undergoing insolvency proceedings. In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Sandeep Parekh, Founder, Finsec Law Advisors shared his views and outlook on the same.

I think they are looking at giving a couple of relaxations to many of these companies, he said.

They are probably going to look at the issues whether trading should be suspending in these companies when it is going through the crucial phases of insolvency, he added.
Essar Steel

After listening to lawyers representing Numetal, ArcelorMittal and Essar Steel's lenders, the Ahmedabad bench of National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has called for another hearing on April 4.

The bench has asked all the three parties for additional documents and has also required them to file affidavits.

Numetal and ArcelorMittal had moved the NCLT as the resolution professional and lenders of Essar Steel had turned down their bids for the troubled steelmaker. Their bids were termed ineligible.

Interestingly, the resolution professional and Committee of Creditors had called for a second round of bidding and set the deadline at April 2.

"The court has acknowledged this, and has asked the resolution professional not to take any decision on the bids until the final hearing on April 4," an executive told Moneycontrol.

Bids by the two companies were termed ineligible because of the amendment to the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, that prevented promoters of defaulting companies from bidding for stressed assets.

While ArcelorMittal was a promoter in Uttam Galva, Numetal's Rewant Ruia belongs to the Ruia family that had founded Essar Steel.

ArcelorMittal has meanwhile got a clearance from the SEBI and exchanges to be de-classified as Uttam Galva's promoters.

Later in the day, ArcelorMittal issues a statement:

"The NCLT hearing has been adjourned until 4 April. The deadline for rebids for Essar Steel remains 2 April. ArcelorMittal intends to rebid though we continue to strongly believe that our original offer is eligible. The outcome of the rebid remains subject to the outcome of the ongoing case at the NCLT."
The Indian Air Force planes perform during the inauguration of Aero India show at the Yelahanka Air Force Station in Bengaluru, India, February 14, 2017. REUTERS/Abhishek N. Chinnappa - RTSYL7K

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State-owned Hindustan Aeronautics share price made a weak debut on Dalal Street, falling more than 4 percent from its final issue price of Rs 1,215.

The stock price has opened at Rs 1,159 on the National Stock Exchange while it started off trade at Rs 1,169 on the BSE, falling 4 percent.

The Rs 4,229-crore initial public offer of state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics was subscribed 99 percent during March 16-20, 2018, supported by QIB.

The category reserved for qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) was oversubscribed 1.73 times while non institutional investors' reserved portion was subscribed 3 percent and retail investors 39 percent.

It was an offer for sale by the Government of India. The IPO price band was at Rs 1,215-1,240 per share.

The book running lead mangers to the issue are SBI Capital Markets and Axis Capital.
Janalakshmi Financial Services has received the commencement of business certificate from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and is finally set to launch the small finance bank.

The bank will be called Jana Small Finance Bank and will be launched within a week, likely on Monday, said a person aware of the development.

After a difficult year of high bad loans following demonetisation and attempts to meet prudential capital norms, the 18-year old Bengaluru-based microfinance company will be the last of the 10 applicants approved by Reserve Bank of India in 2015 to set up a small finance bank - a differentiated banking concept introduced to provide small and regional borrowers better access to formal financial services.

Despite receiving the final licence in April last year, Ramesh Ramanathan-promoted Janalakshmi Financial Services has waited for nearly a year due to high percentage of stressed loans on its balance sheet, sources said.

Jana Small Finance Bank will focus on garnering large deposits from its existing customers of over 5 million and about 300 outlets offering various retail products.

The company has infused Rs 1,030 crore of fresh equity in September last year from TPG, Morgan Stanley Asia managed PE fund NHPEA, Treeline, QRG Enterprises Ltd and Vallabh Bhansali to meet the regulatory norms.

In January this year, as per a Mint report, Janalakshmi has raised around Rs 600-700 crore from a bunch of new investors, including HarbourVest, which has invested around Rs 250-260 crore (approximately USD 40 million). The round has been closed recently, it said.

The equity infusion enabled Janalakshmi to complete its transition into a small finance bank and focus on business growth.

Post demonetisation of old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes announced by the government on November 8, 2016, overall delinquencies for Janalakshmi increased with 30-day default rate up to 30.58 percent from 0.49 percent earlier.

Janalakshmis credit costs also grew to Rs 151 crore in FY17 from Rs 95 crore in the preceding year. It made an additional provision of Rs 150 crore as contingency, considering the stress on the portfolio, according to its annual report.

The stress on asset quality lingered in FY18 as well.

As per its financial statement, its operating expenses in 2016-17 rose 71 percent over the preceding year, primarily on account of increase in the number of branches and overhead expenses towards the transition into the bank.

Its cost to income ratio stood at 68.1 percent in FY17, a tad higher compared with 67.63% in FY16.

The other entities that have launched small finance banks are Equitas Holdings, Ujjivan Financial Services, Au Financiers (India), Capital Local Area Bank, Disha Microfin, ESAF Microfinance and Investments, RGVN (North East) Microfinance Ltd, Suryoday Micro Finance and Utkarsh Micro Finance.
A Jet Airways passenger plane takes off from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad

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Shares of Jet Airways fell around 4 percent intraday on Wednesday as investors reacted to the buzz of salary delays in the firm.

According to report by news agency ANI, Jet Airways has delayed salary for March.

Internal communication of the airline company intimated the employees, "Due to certain circumstances beyond our control, the disbursal of March 2018 salary is postponed."

Accordingly, the payroll of the pilot, cabin crew and the engineers will be run on April 10, while the other staff member will get paid on April 3.

However, Jet Airways refused to divulge the reason behind the delay when enquired by ANI.

"Jet Airways does not comment on matters internal to the company," a spokesperson from the airline said.

At 12:26 hrs, Jet Airways was quoting at Rs 622.90, down Rs 14.30, or 2.24 percent, on the BSE. It touched an intraday high of Rs 634.50 and an intraday low of Rs 613.55.
Liquidation

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The National Company Law Tribunal's (NCLT's) Allahabad chapter ordered liquidation of two Rotomac group companies on Tuesday, The Economic Times reported.

Rotomac Global and Rotomac Exports are promoted by Vikram Kothari, who has been accused of a bank fraud.

The company had sought an extension of 90 days to complete its insolvency resolution process after the initial 180-day period expired on March 19, which was rejected by the Committee of Creditors.

During the 180-day period, no credible resolution plan was drawn up by Rotomac. An entity that had shown initial interest backed out after the banking fraud came to light.

The liquidator is directed to submit the progress report of liquidation process within 30 days, the NCLT said.

The two Rotomac companies owe almost Rs 4,000 crore to financial institutions like Bank of Baroda, Bank of India and the Union Bank of India.

The company engaged in merchant trading apart from manufacturing pens. The loans were primarily taken for the trade businesses.

The promoter's assets include a few pen-manufacturing facilities and collateralised securities, the report said.
The markets are likely to remain volatile during the next 12 months. Having said that, there is a bright chance that Nifty could go beyond 12,000-levels if there is a strong earnings recovery, Raghvendra Nath, Managing Director, Ladderup Wealth Management said in an exclusive interview with Moneycontrols Kshitij Anand.

The year FY18 pared most of the gains thanks to steep correction seen in the month of February and March. How is FY19 likely to pan out for investors  will it be a year which belongs to the bulls or bears will keep gains in check?

Indeed, the global volatility has pared most of the gains. In India, too, the valuations were running beyond reasonable comfort levels and a correction was imminent.

The FY 18-19 is going to be an eventful year again. There are multiple global events that are likely to impact markets. Also, there are multiple state elections that would culminate into the Lok Sabha elections towards the end of the financial year.

Trade policies, US Fed rates, Oil, North Korea Talks, Geopolitics of Middle East etc. would keep the global markets volatile.

In India, the course of the markets would be determined by the probability of a second term for Narendra Modi as well as the improvements in earnings growth story for India Inc.

What is your index target for the financial year 2019? Do you think the index will be able to reclaim 12,000 on Nifty and Sensex could rise above its previous record high of 36,443?

The markets are likely to remain volatile during the next 12 months. Having said that, there is a bright chance that markets go beyond 12,000 levels if there is a strong earnings recovery.

Do you see Modi 2.0 as we inch closer to national elections in the year 2019?

There is a good probability that NDA may get a second term. There is a possibility that BJP may not get a simple majority on its own, but a coalition government led by BJP is a very likely outcome. For the markets it could be a big relief as it would mean continuity of policy and reforms.

Mid and Smallcaps which hogged the limelight in FY18, do you think the trend will continue in the next financial year? If yes, why?

In any classic bull cycle, the small caps and midcaps generally witness stretched valuations. Most of these stocks have small market capitalisation and very little floating stock.

With rising investor interest and trading volumes, the prices of such stock therefore move up sharply, which further ignites speculative interests.

In the current market reaction since the last two months, most speculators in small and midcaps would have suffered serious losses. I would therefore presume, that even if the markets were to go up from here, the small and midcaps would show reasonable growth unlike the last 12 months.

There is a big hue and cry about crude. Do you think that the black gold could trade above USD 75-80/bbl?

The crude prices are more linked to agreement between the oil producing nations to cut back production than the demand for oil.

Globally, the demand for oil is decelerating, so any further price movements in oil would only be driven by further production cuts.

There is no news as of now that suggests of any such move. I would therefore hazard a guess that the oil prices would be fairly range bound.

What should be the portfolio composition of investors in the coming financial year assuming he is in the age bracket of 35-40 years?

One cannot change ones asset allocation year on year. For a young person with limited short term liabilities, at least 60 percent of the money should be invested in equities at all times.

There is no point in timing the equity markets as it just wouldnt matter in the long term. In the long term, the wealth creation would depend on the quality of stocks chosen and the underlying profit growth of those stocks.

The stock prices and valuations both align to the Earning growth in long term. If the growth in earnings is poor, the valuations would automatically correct. Therefore, there is no point speculating about the prices in the short term.

Do you think earnings is likely to bounce back in double digits in FY19?

The PSU banking sector has been a big drag on the earnings in the last 2-3 years. The spate of NPAs and now frauds and scams just doesnt seem to end.

Lets hope that there are no more cadavers hidden in the PSU Banks cupboards. If so, the earnings growth should most likely be in the high teens.

Some analyst was telling in an interview that India is now part of Expensive 4 in terms of valuations. Do you agree with the statement? Do you FIIs flows coming down in light of constant rate hikes by the US Fed and rising US bond yields?

Yes the Indian valuations had become relatively expensive. If the expected earnings growth that analysts are predicting turns true, the valuations are sustainable.

FIIs now hold almost one-fourth of the Indian market capitalization. So FII flows would not get impeded by rate hikes or bond yields. We have seen it in the past too.

People were extremely concerned when the quantitative easing was being tapered by Fed but we saw that it turned out to be just a damp squib.

The Fed hikes are well planned and well spread out so I do not think FII flows would depend on that. The extent of flows would however depend on the relative attraction of India in the Emerging markets pack.

How will fears of trade wars likely to play out for Indian markets in FY19? Which sectors are likely to see the worst of it?

First of all there is very little likelihood that trade wars may erupt. There is just too much at stake for everyone. Political posturing is one thing, but such extreme decisions can create Economic imbalances that can last for decades.

So, while the markets are justifiably reacting and adjusting to the threats that Trump administration is issuing, we should not be overly concerned.

In any case, India has very little exports to US except software services, pharmaceuticals and jewellery. A change in market sentiment globally would also impact India as the foreign flows would become volatile.

However, there is very little data now to form any opinion about the outcome of a trade war and the extent of it. So we should just wait and watch how the situation develops.
gsk_22113956

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British drug giant GSK on Tuesday said it has put its popular nutritional health brand Horlicks under "strategic review" to fund the USD 13 billion acquisition of Novartis consumer health business.

GSK said it will assess shareholding in its Indian subsidiary, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare hinting at a possible sale of the Indian unit.

"GSK also to initiate strategic review of Horlicks and other consumer nutrition products to support transaction funding. Review will include an assessment of Groups shareholding in Indian subsidiary, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare Ltd," GSK said in a press statement.

The majority of Horlicks and other nutrition products sales are generated in India, with the Horlicks range widely recognised as a portfolio of premium nutrition products.

Horlicks alone contributed around three-fourths of GlaxoSmithKline Consumer's sales of Rs 4,208.57 crore in FY17.

In India, these products are sold by GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare Ltd, a public company listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The strategic review will include an assessment of GSKs 72.5 percent shareholding in the company.

GSK expects the outcome of the strategic review to be concluded around the end of 2018. There can be no assurance that the review process will result in any transaction.

India remains a priority market for GSK investment and growth. The Consumer Healthcare business will continue to invest in growth opportunities for its OTC and Oral Health brands, such as Sensodyne and Eno, GSK said.

The Group is also actively investing in its Pharmaceutical and Vaccines businesses, including building new manufacturing capacity in Vemgal, Karnataka and Nashik.

In India GSK operates its business through two listed entities  the pharmaceutical business is housed under GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals and consumer health business under GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare.

Horlicks share in total health drink market stood at 44.8 percent in value terms and 50.6 percent in volume terms in FY17.

Horlicks and Boost (the other popular health drink), together had a 56.3 percent market share in value terms and 64.4 percent in volume terms in March 2017.

Horlicks brand is under pressure in India with stagnation of sales due to intense competition from Abbott, Nestle and Danone. Abbotts Pediasure has emerged as popular brand among pediatricians and commands a premium in terms of pricing among nutritional health drinks.

GSK last year dumped JWT  an ad agency it has worked with for almost eight decades. GSK has been launching high-margin specialised variants of Horlicks to address top-end consumers and dropped prices of its popular products to push up sales in small towns.

The malt-based drink market in India was estimated at 1.1 billion (retail sales) in 2015, according to a study by research firm Euromonitor International.

GlaxoSmithKline Consumer market capitilisation is at Rs 28,000 crore.

Shares of GlaxoSmithKline Consumer rose 2.14 percent and were trading at Rs 6645.05 on BSE at 2.07 pm, the benchmark Sensex rose 0.45 percent to 33,215.21 points.
Members of Shiv Pratishthan take part in a protest rally demanding the removal of all the allegations against Sambhaji Bhide in Bhima Koregaon violence in Satara, Maharashtra. (PTI)



Republican Guards (R) and army officials (Rear C) wait prior to a national ceremony for late Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame, at the Hotel des Invalides in Paris, France. Beltrame was killed by an Islamist militant after taking the place of a female hostage during a supermarket siege in Trebes. (REUTERS)



A general view shows the business tower Lakhta Centre (C), which is under construction, and the Saint Petersburg Stadium (L) during the sunrise in St. Petersburg, Russia. (REUTERS)

Roger Torrent, Speaker of Catalan regional Parliament attends a plenary session of the Catalonia's regional parliament in Barcelona, Spain. (REUTERS)



People gather to commemorate the victims of a shopping mall fire in Kemerovo on the day of national mourning in the far eastern city of Vladivostok, Russia. (REUTERS)

Secretary-General's office, Saudi Arabia's Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, left, presents a check for USD 930 million to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at UN headquarters. The check represents the Crown Prince and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia delivering on the January pledge it made with the United Arab Emirates to contribute to the Yemen Humanitarian Fund. (AP/PTI)



A Nepalese woman hurls a stone at policemen during a protest in Kathmandu, Nepal. Police set water canons and baton charged protesters who were marching towards the parliament to protest the knocking down of houses and seizing of private property for widening of Kathmandu roads. They accused the government of destroying centuries old heritage structures for unnecessary developmental work. (AP/PTI)



Rajya Sabha chairperson M Venkaiah Naidu speaks in the Rajya Sabha during the second phase of budget session, at the Parliament House in New Delhi. (PTI)



Traders raise slogans during a protest at Ramlila Ground in New Delhi, on Wednesday. Markets remain shut as traders, employees, and business owners stage a mega rally against the ongoing sealing drive. (PTI)
Sandeep Nerlekar

The journey of a business evolves from its set up stage, to the growth stage and then moves on. It starts when the entrepreneur sets up the business, works on it and takes it to the next level. Then, his family joins in to help him grow the business multi-fold.

These businesses and families face challenges when the new generation joins them. There are often clashes in the way traditional businesses are run (by the founder) and the way the next gen wants to handle it. The founder is not always ready to accept change and the next gen is not ready to follow older ways. There could be challenges between siblings on count of wealth or power. A major challenge comes in form of wealth or personal ambitions, ego and/or control.

Poor succession planning, lack of trusted advisers, family conflict, different visions between generations, lack of financial education for children are the reasons why 70% of family-owned businesses fail or are sold before they are passed on to the second generation and almost 90% dont make it to the third generation.

Great wealth is a privilege and without a sense of stewardship and obligation, many rich descendants fall prey to ennui and boredom, failing to safeguard the family wealth or treat businesses with respect which leads into disintegration of many family business.

To overcome these challenges, business families need to adopt an approach which will reduce the risk of disintegration and will help families build a business model that can live through generations. It is important for the family to put up a proper structure and device a policy and process guidelines that can help the family reap the fruits of a successful family business and create a multi-generational business model or as they say sleeves to sleeves in three generations.

It should be a priority for the business families to put in place an estate plan. They need to create a set of private family trusts and asset protection trusts which will help the family hold personal wealth and companies under well structured trusts. The personal wealth can be held in the respective family trusts, where family members can hold personal assets and the share of family assets (inheritance) that can move into these trusts.

Business families can create a mother family trust for the commonly held assets and individual family trusts for the individual family members. One can transfer business company shares in the respective trusts and have an intra-trust shareholding agreement.

This agreement will help the family mitigate risks of any family litigation and take care of potential issues via inbuilt exit rights, valuations methodologies, voting rights and dividend rights. This will help the family build a multi-generational business.

By creating a trust structure and holding shares of the companies in the trust the family can avoid potential problems of control, management and continuity of the business. Trust can also be used as an asset protection tool to ring fence the assets.

In a business family, in situations like separations or divorces a trust structure can be used to protect the interest of the family members. In fact, when a member of the business family is getting married it is now a common practice for these families to engage an estate planning expert to create a Trust to protect the interest of their family member who is getting married, so that in a worst-case scenario of a divorce the family assets are protected. Especially because prenuptial agreements are not valid in India.

Creation of a trust structure ensures that the wealth and ownership related challenges are settled and resolved. Now the family needs to address the softer and mind related challenges and questions related to leadership, business succession, family members remuneration and incentive etc. need to be answered. Family should consider hiring a professional who can help the family draw a family agreement or a family arrangement. The family can consider having a family constitution or a simple family agreement depending on the family size and assets. Family should have at least these policies in place like intra-family shareholding agreement, exit policy, voting rights, dividend rights and policy, family budget policy, family milestone policy, management and operation family.

With the help of trusts and family policies the family would be able to build a family business that can live through generations.
Bangalore-based fintech startup, SmartCoin has raised USD 2 million in pre-Series A funding from Chinese VC fund and Accion Venture Lab.

Unicorn India Ventures and ISME ACE participated in the round.

The company lends to small to mid-sized ticket loans to mobile users after building a SmartCoin credit score, which is backed by data science and machine learning.

With this round, we expect to grow the momentum and further scale 10X over the next 6-12 months. Having specialists as investors, who are passionate about micro-lending, on board will only help us cover more ground not only in India but globally too, said Rohit Garg, co-founder, and CEO, SmartCoin.

The company was founded in 2016 by Rohit Garg, Amit Chandel, Vinay Kumar Singh and Jayant Upadhyay

SmartCoin illustrates how innovative lenders are leveraging data, mobile access, and Indias digital infrastructure to extend loan access for the financially underserved, said Michael Schlein, President, and CEO of Accion.

We invested in SmartCoin last year as we saw an immense potential in the business. Over the course of the year, we have realized the ability of the team to scale its operations rapidly given the right ammunition. Thus, being able to raise a top dollar from two of the worlds largest markets is a testament to our belief in the team, said Archana Priyadarshini, Partner, Unicorn India Ventures.

The company plans to further invest in technology and grow its team as it continues with its expansion plans, with an aim to cover a much larger customer base.
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Shares of Fortis Healthcare slipped 10 percent intraday Wednesday as comapny board approved the demerger of its hospitals business to Manipal Hospital Enterprises.

The board has also approved sale of its 20 percent stake in SRL to Manipal Hospitals for Rs 720 crore. The remaining part of Fortis Healthcare will be an investment holding company with 36.6 percent stake in SRL.

As part of the proposed transaction, Dr. Ranjan Pai and TPG will invest Rs 3,900 crore in Manipal Hospitals. The funds will be utilised by Manipal Hospitals to finance the acquisition of 50.9 percent stake in SRL.

Read for more - TPG-backed Manipal Hospitals buys Fortis Healthcare, to invest Rs 3,900 crore.

In addition, the investment will support the proposed acquisition of hospital assets owned by RHT Health Trust (RHT) and the growth of the hospitals and the diagnostics businesses.

At 10:56 hrs Fortis Healthcare was quoting at Rs 132.05, down Rs 10.40, or 7.30 percent on the BSE.

Posted by Rakesh Patil
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AUM Capital

Benchmarks indices ended with an optimistic note where the banking stocks gained after the government announced lower-than-expected borrowing programme for the first half of the fiscal year 2019.

Indian government bonds also rose, posting their sharpest intraday gain, with the 10-year bond yield dropping to as much as 7.3565 per cent from 7.62 percent. Moreover, global equities also gained as trade war fears eased after reports possible trade negotiations between the US and China.

Overall, SBI, Indusind Bank, Asian Paints, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Larsen & Toubro were the top gainers whereas Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Auto, Hero MotoCorp, HDFC and Tata Motors were the top losers.

Technical Outlook

Nifty

Nifty opened with gap-up and moved higher to close at 10184.15 up 0.53 per cent. It has formed 'Doji' candlestick pattern around 200 SMA indicating

indecisiveness around hurdle zone. Above 10,210 levels, Index may move higher till 10250-10300 levels. The level of 10,300 i.e. upper band of Falling Channel might work as strong hurdle zone. Decisive break above this trendline would take Nifty further higher.

Bank Nifty

Nifty Bank has formed 'Doji' candlestick pattern around its 20 EMA of 24545 levels suggesting indecisiveness around supply zone. It is currently trading around upper band of 'Falling Channel' on daily scale. Decisive trade above 24545 levels might take Index further higher till 24900 marks. Furthermore, Momentum Oscillators like RSI & MACD has given positive crossover which is a bullish set-up.

Below are the top 5 stocks which can gain up to 5% in the near term:

Chennai Petroleum Corporation | Rating: Buy | Target: Rs 339, stop loss: Rs 319 | Return: 3%

Equitas Holdings | Rating: Buy | Target: Rs 154, stop loss: Rs 142 | Return: 5%

Indiabulls Housing Finance | Rating: Buy | Target: Rs 1275, stop loss: Rs 1220 | Return: 2%

Indraprastha Gas | Rating: Buy | Target: Rs 288, stop loss: Rs 274 | Return: 3%

UPL Limited | Rating: Buy | Target: Rs 756, stop loss: Rs 720 | Return: 2%

: The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts on moneycontrol.com are their own, and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.
Naresh Goyal-led Jet Airways is likely considering to place a bid for ailing national carrier Air India, according to an Economic Times report.

Speaking to the newspaper, Jet Airways Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Vinay Dube said, I think we need clarity on what the government's position is. Once we get more clarity, we will have an opinion."

This is the first time that Indias oldest private airline has formally indicated interest in the Maharaja.

Earlier this month, reports suggested that a consortium of Jet Airways, Air France-KLM and Delta Airlines had expressed interest in the national carriers planned disinvestment.

Moving ahead with the strategic disinvestment of the loss-incurring carrier, the government is expected to invite Expression of Interest (EoI) from bidders. The notification is expected to declare the contours for Air India's sale.

The EoI will reveal how much stake the government would look to retain in the airline, if at all. It will also detail the number of units it would be split into, before being sold.

According to reports, the government could retain 26 percent stake in the national carrier, according to the report. Earlier, the government had allowed foreign investment of up to 49 percent in Air India.

On Monday, Moneycontrol had reported that the government could make it mandatory for Air Indias eventual buyer to list the airline on the stock exchanges in three to five years. In case the majority shareholder refuses to launch an initial public offering, the government may want to keep the option of selling its stake via a public offering.

In January, Singapore Airlines, which operates Vistara along with Tata Group, had said it will keep options open on the Air India stake sale, after the government allowed foreign carriers to own up to 49 percent in the national carrier.

Air India has over Rs 50,000 crore debt on its books, much of which will have to be absorbed by the government to attract private interest.
People wait to vote during the presidential election at a polling station in Monrovia, Liberia (REUTERS)

The Aam Aadmi Party today alleged that the Election Commission was working "one-sided in favour of the BJP", hours after the saffron party's IT cell chief announced the Karnataka Assembly polls date in a tweet before an official declaration.

The Arvind Kejriwal-led party also demanded a probe into BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya's tweet.

"The way EC is working one-sided in favour of the BJP, this has not happened in its history," Sanjay Singh, AAP MP and spokesperson said.

"The EC has become BJP's institution and its subordinate," he alleged.

Ahead of the official announcement by Election Commission, Malviya had tweeted that voting would be held on May 12 and the counting on May 18. He was correct about the day of the voting, but got the counting date wrong. The counting would be held on May 15.

The Election Commission has set up a committee to probe the leak.

AAP's fresh attack on the poll panel comes nearly a week after the Delhi High Court set aside the Election Commission's order to disqualify 20 party MLAs for allegedly holding offices of profit.

Suggesting that all parties should unite over the issue, Singh said AAP will approach all the opposition parties to stop the "BJP from doing whatever it wants".

"All opposition parties should come together to oppose the dictatorial tendencies of the BJP government," Singh said.

Questioning the decisions of the Election Commission in the case of deferring the assembly elections in Gujarat and disqualification of AAP MLA's, senior AAP leader Ashutosh claimed, "The EC is working at the behest of the BJP".
15:34 Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day after an uproar. The ruckus did not allow Speak Sumitra Mahajan to bring in the motion of no-confidence. The House will convene again On Tuesday, April 2. Thats all from our side. Thanks for staying tuned.

12:12 The House stands adjourned for the day. It will convene on April 2.

11:54 The

Lower House will convene at noon.

11:07 The Lok Sabha has been adjourned till noon, amidst ruckus.

AIADMK MPs were seen raising slogan we want justice, in the well of the House, as soon as it convened.

11:04 The Lok Sabha convened.

08:12 On Tuesday, four parties  Congress, YSR Congress, TDP and CPI (M) were expected to move the motion of no-confidence. However, the House was adjourned due to ruckus from AIADMK MPs. Earlier on Tuesday, TRS MPs, who had been protesting in the well of the House for a week, said they would allow the motion to be brought in.

08:09 Good morning! The blog will track the happening from the Lok Sabha. The Opposition parties are expected to move the motion of no-confidence, again.

13:58 The four parties are expected to move the trust vote again tomorrow. Thats all from our side, for now. Thanks for staying tuned.

12:13 The Lok Sabha will convene tomorrow at 11 am.

12:11 Speaker Sumitra Mahajan reiterated that she wanted to bring in the motion of no-confidence as she was duty-bound. However, the House was adjourned for the day as ruckus continued.

11:33 The Lok Sabha has been adjourned till noon after loud slogans of 'we want justice' were raised in the House immediately after proceedings began today.

10:41 Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu will hold a meeting with representatives of all political parties of the state in Amaravati today. They are likely to discuss future course of action on their demand for special category status.

10:15 In what can be seen as a positive sign for the Opposition, reports suggest that the TRS have agreed to let the Lok Sabha function and that its MPs would not protest in the well of the House. However, it remains unclear if the AIADMK would do the same.

10:13 The lower House did not function as planned last week. Due to constant ruckus from MPs belonging to TRS and AIADMK, who were protesting in the well of the House, the Speaker had to adjourn the Lok Sabha repeatedly.

10:12 Last week, TDP as well as YSR Congress tried to move the motion of no-confidence one day after the other. Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said that she is duty-bound to bring in the motion. However, she said that the vote would be possible only if there was no ruckus in the House.

10:10 The Lower House will convene for the first time since Friday. The House had a scheduled holiday yesterday.

10:09 Good morning! This blog will track happening from the Lok Sabha. Congress, Telugu Desam Party (TDP), YSR Congress and now the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) are set to move the motion of no-confidence against the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in the Lok Sabha, as the proceedings begin at 11 am today.

15:42 YSR Congress and Congress have also submitted documents moving the motion of no-confidence against the NDA government. The Lok Sabha will convene on Tuesday, March 27, at 11 am. That's all from our side. Thank you for staying tuned.

11:23 The Rajya Sabha has also been adjourned till Monday after TDP MPs stormed into well of the House over the special status for Andhra Pradesh issue.

Remember, the motion of no-confidence can only be moved in Lok Sabha, not in the Upper House.

11:08 The proceedings of Lok Sabha opened with ruckus and was immediately adjourned till 11 am.

11:03 The Lok Sabha has convened.

10:52 TDP MPs have continued their protest in Parliament premises regarding a special status issue.

09:37 The Lok Sabha is expected to convene at 11 am.

09:21 Reports suggest that the Telugu Desam Party has sought support from TRS and AIADMK to let the House function and move the motion of no-confidence. TRS and AIADMK have been protesting in the well of the House for the last few days, creating ruckus that has resulted in constant adjournment.

09:19 The two parties have been attempting to move the motion for the last 3-4 days. However, constant ruckus in the Lower House forced Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to adjourn the House every day.

09:18 Good morning! This LIVE blog will track the latest developments from the Lok Sabha where the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the YSR Congress are expected to move the motion of no-confidence, again.

12:18 The Lok Sabha has been adjourned till tomorrow.

11:20 The Lok Sabha has been adjourned till noon.

10:58 After adjournment yesterday, YSR Congress YV Subba Reddy wrote to Lok Sabha Secretary General and gave him notice to include motion of no-confidence in the list of business for today.

10:57 Yesterday, the House convened at 11 am and was immediately adjourned to 12 pm as the ruckus continued. At noon, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan slammed the protesting MPs for creating a ruckus, but had to adjourn the House for the day, again.

10:50 Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the YSR Congress are set to move the motion of no confidence against the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government today, again.

13:53 The motion of no confidence is likely to be move in the Lok Sabha tomorrow. That's it for now. Thanks for staying tuned.

12:41 YSR Congress YV Subba Reddy has written to Lok Sabha Secretary General and has given notice to include motion of no-confidence in the list of business for tomorrow.

12:11 The House was adjourned after continued ruckus. Speaker Mahajan said that she would not be able to take up the motion of no confidence if the ruckus continues.

12:09 Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has adjourned Lok Sabha for the day. The House will convene again on Thursday.

11:09 Minutes after convening, the Lok Sabha was adjourned again. The House will meet next at 12 noon.

09:26 Amidst ruckus in the Lok Sabha yesterday, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said that she is duty bound to bring in the motion of no confidence moved by TDP and YSR Congress, before adjourned the House for the day.

09:25 YSR Congress issues whip, orders MPs to be present

Jaganmohan Reddys YSR Congress has issued a whip to its Members of Parliament (MPs), ordering all of them to be present in the Lok Sabha today. They will be moving the motion of no confidence, again when the House convenes at 11 am.

09:21 Good morning! This blog will follow the latest happening from Parliament where Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and YSR Congress are expected to move the motion of no confidence, again.

15:31 YSR Congress is expected to move another motion of no confidence in the Lok Sabha tomorrow and TDP is expected to follow suit. That's it for now. Thanks for staying tuned.

12:46 YSR Congress YV Subba Reddy has written to Lok Sabha Secretary General, giving notice to include the motion of no-confidence in the list of business for tomorrow.

12:18 Following ruckus, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has adjourned the Lok Sabha for the day. The House will convene at 11 am on Wednesday.

12:15 Speaker Sumitra Mahajan says that she is duty bound to bring in the motion of no confidence moved by TDP and YSR Congress.

12:10 Lok Sabha has convened again. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is addressing the House over the death of 39 Indians in Iraq, amidst chaos.

11:48 Rajya Sabha has been adjourned for the day after ruckus in the House.

11:10 The Lok Sabha has been adjourned till noon after chants of 'We want justice' echoed in the House, immediately after proceedings began for the day.

10:38 Andhra Pradesh CM and TDP Chief Chandrababu Naidu has asked party MPs to coordinate with members of the Opposition, media reports suggest.

09:02 Recap: Yesterday, both TDP and YSR Congress moved the motion of no confidence. Home Minister Rajnath Singh, on behalf of the government said that they were willing to face the trust vote and debate about it.

Speaker Sumitra Mahajan however said that she cannot allow any such vote to happen unless the ruckus in the House stops, as it will make counting of votes difficult for her.

09:00 The motion of no confidence was to be moved on Friday and was postponed to for yesterday after the Lok Sabha was adjourned early then. Yesterday, again, the Speaker adjourned the Lok Sabha early after ruckus in the House.

08:57 Despite all efforts from Chandrababu Naidus TDP and the YSR Congress Party, the NDA seems to have enough numbers to succeed against any no confidence motion.

08:54 A key member of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the Shiv Sena said yesterday that it will abstain from voting when the motion of no confidence is moved today. Shiv Sena has 18 MPs in the Lok Sabha.

08:51 Good morning! This blog will continue to track the latest developments from the Parliament where two Andhra Pradesh-based parties  Telugu Desam Party and YSR Congress Party  are expected to move the motion of no confidence, again.

16:03 TDP and YSR Congress are expected to move another motion of no confidence in the Lok Sabha tomorrow.

15:10 Shiv Sena has said that it will abstain from voting in the motion of no confidence.

In the party mouthpiece Saamana, Shiv Sena has said, "The TDP wants to bring in the no-confidence motion for its personal political reasons and not for any 'nationalist' reason".

"In 2019, there will be a blast of resentment that is prevailing among masses today. That time, a no-confidence motion will be passed with a complete majority," the Sena said.

13:08 Members of Parliament from TDP and YSR Congress will be skipping lunch hosted by Lok Sabha speaker as they are upset with their no-confidence motion not being taken up, news reports suggest.

12:49 YSR Congress Member of Parliament YV Subba Reddy has moved no-confidence motion against the government for Tuesday.

12:14 Home Minister Rajnath Singh said before the Lok Sabha was adjourned that the government is willing to face the no-confidence motion. Singh also said that the government was ready to debate the motion.

12:11 Lok Sabha has been adjourned until tomorrow after ruckus. Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said that she would not be in a position to count the votes because of the noise inside the parliament.

12:09 Lok Sabha has convened, following adjournment.

11:59 DMK leader MK Stalin has said in the Tamil Nadu assembly, Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu to put pressure on Central government, has gone for no confidence motion, for the welfare of their state. I ask this (Tamil Nadu) Government to support TDP's no confidence motion.

11:24 Addressing TDP minority wing members, Andhra Pradesh CM and TDP Chief Chandrababu Naidu has said, You have always been supportive of TDP, but you were not happy that we allied with BJP. We have been working for welfare of Muslims.

We thought as an NDA member, BJP will do justice to the state, but nothing happened. We waited for four years, but of no use. Even in the last budget justice was not done, Naidu added.

It was TDP and not YSRCP who responded on Triple Talaq Bill. I told BJP leadership that criminalization of triple talaq was not correct. I was the first to oppose it, Naidu added.

11:16 The government has however expressed confidence that the notices, even if they are admitted, will be defeated given its strength in the Lok Sabha.

The current strength of the Lok Sabha is 539 and the ruling BJP has 274 members, more than the majority mark of 270, and enjoys the support of several allies.

With the 16-member TDP quitting the BJP-led NDA, the ruling alliance strength has reduced.

11:08 Recap

The YSR Congress was the first to give a notice last week for a no-trust motion after the Centre made it clear that it would not grant Special Category Status to Andhra Pradesh.

Not to be outdone by its main rival in the state, the TDP, a long time BJP ally, then decided to break its ties over the issue and brought a no-confidence motion of its own.

Both parties have been lobbying with opposition parties for support to their respective notices. A no-confidence motion notice has to be supported by at least 50 MPs to be taken up in the House.

11:06 FLASH | The Lok Sabha has been adjourned till noon due to ruckus.

11:05 YSR Congress YV Subba Reddy has written to the Lok Sabha secretariat to put his notice for the motion in the revised list of business for tomorrow. The TDP has also moved a notice for a no-confidence motion.

When their notices were not taken up last week, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar had argued that they could not be due to the House being not in order, with members of several parties raising slogans in the Well.

11:04 TDP, YSR Congress to pitch for no confidence motion notices in Lok Sabha

Desam

YSR

Modi

Lok

Sabha

The TeluguParty andCongress will pitch for taking up their notices of no-confidence motion against thegovernment when themeets today, amid no signs of a let-up in the deadlock in its proceedings.
The official Twitter handle of Russian Embassy in the US delivered a diplomatic salvo when it published a poll on Monday asking its followers which US consulate in Russia should be shut.

US administration ordered the closure of the Russian Consulate in Seattle. What US Consulate General would you close in Russia, if it was up to you to decide, the embassy asked, giving three options: US Consulate General in Vladivostok, US Consulate General in Yekaterinburg and US Consulate General in St. Petersburg.



US administration ordered the closure of the Russian Consulate in Seattle @GK_Seattle. What US Consulate General would you close in @Russia, if it was up to you to decide

 Russia in USA (@RusEmbUSA) March 26, 2018

Among the 57,526 people who voted, 47 percent said the US consulate in the St. Petersburg should be shut. While 35 percent voted for Yekaterinburg.

The poll was in response to the actions taken by the US government in solidarity with the global community which has expelled over 100 Russian diplomats after a former Russian spy was allegedly poisoned by Russian authorities in Salisbury, England, early March.

The UK announced that it was expelling 23 Russian diplomats following a preliminary investigation into the death. The Kremlin vowed to retaliate against the "provocative gesture", denying it had any role in the attack.

Since then, at least 20 countries, including many of its neighbours, have expelled Russian diplomats from their respective countries with the US leading the pack with 60 diplomats. The US State Department announced that it was expelling 48 envoys at the Russian embassy in Washington along with another 12 at the UN in New York.

Ukraine expelled 13 Russian diplomats, Canada, France, Germany and Poland each threw four Russian diplomats out of the country.

According to a six-part Buzzfeed investigation, the Russian diaspora in the UK appears vulnerable with the Kremlin suspected of organising several killings on British soil over the past 15 years.
Donald Trump

The United States continues to move forward on the proposed summit meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the White House has said.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders yesterday told reporters that preparations were on for the summit, which has been accepted by Trump at the request of Pyongyang.

"We are continuing to move forward. The offer was extended and accepted, and were continuing to move forward in that process. We still don't have a set time or date on that front," Sanders said in response to a question.

State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert had more or less a similar statement to offer during a news conference.

"We continue to proceed with our planning to go ahead for a summit between the United States and the DPRK (Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea). This is something that President Trump and the Republic of Korea had talked about not too long ago. We are going ahead and we are planning that," she said.

Nauert said the State Department was planning the meeting in coordination with the NSC  the National Security Council  and other US Government agencies and departments.

"It's a big task, certainly, pulling off any kind of summit like this. The NSC is the main coordinator of it, and the State Department is providing any assistance that is needed," Nauert said.
A powerful Congressional committee has summoned the CEOs of the top three tech giants - Facebook, Twitter and Google - to testify next month about UK communications firm Cambridge Analytica's misuse of private data from up to 50 million user profiles.

Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Indian-American Sunder Pichai of Google and Jack Dorsey of Twitter have been invited to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee scheduled for April 10 by the Committee's Chairman Chuck Grassley.

In a statement, Grassley said yesterday that Zuckerberg had been invited to discuss the company's past and future policies regarding the protection and monitoring of consumer data.

"After repeated calls for him to do so, Mark Zuckerberg has decided he will testify before Congress," CNN said in a report.

The pressure from lawmakers, the media and the public has become too intense to justify anything less, it said.

"The Facebook sources believe Zuckerberg's willingness to testify will also put pressure on Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to do the same.

"Zuckerberg today turned down a request from British lawmakers to answer questions on the social network's privacy practices and will send two deputies instead," the report added. The hearing will broadly cover privacy standards for the collection, retention and dissemination of consumer data for commercial use.

"It will also examine how such data may be misused or improperly transferred and what steps companies like Facebook can take to better protect personal information of users and ensure more transparency in the process," a statement said.

Grassley also invited Pichai and Dorsey to discuss the future of data privacy in the social media industry and how to develop "rules of the road" that encourage companies to develop tailored approaches to privacy which satisfy consumer expectations while maintaining incentives for innovation.

Senator Mark Warner also sought answers from the tech companies on data protection.

"I celebrate the success of Facebook, Google & Twitter; but with their power comes responsibility that they must acknowledge. This isn't a Russia problem. If we value civic discourse and fair elections, they have to step up and answer to more than their shareholders," he said.

Senator Ed Markey said Facebook's failure to protect millions of Americans' private information in the Cambridge Analytica breach showed "why we cannot rely on corporations" to police themselves.

"We need laws that prevent corporations from abusing Americans privacy rights," said Markey.

Meanwhile, online news publication 'Intercept' reported that the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement used backend Facebook data to locate and track immigrants that it is working to round up.

Congressman Bobby L Rush has introduced a legislation that would require the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to issue regulations requiring companies like Facebook that own or possess data containing personal information to establish specified security policies and procedures to treat and protect such information.
The word corrupt originates from the Latin word corrumpere where cor means - altogether and rumpere means - to break. And that is the precise effect that it has on any institution or an individual. An anticorruption nonprofit, Transparency International, attempts to measure the menace of corruption and releases a yearly list of 180 countries that has the most and the least corrupt governments on a scale of 0 to 100 where a score closer to 100 means the most corruption-free state. The country takes into account expert opinions from around the world and gives prominent importance to Freedom of Expression. Heres a list of five least corrupt and five most corrupt countries with Indias ranking.

Switzerland | The picturesque European country is the fifth least corrupt country around the world with a score of 85. The country retains a strong commitment to political neutrality and corruption doesnt impede business. Lately, Switzerland has been criticised for not implementing necessary measures to prevent tax evasion. (Pictured: People at the Swiss mountain resort of St. Moritz in Switzerland. Image: Reuters)

Norway | Norway follows Switzerland as the fourth least corrupt country in the world. Its score is 85. The oil-rich country is also one of the best example of sustainable economic development. Norway also scores high in most human development indicators. (Pictured: The Royal Palace in Oslo. Image: Reuters)

Finland | Finland comes after Norway to become the third least corrupt country in the world with a score of 85. In fact, Finland is consistently featured as one of the best examples of a modern welfare state. The countrys education and social welfare system is revered among civic societies and global social welfare organisations. (Pictured: The Finnish Parliament in Helsinki. Image: Reuters)

Denmark | Another Nordic country on the list, Denmark is the second most corruption-free country in the world. Its score is 88. Denmark has consistently been in the top four since the publication of the first Corruption Perception Report in 1995. Denmark topped in the 2016 edition of this report. (Pictured: The Nyhavn canal at the Copenhagen Harbor. Image: Reuters)

New Zealand | The top spot among the least corrupt countries in the world goes to New Zealand in the Asia-Pacific with a score of 89. New Zealand has scored among the 90s consistently in the annual rankings. In 2016, New Zealand was tied for the top spot with Denmark. Now lets have a look at the five most corrupt governments in the world. (Pictured: A general view of Auckland City. Image : Reuters)

Yemen | The middle-eastern country is in a state of political crisis since 2011 that started against the countrys political leadership. It scores a lowly 16 on the index. It is an improvement of two points when compared to last year. (Pictured: The Al-Karn village in Al-Mahaweet, around 110 km north-west of Yemens capital Sanaa. Image: Reuters)

Afghanistan | With a score of 15, Afghanistan follows Yemen to be ranked among the most corrupt countries. Efforts to establish a democratic government. A UN report said that in 2009 the citizens paid USD 2.5 billion in bribes that is equivalent to 23% of the countrys GDP. (Pictured: A man walks on a hilltop overlooking Kabul. Image: Reuters)

Syria | The middle-eastern country has been in a state of war since a very long time that has led to a heavy loss of life and property. Absence of human rights and a non-existent political process has led to a corrupt state of affairs that does not seem to be ending anytime soon. Syria scores 14 on the index. (Pictured: People take part in a biking tour in Damascus. Image: Reuters)

South Sudan | The landlocked African country is the newest country to take form in the world. South Sudan attained independence from the Sudan in 2011 and has since seen a civil war between the Government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-in-Opposition. The country scores a low score of 12 on the index. (Pictured: The city of Juba. Image: Reuters)

Somalia | Somalia is the most corrupt country in the world as per the Corruption Perceptions Index 2017. The countrys government has been repeatedly ranked as the most corrupt in the world in multiple indices. (Pictured: Aerial view of traffic in the city of Mogadishu. Image: Reuters)
Some of the most formative relationships I have experienced hold music at their core. My father and I bonded immensely over the past few years, and we have music to thank for that. He was the one to show me what real music was, in whipping out his James Taylor and Steely Dan records.

This act of generosity, in sharing a piece of himself with me, encouraged me to explore the transformative power of music and its intimately passionate qualities. It is undeniable that music is a universal language, uniting those from all walks of life to both respect and challenge the world in which we live.

In a society rocked so heavily by political and social traumas, it is natural that we seek something upon which we can anchor ourselves. For myself  and many others  music is the entity through which we can both escape and appreciate our surroundings.

Personally, music has acted as a great stabiliser for my mental health in recent months. When it seems as though our plates are piled high with stress and pressure, finding solace in an expressive art form is one of the kindest things we can do for our minds and bodies. Music has had led to an immeasurable amount of positivity regarding my mood. Simply by listening to my favourite artist, I find myself slipping back in my chair and enjoying life just that little bit more.

We often associate certain songs, artists or genres to passages of time: whether it be our school years, former relationships or the place in which we grew up. Some songs latch themselves onto prolonged and greater periods, and some onto only fleeting memories. Beyonces Best Thing I Never Had conjures up the somewhat mundane memory of waiting in the car whilst my mother did the shopping, but James Taylors Copperline stirs up the overpowering nostalgia of my teenage years.

With my habit of pinpointing fragments of my life alongside my musical endeavours, I have unsurprisingly attached certain songs to overwhelmingly negative aspects of my past. The BBC published an article in 2011, reporting on a study which claimed that music releases a chemical in the brain that has a key role in setting good moods. Scientifically speaking, it is clear that music can indeed have a positive influence on our mental health. Can it have an equally detrimental effect?

Hearing those songs on the radio, on the television or in person, has at times sent me into a spiralling low mood its tough to pull myself out of. It is more than easy  fun, perhaps  to attribute our former years with the music we so dearly loved at the time. However, it also becomes increasingly difficult to sift through the negative patches and their soundtracks.

Ive listed two of my favourite songs. I hope that at least one person might find a bit of sunshine in their melodies. I would implore anyone, whether you are having difficulties with your mental health or not, to branch out of your musical comfort zone and listen to something fresh. You just might find the right aid to help soothe a negative patch.

Beautiful Child by Michael McDonald

You Make Loving Fun by Fleetwood Mac

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Gill is president and CEO of Verico Superior Mortgage, which he runs with his daughter, son and daughter-in-law, and one of the reasons for the small teams outsized success is a philosophical cornerstone.

Im always honest with my clients, continued Gill. You give your clients the best. When the client comes to us, you try to understand their needs, and then try to figure out which banks and mortgages their needs fit into. What will be beneficial for them? There has to be a commitment to getting it right for every client. The client is intelligent; they see through you and ask whether or not youre doing whats right for them, or whats right for you. We never go after commissions; we always do whats best for the clients. That means recommending that they stay with their bank if they need to. Even if I dont make them my client, theyll refer their family and friends to me because they all value trust.

Gill has been in the banking and mortgage industries for 49 years, beginning his career in 1969 at UCO Bank in India. By 1995, Gill had relocated his family to Surrey, B.C., and a year later he was working with Bank of Montreal.

By 2001, Gill was a sub-mortgage broker with Approved Mortgages in Kelowna, and a couple of years later he opened his own brokerage.

But it was while Gill was with BMO, where he was a top producer, that, on the advice of Boris Bozicwho went on to found Merix Financialhe pursued a career as a mortgage broker.
Alex_Schmidt

HYDRO, Okla. (AP)  The Oklahoma Highway Patrol says two men were killed when the plane they were flying from Texas to Oklahoma crashed in central Oklahoma.

The OHP said Tuesday that 62-year-old pilot Walter Mullaney of El Reno and 27-year-old passenger Cesar Gomez of Lumton, Colorado, died in the crash that was discovered on Monday near Hydro, about 60 miles (96 kilometers) west of Oklahoma City.
Midland County can be added to the list of counties across Texas with burn bans.

Midland County became at least the 94th county to prohibit or restrict outdoor burning for public safety, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service.

Because of higher-than-normal temperatures and dry vegetation, Midland County Fire Marshal Dale Little recommended the burn ban, and Midland County Judge Mike Bradford signed the order, county officials said in a press release. The ban was authorized during a special meeting of the Commissioners Court on Tuesday.

The order, according to the county, does not prohibit outdoor cooking in approved containers or outdoor burning related to public health and safety, including:

- firefighter training;

- public utility, natural gas pipeline or mining operations;

- planting for harvesting of agricultural crops; and

- burns that are conducted by a certified prescribed burn manager.

The order is effective beginning Sunday and will continue through May 15. A violation of this order is a class C misdemeanor, punishable by a fine not to exceed $500, according to the county.

There was a trace of rain as of Tuesday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service, which also reports 0.06 of an inch has fallen at Midland International this year. The average through March 27 is 1.79 inches. Less than 1 inch of rain has fallen at Midland International going back to Oct. 1.

The Keetch-Byram Drought Index in Midland County is between 400 and 600. The index, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service, is 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. 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 smolder for several days. This is often seen in late summer and early fall.

According to the index map posted Friday, Midland Countys conditions show some of the highest scores in the region.

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.

There is no rain in the forecast through early next week. The Climate Prediction Center isnt calling for relief any time soon. Its 30-day forecast calls for a 50 percent chance of above-average temperatures and below-average rainfall.

Through Monday, March 2018 was on pace to be the third warmest month of March on record in Midland, according to the National Weather Service.








A Midland High student was arrested Tuesday on two felony counts after bringing a loaded gun to campus, according to information from Midland ISD and Midland County Sheriff Gary Painter.

Midland ISD police arrested Bryce Alexander Sanchez, 17, at Midland High on a pair of felonies  places where firearms prohibited and exhibit firearm campus, school  Painter said.

RELATED: MISD: LHS student arrested on weapons charge

A few students at MHS got into a verbal altercation, and one allegedly made the comment that he was leaving campus to get a gun, according to school officials. The student did leave campus, and students notified campus administration about the altercation and the students remarks, MISD said. The student was apprehended as soon as he returned to campus. MISD police searched the student and found a weapon in the students backpack. The campus was not placed under lockdown because of the timeliness of securing the student, according to the district.

The district is proud of our students for seeing something and saying something right away, MISD spokeswoman Lacy Sperry wrote in an email. We are also proud of district staff and the Midland ISD Police Department for their dedication to keeping our campuses safe.

RELATED: MHS student charged in connection with gun-on-campus incident

This is at least the third incident involving a gun and a Midland ISD student this calendar year, according to previous Reporter-Telegram articles.

On Feb. 22, LHS administration received a Crime Stoppers tip that a student had a weapon on campus. A campus police officer found a weapon in the students pocket, according to an MISD report. The student was arrested and was charged with places weapon prohibited and possession of a stolen firearm. MISD officials said there was no evidence supporting a threat or intent to harm.

A week later, a 17-year-old Midland High student was arrested after allegedly having a firearm on school grounds. The student told officers he had (a gun) but gave it to another person, according to the arrest affidavit.
Through her work on human-interest stories, Jenna Bush Hager sees first-hand the impact of charitable efforts. Hager, an author and contributing correspondent for NBCs Today, encouraged local students on Tuesday to be confident in their abilities to make a difference.

The really cool thing  I think Ive seen it so much now  is that even kids have voices they can use, she said. Ive done stories for the Today show with kids your age who have done incredible things to make other peoples lives better.

Hager shared her message with lower- an intermediate-school students during a moderated conversation at Trinity School. Hager, daughter of former President George W. and Laura Bush, attended the school at one point with her twin sister, Barbara Bush.

The conversation focused on Hagers personal experiences with good works and advice for young people. Hager said she learned from her parents to create her own path.

They taught us to use our own voices in whatever way we felt would be impactful, she said. We didnt have to do exactly what they did.

Hager has done work through UNICEF and has spoken nationwide to raise awareness about efforts to help children in need. She is also featured on the NBC series Give, which highlights stories related to charities.

The show gave Trinity School inspiration for this years Big Ideas for the Greater Good (BIGG) servant leadership project. Students raised money for the nonprofits Breaking Bread Kitchen, Casa de Amigos and The Fields Edge.

Through the project, called Can it for Charity, kindergarteners through sixth-graders partnered with Keep Midland Beautiful to collect aluminum cans.

Our point this year was to do two things good at once, said Brock McNeel, a sixth-grade student. We do something good for the environment, while helping people who need it most.

He and his peers collected 498 pounds of cans, which translated into $365. Students then contacted local businesses to challenge them to match the money. On Tuesday, students presented each of the nonprofits with a $3,000 check.

It made me feel very good to know that I helped make a difference in someones life, said second-grader Evelyn Counts.

The project helped students to practice kindness and generosity, according to Patricia A. Maurer, head of the preschool and lower school. She said Can it for Charity also allowed them to develop speaking and letter-writing skills as they reached out to businesses.

Maurer said the school invited Hager to visit Trinity on the day of the check presentation because of her connection to the school and the show Give. She also said Hagers efforts were a factor in the selection.

She is known for her own philanthropic work with organizations and efforts that help to benefit children, not just here at home but around the world, Maurer said.

Hager spoke to Trinity School students in the afternoon, before she was scheduled to address parents at an evening event. The appearance was part of the endowed Sweetie and Hal Clay Peck Memorial Speaker Series.

Whenever possible, we try to connect the speaker that year to the servant leadership project that were doing because that makes a good package for us, Maurer said. Its a way that we can communicate not just to children, but to the adults in this community.
Passavant Area Hospitals gift of an advanced life support vehicle to Jacksonville Fire Department could save the city thousands of dollars in equipment purchases.

Jacksonville Fire Chief Doug Sills said Monday that Passavant intends to give an advanced life support vehicle  along with all of its equipment  to the fire department, no strings attached.

If we had to put a price tag on the gift from Passavant Area Hospital, if you were going to buy all this stuff, wed be looking right at $100,000, Sills said. The cardiac monitor is probably a $30,000 price tag; the vehicle itself is probably between $40,000 and $45,000, so its a pretty significant gift.

Passavant will end its paramedic services on Saturday after the Illinois Department of Public Health denied its license renewal. Jacksonville Fire Department will pick up many of the paramedic response calls the hospital would have serviced.

The fire department reached out to the West Central Dispatch Center, which reached out to the hospital to see about keeping the vehicle in the community, Sills said.

Passavant CEO Harry Schmidt said it was something the hospital was happy to do.

As we transition out of the paramedic service at Passavant, we are happy to provide our paramedic vehicle to the Jacksonville Fire Department as they begin providing advanced life support services to Jacksonville and the surrounding communities, Schmidt said. We are glad to partner with the (department) and we will continue to support them with our training and resources.

The vehicle will be ready to be licensed as an advanced life support assist vehicle. It will take from six to eight months to transition fire department staff to the vehicle to staff it around the clock, Sills said.

Advanced life support vehicles extend the abilities of basic life support vehicles, enabling staff to support breathing and circulation to patients as they make their way to the hospital. The staff of an ALS vehicle can meet a BLS ambulance en route to the hospital and, with a broader range of equipment and drugs available, begin treatment on a patient immediately.

Three fire department staff added through a Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grant will make the transition go fairly quickly, Sills said, adding that he expects it to be done closer to the six-month mark.

Its a big leap forward for us and the city of Jacksonville, he said.

Nick Draper can be reached at 217-245-6121, ext. 1223, or on Twitter @nick_draper.
A building in the 800 block of Galveston Street was burglarized sometime between 4 p.m. Friday and 12:30 p.m. Saturday. The intruder used forced entry on the non-residential structure.

--A 51-year-old woman was held in Hale County jail Saturday on assault causing bodily injury family violence and criminal mischief $750 to $2,500 in connection with an incident that occurred between 8 p.m. Saturday and 1:10 a.m. Sunday in the 300 block of West Fifth Street. A vehicle sustained damaged.

--A 59-year-old man was held Saturday in Hale County jail on charges of terroristic threat and criminal mischief in connection with an incident about 2 a.m. Saturday in the 900 block of West 28th Street.

--An assault reportedly occurred about 11 a.m. Saturday in the 3300 block of Olton Road.

--Police are investigating a reported improper relationship between an educator and student (second-degree felony) which allegedly occurred between 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Friday in the 2200 block of West 20th Street.

--A hit-and-run mishap reportedly occurred about 5:30 p.m. Friday in the 1000 block of Mesa Drive.

--A 49-year-old woman was held Sunday in Hale County jail on charges of driving while license invalid with previous conviction/suspension and without financial responsibility as well as outstanding warrants. She was arrested about 2:45 a.m. Sunday in the 4000 block of Olton Road.

--A 34-year-old man was held Saturday in Hale County jail on charges of silent/abusive call/electronic communication to 911 service following an incident about 4 a.m. Saturday in the 1200 block of Joliet Street.

--A residence in the 1600 block of West 11th was burglarized between 1-5 p.m. Saturday.

--Javier Benitez Aburto, 24, was held Friday in Hale County jail on a state jail felony charge of driving while intoxicated with a child under 15 years of age. He was arrested about 12:30 a.m. Friday in the 1800 block of West 11th Street.

--An incident involving the manufacture/delivery of a controlled substance Penalty Group 1 between 4 and 200 grams and possession of under 2 oz. of marijuana was reported about 2:30 a.m. Saturday in the 1200 block of El Paso

--A 30-year-old man was held Friday in Hale County jail on outstanding local warrants (Fail to Maintain Financial Responsibility, $376.68; Failure to Appear, $302.58). He was arrested about 3:52 p.m. Friday in the 300 block of West 24th Street.

--Credit card or debit card abuse through the fraudulent use of a credit card reportedly occurred between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Feb. 22 in the 3500 block of Olton Road. The crime was reported about 9:20 a.m. Friday.

--A 40-year-old woman was arrested on a municipal capias pro fine warrant for driving while license invalid (fine $544.70). She was held Sunday in Hale County jail after being arrested following a traffic stop about 9:30 p.m. Sunday in the 1100 block of Fresno.

--Claudia Virginia Anguiano, 42, was held in Hale County jail Friday on misdemeanor charges of driving while intoxicated and third-degree felony charges of possession of a controlled substance Penalty Group 1 (cocaine) between 1 and 4 grams. She was arrested about 3 a.m. Friday in the 500 block of North Date.

--A 48-year-old man was held Sunday in Hale County jail on public intoxication charges. He was arrested about 10:20 p.m. Sunday in the 600 block of West 22nd Street.

--Sergio Ricardo Zuniga, 35, was held Saturday in Hale County jail on state jail felony charges of possession of a controlled substance Penalty Group 1 (cocaine) under 1 gram and misdemeanor charges of fail to identify giving false/fictitious information. He was arrested about 11 a.m. Saturday in the 3100 block of Olton Road following a traffic stop.

--A vehicle was reportedly burglarized between 2:45-3 p.m. Saturday in the 1100 block of Fresno.

--A 37-year-old man was held Saturday in Hale County jail on misdemeanor charges of racing on highway. He was arrested about 9:40 p.m. Saturday in the 2000 block of West Fifth Street.

--A 19-year-old man was held Sunday in Hale County jail on a New Mexico warrant for probation violation/violation of court order. He was arrested about 10:45 p.m. Sunday following a traffic stop in the 1300 block of North Columbia.

--A 19-year-old man was held in Hale County jail Monday on misdemeanor charges of no driver's license and running a stop sign following a traffic stop about 2 a.m. Monday in the 400 block of West 24th Street.

--Priscilla Paez Gonzalez, 33, was held in Hale County jail Monday on a state jail felony warrant for parole violation. She was arrested about 2:24 p.m. Monday in the 1000 block of North I-27.

--A 57-year-old man was held in Hale County jail Monday on warrants for theft by check and violate promise to appear. He was arrested about 8:50 p.m. Monday in the 600 block of Quincy.

--An incident involving the fraudulent use or possession of identifying information less than five items was reported about 9 a.m. Monday in the 700 block of Joliet.

--The fraudulent use or possession of identifying information less than five items occurred between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Friday. The crime was reported Monday.

--An assault causing bodily injury reportedly occurred between 8 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Thursday in the 1200 block of Houston.

--A known person allegedly made a terroristic threat to a family member between 8 a.m. March 20 and 6 p.m. March 24. The crime occurred in the 1400 block of Zephyr.

(Anyone with information on crime in Plainview and Hale County may contact the Crime Stoppers Hotline at 293-8477 or 293-TIPS.)
The surprising thing about the Apr. 3, 1902 death of Barney Riggs was not the violent nature of his demise but that the West Texas gunfighter managed to live so long.

There is no telling how many notches Riggs had on his six-gun before moving to Arizona in the early 1880s. Not that he was a professional killer, but just an amateur with a fast draw and a very bad temper.

The fact that Riggs somehow seemed to have "reasonable doubt" on his side kept him out of jail until Sept. 29, 1886. That was the day he shot a friend in the head for fooling around with his unfaithful wife.

This time there was no doubt as to Riggs' guilt, and the judge saw no reason for leniency. The Texan started serving a life sentence for murder on New Year's Eve 1886 in the notorious Territorial Prison at Yuma.

Ten months later, Riggs was stretching his legs in the prison yard when five inmates, all Mexican, made a bid for freedom. A convict named Puebla buried a blade in the shoulder of Superintendent Thomas Gate while two accomplices were busy being shot down, one by a guard in a watchtower and the other by the secretary of the prison board.

Attracted by the screams and the familiar sound of gunfire, Riggs jumped in the middle of the mad melee. He grabbed a pistol from a mortally wounded Mexican, rammed the barrel into the chest of the superintendent's assailant and pulled the trigger. The convict staggered back, and the fearless rescuer finished him off with a second shot.

Stepping over the dead bodies of the five would-be escapees, the convicted killer helped his chief keeper to the prison infirmary.

Riggs was the talk of the territory. A Tucson newspaper praised his heroism in a glowing report that took pains to point out that no one was "more brave and took more desperate chances than Barney Riggs" to prevent the escape and further loss of life.

In record time, Riggs was rewarded with a full pardon. For the rest of his days, his favorite wisecrack was, "I had to kill a man to get into Yuma and killed another to get out."

Riggs returned to West Texas with his young son but not his adulterous wife. She left town the moment she heard her foul-tempered husband was a free man.

After four lean years in the private sector, Riggs landed a job on the public payroll. Andy Royal, the corrupt and hated sheriff of Pecos County, always had a badge for anybody handy with a gun.

The ex-convict had been a deputy for a year or so, when his boss was voted out of office in November 1894. While working at his desk late one night a couple of weeks after the election, the lame-duck sheriff was given a shotgun send-off by an unknown assassin.

The word on the dirt streets of Fort Stockton was that Deputy Riggs was next, but he succeeded in dodging that particular bullet. However, try as he may, he could not avoid getting caught up in a classic West Texas feud.

Reeves County Sheriff G.A. "Bud" Frazer and "Deacon" Jim Miller, the Old West's original killer-for-hire, already had two shootouts under their gun belts by the time Riggs relocated to Pecos. Neutrality made the most sense, but their marriages to each other's sisters forced him to side with the lawman in the private war.

Riggs' brother-in-law was no match, of course, for a killing machine like Miller. Frazer was playing cards in a Toyah saloon in September 1896, when "Deacon Jim" ended the feud with a fatal one-two punch from a double-barreled shotgun.

Once again Riggs was on a hit list with a single name -- his. He knew it was only a matter of time until Miller or his surrogates came gunning for him.

Riggs did not have long to wait. Three weeks after Bud Frazer's murder, John Denson and Bill Earhart showed up in Pecos. The pair spent the day hunting their prey and the courage to take him on but found neither.

The next morning, Denson and Earhart burst into the watering hole where Riggs was tending bar for a buddy. Earhart got off the first round but merely grazed Riggs, who returned fire in a heartbeat hitting him right between the eyes.

With the odds suddenly even, Denson turned and ran. Riggs missed him on this way out the door, followed him into the street, calmly drew a bead on the shrinking target and put a bullet in the back of his head.

Following his acquittal in the double homicide, Riggs stayed out of serious trouble for several years. Then in 1901 his wife divorced him and was awarded a cash settlement of $2,000 payable to her son-in-law Buck Chadborn.

On Apr. 3, 1902, 46-year-old Barney Riggs' temper got the best of him one last time. He confronted Chadborn and, according to three different witnesses, either (a) threatened to strike him with a walking cane, (b) reached in his back pocket for "a handkerchief or something" or (c) cursed the youth less than half his age.

No one claimed the over-the-hill gunfighter was armed. But Chadborn shot him dead anyway, and a jury agreed it was an open-and-shut case of self-defense.

Friendswood-based Bartee Haile writes about Texas history. Contact him through his website at barteehaile.com.
Melissa Phillip/Staff

Bush Intercontinental and Hobby airports, largely considered gateways to Latin America and Mexico, now have a website professionally translated into Spanish.

Users can either go directly to the new dedicated website address  es.fly2houston.com  or click the "Espanol" toggle at the top of the fly2houston.com website.
San Antonio businessman Sardar Biglari last year pocketed almost $8.3 million in compensation from the publicly traded company he controls, nine times what he received in 2016.

A $7.4 million incentive fee paid to Biglari, the chairman and CEO of Biglari Holdings Inc.  parent company of the Steak and Shake restaurant chain and Maxim magazine, accounted for the hike. He again received a $900,000 salary, which had been his total annual compensation since 2014.

Biglari Holdings additionally entered into a new contract in September to pay two entities owned by Sardar Biglari a $700,000 monthly fee, or $8.4 million a year, under a shared services agreement, the company disclosed without providing additional details.

RELATED: Revenue dips again at San Antonio's Biglari Holdings

Meanwhile, a Biglari Holdings shareholder this week filed a lawsuit in Indiana to stop Biglari from going forward with plans to create two classes of stock next month. Its at least the second lawsuit challenging the companys proposal.

Under the plan, according to the suit, Biglari will end up consolidating even more voting control over the company  he already owns almost 55 percent of the stock  while diluting the voting rights of existing shareholders.

A call to Biglari was not returned, but he generally doesnt speak with the media.

Biglaris $8.3 million in compensation last year was 828 times more than the median compensation of the companys employees last year, according to a filing this week with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The figure is high partly because the companys median employee worked part time and earned $9,963 last year. Biglari Holdings has about 21,000 employees, most of whom work at Steak n Shake. Only Biglari and four others work at its San Antonio headquarters.

RELATED: San Antonio has 4 billionaires on the Forbes list  again

Publicly traded companies are now required to report the ratio of CEO-to-median-employee-pay-ratio.

The CEOs at Americas largest companies received an average of $15.6 million in compensation in 2016  or an average of 271 times the $57,565 average pay of the typical worker, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

Last year marked the first time Biglari has collected an incentive fee since he received $10 million in 2013. The fee is capped at $10 million each year.

Biglaris bonus was based on the holding companys $50.1 million in net earnings last year. The company said it was able to report a profit due to a $53.5 million deferred tax liability  an accounting benefit that generally gives a temporary boost to earnings.

Turn to Thursdays Business section or click here on ExpressNews.com to read the full article.
The face of Latin America's cartels is changing as more women are rising up in leadership and taking on roles in drug trafficking and assassination.

Known as "Las Flakas" (Skinny Girls), young women are taking up lives of crime, becoming effective agents for the cartels' causes. Since the chance of being assassinated is great, the title of "La Flaka" has been passed from one female to another.

HOW IT WORKS: This is how drug cartels get American guns into Mexico

The Daily Beast named the first "La Flaca" as Veronica Mireya Moreno Carreon, who worked for Los Zetas and was arrested in 2011. The second was Nancy Manriquez Quintanar, who was also arrested in 2011.

The most recent to make headlines was Joselyn Alejandra Nino, who was found dismembered and stuffed in an ice chest along the US-Mexico border in April of 2015. The Gulf Cartel assassin's chopped up body was found along with another dismembered woman and a decapitated man in the back of a truck.

She made headlines after a photo of her toting an assault rifle with a smile went viral months before her murder.

Facebook screenshots

Nino's death has been credited to La Gladys of the Zetas Cartel, who remains "at large terrorizing the communities of northern Mexico," Fox News reported.

TEXAS CARTEL TIES: Lubbock woman goes to prison for ties to Sinaloa Cartel

"They are ideal killers; young, beautiful and reckless," Andrew Chesnut, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, told Fox News. "By keeping a low profile they avoid suspicion where men doing the same job would quickly find themselves in trouble."

Chesnut continued to explain that the young female assassins work their way up to become killers - beginning as low-level lookout workers or prostitutes. Some others are recruited in prison or were born into cartel families.

"There's an inextricable link between sex and death in the culture of these female killers," Chesnut told Fox News. "In seeking to be the most desired by the narco men, they seek also to be the most brutal among their group of peers. It's gone as far as having them worship the image of Saint Death in their own likenesses, dressed in lingerie."

Last year, another female killer known as "La Peque" (the little one) claimed to have had intercourse with beheaded corpses and bathed in and drank their blood. The 29-year -old member of the Sinaloa Cartel is currently in prison in Baja California Sur.

DRUG MIGRATION: DEA maps show where drug cartels hold sway in Texas, U.S.

Melisa Margarita Calderon Ojeda, known as "La China", is another former assassin who is currently locked up in a Baja California Sur prison for homicide. She and her ex-partner, Eduardo Martin Alvarado "El Kumi," were ordered to kill another rival assassin, but they accidentally killed his father instead, according to reports.

Though not an official assassin, Ann Marie Hernandez, known as "La Muneca," was another leading female cartel member who was arrested in 2015 for drug smuggling and bribery charges. She and her ex-husband Daniel Ledezma smuggled thousands of kilograms of cocaine through an El Paso border crossing where he worked.

To see these and other female assassins who have made a name for themselves for their ruthlessness, click through the gallery above. And continue clicking to see the other inside photos that have been leaked through the years of the world of cartel men and women.
Stone Werks Big Rock Grille fans are days from having a fourth location to dine at.

The San Antonio-based brands newest outpost will be located in the Culebra Commons shopping center near Culebra Road and Loop 1604. The restaurant is slated to open 4 p.m. Monday, April 2, and will operate with dinner-only hours for the first few days.
BRIDGEPORT  A chapter of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity will host a tribute and brunch in honor of one of its members next month.

The Rho Upsilon chapter of the fraternity has been in Bridgeport since 1952. The nonprofit organization was founded in 1911 at Howard University in Washington, D.C.
BRIDGEPORT  Over 100 projects for Bridgeport Public Schools on DonorsChoose.org were funded Tuesday night.

The 188 Bridgeport projects that were fully funded will support 125 teachers and total $132,759.

And Bridgeport wasnt the only lucky city or town. Every single classroom project request across the nation was funded last night by Ripple, a San Francisco-based technology company. The company donated $29 million.

DonorsChoose.org was started by a Bronx public high school history teacher in 2000. The site was launched as a place for people to donate to teachers asking for books, supplies and other materials.

Charles Best, the teacher who founded the site, and 11 of his colleagues posted the first requests on the site in 2000. Now, the website is open to every public school in the country.

Superintendent Aresta Johnson called the information great news when she passed it on to Hearst Connecticut Media on Wednesday.
MIDDLETOWN  Law enforcement officials from around the state gathered this week for a roundtable discussion with U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., about holdups in federal funding that is needed to improve their efforts to fight crime.

Most of the talk during the 45-minute session at Middletown police headquarters centered on substantial cuts over the last decade in municipal and state budgets that have forced chiefs of police and troopers to slash services and training as a result of increasingly dwindling funding.

About 22 chiefs from across the state, including New London, Manchester, Roxbury, East Windsor, Groton, Seymour and Wilton, attended the forum, part of Murphys ongoing Conversations Around Connecticut.

Tools for fighting the opioid crisis, enough officers to perform essential duties, dollars for specialized task forces and getting the right type of security in place at schools were the main topics of discussion.

Theres been a lot of scuttlebutt about whats going to happen to the [Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance federal policing] grants, the future of immigration policies, and so-called sanctuary cities. [The federal Department of Justice] knows were in compliance, but that hasnt stopped them from being really slow in moving some of this federal money out, Murphy said.

Murphy, a member of the Appropriations Committee, helped secure $275.5 million in Community Oriented Policing Services grants in the latest federal budget bill, which many chiefs hoped to use to help hire and train new officers.

The inability to hire and train officers and provide them with essential resources to perform their jobs is a large problem with significant repercussions, many said.

Most recently, the feds havent dispensed promised Byrne funding because some communities have declared themselves sanctuary cities, including Middletown.

Last February, Mayor Dan Drew said city police wont carry out the job of the U.S. government by enforcing federal immigration laws. New Haven, Hartford and Willimantic are among municipalities doing the same in direct response to President Donald Trumps executive order signed just after he took office.

Murphy told the police chiefs that he and U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., sent letters to the DOJ to find out why Byrne dollars are in limbo.

Part of the problem is inefficiency, Murphy acknowledged, but the other reason is they know that states are actually in compliance even though they claim states arent in compliance with immigration laws. The U.S. government is holding it back from all the states, Murphy said, as a way of sending a message on immigration.

He then turned to personnel counts. I know very little of the news is good.

Part of the problem is, when we put a hiring grant out, because most of us arent up to our maximum staff, we dont qualify for the additional resources. We cant supplant the money to get us up to that staffing level, said New London Police Chief Pete Reichard, whose force is operating with 12 less officers.

Murphy said thats how the federal government supplements but not supplants police budgets.

Most departments are maintaining inadequate staffing levels to respond to calls, but all your specialized services: officers in the schools and narcotics task forces, the community policing where you have officers dedicated to handle things outside of patrol doing enhanced services, said Seymour Chief Michael Metzler. Were not providing services because we dont have the personnel.

Murphy then asked for suggestions on how he can communicate more effectively with the DOJ on the opioid epidemic.

The opioid problem drives all the other issues that were seeing: larcenies, burglaries and so forth, said Clinton Police Chief Vincent DeMaio. Narcan is getting more and more expensive. They now understand its doing something, so the prices keep going up on that.

Purchasing enough of this drug, which can help reverse an overdose, is difficult to do on a limited budget.

But its vitally needed, he said.

One of the challenges were facing dealing with opioids is field testing, and many of use have worked with local prosecutors to try to avoid that, said Chief L.J. Fusaro of Groton.

When youre mixing opioids with fentanyl, all these hazardous chemicals that were exposing our officers [are the same ones that are] making people sick. Its killing people and were expecting our cops to test it, he added.

Manchester Police Chief Marc Montminy presented a fact the public may not know, though officials seemed all too familiar with repercussions from these cuts: Its not just the state police  now we have to pay for cadets we send to the academy, and now theyve got to come with a ream of paper: The states not going to pay for it, he said. Im not joking.

Turning to school safety, Murphy referenced the Parkland shootings on Feb. 14.

Has there been a greater demand for SROs in response to the mass shooting that killed 17 people, he asked the chiefs.

No doubt and other emphatic replies echoed around the room.

Everybody wants it, but they dont want to pay for it, DeMaio said.

DeMaio said SROs are vital in tense and highly dangerous situations at schools.

When you look at the data on school shootings, most of them come armed, they come with heavy weapons. As an end game, you need a trained officer in there, DeMaio said.

A security guard is going to be one of the first guys in the body count. Thats a mere fact. Obviously, you dont want to say that at a council meeting but the truth is the truth.

Attorneys who represent boards of education have told Windsor Police Chief Donald Melanson that videos of student incidents are not being shared because of privacy rules, he said.

It shows the student beating up another kid theyre not going to release it, so it creates a whole conflict between like organizations that have the best interests in mind of the children, Melanson said.

Murphy told those gathered he hopes to keep lines of communication open. Hopefully we can get some of that money released so we can make your lives a little bit easier.
1 Gun control: Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens is calling for the repeal of the Second Amendment to allow for significant gun control legislation. The 97-year-old Stevens says in an essay on the New York Times website that repeal would weaken the National Rifle Associations ability to block constructive gun control legislation. In his essay published Tuesday, Stevens talks about the March for Our Lives events on Saturday which drew crowds in cities across the country. Stevens said the demonstrations reveal the broad public support for legislation to minimize the risk of mass killings of schoolchildren and others in our society. He called on demonstrators to seek more effective and more lasting reform.

2 Texas execution: A San Antonio man known as the suitcase killer was executed Tuesday evening in Huntsville for the slaying of a 29-year-old Lubbock woman whose battered, naked body was stuffed into a new piece of luggage and tossed in the trash. Rosendo Rodriguez III had also confessed to killing a 16-year-old Lubbock girl and similarly disposing her body in the trash in a suitcase. Asked by the warden if he had a final statement, Rodriguez spoke defiantly for seven minutes and never apologized to relatives of his victims watching through a window. He also urged people to boycott Texas businesses to pressure the state into ending the death penalty and reiterated issues raised in late appeals.
Do you know how many students in your school district face consequences for violent acts such as aggravated assault, sexual assault or fighting?

The Texas Education Agency tracks these incidents by the number of students and the number of disciplinary actions.

This compilation provides a look at the data for violent incidents for the 2016-17 school year. The counts given are the number of disciplinary actions taken.

CLEVELAND: Assault between 2 students sends 1 to jail, other to hospital

TEA separately counts assaults against district employees and assaults against non-employees (such as students).

To comply with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, the TEA does not mark a specific number of incidents if fewer than five. The report will instead say "N/A." So, any numbers that include counts fewer than five will be reported as "at least 1."

The TEA also splits the data by disciplinary action - in-school suspension, out-of-school suspension, Disciplinary Alternative Education Programs, Juvenile Justice Alternative Education Programs and expulsion.

All groups of disciplinary action have been combined for the purposes of this report.

See the data of Houston-area school districts in alphabetical order above.

Dana Burke is a digital reporter at Chron.com. You can read more of her stories here and follow her on Twitter at @danapburke.
Lake Houston stopped releasing water Wednesday afternoon, March 28, when the lake's pooling level reached the target 40 feet, down from 42.5 feet, in an effort to increase the lake's holding capacity in advance of expected storms.

As Wednesday's anticipated rains drew nearer, area officials decided on March 26 to open all gates at Lake Houston, initiating the process of temporarily lowering the lake's pooling level from 42.5 to 40 feet by Wednesday evening.

The District E office stated that Lake Houston would likely return back to the 42.5-foot level by that Friday or Saturday.

Moving forward, plans are to only release water from Lake Houston in advance of an expected storm. Instead of reducing the lake level by 2.5 feet, in the future the pooling level will be lowered by 1.5 feet, to a level of 41 feet.

The plan to reduce the lake level in advance of the rain event was deemed urgent after last month, on February 26, about an inch-and-a-half of water pushed the San Jacinto River out of its banks.

Martin said he met with Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner on Tuesday, March 26 to discuss the impending rain forecasted over the coming days.

"Less than 2 inches (of rain) caused street flooding in Forest Cove and other parts of Kingwood, so I asked the Mayor (of Houston) to call (for the) release 2.5 feet for holding capacity," Martin said. "That would give us storage capacity in the lake and more importantly in the San Jacinto River."

Considering the Feb. 26 event and the devastating flooding that occurred during Hurricane Harvey, Jenna Armstrong, President and CEO of the Lake Houston Area Chamber of Commerce, said she wondered what it would mean for communities in the Lake Houston area when she thought about the week's impending rain.

"Kingwood is on edge," Armstrong said, "So, I applaud them for being proactive so that whatever happens, we've done what we could to try to minimize the impact on us."

According to Humble Mayor Merle Aaron, the immediate flood prevention measures are needed in order to ensure the existence of the community as it has been. If a bad flood occurs again, he said, businesses and residents may choose not to return a second time. He said he sees the lowering of the lake as the only immediate solution underway.

"We're far away from the dredging and the cleaning of the river itself so if we do this stop-gap measure right now, then we've at least addressed the immediate situation and we can be able to handle the amount of water that's coming down," Aaron said. "We could get as much as 3, 4 or 5 inches of rain and that amount of water will bring the river out of the bank in the condition it's in."

Efforts continue by area officials to collaborate on longer-term solutions for flood issues in the Lake Houston area, like the dredging of the San Jacinto River's west fork.

The Plea to See campaign, headed by the Lake Houston Area Chamber of Commerce, asked Governor Greg Abbott, Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush, and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to view the Lake Houston area's post-Harvey issues first-hand.

Hurricane Harvey flooded homes and businesses in the Lake Houston area, including Kingwood, Humble and Atascocita. Large deposits of siltation and sand from sand mining operations formed in the San Jacinto River and around Lake Houston, displacing water and lowering the holding capacity of the lake and river.

On Tuesday, April 3, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is expected to visit the area and tour the San Jacinto River, according to a District E press release.

He will be the last of the three officials to do so.

After Abbott's tour of the Lake Houston area and San Jacinto River on March 15, he announced the state would give funding to start the process of permitting in order to dredge the river. He also announced that 134 Kingwood-area homes have been authorized for voluntary buyouts.

Bush toured the area a week later, on March 22. Both Abbott and Bush pointed to a need for stricter enforcement of sand mining operations in order to prevent sand and siltation build-up in the river and lake.

Martin hopes Patrick's visit will yield more support for Lake Houston area flood mitigation measures and efforts to help residents and business owners who are trying to rebuild.

"We need more people in high tower roles like Gov. Abbott, Commissioner Bush and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, to be proponents for the Lake Houston area," Martin said.

Martin pointed to four undertakings he wants addressed to prevent future flooding  dredging the lake and river; cracking down on sand mining operations; performing a remediation project within the Spring Creek area to control water from the San Jacinto River and Spring Creek; and the addition of 10 gates to the existing Lake Houston spillway dam.

Representative Dan Huberty is one of the officials that has been a proponent for flood mitigation measures in the Lake Houston area. While longer-term solutions are in-the-works, he said the lowering of Lake Houston is a necessity.

"It's important for those of us that are flooding and everything that we've been working on," Huberty said. "I'm happy they're doing it. As we plan for dredging and be able to mitigate this over the next year or two, this is the kind of steps that we need to take."
For at least two months, Jesus Ureno worked on his monochromatic piece that is now publicly displayed among the Magnolia ISD Winning Rodeo Art.

The Magnolia Stroll Committee hosted its installation with students, parents, teachers, city officials and Stroll Committee members following breakfast Saturday morning. During the ceremony, the students' artwork, which is printed on large all-weather banners, was unveiled following the district's art show sponsored by the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.

Each spring since 2012, the reproductions have been installed on The Wall of Fame in the downtown Magnolia park known as The Stroll, along Dean Street between FM 1774 and Commerce Street.

"It makes me proud to get my work recognized," said Ureno, a 17-year-old junior who plans to attend college after he graduates. "I worked on it for hours and hours."

His mother Maria Luz also expressed her gratitude.

"I am very proud of him because it is his second year to make it part of the winning," Luz said translated by her children.

Junior Ryan Rummage, 18, posed for a photo next to her piece. This is her fourth time to qualify for the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. She plans to attend Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia for character design and video games.

"I think it is a great way for you to build your own abilities and it is a great starter for your life and how you want to portray yourself as an artist and what you want to study in," Rummage said. "Find your own style. Because you are experimenting with so many things and they want you to experiment in so many things."

Fifth-grader Ruby Gonzalez, 11, is getting an early start qualifying with her piece that took four days to complete. She said the community support makes her feel encouraged and she hopes to continue to work on art.

"It kind of makes me proud," Gonzalez said. "This is the first time ever having my art celebrated."

The students' artwork will remain on display throughout the year until they are moved down the Stroll for next year's artwork to be put on display.

We especially appreciate the annual support from representative Cecil Bell Jr. to honor the students and the teachers who help bring out the talent of those students," Magnolia Stroll Committee Chair Anne Sundquist said.

State Rep. Cecil Bell Jr. is the sponsor of the art. Charlie Bell, son of Rep. Bell, attended the event and commended the students and their supporters. He described the experience as an honor and privilege to recognize fine artwork and commitment to passion.

"When you get to put together an event that lets the students know not only do you recognize them for their skill set but their successes, and they get to see the community rally around them; it is an awesome event," Bell said. "You can't have that without a good, strong committee, and without a wonderful staff; and those art teachers put their heart and soul into letting those kids grow - not only from their imagination standpoint, but their ability to get to where they want to be."

The following high school artwork is continuing on in the Rodeo Art Grand Prix judging at the NRG Center: Ryan Rummage from Magnolia West High, Isabel Bozarth from Magnolia High, Jesus Ureno from Magnolia High, and Alyssa Sumstad from Magnolia High, according to Magnolia ISD.

Rodeo Art Recognition:

Best of Show Senior High: "Afternoon Routine" By Ryan Rummage, Grade 11, Magnolia West High School

Best of Show Junior High: "Legendary" by Carlin Holton, Grade 8, Bear Branch Junior High

Best of Show Elementary: "Flowers Touch the Sky" by Lilly Sak, Grade 5, Williams Elementary

Gold Medal Award Senior High: "If the Hat Fits" by Isabel Bozarth, Grade 11, Magnolia High School

Gold Medal Award Senior High: "Well Deserved Break" by Jesus Ureno, Grade 11, Magnolia High School

Gold Medal Award Junior High: "Confidant" by Haylea Maxwell, Grade 7, Magnolia Junior High School

Gold Medal Award Elementary: "Lost Button, Grey Night" by Ruby Gonzalez, Grade 5, Williams Elementary

Special Merit Award Senior High: "Grandpa's Favorite Bird" by Alysssa Sumstad, Grade 12, Magnolia High School
It is the first day of classes and adults of all ages are shaking and wondering how they will be able to complete the exercise by only speaking English, the language they do not know.

Not a word in their native language is allowed. Whether their native tongue is Arabic, Chinese, Spanish, they have to figure out who each other are and line up in alphabetical order. After some minutes of struggles and wild guesses, students finish the challenge and succeed in their first English immersion class.

Students taking English as a Second Language courses at Memorial Assistance Ministries come from all over the world, are different ages and are in different stages in their lives. ESL is just one of the services offered by the non-profit located in Spring Branch.

"MAM's mission is really to assure that families have the means to meet their basic needs," said Martha Macris, president and CEO at Memorial Assistance Ministries. "The way it plays out is that we do provide financial assistance to families who need rent, utilities, to be able to stay housed, stay at work or stay in school."

Basic needs before language

Macris said when moving to a new country, things are resolved in order of priorities.

"First people are really preoccupied with the day-to-day living, with basic needs, and once they are established, then it is time to work on their English so life can get better," Macris said.

According to a study from the Migration Policy Institute, published in the National Immigration Forum, nearly 22.8 million people in the U.S. were limited English proficient (LEP) in 2013, of whom 87 percent were immigrants.

Proficiency in English gives immigrants a better salary and they are less likely to need financial assistance, Macris said.

"It is our motivation for being able to offer these services, it is really so families can take care of themselves and build better lives," Macris said.

Macris said a person can move from speaking no English to becoming fluent speakers within two years of taking MAM classes. In 2017, MAM had 719 active ESL students.

"Our goal is that 75 percent of our students will be attending 75 percent of our classes and that they progress to the next level," Macris said.

English as a Second Language classes are held Mondays through Thursdays, in the morning or in the evening.

The 'real key to a place like MAM'

Prior to the 1983 oil bust, people were drawn from other states and countries to Texas to make their dreams come alive with oil money. But the following recession shattered the economy and changed the plans of citizens. As a reaction, people mobilized themselves throughout the city to receive assistance. Some people knocked on the doors of churches on Memorial Drive, asking for help to pay rent, mortgage, gas, or for money to move their family back to their home states.

The churches then bended together to set up some type of social enterprise, and for most of us it was a thrift store, where items could be donated and sold at affordable prices, Macris said.

"I think the real key to a place like MAM is that we have been very responsive to local need at the given local circumstances," Macris said.

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, the number of foreign born living in Texas has increased by an average of 125,000 people a year since 1990, rising from 1.5 million to 4.3 million.

In the '90s, as a result of new immigrant families settling in the community, Memorial Assistance Ministries added English as a Second Language and school programing, such as clothing, school supplies because there we immigrants coming into the community in order to provide children with adequate resources to succeed in school.

In the early 2000s, Memorial Assistance Ministries has been adding programing to help people build their skills and capabilities to be successful in the current economic situation, like understanding about the banking system and credit, Macris said.

Memorial Assistance Ministries was created, helped the need in the community and continued functioning, increasing the type of services offered.

Citizenship classes and Immigration legal services

In addition to English as a Second Language, Memorial Assistance Ministries offers citizenship classes and Immigration Legal Services.

The 12-week course at MAM is run by a staff member and a volunteer team, where students learn relevant material to the citizenship exam, which include an English and civics test. The first test includes: reading, writing, and speaking; and the latter, U.S. history and government topics.

Citizenship classes are held twice a week.

Memorial Assistance Ministries has two staff attorneys and a caseworker who help with the Immigration legal services on Fridays, where clients are charged a $30 consultation fee.

The services include: family-based petitions, renewal or replacement of lawful permanent residency card, adjustment of status to lawful permanent residency, naturalization or citizenship consultations, humanitarian-based petitions for victims of criminal legal consultations, community education about immigration, presentation of rights

In 2017 Memorial Assistance Ministries had 261 individuals with active case files and 410 legal filings done. In addition, there were 210 total students taking citizenship classes and 34 new citizens, in the same year.

A new citizen

With more than 4 million immigrants, Texas ranks in the top three of the number of foreign born dwellers, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

After having lived in Miami, Florida, for 22 years, Cathy Blanco was deported to her native Colombia. As Blanco's immediate family lives in Miami, she said the situation was difficult to handle.

"It was devastating. There are no words to express how I felt and knowing that my family was suffering because of it as well, but going into a country that I did not know, a country that even though it was my country, I did not fit in culturally," Blanco said.

After completing two years in a community college, Blanco's dreams shattered after she found out she could not be able to continue her education.

"After graduating high school, I was able to go to community college for two years and I wanted to continue because I had my dreams of being a professional, I wanted to be a star broker and major in finance," Blanco said.

Blanco lived in Colombia for eight years. Three years after that, Blanco found out she was eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship, so she completed the paperwork.

"For a while I felt like I was in limbo because I was nobody here and nobody there," Blanco said.

Having arrived to the U.S. as child, Blanco said she was not sure how her situation would affect her, and that as a child, all she cared about what to live in the country where Disney World was.

"As I got older, I noticed that my parents were afraid and that it was talked about immigration and the police, there was this fear that was stirred in our home, our family, that if you see the police, even if it is two miles away, you better run because they can get you deported," Blanco said.

There are several other organizations in the Greater Houston area that provide similar services as Memorial Assistance Ministries, such as: Humble Area Assistance Ministries, West Houston Assistance Ministries, Northwest Assistance Ministries, Southeast Area Ministries, Tomball Emergency Assistance Ministries, Cypress Assistance Ministries, among others.

"For 22 years I felt like I had no rights. Now I have rights, but no only do I have rights, now that I am a citizen, I have a voice, and for so long I did not have a voice, for me it is unreal," Blanco said.
As Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government claws back control over the rebel-held Eastern Ghouta enclave near Damascus, the images are sadly familiar: Pillars of smoke rise over broken concrete and desperate civilians run for safety.

Yet violence isn't the whole story behind Assad's victory. No less important are the internal rivalries, secret talks and links across the front line that have for years shaped Syria's conflict in ways that outsiders hardly notice and even Syrians struggle to follow.

To be sure, Eastern Ghouta's final battle has been brutal. More than 95,000 civilians have been displaced so far, with more expected in the coming days, according to Rachel Sider, an advisor with the Norwegian Refugee Council based in Amman, Jordan. Human rights groups accuse Assad's air force of targeting civilians and hospitals, and opposition authorities have counted 2,000 dead in just over a month of fighting. Though at a far less lethal scale, rebels have also shelled civilian areas of Damascus, recently killing at least 35 Syrians at a market.

The government's victory is in large part the result of brute force and a choking five-year siege, but more sophisticated tactics have also played an important role. Loyalist commanders have cleverly exploited the social and economic ties linking Damascus and Eastern Ghouta, while working to divide the opposition - which is not a difficult job.

Eastern Ghouta's politics are complex, but the main armed groups there have been at one another's throats with pathological persistence, often fighting over smuggling profits. Before the current offensive, the enclave had suffered a three-way split. To the north, Jaysh al-Islam ruled Douma, the largest city in the area. Its rival, Faylaq al-Sham, dominated the Damascus suburbs farther south alongside a smattering of jihadis, while a smaller town, Harasta, was run by the Islamists of Ahrar al-Sham.

Assad has made good use of these divisions. When his government launched its attack in February, it went straight for the soft tissue between rebel lines, slicing Eastern Ghouta into three small pieces. Halfway into the offensive, loyalist media began to broadcast video clips of protests in Ghouta neighborhoods such as Mesraba, Kafr Batna and Hammouriyeh, where civilians waved Assad posters and Syrian flags. Locals have long been frustrated with Eastern Ghouta's rebel factions, which stand accused of profiteering and authoritarian rule, but this was unprecedented.

Though seemingly staged for the cameras, the protests were significant for showing that loyalists now felt safe enough to come out of hiding and that the government still had strings to pull inside the enclave - a tentacular network of spies, sympathizers and exploitable relationships that have mostly escaped the attention of Western analysts. In a typical example, pro-Assad tribal leaders were wheeled out once the offensive got going to plead with civilians and fighters from their home region, Marj, to abandon the rebels.

Then there was Mesraba. A strategically located hub between the three rebel regions, this small village had also long enjoyed a special status in Eastern Ghouta's war economy. In 2014, the Syrian military handed the Mesraba businessman Mohiyeddine Manfoush an informal monopoly on trade with the besieged enclave.

Working with both rebel and regime commanders, he quickly emerged as a pivotal figure in the area's political economy, moving regularly across the frontlines to manage his dairy factory in Mesraba while also cultivating patronage networks, given his role as the sole source of food imports to the hunger-ridden enclave. When the offensive began, Manfoush brokered a deal to let his hometown (and factory) escape the fighting, which allowed the army to seize Mesraba and cut Ghouta into first two, then three pieces.

Next to go was the frontline suburb of Harasta. Fighters there belonged to Ahrar al-Sham, a Turkish-backed militia that holds ground in northwestern Syria. Judging by the rhetoric of its deeply religious leadership, Ahrar al-Sham would be hard to sway - but a good number of its Ghouta fighters only flew the group's flag for convenience. Most were local Harasta boys linked to a network of smugglers who had previously marketed themselves as Free Syrian Army fighters, pious Sufis, hardline jihadis, or whatever else was opportune. They now wanted to make a deal.

On March 22, those in Harasta who wouldn't or couldn't join the loyalist side began boarding buses for evacuation to northern Syria. Immediately after they left, pro-Assad gunmen swooped in to loot the now-undefended area, ignoring the pleas of government-appointed negotiators who had promised rebels that no such thing would come to pass.

Then came the Damascus suburbs farther south, which were being targeted with unprecedented ferocity by the Syrian and Russian air forces. "Russia is killing everyone, women and children in the basements before the men," said Mohammed Lahham, a Faylaq al-Rahman leader, in a message to me earlier this month. The rebel meltdown in the southern suburbs wasn't just due to bombing, but also the result of a pro-Assad insurrection orchestrated by Bassam Difdaa, a Sufi preacher working in the Kafr Batna neighborhood.

"Difdaa is a sheikh from the al-Fath Institute," explains Thomas Pierret, a leading expert on Syria's Islamic movements. Al-Fath has long been a pillar of the state-backed Sunni religious establishment, though many junior scholars hailing from Eastern Ghouta joined the rebels after 2011. Difdaa seems to have followed the same trajectory. In 2007, he ran unsuccessfully for a parliamentary seat, and this record of working within the system helps "make sense of his 'return to the motherland's bosom' today," Pierret says.

Reports from 2011 claimed Difdaa had joined the opposition, and some say he worked with Faylaq al-Rahman's Kafr Batna wing, but his conversion to the rebel cause seems to have been superficial. "He leaned toward the regime from the start of the revolution," an opposition source inside Eastern Ghouta told me earlier this month.

By the time the final offensive began, Difdaa began calling for rebel capitulation and set up peace talks through the offices of Assad's electricity minister, Mohammad Zuhair Kharboutli, whose family hails from Kafr Batna. Outraged, Faylaq al-Rahman leader Abdel-Nasser Shmeir vowed to respond to any attempt at negotiations outside his purview with "an iron fist." Difdaa reacted by organizing his students and supporters in Kafr Batna into an armed guard, with firearms being easily available to anyone with money in Eastern Ghouta - and apparently, Difdaa now had money.

"You could say that there were sleeper cells that tried to take over several areas of Kafr Batna," an anonymous source in Eastern Ghouta explained to me. "Two hours after they began to deploy, regime forces assaulted from two directions at once." At the head of a force reportedly numbering hundreds of local youth and side-switching rebels, Difdaa linked up with the army as it pressed into the Damascus suburbs.

Within a week, Faylaq al-Rahman and its allies had been defeated, and on March 25, rebels began to board buses for northern Syria along with their families. All in all, some 13,000 people had reportedly left for Idlib by Tuesday.

The government takeover of Harasta and the suburbs leaves only Douma, the last but also the largest and best-defended rebel city in Eastern Ghouta. Four Douma-based sources, including Islam Army leaders, tell me Russian-brokered peace talks have begun there, too, but all stressed that the group has rejected the idea of evacuating to northern Syria.

"We know it will be a difficult and unequal battle, but this is our land and our homes and we won't leave them to the Russian and Iranian occupiers," said Jaysh al-Islam's Mohammed Bayraqdar on Tuesday, while adding that the group had always "kept the door to negotiations open in order to spare civilian blood." The Salafi scholar Osama Hawwa also says Jaysh al-Islam continues to seek a deal, which, he insists, should offer an "acceptable form" for individual members to stay in the city.

So far, however, talks remain stalled, and government sources warned of a renewed offensive on Douma this week. Although the city's surrender may take longer than that of Harasta and the suburbs, it seems certain that Douma, too, will eventually revert to Assad's control.

And yet, even as this last patch of rebel territory teeters on the brink of defeat, the rebel infighting continues, with both Jaysh al-Islam and Faylaq al-Rahman accusing each other of betraying Eastern Ghouta.

The opposition's endless rivalries have turned out to be Assad's trump card, allowing him to shut down rebel regions one by one while using his regime's considerable social and economic leverage to split and undermine his enemies in ways only intermittently visible to the outside world.

From afar, Syria's war may seem an irrational whirlpool of violence. But behind all the chaotic death and destruction, local leaders tend to operate according to their own subtle logic of informal grassroots relations, creating an unseen layer of politics understood only by the people most intimately involved in it - namely Syrians themselves, the masters and prisoners of their own unfolding tragedy.
Did Harvey cause an influx of fire ants in Texas? Researchers from Houston recently came to Southeast Texas to find out just that.

Rice University ecologists began working this week to observe the fire and crazy ant populations in the Big Thicket.

DON'T MISS: The ins and outs of feral hog hunting in Texas

"Hurricane Harvey was, among other things, a grand ecological experiment," principal investigator Tom Miller said in a press release. Miller is the Godwin Assistant Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology in Rice's Department of BioSciences.

"It offers a unique opportunity to explore whether a single extreme-weather event can re-shuffle an entire community of organisms," he said.

OOPS: Texas eatery busted for illegally selling fish after advertising it on Facebook

The research team, made up of Miller, Sarah Bengston, Scott Solomon and their students, had been monitoring 19 different locations in the Big Thicket for three years before Harvey struck, researchers said. Researchers are looking to see if their population will increase significantly after the storm.

The research was made possible by the National Science Foundation's Rapid Response Research (RAPID) program, which helps support research of natural disasters and unanticipated events for which time is a factor in gathering data.

Click through the gallery to see other dangerous creatures that come out after big floods in Houston.

Jay R. Jordan is a breaking news reporter at Chron.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JayRJordan.
Greater Beaumont Chamber President Regina Lindsey resigned today, according to a statement from board chairwoman Mary Poole.

An interim president will be named "in coming weeks," Poole said.

Lindsey, a former Silsbee mayor and an economic development executive in Houston, was hired in April 2015 to replace Jim Rich, who retired after 14 years as the chamber president.

Tim Sudela, a chamber search committee member, said in a 2015 interview that Lindsey was selected from a candidate pool that numbered more than 80.

Lindsey said in a 2009 interview that she moved from the Houston to Hardin County to provide a "better environment" for her children. She quickly became involved in the community and was voted Silsbee mayor in July 2004.

After her stint as mayor, Lindsey was the executive director of the Silsbee Economic Development Corporation until her resignation in July 2009.
PHILADELPHIA - Former secretary of state John Kerry warned Tuesday that if the United States withdraws from the Iran nuclear deal, it will take decades to re-negotiate another set of limitations on Tehran's nuclear program

Speaking to the World Affairs Council at Villanova University in suburban Philadelphia, Kerry recalled the atmosphere of deep distrust surrounding the talks, particularly between the two countries with a long history of enmity. Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei repeatedly told his envoys they could never trust the United States. Kerry said U.S. allies in the Middle East were urging the Obama administration to bomb Iran, not talk with it.

Despite the pressure, six world powers eventually agreed to lift sanctions and Iran agreed to open up its nuclear facilities to international monitors and abide by curbs on its enriched uranium. Kerry called it the "strictest, most transparent, most accountable arms control agreement on the planet today."

"If we pull back from what they have done, it will be 30 years before another president will ever sit down with Iranians to negotiate," said Kerry, who was involved in secret meetings that kickstarted negotiations and then often led them. "Then we will be on track, if something goes wrong, of confrontation."

President Donald Trump has indicated he is inclined to take steps in May that could kill the 2015 agreement, although U.S. officials have been meeting with Europeans to see if they can find ways to address Trump's concerns. Kerry suggested Iran would likely take immediate steps to enrich more uranium and other actions now prohibited until the limits "sunset," in some cases 15 years in the future.

"Why would anyone want to leap ahead 15 years, and make it happen now?" Kerry asked.

Kerry, who has been immersed in writing his autobiography since leaving office 14 months ago, has made few public remarks as the efforts he cared most about have been eviscerated or cast aside by the Trump administration. Chief among them are the Iran deal, the Paris climate accord and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement.

Now, he is starting to take his criticism of Trump and his policies, into the open.

"Instead of responding to obvious needs, we see self, party and ideological interests trumping - no pun intended - the real interests of our nation," he said.

Later, Kerry said previous generations of Americans had leaders "who actually stood up and led."

"Today we don't see that," he added. "We get early morning tweet storms. Diversions from reality, from the truth itself.

"What I see today is a shocking avoidance of reality."

Kerry talked briefly about Russian interference in the 2016 election, saying he suspected Russian President Vladimir Putin's dislike for Hillary Clinton began when she gave a speech comparing him to Hitler.

Kerry said he found it necessary to "compartmentalize" criticism of some Kremlin actions so they could work together on issues of mutual concern. Making progress with the Syrian government that is led by President Bashar al-Assad, he said, depends on Russia's cooperation.

"There is no solution to Syria without Russia, and without Iran," he said. "They went in. We didn't. They're there. We're not. They have influence with Assad. We don't."

In a casual aside, Kerry said what he missed most about being secretary of state was the ability to initiate events and groups to work on pressing world problems. At the end of the evening, Kerry had to rush to Philadelphia's 30th Street Station to catch a train home.
The former dean of Michigan State University's school of osteopathic medicine sexually assaulted and harassed four female students and also mishandled a 2014 complaint that Larry Nassar sexually assaulted a patient, allowing further abuses by the disgraced former Olympic gymnastics physician to occur, according to criminal charges unsealed in Michigan on Tuesday morning.

William Strampel, 70, who led Michigan State's medical school from 2002 until late last year, was arrested Monday evening and taken to jail on four charges - one felony and three misdemeanors - stemming from the Michigan Attorney General's Office's ongoing investigation of the role others at the school may have played in crimes committed by Nassar, the former Michigan State and USA Gymnastics physician accused by more than 250 girls and women of sexual abuse.

Tuesday's criminal charges invited more criticism from Nassar's victims and their attorneys of Michigan State's board of trustees, who resisted calls for nearly a year to commission an independent investigation of how the serial pedophile - accused of abusing children as far back as the mid-1990s - was able to escape detection for so long. Until relenting to demands for an inquiry in January, Michigan State trustees declined to request any kind of independent inquiry, and publicly maintained university officials, including Strampel, didn't deserve blame for Nassar's crimes.

Two of the charges announced Tuesday - both misdemeanor counts of willful neglect of public duty - relate to Strampel's handling of an April 2014 complaint by a 24-year-old woman that Nassar massaged her breast and vaginal area in a sexual manner at a campus clinic when he was supposed to be providing treatment for hip pain. Strampel initially prohibited Nassar from seeing patients while Michigan State's Title IX office conducted an investigation, but in June 2014 he allowed to Nassar to resume working at the clinic.

In response, Strampel met with Nassar and the two agreed on a series of protocols to prevent a similar "misunderstanding." Nassar continued to treat girls and women at Michigan State's clinic for another two years. In August 2016, when another woman came forward with similar complaints, Nassar acknowledged he had been ignoring the 2014 protocols and was fired. Dozens of girls and women have asserted abuse that occurred after the 2014 investigation.

In March 2017, Strampel told a Michigan State police officer and an FBI agent that he never followed up to ensure Nassar was adhering to the 2014 protocols, nor did he tell anyone else in the office about them, because these were "common sense" guidelines and the Title IX investigation had ultimately cleared Nassar.

The two misdemeanors are punishable by up to two years in prison and $500 in fines, according to court documents.

Strampel's other charges - felony misconduct of a public official, punishable by up to five years in prison and $10,000 in fines, and misdemeanor criminal sexual conduct, punishable by up to two years in prison and $500 in fines - stem from a pattern of discriminatory behavior described by four former female students.

Two allege he grabbed their buttocks at public events. One woman alleged Strampel told her "she was never going to make it in the profession if she did not dress sexier," and that she needed "to be submissive and subordinate to men." Another woman alleged that Strampel once suggested "she become a centerfold model," and told her about another female medical student who became a stripper to pay for medical school.

On Strampel's work computer, the complaint alleges, investigators found about 50 photos of nude women and other pornography, many of them self-taken photos investigators believe he solicited from Michigan State students. Investigators also found pornographic videos, and a video of Nassar performing "treatment" on a young female patient.

It's not clear if the video of Nassar referenced in the complaint showed an obvious sex crime occurring, or if it showed Nassar performing accepted medical treatment.

A forensic examination showed someone attempted to delete some of the photos, according to the complaint.

Tuesday's allegations - particularly those involving destruction of evidence - raised questions about how Michigan State's board of trustees and former president Lou Anna Simon responded to the Nassar case before a lengthy sentencing hearing in January galvanized national outrage.

The basic facts about Strampel's handling of the 2014 complaint have been well-established - and publicly reported - since December 2016. Simon and the board, however, allowed Strampel to continue to lead the medical school until last December, when he was placed on medical leave, and resisted calls for an independent investigation until January, in the middle of an extraordinary seven-day sentencing hearing in which more than 160 girls, women and parents read emotional victim's impact statements before a judge levied a 40- to 175-year sentence to Nassar.

Simon resigned as president the day Nassar's sentencing hearing concluded. Last month, interim president John Engler announced he was moving to end Strampel's tenure and have him fired because "allegations have arisen that question whether his personal conduct over a long period of time met MSU's standards."

In a statement, Jamie White, a Michigan attorney who represents 34 alleged victims of Nassar, wondered if Strampel or others at Michigan State destroyed relevant evidence during the 11 months it took for the school's board of trustees to request an independent investigation.

Strampel's attorney declined to comment.

One of the former Michigan State medical students described in the complaint - Nicole Eastman, a 2010 graduate of the school - said in a phone interview Tuesday that Strampel's abusive behavior "was accepted and normalized."

In 2007, Eastman said, she was working at a school flu shot clinic when Strampel began to tell her that he believed female bodies naturally had difficulty breaking down alcohol, "so it's easier for men to get women drunk and have sex with them," Eastman recalled Tuesday.

"I remember thinking, 'This is really inappropriate, but this is the dean of my medical school, so what do I say . . . It was almost like he took pride in it," she said.

Three years later, in 2010, Eastman was standing on the dance floor at a Michigan State fundraising ball, she said, when she felt someone grab her right butt cheek and squeeze. She turned around to see it was Strampel, and he was surrounded by several colleagues, and his wife.

"No one said anything to him, and I didn't say anything because I thought everyone knew about his behavior. . . . I just looked at his wife and said, 'Hello, Mrs. Strampel,' " Eastman said. "It was humiliating."
WASHINGTON - A federal judge ruled that the District of Columbia and Maryland may proceed with a lawsuit against President Donald Trump alleging that Trump's business dealings have violated the Constitution's ban on receiving improper "emoluments," or payments, from individual states and foreign governments.

The ruling, by U.S. District Judge Peter Messitte in Maryland, marks the first time that a lawsuit of this kind has cleared the initial legal hurdle - a finding that the plaintiffs have legal standing to sue the president.

In his opinion, Messitte gave credence to arguments by D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine, D, and Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh, D, that Trump unfairly profits from business at downtown Washington's Trump International Hotel, in which the president continues to hold a financial interest.

Messitte cited examples of government clients - including Kuwait and Bahrain - patronizing the Washington hotel, possibly to the detriment of competitors and taxpayers. He wrote that Maryland and the District had sufficiently argued that Trump's hotel "has had and almost certainly will continue to have an unlawful effect on competition."

As part of that ruling, Messitte said he rejected an argument made by critics of the lawsuit - that, under the Constitution, only Congress may decide whether the president has violated the emoluments clauses.

"In absence of Congressional approval, this Court holds that it may review the actions of the President to determine if they comply with the law," Messitte wrote.

If the ruling stands, it could allow Racine and Frosh to seek internal documents from the Trump Organization to determine how much money the Washington hotel has taken in from state and foreign governments.

Messitte's ruling largely narrowed the lawsuit's scope to the Washington hotel, saying that the District and Maryland had standing to sue because they could plausibly claim to have been injured by Trump's receipt of payments from foreign and state governments.

For one thing, he said, the two jurisdictions have financial interests in their own convention centers - one in downtown Washington, another in Bethesda, Maryland. They argued that the Trump hotel had an unfair advantage in the battle for meeting business.

In addition, the court said, the District and Maryland could speak on behalf of their own businesses, which might also see clients lured away by the chance to do business with the president.

"The Court concludes that [the District and Maryland] are, quite plausibly, trying to protect a large segment of their commercial residents and hospitality industry employees from economic harm," he wrote.

Messitte also raised examples of state governments having to make decisions related to the president's company, which Frosh and Racine termed an "intolerable dilemma" between losing revenue or risking repercussions from the president. The judge cited a decision by District tax officials to lower the Trump hotel's tax bill by nearly $1 million and a $6 million tax break being granted to a Trump-affiliated development by Mississippi officials.

The Justice Department, which is representing the president in this case, did not immediately say whether it would appeal. "As we argued, we believe this case should be dismissed, and we will continue to defend the president in court," spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said.

After consulting with attorneys, Trump vowed last year to donate some profits from foreign governments to the U.S. treasury. This month the Trump Organization said it donated $151,470 but declined to explain how it came up with the amount.

Although Trump said he gave up day-to-day management of his business while he is in the White House, he still owns his businesses and can withdraw money from them at any time.

A statement from the Trump Organization said: "While the Trump Organization is not a party to the lawsuit, the Court's decision today does significantly narrow the scope of the case. The Court has yet to rule on several additional arguments, which we believe should result in a complete dismissal."

In an interview, Frosh said that "overall we are extremely pleased" and that he and Racine would be seeking the president's financial documents and tax returns as the case proceeded.

"The basic principle here is Donald Trump is not above the law, and the court recognized that and said that we can enforce the nation's original anti-corruption law - the emoluments clause," he said.

This case was filed last year, one of a raft of lawsuits in the months after Trump's inauguration, all of them alleging that he was violating the Constitution's emoluments clauses.

Those clauses were dusty corners of the Constitution, rarely tested in court during 240-plus years of American history.

One bars federal officers from taking presents, or emoluments, from foreign governments. The other prohibits presidents from taking side payments from individual states.

In these lawsuits, the plaintiffs allege that Trump violated one or both of these bans, because foreign and state governments have rented hotel rooms or banquet halls at his businesses.

Trump's attorneys have said that the term "emolument" was never meant to cover transactions such as this - not outright gifts to the president but purchases made at fair-market value.

The first step in all these cases has been an argument over what lawyers call "standing" - in essence, determining whether the plaintiff has a right to sue.

In December, for instance, a federal judge threw out one of the emoluments lawsuits, brought by the nonprofit watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

U.S. District Judge George Daniels ruled that the watchdog group lacked standing. He stated that the Constitution gave Congress - and only Congress - the right to enforce these rules.

"As the only political branch with the power to consent to violations of the Foreign Emoluments Clause, Congress is the appropriate body to determine whether, and to what extent, Defendant's conduct unlawfully infringes on that power," Daniels wrote in his ruling.

The case involving the District and Maryland had a hearing earlier this year before Messitte at a federal court in Greenbelt, Maryland.

In that hearing, the Justice Department, arguing on Trump's behalf, made a similar argument in an effort to throw out the attorney generals' suit. Brett Shumate, a Justice Department lawyer, said that states such as Maryland had no right to sue Trump over these clauses.

"The states are not roving constitutional watchdogs," Shumate said. He continued: "This is ultimately a political dispute. It should be left to the political process."

In his ruling Wednesday, Messitte rejected that idea.

"The thrust of the President's argument that only Congress can act is particularly concerning," he wrote in a footnote. "Suppose a majority (simple? two-thirds?) of Congress (the House? the Senate? both?) is controlled by one party - that of the President. And suppose the Congress never undertakes to approve or disapprove the President's receipt of such 'emoluments.' "

"The President could continue to receive unlimited 'emoluments' from foreign and state governments without the least oversight and with absolute impunity," Messitte wrote.
WASHINGTON, D.C.  The sun had not even risen.

Before daybreak on Saturday, about 30 teachers, students, and residents gathered at the Park and Ride area near the Sherwood Island Connector to board a bus to Washington D.C. for the March for Our Lives to demand an end to gun violence.

The group came to fruition thanks to Darcy Hicks, a Westport resident who last year founded the resistance organizing group, DefenDemocracy of CT. A former Westport public school teacher, Hicks said she arranged the bus to help raise up the voices of teachers who are directly impacted by gun violence but often dont have the privilege to engage in political activism because of the financial burden of traveling to D.C, such as for the March 24 march organized in the wake of the Feb. 14 shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

What a lot of people dont know is teachers are very limited in saying anything political, which is difficult because they have one of the most political jobs, Hicks said, adding that every decision made about teachers lives from Common Core curriculum to arming teachers with guns is political.

Hicks ordered the bus and posted on social media, asking for people to sponsor a seat for a teacher. Within a week, every seat was paid for by area parents and Representative Town Meeting members, Hicks said.

Teachers rising

A 23-year veteran of the Westport Public Schools, Betsy Tucker, a music teacher at Long Lots Elementary School, said she felt compelled to attend the march.

Ive never done anything like this before, but this one really spoke to me, the Fairfield resident said. Having this bus ready and free made it so that I couldnt say no.

Co-president of the Westport teachers union, John Horrigan also took advantage of the free bus to D.C.

Due to Westport School District regulations, Horrigan said, teachers can discuss political events but not organize political actions, such as a walkout. Outside of school, however, teachers can engage in political protest, the Westport resident explained, adding that he traveled to D.C. to stand up against easy access to guns in America, which he said results in school shootings and people harming themselves and loved ones.

Westport is not the only district to restrict teachers actions during the school day. New Canaan has similar stipulations.

I felt that even though I wasnt able to walk out of school, I wanted to do something, said Crista Rizzuti, an English Language Learner case manager with the New Canaan public schools.

Kids already have to worry about so many things while growing up that asking them to worry about gun violence in schools is too much to ask, Rizzuti said.

The Westport resident traveled to D.C. with her daughter Mimi Schindler and her daughters friend, Hannah Sachau, both eighth-graders at Bedford Middle School. On the bus back, Rizutti said her biggest takeaway from the march was a feeling of awe at the students who organized and carried out the demonstration.

I hope they persevere and keep the conversation in everyones ears, Rizutti said, echoing a sentiment among many of the teachers on the bus that they wanted to lend their voices to support the student leaders.

Students leading the way

One such student working to make her voice heard was Anay Simunovic, a senior at Staples High School.

Its nice to see the youth taking a stand for something the adults couldnt accomplish, said Simunovic, who rode the bus with her mom, Carlotta McClaran, a special education instructor at Stepping Stones preschool, and sister Ava Simunovic.

Fellow Staples student Amanda Braverman also took advantage of the bus to D.C. and back.

Each summer, Braverman attends Camp Starlight in Pennsylvania where Scott Beigel, a teacher shot in the Feb. 14 Parkland massacre, worked as a counselor. Throughout the protest Braverman held a large sign with Beigels name.

Im feeling very emotional this many people came out. Everything said today needs to be felt and heard by congressmen, the sophomore said.

The youngest protestors on the bus, Schindler and Sachau, said they think about gun violence and what might happen at school most days, but were empowered by the protest.

Today was really inspiring and I feel good that I was able to participate, Schindler said.

This is my country. Im a citizen, the eighth-grader added. Its amazing to see the number of people who believe the same thing.

Eye on the ballot box

Like the students speeches at the protest itself, many of the marchers on the bus said they participated out of the fear that democracy is in danger and with the goal of changing federal gun legislation.

Something has to be done, said Mary Calkins, an art teacher at Fairfield Ludlowe High School. If they dont respond to this day, politicians shouldnt be surprised if people say their voice doesnt count.

In the summer, Jeanne Bowles, a math specialist at Saugatuck Elementary school, said shes going to help register people to vote.

This is an important time in history and I think the young people can change the course of history, Bowles said.

Staples High School government and history teacher Jeanne Stevens said it was nice to see how much an emphasis the young people at the march put on voting and changing gun laws at the ballot box. Connecticut has some of the strongest gun control legislation so its important to support legislation at the federal level, she added.

If we go state by state, it will take too long, thats what happened with womens suffrage. Federal legislation is the way to go on all of this, Stevens said.
Softbank and Saudi Arabia have reached an agreement to launch a massive solar power project, one that if completed would signal a dramatic ramping up of the renewable energy industry in one of the world's most suitable spots for solar power.

But several analysts cautioned the agreement between the massive Japanese firm and the desert nation might not be fully realized, both because of its ambitious scale and because at the present it is a nonbinding memorandum of understanding.

Masayoshi Son, Softbank's CEO, announced the agreement with Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman to create a 200 gigawatt solar initiative in the sun-drenched oil producer by 2030.

Two hundred gigawatts is four times the solar capacity in the United States and four times China's the annual pace of solar power expansion. As of the end of 2016, the world as a whole had only installed 303 gigawatts of total solar photovoltaic capacity.

"We have just signed an MOU to create the world's biggest solar power generation project," said Son in New York Tuesday. "The Kingdom has great sunshine, great size of available land, and great engineers, great neighbors, but most importantly, the best and greatest vision."

A statement on the memorandum of understanding provided by the Saudi embassy in Washington said it will create an electricity company in Saudi Arabia that will build solar panels and invest in battery technology. Initially, there would be two large Saudi solar electricity generation projects, one with a capacity of 3 gigawatts and one at 4.2 gigawatts.

According to the memorandum, there could be a possibility of exporting either panels or some of the power generated by them. Saudi Arabia is also seeking a role in solar research and development.

In the past year, the kingdom has signed a series of agreements with U.S. and other foreign companies, but only a small number of deals have moved forward. Mohammed is currently touring the United States in an effort to woo foreign investment in the kingdom as part of his effort to transform and diversify the economy there.

"Importantly, these projects will help create up to 100,000 direct and indirect jobs in the Kingdom. Additionally, it will increase the GDP by 12 billion dollars and save up to 40 billion dollars annually," said the statement from the Saudi embassy in Washington.

But some analyst voices were skeptical that the massive plan will necessarily emerge as it is now being described.

"Saudi Arabia generally releases big numbers on long time frames, which are then subject to revision, and Softbank likes to announce big numbers too," said Bloomberg New Energy Finance solar analyst Jenny Chase in an email.

Chase wrote about her skepticism on Twitter Wednesday: "Seriously, I've probably made more binding agreements to grab a coffee than that Saudi/ Softbank MoU for 200GW of solar by 2030."

"However, there seems no obvious reason why 200GW by 2030 is impossible if Saudi Arabia needs the daytime electricity; the solar industry can deliver it, Softbank has an appetite for making investments," Chase continued by email. "That said, the first 7.2GW phase is the interesting bit; this is a lot of solar, but could be delivered over 2-3 years as an indication of Saudi Arabia's real capacity to implement the plan."

Benjamin Attia, an analyst for GTM Research, was also most intrigued by the smaller scale plans that were most concrete and immediate.

"We do see kind of a little bit of promise, at least in the short term, in this phase one that has been announced, there are some details around that, and the timeline is quite aggressive," he added. "They're saying a 3 gigawatt and 4.2 gigawatt project that will be interconnected in the middle of next year."

"If even part of that were to be built, it would drastically shift the trajectory of the solar market in Saudi Arabia," he said.

Attia said that 200 gigawatts of solar would basically be enough to provide 95 percent of the country's current electricity needs, but since solar is only available during the day, it couldn't actually provide that much unless it was paired with massive battery installations.

"There's no reason why they shouldn't shoot for the moon," he said. "But there are very few details and we've seen a history of grand claims and nonbinding agreements."

The news comes just as Saudia Arabia, home to the world's largest petroleum reserves, is also pursuing the construction of a pair of nuclear power reactors. The kingdom says it wants to build the plants to curtail the burning of oil to generate electricity at home. Doing so would free up more oil for exports, the kingdom's main source of revenue.

Saudi electricity consumption doubled between 2005 and 2015. During the peak summer months, when temperatures soar past 120 degrees Fahrenheit, the kingdom burns about 700,000 barrels of oil a day for air conditioning. Add in industrial and transportation use, and Saudi Arabia's domestic crude consumption has neared 3 million barrels a day, more than a quarter of its total output.

And with a growing population, Saudi Arabia will need more electric power for water desalination plants.

"I think it's a waste of a resource to burn oil in a stationary application," Dale Klein, a former member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Texas, said. "Oil is better for airplanes, automobiles, trucks in mobile utilities."

Environmentalists have long said the kingdom could turn to solar energy. It gets twice as many sunlight hours as Germany yet Germany has 1,700 times as much solar capacity. And by burning oil and gas for electricity, it has one of the largest per capita rates of greenhouse gas emissions in the world, which could shrink if the country turns toward renewables.

Major solar installations, like nuclear plants, could also help free up oil burned for electricity at home for export abroad - which might hint at one additional motivation for the agreement.

"This MOU and the sub-project coming out of it will enable the exportation of more oil," said the Saudi embassy statement.
Andrew Corky Gomez is now a pariah to the Bandidos Motorcycle Club despite dedicating seven years of his life to the group, even helping it commit murder.

Gomez, who was in the Bandidos from 1998 to 2005, testified Wednesday that he took over as president of a local Bandidos chapter in San Antonio in 2002 when its then-president John Xavier Portillo was promoted to the national chapter.

But Portillo, who is facing racketeering charges in a three-month trial in San Antonio with another former Bandidos leader, first had Gomez demoted and later kicked out in bad standings after Gomez got crossways with the outlaw biker club and refused to hand over his motorcycle to the Bandidos, Gomez testified.

Basically, youre out of the biker world, Gomez said when asked what he meant. You cant go anywhere they (Bandidos) are.

Gomez said he was beaten to the point his eyes swelled shut and he had broken ribs, had his Texas rocker (patch) and later his Bandidos vest revoked, and he was harassed repeatedly.

Gomez said he shot a Bandidos member who was part of a group that harassed him at his San Antonio auto shop and later was to be a witness for police against another Bandidos member, Johnny Downtown Romo, who had fired a gun at Gomez.

At one point, Gomez said, he reached a deal to try to end the harassment  he would not press charges against Romo if the Bandidos removed his out in bad standings designation and left him alone.

The deal lasted a couple of years, until Gomez bought a beer for a Bandidos member he saw at a bar, Gomez said. As Gomez reached out to shake the members hand, he was punched instead, Gomez testified.

Gomez said he called Romo, who told him Portillo refused to remove the designation because Gomez had not turned over his motorcycle. Gomez said he decided to pay $4,000 to the club to end the pressure.

He also testified that in January 2002, while he was vice president of the Bandidos Southwest San Antonio chapter, he was part of the plot to retaliate against Robert Lara for the 2001 killing of Javier Negrete, who was the local chapters secretary at the time.

Portillo was president of that chapter at that time, and Gomez said Portillo showed him the .22-caliber pistol he was going to give Bandidos member Richard Merla to kill Lara.

After Laras slaying, Gomez testified, Portillo called him to help him get rid of the weapon. Gomez drove Portillo to a creek off Rigsby Avenue, where Portillo tossed it in the water, Gomez said. That part of Gomezs testimony conflicted with Merla, who testified on Tuesday that Portillo destroyed the gun with a torch at the home of Portillos brother.

He took over Negretes drug operations after his death, Gomez testified, and would often supply Portillo and other members with large quantities of cocaine and methamphetamines.

As part of a cooperation agreement with the feds, Gomez pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and is facing no more than 10 years in prison instead of the possibility of a life term had he been charged with murder.

In cross-examination, Portillos lead lawyer, Mark Stevens, suggested that Gomez wrongly implicated Portillo in drugs and the Lara murder as part of Gomezs attempts get up to $2,000 from police investigators so Gomez could try to save his auto shop.

While Gomez acknowledged being in debt, he claimed he decided to cooperate to do the right thing. Police paid him $500 at one point for providing photos of Bandidos in San Antonio, Gomez testified, adding that he used the money to pay traffic tickets.

Portillo was promoted to the Bandidos national chapter as national sergeant at arms in May 2002, and became vice president in 2013, according to testimony. He is on trial with Jeffrey Fay Pike of suburban Houston, who was the clubs president from 2006 until he and Portillo were arrested in January 2016.
FLORESVILLE  A former San Antonio attorney accused of having sex with clients in exchange for legal services told his brother to destroy DVDs as police were about to search his home, jurors saw in a video interview Wednesday.

Mark Benavides, 48, is on trial, accused of continuous trafficking of persons. Benavides was arrested in November 2015 and charged with compelling prostitution in cases involving at least nine female clients.

He is accused of coercing them into having sex and videotaping many of the encounters. Since then, he has been named in multiple-count indictments.

RELATED: Ex-Bandidos member testifies about being 'out in bad standings'

After his arrest Nov. 17, 2015, Benavides was taken to San Antonio Police Department headquarters for an interview as officers executed a search warrant at his home. When he heard the charges, Benavides denied ever sleeping with clients.

After he called his wife and asked to speak to his brother, Benavides is heard asking him to destroy DVDs, an exchange caught on surveillance video.

Ive got those (expletive) DVDs in there, Benavides is heard telling his brother, Michael, before he says to destroy them.

San Antonio police Detective Manuel Morales testified that the investigators collected 246 DVDs from a file cabinet in which only Benavides had the key. Each DVD was labeled and numbered, contained the womens initials and codes or acronyms etched on the discs to describe the particular acts that were performed.

RELATED: Juror faints watching sex video between ex-San Antonio attorney, client

During the video interview, Benavides scoffed when officers told him they had been investigating allegations for a few years. He also disputed the accusations and questioned police on the charge, one he said he never heard of, and said it could derail his political career, as he was running for district judge at the time.

Benavides also questioned the validity of the arrest.

Honestly, not me included, but I hear about attorneys having sex with clients all the time, he said on the video. I didnt think it was an actual offense because it happens all the time. Not me, but others.

Benavides is no longer eligible to practice law in Texas. He resigned Dec. 13, 2016, from the State Bar of Texas in lieu of disciplinary action.

His trial began Tuesday and is being heard in Wilson County.

At a June 22 hearing, District Judge Dick Alcala granted Benavides attorney Monica E. Guerreros motion for a change of venue from Bexar County. She had sought to move only one of the cases but later amended her motion to include all.

She told the court she wanted the change because of news coverage and because some clients alleged Benavides had sex with them in at least two rooms in the Cadena-Reeves Justice Center that are used by jurors, and Guerrero did not want jurors to do their own investigating.
In whats hailed as a new beginning, the First Baptist Church Sutherland Springs on Tuesday unveiled plans for a new worship hall and education center  to be funded with donations - at the site of the mass shooting that took 26 lives last November.

This is going to represent new life, Pastor Frank Pomeroy said of the $3 million project to be located north of the existing church, which has been converted into a memorial honoring those slain by Devin Kelley, 26, who took his own life after the deadly attack.

The pastor thanked Myrick, Gurosky & Associates, an Alabama firm that designed the new structures and will commence construction May 5, and the North American Mission Board, of the Southern Baptist Convention, which has pledged to cover any shortfall remaining after receipt of donations of materials, services and money.

RELATED: All the victims of the Sutherland Springs church shooting

But Pomeroy, whose 14-year-old daughter Annabelle was among the shooting victims, said God deserves all the glory and credit for the new facilities that are expected to be completed next Spring,

I believe its God utilizing the blood of the martyrs to bring forth fruit, he said before a news briefing at the Hilton San Antonio Airport.

The new worship center and education center will be built on a 2-acre plot beside U.S. 87, just north of the existing church, which was acquired with donations previously banked.

A new fundraising campaign is now being launched to fund the planned improvements and those interested in learning about it or donating to it, should go to restoresutherlandsprings.com.

RELATED: Two survivors of the deadly massacre in Sutherland Springs tie the knot

The design for the new church features a worship hall with a capacity of 250 and two towers, one with a lookout at the top and the other to house the churchs bell.

The two structures will be connected by a common area, which will serve as a joint entrance, and is planned to include individual portraits of all of the shooting victims.

Scott Gurosky, president of MG&A, said modern security components were designed into the structures, but declined to describe them in detail.

He expressed excitment about begining work on the project, whose design was crafted with input from church members. Making the plans public will allow formal fundraising for it to commence.

We are very, very excited to be part of this effort, said Gurosky, noting some designs modifications may yet occur. Were still in the throes of the interior design.

Mike Ebert, NAMB spokesman, said the deadly carnage at the rural church in Wilson County shocked and horrified the nation and the world.

But, he said, Even the darkest of darkness can be outshined by the light of Jesus.
AUSTIN  In a continuing push to increase trade with India, Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday lobbied top Indian petroleum and energy officials to expand shipments of liquefied natural gas shipments from Texas ports and to establish direct flights with the Lone Star state.

Abbott concluded a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi by stressing to reporters that both sides have a mutual desire to strengthen the Texas-India trade relationship  a move that could mean billions in additional business for Texas energy companies in coming decades.

Abbott is on a week-long trade mission to India, whose companies have invested more than $5 billion in hydrocarbon assets in the United States and have contracted to import more than 9 million metric tons of LNG annually. That is a boon for Houston and other Texas port cities.

"India is one of the most prolific economies in the world, and growing economies need access to energy," Abbott told a reporter accompanying him on the trip. "As long as India has a need for oil and natural gas, Texas will be a willing partner to provide it. As this energy trade continues to grow so will the Texas economy, and I look forward to many more years of this tremendous partnership."

Abbott spent more than an hour meeting with Modi  "an historic meeting," he called it  where topics from defense and terrorism to energy, technology and health care were discussed and new trade opportunities were explored.

After a meeting with Dharmendra Pradhan, India's minister of petroleum and natural gas, Abbott said Texas intends to continue expanding its LNG and oil export facilities to ensure the state can meet India's growing energy needs. Two new LNG export facilities are currently under construction, officials said.

After the U.S. last year ended a decades-long ban on exporting U.S. crude, India's state-owned oil refineries bought it on the American spot market, including the October shipment of LNG.

"A new chapter was added in last October when the first consignment of crude from the U.S. reached Indian shores," Pradhan told reporters after meeting with Abbott.

Pradhan, who has been energy minister for nearly four years as part of Modi's coalition government, said India is the world's third-leading consumer of energy, behind the U.S. and China.

In the past, India has bought U.S. natural gas on the spot market. But the state-owned gas company, GAIL, has signed a 20-year contract for U.S. LNG shipments from two American companies.

The first shipment under that contract will arrive Friday in Dabhol, on India's west coast along the Arabian Sea.

In a separate meeting with India's commerce and civil aviation minister, Suresh Prabhu, Abbott discussed establishing a direct air flight from India to Texas "to further enhance the exchange of both cultural and economic development."

No decisions were announced.

Abbott said he has asked Indian officials to help clear the way for the flight from either Houston or Dallas, or both  and is optimistic they will look favorably on a Texas proposal for the new service.

"When I get home, it's going to be one of the issues I focus on," Abbott said. "I'm going to have Houston and Dallas battle it out and let the respective airlines battle it out."
Texas Democrats are trying to seize on revelations about a controversial data collection company that may have improperly gathered information about tens of millions of Facebook users without their knowledge to help Republicans win elections.

On Wednesday the Texas Democratic Party began calling for a state investigation into Cambridge Analytica because of their ties to Republicans including U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and Gov. Greg Abbott.
Moroccan phosphate group OCP, Attijariwafa Bank and Saham Finances have been honored by the Africa CEO Forum convened lately in Abidjan, Cote dIvoire.

OCP, a global market leader of phosphate and its derivatives, has received the CSR Strategy of the Year Award for respecting and implementing a Social and Environmental Responsibility policy. The CSR strategy mobilizes a number of stakeholders (state, local authorities, NGOs, etc.)

Attijariwafa Bank Chief, Mohamed El-Kettani, and his countrywoman, Nadia Fettah, director of Saham Finances, were awarded each the trophy CEO of the Year.

Attijariwafa bank is the largest banking and financial group in the Maghreb and the West African monetary zone regions and a leading player in the Central African monetary zone region, with 9.1 million customers and 19,754 employees.

Saham Finances S.A. provides insurance and reinsurance services. The company also provides assistance services. It serves individuals, businesses, and companies in Africa and the Middle East.

The Africa CEO Forum gathers the most influential African and international CEOs, bankers and investors. It has established itself as a platform dedicated to the private sector in Africa as well as corporate strategy in the African context, and takes place in a high-quality setting, conducive to doing business.

The forum brings together major economic and industrial actors from 63 different countries, 40 of which are African. The Forums participants include heads of state, public decision-makers, bankers, capital investors as well as African and international corporate leaders.
Guns. Women. Jesus. More guns.

Photos published by the Mexican outlet El Blog del Narco give an inside look at the hitmen working for the Gulf Cartel.

RELATED: Fugitive Gulf cartel boss nicknamed 'Ewok' arrested in Mexico after years of trafficking in Texas

According to the blog, the photos were taken in Tamaulipas, the Mexican state just across the U.S.-Mexico border from Brownsville.

In the photos, men and women who look to be in their 20s tout firearms, don military fatigues and display religious idolatry.

RELATED: Feds: Suspects in North Texas slaying of ex-Mexican drug cartel lawyer tied to 12 other killings

The Gulf Cartel dominates the state of Tamaulipas as well as the states of Quintana Roo and San Luis Potosi, according to a recently declassified DEA report.

However, the cartel is suffering internal power struggles, likely contributing to the rise of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

RELATED: The rising Mexican drug cartel figures that could replace Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman

Cartels send images of themselves to local media to either intimidate rival cartels or put up a nationalistic front, Mike Vigil, former chief of international operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration, told mySA.com in September.

jfechter@mySA.com

Twitter: @JFreports
Firefighters saved two people Wednesday morning from rushing flood waters in a creek on the Northeast Side.

Battalion Chief Will Pritchett said crews responded to the creek near Thousand Oaks and Interstate 35 around 4:30 a.m., but they were unable to launch their boats into the water due to the amount of brush in the area.

Firefighters waded out into the rushing waters, using a leapfrog method to move deeper and deeper into the water, and closer to the two stranded victims, a woman and a man.

RELATED: Severe thunderstorms bring more than 2 inches of rain, heavy winds to San Antonio

Its really dangerous, Pritchett said of high water rescues. I hate sending our people in there. If were called, well go, but its extremely dangerous.

The 8-member crew was eventually able to contact the victims after about 45 minutes and bring them to safety. A third person walked out of the area on his own.

Pritchett said hes unsure what the people were doing in the area, but there is a homeless encampment in the creek.

The woman was hospitalized for cold-related issues. She is now in stable condition.

The man who was rescued, 60-year-old Bryan Rees, said he was camping at the homeless encampment when he heard the woman screaming for help Wednesday morning and simply had to act.

RELATED: Lightning strike sets far North Side home ablaze

He waded into the water, moving from tree to tree, but when he was about 30 feet from the woman, the water became too strong for him and he became stuck on a tree.

If I had tried to swim, he said, the water wouldve swept me away.

But then, providence struck.

By Gods grace, the rain stopped and the water went down around two feet, he said. I was able to make it out to her and hold her to the tree.

Soon after, the firefighters arrived and brought them to safety.

Despite the heroics, Pritchett said the best way one can help first responders is to avoid getting into the water, and instead provide them with any and all information you can.

San Antonio saw more than 2.25 inches of rain overnight, causing the National Weather Service to extend the flash flood warning for the region until 8:15 a.m. A separate flash flood watch, effective until 7 p.m. Wednesday, remains in place for San Antonio, Austin and most of the counties in between.

Text "NEWS" to 77453 for breaking news alerts from mySA.com

Caleb Downs is a crime reporter for mySA.com. Read more of his stories here.| cdowns@mysa.com | Twitter: @calebjdowns
Bill Rancic rose to fame by winning the first season of "The Apprentice" and earned a chance to manage the construction of Chicago's Trump Tower.

Now the handsome builder and his wifequeen of the red carpet Giulianaare selling their Victorian row house in Chicago for $6.8 million. Recently renovated down to the studs, it's a stylish, luxurious mansion filled with modern comforts while not sacrificing an iota of vintage charm.

Less than four years ago, the celebrity couple purchased the Gold Coast home for $2.1 million. Since then, Rancic has overseen every detail of bringing the 1886-built mansion into the 21st century, including the addition of a third-floor master suite.

"He's the CEO of the rebuild," says listing agent Laura Rubin Dresner. "It's all his vision. He makes the decisions down to the tiniest details."

Exterior realtor.com

A big challenge with older row homes is the lack of natural light, Dresner says. To address the issue, Rancic added skylights and a glass second floor, allowing light to stream in.

Now sitting atop the renovated home is a dreamy dressing room fit for a princess.

Penthouse dressing room realtor.com

Master bedroom realtor.com

Master bath realtor.com

Family room realtor.com

Kitchen realtor.com

The reconfigured 8,000-square-foot home now has five bedrooms, five bathrooms, and two half-baths. New features include radiant floor heating, a media room with cashmere-lined walls, two full-height wine coolers, and a custom bar.

Media room realtor.com

The large back deck just off the family room is an ideal space for entertaining on warm Chicago days. There's also a roof deck with lake and city views.

Patio real;tor.com

"It's just beautifully designed and executed," Dresner adds.

This house also has a special add-on that will make every Chicagoan jealous: a heated, two-car garage and 24-hour valet parking just across the street.

Garage realtor.com

The Rancic home is hitting the market amid tabloid speculation that their marriage is on the rocks, after Giuliana was spotted on the Oscars red carpet without her wedding ring. Her camp dismissed the rumors, saying the ring didn't fit with her outfit.

According to Dresner, the gorgeous home no longer fit the couple's needs. Giuliana and Bill have a son, Edward Duke. They are partners in two restaurants in the area, RPM Italian and RPM Steak.

Regardless of the reason the Rancics are parting with this pristine piece of the Windy City, some lucky buyer will enjoy the homeand that heated garagefor many years to come.

The post Bill and Giuliana Rancic Selling Impeccably Renovated Chicago Victorian for $6.8M appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com.
Tequila may have a wild and crazy reputation, but this unique spirit is created according to strict guidelines, guaranteeing authenticity and consistency. Its distilled from the fermented juice of the Weber blue agave plant, and comes only from a specified region of Mexico, centered around the western state of Jalisco.

Tequila production begins with the agave plant, cultivated in Mexicos desert regions. Early civilizations believed agave was a gift from the gods, which they used as a source for food, fibers and building materials. They would cut off the top of the plant, and the remaining stump filled with a liquid called aguamiel that would ferment into a cloudy, low-alcohol drink.

The Spanish introduced distillation to Mexico in the 1500s. The technique, used on aquamiel, produced the spirit they dubbed vino mezcal de Tequila. Mezcal was soon being made across Mexico, though the colonys rulers in Spain intermittently banned production of the spirit when they wanted to encourage imports from Spain and hiked taxes on it when money was needed for public projects.

Spain lifted the ban for good in 1792, and in 1795 gave a license for the production of tequila to Jose Maria Guadalupe de Cuervo, maker of what is now the worlds best-selling tequila, Jose Cuervo.

Producers continued making mezcal with Mexicos many agave species, but it became clear that one particular plant delivered the best spirits. In 1902, Alsace-born botanist Frederic Albert Constantin Weber classified this species as Agave tequilana Weber azul, or Weber blue agave.

Like wine and other unique spirits, tequila is produced according to regulations that govern its appellation of origin. Tequila may only be made in the state of Jalisco, which includes the town of Tequila, and parts of the surrounding states of Guanajuato, Michoacan, Nayarit and Tamaulipas. It must be made from blue agave and in accordance with additional rules for ingredients and aging. Spirits made using other agave species or elsewhere in Mexico are classified as mezcal.

The blue agave plant can reach eight feet in height and matures at around six years old. Sugars collect in the core of the plant, the pina. Producers chop up the pinas and cook them in large ovens, then press the juices from the cooked pieces and ferment them with yeast.This blue agave juice may make a 100 percent agave spirit, or the producer may add up to 49 percent non-agave sugars, such as sugar cane or corn sugars, to make a mixto or regular tequila.

The fermentation length, temperature and yeast affect the development of flavor compounds or congeners that produce a specific tequila style. Some producers add pina fibers called bagasse to the fermentation vessel to enhance the complexity of the spirit. Regulations demand that tequila be double-distilled in pot stills, or produced with a continuous still that has at least two columns.

Tequila may be bottled without maturation or aged in oak barrels. The length of aging determines how it is labeled: Colorless blanco or silver tequila is aged fewer than two months in oak; reposado between two and 12 months; anejo for more than one year. Extra anejo is a category added in 2006 that includes tequila aged at least three years in oak vats under 600 liters. Generally, the longer tequila ages in oak, the smoother and more full-bodied it becomes.

A tequila labeled simply gold or joven is unaged, possibly with caramel coloring or other sweeteners added.

Consider how youll use your tequila before you shop. For shots or blender drinks, a young, clean-tasting tequila can be a smart buy; for mixed drinks that showcase tequila flavor, or for sipping as an after-dinner drink, consider older, smoother styles.

The Forum

8356 Agora Parkway

Selma, TX 78154

(210) 566-1503

Del Norte

125 NW Loop 410

San Antonio, TX 78216

(210) 524-9300

The Rim

17530 La Cantera Parkway

San Antonio, TX 78257

(210) 877-9155

You can also shop online at www.TotalWine.com.

Editors Note: This content is made possible by Total Wine & More. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of The San Antonio Express-News' or mySanAntonio.com's editorial staff. Learn more about our advertising products at www.hearstmediasanantonio.com.
- Retired Nigerian soldier has advised men to cook for their wives at home

- He shared the advice in a Facebook post with photos of himself cooking for his wife

Men doing chores and cooking is an uncommon trend in African countries. In some households in Nigeria, the male children are not even trained to cook or do house chores, many believe that house chores should be trained into female children as they grow up not male children.

With the growing trend of gender quality, many men have embraced the idea of lending a hand to their wives and sisters while they work at home. However, this idea is believed to be common amongst younger men.

But it also seems like men of the older generation are also beginning to embrace the idea of cooking for the house while their wives relax at home. A retired Nigerian soldier has shown off his cooking skills as he prepared dinner for his wife.

Retired Nigerian soldier cooks dinner for his wife Photo source: Facebook user Des-Dokubo Dennis

READ ALSO: Quit waiting for the perfect time to marry - Nathaniel Bassey shares marriage advice

The man identified as Des-Dokubi Dennis showed off his cooking skills on Facebook. Dennis shared photos of himself cooking eba and vegetable soup for his wife.

In his Facebook post, he also advised men to support their wives at home. He said: Your wife is your better half, not a slave....Madam was tired, so I took over the Kitchen, cooked Vegetable Soup and prepared Eba for Us to eat, Husbands should help their wives biko, you won't die.

PAY ATTENTION: Get all the latest gossips on NAIJ News

Who should a man love more; his wife or the mother? on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit
- The upper chamber is set to deliberate on the statement made by a former chief of army staff Theophilus Danjuma

- The deliberation by the Senate will take place on Wednesday, March 28

- The decision by the Senate followed a point of order raised by Senator Yusuf Yusuf at the plenary on Tuesday, March 27

The Senate says it will on Wednesday, March 28, deliberate on the statement made by Theophilus Danjuma on the insecurity in the country.

The former chief of army staff had, at the convocation of Taraba State University on Saturday, March 24, urged Nigerians to resort to self-defence in the face of unending killings across the country. He also accused the military of complicity in the killings, especially in Taraba, where he said that the herdsmen were being aided in killing innocent citizens.

READ ALSO: Breaking: Buhari has saved APC from legal troubles - Tinubu

The Senates decision followed a Point-of-Order raised by Senator Yusuf Yusuf (APC-Taraba) at plenary on Tuesday. He pointed out that Danjuma raised fundamental issues that should be debated and investigated by the Senate.

But while considering Yusufs submission, the matter turned controversial when it was put to voice vote by the president of the Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki.

There was initial confusion as to where the voting favoured, but Saraki ruled in favour of the ayes. He said that the matter would be debated on Wednesday, March 28.

Meanwhile, senior lawyer, Itse Sagay, has said Nigerians are permitted by law to defend themselves from being attacked by bandits. Sagay who serves as the chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC) made the statement on Sunday, March 25, in reaction to calls by Danjuma, that Nigerians should defend themselves against herdsmen attacks.

The Nation reports that Sagay said allegations by Danjuma that the armed forces were assisting bandits to kill people and cover them should be investigated.

Legit.ng earlier reported that the Senate had ordered its committee to investigate the rift between Senator Dino Melaye, the inspector general of police and the governor of Kogi state.

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The Senate during its Tuesday, March 27, sitting urged the committee on police and judiciary to begin the investigation.

It also ordered that reports of the investigation be submitted to the floor of the Senate within the next 48 hours.

Age requirement reduction by the Senate; Good or Bad for Nigeria? on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit Newspaper
- Governor Rochas Okorocha has commended President Buhari's stand on the tenure elongation for executives of the APC

- The Imo state governor said Buhari has done well for Nigeria's democracy

- He also commended the national chairman of the APC, John Oyegun, and his team for having led the party to its present state

The governor of Imo state, Rochas Okorocha, has commended President Muhammadu Buhari on his pronouncement on tenure elongation for national officials of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Okorocha said the president has scored "another beautiful goal" for Nigeria's democracy.

In a statement released shortly after the National Executive Committee meeting of the APC, Okorocha said President Buhari is interested in the need for the protection of Nigeria's citizens and respect to the national constitution.

READ ALSO: Senate moves to debate TY Danjumas statement on insecurity in Nigeria

Also stating that the president has shown astute leadership, Okorocha added that President Buhari succeeded in assuring APC members that the party's victory should be seen as another bold step towards deepening democratic ethos or practices in our dear nation.

The governor also commended the national chairman of the APC, John Oyegun for leading the party to its present level. He said the political history of Nigeria will be fair to Oyegun and his team when it will be written.

Okorocha also said that the APC must continue to show good examples to other political parties by demonstrating due regard to the provisions of the Nigerias constitution and that of the party.

Legit.ng earlier reported that the national leader of the APC, Bola Tinubu, had also commended the president for kicking against the elongation of tenure for the party executives.

Tinubu while speaking after the APC's NEC meeting saved President Buhari has saved the party from legal breakdown.

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He said the party has also being steered to the correct path by President Buhari.

Should President Buhari seek reelection in 2019? (Nigerian Street Interview) - on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit Newspaper
- The ruling party has given reason Nigerians will never forgive the PDP

- The APC said the mistakes made by the PDP during its 16 years leadership are too costly to forgive

- The party urged the opposition party to know that Nigerians can never be fooled twice

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said that Nigerians will never forgive the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) despite its recent apology.

The Kano state chapter of the APC said PDPs' 16 years of leadership was full of bad governance and mismanagement of public funds.

The deputy chairman of the APC in Kano state, Shehu Magari, while reacting to an apology from the opposition through its national chairman, Uche Secondus, said the PDP's appeal is laughable. He said Secondus and the PDP should know that Nigerians can not be fooled

READ ALSO: Breaking: Buhari has saved APC from legal troubles - Tinubu

He said: The total neglect of agricultural sector which is considered to be the backbone of the nations economy under the PDP-led government will also not be forgotten by Nigerians. Likewise, the diversion of billions of naira meant for the purchase of weapons for our gallant soldiers to fight Boko Haram insurgents will never be a bye-gone issue.

As far as APC Kano is concerned, the so-called PDP mistakes were costly to be forgiven. No right thinking Nigerian will forget and forgive these kinds of expensive mistakes."

Magari further added that the leadership approach adopted by the APC is an end to Nigeria's challenges of insecurity and high level of corruptions inherited from the PDP.

He also said that Nigerians have become politically wise to decide for themselves while noting that they were not unmindful of the efforts being made by the Buhari-led government in rescue the nations economy from total collapse.

Recall that the PDP had apologised to Nigerians for the mistakes it made while governing Nigeria. Uche Secondus, national chairman of the party, on Monday, March 26, at a public discourse on contemporary politics and governance in Nigeria, organized by the PDP in Abuja, said the party has learnt from its mistakes and ready to provide quality leadership for the country.

Legit.ng earlier reported that the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) commended the recent apology made to Nigerians by the PDP.

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The chairman of IPAC in Yobe, Umar Kukuri said the admittance of past mistakes by the PDP is healthy for Nigeria's democracy. He said accepting shortcomings by the opposition is a sign of political maturity and democratic growth in the party.

PDP Chieftain, Chief Chyna Iwuanyanwu speaks about the party's crisis - on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit
- The Supreme Council for Shariah says Danjuma should be prosecuted for alleged treasonable felony

- Yusuf Rigachikun believes Danjuma made an unguarded statement asking Nigerians to defend themselves against killers

- Rigachikun says Danjuma's statement is a threat to the peace in Taraba state

The Supreme Council for Shariah has reportedly demanded that the federal government prosecute Nigerias former Chief of Army Staff (CAS) and ex-minister, Theophilus Danjuma, for what it called treasonable felony.

The Cable reports that made the demand in reaction to Danjumas statement at the maiden convocation of Taraba State University where he urged Nigerians to start defending themselves against killers and alleging that the armed forces had been biased in securing the country from attacks.

READ ALSO: Breaking: Tinubu reacts as President Buhari opposes Oyegun's tenure extension

A statement from the council and signed by Yusuf Rigachikun, its Kaduna state chairman described Danjumas statement as unguarded especially coming from a retired army general.

The recent call by General TY Danjuma on the citizens to take up arms to defend themselves and the accusation of the Nigerian armed forces colluding in the killing of Nigerians is quite unfortunate.

It is pertinent to note that for a person of his calibre to openly call on citizens to take up arms because of demilitarisation being carried out by the Nigerian Army is a call to anarchy and also a call to treason and treasonable felony.

The council calls on the federal government to invite, investigate and prosecute the general for such a most unfortunate statement in the presence of students who are known to be volatile and prone to youthful exuberance.

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His action poses a threat to the peace and stability of the state and is a crime against the state. The prosecution of the general will go a long way for the culture of impunity not to threaten the cooperate existence of Nigeria, the statement said.

Legit.ng earlier reported that former Theophilus Danjuma was commended by Niger Delta activist, Annkio Briggs, over his call on Nigerians to rise and defend themselves.

The report quoted Vanguard as saying that the convener of the Niger Delta Self-Determination Movement (NDSDM) in a statement on Monday, March 26, said that Danjuma stood for equity, justice and truth by speaking against what she called ethnic and religious cleansing.

How Nigeria can get back to the good old days - Septuagenarian (Nigeria Interview) | Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit
- Eleven million dollars (about N4 billion) has been allocated by the United Nations to help 60,000 people displaced by Boko Haram crisis in Borno state

- The fund will also be used for other humanitarian operations in Northeast Nigeria

- The UN and its partners are committed to alleviating the sufferings of those displaced by Boko Haram insurgency

The UN says it has allocated 11 million dollars (about N4 billion) to help 60,000 internally displaced people in Borno and other humanitarian operations in Northeast Nigeria.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said nine million dollars (about N3.2 billion) would be used to provide life-saving aid for some 60,000 people displaced by ongoing Boko Haram crisis in Borno, NAN reports.

Legit.ng notes that he UN relief agency explained that the money was an allocation from the UN-managed country-based humanitarian assistance fund.

READ ALSO: Senate to debate Danjumas statement Wednesday

The UN quoted Edward Kallon, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Nigeria, as saying: The crisis continues to displace thousands of vulnerable women, children and men every week. Many have gone through unspeakable hardship and the UN and its partners remain committed to help alleviate their suffering."

Set up through the Nigeria Humanitarian Fund (NHF), the assistance includes two million dollars (about N720 million) in support to the UN Humanitarian Air Service for frontline responders in the region.

Kallon said: This UN fund gives us the flexibility to prioritise those who are most in need of aid and act swiftly for the good of the people of Northeast Nigeria."

The UN said the northeast regions humanitarian crisis, sparked mainly by Boko Harams years-long insurgency, remained one of the most severe globally. The UN continued: In the worst-affected states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, at least 7.7 million people are in need this year, with about 80 per cent, or 6.1 million, targeted for humanitarian assistance.

The nine million dollars allocation will help fund 15 projects supporting humanitarian rapid response in areas affected by large-scale conflict-related displacements, particularly in the northern parts of Borno, along the Maiduguri-Monguno axis.

In just three months, the close to 30,000 people who have fled violence in hard-to-reach areas are in dire need of food, water, shelter, clothes and medical services.

Additionally, the funds will help scale up the response near the border with Cameroon in eastern Borno  Gwoza, Bama, Dikwa, Kala-Balge, Monguno, Askira/Uba  and northern Adamawa  Madagali  where approximately another 30,000 have arrived following military operations.

Finally, the funds will also help maintain UN Humanitarian air service operations, crucial to reach and deliver aid in remote areas of the northeast, especially where roads are unusable."

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Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and its humanitarian partners on Wednesday, January 31, launched an inter-agency funding appeal of 157 million dollars for people affected by the Boko Haram insurgency in the Lake Chad Basin region.

Kelly Clements, deputy UN High commissioner for Refugees, said at the appeal launch in Niamey that the Boko Haram crisis lingers on and it's far from over".

The 47 UN agencies, including the UNHCR, and humanitarian organisations participating in the 2018 Nigeria Regional Refugee Response Plan will provide support to some 208,000 Nigerian refugees.

Nigerian Air Force operations against Boko Haram - on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit.ng
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas commended the support given by King Mohammed VI, and by the Moroccan government and people to the just cause of the Palestinian people on top of which the protection of the status of Al Quds.

President Abbas, who received Moroccos Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita in Ramallah, Tuesday, underscored the key role played by Al Quds Committee and Bayt Mal Al-Quds in support of flagship projects in the holy city.

Bouritas visit to Palestine reaffirms the deep brotherly ties between the two peoples and the determination of the leaders of the two countries to further develop these relations, Abbas was quoted as saying by the Palestinian news agency.

The meeting focused on the latest developments in the Palestinian territories and the impasse facing the political process due to the arbitrary Israeli measures and the US unfair decisions against the Palestinian cause, including the city of Al Quds.

Abbas also stressed the need to hold an international peace conference in order to set up an international mechanism to settle the Palestinian issue and establish an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with Al Quds as the capital.

Bourita, for his part, reaffirmed Moroccos steadfast position and its support and solidarity with the Palestinian leadership and people.

The Moroccan minister conveyed to President Abbas the greetings of King Mohammed VI, saying that the Sovereign attaches special importance to the city of Al Quds and is committed to ensuring constant consultation and coordination to address the dangers that the Palestinian cause and the occupied city of Al Quds face.

Before his meeting with the Palestinian President, Bourita performed the midday prayers in al Aqsa Mosque.
- Police have arrested a leader of cult group in Abia

- The suspect, Princewill Okechukwu, who is a 400 level student of Abia state university, Uturu, said his dream to become politician led him into cultism

- He claimed that his enemies, who were interested in his position, betrayed him by reporting him to the police

A 400 level student of Abia state university, Uturu, identified as Princewill Okechukwu, has said that he joined a secret cult on campus because of his intention of joining politics after school.

The Punch reported that Okechukwu was among five suspects paraded at the police officers mess in Umuahia for suspected cult activities and armed robbery.

READ ALSO: Senate to debate Danjumas statement Wednesday

Legit.ng gathered that the suspects were paraded on Monday, March 26, by the commissioner of police in the state, Anthony Ogbizi.

The 22-year-old final year student of Political Science said he was the leader of the Black Axe confraternity in the institution.

The suspected cultists paraded by the police in Abia state. Photo credit: The Punch

He claimed that his enemies, who were interested in his position, betrayed him by reporting him to the police.

I wasnt caught in any cult activity; rather I was arrested because Im the head of the Black Axe fraternity.

I joined the cult because I have an ambition to join politics after studies; I was told that there were great men that graduated from our school, who are in government and they can help one to succeed in politics, Okechukwu added.

The suspect, who said he had been a member of the cult for one year, regretted that he had not benefited anything from the sect, promising not to go back to the evil group if he regains his freedom.

I have not benefited anything from the cult since I joined. The position I occupy was just handed over to me not long ago, and it was the people that wanted my position that betrayed me, he said.

A female among the paraded suspects, identified only as Chika, denied being a member of the Vikings confraternity, maintaining that she was wrongfully arrested while waiting for someone.

A police source said Chika was arrested close to the scene of initiation of Vikings new members.

The police claimed that Chika was found in company with her boyfriend, who was a member of Vikings, adding that she was acting as an informant for the cult group.

The source added that some substance suspected to be Indian hemp was found on her.

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One of the suspects, who claimed to be a Lagos-based trader, said he visited his girlfriend on campus on the day that police operatives raided his friends hostel in search of the cultists.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that about 200 suspected cultists in Ikorodu on Monday, February 12, renounced their membership and surrendered their weapons to the Lagos state commissioner of Police, Imohimi Edgar.

Legit.ng visits family attacked by Badoo cult group - on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit.ng
- A Nigerian woman who was abandoned by her ex-husband has cried out after she found out he got married again

- The woman revealed that her ex-husband had abandoned her with three kids

- She said she has been taking care of the kids since because she assumed he doesnt have money

A mother of three has cried out after her she discovered that her ex-husband who abandoned her with their children got married again. The woman who took to social media to share her grievance stated that she had been taking care of their three kids all by herself.

The woman identified as Ndukwe Nkechi shared her story on Rant HQ Facebook page. She revealed that she had been taking care of the three children she had with her ex-husband all by herself without help from their father.

Nkechi who revealed that she recently found out about the second marriage, stated that she is sad because she had been taking care of the kids all by herself because she believed he was not financially stable.

READ ALSO: 75-year-old allegedly ends his life over wife's infidelity

She expressed her desires to also live a life for herself and save up some money for the future. In her post, she also called on the unidentified man stating that he is a coward.

Legit.ng gathered that the mother of three who studied at the National Teachers Institute in Kaduna is based in Warri, Delta state.

Read her post below:

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However, the woman who reportedly claimed that her husband abandoned her has told Legit.ng that she never made such claims.

She also shared a post on her Facebook page, stating that the claims were not true.

Why do Single ladies prefer to date married men? (Nigerian Street Interview) on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit Newspaper
Wonders will never end. In Chilombo area of Kakoma district in Mangango, Zambia, it was reported that a coffin allegedly refused to be buriedaccording to traditional practice.

The practice is popularly known as kikondo to Kaonde tribe in Zambia. Drama started when the body arrived at the local New Apostolic Church for service but refused to enter the church.

According to Zambian Observer, the coffin reportedly refused to enter the church building instead it led its bearers to a house and plunged it through the window breaking glass panes and lodged inside the house.

Drama as coffin reportedly refused to be buried during the funeral in Zambia. Source: Zambianobserver

READ ALSO: Pregnant Nigerian lady dies in ghastly accident

It took the effort of the police who fired teargas canisters to control the irate mob.

Kaoma District Commissioner Kennedy Liale Mubanga, disclosed that it took the reinforcement of soldiers who were led by the Battalion Commander from the 5ZR army barracks to retrieve the coffin. He also ordered the forceful burial of the deceased that afternoon.

The deceased was identified as Lilian Kanunga, she was 47-year-old and was not married till she died.

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The coffin. Source: Zambianobserver

Nawa o!

Nigerians answer questions on streets: How long can you last in bed? | Legit.ng TV - on Legit.ng TV.

Source: Legit
- A Nigerian lady has taken matters into her hands as she accused another lady of stabbing her brother to death

- According to her post, she claims the girl watched her brother bleed to death and did nothing to help him

- She used the opportunity to warn people to steer clear of the girl in question

Perhaps it is grief, her claims are backed up with true evidence, however, one thing is certain; a Nigerian lady identified as Winning Winnie W*ng, is pretty convinced about the identity of the person who stabbed her brother and watched him bleed to death.

Giving a detailed narration of the incidence, she claimed a lady identified as Sandra Doo on Facebook, stabbed her brother to death. According to Winnie, she claims the lady who appeared to have been in a relationship with the young man, watched him struggle in pain until he eventually bled to death.

Sharing several photos of the accused killer, she wrote on Facebook: Please Facebook be careful with this devil in human form. She stabbed my brother to death, she stood nd watched him died in pain,he struggled for over 7 to 9 hours before dying nd this devil stood right there watching the guy she claimed she loves die in pain and slowly. Be careful of these girls u date nowadays kuz u dunno who is really a human amongst them.

READ ALSO: Singer Banky W shows of his new duplex house with swimming pool as he clocks 37

My God of vengeance not gonna let this evil act go jst like dat. He must revenge for my brother. If humans were God(hmmmmmmm) Winnie wont wait a second before taking an action but as God isnt human we all gonna wait for His will to be done in this case.

I dunno but I believe that my brother not gonna rest until justice is done. He gonna fight for himself nd this devil not gonna hv peace untill she kills herself too.....I call for justice dear Lord, untill my brother's death is avenged. I hv no powers of my own but I so much believe You on this nd I also believe u gonna do it for me. (Her name is Sandra doo on Facebook).....Please bookers, share this untill it gets to the last person on Facebook.

READ ALSO: 75-year-old father of 10 reportedly takes his own life after he heard his wife was cheating with another man

Although the post has since gone viral on the social media platform with over 30 shares, the alleged killer, Sandra Doo, is yet to respond to the grave accusations.

Winnie on the hand didn't disclose how she got the information about the alleged murder of her brother. She however continues to mourn her the deceased young man who was known as Leke Terkaa Israel.

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What do women really want from men? Nigerians speak on Legit.ng TV:

Source: Legit
- Lawal Mohammed (a.k.a.: Buba), ''a major financial and armourer of a suspected kidnapping syndicate in Kogi state has been arrested by the SSS

- Mohammed was arrested on March 23 in Japama, Obajana local government area

- Alos in Niger state, the SSS arrested Abubakar Danlansu in Dikko community. He was named as a weapon courier for Basalube

The State Security Service (SSS) on Tuesday, March 27, declared that it had arrested some notorious kidnapping and terrorism suspects were arrested in separate operations across the country last week.

The first amongst those taken into custody was Lawal Mohammed (a.k.a.: Buba) who had been a major financial and armourer of a suspected kidnapping syndicate in Kogi state. He was arrested on March 23 in Japama, Obajana local government area.

Premium Times reports that the SSS said the Basalube gang had been involved in several abductions in Rivers, Edo, Delta, Kebbi, Zamfara, Kaduna, Kogi and even the Federal Capital Territory for years.

READ ALSO: Police declare Dino Melaye wanted

Three mobile phones and 25 bottles of medicine were recovered from the suspects, the SSS said in a statement circulated by PRNigeria, a public relations firm for security agencies.

The operation, which was carried out jointly with the military, also led to the arrest of two other suspected members of the Basalube syndicate, it said. They were identified as Mohammed Tukur and Abubakar Ibrahim.

Tukur was identified as the coordinator of surveillance operations in the syndicates areas of operation.

The SSS also said a suspected reconnaissance operative for the Boko Haram was arrested on March 24 outskirts of Wudil in Wudil LGA, Kano state.

The agency said Sanusi Bello, believed to be carrying out surveillance activities for the extremist group in the area, was arrested with several handsets, multiple identity cards including those of a police constable and neighbourhood vigilante member and N37,857.

On March 23, in Lower Afesere, Ughelli North LGA, Delta state, another suspected kidnapper and senior member of the Basalube, Ali Abubakar was also arrested as he was perfecting plans to carry out kidnap operations in Obajana, Kogi state.''

In Niger state, the SSS arrested Abubakar Danlansu in Dikko community. He was named as a weapon courier for Basalube. The suspect was arrested en-route Edo state on March 26 while conveying weapons to Obajana, Kogi state for the gangs planned kidnap operations, the SSS said.

On March 23 at Skippers Fast Food, along Sani Abacha Expressway, Yenagoa, the SSS arrested Mathew Ekam for alleged complicity in the kidnap of Obianuju Onyema. The victim was abducted on March 12, 2018 and later released on March 18, the SSS said.

Ekam, 39, is a native of Ogoja, Cross River state and a driver of a heavy duty truck operating between Bayelsa and Rivers States, SSS said.

The agency said the arrests of these suspects hold major significance for law and order and safety of persons.

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It is instructive to note that the activities of kidnappers and armed robbers on the Lokoja-Okene and Abuja-Kaduna corridors have relatively reduced as a result of sustained counter operations of the Service and sister security agencies, it said.

The SSS said the smashing and disruption of Basalube syndicate will ostensibly result in the complete elimination of violent and other allied crimes in those regions.

It appeals to citizens to continue to cooperate by providing information on suspicious activities anywhere theyre observed.

The security agency said a follow-up operation ended with the arrest of Abubakareem Idrisa, Bshir Uban Dawaki Tsoho, Sanusi Abubakar, Nuhu Muhammad and Abubakar Abdulhameed.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported that the arrested militant leader, Peregbakumo Oyawerikumo aka Karowei has been killed in a gun battle while trying to escape.

The military Joint Task Force, Operation Delta Safe (ODS), Karowei after his arrest confessed to several crimes in Ekeremor and Burutu local government areas in Bayelsa and Delta states respectively.

Legit.ng visits Evans the kidnapper's house, how should he be punished? - on Legit.ng TV:

Source: Legit
Even though Mr. Market is now in a tizzy about the future of tech high-fliers, he was very happy last week when the US backed off from its trade war saber-rattling against China and the two sides agreed to talk.

The Administration still has its threat of a 25% tariff on $60 billion of yet to be determined Chinese goods in play, and has said it will launch a Section 301 trade action against Chinas unfair technology licensing rules. Keep in mind that past Section 301 cases have served as bargaining chips to force trade concessions. Trump has said he wants the trade deficit with China reduced by $100 billion and also wants more reciprocity. Bear in mind that even a $100 billion improvement would only be a dent in a yawning trade gap of $375 billion last year.

As Treasury Secretary Mnuchin put it, per Reuters:

Mnuchin told Fox News that he was pursuing an agreement with the Chinese for them to open up their markets, reduce their tariffs, stop forced technology transfer. These are all the things we want to do.

The Administration is out to throw sand in the gears of Chinas economic strategy. From the Financial Times:

But behind the tariffs is what analysts consider to be a broader objective from the White House to disrupt a high-level Chinese strategy, called Made in China 2025, that aims to make a number of companies world leaders in sectors such as robotics, semiconductors, aviation and computing. A crucial element of Beijings development plan has been to partner with foreign companies or acquire overseas technologies that will help Chinese groups rise to global dominance in their respective industries. It is these companies the US is expected to take action against.

It is a awfully late for the US to be waking up to the Chinese buying as well as appropriating US technology. The Section 301 case is expected to target the well-established practice of Chinese firms requiring US partners to make substantial technology transfers as a condition of establishing joint operations. I am hardly connected, but I have been hearing for a very long time of Chinese companies also engaging in intellectual property theft, and I dont mean bootlegging movies.

In addition to these priority areas, the US also wants China to let US firms take controlling stakes in financial firms, reduce tariffs on auto imports, and buy more US semiconductors.

The current state of play is that the Administration gave temporary waivers on its steel and aluminum tariffs to major trade partners like Canada and the EU so as to force the economic impact onto China. So even though Trump says he doesnt do cooperation, this is effectively a joint action against China.

The problem is the Administration would not doubt like a fast win like the one it scored with South Korea in the form of renegotiation of some terms of a six year old trade deal that had become Trumps poster child for the US is getting screwed on bad trade agreements. The US-South Korean merchandise trade deficit doubled after it was signed and Trump had threatened to scupper the deal entirely. The US oddly is keeping pretty mum, perhaps because Trump does not want to look like he relented. Or perhaps he intends to hold that talking point back till closer to the midterms so it wont seem like old news.

I would not expect things with China to change much. Recall that when the US was faced with burgeoning trade deficits with Japan in the 1980s, it had a great deal of difficulty making any progress. The most effective tool was the blunt instrument of the Plaza Accord of 1985, an agreement among the then G-7 which drove the yen to the moon, with the overshoot so bad that the G-7 then entered into the Louvre Accord in 1987 to push the greenback back up.

While Japanese exports to the US fell as a result of the currency move, US companies made almost no progress in their pet aim of increasing exports to Japan. There were two major non-tariff barriers. One was the fabulously fragmented Japanese distribution system, which among other things helped Japan keep employment levels high. I recall US pharmaceutical companies desperate to buy 49% stakes in drug distributors as a way of improving access and not having much success (note that the idea of selling a company outright would be akin to selling your children, so that was another barrier to getting a foothold in Japan. Japanese attitudes towards M&A have changed since then). Another was that Japanese consumers had a very strong preference for Japanese goods, out of the often-accurate view that they were better made.

Mind you, the US had limited success despite Japan being a military protectorate. However, it was able to press Japan to deregulate its financial system rapidly. The result, as weve written elsewhere, was that the resulting speculation (which the Japanese then called zaitech) intensified the spectacular Japanese asset bubbles, making the bust even worse.

China has studied Japans economic history carefully and is mindful of its errors.

While it is obviously not possible to predict how things will play out, particularly with an erratic figure like Trump, the Chinese know that time is on their side. The more they look cooperative but find ways to draw out the talks, say by suggesting that they need to be comprehensive or multilateral to succeed, the more likely that they bog down or that the Americans decide they need to settle for some symbolic wins since getting any big prizes will be really hard. Remember, the Republicans are likely to take serious losses in the midterms and 2020 isnt all that far away either.

Even if Trump were to impose his threatened tariffs, the impact on China wont be significant and will also blow back to other trade partners. From the South China Morning Post:

If Trump were to slap a 25 per cent duty  as the US Trade Representative recommends  on US$50 billion worth of Chinese imports, we estimate the direct and first-order impact could be worth 0.1-0.2 percentage point of Chinese GDP. While this impact could be amplified by a broader list of products, a higher tariff rate, and second-round effects, the order of magnitude is not large enough to derail the Chinese economy. In reality, this impact could be even smaller as the shock will be spread across the global supply chain. Tech and electronic products, which are on top of the list for tariffs, are prone to supply-chain production, which involves countries specialising in parts of the production with inputs assembled at the end. China is well integrated into this process, with nearly 40 per cent of its exports in 2017 being processing trade with imported materials. Hitting China on these products will create a negative spillover onto the likes of Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Even the US could suffer from the reverberation, with companies like Apple taking the lions share of profits from products that are assembled in China.

Its hard to see how much progress the US can make without a major focus on upgrading and rebuilding domestic capabilities. We featured a post yesterday on how manufacturing entrepreneurship has fallen in the US due to a loss of skills. For instance, as reader Scott 2 pointed out:

The best engineering in the world wont help your startup unless you can find a skilled machine shop, and they are disappearing quickly as the machinists retire and their children stare into their phones. It doesnt help that trades arent learned in high school (actually discouraged) and a nice 5 figure sum is needed to get the training to use a 5-axis milling machine for which a starting wage is $15/hour.

Its also going to be hard to push China around all that much given our dependence on them for rare earths, which is expected to lessen but will still be significant. As we pointed out in 2010:

In fact, the while the article does discuss US versus foreign engineering expertise in rare earths mining, it describes in some detail how difficult rare earths mining is in general (more accurately, not the finding the materials part, but separating them out) and the considerable additional hurdles posed by doing it in a non-environmentally destructive manner. Thus the rub is not simply acquiring certain bits of technological know-how, but also breaking further ground in reducing environmental costs. And this issue has frequently been mentioned in passing in accounts of why rare earth production moved to China in the first place. Its nasty, and advanced economies werent keen to do the job. China was willing to take the environmental damage.

Fast forward to an article in The Diplomat in August 2017:

Called the vitamins of modern society, rare earth elements play a critical role in our daily life  in both the economic and security domains. These elements are key components of a vast array of products, including smart phones, computers, light bulbs, electric cars, wind turbines, satellites, cruise missiles, and stealth aircrafts. Some elements, like neodymium and dysprosium, are highly demanded for the production of permanent magnets, which are used for sensors and motors of these products. The most noteworthy fact is that the more we go green and technology-oriented, the more important these elements become to our society. Today, China enjoys a monopoly in the rare earths market. It is estimated that in 2016, more than 80 percent of rare earth elements produced in the world were excavated in China. The country is also believed to hold more than 30 percent of the planets remaining rare earth element reserves. While many stopped paying attention to rare earths after the dispute settlement at the WTO, the market has been preparing for more potential turmoil. For instance, Australian companies have been working to open rare earth mines in Australia and Tanzania for producing elements such as neodymium and dysprosium. Likewise, Canada, through collaboration with the national government and industrial associations, seeks to gain up to 20 percent of global rare earth production by 2018.

Having said that, a shuttered US mine is set to repopen.with a Chinese company as part of the consortium.

Lets put this more tersely: if the US were serious about reducing its trade deficit, with emphasis on advanced technologies, it would have launched an industrial strategy. Now you might say we dont do that. But in fact we do, just very selectively. Military spending is one way we do industrial policy on the sly. Why do you think Google is the worlds spymaster? That was no accident.

If we want more buying of US chips, rather than try to shove them down Chinas throat, we might get the armed services and military contractors to eat more of our own cooking, through minimum content rules that phased in over time. Similarly, we also rely on the Chinese to make military uniforms and boots. The optics and the dependence are poor. There should be a way to repatriate some of the production and distribute other parts to countries that arent geopolitical competitors, like South Korea, India, and Vietnam.

The Chinese may make a clever concession or two to lower trade tensions a bit, but dont expect Trump to make much headway. Remember, he hasnt made much progress towards getting his wall done, and thats a vastly easier project.
3-DIY: Printing your own bioprinter

(Nanowerk News) Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a low-cost 3-D bioprinter by modifying a standard desktop 3-D printer, and they have released the breakthrough designs as open source so that anyone can build their own system.

The researchers--Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) and Biomedical Engineering (BME) Associate Professor Adam Feinberg, BME postdoctoral fellow TJ Hinton, and Kira Pusch, a recent graduate of the MSE undergraduate program--recently published a paper in the journal HardwareX ("Large volume syringe pump extruder for desktop 3D printers") that contains complete instructions for printing and installing the syringe-based, large volume extruder (LVE) to modify any typical, commercial plastic printer.

"What we've created," says Pusch, "is a large volume syringe pump extruder that works with almost any open source fused deposition modeling (FDM) printer. This means that it's an inexpensive and relatively easy adaptation for people who use 3-D printers."

PrintrBot Simple Metal modified with the LVE for FRESH printing. (Image: Adam Feinberg/HardwareX)

As the researchers explain in their paper, "Large volume syringe pump extruder for desktop 3D printers," most commercial 3-D bioprinters currently on the market range in cost from $10,000 to more than $200,000 and are typically proprietary machines, closed source, and difficult to modify.

"Essentially, we've developed a bioprinter that you can build for under $500, that I would argue is at least on par with many that cost far more money," says Feinberg, who is also a member of the Bioengineered Organs Initiative at Carnegie Mellon. "Most 3-D bioprinters start between $10K and $20K. This is significantly cheaper, and we provide very detailed instructional videos. It's really about democratizing technology and trying to get it into more people's hands."

And not only does the LVE cut down on cost, it also allows users to print artificial human tissue on a larger scale and at higher resolution, opening doors for researchers, makers, and professionals to experiment with 3-D printing biomaterials and fluids.

"Usually there's a trade-off," explains Feinberg, "because when the systems dispense smaller amounts of material, we have more control and can print small items with high resolution, but as systems get bigger, various challenges arise. The LVE 3-D bioprinter allows us to print much larger tissue scaffolds, at the scale of an entire human heart, with high quality."

"Bioprinting has historically been limited in volume," adds Pusch, "so essentially the goal is to just scale up the process without sacrificing detail and quality of the print."

Pusch, the first author on the paper, was a research assistant in Feinberg's lab for three years during her undergraduate career. During that time, she received an International Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (iSURF) to work in the Netherlands, and also interned with General Electric's Center for Additive Technology Advancement. Following her graduation from Carnegie Mellon in December of 2017, she began a spring internship at Formlabs in Boston and has since accepted a second internship position for the summer at Blue Origin in Seattle. Pusch has also co-authored a second paper in ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering with Hinton, "3D Printing PDMS Elastomer in a Hydrophilic Support Bath via Freeform Reversible Embedding." As a research assistant in Feinberg's lab, Pusch was able to experience real-world application of her research early on in her academic career. When asked about her experience in Feinberg's lab, Pusch emphasizes how grateful she is to have had the opportunity to work with such supportive and brilliant mentors.

In their paper, the researchers demonstrated the system using alginate, a common biomaterial for 3-D printing, and using the lab's signature Freeform Reversible Embedding of Suspended Hydrogels (FRESH) technique.

Feinberg's lab aims to produce open source biomedical research that other researchers can expand upon. By making their research widely accessible, Feinberg's lab hopes to seed innovation widely, to encourage the rapid development of biomedical technologies to save lives.
 21 companies contributed 745,513 to support community groups and organisations in Tipperary in addressing key social issues and causes in 2017

 249 community partnerships have been established

 Employees volunteered over 2060 hours to Tipperary groups and projects

 Statistics are now available on an online interactive map entitled the Business Impact Map

This data was captured by Business in the Community Ireland (BITCI), a non-profit business network that encourages corporate social responsibility and sustainability. The data is featured on an online interactive Business Impact Map which gives a county-by-county breakdown of how 57 companies and their employees supported local community groups and charities nationally during 2017.

21 companies supported 249 community partnerships in Tipperary and volunteered over 2060 hours to local groups and projects. In addition, the companies provided 311,689 in cash donations, 120,576 in employee fundraising and 313,247 in in-kind donations.

Nationally, from 2013-2017, Business in the Community Ireland has calculated that employees in some of Irelands largest companies have contributed a total of over 1 million volunteering hours to good causes in the country.

The companies who made an impact in Tipperary were: A&L Goodbody, Abbott Laboratories Ireland, Aldi, Bank of Ireland, Boots Retail (Irl) Ltd, BT Ireland, Dawn Meats Group, eir, Energia, ESB Group, Gas Networks Ireland, Intel Ireland, KBC Bank Ireland, Lidl Ireland, Marks & Spencer, Musgrave Group, Northern Trust, Permanent TSB, Roadbridge, Symantec, Tesco Ireland,

Tomas Sercovich, Business in the Community Ireland Chief Executive said, Employees want to work for companies that support their volunteering efforts and crucially want to work where their values align with their employer. Companies know that by engaging in tackling social issues it can drive employee engagement and also can attract and retain the best talent as employees now expect their employers to have a community strategy in place as standard.

Investors and customers are also taking note. According to the Edelman Trust Barometer results which were announced in January of this year, businesses are now expected to be an agent of change with 63 per cent of respondents in Ireland calling on CEOs to take the lead on change rather than wait for government to impose it.

Also in January 2018, Larry Fink, CEO of Blackrock, the worlds largest asset management company announced that the firm intends to support only companies that serve a social purpose. To prosper over time, he wrote in a letter to CEOs of the worlds largest companies, every company must not only deliver financial performance, but also show how it makes a positive contribution to society.

Sercovich concluded, Employees, investors, customers and many other stakeholders want to hear how businesses are aligning with a social purpose. It is crucial that companies communicate their impacts in all areas of sustainability.
Due to the inclement weather and the Beast from the East, Suircan Community Forums plans for Tree Week had to be postponed earlier this month.

The group has redoubled its efforts and is now promoting several events to mark the week, which every year aims to promote tree planting and cultivate the love of trees in Ireland.

The SuirCan Community Forum will gather in Bakers Bar backroom in Parnell Street, Clonmel this Thursday evening at 7.30pm for the screening of the award-winning film 'Call of the Forest'.

The film takes a walk in the woods with acclaimed Irish-Canadian scientist and author, Diana Beresford-Kroeger, as she reveals our profound human connection to the ancient and sacred northern forests and the essential role they play in sustaining the health of our planet.

Diana is an acclaimed scientist and consultant adviser to the Irish Woodland League.

Andrew St Ledger, PRO of the Woodland League, who also features in the film, will introduce the film and facilitate a question and answer session afterwards. Donations at the door will go towards the Woodland League projects - www.woodlandleague.org/forest-in-a-box-project

Other events included a further apple tree planting in Denis Burke Park earlier this week with TY students from the Loreto School and a public planting will take place on Good Friday from 11.30am until approximately 1pm along the Greenway.

The trees were kindly sponsored by Clonmel Tidy Towns.

The group will meet at the back of the Dunnes Stores car park on the Davis Road, where Suircan members will plant edible and crab apple trees along the river to add to the several clusters of apple trees already planted in the park and at the Convent Bridge last autumn as part of the Apple Treasures project.

Shovels and gloves will be provided and people are advised to dress appropriately for the weather.

For more information on the screening and planting, contact the SuirCan PRO on 086-3856720 or via e-mail - suircanclonmel@gmail.com
A Bansha woman who successfully battled two bouts of serious illness in the last three years, and whose daughter lost her long and brave battle with cancer two years ago, has spoken of the new lease of life that a liver transplant has given her.

54 year-old Teresa Power says "she doesn't know herself" since she underwent the life-saving transplant in St. Vincent's Hospital in Dublin in September of last year.

"I couldn't believe it when I opened my eyes after the operation", she says.

"It was just unbelievable, I just felt so good for the first time in years".

Teresa was at the Mansion House in Dublin yesterday, Tuesday, to help promote the national launch of Organ Donor Awareness Week.

"The gift of life is the greatest and most precious gift you can give anyone", she says.

"A second chance gives you a different outlook on life, you appreciate everything".

She says that her story highlights the importance of organ donation, and how vital it is to create an awareness among all age groups of the necessity to sign up to become a donor.

"Without the transplant, I wouldn't be here to tell my story. My liver was failing rapidly. Not a day goes by that I don't realise how lucky I am to have been given this chance".

The battles with serious illness that the Power family have fought over a long number of years represent a story of amazing courage and resilience.

Their ordeal began when Teresa and her husband Richie's eldest child and their only daughter, Fiona, who had a brain tumour since she was 14 years old, discovered it was cancerous in 2011.

28 year-old Fiona, who was a nurse in Beaumont Hospital in Dublin, eventually lost her brave battle and passed away two years ago last Friday.

While looking after Fiona in the last few years of her life, Teresa was dealt another major blow when she was diagnosed with cancer of the tongue and neck in May 2015.

"I never smoked a cigarette in my life, but when my dentist noticed a small ulcer on my tongue he referred me to a consultant at Cork University Hospital", she says.

She successfully underwent surgery to remove a piece of her tongue and was given the all-clear after radiotherapy treatment.

She said it was difficult looking after Fiona while she was fighting her own cancer battle, but says it was something she had to do.

"We have some very good friends and family who were on standby and were a great help during that time. And Fiona and myself helped each other", she says.

However Teresa's troubles didn't end there. She had been diagnosed with primary biliary cirrhosis, an auto immune condition, in 2002 and after a liver biopsy was performed in late 2016 her consultant, Professor John Crowe, referred her to Professor Aidan McCormack in St. Vincent's Hospital, after which she was put on the list for a liver transplant.

"I couldn't believe it, after everything that had happened to Fiona and myself", she says.

"The quality of my life at that time was non-existent. I was feeling at my lowest point, both mentally and physically.

"I had no energy and my colour was so bad. I couldn't even go to the local supermarket".

But the worst symptom she experienced was an itch "from your head to your toes. It was unbearable and I couldn't sleep with it.

"It was so bad you couldn't care less about anything".

She travelled to St. Vincent's Hospital twice in the belief that she would undergo the liver transplant, but on each occasion the operation was postponed. The second time she was ready to be anaesthethised when the surgery was called off at the eleventh hour.

However six months ago it was a case of third time lucky, and she hasn't looked back since.

"I was positive facing the operation, I knew nothing would be as bad as how miserable I felt beforehand.

Since the transplant life has improved for Teresa and Richie and their three sons - 27 year-old Colin, 22 year-old Kevin and 20 year-old Shane.

She gave a commitment to never drink alcohol again but says that wasn't a problem, because she was always only an occasional drinker and her illness wasn't alcohol-related.

She has also found the strength to move on with her life; up to a few weeks ago, everything in Fiona's bedroom was as she left it.

"I couldn't face giving away her clothes. But then I thought if a family could give me their loved one's organ when they died, why was I so slow to give clothes away.

"It made me think and I am happy now that someone will benefit from them", says Teresa, who donated the clothes to a charity shop.

"When Fiona died it didn't really hit me for a while but since the surgery not a minute of the day goes by when I don't think of her".

She is grateful to the support that Richie, the boys and herself received from everyone in the last number of years, including her GP, Dr. Ivor Hanrahan, in Tipperary town, whom she describes as "a tower of strength".

"When you think of a problem with your liver you automatically think your life is finished, but it's not. You are never alone on the journey".

Most of all, however, she will be eternally grateful to the organ donor who saved her life.

For more information on becoming an organ donor, contact the Irish Kidney Association at donor@ika.ie; freetext DONOR to 50050; lo call 1890 543649 or by post to Freepost, Donor House, IKA, Park West, Dublin 12.
Bad news for you, sir. Photo: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Of all the characters targeted by Robert Muellers investigation into Russian interference in the presidential election, Alex van der Zwaan, minor though he may seem, will make history. A well-moneyed former associate at Skadden Arps, the powerful New York law firm, the attorney had the gall to lie time and again to Muellers team during an interview with federal investigators. Van der Zwaan got caught, faced charges for it, pleaded guilty, and is now awaiting sentencing in federal court in Washington. Next month, when he goes before a judge, hell be the first defendant in Muellers sights who may land behind bars. His lawyers have asked for leniency.

But its not the prospect of jail time for van der Zwaan that matters. In a sentencing memorandum federal prosecutors filed late Tuesday, they even told the judge that the Department of Justice does not take a position with respect to a particular sentence to be imposed. Instead, Muellers team wanted to make it very clear to the court that van der Zwaan, for all his sophistication and legal experience, is a big liar with a thing for destroying evidence. And that no matter the warnings he received from the special counsels office about the legal perils of being untruthful, he nonetheless deliberately and repeatedly lied about matters that are critical to Muellers probe. All this, while his lawyer was in the interview room with him.

Lied about what matters? That van der Zwaan had had communications, in the heat of the presidential election, with Rick Gates, a longtime business partner of Paul Manafort and Donald Trumps campaign deputy who is now facing criminal charges of his own. And that he knew that Gates, who has since pleaded guilty and is cooperating with Mueller, was directly communicating, also during the campaign, with a mysterious Person A  whom the FBI has determined has ties to Russian intelligence service and had such ties in 2016, emphasis mine.

Mueller's office says FBI agents determined that a person who worked with Manafort and Gates "has ties to a Russian intelligence service." He told Van Der Zwaan that he was a former GRU intelligence officer. pic.twitter.com/IuYvuKcSsq  Brad Heath (@bradheath) March 28, 2018

The Washington Post reported Wednesday that Person A is Konstantin Kilimnik, a Manafort associate who oversaw one of his business offices in Kiev, Ukraines capital. Previous reporting had already documented the long-standing ties between Kilimnik and Manafort, including meetings the pair had during the campaign. But Tuesday nights court filing was the first time the federal government put it on the record that the man was an active Russian spy in the run-up to 2016. (Kilimnik has denied any such links to Russian intelligence.) That is to say, Manafort was employing a person who probably had a direct line, and who knows what other secret connections, to the Kremlin. And van der Zwaan, all along, had grown far too close to the trio. Or gone native, as Muellers filing puts it.

What all of this means in the grand scheme is yet to be seen. But for whats otherwise a routine court document filed ahead of sentencing, Mueller pulled no punches with it  embarrassing van der Zwaan and peeling the curtain back ever so slightly on the trove of evidence and incriminating conduct weve yet to learn about. Trumps legal team may be in utter disarray, even as it beats the drum that there was never any coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia. But Mueller, slowly and methodically, continues to prove them wrong by connecting the dots, his work as unflappable as ever. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, we aint seen nothing yet.
(Natural News) Last February, the worlds first plastic-free supermarket aisle was launched in Amsterdam.

Shoppers at the Jan Pieter Heijestraat branch of Ekoplaza, a Dutch supermarket chain, can now choose from more than 700 plastic-free products such as cereals, chocolate, dairy, fresh fruit, meat, rice, sauces, snacks, vegetables, and yogurt.

All items at the supermarket are packed in either compostable materials or cardboard, glass, and metal instead of plastic. In a statement, Erik Does, chief executive of Ekoplaza, said, Plastic-free aisles are an important stepping stone to a brighter future for food and drink.

He added, We know that our customers are sick to death of products laden in layer after layer of thick plastic packaging. (Related: Plastic pollution is devastating ocean ecosystems, turning them into toxic repositories; documentary spurs action.)

Ekoplaza has 74 stores all over the Netherlands. The supermarket chain also has plans to launch similar aisles at all branches by the end of 2018.

Sian Sutherland, co-founder of A Plastic Planet, the environmental organization behind the project, expressed hope that other food retailers will soon follow suit. Sutherland shared that it is pointless to package something as fleeting as food in something as indestructible as plastic.

She continued that Europes biggest supermarkets will benefit by following in Ekoplazas footsteps since adopting a plastic-free aisle as soon as possible greatly reduces plastic waste.

Humanitys massive plastic footprint can be traced to all areas around the globe, such as in our oceans and in the stomachs and cavities of seabirds, turtles, and even tiny plankton.

According to a recent study published in the journal Science Advances, since the 1950s, over 8.3 billion tonnes (or 9.1 tons) of plastic has been produced, distributed, and thrown away.

At least 6.3 billion tonnes (6.9 tons) of plastic can be categorized as waste. However, only nine percent of that total is recycled, and 12 percent is incinerated. For the remainder, at least 79 percent of plastic waste, is left to pile up in landfills or pollute the environment.

Jenna Jambeck, study co-author and an associate professor of engineering at the University of Georgia, commented that since the bulk of plastics dont biodegrade in any meaningful sense, the plastic waste we produce might remain for at least hundreds or even thousands of years.

She warned that their calculations highlight the need to reconsider the materials we use and our waste management practices.

Roland Geyer, the lead author of the study and an industrial ecologist from the University of California, Santa Barbara, added that immediate measures must be put in place to curb the plastic waste that is regularly being produced.

But it looks like more retailers and governments are doing their part to minimize plastic pollution. Earlier in February, Taiwans Environmental Protection Agency suggested a bold 12-year timeline to eradicate four types of single-use plastics by 2030. Once successful, the timeline can eliminate the need for disposable tableware, drinking straws, shopping bags, and takeaway beverage cups.

In Chile, the sale of single-use plastic bags is prohibited in 102 coastal villages and towns. Meanwhile, Kenya has introduced a law that will fine or give anyone a jail sentence if they manufacture, sell, or carry a plastic bag. In Scotland, there have been plans to ban the manufacture and sale of plastic-stemmed cotton buds along with plastic straws.

If governments and retailers all around the world do their part, its possible that plastic pollution can be minimized to manageable levels.

Tips to minimize plastic waste

Every effort counts, and below are some tips to help minimize the plastic waste that you produce daily:

Always use your own reusable steel or ceramic mugs/tumblers, especially when youre at a coffeehouse.

Avoid buying convenience foods packaged in plastic.

Buy fresh produce at a farmers market, which is usually not packaged in plastic.

Choose glass beverages bottles instead of plastic bottles.

Clean with baking soda and vinegar instead of cleaners in plastic packaging.

Make your own bread.

Skip the straws when youre ordering drinks, or buy reusable glass, silicone, or stainless steel straws.

Use cloth bags when you shop.

Read more articles on how to minimize your plastic waste at GreenLivingNews.com.

Sources include:

EcoWatch.com

ReefRelief.org
(Natural News) Central Californias Oroville Dam, which encountered catastrophic failure last year that led to the erosion of 1.7 million cubic yards of material, is now the subject of a multi-billion dollar lawsuit. As of this times writing, Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey has filed a suit against the Department of Water Resources (DWR) in California wherein he seeks up to $51 billion in civil penalties.

The lawsuit, which has a minimum penalty amount of $34 billion, is based on an early estimate of the amount of concrete, dirt, and rock that got washed into the Feather River right after the main and emergency spillways of the damn failed to stop all the erosion. It is said that a more recent estimate proposes significantly higher amounts of the eroded material into the river, and if the penalties are based on this, then the costs would be even higher.

According to the Butte County DA, he filed the civil claim of environmental damages against the DWR mainly because they violated a fish and game code. The deleterious nature of the overwhelming material was spot-lighted and proved by the evacuation of the feather river fish hatchery, he explained in a statement. It was too dangerous for the Salmon and Steelhead there.

He also clarified that whether or not the DWR had the best intentions was completely irrelevant. Theres no need to prove that they willfully or negligently intended to pass through deleterious material, Ramsey said. Basically, you dump, youre liable. (Related: Oroville dam emergency demonstrates how incompetent bureaucrats are marching California into catastrophic collapse at every level.)

The lawsuit was said to be based on a law that dates back to 1875, which was instituted in order to protect fish and other wildlife by prohibiting the dumping of harmful materials into the waterways of the state. Ever since that law was put in place, it has been amended numerous times. As to today, it provides for penalties of up to $10 per pound for dumping what can be described as any substance or material deleterious to fish, plant life, mammals, or bird life.

According to the Butte County lawsuit, the weight of the Oroville spillway sludge is estimated to be between 2,000 to 3,000 pounds per cubic yard. By taking that number and multiplying it by 1.7 million  the number of cubic yards  youll get the overall weight estimate of 3.4 billion to 5.1 billion pounds. Thats how the penalties were determined in the suit: The state laws maximum penalty of $10 per pound brings the fine up to between $34 billion and $51 billion.

Tom Lando, the Interim Director for the Feather River Recreation and Park District, remarked about the extent of the destruction brought forth by the failure of the spillways. I saw the water almost up to Highway 70  it is flood-plane, but its still amazing to see that water up there, he said. And I saw all that damage; its almost indescribable.

Lando further added that they took away tons of trash that came down from the flood, the debris, and destroyed structures in the area. Because of the amount of devastation, the district could really use any resources that they can get, Lando stated.

Although backed with sound logic, the outrageously high penalties will likely not come to pass, according to a report. Its more likely that the courts would impose a lesser amount for the fine as a sort of reasonable compromise. No matter what happens, restitution is sorely needed. So it would be best if all those involved came to an agreement as soon as possible.

Head over to CleanWater.news for more news on environmental harm to bodies of water.

Sources include:

KQED.org

ActionNewsNow.com
(Natural News) For the longest time, diabetes has been divided into two classifications: Type 1 diabetes and Type 2 diabetes. Yet, as a new study has demonstrated, it may not be as simple as that. The study, which was published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, suggests that diabetes comprised five clusters, with Type 2 diabetes comprising four different subtypes.

Beginning 2008, the researchers behind the study kept track of 13,720 patients in southern Sweden. All of the patients, whose ages ranged from 18 to 97, had been newly diagnosed with diabetes. They were able to come up with six variables based on their health data analyses: Age, body mass index (BMI), beta-cell antibodies, metabolic control levels, beta-cell function, and insulin resistance.

From here, the researchers identified five clusters of diabetes:

Severe autoimmune diabetes (SAID): Type 1 diabetes and latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA) fall under this category. The characteristics of this cluster include the onset of diabetes at a young age, reduced insulin production, low metabolic control, and the appearance of glutamic acid decarboxylase autoantibodies (GADA). Severe insulin-deficient diabetes (SIDD): People in this group are distinguished by their elevated glycated haemoglobin (HbA1C), moderate insulin resistance, poor insulin secretion, and the highest occurrence of retinopathy out of the other clusters. Severe insulin-resistant diabetes (SIRD): Obesity and severe insulin resistance are the defining characteristics of this subtype. Those considered part of this group were notable for having the greatest incidence of kidney damage. Mild obesity-related diabetes (MOD): This subtype is comprised mostly of obese patients diagnosed with diabetes during their early years. Mild age-related diabetes (MARD): Nearly 40 percent of the patients were grouped into this category, making the largest of the five subtypes. According to the researchers, almost all of the patients with MARD were of older age.

They repeated their analyses three more times. One of the following studies, which was carried out using Finnish patients, yielded slightly different results but were still noted as positive. The outcome exceeded our expectations and highly corresponded with the analysis from [All New Diabetics In Scania]. The only difference was that Group 5 was larger in Finland than in Skane. The disease progression was remarkably similar in both groups, said Leif Groop, study author and principal investigator at Diabetes and Endocrinology at Lund University.

Though the study has so far been limited in scope (having focused exclusively on Scandinavians), Groop and his colleagues have stated that they intend to broaden future studies to include other ethnic groups. As is, their findings hold immense potential for the tens of millions of people struggling with diabetes.

The longer the study is running, the more and better data well get, said study co-author and Lund University assistant researcher Emma Ahlqvist. This will give us even better opportunities to tailor the treatment to each individual.

The biggest problem that comes with treating diabetes is that, many times, a doctor may give an incorrect diagnosis. This could then lead to a patient being forced to undergo treatments that may not have been needed in the first place. Diabetic patients falling under SIRD have the most to gain from the new subtypes since, as per Groop, theyre the ones who tend to be the most incorrectly treated. (Related: Are Your Prescriptions Killing You? 5 Juices Recipe That Reverse Type 2 Diabetes.)

However, if and when these new subtypes become the norm, the chances of misdiagnosis may be slim to none.

Visit DiabtesScienceNews.com to remain updated on any future developments about this story.

Sources include:

LUDC.LU.se

TheLancet.com
(Natural News) In theory, media fact-checkers are a great idea, but in practice, theyve become little more than another tool used by the American Pravda media to verify and substantiate the lies they publish on daily basis.

Fact-checking groups  such as Politifact  routinely cast judgments while failing to disclose their own left-wing bias, notes the Media Research Centers Newsbusters, a fact-checkers fact-checker.

Their allies in the media try to cast these groups as neutral third parties when, in fact, they are card-carrying members of the liberal echo chamber, the site noted further, adding thats theres little wonder, then, why a large majority  62 percent  of American voters believe the Pravda medias own fact-checkers are indeed biased.

The Media Research Center is flipping the script on these faux-fact-checkers, Newsbusters noted. Its time to turn the tables and give the public the real facts.

 Politifacts not-so-factual fact-checking on abortions and black deaths. On March 5 Newsbusters took them to task for incorrectly fact-checking Jason Isaac, a Republican congressional candidate in Texas. He declared in a League of Women Voters Guide, I will work to end abortion, which is the leading cause of death for black Americans and kills as many as 1,000 black babies every day. Politifact judged that Mostly False.

Heres how the sites checkers justified their ruling: They refused to accept that whats growing inside a pregnant woman is, in fact, a human baby:

Abortion rights advocates, noting the Supreme Court legalized abortion in every state in 1973, typically refer to unborn fetuses. Also, the CDC doesnt say abortions kill babies; it defines a legal induced abortion as an intervention performed by a licensed clinician (e.g., a physician, nurse-midwife, nurse practitioner, or physician assistant) that is intended to terminate an ongoing pregnancy.

Fetuses, not babies. An intervention, not the death of an unborn baby. Terminology means everything, doesnt it? (Related: NYT pushes junk science racism study that falsely claims systemic racism causes wealthy black people to lose all their money.)

 When it isnt botching facts about real stories, Snopes is fact-checking obvious satire. The site followed other fact-checkers in warning about the Christian satire site Babylon bee, notes Newsbusters. The fact-checked story? Heres the headline (and while reading it, ask yourself if you would have clicked on it because you believed it or because you knew it was satire and thought it funny enough to check out): CNN Purchases Industrial-Sized Washing Machine to Spin News Before Publication. Snopes urgently described the story as False.

Of course it was. After all, everybody knows CNN doesnt need a washing machine, large or small, to spin the news; it just comes naturally to those hacks.

 Politifact fact-checked Hillary Clintons campaign book, What Happened, and failed to find any falsehoods at all. Not only did the sites fact-checkers rate nothing in the book as false but it never earned any Pants on Fire ratings either. Believing Clinton is telling the truth in her tome depends an awful lot on what you personally consider true (even if it isnt).

This isnt surprising since the website has only evaluated Hillary once since last November  a Mostly False in a complaint about over suppression in Wisconsin in June, Newsbusters noted.

Whats not true about what Hillary has said? That Benghazi was caused by an anti-Muslim video made by an American. That Trump colluded with Russia to steal the election from her (the Clinton campaign, along with the DNC, colluded with a British spy to buy Russia-supplied fake dirt on Trump). That Trump is unfit for office (when she cant seem to walk anywhere these days without falling down). And my personal favorite: Trumps not fit for the office of president.

Given the soaring economy, the fact that a North Korean tyrant wants to talk now instead of making war, and everyone who has been taking advantage of America via one-sided trade deals now wants to renegotiate them, Id rate Clintons observation Pant(suit) on Fire.

Stay current on the days REAL news the Pravda media doesnt want you to see at Censored.news.

J.D. Heyes is editor of The National Sentinel and a senior writer for Natural News and News Target.

Sources include:

Newsbusters.org

MediaFactWatch.com
(Natural News) The Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI) reports that a worrisome amount of plastic waste is accumulating in the once-pristine European Arctic.

An NPI study revealed that plastic in all sizes is now scattered all over the Norwegian Arctic and in the Svalbard islands, an archipelago situated between Norways mainland and the North Pole, one of the planets northernmost inhabited regions.

Based on data from the study, at least 194 trash objects, usually plastic, are present per square kilometer in the area. All of the plastic waste weighs a total of 79,000 tonnes (87,000 metric tons).

The results also showed that even in remote areas with comparatively low human impact, the plastic waste that accumulated in the European Arctic is almost equal to or even greater than in more urban and populated areas. (Related: How about plastic for dinner? It is showing up in mussels from the Arctic to China, and ending up on our plates.)

Scientist Ingeborg G. Hallanger shared that the team of researchers is alarmed at the amount of microplastics in the sea. Hallanger is pushing for the continued exploration of the effects of plastic waste on the areas wildlife.

She explained that while there is no conclusive data on how plastics affect wildlife, it has been confirmed that a whopping 90 percent of seabirds have a plastic in their stomach. Meanwhile, at least 22.5 percent of seahorses have more than 0.1 gram (g) of plastic in their stomach.

Hallanger shared that animals get confused when they see microplastic, which looks like food to them. When wildlife consumes plastic, this causes severe internal damage. Animals also get stuck in plastic like fishing nets and other plastic residues.

Geir Wing Gabrielsen, one of the papers authors, warned that an Arctic seabird called the fulmar is significantly threatened by plastic waste. He said that by the end of the 1970s, very few plastics was found in their stomachs. However, when researchers last inspected the condition of the fulmar in 2013, some birds had over 200 plastic pieces in their stomachs.

Larger animals like reindeer are also harmed by plastic wastes. Reindeer get trapped in nets that wash up on beaches, and they die every year when their antlers get stuck in the nets. Gabrielsen added that 80 percent of the waste is from discarded fishing gear in Svalbard.

Climate and Environment Minister Ola Elvestuen expressed concern over the alarming results, which stressed the need for cooperation from the aquaculture industry, fisheries, and the shipping industry. Minimizing microplastic artificial turf and car tires are also crucial to addressing the plastic wasted problem.

Researchers are also worried that the estimated amount of plastic in the Arctic regions will continue to grow. In fact, global plastic production rose to 322 million tonnes (355 million metric tons) in 2015, and the figure might keep increasing.

While the results of the study are troubling, it doesnt mean that all hope is lost. If everyone does their part, from the general public to manufacturers and corporations, it might not be too late to minimize the plastic wastes that we produce.

Tips to reduce plastic waste

You can also do your part to help minimize plastic waste by following the tips below:

Avoid using products with microbeads  The little plastic scrubbers found in various beauty products, like body wash and facial scrubs, often escape water-treatment plants. Some animals may mistake them for food, so buy products with natural exfoliants (e.g., oatmeal or salt) instead.

 The little plastic scrubbers found in various beauty products, like body wash and facial scrubs, often escape water-treatment plants. Some animals may mistake them for food, so buy products with natural exfoliants (e.g., oatmeal or salt) instead. Bring your own water  Always bring a reusable bottle filled with water so you dont have to buy water. Get a faucet water filter if youre unsure about the quality of the tap water in your home.

 Always bring a reusable bottle filled with water so you dont have to buy water. Get a faucet water filter if youre unsure about the quality of the tap water in your home. Buy used packaging  New items, like gadgets and toys, often come with all sorts of plastic packaging. Get whatever you need from garage sales, online postings, or thrift stores.

 New items, like gadgets and toys, often come with all sorts of plastic packaging. Get whatever you need from garage sales, online postings, or thrift stores. Shop in bulk  Buying in bulk, whether its yogurt or chips, means youll be producing less plastic waste.

 Buying in bulk, whether its yogurt or chips, means youll be producing less plastic waste. Stop using disposable plastics  Start bringing reusable bags when youre shopping, bring silverware to the office, or use a travel mug when youre visiting your favorite coffee shop.

Read more articles on the dangers of plastic waste and how we can minimize environmental damage at Environ.news.

Sources include:

EcoWatch.com

NRDC.com
(Natural News) During the 2016 presidential campaign, I received criticism from supporters of Hillary Clinton for suggesting that if she was elected and Democrats took over Congress, then the Second Amendment would essentially be gutted.

It wasnt just hyperbole; my opinion was guided by experience. In my lifetime, there has only been one political party that routinely advocated for more gun control and more gun bans: The Democratic Party. That, and Clinton herself has advocated for similar policies, even supporting her husbands and Democrats assault weapons ban in 1994 (that wound up costing Democrats dearly at the ballot box).

Oh, thats what you guys always say, one respondent wrote, daring me to come up with any evidence that is what Clinton and Democrats would do.

I did, but of course, it didnt matter. You cant convince a partisan of the truth no matter how many facts you use.

Fast-forward to this past weekend. Once more, Democrats were behind a major anti-gun rally in the nations capital, in which some demonstrators were crystal clear about their desire: Full banning of not just military look-alike weapons but all guns. Several protesters brought pre-printed signs that read, I wish Obama had taken your guns.

Now, Democrats in Oregon are backing a ballot initiative that not only bans military look-alikes and high-capacity magazines, it will require owners to surrender those guns or face felony charges.

Yes, this is America 2018, or parts of America anyway: Your Second Amendment rights are malleable, expendable, bendable, and subject to revoking by a vote of the people.

As Infowars reported:

The proposal, called Initiative Petition 42, would require legal gun owners to surrender or register their assault weapons or face felony charges.

The measure is the states reasonable response to improving student safety at schools, which of course it wont accomplish.

The proposal defines an assault weapon as any semiautomatic rifle that has the capacity to accept a detachable magazine, and any feature like folding or telescoping stock, or that can accept more than 10 rounds of ammunition, reported KGW News.

The measure states further that a reduction in the availability of assault weapons and large capacity ammunition magazines will promote public health and safety of the residents of this state  without any proof whatsoever to substantiate the claim.

Not all Oregon lawmakers are marching like lemmings to this ill-advised drum beat.

This is completely out of hand  I couldnt believe it, said Rep. Bill Post, a Republican. Ive been told so many times by people in favor of gun control No one is coming to take your guns. This explicitly comes for your guns [Emphasis added].

It sure does. Whats more, it criminalizes your possession of certain types of guns.

Isnt this blatantly unconstitutional? While it would seem so to any reasonable person who reads the Second Amendments shall not be infringed language, its not so as far as the U.S. Supreme Court is concerned.

A majority of justices have regularly refused to hear appeals to rulings by lower federal courts that have let stand state bans on assault weapons. According to those justices, the Second Amendment is indeed an individual right but it only applies to certain firearms like handguns to defend ones home.

Of course, thats absurd; the founders placed no such limits on the ownership of arms. And in fact, thanks to the doctrine of incorporation brought about by the Fourteenth Amendments due process clause, the Bill of Rights apply to states as well as the federal government.

But that doesnt matter to Democrats and their supporters. Theyre coming for our guns. We knew it all along, mind you, but until now theyve kept their ultimate goal under wraps.

Not anymore.

J.D. Heyes is editor of The National Sentinel and a senior writer for Natural News and News Target.

Sources include:

TheNationalSentinel.com

Infowars.com

CBSNews.com
The heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser Admiral Kuznetsov of project 11435 will get a digital radio-technical complex to control aircraft flights. It will make its aircraft fly in any time of the day and in complicated conditions and not only in good visibility. The load on pilots will decrease as electronics will automatically guide the landing approach, the Izvestia daily writes.

The heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser Admiral Kuznetsov of project 11435 will get a digital radio-technical complex to control aircraft flights. It will make its aircraft fly in any time of the day and in complicated conditions and not only in good visibility. The load on pilots will decrease as electronics will automatically guide the landing approach, the Izvestia daily writes.

Russian Navy Aircraft Carrier Admiral Kuznetsov. Picture via korabli.eu

The main Navy command told the newspaper the new radio-technical complex will ensure close-range navigation of aircraft, control of their movement and landing approach. The main aim is to ensure automatic deck landing of combat aircraft.

At present the Indian Navy is successfully operating the Russian Resistor radio-technical complex. It directs aircraft for landing (the pilot monitors the indicators to advance to the necessary trajectory). The operation can proceed automatically, but the pilot has to take over control when the aircraft approaches the warship stern and land the aircraft himself. The complex to be installed on the Kuznetsov will land it in a fully automatic regime. The modernization of the aircraft carrier will reduce minimal weather requirements for the procedure.

The Navy command said modern seaborne MiG-29K/KUB aircraft have the necessary equipment but the automatic landing regime has not been tested so far. The task is difficult as one moving object has to be guided to another one by a strictly assigned trajectory with high precision. Otherwise the aircraft can be damaged.

The commands are designed on the warship and transmitted to the aircraft. Problems with test trials in the 1990s on the Admiral Kuznetsov allowed testing only the analog line of data transmission. It is limited in speed, precision and is vulnerable to jamming. The Kuznetsov did not operate in full swing, as a result. Landing was manual and flights in bad weather and at night were a problem.

When the Soviet Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier was rebuilt for the Indian Navy in the 2000s, the customer demanded it had to operate round-the-clock and in any weather. Thus, the modernized Resistor complex appeared. "Patriarch of our horizontal deck takeoff and landing Viktor Pugachev said there is nothing more dangerous than night landing. The pilot is operating at the limit of his capabilities. Therefore, the first landing is very significant," said Hero of Russia test pilot Oleg Mutovin.

He said the Resistor properly performed on the Indian Vikramaditya aircraft carrier. "If the Kuznetsov upgrade gives it such a system, it will be a big breakthrough. It will allow precisely approaching for landing at night and in bad weather. Combat capabilities of the warship will considerably increase," he said.

The US Navy has a fully automatic landing system, but it is used mostly for drones. Aircraft pilots usually take over control at the final landing stage to correct mistakes, if any, the Izvestia writes.

 Copyright 2018 TASS. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
HOW DO YOU GET TO THE NUT, as in the nutmeat, as in the flavorful center that's sitting just beyond that tempting shell? You might crack it, or split it, or pull one half off, then the other, or maybe you simply draw the nutmeat out, deftly, a skill that takes time and practice. Nuts don't come in a single flavor, in short, and that goes for their actual flavors, as well as their shells, how we extract them from those shells, and what we ultimately use the nuts for, before devouring them. Do we turn them into a creamy, toast-ready butter? Do we use them for a savory dish or as a salad topper? Or will we fold our favorite nuts into a bowl of cookie batter? The many avenues taken by a cook who is nutty over nuts are plentiful and piquant. If you're that person, then you surely know that the Golden State boasts its own day devoted totally to the pleasures, gifts, and many uses of nuts, specifically those nuts grown around the North Valley area, so, yeah, you're headed to...

CHICO, the longtime home of the springtime California Nut Festival. That's where you'll indulge in a host of chewy gems, from almonds to walnuts to pistachios to chestnuts and pecans, mmm, mmm, yum. Count on cooking presentations of the nutliest sort to rule the Saturday, April 21 event, and an art show, and wine tastes, and beer samples, and, oh yeahhhh, "plentiful gourmet food offerings" (we had to make "yeah" extra long there to drive home the fact that "plentiful gourmet food offerings" is a pleasing prospect). A ticket to all of this sheer nuttiness is $30, while children ages 7 to 12 may enter for ten dollars (and kids under 6 are admitted for free). The event is not only located at historic Patrick Ranch Museum, but it also helps the important site by raising money that helps the institution to "... preserve and interpret agricultural history of the Sacramento Valley."

ONE QUESTION LINGERS: Are you eating a few spoonfuls of peanut butter that morning, before you go to the fest, or throwing some walnuts in your morning pancakes? Probably, right? For just because you're attending the California Nut Festival doesn't mean you won't nosh on nuts before and after. And, of course, during.
AC Transit's Board of Directors will hold public hearings Wednesday to hear from riders before the transport operator rolls out a new program that could impact around 170,000 commuters.

The Oakland-based transit company proposed lines changes to the Line F in Berkeley; Line L and LA in Richmond and Line E in San Leandro and Oakland.

The changes could affect the travel time and the lines' frequency.

The company said it is looking to improve the Bay Bridge Transbay network with its "Transbay Tomorrow" project and want to hear from riders across the Bay Area.

Here are the information on where the public hearings will take place:

Wednesday, March 28, 12:00 pm

Golden Gate University, Room 5200

536 Mission Street

San Francisco, CA 94105

Wednesday, March 28, 6:00 pm

AC Transit General Offices, Second Floor Board Room

1600 Franklin Street

Oakland, CA 94612
Alameda County leaders on Tuesday decided one of the countrys largest first responder exercises, Urban Shield, will continue despite growing calls to shut it down.

Several hundred people protested outside the Alameda County Board of Supervisors chamber, saying the Urban Shield exercise militarizes local law enforcement.

Lara Kiswani, of the Stop Urban Shield Coalition, said the program "actually trains officers and first responders to see people of color as enemy combatants, and they compete in SWAT raids where theyre taught to shoot and kill."

Protesters shouted down the organizer, Sheriff Gregory Ahern, then filled the supervisors chamber, where they made emotional pleas to end the program. Some even linked the training to the recent Sacramento police shooting of an unarmed man.

"If you think theres no relationship to Urban Shield kind of training and what is happening to the killing of young black people in this country, you are wrong," Berkeley resident Micky Duxbury said.

Supporters, meanwhile, say the massive training exercise is critical preparation for possible disasters and terror attacks.

"We need to be prepared to handle these things properly and deal with them," Hayward police Chief Mark Koller said.

Supervisors voted to fund the $1.5 million exercise this year but said the future of the program will be decided by a newly created committee.
Does broadcasting The Bottom Line With Boris grow Sinclairs bottom line? Photo: Sinclair Broadcasting Group

Sinclair Broadcast Group  a media company run by a family of multi-millionaire Republican donors  is on the cusp of owning enough local television stations to reach 70 percent of American households. On the day that Donald Trump was elected, it would have been all but impossible for any single broadcaster to claim that large a share of the local TV news market. But Trumps handpicked FCC chair, Ajit Pai, spent much of last year dismantling regulatory obstacles to media consolidation  including two rules that stood in the way of Sinclairs desired merger with Tribune Media.

Sinclair has repaid this favor with interest. During the 2016 campaign, the broadcast company required all of its affiliates to air news stories critical of Hillary Clinton  and commentary segments praising Donald Trump  on a regular basis. In recent months, Sinclair has expanded the scope of such mandatory programming. Now, its member stations arent just required to broadcast the insights of the parent companys chief political analyst, former Trump spokesman Boris Epshteyn; or analysis from conservative pundit Mark Hyman; or updates from the Terrorism Alert Desk (sensationalized coverage of recent terror attacks from around the world)  they also must force their anchors to deliver Trumpian denunciations of the false news that national media outlets are publishing. According to documents obtained by CNN, Sinclairs stations have been instructed to air these anchor delivered journalistic responsibility message[s], as frequently as possible, so as to create maximum reach and frequency.

This isnt how things were supposed to be.

Shortly after Sinclair unveiled its plan to purchase Tribune Media, the New York Times assured its readers that, eventually, the companys propagandistic ambitions would be checked by market forces:

Whether Sinclair uses its expanded reach to push its conservative-leaning views remains to be seen. Any ambitions to do so would face significant hurdles.

For one, television, where ratings beget advertising revenue, is not a forgiving medium for dissatisfaction, several media analysts and specialists said. Because overnight ratings are readily available, Sinclair will know almost instantaneously if its programming is attractive to viewers or driving them  and advertising dollars  away.

If you are not serving the communitys needs, you will know it, and you will know it fast, said Al Tompkins, a senior faculty member at the Poynter Institute. In television, if you fail to serve, you will pay the price.

So, why has Sinclairs programming become more right-wing, even as it has expanded into more left-leaning media markets? Does the audience for local TV news tilt conservative  and thus, enjoy pro-Trump political content  even in Blue America? Or does Sinclair care more about promoting the GOP agenda than about maximizing its profits?

A new study from Emory University political scientists Gregory J. Martin and Josh McCrain suggests that both of these explanations are wrong: The ideological bent of Sinclairs programming does turn off local news viewers  but broadcasting such unpopular, ideological content is (probably) a good business decision for the company, anyway.

Martin and McCrain analyzed the content and ratings of 743 local television stations over the final eight months of 2017  a period during which Sinclair acquired a bunch of local channels, and revamped its news programming. The researchers found that Sinclair-acquired stations became both more right-wing in their ideological orientation (as calculated by text-based measures of ideological slant) and more focused on national politics (as opposed to local politics) than their competitors did over the same period.

They discovered that the Sinclair-acquired stations did seem to pay a price for these programming changes  but not a terribly large one:

[Our] estimate of ratings changes at the Sinclair-acquired stations is negative, and particularly so in relatively Democratic-leaning markets where Sinclairs conservative-slanted coverage of national politics has less appeal. In ratings terms, the shift towards national politics was costly to these stations: viewers appear to prefer the more local-heavy mix of coverage to the more national-heavy one. Nonetheless, there are very clear economies of scale for a conglomerate owner in covering national as opposed to local politics, thanks to the ability to distribute the same content in multiple markets. Given that the ratings penalty we document is fairly small, it seems likely that these cost efficiencies dominate in Sinclairs calculus.

Later in their paper, Martin and McCrain elaborate on that last pont:

A conglomerate owner can reduce production costs, perhaps dramatically, by substituting nationally-focused and ideologically unified content produced in a single studio for locally-focused and ideologically diverse content produced by many local journalists. Even if viewers would prefer locally-tailored politics content, the fact that politics coverage is bundled with other kinds of content - crime reporting, weather, sports, and so on - that are less affected by consolidation mutes the demand response.

Its true then, that Sinclairs commitment to substituting pro-Trump propaganda for local news reporting costs the company viewers  but that commitment does not (necessarily) cost the firm profits.

Over the past four decades, proponents of lax anti-trust enforcement have argued that corporate consolidation is good for the American consumer, since megacompanies can achieve economies of scale that reduce production costs and, thus, consumer prices. But in Sinclairs case, such efficiencies arent enabling the company to provide its customers with a more affordable product  only a more unpopular and civically corrosive one.

The United States is currently suffering through a crisis of local journalism. Regional newspapers are either dead, dying, or hobbling along, shedding resources for local reporting with each step: Between 2003 and 2014, the number of full-time newspaper reporters assigned to state capitals contracted by 35 percent, according to the Pew Research Center.

As print journalism collapses  and Americans increasingly view national events through an algorithmically customized, ideological filter  local TV news has assumed a heightened importance. Roughly 25 million Americans still watch their local TV news broadcast each night, an audience that dwarfs that of cable news. And such viewers greet their local programming with more credulity than they do Fox News and MSNBC; local news organizations remain the most trusted source of information in Pew Research Centers polling on trust in media.

Local TV news has never been the pride of the Fourth Estate. But as one of few institutions of regional journalism that still boasts a functioning business model, it could theoretically play a part in filling the (ever-growing) void of state-level political reporting. Martin and McCrains study suggests that there is consumer demand for such information.

But the consolidation of broadcast ownership  that the Federal Communications Commission willfully accelerated last year  appears to be rendering such demand irrelevant.
BART says its making big gains in its efforts to crack down on crime.

On Tuesday, the transit agency announced arrests last year were up dramatically after a change in strategy. But have those arrests really made for a safer ride?

BART says the increased visibility of officers at stations and in trains has resulted in a nearly 40 percent jump in arrests, but violent crime also has spiked, and the main reason why, officials say, is cellphones.

"Their phone got stolen, or the biggest thing is that people say that its not safe on BART," rider Chitra French said.

Another rider, Kareem Ervin, said he has seen a difference from a year ago.

"Right now, I would have to say that I do feel safer now, riding BART," Ervin said. "Right now, I pay attention to overall safety."

Overall, BART police Chief Carlos Rojas cites safety progress.

"Weve seen an increase in crime over the last three years, and there are some strategies that we have put in place, proactive enforcement, that we think has had an impact," Rojas said.

Heres a look at BARTs raw numbers:

1,700 arrests in 2017, an increase of almost 40 percent.

Fare evasion warnings and tickets up almost 90 percent.

Electronic thefts up more than 50 percent.

24 percent jump in violent crime.

"So in violent crime, people often think, oh, a gun, a knife, some type of weapon," Rojas said. "And on occasion, it is that way; it doesnt happen very frequently on BART. But the majority of our robberies are what people call phone snatches."

Riders are only too aware of that reality.

"Im not that surprised because a lot of people I notice they put their phones in their pockets or their purse, and they kind of leave their purse hanging out," rider Victoria Nguyen said. "And they dont really hold on to it, or they dont really hold on to their phone."

The chief believes new video surveillance, roughly a year-and-half old, will cut down on phone thefts and lead to more arrests. But some riders are deploying their own strategies.

"I actually carry one of these around," rider Hayden King said as he pulled out an old flip phone from his pocket. "So probably no one wants to steal this thing."

Part of BARTs campaign isnt just police but also public awareness, including audio advertisements on trains, warning riders to be aware of their surroundings.

Another crime BART is trying to crack down on is fare evasion. The agency cited or warned 8,223 people who did not pay for tickets in 2017, 88 percent above the 4,382 in 2016.



Rojas also said BART hired more new officers last year than in the previous five years, but it still amounts to only one officer for every two stations.

Bay City News contributed to this report.
Bay Area residents are no strangers to dealing with the lack of affordable housing in cities across the Bay, especially in and around the Silicon Valley.

Sally Kuchar, Cities Director of local and national news network Curbed, took to Twitter Monday to inform residents just how bad the housing market is in the Bay, causing a buzz on the social media platform.

"I follow that data quite closely and I am constantly shocked at how bad it is," Kuchar said, who takes to Twitter once or twice a year to share her findings.

In the last 30 days, there have been 430 homes sold in San Francisco with a median sold price of $1.45 million. Kuchar made it clear that the median price for homes in the city is $1.39 million, so homes are selling for more than they list for, "this is not normal!" she tweeted.

Kuchar claims that the average down payment in San Francisco is 33.4 percent, "supply and demand is real, y'all," she wrote.

To her, the most surprising factor about the Bay Area housing market is that people think they have the answer. She claims many responded to her tweet with suggestions that she believes wouldnt work.

"I think if there's anything to do, it's to reach out to the people who live in this beautiful place with empathy and compassion," Kuchar said. "I think we really need to have a deeper conversation about this."

Another city she tackled was Menlo Park. She claims the city "refuses" to build housing for its growing workforce.

The average down payment for a house in the city where Facebook is headquartered is averaged to $898,730, based on the median sold price of homes sold in the last 30 days.

When addressing Cupertino, Kuchar tweeted out photos showing a one bedroom, one bathroom condo listed at $828,000.

She compared Cupertino to Menlo Park stating, "The city refuses to even try to keep up with the growing demand for housing. Right now there are only 20 homes for sale. The median sold price for a home is $2.3M."

Kuchar also shared photos of a one bedroom, one bathroom condo on the market for $848,000 in Palo Alto, where she claims housing inventory is "incredibly low for a place with very high demand."

Someone reached out to her on Twitter and sent her a link to an 18-bedroom French chateau listed at $1.3 million, the same cost of another condo on the market in Palo Alto.

"But it's Silicon Valley! you say. Of course it's expensive. Sure, fine. I'll buy that. Let's swim across the bay to Oakland. (Spoiler: This is going to suck.)," she tweeted next.

Even though there are significantly more houses on sale in Oakland, the lack of affordable housing for middle-income families puts the city on the list of worst housing markets in the Bay Area.

According to Kuchar, the average income for a median household in Oakland is $57,778, and the average median sold price of homes sold in the last 30 days is $735,000 with a down payment of $249,165.

"It's easy to see why tension between longtime residents and new homebuyers are high," she tweeted.

The last of Kuchars tweets show a picture of a parking lot surrounding the North Berkeley BART station. She wrote that for years, residents have fought to keep it a parking lot instead of turning into transit-friendly housing.

"Think about that for a second," Kuchar tweeted. "People value homes for their cars more than homes for their fellow humans. I don't know how to convince these people to care about other humans."

Though Kuchar acknowledges there's no way to predict the future, she does not see any changes coming to the Bay Area housing market any time soon.

"Economists have confirmed that it's not a matter of if but when it comes, but a recession might have a small impact," she said.

When asked what advice she would give those looking to buy a new home in the Bay Area, she jokingly said, "Have a rich relative who is very generous."

However, she really advises people to be realistic about what they can afford. "Homes are listed for less than they sell for," Kuchar said. "If you want to spend $600,000, look for $500,000 listings."

Among all of the responses she received in her over 20-tweet thread, she said one stood out the most.

A Berkeley native reached out to Kuchar on Twitter and shared her story. The woman said she was a fourth generation Berkeley resident that had to move because she could no longer afford to stay.

"She said, 'the next time I'll be able to afford to live in Berkeley is when I have my ashes scattered on the streets,' the most heartbreaking thing I have heard," Kuchar said.
A California Highway Patrol helicopter rescued an injured tourist hiking on a trail Tuesday in Napa County.

At about 11:30 a.m., the CHP chopper, along with multiple other agencies, responded to a report of a man who had injured his leg on a trail in St. Helena, the CHP said.

CHP Officer Anna Paulson arrived hiked her way to the patient's location and guided the helicopter to their location, which was difficult to see in between the trees, the CHP said.

The injured man was a 72-year-old resident of New York City, who was hiking on the rugged trail when he slipped and injured himself about three-quarters of a mile from the trailhead. The difficult access required a helicopter rescue, the CHP said.

In gusty wind conditions, the victim was extracted and flown to a nearby landing zone, where he was treated and then flown to an ambulance at the Calistoga Fairgrounds, the CHP said.

The man's injuries were not life threatening, the CHP said.
United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents successfully entered the Elmwood Jail in Milpitas and the main jail twice in two days earlier this month, going against local sanctuary policy.

When administrators found out about the error in letting the agents in, Elmwood denied them access on three follow up trips, once on Mar. 14, and again this past Monday.

On that day, agents were turned away at the main entrance so they proceeded to the back, where the woman's jail is located, only to be denied again.

The Santa Clara Sheriff's office says they have been persistent but they claim they are not welcomed.

"What we don't want to do is undermine the trust of the community," said Sargent Reggie Cooks. "The sheriff has been very adamant about where we stand on ICE."

Immigration rights group SIREN says every hail guard should know the local and state sanctuary policies.

"It's very surprising, especially since the county and community advocates have worked really hard to implement policies," Jeremy Barousse from SIREN said.

However, not all are against ICE agents visiting jails.

"They weren't just swept up because they were studying in a parking lot trying to get a job," said Bob Cooke, a retired special agent at the State Department of Justice. "They obviously committed some sort of crime, and to hold them in a position where they're not accessible to other law enforcement is just unimaginable."

The former lawman says keeping ICE agents out of jails is wrong, "it disgusts me," he said.

The sheriff says the jails have re-evaluated and strengthened the clearance procedures for any cop, including ICE, to enter their facilities.

They believe there is no doubt that ICE agents will try to get in again.
California Governor Jerry Brown just welcomed an addition to his team, a furry friend who walks on all fours.

Serving as California's Deputy First Dog, is Cali Brown. The two-month-old Bordoodle is a Golden State native, born on Jan. 26, 2018 in Sacramento County to mother Bailey and father Murphy.

According to the governors website, Cali began training with First Dog Colusa Brown upon joining the Brown family in March.

"As Deputy First Dog, her duties include assisting the First Dog in herding staff at the State Capitol and lending a paw around the family ranch in Colusa County," read the website.

Cali had a warm welcoming on Twitter, her fellow canine and politician tweeted, "As #FirstDog, I'm happy to introduce the newest member of our pack and #DeputyFirstDog Cali Brown. She isn't old enough to tweet yet, but follow me for the latest!"
One person has died after a driver reportedly swung an ax at a group of people and ran over them in San Francisco.

At least five people were struck in a vehicular hit-and-run in San Francisco's Dogpatch neighborhood, near the intersection of Illinois and 24th Street, according to San Francisco police.

The driver fled the scene but was later taken into custody near Alemany Boulevard and Cayuga Avenue, police said. Four of the five victims were in "life threatening condition," according to SFPD, and one later died after being transported to a nearby hospital.

The incident occured around 10:25 a.m., police said.

One witness said a driver in a white GMC van had an argument with a man on the sidewalk and a few other people intervened. The witness said the driver got out of his vehicle and had an ax.

A second witness also said the driver had a small ax and that the people involved in the argument chased the driver back into the van. That's when the driver drove into the people on the sidewalk.

Police said they don't know the relationship between the injured and the suspect, and they do not believe there is a threat to the public at this time.

Refresh this page for more on this breaking news story.


Orange County supervisors voted Tuesday to join U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions' lawsuit challenging California's so-called sanctuary state legislation prohibiting law enforcement from fully cooperating with federal immigration-enforcement authorities.

The California Values Act prohibits local law enforcement officials throughout the state from asking about immigration status. It also bars local authorities from holding undocumented immigrants in jails until federal authorities can pick them up.

State officials say the law does not stop sheriff's deputies from giving immigration authorities access to jails to interview inmates. Also, local law enforcement officials may cooperate with the deportation of state convicts in prison or inmates in local jails being held for a list of serious offenses.

Orange County Supervisor Michelle Steel originally proposed a resolution condemning the state law, which she called "totally unconstitutional." The board on Tuesday also approved that resolution.

Steel's introduction of the resolution prompted Supervisor Shawn Nelson to propose joining Sessions' lawsuit. Nelson has long criticized resolutions as being relatively toothless and often not having anything to do with county business.

President Donald Trump cheered the move Wednesday, tweeting: "My Administration stands in solidarity with the brave citizens in Orange County defending their rights against California's illegal and unconstitutional Sanctuary policies. California's Sanctuary laws ... release known dangerous criminals into communities across the State. All citizens have the right to be protected by Federal law and strong borders."

The county's action came on the heels of the Los Alamitos City Council's preliminary vote to "exempt" that city from the state law. The city's action drew a rebuke from the American Civil Liberties Union, which has pledged to sue the city if it gives final approval to its ordinance.

Several residents spoke in support of the county opposing the state law, but multiple others called Sessions' lawsuit "racist" and "divisive."

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach, implored the county to oppose the state law.

"By making us a sanctuary city and state, we're doing nothing more than attracting millions more people to come to this country and to consume the very wealth that is necessary for our quality of life,'' Rohrabacher said. He added "this flow of illegals'' has "brought down our quality of education," as well as healthcare and housing.

"Millions of people come here to get their benefits," Rohrabacher said. "If we don't act rationally, we are hurting everybody."

Rohrabacher claimed the country spends $23 billion annually "to handle illegal immigrant benefits."

Supervisor Todd Spitzer said it was an issue of law enforcement safety. He recalled his years as a police officer attempting to arrest suspects.

"Those are very, very scary moments," Spitzer said. "It is much safer to be able to transfer the custody of somebody who is already in custody."

When some in the audience jeered him, Spitzer said, "You can boo me all you want, but you haven't worked the streets the way I have. ... This allows the appropriate handing off of someone appropriately in custody.''

Nelson said he is concerned the state law makes it harder for local law enforcement to work with federal authorities.

Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens announced Monday that her department will now publicly release information about the release of undocumented immigrants from the county's jails. Hutchens opposed the state law because she felt it would hinder her department's cooperation with federal authorities.

A spokesman for the governor's office said it was unlikely Gov. Jerry Brown would react to the move.

But Sen. Kevin De Leon, D-Los Angeles, slammed the move.

"The county that gave us Prop. 187 more than two decades ago is at it again with another unconstitutional attack on our immigrant communities,'' De Leon said. "I am confident the courts will reject this challenge to SB 54, just as they roundly rejected Prop. 187."

Proposition 187 was a 1994 ballot initiative approved by voters that sought to end state services like healthcare and public education for those in the state illegally.



De Leon added, "This kind of obsessive immigrant bashing is embarrassing to the county and its residents, and seems designed to court the approval of a racist president and his cronies."

De Leon said the "efforts to portray hardworking immigrants as criminals are a repulsive, black stain on California's history."

Nelson decried arguments that the county's move was racist or bigoted.

"We've gotten to a point of an entitlement attitude -- if you disagree you're a bad person, you're morally bankrupt if you don't see the world the same way I do,'' Nelson said. "I'm not a racist."

Nelson said the proper way to address the issue is to take it to the courts. And the state's law sends mixed messages to law enforcement, he argued.

"They shouldn't be conflicted," Nelson said of police. "If talking to another law enforcement agency puts them at risk of violating the law, that's just not right."

The vote drew praise from Justice Department spokesman Devin O'Malley.

"The Justice Department welcomes Orange County's decision to support our lawsuit against California's so-called 'sanctuary state' policies," O'Malley said in a statement.

"Orange County's residents have experienced firsthand the negative effects of SB 54, which mandates releasing criminal aliens back into their communities instead of into the custody of federal immigration authorities."
An attorney for adult film actress Stormy Daniels, who says she had sex with Donald Trump in 2006, has filed a motion seeking a deposition from the president and his attorney, Michael Cohen, in their ongoing dispute about a non-disclosure agreement.

The filing, submitted Tuesday by attorney Michael Avenatti, also seeks a jury trial for the case and for her team to request some documents from Trump's team. Daniels is arguing that she isn't bound by a non-disclosure agreement signed shortly before the 2016 presidential election because it wasn't valid, since it wasn't signed by one party: Trump.

Daniels received $130,000 in the non-disclosure agreement in exchange for not discussing the alleged sexual encounter, which the president has denied took place. But since the validity of the contract has been questioned, she has detailed what she said took place, most recently in a "60 Minutes" interview in which she said she was threatened to stay quiet about the alleged affair in 2011.

Cohen has contended she is violating the agreement, which is still in effect, and owes millions of dollars for doing so.



Avenatti is seeking a two-hour deposition with Trump and another with Cohen, as well as up to 10 requests for documents from Trump and Cohen relating to the agreement. He cited the precedent of President Bill Clinton being deposed in a lawsuit filed by Paula Jones, who accused him of sexually harassing her before he was elected.



"We are confident that after applying Supreme Court precedent from the Clinton matter, the Court will order the depositions and the trial to proceed. We expect to be placing the president and his fixer under oath in the coming months," Avenatti told NBC News.

Court filings show an April 30 hearing date.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump had denied the allegations and directed further questions to outside counsel. Cohen's attorney told NBC that the motion is politically motivated and "a reckless use of the legal system."

The payment, which Cohen has said came out of his own pocket without funds from the Trump Organization or Trump campaign, has separately raised the prospect of violating federal election law, since it might be seen as a campaign contribution far more valuable than the $5,400 limit an individual can give.

Lawyers in another case have said they want to depose Trump. Summer Zervos, a contestant on "The Apprentice," is suing Trump for defamation after he dismissed her claim that he initiated unwanted sexual contact with her in 2007 as made up. A judge recently said the case could move forward after Trump's attorneys sought to dismiss it.
A Maine school bus driver reportedly fired for making racist and sexist remarks will now serve on his former employer's school board.

Mike Downing, 68, of Minot, has won a seat on the RSU 16 school board. He ran as an unopposed write-in candidate, and won with just 31 votes.

The longtime bus driver told the Lewiston Sun Journal that he was disciplined for his language several times, and admitted to calling Martin Luther King Day "National (N-word) Day" and used the C-word to describe the female superintendent and school board chair.

"We do not condone any racist, sexist, harassment-type behavior," said Superintendent Tina Meserve.

She said she could not comment on Downing's previous employment with the district, but said all district employees receive annual discrimination and harassment training.

"We have high expectations for how we treat each other," said Meserve. "If community members want to talk about this, they should certainly come to a board meeting."

Downing did not respond to multiple requests for comment Wednesday.

Neighbors describe him as a "good guy, who said bad things."

"I think he's admitting that he has said some wrong things," said neighbor Karen Nichols. "I don't see a big difference between what Mike has done, and looking at our governor or our president. It appears in today's society, say what you want, no filters. Just be ready to apologize tomorrow."

Minot resident and former RSU 16 board member Annette Hemond said she supports Downing "100 percent."

"The way Mike will function as a board member is the type of person we need," she said. "He is probably a better board member than bus driver."

Minot's registrar said there is a recall process for school board members. It would be initiated if 138 people (10 percent of the votes cast in the last gubernatorial election) signed a petition.

Because details of Downing's dismissal were not public before the election, it is unlikely that voters knew about his offensive comments.

Some said Wednesday that Downing's language should be disqualifying.

"He shouldn't be swearing, saying the N-word or C-word," said John Perry.

But others said they could look past it.

"I think that he'll do a good job on the school board," said Joni Slattely. "I don't think he has a vendetta. I think he's a nice guy. He comes from the era of when those words were used."
Governor Chris Sununu announced Tuesday he is taking his Recovery Friendly Workplace initiative nationwide, starting with Rhode Island.

New Hampshire is one of the hardest hit states by the opioid addiction crisis and the initiative was launched to empower workplaces to provide support for people recovering from substance use disorder.

Governor Sununu called on Governors nationwide to adopt the initiative. He has pledged that New Hampshire will provide the website, logos and framework guidance.

The announcement took place inside the Statehouse in Concord attended by business leaders, recovery advocates, and state officials.

Sarah Rawlins was one of those people. She's in long term recovery. She knows how hard it is to keep a job when struggling with addiction. She was fired for not showing up because of her habit.

"I came back years later and asked to be heard about what was going on with me back then and they gave me my job back," Rawlins said. At the time she was working for the Chameleon Group in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Now Rawlins helps people in recovery get jobs as a Supportive Employment Specialist at Granite Pathways.

"I started bringing in people from recovery communities for work so within nine months we had brought in 30 people," Rawlins said.

Rawlins efforts are something Governor Sununu says he's commited. "We have to be there for them. You have businesses all over the state, you have the state of Rhode Island now joining us.

Employers who have adopted the initiative had some of their workers in long-term recovery speak at the press conference, including Rawlins.

Marianne Perna credits Rawlins with helping her get back in the workforce.

"We talked about if I needed a hair cut and clothing forinterviews, because these are obstacles that happen," Perna said. "You know a person in early recovery doesn't have those."

"If someone has cancer and they go to their employer and say I have cancer, the immediate response is oh my gosh thats terrible, how can I help," Rawlins said. "We have to look at addiction the same way."

To date, Rawlins said she has helped 100 people get jobs, and 74 people are still currently working.

According to Governor Sununu's office, since the original launch on March 1, the list of early adopters has more than doubled in New Hampshire.

Harvard Pilgrim HealthCare and the New Hampshire Hospital Association are a part of 16 additional companies who have signed on as early adopters, joining the 12 original organizations like the State of New Hampshire, Walmart and Turbocam. With these 28 early adopters, the total number of employees who work for a Recovery Friendly Workplace is now roughly 26,000 people.
A mural of Alton Sterling. Photo: Sean Gardner/Getty Images

The police officers involved in the fatal shooting of Alton Sterling in 2016 will not be charged with a crime, the Louisiana attorney general Jeff Landry announced on Tuesday.

This decision was not taken lightly, Landry said. We came to this conclusion after countless hours of reviewing the evidence.

Sterling, who was black, was shot and killed by a white officer outside a convenience store on July 5, 2016, amid a string of similar police shootings around the country that sparked widespread protests. Disturbing cell-phone footage of the incident quickly ricocheted around the internet.

A homeless man had called police after Sterling reportedly brandished a gun outside the store. Landrys report said that surveillance footage shows him carrying the weapon, but the video hasnt been released.

When officers Howie Lake and Blane Salamoni arrived, Sterling was selling CDs outside the store, as he often did. According to the attorney generals report, Sterling refused orders to put his hands on the hood of a car, and officers wrestled him to the ground.

The report also says that the officers Tased Sterling repeatedly before the shooting, but that the shocks had little effect on him, perhaps because he had been using drugs.

In a familiar story line with such cases, the officers say Sterling was reaching for his gun  a contention that witnesses dispute. Salamoni reportedly yelled at Sterling that he would shoot if Sterling moved. He then shot Sterling three times as he was allegedly reaching for his firearm, and another three times as he rolled to his left.

After the shooting, the officers were placed on paid administrative leave.

The lack of charges hardly come as a surprise. If the last few years have proven anything with respect to police killings, from Eric Garner to Daniel Shaver, it is the difficulty of charging cops with crimes, much less convicting them.

Theyre not going to bring charges on anybody. Why would they do that? This is white America, Sterlings aunt, Veda Washington, said.

Last year, the Department of Justice decided not to press federal civil-rights charges against the officers.

But the case isnt over. Baton Rouge mayor Sharon Weston Broome said that the city would now investigate the shooting separately.

Sterlings five children also filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the officers last year.
A Massachusetts senator is facing multiple charges after allegedly driving drunk over the weekend.

According to State House News, Sen. Michael Brady, of Brockton, was arrested in Weymouth early Saturday morning while on his way home.

Brady's office confirmed to State House News Tuesday that he had been arrested. He pleaded not guilty during his arraignment Monday in Quincy District Court on charges of operating under the influence, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, and marked lanes violations.

According to the Quincy District Court clerk's office, the 55-year-old was released after his arraignment on personal recognizance. He's due back in court for a pre-trial hearing April 13.
Ecuador's government said Wednesday it has cut off WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's internet connection at the nation's London embassy after his recent activity on social media decrying the arrest of a Catalan separatist politician.

In a statement, officials said Assange's recent posts "put at risk" the good relations Ecuador maintains with nations throughout Europe and had decided as of Tuesday to suspend his internet access "in order to prevent any potential harm."

Assange has since gone silent on social media.

The move prompted an outcry among Assange's supporters, like musician Brian Eno and former Greek Minister of Finance Yanis Varoufakis.

"Only extraordinary pressure from the US and the Spanish governments can explain why Ecuadors authorities should have taken such appalling steps in isolating Julian," Eno and Varoufakis wrote in a joint statement.

The move prompted an outcry among Assange's supporters, like musician Brian Eno and former Greek Minister of Finance Yanis Varoufakis.



"Only extraordinary pressure from the US and the Spanish governments can explain why Ecuadors authorities should have taken such appalling steps in isolating Julian," Eno and Varoufakis wrote in a joint statement.



Ecuador granted Assange asylum in the South American nation's London embassy in 2012, where he has remained cooped up ever since. Ecuador has repeatedly tried to find a solution that would allow Assange to leave without the threat of arrest, but with no success. He remains wanted in Britain for jumping bail and also fears a possible U.S. extradition request based on his leaking of classified State Department documents.

Relations between Assange and his host nation have often grown prickly.

Ecuador suspended his internet access in 2016 after a WikiLeaks dump targeting Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. And while former President Rafael Correa hailed Assange's work, the South American country's current head of state has called him a hacker and warned him not to meddle in politics.

As part of an agreement allowing him to stay at Ecuador's embassy, Assange is forbidden from sending any messages that would interfere with the country's diplomatic relations other nations.

"He violated that agreement," said Maria Fernanda Espinosa, Ecuador's minister of foreign affairs.

She added that Ecuador's government would be sending of a group of diplomats to meet with Assange's legal team in London next week while also continuing a dialogue with British officials on how to resolve "an inherited problem."

Assange frequently tweets more than a dozen times a day, sharing news stories and comments that often focus on global politics and digital security issues. In recent days, Assange had criticized Germany's detention of former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont. He wrote that the European arrest warrant system "allows an abusive government to persecute its opponents across the whole of the EU."

He also chimed in a decision by the United States and more than a dozen European nations to kick out Russian diplomats on Monday following Moscow's alleged poisoning of an ex-spy in Britain.

"The manner of and timing of Russian diplomatic expulsions is poor diplomacy," he wrote.

Following Assange's remarks, a British minister called him a "miserable little worm" and said it was regretful that he remains in Ecuador's embassy.

Ecuador granted the Australian-born Assange citizenship in December as part of an effort to make him a member of its diplomatic team, which would grant him additional rights like special legal immunity. But Britain's Foreign Office rejected the request to grant him diplomatic status in the U.K.
A 40-year-old Plainville man is in serious condition after a driver hit him while he was on a bicycle in Farmington Tuesday night.

Farmington police said 40-year-old Raymond Reyes, of Plainville, was struck by a vehicle driven by a 17-year-old Farmington boy at the intersection of Route 177 and Morea Road around 9:45 p.m.

Reyes was rushed to Saint Francis Hospital. The 17-year-old boy was not injured and no one else was in his vehicle.

The North Central Municipal Accident Reconstruction Squad was called in to investigate. Anyone with information should contact Farmington Police Detective Hughes at 860-675-2461.
Parents in Middlefield plan to speak out against the planned closure of an elementary school after the Board of Education voted in favor of the plan.

The school board of Regional School District 13 voted Monday night to close John Lyman School in two years. They said a drop in enrollment and reduced state aid are to blame. The district already closed Korn School two years ago, and was reviewing a study to reduce the remaining schools to reduce costs.

However, Chairman of the Board of Education Bob Moore said the vote wasnt originally scheduled, and that there was supposed to be a public meeting and a resident survey first. Additional discussion is planned at a meeting Wednesday.

"Many more steps in analysis, program development and integration, the merging of a contemporary and integrated day transition, engineering design, funding and approvals are needed in this process over the next two years before a school closure could occur," Moore said.



Parents caught wind of the news and reached out to NBC Connecticut. Right now the school houses about 240 students.

The public meeting is set for Wednesday night at 7 p.m. at Coginchaug Regional High School.
The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection has issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) looking for a developer to partner up on the Seaside State Park project in Waterford.

The multi-million dollar project involves the creation of a new state park at the former Seaside sanatorium along the Waterford coast. DEEP is looking for a partner that can help work to reuse the historic structures already on site.

Increasing public access to the Long Island Sound has been a primary goal of the Connecticut State Park system since the very first state park opened in 1913. Moving forward with the plan to preserve this property as a state park, while also creating a state park lodge is the best of both worlds for our residents and our tourism economy. We look forward to creating a public-private partnership to save these historic buildings and create a state park lodge that will be an asset to the town and the state, said DEEP Commissioner Robert Klee.

The Seaside property was originally a sanitarium for tuberculosis patients, then served as senior housing and a group home before closing in 1996. In 2014 Gov. Dannel Malloy made the property a state park, the first new one along the Long Island Sound in more than 50 years.

Since 2014 DEEP has been working on the planning and approval processes for the park. The agency is looking to create lodging, dining, a spa and other amenities using the historic buildings. There is over 107,000 gross square feet of buildings available.

DEEP is looking for a proposal that sets out to restore and preserve the historic assets, preserve and improve the ecology and habitat in the area, promote and improve passive recreation and public access to the Long Island Sound, and create an operating plan that is financially feasible. Any agreement with a private development partner would grant the rights to rehabilitate and manage the buildings and a leasehold area under contract, but ownership of the property would remain in the hands of the state.

The deadline for responses is July 27, 2018. For more information, visit the DEEP website by clicking here.
Dallas police are investigating the shooting death of a hotel security guard that happened overnight Wednesday.

Police say Randal Terrell, 34, shot and killed 72-year-old security guard Adane Weldekiros at the Holiday Inn Express & Suites in the 9000 block of Vantage Point Drive, along Greenville Avenue and immediately south of Interstate 635.

The shooting was preceded by an argument between the Weldekiros and Terrell, during which time the Weldekiros told Terrell to leave the hotel property, according to investigators.

Dallas Police Department

Terrell left the scene but returned soon after with a gun and fired several shots, police said.

Dallas police officers arrived at the hotel at approximately 1:15 a.m. and found Weldekiros' body lying near the front door of the hotel. The Terrell stayed at the scene and immediately turned himself over to the authorities, police said.

The handgun used in the incident was found next to Terrell in an open briefcase at the time of his arrest.

Terrell was charged with murder and booked into the Dallas County Jail, with a bond set at $100,000.

NBC 5's Holley Ford contributed to this report.


Officers with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Enforcement Removal Operations (ERO) arrested 71 people in North Texas and 18 in Oklahoma during a three-day operation.



According to a release from ICE, one of the 89 arrested had 67 criminal convictions, and the rest had criminal history that included aggravated assault, aggravated assault of a public servant, alien smuggling, child abuse, dangerous drugs, discharge of a firearm, among others.

Twenty three of those also re-entered the United States after being deported and, if convicted, they may face up to 20 years in federal prison depending on the criminality, according to ICE.

During the operation that ended Thursday, people from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Colombia, Nigeria, El Salvador, Laos, Nicaragua, Pakistan and Vietnam were arrested.

This North Texas and Oklahoma operation removed 67 criminal aliens from our streets and our communities, said Simona L. Flores, field office director of ERO Dallas. In addition to this valuable community service, our ICE officers also help maintain the integrity of our immigration laws. The Dallas area of responsibility includes 128 counties in North Texas and Oklahoma.

The operation took place in cities such as Dallas, Fort Worth, Irving, Balch Springs, Rockwall, Plano, and Garland.

According to ICE, officers carry out enforcement operations daily across the country as part of the efforts to protect the nation and uphold public safety.

The agency also stated that all of the targets during the North Texas and Oklahoma operations were amenable to arrest under the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act.
Lianne Duong had a difficult time finding a house in the Dallas area. So, she visited Wylie and fell in love with what is now her second home.

But her first year in the house was a challenge, from a pipe leak to damaged floors to dinged furniture.

When Duong opened her cabinets below the sink, she heard water running behind the wall.

"I saw water coming from underneath the hardwood to the tile near my laundry room," she said.

She brought a plumber in to investigate and learned she had a major pipe leak on her hands.

The leaking water damaged about 90 percent of her home's flooring.

Duong said she called the home builder, Calatlantic Homes, and Calatlantic contracted a flooring company.

"They had to move everything from the kitchen, the living room to the office, which is near the front door," she explained.

But the move didn't go as smoothly as she'd hoped. She noticed her living room table was damaged.

"There was an area where you could see raw wood," Duong said.

She called Calatlantic, hoping they'd take care of it.

The builder eventually sent someone out to fix the table. But she later noticed another problem.

She said she came home and a worker told her he bumped into her fridge and created a ding, but he asked her not to call his supervisor, and that he'd take care of it himself.

"I was confused on what to do," she said. "Either let him take care of himself and not get in trouble by the company or tell the company and have them resolve it."

The fridge cost more than $1,000, so she chose the latter.

Duong said she reached out to Calatlantic and was told they would order three new panels for her fridge.

Duong received the bottom fridge panel but the left and right panels of the fridge never arrived.

"It is frustrating and it's exhausting," Duong said.

She said she was told the parts got sent to South Carolina on accident, but she'd get a brand new refrigerator to make up for her troubles.

But after waiting several more weeks for her new fridge, she got fed up and called NBC 5 Responds.

We reached out to Lennar Corporation, which recently acquired Calatlantic.

We didn't get a response, but this Wylie homeowner did.

"He called me and this was resolved within, I would say, less than a week," she said.

The North Texas woman now has a new fridge that's completely ding free.

She said finally able to enjoy her Wylie home in peace.

When home repairs don't go as planned, here are Samantha Chatman's Solutions:



-Always take pictures

-Jot down a timeline

-Keep a paper trail
With smiles and firm handshakes, North Korea and China used a surprise summit this week to show that despite recent tensions, Pyongyang still has a powerful backer and Beijing will not be sidelined in discussions about the fate of its unpredictable neighbor.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's secretive talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing appear aimed at improving both countries' positions ahead of Kim's anticipated meetings with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump in the coming weeks.

A key objective for Beijing is to reassert its relevance to the upcoming talks, from which it has been excluded. China has appeared increasingly shut out as its relations with the North deteriorated and Pyongyang reached out to Seoul and Washington.

"Kim Jong Un's visit shows that China is not marginalized, but playing a leading role. This saves China a lot of face," said Pang Zhongying, a North Korea expert at Renmin University in Beijing.

Official reports from both countries on Wednesday depicted in effusive terms warm ties between the two leaders in an effort to downplay recent tensions over Kim's development of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles.

In the reports, "Kim reaffirms the traditional friendship between the two countries as if nothing had ever happened, when the relationship had plummeted to unprecedented lows," said Bonnie Glaser, an Asia expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Ties in recent months have frayed as China supported tougher U.N. sanctions on North Korea and suspended coal and iron ore imports. Pyongyang last year seemingly sought to humiliate Beijing by timing some of its missile tests for major global summits in China.

Kim made the visit to China at Xi's invitation, China's official Xinhua News Agency said, in his first trip to a foreign country since he took power in 2011. Xinhua said the trip ran from Sunday to Wednesday but appeared to include travel time from Pyongyang on the special armored train that Kim traveled in, which secretly arrived in Beijing on Monday and left Tuesday afternoon.

Rumors of Kim's presence began circulating on Monday night, with the spotting of his special train, Chinese security teams and official delegations at the border city of Dandong and various points in Beijing.

Although China sought to keep Kim's visit secret, and Wednesday described it as "unofficial," it accorded him full honors due to a head of state, including a formal welcoming ceremony and troop review at the Great Hall of the People in central Beijing.

Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, also hosted a banquet for Kim and his wife, Ri Sol Ju, and they watched an art performance together, Xinhua said.

"We speak highly of this visit," Xi told Kim, according to Xinhua.

For China, the visit also projects to its public that Xi is firmly in charge of steering Beijing's relations with North Korea in a way that favors China's interests.

"Here is Xi Jinping saying, 'Don't worry, everything is going to be great,'" Glaser said.

Analysts say Kim would have felt a need to consult with China ahead of summits with Moon and Trump. His famously reclusive father, Kim Jong Il, made his first visit to China as North Korean leader in May 2000, reportedly to consult with the Chinese leadership ahead of his summit with South Korea's then-leader, Kim Dae-jung.

Trump said Wednesday morning that he looks forward to meeting Kim, and was told by Xi that Kim does as well.

"Now there is a good chance that Kim Jong Un will do what is right for his people and for humanity," Trump tweeted. "In the meantime, and unfortunately, maximum sanctions and pressure must be maintained at all cost!"

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the U.S. was briefed by the Chinese government prior to Xi's meeting with Kim.

"The United States remains in close contact with our allies South Korea and Japan," Sanders said in a statement. "We see this development as further evidence that our campaign of maximum pressure is creating the appropriate atmosphere for dialogue with North Korea."

China would also not want Kim's first foreign meeting to be with someone other than Xi.

"This is China asserting its regional hegemony and influence, saying, 'Hey, you talk to me first,'" said Michael Kovrig, senior adviser for Northeast Asia at the International Crisis Group.

In footage aired by China's state broadcaster China Central Television, Kim appeared reserved and collected as he sat at a long table across from Xi. Kim wore horn-rimmed glasses and was shown jotting down notes and speaking in a calm manner. In contrast, while meeting with South Korean envoys earlier this month, Kim was shown by his state media frequently smiling, bursting into laughter, proposing toasts and waving at departing limousines.

Kim was described by Xinhua as saying that his country wants "reconciliation and cooperation" with South Korea, with which it is technically still at war. He also said North Korea is willing to hold a summit with the United States, according to Xinhua.

North Korean state media, however, didn't carry Kim's comment about his plans to talk with the United States. The North has yet to officially confirm its interest in a summit between Kim and Trump.

North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency published Kim's personal letter to Xi, dated on Wednesday, in which he said he was satisfied that the leaders confirmed their "unified opinions" on mutual issues.

Kim also called for more meetings with Xi and other Chinese officials and asked Xi to visit North Korea at a time convenient for him, to which Xi "gladly accepted," KCNA said.

"For the North Koreans, it is in their best interests to enter any meetings with Moon or Trump having shored up and repaired to a certain extent their relations with Beijing," said Paul Haenle, director of the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy in Beijing.

The North's diplomatic outreach this year follows a tense 2017 when it conducted its most powerful nuclear test to date and tested three intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to target the U.S. mainland.

The developments are being interpreted as the North being desperate to break out of isolation and improve its economy after being squeezed by heavy sanctions. Analysts think Kim may have been seeking promises from Beijing that it wouldn't hit the North too hard with sanctions if the talks with Washington and Seoul fall apart and the North starts testing nuclear weapons and missiles again.

"At least one of the things that Kim would want out of these meetings is a way forward to begin to ease those sanctions and support from China in that effort," said Glaser, the Asia expert.

China remains North Korea's only major ally and chief provider of energy, aid and trade that keep the country's broken economy afloat.

In addition to the trip being his first abroad as leader, Kim's talk with Xi was his first meeting with a foreign head of state. Kim's father had visited China several times during his rule, lastly in May 2011, months before his death that December.

"It's most proper that my first overseas trip would be the capital of the People's Republic of China," Kim Jong Un said, according to the North's KCNA. "It's also one of my noble duties to value the North Korea-China friendship as I do my own life."

Associated Press writer Foster Klug contributed to this report.
Fans of Orange Countys decision to join a Trump lawsuit against their own state bring back memories of the O.C.s deeply reactionary history. Photo: Irfan Khan/LA Times via Getty Images

If you follow ancient political typology, there was nothing unusual about the Orange County Board of Supervisors voting unanimously (with one absence) this week to join the Trump administrations lawsuit against the State of California for its immigration sanctuary policies. They are, after all, unanimously Republican, and represent a community that is a legendary redoubt for political and cultural conservatism.

Ronald Reagan once said of Orange County (a 3-million person suburb south and east of Los Angeles) that it was where all the good Republicans go to die. Its where Richard Nixon was born, and where his presidential library stands today. In the 1960s it was a hotbed of John Birch Society activity (backed by Orange Countys own Walter Knott of Knotts Berry Farm fame). In the 1970s, Orange County businessman Howard Jarvis was the chief proponent of Proposition 13, the property-tax limitation scheme that still makes Californias fiscal management insanely difficult. In the 1990s the county was the birthplace of the immigrant-bashing Proposition 187, aimed at cutting off access to publicly funded programs for undocumented immigrants.

But the old stereotypes are fading. Slow but steady demographic change is transforming the O.C. It is now a majority-minority county; more than a third of its residents are Latino, and another fifth are Asian-American. Thanks to the wealth and older age of the white population, however, political change has been slower to emerge. But its happening: In 2016 Hillary Clinton became the first Democratic presidential candidate to carry Orange County since 1936, beating Donald Trump by five points. A blue trend could intensify significantly this November, with four Republican-held congressional districts wholly or substantially in Orange County being targeted by Democrats. Two of them are represented by congressmen (Darrell Issa and Ed Royce) who are retiring.

So why would Orange Countys Republican supervisors (three of whom have terms ending this year, though one is retiring and another is running for reelection without opposition) so conspicuously identify themselves with the MAGA cause of fighting their states immigration policies? It seems that the GOP there is settling on its own Trumpian strategy of mobilizing threatened older white residents as a last-chance effort to turn back the demographic tide. Heres how one immigration advocate put it:

There is a fear of this progressive wave suddenly taking over Orange County, Roberto Herrera, a community engagement coordinator for Resilience O.C., a Santa Ana-based community group that advocates for immigrant rights. The political conservative elite are scapegoating and creating false archetypes of undocumented immigrant in Orange County. They are using this fear to push their own campaigns forward.

Its sort of a resistance to the Resistance. And its not confined to the sanctuary state litigation, as the Associated Press noted:

The county also moved this week to improve communication with federal immigration agents by publishing the release dates of inmates online. The sheriffs department used to screen inmates in the countys jails to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents identify those subject to deportation but had to stop when the state law passed.

Perhaps its just a matter of old political habits dying hard. But this November Orange County appears likely to hold its own microcosm of the nations politically polarized midterm election.
What to Know A manhunt is underway for an ICE detainee who escaped custody Tuesday at JFK, hopped into a taxi and fled the airport, Port Authority says

The detainee was being transferred in Terminal 4 from one flight to another when he somehow bolted away from officials

ICE says he has prior criminal convictions for multiple weapons and firearms offenses; anyone who sees him should call authorities

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainee with multiple prior violent convictions and nearly a dozen arrests in New York City over a four-year period escaped custody as he was set to be deported at John F. Kennedy International Airport, leaped into a yellow taxi cab and darted off, officials and sources say.

Nearly a day later, authorities still have not been able to track him down -- and they are warning anyone who may see him not to approach.

The detainee, 31-year-old Mohamadou Lamine Mbacke, was at JFK for a layover from Detroit en route to Senegal at the time of the escape Tuesday night, sources and ICE officials told News 4.

Three ICE agents were escorting him through a security checkpoint in Terminal 4 and took off his handcuffs to comply with TSA regulations, the sources said. That's when he gave them the slip, Port Authority police said.

Port Authority officials say a review of one of the airports cameras shows the detainee getting into the cab around 9 p.m Tuesday. He hasn't been seen since.

Mbacke has previous criminal convictions for multiple weapons and firearms offenses, according to an ICE spokesperson. He entered the country lawfully in 2005 before violating the terms of his status and was ordered deported in September 2015 by an immigration judge.



He was also arrested 10 times in New York City between 2006 and 2010, NYPD sources told News 4. All but one arrest is sealed; that one was marijuana-related. Those sources say he was also wanted for aggravated harassment in the city in 2016, though he wasn't arrested. His last known address is Harlem.

State, federal and local authorities are all looking for Mbacke.

Mbacke is about 6 feet 3 inches tall, 190 pounds andwas last seen wearing a black or purple shirt, jeans and sneakers.

ICE says any civilians who spot him are advised not to approach him and to immediately contact authorities.


Hundreds of dollars stuffed in ValPak's coupon-filled envelopes are going in the trash because customers think the checks are fake. Valpak says not so fast, the checks are real.

The company announced in December that it would begin inserting $100 checks in its blue ValPak envelopes nationwide in honor of the company's 50th anniversary. Its $100 Instant Win program began in 1988 in select markets, but has expanded to include all 150 markets in 47 states across the U.S. in 2018.

The unexpected bonus will show up in random envelopes each month this year. The chances of winning is about 1 in 50,000, the St. Petersburg, Florida-based company said. ValPak says customers can now "make easy money" in addition to saving money with coupons.

Lie Jensen, owner of the ValPak franchise in Grand Rapids, Michigan, told NBC affiliate WZZM that out of 36 checks mailed out in her market in 2017, only seven were cashed. It was not immediately clear how many checks have gone unclaimed so far this year since the company has expanded the Instant Win program.

Jensen said the next set of coupons goes out between April 7 and 10. She said lucky customers who find a $100 check in their envelope can just take it to any bank, sign the back and get it cashed.

"There's no catch," Jensen added. "None. We don't collect any info. It goes right into your account or pocket right then."

This is crazy! Im 1 in 50thousand! Thank you Valpack!  #iWon100  this is the best way to end not the best week. Here's to opening your Valpack each month and using their coupons. pic.twitter.com/dG3hKd0owv  LiaNa Bro0kE (@Liana_bro0ke) January 20, 2018

According to a ValPak spokewoman, local ValPak franchises send mailers based on carrier routes. If a household does not currently receive ValPak, it is because that address is not in a route where the local office is currently mailing. Visit Valpak.com or submit a request to have your address added by emailing customer_service@valpak.com with your complete mailing address.


The Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has signed off on Texas school accountability plan, under the Every Student Succeeds Act.

"Texas plan met the requirements of the law, therefore I have approved it," said Secretary DeVos. "I look forward to seeing how Texas embraces the flexibility afforded by ESSA to innovate on behalf of the Lone Star States students.

This plan includes parts of the new A through F grading system for schools, according to the Texas Education Agency.

The A through F grading system was passed by the legislature last year. Beginning this upcoming school year, schools will be graded on student achievement, school progress, and overall school climate. School climate can include teacher retention and graduation rates.

We spoke to Lanet Greenhaw, the Vice President of Education and Workforce at the Dallas Regional Chamber, about the effect of this new system.

It helps us, said Greenhaw.

We asked her whether the information being available makes it harder to recruit businesses to an area where the school district is not as good.

What I think it does do, is really address perception versus reality. Because school districts, a lot of times, those decisions in communities and businesses are based on perception. But this system lets them look exactly-what is the school district performing, added Greenhaw.

As an example, she points to Dallas ISD's results, when schools went through the new system in a trial run.

Many districts actually shine under the system, and Dallas ISD is a perfect example of that. They received very high ratings on many categories, Greenhaw said.

Educators have expressed concerns that this new system creates an unlevel playing field.. Mayor Betsy Price has some concerns as well, but believes change is necessary.

Its not my favorite. I think it could be very misleading. But I think it is time for some change in accountability. I think we simply have to lay out where the schools are but with that we have to make people understand what the A through F means, said Mayor Price.

Mayor Price said when prospective business owners look at the city, questions about the education system are not at the top of their list. She does not think this new system will affect recruiting.

I think being transparent gives people a much better feel that you are working on improving them, and I think that is the critical piece, that we are helping and partnering with our school district, and they are doing great things in Fort Worth ISD, she added.
A decomposed body found in a shallow grave in Northern California was confirmed to be that of a missing model after her boyfriend, a suspect in her death, killed himself following a police chase last week, authorities said Wednesday.

An autopsy at the Placer County Morgue in Auburn, California, positively identified the remains as Adea Shabani, 25, the missing model from Los Angeles. Tattoos helped identify the remains, the Nevada County Sheriffs Office in Nevada City, California, said.

While the coroner determined Shabani suffered blunt force trauma to the head, it was not listed as the cause of death until further toxicology and tissue analysis could be conducted. She didn't suffer any other major trauma to the rest of her body, the office said.

"At the autopsy there was indication she had sustained blunt force trauma to the head. there is no indication of the weapon used we dont have a list of possibilities of what caused that," said Nevada County Sheriff's Office Lt. Robert Bringholf.

Bringholf said it wasn't clear exactly where she was slain.

Her remains were to be returned to her family, authorities said.

The discovery of remains at a site in Nevada County came amid an LAPD investigation into the disappearance of Shabani, last seen Feb. 23 near the 1700 block of Wilcox Avenue, between Hollywood Boulevard and Franklin Avenue.

The 25-year-old had been in Los Angeles for about two years, pursuing an acting career. She was originally from Macedonia.

The investigation into Shabani's disappearance took a turn last week with a police pursuit that ended in a suicide.

A North Hollywood man, identified as Christopher Spotz, 33, shot himself during a police chase that ended in the Corona area.



Police said during a news conference on Tuesday that some time after Shabani disappeared, Spotz released a statement through an attorney saying that he and Shabani had been traveling north, they got into an argument and he let her out of the vehicle in Santa Clarita.

Police said they couldn't verify Spotz's account, said Capt. Bill Hayes, who heads the LAPD's Robbery-Homicide Division, and concluded it was not true.

Shabani and Spotz had both studied at the Stella Adler Academy of Acting and Theater in Hollywood.

"We are devastated," said John Jack Rodgers, the Academy's executive director, recalling that she was "growing immensely" in her craft. "She held nothing back."

NBC4's Robert Kovacik contributed to this report.
What to Know The rogue Chinese space station, Tiangong-1, known as Heavenly Palace, is making a quick descend, with an expected crash land by April 2

Experts note that the public should not be worried because it is extremely unlikely that the school-sized space station will survive reentry

The European Space Agency says that Tiangong-1s potential reentry area is between 42.8 degrees North and 42.8 degrees South

The sky may not be falling, but a Chinese space station plummeting towards Earth sure is!

Tiangong-1, known as Heavenly Palace, is making a quick descent and is expected to crash land by April 2.

Where exactly is this rogue piece of space junk going to end up? Turns out that a big portion of the United States, including parts of the tri-state, are part of the possible crash zone  that is, in the slim chance the object survives reentry.

This just in ... China 1st space station (Tiangong-1) to reenter March 30 to April 3:https://t.co/Nt2dRxKQRH



Both Aerospace Corporation and ESA updated their predictions



Green marks possible reentry area. More specific predictions - like "Michigan" - are bogus. pic.twitter.com/IRQ8jcgKn8  EarthSky (@earthskyscience) March 24, 2018

The European Space Agency said Tiangong-1s potential reentry area is between 42.8 degrees North and 42.8 degrees South latitude. The impact zones span the entirety of Africa, most of South America, Central America, the majority of the United States, southern Europe, Australia and large parts of Asia below eastern Russia.

Experts said the public should not be worried because it is extremely unlikely that the out-of-control, school-sized space station will survive reentering the atmosphere, much less that it will crash land into a populated area. Tiangong-1 has been orbiting uncontrolled since at least June 2016.

Though the object is expected to reenter the atmosphere around April 2, the exact day or time of the event is still unknown. According to The Aerospace Corporation, a federally funded research organization based in El Segundo, California, that has been modeling the 18,000-pound station's reentry path, it is very difficult to predict the exact timing of a space objects reentry.

Depending on the time and place, as well as the cloud visibility, the reentry may appear as multiple bright streaks moving across the sky in the same direction, Aerospace Corporation says, adding that because of the large size of the object, many pieces reentering together is expected, with some surviving and landing on the Earths surface.

A reentry analysis conducted by Aerospace, reports that the risk that an individual will be hit and injured by the reentry of a generic space object is estimated to be less than one in one trillion. To put this into context, the risk that an individual in the U.S. will be struck by lightning is about one in 1.4 million.

There is only one known case where space debris striked a person. Lottie Williams of Tulsa, Oklahoma, was struck in the shoulder by a small piece of space debris while walking in 1996. She was not injured.

Experts do warn, however, that if you do come across any debris, do not touch the object or inhale any of the vapors it may emit because there is the possibility that a substance known as hydrazine may survive reentry. This substance is highly toxic and corrosive.

The Aerospace Corporation says that it is not at all uncommon for space debris to fall to Earth.

Tiangong-1 is the first space station built and launched by China. It was launched launched aboard a Long March 2F/G rocket on Sept. 30, 2011.


Participating Jersey Mikes restaurants across the country will be donating 100 percent of their sales Wednesday to a good cause.

More than 1,300 location are joining forces with more than 170 local charities for the companys Eight Annual Month of Giving fundraising campaign. Last year, Jersey Mikes raised more than $5.5 million nationwide, and the restaurant says it wants to break that record.

In New Jersey, charities include Alex's Lemonade Stand, Hugs For Brady, Make-A-Wish New Jersey, Ryans Quest, Seans Pals, Steps Together and Westfield YMCA.

New Yorks include Captain Youth and Family Services, Long Island Cares, Inc.- The Harry Chapin Food Bank, Long Island Cares, Inc.- The Harry Chapin Food Bank, Make-A-Wish Metro New York and Staten Island CYO.

Find your local charity here.
Four leaders of a prostitution ring who pocketed millions of dollars as they shuttled women through at least seven states were arrested on Tuesday, authorities announced.

Federal law enforcement officials said the arrests were aimed at shutting down an operation that moved women, primarily Chinese nationals, through New York, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Colorado and Missouri.

Angel Melendez, a Homeland Security official, said the defendants "used women as a commodity, selling them for sex and transporting the women from hotel to motel and state to state."

U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said the defendants "promoted and managed a multi-state prostitution business through an extensive network of operators who worked in different locations to advertise and facilitate the prostitution."

He said the defendants "then allegedly raked in millions of dollars from their illegal and exploitive activities."

William F. Sweeney, head of New York's FBI office, called prostitution a "widespread dilemma" requiring cooperation between various law enforcement agencies.

He said the prostitution industry "can serve as a gateway for criminals with direct connections to human trafficking, organized crime and other illegal activities."

The prostitution ring operated at least between 2013 and 2017, recruiting customers through advertisements for escort services on classified websites such as Backpage.com, authorities said.

In an indictment, authorities said defendants were caught making arrangements for women in various cities.

If convicted, the defendants could each face a decade in prison.

Three of those charged were arrested in Queens while a fourth was arrested in Bronxville, New York. They were processed in federal court in White Plains.
A New York state Republican lawmaker's aide has been fired after he shared Facebook posts comparing a survivor of the Parkland, Florida school shooting to Adolf Hitler and other Nazis.

Sen. Martin Golden, of Brooklyn, issued a statement Tuesday saying Anthony Testaverde is no longer employed by his office.

His firing comes three days after Testaverde shared a Facebook post from a Conservative group that included a photo of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre survivor David Hogg with his right arm extended, next to an image of Hitler giving the Nazi salute.

Under the photos were the words: "I KNEW SOMETHING WAS OFF ABOUT THIS KID."

Golden, a former New York City police officer, said while freedom of speech is a right, "what occurred in this instance was wrong and cannot be tolerated."
Flynn. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Last summer, as the special counsels office was asking a grand jury to indict Michael Flynn on a variety of charges  while simultaneously imploring the former national security adviser to cooperate with investigators  Donald Trumps lawyer decided to have a word with Flynns attorney about the presidents pardon powers.

Specifically, according to a new report from the New York Times, the presidents (now-former) attorney John Dowd told Flynns lawyer that Trump believed the case against his client was bogus, and that he was prepared to pardon Flynn, should he be found guilty. Shortly thereafter, when Robert Mueller turned his sights on Paul Manafort, Dowd had a similar discussion about the special authorities our Constitution bestows on the Executive branch with Manaforts attorney.

Months later, Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, and agreed to cooperate with investigators in exchange for a lenient sentence. Manafort, meanwhile, has insisted that he is innocent of the many, many financial crimes hes been indicted for, even as his longtime business partner Rick Gates has pleaded guilty to related offenses, and turned states witness.

Since then, Dowd has privately expressed bafflement at Flynns decision to take that plea, according to the Times.

Many legal scholars believe that the presidents authority to pardon those convicted of federal crimes is absolute  and thus, that even if Trump had explicitly offered to pardon Flynn and Manafort in exchange for their silence, such a proposal would not constitute obstruction of justice.

But the fact that Dowd (reportedly) tried to assure both Flynn and Manafort that they would be able to avoid prison time  even if they didnt cooperate with Mueller  suggests that they might know things that Trump does not wish the special counsel to learn. Which is a bit odd, since the president has assured us that the entire investigation into his campaigns ties to Russia is a WITCH HUNT.
What to Know A man, convicted for his role in the shooting of a NJ State Trooper in 1989, was arrested Monday for allegedly planning a jewelry heist

Stanley Rogers allegedly planned to tranquilize guard securing a FedEx truck in Manhattan and steal $3 million in diamonds and jewels

Rogers was convicted as being one of the shooters of 25-year-old NJ State Trooper Anthony DiSalvatore on the New Jersey Turnpike in 1989

A man convicted for his role in the 1989 shooting of a New Jersey State Trooper was planning a daring jewel heist that involved tranquilizing and kidnapping security guards in Manhattan and driving $3 million in precious stones to Brooklyn, a complaint filed in federal court Wednesday alleges.

Stanley Rogers, who was out on parole for the attempted murder of the trooper in Gloucester County nearly 30 years ago, was arrested by New York authorities on Monday night, according to senior law enforcement officials.

Rogers' scheme to rob a FedEx truck hauling the millions of dollars in diamonds and other precious stones was busted by an undercover NYPD detective who he had recruited to help him pull off the robbery, according to the complaint.

Rogers, 36, met with the undercover detective several times in March and told him that he was looking to get a high-powered Taser or veterinary tranquilizer to incapacitate the guards protecting a FedEx truck delivering the stones to wholesale jewelers on Fifth Avenue, the complaint says. He allegedly agreed to purchase $500 worth of veterinary sedative for use in the robbery.

According to the complaint, Rogers told the undercover detective that an employee for the firm guarding the FedEx truck was giving him information about its route and contents. He allegedly showed the detective surveillance images of the truck and its guards and told the detective he had two more conspirators involved in the plan.

The complaint says the planned robbery would go like this: After the precious stones were loaded in to the truck in Midtown, the robbers would knock out its driver and guards and load them into the back of the truck. Theyd then drive the truck to a location in Brooklyn and unload the jewels.

On Monday, Rogers met one last time with the detective on Linden Boulevard in Brooklyn and told him that he suspected a member of his crew was a rat, according to the complaint, which says Rogers told the undercover detective he didnt want to go back to prison and that he wanted to get rid of the suspected informant. He allegedly asked the undercover detective for a lethal dose of narcotics to poison the suspected informant.

Rogers was arrested that day and arraigned this week. It wasnt immediately known if he has an attorney.

Rogers was convicted in 1990 to 40 years in prison for being one of the shooters of 25-year-old New Jersey State Trooper Anthony DiSalvatore on the New Jersey Turnpike in August 1989.

According to published reports in the New York Times at the time, DiSalvatore was shot twice after stopping a car with three men inside and had to undergo surgery. The shooting took place in Gloucester County, about 25 miles from Philadelphia. Rogers was 18 years old at the time.
The sister of an unarmed Houston man fatally shot by a sheriff's deputy said her brother's depression had escalated in the almost two years since his estranged wife allegedly drowned his two young children in her bathtub.

Kita Thomas told KPRC-TV in Houston that her brother, Danny Ray Thomas, "was not in his right mind" as she watched cellphone video recorded by civilian witnesses to the March 22 shooting. The deputy had responded to an altercation that started after Thomas was seen wandering in the street with his pants around his ankles, hitting passing cars with his hands and talking to himself.

"Whenever he got into that mind frame, thinking about his wife and his kids, he just felt like he was alone," she said, her voice breaking into sobs.

Court records, arrest affidavits and filings in the case against Thomas' estranged wife, Sheborah Thomas, on two charges of capital murder show a series of arrests and escalating issues with drugs and possible mental illness for both parents.

Danny Thomas, sometimes called Danny Boy, entered the Harris County Court system when he was 18-years-old for burglary and petty theft charges, according to the records. A series of drug arrests began in 2006 with a marijuana possession charge and ended with Thomas serving a three-year sentence for possession of PCP.

That's where Thomas was when he learned his wife had allegedly drowned his children.

In the middle, there were moments when the state argued Danny and Sheborah weren't properly parenting the children. Danny Thomas was charged with family violence after an altercation with his wife turned physical and ordered to stay clear. Divorce papers were filed in 2012, but court records did not show the divorce being completed.

Child Protective Services briefly gave custody of the two children to Sheborah Thomas' mother when her then 2-year-old daughter was found wandering with a homeless man who told police he was high on PCP.

Less than three years later, after the children were returned to her, police say Sheborah took them individually into her bathroom, placed them in the tub and held their heads under water as they struggled. Investigators said she tried to dig a hole to bury their bodies but could not dig deep enough. They said she then placed the children's bodies under a neighbor's house.

Police said she calmly told a friend who had come to help her move that she had killed the children. The friend called police.

Sheborah Thomas is awaiting trial on two charges of capital murder scheduled for later this year.

Meanwhile, Danny Thomas' family, who did not return messages left Monday by The Associated Press Monday, are preparing for another funeral.

Houston police officials said Thomas' erratic behavior caused a physical altercation to begin between Thomas and the driver of a car he had hit. The deputy, identified as Cameron Brewer, was driving by when he witnessed the altercation and stopped to break up the argument.

In cellphone videos, Thomas can be seen waddling toward the deputy with his hands at his side and his pants still caught around his ankles. The deputy orders him to stop several times as he walks backward away from Thomas with his gun drawn.

Brewer fired one shot, hitting Thomas in the chest. Thomas was later pronounced dead at a hospital.

Investigators had said the deputy believed Thomas may have had a weapon in his hand, but no weapon was recovered at the scene.

Sheriff Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said Brewer had a Taser which he did not use, The New York Times reported. Deputies had been trained on using nonlethal force during encounters with people who may have a mental illness, he said.

Brewer had also been issued a body camera two hours before the shooting. The camera's battery was charging at the time of the shooting.
The White House says there are no discussions of President Donald Trump pardoning former advisers Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort in the Russia probe.

The New York Times reported, citing three people with knowledge of the discussions, that former Trump lawyer John Dowd had spoken with the lawyers of Flynn and Manafort about presidential pardons, raising concerns that the pardons were being offered to influence their pleas and cooperation in the investigation.

Sanders repeatedly pointed to a statement from Trump's current lawyer Ty Cobb.

"He's got a statement on the record saying that theres no discussion and theres no consideration of those at this time in the White House," Sanders told reporters, adding, "So there would be no reason for me to have had a conversation with the President about that because that is not being currently discussed at the White House."

Cobb's statement, provided to NBC News, said, "I have only been asked about pardons by the press and have routinely responded on the record that no pardons are under discussion or under consideration at the White House."

Sanders said she did not talk to Trump specifically about the Times report, and again referred to the president's outside counsel.

The press secretary again asserted that there was "no collusion" between the Trump campaign and Russia. "Were very confident in that and look forward to this process wrapping up," she said.
An 18-year-old exchange student is accused of threatening to shoot up his Delaware County Catholic high school and investigators allege they found ammunition, a crossbow and military-style equipment in the student's bedroom.

The teen, An Tso Sun, was arrested Wednesday by Upper Darby police. The student from Taiwan threatened to "shoot up" Bonner & Prendergast Catholic High School, Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood said.

Sun allegedly told another student to not come to school on May 1 because something would happen, Chitwood said. He then allegedly said he was joking but the fellow student reported it anyway to the school, which alerted police.

Investigators went to the home of the host family where Sun is living after the alleged threats were brought to the attention of police Tuesday. They allegedly found a military-style ballistic vest, military-style web gear with pouches to hold ammo clips, a crossbow with scope and seven arrows, a loading dock for rifle clips, 9-mm ammunition and a strangling device in his bedroom, police said.



Investigators have evidence on a school-issued iPad that allegedly shows Sun researched AR-15 and AK-47 firearms. He was possibly trying to purchase a weapon, Chitwood said.



"He's not denying anything he's being accused of," Chitwood said.

"I can't commend the school enough for doing the right thing," Chitwood said while saying Monsignor Bonner High School and Archbishop Prendergast High School are "safe schools."



Sun has been in the country on a student visa, Chitwood said.



Sun remained jailed Wednesday, unable to post 10 percent of $100,000 bail on terroristic threat charges.

Defense attorney Enrique Latoison said his client "had no intention or plans" to commit a school shooting and many items found were what he wore to school for a Halloween costume contest.

"I don't believe what he said rises to the crime of terroristic threatening," Latoison said. "He said, 'Just kidding.' I understand the heightened sensitivity, but he is not from here, he didn't possess the same social skills of what it is to grow up in the post-Columbine generation. ... You and I understand that it's not a funny joke, but maybe he doesn't understand that."

He declined to comment on the allegations that ammunition was found and the defendant researched buying weapons but said that even if true neither was illegal.
Tesla shares fell Tuesday after the National Transportation Safety Board said it is sending investigators to look into a fatal car crash last week in Mountain View California, CNBC reported.

An accident caused a Tesla to catch fire Friday, closing all four lanes of southbound U.S. Highway 101 in Mountain View and causing significant delays during the morning rush hour.

On Tuesday, the NTSB posted the following message on Twitter:

"2 NTSB investigators conducting Field Investigation for fatal March 23, 2018, crash of a Tesla near Mountain View, CA. Unclear if automated control system was active at time of crash. Issues examined include: post-crash fire, steps to make vehicle safe for removal from scene."

"We have been deeply saddened by this accident, and we have offered our full cooperation to the authorities as we work to establish the facts of the incident," the company said to CNBC.

CNBC reported that Tesla shares declined more than 4 percent Tuesday to their lowest price since May of last year. The stock is down 17 percent in the last one month.

According to the California Highway Patrol, a blue Tesla Model X was driving southbound on US-101 and state Highway 85 junction at freeway speeds when the driver lost control and ran into a median barrier causing the car to catch fire.

The Tesla was then hit by a white Mazda as it landed on a lane and then hit by a gray Audi in the next lane. A total of three vehicles were involved.

"We saw a big cloud of smoke and then all of a sudden, there was a fire ball in the air," witness Aiden Sanchez said.

The driver of the Tesla, the driver, who was identified by the Santa Clara County medical examiner's office as Wei Huang, 38, was taken to Stanford University Medical Center where he succumbed to his injuries.

No other injuries were reported. Images from the scene showed the front of the Tesla destroyed as firefighters tried to put the fire out.

Tesla sent an employee over to investigate the crash and the subsequent fire. An exposed battery was visible inside the car. A Tesla Model X is a mid-sized, all-electric, luxury crossover SUV made by Tesla with falcon wing doors. It starts at $79,500.

CHP officers said the accident was just south of the junction where Highway 101 meets state Highway 85.

The CHP thinks the car's battery may have been involved in the explosion. So officers kept their distance and called for backup.

"We're used to regular vehicles, now that we have the batteries in these vehicles, we dont know whats in them so we're learning as we go," said CHP officer Art Montiel.

A man who was riding his motorcycle down Highway 101 shared what he saw at the scene of crash exclusively to NBC Bay Area after heading over to help. The Good Samaritan has asked that his identity be kept anonymous.

An accident caused a Tesla to catch fire Friday morning, closing all four lanes of southbound U.S. Highway 101 in Mountain View, according to the California Highway Patrol.

"I saw, past the smoke of the smoldering and sputtering Tesla Model X and saw a man running up with a fire extinguisher," he said. "I rounded towards what used to be the front of the car and saw, remarkably, an intact man that was covered in a light layer of dust. The front of the car was simply gone."

The motorcycle rider said he checked to see if the man had a pulse and shortly after determining the man was alive he noticed the Tesla wasnt just smoking, but "actively emitting full flames from the battery bank."

An accident caused a Tesla to catch fire Friday morning, closing all four lanes of southbound U.S. Highway 101 in Mountain View, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The Good Samaritan and two other men were able to take the man out of the burning car and according to him, the man was completely unresponsive.

"We brought him what we hoped was a safe distance from the wreck, hoping the LiPo batteries werent prone to exploding," he said. "Another man placed the victim in the recovery position."

The Good Samaritan said he wished he could have done more to help.

tesla Model X catches fire

CHP officials are investigating what caused the Tesla to catch fire.
A U.S. Army veteran deported to Mexico described his final moments on U.S. soil when he spoke to reporters in Tijuana on Tuesday.

"I just feel dirty and used," Miguel Perez, Jr. said. "I felt suicidal."

Perez, 39, served two tours in Afghanistan and had been in the U.S. since age 8. On Friday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers deported Perez to Mexico.

Perez, who had a green card, was deported because of a 2008 drug-trafficking conviction. The move came after he lost an appeal to remain in the U.S. and Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner refused to pardon him.

Perez was flown from Gary, Indiana, to Brownsville, Texas, where officers escorted him across the border and turned him over to Mexican authorities, ICE officials said.

Perez appeared shocked by his treatment during his final moments on U.S. soil.

An ICE agent who described himself as a fellow veteran told Perez they would "fix this" while leading him to a gate, Perez said.

"When we go there he just closed the gate behind me and he said, 'OK, we're done here,'" he said. "He said, 'You see those green lights? You go that way and when you get there just ask for help.'"

Perez recalls thinking, "Really? This is it?"

The veteran said he immediately contemplated suicide but then said he felt he needed to keep walking and continue the fight to let others know how he and other undocumented veterans are treated by the U.S.

Perez's parents, Miguel Sr. and Esperanza Montes Perez, live in Chicago.

Esperanza Perez arrived in Tijuana Monday and appeared with her son at a news conference. She spoke to our sister station Telemundo 20 about her fears for her son.

"I'm more American than those who signed my deportation," Miguel Perez said, wearing a blue cap from the Chicago Cubs team.



Perez handed a laptop case containing 4.4 pounds of cocaine to an undercover officer on Nov. 26, 2008, authorities said. He pleaded guilty to the drug charge and ICE took him into custody after he served half of a 15-year prison sentence.

ICE has said that it is very deliberate in reviewing cases that involve U.S. military veterans and that any action to remove a veteran must have the authorization of senior leadership and an evaluation by chief counsel.
What to Know Geoff Tracy, the owner of three Chef Geoff's restaurants, is filing suit against Virginia ABC over happy hour advertisement laws.

In Virginia, restaurants and bars can only say "happy hour" and "drink specials" in their ads. They cannot say the price of the drinks.

Tracy claims the law is unconstitutional and restricts his creativity and ability to attract customers to his Tysons Corner restaurant.

Happy hour is about to have its day in court.

Geoff Tracy, who owns three Chef Geoff's restaurants in the Washington, D.C. area, is fighting to remove restrictions on how drink specials are advertised in Virginia.

It's common to see bars and restaurants in D.C. and Maryland use wording such as "Wine Down Wednesday" or "Thirsty Thursday" to advertise their happy hour specials, but such phrasing is not allowed in the Commonwealth.

"I cant take a picture of it and say, you know, this is a seven dollar glass of wine at happy hour. I cant call it anything other than 'happy hour' or 'drink specials.' So that's sort of like dialing back the creativity," Tracy told News4.

If businesses break the rules, they could face a fine or the state may take away their liquor license.

Tracy has filed suit against the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority for what he says is an "absurd prohibition era regulation." He said he sees it as a First Amendment issue and wants to advertise at his Tysons Corner location the same way he does in D.C. and Maryland.

"The states happy hour advertising restrictions...prohibit businesses from communicating entirely truthful and non-misleading information to their customers on the theory that censorship, when it pertains to alcohol, is for the consumers own good. These outdated and paternalistic notions cannot justify the states unconstitutional burdens on speech," the federal lawsuit claims.



The Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority said in a statement to News4 that businesses may promote the time span of their happy hour, and may list specific drink types and brands, but they can only say "happy hour" or "drink specials" for promotions.

Tracy said the law also restricts him from advertising the price of the special.

"Happy hour three to seven - come and find out the prices. It's just kind of a little bit weird and, again, takes the creativity out of it," Tracy said.

Virginia ABC would not comment on the pending litigation.
Chinas President Xi Jinping shakes hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Beijing on March 28, 2018. Photo: -/AFP/Getty Images

At the start of 2018, the prospects for a breakthrough in the North Korea crisis seemed slim. While Kim Jong-un extended a rare olive branch to South Korea, expressing hopes for peaceful resolution in his New Years Day address, he also warned that North Koreas missiles could reach any point in the U.S., and a nuclear button is always on the desk of my office. President Trump responded with his own bellicose rhetoric, declaring in a tweet that his nuclear button is bigger and better than Kims.

Then, shortly after a North Korean charm offensive during the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Trump shocked the world on March 9 by announcing that hed agreed to meet with Kim  seemingly on a whim, and without the understanding that Pyongyang has always wanted a face-to-face meeting with the U.S. president.

The summit is tentatively scheduled for May, though recent actions by the U.S. and North Korea have stirred doubts about the potential for a solution, and its unclear if the summit will actually take place. Heres what the two sides have been up to since the announcement.

How Trump Is Preparing

Firing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson

Both of Trumps major staff shakeups in the last month seemed to increase the likelihood of war with North Korea. First he dismissed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who was one of the administrations biggest proponents of a diplomatic approach to North Korea. He replaced him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who has publicly hinted at the need for regime change in North Korea, and suggested that the U.S. should act as if nuclear aggression by Kim is imminent. Pompeo is also the only Trump official who has openly encouraged Trump to decertify the Iran nuclear deal, which would signal to Kim that the U.S. wont necessarily honor any denuclearization agreement.

Making Ultrahawk John Bolton National Security Adviser

Last week Trump replaced National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster with John Bolton, the former ambassador to the United Nations and unrepentant architect of President George W. Bushs war in Iraq. There are many, many reasons why Boltons appointment is deeply troubling; somewhere near the top is his advocacy for a preemptive strike against North Korea.

As The Atlantic notes, Bolton has been dismissive of all prongs of Trumps North Korea strategy: international economic sanctions, exerting diplomatic pressure against Kim, and the summit. Last month Bolton told Newsweek that Trumps latest sanctions are pointless, since weve tried for 25 years, through pressure and diplomacy, and its failed. Several days later he penned a Wall Street Journal op-ed arguing in favor of a preemptive strike against North Korea:

Pre-emption opponents argue that action is not justified because Pyongyang does not constitute an imminent threat. They are wrong. The threat is imminent, and the case against pre-emption rests on the misinterpretation of a standard that derives from prenuclear, pre-ballistic-missile times. Given the gaps in U.S. intelligence about North Korea, we should not wait until the very last minute. That would risk striking after the North has deliverable nuclear weapons, a much more dangerous situation.

In a Journal piece published last summer, Bolton argued that while the U.S. should obviously seek South Koreas agreement (and Japans) before using force, we should not be hindered by their opposition to a military action that could kill hundreds of thousands of their people, as no foreign government, even a close ally, can veto an action to protect Americans from Kim Jong-uns nuclear weapons.

Rushing Through Summit Preparations

Under normal circumstances, lower-level diplomatic staffers from the U.S. and North Korea would spend months negotiating the terms of a potential agreement, and a meeting between the nations respective leaders would come at the end. Instead, it appears Trumps plan is to get in a room with Kim and show off his famous negotiation skills (though so far, hes demonstrated little dealmaking ability as president).

Some argue that in this case, that isnt the worst strategy. Frank Aum, a former senior adviser on North Korea at the Department of Defense, told NPR that North Korea has preferred top-down negotiations in the past:

I think that the one positive of going big like this is that North Korea has a tendency and a preference to prefer big agreements, working through summits. Theyre a top-down regime. Their lower-level officials dont have the authority to negotiate.

Remember; in 1994, it took a meeting between Jimmy Carter and Kim Il Sung to lay the foundation for the agreed framework, and then later on lower-level officials hammered out all the details. So I think if were going to hope for something big, its better to do it at the highest levels.

It still seems far from ideal that Trump is working with a decimated State Department, new hires at the top of various agencies, and no South Korean ambassador. While the May timeframe isnt set in stone, in his first interview since being named national security advisor, Bolton argued that the talks must occur sooner rather than later.

Although its certainly true that the normal route is months and months and months of preparation, that would simply play into the North Korean playbook, what theyve done many times before, he said.

Starting a Trade War With China, While Cutting a Trade Deal With South Korea

Since China is North Koreas most important ally, some might think it prudent to avoid antagonizing them right before the start of talks between Washington and Pyongyang. Instead, Trump has continued making moves expected to set off a trade war, hitting China with $50 billion in tariffs last week. While this doesnt fundamentally change Chinas interest in seeing a peaceful solution to the nuclear crisis on its border, it may make Beijing less eager to help secure an outcome thats advantageous to the U.S.

Trump did remove a potentially divisive trade issue with South Korea ahead of the Pyongyang summit. The White House confirmed on Tuesday that it has reached an agreement to overhaul the existing South Korea-U.S. trade deal. In exchange for an exemption from Trumps new 25 percent tariff on imported steel, South Korea has agreed to limit its steel exports to the U.S. and open its auto market to American manufacturers.

How North Korea Is Preparing

Holding Meetings Between North and South Korean Leaders and Diplomats

During the Olympic games Kims younger sister, Kim Yo-jong, became the first member of the Norths ruling dynasty to set foot in the South since the end of the Korean War in 1953. While visiting South Korean President Moon Jae-in, she invited him to meet with her brother in Pyongyang later in the year.

In early March, days before Trump agreed to a North Korea summit, Kim met with South Korean officials for the first time since he took office six years ago, holding talks in Pyongyang with a delegation from Seoul. During the visit the two nations agreed to hold a summit meeting between Kim and Moon in late April. The two leaders plan to meet in the Peace House, a South Korean building in the border village of Panmunjom.

The North Korean side clearly stated its willingness to denuclearize, Moons office said in a statement. It made it clear that it would have no reason to keep nuclear weapons if the military threat to the North was eliminated and its security guaranteed.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in shakes hands with Kim Yo-Jong during a performance of North Koreas Samjiyon Orchestra on February 11, 2018 in Seoul, South Korea. Photo: Handout/Getty Images

Negotiating the Potential Release of Three Americans Held Captive in North Korea

While he was in Stockholm earlier this month, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho reportedly held talks with his Swedish counterpart about the potential release of the three Americans imprisoned in North Korea. Kim Hak-song, Kim Sang-duk, and Kim Dong-chul are all being held for allegedly committing vague hostile acts against the regime. Sweden serves as protecting power for the U.S. in talks with North Korea, as the two nations do not have diplomatic ties.

The prisoner release has reportedly been at the center of negotiations between Sweden and North Korea for several months, but last week Heather Nauert, the State Department spokesperson, suggested a deal was not imminent.

We would love to have our American citizens brought home  a huge priority for this administration  but as far as were concerned theres nothing underway, she said.

Kim Jong-un Meeting With Xi Jinping

Chinese and North Korean state media confirmed on Wednesday that Kim Jong-un met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing this week, marking his first trip outside North Korea since taking power, and his first meeting with a foreign leader.

Rumors of the meeting kicked off on Monday, when a mysterious armored train, like the one Kims father and grandfather used for foreign trips, arrived in the Chinese capital.

Chinas state-run news agency Xinhua said Kim told Xi that he is committed to denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, and open to a summit with Trump. (North Korea has yet to publicly confirm that Kim invited Trump to a summit meeting.)

If South Korea and the United States respond with good will to our efforts and create an atmosphere of peace and stability, and take phased, synchronized measures to achieve peace, the issue of the denuclearization of the peninsula can reach resolution, Kim said, according to Xinhua.

Kims relations with Xi had cooled in recent years, but it appears he was successful in strengthening their alliance. While China described the trip as an unofficial visit, they welcomed Kim and his wife with a banquet and a tour of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. After Kim headed back to Pyongyang, Xi praised his recent diplomatic overtures.

This year there have been promising changes in the situation on the Korean Peninsula, and we express our appreciation for the major efforts that North Korea has made in this regard, Xi said.

Starting Up a New Reactor

Though Kim has repeatedly claimed that hes interested in denuclearization, satellite images taken in recent weeks show a North Korean reactor coming online, according to the New York Times. The new reactor in the Yongbyon nuclear complex, which has been under construction for years, produces bomb fuel, and could be a significant issue in the upcoming negotiations. Even if Kim agrees to freeze nuclear and missile testing while talks are underway, he could continue making the fuel needed to expand his nuclear arsenal.
A corrections officer in Maryland has been arrested after police say he admitted to binding his wife in the basement of their home and torturing her for hours.

Armando Quispe Rodriguez, 45, is charged with attempted murder, assault, false imprisonment and other charges. He was put on leave without pay from his job at the Department of Corrections in Prince George's County, where he worked for 19 years.

His wife remains in serious condition, police say.

Rodriguez attacked his wife as she slept, police said, shackling her ankles, handcuffing her wrists and putting a green plastic bag over her head. He then stabbed her more than 23 times over the course of several hours, police said.

Rodriguez called police about 2 p.m. Friday and reported that he and his wife had been stabbed.

"He did call as if he wasn't even the suspect," police spokesperson Diane Richardson told News4. "It was definitely torture."

When police arrived at his home, police found Rodriguez with lacerations on his hands. Richardson said the woman was found in the basement, tied to the stair railing and suffering from stab wounds.

The couple were flown to separate hospitals to be treated for serious injuries.

Police arrested Rodriguez on Monday after he was released from the hospital.

The couple has two children, but they were not home during the attack.
A man who authorities say stripped naked and jumped onto a moving truck in freezing temperatures near Washington Dulles International Airport will avoid jail time for the incident.

Jose Gonzalez Flores pleaded guilty Tuesday to misdemeanor hit-and-run, misdemeanor assault and indecent exposure. He received a suspended sentence of three years.

The other charges Flores faced were nolle prossed, meaning they would not be pursued.

On Dec. 12, 2017, shocked drivers stopped their cars to gawk at Flores' rampage, backing up traffic for miles on Route 28 in Fairfax County, Virginia.

A naked man walking on Route 28 in Fairfax County, Virginia, caused cars to crash Tuesday afternoon, police said. News4s Jackie Bensen reports.

Flores was involved in a hit-and-run and then assaulted another driver and ran into traffic, police said. He tried to smash the windows of passing cars and used a knife to stab at the roof of the truck he jumped onto, a witness told News4.

The driver of a tractor-trailer said Flores tried to rip him out of his vehicle and then punched out a window, raining glass onto his dog, a German shepherd-husky mix named Emma. The glass cut the dog's face.

Courtesy of Adam Allen

A woman recording the scene after the crash started to scream as she realized he posed a threat.

"Get away from me! Oh my God! Oh my God!" Mahnaz Safi shrieked.

Flores' rampage just ahead of the evening rush hour began after a three-car crash on southbound Route 28 near Frying Pan Road, Fairfax County police said.

Amid strong winds and temperatures in the 20s, the agitated man started to strip, witnesses said.

"He had a tire in his hand and he had something that had blades. He kept cutting himself," Safi said.

Truck driver Adam Allen saw Flores strip down and then lock eyes with him. Allen's dog, Emma, got uneasy.

"He looked at me, and she started barking. He hopped up on the passenger side, tried to open the door. When he couldn't get in, he punched a window and shattered it with his fist," Allen said.

He shouted "Hi-ya!" as if he were doing karate as he broke the window, Allen said.

The glass cut the dog's face, around her right eye. EMTs would later help her.

When the EMTs were cleaning out her eye, they said she shut it just in time," Allen said.



A tractor-trailer driver talks about the moment a naked man punched through his window, raining glass onto his dog. News4's David Culver reports.

Video shows the nude man hanging on the door of the tractor-trailer.

"Got up to 30 miles per hour before he finally let go," Allen said.

"It was like out of a movie almost," he continued.

Tariq Hussein saw the whole scene unfold after his dump truck was hit from behind by a blue pickup truck. He said the naked man lay down in the road and tried to damage multiple cars.

"The guy was actually stopping the cars. He was laying down. He started swinging, laying down naked and all that stuff, so people stopped. They don't want to run him down," Hussein said.

"They just stopped, and whoever stopped, he goes to them and tried to smash their window," the witness continued. "Then, he jumped onto this guy's pickup truck flatbed and he just tried [to stab it] with a knife."

Flores broke a window of the truck, police said.

Then, fully nude, he jumped off the truck and ran into a wooded area, Hussein said.

"He took a tire, a used tire, around his neck and ran into the woods," the witness said.

Officers responded from Fairfax County and Loudoun County, as well as the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority and the Loudoun County Sheriffs Office.

Flores, of Sterling, was found a short time later in a drainage ditch on Dulles airport property. He was arrested and then taken to a hospital. No one else was hurt.

Flores will be on probation for two years or until restitution is paid in full.
Residents in one Virginia city who rent out their homes through the short-term rental service Airbnb will have to start charging hotel occupancy taxes.

Airbnb and the city of Alexandria have reached a first-in-the-state agreement on tax collections, The Washington Post reports.

The agreement requires Airbnb to collect a 8.5 percent hotel occupancy tax and $1 per night charge for all bookings.

City officials estimate the new tax, which goes into effect April 1, will bring in about $100,000 a year.
Lucas Connors, a Massachusetts fifth grader, loves to collect old video games and consoles. He buys some of his collection from Brad Seidel. After his store, Brad's Coins Comics and Cards in Needham, was broken into, Connors took it upon himself to help.

A thief broke a window on the store's front door and took some rare presidential coins that Seidel says have a face value around $2,000, but could be sold for more.

"I'm not Walmart here," Seidel said. "A theft like that is a huge."

Connors, 11, says he found out that Brad is a disabled vet who had prostate cancer back in 2016 and suffers from PTSD. Seidel's plan was to sell off those coins to pay off some hefty bills. Connors decided to help and start a GoFundMe page for Seidel.

"Our goal right now is $2,000," Connors said. "I'd like to deliver it to him and give it to him and he can use it for whatever he'd like to."

Seidel says he wasn't expecting this and he is extremely thankful.

"You start doing good things when you're a kid, it translates, and people do good things for you," Seidel said.

Connors didn't hesitate to help.

"Things weren't going well for him," he said. "And I know that when things aren't going well for someone, you need to help them."

No arrests have been made yet in the theft.
Police in Maine are investigating yet another armed robbery in the greater Portland area.

South Portland police said on their Facebook page a man on foot approached the drive-up window at the Aroma Joes Coffee on Western Avenue at about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday.

The incident, caught on surveillance, showed the man wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt with the hood up and the bottom half of his face covered.

The drive-up window was shut and locked so the suspect showed a black handgun to the female clerk inside the store and demanded money.

The clerk told WCSH-TV she did not open the window but instead hid in a bathroom and called 911.

"Luckily, no one was hurt in this incident, and the clerks quick thinking allowed police to arrive very quickly. At the very least, they were able to stop any further violence from occurring," read a statement on the South Portland Police Facebook page.

The suspect had already fled the scene on foot by the time police arrived.

He is described as 5-foot, 7-inches with an average build.

Police have not said whether the suspect may be connected to a string of robberies in the greater Portland area within the last week. Those incidents appear to be linked.

The clerk told WCSH-TV she believes the man who tried to rob the coffee shop is the same suspect.

Anyone with information on the suspect's identification or any of the other robberies is urged to contact South Portland Police at 207-799-5511, ext. 7435.
What to Know The rogue Chinese space station, Tiangong-1, known as Heavenly Palace, is making a quick descent, with an expected crash land by April 2

Experts note that the public should not be worried because it is extremely unlikely that the school-sized space station will survive reentry

The European Space Agency says that Tiangong-1s potential reentry area is between 42.8 degrees North and 42.8 degrees South

A Chinese space station is expected to enter the Earth's atmosphere this weekend.

The big question is where.

Tiangong-1, known as Heavenly Palace, is making a quick descent, with an expected crash landing by April 2. Where exactly is this rogue piece of space exploration going to end up? It turns out that a big portion of the United States, including parts of New England, are part of the possible crash zone  that is, in the slim chance the object survives reentry.

Experts note that the public should not be worried because it is extremely unlikely that the out-of-control, school-sized space station will survive re-entering the atmosphere, much less crash land into a populated area. Tiangong-1 has been orbiting uncontrolled since at least June 2016.

Though the object is expected to reenter the atmosphere around April 2, the exact day or time of the event is still unknown. According to The Aerospace Corporation, a federally funded research organization based in El Segundo, California, that has been modeling the 18,000-pound station's reentry path, it is very difficult to predict the exact timing of a space objects reentry.

The European Space Agency says that Tiangong-1s potential reentry area is between 42.8 degrees North and 42.8 degrees South latitude. The impact zones span the entirety of Africa, most of South America, Central America, the majority of the United States, southern Europe, Australia and large parts of Asia below eastern Russia. It includes all of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island, and parts of southern New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont.

Depending on the time and place, as well as the cloud visibility, the reentry may appear as multiple bright streaks moving across the sky in the same direction, Aerospace Corporation says, adding that because of the large size of the object, many pieces reentering together is expected, with some surviving and landing on the Earths surface.

A reentry analysis conducted by Aerospace, reports that the risk that an individual will be hit and injured by the reentry of a generic space object is estimated to be less than one in one trillion. To put this into context, the risk that an individual in the U.S. will be struck by lightning is about one in 1.4 million.

There is only one known case where space debris struck a person. Lottie Williams of Tulsa, Oklahoma, was struck in the shoulder by a small piece of space debris while walking in 1996. She was not injured.

The Aerospace Corporation says that it is not at all uncommon for space debris to fall to Earth.

Tiangong-1 is the first space station built and launched by China. It was launched aboard a Long March 2F/G rocket on Sept. 30, 2011.


The Massachusetts state senator who was arrested Saturday morning for alleged drunk driving says he is entering a substance abuse program.

Sen. Michael Brady, a Democrat representing Brockton, issued a statement Wednesday to State House News announcing he was seeking treatment for alcohol use.

"Today I will be admitting myself for professional treatment and counseling for alcohol use. The course of treatment requires my full attention over the next few days. I look forward to returning to work next week," Brady said in a statement.

State House News initially reported that the two-term senator was arrested early Saturday morning in Weymouth while on his way home from a work event.

Brady declined to take a breathalyzer test, and his license was suspended, according to State House News.

Brady pleaded not guilty during his arraignment Monday in Quincy District Court on charges of operating under the influence, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, and marked lanes violations.

According to the Quincy District Court clerk's office, the 55-year-old was released after his arraignment on personal recognizance.

Brady has apologized to Weymouth police, his constituents and fellow lawmakers "for any embarrassment and distraction," the incident might cause.

The senator served in the House before winning a special election in 2015 to succeed the late Democratic Sen. Thomas Kennedy of Brockton.

He's due back in court for a pre-trial hearing April 13.
One person was killed when a truck crashed into an E-ZPass tollbooth on a major New Hampshire highway on Wednesday afternoon and burst into flames.

The crash occurred after 1 p.m. on the Everett Turnpike at the Bedford toll plaza, shutting down the northbound side of the highway for nearly two hours. The two left lanes reopened around 3 p.m.

Aerial footage from NBC10 Boston's Sky Ranger helicopter showed the burned wreckage of a vehicle lying in front of the tollbooth. The tollbooth was also damaged, with a side panel and speed limit sign lying in the rubble.

Ground video supplied by a passing motorist showed the vehicle in flames shortly after the accident with black smoke pouring from the toll plaza.

I was like, 'Oh my gosh, do I stop or do I keep going,' said witness Jordan Geoffroy. I immediately hopped on my phone, dialed 911.

"We don't have any reports of any odd behavior before the crash. Just that the crash happened," New Hampshire State Police Sgt. Bryan Trask said. "It appears the subject was trying to change lanes right before they entered the toll plaza and didn't make the lane quite clear and crashed into the jersey barrier."

After hitting the center divider, he said the the truck rolled over at least once, landing between two unmanned E-ZPass lanes. There were people working in adjacent tollbooths at the time but they were not injured.

It isn't yet known how fast the vehicle was traveling, but from the damage, Trask said he would guess that it was going pretty fast.

"It removed part of the concrete barrier right out of the toll plaza," he said. "I've never seen that happen."

Trask said police are still working to identify the vehicle and the person inside, and asked anyone who witnessed the crash to come forward.

"At this time everything remains open to investigation," he said. "We don't know why it happened, how it happened or who it happened with."

Police are also looking for more witnesses who may have seen the driver on the highway before the crash took place.

Its unbelievable, said Geoffroy. Tomorrows not promised. Im very grateful Ive got my kids, my wife and my family. God bless the family that this happened to.

An autopsy has been scheduled for 9 a.m. on Thursday.


The state of California filed a lawsuit against the Department of Commerce Monday night after the department said the 2020 U.S. Census will include a question about citizenship status.

A coalition of state attorneys general urged the department last month to not add such a question, including California Attorney General Xavier Becerra who said, "Including a citizenship question on the 2020 census is not just a bad idea  it is illegal."

State attorneys said the question could lower participation among immigrants and cause a population undercount.

Press secretary Sarah Sanders says the White House "supports" the decision but it "was made at the department level."



Congress delegated to the secretary of the Commerce Department the authority to determine census questions. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross had until the end of March to submit the list of questions to Congress. The department said the citizenship information would help the Justice Department enforce the Voting Rights Act, which protects minority voting rights.

"Secretary Ross determined that obtaining complete and accurate information to meet this legitimate government purpose outweighed the limited potential adverse impacts," the department said in its announcement.

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday that adding such a question "will inject fear and distrust into vulnerable communities and cause traditionally undercounted communities to be even further under-represented, financially excluded and left behind."

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said that President Donald Trump and Ross "should be ashamed of themselves" and that "hopefully the courts will correct this glaring abuse."

Lets call this like it is: the census, written about and hallowed in the Constitution, is being distorted by this administration for political purposes," he said.



Democratic lawmakers had been bracing for the decision in recent months. They've held press conferences and made it a point to question Ross about his thinking during appearance at congressional hearings.

But some Republican lawmakers hailed the decision. GOP Sens. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Ted Cruz of Texas had sent a letter to the Commerce Department asking Ross to add the question.

"It is imperative that the data gathered in the census is reliable, given the wide ranging impacts it will have on U.S. policy," Cruz said in a press release issued by the three lawmakers. "A question on citizenship is a reasonable, commonsense addition to the census."

The Commerce Department said that between 1820 and 1950, almost every decennial census asked a question on citizenship in some form.

Census counts are taken by mail and by workers walking neighborhoods. The Census Bureau says that the 2010 census drew a massive response, with about 74 percent of the households mailing in forms and the remaining households counted by workers in neighborhoods.
For the past month, students at Somerville High School have used Wednesdays to walk out of school. This week, they did same, but at the Massachusetts State House, where they lobbied for new gun laws.

"If we stop, if this leaves the media, then very important gun control laws won't be passed," Amalia Hochman said.

Following up to Saturday's March For Our Lives Rally, Hochman joined a handful of members of Students Against Gun Violence, lobbying for Extreme Risks Protective Orders, also known as the Red Flag Bill. The bill would allow police to remove guns for 14 days from a person family members believe could be a danger to themselves or others.

Pending a trial, that person could lose their guns for a year.

"I'm worried if my kid has a gun, if my cousin has a gun. I don't think they should, and I think that's a really important thing for family and household members to be able to report," Hochman said.

While walking through the State House, the students were able to get a response from Senate President Harriette Chandler's office.

"The senate president supports this bill that provides extreme risk protective orders," David Sullivan said. "She's set up a working group here in the senate to work on these issues."

It's a start for the kids who say gun violence is beginning to hit close to home.

"One of our co-organizers in Andover, they had a school shooting threat yesterday," Sam Dornstein said. "Someone had posted a picture of gun magazines I believe and said something like 'don't come to school tomorrow.' So the threat is very real."

The students said they will be back next Wednesday. It's the last Wednesday before the a vote is taken on the bill.
If youd walked by the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Home on Madison Avenue that day early in March,you might have wondered whether someone was holding a fashion show. Oneafter the next, beautiful young women filed in, sheathed in Versace, clutching Hermes bags, eyes hidden behind Dior dark glasses.

The deceased, Alexander Sasha Khazin, was the son of the head of production at Lenfilm, a Soviet movie studio. Hed worked here as a luxury-car salesman, a wannabe movie producer, and an entrepreneur whose last project before his untimely death at 51 was building a fertilizer plant in Turkmenistan. These enterprises bought him the trappings of American success: an apartment on Park Avenue and a place in the Hamptons, where he entertained lavishly  and romanced as many beautiful young women as would have him.

Though hed just gotten engaged, Khazins funeral offered a tableau vivant of his playboy life. Most of the young women were emigres from the former Soviet Union. Everyone was there, because we all knew him, says one of their number, Russian-about-town Inna de Silva. That was also true in the biblical sense: Khazin had slept with many of them.

After the funeral, they went off together to the East 64th Street co-op apartment of Ines Misan, a Latvian-born beauty whod recently gained fame of a sort when her lover, John Lattanzio, the head of a Wall Street hedge fund, sued her for the return of a $289,000 engagement ring and she announced her displeasure on the front page of the New York Post. Joining her at the informal wake in her red-tented feline lair (decorated with Versace pillows, gilt armchairs upholstered in leopard fabric, and a bed on a balcony stage up a winding stair) were, among others, De Silva; Evgenia Gvordetskaya, another ex-model and half of the defunct Russian-born design team Ev & El; and her best friend, Inga Banasewycz. Everybody was drinking and having fun, Gvordetskaya recalls. But after a while, the talk turned to business.

Shortly before Khazins funeral, just weeks after Misans breach with Lattanzio, Banasewycz had broken up with her megabucks beau, Orhan Sadik-Khan of Old Greenwich, Connecticut, a married sixtysomething who was a managing director of PaineWebber and head of its Russia Fund. Now, Inga moaned to her sympathetic friends, she was running out of money. She could no longer afford the apartment hed rented for her in the Galleria on East 57th Street  let alone the status baubles that are a Russian girls best friend. And to add insult to injury, Sadik-Khan hadnt even waited for the sheets to cool before hooking up with another Russian  a girl they all knew!

It was then that Ines Misan made a modest proposal that caused the ever-so-Russian gloom to lift. If John Lattanzio could sue her, Misan said, why couldnt Banasewycz sue Sadik-Khan? And just as Misan had gone to the newspapers to force Lattanzios hand, couldnt Inga do the same to Orhan?

Banasewycz brightened. I can sue, too! she announced. Go to the newspaper! Put him in shame!

And so it was only a matter of days before news of Banasewycz v. Sadik-Khan, a $3.5 million lawsuit that read like a porn novel, put the stunning ex-Soviets back in the tabloid glare.

In certain quarters of Manhattan these days, its not unusual to encounter characters that seem to have come right out of a James Bond film: beautiful young Russian girls with revealing outfits and hidden agendas. Theyre the latest status accessory in New Yorks power game, the mistresses of the Masters of the Universe. The fact that theyre dangerous  wild, unpredictable, on the lookout for a bigger and better deal  only seems to increase their appeal. So certain women on the East Side are not seeing their husbands as much as they used to. How old is your Russian? one just-abandoned uptown wife asked another not long ago.

Whats happening here began ten years ago, quite a bit farther east. The unraveling of the Soviet Union created a host of new countries. And these places  Russia, the Baltics, Ukraine  were not exactly lands of opportunity, especially once the local cement plant closed. After 80 years of Communism, morals were eradicated, says an Eastern Bloc-born American who trades in the former USSR. Then the state disappeared and a vacuum was created. Into this vacuum came an influx of foreign men with nice suits and thick wallets, looking to do business and not averse to a little paid romance on the side. So becoming one of the dostupniye devochki  accessible young ladies  didnt seem so bad. A 1990 poll of Russian high-school girls, reported in the Soviet press, found that 60 percent aspired to work as valuta prostitutes  foreign-currency hookers.

Jim Haynes, a Paris-based writer whos long had an interest in the Eastern Bloc and its women, has an explanation for this. In the old days, there was not much one could do in Russia except make love, and that is what everyone did, often, he says. Making love is a pleasure the state could not control, so Russians were  are  free to do it whenever they like.

In northern Turkey in recent years, Russian prostitutes have been so prevalent they have even been given a nickname: Natashas. The Russian girls now so visible in New York started from the same sleepy towns and with essentially the same impulse, but they dont do anything so crude as turn tricks. Theyre Ultra-Natashas: Clever as well as beautiful, they pursue their goals with mercenary precision.

These girls arent one-night hookers; theyre sink-the-teeth-in hookers, says a television producer who knows them. Theyre playing chess. Theyre looking No. 1 for freedom, No. 2 for lots of money by a quickie marriage or, failing that, a lawsuit. Theyre very adept with credit cards, and they know you dont get those the first night.

Theyre very passionate, very beautiful, but very tough, says a bachelor known from Bilboquet to Balthazar. They want the big life, the money, and they give sex to get it. For a guy with a lot of money, its great. The girls dont mind if youre older, if youre fat.

Says another East Side swain, laughing: They are the most coldhearted girls Ive ever met.

The gold-digger pipeline begins in small towns in the former Soviet heartland, whence girls migrate to Moscow or St. Petersburg, places you can use as a trampoline, says a Russian-born model scout. Once there, they seek out men who can help them bounce up, economically or, better yet, out of the East altogether. In many cases, these men would not be as effective in the United States at attracting that caliber of woman, says Richard Dean, who opened the first American law office in Moscow. Girls started to qualify foreigners, the scout continues. Whats he good for? Is he a boyfriend? A potential husband?

The path from Moscow to New York cut through the modeling business. In May 1988, the first Miss Moscow contest was held. A year later came the first Miss USSR, Yulia Sukhanova, a rangy 17-year-old Moscow schoolgirl with gray-blue eyes, blonde hair, and a beauty mark over one eyebrow.

Though she didnt know it, her modeling career was facilitated by Richard Fuisz (pronounced fuse), a former actor, psychiatrist, pediatrician, congressional candidate, whistle-blower, and entrepreneur who declines to comment on a published report that he has intelligence ties. Fuisz, who owned a company that did joint ventures in Moscow, was approached by the then-Soviet ambassador to Washington, Yuri V. Dubinin, to set up a modeling agency to prepare the first waves of Soviet beauties for American commerce (which often meant substantial dental work) and protect them from adverse influences and bad publicity like magazine spreads about their teeth, Fuisz says.

Sukhanova was the first of ten girls he would oversee. But first, he had to free her from the Soviet Union. He did it with the help of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, now one of Russias oil billionaires but then the head of the Komsomol, or Young Communist League, and beginning his business career in a computer venture with Fuisz. Each time Yulia tried to leave, the Moscow City Council canceled her visa, Fuisz reports. The hard-liners were opposed. With Khodorkovskys help, I escorted her to the airport and onto a plane to get her out. Soon, she was meeting Miss America, Nancy Reagan, and Sting, shooting the cover of Details, and filming a yogurt commercial. Thats when international model agents like John Casablancas started sniffing around Moscow like pigs after truffles.

As the Soviet Union crumbled, Yulia Sukhanovas Americanization was proceeding apace. She left her first agent, Fuisz, and ended up in litigation with him over commissions. Her second agency, Click, soon became a sort of salon for Eastern Bloc model wannabes. Not only was the first Miss USSR there, but it was also the only agency in New York with a Russian-speaking booker. Inna (pronounced Eena) de Silva would become the linchpin of the Ultra-Natasha circle.

She was born Inna Sokolovsky in Odessa, on the Black Sea, where her family lived with three others in a communal apartment. Her mother was a department-store buyer and her father an appliance repairman, but in Russia, everybody had to rely a bit on their wits, she says in a gravelly whiskey voice over a late lunch and brandy at 44. You couldnt survive unless you were doing something on the side. We have larcenous minds. We distrust authority. We like getting over on people. And we settle things among ourselves  sort of like Sicilians. She laughs darkly.

De Silva learned about sex early. Drinking and sex were the most important things, she says. The Sokolovskys moved to America when Inna was 12, first settling in a Coney Island project, then moving up-island to Massapequa. In the eighties, after a failed marriage, Inna hit Miamis South Beach, where she married a Brazilian surfer  the eponymous De Silva  and sold wholesale travel packages to fashion photographers. In 1990, Frances Grill, founder of Click Models, gave her a job as a booker.

The young Russians who now began heading for New York could talk to De Silva  in their native tongue. Inna would tell them that the agency was interested, and they would just arrive, Sukhanova recalls. Imagine a girl from Moscow or a little town  she is in New York at the airport, and shes like, Oh, I have no ticket back. So Inna had to bring them here and try to give them jobs. And I guess when they didnt work, I dont know 

De Silva would arrange visas and get the Russians tested by photographers. They were very attractive girls of a certain kind, attractive enough to look like models in dark clubs, says Grill, who called them Almosts. Her son, Joey Grill, who runs Click with her, thought of them as Innas private test board, working little jobs. Then he adds, Apparently, they were going out on other jobs too.

Innas group was tusovka  a happening. She had it in her blood to be a party person, says Frances Grill. She liked rounding up girls to go to clubs at 2 a.m. Restaurant and club owners began to lure her and the Almosts with free meals in exchange for their filling a table or two.

De Silva was eventually fired by Click and, discouraged and near-broke, started collecting fees for promoting dinner parties on slow nights at restaurants like Grolier and Jour et Nuit and clubs like Au Bar. Innas pack included a few real models shed worked with. Buzzing around them was a swarm of more accessible Almosts. A circle of admirers was solidified by these dinners, says the Eastern Bloc-born businessman. She would call the Russians and we would go.

De Silva admits she made introductions. The girls that might not be great for Vogue were great for something else, she says. They look good in someones arms. Despite what many who know her claim, however, she says she never got paid for making introductions. I know who I am, she tells me one afternoon, sprawled in the back of a stretch limousine someone else is paying for. I give a lot, and Ive been very disappointed with a lot of girls. Theyre very ungrateful. I introduce them to sugar daddies. I help them get their lives together. Ive learned now: Do it and expect nothing. They live on Fifth Avenue, and Im walking around with $300. De Silva sighs heavily.

I know it sounds naive, she says, but I can feel for these girls. I can guess the trauma they went through. A provincial girl, born in the middle of nowhere in the ex-USSR, before she gets to the first big city, she goes through 100 guys. To get to Moscow, 300 guys. To get to the West, 500. Theyre links in a chain. You meet ten, three promise something, but you go through 50 before one comes through. Russian girls are so greedy because theyre badly damaged. You meet them, and you can see the anger inside.

I remember watching girls at the bar move to the banquettes and three weeks later, theyd have their first Chanel bag, De Silva continues, hastening to add: Not the ones I was inviting, of course. But they were watching, and keeping score. Russians are so competitive. Whose boyfriend gives them more? You got a bag? I got a car! 

The men they meet, of course, are playing hard, too. They think theyre running a game on us, says a young investment banker. They hang out; they shake their titties. Theyre only after money, so we flash some, we fuck em, and we dump em. We trade em like stocks. We teach em American capitalism at its best.

And in New York, who doesnt play? As another investment banker points out, These girls see New York women playing the same game under the veil of high refinement. New York society girls call them hookers and hate them. But what is the difference, except that the Russians admit it?

Inga Banasewycz, then 19, met her aging sugar daddy, Orhan Sadik-Khan, at a dinner in 1990 at Tavern on the Green. In the lawsuit Banasewycz would file against Sadik-Khan, she said that their relationship was purely sexual. Sadik-Khans appetite for sex was insatiable, and he sought control over every aspect of her life so she would be available to him whenever he wanted her.

Sadik-Khan took Banasewycz with him to Russia, where, her best friend, Evgenia Gvordetskaya, says, she helped him do business. Her own suffered. Banasewycz couldnt control her weight, so the modeling jobs dried up. And when she tried studying drama at NYU, Sadik-Khan became upset and controlling, Gvordetskaya says. He didnt let her do anything, basically. The couple broke up briefly in September 1995 but reconciled shortly thereafter, and Sadik-Khan evidently relaxed his grip on her. He even put up the couple of hundred thousand that earned Inga her credit (under another name, Inga Galiullina) as an executive producer of an independent movie, Fools Paradise, according to its writer-director-producer, Richard Zakka.

In February 1997, Sadik-Khan rented Inga an apartment at the Galleria, insisting, she claimed in her suit, that she remain home at all times so he could have sex on demand. She charged he sneaked in and penetrated her while she slept, would pretend to be an infant and suckle at her breasts for three hours at a time, begged her to procure other women for group sex, flew home from vacations just to have sex with her, took hundreds of nude photos of her, asked her to describe sex with other men, and insisted that she have wild sex with him in his wifes bed in Greenwich. Sadik-Khan begged her to have a baby, she asserted, promising her $1 million if she did, and repeatedly told her that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, and that if she remained with him, she would be financially secure for life. Yet when she twice got pregnant, she claims he demanded she have abortions. And finally, when she again begged to work, she says he promised her $500,000 if she wouldnt.

Sadik-Khans lawyer declined, on behalf of his client, to comment.

What she did is pure extortion, says a Russian model. She lived a free life; he was supporting her. She didnt want a career. These girls dont work nine to five. Its not their thing.

Finally, in February, Banasewyczs complaint concludes, Sadik-Khan abruptly terminated the relationship, telling her he was through with her.  Curiously, Gvordetskaya disputes that, saying Inga broke up with him. She wanted to do things; she is very ambitious; he was controlling her; so thats all, she says. She just got sick of it. She was like his second wife. So its like any divorce. It just wasnt an official marriage. But Banasewycz didnt sue until after Sasha Khazins funeral.

Ines Misan has just one brief scene in her only movie, Inside the Goldmine, but its a doozy, opening a story that revolves around her characters murder. She plays a Russian named Scarlet Rider, whos seen in a belly-button-baring black lace-trimmed top, talking between kitten smiles to Josh Evans, who both made and starred in the film.

Want me to take you home? she asks him. You scared? Dont be scared. Im just a whore.

Dont talk like that, Evans scolds her. I dont like whores.

I bet your mother is whore, too, Misan says.

Dont talk about my mother, Evans snaps back. Youre a fucking whore. That doesnt make my mother a whore.

Were all whores, Misan concludes.

Three years later Evans says, I thought she was perfect for the part.

Misan comes from a little town outside Riga  a small place even for Latvia, says a Latvian. She married a man named Broujika but ran away to Moscow at 19 to seek her fortune as a dancer. Her next boyfriend was a Moscow gangster, now dead. She would later describe him as a man who would hand her stolen credit cards and passports and say, Go get some Armani.

Ines wasnt content as a mafiya moll. She was also singing and dancing with Laima Vaikule, a nightclub entertainer, when Moscow opened up to foreigners in 1988. It was so focused then, says one of the pioneers. It was 50 or 60 people going to three or four places where foreigners met. Ines was a very prominent girl in a small group. She never accepted money. It was gifts and trips.

The man who took her farthest was Imre Pakh, a Hungarian-born, Leningrad-educated businessman whod moved to America in the seventies. Between his two marriages, Pakh, who trades in fertilizer and chemicals from the former Soviet Union and lives in an apartment at the Galleria that he bought from Eric Claptons ex-lover Lori del Santo, was quite a ladies man.

Pakh declined to speak on the record, but according to several acquaintances, he brought Misan to Paris, sponsored her for a U.S. visa, and then paid for her East Side apartment. She called him her manager. If Pakh had feelings for her, that didnt stop Misan from walking into New York clubs (she would boast), picking out the hottest guys, and taking them home. One choice became her second husband, David Townley, a model and California surfer whod just hit town from Milan. (Townley refused to be quoted, but a source quite close to him told his story.)

Townley, who thought Misan looked like Paulina Porizkova, soon found out that she was something of a legend. Her promiscuity was awesome, says a man who had a two-day fling with her around the time she met Townley. She made it clear not only to me but to a handful of my friends that she was an easy conquest.

Says another ex-lover, who seems relieved to be rid of her, Shes a man. She hates other women. Her attitude is a mans: Im going to fuck that guy tonight. But Ines is not evil. She is not a hooker, even if some people dont agree.

Misan told Townley she was a singer, and introduced him to Imre Pakh, telling Townley that Pakh paid her a draw against her future earnings. But once Townley and Misan got together, she was on her own, and the ensuing affair left Townley penniless. When she was tossed out of her apartment (or at least said she had been), he let her move into his sublet. Then he took her home to Malibu. He decided hed make her a model, paid for tests and a portfolio, and introduced her to agents and photographers. After a month in Malibu, she gave Townley an ultimatum: If he didnt marry her, shed find a green-card husband. Worried hed never see her again, Townley married her in Las Vegas in August 1989.

After the wedding, Misan was nice enough when they were alone, but around other guys shed be impossible, treating Townley like furniture. She spent his modeling money as if it were water, dragooned him into driving her everywhere. When he went to Milan to model for two months, he kept hearing reports from home about his wifes wild behavior. In June 1990, he flew home and told her he wanted a divorce.

Townley didnt see her again until her new boyfriend called him a year later. Her green-card application had hit a snag; she was going to be deported unless he came to court and convinced a judge their marriage was for real. Townley didnt want to go, but she had all his furniture and he wanted it back. When they started bickering over where honeymoon pictures were taken, the judge said, You were married all right. Misan got her green card. Townley  now a waiter in Hawaii  never saw her again.

Misans new boyfriend was TV actor and former Calvin Klein model Justin Lazard, son of ABC foreign correspondent Sidney Lazard, grandson of the founder of the Lazard Freres investment bank. After a long romance and a brief engagement, Misan returned to New York in 1995. But she kept her Lazard connection, moving in with Justins parents and holding on to his checks and one of his credit cards, which she used to pay her rent and buy a VCR. Lazard wouldnt comment, but a friend of both says, He wanted her to know that no matter what, hed be there. Despite Lazards loyalty, Misan was playing the field again. She telephoned a friend one day and said, If Justin calls, last night I slept at your place.

Misan continued her modeling career, but the work was sporadic; she switched agencies, to Ford. Ines is a really fun-loving, great girl, full of life, and it came across in her pictures, says Katie Ford. But she was not a serious model. Within a year, she was gone.

She kept collecting admirers, though, among them several megabucks Manhattanites; a few sons-of, like Anthony (son of Bob) Guccione; actors Armand Assante and Val Kilmer; and Michael Bush, who asked to be described as a handsome young lawyer.

After we stopped dating, she was going out with six people at a time, says Bush, a handsome young lawyer, who remained a friend. I realized she was a very dangerous woman.

Even her defenders admit that Misan is liberal with her affections. We live in a world of unbearable hypocrisy, says photographer Peter Beard, who recently accompanied Misan to Latvia, where she owns a share of a model agency. When Ines is friends with two or three people at one time, its not cheating, its just communicating.

Shes quite a communicator. One East Side investor who met Misan at a charity event gleefully describes how she had the table in stitches telling filthy jokes and dropping berries in his lap and plucking them out with her fingers while his stunning wife watched, incredulous, from across the table. Luckily, the wife  who confirms the story  was amused. Ive never seen you stay at a dinner so long, she told him.

Another rich young man met her at a luncheon, where she asked if she could join him and his friends. Her car had been towed, he recalls. She tried to come with us so wed go to the impound lot to help her get her car out. When I wouldnt, she said You want to make love with me, dont you? I havent seen her since. He laughs. I think we left it open.

Ines needs to show everybody how great shes doing, says a Russian model well call Ludmilla, who knows but disapproves of the Ultra-Natashas. She needs to show other Russian girls, Youre like everybody else, and Im a princess. She doesnt think shes a prostitute. She thinks shes so great and beautiful, men just want to give her money. But there is some work involved as well. Indeed, when Michael Bush saw Misan in a new Mercedes and asked how she got it, she replied, Ive been working very hard lately.

Her new job was John Lattanzio, 49, whod quit high school in Astoria to make his bones with the hedge fund Steinhardt Partners, where he became Michael Steinhardts confidant and top trader, raking in eight figures annually. Divorced since 1984, Lattanzio was considered a catch; he made Financial Worlds 1990 list of the most eligible Wall Street bachelors. In 1993, the magazine ranked him the thirty-eighth-biggest earner on Wall Street. In 1996, he opened the Lattanzio Group, a hedge fund that launched with $100 million in assets. That year, too, he was introduced to Misan by a fellow financier who described her as a nice Upper East Side girl. Lattanzio declined to give details of their affair, but the public record of the lawsuit tells their story.

Initially, at least, Lattanzio was a careful man. Shortly after they met, Misan says in the papers, he demanded she take a blood test; she demanded jewelry in return. Thus was laid the basis of their relationship.

According to the complaint filed by his attorneys at Wilkie Farr, Lattanzio proposed on May 20, 1996, and gave Misan a nine-carat radiant diamond set in platinum that hed bought at Harry Winston for $289,275. The ring is the size of a small watch, says a friend. He followed it with a $147,220 Cartier necklace in October, a $20,026 Van Cleef & Arpels ring at Thanksgiving, another Harry Winston ring worth $12,232 in January 1997, and a $27,000 crocodile Hermes bag last November. He considered all these gifts to be engagement presents.

In her reply, Misan claims they were never engaged. But three witnesses came forward to contradict her, and their statements echoed one made to me by Ludmilla, the model, who said Misan would wave the stone, trilling, Im getting married.

Misans affidavit makes interesting reading, a self-portrait of an Ultra-Natasha. The gifts Lattanzio gave her were nonconditional, she says. And their relationship, in actuality, was totally nonexclusive. Right from the start, he bought her things  six $2,000 flowering orchid trees the night after their first date, for instance  to buy my affections and satisfy himself that I would like him. Then hed claim she didnt, start an argument, and buy her more in apology. He spent $3 million on her in all, she thinks  on her credit-card bills, rings and earrings from Tiffany, a Fendi fur, and a Mercedes  when he wasnt routinely behaving in a way that evidenced his own insecurity and obsessive behavior. And so, despite all the gifts, he made it virtually impossible for us to have a healthy and happy relationship.

The date Lattanzio put on their engagement was nothing more than the last of many bust-ups and reconciliations. He expressed his unhappiness with the fact that we were not seeing each other  and just happened to buy her a $300,000 ring the next day. His claims that they were engaged only proved that he was scheming to set up a scenario whereby he could sue me. They had a terrible argument and broke up again in mid-October. But a month later, he asked her out. At the time, she thought it was all quite funny. In mid-November, that changed.

While I was out of town, plaintiff broke into my answering machine without my permission and listened to my messages, Misans affidavit continues. What he heard convinced him that Misan was sleeping with another man. When she telephoned to say she was coming home, he called her a fucking whore and demanded the ring back. Then, she charged, Lattanzio had her followed; she insinuated that he had mob connections and would not hesitate to use them to harm me.

He broke up with her late in November, and Wilkie Farr sent her a letter on November 26 demanding the engagement ring. When Misan offered to sell the ring back to him, Lattanzios lawyers responded with the lawsuit, demanding she return not only what he wanted  the ring  but also another $200,000 in gifts. A few days later, Misan told Lattanzio shed raised funds to hire an attorney by selling some of the contested jewelry.

But according to others, Misan didnt pay for her lawyer; someone else did. As well see, Misan has a knack for turning up in the most interesting places.

I fell in love with her, John Lattanzio told me. I made a mistake. If I have any regret, its that I asked for the ring back. The ring was a symbol of love. I dont regret falling in love.

The funny thing is, he may not have been wrong to fall in love. For Russians, dreaming is easy, says the model scout. What is lethal about them is that when they are going after you, they convince themselves for a second that they really love you. There may be another lover coming to see them when you turn the corner, but at that moment, they love you. Thats what makes them so effective.

As Lattanzios relationship with Misan crumbled, she suddenly popped up at the epicenter of the juiciest divorce in years, Wildenstein v. Wildenstein. In June 1997, the Rush & Molloy column in the Daily News reported Alec Wildensteins desire to divorce his surgically altered wife, Jocelyne. Then, last September, she and her bodyguards allegedly found him in bed in his familys townhouse with a young blonde, at which point he pulled a gun and was arrested. Speculation on the blondes identity was intense, and quickly focused on Yelena Jarikova, born in poverty on Russias remote Sakhalin Island, near Japan. Wildenstein had, indeed, fallen head over heels for her, but it wasnt Jarikova in the townhouse, and when she read the reports, she was said to be so furious, Wildenstein had to buy her a Mercedes to placate her.

Jocelyne Wildenstein would soon say she was 99 percent sure that the mystery girl was Misan, not Jarikova. But now an American woman has told a friend that she was with Alec that night, that hed ensured they werent seen by the townhouse staff, that earlier in the evening she saw the gun, that he was well aware his wife was coming  indeed, had been in contact with her driver  and that hed given the girl a drink she believes was drugged. The girl has been located, but shes afraid, someone close to Jocelyne reports.

Its unclear how Alec Wildenstein met Yelena Jarikova, a rock-hard five-foot-ten-inch blonde. Though its been reported they were introduced by Gaddo Cardini, a peripatetic Italian dealmaker, he denies it. He is very sensitive about how he met somebody, Cardini says, because he likes to show off, like all the old men. He will never say, Ive been introduced. 

Though Wildenstein was willing to move mountains to win her heart, the middle-aged billion-heir was unsatisfied. He wanted to buy her the world, says an executive at Ford Models, which took Jarikova on at Wildensteins request. Hed say, I love her, but she doesnt love me. I never got that love feeling.

Indeed, Jarikova sometimes seemed closer to the ubiquitous Ines Misan, who she may have known before either met Wildenstein. Lattanzio thinks Misan met the billionaire at Jarikovas 21st-birthday party last September. Soon after, Wildenstein appears to have appointed himself Misans protector, despite his apparent distaste for her. Hed say She isnt the same class, but Yelena likes her,  says the Ford executive. Gaddo Cardini thinks Wildenstein let the Misan-Jarikova friendship flourish because he thought it would help him in his relationship, which had been very difficult.

Things didnt go as planned. Ines was Yelenas adviser, says a man who saw them together. She was saying, Look, theres a world of billionaires out there, and this is how you play it.  Cardini agrees: Ines is more experienced. But I think the advice she give is against the interests of Alec. She was coming out from a relation with a rich guy that she didnt like, so she believed Yelena was living the same story and she probably transferred this. This is how I see it. I am very shrink in these things.

In any event, at 11:45 a.m. on December 5, the detective who served Misan with a show-cause order in Lattanzios lawsuit found her, clad in a robe, in Wildensteins suite at the Four Seasons Hotel.

According to people close to the case, Wildenstein also suggested Misan use his lawyer, Raoul Felder, and even paid her legal bill. (Felder did not respond to two requests for an interview but denies any Wildenstein role in his representation of Misan. Wildenstein, Jarikova, and Misan didnt return calls.) Felder wasnt Misans first lawyer. Someone who knows Michael Bush says that after her engagement, Bush and Misan discussed whether she could get a prenuptial agreement from Lattanzio. She wanted to marry and quickly divorce him and walk away with $1 million. And then maybe do it again. Asked about this, Bush demurred: I gave advice in this area, but I cant comment because that advice is protected by attorney-client confidentiality.

Ten days after Misan was served, she told the Post that Lattanzios suit was like an attempt to take candy from a baby. The next day, December 16, Lattanzio settled, getting back his engagement ring but letting her keep the rest of the baubles. The Post also revealed that Misan had taken shelter in Wildensteins room, and that may have been when he decided to get her, and Jarikova, out of town.

On December 21, Misan told the Post that she was leaving for California to see Justin Lazard, the love of my life. But instead, says Inna de Silva, Ines took Wildensteins advice and went to Moscow with Yelena, and from there to Kenya, where the two were guests at Ol Jogi, the Wildenstein familys 66,000-acre ranch. Also present were Wildenstein; his son Alec Jr.; Alecs girlfriend, a model named Rubria; and photographer Wayne Maser (Misan would later have a fling with Maser before hooking up with her present beau, restaurateur Cameron Alborzian).

The Kenya sojourn was anything but sweet. A witness says Jarikova was constantly complaining, about the food (Wildenstein flew in a chef from Nobu to placate her) and about Wildensteins Gulfstream, which she declared shabby and old. Then Wildenstein and his son had a fight. (Ines was flirting with Junior, says the witness, and Rubria got angry.) The two Wildensteins had words and some sort of physical altercation. Later that night, Junior didnt come to dinner. Strange as it sounds, Alec Sr. seemed to be trying to protect his son from the Ultra-Natasha. Wildenstein, finally, had lost patience with Misan. At first, he was too afraid to break the relation, says Cardini. Then I think he regretted it. He left for Paris, where he remains, while Misan and Jarikova returned to New York.

Nobody knows whether Orhan Sadik-Khan regrets his relationship with Inga Banasewycz. After she filed her lawsuit against him, and it made the New York Posts front page, Sadik-Khan didnt even bother answering the claim. Instead, he settled instantly and paid her off.

But there are regrets to go around. Orhan didnt get off easy, says a close friend of them all. And Ines was furious. It seems Ingas score was even bigger than hers, and it annoys her that Inga profited by her example. The friend, an ex-lover of Misans, smiles wryly. Then he delivers an ironic verdict. Ines is a major fuckup, he says. They all are.

Additional reporting by Phoebe Eaton and Braden Keil.


Room fire causes 10k of damage at YMCA in Norwich Room fire causes 10k of damage at YMCA in Norwich

Around 10,000 of damage has been caused after a small fire broke out in a room at YMCA Norfolks Norwich Central accommodation facility yesterday (March 26) afternoon.
An invitation has been issued to hear the explosive testimony of Norfolk farmer Colin King at the next dinner of the Norwich FGB, at the Mercure Hotel in Norwich, on Monday October 18.

An invitation has been issued to hear the explosive testimony of Norfolk farmer Colin King at the next dinner of the Norwich FGB, at the Mercure Hotel in Norwich, on Monday October 18.

Norwich drug worker takes a dive with her client A remarkable substance misuse worker from the Matthew Project is heading for the skies with her teenage client. Read more

Tributes paid to Norwich Mothers' Union president The Diocese of Norwich Mothers Union has announced the sad death of its "dedicated" President, Val Ovenden. Past President Marguerite Phillips pays tribute. Read more

Book now for 'Visions of Salvation' Julian retreat The Friends of Julian of Norwich present 'Visions of Salvation', a two day in-person and online retreat taking place on October 29 and 30. Read more

Ermie leads the way by saying yes to organ donation Organ Donation Week has been an opportunity to remember with gratitude much-loved parishioner Ermie Astorga from St Johns Cathedral, who passed away a year ago. Read more

Norfolk Christian League hails 'fantastic spirit' As the new football season starts, the most sporting team in the Norfolk Christian League from last season have been presented with a trophy for their fantastic spirit. Read more

The power of belonging to your church Regular contributor Jane Walters has recently become a member of her local church, and is discovering the joy of Christian teamwork. Read more

Gospel choir helps Norwich church Covid-19 reflections The Norwich Community Gospel Choir helped people to reflect on the Covid-19 pandemic at a concert at St Stephens Church in Norwich on Saturday September 28 as part of the churchs After The Storm event. Read more

Trustee vacancies at Community Chaplaincy Norfolk CCN is a Christian Charity which supports men and women leaving prison in Norfolk. We currently have a Trustee Board of six and are looking to appoint two or three new Trustees over the course of 2021/22. Read more

Gorleston youth project re-starts prayer meetings The Identity Youth Project in Gorleston has re-started regular in-person prayer gatherings, and all are welcome to join with them to pray for this vital work. Read more

Vacancy for Clerk to the Trustees of Carters Trust Norwich-based charity Carters Trust is looking to employ a Clerk to the Trustees to assist in the administration of the Trust, the maintenance of financial records, compliance with Charities Acts and other legal obligations, and correspondence. Read more

Norwich event explores ministry in poor communities Sara Barron, Executive Director of the National Estates Church Network, will be speaking in Norwich about ministry in low-income communities. Read more

YMCA Norfolk - Policy, Performance and Compliance Co-ordinator YMCA Norfolk is looking for a Policy, Performance and Compliance Co-Ordinator to ensure compliance and consistency with regard to the implementation of our policies and procedures. Read more

Norwich preacher pays ultimate price for mission to the poor Tributes have been paid to a courageous Norwich Methodist preacher, who gave up everything and moved to Pakistan to follow Gods call to serve the poorest of the poor, and who has died suddenly. Read more

Tournament heralds start of Norfolk Christian league The start of the 2021/22 Norfolk Christian Football League season was heralded by the traditional 11-a-side tournament for half a dozen teams at Sloughbottom Park on Saturday September 18. Read more

N Norfolk Christian artists in Open Studios event Two faith-filled artists from the Fakenham area will be taking part in the Norfolk Open Studios event starting later this month. Read more

Nourishment for the body as well as the spirit? Robert Ashton wonders if there is scope for our parish churches to provide a further service for their local communities. Read more

Norfolk authors poems speak to the heart Christian writer Catherine Ayre has had a book of poems published to encourage people to find out more about God. Read more
The Open Compute Project began in 2011 when Facebook published the designs of some homebrew servers it had built to make its data centers run more efficiently.

Facebook hoped that other companies would adopt and adapt its initial designs, pushing down costs and improving quality  and they have: Sales of hardware built to Open Compute Project designs topped $1.2 billion in 2017, double the previous year, and are expected to reach $6 billion by 2021.

Those figures, from IHS Markit, exclude hardware spending by OCP board members Facebook, Intel, Rackspace, Microsoft and Goldman Sachs, which all use OCP to some degree. The spend is still a small part of the overall market for data-center systems, which Gartner estimated was worth $178 billion in 2017, but IHS expects OCPs part to grow 59 percent annually, while Gartner forecasts that the overall market will stagnate, at least through 2019.

Reasons to adopt OCP

When Facebook designed the hardware for its first dedicated data center in Prineville, Ore., it wanted to make savings on three fronts: energy, materials and money.

It boosted energy efficiency by cutting wastage in the power supply and by making the servers taller, which left room for bigger, more effective heatsinks and meant that it could use fans of a larger diameter, able to move more air with less energy.

By doing away with vanity faceplates, paint, logos, unneeded expansion slots and components such as video cards and even mounting screws, it saved more than 6 pounds of material per server.

That inevitably led to cost reductions, as you dont pay for electricity you dont consume or parts you dont use. On top of that, it made savings on labor: Without the mounting screws, racking and unracking servers was quicker; standardization saved time dealing with spares, and overall systems coulc be deployed more quickly.

Barriers to adopting OCP

In its 2018 spending study, IHS Markit identified the three main barriers to the adoption of OCP hardware as being concerns about security, sourcing, and integration.

One of the risks of giving everybody the specification to make OCP hardware is that anybody can make it: Somebody could tamper with it before delivery, and nobody would be any the wiser. In other words, supply chain security becomes a problem.

Security

At the OCP Summit held in San Jose in March 2018, OCP leaders said they were addressing supply chain security with the creation of a new Security Project focusing on the creation of a standard hardware interface and protocols for ensuring boot code integrity.

Microsoft has already contributed its Project Cerberus, a hardware root of trust for firmware on the motherboard designed to comply with NIST 800-192, Platform Firmware Resiliency Guidelines.

Building on this base, they also plan to develop security firmware APIs, open-source firmware for dedicated security hardware, secure firmware provisioning methodologies, and tools to secure and verify all mutable storage, including flash for BIOS, microcontrollers and complex programmable logic devices (CPLDs). In this way, enterprises taking delivery of OCP hardware can be sure its only running the firmware they expect it to be running.

The project leads arent just concerned about new hardware: Theyre also thinking of the second-hand gear. To secure the resale market, they will look into providing tools for recovering hardware from a compromised or untrusted state, and for tracking and changing its ownership.

Hardware-software integration

Integrating hardware and software is getting easier  particularly at the operating system level since Microsoft joined the OCP board and contributed designs for the racks and servers it is now using to deliver Azure services to its customers.

There is still work to be done at other levels, including the very lowest, the firmware that enables OCP servers to boot up.

Thats where another new OCP initiative comes in: the Open System Firmware Project. Its working on open-sourcing the code that initializes server chipsets so that it can be used on a variety of platforms and processor types. Building on projects like UEFI and Linux Boot, it aims to provide support for all cloud operating systems and processor architectures found in the data center, including GPUs, FPGAs and other hardware optimized for applications such as machine learning.

With Open Compute hardware increasingly finding a role in network virtualization, there are also moves afoot to integrate open software and hardware here, too. Traditional networking equipment vendors like Cisco Systems or Juniper Networks tightly link the two, delivering proprietary software tailored to proprietary hardware.

OCP is working with the Linux Foundation to integrate its hardware with that organizations Open Platform for NFV (OPNFV) software, and the two recently renewed their commitment to joint testing of hardware and software products meeting their respective specifications.

Where to buy OCP gear

Sourcing Open Compute Project hardware is getting easier. The project website features a marketplace through which you can research equipment specifications and contact Open Compute Project vendors.

There are over 100 products referenced that have achieved either OCP Inspired or OCP Accepted recognition. The OCP Inspired label can only be used on products that comply fully with an existing, accepted OCP specification and that are made by an OCP Silver, Gold or Platinum member. OCP Accepted products can be made by anyone, but they too must comply fully with an existing, accepted OCP specification and open-source design files must be made available for them.

Types of Open Compute Project hardware

The early focus on OCP servers and power supplies has grown to encompass racks, storage and Open Compute Project networking. The organization has even accepted a specification for open Wi-Fi hardware.

While OCP servers started out as simple, commodity devices, there have been moves since to tailor servers to different workloads and, inevitably, the computing demands of machine learning applications have influenced those designs.

Facebook in particular is continuing to push the OCP server envelope. At the 2018 U.S. OCP Summit in San Jose, it showed its third-generation machine learning platform, Big Basin v2. This uses Nvidia Tesla V100 GPUs, a step up from the P100s used in Big Basin v1. Individually, the new processors offer two-thirds more performance than the previous ones, and Facebook said that thanks to some other tweaks to the Big Basin design, it had managed to retain almost all that performance gain as the number of processors used increases.

Facebook also showed a new system, Fabric Aggregator, designed to link neighboring datacenters within a region, and also datacenter regions with one another. Built using Facebooks own OPC 100G switch, the Wedge 100, and FBOSS (Facebook Open Switching System) software, Fabric Aggregator allows businesses with networks like Facebook to scale intra-region and inter-region traffic independently.

Microsoft is hoping for a share of the open switching market too: Its containerized Software for Open Networking in the Cloud (SONiC) has found its way into new devices from Mellanox Technologies that allow enterprises to extend their spine and top-of-rack switches from their own premises into the Azure cloud. This could be a way for it to leverage hardware vendors sales into a market for its own cloud services.

Through another OCP initiative, Microsoft could end up changing the structure of the storage market too. The makers of flash storage devices and storage subsystems disagree about where the intelligence that handles address mapping, garbage collection and wear leveling should reside. Putting this intelligence in the storage subsystem may make sense for workstations or consumer devices, but in cloud services functions such as garbage collection become slow and wasteful if the controller is unaware of where the data is coming from. Thats because the storage systems cache typically mingles data from different applications and VMs -- data that will be freed up at different times. With its Project Denali, Microsoft wants to allow OCP storage device makers to move that intelligence higher up the stack, from the SSD drive into the host, allowing it to adapt drive behavior to particular workloads.
New manger of Kingsland Centre speaks to NewburyToday

LONG-awaited plans to redevelop Thatchams Kingsland Centre are unlikely to come to fruition anytime soon.

The centres new owner said it is aiming to improve the existing facilities instead.

Thereported last month that regeneration developer and investor U+I had sold the shopping centre for 16.1m to Sheet Anchor Evolve.

The new owner has appointed investment and property management company London and Cambridge Properties (LCP) to manage the centre.

LCP asset manager Patrick Durcan spoke to the about the next steps for the centre.

Its a good little centre as it stands, he said.

Ourselves, LCP, work with Sheet Anchor Evolve, who are the new owners. We provide management support for them.

We try to improve the management and run things a little bit better.

Theres some void space on the first floor, which has been empty for quite some time, and we want to try and do something with that to bring it back into use.

Were considering options and running appraisals.

Mr Durcan said that LCP worked with various operators ranging from gyms, hotels and offices and was speaking to who might be able to make good use of the space and add more to the centre.

Plans for a new Waitrose store, 13 retail units, the refurbishment and extension of five existing shop units  along with the redevelopment and extension of the upper floor to provide first and second floor accommodation  have been in the pipeline since 2007.

Car parking for 229 vehicles, alongside 226 bays in the current car park, were also included.

The plans were renewed in 2015, but are yet to be implemented.

And when asked about the new owners intentions for the site, Mr Durcan said: I think that a comprehensive redevelopment of the site is unlikely.

Its certainly not our intention at this time.

Were looking to enhance whats there rather than undertake a whole scale redevelopment.

I dont think it would make financial sense.

Waitrose are committed to the site and tenants have long-term leases.

In the meantime, Mr Durcan said LCP would be looking to install free wi-fi throughout the centre and promote the site more actively on social media.

Its little changes, just trying to incrementally make it a better destination for people to go to, he said.

The Kingsland Centre includes Waitrose as its anchor tenant and comprises 54,762 sq ft of retail space with 15 shops.

Mr Durcan said: With the final vacant retail unit let within the first week of purchase, our focus is now on enhancing the centre and developing the offices within the site.

Kingsland Centre has a wide range of national and independent retailers and is a popular destination for local shoppers.

Well be using our intensive asset management expertise to support Evolve Estates in ensuring that the centre delivers what customers want.
The Willink team's hoodies for mental health emerge overall winners of West Berkshire Young Enterprise Company final

A GROUP of aspiring entrepreneurs from The Willink School, Burghfield, were crowned overall winners of the West Berkshire final of Young Enterprise Company Programme last week.

The team of seven pupils were rewarded for their contemporary range of smart hoodies and T-shirts, which incorporated words promoting a greater understanding of mental health issues in teenagers and young adults.

The main design of the hoodies and T-shirts focused on an empowering word printed down the sleeve, such as power and energy, designed to motivate the wearer.

Young Enterprise (YE) is the largest business and enterprise education charity in the UK, helping 250,000 young people learn about business and the world of work in the classroom with a network of volunteers and companies.

Some 150 students, teachers and local businesspeople gathered at Arlington Arts, Snelsmore, for the final, which celebrated the talent of aspiring young businessmen and women across West Berkshire.

The Willink was joined by teams from St Bartholomews, Theale Green and St Gabriels schools and four from Downe House, with each showcasing the products from their companies, which were all self-launched in September.

A judging panel, led by Mike Farwell of accountant and business adviser group James Cowper Kreston, evaluated the presentations as the final part of a thorough review of each business and quizzed teams over their marketing and finance strategies.

Products on show included silver jewellery, tealight holders, coasters made from locally-sourced, environmentally-friendly materials, beanies and loungewear trousers, portable chargers and pamper boxes.

Team Montague, from St Gabriels, claimed a trio of awards, including Best Business Plan, Best Company Report and Best Presentation as they finished as runners-up.

St Bartholomews pupils from team DMND bagged the award for the best Trade Stand, while team Edge from Downe House claimed the Best Marketing prize.

Silva Deco, from Bartholomews, won the Most Innovative Product accolade for their sell pressed flower coasters, wooden tea light candle holders and glass potted cacti.

However, it was team Alto from The Willink which scored highest among the judges, winning the Dragons Den Award as well as being crowned the overall winners.

Jordan Curtis, 17, managing director of the company, believes the success of their hoodies to date will help overcome the stigma surrounding mental health.

He said: Attitudes will change because people in society will be more willing to speak up about this topic.

Its better to ask for help than to not say anything at all.

We feel we have done that successfully [through the hoodies] and will continue to do that.

Speaking generally about how they had benfitted from YE, Mr Curtis said: What we have is better negotiation and communication skills with suppliers, as well as the belief and passion to strive for what we believe in when others doubt what we are trying to achieve.

The team chose the name Alto because it means loud or height in Spanish  and they want all teenagers to feel alto when they wake up in the morning, despite any setbacks they may face in their day-to-day lives.

The guest speaker, Revium Group chief executive Warren Richmond, whose first experience of business was as a young student in Reading participating in the Young Enterprise at school.

Mr Richmond delivered an animated speech, recalling his experience of the scheme, telling students never to give up when things knock them back.

The chairman of Newbury and West Berkshire Young Enterprise Board, Burnie Owens, hailed the event as a positive and uplifting evening.

He said: It was great to see nine teams of young people using a high level of skill and determination to develop and market products.

I was also impressed that they were developing values in their companies, addressing areas such as mental health and sustainability.

I am sure that their introduction to business via Young Enterprise will stay with them a long time.

Teams Alto and Montague will now progress to the county finals, to be held on May 1.
The wait continues for the Shelton firefighter charged with setting fire to a load of cardboard boxes in his pickup truck and then riding down the highway with burning debris flying onto the road.

Tortora told us that we should have seen him driving down Howe Avenue with the rear of his truck bed on fire, Shelton Detective Richard Bango wrote in his affidavit. He stated that other drivers were pulling beside him beeping their horns.

Superior Court Judge Frank Iannotti continued the six charges against William Tortora, who appeared in the Milford courtroom Monday, until April 25. Tortora is the brother of Shelton Fire Marshal James Tortora.

In the meantime, Tortora, 57, remains in custody at the Bridgeport Community Correctional Center in lieu of $250,000 bond. He is represented by Assistant Public Defender Kenneth Bunker.

Tortora, dressed in prison khakis with a gray top scanned the courtroom looking for familiar faces. His brother did not attend.

State's Attorney Kevin Lawlor said the investigation is continuing.

Tortora, of Coram Road, Shelton and Gregory Bomba, 45, of Newtown, a former fire captain, both face charges of second-degree arson, second-degree reckless endangerment and second-degree criminal mischief as well as conspiracy charges on all of those counts.

Bomba, who is free on $100,000 bond, is scheduled to appear in Derby Superior Court April 2.

The charges stem from a Feb. 3 incident behind Echo Hose following a past captain's dinner.

The back of Echo Hose abuts the Pierpoint building and a parking lot often filled with cars.

Police began their investigation after being contacted by Fire Chief Francis Jones. Jones and Fire Captain Michael Plavcan provided police with surveillance videos showing Tortora and Bomba apparently setting discarded cardboard on fire. They also show Tortora allegedly videotaping the incident, according to the affidavit filed by Bango.

Police seized Tortoras and Bomba's cell phones and had Stratford police extract evidence.

Lawlor declined to comment on what investigators saw on some 18,000 photos removed from Tortora's seized cell phone.

One of the videos contains the voice of a man saying all these cars are going to burn, according to the affadavit.

Some of the video shows Bomba retrieving more cardboard boxes from inside Echo Hose and feeding the fire, according to Bango's affidavit.

Bango estimated the flames reached approximately five feet high.

He said Tortora can be seen allegedly taking burning boxes from the truck and throwing them around the parking lot.

One of the burning boxes landed underneath a Chevrolet Impala owned by the city of Shelton. It left burn marks on the front end.

When Tortora noticed the box on fire under the vehicle, he pulled it out and tried to step on the flames, Bango wrote.

More burn marks were found on the firehouses overhead door. The door damage is estimated at $450.

Volunteer Firefighter Tom DeMarco used a fire extinguisher on the burning boxes at the time.

Tortora, suspended from fire activities pending the investigation, met with Detective Sgt. Michael McPadden, Detective Chris Nugent and Bango at Echo Hose on Feb. 22 after he went to the station to remove his belongings.

Tortora told police he began drinking at 4 p.m. Feb. 3 and by the time of the fire was intoxicated.

Tortora stated he then drove onto Route 8 and sped up until the burning boxes flew out of his truck, Bangos affidavit reads.

Police photographed an oval burn mark spanning from one wheel well to the other on Tortoras 2013 Chevrolet Silverado after they spoke with him Feb. 22. They also determined the vehicle was unregistered, removed the plates and had it towed to his home.
Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Despite doing everything in his power to avoid appearing before government regulators, Mark Zuckerberg has reportedly decided it would be best if he just did the damn thing. CNN is reporting that the Facebook CEO is coming to grips with the fact that he will have to testify in the coming weeks, and that Zuckerbergs team is coming up with a strategy for his testimony.

The New York Times is reporting that Zuckerberg plans to testify at some point in April before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Zuckerberg has apparently also been summoned before the Senate Judiciary and Commerce Committees as well.

The news comes one day after the Federal Trade Commission confirmed that it was investigating whether or not Facebook violated a 2011 consent decree regarding how the company handles user data.

Facebook has long tried to keep the faces of its company, namely Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg, away from regulatory hearings. In particular, the optics of Zuckerberg raising his right hand and swearing to tell the truth could be damaging to the company on its own. That Zuckerberg is finally showing up is a sign that the company has been backed into a corner.
A new federal law will allow hundreds of Connecticut veterans with bad paper discharges to be eligible for long-term mental health care for the first time, and thus reduce their suicide risk.

U.S. Sen. Christopher Murphy, D-Conn., a co-sponsor of the law, said it will change the lives of veterans. The legislation was included in the federal budget signed last Friday by President Trump.

The new law affects veterans with an other than honorable discharge, a status increasingly given for minor offenses. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs usually denies benefits to veterans with OTH discharges, even though Congress stipulated in 1944 that only severe conduct that would lead to court martial and dishonorable discharges should disqualify veterans from basic VA care. Many veterans have maintained that their minor offenses were triggered by service-related mental health issues like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury.

Under the new law, veterans with OTH discharges who either served in combat areas, were victims of military sexual trauma, or operated drones are eligible for VA mental health and behavioral health care. The law also requires the Armed Forces to give mental health screenings to all military members with an OTH status.

High suicide rate

The suicide risk for veterans is 22 percent higher than of civilians, the VA reports. A VA study of veteran suicides in 2014 estimated that 49 Connecticut veterans committed suicide that year. Veterans who receive VA health care are less likely to kill themselves, according to the VA.

Murphy said the law will have an extensive reach nationally.

What we know is that there are tens of thousands of veterans who have bad paper discharges, who have been made ineligible for mental health services even though they have PTSD, he said. We have an epidemic of veterans suicide, and there is a much higher rate of suicide among veterans with PTSD and bad paper discharges.

Margaret Middleton, executive director of the Connecticut Veterans Legal Center, praised the law. We expect it to benefit our clients immediately, she said.

The center provides free legal services to mostly indigent veterans with mental health issues.

We have had hundreds of people with bad paper discharges come to us seeking help, usually because they want to access VA health care, she said, adding that the appeal process is incredibly onerous and not something were always able to win.

Middleton said the new law will enable these veterans to obtain VA mental health care without the help of a lawyer, which is how it should be.

She cited a client who received emergency mental health care at the VA after a suicide attempt. Because he had an OTH discharge, the VA sent him a bill for tens of thousands of dollars, she said.

Imagine you have a catastrophic mental health crisis, the VA sends you a massive bill and you cant continue to get care, she said. This veteran is exactly the kind of person who would have benefited from the new law. With her organizations help, his fees were waived.

Urging more help

Other Connecticut veterans advocates praised the legislation, and called for additional benefits to help bad paper veterans lead productive lives.

Stephen Kennedy of Fairfield, president of the Connecticut branch of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America said the law is a great step forward, but added that other help, such as education benefits and housing assistance, can allow these veterans to really complete their transition to civilian life.

Meghan Brooks, of the Yale Law School Veterans Legal Services Clinic, agreed, saying people with OTH discharges are still unable to access a wide variety of VA benefits.

IAVA-CT is urging approval of a bill in the state legislature that would give state veterans benefits to those with OTH discharges who have PTSD, TBI, or were victims of military sexual trauma. Such benefits include: services at the Connecticut Veterans Home and Hospital in Rocky Hill such as substance abuse treatment, transitional housing and long-term care; tuition waivers at state colleges; burial assistance; and property tax exemptions. The measure has passed the Veterans Affairs Committee and needs approval from the Senate and House.

Jonathan Cohen, of the Yale Law clinic, expressed hope that the new federal law will reduce the stigma surrounding veterans with bad paper discharges, who he said are often not regarded as true veterans. He said if the law enables them to be taken seriously as a population, it will likely have positive mental health effects on these veterans.

VA Secretary David Shulkin has initiated a policy that provides emergency mental health care for veterans with OTH for 90 days, a time limit Murphy has called arbitrary.
NEW MILFORD  The Town Council has declared null and void two documents that former Mayor David Gronbach cited in spending money from the Landfill Settlement Fund to help turn John Pettibone School into a community center without Board of Finance review.

All seven members present of the nine-member council agreed Monday night to accept the opinion of Town Attorney Matt Grimes, who said Gronbach had based his actions on unreasonable and misguided conclusions of law.

In justifying his spending $225,000 from the settlement fund on John Pettibone, Gronbach cited a 2017 letter from the town attorney at the time, and a white paper by former finance director Lee Palmer. Both reasoned that since the money came from settlement of a lawsuit against a waste hauling company, and not from taxpayer funds, the spending did not need Board of Finance approval.

Although the spending was approved by a 5-4 council vote, several members argued that finance board review was required, and the chairman of the town Republican committee filed a lawsuit accusing Gronbach, a Democrat, of misappropriating public funds.

Grimes said Gronbach violated the town charter and state statutes in acting as he did.

The Gronbach January 2017 letter and the Palmer White Paper are both legally flawed, Grimes wrote in his opinion.

Council members met in executive session Monday night to discuss the matter, and after returning to public session voted 7-0 to declare the white paper and the 2017 letter null and void. Councilmen Peter Mullen and Tom Esposito were absent.

Gronbach could not be reached Tuesday for comment.

Grimes said his opinion is meant to refer to future actions concerning the settlement fund, and he took no position on how the $225,000 already spent should be handled.

GOP Chairman Michael Barnes, who had filed the suit in his capacity as a town resident, said his aim was to make sure the town charter was followed and that the finance boards role in management of town funds is not diminished.

Im just hoping to get it resolved, he said. I just want to protect those entities. Its important to have checks and balances.

The settlement fund was established in the late 1990s after a long court battle with Waste Management Connecticut, which agreed to pay the town $43.1 million over 25 years. By ordinance, the money can be used to acquire land and buildings for education, libraries, open space and public recreation, and to buy development rights to farm and agricultural land. A limited portion can also be used to offset local taxes.

The crux of Grimes argument was that Gronbach mischaracterized New Milford as a consolidated town and city, which would mean that Town Council is in charge of appropriations. In fact, Grimes said, New Milford is an unconsolidated town, which means appropriations must be decided in a town meeting, which typically occurs after Board of Finance review.

This incorrect characterization is fatal to the Gronbach January 2017 letter because, when followed, it wrongly identifies New Milfords legislative body as Town Council, Grimes wrote.

Grimes also recommends the mayors office and Board of Finance rule these documents null and void.
HARTFORD  Now that Supreme Court Justice Andrew McDonald is out, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has five days to advance a new nominee for chief justice, according to state statute.

Malloy did not have a second choice for the top judicial spot, he said in a Capitol news conference right after the Senate vote Tuesday. He will be giving a new nominee some thought over the coming days, he said.

If he does not issue a new nomination, the senior-most Supreme Court judge who is willing to assume the responsibilities of chief justice, would temporarily fill the role, Malloy said.

Senate Republican Leader Len Fasano of North Haven said Monday his caucus would like to see Supreme Court Justice Richard A. Robinson get the job.

I think Judge Robinson is an excellent choice, he said. His decisions come from his heart and soul.

Fasano repeatedly mentioned Robinsons name as a possible choice for the post speaking to reporters Tuesday after the Senate vote.

Malloy nominated Robinson, 60, to the Supreme Court in 2013. He was first appointed as a judge by Republican Governor John Rowland in 2000.

Born in Stamford, Robinson graduated from the University of Connecticut before getting his law degree from West Virginia School of Law. He was staff counsel for the City of Stamford Law Department and Stamford Assistant Corporation Counsel before joining the Judicial Branch.

A black man, he has held leadership roles in the Connecticut NAACP and the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities.

Robinson declined to comment Tuesday.

Malloy does not need to nominate a Supreme Court judge for chief justice. He could look to lower courts or even choose a lawyer, said Leslie Levin, Joel Barlow Professor of Law at the UConn Law School.

Malloys choice would not need to be vetted by the Judicial Selection Committee if he selects a current Supreme Court judge, state statute says.

My guess is particularly giving the claim that Associate Justice McDonald was not experienced enough, he would look to someone on the Supreme Court, Levin said.
TRUMBULL  Trumbull High School brought home a top honor at the 21st Penn Model Congress competition, a first for the team which formed only four years ago.

Trumbulls Model Congress team has been attending the University of Pennsylvania Model Congress competition since spring 2015. But this year, competing against more than 700 students from around the country, the team was honored with the Best Small Delegation Award, along with several individual awards for students.

The award is for school groups of fewer than 18 students.

It was honestly amazing. I've never been more proud of a group of students, said Katie Boland, the teams adviser and a social studies teacher at Trumbull High. Just seeing the poise and the confidence and the conviction of the students was amazing all weekend long. And they really came together as a group.

The 14 members of the team acted as United States lawmakers, writing bills that would be presented in congressional committees before the competition and debating bills on a variety of economic, political and social issues including law enforcement accountability, campaign finance reform and giving convicted felons the right to vote.

Scoring was based on both team and individual work, with extra points given for student-created legislation that passed in the congress.

Winning the team award was truly a team effort, Boland said. We needed all 14 students putting 100 percent effort into each and every committee session and they did that and more.

Participants prepared for weeks before the competition, meeting after school to practice before heading to University of Pennsylvania last week weekend.

I always like to say that there are very few ways kids or teenagers who can exercise their civic duty before they turn 18, but this program is very unique because we can do just that, said co-president Derek Marble, who turned 18 on the day the team was honored with the award.

The program started at Trumbull High in spring 2014, and the team has attended conferences at universities including Yale, Columbia and Harvard.

Boland said she started Model Congress at the school partly to be a feeder program into Trumbull Highs We the People team, which is only open to seniors in the Advanced Placement U.S. Government/Constitutional Studies class.

Eighth-grade students also have the opportunity to be involved with We the People, and Boland said she hoped Model Congress would help bridge the gap.

Senior and Model Congress co-president Ethan Bachand has been part of the club since his freshman year, and said it was special to watch the club grow over the years.

This club has definitely been the most rewarding part of high school, Bachand said. We get to meet with some of the smartest kids across the nation and we get to make the changes we want to see in the world. We get to be part of the legislative process.

Members of the winning Model Congress team were seniors Bachand, Marble, Shane Carley, Mimi Marino, Jessica Parillo, Laura Rosales, Alev Yorulmaz, Larry Zhang, juniors Kyle Beck, Michael Cerulli, Daniella Chuka, James Dubreuil, Manan Manchanda, and freshman Supriya Ganti.
Following are some of the scholarship funds currently accepting applications from students in Greater New Milford this year.

Washington Environmental Council scholarship -- the Ken Williams Memorial Scholarship: Deadline: April 13. Grants of up to $1,000 to middle, high school and college students who live in Washington, Roxbury and Bridgewater, provided they attend or attended school in Washington, and who would like to attend environmentally oriented programs during the summer. Washington residents will have preference, but all other application factors will be equal. For more information, visit www.wec-ct.org/scholarships.

Washington Environmental Council scholarship -- Mary Anne Erichsen Memorial Scholarship: Deadline: April 13. Grants of up to $2,000 available to students from Washington, Roxbury or Bridgewater who are in sound scholastic standing, provided the student attended or has attended high school in Washington, and are interested in pursuing environmental studies in college. Residents of Washington will have preference, all other application factors being equal. Applications available at www.wec-ct.org/scholarships.

New Milford Rotary Club Scholarship: Deadline: April 15. Open to high school seniors in good standing who are residents of New Milford of Sherman, who have excelled in the area of community volunteer activities as well as academic achievement and involvement in extracurricular activities. Specific dates and descriptions of community service activities are recommended. Applications must be printed legibly or typed. Applications at high school. Application and supporting materials must be submitted by April 15 to New Milford Rotary Club, P.O. Box 161, New Milford, CT 06776.

New Milford Rotary Clubs Jim Faure Scholarship: Deadline: April 15. Open to students who have a strong record in volunteer service and who may plan on attending a two year college or a vocational or trade school. Specific dates and descriptions of community service activities are recommended. Applications must be printed legibly or typed. General Rotary Club scholarship forms may used to apply for this scholarship and are available at high school. Application and supporting materials must be submitted by April 15 to New Milford Rotary Club, P.O. Box 161, New Milford, CT 06776.

Roxbury scholarships: Deadline: April 22. Open to those who are Roxbury residents at time of award ceremony, and accepted into an undergraduate or graduate program at an accredited two- or four-year college, university or state approved school for trade instruction or special occupational training that offers a degree or certification. Part-time students with extenuating circumstances will be considered. Applications available at town hall, Minor Memorial Library, the guidance office at SVS and online at www.roxburyscholarshipfoundation.com. For more information, email roxburyscholarshipfoundation@gmail.com. Applications must be returned to Roxbury Scholarship Foundation, P.O. Box 106, Roxbury, CT 06783.

Gaylordsville Historical Societys Alan S. Farnham Memorial Scholarship: Deadline: May 1. A $500 scholarship is open to a graduating senior who lives within the Gaylordsville fire district. Scholarship is in memory of Alan S. Farnham. Lt. Farnham, who attended the one-room schoolhouse in Gaylordsville and died in combat in Vietnam. Applications are available at New Milford High School, Henry Abbott Tech and Nonnewaug.
Jackson Mittelman and Tommy Murray stood on Saturdays biggest stage, in Washington, and recalled being in lockdown in sixth grade on Dec. 14, 2012.

That was the day a gunman entered Sandy Hook Elementary School and killed 20 children and six adult staff members with a Bushmaster AR-15 variant, before killing himself.

It was one of the worst days of my life, said Murray, whose mother, Po Murray, is the chairwoman of the Newtown Action Alliance. Murray and Mittelman, who are co-chairmen of the Junior Newtown Action Alliance, and their classmates from Newtown High School carried a message of solidarity to D.C. for their counterparts at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

After Parkland, we feel hope, Mittelman said, as he and others presented a banner Saturday to students from that Florida town, where grief from a school shooting has galvanized into youth activism. After the media trucks leave, we will stand by you.

Along with hundreds of thousands, the students came together in D.C. in a call for action dubbed the March for Our Lives.

The banner read: Newtown High School stands with Stoneman Douglas, and featured the image of a red ribbon.

We hope our message from Newtown High School will help you through your darkest days, Mittelman said to the Parkland students.

Student survivors of the Feb. 14 mass shooting that took 17 lives at the Florida high school were the primary speakers and motivators at the D.C. rally, one of hundreds that took place across the nation Saturday, including events in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, Dallas, Atlanta and Parkland.

Rallies took place in numerous cities in Connecticut as well, including Hartford, Stamford and Guilford.

In Hartford, the proximity to Newtown was not lost on those who spoke during a two-hour rally or the crowds that marched to the Capitol buildings steps.

New Milford High School senior Shealyn Baumgarner, who marched with junior Thomas King, said her schools closeness to Sandy Hook was one of the reasons she was spurred to action after Parkland.

Being one town over from Newtown, it hits really hard, Baumgarner said.

As they marched, King held a sign that read, We march because they cant, with an arrow pointing to Baumgarners sign, which had a long list of the names of those lost in recent mass shootings.

The students said they have been disturbed by incidents at their own high school. Earlier this month, two students were arrested at New Milford High School, one for a small fire set in a bathroom and another for threatening a teacher.

When asked what they hoped would come from the march, King replied simply, Something, just about anything. Nothing has been done for far too long.

In D.C., young people from Chicago, Washington, Los Angeles and elsewhere also stepped to the podium, recounting lives in turmoil after acts of gun violence.

If you listen real close, you can hear the people in power shaking, said David Hogg, a Stoneman Douglas student. Were going to make this a voting issue. We will get rid of these public servants that only serve the gun lobby. And we will save lives.

Newtowners speak out

The demonstration in Washington appeared likely to draw 500,000 participants  a massive outpouring by D.C. standards.

Sandy Hook was not the nations first mass shooting at a school. But it has stuck in the nations collective consciousness because the 20 childhood victims were ages 6 and 7. Similarly, the Stoneman Douglas shooting stimulated a movement among teenagers that is widely seen as rejuvenating the push for greater regulation and restriction of guns.

The Newtown group chartered eight buses that left before dawn and arrived in downtown Washington just in time for the noon rally on the Mall, four blocks west of the U.S. Capitol.

Virtually all of the speakers were high school students whose calls for action were punctuated by performances of stars including Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato and Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Inaction by Congress was a common theme, even though the just-passed Omnibus spending bill included Fix NICS, co-authored by Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and language clarifying authority for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to conduct research on gun violence.

Together, our stories will create the change we need, Tommy Murray told the cheering crowd, which chanted never again, never again.

If these shootings can happen in Parkland and Newtown, they can happen anywhere, he said.

Sandy Hook Promise co-founder Nicole Hockley, whose son, Dylan, was killed in the 2012 shooting, reflected on how far the movement for more gun control has come since then.

Im just excited that all these people are here, Hockley said. We havent had a march like this for this issue. Its good to know so many people are here demanding change.

Hockley noted a sea change in the wake of the Stoneman Douglas High shooting.

Sandy Hook started this (movement) and its been growing ever since, but now the kids are raising their voices, she said.

Speaking to a crowd of hundreds in Hartford, Erica Lafferty, whose mother, Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung, was Sandy Hook Elementary Schools principal and was killed in the 2012 shooting there, also noted after the Florida shooting, things are different.

Citing the changing weapon-sales policies of retail outlets such as Dicks Sporting Goods, Lafferty said, CEOs are changing their policies, and that didnt happen when I was thrown into this movement five years ago. The tide is changing. The best advice I have for you is to keep going.

Counter-demonstraters also take stand

The National Rifle Association was mostly silent leading up to Saturdays rallies. But there were some counter-demonstrators in Washington. A group of people wearing military-style camouflage and calling themselves the Patriot Picket stood about a block from the main demonstration, holding signs that said, among other things, good guys with guns stand by you.

No matter what you want to do, American freedoms are not the enemy, said Jeff Hulbert, founder of the group based in Annapolis, Md., that brought about 45 people. The groups website says it mounts protests to counter anti-gun demonstrators. Looney lefties everywhere, said a posting on its Facebook page Saturday.

Since the Florida shooting, President Donald Trump and Republicans on Capitol Hill have called for greater focus on mental health and early pinpointing of troubled students. And they coalesced with Democrats around Fix NICS.

But Murphy and other Democrats have insisted tougher restrictions on guns must be part of any effort to reduce gun violence. At a meeting with lawmakers from both parties last month, Trump appeared to embrace much of the Democratic agenda, only to back off after a subsequent meeting with NRA leaders.

Votes for change

Another speaker in Hartford was one of the organizers of that march, University of Bridgeport student Tyler Suarez.

School safety should not be a political issue, Suarez said. There is not a left school or a right school. These are our children, these are our siblings, these are our friends.

Greenwich High School Roots and Shoots Club President Rene Jameson, 18, was one of the many in Stamfords Mill River Park.

Im so excited to see youth engagement, Jameson said. Im hoping GHS students and Roots and Shoots remember civil disobedience doesnt need to be convenient.

We shouldnt be afraid of the consequences, she said. We need to address these issues.

Jameson said the comment on convenience was a criticism of her high schools decision to hold a nonpartisan, scheduled rally in the Student Center with speakers from student government earlier this month on the day that students across the nation held walkouts to protest gun violence.

Theres been a lot of mixed reactions about what GHS did, she said. Instead of a walkout, administration got involved. ... It was put in the schedule.

Its not supposed to be convenient, Jameson said. I appreciate their efforts but it wasnt enough. We need continued action. We will be doing more.

In Guilford, state Sen. Ted Kennedy Jr., D-Branford, said as someone who had two uncles killed by gunfire in broad daylight  and whose family has had to relive the tragedies through news clips and the Zapruder film  he was never prouder than Saturday to be a member of the shoreline community, because of the strength of the outpouring on the town green.

Kennedy said last year the NRA gave $38 million to politicians, but Saturdays show of solidarity on the gun control issue sent a far more powerful message.

We are going to make a meaningful change, he said.
One fashion designer is packing her bags en route to Paris Ecole Duperre, for an exchange programme.

Alice Among, a finalist at Records Fashion School in Katwe, was announced the lucky winner at an event held at the French ambassadors residence in Kololo last week.

It was Fashion day of the annual France-Uganda Friendship week organized by the embassy in Uganda. The night was the climax of a week of workshops facilitated by Paris-based Ugandan fashion designer Stella Atal at the school.

The workshop focused on sharing techniques between a team of students from the French fashion school and their Ugandan counterparts. The French students had to learn to use the manual sewing machines instead of the electric ones they were used to.

They were also excited by the fact that in Uganda one can find pretty much everything they need in one place: Kiyembe Lane.

Jordanne Green was excited by the kikoyi and bark cloth they eventually got to work with using their own techniques and those by the Ugandans.

Another student, Luce Rouyrre, told The Observer the trip had opened her eyes to many possibilities including collaborations with more schools and finding ways of pushing bark cloth to more European markets because the world is looking for more eco-friendly materials to work with.

The event put together by Talent Africa was a climax of the exchange programe where the students from Records Fashion School presented outfits made during the workshops to a jury.

Who is Alice Among?

Among, who graduated on Friday, has been at it for years. In 2003, she graduated from Katakwi Technical School with a certificate in tailoring.

With no money to upgrade, she got a job assisting a sweater/school uniform maker who taught her more skills while helping her save. As luck would have it, she discovered the fashion school in Katwe while helping with her sisters wedding.

Her (sisters) amazing gown and changing dresses were made by the Katwe students. A year later, she enrolled at the school. Upon returning from France, Among hopes to find an established fashion house she can work with as an apprentice before starting her own design house.

barangasam@gmail.com
Mental health symptoms related to attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and conduct disorder are associated with increased errors in a driving simulator and self-reported risky driving behaviors in adolescents, according to study in Nursing Research, published by Wolters Kluwer.

"Inattention is associated with more errors in the driving simulator, and self-reported symptoms of hyperactivity and conduct disorder are independently associated with self-reported risky driving behaviors," comments lead author Catherine C. McDonald, PhD, RN, FAAN, of the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and the Center for Injury Research and Prevention at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. The findings suggest that mental health issues might contribute to the risk of crashes in newly licensed adolescent drivers.

Symptoms of ADHD and Conduct Disorder Affect Teens' Driving Performance

The study included 60 young drivers, aged 16 to 17, who had received their license within the past 90 days. The teens were tested using a high-fidelity driving simulator, which assessed their responses to various types of common but avoidable crash scenarios. They also completed a self-report questionnaire on risky driving behaviors--for example, speeding, not wearing a seat belt, or nighttime driving with other teens as passengers.

The adolescents were also assessed on a measure of mental health symptoms, focusing on three conditions potentially associated with risky driving: ADHD, conduct disorder, and depression. Lastly, parents filled out a questionnaire about their teens' mental health.

A teen's self-report of inattention was the only mental health symptom to be related to errors on the driving simulator assessment. The higher the score for inattention, as rated by the teens themselves, the higher the rate of driving performance errors. Unexpectedly, teens with higher scores for depression symptoms made fewer errors in the simulator.

Teens with higher self-rated scores for hyperactivity/impulsivity and conduct disorder also scored higher for risky driving behaviors. Overall, parents' reports of the adolescents' mental health symptoms were not related to the teens' self-reported symptoms or their risky driving behaviors (self-reported or in the simulator).

The researchers emphasize that it was symptoms of hyperactivity and impulsivity--not necessarily the diagnosis of ADHD--that were associated with risky driving behaviors. However, teens who met the cutoff points for clinical follow-up for ADHD and conduct disorder had higher scores for risky driving.

Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death in adolescents, but little is known about the mental health factors affecting crash risk. Mental health may be especially important for newly licensed teen drivers, who are at higher risk of crashes. The new study suggests that risky driving behaviors during this time might be related to symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, and conduct disorder.

The increase in self-reported risky driving behavior is consistent with the mental health symptoms involved, according to the work of Dr. McDonald and colleagues. "With hyperactivity-impulsivity, rule violations may stem from inherent problems with self-control," they write. "With conduct disorder, rule violations may be an attempt to take advantage of a situation or express hostility."

Understanding the role of mental health factors might help in reducing risky driving behaviors in novice teen drivers, with the goal of lowering crash risk in this vulnerable population. Dr. McDonald and coauthors conclude, "Nurses are well-positioned in a variety of clinical settings to counsel adolescents, addressing the multidimensional nature of risks associated with mental health and risk behaviors."
Luxendo, a Bruker company, today announced the extension of the InVi SPIM microscope to include full incubation capabilities, as well as flexible illumination and detection optics. Luxendos proprietary single-plane illumination microscopy (SPIM) technique significantly reduces sampling times over conventional laser scanning confocal microscopes, while reducing phototoxicity and damaging side effects on living specimens.

The new technology also enables the fastest scan speeds for volumetric imaging of small organisms, cell monolayers, and cleared tissue. InVi SPIM combines these capabilities with perfect environmental conditions and gentle sample handling to create an optimized platform for pure life imaging.

We have been using the InVi SPIM light-sheet microscope to image breast tumor organoids derived from primary mammary epithelial cells" said Dr. Martin Jechlinger, Group Leader for the Cell Biology and Biophysics Unit, EMBL Heidelberg, Germany, and EMBL Rome.

Ease of mounting the sample has allowed us to acquire fantastic images of tumor progression and regression on the InVi. Now, with its full incubation functionality and its improved illumination and detection concept, we can run long-term experiments on tumorigenesis that are not feasible on any other microscope system.

In live-cell imaging, the effect of photons to the specimen can have a big impact on the cells viability and unabridged development, said Dr. Andreas Pfuhl, Managing Director of Luxendo. With the inverted InVi SPIM platform combining precise environmental control with highly flexible optical settings, we can ensure that the observation method is not interfering with the cells physiological behavior.

The InVi SPIMs successful handling of extremely sensitive specimens, such as embryonic cells during their first divisions, has been proven in recent publications (Strnad et al., Nature Methods 2015; Reichmann et al., Science 2018). Other samples, such as tumor spheroids, organoids, and all kinds of culture cell lines, can now be imaged with more than 80 frames per second in full frame 2048 x 2048-pixel resolution up to 500 frames per second in 192 x 2048 resolution.

About InVi SPIM

The InVi SPIM microscope enables fast 3D imaging with extremely gentle sample handling for cell cultures and developing embryonic samples. Easy access to the sample chamber, maximized photo-efficiency, and short illumination times enable long-term imaging without harming live specimens. Simultaneous dual-channel detection allows the observation of multiple fluorophores without compromising acquisition speed. At the same time, the light-sheet length and thickness can be adapted to the two available magnification steps. While the specimen is kept in a specific sample carrier that serves as a curved coverslip, the environmental control is thoroughly monitored and adjusted for humidity, temperature, carbon dioxide and oxygen concentration. This stabilizes the experimental conditions in cellular imaging in such a way that observation times for up to 72 hours can be achieved.
Dr. Andrew Alexander Senior Scientific Officer Zoono, USA

An interview with Dr. Andrew Alexander, Ph.D, conducted by Kate Anderton, B.Sc

What are the most common disease-causing pathogens encountered by humans? Where do these pathogens reside in the environment?

The biggest disease-causing pathogens are cold and flu, which are spread through respiratory secretions when someone sneezes, and contaminated environments. The questions for contaminated environments are; how do we keep the surface clean? And, how do we prevent individuals from touching a surface and then their faces including their mouths?

Credit: nata-lunata/Shutterstock.com

Other infectious diseases that are commonly spread are GI related diseases caused by norovirus and rotavirus. This disease can spread rapidly through a cruise ship, on a plane, or even in a school with devastating consequences. Major sources of disease-causing pathogens are public restrooms and restaurants with poor hygiene. These are all vectors for disease transmission.

What are the current hand hygiene recommendations for healthcare professionals?

In the United States, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) sets very strict guidelines on hand hygiene that have been used for years. They recommend that healthcare professionals (HCPs) wash their hands before and after eating, using the restroom, and between patients.

In events where HCPs have no access to soap and water, they are instructed to use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that is at least 60% ethanol. Ethanol-based sanitizers are the gold standard for hand hygiene, according to the CDC. Whilst its a very effective product, it is not without its faults as it leaves the hands clean but loses effectivity the second it dries.

Healthcare workers are doing the best that they can, but they're limited by technology, and what the FDA thought would be doing in a normal day, and how many times they would be cleaning their hands, differs drastically from reality. As a result, some of the original products contain such strong antimicrobials in them and are so often used by healthcare workers that they were being absorbed into the body.

The other issue that we've encountered is healthcare workers using hand sanitizer at such a level that they dry out their hands, making the skin barrier more susceptible to infection, since the surface is damaged, which in turn means healthcare workers do not follow standard protocols because their hands hurt.

Do you think that the current recommendations are outdated?

Hand hygiene is widely recognized as the single largest variable in the spread of infection, but recommended strategies for hand hygiene have remained largely unchanged for the past decade.

The recommended strategies are not only outdated, but are also limited by a lack of up-to-date technology. Part of my job is to introduce better products/better substances that are kinder on the skin, safer and allow the hands to stay cleaner for longer. The added advantage of this is that it makes people more likely to use them, more frequently.

It's estimated that 80% of diseases and illnesses in humans are transmitted by the hands. If there's a way to clean hands and maintain cleanliness so that the minute the hands meet a contaminated surface they dont have to be washed again, that would be a major step forward.

Most of the products used in hospitals and medical centers contain Chlorohexidine. These products are very good at killing bacteria on the hands, but are also very damaging to the skin barrier. Products like this are also often expensive and have recently been linked to allergies. So, its imperative for healthcare workers to use a product that can clean hands and afford some residual protection, that also encourages compliance and routine use that protects others.

Are there any new technologies available that could address the issue of hand hygiene and reduce infection rates?

There's some novel antimicrobials on the market. One in particular is Zoono's GermFree24, a unique hand sanitizer that imparts a protective barrier onhands and has passed the many disinfection and sanitizing assays required of hand sanitizers in the US.

We can clean our hands with Zoono, grab a dirty doorknob 15 minutes later, and our hands will still be protected. We have demonstrated this through many studies in schools and hospitals and found that it reduces the pathogen load in the environment. We believe this kind of persistent hygiene has several benefits over just asking someone to wash their hands, or use hand sanitizer up to 15-20 times a day.

The mode of action for alcohol-based hand sanitizers is for the ethanol to dehydrate the microbe and kill it. Once the ethanol dries, our hands are completely susceptible to the next assault. With Zoono's GermFree24, the population is less likely to contract germs that can make them sick, which are commonly picked up and transferred by hands.

Credit: nata-lunata/Shutterstock.com

A major contributing factor to the recent rise in Healthcare Associated Infections (HAI) is hand hygiene. Are there any changes that could be made to improve HAI rates?

The level of hospital-acquired infections (HAI) has seen a gradual decrease, but people are still getting sick and often, HAIs are fatal.

A pressing issue in the United States is that the way that insurance companies reimburse hospitals depends on the level of HAIs in that particular hospital. This means that the hospital may not get paid, or could be penalized, if their level of HAIs are higher than what the CDC deems normal.

This may or may not be fair, but it means that HAIs are of high awareness for hospitals. This is of importance as the level of HAIs are now public records, so people can go online and compare hospitals levels of infections. There is; therefore, a great focus to implement innovative technology into hospitals that will minimize this, as patient safety is a number one priority.

Many hospitals across the US have introduced ultraviolet lights in rooms to sanitize them, but this is expensive, with each light costing $80,000. Therefore, less costly measures need to be considered.

Is there any correlation between high hand hygiene compliance and better patient outcomes?

There is a correlation between high hand hygiene compliance and patient outcomes.There are a lot of published studies on what hand hygiene compliance means. Some estimate that with a properly executed hand hygiene program we could decrease human illness that is pathogen-related by 50 percent.

The challenge though is that compliance is measuring how we use current products, which would be hand washing with soap, surgical scrubs for the surgical suite, and alcohol-based hand sanitizers in the hospital setting. So even in the best scenarios and by the best estimates, that would only decrease it by 50 percent.

Falters in hospital compliance can be linked to what level of importance a hospital puts on compliance. Is it routinely front and center so everyone knows why it's important? Is it monitored once a month? Following breakdowns do they re-educate people on how to do it? How trained are the personnel responsible for it? If there's high personnel turnover, then there's a learning curve, which can open some deficits in the process.

The key metric used by healthcare professionals to monitor hand hygiene is compliance. Do you think that compliance with the current hand hygiene protocols is still the most effective way to evaluate hand hygiene?

What we should be doing is assessing what we think are best practices, and what products we're using. Studies have shown examples of products being applied correctly by staff yet Staphylococcus Aureus could still be cultured on surfaces.

It is important to use products that offer sustained cleanliness or hygiene so that in the event of a minor breakdown in the process, a second protective layer prevents the surface from supporting bacterial growth. It's become so rampant now that in the US they've limited children coming into hospitals to visit patients during periods when infection rates are highest including during cold and flu season to reduce the risk and spread of germs and viruses. Even though the CDC has very strict guidelines on compliance, and very strict guidelines on products to use, they still know that the level of disease transmission and HAIs is too high.

What are the current barriers to compliance? Are the current barriers to compliance being addressed?

Theres a financial implication for healthcare reimbursement, and a social perception of the cleanliness of hospital Hospitals are doing everything they can within their current understanding of best practice, but it is still not enough. Every time I've been to the doctor or the hospital with my children, the doctors wash their hands before and after, and they apply hand sanitizer before they pick up anything. But even then, infection rates for that hospital are still high.

Compliance is more of a policy issue that an institution puts in place, and they take the best practices that the World Health Organization or the CDC is putting out. We should be asking what can we do to make sure that we provide long-lasting protection, and that we give offer some level of sustained hygiene. This product will likely not be an alcohol-based product or involve washing hands more often.

Clean Hands Count Play

Which is more important, changing behavior towards hand hygiene or changing our environment to reduce the spread of infection?

Since changing behaviors is the hardest of any equation, receiving wide acceptance of a better technology that keeps hands cleaner would be the best solution. It is necessary to use products on hands and surfaces that retard pathogen growth in between cleaning and provide some residual activity. Then, when compliance has breakdowns, the risk of disease transmission and the probability that we are going to get sick reduces drastically.

We all expected high-powered chemical cleaners and UV sanitized rooms to bring the level of pathogen load in a room practically down to zero, which were just not seeing, so there needs to be a next logical step.

First, we need to get surfaces as clean as possible, using a technology such as Zoono that imparts some residual activity to keep that surface and our hands cleaner. Being a microbiologist, having witnessed a huge push in the last decade for surfaces that contain silver, copper, or surfaces that prevent bacteria from re-growing on them, the industry knows better technologies are needed.

What do you think is the best way to ensure hands are consistently in an elevated state of hygiene?

Firstly, for the healthcare community and consumers need to learn about solutions that are gentle on the skin and afford protection against environmental pathogens. Products that include some strong chemical ingredients and cause sensitization need to be halted. We need acceptance of products such as Zoonos hand and surface protectants that provide a protective barrier but also moisturize the hands, with ingredients that are non-toxic and safe to use for all including children.

Where can readers find more information?

About Dr. Andrew Alexander

Dr. Andrew Alexander is a Senior Scientific Officer for Zoono, USA. He is a trusted professional with over 25 years experience in the pharmaceutical, biotech, veterinary, and medical device development and the development, testing, and commercialization of life science products. Currently, Dr. Alexander is focused on developing novel antimicrobial products for the human and veterinary markets.

Dr. Alexander holds degrees in Veterinary Medicine and Surgery, a Ph.D. in Biomolecular Science, and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Oncology and Immunology.

He also holds an MBA from the University of Wisconsin and is a Diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology (DABT), and a member of Beta Gamma Sigma, International Honor Society for Business Scholars.
Metrohm USA is proud to partner with the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) and host a webinar describing the USP monograph modernization program and the impact of this program for analytical instruments in pharmaceutical laboratories.

Many USP monographs are decades old and do not reflect recent innovations and technology updates. These innovations coupled with new instrumentation make laboratory analysis more efficient, cost-effective and safe. With this in mind, the USP has embarked on a global initiative to modernize many monographs across all compendia with a clear goal of replacing them with selective and sensitive methodologies.

Metrohm USA invites scientists to attend this educational webinar where Dr. Leonel Santos, Director of Chemical Medicines at USP, will provide an overview of the USP monograph modernization program. Dr. Michael Chang, Scientific Liaison Officer, will present an example of a successful modernization project where over-the-counter (OTC) products were analyzed for the quantification of zinc (USP 591) with selective Ion Chromatography (IC) methods.

Dr. Hari Narayanan of Metrohm USA will also provide a concluding overview of common chemical analysis techniques, their selectivity and sensitivity and share example case studies of their implementation.

This complimentary webinar will take place on April 12th at 11 am EDT. To register, visit the Metrohm USA webinar events page (URL: https://www.metrohm.com/en-us/support-and-service/webinar-center/) or the registration page for the event.
Auction house Christie's has announced the upcoming sale of an Aston Martin owned by British actor Daniel Craig -- the current James Bond. The car will go under the hammer at The Exceptional Sale, held at the Rockefeller Center, New York, Friday, April 20, 2018.

The actor's personal, limited edition 2014 Aston Martin Vanquish Centenary Edition is set to go under the hammer in New York. All proceeds will benefit The Opportunity Network, a non-profit organization that provides young people with pathways to career development.

The car, made for Daniel Craig by Aston Martin and numbered 007, is estimated to fetch $400,000 to $600,000. Aston Martin created just 100 Centenary Edition Vanquish models to celebrate the firm's 100th anniversary. Designed and hand built in England, this Aston Martin Vanquish has a powerful V12 petrol engine and an automatic gearbox. It has a top speed of 183mph. The car's bespoke exterior and interior reflect Daniel Craig's preference for denim and dark colors with its unique midnight-blue exterior and deep blue, hand-stitched, luxury leather interior.

Launched in London in 2008, The Exceptional Sale is a series of selective and tightly curated auctions of decorative arts masterpieces and significant cultural icons.

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Dr LIVINGSTONE SEWANYANA, the executive director of Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI), has welcomed his appointment by the United Nations Human Rights Council as the Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order, writes Baker Batte Lule.

On Monday afternoon, I met Sewanyana at his Nsambya-based offices. He exuded great confidence and, without any hesitation, said his appointment is a pat on the back for the role he has been playing over the years as a human rights advocate.

Livingstone Ssewanyana has been appointed as an expert on United Nations Human Rights Council

I have been in this struggle since my university days at Makerere University; I welcome this opportunity that Im very hopeful Im going to use to contribute to the new world order, Sewanyana said. Its recognition of the wealth of experience I have obtained over the last almost 30 years,

The 37th session of the UN Human Rights Council under the presidency of Slovenias Vojislav Suc, unanimously approved at least seven of the nine special procedures mandate holders. Suc called upon all states to cooperate with the newly appointed mandate holders in the implementation of their mandates.

Independent United Nations Experts of the Human Rights Council are appointed through a competitive and transparent process which involves an online written application, in response to a call for candidature issued by the secretariat.

Among those who apply, a few are shortlisted who are then interviewed by telephone by the Consultative Group [CG] composed of five ambassadors nominated by each of the five regional groups. The CG then makes recommendations to the president of the Human Rights Council through its public report. It is from these that the president of the Human Rights Council selects one candidate who he forwards to the Human Rights Council composed of member states who confirm the appointment.

According to the Human Rights Council resolution 5/1 of June 18, 2007, expertise, experience in the field of the mandate, independence, impartiality, personal integrity, objectivity, due consideration to gender balance, equitable geographic representation and appropriate representation of different legal systems are some of the criteria followed while nominating and selecting candidates.

The Consultative Group that selected Sewanyana was chaired by the permanent representative of Mauritius. According to the groups report, eight candidates were eligible for the vacancy.

Of the five candidates interviewed, the Consultative Group decided to recommend three candidates as the best qualified to fulfill the mandate, the report reads in part.

The three were Ugandas Livingstone Sewanyana who emerged as the most rated candidate, Ibrahim Aljazy, from Jordan came second while the third was Spains Carlos Villan Duran.

Other contestants were from Italy, Bangladesh, Egypt, Albania and United Kingdom.

According to the report of the Consultative Group, Sewanyana, a human rights lawyer and advocate of the High Court of Uganda has provided leadership and expertise to several organizations including Penal Reform International, Defend Defenders and the Citizens Coalition for Electoral Democracy in Uganda and engaged with United Nations human rights mechanisms which has given him an in-depth understanding of the dynamics of international processes.

It [Consultative Group]also noted with interest the candidates understanding and thoughtful approach to the mandate also linking it with the candidates legal findings on national elections in the advancement of democratic processes, the report notes. Sewanyanas role will be to visit countries that have been earmarked by the Human Rights Council to assess the progress of the UN development goals on how countries are fulfilling the needs of their citizens in terms of health care, model of democracy, education among other social indicators.

He is expected to at least spend three months a year undertaking this role and present a yearly report to the UN Human Rights Council on the progress of democracy in the 197 UN member states.

bakerbatte@observer.ug
At Bangkok Motor Show 2018 Japanese Automaker Toyota has unveiled the TRD variant of Toyota Yaris Ativ. The car will be launched in India next month by the name of Toyota Yaris. The Toyota Yaris TRD is developed by Toyota Racing Development and gets a number of sporty body parts for a more dynamic styling. At the front, the Toyota Yaris TRD variant gets underbody spoilers with red accents and thicker fog lamps that surrounds the front. At the rear end, the car gets black bumper valance and black trunk lid spoiler. Surprisingly, the car gets the same alloy wheels as on the regular model but the side skirts provide the car a more aggressive stance.

Toyota Yaris Ativ TRD variant. (Image: Paultan)

The Toyota Yaris Ativ TRD variant is powered by 3NR-FE 1.2-litre Dual VVT-i engine that produces 86 PS at 6,000 rpm and 108 Nm of torque at 4,000 rpm. The four-cylinder petrol engine comes mated to continuously variable transmission (CVT).

As per various reports on the internet, Toyota will sell limited units of the Toyota Yaris Ativ TRD with the same specs as unveiled at Bangkok Motor Show 2018. Currently, in India, Toyota sells TRD sportive edition of its most-selling full-grown SUV Fortuner in India. It is expected that during the launch of Yaris sedan in India, Toyota will also introduce TRD variant in India with different specifications.

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New Delhi: Talks between ride-hailing rivals Ola and Uber for a potential merger of their Indian units is gathering steam. According to sources, a deal between the two is being brokered by Japanese investment giant Softbank, Business Standard reported.

Softbank is a common investor in both the companies and was also instrumental in Uber selling off its Southeast Asia unit to rival Grab.

The report stated that merger talks, which have been ongoing close to a year now, have gathered intensity in the last few weeks. It states that Ola will acquire the Indian unit of Uber, but the finer details of the deal are still being discussed.

When asked about the possible deal, chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi remained cryptic. We will look at any deals that can add value to its partners and shareholders, but we believe in controlling our own destiny in India," he said.

If the deal goes through, it would be Ubers fourth large retreat. Apart from the sale to Grab, the US firm also sold its China unit to rival Didi and its Russian unit to local player Yandex.

Khosrowshahi said India is already among the top three markets (besides the US and Latin America), accounting for 10 percent of its trips globally.

"The great news about our Grab deal is that it allows us to double down to invest aggressively in our core markets - and we consider India very much as core to Uber's success... we will be more focused on organic growth in the markets that we are operating in," he said.

The top executive, who took over the reins of Uber in August last year, said the company will invest "whatever we have to in order to succeed in India".

"We have no cap. We will increasingly build out our product to be leading not only globally, but also focus on specific functionality purpose-built for our Indian customers," he emphasised.

Uber has been pumping in substantial funds to fuel its growth in India. In 2015, Uber announced an investment of USD 1 billion in the country to expand its services. It has also set up a response and support centre in Hyderabad with an investment of USD 50 million.

Profitability in the Indian market, however, is still some time away for Uber, one of the world's most valued startups.

"I think it would be a mistake to show profits in India next year. It would mean that we aren't investing enough... We are confident about our competitive position in India our driver sentiment, rider sentiment, the quality of our service are all leading and we intend to build on that lead," he said.

He added that India is one of Uber's healthiest markets in terms of growth rates of number of active drivers and weekly trips.
New Delhi: The value of the entity resulting from the merger of Fortis Healthcare and Manipal Hospital Enterprises will be Rs 15,000 crore, a top Fortis official said on Wednesday.

The merger is expected to be completed in 10-12 months, he added.

"When you look at value of Fortis, when you look at value of Manipal and when you look at money being infused that is Rs 3,900 crore, that adds up to Rs 15,000 crore," Fortis Healthcare CEO Bhavdeep Singh said in a conference call on Wednesday.

The value of the resulting entity thus will be Rs 15,000 crore, he added.

The company's board had on Tuesday approved the demerger of Fortis hospitals business, which will be acquired by Manipal Hospitals and TPG Capital, along with the sale of 20 per cent stake in diagnostics chain SRL Ltd.

Ranjan Pai and TPG will invest Rs 3,900 crore into Manipal Hospitals. The funds will be utilised for financing the acquisition of 50.9 per cent stake in SRL (20.0 per cent from FHL and 30.9 per cent from other investors for which discussions are currently underway), Fortis Healthcare had said yesterday in a statement.

In addition, the investment will support the proposed acquisition of hospital assets owned by RHT Health Trust and the growth of the hospitals and the diagnostics businesses, it added.

"The merger will take time. The merging of Fortis into Manipal will take between 10 to 12 months," Singh said.

When asked about the investigations by Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) in the company over alleged financial irregularities in the company involving its promoters, Singh brothers, Bhavdeep Singh said: "We are cooperating with the ongoing SFIO investigations."

However, the completion of the deal is not contingent upon the conclusion of the ongoing investigations, he added.

The sale of the hospital business of Fortis to Manipal-TPG combine comes at a time when the Singh brothers -- Malvinder and Shivinder -- are facing intense pressure over alleged financial irregularities at Fortis and Religare, which the SFIO is investigating.

Both Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh had quit from the boards of Fortis and Religare last month.

The Delhi High Court had on January 31 upheld an international arbitral award of Rs 3,500 crore passed in favour of Japanese pharma major Daiichi Sankyo, which had alleged that the former promoters of erstwhile Ranbaxy Laboratories had concealed information about proceedings against them by the US Food and Drug Administration.

Moreover, on February 15, the Supreme Court lifted its stay on sale of shares of Fortis Healthcare Ltd. pledged with banks by the Singh brothers before August 31, allowing financial institutions, including Axis Bank and Yes Bank, to sell the pledged shares.

The stake of the Singh brothers in Fortis currently is less than 1 per cent.

The Fortis Healthcare stock fell sharply by 13.37 per cent to Rs 123.40 per on BSE.
New Delhi: The Union Cabinet on Wednesday struck down the 'bridge course' that would have allowed AYUSH practitioners to practice and prescribe allopathic medicine, from the National Medical Commission Bill. Approving certain amendments in the NMC Bill, the Cabinet left it to the state governments to take necessary measures for addressing and promoting primary health care in rural areas, said a government statement.

The Cabinet essentially approved the recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee report that had asked that a course to teach AYUSH practitioners modern medicine not be a mandatory part of the Bill. The report had come out on March 20th.

The centre had included this provision as a way to plug the gaps in health care manpower, especially in rural areas. This had not gone down well with allopathic doctors across the country, with the Indian Medical Association -- a voluntary organisation of doctors and private health establishments -- leading the protests against this provision.

The Cabinet also took into account the Parliamentary Committee report's recommendation of increasing state representation in the Commission, increasing state and union territory nominees from three to six. The NMC will now comprise 25 members, of which at least 21 will be doctors said the statement.

The Cabinet also made the final graduation exam of the MBBS degree a common exam across the country, to be called the National Exit Test (NEXT). Instead of floating a separate licentiate exam, after the MBBS final, for students to be able to practice medicine, the Cabinet combined the two into NEXT.

NEXT would also serve as the screening test for doctors with foreign medical qualifications in order to practice in India, said the statement. The Cabinet upped the number of seats in private colleges for which fees has to be regulated from 40 percent to 50 percent.

It also put in place a system of different options of "reasonable monetary penalty, reducing intake, stoppage of admission leading up to withdrawal of recognition" for colleges that did not comply with norms.

This system replaced a monetary penalty, ranging from one half to ten times the annual fee recovered from a batch. It came down harder on quacks, however, penalising unauthorised practice of medicine by imprisonment of up to one year along with a fine extending up to Rs. 5 lakhs.
New Delhi: In January, when the four senior most judges of the Supreme Court addressed the historic press conference turning the lens on administrative and judicial irregularity in the Supreme Court, no one thought that the sacrosanct position of the Chief Justice of India would be in question.

Now, with opposition leaders led by the Congress garnering support for a draft impeachment motion against the CJI, the question is -- Can the Chief Justice be impeached like other judges of the Supreme Court or is the process different?

India has never faced a single case of a judge being impeached, so how difficult would it be for the CJI? News18 takes you through the case, procedure and previous examples of similar motions.

Who has moved the impeachment motion against the Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra?

Before diving into the question of how an impeachment motion pans out, let us understand who all are circulating the draft impeachment motion against the CJI.

According to reports, a draft proposal for moving an impeachment motion against the CJI has been circulated to opposition parties by Indian National Congress. NCP leader and Senior Advocate, Majeed Memon, has confirmed that the draft motion has been signed by Congress heavyweights and that NCP has decided to support it.

Among other parties who are on board to move the motion is the Samajwadi party. There are also reports that even the left parties and Mamata Banerjee led Trinamool Congress would support the motion as she said that its difficult to ignore what the judges spoke about in the press conference in January.

What is the case on the basis of which impeachment is being sought?

The entire genesis of moving an impeachment motion against CJI Misra gained heat after four senior most judges of the apex court addressed the historic press conference where it highlighted issues with regard to improper system of allocation of cases and had also put the spotlight on judicial impartiality.

As per reports the draft proposal deems "abuse of authority to arbitrarily assign individual cases to select judges" as one of the grounds for moving an impeachment motion.

One of the first cases under the lens is that of the illegal gratification in the Prasad Education Trust case. This was a case related to a bribery scam in which medical institutions were alleged to have given kickbacks to senior members of the judiciary for clearances to set up medical colleges. It has been alleged that the CJI had submitted a false affidavit when he was an advocate appearing in a land acquisition matter.

Another issue which had stirred the hornets nest was the case of Judge Loyas death. The four judges presser led to discussions on how the CJIs refusal to list the PIL demanding an independent probe into Judge Loyas death to a bench headed by senior most judges. Congress later held another press conference and spoke about the case which had its lens also on BJP president, Amit Shah, as Judge Loya was hearing the Soharabuddin fake encounter case which has Shah as one of the accused.

What is the basic mode of disqualification of a Supreme Court judge in India?

Impeaching or removing the Chief Justice of India cannot happen for any frivolous ground. In 2013, when Shirani Bandaranayake, the 43rd Chief Justice of Sri Lanka, was impeached by Parliament and then removed from office by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the country went through an unprecedented turmoil followed by a series of rulings against the government.

In India, legally speaking, a Chief Justice, like any other Supreme Court judges can be impeached. This by the constitutional provision of Article 124. Article 124 acts to keep check on the judiciary by the legislature.

However, unlike other countries there has been no cases of impeachment in India as of now.

Article 124 (4) of the Constitution of India: A Judge of the Supreme Court shall not be removed from his office except by an order of the President passed after an address by each House of Parliament supported by a majority of the total membership of that House and by a majority of not less than two-thirds of the members of that House present and voting has been presented to the President in the same session for such removal on the ground of proved misbehavior or incapacity.

What are the hiccups one has to overcome to achieve CJI impeachment?

Can impeaching the CJI be an easy task? Certainly not. The provisions have been kept deliberately complicated so that no one can initiate such impeachment proceedings as per their whims and fancy.

For initiating the impeachment proceeding both Article 124 (2) (b), Article 14 (4), Article 124 (5), and the Judges Inquiry Act 1968, has to be taken into account.

The first step for such an act is issue a notice of motion by 100 MPs from the Lok Sabha or 50 MPs from the Rajya Sabha. This motion for removal can be moved in either of the house.

Now the next step is to check whether the speaker admits the motion or not. The speaker has the right to reject it.

If in case the speaker decides to admit the motion, then the speaker or the chairman of the house constitutes a three member committee to investigate the charges. The committee would look into the case and the charged levelled against the CJI.

Since this case is against the CJI, the three member committee will comprise of a senior judge of the Supreme Court, a judge of the High Court and a distinguished jurist. The committee usually has the powers of a civil court and can question witnesses and examine documents to investigate the charges.

In case the committee decides to support the motion, then that motion is taken up for discussion in the house where it had been introduced and must be passed by a special majority of the house. It is after this step that the motion is taken up in the next house where again it needs to be passed by the two thirds majority.

It is after this stage that the President is approached to remove the CJI. But it is only possible after both the houses pass such a motion with two third majority. But this case can fall through at any stage whether it be the dismissal by the speaker to admit the motion or the committee failing to find any basis in the charges levelled or the motion collapsing in either of the house.

What are the past instances when Supreme Court judges or HC Judges were impeached?

V. Ramaswami, Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana, was the first judge against whom impeachment proceedings were initiated in 1993 by a motion through the Lok Sabha. The two thirds majority for passing the motion was lost as the Congress abstained.

Soumitra Sen, Calcutta High Court Judge -- He was the only judge in India history who had passed the first two hurdles of impeachment and had come close to being impeached after Rajya Sabha passed the motion of his dismissal with special majority. The charge against him was misappropriation of funds while he was appointed as receiver by the court as a lawyer. However before Lok Sabha could take up the motion for consideration, Justice Sen had resigned from office which led to the closure of the case.

Another Judge who resigned before impeachment proceedings could be initiated against him was PD Dinakaran, Chief Justice of Sikkim High Court in 2011.

Even Justice JB Pardiwala of Gujarat High Court was at the receiving end of an impeachment motion by 58 Rajya Sabha MPs after a section of the society objected to some wordings in his judgment which questioned reservation in the Constitution. Justice Pardiwala had called it shameful that reservation continued even 65 years after independence.

Later Justice Pardiwala removed the wordings from his judgment leading to closure of the impeachment case.
Kolkata: In the wake of communal clashes in Bengal during Ram Navami processions, the Union Home Ministry on Wednesday sought a report from the state government.

The ministry has communicated the matter to all the senior officials, including state Chief Secretary Malay Kumar De.

Speaking to News18 over telephone, a MHA spokesperson said, The ministry has sought a report after violence during Ram Navami processions in Burdwan. We have also assured the state officials that paramilitary forces if needed to maintain law and order.

Since last few days several clashes have been reported from various parts of Bengal.

A large number of people, including policemen, received splinter injuries at Burdwan after mob believed to be from the BJP and TMC camp hurled stones and crude bombs at each other.

From March 25 to March 27, the situation was tense in Raniganj as several shops and houses were looted and set on fire. Police had to resort to lathi charge and and use tear gas to disperse the mob.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Arindam Dutta Chowdhury received severe injuries on his hand. He was admitted to a private nursing home in Kolkata.

The mob also set police vehicles on fire. A contingent of Rapid Action Force was deployed to help the police bring the situation under control.

On Wednesday morning, Raniganj remained tense as people preferred to stay indoor. Police pickets were set up at all major intersections. Internet connectivity was withdrawn to prevent people from sending provocative videos or content.

BJP MP from Burdwan and Union minister Babul Supriyo said, Whatever happened in Raniganj was unfortunate. I have information that Trinamool Congress workers were behind the clashes.

Countering Supriyos allegation, TMC spokesperson Partha Chatterjee said, The allegations are false and baseless. He is a singer and I think he (Babul) should concentrate more on singing.
New Delhi: The granting of graded autonomy to 60 universities has led to an uproar within the academia, with the University Teachers Body saying that it will lead to commercialisation and blatant privatisation of public education.

This will lead to commercialization and blatant privatization of public education with differential fee structures, compromising the questions of equity and access which are the founding principles of public higher education institutions like JNU, said the body.

Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar had earlier said that 52 of the 60 higher education institutes that have been granted autonomy are universities.

The central universities which have been granted autonomy, include Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), Banaras Hindu University (BHU), University of Hyderabad and the English and Foreign Languages University, Telangana.

The teachers in Jawaharlal Nehru University and Delhi University have voiced concerns over the new educational reforms, which include Graded Autonomy, replacement of grants by loans through Higher Education Funding Agency, Tripartite MOUs and 70:30 funding formula.

Taking their fight further Delhi University Teachers Association and Federation of Central Universities' Teachers' Associations (FEDCUTA) have organized March to Education to Mandi House on March 28th. They have come fight against the agenda of Privatization of education and making education inaccessible for socially and economically marginalized Communities across Universities.

Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Association, Lado Padhai Karne Ko, Pado Samaaj Badlne Ko. The list of demands include: The students and teachers have come together in Defence of Public Funded Higher Education and demanding Exterminate Sexual Harrasement from Campuses-Follow Vishakha Guidelines, Fulfill Constitutionally mandated Reservations; Stop selling education in the name of 'autonomy'; End Corruptions in Academic Institutions; Democratic Policy Making Process; No to categorization of Universities and Graded Autonomy No Fund Cuts.

Calling for the fraternity of teachers the President of the organization Rajib Ray said in a note, Systemic changes such as the replacement of grants by loans through HEFA, Tripartite MOUs, graded Autonomy to Universities and grant of financial autonomy to educational institutions of repute to turn them into teaching shops must be resisted. The Government should be forced to take back these ill-thought of schemes.

Though the joint struggle has borne some fruits in their fight against the 70:30 funding formula, where the UGC has clarified that for those centrally funded institutions whose salary commitments are being met by the UGC/MHRD, the increased liabilities due to revision of 7th CPC pay scales will be fully met by the Central Government, the Teachers body has still called for vigilance, DUTA head said, We have to be vigilant till the Draft UGC Regulations are gazetted so that none of the retrograde recommendations become a reality.

However, this funding formula relief does not include the expenditure towards revised pay for karamcharis and for teachers in state universities salaries, So we should not allow the government to get away with this, said the statement from DUTA.

The University administration has issued notifications regarding the loss of teaching due to teachers strike, This notification also points to the success of our movement. We as teachers remain committed to our students. As in the past, the DUTA appeals to members to take measures to ensure that students are not adversely affected because of our strike. This struggle is a joint struggle of all sections of the university community and the increasing participation of students is one of its strengths.

Committed to make Peoples March from Mandi House to Parliament Street a big success and show the government We will not allow the destruction of our universities, students and teachers from various universities will gather at Mandi House. Members of Parliament and leaders of various political parties are expected join our rally in solidarity.

Since the new schemes taking shape in the Human Resource Development, many universities have voiced their concern - The JNU Teachers Association noted that the MHRD grant of autonomy to 60 Higher Educational Institutions, which have maintained high academic standards is a tacit acknowledgment of JNUs excellence in achievement and maintenance of academic standards even in the face of constant attack and vilification in the last two years.

The question that teachers put forward was we ask as a community of teachers to address this grant of autonomy is autonomy from what, autonomy for whom and autonomy for what purpose? They noted that this announcement is in keeping with and follows from the MHRD gazette notification dated 12 February 2018 title University Grants Commission [Categorisation of Universities (Only) for Grant of Graded Autonomy] Regulations, 2018.

The note observed that this legislation is yet to be passed by Parliament and is open to contestation. It must also be noted that the autonomy clause was part of the draft National Education Policy of the current government in power. The government had to withdraw the draft in face of opposition in the Rajya Sabha. So it has now pushed those provisions by the back door using the UGC as a pliant body, said JNUTA statement.

The gazette notification suggests an effective 20% reservation for foreign nationals in both studentships and faculty positions over and above the total sanctioned strength, which they fear Will then reduce the proportion of the potential job pool for Indian academics in India and also will reduce the proportion of seats available for Indian students. This is a discriminatory clause privileging foreign citizenships over Indian ones. It also implies an overall shrinking of the potential pool of reserved positions that would be available for teachers and students from marginalized communities.

Thus, it is seen as a direct and severe attack on reservations and affirmative action in public institutions in the name of autonomy. The autonomous institutes can start their own programs, departments, schools, centres, allow opening of off-campus centres, start skill courses, incubation centres, research parks etc without approval from the UGC.

This will lead to commercialization and blatant privatization of public education with differential fee structures, compromising the questions of equity and access which are the founding principles of public higher education institutions like JNU, said the teachers body.
New Delhi: After its documentary on Indias September 2016 Surgical Strikes in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, History TV18 is now all set to air a documentary titled Special Operations India: Myanmar, which will take an inside look at the Indian Armys special ops against terror outfits near the Indo-Myanmar border. The documentary airs at 9 pm on Wednesday.

On 4th June 2015, an Indian Army convoy was ambushed in Chandel District, Manipur. Eighteen Indian soldiers were martyred, in what was one of the worst militant attacks in North-East India in a decade. In response, the Indian Army sent in Paratrooper Special Forces to trace the attackers along the India Myanmar Border and destroy their militant stronghold, before more terror attacks could follow. It was a classified mission thats now known as Operation Hot Pursuit.

Operation Hot Pursuit was a race against time. It remains one of Indias most daring military operations in recent history. It was the need of the hour, following the militant attack on an Indian Army convoy. The ambush had been planned and carried out by an insurgent group called the National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khapalang (NSCN K).

The NSCN-K is a well-organized militia operating in North East India. Their funding comes from extortion, kidnappings and gun-running in the region. Sources also believe they are covertly aided by foreign powers. Following the ambush, Indian military intelligence showed that the insurgents had retreated to a large camp along the Indo-Myanmar Border.

Swift counter insurgency measures were needed, to deter militants waging war against the Union of India. The Indian Armys elite Paratrooper Special Forces unit in the North East were tasked with the mission. The History TV18 documentary follows these Jungle Warfare Specialists on their deadly mission against the NSCN- K.

The story is told through the experiences of the men leading the operation and the decision makers in Indias military establishment at the time.

The narrative relies on the first person accounts of Ajit Doval, National Security Advisor to the Government of India, General Bipin Rawat, Indias current Chief of Army Staff and the Special Forces Team Leader (identity undisclosed) spearheading the assault on ground. The programme also features Manohar Parrikar, Former Defence Minister, General Dalbir Singh, Former Chief of Army Staff and Nitin Gokhale, Defence Analyst and author, who share their insights.
Bengaluru: A day after BJP president Amit Shah met Lingayat seers of various mutts in Chitradurga, the seer of the Murugha Mutt on Wednesday wrote to him, saying that minority status for the community was not a move to divide but rather unite Hindus.

This also comes a day after the BJP president's statements against Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, calling him an anti-Hindu leader who has "divided the Hindus" by recommending a minority religious status for Lingayats.

"It is not a step to divide the community but a measure to unite the already sub-divided sub-castes followers in Lingayats," reads the letter by the seer Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru.

The letter has led to a war of words between the leaders of the two parties. BJP MP Pratap Sinha said, "You will come to know only after election. But we firmly believe in nationalism. There is greater need to unify society. On the contrary, the party responsible for division of nation is dividing society for its political goal.

"Lingayat community has more mutts than any other but large section of the community believe they are part of Hindu society. There are people who give heed to divisive forces but we are trying to unite the forces. There is need to unite people under nationalism. Nationalism is same as Hinduism, you cannot separate the two," he added.

However, Sinha refused to comment on whether mutts must steer clear of politics. Minister Eshwar Khandre, a Veerashaiva leader in the Siddaramaiah government, meanwhile, said that religious mutts must not make political statements and that the two are different.

Khandre, like other Veerashaiva leaders championing for the cause of a similar status for the community, has been on the receiving end ever since the cabinet decided to forward its recommendation to the center for a minority religion status for the Lingayat sans the Veershaivas except for those Veerashaivas willing to accept the Lingayat ways.

State minister MB Patil, a Lingayat leader, welcomed the seer's statements and also questioned Amit Shah on whether he would be willing to give up the benefits the Jain community enjoys with the minority status.

"The Murugha mutt seer has spoken the right thing. We were an independent religion till 1881 and then it was snatched away from us. Amit shah belongs to which community? Jain. Jains got independent religion status. Were Hindus divided then? Amit shah wants it for his own religion but when it comes to us it is dividing Hindus. That's hypocrisy," said Patil.

"Jains got their due. Similarly when we ask Amit shah opposes. My question is are you going to surrender the status of Jains now?" he asked leaving the floor for further rounds of statements between parties as the state gears up for the 2018 assembly elections in May.
Bilochpura, Baghpat (UP): March 27 means nothing to most people in the Indian Subcontinent but those in far off Balochistan, Pakistans largest and most impoverished province, March 27 is a Black Day  the anniversary of the day Pakistans illegal occupation of Balochistan.

Seventy years and five wars of independence after the Khan of Kalat was forced to accede to Pakistan, the bloody conflict has left behind a trail of dead bodies, forced disappearances and extraordinary resilience to the Pakistani Army. But there is one corner of the subcontinent where the Baloch people live life in peace, almost unaware of their ethnic identity and roots  in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

There could not be a starker contrast between the harsh landscape of Balochistan and the lush-green paddy fields of the Ganga-Yamuna Doab in Western UP. Yet, a village in Baghpat district, just a two-hour drive from the National Capital, bears the mark of the distant land in its name.

In Bilochpura village, Sonu Pathan is like any other ordinary Western UP boy. His biggest concern is lack of employment opportunities. He aims to join the Indian Army. I have a BA degree. Im trying to find a job. I recently applied for the Army when the recruitment forms were released online, says Sonu.

Twenty-one-year-old Sonus wish to join the Army does not come as a surprise to his brother Irfan Pathan, the village strongman. The village, he says, has had a martial history. Mughal Emperor Babur came to India in 1526. He won the battle of Panipat in four hours because he had muskets. Some of the topchis (artillerymen) in his army were from Balochistan, he says.

While many in Baburs army went back home, the Balochis fell in love with the plush landscape of the Gangetic plain and chose to settle down on the banks of the Yamuna.

The village was named Bilochpura and these ethnic Balochis have since called India home. In 1857, during Indias First War of Independence, the men and women of Bilochpura once again rallied under the Mughal banner. Allah Diya Khan, a resident of this village, rose to become an advisor to the last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar II and was instrumental in fighting the British.

Standing near Allah Diya Khans grave in Bilochpura, Pathan beams with pride and says, He (Khan) was my ancestor. He was captured by the British and tortured to death. His descendants heeded Mahatma Gandhis call and marched against the British four generations later. After independence, people from our family have gone into the Army, Delhi Police and UP Police. Our hearts beat for India.

Pathan repeatedly stresses his Indianness. Over the last 500 years, these ethnic Balochis have become as Indian as anybody who may have come from elsewhere but were assimilated in the Indian cultural milieu.

Life went on as usual in Bilochpura until one watershed event shook things up  Prime Minister Narendra Modis Independence Day Speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort in 2016.

Over the last few days, the people of Balochistan have thanked a Prime Minister of India. In doing so, they have given respect to 125 crore Indians, the Prime Minister said on August 15, 2015. After he touched upon the Baloch cause in the Independence Day addressed, Modi stirred the hornets nest.

It intensified Baloch protests across the world, with community activists thanking the Indian leader for his moral support. The last time India supported self-determination for a Pakistani province, it resulted in creation of Bangladesh in 1971. The PMs speech triggered some bitter memories in the Pakistani establishment. Pakistan retaliated by saying this was Indias attempt to distract from the alleged human rights abuses in Jammu and Kashmir.

It was then that local historians cleared the dust off Bilochpuras heritage. Amit Pathak, a Meerut-based historian, says, My area of interest is the mutiny of 1857. I knew that there were several villages in Baghpat around the Yamuna that had fought alongside the Sepoys and after the mutiny was quelled, the British had responded with brutal retribution. Our aim was to find these villages and have them recognised as Kranti Gram or Revolutionary villages.

It was during this research that Pathak and his associate Amit Rai Jain, another historian, found Bilochpura. We found that people had settled here during the early Mughal period. Suddenly, we had found a Baloch village in a corner of UP! exclaimed Jain.

Once the information was out there, an outfit called the Hind Baloch Forum saw this as an opportunity. The Hind Baloch Forum was formed after the PMs speech in 2016 as a civil society movement.

After reports in local Hindi-language dailies, the Forum made a beeline to Bilochpura and held seminars here. This tiny, non-descript village has since then played host to the whos who of the Baloch freedom movement.

Everyone from Mazdak Baloch to Mama Abdul Qadeer Baloch have visited this village and spoken of the horrors of daily life in Balochistan, 1,000 kms from Baghpat.

The Hind Baloch Forum has no permanent address, not even a website. It operates without a base and its posters proclaim Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) ideologue Indresh Kumar and Akhil Bhartiya Sant Samiti General Secretary Swami Jitendranand Saraswati as its patrons.

Sandeep Jha, the Hind Baloch Forums Core Committee Member, insists that the outfit is apolitical. He says, Indresh Ji may be a senior RSS functionary but as a common, conscious citizen, his political affiliation, his cultural affiliation is immaterial for Hind Baloch Forum. This is a civil society movement that concerns itself with the human rights violations against the people in Balochistan. It wants to join its voice with the voice of the people there. There is no political motive behind this.

In 2016, Mazdak Baloch urged the people of this village to accompany him to the Pakistan High Commission to protest against the alleged atrocities of the Pakistan Army  or as Baloch freedom fighters call it, the Punjab Army.

We took people from here and held a demonstration outside the Pakistan Embassy and submitted a memorandum of our demands, says Irfan. He goes on to proclaim proudly that they even broke through police barricades.

But what the Hind Baloch Forum sees as an awakening of the Indian people towards the Baloch cause, many Baloch activist see merely as lip-service.

Abdul Qadeer Baloch, Founder of the International Voice for Baloch Missing Persons, is a quiet, unassuming 78-year-old. He shot to prominence in 2013 with his Long March for missing Baloch when he marched from Quetta to Karachi and then to Islamabad.

I have a great interest in history. I was reading about Mahatma Gandhis Dandi March and Mao Zedongs Long March. When Gandhi walked, his country became free. When Mao walked, his country became free. So why could my country, Balochistan, not be free of Punjabi occupation? he asks.

News18 met Qadeer when he was in India in March to seek medical treatment for his 10-year-old grandson, who suffers from a serious heart disease. He sees India favourably, but feels it is not doing enough.

If Modi Sahib wants to help us, he should provide us arms and guns so that we can fight our enemy with those. We can fight our own wars. If you (India) want to help Balochis, dont help them with words. Help them materially. Do something for us. Show us how you support us. You spoke about this two years ago but havent done anything for us since then, he said.

But is Qadeer, who earned the epithet Gandhi of Balochistan after his Long March, comfortable with the use of violence to attain independence?

I am fighting in my own non-violent way, they (insurgents) are fighting with their own means. Both of us need Indian help. It doesnt matter which way succeeds. Balochistan has fought five wars against Pakistan. And yet, it could not attain freedom like Bangladesh. That is because Sheikh Mujib and the Mukti Bahini both got Indian help. Mere words will not be enough.

According to Qadeer, over 45,000 Baloch men and women are currently missing. For him, this fight is a personal one. His son Jalil Reki, who was a prominent Baloch freedom fighter and an associate of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, went missing in 2012. Months later, he was found dead near the Pakistan-Iran border. Qadeer blames Pakistans insidious intelligence agency ISI and the Pakistan Army for his sons murder.

When I found out that my son has been martyred, I was happy instead of being distressed. At least he has sacrificed himself for a good cause, his land and his country. There can be no bigger matter of pride for a father. I was told that they (Pakistan Army) were bringing his body. I said, no. You will not touch him. The establishment, government and Army have done what they had to. Now I will handle my sons dead body myself. I will bring him home myself, he said.

In Indias capital, Qadeers ten-year-old grandson, who has just been discharged from the hospital, is running around, trying to click pictures of pigeons on the terrace.

Doctors had told us not to tell my grandson about his father because he may go into shock. He has a heart ailment. When hed ask about his father, we would tell him he has gone out for a job, or to study or he has gone far away and will be back soon, he said.

So how does Qadeer, who is older than the state of Pakistan itself, see the future of the country? I am not sure Pakistan will exist for so long. Balochistan will rise, Sindh will rise, the Frontier will rise and so will Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. All that will be left of Pakistan is Punjab. They are welcome to keep Punjab, he predicts ominously as he turns to read a book on Indian history to his grandson.
President Yoweri Museveni has revealed that former inspector general of police Gen Kale Kayihura is not the brain behind the crime preventers' initiative.



Anyone with such a perception, Museveni said, should get it out of his head. Museveni's revelation comes nearly a month after he axed Kayihura, replacing him with his deputy Martin Okoth-Ochola. Museveni said crime preventers is an National Resistance Army (NRA) project dating back to the 1980s.

Some of the crime preventers at Lugogo today. Photo: @canarymugume

Addressing over 3,000 crime preventers at MTN Arena Lugogo today, Museveni said Kayihura was just a good cadre who implemented the project.



"So anybody who had an idea that this was a Kayihura project, please get it out of your head," Museveni said, triggering applause and clapping from the audience.

"But Kale Kayihura was an active cadre who implemented that aspect of our strategy actively and I congratulate him for responding."



Museveni said the crime preventers will now be under the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF). He said the new crime preventer team should meet with the Chief of Defence Forces (CDF), Gen. David Muhoozi. Museveni told crime preventers that he has already talked to the CDF that the crime preventers scheme deserves to be under the army.



"Why I left you with the police is because you were dealing with the crime but in the end, you belong to the army I now regard you as a reserve army for UPDF. My idea is to have a small army which is equipped but with a big reserve," Museveni said, attracting more applause.



Apart from preventing crime, Museveni told crime preventers to be exemplary actors in poverty eradication in their homes and communities.

"Don't be the one in a bar with swollen cheeks like a ripe banana, let your light shine," he said.



Museveni pledged to put Shs 1.3 billion in crime preventers SACCO.



Largely seen as a Kayihura project, The National Crime Preventers Forum (NCPF) describes itself as an umbrella body under which all crime preventers are organised and coordinated. It was founded in 2013 to promote community policing in Uganda in partnership with Uganda Police Force.

The fate of crime preventers was hanging in the balance, with some expecting the new IGP to disband the group that has been accused of crime promotion rather than crime prevention.



The precise number of crime preventers is unknown, however Kayihura had said they numbered to 12 million, a figure which was mentioned by the president today.
New Delhi: In a jocular vein, Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday asked Congress member Renuka Chowdhury to lose weight and make efforts to increase the weight of her party.

The remarks evoked peals of laughter in the House, which witnessed several light moments during the farewell speeches of retiring members who are about to complete their tenure.

"He (Naidu) knows me from many kilos before. Sir, many people worry about my weight but in this job, you need to throw your weight around," Chowdhury said in her farewell speech.

To this, Naidu wittily responded, saying "My simple suggestion is, reduce your weight and make efforts to increase the weight of the party". The reparte led to peals of laughter in the House.

In another such moment, Chowdhury recalled that during her political journey in the Upper House, she was fortunate for being "the entire Opposition's united candidate to contest against Najma Heptullah for the Deputy Chair here".

This led Naidu immediately quip: "That would have solved many problems." Chowdhury said from Shah Bano to Surpanakha, she has been a witness to history in the making in the House.

"The lot of women has not improved tremendously. It is a pathetic 11 percent even now (women's strength in Rajya Sabha). I really think we need more women," she said.

Rajni Patil, also of the Congress, said it was destiny that she did not get a full tenure either in the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha, to which Naidu said, "then you go to Lok Sabha again," which again evoked laughter across the House.

She also alleged discrimination against women members of Parliament, calling for a change in the mindset and urged the ruling dispensation for early passage of the Women's Reservation Bill.
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Mumbai/New Delhi: The ED on Wednesday said it has arrested a "close" associate and the vice president of a firm of diamantaire Nirav Modi for allegedly aiding in the laundering of over Rs 5,900 crore in connection with the PNB bank scam case. Shyam Sunder Wadhwa, the vice president of the Firestar group, was arrested last night under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in Mumbai, the Enforcement Directorate said in a statement.

A special anti-money laundering court in Mumbai on Wednesday sent Wadhwa, a chartered accountant, to the seven-day custody of the ED. "Wadhwa is remanded in ED custody till April 3," said judge M S Azmi. He was described by the central probe agency as a "close confidant" of Modi. "He is in close touch with Modi and also involved in money laundering at the behest of and in aid of Modi," an official said.

This is the ED's first arrest in the case. The ED claimed Wadhwa was instrumental in setting up two companies in Hong Kong (Ms Aura Gem and Ms Sino Traders) along with "dummy" directors and these firms "were used" for laundering proceed of crime and substantial amounts totaling Rs 5,921 crore.

These funds were routed from the LOUs (Letters of Undertaking) "fraudulently" issued by the PNB for the Nirav Modi group of companies-- Ms Solar Exports, Ms Stellar Diamonds and Ms Diamonds R US, it said. "Out of the funds so received, Ms Aura Gem has transferred an amount of Rs 468 crore and Ms Sino Traders Rs 506.69 crore to the said three companies and completed the process of laundering money," it said.

The agency said Wadhwa's custodial interrogation would help it in "unraveling the truth behind the scam". It alleged that he was trying to initially "mislead" the agency during interrogation but later confessed to doing the paperwork for creating the two firms and appointing "dummy" or fake directors in them.

The central probe agency has filed two money laundering FIRs against Modi and his uncle and Gitanjali Gems promoter Mehul Choksi to probe the alleged over Rs 13,000 crore fraud in the Punjab National Bank (PNB).

It has conducted a total of 251 country-wide searches in the case after it began the criminal probe against the accused in February. The total seizure and attachment of diamond, gold, precious and semi-precious stones and other movable and immovable assets in the case stand at Rs 7,664 crore.
New Delhi: In the middle of howling news storms and the ever-present gaze of television cameras following every move of a 74-year-old man on fast, million waited pinning their hopes on 'change'. Delhi was swarming with people who were witnessing a man in a Gandhi cap take the government head on and bring the city to a halt. Anna Hazare had arrived.

That was 2011. The Anna Hazare-led protests had inspired a sea of Indians. Young and old alike  had taken to Delhis Ramlila Maidan to show their solidarity with the octogenarian activist. Among them was Purshottam Bhansodh, a man who had travelled all the way from Maharashtra.

Bhansodh was hopeful of the change Anna was fighting for. He fasted along with him, answered to his every slogan. Like the rest of the crowd, he marched with Anna.

Today, seven years later, he finds himself at the same spot where he had started. Nothing has changed. Yet, Ramlila Maidan is a place of reckoning for him. It all started from here. Bhansodh is here, so is Anna.

Social activist Anna Hazare began his latest indefinite hunger strike against the central government in New Delhi on March 23  seven years after his fast took down the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government. Much has changed since. The current protest is not similar to that of the 2011 anti-graft agitation. There is a shift from issues of the middle class to addressing the growing agrarian distress in the country.

The new renewed movement, however, has hardly gained any traction among the masses. This year's sit-in, many say, is more an assertion of outrage and shell-shocked solidarity than a goal-setting exercise like the one in 2011.

THE LULL AFTER THE BLITZKRIEG

Hazare has promised to continue his sit-in at Ramlila Maidan till the Centre concedes to his demand for setting up of the Lokpal at a national level and Lokayuktas in the states. He also is demanding the implementation of the Swaminathan Commission report, which has suggested ways to address the agrarian crisis.

In 2011, people from all walks had rallied behind Hazare, donning the Main Anna Hoon (I am Anna) caps. However, the Modi government has yet not been able to finalise a Lokpal to investigate cases of corruption. Partly because the current Lok Sabha does not have a Leader of Opposition to sit on the selection panel nor does any opposition party have the required 10% strength to elect a Leader of Opposition.

To tackle the situation, an amendment to the existing Lokpal Act, asking for the post of Leader of Opposition to be changed to Leader of the largest Opposition party, was put forward. The amendment is yet to be tabled in Parliament.

THINNING NUMBERS

When Bhansodh had left Maharashtra to join Anna for the hunger strike, he was hoping it would be a bigger sit-in than that of 2011. After all, he had thought to himself, there are bigger issues at stake this time.

The growing agrarian crisis, rise in farmer suicides, unsatisfactory minimum support prices, implementation of Prof MS Swaminathan-led panels recommendations and the recent protests from farmers across many states of the country could have helped the hunger strike gain more momentum. It wasnt to be.

When Bhansodh arrived at Ramlila Maidan, reality hit him. "Most of the people here are known to me. I have met them in different states during different marches in the last seven years. These are the same people," Bhansodh remarked.

The sit-in headed by Anna has hardly attracted more than 3000 people this time. While there are occasional chants of slogans in favour of farmers, the gathering remains often scattered in small groups of people who have come from different areas.

Ishwarchand Tripathi, who is one of the core members of the movement, however, believes they had already foreseen a smaller gathering. Tripathi, who has come from Madhya Pradesh, has his reasons, too.

You cant expect this years sit-in to be as popular and largely participated like that of 2011. That year there were others too who had their own following and thats how they drew large crowds. Today, it is all about the farmers. We dont believe in politicians and leaders, Tripathi said.

What Tripathi says holds true. The 2011 movement had people like Arvind Kejriwal, Baba Ramdev, Kiran Bedi, Kumar Vishwas and others, who by that time had already generated a massive following. It is true that some people brought more crowd for us in 2011. But we dont need them anymore. Anna was used that year by those people, not anymore, Tripathi said.

Yet, something is worrying the organisers about this years sit-in. Despite all the efforts put in by different farmer groups to mobilise men and women for the sit-in, the youth has hardly come forward.

Omprakash Singh, another member, agrees. "Maybe they (the youth) dont care about farmer issues. We dont know. But the missing youth is quite demoralising, Singh said.

THE SCATTERED AGENDA

Indira Devi came with her family from Unao, Madhya Pradesh. The 55-year-old, who owns 10-acres of land, hopes that the government does something about the cattle that often sneak into her farm and eat the produce.

Next to her, draped in a tricolour sari is Sheela Kumari, a 70-year-old. She has come from Nashik and owns no farmland. She was told that Anna would help her in reducing the electricity bills.

Part of the group is also Latha Devi (75). My sons are jobless. Anna will provide them with jobs, she said.

Talk to more people and one understands that all who have joined Anna arent farmers this time. Most of them, who have their own problems, were told Anna would help them.

A few feet away from the stage where Anna sits are members of a panchayat union in Delhi demanding greater decentralisation of power. There are retired army men, too. They are demanding better pension.

Yet, those who oversee the sit-in, think otherwise. Satyendra Kumar, a volunteer from Gujarat, says everyone present is here for a larger cause. People do have their own problems but they are here under one agenda. This is a march for farmer issues, Kumar said.

SPRAWLING FATIGUE

Most of the protesters, lying on a large carpeted floor around heaps of luggage, have slowly drifted into a lethargic siesta. To keep their spirits high, occasional Bharat Mata Ki Jai slogans on the loudspeakers are answered to in a not-so-enthusiastic tone.

People present at the sit-in are also aware of the fatigue that has slowly started to set in. Yet, there are some who want to march along, hopeful.

Ramlila Maidan is a cautionary reminder of a moment in my life when Id been very sure of myself, and of the movement led by Anna in 2011. This time, I am a little tired but I havent lost any hope, Bhansodh said.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday said there was a need for a "robust" law to protect sensitive information of citizens and asked the UIDAI about the safeguards to restrain private entities, involved in Aadhaar authentication, from parting with it.

A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra asked Ajay Bhushan Pandey, the CEO of UIDAI, about the safeguards employed to restrain private entities from parting with sensitive information of citizens for commercial gains while conducting the authentication of Aadhaar.

"There are two ends of authentication. You say that you do not know the purpose of authentication and the data at your (UIDAI) end is safe. AUA may be a private entity, what are the safeguards, if AUA parts with the sensitive information," the bench asked the UIDAI CEO.

"Let us have a robust law to protect the data of citizens. There is no such law in India," the bench, comprising justices A K Sikri, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan, said.

Authentication User Agency (AUA) is an entity, engaged by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), to provide Aadhaar enabled services to Aadhaar number holders by using the authentication.

Justice Chandrachud, during the hearing, gave an illustration and said if, he orders pizza from a pizza chain on regular basis and if that chain shares the information with his health insurance firm, then it will have some bearing because, the lifestyle is one of the key factors.

"This is a commercially sensitive information," the judge said and added that there was no "enforceable protection against others" even if the CIDR (data repository of UIDAI) was fully secure.

Such sharing is prohibited under the Aadhaar Act, the CEO said, adding that however, there was no control over such sharing of information by private entities, working as AUAs.

The bench asked the CEO not to bother the court with operational aspects, but to satisfy it as to whether any breach of data was possible.

The CEO said that breaches, if any, might take place from others' end as the UIDAI's CIDR was safe and not connected to the Internet.

"In last seven years, not a single breach of biometric details has taken place," he said, adding that now it has been directed that only the last 4 digits of Aadhaar number would be put in public domain.

"Aadhaar biometrics is shared only for 'national security' reasons. The consent is required at the level of the Cabinet secretary and so far, not a single request has so far come to us," he said.

He said that UIDAI gets a lot of requests from IT department seeking Aadhaar data, he said, adding, "We tell them we don't have 'a lot of data'."

Sharing of information, except core biometrics, would require permission of the district court concerned, the UIDAI CEO said.

He said the possibility of surveillance with Aadhaar was not there, because the UIDAI did not keep any data that can be misused.

The UIDAI CEO referred to the point raised by the apex court that why the government could not think of giving ID cards as done in Singapore to ensure that the authorities do not aggregate the data of citizens.

In Singapore, there is a smart card with online authentication to enhance security, he said, adding that even they had authentication records.

Moreover, Singapore was also planning to move to biometrics, he said, adding that having too much information on the smart card was risky.

"It's frozen in time. If a new technology develops, you will have to be replace all cards," he said.
Lucknow: The Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government in Uttar Pradesh was finally successful in getting the Uttar Pradesh Control of Organised Crime Act Bill (UPCOCA) passed in the UP Legislative Council on Wednesday.

The bill, which had been blocked on March 13, was re-introduced in the Assembly on March 27. The bill will be sent for the Governor's approval. Adityanath said that UPCOCA was the need of the hour. "There is a strong need of this law to curb organized crime in the state. We have brought UPCOCA in the interest of public safety," he said.

The Bill was passed by the Legislative Assembly on December 21, 2017 and was sent to the upper house, where the Opposition is in majority, but it was turned down on March 13 and returned to the Assembly on March 14.

The proposed legislation on the lines of Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) seeks to curb organsied crime and deal strictly with those trying to foment terror or dislodge the government forcibly or through violent means.

The UPCOCA Bill, 2017, also seeks to act sternly against those using explosives or firearms or any other violent means, or damaging life and property, or for involvement in anti-national or any destructive activities.

However, the opposition parties fear that it would be used to suppress the voice of political opponents. They termed UPCOCA as a tool to suppress the voice of opposition and the common man.

"BJP used to say that encounters of criminals will improve the law and order situation in the state but nothing has changed. Nothing will change until the government gives charge to able officers. The government should instead focus more on Dial 100 and 1090 emergency numbers, then only law and order situation can improve," he said.

BSP supremo Mayawati also raised her concerns against UPCOCA and had said that this would be used against Dalits, the poor and minorities. "BJP is using such laws against Dalits and the poor in the BJP-ruled states for their vested interests. Hence, UPCOCA which is made on the basis of MCOCA will also be misused to suppress the voices against the ruling party," she said.
Reality TV star Kim Kardashian has been accused of a photoshop fail, yet again.

The 37-year-old shared on Instagram a photograph in which she looks flawless from head to toe, reports mirror.co.uk.

Posing alongside her friend and make-up artist Mario Dedivanovic, Kim flaunts her curves in nothing but a high cut black swimsuit as she adopted a variety of poses.

But fans weren't convinced they were seeing the "real Kim" as they took to social media to complain she looked totally unrecognisable.

"When were these pictures taken? You look 27," commented one user.

"Hideously photoshopped," added another.

"So much photoshop her hands look fake," said another user.

The latest Twitter storm comes days after Kim was mercilessly ripped apart by her followers after posting a glaring photoshop fail on Instagram.
A Pakistani news channel has hired the country's first transgender TV newsreader.

Marvia Malik, a journalism graduate who has also worked as a model, told the BBC Urdu she was moved to tears when she was offered the job.

She anchored her first show on private broadcaster Kohenoor TV on Friday, after three months of training. Transgenders face discrimination in Pakistan and many struggle to find work. Some are forced into begging, dancing or prostitution to earn money.

Malik told the BBC she had to stop herself from screaming with joy when she learnt she had got the job. "The dream that I saw for myself, I was able to climb on the first stair to achieving it," she said.

Malik said she hoped her work would help improve the lives of Pakistan's transgender community.

"Our community should be treated equally and there must not be any gender discrimination. We should be given equal rights and be considered ordinary citizens, (not as) third gender."

The owner of Kohenoor, Junaid Ansari, told Voice Of America that Malik was selected on merit, not on gender issues.

Earlier this month, Pakistan's Senate voted to support a bill protecting the rights of transgender people and allowing them to determine their own gender identity.
Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, an archivist and restorer of films -- who has launched a crusade to preserve the cultural heritage of India through cinema-- has hardly slept in the last few days. "I'm so excited that I don't feel tired," he said.

The reason for Dungarpur's excitement is Christopher Nolan's visit to India.

The founder of Film Heritage Foundation (FHF) has found a new voice in Nolan, one of the most revered directors of the world. Impressed by the work of Dungarpur, the filmmaker has come to India to start a dialogue on film preservation.

Dungarpur could not have asked for better representation.

Nolan is one the few filmmakers who loves making films on celluloid, a medium that mainstream filmmakers no longer use. Along with him, visual artist Tacita Dean will also be championing the cause of film preservation. Nolan and Dean are scheduled to host a discussion on 'Reframing The Future Of Film' on April 1, 2018, in Mumbai. The event has already garnered media interest and generated fan frenzy.

"My cause is getting a voice for the first time," said Dungarpur in a very excited tone. Talking about Nolan's upcoming discussion with Tacita Dean, the archivist said that Nolan will discuss how celluloid can co-exist with digital. Dungarpur, whose FHF is helming the event, confessed that Nolan's visit has made him ecstatic because now people and media will finally pay attention to the preservation of cinema.

Dungarpur has made film-preservation his life's mission. However, the job isnt easy.

When he opened Film Heritage Foundation in 2014, he did not know he was launching a crusade against the pedantic mindset of Indian film fraternity. "We had to talk to everybody who was in the industry and convince people to have faith in us and preserve with us. In India, people will rather destroy rather than give it to an individual, because people are so worried that we might sell it off," said Dungarpur.

Apart from battling mindsets, it was hard to find a starting point when it came to preserving films. "Half the films were gone and the ones which were there were in bad quality YouTube versions," Dungarpur explained. The state of affairs was pitiful, the archivist could not find Gulzar's Machis or Libaas.

In a country like India where people deface ancient monuments, and government barely does anything to preserve heritage homes, there was hardly any efforts being made to preserve films. Except for the government-run, National Film Archive of India, there wasn't a single organization, a single museum dedicated to the cause. Dungarpur, thus, took the responsibility to fill the void that was causing cultural atrophy in India and single-handedly revived the art of film preservation.

Often, archiving is associated with past. However, that is hardly the case. While a crucial part of film preservation is to conserve old film reels and keep them in a sustainable habitat, a very important part of archiving is also to safe-lock the present moment and all that it represents. Over the past few years, FHF has been collecting posters of every new film that releases in India, irrespective of which regional film industry it belongs to. Newspaper clips and film magazines are being cataloged conscientiously to make sure no report about a recent film goes undocumented.

Preservation in simple terms is keeping something in a correct condition in terms of temperature and humidity. An object suffers when it goes through different climatic conditions, so the idea is to provide a home for these objects. "I treat films as human beings, as the human soul." said the archivist.

"Just like the soul of any human body embodies so many elements, a film also embodies many things. A film has the souls of actors who have acted in it, technicians who have worked on it and more importantly the people who have watched the film. Are you going to allow that to be destroyed? He asked.

The idea of preserving a film is not to make it updated, it is to conserve the aesthetic sensibilities of its creator as well as the nuances of the medium for which it was originally created. Upgrading isn't preservation. Dungarpur said that is important to preserve not just celluloid but also digital films. There isn't a competition, between the two mediums, said the archivist, "Both can co-exist." he added.

The archivist said that it is not a very expensive process to protect a film, but the bigger problem is people's lack of interest in choosing this process and the lack of qualified professionals who can carry out film preservation. "When FHF first began people asked me, all this is great but are there people to preserve these films?" said Dungarpur. Trying to cope with the lack of trained professional, he began organizing workshops to impart the technical skills required to preserve films. Through several collaborations with international organizations and many foreign trainers, he has successfully completed three workshops so far.

"One could not believe that one could have a career in film preservation. It gives me immense pleasure that through our workshops students have decided to take a career in film preservation." said the archivist.

Despite the obstacles that Dungarpur has faced while convincing filmmakers and producers to archive their works, with time, a loyal group of directors has emerged who have willingly participated in Dungarpur's effort to document film history. From Farhan Akhtar, Mani Ratnam to Vishal Bharadwaj, many filmmakers have deposited their works at FHF. While the newest thing to be archived is a prop from Vishal Bharadwaj's Rangoon, the oldest thing in Dungarpur's collection is a shoot still of Bhakta Prahlada.

Bubble-wrapping popular culture is one of the primary jobs of an archivist. "As an archivist, I must not judge other people's works. My job as an archivist is to preserve what is liked by the public," said Dungarpur. While he has strong preferences when it comes to cinema, he doesn't let that affect his work. "For me, a Govinda is as important as a Mr. Bachchan or a Satyajit Ray is as important as a David Dhawan or a Rohit Shetty," added the archivist.

The FHF has been meticulously accumulating and cataloging not only films but also every object related to films. From costumes, 3D objects, posters to lobby cards and letters. The FHF also has signing agreements signed by actors like Pran in the 40s. They have diaries of Sunil Dutt and Sadhana. "A film only reflects what is onscreen. But, what about behind-the-scenes?" asked the archivist.

They collect objects and memorabilia that reflects the personalities of people involved in films. "One would want to see shooting scripts, he would want to see what an actor's remarks were, how did he prepare for the role, are there stills?" Durgarkar said. All these objects are very crucial for any research done on the film industry. If in future someone wants to write a book on the socio-political conditions during which a particular film was being made or how a biopic was created, these collections may be invaluable to that person.

Dungarpur has been a solitary soldier on this crusade of preserving films and cultural heritage for long, but he doesn't think of it as a burden. In fact, he thinks it is a responsibility we all should undertake. Government is already doing its bit. They have the National Film Archive of India. But shouldn't it be the responsibility of all of us, shouldn't it be the responsibility of the film Industry? Shouldn't it be the responsibility of the people who are watching those films?" he asked.

Dungarpur is hopeful that with Nolan's help he will finally make people aware of their responsibilities and compel them to join him in preserving films. Film preservation is like flash-freezing a moment in time, and Dungarpur knows there is no instant glory in it. His work will only be valuable for posterity. Dungarpur said that hundred years from now, he wants people to look at his work and say, 'Well done Shivendra! You have preserved everything that we wanted to know about cinema.'
Actor Sunny Leone and husband Daniel Weber welcomed twin boys earlier this month. The couple opted for surrogacy and had announced the big news on social media, writing their family was complete with Nisha Kaur Weber (daughter), Asher Singh Weber and Noah Singh Weber.

In an interview with mid-day, the 36-year-old actress, who is currently in India for work commitments, opened up about the life after the arrival of her baby boys Noah and Asher, surrogacy, and how adopted daughter Nisha has dealt with the new change.

"We've been wanting to have kids for long and now, we are one big happy family. Our life has changed for the better. This is like the biggest hit story of our lives," Leone said.

On opting for surrogacy, Leone said that they had been planning it for many years, but were waiting for the right time.

"We found out about our three children on the same day  we got an official confirmation letter of Nisha's adoption on June 21 (2017), the same day that we were doing the IVF transfer of the boys."

When asked how Nisha has taken to the new change, she said, "Daniel and I make sure we spend some time during the day only with Nisha, without the twins around, as we don't want her to feel neglected."
Veteran journalist Teddy Sseezi Cheeye passed on recently and a lot has been written about him.

According to articles written by his former colleagues such as Charles Onyango-Obbo and Bernard Tabaire, Cheeye was the brand of a brave and self-taught investigative journalist who established a newspaper named the Uganda Confidential that exposed many corrupt government officials.

It is said that he exposed a scandal which involved a government minister who had been bribed to favour a foreign company in the bidding process to take the contract to construct a $200 million dam.

Once published, that story led to the resignation of the minister and frustrated his appointment to the World Bank. These and many other stories were the kind published by the late Cheeye.

I would love to read them verbatim. I call upon the media, in the interest of promoting selfless investigative journalism, to republish some of the stories the late Cheeye authored in his newspaper.



Ronald Dennis Bukomba,

rbukomba@gmail.com.



How criminals launder money



Criminals do tend to buy themselves toys. It is common to see high-value assets and consumer goods such as houses, cars, bikes, personalized vehicle number plates, boats and even even private jets and helicopters being paraded as symbols of success and patterns of a luxurious lifestyle.

High-value antiques, art and jewelry are particularly favoured investments and a way to launder money.

Criminals may also make functional investments in businesses used as fronts for illicit activities, to launder illicit proceeds, or to sponsor criminal activities.

In Uganda, this is commonly done through luxury car imports, labour export/sex slaves, real estate/land, etc.

Dan Bwanika,

bulemezi@gmail.com.



Kenyattas example good for Africa



One of the famous philosophers and Chinese military strategists called Sun Tzu once said a good leader leads by example, and not by force.

Following Tzus assertion, Kenya president Uhuru Kenyattas admirable example deserves mention.

Kenyatta has demonstrated to be one of the rare contemporary leaders, especially in developing countries, with the admirable virtues of humility and selflessness  one of the best marks of a great leader.

Besides being an articulate and eloquent speaker, President Kenyattas speeches to the nation have consistently been characterised by respect of all the Kenyans including his political opponents, which speeches are normally made with the tone and mood for dialogue, reconciliation and cooperation (with his opponents) for the good of their country.

He is the first sitting head of state to present himself for trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague to prove his innocence.

In addition, the recent trend of electoral events in Kenya did not attract the maximum force of the state security operatives as the case would be in some other African countries.

He has chosen the path of reconciliation by inviting his main political rival for dialogue for the sake of peace and stability to reign much as court had declared him (Kenyatta) as the validly elected president of Kenya.

As one famous adage goes, A good example has twice the value of good advice. How I wish other African leaders picked a lesson or two from President Kenyattas admirable example!



Patrick Ajuna,

ajunapatrick@yahoo.com.

letters@observer.ug
As many know, actor Swara Bhasker has never been one to be shy about putting forth her ideas and opinions, which she expresses so fervently. This was certainly the case when she wrote an open letter to filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali in January, criticizing him for the glorification of age-old practices of Sati and Jauhar in Padmaavat.

The actor had said that the film was disappointing to an extent that it left her feeling reduced to a vagina only. She had also stated that she understood Jauhar and Sati were a part of India's social history but that certainly doesn't mean that one should make a film about it with no perspective or, without a comment on such a misogynistic practice.

The letter had stirred up a major hullabaloo in the industry with Bhasker receiving a lot of flak.

I thought it was polite. I didnt realise that we think vagina is a cuss word in this country, said Bhasker at a session titled Reclaiming the idea space at Bridge 2018.

The actor, who was recently in the capital for the day-long festival of ideas and conversations on gender empowerment by Caravan magazine, was joined by Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha spokesperson Amrita Bhinder, author Gurmehar Kaur, activist Shehla Rashid Shora and social activist Shilpi Tiwari on the panel.

Besides constantly breaking the ground by working in so many unconventional films like Tanu Weds Manu, Nil Battey Sannata and Anaarkali of Aarah, Swara has often used her celebrity "megaphone" to voice her opinion regarding social and political issues - be it starting an online campaign against mob lynching or demanding the reinstatement of Gender Sensitisation Committee against Sexual Harassment (GSCASH).

However, the actor said she was clueless as to why she has gotten pushed into this champion of womens causes as I have never done anything for any womens movement.

Suddenly because I wrote some three four open letters (Im like a professional open letter writer), people have started saying, Oh! You care so much about womens issues. Im like really? Do I?

She continued, I think the idea space today is completely vitiated and its just not the women who have to reclaim it, it is everyone who doesnt agree with the dominant narrative. What is happening in our country today is that everything is being seen within a certain framework and its a very dangerous framework which is built on some problematic notions or a certain notion of what the love of your country is and should be for every single person in this country. So, when you talk about reclaiming the idea space it is a lot of us who are being forced into places to reclaim it.

In another session, titled 'May a 1000 stories bloom - What will it take to make Bollywood truly representative?', Swara talked about how over the years the filmmakers have refrained from dealing with the issue of casteism in Hindi cinema.

I'm not saying this as an actor but also an audience, caste is almost completely absent in Hindi cinema barring maybe in a few films. Either it's absent or if it's there, it's so thoughtlessly represented as in (I hate to be saying this but...) 'Padmaavat'," she said.

She added, I think that again and again the way which we see caste is this completely almost blind uncritical glorification and a glorification which completely puts into the margins any other caste. So it would seem Rajasthan has no history of any other castes other than the brave and heroic and honorable Rajputs.
An issue hangs like the proverbial sword of Damocles on the moral fabric of the nations political system. Indias controversial anti-defection law, which is often invoked just before a trial of strength to manipulate numbers in a House, needs to be quickly debated and dusted. Currently, the provisions of the law are prone to serious abuse and manipulation.

Let us cite some examples here to prove why the government needs to take a serious look at the law.

On September 18, 2017, 18 dissident AIADMK MLAs belonging to the TTV Dinakaran faction were disqualified by Tamil Nadu Speaker P Dhanapal after they withdrew support to Chief Minister E Palaniswami, bringing the effective strength of the House from 234 to 215. It is a different matter that Palaniswami needs only 108 MLAs to survive.

Consider the case in 2015 when the Hyderabad High Court refused to intervene after hearing a petition that alleged the delay by the Telangana Assembly Speaker in acting against a member under the anti-defection law.

Now, there have been several cases where the courts have expressed concern about the unnecessary delay in deciding such petitions. This delay in decision making has often helped members, who have defected from their parties, to remain members of the House. In some cases, opposition members have been appointed ministers while still retaining membership of their original parties. This needs to change.

As an MP from Andhra Pradesh, I think it would be pertinent on my part to highlight how in recent years, opposition legislators in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have broken away in small groups to join the ruling party. In some of these cases, more than two-third of opposition defected to the ruling party.

On paper, the legislators should be disqualified. But will it happen? What has happened in reality? The Telangana Speaker in March 2016 allowed the merger of the TDP in Telangana with the ruling TRS, citing that in total, 80 percent of the TDP MLAs (12 out of 15) had joined the TRS at the time of taking the decision.

Legislators of the main opposition party in Andhra Pradesh, YSR Congress, have been boycotting subsequent Assembly sessions to protest against the delay of nearly two years in action being taken against legislators of their party who have allegedly defected to the ruling TDP.

Now, see the politics behind this drama. CM Chandrababu Naidu once cried foul over his legislators being poached in Telangana but he realised it was a model worth plagiarising and nefariously got 20 YSR Congress MLAs to move over to his side; some of whom have even been made ministers.

Allegations of legislators defecting in violation of the law have happened in many states across India, including Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Manipur, Nagaland, Telangana and Uttarakhand.

What is distressing is that nothing appears to have changed in India where such defections have only led to grave constitutional crises in the states and prompted judicial interventions that only offered partial solutions.

At the heart of the crisis is the 52nd Amendment to the Constitution that was introduced by the Rajiv Gandhi government whichgenuinelyfelt defections by lawmakers was a matter of serious concern and that the evil of political defections need to be addressed seriously. As a result, the Tenth Schedule was added to the Constitution to specify two circumstances when a member could be disqualified: First, if the member voluntarily gives up membership of a party and second, when the member votes (or abstains from voting) contrary to the directive issued by the party. The guidelines were very, very clear.

Originally, the Tenth Schedule recognised a split in a legislature party if at least one-third members ganged up to form a new group or joined another party to bolster their numbers. But, after the 91st Amendment of January 2004, the law now recognises a merger that requires at least two-third members of a party to join another party or form a new party without falling prey to the anti-defection law. As a result, too many loopholes ensured that the law could easily be manipulated and distorted by members. Sadly, the misuse continues till date.

In this very context, it will be important to take a look at the 1994 Supreme Court ruling in the Ravi Naik versus Union of India case. It made things worse for members who want to criticise their own party's policies while retaining membership of the House.

Even in the absence of a formal resignation from membership, an inference can be drawn from the conduct of a member that he has voluntarily given up his membership of the political party to which he belongs, the apex court said in Ravi Naik's case.

If this was not enough, I think it would pertinent to discuss the case of Janata Dal(U) Rajya Sabha MPs Sharad Yadav and Ali Anwar who have both fallen foul of Tenth Schedule due to this interpretation of the law.

Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on September 12, 2017, issued notices to Yadav and Anwar and asked them why they should not be disqualified from the House after the Nitish faction complained that they voluntarily quit the JD(U) by participating in the rival RJD's rally held on August 27, 2017.

But what happens to legislators expelled from their parties first? The members can still retain their membership of the Upper House; they would have be happy to cite the Supreme Courts 1996 ruling in G Viswanathan vs. Hon'ble Speaker, Tamil Nadu State Assembly that said an expelled lawmaker is morally and legally bound by the partys whip even after expulsion.

Failure to obey the whip would result in the members disqualification from the House. The Supreme Court ruled: Paragraph 2(1) read with the explanation clearly points out that an elected member shall continue to belong to that political party by which he was set up as a candidate for election as such member. This is so notwithstanding that he was thrown out or expelled from that party.

Again, it was the Supreme Court who in November 2010 protected Samajwadi Party leaders Amar Singh and Jaya Prada from disqualification despite disobeying the SJP whip who expelled them from the party. It is sad that the issue has been referred to a larger bench which has not been constituted yet.

Now, since the role of the Speaker is very important, he or she must be an impartial arbiter. But in India, the conduct of speakers has often caused much distress. Consider this one. Under the current rules, a lawmaker elected as Speaker (or Chairman) is allowed to resign from the party, and rejoin it if the person demits office. But Speakers in India have often, invariably allowed themselves to be used for gain of their party or leader.

Now, the Tenth Schedule says the Speakers (or the Chairpersons) decision on disqualification issues on ground of defection must be final and cannot be even questioned in a court of law. But then, in the 1991 case of Kihoto Hollohan vs Zachillhu and Others, a constitution bench of the Supreme Court declared the Speaker's decision was subject to judicial review.

So it must be safely presumed that the Tenth Schedule is actually to check the Aaya Ram Gaya Ram culture  a phrase that became popular after Haryana legislator Gaya Lal changed his party thrice on a single day in 1967  and not exactly about the principles of the law.

The Schedule runs counter to Articles 105 and 194 which guarantee free speech to MPs and legislators. However, the SC decided to uphold it, saying: The anti-defection law seeks to recognise the practical need to place the proprieties of political and personal conduct above certain theoretical assumptions.

It needs to be remembered that all anti-defection laws come in the way of a lawmaker expressing some independent views without fear of losing the seat. So what should the lawmaker do? Should the anti-defection law be used only during confidence motions?

Two committees, the 1990 Dinesh Goswami Committee on Electoral Reforms and the Law Commission in its 170th Report in 1999 were unanimous in saying parties should issue whips only when the government is in danger. The Dinesh Goswami Committee and the Constitution Review Commission headed by Justice MN Venkatachaliah (formed in 2002) had recommended such a decision be made by the President or the Governor on the Election Commissions advice, as in the case of disqualification on grounds of office of profit. Hence, it is abundantly clear that a neat legal solution to defections is woefully missing.

So how does one handle the crisis?

The Vice President, in his order last year disqualifying two JD(U) members stated that all such petitions should be decided by the Presiding Officers within a period of around three months. But has that happened? The answer is a Big No.

(The author is a Rajya Sabha MP of YSR Congress Party. Views are personal)
Sharad Pawar is playing a key role in the opposition exercise for stitching up an alternative to the BJP-led NDA. Everybody who is anybody in opposition rank and file is closely watching Pawars power play in not only building an opposition front, but also in keeping Congress away from leading such a formation.

In fact, several regional parties, including Mamata Banerjees Trinamool Congress, are taking a dim view of Congress attempts for a leadership role wondering how and why regional satraps should offer power to Rahul Gandhi on a platter.

There is a realisation among regional parties that they, and not the Congress, are the main challenger to Prime Minister Narendra Modis mission to get a second term in 2019.

The resistant to Modis victory march in the last four years has also come primarily from the regional parties.

It is a given that BJPs expansionism will gradually compel Modi to fight on two fronts simultaneously, the states and the Centre.

Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah have already antagonised Mayawati, Mamata Banerjee, Akhilesh Yadav, Lalu Prasad Yadav, Chandrababu Naidu, Naveen Patnaik, Uddhav Thackeray, Arvind Kejriwal in their bid to grab space in Uttar Pradesh, Masharashtra, West Bengal, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Delhi. This has not only cautioned their current allies but prospective friends too.

The NCP supremo Sharad Pawar is emerging as a focal point in alternative mobilisation. Non-BJP parties have been comfortable in dealing with him due to his long standing in politics, flexibility and practical approach. The Trinamool Congress and the Left can work with him to check the BJP, which is aiming to occupy the main space in West Bengal and Kerala. So can Biju Janata Dal, TDP and TRS.

Sharad Pawar had good equations with BSP founder late Kanshi Ram and Odisha stalwart late Biju Patnaik. Besides, former Punjab chief minister and the Shiromani Akali Dal leader Prakash Singh Badal, the National Conferences Dr Farooq Abdullah are known to be Pawars personal friends.

Sharad Pawar of late has been touring Maharashtra, reconnecting with non-political organisations, cultural groups and writers after losing power in 2014.

There is a view emerging in the political circles that the Congress party, which has led the United Progressive Alliance for ten years since 2004, will find it difficult to develop a working relationship with BJD, TDP, TRS, YSR Congress, AAP.

While West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is touring, Congress state chief is calling a potential ally an opportunist.

On the other hand, some loyalists have started projecting Rahul Gandhi as the prime ministerial candidate against Narendra Modi at a time when the AICC plenary has called for a unity of the like-minded parties against the BJP.

Coming general election is not a routine electoral battle for many reasons. Non-BJP parties have realised it all too well. However, they have not succeeded in creating a credible alternative to the BJP yet. A section of the Congress is talking of post poll alliances undermining political significance to the 2019 battle.

If regional parties win 150 Lok Sabha seats, then the Congress will have to support them to form a government. They will chose their PM. If Congress gets 150 seats on its own then regional parties would have to back us, says an AICC leader close to the Congress president. Sonia Gandhis recent dinner and luncheon meetings with regional satraps were held to send out a message that the grand old party is ready to lead a front against the BJP-led NDA once again.

As things stand today, Congress can rely on the RJD in Bihar, is optimistic that the Samajwadi Party and the BSP would give it a respectable space in Uttar Pradesh, made up its mind to ally with the NCP in Maharashtra. It is, however, unsure of what turn Dravadian politics would take in Tamil Nadu.

In such an uncertain situation, Pawar may emerge as consensus candidate. In the coming months, Rahul Gandhis ability to lead Congress in poll bound state would determine to claim leadership position in anti-BJP front.

(The author is a senior journalist. Views are personal)
New Delhi: The Janata Party was the launch pad of the alternative politics in India after three decades of Congress domination. In the four decades of amoeba-like existence, the party which formed the first non-Congress government at the Centre finally merged with the BJP ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Subramaniam Swamy, the last president of the party, formally joined the BJP and was later nominated to the Rajya Sabha.

The call for an anti-Indira Gandhi mobilisation in 1975 was given by veteran socialist Jayprakash Narain or JP. During Emergency, opposition leaders who were put behind bars gave concrete shape to the Janata Party. Even RSS affiliated Jan Sangh joined in. Internecine war in Morarji Desai-led government coupled with dual leadership issues within the party led to a sudden implosion. In three years of losing elections, Indira Gandhi was back in power again in 1980.

The second Janata experiment was again crystallised by a former Congressman turned rebelVP Singh. Defence Minister in Rajiv Gandhi government, Singh resigned over allegations of corruption in defence deals to mobilise splinter Janata groups in the north and struck a pre-poll pact with the BJP and the Left. Regional parties like TDP in Andhra led by NT Rama Rao, AGP in Assam led by Prafulla Mohanta and DMK from Tamil Nadu were key components of this coalition build around Janata Dal led by VP Singh, Devi Lal and Chandrashekhar.

Again the aspirational power tussle brought the government down in 11 months. Chandrashekar defected from Janata Dal with his loyalists to take oath as PM with outside support from the Congress. National Front experiment at the Centre crumbled under its own contradictions in less than two years.

Congress-led by Narsimha Rao rode to power for full five years in the next elections in 1991.

The third Third Front Experiment was set into motion in 1996. The BJP riding the Ram Temple Movement had emerged as the main challenger to the Congress by then.

After 13 days in power when Atal Bihari Vajpayee failed to muster numbers regional parties took one more attempt at the Third Front alternative at the Centre.

West Bengal Jyoti Basu was offered Prime Ministers post. His party committed the historic blunder and rejected the offer after debate and dissection.

So Karnataka CM and Janata Dal leader H D Deve Gowda was chosen to lead the front. Congress supported the government from outside.

But very soon, there was a rebellion against Narasimha Rao in the Congress. Rao had to hand over reins of power to his trusted party treasurer Sitaram Kesari.

An impatient Kesari withdrew support from the government. Deve Gowda was replaced by Inder Kumar Gujral.

Since then, all governments at the Centre have either been led by BJP or the Congress.
Lucknow: Raising a banner of revolt against her own party, BJP MP from Bahraich Savitri Bai Phule has said that there is a conspiracy to end reservation and her government is a mute spectator.

Phule said that she will hold a rally in Lucknow on April 1 to protest against the voices in the party against reservation. Speaking to News18, she said, There is continuous debate regarding the review of the Constitution and reservation, which is a disguised effort to end the reservation. I have already held a rally against the issue at Nanpara in Bahraich last year and now I am going to hold 'Arakshan Bachao Rally' in Lucknow at Kanshiram Smriti Upvan.

She said she will fight against any effort to end reservation tooth and nail. I will continue to work for the backwards of the society no matter what people or the party says. If reservation if scrapped, then the backwards of the country will not get their due representation in the society. The government today seems not worried about the issue at all, Phule said.

The BJP MP, however, did not take names of any BJP leader.

During the recent Rajya Sabha elections, minister and chief of Suheldev Party, Om Prakash Rajbhar, also publicly expressed his dissent with the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government in the state. He calmed down, only after meeting with BJP President Amit Shah in Delhi. Rajbhar has also said that he is waiting for Shah to come to Lucknow on April 10 to see if the promises made to him are kept or not.

After the defeat of the BJP in Gorakhpur and Phulpur by-elections, the allies have started raising their voice against the Yogi Adityanath government. Rajbhar had openly expressed his angst against Yogi Adityanath and had said that he has failed to take along everyone and OBC community leaders are being ignored in the state.

Not only Rajbhar and Phule, but former BJP MP Ramakant Yadav, who contested against Mulayam Singh Yadav from Azamgarh in 2014 Lok Sabha election,s had also raised questions on the working of the state government. He had said that top BJP leadership has appointed the CM who is busy in puja-paath, and he is unable to run the government.

The former BJP MP had also alleged that people from only a specific caste are getting importance in the Yogi government. After the Gorakhpur and Phulpur results, Yadav had said, The results are due to ignorance of backwards and Dalits, I want to say to my party that if you will take along Dalits and Backwards then only you can expect satisfactory results in 2019.

After the recent decision on SC-ST act by the Supreme Court, Dalit MPs are unhappy and NDA ally Ramvilas Paswans party LJP has also filed a review petition against the decision. Many Dalit and Backward MPs have also met the Social Welfare minister Thawarchand Gehlot and are said to have raised the issue before the Prime Minister too.
Lucknow: Ridiculing the new found SP-BSP bonhomie in Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday said some people have become "circus lions" and were surviving on "leftovers".

The chief minister targeted the opposition Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) during the Budget discussion in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council.

"Some people have become circus lions, who do not hunt, but survive on leftovers of others and remain glad as if it has got a prey. It will be good if, instead of becoming such type of lions, one trusts his self-respect," he said without naming anybody.

Adityanath also attacked 'samajwad' (the political ideology of the Samajwadi Party) on which SP members objected and requested the Chairman to expunge a particular word from the proceedings.

"The country does not need 'samajwad', but 'Ramrajya'," he said in his address.

Hitting out at Adityanath, SP members said the word 'samajwad' (socialism) is there in the preamble of the Constitution and the chief minister should not say like this.

"I know very much about this fake brand. This brand was seen in Germany as 'Naziwad' and in Italy as fascism. Have we not seen it's distorted form as 'gundaraj' (hooliganism) in UP?" he asked.

Terming allegations of the opposition that the Budget was "anti-development" and "anti-people", he said, "We have presented the biggest Budget of Rs 4.28 lakh crore."

"In the Budget, funds for the agriculture department, sanctioned last year in July, 98 per cent has been spent.

"Besides, 100 per cent budget of the Home department, 78 per cent of the Panchyati Raj department, 65 per cent of the PWD, 87 per cent of the medical education department has been spent," the chief minister said.

"Our government has sanctioned construction of 9.71 lakh houses under the PM's housing scheme and gave 32 lakh power connections to BPL families and gave relaxations to farmers. This is Ramrajya," he said.

The chief minister alleged that due to the faulty policies of the SP and the BSP governments in the past, B.Ed and other degree holders were agitating in the state.

The Uttar Pradesh government is going to start recruitment in a big way, he said.

Adityanath said that no farmer had committed suicide during his government and added that work on the Purvanchal expressway will start next month.

On a report mentioned by SP supremo Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday that maximum riots took place in UP, he said, "The report was of 2016 when Akhilesh was in power."

"We have made such an atmosphere that criminals have no options left. Our government has changed the image of UP in the eyes of investors," he said.
Kolkata: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday opposed the Centres move to sell 76 percent stake in Air India. Taking to Twitter to express her dismay, she wrote, I am sorry to read in the media about the government inviting expression of interest for selling Air India, the jewel of our nation.

She said, We strongly oppose this and want this order to be withdrawn immediately. This government must not be allowed to sell our country. TMC MP Derek OBrien also opposed the move. The proposed disinvestment of Air India is still being examined by the Parliamentary Standing Committee of Transport Tourism and Culture. Stakeholders are being called. Views heard. Report still some time away. How come to these moves from government? he asked.

The ministry of civil aviation on Wednesday called for bids for sale of 76% stake in the national carrier. However, it placed the condition that the brand 'Air India' will be retained and the control of the national-carrier will be with Indian nationals.

The government in its statement proposed only companies with the minimum net worth of Rs 5,000 crore can bid for Air India and the lead member shall hold at least 51% of paid-up capital. Several domestic airlines like IndiGo, Jet Airways and Vistara have reportedly shown interest in the deal. AI has a total debt of around Rs 52,000 crore, of which about Rs 33,000 crore is on account of working capital loans.
New Delhi: In a bid to forge opposition unity, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday met UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and stressed the need for the Congress to be part of a front to take on the BJP.

The meeting took place at Gandhis 10, Janpath residence and lasted for around 20 minutes. During the meeting, the two leaders are understood to have discussed the present political scenario and the strategy to defeat the BJP in the next general elections and in various state elections due this year.

"I told Sonia ji, we want the Congress to be part of the united opposition," Banerjee told reporters after the meeting. She also said that she wanted the Congress to win Karnataka, as it was strong there. "I am 100 per cent sure, when there is one single fight, the BJP will go," she said.

"I have told Sonia ji what the country wants is that there should be a state-wise one-to-one fight against the BJP. Whichever party is the strongest in the state should contest in that state against the BJP, she said.

"I have also discussed this issue with Sonia ji. The talks which we are having with the regional parties, we are trying to work together....We want the Congress also to be part of that," Banerjee added.

After today's meeting, she also alleged that in a bid to "finish democracy in the country, the BJP is spreading atrocities". "Apart from political vendatta, the BJP does not do anything for the people of the country," she claimed.

The West Bengal chief minister said the Congress should also help the "one-on-one fight" in the states and added that parties which had an alliance with the Congress would carry on with the tie-ups. "Lalu (Yadav) ji and Sharad (Yadav) ji have an alliance with the Congress. Their alliance will continue," she said, adding that the opposition party which was the strongest in a state should be supported by the others to oust the BJP.

The chief minister is in Delhi to hold talks with various parties in a bid to form a united front against the BJP and bring together opposition parties on one platform. She also met a host of other opposition leaders during her two-day visit, including NCP supremo Sharad Pawar and leaders of some regional parties, including NDA ally Shiv Sena.

The BJP was critical of Banerjee, with Union minister Prakash Javadekar slamming her for the incidents of violence during Ram Navami processions in West Bengal. Javadekar alleged that while her state was "burning", she was "doing politics" in the national capital.

Peaceful Ram Navami processions were attacked by Trinamool Congress (TMC) "thugs" in the state, Javadekar told reporters here.

"Bengal is burning and Mamata is doing politics in Delhi. It is like Nero fiddled while Rome was burning," he said and showed pictures of alleged violence that took place during the processions.
Lucknow: A few days after West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee came out in support of Maywati, the BSP supremo has reciprocated.

In a statement released on Wednesday, she expressed solidarity with Banerjee and slammed the central government for adopting double standards with state governments on the basis of whether they are led by the BJP or its rival parties.

Referring to the recent episodes of violence in Bihar and Bengal, she said that the central government has asked details of violence in the former but has not asked for any details from Bihar government as they have are also a part of the coalition there.

"Mamata Banerjee stands correct in taking strict action against those instigating riots but the central government is raising questions about it. This is shocking and sad. But in a similar case in Bihar, the government there is out to save the son of a union minister," Mayawati said.

She was hinting towards Arjit Shashwat, son of Union minister of state Ashwini Kumar Choubey, who was recently booked for allegedly inciting communal passion by taking out an unauthourised procession in Bhagalpur town.

She recalled that communal riots had taken place in Kasganj area of Uttar Pradesh when a 'tiranga yatra' was taken out allegedly "without permission".

"It seems the BJP has made it a fashion to take out yatras and display firearms and this needs to be strictly dealt with. This can happen only when the central government works in a just and unbiased manner which has not been seen so far," Mayawati said.

Mayawati's support for Mamata comes just a couple of days after the West Bengal CM had thanked her for taking on the BJP and amid talks of regional parties joining hands to form a federal front for the 2019 general elections.

After Mayawati had asserted that her party's understanding with the Samajwadi Party (SP) would not be affected by the defeat in the Rajya Sabha polls and that she would not allow the BJP's "design" to create a rift between the two parties to succeed, Banerjee had tweeted that she was strongly with her.

Banerjee has already spoken with NCP chief Sharad Pawar, DMK leader MK Stalin, Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackaray and TRS chief and Telengana chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao to build a united opposition.
New Delhi: BJP general secretary Ram Madhav on Wednesday said that too much was being made out of the tax allocation issue and the divide between north and south India.

While saying that he understands the difficulties that would arise for progressive states if 15th Financial Commission takes 2011 Census as basis for division of funds, Madhav said that these states are not exclusive to south India.

Talking to CNN-News18, he said, Progressive states are not just in south India. They are in other parts as well." Madhav said that he had recently met Financial Commission chairman NK Singh and was assured that the panel wouldnt do any injustice and progressive states will get their share.

"I dont want to take their names (of progressive states) for political reasons, but I know for sure that taking the 2011 census as basis for 15th Finance Commission will cause some difficulty to some states that have focused so much in the sphere of population regulation in the last 30 years, he said.

He also accused Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah of using the issue to play politics. This is all politics over whatever is available to them. The 15th Finance Commission will start its work later this year, maybe next month. It will not submit work to this government but next one which will come to power in 2019, Madhav said.

This mean Siddaramaiah thinks that in 2019 also, there will be a BJP government, which it will be. But our larger issue is that all states should get justice, he added.

Over that last couple of days, political parties from all the southern states have expressed alarm at the change in criterion. Siddaramaiah and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu have been very vocal on the issue. Kerala finance Minister Thomas Issac has also called a meeting between all the finance ministers of southern states to formulate a common response.

But Madhav dismissed the statements by Siddaramaiah and other non-BJP chief ministers of south Indian states as fear politicking.

Birds of same feather, they will do this. These parties trying to create a rift between states, which is not good for us, he said.

This is all fear politicking...trying to divide country. Right now youre going geographically where you are trying to create artificial divide between south & north when it doesnt exist. As I said, progressive states are there in all parts of country...People like Siddaramaiah, for their sheer political ends, are trying to create artificial divide between north & south. It doesnt exist, Madhav added.

The 15th Finance Commission has been asked to submit its report by the end of October 2019. Its recommendations would be valid for five year period beginning April 1, 2020.
Relations between countries look easy on the surface but are complicated in reality.

That is why we see the diplomatic movements between Uganda and Rwanda as a very sobering experience for the two neighbours.

Such relations have always been a difficult bravado given the historical relations between the two countries leaders and geographical proximity.

The Uganda-Rwanda relationship has always been intertwined with political developments that have spanned decades. At the center of the relationship is the very important and sensitive question of protection of refugees and those who flee from persecution. Uganda has been a home to Rwandan refugees from way back in 1959 to date.

And these refugees as of necessity are interested in what is happening in Rwanda. So, when you hear anecdotal statements such as there is no fundamental problem between Uganda and Rwanda, just know that there is a big problem.

The failure by President Museveni to attend the African Union extraordinary summit in Kigali last week and the refusal of President Paul Kagame to attend the East Africa Community summit in Kampala earlier are telling of whence the relationship between the two countries has gone.

So, there has been some disquiet between Kampala and Kigali for some time now. Kigali has been unhappy ever since a group of about 40 young men were intercepted intending to travel through Tanzania and Burundi using Ugandan passports with intentions of going over to Democratic Republic of Congo, where there are simmering tensions over the security of Rwanda.

Uganda, on the other hand, has its own version of what it considers irrevocable things that Rwanda has done on a number of individuals who have sought asylum in Uganda. Because of the proximity of the two countries and their geographical and social relations, it is easy to know what happens over the border.

So, when I saw the aura and seemingly easy meeting between President Museveni and Paul Kagame over the weekend, it dawned on me that it was diplomacy at its best.

But behind the curtain are very serious unresolved matters and given time and space, the same matters will raise their ugly faces once more.

Currently, President Kagame is the chairperson of the African Union and has been spearheading reforms of the continental body.

So, for him to find the humility to decide to visit his old mentor, and not Museveni visiting him, is a sign of maturity. And that Museveni skipped the AU summit in Kigali that was essentially discussing a topic close to his heart was also telling.

Does Kampala lose anything by being at odds with Kigali? Does Kigali lose anything by quarrelling with Kampala? If the geographical, political and economic factors were well understood, it makes sense that Rwanda keeps safe relations with Uganda.

Other than being its easiest friendly neighbour and the route to the Mombasa seaport, Uganda has a long historical affinity with Rwandans, particularly those in government.

Kampala could easily be counted as the second home of the major actors in Rwanda and, given the geographical setting in the region, there is no other place Rwanda would like to look.

Save for Uganda, the other neighbours of Rwanda are not very friendly. Burundi, with President Pierre Nkurunziza, has not minced words about its relationships with Kigali. With counteraccusations of harbouring dissidents and supporting opposition elements, Kigali has not known how well to deal with Bujumbura.

Across the other border of DRC lies possibly the most worrying group for the entire Rwanda, with the threat of Hutu rebels lurking near the border. Its a matter that will hang around for some time, now 24 years after the 1994 genocide.

On the eastern part of the country lies Tanzania, which is simply unpredictable, depending on the temperament of the leader in office.

When immediate former president Jakaya Kikwete suggested that Kigali holds dialogue with the Hutu rebels based in DRC, Kagame nearly went to war with Tanzania. At one point, President Kagame showed grit and anger when he said he would get Kikwete and strike at him hard where it hurts most.

Thus, for all this, Uganda becomes the safest and natural easy border that affords Rwanda the rear that is needed. The East African Community configuration notwithstanding, there are more Rwandans that have social and economic affiliations to Uganda. So, keeping the doors open works well for them.

I was recently at Chanika post on the Uganda- Rwanda border in Kisoro that is probably one of those places where you wonder why we have border posts.

Locals crisscross this imaginary border with ease without the hassles of identity; the only identity you need is for you to look like an ordinary villager and not cause any sort of suspicion. Just dont look affluent. And as a good national, dont argue with any customs or immigration official. You will be safe.

The author is a human rights expert.
Mumbai: Did the Maharashtra Chief Ministers Office order 18,591 cups of tea every day during the year 2017-18? This is a question one would ask after looking at the reply given to an RTI query.

According to Mumbai Regional Congress Committee president Sanjay Nirupam, the Chief Ministers office has spent around 3.4 crores on tea consumption in the year 2017-18. He also termed this as a tea scam. The RTI reply which Nirupam is referring to shows a steady increase in the amount of money being spent on the consumption of tea and snacks at the Chief Minister's office from 2015-2016 to 2017-2018. The amount spent on tea in the year 2015-16 was Rs 57, 99,150, whereas it rose to Rs 3, 34, 64,904 in 2017-18 which is a staggering increase of 577 percent.

Sanjay Nirupam said Tea worth 3.34 crores has been consumed by the Chief Ministers office, if we go by this number than 18,591 people have consumed tea at the Chief Ministers Office in one day. Do so many people visit the Chief Ministers office in a Day? Nirupam also alleged that inflated bills of tea have been produced and demanded an investigation. Inflated bills of tea have been produced, this is a huge tea scam that has taken place in Chief Ministers office. This should be investigated, he said.

The Chief Ministers office has issued a clarification on the allegation made by Sanjay Nirupam. The statement issued by Chief Ministers office stated that the amount mentioned in the RTI reply is not just for tea, but for several other expenses. The statement released by the CMO states, The amount stated includes various other expenses such as snacks and lunch during meetings, expenses of flowers, mementos, gifts given during felicitation and hosting of guests. The expenses are not only of Chief Ministers office, but also of his office at the Mantralay, Sahyadri Guest House, Varsha residence, Ramgiri residence at Nagpur and Hyderabad House.

Chief Ministers office has also said that the expense has not increased by 577 percent as the bills submitted in a year also includes bills of previous year which were not submitted on time. The statement further stated that the number of meetings have also increased in the recent years increasing the amount of expenses The number of meeting have increased recently. Several national and international delegations, representatives from various organisations visit the Chief Ministers office and also Mantralay. Even the cost of products has increased due to which the expenses of hosting the guests have increased.

This allegation of Nirupam has come a week after BJP leader and former Maharashtra minister Eknath Khadse alleged a scam in the way contract to kill over 3 lakh rats in Mantralaya was executed in mere seven days.
New Delhi: Disgruntled BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha on Wednesday indicated he may contest the next Lok Sabha election on a different party ticket, saying leaders like him were "unfairly treated" from the day the Modi government was formed.

But the Bollywood-actor-turned politician also made it clear that he would not shift from the Patna Sahib constituency seat in Bihar from where he has been elected to the Lok Sabha.

"I have offers from other parties. Whether I serve through my party or some other parties or even contest independently, it hardly matters," he said.

"There were rumours in the last elections too that I will not get ticket from the BJP. But I got the ticket. (In 2014) My name was announced at the last moment from the same seat. Now, I am again hearing these rumours," Sinha said.

The former minister said he won from his seat with a record margin. "I broke previous records and got the highest vote share in the country. Why will I not be given ticket?"

Asked if he was being "ill-treated" in the BJP, Sinha replied in the affirmative.

"As they are my own people, I can't speak about their behaviour to outsiders in detail... My party knows it hurt me. Not just now but from day one when this government came to power."

Asked why he was not quitting the party, Sinha said: "Why doesn't the party quit me? I did not join the party to leave it. Several people were unfairly treated in the party.

"Look at our friend, philosopher and ultimate guru Lal Krishna Advani. From two seats to almost 200 seats, the party grew mainly under his leadership. Where is he today? He could have been anything. He has been like a guardian of the party."
The BJP has been trying hard to expand their footprint in South India. CNN-News18's Marya Shakil talks to the man tasked with that objective, Ram Madhav, who talks about the accusations that the Centre was financially discriminating against southern states in favour of the northern ones, the issue of special status for Andhra Pradesh, the Lingayat question in Karnataka and much more.

You had a meeting with Financial Commission chairman NK Singh. Is BJP worried that an anti-south party tag is hurting it?

My meeting with chairman of 15th financial commission was about new terms of reference, handed down to commission by President of India. We had talked about the issue that 2011 census is going to be basis for population growth, we had reservations about that, because we thought it will do injustice to progressive states. Progressive states, not just in south India, in other parts as well. Dont want to take their names for political reasons, but I know for sure that taking the 2011 census as basis for 15th Finance Commission will cause some difficulty to some states that have focused so much in the sphere of population regulation in the last 30 years. Earlier the 1971 census was used so we basically wanted to know is now what is the reality from him (NK Singh). What we are reading in papers is true or not. He reassured us that planning commission wouldnt do any injustice to our state and progressive states will get their share.

How are you looking at statement of Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah, who has accused the Centre of discriminating against states?

This is all politics over whatever is available to them. The 15th Finance Commission will start its work later this year, maybe next month. It will not submit work to this government but next one which will come to power in 2019. This mean Siddaramaiah thinks that in 2019 also, there will be a BJP government, which it will be. But our larger issue is that all states should get justice.

What about this argument that balance of fiscal power is shifting to northern states that are less productive, while southern states contribute much more?

This is all fear politicking... trying to divide country. Right now youre going geographically where you are trying to create artificial divide between south & north when it doesnt exist. As I said, progressive states are there in all parts of country, Im not demeaning other states. They have all achieved certain benchmarks. People like Siddaramaiah, for their sheer political ends, are trying to create artificial divide between north & south. It doesnt exist.

CM of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan, has supported Siddaramaiah. He has asked all CMs of 5 south states to come together and unite.

Birds of same feather, they will do this. These parties trying to create a rift between states and states, which is not good for us.

Has the BJP been caught off guard on question of minority status to Lingayats? Now that seer of influential muth has said that he is supporting Siddaramaiah rather than supporting BJP president Amit Shah who has been in Karnataka trying to unite various muths.

Our party president has made it clear that his visit was to seek blessings of Lingayat leadership, it wasnt political visit. Whether to use such issues for political ends. Now whether or not to use such issues for political ends is for parties to use their wisdom. Although state government enjoys certain powers, for a particular community to be declared minority, should it be used as a political weapon, is something that the parties have to choose, I dont want to say anything beyond that.

The BJP is projecting Congress as anti-Hindu party calling the Lingayat religious campaign as a divisive one. Do you think it will earn dividends post May 15th?

Congress party is trying to project this. They first said they are being accused of being anti-Hindu, we did not. Now they are trying very hard to prove the point. This temple hopping thats going on is their own over-zealousness to prove themselves as pro-Hindu. As far as we are concerned, Congress has history of communalising politics, of playing appeasement politics, polarised politics, this is what we have always highlighted and will continue to highlight this character of the Congress party.

But seers of these Maths are saying that such a move by Siddaramaiah would act as a unifier of Lingayats

A critical question to be looked at is something that is purely religious, if what Lingayat leaders are saying is true, should we really use it as a political weapon in elections? Thats an important question.

But hasnt BJP done that in the past?

No, never for electoral purposes. We never tried to divide Hindus. Rather, we tried to create oneness, so our doing such things question doesnt arise. We have always held that we dont believe in appeasement politics, Im only talking of politicising issue. If a community wants certain favours, certain status, such things have happened in the past also. Even respected organisations like Ramakrishna Mission wanted minority status in West Bengal. Those things have happened in past also, but you cant blame BJP for playing appeasement politics.

It is being said that Siddaramaiah playing by BJP's electoral playbook, he's pre-empting every electoral move of BJP, be it on question of Kannada pride, sub-nationalist identity, on the question of Hindi language

Siddaramaiah trying to play utterly divisive politics. By invoking north-south divide, by invoking anti-BJP sentiments, he is trying to use issues as emotive issues to garner votes. He is seeing defeat staring him in their face, which is why he's resorting to these techniques.

What about Rahul Gandhi's charge that JD (S) is the B-team of BJP?

People will laugh at it. They have seen (Congress) government with JD (S) in Karnataka, they cannot blame BJP for using JD (S) as b-team. As far as we are concerned, we are confident that we will get required numbers in Karnataka.

Now that the question of minority status to Lingayats is pending with Centre, because notification has to be moved and approved by it. What is the government's stand?

I dont know, this decision taken by the cabinet and government, lets wait.

In Karnataka, Telugu people have started a campaign, they are saying BJP has betrayed people of Andhra Pradesh, they have betrayed on Andhra Pradesh reorganisation. Given that they are a substantial number in close to 20 constituencies, do you think itll hurt BJP?

Lets not come to conclusion that everyone in Andhra Pradesh is TDP supporter. Its not that way, and this entire propaganda of the TDP that BJP is hurting interests of Andhra people is not bought by people of Andhra Pradesh either. People of Andhra Pradesh are getting up and questioning TDP corruption and many more things. So, to conclude (that) all of Andhra Pradesh (is) behind Telugu Desam, and then to conclude that everyone outside Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka (is) supporting them is an exaggeration. We have strong leadership in Telugu speaking areas of Karnataka also, remember they are all voters of Karnataka state. For them, Karnataka's interest (is) paramount and they believe in BJP as the real party to secure interests of (the) state.

Is BJP worried?

Not at all, every election a challenge, we take every election very seriously. The issues, if they impact any section of voters like you are saying that sentiment in Andhra Pradesh will impact, then we take note of it and address it.

The Centre says they have fulfilled their promises. Why is it that neither the YSR Congress nor the TDP believes you?

These two parties are politicising the whole issue, the debate should have been centred on developmental issues. They have moved away from development to utter, sheer politics now, it's the politicization of a development discourse. For us, the state of Andhra Pradesh, a new state, it needed a lot of support from the centre. The Government of India has extended a lot of support in the last four years. Our party president has sent a detailed note in the form of a letter to the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. We have given so much, Naidu can say anything but facts cannot be denied. The letter is full of facts and figures and that cannot be denied. On the contrary, the propaganda the TDP is unleashing is full of lies.

Of the 19 demands in the AP Reorganization act, one example is that of the railway zone in Vizag which has been denied by the Centre

When did we deny it? You show me one statement when we have denied it. These 19 demands were to be fulfilled in 10 years, there is a timespan for that. We have not denied the railway zone, we have not denied anything except the tag of special category state or 'special status' after the promulgation of 14th Finance Commission. The implementation of those recommendations, it has become untenable for us to extend this tag to any state except the north-eastern states. That is the only thing we said we cannot probably do and mind you, that is not part of the document of the new state creation.

All other things, we are committed to fulfilling them. There are so many things that were supposed to (be) completed in 10 years, we have completed in 3 years. Those which have not been completed in 4 years, they are taking that up and they are not talking about that also, they are just talking about the tag of the special category.

Our point is, as far as those 19 issues are concerned, it is a development debate. You can argue with us, you can fight with us. But they are only fighting on an emotive issue which is special category status that means that they are misleading people of Andhra Pradesh. It's not the status, it's development which is needed. Its not sentiment that is needed.

We are committed to the development of Andhra Pradesh as much as Naidu or Jaganmohan Reddy put together.

Coming to the special package, TDP is saying that you will give something that will (be) equivalent to a special status, but no guidelines have been fixed till now

Not true. So many rounds of discussions have happened. Since I was not part of those discussions, I am not privy to what went on. But our leaders have told us that in all these meeting(s) there were so many occasions where the AP government has agreed to take a certain package from the state and then backed off, as late as of February this year. They were supposed to come up with a new financial vehicle to take money from the centre, we are ready with Rs 9,300 crores of development money and they had agreed to take it. The only question was under which instrument they will take it, finally, they backed out.

On Rs 2500 crores for development of Amravati, the Naidu government is saying that they have submitted utilisation certificates, Rs 1500 crore was for the development of capital, and Rs 1000 crores was used for the building of secretariat and roads leading to it

Fair enough, they will get all the additional money from the centre. The money that was given, that was spent, they will even get more money, they have got much more money. They are only talking about Rs 2500 crores, they have gotten many more things in those 4 years under the 14th Finance Commission. They got 42 percent of the share, from 32 to 43 percent they got a huge rise in their share of central revenues.

There is a specific charge against you, that you are trying to weaken regional parties. The reason why Naidu is making this move is because you are pitting him against YSR Congress and also encouraging Pawan Kalyan in this process

First of all TDP and YSR Congress are 2 big parties, they are opposition to each other. We dont have to pit them against each other, they are already against each other. They fought against each other in the last elections. They are two big parties, who are we to pit them against each other? So this whole 'rona dhona' is uncalled for.

Is the BJP in touch with Jaganmohan Reddy?

Absolutely not. These are the lies that TDP is propagating, that is the whole crux of the issue. They face a real challenge from the regional party, so in order to get out of that they are inventing issues and using lies to blame the Centre.

But are you not worried that perhaps K Chandrashekar Rao and Naidu could come together and this entire perception of BJP being anti-south could gain momentum because Naidu has also said that you are collecting funds from southern states and moving it towards the north?

A. Shows the level of maturity of the leaders who are making those arguments. If we go that by argument than many more such arguments will follow, someone in Rayalaseema stood up and said that in Andhra Pradesh, Rayalaseema is being subjected to great injustice, and Naidu was very unhappy that someone is raising the issue of Rayalaseema now. If you start dividing the country, there is no end to it. We are committed to extending our full support to Andhra Pradesh. As far as politics is concerned, Naidu was with us till one month ago, he left us before also. Now he wants to have another tent, let him go to that front. He is free, this is a democracy.

is there any possibility of Naidu returning?

I don't know. You should ask him, not me.

There are talks of a federal front again, as we see before every election...

As I said before, first of all, Mamata Banerjee was here. She was talking about the third front, we want to know what is the second front in this country. If there is already a third front, already there is a fourth front. Lunch diplomacy in Calcutta, dinner diplomacy in Delhi. We are not worried.

That means for 2019, it is BJP vs all, Modi vs all?

Thats a very good point you're making. It shows that the opposition, no single party today is confident enough to take on BJP, that much is clear. So holy, unholy alliances, efforts will go on. Let them try because we are here to tackle any sort of challenge. In 2019, we are going to go back to the people with Modiji as our leader and five years of our governance and its achievements. With that we're going to the people.

But one partnership has actually worked in UP, BSP and SP coming together. Are you not worried?

No, not at all. So many elections have happened in this very year, we have won handsomely in a number of states, end of last year we won in Himachal, Gujarat. This year, we had three governments, we have dethroned Congress in one state. One or two by-elections, they are a wakeup call for us, we will definitely try and understand what went wrong but to say that there is demoralization. etc., it is farfetched.

In the North East, do you see the BJPs growth there as an organic growth? The view is this that the north-eastern states invariably ally with the Centre...

Then tell me why there was a Communist government when there was a Congress government in the Centre? Take the case of Tripura, why there was an NPF government in Nagaland when there was a Congress government in Delhi. These are arguments of losers, they want to hide their defeat in the last elections, hide their failures. They say that just because BJP is in power in Delhi, they are allying with them. BJP has done a lot of hard work on the ground, its base has expanded in the north-east. I attribute special importance to two victories, one is in Tripura and the other in Nagaland. A state of more than 95 percent Christian population today has the deputy CM from BJP, 12 MLAs in the 60 member legislature are from BJP with 16 percent vote share. Similarly is Tripura, which came from Communist parties stranglehold to the BJP with two third majority.

In Nagaland and Meghalaya, there have been protests in the assemblies against Hindi. Are you not somewhere moving away from the cultural diversity that India stands for?

First of all, there is no Hindi push. People are free to use their mother tongue, whatever language they are used to, they are free to use that. There is no push from our side. But remember Hindi is one of the important national languages of this country, our official language. So, if a particular person uses Hindi, it shouldn't be seen as somebody is imposing it on them. Where is the question of any imposition?

Regarding Jammu and Kashmir, since you are in charge of the state as well, Minister of State for Home Affairs, Hansraj Ahir, said in the Lok Sabha that the government of India has no proposal of scrapping Article 370. Isn't this completely different from the stand of the BJP?

Parliament questions are specific to that time. There was a question whether there was any move to scrap Article 370 before the government today, he said no, there is no such move. That does not represent any ideological position, just the position and the activity of the government on the given day. That is the reply he had to give. As far as the ideological position is concerned, in our agenda of alliance in Kashmir, we said PDP and BJP have two different positions on Article 370. These are ideological positions, but for them to materialise there needs to be a conducive atmosphere in the parliament. It is utterly wrong to interpret that our ideological position has diluted or we have shifted from that position. But as a government, what is the present status that we have to tell the country through the parliament.

Let me (be) specific this time and go back to the question that I asked before, is BJP an anti-south party?

Absolutely not, we were in power in Karnataka. We have been partners in the Andhra Pradesh government till 15 days ago, and we are trying to expand our footprints in the other two states also. To say that we are anti any region is an utter falsehood. South is very important for us, very dear to us.
Bengaluru: The poll-battle has shifted South with the Election Commission announcing Karnataka Assembly elections on May 12.

The BJP is pushing to make inroads into the South with Karnataka. However, the fall-out of "Special Status" row in Andhra Pradesh, may have an impact on the partys prospects.

Telugu people are the third largest ethnic group in Karnataka and play a decisive role in determining the election outcome in regions bordering the two states. The Telugu voters have a sizable population in about 20 Assembly constituencies. In Bengaluru itself, one-third of the population is Telugu.

With growing resentment against the BJP-ruled Centre, over the denial of Special Category Status for Andhra Pradesh, the Telugu voter in Karnataka are expected to vote against the BJP, thus playing in favour of the Congress.

There are various campaigns being run on social media against the Centre for not according Andhras demand and the community is well aware of the injustice meted out to the state.

Madhusudhan, vice president of Telugu Association Bangalore told News18, "The people here also feel betrayed. We are protesting and running campaigns on social media to push for justice. The various Telugu associations in Karnataka are openly discussing the idea of not voting for the BJP."

Speaking to News18, Rakesh, a member of the Bangalore TDP forum said, "All Telugu people, settled in any part of the country or world, are feeling the same anger and disappointment. What the BJP-led Centre has done, is complete injustice. During Karnataka elections, we will show our impact and teach the party a lesson."

Meanwhile, the BJP has roped in leaders from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to campaign in areas with heavy Telugu populations.

Krishna Sagar Rao, Telangana BJP spokesperson said, "The people, while voting, consider local issues that concern them. Hence, we dont see much impact. Leaders from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have been assigned campaigns to outline the promises which have been fulfilled and the various efforts of the BJP-led Centre for the Telugu people in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and all over the country."
Hyderabad: In an unprecedented move, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday played chunks of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speeches before and after winning elections on the big screen especially put up inside the state Assembly, before attacking him and the Centre for not granting Special Status.

In one section, Modi in an election campaign in the state, said, "I want to assure you if send me to Delhi, then the promise of Special Status, will be fulfilled also and extended also."

"Standing here in Amaravati, I want to assure the people of Andhra Pradesh that all the promises mentioned in the Reorganisation Act will be fulfilled by the government of India," Modi had said while laying the foundation stone of new capital Amaravati, after coming to power.

Hitting at BJP-led Centre for undemocratically adjourning the House and not allowing no-confidence motion, Naidu said, "I am asking for the justice. Instead of doing that, the Centre and BJP are counter-attacking us. We want discussion, and government to inform to people how Bill was passed, what promises were made, what all has been fulfilled and what all not delivered. The Government has to tell truth to people. But they are behaving irresponsibly, they come for 5 minutes and leave."

Demanding direct answers from the Prime Minister, Naidu said, "We have submitted all the utilization certificates for central funds. But the BJP leaders are spreading open lies that no UC is submitted. As a chief minister of the state, I am asking this question to prime minister. Are you aware of all this? I demand answers from you."

"I knew BJP would try to put blame on me, so I was careful and prepared to show all records. This is only their tactics to divert from real issue. In future also BJP government will try to blame us for some reason or other and not release funds to state. BJP is cheating the state for temporary political benefit, but for country as a whole this is not right thing, Naidu added.

While informing the House about resolutions passed at all party meet, Naidu also hit out at YSR Congress and Jana Sena for not attending the all-party meeting.

"Only 3 parties did not participate, YSRCP, Jana Sena and BJP. All these three parties, have political motives and talking against the state government, instead of fighting against the Centre collectively for the rights of the state," Naidu said.

A resolution was passed in all-party meeting of various political parties and organisation fighting for Special Status that all promises made in AP reorganization act must be fulfilled. Calling for a united fight, Naidu assured that another all-party meeting will take place so that more people can be roped in for collective fight for Special Status.
Apple has unveiled a new 9.7-inch iPad that will be available for schools in the US for just $299 ($329 for consumers) and some classroom software.

In India, the popular iPad with support for Apple Pencil will be available from April, starting at Rs 28,000.

The new iPad features a large retina display, the A10 Fusion chip and advanced sensors that help deliver immersive augmented reality, and provides unmatched portability, ease of use and all-day battery life.

"This new 9.7-inch iPad takes everything people love about our most popular iPad and makes it even better for inspiring creativity and learning," Greg Joswiak, Apple's Vice President of Product Marketing, said in a statement.

Also read: Apple Launches iPad For Students With Support For Augmented Reality, Apple Pencil

"This iPad also has advanced cameras and sensors that enable incredible AR experiences simply not possible on other devices," he added.

First introduced for iPad Pro, Apple Pencil has become a popular and versatile tool among students, professionals and creative professionals and is now available to even more customers.

Advanced sensors measure both pressure and tilt, and provide pixel-perfect accuracy and low latency for activities in apps like Notability, Pages, Numbers, Keynote and Microsoft Office.

The new iPad features the Apple-designed A10 Fusion chip with 64-bit desktop-class architecture, delivering 40 percent faster CPU and 50 percent faster graphics performance for seamless multitasking and graphics-intensive apps.

The front- and rear-facing cameras offer exceptional low-light performance and HD video recording for document scanning, moviemaking and "FaceTime" calls.

iPad start at Rs 28,000 for the 32GB with Wi-Fi model and Rs 38,600 for the 32GB Wi-Fi + Cellular model. Apple Pencil is available for purchase separately for Rs 7,600.

Also read: Huawei P20, P20 Pro With Triple Camera-Lens Setup Launched: Price, Specifications And More

"We believe that technology could help deliver a truly unique and personalized experience to students and teachers," said Apple CEO Tim Cook at the education-focused event here.

In the US schools, 60 per cent laptops and computers use Google software, followed by Apple's iOS at 12.3 per cent and MacOS at 4.7 per cent.

The new iPad for schools comes with 200GB of free iCloud storage -- up from 5GB.

Apple also released some new classroom software and a creative curriculum called "Everyone Can Create".

A new free app "Schoolwork" lets teachers distribute handouts, make assignments, assign specific activities within apps, check on students' progress.

WATCH VIDEO: Samsung Flip First Look | Convert Any Space Into Smart Meeting Room
New York: Maziar Hashemi, a naturalized U.S. citizen who lives in Massachusetts, has been told by doctors that his best hope for surviving a rare form of blood cancer is a bone marrow transplant.

President Donald Trumps travel ban could make that impossible.

Bone marrow transplants require a close match between donor and recipient. A few months after his diagnosis last September, Hashemi, 60, learned that his brother in Iran, Kamiar Hashemi, was a rare 100-percent match. The only problem was Kamiars nationality.

The latest travel ban, issued as a presidential proclamation and implemented on December 8 after months of legal wrangling, bars most travellers to the United States from Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Chad and North Korea, as well as certain government officials from Venezuela. Although the ban allows for case-by-case waivers to be granted, including for medical need, Kamiar Hashemi has so far been denied a visa.

Attorneys who regularly deal with visa issues say the waiver process is opaque. Visa applicants arent allowed to apply for waivers; they are simply granted or not without explanation. U.S. officials won't say how they make their decisions or how long they generally take.

A U.S. State Department official told Reuters that since the ban took effect, more than 375 waivers have been approved but he declined to say how many total visa applications have been filed from countries covered by the ban. He said he could not comment on the specifics of Hashemis case.

Kamiar Hashemi began the visa application process soon after learning he was a match for his brother. In February, the 57-year-old small business owner travelled to Armenia to be interviewed at the U.S. embassy there, since there is no embassy in Iran.

Later on the day of the interview, Kamiars brother back in Massachusetts checked the status of the application on the State Department's website. A pop-up window announced in bright blue letters: "Refused."

Waivers can later be granted to applicants initially refused for visas, according to the State Department, so Maziar Hashemi continued checking the website each day, but his brothers status hasnt changed. He hired an immigration lawyer, Mahsa Khanbabai, hoping she might smooth the way.

'Transparent as Mud'

The Trump administration has said travel restrictions are needed to protect the United States from terrorism.

Critics have challenged the latest ban, as they did previous versions, saying that it discriminates against Muslims. Six of the eight countries included in the current ban are majority Muslim.

Under the current proclamation, waivers can be granted in cases where denying entry would cause undue hardship, when the individual is found not to be a threat and when their entry is in the national interest.

The proclamation lists ten examples of situations in which an applicant might be eligible for a waiver. One reason mentioned is an applicants need for urgent medical care, something that comes close but doesnt exactly fit the Hashemis situation, since it isnt Kamiar Hashemi, himself, in urgent need.

The State Department has declined to provide details of how waiver decisions are made beyond some general answers to frequently asked questions posted on its website. But a State Department letter obtained by Reuters earlier this month said "there is no waiver form to be completed" and that applicants who fall into the categories outlined in the proclamation "must be considered" for one.

The process is as transparent as mud, said Hashemis attorney Khanbabai. There are no clear guidelines. Its difficult to figure out what the process is and who is actually doing the processing.

Nevertheless, Khanbabai submitted a packet of information on the Hashemis behalf to the embassy on March 19, including a letter from Massachusetts General Hospital explaining that a perfect match for a bone marrow transplant is very rare and could provide the only viable treatment for Maziar Hashemis Myelodysplastic syndrome.

Worried about the ticking clock, Kamiar Hashemi looked into travelling to India to have his bone marrow harvested there and rushed to the United States, but that option was also thwarted.

A non-profit organisation trying to facilitate the transfer, Be The Match, said it had to pull out after its legal team concluded that Kamiars bone marrow couldnt be exported to the United States because of U.S. sanctions on Iranian exports.

"Can you imagine that the cells of an Iranian needed in order to help a U.S. citizen are embargoed?" said Maziar Hashemi, a civil engineer who has lived in the United States since the 1970s.

"It is just unfair," he said in a phone interview. "I cannot wait much longer."
New Delhi: Just days after Maldives Ambassador to China Mohamed Faisal said India is a brother, but China is like a long-lost cousin found, asserting that his country would push ahead with Chinese projects despite New Delhi's concerns, Maldivian Ambassador to India Ahmed Mohamed said that said that the former was reiterating the relationship that the island nation has with India.

He represented the relationship as a family unit. India is a brother which means it is closer, and indeed we are also (geographically). Maldives still follows a India first policy, he said.

Faisal had further asserted that his country would push ahead with Chinese projects despite New Delhi's concerns. He claimed that the Maldives has taken a number of projects to India for finance "but we did not receive the necessary finance.

It is true. India was offered participation in the development projects but some of our other developmental partners responded quicker, hence they got the projects. Time was of essence and we could not have waited, Ahmed said, in an exclusive conversation with News18. The projects that were offered to India include the Hulhumale housing project, Velana Airport development among others.

India has been particularly concerned about developments in Maldives because China is looking to occupy India's place in being the primary player and associate of the tiny Island country. Both India and China have been keenly following the developments in Maldives for the past few weeks. While China has invested millions of dollars in the country through its One Belt One Road (OBOR) projects, India is looking not to lose its strategic grip in the area. Tensions between both countries have risen since emergency was imposed in the state and both countries are said to have put their warships in standby mode.

No Direct Communication From India On Crisis

Ahmed also said that Maldives was looking for a visit from the Indian side so that they could understand the situation in Maldives. We need visible engagement and visits either from India to Maldives or the other way round. We only hear of what India thinks from a third party. There has been limited direct communication from India, he added.

Just days after India reiterated, yet again, that Maldives must implement its February 1 Supreme Court order in full, the Ambassador said that Indias statement was not justified and basically meant going back to square one for the island nation. He also said that public statements made by the government only showed the misunderstanding that exists between the two nations.

Their statement is not justified. The state of emergency was declared because of the February 1 order, which is beyond the provisions of our Constitution. Calling to implement that order in full, according to us, is asking us to go back to square one, he told News18. The February 1 order of the Maldivian Supreme Court overturned the convictions of political prisoners, including that of its exiled former president Mohamed Nasheed.

There is a misunderstanding between the two countries in terms of understanding the situation in Maldives. Each of us a sovereign nation. When India says implement it, we say we cant because they dont know what went behind the declaration of the state of emergency, he further said.

The Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday welcomed Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen lifting the state of Emergency after 45 days but also reiterated that the island nation must implement the Maldivian Supreme Courts February 1 order.

The Maldivian foreign ministry in response said that public statements made without genuine regard to facts and ground realities of the situation in the Maldives are not helpful at all to ensure a stable, peaceful and prosperous Maldives that meets the aspirations of its citizens. India had three decades ago militarily intervened and ended a coup restoring democracy in the country.
Naypyitaw: Myanmar's parliament on Wednesday picked a close ally of de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi as the country's new president, a move unlikely to affect a delicate balance of power in a country where the army has retained a large political role.

Win Myint, who a week ago resigned from his post as the lower house speaker, was chosen by both chambers of the parliament where Suu Kyi's ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party holds a comfortable majority.

The outgoing president, Htin Kyaw, who was also close to Suu Kyi, retired "in order to take rest from the current duties and responsibilities" amid visible weight loss and speculation over his health.

The election of the 66-year-old Win Myint, who is a life-long NLD member, is likely to mean a continuation of Suu Kyi's dominance over the executive and little change to the course taken by her nearly two-year-old administration, lawmakers and analysts say.

Win Myint won the election with 403 votes out of 636 cast by lawmakers. The parliament speaker did not say when Win Myint would be sworn in, although the ceremony was expected to take place on Thursday.

"There won't be policy changes. The policy will continue as previously under the former president," said Kyaw Tote, a lawmaker from the NLD.

The president is the head of state and government in Myanmar, and under the constitution has far-reaching powers. However, Htin Kyaw's role was more ceremonial because Suu Kyi has been Myanmar's de facto leader since April 2016.

Politicians and analysts expect this arrangement to continue under Win Myint.

A constitution drafted by the former junta bars Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi from the top office and so she hand-picked Htin Kyaw, a close ally, to become president following a historic landslide election victory in 2015.

The charter also reserves for the army one quarter of the seats in parliament and several major cabinet posts, including defence, interior and border affairs, giving it an effective veto over constitutional change and control of security affairs.

The incoming president is a member of a very narrow circle of Suu Kyi's trusted advisers. Analysts believe it is that loyalty and trust that prompted her to tap him as Htin Kyaw's replacement.

He was among a few dozen NLD members, including Suu Kyi, elected to parliament in 2012 by-elections as the country began a dramatic transition from nearly 50 years of military rule.

"He is good at both legislation and administration and I assume that is a good thing," said NLD upper house representative Nwe Nwe Aung.

Before his appointment as lower house speaker in April 2016, Win Myint shared an austere one-room chamber with his wife in a compound for lawmakers in Myanmar's purpose-built capital Naypyitaw, living next to other leading NLD figures.
Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Tuesday held a rare one-on-one meeting with Chief Justice Saqib Nisar, amidst bitter row between the government and the judiciary over increasing judicial activism.

The meeting took place at the Supreme Court where the Chief Justice welcomed Prime Minister Abbasi who reached the court without official protocol.

Sources in the judiciary said that the meeting was apparently suddenly arranged as it was not scheduled until in the evening. The meeting continued for two hours.

So far officially no details have been provided about the meeting and its agenda.

The government and top judiciary are at loggerheads since dismissal of prime minister Nawaz Sharif who has repeatedly targeted the judges in his speeches.

The tension between the government and the apex court increased when the latter in February rejected a law made by the parliament in October last to let Sharif become president of his ruling

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party after his disqualification.

The repeated suo moto actions taken by the chief justice against various departments of the government has also exasperated the tension.

Abbasi last month urged the parliament to decide who has final say in legislation while the chief justice hit back by saying that the parliament was supreme but it should work within the Constitution.

There is also increasing criticism by opposition parties about alleged encroachment of various organs of the state in the domain of others.

It is believed that Abbasi discussed legal issues with the chief justice to remove friction and pave way for smooth holding of election which are due to be held after June.
I have spent the last one week in Nairobi studying the system that Kenya uses to distribute revenue.

Usuku MP Peter Ogwang, a commissioner at parliament, led nine of us to Kenya to specifically learn how their Constituency Development Fund (CDF) works.

Through the Division of Revenue Act, Kenya has institutionalized the sharing of national revenue. Under this act, for example, government is required to allocate not less than 2.5 per cent of its budget to the development of its 290 constituencies.

To prevent legislators from patronizing the Fund, a constituency office with functional committees is established in addition to a national independent board overseeing it, which sits at Nairobi.

We visited Kajiado constituency, one hours drive from Nairobi, and some of the projects constructed using the Constituency Fund are impressive.

Each constituency is allocated Ksh 100m (approximately Shs 3.1 billion) annually. There is also a formula and percentage of how much money is allocated to every county (federal states).

These are the sort of things we meant when we were demanding for federalism. We were dismissed as chauvinists who wanted Baganda elevated above everybody else.

The good thing is that Kenyans have been waving placards at their recent opposition rallies with inscriptions: Kenya is not Uganda. I think by embracing federalism, nobody will accuse Kikuyu, Luo or any other nationality in Kenya of chauvinism.

The truth is that Kenya doesnt suffer from what Prof Apolo Robin Nsibambi used to call presidentalism. The formula of sharing revenue in Kenya is statutory. Delegations dont have to visit State House for a few classroom blocks, police posts, scholarships or some medical equipment.

And it is not that Kenya doesnt suffer third-world problems; they do, but I sense some willingness to sort them out institutionally.

While there last week, Kenyan parliament was conducting public interviews (hearings) for the post of attorney general.

The attorney general, chief justice, inspector general of police, chairman electoral commission and several other offices in Kenya are not by appointment. Adverts are published and interested persons apply for them.

This is what is slowly helping Kenya to fight patronage. You will, for example, not have a military colonel appointed deputy inspector general of police when there are clearly more deserving and qualified police officers. The Ugandan fellow (new deputy IGP) admitted during his vetting that he was going to learn on the job.

It is the Kenyan kind of recruitment that is giving officers freedom to exercise their independence and a fair degree of professionalism. Not surprising that Kenya became the first country in Africa to have its presidential elections annulled because of noncompliance with the law.

Our system offers protection to people who have been appointed to certain offices, especially in the judiciary. The recruitment is highly manipulated, but you are protected thereafter.

That is why I dont believe in absolving individuals holding these offices from their statutory and professional responsibility. It is the reason I joined colleagues in filing a petition in the Constitutional court challenging the constitutionality of the recently-enacted Constitution (Amendment) Act commonly known as the age limit act.

I would have been hesitant to petition court if Steven Kavuma was still its head, but still I would have done so, at least for the record. Justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo is not operating entirely in an influence-free environment, but he owes it to the country.

I am not naive to think that Owiny-Dollo will perform miracles, but he can help lay a new foundation for the Supreme court and Court of Appeal. There was a time when the Constitutional court was the pride of the country when the likes of Amos Twinomujuni and Stella Arach were judges there.

Of course Mr Museveni, after losing several cases, vowed to sort the judicially and, with the appointment of Kavuma, not only did he sort it, but he totally disorganised it.

As Christians remember the resurrection of Jesus Christ this weekend, Owiny-Dollo has a perfect opportunity to think about resurrecting the court from Kavumas grave. Otherwise, soon we will no longer waste time filing petitions.

And mind you, we are not the only players. There are people who are as impatient as Museveni was in the 1980s. For them, they will not waste time with court; they may seek to resolve these issues the Museveni way.

Therefore, as we go to the High court in Mbale on April 4, it is not only the age limit amendment that will be on trial, but court as well.

First, as a person who filed a petition, I have not understood why court casually decided to shift the hearing to that place.

Court of Appeal doesnt have office premises in Mbale; isnt this a window to waste taxpayers money? I hope there will be no extra cost to the judiciary. Being law-abiding citizens, we will drive to Mbale and I hope it will be worth it.

The author is Kira Municipality MP and opposition chief whip in parliament.
New Delhi: Even as a video of Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi is going viral on social media, a Pakistan media report stated that Abbasi had voluntarily followed standard security procedures at New York airport as he was on a private visit.

In the video, Abbasi can be seen going through a security check at New Yorks JFK airport during a recent US visit, which, reports say, hints at strained relations between Pakistan and the United States.

#BREAKING - Embarrassment for Pakistan: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi frisked in JFK Airport. pic.twitter.com/yZjUXjIY15 News18 (@CNNnews18) March 28, 2018

However, according to a report in Geo News, the Pakistan prime minister is known for adhering to simplicity in his personal life and thats the reason why he chose to follow the standard security procedures in place for all passengers during a private visit to the country on Saturday.

Geo News said that Abbasi was previously spotted travelling alone to a railway station during his visit to Britain.

The incident comes at a time the US is considering tough measures on Pakistan, including visa ban and other sanctions on individuals in the Pakistani government.

Eariler this year, US President Donald Trump had threatened to cut aid to Pakistan for allegedly lying to the US and offering "little help" in hunting "terrorists" in Afghanistan.

"The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than $33 billion in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies and deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools," Trump had said.

Relations between the two countries have deteriorated since then, with the US administration taking a hard line on Afghanistan.
Sydney: Russia's Ambassador to Australia said on Wednesday the world will enter into a "Cold War situation" should the West continue its bias against Moscow in response to the nerve agent attack against a former Soviet spy in Britain.

"The West must understand that the anti-Russian campaign has no future," Russian Ambassador Grigory Logvinov told reporters in Canberra. "If it continues, we will be deeply in a Cold War situation."

Russia denies any part in the March 4 nerve agent attack on former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in England.

The United States and governments across Europe are expelling Russian diplomats en masse in response.

Australia said on Tuesday it would expel two Russian diplomats, prompting Logvinov's impromptu address to the media on Wednesday morning.

Logvinov rejected claims that Moscow was behind the attack and said Russia has yet to decide on its response to the diplomatic action by British allies.

"I said we have no evidence. The British stubbornly denied giving any evidence. They have denied following the provisions and protocol of the Convention on Prohibition of Chemical Weapons," he said.
Johannesburg: A South African parliamentary panel has said a full-scale investigation would be initiated into the citizenship status of the Gupta family members, who are closely linked to former president Jacob Zuma.

The move comes after the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) wrote a letter to the chairperson of the South African Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs, requesting a probe following Home Minister Malusi Gigaba's controversial remarks about the citizenship of the Gupta family members. The committee will institute a full-scale parliamentary inquiry into the Gupta family's citizenship, sources said.

The House Chairperson of Committees in Parliament, Cedric Frolick, had instructed the chairpersons of portfolio committees to institute inquiries into alleged state capture probes on June 15 last year already, but these have been delayed for various reasons. The DA had alleged that more Gupta family members were granted South African citizenship but this was never reported to Parliament.

"Home Minister Malusi Gigaba and his department only explained the circumstances surrounding the naturalisation of five Gupta family members, when there was, in fact, a further six members of the Gupta family that are South African citizens and registered as voters on the IEC database," the DA was quoted as saying by the Independent Online.

Gigaba had earlier said that Ajay Gupta, one of three India-born brothers who are at the centre of state capture allegations, was not a citizen of South Africa as he had declined to renounce his Indian citizenship. He had said that Ajay's wife, mother and two children were only granted the country's citizenship, but when Ajay and his four other family members were denied naturalisation in 2013, they had appealed against the decision.

But after local media printed copies of identity documents and proof that the Gupta brothers had voted in an election here, Gigaba issued another statement saying neither Ajay nor Atul was citizen, but they had permanent residency permits. The Guptas and Duduzane Zuma, the son of former president who was forced to resign on February 14, have not appeared at various inquiries into allegations of their involvement in state capture and irregular deals with parastatal bodies running into billions of rands.

The Guptas, who arrived in South Africa from their hometown of Saharanpur in India about two decades ago, amassed a huge fortune through companies in the IT, media and mining sectors, allegedly through their closeness to Zuma. Their property interests in India have also come under the scanner by tax authorities there.
Washington: A lawyer for adult film star Stormy Daniels requested in federal court to take deposition from President Donald Trump in a legal battle over an agreement to keep her quiet about an intimate relationship she says they had, according to court documents seen on Wednesday.

Her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, also requested to take deposition from Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen, whom Daniels is suing for defamation, a motion filed in United States District Court in the Central District of California showed.

Avenatti said in the motion that he would need no more than two hours to question each of the men.
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FAIRFIELD  Hawks are again attacking residents in the Old Mill Road area.

Authorities plan to remove hawks from the area after a resident says she was attacked by one of the birds.

The resident was attacked in her yard early last week, the Fairfield Police Department said. Police warned other residents in a Facebook post to use caution when walking in the Old Mill Road, Sycamore Lane and Henry Street area.

Animal Control will patrol this area on a regular basis. Police also contacted the state Wildlife Division of the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (Wildlife Division) to remove the hawk or hawks found on these streets.

This is not the first time a hawk has attacked in the area. Several residents reported hawk attacks last year and in 2016, while authorities captured a hawk that injured a handful of residents in 2012.

Police said previously halks have flown at peoples heads from behind. The hawks appear to target people walking alone, police said.

Residents should contact Animal Control at 203-254-4857 if they see a hawk. To report a hawk incident, call the Fairfield Police Department at 203-254-4800.
The reported impasse between the inspector general of government and the governor Bank of Uganda is, in my view, a situation that can hopefully end in the growth and improvement of our constitutional democracy.

Both officers, whose respective institutions are creations of the Constitution, are, as they ought to be doing, jealously defending their turf. However, in this instance, and in spite of the boisterous and vigorous positions taken by each of them, they cannot both be right.

In the development of our constitutional jurisprudence, one of the principal tenets expounded by our highest courts has been the need to read the Constitution as a whole, to peruse all the provisions thereof with a view to giving coherent meaning and life to them and not seek to set one provision against another.

It is only in this way that understanding and meaning can be given and the intention of the framers of the Constitution arrived at and applied. In the context of the above reported impasse, therefore, it is important to read and understand the following provisions of the Constitution together;

226. The jurisdiction of the Inspectorate of Government shall cover officers or leaders whether employed in the public service or not, and also such institutions, organisations or enterprises as Parliament may prescribe by law.

The use of the words and also creates two distinct subjects to the jurisdiction of the IGG; (a) officers or leaders whether employed in the public service or not and, separately, (b) institutions, organisations or enterprises as Parliament may prescribe by law.

Consequently, all officers or leaders in Uganda whether employed in the public service or not are, by this Article, subject to the jurisdiction of the IGG.

Chapter Two of the Constitution is about The Republic. Article 8A (1) thereof states;

Uganda shall be governed based on principles of national interest and common good enshrined in the national objectives and directive principles of state policy.

National Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy No. 1 states as follows;

The following objectives and principles shall guide all organs and agencies of the state all citizens, organisations and other bodies and persons applying or interpreting the Constitution or any other law and in taking and implementing any policy decisions for the establishment and promotion of a just, free and democratic society.

Policy No XXVI provides as follows;

i. All public offices shall be held in trust for the people. ii. All persons placed in positions of leadership and responsibility shall, in their work, be answerable to the people.

iii. All lawful measures shall be taken to expose, combat and eradicate corruption and abuse or misuse of power by those holding political or public offices.

Article 161 (4) of the Constitution is pertinent in this matter. It provides in relation to Bank of Uganda;

The office of governor and deputy governor shall each be a public office..

Next, we come to Chapter Four of the Constitution which deals with Protection and Promotion of Fundamental and Other Human Rights and Freedoms, otherwise known as the Bill of Rights, universally applicable in the entire free world. Article 20 states;

1) Fundamental rights and freedoms of the individual are inherent and not granted by the State.

2) The rights and freedoms of the individual and groups enshrined in this Chapter shall be respected, upheld and promoted by all organs and agencies of government and by all persons.

Article 42, also in the Bill of Rights, states;

Any person appearing before any administrative official or body has a right to be treated justly and fairly and shall have a right to apply to a court of law in respect of any administrative decision taken against him or her.

Whilst Article 50, also in the Bill of Rights provides that;

1) Any person who claims that a fundamental or other right or freedom guaranteed under this Constitution has been infringed or threatened, is entitled to apply to a competent court for redress which may include compensation.

2) Any person or organisation may bring a action against the violation of another persons or groups human rights.

It is important to note that in none of the above provisions of the Constitution is there any condition set out for their observance and compliance. They are not made Subject to any other provisions of this Constitution as are some others. One such other provision is Article 162 (2) which states;

In performing its functions, the Bank of Uganda shall conform to this Constitution but shall not be subject to the direction or control of any person or authority.

This is the sub-article that is at the heart of the impasse between the IGG and the governor, Bank of Uganda (BoU).

The IGG says: I have received complaints from individual employees of BoU who claim their rights and freedoms as such employees have been violated and it is my duty to investigate and come to a decision on the complaints. BoU responds we are not subject to the direction or control of any person or authority so you cannot investigate us.

Article 162 (2) is clear. The BoU is under constitutional obligation to conform to this Constitution.

That means it must conform to and comply with the Articles referred to above, among others, and in particular Article 20 (2) which commands that The rights and freedoms of the individual and groups enshrined in this Chapter shall be respected, upheld and promoted by all organs and agencies of Government and by all persons.

However, the same Article 162(2) gives a window of immunity. It states that in performing its functions, the Bank of Uganda..shall not be subject to the direction or control of any person or authority. What are those functions?

The questions that arise then are these: do the functions given immunity under Article 162 (2) include internal administrative activities not directly involved in the stability and regulation of the currency system or the banking and credit system?

Did the Constitution intend to give the BoU a blanket immunity over all its activities no matter how remote they may be from the functions set out in 162 (2)?

If I have a tender to supply stationery to BoU and they refuse to pay me though I performed, am I barred from claiming because BoU is not subject to the direction or control of any person or authority, including a Court of law adjudicating a sale of goods dispute between a trader and BoU?

In my humble opinion, that cannot have been the intent of Article 162. If any person or authority were to attempt to give direction or control to the BoU in respect of any function set out in Article 162 (1) then, certainly, BoU would be entitled, as a matter of law, to ignore such direction or control due to that constitutional provision designed to protect and preserve confidence in the economy.

However, in respect of any other activity it would be a question of fact whether such activity is actually so interwoven with the functions under 162 (1) as to be not subject to direction or control.

It would be a question of fact requiring investigation and decision by the investigator/adjudicator if canvassed as a defence by BoU.

A recent example may suffice to elucidate the foregoing. Article 128 of the Constitution states;

1) In the exercise of judicial power, the courts shall be independent and shall not be subject to the control or direction of any person or authority.

2) No person or authority shall interfere with the courts or judicial officers in the exercise of their judicial functions.

3) 

4) A person exercising judicial power shall not be liable to any action or suit for any act or omission by the person in the exercise of judicial power.

While conducting a criminal session a Judge of the High Court was accused of not remitting allowances for that session to her support staff. She was investigated and ordered to remedy the situation. No attempt was made to raise judicial immunity.

Her immunity was clearly only in respect of her exercise of judicial power. Any impropriety or impunity outside that exercise was eligible for investigation and appropriate action.

She was directed to refund the concerned support staff. In order to encourage compliance with the Rule of Law and observance with the Bill of Rights this interpretation ought to and should equally apply to Article 162.

In this regard, Article 161 of the Constitution is, again, most significant. sub-article (5) provide as follows;

The governor, the deputy governor or any other member of the board may be removed from office by the President only for-

a) Inability to perform the functions of his or her office arising from infirmity of body or mind;

b) Misbehaviour or misconduct; or

c) Incompetence.

The Constitution does not state how an investigation to establish the grounds for removal of a governor or deputy governor would be carried out but since they are specifically stated to be public officers under Sub-Article (4), then the provisions of Articles 225 and 226 of the Constitution would apply and the IGG would have the authority to exercise her jurisdiction over them to investigate accordingly.

Suffice to say, however, that if the governor of the Bank of Uganda can be subject to investigations that may lead to his removal for misbehaviour or misconduct or incompetence, then it is difficult to appreciate why the bank itself may not be investigated on allegations that do not directly impinge on its functions as set out in Article 162 (1).

In any event there is nothing in Article 162 to prohibit those functions listed therein from being investigated. The caveat is that any purported direction or control emanating from such investigations or other sources may be lawfully ignored by BoU since it is, by constitutional command, not subject to the direction or control of any person or authority in respect to performing its functions.

In the reported impasse between the IGG and the BoU, the IGG cannot certainly issue directions or control in respect of the functions set out in Article 162 (1).

She, however, has, to my mind and based on the above articles, the constitutional authority to investigate anything else within her remit including alleged impunity between employer and employee in a public institution and to act upon any complaints accordingly.

It is a silent but eloquent principle of law that where there is a wrong, there ought to be a remedy. Where the wrong is by the complainant the remedy is dismissal of the complaint with, sometimes, costs.

Where the wrong is by the other party to the complaint the remedy, at the very least, may be damages. Otherwise the Law would properly be called an ass.

In conclusion, I would request that the two protagonists remind themselves that they work for the same master, the Constitution and the people of Uganda. It does not bode well for us, the people, to see our respected champions flexing with each other, especially in public. Get together, please, share the issues and find solutions.

nkurunzizadidas@gmail.com

The author is a lawyer at Nkurunziza and Co Advocates.
Veteran Greenwich state Sen. L. Scott Frantz says that he rejected Supreme Court Justice Andrew J. McDonalds bid to become chief justice because of his activism and his stances on the role of the high court.

In a statement late Tuesday, nearly eight hours after the 19-16 Senate vote ended McDonalds candidacy, Frantz noted that McDonald was unable to receive unanimous support from majority Democrats in the General Assembly.
DANBURY  The health network that runs Danbury, Norwalk and New Milford hospitals is joining forces with a four-hospital group in New York to form a $2.4 billion medical system stretching from the Hudson River to the shores of Long Island Sound.

The merger of the Western Connecticut Health Network and Health Quest Systems, which is subject to approval by the states of Connecticut and New York and the Federal Trade Commission, would create a seven-hospital network serving 1.5 million people.

You have two health networks of similar size coming together in a powerful way to provide more access and capacity for our residents and community members, said Robert Friedberg, the president and CEO of Health Quest, told Hearst Connecticut Media. This is a pretty dramatic change, because usually with a deal like this, the health networks are not equals, and you dont have this sharing of perspective.

The merger, described as a mutually beneficial deal that brings together 2,600 physicians and 12,000 employees, is designed to strengthen the networks position in western Connecticut and the lower Hudson Valley.

We think that collectively we will be able to bring in services that we currently dont have, such as neurosurgical procedures that require a high volume in order to attract physicians, said Dr. John Murphy, president and CEO of Western Connecticut Health Network. We might be able to bring in pediatric specialties and certain types of cancer treatments.

Murphy added that large-scale layoffs are not planned, although there are likely to be redundant positions at the department head level.

The merger, signed Monday night, would place under single ownership Western Connecticuts hospitals in Danbury, Norwalk and New Milford, and Health Quests four hospitals  including Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and Putnam Hospital Center just over the border in Carmel, N.Y.

It will be up to the FTC and the health departments and the state attorney generals in Connecticut and New York to decide whether the deal can go forward, a process that could take as long as 10 months to complete, Murphy said.

States will handle the review in approving our certificates of need, and the FTC has to review it for any anti-competitive concerns, Murphy said.

The merger comes a day after the announcement that Bridgeports St. Vincents Medical Center, owned by Missouri-based Ascension, is being sold to Hartford HealthCare, and six weeks after Western Connecticut reached an agreement with one of the largest health organizations in the country  New York-based Northwell Health  to leverage its expertise in areas such as workforce development and purchasing power.

Western Connecticut maintained its autonomy in the agreement with the much-larger Northwell, an $11 billion system with 23 hospitals and 650 outpatient clinics.

This is entirely different, Murphy said of the merger with Health Quest. Both Health Quest and Western Connecticut Health Network are committed to making health care more affordable and convenient, and providing health care services that neither of us could do independently.

Murphy added that there are benefits to the merger while the two networks wait for approvals.

The process of joining forces helps us understand that our organizations are alike in many aspects and that we can learn from the areas where we may approach things differently, Murphy said. (This) will ultimately strengthen our relationship and help drive quality and enhance the patient experience.

What to call the new network is a job for marketers, who were reluctant this week to share what early ideas are gaining traction.

The hospitals will retain their place names, and the new network will remain nonprofit, officials said, offering care to everyone in the community, regardless of their ability to pay.
Roughly 22 million Americans turned on "60 Minutes" on Sunday night to hear adult-film star Stormy Daniels say that she once spanked President Donald Trump with a magazine that had his face on the cover and then had unprotected sex with him.

For many, the interview was the latest in a series of uncomfortable moments brought to their living rooms by a nontraditional president who has long graced the pages of tabloids, much to his delight, and broken every rule of political etiquette.

This is a man who has called one of his political opponents "a pussy" at a campaign rally - and has been heard saying in a 2005 recording that he likes to grab women by their genitalia, using the same vulgar word. He curses publicly, even when children are around, and has crudely bragged about the size of his hands. When more than a dozen women accused him of groping or kissing them without their permission, he called them all liars and critiqued one woman's appearance. He has imitated a journalist with a congenital condition, insisted that some "very fine people" were alongside the white supremacists who gathered in Virginia last summer and vilified Muslims, minorities and immigrants.

And now Trump is accused of having extramarital affairs with Daniels and former Playboy playmate Karen McDougal that started nearly 12 years ago, soon after his wife gave birth to his youngest son. Both women say they were paid tens of thousands of dollars to keep quiet during the campaign.

Yet, 61 percent of Republicans consider the president a good role model for children, according to a Quinnipiac poll released last week. Although Trump is disappointing most Democrats - only 2 percent of whom consider him a role model - he has retained the wide support of members of his party at rates that are much higher than Bill Clinton experienced in 1998 when his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky became public.

Some of the president's most dedicated supporters are deeply religious conservatives who would probably be shunned by their communities if they spoke or acted like Trump has. The Washington Post dispatched six reporters across the country to talk with conservatives about the disconnect between how they live their lives and how the president has lived his.

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Elkhart, Ind.

Sometimes when Sarah Wiseman is driving with her 15-year-old son, President Trump's voice will come on the radio, uttering words that they avoid in their home.

"With the president, with any president, we would hope they would conduct themselves in a manner that we don't have to try and explain to our children why they're acting that way, and why certain things are happening, and explain the investigations and try and explain why they're calling people names or cursing or doing that type of stuff," said Wiseman, a 45-year-old Republican mother of two living in northern Indiana who works as a manufacturing systems engineer. "It's unfortunate to do that. I'd rather not."

Wiseman originally supported Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and she reluctantly voted for Trump because she felt like she didn't have a better option. It's a choice that's difficult for her to explain.

"We want to teach our children: Respect yourself, respect other people," said Wiseman, a local leader for the Boy Scouts of America. "But there comes a point where you kind of like have to, unfortunately, say, 'Well, he's the president. This is his job, this is his personal life.' Kinda got to separate the two."

If the principal of her son's school or another leader in her community acted this way, she could take action. But the presidency is so far removed from her world that she doesn't believe there's anything she can do until the next election.

"How much of it am I willing to put up with?" Wiseman said. "I think it's going to have a huge impact on his next election if he doesn't tone it down just a little bit."

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Spring Hill, Tenn.

Beth Eads is heavily involved with the children at her large Christian church in the Nashville suburbs - and she never wants them to have any reason to question her integrity.

Eads, a 49-year-old nurse and mother of two home-schooled daughters, follows the "Billy Graham rule" that's named for the influential evangelical pastor who avoided being alone with women other than his wife. Sometimes Eads will wait for the next elevator to avoid riding with a man.

She wishes that President Trump - whom she voted for - would follow that rule as well.

"I will not put myself in a situation where someone can question my integrity. Donald Trump has not done that," Eads said on Saturday morning, sitting in her kitchen as the dishwasher ran and her teenage daughters worked on homework. "He has never put boundaries around himself. He has been around women by himself, touched women - and so when things are being questioned, people can't say, 'No, he would never do that.' There is always a question."

She doesn't know if she believes the various accusations against the president, especially those involving incidents that occurred more than a decade ago, and wishes he would provide a genuine explanation. She worries that scandals involving the president have diverted attention from much more important issues, especially lowering the cost of medical care and creating a legal pathway to citizenship for immigrants who are in the country illegally, ending the deportations that are ripping families apart.

Eads teaches her daughters to pray for the president and respect him. In their home, he is addressed as "President Trump," "Mr. Trump" or "Donald Trump" - never just "Trump," which Eads considers disrespectful.

"My daughters know that whether he is a good president or a bad president," she said, "God allowed him to be in this position."

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Salt Lake City

Patrick Keller's decision to vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 surprised and concerned some of his fellow members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Keller strongly believes that marriage should be between only one man and one woman, and he opposes abortion - but he couldn't vote for the Republican nominee, someone who has been accused of mistreating women and having no respect for "the sanctity of marriage."

"We're usually looking at candidates to find the one to support our issues the best," said Keller, 44, who lives in Salt Lake City and works in information technology. "Very seldom do we have to decide whether or not they were even a decent person. But that was the situation."

When Trump won the election, Keller said that "it was a very solemn day" and one that was difficult for him and his wife to explain to their children. The couple has three children living at home who are ages 10, 12 and 13.

"How do you tell your children that immorality and racism are okay?" he said. "It was rather traumatizing."

Trump's first 14 months in office have confirmed Keller's view of Trump, making clear "how immoral he is as a person." Keller is frustrated that the women who came forward before the election to accuse Trump of kissing or groping them without permission were "blown off," and he's not at all surprised by the accusations from Daniels.

"It's just more of the same to me," he said. "The new scandals seem consistent with what we know about how he lived his life. Anybody who is surprised by this wasn't paying attention when there was time to change it."

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Athens, Ohio

Taylor Richards doesn't know what to make of the accusations against Trump, especially the latest ones from Daniels. She knows that the president's personal attorney paid Daniels $130,000 days before the election and that the president has denied the accusations. She's waiting to see what happens next - while noting that Clinton was impeached for not being truthful about his affair.

"Is he going to be honest about it? I don't know," said Richards, 20, a gun-owning, rugby-playing junior psychology major at Ohio University in Athens, where she is the secretary of the College Republicans and doesn't watch television news. "I don't follow it super closely. . . . People are just, I don't want to say ignoring it, but I think they're just so used to him running his mouth."

She added that people have become accustomed to their presidents having shortcomings and that if former president Barack Obama faced similar accusations, it would not be a big deal. Richards said Daniels's accusations are yet one more reason for Democrats who already hate the president to hate him more.

"It's not like I'm gung-ho about him - I just really hate Hillary Clinton. He was the lesser of two evils," said Richards, whose favorite candidates were Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and former surgeon Ben Carson.

Richards considers herself a "conservatarian" - a mix of conservative and Libertarian operating under the motto of "Leave me alone." On a campus filled with liberals, she said that many of her classmates cannot understand why a young woman would support Trump. She thinks that their concerns are often overblown and that many of her generation's feminists are "man-hating, victim-card people."

"Can you please tell me how you have lost rights as a woman now?" she said. "Please. I haven't lost my rights. My life is still the same."

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Valley Center, Calif.

Dressed in a sparkling gown for the Republican Party of San Diego County's Lincoln Reagan Dinner in downtown San Diego on Saturday night, Delores Chavez Harmes sat down for an interview and turned on her own recorder.

"So there was something that happened 12 years ago, and I don't understand why this is such an important issue, to tell you the truth," she said, referring to Daniels's allegations. "But it seems to be an important issue for The Washington Post."

Chavez, who lives northeast of San Diego in Valley Center, has supported Trump since the campaign and was eager to defend and praise him.

"I think he's doing a bang-up job," said Chavez, an accountant in her late 50s with two grown children and three granddaughters who describes herself as "very strongly" Catholic. "And I think that is shown by results. So it's not just a matter of opinion. It's a matter of numbers. It's a matter of seeing the results of things that he has implemented."

She said that Trump has proved himself as "a great role model" on the world stage by being firm, articulate and strategic. But she would like to see him send fewer tweets and use more care in picking his words.

"But I think the words and the language are far less important than some of the acts that other presidents have taken," Chavez said. "So when you look at this as a whole, I don't think he's worse than anyone else."

Chavez argues that Bill Clinton's affair with Lewinsky was "a heinous crime" because it took place in the Oval Office. She doesn't care if Trump had affairs, as long as they occurred before he took office, and she's not bothered by the comments he made during an "Access Hollywood" interview in 2005 that were caught on a hot mic.

"Was this proper for Trump to say? Absolutely not," she said. "Is it how respectful men talk? Yeah. My dad would talk that way, and he was very respectful to women. My husband might talk that way with his fraternity brothers. . . . I can't think of a more respectful man to women than my husband."

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Jefferson County, Ala.

As Trump racked up primary wins in March 2016, the Birmingham Times - which focuses on African American news - published a front-page article about Phillip Brown under the headline: "Alabama's top black Republican explains his support for Donald Trump."

The article quickly circulated at Minor High School in Jefferson County, where Brown has taught auto mechanics for 16 years and where 86 percent of students are black.

"I never knew my kids in school read so much," said Brown, 54, who is also an associate minister at Bessemer 24th Street Church of Christ. "All the next week, every time I walked into someone's classroom, it's 'Mr. Brown, I cannot believe you.' I'd talk to them about why."

Brown has long told his students, relatives and others that he would never hire Trump to be a preacher at his church, given his penchant for profanity and multiple accusations of adultery.

"But we're not voting for a preacher. We're voting for a president," Brown said. "There's people in other generations that weren't the nicest people but did a phenomenal job as far as being president."

Brown considers Trump a role model because he has the courage to say what he means and the integrity to do what he says. He was thrilled to see Trump appoint a conservative to the Supreme Court, push for tax cuts and reduce the number of regulations on businesses.

"Everything he can do by himself he's done, pretty much," Brown said. "And he's doing that with the full onslaught of one thing after another. I've never seen a president bombarded the way he's been bombarded."

Brown said the accusations against Trump are similar to those faced by Republican Roy Moore, the former chief justice of the state Supreme Court who competed in a special election last year to fill Attorney General Jeff Sessions's Senate seat. Brown had been leaning toward voting for Moore's Democratic opponent, Doug Jones, because he disapproved of Moore placing a Ten Commandments monument on public grounds and defying a federal court order to remove it.

Weeks before the election, Moore was accused of pursuing teenage girls when he was in his early 30s, roughly four decades ago. Brown considered these allegations a "distasteful and dishonest" political attack - and it persuaded him to vote for the embattled Republican, who went on to lose the election.

"According to my understanding of the Scriptures, you don't give credibility to unsubstantiated allegations against a leader," Brown said. "Leadership automatically draws fire. If we just throw a person under a bus because they've been accused, how many leaders would be left?"

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The Washington Post's Victoria St. Martin reported from Indiana, Bob Smietana reported from Tennessee, Matthew LaPlante reported from Utah, Roxana Popescu reported from California and Eric Velasco reported from Alabama. Emily Guskin contributed to this report.

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Video: Sarah Wiseman, a conservative voter from Elkhart, Ind., explains how she talks to her son about President Trump's tweets and accusations that he had extramarital affairs.(Joyce Koh,Ryan Blaske/The Washington Post)

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A recent Stanford cancer study that cured 97 percent of mice from tumors has now moved on to soliciting human volunteers for a new cutting-edge medical trial.

The trial is part of a gathering wave of research into immunotherapy, a type of treatment that fights cancer by using the body's immune system to attack tumors.

"Getting the immune system to fight cancer is one of the most recent developments in cancer," Dr. Ronald Levy, a Stanford oncology professor who is leading the study, told SFGATE. "People need to know that this is in its early days and we are still looking for safety and looking to make this as good as it can be."

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The treatment is not a true vaccine that creates lasting immunity, but it does feature a vaccine-like injection carrying two immune stimulators that activate the immune system's T cells to eliminate tumors throughout the body.

Each test subject receives a low dose of radiation plus two rounds of the injected agents, Levy said. No chemotherapy is involved.

The treatment does not work on all types of cancer, Levy said, because each type of cancer has a different set of rules regarding how it can be affected by the immune system.

For the current trials, he is only looking for people with low-grade lymphoma regardless if they have been previously treated. He said Stanford is planning on running two trials by the end of the year with a total of about 35 test subjects.

"The two drugs we are injecting are made by two different companies and have already been proven safe for people," Levy said. "It's the combination we are testing."

Side effects at this point include fever and soreness at the injection site but no vomiting, Levy said.

He said if the FDA does end up granting final approval, he wouldn't expect it any sooner than a year or two from now.

ALSO READ: Cancer breakthrough? 97 percent of mice cured in Stanford vaccine study

While the vaccine approach to cancer is unique, Levy noted that one approved cancer drug for injection already exists for melanoma skin cancer.

Other limited approaches also currently exist in the expanding landscape for cancer immunotherapy. In 2017, the FDA approved a type of cell therapy for some types of leukemia and lymphoma known as CAR-T where a patient's immune cells are removed from the body, genetically engineered and reintroduced to attack the tumor cells.

Dr. Michelle Hermiston directs the pediatric immunotherapy program at UCSF, the first hospital in California to implement the treatment. She told SFGATE that CAR-T is currently being used as a third option for lymphoma and leukemia patients who have failed standard treatments like chemotherapy.

She said CAR-T is both labor intensive and very expensive  drugs alone cost half a million dollars  but that the new immunotherapy treatment has raised survival rates from about 10-15 percent to more than 60 percent.

"The thing to understand is how much of a game changer this is," she said. "If it's your kid, it makes a huge difference."

But CAR-T comes with its fair share of side effects: fever, confusion, organ failure and the chance of permanent loss of one's B cells  responsible for producing antibodies. "It's not a trivial therapy," Hermiston said.

Hermiston said she is very interested in Levy's injection trials as well as other future advances in immunotherapy. One biological area of importance that demands further study, she said, was the difference between "hot" and "cold" tumors with respect to the body's immune system.

She said research has shown that unlike hot tumors, the immune system does not detect cold tumors  often associated with colon cancer. However, sometimes a combination of hot and cold may be at play. One main question, Hermiston said, is whether cold tumors can be transformed into hot tumors so that the immune system can first recognize and then destroy them.

"Can we make the tumor more visible to the immune system?" Hermiston said. "We are at the tip of the iceberg right now."

Levy, along with Stanford instructor of medicine Idit Sagiv-Barfi, published their study on the cancer-curing effect of immunotherapy on January 31 in Science Translational Medicine. Levy is a pioneer in the field of cancer immunotherapy having contributed to the development of rituximab, one of the first monoclonal antibodies approved for use as an anti-cancer treatment in humans. In 2009 he received the King Faisal International Prize  often known as the "Arab Nobel Prize" for this achievement.

"We have a huge problem in cancer and we will never be satisfied until we find solutions for everyone," Levy said.
Courtesy of Avangrid Foundation

ORANGE  The Avangrid Foundation and its employees helped fight hunger in Greater New Haven Wednesday with a $25,000 grant to support the Connecticut Food Bank and a donation by employees of more than 1,000 pounds of food and $500 in funds.

Just before employees loaded a truck with food at foundation headquarters on Marsh Hill Road, Connecticut Food Bank CEO Bernie Beaudreau broke it all down at a brief news conference, saying that 1,000 pounds of food represents 840 meals and the $25,000 will provide 50,000 meals.
WEST HAVEN  Prastik Mohanraj, 16, knew he had done well on the advanced placement chemistry exam as a sophomore, but something wasnt sitting right with him as his time drew to a close.

I thought I made an error, so I raced back to fix it, he said. As the test was ending, he said he found a miscalculation on a question about acids and bases and fixed it.

It wasnt until this February, nearly a year later, that the Engineering and Science University Magnet School student was surprised by a different type of calculation: he was one of three students in the world to get a perfect score on the exam, only 0.002 percent of all test takers.

Although ESUMS is located in West Haven on the University of New Havens campus, it is a New Haven magnet school. The school, which moved from Hamden to its current 122,000-square-foot location in 2017, was established through a collaboration between two city planning boards, New Havens public school system and a university.

Mohanrajs mother, Vani, said her sons early interest was math, but his fascination with science began to deepen when he was in the sixth grade. The name and description of ESUMS alone were enough to encourage the Ansonia resident to apply for the schools lottery.

We want him to take every available opportunity, Vani said.

Mohanraj said his teacher, Jeremiah Davila, helped him considerably with the subject. As a freshman, Mohanraj took an independent study under his teachers guidance.

He really pushed me to get that perfect score, he said.

Although he has a perfect score under his belt, Mohanraj refuses to let himself peak: hes taking AP courses in physics, government, psychology, language and composition, computer science and calculus as a junior. He wants to get a perfect score on those exams, as well.

His recent academic paper, Parametric Equations of the Expansion of a Closed Universe with Torsion, was published in the Cornell University Library Journal.

Vani Mohanraj said her son is so humble that he didnt tell his family until after The College Board mailed a certificate.

He didnt think its a big deal, she said. We as a family are so proud of him.

District officials also consider Mohanrajs story to be a positive reflection of the citys schools.

Prastik has been an exemplary science student for several years, having won top awards at the New Haven and Connecticut Science Fairs, as well as being part of award winning STEM teams from ESUMS, said Richard Therrien, K-12 science supervisor in New Haven Public Schools. The science department is incredibly proud of his AP Chemistry achievement, and feels it reflects as well on the dedication of all his previous science, mathematics and engineering teachers. ... We are very proud of Prastiks accomplishments.

Mohanraj said enrolling at ESUMS has helped to bolster his lifelong passion for biology and chemistry.

Ive always been interested in medicine and how doctors work, he said. I like seeing how life works at the most basic level.

In addition to acing exams, Mohanraj has also spent years submitting projects to science fairs.

After graduation, Mohanraj said hed like to be a chemical or biomedical engineer, although he has not ruled out going to medical school to become a doctor.
NEW HAVEN  A 45-year-old New Haven man was sentenced Wednesday to 12 years in prison for operating a heroin trafficking ring, John H. Durham, U.S. attorney for Connecticut, said in a news release.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer sentenced Bienvenido Gonzalez to 144 months in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release.

According to court documents and statements made in court, the Drug Enforcement Administrations New Haven Tactical Diversion Squad targeted a New Haven-based heroin trafficking organization led by Gonzalez and his brother, Antonio Gonzalez. The investigation, which included wiretaps, controlled purchases of narcotics and physical and video surveillance, revealed that the Gonzalez brothers regularly purchased bulk quantities of heroin from suppliers located in the Bronx, N.Y., and sold the heroin through a network of redistributors in New Haven and elsewhere, the news release stated.

The investigation resulted in federal charges against 24 individuals, including four other brothers of Bienvenido and Antonio Gonzalez.

Bienvenido Gonzalez, Antonio Gonzalez and several co-defendants were arrested March 15, 2017. On that date, investigators seized a kilogram of heroin from a vehicle that a co-defendant had driven to a stash house used by Bienvenido Gonzalez, and more than 400 grams of heroin and $10,000 in cash from the stash house itself, the release said.

The investigation revealed that Bienvenido Gonzalez used the proceeds from the heroin trafficking enterprise to purchase a New Haven barbershop, fund a drag racing team, purchase roosters for cockfighting, gamble and travel, according to the U.S. attorneys office.

Bienvenido Gonzalez has been detained since his arrest. On Nov. 30, 2017, he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute, and distribution of, one kilogram or more of heroin.

Antonio Gonzalez has pleaded guilty to the same charge and awaits sentencing.

The DEAs New Haven Tactical Diversion Squad includes officers from the Bristol, Hamden, Milford, Monroe, New Haven, Shelton, Wallingford and Wilton police departments. The New Haven, East Haven and West Haven police departments, together with the U.S. Coast Guard, provided valuable assistance to the investigation, the release stated.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Natasha M. Freismuth and Patrick F. Caruso.
NEW HAVEN  The Knights of Columbus is distributing more than $1 million more in aid to persecuted Christians in the Middle East, bringing its total to almost $19 million, according to a press release.

The Knights have been aiding Christians and other religious minorities in the region since 2014. The most recent assistance includes $250,000 to help rebuild the Iraqi Christian town of Karamles on the Nineveh Plain. The town was liberated last year from ISIS, which had destroyed homes and churches, according to the release.

As we recall the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus, it is particularly timely for us to remember and support our brothers and sisters in Christ who have, in places like Iraq and Syria, endured so much persecution for their faith, said Knights CEO Carl Anderson in the release. Having faced suffering and even death at the hands of ISIS, we hope that our assistance will help these communities to rise up again and rebuild for the future.

In addition to the $250,000, $500,000 will support a food program run by the Chaldean Catholic Archdiocese of Erbil in Iraq. The Syriac Catholic Patriarchate will receive $300,000 to help bring shelter, food, clothing, education and medical care to almost 3,000 displaced families from Iraq and Syria. Both churches recognize Pope Francis as their spiritual leader.

Our people know that without the direct support from the Knights of Columbus to Christians in the region, and without its assistance in making our case to the United States government, Christianity might already have been driven out of Iraq completely, said Chaldean Archbishop Bashar Warda in the release.

Syriac Catholic Patriarch Ignatius Joseph III Younan wrote that he relied on [the Knights] compassion and understanding of our plight in the Middle East, particularly in Syria and Iraq.

Besides its monetary assistance to the region, the K of C played a role in getting Congress and the State Department to declare the actions of ISIS as genocide in 2016.

For more information on the Knights assistance to minority Christians in the Mideast, go to www.ChristiansAtRisk.org.
WATERURY  U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., met with members of the Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments Wednesday to announce legislation he will introduce to encourage clean up and redevelopment of contaminated industrial sites nationwide.

Murphys legislation, called the Creating Livable Environments and New Usable Property (CLEAN UP) Act, pairs two tax incentives to spur investment in the cleanup and redevelopment of the polluted sites, commonly referred to as brownfields.

My CLEAN UP Act will incentivize private developers to come in and take on these big cleanup projects so that new businesses can put down their Connecticut roots and start creating jobs, Murphy said. I know theres bipartisan support for these tax incentives, and Im going to work hard to get this passed into law.

Murphys legislation would reenact two expired tax incentives.

The first would allow developers to fully deduct the costs of environmental cleanups on brownfields sites in the year those costs are incurred,. That would allow developers to realize the full savings of the deduction in the first year of investment as opposed to incrementally benefiting from the deduction over several years.

The second expired incentive involves exempting qualified developers from paying unrelated business income taxes on profits earned from the sale or exchange of certain brownfield properties. Under current law, developers are fully taxed on the change in value of the land when they sell it  even if the change in value was a direct result of cleanup efforts.

Waterbury Mayor Neil OLeary called Murphys legislative proposals welcome news for members of Council of Governments. OLeary said promoting development of brownfields requires innovative thinking,

For years, we couldnt get prospective companies to go anywhere near brownfields, he said. That changed to some extent, OLeary said, when the city began buying brownfield properties.

Jim Byrne, program lead for clean up and state funding in the federal Environmental Protection Agencys New England region, said offering tax credits for redeveloping brownfields really matters for any project outside of Boston.

These credits really make or break projects, Byrne said. Ive seen projects go down be because of (the lack of) a few hundred thousand dollars (in incentives).

Efforts last year to redevelop the former Lifetouch property in Derby into a school for advanced manufacturing fell through when the owner balked at paying for clean-up costs.

They didnt know how hot it was, what they were getting into (in terms of environmental clean up), Derby Mayor Richard Dziekan said.

Byrne also urged Murphy to advocate for legislation that would provide the EPA with more flexibility in how it is able to use funding for brownfield clean-up efforts. Right now, he said, the money the agency has to dole out can only be used for ultra-specific categories.

Give EPA a little more flexibility in terms of taking the temperature within the region and allocating the money accordingly, Byrne said.

Sheila OMalley, Ansonias economic development director, said additional incentives to promote redevelopment of brownfield properties would be a great opportunity for the community.

Its really all the developable land that we have left, OMalley said.

John Marini, Ansonias attorney, said the ability to redevelop the citys brownfields really makes a difference if we are going to able to move the community forward or not.